Well, gotta make this quick... but... here's the crappy actioned weirded chapter nine.
Looking Above and Beyond
By: ADJLFanatic
Chapter 9: Losing Sight of You
“Ugh, do we
really have to join hands?”
“Shut your pie hole, Kevin! We have to do this!”
“All
I care about is sleep…”
“But all
I want is to just see Ash!”
“WAIT!” Amanda called out as everybody spoke immaturely. “Can you all just be QUIET for one
second in your lives?” This caused everybody to settle down and keep his or her eyes on only her. “Look, we might know that this dude is in the North Pole. But see that’s the thing… all we know is that he’s somewhere, right?”
“True.” Shade chimed in. “So, how do you think we should be able to find her? It’s not like we want to take forever in our lives just to find them, right?”
“Exactly.” She responded. “It would just be a waste of our time. So… there has to be some other way.”
“Ummm… I can help.” Madisen said as she walked inside the first level with the group. Everyone immediately turned his or her attention to her. “I might not have much of a thought with fighting… but I can help you guys make your lives easier.”
“Go on…” Kevin nodded.
“See, I’m a witch… right?” She said.
“You’re a witch?” Al spoke unthinkingly.
“… As I was saying, I have certain powers most of you dragons DON’T have. I have something called a ‘magic mirror’. It can help you guys spot where the person you wish to find is.”
“Ohhh…” Everybody nodded.
“So, is it alright with you if you help us?” Shade asked.
Madisen remarked politely. “Of course…” She pulled it out and held it so everyone could see. “You guys are trying to find Ash, right?” She waited for a nod, which came from Al not long afterwards. “Alright. Let’s see where she is.” Everyone leaned over so they could have a better view on what was going on with the mirror she had.
“Hey! There’s Jake! And Ash!” Florence pointed. “They’re fighting together? Weird.”
“I know.” Shade remarked. “But who IS that dude?” He pointed at a black shadowy figure that the two were attempting to defeat.
“I’m guess that that’s the Dark guy that took Ash.” Kevin said. “Kind of ironic how he’s dark… and his name is Dark. How perfectly uncanny.”
“Who are those guys?” Amanda pointed as the view of the scene turned to three elf-like children.
“Those are the elves—Sherlyn, Kimper, and Tinker—that we ran into here then helped find Jake in NYC.” Florence replied.
“Ohhh… that explains.” She said, continuing to look over like everyone else was doing.
Everyone took a moment to watch over Ash and Jake still trying to fight, all exchanging very nervous, worried glances at one another.
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“You freak!” Ash shouted at the monstrous Dark, who still wasn’t even close to being halfway harmed with damage.
“Ash, I think we need some help.” Jake said, placing his hands on his knees and bending down a little after being exhausted.
“You think?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who said, ‘We can take him on our own!’.”
“That was what I thought until we started battling!”
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“Gah! We have to help her!” Al exclaimed after everyone started listening over at the conversation that was taking place there.
“Well then, we better not stand here any longer.” Shade said. “Less talk, more action!”
“Yeah!” Everyone was determined.
“Thanks for the big help, Madisen.” Florence said in behalf of everyone. “We would be wondering here all day if you hadn’t have come in!”
“Hey! No problem at all!” She said courteously. “I’ll always be here to help if you guys need it.” Madisen wished good luck to everyone. “If you ever need some back up, go ahead and call me and everybody else. We’ll be there as soon as we can!”
“Thanks!”
“You’re the best!”
Madisen grinned proudly then waved good-bye and walked off.
“So, anyway… should we plan anything out, first of all?” Flo brought up.
“Well, there’s always such a thing called improvisation right?” Kevin said.
“True…”
“So I guess this means we’ll need this?” Shade said holding out a few amount of magic dust stuff in his hand.
“Mmhmm.”
“Everyone ready?”
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“Give it up! You can’t win!” called out Dark.
Ash was on the verge of falling over and blacking out, but she wouldn’t give up that easily. “Try me!”
“Ash!” Al called out, running over to his girlfriend. She turned around, ran over to him, and gave him a big hug. “I was so worried about you!”
“Aww…”
“Isn’t THAT sweet?”
“Why don’t you just shut up?” Ash turned around and looked over at him coldly.
From afar, both a ball of ice and fire shot from a distant area and made a direct hit for him. This time, it caused some major damage. It had come from Shade and Kevin, who were in their dragon forms attempting to begin the ‘fair’ battle.
“Take that!” Shade yelled, making a perfect land on the ground.
