Jupiter Adept
Avaria: I actually finished this YESTERDAY but ff.net wasn't up when I went to upload. So here it is today!
A/N: Yay! It's back. Took me a while, sorry, life caught hold of me and didn't let go. A few things: One: Picard's accent is mentioned. The Company thinks he has an accent (was Vil's idea, and seems to be an accepted one) much like an English accent, only different. Two: Piers. Ick. Not a good name. It's a pun, really, as a pier is this thing that juts out over or into the water…yeah. So we and probably many others (Alex, Akiko, Midnight, Triad, Feonyx, etc) are going to stick with calling him Picard. Because he is and always will be Picard. Plus then I can make Star Trek jokes.
And finally Three: April 14th draws closer. Are you all ready?
To all my reviewers: Thanks! I can't find any questions that need answered, so I'll let you read now.
So without further adieu…
Chapter Six: Maelstrom (hey, I like the name!)
"Are you sure you're alright, Picard?"
"Ivan, for the tenth and final time, I am the one who is supposed to ask you that question."
"You're supposed to ask me if you're alright?"
"Ivan!" Picard sighed. He would have to learn the Jupiter Adept logic Ivan seemed so fond of. In his mind, laughter echoed, and he knew Torrent would be having the time of her life at his expense.
"Do you remember that day Bane pretended to be king?" Ivan asked suddenly, and Picard gave him a strange look. "He grabbed a stick, put a nutshell on his head and paraded around, calling himself 'Mighty King Bane' and somehow getting the other Venus Djinn to follow along behind him."
"In my opinion, Quartz embarrassed himself," Squall said. "He could have kept his dignity and said nothing, but no, he had to question Bane on the authenticity of being a king when you were only a few inches tall and carrying a stick that wasn't even big enough to be called a twig."
"I think Bane tried to poison him," Gust reflected. "Which, of course, made Sap and Vine angry, and when those two get mad, everyone else gets out of the way."
"While we're here," Picard said, as much to remind them that they were in the middle of Bilibin as to change the subject, "we might as well enjoy ourselves."
"Hey, the last time I was here, these people were all mobbing me because I helped end their talking tree problems. No more Venus activities for me, please." Ivan held up his hands and shook his head. "Come to think of it, no more Mercury activities either. Unless I get a raft next time."
Picard laughed quietly, then sighed and glanced towards the sky. Clouds hung low yet again, and he was starting to find the sudden abundance of rain to be suspicious.
"Ivan, do you notice anything strange about those clouds?" he asked, and Ivan joined him in looking skyward.
"They're very dark…dang, you'd think the sun hadn't risen at all…and kind of heavy-looking…why?"
"I kind of get a bad feeling from them. In Lemuria…well, storms like the ones that have been occurring are never good signs."
"Gust, Squall? Would you mind finding out if anything weird is going on?"
"Sure thing, captain Ivan," Squall muttered, and Gust giggled as the two of them soared into the dense clouds.
Picard then noticed that no one was out in the town at all. No people milled about, and no windows or doors stood open. The feeling that something was amiss grew further, and Picard realized the problem when, instead of the Djinn descending from the clouds, there was a large funnel-like thing coming at them instead.
"YAH!" Ivan yelled as the winds suddenly picked up, and he felt himself being drawn forward. The tornado (that's what it was) touched down then, and it felt like the earth had exploded.
Ivan, judging within the span of a second exactly what the giant cyclone would do, ran from the trees that bordered the town. Picard followed, but the sound of a frightened cry stopped him. It was coming from one of the houses, and Picard ran that way instead, despite Ivan's calls and warnings.
He wished he had listened to Ivan when a Zombie sprang at him, knocking the unprepared Lemurian to the ground and beginning to scratch and bite at him. Picard, unable to reach for his sword, satisfied himself with smacking and kicking the thing, but in his mind he knew it was an impossible battle.
Later, he would reflect on whether or not the Zombie had saved his life, as it was sucked into the whirling tornado and he was thrown into the wall of the nearest house—and then through that wall. For a moment, he did contemplate the benefit of the Zombie being on top of him, but the moment was a short one as darkness took hold.
Ivan sprang from his safe spot, facing down the whirling maelstrom. He raised his hands and concentrated, wishing, and echoing Gust's previous wish, that Zap were here to undo all this. As it was, Ivan sent a whirling Tornado, spinning in an opposing direction, straight at the natural cyclone and prayed that his actions didn't kill them all.
Moments later, the winds dissipated. Ivan headed for where Picard had completely obliterated the wall. "This is really starting to be a bad day," he said, and for a moment a previous bad day, long ago, in fact back when the Kolima/Bilibin problem had been first solved, came to mind. "I wished for Mercury powers back then, too," Ivan muttered sourly.
