Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Off With The Ampere
Hey guys!
I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that i have started picking up the schedule so expect more chapters soon.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that last chapter I said this chapter was going to be the end of this mini arc. I was wrong.
The end of the mini-arc is going to be next chapter. He will then return back to his homeworld.
Therefore, please enjoy today's chapter and don't forget to leave comments
Peace!
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Michael was stargazing as he sat on a nearby log. The sun had already set, and he was now sitting in front of a fire to keep himself warm. Jaime had gone to sleep since the man was too tired to even keep his eyes open therefore Michael volunteered to guard the camp. There was also the fact that he couldn't sleep. He was too excited to see his friends. Tessa wanted to stay awake but walking in the jungle for the whole day had exhausted her so she collapsed in the tent and immediately fell asleep.
As the teen stargazed, he thought back about how his life had turned around ever since he first met Taylor and learned that he was not the only one with electric powers. One could say his life had changed after meeting her. He thought about how she and his mother had been kidnapped by Hatch, how he rescued them and travelled to another country to stop Elgen's plan for world domination. And now a literal wizard was helping them. He didn't know what to think about the last one due to how ridiculous it was. It made him think about a quote he had heard once,
"May you live in interesting times."
Apparently, this quote was an old Chinese curse, but it perfectly fit his situation. Michael couldn't help but chuckle.
*crackle*
The fire crackled as the boy bathed in his warmth.
"... a...th..."
Michael froze and electricity began to thrum underneath his skin.
*bzzt* *crack*
Tiny arcs of electricity appeared between his fingers as his senses went into high gear. He focused his senses on the forest where he heard the voice from.
"a...eve...go..."
He shot up from the log and the electricity arced more intensively as he prepared himself.
'Did Elgen find us already?'
Suddenly, he saw a faint light in the forest. Squinting his eyes, he tried to see what it was.
"Who's there!?" he shouted.
The light grew larger ad he could now hear footsteps. Multiple footsteps.
"Don't come closer!" he shouted as he stepped back towards the tent.
"Suddenly, the tent rustled and Tessa and Jaime hurriedly came out.
"Michael, what's wrong? Did Elgen find us?" the girl asked, wide awake as adrenaline pumped through her veins and invigorated her."
"I don't know!" Michael replied.
"Dios Mio!" Jaime started grabbing the stuff they needed.
"Michael?"
That's when a familiar voice called the latter. The boy turned toward the source and saw a group of teenagers walking toward him. He stared at them and they stared at him. No one said anything, but nothing needed to be said. He recognized them.
"Michael, is that you?" a girl stepped forward and asked hopefully.
"Taylor," he replied.
"Michael!"
"Taylor!"
The two ran to each other and hugged. All of their pain and anguish washed away when they made contact.
"I missed you," he whispered.
"Me too," she replied before placing her lips on his making him melt into it.
"Get a room!" Ostin called out.
The couple separated and Michael looked behind Taylor. He saw the rest of the Electroclan plus Isaiah walk up to them.
"Ostin!"
"Michael."
Michael let the girl go and hugged his best friend.
"I heard you guys were going to get executed. I was so worried," he said before releasing Ostin.
The latter gave a wry smile,
"We were about to, but we got lucky," he replied before giving a glance at Isaiah who was talking to Tessa.
"Isaiah, huh?"
"Yeah, that kid is a whole other story, but he said you sent him?"
Michael nodded,
"I'm just as confused as you. However, he decided to help me."
"Why?"
"Because I'm interesting."
"You're... interesting?"
"Yup."
"What?"
Michael shook his head,
"It doesn't matter for now. I'm just glad we finally reunited."
Ostin smiled,
"Me too."
Michael then went to hug the others. As everyone reunited, they began to recount their stories after they escaped from the destroyed Starxource power plant. The group decided they needed sleep. They were tired and their journey in the jungle was not easy. The prison escapees had to get off the van in the middle of the route since there wasn't enough space for the van in the jungle. They decided to walk the rest of the journey.
It was time to sleep however there wasn't enough space in the tent Jaime had brought for everyone. Isaiah easily solved the problem by projecting his tent. They also ate the food he had prepared. Isaiah had packed food for at least a month in his ring so he had no problem sharing. The boy saw some of them cry when they were eating skewers though he did not ask why. He didn't want to.
Soon, everyone was asleep, full and content, in the warm atmosphere of Artemis's tent. Isaiah, however, wasn't sleeping. He was seating on a log after starting a bonfire. He looked at the smoke rising into the sky filled with sparkling stars. He could never see something like that back home due to the light pollution of California.
