The Orca

Part 7: The Auras

Bill and Arthur had begun their training, as Bill was ready to learn the ways of the Shaolin Mage.

"Before we begin, I want to talk to you about auras." Arthur explained.

"Auras?" Bill was curious.

"Each Shaolin Mage has one of four elemental aura types; Fire, Ice, Lightning and Sound." Arthur pulled out a scroll with the aura types.

"Fire is good against ice, right?" Bill assumed because of common knowledge that fire melts ice.

"Exactly." Bill was on a roll. "And ice beats lightning, lightning beats sound, and sound beats fire." Arthur pointed to the elemental chart.

"Here's fire indicated in red, and here's ice, indicated in turquoise." Arthur explained.

"Fire beats ice." Bill commented. "And here's lightning indicated in yellow and sound indicated in purple."

"So what aura am I going to learn?" Bill was excited to learn an aura as he was jumping up and down, shaking his fists forward and backward.

"You are going to learn fire." Arthur placed his hand on Bill's chest and began to detect his aura.

"You have a Fire Aura, so you are going to learn the way of the flames." Arthur led Bill and Pike to the Mothership.

"Pike, drive us to Joshua Tree National Park, we need to do our training there." Arthur told Pike.

"You got it, boss!" Pike drove to Joshua Tree, where they were to begin the training.

"The Fire Aura is stronger in the sunlight, so all you need to do is absorb sunlight and fire it out with your hands, creating fire." Arthur explained. Bill went to stand on a rock.

"Maintain your stance and concentrate." Bill began his stance, but he wanted approval if his stance was good.

"Is this ok?" Bill asked.

"Silence!" Arthur snapped. "Talking isn't concentrating!" Arthur pointed to Pike. "See your friend over there, is he talking?"

"No but he's high on some edibles." Pike was chewing some green brownies, staring at the sky with his eyes glowing green.

"Yes, but he's got the concentrating part down." Arthur pointed to some tourists taking photos. "How about those people there, are they talking?"

"No." Bill admitted.

"Good. Now keep your mouth shut and absorb the sunlight!" Bill spoke no words, absorbing and soaking in sun rays. He absorbed sun energy like photosynthesis, and then when he absorbed enough, he created a fireball.

"Hey, I made a fireball!" Bill was excited that he made a fireball, and started juggling it.

"Don't juggle it, release it!" Bill threw the fireball, burning a nearby truck. Some mercenaries took notice and came after Bill.

"Hey!" A mercenary with a Confederate flag hat yelled. "Lay off my truck!"

"It's not me!" Bill protested. "That man in the green tunic put me up to this!"

"Really." The mercenaries went to Arthur.

"You got some explaining to do, mister!" A blonde female mercenary yelled at Arthur.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with." Arthur took a battle stance and activated his fire aura.

"That's enough outta you!" The female mercenary snapped. "One more word and I'll pump some lead in your veins!"

"Oh really." Arthur drew his secret weapon, his red plasma sword.

"Wait a minute." The mercenary examined the plasma sword. "The fire, the sword, you're a Shaolin Mage!"

"Exactly." Arthur roasted the mercenaries and ran.

"Everyone in the mothership, we got to loose them!" Arthur ordered. They drove out of Joshua Tree all the way to East Los Angeles, where they were in a town populated by blacks and Hispanics.

"East Los Angeles." Arthur remarked. "There's not a more vile nest of villainy in the world. We should be cautious." They drove to Compton, stopping the Mothership at a bar to get a nice beer or something, hopefully not to run into more trouble.