Sonaris could already see the summit, now it was just an arm’s throw away. And on top of the summit was the price he was after. A soft green glow was covering the area in the last meter or so. With one final leap he snatched the crystal from where it rested.

“Alright! One more crystal retrieved, and this one shall stay mine! But first...” He turned on his rockets and hovered around at that level, looking down.

“Hmmm...He’s down there somewhere...just have to fine tone my eyesight a bit more...Ah-ha, there we go.” He had spotted Tikai dragging Airaxen on the ground, and was meaning to pay him back for that near death experience. He placed the green crystal into his hand then pointed it downwards. His palm then started to glow an eerie green, with a small ball of wind forming in the center.

* * *

“Man Air, you aren’t exactly light on your feet.” She continued dragging him by the arm, slowly but surely making progress. Then a slight whistling filled her ears, it was slowly becoming louder...and louder... Tikai looked straight up, and let out a cry. She was staring straight up the center of a twister. Tikai tried to get away, but no such luck, the twister touched down, and hurtled them into different directions. Tikai was flung to the side, and knocked into a few rocks, Airaxen on the other hand was hurtled into straight at Everest, and shattered into pieces on contact with the mountain wall. Luckily the twister had already left, how is scientifically impossible. Sonaris smirked again, then left. Glad he had to his knowledge destroyed Airaxen. Sonaris then flew off. Tikai rubbed her head and sat up. Then she realized; what had happened to Airaxen? She looked around franticly then, saw him, a few meters away, there he lay literally shattered; only the upper body was close to being intact. She dashed over and tried to lift him up, more body armor fell off with a few of those blue vines snapping off. Tikai was mortified, Sonaris had finally done it, he had finally killed Airaxen.

“Come on Air...you can’t die yet, the bad guy isn’t supposed to win.” Silence.

“Come on! Wake up or something!” More silence. But then a few sparks shot out of Airaxen’s chest, then a few more. Shortly after the sound of very stressed machinery filled the air.

“I’m...not...finished...yet...” The words were hoarse, harsh sounding, but it was a good sign. Tikai let out a sigh of relief, then smiled.

“Good thing you’re still alive.”

“Yes...we...must get back...to...the lab.”

“How? We have no transportation, you’re barely more then a corpse, and we’re broke!”

“...”

“Air?”

“...”

“Don’t tell me you’re dead now!...Air?”

“...”

“Wake up!...Please?...Air?” As Tikai tried to revive Airaxen, a shadow emerged from the mountain wall, then bent over and grabbed two crystals from the pile of wreckage.

“Good, two crystals are in my possession, if I’m lucky I can get the other 4 before someone else does.” The shadow then tilted it’s head at the piles of machinery and circuitry around him. He then turned his head to the right looking at Tikai.

<That girl again, and it appears this time her friend is in need of assistance.> The shadow sank into the ground, then moved towards the two. Tikai spotted it moving towards them, and grabbed a sharp piece of metal and stepped back.

“Oh, what do you want?! This day has been bad enough already! Just go away!” Once turning back into a more solid form, he turned to look at the severely damaged Airaxen.

“Hmmm...” He extended a claw, then opened it producing the red crystal. “My, my, you two seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.” He then muttered something, before dropping the crystal on the ground next to Airaxen. The second the crystal hit the ground a pillar of blue fire erupted from underneath Airaxen. Tikai turned at the shadow with a menacing glare,

“Stop right now! Or else...”

“Or else?”

“I...err...um...” But she never got to finish her thought, the pillar of fire dissipated, in it’s place was Airaxen, fully repaired.

“You, you were...?”

“Trying to help? Yes.”

“Sorry, I thought you were.”

“Here to finish the job?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s still out cold, but now at least he’ll be ready for what lays ahead.”

“Huh? What do you.” Too late, the shadow had sunk into the ground and left. Tikai let out a sigh, then grabbed one of Airaxen’s arms and went back to dragging him to the village, 10 miles away.

* * *

“Uhhhh....Where am I? What happened-OW!” Airaxen’s head had just hit a sharp rock, jolting him out of his paralysis.

“It’s about time you woke up! You aren’t exactly light.”

“Well can you stop, ow, dragging me?” Tikai let go of him, then looked at Airaxen.

“Air, I have some bad news.”

“And what would that be?” Airaxen raised an eyebrow at her, while sitting up.

