Hi, everyone, more action with every letter. Oh, I've finally decided to quit with the in-story songs and add a little something after every chapter for now on.
Chapter 27: A Family Reunited (Part One)
Location: Unknown
"You said, that Howitzer didn't have SHADOW POWERS!", Crocker shouted, twitching as he spoke the last two words. He and Vicky were in the Shadow Throne room, complaining about their recent battle with T.J.
"I apologize, I was sure that Trenton wouldn't be able to control the Shadow Egg that Galtreo had implanted in him", the Shadow Overlord replied.
"Why exactly did you give him the egg? Are you trying to make the twerp stronger?", Vicky asked, arms crossed.
"I can't expect you to understand, you must not know that Trenton possesses a power deep within himself, the Shadow Egg is to simply awaken it and take it under my control. The fact that I was able to stop his powers proved that it is working. When its task is accomplished, I will be able to control him and destroy all that is just and decent", the Overlord answered.
So, T.J. has a power, eh. Well, if I can just steal it, then the universe, and its money will belong to me, Vicky thought to herself.
Four days later…
"I can't keep this up for long, I can already feel my stamina dropping excessively. Anymore of this and it's a guaranteed knockout", T.J. muttered to himself, inaudible to his opponent. The blood dried on his cheek indicated that he was out of the boundaries of the Smash Carrier's generator. He angled his sword downward so that the Warrior Shadow's sword would slide and hit the ground. The moment the two swords parted, T.J. jumped backwards, to get some distance.
"If I run, I die. If I stay, I die. What now?", T.J. spoke, "I don't have enough energy for pyrokinesis, much less anything more."
As T.J. was considering his options, the Shadow shot forward. Its speed caught him off guard. At the last second, he raised the Blade of Heroes to block the incoming jet black katana. Still blocking, T.J. roundhouse kicked the Shadow away from him.
"That was close. I need to get my head on straight, if I get any slower, that's the end for me", T.J. said, realizing he was going to use his martial arts against this particular Shadow, "Hmm, I wonder how Taijutsu would work against this thing."
Relieving his sword, T.J. closed his eyes and waited for an attack. The Shadow once again flew toward him, with its sword at its side, ready to strike. Hearing the disturbance of the air near him, T.J. jumped and did a front flip, to allow his right foot to come crashing down upon the Shadows head. It wasn't enough to drive the Shadow into the ground, but enough to crack its tough exterior. It fell to the rocky terrain and did not get up.
"Well, it's over, time to continue", he said breaking the silence. Not remembering whether this Shadow in particular vanished in a puff of black smoke or not, he turned around and continued on the rocky path that separated two boundaries of grass. The dark forest around him was filled with dark sounds. Foolishly, T.J. let his mind takeoff on its own, no longer paying attention to the rising Shadow behind him. When he noticed the movement, it was too late, the Warrior Shadow's sword had already made if its way up T.J.'s back.
"Crap, I let my guard down too soon", he said hoarsely. Black filled his vision and the last sound he heard was the thudding of his body as it hit the cold ground.
Meanwhile...
"Chao, Chao", a bright red Chao cried excitedly.
"Hush, Cherry, we don't want to be discovered, please keep it down", Sovia pleaded. Her baby Chao had hatched from her egg three days ago, revealing a red female Chao. Sovia's pleading worked, the Chao ceased all sounds, except for the faint fluttering of her pink wings.
"Where do we go from here?", Timmy asked, as he Sovia, and Tootie came to a fork in the rock path.
"I'm not sure, no one told me about a fork", Sovia explained. She examined, one then the other, then shrugged, "Well, you can't go wrong if you go right."
"And you don't lose if you go left", Tootie explained, before Sovia started off.
"All right, we'll flip a coin, heads we go left, tails we go right", Timmy reasoned. He dug a penny out of his pocket, and tossed it in the air. It hit the ground, and bounced. After it had settled, it revealed that it had landed on heads.
"Looks like we're going left", Tootie said.
"I'm not sure we should be using a coin to decide which way to go ", Sovia suggested.
"Well, we don't have very many options, we may as well go along with this", Timmy replied. Sovia agreed, and they proceeded down the left path. Suddenly they were ambushed, six Elite Shadow's broke from the darkness and rushed at them.
