- CHAPTER THREE-
BETRAYALS OF UNKOWN
⌿⍀
"We're gonna be late, where the hell is Ace?" Caden grumbles, pacing up and down the corridor of the common room, patience wearing thin.
"Calm your tits, I'm right here." Ace snorts, her voice coming from above, drawing their eyes to look up at the ceiling. The mischievous teen levitates up in their air, body practically attaches to the ceiling and she throws up a peace sign, her usual response to anything.
"Aww, how sweet, daddy Cade made everyone wait for me!" Taylor draws the attention back to the ground as he skips out of the dormitory hallway and into the common room, his pearly white teeth on display like an exhibition.
Unlike the rest of his team, wearing their purple and white Zodia school uniform, he's in his favourite stripey green pyjamas, the one with a massive hole in his lower thigh, the hole supposedly a 'lucky' hole. His smile contradicts his appearance though, the boy sporting a dried-up drool stain on his lower lips and his reddish-brown hair in a curly mess.
"Taylor! The hell!" Caden curses, frowning at the oblivious boy, watching him carelessly skip to the fridge and dig out a frozen burrito box and a carton of milk.
"Taylor, we have class in 20 minutes, you're gonna make us late," Paige calls out, taking it upon herself to inform the clueless boy.
"Oh, shit that's right," he gasps, finally realising why they are all in uniform, "but I can't leave the dorms without breakfast, you guys know how I get when I haven't had food!" He whines, dragging his frozen burrito into the microwave.
"What? Get more annoying!" Ace taunts, laughing loudly.
"AHAHAH, funny joke!" Taylor snarks, throwing a bit of frozen ice at Ace only for the piece to miss, fall and hit the roof of Abi's head instead.
"Oh my God, OUCH!" Abi shouts, shaking her red hair in an attempt to flick away the ice sheds, "Taylor, I speak when I say for everyone, this isn't funny right now, we're gonna be late for class and you know what happens when we're late!" Abi lectures, her beady dark blue eyes taking it upon them to send death glares at him.
"Well, who said you had to wait for me? You can leave without me," Taylor chides, not accepting the 'unnecessary' slander he was getting from his friends.
"He does have a point, so...bye." Violet monotonously shouts, on her way to the door.
"And that's why Orion wants you to work on your teamwork skills! Orion's said a million times that if one of us is late then we're all late, this is a one for all kinda deal," Paige shouts, making Violet stop by the door.
"Well, I guess I'm fine with us being all late then. I've gotta leave anyway, got that stupid homework to finish," she tsks, this time leaving the room without a word from anyone.
"There was homework!" Shae suddenly jumps from the couch, whatever was on his phone no longer interesting enough to block the bickering Zodiacs.
"Ace, what was the homework?" Cate gulps, also giving her attention to the group.
"We had to do a brief research on David Hume's study on naturalism-"
"Please tell me you did it!" Abi jumps in too, another Zodiac who was yet to complete the homework.
"Of course I did, do you even know who David Hume is? This dude is like a genius-"
"We don't care just give us a copy of your homework!" Paige cuts off and Ace frowns.
"No, do your own research, dumbwits!" Ace insults, sticking her tongue out at the bodies on the ground floor.
"What made you guys think Ace would give up her research that easily to you guys, she's a knowledge hoarder," Taylor cackles, the microwave beeping off.
"Fuck, I gotta go and get this done!" Cate panics, packing up her books and shoving them in her schoolbag, ignoring Caden who was ordering her to stay.
"I'm with Cate on this, no one wants detention," Paige nods, following Cate as they took sprint out of the door.
A folk of them rush out too, ignoring the situation going on with Caden and Taylor. Shae speeds off and Abi closely follows. Caden grunts, the feeling of his team ignoring his commands irritating but the reality was, he wasn't the leader nor second in command, what he orders isn't indefinite. Ace stays only for the purity of watching Taylor get scold.
"Taylor, I'm not gonna say this again, skip breakfast and get ready for class before we all take the fall," Caden grits through his teeth, clear annoyance in his voice.
