Chapter 10 – Balance

Angelira flapped her wings, staying at a perfect three inches above Rhino's ball. Her arms were crossed as she thought of poor Savage, and the pain the alien was going through. "What's up?" Rhino asked as he looked up at her. "Huh?" she asked as she acknowledged his voice, "Oh, just…thinking." she said and turned away from him. "You too huh?" Rhino asked. Angelira looked down at him questioningly, "I was right there!" he said, "Right there and I couldn't do a thing!"

"Don't beat yourselves up." they heard Mittens say, "I got lucky."

"Lucky huh?" Angelira asked. "Yah, I've been practicing water spells while with the survivors to keep them from getting thirsty, I guess it was only a matter of time before I was truly able to master the element." she said. Both Angelira and Rhino turned to each other in confusion, "What do you mean?" Rhino asked as they turned back to her. "Elements can only be controlled in my claws and fur when I have mastered their magics. It appears my body had half of them already mastered naturally." Mittens explained, "Now I just need to practice the rest of them."

"Ok I know of; fire, ice, water, earth, grass, and wind. What other elements are there?" Rhino asked. "Oh that's easy, metal, electricity, light and shadow." Angelira told him. "How does the metal one work?" he asked. "Metal is a control actually, you might consider it like alchemy. You take what metals are in the ground, extract them and reshape them." Mittens said. "Oh!" Rhino exclaimed, "That makes sense!"

"It might sound easier than the other elements, but I've heard of masters who have failed at controlling metal several times." Angelira said. "That's because it requires more understanding, you can't just throw any old metal together; at least that's what I learned from your brother's book." Mittens said. "Wait…that's how you learned your spells?" Angelira asked. Mittens nodded, confirming her question, "Not fair!" she complained, "I wanted to do it first!" Mittens looked to her as if she were crazy, "Your brother said it was dangerous!" she said. "It is, but I'm confident I can handle it. It's the only way to learn to control this stupid shrinking spell!" the Neutrosian girl replied. Mittens and Rhino turned to each other, and smiled. The two of them began to laugh as Angelira floated there, "What?" she asked, "It's true!"

A good distance away, Nightmare hopped along, jumping from roof top to roof top in search of his prey, "I can feel them!" he said to himself. Suddenly he stopped, and scratched behind his ear with his large foot. "I hate fleas!" he said, "I'll destroy them all when I get a better body!" He turned to his side as he watched the fleas behind his ear fall off and dissolve in the sunlight. "Heh, looks like I'm deadly to just about everything." he said with a vicious smile in his voice, "Maybe I'll destroy them now!" and with one powerful hop, dropped down to the street below. He landed square on the pavement, caving it in around him and flinging everyone around his impact to the side, some injured as they hit the ground and one even being killed as he broke his neck against the wall of a building. "I smell you!" he said under his breath as the people panicked around him.

A quick chill ran down Mitten's back and she turned around, "I feel like someone's stalking us!" she said, causing Rhino to open up his computer. "Let's see…" he said and gulped when it began to flash, "Nightmare!" he squeaked. "That's right!" they heard him. But when Mittens actually saw his bunny form, she lifted an eyebrow in confusion, "What happened to you?" she asked. Nightmare chuckled as he hopped up to them, "Your husband ripped my mask off." he said, "I thought you would have realized that by now, I can't be killed!" he said, and once again Mittens' focus was centered on his blood red eyes. Again she saw the world in ruins, buildings torn down to nothing and her friends slaughtered on the ground. Behind her, her children wept as they found Kevin dead, realizing they were trapped in the astral world, and in front of her, Nightmare fused with Dark Bolt again, becoming one entity. This time though, the dream didn't fade, "He, he, he, he, he!" the new Dark Bolt laughed and turned his eyes to her, "How will you fight me now?" he asked, and launched a barrage of green fireballs at her. They all passed right by her as she used her paw to shield herself from the attacks. One slammed into the ground at her paws, tossing her backwards.

Outside her mind Mittens had frozen, fear flooding her mind as she looked into Nightmare's eyes. "Not this time!" Rhino said as he let his Nanosuit take form. Angelira took two flaps of her wings and lifted off of the ground, soaring towards Nightmare intent on distracting him, "Don't look into his eyes!" Rhino called out, and Angelira turned just right to kick the creature in one of them. "Grah!" Nightmare shouted, more annoyed than hurt, "You'll pay for that!" He tried snapping at her, narrowly missing her as flew off again. Rhino slammed into the over sized zombie rabbit, and pushed as hard as he could, effectively lifting the creature off of its feet and running it into the alley. Mittens shook her head, clearing her thoughts and freeing her mind from the nightmare he was forcing her to live through and took several deep calming breaths, "It happened again!" she whispered to herself. She looked up, finding herself truly alone, and an idea came to mind. She quickly took off, following her friends down the alleyway.

Nightmare was close to laughing, as Rhino tried slamming his body into a large brick wall. With nothing more than a quick push, he tossed the Rhinobot aside. Angelira swooped in again, and kicked him in the other eye. "You do realize it's just annoying right?" he asked and pushed himself off of the wall, just so Rhino could plant him back into it. "Do you hope to beat me to death?" he asked. Suddenly something slammed into Rhino from the side, knocking it down. When Angelira turned her head to look, she found another Nightmare bighting down on one of the metallic legs of the Nonosuit. "Shadow Cloning!" she called out as she recognized the technique. Rhino lifted one of his massive robot paws and slammed it down on the clone, shattering it into nothing but shadows. Another clone tried sneaking up on Angelira, but she turned around to fly away and spotted him. She quickly took off, flying up as he tried to snap his jaws around her. Rhino came in again, and punched the clone, scattering it to the darkness. Nightmare stood still as they turned to him, and quickly multiplied, the doppelgangers separating from him and quickly surrounding the two of them. There were now almost fifteen copies. "What will you do now?" he asked. It seemed as if there was a smile upon his skull mask as the clones moved in, quickly trying to overtake the two heroes. Rhino picked his targets wisely as he dropped his massive metal paws on them. Quickly he began destroying the clones one by one, slamming his claws into them, or throwing one into the other. It wasn't until the real Nightmare opened his mouth, and shot a red beam of light through the shoulder of Rhino's mech, that Rhino had any trouble. Two of the clones did the same, narrowly missing Angelira and hitting Rhino's mech in the leg, toppling it over. Nightmare than multiplied again, surrounding Rhino with his clones. Each one opened their mouths, holding the crimson power in mid air before it shot forth, each one colliding with the mech.

"RHINO!" Angelira shouted from near the roof tops, just as one of the first clones jumped at her. She moved aside and let the creature fall as she flew down to Rhino, dissipating on the ground. She found him in his ball, his little paws held up as if to fight with them and his mech dissolving into the air around him. "I've still got fight in me!" Rhino said as he glared at Nightmare, at least the one he thought was real. "You got lucky!" the creature said, "Once I get hold of that ball of yours, I'll find the opening and swallow you whole!"

A small drop of bright rain fell from the sky, falling on the head of one of the Nightmares, and just as quickly, the clones disappeared. "Huh?" he asked. "So that's the real you, I wasn't sure." they heard Mittens say. She pulled herself out of the shadows of the alley way entrance, her eyes shining a brilliant white. Nightmare growled, "So you finally decided to join us?" he asked, "How touching." and multiplied again, immediately sending the clone to attack. Instead a sword made from light shot up from the ground, and he could see a spell circle scratched into the ground, almost as if she had planed the whole thing. The circle was about the size of her paw, with straight lines coming off of the outside, almost like a sun. Inside the circle were letters written along the inside, and one large symbol with what looked to be a sword through it pointing up. 'That's nonsense, it wasn't there before.' he thought to himself. "As you can see, I've gotten better at carving the circles for my spells." she said and completed her journey, standing next to her friends in defiance of his power. She quickly pulled out her crystal claws and again carved another circle in the ground. "NO!" he shouted, "I won't let you finish!" and multiplied into almost thirty, circling them and again firing off his crimson beam. It quickly hit a barrier made from pure light, the barrier growing as the beams intensified, until it slammed into them all, dispersing the clones and revealing the real Nightmare. He quickly got to his feet, but just as quickly saw Mittens leap for him, her claws extended as she landed on his back. He growled in malice only a little, but quickly found his body cracking and over flowing with light, "What?" he asked. Suddenly Mittens turned to her friends with a worried look, "RUN, I CAN'T CONTROL IT!" she called out. "What?" Rhino asked, but was quickly picked up by Angelira who flew up and away as quickly as she could. "What are you doing?" Nightmare asked as he tried to shake her off of his back. "I'm protecting my friends!" she said. "Then why so frightened?" he asked, and turned his head just right to look at her. He found her eyes closed with concentration, as she tried desperately to control her claws. He looked down, and watched as his body exploded, shooting the mask away as if it were a rocket.

Glass windows shattered inwards into the apartments and some walls bowed in. Every light bulb exploded with a flash and the entire alley went black. A small light lit up from the sky as Rhino and Angelira made their decent. "Mittens?" Angelira called out as they got closer. Rhino turned his light so that it swept across the alley way, "Mittens?" he called out. They almost missed her, sprawled out on the edge of a large scorch mark on the ground. It was only because she groaned that she was found. Her fur was completely covered in black soot and she coughed as she stood up, "Mittens!" Rhino and Angelira called out as they neared her. Are you alright?" the Neutrosian asked. "Yah!" Mittens coughed out, "I'm ok!" Rhino looked around, "What happened here?" he asked. "I tried to control light." Mittens said, "Bit I didn't do so well."

"You did better than some of the other sages I've seen!" Angelira said as she looked around, "Most don't live to tell the tale!" Rhino cringed when he heard that. "I figured it out though." Mittens said, "I need to master Light and Shadow to control them both."

"So just cast a few Shadow spells and voila!" Rhino said. "No you don't understand!" Mittens said quickly, "I've been practicing Light magic since I left Skylar's house, and only just now was I able to put it into my claws. I never wanted to touch Shadow magic."

"Why?" was all Angelira asked. With a huge sigh, Mittens sat on her haunches, and started shaking with fear, "Because it's just like Nightmare's power." she said solemnly. Angelira and Rhino both dropped their jaws, neither of them had expected anything like that.

End Chapter 10