CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Uriel flicked a hand to the side as the Elementals on the streets below went flying through the air, crashing hard into the ground. Way too easy. They had to put up a better fight than that if they were going to have any shot at defeating him. Then again…

Lifting his hand upwards he watched as they levitated up into the air once more. Clenching his hand into a fist, he watched as they all groaned in pain before he opened his hand and they fell to the ground once more. He could have some fun with it.

Patrick picked his face up off the ground and brushed away the pieces of rock that became embedded in his skin. "This is really starting to get old," he muttered, his small wounds healing very quickly. "I didn't know he had that power, I thought he could just suck our souls out through our noses."

"The fact that you can still have a sense of humor about this is astounding," Noah remarked, his eyes flashing with anger. He pushed himself up with a quick blast of air directed towards the ground. He looked around and noticed that he and his friends weren't the only ones that had been attacked by Uriel. "I don't get it," he said. "He attacked the rest of his followers."

"It proves he doesn't care much about those that are working for him, they're just as disposable as the rest of us are," Tapeworm said. He took a step back before leaping up onto Ursa's back. He tapped Ursa's shoulder and the bear guardian stepped up onto its hind legs so that he towered over the group. "He got rid of the Shadow Hunters."

"Mmm. No he didn't," Rhuben remarked. She still crouched on the ground, the palms of her hands flat on the ground. Her eyes glowed purple as she tilted her head to the side, sensing the feeling of the darkness around them. "They're underground or are hiding. Uriel may be using them as reserves, yeah? For the moment they're not around."

"But these guys are." Riley cracked her knuckles as Uriel's Elementals got up off the ground and shook off their injuries, like zombies and turned back towards them. "Do you think they have part of Uriel within each of them?"

Crystal shrugged and held up her hand and an icicle appeared in it. "Only one way to find out. Once we're done with this, we can help Zack and Cody." She turned her gaze up towards the sky. "If Uriel is as strong as we think, from what he just did and at such a far reach, he's going to be tougher than we thought."

"Oh this will be fun." Patrick's eyebrow twitched upwards and he stretched his arms. "You know if we don't get killed."

"You really gotta stop with that whole humor thing," Max pointed out. "It's not working." She rushed forward and blew a rush of air towards an Elemental, bringing it up off its feet. She only managed to hover the Elemental a few feet off the ground, rather than the massive height she used to be able to exhibit.

With that the group starting attacking once more. Riley slid underneath the metal bar that was swung at her head and swung herself around to find the metal Elemental glared at her. She let out a low sigh before tightening her hands into fists. She thought the one punch directly to the center of the face of the Elemental would have taken it out for good. Instead it appeared that The Metal Elemental had a dent in the middle of her forehead where Riley had stiff-armed her. This girl was a strong Elemental if she had managed to figure out how to turn her entire body into metal, or at least some parts of her.

Oh well. If it was a fight she wanted, she got it. Riley took a step back and summoned the scythes from the front of her arms and charged forward. Bringing her arms down the scythes crashed onto the metal pole the Elemental created with her arm. Sparks shot off in all directions as the two girls raced back and forth, trying to gain the upper hand on each other. Riley's arms were knocked out of the way and she caught the end of the pole in the stomach, causing her to fly back and land atop a car. The metal of the car bent, sending the glass of the windows shooting out into the street.

Rolling onto her side, Riley glanced down at the car and an evil grin came to her face, eyes turning a dark red. She sheathed her scythes and pulled her arm back. Fist erupting into dark flames, she punched through the roof of the car as if it were butter and set the interior of the car on fire. The inferno raged out of control within a few seconds. Sliding to the ground she kneeled by the car and lifted it up over her head. Hearing a light whistling sound, Riley tilted her head to the side and allowed the metal pole to crash onto the top of the car. Lifting the car over her head, she flipped it around and heaved it towards the Metal Elemental.

