Cannon Trunk and the rest guide the frazzled Orrore out of the dark prison cell and into another room in the forest fortress. Assuming a brighter atmosphere would help calm down the lava gormiti. And brighter it was.
The inside of the Forest Fortress brought a false sense of comfort, like something straight out of a children's fantasy novel. Tree trunks curled and swivelled along the path. Incandescent tulips and mushrooms illuminated the corridors in light blues, greens and yellows. Something straight out of a fantasy novel.
And the lords hoped that false comfort could relax the spazzed out Orrore. He stopped his repetitive ravings however he still refuses to speak and huddled himself into a ball, to the nearest tree trunk.
Jessica sighs. "I'm going back home."
"You can't just leave!?" Toby exclaims.
"It might take hours, days to get him to talk. What if he's stuck like this forever?"
"This is about Mark again, isn't it?"
"Why do you always have to bring him up like he's a problem?!" Jessica isn't one to be violent, but God, she'd totally shove a lightning bolt attack up Toby's ass if he didn't shut up about her relationship.
"Because he is! You've been too preoccupied by Mark, with his dreamy eyes, luscious abs and steamy hot kisses that you're leaving the Gorm to hop on his - "
"Our relationship is NOT like that!"
"OKAY, I think we need to dial the scale back." Lucas approaches Jessica and places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You can call it a day, Jess. Yesterday must've been rough on you."
Jessica walks out, having had enough of Toby's petty squabbles. But just as she steps foot out the door, a loud explosion shakes the room. Jessica had the latch onto the door frame for support.
"What was that?!" Nick says, trying to keep his balance.
"That sounds like it came from the courtyard!" Cannon Trunk exclaims.
"Lava gormiti?" Toby questions. Orrore whimpers and hugs himself tighter.
"Lucas and Jessica, stay here and protect Orrore. Toby and I will go and see what's up." Nick orders.
"No. Let me go too." Jessica perks up. "My powers work best in large spaces. I should go."
The guys eye each other but Jessica is adamant. She isn't going to let Toby's words affect their mission. He thinks she's not pulling her weight. She'll show him.
Toby breaks the silence. "Nick should stay here. Jessica and I can check out what's going on outside."
Nobody wants to say it but they were thinking the same thing. Is it really okay for those two to pair up with each other after a heated argument?
"We're wasting time. Toby, let's go." Standing by her words, Jessica goes to the source of the explosion, her not giving him time to decline or accept. If Toby wants to pair up with her as a form of testing her, then so be it. She's gotten over her initial shock, she couldn't let her emotions affect her in battle.
Jessica and Toby arrive at the entrance of the forest fortress. The forest gormiti engage in battle with another creature, the same as the one that attacked the Earth nation capital. It's in primal state, knocking a few soldiers back with its signature shriek attack.
Lethal Whip lands by Jessica's feet.
"Lords! That monster...urk, it came out of nowhere!" he informs as they help him stand.
Exactly like their previous battle, the monster emits out a dark smoke, transforming into its second form.
"Toby, can you summon your SOL? I can cover you from the sky." Jessica asks.
"You can count on me."
"Hey, ugly over here!" she gloats, unleashing a mini windstorm at it. The beast, distracted, leaps at Jessica, spitting beams at her. Jessica swiftly dodges them. Her attention focusing on Toby for a second. His Trident is out, aiming at the beast.
The monster roars and Jessica plug her ears. Immediately, the monster jumps and swipes at Jessica, flinging her to the fortress entrance.
"Jessica!" Toby yells, the swirling waters cease.
The monster isn't done yet. It shoots out the swirling scrolls from its limps and targets the recovering forest gormiti restrained from the arms and legs.
"Shell shield!" Toby summons. The speeding whip knocks into his shield. Toby smirks in victory. But the scroll bounces back and circles to Toby's behind. In a blink of an eye, Toby crashes to the grassy dirt, limbs squashed to his sides in a tight constraint. His trident pings to the marshy ground.
He grunts, if he could just reach out to his trident, then maybe – SLAM! The dark paws of the beast crush the trident underneath. It growls at Toby, what presumably is its head. It leers closer to the fallen Lord, spirals of razor shark teeth out on display.
"Uh, maybe we can settle things nicely?" Toby tries to reason but who is he kidding. That thing doesn't understand a word he's saying.
"Lightning bolt!" A flash strikes near the beast's toes.
It turns to look behind, where Jessica stands.
"Jessica?" Toby tries to get a glimpse at her but having a big fat wolf monster towering over him makes that nearly impossible.