Ivan was reassured by the presence of Torrent next to the unconscious Lemurian. "You two still have that 'oops I keep forgetting about Djinn' problem. Never unleashing or summoning or anything. Zoe never had that problem. Well, maybe once."
"Ivan! Ivan!" came a voice from the sky. He looked up to see Gust and Squall returning. "Man, what a rush! That was amazing!" Gust said with a laugh. "Best wind I've ridden in…well…a while. Time isn't the same for a Djinni as for a human."
"Ivan, what happened to Picard?" Squall asked, with atypical attention to detail.
"A good number of things," Torrent answered before Ivan could begin to speak. "Why? Do you have a solution?"
"Short of finding another Mercury or Venus Adept immediately, no. It just came to mind that a tornado can't scratch and tear like that. Though it certainly can toss a tall Adept through a wall."
"We're running out of time," Torrent said quietly. Ivan nodded. Some of the people of Bilibin were beginning to come back out, but the one Ivan looked for wasn't among them.
"My rotten luck," he said, and as he tried to come up with a plan his gaze strayed to where the sun now glinted off the black crystal of his staff. Sighing, he tilted it forward so the glare didn't hit his eyes.
The black crystalline crescent moon on the business end of the weapon began to glow violet. As Ivan watched in amazement, it emitted a beam of purple light, which struck Picard in the chest and became a blazing ball of power. Ivan staggered suddenly, realizing the staff was drawing on his own energy and using it to suit the need of the situation.
Picard sat up and blinked. Ivan pulled the staff away, the light fading instantly to a dull glow, then disappearing altogether.
"Alright. I've known you for a long time, Ivan, and never in that time have you done that before," Picard said slowly, as though he couldn't believe what had just happened.
"Picard!" Torrent cried happily. Picard nodded distantly. "Somehow, I always end up with the human most accident-prone."
"I was attacked by a Zombie and thrown into, no, through a wall by a breeze gone mad—"
"Breeze gone mad. I like that," Gust said. "I'll have to remember to tell him. Likely he'll try to replicate."
"—and Ivan points his weapon at me, and poof, all that's ripped are my clothes," Picard finished, looking down at the tunic and shorts he wore. "Which, by the way, are a vivid reminder of what just happened. Ivan, did you—"
"No, Picard, I had no idea the Luna Staff was capable of that, yes, I just read your mind because it seemed easier than waiting for you to form the thought, and no, I'm not implying you're slow, I'm implying that you're…well…confused," Ivan finished lamely, never one for putting emotions into words. That had been more of Sheba's thing.
"Confused. Utterly perplexed is more like it. But it's a nice weapon you're carrying, Ivan," Picard said with a grin. "Especially if it means I don't have to do all the repair work around here."
"You still will, even if you use the Luna Staff. It draws off your own energy and uses it for whatever needs to be done. Or, it seems to do that. And you must have been one heck of a mess, with the amount of energy it pulled from me. Come to think of it…I could use a nap."
"You have power with the winds," said one of the villagers. Ivan turned to look at the person in question. It was an old man, leaning on a cane and approaching them slowly. "Tell us, do you know another with wind powers? A young boy who carries a wooden staff and travels with two older boys and a blue-haired young woman?"
"I do know him. He's me. Well, minus the staff and traveling companions."
"Can you tell us if the whirling winds have stopped?" asked a woman who was carrying one child and holding the hand of another.
"That job would fall to my partners," Ivan said, and within seconds, Gust and Squall (who had disappeared at the approach of the villagers) reported in Ivan's mind that there were no more tornadoes headed their way. He said as much, and all who were gathered smiled gratefully.
"Allow us to give you a room in our Inn," said a man who had to have been the Innkeeper. "We won't charge you."
"Why shouldn't you charge us? We haven't done anything spectacular," Picard said. Ivan looked back at him and sighed.
"Ivan has," Gust said, picking up on his thoughts. "He got rid of that wonderful cyclone." The disembodied voice startled the villagers, but as Ivan staggered and nearly fell out of the ruined building they quickly forgot all about it.
After a much-needed meal, and the debate over whether it should be considered lunch or dinner (dinner won out), Ivan and Picard headed to their room. Both of them had been provided nightclothes by the Inn, and though the sun had only just begun to set, they each took a bed and let sleep claim them.
~^~^~^~
"Salen!" Sheba called up to her. Salen was currently atop a tree, watching a giant tornado touch down to a backdrop of the setting sun. Earlier, they had seen one in the direction of Bilibin.
"Yes?" she asked.