“Looks like you brought your friends, did you?” The villain laughed sinisterly.
“But we’re here to kick your butt!” Florence called out in a readied, battle stance.
“Let’s see if you can take on more than just ME then!”
With a simple wave with his hand, he made numerous duplicates of himself; just as he did when he had kidnapped Ash. They all surrounded everyone- Shade, Florence, Al, Ash, Jake, Amanda, Kevin, and Cat. Everybody stepped back slowly, a little taken aback by what had just taken place.
“What is that?” Florence asked, as she stood close by Shade.
“Whatever it is, it sure doesn’t look good.” He just replied as they all readied themselves in a combat position. “But let’s give this a shot!”
“Right behind ya then, Shade!” She said.
Everyone separated whilst the numbers of shadows had done as well; they each attacked one duplicate of Dark. He, himself, just sat back and watched as everybody attempted to take each one down. Kevin and Shade basically used their ice powers to try and take them down. But Shade wanted to be ‘unique’ a few times and try a few tricks of his own. Florence had attempted to do a few martial arts but found it a little hard to do with shadowy figures. Ash and Al worked together to use their skillful alchemy, never leaving each other’s sides. Amanda had used little ploys that were mainly different from everyone else.
A few times, Dark had watched the way everybody fought together. He noticed that people were more likely to accomplish more if they were in unison in a group of ‘couples and lovers’. After a few more battles and attacks, he had taken note which people stayed by each other- Shade and Florence, Ash and Al, Kevin and Amanda; while Jake either joined in to join a threesome or endeavored to complete this all on his own. Sometimes he would even take along with Cat, who was doing the same fighting techniques as him.
Subsequent to this last scene, Dark had seemed to be taking enough mental notes to know about everyone’s battle styles. When he had seemed to be finished, he waved his hand around again while the seemingly indestructible replacements had formed to make him immense once again. The group looked up to see his original form, readying themselves once again to fight as one. They had given themselves a few times to plan out a battle that was presumably intractable to beat.
Florence volunteered willingly to be the so-called distraction so that everyone could have a chance to make him try and focus on her instead of everybody else like he was apparently doing a while ago.
“Hey tall, dark, and stupid!” She called out from below. “You think you could catch me?” This angered him, like they had planned it to be. But more importantly, it caused him to try and attack her.
“What’s wrong? Can’t you attack a girl?” Flo flipped a few times so that she would miss the attacks he was trying to shoot out at her; which was doing well. “Come on, you’re better than that!” She barrel rolled underneath him, which made him turn around.
“You’re going a good job!” Kevin called out.
“I know!” She yelled at him right back.
“Hey Flo!” Shade said as he appeared next to her. “I got your back!”
“And I got your’s!”
“Let’s end this!”
Florence still tried to be funny and distract him with a little bit of backflips and twists, which made him watch with a bit of impressiveness. Shade took the plan as a complete success so far, mixing both regular dragon powers with ice. It had him ‘beat’ a few times, but they both never gave up. Cat came in as soon as this was going real well. Shade let them both team up together since they had almost the same skills. They both took off in unanimity then they stopped while Cat stood in front. Flo was behind her, who helped her up so that her feet were placed on top of her hands- she was strong enough to hold her up.
“Ready?” Florence said.
“Ready when you are!” Cat replied.
“Got it!” She said, using all her strength to push Cat up into the air. She had performed a spin in the air and had just enough time to transform to her dragon form.
Cat had soon taken wing and took off to him, helping out Shade with the ‘attacking’ part. Florence still rolled around to make him confused but felt something tugging her on the leg. “AH! Let go of me!”
Shade quickly looked over after hearing her call out. Flo was swiftly swept off her feet and was thrown off by Dark. “Flo!” He called out, upsettingly looking over across his view.
“AHHHHH!” Florence was being hurled towards one of the many chunks and glaciers of ice that were nearby. Luckily, she didn’t land so harshly on the ground as she got to her feet quickly. She shook her head a little then ran back over. “HEY! You’re going to pay for that—AH! I said let go of me!” She was gripped tightly by his free hand; the other was being used to try and take down Shade and Cat (who were still working together). Shade worriedly looked over and abruptly stopped. Kevin looked over to see his sudden strike of concern and took over, helping out with Cat this time.
“Let go of her!” He paused and looked up at him irritably. “Didn’t you hear me? I said LET GO OF HER.” Shade shouted at him, starting to turn crazed and angry by the second.
