Bounty Hunters 66v59

BOUNTY HUNTERS

SAROOR SARAO

Copyright © 2016 by Saroor Sarao.

ISBN:

Softcover eBook

978-1-4828-7423-5 978-1-4828-7424-2

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CONTENTS

Prologue: My Amazing Fortune

Chapter 1 Future Plans

Chapter 2 Revelations

Chapter 3 An Unexpected Meeting

Chapter 4 A New Home

Chapter 5 Some Answers

Chapter 6 A Proper Goodbye

Chapter 7 A New Beginning

Chapter 8 Watery Gestures

Chapter 9 A Wish To Race

Chapter 10 A Wild Encounter

Chapter 11 Catching The Wind

Chapter 12 Snowbound

Chapter 13 An Ominous News

Epilogue: The End Of The Road

PROLOGUE

MY AMAZING FORTUNE

14 January 2050, Daniel Frost was celebrating his 16th birthday. Son of billionaire Alexander Frost, Daniel had everything a 16 year old could wish for; tons of money, a girlfriend and a secure future as the CEO of Frost Industries, one of the biggest tech giants of its time. Things were going perfectly for him. Born with a thirst for adrenaline and adventure, he had always preferred only the most extravagant parties of all. Last year, he had his birthday party on the moon, the year before; the cake was cut while sky-diving; before that, in an underwater resort. But this year, his Dad compelled him for a home-party. Still, it was as extravagant as you might expect from a billionaire; people of all tastes and colors, the most delightful meal from the best Italian chefs, and a display of fireworks from the tallest tower in Los Angeles, what more do you want? It was indeed a perfect party. The grand hall on the 200th floor was so crowded with such an immense variety of people that a person couldn’t simply ask for more privacy. Even though it was a great party, Alexander himself felt discontent. His tired eyes were searching for his son as he peered through the crowd from under his thick spectacles. As he finally spotted him in the crowd under the painting of soccer-playing kittens, he spoke up ‘So, I suppose you are enjoying your party, eh?’ Then, from among the funky-looking party animals, a teenager with luscious, black hair and an attitude to be reckoned with emerges. His white hoodie and jeans swagged his simplicity in clothing. His bright face and teeth, white as stars, shone through the crowd. ‘Of course, Dad! I totally love it! I mean not as much as the usual parties. But still, it is cool,’ he said, taking notice of his father. But when he saw his father, his smile, for some reason, began to grow thin. ‘Well, that’s great; and your friends?’ said Alexander. His smile seemed fake.

Daniel could sense the tension in his eyes. ‘Yeah, they love it too! Right guys?’ His peers shout ‘yeah’ in affirmation. ‘All right kids, enjoy your party; hey Daniel, why don’t you meet me once you’re free? I’ll be in my room,’ said his father. ‘Yeah, sure,’ he said. Daniel felt that something wasn’t right. From the very words of his father, he had sensed a fear but he couldn’t guess why. His smile faded into thoughtfulness. His thought was interrupted by a glass of cold drink popping right in front of him. It was Sean, one of his several friends. ‘So, when are you gonna tell him?’ asked Sean, handing him the glass. ‘Tonight or maybe tomorrow, I’m not quite sure,’ he replied and took a sip from his drink. ‘You gotta tell him someday, it’s not every day you just refuse to inherit your rich Daddy’s money to follow your freakin’ dreams,’ said Jacob, the fattest of the trio. ‘Oh come on Jake! You’re being harsh,’ said Sean in defense. ‘No I’m not! I’m just saying that he is being a wimp,’ said Jacob and burped loudly, and by that he meant that the argument was over. ‘All right, I’ll do it tonight,’ said Daniel in a firm, decisive voice and finished his drink in one sip. He regretted it later though. They said nothing more for some time. Then Sean spoke up, ‘That’s great, really. But do you need a wingman or something?’ ‘A what?’ asked Daniel. ‘I mean if you can’t say it upfront then maybe I can help.’ ‘No, I think I’ll be okay.’

‘Really? Cause he might ask- ‘Who will run my business empire if not you?’ and you might forget to mention Sean Austin.’ ‘Sean, you’re a jerk,’ said Daniel. But he didn’t mean it. He and Sean had been best friends since childhood. And this is kind of the way they talked. A little rude perhaps, but that’s the way they liked it. ‘Thank you, and best of luck,’ said Sean, ‘But I wonder what he wanted to say?’ ‘Guess I’ll find out,’ said Daniel. With that, he left his friends and made for his Dad’s room on the ground floor. With every advancing step, his heart was beating ever faster. He tried to sing his favorite songs to relax his mind but in vain. He forgot the lyrics and got more nervous. Then, the cold drink had its effect. He felt like he would have to rush to the toilet. Somehow, he reached the elevator and shakily pressed its beautiful blue buttons. The elevator music was soothing but that didn’t do him much good. He reached the wide hallway of the floor. The walls were decorated with animal heads. Alexander had been something of a hunter back in his day. He nervously gazed at the deer and lion heads. He thought they were staring at him. He quickened his steps. But before anything else, he dashed to the toilet and relieved himself. Anyhow, he made it to the room. The door was open. ‘Come in son.’ His Dad called from the room His well-built body was firmly positioned on the silky, white sofa. He asked Daniel to take a seat. There was something about his tone that he didn’t feel quite right. It was much similar to the one at the party. But still he didn’t question him. The room was extremely clean. The mattress on the great wooden bed was smoother than undisturbed water. The books in the huge shelf were properly arranged. The work desk had been recently polished and the room itself was painted less than a week ago. His Dad was holding a beautiful, golden locket with strange engravings on it. But he didn’t have much curiosity at that time. As he shakily sat on a wooden chair (Alexander preferred only classic and vintage items) he gathered his courage and tried to start the conversation. He said, ‘Dad, there was something I wanted to tell you. It’s…’

‘That can be discussed later. Now listen very carefully,’ said his father. That interruption came as a surprise, but he didn’t ask why. He wanted to make the conversation as long as possible. Handing him the locket nervously, he said, ‘This is the key to your birthday present.’ ‘My own car?’ He asked jokingly though he knew too well those couldn’t belong to a car given their round shape. ‘No, but something far more valuable; it’s in the basement; in a golden, metal box. It may look a bit weird at first but it is something of great value. I cannot tell you anymore about it. It’s……. never mind, see for yourself. And keep it with care.’ Daniel didn’t say anything. He was more confused than surprised. He had absolutely forgotten about telling his Dad about his quitting the company. Yet, he was twice as eager to find out his gift and half as nervous. Within 2 minutes, he was at the door of the basement. It opened up automatically but that didn’t surprise him. He walked down the stairs of the dark room. Due to certain reasons, it had a dungeon like appearance. As he approached the last stair, the lights got switched on automatically. That too didn’t come as a surprise. He ired the ghastly design of the room much less than he liked the staircase. He could now see the strange paintings and evil-looking statues of monsters and other things of that ilk. He had never in his life visited the basement. He didn’t have any use for the room and had thought it to be old and boring. As he looked around, he saw a golden, metallic box lying on an old table carved out of stone. Slowly, he approached the strange shaped box. He saw a sort of engraving on it and instinctively, put the locket on it. To his surprise, it actually opened up. As a strange blue smoke rose from the box, he felt ever more curious. When it had cleared, it revealed, a yellow gemstone, a diamond too beautiful to be true. A myth it seemed. Lightning seemed to flow through what seemed its veins. Surprisingly, Daniel was much disappointed. He had never been much of an art irer or a lover of gemstones. To him, it looked like a ladies’ gift. Little did he know it would go on to become a boon in his future. ‘This is what I get for my birthday? Jeez! I really wish I would have told him the

truth. It would have much better than having to ever visit this stupid room,’ he said. Disappointed, he still picked it up. As soon as he lifted it, he felt a surge of lightning through his body, yet absolutely no pain. ‘What is happening to me?’ he wanted to say but to his own horror realized that he couldn’t open his mouth. His veins were shining yellow. He saw a blinding flash coming from the gemstone. Before he could figure out what was happening to him, he ed out and knew nothing more.

CHAPTER 1

FUTURE PLANS

‘Ugh, what the hell was that?’ said Daniel. He had been unconscious for nearly 5 hours. He had some strange dreams during that time. Some kind of visions, he thought, of the future. Of strange things he didn’t know. Then he saw himself in a fight with a guy dressed in black. He couldn’t see his face for he wore a mask, but felt a rage within himself though he didn’t know why. He had aimed a spear of lightning at the other guy’s neck and was about to kill him when came to. Now, he realized that he was still in the basement. Cold and dark as it was. Then he felt something warm. It was a pleasant touch that raised beautiful thoughts in his mind. He tried to see it in the dark but he saw nothing save a faint yellow shine. It was the gemstone, ‘the birthday gift’ his Dad had asked him to retrieve. He felt a little dizzy. He picked it up, got up on his feet and headed for the stairs. On the very first step, he heard a gunshot, loud and terrifying it was. He feared something terrible had happened and quickened his pace. His mind conjured up more and more unpleasant thoughts as he went up. As soon as he reached the ground level he saw an arm, as if stretched out asking for help, lying on the floor. For a moment, he completely forgot about his visions and the gemstone. For what he saw next pierced his heart. It was his Dad’s arm. Blood was gushing from it like a fast flowing river. He slowly moved forward to see his shoulder had turned blue, as if poisoned. His Dad was not breathing. He tried to feel his pulse but in vain. Tears were rolling down Daniel’s cheeks. 15 minutes later, the police and paramedics had arrived. ‘I am sorry Ma’am, your husband is dead,’ said the Chief Inspector. Daniel’s mother sat crying. She had never cried even in the most difficult situations, but this, there wasn’t a way she could hold it to herself. ‘Post-mortem report and fingerprints on the gun we found near his body indicate that he committed suicide,’ said the officer before leaving, ‘Ma’am, would you

come with us? We need to ask you some questions. There are some things we would like to know.’ Mrs. Frost simply nodded and followed them. She was too shocked to notice something wasn’t right. Daniel spent that night crying and wailing. The next day, he felt better. His eyes were red and puffy, but he felt better. Soon, he made up his mind and left the room. He wanted to see the place of the incident once again. He felt like he had missed something. When he reached that spot on the first floor, he keenly observed every crack and crevice. What he discovered confused him. ‘They found the bullet in the shoulder, right? But that’s not how people commit suicide. Something isn’t right here. I need to find out.’ Before he could take another step, he saw another blinding flash. Much similar to the one he had seen before his visions. But this time, he saw images. Images of the gun in a firm hand pointed at his Dad. He wanted to see the face of the other guy but it ended before he could. ‘Damn it! Wish I could see that guy’s face. It has to be the gemstone that keeps showing me these strange dreams. It is far stranger than I could have imagined. At least I got a lead. But I need to keep it to myself, for now at least,’ he said. He realized that it was still it his pocket and quickened his steps towards his room. He had a different feeling; a curiosity to track down the killer. His mind was flooded with ideas by the time he reached his room. Then, he opened the door of his villa-sized room and started compiling all that he had planned. His room was quite the opposite of his Dad’s room. Nothing, in that room, had ever seen its proper place. The bed was as always, unmade. His gadgets were lying around everywhere. Even good ol’ Fluffy (his favorite stuffed dog) was lying under the bed. It had been a long time since he had got his hands on a mystery. He had spent a little time solving local mysteries. That was what he had wanted. He had no great love for great wealth. All he ever wished for was a fun and happening life as a detective. That’s what he had wanted to tell his Dad. But it was too late for that now. His friends thought of him as keen observer who could become a great detective someday. For himself, he thought that he had never got a really challenging or

mature case. Until now it was. Within 20 minutes, he sorted out every single detail that he saw in his vision or on the field in the form of a gigantic web (using red tape) on his wall. He felt quite proud of it. He said to himself, ‘If my case-web is correct, which it always is, I believe that I might find out the killer if I interrogate the police. Surely, they are hiding something. But asking them directly won’t do. I have to think of another way.’ He sat thinking for a while, then walking and finally standing upside down. He gave a sudden cry,’ BINGO! If this doesn’t work then I am so dead. But I don’t care. I can’t just sit idle waiting for some policemen to tell me what happened to my Dad. I have a right to know myself.’ Daniel had made a choice. ‘If I am to do it, then I need some really good equipment and I surely won’t find it in this junkyard,’ He said finding his board, ‘But I know where I would.’ 1 hour later, Daniel is found searching for some gear in his Dad’s former lab. Alexander hadn’t used that lab for 30 years but it was as good as new. He used to keep all his top-notch inventions in that lab he called his ‘treasure trove’. Daniel had rarely ever visited the lab but he wasn’t unaware of the ‘treasure’ it possessed. His Dad had been an amazing inventor and made all sorts of gadgets. Quite frankly, Alexander had never wasted a moment of his life. He had always lived his life to the fullest, always doing whatever he wanted to. Daniel was very careful about choosing his gear. Finally, after nearly 2 hours of searching and packing, Daniel emerged from the lab. Fully clad in ultrafibre clothing, the strongest material on earth; an elegant yet highly dangerous wristwatch and a pair of x-ray glasses were a few of his arsenal of gadgets. Wish I could to tell you about each of his tools but we don’t seem to have the time and neither did he. Soon his mother would discover he is missing and his entire plan would be wasted. But don’t worry about missing any action. Every tool would eventually reveal itself, in time. So without any further delays, he started on his path. All the time, he was thinking about his mission: Infiltrating the Police HQ.

