CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Tapeworm jumped backwards out of the way as a hoard of arbori headed towards him, vines out stretching to him. "Ursa!" His guardian appeared in front of him with a mighty roar and started to bat away those that came close to him. Others that had managed to get around the guardian charged straight towards him, Riley, Zack, and Crystal and they all immediately leapt into battle.

Tapeworm created a long bamboo tick with his powers; hands glowing a bright green, and spun the long ranged weapon around, catching the arboris that came close to him in the face, chest and arms. Placing the end of his staff on the ground, he pulled himself up and jumped over a row of arbori and swept the staff back, striking them in a row. He let out a cry of pain as he was suddenly struck in the back and fell over onto the ground.

"Glaciate!" Crystal shot her hands out and watched as the arbori that came towards her slowly stopped moving before becoming frozen to the ground. She charged forward, bringing back her hand so that a large icicle appeared in her hand. Throwing it forward, the icicle shot forward and embedded itself into an arbori's chest. She twisted to the side, utilizing the tiger genes that were in her body, and she swung her foot out, smacking another arbori that came towards her. Dricer roared loudly and charged on top of the arboris that came from her right side and she used the opportunity to bring her hands up above her head and create a hailstorm that rained down onto arboris in front of her.

All of a sudden a vine with rope like thickness shot out and wrapped itself around her neck. She brought her hands up to her neck and frantically tried to pull it away, but found herself being dragged towards a large arbori that grinned as he watched her, before its head slowly morphed into that of a Venus fly trap.

"Mistress Crystal!" Dricer called, turning back towards her. The white tiger guardian started to run back towards her, but roared once more, this time in pain, as he was lashed across the back with vines. He crashed hard to his stomach; the pain that had ripped through his body caused Crystal to let out cries of pain as well.

The back of her shirt ripped open in the pattern of the vines that ripped through Dricer, and blood dripped down from the cuts. Zack, Riley, and Tapeworm continued to battle around her as she tried to dig her heels into the ground, keeping herself from being eaten. She continued to struggle until she got close enough to the arbori and tightened her grip on the vine around her neck. Ice crackled up the length of the vine and into the Venus fly trap's head and body. When she was sure she had done enough to keep the arbori from coming back, she snapped her hand down and broke the vine that was around her neck, instantly rendering it to glittering pieces of ice.

She then did a high-jump kick, sending her foot through the chest of the arbori, immediately causing it to fall apart in pieces.

Riley flipped backwards on top of a car as the arbori attacked her, sending razor sharp leaves and vines her way. Once on top of the car she punched down onto the roof of the car with a blazing fist. It immediately melted in her hand and when the hole was big enough, she slid inside and slid into the front seat as the arbori launched themselves onto the roof and sides of the car, trying to get to her. She leaned over towards the foot well and jammed her burning fist up into the area underneath the steering before turning and watching as the arbori started to snap their vines against the cars.

One was at the driver's side door and was doing its best to try and break in. Riley smirked as she watched the arbori suddenly slow and glare at her, green eyes glowing with menace. She clenched her hand into a fist and increased the fire that was around her hand, immediately erupting it. The fire encased the dashboard and broke out the front windshield before it engulfed the front of the car as well. A second later, the car burst into flames before the roof and sides were shot sky-high as the car blew up under the intense flames, sending the arbori away from her.

Unscathed and able to withstand the fire she created around her, Riley slid out from the driver's seat and landed on her feet, bending backward an uninjured flew towards her. She grabbed onto its head with her hands and set it aflame before shoving her fist through the middle of its chest and flinging it onto the ground behind her. As she looked around she was suddenly hit on the face, sending her flying back to the ground.

"Flamethrower!" Zack cupped his hands together and shot a stream of fire towards the arbori that headed his way. He surged forwards and with a running leap, kicked an arbori in the face. He ducked out of the way as a fist came flying towards his face and he lashed back with a judo sweep, knocking one onto its back. Hands blazing, Zack continued to fight the arbori that came his way, ignoring the pain that swept through his body from his arm as the seconds passed.

He was knocked across the face and fell to his knees. Feeling whips lash across his face and back, Zack winced through the pain before holding his hands up and shooting out a shield of fire that knocked the arbori away from him. They twisted and writhed as fire consumed their bodies. Zack got to his feet, looking up towards the sky. He didn't see Cody, Patrick, Noah, or Sydney up there anymore and more and more arbori were starting to come through.

