Recently
on Fires of the sky, the El Monte students returned to Earth only to find it
still frozen. As they return to Arkon’s Magic, the six main students, Matt,
Yessenia, Jaime, Alex, Venus, and Winny all enter a bridge that leads them to
the Elemental Challenges! Without further delay, they were forced to attend as
the six members for the challenges, but are they ready? After finishing the
first match, the El Monte students find that they have humiliatingly lost
against all the other four schools. Even worse, one of the members of El Monte
seemed to have mysteriously run away with Benny, a member from Rosemead. Even
after the second and third match, El Monte placed last again! How are they
going to win now?
Episode 228 – Riding with the Wind, Go-Kart Racing!
Jaime’s right arm was slashed by
Siyun’s knife which evidentially made him cover the scar with his left hand.
Their cart fell sideways off the railroad and Rosemead lost sight of them from
there. Yessenia was forced to focus on balancing their cart with her wind
powers. She tried to use her Constricted Wind ability to connect the cart’s
wheels with the railways. “Alex, you’re going to have to take over!” She
commanded.
Alex, knowing that he wasn’t really
doing much this round anyway, was forced to take over. “Mmmph, fine! I’ll do
it.” He said as he took over the steering wheel. “I-I don’t know how to work
this, but let’s see…” He steered to the right a little and the cart turned a
lot. “What the heck?!”
Jaime sat down. “Driving is
sensitive. If you move your wheel a little, the cart will turn a lot. Also,
focus on the pedals. Driving faster or slower may affect our safety and speed
depending on how quickly or dangerously you want to reach the end.”
“We should drive slowly just in
case. Besides, we screwed up a lot anyway so however long we take, we’ll still
be last.”
Yessenia sighed. “You are telling me
that you just want to give up this round, do you?”
Alex gasped. “Uh- N-No! I don’t know
what you’re talking about. Look, see?” Alex pushed on the pedal as hard as he
could and the cart suddenly blasted off the railway. “OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!”
Yessenia punched him, “Slow down!
Slow down!!”
“But you basically told me to speed
up!” Alex complained. Yessenia punched him again and then he fainted.
“What…” Yessenia became speechless.
Alex’s foot was stuck on the pedal and the cart was going even faster.
Even Jaime began to panic. “We’re
going to crash into nothingness!”
Yessenia grabbed Alex and then she
threw him at Jaime without any trouble. “Get out of my way. Let me do this.”
She took the pedal and then she turned the wheel as quickly as possible. The
cart was still driving faster, but it drove smoothly onto the railroads again.
Jaime opened his eyes wide in
surprise. “What the hell? Are you driving fast? And safely?”
Yessenia blushed. “Shut up.”
“So you knew how to drive this whole
time?”
“No.”
“…Then something is telling me you
are professional at driving games, like Super Mario Kart?!”
Yessenia’s face was burning red.
“You tell anybody and you are dead!!”
~~~
Matt was completely silent and
patiently waiting for the fifth round to start so he could be set free. Michael
watched him. “Hey…”
Matt suddenly ran to the cell bars.
“Soldier?! Is that you? Are you going to set me free?!”
“No. It’s just me, Michael.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t give me a simple ‘oh’!
Anyway, something is definitely not right here.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Ergh, you and
your negative thoughts like always.”
“But you have to believe me.
Remember when I warned you about Rowen and you didn’t listen? This time it’s
even worse.”
Matt clenched his fists. “You might
have been right about Rowen last time, but this time everything will be fine.
I’m sure of it!”
“You’re just being naïve here!”
“What are you talking about?!
They’re going to set us free. I doubt they would have planned to keep us here
forever just because we had 13 El Monte students unintentionally join the
challenges. They understand us, okay?”
“Matt, you have to listen to me.
Whatever happens next, don’t take it lightly. If they’re setting you free with
your powers, what do you think they are going to do? Why would they give you
back your powers at a time like this even knowing that you could lose it if you
don’t win the challenges?” He reminded Matt about the fact that every student
who loses in the Elemental Challenges will lose their powers. So far, El Monte
is extremely far away from South El Monte in points, from the range of 3 to 15.
Colonel Artemis returned, but alone.
“We are done interrogating Venus and Benny. Matthew, you will be free soon. The
fourth match is a little over halfway done from finishing.”
Matt jumped. “Woohoo! Finally, thank
you!” Colonel Artemis began to walk away.
Michael watched his every step.
“Something is definitely wrong. He left with Venus and the other guy named
Benny, but he came back without them…”
~~~
Colonel Artemis finished explaining
the same information to Van, Maggie, Jenny, Jon, and then to Shirley and Emmy.
Shirley giggled. “Are you serious? We’re going to be set free!” She hugged
Emmy. “I am so done with doing nothing but sitting around. Can’t let our beauty
just sit and rot, you know?”
Emmy giggled. “I guess you’re
right.” She paused for a moment. “You know, Shirley… I’ve been thinking about
it for a while.”
“Hm?”
“You haven’t changed a bit, and I
really like that.” She admitted.
Shirley blushed. “Really? Why are
you saying that all of the sudden now?”
“Well it’s just… For the past years
while you were gone, I was hoping you wouldn’t change because I always liked
the happy Shirley who always thinks for herself.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to
mean?!” She said in a laughing tone.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t bother me.
In fact, I really like you as a friend because
you’re you, and that you didn’t change. While for me, I used to laugh a lot and
I followed you around, hoping you would be a strong influence for me. It made
me sad that we had to split two years ago and now I have become even more
serious and boring than ever without you.”
Shirley grabbed onto Emmy’s
shoulders, “Emmy, shut up.” She said. “You’re still an interesting friend to
me. You might have changed, but at least I could see you have gotten much
stronger. Come on, 57 worlds in two years?! That’s freaking amazing.”
Emmy began to slightly cry. “But you
did 60…”
Shirley sighed. She was ashamed of
herself for lying. “Emmy… continue to be stronger. I know from the telescreens
from the first match, we might not win and we’ll lose our powers forever. But,
your school still has a chance. Please have hope for them. And when you win
first place, use your powers to save as many people as you can! That way… you
won’t have to feel like a follower towards me.”
Emmy wiped her tears. “Shirley,
thank you so much for your kind words. Even for someone like you, you’re still
a nice friend.”
Shirley thought about her friends.
“It’s no problem. I learned to not give up because my friends are counting on
me as much as I’m counting on them. Still, sometimes even I feel useless
especially at a time like this when I’m sitting around doing nothing. It’s
almost going to be over once the fifth match starts though! Hehe.”
~~~
Back in the fourth match, Yessenia
and Jaime were speeding through the railways with no trouble. Jaime watched as
Alex was still out cold. “Man, you must have hit him real hard for him to stay
like that for a while.”
“No more whining, it seems.”
Yessenia joked.
“That’s cold.” Jaime laughed. “Hey,
just curious… how good are you in
Mario Kart?”
Yessenia turned her head while still
driving. “Ever heard of Super Mario Kart on the Wii?”
Jaime gasped. “H-Hey, watch the
road- Ah forget it.” He noticed that even when she turned her head, their ride
was perfectly smooth. “But anyway, yeah. Don’t you need a steering wheel
controller?”
“Exactly. Remember Rainbow Road?”
“The course that doesn’t have any
boundaries to stop you from falling…”
“I promised myself that I would
never fall off ledges in Rainbow Road. But seeing as we need to in this round,
I guess it is a good time to do so!” She pushed the pedal and they fell off the
road and onto the correct path that led to a shortcut. They passed by Arroyo’s
cart that consisted of Irene, Sith, and Raven.
Jaime held onto Alex. “You’re a
really risky driver but it somehow keeps us alive!”
Yessenia spun the steering wheel at
quick speed while they were at the end. “Oops!” She said as the steering wheel
broke.
“And it has its limits!!!!” Jaime
panicked as they crashed into Arroyo’s cart.
Arroyo was pushed forward and Irene
became angry. “Do not get in my way!” She blasted a yellow aura towards
Yessenia and Jaime. Yessenia casted an Air Tornado to deflect the attack.
While Arroyo was reaching the end,
Sith called out to them, “My bad, El Monte people! Irene hates it when you get
in her way.”
Yessenia’s cart stopped. “Damn it.
Last again.” She said slowly. Jaime jumped out of the cart and then he carefully
stood on the railroad. “The only thing we can do now is push this to the end.
Come on, it’s not that far.”
“With Alex and his weight, we will
have some trouble.” She joked.
~~~
The remaining students made haste to
their portal once again before the fifth match started. Yessenia and Jaime had
to carry Alex so he could sit upright against a wall. Yessenia scratched her
head. “Hm… it seems Alex might not be able to fight next. I guess it is up to
us.”
“At this point, I really wonder what
students are taken out in the next round as well. This fourth round sure did go
by quickly.”
“Agreed. I guess we did not have to
do much interfering at least for this year. Most of the students tried to be
passive and mind their own business.”
Alex began to shake. “Erngh, mmpf…”
He groaned. “Mariel…?” Yessenia and Jaime turned to him. “I will… fight on, for
you. I… promise.”
“Is he dreaming?” Jaime asked.
“It seems to be about Mariel. He
sure sounds braver in his dreams.” Yessenia and Jaime began chuckling together.
Alex suddenly snapped. “Aiy! Agh!
Bleh. Huh? Where are we?”
“We’re back in the portal.” Jaime
answered him.
“Did we win?! What happened?!”
“We lost, but we did fine in the end
in terms of interference.” Yessenia said. “You do not need to worry. If you
would like, you can rest and we can try to take care of the next round.”
Alex stood up and then he patted his
pants. “Hm…”
Jaime agreed with Yessenia, “Yeah. I
feel kind of bad for pushing you this far even when you hate battling.”
“No.” Alex said bluntly. This
surprised both of his friends. He went on, “Something hit me… I shouldn’t run
away from my troubles. A special person told me that just now.” He faced up,
thinking about Mariel in his dreams. “She told me to keep going and stop being
a ‘pussy’, whatever she meant. I think she called me a scaredy-cat and that
she’s ashamed. I’m going to go forward!”
Yessenia and Jaime became proud of
him. Jaime laughed and then he patted Alex’s shoulders really hard. “Alright
then, man! You got it. Since we can’t afford to lose humiliatingly anymore,
Yessenia should stay in. Are you cool with switching me out?”
Alex shook his head. “I promise not
to waste this chance.”
Yessenia closed her eyes and she
shook her head. “Well then, it is decided. Alex and I will be the last to
remain in the Elemental Challenges.”
“Surprisingly.” Jaime added.
“I thought you were rooting for me
just now?!” Alex yelped.
The portal began to shine. “Anyway,
the next riddle seems to be up!” Jaime said as he headed over to the portal.
Alex read the riddle, “Hm… ‘Fight.
Increase your number count.’…”
Jaime became confused. “Geez, these
riddles have become less creative, haven’t they?”
Yessenia pointed at the words. “It
is more self-explanatory to me. Although, like always, we could be wrong about
our interpretations.”
“Fight…” Alex repeated. “Hrm…”
Jaime patted Alex’s back again,
“Welp, you’ll be fine! I’ll turn back now and see where I’ll be headed. Good
luck to the both of you, alright?”
Yessenia and Alex nodded. Yessenia
headed into the portal and Alex began shaking. He said to himself, “I’m shaking
not because I’m scared. I’m shaking… because I’m nervous, right Mariel? I can
do this. I promise you that I will try my best! I won’t run away like I always
have. People like Matt also helped me, but now that you two are not here with
me, I guess it’s up to me to continue the challenges.” He entered the portal…
~~~
Matt was being taken out of the
prison now that the fifth match was starting. He was still in shackles and
handcuffs. “Thanks, Artemis guy. I didn’t think you people were that nice to
us. Haha!”
“No problem.” He responded. Every
other prisoner was being set free as well.
“So, can I get out of these?”
“Not exactly.” He said as the
doorway was getting brighter as they reached the end closely.
“I thought I was free?”
“We freed you from your cell and
gave you back your powers, as we promised.” Reaching the bright door, Matt
could see a large coliseum filled with an extremely
large amount of people fighting each other. Colonel Artemis pushed Matt
forward. “This is the fifth match that you will be attending to fight against
those remaining in the Challenge.”
Matt examined the area. “But this
is… a warzone!!!!”
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Matt:
On the next episode of Fires of the Sky…
Jaime:
Oh. So uh, we placed last again.
Alex: This
is embarrassing! We are losing really badly this time and it’s not funny
anymore. Actually, it was never funny!
Yessenia: The next match does not look as satisfying.
Alex: What
does it say?
Jaime:
Apparently, we have to defeat an infinite amount of enemies with just the two
remaining participants of each school.
Alex:
Oh good. This is my time to stop participating. Bye!
Yessenia: Hold on there! Jaime is injured,
and I am required to stay in. What choices do we have here?
Jaime: I’m fine.
Matt: I’m asked to attend this match but
it’s… really dangerous!
Colonel Artemis: No one said it will be safe.
Matt:
Starting from here on out, things get serious. Everyone is clashing together!
Next time on episode 229, 1,000 Enemies Versus a Team of Two!
Winny:
Well, I’m still gone… At least I have Changmin with me.
Alex: It’s
a tennis ball!!!
