CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Cody wrenched out of an Elemental's grasp and grabbed onto his twin brother before he could go flying out to face Uriel, who continued to watch the battle unfold from a distance.

"Cody!" Zack spat, trying to wrestle free. "Let go."

With a hard tug, Cody pulled his brother to face him, shook him. "You can't run out on the plan," he snapped at his brother. "You'll ruin everything if you do. We have to keep going with this before we go after Uriel! Don't be stupid!"

He didn't think his brother was stupid, he thought his brother had enough. Enough of the constant battles, enough of the war, enough of the invisible enemies they weren't sure were coming out of the woodwork in a matter of seconds once their guards were down. He was completely done. Even from where Cody stood he could see flashes of red light form his brother's hand, the elemental energy coming together to start the formation of a flame, but he was doing his best to hold it at bay.

All of a sudden Cody felt Zack's hand slip from his grasp and he was lifted off of his feet and thrown into the air. There was a loud explosion and the ground exploded around him. Stinging with pain, Cody rolled onto his side and found an Elemental grinning at him, above his hands glowed balls of pure energy.

Oh Great, another Element we haven't seen before. He would've been fascinated, even a little excited, if it weren't that his life was currently being threatened. Phantom surged down in front of him and puffed out his wings to their full extent before grabbing onto Cody and taking off into the air. Feeling the wind rush around them, Cody closed his eyes, waiting for the world to stop whizzing by. Wait. That wasn't the world.

Opening his eyes, Cody found there were pieces of shrapnel, maybe wood, maybe metal he wasn't sure, blowing by them. From his vantage point he could see numerous Elementals throwing whatever they could their way. Below he could see what looked like ants swarming and shuddered, realizing how much of a reach Uriel had with his Shadow Hunters. They were everywhere.

"CODY!"

He heard Maddie's scream and turned around in time to find a large blast of energy heading his way. There wasn't going to be enough time for him and Phantom to get out of the way. He felt Phantom's body steel behind him, ready to take in as much of the energy blast as he could. Cody didn't expect it to be something that would kill him, not deplete him of most of his energy, but he wasn't sure where the blast had come from and whether or not it was a combined effort.

"Spirit Shield!"

Cody opened his eyes and looked around to find the blast had been fended off by a large shield encompassed around him. He looked around to find Sydney gliding by, holding onto Aaron with one hand and his staff with the other. The long sleeves of his magi-esque battle outfit fluttered as he flew by then slowed to a stop. Aaron, feeling the change in their speed grasped tighter to Sydney's hand and closed his eyes as he concentrated. There was a bright burst of light and the blast was knocked backwards, rocketing out towards the horizon before it was eliminated in such a harsh light that Cody had to close his eyes once more.

"Are you okay, Cody?" Phantom asked, loosening his grip.

"Yeah." Cody swallowed hard. "Yeah." Then he twisted around. "Where's Zack?"

Cody unfurled his own wings from his back and hovered in the air, looking around for his brother. He saw that he had been knocked aside by the blast as well and that Blazen was holding onto him tightly, hovering off the ground as Blazen's wings slowly flapped up and down. Maddie and Julius, atop of Rudin were fending off whatever blasts that came their way. Bailey stood nearby, crouched in a low squat as a Shadow Hunter jumped overhead, and sent a brilliant blast of light energy into the Shadow Hunter, obliterating it immediately.

"Zack!" Cody immediately rushed over to his brother. "Are you okay?" He had to be okay. If Cody didn't get the brunt of the blast then Zack had to have. There was no way the blast could've missed them that badly. If Zack was hurt, they wouldn't be able to go against Uriel.

"I'm okay," Zack replied. He spat on the ground, his saliva tinged a light pink. "I didn't get hit directly."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I…I have no idea where it even came from but it didn't get me. You?"

"I'm fine." Cody sucked in a deep breath and turned towards his friends who were still fighting. They were working hard and didn't appear to even be breaking a sweat or using even half of their powers against the Shadow Hunters as they kept coming in droves. He then lifted his eyes and tilted his head to the side, focusing his sightline on Uriel as he watched the skirmish in the city streets below him.

He shook his head.

They couldn't wait any longer.

Turning his gaze back to Zack he found his brother glaring as he pushed himself out of Blazen's grasp. He stepped up into Cody's face, eyes flashing. It gave Cody a bit of satisfaction to see that he had to tilt his head back a little bit so that he could look him directly in his eyes.

"Do you think we shouldn't go after him now?" He demanded.

Cody glared back at him. This wasn't his fault. The same thing would've happened if they were on another part of the battlefield. There was just too many of them around to be able to stop. Or to watch at all times. He opened his mouth to say something back, but was cut off by a whistling sound and immediately ducked his head as the building behind them erupted in a blast of energy, sending shards of glass glittering over the ground, sticking in his hair and on his arms and shoulders. It scratched and itched but he merely brushed it off—he covered himself in a thin veil of water and allowed it to wash off of him, taking the glass with him. Something he had learned he could do one having the power of the element stone.

