Serenay Moon
Special XXXXIII: Silent Threat 3: Protectors of the Universe
©2003 Kitty Ocean
"Hey Hades!" Courage had an orb with shells in her hands. "What is this? Where should we place it? What should we price it?" But there was no reply. Courage walked at the tall man in her future shop. "Yo, Hades, hello! Underworld to Hades!"
"Eh what?" Hades snapped up, as if he was caught in thoughts.
Courage placed the orb on the counter. "What's with you lately? I appreciate your offer to help me, but if all you do is daydreaming around..."
"Not now Courage." Hades held his hand to his head as if he had an headache. "I need to go."
"Something wrong?" Courage asked. Unlike her, the God of the Underworld was not dead. He was not alive either. Maybe he was a zombie... nah. Never call the God of the afterlife a zombie. Bad idea.
Hades didn't reply and wobbled at the door. He almost bumped into Ryu, who entered the room. "Mm, not going that fast eh?" He mumbled looking around.
"Oh shut up." Courage sighed and placed the orb on a shelf.
Ryu checked out some stuff that Courage had displayed. "Man, nobody wants to buy this."
Courage snapped around. "Look, if all you're gonna do is complaining, then just leave okay? I'm not in the mood for this!"
"Just telling the truth!" Ryu defended himself.
"Yeah right." Courage growled. "Why did you come anyway? If you hate me so much, why do you keep on visiting me?"
Ryu folded his arms. "I'm not visiting you!" He said back. "I was just passing and I enjoy watching you making a mess out of everything." Then he turned around and left the shop.
"You... you... BAKA!" Courage yelled in lack of a better word.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" The brown haired girl stretched her hand and helped Zach up. "Did you hurt yourself?"
Zach rubbed his head for a second and looked at the girl. She had brown curly hair and piercing eyes. She didn't look too fragile. "Nah, I'm okay." He replied. "Did I hurt you?"
The girl smiled and shook her head, letting her curls dance in the wind. "No, but thank you for asking."
In the mean while a cranky looking guy helped Kitt up. "Thanks." She said and dusted herself off. When she looked into the guy's eyes, a shiver went through her spine. 'It wouldn't hurt to smile...' She thought.
Derak interrupted. "Well, it was nice bumping into you, but we'd better get out of here."
"Because of the earthquakes?" A guy with dark hair started.
Moka nodded. "Yeah, we..."
"That's why we are here." A fragile girl replied. "You don't have to worry any more."
"We don't?" Moka was startled by her appearance.
The dark haired guy nodded. "Yes." He added. "We are the Chosen Protectors." He continued. "We were chosen by the Guardians to protect the universe!"
Silence fell. Zach and his friends simply gasped. "You know the Guardians?!" Zach asked them.
The dark haired boy nodded. "Yes. They have chosen us and we are send on missions to protect the universe."
A cheerful girl bumped in. "Yu-uh!" She smiled. "We are Gifted Ones and got a promotion!"
"You do not seem surprised." The fragile girl noticed.
"That's because we're Gifted Ones as well!" Mika smiled. "Only we are not send on missions... at least, not any more."
"It was one mission but that doesn't matter." Zach decided. "Who are you?"
"My name is Aure." The fragile girl introduced herself. "I'm the Chosen Protector of Air."
"I'm Nuria." The brown haired girl smiled and bowed. "I'm the Chosen Protector of Fire."
The cheerful girl jumped forward. "I'm Faye!" She jumped before Derak. "And I'm the Chosen Protector of Earth."
"And my name is Dolan; I'm their leader." The dark haired guy added. "I am the Chosen Protector of the Spirit."
Astounded all gasped at them, and their eyes moved to the last guy. His appearance was Asian and he looked crankier than Kitt in her morning temper. "Eh..." Derak pointed.
"That's Qing Yuan." Faye smiled. "Ignore him. He's just cranky."
"You make me cranky." Qing Yuan shared his first words.
"He's the Chosen Protector of Water." Faye concluded.
"Does he ever smile?" Mika liked to know.
Silence fell for a second. "Eh... not as far as I know..." Faye answered. "But if he does... beware!"
Dolan stopped Faye. "It was nice meeting you, but now we have to get to work." He decided. "You'd better get out of here; things may get ugly."
Dolan wanted to walk on, but Zach stopped him. "Wait!" He said. "We know where the epicentre of the earthquakes were! Maybe we can help."
Kitt nodded. "Yeah, we too are Gifted Ones; if we combine our powers nothing can stop us."
All looked at Dolan, who seemed to be pondering. "All right." He finally agreed. "But then we should discuss things first."
Mika raised her finger. "Eh... normally we would invite you to our place, but we kinda had some misfortune..."
"Misfortune?" Nuria wondered.
Zach nodded. "Our eh... house is kinda above the epicentre and temporarily not safe to drink tea in..."
"Then we go to our place." Aure suggested with her melodic voice. "It's not that far from here. Please, follow us." And with eternal grace she turned around. Her light hair danced in the wind and Moka could not help but gasp at this sight.
They walked through the forest for a short while. "You live in the forest?" Derak asked Faye, who walked aside him. She was shorter than he was, but her energy made her noticeable.
Faye nodded and smiled an enchanting smile. "Yeah, this place just simply rocks! It's too groovy!"
'Groovy?' Derak thought, but then pushed the thought away. As Chosen Protector, these youngsters would have probably been cut away from the world. Groovy... last time he heard that word it was from the mouth of his grandfather who thought he was hip and cool.
"Lookie!" Mika jumped and pointed. "Tree houses!"
"Awesome!" Kitt gasped. "Did you build this place yourselves Qing Yuan?" She looked at the guy, but all she got back was a cold stare. And yet... she couldn't help but liking the guy.
"Yuan!" Dolan ordered and Qing Yuan looked up. "I need to get something from downstairs; you take the others up." As a reply, Qing Yuan only nodded.
Dolan went off and Qing Yuan guided the others to the stairs. "Amazing." Derak mumbled.
"Yeah, it is." Faye smiled.
"You know what surprises me most?" Derak mentioned. Faye looked wondering. "I've been in this forest so often, but I never saw this place."
"You didn't?" Faye asked, and looked a tad uncomfortable.
The green haired boy nodded. "Yeah." He responded. "It's like this place has been built in a day!"
Faye started laughing. "You are so silly!" She cheerfully said. "We may have powers, but we are not that good. This place has always been here!" All of a sudden the emerald on her bracelet started glowing. A swirl of light danced in it, and then died out. "Believe me."
Derak smiled. "I believe you." He confirmed.
In the tree house Dolan had joined them again. He offered Zach and his friends something to drink, but his friends and himself didn't take anything for themselves. "So, you haven't officially introduced yourself yet." He sat down.
"Zach." Zach pointed at himself. "And I control the fire... more or less."
"Kitt." Kitt added. "My element is water." Her eyes got pulled to Qing Yuan. Even at this table he couldn't relax and sat with cranky eyes and arms folded.
The others introduced themselves as well. "So you guys are chosen to make the universe a happy place?" Moka asked.
Aure nodded. "Yes." She confirmed. "It's not always an easy job, but only we can do it."
"The Guardians informed us of strange activities in this region." Dolan's voice was firm; a true leader's voice.
"Strange?" Zach grinned. "No kidding!"
Nuria looked confused. "Why are you laughing Zach?" She asked him. "This region normally doesn't have earthquakes; doesn't it worry you?"
"Not as much as the fact that only our house was hit by the earthquake." Kitt told.
"What?!" Finally, Qing Yuan had spoken again.
"Nobody in the town seems to have noticed it." Mika said. "At least, nobody mentioned it on the radio. It was as if... it didn't really happen."
"Tell that to my aquarium." Kitt hissed.
"Oh no!" Nuria gasped. "Poor fishes!"
"Oh, don't worry." Kitt assured her. "I hadn't bought any fish yet."
Faye nudged Nuria. "Hehe, I thought you only liked fried fish!" She joked, and Nuria fanned the girl away.
"That is strange." Dolan rested his head on his hands. "I sense an evil entity..."
"You do?" Moka wondered.
Dolan nodded. "This was not a natural cause. You guys better stay here. We'll check this out."
Zach stood up. "No way! We won't let you do this alone."
Derak agreed. "It's our house; we know the place. Besides, we too are Gifted Ones. If there is something evil threatening the world, then we should help you!"
For a second Dolan smiled. "Didn't expect anything else from you." What he said gave Mika shivers for a second, but then it vanished again. The guy stood up. "Then it's decided. You can help, but don't get in our way."
Aure agreed. "If the evil entity shows itself and turns out stronger than expected, you must hide and let us take care of it."
"I hate saving people." Qing Yuan mumbled.
"You know, being nice doesn't hurt you." Kitt snapped at him.
"I'm not nice, I'm sarcastic." Qing Yuan stood up and walked away.
Faye excused him. "Don't worry. He thinks being nice does hurt him."
"It's okay." Moka smiled. "We have our own personal sarcastic person as well."
"Who do you mean?" Kitt wondered.
To be continued...