Before any of them could so much as summon in their weapons, a hooded figure appeared out of the darkness, and in one fatal blow of a walking stick, destroyed all of the Shadow.
"Who are you", Sovia asked, with her bow ready.
"No one but a friend", the hooded figure said, apparently a man. His accent had a hint of hoarseness in it, as if he had a sore throat. The hood over his head hid his face in the dark forest. "It's not safe here, we should be going."
Without objecting, but cautiously, they followed silently. He led them through a winding path until they came upon an unconscious body. Recognizing how it was immediately, Sovia rushed to his side. The flash of his back was torn, ripped open, as if some animal had mauled him. The hooded man rushed to his side also. Sovia uncorked a bottle of water she always carried with her. Manipulating it, she moved the water to the wound. It didn't heal.
"Warrior Shadow", the hooded figure said to himself.
"What?", Sovia gasped, with tears in her eyes.
"We have to get him out of here, I'll explain when we get there", he replied. He picked up T.J. and started to run off the path. The three of them followed, forgetting their cautiousness. They didn't go far, until they came to a rather rickety looking structure. It had the appearance of a log cabin, but it looks poorly built. Deciding she was going to take charge now, Sovia rushed to the shack. When she was 20 yards away from it, an invisible force pushed her off her feet.
"Chao", Cherry cried. Sovia got up looking for something to fight, but saw nothing. She walked back to where she was pushed off her feet. This time, instead of running into it, she put one arm out and felt what had pushed her. A ripple of light appeared out of nowhere, and her hand did not penetrate the air in front of her. By now the others had caught up to her. The man tapped the force field three times with his walking stick and it fell from top to bottom; the round light indicated that it had been put up by magic. The man rushed into the cabin, with the other three right behind him.
Inside, it was dark, with only a fire to produce light. Tootie searched the wall for a light switch.
"Don't bother, I don't have electricity here, just light an oil lamp", the man said, as if instinct told him what Tootie was doing, because he didn't turn around. He laid T.J. down on a couch facedown.
He groped a nearby cupboard quickly. Finding a vile with a blue liquid in it, he pulled it from the shelf and poured it down T.J.'s injury. Almost instantly, the skin began to pull itself together.
"Now we wait until he wakes up", the man said, returning the vile to its proper place.
"How long", asked Sovia, who had yet to leave T.J.'s side.
"Maybe an hour, or a day, I can't give you an accurate time, but you'll wait here until he comes to", the man explained. He left to go upstairs. As soon as the three were sure he was out of earshot, the huddled.
"Can we trust him?", Tootie whispered.
"Well, he did help T.J….", Timmy reasoned.
"But he pretty much commanded us to stay here", Sovia pointed out.
"Let's just stay here, and be careful", Tootie suggested. The other two nodded their heads. When the man came back down, he was carrying blankets. He had yet to remove his hood, so his face was still hidden.
"You all should get some rest, girls, you'll be sleeping upstairs in my daughter's room, she won't mind, there's plenty of room. The boys'll be sleeping in here-", he started.
"I think I'll stay in here with T.J.", Sovia interjected, "until he's better."
"Chao, Chao", Cherry said, backing her up.
"All right, that could work. I bid you good night-", the man started again.
"Wait, you said you had a daughter, where is she, it's way too early for bed right now", Tootie cut across, suspiciously.
"She went to run an errand, she won't be back until morning", he answered before adding, "and you must not have checked your watch young lady, because, it's midnight."
Tootie checked, it was, indeed, midnight.
"But, it's still daylight outside", Timmy cut in.
"Two words: Shadow Fire and it's too much to explain, so don't ask until tomorrow", the man said. Before anyone else could say anything further, they heard the familiar sound of a force field falling outside. The atmosphere in the cabin went silent, full of fear.
"Douse the fire", the hooded man whispered. Sovia used her water to drench the fire place. The man made his way to the door and grabbed his walking stick, as the three others pulled out their weapons. After a few seconds there was a rhythmic knock on the door.
"Dad, can you let me in? I don't remember that stupid password", a female voice came, muffled, from the other side of the door.
"Then say something that lets me know it's you", the man called.