The Metal Elemental quickly created a metal cover over her fist and pulled her arm back as far as she could. Once the flaming car reached her she pushed her fist forward as hard as she could and cracked the flaming metal in two. Burning pieces of wreckage flew through the air and rained down around her. The DarkFire and Metal Elementals charged forward and came together in a crash of energies so strong it blasted each other apart. Riley sent continuous punches of fire towards the Metal Elemental as she came back towards her once more. As the fire rushed by her opponent, Riley could see patches of her skin starting to droop and melt. The heat of her power must have started to affect her more as time went on.

I guess this is the only way for it to go, Riley thought, pressing her lips together in a thin line. She stood up straight and clenched her hands as tightly as she could, concentrating hard. The Metal Elemental continued towards her, but then the blank expression on her face started to droop as much as the rest of her. Then there was a confused expression on her face as she came to a stop. Wisps of steam were visible from her body and she stared at it, her confusion growing as she held p her hand, watching as pieces of her skin continued to droop and melt off. Then she started to scream, long agonizing screams as she realized what was happening to her; she was being burned from the inside, her blood was burning. Riley slowly brought up her left hand, continuing to watch as the girl's skin blistered and bubbled. The Metal Elemental brought her hands up to her face then pulled it away, unable to touch it without making things worse, a bubble appeared on her neck growing bigger by the second.

Taking a deep breath through her nose Riley summoned her scythes once more and raced forward, bringing it through the girl's body with ease. She then took a step back and held her hand up towards the unmoving body. "Incinerate," she hissed and sent out a rush of fire so strong it would take hours for the last flame to die out. Lowering her hand she lowered her gaze to the pile of ash that fluttered to the ground. The wind picked it up and blew it away.

Tapeworm brought his hands up as an Elemental flew his way and a large rock wall came up just as they reached him. He closed his eyes, quickly turning his head away as he sensed the force of the body hit the rock wall at high speeds. Turning his hand around, Tapeworm turned the rock over and flattened the Elemental underneath. Seconds later the rock blasted apart with a quick shot of energy and Tapeworm shielded his face as rocks shot by him. He lowered his arms and held up a hand, creating a wooden spear in his hand. He flipped it around and charged towards the Elemental that came his way. He threw the spear as hard as he could and created another one before throwing that one, over and over again.

The Elemental knocked it away with another blast of energy…he couldn't tell what sort of power the Elemental had, though he had to guess it was of energy in general. They had never come across that sort of Elemental before though he wasn't surprised; there were so many that had differing and combinations of powers they probably would never witness. But an Elemental of pure energy was going to be tougher than he thought. As the Elemental pulled herself up, he could see her eye hanging out of its socket, her face a bloody mess from where she had crashed into the rock slab.

Before Tapeworm could shield himself with vines or another rock, he felt a searing pain in his shoulder that sent him spinning around before he fell to the ground. Reaching over to the spot he felt a hole directly through his shoulder and if he weren't as strong as he was he probably would have immediately gone into shock, leaving himself a target. Instead, Ursa moved in front of him to shield him from any further attacks.

"No," Tapeworm said of his guardian. "I'm going to need you to fight Uriel, don't get hurt now."

"Yes, Master Tapeworm." Ursa then disappeared, moving back into Tapeworm's body. The Energy Elemental shot towards him once more and he created a large wooden shield made of intertwined wood, vines, and rock. It was heavy to the point he had difficulty holding onto it. But it would serve his purpose. Gripping the shield in both of his hands, Tapeworm charged towards the Energy Elemental, who directly charged back at him.

The Energy Elemental shot a bolt of energy directly towards the center of Tapeworm's shield and followed up with a punch. At the last second, Tapeworm turned his shield around and watched as the Energy Elemental's fist truck into the flower that sat directly in the center of the shield. Swallowing thickly Tapeworm watched as a plume of pollen shot out all over the Energy Elemental who let out a cry of surprise and backed away from the shield. She shook off her hand and watched as bone immediately started to show through her skin. The rest of her skin started to follow suit as the pollen from Tapeworm's poisonous flower coated her. It didn't take long until her skeleton rested in front of him and crumpled to the ground.

