"Wait what's going on?" I demanded to know since everyone was acting so weird today.
"What's going on? .. How did you get in here?! Where were you?!" Whisper exclaimed out of frustration when she ran out of the room to see if she could actually leave. When she realised that she could actually leave the room, she walked back in for answers.
"You were laughing at us weren't you?" Tempest asked me.
"What?" I asked.
"Don't act like you didn't hear me! You were eating peanuts and laughing at us weren't you!"
"W-Why would I be eating peanuts? I don't even like peanuts" I tried to explain but quickly ignored that idiot so that I could actually warn them that the school was under attack.
"Where were you this whole time?" Avelin asked me.
"Did you find your student tag?" Erin wondered.
"Its actually funny that you asked that. Umm, you won't believe this but uhh ... I think the school might be under attack" I finally explained as nonchalantly as possible so as not to freak everyone out. Little did I know, mentioning something like to a bunch of frustrated teenagers that were trapped inside a classroom for hours really hits deep.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!!!!" Majority of my classmates exclaimed, flabbergasted by the fact that it not only made sense but their lives were now in danger. Some even stood up in reaction to my statement.
"What do you mean we're under attack?!" One of my classmates demanded to know.
"Are we going to die?!" another classmates beseeched.
"I-I can't die. I still have so much that I need to"
"I don't want to die. What are we gonna do?"
"Umm ... is this a bad time to mention that Madison isn't wearing a bra" Tempest awkwardly pointed out and as she expected, everyone turned their attention to my chest which I immediately covered with my arms out of embarrassment. Other classmates then started murmuring amongst one another about my lack of a bra, all because Tempest couldn't shut her goddamn mouth.
"This isn't the time to think about my chest alright! What are we going to do?" I tried changing the subject.
"Mrs.Sell?" Alyssa changed the subject instead and everyone turned towards the only adult in the room with knowledge on how to go about protecting everyone right now.
Mrs.Sell then silently looked at everyone with absolutely no idea what to do and it was all visible on her face. When she realised that everyone was now waiting on her, she cleared her throat and stood up from the desk. "Uhh .. right, safety protocols. Umm, well normally, the headmaster fills us in on the situation but I don't think she's on school grounds right now"
Again, everyone panicked dramatically because the school's most powerful line of defence has left. "What?! She's gone!!"
"If she's not here then we're all dead!!" Another student exclaimed out of fear.
"Do you think they'll hear us?" Avelin asked everyone before she quickly and quietly closed the door but left it slightly ajar so that it doesn't end up locking again.
"I don't think they're inside the building. It was empty when I got here" I answered her.
"Wait, if we're under attack then how did you get here? One of them didn't try and harass you did they?" Alyssa asked me which slowly brought me back to my vivid memories of those two masked women that tried to take me out. I can understand why she'd ask me this because I definitely had a bra this morning. Where is my bra anyway?
Before I could reply, Avelin interrupted me. "Hold on, were you raped?"
I need to tell you, I've never seen someone trying so hard not to laugh after hearing that I got raped or sexually harassed. Avelin really is an impudent bitch...
"... Well I wasn't RAPED ... if that's what you're so WORRIED about. Look, I nearly escaped death to sneak up here. I don't need to explain my lack of a bra to you people!"
"Bumfuzzle..." Sarah stated in the background.
"Sarah. Come on .. read the room" Tempest reminded her with a straight face.
"... I-I can't see words in the room" Sarah pointed out worriedly while fumbling with her hands together.
"Ohhhh honey.." Alyssa tried to console her while disillusioned by her stupidity.
MEANWHILE...
OUTSIDE THE CLOCKTOWER, NORTHERN QUADRANT
"What are we doing here?" Felicity inquired when she looked up at the top of the tower and noticed how tall it was compared to all of the other buildings.
"This is the Tower of Time, a sacred but restricted tower designed for the sole purpose of deciding time throughout the campus but it also acts as an electrical conduit that distributes power to the artificial security dome protecting the campus from exterior threats" Udara explained while on her way to the entrance.
