The Elementalists: Dawn of Shady Schemes

I awoke the next morning, taking a shower really quickly and had gotten ready for the day... at least everything besides breakfast, an was preparing for the day ahead. I started making pancakes as I let my hair dry, and when I finished flipping the last one and was in the process of cleaning up my mess, a sleepy-eyed Fage walked out of her room, yawning and stretching, dragging her blanket with her.

"It's cold in the morning!" she exclaimed, shivering.

"I got some piping hot pancakes to warm you up, then!" I said. She got a plate and I was able to surprisingly and successfully flip two pancakes onto the plate. I spread some butter, which melted quickly over the pancakes, and after pouring some syrup onto the pancakes, Fage seated and started to cut her pancakes and dig in, as I flipped the remaining pancakes onto my own plate, smeared it with butter and syrup, and I made my way over to the table.

"Where's Atlas?" she asked. "I saw her walk out in the middle of the night.."

I panicked. "Uh.. she must have gone hunting."

"For a midnight snack?" Fage asked suspiciously, arching her eyebrows at me.

"Either that or she wanted to go to the bathroom..." I added quickly. "How would you like to wake up and end up slipping on a puddle of pee or stepping on a dump of doodoo?"

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ick.. yeah, I'd much prefer her to go outside instead of in my room, thank you very much."

I chuckled, smiling, and asked her, "When was the last time you had a shower?"

She shrugged. "I don't know to be quite honest with you..."

"Perhaps you take a shower and then while your hair dries I dry my hair and finish doing what I gotta do and then you do the same after I'm done?"

Fage nodded with wide eyes. "Yes please!" And took off into her room, and dashed from her room to the bathroom.

I sat down and finished cleaning up, and she was in and out in no time.

"Ahhhh," Fage said as she walked out of the bathroom in a white, gray-colored, floral-patterned robe that I assumed the Masters had provided her with, her hair up in a white towel. "I feel like a different person."

I laughed. "I know right?"

I blow dried my hair, brushed my teeth, and styled my hair in a french braid. As we walked passed each other down the hallway, she suddenly halted, and pointed out the angelite. "Is it just me, or did that crystal change?"

I HAD told her about the element of spirit, but what I didn't tell her, was the evolving of the crystals as I increased my knowledge in the new element.

"When you learn something new, and increase your power and knowledge in a specific and new element," I began to explain to her. "Your crystal evolves as you advance with your knowledge. Your crystal hasn't..." I paused. Her crystal actually DID evolve. "Oh wait... never mind, it did evolve."

Fage beamed. "Cool, right?!"

I nodded. "Yea, especially since you're a beginner."

I heard the back door slide open and close again, and we turned to find Atlas, padding towards us, smelling like evergreen pine needles. Good morning,

"Good morning!" Fage and I greeted in unison.

I see you're showing each other your evolved crystals? Atlas asked.

"Yep!" Fage exclaimed proudly.

Atlas chuckled. Yes yes... Fage, why don't you finish getting ready and then we'll finish organizing your training schedule so that way you can learn as much as possible in the littlest time possible. As for you Scarlet.. you know what you gotta do.

I nodded, and then made my way down to the camp.

As I entered the Tech Team's hang out, I was greeted like normal. People waved and smiled at me, saying "Hey there, Scarlet!" or "G'Mornin', Scar!". I walked in with a smile and said, "Hey guys! Any new info or progress?"

"Both, actually!" Kate exclaimed with excitement. "We figured out their battle formations AND their battle tactics and strategies."

"Fantastic!" I said, and followed her to a holographic projector, which showed a view of a fairly large map. At one end stood our camp, and the other end stood the Shade Kingdom.

"Ok," she began. "We were able to program to do a projection yesterday. We have three separate solutions as to what we could do, but each with consequences, the first one is..."

"Wait!" I exclaimed, as I thought of the warm up exercise that Atlas provided me with. She had attacked my base in groups, too. "How many warriors would we have?"

"What way would you wanna know that?" asked a brunette, muscular teen boy with a short pony tail.

"How many times could our warriors guard the perimeter?" I asked.

The boy-which Kate told me his name was Mike-grabbed a calculator, a note pad, and a pencil, and got to work.

"What do you have in mind?" Kate asked.

"You'll see," I said with a mischievous grin. "Depends on whether or not we have enough warriors. Otherwise, there's no point."

Mike patted Kate's shoulder, and announced, "We have enough warriors to loop the perimeter about five times."

I smiled. "Perfect!" I said. "Here's my plan: we make three lines of defense around the perimeter. Make a mental note that the first two lines are invisible. The Shades will advance into groups around the perimeter. At their approach, the two front lines will advance and will divide into lines of two dozen and then surround the groups. Before they attack the groups, they appear and..."

"Surprise!" Kate interrupted. "It's perfect! What do ya think, Niki?"

A blonde girl with black glasses and short hair gave a thumbs up, as she reiterated my plan onto the holographic projector.

"The problem is," Mike contemplated. "Is what will we do with the leftover troops? They can't just stand there."

"Take half and put them scattered on the outside, and then the other half on the inside in case if anything else gets through our lines of defense." I replied.

"Woah," Kate said. "Never have I ever thought that you would ever be able to conjure up a full-scaled plan like that."

"Well," I said. "Atlas and I talked about it. Speaking of which, where's Winter?"

"Hunting," she said. "She was a really big help yesterday."

"Great!" I said with a smile. "We got our plan down but now, I gotta go tell the troops."

"Good luck with that," Mike muttered. "They're no brains, all brawn."

"Well, aren't the majority of you the polar-opposite?" I asked, smirking at myself for catching that he seemed one of the only muscular guys in the group.

Mike sulked as he drank out of his coffee cup, and got back to work.

Sly dog, Kate said with a smile. You better go now.

I smiled. Don't worry, I'll let you two get close.

Shut up, She snapped, and I chuckled as I saw a strawberry tint increasing on her cheeks, and I made my way out of the Tech Team hang out, and to the training area.