Seeing no one disturb him, He let Emerald go and released his transformation resulting in him sighing in relief. Maintaining that transformation for a really long duration can't be good due to the foreign prana circulating in his magic circuits. The boy saw that his clothes have returned to the familiar black and red sorcerer's combat gear his teacher had gifted him.
"What's up, Isaiah!"
"Have you found a way home yet?" the boy asked.
"I'm almost there. I will be using the residual Universal energy from your glasses and your combat gear to pinpoint our Multiverse. Then it's only a matter of finding our universe which would not take long. Although, I will most likely deplete the energy resulting in the loss of their power." Emerald replied.
Isaiah nodded,
"That's okay. I can always refill them when I get back home. And I supposed you need to find our home to calculate the time ratio?"
"Yup!"
"How long will it take?"
"Good news is it will only take a day probably! Maybe less if we go back to where we teleported. There might be some residual mana left there as well as a disturbance in the space at the location since we used an immense amount of prana."
Isaiah raised an eyebrow,
"Wouldn't the mana dissipate since we were gone for more than a day? Wouldn't' the space also stabilize?"
Emerald shook her head,
"Dimensional portals are different from the normal portals you use. Especially if you cross over multiverses. It needs time to stabilize."
Isaiah nodded,
"Then how long do we have before the space stabilizes?"
"A week"
"Alright, let's finish what we have to do here then we'll go to where we arrived in this world."
"Okay! So are we going to see the evil doctor and his minions!?" Emerald asked excitedly.
Isaiah chuckled.
"Yeah, we are. I kind of what to learn why he does all this?"
"Didn't these guys already tell you? For world domination?"
Isaiah nodded,
"Yeah, but why? Why does this man what to rule the world? What drives him to do so? What will he gain when he has the world under his foot and what will he do with it?"
"Because he's evil!" Emerald replied.
"Evil?" Isaiah tilted his head.
"Yeah, he wants to rule the world! And he kills those who don't follow him. He will subject the people to suffering. You heard what the Voice said, he's going to build a gigantic EMP to destroy countries and innocents. There is nothing to understand from him."
Isaiah remained silent a moment. Emerald stared at him,
'Did I say something wrong?'
"I don't understand."
"Huh?" Emerald let out.
"Evil and Good are simply the opposite spectrum of the morality established by humans. But it is also subjective. Some say killing someone, which is identified as Evil, is something good and some say helping someone, which is identified as Good, is something evil. In those books I read and the movies I watch, there are many examples of this so-called Good and Evil, but I have found that they were only from the perspective of the one who gives them a definition after experiencing the emotions related to them. And as you know, I have lost the ability to feel some critical emotions, specifically the negative ones such as sadness, anger, fear, etc., except for sparks every now and then for which I have not yet found the reason. That's why, when I see a so-called Evil I want to understand it to comprehend what drives these people."
Emerald looked at the boy with her non-existent eyes,
"Huh? I haven't thought of it that way."
"Right?"
"But it doesn't matter! You are a magical boy and it is your duty to defeat evil!"
Isaiah sighed before perking up as an idea struck him,
"Speaking of magical person, I have a person who could be the most likely candidate for the position of a magical girl."
"Oh?" Emerald was excited.
"Yup."
"Who?" the stick was practically vibrating.
A magical girl. She could bond with a real magical girl!
"Bianca di Angelo."
"Eh? Who's that?"
Isaiah raised an eyebrow,
"Did I never tell you about her?"
"Uh-uh."
"Really? Never?"
"Never."
Isaiah leaned back on the log,
"Huh. Well, she's the first friend I ever had along with being my best friend. She's also the daughter of Hades."
"The greek god of the Underworld?"
"Yeah."
"Then I shall judge for myself if she is worthy of the mantle of the magical girl! But first, you shall go to sleep."
Isaiah smiled,
"Alright. Goodnight Emerald."
"Goodnight, Isaiah."
They both went into the tent and the boy fell asleep in anticipation of the next day.
***
Isaiah stood outside of the tent as he stretched himself. Looking at the time on his watch, after adjusting it to this world's time, he noticed that it was 7:00 AM. The temperature was kind of chilly, but it didn't bother the boy too much. Usually, he would be practicing his magic and researching it, but he couldn't due to the incompatibility of his True Ether with the humans of this world. Although, that does not mean he was helpless.
