Alrighty folks! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy, review, favourite, etc etc.

Chapter 9

The Fury of Aster

"I claim my victory!" Ember yelled triumphantly. "Die, Phoenix!" The large fireball hurtled towards Aster.

"God damn it" Aster muttered. He knew he was about to loose, unless he thought of something. And fast. Suddenly, Aster thought of an idea. It would be a long shot, but he'd have to try.

"I never thought Aster would get beaten by a girl." Jaden said.

"A hot girl too." Jesse commented.

"Brace yourself, soldiers" Hassleberry said. The fireball was nearly at Aster. "We're about to have impact." The fireball hit the tree Aster was standing by. There was no way Aster would have survived.

"NOOOOOOO" Hannah screamed. "You're gonna get it for killing my cousin!" She yelled at Ember, tears in her eyes.

"Hey! You haven't given up on me already have you?"

Everyone looked around for the source of the voice and there, sitting on a tree branch high up from the blast, was…

"Aster!" Jesse said. Hannah smiled and wiped her blind eyes.

"You're alive!" She exclaimed. Aster smiled and waved down at the others.

"Hi guys!" He yelled cheerfully.

"But how?" Ember said. "I was sure I had you"

"I've got a special gift from that firebird you keep mentioning." Aster showed her his right wrist, decorated with the manacle.

"Of course! The phoenix wings!" James exclaimed. "Aster must have activated them just before the fireball hit."

"You'll be finished this time." Ember snapped. She raised her hands to shoulder height, causing small flames to appear on each of her fingers.

"Oh yeah" Aster said with a cheerful smirk. He waved his hand over the manacle, making the golden wings appear behind him. "You'll have to catch me first." He lifted off the branch and hovered in the air. Ember practically threw her hands at Aster. The small flames shot hundreds of fire darts. Luckily, Aster flew around them easily.

"You'll have to do better than that" Aster said. Ember still fired the fire darts at him. Aster flew in circles around the ring of trees, and also did a few loops in the air.

"Okay, now he's just showing off." Jesse said.

"Enough of this." Aster said. He created a blue energy field and shot it at Ember. It was a successful hit.

"Boo ya!" Aster yelled, punching the air. Ember slowly stood up from the ground with her back to Aster. He raised an eyebrow.

She's planning something, I know it. Aster thought. Without warning, Ember spun around quickly and shot a small fire ball at Aster from her fist. It hit Aster in the chest, causing the wings to disappear and Aster started to fall towards the ground. Aster quickly grabbed a tree branch just before he hit the ground.

"Hey, how come the wings disappeared when I got hit?" Aster yelled up at James.

"That's their only weakness. They disappear if you get hit." James said.

"Well you could have mentioned that earlier. That blast really hurt." Aster let go of the branch and dropped a few meters onto the ground, his hand over where the fireball hit him.

"Get ready, Phoenix" Ember said. She swung her arm horisontally, creating an orange blade of fire. It flew towards Aster, but he jumped out the way just in time. Ember repeated this attack several times, with Aster doing swift somersaults out the way. Ember stared confused, but when he looked at Asters manacle after his last somersault, she noticed the orb glowing green.

"I see. Another ability of that manacle." Ember said. "Increases your agility right?"

"Whatever, hot stuff." Aster said. He dragged more water from his horn and used it to attack Ember like a whip. She easily avoided it.

"Your water manipulating skills are puny." Ember taunted. "I can see you only learnt about your powers a few days ago. I'm guessing your cousin is the same."

"Hey! I've known about them since I was about three! I need the wind to get around!" Hannah yelled. Ember closed her eyes, completely ignoring Hannah

"It's time I ended this." An invisible breeze blew Ember's hair upwards and a small orange whirlwind surrounded her.

"What's going on?" Syrus whimpered.

"I don't know" James said. The ground started to crack, causing James and co. to jump onto more land. Aster did likewise. Some of the trees fell along with most of the ground. Aster almost lost his balance on the edge, but quickly regained it. He looked down and, a few feet downwards, a giant moat of water flowed by the fighting ring.

