Chapter 9: Monsters of Legend (Narrated by Abel Lee)
Our conversation was stopped when the elevator that took us to our designated level let out a 'ding' voice. We stepped out from the elevator and walked into the EOPID office. When we just opened the door, Alexa's jarring voice had shaken my entire sensitive eardrums. It seemed that the petite girl was in the middle of bickering session with Miss B.
"Miss B, he is an animorpher, so do I! Abel and I are the most appropriate agents and the most adequate team to be sent there to help the twins!" Alexa screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I can't send the two of you before I received confirmation that Abel has fully recovered. I don't want him to get hurt again because he has not healed properly. Don't you know how much cost the company had to spend to treat such wound?"
My heart was broken to hear Miss B's exclamation. Why, oh why, such beauty had to be that stingy? Such flaw would eradicate all of her other qualities. Well, I could only sigh.
"Miss B, that's hurt...," my hand clutched to the chest tightly.
Alexa's face beamed when she saw us enter the room. She jumped straightaway to our direction, completely ignoring my pout.
"Abel, what did the good ol' doctor said? Have your ribs healed completely?"
I nodded. "What's actually happening?"
Alexa ignored me. She had moved her small body back to where Miss B was standing, was ready to re-attack with a new full-loaded gun.
"He's fully healed," Alexa said triumphantly.
Miss B observed me closely. Her grey eyes scrutinized me from top to toe, as if they were scanning for each cell existed in my body.
"Have you really healed?" She made sure.
"You could call the doctor if you don't believe me! What is going on, really?!" People!
I hated if people were ignoring me. Alexa was about to explain what was going on when I was gone, but her words were hung dead due to James' exclamation.
"Basil managed to retrieve the picture from the satellite!"
Miss B and Alexa, along with other field agents who knew the problem promptly gathered in front of a big transparent monitor near the mother computer. From the look of it, they had completely forgotten about us.
"Show it to us!" Said the Queen Bee.
In front of one of the mother computer's monitors, I saw Basil had closed his jade-green eyes and concentrated. The young, light-ash-brown haired boy tilted his oval face up, as if he was absorbing the power of universe.
"What is he doing?" Campbell poked Anthony.
"He is controlling the satellite movement. The Laws do not have a ground segment for their satellite because they have Basil for that. He is a walking, ground station Brain," Anthony explained.
"Never underestimate his young age. That kid gets the highest salary amongst all Law Inc. employees," I added. I could feel a spit of jealousy in my voice. Well, please don't judge me. That boy literally was just sitting all day, playing with the computer, controlling the satellite, and he cashed in an equal amount of a president's annual salary per month! Jealousy was definitely an understatement.
"So, if he went for a strike, Law Inc. would get broke in minutes," Campbell chuckled.
"Try seconds," I corrected him. He nodded in agreement.
The big screen only showed tens of thousands of silver ants crawling on it for the first seconds, before it finally spat out blurry pictures. Brenna moved to re-arrange her magnetic chair power and then moved to one of the computers to use her power to it. On the next seconds, the picture had finally shown in better resolution.
We had not yet been able to decipher what we were actually seeing when flame of fire was shot on the screen, followed by the scene of a flying Kirin. If you have not yet known what a Kirin was, that animal was one of a mythical sacred animal for the Chinese. It was depicted as four legged, face was similar to a dragon, with a pair of deer horns on its head. With other words, try to imagine a short neck giraffe with Lion's mane and fearsome fiery aura. In front of that animal, jumping around like Zeus with his lightning bolt was our raven-haired colleague, Lior. I could not get a glimpse of his brother, but I bet Erwann was hiding somewhere behind a nearby sand dune to direct his brother's power.
"Is that...a Kirin?" Campbell asked, more to himself. His expression was the combination of disbelieved and amused. "I thought you are busy with the Balin."
"That is the Balin," Shyu pointed the Kirin.
"According to Lior, when they were tracking down a Balin that was suspected as the culprit of four deaths caused by an unidentified wild animal, it transformed into that creature. What was its name? Kirin? That's why, I've been asking Miss B to send me and Abel to help the twins!" Alexa explained exasperatedly.
"Kirin was one of sacred animals in Chinese mythology. It looks like it is powerful and dangerous, but I think the twins will be able to take care of it," I said, awarded a murder in Alexa's eyes.