CHAPTER 2

REVELATIONS

‘Now how do I get in there?’ said Daniel sat wondering how he was supposed to enter the police HQ building. From down there, he felt he had seen a monster. Earlier, it had seemed like an easy task while he was making the plans, now, not so much. It reminded him of his father’s friend Mr. Richards who would spend all day preparing and planning for the field trip, feeling pride in what he did. But when he would come on the field, his calculations would ditch him and he would ultimately become a source of laughter for the children. But he would never have to infiltrate one of the most secure buildings on Earth. The Siege Tower was the most secure police base in all of the US. The roofs were guarded by elite commando forces and robotic guard dogs. The main building was patrolled by highly trained robotically-enhanced soldiers who were trained to shot first, and ask questions later. Every hallway was watched by surveillance cameras. The building itself was a long spire with electrified glasses on all sides. The tower had about 15 horn-shaped radio towers giving it a demonic look. The powers of the police had been greatly increased by that time. This tower was simply impenetrable. Daniel had planned to get in by the top, using his hover board. But the very look of the electrified cold glass and the guards discouraged him. He suddenly ed his karate teacher’s words, ‘Nothing is invincible. Even the greatest wall has a tiny hole in it.’ This thought encouraged him. He roused himself and began looking for a weak spot. After only 15 minutes of searching, he found his way in, through the sewer ducts. The ducts released all the toxic waste generated by the machines for ‘safe disposal’ into the sea. No one had ever dared to go through those pipes because of the radiation level of the waste alone; but since he had ‘his’ Xtreme Environment suit, getting in through the pipes was a piece of cake. He opened

his bag pack and found the green fibre with black lining right on top. It was the suit. Soon, he began the most disgusting part of his journey. Thanks to the mask, he didn’t have to smell the fecal matter in the sewer pipes. But it could do nothing for the horrible look of things down there. ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ he often thought to himself. But soon abandoned the thought and squeezed himself through an occasional tight curve. After nearly 30 minutes of what seemed to him hours of struggling, he reached the end of the pipe. He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he pulled himself out of the duct and swore never to speak of it, ever. He had found himself in the toilet of the 2nd floor. He took off the mask and thought of tucking the suit back into the bag pack. But he thought that the smell of the suit would be a dead giveaway. So he hid it in an empty rack and covered it with ‘his’ chameleon cloth. As he placed it on the wall, it took the color of the wall and the suit was hidden in plain sight. He discovered that the store room of the toilet led directly to the maintenance room downstairs and made his way unseen. He put on ‘his’ X-ray glasses to see any guard nearby. ‘There is only one guard in the room and he doesn’t seem to pay much attention. No cameras either. This should be easy,’ he said and pointed his wristwatch at the poor guard and before he could say ‘cheese’, a flash from the watch hit the guard just above his belt and he was asleep. Once he started hearing snores, he continued to explore the room and found a plan of the network of A/C ducts of the building. Also, he found that the vent directly above him was open. ‘Just when I thought things couldn’t get easier,’ he said, climbing his way into the vent. ‘At least this one will be cleaner,’ he thought to himself. Of course, the ducts were much cleaner than the sewers. The cold air didn’t trouble him thanks to his suit. He continued on his path most carefully, never making a noise. The dust nearly made him sneeze but he managed, somehow to move soundless. Much to his comfort, he found through his x-ray glasses that the cameras were fixed in a position directly under the ducts. So he could sneak right under, or over their noses and nobody would know. After quite some crawling, he opened ‘his’ map of the building to see if he was going the right way, to the place where all the evidence was kept. The map didn’t belong to him. He had photographed it on his 7th grade field trip. Back in the day, the police

wasn’t so secretive. Hopefully, the building hadn’t changed much. At the end of the 3rd duct, he cut through it using ‘his’ wristwatch laser and opened up another path below him. He had to continue on ground since no vent led directly to the evidence room. He was extremely careful though, and landed on the ground without making the slightest noise, thanks to ‘his’ anti-gravity shoes which did not belong to him. He used his invisibility cloak to make sure no camera saw him. It could save him from the cameras but not from the infrared sensors of the guards. So he still had to be careful. The wide hallways of the SIEGE Tower made him feel like a little rat who was trying to sneak past a huge cat. As he made a sharp turn, he could hear footsteps on the metallic floor. The noise was coming from behind. He could hear the guards talking. ‘Hey, that guy in the maintenance room, he fell asleep on duty, again,’ said one. ‘Again! This is the fifth time this month. What is wrong with him?’ said another. ‘I wonder. But I’m still amazed that he is still keeping the job.’ ‘That’s because it’s the maintenance room. You know, the most boring place in the building. No one ever comes to that room.’ ‘I see, it’s quite the opposite of the evidence room.’ ‘Alright, back to work. You wouldn’t want to make the chief angry, would you?’ Daniel heard no more of their grumpy voices. Somehow, he made it to the evidence room unseen. Again, he turned on his x-ray glasses. Only this time, he could see not one, not two but ten guards, all armed, standing in a D formation around the computer and at least four hypersensitive cameras designed to subdue anyone in any corner of the room. There was no way he could enter the room without causing some real chaos. He was thinking furiously. ‘No, no, no! Not after coming so close!’ he said to himself. Suddenly he had an idea. ‘If I can hack the cameras, I can program them to subdue the guards,’ he thought,

‘but I can’t hack them manually. They’re too advanced for that. I need to access the surveillance room for that.’ But he was feeling too scared to leave his position. He felt that he was completely screwed. Just then, he ed the pleasant time he used to spend with his Dad when he was a kid. Lying on the beautiful lush green grass, feeling the warmth of the sun fall on his face and gazing at the lake near which he lay. He also ed running around gaily, chasing the… ‘Robo-bee!’ he exclaimed as he reached for the robotic bee in his bag pack. He saw the black metal bee with big red eyes and transparent wings. Almost like a real insect. Then, he took out its controller, similar to that of an RC chopper, and got ready to make his move. The bee was a silent super-weapon. It could lift heavy weights, turn invisible and even take on several armed soldiers at a time. He activated the bee and ed it from under the great door. Then, he put on the ‘bee-sight glasses’ which enabled him to see through the bee’s eyes. In the other room, the fly flew in all four corners of the room, never making a sound, and shut of all the four cameras. Then, it rushed to the centre of the room and sat on a glass table. One of the guards saw it. ‘Look, what do we have here? This little guy came all the way in here,’ he said. Another guard closely observed it and exclaimed, ‘This is no little guy, it’s a spy!’ But before he could say another word, the bee fired a stun bomb and blinded every guard. They went wild and ran into each other. The bee flew rapidly in all directions and after a few moments of chaos. All the guards were down. Daniel entered the room proudly. ‘I never thought I would use you for such a job,’ he smiled. Proud but still careful, he searched the computer for the evidence. This room was visited by another guard only every 20 minutes. So, he had enough time to investigate before his cover would be blown. He found his Dad’s case file in no time. Eager to find out the truth, he looked for evidence like an eagle searches for prey. Within a few minutes, he made a shocking discovery. The fingerprints on the gun used to kill his Dad were of Vortex, a deadly assassin who made use of portals to eliminate his targets. ‘Eureka!’ he cried as softly as possible. But what he saw after that, both enraged and shocked him. At the end of the report, he found the following text was written:

‘Case closed at the request of Doctor Syphon’ Dr. Charles Syphon was the CEO of Syphon Tech and Mr. Frost’s only rival, or what he called himself. He was a power hungry businessman and controlled the specialized law and order forces. He would have done anything possible to get rid of his ‘rival’ businessmen. This is what Daniel thought of him. But the truth was something even more complicated, as you will get to know. ‘I see you know a lot of things you are not supposed to know,’ said a deep, cold voice from behind. Daniel did not respond but trembled with fear. He tried to look back but realized that the person had got his hands on his neck. Daniel felt a large, cold, metallic arm around his neck; as tight as could be. ‘Sleep for a while, kid. You know, you need the rest. After all that exhaustive work, you need to sleep.’ And with that, some kind of smoke came out of his other hand that put Daniel into a deep, deep slumber.

CHAPTER 3

AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

‘Wake up Daniel,’ said an unknown voice. Slowly waking up, Daniel found himself in mechanical arm cuffs. But never losing his sarcasm, he responded while half asleep, ‘I’m not allowed to talk to strangers.’ ‘Oh, I’m no stranger I assure you that.’ With a little effort, Daniel opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was that he was in a great big room with diamonds for flooring. Next he saw a familiar face peering at him. ‘Mr. Syphon?’ he asked. ‘That’s right. I believe you had a nice sleep. I didn’t dare to disturb you. I only wish for your comfort, you see,’ he replied. Mr. Syphon it was. An aging but confident face that could deceive anyone with its false charm; and a man whose ego exceeded his wealth. He was wearing a black suit and in his wrinkled fingers he held a cup of coffee. ‘By kidnapping me?’ ‘You are a kid and you were napping. Is there anything wrong with that?’ he said, taking a sip. ‘Hey! I’m sixteen for your information and you very well know what I’m talking about,’ he shouted, ‘So, would you mind explaining where the hell you have brought me?’ ‘Very well then,’ Mr. Syphon tried no further to play with him. He put down his cup on a glass table. ‘You are at Syphon Tech, my company as you know. Vortex found someone toying with information he was not supposed to.’

A sudden realization came to Daniel’s mind as he regained his senses. ‘You hired him! You used him to kill my Dad!’ he shouted. He could not conceal his anger any longer. ‘Hey, easy there kid. It’s all business,’ he said slyly. ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly for business purposes. Your Dad and I were working on something very special. It was meant to be a new power source; a gift for mankind, in the form of gemstones; five powerful gemstones each possessing the power of an element; Earth, Water, Wind, Fire and Electricity. But you father wanted it for himself,’ he said raising his voice, ‘He stole my property and ran away with it.’ Daniel continued to listen. ‘I obviously wanted them back but how? Your old man has some security of his own. Nothing short of an expert assassin could bring back my property. Also, I had to make sure that no one else knows about your father’s miserable, little theft. So, I needed to make sure that he couldn’t tell anyone.’ This was too much for Daniel to handle. He struggled to free himself. But every struggle drained him of all his energy, thanks to the Syphon tech cuffs. So he stood there, helplessly watching the man who called for his father’s murder. Only this time, he fell questioning himself, ‘Was is worth it? Ensuring justice to a man who didn’t want the good of people?’ Before he could tell about the fate of the gemstones, an alarm rang on his expensive wristwatch. He looked at it and said, ‘Oh dear, it is time for my Board of Directors Meeting; another thing kids are supposed to stay away from. We’ll talk later.’ Daniel made another worthless attempt at freeing himself as he saw the tall man disappear behind the glittering diamonds of the door. He felt stupid for being so careless while retrieving the information. They had taken all his gadgets. He thought if they had taken his diamond as well. He couldn’t feel it in his pocket but Syphon didn’t mention it either. There was nothing he could do but sit like a duck. Suddenly, he heard a feminine voice coming from the diamond-studded flatscreen on the roof. He cranked his neck to see it but it was only audio. ‘Daniel, can you hear me?’ it said, ‘Are you alright?’ It felt so good to hear a soothing voice after such a long time that he nearly forgot to respond. ‘Yeah, kind of; who are you anyway? And how are you talking to me?’ he said.