“The two crystals we got...that shadow thing came and took them...” His left eye started to twitch again.

“What...WHAT HAPPENED?!”

“err...that shadow came and took the two crystals...” Tikai started to look afraid, reason being Airaxen looked like he was about to explode, his face was severely contorted, the twitching getting more severe. Then when Tikai was positive he was about to start yelling and screaming, his face suddenly relaxed.

“It’s...alright, better then Sonaris having them. I think.”

“Huh? You’re not mad?”

“No, besides there’s still 4 more crystals out there. Now where’s the scanner...”

“Uhh, Air that’s the rest of the bad news.” Tikai took out a very crushed and tattered device, which was the scanner.

“I found this along the way, I think it was caught in that twister, then must have busted on contact with the ground.”

“That’s not a good thing. Now how are we supposed to find the rest of the-eh?” Airaxen then placed a hand to his temple, and closed his right eye.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know...just have this sudden urge to go somewhere...”

“Where would that be?”

“I think...I think it’s...China.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, just have an urge to go there. Come on.” He then grabbed Tikai by the arm and started to dash off, dragging Tikai along, as she protested saying she felt like a rag doll.

* * *

Soon after leaving the plane they took over to Beijing, Airaxen was back to dragging Tikai around the city. They barged through crowds of people, which were about everywhere at night in the massive city.

“Air...AIR!”

“What is it?”

“Will you stop for a second?!”

“...Nope.” Soon Airaxen had started to slow down near a crowd of people, all of which were slowly entering a large gate. Airaxen stood there, studying the red walls, then started to head in.

“Where did you drag me off to now?”

“If I’m right, this is...the Forbidden City.”

“You mean the Emperor’s place back in ancient times?”

“Yes, the Emperors of China would live here, and keep some of the most precious treasures in here. If I’m right, I heard a rumor that the City had secret chambers which contained the most precious treasures.”

“Hey...maybe one of the crystals is here.”

“My thoughts exactly...” Once passing through the gates, Airaxen let a low whistle. There was an enormous stone courtyard leading to the entrance. Along the way was a path lined with torches along the way. Tikai looked around utterly stunned herself, simply an amazing sight. They started the slow trek to the entrance, still admiring the Forbidden City.

* * *

Sonaris was wearing a dark hooded cloak, cursing slightly under his breath. He continued making his way around the insides of the Forbidden City, being pushed, crushed, and whatever by all the people surrounding him. After 30 minutes of searching the walls, and avoiding the questions of the staff, he came up with nothing.

<Feh, haven’t found any trace of that secret chamber, but I can tell the crystal is near, I’ll just keep on looking.> Sonaris ducked out of sight, and behind to the back rooms, and began searching them.

Airaxen who had just entered, noticed a flutter of a cloak as it vanished behind a corner. He narrowed his eyes slightly, then gave chase. Once turning a corner he dived at the figure, Airaxen grabbed part of the cloak and tore it off, revealing Sonaris.

“You know, you’re worse then the plague!” He sneered at Airaxen.

“Why thank you.” Airaxen replied with plenty of sarcasm. Sonaris raised his left hand, revealing the green crystal imbedded in his palm, a small cyclone then shot out, blowing Airaxen back a few meters. Airaxen leapt to his feet and dashed at Sonaris, while forming his arm cannon. Sonaris narrowed his eyes, then raised his own arm cannon, and fired one shot straight down the barrel of Airaxen’s cannon, causing it to explode. The blast caused Airaxen to be knocked back once more, during this time Sonaris took his leave, dashing down the hallway. Airaxen leapt up, then dashed right after Sonaris.

* * *

“Argh, where did Air go now?! Always leaving me in the dust, he’s such a brat sometimes.” Tikai ducked away from the tour group and began wandering the corridors. She then came across a rather tattered patch of ground, she crouched down, and looked at it closer, it looked as if they were blasted apart. A few shattered tiles around the general area.

<Yup, Air was here, and probably Sonaris. Well time for round two, Air you had better not come back in a matchbox this time.> Once standing back up she noticed something near the ceiling, it was what appeared to be a bent dragon’s head. But what was more bizarre was the fact that it wasn’t damaged from things such as grave robbers, but was built to be like that. Tikai then looked in the direction of where it was pointing, straight at a wall. The wall itself looked normal, except for a small portion that looked to be a few shades off from the rest of the wall. She moved closer to it, taking a close look at it. The only visible difference was just the coloration. When she kept looking around it, she noticed again near the top another deformed dragon head, this one pointed in the same direction as the other, but this time down a different hall.

