The Death Squad: Chapter Two

When I was returned to Bethra, I found myself right where he had dropped me off. Legion, Aramis and Zadok were there as well. I couldn’t help but ask them, “Why are you guys still here”?

“We can’t just teleport ourselves homes”, Lord Zadok replied dryly.

I thought about what Emperor Saxton had done and told him, “You need to set the humans of your land free from your tyranny. Lord Zadok, you also need to set the humans free. Fraysha, Capernia and Capella belong to the humans while Crystallis, Darklo and Invado will remain your lands”.

“Shut up, Blytz”, Emperor Saxton growled.

“Or what, Saxton, you gunna hit me with a lightning bolt. I’m invincible against all physical and elemental attacks but you guys aren’t. So either you free the humans or pay the price”, I told him flatly.

“Never”, they replied in unison.

“So be it”, I replied as I threw down a layer of ice and used fire to prop-el myself away from them.

They were so accustomed to using Wyll Mystica that they really didn’t have any practical experience with the elements. Needless to say, I didn’t have to worry about them following me.

An hour had gone by when I finally reached what was left of Lady Evra’s temple. This place was also where I had sent the team that was sitting around talking amongst themselves as the sun began to set.

I stopped the fire propulsion before stopping the ice to give myself some time to slow down a bit. Everyone looked up at me with a questioning look. However, it was Mark that asked, “Umm…why not just teleport yourself here”?

“Yaltabaoth stripped me and the Crystallins from using Wyll Mystica”, I replied.

“So, what exactly does that mean”, Vyshun asked without his usual, ‘Sir’, added to it.

“It means that I have command of all twelve of the Elements plus my shield. It also means that you have been granted your Elemental Mystica while retaining your special abilities”, I explained, in short.

I could still see the anger in Fyrebyrd’s face as she asked me, “So Lord Zadok is powerless for the most part”?

“Not at all…Those three are still rulers of very powerful kingdoms and with the Books of Solmis having been eliminated from the situation, it’s very likely they will band together in time. So, we still need to be careful, okay”, I said to her gently.

“Yea, sure”, she replied as she turned away.

“Fyrebyrd”, I snapped. “Every last one of you, listen up and listen good. Get revenge out of your heads. Revenge will only cloud your judgment and get us all killed. Each one of them still commands all the elements and they are very adept at using powers. However, we do have a trick up our sleeve”, I told them.

“What’s that”, Freezer Burn asked as he ran his hands through his dark blue hair.

“Yaltabaoth told me go see King Gryphun. Apparently, the king has something of use for us”, I explained.

“You’re out of your mind”, Nyght Watcher said as her and Crystal Wytch landed near us.

“Why’s that”, I asked.

“Can you fly”, she asked me.

“No…not really”, I replied.

“There’s your reason right there, Commander Blytz. In order to reach the Kingdom of the Gryphun, you have to either, be able to fly or teleport yourself there”, she explained.

“No biggie”, I told her. “We’ll just find the Frayshans and the Capernians and hope that they have something we can use. What would really be great is, if Professor Aries managed to scrounge us up a new Grim Reaper”, I suggested to them.

“No good, ships can’t handle the trade winds over Gryphun Kingdom so the only way we’re getting there is to climb our way up”, she said firmly stating what lay ahead for us.

“I couldn’t help but asked her, “You sure your parents didn’t name you, Gloom N. Doom”?

“Put on your hiking boots or find another way, oh fearless leader of ours”, she replied sarcastically.

“Not until you boneheads are trained and ready to climb that mountain with me”, I retorted.

“Who says we’re not ready now”, Ultrasound asked.

“Now that’s a good question”, I replied. “Tell you guys what, if you can take me down, I’ll skip the training and we’ll head for the Gryphun Kingdom at the break of day…if not, we do it my way”. Hey, I was being fair with them. Granted, we both know that didn’t stand a chance but Fyrebyrd needs to let off some steam, and I wouldn’t mind having a better idea of what they could do. So, I walked about twenty feet away from them and said, “Bring it”!

