Chapter Five: I Have Returned
The surrounding area was filled a pleasant sounding music that came from the flute Obsidian played. It was a simple melody and yet, after 100 years or so of playing, it had became a long, elaborate tune. Imagine my surprise when she told me she was made to be a scout type gem. I guess it made sense given on how she looked back then. Her form then was compact; significant for soldiers. Now her form was a complex. She wore earth clothing over her form: a blue and brown "hoodie", finger-less glove, and blue "pants". It was so odd to see a gem change their look in such a way, but such an act just proved her detachment to gem culture. Actually, everything she did was against what gem kind stood for. It made sense after finding out the truth behind the corruption on this planet.
All of a sudden, the music stopped. Since Obsidian's back was turned to me, I couldn't tell if she messed up or something made her stop. "Obsidian," I began to ask, "is something wrong?"
With her back still to me, she placed the flute on her lap. "I'm fine Aven. I just had a thought."
"What about?" I didn't need to ask. I could guess that she to was thinking about the revelation of corruption and the her decision that followed. Even still, she didn't say anything. Before I could press on, Tiger Eye made herself known. She looked relatively unharmed which was more disturbing than comforting. She came back a bit too quickly which made me wonder about the she was hunting.
"Tiger," I said as she got closer, "you're back sooner than I expected. What happened."
"Just another waste of my time." She said grouchily. "That thing hasn't gotten any stronger since we last saw its use her powers." She turns to Obsidian and continues her rant. "Why are we even still? It's been close to 3 years since this began and for what?!"
"What are you suggesting?" Asked Obsidian.
"Let's just leave. There's nothing here. We can take your ship and go wherever we want."
"You know I can't leave. I'm going to see this through with or without you. If you want to leave so bad then take the ship; you know where it is."
The three of us were silent. The wind blew taking everything that was light enough to be carried with it. "I can't." Tiger said. "Not without you. If I leave your side I fear that I will revert back into the thing you found me as."
There was another pause of silence. Obsidian rested her head on her hand and began to think. She was thinking about the problem at hand: the urge to stay vs the impatient quartz. Finally she came to a conclusion. "I don't want to leave this planet, but you are right about one thing. For too long, we have watched and have nothing to show for it. So," she began to smile, "let's see if we can speed things up; if only to make our stay here a bit more interesting." Rising from where she sat and storing the flute in her gem(located on the back of her neck), she began to walk in the direction from where Tiger just came from.
"What did you have in mind for your experiment?" I asked.
"I'll tell you when we get there." She says while putting a finger to her lips and giving us a mischievous smile. "And please, if it's not too hard, call Abigael by her name."
I ran to Abigael's house as soon as I heard the news. A few hours ago, I heard that something happened in the town near Beach City where she lived, but I assumed it had something to do with the fight me and Abi had with the gem that was after her. But after further investigation, I found out it was something else: both Abigael and her father were reported missing. According to the information I had been told, a group of people broke into her house and were seen taking Abi's dad.
I could guess who was involved in this kidnapping, but why take her dad? And where was Abi? Once I got to her house, I saw that it was surrounded by police cars, police tape, and curios people. The windows on the bottom floor were all shattered and the door was broken. Investigators and police alike went in and out of the house talking amongst themselves. I wanted to get close to do some investigating myself, but not like this. I was dressed in a casual attire and only equipped with small items.
Still, I proceeded to move closer to the crowd. If I could just get close enough to listen to the inspectors, then maybe I could focus on their conversation. But before I could do anything, I felt someone's hand grab my left shoulder. By reflex, I jumped, but because there were regular people around, I held back just in case the person was just a normal cop or a civilian. Once I turned around, I found that it was neither.
"Causing trouble again, Rekirts?"
With a smile, I call the one behind me by his name "Marco! You're here." Marco NGT was 20 years old, about a foot taller than me and was always wearing his creed standard blackjack. Oh, right: he's a creed just like me only higher in rank. His skin was tan and his black hair was cut short. Some time ago, I called him hoping that he would help me and Abi.
"I thought you said the fight was outside not in a building."
"This just happened-"
"I am kidding. I remembered what you said." he said as he patted my back and walked towards the house. While I liked and respected the guy, there were equally enough things that I didn't like one of them being is sense of humor. I followed him to where he was talking to an inspector. "My name is Marco Negt. I have authority to enter the promise along with my friend here." he said to the inspector while holding an ID card. The card was made by the creed to be able to enter situations like this.
The inspector looked at the card up and down until he was satisfied and let us both in. Inside, the place was turned upside. Much of the furnisher was on the wall, broken and torn. Most of the damage could be seen in the living room. In such a mess, it was hard to tell what actually happened.
"So what can you tell me that's not obvious." says Marco to the inspector in his always offensive sounding voice.
"Nothing much." says the inspector. "Everything you see is everything I can offer."
"Great. Well, I guess I have to look around myself then."
"Good luck then. But I doubt you'll find anything that we couldn't." and with that, he left.
"Oh, but I will." Marco said to no one. In that moment, he used his Eagle Vision. His was similar to mind in abilities, but had one or more extra. In this case, Marco was able to see foot prints, fingerprints, and anything else that would stand out to be important to him. This is something I can't do yet.
"So, while I'm looking for something, could you tell me more about what's going on here. You were pretty vague over the phone." he continued his search.
"Like I said; I meet a girl that turned out to be a half gem and is being hunted by homeworld gems."
"And then I asked why, you said you didn't know, but what I don't get is why are you involved in the first place."
"She needs my help."
"Does she?" He turns to me. "Looking at this place, I can tell that it wasn't a complete one sided fight." I was silent. "I don't mind helping in this. Sooner or later, the creed would have sent some here to help you. I want to know why you're so dedicated to this."
"She's my friend."
"A friend you met recently."
Now I was getting annoyed. "Did you find something or not."
"Oh, I've been found something. I just wanted to talk." My senior ladies and gentlemen. "From what I can tell, it seems that your friend was the one who did the damage to the house. I don't when, but she left the house through the back door in a hurry. From here, we only two options: follow the girl or follow the kidnappers."
"Let's follows Abi's trail. I need make sure she's fine at least."
"Alright then, Mr. Hero. Let's go get your girl. But first, you should probably change for the occasion."
"My equipment is back at the barn."
"No it's not. I grabbed it before coming here and put it in that alley over there." Marco pointed in the direction where he hid my stuff. "I'll be waiting in the yard." And with that, he left out the back door.
Marco was always thinking two steps ahead of a situation. It was one of the reasons I respect him. Even though he was barely older than me, he was still considered one of the strongest creed in our house. I grabbed my things and found a place to change. Once I was done with that, I put the bag over my shoulders that my stuff came with and met up with Marco. From there, we followed our lead with him on point.
Along the way, I began to think about what Marco said when he asked about my relationship with Abi. It's only been three days since I meet her and I'm already trying to help with her problems. It wasn't that I was having second thought about helping her in fear that she might be part of a trap or something. It was the lack of understanding the situation. Who was Abigael Turqouise and why was homeworld interested in her. Should I even be think like this? I don't want to accuse her of anything, but don't assume the good.
Marco began to slow down and stopped while looking at the sky. "Her footprints stop her." he said.
"She must have flown from this point."
"She can fly?" he asked with his eyebrow raised, but all I could do was shrug my shoulders. I knew Abi could lift someone by using her air; flying was a different matter.
"Well, at least we're not completely out of options. I know which direction she went."
"That's cool. So why did we stop?"
"Well first, remind me what she can do."
"She can control the wind, but that's all I know." Right after I said that, the wind began to pick up from the direction we were facing. It was weak and nothing that should have brought up suspicion. Slowly, however, the wind began to pick up in speed. It may have been a coincidence, but evidence would tell me otherwise.
"Let's hurry." Marco said through the with his voice even and calm. He proceeded with me not far behind. I should not have been worried. After all I didn't know the full capabilities of either side of the front. And yet, my heart was beating hard and fast in chest. Air moved through me too fast for my lungs to catch. Even if Abi was stronger than what I've seen, I had doubts that she wasn't strong enough to fight three gems by herself if they were all as strong as the one I fought.
"Calm down, Rekirts!" Marco said as he ran beside me. "Trust me when I say no one will die today. We will reach her in time." After he was done, he took up point once again.
He was right. I'm no good if I panic. I managed to calm down and picked up my pace. And yet, unknowingly to me at the time, there was a fear that I had that would haunt. All my life, I've been trained to fight and have only been fighting corrupted gems. Will I be able to stand up to something like them and win?