Aqua

by Jonathan Dakin

  Chapter Thirteen

  “And where exactly do you think you’re going?” Babajide called out to us all as we rushed through the entrance hall. The large glass dome hovered over us, sending bright sunlight down into the huge stone floored cavern.

  The man with the white hair, Sigwald, and his two bodyguards, stood with Babajide on the far side of the hall, next to one of the large industrial machines. They were all just about to walk into the next room. Shasa stopped and turned, and we all copied her. We stood next to the circular fountain that sat in the middle of the large space, and the sound of water trickling from it reverberated across the metal walls. I had always liked this fountain. In the middle was a beautiful stone mermaid, holding a vase that water gushed out of. The sound always made me feel peaceful.

  “We’re going to visit Diane,” Shasa said factually. “We think she’s working for the Inimicus.”

  “What did you just say?” Sigwald was in complete shock, and the two henchmen suddenly become more aloof and defensive.

  “You heard her, Sigwald.” Niyol rolled his eyes and smirked at Shasa, who smiled coyly. I grimaced in annoyance.

  “We must alert the Supernus at once!” The odd man cried out.

  “Let us handle it,” Niyol pleaded.

  “And that went so smoothly last time, didn’t it?” Sigwald pointed at Niyol’s stomach, who glared back at him in irritation.

  “And what exactly can you do that we can’t?” Aura asked insolently.

  “Get assistance. The Elementus Populas has dealt with things like this for much longer than you have.”

  “And their ‘crack team’ of special agents could do what exactly?”

  “Listen,” Sigwald moved towards the Ventus Trio, his face darkening, “I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

  “We won’t,” Sefarina replied honestly, “because we’re working with Team Aqua. They’re really strong.”

  I tried not to smile proudly. It was nice to be complimented.

  “Of course they are,” Sigwald reluctantly admitted, “But they’ve never left the island. They’ve never dealt with anything like this.”

  “We’ve fought a team of Elementals,” Visola told him. Sigwald looked confused, and turned to Babajide, who looked equally as puzzled

  “What do you mean…? Have they met the Terra Twins?”

  Babajide shook his head. “Of course not!”

  “Then what…?” Sigwald studied us, and upon realising that we were all soaking wet, suddenly understood what had happened. “What on earth…?”

  “The meeting room is a mess, Babajide. Someone should probably clean it up.” Visola smirked at the leader of the Aqua Cohors, and then turned to leave.

  “You’re not going anywhere!” Babajide’s instructions were futile. No one was listening to him. “The Inimicus are dangerous!”

  “We know,” Niyol retorted, and then turned to speak to the army soldier. “Captain Harris?”

  “Yes Commander?”

  “Could you please make sure that no one follows us? We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  Captain Harris looked over to Sigwald sheepishly.

  “Niyol!” Sigwald exclaimed, “Don’t do this!”

  “There are seven of us now. If the Inimicus somehow manage to kill us all, then there’s not much anyone else can do to help now, is there? If we’re not back in an hour then send Malik and a group of soldiers to come looking for us. Is that clear?”

  Sigwald was indignant, and didn’t know how to respond. Instead he just nodded pitifully. Babajide smirked.

  “You don’t have a hold of your team,” he scolded, and then cleared his throat. “You’re not going Shasa. You’re staying right here. If the Ventus want to go by themselves, let them.”

  Shasa looked from our mentor to Niyol, and then over at Sigwald. She clearly realised, as we all suddenly did, that the Primus was in command over everyone in their Cohor group.

  “I agree with Niyol, Babajide. We don’t need additional support. We can take care of this by ourselves.”

  “Don’t you dare leave this building alone!” Babajide shouted in Spanish, waving his finger at Shasa in fury. Shasa turned away from him.

  “Let’s go Team,” she commanded, and we all happily followed her.

  As we made our way towards the electronic glass doors, I could hear Sigwald and Babajide arguing with one another. Captain Harris was trying to intervene, and kept telling them that they shouldn’t make things any more difficult by trying to tell us what to do.

  As we made our way out of the cool building into the bright humid heat, I grinned at Shasa. She was finally becoming the leader that Team Aqua needed, and wanted. Even though I was only following her to protect her, and my other sister and brother, it felt right that we were taking matters into our own hands.

