Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 53. Rheannah

"Hey, how did it go?" Josh asked Heather and Max as they walked through the lobby to meet us.

Heather shrugged, "Nellie gave us a mission. We've gotta complete it."

"So we're going after Jen?" Sheria asked.

Max responded, "yeah, and we're going to save her."

"Gonna save her. It sounds better." Heather mumbled. She was correcting Max now. She wasn't normally like that, was she?

"So where do we start?" Sheria asked, "Did Nellie give you any help?"

Heather shook her head, "No, she didn't. She's just as clueless as we are. We know Jen is after us, so eventually she will come find us. Until then we track down who did this to her so they can't do this to anyone else."

"You mean there's other's like this?" Josh asked.

"I don't know," Heather admitted, "But if there is I'm going to find a way to change them back and stop anyone else who tries to make anyone turn out like them. No one, and I mean no one, deserves this."

Josh nodded at her words, "you know this isn't going to be an easy fight to win. We could be getting into darker parts of the UWO and other families, even you own," He turned to look at Max and I with a forewarned look of caution.

I shrugged, "I'm cool with some adventure. After all, it's better than training for nothing."

"If it saves lives than it doesn't matter. We won't let some dark secrets stop us from moving forward. Besides, that man left us with enough of his own to know better than to question the validity of anything." Max seemed pretty confident. Wonder what Nellie told him...

"If it's rumored to be true, it probably is. Therefore take every precaution possible." I followed up with his words before turning to look at Heather, "alright fearless leader, where to now?"

Heather pondered for a moment before answering, "Rebel Alfred bases. There is one close by Issola. Perhaps that is what initiated the fight. Otherwise perhaps we should eliminate the base before they come back to destroy what little is left of Issola."

"Or are we too late?" Josh snatched a newspaper from one of the tables in the lobby. Ninjas had taken refuge in Issola; locking up the teleportation portal and denying communication or exchange for the little reminiscence of life that could be left.

"Mom and Dad!" Sheria and Heather both gasped at the same time.

Heather took another moment to sigh, "Alright, we're going to clear out those ninjas once and for all. For good."

Dawnlight took that analytical side of the argument, "so how are we going to get in there if the portal is closed and UWO workers are there trying to make compromises to get the portal open once again.

"UWO workers don't know about the secret escape roots. Neither do the ninjas. Only those who attended the Academy know the underground passageways. After all, it's how I snuck out." Heather shrugged. "There is another way to get in the main entrance besides using a portal. The main entrance has a let out tunnel in the state of Maine in the real world. No one blocks it because no one goes into that forest. See? Sometimes it pays to be sneaky. You learn all the alternate ways in and out."

"Yeah, and is there another entrance in the back?" I asked, "there has to be more than one way out."

Josh nodded, "yes, but that utilizes a portal—"

"Not the other, other way out. The way that Zena and I found while playing capture the flag a few years back."

"Wait you guys got to play capture the flag?" I asked.

Heather nodded, "yeah, every year we had a huge competition at the Academy. Each element was on a team, fire, water, earth, air, and then another for the other rarer powers."

"Until Heather came, it usually was the rarer powers winning each year since they were stronger and more uncommon. No one knew really how they worked." Dawnlight commented, "Then Heather came. Her first year she gave them a run for their money. She was only seven at the time, but she quickly was able to rise to the top."

"Yeah, I stopped the water elements from washing us out with a great wall of fire. After doing that I was able to sneak out the back of our fort with Zena, which we actually snuck out the back entrance into Maine, then entered through the other one with the portal which was the back of the rare elemental team. They didn't even know we were there." Heather stopped for a moment, "that's it. I know the battlefield better than anyone out there. Although the front entrance is guarded heavily, they don't know the back entrances. Only a few of us know it exists. If we go in the back where the forts were I can guide while in a stealth mode safely. They won't even know we're there."

"That's the Heather I know," Josh smiled, "Your training does help."

Heather stuck her tongue out at her, "you never taught me how to use my head. I learned how to do that on my own. Now all we have to do is figure out how we can get close to Maine without taking the portal to Issola."

"There's a portal to the outskirts of a campground in New York." Dawnlight shrugged.

"Works for me. Let's go see the real world again." Sheria smiled.

"Just remember," Josh reminded all of us, "We can't be seen with our hover boards, swords, or anything with power in the real world. We can't offset the balance."

"Yeah yeah yeah we know. Let's just get moving." Heather commented as she led the way outside the lobby onto the next adventure.