Nobody POV
The attacker had slashed a knife across Aquarius's shoulder before he could blink, warm red staining his white shirt. He cursed and clamped a hand on his shoulder. Damn...! I knew I should've worn full-body armor today, but I didn't think we'd be attacked today! He watched the attacker dart back, quicker than a blink. And whoever that is has got superspeed. Not good.
"Dammit!" He cursed, drawing a knife. Again, before he could react the knife sliced into his stomach. He caught the eyes of Taurus who was watching in horror. "Run!" he spat. I can't beat someone who's got superspeed, but the least I can do is buy him some time. And I could use my abilities, but...
"I'm not leaving you!" Taurus shouted.
The attacker cackled. "There's nothing you can do, even with your two abilities, you don't know how to use them." A moment later Aquarius felt himself hauled to the ground. "Say night-night, my boy!"
Damn, what do I do...!
"Mr. Aquarius..." Taurus whispered, holding out a hand. Bolts of electricity started crackling around him, and frost started gathering around the plants.
"Get... your hands... OFF HIM!!" As he screamed, that lightning flashed and arced all over the place.
"Argggghhh!" Aquarius felt the attacker's grip loosen on him, and then he dropped to the ground, twitching like a bug. Aquarius rose, holding his wounds, and raised his knife.
"No." Aquarius looked up in surprise. Taurus walked towards him. His eyes were cold, angry, and flashing. "Let me."
To his absolute shock Taurus held out a hand. Frost gathered and sharpened in his hand, elgonating until it transformed into a long, wickedly sharp ice spear. "He won't get out of his alive." So saying he took the spear and let it fall onto the attacker, piercing him through the heart. A few moments later he stopped moving, and the ice slowly disentegrated.
Taurus turned to Aquarius, worry clouding over his golden eyes again. "Are you alright, Mr. Aquarius?"
Aquarius was busy lost in thought. An ice spear?! What?! That's one of the rarest forms of the ice elemental there is and takes a long time to learn! I guess Ursa wasn't lying when she said that Taurus was powerful...
Gemini and Virgo ran into the courtyard. "I felt electricity! What's going on-Ohhhhhhhhh." Gemini grinned. "Got yourself hurt, eh?"
"Be a little more considerate," Virgo snapped. "It's rare for any one of us to get hurt, so that's why Mini's being such a prat," he told Taurus. Then he paused. "Wait. The earlier electrical storm? That was you?"
Taurus let his bangs cover his eyes again. "...Yes. Mr. Aquarius was in danger. Wait-" he looked up in alarm. "Please don't tell anyone about this!"
"Don't worry. In fact, we're just like you," Aquarius said. "I was going to kill the guy myself, but you took care of it faster than I'd anticipated."
"Hey, before we do anything, can somebody please explain why there's a dead body in the courtyard?" Gemini cut in, wrinkling her nose at the body. "It's gross."
Quickly Aquarius relayed the events to them.
"Oh-kay, we've got to leave now," Virgo decided the minute he was finished. "Ursa won't like this. We're not supposed to just go rampant like that."
Gemini, totally ignoring Virgo, turned to Taurus with sparkling eyes. "Oooo, is that really true? That's so cool! Aquarius over here can't do nearly that sophisticated things!"
Aquarius gritted his teeth. "Gemini, shut the hell up and just get us to the facility already!"
"Fine, fine." Gemini fished out a round device from her pocket. "Ready, everyone?" She threw it onto the ground. "Zodiac Headquarters."
The world warped, and a moment later they were teleported out.
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"Ugh! Get this body off me!"
Ursa stood up from her throne at the sound of the zodiacs teleporting into the main room. "You're back so soon. Did you complete your mission-oh my!"
She rushed to Taurus first. "So you're the one we've been looking for! And the one who caused that huge electrical outbreak a few minutes ago! Capricorn just called in."
"He-llo," Gemini said, throwing the dead attacker onto the ground. "There's a dead body and it's ruining my clothes."
