Chapter 6 - What In The World?!

Flo's entire world slipped beneath her feet and without thinking of anything else, she sprinted out of the grounds to make a desperate mad run straight towards the mountain.

'Mr.Hugo... please let him be fine.' She repeated those words over and over in her mind as she ran. Her breathing was getting heavier with every step and tears were already gathering in her eyes but she didn't care. All she cared about was that she just had to get there.

Everything around her felt like a blur as Flo ran through as fast as she could. The mountain was visible from almost every corner of the city but right now it still looked so far, as if it wasn't coming any nearer any sooner.

Flo could see a huge cloud of dark dust was rising from somewhere beyond the trees. There were distant shouts coming from that direction and every now and then, the sound of magic exploding could be heard.

'Please be okay.' Flo prayed internally as she kept running. She only finally stopped once she entered the mountain area and that was when she realised that she had absolutely no idea where the destruction was.

The mountain was huge. There were trees everywhere and so many different paths that Flo couldn't even tell which direction she was supposed to go.

"If it is near the research facility, then it should be somewhere around the north-east side..." Flo looked around. "But that's still huge! How am I supposed to find anything in a place this big?!"

She panicked for a moment before suddenly remembering, "The Observatory!" Maybe Mr.Hugo had already gone back and hopefully he was there, lazing around in his cabin. Maybe everything was completely fine.

'Yeah, it should be,' Flo hoped.

Flo immediately ran towards the Observatory. She rushed up the familiar path and pushed open the doors, calling out, "Mr.Hugo?"

Nothing.

The Observatory was completely empty. Flo's stomach sank inside her.

There was no Mr.Hugo, no voice calling her, no footsteps and not even the sound of him lazing around and ordering her around. The usual sounds of the Observatory suddenly felt very loud in the silence.

"Mr.Hugo...?" Her voice echoed through the room as she called again. No answer.

Flo quickly ran towards his cabin and found it empty. She checked the library and it was also empty. The upper floor. Empty. The lower floor. Empty.

Nobody was there, not even a soul. and Flo's heart started beating faster.

The reporter's words suddenly echoed inside her mind, "A man was injured and taken to the hospital."

Flo grabbed her hair. "Oh no, no, no!"

Her eyes started watering again. "No, no, no, no!"

She quickly wiped them. "I have to check the research houses."

She looked towards the mountain. "Or maybe... maybe I can track down where the tornado is actually happening!"

Flo quickly ran towards the elevator platform and went to the top of the Observatory. She placed her right hand beside her eye. 

"[-ObserVation-]!"

A quick wave spread out from her. Flo tried to focus as the whole mountain was being scanned. She could sense all kinds of small magical traces scattered around the mountain.

In one corner of the mountain, she could sense a lot of purple, some white and black sparks and waves bursting from it.

"That must be where the Ability Squad is fighting off the havoc!"

She immediately ran back down. Without wasting another second, she rushed out of the Observatory and towards the direction of the magical signals. The closer she got, the more her ObserVation could pick up on the kind of abilities.

"There are mostly TwiLight users active right now...seems like not many from the Attack Squad have reached here yet."

As she kept running towards the signal, WHOOSH!, a huge gust of wind slammed into her.

"GaaAh!" Flo stumbled backwards. She tried to stand properly but another gust came. This one was much stronger. Her hair flew all over her face as she tried to protect her eyes.

"What is happening?!" The wind kept getting stronger. Flo dug her shoes into the ground to try to balance herself but it wasn't helping as she was still being pushed backwards.

The trees around her were bending violently with branches snapping all over the place, with leaves and pieces of bark flying everywhere.

Flo could barely see anything. It felt like the entire mountain was being pulled inside the huge tornado that was tearing through the mountain. Dust, broken branches and magic were swirling around it at terrifying speeds. The tornado was enormous and its core was moving directly towards her. Flo tried to brace herself but another huge gust hit her.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" She almost fell but she activated her ability as she shouted, "[-DayShine-]!"

She swiftly raised her hands and a white shield appeared around her. As the wind slammed straight into it, Flo's feet slid backwards. However, she gritted her teeth and held her position as the shield shook.

Her hair was flying everywhere and dust was getting into her eyes. She could barely keep them open but she couldn't stop. If she dropped the shield, the wind would throw her away.

"Come on..." She pushed more DayShine into the shield. Flo was sweating profusely and she was trying her best to hold on when she noticed something.

Her magic wasn't being destroyed, rather, it was moving. Flo looked at her shield with her eyes half open, only to see streams of white light slowly being pulled away from it towards the tornado.

She concentrated harder and she was sure, Her DayShine was being sucked into the tornado and it seemed that as more and more of her DayShine was being sucked in, the tornado was getting slightly smaller gradually. Even if only slightly, it was definitely getting smaller.

‘What? My magic... it's being absorbed?’ She wondered and activated her ObserVation again.

