Necklaces

Ulrich slowly regained consciousness after a decent night of sleep. Hammock was nicer than he anticipated, without any major pain or aches, but it wasn't as nice as a bed. 6/10. Dominic was still asleep, with a small puddle of drool next to him on the floor. He checked if the door was locked, and it still was. He slowly checked the time on Dominic's uPod. 6:30. Well, that sucked, considering how thirsty he was. So he just lay in his hammock, trying to get back to sleep. After some unknown time of thinking about nothing, he heard the door click, and checked Dominic's Uphone again. 6:45.

He crept his way outside, seeing Sapphire walking into the kitchen. Ulrich followed her, giving a quick "Hello." Causing Sapphire to jump slightly and turn around.

"Oh, solar. You sleep well?"

"Uh, yeah. Slept pretty good." Ulrich replied, trying not to glance at the text on her black shirt, which was printed square across her boobs.

"So, hey?" Ulrich asked. "We couldn't open the door of our rooms last night, any reason why?"

"Couldn't open the doors? I mean, I never really used that room, so maybe the door hinges were stuck?"

"I mean, I heard a click, and then it was fine. So, did you lock us in?"

"No. no, I didn't do that."

Ulrich stood in silence for a few seconds, staring at her. "…If you say so." He said slowly.

"Anyway, you down for some training today?" Sapphire asked.

"Training? Ulrich replied.

"I mean, you have those elemental powers, right? wouldn't some kind of training to master those make sense?"

Ulrich looked towards the instant coffee, and took one of the pods, putting it in a machine. This woman seemed…insane, but she was powerful. Easily the most powerful person he met so far.

"Yeah, sounds good." Ulrich responded. "Mind if I get breakfast first?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll leave you to it." Sapphire replied, leaving the room. Ulrich went back to his instant coffee, but sound of Dominic's abrupt yelling almost caused him to spill it, with a splash landing directly on his open toes. He managed to subdue the scream, but even if he did, the sounds of Dominic probably would have outdone it.

He stepped out, while noticing Lainey looking on the verge of death. She threw him a tired glare, while Ulrich just casually sipped his coffee, listening to the clash of the giants.

"Any reason you locked us in last night?" Dominic yelled out first.

"Solar accused me of this too, axe." Sapphire responded calmly; arms crossed. "And I didn't do it. It was probably an old door or something getting caught in it. I haven't used it in about a year, and I'm pretty sure I had termites a few months ago."

Dominic turned towards Lainey with absolute rage in his eyes. "Are you listening to this bullcrap, Lainey?"

"I'm listening to something." Lainey replied. "Sapphire, do I need to get the guitar out?"

"That won't be necessary." Sapphire responded. "Besides, I gotta get ready for training." And with that, she entered her room, leaving Lainey alone with Ulrich and Dominic.

"What a bitch!" Dominic screamed out in frustration. "So, Lainey. You get any intel on her?"

Lainey scratched her hair. "Well, she's Canadian, and she doesn't go to the Middle East. That's basically all I know so far."

"Okay?" Dominic replied, confused. "I mean, would she have any motivation for locking us in a dark room for ten hours?"

"I mean, you did end up on top of her yesterday. I'd hate it if some tall guy with a garbage haircut ended up on top of me as well." And without any further clarification, she went inside her room, leaving Dominic as hot and fuming as Ulrich's mediocre coffee.

"Did…did she just insult my hair!?" Dominic screamed out.

"I mean, you do look electrocuted at basically all times." Ulrich replied calmly. Dominic gave him a disgusted look, and then took the yellow mug out of Ulrich's hand and poured the contents down his face.

"Well, honestly, I can't say your hair is much better, mate."

Ulrich calmly went towards his room, put on his gloves, and then grabbed Dominic.

"Are you seriously trying this? You wanna do that? You think you'd be more careful with all that grease in your hair."

"So, you'd be cool with setting me on fire? In this wooden boat? What was that thing you said last night about how bad of an idea that was?"

Ulrich paused for a second, and let go of Dominic, who quickly regained his smug composure after a brief flash of fear crept onto his face.

"Backing down that easy, huh?" Ulrich asked.

"Excuse me?" Dominic asked

"Nothing. Just...considering that you tried backing away from the demons, I guess it’s true Bart and the others are more cut out for this then you are.”

"What, you think you're better?" Dominic responded, stylishly stretching a hand out and arching his back. "At least I'm fighting for reasons other than 'That guy is more popular than me'.

"Well, then. If you wanna settle this, meet me outside." Ulrich coldly announced at him.

