Henceforth, the day resumed like any other day. Alex was just finishing taking a shower when he heard voices in the eating room. He quickly got dressed and walked over to investigate the conversation. He saw Belle, Heather, Penny, and Jeremiah sitting at the table, talking about some...tentacle monster? Alex had to know what was going on.
"What are you people talking about?" Alex asked, drawing attention to himself. The others turned to him, and Jeremiah gestured for him to sit down. "Let me tell you all about it, Alexander Eckerbach," he answered. Alex would have liked to have asked how in the heavens Jeremiah knew his last name, but since everyone knew his first name, he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. He sat down next to Penny and put his arm around her, hoping she wouldn't mind.
"Well, Alex, to get you up to speed, I had a dream about a freakishly tall crying girl in robes. She had a mask and bony hands, but otherwise, you couldn't see any of her. Remember that detail. Now, I woke up only to see her at the foot of my bed. I reacted naturally, pushing her back into the training room with bolts of hopeful light. She fought back and took off her robes--it was more absolutely frightening than just perverse--turning into some bone tentacle monster. Heather was a scaredy-cat, but Belle turned into Silverhorn to help. We combined our powers, killed Despair--the crying girl--and now I have a floating shield following me," Jeremiah explained, pointing at the floating shield next to him.
"I...I see," Alex attempted words. Penny snickered at his failure. August came in and ate with them, but aside from Penny asking how much more time they had before they reached Muskrel's forest, and August answered that they would reach him in the next day if they didn't run into anything sudden, scary, and inconvenient to anyone but a fantasy author on some free e-book site that needed an extra chapter.
"That's oddly specific," Penny said.
"Well, it's true, amiga," August shot back quickly and smoothly.
Once breakfast was over, Alex and Penny congregated in Alex's room this time, on Penny's request. "So, had Muskrel been taunting you in your dreams, like Scar Shi did to me?" Alex asked. Penny laughed bitterly. "Define 'taunting.'"
"To provoke or challenge someone with insulting remarks."
"Ha. You gave the actual definition. That's kind of funny, actually."
"Anyway?"
"Oh, yes. He has been. With his creepy, needle thingy mouth, and his crystal wings that'll buzz and melt your brain, and his...incessant giggling." Penny went pale as when she said "incessant giggling." Alex didn't really know what to do with incessant giggling, so he simply stood up.
"Has he given anything away? Any secrets?" he asked.
"No, he's mainly just laughed in my face, telling me I have no hope, and that he's a true fighting machine. It's mainly those two insults," Penny answered.
"Wait. What did he say again?"
"That I have no hope and that he's a true fighting machine."
"That you have no hope and that he's a true fighting machine?"
"Well, when you say it like that, it sounds like a...oh, hey! Jeremiah and August! Do you think that's an actual hint, or that it's just a trap?"
"Probably a hint. The last villains the Destined have fought usually use hints. Jeremiah never said anything about a trap. This would be a new thing."
"Let's hope it's not a trap. I don't like to be misled."
"Yeah. But anyway, what else is going on?" Alex didn't like talking about giant mosquitoes. It gave him some form of heebie-jeebies.
"Well, I've been working on making my crossbow to be anti-mosquito."
"You're obsessed with Muskrel, aren't you?" Alex asked. Penny sighed, then nodded. She let herself fall backward onto her bed, and there was silence for a few minutes. Alex let himself fall back next to her, and they laid in silence.
"Should we talk to Jeremiah and August about what Muskrel said?" Alex wondered.
"Good idea. I'm already bored," Penny responded.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You're telling me that Muskrel can be easily defeated if we combine our powers?" Jeremiah asked. Penny and Alex had explained this over a lunch of soup. Unlike the cinnamon rolls, the meals for lunch and breakfast varied. August had made sure of that.
"Yup. Should work, if it's not a trap," Penny answered.
"Pfft. They never make traps. If it he said what you said he said, then we should be good and ready for him. Let's go, August, and have some fun."
August and Jeremiah went over to August's room, with the Archangel's Armory floating behind them. They stopped at August's table, which still had a box of various gadgets on top of it. "What should we do first?" August asked. Jeremiah looked around the room, searching for something to try his powers of hope with. His eyes landed on La Armadura, one of August's many prides and joys. August saw where his eyes landed.
"Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No una oportunidad, mi amigo. No, no, no," August protested and Jeremiah pointed at the suit of armor and the Archangel's Armory flew over to it. The Armory combined with the suit, turning the Machinist's Bronze white and the Berserker's Iron blue. La Armadura came to life and armed Jeremiah with itself, its pieces attaching themselves, one by one, to their target, August protesting all the way.
"Well, what am I going to do?" August asked the new Jeremiah, who was now armed with a hope-infused Armadura. Jeremiah, wordlessly, put his hand on August's shoulder. August transformed into an automaton, just like he had the first time.
"Oh, that's right! Muy bien, mi amigo," Robo-August remembered. He reached his hand for the box of gadgets, and they floated over to Robo-August. The gadgets were many: some were rockets, some were extra arms, there were guns and rocket launchers, laser blade attachments, all good things. They attached themselves to Robo-August until he was less a normal automaton and more of a walking weapon.
The two, one an armored master of hope and the walking tank, looked at each other with satisfaction.
"I think we've got this next one in the bag," Jeremiah remarked.
"He won't last a minute," August agreed.
YOU ARE READING
Destined: 2 Be Continued
FantastikDESTINED SERIES: BOOK TWO Two kids, Alex and Penny, are strange people. Alex has the power to control the wind, and Penny has the power to control, create, and combine chemicals. One day, just as Alex is confessing his crush on Penny, the two get dr...