As one of the tallest points of interests in the academy, the "Tower of Time" extends out from the roof of the main auditorium. The reason it's one of more restricted area's isn't because it's dangerous and students can die from the fall but because the tower itself acts as an electrical generator that powers the entire Solar-Holographical Energy Dome surrounding the campus and protecting it from any outside threats. In order to accurately control the output, the tower itself also acts as a control room which controls the supply of power throughout the academy making it one of the most protected structures in the campus.
When Udara opened the door to the main auditorium, they entered it together while several of their followers waited outside to survey the perimeter and watch out for the masked women that attacked them earlier. The auditorium was dead silent and dark, making it very difficult for the two of them to see anything in here but Felicity quickly produced a bright flame in the palm of her hand and used it to light the path.
"And you think the Inscription is in here?" Felicity asked her after having a look around.
"The Inscription of Paradise is a magical artefact, radiating with an enormous amount of magical energy, enough for us to track. The only way to negate that energy is through a field of electromagnetic energy with a certain frequency strong enough to overpower it. What else in the entire campus bolsters enough power to overpower the magical energy?" Udara asked her with a smirk behind her mask.
"Wow. That's some excellent detective work. I just wonder why you only figured it out now when you could've spared us all of the trouble"
"That room beneath the boiler room. It had schematic diagrams with all of the incoming power lines, voltage, size, and capacity. Transformers, their connection, and method of grounding .. That's how I figured out that this tower is where the inscription was being kept" Udara continued to explain when the two of them walked down the path in between the rows upon rows of incredibly long seats, enough to hold over 500 people.
The two of them then searched the entire auditorium individually so as to speed up the task of finding the artefact. Eventually, they came up with nothing and no clues to where the control room was either.
"There's nothing here. It's just a stupid auditorium" Felicity complained after they met up on stage.
"No, it has to be here" Udara claimed, looking around one more time after their eyes have managed to adjust to the darkness. "We need some way remove the electromagnetic field so that we could track the magical energy"
"And how do you suppose we do that? None of our followers were gifted with Electrokinesis" Felicity asked her.
"But we do know of a certain women trying to stop us. If we can get her to use her electrokinesis, it should be able to disrupt the electromagnetic field" Udara explained just before all of the lights in the auditorium suddenly powered on out of nowhere. Instead of remaining activated, all of the lights began flickering repeatedly which meant that something outside was interfering with all of the lights in the room and it was somehow powerful enough to actually affect the entire auditorium.
Both Udara and Felicity raised their heads to the lights and slowly turned back to one another. "Speak of the devil" Felicity joked.
Meanwhile and outside of the auditorium, all of the followers guarding the auditorium have fallen, either unconscious or dead. That mysterious women casually approached the building without much resistance at all and eliminated the followers without even touching them. This time however, she was wearing the fox-styled masks of the followers again which continued to conceal her identity. Thankfully, before any more could be killed by her hands, Udara opened the front doors and stepped out of the main auditorium, alone.
"You can run all you want but you can't hide from me" The women warned her while flashes of emerald lightning sparked around her body.
"Electrokinetic individuals are a rare sight to see. You must be pretty confident to have approached the building knowing full-well what I'm capable of" Udara stated when she closed the door behind her.
"Your semblance won't work on me again. Not while your illusions are keeping all of the students and staff inside"
"Won't it?"
Just then, the light around Udara's body began distorting itself and waving itself in various directions, similar to the way air distorts itself under enough heat. The women noticed that she was once again, stuck in another semblance and immediately clenched her fists. She once again shrouded herself in a field of Verdigris electricity which furiously expanded itself throughout the entire vicinity. The electromagnetic field quickly disrupted the illusion but to her surprise, Udara slowly began to fade away as well.
"What? Where did she go?" The women thought to herself before she quickly ran into the auditorium to try and catch them. While inside, the women had a look around and from her point of view, was shocked to see the amount of electricity passing through the entire auditorium and the tower. Streams of emerald electricity passed through all electrical appliances and circuits within the auditorium and she could perceive it all. This was how she figured out that there was an enormous amount of power radiating from a room situated somewhere in the center of the tower which should be inaccessible.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of Felicity or Udara inside the auditorium but there was one other room that could be checked.
