Chapter 8: Worst Weekend Ever Pt. 2
" Alright Luna, time to put your powers to the test. Use what we practiced and you'll be fine, the easiest to start off with weapon forming." Maltrix explained.
Luna and Mina walked across the field to the training grounds just as Mirage and Oxion finished their match. Anubis looked up to the two girls and walked towards them. " You decided to join us, is everything okay?" He asked.
" Um… yes sir it is. I'm ready to give it my all today." Luna replied. " Good, you'll fight against me, since you seem to have a lot confidence. Do you have your morpher?"
" I want to fight without morphing, don't worry I'll be fine. Let's go."
They both walked to the mat. Anubis has never fully seen his daughter fight before, he was in for a surprise. Luna gave her phone to Mirage before she went up, and front it played music. Luna had her own form of fighting which included dancing.
Luna readied her stance and so did Anubis, " Alright Luna. Keep calm and picture a weapon of your choice to summon." Said Maltrix, " You can do it."
Luna focused and in thin air a sword formed, everyone looked in awe. Once the music got hyped that's when Luna went all in, she moved with dodging all of her father's attacks. Once she got full control, she was able to summon more weapons at once. She even switched to different forms of weapons, this was something she allowed her imagination to go wild on.
After about 30 mins of fighting, Anubis demorphed and they both saluted. Nate and Luna's team smashed into her knocking them all down, " Wow Luna that was epic, how did you do that?" Asked Chase. " Yeah, who knew dancing was a good method for fighting." Said Daryl.
" You ain't known as the best fighter for nothing." Complimented Oxion.
" Oh look at my little sister showing off her skills." Mirage exclaimed. " My sweet Luna the great and powerful, you never cease to amaze me." Flirted Nate.
" One I'm not your Luna and two would everyone please get off me, you're all heavy," Luna struggled to say.
They all got up and Luna was free from her prison of bodies, they all turned to Anubis, he congratulated them on a good performance and demonstration.
They all saluted and turned their attention to their guests. Anubis stood next to his rangers, " As you see, these fine men and women got here through hard work and determination. You can get to this position in due time, some people have to be part of C and D-squad in order to be B and A-squad rangers, some actually excel so well they end up skipping the lowest two squads and going straight to B. These five are proof of that excellence and I hope to see more like them in the future when they become the new A-squad."
Everyone clapped at the demonstration and they all got up to go spend the rest of the day doing whatever. Jessica walked up to one of the girls who have just arrived back. She had two braided pigtails, wore glasses, and sported a retro style prep school outfit. " Xiao, wait." Commanded Jessica, " Did you do as I asked?"
" Um, yes, buu…" Xiao trailed off. " But nothing, remember I'm the only one who knows your family's secret. So comply with my commands and it'll be all good. Got it?" Jessica threatened. " Yes."
They both followed the rest of the group back to the base. Luna and Nate went back to her room, after every practice Luna wanted a snack. They both skipped into the room and Luna got the feeling something was missing from the room. She looked around and on her bed her precious teddy bear Mikey was gone.
She frantically ran around the room throwing everything around the room, from the bookshelf to the beds to the shelves full of stuffed animals and dolls, looking for her precious Mikey.
" Luna what's wrong?" Nate asked. " He's gone." She replied.
" Who's gone?"
" Mikey, my stuffed bear. He's not here. Can you help me," She asked Nate.
" Sure, don't worry we'll find him."
They both looked around the room and bathroom, but he was nowhere to be found. Luna was getting frantic as tears started to form in her eyes. She knew than that someone had taken him and she knew who to think of.
She ran out the room, looking for her suspects. She found them with everyone else in the lounge and tackled Jessica to the ground screaming, " Where is he?"
They both fought on the ground as everyone was whooing them on. Anubis ran in from being able to hear it from the command center. He pushed through the teens and pulled his daughter and Jessica away from each other.
Luna still tried to attack Jessica, but Anubis was strong enough to keep her back, " What is the meaning of this?" Anubis asked.
" She did something to Mikey, that wench!" Luna yelled. " I didn't do anything to your stupid bear," Jessica smirked.
