(Dew): I reckon I done figured it out.
(Char): groans What is it this time?
(Dew): What we darn need, little missy, is to take this whole thing western.
(Char): ...what?
I agree. What?
(Dew): There's too many styles out there to choose from, out on them plains I been lopin' along... so I figure, let's just use the plains themselves...
...are you making any sense?
(Dew): Just 'bout as much as yer fic here does, pardner.
...ouch.
Review Responses:
Akachi: The Mia lookalike? Would I ever bring in a character without a reason? ...okay, yes, I would. Wait and see!
Caster of Chaos: I enjoy cliffhangers... they're nice and... cliff-hanger...y. Okay, I'll give you a break on cliffs in this chapter, all right? No immediate death threats or battles or anything.
Midnight C: Noooo. The stone? Valuable? Whatever gives you that idea? And keep your muses away, maybe I'll sic the Mia look-a-like on them. That'll give her a use...
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"Why does something always happen just when I'm asleep?" Garet wondered aloud, staring down the ruckus ahead of them. Felix snorted.
"Maybe because if it weren't for the walking portion of our journeys, you'd be asleep the whole time?" he said out of the corner of his mouth. Garet smirked.
"Possibly..."
The group had wound their way quickly to the source of the commotion, which wasn't hard to find; they basically ran against the streams of panicked people (surprisingly many considering the time; Chefru apparently had quite the night-life). The fire in the plaza had spread considerably, but wasn't quite yet out of the ability of Mia and Picard to put out with well placed Douses.
"Do we have a plan?" Picard asked to no one in particular. "I'd like to get those fires out, personally." The flames raged a little higher, as though defying him. Garet blinked, then turned on Jenna.
"Hey, yeah... who said I wanted to be bait, anyway?" he asked indignantly. Jenna looked at him eye-to-eye, cooly.
"Me."
"Bait, it is," Garet said, cracking his knuckes and advancing to the leveler, unaware of Picard catching Felix's eye and making a faint whipping noise.
The leveler itself was unlike the other ones the group had fought. Whereas the other three they had tackled previously were all shaped like enormous cuttles and distinctly Jupiter-aligned, it was made clear by the way the beast had set fire to everything that this one was a Mars-aligned leveler. It stood on all fours, remotely like any given quadruped, a cat or dog, but a pair of burly arms protruded from its back. It had a mane around its neck made of brilliantly licking flames, that extended over its head to give it a crown of furious fire. It had two tails, each of which was lit at the end. The beast was pitch black in colour, as though made of ash, so that the only way the group was able to see it was by its own flaming body. And, of course, by the light given off from the burning city.
"Picard and I can handle the flames," Mia said. "Can you handle... it?" she asked Felix planning every detail of the battle before they'd even moved. Felix nodded.
"I think we can take care of it ourselves," he agreed. "Just hurry up and put out the fires; Jenna will be mad if Garet gets too crispy."
"Scared of Jenna?" Picard asked smugly.
"...aren't you?" Each looked at the other and shared a long look that said 'when did this group fall into the hands of a pyromaniac?' then moved on, Picard to douse flames and Felix to douse the beast.
Actually, Garet and Jenna weren't doing too badly on their own. The leveler was spewing fire (and occasionally smoke) over them, but Jenna was nimble and managed to dodge each incoming attack, while Garet simply decided to absorb each blow and rely solely on Jenna's Aura abilties. She wasn't impressed.
"Aura!" she cried for what felt like the fifteenth time in a very short battle. "Honestly, Garet, can't you just move?"
"It's just fire, it doesn't hurt much," he said casually. "My fire hurts me more than that, and I don't hit myself with it!" Jenna blinked.
"Actually, wasn't there that one tim-"
"We never shall speak of that again!"
Felix jumped into the foray and unsheathed his Levatine, dancing in and out of incoming fireballs and finally scoring a direct slash across the side of the leveler. Though the leveler shook with pain, the Levatine started ringing out as though in pain, and Felix noticed that contact with the beast had caused his blade to become superheated. Another strike might melt the blade itself. He made a subconscious note of that and waited for it to cool off before sheathing it.
Jenna decided to take the opportunity while the leveler was distracted to try using her weapon Psynergy. "Garet!" she called out. "How do I use this thing?"
"Each one's a little different," he replied across the raging field of flame. "Just focus on the sword, and your opponent, and then... use it!" Felix furrowed his brow and shook his head at him.
"That had to be the worst explana-" he cut himself off at seeing the Masamune's Rising Dragon Psynergy (although a very, very weak version of it) nibble at the leveler's heels. "...how?"
"Don't ask, just accept," Garet offered sagely. Jenna squealed in delight at getting the sword to work properly, then waved her hand almost casually and sent a Dragon Fume headed toward its face.
"I'm loving this sword," she said as she fired. "Nice and destructive." Felix sidestepped over to Garet.
"Way to go," he muttered. Garet looked at him, puzzled. "D'you really want her to be able to use that next time she's mad at you?" A look of horror crossed Garet's face, he glanced at Jenna, and then looked at Felix.
"...Oh, Mars..."
Meanwhile, Picard and Mia were dashing from building to building, Dousing flames and extinguishing burning treetops with bursts of Mercury Psynergy. Already Picard had raised the idea that there might be people trapped in buildings they were passing, but Mia told him their first priority was dousing as much of the fire as they could.
"We can send in Garet and Jenna once they're done over there," she proposed. "I'm sure they'd love it." Picard frowned.
"They may be Mars Adepts, but they're still human. Fire burns, no matter what balance of Alchemy runs in your blood," he reminded her, grounded as always. "You or I would have more luck exploring because we could Douse whatever we need to." Mia reluctantly nodded, then turned on her heel and bolted into the nearest building. "I didn't mean now!" Picard cried after her.