"I really don't see the problem here? I'm always late to class anyway, Orion's used to it." Taylor pleas, not giving up as he shrugs his shoulder, pouring himself a large cup of almond milk.
"TAYLOR, THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU! YOU'RE PUTTING US ALL IN TROUBLE WITH YOUR IMMATURITY!" He snaps like a lightning bolt, his anger overthrowing the calmness he promised to approach this situation with.
Ace up in the air giggles to herself, unlike Taylor who finds Caden intimidating, she finds his anger useless and unnecessary. But Taylor gulps, his iris dilating in fear and his hands that's holding his sloppy burrito shivers.
"I-I-I-" For once in his life Taylor trembles under Caden's glare, the Capricorn possessing some kind of authority that scares him, he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, he had something that neither Orion nor Shae possess.
"Speak with you chest baby boy!" Ace snickers failing to read the room and her comment hits another flare in Taylor.
"A-Ace, stop it!" He warns but he's voice isn't fiery or threatening, it carries nothing like that instead he sounds weak, like a bird with one leg or a human with no voice.
"Stop what? Oh, what are you gonna do? Annoy me to death? Gosh, Taylor get a grip and just get ready for class!" Ace pushes her boundaries, her failure to read Taylor once again going unnoticed.
"Taylor, seriously, start acting appropriately. This isn't like wherever you grow up, this is Zodia and we're fucking Heroe's, start acting like one instead of a stupid teenage boy." Caden's words hit a nerve in Taylor, a sort of venom to him, deadlier than a stab wound or bullet shot.
With not a look back at him, Ace and Caden strut off, the pair failing to see the hurt in Taylor's eyes. And when he's left alone, he lets out a heavy breath, the tag-team verbal beating from Ace and Caden holding him captive of the ability to speak.
"B-breath, b-breath," he trembles, trying to calm his body but all he can imagine is how similar this feeling inside him is to the way he felt when he was a 'normal' boy, unaware of his gift and a victim of bullying just for his differences. In Zodia there wasn't a difference, he was still the outcast.
⌿⍀
It's a race against the clock, every minute, second and millisecond, counts. Violet's pen is rapid on her lined page, the friction of her pen and page almost scorching. She looks up the empty library desk and at the massive clock that hangs on the brown walls, 15 minutes before class begins.
"God this dude is boring," Violet scuffs, copying word to word the paragraph of David Hume from a random book she found in the library.
Violet's sheet of paper is blown away by a sudden gust of wind, that gust of winding being Shae, the speedster zooming into the room.
"Violet!" He screams, speeding his way into the empty seat behind her.
"Why do you do that!" She's perplexed at Shae's superspeed, a perk of his she'll never get used too.
"Look, let's make this quick! I'll do your homework only if you tell me where Sasha, Leah, Gabe and Levi are." He offers.
Violet lifts her eyes from her almost black page to meet the Sagittarius' dark eyes. She squints her eyes at him, trying her best to read him, the sudden eagerness from him rare and it intrigues her.
"Why do you wanna know where they went?" She cocks her eyebrow up and brings her pencil to her lip, smirking at the eye roll from Shae.
"Do you want me to complete your homework or not?" Shae deflects the question, ignoring the heavy stare from the Virgo.
"I do but there's an error to our deal," she chuckles to herself, letting her pen fall before saying, "I have no fucking clue where they went."
Shae lets out a loud growl, catching the attention of Mr Fallon, the librarian. He gives the librarian an apologetic look before returning his gaze to Violet.
"You know nothing? Like absolutely nothing-" Shae stops in his tracks as he hears loud chatters, specifically the voice of Cate entering its way to the study section of the library.
"What?" Violet whispers, noticing the shift in Shae.
"N-nothing, j-just keep it down between us," he says before he shuts his eyes, not liking the picture that was painting between him and Violet.
