“How are you holding up?” Raikidan called in.
I took in another gasp of air. “My lungs are about to burst out of my chest.”
He chuckled. “It amazes me how weak you humans are.”
“Shut it, dragon-boy.” He chuckled quietly, and I grunted. “How about you?”
“Fine so far, except that I’m completely lost.”
I started moving again. “You’re not the only one.”
I passed a few corridors and took a right at a fork. Strong hands suddenly grabbed the back of my bodysuit and pulled me back to the corridor I had left. Normally, I would have retaliated since the only thing I could see was the black bodysuit he wore as he pinned me with his body against the wall, but his familiar scent kept me calm. Then I heard the barrage of bullets fly through the corridor I had nearly entered. I was confused. Raikidan was there to bail me out of danger yet again, but how?
“You should be more careful,” he murmured.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on me,” I replied. His chest rumbled against me as he chuckled. I attempted to squirm out of his embrace, to no avail.
“It’s a good thing I came out of the corridor when I did.” He pushed himself away until his arms were fully outstretched and hands flat against the wall.
I looked at him. “How do you do it?”
He furrowed his brow. “Do what?”
I pushed him away from me. “Know when I’m in trouble. Be there at the right time to save my hide?”
He shrugged. “Luck, I guess.”
I chuckled. “Lucky for you, or me?”
He placed his arm behind my back and pushed me toward a corridor. “Both, I suppose. Now we need to get moving.”
I complied without a word. I wasn’t really sure what to say after what he had said, but now wasn’t the time to mull it over.
Picking up our pace, we ran down the corridor. Raikidan looked over his shoulder and pushed me into a side corridor. For the second time, I was pinned against a wall as bullets flew through the corridor we had left. I expected Raikidan to let me go and keep moving, but he didn’t. He let out a low growl and glared at the entrance of the corridor. Suddenly a shape peered around the corner, and Raikidan let out a breath of fire, letting me go in the process.
Grabbing him by the wrist, I took off. “Keep moving!”
I dragged him around a corner and down the corridor. We came to another corner and rounded it. As we did so, we were met with a wall of bullets. Raikidan grabbed me and pulled me close, letting out a blast of fire, but it didn’t go down the hall like I had anticipated. Instead, it swirled around us, creating a protective barrier. I looked at it in awe. He did it so effortlessly. Never had I seen such control or such a move from a non-shaman. Of course, such control was possible by ordinary elementalists, but I had never seen it from them, either.
But I was also worried. I could tell the barrier was working, but Raikidan was going to run out of breath sooner or later, and that’s when we’d be in trouble.
He frowned, and his grip on my bodysuit tightened. He’s running out of air. I had to think quickly. Being so close to him, I wouldn’t be able to create my own fire without him noticing. I was going to have to take a risk. Reaching up, I went to take the fire from him. His eyes widened as he looked down at me.
“Trust me,” I whispered.
Filling my body with heat, I wrapped the fire around the tips of my fingers and pulled it away from him. My eyes widened. It was so strong—so hot. So much power he holds. I had no idea he harnessed such power. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on controlling the fire.
Raikidan wrapped one arm around my waist. “I can take it back now.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
“You’re struggling.”
“I’m fine.”
“You can’t keep this up at this rate.”
“I don’t plan to. Stay behind me.”
He moved closer to me, and I exhaled slowly as I pulled my other hand up. Stay calm. You can do this. I had only one shot at this, and if I messed up, we were done for. I took a deep breath and my eyes bolted open. Grabbing the fire with my free hand, I forced the fire down to the ground and then out in all directions as far as I could. I forced it down every corridor that crossed the fire’s path. It spread and spiraled until I could no longer hold it. Exhaling slowly, I let it go.
“We need to move,” I stated, stumbling a bit. “He managed to dodge that somehow.”
Raikidan grabbed my arm, holding me up. “Are you all right?”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
“I’m not going to lie, that was impressive. I’ve never heard of someone controlling fire that wasn’t their own.”
I looked away from him, slightly embarrassed by his praise. “It takes a lot of skill and training, and it’s not something that can be completely mastered.”
He pulled me by the arm toward a corridor. “I might just make you teach me.”
I laughed dryly. “You can’t just learn it in a matter of days or weeks. It takes years of practice and discipline.”
He smirked. “I’m a fast learner.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll think about it.”
He grinned triumphantly and set a fast pace for us.
We ran around another corner and stopped to catch our breath.
Raikidan placed a hand on the wall, his posture slightly hunched. “How does he keep finding us?”
I took several deep breaths. “I’m not sure.”
“It’s as if he’s tracking us.” Raikidan shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Wait. My eyes widened in realization. “The communicators…”
His brow creased. “The communicators?”
I ripped mine off my head and pried it open. Inside were thousands of tiny circuit boards and wires, but I wasn’t interested in that. Looking around, I finally found the flashing red light.
“What is that?” he asked.
I sighed. “It’s the tracking device that allows the technician of the teams to track our whereabouts.”
“So, what does this have to do with Chameleon?”
“If I’m correct, Raynn’s technician is blocking out Aurora and homing in our signal so he can relay them to Chameleon.”
