Note: Sorry it's been so long! Huge thanks to ' and Yume-Kamino for favoriting/following this and getting me back into it. I was planning on really getting the plot going in this one, but when I went back and reread, I realized that I've done very poorly with Michaela's character development. So these are short scenes so you can get to know her better! I promise next chapter will move things along and will not take 3 months to write.
When Ray, Allie, and Gabe got to the temple, it was deserted. They looked everywhere, but they couldn't find anyone, which was really weird, because it was a Saturday, and everyone had practice on Saturdays. Finally they headed up to the war room, in the hope that if no one was there, they could at least use the Stalker Sphere system to find them.
There was someone there. Master Brightmore was standing in front of Argus, Vigilant Seer, shifting screens and keeping a watch over the city. He turned when they came in.
"Shouldn't you be training?" he asked.
"We couldn't find anyone." Allie said, unperturbed by Brightmore's sternness.
Without a word, Master Brightmore turned back to Argus and shifted a few screens around, apparently searching the temple. "Aha," he said after a moment. He might have imagined it, but Ray thought that he seemed more disapproving than usual. He stepped aside to show them a screen he had pulled up. It showed the arena, and nearly everyone was there.
"Why—?" Ray started to ask.
"Occasionally Master Nadia and Michaela will do a practice exercise that the others in the temple find… entertaining. It's a waste of their practice time, in my opinion."
"Right," said Gabe. "Well, we'll just head down there."
Master Brightmore nodded in acknowledgement and the kids left. They headed down to the arena and went up the steps so that they would enter on the level with the stands. Taking seats next to Master Chavez, they looked out at the arena.
It looked like utter chaos.
Michaela was running, jumping, and putting up the occasional shield to defend herself against an enormous water creature. It sort of looked like a cross between a squid and a crab, but it had at least twenty tentacles and where the crab's claws should have been it had rocket launchers instead.
"What are they doing?" Ray asked Master Chavez.
"You remember those one-sided duels Michaela had you practicing last week?" The kids all nodded. "This is where that started."
Looking back at the battle, they could see that now. Michaela wasn't trying to control the creature, just avoid it. And off in one corner, they could now see Master Nadia controlling the creature.
Just as Michaela went to jump over a tentacle that had tried to sweep her off her feet, a second one caught her in the chest and flung her backwards against the wall of the arena. She managed to stay on her feet, but she only narrowly ducked the next tentacle that came at her head.
"How often do they do this?" Allie asked, imagining how exhausting this must be.
"Once or twice a week." Chavez answered. When Ray, Allie, and Gabe all looked at him incredulously he added, "They used to do it every other day."
Right then there was an explosion. In dodging a tentacle, Michaela had missed a missile the crab-squid thing had launched. It blasted her forward, and as she rolled gracefully to her feet, she didn't see a tentacle right in front of her grab her leg and pull her off her feet and out to the edge of the arena again.
"Focus, Michaela!" Master Nadia yelled.
Once again on her feet, Michaela put up a shield against a missile. Then she turned to Nadia and shouted back, "Don't you think I am?!"
Just then there was yet another explosion. Michaela didn't manage to shield herself from this one, and it threw her sideways into the air. She managed to sort of twist herself in the air so that she landed on her back and not her arm, but she landed hard all the same, and didn't immediately get up. Nadia, looking unconcerned, dismissed the crab-squid thing and walked over to her. Standing over her with her hands on her hips, she said, "If you're talking, you're not focused." She held out her hand to help her student to her feet.
If anyone had blinked, they would have missed what happened next. There was a flash of movement and suddenly Nadia was on the ground and Michaela was scrambling to her feet. Michaela quickly took a defensive stance, ready to react if she had too.
"I see you've been working with Master Jaha." Nadia commented dryly. Michaela relaxed her stance and held out a hand to help her teacher to her feet. Everyone in the stands started to grab their things and leave, but Allie, Ray, and Gabe were glued to their seats. They had seen Michaela do practice duels before, and she had never come close to winning one. It didn't matter who she was fighting, or what creature they had, or what creature she had. She simply couldn't control her creatures. But now she had (sort of) defeated a Duel Master without ever summoning a creature. And after what she had told them about the Nature Civilization, it made what she was trying to teach them in her classes a lot more meaningful.
