Dawn of a New Era
Chapter 13: Cobi's Family Problems
Jasmine's Point of View:
I felt myself drift slowly awake. It took me more then just a few moments to realize I was in one of the spare rooms, no, it was June's room. I guess the sleep really knocked me out that I forgot about our new team member. I looked around and noticed that I had fallen asleep on my stomach and June's head was laid in the small of my back. I tried to move out from under her and not wake her up, but I failed miserably.
"Is it really morning already?" She asked me tiredly.
"You can go back to sleep if you want." I told her.
"Nah, I better get use to waking up this early. Time to rise and shine." She got up off my back and stretched at the end of her bed. "So what do we gotta do first?" She yawned.
"Why don't you go hope in the shower and get change to wake you up? I'm going to go out and start in on making breakfast." I told her.
"Do you need any help in the kitchen?"
"If you're offering, I'd be nice if you could get some stuff out for me while I'm starting everything up so we can just throw it in the pan. Then you can help me out with the cooking so it will get done twice as fast."
"Sounds good, just let me get changed and I'll be in the kitchen in a minute." I nodded to her and walked out of her room and into mine to change quick before we started up on breakfast. I changed out of my clothes from yesterday and put on some work clothes for the day. I grabbed myself a set of light blue jean shorts and a lavender strapped shirt like always. My favorite clothes to wear around the robot, or anywhere really. I did a few other essentials for myself and then hurried off to the kitchen. June still wasn't there, so I thought I'd start while waiting on her. I pulled out the pancakes this morning and started making the batter while I also started up heating a couple pans. June then decided to come in and stretched once more before he nose picked up on what I was cooking.
"Geese, what are you cooking all that food for Jazz? An Army?" She asked me bewildered. I laughed at her comment.
"No, but it often feels like it when Rover, Rose, and Olivia pretty much wipe out the refrigerator. The team are picky eaters, so I have to make a lot of everything each morning."
"Are you always the one who cooks breakfast?" June asked. "No one else does it, or are they too lazy to do it?"
"Nah, since I became part of the team, I've been making breakfast for them, they don't do it because I like doing it, besides they always cook lunch and dinner for me. But we all do the dishes, which isn't that bad since the team got a dish washer, we just have to load and unload it now." I said, putting some pancake batter on the pan. "Can you watch these for me while I get some sausage cooking?"
"Sure." She said, taking my place while I opened up the sausage and got it cooking. "What normally happens when you guys are here, not on a mission or anything?"
"If any of us are not training or learning, it's usually our down time to do what we want. Olivia is always building stuff, Gabriella is experimenting in her lab, Annabel is meditating, and Rose and Rover are trying to kill each other. Although, since Rover and Gabriella got together, they've been spending a lot of time together so Rose has been trying some new piloting games we got to pass the time since she's not fighting with her brother." I said, turning the sausage in my pan.
"That looks really good." She said, flipping the pancakes. "What do you do during your down time?"
"I read, write, draw, play some music, and before you were apart of the team, I would talk to you over the webcam." I started to cut up the sausage in the pan. "I've also been helping out the team when they need help. I've meaning to ask. Besides the power primate and using that double bladed sword, what else can you do? I saw some of your moves back on Yourux 4, but what else can you do, and what do you like to do in your free time?"
"Me?" She asked, shocked. "Well in my free time I love to read and listen to music the most. As for what I can do, I've been trained in the art of every weapon made to man. A sword, whip, double blade, a knife, you name it and I know it; there are only a few I don't know since you rarely find them throughout the galaxies. But I mostly stick with my double blade that I normally have on my back. But I wish I had at least had the skills that you have Jazz."
"June.." I looked at her sadly.
"I'm not really talking about the hand to hand combat, but the power primate, I wish I could use that at least half as good as you. And I wish I could write and draw, but the most I've close to is drawing stick figures and writing no better then a six year old child."
"Well.." I had to think a moment about that. "Annabel is having a lesson with you about the power primate today, so she'll help you with that, I learned from her too. As for the writing and drawing skills, I can help you with those."
"Really?" I turned to her and watched her eyes sparkle with excitement.
"Yeah J. After your lesson with Annabel, I'll squeeze you in for a little while before a class with the others and we'll have another lesson before bed. Can you work with that?"
"Yes! Oh thank you Jazz!" She tackled me with one of her famous hugs, and returned it, but looked over at the food she was cooking and worry hit my face.