"We need to get going," Zack declared. He held out his hand and his heavy blade appeared in it. His fingers twitched on the hilt. "Or else Uriel is just going to send more of these guys after us. They can handle him. If we want to get Project ATOM underway and stop this guy, we have to go now!" He turned and pointed towards Sydney and Aaron. "I want you guys and Bailey right behind either me or Cody. Julius and Maddie will bring up the rear."

"You got it," Julius replied, holding tightly onto his guardian's back. "If there's a long range opening I've got it covered."

"I hope you guys can do this quickly," Maddie said. She looked up towards the ever darkening sky, shaking her head. "He looks like he's ready for a fight. And if we have to use Project ATOM…" she trailed off, shaking her head once more.

It wasn't an option.

The fact they had it in their arsenal was something they could easily utilize when the time was right. However, knowing there was a chance all of them could lose their powers being in the fallout zone wasn't anything they could risk. Especially considering if it didn't work…

"Let's go," Cody finally said.

He crouched low then used a powerful down stroke of his wings to shoot him upwards. Zack followed suit and Blazen and Phantom flew up behind them. Sydney and Aaron moved to Zack's and Cody's outer side and Julius, Maddie, and Rudin took up the rear at a respectable distance. Cody swallowed hard as they flew towards Uriel, who continued to watch them as they approached.

Uriel cracked a smile but didn't look worried.

Cody summoned his staff.

It was time.

"I don't know about you, but I intend to have some fun with this," Uriel said, his smile stretching wider.

Tapeworm ducked out of the way and rolled across the ground as a Shadow Hunter charged towards him. This was a big one, bigger than the rest. It towered over the group many meters high. There were plenty of them being created as several of the smaller Shadow Hunters combined together. The quicker they knocked them down, and then they could go for the Elementals along with them, the quicker they could all go for Uriel together.

Placing a glowing green hand on the ground, he summoned a large slab of rock to deflect the swipe of the arm that was coming his way. The Shadow Hunter let out a screaming roar, causing the ground to tremble beneath his feet. Then shot vines out from his hands and wrapped them around the rock and the arm, welding them together. He leapt to his feet and flipped up over the rock slab, running up the arm of the shadow hunter. "Aegis!" He cried, summoning his shield.

The Shadow Hunter tore its hand back from the rock slab and knocked it towards Tapeworm. He reacted quickly, throwing the shield as hard as he could before he was caught across the chest. A grunt of pain escaped his lips and he rocketed back onto the ground, crashing hard against it. There was another loud roar and Ursa appeared at Tapeworm's side before lumbering forward, picking up speed as he did so, and launched forward. Ursa struck the Shadow Hunter with a straight head butt; at the same time the green markings on the bear's fur glowed a bright green, shooting out blasts of energy into it as it did so. The Shadow Hunter fell apart into several of the smaller Shadow Hunters which were then taken care of as his shield came flying back towards him like a boomerang.

"Great job, Ursa!" He congratulated his guardian.

Max sucked in a deep breath, trying to quell her fear as Shadow Hunters circled around her. Sensing one coming up behind her, she kicked backwards as hard as she could, striking it in the face. The Shadow Hunters all attacked at once. Their bulbous heads opened wide to show the rows of razor sharp teeth that aimed towards her head and face. "Max!" Eyes widened Max spotted Canis leap in front of her from somewhere behind. She would've laughed if she wasn't so frightened being back in battle; the guardian that used to be such a majestic looking dog was now the size of a puppy. Her eyes glowed and the wind kicked up, causing her to run faster.

Canis darted around, leaping atop the Shadow Hunters and knocked them to the ground with as much ease as a snap of the fingers. Max watched as her guardian continued to make quick work of the smaller Shadow Hunters around them. She was protecting her, even when she didn't have her full powers back, without fear of the death she had suffered from before. And yet here was Max, shaking in her boots at the very idea. She still had that sense of power that her Elemental ability gave her, but that didn't quell her natural instinct to run and hide.

Death was a strange feeling to her; it was if time hadn't passed, as if she had just fallen asleep. There were obvious differences though; all of her friends looked leaner and more ragged, Canis was obviously different, she was hesitating more than she ever had, and there was a bigger opponent she never thought they would have ever faced. She was able to see Tapeworm while she had been 'gone' and it felt like a dream within the time she was asleep though it was all so very real. She remembered seeing there in front of him, being able to hold onto him and hold him as she had wanted to do for so long. Then it was gone again.

