The Alliance

Chapter 10: Gone

"We're close." Jason states as we all slow down. Checking his cool, info watch, he points to the left and we all creep silently through the undergrowth. We come to a large clearing and I look at Jason. He shrugs and mouths, "It says here!"
"Welcome." We all spin to see a boy, our age, standing next to a large oak. He wears the same thing as us, except for the designs and the long, black cloak trailing him. His black hair matches his cloak, and his piercing green eyes seem to laugh at us. "It's nice to have company."
I realize that this is a trap, but to late. Lasers shoot from the ground and surround us, to thin to get through.
"Hey!" Jason screams. "Let us go or so help me!!!" He throws flaming balls of magma at the bars, but nothing happens.
"Don't even try. You'll get nowhere." The villain says. He walks around the bars and stops in front of me. "Hmmm...I wasn't informed of you. You're a beauty." He winks and I look straight into his eyes and shock him from the inside.
"Ow!" He exclaims. "Wait a second, he didn't say there was an Electric!! Oh no!!" I see him start to panic and I know why. I walk to the one of the bars. I grab it with both hands and pull in its energy.
"No! Stop!!" He cries and runs to stop me, but I've already absorbed the whole laser. All of the other bars disappear, and he stumbles back. "I'll never tell you anything!" He shouts.
"We will see about that." Dawn says as she picks him up with her telekinesis and Jason lights a fire underneath him. Panic fills his eyes and I shock him once more.
"Fine, fine! What do you want?!" He screams in pain. I watch Joel step up to him and put the cuffs on him. The villain gasps, and Crow puts out the fire so Dawn can set him down.
"How did you know we were coming?" Joel demands. The villain cringes, but he keeps his word. He tells us about how this guy, someone he had never met before, had offered him a great array of power if he came and captured us.
"Hmmmm...so you don't know who it is." Dawn murmurs. "He's telling the truth. I can sense it." She turns to the villain, but with a sort of kindness in her eyes. "I'll let you go, but on one condition. You must come with us, and don't try anything." The villain nods and promises to be as helpful as he can. Dawn again senses that he is telling the truth, so shortcircut the cuffs and they fall to the ground, useless.
"Thank you! I promise, I'll try to remember what he sounds like so we can find him." He says and I help him to his feet. He smiles gratefully at me, and I smile back.
"So, what's your name?" I ask. He seems startled by my accent and I fight off a laugh.
"I'm Fiar. I'm actually not from here." He states, and I catch a familiar French accent laced into his words. I nod and Fiar asks me my name.
"I'm Crimson. I was sent here as a foreign exchange student so we could learn how to work together." He smiles and says that he couldn't tell the difference between me and the others. I laugh and so does he. We walk silently the rest of the way, but when we reach the landing clearing there is a bit of a panic. The pilot and Director Phillips were supposed to meet us there fifteen minutes ago. Jason tries to call the Director with his watch, but no one answers.
"That's odd." Dawn mutters to Sky. " Director Phillips is never-" She is cut off by Fiar.
"No!" He exclaims. "No no no...this wasn't supposed to happen yet!" I run over to him as he shoves him hands to his face. "I was going to warn you!!"
"What is it, Fiar?" I ask, but he just looks at me sadly. I get a horrible feeling, and I somehow know that the Director won't be coming back for us.
"Um, there is a slight chance that all of the other supers are, well...turned to stone." Fiar looks away, ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry!! I was too busy trying to remember who the mastermind was that I totally forgot about his plans!" He explains.
Everyone gasps and Sky starts to freak out. "What are we going to do?!" She exclaims. "How are going to get back? We can't even get to HQ because we don't know where we are!!"
"Hey, Sky, just calm down." Crow says as he puts his arm around her and calms her down. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head.
"Who can form elemental steeds?" I ask. Everyone except for Sky, Dawn, and Fiar say yes. "Ok, Dawn, go with Joel. Sky, you go with Crow. Fiar, you're with me." I say as I conjure a large ball of electricity and smash it to the ground. An electrical dragon erupts from the sizzling shards and I look at the others, gesturing them to do the same. Soon, our whole group is surrounded by four monsterous dragons. Mine crouches down so that me and Fiar can climb on, but Fiar hesitates.
"What's wrong?" I ask him. He shakes his head and explains that he hates being up high. I try to reassure him, but even though he climbs onto the dragon behind me, I can see the fear in his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll tell him to make it a smooth ride." He nods and I see him tighten his grip on one of the dragon's spikes.
I look around and see that everyone has mounted up and I give the signal for take off. I steer my dragon to Jason and his dragon.
"Where are we heading?!" I half scream at him. He pulls up a small holomap on his watch and points to the right. We all turn and follow Jason's directions, and soon we land in the clearing that leads to the underground base.
"It feels empty here..." Crow exclaims as he shivers. It's true. The place seems cold, empty, and lifeless. Sky shivers, out of coldness this time. Crow puts his arm around her shoulders, trying to warm her. She smiles at him and we all walk to the lift. It rattles down, and what greets us on the other side is like a foreign environment. It's almost completely dark, and its as If no one is in the Main Room, which is really weird. But that's when I see the stone-like figure by the couch. It's a girl, a little younger than us, dressed in a training suit with a pin of a huge mountain stuck on it.
"Mona. She's a Groundbreaker." Dawn informs us. "Or was." I look over at Fiar, but he looks away, to ashamed to meet my gaze. I walk over to him and sense there is something he isn't telling us.
"Spill it." I demand. "You gave us your word that you would help us." He nods and finally meets my gaze with his eyes.
"I heard something about them leaving only the weakest to be turned to stone. They must've took the others to turn them evil. I-" Fiar was cut short by Sky's outraged cry.
"Turned what?! You said nothing about them being turned evil!!" She screeches, her hazel eyes filled with rage. Crow restrains her from getting any closer to Fiar, probably because she would strangle him. I walk over to the stone version of Mona. As I examine her, I find a small button-like thing attatched to her upper arm.
"Fiar? What's this?" I inquire as he strides over to me and looks at it. Immediate surprise fills his eyes.
"How...what?" He seems really confused. "Th-these are mine! How dare they trick me!" Fiar screams, frustrated. He turns to me and explains that these are creations of his, but he had honestly no idea how the bad guys got them. Again I trust him, and I ask how we should remove it. He says he's not sure, that he had never even tested them yet. I unsheath one of my axes and decide to do the only thing that seems logical.
"What're you-" Fiar tries to stop me, but I have already swung down, hitting the thing straight in the middle. It shatters, and I watch as the color returns to the little girl. She falls over and gasps in breath. We all rush to help her up and she seems confused.
"How come they didn't take you?" She asks. Then her eyes fill with fear. "Please! Don't smash me!! I'm useful, I promise!" She starts to cry, but Jason walks up and puts his arm around her and whispers something into her ear. She looks up and sees all of us in our suits and pins and I watch as the fear fades from her eyes. She quickly explains how the Evil Ones, as she calls them, came in and captured all of the older, more experienced supers and left the younger ones to be turned into stone and smashed. She said that since the thing didn't hit her heart, she had time before she froze completely, so she ran. The Evil Ones didn't bother to find her, because she'd be stone anyways. She also said they said something about the European Division before they left.
"Thank you Mona." Jason soothes. "Now, I want you to go hide somewhere safe. Don't come out for anything or anyone, you hear me?" Mona nods and runs off.
"Now what?!" Joel exclaims. "Everyone is captured, and we are the only ones left!" Everyone just starts muttering, but I have another idea.
"Let's go the the European Division!" I exclaim. Fiar stares at me.
"You heard the girl, everyone will be gone or dead." Fiar states.
"Not exactly." I mutter. "I know someone who is smarter than them. He won't be captured, Peter's to smart."