Chaotic Worlds: Book 1

Chapter 4: Awakening

Disclaimer: The name Van Fanell does not belong to me but to the creators of Escaflowne. Neither is "Bagheera" a creation of mine. Mithril too does not belong to me.

Universe 1566:

Both Van and Isaac were caught unawares when Ken suddenly awakened his lightning powers. The raw power that blasted from him was so strong that even the two who were still a distance away were knocked backwards by the force. Taken aback, the two halted and focused their senses on Ken, trying to get a basic gauge on his current level of power. To their amazement, they sensed another powerful aura near him growing steadily; one that was equal to or possibly even stronger than Ken's power. Jake.

Meanwhile, Matt, Rachel, Cassie and Kyle gaped at both Jake and Ken who were now glowing red and blue respectively, fire and lightning dancing around them. In contrast, both the two friends didn't seem to be surprised about their current states. Both were instead standing facing the three Warlords and the remainder of the cursed zombies, quiet determination on their faces.

"So…your powers have awakened."

"Really? Hadn't noticed," replied Jake nonchalantly, as if gaining unbelievable power was an everyday thing. Beside him, Ken smirked appreciatively at his comeback.

"You should know better than to offend us, young Seal. We have annihilated countless mortals like you, dumb fools who get arrogant and think that we are easy prey just because they suddenly gained powers themselves."

"We're different. Ken took out half your force without breaking a sweat. I'm betting it can be done again."

"Is that what you truly believe?"

As if on cue, more cursed zombies began to form around the six Seals, so much so that all they could see were rows and rows of cursed zombies decked out in black suits. It was pointless to even try and roughly gauge the number of zombies. The warlords suddenly vanished from their sight. It was unknown whether they had gone away or were invisible, letting their zombies do their dirty work. The scene was like the big fight in the second Matrix movie, only the number of opponents was far greater. Things were beginning to look hopeless.

"Guess that's my cue," said Isaac grimly as Van, squatting beside him, nodded in agreement.

"Hurry. They won't last long against that many. Plus there could be innocent bystanders nearby."

Isaac's reaction to this was a reassuring smile to his old friend. His body glowed a soft purple briefly, then he suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace that he had been there except a blurry, vague trail of purple light in the direction of the six teenagers.

At this point, Jake and Ken were only interested in protecting their friends, now spread out all around the area fighting. While they worried about their own chances of survival, the safety of their four friends was a greater priority. Cassie was already nursing an ugly gash down her right arm while the right side of Matt's face was obscured by blood from a wound above his right eye. Rachel was limping while trying to avoid the zombies. Kyle's left arm hung strangely by his side; it was broken. Jake and Ken were better off but still sported minor injuries.

Slowly, as the fighting drew on, the cursed zombies surrounded the six teenagers leaving no possible opening for escape. Back to back they stood, still defying those who had come for their lives. Jake's and Ken's powers were waning; their bodies were not yet used to handling the immense power that both wielded.

"Any ideas?" Ken wheezed, almost doubled over from pain.

"Besides fighting to the end?" asked Jake grimly.

"Yeah. Worst case scenario, I'll go down fighting but it would be nice to get out of this alive."

"I second that motion. I've got homework and I can't afford another C-minus," chipped in Kyle. That earned a brief smile from the other five before their attention was drawn back on the zombies who were again changing. The zombies had now split up into seven groups and were, strangely, merging with each other within their groups. The six teenagers could only stare in horrified fascination as seven masses of black cloth and flesh bulged and contracted in front of them, twisting into weird shapes of varying sizes. Finally, the transformation stabilized and the zombies were now seven human-like creatures.

The seven transformed zombies were no longer decked in black suits but normal, albeit tattered and torn, civilian clothing. They could have posed as normal humans if not for a few distinguishing traits. There was the ragged clothing, for one. They had upturned, pointed ears and razor-sharp claws for fingernails. The most frightening about them, however, was the sinister black gleam of their eyes. They looked like demons. Without warning the zombies suddenly leapt at their quarry, their claws glinting in the morning sun. It was at this time when a young man, familiar to the six teens, with short, straight black hair suddenly just appeared in front of them. In his right hand were five long, rectangular white cards, each with a star inscribed on it in black ink. Muttering an incantation, he flicked the cards at the seven zombies leaping right at him.