He hears Cate walk past them with Paige by her side, chatting about the unknown David Hume but despite his eyes shut, he feels her bloody gaze on him, so piercing that his hands trembles and his wind whirls with thoughts.
Talking to Violet was a bad idea, he thinks.
"You good?" Violet's eyebrow cocks up again, inspecting his shiftiness, the presence of Cate going unfazed by her.
"Talk soon!" He does it again, zooming out of the room without warning and leaving behind a gust of wind that chucks Violet's black thick bangs back, exposing her forehead and feline green eyes.
"Fucking hell," she curses at the gust, catching her homework paper in the midst of the air, getting ready to return to her homework.
Her eyes flick back up at the clock on the wall, 10 minutes left and she was only two sentences in. She grumbles but before she can start, she feels that bloody glare on her. Her eyes trail up and meet the pair of yellowish-brown eyes that belong to none other than Cate.
"What? You've got a problem!" Violet shouts, throwing her voice across the room and expecting a response from the girl with a killer stare but she does the opposite, ignoring Violet's confrontational attempt and turning her eyes back to her best friend.
⌿⍀
The bell rings, the loud pitch of it bouncing for each corner of the hallway wall, signalling the beginning of a long school day. Zodia High School of Excellence is the most prestigious form of education in the world, providing students with education essential for living in reality. It's a school that accepts only Zodian citizens with the rare expectation of naturally gifted students from other parts of the world.
Within the school, the Zodia Academy exists, a subsection of the high school that's solely for the Earth's Heroes, the Zodiacs. It consists of what you would typically expect for supernatural beings, classes specifically made for them.
"Philosophy and Ethics period one on a Monday, does this world really hate us?" Abi cries walking into the large classroom, the posters of world-renowned philosophers a pain to her sight.
The others waddle in behind, carrying the same amount of enthusiasm. Philosophy and Ethics is a class they all loathe with a passion, the over-exaggeration of life and how there's a deeper meaning to it an unbearable lecture to sit through and the fact is, watching paint dry is more exciting. All except for Ace, the intellect having a soft spot for learning, philosophy and ethics to be more exact.
"Orion you've done it yet again, when I saw that David Hume was the main philosopher for this week's lesson I nearly nutted-"
"God, I hate when she talks fluent nerd," Violet cuts off the excited puppy, walking past her and towards her seat at the right corner of the class.
"I'm glad to see some eager faces for today's class!" Orion claps his hands together, watching as they all shuffle to their allocated seats but the class feels empty with one-third of the class missing.
"I genuinely think it's unfair that we're learning about the great David Hume with half the class missing!" Paige complains, her head resting on her desk.
"Half the class!" Orion laughs walking over to his computer to check attendance, "we're only missing Sasha, Leah, Levi and Gabe-"
"And Taylor," Caden calls out, clear grumble in his voice and the frown on his face reinforces his anger. All their eyes trail to Caden, wondering what happen to cause such frustration with the Capricorn.
"Where's Taylor? I thought I told you-"
"Well some of us just can't work as a team, Orion." Caden snaps, interrupting the professor, ignoring how disrespectful he is coming across as.
Orion's eyebrows perk up, scanning through the faces of his Zodiacs, analysing every single inch of their faces and mannerism to create a general theory of why the atmosphere was suddenly tense like they were a balloon so big the timing of its pop unpredictable.
"Someone care tell me how late Mr Taurus will be today?"
They say timing is always essential and truly it is. The moment Orion's lips seal close, searching for an answer, the door rips so wide open it hits the back of the white walls. Mr Taurus walks in, his presence commanding attention. He walks into the room with his usual strides but there's a groove to his gait, compelling them to watch his rebellion. Taylor contrast to the messy he was this morning is now a hot mess. His hair is wet, the water showing off the red undertone of the brown and adding attention to his loose curls. He wears the purple plaid tie loosely on his collar and his white shirt untucks out of his black suit pants, his blazer is tucked over his shoulder, ignoring the number one rule about uniform at Zodia Academy; wear your blazer to and from classes at all time.