They brought it too. Fyrebyrd opened up with a round of fireballs that simply bounced off my shield. Hyper came at me full speed only to bounce off my shield and hit the dirt. I felt so sorry for him. Ultrasound almost had a chance before I covered his ears in ice and watched him fling his gear to the ground and Samsun simply walked up to me and punched the shield with all of his might, shook his hand and simply walked away. Wave Crusher covered my shield in water as Freezer Burn followed up by freezing the water. Thunder Stryke hit the ice with Lyghtning as hard as he could while I stood there and played with my fingers, just too really piss everyone off. Crystal Wytch and Nyght Watcher tried to levitate me and send me flying but no magic can penetrate the shield and they finally collapsed, exhausted. Samsun simply sat down and watched everyone else beat themselves to death trying to get at me. After all was said and done, most of the team was laying in the grass trying to catch their breath and reeling from any attacks that might have backfired.

Finally, I dropped my shield and nonchalantly walked over to them and sat down. “Okay, kids, gather around me”, I told them. Maybe I should have just spoken to them right where they were lying versus waiting the five minutes it took them to drag their carcasses close to me.

“That wasn’t much of a fair fight”, Mark told me as he flopped down beside me.

“Silly me…I forgot the Saxton’s fight fair”, I replied jokingly. “You poor guys, if any of you had a clue about what I’ve been through you would eagerly welcome being trained properly. But, as it stands, you guys don’t know how to work as a team. You have no clue about the true capacity of your powers and none of you fully understand what we’re up against”.

“But, I though Yaltabaoth stripped them of their powers except for elemental stuff”, Fyrebyrd asked, and it was a good question.

“They only lost the bulk of their powers but Emperor Saxton still has his advanced weapons technology and a massive army. Lord Zadok still has his army of highly trained super-troopers and Legion…well; God only knows what he has up his sleeves. So, I’m not counting on anything short of being ready for anything to get us through this”, I explained to them.

“So, we’ve got some real fights coming up, huh”, Samsun replied.

“Yea…some seriously deadly fights. So, come the break of dawn, the training begins. All I ask is that you guys be patient with me. I have no experience at training anyone but I’ve had a butt load of experience fighting these clowns and a host of other creatures you guys never knew existed”, I told them with a smile. Fyrebyrd held a hand and formed a ball of fire in the palm so we could see well. It was a nice gesture on her part but she also made a valid point. “Samsun, will you break us up some fire wood. Ultrasound, once your gear thaws out, will you keep an ear out for us”?

“Yes, sir”, they both replied. Samsun walked over to a tree and ripped the thirty foot plant right out of the ground with his bare hands. “Now what”, he asked.

“I was kind of leaning towards you breaking some of the branches off”, I replied and cracked up laughing. Well, I laughed right up until he slammed the tree back into the ground and did just that like it was nothing. It was weird watching this gentle giant snap those thick branches like he was breaking up spaghetti noodles. Once he was done, he walked over to Fyrebyrd and told her, “Here you go, ma’am”.

“Thanks big guy”, she replied as she started placing the bundle of wood he had loosely gathered. “This won’t work, the grass is dry and we might set fire to the whole place.

“It’s okay, I’ll make a fire pit”, Samsun told her. He wiggled his fingers towards the ground and a circle of stone rose up around the stacked wood. “Will that work”, he asked her.

“That sure does”, she replied. She played with some fire on the tip of her fingers before setting fire to the branches and in no time, we had a nice camp fire going.

It was then that I realized, Samsun wasn’t even slightly trying to fight earlier when he was the key to besting me. I looked at him and smiled and without a word passing between us, he knew what I was thinking as he said, “It’s important we do this the right way and that’s your way”.

“Thank you, Samsun”, I replied. Everyone just dismissed what we were saying as they thought we were talking about the tree he had uprooted.

