Mark pops and locks in synch to the music. The dance competition is tomorrow and his dance crew had been practicing relentlessly in their rented studio, making sure everyone got the steps right and tweaking the choreography here and there for some extra flare.
Practice has eaten up much of his time and social life. Keeping up with schoolwork has been a bother too. His friends didn't mind, busy planning his birthday party they avoid mentioning in front of him. However in a total shocker, Jessica opted to come to Mark's dance rehearsals. She usually sits there being the team's hype man or doing homework or like today, sleeping amongst a stack of homework.
It's weird having Jessica with him after Gina's whole pep talk. He was ready to put his foot down and reel it in to Jessica. That was until he confronted her outside the library.
"You were with Toby and the guys."
"Can we not for today? I don't want to talk about Toby today...or ever really."
Mark was shocked; he'd expect her to dawdle on to Toby but for the past 3 days the couple were together. No Toby to sweep in and take Jessica away.
"Mark! You're too slow on the execution!" his dance mate huffs loud against the music.
"Sorry!"
He couldn't ponder on trivial matters. When it comes to dance, all Mark needs to focus on is his movements. Through dance, he can let all the complicated stuff fade to the back of his mind and escape into his body. He couldn't dance at his fullest if his mind is elsewhere. His teammate would've caught on quick and scolded him if that were the case.
The music almost reaches its end. Time to go all out on an intensive dance break. Mark executes the final move. He lands on his foot funny and winces at the sharp pain shooting to his ankle. He powers through, posing to the final beat, hoping the pain didn't show on his face.
"Yo Mark you didn't hurt your leg? You weren't dancing to your fullest." One of the crew members asks when they wrap up.
"Sorry. Just got a lot on my mind."
The guy looks over behind him at Jessica, now awake. He looks to Mark. "Whatever's on your mind, don't let it affect the competition."
Mark sighs. He goes to fetch his bag beside Jessica on the studio floor. He takes out a huge water bottle from his bag and chugs on it. Jessica gazes at her phone, her expression heavy and grim. Mark takes a glimpse, catching the word 'Toby' on the screen before Jessica quickly shuts her phone off.
"Are you done?" Jessica asks, her appearance paler than the norm.
"Yep. Let me hit the showers and change real quick then we can head home."
Mark heads to the showers, removing his sweat-filled clothes and basks in the cool sensation of the pelleting water. By the time he's out and in a pair of fresh clothes, the studio was emptied, leaving only Jessica remaining.
Since the two were alone, he might as well take the opportunity for some quality time with his girlfriend. He sneaks behind her as she's packing her bag, hugging her and lands a quick peck on her neck. Jessica giggles, turning around for a few more quick kisses. Eventually Mark feels a bit mischievous, biting her lower lip for entrance. Jessica flinches. She pulls away, head hanging low.
One of Mark's dance members knocks on the door, and Jessica pulls away from Mark entirely.
"You might want to hurry up with…whatever you're doing. We're closing up soon." The guy says then leaves.
Jessica shyly hauls her bag to her shoulder. Both head out to the chilly outside, keeping their distance.
"Is this about whatever happened between you and Toby?" Mark probes, and by 'this' he meant Jessica's sudden distance from him. "I saw you staring at a text message he sent you. You can tell me what's up."
"It's nothing."
"It's clearly not nothing if you're going out of your way to avoid him. "
Toby annoying Jessica from time to time was aggravating at most. But Mark could tell, this was different. Toby didn't annoy Jessica. "He hurt you, didn't he?"
Mark takes Jessica's silence as a yes.
"Mark where are you going?"
"To Toby's. He hurt you and I'm not going to take that lightly."
Jessica grabs the back of Mark's jacket, reeling him in. "It's not like that."
"Then tell me what he did to you, Jess?"
Jessica sighs. "Fine. But please, leave Toby alone."
"Okay, you have my word." Though every ounce of Mark wants to pummel the trickster blond, he'd rather hear what Jessica has to say before jumping to conclusions.
Jessica looks to the floor, "It's something he said. We got into an argument over…our relationship." Now that perked Mark's interest. Jessica didn't need to see his face to know. She continues. "He didn't say but he insinuated that I was only with you because – well…"
"Oh, I see." Mark brings her into a hug. "Toby's still in his cooties phase, don't let what he says get to you."
Jessica returns the hug. "I know, it's just -"
"It's okay. If it'll make you feel better, we can tone it down."
"…thank you." Jessica snuggles into the hug.
In the air nation's floating towers, a battle ensues between the lords of nature and a hoard of dark soldiers, formerly lava gormiti.
Enemies surround the lord of earth on one stone platform.
"Come forth!" Nick shouts. The marking in his armour glow and he's encircled by swirling sand. "Hammer Indestructible as the stone!" Nick pulls out a war hammer from his orb. He twirls the hammer then smashing it down the ground, creating a wave effect. Immediately, one after the other, the monsters are enveloped in a bright light and revert to lava gormiti.
"Hiya!" Toby shouts from another platform, slashing a foe with his trident. "These guys are like level 1 monsters in a video game."
