ACT II – THE MAIN SEQUENCE

 

Part IV: Cornered Prey

 

When the light rays reached her, Reimei couldn’t do anything else in her shock now turned to panic but close her eyes and instinctively try and protect herself using her arms while knowing on a subconscious level how ridiculous and useless that was. Then came the feeling of intense heat on her skin – one undoubtedly caused by the rays of her deva Annabel had unleashed.

Miss Scarlettail felt no changes in her physical and state of mind other than that for a bit, however, her panic turning to confusion next as she decided to take a risk and open her eyes. What she saw upon opening them made her realize her initial assumption was wrong: the heat had not come from Annabel’s attack.

The actual cause for it were the massive wings made of feathers mixing pale orange and pale red flames that had appeared in front of Reimei, Rose, Cane and the zoo staff to protect them from being exposed to the light-using beauty’s deva. As for the wings’ source, it was the man standing behind that whole group, who was revealed as former Sunbird headmaster Zoran Lawell when the transfer student turned to look at him.

Rose was the most relieved member of the tamer team to see him, her colleagues – the most shocked ones and Cane – the most unfazed one, Reimei presently alternating between the emotional states of the others.

(Rose) ‘I don’t know where you came from, Zoran, but bless you!! You totally saved us!!!’

(Cane) ‘He came because of me.’ – as Zoran kept blocking the light beams and rock cubes sent at his wings by the enraged Annabel and Yonira with a smile, all the tamers looked with much surprise at Cane, meanwhile the Biology teacher and former headmaster looking at each other – ‘I was just wondering how much longer it would take you to get here after I paged you.’

(Rose) ‘You paged him?!’

(Zoran) ‘I gave him one of a pair of pagers while he was still my student aspiring to teach History like me one day and we’ve been using those to communicate ever since. I never thought they’d come in handy like this, though.’

While the smiles on the others’ faces made evident that a wave of relief had washed over them as Zoran continued to melt the rocks their lower bodies were covered in, Rose and Reimei kept looking at Cane with much annoyance, only the former of the two verbally addressing the matter as the latter thought she hadn’t the right to reprimand her teacher.

(Rose) ‘And you didn’t think to share you’ve called back-up with any of us until now so we wouldn’t worry, Cane? I thought we were as good as dead before Zoran came!!’

(Cane) ‘Zoran was my final trump card and I didn’t want to risk any of Mara’s mind slaves overhearing I’ve called him. Plus it made for quite a flashy entrance, right?’

Having concluded long-range battle was of no use against someone like Zoran, Annabel teleported herself and Yonira right above the tamer team, the rivals uniting in a light-clad rock cube with spikes sticking out of each of its faces, the former headmaster redirecting his attention to that with the seriousness returning to his face.

(Zoran) ‘I suggest we leave the discussion about my arrival for after we’ve dealt with the issue at hand.’ – he used his wings to block the attack, but the rivals’ combined might was sufficient to start tearing even through them, Mr. Lawell turning to Reimei and Rose after the melting of everyone’s rock restraints was completed – ‘Ladies, if you would please attack Annabel and Yonira while I hold them off?’

(Reimei) ‘I don’t think I can hurt a classmate with my deva. Even now, I …’

Before she could finish, Rose had started breaking apart the rock walls Yonira had erected by forming multiple pyramids out of them, once again having a far too lethal expression on her face for her child-like appearance.

(Rose) ‘Just give me cover with your waves, then, kid. I’ll do the rest.’

While shocked by Mrs. Summerbolt’s almost ruthless resolve, Miss Scarlettail found herself following the order she had been given, creating several big waves to carry the pyramids to Annabel and Yonira, the light-clad spiky cube they had merged into being used to rip those waves apart now.

No longer being forced to deal with the weight and might of the cube, Zoran united his wings into a single monumentally large flaming blade, cutting the rivals’ creation in half and forcefully separating it into its two creators, inflicting slight burns on both of them.

(Rose) ‘I’ll bury them under some rocks next, Reimei. While they’re busy dealing with them, you put each in a water bubble and don’t release the bubble until I tell you to.’

(Reimei) ‘But …’

Hikaru’s grandmother seemed to have been able to guess the reason behind the scarlet-haired beauty’s reluctance, the wrath on her face giving way to a sympathetic look.

