Chapter 21: Ell’s Detour

Joshua barely had time to rest. Avonly demanded to go home and Gianna took the news hard. He wholeheartedly agreed with Avonly's evaluation, even if he wouldn't say it to her face. Luckily he didn't have to as Kael was downright giddy to have her safe at home again and didn't feel the need to be shy.

Ell laughed. She could stay with Joshua and Kael or she could stay locked away on the ship. They were in the home stretch now, and the one thing she couldn't do was leave. She insisted she didn't know enough about the plan for it to matter (and truthfully no one but Ell did).

But the two options remained. Kael chose that she would stay with them. And Joshua was more than happy with that decision. In actuality, he would have decided as much himself if Kael hadn't been so quick. Quick or pushy. Joshua found both words to be a constant accurate description of his brother.

With the preliminaries settled, the plan began the next day with Joshua laying on a bench at a small train station in the middle of Yatala. With one hand grasping his forehead and the other raised the sky, he attempted to half halfheartedly pluck the sun. The beams burned his groggily opened eyes to a white haze. Kael paced nearby, not bothering to pay Joshua any attention. In the life and death struggle of the desert, Joshua had been fine. Better than when he was at home. But the second he had been ready to die, the pain came back worse than ever and it wasn't going away.

“The sun feels good."

“That's not how migraines work man,” Kael paused to look at everyone else staring at Joshua. “You are absolutely not supposed to look at bright lights.”

“It hurts less. In comparison.”

“You're just sulking about the travel arrangements.”

Joshua bolted up and looked at Kael with a single eye. He ruffled his curly hair putting it back right in its messy state and thought out loud. “Trains are evil.” Seeming to predict his brother's response he continued: “We were attacked last time. And you know something is going to happen this time.”

Gritting his teeth and knowing he wouldn't accomplish anything, Kael forged ahead anyway. “We've been riding trains our entire life. It was only the last time on the trip to Ilporta that anything at all happened. And it wasn't even that bad.”

“The city was destroyed.”

“What does the train have to do with trains?”

His pupils dilated and eyes widened, Joshua took in an enormous breath. “Oh boy, I'm seeing sounds. Maybe I can find where all the voices I've been hearing are coming from.”

“Well now you finally have a superpower,” Kael said with a prickly condescension in his voice. “You’re a bat.” Joshua didn’t or couldn’t respond. Instead, he merely shook his head at an odd angle, Kael not entirely sure Joshua heard him. “Wait, you’ve been hearing voices?”

As the hours waned on, Joshua paced, sat, lay, and restlessly fidgeted, always aware of Kael close by looking over his shoulder. Maybe they should talk about it, but the fact was: they never really talked about anything important. The assumption was always that the other was alright. Joshua would have bad days if he wasn't kept busy, and Kael would let him mope his way through the days at home, but out on the road? Never. Joshua didn't know what was going on, so he expected Kael would worry.

As he was about to lay back down, Joshua's eyes wandered down the tracks and he sighed. “Five minutes,” Joshua shook his head. “In five minutes we will be fighting on the roof. It's always the roof.”

The rails rumbled and people took a cautionary step back from the tracks. In a fraction of a second more, the bullet train whizzed through the station. It wouldn't stop. Why would it? Ell wouldn't say. "Just get on." The frustration of working with that man was growing exponentially, but there was some appreciation in the implicit assumption that it wouldn't be a problem. His gruff dismissal had somehow become a compliment.

Kael walked forward a few steps and broke into a sprint. His eyes locked onto a door indented into the kind of alcove trains have. And he leapt. Or exploded forward ever so subtly. He launched himself into the door and then slammed into the wall as the train's momentum caught him forward. Shaking himself off, he grabbed the edges of the alcove and pushed forward, looking for Joshua. He'd need to help him along with another explosion if Joshua was off target.

But Joshua was already in the air. In the air and far too many cars down to help anyway. And off target. Joshua flailed and hit the side of the train. Waiting for the inevitable, but Joshua didn't fall. He dipped down and then sluggishly moved into the alcove he had missed. Joshua looked up stunned as Gianna stood in the open door, one hand holding a bearing and the other grabbing his wrist. With one might heave, she pulled him in.

Joshua stumbled past her, squeezing by chest to chest, and watched curiously as she walked out to the lip of the train and looked around. Finding her mark in Kael's direction, she gave a thumbs up and came back inside.