"But you're just asking for defeat now" Aster said. "I don't get it"

"Oh, you'll get it, Phoenix" She opened her eyes, which were now glowing red. "You're so gonna get it" Suddenly, flames surrounded her and it was so huge, the flames almost burned the forest down. The flames were fierce and merciless, burning anything in sight into ashes. Some of the flames went towards the observers. Everybody screamed and shielded themselves, but Hannah created a dome shaped fire shield around them all, saving their lives. Ember floated off the ground and high into the air, her arms outstretched and the flames at her complete command. Aster stared up at them in complete amazement.

"Not even your little horn can stop this flame, Phoenix" Ember said. "These flames are at my command. Go my flames. Annihilate him." She pointed at Aster. Immediately, they went straight towards Aster. There was nowhere to run now, let alone fly. The huge flames ten times the size of an inferno reached Aster, causing him to scream loudly in the blast.

"That'll leave a mark." Hassleberry said.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Ember laughed insanely. "I win, Phoenix…huh?" She stopped in mid sentence as she spotted something in the smoke. Aster was still standing there alive, slightly burned and gasping for breath, but alive.

"NO!" Ember screamed. "How could you have survived one of my deadliest attacks…again" She noticed by Asters feet steam rising from the ground.

"I got the idea from Hannah" Aster said, completely breathless. "Using water from my horn, I created a shield. It wasn't much, but it saved my life.

"But you've used up all your water. You're defenceless." Ember said with a smirk. Aster blinked in surprise and tried to shake some water from his horn. Only a few droplets came out.

"You're right" Aster said, completely astonished. "There's none left"

"So now, I can win." She shot a multiple number of fireballs from her fists. Aster managed to avoid them with more somersaults, but barely this time.

"There's only one thing I don't get." Jesse said. "Why would she create a moat of water? Isn't that her weakness?"

"You're right" Hassleberry said. "But she has got an awesome frontline. Look at Aster. He looks just about ready to collapse."

"Wait! I know what she's going to do!" Hannah exclaimed. "If a fireball hits Aster over the edge, it'll probably knock him out…

"Causing him to drown!" Jaden finished.

At this point, one of the fireballs hit Aster, knocking him off his feet and sliding him across the ground, dangerously close to the edge. Aster sat up and rubbed his head with a moan. Noticing Ember was walking towards him, he stood up quickly and took up a fighting stance.

She's too powerful. Aster thought. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up.

"It's over now." Ember said. A fire ball was floating in her right palm. "Bye-bye" She threw the fireball at Aster's head, knocking him unconscious and making him fall into the moat. Hannah ran towards the edge, the others following.

"Aster" Hannah screamed.

"NOOOOOOOO" Jaden yelled.

Aster didn't know what was going on. He could tell he was knocked out. He tried opening his eyes, but he couldn't.

"Aster!"

"NOOOOOOOO"

He could still hear his friend's voices. Aster felt bad. He couldn't defeat Ember. Here he was unconscious in a giant moat, possibly about to drown, and Ember was probably going to go after Hannah now. But she was blind. She couldn't possibly fight Ember. He'd failed everybody. He'd failed his friends. He'd failed himself. More importantly, he'd failed Daisy.

"No, stay back, Ember." Jesse said.

What? She was going after his friends. Disappointment was shoved aside and replaced by anger and hate.

"I'll annihilate you all, just like Aster."

Ember couldn't possibly do it. Aster hoped. She must have been given orders to kill me and not them.

"But Kagehoshi must have told you to kill Aster and not us" Syrus said hopefully.

Exactly my words. Aster thought.

"Nah. I'll kill you, and then I'll kill a prisoner I've been meaning to kill for a long time."

Aster's anger grew. It was bad enough Daisy was a prisoner, but other innocents were there too? Who would be killed was the question building up in Aster's mind along with the rage and fury.

"I'm going to annihilate Phoenix's close friend; Daisy."

