The Marvels #1 : The Marvel of Water

Chapter 14

A huge journal. The front of the brown leather cover read, “Tracking Rebels”. Barco hurriedly opened the journal. In the first page, it read, “As the head director of the Rebel Hunters of Rochester, I feel as if they are watching my every movements. I wouldn’t be surprised. The Rebels are a resourceful faction, and I’m sad to say the Power, a great faction, underestimates them. The Rebels, and their unlikely inhuman allies, the Marvels. From my intelligence, without the knowing of the Power, the Marvel faction is made up of Marvels, Abominations, and their great leader; Elemental. But I have collected disturbing news about the alliance between the Marvels and the Rebels. News that has made me a target. I don’t have much time, so I quickly wrote the information down in this journal, hoping it would come into Marvel hands, not human hands. Of course-” The rest of the page was burnt away. In fact, all the other pages with writing was charred, and mostly unreadable. 

Barco called out, “Hey, I can kind of read this part!” As the 8 marvels crowded around the journal, there was a large boom from the sound of the shotgun. Instinctively, the marvels dropped the journal, and rolled onto the ground in tight balls. The straightened up and glanced to see who had shot at them. It was the Rebels. How did they know? They all wore crests of the Rebel. The Power had different looking crests or badges, so there was difference. 

Barco gulped and nervously asked, “Um… hey! We’re your allies, why did you shoot at us?” Instead of answering, the leader droned in a robotic voice, “Give, me, the journal!” 

“What journal?” replied Barco, who shifted the journal with his foot to hide behind the hulking earth marvel. “You leave us no choice,” growled another Rebel. They pointed their weapons at the 8 marvels. Suddenly, the earth marvel, Geo yelled, “You want this journal? Go get it!” He tossed a brown book down the hill. The book slid and tumbled down the hill. The Rebel forces abandoned their weapons and chased the rolling book. Barco gazed at Geo with an expression of horror, “What was that for?”

Geo grinned and opened his giant palm. Resting on it was the real journal. They all breathed a sigh of relief. “Come on, let’s get going!” Barco called out. 

The 8 marvels were huddled in a cave, in the radius of Rochester. There was a thick forest that surrounded them, and they had caught a deer, and were now roasting it. A heavy rain pounded the roof of the cave, leaving a musical pitter-patter noise. Dynamo gazed at the rainy skies and lifted his hands. Sparks of energy cackled at his fingertips. The sky gave a bright flash, and then they heard thunder. Lightning flashed down from the skies, and a distant rumbling could be heard. “Did you do that?” asked Barco, who prodded the dear flesh with a stick to see if it was cooked yet. They had skinned the deer, and the light marvel was turning it into some thin blankets. Dynamo nodded, “Yes I did that. How’s Inferno with that book?” Inferno had said that fire destroyed most of the pages. “I could look into my Book and see if there’s a spell to reverse it. I am the original fire marvel,” he had said. As they rested in the cave, the light marvel exclaimed, “Done!” She laid 8 scraps of deerskin on the hard cave floor. The marvels gratefully sat down. Erebus again tested the deer, and then took it off the fire. “It’s ready!” he announced. They carved 8 generous portions of the deer, and started eating it. They had left the hooves, antlers, and head uneaten. After the meal, Erebus started carving the hooves and antlers into special shapes, and Polaris, the ice marvel went and huddled into his corner of the cave with the deer head. He was doing something mysterious to it. Barco laid down on his deerskin, and listened to the pounding of the rain. Slowly, his eyes began to close. 

Barco was dreaming. It wasn’t any ordinary dream. He was the rain. The rain that was all over Rochester. He could see the Rebel headquarters of Rochester. He watched as the  Rebels that attacked him slowly trudge home. In their hand, they held the fake book. As they entered the building, Barco’s view changed. He was now a water drop on the window, watching as the Rebel trooped into the head director. Their voices sounded distorted as they spoke, “Sir, this is a fake book. We could not find the Keepers real journal.” The head director growled, “Well, as long as the marvels can’t read the book, we will still be able to command them as slaves.” The Rebel troop leader twitched nervously, “But sir, we may have demonstrated aggressiveness that made the Marvels think we were… enemies.” The head director gave a howl, and slapped the leader. “Idiot! I said to look like friends and ask for the journal respectfully! What did you do to make them mad, demand the journal?” The leader shuffled his feet, “Um… yes. We also might have threatened to kill them and shoot at them with a shotgun.” The head director gave another howl of despair. He pointed at the troop, and then another man stepped out. The new arrival shook his head sadly, before handcuffing the troop and leading them away. Barco’s dream slowly faded away.

Barco woke up, again shiny metallic gills covered in slick sweat. Inferno glanced up from his work, “What’s wrong?” He told them about his dream. Inferno nodded, “From what I heard, the Rebels are no longer our allies. It’s every faction for himself; Power V.S. Rebels V.S. Marvels” He gave a long sigh. “Well, I fixed the book. Let’s see what it says,”

Dear Marvels, if it is not you please don’t read the contents of the book. Destroy if you must, but don’t read it. You already know the information inside. If it the marvels, then please continue reading. For the Power and Rebel, they were aware of a fourth faction. That faction happened to be neutral, and was called the Keeper of the Truth. Our goal is to preserve knowledge and truth. This often means spying on the other factions. We often keep secret, and only the Marvels are completely unaware of us. This is about to change. I have gathered secrets that caused the Rebels to launch an attack on me. They believed they killed me, but it is not easy to kill the best of the elite, the Secret Keeper (that’s me). Recent information reveals that the Rebels are just using you, and are not your allies. I hope you break the alliance treaty as quickly as possible, and fight the Power and Rebels. Don’t worry, as soon as you break the treaty the Rebels are allowed to attack you, and the Power would be away. Best of luck, The Secret Keeper. 

Barco gasped, “So that’s why the Rebels were talking about us like we were slaves!” Erebus screamed loudly, “We have to break the treaty, now!” 

 “What do we do with the journal?”

“Burn it!” They agreed, and soon, the journal was consumed into flames. “Who would’ve known there was a 4th faction, the Keeper of the Truth?” said Barco. 

The sun had just come out, causing a fine mist to rise in the morning. As the marvels marched toward the building that Barco saw in his dream, they noticed that a man was following them. It was no surprise. They were strange looking, since they looked like aliens. But the man was surreptitiously glancing at them. The marvels looked at each other, gave a subtle nod, and jumped on the man. The pulled away the newspaper he was hiding behind and shouted, “Who are you?” The man looked nervous. “I’m a rebel,” he snarled, before pulling out a glass vial. They watched as he swallowed the contents, then die.

“Wow, that puts a new meaning to “I’d rather die than be captured,”” observed Barco. Erebus shrugged, “Whatever. This just shows that the Rebels do not trust us. Let’s go!”

Negotiations are a long and boring affair, so the author won’t go into detail. But after entering the headquarters, the marvels broke the treaty, and had 12 hours before the Rebels could attack them. Erebus looked around, “Well now that’s done, let’s go to New York!”