“Hmm...” Again this head pointed to another discolored section of wall with a damaged head. She stood back up, and started to follow the trail.

Airaxen was still chasing after Sonaris, who was moving his head from side to side, looking at the walls. Soon he stopped, and skidded around to look at Airaxen.

“You know Airaxen, I don’t remember you being this annoying!”

“Feh.” Airaxen dashed straight at him, swinging his fists at his face. Sonaris dodged them easily, then turned to the side, grabbed Airaxen’s arm and lifted him up, and flung him into the ground. Sonaris leapt back and down a new hallway.

“Now...I’m getting annoyed.” Airaxen stood back up and started the chase once more.

Tikai had been walking aimlessly down corridor after corridor for the last 10 minutes, now she faced a dilemma. The last dragon head pointed straight into a wall which seemed to be perfectly normal, no damaged head, no coloration, no nothing. Tikai kept trying to find something odd about it, nothing could be seen from the naked eye, when she tapped on it, it didn’t give any sort of strange noise. Eventually she gave up, and started to head back the way she came. But when Tikai passed the last head, she felt a gentle breeze. This caught her attention, she looked at the wall, and there was a microscopic little slit in it where some wind could come out of. She tried to push the wall in, nothing, then she felt around for a switch now, still nothing. So once again, she decided to give up, she leaned against the wall and looked up, looked up at the damaged dragon’s head. This one wasn’t bent...it was built with a joint... Tikai reached up and grabbed it, and went to turning it to the left. When the head was back into alignment with the rest, there was the loud noise of grinding and what seemed to be chains. After the noise stopped, Tikai pressed against the wall again, this time the piece of wall slid back with ease, Tikai kept going until the block of wall stopped in a corner, to the side was a staircase which led to what seemed to be an underground room. From curiosity she started to go down the stone stairs, each step echoing. Soon the way was dark, there were no lights down there, but she always kept a small flashlight in her pocket, incase of a blackout or something. Tikai kept going down, very slowly, rather afraid at what may be lying in the shadows. The air was damp, rather cold, the farther down she went the stronger the smell of old musty items became. The stairs stopped, leading to a large room. After waving the flashlight around there seemed to be nothing in the room, except for a few cobwebs and mold on the stone walls.

“Ok...” She muttered quietly, “there’s nothing to be afraid of...just in a pitch black chamber which is underground, and might not have been entered for hundreds of years...Nothing to be afraid of...”

Airaxen, who had lost sight of Sonaris, silently made his way through the hallways. He turned his head from side to side every 3 seconds. Each corner he turned, he expected to run into Sonaris, but nothing. After 10 minutes he turned another corner, sword ready incase Sonaris was there, not this corridor either.

“Feh, still nothing. Huh?” He looked to his left, and there was a large portion of the wall missing. he looked through the missing section, a small hallway with a staircase at the left end of it. Cautiously he walked towards the staircase, sword still drawn and at the ready. Airaxen started to head down a dark stone staircase, each footstep echoing loudly as he went.

Tikai suddenly perked up, there was the noise of footsteps, someone was coming down the staircase. She quickly turned off the flashlight, then pressed herself against the nearest wall. More footsteps, a bit louder this time. Then there was a loud “ACK!” accompanied by what sounded like a person falling down the rest of the stairs.

“Owwww...My head...” Airaxen groaned.

“Air?”

“Huh? Tikai? That you?”

“Yeah. You stay there, I’ll turn on my flashlight.” A quiet click and Tikai’s face was illuminated by a flashlight beam. She moved it around slightly, and eventually found Airaxen lying on the ground in a heap, covered with mold which rubbed off the stone steps.

“Don’t say it.” He muttered. Airaxen stood up and cleaned himself off, then turned to look at Tikai. “How did you get here anyway?”

“I was looking around for where you went after you ditched me, again!”

“Sorry, but I had caught sight of Sonaris.”

“Well it’s ok now. But I think I may have found where the crystal is, there,” She turned to the side, bringing the light to the left, illuminating a stone wall which wasn’t entirely sealed at the top and sides. Airaxen went over and inspected it.

