Legendary

Chapter 9: A jacket, really?

NOTHING is worse than shadow teleportation. As my body changed from a solid form to a gaseous form, I felt my body parts starting to shift position. For a while, my ass had collided with my stomach. Everything was of course dark and then after a few seconds, we could see the light. From that point, we started to change back to solid and then human form.

"Those flight tickets weren't really bad. We should have taken it while we had the chance", I said grabbing my stomach.

"So right", Hank, Josh and Clarke agreed at the same time.

It took us some time to get used to our solid bodies. Heck being a gas is no fun. Kids do not try it at home or wherever you are. Got that? Good.

We finally caught sight of Mt. Rushmore, one of America's great national symbols. We admired the view for a few seconds before we realized what we came here to do.

"Hey, where are the other guys?" I asked suddenly realizing that it was only four of us.

"The Jacket!" Hank exclaimed. We scanned the horizon. None of the other three groups could be spotted.

"There!" Josh pointed towards Abe's hat.

"Found it", Hank confirmed. Using his hawk eyes which were quite astonishing especially as they changed so quickly.

"That's not the only thing we found", I mentioned as they all saw what I was staring at. One of the teams, I think Leonard's team was climbing the mountain. Sorry did I say climbing? I meant running.

"Clarke?" Josh called still focusing on the other team on the mountains.

"I'm on it", Clarke answered. Clarke carefully brought out his bow and arrow and four arrows and set them on the bow string. He released the string and the arrows went whizzing through the air. What was really surprising was that the climbers were about 400 meters away and he had pin point accuracy. He aimed for several weak spots on the mountain ledge causing several boulders to come tumbling down on them. Thank goodness they didn't go that far up if not they would have been pancakes.

"How did you do that?" I asked in amazement.

"Oh nothing really", Clarke said dusting his hands casually. "Aiming practice since I was twelve", he said.

"Right", I said.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Hank asked impatiently.

"This is our chance to get the jacket!" Hank exclaimed.

For a game, these guys were actually pretty serious about it. As we were on the move, we were on alert for any trap or strange looking creature in our sight. Several minutes had gone by and there was nothing. I started to think that Mark was just playing with us but the guys assured me that Mark has never joked. They told me about one incident that occurred when a huge scorpion erupted from the soil and stung Alexia. She was in the medical ward for three weeks. Just as Josh was telling me about the incident, he tripped on a wire and we at first froze, not knowing what was about to happen.

SWISH!! From nowhere, an arrow was fired and Josh was just a hair strand away from getting a nasty injury or brain damage.

"What the flipping gargoyles was that?" Josh panicked almost jumping into Clarke's four arms.

Hank walked towards the tree that the arrow had impaled and forced the arrow out of the bark and examined the tip.

"Just as I had suspected... Phenyl cyanide. AKA poison", Hank announced as he felt the tip of the arrow. Within a split second, another arrow came flying towards Clarke. He wasn't so lucky.