33 - Maybe it Doesn't Exist

The boys reached the market district and headed straight to the building where they would pick up their items. The building was tall and seemed to be only used for official business. Entering the building the group found multiple Kiosks with signs that read item pickup.

Walking over to a kiosk Kaius scanned his datapad to it.

Ding

[Please wait]

[Dispensing]

[Thank you for your purchase please come again]

clang

A box dropped in a container on the side of the Kiosk and Kaius tapped his datapd to it again as it opened and allowed him to retrieve his items.

Skye went next and did the same, but since he got fewer items his box was a bit smaller. Skye immediately opened his box and pulled out the Time Element Crystal "I got this for Speedy" he said handing it to Zane.

"What- huh" Zane was touched, Skye definitely did not have to waste his points on him like that. "Thank you" Zane said finally coming out of his shock, "I'll pay you back, I promise." Skye smiled and stuck the small chip that contained the Academy Island Map into his datapad then started scrolling away.

Kaius opened his box and took out a similar chip and handed it to Zane. "Thank you" like I said i'll definitely pay you back." He quickly inserted the chip into his datapad and began exploring. "Ok guys this may take a bit so how about we grab some snacks and scroll the net while we eat" Zane suggested while tapping away on his datapad.

"Hey there's some really cool monuments and stuff on this map, how about we go check them out instead while you do your internet searches" Skye suggested.

Kaius liked that idea and the group agreed. Skye was right, there actually were a lot of monuments and things to see, when the group came before they kind of wandered around aimlessly, even when Lt. Cruz took Kaius and Carina they seemed to be just browsing.

With Skye's new map showing him where everything was it almost felt like he grew up there, he never misread the map or made a wrong turn. The group visited parts of the district they never had before, realizing that it was a lot bigger than they'd originally thought.

Skye took them to a lot of different statues and monuments then finally the group made their way to a rooftop smoothie shop. From the rooftop the boys could see far out into the island, it was a beautiful view. Kaius and Skye sat and drank their smoothies while Zane continued searching the internet.

"uggh, I still can't find anything guys, maybe it really doesn't exist" Zane said shaking his head dejectedly. "Why don't you take a break from it for now, there's another cool place I want to show you guys. I'm sure once you clear your mind something will come to you and you'll be able to find more info on it" Skye said.

Zane nodding his head agreeing "yeah your right, thanks guys, sorry for being such a grouch I get a little obsessed sometimes." "Ya think" Kaius blurted out as the trio began laughing. With the addition of Zane the conversation continued and the boys seemed to be having a good time. "Ok let's check out this last spot then start heading back, we still have class tomorrow" Skye said as he got up and led the trio out of the rooftop shop.

Zane and Kaius followed as Skye led the way. After a while the boys noticed they were walking a bit far and the crowds of people started to decrease. "Where are we." Zane asked.

"This is the old market" Skye said, "before the island expanded this area was bustling with activity. As the island increased in size the market district grew and some areas became less populated, there are more specialty stores here as a lot of these businesses have been around since the islands creation."

The boys continued following Skye who suddenly made a right turn down a shadowy alley in between two tall buildings. Kaius and Zane were kind of hesitant but followed after Skye, when they entered the alley they saw it was quite spacious and actually not an alley at all. It was more like a courtyard with a fountain in the middle and a few benches off to the side. There were a few flower beds and inside the fountain beautiful Koi fish swam around. It was a cozy little courtyard but the shadows of the neighboring buildings made the area seem gloomy, contrasting with it's beautiful design.

"What's so special about this place" Zane asked as he looked around, "this" Skye said as he pointed to a wall behind the fountain. Skye pointed to a brick wall where a beautiful starry sky was painted, in the middle of the sky was a colorless rainbow with a colorless earth underneath of it. Each end of the rainbow had a beautiful clear gem on it. Taking a closer look the boys noticed that some of the stars in the painting were also clear gems. It was really a beautiful painting but Kaius and Zane didn't know what was so special about it.

"Skye what's so special about this painting, was it painted by a famous painter or something" Zane asked. "Watch" Skye said, he placed his hand on a gem then pulled earth elements into it. When the earth elements entered the gem it turned a beautiful orange and some color started to show on the rainbow and the earth part of the painting. "You can put different elements into these gems lighting up the painting a little." The painting slowly started to dim as the earth elements dispersed from the gems. "Let me try" Zane said touching a gem and putting time elements into it.

The gems shown a beautiful green and again the painting seemed to light up a bit. "Let's all give it a try and Kaius use different elements I bet it'd look cool" Skye said. The boys began running and touching each gem, and they were right the painting was beautiful, the different colored star gems shone bright and dazzled against the painted night sky. The rainbow and earth portion brightened a bit but still remained mostly colorless.

"This is pretty cool" Kaius said as the boys sat and watched the color slowly fade away as the gems returned to their colorless state.

All the gems had become colorless once again, but for some reason one gem that Kaius had put lightning into stayed yellow. "Hmm maybe that one's broke" Zane said pointing at it, "I don't know but you see those two white circles right above the gem, I feel like i've seen a picture like that before" Kaius said.

"Yea me too" Skye added. The boys looked around the painting and noticed a few white circles around some of the other stars but the amount of circles on each star was different. They ranged from one to seven and there were only seven of such gems with white circles around them. Kaius and Skye felt like they'd seen those gems before but didn't know where or why it even mattered, and after a few minutes the gem returned to it's colorless state. "Ok let's head back" Skye said as he got up and led the way home.