"Right, right," Ursa snapped her fingers and the body slowly disentegrated. "We can gather information later. Right now we should quickly heal Aquarius then continue talking. Pisces!"
Pisces hurried into the room and tsked when she saw his wounds. "You're usually more careful, niichan."
"He had superspeed," Aquarius muttered.
"Well, that's a uncommon one. Anyway, stand still for me." Once Aquarius had, Pisces, closed her eyes and summoned water. It swirled around his wounds, and when it dropped away the wounds were completely healed. The blood was gone as well. "There we go."
"Thanks," Aquarius said.
"That's a useful ability," Taurus spoke up quietly. "Mr. Aquarius is all better now."
Pisces looked over at him and everybody could see her blush bright red. "W-w-well, um, t-thanks!"
The other four facepalmed in unison.
"Anyway, moving on from teenage drama," Ursa said, rolling her eyes, "Let's talk."
Again Aquarius told her what happened. By the time he finished her eyes were wide. "Very interesting. An ice spear, huh? We haven't seen one of those in nearly two thousand years."
"Excuse me," Taurus said. "If you don't mind me asking, I'd like to know what's going on."
That's right, Aquarius realized. He doesn't even know what's going on. I'm amazed his mind isn't broken right now. Not many people can handle this kind of pressure all at once and not break.
Ursa smiled at him. "All will be explained soon, my dear boy. But first, let's get a look at those eyes of yours." She blew a small gust of wind towards him, ruffling his bangs and letting his eyes show. She smiled. "Good. You know, if you cut your bangs, you're quite handsome!"
The three zodiacs facepalmed and groaned. "Ursa, that's a really bad habit of yours."
"But it's true!" she objected. "Okay, okay, fine, I know, let's keep going. Sun and Moon will yell at me if I don't do my job anyway."
The pitter-patter of three pairs of feet alerted them to the entrance of three other zodiacs-Aries, confident as always, Capricorn, wires twisted around his neck and a charger in one hand, and Cancer, a soccer ball tucked under his arm. "Hey, your leader is here!" Aries called. "So, how was the mission?"
"You're... the leader?"
Aries turned her red-eyed gaze onto Taurus. She quite literally towered over him. "Oh, so here's the new guy! Nice! That's some seriously long hair you've got there."
Taurus smiled a little. "You remind me of my friend Leo."
"And you're one to talk about long hair," Capricorn grumbled, looking pointedly at her thigh-lengthed bright red hair.
Cancer skipped over to Taurus and held out a hand, beaming. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Cancer, and this is Capricorn, who does all the tech stuff, and Aries, the leader."
Taurus accepted his hand. "I'm Taurus."
"So who's gonna explain?" Aries asked, crossing her arms.
"I will," Ursa said. "Many, many eons ago, the god of this universe blessed a certain race of chosen people. They were called the zodiacs, and they had special abilities, like you do now. They were trained here to use their powers for good. Unfortunately, over time the power of the zodiacs has spread, sometimes feebly or sometimes in great amounts, to other people who, if not controlled, go on rampant."
"That was me," Aquarius muttered. "I nearly burned down the entire city before they stopped me."
"Well, yes. Which is why the purpose of the zodiacs evolved into something a little different. The zodiacs were now trained not only to do good, but to travel wherever powers were appeared and either convince them to use them for good or stop them from using them completely. The dangerous part about this is that scientists have somehow gotten a whiff of this and are practically crawling all over their feet to find a person with abilities-for experiments that I won't even share the details of. The new generation of zodiacs has begun, and we have managed to gather more than half already, but there are still four more out there. Usually when one is a zodiac they are named after their sign."
"What about Leo?" Taurus asked suddenly. "Do you think he could be a..."
Ursa frowned. "That would depend. Leos are sometimes are to find because, unlike most other zodiac names, Leo is a common name. We're more careful when finding a Leo, but, just in case... Taurus, has he ever shown any signs of an ability?"
