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Chapter 19; Sucked In?
"And what the heck were you doing?" Amyna stood by the entrance to the dam base, arms angrily crossed and pacing while Onier had his back propped up against a wall. "Onier said you went after Nightwrath alone!"
Oliver shot a glance at said teen, who shrugged and tossed the flashdrive to him. "She asked. How'd it go?"
"Could have gone better." Oliver rolled the flashdrive over in his hand, wandering once again again what secrets it contained within the device. "And I got a. . .revelation. But I-"
"Don't ignore me!" Amyna snapped, storming forward and pressing a finger to Oliver's chest. "I can't believe how dimwitted you can be! You make that monkey look like a rocket scientist. Not one of my caliber though, of course."
"Woah, calm down, Amyna-"
"Calm down?! You, our groups self styled 'elementalist,' just about got himself stabbed, slashed and murdered. And you want me to be calm?" Her short purple hair swished around as she glared at Onier. "Back me up here, bub. Otherwise you're next on the chopping block."
The other teen gulped slightly, then chuckled and finally shrugged. "That was probably a lapse in judgement, Oliver."
"Ha! So what exactly happened?" Amyna angrily stopped Oliver as he tried to get past, presumably to get some sleep before the ex-Providence crew got up. "What happened? Why did you leave? And alone, nonetheless?"
"I had a flashback. More or less, at least since it was in a dream." Oliver strung the flashdrive around its rightful place around his neck. "It made me remember my friends back at the Program. They were lost because of helping me and I decided that I wasn't gonna draw you into my personnel fight against Nightwrath. So, I went alone."
"Bullcrap!" Amyna exclaimed, meeting Oliver's steady gaze with blazing fury in her eyes. "You forget that we've already been drawn in! We stood against him together after you joined us. The three of us. We lived in that base together for months. The three of us! So, don't pull the 'it's not your fight' crap. We're in just as deep as you in this, whether you'll accept that fact or not. "
"'Myna's right." Onier chipped in. "I shouldn't have let you go in alone."
"Yeah!" She chirped, offering a (completely ignored) fist bump to Onier. "Now tell us what happened. All of it. . . and I told you to stop calling me 'Myna!"
"Fine," he conceded. "Not that there's much to tell. I left here and searched the general vicinity but I didn't find anything. So I went into town, looking for him. He found me first, not that I should have been surprised. He was waiting for me to come after him, I think. "
"He stopped me and held his sword to my throat. But," Oliver cut off his friends before they could interrupt. The white haired teen didn't want to be scolded by his friends again. "I didn't have the drive, which is what he was after, with me so he released me." He decided to leave about the fact that Nightwrath had certain information and that he had effectively made a deal with the assassin.
"Then he'll be back," Onier concluded. "I doubt that's all he wanted. Why didn't he simply kill you then come after me?"
"I dunno. He's up to something." Oliver conceded after mulling that over. Onier had a point, as usual. "He has something up his sleep. . . armor. . .cape, whatever."
"Well, we'll be ready when next time rolls around." Amyna grinned with determination. Yet somehow the maniacal grin on her face was more concerning than reassuring.
The exit door slides open behind Oliver opens again, revealing a half asleep Rex, who let out a massive yawn. "What-" He started only yawn again. "What will we be ready for? It better not-" another yawn. "Be morning training. Cuz I'm not awake enough for it."
"Nah, just talking amongst ourselves." Amyna said before her slightly maniacal glint re-entered her eye. "As for getting you more alert, Onier's staff has the ability to electrify the end that I've been wanting to test the different power levels on it. . ."
"I'll pass on that, chica." Rex was suddenly much more alert. And keeping an eye on the Bo staff.
"Oh, good. You're all up early." Six said, spotting the assorted crew while he straitened his signature green suit. "Since you're all already awake, I guess we'll get some extra training in."
'Well, so much for getting some sleep in,' Oliver thought as everybody groaned at the prospect of more training and followed the sixth deadliest man in the world back inside.
Five miles out, a rather different scene was playing out. There a cloaked man calmly struck keys on a small device as he overlooked the city. Things were going just as he planned. Though it would take time to get everything in place though, of course.
With the click of a final button, the device whirred several times before a green light appeared.
A small graced the man's lips under his dark mask.
The game was finally underway.
Author's Note; Update time again, finally. Not going to bother with excuses, you've heard 'em all before. So, I'll just leave it at sorry and that I really am trying to get a steady update schedule. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this (slightly shorter) chapter. And thanks for reading, that means a lot. Until next update, Baldore out!