Meanwhile, Felicity and Udara both dropped down from one of the large ventilation shafts, leading up to this hidden room after the ventilation gate fell onto the ground. Due to the massive electromagnetic pulse(EMP) created by the women, all of the power throughout the auditorium was disrupted yet for some reason, the power in this room and the rest of the tower was still running.
"How come all of the lights in here are still on?" Felicity wondered when she had a look around.
"This tower orchestrates the entire supply of power throughout the school. It would be common to think that all of the electronic components here are protected from any EMP's" Udara explained but even she wasn't sure herself.
The control room was situated below the highest floor of the tower, inaccessible by any means except for the ventilation shafts and the hidden entrances installed throughout the tower. Several monitors were laid out on several desk spaces in front of this massive holographic monitor displaying the entire power grid layout. None of the computers appeared to be operated by people at the moment but that was only because the operators working here were, like the students, also trapped in a semblance.
"You seem to know a lot about this technical stuff" Felicity commented while she examined some of the monitors, trying to understand all of the strange icons, symbols mixed with numbers in a completely confusing layout on each and every monitor.
"Unlike you, I actually attended school" Udara bragged when she walked up to one of the main administrative terminals near the large holographic monitor and started typing away at it.
"Nobody likes a show-off" Felicity pointed out when she approached Udara to see what she was up to. "What are you doing?"
"I'm shutting off the entire power grid. It'll includep all security measures powered by electricity and everything else"
"Is this going to cause some sort of really cool brownout or something?" Felicity wondered out of curiosity.
"Urg. You'd think you'd learn something from that game you keep playing. No, brownouts happen when power generation can't keep up, and utilities "throttle" back the electricity. This is a full interruption of power. A blackout" Udara explained before she powered down the entire grid, turning off every single electrical device or component connected to the tower. Everything on campus powered down simultaneously but others wouldn't realise it due to the semblance that they were trapped in.
MEANWHILE…
INSIDE BUILDING BETA, SECOND FLOOR
When all of the power throughout campus was interrupted, the lights in our class suddenly switched off out of nowhere which took us all by surprise.
"What happened to the lights?" One of our classmates inquired.
"I think the power's out" Whisper answered when she flipped the switch repeatedly to see if the lights would turn on.
"Yeah, we figured that out when the lights suddenly went off" Tempest stated sarcastically.
"Shut up" Whisper demanded.
"Miss Heath, are you sure there isn't anyone inside the building?" Scarlet asked.
"No, I'm sure of it but there are a couple of masked women roaming the campus"
"What about the third years or second years? Why aren't they doing anything to stop this?" Alyssa wondered out of curiosity.
"Yeah, what are they doing?" Erin wondered.
"Maybe they're trapped inside their classrooms like us" Sarah suggested.
"That's actually not a very bad idea" Alyssa stated in surprise.
"I think they are. Every classroom that I investigated was empty. Even this one was empty but when I came back to check on it, you all were suddenly in here" I explained in layman's terms.
"What? Please explain to us how that makes sense to you?" Tempest suggested.
"I don't know? That's just what happened. I think you were trapped in that umm … what was it called again?.." I tried to remember.
"A semblance" Scarlet answered for me, confusing everyone who hasn't learned of it yet. "It's a illusionary pocket of space separate from reality. That's why the other classes were empty and why this one was too. The caster must've lost control of the technique for a moment"
"But doesn't that require a ton of energy and control?" Alyssa asked when trying to remember all that she knows on Aether Energy.
"Way more than a ton if she's created enough semblances for every room on campus. This has to be a professional job" Avelin answered her.
"Urg … then how do we stop the semblances?" Whisper asked after rolling her eyes at the discussion.
"We can't. We need to either kill the caster or beat her into unconsciousness. At the end of the day, she needs to lose concentration" Scarlet answered her while trying to think of a plan.
"So what should we do then? We can't let just them take whatever they want. We're knights in training" Tempest explained, trying to persuade everyone into thinking of a plan.
"Some of us are knights in training" Whisper corrected her with her arms crossed.
