"Hummm…" Went a pondering Matthew as he walked down the halls, eyes lowered in thought. He and Anna had been walking through the mall for at least ten minutes, and had managed to completely lose their orientation in less than two. This place was far more complex than they had given it credit for. And, it seemed that the only route to the entrance was on the other side of the gorge, which they had long-since lost sight of. Matthew suddenly remembers something.

"…There was a bridge across that gorge. Dammit!" He yells, unable to believe that he, the presumed smart guy of the group, had forgotten such a simple thing. It was too late now, though. They had forgotten their way and were now drifting aimlessly down the halls, between random, vacant stores and restaurants and trinket shops…

Anna, who was walking beside Matthew, looks at him in some concern after hearing his exclamation.

"It's okay, Matthew. There has to be some way out." She reassures him. "I mean, who puts only one exit in a big building?"

"Prisons…" Matthew mutters. "They may have designed the building with only one exit to keep the customers in longer, so they buy more things…"

"Who is 'they'?" Anna asks, putting a finger to her chin and looking up in thought. "Why's there a mall here in the first place?"

"I'm sure I don't know." Matthew replies, shrugging a bit. "It's a bit weird, isn't it? A mall here in the middle of nowhere and a path to it somehow being drawn out on the backs of every male and female member of your family…"

"…Oh, I know!" Anna says suddenly, her eyes widening in joy of being able to answer Matthew's question. "I bet the Harvest Goddess planned it out, and had the Harvest Sprites build it!"

"…Seems like a pretty big job for just a bunch of Sprites." Matthew says, looking around. "Then again… If there are more Sprites in other towns and the Goddess had them all band together to build it, and if it were made before your father first found it… that would mean they had had the time to do so… You know, I think you're right, Anna."

"I knew it." Anna says confidently, her face gleaming. Suddenly, she notices something up ahead, and heads toward it at a run. Matthew watches her as she speeds toward what looked like a podium of some sort, but on closer inspection was, in fact, a map on a stand.

"We are here!" Anna proclaims, pointing at a part of the map that had those very words printed on it. Matthew, slightly confused, walks to the map and looks at the spot where Anna was pointing.

"…How do they know where we are…?" Matthew asks, looking around in confusion. "Are they following us?"

"I'm not sure…" Anna says, also looking around in paranoia. After a moment, she cautiously re-directs her eyes to the map. "But… it says there's another exit a few hallways down. And look," She continues, pointing at a large room that was along the path they would have to take. Matthew looks and tilts his head slightly.

"What is that…?" He says.

"Well, it says 'storage', but it looks a bit too big to be a closet…" Anna begins. She and Matthew look at each other for a moment, then quickly look away, clearing their throats and continuing.

"Well, it's not really that important." Matthew concludes. "We should just focus on getting back to the group."

Anna nods, although still wondering what could be in such a large storage room, and after the two had quickly memorized the path they had to take, they ran off down the hall.

"Heh… This is getting fun." Miro says as he ducks under yet another swing from Hugh. They were on equal terms so far, as no major blows had been landed in the past while. Some highlights of the past ten minutes of combat were when Hugh grabbed Miro by the hair, Miro grabbed Hugh by the nostrils, and they spent three minutes yanking one another in a two-sided headlock until they made a mutual agreement to let go. In the meantime, Ricca had managed to help William get a safer distance away and were both presently among the rest of the group again.

Miro aims a swing at Hugh himself, which was evaded by a quick back step. He also does a rather stylish back flip in order to gain some distance from him and lands easily back on his feet.

Miro, suddenly getting quite a clever idea, holds out one hand. The hand begins to glow a deep blue. Suddenly, a lightning bolt fires off from his hand and toward Hugh. Hugh quickly sidesteps out of its path, but the group behind him wasn't so lucky.

"Oh, crap!" The hatted Jack exclaims.

"Aaah!" Ann shouts, taking her husband and holding him in front of her to block the attack. After a bright flash of light, Jack is seen virtually unharmed, although his tuft of hair now looked like a sea urchin attached to his head. Apparently, it had taken the hit.

"Whatever you do…" Nami warns him, "don't comb."

"Nn-nnn…" Jack whimpers, not wanting to move for fear of his hair becoming grounded and frying him like the food in one of Karen's barbecues…

"Hmph." Miro says, put-out by the fact that Hugh could dodge something like a lightning bolt. He suddenly gets an idea. Grinning, he holds his hands to one side, palms facing one another and fingers in a position much like if he were holding an invisible ball with both hands.

