Chapter 3: Standing Next to a Mountain
Two weeks pass. James gets to know his classes and a few people, but remains unsociable for the most part. He has a few conversations with the other students, but finds he likes talking to Ami and Ann the most, discussing with them things of shared interest. He speaks mostly when needed, and is seen around school as someone not to talk to or mess with. When time comes for the trip, James stands alone in the back of a line, waiting to board the bus in his hat and trenchcoat. He carries his supplies in his backpack, which he keeps over one shoulder. He is greeted by a familiar voice:
"Hey James! Ready to get goin'?" says Ann.
James turns and sees Ann with her regular sweater and skirt on.
"Ann, it is nice to see you." says James. "I'm ready."
"Ok! Now all we need is to get on the bus. Hurry so we can get a seat!" exclaims Ann, lightly pushing James to the bus' door.
"Oh, ok." responds James nonchalantly.
The two get on the bus and grab a seat near the back. James sits at the window with Ann by his side. For most of the 3 hour trip to the mountains, James stares out the window at the landscape. Ann notices his non-talkative mood and just sits quietly, thinking.
As James stares out onto the wilderness, he lets his thoughts drift. He thinks to himself, "Wow...it's all so beautiful. The sky, the trees, the calm of it is so alluring. Too bad it might all be destroyed. Sometimes things must suffer to bring about a change for the good. Nature follows this principle constanly. Animals hunt to feed their young, even humans fight for what they believe to be good. But a true example of this may be her display of power with the volcano. It erupts, burning all in the area. Things die in its merciless pathBut still, there are survivors who live on the land afterwards, only to escape from the mountain's power again. The magma which burns them stems from the explosion, an explosion rich with nutrients, which the soil needs to support life – not only the lives of those in the area, but ultimately this can affect the entire plant and system. One suffers to bring good life to another...life...the endless battle..."
Ann looks over to James, and just thinks, "I wonder what he's thinking of..." She looks out the window and also notices how beautiful it is. She then sits back again into her seat and shivers a bit. She puts her hands on her arms and rubs.
"Brrrrr! It's colder than I thought!" says Ann. She looks up and sighs, wishing she had brought a coat.
"Would you like to wear my trenchcoat?" asks James.
Ann is surprised by James' voice, but then smiles. "No thank you James."
"No, I insist. You're obviously cold, so you should wear my coat." reasons James.
"But what about you?"
"Heh, thanks for caring, but I'll be fine. (He removes his coat and helps her slip it on) You'll need it more than me."
Ann smiles in gratitude. "Thanks James. It's a nice trenchcoat. Nice and warm!" says Ann, wrapping her arms around herself in the warm coat.
James laughs and sighs with a small smile. Then the bus stops, and the driver asks everyone to get out in an orderly fashion.
Out of the bus, Miss Haruna gathers the students for the tour of the caves. How did she get stuck on a field trip to the mountains when she was head of the Foreign Language department? A budget cut on teachers? I dunno.
"All right class, we'll take the marked trail in the caves. We won't go as one big group, but several. There are different paths, but they all reach to the same point. We should tour the cave and reach the entrance again by lunch. After lunch we will go explore a separate cave. This should take all day, so I'll take attendance now, at lunch, and once again before we leave. Let's go!"
After Miss H takes the attendance, she leads the students to the cave. The students break up into groups of around 10-15 people each. James and Ann made sure they were in the same group.
James and Ann walk together with the group they are in, and observe the cave's features. James begins to speak.
"These caves don't look like they were made by an earthquake like Miss Haruna said."
Ann looks at the floor of the cave. "Yes, I agree. See the salt deposits? This was obviously made by ocean water."
James looks at Ann. "Wow, you know alot." comments James.
"Thanks, you too."
James and Ann run up to the group who decided not to wait for them. They continue their way through the cave until James notices something.
"What's that?" asks James to himself. James runs over and picks up a rock.
"Interesting...peridot. A rare gem found only in volcanic eruptions and meteorites...The kind the ICD soldiers wore in their scales" James pockets the gem (which is about the size of his thumbnail) and walks back up to the group.
"What was that?" inquires Ann.
"Oh, nothing really. Found anything interesting?"
