Ten

“Steady, steady…” Hibis mumbled to herself as she balanced her floating body against Flow’s wind. “Alright, try increasing it!” She yelled over the wind as she looked down at Flow, whose hands spread out to face Hibis, eyes shut in deep concentration, brows furrowed down. The girl watched as the female below her flicked her wrists and pushed her palms out even further, sending a gush of stronger wind sailing into Hibis.

Hibis battled it as much as she could and urged herself to rebel against it as Flow changed the wind from cloudy to hail to rain, her hands gesturing madly. Hibis couldn't help but feel a grin appear on her face, despite being one who had barely dodged a flying hailstone. She felt exhilarated by working with Flow. In a circumstance where they were partnered together, they would sure work well. She could feel it.

Just as Hibis was relishing the moment, a blaring alarm jolted her from the enjoyment and she lost control, startled, and started toppling down.

"Arghh-"

She would have hit her head should Flow had not send a breeze to slowly float Hibis down back to the ground. “Thanks,” she smiled at Flow, whose calm sense was still visible despite the chaos that had suddenly erupted around them. Both girls turned to the direction of the alarm, something new in all the ordinary days of training. It was serious, and unexpected. Most trainees seemed puzzled, but some had definitely recognised the sound and had started running towards the exit in the far back of Training, a place where Ace hadn’t shown Hibis around. A place Hibis hadn't given much thought about until that day.

“Follow me,” Flow said without panicking over the noise before starting to dart towards the exit, using her element to push herself past the others heading in the same direction. Hibis flew to catch up to her, the alarm still ringing in her ears, like an intense church bell would. A surge of trainees rushed to the exit and Hibis flew up higher to stop herself from getting caught in the mob. Dang.

She spotted her colleague reach the exit door and push open the door. Hibis quickly followed suit until her eyes adjusted to what was in front of her, blinking in surprise. She was stunned to see not a flight of staircases, but a whole bomb bunker, with several facilities in a circular room, complete with bunk beds, kitchens, toilets, and training grounds were not excluded. Flow, who had slowed down, took a look at Hibis’s face to know her reaction all too well. “Never been here before?”

Hibis shook her head as they continued darting in to allow space for the other trainees. “Ace never did show me what was in here, and I wasn’t very curious.”

The weather girl led Hibis to a secluded corner, then unlocked a door that wrote “Controls: Only Executives” in bold red letters. The girl trailed in after the weather girl, and realized they were one of the firsts here. Just as they thought so, the rest of the executives filed in, led by Ace, and followed by Alistair and the others.

“What’s going on? Who infiltrated the system?” Ace asked nobody in particular as he and Alistair got to looking into the system. Hibis shrugged. “We just got here.”

A message popped up from the screen, it’s fonts big and alarming like the situation, using a background that made the screens all go dark blood red. A hush fell over the executives as their leader read the note aloud. “Revenge is a suit for us. You, son of Lunar Ranks 1, will sustain the punishment for killing our fellow partner in fellowship, who has done nothing but try to help your family with the crazy plans that your parents have unleashed to the world. It has not made the world a better place,” Ace gulped as the words sunk into everyone’s brains. Hibis took a look at the boy, who stood rigid, breathing soundlessly.

They didn’t dare think who the ‘fellow partner’ might have been.

Ace cleared his throat and continued scanning his eyes across the screen. “You are not an easy person to kill, but we shall get to that eventually. Thus, we shall make you suffer, taking away one of your most valuable~~~ for life, be it be dead or lost. We are elite, indeed, and know there’s no way you can endanger us with your puniness. What?” He cursed under his breath at such an insult.

“Ace.” Lily patted his back and took over delivering the message to others. Like her, the others' gaze continued to stay on the letter in front of them, crimson reflecting in everyone's eyes. “Thus, we decided to give you a weaponry with all means of revealing our scheme. It shall be found where dark wax lies, at midnight. Hope to start our game soon-” The girl was interrupted by a raging Alistair thumping his fist across the table. Everyone turned to stare at the enraged boy, his eyes flashing from gold to black as Alistair regained control. “Ah, sorry,” he said rather sheepishly, casting an eye over to someone as he slowed his breathing down from its sudden haggard pace.