"Let's try something…" He says, his grin widening as electricity began to spark between his hands. The sparking was becoming more and more violent as time passed.

"Heh. You've got it!" Hugh says, Daachan's eyes glowing more intensely once again.

At the same time, Miro held out his hands, releasing a massive stream of lightning, and Hugh fired a large beam from Daachan's eyes. The two attacks collided between them, and pushed at one another with intense force.

"I can't believe it. These guys are fooling around!" Elli says in exasperation.

"They just want to look impressive." Nami says. "Let them get it out, it's good for them."

"Well, at least one of them is going to be dead at the end of this." Cliff reminds her.

"I suppose…" Nami replies, shrugging. "Then I guess it'll be good for one of them."

"Umm… Shouldn't we give them a bit of extra space?" Kate asks. "Miro has already nearly roasted one of us."

The Jack that she had been referring to nodded carefully in agreement, his hair floating slowly with his motions. The group began to move, but they are halted by a warning from William.

"Wait, be careful." He says. "There's a reason that I didn't use electricity when I had that power. It's un-"

Suddenly, a jagged cord of electricity coming from the original bolt shoots at them, striking one of Nami's pockets and completely shattering the Teleport Stone inside. Some shards of it flew from the singed pocket and landed in the surrounding grass.

"…stable." William finishes lamely, quite sure that they understood now.

"Nami! Are you okay?" Her husband exclaims, in the midst of trying to decide what he should do.

"I… ugh, I'm fine…" Nami says, reaching her hand into the pocket carefully. She pulls out a few broken shards of the Teleport Stone. "…but there goes our trip home."

"Are you sure you're all right?" Elli asks. "You seem to be in a bit of pain…"

It was true. Nami didn't try to contain her wince, and she seemed reluctant to put much weight on her leg.

"…A little." She admits. "But what's a first-degree burn after dodging what Kate here nearly hit me with back in that forest?" She looks at Kate, who smiled a bit. Suddenly, Kate looks at William.

"Doesn't control over the elements have something to do with being able to control them?" She asks, a bit angrily.

"I tried." William replies. "And with practice I'm sure I could have used lightning just as easily as the others, but I had no time for that. That power is different from other parts of nature. It takes focus to make it go in the right direction and not just shoot off at anything metal nearby. Or magical items, I suppose…"

"That's all very nice, but we have to hurry and get out range!" Kai reminds them.

"And that is where the problem lies." William says. "If we move too fast, the lightning's going to pick up the static energy of our feet against the grass, and we're toast."

"Then we'll get something else to attract it!" Ann says. Quickly, she reaches her hand into Popuri's hair and pulls out a hairpin, thankfully not causing her hair to go flat.

"Hey!" Popuri protests, "I need those!"

"Feel your neck." Ann instructs. Popuri does so, and suddenly gasps.

"I don't have that cramp anymore!" She says happily.

"It wasn't a cramp, it was this." Ann corrects her, pointing to the pin in her hand.

"But, how did you know?"

"I started to get curious when you mentioned that 'it feels like a hairpin stuck in my neck or something' for the first time." Ann comments. Popuri, remembering this, snaps her fingers like she was just about to guess that.

Without wasting any more time, Ann throws the hairpin up in the air. As she predicted, once it was close enough, some of the lightning was drawn to it, causing it to spark and hiss in mid-air.

"Okay, now let's go!" Ann orders. The rest of the group immediately do so, Ricca helping William along and Nami collecting the shards of the stone that fell from her singed pocket. Once they had gotten a safe range back, they turn around and continue watching the battle proceed.

After a moment, the hairpin burst apart from the power of the electricity. Even so, and as Miro quickly came to notice, he was failing to gain any ground on Hugh. In fact, it was Hugh's attack that was doing so. It was slowly pushing its way through the force of Miro's lightning and threatened to break through at any moment. Miro came to a decision, seeing that he couldn't continue this for much longer, and cancelled his attack, ducking down to the floor quickly and letting Hugh's attack pass over him. It was a very narrow miss, and Miro thought for a moment that he could smell burnt hair. At least, that's what he hoped it was.

After Hugh had cancelled his own attack, Miro breathed a sigh of relief. He was sitting on one knee, and cautiously raised his head back up to check if it was safe. Sadly, it wasn't. Hugh stood directly in front of him, and before Miro could react, had pulled back a leg and booted him squarely in the chin. Miro soared backward quite a few feet, and landed hard on his back before sliding to a stop.

