"Element" - By Hiryuu Chapter 26 - Intolerance, Part II * * * * * General Disclaimer: Apparently, there were three in the trio. They beat me up and took my lunch money. Now I'm in a quest to get it back. * * * * * Tricia took hold of an arrow a moment before the intended command was made. "FIRE!!" Harold charged all the long-rangers to attack the four-person crew. Gunshots, arrows, fireballs and anything that could be shot as a deadly projectile came hurtling at them, impacting their mark in a barrage of destructive sound and scenery. Not to mention it kicked up a giant amount of smoke from the explosive force that was churned up. The dust began to settle, but not before a figure jumped from the smoke, pulling some of the cloud up with her before she broke through the dark clouds. Her wings were spread as she ascended a good amount into the air before taking the arrow that she had in her hand, positioned it on the steel bow that she had in hand and began to concentrate. For as much as she concentrated, the bow and arrow began to glow a hot, white color as she cocked the arrow back on the string. "ARROW RAIN!!" Tricia yelled this out powerfully as she released the bow into the air. It fired true for a few seconds before exploding into countless wisps of light energy that turned face and made their way back down. She turned to look down, watching the dozens of energy bolts pass her in fierce pursuit of where they were headed. Closer to the ground, each of the bolts began to diverge their course from straight down into the enemies that were everywhere around Tricia and her party. They each homed in on a specific mark. Harold did not like where this was going. "YOU IDIOTS! GET DOWN!" A few moments later, explosive rounds of energy could be heard and seen from Tricia's vantage point. She had a feeling she got most if not all of the long-rangers that had just attempted to attack her crew. It was fairly easy homing in on each of them after they had created an energy signature to home directly in on. It was a shame that the grunts didn't move enough to where it would have hit them but she had a feeling that would be Ed's job. Speaking of, the dust cleared on the ground to show that Colin, Ed and Erina were just fine. Colin had his staff thrust forward as a noticeable bluish and electrical energy field shielded them from the onslaught that they had just faced. "I hate to say it Ed..." Colin started. "...but I may just owe you five." "Heh. You ain'ta kiddin' Col. I've seen termites better on a piece paper than these scrubs." Ed replied in kind. Harold was not amused. In fact he was boiling a good shade of bright red from the comments and quips on his behalf. "GET THEM NOW! CHARGE!!" Harold commanded, thrusting his broadsword forward. Dozens of hired men charged forward, eager to make some money and recognition for a kill and snag like this. Ed charged his way out in front. He was quick. So much so that he spun right past Harold, sending him spinning from the force created. Ed didn't even give these men the benefit of doubt. Slash per slash of these men from their daggers and swords missed. Punch per punch and kick per kick, Ed hit his mark usually taking a guy out with a matter of a single attack. It wasn't long before there were a growing number of people knocked out that Ed had to dance around their prone figures as well as oncoming attacks. Their numbers were almost assuredly dwindling, however, as a slew of fifty or so were brought down to far fewer in a little less than three minutes. "WHERE THE HELL'S MY BACKUP?!" Harold was already ready to breathe fire over it if he could and instead turned his frustration to Erina and Colin. Less talk and more getting the job done. He moved menacingly over to the two and thrust his sword forward. "You're coming with me, girly, whether you like or it or not." Well, he at least put on a good show, Erina thought, but little more than a farce at best. She didn't even give him so much as a second glance. Colin, however, had his staff turned towards him as Tricia finally made her descent to the ground next to the two. "We've got more of them coming." Tricia said, already getting a good look on the sights around from high up to realize that there were a lot more than what they were seeing here. As if to drive her point home, more soldiers audibly made their entrance over one of the hills a few moments later and they seemed to be in greater number than the ones initially present. Another wave of bullets, wood, metal and fire came hurtling forward as well. Colin re-activated his shielding but this left Ed to dodge what he had being sent his way, doing a fairly good job of the task. "Still got my fiver," Ed said, smiling brightly as he charged forward towards the oncoming assault. "HaaaAAAAHHH!!" As he crashed into more men, backup wisps of energy flew past him towards the enemy. Tricia hoped to pick off as many as she could with each successive strike and resulting explosion. Harold went to work slicing and dicing at the energy field around Colin and Erina like he was a shark cutting butter. Unfortunately, it proved to be the exact reverse of his attempts and only ended up winding him in his futile attempts. Colin only had one thing to say to that. "ANGEL BOLT!" A crack of electricity leapt forward from his staff, through the barrier and directly towards Harold. Harold blocked just in the nick of time with