“Hmm...” He moved his hands up and down the wall trying to feel for something out of the ordinary. Eventually his hand moved over a portion of the middle of the wall, then it sank in, slowly causing the wall to sink into the ground. The two of them went through the newly opened corridor. As they went farther down the corridor, skeletons were found littering the ground, they all looked like they were trying to run from something...

“These skeletons...they’re starting to worry me...” Tikai went closer to Airaxen, holding onto his arm tightly.

“I agree...” Airaxen peered from side to side, inspecting the skeletons. None of them were fully intact, most of them were snapped in half, or their bones were crushed into dust. Most of the skeletons were so badly crushed, it was nearly impossible to tell they were human, but one thing was constant, each of them were fleeing away from something.

“Air...Maybe we should get out of here...”

“No, we must continue on. Don’t worry, I’ll be able to handle whatever is in here.” Soon they came to a stop, there facing them was a large stone door. The door had many strange designs on carved into it. They looked similar to phoenixes and dragons, but time had done it’s work, and damaged the carvings. But there was one carving which was left mostly intact, it appeared to be some sort of rock formation.

<How strange...> But the thought was dismissed. Airaxen raised his free arm up, then smashed his fist into the stone wall. He lowered his arm to his side, the stone wall seemingly undamaged, then a crack started to form where Airaxen had hit the wall. The crack very slowly grew larger, then the whole door began to crumble, and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust. Once the dust cleared, it revealed an enormous room. The room was littered with stone pillars which had already fell to the ground and cobwebs in every direction. The two did the best they could maneuvering across the damaged floor, using what little light the flashlight could provide to guide them to what should be the center of the room. They came to a stop, reason being they were faced with a large stone wall, the entrance to the next chamber was covered up in a pile of rock, just leaving the very top of the entrance way open.

“Hmm...This might be a problem.” Airaxen put a hand to his chin and paused for a moment. <My cannon has been destroyed thanks to Sonaris, and a sword is useless. I suppose I’ll have to move all this rock by hand, oh joy.> “Tikai, mind standing back while I clear the entrance?”

“Uh, yeah, sure thing.” Tikai stepped a few meters away, knowing Airaxen’s talent at overdoing things. Airaxen lifted up a large slab of rock, then flung it to the side, and grabbed another, and flung it to the side, and he continued doing this. A large cloud of dust formed, shrouding Tikai’s view, and gave her a coughing fit.

“Air! *cough* Stop for a second! *cough*” Airaxen didn’t respond, Tikai shouted again, and again no response. Soon the dust cloud had dissipated, revealing that Airaxen had already left, the entrance now unblocked, and...oddly there was a dim light illuminating the vastness of the room.

“Odd...there isn’t any opening for light to get in...” Tikai walked through the doorway, and there was Airaxen, walking up a very deformed set of stairs, leading to what appeared a stone tablet, a pale yellow crystal lodged into it.

“I suspect we are under the courtyard, and those torch holders may have an opening in them, that might be why there’s light down here.” Airaxen very slowly, and cautiously made his way up to the top of the alter.

“Ah-ha, found the crystal, and before Sonaris to boot.” Airaxen moved his hand towards the crystal, but then it glowed bright yellow for a split second. He blinked for a second, wondering if it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, but the rumbling of shifting rock told him that it was no trick. Airaxen leapt away from the stone structure, which was slowly shifting apart.

“Tikai...I think I know what those skeletons were running from...”

“Yeah, I think I’ve figured it out too...Think we should run?”

“Most likely.” Airaxen grabbed Tikai, around the waist and carried her, leaping from one pile to debris to the next. The large stone alter now unfurled revealing two arms, and a set of legs. Now the alter was a 30 foot tall stone Golem. The Golem started to walk after Airaxen, smashing through the wall which lead to where the it had previously rested, then continued on totally unaffected. With each step a loud crash echoed through the room. Airaxen set Tikai down in a corner of the room where the light didn’t reach.

“Stay there, I’m going to take care of that thing.” Airaxen took the sword from his back and turned to face the approaching golem.

“You can’t possibly beat that thing with a sword! It’s made entirely out of rock!”

“I can try, can’t I?” With that he leapt at the Golem, sword raised. The Golem turned to see Airaxen coming at it, then the it raised one of it’s massive arms and brought it straight down onto him, smashing Airaxen into the ground.