"[-ObserVation-]!"

Her vision changed and everything looked much clearer but this time, a golden-white light wave spread around her. Flo could not comprehend what was happening but then she noticed that right at the centre of the tornado was a tiny golden-white ball of light and it was spinning incredibly fast, even faster than the tornado itself.

"What is that...?" Flo blurted.

The little ball of light seemed to be struggling inside the tornado. Flo could hear some noises and she speculated, ‘Must've been the wind.’

But the sounds got louder and louder and it seemed as if someone was crying and screaming for help from inside the tornado, like something was actually inside it. 

"Wait..." She took a step forward. "Is crying coming from the core?" 

Flo's heart was squeezing at the bellowing cries and she could physically feel the pain as her eyes started tearing too. But before she could close in further, the wind suddenly became stronger again and Flo's shield shook violently. She almost lost her balance but she didn't move away. Instead, she pushed more DayShine towards the core. she pushed her shield forward and the light travelled towards the tornado at an astonishing speed, like it was gobbling it up.

"EVERYONE, TAKE YOUR POSITIONS! LET’S CONTAIN IT NOW!"

Flo looked behind her to see a squad of ability users had arrived. Two TwiLight users immediately moved forward and created a large barrier around the tornado, two DayShine users raised their hands and began pouring light into the storm and two NightGlow users joined them, trying to subdue the tornado. The entire mountain lit up with different colours of magic and Flo stood there from a corner for a moment, watching them.

Two people from the escort team started escorting her back when Flo looked back for the last time and noticed the core was still there, just dwindling now, spinning slower and the cries were also starting to diminish.

She couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen all along the way while she was being escorted back to a care centre. Even while walking, she kept looking back. The mountain looked completely different now and the terrifying tornado seemed to have gone.

'What was that?' she wondered as she had no idea.

However, as she entered the care centre, all those thoughts suddenly disappeared as a familiar face appeared in front of her eyes, standing near the counter.

"Mr.Hugo!" Flo's eyes immediately filled with tears again as a sense of relief washed over her at seeing Mr.Hugo unharmed. She ran towards him and hugged him.

"WHOA!" Mr.Hugo nearly fell backwards. "What happened, Flo?!" He looked at her from head to toe. "Why do you look like you just got dragged through a bush backwards?!"

Flo looked at her reflection in the glass door and it was true. Her hair was a complete mess and her clothes were covered in dirt. There were leaves stuck to her sleeves and she probably had enough dust on her to start a new mountain. She looked too messy and unruly.

But ignoring all that, Flo hugged him even tighter.

"I'm so glad you're okay! WHERE ON EARTH WERE YOU?!"

"I just came down here to volunteer at the care centre and talk to the locals to listen to the different accounts of what happened," Mr.Hugo replied casually.

"I was so scared!" Flo's rivers started flowing from her eyes.

"What?! What happened? Don't drench my shirt! This is my favourite!"

"I thought something happened to you! THAT YOU DISAPPEARED!"

"I did not disappear!"

"You weren't at the Observatory!"

"Yes, because I came here!"

"I didn't know that!"

Mr.Hugo stepped back and twirled around like a flowery princess.

"See, I am totally fit and fine as a fid-!"

Flo hit him with one sharp punch straight to the stomach.

"OW!"

"Still, I was so scared!"

"Well, yeah, I could sense your love." Mr.Hugo wheezed, rubbing his poor stomach while still comforting the crying Flo. Flo continued crying.

He sighed and gently patted her head. "Alright, alright. I'm here."

After some time, collecting herself, Flo told everything that had happened to Mr.Hugo, who grew more confused as she spoke.

"So you are saying something inside the tornado seemed to be sucking in your magic and that's what was making it smaller?"

"Yes!"

"Well, that we know. That's how the ability users have been able to contain and demolish it."

"No but you don't see! There was something inside as if it was crying for help! I sensed it with my ObserVation!"

"That's weird. Nobody saw such a thing, even the observers didn't see anything using their ObserVation."

"But I'm telling you!"

"So the ball of light was crying, you say?" 

He looked at Flo as he disappointedly shook his head.

"My dear Flo, I know you are a genius but maybe I should really lower the workload over you."

A vein popped on Flo's head.

"Ehehe, do you remember anything else?" Mr.Hugo nervously asked, fearing his life would be cut short if he dismissed her account any further.

Flo tried to recollect her memories as she closed her eyes. Flo thought hard for a second, recalling the swirling winds and the golden-white core and then, she suddenly opened her eyes as she exclaimed with surprise, eyes going wide, "Oh yes!"

Mr.Hugo leaned closer. "What?"

Flo looked at him seriously and answered, "I remember seeing the core leaving a trail of white light..."

Mr.Hugo's expression turned serious as Flo continued.

"It was just like the one I saw on the day at the Observatory when I had first met you."