The automatic classroom door opens up and Yoshi’s father walks in. Strangely covered in teaching robes, normally worn by a Force instructor, he weaves through several teenagers and instructors to meet up with Yoshi and her friends waiting inside. Sitting off in a somewhat secluded corner by the teacher’s desk leans Yoshi with her arms crossed, Kazamir and Kreszentia talking together in nearby desks and Sardines messing with a holographic display of rotating planets. Occasionally during their waiting she would peek over her shoulder and at the two sitting down.
“Alright, change of plans,” Yoshi’s father yells in a cheery and eager tone of voice. As he makes his approach, he waves around a small rolled up paper in his daughter’s direction. “We’re taking one of the larger drop ships for this mission.”
Yoshi stomps a foot down and storms toward her father. “Dad,” she whines. “Why are you our instructor? People are going to think you’re playing favorites now.” She adds and glances around at the peering eyes of her classmates.
“Hey, just think of it as father-daughter bonding time. Besides, this will be worth it. I promise you.”
Yoshi pokes at her father’s chest and glares. “I don’t need a baby sitter, dad.”
Kreszentia lifts from the desk she sat at and meets Yoshi by her side. With dull eyes, she steps in front of Yoshi and twirls to face her father to say, “I will bond with you in her place then.”
Not sure what to really say Yoshi’s father smiles at the glowing stoic newmen and taps her head with the roll of paper. “Regardless of how you feel, your group is stuck with me. Now as for your mission— everyone to the table please. Gather around, gather around.” Yoshi’s father lays the roll of paper on the desk and unravels it. Upon straightening out the corners schematics of a frigate like vessel, some animals and the planet they were visiting begin to hover above the paper and rotate. “This mission is going to be very different from the rest. One that will keep you from using any form of photonic combat. Because if you do, it will blow up in your face. Very painful.”
“This doesn’t sound like something normal Arks operatives would cover,” says Kazamir as he takes a closer look at the mission details.
“No, it’s not. Consider your team a special operations unit for the time being. On this planet— the name is listed on the hover display if you’re curious— it is being used by a rebel faction to create illegal parts that will be shipped off elsewhere. Someplace else to be assembled and then put to use against our fleet. Your objective is to take a party of four and put an end to it. How you destroy the facility is up to you.”
“Four?” asks Sardines, who looks around for a missing member.
“That’s right,” smiles Yoshi’s father. “Since I will be acting as team pilot, you will be on the ground fighting with them.”
“But I’m a mechanic, not a fighter,” Sardine complains.
Kazamir taps at the planet to stop it and leans to the side. “Uh, sir. Isn’t this just a recolored Amduscia?”
Yoshi’s father lightly holds the dewmen boy by the shoulder and whispers, “Just work with me on this.” After that he stands straight up and finishes in a serious booming voice, “Make sure to converse and prepare for the mission. I will see you all on the ship. You have half an hour. Dismissed.”
With their meeting done Yoshi’s father points to the holographic ship’s name to let them know where to report to and leaves the classroom. By now the classroom had started to look a lot emptier than when he first came in. Most of their classmates had already left to begin their mission. Once the door had shut and their instructor had left the classroom Kreszentia summons a training rifle, that she keeps on her incase Kazamir somehow broke his, and begins inspect it. In the meantime Yoshi walks up to Sardine and gives her a shove.
“Welcome to the team, fish girl. I hope you’re good in a fight. Wouldn’t want to have to carry your sorry ass around the whole way.”
Sardine smacks Yoshi’s arms away and shoves her back. “Please, I can bench you with just one arm.” Eyeing one of Yoshi’s blue finger nails, she adds while flexing one of her arms, “I bet you’d start crying over a broken nail, so leave all the combat to someone who can actually handle it, okay? Wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself in front of your friends.”
Yoshi tackles Sardines with her chest and the two puff up for a stare down. Kazamir goes to get up from his chair to break them up, but before he could try Kreszentia holds him down and shakes her head.
“I’ll show heavy combat. Let’s throw down right now. You wouldn’t last a second.”
Now Kreszentia gets up and takes the rifle with her. “As much as we all like seeing the squishing of breasts, let us focus on the mission at hand. That sounds like a good idea, hmm?” She then pushes Yoshi aside and shoves the rifle into Sardine’s chest. “Despite your claims, I have yet to see partake in any form of combat training. So until you do, you will be going on this mission as a Ranger.”
Keeping her eyes on Kreszentia, Sardines takes the rifle and responds, “If you wanted to touch my breasts, you could’ve just asked.”
Kreszentia leans in closer and harshly whispers, “I would prefer if you kept your nonsense to a minimum.” After that she walks back to the table and begins to come up with a route for the team to follow. Unexpectedly, Yoshi joins her.
Sardines, taking this as a chance to relax some more, instead grabs a chair and moves it next to Kazamir. “Is she always such a prude?”
Kazamir weakly smiles and rubs the back of his head. “She’s the team leader,” he replies. “She has to be that way. You know, to keep the team in line and reduce mistakes and stuff.”
“Well she could use some lightening up. Probably just jealous that I’m the most developed in this group. Wouldn’t you agree?” she asks and winks.
Nervously does Kazamir slowly rotate away and launch out of his seat. “Now that I think of it— I should go help out with that route planning,” he quickly spits.
“Wait,” Sardines says instantly. In a blink of an eye she grabs the dewmen by the sleeve and pulls it close to her. “Shouldn’t you teach me how this rifle works first?” After seeing Kazamir’s very conflicted expression, she then releases her grip and waves him off. “Just kidding. You’re too easy to mess with, Kaz. Go ahead and get planning.”
Half an hour later the team arrives in a large academy hanger housing several large ships of various shapes. Since not many people were using these ships at the moment the hanger was largely empty. Other than themselves, the only other people that could be seen with them were the mechanics prepping their space vessel for flight. Yoshi’s father for some reason is also standing on top of it, posing.
“A bit small for a frigate don’t you think?” asks an unimpressed Sardines as they continue their walk to the ship.
“You were honestly expecting something larger?” responds Kreszentia. “He said we were using a drop ship.”
“Could this even be considered a cargo ship? Looks like one of those private ships that you fly with friends and important folk if you ask me.”
“I think it’s big enough to be a cargo ship,” chimes in Kazamir. “Maybe even house like eight people too, maybe?”
“Dad, get down from there,” shouts Yoshi in manner similar to her mother. In a much lower tone, she adds. “This is why we can’t go anywhere nice.”
“So you four finally arrive?” Shouts back her father. “Took you long enough. You even had the staff do all sort of unnecessary checks just to pass the time.”
“Dad, what would be considered unnecessary on a ship this big? Also we got hungry.”
Like a mad man, Yoshi’s father leaps off and effortlessly lands right in front of them as if he has simply skipped off the ledge of a sidewalk. “Testing if the toaster works for starters.” He replies with a big grin on his face. “So you ready to go or what? Come on, let’s get this show on the road,” he says, walking away with robes fluttering in the wind.
“Wait!” a girl cries.
Yoshi’s father stops for a moment, but continues on towards the ship. As he starts up a lowered ramp, a familiar human girl of brown hair runs to Yoshi and stops to hand her a small paper package. “Phew, I barely made it.”
“Noreen?” asks Yoshi.
“Hello, Noreen,” says Kreszentia at the same time.
“You’re lucky your dad is so lax with you, Yoshi. If it were my dad . . . well anyways, I wanted to wish you all good luck before you took off. So well . . . good luck!”
And just like that, without even letting them say goodbye, she was gone.
Yoshi looks down and opens the package. The group gathers around. Cradled in the paper wrapping, three small personalized wrist charms laid for them to wear. Each of them contains a different colored gem stone. Since Kazamir is a boy he got a cheap store bought wristband instead. It also had a roughly written tag to let them know it was his. Amused by Kazamir’s gift Yoshi plucks the wristband from the paper and hands it to him, saying,
“Guess she didn’t know what to get you. Maybe you’ll get something better later?”
“Thanks,” says Kazamir. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Finally the team boards their ship and makes way to the dragon planet, Amduscia. As soon as they entered the planet’s atmosphere they could already somewhat make out the training course set up for them. Upon getting a closer look at it, using the ship’s many observation features, they could also see several dragon kin wondering around the area inspecting the course. When the ship goes to land on the surface they fly into a steep hole barely big enough to contain the ship. Since the ship was barely small enough to fit inside the hole, the only lighting anyone had to work with on the ground came from a lava mote hugging the wall. It created a small orange ring for them to see with.
The ramp lowers. All of the dragon kin collectively leave the course. A few of them however come up to greet Yoshi’s father. None of them knew he wouldn’t be coming out though. To their surprise they were instead greeted by four armed teenagers, who stare at each other with just as much confusion.
“If you’re here for my dad, he’s staying inside the ship. You can go in if you want though. That’s allowed right?” Yoshi asks Kreszentia.
“It would not be the first time we have let aliens board our crafts.” Kreszentia says with a shrug.
Sardines bounces a rifle on her shoulder and grunts with impatience. “I thought this was a stealth mission?” she complains.
To this Kreszentia moves onward and says, “Think of this as getting information from the natives first. Let’s move out.”
Their mission has started. The four of them enter a tall canyon entrance leading into what looked like a network of caves with small holes in the ceiling. Looking around in the inside of red and black rock they could see several purple crystals sticking out of the walls and ground. Some of them tall, some of them small; from the looks of it the larger ones gave off a pulse of scattering electricity faster than the small ones. Upon leaving the first room and entering the second Kazamir rushes forward and holds up his hand to make them stop. After that he hands Kreszentia a pair of binoculars and points up at a few cameras lining the rock pillars. For some reason there didn’t seem to be any form patrol guarding the area.
When Kazamir stops the team they hug the wall and looks at the dewmen for a report. At this same moment a noticeable explosion could be heard going off somewhere deep inside the cave.
“These are the cameras the paper warned us about. Seem whatever is powering them; its pillar must be making contact with the ground. See any way to get past them without having to take them out, Kris?” After that Kazamir shift towards Sardines, who stood behind him, and finishes, “Historic weapons aren’t the quietest things to use. So if I did, it would draw unwanted attention.”
“Nerd.”
“What is the quietest weapon you have, Kaz?” Kreszentia asks.
“I have a crossbow I guess. Can’t tell you how much range and power it has though, or how quiet it is. I’ve never really used one. I’m also afraid I’ll have to replace the string after every use.”
Kreszentia points to the nearest pillar just barely sticking out of a very shadowy area of the cave. “Try hitting that over there. That is the only one I need taken care of.”
Kazamir eagerly rushes forward, kneels and takes aim. “Leave it to me,” he whispers before taking the shot. Silently and without fail, his bolt hits its mark and the camera begins to spark. In a stroke of luck it sparks at the same time a crystal does. Thanks to this it masks the somewhat unique sound that the camera creates when destroyed.
Kreszentia leads the way again. Into the shadow dimly lit by flowing lava, the four of them hug the volcanic wall, pause for any enemy that may be entering, and slip into the next room unnoticed. Though everything is going smoothly so far, for some reason they suddenly stop right in front of the entrance. Though they would have continued in without hesitation, something seemed off about this room. The pillars looked broken, all the crystals were shattered and there was an awfully strange hole in the wall that they knew wasn’t natural.
“Cameras are all broken,” Kazamir reports.
“This must be the explosion we heard earlier,” says Yoshi, eyeing all the rubble on the floor. She activates a flashlight and scans the inside of the hole. “I don’t see signs of an explosive.”
“Keep on your toes,” says Kreszentia. “We are definitely not alone. We move on.”
Since security seems to have been taken care of in that room the team moves on to the next area. Like the last one this room too seems to have suffered some damage. Unlike the last room however, the crystals remained intact. There wasn’t a single crack on them.
“This room seems clear, let us move on to the next.”
“Hold on,” Kazamir interrupts. “I think I hear something.”
The team moves up to the entrance of the next room and peaks inside. In this room they could see a large, dirty, shirtless and muscular man roam around effortlessly breaking every pillar with a single punch of his fist. He didn’t look like anyone they would be running into in the report. So they retreat back inside and contact the ship.
“Think we can take him?” Kazamir quietly asks.
“He’s a shirtless dude,” Yoshi hisses. “How tough could he be?”
“Sir,” Kreszentia whispers with a finger on her ear. “There’s a large shirtless man breaking everything in caves. How should we proceed?”
There was a moment of silence before Yoshi’s father responded. “Is he muscular and have a tattoo on his arm?”
Kreszentia peeks again and retreats. “There are a series of snakes on his body, yes.”
Immediately, Yoshi father loudly responds, “Stay where you and whatever you do, stay out of sight. Do you hear me? I will be right there.”
Wide eyed now, Kreszentia slowly lowers her hand and looks to her team. She could see the fear in their eyes as well. They heard the response too. This wasn’t part of the course.
“Mr. Xol said to stay put and that is what we are doing,” Kreszentia whispers.
Suddenly a large rock lands and explodes right next to them.
Yoshi falls on her rear.
Kreszentia and Kazamir gasp.
Sardines squeaks in fright out the sudden event.
“I thought I heard something,” says the deep voice of the room in the other room.
A wild bearded face enters the room and menacingly stares at the children below him. Without hesitation Kazamir fires his crossbow and watches in horror as the bolt harmlessly bounces off the man’s skin. Seeing that it didn’t work Sardine quickly takes hold of Kazamir and pulls him away. As if reading what the man would do next, Sardines allows Kazamir to narrowly avoid a fist exploding into the ground and is nicked by the flying pebbles produced by it.
“Guess I over did it a little,” the man says and chuckles to himself.
“Kaz, are you okay?” Sardine cries. Normally the shields they wore should have prevented small cuts like that, but for some reason Kazamir had a good handful of them on his arms and legs.
“Permission to use photons,” Yoshi manages to blurt out as she holds a pair of swords up in front of her. Though she put up a brave front, it was clear she was scared by the shaking of her legs and arms. Even Kreszentia, who was known to be the calmest of the group, had trouble keeping her cool.
“Oh, kids who fancy themselves soldiers, huh? This will be good. Go ahead. Give it a try.” The man leans forward and pats at his cheek. “I’ll even let you get a free hit in.”
“It . . . it would be best if we retreat,” Kreszentia orders. “Kaz, smoke. Now.”
Kazamir tries to do it, but had trouble getting the grenade out. While Sardines, her deathly grip still on Kazmir, and Kreszentia ran away, Yoshi slowly stepped backwards keeping her attention on the wild man at all times.
“Running away so soon? They sure don’t train them like they used to. Guess I’ll just have to picking you off. Starting with you,” he finishes, looking at Yoshi.
The strange man rushes forward. In one fluid motion he pulls his arm pack and launches forward for a punch. Not knowing what to do Yoshi instinctively stands her ground, shields her face and closes her eyes. When does, she could hear several objects shoot out of the ground. The cries of the man and the sound of piercing skin follow after. When Yoshi opens her eyes, she could see a fist hovering mere centimeters away from her face, along with the dozen of spikes, some broken, others intact, holding it in place.
“Mmmmm,” the man groans. He tugs his arm back, breaking the remaining pillars that managed to stop it, and examines the many wounds inflicted on his arm. With his other hand he emits a green glow and the wounds fade away. Whatever damage Yoshi did to him, whatever victory she could have celebrated, they quickly vanish without a trace. “Should have made it a killing blow,” the man calmly says and smiles. “You will now see why.”
Fearfully Yoshi readies her weapons. The man prepares for another punch.
“That will be enough, Argos,” shouts Yoshi’s father.
“I will be commanded by no one,” the man shouts back and fluidly shifts motions to stomp on the floor instead. When he did, a spike of earth shoots out at Yoshi’s father, but what should have penetrated the teacher’s face instead flew at him as a cloud of dust. With a simple touch of his hand Yoshi’s father neutralizes Argos’s attack and continues his approach. The muscular man growls and balls his fist. Argos stomps on the floor again, and again Yoshi’s father fearlessly pats it away. Seemly tired of Argos’s antics now, Yoshi’s father raises a hand and shoots a bolt of Diga at the man.
Thinking it wouldn’t do much Argos lets the bolt land and finds his guess to be right. The barely logged bolt caused little damage or pain at all. What he didn’t expect though was what came after. Just as Argos was about to laugh at his opponent’s pathetic attempts to wound him, Yoshi’s father snaps his fingers and Argos quickly finds himself squirming about on the floor as if he were being electrocuted. Given no time to react, he is knocked away by a block of earth and contained by layers of earthly honeycombs forming into a bubble.
With his opponent now taken care of, Yoshi’s father throws a bag of sand into the air and gestures the others closer. “It should be safe to come in now,” he says with great serenity and confidence in his voice.
Though still frightened by what just happened, the kids nod and come back inside. As they do, they could also feel the earth tremble when Argos tries to punch his way out of the bubble.
“History lesson of the day. While the Diga of the past were known to be vastly powerful, unstoppable in some cases even, their defenses were actually only skin deep. While you could technically pull the same feat on the Diga of today, it would be much more difficult to achieve as our natural defenses span nearly every cell in our body.”
“Yadira,” he then commands, fiercely looking his daughter in the eyes. “You should have run like the others. What were you thinking? You had me worried sick. What would I have told your mother if anything were to happen to you? To any of you? What would I have told your parents? Do you know what could have happened if he had landed that punch?”
Yoshi broke into tears. Stabbed by her father’s words, she looks down in shame and sobs, “Sorry, dad. I didn’t mean to.”
“What you pulled off though was no small feat.” Yoshi’s father ruffle’s his daughter’s hair, kneels down and continues in much warmer tone, “To see you stop a punch like that, I am very proud of you.” He gives his daughter a loving hug and stands back up. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. Just forget about, okay?” Opening his eyes again, he focuses on the bubble and continues, “Now excuse me for a moment; there are important matter to attend to. The dragonkin will escort you back to the ship.”
Silently the team watches Yoshi’s father walk into an opening created in the bubble. While the dragons that would guide them back enter the room, they watch the closing bubble’s repairing honeycombs and huddle together in concern without realizing it.
That was the first time they have ever fought someone so strong, and without having to utter a word, they agreed they should start preparing for it.
And why am I not surprised that the so-called "mall trip" was more than just a trip to the mall?
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