Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (21 page)

‘Is it strong enough for us to walk on?’ the Phoenix said.

The water elementals reappeared near us and bowed to Simone.
Sister.

‘You’ll have to ask them for me, Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘They won’t talk to any other now that you have summoned them.’

‘Can we walk on it?’ Simone said.

It is strong enough to walk on
, one of the elementals said.
Princess, we have a request now that we have performed this task for you.

The Phoenix made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Pushy. You need to discipline these little fellows, Simone.’

Neither of the elementals had any facial features but both appeared to be staring, disgusted, at the Phoenix.

‘How do I discipline something made of water?’ Simone asked.

‘Easy,’ the Phoenix said. ‘When they make their request, it’ll be obvious.’

‘What do you want?’ Simone asked the elementals.

A battle, Princess
, the elemental said.
We have not fought worthy opponents in a very long time. The Princess Evangeline has just gained the Pact, as have you. Why not test your skill at summoning against hers?

‘How can we match skills?’ Simone said, intrigued. ‘We call you, you do as we say. How much skill can there be in that?’

Without moving, both elementals radiated amusement.
If she defeats you, you will know. Particularly since fire is weak to water.

‘Let’s try!’ Eva said, excited.

‘How does it work?’ Simone said, unsure.

Eva explained, still excited. ‘We call our elementals, then direct the battle. Just like Pokemon, as Emma said. The more aligned you are with your ellies, the more you can get out of them. You can also learn which abilities they have to use in battle, and teach them new abilities that you make up yourself.’

‘Hold on a minute,’ I said. ‘That sounds
way
too much like Pokemon to be a coincidence.’

‘There have been a number of pet-fighting games over the years, Pokemon was the most popular of many,’ the Phoenix said. She grinned. ‘Yeah, one of the Dragon’s kids in Japan invented the concept, based on elementals. Made a fortune.’

‘Elementals are
way
more fun though,’ Eva said. ‘’Cause they’re a natural intelligence, they can help you in battle, give you suggestions. You work as a team.’

‘This is much more complicated than I expected,’ Simone said. ‘I thought I would just summon and control them.’

You do not control us
, the elementals said.
You can only will us to do your bidding.

‘Dismiss and resummon them, Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Just bring one. Then you and Eva can match skills.’

‘How do I dismiss them?’ Simone said. The elementals disappeared. ‘Oh.’

‘Summon one only,’ the Phoenix said.

Simone made a seed of water in front of her.

‘Without the seed,’ the Phoenix said.

The seed disappeared. Simone concentrated for a moment and five elementals appeared in front of us.

‘Looks like you need some practice,’ the Phoenix said wryly. ‘Dismiss all but one, if you can.’

Nothing happened.

‘You may have to do it out loud,’ the Phoenix said, ‘until you are more skilled.’

‘All but one of you disappear, please,’ Simone said.

All of the elementals disappeared.

‘They’re being deliberately difficult,’ Simone said, exasperated.

The five elementals reappeared.

‘Tell them which one,’ the Phoenix said. ‘They can’t decide themselves.’ She raised her voice and spoke pointedly at the elementals. ‘They’re too stupid.’

Four of the elementals disappeared. The remaining one appeared to be glowering at the Phoenix.

‘So what sort of thing can they do?’ Simone said, studying the elemental.

‘That’s entirely up to you,’ Eva said. ‘You are only limited by your imagination and your knowledge of what your element is capable of.’

Simone thought for a moment. ‘Freeze,’ she said.

The water elemental froze with a loud crack.

‘Very good,’ the Phoenix said.

‘Steam,’ Simone said.

The elemental changed from ice to a human shape of steam with no water transition.

‘Very nice, sublimation,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Eva, Simone is using the different states of water. You don’t have access to that.’

‘I want to battle!’ Eva said, still enthused. ‘I’ve seen the kids at CH do it, I want to try!’ She raised one hand and a fire elemental, a glowing sphere of flame, appeared next to Simone’s water elemental.

‘It’s something of a status symbol to be able to do it,’ the Phoenix said with amusement.

‘And they obviously do it at CH despite the ban,’ I said.

‘Just like they still play AIPets at the Australian School even though it’s been banned for a long time,’ Simone said, still pensive. ‘Orb.’