“Thanks,” Joshua said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Yup. What I'm here for,” she said, brushing the hair out of her face. “Let's go find Avonly. Kael can find us just fine.”

Gianna lead the way two cars down and plopped next to Avonly who was wistfully staring out the window. Joshua studied her up and down like he was her therapist. This might be the best place his sister could be, but he wasn't sure it was ideal. He was going to say something, but the girls were chatting now and ignoring him completely (although Joshua could swear Gianna would give the most casual of glances out of the corner of her eye, always checking if he was still here.) Dressed in warm colors. She had even let her hair grow out, pulling it back. She was actually. . . pretty?

They had agreed to meet in the final coach. It was normally the emptiest after all. The law of averages didn't apply on this particular day. At least there seemed to be fewer people than the other cars comparatively. Adding one more to the mix, Kael jogged in and slid to a stop next to Joshua, pushing him against the wall.

He gave Gianna a curt nod and settled in. "As long as someone is looking after Joshua, right?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Joshua nearly said loud enough for the whole car. If their group got much bigger, Joshua wasn't sure he could take Kael ribbing him like that.

“So did you two have any trouple getting aboard?” Kael pressed on.

"Hm? Oh. No. Ell got us tickets and we got on at the start. Wasn't a problem at all. I think he just hates you."

"I think he hates all of us," Joshua grumbled. "We could have been in Taerose this morning if we flew– even commercially. Instead, a train? Why?"

Avonly leaned forward and looked across the aisle. "Do you want to tell him Gi, or should I?" Gianna stayed slumped down in her chair, apparently not hearing. "Never mind. So, we both thought it was very strange as well and poked around. Didn't take us long to come up with a compelling reason Ell would want us on this train, on this day." Kael was leaning over now, listening intently. "How about I show you? I can't remember his name." She stood up with a grunt and climbed over Joshua, leading the way. "I'm showing them the front Gi, let's go."

The group traveled through one car then the next. The cars alternated between open cars with rows of seats to private cars that had three compartments in them. Each compartment had a window on the door to see inside, filled with mundane people or with the blinds drawn. Never anything interesting. Not until they had made their way near to the front at least. Waiting before the door, Joshua and Kael both recognized a crop of off-gray hair sitting a few rows up immediately.

Collectively they stooped down out of view of the window.

"That's Emile? That guy?" Joshua and Kael asked over each other.

"I'm not so good with the faces, but that hair is hard to misplace," Gianna said.

"And I've never met the guy, but he's a Syche. It was pretty easy to feel, he isn't trying to hide it," Avonly added.

Joshua rose his head a notch and peeked through the window again, looking over the situation. He almost jumped as he looked to Emile. The young gray-haired man had his hand raised and the wagging of his two fingers beckoning them over.

“He’s motioning us to join them!” whispered Joshua rushed and frantic.

An awkward silence ensued as everyone looked around, trying to find some way to get out of there. At that moment though, the door besides them opened and Emile stood over them, looking down at the group of four curiously. Everyone jolted, ready for a fight. With an exasperated roll of the eyes, he stepped forward and closed the door behind him.

"It was crowded up there anyway," Emile said. "Better to do it here.” Apparently motioning to the luggage wracks and bathrooms.

"Why are you here?" Kael spat.

"I'm not sure where the attitude is coming from. I thought we left on good terms."

"Not the point. Why. Are. You. Here"

"Fine, fine. I'm working." Emile saw the glint in his audience's eyes at those words. "Guard duty. There's a V.I.P. here in the front most car. He's paying quite well for me to get him to Taerose alive. In addition to his own team of security."

"Who is he?"

"Well I'm not really supposed to know. So it wouldn't do to go talking."

"But you do know." Kael cut in.

Emile's face was placid.

"He doesn't know anything, and it's probably better that way," Joshua spoke up now, massaging his temples all the while. "Still not sure how much we can trust you."

A thin smile cracked Emile's lips. "You say that as if you both know and have something to do with all this."

Kael sucked in air, ready to see how Joshua was going to bluff information this time.

"We've been doing some work with Seriah," Joshua continued. "It's a long story."

Emile glanced to the front car and then back to Joshua. "That's. . . disturbing. I assumed he was being paranoid when I was hired. But between you four, me, and his own personal team, it seems he believes an attack on his life is imminent."

Joshua bit his lip choosing his next words carefully. He wanted the conversation focused on this mystery man. "That was obvious. I'm honestly more concerned with you here. He seems like the kind of person Taerose would order you to kill."

Emile's head gave the slightest of nods. "You're entirely right, but as long as we're working together you can trust me. If I was ordered to kill the Prime Minister of Seriah, I would have done so by now."

Back at the end of the train and cautiously away from curious ears, the group finally broke into feverish discussion: Are we here to protect him? What does Ell think he's doing? Can we just call him? What does this have to do with Taerose? Round and round the questions went with no clear answers.

"Maybe Ell wants us to kill him, not protect him?" Gianna suggested. Everyone in turn stared at her repulsed.

Kael pushed past everyone and went to take his seat. "What you are all forgetting," he said cracking his neck to look back, "is that we never agreed to do anything. Our deal was for one very specific thing in Taerose, nothing more."

Joshua broke from staring at some empty point in space and said, "Kael is right. All this speculation is pointless. Leave the Serians and Dark Element to do whatever it is they want." Joshua slid into a seat next to Kael.

Avonly crossed her arms and scowled. "There's something going on, and I'm going to figure out what."

"You didn't even want to be here!" Joshua said, exhausted. "Go if you want. I'm done being jerked around by Ell."

"Guess it's just us then," Gianna shrugged. "Where do we start?"

As the girls disappeared back towards the front of the train, Joshua straightened up and looked around the car. In the very back right, a man in sunglasses lounged back and stared at the ceiling breathing slowly. Across from him, Joshua could make out the back of a woman's head that he was with. In the middle of the car on the right-hand side, another man was slumped over in his seat, a hooded sweatshirt covering his face. There were two other men and one woman in this car, positioned sparsely around, with no apparent purpose. One had a magazine, another a newspaper. But as straight as they might sit, they all seemed to be facing the same direction– the man with the hood thrown over his face.

Kael leaned over to Joshua and whispered, "I'm actually ahead of you for once. I know where the Prime Minister is."

“In the forward car?”

“That’s too obvious.”

Joshua shrugged. "And who's trying to kill him?"

"That I don't know."

"Seems like the more important question. Especially with Avonly and Gianna running around the train."

"Do you think I should go get them?" Kael asked.

"If you want. They're probably fighting someone on top of the train."

"That joke wasn't funny the first time you said it."

"I'm just confused why you think it's a joke."

###

It wasn't violent. It wasn't life-threatening. It was intrigue, and Avonly felt a quiver of excitement at the thought.

Her knuckles wrapped on the closed compartment. Where else would this supposed assailant be hiding?

"We're going to have to knock on a lot of these doors," Gianna said. "What do you do if they answer?"

The door cracked open and someone's head appeared in the crack, sheltered and cautious. Avonly leaned to the side trying to get a better look inside before popping back upright. "Wrong room, sorry sir," she said with a big smile. The door slammed shut and Avonly grinned at Gianna. "Like that. It's not full-proof, but we might see something we aren't supposed to."

Compartment by compartment they surveyed, car by car. Gianna tried to politely apologize for knocking on the wrong door once, but she didn't do it quite right, so Avonly kept at it.

Halfway through the train, she stood impatiently swaying, waiting for whoever was on the other side of the door to answer. Her knuckles rasped on the door a third time but still no answer.

"It's empty," Gianna sounded up.

Avonly paused and felt inside sensing no life. "The blinds are shut." Avonly violently shook the door handle. "And it's locked."

"That counts as suspicious I think. I'm not the expert, but I don't think they do that with empty cars.”

Avonly backed away and cautiously looked up and down the hallway. Taking one giant stride forward she brought the heel of her foot down onto the door and shattered the frame with a dry crack.

"The lock is metal!" Gianna said with a hint of shock. "Why would you do that?"

Pushing her way into the room, Avonly blushed. It'd be even more embarrassing to admit she didn't think of that so she kept her mouth shut. Instead, she sauntered past open containers littering the compartment and stopped before the open window to look around. The luggage was abnormal, to say the least. Whatever had been in there wasn’t anything she'd pack for a trip.

Gianna brushed past her and stuck her head out the open window. “They’re on the roof, forward of here,” Gianna said. "I can feel them." She stepped aside and motioned to the window, leaving Avonly confused. "The roof is metal. You should lead."

Avonly shook her head dumbfounded. "I'm not going up there. I'd fall off."

Gianna rolled her eyes and moved back to the window. "I'll handle it then.

###

Gianna's slender fingers grasped the top of the window frame and swung her legs out into open air. Her body followed, and with a crimson explosion, she flew up and back the other way, landing practically noiselessly on the roof with the wind stinging her ear drums. She steadied herself cautiously, arms out wide for balance. Ahead of her, carefully marching towards the front of the train, a caravan of people with bullet-proof vests and semi-automatic guns slung over their backs crawled on.

Well this something.

She tried to stand from a crouch but gave up on that idea immediately. It was clear whoever it was ahead, armed to the teeth, were going about this the fastest way possible.

Slowly, wobbly, this was much harder than she had anticipated. Gianna crawled her way over the silvery rooftop, the wind biting at every inch of her, the taste of the crisp country air being jammed down her nostrils. They were on the fifth car and she was in the middle of jumping to the seventh. It would take some time, which meant it was precarious.

As if to mirror her observation, one of the men in the middle of the group happened to look back. He turned to their leader and opened his mouth but nothing but the whipping air passed her way. All the same, she saw their skin, slightly darker than the traditional Serians. She recognized a southerner when she saw one. She grew up in Seriah. She knew its people, its languages. She could guess the dialect by their look. She could guess the glottal words being spat based on their circumstance.

All of this she knew. So she was ready for what happened next.

The three figures turned with guns drawn. Gianna leapt to the side in a literal flash as she brought her hands together and a pure white light burst forth. Gunfire rang out haphazardly as she slipped over the side and tossed her body at the overhang. She swung down and crashed through the window right below, the glass carving streaks of blood along her arms.

Gianna ran up the aisle and spied a body falling from the train ahead-- one of those poor fools had lost their balance while blinded. The car was deathly still, all eyes on Gianna in confusion. She snapped her fingers and manifested the tiniest explosion that shattered the window opposite to her. She leapt across the aisle and threw herself through the window once again ricocheting herself up the roof.

One of the remaining militants had cautiously approached the edge on the opposite side, looking for where Gianna had disappeared to. A red bolt arced through the air and a crimson burst exploded behind the man knocking him forcefully into the swirling green that zipped by.

The third had taken off as fast as he could apparently. He was already at the end of the third car. Too far to channel the explosion through the air, at least for her, she was no Mal. The metal roofs weren't connected even if the cars were. She'd have to snake the sychakenetic energy through a maze to reach him. She gritted her teeth and pushed hard against the wind. She opened a palm behind her and generated an explosive Sy field to push her forward. She could catch him this way.

But then he turned around. Of course he'd be checking his back. The sub-machine gun loosed from its strap and fired a hail of bullets vaguely in her direction. Gianna threw herself onto the roof and sucked in her gut, trying to flatten herself however much she could. As the distant pop of bullets faded into the wind, she looked up. She wasn't hit, but her frustration was growing. This man was watching her as he slowly climbed along the second car. She couldn't stand without receiving another volley. And while she had a vague idea of that gun's accuracy and knew she would most likely not be hit as is, but it was still a risk. A risk that would multiply into a sure thing the closer she got.

For the first time in her life, she wished she had a gun herself. Dark Element members were certainly allowed to have them, but she had always treated the idea with incredulity. It was an inferior tool as far as she could see. Even at extreme range, she was never useless, because there was always ground or brick connecting her and the target. Or in the very least, she could propel herself forward at extreme speeds and close the gap in a fraction of a second. Not with the linked cars. And not with the train moving so blistering fast.

Her fists crashed and bloodied onto the roof with noiseless reverberation.

###

“All I'm saying is, you can’t know they are on top of the train,” Kael said.

“There are only so many things that can happen on a train K,” Joshua sighed, leaning back and getting comfortable in his seat. “Mark my words, there’s a party going on up there.”

###

Avonly's chest heaved as she burst through the doors into the car. With her words wheezing out of her throat, she explained twice what was happening. “They're probably right above us as we speak!” she ended.