Instantly the cards positioned themselves in mid-air. Purple light linked the cards to one another such that the end result was a star made out of purples lines of light with the cards as its points. As the stranger opened his hand bigger, so too did the star. The star acted as a force-field of sorts, as evidenced by the loud crash of the zombies against it. However, the stranger was not done yet. Making a hand-seal with his right hand, he swung it in a wide arc in front of him. Immediately the cards, which were currently acting as the points of his star-shaped energy shield, sped towards the zombies, transforming themselves simultaneously into small bird-shaped figures. Prepared for this, the zombies jumped away trying to avoid the sharp beaks of their enemy's enchantments. One was too slow, however, and the birds, sensing this, homed in on it and tore it into pieces upon contact.

Registering this new threat, the remaining six demons peeled off from the teenagers and attacked the stranger. Before they even got close, however, they were slammed back by energy blasts of fire and lightning from Jake and Ken respectively. The stranger nodded his thanks, and then sent another wave of cards against the zombies. Without waiting, Jake and Ken powered up then launched themselves at the zombies for a second assault, granting the other four a short reprieve.

The six remaining zombies were only focused on destroying the seven of them and thus did not care much about the damage they were causing to the surroundings, something which Jake was concerned about. "We gotta take care of these goons fast before they do any more damage," he remarked worriedly to Ken and the stranger who were beside him, each taking on two zombies at the same time.

"I might be able to help," replied the stranger, at the same time blasting all six of the zombies back with a blast of purple energy. He took a step forward, then stopped, seemingly lost in thought. "And my name's Isaac," he added as an afterthought. "Nice to meet you guys."

"Likewise."

Isaac clapped his hands together, and then made a hand seal with his right hand, his fingers closed except for his index and middle fingers which were straightened. His hand was in the shape of a gun, so to speak. It was at the two fingers that the six teenagers saw the beginnings of a bright spark of violet light. The spark began to transform itself. Fascinated, Jake and Ken watched nearby as the spark became a purple star lying in mid-air above Isaac's straightened index fingers. Isaac's eyes, which had been closed all this time while he was concentrating, opened slowly.

"Spirit…shield."

To the amazement of the six human onlookers, the purple star began to rise and grow at the same time, encompassing them, Isaac and the zombies within it. Ken and Jake were blatantly staring at Isaac as he focused on his "spirit shield", a small smile on his lips.

"Dude…"

At last, the star-shaped shield stopped expanding. By this time, it had become so large that all the six teens could see were five purple walls of light in the far distance. Looking up, they could not see the azure sky, a sign of the beautiful weather that day, only a gigantic purple star in the sky. They were sealed in by the spirit shield. Satisfied, Isaac turned to his fellow Seals. "Now we can fight properly…without holding back."

Amazed by this new development, Jake and Ken just stood marveling at the spirit shield that had been erected around them, failing to notice that the zombies had recovered. It was only when the zombies let out their collective battle cry, a scream of feral rage, that Jake, Ken and Isaac caught on to what was going on. As they readied themselves for the oncoming attack, they suddenly felt a rush of energy from behind them. Ducking immediately, the three looked up to see the leading zombie of the pack stopped dead in his tracks, frozen in position, then split into half. Astonished, they turned behind them to see Kyle in front of the other three, his right arm outstretched and covered in a swirling white current of energy.

"Uh…heh…what did I just do?" Kyle asked sheepishly.

"Wind," muttered Isaac quietly, more to himself than anything. Then he turned to face Cassie, Matt and Rachel who were still standing there, dumbstruck. "What're you three waiting for? Break-time's over kiddies. Hurry up and awaken your powers. The squirt's here already done his part."

"Um, I'm not a squir -" broke in Kyle indignantly, but he was cut off by two zombies now intent on killing him. "Whoa. I…uh…never mind…how did I do whatever I did just now again?"

Fortunately for him, his cousin was able to buy him time by flinging a ball of compressed lightning at one of the two attacking zombies, obliterating it instantly. Ducking, Kyle rolled to one side and then, in a moment of clarity, slashed at the air in front of him with his right hand, the other zombie dead-set in front of his line of sight. Instantly the zombie was cut in half by the razor wind that he had generated from the slashing motion.

As Kyle bent over, panting, he was aware of his older cousin standing beside him.

"Not bad, you took out two of those freaks. Wind razors eh?" remarked Ken. "Y'know, that's actually pretty cool."

"Thanks."