We can't keep fighting like this, he realized. We have to go straight for Mother Nature.

Getting to his feet, Zack smeared blood off his face and called out to his friends as they continued to struggle against the waves of arbori that continued to come one after another. The portal wasn't closing, there had to be a better way to defeat them. "C'mon!" He called.

His friends turned towards him, momentarily pausing their battle.

"This is only going to end once we get to Mother Nature," Zack called. He ducked as there was a sudden large explosion form a few block away. "And we have to go now!"

His friends nodded. Riley summoned DalFang and leapt onto his back. She directed him over to Zack and the fire elemental quickly climbed on behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding on tightly as DalFang beat his wing and quickly took off up into the air.

Crystal and Tapeworm climbed onto the back of Dricer and the white tiger leapt onto a nearby car before leaping over a large wave of arbori and charging off in the direction of Mother Nature with DalFang following close behind.

"Cody? What'd you do?"

Cody looked at Bailey for a long moment before shaking his head. "What I had to do," he said. He swung his arms in a circle and created a wave of water that hot towards the arboris in front of him. Patrick rolled to Cody's side and shot out his hands, sending out a bolt of lightning to the water. The wave that had combined with electricity shot into the arbori, electrocuting them as it sent them flying backwards. "Nice shot," Cody said to him.

"Thanks mate," Patrick whipped his head to the side and pointed at the ground as an arbori leapt to attack. A brilliant bolt of lightning shot from the sky and landed on top of the arbori frying it instantly. Patrick closed his eyes against the bright bolt and watched tilting his head to the side, as the force of the hit caused the arbori to go flying into eth air, where Noah met it with a swipe of his hammer. "I've had a lot of practice."

Bailey stood still, watching the battle that raged along around her. She…she didn't really know what to do. Geneva and Gattaca's instructions had been to get them to Mother Nature, so that they could talk her out of what she had been doing, to remind her what the point of their revelation to the Elementals has been. But now…watching as so many lives were lost around her, most of them innocent and just trying to get away…she didn't think she could handle it. How could anyone sacrifice people like that? Weren't they supposed to be the good guys, the ones that were to protect everyone the best they could?

Bailey, Geneva's voice came through her thoughts. It's too dangerous to stay here. We have to get going.

Bailey didn't respond as she continued to watch the boys fight around her. Sydney, having the powers of all elements due to his spirits, shot different attacks to the arbori with his staff. There was a loud scream and Bailey turned, watching as a mother and daughter had stumbled out of a nearby building and ran out into the street, immediately surrounded by arboris. Sydney turned and shot a gust of wind to the two women before surrounding them with a spirit shield.

Bailey! Gattaca shouted, his voice breaking out f her thoughts. You have to move! Bailey suddenly lost control of her body and she gasped, watching as a wave of black energy followed by white energy shot out of her body and into the area surrounding her. The arboris that had been there immediately disappeared and all was silent. Suddenly stumbling, Bailey got her body back.

"Bailey!" Noah hurried over to her, his dragon wings sliding back into his shoulder blades. "Are you all right?" He grabbed onto her shoulder, shaking her out of her trance. "Listen." He swallowed hard. "I know all of this is hard, I know that…what you saw is hard for you to wrap you mind around. But this is the life we're stuck with and we need your help."

Cody, Patrick, and Sydney hurried over to the girl and with the four boys surrounding her, Bailey started to shake. She brought her hands up, looking at them. It wasn't her, she knew that. She hadn't been the one that had dealt with these powers and enemies as long as they had; she wasn't the one that had just attacked those things. In her head she knew they weren't human and yet…they appeared human and it still had the same effect on her.

"Bailey…" Cody reached out to touch her shoulder and she pushed his hand away.

"Don't touch me," she murmured. "Please, don't touch me."

"Everything's going to be OK, Bailey," Sydney said. He hesitantly reached out and patted her hand. "But right now…you have to focus or else Boston and the rest of the world will fall to Mother Nature and the Element world and we can't have that. OK?" Bailey looked down at the boy and slowly nodded.

He's telling the truth child, Geneva said, her voice soothing, calm. This is what you're going to have to see when you're in this life.

"I didn't ask for it," Bailey whispered.

No one asks to be awakened. But when they are, or they see someone that is an Elemental, there are different reactions that will be brought from it. You're not an Elemental, you have no powers, but you are needed in the grand scheme of things. There is something special about you, Bailey; you just have to wait for it to be revealed to you.