Lying beside Jessica is Lethal Whip, chained up like Toby. He had taken the monster's attack in place of Jessica.
The beast roars at Jessica but she refuses to flinch. Instead, she closes her eyes, concentrating on summoning her SOL.
The beast draws closer to Jessica.
It growls lowly, inching closer, slowly and menacingly. Jessica hasn't done anything, her armour doesn't flash.
"Jess, get out of there!" Toby yells at her. He attempts to wriggle his way free from his constraints.
Jessica doesn't move. Her eyelids still shut but she holds them down tighter, creases from her furrowed brows.
'Come on. Do something!' She at least expected an itch, tingling, an image of Supreme Luminous, something!
The beast now towers over Jessica. A gushy, substance sabs out from its single stained eye, bearing down at her.
"Jessica! What are you doing?!" Toby roars, his voice hoarse.
But Jessica doesn't budge. She stares back at the seeping eye, frozen solid in hesitation. If she can't summon her SOL, then how are they going to defeat this monster?
Gina finds herself in the school library's second floor, looking through the transparent glass of the private study rooms. Mark should be in one of those rooms by now, studying with Jess. Gina didn't have Serena's 'sixth sense' but her gut told her Jessica stood Mark up again.
And she was right. Mark's in the last room on the second floor. A harden look on his pretty face and a non-writing hand holding a pen. He's totally lost. Math is his worst subject after all.
Gina opens the door. Mark's face light up but quickly shifts into a depressed puppy look.
"Did Jessica send you here?" he asks, defeated.
Gina heard the disappointment in his voice. "No. I just had an itchy feeling she wouldn't be here."
"Don't we both."
Gina takes a seat beside Mark. She catches a glimpse at his homework. Linear algebra, oof. "I might not be as good at math as Jessica, but two heads are better than one!"
"Thanks G, but I don't think I can focus on math homework knowing she's probably with Toby."
"You know their relationship is not like that." Gina softly traces circles on Mark's back with her hand.
"For now, but what about later!" Mark barks. He takes a breath, calming himself. "Sorry. I just feel left behind. Like I'm losing her."
It wasn't like Gina couldn't relate to Mark's plight. Just 4 years ago Gina too felt like was losing her best friend. That feeling of being left behind – Gina knows all too well the dark feelings that come with that and what bottling up those feelings can do to a person.
Gina stands from her seat, both hands on her hips. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself!"
"Huh?"
"This is war, Mark! You're too soft and that's why she keeps slipping past your fingers. You have to give her a reason to pick you over Toby!" Gina points a finger at him, almost poking him.
"Should ramp up my sex appeal?" he asks absentmindedly but serious.
Gina whacks him lightly on the head. "No, you buffoon! You'll make yourself look desperate. What you need is to play hard!"
"Play hard?"
"Jessica has you on a leash! You need to be the bigger man rip that leash off!"
"I don't get the analogy."
"Ugh! The next time you see Jessica, play hard to get! Show her that you won't take excuses anymore! It's either you or Toby!"
"But what if she breaks up with me? I don't want to lose her!"
"See, you're letting her walk over you again! You need to re-balance the playing field."
Mark pauses. There is some truth to Gina's words. Jessica's the one that wears the pants and Mark knew that getting into the relationship. However, Jessica isn't one to back down, she'll bite back hard. But she has been walking all over him and keeping secrets. What's she's doing isn't far, yeah, he needs to put his foot down!
"Alright next time I see Jessica, I'm putting my foot down," Mark says, his confidence coming back to him.
"Attaboy!"
"I have to thank you again, Gina. I think I might be able to save my relationship thanks to you."
"Save the pleasantries for later," Gina says. "I know what it feels like, to be left behind and forgotten. I won't let that happen to you." Is what Gina would say if she had the confidence. She felt it better to leave it off with a smile instead. Opening her own can of worms isn't what Mark needs.
"Uh, if it's all right with you, can you stay and help with my math homework? I've only booked this room for an hour and who knows if Jess will show up in time."
"You think I'd leave you alone with those dreaded algebra equations?"
They both laugh before taking a crack at Mark's homework.
Whatever is going on down below with Jessica and Toby, it seemed to have shaken Orrore, sending the former fearsome fire gormiti crying into his knees.
"Something doesn't feel right." Lucas voices. He could sense the fortress' aura. Trepidation latched to his bones from the forest grounds.
"The lava gormiti are here for Orrore." Nick voices Lucas' thoughts. "We have to take him as far away from the fortress as possible. Keep him away until he's functional enough to give us some answers."
Nick stomps to the rattled Orrore, crouching by the far corner of the room. He tries to bring Orrore to his feet, but the slightest touch causes him to quake and shudder.
"This is going to be harder than getting him out of that prison cell." Nick comments.
Lucas goes to Orrore and crouches to one knee before him. "Orrore, we need you to come with us." He says, trying his best to put forth a calm and friendly demeanour. "We'll take you somewhere safe." He offers a hand.
Orrore lifts his head from his knees. Lucas naturally oozes a calm wallflower ambience and Orrore takes his hand. Lucas pulls him to his feet.
"That wasn't so hard," Lucas says, earning him a scoff from Nick.
"Not to break up the moment but we need to hurry out of here." Cannon Trunk warns the lords. He's standing by the door keeping lookout.
Lucas clutches Orrore's hand tight. But just as they are about to leave, Cannon Trunk is swept off his feet and plunged right to Lucas' feet, like he had been punched hard.
"Cannon Trunk!"
Then Lucas feels something tug at his arm and pushes his back to a tree stump, away from Orrore and Nick.
"Rock Storm!" Nick shouts, shooting hails near Lucas.
Orrore ducks and whimpers.
"I feel it! Someone's here!" Nick informs. It's the same as the fight in the Venture Falls Forest. Nick senses the pitter patter of feet. Vibrations, waves of energy he could see if he closes his eyes.
"Seismic Sense!" Nick calls out and the vibrations are prominent, like he could hear them. He swings at the air close to Orrore. His fists contact something hard. Flesh.
"Ow!" a high-pitched feminine voice cries out, and the illusion shatters. A chameleon-like gormiti nurses her lower abdomen. "Damnit! And I was so close…"
Nick launches at her but she leaps to the ceiling and camouflages herself, blending in with the wooden texture.
"Get Orrore out of here! I'll deal with her!" Nick poses to Lucas then unleashes a round of rock storm. Her camouflaging trick wouldn't work on him.
The assailant leaps back to the ground. Lucas, Canon-trunk and Orrore are already out the door, leaving just her and Nick to spar off against each other.
"I knew Vestalt sending me here alone was a bad idea." She whines. She leaps back to the ground, revealing herself once more.
"Where's Kagami? Is she here?"
"Kagami? How do you- oh, right! You're her friend!"
"I won't ask you again, where's Kagami?"
"Pft, why are you so tense? As long as the orb is with her, Vestalt won't let anyone lay a hand on her." She brings a hand to scratch her chin, looking upwards in thought. "I guess the exception would be in training. She won't let that girl rest but gosh, Kagami's takes it like a champ! She's gotten really good lately, like – Oops!" The intruder clasps her hands to her mouth. She revealed too much.
Nick lowers his hands. "She's okay…" he says relieved. Kagami's valuable to the lava gormiti, no doubt there but to have confirmation eased Nick's nerves.
The intruder takes the chance and leaps at Nick, grabbing his arm she spins round then finishes
off with a turning kick. Nick is knocked to the floor and the intruder runs off. He wasn't the priority.
"Here, this way to the exit!" Cannon Trunk yells and runs ahead.
Lucas and Orrore lag behind Cannon Trunk, Orrore insisting on being as slow as possible.
However, Cannon Trunk stops dead in his tracks upon reaching the entrance. When Lucas catches up he sees a dark, tall menace blocking the entrance. The dreaded beast from the Earth Nation attack.
And worst, Jessica stands before it frozen, the monster towering over her as if about to eat her with how it flashes its spiralling rows of jagged deadly teeth. Lucas drops Orrore to Cannon Trunk's side. "Take Orrore!"
The monster dives in. Jessica flinches.
"Jungle attack!"
Lucas' vines sweep in and pulls Jessica into his arms before the monster could pound at her.
She lunges into Lucas in an almost hug.
"What were you standing around for!?" Lucas reprimands, almost shouting at her.
Jessica looks down. "I was trying to summon my SOL, but it didn't work." She sounds disappointed and angry, her furrows furrowed in a pout.
The beast roars again, rejuvenating the scrolls on his limbs.
Jessica wriggles out of Lucas' grasp though when she stands on her own feet, she wobbles and almost trips on herself if it wasn't for Lucas there to catch her.
"Woah, are you okay?" Lucas asks."
"I'm fine," Jessica reassures, the annoyance still in her voice. She stops leaning on Lucas, showing him, she can support herself. "Those scrolls caught Toby even after he blocked them with his shield. It missed me because Lethal Whip got in the way."
Pointing that out, Lucas could make out said gormiti laying there near the entrance.
"Let me deal with this." She speaks. Like she had to make up for not summoning SOL.
"Are you up for it?"
Jessica's armour glows brighter with her resolve. "Just stand close! Everyone!"
Cannon Trunk takes the cue and limps closer to the lords, Orrore in tow.
Just when the beast unleashes the scrolls, Jessica summons up her energy barrier. The scrolls wrap around the dome and Jessica expands the range of her dome enough to stretch and tear the scrolls.
"Lucas, now!"
The dome collapses.
Lucas rushes at the thing and leaps to high into the air. "Come forth, Staff of the Blooming Forest!" He easily whips out his staff from his orb. The staff moulds into a spear and Lucas tosses it, it plunges deep into the beast's exposed eye.
The beast wails a guttural shriek and falls to its side before its body is enveloped in white light.
Lucas lands before his comrades, a lava gormiti lays in the monster's place. He turns to a cheering Cannon Trunk and a relieved but tired out Jessica.
A small smile creeps to the corners of his mouth, Lucas allowing his muscles to relax in a finished job well done.
But the smile was short-lived, contorting in fear. It was just a glimpse, but he spots a flicker of red behind the two. "WATCH OUT!"
A fireball pushes Jessica away from a surprised Cannon Trunk and Orrore.
"JESSICA!"
The air lord falls into a hump, grunting and struggling to get up.
Lucas tries to go after her but feels someone kick his back and he falls face forward.
The intruder scales the walls of the fortress at a scary speed. Cannon Trunk didn't see her coming as she promptly lands a mighty kick on him. The force throws him off balance, falling close to Jessica.
She's uncamouflaged herself, eyeing the petrified Orrore.
"Come on I'm not that scary. Oh well, sorry not sorry!" Flamma spin kicks Orrore, knocking the gormiti unconscious and limp.
"No, you don't!" Lucas is quick to his feet and grabs his staff and tosses it at her. But she disappears along with Orrore before it could reach her.
Jessica recovers, moving to a standing position before helping Cannon Trunk up. "Where did she go!?" she yells, confused.
"Don't let her fool you! She's camouflaged!" Nick descends from the upper platforms of the fortress. "Stone Hammer!" Nick hits the ground with a loud boom and the floor obliterates into pieces. Flamma and Orrore are caught in the mayhem. Her camouflage breaks exposing them both.
"Forget Orrore! Get the other fire gormiti out of here!" Nick shouts, pointing to the crying fire gormiti.
But another explosion interrupts them.
Toby emerges and flies to the ground in a crooked huff. He's sweating and panting hard, his water cannon out, engaged in his own battle outside.
"Toby?!" Jessica and Lucas say in unison.
"Urk…Slimy lava gormiti sent reinforcements." Toby grunts out an explanation for his tattered state.
"Reinforcements?" the intruder repeats. 'Vestalt didn't say anything about reinforcements!'
From the flames, the supposed 'reinforcements' reveal themselves.
Amidst the flames, another lava gormiti appears.
"Anchor!" the intruder beams, skipping towards him as if she didn't just get caught in a mighty attack. "Oh, Thank goodness you're here! Vestalt is gonna have a field day if the Lords captured two of our own. Wait…Vestalt sent you here, didn't she? Blast! I knew she didn't trust I could handle a mission on my own!"
Anchor looked annoyed as ever to see his comrade perorate. He clears his throat. "I see we meet again, Lords of Nature."
"You do realize it's four against two?" Jessica says.
"And this time, we've evened the playing field." Lucas finishes.
Anchor chuckles, "Yes, I've heard of your new powers. Don't worry lords, I haven't come empty-handed." Anchor reveals something from behind his back and the lords all gasp.
Nick's the first to respond, "That's.."
Anchor reveals a long thin purple piece of cloth. A scarf.
Nick's walking, no, running towards Anchor.
"Nick, no!" Jessica bellows. With a swift motion of a hand, she traps him in an energy barrier.
"Let me go!" Nick pounds his fist onto the barrier. "That's…that's Kagami's scarf!"
"My commander won't be pleased if she doesn't get what she wants. Who knows, she might even take it out on poor, helpless Kagami."
Nick grits his teeth, eyes glowing bright yellow alongside his armour. He yells out a scary rageful battle cry and pounds at Jessica's barrier again, successfully shattering it into sparkles of light.
"Nick!" Lucas shouts out but he fears his words can't reach his friend.
Nick's snarling in unbridled fury. One step forward is all it takes for Nick's foot to demolish the ground around, leaving a nasty cracked footprint. "Nick, don't!" Toby shouts. "Think for a second, will ya!"
They watch intently for Nick's next move. He doesn't take another step, fists clasped so tight that the crunch of his rocky palms can be heard in the silence and static energy flowing around him. His eyes never waver from Anchor, who looks at him with a blank stare. He doesn't defend himself, leaving himself bare for Nick to pummel, which only seems to make Nick angrier.
"Nick?!"
Nick yells a shrilled, painful wail to shake that could bring the whole forest fortress into a pile of wood and they all spring to stop Nick from doing something he may regret. But he drops to his knees, glow diming. He does another final punch to the ground.
"Fine! Take them. But on one condition!"
Anchor raises an eyebrow.
"I don't care what you do or what you throw at us." Nick is on the brink of sobbing and struggles to reel his emotions in. "but please, just keep her safe."
Anchor's companion blinks. "Are you seriously going to let us go that easy?!"
Anchor grunts. "Let's just go Flamma." He says and takes the lava scout. Flamma takes Orrore.
"I can't make that promise but I can say that Kagami is in safe hands for now."
Before the two leave, Anchor made sure to leave Nick with something off. He lets the wind take Kagami's scarf, blowing it away to Nick's feet. And the next thing you know, both are gone.
Nick whimpers, taking the scarf to his hands.
"We're lost both our leads. Now what?" Toby says.
"We protected the Forest Fortress and the other gormiti. That's what matters the most." Lucas says. "We should head back and tell Mr. Ono what happened."
"But Nick..." Jessica looks at her friend. Bringing up Kagami like that... Those assholes had the upper hand all along and they fell for it.
"I'm fine." Nick gets to his feet, taking the scarf into his hands. "I agree with Lucas. We should head back." Nick ambles off to the entrance leaving the others to tag along.
They make sure to say their goodbyes to Cannon Trunk before following their friend. Though Nick says he's fine, the others have reasons to believe he wasn't being fully honest.
Back at Volcano Mountain, after a long (and boring by Flamma's word) journey back from the Forest Nation, Vestalt is ready to greet her two underlings in what she deemed her testing facility which was previously Obscurio's lair. It was the coldest and deepest place in all of the Lava region making it a great place for Vestalt to conduct her experiments. That and it was the perfect jab at Obscurio's pride.
Anchor dumps their two frazzled guests into a prison cell, along with other like-minded frightened out of their mind lava gormiti.
"Well done, the both of you!" Vestalt congratulates.
Flamma sulks to the side though. "You could've told me you were going to send Anchor too."
"All for the success of the mission."
That didn't do anything to alleviate Flamma's disappointment.
Anchor proceeds to give Vestalt a rundown of events, having taken Vestalt's advice and used Kagami's scarf as a last resort if necessary.
"So the earth lord had the most prominent reaction?" Vestalt repeats.
"Yes. He allowed us to leave in exchange we kept Kagami safe."
"Interesting" Vestalt expected them to relent, given their previous encounter with the lords but to ask them to keep the girl safe? Now that was an interesting predicament. "We'll keep our end of the bargain, I suppose. Anchor you will watch over Kagami in the meantime."
"Yes, Commander."
Flamma huffs. "You guys are being way too generous to our enemies lately."
Vestalt chuckles. "Only for the meantime, Flamma. Besides, I have no intentions of giving them Kagami until our task is complete."
A/N : That's the end of Forest Frenzy! Initial supposed to be one long big chapter but cut it up cause too long. That's gonna be a trend moving forward. (Past me, you underestimate how much you actually write.)
Idk when the next chapter is gonna come up. (Idk, how much I have to reiterate but I have like up to chapter 58 in drafts written. Me and my beta need to edit and life is being a pain) But I can provide a preview for all the craziness that's about to ensure in the next arc.
Here's an out of context, totally subject to change sneak peak at Chapter 29 ~ Closing the Distance
"Is this about whatever happened between you and Toby?" Mark probes, and by 'this' he meant Jessica 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 agrevating at most. But Mark could tell, this was different. Toby didn't annoy Jessica. "He hurt you, didn't he?"
Also, forgot to last time but thanks to my beta, FinalFanaticGorm for keeping up with me on the ridiculously large monstrosity of a fic.