Chapter Three: Painful Escape
"So, there is still nothing on the stone, is there?" Both Master Cyclonis and the leader of the cult were standing in the throne room of Cyclonia, the young ruler with her back towards the older man. So far, the mage and his brethren have found no trace of the locket containing the stone.
The young teenager turned her head to face the hooded man. "I expected more from the Descendants than this..."
The head mage glowered at the girl underneath his hood, finding it bothersome that he was being scolded by a child. But he knew he had to be patient, it wasn't a virtue for nothing.
Turning away and making her way to the torture chamber, Cyclonis added, "Our dear guest should be waking up soon, better make sure she receives a warm welcome..."
The lead cultist member briskly walked away from the throne room, towards his own quarters on the Terra.
He didn't really care how Cyclonis would toy with the girl, just as long as they got answers about the missing stone. However, part of him was curious to why she possessed abilities similar to those like him and his brethren and the rest of their people. She clearly wasn't a Binder, like the young Cyclonian empress.
No, if she were, she wouldn't have made that cavern blow up like it did. It was very much like a young child's power finally awakening, but at the age the girl was at? This was indeed information that his true master would need to hear.
Looking around, he made sure that no one was around to eavesdrop on his call before closing his doors shut and locking them. He then checked every bit of the room to ensure nothing was planted to spy on him.
He may have been acting paranoid like a traumatized merb, but he had every reason to be. Pulling out one of his communication stones. While he had one specified for Master Cyclonis and for his men whenever they split up in groups, this one was made specifically for the ruler of his people and only to be used in instances most important.
After focusing his energy into the stone, a masculine and firm voice was brought to his attention. "You have a good reason for calling me, yes?"
"Indeed, my lord. We believe to have a lead on the stone that was stolen years ago. However, the lead is through a girl. We believe she is hiding it. We are letting Cyclonis deal with gaining that information."
"Any other news?" The hooded man felt his stomach churned, hearing the annoyance in his leader's tone. Of course his master would be furious at their plan coming close to failing.
"Yes, the girl appears to possess the crystal draining abilities similar to our people. She has demonstrated that before we finally caught her."
There was a long pause of silence before his master spoke up again. "Keep a close eye on this girl. See to it that she stays alive. While this may turn out to be nothing, I am curious to see if any of our people had slipped past us undetected for so long. See what this girl is made of."
"... Yes my lord..." Once the stone dimmed, the hooded mage sighed. So much for this being simple, that girl was probably getting herself killed right now.
Days had now passed since the incident with the strange girl. So far, they have yet to actually find her or the hooded men that Piper and Stork described. The whole team, minus Stork, had scoured the entire Terra and found every non-hostile village they could find on Terra Amazonia that may give them helpful information.
While most refused to answer their questions, looking fearful whenever mentioned the figures that Piper described, one village in the treetops finally gave them the answers they were looking for, or at least gave them a better idea.
At the moment, Finn and Piper were seated with Aerrow and Radarr in the small home of the village chieftain. He was an elderly man, olive skin with dark hair turning gray but with lively green eyes.
"These hooded mages you described to me... They seem to match the description of a group that this Terra knows only as the Descendants..."
The three teens exchanged glances with each other. Many have heard of them, as the group claims to be powerful beings that can manipulate crystal energy into their own. Other people call them crazy terrorists boasting their crystal usage.
Aerrow wasn't certain this was the case, or if he wanted to believe that these people were now adding to kidnapping to their long list of crimes. Regardless, he asked, "Do you have any ideas where we can find them?"
The elder stared at him for a long time, looking as though he thought the boy was crazy. "Why would you wish to do something that foolish? The Descendants are a dangerous cult. It is rare for someone outside their circle to encounter them and live to tell about it!"
The red head sighed. "I'm getting that impression, but we really need to find them. We think that they kidnapped an innocent girl."
The older man eyes had soften, a look of regret in them as he shook his head. "I am sorry, but this group tends to move about too quickly for anyone to truly locate them. This girl, if she is a captive of theirs, then the chances of her survival are low..."
The group grimaced at those words. They got up and began to exit the hut. Aerrow turned to the elder one last time. "Thanks for your time. If you come across anything that sounds related to our search-"
The chieftain held a hand up to pause the young man. "That may be unlikely, given the wild life here on Amazonia, but I will try..."
The teens approached their respective skimmers on the wooden balcony that overlooked the jungles below them.
Once again, they have failed to find any sort of solid lead yet. So far, they only gathered that the hooded figures that captured the injured girl were a group of cultists calling themselves the Descendants.
"That's another dead end..." Smack! "Ow!" The blond glared at the tanned girl, rubbing his sore head.
"We gotta keep trying guys. Whoever these crystal mages were, they may still have Fae, maybe even know something about the massive power surge."
