"Element" - By Hiryuu Chapter 24 - Venturing Out * * * * * General Disclaimer: I hate writer's block. [Casts 'Scan' on Writer's Block] Level 81: 9999 HP. Oh yea? TAKE THIS! STARLIGHT BREA--- [camera fades out to calm city shot and birds flying followed by MUSHROOM CLOUD EXPLOSION] * * * * * Erina looked out at the morning sunrise that peaked up past the rest of the buildings on the block, sitting on the steps to the hospital. It had just opened a few minutes earlier and she had checked on Elaine just to see how she was. She found that Elaine was still not well but not any worse either. Regardless of what this Colin person said about getting a good night's sleep, she found that it was rather hard to do that when her best friend was stuck in the hospital on the brink of death. She wanted to get this done and over with during the night if she had to. She just wanted Elaine better. She knew better, though. Rushing out in the middle of the night outside of this town was probably not the best of ideas, considering some of the horror stories she had been hearing as of late. As much as she worried, Elaine would be fine, if for a little while longer. Erina knew that she was stronger than most ever since she had known her from the very beginning. If she would've charged out to find whatever it was they were looking for she would've found only herself lost and that was no good. She wouldn't put Elaine in danger by herself being reckless and over-emotional. She opted to stay in adult form today. Considering the venturing out of town that they would likely be doing, she didn't want to have to mess around with it at a moment's notice if something were to come up. She had already dressed appropriately for it, just in case things got rough. Considering what happened to Elaine already, she wasn't going to take the ch- "Are you ready to go, Erina?" That was from Colin. Erina snapped to it and broke out of her thoughts to see him and two other people with him. One of them, a couple inches shorter than Colin, seemed rather muscle built and, looking a little more closely, seemed to have two...horns on his head, though small. He had a shock of short, brown hair and green eyes. On his other side, was a girl that seemed a little older, and taller. She seemed like a regular human with longer blonde hair and blue eyes...but the feathery, white wings on her back were a sure sign that she wasn't typical either. Then again, neither was Erina who remember that her own ears weren't really a sign of normality. They both moved a little at remembering that fact. "Yo! What's up?" said the cow-boy. He waved and beamed a smile. He seemed excessively enthusiastic for this early in the morning. "Nice to meet you," said the other one, who bowed slightly, also smiling. Erina blinked for a second. She looked over at Colin. "Not being rude here but uh...Colin?" He looked back at her. "Yeah?" "I thought this was going to be just you and me doing this. Is it really necessary to get the kids involved as well?" "HEYYYY! Who you callin' a kid?" mouthed cow-boy. Erina shook her head. "I wasn't here to play baby-sitter. My friend's life is on the line here." "I understand that, but these aren't merely 'kids' that you speak of here either..." Colin said, obviously hinting at something. "Y-you don't mean..." Erina said, looking back at them. "Let me introduce them for you: The lovely lady on your right is Tricia. The other one is named Edwin." "Ed or Eddy, thanks. No proper names..." Edd stated. Tricia couldn't help but stifle a laugh at that. "Whaaat? You know I hate being called that name. It makes me sound like some dumb royalty or somethin'." "I know. That's why it's funny," Tricia stated simply. She seemed to have a as calm a demeanor and voice as her outward appearance suggested. "But you like to be called Trish!" "Yes, but I don't make such a dumb fuss over anything as well..." "Tcheesh, would you---" "AHEM!" Colin interjected. "Er...yea," Ed said, shutting up. "Anyways, these are the sentries I mentioned just yesterday. Regardless of...outward appearances..." Ed glared at that statement. "...they're actually very helpful and have been for quite a long time." Erina massaged her forehead for a second, closing her eyes. "Hahh...okay. But you BETTER not be forcing them on me as dead weight or anything because---" "HEY!!!" "Shh...Ed," Tricia told him calmly. Erina sighed. "Look. It's nothing against you two or anything...but I do have a friend in there who is as good as dead if I can't help find what it is Colin needs to help her. I'm sure you understand that I'm only thinking of what's best." Tricia nodded. "I can understand that. We're only here to help ourselves. Don't mind us if we look as such otherwise but we're only doing our job to help Colin in any way that we can. I'm sure you can depend on us as well." Erina mulled over that for a moment. This girl seemed to be truthful and, honestly, there should've been no debate. Erina needed all the help she could get and this was likely a sign of being over-emotional again. She calmed back down, then nodded. "Okay," Erina said. "I just really want to get this over and done with. I'm sorry about thinking any less of you two." "No trouble," Tricia re-assured, smiling again. "Damn straight you don't think any less of me. Sheesh," Ed said, turning his nose up and hmphing. Erina could've sworn she saw a white cloud come out of his nose on that last snort. ~If those horns were any longer...