Origins

Chapter 5. Apart

Kron

I don't know how, but I have this burning sensation like someone important is going to die. I have to tell someone. Just have to.

Aura

After getting painfully released from the hospital, I went back to my room. Did I mention that I'm so glad I have a room to myself, or I'd have to relive childhood trauma? I don't know where Shade is, or what happened to Ozone, but I can't find the two of them. To be honest, I kinda miss the pranks all of us used to pull on our teachers. I miss home in general. But I'm super mad at my sister. Why would she do this? Turn away from our family, our universe? Crazy. I go back and do some training, until Kron comes up to me and tells me that he feels for some weird reason that somebody mildly important is going to die. After this, chills go down my spine. What if it's me? Then what will I do? I go back to letting it rip on the stupid training dummies. And then I pile up all my emotion and energy and send it to my sword. It feels like an extension of my hand. That's what it should feel like. The symbols on the sword start to glow red hot, and I take this as a sign to charge at the dummy. I find words coming out of my mouth. "Light Blade!" I yell. As I bring my blade across the dummy, a wave of light brings it to burning pieces.

The charred remains of the dummy drift away in the air.

"Woah," I say. "I've never seen that move before," Ocean says. "Probably couldn't do anything like that with my trident, even though I live near the sea." "Ha, means I'm better than you," I say. 'Don't get too cocky." Ocean says. I go back to training, now having a taste of what I can do.

Shade

After we leave the room, we're directed to a speeder station, where we board our speeder and the mission is further explained to us by a small but powerful communication device that allows us to keep in touch with the base.

After about 15 minutes of riding, we're getting closer to our drop-off point. It would be way too suspicious to just park the speeder in front of the lab and jump out, so we're dropped off about 3 miles from enemy territory.

Once we're dropped off, Norman starts to get cold. "Hey, you okay?" I ask. "I'm fine, just a bit chilly," he says. I know he's hiding something, but I leave it alone and start walking. I know I'm going to have to use my shurikens at some point. I decide not to think about that, and keep trudging onward.

I start to get nervous and wonder if the beast inside me is going to come out. I obviously can't control it, and I wonder what's going to happen if I turn on Norman, like I did to Ozone. I'm a stupid son of Hades, and that means my shadow and soul abilities are enhanced a lot. Me and Norman reach the lab and sneak in through the back door. Once we do, it starts to rain, and a bad storm goes off. Ozone. This is him, and I know it. I know the communication device is also a tracker, but nobody needs to know. They probably have the storm to make sure I don't chicken out or anything. But, then again, I would try to die in the lightning.

Me and Norman duck inside a room, and call base to tell them we're safe. After that, we start bringing chemicals to the needed rooms as an alibi. We're supposed to do this for about a day before we grab the guy and leave. "Well, Norman," I say. "We better get to work,"

Static

Between training and helping Cosmo with some of his technology, I barely have time to keep working on the restrictors for Shade, Ozone, Aura, and Ocean. They've all got a beast roaring inside of them, and that beast could release itself at any minute. That's why I was surprised when they let Shade go on the mission to retrieve Captain Raid. In my head that was a dumb move, but I can see why they made it. Ozone is hurt, Aura's got special training tomorrow, and Ocean is going out in battle next week. Drag was open, but they put him to work deciphering a message from Krypton-6, and I'm helping Cosmo out, and working on restrictors. I get it, he was the only person they could have gone with, even if he hadn't volunteered. But there were better people. I'm also glad he's gone, 'cause I don't need any of the Shozone drama-rama. What I need is time and a place to focus. That's why they gave me my room too. Focus. I need to get back to work if I'm to finish by the deadline. I started working on them, and hopefully, I can finish by morning.

Ozone

After waking up, I knew Shade left. He does things like that a lot. I miss home. All the pranks me, Shade, and Drag used to pull. Going over to each other's houses for snacks and video games. And now, I don't even know if Shade wants me as a friend. Now all my feelings are jumbled up, and I can't draw the line between friends, enemies, and lovers. I know how Shade feels about me but I still acted so harshly. I like him, I do, but still. He won't let me come crawling back to him that easily. I know this guy inside out. Or at least, I think so. My emotions and tears form a rainstorm outside, and the effects are bad for even 100 miles from here.

Lighting and acid rain pound on the base and the ground. Suddenly I can feel an energy, like shadow magic. Shade. He went on the mission to get Raid, didn't he? That stupid guy. He's gonna get himself killed. And his last stupid words to me are going to be I'm going to stay here. What a lie. Out of all the lies he's told me, this is the worst one. This one hurt me the most. I grab my swords, slip on my coat, put on my necklace, and walk to my door. I think about bringing my gloves, and I grab 'em and touch the door handle, but Cosmo installed a lock with solar shocks. They feel like Aura's revenge on me. I get so mad and I can feel emotions and power piling up inside me. A power I've felt before. The same one that came out when I shocked Aura. All I can think of is Tempest Beast. Blue lines start appearing on my face. A scar runs down my eye and transforms it. It's now gray with no pupils. The wind starts to whip up around me. The lightning outside gets worse. The lights flicker and then turn off. Once again I grab the door handle, but more forcefully. My hair grows until it bursts out of my ponytail. I shoot the energy bolt to my window, and it breaks immediately. The energy bolt hits the ground and creates a mile-deep crater. I keep on squeezing the door handle and finally, the magical lock breaks, and all that's in my way is the normal door lock. I start punching the door and cracks run through it. I put on my gloves and make one last punch and the door breaks. My hand has a few splinters in it, but otherwise I'm fine. I walk through the mess of my broken wood door and make my way through the corridors that lead to the exit. Once I'm out of the building, I pull the mask behind my hood onto my face and speed out of there with ODM gear. "This won't be fast enough," I whisper. I stop. I summon part of my magic and a cloud appears in front of me. I climb on and make it go as fast as it can. I end up going faster than a train. "Now this is more like it," I say.

After about three minutes, I can see the outpost Shade's located at. It doesn't seem to me like he needs any help, cause the base is on lockdown, and their machinery is fried. Oop. Looks like the lightning jet I made to break the door did something.

I speed off in hopes of making it to the actual villain base.

Kron

The lights turn off. Then back on. The burning sensation inside me has gotten bigger like the person is going to die sooner. I try not to focus on that, and start shooting at the targets Cosmo's set up for me. They're pretty easy to get bullseyes on, cause they're not moving. I wonder if I'm going to be able to manage aiming and shooting at a person, or if I'm even going to aim correctly. "Next stage," I can hear Cosmo's powerful voice command to Static. He gets the next level ready, and this time, the targets are moving. I force myself to aim and shoot correctly and lose myself in the fun of training before I know it.

After about an hour of doing so, I head to the room I share with Drag. I can see him lying on his bed trying to decipher another language. "Which one are you deciphering now," I ask him, 'cause it would be nice to know once in a while. "Some kind of secret morse code like hieroglyphs. It's confusing, challenging, and important all at the same time. This is the language our enemies use to communicate and send battle plans." he says. "Wow, you have a hard job. Couldn't ever be me," I say good-naturedly. Drag laughs. "Well, some things change faster than you think," he says. Wait. Does he know about my feelings? He couldn't, right? If he doesn't then he'll figure it out anyway. He's too smart not to. "Well, that's something to think about," I say. Drag gets a message on his watch. "Gotta go to training. See you later Kronos," he says good-naturedly. I laugh and say "Good luck Dragon," I go to sleep thinking about who is going to die, and when.