It was worse than a dream now that she was facing the possibility of losing it all again. She took a deep breath as Canis continued to run around, barking and using her powers to keep Shadow Hunters away from her ward and Max slowly started to grin. She could feel the power move through her body; she was strong, stronger than she would give herself credit for. She had the same strength that had been harnessed over the years. She could do this.

Max took in a deep breath and focused hard on the power within her, feeling it move through her body as if she was putting on a full-length glove. Oh yeah, she could do this. Holding her hand up, she found a mini tornado form over her hand before leaping high into the air, using her element of air to keep herself upright. Then she spun in a tight circle and sent a blast of energy down towards the Shadow Hunters, knocking a few out of the way.

She landed with ease, using her powers to shoot her back into the foray once more.

"Glaciate!" Crystal pressed her lips into a thin line as she froze the blood of the Elementals coming towards her. They were older, close to their twenties and thirties. It wasn't so hard for her to do this time. They were following the words of a monster; they were willingly deciding to fight everything that had kept them safe over the past few years. And if that was the way they wanted it, it was fine.

The ice elemental's eyes narrowed for a moment and she pushed her powers even harder, pushing away the screams of pain and horror from those whose blood was being frozen, recognizing the attack as soon as she started. She had done this move once before and it was hard then. She had killed a government worker with the move, freezing his blood until movement in the ligaments became impossible. Then she had stabbed him in the stomach with an icicle to immobilize him even further before choking him to death.

She had never killed someone so close before. Normally her attacks were long range, to the point that she didn't have to look back to see the aftermath. It was a distant memory. That death, however, haunted her more than she could say. Once she had regained control of her body she was immediately filled with guilt. It haunted her dreams, causing her sleepless nights. But now she had to do it to stay alive.

Curling her fingers in her hands, Crystal's eyes moved towards the Shadow Hunters that jumped out from behind the freezing elementals. All of a sudden, Crystal felt her legs come out from underneath her as Dricer ducked his head between her legs. She grabbed onto his fur as he leaned down and used his powerful muscles to crouch down before exploding upward sand over the heads of the Shadow Hunters. Dricer then turned around and shot a stream of icy wind towards the Shadow Hunters before following up with a batting of his paw, knocking straight through a few of them.

"Great job, Drice," She said, rubbing the back of his head.

She held her hand out and her new and improved bow appeared in her hands. She strung three arrows and pulled them back, tilting herself backwards as she did so to aim them into the air. Squeezing an eye shut, she let go and the arrows streaked through the sky. Once they reached the maximum height they exploded, sending a shower of snowflakes and hail to the ground below. Dricer disappeared from underneath her and she landed crouched on the ground, whipping around and using her bow to strike another Shadow Hunter, this time a medium sized one, that came her way. She then placed it on the ground before flipping herself up and striking it in the face once more.

Then she encompassed her hand in a frozen block and punched another one straight through the stomach causing it to immediately implode.

Riley leapt backwards off of the awning of a nearby building and brought her hands up to shield her face as a Shadow Hunter came her way. She felt a collision against her arms and pushed backwards, forcing the weight away from her. But she overestimated her rate of fall and found herself crashing down to the ground in a hard thud, stopping her movement all together. If she was a regular human, she would've been killed by the fall alone. With her enhanced invincibility she was bound to end up with a pretty bad bruise at the worst. Still, that wouldn't be enough to extinguish the intense irritation she felt as she flipped back to her feet. Eyes glowing with an inner light, Riley lifted her hand and sent a rush of flame out towards the center of the Shadow Hunter. She rolled her shoulders then started in a fury of strong kicks and punches laced with fire and fury.

"Spit Fire!" She launched herself backwards, far enough so that she wouldn't be hit with a backlash, and cupped her hands, shooting speedballs of fire out towards her opponents. She then followed up with a short range attack. "Crimson Scorpion!" Her scythes appeared on the forearms of her battle suit and she raced forward with an accelerated burst of fire from behind her to allow herself forward. She swung her arms out to the sides and caught Shadow Hunters and Elementals in the same blows, sending splatters of blood through the air.

Riley skidded to a stop and received a strong kick to the stomach from a metal elemental. It caught her off-guard more than anything else. Nevertheless, it knocked the wind out of her, causing her to stumble back a few steps before she was kicked hard across the face and landed on her back. Seconds later she had a metal spike racing towards her head, directly at her left eye. She rolled to the side and found the spike slammed into the ground in front of her once more. She moved back onto her back and looked up into the face of the metal elemental. Long blonde hair, brown eyes, long eyelashes, a sort of baby face pinpointing her a little bit younger than Riley, and a sinister snarl.