He opened his palm and, out of thin air, appeared a red ruby the size of a marble. However, this was not just any ruby, this one was infused with the power of prana. He had discovered this back home. He was researching how his mana interacted with different materials in the world. He had discovered that minerals were natural mana absorbent. They didn't even need a formation to absorb energies. When he told his teacher, the latter raised an eyebrow and told him that she hadn't known about it. Seems like it only worked with mana. There were still many things to discover about this mystical energy.
However, what she did tell him was that natural resources can help in sorcery due to the fact that they are connected to Earth which produces its own life force. This connection grants them an affinity with extra-dimensional energies. It is also for that reason, that sorcerers wear clothes using plant-based or animal-based materials that haven't been manufactured in industries and such.
The ruby looked ordinary. Lifting it, he saw the sunlight shine upon the jewel making it glow in a beautiful red colour. Another thing he had discovered was that jewels in general have their own affinities. Rubies have an affinity with fire according to his research when he used his own mana. However, he didn't know if it was just a general affinity or if it changed according to different schools of magic. Since his own world's magic relied upon dimensional energies, he didn't have a reference to continue his research in that type of magic. As of now, he could only use jewels to store his mana for later use or make the jewel blow up after infusing enough mana. The ensuing explosion would be tainted by the affinity of the jewel. For example, a ruby the size of a baseball would release an explosion akin to a grenade, only with fire, and an emerald of the same size would release a wind shockwave in a ten-meter radius.
However, it wasn't very efficient. The mana inside the jewels was really wasted since Isaiah had no clue how to efficiently use it. He didn't even have spells! He will have to do more research.
'I'm gonna have to find a way to naturally produce prana in my circuits instead of relying on this method.' He thought as he absorbed the mana in the ruby.
The jewel itself disintegrated into ashes once there was no mana left. That was also another flaw. The jewels can only be used once before disintegrating. If he wanted another use, he was going to have to get another jewel and infuse prana in it.
For anyone else, it would be an issue. However, because Isaiah had (Denial of Nothingness), it wasn't a huge problem. He could simply will prana-filled jewels into existence.
As he felt prana coursing through his circuits. He suddenly felt a stinging pain in his neck.
'Huh?'
Feeling the crook of his neck, he pulled out an object stuck to it.
'A dart?'
His vision started to swim as everything started to feel woozy.
'What?'
Feeling something wrong, he immediately activated his magic circuits. Since he wasn't in his magical boy form, True Ether began to course through his body. With his limited thinking ability, he barely had the ability to cast (Reinforcement) on himself which was a suicidal thing to do. Glowing turquoise circuits manifested on his skin as (Reinforcement) took place. He stumbled to the tent as his reinforced immune system was fighting with whatever he had been drugged. He saw Emerald floating on his bed.
"Emerald!" he shouted.
His shout awoke everyone.
"What!"
"AHH!"
"What's going on!"
Isaiah ignored them as he could feel the wooziness getting more intense. He was losing his fight against the drug.
Stretching his hand, he called,
"E...merald."
The stick, sensing something wrong flew to his hand which the boy weakly gripped.
"Isaiah! What's wrong!"
"Trans...form me."
"Right!"
There was a flash of light blinding everyone. As the light faded, They could see Isaiah was now in his magical boy form. Unfortunately, the boy stumbled upon the floor.
"Isaiah!" the teenagers shouted when they saw him fall.
The latter held his hand up stopping them.
"Isaiah, what's going on?" Michael asked wide awake.
The boy tried to answer but the drug was still in effect. He would need time to completely get rid of it.
"I... got shot by a... dart. Some sort of drug."
The words shocked everyone, and they all tensed. Michael and Zeus started sparking as McKenna began to glow slightly.
"Elgen!"
Ian looked outside.
"I see them! A group of armed soldiers is surrounding us in the forest. How did they find us so quickly!?"
"Can we fight them?" Michael asked Ian.
"I don't think so. They are armed to teeth and they possess RESATs."
"Isaiah, I'm going to detoxify you! It's only going to take 1 minute." Emerald said.
The boy nodded and felt Emerald's prana begin circulating through his body along with his True Ether. He could feel his mind getting clearer and clearer by the second.
"I can... get rid of them... but I need you to stall them." the boy said.
"How long?" asked Wade.
The boy lifted three fingers,
"1 minute."
At that moment, they heard a voice outside.
"Michael Vey and the Electroclan! Come out of the tents with your hands in the air! You have been surrounded with no point of escape!"
Everyone was scared. They didn't want to go back to Elgen.
"Alright. Let's stall them." Michael said.
"What?" Ostin said.
"If Isaiah says he can get rid of them, I believe him." the leader of the Electroclan replied.