"Shock Nova!"

Patrick sent a blast of lightning down from the sky that created a ring of lightning around two Elementals that stood before him and Noah. The circular area was then covered in a doe that exploded in a bright, brilliant light of lightning that exploded, sending heat and electricity through the air and the bodies of those within the dome.

"Storm Call!"

Noah pressed his hands together and the wind around him increased in speed before a tornado created beside him getting bigger and bigger by the second. The he sent bolts of silver wind energy into the tornado, shooting it towards the elementals that didn't have time to move out of the way. They became swept up into the tornado and buffeted by the silver wind as they went around and around. Finally, the tornado dissipated and the Elementals fell to the ground.

Over and over Patrick and Noah sent electric charges and blasts of silver wind into the Elementals. Noah held out his hand. "Thorned Affection!" He called, summoning his new axe. He grasped it by the blade between his palms and threw it as hard as he could, like a tomahawk. The blade whipped around and shot by one of the Elementals, slicing it across the throat, sending a wave of blood through the air. Patrick then summoned his spear and threw it as hard as he could, striking an Elemental directly through the chest.

All around them the Elementals were locked into a strong battle to the death, aware that the only way to stop those under Uriel's control was to effectively end the life of all of those he had managed to control. It wasn't the best option they had to work with but it had to be gone. All across the streets they raced back and forth, knocking down as many as they could. But no matter how many they managed to knock down, more replaced them.

"Uriel has a stronger reach than I thought," Rhuben commented, swinging her heavy blade around and taking down a few Elementals with one swing. She couldn't focus on the ages of the Elementals that came up to her while they ranged from fairly young to older, they were the enemy and as good as dead once Uriel got a hold of them. They saw what he would could when he was done with someone, how easily he could take the life out of one of them with a snap of his fingers and that was apparently only a fraction of his powers.

But as Mother Nature and Father Time had said, one someone was taken over by Uriel, once he split part of himself into the Elemental the person whose soul used to inhabit that body was already gone. It was a truth they had to face and not dwell on or else they would be sitting ducks.

"That may be a good thing," Max remarked, blowing an Elemental clear through a building with a blast of wind. She pulled back her pigtails. "The more of these guys we can get rid of, the weaker he'll be right?"

"In theory," Crystal agreed. The group slowly started to walk backwards until they were in a tight semi-circle, watching as more Elementals came their way. There seemed to be a fresh wave for them as the time came and it was then the realization dawned on them. The camps that Uriel had created while they were gone, having entrapped the Elementals that had awakened or had yet to, they were taken over Uriel and were to be disposed of when needed. "We don't know if that's really true."

"There's only one way to find out," Riley said.

As if Uriel had heard them, there was a sudden blast of white light that caused them to close their eyes, shielding their faces away from the blinding luminosity. Once the light died down they spotted all of the Elementals that had been attacking them lying quietly on the ground, eyes wide open and glassy. They appeared like mannequins, dolls that had been left by their kids as they moved on to adolescence. There was a booming explosion and the group looked up to find a smoke cloud above their heads seconds before they watched Cody fly around the cloud and charge towards Uriel.

It looked they were going to need a lot of help.

"This isn't good," Reed said, leaning forward, practically snarling at the monitor that showed the Elementals Uriel had just disposed of. "He took out a large chunk of his power that had been implanted along the rest of them so he can now focus on the others. He either sees that he may not be able to get through this or there's something up his sleeve we don't know about."

"I wouldn't rule it out, Reed," Akito agreed. "I've gone against this man before. There's always something this entity can do that we may not know of." He sucked in a deep breath and reached out with his free hand, gently petting his fox guardian on the head. "He took Trethaway and Zhane and left them empty shells of what they used to be. And he's managed to survive out here on Earth for that long with the power of life and death he can feed off of as people die every day. It has to have made him stronger than anyone can comprehend."

