Iridescent: Chapter Nineteen

Iridescent

Chapter Nineteen

~Reality – Part 2~

After the Fall

Direct Continuation…

Chaud was relieved when Vicky’s axe struck the shadow and made it disperse. Though it wasn’t defeated in gave Chaud enough time to roll out of the way. A bullet whizzed past his ear. He looked up and saw Ai with one of her guns in her hand. Chaud moved quickly as Zathura attacked him again. He touched the axe when it struck the ground sending a jolt of electricity through it. Zathura was jolted back. Shadow puppet disappeared.

He blocked another bullet with his gun. Ai scowled at him. For the first time, Chaud notices that Dante wasn’t beside his sister. It was then that he heard a distinct ringing. He ducked down as a blazing sword cut the air above him. Chaud pressed a button on his gun lengthening it into a type of sword. Though he wasn’t an expert in sword fighting he knew enough to keep himself alive. Besides, he thought, a claymore was a heavy and slow weapon. He would be able to avoid getting hit easily.

That was where he went wrong. Dante was very efficient with his weapon. Paired with his powers Dante’s skills were deadly. Dante swung his sword at Chaud’s head. Chaud bent back as the flaming sword swung at his head. He attacked Dante right after. Their weapons clashed together, Chaud’s sword sparked electricity while Dante’s roared with fire.

There was another gunshot and Chaud raised his second gun and aimed it at Ai. He fired two shots. The first bullet struck Ai’s bullet down in midair. The second bullet struck Ai’s weapon out of her hand. She pulled the second gun out and aimed it. Chaud pivoted around Dante keeping distance between himself and Ai’s aim.

“Vicky!” Chaud called.

She parried Ren’s symitar attack, “What!?”

“Get Amber out of here!” Chaud jumped to one side and slashed at Dante with his sword, “Get her to the desert!”

“You sure?” Vicky looked back at him for only a second, “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine!” Chaud ducked as he dodged an attack, “I’ll catch up to you later!”

Vicky threw out her hand blowing both Ren and Yin back. She extended her hand and the throwing axe that she had thrown at the shadow came back to her. Kew crawled up Sanya’s leg and jumped on to the arm she used to restrain Amber. The little creature bit her arms and hands. Sanya waved her hands around as a way fling the creature off.

Amber ran toward her brother. Vicky scooped Amber up in her arms and looked back at Chaud.

“Chaud! Catch!” Vicky threw a blue vial at him. She turned to Kew, “Come!”

Kew ceased his barrage of attacks and ran toward Vicky. He ran up Vicky’s leg and assumed his place on his shoulder. Amber screamed for her brother as the wind whirled around the girls. Vicky rose off the ground. Sanya was about to use her powers when the she-wolf growled at her.

Chaud caught the vial of Blue Gold that Vicky tossed to him. He used it knowing full well that the first vial he had taken had not worn off yet. Chaud stumbled back when a dizzy spell struck him suddenly.

Yin ran up to him. She attacked with her glaive. He dodged by bending to his left. Chaud threw out his hand. Electricity shot down his arm and struck Yin. Yin screamed as electricity flowed through her. She was blown back and slid on the ground. Yin struck a rock and was knocked unconscious.

Zathura got to her feet. She charged at Chaud and picked up her axe along the way. Chaud opened his wings and with a mighty wing beat sent electrical sparks toward her. Sharp feathers shot toward her scratching and scaring her. Zathura dropped her axe as her arms were targeted the most. She fell to her knees and tended to her wounded arms.

Lightning flashed and thunder crashed overhead. With the second injection Chaud struggled to keep his powers under control. He could feel his heart racing and struggled to breathe normally.

“What the heck are you doing kid!?” Dante called over a crash of thunder.

Chaud looked at him. He extended his arm and electricity shot toward Dante. Dante ran to one side avoiding the attack. Ai fired several shots at Chaud but he avoided them easily. Chaud looked at her and a bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Ai was only fast enough to form a force field as it crashed down. The bolts impact on the force field resulted in a blinding light. When the light subsided, Ai managed to protect herself but was knocked unconscious due to the stress of the impact on her power. Dante ran to his sister’s side.

