The Formation of Team 55 Read online

  ‘Hurry!’ yelled Victoria, feeling her hold on Vanya getting weaker.

  Vanya flinched at her yelling and attempted to touch the rock beneath her.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Kathy yelled at her even though they were very close. ‘You’re going to fall.’

  Vanya didn’t listen to her.

  ‘What is she doing?’ Victoria yelled at them.

  ‘Hold on, Vic!’ Vanya bit her lip, focusing hard to stay on the rock. ‘Kathy is falling.’

  As soon as Vanya touched the area around the rock where Kathy’s hand was stuck, it began to crumble. Vanya was making the rock to crumble so it would let go of Kathy’s arm.

  ‘Stop it!’ Kathy warned her. ‘You’re going to fall.’

  ‘We’re both going to fall.’ Vanya informed her.

  ‘What is happening, Kathy?’ Victoria yelled at her again.

  The rock crumbled beneath Vanya’s feet. Kathy slipped as soon as the rock around her arm crumbled.

  ‘Kathy!’ Victoria moved her hand and shifted her energy to hold Kathy and stop her from hitting the ground.

  Moon growled so loudly that the base shook with tremors. He climbed up the pile and jumped midway on to its other side.

  Kathy was falling already. She was about to hit the pile of rocks on the ground when her body froze about four feet above the hard surface. Victoria’s eyes were fixed at her. Kathy’s eyes were wide and fixed at the ground below her. She slowly let Kathy’s body touch the ground and then slowly looked up. There was no sign of Vanya. Moon wasn’t visible anywhere either.

  ‘Vanya?’ Victoria called her name nervously. ‘Ace is going to kill me.’ she mumbled.

  ‘I’m here!’

  Her voice was coming from the other side of the huge pile of rocks. Victoria ran over to the other side and saw her. Moon had tackled her in his canines and was trying to protect her. He was blocking her from escaping his embrace by covering her with one of his huge paws.

  ‘I think I am grounded for doing that.’ Vanya smiled hugging Moon’s giant face.

  ‘Show off!’ Victoria breathed to herself.

  ‘Can we find Justin?’ Kathy called them from the other side of the pile. ‘I need to get my arm checked.’

  The thunder crackled again and Moon growled at the base, making Vanya cover her ears.

  ∞∞∞

  ‘Why did you name him Moon?’ Victoria asked Vanya. She was sitting very close to the fireplace.

  They were at Vanya’s cottage now. Dawn had returned from Hellberk. On his way back he had brought dinner from the CafeZone for all of them because it was raining and he knew they wouldn’t go out. Now that the team had eaten and was full they had gotten back to work.

  The rain and dirt had forced the three girls to bath and clean up. Vanya had given Kathy her sweatshirts and shorts that she had lent her on her first day. Victoria had somehow managed to fit in Vanya’s clothes.

  ‘I just thought about it for a moment and chose to name him that’ Vanya was wiping her black lengthy hair with a towel, standing near the door which was shut. ‘You know, he belongs to Earth and is a very important part of it. Only a lot of people don’t realize how valuable his species was. He can’t be there but is still here. Just like the moon. It revolves around the Earth and is very important. But, it cannot be on Earth. It just keeps staring at that bloody planet from a distance.’

  ‘I don’t know if that is smart or stupid.’ Victoria looked away and into the fire.

  ‘It’s called finding pointless reasons and I am pretty good at it.’ Vanya went to the bathroom and came back without the towel. She was wearing a top that was deep enough to expose her scar. ‘You know, pushing away people, being lonely and getting stuck everywhere.’

  Dawn and Ace were busy reading something, sitting on the bed. They had been working hard to get the details about the gate that connected Bridging and Nexus. The two had managed to get a membership at the Central Library by spending an entire week there, and they were now allowed to get issued with ten books from any department every month. This was not everybody’s cup of tea and very few were able to get the membership there.

  Brent had taken the study table and had spread all his sheets there, trying to dry them off. He had mixed two pastes together that were two different roots before Justin had crushed and pestled them.

  ‘I think this will be better.’ He mumbled, glancing at Justin.

  ‘We’ll try it out tomorrow in the morning.’ Justin told him. ‘After she eats breakfast. Write that down.’

