Blair hated Rock Paper Scissors.
That shit eating grin Martyr gave her when he put his rock against her scissors for the last spot in the truck.
Now she was sitting in the trunk across from Spectre who had lost in his match against Samsara with an unlucky piece of paper.
At least they were all able to agree that Vanagloria sits up front so she's protected from the crowd. One look out of the motel window was enough to tell that it wasn't safe for her.
Once they walked out Nova had to put a really cool light barrier around the motel.
Are you sure you're gonna be safe?" Vanagloria asked Blair from the side of the truck as they waited for Martyr finish talking to Vuclan in the front door
"Yeah I'll be fine." Blair laughed, trying to reassure Vanagloria.
"I rode in the trunk to the colosseum and it went fine." She lied.
Vanagloria had a worried look on her face as she poked her head into the truck to inspect it.
"Are you sure? Those bags aren't gonna be a problem?"
"Yes. I'm sure."
"Yeah just get in so we can go." Spectre said. He was looking at the crowd outside the light bubble anxiously.
They did not seem happy with Vanagloria being out there and were starting to get more and more antsy with every passing minute she was outside.
The worst part is that Blair recognized most of the faces. Some were friends from school, some were random strangers she had seen around, some owned stores she knew and she had talked to pretty much all of them.
She obviously didn't get along with everybody in Umberville but seeing the entire town like this was crazy. She noticed way too many faces that she was cool with that didn't like Vanagloria now.
Vanagloria hadn't ever really known or befriended as many people in the town as Blair had. Gloria had a lot of friends but she wasn't always very outwardly social. Once she felt comfortable with somebody she was fine but Gloria clearly didn't like meeting a lot of strangers.
Still, the sight hurt Blair to watch.
"Ok guys listen up!" Martyr yelled at the truck. He was standing by the front door with Vulcan. Martyr had a bright white paper that he was delicately putting into a side pocket of his backpack.
"So three in the front and two in the back." Martyr started walking over with Vulcan as he made his announcement.
"If we need to move bags or people to the inside or the truck we do it through the back window, we're not stopping for that. And we all know we are not stopping at any hotels, motels or inns on the way."
"Yes." They responded out of sync.
The group had decided that they were gonna try to get the road trip over in one 25-30 hour road trip without stopping at any hotel and only stopping for the bathroom and food.
"Aight we've got Blair and Spectre in the trunk? Nice."
Martyr opens his mouth about to say something but gets stopped as a pale hand gently touches his and Vulcan's shoulder.
"It's already time isn't it." The light champion said. She still looked like an older fully white version of Blair, but everything about her like her clothes and eyes were white rather than Blair who wore mostly black and purple to her appearance. She was also slightly taller than Vulcan which Blair thought was pretty funny, even though she was inches shorter than both of them.
"Yes it is. I don't have to stay for any more of the inn owner situation?" Vulcan said as he opened the door to his minivan.
"No, I handled that situation. His wife and daughter will be able to take care of themselves without him. He's being escorted to a prison right now by one of my knights." Nova told Vulcan.
"Wesley right?"
"Yep."
"I told you he would be a good one. You gotten any further with him now?"
"No…" Nova tries to hide a blush. "I've been a little busy."
"Well, invite him to more missions like you did today." Vulcan hops into his driver's seat and turns on his car. "That's something to talk about later though, I gotta go prepare my trail. I'll cya later."
Vulcan pulls out of the parking spot and turns his car around facing the exit, just before the bubble. People start to clump up around where he is about to come out.
He rolls down his window and pops his head out.
"Good luck on finding your way over." He says to his team. "I will visit the spot after your trial with Vega to help train you guys, I'll cya then."
Vanagloria waves back as does the rest of her team.
Vulcan waves over towards the entrance of the inn. Not to Nova but to a new figure.
"Cya Kry!" He yells over.
Kryphia has her arms up gesturing that she's offended that he didn't say bye to him, but in a fun way.
Vulcan then revs his minivan dramatically and then shoots out at the same moment Nova pushes the bubble outward, clearing a path through the crowd.
He then starts driving through the town at around 60 miles per hour, completely ignoring the highway and starts off-roading in a 100 degree angle in comparison to it, driving into the non-existent sunset.
"What is he doing?" Martyr looked very confused.
"He's driving directly towards the earth capital." Nova walked over towards Martyraveli who was still outside of his truck right next to his driver's seat.
"Oh ok, I guess that makes sense." Martyr opened his door, still looking at the minivan slowly getting smaller in the distance.