Raikidan scowled. “I don’t like that.”
I shook my head. “Neither do I, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use that to our advantage.”
His brow furrowed with confusion. “What are you talking about? How do you use something like that as an advantage?”
I grinned. “Hand me your communicator.”
He complied. “Okay, now what?” I crushed it and his eyes widened. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“I have my reasons.” I looked around and then scaled the wall. He followed. “See the room where we fought Raynn and Nioush? We’re going to split up and meet there.”
“I still don’t understand, but if you know what you’re doing, then fine.”
“I’ll take my communicator, which will give you more time to get to the meeting spot, okay?”
“Uh, sure. But don’t we need those to communicate with each other? Not that it matters now, since you already destroyed mine.”
“In a normal situation, yes. But this isn’t a normal situation.”
“Then how the hell are we supposed to know if either one is in trouble or needs any sort of assistance?”
“Well, I just assumed your luck would save us this time,” I teased. He looked at me sternly, causing me to laugh. “We’ll just have to make a flare. You can make one, right?”
“I’m sure I can figure it out.”
I jumped down from the wall and looked up at him. “All right, I’m going to trust you on this decision, but don’t make one unless you really have to. It could mess up my whole plan.”
He furrowed his brow again. “If you told me your plan, you wouldn’t have to worry.”
I chuckled. “You don’t need to know now the exact details. J
ust know that I know what I’m doing, and as long as you meet up with me, it should work.”
I ran off without another word. If I was going to get this to work, I needed to get away from Raikidan and get Chameleon’s attention. It wasn’t long before Chameleon found me, although he appeared for only short bursts to shoot at me, which was quite easy to avoid. I was running as fast as I could and used every surface to give me an advantage.
Pulling my hand close to my mouth, I let out some fire and threw it behind me. That should give me more time. I scaled another wall and headed for the open room. When I reached it, I tossed the communicator on the ground near the center and hid by the entrance of another corridor.
“Here we go…” I tossed a fire flare into the air before inhaling deeply to utilize my heat sense ability.
My body filled with heat and my sight distorted as I climbed up the wall to look around. Objects were no longer defined by textures and individual shapes, but by layers of color. This ability allowed me to see the hottest and coldest portions of every object that gave off some sort of heat. I could see Raikidan’s colorful image running quickly through the maze. As I had predicted, he used the most direct route to get here, which included the corridor I chose to wait in. Slipping down the wall, I waited for him. I didn’t have to wait long before he quickly came around a corner and rushed over to me.
“What—” I placed my hand over his mouth and held a finger to mine, telling him to keep quiet. He glared at me but nodded slowly, and I pulled my hand away. I moved closer to the entrance and peeked around the wall. Raikidan joined me.
Something began to move on the far wall. As we watched, a young, handsome man with short multicolored hair and kaleidoscopic eyes pulled away from the wall. He cautiously walked to the center of the room, his skin rippling with several shades of color as he moved. He had his communicator on and had his attention fixated on the readings the device was relaying. When he reached the center, he cursed and kicked my communicator.
“Ezhno, tell Raynn they figured it out,” he muttered. “Now what do I do? Okay, understood.”
I would have loved to have heard what had been said, but as long as Chameleon turned away from us, it didn’t matter. As luck would have it, he did just that.
I looked at Raikidan with a grin. He responded with a smirk and nod and then charged Chameleon, knocking him to the ground. I was close behind. Chameleon turned over and faced us, fear lining his face. Raikidan and I grinned at each other.
“What do you think we should do with him?” he asked me.
“I think it’s time to put the poor soul out of his misery.”
Raikidan held his pistol at the ready while I held up my finger gun. Chameleon’s eyes widened more, and he tried to scramble back. Raikidan and I fired simultaneously, Raikidan’s bullet penetrating Chameleon’s chest while mine shot through his head.
Chameleon screamed in pain before bursting into pixels, and the team board pinged for the last time. We looked up as Chameleon’s face appeared with a large X crossed through it where the black box had been. Raynn’s team pictures disappeared, and our team pictures became larger. All members who had been removed no longer had Xs over their picture.
I held up my hand for a high five, but Raikidan didn’t reciprocate. He stared at my hand, his brow furrowed. “What are you doing?”
I chuckled. “Looking for a high five. You trusting me for such a crazy plan deserves it.”
“High… five?”
“It’s when you hit each other’s hands together to show excitement or greeting. We also bump fists or arms for similar reasons.”
Raikidan hesitantly raised his hand, looked at it, and then mine. With a furrowed brow still, he smacked his palm into mine. “Like that?”
I ignored the slight sting from his strength and nodded. “Yep.”
He smiled. “I’m glad I listened to you, even though it wasn’t easy. We make a good team.”
I smiled despite myself. “Yeah, we do.” I looked down at my feet, which were starting to pixelate away. “Time to leave.”
Raikidan grinned. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
I nodded with a slight smile, and I closed my eyes as I was pulled out of the simulation. Eventually I could hear muffled voices, but I didn’t open my eyes just yet. My head was still spinning from the transition. When the spinning finally stopped, I opened my eyes. They were met with the closed lid of my pod. Slowly I pushed it open. I blinked a few times to get my eyes adjusted to the light.