It was a library day. That meant that they sat in the library with Master Nadia and studied tablets. Gabe loved these days. Ray could stand them. Allie could not. If they were studying Darkness creatures, she was fine, but anything else and she was fidgety, restless, and in general extremely irritating. That day they were studying Light creatures, and Gabe, usually the least temperamental of the three, had just whispered to Allie to stop tapping her pencil against the table already for the third time. Allie, being the stubborn person that she was, had obstinately continued tapping her pencil, louder than before.
Ray, completely oblivious to the silent battle occurring across the table from him, asked Gabe if he had found the strengths and weaknesses of a Stalker Sphere yet.
"No, I haven't, because someone," he gave Allie a pointed look, "won't stop tapping her pencil against the table!"
"Hey, it's not my fault we have to study these dumb flying flashlights!" Allie countered.
"Hey, sorry I asked," Ray said.
Just then Master Nadia walked over to check their work, and Gabe and Allie stopped arguing.
"Um, Nadia?" They all turned. Michaela was standing half in the doorway. "The cabinet with the bandages is locked."
Nadia sighed. "Let me see."
Michaela stepped through the doorway and turned so that they could see her right side. The kids gasped. Nadia looked unimpressed. Michaela's elbow was a bloody mess, and there were scrapes all up and down her arm. When she turned her head they could see she had a few scratches on the right side of her face, and a cut on her cheek.
"What happened?" Nadia asked, looking at her arm.
"I fell up the steps."
"Up the steps?" Allie muttered.
"Which steps?"
"The ones to the War Room." Michaela said, blushing a little.
"I've told you not to run going up those steps!"
"I wasn't running! I just sort of… tripped."
Nadia sighed and handed her a key. "Disinfectant and bandages." she said.
"Got it," Michaela said and started to leave.
"And put something on that cut!" Nadia shouted after her,
"Right!"
"How did she hurt herself that much if she just tripped?" Gabe asked.
"You would be amazed," was all Nadia said.
"But she's so graceful when she's dueling," Ray commented. "How is she so clumsy when she's not?"
"She used to be that clumsy during duels," Nadia explained. "She had to learn how to be graceful. Now, back to work."
"This sucks," Allie complained.
"On the contrary," Gabe said, "I find it extremely educational."
"Don't let Nadia hear that," this from Michaela. "It's supposed to be a punishment, you helping me."
That it was. Ray, Allie, and Gabe had been assigned to help Michaela re-organize the library after one of their escapades.
"Look, could we just get this done? The talking isn't going to make it go any faster." Ray was in rather a bad mood that day, and no one wanted to make it worse, so they stayed quiet.
They had been working for a while when Michaela started to hum quietly. None of the others recognized the tune, but they were all fascinated by it, and stopped working to listen. After a moment Michaela looked up. "What?" she asked. Apparently the humming had been subconscious, as she had no idea why the others had stopped.
"What's that song?" Allie asked.
"What's what song?"
"The one you were humming."
When she heard this, Michaela paled suddenly. "I was humming?"
"Yeah,"
"Brilliant," she muttered, and ran out. Ray, Gabe, and Allie exchanged a glance. They had thought they finally understood Michaela, but apparently they still didn't.
A few moments later Michaela came back in. "All clear," she said. Seeing the confused looks on the others' faces, she put on one of her own. Then she smacked herself on the forehead and said, "I am an absolute idiot." This did not clear up any of the kids' confusion. "Let's take a break, and I'll explain. I am an absolute idiot." She sat down on a table and Ray, Gabe and Allie found seats around her.
What she told them only took a minute or two, but the questions afterward took a long time, and she didn't have many answers for them. But even without the answers, a lot of things made a lot more sense.
It seemed that Michaela had an inexplicable ability: when she played music, sang, or even hummed, the Veil would open and summon a creature. There was no logic to it; the only consistent thing was that the breach always happened in the next room, or on the neighboring street—always a few yards away. She pulled an unpainted wooden recorder out of her bag to show them. This was the only thing besides what she was wearing that she had had when she was found. The recorder was rough, clearly hand made, and had the initials C.I. carved into the wood near the bottom.
"C.I…." Ray said under his breath. Then he thought of something. "Hey! How do you know you're name's Michaela, anyway?"
"I don't." Michaela replied, putting the recorder away. "This was the best clue we had, though. She held out her arm, showing them a simple leather bracelet with a snap for a clasp. 'Michaela' was written on it.