(Rose) ‘Don’t worry. I know how long you’ll need to hold them in there for before it gets dangerous. I’ll tell you when to release the bubbles. Hurting any kid, especially your classmates, is unthinkable to me. OK?’

Reimei was reassured enough by Rose’s words, after piles of pyramids were dropped on both burned beauties, their classmate directing a hand toward each and giving the command in her mind for a bubble of water to form around them, also trying to keep her balance so Miluna wouldn’t fall off her back.

Seeing Annabel and Yonira were incapacitated, Zoran looked toward another section of the zoo, from where Reimei could now hear some kind of commotion, everyone’s attention being redirected to there, except for her and Rose.

(Zoran) ‘It seems you ladies got this covered. The rest of you, follow me so we can end this. I’ll deal with the students so you focus on tranquing the frenzied animals. Cane, you stay with Rose and Reimei and once you’re done here, track my deva to rendezvous with us. Hopefully, we’ll have subdued enough fighters by then for you to be able to track Mara down. You just find her for me and I’ll take it from there.’

Cane only gave an affirmative nod while his colleague led Rose’s colleagues away, after that taking Miluna off Reimei’s back, which thankfully did not break her concentration for maintaining the bubbles’ stability, Mrs. Summerbolt having remained focused on the rivals’ faces as they tried to escape the water prisons.

(Rose) ‘Keep it up for a bit longer, kid. They’re struggling, so their oxygen reserve will run out faster than normal. It will be over soon.’

(Cane) ‘Before that happens, Rose, why don’t you chain up Miluna just in case? Hitting her on the head with those pyramids earlier may not have been enough to free her from Mara’s control, so she might still cause trouble when she wakes up.’

Miss Scarlettail heard the sound of rocks piling up by her side, guessing Rose had partially encased her classmate in a shell of her deva, but deciding not to look so as to not distract herself from her main mission. Soon enough that mission ended when she was given the long-awaited confirmation by the childish-looking grandmother’s voice.

(Rose) ‘There. That’s enough. Let them go.’

The prisons were released, Annabel and Yonira falling unconscious on the ground amid the splash of water that followed, Reimei breathing a sigh of relief because she could tell they were alive by the slow moving of their soaked chests, but also because she no longer needed to concentrate so intently on the use of her deva.

Cane had taken Vale off his back as well now, putting her next to the rivals after he had dragged them to where the partially encapsulated in rock Miluna was, Rose being in the process of imprisoning Annabel and Yonira in the same way.

(Cane) ‘Well, now that that’s done, we need to find a way to get to the others while carrying these four with us as we can’t just leave them here. Rose?’

Mrs. Summerbolt sighed in irritation as she kept her hands directed at where the unconscious girl quartet was, causing the emergence of multiple inverted rock pyramids under them that were arranged in tight rows to form a platform, a layer of random-shaped rocks appearing under that platform.

(Rose) ‘You’re gonna owe me big time when this is over, Cane. I’ve gone beyond my 15% limit enough already and though I can’t hear them with all this ruckus, I’m sure I’ve triggered some of the deva sensors around the zoo. They might even put me in jail for a day or two for this and I’m too old for that.’

(Cane) ‘I’ll take as many of your shifts at the zoo as I can until the end of the month and help clean this whole mess up later. How’s that?’

Rose jumped on the platform and moved to its front-most part, giving Reimei a wave to join her while Cane was the last one to come aboard, the childish-looking grandmother not even sparing the Biology teacher a glance.

(Rose) ‘If you let my grandson’s club win the Club Cup this year, kid, we’ll have a deal. But for now focus on tracking down Zoran.’

Mr. Garasu’s pupils became golden, his irises – a darker hue of blue than usual and his face – even more devoid of emotion than usual, a few moments later the man’s eyes widening while peering into something beyond Rose and Reimei.

(Cane) ‘Two o’clock, approximately 300 meters.’

(Rose) ‘That’s near the entrance. That kid had better not taken this fight beyond the zoo or we’ll be in even bigger trouble!’

Hikaru’s grandmother directed the platform forward via the rocks under it, those rocks suddenly starting to roll over one another very fast, leaving drag marks in the ground, but also considerably increasing the speed of the rocky surf Reimei and co. were on. Having never seen anyone use their deva like this, especially someone with a static elemental type like Rose, the scarlet-haired beauty couldn’t help but inquire about it, though knowing neither the time, nor place was appropriate.

(Reimei) ‘How did you do that, Mrs. Summerbolt? I didn’t know devas could be used for travelling like this.’

Hearing that, the terrarium curator turned to the transfer student with perhaps the most surprised and then outraged look on her face she had seen since meeting her.

(Rose) ‘What the hell have they been teaching you at Saraley, girl? Making a surf for travel is one of the most basic usages of one’s deva! You’ve never even seen something like this?’

(Reimei) ‘I was raised in an orphanage, so no one really …’

(Rose) ‘Not knowing something like that with a powerful water deva like yours is a damn waste! We get out of this in one piece, I’ll teach you myself!!’

Miss Scarlettail didn’t even have time to express her gratitude toward Rose as while the two had been talking, the rock platform had moved through the desert animals section of the zoo that was presently vacant and reached the part of the complex where the main battle was taking place – the hoofed animals section. And even with how chaotic things were in the area, it was still hard to miss the beige horse, brown goat and bronze llama figures of thick cardboard spread around. So much so, that the scarlet-haired beauty found a moment of time to regret not seeing what kind of figures the desert animal section had been adorned with.  

Apart from the students from the Art Club, those from the Photography Club and Zoran had to also fight quite a few different animal species in frenzy mode as well, by the time Reimei and co. had come, all desert animals as well as most hoofed animals having been put to sleep by the zoo staff. Unfortunately, right after them had hit a wave of white and brown bears, lions, tigers, foxes, mongooses, etc., whose arrival seemed to have coincided with the tamers running out of tranquilizer darts.

And then there were still the dozen bronzehorn rams – the single strongest representative of the Bovidae family on Saiten to Reimei’s knowledge which also possessed a deva – presently charging at the tamers with their normally bronze-colored horns shining in orange and having steam come out of them. Zoran landed in front of the rams to stop the attack of their heated horns with his phoenix wings, still ending up being pushed back some, Rose screaming in anguish as she smashed the rock surf she was controlling in the multi-mammal wave coming from the side.

(Rose) ‘Forgive me, babies!!’ – Reimei was thrown off the surf, Cane who had already jumped nearby catching her, the scarlet-haired beauty forming a bed of water where she saw the unconscious girl quartet was about to fall to make sure they wouldn’t suffer any more injuries, the moment her surf fell apart, Rose shouting at Mr. Garasu – ‘Cane, find out where that scumbag Rafael is right now!! We’ve got no tranq darts left and I’m done hurting my animals!!!’

As soon as Mrs. Summerbolt said that to the Biology teacher, he dropped Miss Scarlettail to use his sensor deva once again, Reimei wasting no time to move the bed she had formed under her classmates closer to her to keep them safe, simultaneously noticing other members of her class were in trouble nearby. Namely, Nalisia had used Turora’s distraction at the arrival of the next frenzied animal wave to finally wrap her hair enlarged and transformed into a black spiky blanket around her, no doubt aiming to release an abundance of her deva with that and infect her classmate with mind control particles.

The scarlet-haired beauty created a water cocoon around Turora to protect her from infection, at the same time using a wave to hit Nalisia from the back, her hair quickly blocking that as she turned to face Reimei with a wicked smile.

(Nalisia) ‘My, what a loyal person you are. You’ve been in this class for two days and already you’re trying to protect one of its members from another?’

(Reimei) ‘It’s not about protecting them from each other. I’m protecting both of them from you.’

(Nalisia) ‘Who’s going to protect you, though? How much longer do you think you’ll be able to escape me? And how many more times will you be lucky enough to remove the mind control particles before they can spread inside you?’

(Reimei) ‘None, in case you get captured now.’

(Cane) ‘I’ve got him! He’s hiding behind the goat house!!!’

Nalisia was about to attack Cane when Turora jumped at her from behind, Reimei having removed her water cocoon to allow her classmate free movement, the normally tired-looking girl now grasping her opponent’s hair with both hands, channeling dark purple energy with black streaks through it, which caused it to diminish in size and length.

The rocks from Rose’s surf could no longer keep the new wave of frenzied animals at bay, however, going after Cane, Turora and Reimei at the same time, Miss Scarlettail being the one that held them off with water walls from the front and waves from the sides.

Meanwhile, she could see Rafael was trying to make his escape away from the goat house, the childish-looking grandmother’s fury catching up to him before he could. Crossed rock spikes emerged around his feet at her command, cutting him despite the fast speed at which he was moving due to the state of frenzy he was still in and neutralizing the possibility of escape. He hopelessly tried to block Rose’s tiny rock-clad fist, but it was fueled with so much power that it easily pushed his arms aside, crushing very deep in his face next amid a splash of blood and several teeth.

The moment the Fine Arts teacher who was knocked out cold hit the ground, the chartreuse energy that had enveloped his body disappeared, the dreads his hair was tied in no longer standing on end, the same happening to every other person to have been affected by his deva. Lastly, the animals’ frenzy wore off as well just when they broke through Reimei’s defences, stopping dead in their tracks with a rather confused look on their faces.

With Nalisia no longer being able to rely on Rafael’s frenzy empowerment, Turora succeeded in subduing her by returning her hair to a completely normal appearance and even changing its color to grey in some places, the invigorated girl now breathing a sigh of relief. Miss Scarlettail’s attention quickly shifted to something else, however, as she saw Cane pointing in a certain direction with eyes widened from fury.

(Cane) ‘Zoran! Fifty meters west of the entrance!!’

Zoran continued to propel himself into the air with such swiftness and might that he left a widening crater of melting earth in his wake, also unleashing a heat wave that made Reimei feel as if a sun had exploded next to her, forcing her to even shut her eyes. After blinking twice, she found the former headmaster had returned to his previous position with a landing just as destructive as the take-off, the phoenix wings sticking out of his back disappearing now while something else had appeared next to him.

He had grabbed a woman with azure middle-length partially spiky hair, red eyes, pale skin and three distinct moles on her right cheek, crushing her in the crater he had made, the flames spewed from the melted terrain there burning her, but causing no vocal, facial or other reaction on her part. The culprit behind the whole mind control scheme had finally been caught – Mara Kilzarad herself.

Nalisia stopped struggling against Turora, all Art Club members stopping their attacks focused on released massive amounts of their devas against the students in the Photography Club, proving everyone had been freed from the mastermind’s control.

Any water the scarlet-haired beauty had spread around was removed on her command now, stepping closer to Zoran as did all those in the vicinity who could still walk. Their attention, of course, was focused on Mara whom Sunbird’s former headmaster had pulled up from the flames with smoking burns on her face, arms and chest.

(Zoran) ‘Someone will have definitely noticed all the chaos and called the police already, so we need to be gone by then. Cane, you’re coming with me. We’re taking her back to Sunbird for a proper questioning.’

(Cane) ‘Don’t want the police to catch wind of how all this happened, eh?’

(Zoran) ‘They’ve been violent enough toward deviants lately without knowing about a plot like this brewing in our school. I’d like to keep it that way until things calm down a bit. And we have plenty of places on school grounds to keep her in without the risk of escape, anyway, so we should be fine.’

The two teachers headed toward the exit with their hostage next, Rose catching up with them while dragging the knocked-out Rafael behind her with much effort and annoyance.

(Rose) ‘Hold it, hold it, hold it!! It’s good you caught her, but what about everyone else here? If you don’t want to police the know what actually happened, what kind of excuse do you suggest I sell them? And there’s a lot of confused and wounded students to deal with, not to mention the animals and the damage to the zoo! Cane, you promised to help me, so …’

(Zoran) ‘We need to take care of Mara first, Rose. So she can’t hurt or use anyone else. Then I’ll send some back-up your way. And you can put Rafael to use, too, once he wakes up.’

Mrs. Summerbolt didn’t seem fully satisfied with that answer, getting ready to reply when Mara spoke. Her cold voice did not sound too loud, but just enough for Reimei to hear what she was saying. And her words made the serenity that came after the triumph Miss Scarlettail was just starting to enjoy feel like a distant dream.

(Mara) ‘I wouldn’t rely on Rafael for help. He may not be the mastermind, but he’s much more involved in this than I am. Your best bet would be to restrain him and take him with us as well. He can explain about the real culprit better than I ever could, after all.’