"Well, Mr Taurus, it's nice of us to join us, so nice and late," Orion wits comes out, his tone fills with congratulatory but the evident sarcasm casts through.
Ace's eyes threaten to fall out, the new attitude of her former close friend a bizarre encounter. She looks over to her desk partner, Caden and gives him a look of worry.
"I think we might have drilled him too much," Ace whispers, the guilt that should have been present this morning finally showing up at the front doorsteps of her stomach, releasing the uninvited butterflies.
"He's not my problem anymore," Caden denounces, his words colder than Paige's icy powers.
"Mr Taurus, mind explaining to your teammates and I why you're late?" Orion interrogates watching as the rebel blop his blazer on his desk with an 'I-couldn't-care-less' type of attitude.
"I'd be happy that I showed up, why won't we leave it at that?"
Abi chokes on her own saliva, the cocky comment from Taylor so unexpecting and she falls into a coughing frenzy. Her seating partner, Taylor smirks, finally taking his seat and ignores the glare from Orion.
"A lot of you are starting to get a bit brave around me, do I need to remind you who I am? I know times are stress but that is no excuse for this disrespect!"
A thing they always admire about Orion is his calmness, he voice always remaining in the right range, never yelling nor shouting at them, despite how rebellious they've been. But they all know that one day the calmness of Orion will be no more.
"I'd like to see Taylor in my office after school," Orion orders, typing the meeting into his computer.
"And if I don't show up-"
"You'll be showing up!" Orion sterns, "Cate and Shae, I need to speak to you two during lunch break," Orion goes on.
Shae is caught off guard, his eyes expressing wide open and his eyes flick to across the room, trying desperately to meet contact with Cate but her eyes ignore his.
"Don't worry, it's just about the tournament." Orion corrects but that doesn't settle the beating hearts of Cate and Shae.
⌿⍀
"So, you're not gonna talk to me?" Shae chuckles, the laugh masking his nerves but she hears the small jump in his voice.
Cate rolls her eyes, leaning further against the walls of the headmaster's office hallways. She's not fond about the idea of wasting her lunch break in Orion's office, especially with Shae of all people, a heartthrob who makes her heartache.
"Why were you talking to Violet this morning?" Cate spits out, her arms crossing her chest and once again, ignoring the gaze from Shae.
"Can you look at me, please?" Shae sighs, feeling defeat at the cold shoulder Cate is giving him.
"Why were you talking to Violet?" She repeats herself and he knows she won't respond to anything he asks until she answers him, he knows she's stubborn like that.
"You seriously can't be mad at me for talking to Violet? She's part of our team!" Shae utters, his hands pushing his black hair back in an attempt to mask his frustration.
"I-I-I, you know how I feel about her!" Cate shrills, her eyes ripping from the empty walls to meet her admire's eyes.
"Still, is talking to her suddenly against the law!" Shae grits.
"She's ruined nearly everything for me so yes, interacting with her is a direct disrespect to me!" Cate snaps back, the argument going back and forth like a game of tennis.
And before Shae could continue the heating argument, the headmaster's door opens widely, Orion stands before them and ushers them inside. Cate rushes in a permanent scolding look on her face and Shae trails behind, a newfound level of stress in him.
"Do you guys ever stop arguing?" Orion tries lightening the tense mood with a joke but it fails as Shae groans at the comment and Cate remains mute.
"What's this meeting for Orion, with all due respect I would love if we hurry this up, I have loads of homework to catch up on before my next classes," Cate lies in a desperate attempt to leave Shae's presence.
"No worries Cate, I won't hold you guys in for long. I just wanted to discuss the upcoming tournament," Orion cuts to the chase, "due to last year's events, I want us to be honest about where we stand."
Shae notices how Cate stiffens up about the mention of last year and the guilty he pushes down to the dark corners of his mind comes right out, engulfing him with endless shame. He wants to reach out his hand and hold it in his but he knows he can't. They're not lovers, never were and never will be.