“Uhh...Ok, lets try that again.” He stood back up, and leapt to the side, right as the Golem stomped on the ground where Airaxen just was. He kicked off a tilted stone wall, then flew right at the head of the Golem. This time the golem was caught off guard, and Airaxen slashed at it’s head. The blade struck the it on the side of it’s head, but did nothing more then emit a loud clash and make a little cut. The Golem grabbed Airaxen, then threw him straight into a wall, causing him to be indented in it, and a large portion of his armor to crack apart and fall to the ground.

“Ugh...That really hurts...” Airaxen placed a hand to his forehead, eyes closed from the pain. But before he could pull himself out of the wall, the Golem had slammed his fist into Airaxen, and farther into the wall. It then retracted it’s hand, letting Airaxen fall to the ground like a limp rag doll. As the Golem readied for another attack, Tikai jumped out from her corner, grabbing a rock along the way, then she flung it at the Golem’s head. The rock hit the Golem in the back of it’s head, getting it to stop it’s attack on Airaxen, but now turned to Tikai and began walking towards her.

“Oh man, I probably should’ve thought this out some more.” Tikai spun around and started dashing towards the exit. The Golem gave chase, gaining on her rapidly, not being affected by the rocky terrain. Airaxen let out a weak groan, then sat back up putting a hand to his forehead. With the other hand he felt around for his sword, once locating it slowly stood up, causing most of his remaining armor to crumble and fall to the ground. Airaxen, thou weak and badly damaged raised his sword for another attack. With all his might he charged straight at the Golem from behind, he jumped up again, then brought his sword onto the Golem’s head. Another earth shattering clash ringed out which echoed through out the room, this one much louder then the previous one. The Golem stopped, it’s head given another crack in it, but in the end the attack did nothing more then annoy the stone behemoth. It reached up, and snatched Airaxen, then slammed him into the ground. The Golem raised his hand out of the newly created crater where Airaxen lay. It turned to face Airaxen, preparing for another attack. Tikai grabbed another rock, slightly larger then the previous one, then flung it at the golem’s head. Again, this did nothing more then provoke the giant into attacking her.

From the corner, two blue eyes emerged, then locked onto the fighting taking place to the side.

“Hmm...It’s those two again, always getting themselves into trouble it seems.” The shadow let out a low grumble. “I know it’s not my place, but I must help them out.” But before he moved, Airaxen was slowly getting back up, despite his arms and legs being tattered.

“Hmm...Maybe that boy can still pull it off without my help.”

Tikai ran away from the Golem again, which was giving chase once more. But unfortunately for the Golem, Tikai had made it through the exit and into the smaller corridor which lead back to the upper floors. But unfortunately for her, the wall which had separated the two sections had lowered back down again. Tikai turned around, to see the Golem’s legs come up to the entrance way before stopping. She leaned on the back wall, letting out a sigh of relief, until a large piece of rock came rolling and hopping down the corridor at her! Tikai let out a rather strangled squeak before running to the side, barely avoiding being smashed into little pieces. But before she could recollect herself another slab of rock plowed it’s way towards Tikai. While the Golem took pot shots at Tikai, Airaxen had regained his footing, just barely able to hold his sword up. With one final burst of energy he charged at the Golem’s leg, and struck him in the back of his leg, but this time the Golem was unaffected, instead his sword shattered on contact. The Golem took a step back, hitting Airaxen back into another pile of rock.

The shadow narrowed his eyes at this, then sank into the ground and headed straight for Airaxen. It raised up and out of the ground and helped Airaxen up as he reappeared.

“Wake up boy, your friend still needs help.” Airaxen responded by letting out a weak groan, clutching onto the shattered hilt of his sword. “Wake up! Hurry!” Tikai let out a shriek, a few seconds later a loud crash followed with the ground rumbling. Airaxen raised his head slightly, another rumbling made him look towards the Golem which was walking to grab another rock to throw.

“No...Stop...” Airaxen tried to stand on his own, and raise his sword up, which mostly wasn’t there anymore. He tried to take a step forward, but fell to the ground. The shadow lifted him up with one of his mighty claws and shook Airaxen briskly.

