Chapter 52
The Howling Wind
"Journal of Ryan Corathers, Onett, day 19, Four P.M. EaST (Eagleland Standard Time)…
"The last nineteen days have been rough on everyone. Still though, everyone is trying to keep their hopes up as the Apple's predicted final day eight weeks after the foretold revival of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse began. Recent events have happened in the last three days that have completely changed everyone's outlook on the entire situation. First off are the weapons of light.
"I knew of these weapons long before the rest of the group ever did. How I came across this knowledge is not of my own doing though. After Mike awoke from his coma that he went into shortly after we defeated Godan, he for some reason or another went into a temporary insanity. The very sight of him at this point in time was frightening. He was not the same person. Correction, I think his true self started to show then. Mike had always told me that he was holding back his mental abilities, but I always shrugged it off thinking that it was his ego talking. What person would not think like I did? That was until Sanctuary Guardian number three, Mighty Grizzly. Nolan, Mike, and I should not have survived that fight. We were completely outclassed in every way imaginable. I was the only one still standing, but barely. Blood was running down my right arm from his latest slash into it. The wound was very deep and I still bear the scar from it. At that point, I thought we were done for. Nolan was out cold, I was nearly incapacitated, and Mike was still recovering from the strain of trying use a Chrono Bomb and against the Guardian that failed. On top of that he was already worn out mentally and physically. He said the words Mental Ascension at that point. His power suddenly started to climb dramatically. Slowly at first, but then his power just erupted. He then looked up at the Guardian with eyes that were piercing enough that he could frighten even the most emotionless being anywhere. A flash of light suddenly appeared for what seemed like only five seconds. Once the light dimmed down, the Guardian was blackened completely. Not from flames, just from Mike's overwhelming energy from when he just touched the Guardian. The energy released was high enough just from a single touch that matter could instantly combust and burn completely in under a second. No flames even arise, just pure chemical reactions from Michael's immense energy flow. Afterwards, he said the words 'get me to the hospital' and went into a seizure.
"Later on, Mike had told me he releases his subconscious using his soul energy, the method in how a Fate is used, and unleashes the powers he has to struggle to suppress some days. When Mike went insane, I believe he still was fully conscious of what was happening. It was that when he awoke from his coma I feel his mind became unleashed. His actions seemed like a suppressed nature that had to come out at that point. This is my belief. This also caused unequal intelligence to temporarily arise.
"This conclusion is derived from how he was able to read the Apple of Enlightenment scroll written in a complete alien language as if it was a fluent language to him. While visiting him one time, I let him read to me the entire scroll, as a way to try and drive out his insanity. What he read to me was incredible. It spoke of the weapons of light, epic battles from the past, and of the Horsemen of Light. I picked up the other scroll that the sane Mike never even bothered to read. It spoke of the same thing, in terms of the Horsemen of Light only, and seemed to be written by human hands very recently. I think this was only a piece of the scroll that person wrote, but it was enough to tell Mike about it once he became sane again in case he remembered nothing. This was not the case but I did show him the scroll he never read until that point. Mike and I immediately decided that we had to make contact with Ness and convinced him that what was happening was true. Because of other events, Mike's family members decided to move to Onett as quickly as possible. The one house available was the old Minch house which was on sale for a surprisingly low price.
"This all leads me to the weapons of light. At first glance, none seem all that powerful, until seen in action. Mike's Eden Sword seems to be sharp enough to split a hair thirty times over, an exaggeration on my part but never know since that has been untested so far. Nor have I seen Dave's weapon either. Ness' weapon, Blood of Courage, is quite a work. It is a liquid metal that can become solid once a person's chi is driven through it, and can take any shape Ness pleases. Casie's extension of wisdom is a staff with weird side-effects on her. She seems to now know more Psi attacks than ever before. She can now do fire, freeze, thunder, teleport, Psi magnet etc. She had developed variations to all of these beforehand, but never was able to do the exact technique until recently. This might play into our advantage in the days to come. I think she said that she also picked up recovery abilities as well which would not surprise me at this point, but she has not had reason to use such abilities recently, so I cannot confirm it.
"Onto the Chosen Ones, I have not really gotten to know any to them until very recently, so writing in here about them until now would not do them justice…"
"I think I'll stop reading this now" Paula thought to herself as she slammed the book shut, not want to know anymore than she need to. She had found Ryan's journal of events open on its most recent entry and started to read it. "So he's been keeping notes on everything that has been happening. I'm tempted to read the rest of this, but I will respect the sanctity of such thoughts." The wind had started to blow through her hair on top of Ness' roof. She was watching Ness and Nolan practice. Those two were trying to make sure they were ready for what was to come. Casie had just left for what she called "personal reasons". Paula did not bother reading her thoughts, since she did not want to know anything that she should not. Ryan had left for a short time to go pick up some food for everyone, since the shops in Onett had just opened back up only hours ago. The wind suddenly died down.
"That's weird. I felt a nice breeze but the leaves of the nearby trees did not move at all. A wind like that should have produced a visual effect on leaves" she said to herself as Paula started to lie on her back.
"Hello Paula, I see you found my book" a voice said directly above Paula as she jumped from surprise.
"What book…" Paula turned her head around rapidly trying to act like nothing was happening and dropped the book. "See, there's no book here Ryan" Paula laughed trying to not make herself look suspicious. She did a horrible job.
"That act you just put on was pathetic too" Ryan said as he just said down, setting down the six bags of food he had in his hands. As Paula took a small glance towards where the book had landed, it was not there. She turned her head and saw that Ryan had the book closed at his side. Paula looked at Ryan wondering what he had done to get the book back since he did not move since the moment she had gotten rid of the book. Not to mention he had no opportunity or ability to grab it beforehand.
"How did you do that?"
