Gruesome Emotions

Apart from Robert's angry greeting, a different irritating sound demanded Max's attention at the same moment:

Beep-

Beep-

Beep-

.

.

.

"Huh?" His thoughts box in some kind of dismantled shape, Max averted his gaze away from the beauty staring directly at his group and brought out something from his ninja-like black robe.

Something was wrong here.

The map they had been following was beeping and glowing red intensely. Unintentionally pointing it directly at Hazel, that is the beauty currently staring at him with fury, the beeping stopped and the red glow slowly died.

'Wait...'

Taking it away from her direction:

Beep-

Beep-

Beep-

.

.

.

'What does this mean?' Max questioned in his mind with bafflement, not that needed an answer.

Her beautiful face looking tense and ahead, "I guess something's wrong with the map?" Armless whispered to Max, now ready for a while to shift into the Mighty form.

Her next shift would be in order to fight the group of Royal Forces, Blue Forces, Cameron, Robert, and the Crowned Luna Princess if need be. A group that she never anticipated nor calculated to tackle their plans and movements this easily.

Max couldn't say anything back to her, being at the peak of confusion... The map was supposed to behave like that if, definitely, he were to find Evelyn.

Cameron's voice all smug and prideful, "Armless, long time. As far as I'm alive, how can you ever think of outsmarting me?" His voice was calm when he joked to no one in particular. "By force or by peace, Royal Forces, arrest them all and lock them away." he majestically ordered with a few backward steps.

The Royal Forces with no word uttered initiated obeying the command. Two of the Electeds standing in the forefront easily dealt with their first two prey and threw them back to where they came from.

"Hazel..."

Proving Max's assumptions, the map responded to Hazel who ignored Cameron and proceeded towards them:

Beep-

Beep-

BEep-

BEEp-

BEEP-

And before...

BBOOOMMMBBBB!!!

And before anyone could react, orange, condensed fire exploded circularly and powerfully like the force of nature.

Protectively, Cameron — therefore as well as Hazel — got covered by the bodies of the Royal Forces as fast as lightning. On the other part, Max's group together with Robert and his proceeding men were thrown a step or two due to the sheer force of the explosion.

Then the hungrily insane fire followed soon; it was time to eat and kill, the chore of every fire.

But then, something unscientific started happening. The time stopped ticking in the eyes of Max. Was it, was that possible?

It both happened instantly: The time stopped and the explosive fire was already eating Max's body from up to down. He could see in his hand the map producing wildly spreading orange fire freezing like orange soft ice.

'How? What... is going on here?'

Looking ahead, Max was surprised to see that none of the Royal Forces in white could move towards him anymore, nor the beauty nor the man accompanying her nor the Gold fighters. It seemed like a movie was paused using a remote control exempting him, indeed.

"Beautiful, isn't it Aximus?" A voice questioned in calmness as a metallic stick hit the floor in succession.

Turning about, "Granny?" Max guessed as his searching brown eyes landed on the white haired tall, old woman. Looking into the white slits of her eyes, he felt some sudden sadness enveloping him. For no reason, those eyes reminded him of that night when he met her in his desperate situation.

'Penelope is stopping the time?'

"I am disappointed in you." Penelope said as the orange fire from the spreading bomb made a clear division between her and the Vampire Slave. "I trusted making a deal with you and you broke the deal, so the trust. Trusting you was somewhat puerile." Her face was emotionless.

A lot of ticking seconds casually passed.

"Am... am curious." Max struggled to find his words out of his mouth. After some tim… after some while, "Ya can freeze the time." he whispered.

Passing through the frozen orange fire which felt neither cold nor hot, Max stood right in front of Penelope:

He looked tired and beaten, bloody and pitiful, exhausted like a soldier from a war he was losing. His charming height being the same as the old woman's good height, with the orange fire behind them and the frozen people around them, it was all a rare art of beauty. The way she looked at him, it felt more like his mother, Addison.

"No. Wrong." Penelope glanced around her from the sides. "I can only make us behave faster than time does." Her aged voice was colder than usual;

Scary in some way;

Evil sounding in its way.

Something squeezed Max's heart in emotional pain.

'If so then why didn't you use it in finding Evelyn since from the beginning?'

Max could already imagine her response if he were to ask his mind out. "Too many secrets ya can do, too many secrets ya can hide. Ya hide too much from me. What happened ah couldn't find ya three days before our promised day? Where have ya been?"

"Did you use Spider Vision?" Penelope grinned her gums.

"Not the response ah expect." Max clenched his fists.

"Admit it!" She soundlessly but hardly slammed her metallic stick on the floor. "Did you use the Spider Vision Gift!"

"Yeah, ah did! A'had no option!" In a raging-calm voice, "Ya never explained why ah shouldn't, and ya were gone when we needed ya the most." he added and clenched his fists tighter. His voice was calm unlike his face.

"And our deal says what?"

"Damn that trash deal! Where is Evelyn? Why is the map exploding! Lucas told me, and I'm starting to believe him truly, that ya, of all people, is setting me up for a reason ah can't tell. Why! Penelope? What games are ya playing around with my life? Why me? Where did ah wrong ya?"

Penelope turned her back towards Max. "The answers to these questions are related to The Mind. And The Mind is none of your business." she said calmly.

"Mind." Max squinted his eyes. "What mind?" He unconsciously clenched his hair in his right hand and brushed it backwards.

"I'm here to tell you one thing, that from today, from now on, you will be imprisoned for attempting murdering the Crowned Luna Princess on her ceremonial mating day." Penelope said as she started walking away, her stick in her firm grip hitting the floor to produce a series of gentle metal sounds. "Like that, you are staying away from the remaining Gifteds. It's for the sake of clarity."

White mist suddenly engulfed the time-frozen atmosphere. "But ah trusted you like a guardian." Max's voice resounded with pain through the mist.

In echoes did Penelope replied coldly:

"Trust no one."

.

.

"Trust no one."

.

.

"Trust no one."

And then Max blacked out as soon as he heard the reverberating sound of the returning explosion.