"Are you sure that you know your way to the camp?" Nova asked Martyr as he got into his driver's seat. "If you want you can stay here with us and follow us when we leave."
"No it's fine, I wanna get to the house as soon as we can." Martyr said as he rolled out Vulcan's map onto the dashboard.
"Plus we don't want to hang out with your team." Vanagloria added as she climbed into the backseat.
"Sorry about that, I'm trying my best to fix their behavior as fast as I can."
"Also Vulcan gave us this map for directions so we know our way." Samsara pointed to it, already in shotgun.
"Well that's good." Nova looked through the rolled down window of the truck, checking to see if the map was right. "And you know when you reach the town you go straight through it and then take a left into the forest area."
"Yup." Martyr nodded.
"Then you go into the nearest mountain and go under the waterfall, making sure no one is following you." Kryphia added from Samsara's window.
"Yeah, we have it all written down on the map." Martyr pointed to the top left of the map which had a bunch of notes in half decent handwriting.
"I told you Nova I think these guys have potential." Kryphia started talking to Nova from window to window. "I like my team from what I've seen from them but I think this one might be my favorite. Especially that one" Kryphia pointed to Samsara.
"Thanks." Samsara looked very flattered.
"I think they have convinced me they are capable of finding their way without us. I think we can let them go." Nova said as she backed away from the car, along with Kryphia.
"Well I wish you the best of luck, if you do get there, I'll allow you the privilege of being able to choose from the three houses." Nova said as the car backed up by her.
"Thanks Nova." Blair said to Nova while sitting down. Nova started to walk over the porch of the inn, getting out of the truck's way.
"Hey Blair." She turned her head over towards the voice.
Blair saw Kryphia looking right at her with a very serious look.
"I'm expecting a lot from you."
"Oh uh… thanks? I'll do my best." Blair responded.
She wasn't sure exactly what Kryphia's expectations were but Blair didn't really have time to create a good enough response. The truck was already making its way out of the parking lot. Her words seemed to hold more meaning than Blair could figure out at the moment.
"What was that?" Spectre said, looking back at the inn.
"I don't really know." Blair was trying to keep herself still from the bumps in the parking lot, clinging onto the sides of the trunk.
As Martyr pulled up to the edge of the bubble, he stopped as light knights walked around the edge of the truck.
The bubble started to fade away and following its collapse the crowd ran forward, shouting at the truck.
Blair was seeing too many faces that she knew. It was hard to look at the crowd and also not make eye contact with.
She ended up slouching down further into the trunk, trying to get herself under the trunk walls.
They were shouting some pretty terrible things about Vanagloria. Blair had never fully realized the superiority complex people had on the islands towards earth.
No wonder so many people who went down to earth tried to engrave their names as gods. People from the islands thought very little of people from earth.
Most of the shouting was about Vanagloria being a hybrid of the two types of humans and her not deserving the elemental power.
The crowd made sure their opinion was heard too. As Martyr drove by the crowd, things were being thrown at the truck like rocks and sticks. All of them were aiming for the backseat.
But of course one small pebble made its way into the trunk, then another, then a stick.
Pitch black smoke erupted from Spectre's hands and was thrown down at the crowd in his frustration. It only added to the screams and anslaught of insults.
The moment lasted way too long. Martyr eventually made his way through the crowd and took off the moment he got out.
After about an hour or two of driving they eventually found a gas station.
Martyr got out to fill the tank, along with Samsara and Spectre who went in the station to grab some food.
Blair hopped out of the truck to visit Vanagloria still in the car.
"Gloria?" Blair said, climbing next to her in the backseat.
"Heyy Blair…" Vanagloria was huddled up in the corner with her side against the window, depressingly eating an apple and hugging her backpack. Her hair was even messier than usual, thin strands were sticking up.
Blair felt exactly the same way on the inside.
"It's gonna be okay, that's probably gonna be the worst of it." Blair scotched closer to her. "We're just gotta avoid public places for a while."
"I-It's so annoying though. I finally got an element I've always wanted and we finally got into the Vying but it has to be ruined because I'm like, half from e-earth or something." Vanagloria's voice was getting very emotional, slurring and stuttering her words. She seemed like she was trying her best to keep herself together.
"Like why do people have to… why do they gobba… oh my fuggin god I can't even talk right now."
"I get what you're saying." Blair leaned her shoulder against her side.
"They'll like you again some day, once you show them who you are."
"Yeah I'll make sure I make my mark." Vanagloria looked determined to do so. Her azure eyes resolved in her goal to prove herself.
"I'll be the greatest they'll have ever seen."