Once again, on the deck of the boat, Dominic casually stood with his hands in his pockets, without his axe, while Ulrich had a flame slowly come out of his left middle finger. Dominic sauntered up to him, and Ulrich shot the small flame directly at his jeans. Dominic calmly put it out using his bare hand, and walked right up to Ulrich, and gave him a punch directly in the face. Ulrich punched back with a flame infused fist. The left side of Dominic's hair burning slightly but put out just as quickly by an open palm slap from Ulrich. Dominic jumped back, casually taking punches from Ulrich, inching closer to the living quarters of the boat. Ulrich fired a punch directly towards Dominic's head, but Dominic dodged, causing Ulrich to land a hand directly into a wooden plank in the boy's room.

Dominic continued walking towards the sea, attempting to look thoughtful, although Ulrich knew he was either thinking about boobs or anime. So, he let one final punch go into the back of Dominic's head, knocking him down.

"Okay, you win." Dominic mumbled casually. "I'm gonna get some ice. See ya this evening." And with that final word, he went inside the boat, happily waving hello to Sapphire and Lainey. Sapphire and Lainey stepped outside onto the deck, with Sapphire now wearing a blue sports bra with a black outline, with black yoga pants.

"Alright, solar. You ready?" She asked.

Ulrich shook his left hand from punching Dominic and turned towards Sapphire. "Sure thing."

"So, are you two gonna have a quick sparring match before getting to me?" Lainey asked.

"You gonna join us?" Ulrich asked. "Do you even have any powers?"

"No natural ones. But hey, fighting at my best requires a giant guitar strapped to my back. I think at least something towards agility would make sense."

"But hey, I'm gonna go all out on Solar beforehand, you cool with that?" Sapphire yelled, to which Lainey gave a thumbs up and took a fresh granola bar out of her pocket, before sitting on a chair on the deck.

'Oh, shit.' Ulrich thought. This chick was going to go all out on him. He didn't know what he could do against her, so he just took a page out of Dominic's book, and tried to copy something he saw on Demon Ball X. He tried to get into a defensive stance with a low centre of gravity, just like Prince Nebula, the spiky haired god that Dominic stole his haircut from. He felt like a complete idiot, but it was the only real idea he had.

And then he felt what he thought was his stomach exploding.

In what was seemingly a second, Sapphire managed to appear right next to him, and give the hardest punch to the stomach he ever felt. To Ulrich, the punch felt like his internal organs were rearranged. When he was disarmed by that punch, Sapphire landed another uppercut on him, and before his brain could register the first hit, Ulrich was already in the air. He looked down, and nothing but the vast blue ocean stood below him. And also, a couple fish. But he suddenly felt a gust of wind that could probably snap his neck if it wanted to. And before he knew it, his face was in the wooden deck of the boat. And then he felt a weight come down on him.

"God, solar. You know, I had hope. You had the stance. You have the powers. I just…we really need more than six days for this."

Ulrich tried to turn his head, and sure enough, Sapphire was sitting on him.

"Look, round two. Trust me, I'll kick your ass this time." Ulrich mumbled, slowly losing his breath. He was a solid ninety percent sure that Dominic's dream was crushing his lungs.

"Sure thing, solar. Don't disappoint."

Ulrich genuinely had no idea on how to beat her, so he just started running towards her. He didn't think about doing it, but his legs probably had no idea how to process the last few minutes either. He found himself running full force towards Sapphire, with fire subconsciously creeping into his right hand. And as they were about to collide, Ulrich let a flame punch directly into her face. Sapphire gave a quick look towards Ulrich's smoking right glove, and then started to look much more excited with a frenzied grin, which Ulrich gave a thumbs up to, and a weird smile of his own. He was able to land a hit on her, anyway. This was it.

Ulrich ran up to Sapphire, who moved out of the way of his flaming left hand, when his right hand once again flared up, possibly due to some leftover fire energy, or something. Sapphire tried jumping away, but Ulrich unconsciously swiped downwards, hoping not to accidentally grab her chest and cause some apocalyptic event.

But he still did cause one of those.

When he looked down, he noticed that Sapphire's necklace was in his hand. And then he felt Sapphire's hand in the back of his head. Repeatedly. Ulrich rolled away slightly and stood up, only to be met with a barrage of small wind currents all over his body and when they stopped, he was met with a punch to the stomach. If that demon that stabbed him was the worst stabbing pain he felt, then this was the worst blunt force pain he ever felt. He caught a glimpse of Sapphire’s face as she landed the hit, and she looked pained. Not angry, just looking to be in extreme distress. The impact caused him to fly against the edge of the boat, and drop the necklace into the ocean.

And then he heard the screams.