"Miss Law, that Balin can morph into mythical creatures?" McAllen asked.
"So far, it did shift into that creature."
"Err, Miss B, now it's transformed into a dragon," James interrupted with a grimace.
The creature indeed had transformed into a dragon, and, if Lior previously was still able to exhibit his agility, now he could only run around for his life like a headless chicken. Different with Kirin that couldn't fly, dragons had that ability and the one that Lior was battling with had bombarded him with airstrikes. Erwann apparently did not have a faintest idea on how to deal with such creature, thus he ran toward his brother and commanded him to make a lightning dome to shield them both from the airstrike.
"Miss B, I think you should send us away to help them." Now I agreed with Alexa. It would only matter of time before the twins lose their foothold.
"Miss B, we need help! There are two Balins! Repeat, there are two Balins!"
Lior's deep voice was blaring from the communicator on the mother computer, drawing our attention to it. Basil promptly dashed to another monitor connected to the satellite. The screen in front of us now divided into two frames and showed the picture of a Kirin and a dragon shooting fire to the twin's lightning dome. They were shooting the twins from two different directions, in the same time. The Sebastian twins could only crouch inside their dome and try to hold their fort as long as possible.
"Two Balins?!"
"Two Balins that could change into two mythical creatures?" McAllen hissed, his blue eyes were watching the battle intensely. "That must be Balins created by another Balin too."
"I think I know the culprit," Campbell said. That guy took out a small box, as big as a match box from his pocket, then opened it. He took seconds to find what he was looking for, before taking out one item as big as a button. Campbell put his box back and with a blink of his eyes, the button changed into a CD. He tossed it to James.
"Seventh file, James," he informed.
The diamond-shaped face and curly light-brown haired Brain uploaded the said data. Now the live streaming of the battle between Sebastian twins and mythical creatures were being replaced by picture of a fifteen-year old young boy. The boy had Eurasian face, round-shaped with delicate jaw line. His short hair and eyes were black, but speckles decorated his ivory-white face, and his nose was straight and narrow like a Caucasian trait.
"After we read the report about Aramanth, Cody and I spent these couple of days to collect latest data of deceased first-class sorcerer and master alchemist as far as two decades back, in case those sorcerers decided to resurrect any one of them. So, let me introduce to you, my own Order's ex-member, Sengkerinqin Yuspov, a Russian-Mongolian mix-blood sorcerer. He was one of eccentric first-class sorcerers who devoted his short life span and yet great talent to create impractical mythical creatures into their being. He died just shortly after his sixteenth birthday."
"Timofei, how certain are you that that Yuspov is the two Balins' master?" Aeronwen asserted.
"Another bonus information for the Espers. To create such mythical-creatures the way Yuspov did, we have to invest a lot amount of our time and energy. The outcome itself is simply not worth it. If we do need to create mythical creature, we could simply draw it on a piece of paper, chant a spell on it, and poof...we got our creature. BUT, that boy, Yuspov, he wanted to breed mythical creatures with flesh and blood, which able to reproduce, so he could keep them as pets. You know, feed them, pat them, sleep with them, et cetera. So, if now there are strayed Balins that could transform into mythical creature..., then yeah... I'm quite certain they were on his bidding. Well, apparently those Balin creators aided Yuspov to make his postponed dream come true."
"To be an egg-head does not guarantee he will act wise," I commented, before looking at Miss B. "So, Miss B, what's your decision? Better make them quickly, or Lior and Erwann will become barbeque for the dragon and Kirin's dinner."
Miss B screwed shut her smoky-eyes, taking a heavy intake breath. "Okay. Abel, Alexa, the two of you go there to help the twins. McAllen, if you want to help, I could only send either one of you. I will need the other one as backup in case these two teams also need help. Who'll be going first?"
"I'll go first, Code," Campbell said abruptly. He even already had his 'magical' purple coat on, ready to be dispatched. "I've heard about this Yuspov for some time. Just let me humour my curiosity, 'Kay?"
Apparently, all rumours about the notorious Vsevolod Order were true. In other order, what Campbell was planning to do would be considered unethical and act of treachery. However, as it seemed, in Vsevolod Order this kind of practice was not uncommon. McAllen also looked like he indifferent with Campbell's reaction, since he already nodded his head in agreement.
"I'll be here to help the Brains search for any useful information about Yuspov."