The leveler released a mighty roar and spewed burning flames from its mouth, just nearly missing Felix as he rolled out of the way. Using its intense speed that came from its sleek dog-like build, it rushed at Jenna and grabbed her with the arms that protruded from it back, swung her over its body in a wide arc and flung her off into the distance. She collapsed heavily on the ground, and was very slow to move, though she did stir. Garet fired fireballs back at the leveler in response to buy Jenna time to recover fully, while Felix sent a Ragnarok hurtling at it from the heavens. The sword cut a large gash across its back, and removed one of the arms completely. Garet managed to move in while it was distracted with pain and cut off the other arm without being counterattacked. The leveler howled at it, shot a final fireball at him which caught him squarely in the arm, then ran away, sensing nothing but defeat left for it.
Favouring his left arm, Garet moved over to Jenna, helping her to her feet until Felix made his way to them to cast Cure. The three of them were significantly more tired than when they had sat down to sleep a few hours ago, but none were any worse for the wear. It looked like the rest was up to Picard and Mia.
"Hey..." Garet asked while Felix tended to Jenna, "anybody see Mia?"
- - - - -
The kindhearted Imilian healer had her sleeve pressed up against her face in order to thwart smoke in the building she'd entered. The fire was raging, but still within range of being controlled for a Mercury Adept. Casting Douse as she went (and fighting increasing fatigue every step of the way), the woman who was as dedicated as she was beautiful made her way deeper and deeper into the building. The farther she went, however, the more apparent it became that there was nobody left inside the building. Great... just wasting my time, Mia realized.
She turned around to find her way out as quickly as possible, but as she turned, she caught the sleeve of her robe on a half-burnt and splintered section of wall. Starting to panic a little, she frantically jerked her arm from the wall and started running down the hallway, but screeched to a halt when she felt her ring slide off her hand. She bent down to pick it up, and in the split-second it took her to stop and bend down, the ceiling collapsed in front of her. It crashed in the exact spot that she would have been standing in had she not stopped to recover her ring.
"Isaac..." she whispered aloud, pausing for a moment to stare at her ring shining in the firelight. Then she remembered where the firelight was coming from and bolted out of the building before her luck (or guardian angel?) left her.
- - - - -
It took another hour for Mia and Picard to Douse all the flames. That was mostly because there were a few houses that were so demolished that they couldn't save, and when Garet moved to burn the remaining scraps of wood so no one would be hurt on them, he overdid it and accidentally started burning the neighbouring partially burned houses. Needless to say, Jenna and Felix dragged him back to the inn to sleep. Funny thing is, Garet didn't complain.
The townsfolk returned shortly after the glow of the fire went out, which they correctly assumed meant it was safe to return. Thanks to the efforts of the Adepts, the city was saved, a rare victory for the group. There was only major damage to a few houses, and the plaza itself was only partially damaged. As the townsfolk agreed, it was nothing that couldn't be remedied by a few days of hard work, so Picard and Mia were gratefully thanked for tackling everything single-handedly (as Felix and the others were nowhere in sight, having retreated to the inn) and allowed to return otherwise unhindered.
Morning came all too soon for the Adepts the next morning, as they only got a few more hours of sleep before Sol rose and woke them all again. Jenna rose quite sore from her short flight and Mia had a bit of a headache from the smoke, but it was Garet that complained because of his lack of sleep. Go figure.
The group got up and assembled in the inn's dining lounge once Garet was fully awake (although Felix usually joked that he was half-asleep all the time, anyway). They headed for the south entrance to the city after a light breakfast, which, in Garet's case, was effectively a heavy breakfast that puts a normal person down for a two-hour nap. Jenna and Mia could have sworn they saw a certain cloaked individual in the alleys on their way, but nothing came of it, so they forced it out of their minds, Mia glancing at her ring, and Jenna holding onto the stone and Garet's arm even closer.
Actually, for whatever reason she couldn't possibly know, the stone that she was carrying around was heating up. An odd feeling in her stomach told her something would eventually come of it, but she couldn't for the life of her tell if it would bring something good or bad.
Finally, the group arrived at the south entrance to Chefru. An endless stretch of plains lay in front of them, Sol off in the distance, signifying there was a full day to walk onward.
"There's a shrine somewhere due south," Felix said, in full leader mode.
"A shrine... and hopefully the others," Mia commented quietly, hoping they were all still all right.
"We'll find them," Picard said resolutely. "As long as the four of them are smart and stick together, I don't think anything will happen to them." Jenna simply nodded.
"Let's go, then. Hello, Ivan, Sheba, Feizhi and Sean. Good-bye, Chefru."
- - - - -
"Hello, Chefru," Ivan said, staring up at the golden arch that signaled the northern entrance to Chefru.
"I'm glad we were able to make it here so quickly," Sheba said. "Maybe now we'll find something that helps us locate the others." Feizhi stayed silent, then nodded her assent.
"It kind of looks like there was an accident here... the people seem on edge," she noted.
"We'll just have to pay attention to everything," Sheba said. "Mind reading, then."
"Yup," Ivan said. "We'll find something... I hope."
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(Dew): Wait, wait, wait... they just...
(Char): Left? And then the others just...
(Dew): Arrived? At opposite ends of the city?!
(Char): They're so freaking close! That's not fair!
Hehe... well, life's annoying sometimes. At least it made Dew forget his western-style.
(Dew): I reckon it's about time to rope me up a little doggie. starts swinging a lasso around
...ack! (runs)
(Char): Between killing Dew for the accent and mangling Omniflyer for the plot... I have my hands full... just please review so I don't have to worry about that, okay?