"Everyone in the Chivalric Arts Course, raise your hands" Scarlet ordered before she raised her hand. Soon enough, only a few actually raised their hands, those few being me, Erin, Tempest, Whisper, Avelin and Sakura. Tempest however noticed that Sarah hasn't raised her hand and did it for her, reminding her of the obvious. A few others soon raised their hands as well.
"Doesn't look like we can do much with this radical crew" Whisper stated after having a look around.
While everyone was stuck thinking of a plan to go through, Erin, Tempest and I glanced at one another because we knew what to do and how to handle the situation. We've done this many times before and even though we weren't trained traditionally, we have experience and can figure this out so long as our classmates don't realise the truth.
MEANWHILE…
INSIDE THE POWER GRID CONTROL ROOM, TOWER OF TIME
"Well would you look at that?" Felicity asked after having a look at a strange exotic device in the palm of her hand. Unlike your modern devices capable of tracking separate signals in the form of numerical data, this device glowed brightly in response to the magical energy radiating from the tower.
"What?" Udara asked her.
"You were right. There's a ton of magical energy radiating from this place and … I think it's in here" Felicity answered her and had a look around the room for anything suspicious.
"Here" Udara called out to her when she found a hidden doorframe in the corner of the control room, leading into another darker room with a strange hidden chest in the center of it. On each side of the strange-looking chest were torches, lit with magical purple flames that were the only source of light in the room. Felicity quickly ran up to the hidden room to see what she was looking at but stopped when she noticed the mysterious chest.
"Is that it?" Felicity asked.
"I'm not sure"
"Seems a little too easy doesn't it? Why would they keep it in here?" Felicity wondered after she took a step forward. Udara then grabbed her arm to stop from stepping forward but it was too late because her foot crossed the threshold between the control room and this magical room.
Various supernatural circles and strange archaic symbols suddenly glowed brightly on the walls and ceiling, enough to lit up the entire room while the purple flames expanded in size, filling the entire room with a terrifying purple hue. Felicity then took a step back for her own safety and watched as yet another brighter magical circle illuminated itself beneath the magical chest.
"Oh screw me sideways" Felicity cursed.
"You just activated some sort of defence" Udara stated while she carefully examined each and every archaic character and symbol.
"We don't have a lot of time on our hands here" Felicity reminded her just before the sounds of rushing flames caught them off guard, like the crackle of wood burning. The bright blue illumination of the gigantic mass of flames behind them warned them of the incoming danger which was why Felicity immediately turned around and unleashed an equal amount of intense ordinary fire with the wave of her hand that rivalled the oncoming blue flames. The opposing masses collided into one gigantic inferno of blue and red flames that cancelled each other out before revealing the source of this high-intensity flames of the blue variation.
"Agnikinesis?" Felicity thought to herself after the mixture of flames dispersed, allowing her to see the knight that created it.
"She's Agnikinetic?" The masked individual thought to herself after she watched Felicity overwhelm her own blue flames with ordinary flames of a higher magnitude. The source of those blue flames were in fact another masked women, dressed in the attire of their followers.
"Wait a second, don't tell me you're Agnikinetic as well" Felicity groaned out loud.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I've always been Agnikinetic" The masked women replied in a much more outspoken voice, different from the women that she fought before.
"She's not the same women we fought before" Udara said out loud after hearing her voice.
"Yeah I can see that" Felicity stated.
"Well keep your focus on her and keep her away from me. I'll deal with the artefacts defences" Udara explained.
"Alright, doesn't seem that difficult" Felicity stated, cracking her knuckles and preparing for another fight.
"We'll see about that" The masked women promised her before she shrouded herself in that white luminescence and dashed forward at breakneck speeds. Felicity did the same thing but before they could reach each other, a green bolt of emerald electricity struck the space in between the two of them before they could reach other. Sparks of jade electricity travelled through the ground and expanded the radius of the shockwave in the form of an electric field.
"Maddy?!" The masked women called out her name when the powerful electrical blast nearly blew her away.
Felicity remembered that green blast of lightning instantly and identified this new threat just as fast. When the green streak of lightning slowly dispersed, it revealed none other than the masked figure that's been attacking Felicity and Udara the entire time.
"Don't use your Agnikinesis here! You'll destroy the entire power grid!" Madison exclaimed as a warning since this room was extremely volatile what with all of the power running through it.