“He fought bravely, I must give him credit for that. But that’s not enough sometimes. Since I can’t do much to animate objects other then move them around, I can still help.” The shadow put it’s free hand out, a sword coming out of it. As this happened, a slight glow appeared around Airaxen, the glow emitting from it’s claw. Airaxen raised his head again, slightly more conscious now, the shadow then shoved the sword into his hands, and two crystals before vanishing again. Airaxen was rather confused at what had happened, but Tikai’s shriek jolted him out of his paralysis. Tikai was now barely able to dodge the rocks, the back of the cave was slowly being filled with debris, forcing her to move closer and closer to her doom. Airaxen dropped the broken remains of his previous sword, and gripped the new one. This one had a similar hilt to the last, a blade coming out of the left of it, 3 smaller ones coming out of the right, all of which pointed upward. But instead of the orange jewel in the center, there was no jewel, instead some sort of holder was there. Airaxen then remembered about the crystal in his hand, then looked back and forth from the two, and came up with an idea. He placed the red crystal into the spot where the jewel was supposed to go, then flipped the sword around and put the other crystal in. When he did a strange set of line markings fired out from the crystals, and into the blade of the sword. Airaxen charged at the Golem again, sword raised, the blade turning into a piece of ice, then a flame engulfed the ice blade, surprisingly not melting it. He jumped at the Golem’s mid section, and slashed him diagonally, this time the sword slicing right through him with ease. The Golem was struck so hard that it started to tilt over and fall, dropping the rock it had just picked up, having it land right on top of itself. Airaxen ran into the half buried corridor to the shocked Tikai.

“You ok?”

“Hmm...I just had a giant stone Golem throw rocks at me trying to crush me! What do you think?!” Tikai roared.

“You’re fine.” He mumbled while rubbing an ear. There was a loud rumbling, the Golem had gotten back up on it’s feet, preparing for a counter attack. Airaxen ran out of the corridor, diverting it’s attention away from Tikai. It raised a fist into the air, then slammed it into the ground creating a fissure underneath Airaxen to fall into. Airaxen leapt over it, landing a few feet away.

“Anything you can do, I can do better!” He slammed his sword into the ground, a wave of blue fire surging at the Golem. The wave of fire smashed into the Golem, then vanished for a second, before large icicles shot up from under it, smashing right through it’s limbs. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, the Golem stood there frozen in time, icicles sticking out of it; then each of the icicles exploded in a flurry of ice shards and rock sending them in all directions. Airaxen went close to the ground, and dug his sword into the ground to keep from being blasted away. After the ice shards stopped flying around the Golem was no more, in it’s place was the pale yellow crystal. Airaxen stood up and took his sword out of the ground, then looked around and surveyed the area. There were some small rocks raining down over the general area, a few small shards of ice were mixed in as well. Tikai walked out of the corridor and over to the crystal on the floor, remarkably it was perfectly intact, not a single scratch. Airaxen walked over and picked it up, examining it for a moment, then pocketing it.

“Alright, we’re one step closer to finishing this ordeal.” Airaxen said cheerfully, but then a thought struck him, “Err, if that wall closed after we entered, how exactly do we get out of here?”

“...You know Air, that’s a really good question.”

“*sigh* I think we should start moving those rocks out of the way, or else we might be down here for quite awhile.” The two went back down the corridor and set to digging themselves out.

* * *

3 hours later Airaxen and Tikai had finally gotten out of the Forbidden City, and China for that matter. They were sitting on a plane, both exhausted from all that had happened in the day. Early that morning they had arrived at Mount Everest, and it was a murderous 5 hours to get back onto a plane for Beijing, the flight was another 6 hours. By the time they made it there it was already 7 PM, and their little adventure into the Forbidden City took a grand total of 3 hours. Now it was 11 at night, but when they made it back to the city of Calgary, it would just have become yesterday. Tikai was trying her best to get some sleep, but every time she was about to doze off, something made her uneasy. After the third time of this happening she decided to look around; all the people within 7 seats were staring at them, well mainly Airaxen. Reason being he was still wearing his tattered body armor, and the blue vine like structures were showing on some parts.

“Uhh...Air?” Tikai tapped him on the shoulder, nothing. “Hey Air, wake up.”

“Yes Tikai?” He responded wearily, also without opening an eye.

“Umm...Well there are people...staring at you.”

“So?”

“Well, don’t you think it would’ve been a good idea to try and stay inconspicuous?”

“It’s a good idea, but I don’t really find it to be that important.”

“At least make some effort in trying to blend in!”

“Well I like to be unique.” And that was the last they said for the duration of the flight.