Patrick moved forward and scooped Bailey up in his arms. "C'mon, we have to get to the others," he said. He looked over at Cody, who nodded and he sprouted his eagle wings out of his back. Patrick and Noah followed suit with their dragon wings, and Sydney jumped onto his staff and the four headed off towards the large blasts of energy.

As they headed towards the blasts, they couldn't help but notice the continuous stream of arboris that came through the portal.

Diamond ducked behind a car before reaching out and holding his machine gun forward, shooting off as many rounds as he could. The element gun had run out quickly and while it had worked well, there weren't enough bullets that would hold out the arbori long enough. As shells flew over his shoulder from the bullets that went flying toward the arbori, sweat dripped down Diamond's face. He had called in for military relief before, but so far none had shown up.

As far as he was concerned, the factions had been wiped out before the group had arrived to attack Mother Nature. They were all alone.

Diamond leaned to the side, shielding his face as there was a stream of fire that shot by. He looked to the side and watched as Julius was swept off his feet and landed on the ground beside him. The elemental quickly got back to his feet and sent out a wave of water followed by a gust of wind that knocked arboris away from him.

"Must be nice to be able to control every element," Diamond remarked.

Julius smirked, wiping sweat and blood off his forehead. His chest heaved up and down with effort as he struggled to catch his breath. Placing his hand on his chest, he took the time to heal the gashes that resided there, before his hands glowed a navy blue and the ground started to quake. When the shaking stopped, he fell forward, placing his hands on the ground in front of him. "You'd think," he gasped. "But…having all of the powers….it makes me weaker…I can't focus on them one at a time, I have to constantly switch through them. Even if with the aid of the Element Stones…I can't…." He shook his head.

"That sucks." Diamond stood up and fired off more rounds. "Seems to me it's something that we could really use."

"It's the power that Zack and Cody now have that we could use," Julius contradicted. He looked over his shoulder, where Maddie still tried to heal Blazen. But the guardian continued to lie motionless, the wounds too deep for her to heal as it had been revealed that the vines had been planted inside his body and binding him. "If what they say about the Element World is true."

"Of everything I've seen at this point, I believe it to be true," Diamond remarked. "But what we need to figure out…how are we going to get rid of this Mother Nature fellow. If she's as strong as they say, which I also believe, there has to be something that can stop her."

"There is."

Diamond and Julius turned to the side and watched as Aaron calmly walked over to them, holding onto the element stone of light. A white aura surrounded him and as the arboris came close, the light protected him, knocking him back out of the way.

"What?" Maddie gasped, watching Aaron. "But…he…he's not an Elemental…how is this possible?"

Aaron ignored her question. He turned towards her and held out his hand. A thin beam of light came out from his fingers and shone around Blazen. When the light faded the wounds were gone and Blazen quickly fluttered his wings and got back to his talons.

"Thanks Aaron," he said to the young boy. "I have to go find Zack." He flapped his wings and took off into the air.

Aaron nodded and took Maddie's hand, taking him over to Julius and Diamond. "There is only one way to stop her," he said, voice sounding like he was in a trance. "However, I don't believe they're going to find out what it is. It's something that only those in her position would understand. It is the world she's worried about, her own world and the way her powers have invested themselves upon Earth…according to folklore. They may not figure it out in time." The element stone of light slowly lost its glow. "I hope they can do it."

Rhuben skidded across the ground, rolling before she got back to her feet. She turned back to Mother Nature, watching s Reihu, in his lion form, attacked the woman from her backside, and charged towards her once more. Mother Nature shot out a flurry of vines. Rhuben's eyes and hands glowed a dark purple as she used her darkness powers to knock the vines out of the way. But with each blast that knocked a vine safely aside, she gritted her teeth in pain, doing her best to keep the darkness from taking over. Each use of her powers made it that much harder to ignore the icy grip that slowly moved up her spine and towards her brain.

A vine flopped own in front of her, crushing the ground beneath her and Rhuben leapt high into the air. "Dark Darts!" Cupping her hands together, a large ball of darkness appeared in front of her before. Little bolts of darkness energy shot out of the large ball and struck Mother Nature. She then brought her hands to her head and grasped onto the sides of them as she fell towards the ground. No! Not, not again! Fight it, you can fight it off!