"Uhh … w-was this part of the plan?" The masked women wondered after hearing what she said.
"Madison! What the hell are you doing?! This wasn't part of the plan!" Another masked figure exclaimed when she popped out from behind one of the desks, much to Felicity's surprise.
"There's another one?" Felicity moaned after she's had enough with all of the surprises.
"Fine! Screw it! We'll just wing it!" The third masked women exclaimed before she pulled back her hood and removed her mask to toss it aside. This revealed none other than Tempest hidden behind the dark robes who also seemed fed up with Madison who ruined the plan.
"Thank gooood" The second masked women thanked the heavens after she could finally remove her mask and toss it aside. This women was none other than Erin, hidden behind the dark robes of this strange cult but unlike Tempest and Madison, she didn't enjoy wearing the mask at all. "Urg, that mask smells like other peoples faces"
When Tempest and Erin removed their masks, Madison stood up slowly and kept her eyes on Felicity without removing her mask. A couple of seconds then went by before she immediately dashed forward with a trail of electricity following behind her. Felicity quickly reacted in time and fired a large inferno of crimson flames with a range so wide that dodging to the side was impossible.
Madison however leaped up into the sky and came down with her right leg lifted up high. She then came down with an aerial axe kick and when Felicity tried to blow her away with that same wave of fire, Madison kicked her hand down and out of the way so that she could plant her right hand into Felicity's face and electrocute her but Felicity instead caught that arm in between her left arm and body, and pulled Madison down towards the ground before her own body produced an aura of high-temperature flames that all burned blue.
Madison reacted in time to produce a burst of electricity that spread throughout floor and quickly blew Felicity off of her. Both Madison and Felicity separated again, landing a couple of feet away from one another but before the fight could continue, Erin leaped right over Madison at such a distance that she plunged down to Felicity with another aerial axe kick, keeping her right leg straightened up high as possible, using her heel has the primary force of impact.
Felicity propelled herself to the back with a fusillade of fire before Erin slammed her heel through the flames and into the ground which not only increased the radius of the explosion but also ruptured the ground beneath her foot. When Felicity landed onto one of the desks, Tempest nearly swept her off of her feet with a flying drop kick but Felicity expected this and sprung up over the teenage girl, planted her hand onto Tempests face and slammed her head through the desk with enough force to split the desk in half and send all of the monitors and desk equipment flying.
"You kids seriously need more training" Felicity remarked with excitement when she unleashed a fury of blue flames from the same hand that was on Tempests face but to her surprise, Tempests head started melting as fast ice would in a bucket of lava.
Sharp spikes of ice then erupted from the ground and nearly stabbed Felicity in various sections of her body but she leaped up to the back before Madison appeared in front of her and drove her fist into Felicity's abdomen which sent her flying subsequently after an eruption of wind.
Her flight was interrupted by Erin who leaped up from the ground into a complete bicycle kick that knocked her back down to the ground through one of the other desks.
"Who needs training now?!" Tempest screamed on her way down at top speeds with the frozen blade of her enormous broadsword made entirely of ice.
Upon crashing through the desk, Felicity unleashed a fury of blue flames that instantly felt the broadsword's blade before it could penetrate her chest. Surprisingly, Tempest's body continued to melt alongside the sword which showered Felicity with water, extinguishing her flames and leaving her wide open.
She gasped for air after nearly being drowned by the water but by the time she recovered, Tempest fell down behind her clone and drove her fist straight into Felicity's mask which ruptured the ground and completely shattered her new mask.
"Well … not so tough now are ya?" Tempest mocked her when she stood up and shook her hand, the same one that destroyed Felicity's mask. Her confidence slowly faded however when she noticed that Felicity was smiling behind the fractions of her mask. "Why are you.."
Before Tempest could finish her question, Madison immediately kicked Tempest out of the way before the original Felicity crashed down from up above and landed onto Madison with enough force to not only rupture that entire section of the ground but also pushed all of the desks away alongside the desk equipment and monitors.
Tempest safely landed on her own two feet and quickly stood up straight prior to shielding her face from the overwhelming outward explosion of flames while Erin landed onto one of the desks.