"Ooh, that must've hurt," Hugh comments, tapping the dirt off of his shoes absently. "It's too bad that you're not much of a competitor. This is getting boring."

Miro chuckles rather dryly as he got himself back up on his feet. He feels his jaw for a moment and discovers that it wasn't broken. Perhaps the calcium one gets from drinking Star Cow milk was worth the absurd price of the cow; which his father had grumbled over ever since he bought one instead of a Seed Maker, leaving the farm nearly broke and Nami none-too-pleased for a couple of months.

"Not much of a competitor?" Miro echoes, lowering his hand from his jaw and speaking matter-of-factly. "That's not exactly true, once you think about Lumina. I didn't even try to get her attention, yet she has more attention drawn to me than to you. The whole reason that you're doing this is because I'm too good a competitor to have around. How about this; Get rid of Daachan, and we can settle this in a nice way."

"Grr…" Hugh growls to Miro, Daachan seeming to protest the idea since Hugh looked like he was listening to something for a moment. After the moment, he looks at Miro again. "…Hmph. No thanks, Dr. Phil. Daachan's fine where he is. I'm following my own plan."

"Then I guess we'll just keep fighting." Miro says with a shrug. "What do you want to try this time?"

"I don't know. Any ideas?" Hugh asks, flexing and cracking the fingers of his right hand.

"How about weapons?" Miro suggests.

"I left the Soul Irritant back at the mall…" Hugh mutters, realizing how useful the weapon would have been at that point.

Miro chuckles, one of his hands beginning to glow purple.

"Aww, too bad," he says, suddenly dashing at Hugh and forming a spike of ice on his hand at the same instant. Although Hugh managed to get most of himself out of the way in time. Miro still managed to pierce Hugh's shoulder with the blade. Both competitors were still for a moment after this.

Lumina gasps, her eyes widened. Kate, who was standing next to her, notices this.

"Hm. It seems like you've had a change of heart." She says. "You've spent years obsessing over Miro, and now you've switched to Hugh in an hour?"

"Well, I… I didn't know he-" Lumina begins hesitantly. Kate cuts her off, not eager to hear her excuse.

"You've been ignoring him. I'm sure you had some idea that he liked you, but you tossed it aside. Do you realize how insane a prepless jock can become?"

"…As insane as a wimpless bully." Lumina mutters, looking at Kate. "You're not the queen of nice, you know. It could have just as easily been your fault…"

"I'm sure he's smart enough to not have a vengeful fit of jealousy. Besides, Miro's not a wimp…" Kate says defensively, her mind going back to previous events, before any feelings between her and Miro had been discovered. "…I just… thought he was…"

"You see?" Lumina says, "This could have been anyone!"

"You're right. I remember, Miro got really mad at one point of the fight, and he had become so strong he was making sport out of Hugh…" Kate says, shifting her foot on the ground. "Who knows, maybe if I had done too much, it would have pushed him to that… and if things went the same as they did here, only with Miro as the evil one, this would have been even worse."

"But it was Hugh, and it was my fault…" Lumina grudgingly admits, not wanting to leave Kate being sad. "Nobody would have been hurt if it wasn't for me."

"Still…" Kate begins. She then changes her mind and comes to a conclusion, crossing her arms. "Still, if we had to point fingers, this is all one person's fault!"

"Ah, yes." Lumina says, smiling and putting her hands behind her back. They both chorus out the same name.

"Daachan!"

Back at the fight, Hugh finally made a move by forcefully pushing Miro away, the ice pulled from Hugh's shoulder in the process. Miro lands on his feet after a moment and slides to a stop, cheerily surveying the damage that he had caused. Hugh's shoulder had a grisly hole through it, the ice having passed through skin and bone. However, Hugh kept a tough face on, and spoke with an air of boredom.

"Oh, Daachan…" He begins. Daachan obeys and, as it had done for all of Hugh's wounds, used its power to completely seal it up in a matter of seconds, the only visible proof of any wound having been there being the dried blood that hadn't been re-absorbed into the wound.

"Dammit…" Miro says in half-shock, taking a step or two back. "It can… still do that?"

"Yep." Hugh says with a chuckle. "And Daachan tells me that you can't, because your power is all inside you. My power is inside Daachan, so he can use it on me in a bunch of ways."

"…How does that work?" Miro says in confusion. Hugh sighs, and seems to communicate with Daachan for a moment. After a moment, he nods, and looks paitently at Miro.

