The Alliance

Chapter 6: Riding on Electricity

I wake up and feel Damian beside me. I blink my eyes and realize that we are still in the Planetarium. I shake his arm and he blinks awake. Smiling he stands and offers me his hand. I take it when I touch him, I feel like something inside me is complete. This happened yesterday night too. Silently, he leads me through a maze of huge tunnels.
"What am I going to do?" I ask, my accent as thick as ever. I am kind of interested if he will use his accent, and sure enough, his slight accent becomes,more evident when he speaks.
"Well, if you mean about the others, you will be fine! Joel is pretty much drooling over you, Crow was on the edge of his seat for you to come back, and Jason wants to know how you punch so hard!" He laughs, and I notice that he seems to know me. I put this off. His accent could be inherited from parents, and we could just look alike.
"What about Dawn? Or Sky?" I inquire. "Last time I saw them, Sky was teleported to the medic wing and Dawn was pinned to the floor by a dragon that I created!" I kind of start venting to him, one because he seems to be a problem solver, two he is honestly listening, I can tell.
"First of all, Dawn is probably your biggest fan, other than Joel. I'm the only other person that has ever beaten her. She respects your power, and she saw how quickly you took away your anger." Damian explains. "But as for Sky, she's angry as ever. Don't worry though. She hated me too until a while ago." He winks as we finally reach the large cavern that leads to the houses. We walk over to a couch where everyone but Sky sits. I feel all eyes on me as I sit next to Jason.
"That...was...amazing!" He yells. "I had no idea girls were that strong. I look and see that there is a large bruise under his jaw and I wince. He sees me and adds, "Don't worry, I've had worse." He smiles and I relax as Crow adds his congrats and he winks at me. Joel comes over to and I can see that he us stumbling for something to say.
"I...ummm...that was pretty awesome what you did." He smiles a goofy smile and I have to stifle a laugh as I thank him. Dawn comes and sits next to me on the other side.
"That was cool, Crimson. You are very talented. I'm sorry I was so grumpy earlier. I really do respect you and I was wondering if we could maybe be friends?" She asks me. I'm astonished that she isn't still mad or scared, and I like her so I agree.
"Thanks! I'd love to be friends, aand I think you're pretty awesome too." I agree as we shake hands. I feel satisfied and we start talking about what happened when me and Damian were gone. Suddenly, everyone gets quiet, and I look up. Sky stalks towards us, fuming. She glares at Dawn and the boys.
"Oh, come on Sky! She was just protecting herself from you. You were provoking her." Dawn says, but Sky just sighs and strides away towards the Brainmasters' door.
"I'll go talk to her." Dawn sighs. "Yall go ahead and go to the Mess Hall." We wish her luck as we start in different directions. Damian and Jason walk beside me, and we make our way to the Mess Hall.
Now, the Mess Hall isn't just like any regular cafteria. Yes, there are tables in the center that you can sit on, but that's about the only similarity. You can also sit at tables that levitate through the air. We walk over to these cool machines that have a fingerprint pad on one side and an opening for the food to come out. I put my finger on one, and it scans it. Out comes a large plate of steaming hot lasagna, one of my favorites.
My friends grab their food and we walk towards a hovering table. Crow whistles and one table zips towards us, its chairs in tow. They arrive and we sit in the chairs and place our trays on the table. Both the table and chairs slowly go up towards our usual place near the ceiling. Underneath us are ice cream and sweets carts that you just help yourself with. I shove some lasagna into my mouth, and swallow. Crow starts talking about The Dragon's Quest, an awesome virtual reality game where you ride dragons and fight other riders or groups of riders. I chime in and the guys look at me, astonished.
"What? Can I not play because I am girl?" I question them. I then realize that I accidentally let my accent get so thick that I skipped a word. Jason laughs, almost choking on his macaroni and cheese in the process.
"No! That's really cool, actually!" Joel exclaims. "We've got our own clan of riders. Want to join?" I nod my head, too excited to talk. None of the others, except for Peter, liked that game at the European Division! But now I found a group of friends who want to add me to their clan!
"Let's play later. But first, I want to show you something." Damian winks. I look around and see that everyone has devoured their food. I tell the table to go down, and it falls from the sky, stopping at the last second.
"Oops!" I blush as one of our trays flys off the table, onto the floor. We all go and put our trays onto a thing that transports them to somewhere.
"We are gonna go to the riding arena. You guys can come if you want." Damian says to the others as he grabs my arm and leads me down one hallway. I feel Joel come up to my right and Jason and Crow behind us. We take two more lefts and one right and arrive at an enormous set of mahogany doors. Joel and Damian heave one open and I am amazed, once again. It's like a literal countryside in thecavern. Even the celeing is coded to look like a real, blue sky. A vast sea of green grass stretches to the left, and to the right, a large forest composed of various types of trees. I look around and see one person riding what seems to be a horse, but it has tufts of green grass coming out.
"Well, what're you waiting for?" I hear Crow's voice and turn to see them all with stress of their own. Jason has conjured up a horse that is made of raging fire, yet it doesn't burn the grass. Crow's is a almost transparent bear made out of water, and Joel's is a giant, icy wolf. I conjure a ball of electricity and light and smash it on the ground. Just as it hits a large boom sounds beside me. Damian has done the same thing, but his was made of clouds and wind. At the same time, two beasts spring up and I see shock in Damian's eyes. Before us stand two identical, but different, beasts. Both have the body and mane of a large lion and stripes of a tiger, but mine is blue, surging electricity and his is a whirling cloud. We share a look, but then mount our steeds. I twine my fingers through the flowing electricity of the beast's mane. It rears and takes off when I whisper "go".
I hear the scratching of Joel's ginormous wolf trotting beside me as we head to the forest. I kick my liger faster and he immediately speeds ahead, but Joel comes up to my right again. The grotesque wolf runs just as easily as my liger does. We race each other like this all the way to the forest.
"Can I show you something?" He questions as he comes closer to me. I nod and he veers to the left, deeper into the forest. I follow on my liger and we ride for a while until I notice the air gets suddenly cooler. We emerge into a huge clearing that houses a beautiful pond. He dismounts and motions for me to do the same. I leave my steed to rest (not that it needs to), and I follow Joel to the edge of the water.
"Promise not to tell anyone?" He asks quietly. I agree and he points at the center. "Watch." He instructs. He sits, feet in the water, and motions for me to do the same. I do, and I look up at him. His intense yet gentle, green-eyed gaze rests on the center of the pond. I watch the same spot and seconds later, a stream of water shoots up. I jump and Joel steadied me.
"Don't worry. They won't hurt us." He explains as he puts his arm behind me so he can steady me. Another stream shoots out and joins the other one. They twist and dance in the air, and it is spectacular.
"So," I say, "your power is ice and snow?" He smiles and laughs. I notice his bright smile and how warm and friendly his laugh is.
"Lame right?" He sighs. "I don't even have blue eyes or pale skin. I'm like a superhero gone wrong...
"Stop. You're amazing!" I say gingerly. "And your powers sound awesome too." I realize I'm blushing and Joel smiles. I see that he too is blushing a bit. We sit for a while watching little blue things splsh and make the water dance.
"What are they?" I finally ask. He shrugs and gives me a quick smile.
"Honestly, I have no idea!" He explains. "I just came here accidentally and I thought it was cool,so I came back." He looks back out at the water and sighs.
"I see how you came back. It is beautiful." I whisper he offers me his shoulder and I lean into it. We sit like this for a while again, but I suddenly hear a snap behind me and see Crow standing there on his water bear.
"Come on you two lovebirds! We better see what's up with Sky and Dawn." He waits as we get up and walk to our steeds. Joel looks really embarrassed. Joel walks his steed up by Crow's and I hear Crow whisper, "You picked a good one." Joel punches Crow's shoulder and he explodes into laughter, triggering me to start laughing too.
Crow leads us away and I ride up to his other side.As we near the others at the door, I see Joel wink at me and mouth 'We will go back sometime.' I nod and we stop our stress and dismount. I blink and my liger disappears. Joel takes in a sharp breath, but then relaxes.
"Sorry." He apologizes. "Your eyes... I keep forgetting that they aren't electric blue." He smiles and we all walk out of the cavern and towards the houses. 'Please let Sky be my friend' I pray silently. But when I walk into the Commons, all I can feel are Sky's eyes piercing me.