“Oh, you say you want her back, do you?” He looked over at him, who was still tightly gripping on to Florence. She tried to free herself with all might, all the while that she was thinking about not considering about the little bit of energy she had left. “Is that so?”
“Are you deaf or something?” Shade was still annoyed. “Don’t make me come up there and slap you upside your head!”
“Wow…” Jake looked over at slightly crazed Shade. “Craaazy.”
“Shut up, Jake!” He yelled back. Jake’s reaction was astonished, never ever seeing this kind of attitude from him. Shade just ignored it and looked back at Dark. “Now do what I told you to do!” Dark sure did what he was told, but he had ruthlessly dropped Florence to the ground. She slightly struggled to get to her feet but immediately faced her direction at Shade.
“Shade!” She called out, running over to him. Before she could reach him, she was quickly grasped by something that pulled her back. Florence fell to the ground, but was still grabbed by one of her arms when she had gotten up. “Ah! Let me go! Stop it!”
“Florence!” Shade said, reaching out to her. He was a little too late, though. Apparently, one of Dark’s duplicates had taken Florence and held her back from Shade. At this moment, he realized how Shade meant a lot to her- and how he had meant a lot to Flo. He knew at this time that love was the bond that was inseparable… but more importantly something that could break the heart of one and ruin their spirit if anything bad were to happen. He seemed to see that Florence and Shade were a very good example for this scene. “What do you want from her?”
“Oh, nothing really.” He just replied in a very awkward tone. “And you think you could take me down, can you?”
“AH!” This time, Shade was being thrown at the same place Florence ended up.
“Take her away.” He had commanded his duplicate to do so and did what he was told. Florence looked back at Shade (who was still in the distance) until everything suddenly blacked out.
Meanwhile, Shade was apparently hurled across to a nearby cavern but didn’t let the force throw him back that far. He used his wings to fly back over and not let himself descend south any further. Shade then landed and looked around for Florence. “Flo?”
“If you’re looking for her, she’s gone.” He heard Dark mention, looking up.
“What’s wrong with you?” Shade exclaimed.
“OW!” Kevin and Cat couldn’t hold up Dark any longer. They both reverted back to human and just sat on the ground in exhaustion. “SHADE! A little help here?”
Ash eventually was just tired out from the previous battle and couldn’t hold herself up anymore. Al just stayed while Amanda ran over to help them out. She knew she was alone… that is, if you don’t count crazed Shade. He seemed to be ignoring a lot of people at the moment.
“Do you realize how much I HATE YOU?” Shade called out, attempting to take the enemy down with powers his friends didn’t even know that he had.
“Shade! Stop it!” Kevin shouted at him. “You’re going to make him even more mad!”
“I’ll do what I want.” He replied coldly.
“You still don’t know what you’re getting yourself into!”
“I know what I’m doing—AHH!”
“I told you it wouldn’t work.” Kevin muttered when Shade was knocked down to the ground.
Shade just ignored that last remark and was about to get up until he was interrupted by a few coughs. “Ugh, what is this stuff?” He used his hand to try and blow away the smoke that started surrounding him and everybody else. But he was actually smart enough to manage to escape from it while everybody decided to be exposed in it. Nobody realized that everything started to black out. Shade was close to getting away until he felt himself being pulled back then everything went blank for some reason.
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“Ugh… what happened?”
“Shade? Is that you?”
“Erh… Amanda?”
“Hi! I’m Al!”
“Uhhh…”
Amanda got up from where she was and converted to dragon form, blowing a bit of fire so that it was easier to see from how dark it was. Shade also got to his feet and looked around their tight, small room that was alike to something medieval and whatnot. They were trapped in a dungeon-like place where there were metal bars blocking their escape route.
“Wow, it kind reminds you of some sort of castle, does it?” Al said.
“I guess.” Amanda remarked, looking over at the quiet Shade. “Erh… you okay?”
“Gee… I just lost my girlfriend, I’m stuck inside a stupid cage, and I’m depressed.” Shade replied. “Do you think I’m okay?”
“Jeez Shade.” She said. “You don’t have to be so tense.”
“I’m not tense.” He said. “I’m just… worried. And… well…”
Amanda sighed. “Is this about Florence?” Shade made a short glare. “Right… bad question.”
Shade looked down. “Well… it’s not just that… So, sure, Florence does mean that much to me. But what really bothers me the most is how regretful I feel about when I hurt her intentionally or better yet, make her feel bad.”
“Come on, Shade. You’re not that kind of person who would do that.”
