Chapter Nine: Happy Hunting
I felt so heavy. No, I felt sore. Ah. It hurts to breathe, but not by much. It was so…..quiet? No, there was a sound; voices to be exact. I wanted to know who the voices belonged to, so I began to open my heavy eyes. Slowly I realized I was inside of a car, but whose car? I still couldn't move yet. Thinking back, I began to remember that Abi, Marco, and I were fighting Obsidian and her crew. What happened after I was knocked out? Looking around some more, I realized that the car was Marco's. Where were we?Suddenly, the door next to my head opened up. "He's awake!" Cried Marco to someone outside. He looked back down at me and asked, "Can you move?"
"No." I said as my sore muscles agreed to do no such thing.
"To bad. I need you out of the car." Marco helped me out of the car while I did my best to move lest my head hit the ground. I was finally out of the car, but it wasn't long before Marco propped me up against the back of the car.
"Shouldn't you be more careful with him. He's still injured." Looking up, Abi stood over me. She looked like she was just in a fight. She didn't seem badly hurt, but I wondered what happened while I was out.
"Not after this last dose. Drink this."
Marco gave me a bottle of the healing liquid the Creed used this to heal the severely wounded. I was always hesitant to take any because of how bad it tasted, but I knew I had to.
"What do you remember?" Marco asked without missing a beat as usual.
"Too much of everything." I replied as I did my best to drink the entire elixir in one go. It was still disgusting.
"Right. Well, after your glorious defeat, I dragged to two here and as far as I know they aren't making an attempt to chase us."
"Why?" I asked with an aftertaste in my mouth.
"You can ask her later, but there are worse problems we need to think about. Those gems are far stronger than either of you and I can't fight them all by myself."
"You need us to get stronger."
"'You' need to get stronger. 'She' needs to get smarter."
"I'm not stupid." Abi retorted followed by a small gust of wind. What made her so mad?
"I didn't say that." Said Marco a bit agitated. "The point is neither of you are ready to handle this kind of threat as you are."
"So what's your plan? We don't have time to spare here."
"I doubt they will do anything to harm him so we don't have to rush. I need to make a phone call and then we'll go from there." Marco pulled out a phone and began to make distance so that his conversation could be private.
"Are you calling for backup?" I asked.
"You'll see."
After he was out of earshot, Abi and sat in silence for awhile. Every so often she would look in my direction and then look away as if there was something on her tongue that she couldn't get off. So I took it upon myself to start the conversation. "What happened while I was out? I mean, between you and Marco."
Reluctantly she replied, "He and I thought so that I could show him how strong I was….and I lost." She was visibly upset by the sheer memory of what happened. I wanted to know more, but I figured it was too soon to press the details. Or maybe it wasn't as she continued, "I think he cheated at some point by drugging me or something."
"Drugged? What makes you say that?"
"Because at different points in the fight it seemed like the world was off balanced and I missed my shots." She looked over at me and probably saw how confused I looked. "Do you not have anything like that?"
"Not for humans, and I doubt there's anything for gems that does the same. Are you sure you weren't just tired?"
"Positive." We both remained where we were lost in our own thoughts. All that time and I couldn't think of anything that made sense. I was told, through Creed training, that humans could unlock certain abilities like Eagle vision. I came up with different theories, but nothing made sense to me. As soon as Marco came back, I had already given up and I waited for the chance to ask him myself.
He told us to help pack everything in the car and said we were going to town to get stocked up on a few things. When we asked him what the plan was, he replied, "We're going to find a place to lay low and I want to see if I can strengthen you both up before reinforcements get here."
"How many are coming?" I asked.
"Only two. As serious as this may be, there was still a lot I don't know about the situation. Best not to go overboard when we don't have to."
"Didn't think you would call for help." said Abi.
Marco ignored her while I continued the conversation. "You think we'll be ready when they get here?"
"No, but we aren't doing anything else with are time. Now stop wasting and lets go."
By the time we got into town, my pain had subsided. However, I couldn't stop thinking about back with our fight with Obsidian(if you could call it that). It seemed weird that she was in charge of two gems that were bigger than her. She might be stronger too, but there was no way to really know. I wondered how I would stand against her if we meet again. What if I had to fight any of them? I could probably fight the orange one since I did it before and I knew most of the things she could do. Though, I couldn't rely on that. I had to get stronger, or just better at fighting non-corrupted gems.
I was leaning on the car waiting for Marco to pay for everything when Abi joined me. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"Defeating Obsidian." I said, not directly looking at her.
"You think you can?"
"Can you?" I looked her in the eyes and I watched them flicker.
"Of course. It's just….not easy. I trusted her once and it ended with my mother disappearing. You still didn't answer my question."
"Let's just say I'm less confident than you are."
When Marco came back, we were on the road again. He said we were going to find a secluded training spot where no 'normal' person would interrupt us, but the reinforcements would know where we were. At some point, I began to wonder about his phone call-out of boredom mostly. I wondered who would come to are aid and if they would be enough. There were records that suggested the Creed had encountered and/or fought non-corrupted gems after the war, but each account was spread thin throughout thousand years of history. In other words, the Creed was not accustomed to these kind of enemies, so it was hard to tell how things would fair for them. I wondered if they could do what Marco could.
Eventually, we came to a stop just as the sun was almost hidden behind the horizon. We were barked not too far from the road. Marco said that we were almost to are destination, but figured that we should get some sleep before then. Abi was the first to fall asleep, which left me and Marco on watch duty.
For a while, we just sat there sitting around a little heater Marco had in silence. "What's wrong with you?" He asked me.
"What?"
"Well, either something's wrong or you have a lot on your mind. And we can skip the 'there's nothing wrong' part."
"...Abi said that you messed with her during a fight you two had, but I couldn't figure out what you could have done. What did you do?" He only kept eye contact with. This was unlike him. "Marco?"
"I won't say."
"But you have always told me things even when they were considered 'classified'. What's different about this?"
"The difference is I only understand the surface level and nothing more." before I could get the next word in, he continued. "I know you. You like to ask questions and what I can tell-at least the parts I understand-will not satisfy you. *sigh* Sooner or later I'll tell you just not today."
I rubbed my hands together and held them to the heater. He would not say anything more about the subject so there was no point in pushing him. Once my hands had warmed up enough, I asked him about the reinforcements-how many were coming; how much did they know about the situation; did they have the same powers as he did? He took a moment to consider the last question before he answered. "Their powers aren't like mines, but it's the same idea. That's all I'm going to say."
No more did a minute pass that I decided to call it a night. I too was going to be a part of the oncoming training laid out by Marco, so sleep was needed. I couldn't sleep, however-at least, not right away. What could've been hours spent in a dark void was replaced with a moment of wide eyed restlessness and the clutching of newly mended bones. It made that Obsidian was fast, but strong enough to break bones. Could the other gems hit harder than that? I clutched my side even tighter. The orange seemed to be resistant to electric shocks, though it seemed to very. Which means, the next time we confront each other, I'm going to need more powerful and concentrated bolts. I still need to watch out for her armor. Speaking of, I didn't know what the Aventurine could do. At some point, I did manage to doze off, but it was less than a peaceful sleep.
Early the next morning, Marco woke Abi and me and said that I could drive the rest of the way. He pulled out his phone, punched in corndites, and we were on our way. Marco slept the entire way. I At some point, Abi asked if I had talk to Marco about anything. I told her that there was nothing new between the three of us and that we were still in the dark.
"He could at least explain how he's going to train us." My eyes were on the road, so I could only assume by the sound of her voice that she was pouting.
"I'm not worried about that. It's easier to explain these kind of thing when you are actually at the training site." I'm just worried that it might be a waste of time given that reinforcements are coming.
When we reach the destination, I woke up Marco and he told me to get my extra weapons and tools from the trunk. He later did the same. He had me and Abi stand in front of the car as he explained the next step. "When I made the call yesterday, I asked if there was any corrupted gems nearby. And thanks to a certain fusion, we found one somewhere in this area. According to the info I got, this gem should pose as a reasonable challenge for the both of you. You two are going to hunt it down and, with Abigael's powers, seal it in a bubble." He looked towards Abi. "You do know how to bubble, right?"
"I've done it once or twice."
"Good enough. Once you do that, bring it back here as proof. Now, as you're fighting keep these things in mind. Abi, figure out how to preserve energy when attacking. Rekirts, dodge more. Know if there are no questions-" Abi raised her hand. "What?"
"Is this really how you plan on training us?"
"Think of it as step one. Happy hunting."