~ Erina thought. "By the way," Colin interrupted again. "We'll need to head south of town only about a mile or so. The piece I need for the medicine that I'm working on is there. Unfortunately, since there's really no transport except local, that means we're footing it there." "Can you really blame not having anything out of town after all the stories you told us though?" Ed said. "I'm surprised we didn't run into anything getting here. Maybe they're just all dumb rumors," he said, chuckling a little bit as if it were some dumb ghost story. "Then how do you explain what happened to Erina's friend here?" Tricia asked. "I...well...really haven't thought about that," Ed said, looking up in hopes of coming up with something cogent enough to blabber as an excuse. "As he mentioned, that does mean that we need to be alert when we head there," Colin continued. "We're likely to run into something and be in trouble if we aren't careful." Erina nodded. "I understand." "Understood," Tricia affirmed. "Got it, Col," Ed smiled. "'Sides, if anything gets in my way, I'll just kick it's sorry ass. Hahahaha!!" Tricia made a badly forced but more worried smile at him. Colin rolled his eyes. Erina went back to face-palming. ~Good lord, what have I got myself into...~ Erina thought. * * * * * It had only been ten minutes or so since Colin and his party had left Ilia, Erina's home town. She felt a lot better about this already, since there didn't seem to be much happening in the vast expanse of wasteland with patches of grass. Looking at them, she remembered that even grass refused to grow here not too long ago. In that regard, she was happy that things were starting to look better out here. It had been a long time since she had ventured outside of her home, mostly because she hadn't needed to do so as well as the fact she had certain priorities otherwise. Even the sky continued to look better and better every day since then. Looking in front of her, the two 'kids' were engaged in small talk to kill time. Erina herself was currently listening to Colin. He had mentioned that where they were headed was just to the east of a rocky hill nearby. Apparently, there was an herb of sorts that grew only near here. "It's really pretty simple, actually," he explained. "Since what's affecting her is really something that comes from around here only. Naturally, the same thing can be said for what cures the ailment. That's why I didn't have anything on hand to help her immediately..." Erina figured that made enough sense. "Thankfully, a few others and I figured that problem out a while back. I just wish that things would finally quiet down here and people would stop with the violence. Every so often, it just seems that this place is destined to have problems." "Mm...I know. It's been that way ever since the beginning here but it's begun to settle down until just recently when things started going ballistic again," Erina looked down. "I just wish things would've been a lot simpler back then as well. It's what's causing all this trouble now." "Hmm...that's true. Ever since the founders of the town were in that incident..." Colin stopped himself halfway in thought. "Oh! That's right. I almost forgot." He turned. "This isn't the first time we met, is it?" Erina arched an eyebrow. "Uh?" she didn't follow. "Uhm...well no since we saw each other last night." "No no...I mean before that," Colin shook his head. "This isn't the first time I've seen Elaine, or you actually." "I..." Erina blinked. "Oh! Right! That was when she...before..." She looked down after remembering that incident. "Oh...I didn't mean to open old wounds again," he said, mentally cursing even mentioning it. "It's..." she sighed again. She was wasting a lot of exhales on her emotions today. "It's all right, really. She's really been much better after you helped her and with the transfer afterwards. I should really be thanking you." Colin nodded. "I didn't recognize it immediately, because you were like this when I had seen you before. I never got a name since my priorities were to help the affected at the time. I'm just glad that things are somewhat back to normal." Looking back at Erina, he continued. "And you were giving them grief about being kids?" "I...well..." "Hah? What was that?" Ed said, being mister aerial ears. "Nothing, Ed," Colin said. "Whatev," he said turning back to walking up front. "I was talking here, you know," Tricia said, a little bit put off. "Like I was listening," Ed said quietly. "You say something?" Colin sighed, letting that drop, but continued with Erina. "That brings me back to the point of the founders. Did you know them personally?" Erina stopped for only a moment, taken aback, but then nodded. "Yes. They were...well..." Colin looked at her sympathetically. "Again, I'm not meaning to pry, but it would explain a few things if you know things I don't about all of this mess..." "I'm just worried about it being a long story, really," Erina said, somewhat lying. She was really more worried about being depressed