“Er… the ground didn’t look quite so far away when we flew in…”

“Relax,” Siyuakén replied as she readied the lift to the forest floor, “this lift may not see much use, but it’s still reliable.”

“How often do you go down there?” Kaoné questioned.

“Probably once a week or so,” Siyuakén answered, “but Relédiakians don’t use the lift. The lift is for foreigners like you who don’t know how to use swinging gear.”

“Use what?”

Siyuakén held up her arms, forearms forward, showing off a metal prism strapped to each forearm. At the end of each prism closest to the elbow was a cylindrical canister, mounted with its bases parallel to the sides of her arms; the other end of the prism was sloped away from her hand, and a single spike appeared to be mounted within.

“Oh, so that’s what those are…” Kevérin nodded. “…Wait, how do you swing with those?”

Siyuakén glanced at the lift control panel to see how much longer they had until it arrived. Seeing that there was still plenty of time, she held her right arm out toward the dense treetops, away from the city behind them. There was a small spark and the spike shot out, revealing that it was attached to the prism by a cord. Then, almost as soon as it had shot out, it retracted, snapping back into its mounted position.

“So it’s like a grappling hook?”

“It is a grappling hook. Once it extends out a certain distance, hooks open outward, out of the spike.”

Kevérin whistled. “Not bad. How do you power something so small, though—?”

“KRAAAAAAAWWWW!!”

“Wha—!?” Kaoné jumped, startled.

“Damn it!” Siyuakén glared into the distance, scanning the treetops for the source of the cry. “I just had to go and wake up a dragonbird, didn’t I—?!” She froze as a massive bird-like creature dived out of the leaves some distance away and began rocketing toward the three Chaotics. Then she scowled.

Kevérin caught the expression. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s infected!” Siyuakén replied, “…the infection’s reached the birds, too? Damn— hold on!” She stretched her arm toward the bird. “Avert your eyes!” she exclaimed just before a bright bolt of lightning jumped from her fingertips to the dragonbird. It immediately seized up, all of its muscles contracted; however, while its wings were no longer flapping, it still maintained its forward momentum.

“It’s coming this way!!” Kevérin yelped.

“Watch out!” Siyuakén shouted, grabbing both Kaoné and Kevérin by their shoulders and pulling them to the side. She succeeded in keeping all three of them out of direct harms way, but she wasn’t quite fast enough to keep the giant bird from scraping against Kaoné, who stumbled over, unprepared for the animal’s surprisingly large mass.

“Whoa, whoa—!”

“Kaoné! Get— shit!” Kevérin exclaimed, quickly reaching out for the Materiatechnic. But he was too late; she tripped on the walkway and toppled over the low railing, falling straight down to the ground below. However, as a Materiatechnic, she had nothing much to fear — when she judged she was within a couple seconds of hitting the ground, she quickly liquefied the dirt and made it reach out to her, disabling all surface tension as she fell into the liquid-like blob. As soon as her downward speed slowed to nil she ejected herself from the dirt blob, allowing it to re-solidify as she hastily removed the leftover dirt splotches on her body.

“Eugh…” she groaned. “Disgusting—”

“KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWW!!”

“It’s still coming?!” She whipped around just in time to see the dragonbird throw itself at her. She quickly dove to the side before rolling over and jumping back to her feet, unconsciously reaching her hand toward the bird. No, wait, no—! she panicked, no, don’t kill… it?... Her panic turned part-way into confusion as she noticed the dragonbird stomp the ground and turn back to face her. Wait, just now… she thought to herself uneasily, my… power…

It didn’t work!