" But does it have to result a fight? Luna, you know better and you're to represent S.P.D., acting like this is inappropriate and there are better ways to deal with it."
" But dad…."
" No buts, it's just a bear, we'll find it."
" Just a bear, do you know how important he is to me, do you even know how long I've had him?"
" Doesn't matter, I want you in your room now. I'll be there to have a word."
" If you weren't so busy, you would understand." Luna ran out the room with tears running down her face. Anubis turned to Jessica, " What?" She asked. " I'll be talking to your father about this. If you're wondering he talked to before this weekend started about you. Now if you all excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Anubis was beginning to leave, when Mirage stepped up. " To be honest dad, Luna has a point. You work so much that you don't pay attention to some of our personal lives if it doesn't include S.P.D. That bear Mikey is really important to her, you won't understand once I show you. And or everyone else, there's a reason why our room is full of stuffed animals. I'll be back."
Mirage left out the room to go to theirs. When she arrived, Luna wasn't in the room. She just picked up a camera that was sitting on the dresser.
And she ran back to the lounge.
" Do you remember this camera?" She asked Anubis. " Is that the one I gave Luna when she was about four?" He asked.
" Yes it is, you gave it to her to help with her shyness around others through a camera. This in my hand is the video card of the footage I took for that specific time. RIC will you please project this?" She gave the chip to RIC and he projected it onto a screen.
Footage played on the screen the date was December 11, 2039.
" Luna, where are you?" Said a woman's voice.
" I'm here mommy." Replied Luna. The camera started shaking as she ran out the room towards her mom.
" There's my little girl. Come on, we have to go say good-bye to daddy."
" Why?"
" He's going on a mission and won't be back for a few days."
" But christmas is coming up, will he be back before than?"
" You'll have to ask him yourself."
They both walked to the shuttle bay to see Anubis and the A-Squad off. Luna gave her mom the camera and ran up to her dad. He picked her up and gave her a tight loving hug.
" Daddy will you be back in time for Christmas?"
" Of course I will, I will never think about missing a holiday with my favorite women." Anubis nuzzled Luna and she let out a little giggle. He put her down and then hugged his eldest daughter and lastly gave Kat kiss.
Him and his A-Squad which consisted of Syd, Z, Bridge, and the two new additions Anthony and Christa, they filed into the shuttle to head to their destination.
Everyone at base waved good-bye and good lucks as the shuttle left.
When everyone else was walking back to do their duties, Luna stayed where she was and looked towards the distance. Mirage, Oxion, Daryl, and Chase go play in their school's soccer match against the school's rival team, Kat watched as her daughter stood frozen in time until she spoke, " You alright sweetheart?" She said as she walked a bit closer to her.
Lune turned her head and said, " You think they'll all be back in time for Christmas." There was a lot of doubt and fear in Luna's eyes and Kat knew she had to relieve her of the thoughts. " He gave you his promise right, of course he'll be back. You're dad and aunts and uncles are the strongest earth branch has seen in years. Come on, let's go to command center and get Uncle Sky and Boom and than we go to your sister's match."
Days went by and for each day Luna sat in the base's boarding area waiting for her family to come back. There was no word from the team for days.
The date read December 21, 2039.
As Luna was waiting in the boarding bay with her sister and friends as company, they played with dolls, action figures and blocks, when an unsuspecting shuttle comes up to the bay. They all scrambled to get up and see who was coming.
The doors opened the moment everyone at S.P.D got the signal someone was arriving.
In a line Bridge, Z and Syd walked out with two other soldiers behind them each pushing a rolling table. From the form of the sheets it was two dead bodies, Kat walked up with a worried look on her face. The team didn't look to good, they had bandages wrapped around parts where possible injuries were, poor Bridge was using Z as a crutch to hold himself and Syd and Z were wrapped in some parts like mummies. The two soldiers had medic symbols on their uniforms indicating they were the medics in the field.
To break the silence Kat asked, " What happened out there?"
All three had saddened looks on their faces, Z was the only one with the courage to speak. " We got overrun and we tried to evacuate people. They fought hard, but Anthony and Christa, they didn't make it, they went out protecting some children who were stuck in one of the buildings." Tears formed in her eyes as she was talking and Kat asked, " What about Doggie?"
Z, Syd, and Bridge shot their heads up at Kat and than looked to Anubis's daughters, " We're sorry Kat, we don't know what happened," Z removed Anubis's sword from her waist. " This is all we found from him."
Kat put both hands over her nose and mouth as she tried to hold back the tears. Mirage began to cry at the news and Luna walked to take her father's sword from Z's hands. " It can't be…. Aunty Z it's not true." Luna had tears rolling down her face trying to deny the fact that her father could have perished in battle. Z nodded her head as she told the young girl sorry. " He promised, he'll be back. You all were supposed to come back together and we celebrate Christmas as a family. You're lying!" She threw the sword to the ground and ran off.
Oxion who was holding the camera quickly turned it off.
Footage read December 25, 2039.
Luna sat in her room with the camera facing her. Mirage walks in, " Hey Luna, you alright?" She asked.
Luna just stared at the camera. " Well, mom wanted me to come get you. Everyone's opening presents and then we're going to open Anthony and Christa's presents and put the gifts in front their pictures." Mirage grabbed her sister's hand and she went without resisting.
Everyone was sitting in the S.P.D. lobby, waiting for the last of the people to come.
They all sat facing the tree, Mirage and Luna sat by their mother, everyone was present. Well not everyone, majority of the people who work here left to be with family for the holidays, so there was about 23 of them left. Sky handed everyone their presents by name, until they all had theirs. It seems that everyone at S.P.D. bought the kids gifts, even the cadets that weren't present had bought their gifts. Luna being the youngest had the most out the group. The older members of the group opened their stuff first starting with Kat and then the younger after her, Mirage took the camera from Luna since she was the last to open her gifts.
" Let's see what everyone got you Luna." Mirage encouraged. Luna looked down at all the boxes in front of her, she than slowly opened them one by one. Until she got to one specific rumpled present, the name tag said " From: Daddy To: Luna".
Luna's face scrunched up after reading it and tears started to form in her eyes, she lowered her head tucking her knees to her chest and cried. Mirage put the camera down and began to hug her sister.
Days have passed and everywhere Luna went she had her father's gift in her arms and would sit in the boarding bay waiting and hoping he would come back to them.
Footage date Jan. 5, 2040
Luna sat in her room, with the camera on the nightstand coloring a picture of her family she drawn. She raised her head from the noise of people running down the hall, it didn't catch much of her attention as she went back to drawing. Mirage ran into the room and grabbed her sister, " Sis hold on, that hurts." She freed her hand and looked at her sister. " What's the rush anyway?"
" No time to explain, just come on and also take the present and close your eyes as we walk over there." Mirage ordered. She grabbed the camera and lead Luna out to the boarding bay.
All the cadets lined themselves up along the walkway of the boarding bay. Mirage made sure her sister's eyes were closed. Kat went inside the shuttle to let the stranger know he they can come out. Mirage the camera back to her sister and told her, " You can open your eyes now."
Lune slowly opened her eyes and they grew tremendous, there were tears falling out and a whining noise can be heard coming from her voice. She ran straight ahead and jumped into her father's arms. Mirage gave Chase the camera and she ran towards her dad as well. Luna cried in her father's arms as she hugged him as hard as she could. Anubis cried a bit as well, being glad to finally see his daughters again and his wife as she walked up to all three of them. They all hugged as a family, it broke away and Anubis held Luna in his arms. " What's that? Have you not opened your gift yet?" He asked her.
" I wanted to wait for you to come back daddy. It didn't feel right, but now you're here." She had a big smile form across her face. She opened the gift carefully, Luna was not one to rip the paper off anything.
In it was a white teddy bear, she wrapped her arms around her father's neck and, " I love it daddy."
Everyone cheered for the return of their supreme commander and the video ended there.
RIC stopped the projection and everyone in the room, looked to the floor.
Anubis sat down on the nearest chair and put his head in his hands. " You're both right. I don't take much time to be you or your mother. I don't blame her for how she acts. I'm sorry Mirage, you must be disappointed in me too?" He said.
" I'm not and Luna doesn't hate you for anything. She's just trying to get your attention, that day was a very important day and that bear is more important to her than anyone thinks. She's afraid of losing you and not being able to be loved and give love. You can make things right, let's start by finding that bear." Mirage replied.
Luna walked around her room, angry and sad. Maltrix was trying to calm her down, because the earlier fight and the tantrum.
" Luna you have to sit down. You can push your body too far and the results will not be good. I neve expected the fight to last that long and for you to use all that power at once."
" You don't understand, you don't have a family to deal with."
" But your heart rate is too high, your body needs to rest. You're going to destroy yourself this way."
" Maltrix I do…. Ugh."
Luna felt a pain in her chest and her body weakening even more. She fell to her knees as her heart pumped harder and faster and her breathing quickened, before she knew it she was unconscious.
Nate walked in to see if she was doing alright and the sight of her on the floor was frightening. He ran out the room to get Anubis and Kat, he came back with Anubis first and he ran right by her side.
He picked her up and layed her on the bed, Kat walked ran in with Dr. Felix. Felix checked her heart rate, " Her heart is beating extremely fast. I'll be back, I'm going get something to stabilize her." He ran out the room and Anubis, Kat and Mirage sat by Luna's bed. Nate stood back with her guests, Xiao grabbed onto Nate's shirt and asked him to follow her. They slipped away unnoticed.
Xiao looked around to make sure that Jessica and her friends weren't around, it seemed clear so she spoke. " I have a confession to make. I'm the one that took the bear, I wasn't my idea. Jessica kind of forced me to do it, she threatened to tell people about my father and I didn't want to put him in a bad spot."
Nate looked at her and could tell she was telling the truth. " Do you by chance know where it's at?" He asked.
" Yes I do, you can go get it. I don't want them to notice that I'm gone so I'll head back to the room." She explained where the bear was and then ran off, Nate went to retrieve the bear.
It's been four hours when Luna finally woke up, Anubis was sitting next to her bed asleep. She sat up and realized next to her was Mikey, she picked him up and looked at her father. " Luna, my goodness are you alright?" Maltrix asked. For the duration of her slumber, Maltrix was unable to speak to her as her mind and body were in a resting state.
" I'm okay Mal, my chest still hurts a bit when I breath. Do you know what happened, while I was out?" Luna asked.
" I'm not sure what all happened myself, since I needed some time to recover. Whatever happens to you it affects me as well, but not that much. I know your father stayed here to watch you. Nate came back with the bear. Apparently Xiao was the one who hid the bear, but it was because of a threat by Jessica. You also won't like what happened after that. You might see Jessica around more often after school." Maltrix explained.
Luna's eyes grew bigger from the news, " As in what do you mean by that?"
" Let's say Anubis and her father talked over her behavior and as punishment she has to live here at S.P.D., work here and train as a cadet before the required age and earn her own wages. Basically daddy cut her off from privileged funding and she will also be you and Mirage's roommate along with Nate as always. To work on her communication skills."
Luna's mind went blank for some time before she screamed waking her father with a fright.
" Sweetheart are you alright?" Asked Anubis with a startle. Luna looked at him as her mother, Nate and Mirage walked into the room. " Did you… happen to talk to Jessica's father and as punishment she will be staying… here?" she stuttered the question.
" Yes to both questions." He replied.
She didn't even know how to respond to answer, even this is the first Mirage has even heard of it. " Wait what? And also how did you know that?" She turned to Luna with a confused expression.
" Maltrix told me, she wasn't able to get much of what happened. And she also told me Nate found the bear because of Xiao. Thank you and I want to say thanks to Xiao as well. Nng…."
Even talking was a bit painful, but she wasn't going to let it stop her.
The night ended, Luna was able to talk to Xiao, but was suffering from the fact that Jessica will be going to school and coming back home with her from now on.
They continued the next day without any problems and all the students were able to go home and get ready for the next week of school.