The water elemental changed to a glistening sphere of water.

‘Bird,’ Eva said. The fire elemental changed to the fiery shape of a phoenix, about one-and-a-half metres tall.

‘Snake,’ Simone said.

The elemental changed form to a snake, but it had long tendrils coming from its head and large, bulging eyes, similar to a dragon. Scales appeared along its length, even though it was obviously still made of water.

‘Simone has better control, Eva,’ the Phoenix said. ‘She’s added the details of scales and whiskers.’

Eva stared, concentrating, at her fire elemental and its form appeared more polished, with glowing feathers of red tapering to orange tips.

‘Oh, wow, that’s really pretty,’ Simone said.

‘Thanks,’ Eva said, and she and Simone shared a smile.

‘You could colour the scales on yours if you like,’ the Phoenix said to Simone.

Simone studied the water elemental, and its scales changed from transparent to opaque, glistening from dark blue-green to the pure turquoise of sunshine in clear water. It swayed on its tail and turned its head to admire itself.
I like.

‘Yours is pretty too,’ Eva said.

‘Both of you have an artistic streak,’ the Phoenix said, pleased. ‘You can use your elementals as works of art as well as battle creatures, if you prefer. There are competitions for the most elegantly decorated elementals on the Celestial Plane. A metal elemental has won the last two years in a row—I think the Tiger’s arranged for his children to receive special training. A water elemental has never won; the Turtle’s children aren’t really interested in this sort of thing.’

‘Not good enough,’ Eva said. ‘Fire or water need to win some.’

Simone concentrated and her elemental changed to a bird with glittering royal blue and purple feathers and a crown of peacock-like feathers on its head.

‘I’m not trying to outdo you,’ Simone said quickly. ‘I just wanted to try it.’

‘No, no, that’s fine,’ Eva said. She changed her fire elemental to a glowing orange serpent, its flat triangular head more snake-like than Simone’s had been. Its scales had feathery edges of flame, glowing with heat.

‘I wonder if there’s a way we could combine them,’ Simone said. ‘Make them two creatures, but like yang and yin.’

‘That’s an interesting idea,’ Eva said.

‘There’s never been a combined work of two elementals entered into the Decorative Elemental Contest,’ the Phoenix said. ‘It would be an interesting innovation.’

‘Want to try?’ Eva said, her smile to Simone now shy. ‘We could work together, make something really pretty, and put it into the competition.’

‘When’s the competition start?’ Simone said.

‘The judging is held just before Chinese New Year, in a couple of months,’ the Phoenix said. ‘The elementals are displayed as part of the New Year celebrations on the Celestial.’

Simone turned to me, bright with pleasure. ‘Is that okay, Emma?’

I nodded.

‘Hey, Simone,’ Eva said, and Simone turned back to her. ‘My art teacher at CH might be able to help us with the design, she’s a phoenix too. I don’t know if she can do ellies, but she can help us with colours and designs and stuff. What do you think?’

Simone quickly turned to shoot an angry glare at me.

I raised my hands. ‘I had no idea. Don’t look at me.’

Simone stood thinking for a moment, then turned back to Eva. ‘Sounds like fun.’

I recall an agreement to battle
, Simone’s water elemental said.
Also, please release me from this GODAWFUL form!

Me too!
Eva’s elemental said. It turned its serpent head to the Phoenix.
Mom! They’re making me into something that’s WATERY!

Simone and Eva collapsed laughing. The elementals lost their shapes and became roughly human-shaped fire and water forms.

‘I don’t really want to battle; I’d rather play with your form,’ Simone said.

‘It’ll be fun, Simone, have a try,’ Eva said. She gestured towards her elemental and walked to the other end of the roof. ‘Target the elemental, not the summoner. It’s very bad form to injure your opponent, but sometimes the Tiger’s kids do it if they’re losing.’

‘Wow, they
are
assholes,’ Simone said.

‘That would not be an issue for Simone,’ the Phoenix said.

Eva turned to face Simone from the opposite end of the roof. Her elemental glided to stand about two metres in front of Simone, facing her. ‘Position your elemental the same way.’

‘Water elemental, I choose
you
!’ Simone said, and giggled. She made her elemental take the form of a large turtle with a spiked shell and water cannons coming from its shoulders, and it moved into position in front of her.