‘I cannot tell you much right now. You can call me Rose. Now listen, I am deactivating your arm cuffs and opening the window next to you; but I can’t do it for long.’ He looked around and saw an absurdly large electrified window to his left at about twenty meters. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ he asked. ‘You will get just 10 seconds. You need to run to the window and jump out.’ ‘Sorry, I didn’t get that last part,’ he said feeling more shocked than happy, ‘What was it again?’ ‘You need to jump!’ ‘Not on your life!’ ‘It is a matter of life and death!’ ‘I don’t care, you hear me!’ ‘It’s about your life!’ That changed his mood but he still persisted, ‘Okay, give me two minutes.’ ‘You don’t have time and neither do we.’ ‘But…’ ‘I’m disabling the shields in 3!….2!….1!…...now!’ At the sound of ‘now’, Daniel didn’t know what took him but the next thing he knew was that he was free and sprinting towards the window and before he could understand what was happening to him, he jumped. The next thing he knew, he was falling and shouting at the top of his voice. To his own surprise, he made a soft landing on something which felt like a pile of jelly. ‘Huh! I made it. I actually made it!’ he cried but as he was getting off the jelly-like mound, a ravishing, red-haired lady in her twenties held him by the shoulder. She was wearing a metallic armor of silvery red color. ‘No time for celebration, we haven’t escaped yet,’ she said. Just then, a muscular black guy of about 18, dressed in a military green battle suit appeared from behind. He gave a pretty brief intro to Daniel. ‘Call me Chris and no, we haven’t. If you want to live to see the end of the day, just shut up and follow me,’ he said.

‘Hey! Hey! Now hold on right there. I think I deserve some explanation,’ said Daniel. ‘Tell that to them,’ said the lady pointing towards a group of approaching soldiers. ‘Valid point,’ he said. ‘Leave them to me; you guys run,’ said Chris as if preparing for battle. ‘Come with me Daniel,’ said the young lady. ‘But we can’t leave him behind. It’s a complete overkill,’ said Daniel. ‘You’re right; it’s a complete overkill for the guards. But why should we care? Come on now.’ Soon, he found himself running at his best pace behind the lady whom he now thought of as his guardian angel. They both reached the main entrance of the building which they discovered was locked. ‘There’s no way we’re getting out through this gate,’ said Daniel looking at the colossal wall surrounding the building on all sides. Without paying attention to him, she searched through a brown satchel she carried and took out a small handgun. ‘Yeah, like that’s gonna help,’ he said mockingly before she blew up the gate with one massive shot from her tiny gun. Daniel was officially speechless, which is a very rare feat to achieve. They both ran as fast as they could and were soon followed by their other ‘friend’. As a matter of fact, both of them were highly trained assassins and had worked together for five years. All three made it to exit point from where Chris and Rose took their portable hover boards and gave one to Daniel as well. ‘You know how to fly one of these?’ asked Rose. ‘Duh!’ he said.

Then he followed them as they flew away from the building at top speed. Daniel remained silent for most of the journey. They had escaped Syphon, for now.

CHAPTER 4

A NEW HOME

After their great escape, they made for the Titan Bridge. Built in 2035 and gleaming like gold, it was as large as its name suggests. From there they would discuss their further course. Daniel’s head was flooded with questions but didn’t dare to ask them, thinking it might offend them. On reaching the bridge, one look at it made Daniel feel dwarfed like he had never been before. Despite living in the same city, he had never really seen much of that bridge earlier. Its massive expanse of electric channels flickered like giant flashlights made it look ever more beautiful. ‘Alright people, I think it’s about time we returned to the mother-base,’ said Rose in a commanding voice. ‘What? No! I have to get back home first. Everybody must be worried about me,’ replied Daniel. ‘And you think you can just do that,’ said Chris, ‘Syphon’s men are looking for you everywhere; and your home is the first place they would search.’ ‘I can’t put their lives at risk for my fault!’ ‘You already have; now our top priority is to get you to safety. Either way, your family is not safe.’ ‘I know; it’s just that Mom would feel a lot less worried if I…’ said Daniel trying his best to convince them to take him back. Now Rose had lost her temper, she said pointing her gun at Daniel, ‘Listen here kid; I did not waste my precious time in rescuing you to let you get back to your death. You are not going back,’ she raised her tone, ‘so be nice and come with us

gently or I have other ways to convince you; and they are not very nice.’ Daniel had nothing more to say; he had been defeated. It discouraged him from asking any questions whatsoever. Seeing no way out of his current mess, he agreed to go with them. Chris patted on his back and took him to the underside of the bridge. There, he seemed to get a retinal scan on a tiny opening and a secret hatch opened. ‘Now do you like her or do you like her?’ asked Chris as he fully opening the hatch to reveal the most beautiful aircraft Daniel had ever seen; he just kept his mouth wide open. It was military green in color and had the most spectacular wings he had yet seen on an aircraft. Chris had really loved his plane and called her Veronica. ‘Shall we?’ asked Chris. As soon as he entered the craft, Daniel knew that it would be loaded with absolutely cutting-edge technology; and he was far from wrong. Veronica was as much a beauty from the inside as from outside. She had things that would make most aircrafts despise her. With luxurious interiors and bold exteriors complemented by gadgets that Daniel had never heard of, Veronica was a total beast. ‘Dude, she is beautiful,’ said Daniel in amazement. ‘Thanks man,’ replied Chris, feeling much appreciated,’ I think it’s about time we started; next stop main base.’ For most of the flight, Daniel was busy trying to get rest but didn’t get much of it. When lying down didn’t help, he sat and wondered about his diamond. ‘Syphon never mentioned having taken it. He took my gadgets alright, but whatever happened to that damn diamond?’ he wondered. As he held his head in his hands, he came to notice something strange. He had a tattoo on his left wrist. He had never got it. He didn’t have much love for tattoos. It was a large black design with a gem in the centre and flames all around it. When he tried to touch it, he jumped back in surprise as it came to life. It was his yellow diamond. Firmly attached to his wrist for life. He tried to free it from his arm but in vain. He realized that it was no use. But he didn’t speak of it for quite some time. ‘Just not now,’ he thought to himself. There were more important things that he

wanted to know. Within 15 minutes, they reached an isolated island, mostly forest, nearly a 100 miles of the coast of Los Angeles. By the time they landed, the gem had turned back to tattoo again. ‘Daniel Frost, I welcome you to the Hunters’ Island,’ said Chris from the pilot seat. ‘Here you will get your answers,’ said Rose. ‘Really? I mean, sure. But I hope you guys have some food cause I haven’t eaten in days,’ said Daniel, ing his last meal on the night before yesterday. But when Rose said ‘answers’, he felt satisfied already. ‘Of course, enough food for you to swim in,’ replied Chris. Daniel smiled a bit. Veronica made a smooth landing near the coastline. As he stepped out of the majestic craft, he breathed the surprisingly fresh air which he thought was scarce near big cities. He thought that he could become one with the universe but very soon he snapped back. His stomach was growling with hunger. He had not walked behind them for long when they reached a banyan tree in the middle of the clayey road. Rose muttered some kind of in a language he did not understand and the base of the tree split open, revealing a hidden age. ‘This is something you don’t see every day,’ thought Daniel. From there, they walked down a narrow staircase of a dark room. He felt more and more nervous as they went down. As soon as they reached the bottom, all the lights lit up revealing a very large and grand room which was not visible earlier. It was quite decorated and made to look as ‘normal’ as possible. A bunch of fake bananas hanging from the roof, some fake coconuts used as doorknobs on wooden cupboard and a fake bear hide on the floor gave it an absurd look. Chris bent down and pulled the nose of the bear and it opened up the cupboard, revealing a control . Rose entered a code and the entire room went down like an elevator. He began to appreciate how well they had hidden their hideout. Chris explained how they had built their hideout, ‘All the digging and building was a great fuss. But it was all worth it as you will see,’ he said. At last, they reached the bottom of the seemingly endless descent and when the doors opened, what Daniel saw was pretty cool in every sense of the world. Never had he seen such an amazing place. They had created a complete villa

hundreds of feet below the surface of the Earth. It was perfect, no matter what you liked to do. Whether you liked to play games, try your hand at Science, go swimming, read tons of books or anything else. ‘Welcome to your new home. Get used to it. You will be spending a lot of time here,’ said Chris. Daniel didn’t pay much attention to anything they said. His first wish was to get food and food he did get. Such a grand meal that he didn’t even have on his birthday or so he thought. Hunger often makes a person eat even the things he would most definitely avoid at other times; and in other cases, make common food taste delicious. After he had eaten and drunk to his utmost satisfaction, he wanted to know what had happened to his father; what was the gemstone? Who were those guys and why had they saved him? He finally spoke up, ‘Now I would like some answers for dessert.’ The weariness of his voice had ed.

CHAPTER 5

SOME ANSWERS

‘I suppose you are expecting answers,’ said Rose. ‘Yup,’ said Daniel as he set himself upon a couch. ‘And you wish to get them fast.’ ‘Absolutely.’ ‘Very well then, shoot it; one question at a time,’ said Rose. ‘First of all, tell me about my Dad and what he was working on; and was he really a maniac?’ asked Daniel. ‘As a matter of fact he was a mad scientist. He had devised absolutely insane theories that anyone in their right minds would have ignored. He sought to create a new energy source for the world. A gift for the world, in the form of….’ ‘Gemstones,’ interrupted Daniel. ‘True indeed, he thought that these would provide unending energy to meet all the energy needs of people which I think you know about.’ ‘As a matter of fact, yes.’ ‘Now, you must know that these were all just theories and it would have taken a gigantic amount of resources and manpower to make it physically. The money he had, for the resources, he ed Mr. Syphon.’ ‘Wait a minute,’ said Daniel, ‘How is it possible that he didn’t have the resources? He could have bought them, couldn’t he?’

‘Then it is as I thought,’ said Rose, ‘you don’t really know much about Syphon Tech, do you?’ ‘Huh?’ ‘Well, the main constituent of the gemstones is Serenium, an element rarely formed when two stars abnormally collide with each other. Since Syphon’s company was the first one to discover this element, by far he is the only supplier of Serenium on Earth.’ ‘Not that it is necessary, but what is so special about this element, Serenium?’ ‘You have seen how a sponge absorbs water, have you?’ ‘Of course.’ ‘But you have also seen how it can release no more water once it is fully squeezed.’ ‘Yeah, so what?’ ‘Now imagine a sponge that not only absorbs, but becomes water itself. A neverending source of water.’ ‘That sounds like science fiction.’ ‘True, but that is what Serenium does. Once it is immersed in an element, it acquires the properties of that element. Now, your Dad wondered- What if we could harness this power and use it for ourselves. That’s where Syphon stepped in. ‘As I was saying, your Dad signed an agreement with Syphon that whatever he achieves, if he achieves anything at all, he would have a share in it. But he didn’t realize what Syphon wanted to do with his share in the gemstones. Then, they both worked together for several years.’ Just at the moment, Daniel ed the time when he was but a child, a 6 year old with no knowledge of the world. From his perspective, his Dad was the kind of person who placed his work before his son, not realizing what he was going to give back to the world. Now, he was feeling sorry for being such a fool.