"What does that mean, though?" Carey demanded. "What does it mean for them?"

"They're strong enough to fend him off," Kristen reassured her. "We know that for sure. Uriel wouldn't have waited this long to attack unless he wanted a fair fight. No, he wants to prove that he would be the ultimate power."

"Is that in a villains rule book or something?" Koto asked with a raised eyebrow. "If it were me I wouldn't wait for a fair fight, I'd attack even if they were weak."

"We did that," Reihu pointed out. "Remember." He nodded his head over towards Core, who stood on the other side of the room, a hand up to his mouth. "Didn't really work out for us either because we were going after the 'strongest elementals of our time'," he used air quotes around the words before bringing his attention back to the monitor.

"Oh yeah."

"If he got rid of all of the Elementals," Kurt started. "What does that mean for the Shadow—"he stopped as there was as sudden banging at the door. Before any of them could move, the door to the room blasted open with so much force that the door went shooting across the room. Christian reached out and grabbed onto London, pulling her out of the way or else she would have suffered greatly from the blasted piece of metal.

Shadow Hunters of all shapes and sizes immediately flooded the room, causing worried cries to come up. Akito tapped the fox on the head once more and it leapt high into the air, turning in a quick circle. The tails on the fox erupted into flame and shot out towards the Shadow Hunters, knocking a few of them down before they could some too close. Koto and Reihu immediately jumped into the fray as well, turning into a wolf and lion after one quick flip through the air, darting back and forth as they used their teeth and claws to knock out any Shadow Hunter that came their way.

Diamond quickly ushered the others back out of the way and lifted his shot gun, shooting a bullet directly through the face of one Shadow Hunter. Then he reached behind him and pulled a pistol out from behind him and checked the chamber before sending out another blast. There was a thunderous clap as a bolt of lightning shot out and crashed into other Shadow Hunters as well.

"Grab the case," Renee declared. "They're going after the bomb!"

"But how are we going to get out of here?" Esteban asked from where he had jumped into Mr. Moseby's arms as the door had crashed open. "They're blocking the door."

"And what are we going to do when we get outside? It's not safe out there," Mr. Moseby added, tightening his grip on the bellboy as another wave of Shadow Hunters continued to surge into the room. He and Esteban screamed high-pitched screams and backed away from the waves of dark beings coming their way.

"There are more places that will give us protection out there than in here," Reed said. He nodded to Core and the two went over to the case that held Project ATOM and lifted it up off of the table it was resting on. "And we have the technology to at least keep it safe."

"What about us?" London whimpered.

"There're always going to be some sacrifices that have to be made and if some of us have to fall so that the entire Earth isn't destroyed." Core grabbed the other end of Project ATOM and pulled what looked like a calculator out of his pocket. He looked at it for a second and nodded. "There's an area not too far from here that we can go. It'll give us the chance to watch the fight and be sure when it'll be the right time to send this off if need be." He turned towards Diamond, who continued to switch back and forth between his shotgun and his Element Gun to drive the Shadow Hunters back. "Clear a path?"

"I'm working on it," Diamond grunted. He flipped his shotgun around and bashed another Shadow Hunter in the face before switching tactics and using a precision strike with the bottom of his foot and struck hard into the Shadow Hunter's face, defeating that one. The fox jumped around, using its fox fire to take down some Shadow Hunters as well as strong strikes with its paws as well as charging through them. Koto and Reihu followed the fox's lead and used their quick movements to knock the Shadow Hunters around. "Alright, let's go!"

They group charged through the opening the Shadow Hunters left and raced through the halls of the building as quickly as they could. The Shadow Hunters turned and chased after them; running in a frenzy much like zombies chasing after their next serving of brains. Finally they came out onto the streets, which gave them more space. Koto, Reihu, and Diamond took out the rest of the Shadow Hunters and Reed and Core carefully placed Project ATOM on the ground and took it out of its enclosed space.

"What are you doing?" Carey cried. "What if it goes off?"

