CHAPTER 59: A Mission for The Six
"Elyssia, wake up!" Peater yelled, whacking me with a pillow.
"Ugghhh . . . ain't it too early, Peater?" I groaned as I turned to face the wall.
"You slept in! It's already nine o'clock, and most of the food has been eaten!" Peater exclaimed.
"Don't make me do this . . ." he muttered.
With my ears, I could hear a knob being turned . . . and then several seconds later, it felt as if the room was on fire. I jumped out of bed, fully awake, by which time Peater was turning a knob by the door.
"Why did you just turn up the heat like that?" I panted as the temperature returned to normal.
"Well . . . that's one way to get you awake. In any case, we got a mission." Peater replied, holding a green bag in one leaf, and a piece of paper in the other.
"It says that we are to go to the Island, and . . . destroy a factory and all its contents. The factory is a threat because it's manufacturing weapons and ammo." I nodded, and strode towards the door.
"Easy . . . I can do it with my eyes closed!"
Peater cleared his throat.
"But it says here . . . no magic." I bit my lip and facepalmed.
"Why? I've gotten away with it for so many battles!" I wailed.
"Aw, quit your complaining! Maybe your magic might get you killed where we're going!" Peater replied, shutting me up instantly.
After all, I've been in a few places where my magic went out of control at the worst times, due to weird reasons such as humidity, age, and who occupied it in the past. Sometimes, it was even a forcefield that disallowed ice. I sighed, and reluctantly went down the stairs that were in what used to be the elevator shaft. This was going to be a hard mission, because I relied more on my magic than on my peas.
We were teamed up with the plants in the St. Lawrence Market base ― or the Verdana base, as it was called by the plants that inhabited it. The base consisted of at least 500 plants, all of which looked intimidating.
"Don't worry, Elyssia. What matters is that we get this done, magic or no magic." Elias reassured me as we sat around, waiting for a ferry to take us to Toronto Island.
As I looked at the distant island, my nervousness caused me to have a flashback to when I was younger; no more than two years old.
Lightning flashed outside the window, which was followed by rolling thunder that scared me half to death.
"Mom! Mom!" I screamed, clutching my covers until my leaves turned white.
"Elyssia, what happened? Is everything all right?" my mother asked as she came through the door.
I shook my head, my eyes at their widest.
"Outside. It's scary! I HATE thunderstorms!" I wailed.
"Elyssia, it's nothing to be worried about. Just stay calm, and be brave, like one of those knights." my mother whispered.
I shut my eyes, and imagined that the thunder and lightning were like those zombies that I've heard about in the news and in stories, but never seen in real life. As I kept on telling myself to stop worrying, my mother began to sing a lullaby to soothe me.
I began to submit myself to sleep as the lullaby got the better of my brain, putting me at peace with myself and the world.
"Earth to Elyssia! Earth to Elyssia! Are you with us?" Peater was waving a leaf back and forth in front of my face.
"Yes, yes, I'm right here!" I grumbled. I looked up at the sky, and saw that the sun was already almost halfway to the other side of the horizon.
We were in for a long day . . .
At long last, a ferry pulled into the dock, which allowed us to go to the island. Shortly after we'd arrived there, we went around looking for a factory . . .
. . . until we finally found an oddly shaped building, with several zombie guards walking back and forth, occasionally groaning "Brainzz." I smiled mischievously, and told Peater my plan via telepathy.
Hey . . . listen up . . . I got a plan . . .
Three minutes later, we put the plan into action.
"Everyone, shoot at that fire hydrant!"
For a second, all the plants (except for Peater), gave me an "Are you crazy or are you insane?" look, before following through with my command. As they shot at the lone fire hydrant, bolts started popping out of it, before water gushed out like a geyser.
"Whoo!" I laughed as the water swept us up.
"Yo! That was stupid! How the hell are supposed to attack in this?" a plant asked.
"Tread water, and then swim and shoot!" I answered over the loud rush of the water.
After I was sure that everyone was safely on the water's surface, it was time to commence Step Three.
Taking a deep breath, I dove down to the bottom, and shot my ice at the shadows above, creating floating platforms for the plants above. I surfaced, and grinned in approval as I saw the plants standing on the icy platforms, shooting at the zombie guards. At long last, we were in front of Billy Bishop Airport ― or should I say Billy Bishop Weapon Plant.
"In, in, in!" Peater shouted, pointing at the entrance.
We didn't need to be told twice. We rushed inside the building in a fashion similar to that of young sprouts rushing out for recess.
Feeling a bit more confident, I tried firing an icy blast, but it only made me so weak that I fell over, panting. Cursing under my breath, I stood up, and picked up a bomb from a lab table. Thanks, whoever put it there. With the bomb securely in my leaf, I ducked and dodged, until I finally got into the building. I planted the bomb smackdab in the middle, and waited patiently, until . . .
KABLAM!
The factory collapsed all around me, which left me to dodge and dodge falling debris, and the occasional gunshot. Several times, a shard or two of glass would find home in my stem, causing me to grunt and think about stopping to take them out . . .
But I had to keep going.
Ten minutes later, I was outside, only to be greeted by a gory sight. The corpses of zombies littered the floor, but so did the corpses of at least 200 plants. I found Elias standing over Peater, who had a gash on his face.
"Oh, no!" I gasped as I ran over to heal him.
"You know . . . sometimes, I can't help but wonder if you're becoming as careless as me!" I joked.
"I'll just say that there's no other plant in this province ― or, rather, country ― that has no idea as to what self preservation is whose name is not Elyssia." Peater replied.
As soon as we stood up, there was an explosion that knocked me onto my side. With a groan, I looked towards the direction where the explosion was, only to be greeted by an unsettling sight. Several zombies were huddled around a fire, and were kindling it with those sticky, combustible spheres that occasionally let out a loud BANG!
"Come on! Come on!" I gasped as I tried to shoot some peas, but my frozen peas only melted and turned into soggy orbs that did nothing but make the fire hiss.
My powers were going haywire, apparently because there was something that disallowed anything that had to do with ice, and therefore, I was getting weaker and weaker, until I finally passed out . . .
When I woke up, I realized that I was in an infirmary of some sort.
"What happened?" I asked, looking around at the plants congregated around me.
"Did we fail? Did we succeed?" Eric laughed, and patted my stem.
"Yes . . . we succeeded. While you were out, we just . . . buried the dead plants near the beach." I let out a sigh of relief, and leaned back in my bed, only to feel something weird. I looked down at my stem, and gasped as I saw a bloody bandage on it.
"The hell . . . ?" I mumbled.
"When you were knocked out, an arrow with a glass head was shot at your stem." Elias explained, seeing my all-inspiring look of confusion on my face.
"And . . . the shards of glass that we managed to pick out are in here." Peater whispered, holding up a bag full of small, sharp-looking, blood-covered shards.
"And unfortunately, you've got a fever." a Sunflower piped up. I rolled my eyes.
"And since when have I let a case of gangrene or leprosy get in the way of fighting?" I scoffed.
"Elyssia, you will have to stay in bed. It's for your own good." Eric said sharply.
I opened my mouth to protest, but a weird cloth was pressed over my mouth and nose, making me feel dizzy and nauseous, and eventually rendering me unable to speak.