"Yes!" Campbell pumped his fist in the air, practically skipping toward the warp machine. "We will take a ride in these tubes, right, Tony?"
Anthony nodded. He wore his fingerless, black-leather gloves, complementing other leather materials that covered his slender body, and walked to follow Campbell. They stepped into one of the teleport machines, while Alexa dragged me to the other one. She was no less-spirited than Campbell.
"Come on, hurry up! That sorcerer is all ready to go~!" She squealed.
I could only roll my eyes, let her drag me around. I was boosting my whole brain cells to find an effective strategy to beat those two creatures as fast as possible.
**
I squinted my eyes in surprise when the desert heat suddenly attacked. After seconds, my eyes finally got used to the view of miles of Sands Ocean that spread in front of us, as if it had no end.
"Desert?"
Anthony checked his connector. "The cases occurred near Dunhuang, one of the cities that used to be part of the prominent Silk Road. Now the city has become one of the famous tourism spots and pilgrimage destinations for Buddhism in China. I guess Lior and Erwann followed that Balin's track to this desert."
"How did they get here? Rode a camel?" I asked myself. I stroked my bared arms that started to smart from the exposure from the sun. I regretted that today I went to work in sleeveless shirt and knees-long shorts. I also had no chance to put on sun block or any protection skin-cream before we came here. Well, it was mostly Alexa's fault for not giving me any chance to make adequate preparation for a tour in desert.
"What are you glaring me for?" Alexa retorted fiercely, glaring back at me. She was wearing a long sleeve, cropped tops and skinny jeans with a pair of sneakers. How she could understand my suffering at the moment, while she was in such outfit that covered her body nicely? I swore if I ever got major sunburn, I'd have no end with her.
"Well, we better find the twins quickly, before we fell prey for this Taklamakan Desert," Campbell pointed out.
I bugged my eyes. "This...is that notorious Taklamakan?"
"What's that talkamaktan...?"
"Tak-la-ma-kan...," I corrected Alexa. "The famous desert that used to serve as one of the Silk Road routes. The name itself more or less means: you go in and never go out. What the hell did you learn during your school year?"
Alexa did not retort my jeer. She was genuinely looking shocked after hearing the severity of this magnificent desert. She gazed around with worried eyes and clutched her tiny hands on the end of my shirt.
"I'll ask Basil for direction," Anthony was about to open his connector, but Campbell stopped him.
"No need, I'll track them down," he said.
Now, on that sorcerer's hand there was a small crystal ball made from yellow transparent glass. Campbell's thin lips moved faintly to read a spell. Once he finished, the crystal ball floated up and flew eastward.
"There," he pointed and led the way.
"What's that?"
"Sun Orb. We use it to track trails. As long as the target is exposed under the sun, the orb will find it. It's very useful for such place, right?"
I grinned back at Campbell.
We had been running for almost half an hour before I heard someone was clicking their tongue. Before I decipher who was it, Alexa had transformed herself into a vulture. She winged her body toward the Sun Orb's pointed direction, with speed twice of our human legs.
"What an impulsive girl," Anthony grunted.
"So that's what an Animorpher could do," Campbell laughed. "Well, that's quite handy..."
I stared jealously toward Alexa who'd flown farther from us. "I can't believe I'm asking you this, warlock, but don't you have any flying broom or anything that can bring us there faster?"
Campbell laughed harder. "Sorry to disappoint you Man, but we never use that thing. Well, I certainly could make something that can take us there faster, but I don't think it'll be a good idea. Yuspov was a strong sorcerer. We would need every ounce of our energy if we need to face him. I just don't want to waste my energy. Anyway, your machine had delivered us here, so I guess it won't be too far away from where the twins are. Don't you think so too?"
He was right. Embarrassed, I shot him tight smile, kept silent and running to follow the orb.
We were running about another fifteen minutes, stumbled here and there from the sands before we finally heard a loud explosion, followed by a screeching voice of a vulture.
"There they are!" Anthony pointed. In front of us was a battleground. Sand dunes blown by the creatures' fire, scattered and shot high to the sky like burst of pixie dust. In the eye of the whirled sands there was a protection dome circled by two flying creatures(a dragon and a vulture(and a Kirin running in circles.