Anger started to overwhelm Chaud, something that he had never experienced before. He hated Dante and the others that were hunting him and his sister. Chaud could feel the anger controlling him. He extended his arm and thunder rumbled overhead. Dante looked at Chaud and narrowed his eyes.

“Ren!” Dante called.

Chaud looked to his right and stepped back to look squarely at the coming threat. Ren ran passed Chaud on his left. Chaud noticed a sly smile on his face. Ren didn’t try to attack. The hair that covered his left eye parted for a moment. Ren’s left eye was closed with a horizontal scar from his eye brow to his mid cheek. Ren’s left eye opened suddenly capturing Chaud’s attention. His eye was red and black. Chaud couldn’t avert his attention.

“What’s your worst nightmare?” Ren whispered as he ran passed.

Chaud closed his eyes and looked away suddenly. When he opened his eyes again he wasn’t in the mountain crater. He sat on a chair in a dark room. An unknown light source shined down on him as he sat alone. Chaud looked around and tried to peer into the darkness.

“My you are quite the disappointment aren’t you,” a familiar voice said.

Chaud looked ahead and saw his father sitting behind a table looking at him.

“Nothing but a disappointment,” Sirius said, “Why can’t you be more like your brothers?”

“He isn’t smart enough,” Kaiba said over Chaud’s shoulder.

“He isn’t handy,” Lynx sighed as he appeared and walked passed Chaud on his right, “I doubt he could put together the contents in a Lego box let alone a rocket.”

His mother appeared in front of him, “What a shame. I wouldn’t have gone through five hours of labor for you if I had known you would be completely useless.”

“I’m not useless!” Chaud shouted.

That brought laughter from the people in the room. Their laughter echoed and filled Chaud’s ears. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the sound only seamed to grow. Chaud closed his eyes and tried to force the laughter to stop internally.

“You know, you’re right,” Zara’s voice stated. Chaud opened his eyes, “You’re not useless. You’re stupid, you’re an idiot and completely incompetent. You’re worse than useless. You have a lot of improving to do before you’re useless. You have no use.”

“No!” Chaud shouted.

Sirius put a hand on Chaud’s shoulder, “Shall we go through everything for you?”

“Speak slowly,” Miwa laughed, “We wouldn’t want him to get lost!”

Mother held out a piece of paper in front of Chaud’s face, “An ‘F’ in math—”

“Do you even know the square root of 5,839,203,490?” Kaiba asked.

“Dude! Even I know that!” Deontay shook his head.

“An ‘F’ in Language,” Mother continued.

“How do you say rock in Swahili?” Sirius asked, “To hard? How about rain in French? Can’t you do anything? How about stupid in German? Can you do that one?”

Mother smiled, “An ‘F’ in Science—”

“What is the molecular structure of water?” Naru asked, “I’ll even be nice and give you a hint. It’s H₂O stupid.”

“Stop it!” Chaud shouted, “Just stop it! Leave me alone!”

“An ‘F’ in Gym,” Mother laughed, “Who does that? Fail gym?” the smile on her face disappeared, “Only you because you are so useless!”

“And we’re only getting started,” Sirius smiled.

“No! Stop it!” Chaud gripped his head, “Stop it! STOP IT!”

“Look at him;” Zara said with disgust, “He can’t even handle a little pressure.”

“He can’t even take care of me as he should,” Amber crossed her arms, “He really us useless. A real waste of space.”

“I’m sorry,” Chaud said quietly.

Amber rolled her eyes, “There is no apology for being such a loser.”

“I’m not apologizing for that,” Chaud said.

He took a third vial out of his pocket and injected the blue liquid into his system. His body pushed itself to its furthest most limit. His arms and hands crackled with electricity. He felt every cell in his body charged and almost pulsating. He could barely hold still, his body was shaking so much. Chaud looked out at his so called family and friends. He shouted and a pulse of electricity radiated from him smashing the illusion that was being woven around him.