Rose continued, ‘After 10 years of working, failing and trying again, the gemstones were ready. All the five were named after the elements they manipulated and together, they were called The Bender Gems, for they could bend the elements to the will of their .’ ‘Did they have any other use?’ asked Daniel wondering about his gem’s abilities, ‘I mean like some other powers.’ ‘Yes,’ said Rose, ‘each of Bender Stones could manipulate their respective elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Lightning; and also let the summon the element in the form of a beast.’ ‘Oh come on. This is ridiculous. A beast? Really?’ ‘I know how you feel but that was only a safety measure. To prevent them from getting into wrong hands.’ ‘Anyway, how can one identify one of these from another? Don’t they have a special mark or something?’ asked Daniel, still curious about his gem. His left hand was in his pocket. ‘Well besides having different colors,’ said Rose, ‘each of them had one special ability; Fire Stone could be used to hear thoughts, Water Stone could help one breathe underwater, Earth Stone gave extreme physical strength and Wind Stone gifted the power of speed.’ Daniel was wondering how his gemstone could not be a Bender Gem. How could he not have experienced something as obvious as that? He was about to ask her about it but as she continued, he fell silent, ‘There was one Stone though, that was different than the others, the Lightning Stone. It gave powers that are truly fictional. It could let its bearer see through time. Your Dad kept it for himself. We have no idea where it is now.’ Daniel knew then that it could be none other than his stone. He tried his best not to react on this. ‘Very well,’ he said, as if not paying much attention to what she said, ‘Who are you guys anyway?’ ‘We are old friends of your Dad. Once he found out that Syphon wanted the Stones for world domination, he decided to flee with them and asked for our aid. He asked us to hide all Stones but one. But when we were taking them away

from Earth, Syphon’s men attacked us and destroyed our ship, scattering all four Stones in different parts of the world. We are still searching for them. You see, our grandparents were bounty hunters. They ed on their legacy to their children but they refused, saying there was more to give back to the world than just killing for money. But they held on to the name, saying that it was a catchy title. After they retired, they carried on their legacy through us. Now, we’re the Bounty Hunters.’ ‘Hmm..,’ said Daniel, ‘what happened after the crash?’ Rose continued, ‘Fortunately, we survived the crash. We immediately ed your Dad to explain him the situation. He simply said, ‘Listen carefully! There is not enough time for me to escape. I know Syphon’s assassin is pursuing me. I just want to tell you, keep my son safe. No matter what happens, just don’t leave his side. Syphon will try to get to him if he finds out I’m missing. He has been thrown into a battle he has nothing to do with. Keep him safe.’ With that he disconnected. We were off Syphon’s track for several hours. We tried to get back as soon as possible. We hacked our way into Syphon’s tower. The next thing we knew, you were captured and we had a responsibility.’ Daniel remained silent. He got up to leave the place. ‘Well, so that’s it. I don’t know what to do anymore. I mean this is bigger than me. There’s just nothing I can do,’ he said. ‘So what,’ said Rose, ‘you’re gonna just walk out on us? Like that? Like a coward?’ ‘You don’t get it, Rose. I mean, you guys, you are like the greatest fighters I’ve ever seen. You can challenge that maniac with your skills and tech but, then there’s me. I’m a nothing. What can I do?’ Rose thought for a moment and then spoke up, ‘Well, this is not exactly what your father would have in mind and it takes years of practice and training but, you don’t have much choice, do you?’ ‘Rose, I don’t like where this is going,’ said Chris. He had guessed her plan. ‘Nope, not really. I’ve absolutely run out,’ said Daniel. ‘In that case, I have a plan for you,’ she said.

‘What is it, may I know?’ ‘We could, actually train you to be one of us. A master of all arts of combat, a new hero risen from the ashes of the previous life, a Bounty Hunter. So, what will it be, kid? Are you willing to take the Hunter’s path?’ ‘Oh yeah!’

CHAPTER 6

A PROPER GOODBYE

‘Listen Daniel, there are a few things you must know before you begin with your training,’ said Rose. ‘Keep going,’ said Daniel. ‘The way of the Hunter is one of hard work and sacrifice. I myself had to train for 6 years before I attained perfection; and our special training requires you to take an oath.’ ‘What kind of oath, exactly?’ he asked. ‘It is simply to make sure that you will not quit till you are trained; and also that you would never betray the Bounty Hunters.’ ‘Seems quite oathy; but before I take it, I would like to get a chance to say a proper goodbye to my family,’ said Daniel, realizing he had been missing for 3 days. Rose exited the room silently to discuss something with Chris. From his room Daniel could hear the faint voices of them involved in some kind of debate. After about 15 minutes, both of them reentered the room and Rose spoke up, ‘Alright, we are taking you back home. You get 1 hour to say goodbye to whoever you like. After that you come to the roof of your building and we take you back. Is that understood?’ ‘Understood, thank you,’ he replied in a firm voice. He was excited to get back home. But given the time limit, he thought of how to tell his family everything and yet get to say them goodbye properly. For this, he thought of another plan. So it was about 20 minutes later that he was standing at the door of his long-

gone life, home. Before leaving, Rose warned him, ‘, one word or anything else to your mother and you can forget seeing tomorrow morning. We’ll pick you up in an hour.’ And with that, they left but kept a watch on him from the shadows. ‘Do you think he’ll betray us?’ asked Chris. ‘He doesn’t plan to,’ replied Rose, ‘But who knows?’ Seeing no more eyes on him, Daniel initiated his plan. He took out his hover board and flew off at full speed. He had never meant to return home. Curious about his step, the Hunters tailed him on foot stealthily. Quite soon, he reached a beautifully decorated villa. It belonged to Miss Emily Drake, his girlfriend. He still ed the first day they had met. It was an evening of February, two years ago; he had gone to celebrate the success of his father’s Wildlife Protection Fund, an organization dedicated to raising money for the protection and welfare of wild animals. His father was busy meeting his friends while he was the sufferer of the night. He was desperately looking for some fun when he accidentally bumped into this blonde (but not stupid) stunningly beautiful girl. He was quite simple stunned for the moment and could do nothing but gaze at her. That was his introduction to Emily. Both of them felt a zing and knew for sure that they were meant for each other. They spent that long night looking into each others’ eyes, under the fair light of the moon. None wanted that night to end. They both knew from that moment that they would be partners for life. Before he could their first kiss, he snapped back into reality and realized that he had only 45 more minutes to spare. Very quickly, he descended to the ground level and without a second thought, taking advantage of an open window, jumped in. He had no time to waste. The Hunters, on the other hand, were still unclear of his motives. Soon, he found out that Emily was coming right in his direction. He decided to hide in one corner of the room to surprise her, a decision he later regretted. As she entered the room, he sprang up to surprise her; another decision in his

regret list. Without thinking for a second, the lady pepper-sprayed him in the face. The spray was harmless but still hurt like hell. Soon after, she discovered his identity and gave the usual ladies’ reaction of covering her mouth. ‘Oh my God! Daniel! What are you doing here? Where have you been for so long?’ she asked. ‘Would you mind helping me wash this pepper off?’ he said in a shaky voice. ‘Oops! Sorry, I forgot,’ she said, helping him get up, ‘Up with you sweetie, I’m so sorry.’ She helped him to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water. Once, the pepper was cleared, he sat down and spoke, ‘That’s feels so much better Now, I need to tell you something very important, tell me; can I trust you?’ ‘Of course you can, what is it?’ ‘Well, to begin with; I’m not sure you would believe most of my tale and I don’t expect you to. But I needed someone to tell my family that I’m okay.’ ‘Come on Danny. This is a judgment-free zone; you can speak your mind.’ ‘Firstly, I love when you call me Danny. Secondly, It started 3 days ago when……’ And that’s how, 30 minutes after entering the villa, Daniel narrated his entire incident to Emily. From her, he learnt of how Syphon’s men had come to her for questioning but went back empty-handed. He even told her about the Bounty Hunters and how he would be gone for training. ‘He-He broke the only rule we gave him!’ said Chris furiously. ‘Relax, we told him not a word to his mother,’ said Rose, ‘That’s our fault. Also, the girl seems pretty trustworthy to me if that’s what Daniel thinks.’ ‘I will never understand you, Rose’ ‘No, you won’t,’ she said smilingly.’

Now, back at the villa, Daniel had finished telling Emily about his adventure. ‘Wow! That’s quite a mouthful,’ she said. ‘Really, you actually believe me?’ he asked surprisingly. ‘Every single word of it. That’s the thing about relationships Daniel, they require trust.’ ‘Thanks for believing me. Actually, there is a favor I wanted to ask of you, my love.’ ‘Anything you like.’ ‘As you see, I won’t be coming back anytime soon. So, I need you to tell my Mom that I came to meet you. She will ask you a dozen questions and that is obvious. Just tell her that I won’t be seeing her for some time. But wherever I will be, I will be okay. Apart from that, anything else I have told you must remain a secret. Are you sure you can do this?’ ‘I swear, I won’t let anyone know anything.’ ‘Thanks sweetheart, I knew I could trust you. Now, I have to leave.’ With that, Daniel left but not without a goodbye; and a long, ionate kiss with the lady he considered his entire world. So it was nearly ten minutes to midnight when Daniel left the villa. Emily didn’t see him again for a long, long time.

CHAPTER 7

A NEW BEGINNING

Daniel trained for years and years, till he had mastered every single weapon and skill; and he did all that in a seemingly short span of 4 years, suring his superiors in every way. At the same time, the Bounty Hunters continued to search for the Stones, but never found any. Emily talked to Daniel’s mother but she could never be convinced of his safety. Once Daniel was trained, Rose thought that he would require actual experience and stationed him in San Francisco for one year of field duty. He had several adventures during this time as well, but those don’t come into this tale. Strangely, they never heard anything about Syphon during all those 4 years. In time, he did reveal his ‘birthday gift’ to them but all they did was get angry and scold him, ‘Why the heck didn’t you tell us before?’ To which his reply would be, ‘I just waited for the right moment.’ But that wouldn’t satisfy them. They wanted to know everything he knew. But even after years of attempts, they could not remove it from his arm. So, they decided to move on. When Daniel got really sad about his ill-luck, Rose said, ‘,Daniel, any of the Gems could bond with just the person they were designed for. Your father designed it especially for you. So that makes you special as well. Well, it makes you, a Gem Guardian. So do me a favor and take care of it. Okay?’ That soothed him but surely, he wanted revenge, but they convinced him that retrieving the gemstones before Syphon was more important. Thus, on one fateful day, ended both his field training and the desperate search for the Bender Gems. Chris had devised a machine that could make use of Daniel’s Lightning Stone to locate the others. ‘How does it work?’ asked Daniel.

‘It’s quite simple; you put your arm into this scanning tunnel and if it locates any Bender Gems, it beeps and shows its location on the globe.’ ‘Fine, let’s do this,’ said Daniel. He inserted his arm into the scanner and the buttons on its sides immediately gleamed bright red in color. Then the lights turned green and the internal structure of the machine rotated. ‘Looks like it found one,’ cried Chris as he saw a blue dot appear on the globe, ‘It seems to be in Tokyo.’ ‘Japan? So that means we’re going there, right?’ ‘Of course we are. Chris, ready the plane,’ said Rose. ‘Aye Aye,’ said Chris. ‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go,’ said Daniel, burning with enthusiasm. ‘Wait a minute Daniel, there is something you need before we go,’ said Rose. ‘Oh come on! I think I’ve had enough training.’ ‘No, but a new armor doesn’t count in training.’ ‘Really? Oh yeah!’ ‘Wait right here.’ ‘Sure.’ Within 5 minutes, Rose brought out the most stunning armor he had ever come across. Such a sleek design and a metallic silver finish that would shame the most beautiful sports car and loaded with such weapons and equipment that would give the US military a run for its money. A perfectly built suit for a perfect assassin. Daniel was practically drooling over it by now. ‘I present to you, the Shadow Hunter,’ she said but Daniel didn’t respond. He simply touched it and it suited him up itself.