The woman that control everything nature and wildlife whipped around and quick as lightning shot her arm out. Needle like bamboo shot towards Rhuben, catching her on the shoulder and knocking her back towards the ground. Landing hard on her knees, she lifted up her hand. "Darkness Atom Bomb!" A large ball of darkness appeared overhead and as she lowered her hand, it shot down towards Mother Nature.

The woman shifted her head to the side and watched as the darkness bomb fell toward her. Lifting her free hand she sent a larger bamboo spear through the center of the attack, followed by a shockwave around her. There was a loud yelping sound and Rhuben watched as Reihu was knocked aside, crashing into a building side. "Reihu!"

The shockwave then reached Rhuben. She crossed her arms over her face to shield herself and skidded back a few inches before she felt herself lifted off her feet. Crashing to the ground she felt her head hit before the rest of her body. Curling into a ball she felt the darkness starting to take her over in her weak moment. Pressure pushed down around her on all sides as she curled up into the fetal position, animalistic screams coming from her mouth.

"Inferno Ebony Blast!"

"Crystal Freeze!"

"Thunder Bolt!"

"Wind Strike!"

"Spirit Crash!"

"Psychic Beam!"

"Quaking Tundra!"

"Riptide Rush!"

"SpitFire!"

The ten attacks combined and crashed into Mother Nature, causing the shockwave to stop. Rhuben looked up as Julius leapt to his little sister's side and grabbed onto her, jumping her back towards their friends as Mother Nature screeched from the combined force of the attacks.

She grabbed onto Reihu's body and threw him over towards the group of Elementals. Her eyes shone with white light as she towered in front of the group. "You dare think you'll stop me?" She held her arms out, motioning towards the sounds of destruction and screams that surrounded them. "You human have done nothing but caused my world as well as your nothing but trouble. I'm not going to allow you to tear it apart anymore."

"We'll die before we allow that to happen," Zack declared.

"We'd rather sacrifice ourselves before we allow you to hurt anyone else," Cody agreed. He took in a deep breath. "We can save this planet…and keep the likes of you from hurting anyone else." He looked over at Zack and he nodded back before they held onto the Element stones.

They will not be able to use those until they fully open themselves up to the power, Mother Nature thought. She motioned to an arbori and it shot out and knocked the Element stones from Zack's and Cody's hands and before they could react, they were covered by moss and vines. To protect them.

Mother Nature's eyes then narrowed dangerously. "Then prepare to die a painfully horrible death." She lifted her hands and they glowed green. The ground started to quake and crack open, revealing vines and trees coming lifting itself from the ground. The mass attack shot towards the group.

Tapeworm brought up his hands and knocked a few out of the way as the others jumped apart and started to fend for themselves. Blasts of energy and elements went flying as the group of Elementals fought back against Mother Nature, easily being overwhelmed by the fighting power she shot back. "Prepare to die!" She lifted her arms high in the air and started to gather all of her power, a large ball of swirling energy appearing overhead.

Riley reacted quickly and thrust out her right arm. "Darkness Dragon Flame!"

"No!" Cody screamed at her.

Her arm became engulfed in an orange flame with black edges and as the fire stretched from her shoulder down to her arm, it turned to a solid black color. Pulling her arm back she thrust it forward and the fire/energy shot off her arm, straight towards Mother Nature, creating a large dragon made of fire that towards her. The attack shot straight into Mother Nature but was stopped by an invisible barrier. Mother Nature smirked as the attack dissipated.

Growling, Riley fell to her knee, holding onto her arm. Her eyes rolled up and she pitched to the side, falling lifelessly to the ground.

"Luminescence!" Patrick, Noah, and Sydney quickly called. Thunder, wind and spiritual powers formed a big sphere of light, surrounded by ferocious winds, which shot white thunders at all directions. The thunders crashed into Mother Nature's barrier and were re-directed up into the orb of energy above Mother Nature.

The woman's smirk widened and she slowly started to lower her hands, directing it towards the Elementals. Zack glanced over at Sydney who watched the woman with fear in his eyes, genuine fear. It was the first time he had seen the young boy appear that way.

"Syd," he directed. "Make a shield."

Sydney slowly shook his head. His chin trembled. "I…I don't think I can make one that big."