Chaud opened his eyes back in the reality he knew. He looked around at the scene around him.

Dante had his sister in his arms. He motioned to the others to follow him. Zathura and Sanya ran to his side. Ren picked Yin up on his back. He smiled at Chaud before following Dante.

Lightning struck around where Chaud stood. Chaud flapped his wings and took to the air. Lightning struck him but had no effect. He flew in the direction of the desert to look for Vicky and Amber. The wolf followed below on foot.

Vicky hand landed just at the foot of the mountains on the nearest sand dunes. She looked up at the dark clouds that hung over the mountains Amber cried while Vicky rocked her as they waited for Chaud to join them. Vicky stood up suddenly when she saw a bead of gold light falling from the sky like a shooting star. It struck a nearby sand dune kicking up sand. She ran toward the point of impact with Amber close behind her. The wolf approached as well.

“Amber stay there!” Vicky called as she slid down to where Chaud lay unconscious.

Amber dropped to her knees, covered her mouth and cried. The wolf walked up to her and stood behind her. Vicky looked down at Chaud. She pressed her ear against his chest. At first his heart was racing faster than she could count then suddenly it stopped.

“No, Chaud!” Vicky started pressing against his chest acting like his heart.

Amber’s breathing became uneven when she saw what Vicky was doing. She looked around hopelessly for help of any kind. Amber saw some vehicles on the horizon. She got up and waved her hands. She could already hear Chaud’s voice yelling at her that she had no way of knowing they were friend or foe but at the moment Amber was willing to take that chance.

The she-wolf perked her ears and sniffed the air. There was a familiar scent that she recognized in the air. She howled into the air. Shortly the caravan veered toward their location. Amber dropped to her knees and looked back at her brother. Tears streamed down her face as she hoped and prayed that they would be able to help.

Iridescent: Chapter Eighteen

Iridescent

Chapter Eighteen

~Reality – Part 1~

After the Fall

Vicky walked along side Amber as she rode on the back of the wolf. The young girl was sitting up now but looked horrible like she was just starting to recover from something like the flu. Chaud walked ahead, his weapons close at hand. Vicky kept a hand on one of her throwing axes while looking cautiously over her shoulder. Though they had traveled a few days, their constant threat were the hunters pursuing them.

Kew seemed to be carrying a conversation with the wolf from the protection of Vicky’s shoulder. He kewed and mewed while the wolf said nothing in return. After a while he gave up and curled against Vicky’s neck and took a nap.

It was around noon when the sun was somewhat overhead. Chaud didn’t stop for lunch and insisted that his sister be fed first. Vicky helped herself and Amber to some of her jerky. Amber thanked her for the food and ate silently.

“Chaud, there’s plenty left,” Vicky said, “Have some water too, we’ve been walking all day.”

She threw him a wrapped piece. Chaud caught the food and ate it, “Thanks. I have my own water.”

They were on a ledge against the side of a mountain. On their left was a shear drop. Chaud knew the danger of their situation and how vulnerable they were. He wanted them far away and out of the mountains as they could by the end of the day. Then he looked back at his sister and saw how tired and weak she was. The vials were meant to be used for adults. Even he wasn’t supposed to use them yet.

A bullet ricochet off the wall just ahead of him. He looked quickly and ducked down. Vicky looked out across the large gap and looked for where the attack came from.

“Run!” Chaud called before running forward.

Vicky followed as quickly as she’d dare.

“You missed!” Zathura slapped Sanya at the back of the head.

Sanya rubbed her head and looked at Dante, “I really want to know our objective. I’m still under the impression that we’re trying to capture them. Am I wrong?”

Dante shook his head, “Kill the brother and we’ll nab the girl. That boy really hit a nerve and besides, we only need one of them to bring out the rest of the family.”

Sanya nodded, “Got it boss!”