The navigator looked at him, eyes furrowed. "I know, but Aerrow, we've been at this for about a week now. Who knows what's happened so far since the attack."
Aerrow couldn't help but feel guilty for what happened to Fae. Even though she was just a stranger to them, they didn't think to check if she was being followed by crazed cultists.
Well, they didn't really ask her about anything really, other than her name. She also told them that she remembered only being in her room before waking up on the terra, so chances were that these mages had kidnapped her before the team ran into her.
The young Sky Knight sighed as he hoped onto his ride, following after his friends. He just hoped that girl was alright.
Unbeknownst to the teens, two hooded figures within the jungle watched them as they flew back to their ship.
A loud cry of pain rang through the lower levels of Cyclonia once again. For the past several days, the young empress had been using different types of crystals against the Terra's 'guest' - all of them causing a different amount of pain in various ways.
Master Cyclonis let out a sigh as she pulled one of her crystals away, watching as the older girl panted in pain. Her body was now littered with cuts and burns from the various tools that the Cyclonian had used. And so far, she still wouldn't crack and admit where she hid the stone. How troublesome.
Just then, a knock was heard at the door. Sighing with irritation, Cyclonis made her way to the door to be greeted by one of the Descendants. The young ruler raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the sudden arrival. "Yes?"
"Our master wishes to have a word with you, concerning the current project. He also says there is something that is of great importance."
"Which is?"
"He would not say. Only that he has information regarding the Cyclonians future standing in Atmos."
The young teen sighed in annoyance. Why did her new allies have to be mellow dramatic and cryptic?
As the empress made her way down the hall to inform her commanders of her departure, a figure hiding in the shadows smirked. The first phase of his plan has been put into action.
Fae turned her head slowly, still dazed from the torture. The room was dark, so it didn't really help with her current state to try and see the figure on the other side of the room.
"I... Thought you were going... Somewhere..."
The figure said nothing to the brunette's statement as they pulled a crystal out of their sleeve. Fae winced at the sight of it, but was caught off guard when the stranger tossed it at her, landing it directly into her bound hand.
The girl soon felt energy pulsing from the crystal. She was so focused on how wonderful it felt and hypnotized with it's increasing light, that she didn't notice the stranger exit the room.
"You still haven't found anything that could point us in the direction of the missing stone?"
The crystal mage sat on one side of a table, opposite to the Cyclonian sibling commanders and the infamous Dark Ace. This seemed more like an interrogation than a friendly 'chat', but in all honestly, no one here was friendly.
They certainly didn't hesitate jumping him once their master departed for the day.
"It's only been a week, and all you bring back with your news is a brat?" The lady of the three Talons, Ravess, asked in a stern tone, sounding like a controlling mother disappointed that their child didn't receive the highest grade in school.
"Ahhahahhaha! I'm not surprised!" The giant of the three declared obnoxiously. The pink haired woman glared in annoyance at the man-child.
The third commander simply sat in silence, choosing to let these two verbally abuse the mage. He honestly had no trust for this stranger, however Master Cyclonis instructed to keep an eye on him during his stay.
Before either of them could say more to the one sided conversation, a loud explosion was heard as the fortress shook.
The hooded mage and the commanders turned their heads in the direction of the explosive noise. Soon, a series of explosions were heard. The cult leader could hear Talons running about as the head Talons began shouting out orders as many of them split up either to block exits or going towards the source of the commotion.
The dark haired and crimson eyed one turned his attention to the hooded man, glaring at him. "Our discussion is over, for the time being." With that said, he too made his way out of the throne room to ensure nothing went wrong.
The mage however simply walked down the hall casually, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. With Cyclonis off the Terra temporarily and the commanders scattered with their troops, he didn't have to worry about them looking at him suspiciously.
All he had to worry is if that stupid girl would make it to the hanger bay in time without getting caught.
While she wasn't expecting to blow up the crystal like she did in the caverns, it did free her from her bindings and flung her out the door.
Unfortunately, Fae was certain that someone was bound to hear that explosion, given how loud it was. With her injuries, it made her heart fill with panic at the thought of being caught easily.
It sounded as though there were many footsteps everywhere, followed by more explosions with the ground shaking.
The otherworldly girl paused for a moment, catching her breath. Everything hurt and she felt to wired, as though she had too many of a highly caffeinated drink.
As she finally felt ready to move again, across the hall, she could see three people dressed in armor that separated them from the usual grunts she hid from. Fae blanched when she noticed the insignia on their crest that marked them the same.
There was a long moment of silence, minus the rumbling and shouting, until the dark haired man in red and black shouted, "Get her! Don't let her escape!"