"Don't let your guard down, Toby." That's from Lucas, his staff in hand, piercing monsters in sight. "We still have to defend the air nation. "
"You'd think the air lord would be here to defend her nation." Toby mumbles.
Magmion hovers in the sky riding Drakkon's back. He doesn't join the fight, merely observing. Other lava gormiti who weren't turned into monsters don't engage the lords, instead focusing on their allies that were former beasts, getting them out of the battlefield.
"Retreat!" Magmion roars, the lava gormiti-to shade ratio favouring the gormiti side. The lava gormiti disperse, entrapping the available shades into small cases via magic and leading the recovered away by force.
Toby grunts, about to give chas until a holographic image of the old sage stops him. "Let them be young lord of the sea. What matters most is that the air nation is safe."
"But this has been the fourth time in a row!" Toby complains, smashing his trident to the ground, said trident disappearing into light.
For the past three days, the lava gormiti had attacked different extremities of the Gorm with those 'shades'. And each time they flee before the battle's over, taking the recovered lava gormiti with them.
"They're messing with us and we're allowing it to happen!" Toby crosses his arms leaning against a shelf in Shinjuku's secret Library. A lot tidier now thanks to Razzle and Nick's help.
"Toby's right. There're some ulterior motives behind these attacks. It's like they want us to pummel those guys." Nick comments.
"But we can't not fight them. They'll invade the nations if we do nothing." Lucas has a point there.
"You know if Jessica were there, maybe she could've flown after Magmion or something?" Toby says.
"Let it go, Toby." Lucas says. "Remember you were the one who upset her at the forest fortress." No one really brought it up since, but whatever he said clearly affected Jessica for her to be avoiding all of them.
"If I recall, you said Jessica couldn't summon SOL?" Mr. Ono poses to Lucas.
Once they got back from the fortress, Jessica upped and left. The boys figured she went to Mark and Toby, fuming, would've gone after her if Mr. Ono didn't hold him back. It's because of the old man that Toby laid off Jessica for 3 whole days. Told all of them that she needed time after they gave him the rundown on what happened.
"But she can still be useful in other ways." Toby mumbles, the communication ban with Jessica is getting on his nerves. (Note Mr. Ono only advised Toby to keep his distance.)
Toby whips out his phone, furiously typing away.
Lucas switches the topic. "What should we do about the lava gormiti? They're obviously planning something."
"I say we tackle them on their own turf!" Nick proposes.
"Absolutely not." Mr. Ono counters. "There could be hundreds of shades laying in Volcano Mountain. However great your power, it's not infinite."
"And we're down one lord." Toby sneaks in.
"We don't have to face them head-on! We'll just go after Kagami, find out anything along the way and escape." Nick isn't totally dumb; he's already considered how dangerous the task could be. But he couldn't sit by and fight lowly Shades knowing Kagami's still in the hands of the lava gormiti! His impatience is getting to him, and the lack of progress is irritating.
"It's still too dangerous. Kagami is too valuable to the lava gormiti. They wouldn't have used her as a bargaining chip if they didn't suspect she was close to you all. They haven't sent her out for a reason; to keep her away from the lords of nature in fear she'll sway." Mr. Ono explains.
"That's just as much reason to go!" Nick barks, his impatience is getting to him. "Your granddaughter is out there in the hands of lava gormiti! We should be out there looking for her, not stalling!"
Mr. Ono takes a breath, considering his words before speaking. "Nick, you need to calm down. By rushing in recklessly you'll endanger yourself –"
"I don't care about myself! All I care about is keeping Kagami safe!"
"Woah bro, chillax!" Toby exclaims.
"No! None of you understand!" a book from a shelf drops to the ground, the room vibrating. "I'm the only one who cares about Kagami! I'm the only one who can save her!"
Screw them, screw Jessica and screw Mark too while he's at it! Nick's been worrying about Kagami constantly, desperately day and night, waking and in sleep – his thoughts are always on her whilst the others go about their merry day like it is nothing! How dare they say they care when their actions prove otherwise!?
The tremors get worse, Nick's eyes flicker bright yellow. His thoughts going through the worst scenarios.
Toby grabs a hold of his brother. "Nick, you'll bring the entire restaurant down if you don't stop!" Toby's words bring Nick out of his dark thoughts, his eyes briefly returning to their usual brown.
"Nick," Mr. Ono starts, "I understand your concern and I'm grateful Kagami has a friend like you by her side," his voice takes on an eerie coldness. "but do not come into my restaurant and tell me I don't care about my granddaughter."
Nick doesn't budge, drawn into an intense staring contest with Mr. Ono. Toby and Lucas stood there, lost for words, anticipating the worst. Though Nick eventually relents, losing the staring match to look elsewhere. "...fine." The tremor stop too, his eyes revert to their normal brown.
"Thank you, Nick. You wouldn't be doing us any favours in getting yourself hurt." Mr. Ono flips back to his regular, smiley self. "Now, the main priority is to defend the nations..."