The vulture was indeed Alexa. Unsatisfied with her first morph, Alexa decided to become a gryphon. She morphed her body to a lion's and used her claws to fight the Kirin. Aided by Alexa, the twins finally braced themselves to come out from their protection dome and Lior threw balls of lightning toward the dragon. The dragon countered attack with its fire. At one point, Alexa's gryphon was hit by the Kirin's fire.
"Alexa!!" I screamed and sped up.
Anthony was faster. He had shifted into a giant blade, before he shifted again into smaller cluster of daggers and dashed in lightning speed to pierce the Kirin.
"Anthony is..."
"Anthony is a shape-shifter. He could shift his body into blades or knives or daggers to attack his enemy," I explained, still keeping up my pace.
The Kirin breathed fire to Anthony's blades, forced him to make a giant shield out of hundreds of knives to defend himself. The knives, then, broke away and pierced through the Kirin once its fire expelled. The Kirin groaned in pain when the knives pierced its body, but it still managed to pin Alexa down with its paw and shot another fire to Anthony. Alexa failed to maintain her morph and returned to her original form, falling topsy-turvy on the sands. Anthony also had shifted back and anxiously attempted to extinguish the fire that caught his tan leather jacket.
The fire let out a hiss before it finally killed by Campbell's water spell. Anthony stretched his body and grinned to thank his partner. The sorcerer replied the gesture with a wink. On the other side of the battle, Lior was still fighting tooth and nail with the dragon.
"This place has strong yang energy, very suitable for creatures with fire element like them," I muttered, helping Alexa stand up. I frowned when I saw that her ankle was bleeding from the Kirin's claws.
Anthony had shifted again and his daggers dancing in the air to find any opening to pierce through the Kirin's body. Next to him, Campbell assisted him by shooting water balls to tame the Kirin's fire.
"So, you understand Taoism alchemy," he said to me, in the middle of his action. "Do you have any idea, then?"
I shrugged and started to scan around. I was quite surprise to notice that the two creatures displayed average level of magical energy. When I told the others about this, Alexa roared in glee and transformed into gryphon once more. This time, she targeted the dragon. Based on the combination attack deployed by Anthony-Campbell and the twins and Alexa, I was confident we would be able to beat the two Balins in a promising short amount of time. However, on the other hand, I couldn't shake this bad feeling from my chest, as if we still had other enemies lurking somewhere.
I scanned the vicinity once more, but more meticulous this time. It was on that later second that I caught two clusters of red silhouettes were approaching us in high speed from West, swam their ways beneath layers of sands. Upon reaching our place, the two red silhouettes brought themselves closer to the surface.
"Step aside!" I commanded, just in the nick of time, before the red creatures burst out from the sands and launched attack on us in rapid speed.
I lost control of my vision due to the rush of adrenalin. I could see now that right before us there were a pair of giant salamanders attacking in remarkable speed. Their bodies were covered with golden fins and they were almost as big as the dragon, but with more agility. They were not only spitting fireballs, but also swaying around their long and thorny tails. The dragon and the Kirin were getting fiercer in their attack as their backup came.
Anthony was not ready for such rampageous attack and lost control over his transformation. He fell hard to the ground and even caught on one of the salamanders' fire. He was about to get another first degree burns if Campbell was not fast enough to jump in front of him and cast water shield. Alexa's wings, too, got hit by the dragon's fire, while her foot was scratched by the salamander's tail. She failed to maintain her winging and fell miserably on top of Lior.
"The two salamanders have higher magical energies!" I reported, as I ran toward Alexa and Lior, tried my best to drag them away from the creatures.
Erwann had moved to help me dragging Lior away from the attacks, and he commanded Lior to erect lightning dome for our protection beforehand.
"We can't stay like this!" I yelled, tried to overcome the explosion sounds surrounding us when the fireballs crashed on each of our shields. "If we do, sooner or later we'll become barbeque!!"
"That's why I asked you before, do you have any plan?!!" Campbell was on the verge of snapping since his shield was an inch away from getting perforated by the combination attacks of the Kirin and one of the salamanders."
I boosted my brain cells and decided that the combination of my water element and Lior's lightning is the only way. "I could use my power to call forward every water source in this desert to flow to our direction and then gush out to the surface. When it did, Erwann, I want you to muster out all of Lior's power. We'll electrocute them!"
I didn't wait for their response and started to concentrate my water element power to reach every point of Oasis there was in this huge desert. I needed a few minutes before my power reach the intended target. I started to pull the water to come to our place. A few minutes later, the water gushed out around us, creating pillars of sands and water. I used my power to push the pillars to encircle the monsters.