his sword, but not before getting pushed back a great distance before he slashed his sword forward, sending the electrical sphere of energy flying away from him. "Wooo-oo! Good work, Col!" Ed said, looking Colin's way but easily dodge a thrust from behind towards his head before he cocked back and sent a crescent kick towards his assailer, knocking the punk stupid and spinning towards the ground. "These guys are weaker n' an ice cube in a desert." He said that, but unfortunately the ego jinxed him, as a slash of great speed came out of a blind spot and ended up catching him slightly on his left arm. This ended with a thud and the kick up of dirt and debris just a few moments later as he dodged out of the way. "Garrgh..." Ed grimaced. That wasn't expected. Ed held his arm and saw the usual red that came with him screwing up. He looked forward to see a man that looked fairly serious about his swordsmanship, brandishing a very mean-looking buster sword. The sword had to weigh close to what he did. "ED!" Tricia said, sending another wave of fire towards where they were. She hit her mark as men around their area were knocked back by the sheer force of the impact. Her primary target was still there, though, unmoving with buster sword shielding his figure. He got back up. "Man, this is nuts!" "Screw this!" "I want my mommy!" "I bent my wookie!" After this point, a lot of concern for everyone's well being started to emanate from the crowd. Most everyone began to turn tail and flee. "WAIT A MINUTE YOU IDIOTS! GET BACK HERE!!" Harold was madder than a bull seeing red. He turned to see that one of his men, one of the new hires, was still there. "Hey! Double your salary if we get this job finished!!" Harold said, charging back to where Colin was before he ended up taking yet another barrage of Angel Bolts coming from Colin, one finally getting his leg and putting an end to his yammering. "Ah gargraghrf..." Harold was on the ground a few seconds later. He didn't look like he was getting up any time soon. However, this left the issue of the newcomer. Ed and he were in a dead lock with each other. Neither one moved. Then the man chuckled slightly. "I guess you guys aren't as bad as you look," he said simply. "What'd you say? You wanna ruhpeat that fer me so I can kick yer ass while you say it?" Ed said, now as mad as what Harold probably was. "I bet you have issues with words more than those. What about subliminal?" he said, still drawing Ed's ire. "WHAT THE HELL ARE--" That sentence didn't finish before he drew forward with his buster sword and slashed straight across, intending to sever Ed in two with one powerful sweep. It didn't help that Ed had dodged by jumping into the air and came back down with a kick intended to crush the guy's skull. It was simply blocked with the man's sword as he swung yet again, throwing Ed off and rolling on the ground. Ed bounded back up afterwards but not before getting a little more wear on that arm of his that had already taken a bit of a beating. Ed was done messing around. Thrusting both his arms forward, he charged up a bolt of energy between his hands. "GATLING CRASH!!" The moment he said that, rapid ignitions of ball-shaped energy fired off and homed in on the swordsman. "Hah!" he retorted in kind. Slashing at every orb that came at him, the buster swordsman cleaned house on every orb that was sent at him by batting them away with each successive slice. He finished by taking hold of the last once with the broad end of his sword and hurling the ball of energy right back at Ed. This surprised Ed for all he could get out, as the energy orb came and crashed headlong into him at break-neck speed, sending him flying and crashing to the ground. "Nnngh...shit..." Ed was wincing in pain on the ground. That one hurt him. "ED!!" Tricia exclaimed and looked at the man who did this to him. She tugged at her last arrow. "Colin! We need to finish this together!" Colin looked at her and nodded. He knew what she had in mind. "Load it up then," Colin said. Tricia responded by aiming an arrow as Colin began to chant something with his staff pointed towards the bow in question. This gave the bow a different glowing effect than was shown from last time; it was far brighter and white than before. Tricia knew the bow was now imbued with a large amount of power. If anything would take this guy out, this next attack would as she cocked her final arrow back. "STARDUST!!" Tricia released the arrow as a giant amount of power pushed her back as if she had been hit by gale force winds. A single arrow hurtled forward like a bullet train out of hell trailing white energy on its approach. The man didn't have time to dodge, nor did he really care. Holding his sword back, he raised his guard arm, aimed at attack that would hit him in a second. In a powerful motion, he threw his body and sword forward, grabbing his buster sword with both hands. "SPIRIT CLEAVE!" Like a slash that could pierce the dimensions themselves, the man neatly cut the attack in two, which caused both pieces to sputter and descend to the ground. They then exploded in a fiery, white light which soon dissipated and sent up sparks of flame on the ground which soon sent the area around him up in smoke. "N-no way..." Tricia said, at a loss for words. She was even more at a loss when the man somehow had disappeared from where he was before after the dust and smoke cleared. They