The Metal Elemental lifted her hand, which was completely encompassed in metal with the tip turned into metal spike, now pointed directly between her eyes. She started to shove the spike down towards her face and Riley's eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth into a loud, beat-like growl as she tapped into her wolf powers. She brought her foot up and kicked the metal spike out of her face then flipped to her feet, causing the Metal Elemental to back away a few steps. The girl scowled then raced towards her once more. Growling, Riley brought up her fist, stiff-arming and punched the girl in the face, knocking her off her feet, out cold.

Lowering her arm, Riley flicked her hair out of her face with a shake of her head. "Forgot I could do that," she murmured.

Rhuben, on the other hand, didn't forget that he had ability to take on the powers from her guardian and snarled, her sharpened fangs gleaming as she crouched low, waiting for the Elemental standing in front of her to attack first. She clenched her hand into a fist, concentrating on her darkness energy and created a small ball in the palm of her hand. Her hand shook as she held onto the force of the energy coming out towards her. She threw it towards the Elemental and raced after it, charging on all fours as she did so. The Elemental shot a stream of water towards the darkness energy to shoot it back towards her and changed it to ice, following up with his own attack.

Holding out her hand, Rhuben took back the ball of darkness energy and held onto it as she leapt high into the air. She threw the darkness ball with her right hand, using the momentum to spin herself around, striking with the claw from her left hand. She caught the water Elemental in the face, knocking him back before slashing him across the chest. She then pounced backwards off of him and landed on the ground in a light crouch before standing up straight. She lowered her lion instincts and her eyes glowed a bright purple. "Darkness Atom Bomb!" She spread her arms out so her body resembled the shape of a 'T' and a dome of darkness energy balls appeared above her. Clenching her hands into fists, she let out a cry of effort as she lowered her arms, sending the darkness balls raining down on the elemental.

She followed up with a strong kick to the chest before holding out her hands. "Infinite Cruelty!" Her increasingly big heavy blade appeared in her hands and she screamed as she swung it to the side, feeling as it resisted for a moment, catching the Elemental's body. She closed her eyes and continued the swing, only stopping when she heard the sound of his body hit the ground undoubtedly in pieces. Shifting her weight onto her back leg, she pushed off and started to take care of the Shadow Hunters.

Patrick and Noah, due to their elements being very close in relation to each other, tag-teamed their attacks. Patrick would create a strong gust of wind that would hold back the Elementals or Shadow Hunters and Patrick would swoop in with a lightning strike that would knock them down. Then he would use the ground to conduct electricity, paralyzing them, and then Noah would use his ability of silver wind to strike others down. Bringing his dragon wings out of his back, Noah lifted himself up into the air and shot himself forward, summoning his weapon a he did so. The new and improved axe was weight balanced in his hand, easy to maneuver as he blew by their opponents, slashing back and forth to catch them on the arms or the sides.

Patrick then followed up with close ranged attacks. He threw his spear forward and struck a Shadow Hunter directly through the chest and used a blast of electricity to bring it back to him—kind of like a magnet—and caught it to throw it back into another Shadow Hunter. At one point he got stuck with a circle of Shadow Hunter around him and used the blunt end of his spear to keep them at bay before twisting around and used the sharp end to strike them in the chest or the head.

"Silver Lightning!" Noah cried. He pressed his hands together, concentrating on the power within him and the increase in wind speed around him. He continued to increase it over and over until warmth started to envelope itself around him. He then rubbed his hands together before shooting his hand forward, sending out a bolt of electricity towards the Shadow Hunters that surrounded him. He quickly followed it up with, "Steel Smasher!" He picked up his axe, flipped it in his hand and threw it like a tomahawk. It spun around, striking more of the Shadow Hunters.

"Thunder Blitz!" Patrick created a force field of electricity around him, shocking whomever and whatever crashed into it before he started off again with Noah right behind him.

And as the group on the ground continued to fight, Zack, Cody, and the others headed off to face Uriel.

"Do you think we're going to need it?" Kristin asked under her breath as she turned from the monitor to gaze at the bomb that sat behind them, encompassed in as much cover as they could put over it. "The fallout…"

"Hopefully not," Core murmured. He cleared his throat, eyes trained on the teens fighting on the monitor. He winced every now and then as there was a particularly savage blow. "We don't know what it'll do to them rather than Uriel."

"It'll take their powers away," London reminded them. "Won't it?"

"Not exactly."

But he didn't elaborate other than that. Instead he continued to watch the screen with Reed, Renee, and Kristin. Christian, Koto, and Reihu stood towards the back of the room, ready in case someone tried to break into the room to stop them that way.

Carey let out a long sigh as she watched her sons streak across the sky towards Uriel. The evil man continued to watch the Elementals as they came closer to him, alternately shifting his attention to those on the ground. He radiated evil and she couldn't help but allow it to settle in her gut.

This was going to be bad.

"They'll be okay, Carey," Kurt said. He put his arm around his ex-wife's shoulders, hugging her gently. "They'll be okay."