"Now, Erwann!!" I yelled. "Alexa, take Erwann away! Tony, save yourself and Campbell!!"
Campbell understood my plan and the characteristic of each element. He erected earth shield to protect himself and Tony, before dragging the younger guy away. Alexa was a little bewildered with my instruction, but transformed herself to a vulture, nonetheless, and took Erwann fly away.
Erwann made lightning bolts storm out from his brother's hands, directing them toward the monsters. I added my energy and pulled the pillars to approach the creatures, racing with Lior's thunder bolts. The creatures screamed in agony when my power and Lior's electrocuted them. They maintained their monstrous appearance for seconds, before finally shrunk back to their human forms with skins as black as coal. The Balins returned dead, scorched by our power. Their bodies were covered with smoke, letting out stinking burnt odour.
Watching our opponents burnt to death, we let out relieved sighed and dropped our body on the sands, trying to catch our breath, or enjoying the moment of victory. After collecting himself back, Campbell stood up and moved toward the corpses. He raised his index and middle fingers. The tip of the two fingers suddenly reddened like the tip of fireplace poker after kissing the flame. Campbell made a swift movement and used his two fingers to cut open one of the Balins' chest. Then, he dug out the crystal stuffed inside it and observing it under the sun light.
"Low-grade catalyst," he commented and tossed the stone to Anthony. "It's a far-cry from the one stuffed inside Aramanth. It's just because it was infused with Yuspov's power that the Balin happened to be quite strong."
"Only the two salamanders that were remarkably strong," I interrupted. "The rest were average."
"So that was your 'heaven's eyes'? Interesting..."
"I don't like to be called 'interesting' by another man."
Campbell laughed at my comment, then turned his gaze back to the surrounding sand dunes.
"Yuspov was only experimenting with these Balins here. He isn't here."
"How'd you know?" I asked sarcastically.
Campbell showed his Sun Orb. "If he's here, then this orb should've been detecting his presence when we were fighting his pets."
"I get that. But, if he isn't here, then why the dragon and salamanders could come just in time to help their peers? Yuspov must've been watching from somewhere," I insisted.
I desperately held my victory smirk when I saw Campbell's face stupefied. He was so composed before, but now his face was grey, as grey as the winter sky in the snowy day. He cast his gaze wildly around the vicinity, searching for something. His violet eyes eventually fixed eastward.
"Son-of-a-bitch," he hissed.
We had not yet grasp what exactly was going on when that reckless sorcerer flew away in sonic speed. Anthony was the first one to react. He shifted himself into a flying dagger and chased after his partner. The rest of us stood still, befuddled. Two explosions and pillars of smoke emerged from the direction where Campbell and Anthony went to finally were what pushed us out of our reverie.
"Tony!!" Erwann yelled. He almost dragged his brother to run and find Anthony, but he stopped again as fast when he saw Campbell and Anthony fly back with the same sonic speed as before.
Maybe because he flew around in sonic speed, Campbell now was in a messy state. His copper-blonde hair was out of place like locks of seaweed, and his smug, handsome face had now been spoiled by the sand. He returned upset and panting like crazy. Next to him, Tony's condition was far better. Maybe because the dagger's surface was slim and smooth, so, even though he flew in almost the same speed as Campbell, my friend Tony was still able to maintain his natural-born, model quality.
"What happened? What explosion was that? Are you alright?" Sebastian twins asked them in turns.
Campbell extended his hand and showed us his findings. I saw in his palm, there was a piece of a very familiar yellow glass.
"That is..., Sun Orb?"
Campbell gnashed his teeth. "Son of bitch used Sun Orb to watch over his Balins."
"But what was that previous explosion?"
"A dish, which function similar with the Sun Orb."
"He installed a satellite dish in the middle of the desert?" What a vandalism of nature. I shook my head in disbelief.
"Two, actually," Tony added. "We each destroyed one."
That kind of patriotic act deserved to be praised. I stuck my thumb up to Campbell and Anthony. My partner glanced cynically to my erected thumb.
"Let's go back," she said to everyone, except to me, her beloved partner.