She brought up her sniper rifle and got Chaud in her sights, “What about the other girl he’s with?”

Dante shrugged, “Kill her too, I guess. Don’t know where she came from.”

Sanya shot again but some sixth sense caused Chaud to duck just in time. She swore at her failure and aimed again. Chaud looked in the direction of the shots fired. He raised his gun and fired back. Sanya ducked as the rock she was behind was riddled with bullets.

Chaud motioned for Vicky to go up another pass that cut through the mountain. Vicky ran between two mountains guiding the wolf on where to go. Amber’s eyes were wide with fear. Vicky tried to smile to comfort her. She didn’t look back but she knew Chaud followed close behind her.

Dante motioned to Yin, “You think you can get us over there.”

Yin squared her shoulders and pulled out a vial, “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

She levitated her team in the air and floated them over to the other side. They ran up the narrow pass after their prey. Dante looked back at Sanya.

“I need you to keep them grounded alright,” he smiled.

Sanya saluted, “Gotcha, boss!”

“Everyone else,” Dante grabbed a vial, “Just do your thing!”

Zathura whopped as she jumped into the air.

Chaud and Vicky ran into a type of crater. They stopped suddenly as they saw that were several exits. They stood back to back in a defensive position while they tried to figure things out.

“What way?” Vicky asked.

Chaud looked around, “I’m still figuring that out.”

“Great,” Vicky sighed, “Looks like we need to defend until we figure it out.”

Vicky pulled a vial out of her bag. She looked at it a moment before closing her eyes and pressing the button. Chaud pulled one out of his pocket. Amber saw what they were doing and lunged at her brother’s arm.

“No!” Amber screamed, “Don’t do it! Please!”

Chaud looked at her, “Amber, let go! What are you doing!?”

Amber started crying, “It almost killed you last time! You can’t! I can’t lose you!”

Chaud said nothing for a moment. He looked at his sister and saw the fear in her eyes. He had no memory of what exactly happened when they crash landed in the mountains but it obviously frightened her. Chaud wrapped a hand around his sister.

“I have to if we’re going to get out of here,” Chaud said to her.

A fire ball hurled its way toward them. Vicky saw it and shot out her hand. her eyes were a milky white outlined with black. A ball of wind sped its way toward the ball of fire. The wind barreled through the fire and dispersed the flames.

Chaud looked at the coming threat, “Stay down!”

He pushed his sister to her knees so as not to be a large target for the hunters. Chaud pulled his arm out of her grasp and used the vial. Thunder rumbled through the air and his eyes turned gold. Dante walked out into the crater. The rest of his crew spread out on either side of him.

Dante propped his claymore sword on his shoulder, “Well, here we are again.”

Ai stood by her brother. She watched Chaud and Vicky closely with unfeeling eyes. Ai felt a rise in the electrical energy. She knew Chaud was their biggest threat.

“We all need to focus out attacks on him. Given enough pressure, he’ll break eventually,” Ai said quietly so only Dante could hear her.

He nodded slightly showing that he understood. Ai always had the most analytical mind. She could thing several steps ahead of her opponent given enough information. Their last encounter gave Ai enough to figure Chaud out.

“You aren’t going to get a chance to fly away this time,” Dante smiled.

Chaud looked at him, “We’ll see about that.”

Zathura laughed, “That’s right! Make this interesting! Dead or alive I get paid either way!”

Her shadow climbed up a mountain wall. The shadow stepped out of the wall and stood beside Zathura. Now there were two Zathura’s, the original and the blank copy. Zathura wielded her large battle axe and charged forward her shadow following suit.

Chaud dove to one side as the axe sailed at him horizontally. He rolled to his feet only to see the shadow’s follow up attack. It was about to deliver a vertical attack with the axe she wielded. His wings grew from his back and he jumped back using the strong flap of his wings to carry him back further. The axe broke the rock where he had been.