about remembering that particular incident altogether. "Well, I'm not big on them, but we do have some time to kill while we're walking here..." Colin looked thoughtful for a moment. "What about how you met Elaine?" Erina looked back, thanking him internally for not having to go into things. "Well..." she thought. She looked at the steel rod that she was carrying with her on her backside. She remembered when she got it as it peeked out over her right shoulder. A red jewel showed at the top, surrounded by a metallic circle. She turned back to Colin. "How do I start...?" * * * * * "But I want to go, Granpa!" Elaine stirred from the sheets of the bed she had long become accustomed to as of late. She was woke up by a conversation of some sort. "Well, if you really insist then I guess I can't really change your mind." "Heheeee~" "Just be good for him out there. They're still very busy, Erina." "I knoooww...I'll be good gramma. I'm just trying to help!" "She's made up her mind, dear. She'll be a good girl. Always is." "Okay...you two be careful." "Bye, grammaaa~~" Something closed a few moments later. Guess Erina was heading out with Gary, her 'granpa'. Actually, he didn't really look too old, maybe in his later 40s and neither did Lisa, who seemed a little younger than that. It was just a name given out of affection, she was later told, since Erina never really knew her parents after things happened. In fact, no one seemed to have any clue from what she was beginning to understand but that didn't deter her from finding things out for her own self. Every new day, it became easier and easier on her to wake up. It had been a couple of months, but she felt dramatically better than she had been when she woke up the first time. Pulling herself over to sit up on the side of the bed, she examined herself once more. She only had an arm cast on now on her left arm. Even that was beginning to feel a lot better. The healers that had been nearby had just removed the leg braces she had a few days ago and had removed an assortment of other problems with her body as time progressed. One of them had commented on how well she was doing, that she was a real fighter and that he expected to see her fully recovered within the next few weeks. That comment in itself made her feel better. "Nn..." she strained herself to get on her feet. There were a pair of crutches on her bedside, which hadn't been used given her arm, and a wheelchair right next to that which had been used quite a bit, when she was able. When she wobbled into place, holding her balance on the bedside with her right hand, she got her bearings straight and tried walking. The best she could manage was slow baby steps, but she managed. Her legs were still stiff but she felt that the more she moved them, the more she would improve them. Maybe today she'd go outside without having to worry about that chair. She had only been out three times before that and things were getting quite dull, even with the visits. She was all the way to the door before her left leg numbed up suddenly and she tripped forward. "Oh!" She wobbled but refused to fall. "Wahh-ah-ahhh" her hands started flailing as she began her crash downwards. She braced for impact only to have something catch her. "Whew...I'm glad I decided to check on you," Lisa said, holding her up by, thankfully, her good shoulder. "I-I..." Elaine looked down. "Sorry." "You are REALLY something else, you know that? You've only been able to be on your feet a few days and already you're trying to walk." Elaine couldn't really say much since she was embarrassed as heck being the sort of cripple that what she was being held as right now made her out to be. "I know you want to be all better and everything but you should be a little more careful. We can get you moving again but just make sure you wait for one of us next time so you don't have this happen." "...Thank you, Lisa," Elaine said, honestly. She really would've been beside herself without Lisa's care. Her stomach then took the inappropriate time to growl. Elaine blushed further. "Hahaha...well no wonder you wanted up. You're probably starved. Let's get you something to eat this morning, hmm?" "Y-yes..." Elaine nodded, smiling a bit. * * * * * "Mm...that was really good," Elaine said, putting a fork down on the plate she had, her second. "I'm just glad that you've been working on a better appetite as of late. Shows that you're doing better," Lisa said, finishing up dishes. "Are you done with that then?" she asked. Elaine nodded. "Yes, I should be done now, I think." "I'll take that off your hands then," she said, doing so and adding it to what she already had. "I'm probably going to go check on those two after I get this done for just a few minutes. I'll just be up at the square so I won't be far." "All right..." Elaine said. She stirred for a few moments then spoke. "Uhm..." "Hmm?" Lisa turned her head. "You say something?" "You wouldn't mind...helping me outside, would you?" "...Oh! Sure, you just want to sit outside for a bit? Geez, you think we lock you in here like a caged animal..." Elaine was helped up afterwards to get out the door. She felt a lot better after waking up and eating, so she did most of the walking herself, albeit slow. She sat