Chapter 3

Caiden sat on the sofa across from Ryker while Emerson lay on the sofa next to him, still unconscious. The bush that Emerson had fallen in had been especially spiky so his back was a mess of red marks and cut, some of the pricks were still stuck in and so Caiden was going at his brother's back with a pair of tweezers. He had a little bowl where he'd put all the pricks and there was a pile that was getting bigger and bigger, how had all of these pricks come from one bush, Caiden asked himself.

Emerson began to stir and so Caiden prodded him in the flabby bit of his back with the tweezers and he jolted awake.

"What happened?" Emerson asked.

"We settled our differences." Ryker justified.

"The last thing I remember was talking and then seeing a slight movement and then nothing, and why does my head hurt so much?" Emerson asked confused. "Oh…" he continued as the realisation dawned upon him. "He hit me didn't he?"

"Uhuh." Caiden confirmed smiling and Emerson groaned.

"Why does my back sting so much?"

"Oh, that, well you kind of fell into a bush."

"What?"

"A really prickly, and now reasonably crushed bush." Caiden said laughing and Emerson shot up and stormed towards Ryker who just sat there calmly. Emerson swung a punch that would have felled many a man, but with unnatural speed, Ryker grabbed his wrist and twisted. This surprised Emerson, but he wasn't done. His other hand shot out and grabbed Ryker's jacket, he yanked the bigger man forward and met his face with his forehead and Ryker grunted and released his grip.

Now that Emerson had both hands at his disposal, he planned to finish the fight quickly and abruptly before his opponent could even get up. His right hand shot forward again, this time when Ryker tried to grab it, Emerson's other hand batted it away. Emerson's fist smashed into Ryker's mouth and Ryker grunted, this time in obvious pain. Emerson prepared to strike again but this time, Ryker was ready and when Emerson was tensed to strike, he flicked up some shadows which took out Emerson's legs so that he fell forward and Ryker launched his knee up and caught Emerson full in the face, the crunching sound was sickening.

Caiden expected Emerson to stay down, maybe even be unconscious again but he slowly rose to his feet and he backed away from Ryker, giving him space to stand up. Caiden could tell things were about to get nasty.

"That's just dirty, using magic in a hand to hand brawl!" Emerson snarled and his whole body began to crackle with energy, but Ryker just shrugged.

Emerson lifted his right hand and a powerful stream of energy shot towards where Ryker had just been, vaporizing a whole through the sofa. Ryker rolled up and sent a spear of shadows straight at Emerson but he just brought up a shield of energy and absorbed the spear.

Caiden could now see the sphere of energy that now encircled Emerson; he'd got a proper shield. Ryker either didn't notice, or just didn't care because he continued his onslaught. Emerson's shield was meant to stop big, powerful attacks that would threaten his safety so every so often, Ryker would just send in a slither of darkness just to trip his opponent up of do a little bit of damage.

They traded fire, Emerson firing streams of energy and Ryker commanding the shadows, both powerful magicians, both doing a considerable amount of damage to the house. When it seemed that neither was going to get through the other one's defences, they decided to resort back to hand to hand and charged.

As they got closer, Emerson began to drift down slightly and at the moment before they struck, Emerson went low and tackled Ryker, forcing him backwards and taking him down. Emerson raised his hand and it started to glow, the stream readying, it let loose but missed considerably because at the moment before it fired, Emerson was tackled, knocked off by his brother before he could deal the killing blow. Caiden restrained him and Ryker got up and brushed himself off.

"Don't even think about it!" Caiden warned.

"I wasn't, I was just going to fetch some biscuits."

Half an hour later, they all sat on the sofa drinking tea and munching on biscuits, discussing the matter at hand. Caiden had calmed his brother down and managed to persuade both of them not to try and kill each other.

"So will you help us?" Caiden asked finally.

"I don't see any reason why not." Ryker responded.

"Great, well you might want to prepare while we go and recruit the other members of the team and we'll meet you where we discussed in three days, ok?"