"Lyra's reported back to me about your weekly psychological examinations and most of your sessions have been improving your recovery but there is still some distress. I know how much this tournament means to you so I won't be the bad guy here, whether you want to compete this year is all up to you." Orion says, smiling at the Cancer.
Cate gulps, the guilt also possessing her as she feels Shae's gaze on her. He looks at her with pleading eyes at the sudden news that what he did last year still impacts her, way more than she led on.
"I really appreciate you having so much faith in me, Orion. I know what happened last year wasn't the best press we've had but competing this year would be a dream. I've never felt this motivated." Cate speaks with a small nod.
"Fantastic, that's all I need to hear, you're in. Now you're free to go to complete your homework, which I may add should be complete during out of school time." Orion chuckles at how his comment makes Cate poke her tongue at him.
"Being a badass superhero and a school student is very hard to juggle," she jokes, getting up to leave the office.
"Ever heard of Peter Parker?" Orion jokes back, getting one last laugh from Cate before she leaves the room.
The moment she walks out, Orion's smile falls, shifting the lighthearted mood into a serious tone, "why haven't you been cooperating with Lyra?" Orion is back to his stern words and his arms folds over his chest like some sort of interrogation.
"I-I have." Shae lies, the intimidating stare from his mentor making him grit his teeth, all the events leading up to this moment creating a fit of newfound anger.
"I don't have time to be going back and forth with you Shae. I understand that these past few months have been stressful for you too which is why we've arranged weekly psych examinations for you. But with you not cooperating, we're not sure if you won't commit the same incident again." He tries his best to come off as understanding and calm but Shae fills with fuels from every moment leading up to now.
"I-I know but my private training sessions with you have vividly shown that my power control is so much better. I-I don't need to be examined weekly like some deranged person. I-I said it numerous times that last year was an accident," he stutters through his sentences, the idea od articulating his thoughts overwhelming as his mind is running with thoughts so incomprehensible.
"Shae we disqualified you last year for nearly endangering Cate's life, this isn't something we take lightly. Your words cannot speak for your actions," Orion heaves, the long conversation so longly overdue brings pressure to him.
"Orion-"
"Your behaviour has not improved one bit, in fact, you've got progressively worse, not complying to staff, a lack of interest in your role as part of this team. I'm sorry Shae but you will not be competing this year and I need you to be closely watched-"
"If you didn't want me to compete this year you could have told me straight up instead of pinpointing how much of a nut case I am, which I'm not! I'm completely fine! I-I-It's just that everyone treats me like I'm a psychopath, of course, I'm bound to feel and act differently!"
Months and months of built-up anger has led up to this moment, the moment where the pin loosely hanging on a wall finally drops. Shae erupts out of his seat, a whirlwind of emotions battling for dominance, with anger overpowering the sadness.
"Shae, it's okay, look we can get through this, just breathe, please," Orion out of reflex bolts up too and tries to extend his arm out for Shae but the latter stumbles back, his eyes clouds with impending tears, creating a vision similar to his mind - blurry.
"No! T-this is why I have n-no interest at all in being a s-stupid hero, i-it's because of you! I'm sure everyone feels the same, especially Taylor, y-you just dragged him from his already established l-life to be apart of so-some dysfunctional team! None of us wanted to be heroes, y-you MADE us. YOU had this vision! W-we didn't have a choice!"
His words spit out with so much venom and loathe but despite how demeaning they were, it feels freeing, like a taste of freedom. He doesn't feel like a puppet with strings pulling him in this direction or the next. He finally has self-will. The adrenaline and thrill of the moment give Shae a rush of exhilaration and his electrical nerves speed up, electrical sparks jumping off his skin. His legs spasm at the overloading income of electricity and before he knows it, his powers kick in control, the electricity carrying him beyond the walls of Zodia like the speed of light.
⌿⍀
"Leah behind you!" Levi shouts, his eyes catching glimpse of the moving shadow lurking upon Leah.