"Oh, you mean the book. Easy, look at the leaves on that tree over there" Ryan said as he quickly moved his fingers up and brought them down just as fast. The wind suddenly picked up and the leaves moved for about five second then calmed back down.
"So, what's your point, I didn't note anything unusual there" Paula replied.
"You're missing some things. First, what direction did those leaves move?"
"Straight… UP!" It clicked right then for Paula. Why when her hair was blowing the leaves on the trees did not. Why Ryan had the book in his hands, and why the leaves on the tree pointed towards the sky. "You can control the wind for short periods of time. The ancients called it atmo-summoning, the ability to use the body's energy to manipulate a certain section of the atmosphere for a short amount of time. I knew you could use wind attacks from when we fought against the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse the last time, but I did not know you had developed it so far. Tell me, is your flying just wind control or something more?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because, I would like to learn if it's at all possible" Paula said as she watched Nolan and Ness cross by Ness' house while training.
"Of course it's possible for you to learn" Ryan immediately replied without a thought. "Flight is nothing more than just using the flow of a person's natural energy to resist gravity, not that difficult to realize. I managed to teach it to Mike and Nolan's currently still trying to master it. That's probably because of Mike's natural state that he learned it so easily while Nolan is only able to hold it for a short period of time. Hell, you probably could master as fast as I did with your talent."
"Thanks, I think I'll have you teach me later. But first… could you tell me what you know about everything that went on. It seems Mike and Ness had a little talk before we went after the weapons of light, but Mike speaks in that natural double tongue, so straight answers are impossible to get out of him. You seem to be nothing but straight forward when you speak. So please…" Paula asked as she pressed her hands together tightly in frustration. She had gone to the lengths of probing Mike's mind, but everything still confused her. She was hoping that if Ryan kept a journal, he had more than one reason to write one.
"Of course and I'll be very blunt, I know more about this and what's going on than anyone else does. Everything you know about what happened when we went off to defeat Godan is not completely true and not the whole story, but that is not important right now, so I'll leave it out. Let me start with this, do you remember the sporadic incident that started to happen worldwide about two months ago?" Ryan started to explain.
"Yeah, who wouldn't? They are said to be terrorist attacks or accidents to have happened before major cities started to be attacked. They seem to have been ignored for that reason. What does that have to do with anything?" Paula replied.
"Everything. The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse were the lone cause for all of those incidents, every last one of them" Ryan stated.
"How do you know that?" Paula asked.
"I'm the one who stopped a lot more from happening. After Mike ended up in the hospital in his coma, I read one of the scrolls he refused to read, since Mike is anti-prophetic and all. It was the same scroll Mike would later show to Ness when Mike revealed what was going on. When I read it, I was in complete shock. I refused to believe it at first until I visited Mike and remembered the crests on his hands, and the incomplete sound crystal melody. It started to make sense why those crests were there and why Mike was not to finish the melody then. Once the first two attacks started, I knew something was up. I had a feeling that Mike, Casie, or the horseman of power—since I did not know who the person even was I can't say Dave—were being hunted down. I thought about right then and there leaving and trying to hunt you guys down."
"Why didn't you come and find us right then and there? It's not like we would not have believed you" Paula interrupted.
"It was very tempting trust me. On many occasions in those five weeks after we defeated Godan, I just wanted to find one of the Chosen Four to help me out so we might slow things down, but I was not worried about you four. The reason is that you were all healthy. Casie was still hurting from the battle, Nolan had only started to recover, Tom had that broken left wrist and spore poisoning that took him two weeks to recover from even with his elixirs. I was probably the only one who was able to stand up straight right then and there. It probably would have been better to come and tell you four then, I told myself that I needed to worry about everyone else first, and if the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse were stupid enough to come after Ness that Ness could crush any of them for the time being.
"With my decision made, I decided to go fight again. The problem was finding any one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. Two hours later, another attack happened in South Africa. I headed straight there and, I found Giegue and a few robots stirring up trouble down there. My thoughts of not worrying about the Chosen Four were confirmed there when I quickly neutralized Giegue's cohorts and Giegue himself."
"Question, how did you manage to travel well over four thousand miles in such a short period of time?" Paula inquired.
"Um… no one knows this yet, but I figured out a new method of teleportation a while back. No one knows and I would like to keep it like that" Ryan explained as he glared at Paula. Paula just shook her head up and down and let Ryan continue. Ryan was just quiet as he turned his head to his right ever so slightly. "You have a psychic shield right?"
"Yeah, I know everything up to shield Omega. Why?"
"Just put it up, now!" Ryan said as he started to swirl the wind around him to make a barrier. Paula did not know what for but she used Psi shield Omega.
Meanwhile…
"I think this should do for now. You want to fight seriously, so will I" Nolan said as he pulled out the sniper rifle he used to defeat Gabrielle, along with a bullet with white stripes on it.
"What is that?!" Ness said as he stated to put a wall in front of him using his weapon of light. "I thought we were just doing this to let you perfect a new technique."
"We are. I just want to have a little fun as well" Nolan said as he took aim and pulled the trigger.
On Ness' rooftop…
"What did you want me to do that for?" Paula asked.
"Three… two… one…" Ryan said to himself as all of a sudden, KABOOM!
"What on Earth was that explosion?!" Paula screamed while the shockwave was blowing the wind at tremendous force.
"Nolan seems to have gone gun happy on Ness. Ness used the blood of courage to block the bullet from hitting him, but the force that thing releases when it makes impact is insane!" Ryan screamed just trying to make himself audible to Paula through the howling wind.
"What bullet could do that?" Paula screamed even louder since she was on the downwind to Ryan.