‘I love this thing!’ he cried, ‘Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Rose. It’s absolutely gorgeous.’ ‘Well, you completed your training; you deserved a present indeed. And I suppose thanking Christopher would be better.’ ‘Oh, I forgot, Thank you, Chris. It has everything. Jet rockets, sonic boom, energy blasters and missiles! I might even outrun Veronica! Can I take it for a ride before we leave?’ ‘Of course, have fun. And I also created a gauntlet to help use your Gem more effectively,’ said Chris. ‘Sweet!’ he cried. And with that, he flew off at top speed; trying all the functions of his new armor and appreciating its perfection every now and then. Even at 20 years, he still hadn’t lost his fun-loving nature. So it was about 2 hours later that they started on their long flight to Japan. Daniel wanted to fly to Japan in his suit but Chris stopped him assuring him that there will be plenty adventure once they reach there; and he happily obliged. ‘Finally!’ he shouted at the top of his voice before Veronica disappearing into the horizon.

CHAPTER 8

WATERY GESTURES

‘Now listen, before we land, we are three American tourists on a private tour in Japan,’ said Rose ‘Is that supposed to make them like us?’ inquired Daniel as they made the smoothest landing on the seashore. ‘No, but just in case,’ she said. ‘I think we should switch to more, you know, subtle clothes instead of armored suits,’ said Rose. ‘No need for that,’ said Chris, unloading their luggage, ‘I programmed our suits to change into any type of clothing at will.’ ‘Sweet! You never seize to amaze us Chris,’ said Daniel and before he could say banana, his armor transformed into tourist clothes. ‘I also designed a pocket model of our tracer. Now we won’t have to walk around carrying a heavy, metal box,’ said Chris. With that, he took out the tracer which looked no bigger than a pocket calculator. Chris pressed the white button on his wrist-watch and Veronica turned invisible. ‘That takes care of unwanted eyes. Let’s get going,’ he said as they walked down the shoreline, with eyes on the tracer; trying to track down the source of the signal. Tokyo was beautiful. So full of life and densely packed with people and gigantic skyscrapers that they had to catch their breath after just one sight of the marvel, that was Tokyo. And thus, they walked for hours and hours in the densely crowded streets of Tokyo. Never before had they seen such a lively city. So full

of different kinds of people, chatting with friends, in the enormous malls for shopping, for some ill purpose or simply roaming aimlessly. ‘How long do we have to walk?’ asked Daniel, ‘We’ve been walking for nearly 3 hours now. I am absolutely exhausted.’ ‘So am I. But the scanner won’t give the exact location until we are within a traceable range of the Stone,’ said Chris. ‘And how much is that?’ ‘500 meters, more or less.’ An estimate of a reply, is not treated politely after 3 hours of walking under the summer sun of Japan. When all three seemed to be too tired to move even a step, they entered a restaurant to regain their energy. And when they ate, they forgot about all the sorrows of the world. Once they were filled, they continued and after another hour of what seemed hopeless searching, they got a sign of hope. ‘Guys! It’s somewhere close by,’ said Chris with a sigh of relief. His tracer showed some readings in small red letters with an arrow pointing in the North-West. Target located at 300 ‘This is it guys, let’s hurry now,’ They raced towards the direction of the signal and reached location in no time. What they saw was weirder than they could have imagined. They had thought of finding a crushed piece of land where the Stone had landed and the local security all over it. But it was anything but that. On the outside of a huge gate was written something in Japanese. Rose seemed more surprised than the other two since she knew Japanese. ‘It’s not possible,’ she said after a long glance. ‘Rose, what does it say?’ asked Daniel. ‘Hiro’s Aquatic Park,’ she replied. ‘You gotta be kidding me!’ he exclaimed, ‘Seriously?’

‘Yup, very hard to believe indeed,’ she said. ‘I mean isn’t it supposed to be where the Stone crashed?’ he asked. ‘It should be. I think we might get our answers from Mr. Hiro,’ she said as they walked in. It was a great water park. But the entire crowd seemed to be attracted towards one fine spot. They went forward to have a look when an announcement was heard. As Rose translated it for them, this was what they heard, ‘Come one! Come all! Welcome to Hiro’s Aquatic Park. It is time for the greatest show on Earth as Master Hiro Yashida is about to attempt another world record. The great master is going to hold his breath for two hours underwater. A feat never tried before. Children, don’t try this at home.’ As they moved even closer to the enormous crowd, they could hear the people chanting a name. Hiro! Hiro! They could hear for about half an hour until they heard a splash. They tried to cut through the crowd for an even closer look to find a skinny, old man meditating in a large glass pool filled with water. With his keen eyes, Daniel spotted the old man’s trick. ‘Look at the necklace he is wearing. No doubt it’s the Water Stone,’ he cried. The others also caught glimpse of it. ‘We must wait till he is isolated from the crowd. We can’t attack him in public,’ said Rose. ‘Now I wonder how he does it. A bloody cheater he is,’ said Daniel. So they waited, and waited, and waited. Finally after two hours, he came out of the pool. The crowd exclaimed. Master Yashida addressed his fans and greeted every single person with a tiny smile on his face. Once his fans were satisfied and his interview was over, he headed for his rest room, unaware that he was followed. Once he reached his quarters and shut his door, the Hunters came out of the shadows, now in their armors. Seeing people in his private quarters, his happy face turned red and he got really angry. An unexpected reaction from a man of his age.

Daniel spoke up, ‘Mr. Yashida, we don’t want to hurt you.’ Rose immediately translated and conveyed it to Yashida; in fact, she did the same for the rest of the conversation. ‘We have just come to reclaim what is rightfully ours,’ said Daniel. ‘You have no claim on anything,’ said the old man. ‘Oh really? How about that fancy necklace you are wearing,’ said Daniel, pointing towards the light blue stone in his neck. He could see the waves of water flowing through it. The old man grabbed it with his hand as it started to glow. He shouted, ‘Do you think you have any claim over it? Is that so? Then come and take it if you dare!’ His eyes started to glow blue in color as well. Over the years, he had learnt to use the power of the Bender Gem. Finally, he summoned a creature of water around him; a ferocious many headed dragon. ‘The Hydra!’ exclaimed Rose. ‘Why can’t it ever be easy,’ said Daniel mockingly. With years of training, he too had unlocked the hidden potential of the Lightning Stone and learned to harness its power. ‘Don’t worry, the old man shouldn’t be much of a challenge,’ he said as he walked towards the creature alone. The Hydra roared in challenge but Daniel remained calm. Chris and Rose also armed themselves with their blasters. It was time for battle. Yashida’s Hydra gave the starting fire as he shot large balls of pressurized water from all its seven menacing heads. Daniel ducked as one flew right over his head. ‘Chris, move in from the left. Rose, from the right. Attack on my signal,’ he cried as he dashed towards the Hydra. He used the Lightning Stone to summon a blade of lightning. When he was within reach of the monster, he jumped on top of it and hit on the neck with his blade. Then he proceeded to carry himself over the beast and behind it. Before touching the ground, he shouted, ‘Now!’ and Chris and Rose unleashed a terrible amount of energy blasts on the monster that

threw it off balance. It roared in defiance. But before it could recover, Rose shot it in all its seven faces with a Plasma Cannon. The tremendous amount of energy released created a smoke screen that blinded them for the moment. But when the smoke cleared, they realized it didn’t have much effect on it as all the heads reshaped themselves. Then, it unleashed several watery whips at them. They had a hard time avoiding them but managed it somehow. They tried to hit it again with energy blasts but to no avail. ‘It’s no use guys, we can’t even scratch it!’ exclaimed Chris. ‘Who said we had to even put a scratch on it,’ said Daniel as he charged up his Stone. Then, he used it to generate a vast amount of electrical energy and seeing the right moment, he fired it at the Hydra and BOOM! The blast hurt it fatally. The electrified water was too painful for an old man. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and fell unconscious. The Hydra evaporated out of existence and Yashida lay on the floor, defeated. Chris commented, ‘Yeah that probably shocked him.’ ‘Well, that was easy,’ said Daniel as he bent down to claim their prize from the defeated Yashida and unhooked it from his necklace. As they were about to leave, he saw several cutouts from different newspapers on the wall of the room. They read as follows from top to bottom:

Water Park Owner Loses Fortune Due To Mysterious Meteoroid Former Water Park Owner’s Daughter Dies Due To Lack of Money Yashida Reopens Water Park New World Record by Yashida Yashida Turns Millionaire Hiro Yashida: Trickster or Master?

As he saw the last of the news, Daniel turned dead silent and exited the old

man’s quarters. 30 minutes later, the Hunters were on board their ship, planning for their next destination. Chris saw that Daniel was still silent and spoke up, ‘I know how you feel, Daniel. But , you will face more challenges that will be many times harder than this one, physically and emotionally.’ ‘But do that no matter what, we will always be by your side,’ said Rose. ‘Thanks guys,’ said Daniel, staring through the window as they left one country in search of another. They had two Bender Stones, three remained to be found. ‘Oh! I almost forgot!’ he exclaimed. ‘What is it?’ asked Rose. ‘What are we supposed to do with the Water Stone now?’ ‘Hmm… That’s a bummer. Chris, we gotta think of something.’ ‘Hey don’t ask me. I mean, why you don’t try it? Eh Rosaline?’ said Chris, trying to focus on flying. ‘What? No! Absolutely no. How do we even know it would work? This is no joke!’ ‘One way to find out,’ said Daniel, handing her the Gem. ‘Well, I guess I could give it a shot,’ she sighed, trying to place it on her wrist. As she was about to say, ‘See, nothing happened,’ it attached itself to her wrist. ‘Rose, look! Dad designed one for you as well!’ cried Daniel. But she did not respond. She was busy gazing at her enigmatic Gem. ‘Wow! It’s beautiful,’ she said, observing her newfound power. ‘Want my help in using it?’ asked Daniel.

‘No, I think I’ll be okay. I did practice in the simulation for this of thing. It’s quite simple.’ Just as she said ‘simple’, a stream of water flew from the Gem and splashed into her face, ruining her make-up and hair. ‘Yeah, about that,’ said Daniel. The boys roared with laughter.

CHAPTER 9

A WISH TO RACE

Soon, the Bounty Hunters were flying over the Pacific while Daniel was getting his gemstone scanned for the location of the next Bender Stone. He was, by now, completely bored since it was taking longer than expected. ‘This is strange,’ said Chris, putting the plane into auto-pilot, ‘It should have located the next Stone by now. Something ain’t right.’ ‘What do you mean ‘ain’t right’?’ asked Daniel. ‘You see, this machine sends out signals of a frequency to which only the Bender Stones respond. But this time, they are not responding,’ replied Chris. ‘So, you mean they don’t want to be found,’ said Daniel, removing his arm from the scanner. ‘Nonsense, it’s probably some technical issue,’ said Chris, ‘I’ll look into it right away.’ He started opening up the scanner to look for any kind of problem. ‘Ah! There it is!’ he said, ‘We’ve run out of fuel.’ ‘What! Why didn’t you refuel it before we started for Japan?’ said Rose. ‘I told you to do so.’ ‘No, you didn’t’ ‘Hey guys! Hold on. What good are we if we keep arguing among ourselves,’ said Daniel, trying to control the situation. He had often seen how their arguments turn out and was not in a mood for it now. He asked, ‘What kind of fuel are we talking about here?’

‘The scanner has to be fed on a rare compound called Petroleum,’ said Chris. ‘What the heck is that?’ said Daniel. ‘It is a fossil fuel,’ stated Rose, ‘Believe it or not; it was a major and most abundant source of energy, about 30-40 years ago. But since the advent of nitrofuels, petroleum simply disappeared. Now it can be found only on our island, or…’ ‘Or?’ interrupted Daniel. ‘Africa,’ she replied. ‘Well, we are still quite far from home,’ said Daniel, ‘Chris set a course for Africa.’ ‘Already on it,’ he replied. The rest of the flight was a blur. In no time, as it seemed to them, they were flying over the plains of East Africa. This region had not seen much development even after the 4th Industrial Revolution because the people loved for its vast wilderness and awe-inspiring landscapes. They wanted to conserve it as best as possible. The locals themselves were very fond of it. They landed on a bare patch of land, got out of the plane and put it into stealth mode. ‘One last untouched piece of land,’ said Chris as he breathed into the fresh air, of the kind he hadn’t breathed since they left the hideout. ‘I hope it remains that way,’ said Daniel, feeling a little worried about the natural beauty of the place. He had seen how places of great beauty had come to a tragic end too terrible to speak of. ‘Cheer up, man. Africa has survived four Industrial Revolutions and four million years before that. Nothing could defeat her.’ Daniel nodded in agreement while Rose brought out a device with a tiny antenna over it.