"Uh, June?" I called to her from over my shoulder.
"Yeah Jazz?" She asked pulling away from me and looking at me happily.
"If you don't take off those pancakes soon, they're going to be blacker then Annabel's fur." I told her. She shrieked and ran to them, pulling then off, and sighing when she only saw that they were a dark brown. "Always watch you food J."
"Thanks Jazz, you're saving me more times then I could ever count."
"It's the least I can do after you joined the team and became one of our closet friends." I said. "The sausage is down now, so I'm going to start on some fruit for the others, that only Annabel will eat."
"The team doesn't like fruit?" I shrugged at her question.
"They stick with mostly junk food and whatever I make them. Though Gabriella and Rover will have there moments, you have to cram veggies and fruits down Rose and Olivia's throats."
"Oh I feel so sorry for you." She laughed. I soon joined in and once we quieted down after a while, we finished making breakfast just as the first half of the team and most of the early risers showed up.
"Good Morning Jasmine, June." Annabel told us.
"Morning Annabel." I said to her. I then turned toward the two monkeys in love and grinned. "Morning love birds, you want a heart shaped pancake to start the day?" June snickered at my remark and Rover growled at me.
"Say that again, I dare ya kid." He said in a dead tone voice, filled with rage.
"Relax Rover." Gabriella told him, placing her hand on his arm. "She's just playing with us, there's no need to hurt her."
"Yeah Rover, geese." I pretended to sigh. "A girl can't even make a simple joke about her two friends that feel in love because of her help? If we can't simply joke around then how do you expect June and I to stay? We only decided to join so we could pull pranks all day long 'til the sun sets below the clouds." I said to them with a lot of sarcasm in my voice and a grin on my face.
"But you'd miss us." Rover stated, his sarcasm coming out as well.
"That's alright; the girls would leave you high and dry in a heart beat and come with us. Wouldn't you guys?" I asked Gabriella, Annabel and June.
"Oh yeah, I've with you girl, all the way." June said.
Gabriella stuck her hands up in the air in the from of surrender. "Neutral." She called before walking away from her boyfriend and toward the table where Annabel was already seated, eating her fruit and pancakes.
"I refuse to be apart of this debate." She said before turning back to her fruit. Rover and I stared each other down, that was until we heard the alarm go off. We all dropped what we were doing and ran to the command center. We all turned to Gabriella who gave us her little speech.
"It appears from our scanners that we have detected a large group of formless on the planet, outside of a populated city. The planet is known as Qunner 9." She told us.
"Qunner 9? That's my birth planet, my family is down there!" June shouted.
"Don't worry June, we'll help them." I told her. "Team, prepare for landing! Hyper Force, Go!" My team ran to the controls and quickly landed us at on the surface of the planet. With so many people around and the formless in the town, it would be too dangerous to use the robot to get ride of them all, so it had to be done by hand.
As soon as the doors to our robot were opened we were flooded with formless in less then two seconds. June raced forward in front of us and cut our way open and then ran into town, probably to look for her family. The team and I quickly followed behind, defeating as many formless as we could, while trying to catch up with June.
"Annabel! You and the others handle the formless here and then keep moving after June! I'm going now so that she doesn't have to fight on her own!" Annabel was able to glance back at me before she had to turn back to the formless surrounding her. I ran after June, eliminating the formless that stood in my way. When I finally caught up with her, I saw she was protecting two people that seamed to be the same age as June's parents. Possibly an aunt and uncle?
The formless swarmed around her faster then she could defeat them. I raced to help her when I green flash of light raced in front of me. When the light died off, I saw that it was a sword of green light, the power primate; I looked at the wielder of the sword, gasping at who it was.
"Cobi?" I couldn't believe the sight before me, it had been so long. He looked up from the ooze of the once formless in front of him and gazed surprisingly over at me. We were trapped for the moment in each others eyes before more formless moved in and gathered around us. Cobi raced forward in the blink of an eye and faced them off with his sword. I joined him using only my normal moves as to conserve my energy if the case called for it. Soon though, the formless dwindled down to the point where all that was left was ooze lying on the ground, before it gathered itself together in large globs and floated off into space.
Once they were truly out of the way I walked over to Cobi's side. He looked up at me, the glowing sword in his hands vanished as he let go of the hilt of the sword. "It's good to see you again, Jasmine." He said to me. I smiled up at him.
