Page knew finding Crystal was too easy. She should have been more suspicious of that stupid official...
....
"We have to find her!" Jake shouts over the crowd as they push their way through.
"We will!" Page insists earnestly. They have to find her. There isn't another option. They have to find her and they have to bring her home.
Mahoney punches his other hand . "I don't care how many people we have to take down, we're gonna find her."
"There has to be an easier way to locate her other than asking everyone in this entire place," Demetri wonders aloud. "The first option will take too long."
They continue walking through the busy underground streets, internally debating on what their next move should be when Jake suddenly picks up his pace.
Page chases after him. What does he see? She doesn't want to call after him and attract too much attention on them. People are looking at them weirdly enough already.
Jake runs up to a girl with a black t-shirt. Pages catches a glimpse of the words "Arena Staff" before the girl's back is shoved up against the side of a stone building.
"Listen to me you little-"
"Jake," Page hisses.
Jake's fists tighten around the collar of the girl's shirt, causing a grunt from the red head. "Where's Crystal!?"
"Who?" The girl asked with obvious fake ignorance.
Jake shoved her against the wall again, his eyes full of intense emotion. "The Avatar! Where is she?! And don't lie to me! I won't have to bend anything to make you regret it."
The girl's eyes widen. Mahoney watches with a just a bit too much excitement in his expression. Demetri holds Page back from interfering.
"Alright, Alright" The girl gives in. "She should be in the games right now. Last I heard the match is about to start."
Jake still holds onto her collar tight. "Take us to the arena. Now!"
He releases the girl and she nods quickly so as not to bring on anymore of Jake's anger. She leads them quickly towards the back of the community. A large steel stadium rises up before them with the roaring of the crowds filling the air.
The girl leads them away from the main entrance and to a small side door. Three rhythmic knocks later and they were being led through a series of hallways. Page does her best to keep track of the twists and turns. It's the only way she learned the passages of Element Academy after all.
As they move, the noise of the crowd suddenly grows louder again. A light illuminates the space before and the earth starts to quake.
"Fight us already!"
"Crystal!" the group shouts more or less in unison. They take off running past the official and towards the rising gated entrance in time to see Crystal slam into the stone wall...
.....
"Are you sure you are okay?" Mahoney asks Crystal.
"I told you I'm fine. Protect Jake till we can get him out of here." Crystal practically begs.
Page redirects a blast of water back at the other group. "Crystal, you need to focus."
"R-Right." Crystal stomps on the ground causing a boulder to rise up from the earth. She punches forward sending their opponents scrambling. "Pair up with your like element and go! I'll handle the earth bender."
They all quickly agree and rush forward to attack while the benders scramble to meet them head on.
"I'll spare your pride and finish you quickly." the male bender tells her with a sneer.
Page bends the water around her into the form of tentacles. "I'd like to see you try."
Keep a level head. Its just like sparing at camp...only this guy doesn't know to be afraid of her and her skills.
She sends each tentacle of water flying at him. One after the other she sends ice chunk after ice chunk, and one after the other he shatters them without much effort. Page grits her teeth. The fight is going to be like fighting Talula, she can already tell.
A smirk graces her lips. This should be fun.
She takes in a breath and bends more water towards herself. It seems like a simple attack, a single shot of water is nothing major after all. Motioning both arms toward her opponent, the water rockets forward.
The guy is ready. He plants his feet loosely on the ground. A fluid motion of sweep his arms around in front of his body sends the water around him and back to Page.
Page can't help but to let a smile sneak through. She quickly steps forward and pushes her hand directly at the blast.
The two forces meet, bender and water, causing the liquid to lose its form and blossom out. The whole scene seems to play out in slow motion as it stretches out, falling back towards the boy before rushing down like a massive deformed hand. With all the force she could produce, it comes crasheing down on him.
Page steps forward, sweeping her arms upward and clenching her fists. The water lifts the boy back and up off the ground before freezing in place, solidifying itself and the boy against the wall of the arena.
He struggles to move but the water has frozen him in a sprawled out position with hands, feet, and arms sticking out from the mass of ice. The position leaves moving, and more importantly bending, an option that's very difficult to accomplish.
"Heads up!"
Page ducks down as a line of fire comes barreling towards her. Mahoney jumps in front of her and splits the flames, sending it shooting around them.
Heat reaches it searing claws out at them as it passes by as quickly as it came.
"You good?" He asks quickly.
Page feels her hair for burns. "Yeah."
"Good, let's finish these guys."
YOU ARE READING
Element Academy: The Light of the Avatar
ActionCrystal and Page have returned home from Camp, but who says the adventure is over? With a month still left of Summer, anything can happen and there are dark forces at work determined to make sure that something does. WARNING: This is book 2 of Eleme...