both looked frantically around before both of them caught the broad side of a sword, bashing them both for a loop. They rolled to a stop a few moments later. Colin groaned, dazed. Tricia was out cold. Ed had finally regained a bit of momentum and got himself back up to a sitting position. "Ah...man..." Ed said, wondering what in the hell they had just bit off to chew. That's when Harold started to move again. "Heh...heheh. That's good. Now just bring that girl to me." That's right. Erina hadn't moved once from her position, which the man had turned to her to look her squarely. Erina looked up at him. Both of them gave each other surprised looks. "W...wait aren't you...?" "Aren't you that one miss that...?" Now if this wasn't a chance meeting, nothing was. Erina broke out in a fit of laughter. Colin looked at her questioningly. Ed looked at her like she was from another planet. Harold figured she had lost her mind. "I guess I took good care of you for breakfast enough to get you back out here, Derrick." Erina said. "So you are that waitress. What are you doing out here and...how do you know my name? I don't recall ever giving it," he said, dropping his sword to chat. "You do have to sign off on your ticket before you go, you know. Besides, how else are we supposed to remember our customers if they don't grace us with a name before they walk out and leave like you did?" Derrick, for whatever reason, felt a bit ashamed for that. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave like that so abruptly, I..." "That's all right. I can understand why you had to go so quickly. It makes a ton more sense for what happened next. My job goes up in flames, my best friend is hospitalized and here you are again with one of the worst pieces of scum imaginable. Yea it makes a LOAD of sense now." She turned to Harold. "So I see just being thrown out wasn't enough for you. You had to come back and start trouble again like the trouble maker you are. Why don't you be a man and go make your own town instead of raiding the one that kicked you out?" She then looked at him more seriously. "But not only that...you...I can't believe you..." >>> Elaine walked out of the office that Gary brought her to feeling similar to a frog that just got dissected. So many questions that she had just been asked. So many answers that she had just given. She wasn't exactly sure what the whole point behind talking to this woman was but it felt like a part of her felt a lot more...refreshed for some reason after the chat. "Well, did you get anything taken care of?" Gary said. Elaine looked back up at him. "I'm...I'm not really sure. Some of the things she asked I'd dare not repeat really..." Gary blinked and took a serious tone. "Are you all right? Did she harass you or something?" "No it's not that at all. She actually knew a lot about what I was going through without even me really telling her a lot about myself or what I had been experiencing," Elaine said, still a bit awestruck. *ksh* They had walked for a little while and had stopped by to pick-- *KKRSSHSHSHK* "Well, what did the doctor say, Elaine?" Lisa asked, as all three of them walked on towards the house. "A...lot of things, honestly. She was pretty rapid fire about all of the questions she had to ask. I honestly don't know how I managed to answer all of them." Lisa nodded. A thunderous boom went off from the sky a few seconds later. "Uhoh...looks like rain. We better get moving faster then or we--" *kshhasashs* It was coming down faster as they moved forward. They were maybe a few blocks to the house now but they were all getting battered pretty heavily by the rain. They all hadn't seen a storm like this in a while. "C'MON! WE'RE ALMOST ARRHGHA!!" "AAHHH!!" That was Gary and Lisa. Elaine, who was out in front, looked back more than attracted by the pained screams. What she saw was probably one of the most horrific things she had every witnessed. It was an image of the final stroke of a blade coursing neatly into the back of both of her surprised guardians. In slow motion, she saw the flow of crimson burst heavily outwards in a sickening display. Both Gary and Lisa dropped to the ground, splashing down on the wet road in near unison as blood splattered on their backs and the rest on the ground around them, turning a purple color with a steady stream from both of them. The only solace Elaine saw out of any of this was that both Lisa and Gary were holding each other's hand. There was no way either of them lived through what had just happened and the evidence showed by neither of them moving. Neither blinked. Neither was breathing. It was just an incredibly unreal image that had just shown itself in front of her. A deep pit of something welled up in her, emotions striking her all at once. She couldn't cry; she couldn't do anything. She was absolutely paralyzed at the sight in front of her. The person who had done this simply took his sword, slashed it to the side to expel what blood he had on it and then used to ball of his shoe to wipe the last remnants of what had soiled his blade off, kicking it back to their rightful owners. "My job's finished. Go home little girl." It was definitely male. He turned and began to walk off. "N..." Elaine could feel it. It was raw, sheer emotions. It was igniting in her inner most sanctums and crying rage and vengeance. It wanted it. It CRAVED it. That bastard would DIE and he would DIE NOW. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" A giant aura of energy burst forth from Elaine, singing the water that was battering down on her and causing wisps of smoke to run around her figure. With newfound speed, she burst forward in a mad dash towards the sell-sword and, with a gigantic crack, smashed her fist into the person's face. Each punch she thrust forward she gave a blood-curdling scream behind it like she was some feral animal. She could hear the crack of bone that wasn't hers from the impact but rather than be deterred by the sound, she continued wailing on him. Harder now, she smashed fist after fist into him. The feelings of pain that should be associated with doing this did not register with her. Instead, it fueled her to push all the more against him. This caused the man to lurch and bend forward as he got blown back with each new punch thrust into him. He was getting beat to death like a pissed infant with a rag doll. How he still stood was amazing, but Elaine did something that surprised the two of them. Thrusting her hands forward, her body gave her the signal to call up a large amount of power from within. She could feel a sensation of warm channel from that sanctum into her shoulders, through her arms and through her hands that glowed hot white. An explosion of energy occurred seconds later as she knocked herself back to splash with her back to the ground. The sell-sword was sent reeling, blood, guts and whatever trailing his path into the side of a brick wall. A dull crushing thud was heard. The man quickly slid down, looking impossibly disfigured after that brutal assault by Elaine. She got up slowly. Her whole body ached now, as her high had completely worn off. Her sense of self was slowly coming back to her as she just realized what she did. She could feel her whole body shaking and she shuddered to think of what those looked like. Those in particular were her hands, which she looked at and froze. Both of them were shaking and bloody, unable to be cleansed by the rain crying down on them. She knew they were in need of some repair. Not to mention that her hands were literally smoking. She had absolutely no idea what at all had just occurred nor did she have any idea what she do next. The weight of all this finally hit home. She dropped suddenly to her knees and then let off the vilest scream anyone nearby had ever heard. It carried well into the town and the night. >>> "You killed them. I can't believe you would do such a thing. They had never done anything to you besides the reprimand you deserved and you killed them." Erina said, ice biting on ever word she said. "Heheheh...Yes...Nnff...I did order the hit on those two. It was well worth my time as well. One lost pawn for two pillars that kept that town alive. I expected that whole town to fall immediately after that happened and, in fact, it did have a tough time right afterwards." Harold spoke this then turned. "But you had to step up with that little friend of yours. You couldn't let me come back and run that town like it was meant to be run." He looked at Derrick. "Go ahead and grab her. We're done here." Derrick then did something that neither Erina nor Harold expected. "I can't do that." "WHAT!?" Harold exclaimed. How he did that with a leg in as bad a shape as it was is beyond this author. Sheer stupidity, maybe. "I may be a hired mercenary but even I have conscience enough to know which side to pick in a situation like this," Derrick spoke, with obvious change of heart. "I'll just do this myself if...I...could...garraggahrghh..." Harold said struggling with himself to get him back to a knelt position. Just then he noticed that Erina was flaring a hot red. Wide-eyed he saw her draw her rod. She clutched it such a way that her left arm crossed over her front to give her a line of sight and her right arm extended outwards, parallel to the rod that was on top of it. Her left the rod down as her right gripped the underside of it. "FLARE SHOTGUN!!" A rapid-fire shotgun sound came blasting out of the tip of her rod, sending flame round after flame round at Harold. The last thing he could do was cry out bloody murder as the orbs of fire pounded into him, one after the next until the screams vanished. A few moments later, all that was left was a flaming corpse. Erina lowered her staff, a few second later she dropped to the ground, hyperventilating in a terrible fashion. Derrick was next to her right then and there. "Hey! Are you all right!?" She put a hand over her face, coughing, a few second later she felt lunch come up and she let it toss. She couldn't believe what she had just done but it couldn't have been given to one more deserving. In a way, she almost felt glad that this was all over. "Ugh..." "Are you going to be okay?" Derrick said, worried. "I'll be fine. We need to see to the others." >>> Black again. She had seen it again. Elaine didn't want to see this ever again. Why was she shown something like this that she didn't want? Elaine sobbed. She couldn't feel any part of her being, she had no emotions other than sadness and they felt like they were killing her. The more she cried, the weaker she felt. It was almost as if she was crying out her very being with the sadness she felt. "Please be strong, Elaine." Elaine gasped. Who? Someone hugging her. She could barely feel it. A presence and a warm feeling. "Don't give up. There