**
Chapter 10: Point-blank (Narrated by Danzel Lee)
I squinted my eyes and gave my best friend a stern look. The so-called best friend apparently decided that staring me had become his latest and newest hobby. Abashedly, he had been on it for almost half an hour. I diverted my gaze when I realized that my stern look had no expected effect on Meng. We were at the biggest canteen out of three canteens this huge school had. Our school had been dismissed two hours ago, but there were still some high-school students at the campus. We were two of them. We just finished our club activities and changed our sport clothes back to our uniforms. I had to wait for Megan since her club activity had not yet finished, thus I dragged Meng along to accompany me. Bad decision, because he was suddenly into this staring mode just straight after we were seated down with our beverages.
"Don't you get tired staring at me like that? Because I do," I finally asked, more because he bored me stiff and started to get on my nerve. "Look, I will meet Megan in five minutes. So, if you want to keep doing this, go ahead. I'll be going first..."
Meng grabbed my arms to stop me leaving.
"That's it! That's exactly it. I wanted to hear you tell me honestly about the nature of your relationship with Megan. What exactly is going on with you two?"
I raised an eyebrow, suddenly understood the reason of his weird action. I felt stupid since I should've been able to guess it since beginning. Moreover, because of his childhood friend, Kencana, also had been breathing on our neck lately, kept asking Megan and I about our relationship. What was so hard for them to understand? I could feel my irritation start to gulp down my self-control.
"Everything D'. I don't understand everything."
Meng brought his face closer to me, staring directly to my eyes, imitating my style when I use my power. "Tell me you love Megan."
My eyebrows shot up. "Which part of I love Megan that become your business?!!"
"So, you do not love her."
I snorted, tried to compose myself very hard. If only this creature in front of me was not Meng, not my one and only best friend, my fist surely would have been stamped on his jaw.
"What the hell are you trying to proof, Meng?"
"D'," Meng's expression grew serious. "I know you so well, man. You are not the kind of person who could fall in love so quickly with someone. You said it yourself you have this trust issue. Do you remember how long did it take you to like and finally accept Irene to be part of your life? Now, only in a week, you have been head over heels for Megan. To be honest, that freaks me out! I don't want you to get hurt again, D'. I know that, even if you are denying it, Irene did hurt you to some extent. I really don't want you to experience it again with Megan because you are so recklessly, literally, throw yourself at her!"
I dropped silent from Meng's word. Frankly, deep down, I was no less anxious about my own feeling toward Megan. Was it true that I love her? Or, I didn't actually love her and only using her as diversion? However, I did have a very strong feeling for that girl, and it wasn't something that I only imagine. That feeling had seeped and planted itself in my heart so rapidly. Yet, I didn't know myself how to call that feeling.
"D'!" I ignored my best friend screaming my name after I decided to leave him.
Megan and I agreed to meet up at the parking lot. I swung my feet to that direction, taking big steps to cross the hallways and corridors to reach that place. I needed to see Megan, I wanted to see her badly. For what I cared, my conversation with Meng made me miss her even more. I didn't care anymore; I didn't care if my feelings for her would (as Meng said) hurt me. The one thing that I knew was I yearned for her so bad. Yes, for that I could be certain. I wanted her.
"Are you crazy?!" A familiar voice was glaring from one of the corners I passed by. Not far from where I was, I saw Kencana yell at a poor soul from her cells. She stuck her free hand on waist, frowning. Her beautiful face looked baleful, was clearly being infuriated by the other speaker. "How could you ever come out with that kind of strategy to ensure Megan's safety?!"
That name made me in full stop. I hid myself behind a pillar before Kencana notice me, decided to eaves dropping.
"I don't care even if The Princess agreed to it. No! You tell her, I do not like this plan!"
"..."
"What if they found out?! You cannot execute this plan without asking Megan's permission first! What the hell are you thinking, to make her fall in love with a guy she just met?!"
I felt a knot tighten in my stomach, clenching my insides while my heart drumming in my throat. I was pretty sure that the guy she meant was me. I became even more eager to listen to the conversation. However, Kencana had severed the connection harshly. She seemed still clouded by anger and channelled it out by punching one of the pillars on her side.
"Was it about me?" I decided to walk out from my hidings.
Kencana turned her body and stared at me startled. Her reaction gave me confirmation that I was right. It was about me. She needed another second to compose herself and returned to her usual, bitchy self.
"None of your business!" She said.
My hand stretched out to grab her arms, so hard, that she squealed in pain. I ignored her. There was one thing I wanted to know and I would get it no matter how. I pinned her to the wall before she could fight back, and forced her to look at my eyes. I let my power out.