After this sentence, Aster's eyes snapped open, a look of anger on his face. Unknowingly to him, Aster's eyes weren't their usual blue. Instead, the whole of his eyes were white. Aster only had a few things in his mind: anger, hate and revenge. Ember was going to pay dearly, and after that, Kagehoshi was next.

"You're going to kill Daisy?" James exclaimed.

"That's right. And Phoenix isn't here to help you." She created a fireball in each palm. She started to advance on the gang. "Goodbye" Everybody cowered in fear. Jaden looked down at the moat.

"Huh? What's that?" Jaden suddenly said. Everyone turned away from Ember and looked down. A small whirlpool was being created, bubbling slightly.

"Hey, I think it's getting bigger." Jesse said.

"Sam Hill! It's huge." Hassleberry exclaimed.

"I can see the bottom of the moat now" Syrus said. Suddenly, a water spout shot up from the centre of the whirlpool.

"Whoa!" Hassleberry yelled in surprise, falling over backwards.

"That's got to be at least thirty feet. If not, even more." James said.

"There's another one over there." Jaden shouted, pointing in another direction.

"And there!" Syrus said.

"They're everywhere" Hassleberry said, picking himself up from the ground. Water spouts rose up from the moat in all places, until there was hardly anymore space left for them.

"How many are there?" Syrus wondered. Jaden started counting them.

"I think there are about fifty of 'em" He said. At this point, another waterspout, bigger than the rest of them, rose up from where Aster fell. "Er…make that fifty one" Jaden corrected.

"Hey! There's something coming up that big one." Jesse exclaimed, pointing at the largest spout. Sure enough, a white light was travelling up it towards the top.

"Huh?" Hannah said.

"What is it? Is something bothering you?" James asked.

"Yeah. I may be blind but I can't help but think…Is that…Is that Aster?!"

"What?!" Hassleberry exclaimed. "Private Phoenix is alive." At this point, the light reached the top of the spout and at the top was, indeed, Aster.

"HE'S, doing all this!" Jesse exclaimed, unable to believe what was happening.

"There's something different about him. He's not the same." Jaden said quietly.

"What do you mean, Private?"

"Look at his eyes. They're…glowing. And his face. It's so angry. Somehow, all this is because the anger bottled up inside him has been released. This is the rage Aster has been feeling since Daisy's kidnapping." Jaden answered softly.

"Aw! It must be so awesome. I wish I could see it!" Hannah whined.

Aster moved his gaze to Ember, who was staring up at Aster in his water spout in both dismay and fear. He started to flail his arms forward. With each flail, a water spout fell towards Ember. She ran around the ring, the water spouts crashing into where she used to stand each time. She managed to avoid all of them, but she noticed that she was surrounded by the spouts. Aster crossed his arms, causing all the spouts to crash into each other, Ember in the middle. Once the water in the spouts ran out, Ember was dripping wet, less orange than she used to be. She shakily stood up. She stamped her right foot in the ground, causing orange vibrations to travel across the ground from the stamp. Ten fire golems rose from each pulsation. When the pulsations died down, about a hundred of the fire golems were standing there. They slowly moved towards the gang, who stood there terrified, except Hannah, who managed to fight a few off with a few random shots of her fireballs. Unfortunately, one fireball went past Jaden's head, causing him to yell in surprise.

"What was that for? That fireball nearly got me!" He exclaimed.

"Sorry. I can't tell where they are without air."

"Hey, glowy!" Hassleberry yelled up at Aster. "Little help here!" Aster turned to the voice and, seeing the fire golems advancing towards his friends, his expression grew even angrier. He manipulated the water spout he was in to go in the centre of the fighting ring. Aster landed and made a small circle around him with one end of the water spout. He made a circular motion with his right arm, making the water spout longer and causing the circle to grow larger. The fire golems were hit by the water, and were extinguished with a scream that would make anybody's skin crawl.

"Yeowch! That had to hurt." Syrus said.

"How is this possible?" Ember yelled. At the sound of her voice, Aster turned to face her. Her white eyes widened and she took a few steps backwards, away from Aster.