  “This island is beautiful!” Sefarina cried out as we made our way across the front tarmacked pavement and onto the sandy shore. Visola joined her, and the two of them began a conversation about Aqua Island. I could see Shasa pulling forward, taking the lead towards Diane’s hut, and Aura joined her. Madzimoyo strayed behind me, by himself, probably lost in his own world, and I noticed Niyol approaching me on my right hand side. He smiled cheerfully.

  “I’m sorry about what happened in there. I’m sorry for snapping at you. And for electrocuting you. I hope we can be friends.” He held his hand out for me to shake it, but I ignored it and continued walking. I didn’t want him as my friend. I was still unsure as to his real intentions. I didn’t trust him.

  The wind blew strongly, sending a warm breeze across the sandy beach that we began to walk down. Tiny particles of sand danced in the yellow sun, and I noticed the Ventus’ long flowing hair moving with the wind. It was unusual to see, as it was something that I had never experienced myself. Niyol continued to stray by my side, like a lost puppy. He watched me closely, clearly trying to judge when to attempt conversation. But I still wasn’t interested. I was a warrior. I didn’t need to talk. My actions proved the type of person I was, not my words.

  “So Babajide told me that your secondary power is fire? Mine is too.”

  I stayed silent.

  “Do you ever find it difficult? To control I mean?”

  I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes. His words struck a chord deep within me.

  “What do you mean?” I asked eagerly, but kept my cool manner.

  “The fire inside me… It makes me so angry. At first I found it really hard to control, but that was because I am a Secondus… But even if I wasn’t, I’ve been told that fire makes us angry sometimes… Do you ever feel like that?”

  I clenched my teeth together and sucked in some of the sea salty air. I tried not to become emotional. What he was saying to me was mirroring exactly how I had felt for the longest time. It was the reason why I tried to stay so calm and composed. I didn’t want to let the anger out unless it was for my role; my purpose. Ever since I had been eleven I had felt so annoyed all the time, and I didn’t know why. So I pushed everything deep down and locked it up tight. I told myself that it must be because I was a fighter: a warrior. I was meant to hurt people and feel hurt, because that was my role in the team.

  “It took me a long time to figure out how to control the anger I felt,” he continued. “At first I thought there was something wrong with me, but then I realised that it was the fire inside of me… And once I managed to get a handle on it, I started to feel so much better.”

  I knew he was aiming his thoughts at me. He saw how I acted towards him and his sisters. He knew. He could see through me. I was totally transparent to him, and that not only hurt me, it made me angry. I didn’t like to be pitied, or be seen as weak. I was strong: I had to be. That was my role. That was all I was good for.

 

  I grunted loudly as I tried to hold back the clod of clarity now churning in my chest. It suddenly all made sense. The anger, the pain, the hurt. It was because of my powers. I didn’
t have to be this way all the time. I could learn to control it. I had pushed everyone away for so long, because I thought I had to…

  I snapped out of my trance and stopped myself from indulging in these jumbled emotional thoughts. Now was not the time to be sensitive. We were about to engage the enemy- the real enemy- and I had to be ready for it. All this girly touchy feely stuff was clouding my judgement. But perhaps that was what he wanted…

  I remained outwardly unmoved, and kept my eyes on the horizon. I was Gamba, the warrior. I was the toughest of the Aqua Elementals. I was the strongest, the fastest. I was their protector.

  Niyol continued to hover next to me. “Well,” he sighed, “if you ever want to talk about it, that would be cool.” He left my side and I heard him slow his pace so that he could join my brother.

  “How are you doing Madzimoyo?”

  “You can call me Madz,” my brother replied. I zoned out of their conversation and continued walking across the sandy beach. Inside I was furious at myself for letting my powers dominate the way I felt. I had always thought that I had been in control of everything. Over the last seven years I thought that I had perfectly honed my skills and abilities. But I was wrong. They had taken control of me.

  About ten minutes later, we arrived on the north-eastern side of the island. The palm tree leaves wafted slowly in the breeze, and the waves crashed against the shore with a deafening roar. The small hut, which once belonged to Valeska, stood firmly on our right. But something was off…

  Shasa and Aura, who were at the front of our little group, stopped in their tracks. They too felt the strange sensation emanating from the little beach house. I rushed past Visola and Sefarina, and stood in front of them, blocking their path.

  “Let me handle this,” I told them.