"Tell me, what was that conversation about?"
Kencana's hazel eyes lost their glimpse, as her mouth opened to answer my question.
"Megan...," she whispered.
"What about Megan?"
"We..."
"Who are 'we'?"
"M...me, Seth, and Jasmine Markelli, t-the princess. The three of us are obliged to protect Megan..."
"Protect her from what?"
"We...we don't know yet... We just know that they were sorcerers that responsible for Balin phenomena and who had murdered Megan's older brother..."
I scowled when some alien words came into my ears. "What is Balin?"
"They are zombies. Some sorcerers resurrected dead bodies by planting a crystal catalyst in their chest, in replacement of their original died heart. This catalyst was infused with magical power and the Balins's memory from previous lifetime."
The explanation made my head dizzy, thus, I passed that part.
"What did they do to Megan and her family?"
"They stole Megan's crystals and resurrected her deceased brother as Balin. Then, they shut him dead once more. They also wanted to kidnap Megan for her talent as a Master Alchemist who could create high-grade catalyst."
Master Alchemist? I frowned even more for all these seemed nonsense information. If only I did not know about people with 'power' and 'ability', I surely would take all of these as mere bullshits. "What exactly are you?"
"We...we are witches of Trevelyan Order, one of the five strongest orders in sorcery community. Megan's brother was a warlock and our former leader. However, with his death, other orders wanted to occupy our territory and steal our authority, made us involve in battles. Now, from our seven covens, there are only three covens left: Nimra and the Markellis, and of course Megan."
"And what is it exactly about your plan that involving me?"
"Seth..., Jasmine's brother, he is a schemer, an Esper who could manipulate people's mind. He could scheme current of events to make someone could get what they're wishing for..."
"What had he done to us?"
"He said he got your wish to have someone who's honest and loves you. He also got Megan's wish to have a man to depend on, like she to her brother. Seth and his sister agreed to use Seth's power and make you and Megan fall in love with each other. They think you could protect Megan better than I could."
I smiled after hearing Kencana's last words. But, at the same time, I also felt some kind of uneasiness about her information regarding other kind of power users besides me and Meng. What made it even worse was, they were using their power on me.
"This Seth..., where could I meet him?"
"..."
"Where?!"
"I don't know... Princess and Seth are always protecting us from remote place. We can't meet them freely and could only communicate via our cells. Don't you think I don't want to find him myself and give him a piece of my mind? I'll kick his ass myself if I know his whereabouts!"
That made sense. I finally let go of my grip toward Kencana. She needed few seconds to regain her consciousness.
"Wh-what do you want?!" She glared when she saw me standing so close to her. Clearly, she didn't realize what I had done inside her head.
I cracked a sly smile. "Nothing. I got what I want..."
I didn't explain further and walk away toward the parking lot. I saw Megan stand next to my white CBR with a pastel-blue helmet in her arms. I smiled when I recognized the helmet as the one that I bought for her. My smile grew wider when she took her gaze off her shoes, pointed it to me now and flashing me the sweetest smile I'd ever seen.
I felt my chest was stormed with warmth and I paced up to reach for her faster. After I did, I couldn't help myself not to hug her. She seemed bashful at first, but returned the hug nevertheless. For a couple of minutes, we cared only to enjoy the warmth of each other's body. It was in that very moment, I decided to protect her with my might. I did love her, and I would do anything to keep her safe. I knew I could do that better than anyone else, not because some guy put their power to influence me to do so.
**
Megan's apartment was located at the Western part of J City, forty-five minutes driving distance from school. It was one of the high-end apartments in the city and it had better security system than Abel's apartment. Without the owner's pass card, it would be impossible to go up and visit one of the rooms. It was understandable since many of diplomats and important people's families resided here. I didn't think too much of it at first, but now that I understood Megan's situation, I started to think that this was one of the precautions made by the Markellis.
I dropped Megan in front of the lobby. I helped her to get off my bike and was about to say good-bye to her when she suddenly looked troubled. She diverted her gaze from mine again, feeling that her shoes were better looking than me. She bit her bottom lips adoringly, slightly shaking my self-control for not kissing her in this very spot. After a few silent beats, she finally raised her head and looked at me.
"D-do you wanted to go up?" She asked.
