The Curse of Day/Part8H

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5th Day, 10:00 AM
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In the Mystic Cave—the destination where Padparadscha and Skylor had gone to retrieve one of the Sol Emeralds—the sun beat down upon the foliage, giving an impression of utter serenity…or at least it would have to someone looking down from overhead. To those inside the Cave (which was actually more jungle than cave), it was fairly dark and filled with thrashing vines that threatened to bar the progress of most visitors. Predictably, Padparadscha and Skylor were the only apparent visitors.
The tree-trunks that made up the walls of the Cave towered above Padparadscha as she took in the violent plant life ahead. Small motes of sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves, casting the writhing tendrils in weird relief. Limbs beginning to draw into her shell in apprehension, the tortoise gripped the handlebars of her kickbike tightly for reassurance, and, turning to Skylor, asked in a small voice, "Is it – do you think you can use your fire against these vines without burning down the whole Cave? Because that would be bad."
"Well, once it leaves my body, I can still control it and its offspring. But if it makes you feel better, I can just use this." Skylor pulled her dagger out of its holder, and began hacking away at the vines. The vines parted, revealing that, some distance away from the vines that Skylor had just parted, some vines were wiggling in a way that indicated that someone on the opposite side was hacking at them.
Padparadscha blinked at the wiggling vines, then shook her head and peered at them as closely as she could, given the other vines that separated her from them. She had the disconcerting feeling of déjà vu that often followed a momentary distraction, and she realized that she hadn't responded to her companion. "Thanks for taking my concerns into consideration, Skylor," she said, quickly, "but I think you may have to use fire after all. I believe you can control it if you say you can, and it would probably be faster than using your miniature machete – and we may need speed, because there seems to be someone else trying to come through here as well."
"That makes sense," Skylor replied, putting the blade away. She curled her hands together, as if to cup something in them. A small spark appeared in her palms, quickly growing into a spinning fireball. "Flash Burn!" she shouted, unleashing the fireball into what looked like a tornado in front of them. It would burn through the vines in seconds, then instantly recall at Skylor's command.
"Think that worked?"
One or both of the teens might have noticed that the tornado prompted a slight metallic clank in the general direction of the wiggling vines, followed by a slight rustling noise off to the left that vanished in only a couple of seconds as it grew more distant.
"Skylor?" Padparadscha said, sidling closer to the other girl, "Did you hear that? I have a strong feeling that something very bad is about to happen. If you have anything you can do to protect yourself, you should probably do it – I have my shell, can you make a shield of fire or something like that?"
"I'll be fine, kid." Skylor smiled reassuringly, starting to walk forward. She hadn't noticed the noises yet, and thusly didn't react to them.
Padparadscha shook her head at her own apparent insanity as she followed a bit behind Skylor, her kickbike bumping over the uneven ground.
All of a sudden, another noise drowned out the now-faint rustling as a purple cloud appeared to the right of Skylor and Padparadscha. The cloud deposited Lee and Kennedy (the latter of whom held the yellow Sol Emerald) before the cloud and noise faded back into Kennedy and the Emerald.
"Padparadscha, Skylor," Kennedy introduced himself, lowering his arm that was holding the Sol Emerald. "We've been successful. How is your progress so far?"
"Seems like you guys got the easy assignment..." Skylor said. "Not that good, just cutting through vine for now."
"Oh, I could help with that," replied Kennedy. He lifted his arm up, and it glimmered a brilliant, bright purple. Then, it began to transform into a purple energy armblade, and Kennedy swung it to cut some of the vines. "Looks like this small amount of shapeshifting I can do comes in handy."
"Showoff." Skylor said to herself, walking behind Kennedy.
Lee quietly followed as well.
Padparadscha scooted along beside Lee. "I'm glad you're here," she told him. "It's not that I don't trust Skylor, I do, but splitting up never sat well with me. Now I only have to worry about what might be happening to Alexia and Taglumo on top of whatever might happen with these freaky giant vine things. And, well," she shrugged, and smiled at him. "I'm just glad you're here." It had only been two days since Lee had stepped between her and a loaded gun, and the bouquet of emotions that had bloomed in that moment still clung to her, a delicate perfume.
"...No problem." He smiled back, his right ear flopping a bit as he turned his head to her. "Skylor's.... kinda rough, yeah...."
Off to the group's left, an abrupt stalling noise occurred.
Kennedy turned quickly, and then he closed his eyes, trying to sense if it was another humanoid/robotic signature following them. Masking any such signatures, he would detect the signature of a Sol Emerald, now moving around in small circles centering on the location of the noise.
"There's a Sol Emerald nearby," Kennedy told the group, beginning to levitate. "One of those rascals we've been dealing with is most likely recovering it as we speak. If I can get you all around it while I fly overhead, we should be able to effectively trap it and take the Emerald."
"What do I burn?" Skylor asked, crossing her arms.
Padparadscha raised her hand. "If you're really going to attempt this surround-and-capture maneuver, I don't think I should be part of it," she said. "I'm not very intimidating, and if anyone tried to get past me, there wouldn't be much I could do to stop them. Maybe I should take the purple Sol Emerald and wait off to the side somewhere, so if the plan unexpectedly goes wrong we won't risk losing that one, too."
"Very smart thinking. Padparadscha," Kennedy complimented. "I'll keep the one I already have so that we're safe if you get caught. Onto the actual plan..." Kennedy studied his surroundings, those he had trouble, considering the dark environment. "...hmm, doesn't look as if I'll have much room to fly, but I'm sure I can make do. Lee, I'll need you to go as far as you can forward without getting our enemy's attention to get on the other side of it. Once I sense you're far away, I'll tell Skylor, and she could light a giant fire as a distraction while Lee and I try to snatch the Emerald. Is everyone okay with that?"
Category:The Curse of Day