DoR Chapter 5 - Serpent of Water

IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, PLEASE READ!



Mae’s POV

I swiftly unlatched the trapdoor on the floor, and lit myself on fire, flames danced around me as I transformed and my wings sprouted from my back. I prepared to jump down, but Sky held me back.

“That’s not a good idea.” Sky insisted I shoved his arm away without hesitation.

I jumped down, my hair flying up; I don’t even know why I jumped down in the first place. Everyone had gotten out of the training chamber before I had opened the trapdoor, and no one’s power hurts themselves; so Jason would’ve been fine. I can’t understand why I would do something like this.

I landed on my feet gracefully; Jason was lying a few feet away. He's one of the lucky ones, the ones who feel no pain, because he looked almost like he was sleeping. I ran to his side, not realizing what was going on until I heard that unforgettable noise.

The sound of rushing water.

The shimmering reflection that water makes flickered on both Jason and me, my eyes wandered up, and my body went ridged. An entire wall made of water was swiftly approaching us; growing in size; bottles and jugs of water exploded and joined the wave. I was frozen in place, slightly crouched on the ground, I couldn’t move, I should be moving, to get Jason, but… but.

Now the wave was towering us completely, it’s impossible for me to run, it will come crashing down on me, and when it does, I’ll die… I’m a stupid fool, to act without thinking!

I squeezed my eye shut the moment to water started to fall, already feeling my skin burn as some droplets touched me, but only little hisses, the rest never came.

“D-don’t forget I promised.” I heard the faint voice of… Jason.

My eyes popped open to see Jason lying on his side, propping himself with one hand while the other was raised above his head, he was wincing as he looked up at me. He managed a weak smile as I ran over to him and embraced him in a hug. Immediately I jumped back as parts of my skin turned red.

"Mae, what's wrong?"

"I forgot when you morph, you take on your powers weakness or strength. For you fire doesn't hurt you, for me water does, so when your transformed, I can't touch you'll or I will 'burn'"

"Oh god I'm so sorry!" he gasped me, I could see he was struggling with keeping the water at bay, with a wave of his hand the water exploded into water vapor, I only felt a harmless tickle and then it went away.

I smiled and lent my hand to him, he grabbed it graciously, I ignored the burning pain until Jason was fully standing.

I never did look at how much he transformed. Jason wore a blue shirt covered in a dark grey shawl, pinned with a gold button. The shawl was decorated with a gold and purple zigzags at the bottom. His right arm was blanketed in a long pale blue sleeve that almost buries his hand, a paler blue stripe with green diamond shaped designs rest at the tip of the sleeve. His left arm was bare, no sleeve showing, only a dark blue bracelet with the waves depicted on them, and a green glowing gem. Long cyan pants almost cover his dark blue shoes, it’s starting to make me think this is déjà vu of Jason first day here, how he wore all blue clothes... His hair and face were the same except his eyes were a deeper shade of blue.

I heard a small thud behind me and turned to see Sky, fully transformed, crouched low to the ground, the ground slightly disturbed. He stood up and dusted himself off.

"Mae! OMG you had me worried!" he shouted at me and he ran over.

I looked around nervously, "I'm sorry..."

"What's gotten into you lately, how could you miss that wall of water and just recklessly jump in there, I thought you were going to die!"

I don't think Sky noticed Jason awake because when Jason stood beside me Sky's eyes almost popped out of his face.

"J-Jason, I thought you were unconscious," Sky stammered.

"I thought I was going to be too, but..." he paused for a second, "a voice told me Mae was going to die if I didn't act now."

"A voice," I commented, slightly confused.

"Yea it was weird, like a deep voice, kind of menacing and commanding, like if I said no I felt like I something bad would happen... It's weird I know, but I can't explain it any other way."

I didn't say anything after that, I was too deep in thought, "Well you must be tired, let’s take you to the infirmary so you can rest up," Sky interrupted my thoughts and shouted loudly.

I nodded and we quickly walked the protestant Jason to the infirmary.

Time Skip

Today is the day Jason tries to find the weapon that best suits him. I actually had a meeting to go to but, Ty called me over and told me to come help Jason, apparently, he wasn't doing very well.

I ran inside the training room to see Sky viciously swing his sword, while Jason tried to block, only he was being driven backwards. Sky was able to launch Jason’s sword out of his hand and it landed in front of me.

Jason’s head turned toward me, “Mae! Oh god I can’t do dis! Help!”

I snickered and picked up the sword, “Fine, I hear you’ve been at sword fighting for an hour, how about we switch it to a different weapon.”