"The only things it'll affect are the Elementals," Kristen explained to her. "Especially those in the blast radius."

"Despite having the souls of Mother Nature and Father Time it won't affect you." Reed checked over the readings that lifted and dipped every few seconds. "No worries."

Diamond snorted loudly as he took out the last Shadow Hunter and moved his shotgun over his shoulder once more. Koto shook out his head before he turned back into his human form and stretched his arms over his head, then rolled his neck. "I certainly missed that. Being dead is really, very boring."

"Don't get too comfortable just yet," Reihu commented. "There's going to be plenty for you to do against that guy." He nodded over towards Uriel and growled, his eyes shifting for a moment. "They're not going to be able to do this alone."

Koto made a face. "I think I liked it better when you were that annoying buzzing bee that didn't stop talking. This whole 'I'm going to do good' thing is really starting to creep me out." He cracked his knuckles and turned back towards Uriel. His eyes shifted as well and he let out a low growl that came from deep within his chest. His nails elongated into claws and he continued to growl as he glared at Uriel.

It seemed habits die hard.

Bailey opened the book of Esme and flipped through the fluttering pages as Julius directed Rudin towards Uriel. There was a large blast and she gasped, holding tightly onto the book as Rudin leapt aside when Cody rocketed towards the ground, crashing down behind them.

"Cody!" Maddie called, twisting around to look at him.

"We don't have time to stop," Julius said, holding on tightly as Rudin leapt up atop a car and shot up onto a nearby rooftop. "He'll be fine; it'll take more than that to get rid of the two of them." As he finished his sentence, he watched Cody whiz by to attack once more. "Bailey, do you have anything from the book yet?"

"No. Not yet." Bailey had no idea what she was looking for or what she was to do. The words were foreign to her. The last time she had been able to read a little bit was when she had first received it. "I don't get it, if I'm Aeon, why am I unable to figure out to do it." Rudin came to a stop and Bailey slid off of his back and onto the ground.

Uriel let out a sigh as he held up his hand and grabbed onto Zack with an invisible grasp. The Fire Elemental grunted in pain and twisted back and forth, trying to get out of Uriel's grasp. Blazen appeared beside him and shot towards Uriel, sending a blast of fire his way. Uriel had no choice but to let go of Zack to go after the Eagle guardian. Zack shot up into the air, his eagle wings keeping him aloft.

"Fire Blast!"

"Water Strike!"

Zack and Cody shot the two attacks towards Uriel and followed up with strikes from their sword and staff. Uriel didn't allow either of them to get too close as he used his invisible grasp to continue to knock them around. Bailey flipped through the pages of the book even faster.

"But if I could find something it'd be a great help!" She cried, watching Zack and Cod continue to fight, wincing each time they were struck especially hard. She looked over at Aaron as Sydney rested him on the rooftop next to her. "Be careful, okay?"

"I'll do my best," Sydney said. He flipped his staff around in his hand and directed it over towards Uriel. "I could use some help though," he remarked to his eldest brother who nodded back in response. "Ice Spirits! Glacial Cascade!" From the tip of his staff came a large icicle that shot towards Uriel. Zack and Cody quickly moved out of the way as the icicle continued towards Uriel!"

"Freezing Pulse!" Julius's hands glowed a bright blue and Sydney's icicle broke off into a clump of smaller, but more lethal icicles and headed towards him. As Uriel had become too preoccupied with Zack and Cody he hadn't noticed the icicles coming his way until he had been struck in the chest with them.

Unfortunately the attack wasn't strong enough to deal a lot of damage. Still it was enough to get their attention. Julius growled, his teeth elongating as he took on the power of the cheetah and raced forward with blinding speed, bringing up his claws to rake them across Uriel's face. Sydney followed after him, using his monkey powers to launch him high into the air. "Wind Spirits! Tornado Shot!"