"I don't know if this is my name, or a friend's name, or my grandmother's name. But it's a name that has something to do with me, so it's what I use."
Just then a Stalker Sphere zoomed into the library. "Back to work, guys." Michaela said.
Note: This one starts half way through The Deep End Part 2. Sorry if the jumping around is driving you crazy, but I figure it takes me long enough to write a chapter without adding episodes where Michaela says one line.
"Gabriel, take the right." Master Nadia said. They split up, each looking for the Helm of Ultimate Technology in a different section of the force-field generator room. Gabe was swimming along, looking to each side, when a burst of electricity hit Gargle. Both of them were thrown back to the ground.
"Uh, Master Nadia?" Gabe called, watching as Seneschal and the Choten moved toward him. "Found it." Seneschal turned his arms into sword blades and stood over them, threatening. Gabe couldn't help but think it wouldn't be a threat for much longer.
He was right. But just as the Water creature moved to slice them into bits, Gabe remembered his gauntlet's mana shield and activated it. Even so, the force of the blow threw all three of them to the ground, leaving the Choten smiling at them patronizingly. That is, until Rusalka threw him to the ground.
"You've learned well, little Nadia," the Choten said, getting to his feet. "But what will the Masters think of your disregard for their precious rules, acolyte?"
"I am no longer an acolyte. I am the Water Civilization's Duel Master."
The Choten smiled. "Not while I'm alive." He then reached out his hand and summoned the large serpent-like creature Ray, Allie, and Gabe had seen their first day with Kaijudo. "I believe you are acquainted with the Rapids Lurker? Shall we?"
The two Water creatures began to fight. While the Choten controlled the Rapids Lurker, Nadia had to focus on defending herself against Seneschal, leaving Rusalka to fight on her own. But just as the Rapids Lurker was about to deliver a blow that would have defeated Rusalka, something grabbed it from behind. It was Steam Star, and standing behind it, controlling it, was Michaela.
The Choten turned to see who was meddling in his nearly won battle—and froze. The world around him faded out. He saw in front of him a little girl, eight or nine years old, with pretty brown hair in a braid and bright brown eyes, clutching a new book to her chest and smiling at him. A hundred other pictures of her flashed through his memory, of her reading, laughing, singing, dancing, running, crying, smiling at him.
In that moment the Choten was unfocused, Rusalka flew at both him and Seneschal, knocking them down. The Choten banged his head on the ground, and the Rapids Lurker swam away, no longer under his control. Seneschal, though, got up and continued attacking Nadia. Michaela had lost control of Steam Star and was trying to banish it, so Gargle took the lead. He swam over to the fallen Helm and put it on.
Just as Seneschal had Nadia cornered, he froze. "What… is… happening?" he asked.
"Gargle's what's happening. Gargle has the power. All Water creatures now obey Gargle." He snapped, and Seneschal flung himself to the ground.
"We have to stop that dragon before it destroys the city!" Gabe said.
"Dragon?" Michaela had banished Steam Star and run over to them.
"What are you doing here?" Nadia yelled at her student. "You could have been killed!"
"So could you." This seemed to take Nadia aback, and she didn't say anything. Michaela turned to Gabe. "Where's Ray? I need to punch his nose in."
Nadia and Rusalka shared a telepathic conversation. "Come on," she said, and jumped on Rusalka's back. Michaela followed her, and they swam off.
Meanwhile Gargle had been coming up with a plan. "Big problem," he said. "Big solution."
The big solution showed up fast. "Is that a small fish," Allie said when they saw it. "Or a small country?" It was indeed a big fish. An enormous, three-horned, orange-eyed fish, in fact.
Rusalka swam over with Nadia and Michaela on her back. They both jumped off, and Michaela headed straight for Ray.
"This was your idea, I presume?" She asked.
"No! I mean, sort of, but—"
"We had to come to get Ray's memories back." Allie explained.
"Memories?"
"The Choten stole them. We had to come here to get them back."
"And you couldn't have gotten one of the Masters to help?"
"They were in a meeting!"
Michaela smacked him on the arm.
"Ow!"
"You don't think the Masters would have paused their meeting because the Choten stole your memories? Really?"
"I guess we didn't really think…"
"That's just it. You have to think. You have to think or things go wrong, every time. Things go wrong often enough without you helping them along."
Nadia cleared her throat. "Now then, can we focus on the big problem here?"
"The dragon?"
"The dragon."