With Chaud distracted Yin ran in from the other end of the crater. She pointed the tip of her glaive at Chaud’s back and ran forward. Yin smiled when she thought she had him. Suddenly her glaive was struck aside. Vicky stood between her and her target. She took several steps back as Vicky struck her glaive as she used it for defense.

“Get out of my way!” Yin shouted.

Vicky shifted her grip on her throwing axes, “Not a chance.”

Chaud looked over his shoulder before taking to the sky’s. Lightning shot down on where Dante and Ai stood watching. Ai put her hands up and crated a force field around her and her brother. The lighting struck the dome and traveled to the ground before returning to the sky. When Ai dropped the force field Dante blew a string of fire at Chaud. Chaud dodged easily in the air.

A force pulled him to the ground unexpectedly and Chaud fell out of the sky. He brought up his gun in time to block a bullet. Sanya smiled at him and reloaded her sniper rifle. Chaud tried to move but it was like gravity itself was against him. He was pulled to his knees as he struggled against the force.

Sanya raised her weapon and smiled, “Sorry. Gravity’s got you down?”

There was a savage growl as the wolf lunged at Santa. Her concentration broken, Chaud was released from her grasp. She stepped back and the wolf bit down on the gun. The she-wolf pulled the gun away and Sanya pulled a hand gun from her belt.

“No!” Amber lunged at Sanya before she could think.

She had seen her brother’s melee each other several of times. All she had to do was access a clear memory and copy it. Amber closed her eyes for a moment as she ran as she tried to picture what her brothers did. She spun on one leg and kicked the gin out of Sanya’s hand. Surprised, Sanya didn’t know how to react.

Amber kicked her in the stomach but Sanya used her arm to block the attack. Sanya grabbed Amber by the shoulder but all she grabbed was air. Amber ducked down and kicked Sanya’s legs out from under her. Sanya fell to the ground. Amber looked for the hand gun and grabbed it. When she tried to lift the gun off the ground it felt like it weighted several pounds.

Sanya jumped to her feet. She walked over to Amber and grabbed at her hair. Amber screamed and fought against her captor. Her screams instantly drew Chaud’s attention.

“Are we boring you!?” Zathura called.

Chaud turned only slightly before he was struck with the hammer end of Zathura’s battle axe. He was blown back and lay on the ground dazed. Zathura’s shadow counterpart rushed forward and raised its axe, blade end down, in a deadly vertical attack.

“Chaud!” Vicky looked over her shoulder.

Vicky threw her hand out at Yin and blew her back with a gust of wind. She then threw one of her axes at the shadow. Already knowing that would hit her target; she turned around to deal with Yin. Instead of Yin, someone ran at her from her right. Vicky raised her shuriken shield. The ringing of blades striking rang through the air.

Ren looked at her with his uncovered eye and smiled, “You know, you’re pretty cute. Shame I have to fight you though.”

Vicky felt herself turn a shade of red, “That isn’t going to work you know! I’m still going to fight you!”

Ren looked confused, “I was just stating a fact not trying to trick you. Either way—”

Ren pulled away at slashed at her again with one of his symitars. Vicky parried with her shield and upon impact she blew at him. A gust of wind picked up and blew Ren back. He quickly recovered and ran at her. Vicky readied herself for his attack but was caught off guard when instead of attacking her directly he jumped over her. He landed on his feet behind her and attacked at her side. Vicky turned to one side quickly the blade only cutting at her clothes and only a scratch on her skin.

Yin returned and tried to attack while Vicky was occupied. Vicky dodged the attack to her left shoulder and leaned to her right side. She used her powers to use the wind to lift herself into the air. Vicky floated toward Amber and Sanya but felt gravity pull her back to the ground.

“Go!” Vicky called.

Kew jumped off her shoulder and ran toward Sanya. He ran up to Sanya and bit her leg. Sanya cried out in pain releasing Vicky from the gravity bind just in time as both Ren and Yin ran at her. She pulled her ice axe out and blocked an attack from Yin’s glaive. Vicky turned and attacked Ren with her throwing axe.

To be Continued…