The Primordials: Retribution (Book Four)

Chapter XII: Naomi vs. Wren - Frigid Winds (Pt.1)

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, 3:20 pm EST

       Naomi stumbled on a moving plane, a little dazed after being dropped off. She looked around, surprised to see a full moon as it was suddenly nighttime. It was blackness beneath the plane, but she could tell they were thousands of feet up.

       "What the..." Wren was lying on her back, cleaning her nails. She wore light-green-colored robe-like clothes that flapped in the wind. They had dark blue lining on their edges and opened around her right leg, exposing her blue thigh boots and the bottom half of the navy blue one-piece she wore beneath. She even wore a matching light-green scarf with an emerald that matched her blue eyes. With her silky, golden hair, Naomi could tell she was going for a goddess approach.

       She really is full of herself, Naomi commented internally.

       Wren levitated a few feet off the plane, still in her horizontal position, before turning herself vertical. She looked around, probably to ensure no one else had just appeared too. "How...of course...Michael."

       Wren placed her hands on her hips, eyed Naomi, and shook her head in utter disbelief.

       "What are you, a masochist?" she called out, flicking a wrist flippantly. "You get beaten nearly to death, and now you're back for more?"

       "This time, I'm better prepared," Naomi responded as ice started to creep from her feet.

       "No, wait!" Wren said, taking a step forward, her gaze now fixed on the ice forming around Naomi.

       Naomi noted that it almost sounded like a plea, but she didn't stop. She allowed the ice to crawl across the plane's surface in a flash, freezing every inch of it until its inner workings stopped working. The plane shook violently as its engines could no longer operate.

       "No, no, noo," Wren said as she watched helplessly, then stomped in frustration. "This can't be happening....Work you piece of crap!"

       Due to the ice being from Naomi's spirit energy, her strength alone only managed to crack the ice, not break it. However, the force from her stomp was enough to begin the plane's descension toward the ocean below.

       "Dammit," she cursed under her breath.

       Naomi leaped from the plane and free-fell toward the dark waters below them as the aircraft plummeted fast. She couldn't help but be amazed by the reflection of the stars and moon upon the waters below for just a second. It was almost like falling toward open space.

       She felt a shift in the air as Wren frantically blew past her and attempted to catch the massive cargo plane. But it was too much for her alone. She could only manage to slow it as Naomi fell past them.

       "I can't...I can't lift it..." Wren struggled beneath the falling plane. She even went as far as using heat to defrost the bottom. But it still proved too much for her to handle as the aircraft fell lower despite her resistance.

       Naomi extended an arm outward as she fell and released a frigid burst of wind directly at the plane. The burst of cold wasn't powerful enough to freeze Wren, but it instantly refroze the plane, causing it to slip out of her hands from the imbalance and gripless slippery surface.

       "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Wren lashed out and shot toward Naomi, who side-maneuvered midair, grabbed her by the arm, and swung them both until Wren now had the ocean beneath her.

       "Want to know something I learned from our last encounter?" She said as they got closer to the ocean's surface.

       Wren glared at Naomi and gritted her teeth.

       "You're not very good in close quarters." Naomi grinned as she used Wren as support and leaped higher, the force causing Wren to fall faster.

       Wren fell so fast that she caught up to the plane. Naomi noticed her anger let off waves of heat that melted most of the ice off the plane again as she approached it.

       She disregarded this detail, though, because she noticed the obnoxiously loud flapping of her cape behind her as he began to fall again.

       Maybe the cape's a bit much, she thought. She reached behind and grabbed a fistful of the material before ripping it off and tossing it to the wind.

       Refocusing, Naomi watched as the plane finally hit the water, creating large waves that disrupted the perfect starry image on the ocean's surface.

       However, as Wren landed on the waters, she saw all the water in the area stand still and become flat as if nothing had happened.

       Not a single ripple was generated even as Naomi landed, her touch freezing that part of the ocean over. She looked around as the salty smell suddenly hit her nostrils.

       She really has a way with nature, Naomi's younger mind said from within as Naomi looked around at the frozen landscape. Too bad she uses it for someone like Avarice.

       Naomi remained silent as she noticed red in the frozen water. Some of the JANUS tablets that first hit the water must have already begun to dissolve. Deeper below, she could partially discern the plane's lights as it sunk deeper into the unfrozen depths.

       "There goes their steroids," Naomi commented out loud.

       "He's going to be disappointed in me..." Naomi heard Wren mutter. She looked wide-eyed, slightly crazed even, staring at where the plane was last seen before disappearing. "I've never disappointed him before..."

       I kinda feel bad...

       Don't be. They're trying to destroy the world, remember?

       "You! It's all because of YOU!" Wren wailed in rage. The ice began to crack as Wren summoned a wall of water a distance away.

       Naomi's eyebrows raised in response as a monstrous tsunami that stood hundreds of feet tall rushed toward them. But Naomi was undeterred as she just as quickly flash-froze it in place without moving an inch.

       "Am I supposed to feel sympathy for you?" she retorted coldly.