"It's good to see you too, Cobi. So what brings you here?" I asked him.
"This is my home planet; I was visiting for the time being and was just about to move on when these formless showed up. So I stayed behind to protect my family, even if they didn't want me to." He looked away from me sadly. I stepped closer to him and placed my hand under his chin to make sure his eyes met mine.
"Why wouldn't they want your help?" I asked him, before he could say something about it, the two people who hid behind June came out and the woman started yelling at Cobi.
"This is why we didn't want you to come back Caleb!" The woman yelled. "I can't believe you would disobey your father and me on the fact of using that power of yours! I would have rather died then be saved by it!"
"Then maybe I should have left you to the formless!" Cobi shouted back at her, it was the first time I had seen anger in his face.
"What's with the family feud?" I asked June in a whisper as she came over to me.
"First off, to set things strait, that woman yelling at Cobi is my aunt and Cobi is my cousin, whose real name is Caleb, but no one calls him that as you can see." She whispered back. "As for what's going on, it's the fact of any kind of power that not 'normal' so to say, like the power primate. One this planet, it's an even fifty-fifty that people can live with it and some hate it. It's what broke up our family. My side of the family and Cobi didn't mind the power, but the rest of our family did. It was another reason why we left, so we weren't always fighting with them." It was then that the team came up and Rover smiled at the fact of seeing Cobi again.
"Cobi! Man is it good to see you, even when you got a woman screaming you in the face!" Cobi looked away from his mother and grinned as he looked back at Rover. His mother continued to scream at him even though he wasn't listening anymore.
"Rove!" He shouted. "It good to see you too man! It's been too long, how are you and she doing, along with all the other girls?"
"Just as annoying as ever, as for her, we're together, thanks to the kid." Rover said. "What it's been like a few months?"
"I have no idea Rove; it's been hard to remember much when you're constantly on the go, even if no one is there with you." He said. It was so unlike the Cobi I knew. The Cobi I knew was gentlemen like and kind, not really out going like he is now, maybe it's because he's with Rover and he needs to vent a bit.
"Caleb, don't ignore me!" His mother screamed.
"I can and I will!" He yelled back at her.
"That's it!" His father yelled. "I've had it with this! There is no way of getting through to our son, then he will be our son no longer!" I gasped as well as most of the team, Cobi stood motionless as Rover tried to shake him out of it. His father looked back at him. "You are a lone man now Caleb, go, and never come back or show your face again, because we certainly don't want to see it." Cobi's once father and mother then strolled back into town while Cobi stood back with us, no emotion in his face. I walked up to him and touched the side of his face. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as he turned to face me.
"Cobi?" I whispered softly. "Where is all of your stuff?"
"I have nothing." He cried. "I came back here to try and reconnect with my parents, but they wouldn't do it unless I gave up on my powers, to show that they meant business, they burned my room to nothing, along with all my stuff. I couldn't believe them, so with the money I had on me, I stayed at a hotel that welcomed people like me. When I went to pack my ship to head out, I found out that my ship had been blown up not ten minutes ago. The last bit of my stuff was on that ship, and I was almost all set to go again, then the formless came, and I saw my parents about to be killed, and as much as I hated them, I couldn't let them die. You know the rest from there." I felt so sorry for him. I pulled his head down on my shoulder and let him cry out the lost he had dealt with. I signaled for Rover to get the little stuff he had, which was only his backpack on his shoulder and the rest of us tried to move him back to the robot. "Where are you taking me?" He asked, looking up from my shoulder.
"We're all heading back to the Super Robot." I whispered to him. "You're coming with us."
"I have no home now." He stated quietly. I abruptly stopped and turned to face to him. He stopped and sadly yet surprised like stopped and looked into my eyes.
"Your home is with us." I told him. "We can't bear to leave you again; we're all horrible at good-byes."
"You mean you and June are the ones who are horrible with good-byes." Rover said, trying to lighten the mood just a bit. I think it worked a bit; we got a small smile out of Cobi.
"Cobi, they are right." We heard a voice to the side of us speak. We all turned and watched as an older woman stepped out and walked over to Cobi.
"Gram?" Cobi and June said surprised at the same time. The woman smiled and nodded.
"It's been too long." She commented. "But Cobi, it is in your best interest that you leave with this girl, June and their friends. They hold a better life for you then this trash heap ever would."