"There's another one; I sense it. Where is it now?"
"They're getting closer, Sheba. Closer and closer."
"She's in danger, then," Rilion reasoned.
"And so is Ivan, if he's gone to find her."
"We should keep moving," Sheba said quietly. "Maybe get to Vault before it gets too late."
~^~^~^~
Early the next morning, Picard, who had risen before Ivan and laughed to himself for a few moments at the Jupiter Adept's sound sleep (the slam of a nearby door hadn't even made him stir), headed out of the Inn. The sun was shining brightly, a major improvement, and Picard wished, but only for the briefest of moments, that he could predict weather changes as well as Ivan could. Of course, he also wished he were at sea, where though the weather wasn't predictable, it was easier to understand and prepare for.
He climbed up onto the town's perimeter fence. From here he could just barely make out the tip of Mercury Lighthouse through the mountains. He had never been there, and doubted he ever would be, though he had at one time gotten very close.
Thinking of the lighthouse reminded him of something else, and he perched on one of the posts of the main gate, sitting as though he had spent the better part of his life reclining atop poles. From a pocket in his tunic (his spare—his other was torn beyond recognition) he pulled a shining silver instrument, a sort of miniature flute one played much like a recorder. The end opposite the mouthpiece was decorated with a blue-and-white tassel.
Picard placed the Lemurian flute between his lips and played up and down the scale a few times, assuring himself that he could still play the instrument. He pondered for a moment what to play, then settled on an old song that came to mind. It sounded especially clear that unusually cool morning.
"Where'd you get that?" asked a voice after he'd been playing for about half an hour. He put the flute down and turned halfway to stare at a pair of knees. Ivan lowered himself next to Picard with more ease than the Lemurian had believed possible.
"It's a Lemurian flute."
"What were you playing? I heard screeching metal and I decided to come and investigate," Ivan added with a grin.
"Lemurian ceremonial song. It's usually played on holidays or…screeching metal?! I ought to hit you with some real bad notes!"
"So, Captain," Ivan said with a mock-salute that made Picard groan, "where to next? Kolima? Or do you want to stop off in Mercury Lighthouse?"
"There's no reason to delay our trip even more. Fires in Altin, tornadoes in Bilibin…when we get to Kolima, I bet there'll be something wrong there too. In Lemuria it's a sort of trademark thing—everything that can go wrong, will. Are we going to Kolima or to Imil? Kolima, I would think. We're headed that way as it is."
"You know, your accent gets more noticeable when you talk about Lemuria. In Kalay, we just called it 'dumb luck'. Or 'adventurer's luck' if you were the adventuring type."
"Accent?" Picard asked with a laugh.
"Yes, the Lemurian accent," Ivan said, imitating Picard's voice. "'Ah we goh-ing to Koh-lee-mah auh to Imil?'"
"Oh very funny. Well, you have an accent too, or you would, if we were in Lemuria right now."
"We aren't. We are in Bilibin, and they are going to be serving breakfast soon. Come on!" Ivan leapt up and ran at an incredible speed along the top of the gate. Picard, with a sigh, jumped to the ground and walked to the Inn, where Ivan waited impatiently.
"You'd think you were Garet, with the way you're inhaling that food," Picard remarked. Ivan shrugged. "Let me guess. A reaction to your extreme energy loss yesterday." Ivan, mouth full, nodded in agreement. Picard, laughing, raised his glass of juice in a mock toast.
"Maybe we'll make it to Kolima in one piece. Well, two separate pieces," Ivan suggested optimistically.
"And maybe tomorrow, the moon will decide to rise at noon and the sun at midnight," Picard said sarcastically. "Or maybe we'll by lucky and my Psynergy will remain at full power for more than an hour."
"That's less likely than what you said about the sun."
"True."
They packed their things and headed out again, with the promise of a wonderfully clear day and beautiful weather. It was warm, but not oppressively so, and a light breeze blew, putting Ivan literally in his element and giving him the same attitude as a Mercury Adept swimming or a Venus Adept exploring a cave or forest—extremely hyper.
"It always did make me wonder how someone from a fire clan could live somewhere so snowy and cold," he remarked completely spontaneously. Picard could have sworn Ivan was skipping, or would have been, except he was walking backwards and had stopped suddenly.
"Picard…slowly turn around…" he said in a quiet, almost fearful voice.
~^~^~^~
Avaria: Well, that took me long enough, didn't it? Cliffhanger? Go ask Midnight C or Triad—or Vil, if you catch her. She's running from the pizza deliveryauthors. So, review kindly, and the next part will come faster than this one…goodness, I hope you all haven't forgotten me…
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V (spiffy arrow)