"Hey!!" Tempest called out to her.
"Maddy!!" Erin called out as well.
When all of the hot smoke finally started to clear, it revealed Felicity on top of Madison with her fist driven into Madison's forearms. Thankfully, Madison seems to have blocked the attack but she was probably severely injured by the force of the impact.
"Trying to save your little friends now?" Felicity asked her.
"Leave them out of this" Madison demanded.
Eventually, Felicity's body flew straight through the sturdy wall which knocked her out into the world outside. Rubble and debris fell out with her but unlike ordinary people, Felicity performed a backflip and propelled herself back inside the room with a burst of furious flames.
Madison and Erin continued to slowly fall after driving Felicity out of the room but the fight wasn't over just yet. When Madison saw Felicity bursting through the air at remarkable speeds, she immediately spun horizontally and kicked Erin out of the way as hard as possible before Felicity tackled her and sent them both crashing down to the floor below. The two of them crashed onto the ground again before Erin could land but when they did, Madison and Felicity immediately split up before even a second could pass.
Erin then safety landed behind one of the broken desks but stopped for a minute to hold her ribcage which was where Madison kicked her. "Owww … crap"
"Hey Udara! What's taking you so long?!" Felicity demanded to know because it looked like this fight was beginning to take a toll on her.
"I'm still busy!" Udara responded which was when Tempest turned her attention to Udara.
"I call dibs on Udara!" Tempest exclaimed when she sprinted towards the room in the corner much to Erins dismay.
"Hey no fair!" Erin exclaimed but while she was focused on Tempest, Felicity attacked her faster than she could even realise what was happening. Felicity punched Erin across the face which not only took her by surprise but also sent Erin flying across the room and crashing straight through one of the desks, skidding across the floor and crashing through the wall until she exited the building along with a couple of debris.
Tempest quickly came to a stop when she watched Erin get attacked into oblivion but when Felicity dealt with Erin, she crouched down and aimed her left hand at Tempest while preparing a sphere of blaze inches away from the palm of her hand. She then unleashed an overwhelming amount of fire through her hands which moulded the flames into a thin but powerful beam. At the speed it was going, Tempest could hardly follow but thankfully, Madison suddenly tackled Tempest out of the way before the powerful beam of fire continued on it's way towards Udara.
Thanks to her luck, the thin beam flew right passed her face and into the magical room which in turn, activated it's defences and created an even larger explosion than what was intended. The entire explosion's radius overcame the layout of the room and because of that, the explosion completely dismembered the tall clock tower. Rubble and debris flew off in every direction while the top half of the tower slowly began to tip over and plummet down onto the side of the auditorium. The people inside never had a chance to escape before the explosion destroyed absolutely everything inside.
Erin witnessed the large explosion in the middle of her plummet with a clear blackened eye, created from Felicity's knuckles interacting with her face. Her consciousness was beginning to fade as she watched all of the debris fall down with her. A small pebble then fell onto her forehead which immediately snapped her back to reality and waking her up from that near-unconscious slumber. She performed a backflip in time to safely land onto her feet before she sprung to the back to avoid this massive clump of debris that shook the ground upon its landing.
The top of the clock tower then crashed into the surrounding forests situated behind the main auditorium which shook the ground even more violently than the first smaller pieces of debris. The shockwave sent strong gusts of wind mixed with dust and sand passed Erin but for her own safety, she covered her face and tried her best to resist the intense dust-filled winds.
When it was all finally over, Erin coughed repeatedly in the middle of the sandstorm. She then raised her hand and looked around for any sign of Tempest and Madison but she couldn't see anything from here.
"Maddy!? … Tempest?! Are you still alive?!" Erin called out to them but there were no response. She then turned around and desperately searched for us but the lack of any voices disturbed her.
What she didn't know is that somebody quietly approached her behind the cloud of sand seperating them.
I then placed my hand onto her shoulder to try and scare her just for the fun of it but the fright she got was beyond anything I expected.
BOO!!!