A shiver came down on my spine when I heard the invitation. I wasn't ready for this, especially that I knew she was living by herself up there. She told me this the first time I sent her home, but didn't elaborate the reason to me. I didn't pursue it more from her either. I always believed she would tell me herself if she was ready.
"Can I?" I asked back. To invite someone to your home was never be something that was easy to do for me. My home was my safe haven and I would never bring someone I did not trust home.
She nodded. "I have something I wanted to talk to you."
Now I became intrigued. What was she possibly wanted to talk to me about? Would she tell me everything about her family, her community, and her past? Would she entrust all of these stories to me in such short period of time we knew each other? But, I knew I should not pass this chance. At least, I wanted to confess my feelings to her and ask her to go out with me properly. Therefore, I nodded and parked my motorcycle.
I followed her inside. She passed a courtesy smile to the door attendant who looked at me suspiciously. Megan acknowledged that look of him and wrapped her arms on mine to make a statement. The door attendant cleared his throat and made a faint nod. She smiled once more and pulled me to the rows of elevators. She swiped her pass card on the scanner beneath the numbers pad and pressed five. So, she lived on the fifth floor. We were silent during our elevator ride and the silent continued when we were walking down the hallway, up to when Megan finally stopped at one of the doors. 505, I put the number in my memory. This was her home. She swiped her card once more to open the door and invited me in.
Her room was a studio-sized apartment room and styled with feminine tone. The dominant colours were baby-pink and pale-yellow. Her living room was connected directly with the bedroom and her kitchen was on the opposite direction of the bathroom. The place was quite spacious, almost as big as our apartment. And the view, well, it had great view of the city, as great as a fifth story could offer.
"It's a great place," I commended, as I walked around the place and tried my best to avert my eyes from the queen-sized bed, where its pink sheets looked very inviting. "Did you buy it or rent it?"
"A family friend rents it for me," was her reply. She sat nervously on the red bar stool. The bar, from the looked of it, also functioned as dining table, the way we also used it at home. I smiled and took my seat leisurely on the white couch adorned with yellow stripes and baby-pink cushion. I tapped the empty side next to me and looked at Megan. "Won't you sit next to me? I won't bite..."
Megan flushed by the invitation, but seated herself next to me nonetheless. She grabbed one of the cushions, faced forward and looking at her socks now (we had taken off our shoes at the entrance). I reached for her hands, made her jolt and turn her head at me.
"You said you wanted to talk about something with me?" I reminded her. Better to get down to business before I lost my self-control by watching her flustered self. She seemed had no idea how cute she could be when she do that.
She looked surprise, before nodding. "Y-yes..., I mean... I don't know..."
I chuckled. "Well I couldn't help you there, if you don't know about it yourself..." Well, I could actually, but that would be an invasion to her privacy and I did not want that.
"No-no... I, I know I have to ask you about this. I just don't know how..." Rosy cheeks started to bloom on her. "It's just Ken, she...keeps bugging me about it...B-but I also wanted to know..."
I finally understood where this conversation would go. "Do you want to talk about us?"
She nodded hesitantly, flustered even more. "Ken recently always asks whether we...we..."
"Whether we are together as in dating?"
She nodded again. I smiled gently to her, my hand reached for her chin and I looked deeply at her cognac eyes. "Do you want to? Be my girlfriend, I mean..."
She blinked rapidly and looked at me sheepishly. Her inviting full-lips opened as she tried to make some words, but closed again faster than when they were opened. After some heavy intake of breaths and hesitation, Megan eventually managed to muster her courage to reply for my proposal.
"I... I want to. But..."
I frowned. My heart thumping loudly inside my chest, wondering what made her hesitate? I knew she like me. She never denied my affection and never pushed me away. My heart beat faster as my anxiety building up. "But?"
"You don't know the real me...," she finally said. Now she looked at me as she blinked her tears back. "What if you disappointed with the real me?" She murmured.
I didn't wait for her to continue her words and silenced her with a gentle kiss. Megan jolted a bit, but like always, she did not push me away. She even returned the kiss hesitantly, made me smile between the kiss. Her lips were as soft as I thought they would be. And they were as sweet as honey. I hungrily tasted them and only pulled away after some minutes.
"Tell me, then...," I told her. "Tell me everything about you, so I'll know the real you. I wanted to know everything about you Megan, because I think...I think I've fallen for you."
**
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