CROSSING RIVER (B×B×B..) *COMPLETE*

Chapter 30- Captured

Couple of hours before Brandon’s incident....

Erina had finally returned into the training room with dozens of china clay(Plates). Everyone’s attention was on her as she entered, “Now, we will practice using frequency attacks. River had given perfect example earlier and I heard Riley had gone and tested it out on someone. Explain both of your experiences while making the sound and afterwards”, she asked the two boys.

“I had remembered my mother using that sound before she summoned lighting. It didn’t explode the creatures head so I thought it could help me summon lighting and tried it but as we know her head blew up. Now that I thought about the incident with the creature who was giant, it might have created holes in it’s body and my eyes didn’t notice that. Anyways, I just focused on widely opening my mouth and inhaling through it then exhaling out in same manner, the sound that came out was “Shwaa”, I didn’t have any pain or discomfort afterwards”, he explained in details.

All heads turned to Riley and the boy spoke, “I inhaled through nose and intentionally made the sound while exhaling. The forced exhale of air caused pressure on my vocal chords and I coughed out a bit of blood which made it difficult to even talk for a while”, he said and watched as River gave him a ‘Why didn’t you say that there was blood with pain before?’ look.

He flashed him a small smile but the boy was not having it. “Is it not something every Siren did?”, River asked to Erina and Wayde. Both of them shook their heads, “No, I never knew we could blast creatures while I was around and since Wayde also didn’t know about it, perhaps it’s something your mother’s tribe created?”, Erina offered and every one thought that could be it.

“River can you demonstrate?”, she asked then swam to the place where the couch had been broken into half. “I will throw these plates, try to aim at them. I chose this place because there’s a glass window here and I want to see if it goes further or stops after meeting the target. Just focus on the plate while you hit”, she reminded then after counting three, she threw it.

River’s round pupils turned into slits as he focused then aimed at the target. The glass window shattered and dropped inside the water but thankfully there was another glass behind it which seemed to have been made from same properties as the once in the glass cubicles.

The plate however remained intact, River had missed the target. “Need to work on aiming. Can you go again?”, Erina asked and he nodded. This time he hit the target and there wasn’t even a crack in the walls or the remaining of the broken glass.

“Ok! Now I’m definitely not going to stand here while all of us will practice that. what do you want to name it, River?”, she asked and the boy thought for a while and said, “Shwaa blast? Ha I don’t know how to name cool things”, he said feeling embarrassed until he heard Riley say, “You named me, so I’m not cool?”, with a pout. River raised the part where his eyebrows should have been at Riley’s goofy behaviour.

He realised that every one here were slowly showing bits of their hidden personalities. “I think it’s fine, if we want anyone of us to use it in emergency, we can just yell, ‘Do the Shwaa’”, Olivia pointed out and now it sounded cool. Every one approved and started practicing their “shwaas”. 

They have cracked more walls than they broke plates. After thinking it was enough Erina then said, “Let’s just leave it at that. Now for the final lesson, Wayde are you ready? Every one look at our fight carefully because this is how a real fight will look like”. Everyone except Wayde moved back to give them enough space.

They were holding their breathes. “You won’t actually hurt each other right?”, River asked in concern then he pouted when he heard Wayde say, “The more real it is, the better it is registered in all of your minds”, in a serious tone. He looked thirsty for fight.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt your boyfriend”, Erina teased which made River cough while Wayde paused, probably liking the sound of that. His happy smile soon froze because Erina had flashed in front of him and nearly scratched his chest with her elongated claws. Wayde quickly moved to the side and used his tail to hit Erina but the lady smoothly avoided being hit.

There was blood thirst sparkling in her slitted eyes. She looked extremely happy as if she had gotten the present she had desperately hoped for. The two of them continued with throwing strong hits and blows at each other. Few scratches on Wayde while just a slap of tail at Erina was the score until now.

River, Riley and Olivia watched with excitement and concern. Those two were fighting for blood. River noticed that Erina didn’t seem like she had been out of touch with underwater fights. Just by watching her move, made one see a imaginary clip of her doing all this while wearing mermaid tail in her swimming pool.

When Wayde was finally about to get the upper hand during their combat, Erina used her last weapon which were the spine needles and narrowly escaped from losing. Wayde was caught off guard and she used it to corner him then her claws went straight for his neck.

River inched forward as the heated training led to such end, he had thought Erina would stab her claws into Wayde’s neck since both of them were driven by passion for fighting and he feared she was blinded by it. However, the claws paused inches away from stabbing Wayde who was a bit worried of getting stabbed as well.

“And that’s how you fight”, Erina said then turned around to see fear in the eyes of three bystanders. Wayde relaxed then moved to her side with his head down and claws clenched, it was cutting his skin. “Don’t be hard on yourself Wayde, I might have been out of touch with my real self for many years but I kept training for all those years in hope of returning to the water someday. You are really great warrior and I would have lost if it wasn’t for my sneak attack”, she praised the boy and patted his back.

River, Riley and Olivia moved forward towards the two fighters and scolded them for making it too real. They took break from training and ate the remaining food from the container. River was quiet and in deep thought as he ate, Riley noticed and nudged the boy. The green eyed boy finally looked up and saw all four members of his new family were watching him.

“I... It’s just too real. I have been in safe bubble since the change and even after facing life threatening incident, It hadn’t registered in my mind that it could be like that everyday. Humans fight but there are rules and regulations, they fight for stupid things, they kill for more stupid things but here it’s about survival. If we saw another Siren, we can’t go and introduce ourselves but we have to be weary and on guard. I just didn’t realize the depth of this training until you two fought”, he softly explained.

Olivia and Riley had same thoughts on the matter and these three could relate to being completely out of their element. Wayde placed his hand on River’s waist and hugged the boy, side ways. “You don’t have to worry about that, there aren’t many Meras in this area. Many have travelled to the other direction of where we are heading. And if we are to encounter others, your instinct will kick in to protect yourself. This human side of you will take back seat”, he reminded the boy who nodded and agreed.

Erina looked outside the window and said, “I think we should head out first. Sun will be up in few hours and we also need to see if Wayde’s family is still around here. Do you guys use any kind of call when looking for each other? Low, high vibrations or whistling, humming?”, Erina asked to which Wayde replied, “Yes, low humming. Low Whistling is to show concern, high whistling is to show excitement and higher frequency is to warn others for danger”.

Erina nodded, “It is similar to my tribe. We can use this for us as well, of course we don’t need whistling to show concern or excitement but we can used low and high humming as looking for lost ones and to warn others of danger from long distance”, she recommended and everyone agreed.

After finishing their meals, they grabbed their weapons and headed out of the place then entered the room which was connected to the tunnel. Olivia had gone  upstairs room with Erina to find a laptop, she wanted to send an e-mail to her family. The upper part of the room had been elevated so there was no water which meant they had to drag their bodies upstairs.

River gave Wayde a big hug and the boy was surprised at first but immediately hugged back and even started nibbling on River’s neck which earned him a hard punch on the back. “Can you stop being so horny! I’m hugging you as a means for comfort, considering that there is a possibility we may not find your sister and grandmother”, River scolded but still let the boy nibble.

Wayde knew why he was hugged but it was his duty as a mate to tease his other mate. He felt a pat on his shoulder from Riley while he didn’t let River move from the hug. “Ugh I really wish you had legs right now, so that I could hit you where it hurts”, River complained. Finally, Wayde relaxed his tight hug and looked at River with offended eyes.

“If you did that, how would I plant my seeds? At least think of such important matter if you want to hit where it hurts”, he half teased but was probably more serious. River pushed the boy off himself, he understood that the boy didn’t need to be comforted.
Riley scoffed and said, “He will always have mine to work with”, then he narrowly escaped a punch from Wayde and soon he was being chased by the other. River still couldn’t get used to having two partners while those two talked to him as if all three of them have been dating since high school and they recently got married.

Apparently he was the only one in honeymoon phase with them while those two had started family planning. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right palm, it felt like the skin had been stabbed with blades. He hissed and looked at it but there was nothing wrong. Wayde and Riley came to him and checked his hand in concern, “What happened?”, Riley asked.

“It just felt like I sliced my palm with something sharp but there’s no cut. It just felt weird. My blood is boiling in this area”, he pointed to the middle part of his palm and the two guys looked at it carefully then felt around the area but didn’t notice any abnormalities.
The ladies came back and Erina chirped, “Let’s go”. The boys didn’t mention the incident as they thought it was just nerve pain and followed the ladies through the tunnel and out into the ocean. Wayde took charge of the direction and soon all of them officially started their journey.

They were swimming at the depth where humans couldn’t dive without using oxygen tanks and since it was very early in the morning, they knew no one would be diving. Riley, River and Olivia were enjoying the scenery and the creatures all around them while Erina and Wayde were alert for any threats.

River felt so free and confident as he swam against the current. He circled Riley then Olivia as he swam, having fun and playful moment. The other two also played along with him. River did some tricks that the dolphins in the park did, he was giving them a performance. The green eyed boy made them laugh when he squeaked like dolphin then did a whole body twirl.

Time passed quickly as they reached the spot where Wayde family had temporarily made resting place and they found no one. The playful guy was feeling down when it finally happened, his grandmother and sister had left. He understood that they had to leave since he didn’t come back but he was more concerned for their safety.

With all the things that he knows now, he thought their ways of living had been very primitive. Wayde turned stiff when four beings surrounded him in a group hug and he felt himself being relaxed. Every one left their family at some point to start their own and now he had four new people in his life. He had a mate, a brother and two sisters.

“I think we should start moving now”, he said at last and every one gave him an sympathetic smile then they agreed. Now they were heading to their new life and new adventure. River, Riley and Wayde were holding hands as they swam while Erina and Olivia were joining their hands as they swam in front of them.

Erina raised her left hand in a closed fist and every one halted. Fear creeped inside River’s bone when he heard Erina say, “We are being followed and watched”. Soon all four of them turned around as they placed their backs towards each other and formed a circle.

Their eyes surveyed the surrounding, some thought it could be humans, some thought other predators while Wayde and Erina knew it was another Siren, not one but group of them. “Use sonar”, Erina ordered and everyone made a 'O' with their lips then sent a wave through it, making whistle noise.

Their eyes widened when they saw five to six figures hiding and watching them. River’s hand was squeezed by Riley and Wayde on both side. River had only taken one deep breath when huge waves rushed towards them from all directions. They were sandwiched in the middle as they fought against the powerful force.

They were surrounded in a circling water, none of them could keep their eyes open just from the powerful currents. River felt the hands holding him were starting to slip and he hurriedly held them tighter. Erina and Wayde had never seen such techniques in their lives or ever even heard of such attack. This was not natural whirlpool, it was created by the Creatures who were surrounding them.

“Move up!”, Erina finally succeeded in forcing out words but didn’t know it others heard her. She pulled the hands she was holding with her as she gave her all to swim upwards. Olivia heard the lady and followed while Wayde and Riley felt their hands being tugged upwards, they understood and pulled River up as they gritted their teeth and flapped their tails.

When they succeeded moving up, the current relaxed which threw them off guard and all their holds on each other slipped as they drifted to the surface but separately. Riley and Wayde panicked then the two of them hurried towards River but the strong currents came back and they were pushed further away from each other. Now, all of them had huge distance between them.

Erina took deep breath in and blasted at her opponent with a “Shwaa”, there was a loud and painful screech from the receiving end. Olivia, Riley, Wayde and River heard the sound and soon followed with their own blasts. This time others were prepared as they dodged the wave, few groans were heard.

River’s eyes narrowed when he saw white flash in the corner then more white shadows darted all around them. River’s Trident had dropped when they were pushed by the strong currents and similar thing had happened to others. Weapons seemed useless in the sea.

He heard noises behind him and his heart tightened seeing all four of his family fighting with white Creatures which looked like Beluga whales but with upper human body. He sensed one of those creatures coming towards him and when they were near, he slammed them with his tail, earning a screech.

The creature had fangs like himself as it flashed them at him and charged once more. River knew he couldn’t fight for long and he would only be exhausted, so he used the reveal technique at the enemy who was caught off guard. His webbed spine needles were longer than before and they had pinkish glow on them like his patches of scales. He didn’t know there was two parts of them like wings because they rattled and separated like two thin pages in a book.

He used this chance to swim towards any one of his family and he nearly made it to Riley when he was caught by the tail and flung backwards. He was taken back from the creature’s speed which was similar to his. There was no room to escape, his hairs started moving up as they reflected light, the Creature paused with wide eyes. It was actually scared and ready to run just from that.

There was a low humming from behind him and all the Creatures fighting other four of his family suddenly increased their pace of attack. They were very well trained and soon they had Erina, Olivia, Riley and Wayde in a tight hold. River watched in fear as the creatures put some sort of black crystal bracelet in the hands of his family.

River’s hackles raised when an entity came towards him in a speed. His eyes turned into slit as he turned around and everything happened in slow motion, white lights circled his body and escaped through his fingers. Clacking noise could be heard around him, made by the lightning. The lights reached the incoming creature but they were blocked by a thin icy shield which was starting to crack.

Erina knew this creature was the leader and she was sure if River won with lightening Strikes, the warriors holding them would leave them alone but even her face showed surprise after seeing such unexpected outcome. River’s fear rose when his ultimate weapon was met head on. The white lights around him changed into mixture of bluish green and he shot them once more.

The icy shield cracked and the Creature was startled but he quickly dashed in front of River using the moment of surprise. “Don’t ! If you attack me, all your friends will die”, came the most distinct voice with unique accent. River quickly halted but he was already tired to produce one more strike. The lights around his dispersed and he heaved slowly.