Erin jolted up straight and screamed at the top of her lungs before grabbing my wrist and throwing me over her shoulder. I struck the ground faster than I could react and thanks to her training, she kept her foot on my neck while bending my hand into submission.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!! Erin! Erin! It's me! It's me!" I hurriedly exclaimed while trying to keep myself from making her hurt me even further.
"Madison? .. What are you doing?! I almost broke your hand!"
"Well I thought I could scare you. Now I really regret it…" I explained myself in between pained breaths.
"What happened in there? I thought we were sticking to the plan" Erin asked me after she released me.
"What do you mean?"
"You said we were supposed to go in there and try and blend in as one of the bad guys like agent 47" Erin went on to explain.
"Yeah, I did but then you both left me. I had no idea where you ran off to"
"…. What? A-Are you sure?" She asked me for clarity.
"Yeah, 100%. What happened here anyway?" I asked her after dusting the back of my skirt off and looking around at the destruction they've created.
"… Maddy, I'm sure I saw you there. You dropped down from the ceiling and got in between us with your green lightning"
".... I don't know how to tell you this but I wasn't there. I've been looking for you two for a couple of minutes now and then I saw the explosion from the Building Beta" I tried to explain to her even though this didn't make any sense. "Where's Tempest?"
"I don't know where she is. She isn't responding" Erin stated worriedly.
"Hey Tempest!! Tempest come on!" I called out to her as loudly as possible and Erin followed suite.
"Tempest! Tempest!!!! Come on out already. This isn't funny" Erin called out to her in the opposite direction that I was walking.
Erin and I continued calling out to her except I wasn't really that worried because I knew that idiot was perfectly fine. She wouldn't die that easily and I doubt she'd let herself die before us. She's probably sitting back right now, laughing at us and eating her nuts. This isn't the first time she's played this annoying joke on us before. There were times when she'd leave is worried sick when really, she was out doing something not even remotely related to the task at hand.
"Hey, disperse the wind first" I suggested in the middle of my coughs while trying to wave the dust out of my face and covering my mouth.
Erin the nodded her head at me but while she was looking at me, I froze in fear when I spotted something behind her, hidden behind the cloud of dust. When Erin faced forward again, the figure hid herself in the cloud of sand standing between him and her.
"Erin!!" I called out to her before the figure grabbed her by her neck and slowly lifted her off of the ground despite her resistance. Erin gripped onto the massive wrist of the women that strangled her and tried her best to break free but her strength meant nothing in the presence of this beast.
The cloud of sand then faded quickly when I appeared above ground and behind her, prepared to drive my right foot into the nape of this monstrous women. I didn't even have a chance to get a good look at her before my foot connected with her nape, enough to clear all of the sand particles in the air but despite all of the strength I entrusted into this kick, the tall hulk of a women didn't even flinch.
The only thing I could make out in the heat of the moment was her crimson skin but when she looked over her broad shoulders at me, all she saw was a spark of electricity before Erin was suddenly taken from her.
I safely landed a couple of feet away while helping Erin stand. In spite of the red fingerprints left on her neck, Erin seemed fine if you exclude her gasping for breath at the moment.
"Erin, are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine. Just .. I just need some .. some ait" Erin tried to explain in the middle of her pained breaths.
Erin and I then turned towards the hulking figure standing before us, dressed in a black sports bra at the top and her robes tied around her waist. Unlike the other followers, she didn't wear a mask but based on how she looked, she really needed to. She wasn't really ugly in terms of her facial features, she just looked terrifying. Her sclera's were blackened from whatever she's been doing for years whereas her eyes were white in colour which would've blended in well with her sclera if it were white. Her long snow white hair was tied back into a high pony tail and beneath the robes were nothing from the looks of it. I think she might have been naked beneath the robes because her large masculine feet were bare.
Whatever this women was, she wasn't human and I'm starting to wonder if she may have done something to Tempest.
Erin then stood up straight and clenched her fists in seriousness, ready to take on this women fair and square but instead of doing that, I looked around for any sign of the other women that I saw leave the tower during the explosion.
"Erin, was she the one you fought?"
"No, she's .. something else. Hey! Have you seen our friend Tempest?" Erin asked that thing, expecting a clear answer in return but I wasn't expecting anything more than a grunt.