‘This will point us towards the source of petroleum,’ she said. ‘Then what are we waiting for?’ said Daniel. They had covered thousands of miles to get to this place but the miles ahead seemed to much slower. This reminded them of Japan but not a drop of water could they see. They had their supplies, of course, but these things only countered their hunger. It couldn’t fill the loneliness in each of their hearts, for neither man nor beast could they see over the unforgiving plains. Their suits had already changed into those of an African ranger. After 1 hour of desperate searching, when they had begun to get desperate, they saw something which lit up their faces. In a distance, they could see two tall figures coming at them on some noisy vehicle and at the same time, the petroleum signal was also getting ever stronger. After a few minutes they could distinctly see two men, with two red containers in each of their hands riding on a jeep. On their dark faces, they could see several fine lines, which once from a distance barely visible, now looked as clear as the sun and deeply set like cement in their rough looking faces. Also, their cheeks were painted white and blue and they were wearing the clothes of an American ranger. It was a weird look but they totally pulled it off. Standing side by side, nobody could tell them from one another save by the peacock feather on one’s bald head. Finally, one of the two spoke up in distinct, clear English, ‘I am Isingoma and this is Kato. We are the Jelani twins. We suppose that you are looking for petroleum with that device of yours. Many people come with machines like that and go empty handed. As you see, we have plenty of petroleum. You can have it, but there’s a catch to it,’ he said, showing them his container. Keep talking,’ said Daniel, feeling confused. ‘My brother and I have a thrill for racing. Beat us and you can have all the fuel you want, plus one thing of your choice.’ Daniel stared at the muscular man and then at his peacock feather, on which he could now see a distinct, shiny brown gemstone. Rose immediately identified it as the Earth Stone but didn’t react. ‘He has the Earth Stone,’ said Daniel in a barely audible voice.

‘Yup,’ replied Rose. ‘Then should we attack them?’ asked Daniel. ‘No, not now at least. We don’t know if they even know about it.’ ‘Of course they do! Look at how he is wearing it.’ ‘Wearing what?’ ‘Oh!’ said Rose, ‘My friend here wants to say that he really likes your gemstone.’ ‘This is Thamani, my lucky charm. It makes me strong,’ said Isingoma. ‘If we defeat you at race,’ asked Daniel, ‘can we have it?’ ‘You may, but only when you defeat me.’ ‘Then it’s settled. We will race you. We don’t have a ride though.’ ‘That should not be a problem. We have dozens of jeeps. You may drive any you like.’ Isingoma took them to a wide selection of jeeps. The Hunters took the most graceful, military green jeep; much to the black man’s disappointment. ‘Hey, funny thing they got such a rare fuel but not a single hover-car,’ joked Chris. Kato silently stared at him in a way which made him uncomfortable. The Hunters took a glass of cold water each from their supplies and got ready to race. The twins took them to the course and Kato explained them the path. ‘First one to cross that volcano over there wins,’ he said pointing to a dreadful looking volcano, ‘The path is simple as that. Drive to the volcano, jump over it and reach the other side before your opponent.’ Isingoma was riding a red hot jeep which was no less hot than the volcano itself. Kato signaled the race to start and both the riders sped off with full throttle. From the hunters, their best driver, Rose was participating.

Both were driving at the highest velocity their jeeps could attain. Carefully dodging all the obstacles while maintaining a high speed wasn’t easy but both the drivers were very talented. It was the first time Isingoma was having a hard time at winning. For the first time, he had met his match. As they approached the volcano, Rose could already feel the heat, of the engine and of the volcano. Without losing their momentum, both climbed the hot mound perfectly. Then came the jump. Rose activated her nitro-boost as she saw her opponent do the same. They jumped; both felt like they were flying and at the same moment, trying to out-fly each other. The jump was successful and both made a safe landing. Soon after, they could see the finish line within their reach. Isingoma was just a few inches ahead of Rose and trying to increase the distance; he could feel the sweet taste of victory already. Just as he was about to cross the finish line, the ground split up, revealing a behemoth of a snake and within seconds, Isingoma was between his razor-sharp pincers along with his jeep. He could see its venom already melting his jeep. He jumped on top of his jeep, trying to stay alive for as long as possible. Just as Rose hit the brakes, the goliath gave a sharp hiss. It seemed like it was saying, ‘Struggle to your heart’s content.’

CHAPTER 10

A WILD ENCOUNTER

On the other hand, Daniel and Chris were bored to death. Kato wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to talk much. They were eagerly waiting for any kind of news. Soon, their hopes were fulfilled but not the way they would have liked. Instead of the roar of the engine, they heard a searing hiss in a distance. ‘That doesn’t sound nice,’ said Daniel, ‘I have a feeling that something’s not right. We should go check them out.’ But before he could say any further, he saw Chris dash forward at full speed and then look behind to shout to him, ‘What, you need an invitation or something?’ He had already switched to his armor. Daniel too changed his suit in a flash and hurried towards him as they launched themselves into the sky. With their new suits, they could fly faster than ever before. Once they crossed the volcano, they saw an unusual sight. They saw Isingoma, paralyzed with fear, struggling to keep his balance on top of his jeep between the fangs of an unusually large snake; his jeep had nearly slipped down its throat and it was now beckoning him. Next they saw Rose, trying her best to keep the behemoth’s mouth open. ‘Is this a part of the race?’ asked Daniel, ‘I mean, we wouldn’t like to interfere if you are…’ ‘Shut up and get us out of here,’ shouted Rose. On hearing her voice, the boys flew towards them as fast as their suits could carry them. Daniel grabbed Isingoma and Chris got Rose. Seeing her angry, he tried to cheer her up. ‘So, how was your race?’ he asked. ‘Other than getting stuck in the mouth of a 100 foot snake, pretty good,’ she

replied, ‘Now get me down you idiot!’ ‘Very well, my lady,’ he said jokingly. But the serpent seemed to have its menacing green eyes set on something else. It was chasing Daniel and Isingoma. The black guy was still terrified but spoke up in a faint whisper, ‘The Yamata is real. The serpent king is real. We are doomed. We are all doomed.’ He started sobbing. ‘No we are not, we are so not doomed. Just stay with me and hang on for dear life,’ said Daniel. ‘It is no use,’ he replied. The Yamata was hot on their heels. No matter how fast Daniel could fly, he was no match for the snake king. Realizing he was outmatched, he made a sudden halt which nearly threw down Isingoma. As the serpent approached, he used a flash grenade that blinded it for a few precious seconds. The other Hunters had arrived. He got Isingoma out of danger as they got ready to fight. The Yamata hissed at them loudly as its eyes recovered. It sprayed venom at them but didn’t hit them; in fact, it got sprayed right in front of their feet. Chris commented, ‘That all you got, worm.’ And when he said ‘worm’, the venom exploded, hurting them and throwing them back. They weren’t hurt too bad, thanks to their suits but were stunned. Daniel recovered first and aimed his plasma cannon at the serpent. Only one fire from it was enough to stun the leviathan. The Yamata hissed again in retreat. As Daniel was preparing another shot, it jumped in his direction but instead of attacking him, disappeared into the sand, leaving behind a very large hole. Daniel thought that it was retreating and eased his weapon as the other two got up. ‘Big snake’s gone,’ he declared proudly. ‘Behind you,’ cried Rose as the serpent appeared out of nowhere behind Daniel. It charged at him and instead of biting him, hit him with its massive tail and sank into the soil again. And again, before Daniel could even get up on his feet, whipped him again several times. The others tried to help him but the snake didn’t even let them get close. Now, Daniel didn’t dare to get up. While lying on

the ground, he looked for the perfect moment; when the Yamata came out to attack Chris, he shot at him a massive ball of lightning. Daniel thought that this was the end of the fight, except it wasn’t. The lightning hit the serpent but went directly into the ground without affecting it. ‘Damn, he is transferring the lightning to the Earth. My powers won’t work here,’ he said. He looked at the giant holes in the ground. He thought to himself for a moment and then cried out, ‘Rose! Flood his holes.’ ‘But I don’t know if I…’ she said. ‘Yes you can. Go for it!’ he shouted before being whipped again by the monster. Without wasting another second, Rose unleashed a massive stream of water into one of the holes. ‘Keep going, you’re doing well,’ cheered Chris. Soon, the entire underground network of tunnels was flooded and the serpent was forced to quite its best defense. And before it could recover from the shock, it could see a massive ball of lightning being hurled at him by a seemingly insignificant figure. ‘Big Bang Explosion!’ shouted Daniel. Such was the power of the blast that the last thing everyone saw was the body of the behemoth turning into dust. The entire region was filled with smoke and confusion. Once the dust settled, all could see Daniel, his face looked tired but not a sign of the giant serpent could be seen. ‘It’s over. Big snake’s gone for good,’ he said, panting. ‘Big Bang Attack? Seriously,’ said Rose while giving him the look, ‘That’s the best name you could come up with?’ ‘Well,’ said Daniel, ‘I had been thinking about it for a while now. I think it’s a

pretty cool name. But you, lady, you did a great job today.’ ‘Thanks, it’s not as easy as looks is it,’ she said. In a distance, they could see another man running towards them, it was Kato. He looked around for a minute, and then he saw his brother coming. The twins embraced each other. Then finally, when all the meetings were done and every person was declared alive and ed for, Isingoma bowed before Daniel and spoke, ‘Young master, today, you have done the impossible. You have defeated the Yamata. We shall forever remain in your debt. Is there anything we could possibly do for you?’ ‘Well, I don’t know what to say, thank you. But I suppose you could help us with getting petroleum,’ he said. ‘Of course, my lord,’ he replied, ‘you may have as much petroleum as you desire. Is there anything else your heart desires?’ Daniel was beyond pleased, but still, he ed the one very important thing he had nearly forgot. ‘There is one thing I desire more than anything you can provide. The gemstone on your peacock feather,’ he said. Isingoma stood quietly in thought. He took off his peacock feather and gazed in thought at the Gem. ‘There is no denying that this is the only thing that I truly love, second to my brother. But I will keep my promise. You may have it, my lord,’ he said handing him the gemstone without hesitation. ‘Very well, you have my thanks,’ he said, closely examining it, ‘The Yamata must have been after it. Maybe, that’s why it was chasing us. I wonder what other foul things react to these Gems.’ ‘I suppose you are tired, sire. You may rest in our cottage while we bring the petroleum,’ said Kato. ‘No thank you, we prefer to rest in our own plane. You may bring the petroleum while we rest though,’ said Chris. Fifteen minutes later, the Bounty Hunters are found resting on a couch in their plane while the Jelani twins are loading a cartload of petroleum cylinders into its storage tank.

‘That was worth the while,’ said Chris. ‘We need to be more careful next time,’ said Rose. ‘You know what we actually need,’ said Daniel, yawning, ‘An actual car, or bike or something like that. I’m tired of walking for endless hours. What’s the use of having an aircraft if you still have to walk for so long? Chris, do work on something like that, please.’ ‘Don’t you worry about that. I have been working on something like that for months and it just requires some final tests. Soon, we won’t be tiring our feet for long hours at all.’ ‘Good thing,’ said Daniel and before he realized he was too tired to talk, he was already asleep.

CHAPTER 11

CATCHING THE WIND

While sleeping, Daniel had the same vision he had earlier. Once again, he was battling a masked assassin and was about to kill him. He had aimed a lightning spear at him and had nearly thrown it when he woke up. He found himself to be on a bed in their plane and recovered from his vision. The Hunters had left Africa in search of the last two Bender Stones. This time, Chris made especially sure that everything was working fine before Daniel inserted his arm into the scanner. After 5 minutes of detailed checking and calibrating, he finally declared, ‘Alright, everything seems to be working fine. You can start.’ ‘Here goes,’ said Daniel as he inserted his arm into the scanning tunnel. The results showed up pretty quick. They could clearly see a distinct bright red dot on the bottom of the globe. ‘Antarctica!’ said Chris. ‘It is going to be a cold, cold trip,’ said Daniel taking his arm out of the scanner. The journey, for most part, was as uninteresting as could be; except for a mild blizzard which barely made them fly higher. Finally, they reached Antarctica and made a soft landing on a large mound of solid snow. ‘Hey guys, you are forgetting something,’ said Rose. Chris thought for a moment, and said, ‘Nope, I don’t’ think so.’ ‘The Earth Stone? Don’t you think you should try it on?’ ‘No, pretty sure I shouldn’t.’

‘Chris, do it now,’ she said in a commanding voice. ‘Alright,’ he said and tried it on. As he brought it closer to his wrist, he heard a grumbling sound. This freaked him out a bit but he proceeded nonetheless. Quickly, he placed it on his left wrist and the Gem reacted by hurling a rock at him, knocking him senseless. When he came to, his first reaction was looking at his wrist. Yep, there it was, firmly attached. ‘Guys, it can’t be this thing totally hates me!’ he cried. ‘Oh come on, Chris! It’s a Gem. It can’t hate you. Try to stay calm. We still gotta go look for the next Stone,’ said Rose, trying to comfort him. ‘Okay, just give me a second,’ he said, breathing heavily. As they got out, they didn’t care to switch to ‘normal’ clothing. They knew that there was no way they could have found a living person on the cold continent. Plus, their armors would have provided much better insulation than any other kind of clothing. Even Veronica didn’t get a cover. As soon as she stepped out of the plane, Rose looked at the vast, snowy horizon and declared, ‘Chris, if you think I’m going to walk all the way across this snow, you are dead wrong.’ ‘Don’t worry, Rosy,’ said Chris, ‘Didn’t I say earlier that I was working on vehicles for us?’ ‘Are they ready?’ asked Daniel curiously. Chris replied, ‘Turns out to be yes,’ and pressed a button on his suit which opened up a hatch under the plane, revealing three, marvelous four-wheeled vehicles which could not fit just one category. If one would have described them, he would have called them- ‘simply perfect, in every sense of the world.’ Chris had done it again. Once more, he had created a masterpiece. ‘Lady and gentleman, I present to you, the Bounty hunters All-terrain Transports; or the BATs for short,’ he said. ‘Awesome,’ said Daniel, ‘Did Christmas come early this year or what?’ ‘Actually I was planning these to be your Christmas present,’ said Chris, ‘But

given the criticalness of the mission, I had to finish them earlier. Do you like them?’ ‘Like them?’ said Rose, ‘I love them. They are amazing. Good job, Chris.’ ‘Well, what can I say?’ he said, blushing. All three took one BAT each. They were pretty easy to operate, as Daniel described them. For even he, the worst driver of the team, could ride them with relative ease. They were effortlessly cutting through the snow in search of the gemstone. As they got nearer to the source of the signal, the wind suddenly got stronger. When they got even closer, it was pushing back even their amazing rides. They tried to ride against the direction of the wind but in vain; for the blizzards of Antarctica were strong beyond the power of man, but this one was an especially powerful gust of wind. ‘Damn! It’s no use. We can’t go on like this,’ said Daniel, as they got out of their BATs, ‘Screw me if it isn’t the Wind Stone.’ ‘The Stone by itself is useless,’ said Chris, ‘There has to be somebody using it.’ ‘Oh really? Who would be mad enough to start a wind on the windiest continent?’ said Rose. ‘I don’t know. Maybe a penguin?’ said Chris. Daniel face-palmed and said angrily, ‘Chris, I swear I’m gonna lightning punch you in the face.’ Thankfully, the suits of the Hunters kept them firmly fixed to the ground. It gave Daniel a brilliant idea. ‘Chris, use the Earth Stone and dig a tunnel underground. Use the Earth Stone. It’s the only way we can avoid the wind,’ he said. ‘No way! I am not using this thing, okay? End of conversation,’ said Chris, angrily. ‘Oh come on! Give it up, dude! It’s not gonna bite you. Just concentrate on what you want,’ said Daniel. Chris did not respond. Daniel sighed and said, ‘Let’s go, Rose. We can’t rely on

this coward.’ The big guy’s eyes lit up. ‘What did you just call me?’ he demanded to know. ‘Coward, you idiot,’ said Daniel, seeing his chance. Chris gave out a shout, ‘I’ll show you a coward! Get aside kid.’ Within seconds, the ground was torn apart and in no time, an underground age was ready. Rose lit up a small flashlight as they moved in the dark tunnel. In her front, she could see Chris tunneling the way forward with all his might. Behind her, she could see Daniel, armed to the teeth, with every weapon he possessed ready to fire at disposal. Still, he was trembling. He was afraid of the dark but didn’t mention it. Rose too, never asked him about it. Soon, they reached the source. ‘This is it, guys,’ said Chris, ‘The signal source is directly above us.’ With one mighty stroke, he opened up the way to the top. Strangely, he could not feel any wind at all. He found himself to be in a massive dome of ice. He pulled up the rest of the team who were equal in amazement. Rose figured out that they were in a vacuum. ‘Where is the Stone?’ asked Daniel. ‘My scanner shows that it is right here. Actually, it is right above our heads,’ said Chris. All three had to crank their necks to see that the Wind Stone was indeed, directly above them. But it didn’t take them long to realize that it was on the forehead of a penguin. It was an Emperor Penguin and was mystically levitating above their heads. Its eyes were closed and it was standing upright in the centre of the dome. ‘That counts for another face-palm,’ said Rose as she saw Chris behind her, grinning. ‘How the heck are we supposed to get that?’ asked Daniel.

CHAPTER 12

SNOWBOUND

The Hunters sat down, wondering how they could get the Wind Stone. ‘What’s the big deal? Let’s just shoot it down,’ said Daniel. ‘Not a good idea,’ said Rose, who was now tired of his stupid ideas and was getting irritated, ‘We could risk destabilizing this dome and get buried under the ice.’ ‘You got any ideas, Chris?’ said Daniel. ‘We could try asking it gently,’ said Chris, innocently. ‘Come on, Chris. If you can’t think maturely, you better shut up,’ said Rose. ‘Oh why, may I ask?’ said Chris in his own defense. ‘Maybe you should stop troubling us and think something yourself.’ Now, instead of getting angry, Rose’s mood changed. ‘That’s it! Thank you, Chris. I have an idea,’ she said, ‘We need to get the penguin’s attention. If possible, force him to the ground and have a little chat with him.’ ‘This could actually work. But how are we supposed to do that?’ asked Daniel. ‘We could use our sonic blasts. But be careful it isn’t too loud as to hurt it,’ said Rose. ‘Alright then,’ said Daniel. All three pressed a grey button on their wrist controller and a tiny cannon popped out of their suits and got mounted on their shoulders. The cannon released harmless yet catchy sound waves at the penguin. The clever bird

realized that he had visitors and swooped down to them. ‘Who are ye people?’ said the penguin in a loud majestic voice in clear English. ‘Wow! An English-speaking, flying penguin; that’s something you don’t see every day,’ said Daniel. ‘I asked-a somethin’ and I demand to know,’ said the penguin even louder. Standing in front of them, they could see that this particular penguin was much taller than a normal one. 7 feet at least, they guessed. It had the magnificent blue-green feathers of a peacock and a beautifully colored crown of a rooster. ‘We are explorers,’ said Rose,’ Explorers, in search of artifacts. We came here looking for a kind of rare gemstone. We only desired to gaze upon its beauty, and of its magnificent bearer.’ ‘I see,’ said the penguin, feeling flattered, ‘My name is Snowbound and I bear the gemstone you are looking for. I have for ze past hundred years, usin’ it to defend my homeland. You fellas can ire its beauty if that’s what you desire.’ ‘Certainly,’ said Rose. Snowbound lowered his beak to show them the Wind Stone resting upon his forehead. ‘How do ye like it now?’ he asked. ‘Flawless,’ said Daniel, ‘But oh great gem-bearer, may we know how you came by it?’ ‘Well, you see,’ said Snowbound after a moment’s thought, ‘It has been in my family for over a-a millennia. From my forefathers, it has come down to me. Itah comes with great responsibility. I am ze protector of ze penguins of this land.’ ‘I see,’ said Daniel and then spoke up with a little authority, ‘And what does the protector have in answer for the blizzards?’ ‘To defend my people,’ spoke the penguin, ‘I can go to any limits. This storm protects them from the-the elephant seals and-and the leopard seals.’ ‘Oh really?’ said Rose, sarcastically, ‘Chris, may I get the pleasure of breaking his beak?’

‘By all means, please,’ said Chris. ‘Hey! What are heck are you jerks talkin about, huh?’ said the penguin, flapping its wings wildly. ‘You’re a liar, Snowbound. And I don’t like liars,’ said Daniel, clenching his fists. ‘Alright, get outta here,’ said Snowbound in a decisive tone. ‘We have other plans. Give us your gemstone, and you may yet go home in one piece,’ said Daniel. ‘Never!’ said the penguin. His Stone started to glow and so did his eyes. Then, he flapped his wings so hard that it pushed them back. ‘You called it pal. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya,’ said Daniel. He fired a quick shot of pure lightning at the penguin but he was too fast to be hit. He dodged the blow, flew up to the top of the dome and started rotating at a high speed to create a tornado around him. Daniel tried to approach him but the wind didn’t let him even near. Chris threw boulder at him but the tornado threw it off in a completely different direction. With every move failing Daniel was beginning to get nervous. In a desperate attempt to stop the foul fowl, he used the Lightning Stone to fire a beam of lightning at him; it did not have the outcome he expected. He thought it would tear through the wind and shock the penguin to the ground. It turned the tornado of pure wind, into a deadly cyclone of pure lightning. Snowbound could no longer control what he had created. His fate was absolutely in the hands of Daniel. He was running out of time by the second. Soon, the cyclone would consume him and there would be nothing left of it. ‘Your call, Daniel; should you choose to spare him, or let him suffer for what he has done to his people, your choice,’ said Chris. Daniel thought for a moment and wondered if Snowbound’s suffering was actually his doing. ‘I say, let him live,’ he said and absorbed lightning of the cyclone as it disappeared, causing an unconscious Snowbound to fall to the

ground. The penguin was down. Daniel gave a sigh of relief. Rose checked his pulse and said, ‘Snowbound will live, for now. That is, for his fellow brothers to decide.’ As Daniel picked up the Stone, he sighed, ‘How many more must suffer for these stupid Gems? According to me, they have caused more trouble than good so far.’ Chris patted on his shoulder and said, ‘No more, I wish. But who knows? We must continue on this path, Daniel. I know that you don’t like it but if we don’t do what we do, souls beyond count will be lost to these gems. So I say get up now. Let’s get the heck out of here.’ Daniel got up slowly, still in deep thought. Wondering what would have happened if he had never ed the Bounty Hunters. Then, he continued to slice his way out of the dome. After they got out, he looked at his blade and smiled. ‘And still not a stain of innocent blood on it,’ he said to himself. After that, it was only a matter of time before they got back to Veronica where they rested for the night; before beginning on another adventurous search for the last Gem, or so they thought.

CHAPTER 13

AN OMINOUS NEWS

Daniel was in a mood of sleeping till late. And if he was determined to do something, no power on Earth could stop him. It had been long since he had a beautiful sleep and he wished to change it soon. The others too, thought not to disturb him. After all, he deserved the rest. Chris didn’t dare to wake him. Instead, he delicately placed his arm into scanning tunnel to discover a most unexpected fact. The globe showed the location of the last Stone, in Los Angeles. Then, without waking him they removed his arm from the machine and went to another room to discuss how they could have missed it. ‘How did we make such a mistake?’ asked Rose, ‘It was right under our nose for 4 freakin’ years. How come it didn’t show up on the scan earlier?’ ‘That’s nothing strange, missy. That’s the way the machine is supposed to work. It locates the Stones only in a pre-set order, one by one,’ said Chris. ‘Maybe that would have worked out better if you would have placed it on top of the list,’ said Rose. ‘Excuse me,’ said Chris, in a surprised voice, ‘If I correctly, you were the one who decided the order. So that makes it your fault.’ ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now,’ said Rose, trying to change the topic, ‘Now that we have the location of the last Stone. I say, we must recover it immediately.’ ‘Oh that can wait. There is one matter to decide first. You falsely accused me. Now this plane won’t move an inch unless you apologize,’ said Chris.