"I think it was a number four, a photon bullet. That thing releases a ton of energy in the form of high amount of photons once it strikes a solid object. If you look on that sniper rifle he has, there is a scale on the handle with corresponding numbers and colors. They are brown, yellow, orange, white, blue, green, dark green, red, purple and black. Each color has a number one through ten in that order right next to it. They correspond to the type of technology incorporated with the bullet. The first is just a normal bullet, the next has fission technology, fusion is the next, then photon, anti-matter is the fifth, zero-point energy is number six, quantum singularity is dark green, red is the neutron bullet, nine is absolute zero, and the black one is the worst of them all…" Ryan said as the wind finally started to die down. "The black one has not even been made yet, it's a temporal bullet. That gun and the bullets were made to be absolute last resorts. The destructive power they hold is beyond comprehension, reason why Mike and I hid the bullets. He just used a number four, a photon bullet, against Ness. Don't worry though, Ness will be fine since he wasn't hit" Ryan said sternly as Paula gave him a glaring look. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You told Nolan to do that to change the subject. I heard the entire conversation you two were having telepathically. Now, before I kill you for putting my boyfriend in that situation, what teleportation technique did you learn?" Paula said while clenching two fists.
"Okay sorry, let me show you a little then" Ryan said as he started to have the surrounding atmosphere swirl around his body. "I never wanted to show this to anyone because I do not know the effects of trying to teleport a whole group with this. It allows me move with absolute freedom to anywhere I so choose using the atmosphere around me to accelerate my body to hypersonic velocities without the sonic boom trail that ensues when Mike uses Phoenix per say" Ryan said as the wind start to die down.
"Umm… Ryan, I've seen someone else use that teleportation ability before. Poo's master, the Star Master, teleports the exact same way. He can teleport large groups of people as well. Unfortunately, I do not know what it takes to move a larger group of people like that so I wouldn't suggest trying it" Paula commented.
Ryan was slightly taken aback by the point that someone else could do what he did as well. "Alright now that that is cleared up, back to what happened in South Africa.
"It seems that Giegue was trying to draw out the Horsemen. When I saw him, he was in his human form. I had my doubts if that was him at first. Then I saw him mutate his arm to completely take out a building. I immediately started to attack to stop him not even knowing if their powers were in a weakened state or not. I soon found out that he was weakened and easily pummeled him with my bare hands. He quickly retreated seeing that I outclassed him and left starmen to do his dirty work, which I quickly took out.
"The next one was the Romania incident three days later where Godan was involved. Twenty people had suddenly died before my eyes when I arrived on top of Godan's previous victims. He immediately recognized me as he tried to attack me but I quickly neutralized him.
"After that, thirty-four more incidents occurred in a six week time span. The Zaire mine explosions, the Threed bus bombing, the annihilation of three Indonesian villages, the burning of Toto port, and many others were all repercussions of their attempts to draw out the Four Horsemen of Light. Ninety-five percent of the time, I quickly stopped any more damage from possibly happening. Once Mike had awakened, I heard about his condition, and I immediately rushed over to see him and got more information than I ever wanted to hear. The weapons of light, the creation of the Mani Mani statue, the fall of Avalon, and the bloody stories told of the Horsemen of Apocalypse are all seemingly contained in that very long scroll written in an alien language. I looked up the works of a noted translator named Eliza Langley who had passed away shortly after completing a project that never got recognition because of the media lockout on it. I can see why there was one once I got my hands on it. Inside her notes were translations that reflected exactly what was being read to me to the punctuation marks."
"Eliza Langley, where in the world have I heard that name before" Paula thought to herself hitting her forehead trying to remember. Then it dawned on her. "Jeff's Mom…" she mumbled.
"What was that Paula?" Ryan asked as her heard her mumble something softly but not enough to hear it.
"Eliza Langley, she was a world famous cryptologist and former headmaster of Snow Wood boarding school. She was also known as Eliza Langley Andonuts, the wife of Dr. Andonuts and mother to Jeff Andonuts. Jeff had told me that she was working on something of 'great significance' when she died and it was never honored, and only five copies of her work were ever published. I think it will be a great shock to Jeff to know his mother was translating the Apple" Paula explained.
"That's a surprise. I did not expect a relation between her and Jeff such as that. Teacher, maybe, but mother and son, this is unexpected. It seems the wheels were turning long before any of us realized it.
"Her works are very significant though. It was proof that Mike was not spouting off some random babble. Once I showed it to Nolan, we immediately called up Casie and Tom and told them about it. We decide that we could not let the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse gain an advantage, and I only let them know about the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. I told them nothing about anything else Mike told me or anything else in those notes. I decided to keep them in the dark and told Mike everything once he was sane again. He immediately told me to go and protect Belle Vernon. He told me that his Mom had made arrangements to move to Onett after everything that had happened. It is only by coincidence that Mike ended up right next door to Ness, at least I have been told that by his mother. I doubt that though. I have a feeling once she knew about it, and Snow Wood's recent interest in Mike thanks to Dr. Andonuts. She decided the moving to Eagleland might be a good idea, and that Mike's entire family was in on it. I think he knows that as well because it made things a whole lot easier to get everyone together and on the same page in such a short amount of time. Once Belle Vernon fell, Nolan and I decided to split and figure out what to do next. That's when Casie called us and we decided that it would be best if the Destined and Chosen Ones were in one place or at least gathered together as much as possible considering the recent increase in the power of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. Besides that, you know everything else that has happened up until now" Ryan finished.
"That definitely filled some serious gaps about what has been going on. I just wish I knew how this was going to end though" Paula said as Nolan and Ness started to come back their way with Ness carrying Nolan on his back.
"It's your own stupid fault for using something like that Nolan. You said you wanted to try and finally get your new technique working. Psi Mind Wave or whatever you told me you were calling it. Instead, you pull something stupid like that knowing one of us was going to get hurt" Ness said bashing Nolan for his recent stupidity.