"Agreed, as long as your younger brother gets his act together, we don't want any more accidents." He said the last word as if it meant something much worse, which, to be fair, it did. Caiden and Ryker both stood up and shook hands, while Emerson stood up and grinned and Ryker who just ignored him.

"See ya in three days then Ryko." Emerson said and led the way out.

They got in the van and Caiden sat down and sighed, exasperated and made no move to start the van.

"What?" Emerson asked.

"You really do have a way with people, don't you?" Caiden complained.

"It's one of my special talents; it's what makes me unique." Emerson insisted. "Anyway, whose next?"

"A young woman who lives in the highlands, not far from here, practises air mastery actually."

"Oh right, what's her name?"

"Amya Radiant."

"Really?" Emerson asked.

"Yep, her name is actually Amya Radiant."

"Well is she, ummm… radiant?"

"You can judge that by yourself."

"I'm looking forward to this." Emerson said excitedly.

"I expected as much." Caiden agreed knowingly.

Caiden started the van and they set off down the winding, long country roads.

"I knew I would be able to do it." Emerson muttered.

"Do what?"

"Beat Ryker, at first I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew, but then I got into my usual rhythm and it started going pretty well, if you hadn't stopped me, I reckon we'd only have four people in the team." Emerson said cockily.

"He wasn't trying his hardest." Caiden muttered.

"I'm sorry?"

"Ryker, I've seen him fight properly, that wasn't his best." Caiden said louder.

"You're just saying that…"

"You should get a rematch then, find out that way."

"I might, yeah." Emerson said, but he didn't sound too sure about it.

They sat in silence for a while, the trees and fields skimming by.

"How exactly do you know Amya, and why is she in the team, does she owe you any favours?" asked Emerson and Caiden shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, no, she's doesn't owe me anything as such but…"

"But what?" Emerson questioned.

"Well, we were kind of… involved… together… kind of…" Caiden muttered looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh, right…" Emerson said, trying not to laugh. "Why do you think she'll help us?"

"She's a good person and so hopefully she will see the goodness of what we are going to try and do and not just the suicidal side." Caiden said hopefully. "Hopefully…" he repeated, not very hopeful.

"That didn't sound very hopeful…" Emerson said.

"That's because I'm not really very hopeful." Caiden admitted.

"I didn't think so."

There was an awkward silence until Emerson broke it.

"It's because of the whole, almost certainly suicidal factor isn't it?" Emerson assumed.

"Yeah, pretty much, I guess it doesn't seem quite as appealing as if it wasn't suicidal does it?" Caiden said, baffled.

"Couldn't imagine why…" Emerson agreed equally so.

They both sat there thinking for a while, both completely baffled, as the van slowly trudged down the country roads, the low hum of the engine the only audible sound.

"Could it be that people don't like the idea of danger, or maybe even that they're afraid of dying?" Caiden suggested.

"Maybe, but why?" Emerson wondered.

"I dunno… people are weird." Caiden figured.

"Yeah…" Emerson agreed. "So when you say she lives in the highlands, do you mean…"

"What, no she has a house, she doesn't actually live on a mountain, just on a hill."

"Oh, it's just, knowing the people whom you've been 'involved' with, she could quite possibly have lived in a cave."

"That is it…" Caiden began and pulled the van over to the side of the road.

"No, I didn't mean…" Emerson started but then tried a new tack. "It could be a nice cave…"

Caiden grabbed his brother and got him in a headlock.

"I'm not counting out electricity or anything, no; I'm sure she watches the TV just as much as the rest of us…" Emerson continued.

"She doesn't live in a cave!" Caiden shouted.

"Ooohhh, protective are we?" Emerson taunted, and then his face turned serious. "Look at that!"

"I'm not falling for that."

"No, seriously." Emerson insisted and Caiden glanced over in the direction that Emerson was indicating."

"It's a car." He pointed out, stating the obvious.