  Justin was sitting on the couch with Kathy, he had put a very tough and strong bandage on her arm and was almost done with it. He had told the team that it was a minor fracture. Kathy was a warrior and had a really tough physique. Her bones were really strong and it wasn’t going to be easy to break her off. Compared to Vanya, she was the absolute opposite.

  They all chose to remain busy with themselves while Victoria and Vanya talked about the saber. He was sitting outside in the rain, unwilling to leave Vanya there after what had happened in the base.

  ‘I just think that sometimes he listens more to you.’ Victoria said it dismissively.

  ‘That’s because he is protective of me.’ Vanya defended Moon. ‘He has seen me in trouble and knows that I need him.’

  ‘You are defending an animal?’ Victoria chuckled unbelievably. ‘I could have slipped off him while he was climbing up the damn hill through the jungle. He was supposed to take the rocky path.’

  ‘He took the path halfway when he realized you were scared and didn’t trust him completely or he would have gotten you here sooner.’ Vanya tried to reason it out.

  ‘Really?’ Victoria stood up looking angry. ‘You’re taking his side?’

  ‘I’m supposed to take his side. He always takes my side, Vic.’ Vanya reminded her. ‘He saved me when that man was about to kill me. He saved me from the curse’s attack I got a week ago and brought Justin so he could take care of me. And, he saved me again today.’

  Dawn shut his book and looked up at Vanya. ‘You were about to die?’

  Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and began to focus on the two girls debating.

  ‘That was nothing.’ Victoria waved her hand dismissively. ‘I knew he wouldn’t let you die. That is why I let you fall and caught Kathy.’

  Nobody made a sound for almost a minute. Everyone’s eyes were fixed at Victoria.

  Vanya stood there staring at her in disbelief. ‘I am really glad you did that.’ Then she simply walked out of the cottage door.

  Moon growled softly as he saw her.

  ‘Vanya, wait!’ Ace jumped off the bed and stood by the door. He was too late. Moon was speeding away with Vanya on her back.

  ‘Ace, don’t go.’ said Dawn, ‘She will be at the base. She’ll come back.’

  Ace kept staring at the point where Moon had disappeared. He shut the door and then walked back to the bed and sat there. The thunder crackled but there was no growl this time.

  Victoria looked at everyone. They all were getting busy with all their work again. Why were they behaving like this? Why weren’t they talking to her?

  ‘I didn’t do anything, alright?’ she told them. ‘Why are you all taking her side?’

  ‘Really?’ Brent turned his head to look at her. Then he got up and turned the wooden chair away from the study table and towards the fireplace. ‘Sit here!’ he looked angry. He made her sit on the floor near the fireplace.

  Victoria saw Justin attempting to stand up, but Kathy pulled him back and made him sit on the couch next to her. She realized what was happening. Brent was pissed at her and nobody was going to step in between the two of them. He had been with her since they had met. They had been friends, partied together, made love to each other and even cried and fought. They were inseparable. But, the two knew it very well, that neither one of them was in love with the other.

  ‘Tell me this,’ he bit his lip. ‘At first, you said it was Vanya taking Moon’
s side and now you are saying that we are taking Vanya’s side. I don’t really get it.’ he smiled very sweetly at her. There was a lot of anger behind that smile and Victoria could see it in his eyes.

  ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ Victoria asked him

  ‘Then explain!’ Brent pulled his chair even closer to her.

  She could tell he was angry because Victoria had never seen him behave this way

  ‘I am a grade one novice! Why does she get treated like the queen?’ Victoria snapped at him. ‘She’s just a burden. A cursed piece of meat who doesn’t do anything at all. She is supposed to be protecting us. She is our Protector! Why do we get our asses kicked trying to keep her safe?

  ‘Shut up!’ Brent said it very politely. He was trying to control his anger. He looked down closing his eyes and took a few deep breaths

  Ace sat there, hanging his head and Dawn had covered his face with his damn book. Justin and Kathy sat on the couch listening to the argument with a grim look on their faces

  ‘I will tell you this once and for all.’ He tried to explain to her calmly. ‘You might be the grade one queen, but Vanya is the one who is the weakest right now. She needs us and our love. She risked her life to save Kathy today, right? She is family to me and to every other person sitting in this room. If you are not one of them, then you are free to walk out right now. We can find another creator for us to help Vanya. Ace can be both, the Leader and the Creator of our team.’

  Victoria sat there, staring at Brent. She was feeling guilty now. He wasn’t going to blink at all. She took a deep breath and then turned to look at the fire. Vanya had run out in the rain. It was still pouring heavily.

  ‘When we got enrolled, nobody said it out loud, but we all accepted each other as our family.’ Brent went ahead. ‘We all have our own rules here and so do you. Vanya knows what she has to do and I am pretty sure she’s doing it properly. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean she just chills here at her cottage all the time. You don’t even see what she goes through, do you?

  ‘Brent,’ Justin called him from behind. ‘Let it go, buddy.’

  ‘No man!’ he shook his head. ‘She thinks we are obsessed with Vanya. We are busy doing our jobs and all she keeps thinking about is why Vanya is being protected! Why Vanya is getting all that attention! You want that attention?’

  He grabbed Victoria’s arm roughly. ‘You want to get all that attention? Do you want to get the curse she’s carrying around? Tell me? Do you want to have seven deaths to be free from that damn curse?’

  Victoria turned around and looked at him. ‘What seven deaths?

  Brent froze. She could tell that he had said something that he wasn’t supposed to.

  ‘Brent! I told you.’ Justin covered his face with his hands. ‘I asked you to let it go.’

  Victoria saw Ace as he got up and stood behind Brent

  ‘What did you say?’ he asked Brent looking down at him

  Brent didn’t move at all. His anger was gone. Victoria could see his eyes watering up now. She felt guilty. Her eyes began to water as well

  ‘Brent?’ Dawn’s voice boomed from behind Ace. Victoria felt the anger and confusion in his voice. He was still sitting on the bed. ‘Talk now, or you’re dead.’

  Brent gulped and stood up. He turned to face Ace. Victoria shifted a little away from them. She had a feeling that Ace was about to hit Brent

  ‘It’s not his fault, I asked him to remain silent about this.’ confessed Justin, still covering his face

  Ace pulled the wooden chair up to the red couch and sat on it facing Justin. He grabbed Justin by his collar and pulled him closer

  ‘How dare you? You found out what that curse is and chose not to tell me?’ Ace gritted his teeth. ‘How dare you hide this from me?

  ‘I had no choice.’ Justin looked him in the eyes. ‘It was a terrible truth to tell anyone at all.

  ‘You are not going to decide what is terrible for Team fifty-five!” Ace yelled at him. ‘You had one job and couldn’t even do that properly.’

  Dawn was still sitting on the bed. His face looked blank and torn. Victoria wanted to do something to make all this stop. But, she knew she had started this. Victoria had no idea what was going on with them. All she knew was that Ace and Dawn had been working to find a way to shut the gate and Justin and Brent were trying to heal Vanya. She had been working hard to build the base with Kathy and felt like she was the only one who was being exploited. But, now she felt like the others were going through the same thing

  ‘What is wrong with Vanya?’ Ace was literally shaking Justin up by his collar. ‘Tell me!

  ‘She has seven deaths on her!’ Brent yelled from behind Ace. He was standing really close to Victoria. She knew he wanted to save Justin from being hit by Ace

  Ace let go of Justin and looked at Brent

  ‘What does that mean?’ Ace asked him, breathing heavily.

  ‘She… she has to die seven times.’ Brent gulped as he said so. ‘If she wants to be free from that curse she has to have seven deaths. There is no other way to end it.’

  Victoria gasped. She looked at Kathy and saw her sobbing, hugging Justin, hiding her face in his chest. For a tough warrior, Kathy had a really big heart.

  ‘It was too… too… horrifying and heartbreaking. So, Vanya asked us not to tell you guys.’ Brent managed to say it

  Victoria saw Justin as he shook his head disappointingly. She could tell he didn’t want Brent to rat out Vanya.

  ‘I command you!’ Ace’s voice was shaky but had authority. He sounded really angry. ‘Any new information comes up, it goes through me, you get it?

  Brent nodded

  ‘She knows it?’ Dawn’s voice was weak. ‘Wow. And, I thought we were hiding things from you guys.’ he nodded at Ace.

  Justin and Brent looked at each other.

  ‘What are you guys hiding?’ Brent asked Ace

  Ace looked sideways at Dawn, who gestured him to tell them their secret

  Ace turned to look at Brent and exhaled looking upset. ‘The dagger which was hidden in Nexus is the only clue we have which can lead us to the man who is after Vanya. If we go and get it, we will be able to find the man and kill him before he tries to enter Bridging and then we can close that gate. So, I and Dawn were planning to head there soon.

  ‘Yeah, sure! I’m pretty sure that he is waiting for you guys to show up there, slit his throat and then walk away. You know, like a walk in the park or something.’ Kathy looked at Dawn and Ace. ‘Vanya told you how powerful he is, didn’t she? You guys are going to get yourself killed.’

  ‘Besides,’ Victoria spoke up stepping forward. ‘You were the one who said this team won’t work without even one of us. Not even Vanya.’

  Brent turned to her. She felt really bad for making him angry at her and ruining the sheet he was working on. He had always dealt with her tantrums and taken care of her the way she wanted

  She looked at Brent and gave him a hug. ‘I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it.

  Brent hugged her back. ‘I’m sorry too. Just try to understand that even if Vanya is being protected here, it doesn’t mean we don’t care about you.

  She felt a warm feeling creeping up her heart and hid her face in his chest. ‘Yeah’, she mumbled to him.

  Brent gave a peck on her cheek as she smiled

  ‘Stop that right now,’ Justin warned them. ‘Not in front of us. You have two personal cottages that can be used for all this.

  ‘Yeah, Miss Glory!’ Brent teased him. ‘My apologies.’

  Justin’s face went red and then he turned to Ace and Dawn

  ‘We guys really need to stop hiding stuff from each other.’ Justin told Ace. ‘All of it. I’m sorry, buddy. Vanya didn’t want to put the pressure on you guys so she asked us to keep it a secret for some time. We’re all under a lot of pressure already.

  ‘Since when have you guys known all of this?’ Ace asked Justin

  ‘About three weeks.’ said Jus
tin. ‘We searched in the library about the dagger but found nothing. So, we looked for the scar and found only one result. It matched completely with Vanya’s scar.’

  ‘What else do you know about it?’ Dawn questioned him.

  ‘A little, but very important!’ started Justin. ‘If she wants to get away from that curse, she will have to face seven deaths. Whenever her body will die, she won’t really die. Her body will be more like, in a coma until her she wakes up from that death. Her heart will stop working… which means she will be dead every time she dies, but then she will wake up again with the same body, like getting out of bed.

  ‘But, we have a theory.’ added Brent. ‘It might be good news too.’ he shifted away from Victoria and towards the study table

  ‘What?’ Ace and Dawn asked him at once.

  He cleared his throat. ‘Remember, she told us that she was pushed off the door from the tunnel? She was stabbed by that dagger then. After which she woke up in that cave.’

  ‘Yeah, so?’ Dawn raised an eyebrow.

  ‘We believe she has had her first death there.’ Brent nodded positively.

  ‘How is that good news?’ Ace frowned at him.

  ‘Look,’ Justin walked up to the rack and pulled out a notebook. He flipped through its pages and told them. ‘We found that this curse is used very rarely. There is a recorded history of it being used barely because it is very… evil and exceedingly demonic. It is used to slow down someone’s growth or evolution. This isn’t some casual or random curse they put on her to kill or injure Vanya. They might be tracking her with this, but the main purpose was to trap Vanya inside her own body.

  ‘Why would someone do that to anyone?’ Victoria had never imagined that something like this was possible. ‘How can they trap her in her body anyway?’

  ‘That is the question here.’ mumbled Justin. ‘All Vanya knows is that she needs to die seven times to get rid of this curse. We didn’t tell her the rest. They have trapped her body, mind, and spirit within that scar. If she wants to set herself free and be her true self, she needs to die seven times. I mean, six more times.’

  ‘I still don’t see this as a piece of good news.’ Ace glared at Justin.