"I know. I remember the explosion being violent but I never used a photon bullet at that range before. I should have known that the shockwave left by that thing would be like that but I got caught up in the heat of the moment. Also, I did not think your weapon could create a sound barrier to withstand such force. Could you heal me now? This is humiliating being carried like this" Nolan replied weakly as he glared towards Ryan for telling him to use a number four.
"I can't heal you and it's your own dumb fault. I used every last bit of psychic energy I had just to keep that barrier up. Now I need to rest a little bit before I can use Healing Gamma, okay" Ness smirked as he looked up towards the roof to see Ryan and Paula. His eyes lit up once he saw the food. "Hey Ryan! you think you could bring down some food!"
"I'll just go down into the house and you can set Nolan in some corner somewhere so we can get the food sorted out. By the way, is your family home?" Ryan inquired.
"Yeah, they are. They should all be awake as well, especially after all that racket we made just now" Ness said.
"I should probably go check on Mike's family too once I'm done" Ryan thought to himself as since no one had gone over with the exception of Ness and Ryan himself after Mike left after seeing what had happened in Onett.
Once inside Ness' home, everyone caught the sight of Ness' Mom and Dad sitting on the couch rubbing their eyes. "Do you four know what that explosion was outside just a moment ago? It woke both your mother and I up, Ness. Of course, Tracy is still sleeping since she still seems to sleep through anything" Ness' father said as he let out a loud yawn. Ness' Mom then caught sight of Nolan on Ness' back.
"Dear, I think the question should be what were they doing outside at nine in the morning on a Saturday?" Ness' Mom replied. Ness slowly sat Nolan on the chair in the living room just as Ryan and Paula were going to the kitchen to unload groceries.
"Let's just say Nolan got a little out of control with one his weapons" Ness said as he went over to help Paula and Ryan as Paula gave Ryan as slight glare reminding him that it was his fault.
Once everything was put away, Ness grabbed himself a bag of chips and sat down while Paula made herself a sandwich. Ness' Mom and Dad, of course, put the pot of coffee on and sat down to relax with coffee in hand. "Ryan, you sure you don't want anything to eat" Paula said while swallowing her most recent bite of her sandwich.
"I'm fine. I had lunch down at the burger joint. You guys should have warned me about the Eagleland currency though. When that guy Frank gave me the cost of one burger, I almost started a riot because I thought he was over charging me. That was until I pulled out the money you gave me for shopping to pay and saw it was not that much" Ryan commented as he took the last remaining seat in the living room to relax.
"I forgot you're an American. I guess there is a little difference in pricing here than in the States" Ness said as he threw more chips into his mouth.
"Obviously" Ryan said sarcastically as he put his head behind the chair he was sitting in giving a slight huff. "How'd it go with Nolan, Ness? Any progress with the mind wave yet?" Ryan said as he leaned back into a normal sitting position.
"Absolutely none. He tried to use it a few times, but to no avail. Every physical attack I threw at that barrier went right through. It was no different with Psi. It only slightly buffered him against my powers. I was tempted to see if it might block flash because it's of a different nature, but I decided not to" Ness said as he rolled up his bag of chips, and put them away.
"Still the same then. I think he should just give up honestly. I mean trying to combine aura barriers of two completely different natures together is nearly impossible. I mean, granted Mike as his natural energy absorption and REM attack, but the energy absorption is not a barrier. All of us have said to him that it is practically impossible to do that, but he still tries" Ryan explained while glancing over to see Nolan still out cold in the corner. Ryan suddenly turned his head in what seemed to be in reaction to something.
"Something wrong Ryan?" Ness' Dad asked.
"No, it was just King here. He just caught me by surprise his all" Ryan replied as he patted King on the head. Ness just looked at King for a second while Ryan was giving him attention and then put his attention back on the refrigerator he had opened.
About an hour later, everyone had seemed to have gotten their full and went about their day with the exception of Nolan, still in the corner. "Hey guys, since we really are not doing anything right now, would you two mind if I explore Onett a little more?" Ryan said out of the blue.
"Why would we care, go ahead" Paula said as took her attention off the tv for a moment. With that, Ryan went straight out the door.
As Ryan got a good distance away from the door he let out a sigh of relief. "That was close call an hour ago. I hope no one sensed those two. Ness and Paula do not need to know about Masa and Mune just yet. I wonder why they came by anyhow. I told those two to stay out of this, so I wonder if they still got themselves involved. At this point, I would not really care" Ryan thought to himself as once he got near the Onett library on foot, he took to the air and headed towards the Giant Step.
At Ness' home…
"I can't believe things have gotten this bad. An attack has not seemed to have happened since the one two days ago, but this is still horrible" Paula said as she was watching the coverage of the attacks that have been happening over the last few weeks. "I wonder why I didn't sense this earlier. I knew about the attacks, but I just thought it was a radical group causing trouble around the world. I of all people should have noticed."
"I think you might have. Those nightmares you had before all of this started I think may hold the key to what's about to come" Ness sternly said.
"True" Paula quickly replied remembering her dreams from before. "I don't want to remember those dreams though. I told you how bloody the one was" Paula commented while putting her arms around herself shaking slightly.
"Even if those dreams come true, it does not mean the end of us. You only saw events, not the outcomes. Besides, we need to catch up to Ryan. He should be far enough away from us right now that he shouldn't know we're behind him" Ness said.
"What?" Paula was confused. Ryan had told them he was just going out for a walk and to explore Onett some more. What was the big deal about that?
"I guess you didn't sense it. To be honest nor did I. I did not think anything of the ordinary when King ran up so suddenly behind Ryan. That would startle anyone. It was what King told me while Ryan was patting his head. 'I just heard something run past the house. It was fast for a normal human, but sounded like one. You might want to check it out later'. That's what he said to me. Then I remember when Ryan reacted while King ran past, his head was facing away from him. Either Ryan has bad reflexes, or it was something else. Whatever it was, I have a feeling he went to check it out" Ness explained.