"One, why would it stop at the same time as us, I haven't exactly seen thousands of cars racing down this road and huge traffic jams taking ages to bypass…" Emerson began to explain but Caiden interrupted him.

"It's a coincidence, that's all. What, do you think we have some creepy murderous stalker?" Caiden asked, only half joking.

"Let me finish." His brother insisted. "And two, I wasn't suspicious about the car."

Caiden looked at the driver for the first time; he was a young man, possibly of the same age as Caiden, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The thing that really gave it away was the Stetson.

Angelo Scraper winked at them and pulled out his revolver.

"Oh poop…" Caiden said and threw himself down, which wasn't easy in a confined space. The first bullet went straight through one of the windows and it didn't even crack, there was just a perfect circle where the bullet had made a hole. However the second one smashed the window and the shards of glass rained down on them both, none of them big enough to do proper damage, but some went straight through the material and into skin.

"Well, I was right." Caiden said sadly and Emerson whimpered.

"Are you okay?" Caiden asked, fearing the worst.

"No." Emerson said in despair and Caiden got worried. "My suit, it's ruined!" Emerson wailed and Caiden rolled his eyes.

"We're gonna have to get out of here." Caiden said.

"Do you have a plan?" Emerson said expecting the obvious.

"Actually yes." Caiden said surprising his brother. "But you might want to say goodbye to the van…"

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Emerson asked rhetorically.

"Are you ready for a terrible plan?" Caiden asked happily.

"When am I not?" Emerson answered grinning.

"That's our plan?" Emerson asked exasperated, after Caiden had explained it to him. "I've seen some terrible plans, and I thought this was going to be one of them, but no this is impressive, even by your standards."

"Yep, that is our plan, and it was the only thing that I could come up with."

"Wow, I am seriously worried for your well-being, if that's the only thing that you could come up with…" Emerson didn't finish his sentence, but left it hanging in the air.

"Speak for yourself." Caiden retorted. "You didn't come up with anything."

"That's because you're the brainy one, I'm the… Anyway, you can't expect me to agree with this."

"Actually, I kind of can." Caiden said. "You see, if you'd come up with something else, then we could have done that, but as it is, I'm the only with a plan, so you do what I say."

"Yeah, but…" Emerson started. "Whatever."

"Ok, I'll distract Scraper, and then you do what I said."

Emerson mumbled something about how he was never letting Caiden come up with their plan again, and then he nodded.

Caiden opened his side door and sneaked out. Angelo had just been sitting in his car waiting for them to do something, but with his eye on them and his hand on his revolver, he could stop them from getting too far. He saw the flicker of movement and Caiden Tate ran out from behind the van, keeping low with his arms ablaze. Angelo flicked out his revolver and fired, none of the bullets found their mark, Tate was quick. As soon as he switched to reload, his eyes still on Caiden, suddenly, the fire engulfing Caiden's arms grew brighter, so bright that Angelo was temporarily blinded.

When he opened his eyes he saw the van that was speeding towards him, he saw Caiden lift his arm, fire streaming from it and Emerson diving out through the door of the van, and then blackness.

Angelo Scraper opened his eyes to see a face grinning down at him.

"He's awake." Emerson Tate pointed out and his brother's face appeared next to his.

"So he is." Caiden Tate agreed.

Angelo appeared to be in some warehouse, he was sitting, shackled to a chair with Emerson and Caiden Tate standing over him. Across from him was a desk and dotted around the room were similar layouts of chairs and tables.

"Is this where you have your group interrogation sessions then?" Angelo asked jokingly but got no response. "So, I assume I've been captured then, haven't I?" he continued.

"Yep, that's about right." Caiden agreed. "It's what you would've done to us; you probably wouldn't have killed us, not yet, not before you've had a nice friendly bragging session."

"I probably would've done a lot more torturing by now." Angelo admitted. "You should try doing some of that, it's great fun."

"Maybe, except we're actually humane, unlike you." Caiden replied.

"I'm humane, just a lot more fun than most people." Angelo insisted and Caiden punched him.