“Yesss! Please!” he whined.

I walked over to the weapon rack where Sky was putting away his sword, “Sky, go take my place at the meeting.”

“Dammit! I was going to record a video!” he groaned, but nodded his head and stormed off. I giggled a little bit.

From the wall of weapons, I grabbed two 6-foot long staffs, I just noticed Ty in the corner practicing with two swords, smiling I thought to myself, at least someone is working hard. I ran over to Jason who was slumped against the wall and threw him a staff, which hit him in the head.

"OW!" he rubbed his head and stumbled to stand up, clutching the staff tightly.

"New I'll teach you in my expertise, weapons that are staff like."

Time Skip

My staff came swinging down and Jason tried to weakly block, the force knocked the staff out of his hand, "That's the 20th time already; you're still not holding it right if you can't absorb that hit." I hissed angrily at him, he was shaking his hands which were bright red, "OK it’s time to take a break, I'll be back I need to find our weapon specialist, she might be able to help." He nodded and Ty went running over to him as I left the room.

Time Skip

So I had found our weapon specialist, but nothing was really working… His form was all wrong; he couldn’t get any proper blocks and or swings, and let’s just say this has been going on for a span of a few days. For a moment, we thought we had something with a bow, but then we didn’t…

“Ok Jason, I think that’s enough.” I waved my hand, motioning for him to stop, Ty was lazily sleeping against the wall and Sky was subbing for me in another meeting, I promise I’ll make it up to him.

“Wait, I-I still have to find—“ he stuttered.

“You forgot about what I told you back when Ty was doing the same thing as you already?” He looked at me confused and I motioned for him to follow me, I kicked Ty lightly in the foot. He woke up with a start, “Come on Ty or you’ll get left behind.”

He shuffled behind us as I quickly led them down a hallway that people rarely ever come down. We stopped in front of a room that said, DANGER Not for the use of the average combatant.

“What’s in there?” Jason questioned.

“Stuff, you’ll see, we don’t often come here.” I took out my NTCTP ID card and swiped it in on the side, the machine beeped and the door swiftly opened. It was dark; I felt around for the light switch and flicked it on. The room immediately came to ‘life’, this place was probably half the size of a training chamber, a gray metal door with a key pad to the left, and an enormous shooting range, with counters to lay down your gear.

“God it’s so cold!” Ty shouted as he shivered.

“Cold? Oh right sorry, I don’t feel the cold.” I laughed, “Unfortunately it stays this way, no use installing a thermostat if no one ever uses this room.”

He groaned, and Jason stifled a laugh, I strolled to the door on my left and entered in a 5-digit code. With a click, the door opened and I entered, inside where rows of shelves and filing cabinets stood. Inside each of the filing cabinets were ammo, and on the shelves had boxes with guns, yes I know dangerous. These are special though, and only few recruits can use them. The first shelf and cabinet to my left was labeled M1911, I believe it’s a single shot, semi-automatic pistol. I grabbed some of the ammo, and a slivery blue M1911. All these guns actually are made out of Fraulim Amonite, the same material as our armor and headgear.

Dashing out of the room the door closed behind me and locked with a click. “Jason, take this!” I handed him the gun and set the ammo down on the counter.

“Whoa! You want me to use a gun?! I don’t know how to use a gun,” he panicked.

I rolled my eyes, “It’s not regular gun so you’ll be fine, it connects to the nerves and brain waves, when you pull the trigger its strength will come from your will. Plus it can only be used by an authorized person.”

He nodded still unsure of what to do, I held my hand out and he placed the gun in it. What people call the safety actually has a different task here, I pulled it and the gun began to glow slightly.

“What’re you doing?” Ty whispered.

“Setting up the gun for Jason to use,” I replied.

“System activated, awaiting orders.” A high-pitched female voice came from the gun, Ty and Jason started at it in shock.

“Grant gun use; type M1911, number 00302, to Jason Stokes, aka Recruit Star.” I answered it in a loud and clear voice.

The gun pulsated with a blue glow as it processed the order, “Gun use granted, TW or CS?”

“TW01, basic, weak pulse,” I informed, I handed the gun to Jason, who started at me with shock and wonder.

The gun stopped glowing, it was ready to be used, “How do you remember what to say?”

My eyes shifted around shyly, “I don’t know it’s just required, Recruits luckily only need to know the basics.”

Ty laughed behind me, “Well gezz that’s not going to be fun, but it’s cool how you’re so good at it.”

I smiled and helped direct Jason that all he needed to do was focus and pull the trigger with a strong will to hit his target. With a shaky hand, Jason pulled the trigger and it hit the side of the human outline, Ty snickered behind me.

“Ty, before I forget I need to ask you something.” I announced, looking back at him as he leaned against the wall.

He stood up straight and said, “Yea?”

“Right now we still don’t have much of an idea who that man was that attacked, I was told he spoke a few words to you, anything he said can be a lead—“ I started.

“N-no, sorry, he didn’t say anything important…” he stammered as he shuffled his feet restlessly.

I eyed his suspiciously, but for once I let it go, lately I’ve noticed I don’t act as strict, I still can’t tell if that’s good or bad…

“I’m going to go… uh somewhere…” Ty left in a hurry after that.

“Fuuuccckk!” Jason screamed, I looked back to see four shots on the target, none of them hitting critical spots.

“Wow,” I walked over to him, “Stay focused, getting stressed isn’t going to help you.” I grabbed his hand and helped guided him, he pressed the trigger when I nodded and this time it his target dead in the chest.

He grinned and I laughed at him, “That time I actually hit him right!”

“That’s great, now keep practicing that.”

Time Skip

It’s been an hour and I’ve done nothing but watch Jason target practice, he’s gotten the hang of shooting a gun, so there’s no doubt he’s one of the rarer people.

“Ok Jason, that’s enough now, I’m sure I can fill out all the paper work for your gear to be sent over.”

He grinned and set down the gun, which I quickly returned to its shelf, “Oh god, what time is it now?”

“Almost dinner.” We hurried out of the room and I locked the door behind me.

“That’s great! I’m famished I haven’t eaten since lunch, let’s hurry and catch up with the others.” Jason ran ahead, rushing out the building, with me in close pursuit.

“Hold up!” I yelled to Jason, he’s gotten better at running now, he’s now faster than me, amazing huh. Lol.

He only laughed and ran faster, beating me to the doorway into the cafeteria. The room became silent when Jason slammed the doorway open and I squeezed my way through the door. I saw Sky running over.

“Mae! Where’ve you been, you still have an important announcement to make.” He babbled.

I stared at him as if I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then, “Oh god you don’t mean that’s today!”

He nodded, and I face-palmed, and ran to the front of the cafeteria, I watched as Sky and Jason stood by the doorway looking at me expectantly. At the far back, I saw Ty eating quietly.

All eyes were on me, “Well good evening recruits and commanders of the NTCTP.”

Loud cheering erupted, as I waited for it to settle down I processed what I would need to say, “As you all know it’s been over a week since all of our new recruits came, and I am proud to announce that they are all 100% ready to carry their training to the next level!”

The commanders and recruits started clapping, “To celebrate the accomplishment of these recruits we will hold our 4th annual celebration party. Now there are rules,” I paused, took a deep breath, and continued on, “You can invite family members, but no revealing anything about how we work and you CAN NOT take them to any training rooms or weaponry rooms, ever. Any questions?”

I saw Sky raise his hand and I stifled a groan, I know exactly what he is going to ask, and I don’t want to answer it, because it always leads to the same conclusion, “Yes Sky…”

“Can I invite—“

“Sky please don’t tell me you want to invite Mitch again.” I held my head in one hand as I sighed.

A/N Calm down you Jerome fans, just wait, you'll see him soon :3 #SPOILER

“Yes.”

“No Sky, he isn’t a family member, last year I made an exception but this year I must stick to the rules.”

Loud shouts of protest rose among the crowd don’t get me wrong I am a fan of Mitch and Jerome, but I am also supposed to be a role model, I have to up hold the rules.

Sky started giving me his begging face… “No Sky, no…,” I mumbled.

“Just this once,” he pleaded.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Jason shouted.

I sighed, “Fine! Fine I’ll allow this time but no more after.”

“Yes!” Sky jumped up in the air, while Jason snickered in the background. I walked away from the front of the cafeteria, and let everyone go back to what they were doing as I headed to the line to get dinner.

Time Skip

I sat down at the table that Sky and I share, along with a few of the commanders, plus now Ty and Jason. Sky, Ty and Jason were already engrossed in a conversation, something about recording together sometime soon.

“Maaaeee!” Sky chided.

“Whaaattt,” I answered.

“You should record with us; it’s been awhile since you were in one of my videos.” Sky begged.

“You know I can’t I have too much work to do.”

“Aww don’t say that.” Jason cried, Ty still wasn’t making eye contact with me.

“I’ll think about it…” I said as I continued to eat my rich smelling soup. The thought never really crossed my mind that Ty could be hiding something important.

Maybe if I had paid more attention, the future would be completely different…