"Well, it's all ok, but I want to go to the next cave. Also a bit of lunch wouldn't hurt."
"Ok Ann, we are heading back anyway. Maybe we could share lunches."
"Sure! I'm starved! (and the food is a good source of energy!)"
-
After lunch, Ann sits with Miss Haruna asking some questions. Miss Haruna looks at her watch in hopes it is time to go so she can escape the questions (which she has no answer to), and lucky for her it is.
"All right! Let's go to the second cave!" Miss H rushes over to lead the kids there. Ann looks around for James, but he is no where to be found. She goes with a group but lags behind.
"He probably couldn't find me, so he went with another group too. Ohhhh, this is SO not cool..." Ann says to herself. It is starting to snow, adding to the foot of snow already settled on the ground. She kicks the loose rocks once in a while, and then realizes she had been left behind.
"Oh great! Like today couldn't get any better!"
James runs along the mountainside, jumping when he needs to. He decides that no one is looking, so he uses a bit of his true speed and power to hurry. He makes one more jump and lands through a cloaking field onto a balcony with Coyotebots with blaster-rifles awaiting him. As he passes through the barrier, his armor is immediately activated, his flowing cape moving with the air rushing past. It settles as he lands.
"Welcome to Snow Fortress Echo, Master Jason." greets one of the metal beasts while tipping his metal hat that looks like their master's Indiana Jones-style headwear. (The Coyotebots liked the new addition to the uniform and jumped at any opportunity to show them off. There were even holes in the brim for their ears to pass through.)
"How is your operation progressing? Oh, and thank you for calling me Jason. After being called James for such a long while I began to miss it." says Jason, in his sinister voice.
"We are going ahead of schedule; the weather satellite should be operational in 2 days time."
"Excellent. When those four betrayed us they did a lot of damage, including to my prototype satellite to control the weather. At least they didn't destroy my fighter. But it is good we are recovering so quickly – it would take systems possibly years to repair the damages done, where we have done so in under three months." Another robot walks up, a giant blue and black metal penguin with a liquid nitrogen tank on its back to be exact. (And no, it didn't fall down stairs.)
"Hey boss! Welcome to the base!" opens the penguin.
"Chill Penguin, it is good to see you. I hear you are ahead of schedule."
Chill smiles (Well, kind of.) "Of course we are, you've been giving the instructions, I've only been supervising and keeping the snow around the mountain at a good level for cover."
Jason begins to walk to the room with the main monitor. "Good job Chill, keep up the good work. I couldn't have done it better."
Chill walks in another direction, but says one last thing, "Oh, you could've done better sir. It's just that success comes easy, for I am the Icy Penguigo, Emperor of the Snow Fields!" Chill walks down the hall singing a rendition of a part from Carmen, his personal favorite opera.
-
Miles off at the Temple on Cherry Hill, it was just another peaceful day at Rei's place. The sun was shining, the cherry blossoms were blooming; a time to relax. That, and the food was just about done.
"Guys! Dinner is served!" yells Jacob from the kitchen of the temple.
"Ay, what's for dinner? I'm starving!" exclaims Jay, dropping his broom. He was getting bored of cleaning and fixing all day, and was pretty hungry. He runs across the bushes and slides through the kitchen door.
"Heh heh, you ARE hungry! Oh, and it's fried chicken and minestrone soup." says Jacob pouring the soup into several bowls for his family members. "I hope Rei is hungry. Hey, are her friends still here?"
Jay sips his soup, shrugs his shoulders and only gets out, "Meh, dunno."
Suddenly, Jake and Jack burst through the door arguing.
"Jack, that was pure luck! If it weren't for that Arwing, Link would've taken care of Ness no problem!"
Jack laughs, "Oh suuuuuuure! You just go on believe what you want. You just can't take the fact I finally beat you in Super Smash Melee!"
"Fine! Rematch after dinner!!" fumes Jake.
"You're on!" says Jack while grabbing his bowl. "Mmmmm, Jacob this smells great! When will the chicken be ready?"
Jacob smiles, "Oh in about a minute or so. I was actually going to wait for Rei but she hasn't reported to the kitchen for dinner. Study buddies can take up time."