“Oh yeah? What about the time when were back in New York and we were both mortal enemies; when Flo and me were like… Huntslass and Freezy? Huh?”
“Shade. First of all, that thing wasn’t deliberate. You guys are legit, a perfectly good couple. It was the force between love and hate that you guys didn’t know about. It’s not like you both meant to hurt each other…”
“Yes it is!” He exclaimed solemnly. “You just don’t understand…”
“But I just said it…”
“I said it’s my fault!”
Amanda fell silent but quickly understood. “So… anyway, what else happens to make you feel so regretful?”
Shade looked down. “Well… there was also this one time when my sister got kidnapped by Huntsdad… and I was so crazed… that… I just didn’t care about her one bit.”
“You had every right to be angry. It’s your sister, Shade. Of course you’ll be worried.”
“But Florence is my girlfriend! It’s not my right to be mad and not care about her.”
“Sometimes anger gets the best of us, you know?”
“It’s still my fault.”
“Shade… don’t you understand?”
“I SAID my fault!” Shade calmed down and sighed after realizing how upset he was starting to feel.
Amanda understandingly nodded, but not to agree with his remark. “You see what Dark is trying to do with you, Shade?” He slowly looked over at her. “He’s been trying to keep your emotions inside so that everything builds up and turns into crazed rage. Basically, he’s trying to break your heart to understand what anger supposedly means.”
Shade sat there, confused. “Uhhh…”
“It’s a long story.” She explained. “See, I got up before you and Al did. Only it really wasn’t as dark as it’s like right now. Anyway, Dark was just getting to the point when he trapped everybody else in the cage across from us, right? Well…”
“Wait… you’re saying Florence and the rest are just… across from us?” Shade interrupted.
“Yeah but anyway.”
“Amanda! Do you know what this means?”
“Erh… we can get out of here?”
“Exactly!”
“But Shade! I’m not done with the…” She stopped but realized Shade just struggled to get out the cage when it zapped his finger with a small electric blast. “… Story.”
“Riiiight…” He said. “Go on?”
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Florence had overheard everything coming from the other side, sighing after hearing every word Shade told Amanda. It sounded as if they were both talking too loud. “Gosh… I never knew that he cared that much.”
Ash slid over, trying not to wake the two other people who were still, apparently, unconscious. “Well duh, Flo… of course he cares. Heck, Al is always crazed when I go leave to go to the girl’s bathroom for five minutes.”
This made Flo giggle a little, but her smile soon dropped. “Well… you know… it’s not just that… but… now I realize that maybe I have some regrets too.”
“Ugh, didn’t you hear any of the words that Amanda said? Pay attention to what he’s trying to do to everyone. He’s been trying to ruin everybody’s hearts to find what really hurts the most. She’s not the only one who knows this—I do too.”
“I guess so.” Flo said, who finished fidgeting with her fingers.
“By the way… I got something obvious to throw out at you.” Ash said.
“What?”
“Shade’s just across from you DARN IT!”
“… Oh yeah.”
Florence got up where she sat, feeling how uncomfortable it had been after being out for quite a while. She peeped her head so that she could slightly see through the metal bars. “Shade? A-Are you there?”
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Shade jumped up slightly from where he sat, after hearing a familiar voice calling for his name. “Florence?”
“Shade!” She called out.
After hearing this, Shade didn’t feel as bad as he was earlier. Instead, he was actually slightly overjoyed to hear her nearby. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah!”
“I’m so glad you’re here!”
“If only I could reach you, I would give you the biggest hug ever!”
“Aww.” Al said. “Ain’t that sweet.” He looked over at where Ash was. “AH! Ash! HIII!”
“Hi Al! You miss me?” She grinned.
“You bet I did!”
“Wow, so much reuniting in an awkward, ironic time.” Amanda muttered with a soft giggle as she noticed that Kevin was at a far corner. “Let’s hope this doesn’t turn any MORE awkward.”
End Chapter Nine
Heh... crappy, huh? XD Well anyways. Hum. Lemme thinks. Well, there was a reason for the lack of action. Some of you know why because I told you. The rest... you'll find out soon enough. ^^
Anywayz. I hope this chapter wasn't too weird. It was like... eight (almost nine) pages. I know, it was like... bad... right?
Erh... well... I better start posting or else two weirdos on MSN will start going IDOJGOSIJG on me. *coughashcoughewancough* ^^
Later dudes. XOXOs to allz. :]
ADJLFanatic
(I like love YOU. AH HAHA. AH HAHA. *twitch*)