Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
A Team of the Future

It had been a few days since we had settled into our new schedules, each day slightly different from the last, although we always seemed to meet with the same people, many of the same things happening. It seemed the excitement of uncertainty on the boat had gotten to me, and now the daily job of a queen seemed boring and bleak.

Everyone seemed to know of what lurked just ahead in our future. We knew the shadows were coming, as with each passing hour the sky grew darker. Our training was going well, but although Tao and her army were only human, we stood no chance of defeating them… yet.

“Get up,” Tao commanded the fallen heroes, “my grandmother fought better than this, gods rest her soul,” she said, although I could tell she didn’t mean any of this, she needed a way to motivate us into putting our “everything” into the training, and even though I knew this, it was still highly effective.

I decided that because our enemies were wearing heavy armor, I could use fire against them without causing too much damage. I balled a flamed into my hand and twisted my body to build up speed. I took aim at my target, ran in a circle, and let the flame fly. It hit the center of Tao’s formation, exploding and sending many of them flying through the air. Time seemed to slow as Tao got to her feet. “Congratulations,” she said, “last time I saw you, you could barely light a candle.”

I nodded, “it has been quite a while since you and I have last seen one another. Since then, I have killed,” I said darkly.

“I can see that,” she said, carefully eyeing me as if do decide whether or not I had truly changed as much as it appeared. It was a strange feeling to have someone see you so differently but to often forget how far you have come.

We fought in this training environment for hours, and the sun was still not yet highest. I could tell Akuma was trying not to become invisible, although I couldn’t tell why. Eventually, he couldn’t help it, as he became unseeable, leaving everyone who did not know his secret awestruck. “And the boy has powers, too?” Tao asked, watching carefully for his footsteps in the sand. I nodded, doing the same. I found him, but kept my face the same, as if I hadn’t seen him. I kept training, always watching from the corner of my eye where he was so that if he pushed himself too far, I could come running. He stepped carefully across the beach, sneaking up behind people and attacking when they least suspected, making it slowly become abundantly clear how much time and effort he had put into learning the secrets of his ability and perfecting the use of them. Eventually, it became too much work to keep track of where he was as I fought off an increasing number of Tao’s soldiers. I watched as Zanshi lifted the sand and created obstacles for the small army, while also balling sand into a large boulder to aim at the warriors. I then shifted my attention to Onde, who stood at the sea, drenching people with the water at the same time he sucked many of them out to sea, allowing the ocean to deal with them as if pleased. Each of the other heroes did many things at once, devoting only part of their brain to fighting the way I did, without much use of my powers. Instead, I fought mainly with my sword, occasionally using my fire for protection. All the time I spent watching the others left me vulnerable to attack. I was knocked to the ground, a pulsing pain rushing along my legs. “Keep your head in the game, Afi!” Tao shouted as she did, I felt something grab my hand and pull me to my feet. Before I could respond, I had been run to the other side of the beach.

“Afi, Afi, are you okay?” I heard Akuma ask from the side of me.

Excitement rushed through me, but I shook my head to clear it and then answered, “I’m good, thanks.”

He flashed into my view, clearly exhausted. He smiled weakly and then grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. “You ready to show them what we’re made of?”

“Always,” I said, and at that, we could no longer be seen. He ran, keeping us from view as I shot balls of fire, aiming carefully and then letting it fly, watching some of them bounce and then hit something, while others went straight for a designated target.

Time after the first few hits seemed all to blur together. I had never fully considered the destructive attributes of my powers. “Alright, that’s enough for today,” Tao yelled, looking up at the sky and realizing the sun was at its highest peak. Akuma stopped running and became visible once more, sweat running across his brow and dripping across his face.

“Dude, you look awful,” I heard Onde remark with a chuckle. At this, he drew a large wave of freezing cold water from the sea and dumped it over Akuma, who gasped at the sudden drop in body temperature which washed the sweat away, replacing it with icy-cold water.

He stood there for a moment, panting and shivering each in turn. I stifled a laugh, watching as he spat out salty ocean water and after drawing the strength to speak, said, “gee thanks for that,” and held his arms out before dropping them to the ground. At such point, I couldn’t hold my giggles in any longer and burst out laughing.

“And we have to sit through a history lesson with Maktu after this,” I said through uncontrollable giggles. Akuma groaned but continued to follow Tao along the beach up to the ancient, overgrown castle for lunch in the dining room.