"Whatever it was, it caught Ryan's attention" Paula said as she started to stand up and a hand found itself on her right shoulder. "AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She screamed as she spun around without hesitation and hit whatever just touched her right in the head with her Frying Pan.
"OUCH!" the person screamed Paula looked to see that she just clobbered Nolan right upside his head. "Jesus that hurt Paula, I didn't mean to startle you like that, but darn did you have to hit me in the head so hard" Nolan said as he rubbed the visible red mark on his left cheek.
"Sorry" Paula said as she put her frying pan back onto her hook she had on the side of her purse.
"It's okay. I'll just put some ice on it later" Nolan commented still rubbing his cheek. "Anyhow, I would think you should leave Ryan alone right now. He's not doing anything suspicious."
"And how would you know that" Ness injected.
"Give me time and I'll explain" Nolan said as he sat down on the couch still rubbing that cheek. "When we first set out with Mike and after our first encounter with someone overcome by Giygas, Ryan learned how to fly. To make a long story short, two beings appeared, named Masa and Mune. They had a weird style in clothing and dress to say the least. Anyhow, Ryan's ability to fly in such a short matter of time intrigued them to say the least. The two said they would help Ryan master new powers along the way. We did not believe them at first, of course. Imagine two beings that looked human coming from nowhere and telling us what they did. Could you blame us?
"That was until Mike tore the third Sanctuary Guardian to shreds and was hospitalized. Right after we got Mike into the hospital, Masa and Mune appeared again right in Mike's room while Ryan and I were still in there. They said they wanted to help Ryan learn a new technique. Masa, Mune, and Ryan soon left. Ryan commented that it couldn't hurt to try, and we could use all the help we could get. Three days later, Mike was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health. As we were leaving the hospital grounds, we saw Ryan leaning up against a nearby telephone pole. Then he demonstrated the new ability he learned, the Masamayhem. It means 'chaotic winds' and has amazing power. The power itself is used by forming and unstable ball of energy and firing it as a beam. Since the beam is unstable, it interacts with the atmosphere as such to cause tremendous instability in the surrounding air, and causes gale force wind in every direction to appear. I do not need to say how nice it was to have a power like that on our side.
"That was only the first of other gifts they bestowed upon Ryan. The next was the wind cloak, a piece of cloth that would cause slight wind disturbances around it. Meaning the effect of all physical attacks was cut down a nice bit against Ryan. The next two were the most significant of all. You've seen them actually. They are Ryan's sword, the Masamune, and its sheath. The Masamune is a well made blade that is made from the same material as the meteo sword, which I now have in my possession. The sheath is what Mike gave Ryan before we departed to retrieve the weapons of light. The sheath is even more frightening than the sword itself. You guys familiar with Mike's heartslaught Fate."
"Yeah, Jeff mentioned that Mike cut down his training robot Goliath faster than a blink of an eye with it while Jeff was using Mike as a ginni pig to figure out tactics and test his powers" Paula explained to Nolan.
"Good, then you will get the full extent of what I'm about to say. That sheath blocked the heartslaught in its entirety" Ness' eyes got really big as his jaw started to drop. "Yeah, the sheath withstood all twenty slashes that attack inflicts at lightning speed. It's actually fast enough to be called a Shadow Movement variation. The sheath got torn up from the attack, but the scars were minor compared to when I saw Mike use his attack a second time against a reinforced steel girder. Everyone concluded that the sheath was too damaged to use and we put it into storage, amongst other things. Ryan probably summoned Masa and Mune to repair the sheath on top of talking about other things."
"Was Ryan given any other gifts since then?" Paula asked Nolan.
"No, but I think it is about time he gets another one" Nolan answered.
"You have me even more interested to go out and follow Ryan. I want to meet these two. After all, I would like to see what they look like and what type of people they are" Ness explained.
"How would we find them? Ryan could be anywhere in Onett by now with as fast as he flies" Nolan said.
"Nolan, have you ever wanted to know where it all began for me? Let me show you…"
At the Giant Step…
As Ryan slowly landed, he could not help but notice the odd geography of the Giant Step, and he could see why it was called what it was. "Well, that's interesting. I've never seen a footprint like this before. It's human in shape that's for sure, but it can't be a human's footprint. It bigger in landed area than the property area that most houses sit on" Ryan thought to himself as he slowly touched the footprint and got a weird feel from it. He quickly withdrew his hand not wanting to see what would happen if he keep it there. "You two can come out now. It's just me" Ryan said trying to call out for Masa and Mune. Ryan waited for about five minutes and did not feel their usual presence. As he turned around to leave… "Yah!"
Ryan quickly jumped back startled slightly as a man with short, spiked blue hair appeared right in front of him. "I see you noticed us Ryan" he said.
"Yeah, your signal was kinda obvious. Oh yeah, Mune, one more thing" Ryan said.
"Yeah, Ryan" Mune said.
"NEVER, EVER, DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!" Ryan screamed at Mune for surprising him like that. "If you want to see me, you don't need to make an entrance like that… your brother's behind me isn't he?" Ryan said as Mune shook his head yes.
"Sorry, Ryan, I'm just wondering what you did to this sheath" Masa said from behind Ryan as he lifted the torn up Masamune sheath slightly with the Masamune inside to get a better view. "I never imagined Godan being so strong as to do this."
Ryan turned around to face Masa, a green-haired man with a white sash around his upper body, just like his older brother. Besides the hair, the only difference between the two was that they worn different color pants made of the same cloth as their sashes. Masa's were red, and Mune's were black. "It wasn't Godan who did that. It was Mike. I told him to test the sheath's strength to his heartslaught Fate. The sheath survived, but just barely from what you can see Masa" Ryan said in calm and collected state.
