Red Sun Rising

Chapter 3: Meet Your Cousin's Friends Day

Johnny:

I entered the Control Room first to find that we had yet another visitor. The guy standing in the middle of the room and watching one of our monitors was almost as tall as me, with short-cropped red hair, casual jeans and a T-shirt. I didn't know how I knew (probably the last four people I met gave it away), but even without a cloak I could tell it was another Traveler.

"Who're you supposed to be?" Max asked, stepping out from behind me and eyeing the redhead suspiciously.

The guy turned to look at us with bright blue eyes, startling me a bit since most redheads I knew had brown eyes. "The name's Benjin Pyriqua... from Flamouria, the fire planet. And I am here to incinerate you, Max Trever, for losing one of our sacred gems."

He held his hand up and produced a white-hot fireball, grinning in a crazy sinister way. I stepped forward to make a move, but the glint in his eyes made me hesitate. Was that really what he was here for?

"That won't happen," Max said, taking out his Omegatrix and changing into Pyron. In a flash, he was wreathed in flames, taking up a defensive position. "It's all a big misunderstanding, dude. But if you must, come at me Flame— uh, Flor—... What was it again?"

"Flamourian my ass, Pyriqua." Malachi entered the room, his cloak trailing behind him. He gave Benjin a kick in the leg as he passed him, making the supposed Flamourian stumble.

With a bored expression, Malachi tossed a glass of water in his direction. Benjin quickly raised his other hand and the water gathered into a ball in his palm. I raised my eyebrows. Danny whistled lowly next to me, impressed by Benjin's display of dual elemental magic.

"Jeez, Wonderboy! I was just foolin' around." Benjin extinguished his flame with a wide smile, tossing the water ball at Max and dousing his flames instantly.

"Hey!" Max yelped, coughing a bit as he transformed back. "Wait a minute, I know you! Benjin the Zerran. Crystal's mentioned you before."

"At your service," Benjin said with a salute, smiling mischievously. Oh, yes. I could definitely see him being friends with Crystal.

Steven ignored all this and stepped up to the table across from Malachi. "What news do you bring?" He asked, leaning towards the Traveler.

"Straight to the point eh, Rockwell? I see it runs in the family," Malachi said, putting a hand behind his neck. He brought his head back to look up at the ceiling.

Despite Steven's earlier claims of Malachi being an android, I could see hints of emotion on his face. The tinges of worry and exasperation in his eyes, the way he avoided Steven's gaze for a moment to collect his thoughts... I inadvertently made myself worry. Had something happened to Crystal?

"She's still the same," the Traveler said. "The council's finished up their meeting about the Omnistone as well."

"And?" I butted in. The others sat down around the table but Steven and I remained standing. I had too much nervous energy in my system to sit calmly.

Malachi turned his silver eyes on each of us. Finally, he said, "They've decided that they can't risk losing the Omnistone this early. We wait for Chaos."

"What?" Max slammed his hands on the table. "Wait for Red Hood to... to come waltzing in with his chains of doom?! Are they crazy?"

I had to agree with Max. The key to success was right in our hands. Why wait around for more casualties to happen?

"Hey, we don't like the decision either, shapeshifter," Benjin said, putting his hands up in a 'what-can-we-do' gesture. "But the council has a point. If we use the stone now and Red Hood continues to try and break through, there'll be no stopping him. We might even accidentally speed up the process."