Van put down his binoculars and sighed. Up till the point where Isaac had set up his spirit shield, he had been able to see all the action. By setting up the shield, Isaac had sealed all the combatants within it, ensuring that all innocent bystanders, including Van were not drawn into the battle. Tapping his earpiece, Van opened up a voice connection to Mithril HQ. Brian's voice came on the line.

"How's it going, bro?"

"Jake and Ken awakened their powers, Brian. The cursed zombies merged with each other and changed into cursed demons, seven of them. Isaac took one out, then set up his spirit shield, drawing in the demons, himself and the other Seals. Since I'm not one of the Seven Seals, I don't know what happened after that. The battle's still going on, as far as I can tell. No sign of the Warlords still. My best guess is that Isaac drew them into the shield too. I'm heading to the site of the battle now, maybe I'll meet up with them once the battle's over."

"Copy that. Brian Fanell out."

Sighing again, Van dropped down from his perch and walked towards the site of the battle leisurely, whistling. He was not too worried about the Seals now that Isaac was there. Furthermore, his younger brother and Jake had already awakened their powers and were trained fighters so he was fairly confident that they would win.

It turned out that Van's guess was right after all. With Kyle having sliced up two of the cursed zombies and Ken and Isaac each destroying one, three of the seven zombies remained, outnumbered against four powered-up Seals. This warranted a change in plans so they broke off their attacks on the four and decided to gang up against Rachel. Wickedly curved blades sprouted from their elbows or wrists as they leapt at the girl, arms raised, ready to carve her up.

What they didn't count on was Matt suddenly rushing in to protect her and awakening his earth powers at the same time. Green light suddenly erupted around him, throwing back all three of the remaining zombies with the force. He then punched the ground hard with his right hand, and three enormous boulders sprouted from the ground, hovering in mid-air. With a snap of his fingers, Matt sent the boulders at the zombies, one for each of them. As the boulders smashed into the zombies hard, Matt punched the ground again, this time with both hands. The rest watched, impressed, as soil, dirt and small rocks began to stream up Matt's arms up to his shoulders and envelop them. The zombies got up from under the rocks to see Matt charging straight at them, his arms fully covered in solid-hard rock. Two of them managed to avoid his attack. The last one was not so lucky. With all the force he could muster, Ken punched right through the zombie's gut. As the surprised zombie turned to rock itself then crumbled into bits, Matt simply stood there, utter shock on his face. Then a big smile began to spread on his face.

"Nice. Very nice," he remarked, trying very hard to act casual. He then turned to face Rachel who was looking on jealously and gleefully flashed her a thumbs-up sign.

"Hah!" he crowed. "Beat that, girlie!"

Gnashing her teeth furiously, Rachel accepted Matt's challenge and concentrated hard with her eyes closed, intent on awakening her own powers.

"Uh, aren't you two going about this the wrong way?" Kyle cautioned. Beside him, Isaac shook his head in resignation.

As a yellow light began to surround Rachel, Jake decided to concentrate on more serious matters, namely the three Warlords. While they were nowhere to be seen, he was sure that they were still in the area encased by Isaac's spirit shield. He noticed too that Ken and Isaac too had had the same idea, as both were scanning the area intently for any sign.

Having finally awakened her own powers, Rachel opened her eyes to see both of the two zombies rushing straight at her, claws extended. Immediately she focused on generating two balls of light from her hands to be used against them when out of nowhere a black panther cub, bathed in soft pink light, attacked the zombie coming in from her right and mauled it. Taking advantage of this distraction, she jumped left, holding the two balls of light in front of her. The other zombie, going too fast, ran right into the two spheres and instantly disintegrated. Meanwhile, the panther cub was dodging attack after attack from the last zombie. Finally finding an opening, it twisted and jumped, biting the zombie fatally at its throat. As the last of the zombies lay on the ground in its death throes, the cub ran back to a kneeling Cassie, who smiled fondly at it as she stroked its head and scratched behind its right ear. It seemed that Cassie too had awakened her powers.

It was at this juncture that the Warlords decided to attack personally. A hooded figure rose from the ground behind Cassie, its clawed hand drawing out a wicked-looking blade from within its black cloak. As it raised its arm to attack, the cub snarled audibly and leapt at the Warlord, fangs bared. Cassie rolled forward, away from the danger, calling her panther familiar to her at the same time.