outside and watched the people around walk by and towards the town square that seemed to be having a lot of activity, mostly building. A few of them waved and some of them called her name as they passed by. She smiled and waved back at them. The path leading towards the square was dirt, and the amount of houses were sparse but grew every day. A lot of plans were being made to rebuild around this area that had apparently gone through hell a few months ago, which was when all this madness had first started. Still, it was nice to see everything bouncing back from it. Even the grayish-brown sky looked better and better each day she came back out to sit and look up at it. It was beginning to feel warmer too, she noticed, as a lot of the snow and dust that had been around had melted and had been cleaned out ever since. Elaine recalled that Lisa and Gary had been constantly overseeing the production of things. As far as she knew, they had been since day one when everyone was in a panic and really turned to those two for advice. Elaine guessed it was just natural for the pair but the town that was being created from their efforts showed that they were doing their job well. It was rather nice to watch everything take shape and grow in the way it had, even if she wanted to help circumstances from the debt she felt that she completely owed them. Lisa had already told her, however, that she knew that she would've done the same if Lisa would've been in the same position, same as anyone else. They were there to help each other and that was really what the case was. Everyone seemed eager to get back on their own feet, just like her, and everyone seemed eager to help each other get to that point as well. "Elaaainnne~" She knew that cheerful voice from anywhere. She looked to her left and saw Erina running up. She also could tell that she was carrying something about the same size as her. It was some sort of metal object. Erina stopped in front of her, panting and holding herself up by her knees and the metal rod itself. "Hah...hah..." "Wow...Erina...are you okay?" "Yeah! I'm fine but..." Erina said, getting her breath in an instant, as she showed her findings to Elaine. "Lookit what I found!" Elaine took what she had found and examined it. It was a grey metal rod but had a solid, circular, red jewel at the end of it, housed in a steel circle around that. Around the jewel there was a pattern around the circle itself. It looked like words but Elaine couldn't really make heads or tails of what it said. Sticking out below the jewel itself were what seemed to be wings of a sort. They stretched out a few inches and were solid as a rock, not bending at all when she handled it. "Isn't it cool?" Elaine nodded. "I think it is...do you know what it is anyways?" "Uh-uh. No, I don't have a clue what it is. It just looks pretty, that's all...but..." Elaine looked at her. "Hmm?" "I dunno it's just..." she took the rod lightly from Elaine and looked at it again. "It's dumb but I think I've seen something like this before." "Really? Like...a movie or something?" "Maybe...I'm not really sure." "Huh..." Elaine didn't really have an answer but noticed that Erina was really looking intensely at it in thought. Maybe she was hoping something would come to her but then she shook her head. "Well, who cares...I'll figure it out. Thought I'd show it to you though! I'm gonna go put it up!" "Okay...just make sure your grandmother knows what you brought in..." Elaine said as Erina ran into the house. "I wiiilll~~" Erina said, rushing into the house as the screened door closed behind her. Elaine shook her head and sighed. "That girl..." "No! You don't understand! We need to get more materials so we can get this done a whole lot faster!" Elaine turned her head. She faintly heard that coming from the square in front of her. There was an angry man yelling at Gary. "We've already been far behind on our schedule as it is!" "Harold, just calm down, we're trying to do this as fast as we can but you must know that these things take time. We need to keep doing things in calm and consistent manners like we've been doing or else we're going to run reckless and we're going to be even further behind," Gary said firmly. "But there are plenty of people without homes still and we're already having trouble with---" "I understand your frustration, but we're only what we are. Regardless of the setback, we'll eventually get this done." This Harold person looked down for a moment. "Fine...but this had better not keep up. We're already living meagerly as it is and it had best not get worse." Everyone stared at him as he stormed off. Harold...where had Elaine heard that before? "Oh! That's right..." she remembered now: Harold was one of the uppers in charge of building things on the eastern side of the square. They were south, where Gary manned things, and there were two others that did other wings from that point. Most of the east side was to residential areas, from what Elaine remembered. She had only heard it in passing at dinner and sometimes breakfast before the pair that cared for her went about their day. It seemed that things were starting to heat up for tensions. "Ahhhhhh!!" A woman's scream. "But that was from inside the house..." Elaine