Everything that followed afterwards became a blur to Nick. Sure, he relented but that doesn't mean he still can't accept the outcome. Regardless of what Mr. Ono says, Nick couldn't stay put. The old man couldn't understand, each day without Kagami, each day Nick felt like he's losing himself. He's hurting himself more by not having Kagami here than leaving her off in Volcano Mountain. He had to bring her back, he couldn't bear this pain any longer.
He just had to.
Through his words, Nick apologised and relented, in his heart, his words are just that, mere words.
Back in Volcano Mountain, Flamma works away at her private lab. Out of all the places in Volcano Mountain, this is the place Flamma feels most comfortable. It's a place Flamma can call hers, thanks to Vestalt's help. Nobody else, not Obscurio or ugh...Magor, could disrupt her here, and Vestalt made sure of it.
It had been a hectic few days, sending those Shades out to fight the lords and deciphering the book of Tartarus for any means of expropriating Kagami's orb. The job of figuring that out was solely tasked to Flamma, even Anchor was kept out of the loop. It had to be kept hush-hush as Vestalt fears Kagami would defect to the lords if she knew.
Flamma groans, stepping away from the book, unable to handle the dark magic radiating from it. Not that she ever liked working under Magor's orders, but this order made Flamma's stomach churn. She liked having Kagami around. To take away the very thing that made her happy, Flamma has done a lot of terrible things but this was the worst. And things would get worse for the girl afterwards.
Flamma wasn't the smartest around but she wasn't dumb. And once they figure out a way to remove Kagami's orb, then the next course of action would be to target the Lords' orbs next. And Kagami would make a good selling price.
Vestalt appears unannounced in Flamma's lab. Flamma straightens her posture, pretending to be working away.
"How's progress with the book going?" Vestalt asks.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
Vestalt sighs, "Fine. bad news."
"Bad news, I couldn't find a way to expropriate the orb. Buuut, good news I may have an alternate." Flamma motions Vestalt to come closer, flipping the pages of the book. "Here, there's a whole page on energy transfer. It's possible Kagami could transfer energy from the orb to Magor."
"Do you think that'll satisfy Magor?"
"I need to do more research. What I do know is that it's in the level 4 ranges and Kagami would have to be the one to perform the spell."
While they don't have to worry about permanently transforming to a shade thanks to the lords of nature, they had the book to worry about. They could test out the spell numerous times, even if Kagami turn back from being a shade thanks to the lords, there's still a possibility that the spell won't work as planned. They lucked out last time Kagami used the book but that spell didn't exactly work as planned either. Was it the orb's doing perhaps? There were too many questions, too many risks.
"Continue your research. I can negotiate with Magor for extra time. Besides, how are the de-transformed lava gormiti?"
"Some have recovered after a couple of days, however, I'm concerned about the frequency of our Shade experiments. The batch who've been turned numerous times have proven to take longer to fully recover. I worry there might come a time where they'll grow immune to the Lords' SOL."
SOL, - that's what they call Supreme Luminous' new gift.
"That'll be good news to Magor." Vestalt muses.
"Yeah...good news." Flamma's expression betrays her thoughts.
"Is there a problem?"
"No! Uh, there's something else I have to report. The ones that recall their memories as Shades all say they have strange visions of a tower and a huge beast."
"Tartarus."
"I think the beast from the visions and the ones from their rambles are the same."
All warned of his heart, 'don't give him the heart.' - they'd say. Flamma feared that whatever the beast's 'heart' is, it's dangerous. "Um, Commander, if it's alright to voice my opinion, but what we're dealing with exceeds our realm. The Gorm and the earth."
"That's exactly why we should continue."
"But if what those lava gormiti are saying is true! If the beast gets his heart, we're all doomed!"
"Not if we harness that power for ourselves. There's still more shrouded in mystery. We'll continue until we get a clearer picture."
"Understood, commander." She whines, sagging her shoulders.
"I know what I'm doing Flamma. I won't let anything jeopardise the lava nation." Vestalt ends the discussion, leaving Flamma's lab.
Flamma turns to the book. Vestalt is cautious with her decisions and always plays it safe. Flamma had no reason to doubt – that is what Flamma wants to believe. But she couldn't bring herself to.
Kagami slashes her sword at a large rock block. She tuts. She only scratched the surface.
"You could do better than that as a Lord of Nature." Anchor scoffs, leaning on a pillar.
"If all you're going to do is make snide comments at me then you can leave! And don't call me a Lord of Nature. You make me sound like I'm on the enemy's side."
"But you did come from Earth. Can't blame everyone else for feeling suspicious."
"That's it! I'm taking a break." Calling it quits, Kagami marches out the room. Kagami had to endure Anchor standing there berating her poor performance. As if she doesn't already know she's not making decent enough progress.
Then she senses something unfamiliar yet familiar. She stops on the tracks. It was faint but still sensible - magnetizing, pulling - drawing her near, calling out towards her.
Kagami gasps, shaking.
"Nick."
He's here. Nick is here.
A/N : oOoOooh cliff-hanger. Nick and Kagami reunion next chapter perhaps? (°ロ°) ! How will Mark's dance competition go? (°ロ°) ! All will be revealed in the next chapter.
No sneak peak this time. Gonna leave you guys wondering. Trust me, it'll be worth it. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)