"Bagheera!" she yelled as the cub, responding to her call, ran back to her and began to change into a sword itself. Grabbing the sword, she ran towards the Warlord meeting it head-on. With a fierce slash, she managed to destroy it, slashing it in half. An incensed scream of outrage, and the two remaining Warlords materialized behind her, preparing to cut her with their own swords, when Jake and Ken suddenly appeared out of nowhere before them. Kyle, Matt and Rachel gasped in disbelief, their mouths hanging open. Behind them, Isaac narrowed his eyes. 'Instant movement. These two are better than I thought.'

Cassie stood there dumbstruck, Bagheera already reverting back to its panther cub form, as Jake and Ken each thrust their right hands which were crackling and glowing with their respective elemental powers straight through the Warlords, impaling them. The two then punched away the Warlords with their left fists and powered down, still ready for any more surprises. The two dying Warlords were on the ground. Blood pooled around them from their injuries.

"It would seem…that we…underestimated you…you seven are as good as the legends say…your powers are strong, magnificent."

The seven Seals, a panther cub perched on the head on one of them, watched quietly as the Warlords struggled with themselves.

"But this…is just the beginning. There are those stronger than us…who will have learnt from our mistake of underestimating you…who will show no mercy to you…they will destroy you…and there is nothing you can do about it…"

The two Warlords, life fading from them, began laughing horribly upon this statement, mocking the Seals. Their cackling was unbearable to the seven. As the two inhuman creatures lay on the ground choking on their blood while still laughing their sinister and forbidding laugh, the Seals walked away without a second glance at the Warlords, each lost in their own thoughts.

The six teenagers followed Isaac to the rooftop of a three-storey building. It was here that they saw for themselves the magnitude of Isasc's spirit shield which they were still in. Their injuries had strangely been cured by Isaac, who gave no explanation as to how he did it. When he stopped abruptly, they followed suit, looking at him curiously. Isaac faced the open sky and again made the same hand seal that he had made when creating his spirit shield, closing his eyes in concentration as he did so. As the other six looked on, the spirit shield began to shrink, its centre focused on Isaac's hand seal. It kept on shrinking until finally it was no more than a tiny violet star resting in his open hand. Isaac closed his hand around the shield, thus dispelling it. He opened his eyes and turned around to see the six teenagers looking at him, neutral yet guarded expressions on their faces. He knew they had a million questions for him.

"Come with me. My boss will tell you all you want to know about just now, how I did what I just did, and so on. He can give you the answers you seek."

"Can we trust you?" asked Jake warily.

"Yes," replied Isaac simply. It was that simple statement, made in such a sincere tone that led the six to agree to trust Isaac. Isaac then drew out from his pocket an earpiece, attached it to his right ear and tapped it once. He tapped it again to enable the earpiece's speakerphone function

"This is Isaac Matthews to Mithril HQ. All of the Warlords and their cursed zombies have been taken care of. The Seals are safe, and they want to know the truth. Orders?"

Ken was completely unprepared for the voice that replied. "This is Commander Karl Fanell speaking." He noticed too that Isaac was caught unawares too, judging by the way he suddenly snapped to attention even there was no one else around except for the seven of them and the cub.

"Sir," said Isaac formally, acknowledging his superior.

"Isaac, the technicians are setting up a warp portal about 100 metres due north from where you are. Head there with the other Seals. I've already told Van to rendezvous with you all there." He was about to continue when Ken broke in suddenly, his voice choked with emotion.

"Dad! You're alive? What about Mom? And Lisa and Sam and Ally? Are they okay?"

"Calm down son," chuckled Karl over the voice connection. "We're fine, all of us."

"Then what happened yesterday? Why did we get attacked by those zombie freaks? Or those hooded cloaked creepy dudes?"

"One thing at a time, son," chided Karl gently, "Please go with Isaac, all of you. Once we meet, I will tell you everything myself. This is not the place for what I have to tell you all. " The connection was cut abruptly. Isaac looked up questioningly at the six youths before him. "So? What's your decision?"

"I'm going, no question about it," Ken stated firmly.

"I'm in, too. I want to know what's going on," added Jake. The other four hesitated slightly, then nodded in agreement. With that, Isaac signaled for them to follow him to the warp point, and then walked off without waiting. The rest looked at each other before following suit, heading out into an unknown place where the answers to their questions were.

"Unbelievable," Matt exclaimed angrily, embarrassment evident in his voice, "the portal is here! Of all places, it had to be here!"

"The tech people always did love their little jokes," Isaac sighed wearily, running a hand through his hair. Jake, Ken and Kyle were clustered behind him. They each wore expressions that were part embarrassment, part revulsion. Strangely, the girls didn't seem to be uncomfortable. Instead they were completely relaxed and were actually having a good laugh at the boys' expense. It was probably due to the fact that the 'warp portal' they had been looking for was in fact situated inside the park's public toilet for ladies.

"Aw, is ickle Mattie scared of going into a ladies' toilet?" smirked Rachel at the guys, thoroughly enjoying the moment. Cassie was caught up in a fit of giggles behind her.

"I'm not scared," mumbled Matt, his face beetroot red, "I just think a guy shouldn't go in these kind of places, that's all."

"You're scared."

Matt only pulled a sour face in response, then marched resolutely into the ladies' toilet as the other three males looked on in admiration.

"Man, he's got guts," Ken said respectfully, "I don't think I've got the balls for what he just did."

"Me neither," Jake added. Isaac nodded fervently in agreement beside him.

"How does he do it?" Kyle asked in an awestruck voice. The three guys stood there, lost in their own thoughts when something clicked in their brains simultaneously. It was Jake who asked the question going on in their minds first. "How does he know there's no one inside there?"

As if on cue, a loud, shrill scream emanated from the ladies' toilet, followed by the voice of a flustered teenage male profusely apologizing for the misunderstanding. The scream began to grow louder and louder, then the sharp sound of a slap resounded from within the toilet, then silence. Then a young fashionably-dressed woman walked out huffily. A moment later, Matt walked out, rubbing the left side of his cheek where the woman had obviously slapped him hard, mistaking him for a pervert. He came to a stop beside the other guys, still massaging his sore cheek and wearing an indignant expression on his face.

"It was occupied," he remarked in a forced conversational tone, clearly trying to pretend that the previous incident had not occurred. On their part, Jake, Ken, Kyle and Isaac in turn made agreeing noises, trying to act as nonchalant as Matt. The two girls, meanwhile, were still giggling at Matt's expense. After a while, Rachel let out a last guffaw, and then strolled over to Matt.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked Matt kindly. While she was still clearly amused by the whole thing, she checked his bruised cheek gently, making soothing noises as she did so, trying sincerely to make up for her behaviour before. On the other hand, Matt's face was growing red again.

"Yeah it's fine," he muttered quickly. Rachel smiled affectionately at him, then punched his shoulder playfully. "You gotta admit though, it was funny."

"Gee thanks. As long as you're happy, what's a bruised cheek?" Matt retorted sarcastically.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Look, me and Cassie will go inside this time, alright? See if the coast is clear and all." With that, the two girls walked away from the five guys into the public washroom. After a while, Cassie stuck her head out from the doorway and flashed them the thumbs-up sign.

Casting furtive looks about them, the five guys walked one by one into the ladies' toilet, Jake leading the pack. Once Kyle, the last person in, had entered the girls closed the door shut and locked it for good measure. The washroom wasn't very big, having space for only three cubicles and two washbasins.

"Kinda cramped," remarked Kyle, scratching his nose absent-mindedly. "So where's this warp portal thingy?"

"It'd be this," replied Isaac as he led them to the last cubicle, the one furthest from the entrance. Pushing the door open, he revealed a swirling vortex of black, flecked with golden streaks. It looked like a miniature black hole. "Time to take a journey into the unknown, boys and girls."

Ken jostled his way to the front. He stood facing the portal quietly, taking a deep breath. Without turning back, his mind set, he took a step into the portal and was suddenly sucked in by the portal, vanishing. Cassie looked questioningly at Jake, who shrugged then followed Ken into the black void. One by one, the other four teenagers stepped into the warp portal until only Isaac was left standing alone in the public toilet, lost in thought when a knock on the door shook him to his senses. It was Van.

Opening the door, Isaac let his old friend in, then closed and locked it again. "They've gone through the portal?" asked Van.

"Yeah. How are things on your side?"

"Brian's on the other side waiting for them. He'll bring them to my dad."

"Then let's not keep the Commander waiting any longer," replied Isaac as he walked into the portal, followed closely behind by Van. As they sped through the portal, a single thought occupied Isaac's mind.

'I hope you all are ready for this, because it's started again, and now there's no turning back.'

A/N: Finally finally finally it's done. School started for me so I haven't had time. I'll try to make up for it with the other chapters.