‘It’s a Blastoise!’ Eva said, laughing. ‘I used to watch Pokemon when I was a kid too!’

Lame
, the elemental said.
Change me back.
Simone nodded and the elemental returned to its human shape of water.

‘The objective is to make your opponent’s elemental so uncomfortable in its position that it leaves,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Whatever it takes.’

‘I don’t want to hurt yours,’ Simone said, unsure. ‘That’s wrong.’

‘They don’t feel pain, but you can put them in a situation where they’re unhappy,’ Eva said. ‘Like when we made them take the form of animals that were the opposite of their essence, it made them unhappy. If you
make them do something like that for long enough, they’ll take off.’

‘Any rules apart from not hurting the other summoner?’ Simone said, intrigued.

‘Nope,’ Eva said, and her elemental sent a blast of fire, like a flame-thrower, directly at the water elemental.

Simone’s water elemental took the shape of a doughnut with a hole through its centre, and the flame passed through it. The edges of the hole boiled.

‘Good job, Simone, quick thinking,’ the Phoenix said.

‘The ellie suggested it,’ Simone said.

The water elemental retook its human form and raised its arms. It sent a wave of water over the fire elemental.

Eva squeaked and raised her arm towards the fire elemental. It changed from red to white flame within the water, then glowed very bright and hot. The water around the fire turned to steam.

‘Plasma!’ Eva cried, her voice hoarse with effort.

The elemental took the form of an arc of glowing liquid light and arched over to strike the water elemental, vaporising it. The water elemental turned to steam, then dissipated.

‘Eva wins,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Well done, Eva, using the different states that fire is capable of; I never even thought of plasma. That would be very useful against the Tiger’s children; plasma is an electromagnetic force as well.’

‘We just did plasma in physics,’ Eva said, subdued. ‘It was hard to get the elemental to do it.’ She turned to Simone. ‘You okay? I promise I didn’t hurt it, I just made it go away.’

Simone grinned broadly. ‘I did plasma in first semester. Did you play with plasma lamps too?’

Eva nodded, smiling back.

‘That was great, what a good idea.’ Simone paused, thoughtful. ‘I wonder how cold I could make my elemental go. Plasma won’t be much good when the water it’s facing is only a few degrees above zero…’

‘It’ll still destroy it, I think,’ Eva said.

‘…Kelvin,’ Simone finished.

Eva stopped, then, ‘Oh.’

‘No destroying the world for fun,’ the Phoenix said.

‘Awww!’ Eva and Simone whined at the same time, then collapsed in giggles together.

S
imone and Evangeline chatted excitedly about what they would like to do for their elemental quasisculpture as we headed back downstairs. Simone stopped directly in front of me at the bottom, making me nearly crash into her. Both she and the Phoenix raised their hands and their eyes unfocused.

‘What’s going on?’ I said.

‘Demons,’ Simone said, as if from a million miles away. ‘Something’s up.’ She gasped. ‘They think they’ve found Daddy!’ She snapped back and stared at me, eyes wide. ‘There’s a whole bunch of demons in Sai Kung at the seafood restaurants, and there’s a freaking enormous black loggerhead turtle in one of the tanks!’

‘There are a large number of extremely small demons there, only level three to five, some as low as one,’ the Phoenix said. ‘And what appears to be a natural turtle in one of the tanks.’

‘Go,’ I said, but Simone was already gone.

The Phoenix bowed slightly to me. ‘By your leave, ma’am.’

‘Go,’ I said again. ‘Can you teleport?’ I asked Eva.

‘Not yet, Mom says I’m not ready,’ Eva said. ‘Can you drive the car? Or have someone pick us up and teleport us?’

‘Can one of your elementals carry you?’ I said.

Eva’s face cleared. ‘I think so. Just a sec.’

She concentrated a moment and a fire elemental appeared in its human-type form.

Eva turned to me. ‘It will take me, but how will you get there? One of these would burn an ordinary human like you down to nothing.’

Emma, I need you here now
, Simone said into my ear.
I don’t know what to do! All these little demons want sanctuary! There are big demons here, and I’m not even sure if this is Daddy or not. It’s sending out some very strange vibes.

Take the Lotus
, the Phoenix said into my head.