By the time all was said and done, I was trying to remember what we were talking about in the first place…oh, yea…my experience with fighting. Samsun sat back down in his spot as I continued on. “When I was traversing the Hall of Souls, I ran into a creature called, Nyx. Nyx is the king of the nightmares and he’s really good at what he does. I barely escaped with my life and that was after I was at full power through the teachings of the Dragon Elems. Then, there was King Bona…something-or-another. King Seklus Bona…hmm…that’s going to bug me until I remember…” I told them as I dug out my first journal, scrambled through the pages and found it. “That was it”, I eagerly announced and continued, “King Sekletus Bonazai was doomed to protect the Hall of Souls but when I laid the good in him to rest and defeated the evil, Nyx stepped in and took control of the place. So, here I was fighting against Nyx and some super mutant snake pet of his. Now, imagine being inside a round ball inside a giant snake’s mouth…it was not a pretty sight. But, when I used my Mystica to kill the snake, Nyx took me into his realm and forced me to watch how our mother died at my hand”.

“That wasn’t our fault, Blytz”, Mark quickly interjected.

“I know, Hyper but it was still a hard thing to watch…over and over and over until I snapped and nearly destroyed the Dream Realm. Still, the point is, there are enemies out there that don’t rely on elemental powers. I’ve fought ghosts, skeletons, flippin sand waves that come to life packing a huge appetite and a host of other creepy crawly things like Tyracnids. This world is plenty dangerous, putting all magic aside. That is why it is so important that you guys become heavily trained and learn to work together like a well-oiled team”, I told them.

“So, what will our training consist of”, Freezer Burn asked.

“Well, since I can’t teleport us anywhere, we need to start by getting a ship. So, your training will start with a very long walk to the ruins of Fraysha’s capital tomorrow”, I told them. “For now, we need some food and something to drink and I’m opening to suggestions”.

“What will walking teach us”, Samsun asked politely.

“Patience”, I replied.

“Patience”, Mark asked.

“Yes…and since you’re the fastest …go catch us something to eat”, I asked him.

Mark kind of hung his head and admitted, “Kareb, whenever we would go camping, you always cleaned the fish”.

“Oh”, I replied. What he was saying is that he doesn’t have the stomach to kill anything. “Hmm”, I sighed as I thought about it for a moment. “Okay…I’m open to suggestions here”.

“We’ll figure out something”, Crystal Wytch replied followed by her asking, “Why are headed northeast when we should be heading to the west to reach the Gryphun Kingdom”?

I was still thinking about food so it took me a second to bring my thought process back around to what she was asking. Finally, I replied, “If we catch up with the Capernians and Frayshans, we can get a ship to fly us to the west coast and back. If not, we’ll have to walk there and then walk all the way back across to kingdoms to reach them”, I explained.

“Makes sense”, she replied.

Wave Crusher didn’t agree as he suggested, “Why don’t we head to Aquatyca, my home world”?

“Aquata-who”, I asked him.

“Aquatica”, he replied, correcting me. “My home world should be closer than either one of those two places and I know they can help us find the others”, he explained.

“Can’t say I’m heard of it…do we have to fight our way past walls covered in bloody snakes”, I asked him.

“Uh…I certainly hope not”, he replied while staring at me as if I had grown two extra heads. “All we have to do is make it to the ocean. Once there, I’ll get us a ride to my home world”.

“Really”, I asked him. “Where exactly do your people come from”?

“We live far beneath the ocean waves”, he told me. “Our ancestors were once human before a great watery dragon appeared and gave them dominion over all things belonging to the ocean. We’ve lived there ever since”, he told us with a grin.

“Any idea how you ended up in this group”, I asked him.

“Yea, kinda”, he replied as he continued on to explain, “Every year, we have the Festival of the Hunt; it’s a kind of Rite of Passage for the men in my land, when they turn eighteen. All the eighteen-year-olds for that year are gathered and sent to the surface to hunt and bring back food. I was out on the hunt when some guys with black and gold armor snatched me up and that’s the last I remember”.

Out the corner of my eye, I caught Freezer Burn blowing little puffs of smoke from his mouth. “You with us Freezer Burn”, I asked him.

“Yea…I was just listening and thinking about my own home”, he replied.

“Where are you from”, I asked him.

“I’m from Mas-Chil…can’t you tell”, He asked jokingly.

“I thought I had seen every crack and corner of Mas-Chil”, I questioned. And, trust me; I was pretty sure I had.

“I guess not”, he replied defensively. “My people live on the far northern tip. Sort of like, Wave Crusher, I was out hunting for anything edible when I got caught up in an Ice Wave and woke up in some sort of city covered in a dome”, he explained.