"…Okay, you see, we used to be two mortals, right? We had all of the mortal qualities. But now, we're different, but in different ways." He begins, taking in a breath. "Since I have Daachan attached to me, I can tap into his power whenever I need to. But you, you have power inside of yourself, which is like a part of you now. Since you're all demi-godly and stuff, your body is stronger than it was, but that means your body takes a whole lot longer to heal with its own power. My body's also a lot stronger, but that's just because Daachan makes it that way, and it's Daachan's power that heals me and not my own. Got it?"

"…Yeah, I think." Miro says, heaving a frustrated sigh. "Man, they should have a written contract or something for this damn power!"

"They do." William calls over. "My parents had to sign it before-"

"Shaddup!" Miro yells.

"Are you sure we had to take that right?"

"Yes."

"'Cause I remember we have to take an awful lot of lefts…"

"I know. The lefts come after the rights."

"I thought the rights came after the lefts…"

"No, I'm positive that the rights come first."

"How?"

"Trust me, Anna. I have a photographic memory."

"Eww! You mean you remember-"

"PHOTOgraphic…"

"Oh…"

Matthew and Anna, after several minutes of running, had tired down and slowed to a walk. They now spent careful time deliberating the paths they had to take to ensure that they would not get lost again. Despite Anna's uncertainty toward the path they had just taken, they soon after came across another 'You Are Here' map.

"Oh, crap, they're following us…" Matthew says after noticing the arrow indeed did show exactly where they were.

"But look, we're on the right track!" Anna says, pointing out the fact. "The exit should just be… around that corner!"

"Let's go!" Matthew says him and Anna once again going at a run. Once they had rounded the corner and rushed to the end of the hall, they came to a windowless door. Matthew seemed excited, however Anna, reading the sign above the door, sighed in disappointment.

"…Hey, what is it, Anna?" Matthew asks, noticing and looking at her.

"It's a fire exit…" Anna says, pointing to the sign above the door. "See?"

"…Okay, yes, but… So?" Matthew says, confused.

"We can't use it, there's no fire…" Anna explains.

"…Anna, I doubt if we'll be caught." Matthew says, sighing. "The mall is abandoned. The number of security guards on duty at any given time tends to drop drastically when that happens."

"But still, it's against the rules…" Anna says uncertainly, looking at the door. "I mean, we can't just break the rules because nobody's here. They're there for a reason…"

"Oh, come on…" Matthew says disbelievingly, walking to the door and reaching for it. "Look, it's perfectly allowable if the building in which the exit is situated within is condemned or otherwise-"

Matthew is interrupted in his speech, however, by a rather startling and powerful electric shock courtesy of the door's handle. He is flung back a few feet and lands on the ground, his back to the floor. Anna walks up to him and looks down, smiling.

"Told you," she comments. Matthew merely grumbles and gets up slowly, shaking his head and making sure his cap was in place. He holds one hand out to Anna.

"Anna, hold my finger." He instructs.

"Heh, I'm not falling for that one!" Anna says. "Not since Grandpa got tipsy in the Spring Festival and-"

"I meant…" Matthew cuts in. "Just touch it. I need to be grounded."

"Grounded?"

"It's scientific. Now, please…?" He asks. Anna, reluctantly, reached out one hand and grabbed Matthew's finger. She received a bit of a shock as the electricity passed through her and went into the floor, causing the lights to flicker, but it passed quite quickly.

"Th-that was… interesting…" Anna says, letting go of him and beginning to giggle in a way that only people either recently electrified or on some major sugar-high could do. "I'm all tingly now…"

"Thank you." Matthew relipes simply. Turning, he looks to the door again. As he tried to calculate what he could possibly do to decharge the door, Anna turned around and snuck away from him, going back up the hall. When she found the door that she was looking for, she reached out and turned the handle, thankfully finding it neither locked nor electrified. Opening the door, she stares into the room and was immediately filled with excitement.

"Matthew!" She calls, turning and waving frantically to him. "Matthew! Matthew! I found something!"

"Yes?" Matthew asks impatiently, turning and seeing her jumping around, waving.

"Come here so you can see it!" Anna says. Matthew, shrugging, follows what she says and begins walking. While he walked, he wondered to himself what in the world could be so important. Anna, seeing that he was coming, stopped and simply smiled proudly next to the opened door. Once Matthew had finally reached her, he turns and looks into the doorway. Immediately, his disposition changes, and a look of astonishment washes over his face.

"…I can't believe it…" He says, basically exhaling the words in amazement…