"Dios Mio, there's too many of them," Jaime said when he took a peek outside.
"How many are there?" asked Taylor.
"I can count around fifty soldiers."
They all had a conflicted look at the situation.
"I repeat. Come out with your hands in the air. If you don't comply in five seconds, we will shoot!"
"We can't do anything right now. Fuck!" Jack cursed.
"5!" the voice started to count.
The Electroclan turned to Isaiah, seated in a lotus position working on flushing the drug out with Emerald.
"4!"
They all turned to each other.
"3!"
Michael nodded and turned to the entrance of the tent.
"2!"
"Alright! Don't shoot. We're coming out!" Michael said.
As the group of teens went outside, the Glows were suddenly shot with RESATs darts instantly incapacitating them as the darts started to drain their electricity. The rest shouted when they saw their friends fall to the ground.
"Stay where you are and we won't shoot you. Refuse to comply and we will use more force. Where's the other one?" said a soldier with an Elgen logo who walked in front followed by three others.
Ostin, Jack and Wade glared at the soldier,
"Fuck you, you son of a bitch!"
The soldier didn't say anything as he brought out three pairs of handcuffs.
However, before the soldiers could handcuff them, four blue mana bullets were shot from the tent and collided with the soldiers.
"AARRGH!"
They shouted in pain as they flew back to their group. They could see that they were only alive due to their body armour which had a massive hole leaving a burnt chest.
"SHOOT THEM DOWN!" a soldier shouted.
However, Isaiah shot out of the tent and place himself in front of the Electroclan. He slammed the butt of his Kaleidosctick on the ground,
"Do your thing, Emerald!"
"You got it!"
Suddenly, a blue barrier flung out from his position enveloping the Electroclan and the tens. The soldiers raised their guns and began to shoot.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *RATATATATA*
Bullets flew out of the muzzle and struck the bounded field. Isaiah narrowed his eyes and turned to the trio of normal humans,
"Thanks for stalling. You guys alright?"
They had their eyes wide open in shock as they saw the rain of bullets striking the barrier and having no effect.
"Y-Yeah. But we gotta help them first." Osting replied as he turned to the Glows.
Jack and Wade nodded as they quickly pulled the RESATs dart out of their bodies making them breathe out in relief.
The shooting stopped when the soldiers saw that there was no effect.
"What the hell is this? Is that a Glow?" one soldier asked.
The Glows got up from the ground,
"Thanks, Isaiah," Taylor said.
Isaiah nodded,
"Let's get rid of them."
Michael nodded and glared at the soldiers as two sparking balls of electricity formed in his palms.
It was then chaos ensued.
Zeus began shooting bolts of electricity at the soldiers. Michael threw his balls of lightning while Taylor incited chaos by resetting the soldiers' minds while Isaiah shot Gandr bullets. The soldiers had no chance. It didn't help that Tessa was enhancing the Glows' powers with her own. Ian continued to look around and check if they didn't miss anything. Jaime also contributed using his handgun.
Soon all fifty soldiers were down leaving panting teenagers, and thanks to the bounded field, there were no injuries.
"All of them are down," Ian said making everyone relieved.
"Damn. That was one hell of a fight." Zeus said as he plopped himself on the ground.
"We were lucky Isaiah's barrier protected us," Taylor said.
Michael turned to the boy in question,
"You okay? You were drugged when you warned us," he asked.
Isaiah, however, didn't say anything and walked up to the leader who was groaning on the ground. He tried to move, but the boy's mana bullets seemed too strong.
'I forgot humans in this world are not as strong as the ones in mine.' he thought as he crouched in front of the man who was sprawled on the ground.
The soldier lifted his head and saw Isaiah right in front of him.
"What... the fuck... are you?" he stammered.
Isaiah tilted his head and smiled,
"I'm Isaiah. Now if you don't mind, I need to look through your mind."
"What?"
Before he could react, Isaiah placed his hand on the soldier's head and cast (Telepathy). He combed through the memories and searched for the reason for how Egen found him and the Electroclan as well as any information on the Ampere.
The boy sighed when he found the reason. Apparently, the radios the soldiers carry possess tracking devices in case something happened to them. When Isaiah took out the squad that wanted to ambush Michael, Tessa and Jaime, two days ago, he hadn't taken account of this fact. And because he left their bodies over there without informing the trio, Elgen was quickly able to find them. However, before they could ambush them once more, the trio had already left their camp. It was only a matter of following their tracks.
"Well, that was stupid. On the bright side, I now have information on the Ampere."
