CHAPTER ELEVEN


Cody immediately got to his feet and—literally—flew out of the room. As soon as he was at the door, he focused on the part of him that would take on the characteristics of his guardian and allowed his wings to push up through his shoulder blades and unfurl from his back. He rocketed off down the hallways, holding out his hand and calling out his staff as he did so.

He didn't have to look behind him to know his friends were following along behind him at incredibly speeds as well. His mind raced with a million thoughts. What was it that had attacked them? What were they going to face this time? And more importantly, how was Father Time going to help them with everything? They had already thought Mother Nature was someone who could help, but she had been angered by the way humans treated their world for years that she tried to destroy it and them in the process.

Even while briefly closing his eyes, he could still see the massive portal opening up in the sky, allowing all of her arboris to come between worlds. It was mesmerizing, to see the blue sky open and being able to see the blackness of space for a moment, right before he was able to see the Element World in the flesh. He could only sit and watch the majestic sight for a moment before pandemonium exploded around him. It was the toughest fight he had ever had to face and he was surprised he hadn't been killed, having been on a coma for a couple of days afterwards. His friends had all suffered various injuries as well, nearing them to death. If it wasn't' for their enhanced strength and imperviousness to some of the more common ways to injure yourself, he was sure they would have been dead by the time they had turned fifteen.

If not constantly questioned about the bruises and cuts their bodies would have sustained while in school. It was funny how much his mind had wandered and he moved in autopilot while he had been fighting the arboris, while trying to get to Mother Nature as she continued to wreak havoc around her. He thought about school, the university he was going to go to, what was going to happen if they didn't defeat her, what would happen if they did. Anything but having the fight he was currently in on his mind and he had to admit, that had been his fatal flaw and he probably would have died if his friends hadn't been around him to help out.

He wasn't like Zack, he couldn't jump straight in and attack without some sort of strategy. He had to think things through. Maybe had had been his downfall.

He had that same thought as he entered a large holding area after blasting through a 'Do Not Enter' and 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign covered door and spotted something strange. The men that had been working inside, scientists, researchers, and those that were testing out the products they were creating. With a rapid movement of his eye he spotted machine guns, filled beakers with smoke pouring out of the top, metal pipes that had wires sticking out from the top that had been worked on, and floor to ceiling glass tubes filled with liquid of different colors. They had all been abandoned by the men and women that had been working on them, who were now being flung around by some invisible force.

As he watched, he could see the screaming scientists and weapon technicians flail their arms and legs as they were picked up and flung across the room.

All of a sudden he could hear a disembodied voice, "I was wondering when I would see you. You've managed to destroy my plans for years."

"And we're about to do it again," Zack said, landing at Cody's side, his wings gently brushing against his brother's in a comforting gesture. His eyes were moving around, trying to find the source of the voice.

A young scientist that had managed to take cover under a desk rolled out and started to run towards the group of Elementals. He let out a bloodcurdling scream as he suddenly halted in his tracks, eyes wide. Then his hands moved up to his neck as he started to choke, face turning purple. With a rush of energy that everyone in the room could feel, he was flung backwards, further into the room.

Julius leapt forward on top of his guardian; the cheetah named Rudin, and snatched the man out of the air, stopping before they crashed into the back wall. The hold that was on the young scientist was released and Rudin gently, gracefully lowered himself to the ground.

"Good to see that your sense of right and wrong is still intact. Though I'd like to think that it's not something that'll stick around then things get tough."

"That doesn't matter," Patrick declared. "No matter what happens we always try to do our best to do what we think is right."

"Right for you, but it might not be right for everyone else."

"Why don't you quit being a coward and show yourself?" Crystal snarled.

The voice ignored her. "Have you ever thought about your sticking around so much? Have you thought of how much destruction and death you've caused with your actions over the past couple of years? Those buildings that fell down…the attacks that you shot out at whoever you were attacking…the ones that missed…those poor, poor people that couldn't evacuate when they were told to..."

Cody felt his blood ran cold. It was something he had never allowed himself to think about and now that the voice was telling them the fears they hadn't focused on. How many people had been killed? How many people had their lives taken away from them in a matter of seconds when it surely wasn't their time? Judging by the thick tension that had suddenly filled the room, he knew the others had been thinking the same thing to varying degrees.

He glanced at Noah out of the corner of his eye, who was standing directly at his left. He had summoned his weapon, his large hammer, and was periodically loosening and tightening his grip as the seconds passed. Judging by the expression on his face, he could see that he didn't recognize the voice either.

Cody didn't understand why he would have thought that Noah would recognize it. Maybe because he had been so into the Elemental World and Elementals long before Cody had. He was starting to feel like he did when he had first met the Jacksons.

He remembered that day almost perfectly. He had Zack had come out of the elevator and were going to go to Tapeworm's house to play video games with him and Max and they had noticed the entire raven haired family looking around at the magnificence of the hotel. Of course Zack had been quick to zero in on—and get comically turned down by—Riley, though he took it in stride. Cody, on the other hand, had been nice and polite and friendly and all he had gotten back was silence, short answers, and cold looks. In school it wasn't that much better until one day he and Zack had been walking back to the hotel after school and had seen them fighting Koto and Reihu.

He had and Zack had wanted to help fight them off and found themselves quickly at a disadvantage, getting beaten up a lot quicker than they thought they would be. Nothing had been out of the ordinary there, other than the secrets that had been swirling around them. Next thing he knew, he was going to the library, got attacked by Reihu again, and Rhuben had appeared out of nowhere, knocking him back, before placing a hand on his forehead and awakening him. He remembered the intense confusion and mystery that surrounded the new powers and abilities he had as well as the overwhelming fear.

Things had gotten better when Max and Tapeworm had been awakened and when he met Crystal, things had gotten even stranger, though clearer at the same time. Pun intended.

And now, it was all being crushed all over again.

He wasn't going to wait anymore.

If they were going to get answers, they were going to get them now.

"Water of the Soul!" Cody held his staff out in front of him and it glowed a bright blue before all of the energy focused in the blue orb that rested on top. It glowed brighter and brighter and he moved it out in front of him. "Tsunami!"

"Crystal Freeze!" Crystal cried, extending her hands.

"Thunder Crash!" Patrick added, lifting his hand to the sky and then swiftly lowering it back down.

A great burst of water erupted from the blue gem on Cody's staff and shot towards the center of the room, mixing in with Crystal's ice attack and Patrick's thunder attack. The lightning wrapped around water and shot forward, powering a large block of ice into the center of the room. He had no idea what to expect, but it was anything but the block of ice, water, and electricity to be shot directly back at them.

"Flamethrower!" Zack, Riley, and Julius called in unison, sending a wall of flame at the weapon, turning it to steam before he could be harmed.

This is going to be harder than we thought. Cody turned to look at Zack, who was staring ahead, lips pressed together in intense concentration and anxiety. Cody could sense that he was starting to get scared, if it was something this powerful that could blow their combined attacks back as if he had just sneezed and was invisible; this was going to be difficult. Glancing behind him, Cody could see Riley, Rhuben, Sydney, Aaron, Bailey, Tapeworm, Julius, and Maddie all had expressions that were varying degrees of anticipation.

Diamond and Christian stood behind them, both carrying large assault rifles. It was weird for him to see, someone using a regular weapon to try and defeat someone who could probably rip it out of their hands and turn it back against them.

Cody's movement must have grabbed the voice's attention, for it suddenly turned sinister. "You!" The voice bellowed so loud, causing everyone to slam their hands over their ears. "You were the one that foiled my plans all those years ago! You filthy human aren't going to get away with it!"

Crystal and Aaron moved in front of their father, to block him from the figure. Glancing back at him, Cody could see the recognition in the older man's face. Confused, Cody started to turn back to the figure, but stopped when he spotted Bailey staring at the man. Her red hair was fanned around her face, hiding her eyes from him, but he could still see from her body language that she was shaking. Did she recognize him, too? When she reached up to push her hair back from her face he could see in her eyes that she did, indeed, know who this guy was.

How does she know that? Cody finally turned back to face forward. Glancing over at Zack, he could see his twin brother had done the same, only he had an expression like Bailey's and Christian's. Has Zack seen him before? In a dream? Maybe when he had been put under by Sydney.

The figures eyes then moved to the Jacksons and his eyes narrowed even further. "You…"

"Who are you?" Tapeworm demanded.

In sudden flashes of light, their guardians appeared at their sides in their human forms. Phantom stood by Cody, releasing an aura of liquid calm, much like he always did whenever Cody tapped into Phantom's power if not his own power of water in general. His sharp eyes were focused entirely on the figure in front of them.

"We thought he was an urban legend," Ursa said. "No one knew for sure he existed."

"You said the same thing about Mother Nature and Father Time," Noah reminded him. "Unless it was Geneva and Gattaca that you said that about." He couldn't remember. There were too many things for them to keep straight. Especially when their questions were answered and more questions were thrown into the mix.

"Actually answering our question would be great, right about now," Patrick said with an air of impatience.

"This is Uriel," Christian said. He tightened his fingertips on the rifle, reminding himself to remove his hand from the trigger. There was no need to randomly fire at this guy when he had shown off his ability to knock even some of the stronger Elementals willy-nilly. Then again, Zack and Cody hadn't used their ultimate powers since the fight with Mother Nature, who knew what power he had if he could knock that back as well. "He's the one that placed the curse on Akito."

The corner of Uriel's mouth slowly curled up. "Ah, yes, that young man that thought he could defeat me by himself." He flicked his long black hair out of his face. "That was one of my more memorable fights. On that took longer than I anticipated." He looked over at Julius. "I sense that some of you are weaker than others, so this should be interesting for me." His eyes then moved over to Bailey.

Cody felt the instant instinct to move over and protect her. They hadn't talked much since their last fight and that was the problem. They needed to be able to talk to each other about what had caused them to break up, the words they exchanged, and whether or not they had feelings for each other still. It was one of the reasons he had left Boston when he had gotten the chance. He had to runaway and see what was left of him, Cody Martin, not of Cailey as everyone on the SS Tipton had dubbed them, even before they had started dating. He needed to know what he was and what he could do.

Even if it jeopardized what they had.

Before he could move to Bailey's side to shield her, Geneva and Gattaca both stood in front of their ward and Cody could see how they were considered the rulers of the Element World. They way they stood shoulder to shoulder gave them a regal air and they gazed at Uriel as if he was a peasant, the very bottom of the totem pole.

Uriel gazed back at them and an evil ambience filled the room; dark and cold. "I see you now feel that you need to protect these humans."

"We've protected them the same we protect our families," Dricer said.

"And we're not going to let you destroy them or their world," DalFang agreed.

With that, Riley, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, Tapeworm, and Crystal all charged towards Uriel.

Riley reached him first and with a cry of, "Crimson Scorpion", her chain sickle appeared in her hand. She threw it at Uriel and he deflected it with his arm, causing her to tug on the chain and pull it back towards her. As she did so, she pulled back a flaming left fist and swung it forward. Uriel grabbed onto her hand and the flames covering her arm immediately disappeared. He swung her arm left and lifted his foot, kicking her in the stomach. When she doubled over, he brought up his knee and hit her in the face before lifting her up and throwing her into the computers at the other side of the room, where she collided with it, sending sparks everywhere as she fell to the floor.

"Riley!" Zack called.

Uriel brought up his hand and a wave of smoke halted Patrick and Noah in their tracks. It moved around them in a thick cloud, covering them from view, though their horrible screams could be heard before they were blasted apart from each other and falling heavily on the ground.

"Spirits!" Sydney raised his hands high in the air and they started to glow a bright blue. His staff then appeared in his hand, coming from the blue light. He grabbed onto it and swung it once. Sydney moved his staff in a circle, creating a large arc as he walked towards his brother and sisters, creating a dome around them. "Kazuki, Kazuaki." Two, white, snake-like creatures appeared beside him, floating in the air, their little legs were holding onto energy orbs. Sydney then held up his staff. "Non envisibis."

A light fog appeared around the room and Sydney took the chance to run towards Uriel. "Psychic Spirits! Psy beam!" A purple-black beam appeared out the end of his staff and shot towards Uriel. It hit him directly in the chest and he absorbed it and sent it back to the younger Elemental. "Spirit Shield!" Sydney quickly formed a shield around himself but when the reverberated attack hit the shield, the shield broke into a million shards, striking Sydney with his own power.

He fell back to the ground.

Kazuki and Kazuaki floated around the dome Sydney created and glowed a bright blue, almost white, causing the dome to create the same shade as Sydney walked inside it. To anyone that passed by, they wouldn't see anything but broken glass in the main hall, but if they tried to walk through the dome, they would be unable to and be forced to move around it.

Tapeworm created vines and shot them toward Uriel, but Uriel conjured his own and knocked Tapeworm's out of the way, ripping through them like steel and lashed him across the face, chest, and shoulders, knocking him out. Crystal conjured her bow and arrow and started to fire them at Uriel's vines, freezing the tips of a few of them, but that had backfired as she was then struck with the vines that pierced her skin. Uriel then brought up his hands and shot a stream of fire at her, knocking her back as well.

Everyone had been knocked out quicker than any of the other people they had fought before. Julius, Maddie, and Aaron continued to stand in front of Diamond and Christian, wonder what to do. If the others had been beaten so easily…

No. Cody clenched his hands into fists. We can't let him win so easily.

Uriel then appeared bored. He had defeated the Elementals so quickly. What was he going to do now? Killing them would be too easy and not as fun. Watching them squirm, seeing the helplessness in their eyes was enough to want to keep them around as long as he could stand.

"You're not going to fucking win," Zack swore. "We won't let you, you bastard."

Uriel raised an eyebrow. "I have often heard you humans refer to this as fate or destiny. Only the weak utter such nonsense." Uriel's eyes started to glow a dull, demonic red that froze everyone in their tracks. "It is different for the truly powerful: they create this so-called destiny with their own hands!" He opened his hands and a hard gust of wind blew out.

Cody anticipated this and with a quick wipe of his wing against Zack's, the two leapt up high into the air as their friends were knocked to the ground, blasted backwards by the sudden energy shot against them. Uriel tilted his head back and glared at the boys as they headed towards him. Uriel brought his hands up and vines shot out of his hands, wrapping around them and slamming them down to the floor. All of the wind was knocked out of him and Cody lay still on the ground, his head turned to the side.

There was a loud roar and Reihu leapt overhead, turned into his lion form, pouncing on top of Uriel. He raked a paw against Uriel's front and was suddenly blown to the side by a swipe of Uriel's arm. He crashed to the ground and got up, leaping at him again.

"Darkness Atom Bomb!" Rhuben, who had gotten back to her feet, lobbed the large ball of darkness over to Uriel and hit him directly in the chest, where Reihu had gotten him before. Instead of falling to his knees, screaming with pain, Uriel watched as the ball of darkness slowly shrunk in size as it pushed its way into him.

No, not into him, Cody reasoned. He was still prone to the ground, trying to get his wind back. He's absorbing it.

Uriel's eyes widened slightly and a ball of pure black darkness rocketed out of him and struck Rhuben in the chest. She screamed as she was suddenly flung off her feet and up into the air, crashing high into the wall above them.

"Rhu!" Sydney called for his sister.

Reihu, who had crashed down onto Uriel's back at the exact moment he attack the Elemental of Darkness, plowed the man into the ground and used him as a springboard to leap up into the air. He caught his girlfriend against his back and stretched his paws out, landing on the wall and used it to push himself around, landing in the rafters. He turned back into his human form and wrapped an arm around Rhuben's waist, holding her up as she shook her head. One look into her eyes and he could see the blueness starting to deepen into a black color.

Turning back, Reihu held out a hand. "Judgment of Hades!" He pointed to the ground then at Uriel. A black wave of energy flew towards him, rapidly increasing and turning into a wall of dark flames as it went.

"Dark Darts!" Rhuben added; sending bullets of darkness energy at Uriel like a machine gun.

The two attacks flew towards Uriel but he lifted a hand and waved it to the side. The attacks veered off course and crashing into a wall, blasting a hole into it. Uriel sent another wave of invisible energy at the rafters and they broke, sending Reihu and Rhuben crashing to the ground beneath them.

Uriel turned his attention to Christian. "Now to finish off what I've started years ago." He steadily walked towards him. Julius, Bailey, Maddie, and Aaron continued to back up, until they were a few inches right in front of Diamond and Christian. They could try and fire off the guns now, but what if he could control metal and shoot the bullets into the others? What if he could turn the gun around on them and they were forced to shoot themselves? "Don't bother running."

Uriel reached out a hand, palm up, facing the group in front of them.

Julius steeled himself, Rudin at his side, ready to pounce.

Uriel continued to move closer and when he was only a few feet away, Aaron suddenly glowed a brilliant white light that shot out in front of him. Uriel screeched in pain and backed away from the group, moving to the other side of the room. Enraged, he turned to one of the scientists that continued to lie on the ground; he was knocked out, but still alive, chest rising and falling.

Uriel had to make a point.

Reaching out, Uriel grabbed the scientist by the throat and held him up, arm outstretched. He tightened his grip, fingers pressing hard into the man's neck. As the Elementals watched in horror the man's eyes widened as far as they could show, emitting a bright light. As the light dimmed from his eyes, a ball of light appeared at his chest. When it was finally out, the eyes went completely dark, eyelids fell down, and the head lolled forward. Dead.

Uriel threw him aside and pressed the ball into his own chest and instead of throwing it back at the Elementals, he kept it inside him, slowly smiling, his sharp canines poke out between his lips. "I will not kill you... I will break you. Try as you might, your efforts are in vain. I shall never die!"

And as quickly as he had appeared he was gone.

Cody continued to lay on the ground, pushing himself so that he rolled onto his back, arm lying across his stomach. He sucked in slow, deliberate breaths, his mind trying to wrap around everything that happened. When he closed his eyes, he flashed back to the fight with Mother Nature once more. He had learned so much about himself in that fight and the months afterwards.

But now he wasn't what they had learned other than Uriel was going to be a lot tougher than anyone they had ever fought and that thought scared him most of all.


A/N: Getting into Cody's thoughts with this chapter was kind of subtle, but I hope, if what I was trying to show was noticed, it was done well.

And now they've (finally) had their first experience with the 'big bag' that had been plaguing everyone for years. Does anyone have a guess as to what the power he has? I'm hoping it'll make sense for the story.

If you want to visualize the shadow hunters, picture the shadow heartless from Kingdom Hearts and you get the basic idea. And if you want to visualize Uriel, and then picture Naraku from Inuyasha, it was the best thing I could think of at the time. (Speaking of, I borrowed one of Naraku's quotes in this chapter, so I don't own that).

And to answer your question from your last review, owlhero, most of the Elementals stuff that Rhu, Crys, and I come up with is either influenced from anime, action movies, superhero movies, a bit of sci-fi, and our own imagination; especially considering when we first started writing our suite life/elementals stories (back in 2005) most of our stuff have a heavy Japanese influence. Which is also partially why the Jacksons and Crystal are part Japanese.

Cheers,

-Riles