A tornado appeared from the ground and increased in size as it engulfed Uriel, buffeting him on all sides with the wind. Sydney then followed it with a quick blast of bright blue energy. Now Uriel frowned, appearing deeply annoyed. Bailey's breath caught in her throat as she watched Uriel grit his teeth.

She didn't know what she felt, but she was sure she just felt his power increase significantly.

"Geneva, Gattaca, there has to be something I can do to help them," she said desperately. "But I can't read anything out of this. I can't…I can't do anything!" There was a second of silence that caused Bailey's heart to drop. "I can't hear them," she murmured.

Maddie and Aaron both turned towards her. "What?" they asked in unison.

"I can't hear them! I can't hear Geneva or Gattaca!" She started to shake, the pages flapping with her movements. "I can't hear them! I don't know what to do!" Looking down at the pages she could see nothing but squiggles and shapes in front of her.

What was the point of being so powerful if she had no way of helping everyone else?

"That's one way to get his attention," Zack said once Uriel regained his footing. He and Cody exchanged glances and started forward once more but was cut off by a blast of lightning shooting by his face, nearly blasting off his ear. He quickly baked out of the way.

"Thunder Blitz!"

"Crystal Freeze!"

"Darkness Atom Bomb!"

"Fire Shot!"

"Aerial Ace!"

"Tundra Vortex!"

"Silver Strike!"

The combined attacked created a large bolt of energy that crashed into Uriel, causing him to let out a cry of pain. It was the first time any of them had managed to land a blow against him and it had finally caused some sort of damage to him. He wasn't as invincible as he thought. Zack looked over at Cody and the two nodded before pulling themselves up high into the air before using a down stroke of their wings to shoot themselves back around towards Uriel, like a yo-yo. As they came closer to embodiment of life and death, flames erupted around the blade of Zack's sword as hard water started to form within the jewel on Cody's staff.

Once close enough they let out grunts of effort as they swung their sword and staff, releasing the energy of their weapons in front of them and followed up with their speed as they crashed right into Uriel's chest. Uriel cried out and backed away once more, bringing a hand up to his chest. Zack and Cody backed away, watching and waiting as the smoke cleared.

"It can't be that easy," Cody muttered, looking around at his friends as they all hovered near him.

"Definitely not," Zack agreed.

All of a sudden he felt as if he had been hit in the stomach. It reminded him of simpler times when he had been to cross country races for his school. The teams of runners started at the top of the hill and were signaled to start by the blast of a starter gun. He heard the sound seconds before he felt the blast, as if he had been punched in the stomach. It was the same feeling. But this time it was worse. Everyone around him, all of his friends had been struck by the blast.

Bailey let out a shriek and closed the book tightly to her chest seconds before she was blown off her feet and pitched over the side of the rooftop. She could hear her friends screaming around her as they all fell and crashed to the ground. Squeezing her eyes shut, Bailey waited for the pain to roll through her body, but found herself floating. Opening one eye she saw the reflection of something gray shimmering in the windows. It took her a few moments before she realized that she was glowing white and black in equal measure. Turning around, she found the book to be flipped open to a specific page as well.

Turning the other way, she saw Zack and Cody were glowing as she was, red and blue respectively. The rest of their friends picked themselves up off the ground and watched their friends. Bailey gasped once more as the book let out a beam of white light and shone through the air, striking something that lay between Zack and Cody. Then the red and blue light went into the object and dimmed a second before it turned around and engulfed Blazen and Phantom who stood nearby their Masters.

"What is that?" Sydney asked.

"The Oracle Element," Aaron replied. Though he wasn't facing the light, nor could he see it, he could sense the increase of energy around them and held tightly onto Sydney's arm. "It's reacting to Zack's and Cody's power."

Once the light faded Blazen and Phantom were no longer eagles and were now a fire phoenix and a water phoenix.

Uriel smiled. He lowered himself to the street to face his opponents as they got back to their feet "Now it gets interesting."

A/N: Julius, Sydney, Crystal, Rhuben, and Max will get bigger fight scenes in the next one as theirs weren't extended in this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles