Episode 17 Return the Favor

Kunai, Ryuu, Arai, and Ivy walk past the rundown buildings sitting just outside Kerning City. Ryuu takes a quick glance as they pass by an old stadium, it’s walls nearly cracked and splintered, with vines running up its sides.

“Tch,” Ryuu mutters, staring up at the huge mass of the stadium, “it’s been years since there’s been a decent tournament in Kerning…I kinda miss those days.”

“Of course,” Arai replies comfortably, his eyes straying over to Ryuu, “back in the day you were always crowned the champion, weren’t you?”

“Heh, of course,” Ryuu replies haughtily, “there was no one who could beat the kid prodigy.”

“Daedalus!” Kunai cries out loud suddenly, running forward. Ryuu, Arai, and Ivy quickly follow him from behind, running to keep up.

Kunai stops as he sees a young man wearing a long, swishing blue cape, fiddling around with a large instrument laden with many Stiff Feathers. “Daedalus…long time no see!”

“Kunai?” the boy replies groggily. He rubs his eyes, staring up at the four standing in front of him. “What are all these people? What do you want with me?”

“Daedalus…we need a way to get to Ossyria. Is there any way…that you could help us out?” Kunai asks as his eyes stray over to the clunky contraption next to Daedalus.

“Well, my mechanical wings don’t work very well yet…” Daedalus replies slowly, “and the flying pill Icarus invented has been out of production for years.”

Kunai’s face slowly falls as he stares at Daedalus. “So…there’s nothing you have that can help us? Oh…well, thanks for your help anyway.”

Daedalus snaps his fingers suddenly in excitement. “Wait, there might be something I have that can help you get to Ossyria…but you’ll have to pay a heavy price for it…”

Kunai raises an eyebrow, turning to Arai and Ryuu, who both shrug. “Well, as long as we can get to Ossyria, we’ll pay any amount of money you want.”

“Well…if that’s the case, then I can definitely let you use the mechanical hang gliders I’ve perfected…” Daedalus replies, scratching his chin slightly.

“Great, can you show them to us?” Kunai replies briskly.

“I’m afraid not,” Daedalus answers.

“What? Why not? You just said we could use them!” Kunai retorts quickly.

“Yes, I did, but I don’t have them, see…the Myougun took them from me when they found out I had them. They seemed to think they might be used to get out of Victoria Island…” Daedalus mutters.

Kunai narrows his eyes impatiently. “You should’ve told us that in the first place! Now we’ve got to find another way of getting to Ossyria…”

“Well, not necessarily,” Daedalus replies, “if you don’t mind getting them yourself, you can always pick them up from Haven.”

“Haven? No way are we going back there…the Myougun and Lord Fyx are on the lookout for us. We’d be idiots to go waltzing back in there!” Ryuu cries out loud.

Ryuu sighs as he stares up once again at the large, hulking towers of Haven, spewing large clouds of dust and pollution into the permanently orange and brown-tinged sky nearby. “We’re idiots…” he mumbles.

Arai shrugs, turning to Ryuu. “Well, we really didn’t have much other choice. I mean, we’re short on options as it is, we might as well pick up these hang glider things.”

“Are you sure it’s all right for us to come back here if all the Myougun are out looking for us?” Ivy asks, as Ryuu and Arai both approach the front gates.

“Heh, guess if we’re gonna break in and out we might as well use the front door this time,” Ryuu mutters, staring up at the large iron gates guarding the complex.

Arai stares up at the twin guard towers on either side of the gates. “It looks like security’s a lot looser, though…I wonder if maybe the Myougun dispatched most of their men to go out and look for us? They certainly wouldn’t expect us to come back here…”

“If that’s the case, we’re gonna have a hell of an easy time in here,” Ryuu mutters. He draws his sword, setting it ablaze. Ryuu gives a loud yell and swings his sword, cutting open the locks on the gates and forcing it to swing open with one swift vertical slash.

Ryuu takes a step back and gasps in surprise as suddenly a large group of yellow eyes enclosing a red pupil glows in the dark air behind the gate. “Paradoxes?”

“Oops, guess we shouldn’t have come at night…” Arai mutters.

Ryuu growls, raising his sword and sending a current of jolting electricity running through it. “Oh well, it’s much funner to kick some Paradox ass on the way anyway.”

“‘Funner’ isn’t a word,” Arai says brightly, waving a finger at Ryuu.

“Erm, right…” Kunai mutters, turning away from Arai, “anyway, let’s get rid of these Paradoxes quickly! We need to get to the gliders and get going right away.”

“This’ll only take a minute,” Ryuu mutters, dashing forth to the crowd of Paradoxes. His sword flashes brightly with flames as he constantly turns and strikes, burning the Paradoxes to crisps. A loud wail of shrieking from them rises in the air, floating away and drowned out by the noise of the nearby plants.

Ryuu turns back to the group, but Arai cries out as he sees a Paradox clinging to Ryuu’s neck. He dashes forward and waves his Dark Ritual, sending a blast of lightning into it, knocking it dead.

Ryuu glances over his shoulder at the dead Paradox and brushes lint off his shoulder, nodding to the rest of the group. “Okay, let’s get going.”

Kunai and Ryuu lead the way as Arai and Ivy follow behind, running to keep up. Kunai turns to Ryuu as they run, shouting, “Daedalus said that they were probably storing the hang gliders in the hangar!”

Ryuu glances at Kunai as they run. “And where’s the hangar?”

“I believe it’s just over the reactor room. When Ivy and I were in there last time, I saw an elevator going up, and I seem to remember seeing a large, wide open area just above the reactor room in the map we saw last time,” Arai says from behind.

“Looks like we’re barging in once again,” Ryuu mutters.

Kunai and Ryuu stop in their tracks suddenly as they approach the doors that had been locked previously. Arai and Ivy stop just behind them as well.

Ryuu bends over the password panel once more, glaring pensively at it. “Hm…what the hell’s the password?”

“I have an idea,” Kunai mutters suddenly. He turns to glance over Arai and Ivy’s shoulders. “Get back!”

He drags the other three into a pile of bushes lining the road. The four of them hide within them, glancing out of the bushes and brambles as two guards approach the door.

“We should really get in for dinner,” one of the guards says, “the Paradoxes roaming around here at night really creep me out.”

“No kidding, especially with Lord Fyx gone, there’s no one to control those damn beasts,” the other replies.

The first guard bends over the panel, adeptly entering a quick set of digits. “Hold it!” Ryuu suddenly cries, causing the two guards to glance over in alarm.

As the doors slide open, Arai steps forward and raises his staff, freezing the two guards in place. Kunai and Ryuu then lead the way through the doors once again, as Ivy and Arai quickly follow behind.

The four of them hastily tread down the stairs leading down from the doorway. They stare around as they enter a large passageway, with many separate hallways leading out of it, and many doors lining the way.

“What the hell? Which way do we go?” Ryuu growls.

“This way!” Kunai cries as the sound of footsteps approaches from the hallways left and right. He runs forward while the other three quickly follow him, towards the end of the hallway.

Kunai stops at another door. He pulls at the handle, but sees that it is locked tight. He pants as he glances behind him and hears the footsteps growing louder. “Now what…?”

“Allow me,” Arai murmurs, creating a staff of lightning in his hands and blasting open the door easily with one blow of crashing thunder and lightning.

The four of them rush inside immediately into the reactor room, where the large reactor tank is humming softly, emitting wisps of dark shadowy material.

“So this is the reactor room?” Ryuu mutters.

“Correct,” Arai mutters in reply.

Ryuu steps up to the large tank, glaring up at the shadowy mist hovering around it. “This is the stuff they make Paradoxes with. Imagine it, tangible shadows? I ought to put them out of business.”

Ryuu suddenly unsheathes his sword, and with one quick horizontal slash, cuts open the tank. It immediately begins spilling out large amounts of the same shadowy substance, which falls into the exhaust funnel underneath.

An alarm suddenly rings overhead, and the four look up as a flash of bright red light momentarily illuminates the large room. The four of them turn once again facing the doorway as the footsteps suddenly begin approaching, the sound of many guards’ voices ringing just outside.

Ryuu draws his sword and grits his teeth, but widens his eyes in surprise as Ivy steps forward, her Thorns in her hands. “I’ll take care of this,” Ivy replies. She waves her Thorns easefully, and suddenly the many guards that had been approaching become Blue Snails.

“Um…right,” Kunai murmurs, blinking slightly in surprise. He turns to the others. “Okay, let’s get out of here before more guards come!”

The four of them dash forward to the elevator, immediately boarding it and rising to the upper level. They dash out of the elevator into a wide-open, high-ceilinged area, where many large planes sit side by side.

“There!” Kunai cries out loud, pointing to a group of hang gliders sitting at the furthest end of the room. They run forward, but stop suddenly as a loud explosion sounds beneath them, rumbling through the room and shaking the entire floor.

“What the hell was that?!” Ryuu cries out loud.

“Hm…looks like by destroying the reactor, you set off a chain reaction,” Arai mutters in reply. “In other words, you just set up a perfect self destruction for Haven.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here then,” Ryuu replies.

The four of them each approach the hang gliders, choosing one as Ryuu presses a button nearby on the wall and the hangar opens up, revealing the night sky outside, littered with stars.

The four of them quickly equip the hang gliders, and take off into the night sky, just as another explosion rocks the plant behind them, and the entire building collapses in a large eruption of fire.

“Off to Ossyria!” Ryuu cries into the air.