are still many people that wish for your happiness. There are many that wish for your well being. Mostly, there are many that wish for you to never be sad like this." Angela. Elaine couldn't respond to her but the tears slowed and she started hiccupping. "Yes. You remembered what happened next? You came to see me once again after that incident. You were in quite the mental shock as you were now. There were so many worried that you would be comatose after you simply shut up shot after that night. I didn't even foresee you getting any better until the events played out like they did with me now being with you." Elaine sniffed. "You're very strong-willed, Elaine. You know that there is much you still need to accomplish and you know there are many that seek to help you get to that point. We're all here for you...please don't allow a situation like this to forever cloud you. Bad things like this happen sometimes and are very painful, of this I know...but you cannot allow yourself to dwell on them forever. The situation you are in now is what will result." She sniffed again. "I...huuhh...I know," she was breathless at this point. "Know that I'm here to help you through this. So many people are as well." A feeling of warm suddenly coursed through Elaine's body. The feeling of life suddenly was coming back to her. "For now though...I think it's time for you to wake up." Elaine looked. "Huh?" "Wake up." "Nn...?" She could feel everything fading. She felt like she was slipping. >>> "Elaine. Wake up." The color was slowing coming back into her face. The beep sounds from the heart monitor were beginning to stabilize. Her screams and moans had long since faded. She stirred, causing similar in kind from everyone present as she began to open her eyelids slowly. She felt like she had been run over by a truck. Her vision was very blurry and she had to blink a few times to get the picture to focus. Slowly, her vision focused and the double images that she was seeing merged. "C...Colin?" Elaine spoke weakly. He was in fact that person in front of her. It looked like he had seen better days himself. "Yea, it's me," Colin said. "Oh thank God..." A couple of nurses in the room were overjoyed, seeing the case resolve in a manner they had not suspected. "You apparently gave everyone here quite a scare. I think we came back right in time. I'm sorry we didn't help you any sooner but...you surprise all of us for your will to live, I think." Elaine smiled weakly. "I'm...glad to...see you happy." Erina appeared behind Colin's back. She was back to her usual, teen self. She looked absolutely exhausted. "Elaine...are you all right?" Elaine nodded slowly. "Mm...I will be. I think I need...some rest though," she said, feeling weak already." "That's probably a good idea. I was just hoping that we could get you out of that coma but you should probably get some rest to get your strength back," Colin said. Erina came up from behind and grabbed Elaine in a hug crying. "I thought you -hic- were dead! Don't do this to me again!" Erina said, bawling her eyes out. Elaine was sympathetic. She felt bad for having people worry but felt better for people caring. "I'm sorry...I won't...have that happen again." Erina looked at her. "Promise?" "Promise," Elaine said, nodding truthfully. "Okay, Erina, I think Elaine needs to get some rest," Colin said, interrupting the moment for good reason. Both of them moved and proceeded out. "Feel better, Elaine," Erina said, waving. Elaine was already asleep before they closed the door. She would sleep peacefully for a little while longer. >>> Millia was not pleased. "Okay. Before I separate all over your body's cells one by one and do it in such a way that you're conscious through the entire process...would you MIND telling me why you didn't tell me there was a problem SOONER!?" Rale rubbed the back of his head. "Uhh...you were doing the same to a bunch of guys that probably didn't deserve it earlier because you lost your temper on them?" Millia didn't respond to that. "It came from one of the readouts a few minutes ago, I can't tell you everything the instant it happens, you know," Rale said, shrugging. "You forget that whole planet has been confined in a certain means. Time and space flows very differently there and many hours and days can fly by in a matter of seconds here or vice versa. Anything you don't tell me fast enough could throw the whole process of containment out of order." "That almost sounded important," Rale quipped. "BITE MY ASS! Now what the hell else haven't you told me?" "It's moved on to all sectors?" "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!! Why the hell don't you mention this? I'm going to flay you alive!!" Millia said, completely enraged now. She walked over to the monitors and went to town gathering info. Rale couldn't believe this woman had the power, swearing ability and annoyance that could somehow make a person of her stature. How in the world he continued to put up with her was beyond him. He had a feeling this was going to continue well into the night...but something bugged him. If his hunch was right, he might just have to intervene like he did not too long ago. He certainly hoped it wouldn't be under the terrible circumstances of last time. He figured he would eventually get his answer of what happened to 'her'. It had been too long. Perhaps someday. Soon, he hoped. >>> End of Chapter 26.