Panicked, Fae turned to move as fast as she could away from them as they advance quickly towards her. They were confident that this brat wasn't going anywhere, until a buzzing sound alerted them to the ceiling.
Looking up, the three Cyclonians noticed several crystals glowing dangerously, then -
Fae cried out when the explosion threw her in the opposite direction, feeling the pain in her sides growing. Slowly getting up, her vision began to blur and couldn't even hear the constant explosives. Or the banging against the rubble from the pursuers on the other side.
Forcing herself up, Fae hurried down the hall as fast as her injuries would allow her, eventually finding a large set of doors. Hesitantly, she opened them, feeling a rush of air hit her face. It looked like some sort of hanger bay, and one of the ships was open.
Looking behind her, she could see no one was around to see her sneak onto the vessel. This was probably a bad idea, but it was probably better to have a hiding place than be out in the open.
Fae groaned in pain as she collapsed onto the floor, feeling drained. She did her best to keep her cries to a minimum, not wanting anyone to over hear her even as the loud engines started.
... Wait, engines?
Unknown to the her, a dark figure in the shadows hid behind several empty crates watched the brunette as she passed out due to her injuries and exhaustion. So she made it on board after all.
Good. That saved him the trouble of having to go and rescue her himself.
"I-is this wise, sir? Our alliance with the Cyclonians-"
"Is obsolete," The young mages winced at the bluntness of their leader's words as he walked right past them. Looking out the window, he and his comrades could see them rising above Cyclonia. With the chaos occurring down below and Talons too spread out, escaping would be easy.
The younger mage followed after him, looking squeamish. "... So... W-what do we do about the soldiers that were on the carrier?"
His leader paused for a moment before looking down at the blood on the floor and the pile in the corner under the tarp sheet. He then turned towards the group.
"Toss those bits of refuse overboard. Our plans have changed. They are of no use us."
Looking around, the brunette could see she was what appeared to be a room that to her resembled the nurses office back home at her school. Fae sighed.
Great, just great. Where the heck was she now in this messed up place? As she tried to sit up, she noticed two things.
One, her body was still in massive pain and two she was changed out of her tattered pajamas and into a gown that looked like something a hospital patient wore. Fae could also see that her body was cleaned up and had bandages over her most serious cuts as well as a small cast for her injured ankle.
"Easy now, deary, can't have you hurting yourself again," a mother-like voice said. Fae turned her head towards the door, yelping in surprise at what she saw. There stood a short, plump dusty teal colored lizard wearing a gray tunic and a pair of beige trousers. She could also see her slipping on a white coat that resembled something someone would wear in a medical profession.
Once the reptile woman was closer, Fae began to calm a bit down. Where ever she was, it had a strange array of people, recalling how the ship she was on a week ago had a kid that looked like a rhino. Even the nervous, green elf guy didn't appear to be human.
"W-where am I? And how'd I get here?" the teen asked as her bandages and cast were being checked. The last thing she remembered was that she was in the airship that was leaving the terrible place.
... It WAS leaving that place, right? She felt lost on that actually.
The plump lizard smiled sweetly. "Weeeell, my hubby-wubby found you passed out in an alley way, near the docking area. Not sure why in Atmos you were there in your condition, but thankfully he got you here before anyone else could hurt you."
Fae shuddered, recalling how she probably would have been easy to take advantage of, not just from her previous captors, but from any other weirdo.
"Now then..." the older female had a serious, yet gentle look in her eyes, "I do have some questions as to why you were like that, but for now, just rest a bit. Wouldn't do you any good if your condition got worse."
As reptile went back to looking through her stock of medicine and supplies, the girl was silent, finally having the chance to try and focus on what was going on now that she was no longer being tortured and finally safe - at least for now.
How in the world did she get here? Last time she was passed out on the ship, and before awakening on Cyclonia, she was helped by those kids - the Storm Hawks?
A sudden thought sent a chill up her spine. Did... Did they hand her over to that crazy witch?
No, no. That didn't seem right, they were kind enough to help her when she was in danger of that giant cat. Then again...
The Cyclonians, their leader was around their age, so maybe it wouldn't matter to them in this world if they were young to be twisted. But... UGH!
The brunette let out a tired sigh, feeling too worn out to wonder about it longer. Sleep sounded wonderful after everything that has happened so far. Who knows? Maybe she'll even wake up from this crazy nightmare in her grandfather's house again.
Author's Note: Ugh, how could I take so long to update? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, BRAIN?! Probably could have done better, but will save that for the next chapter.
I also don't own Storm Hawks, they're owned by Nerd Corps, and the Slum Markets - where Fae is at the end of this chapter - belongs to Mahou Shoujo Crystalic Katomi, the glorious author of the Gaian story series. Go look at her work!
Happy Holidays~! ^u^