said, positive that it came from behind her. "Wh-wha-what the heck?!" Now she was certain. She stumbled into place from her chair, still not completely 100% on her balance but did her best to get to where she heard the voice. It was coming from the living room area. She pulled herself around the door space and looked in. She saw a girl, about her age, sitting on the ground near a chair clutching the rod that Erina had earlier. She was wide-eyed, shaking and sputtering incoherent jargon out of shock. The rabbit ears, though a little longer like this, were a dead giveaway. "E...Erina?" Elaine said, surprised. That rod must've been far more than what either of them bargained for. "What in the world...?" she said as she started for her position. "NO!! ELAINE!! DON'T GET TOO CLOSE!! SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN AGAIN!!" "Err..." Elaine stopped short. It was a bit odd hearing that from an age-doubled Erina. "thisisadreamthisisadreamthisisadream---" Erina continued sputtering. "Erina...calm d---" "DREAM! DREAM! DREAM!!!" "Erina you c...an...nn..." Elaine's body suddenly felt really weak after Erina yelled that out. She wobbled and caught her grip on a chair. She felt suddenly tired and felt like she was going to crash in point two seconds, thankfully finding a soft place to land as the last bit of her strength gave out. "I...wh---NO!! ELAINEEEE~~~" * * * * * She sighed and landed on the bed, exhausted. Today had certainly been a long day. She can't remember how many fights she had been in with the double tournament day, but it was more than enough to do her in after a relaxing hot bath. "Ma'am?" She turned and saw her maid, Paige. It hadn't really been that long since she had left the showers. She realized what was up when she saw the tea set that she was carrying. "O-oh...Paige, I'm sorry. I completely forgot I asked for that." "That's all right, ma'am. I figured you would after everything you had been through today." "Tell me about it...I'm surprised I came back in better shape than I did, considering that one guy earlier that I actually had to try against." "One g---" Images returned to her from the stands. "O-oh right...you know they always lose rings from that when you have to do that." She nodded, chuckling a little. "Well, these people are obviously loaded enough to continue to pay me for entertainment every time I win so..." "Anna..." Paige interrupted. "Are you really sure that you should keep doing this as constantly as you are? Maybe you should take a break once in a while." Anna looked down and shook her head. "I appreciate your concern, Paige, but I'll be fine." "You don't really look it right now as it is..." "..." "I'm sorry..." "No..." Anna shook her head. "You're right. Maybe I should call it a week this next time. It's not like I can't afford to do so." "I would hope that you eventually decided to give this up, mistress. One of these times, you aren't going to be so lucky..." "Yeeeaaa...maybe. We'll see. Maybe one of these guys will put me in my place...but I doubt it." Paige shook her head smiling. At least she was put at ease by Anna's confidence in herself but she couldn't help but worry. "I appreciate your concern though, Paige. Thank you." "Not at all, mistres---" "You know I hate being called that..." "A-Anna...I'm sorry," "Heheh...don't worry about it. You should probably call it a night yourself. I know you want to clean up and everything but just hold off on that for the night and take some time off for the evening. I'm probably going to as well." Paige nodded. "I understand," she bowed. "Thank you," she turned and excused herself from her mistress's chambers. Said room was actually fairly large. From the entrance, you could see a number of trophies, though it wasn't her complete set but a fairly small amount...just the ones Anna liked enough it seemed. You could tell the large place showed she was fairly well off. Past that was a number of things, mostly something that looked like a chemistry experiment, a few metallic objects that resembled weaponry of some sort but something from an advanced technology. One of them was a gun of some sort that had seen better days and was apart in pieces. Next to that was her dresser, which she was walking over to at the moment. She got there and looked for something in particular, finding it on its usual spot on a wooden hook that went to the large mirror on top of the dresser. It was a locket. It wasn't in completely good shape, as there was a chip on the side. She opened it up and looked at it for a minute. She sighed and took it with her to the rather tall window that looked out at the night sky. It showed a gorgeous view of the town below from where she was currently staying. There was a stadium to the left, an open dome. In the center, you could see a mound of rubble, dirt and debris from what she had left earlier that day. Every battle more was another step towards finding her answers. She would eventually figure out what she was and where she belonged but this, the locket she had in her hands with a picture of someone and their name, was her only clue along with fragments of memories. "Soon Adrian..." she spoke softly. "Soon..." * * * * * End of Chapter 24...after far too long.