"I see that Fate must have some serious force behind it, onto other business though. I'm guessing you do not know why we are here Ryan. Am I correct?" Masa asked.
"Not a clue. When we last saw each other, I said specifically for neither of you to get involved in any of this. I'll take a guess you two did not listen" Ryan smirked.
"Why would we listen? Of course we have been involved," Mune started to reply, "in the shadows as usual of course. My brother and I here have been doing some investigating on the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse for a while now. It seems to us that as of right now, the Horsemen of Light don't even stand a chance. Even with the weapons of light now all retrieved, those weapons do not possess the power required to defeat them. Nor do the possessors."
"I figured as much you two have been watching us. I thought I felt you two a couple of times, but now that's been confirmed if you know Ness, Casie, Mike, and Dave all have their legendary weapons. Secondly, I figured those weapons would not make that much of a difference alone anyhow…" Ryan stated as he closed his eyes and started to extend his arm right arm outward with his palm open.
At the meteor crash site…
"Well, here it is Nolan. Where it all began for me about one year ago, this meteor here is what started my long journey, the journey where I met Paula, Jeff, and Poo all for the first time. Of course, I met many others along the way. People who I will never forget" Ness said with a reminiscent look in his eyes.
"Well, at least the person who wanted to contact you did it with some sort of style. You know how Mike found out, a complete chance encounter. If he did not go out skating that day, let's just say we'd all be doomed right now" Nolan said at he looked at the still glowing meteorite. "How long has this thing been here that it still glows, Ness?"
"A little over a year now. Seems weird huh? This thing should have cool down a while ago right?" Ness said as he put his hand on top of the meteorite. "Obviously, it's actually cold, so there is more to this rock. Actually, this meteor was a time travel device sent here from ten years, actually it would be nine now, in the future. A being named Buzz-Buzz came out of this device and told me the legend of the 'Chosen Four' who were to save the world, and that I was one of them. He was also the one who gave me the Sound Stone to collect the powers of the Sanctuaries and the melodies hidden within them" Ness said as he pulled out the tiny case now holding a broken version of the Sound Stone.
"This blue rock here is the Sound Stone. Unfortunately, it's a broken version. You see. Buzz-Buzz gave me the future version of this stone, so this is the present version. The future one just happened to be whole..." Ness continued on.
"So you mean someone in an alternate timeline managed to make the stone whole again. Then, knowing that it was the only chance to save the Earth, someone came and delivered it to you personally. Do you have any clue as to what would happen if we managed to make this Sound Stone whole again?" Nolan asked.
"Not a clue" Ness immediately replied.
"I see. It might be nice if it was whole. Maybe, it might help us with what's about to happen" Nolan said.
"Could you two be any louder?" Paula interjected. She was standing from the edge of the hill that faced the Giant Step with a perfect view of Ryan, Masa, and Mune. "You two want me to eavesdrop on them and yet I can't do it if you two aren't quiet. It requires a lot of concentration to eavesdrop without reading their minds" Paula explained as she went back to listening in on Ryan.
"They had to get loud just as it got interesting. Oh well, nothing seems to have happened since Ryan stuck out his palm a minute ago" Paula thought to herself as she started to concentrate once again.
"I don't understand understand Ryan. Why did you suddenly stop talking after you stuck out your palm like that?" Mune said. Even for himself, a person with great experience over the years, could not figured out why Ryan was standing there like that.
"I'm trying to think back to when you, Mune, played that song during our first training session. I'm trying to remember, ah yes, that's the tune" Ryan said as he started to create a small swirling ball of wind just a half a centimeter above his palm. "I have a feeling this might be more useful than the weapons" Ryan said as he started to manipulate that atmosphere above his palm, and struck a note. Soon he played a full scale. "This atmosphere plays at a D minor scale I see. Now, if I remember what my father told me about scales, I need to just make a little adjustment to get it in C" Ryan thought to himself as he made a quick adjustment, and had the ball of air play another scale. This time it was in tune.
"Perfect. Now I can play that tune, and start getting into what I mean" Ryan said aloud as he as closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon, he struck the first four notes and stopped, just to make sure he had the beat right which he did.
Paula's eyes soon took the look of a deer looking at the headlights of its incoming maker. "That's impossible! I recognize those four notes, but he can't be attempting to play what I think he is. If he is though, there's more to Ryan, Masa, and Mune than I originally thought.
Ryan soon struck those same first four notes again, only this time he did not stop. The tune he played lasted about a minute. It seemed to have two verses to it. "Bravo Ryan, I see you can do that as well now. The trick I showed when we first started to train you, just to show you the potential of the wind. The ability to make the air resonante at any pitch and tone you so desire. With that, the most beautiful music can be made with ease. No instrutments required, just thought to produce something that will always strike the heart" Mune explained as Ryan had the orb of air diffuse back into the normal atmosphere and opened his eyes.
"I never gave that tune much thought until three days ago. Something suddenly dawned on me, that tune sounded like something similar to something I had hear more recently, but only a small part" Ryan started. "I had figured out that little trick of yours weeks ago, so I decided to give it a shot and try to play the melody you first played Mune. I was right in thinking that it sounded familar then. Inside that tune in the second verse, the melody contained by the Sound Crystal after collecting seven of Mike's eight sanctuaries was contained. Once I got here, I put my hand on this imprint here and got a weird feeling. A small sound rang through my head, four notes long. The first four notes of your melody. It did not take me long after that to figure out this was one of Ness' eight sanctuaries. That tune of yours Mune, contains the melodies of the Sound Stone and Sound Crystal!" Ryan yelled at Mune.
Mune took a step back, as did Masa, from Ryan last statement. "I'm surprised you figured it out so easily" Mune said. "What does this have to do with the weapons of light and my brother and I?"
"Simple, actually. The weapons of light will help in the fight against the Horsemen of Apocalypse. Note the word help in that sentence. Meaning those weapons are only a few of many keys to helping the Four Horsemen of Light defeat them. The Fates are another. The powers of the Earth that reside inside Ness from the sanctuaries are another. I'm sure that that tune is another for one reason. After a little bit of thought, it did not take me long to figure out that YOU AND MASA WE'RE THE ONES WHO DEFEATED GIEGUE! AND YOU DID IT USING THAT VERY MELODY!" Ryan triumphantly stated as Masa and Mune had small grins on their faces.
On the other hand, a little eavesdropper reacted differently to Ryan's statement. "My God! they are the two who defeated Giegue!" she thought to herself as stood in absolute shock. "I never expected to hear that, not in a million years. I can't believe that they did it using the melodies from the Sound Stone and Sound Crystal combined but just..."
"...How did you learn that melody?" Ryan said as his eyes burned a hole right through Masa and Mune, figuratively of course.
"You remember how old we are right?" Masa said.
"Yeah, about five hundred years old if not older if I remember correctly" Ryan replied.
"Correct. You see my boy. Mune and I are two humans who have lived over the centuries perfecting our arts. Because we wanted to live longer on this planet to take those arts to a higher level but to also to protect this world, a certain someone came to us and extended our lives into the millenia mark because he himself would not be alive much longer to protect this world. Before he passed on fifty years later, he told us of the Sound items and the power their tunes held. That being told us to learn the melodies of both the stone and crytsal for we would one day need it. He was right you know" Masa started.
"He passed on about four hundred years ago if not longer ago. Afterwards, our duty became to protect this world from any evil that might befallen it, and to gather the sixteen melodies that resided at each power spot or 'Sanctuary' around the world. Since we were not chosen to use the Sound items, this made the task difficult. Masa and I had to find each spot over the centuries by either deep research or shear luck. Up until thirty years ago, we had gone to fifteen of the sixteen locations to listen to the songs that lied at each point. We had been searching the globe for the last one to no avail. That was until..."
"...until you found out about Garbielle, the guardian archangel of the Garden of Eden and the weapon of light that would belong to the Horseman of Time a.k.a. Michael. Tell me then, how did you defeat her? She's not one to easily let anyone into that place. When we fought her, it took Mike using time speeder to counter her distortion barrier, plus myself creating a distraction on top of Nolan using all of that for an opening to hit Gabrielle with an anti-matter bullet" Ryan interjected.
"We did not defeat her, and it surprises me that you three were able to" Mune replied. "When we went to hear the last tune, she stood in front of and said she had no problem with us hearing the the last part, but she also told us no. She had the duty of only allowing one human ever achieve entrance into the Garden of Eden, and that neither of us were that person. We were so enraged by her reply that we tried to actually fight her. It was over in twenty-one seconds, if even that. She was more powerful than we could ever imagine. My brother and I were easily the two strongest humans to set foot on Earth in a thousand years, yet she beat us like we were novices. We thought our mission was a failure until as both fell unconscious."
"That was until we awoke in some strange place. It was a village in India, and some family had seen us lying the streets and had taken us in. They were a kind bunch, and treated our wounds to the best of what their knowledge of medicine would allow them. Once we bacame aware of what had happened to us, a piece of paper with five notes written on it had been stuffed into Mune's shirt. Also written on it was a short note, 'You should not have asked to enter the Garden. You would have been destroyed like all the others, but I do not object to someone actually taking the initivative to collect the sixteen melodies. This here is the final melody as I myself have heard it. Whatever cause you might need it for make sure it's a good one, or otherwise I'll finish the job I started.' That's what it said. We, in fact, are indebted to that woman for what she did. A few years later, Giegue returned to this world after being smited by the great warrior who banished him away. He would have destroyed this world if Mune and I did not take immediate action" Masa continued.
"The fight did not last long. We figured out why we had to collect those melodies right then. It was to defend against Giegue. Because we had years to play around with the final tune, we had the arrangement ready to go for Giegue. The second we both set foot on the ground to face Giegue, we played the melody. I never would have thought that was the key to annihilating that beast, but that's exactly what it did. Each note tore into his evil soul and ripped it apart by piece until it was no more" Mune finished.
"That's quite the feat. Tell me, could that final melody have been used to defeat Giygas and Godan?" Ryan asked.
"Probably not. Giygas had not yet arrived and went straight into the past to hide from the Chosen Four. Think about how Godan fell as well, Mike literally had to use every ounce of his being to do what he did. Even then, that was what set the ancient curse in motion that revived the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse" Masa replied.
"Good, just making sure our efforts weren't for nothing. Now tell me, what was your orignal purpose in coming here?" Ryan questioned as he let out a sigh of relief.
"To relay you information and another gift of course" Mune said.
"First, the information" Ryan told Mune.
"It seems that you were right about the Mani Mani Statue, and it is being used once again. The problem is it was not this powerful, even when you, Nolan, Mike, and Casie all fought it before. This has lead my brother and I to believe we know exactly where the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse have been residing since your last meeting. We believe the Mani Mani Statue is in the ruins of Avalon right now" Mune explained.
"That's what I was afraid of. They found Avalon to increase that statue's power exponentally. On top of that, I guess Avalon's stealth barriers are still working so it's the perfect place to hide and concentrate their power until they reveal themselves at full strength...."
"This is bad! This is very, very bad!" Paula though to herself as she was overhearing Ryan's meeting.
"What's wrong Paula?" Ness said with concern as he started to see Paula shaking in fear.
"It's what I'm hearing down there. I'll tell you all of it later, okay" she replied.
"Sure thing. If you need anything, you know here to turn" Ness assured Paula with some concern in his voice.
"Now for the second reason we came here for" Masa started. "We would like to teach you a new power if you like Ryan. Be aware, this will not be done in the normal fashion. I will have to implant the knowledge to you telepathically and hope that you can use the power from that. There are risks associated with this as you should be well aware of."
"Yeah, I'm aware of the risks of such a task. The main one is complete and absolute damage to a person's psyche and nervous system to where they become a vegetable for the rest of their life if they are not strong enough mentally to accept such a transfer of knowledge. For the person transferring the knowledge, I've heard death is possible if they overexert themselves to much. Still though, let's do it Masa. The sooner I get this new power, the better" Ryan said in a calm voice as he locked eyes with Masa. "Do it, now."
"Of course" Masa said as he and Ryan stood still for about five seconds and then both started to step backwards with both looking like they were drunk.
"That... was... intense" Ryan said slowly as he tried to regain his composser. He quickly shook his head a few time and started not wobble while standing anymore. "I'm amazed that you could know such a technique Masa. Thank you" Ryan thanked Masa.
"Be sure to only use it when necessary" Mune said to Ryan knowing the technique Ryan just learned.
"Okay, how about right now" Ryan replied as he close his eyes and started to concentrate. "Psi... Pk Bomb Zeta" As Ryan formed his classic Psi attack above his right palm.
"Umm... Ryan, that isn't the power I taught you" Masa said with a weird, and disappointed look on his face.
"Who said this was the power?" Ryan said as he tossed the bomb with sky ward with everything he had. "Psi Snipe Omega!" Ryan howled as he point his right index finger at the bomb in mid-air and in under a second later, it exploded with a brilliant light. Ryan then pointed his finger at the cave entrance near the Giant Step. This time, the effect of his attack was much more visible as he put a 10 millimeter hole right through the cave wall, and then went through the open part of the cave, out the other side, and through ten unfortunate trees right oustide the cave that had the bark ripped right out from them just like lightning could do it. "As I thought, whatever I point my finger at, it super compresses the wind in a linear direction for three hundred meters. Then if the straight line could be enlarged, it could be seen the wind actually loops in that straight line at mach three. But since the loop can't be seen because of the volume in which the conpression is done, it looks like I shot wind or energy straight from my finger. With that compression, speed, and motion; the force that comes about because of it is enough to go ht through even some of the hardest substances, maybe even diamond" Ryan said explaining the technique making sure the information he got from Masa was right.
"I see you were able to receive the information perfectly. This would mean you also know about how that takes a lot of psychic energy to do" Masa explained.
"Yeah, I definitely felt how much power it took. I say I have enough power to that maybe five times. Still it's a nice trump card to have" Ryan said. Ryan soon turned his head towards the direction in which Paula, Ness, and Nolan had been watching from. "Now time to reveal my other trump card. I feel like giving the audience who's been watching us the entire time a little performance" Ryan said.
"What audience?" Mune said.
"Look to your left, then look up to the highest hill here" Ryan replied as Masa and Mune both looked in the prescribed direction and saw Paula standing there with her eyes close, concentrating.
"A friend of yours, Ryan?" Mune said.
"Yes, one of the Chosen Four. Her name is Paula Polestar. I would put money down that she's the most gifted psychic in the world right now. Her talents go beyond even Casie's" Ryan said as he started to raise his arms up to shoulder height at his sides. "She's the audience I was talking about. I'm sure Ness and Nolan are up there as well, but she's the one listening in." Ryan said as the wind started to wrap around his body.
"So, he knew the entire time. His ability to sense someone must be on the higher than most" Paula thought to herself as she got a weird chill going up her spine. "What the heck is he up to? He said something about a perfromance of some sort, but his energy is climbing dramatically!"
"Masa, Mune, allow me to show you two the higher level of the technique you used to defeat Giegue. The ability to make harmony and melody by just using the surrounding atmosphere, Fate, Orphues' Song!" Ryan explained as he quickly used the wind around him to play four scales at once at a very audible volume. It was loud enough that paula could hear without having use her psychic powers.
"That's impressive. His control of the wind is such that he can make different parts of the wind vibrate at different frequencies, producing different sounds. He also manipulates it's very movement at those vibrations to produce the exact tones of instruments. The boy is a literal one man orchestra" Paula said to herself.
"Alright now that I'm in tune" Ryan said as he started to play a very familiar melody as a beautiful orchestration. The melody of the Sound items that defeated Giegue. It's very sound had a comforting and healing tone to it. As if anyone could be uplifted by it's very sound. "Sorry to only play that, but I only wanted to do a little. The amount of energy to do a such a thing is extremely high to where I can only do that once a day" he explained.
"Bravo, Ryan. I see that you have been honing your abilities" Masa started to say. "Now that everything's been said and done, you might want to give us that sheath so Mune and I can repair it and come back to give it to you in two days."
"How about the two of you stay here and repair it. I see no real point in you guys leaving just to repair this thing. Wouldn't you need all the time we have right now to do your best handywork and all" Ryan asked.
"You sure we wouldn't be intruding on you or anything, Ryan" Mune said.
"Positive. Just go to the house where you contacted me at, I'll see you two up there in a few. I need to go see some people first" Ryan said as he immediately took to the air and flew over to where Paula was.
"I see someone has the power to enhance their hearing" Ryan said as he got right up in front of Paula and stopped.
"Yeah, umm... sorry about eavesdropping like that. On another note, you have some explaining to do with Ness and Nolan" Paula scorned.
"I believe she's right, Ryan. You better tell us everything, or otherwise Paula will spill the beans" Ness said.
"Alright. First, let's get to your house Ness and sit down with some coke or pepsi or something and I'll explain everything" Ryan said as he drifted off to Paula's side and landed near the meteorite. "I see you have some explaining to do as well Ness" as Ryan pointed at the meteorite.
"Then I guess we're both guilty parties then, huh?" Ness said.
"Guess we are" Ryan said back sarcastically.