Too late. Mother Nature lowered the energy ball and shot it towards the group. Just when it was about to reach them, Geneva and Gattaca appeared in front of the group. The two muttered and incantation that Mother Nature immediately recognized and two large, magic circles appeared in front of them, blocking off the attack. Mother Nature's attack collided with the magic circles and three beams of light appears hers in green, Gattaca's in black, and Geneva's in white.

The three forces collided and created an even bigger, more brilliant beam of light that engulfed them, reminiscent of a light created from a nuclear weapon.

All sound stopped.

Everything was still.

The absence of sound was, surprisingly, louder than anything that the Elementals had ever heard before.

Mother Nature watched, tilting her head in slight confusion as she watched the Elementals slowly try to get up from the ground, clearly struggling as they continued to collapse after a few seconds of movement. They were stronger than she had thought they'd be. They had more heart, wanting to protect everyone around them. Is it possible that those that have been destroying the planet for years…hurting my ties with this planet…do they really want to save it as much as they said they did? Are they the ones that will really be able to save both worlds?

Slowly lowering her arms, Mother Nature continued to watch the group. The blonde girl…she was doing her best to try to heal the others but she knew it wouldn't help them much. That blonde wasn't an elemental, Mother Nature knew for sure, neither was the one that ruled Geneva and Gattaca nor was the little boy that couldn't see. Neither of the three were elementals and yet they were doing all they could to help everyone around them.

They were all doing their best to keep their city from being destroyed, no matter what else would happen.

These are the ones that'll be able to do it…it is not fair if I destroyed their world…Mother Nature uttered an incantation and the arbori that continued to come through the portal as well as those that were already on the ground all screeched before rotting and melting away.

Mother Nature lowered her hands and slowly walked over to the fallen fighters. By a quick glance she noticed some of them were still moving while others appeared to have used up the extent of their powers. Or that her powers had caused them to overexert themselves…either way as she knew it to be, they weren't going to defeat her.

"I apologize for my actions," she said to them. Zack and Cody watched her, blood running down their face, eyes just barely open. It was all she could do to keep herself up. "I see now that you mean no harm to me or my World. I shall do my best to restore it to the way it was…and close up the portal between both worlds."

She slowly leaned forward in a bow before disappearing in a flash of bright green light. Watching as the light zoomed towards the sky, Zack and Cody watched as the portal closed behind her. It was the fallout afterwards that had caused there to be so many problems between their group. Those that had fallen into comas had, unfortunately, woken up with their memories still intact. All of their horrors were still with them despite having physically left them all behind. Bailey and Cody hadn't spoken to each other since she had seen the great lengths he had gone to to protect himself and everyone felt that they needed time apart from each other, to get over the what had happened before and while they had been gone they hadn't spoken to each other over the course of their vacation other than those they were with.

There were phone calls and emails here and there; otherwise it was radio silence of the group before having returned where they were actually happy to see each other once more.

And now they were working on trying to ultimately end it all and who knew what was on the horizon for them.

Sydney looked over his shoulder before ushering Aaron into the quiet room. Now that they had finally had their meeting and spoken about everything that had been bothering them, he now had the chance to make sure thing would continue to get better for them.

As the door closed behind them, Sydney looked around the grand room in awe. It appeared to be some sort of a battling room, as there were weapons lining the walls the light streaming in from the stained glass windows shone off of the swords and other artillery like weapons. And as the door closed behind them, Aaron hurried to the other side of the room to be sure no one would come in and surprise them in the middle of their work.

"Is it all cleared?" Sydney asked, moving to the center of the room.

"Yeah," Aaron called back. "Everything's fine." He nodded over to Sydney. "Go ahead."

Sydney nodded back, pressing his lips together in an interesting smile, one dimple appearing in his cheek. "Unfading Promise!" Holding out his hand, his staff appeared in his grasp. Tightening both hands around it, he closed his eyes, and focused hard on the power within him. And as he continued to focus, the bright blue gem at the tip of his staff glowed a bright light erupted from the ground beneath him.

Sydney opened his eyes and watched as a magic circle drew underneath his feet, continuing to radiate light as it grew around him. When the last lines came together, a white figure started to slide out from the floor beneath him. Sydney's smile widened as he watched the figure continue to come out from the floor. The figure continued to come up from the floor before it had come to its full height, and then the light faded.

The man that stood in front of him looked down at Sydney, his dark blue eyes shining.

Sydney lowered his staff and the light in the room completely faded.

He took a deep breath before letting it out.

"Hi, Dad."