Destined: The Six

23. Shadow Jeremiah

          Jeremiah was slightly confused, as always. "What? Wouldn't your parents know?" He asked. Heather nodded. "Oh, they know. I think they wanted it to be a secret, because if they told me, I would definitely want to check it out. I'm sure my dad is a Destined," she answered him. August proceeded to protest. "But we're in Ireland," he complained. "It'll take days to get to Iowa, won't it?" 

          "That may be, but I don't think Licia--the guardian of the next pylon, she's a spider lady--is particularly dangerous, especially since my dad is most likely a Destined. I think they can hold her off for a few days," Heather deflected with confidence. "Now," she added, changing the subject."Let's all enjoy our breakfast."

         Breakfast was not exactly easy to enjoy for the Destined, knowing they were already heading to the next pylon, and Jeremiah had just destroyed Scorpionem. Jeremiah, however, was just fine. Now that he was certain gummy bears from the Illuminati were not after him, he could eat a waffle or three with no problems at all.

          After breakfast, Jeremiah went to the room that separated the girls' and guys' cabins--the training room that Portcullis had helped build. Jeremiah thought it was strange that the training room separated the cabins and not the meal room, but August didn't take suggestions. 

          Jeremiah wished his spear into his hand and started beating on the special punching bag that August had constructed. They didn't insult your mother every time you hit them, but they were able to be hit by nearly any extremely sharp object and not break. the only thing that could split them open was Belle's Awakened Impervium katanas, so she used normal ones on the bags.

          Later on, Jeremiah tried out some of his spear tricks. He practiced the Shock Impale, where the spear electrocuted whatever it hit. He also turned the spear into a lightning bolt when he threw it. He tried to make it shoot lightning to no avail. As previously shown, he wasn't very good at magic. 

          At one point, Dylan and Belle came in to practice Danse Macabre. Knowing that Danse Macabre needed room to practice, Jeremiah went back to his cabin. Marionette was standing right there. 

          Jeremiah jumped. "Hey, Marionette. I haven't seen you in a while," he noticed, realizing that recently, Marionette kind of just sat in the background. Marionette shrugged. "I was not required to fight Scorpionem, and I will not be required for any of the other guardians. The Destined must fight them by themselves," the shadow person explained without an ounce of blame. 

          "Speaking of fighting, you want to help me practice the blessing of the shadow?" Jeremiah asked with slightly more than reasonable excitement. Normal people didn't generally get hyped up about combining with a shadow person, then promptly fainting. Marionette nodded. Jeremiah assumed he was excited, since shadow people were generally stoic in body language and didn't have faces.

          The two shadow fighters joined hands. Jeremiah released all his thoughts and focused on joining his strength with Marionette. He closed his eyes to shut out anything he might see. 

          After a great bout of howling winds and swirling, Jeremiah opened his eyes. Marionette was gone. He looked down. Where his skin used to be was...something else in entirety.

          Jeremiah was now covered in shadowy, smoky flames. As he looked out the window, a bird flew by in slow motion. Jeremiah was confused. Was his mind going at a much higher speed? He walked over to the door that led to the meal room. 

          Jeremiah turned the doorknob, which nearly snapped it off. He proceeded to make sure he opened the door carefully and slowly, as he was most likely much faster and stronger.

          Flying metal monkeys, the creatures with amazing timing, attacked the train just about then. 

          Shadow Jeremiah found the nearest roof hatch and leaped onto the top of the train. The flying monkeys hadn't even reached where he was yet. He waited patiently for them to come, then began to impatiently hack them down like they were blades of grass and he was a shadowy lawnmower.

          So this is how Marionette would be if he had a spear, Shadow Jeremiah thought. Yikes. Marionette burst into his mind. I'm in here, too, sir, the shadow person added.  Shadow Jeremiah thought to discuss this later.

          Dylan and Belle then came in, performing Danse Macabre to get up to speed. If he was normal, their movements would have eventually become a blur, but as Shadow Jeremiah, he could see each swipe and slash perfectly. 

          Heather poked her head out through the hatch that Shadow Jeremiah had come out of, but when she saw that the three were handling it, she went back down and closed the hatch.

          Once the three freaky fast fighters put an end to the monkey invasion, Belle and Dylan looked at Shadow Jeremiah in awe. "That was amazing. How did you do that?" Belle asked, but it sounded to Shadow Jeremiah like "TTTThhhhaaaatttt wwwwaaaassss aaaammmmaaaazzzziiiinnnngggg..." and so on. Shadow Jeremiah shrugged slowly to make sure they saw it, then headed back down.

          Once in the safety of the meal room, as opposed to the roof of a flying train, Shadow Jeremiah separated his two parts. His human part passed out.

          Jeremiah woke up. "Wha...What happened?" Marionette was right there to answer. "The power of Shadow Jeremiah knocked us both out as soon as we separated, just like the book said. Now come, Belle and Dylan took a prisoner."

          Jeremiah followed Marionette into the meal room. Belle and Dylan were holding a metal monkey, similar to Metal Smiley, except this one had a depressed face. Jeremiah hoped it sounded like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. "Does he have anything to tell us?" Jeremiah asked the two.

          "It just so happens that I do," Metal Sadly answered, sounding just like Jeremiah had hoped. "Castle has nearly risen out of that admittedly clever prison you made for him. If you break the next pylon, he will be released."