"What could be awaiting me if I did go with them Gram?" He asked her.
"Adventure, like that which you seek, friendship that you have already gotten, but will become deeper like a family, and to use your power that others here may hate, for good." She replied to him.
"And maybe a girlfriend while he's at it." June snickered at her own remark.
"Not helping June." Cobi seethed threw his teeth, clenching his fist. Their grandmother smiled at the sight of her two grand kids
"Cobi," His grandmother sighed bringing him into her arms. "Your parents are stubborn, but they will soon regret there decision, but for now, its best that you don't stay here. Go with them, and know this, not all of your family is against you. If there wasn't a mixture of us that liked and dislike the power, we wouldn't have anything to debate on Friday night." Cobi chuckled at his grandmother and gave her a quick huge.
"Thanks Gram." He told her.
"It's what I live for Cobi." She smiled. "Come here June before the two of you take off." June flew into her grandmother's arms and then hurried back to my side once she was done. "Child." She addressed me. "Come to old Gram and tell me of yourself." I walked over to her and she entrapped me in her arms. "Watch out for my grandbabies." She whispered to me. "Especially Cobi, help him heal, Chosen One, I know you have the power to do it." I stepped back and blinked at her. How could she possibly know that I was the chosen one?
"How?" I was able to whisper before my voice gave out on my question I needed to ask.
"You are not the only Chosen One I have seen in my life time child, nor do I hope that you'll be the last. Go child, before any of you change your mind." I slowly nodded my head to her and we all headed back to the Super Robot. Annabel quickly got some food for Cobi to eat and Gabriella made him something to drink. I grabbed him a blanket and the others set the robot for take off.
"Cobi?' I address him next to me. He looked up from his cup, where he had been watching the ripples in it. "The team, June and I have to go quickly to have a meeting; will you be ok out here by yourself?"
"I think so." He said. "I'm just going to rest a bit." He said before putting down his mug and lying down on the floor. I felt extremely sorry for him, and gave him a sad look as the team and I walked out into the meditation room, far away so that Cobi's ears couldn't hear.
"What's the problem kid?" Rover asked me.
"Cobi, he needs a place to stay, and I think we have another room on the robot for him, if you all agree in the vote." I said.
"Are you suggesting…?" Gabriella asked half of her question, not needing to say the rest and I nodded to her.
"Yes, I want to include Cobi onto our team." The team turned to each other and started to whisper among themselves before quieting down and looking back at me. "This choice is sudden all you all, so I wanted to hear what you all have to say about it. Who wants to start?"
"I will." June said. "I think its in not only Cobi's best interest that he stay's with us, but also in our own, if he fights on our side, we have extra power, it would boost our effectiveness. And in return, Cobi can have a family to be with, one that cares about him and that supports him, unlike some horrible people I know…" She muttered before returning her attention to us. "Anyway, it would help him heal, and help us improve as a team to have a loyal person like him apart of it."
"I got something to say too." Rover said. "Besides all the stuff that J said that true, he's another dude for me to hang out with when I need some dude time, being the only guy, I'm at quiet a disadvantage at most times. I'm not saying that it's the only reason, but I just thought I'd mention it. He's a good man, if we can get him, then we should."
"The rest of us agree on the matter as well." Annabel said speaking up and floating in mid air. "We all think that he would be a vital aspect to the team. To not ask him to join would be a horrible out come that could make the difference between life and death, and living another day."
"So do we still have to vote after everything that has been said?" Rose asked.
I chuckled. "I think that the voting has already been counted, lest go talk to our new team mate." The team smiled and we hurried out to there command center where we left Cobi to only find that he was gone.
"Where'd he go?" June shouted. "Damn it Cobi! Why do you always run off when we least expect it?" It was then that an idea sprouted in my head and I ran for the launch bay. It reminded me of the first night I met him, he's still the same.
Jasmine's Memory:
We were all now sitting around a large bon fire in the middle of the town square, burning the items of the evil spirits and cooking food and roasting some desserts. The team was enjoying the music and dance to it, but what surprised me the most was that I got to see Gabriella and Rover slow dancing together, now that was a weird combo, but then again, so was Rover's parents Sprx and Nova. Cobi asked me to dance a few times with himself, and it honestly was one of the best nights of my life.
