The Alliance

Chapter 11: An Old Friend

After collecting some backpacks full of food and supplies, we head back out to the takeoff pad. We all mount our dragons, who have been waiting for us outside. As soon as we takeoff, I take the lead since I know the way.
"I'm going to need a little help, but since our dragons are faster than jets, we should be there in about an hour or so!" I yell to Jason, who flies just a bit to the right of me. He nods and we proceed in silence.

*****
About an hour and fifteen minutes later, I see a large structure that seems to be suspended in the air, thousands of feet above the ground. I point at it and yell to the others that this is the place.
In minutes, we have all landed on the deserted landing platform. As I look around at the hanger, I don't see anyone. 'That's odd,' I think to myself. 'Someone ought to be here.'
"Something's up." I state. "People should be here. Fixing planes, skydiving, something." Everyone nods in agreement. I walk to the opened sleek glass doors that lead to the Main Hall. The giant glass ceiling of the orb-like Main Hall is dark. I see that all of the lights have been smashed, leaving the shadows to reign over the place.
"Creepy!" Sky and Dawn exclaim together. I shiver myself. This is not the same place that I left a few weeks ago. I have a terrible feeling then. Where was Peter? He should've heard them by now. He couldn't have been captured, could he? Dawn voices my concerns.
"Um, where's this Peter guy?" Dawn inquiries. I shrug, and I see a look of concern wash over her face. "Well, wherever he is, he should hurry. This place gives me the creeps!"
"Just face it Dawn! You're dream boy is gone! Or dead!" Sky explodes. The last statement worries me a lot and I feel a few tears slip out of my eyes. Joel sees, and puts an arm around me. I watch as Sky's look of anger turns into compassion and she starts to apologize, but Joel cuts her off.
"What was that about?!" He fumes. "You're talking about Crimson's best friend as if he is dead! What did you expect?" Sky glared at Joel, and he glares back.
"Stop bickering so we can actually do something useful!" Jason exclaims, exasperated. Sky gives Joel one last glare, then goes to stand by Dawn. I thank Joel for trying to protest and he smiles and tells me it was the least he could do. I feel a rush of affection for him. He was great and he just wanted to do anything he could to protect me. I'm snapped out of it by Damian, who mouths "I ship it." then winks. I flick him, then walk over to talk with Jason.
"I still don't think they got Peter. I also think I might be able to find him, wherever he is." I explain. He nods and gives me a thumbs up before turning to address the group.
"Okay, well, Crim here says that she doesn't think our mister Peter is gone. That means we're all gonna follow her and keep your pretty little mouths shut. got it?" Jason explains. after everyone has agreed, he turns to Fiar. "Don't try anything." Fiar nods and promises he'll keep quiet.
I start off across the decimated Main Hall. Burnt couches and chairs lay overturned and askew. Shards of broken glass are littered across the intricate marble floor. I look down and figure that there was no possible way that if anyone was here they wouldn't know they were there. But the glass wasn't as bad as the horrifyingly detailed pieces of smashed rock that was mixed into the glass. I bend to pick up one, but immediately drop it because of what it is. A human eye stares up at me and I shiver, diverting my eyes from the horrid scene all around me. It was like walking through a graveyard.
Trying to forget my surroundings, I walk forward. In the entrance to the first hallway, I stop and delve into my mind. 'Hello' I say in my mind, trying to reach out to Peter's mind. 'It's me Peter. I'm here to help.' And then I hear it. Peter's voice, his accent thick and hopeful.
"Crim! You're here. You're safe! Thank God!! I'm trapped with Amber in the Pit. Amber is hurt." Peter seems okay, but I can tell that he's worried. I think about Amber, another one of my friends from Europe.
"Thank God! You're both okay. Don't be alarmed, I have a team with me, but they're good friends. We'll be there soon." I explain. he thanks me and I open my eyes. Everyone has caught up and Jason asks what I was doing.
"I can talk telepathically with Peter when we are close. Him and another friend are trapped in our battle arena. We have to go save them." Jason nods and tells me to lead the way. I walk down a few corridors then enter an empty coliseum type room. Towering marble seating rise from the floor. In the middle of the room, the floor dips down into a fighting arena, just like the Roman Coliseum. Around the circular arena are five barred cages built into the wall. I look up at the ceiling and see that the middle panes of the glass had been broken off, and had plummeted down, covering the bars to one of the cages.
"Crim! We're in here!" I hear Peter's voice echo from the cage that lay underneath the glass. I run and jump the five feet down into the arena. I hear a few thumps behind me, which means everyone has followed. I get to work, dragging shards of thick glass away from the bars. Dawn uses her mind to lift stuff while everyone else helps by hand. Minutes later, all of the glass is gone and I can finally able to scramble over to the bars. Peter and I embrace through the bars.
"You came back for me? Why? You knew it was dangerous." Peter seems really relieved, his worry gone for a while. Amber looks happy too, though her long, brown hair is flecked with blood and her glowing orange eyes are filled with pain.
"I came because I knew you are too smart to be captured." I wink, but then remember the question that I was dying to ask. "How come you couldn't move the glass and bars yourself? You have mind powers. Amber has fire that could melt the bars." He looks down, seemingly ashamed.
"Everything happened so fast. These people came in, unexpected, and shot everyone with these." He lifts his arm to show them a little silver circle, embedded into his upper left arm. "No one could use their powers, and they were herded into groups and separated from the less experienced. And they killed them. Right in front of us. It was terrible. They were turned to stone and smashed. Luckily, we escaped, but not for long. They chased us into here and we closed the bars just in time. But they couldn't just leave us alive so they barricaded us in with that glass." We all listened to his story. He also added that the bars were stuck and that they couldn't lift them because Amber had cut her arm pretty bad.
"Don't worry." Crow says happily. "We'll have you out of there in seconds." He motions to Jason, Fiar, and Joel to help him pull them up. With a squeal of metal on stone, the gate shot into its holding place and we helped them up.
"Quite a crew you got here." Peter comments. I nod and we hug again. I walk over to Amber and we hug. She winces s little and I remember that she is injured. I dig around in my backpack and find some gauze and bandaging cloth. I put on the gauze and wrap the cloth around it tightly to lessen the blood flow.
"Thank you." Amber states in her Irish accent. I wink at her and grab Jason. I ask if it's ok if I introduce them. "Sure." he says as I thank him with a small hug.
"Okay so you guys don't really know each other so um, I'll introduce you guys to each other." I announce. Everyone nods, so I start again, pointing to everyone as I go. "Joel is an ice bender, Jason is a pyromaniac, Crow is a water bender, and Damian can control wind and clouds. Sky is pretty strong and can be invisible and Dawn is just like you Peter." Peter and Amber nod and thank everyone again.
"I'm Peter, as you can probably tell, and I'm apparently just like Dawn here." He explains with a smile. "And Amber is also a pyromaniac." He winks at Jason, and Jason smiles. Relieved that everyone seems to like each other, I let them talk for a while.
*****
"So, now what?" Asks Sky after we have all eaten and discussed things. We had gotten then things that stole Peter and Amber's powers off, and they seemed way stronger. Apparently, the place where everyone was being taken was somewhere on the edge of Canada and the US. it had been marked on a map that was carelessly strewn on the floor.
"Isn't it obvious?" Peter asks. "We go there." He says, pointing to the point on the map.