Taurus shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like my ability, where it's a bit obvious... but sometimes when we're scared people near him would suddenly braver. It's kind of subtle but I always felt it. He always glows slightly when he uses it, but I don't know if that's an ability or just his natural aura. He's always given off the 'leader' sense." That was the first time they'd ever heard him speak so much.
"Hold up, do you think he could take over as leader for me?" Aries asked excitedly.
"Aries, please, honestly..." Virgo sighed.
"Interesting. Well, we'll bring him here at another time. For now, I'm under instructions to find out what Taurus can do. Here." She tossed an item at Taurus and he caught it out of reflex. There was a single silver button in the middle of the roundish rectangular clear item.
"Ooo! The clicker!" Gemini said excitedly.
"It's not a clicker, it's an item that can figure out your abilities and what you're capable of when you press it," Capricorn said irritably (he was the inventor)
"Whatever. Just press it, Taurus," Aquarius interrupted their bickering.
"Okay." Taurus pressed the button hesitantly. There was a loud click and the air started flashing before them. Slowly a shape started to take form... it lengthened and sharpened... until finally an ice spear, resembling the one Taurus had made earlier, took form.
"Coooooooooool!" Cancer breathed. "So you guys weren't lying!"
"Wait, you thought we were lying?!" Gemini asked crossly. "Rude!"
"It's changing form," Ursa interrupted them. It was true. The ice spear was flashing again, and soon morphed into something else. "Is that... an orb?"
Floating in the air was now a round orb-like object, except it was crackling with electricity.
"Woah! That's another rare ability!" Capricorn said eagerly, interest piqued. He paused. "Well, electricity in itself is not that rare but the orb part is."
"What does this mean?" Pisces whispered.
"It means," Ursa said, staring as the orb faded away, "That things are going to change."
No. It means... a monster has arrived.
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Cancer showed Taurus to his new room. "Here you go! Hope you like it!"
It was pretty much bare except for a middle-sized bed, table, bathroom, window, and a closet. The walls had somewhat of a floral-print on them, but were slightly faded.
"The closet has already been programmed to prepare clothes tailor-made for you," Cancer said. "And if you're lonely we're right next to you! Just press the button by the door and say the name of who you want to contact. Plus, if you want, just say what you'd like the room to be like and it'll change to accommodate your needs. Magic is nice like that."
Cancer started to leave, but Taurus called softly, "Wait. I have to ask you something."
Cancer paused in the doorway. "Sure, buddy. What do you need?"
Taurus pointed to the bathroom. "I'm going to change. Go there, please."
Once Cancer was inside the bathroom, Taurus opened the closet and was surprised to find that it was, in fact, already filled with clothes that he preferred to wear. After a few minutes of shifting through them, he changed into a light blue-green short-sleeved button-down shirt and grey pants. "You can come out now."
"So, what did you want to ask me?" Cancer said, stepping out of the bathroom and sitting on a chair. Taurus laid back onto the bed. "Was it... like this for you too? When you first came here?"
"Well..." Cancer frowned. "Sort of. I mean, we went through the explanation and did the clicker thing. Pretty sure we've all memorized the explanation by now. It was all pretty exciting. I thought I was the only one with a power."
"What can you do?"
Cancer laughed. "Mine's kind of boring compared to you, Mr. Two-Rare-Abilities. I have hydrokinesis." He swirled water around his palms. "It works the best when there's a large water source nearby, but I all us water signs can pull water from thin air, so..."
"What about everyone else?"
Cancer paused, thinking. "Oh boy. It's been some time since we've trained together... let's see. Well, Aries has pyrokinesis for starters. She can also sort of 'boost' the confidence of those around her-that's why she's the leader, even though she wasn't the first to arrive. Capricorn has telekinesis and slight super strength. He doesn't exactly go out on missions, but he's the one that provides all of the cool gadgets and stuff we use. Gemini can split herself into several versions of herself, and the worst is that they're all the same so it gets unbearable. Pisces has healing water. She's physically the weakest in our little group, but boy she knows a lot about assassination. Virgo can control people, and also manipulate plants a little."
"What do you mean by 'a little?'" Taurus interrupted, staring up at the ceiling again.
"Like, it's not as strong as his controlling people power," Cancer explained. "And his plant manipulation has bigger limits. So it doesn't really count as a 'power'."
"Am I... the only one that has two abilities?"
Cancer chuckled. "Sort of. The last one I need to say is Aquarius, and he has two powers." He heard Taurus inhale a little. "Note I said sort of, because it's not exactly like two powers. Let me explain. The left side of him has pyrokinesis, but the right side has ice. It's like he's split between two. Does that make sense?"
"... I guess it does."
"Well, anyway," Cancer said, stretching. "Nobody here has ice except for him, so he'll probably end up being your trainer in that aspect. If he does I guess I'll warn you-Aquarius is a little devil when it comes to that kind of thing."
That got a small smile. "Got it."
"And you'll have to pay a visit to Capricorn if you'd like your clothes to provide armor. Plus you can request items, and don't worry about feeling like you're overworking him, that boy absolutely loves to work. I gotta go now, but see you later, okay?"
"Bye." Taurus stared up at the ceiling again once Cancer had left. I've entered a whole new world, Mom, Dad, he thought. It'll be exciting for sure. Come to think of it... he got up. I should check to make sure Aquarius's wounds are actually okay. It's partly my fault, after all.
He exited his room and walked down the hall until he came to the door with Aquarius's name on the plaque. He knocked.
"Who is it?" Aquarius called.
"Taurus."
"Come on in then." Taurus came in hesitantly, stopping by the doorway.
Aquarius's room was built on the same foundations as his, except that his walls were painted a light blue and the window was a lot bigger. Also, there was a weird desk of sorts that Aquarius was sitting at. They looked like several holographic screens revolving around him on air, and a keyboard. Every letter he pressed lit up slightly.
He spun around in his chair. "Did you need something?" He'd also changed, into another white button-down shirt and grey pants, but his tie was crumpled on his bed.
"How are your wounds?" Taurus asked, closing the door behind him.
"They're fine," Aquarius said, lifting up his shirt slightly to prove that there wasn't even a scar. "Pisces's water healing is quite remarkable."
"Oh."
The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smirk as he steepled his fingers. "But I'm guessing that's not what you really want to know, right?"
Taurus said nothing.
"So, what else?" Aquarius prodded.
Taurus looked like he was going to say something, then dipped his head. "Nothing." And he left, long ponytail fluttering behind him.
I wasn't able to ask... if we knew each other before...
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After dinner...
"We need to continue gathering zodiacs," Ursa assessed immediately. The zodiacs were gathered around a table, looking at a map of the entire world. "There are four left. Tomorrow we will take a look at Leo."
"Aren't we even going to train newbie?" Aries asked.
"I was getting there, Aries," Ursa said patiently. "Aquarius, being the only other ice element user here, you'll be his instructor in that element. Capricorn, please outfit with the right arms inventory tomorrow as well. I'll have to see who can teach him with the orb and electricity."
Taurus nodded silently. Cancer mouthed, Called it!
"Taurus, since I know you do not have any parents or relatives and were currently living in a school dorm, you are now granted full access here and I have already told the dorm manager that you'd be living somewhere else. When you step through the front door and call out the place where you want to go, you will be instantly teleported there." Ursa said, then handed him a small round device. "Throw this and you'll be teleported back. Training will begin one hour after school ends, to at least provide some rest before we start."
Taurus stared down at the device.
Ursa smiled. "We expect great things from you, Taurus."
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Done! What do you guys think? (these chapters might be slightly shorter since action happens a lot more often and quicker in this story than in the others)
Any suggestions for the cool weapons that Capricorn can make?
Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Now I have to keep on working... T-T
-awakened-angel-chan