It was about 6 in the morning when the arrived back in Calgary, not exactly revitalized, but refreshed. After calling a cab back to the city tower. Airaxen flopped down into his computer chair, Tikai collapsed onto the bed, not able to get very much sleep on the plane. After a few minutes Airaxen straightened himself up, and moved over to his desk. With an exasperated sigh he set to work on making a new scanner. But half an hour later Airaxen had come up with nothing. The reason being Airaxen had forgotten how he created the original scanner.

“Ack! How did I make this thing before? It can’t be that hard to recreate, but why is it giving me such a headache?!” He roared, which awoke Tikai.

“For all that is holy and sacred, keep it down!” She grumbled.

“Sorry, sorry, was just getting irritated, didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“With a voice like that you would’ve woken up everyone in a 1 mile radius. What are you doing anyway?”

“I’m trying to build a new scanner.”

“Didn’t your last one come out of the computer?”

“Only because I put it there to be programmed. Feh, I think after getting so many hits to the head, I’ve forgotten how to make these simple devices.” At this Airaxen threw his arms to the side, and let his head land onto the table with a loud thud. Tikai blinked a few times, and went over to him and shook him, to this he responded with a muffled grunt.

“Err, you ok?” Tikai shook him again, this time with a bit more force, Airaxen raised his head slightly and looked over at Tikai.

“Yes I’m fine, just a bit tired.” He said this while stifling a yawn. “I haven’t exactly had much rest since our flight to China, it’s starting to take it’s toll now.” Airaxen let out a straining noise, then raised himself off the desk and set back to working. But that didn’t exactly last very long, Airaxen was starting to lose conscious again, and soon was out cold on the desk, laying on top of what little he made. Tikai lifted him up from the desk, and started to shake him furiously. Unbelievably after being sent through what could be only described as being put into a paint shaker Airaxen was still out of it. Tikai frowned and just dropped him back onto the desk.

“Tch, and he’s the one saying we have to hurry, now he’s passed out like a drunk.” Tikai let out a snicker, at wondering what might happen if she took Airaxen to a bar she knew, something she had to try after this ordeal was done with. Tikai gave up on trying to wake him up, knowing the chances of that happening were slim to none, and flopped back onto the bed.

* * *

Sonaris walked out of the Forbidden City after spending the last 2 days there, and to his great annoyance, he found nothing.

“Stupid, insolent boy! He continues to show up around every turn and destroy all my work!” He slammed his fist into a nearby wall, causing that section of the wall to crumble and fall apart. He lowered his head in defeat. He straightened himself up, and let out an exasperated sigh, and slowly walked towards the airport, brooding over his newest defeat. After 15 minutes Sonaris finally calmed down, and concentrated on seeking out the remaining 3 crystals.

“The crystals of fire, ice, wind, and earth have been retrieved; and I only possess one of the four. There are 3 crystals left somewhere on the face of the Earth, water, lightning and gravity are the remaining powers, powers which I must have.” He muttered to himself. “I’m getting sick and tired of this mindless chase, the next time I meet up with that pest, I’ll tear him apart!” Sonaris had accidentally shouted this, causing some nearby people to stare at him. Sonaris ignored them, and took out what appeared to be a palm pilot, he pressed a few buttons on it while muttering again.

“Hmph, the closest crystal from my location is in the Pacific Ocean, located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Perfect, I have to go down to the deepest part of the ocean, where the water pressure is so high that it could crush me into something the size of a matchbox. No matter, I’ll think of something to avoid that.” With that he pocketed his device, and started to walk towards the airport once more, thinking of the days events.

* * *

It was late that evening when Airaxen reawakened. He had slept for the better half of the day, and when realizing this, was rather annoyed at himself.

“Bah, I’ve wasted so much precious time! Now I have to work even harder to beat Sonaris to the next crystal.” He then looked back down at his scanner...well it wasn’t a scanner anymore, after Airaxen had used it as a pillow it was nothing more then scrap again.

“ACK!” Airaxen stood up quickly, and started to grab new parts to try creating a new scanner; but during his haste his legs got caught up in the legs of the chair and he tripped and crashed to the ground.

“Uhh...Keep it down will you?” Tikai groaned. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up, to see Airaxen rubbing his face. “What’s up with you anyway? You’re not a clumsy person.”

“Bah, I just woke up, and to my dismay, we’ve wasted a perfectly good day! Now we’re at a disadvantage to finding the next crystal. Stupid, still have to make a new scanner!”

“*yawn* Air, we found that last crystal without a scanner, you know that right?”

“...Well...I didn’t really notice that.”

“Just do what you did last time!” Tikai was able to finish this before being overcome by a massive yawn.

“I don’t entirely know what I did, that’s the problem.” Airaxen brought his right pointer finger to his temple and scratched it, while a look of uneasiness overtook his face. “Last time it just sort of came to me, this time I don’t have anything.”

“Well then, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“Aye, I’m afraid...” Airaxen stopped abruptly, closing his left eye.

“What is it?” Tikai tilted her head slightly.

“Suddenly, I feel like going to somewhere with water...lots of it.”

“Hey, I think this is what we need, what else do you see?”

“What appears to be a map...the Pacific Ocean area...specifically one part...think that’s around the lower right...Ack, what’s there that’s important?”

“I think that’s the Mariana Trench.”

“The deepest part of the Earth, seems sort of fitting for the crystal of water.”

“Yup, problem is we don’t have any way of getting down there, unless you got a really good submarine lying around.”

“Afraid not, the Sky Car we had was destroyed and that was the only thing I had that could get us down there.”

“So what can we do?”

“I suppose think of some way to get down there, maybe someone would be kind enough to give us a submersible.” Airaxen sat back down and put two fingers to his forehead, rather frustrated at the new situation. He stood back up and started to pace back and forth from one end of the lab to the other. After an hour of thinking, he had come up with nothing, nor had Tikai.

“Feh, I got nothing, what about you Tikai?” Airaxen mumbled.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I got an idea, but you might not like it...” At this he perked up and looked over at Tikai. “What is it?”

“Well...Since we don’t have the technology, and asking to borrow one wouldn’t work either. But, Sonaris has all these weird toys, so he could probably get down there and retrieve the crystal, and when he does and resurfaces we ambush him and take it away.”

“Hmm...That seems to be rather risky, it would be hard to try and steal it away from Sonaris, he might already have left by some other means, or appeared in a totally different area.”

“Yeah, but we still have more crystals then he does, 3 to 2 are good odds for us.”

“But each one of these crystals could bring about the Armageddon and Sonaris has knowledge about how to work these things, us on the other hand, we don’t know a thing on how to work them.”

“Well, you seem to know how to use the crystals, sort of.” At this Airaxen’s glance shifted to the right. “Ehh...You see, there’s a slight problem with that...”

“Oh?” Tikai narrowed her eyes slightly while turning her head to the side.

“I don’t exactly know what I did to do all those fancy moves.”

“Eh, how does that work? You did the moves, how can you not know what you’re doing?”

“Simple, you just zone out.” He snapped, slightly annoyed now.

“Don’t take that tone with me Airhead.”

“Airhead?!” Airaxen shook a fist threateningly in Tikai’s face.

“Oh calm down, you dork.” Airaxen started to shout at Tikai, who was shouting right back.

* * *

Sonaris had spent his day working tirelessly on a submarine, which was already completed. He walked towards it, and gave it a sharp kick to the side; nothing. This time a harder kick; still nothing.

“Hmph, good enough.” Sonaris looked up at a window filled with more of his little robotic servants. He gave them a quick wave, and a large robotic arm was soon lowered down onto the submarine. It slowly closed around it, and lifted it up. Sonaris leapt up and onto the side of the submersible and began to climb up to the top of it, once there he opened the hatch and jumped in, just as it was dropped into an opening in the floor which was filled with water. Sonaris looked around the interior, it was rather small, many small devices at the back, mixed in with them were a few emergency devices. Once walking to the front, he looked out the two large windows, at the large metal gates opening, allowing tons of thousands of gallons of water to gush through, rapidly filling the room. He then peered down at the intricate series of controls, many levers, buttons, and small monitors were scattered about. The room was now half full, the submarine fully immersed in water, which blackened the insides of the vehicle. Sonaris stumbled around for a moment, then eventually tripped and landed face first into the control console, but when his nose slammed into it, he had turned on the lights.

“Bah, it wasn’t pretty, but it worked.” He mumbled while getting back up, rubbing his nose. Once slipping into a chair he went to the process of starting the machine. “Power on, engines functional, alright then, that crystal is going to be mine!”

* * *

Airaxen was out at sea, flying past the island of Guam towards the Mariana Trench to be specific, sword in hand and rather aggravated. He soon came to a stop, and straightened up.

“I don’t know what’s worse, Tikai or Sonaris!” He shouted recalling the vents that happened before he departed.