There was a constant buzz of chattering as Rich was preparing his equipment that the Metal Shop classes had so kindly constructed for him. He was equipped with metal armor that was light weight and easy to maneuver in. He was equipping his legs armor as the chatter grew around him. Each student was prepared for this battle after having told their parents of what was to happen. After a straight day of fighting with some parents who worried about their child's safety, Rich was able to use his speaking skills to persuade them into this. Kyle and Sabrina had frowned upon this, but if it was the only way to get the parents to let their children do this, then so be it. After growing up in school with the Oracle of the Cosmos, he knew that they couldn't back out of this battle, or Alex would have his head. The boy was incredibly stubborn… Everyone in the entire world would be swept up in the battle, whether they liked it or not. To make the day more stressful, he had missed the tournament today, forgetting that it was on. He never saw anything with the Fake and Rose May.
"Rich... How long did Alex say it would be until they would reach the Shrine?" Sabrina asked, walking over in her lightweight armor.
"They never gave a specific time set. They just said they'd be there soon. Sarah told them we'd be ready in half n' hour, and it doesn't look like we'll be," Rich told her as Kyle walked over to them, dressed in metallic armor as well.
This had been a major argument. Kyle didn't take well to being dressed in magician's robes, even after they had to sit down and explain that magician's wore robes because it was easy for them to draw and store energy in them. Metal had nearly impervious abilities in storing and flowing magic in and through them. That's why robes were commonly worn in the First Age of Magic. Rich ended up giving into Kyle's demands, not wanting to argue at such a time.
"The magic users are set as they didn't need as much time to prepare such heavy armor as the physical fighters," Kyle explained to Rich, whose face turned a sullen look. "Though, they're helping them though!"
Kyle smiled as Rich's face turned a bit more optimistic, despite the fact he was worried. He was worried for every soul in this gymnasium. Rich never thought that he would lead the Army of the Cosmos. In reality, he never actually had believed that the Oracle existed now or even existed at all, even though he grew up knowing Alex vaguely. He wasn't a mainstream religion follower. Everyone was worried over this; nobody could say that they weren't.
"Rich, it's going to be fine," Kyle reassured the teen, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You should believe in Alex. He wouldn't let anything happen to us. No matter what happens, Alex will make it right."
Rich could only give a half-smile at what Kyle said. It was true. Alex had saved the entire school three times, once without knowing it. He gazed around at the students, all of them going quiet. Everyone was putting themselves in mindset or praying that they'd stay alive. They were all very courageous at what they were doing. Though, Rich could only imagine that it was the teenagers' past lives starting to take control. Rich's eyes glazed over as he too started to pray the outcome of the battle as victorious as it could possibly be.
The wind was howling sharply as light violet haze rolled through the valleys of the mountain range. Michelle was thanking Alex that they could fly above all this. As the quartet had left the city limits, Alex had created a translucent spherical barrier to protect them from the powerful gusts of win. Michelle looked back at the city in remorse, seeing smoke starting to billow up from where the stadium was. She stopped suddenly, causing the guys to stop as well.
"Alex, we got to go back and help them," Michelle pleaded with the Oracle, her tears starting to sting with eyes.
"Michelle we can't! We got to get Lucas to the Shrine and have him ascend!" he snapped back impatiently. Michelle's face became hard as tears poured from her eyes. A twinge of guilt flew up his backbone. "Michelle... I'm sorry. I'm just, stressed right now. I have no idea what will happen when we get Lucas there and the Fake dead."
Lucas floated over to Alex and placed a hand on his. "Whatever happens Alex, will happen. That doesn't make it right for everyone back there to suffer and die. Especially when we caused the start of this."
Alex's face became downtrodden and his heart started to ache. Tears freely flowed down his face. Alex didn’t care what Flight or Lucas thought of him crying. It wasn’t the strong facade or hardened soul that made the man, but rather, his tender emotions nurtured into a powerful soul and how much he would care, protect, and love one another. Lucas sort of looked appalled, but Flight only smiled.
“Michelle’s right. All those people don’t deserve to die so we can attain our goal. We’ll go back and help them until Rich and his brigade arrives,” Alex said between sniffles and sobs. He turned to Lucas and wiped his eyes. “Lucas. You need to go to the Shrine and to the altar that dwells inside. As you enter there will be an altar. Upon that altar, place both hands on the emerald encrusted within it and concentrate your power flowing through it. This in turn will open a portal from Glitz to Calico allowing Rich to come through.”
Michelle’s ears perked as she listened to Alex speak. That voice.... It wasn’t his. Though it sounded the same, the seriousness and power that the tone held was not of this world. It was like the past life of Alex was speaking directly through him. Like Alex was a Medium of sorts. Flight and Lucas didn’t notice anything. “Nitwit boys couldn’t observe anything even if they wanted,” Michelle thought darkly.
“Yeah Alex. I can do that, except find the Shrine.”
“The Shrine is located straight ahead. In your eyes and your eyes alone will part of the mountain pulse a emerald green. That is where the Shrine is. Go quickly, for many lives will fall if you don’t. My magic shall assist you in getting there. You’re on your own from there.”
Lucas paled at the thought of many lives depending on him. He nodded and turned around to fly towards the Shrine, searching out an emerald green pulse. Alex turned to Michelle and Flight and nodded. “Let’s go!”
As they flew off back to the city, Michelle couldn’t help but look back to see if Lucas was alright. Alex reassured her that his magic would protect Lucas no matter what or where he got into danger. As the trio flew quickly back to Calico, they started to see the ravages of Rose May's Undead Army. They could see the billowing, black smoke flowing from different points in the city and the faint howl of suffering people being attacked and killed by the Undead Army. Alex could feel the magic that the army was unleashing against the people. It wasn't strong, but it was still lethal enough to kill when concentrated into a very large spell.
"Alex. The Fake. He feels more powerful then he was when you attacked him at the tourney earlier," Flight spoke shakily, his ability to feel auras stabbing him in the foot. His face was draining of its color. "He's the one causing the most mayhem."
A flame of fury sparked in Alex's eyes. It grew in his heart and you could see it obviously in his eyes. "That Fake!" Alex snarled. "Killing innocent people for sport! We have to go stop him and the army!"
Michelle gave a light touch to Alex's wrist, watching the flame cool a bit within his eyes. "I know we have to go stop him, but Lucas is the one to defeat him. And the Fake is surrounded by the Undead Army, let alone Rose May. We can't deal with all of them at once. We have to wait for Lucas to get there."
Alex hated it when Michelle was right in situations like this. They descended down to the ground and stood their.
"So... Now we wait," Flight spoke softly.
Rich was standing in the gymnasium still waiting. It had already been an hour. Something was horribly wrong. The attack about Calico was all over the news right now, few helicopters braving the trip to the city. They could see the horrors of what was happening. Many students watched silently as they could hear screams of suffering and the terror of buildings falling to the ground through powerful magic. According to the newscaster, the armed forces could not get through to Calico as there was a powerful, invisible barrier surrounding the city.
"Rose May..." Rich muttered softly.
Rich turned his head to see a large man descend from thin air onto the ground. He had his hands resting on something invisible. He looked up to see Rich.
"Who are you?!" Rich said a bit over protectively, starting to draw his sword.
“My name is Lucas. I am one of the Gods, according to Alex,” Lucas spoke hollowly.
Rich thought back to just an hour ago when they saw the strange man flying with the trio. “Yes... I remember you now. I’m terribly sorry for being hasty and accusative.”
“Don’t worry about that now. The city of Calico needs your aid. You yourself have already seen what’s going on,” Lucas said, jerking his head towards the television.
“Yes. We’re ready. We’ve been ready,” Rich said hastily.
“I can see that,” Lucas spoke with a bite of sarcasm. “I’m going to teleport you all to the outskirts of Calico. Umm... It’ll be easier if you guys stand perfectly still and say nothing so I don’t overexert my power.”
Rich nodded and turned around, barking at the students to shut the hell up. Each fell completely silent as Rich went on to tell them of what they were about to do. A murmur of agreement followed Rich’s spiel and they stood their silently. Rich turned around and nodded.
“Alright. Hold on. It’s gonna be an interesting ride.”
The image of Lucas disappeared and each student started to glow a bright emerald light. Each student spun around and up into the air, fading out and disappearing completely. Rich watched as each of the students teleported away, before he himself felt the power of Lucas being transported to Calico. The next thing Rich remembered was his feet hitting the ground hard and looking up into the crimson sky. He could hear the pain of the innocents being lost in the city.
“It’s about time!” a serious voice rang out. Rich turned to see Alex storming over to him. "What took so long!?"
"ALEX!" Michelle snapped as she smacked the boy in the back of the head. Alex winced and held his head as Michelle stood above him fuming. "Sorry Rich. Alex doesn't tend to do well under pressure."
Rich had to bite back his laughter as Alex gave Michelle a heated glare. "Enough talk Michelle. We need to drive Rose May out of the city!"
Michelle looked at Alex with a murderous stare. Alex had been extremely anal ever since this morning, and frankly she was getting sick of it. "Look you. I'm sick and tired of you acting like the Supreme Emperor of the Entire World," she spat venomously, knowing the irony of her statement. "Everyone is here and ready to go. This situation is bad enough and we don’t need you go around making everyone feel bad!”
Alex looked a bit taken aback as Michelle was chewing him out. Rich’s smile faded and even Flight didn’t look happy. Michelle turned around and faced everyone, taking charge of the situation.
“Alright everyone. You all know as much the situation, but now we have to split up and take out the forces in town. It’d be smart to split into a groups of three: Fighter, Sorcerer, and Healer.” Michelle commanded over the army, each of them nodding and following instructions. “To fight off the Undead Army, the Fighter needs to wear it down before the Magician can kill it of with an elemental spell of any kind!”
“It’s like a video game!” someone whispered excitedly.
“Yes it may. But there is no reset button or redo. This is life and very serious indeed. Horrors will be sighted today and will change your perception of life itself,” Michelle said very seriously. “If anyone is in need of aid or reviving, you should send up a lightning bolt into the sky!”
“But Miss... What if we don’t have the ability to do lightning?” a Sorceress specializing in Water asked.
“Then make sure you find someone who does. Don’t overdo it and make sure to run if you have to. It’s not cowardly to run. It’s very brave to know when you can’t handle something and you must go and regroup. ‘Those who fight and run away, live to see another day!’” Michelle quoted over the group.
“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes....” Flight told her, causing him to receive and elbow in the ribs.
“Now... Enough talk! Get out there and save the city!” Michelle roared over the students and teachers.
Many of them cheered and split into groups, running off into the city to save the innocents. To the quartet right there, they were a very brave bunch indeed. To have courage to fight something which haunts the dreams of even the most innocent was truly a feat in itself.
“Rich. Are you gonna stick with us?” Flight asked.
The boy nodded as Michelle turned around to face them. Alex was unusually quiet. “What about Lucas?”
“Lucas will be fine. We need to find Rose May and drive her off so the Fake is alone. Then we can have Alex wear down the Fake and Lucas finish him off,” Michelle said, explaining her formulated plan to them. She looked at Alex and her face saddened. Alex had a very pained look on his face and looked like he was going to burst into tears. “Oh Alex.... I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he replied sniffling. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I was out of line there and I shouldn’t have been. It’s just, with what’s been happening. It’s all hard to deal with.”
The next thing Alex knew, he was been hugged by both Flight and Michelle tightly.
“We know Alex... It’s hard for us too. We don’t blame you for what’s happening, and you can have every right to be scared or angry,” Flight told him, running his fingers through Alex’s hair. “But you do really need to learn not to take it out on everyone helping, but rather Rose May and her crew.” He bent down a kissed Alex gently on his forehead. “We both love you like you’re our little brother,” - Alex was the youngest of the Heavenly Three - “and we hate to see you like this.”
Michelle also kissed him, but on the cheek rather then the forehead. “He’s right. I’m sorry Alex. I shouldn’t have snapped.”
By now, Alex was really in tears. He hugged his two best friends tightly and was sobbing out that he was sorry. Even amidst the tragedy of the city in its state, they managed to take the time to show each other how much they loved each other. Rich watched as they talked quietly, and he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Rich.” Sabrina said to him, holding her flute next to her chest. “Come on. We need you to come with us. We’re short one Fighter.” Behind Sabrina was Kyle and Sarah. Sarah was smiling a bit cheerfully at all of them, and Kyle was doing his best not to be absolutely horrified at the sight of the Heavenly Three sharing a tender moment. He wished he could be the one holding Alex right now and being there for him. Rich caught the look on Kyle’s face and reminded himself to ask what was up with Kyle later.
“Yes. We better go,” Rich said softly as the foursome ran off.
The group of three parted each other’s grasp laughing and joking like old times. They knew the seriousness of what was happening, but they needed it.
“We really should find the Fake,” Alex said wiping another tear from his eye.
Michelle and Flight smiled tenderly and nodded. Alex smiled and the three walked off into the biggest fight of their lives.
“Michelle!”
There was a piercing, sickening screech from a zombie as a group of spell tags was sent through its head, causing a disgusting show of sticky goop - which was most likely the zombies blood at one time - to fly everywhere. The headless body fell to the ground and laid there leaking the sticky syrupy substance from its neck before it was burned to ashes with a small fiery explosion from Alex.
“This is sick!” Flight cried out, knocking off another head of a zombie with a phenomenal roundhouse kick. It also fell down and was quickly burnt.
They had been jumped trying to find Rose May by a fairly large group of zombies around fifty if Michelle had counted correctly. The three had torn through the zombies easily, but it was still sickening none the less. Michelle was very brave as to not scream and run, even if she did look deathly pale. Alex deeply respected her for fighting her fears and being brave for them all.
“How many more are there!?” Alex asked impatiently, releasing spikes of ice at one zombie, causing it freeze burns on the side of its body. It immediately fell to the earth and burst into blue flame.
“That’s all for now,” Flight said, scraping the sticky mess of his shoe as best he could. He never knew the fight with the Undead would be so bloody.
The three continued on. Alex looked up at the sky to check the position of the sun. It had to be late afternoon at least. They had been taking down the Undead Army mercilessly in the last couple of hours, helping out those who were ill-prepared to fight the large groups. More then once had the group faced a large group such as the one they had just fought.
“This is terrible!” Michelle said as they ran down a street very familiar to them.
“We should have known the army to be this big. Why’d we underestimate them!?” Flight howled as they quickly took down a couple of undead soldiers which had jumped them.
“We never thought humans would have joined them though,” Alex muttered sadly.
A half n’ hour ago, the three had come into a group of humans which had sided with the Undead Army. The three couldn’t come to themselves as to kill them, and they were quickly teleported away before they could be knocked into submission - Rose May the culprit.
The three continued on, quickly making work of any threats. Once, they met a large group of thugs, and had to quickly knock them into unconsciousness before they were whisked away. Alex could feel the rift of sadness grow in his heart at the thought of these humans joining the side of darkness out of their own freewill.
“People are sick,” Michelle said, trying to reassure him.
“Yes, but even the sickest of people don’t deserve this. They do realize that they’ll most likely die in any battle later on,” Alex said, quickly putting out a fire on a large skyscraper with summoned rain from the skies.
“Alex...” Flight said mournfully at him, but nothing else was said.
The three continued on towards the arena, where they knew the source of the army was coming from. And they were right. There they saw Rose May in an ugly, brooking black throne and the Fake standing next to her watching the Undead Army being taken down easily through her seeing glass.
“I can’t believe this! My army so easily beaten by kids!” Rose May howled, resisting all temptation to break the glass into bits.
“My Lady... We’ll get that boy and his friends soon. I’ll take care of them. Just you wait!” the Fake reassured her, his voice dripping with cockiness.
The trio strode over to towards the ring and Rose May stood up, smiling maliciously.
“So, you decided to show your face,” Rose May spat.
“Of course. What you’re doing is wrong you evil cow!” Alex snapped back with hatred in his voice.
Rose May smiled darkly. “No. There’s no such thing as good and evil. Only those which may bring themselves to believe. We are but two sides with different opinions waging wars on each other.” Rose May smiled sweetly as she saw Alex’s face falter. She knew he had gotten to him.
“Even though you may be right, it doesn’t still make what you are doing right. And you need to be stopped.”
“Oh? And are you going to stop me?”
“That’s exactly what we’re planning on doing!” a deep voice bellowed out.
A crack of emerald lightning struck through the sky and hit near the Gods and one Goddess. A dark silhouette took form and Lucas appeared next to them. Rose May looked horrified.
“Get him now! He’s getting in touch with his power!”
Before Alex could blink, the Fake leapt into the air and came down upon Lucas, sending a sharp punch in the face. Lucas fell back some, but recovered quickly, sending his own devastating punch into the Fake’s chest. Rose May shrieked with fury and threw a dark bolt of lightning at Lucas. He ducked out of the way and was hit hard by the Fake.
“You two! Take care of the witch! I’ll help Lucas!” Alex said hastily.
The two nodded as Michelle sent a whirlwind of spell tags at Rose May. They engulfed her and blinded her vision before she could launch another attack. Flight took this as his chance and elbowed her right in the back. She fell down flat on her face, much to Flight’s entertainment. She leapt up and threw a spell at Flight, who blocked it with his arm. He recoiled slightly, feeling a burn in his arm. Rose May smirked before she was hit with a punch in the nose courtesy of Michelle. She felt a sickening crunch as it broke.
“You wanna hurt him, you go through me you hellish whore!” Michelle screamed before backhanding Rose May with phenomenal force. The evil sorceress was sent flying to the ground. Michelle was unleashing all of her fury upon her. This was for Alex. For Flight. For everyone whose life had been torn apart because of this witch. And especially for Jeff.
“You have a big ego for such a little girl,” Rose May said healing her nose. She leapt up and smacked Michelle back, causing her to stumble back.
“Flight...” Michelle said quietly. “Leave this bitch to me.”
Flight backed away at the fury radiating from Michelle. He nodded and went to help the other two, who were having some trouble putting the Fake into submission.
“I’ll never let you through! You’ll die today Oracle!” the Fake said hitting Alex with his full force.
Alex was sent flying backwards quite a distance. The Oracle flipped around and landed on his feet, immediately starting to run in place. A bright orange aura surrounded Alex as he ran faster. Before any of them could realize, Alex shot like a bullet at the Fake, crashing into him, causing orange electricity to surge throughout his body. The Fake screamed in pain and launched a punch at Alex, which he blocked easily with his hand. A look of shock swept over his face.
“What have you done to my strength!?”
A quick kick in the side of the from Flight quickly silenced the Fake, causing him to stumble back. A loud scream was heard as Michelle tugged at Rose May’s hair, ripping it out painfully.
“This is for Alex!” she said, tearing more out, causing the evil witch to scream with pain. Michelle was thrown off by Rose May, but she recovered by landing on her feet. Michelle ran at Rose May and tackled her to the ground. “That’s for Flight!” The young girl was releasing her rage. Rose May had deep fear in her eyes as she stared at Michelle. The girl punched her in the face had before she was kicked off. “That was for everyone you hurt!” Michelle grabbed a spell tag from her pocket. It hardened over and grew extremely large. Before Rose May knew what hit her, she was lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding out of the injuries Michelle had causing her. “And that was for Jeff...” she whispered, tears forming in her eyes as she held the giant rolled up spell tag slightly.
The Fake was now losing the battle quickly as Flight and Lucas double teamed him into a submissive move. He was laying on the ground hurt badly.
“Lucas! Finish him off now!” Alex yelled at him.
Lucas hesitantly walked over to the Fake, not knowing how to kill him. Lucas’ eyes filled with fear and he couldn’t bring himself to lay a hand on the Fake. “I-I can’t...”
Alex sighed irritably before recomposing himself. “Lucas. The Fake isn’t human. He’s a golem created from magic and using your power to fuel him. He won’t be missed and he won’t go onto another plain of existence. He’s a golem. Now, only you can kill him. Your hands won’t be drenched in the blood of an innocent, for you hardly are,” Alex told him seriously. “Now... finish him!”
Lucas paled and nodded. He brought up his hand, causing the sky to crackle with emerald rushes of wind. The Fake paled at the sight and gulped at his fate. He was tooweak to move and too weak to roll away. Rose May was unconscious and he knew Jeff or Frienze wouldn’t come to help him. He had failed. The Fake moved his emotionless eyes to Alex’s eyes. He became lost in them as he saw things he had never realized. All of what was to come and how happiness and joy would become the essence of existence. Lucas brought his hand down and a microburst of piercing emerald hit the Fake. A piercing white light erupted from the body of the golem, flew into the sky, and everything became motionless.