I loosened right up knowing he was telling the truth. “Those Ice Waves are a pain, aren’t they”, I joked with.

“They’re not fun, that’s for sure”, he replied.

“You remember that, Blytz”, Mark asked me.

“Of course I do…I was stuck in one of those things and had it not been for my shield I would have been blown all over Mas-Chil”, I replied.

“Oh, I thought maybe you were talking about the time you and I went out to find Old Spalunka and got caught in one”, Mark replied.

“You survived that twice”, Freezer Burn asked with his jaw dropped open.

“I guess so”, I replied as I looked questioningly at Mark.

“You didn’t have your shield back then and if it wouldn’t have been for Old Spalunka, we would have died out there”, he told me.

“Speaking of him…his real name is Spalunka Saxton, Aramis Saxton’s adoptive father. As far as I know, he’s living in Invado now with his son”, I told Mark candidly as I stared at the fire.

“No kidding”, Mark replied. “Then, why was he in prison”?

“When Aramis was exiled from Crystallis with Lady Evra, his father was sent there a very long time ago. Fact is, I was told he was one of the original prisoners if not the first. Anyway, when Emperor Saxton helped the inmates take control of Prison City, he had his father returned to him”, I explained.

Apparently, my explanation didn’t sit too well with Fyrebyrd who jumped up and told me I was full of it. “There’s no way Lady Evra would have anything to do with those murderers”!

I just grinned at her and replied, “Lady Evra Saxton was forced into having Aramis Saxton when Legion was in control of Crystallis. Fact is, it was Aramis, along with Lady Evra that stopped legion from destroying the human race, having given her life to do so. That is the main reason Aramis hates humans so badly. He blames us for her death”, I replied. “Trust me; you see this cute little camp we’ve got here…and that temple over there? Well, that’s Lady Evra’s temple or what’s left of it. Nonetheless, that’s where I first met Lady Saxton. This is also the place where I died and was set free of Aramis all those years ago. At any rate, when we meet up with Lady Evra, you can ask her, yourself”.

Fyrebyrd settled back down but not before telling me, “I think I will”.

Of course, that flew all over me. “Listen up, Red! Lady Evra Saxton is a great woman and a very dear friend to me even if she is a ghost. But, I’m here to tell you right now that she did indeed give birth to Aramis, whether you like it or not and if it’s really that big a deal to you, I’ll prove it right now”, I told her bitterly. I hate being second-guessed. I looked right at Samsun and told him, “Remove the rubble from the temple. If any of you can think of a way to help, please do so”?

“Sure thing, Boss”, Samsun replied as he got up and headed out into the dark before realizing it. “Fyrebyrd, gimme some light, will you”?

Fyrebyrd forced herself back up to her feet and set her hand on fire as I watched them walk off towards the temple.

Thunder Stryke ran his fingers through his hair before he dropped his arm down on his leg and asked me, “What’s so important about the temple”?

“Lady Evra can only appear inside of temples. If we repair her temple, here, we’ll be able to talk to her”, I replied. Several of the teammates cracked up laughing until I told them, “You won’t be laughing when you meet her…God knows I wasn’t”. Even then, that was a mild understatement. I clearly recall leaving a wet spot down the leg of my pants the first time her and I met.

“You’re serious, aren’t you”, Mark asked me.

“You guys sure have lived some sheltered lives”, I replied. “There is a lot of weird things going on in this world which makes me skeptical about going any place new like Aquatica”.

“No worries, Blytz”, Wave Crusher replied. “My world is pretty normal without any ghosts or monsters”, he added with a smile.

“I certainly hope so…weird and unexplained was starting to get old”, I replied with a grin.

All of sudden, I could hear Fyrebyrd and Samsun calling for us. Quickly, I jumped up and turned my hand to fire as I went racing towards them followed closely by everyone else.

When we reached the temple, Samsun looked down at me and said, “All done boss”!

“Wow that was quick”, I replied. “Let’s go gang…you guys have a ghost to meet”, I told them as I headed across the crimson metal walkway leading to the temple entrance.