As the night went on, the people began to head back into their homes and the crowds began to die down. When the crowd died down to a certain point, Cobi go up from his spot next to the team and I, and he headed out to the small ship that the kind people of this town gave him. I got up from my place and ran after him. The team looked to want to come after me, but Annabel held them back, giving me space to deal with this. I smiled back at her and ran after Cobi.
"So you're leaving now?" I asked. He turned around, surprised I followed.
"I was hoping to leave so that I wouldn't have to say good-bye." He replied back to me sadly.
"Then don't." I smiled. I walked up to him and placed my finger on his lips as he had once done to me. "Just say, 'until next time'."
He smiled. "Then until next time, Jasmine." He said to me. He turned away from me and headed toward his ship and started it up, looking back at me threw the window one more time, and he waved and took off. I waved back as he took off and after he had left my line of sight.
Jasmine's Point of View:
I hurried down the hallways and ran after Cobi, fully knowing what he was planning, to leave without a good-bye, just as he did the last time. I hurried as fast as I my legs could take me until I reached the hanger. I then saw Cobi, walking up to the ship. I hurried up to him and raced in front of him, cutting him off from the ship. He looked surprised and stepped back, still holding onto his bag that was on his shoulders.
"So you're leaving now?" I asked him all over again, reliving my memory with him at our last encounter.
He seamed surprised, realizing the same thing as me. "I was hoping to leave so that I wouldn't have to say good-bye." He said to me once again.
"Then don't." I said as I walked toward him. It was happening all over again, but this time, there was going to be a different ending. "Stay Cobi, stay with us."
"I couldn't impose." He said sadly, looking down at him feet. As he did for me; I took one of my hands and lifted his chin up so that his eyes were looking directly into mine.
"You couldn't impose if you tried." I told him. "Plus, the whole team wants you to join us."
"The whole team?" He breathed. I nodded. It was then that my team decided to grace ourselves with their presence.
"Sorry we're late, Jazz took off and everything went a little crazy." Rover said. "So what are you two doing all by your lonesome selves? Hmm?" Cobi and I looked away form each other, I raced to turn the instant I felt my face get red, I angrily looked back at Rover, trying to mask my blush with rage.
"Rover, shut up!" I snapped at him, trying to lose the red blush in my face. He and the team laughed and I turned back to Cobi, who looked a little embarrassed himself, Rover can make you feel that way, that's for sure, but Rose…, I'm glad she hasn't said anything yet or I would have skinned her alive. I turned back to Cobi and looked deeply into his eyes. "So will you stay, please Cobi?" He looked in my eyes, then he turned back to look at the team, his eyes looking at his cousin, and she gave him a silent nod.
He turned back to me and game me one the smiles I loved on him most. "I guess I don't have of a choice then, I'm staying." I gasped and then hugged him out of joy. Just as I pulled back and saw his face, we were talked by the rest of the team.
"I feel like should be doing something for you guys right now out of thanks." Cobi told us.
"Naw, you don't need to worry about that man." Rover said. "We're just happy you're with us now."
"Amen to that." Olivia and Rose said at the same time once again.
"Still, I feel like I should at least give you something, maybe some information?" He tried once more.
"Well if you want to say something, your apart of the team, we're all ears Cobi." June told him. He looked over at me and I nodded, he smiled and looked at all of us.
"Have you guys ever heard of the 'Traversée de Changeante'?" He asked.
Witch's Note:
Oh I bet there was a lot to cover in that chapter in this note! First, Cobi's apart of the team! Second, I see a little romance between Cobi and Jazz; do we have yet another love story to figure out? And what the hell is 'Traversée de Changeante'? I know, but you don't, isn't that the fun part? But you guys will find out in the next chapter!
For more information on my characters, check my profile, toward the bottom, and there's a poll for you guys to look at too, about which character you like the most on my poll, good or evil, and its in voting form! I know you already answered it, but please again! All the new characters that have a big role in the story are on there, and if any are added to the story, they will be added to the poll, but I don't think there will be.
Question of the Chapter: Have you read of any really good books lately?
My Answer to the Question: I have found a new series about a girl that wants to be a night and her brother a sorcerer. But her father arranged for it to be the other way around, but they switched on him, and being the lazy, forgetful, and horrible father he is, doesn't ever notice. The series is called 'Song of the Lioness', I've already read two books, working on the third, and then there is still a forth! I like it, you might too, just thought to let you know!
Remember to Review! (An author always loves to see feedback from her readers.)
Halloween Witch