Jay finishes his soup and plops in onto the table. "She don't know what she's missin'! Another great meal from Jacob. I'll pass on the chicken tonight, the soup's got me covered. I'll get Rei over 'ere so she can grab something before it's gone." And so Jay gets up and heads over to the girls studying room.
Jacob sits next to Jake and starts to drink his soup and let the chicken have a few more minutes on the burner.
At the girls room Jay hears some yelling from inside. He knocks on the sliding door a few times to no avail. After no response he opens it up to find the girls arguing and hitting each other with pillows.
"Girls! Girls! Hey dinner's rea-" Jay is cut short by a pillow to the face.
Rei laughs at what she just did and says, "Ok Jay, I'll be right over. Do you guys wanna eat too?"
All the girls just perk up and say "Sure!" at the same time. Jay leads them to the kitchen to find Jacob, Jake and Jack sitting peacefully drinking their soup. The girls sit opposite of the boys and Jay serves them the chicken and soup. (But strangely, no chicken soupuh, nevermind.)
Lita takes a few sips of the soup and bites the chicken. "Mmmmmmm! Jacob, did you make this?" Jacob nods and Lita continues, "Wow! Can you give me the recipe? This is good!"
Apparently the others agree, and further confirm this by nodding and making a "Mmhm" sound. Jacob blushes and finishes his meal. He walks over to the sink and cleans up the dishes in there and wait for the others to finish.
As he cleans the food off the dishes in the sink, Jacob asks, "Excuse me Serena, but weren't you supposed to be on a field trip?"
Serena nods her head and gulps down the food in her mouth. "Yeah, but my parents didn't want me to go." Serena finishes her food with a few more bites. "Lita, he may just be a better cook than you! You two would be great together in the kitchen! Jacob, is there any dessert for lil' ol' me?"
Jacob smiles again and brushes his hair back. He then walks to the refrigerator and pulls out a bowl of vanilla pudding, placing it in front of Serena. Lita is still in an embarrassed shock from Serena's statement, but no one else seems to notice. Serena's eyes sparkle as they focus on the dessert and she digs in.
Jake laughs at Serena's pigging out, and comments to his cousin, "She eats more than us, huh Jack?"
Jack just tries to eat his soup as fast as Serena eats her pudding but it's no use. "It's not fair! She has a bigger mouth!"
This makes the others snicker, all except for Serena who just ignores it and finishes eating.
After dinner, Jay puts away the equipment he used earlier. Jake and Jack are busy fighting it out in Melee, and Jacob handles the dishes. After Jake regains his title of beating Jack, he walks out of the room pretty happy.
"Ha! I am victorious!" says Jake walking to his room. "Oh well, I wonder if the girls went home already."
He was soon answered by running into Mina, successfully making them both fall. The both of them yell while rubbing their heads, "Owwwww! Hey, watch it!"
They both then look up to see whom they bumped into and blush. They stand there looking at each other shyly, until Jake tries to break the silence.
"S-so, Mina, I uh...guess you haven't left yet huh? Heh heh..."
"Oh, uh, no not yet. I was going to, but I uh...forgot something!"
Jake scratches the back of his head. "Well, uh, are you going to walk? It IS kinda dangerous at night."
Mina thinks to herself, 'Cool! He wants to walk me home! Wait Mina, don't jump to any conclusions. Play it cool...' She then says out loud, "Yes, I'll walk home. It isn't too far, but I might want some company to bring me there."
Jake hides his nervousness while she speaks, but at the chance to walk with her he blurts out, "I'll walk you over! (he then says it again, only quieter) uh, I mean, I'll walk you over. I don't want you getting hurt... eh, and I also have nothing else to do!" Mina's smile gives Jake the permission he so desires and they start their walk to her house.
-
Ann hated this. She had lost track of James, been separated from her new group, and now it was getting late.
"Better head back." She mummers to herself, getting up from her seat and closing James' jacket around her tightly. She picks up a few rocks and throws them hard, venting her anger.
"OHHHHHHHHH DAMNFRACKSONOFA- hey, what's that?" Ann stops at the sight of a wave effect from one of her projectiles. She throws another at the general area, creating the same result.
"This may be worth investigating..."
