Chapter 8: Elements
The gang, led by the warrior Perry, exits the tunnel they were in and see that a stairway that leads down the mountain. Candace asks in disbelief, "There were stairs?"
"Climbing the mountain is one of the challenges. These stairs lead to the fields that I will teach you the Way of the Platypus."
They walk down the stairs as the sun sinks down past the mountains, leaving a dark orange light all around. After they walk to the end of the stairway, Perry walks through the forest and they find themselves in an opening with small pyramids. Phineas walks to the largest, admiring the craftsmanship, then he hears a chattering and turns to get knocked back by a sword. He puts it in his hands and looks up to see Perry wielding another blade. "Let's see how you are with a blade."
"Why a sword?" Candace asked.
"I have a feeling that he has a talent with a blade." He swings it around, then says, "Let's get started."
Phineas gets in a fighting position, and Perry attacks with the speed of a cheetah. The boy raises the sword and blocks the attack, surprising himself. He pushes the platypus away and swings with great accuracy. Perry parries and attacks and the two lock in combat. Swinging, blocking, and moving, the two try to trick the other one. Phineas feints to the left, and Perry falls for it, and the redhead swings from above. The swing would have killed the warrior, but a wall of water blocks it, jarring Phineas's arm. He backs up, clutching his arm, and Perry says, "Very good. Your grandfather would have been proud."
The boy looks up, and asks, "You knew my grandfather?"
"Of course. I'm the one who taught him. Out of all of them, he was the brightest and most skilled with a blade. You remind me a lot of him."
Phineas smiles and the warrior turn to the others. "Now let's see what the rest of you are made of."
After hours of battling, Perry walks back, not even tired, but the others are exhausted. The great warrior says, "So, all of you depend on one weapon. Phineas, the blades. Candace, the shuriken. Baljeet the crossbow. Ferb the Kusari-fundo. Buford the fists. All very good weapons."
"Okay, so when are we going to start the whole powers thing?" Candace asked.
"Not until you learn how to feel the weapon. And from what I can get together, it won't take that long. Now, time to get started on the lessons."
The teacher hammers in lessons into the kids' heads, and they are exhausted every day. Some days Perry teaches all of them, but most days, he teaches them one at a time. Buford ask him when their powers kick in, but he always says, "They will surface when they are ready."
Every day, Phineas gets better and better, and he starts to lose some baby fat. Muscles start to form all over his body, and soon he can lift a slab of rock and throw it over a river. As the days come and pass, he thinks of Isabella, and wonders when he can leave. One day, Perry sees that Phineas is slashing down with the speed of lightning. "Phineas, is there something wrong?"
Wiping the sweat out of his brow, and says, "Well…it's nothing."
"Of course there is something wrong. Your grandfather cuts up his enemies when he's a little distressed. You do not have to worry. If you want it to keep it a secret, then I'll keep my mouth shut."
The redhead slices another dummy, then says, "Um, it's just…Isabella."
"What about the princess?"
"Well, I want to rescue her and take her back to her father, but…whenever I think of her, something rises in my chest. Usually, that's when my hand starts to glow."
Perry smiles, then says, "Why don't you sit down. I want to tell you something."
The redhead sheathes his sword and sits on a rock seat. Perry sits next to him, and tells him a story. "I think I know what you are going through."
"What would that be? Am I sick or something?"
The warrior chuckles, then says, "No. It is something called love."
What do you mean? Are you saying that I like the princess?"
"Yes. That is what I'm saying."
"But she is a princess. I'm a commoner. We are two different people."
"And that is the greatest love there is on this world. Without some forbidden love, life won't be that exciting."
"Yeah, but if it is love that I feel, then what does she think of me?"
"Well, you can ask her when you rescue her from Doofus Khan."
"But you said that he has the power of fire and my power has barely peeked. If I go and try to save Isabella, I'll be toast. Literally."
"Don't worry. I'm not saying to go now. But when the time comes, you will have to choose between your feelings, and your destiny. That's all I have to say." He walks back to the training grounds, leaving Phineas alone with a bunch of shish kebab dummies.
Candace twirls and dodges around the obstacle course, with the cool of ice. After jumping over twirling axes, she throws her shurikens at a couple of targets, both of them hitting the middle target. As she lands, she smiles at her success and ducks as five arrows whiz past her head. "Wow. I'm getting good at this."
"Yes, but do you think you can beat the record?"
Candace turns and sees Perry. After grabbing a sword that was flying toward her head, she asks, "What record?"
The platypus points to a board which has a time. After the teen looks at the time, she smiles and says, "I can do that."
"Then let's begin." The platypus presses a button, and a hourglass appears. As the sand runs down, Candace starts at the beginning, and twirls, ducks, and jumps through the course. A volley of arrows fly through the air, but the teen twist around the ammo, and all are embedded in the wall. Perry looks at her feet, and sees that a small mist floats around them, and behind the floor seems to be frozen. He raises an eyebrow, and looks up to see the teen readying her throwing stars. The timer is halfway full, and Candace throws her stars, and when they stuck in the target, frost form around them. After dodging flying axes, she presses a button, and the timer stops. Perry checks it and says, "Well, you were just five seconds earlier."
"Either way, I still beat your record."
"Oh. It's not my record. It's one of my students record."
Candace's face drops in surprise, and asks, "So I beat your student record?"
"Yes. And that student was the ice warrior."
"Wow. So I beat a powerful being's record when I don't have any."
"Not quite. Take a look at the target."
Candace turns and sees the frosted target. She walks to it and takes the shurikens out. "How did this frost?"
"Take a wild guess."
The teen looks at him confused, and she feels a tingling on her hand, and she lifts it up to find it misty. Using that hand, she touches the target and ice forms around it. "Whoa, cool. I have ice powers."
"One down, four to go."
"Awesome. I can't wait to tell everyone." Candace runs out, leaving frozen footsteps. Perry looks at the steps, and says, "They have got to be the most powerful warriors I will ever teach."
Baljeet rolls and shoots six darts, all hitting the middle target. Buford yawns as he watches the brains. "Why am I here?"
"Because you walked in here."
"And you let me here. What is wrong with you?"
Baljeet groans and continues firing arrows at different targets. On the dirt, trees, and air, all the targets are fired in the middle. At some point, the fists doze off, and Baljeet takes a break from the workout. As he takes a drink, he senses something in the earth, and he leans down and touches the dirt. After sensing the ground, he says, "Perry, is that you?"
"Yes Baljeet."
The brains get up and turn to his teacher. "I don't get it. How come I can sense whatever is on the earth?"
"My guess is your power is earth, the smartest of all."
"Ooh. Makes sense. Do I have any powers besides sense?"
"All earth warriors are different. I can't predict what other powers you could have, but I can predict that you will be the one with all the strategies."
"Actually, Phineas is one with all the strategies."
"Yes, but there will be a time when your leader will be confused and you will be the one to lead him to greatness."
"Let me guess, all earth warriors are like that."
"No. And not many can work a crossbow like you can. Your father would be proud if he can see you right now."
"Yeah, it's just that…I never knew my father."
"Really? What happened?"
"Not much, except that my mother told me that he left when I was a baby."
"Hmm. Well, you will probably find the answers soon."
"Do you know the answers?"
"I'm sorry, but no. The only relative I know is your grandfather."
Baljeet sighs, then loads another dart. "To tell you the truth, I want to have a little talk with Doofus Khan because, for some reason, I think he has some connection to my father."
"Only one way to find out." Perry looks at the snoring Buford, and smiles. Baljeet sees the grin, and asks, "What are you thinking of?"
"I just have a theory that I want to answer." The platypus walks to a rock, and picks it up. He walks behind Buford, climbs the tree, and drops the rock toward his head. Before the brains could say anything, the rock lands on Buford's head and splits in half. The fists fidget, but continue his sleeping, surprising Baljeet. "Wow. I'm going to guess that he's a warrior of stone."
"Yes, I think so too."
"Then whose water and ice?"
Candace runs to Baljeet and says, "Baljeet, I think I found my elemental power."
"Is it water?"
"No. My power is ice. Wanna see?"
The brains nod, and the teen touches a tree. Ice form up and down the bark, making the tree into an ice sculpture. Baljeet drops his jaw, and says, "Remind me not to anger you."
"So what's your power?"
"I think my power is earth."
Candace looks at the sleeping mass, and asks, "And his?"
"Maybe stone."
"Oh. So the only one left is Ferb, and the elemental of water. Do you think that he is the warrior of water?"
"If Phineas is fire, I think, then yeah. Ferb is the warrior of water." said Baljeet.
"Looks like we're closer to going after Doofus Khan."
"And closer to becoming the guardians of the land." Perry said.
"Yeah…wait. Guardians?"
"Yes. Did you not know that? All Elemental Warriors are guardians. So that no evil can seep into the cracks of our lives."
"But what about or parents? Our village?"
"It is the responsibility of all warriors to guard our land. But do not despair. You can stay in your village, but when evil arouses, you must come and neutralize it."
The two look at each other, then Candace walks away and says, "I need a breather."
Baljeet watches her, then turns to Perry and asks, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I thought you knew. Didn't your parents tell you stories of the Elemental Warriors?"
"Yes, but we didn't know that we had to protect the whole land. When we defeated Doofus Khan and rescued the princess, we were going to go back to our village."
"Well, I feel your surprise, but that is the way of the warrior."
"If you say so, but the others probably won't like that much." Baljeet resumes his training, and Perry left them to be. He looks through the many rooms until he finds the teen looking through a stony window. "Is there something else that troubles you?"
Sighing, Candace says, "It's just that…what if I can't find someone for me? Someone I love because of this responsibility?"
"You think that being a guardian is going to stop you finding love? You can still find it even if you are a warrior. How do you think your ancestor warriors became your ancestor?"
"Really?"
"Yes. That is the common way to pass the power to others. Without love, we would have been extinct a long time ago."
Candace ponders on what the platypus said, then smiles. "Thanks for the reassurance."
"You are welcome."
"Now I just have to find my man."
Ferb walks through the woods, and senses something behind him. Taking out his Kusari fundo, he spins around, attacking the person. Perry blocks the attack with his staff, then swings his weapon. The boy blocks it with the chain of his weapon, and kicks. The platypus jumps and brings down his pole, then a wall of water erupts below him and swallows him. After spinning around for don't know how long, the water crashes onto the ground, flowing back into the ground. Perry gets up and sees Ferb smiling. "Good. Very good I must say. Now for the ultimate challenge for all of you. Follow me."
They walk back to the training grounds, where Baljeet, Phineas, Candace, and Buford are waiting. When Phineas sees them, he asks, "Master Perry, what are we doing here?"
Now that you have all learned the way, you must know how to use it in times of dire. Follow me." He walks toward a very large pyramid, entering it. The others follow him through the darkness, wondering what the next challenge will be. After a while, they enter a large stadium, and find Perry in the middle of the place. "For your last challenge, you shall face your weakness."
"Weakness?" Candace asked.
"Yes. If you can defeat your weakness, then you can defeat anything, big or small."
"Okay then, who's gonna go first?" asked Buford.
"Baljeet, you should go first."
The brains walk down and enter the arena while Perry takes a seat. He hits a gong, and dirt appears below the boy's feet, as well as small rivers. Baljeet looks around, and was about to ask what's supposed to happen when he gets blasted from behind with water. After getting soaked, he gets up and turns to see a solid body of water walking toward him. The cold clutches of fear wraps its hands around his heart, and he struggles to think clearly. The water waves a hand and another column of water shoots out of the river and crashes into the brains. He flies and lands in the earth, dirt covering his face. After spitting dirt out of his mouth, he gets up and starts to control the earth when he gets doused again. As the fear freezes his insides, a new energy boost shoots out. He sits down with his legs crossed, and closes his eyes, breathing slowly. The water being looks at him, and wonders what he's doing. As the brains rest, the anger inside him grows, pushing back the fear. Soon, all that's left is anger, and he flashes his eyes open. A column of dirt shoots up, carrying Baljeet, and the water looks up. While distracted, a wave of earth crashes into him, splashing him everywhere. As he returns to shape, he looks for the enemy, and gets bombarded by arrows of dirt. They spread across the body, making the water full of dirt, and the being shoots a water jet in the direction the arrows came. Suddenly, the earth rises around him, and wraps around the water. They collapse onto the being, and spread across the ground, taking pieces of water with it. Baljeet walks to the spot that the water vanished, and says, "Take that water."
"Very good. You have faced your weakness as well as your fear, which I did not know about."
"Yeah, but now, thanks to you, I'm not scared of large bodies of water anymore."
"You are welcome. Buford, your next."
The fists walk down while Baljeet takes a seat next to Ferb. As Buford stands in the middle, Perry rings the gong again, and rocks erupt from the stone, as well as ice. He twirls around, trying to find his enemy, and sees a shower of icicles heading toward his head. He screams and stomps his foot on the ground. A wall of stone pops in front of him, and the icicles embedded into the rock. One sticks out the other end, almost stabbing Buford's brain. As he sighs in relief, he looks up and sees an ice figure standing on the top. It jumps and Buford flips back so it doesn't squish him. The ice flicks a wrist, and ice spikes shoot out of the ground, heading for the fist. A column of rock shoot out below Buford, and with the momentum, flies through the air and punches the ice figure. His fist goes through the head, and the whole figure shatters. The fists smiles, but drops when the tiny ice pieces start to pile up and form the figure again. It runs to him, and shoots ice again. Buford dodges the first few, and uses a stone shield to block the rest. When it gets close enough, he punches the ice again with a fist of rock. The figure keeps forming no matter what he does, and he flips back and breaks a piece of ice, and throws it at the figure. All the figure does is grabs the ice, shattering it to pieces. It pounds the ground and another volley of ice shoot out and fly toward him. Buford clenches his fists, and two stones in the shape of fists come out of the ground. The ice stares at the statue fists, and they fly toward him. An ice wall flies up, but the fists shatter it and come toward the ice body. When the statues pound the ice, it shatters to a million pieces, and the fists keep pounding until they're water. Buford dust off his hands, and walks to the seats.
"Very good. Ferb, you are next."
When Ferb stands in the middle, a lake pops and stone outcropping shoots out. A stone body shoots out, and starts attacking. Ferb dodges and fires a water jet at it. The jet flies through the chest, but it reshapes and it fires rock spires. The boy flips around and takes out his weapon. The Kusari swings and knocks off the head of the figure. The body flops on the ground, and Feb takes a bow. He walks toward his seat, and Perry says, "Wow. That's probably the fastest time yet. I was not expecting. Candace, you're next."
The teen grabs her shuriken and walks down the stairs. When she's at the bottom, ice forms everywhere, and fire shoot out, almost cooking Candace. She backs up, and turns to see a fire person standing amongst the fire. A ball of fire shapes in its hand, and it throws it at the teen. She creates a wall of ice, but it melts when the fire crashes into it. "This is not good." She ducks as another fire projectile fly at her, and she creates ice on her weapons. The teen throws her shurikens, and they embed into the chest. The ice melts, and the fire grabs them and throws them away. It makes copy fire shurikens and throws them at her. She ducks again, keeping her cool as she fights the fire. Suddenly, an idea pops in her head, and she runs across the field, dodging the fireballs, and rolls behind an ice wall. Candace elbows the wall, and an ice spear and sword pop out. She grabs them and walks out of the wall. The figure controls a fire jet, and shoots it toward the teen. Candace stomps the ground and an ice column takes her up. The jet cuts through the column, and it starts melting to water. The teen throws her spear, and it embeds itself into the chest, and she jumps over the person and grabs her shurikens, ice growing sharper on the edges. She throws them again, and they cut right through its neck. The head falls, and dissipates into thin air. Sweat pours down her head, and Candace walks out, sitting next to her brother. "That was exhilaratingly scary."
"But you kept your cool." Phineas said.
"Phineas, you're last." said Perry.
The redhead gets up and walks slowly to the arena. When he gets there, the gong sounds, and fire shoots out. Phineas looks around, trying to find his fighter, and he feels a gust of air through his hair. He turns, and a large wind blows him through the fire. It doesn't burn him, and Phineas looks for the wind maker. He looks closer, and finds wind blowing around in a shape of a body. It waves an arm, and a large gust blows him in the air. He flies around, and he starts to think that the enemy is playing with him. The wind stops, and he free falls to the ground. Phineas closes his eyes, and a bed of fire stops his fall. When he gets on his feet, a wind blasts him away. He crashes into the wall, almost knocking him out. When his vision clears, he sees the figure walking toward him. His mind turns blank, and Phineas extends a hand. It starts to glow and four walls of fire erupt around the person. The fighter tries to blow the flames away, but it grows even more. As it looks around, a flaming sword flies through the inferno and slices it in half. The wall of fire disappears, and the flames dissolve. Phineas pants, and looks up at the crowd.
Perry nods, and says to all, "Now, you are ready."