  “I’ll go with you,” Visola appeared by my side.

  “We should all go in together…” Shasa began.

  “It’s too dangerous!” I told her.

  “I can protect myself,” she admitted. Her voice was soft and convincing. I wanted to sigh, but I kept my fierce stance. I was the warrior. I had to do what I was born to do.

  “Just stay here. We’ll make sure it’s safe. If we need your help, we’ll ask for it.”

  I turned and nodded to Visola, and then the two of us made our way cautiously towards the small shack. I held my fists up in preparation for a physical altercation. I heard Visola wave her hands around slowly through the air, as she began to create bubbles from the water vapour that was in the breeze. The more she manipulated her hands, the larger the bubbles grew, until they were big enough to be cupped by both of her hands. She was making, what I liked to call, an ‘air grenade’, and as she did so, I made my body sweat, in preparation for a cloud of mist. We had come up with this manoeuvre before, and when we practised it, it worked very effectively. I would send my steam into the room, to cloud the enemy’s vision, and then Visola would hurl her air grenade in, which would cause a mini explosion that would stun people. We could then use the water and air particles in the room to either scorch or smack those who might try to attack us. At first, I thought that Visola’s ‘bubbles’ were pretty weak, but as we trained together and she developed her powers, I realised that they could be incredibly lethal. Especially when she created thousands of them, and used them to ram into people, or explode in their faces. It was funny that something so deadly, looked so harmless. And that was the strength of our combination attacks- the element of surprise.

  We were now incredibly close to the hut, and it was clear that the door had been ripped off of its hinges. Something terrible had happened here, but it wasn’t obvious who to.

  The sweat droplets left my skin and transformed into steam. I sent a large cloud through the doorway as Visola jumped to the other side of it, pinning herself to the wall. I did the same. I used the steam to feel through the room. As it bumped into obstacles, a signal was relayed to my brain, telling me what was in there. Tables, chairs, books, a sofa: all the usual household items were there, but I could tell that they were not in their rightful place. Once the steam had passed through the entire house, I knew that no one was inside. It was empty. I signalled this to Visola, and she looked slightly annoyed. She wanted to fight as much as I did. She blew into her hands, and her large bubble popped gently, the ferocious energy inside of it disappearing into the atmosphere forever.

  I looked over to Shasa and the rest of them, who were standing in a line near to the ocean.

  “It’s all clear!” I told them, and they started making their way towards us.

  I nodded at Visola and then moved from my position, stepping over the door and entering the small house. It was a complete mess. Books had been ripped apart, and were strewn across the floor. Tables had been overturned, and chairs broken. It looked as if someone had torn the place apart looking for something. Or someone.

  As I wandered into the middle of the living room, Visola followed me inside, and pretty soon we were joined by the rest of the Elementals. Shasa gasped in shock when she saw the state the hut was in.

  “I was here yesterday, and it wasn’t like this!”

  “It looks like someone was in a hurry to leave…” Niyol explained.

  “You still think Diane is working for the Inimicus?” Madzimoyo asked him.

  “Well if she knew her plan to turn you against us might not work, she wouldn’t stick around to be interrogated…”

  “It looks to me as if she was taken, or if something here was taken.” I told him.

  “Anything could have happened here,” Sefarina stated, “But if someone did come for something, I don’t want to be here when they come back…”

  “They’ve got what they were looking for,” I told her assuredly.

  “How do you know?” Aura questioned.

  “Because the safe is open.” I pointed across the room to the right hand corner at the large safe, the door of which was wide open. It was empty.

  Shasa walked over and bent down to inspect it. “It doesn’t look like it was forced open…”

  “So then she must have taken what she needed and left.” Niyol was sure that Diane was a villain. Just as I had been about him.

  As Shasa stood up, she pushed the door to the safe closed. I was about to turn and leave, but then I noticed something on the tips of her fingers, and she saw it too.

  “Umm… guys?” She called out, holding her outstretched hand towards the rest of the group.

  The thick red liquid dribbled down her fingers slowly, and she stared at it in horror.

  Sefarina and Visola gasped in shock, and Madzimoyo groaned. Niyol moved towards the door to the safe, and closed it fully. It was covered in blood. And right in the middle of the dark fluid was a note, pinned carefully to the door.

  See you in Malabo, it said.