Emile’s eyes darted up and nodded, pushing past her with a static discharge in his step. As the door ripped open at his ferocious strength, a terrible explosion burst through the compartment ahead of him and sent him reeling backward in blood and ash. Screams erupted and people flooded the aisles trying to move as far away from the destruction as possible. Avonly threw herself into an empty seat letting the pandemonium pass by until that moment she could get to Emile.

Shaken and stunned. She worked her way forward to Emile's still body and rolled him over. His blackened face came to life with coughing splutters. He raised a hand and said, "help me up."

Avonly obeyed, too stunned to do anything else. "How did you survive that?"

Once straight on his feet, Emile nearly collapsed to the side. "Lightening Syches are good at taking hits. It's never really tracked with me. The force just kind of flows through you." He staggered forward with a limp, electricity sprouting from his body. "Stay here, you shouldn't see this," he barked, pushing through the debris and back into the first car.

Avonly took deep breaths waiting for Emile to reappear. Her hands shook violently. As much as she willed them to stop, they would not, so she brought them up and tucked them under her armpits. If that worked she didn't know, because now all she could focus on was her rattling breath. Her lungs shivering against her rib cage.

In an eternity that lasted a mere seven or eight seconds, Emile finally reappeared, his face fighting off the stabs of pain. "It's completely empty," he said hoarsely. "I don't know what's going on here. Perhaps it's time to fill me in."

"I. . ." Avonly stammered. "I don't know anything."

###

Back in the farthest car, Kael sat calmly. The explosions were indistinguishable from the rattling of the compartment, and the constant noise of the tracks drowned out any gunfire. For the moment, it was the only place of tranquility.

About a minute after the fighting at the front of the train stopped, the door to their car wrenched open and a man who had been sitting not far from Emile came sprinting in. “Sir,” he said facing the man with the covered face and the woman, “we're hit. The zone is no longer secure; we need to disembark as soon as possible.”

“Idiot!” one of the others hissed.

At the very back of the car, the man with sunglasses and his companion had looked up expectantly when the door opened. Upon hearing this exchange though, they shifted in their seats slowly comprehending the exchange. In unison, their gaze snapped to the hooded man now sinking lower in his seat. They shifted, trying to get a better view.

And Joshua and Kael watched. While everyone was focused on this newcomer, the brothers' heads poked out from atop their seats and stared at the two in the back. As they began to move Kael shouted, "In the back!" He was too late though. They were standing, with handguns raised. Joshua and Kael dove for the floor as the rain of a shooting gallery sung overhead. The occasional dull thud of bodies dropping punctuating the moments.

“They gonna need our help?”

“Look's that way.”

"Cool. Which ones are the bad guys again?"

The gunfire had stopped. Almost magically. There was just frantic screaming now. Joshua and Kael stood up and surveyed the scene with less caution than they should have. Two people on their end were still fighting, guns drawn and taking cover but hesitating. On the far end, the woman had tossed her weapon away with her jacket, revealing a vest rigged with explosives.

"She's suicidal," Joshua said as loud as he needed to for Kael to hear, the woman was screaming at the hooded man in some language he had never heard before. One of the two remaining guards dove for the hooded man, doing his best to shield him with their body. The other was screaming in that same twisting tongue, trying to talk the woman down. The very nature of the situation made it clear that this could only end one way.

The man behind this attacker whispered something before kicking out a window and hurdling himself from the train in one smoother motion.

"Uh oh. Can you stop an explosion?" Joshua asked. Kael was always making them, he didn't actually know. It was theoretically in his power.

The standing guard gritted their teeth and pulled the trigger twice. Two bullets just above the vest. It didn't matter.

Kael moved into the aisle and focused. A ripping shock exploded through the car in a rush of fire and flame. As the wall of death approached Kael, Joshua, and the others it halted, forced into place. Kael had his eyes closed and one hand out, putting everything he had into it. The wall of flame burned in place trying to advance; then, as suddenly it sprung to life, it dissipated leaving them alone in half a car, the other half completely decimated.

Joshua unplugged his ears and looked up at Kael who stood in the middle of the aisle in disbelief. “You…stopped it...?” Joshua stammered. Stunned.

“May have been a contributing factor,” huffed another voice from behind. Gianna stood silhouetted at the door. She had her hand raised with a trickle of sweat running down her forehead. She brought her palm back and wiped the sweat and gunk pancaked on her face.

There was no doubt about it, Joshua realized, he found her incredibly cute.