"Heh heh. About me trying to kill you…"Ember started nervously. She was interrupted when a stream of water knocked her to the floor. She looked up at Aster, who's right hand was dripping wet from the blast.

"I didn't even know he could do that" James said.

A blue aura surrounded Aster's body. Ember tried to penetrate it with a fireball, but it extinguished on contact. Aster started to lift off the ground into the air, the aura growing more and more powerful. Ember stood up and looked up at Aster, who was staring down at her remorsefully with white eyes.

"I never realised Aster was so…angry." Syrus said quietly.

"The greater the anger, the more powerful Aster becomes I guess." Jesse said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm with ya on that one, Andersen. Aster's frontline is amazin'! Ember's freaking out!" Hassleberry agreed.

"Uh oh. Get ready. I think Aster's about to do something." Jaden said. "Go Aster! Get your…err…whatever it is you have on!" He cheered.

Aster didn't react, but still looked down at Ember angrily. He suddenly jerked his arms out to his sides, making the blue aura ginormous, almost monstrous. He directed the aura to Ember. It charged towards her, engulfing her in blue light. She screamed as the attack completely drained her firepower. When the aura died down, her body was smoking and she collapsed onto the ground, defeated. Seeing her collapse, Aster expression calmed down slightly. His aura died down and he slowly started to lower himself onto the ground. When his feet touched the earth, his eyes slowly lost their white glow and reverted back to his indigo blue eyes. As soon as he had returned to normal, he clutched his head and started staggering. Everybody rushed to his side and Hassleberry caught Aster just before he hit the ground.

"Is he okay?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah. He's probably just tired. I mean I'd be pretty conked out too after a battle like that." Hassleberry said.

"Well done."

Everyone turned to Ember. She had sat up slightly, though it obviously took a lot of effort. Her skin had lost its orange colour, and her flame-like hair was dull.

"I underestimated him. He's more powerful than I imagined. I'd tell this to his face, but he's unconscious. I won't lie when I say this, but there's something you need to know about Kagehoshi."

"What about her?" Jaden said, his hand over his gun, just in case she launched an attack.

"That's quite enough Ember." Kagehoshi's voice echoed over the forest. "Time to go home" Ember's body started to glow white.

"Kagehoshi is…" She started, but before she could finish her sentence, she disappeared. Everybody was silent for a moment.

"What do you think she was going to say?" Syrus wondered.

"I'm not sure, but somehow I don't want to find out." Jesse said.

"You think Aster might know something about it?" Jaden asked.

"About what?"

Aster's voice startled everyone. They turned towards Aster, whose back was supported by Hassleberry's arm. His eyes were half open and he was smiling weakly. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"You're fight was AWESOME!" Syrus exclaimed.

"You were all like boom!…Pow!…Splosh!…Zap!…Wew!. And Ember was all, "No, how is this possible?"" Jaden yelled, imitating various fighting moves and mocking Ember's voice. Aster smiled slightly.

"Good for you." He said, and he closed his blue eyes again.

"That wouldn't be what I'd say, but heck." Syrus said. He noticed Aster's eyes were closed again. "C'mon, Aster. Don't leave us" Syrus whimpered.

"Er…private. Aster's asleep." Hassleberry said.

"Oh…right." Syrus said, rather embarrassed.

"Well, we'd better get some shelter or something before someone else comes after us." Hassleberry said, picking Aster up gently in his arms. The gang started to walk off through the forest.

Kagehoshi saw the entire battle through her viewing font. Right now, she saw everyone walking through the forest, with the exception of an unconscious Aster.

"Well...Aster's a lot stronger than I realised. That power could just be the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what else he could do?" She thought for a moment. "Somehow, I feel as if Aster owes me somehow." She grinned wickedly under her veil. "Maybe it's time he gave me something in return."

Next time in Captured Flower: A new character joins the gang, Kagehoshi reveals a secret, and one more person is taken hostage. Who will it be? There's only one way to find out…and that's to stick around folks! More coming soon!