"Ow… I thought you weren't going to do any torturing." Angelo pointed out.

"That isn't torturing, it's hitting, it's fun." Caiden insisted, using Angelo's words against him and Angelo scowled.

"I'm guessing you wanna know what we're planning and were we're situated and all that…" Angelo asked.

"Yep, that kind of thing would be helpful and very much appreciated." Caiden agreed.

"Well, you know how it is, I can't really help you in any way, I mean I do know everything you want to know, I'm just not going to tell you anything, fair enough?"

"You aren't really in a position to bargain though are you, I mean you were sent in against us without any backup, now you're captured and no-one's coming to save you. Not the best position really is it?"

Angelo laughed. "Ok, ok… Let me tell you a secret." He started. "You know how me and my sister are always together?"

"Yes." Caiden answered warily.

"Well, the reason of that is…" Angelo continued, "We're kind of connected in some way."

Caiden looked up warily. "Where is she then, where's your sister?"

"Well, the fun thing is, we're connected by a telepathic link, so I could tell her anything I wanted, where we are, who we're up against, oh and who to bring on my daring rescue." As he said that they heard a crash as the door splintered against the wall and Archie Bellows lumbered in followed by Angela Scraper and Sickening.

"Ah…" Emerson said and immediately his body began to crackle with energy but it stopped when he got hit by a chair. As Archie picked up another chair a throwing knife cut clean through the shackles as if they were made of butter. Angelo pulled out the throwing knife, got up and gave it back to his sister.

Meanwhile Caiden had engaged in combat with Sickening and Emerson was trying to dodge the chairs that were being chucked his way. Neither battle was going very well. When Archie realised that he had thrown pretty much all the chairs in the room, he picked up a desk, threw it and lumbered after it. Emerson ducked and the desk flew overhead and crashed against the wall, making a huge dent where it had struck. However Emerson could not dodge the huge tank of a man that followed the desk and he was launched backwards into the wall after being shoulder barged by Archie.

Caiden wasn't having much better luck; he was obviously outmatched in close combat so he was trying to use some magic. However, whenever he made any move to summon any fire, Sickening just kicked him, or punched him. As Sickening came in and grabbed him, Caiden let himself be pulled forward and head-butted his opponent in the face and Sickening yowled and backed away. Caiden saw his advantage and his arms became covered in fire, he threw them out in front of him and as the streams of fire were about to shoot forward, Angelo's fist crashed into his jaw.

Caiden staggered backwards and swung his arms wildly to stop Angelo from getting closer. However he didn't notice Angela coming up behind him and he backed right into her and she got an arm around his neck. Caiden's face went red and he gasped for breath but couldn't suck any in. He struggled wildly, but his attempts became weaker and weaker until his body went slack.

"Let go." Angelo commanded.

"But…" his sister protested.

"Let go." Angelo repeated. "There's no point in killing either of them, they can lead their merry band on a search for us and then we can kill them when the time is right."

Angela shrugged and released her hold. She dragged the unconscious Caiden to where his brother lay unconscious. Emerson looked bad; he had cuts all over his face and a nasty gash on his forehead where a chair had struck him. One of his arms was bent the wrong way, the entire right side of his head was covered in blood and his right ear was a mess.

He stirred and Archie lifted up his head and slammed it back down on the hard metal floor, Emerson didn't make a noise but there was a sickeningly loud bang. Angelo led Sickening and his sister towards the door leaving Archie to deal with the brothers.

"What shall I do with them?" Archie asked.

"Leave them on the side of the road somewhere." Angelo answered.

"What do we do next?" Sickening asked.

"We wait." Angelo answered and Sickening groaned, and with that, they were gone.

A/N: Violence, violence and more violence here, in fact all the real violence so far. Hope you like it all. If you hate violence, why are you reading this? Anyway, review, read on, whatever. There are more chapters up already and I should be updating more at a steady pace. Next chapter, you meet someone new, she's cool, hope you like her. Thanks for reading.

Mangobean.