The Fire Lord reacts quick, pumping a gush of fire at the shadow and it screams at the sudden light, the blackness of it lurking back into the dark.
"We're surrounded by them!" Gabe alarms, looking around their perimeter yet his eyes fail to see past the darkness in the cave but that didn't matter, he felt those creatures eyes on him like he was some prey.
"What are these creatures?" Leah shrieks, her fireball the only source of light in the cave.
"They guard the book so we must be close," Sasha yells back.
The Quadro is deep in their mission of searching for this infamous book, the search party spending a day in search for it are at their final locations - Mount Karma, an active volcano hidden in the deepest of the longest and darkest cave in Mongolia. Despite their success of finding its whereabouts, they come to a halt, surrounded by unknow creatures eager for their flesh.
"They're sensitive to fire," Leah catches on, pumping a bigger flame and as she predicts, the sounds of the creatures hiss at the light.
"Guys, let's stay back to back, each watching a different coordinate. Levi watches north, Leah south, Gabe east and I'll watch left," Sasha orders.
They quickly form position, Leah leaving her left palm free as a flame and they slowly begin walking deeper into the tunnel. The mysterious shadows are intimidating, the invisible creatures making them wearing of what powers they possess.
"Something isn't right," Leah inspects, her hand reaching out for Sasha's, finding it and interlocking them together.
Sasha feeling the sudden warmth of her hand takes the hint, his free hand gearing up for a special attack, "standby," he whispers, almost inaudible but Levi picks it up, wrapping his hand around Gabe's hand, informing the final member.
1, 2, 3 they all mentally count, waiting for the right moment for a unison attack. At Leah's scream, Sasha swings his arm that interlocks with the Leo, using his upper body strength to flip her body into a frontflip. In the midst of the air, Leah twists her body, allowing the sudden gush of air, coming for the suction machine, Gabe to propel her further into the air and once she reaches the peak of her height her eyes glow pink, allowing her fire source to create a combustion of fire flaring out of her body. A fire aura, her favourite technique.
Within the quick seconds that this takes place, Levi uses the expel of fire coming from Leah as a chance to magnify it. He lets out a high-pitched scream, watching the longitudinal sound waves push the fire higher. It catches the rooftop of the cave that's covered in nothing but jungle leaves and the move is a success. The cave becomes alight, scorching with Leah's pinkish-red fire flames.
"Cover Leah's back!" Sasha commands, the sudden momentum of the mission picking up, "we're about to be under attack!"
"Where's the replica book?" Leah shouts out, looking around to spot the golden book that they are replacing the real book with.
The cave is now so bright, her flames creating blinding lights that her own vision is weak. Gabe rips open the brown satchel, revealing the replica book, "Catch!" He yells, throwing the book across to Leah, it fumbles in her hands for a while before she places two steady hands on it.
"Proceed!" Sasha yells, taking lead as he runs down the cave, Leah closely behind pumping fire around her the cave, continuing the scorch.
"Do you guys hear that!" Levi suddenly screams, his ears picking up the sound of rattling, like scales rubbing against the dry walls of the cave.
"What is it?" The three others scream back.
"We've got an intruder coming!" Levi yells.
"Don't stop running, attack as soon as you catch a glimpse of the beast!" Sasha commands, the confidence in his voice assuring to his team and they pump their legs faster, picking up the pace.
The sound becomes visible to the others eventually and it's clear that whatever this beast is, it's gigantic, smashing against the cave walls, rumbling the ground like an earthquake with high magnitude. But then a loud hissing sound echoes down the cave, the smell coming for it rancid revealing that this creature eats a ray of species.
Suddenly the creature explodes out of the abyss, it's tongue its first limb to come to light, it's long and bright pink, it's split three times in the middle like a pitchfork. The creature hisses, a loud hiss that sends a warning to the Zodiacs. The serpents green eyes glow open, they're beady with a ring of orange around its iris.
"Holy!"
"Mother!"
"Of!
"CHRIST!
⌿⍀
the drama and action now kicks in, tehehe