‘Alright, said Rose in an irritated voice, ‘I’m sorry. Now can we please get moving?’ ‘That’s better,’ said Chris, feeling proud. But before they could get a move on, the computer beeped. ‘Sounds like a video message,’ said Chris, as he rushed to check the computer. ‘What is it?’ asked Rose. ‘It can’t be,’ he said, ‘It’s a message from Syphon.’ ‘No kidding,’ she said. Meanwhile, Daniel woke up from his deep slumber. ‘The best sleep I’ve had in a long time,’ he said, rubbing his eyes. He felt refreshed and full of energy. But at the same time, he could hear the dead silence on the ship. He looked for his friends and soon found them in the living room of the plane (Veronica was really huge), sitting on a sofa, side by side as if eagerly waiting for him. Their hands were shivering. They looked like they wished to tell him something but couldn’t phrase it. ‘What’s up guys, you like you’ve seen a ghost,’ he said. ‘Rose, are you telling him or what?’ said Chris in a shaky voice. ‘Daniel,’ said Rose, clearing her throat, ‘We just received a video message this morning. Thought you might want to see it.’ ‘What is it?’ asked Daniel, feeling surprised. Rose said nothing but pressed a button on the remote which activated the TV. Daniel stopped to gaze at the screen as a video message played. It showed Charles Syphon dressed in a tuxedo. He was addressing him directly. The old villain spoke up, ‘Good morning Daniel, long time no see, huh? I hope you get this message in time. But if not, not my loss. As you might not be knowing, I have been tracking you all this long; Japan, Africa, Antarctica, I know everything. I know that you have all Gems but one, I suppose this is what you’re looking for.’ He took something out of the right pocket of his jacket and flashed it at the screen. It was the Fire Stone.

He continued, ‘Your friends weren’t careful enough, you see. It was lying beneath the wreckage of their ship. After that, I only had to wait for you to collect the rest for me. Now, if you would only be kind enough to deliver my property. Oh! Why? you may ask. I will say, because of this.’ He turned the camera a little to the left to show Emily, all tied up with a laser blade on top of her neck. ‘If you wish to get your friend back in one piece, come alone to my tower and bring the Bender Gems with you. You have 24 hours to decide. Starting now.’ With that, the video ended and the screen turned off. ‘We received this message at 8 in the morning,’ said Chris, ‘That leaves you 20 hours to think.’ ‘No! That foul-playing, idiotic son of a…’ said Daniel, part angry, part crying. ‘Language,’ said Rose. ‘Pardon me. Damn! It can’t be!’ ‘Daniel, I know how you feel about Emily but…’ ‘Oh no! This is just like a movie!’ ‘What?’ asked Rose in surprise. ‘The villain got my girl and now the-hero-will-have-to-save-the-damsel-indistress cliché; it’s too much. That’s what makes me even angrier,’ said Daniel, angrily. ‘Are you kidding me,’ said Chris, dumbfounded, ‘That guy has got your girl and you are thinking about a cliché. I say, you get out there and beat the crap out of that old dude.’ ‘Oh man!’ said Daniel with both his hands on his face, trying to hide his tears. ‘Alright,’ he said, wiping his tears, ‘Sorry about all that; I got a little, a little…’ ‘Out of control?’ said Rose.

‘Yeah, thanks,’ he said, ‘So let’s get going, guys. LA is quite far away.’ After a five hour long flight, the Bounty Hunters returned to the city where it all started, and perhaps where it would end. Daniel had already suited up. He was standing at exit door of the plane, looking at the Syphon Building. ‘Moment of truth, I guess,’ he said. ‘You sure you don’t want us to come with you?’ asked Chris. ‘Unless I want to put Emily’s life at risk,’ he said. ‘We were able to remove our Gems using the particle separator,’ said Rose, handing him a brown leather pouch containing the Gems, ‘As for Syphon, don’t worry. He didn’t have the Fire Stone bonded too him. He cannot harness its full power.’ ‘Well, I will not say goodbye,’ said Chris, ‘for I don’t believe it’s the end.’ ‘I hope so Chris,’ he said. As he was about to jump out of the plane, he shouted, ‘Hey guys! Thank you!’ ‘What for?’ asked Rose. ‘For this amazing life,’ he said and jumped. Mid-fall, he used his boot jets to make an incredibly soft landing. He felt vulnerable against the great tower, which looked as menacing and terrifying as ever before. The gates were open. ‘No turning back now,’ he said, before walking into the massive building.

EPILOGUE

THE END OF THE ROAD

With every step he took, he could feel himself getting close to the end. He had 3 Bender Gems in his armored pocket and one attached to his wrist for life. The inside of the building was dark, and not a guard he could see even with his radar. For quite some time, he saw nothing but the vast and menacing interiors of the building. He continued walking till he reached an elevator. On top of it, a TV screen activated. It was Syphon. ‘Welcome, Daniel. I have waited long enough for your arrival. As you might have noticed, I got rid of all my security personnel just for this occasion. I am waiting for you on the top floor. So all you have to do is walk into the elevator, meet me up here, hand me the gemstones and you can take your little birdie wherever you wish.’ The screen turned black. ‘We’ll see about that,’ said Daniel and entered the elevator. It was preset for taking him to the top floor. The Syphon Building was 120 floors high; so he had listened to about 5 songs by the time he reached the 100th floor. Sadly, all were about heartbreak and that didn’t make him feel better. After that, he couldn’t take it anymore and angrily shot down the speaker. When it continued to play music, he crushed it under his feet and there was complete silence. Finally, he had reached the top of the tower. He could clearly see Syphon, wearing an armored suit and holding a gun. Emily was tied up right behind him, only a few meters from a 2500 foot drop. Syphon spoke up, ‘Finally, we meet again. Isn’t it magnificent? You and me, on top of this magnificent building of mine.’ ‘Ever a narcissist, eh Syphon?’ said Daniel. ‘I had to wait 4 years to get back what was mine. All because of your

incompetence.’ ‘My incompetence? Huh! Says the guy who too was scared to retrieve them himself.’ ‘Enough talking! Now, the gemstones,’ he said angrily, ‘Or this young lady will have to pay for your sins.’ ‘Alright, you want the gemstones, fine,’ he said, ‘I want Emily first.’ ‘You are trying to bargain with me? Are you serious?’ he said mockingly, ‘Even when I am the guy pulling the trigger.’ He pointed the gun towards Emily. ‘Okay! Okay! Let’s try it again,’ he said, raising his arms, ‘You hand me Emily and I throw you the gemstones at the same time. That works for both of us, right?’ ‘Very well,’ he said lowering his gun, ‘But first, show me where the gemstones are.’ Daniel took out a brown pouch from his pocket and showed it to Syphon. Then, he took out the Stones from the pouch and showed them in the air. Just then, a sound came from Syphon’s suit. Daniel got alert and put the Stones back in their pouch. ‘Oh! That’s nothing to worry about. My armor here, just scanned if they were the real gemstones. Looks like you upheld your end of the bargain,’ he said, ‘On the count of three, throw me the gems and I’ll give you the girl. And Daniel, don’t try to cheat with me.’ Emily was mumbling from behind the handkerchief on her mouth. Daniel took an attentive position and got ready to make the bargain. ‘One……Two…….Three!’ And with three, both completed the deal. Syphon had the gems and Daniel had Emily, mostly untouched. He cut her bonds with his lightning blade and she hugged him tightly. She hadn’t shed a tear. ‘The damsel-in-distress cliché with me? I did not see that coming,’ she said, sarcastically.

‘Wow! It’s like I made you with a computer,’ said Daniel. ‘Yeah, right! Come on baby, he got what he wanted. We should leave now,’ she said. Daniel released her from his arms and spoke in a faint voice, ‘You go sweetie; I have some unfinished business with Mr. Syphon.’ ‘But…’ ‘Just go!’ he shouted and she obeyed. Once she had reached the elevator and the door had shut, Daniel was relieved. Syphon had not even unpacked the pouch when he shot it from his very hands. There it lay, on the edge of the tower. ‘Oh, come on! Don’t leave me so soon,’ said Daniel, ‘We have met after a really long time. I think we should greet each other properly.’ ‘Very well,’ said Syphon, as he reached for the mask attached to his holster. When he wore it, Daniel ed something. He ed the masked assassin from his visions. It was Syphon all along. ‘As you are thinking, you will not get rid of me as easily as Vortex in San Francisco,’ said Syphon, ‘Also, as you are wondering, I can see your every move before you do it.’ ‘Very well, now let’s get fighting!’ Daniel started by shooting a stun grenade at him, followed by an electric shock. Surprisingly, Syphon wasn’t prepared for it and fell with a thud! ‘Impossible! How did I not see that coming?’ he shouted. ‘You think yourself to be a genius but the truth is, you are nothing,’ said Daniel, walking, towards him, ‘We invented a disruptor to counter the power of the Fire Stone years ago.’ ‘Still, I have a Bender Gem. You cannot stop me,’ he shouted from behind his mask; and attacked Daniel with a stream of fire. He kept walking. ‘First of, I have a Bender Gem as well; and secondly, fire resistant technologies

have been around for quite some time. You could have figured that out.’ ‘That won’t stop me from killing you. Nothing can resist me,’ he shouted again and tried to hit Daniel with an energy blade. It was too slow to hit even a child. ‘Enough!’ he cried and pushed Daniel back with a mighty push of energy. Then he launched himself towards Daniel and before he could recover, he grabbed him and took him high into the air. ‘I am done playing! I will finish you now!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. Daniel struggled to free himself from his grim claws. Syphon tried to strangle him but as soon as he put pressure on his neck, Daniel’s suit severely electrocuted him. As he saw the devil’s grip get loose, Daniel kicked him in the stomach and freed himself. The entire city was watching them, as they lit up the sky with all their weapons. All the people watched as their swords clashed midair. They landed near the spire on top of the tower. Both of them caught their breath for a moment, and then jumped towards each other. The beasts within the Stones had been awakened. A fiery winged beast was around Syphon. It was the Phoenix. As for Daniel, he had the power of Raiju, the Thunder Wolf. A majestic creature it was. Though having learned to control it, Daniel preferred to use it less than often given the destruction it caused. As the great beats roared, their masters had voices of their own. ‘Do you think I waited all this time to face defeat? I am going to end this,’ shouted Syphon. ‘It is never too late to realize the truth. You will pay for what you did to my father. I am a Bounty Hunter and I will avenge him!’ cried Daniel. Both the mighty warriors, along with their beasts, jumped at each other. It was followed by such a blinding flash that the people thought it to be the end of the world. After the flash, Daniel could see Syphon lying before him, defeated. His face was half burnt and his mask was nowhere to be found. Daniel, however, found himself to be in a condition fit enough to end the devil’s life. He charged a lightning spear and walked towards Syphon. He could see his death getting nearer by the minute, brought upon him by a 20 year old young adult. Daniel was standing right next to Syphon. He aimed the spear at him and without a

moment’s thought, threw it. Syphon closed his eyes in fear. He waited, and waited, but death didn’t come to him. When he opened his eyes, he could see Daniel walking away. ‘Hey kid! You missed! I’m still alive!’ Without turning back, he said, ‘I never meant to kill you, Syphon. I never meant to kill anyone. When I ed this team, I swore never to claim a life by my blade. Even when I found out that you had killed my father, I never planned to kill you. Funny, isn’t it, you spent all your life desiring control over the world; and now you lay here, with your life all but spent and not a city you have taken. And yet, I, whose father you killed, stand before you, satisfied and happier than you would ever be; because I loved my life the way it was. I cherished every moment of my life. Riding in the skate-park, listening to bedtime stories or simply spending time with my friends and family. You know Syphon, if more people valued these precious little moments above all else, it would be a merrier world.’ Syphon kept looking at him as he picked up the gemstones walked away from both his tower and life, for good. ‘A wise chap too? Well I’ll be,’ he laughed.