Chapter 36: Onward to Xintut

The team left early the next morning sent off with regards by Fauna. Rather than trying to cook them stew in the same cauldron she had mixed the antidote in, she had gotten the hint and made them breakfast separately. The team was much obliged and they were off on full stomachs.

Their first step, according to a unanimous decision, was to get the heck out of the Shrouded Forest; they didn't want another incident with the river. Just in case though, Fauna had given them a few extra bottles of the antidote. "It won't spoil!" she had said. She had also given Pit a pair of Fairy Orbitars, saying, "You need them more than we do here!" The group had thanked her for her kindness. The second they were out of the trees they had breathed a sigh of relief. Then they directed themselves to the south.

It took a day to reach the river outside of the forest (which was not poisonous according to Raven). They camped out by the bank. The next day they crossed it and entered another, much less ominous, wood. The ground beneath their feet was muddy as they travelled. Once they came across a bog, and another time, Raven had to bail Zephynn out of a sinking swamp. Despite difficulties, they managed to keep moving forwards through the woods. Unfortunately for them, things would never get easier.

As the group walked under the cool and serene treetops, Vinnia stopped.

"Something's up," said Vinnia, looking around. The rest of the team turned around.

"What do you mean?" asked Pit.

"My senses are heightened by the forest," said Vinnia swiveling her head around, "Something is approaching us... fast!" Right on cue, something lunged at Zephynn and attempted to strike him. He ducked and the thing hit a tree. Immediately afterwards, fireballs burst from the treetops and Raven was forced to use what power she could to fend them off. Zephynn attempted to strike his attacker, but the attacker was too fast and was behind him before he could strike. Zephynn was on the ground in seconds.

The attackers revealed themselves. Out of the tree jumped a man wielding a Bomber Arm, and speeding up next to him was another man wielding Brawler Claws. Both of them wore black jumpsuits and black capes. The Brawler Claws guy wore half of a mask on the right side of his face while the other wore the same thing on the opposite. Both of their eyes were red and they had nasty grins.

Vinnia helped Zephynn up as Pit summoned the EZ Cannon.

"Who are you!?" Pit asked, even though he knew full well that they were dark agents.

"You haven't figured it out?" said the Bomber Arm guy suavely, "We happen to be..."

"The fastest team..." the other guy put in.

"The world has seen!" the Bomber Arm guy finished. They slammed their right fists, the ones with the weapons on them, together.

"We are the speed demons!" they said in unison, "Servants of the Underworld!" Zephynn had stood up by now. His back was bruised from the Brawler Claws strike. His sword was at the ready still. Vinnia spun her lance in her hand, while Pit readied a charge shot from the EZ Cannon. Raven stayed behind Vinnia.

"Bring it on dweebs!" Vinnia yelled. The Brawler Claws guy seemed to appear right in front of her face. Before she could even react he had punched her back into Raven and both of them fell to the ground. Zephynn attempted to strike the guy with the Brawler Claws, but the Bomber Arm Guy was right on top of him. Pit tried to blast a charge shot from the EZ Cannon, but all that did was make Zephynn duck. The Bomber Arm Guy was long gone by the time the shot got there.

Pit found himself blocking that guy's melee strike. He attempted to strike back but the Bomber Arm guy dodged around him and hit him in the back. Vinnia was attempting to block the strikes from the Brawler Claws guy, but to no avail. She was getting pummeled. Zephynn then flung a sword beam at the Brawler Claws guy. While it missed, it got his attention and he rushed at Zephynn, only to run face first into a wall of wind.

He got up quick too, but he was put on the defensive as Zephynn relentlessly swung his sword. Pit was still trying to subdue the Bomber Arm guy, but kept getting knocked to the ground. Soon he would be finished. Vinnia, watching the battle while trying to recover from her injuries, grabbed her lance and stabbed it into the ground, willing the world to shake.

That knocked everyone off balance. The Bomber Arm guy was thrown to the ground and the Brawler Claws guy and Zephynn were thrown on top of each other. Pit was knocked to his feet and fired a charge shot at the Bomber Arm guy immediately. He was thrown thirty feet down the path. The Bomber Arm guy was back up quickly however and began charging again. Vinnia pulled her lance out of the ground feeling refreshed. Not only had she caused an earthquake but she had absorbed the earth's power too. She got another idea.

"Raven climb a tree now," Vinnia said to Raven. Raven, having been hiding again, nodded and jumped up into the branches of a tree, struggling to pull herself up. Vinnia looked around the trees of the clearing, blocking out the battles between Zephynn and the Brawler Claws guy and Pit and the Bomber Arm guy. She focused on the trees. She willed them to breathe, and to live. Then she shot her eyes open and immediately, the forest began to rumble. Out of nowhere, ten trees pulled themselves out of the ground, one of them the one Raven was in. The tree pulled her into its branches and all ten of them slowly moved into a circle around the battle.

The speed demons were terrified.

"Wh-wh-what's going on!?" the Brawler Claws guy cried.

"What is this black magic?" the Bomber Arm guy asked similarly. Zephynn spun his sword in his hand and pointed it at the two dark agents.

"It looks like the tables have turned," said Zephynn narrowing his eyes, "It seems Viridi's agents are angry with you." The trees closed in on the five of them. Vinnia put her hand forth and pointed at the two of them. Two of the trees walked forward swiftly and grabbed them both by the back of the neck.

"You don't know what power you're up against," said Vinnia, "There is resistance on its way, and it will render your sorry Underworld allies useless." The two dark agents seemed terrified now.

"Please let us go!" they cried, "We'll do anything!"

"Hand over your weapons first of all," said Pit. They disarmed themselves quickly and threw their weapons to the ground. Pit picked both of them up and turned them into weapon gems, also stowing away his EZ Cannon. He nodded to Vinnia and she had them throw the two dark agents in the dirt.

"Now don't you two speed demons go around saying that we weren't nice to you," said Zephynn, "We could have killed you easily." Vinnia ordered a tree silently to raise a foot over them as he said those words. Then as the dark agents screamed like little girls, she had it recede. She further summoned vines from the ground to tie them together. Then she finished by putting all the trees back in their proper places and returning them to normal.

As the party walked off, as soon as they were out of hearing distance, Pit spoke up.

"Vinnia, how in the world did you do that?" he asked in disbelief, "I didn't know you could control trees!"

"Of course I can control trees," said Vinnia skirting ahead of them, quite satisfied with her actions, "How do you think I got you guys off of that mountain after Dark Pit pummeled you?" No more words were spoken after that, as the memory was a topic too cursed to talk about. It was a long and silent walk through the forest and towards Xintut from that moment onwards.