Chapter 288 - One After The Other

"Where'd she go?" I asked. 

The smell of lunch was nice but, my mind was kind of overthinking a lot of things. 

"She went back to a reunion with her grade school friends. I was really shocked when she said she wanted to go."

"Grade school?" I raised a brow. 

We had to change schools and even countries quite often since Elsa often ended up creating trouble. 

But grade school? Did she even have friends in grade school? "And wasn't her grade school in-"

"Canada, yes."

So, she flew alone? That girl?

Again?

I sighed. Elsa was always like this eccentric kid, doing whatever she pleased. She didn't have a passport or visa but when you're from a famous family such as ours, those weren't really all that necessary. She got scolded way too often for that too. Mom did spoil her, and I did too, but she was way too childish. 

Lately, she started acting mature and I was kind of grateful for that. But still, going alone? "And you let her?"

"She has to grow up someday," Grandma chirped in. 

"Yes, but that day isn't today."

Elsa would turn fifteen soon, she wasn't a kid. But she had a history with her grade school friends. Or to be more precise, I had history with them. And I had a feeling if anyone badmouthed me, things were going to get very ugly there. 

I was halfway through my lunch but, I started shoving everything down. "If we can't reech her in thhe next foive minutes, I'm going out." I kept on stuffing myself. 

Mom didn't say anything, the rest didn't either. 

I almost choked, drank some water, and after a brief pause, stood up. I was done. 

"I'll take you there." Marg also stood up. 

"It'll be too dangerous for you. We can't forget what happened last time."

I didn't know what went wrong the first time around. Maybe she was already tired and didn't have enough energy? Maybe it was just a bad coincidence?

Or maybe something else. 

But I didn't want her to do anything reckless again. 

"But-"

"Besides, I can fly." I winked. 

And my flying speed was pretty spectacular too. 

I could go maybe twenty times the speed of sound if I pushed myself and maybe bit more if I really tried hard. 

So, it was going to be a 25-minute flight.

Not really instantaneous, but definitely fast. 

"You won't go around breaking people's legs because they offended you or something, right?" Mom said.

She was speaking about that time when, I accidentally broke some kids' legs because they tried to trip Elsa, but that was a long time ago…

I wouldn't do that again…

Probably. 

"I'll try my best."

She chuckled, giving up. "Don't cause too much trouble now."

"I won't."

At least I didn't hope so. 

But it was odd. 

It was odd how none of them even remotely mentioned anything from this morning.

In the end, they really were leaving it all up to me.

***

I had my maps. 

My Holo was working nicely. 

But none of my calls were going through to Elsa. 

It wasn't that her Holo wasn't ringing, rather, she wasn't picking up.

Which meant one of two things. Either she was in some sort of predicament or she just didn't want to talk to me. I didn't like either. 

Anyway, I sped through the air. 

BOOM!

Some sort of sonic boom resulted, every time I sped up. 

Enira didn't come out, but the barriers were much stronger. They could probably even take a full blast of my plasma ball- assuming the ball wasn't that large. 

I guess going out of my way to hunt that serpent wasn't a waste of time, after all. 

Beep! Beep!

I received a message. 

'Elsa's been kidnapped.'

I stopped midair. 

Another boom resounded. 

The water below was shimmering and weirdly I started sweating. 

The message was credible- very credible. After all, it was from mom. 

I immediately called her. 

"What do you mean, she's been kidnapped?"

"We received a call from the kidnappers right after you left."

"And?"

"…They want you to go there alone."

"Go where, exactly?"

"An island. I'm sending you the details. But-"

"But you don't want me to go alone."

"Yes, both your father and grandfather are on their way."

I received the map. About seven minutes of journey from where I was. It was in the middle of the ocean. No civilization in its hundred-kilometer radius. 

'But if they want me alone-' Then it was possible they had some way to deal with me. 

'But if they want me-' And if they went as far as to take my sister hostage, there was a good chance, they were going to demand something severe. 

"Elsa's okay? And did they want something?"

"I didn't hear her voice. They only wanted you to go alone…" Mom's voice shook. "I wanted to go but-"

"It's okay, I'll take care of this."

Mom had her hands full. And since this was a special case, we had to be careful. 

Besides, the kidnappers wanted me alone, so there was always that. 

The call ended. No, I ended it. 

Though kidnapping was probably not the best thing that could have happened right now, I had a feeling this was something else. 

First of all, who'd be dumb enough to kidnap my sister?

Second, even if they kidnapped her, and overpowered her, why would they go out of their way to reveal their location and just ask me to go alone and not ask for anything? 

Elsa wasn't stupid. Yeah, she was childish, but she wasn't stupid. But I had to take into account sometimes, she still did stupid stuff, everyone did. After all, we're all humans. 

'Then what the hell do they want?'

Racking my head over this wasn't doing anything. 

So, I prepared myself, and launched. 

BOOM!

***

The island was really in the middle of nowhere. 

It was perhaps about the same size as the one the academy was on. 

But there was one fundamental difference. There was nothing on this island, nothing other than just pure sand and one single grove of coconut. 

Flying over the island, I couldn't really see much. But one thing was for certain, there wasn't a single human here and my alpha particles relayed as much. 'Then what?'

I covered myself in a thin barrier, enough to not be obvious about it, and slowly descended near the grove. 

There wasn't anyone here, in hindsight. But my guard was up, and I was very angry, very sane.

I looked around. But nothing was here. Just like my particles suggested. 

And yet, something about this place, the wind, the smell, something just felt ominous. 

"Bravo, I did not think you'd be here so early." Slow claps. 

The voice came from all around me. I couldn't trace it. 

A woman's voice. But something about that voice wasn't quite human, almost artificial or maybe even bestial. 

"Where's my sister?" I looked around but- saw nothing. My particles picked up nothing. 

"Right here." 

Elsa appeared just twenty meters away, tied to a chair, unconscious. A woman was next to her wearing a mask- or, half a mask. My particles suddenly picked both of them up but- but something was different about Elsa. 

I was both fuming and shaking but- "So, what do you want? Why did you kidnap her?"

"That core." She pointed at my saber. "I want it."

This woman- had blonde hair, a mask covering half of her face and she was taller than me. But the most troubling part was her bright red eyes and snow-white skin. The striking resemblance to a certain vampire kind of irked me. 

"Oh?" So, she wanted my saber? Or rather the core?

I carried my saber to almost everywhere, meaning this woman probably had her eyes on me for quite a while. 

"And for that, you'd go out of your way to capture my sister and even reveal your location. You do know who I am and what my family is, right?"

She smiled. half of her face was covered but her lips were pretty much on full display: luscious red lips. "But of course. I'm totally aware. But as long as your sister is here, you can't use your full powers and even if your family were here, the same would be true. Besides-"

A streak of light went through her skull. It went right through. I couldn't even register half of it- I couldn't hear anything. 

But, I knew what that was. 

So, I covered Elsa in a barrier and ran straight for the two. 

The woman, however, hadn't fallen. Her neck had moved back like she was watching the sky or something but it snapped back to place as her wound healed. "Such impatience."

In a split second and closed in and slashed. 

SLASH!

She backtracked, dodging. 

Elsa was still here. 

"About time you showed up Geezer."

Mom said the guy'd be here but I didn't think he'd be here this quick.

"Stop calling me that, brat!"