“What kind of weaponry can help me outwit such a villain’s plans anyway? Why would they do that? Do they think they have a head start and want to go even? And what type of thing is most precious to me? I’ve lost almost everything, and the facilities are all I have. They don’t plan to…?” Ace mumbled in a maniacal rush as he spewed out question after question, only leaving anyone listening stumped. Hibis moved to take Lily’s place beside Ace, and placed a hand on his reassuringly. The boy looked up, then back down at their entwined hands. “We don’t know. It could be intangible, non intangible, we never know. Thus, we have to get the weaponry to help us,” Hibis said.

“But won’t we be walking into a trap?” Piped up Glimmer-who, despite not being an executive, was...somehow there. “True. A dedicated time and setting was given by our opponent, who we don’t know, and they want to give us some sort of thing that works against them, which results in them planning on something. Are we not allowed to go right now? Or just don't go get it at all?” Continued Vincent as he pushed up the rims of his glasses.

Alistair came up and slung an arm on Hibis’s shoulder. “It’s just like Hibis said. We got to know what it is so we can protect it. I doubt they’ll release the weaponry at any time when the mall’s still open, or before the proper timing. That would be really weak,” he said and looked straight at Ace’s, whose eyes had slammed up from where his hands were below Hibis's to the arm that rested on the girl. The leader went back to stare at Hibis, who seemed oblivious of the gesture as she listened to what Alistair had to say. “Or we could second guess it if you’re too scared to go then. Maybe your elements are most precious to you? Without them, you’re a meaningless normal.”

Ace gritted his teeth and shook his head. “No, I don’t think that's it. I’m fine dying mortal and not having powers. It isn't too precious to me that it becomes a life and death situation.” He glanced at Hibis to see if she’ll move Alistair’s arm away, but she was astonished by the sly tone in Alistair’s voice to do so.

“Are you sure? However, if you do lose your powers to this villainy, how would you lead us?” The boy questioned Ace. “We don’t know how strong they- or individual, are. We do know that they’re smart enough to hack our system, though. A system you designed.”

“Are you trying to provoke me?”

“No, I’m not. I’m being reasonable and thinking about all our sakes.”

“Well, you have to trust me. I’m sure someone who randomly hacked into my system and gave me a threat letter can’t suddenly make my elements vanish.” Alistair looked like he was about to argue with the statement but Hibis got between the two of them, knowing the boys wouldn’t stop if she hadn’t stepped in.

“Come on you guys,” Hibis protested as the rest were deemed as spectators and watched tensely. “Alistair is just thinking beyond the possibilities of what may happen if we’re not careful.” Alistair smiled at Hibis's defence while the other’s temper grew short. Just as Ace happened to open his mouth, Hibis continued, “But, we have to trust Ace is his work. We’ll do what he asks us to do because,” she turns to lock eyes with him, gazing into his rover blue orbs. “He’s the one who is supposedly targeted to suffer. He’s the one most at stake.”

Ace looked at Hibis staring back, a separate world of white with just her and him almost opening. So close, he could see the world gradually dissolving. Hibis never broke her firm contact with him, and gave him a reassuring smile from within. Ace leaned in, only to watch Alistair’s hand grab Hibis shoulder and pat her back.

The magic disappeared then.

Before flames could emerge from Ace’s within, Max took the moment to step in.

“If you're getting the weaponry, all executives should go to the wax exhibition and come along.” Ace turned his head to stare at Max this time, swerving so fast it was like a whip. His eyes widened at what that would mean. “No, you’re not endangering yourself because of me,” Ace retorted.

“Many are better than one, Ace. You can’t multitask 10 things just because you’re a Luna. And besides, what did you need executives for if you're not going to put some use to us?” explained Embry, who had entered with a troubled Kaden. The man took that as his que to immediately go up to Ace to whisper into his ear.

“Don’t disagree with Embry if you can, Ace. You know how she is…Don’t disagree with us. She's right,” Kaden had murmured, casting furtive glances at Alistair and lingering, ever so slightly, at Hibis’s gap between the boy, which was little.

Ace sighed as he scanned the room to see everyone nodding at Embry’s suggestion. “Fine…” but deep down, he was glad to have a team like them. Whoever the emerging villain was, he was going to take the weaponry and bring them down. Before...they could ruin his plans.