...
…
…
Just then, something literally sparked in my head before everything in my field of vision slowed down. I knew what this feeling was and ever since I developed my Elemental Affinity for Electrokinesis, it's filled me with nothing but dread. When I looked around the area, I tried to scan every single suspicious object in the area until I looked behind me and spotted one of the masked women above us, about to plunge down from the sky and push both of our heads into the ground. A jitter of electricity sparked from my eyes before time resumed at its normal speed and I quickly spun around and kicked Erin out of the way before Felicity crashed down from the ground with enough force to surround us in a cloud of dust.
When Erin skidded across the ground but eventually regained her balance and landed onto her feet, she covered her eyes when the cloud of dust rocketed passed her and surrounded her within the cumulonimbus of dust.
"Maddy!!!" Erin called out to me.
By the time it cleared, Erin tried to center her vision on the sight before her and what she saw put a smile on her face. Felicity stood over my body with her right hand wrapped around my neck as tightly as possible and her left fist held back to pummel my face in. The only reason she hasn't done that yet was before my legs were wrapped around her neck, my left hand on the wrist belonging to the hand on my neck but my right hand was planted onto her mask. Sparks of jade electricity flashed around my body again which was how she knew what sort of predicament she was stuck in. That mask won't save her from 700,000,000 volts of electricity.
To make matters worse for poor Felicity, Tempest was standing right behind her with an incredibly sharp sword made entirely out of ice. The tip of the sword pressed gently against her nape and despite the hot white light illuminating from her body, the sword just wouldn't melt.
"Tempest!!" Erin called out to her in excitement.
"You're trapped … call off whatever it is you're doing here before we send you to hell" Tempest threatened her in the coldest tone I've ever heard.
Felicity's left fist tightened completely in response to the anger she was feeling. I couldn't see it but I could feel all of the malice radiating from her body right now.
"And call off the illusion too" I demanded.
"Tch … you're not ordinary students are you?" Felicity asked us.
Tempest and I remained silent since we were waiting for her to follow our orders. That was when she finally released me and allowed me to slowly yet carefully regain my breath while I slowly released my hand from her mask. Felicity then slowly stood up and sighed with relief prior to her rubbing the back of her neck, all while Tempest continued to point her sword at her.
"Udara .. call off the illusion. They didn't fall for it" Felicity ordered when she looked up at the crimson hulk of a figure which slowly began to fade away and instead, was replaced with a shorter women, dressed in the same dark robes.
"That thing was fake the entire time?" Erin asked when she grasped her neck again to make sure everything she was feeling was correct. Her dehydration, the sensation of being strangled, it was all fake and she couldn't even tell. I wouldn't blame her, I couldn't tell either until I realised that something was interfering with my electric field and it wasn't ordinary visible light.
"Man … Electrokinetics really are something" Felicity commented when she looked down at me.
I slowly stood up and regained my breath. That was close. If I didn't see her coming, both Erin and I would've been killed on the spot and I don't think Tempest would've saved us in time.
"Tell us who you are .. NOW" Tempest ordered in that same cold tone as before, driving the tip of her sword against Felicity's neck.
Felicity however calmly looked over her shoulder at Tempest and slowly removed her mask, revealing the confident smirk she had behind it this entire time. Tempest only saw her face for a brief moment and whatever she saw appears to have shocked her but neither Erin or I could see it from this angle.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking you kids have leverage over us" She warned Tempest followed by a charming wink before she slipped her mask back on. That was when I detected something again but it wasn't incoming danger, it was the presences of more.
Erin, Tempest and I had a look around and that's when we saw an entire platoon of masked followers, carefully surrounding the main auditorium and surveying us from afar. The gentle winds moved the cloud of sand aside for us to see even more hidden figures watching us, patiently waiting for their orders to strike. I was sure that I was adequately prepared for battle and even Tempest and Erin believed that but we weren't idiots. We knew that we couldn't handle over 50 skilled soldiers that are all capable of manipulating aether energy. Eventually, we'd lose too much stamina.
Felicity was right. The only time we had any leverage was when Felicity was in our grasp but we released her. We screwed up….
TO BE CONTINUED…