The Ampere was set to arrive in two days at Port Callao. Taking out the map, he located the port and saw that it would take at least a whole day and a half of flight if he were to take breaks in between.
'Looks like I'm going to be leaving them.'
He looked at the soldier and saw that he was unmoving. He placed his fingers on his neck and checked his pulse.
There was none.
Seems like the man had finally succumbed to his injuries. He took out the radios and the tracking devices and destroyed them.
Turning around, he saw the Electroclan scrambling around and getting their stuff packed. They had to leave quickly before more Elgen soldiers caught up to them.
"Vamonos! Vamonos! We must leave before more of them come."
"But where are we supposed to go?" Ostin asked.
"We must head to Lima. There is a road down the hill, these soldiers must've come using a vehicle large enough to transport them which will be enough for us. I have a friend willing to hide us until further instructions from the Voice."
"But don't Elgen vehicles have trackers? They will easily find us," he replied.
"Not if I do anything about it," Isaiah said as he joined the group.
"Isaiah. Thank you for your help, man." Ian said.
"Do you have a way to deal with the trackers?" Ostin asked.
Isaiah raised an eyebrow,
"Why would you need to take their vehicles when I can just give you one... two since you have two drivers. Right, Jaime?" Isaiah asked the adult.
Jaime looked confused but nodded, nonetheless.
"Si, I can drive."
The prison escapees widened their eyes as they remembered Isaiah's ability to conjure vehicles.
"That's right!" Mckenna said, "Can you give us a vehicle?"
Isaiah nodded.
"Come on. Get your stuff out of the tents."
The group left the tent, and the boy collapsed it before making it disappear in blue motes of mana. Soon they arrived in front of a dirt road where Isaiah created two Hummers, which he had analyzed in his dad's garage using (Denial of Nothingness) as a precaution. Who knows what would happen when he left this world? They were large enough to accommodate everyone.
They all climbed aboard leaving Isaiah standing outside.
Michael looked at him,
"Come one, Isaiah. We have to go before Elgen finds us."
However, the boy stood still and shook his head,
"I'm not going with you."
The whole group turned to the boy,
"What?" Jack asked.
"Why?" followed Abigail.
"Because I'm going to go find Hatch." Isaiah replied, "And this will be the last time we will be seeing each other since I will have to go home afterwards."
"Huh?" asked Michael.
Isaiah grinned.
"This will be a goodbye to you all. Go home safe and you won't need to worry about Hatch anymore."
"W-Wait!" Michael quickly said and jumped out of the car.
"You're leaving?" he asked when he was in front of the boy.
Isaiah nodded.
"T-Then will we see each other again?"
Isaiah shrugged,
"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?"
Michael then gave the younger boy a hug,
"Thank you for helping us. We only got to know for a day, but you helped us a lot." The teen said.
Isaiah smiled,
"No problem."
It was then everyone got of the cars and bid their farewell to the boy. Jack clasped the younger boy's hand and grinned while declaring something about how he was a warrior. Ostin and Wade shook their hands with him. Abigail, Mackenna and Taylor also hugged the boy and Ian waved his hand. It was then an idea struck Isaiah.
He focused on his ring and his phone appeared in his hand.
"My dad told me to take pictures when I travel to some place. Selfie?" the boy asked.
The Electroclan looked at each other before grinning.
"Sure!" Michael said.
Isaiah made the smartphone float and went to join the group. He didn't forget to release his transformation since he didn't want a picture in that embarrassing outfit.
"Don't forget to show off your powers." the boy said.
"Alright!"
"Say cheese!"
"CHEESE!"
*Click*
Isaiah brought the phone to him and smiled,
"Perfect."
"What kind of phone is that? I've never seen that kind of model." asked Ostin.
"Oh this? This is a Stark Phone. My dad invented it."
"Your dad?"
"Yeah. He's kind of an inventor."
"Oh."
The young sorcerer grabbed Emerald and transformed back and turned to the Electroclan before floating off the ground.
"Well then goodbye everyone."
"Bye!"
"Bye Isaiah!"
"Farewell, Isaiah."
"Bye kid."
"Bye!"
Everyone bade their farewell as the boy rose to the sky and flew off. They all watched him disappear into the sky.
"Stark Phone?" Ostin whispered.
"Hm?" Michael asked when he heard his best-friend.
"I feel like I heard that name before. I can't seem to remember where."
Michael shrugged,
"It doesn't matter. We should leave before Elgen find us."
"You're right."
The blond-haired boy turned back to where Isaiah disappeared,
'I hope we meet again.'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone