3rd Element

Anna and Johnny to the rescue!

Anna got up with a pounding head. She dragged herself up using the bar for support.

            “Ow, ow, ow!!” she clutched the sides of her head in pain and staggered around, the train’s speed jolting her here and there. When she regained her balance, Anna looked around warily. People were starting to get up and groaning as well. She noticed Johnny was still unconscious, or rather, fast asleep. He was snoring quite loudly. The other passengers who weren’t dazed were looking at him annoyed. Someone even went so far as to poke him in the cheek.

“Mmmm! Leave me alone mommy! Just five more minutes!” Johnny mumbled and turned over to his side. Anna smiled, but it was more of a grimace. Then she noticed something.

“Hey!? Where’s Nathan?” She asked. Anna felt a sense of unease and started to panic. She was twirling her curly hair around one finger and nibbling it absently, as she always did when she was nervous or worried.

“Johnny! Wake up!” Anna was shaking him vigorous. Johnny mumbled some more, then sat up, annoyed. His baseball cap fell off his head revealing the rest of his blonde hair, messed up as always.

“Wassamatter!?” Johnny glared blearily at Anna for a second, then yawned loudly and scratched his head.

“Nathan’s missing!” Anna nearly shouted it at him.

“So? He’s probably wandered off to another carriage and gone back to sleep. Like I should be doing” Johnny yawned again, then lay back and went back to sleep. Anna suddenly got angry. She punched Johnny.

“Ow! Can’t you leave me alone woman!?” Johnny got up again, grumbling, then went silent as he saw the look on Anna’s face.

“There’s been a mysterious explosion, the train is moving at a dangerous speed, everyone on the train was knocked out and Nathan has disappeared!”

“So? It’ll be all right in the morning” Johnny shrugged and struggled to suppress a yawn.

“SO!? And you’re not even worried?!” Anna pointed at the open carriage door behind them. Johnny shrugged again.

“You are coming with me!” And so saying, she dragged Johnny along with her towards the front carriage.

“I just wanna have a decent piece of sleep! Is it too much to ask!?” Johnny moaned and quickly grabbed his cap.

 

*                      *                      *

 

As Anna got closer to the front carriage, her sense of unease grew.

            “Hurry up Johnny!” Anna said and sped up.

            “I’m moving as fast as I can!” Johnny grumbled and broke into a run as well. Although Johnny wouldn’t admit it, he was worried as well. In all the carriages so far, they hadn’t seen a single sign of Nathan. I got a bad feeling about this.

            “Wait!” Anna commanded. They had reached the front carriage. Creeping slowly and as quietly as possible, they peered through the tiny window into the next carriage. They saw the chest with 9 orbs, as well as the 10 men crowding around the door to the control room.

            “Guessing they must be the guys that caused all this” Anna whispered.

“And that must be what they’re after” Johnny finished, nodding his head at the orbs, 2 of which were glowing. Anna looked at Johnny and saw that his expression had suddenly become serious and thoughtful. It sent a chill up her spine.

“Strange...1 seems to be missing” Anna commented, noticing the space where 1 would have been.

“I assume that’s the one in Nathan’s hand” Johnny said. Anna looked ahead and saw Nathan in the middle of the men, looking overwhelmed, then jumped by all of them.

“Nathan!” she suddenly shouted and rushed into the carriage. Unthinkingly, Anna grabbed 1 of the orbs and held it out in front of her.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” she shouted, although she hadn’t meant to shout it that loudly. But that wasn’t all. Her words were amplified so they gave off sound shockwaves, sending the men flying in all directions away from Nathan.

“Wow...” Nathan said, looking stunned. He stood with his arms held up in front of his face to defend himself from the attacking men. He put them down lamely.

“Remind me never to get her angry” Johnny said who had also grabbed an orb and was standing next to Anna. Nathan nodded mutely, walking over to where they stood.

 

*                      *                      *

 

I couldn’t believe it. Anna had just taken out all ten men as if they were flies. I looked at her slightly reverentially, then smiled at her warmly. Anna looked at me queerly then ran up and hugged me.

“I’m glad you’re ok” she whispered, so quietly that I missed it. Quickly, she disentangled herself from me.

“Huh? What did you say?” I said, confused. Anna just smiled her wily smile at me.

“Should’a been listening then” she flicked my ear. I just stared at her.

“Aww....group hug!” Johnny ran up to me and Anna and swamped us in a hug, crushing us to him.

“Can’t....breathe!” I choked. Johnny quickly released us, grinning sheepishly. Then I looked at both my friends straight in the eyes. We all gasped.

            “Hey! Your eyes!” We said simultaneously. We stood silently for a minute, then all three of us burst out laughing. The pent up stress and worry seemed to just melt away as we laughed. When we had stopped, we looked at each other thoughtfully.

“You’re eyes are green by the way Nathan” Anna said to me. I started in surprise. Green eh? I thought.

“Not like I was taking any special interest or anything” She added quickly.

“Johnny, you’re eyes are yellow” Anna told Johnny. He just nodded.

“Anna, you’re eyes are like a purple-grey colour” I told her. She looked sceptically at me.

“It’s true! That’s what I was trying to tell you before in Maths” I continued. Just for a second there, I thought Anna looked strangely downcast. Suddenly an insisting beeping cut in.

“Oh crap. I forgot!” I swore and dived into the driver’s room. Anna and Johnny followed.

“Collision time in 10 minutes” A mechanical female voice sounded from a speaker.

“EH!?” Johnny looked at me worriedly. I swore again, and then quickly ran through everything that had happened to me so far. When I was done, Johnny suddenly got that thoughtful look.

“Well we can always sort out the orb thingy later. Our most pressing issue is stopping this train from colliding and killing us all. Now move over. I’ll sort out the train” Johnny said. I nodded and moved out the way. Anna stood and looked at Johnny with shock. Oh yeah...she hasn’t seen his ‘smart’ turns. I smirked and steered Anna along with me.

“Give the man some room” I told her as we walked out of the control room. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, me and Anna were surrounded by the 10 men. They smiled at us evilly.

“Ah...so the kid’s got a girlfriend” the boss leered evilly at Anna. I felt a surge of anger, but bit it down. They haven’t noticed Johnny yet. Gotta keep my cool, or we’ll blow it. Anna was shaking with rage however.

“Cool it. We need to distract them to buy Johnny some time” I whispered to her silently. At first she didn’t seem to hear me, but then she stopped shaking and breathed in deeply.

“I’m not his girlfriend” Anna said loudly. The men jeered.

“Well either way, it makes no difference. How did you carry the orbs? And how did you harness the elemental energy within?” The boss demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Anna replied, puzzled. The boss’s face suddenly went purple with rage.

“If you won’t tell us by choice, then we’ll have to force you” The boss and his men raised their now recovered tasers and aimed it at us. Anna looked at me worriedly, trustingly. Looking to me for a plan.

“Don’t worry, I’ll think of-!” Then they fired.

Author's Note

Phew...that took me awhile. But seriously....review it please. Also still wouldn't mind any suggestions for the names of the 10 men.