Just Great

Picking himself from the floor, Tai groaned and shouted. He had to shout else, his voice would be drowned in the violent cacophony of the time storm.

"Why the hell didn't we just pick another location for the expedition?!"

If they had, then it would have been someone else's group fighting for their lives in this harrowing ordeal.

He hoped it would have been Hal.

However, Nikki grimaced, the violent undoing of the laws of nature caused by the time storm was affecting her just as much as it affected Tai.

"I-If it were anyone else, they would have long died!"

Tai frowned slightly.

"But we're just ordinary unlocked!

This is basically a suicide mission, it was stupid of me to even suggest this!"

The blue haired girl turned to look at him in one smooth motion.

It looked amazing, as she stood at the steering with her long blue hair fluttering in the mad winds and her pristine skin glistening, her eyes shone in determination.

Determination to survive.

She smirked darkly and opened her mouth to speak.

"We're not ordinary Unlocked.

We are the strangest group of people to ever be put together in one group.

You're a special type of items summoner, Claire can see the fucking future, and I have long since mastered the theoretical aspect of my Affinity.

We died more than two hundred times over two full years and then killed a friggin dragon for god's sake!

How many Protectors can even boast of killing a mythical level beast?!

We challenged a Time Storm by ourselves, and here we are, conquering it.

We're still alive, and we'll continue to stay alive!

As long as it's the three of us, then we'll always find a way!"

Her word had given the red haired teenager a fire in his heart. A new passion to work for.

However, Tai frowned.

'This is dangerous.'

Since when could other people influence his feelings?

The chaos around them began to grow more and more violent as they moved closer and closer to the center of the storm. The world seemed to grow even madder as the laws of reality themselves had began to come undone.

One moment, Tai would see himself standing on the black nest island, and in another second, he would see himself back on the majestic flying ship leaving the P.A.

Nikki and Claire were burnt corpses in one second, lively children in the next, and frail old women in another.

He could even hear eerie whispers that filled his heart with dread and made his skin crawl in the noise, and could see vague silhouettes that made him shudder and cause his hairs to stand on end moving here and there across the cabin.

The time storm had began to play with their minds, bending reality.

Tai shuddered in awe at the amazing tyranny of nature.

Heck it wasn't even nature, the Time Storm was anything but natural.

It was just... Amazing, and incomprehensibly inconcieveable.

He could not even begin to think about it's almost absolute powers over time, space, and reality.

Then, a loud clang resonated through the cacophony as the ship was roughly jerked navjway, making them all crash headlong to the floor.

The anchor had finally reached the end of it's length.

The gargantuan anchor of the majestic flying ship could easily have spanned thousands of kilometers in length, this Tai knew that they had gotten deep into the time storm. There was no going back now.

Well, it was not like they could, or would even go back, anyways.

Managing to stagger and stand up to his feet once again, Tai's face fell into a frown as he got to see the full extent of Claire and Nikolah's conditions.

An energy core could heal injuries using the person's energy, that was why Nikki and Claire could run to the island in the first place.

But it was very slow.

Nikolah's arms were beginning to lose their grip on the steering, and Claire,... The blonde teenage girl had long since passed out, her bruised body tossing around in the rise and fall of the ship.

The injuries they had accumulated from battling the dragon had finally caused their energy to be drained while trying to heal their bodies. This was very dangerous as they could not use their Affinities without energy.

With a stifled curse, the red haired teenager staggered over to Nikolah.

"Go rest, I'll handle it!"

Nikki seemed reluctant at first, but once the ship rocked once again and threw her to the floor, the blue haired ice queen sighed and crawled over to a corner and hugged her knees.

Now, Tai had to pay the price for his stupid actions all alone.

He had to handle the mighty oars, hold the rope for the sails, and steer the ship away from lightening and sky tides.

The red haired teenager smirked in a sarcastic smile.

"Just great.. very, very great."