They heard the girl sigh. "Fine, my full name is Sabrina Erica Howitzer, I'm fifteen, born March 26, 1995, at 5:34 exactly, my Zodiac sign is Aries, happy now, can I come in?", Sabrina called nonchalantly. At the sound of "Howitzer", Sovia jumped. Could this be T.J.'s family?
"I suppose", the man replied. He relit the fire and opened the door. She came in, wearing a cloak, which covered her face and hair. She stopped after seeing the four guests.
"Visitors?"
"Yes, these four will be staying here until their friend wakes up", the man replied, motioning toward the unconscious boy on the couch.
"Well, then, let me welcome you to our humble home, I'm Sabrina", she said, with a complete change of attitude.
"Hi, I'm Tootie, and this is the most wonderful sweetheart in the world, Timmy!", Tootie exclaimed, glad that the tension in the air had finally broken.
"I'm Sovia, and the boy on the couch is T.J.", Sovia said, kneeling back down next to T.J.
"Chao, Chao!", Cherry piped up.
"Oh, this is Cherry, my Chao", Sovia announced, forgetting that she had someone else to introduce now.
"It's nice to meet you all", Sabrina said brightly. She removed her cloak to reveal that she was wearing a pink outfit. There were white stripes on the sides of her pants, and a pink bow in her blue hair, which hung down to her back. Her warm, brown eyes examined each of them carefully. Sovia nearly screeched with excitement. She looked almost like the ghost that claimed to be T.J.'s mother.
"Now that we've been introduced, Sabrina, what are you doing here, you were supposed to be here in the morning, why did you come back now?", the man asked.
"Ambush, they knew where I was going, so, I fought them off, and then came here", she replied.
"Don't worry, Sovia, I'll save you", came a sleepy voice from on the couch. T.J. was talking in his sleep…again. Sovia's face turned scarlet. Her blush caused Sabrina to pipe up.
"Are you two, uh, you know-", she started. She couldn't carry her question any further because the next sound that broke the air was a yawn and the cracking of joints.
"Sleep over? Well, I don't know whether or not I was invited but could someone at least put a light on. Apparently his eyes hadn't adjusted to the dim lighting yet. Instead of waiting for them to, he conjured a flame in his hand. After examining everyone in the room he started.
"So, am I late for the party or what?", he asked, staring at the five set of eyes that were staring back at him. Sovia threw her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. T.J., for the first time, did not see his soul mate's next move. Her fist came down upon his head with such a force, that his head made contact with the cold floor.
"That, Trenton Joshua Howitzer, is for going ahead and almost getting yourself killed, again!", she shouted. Sabrina and her dad flinched.
"Dad, is that really…", Sabrina started. Her dad cut her off, and nodded his head.
"Ow, okay, I deserved it, now can I please be introduced to the people that this place belongs to?", T.J. groaned, rubbing the knot that was forming on his skull.
"I'm Sabrina Erica Howitzer and this is my dad-", Sabrina started.
"Howitzer? But, I'm a Howitzer, a-are you my family?", he gasped, no longer aware of the pain in his head.
The man removed his hood, to reveal that he had bright brown hair, cool blue eyes, and a chin that looked solid as a rock. A scar was carved across his face.
"Hello, Trenton, it's been a while", he said, warmly.
"You are…my family, after four years of wondering, not knowing…scared of being alone. Well, how exactly are you two related to me?", T.J. said breathlessly.
Sabrina giggled and looked at her father.
"Guess", she said slyly.
"Well, I'm definitely the older sibling, and you must be my uncle", he answered, with a grin, pointing at Sabrina. Sovia hit him again, just because she thought he was dumb.
"Well, get ready for a shock, little brother, but he's your father and I'm your twin", Sabrina said over his cry of pain, which immediately muffled.
"Twin", he echoed, "younger twin."
"That's right, by ten minutes", his father said.
T.J. was now fighting back tears, as were Sabrina and their father.
"Well, I'm glad to finally have found family. So, uh, where's mom?", he finally spoke. Sovia knew the answer, but didn't have the heart to break his.
"You don't remember?", his father asked. T.J. shook his head.
Family is an amazing thing right? Hmm, well, I think you should know what I will add after every chapter. Previews. That's right, little insights, optional to read, but they leave you guessing. But, not this chapter, I needed to update quickly.
Facts: 0 (Sorry.)