“Slowpoke,” Raikidan teased. He was leaning over my pod and looking down at me.
I playfully kicked him before I sat up. He extended his hand to help me stand, and even though it wasn’t necessary, I accepted the gesture anyway. I looked around and realized the rest of the team was waiting for us, grins plastered over their faces. Raikidan and I walked over to them.
“You guys did great!” Ryoko exclaimed. “That fire trick was really cool.”
I chuckled. “I probably wouldn’t have had to use it if we could have communicated with you guys.” My head tilted with interest when I saw the eye shifts between Ryoko, Aurora, and Rylan. “What?”
“Well… we kinda had that fixed around that time, but you guys seemed to be doing well on your own, so we stayed quiet about it,” Ryoko explained as she scratched the back of her head.
I glared at her. “Obviously, you all are blind if you thought we were fine.”
“Aw, babe, don’t be like that,” Aurora said. “Raikidan, you understand where we’re coming from, right?”
He shook his head. “I’m with Eira on this one.”
I crossed my arms. “Thank you.”
“What does it matter?” Genesis asked. “We won! Now let’s go check the scoreboard to see how well everyone did.”
“Scoreboard?” Raikidan whispered in my ear.
“When teams face off, the computer records everything that happens and tallies different types of scores for each team member,” I explained, keeping my voice low for his sake. “The data is then displayed on a public scoring screen to be reviewed. It’s a way to see how you’re using your skills and a way for others to assess you for battle and assignment worth. Just follow us and you’ll find out.”
He nodded and we caught up to the others. Pushing our way through the crowd of experiments, we looked up at the scoreboard and waited as it compiled the scores. Ryoko rested comfortably on my left shoulder while Raikidan stood on the other side of me. Rylan, with Genesis on his back, stood next to Ryoko, and the boys next to him. Highlights of the match were shown for each team on separate screens.
An impressive-teamwork highlight between Argus and Blaze was shown, along with Ryoko’s fearless march into battle in the beginning, my attack on Doppelganger’s copies in the maze, and a sniper highlight by Rylan. Even my fire trick against Chameleon made it in.
Ryoko grinned. “Trained shamans are pretty skilled.”
I didn’t look at her. Her comment embarrassed me. With a grin, Raikidan nudged me, which only made it worse, causing a small smile to appear on my face. I could feel my cheeks flush despite my attempt to keep it at bay. It was interesting to watch at this view. My face was so serious and concentrated and yet slightly relaxed, although I hadn’t felt relaxed at all when performing the maneuver.
Raikidan and Seda also made it onto the highlights. Raikidan’s highlight showed him releasing a large breath of fire on Nioush. I figured it was the first time when I had been trapped under the wall slab, and as I watched, I wished I had witnessed it firsthand.
Seda’s highlight was even more impressive. It showed her lifting up an entire wall and throwing it at Nioush. Nioush did block it with some type of force field, but with Seda being defined as a Seer and still having that amount of psychic power, it was just incredible to witness.
On Raynn’s team, Mocha received a highlight for when she trapped Raikidan and me in that cave, along with Nioush receiving his highlight for when he painfully killed Blaze. I cring
ed when I watched it. Blaze had been lifted into the air and slowly squeezed to death. I was glad that had been only a simulation and hoped we never had to fight any Battle Psychics still loyal to Zarda in the near future. I couldn’t face the idea of my teammates dying in such a manner.
The highlights faded out before they finished, and the scoring began. Dan was up first. A video image of him was seen, and then it stopped as his scores were calculated. The screen showed all sorts of calculations, but I focused only on a few.
Gun-skill, eighty-nine percent. Teamwork, eighty-three percent. Special ability score, insufficient data.
This didn’t surprise me. Dan tried his hardest, more than most experiments, to be normal. Most now didn’t even know what he was capable of.
Blaze and then Argus were shown next.
Gun-skill eighty-three percent. Special ability, strength-based, ninety-three percent. Teamwork, fifty percent.
I cringed at that score. Blaze, we’ll need to work on that.
Blaze grumbled unhappily, causing us to laugh.
“Better luck next time,” Argus said. Blaze grunted and shoved him, making Argus laugh.
Argus had a much higher score.
Gun-skill, ninety-four percent. Teamwork, ninety-four percent. Special ability, intelligence-based, forty-two percent.
Argus smiled contently. Not bad, Argus. I wasn’t going to get on him for the special ability score. Battles were tough to show his kind of smarts.
Ryoko, Rylan, and then Seda were shown next.
Gun-skill, eighty-nine percent. Teamwork, ninety-seven percent. Special-ability, strength-based, ninety-seven percent. Very good work, Ryoko! Railgun accuracies sometimes weren’t great, even for a simulation, so I was sure to keep that in mind when making my own praise evaluations.
Rylan’s score looked almost opposite to hers.
Gun-skill, ninety-eight percent. Teamwork, ninety-seven percent. Special-ability, element based, insufficient data. I don’t think he needed to use his ice abilities, so I’ll let it slide without issue.
Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1) Page 30