After they worked on the panels Tim took them to see the wind turbines. Inside the towers of each wind turbine there was a stair case that could be climbed to access the generators at the top. It was too dangerous for the class to enter the towers, but they were able to explore the computers on ground level that ran them. The turbines put out much more power than the solar panels and maintaining them was the most important job in the power plant.
All the energy that was collected by the solar and wind was used by the Collis Township. Sunny and windy days would produce more energy and the extra energy would be converted and stored into the micro springs. On cloudy days that had little wind the plant would use the stored energy. The system worked by taking the average of all the power collected throughout the year and either storing or using energy on any given day.
The class would have to write a report on the field trip so everyone had been taking notes during the presentations. On the trip back to school Max downloaded into his phone videos of Lizzy’s old tournament fights to watch in preparation for Saturdays match against her.
Chapter 15
Battle for title of the strongest middle school Clash player!
“I got the will, you got the power, Sandalphon!” Max said.
He looked over at Cleita who appeared on the stage before Sandalphon. Then he looked back at Sandalphon, he was still only dressed in only his white fighting tunic. Max prayed that Sandalphon would be able to take on Cleita with none of his equipment.
The countdown finished for the start of the fight. Right away Cleita lined up a throw and lunched her trident right at Sandalphon. It was a little unexpected and Max was sure Sandalphon was going to be skewered. Much to Max’s surprise the spear bounced off. Light had flared up around Sandalphon and he was suddenly wearing his full set of golden plate armor. Max had assumed Sandalphon would not be able to dodge the weapon and unconsciously had Sandalphon equip the armor. Max was not sure how he had done it, but he was not going to complain. Sandalphon picked up the thrown trident.
“Give it back,” Lizzy said to Max. Cleita held out her hand, waiting for Sandalphon to hand back the trident.
“What?” Max said, unable to believe she would ask such a thing during a Clash battle.
Sandalphon swung the weapon around like he was going to use the trident, but instead tossed it behind him away from Cleita. It seemed like his prayers had been answered now, Cleita was as weaponless as Sandalphon.
Max noticed that Sandalphon did not have his gauntlets on. He was a little disappointed that Sandalphon had not equipped his full set of armor.
Gauntlets must be separate. Max thought.
Sandalphon charged at Cleita regardless. As Sandalphon closed in Cleita held her palm straight out and blasted Sandalphon with a jet of water. The water jet was powerful and knocked Sandalphon back.
Max had witnessed that attack during her last fight and expected it. Cleita changed her fin into legs and started to run past the knocked down Sandalphon towards her trident. Sandalphon reached out and managed to grab her ankle tripping her to the floor. While holding on to the mermaid, by the leg, he stood up. Using his strength Sandalphon began to whip Cleita around as though she were a rag doll. He whipped her to the side, letting go, sending her flying across the arena. Cleita was agile and rolled into her landing preventing any damage to herself.
Cleita went to stand up, but the ankle Sandalphon had grabbed her by would not support her weight anymore. Sandalphon had twisted it when he whipped her around. Max, seeing a chance, ran Sandalphon over to the mermaid. Cleita morphed her legs back into a fin and then blasted Sandalphon with another summoned jet of water from her palm. Sandalphon withstood the blast and kept charging towards her. In one of her favorite moves Lizzy had Cleita fall low to the ground and sweep the legs out from under Sandalphon, he tumbled past her. Cleita, balancing on her fin, wiggled and flopped her way over to her trident.
Sandalphon recovered from his tumble and chased after her again. Cleita turned towards Sandalphon and shot a double blast of water from both palms. The blasts did relatively no damage to the avatar, but frustrated Max to no end. The double blasts had knocked Sandalphon further back away from Cleita.
“Come on Liz do something else,” Max said to Lizzy.
“This fight was suppose to be over by now. Where did you get that armor from?” Lizzy asked.
Not really knowing himself, he just responded with, “It appears when I want it.” Vaguely answering her question.
Cleita made it to her trident, picked it up, and turned to face Sandalphon. “I was saving this attack, but I guess I will have to use it now.”
Cleita began to wave the trident around in front of her. From the tips of the trident water was summoned, pouring out of the points. Instead of falling to the arena floor, the water collected around Cleita into an invisible container of some sort. After the water had reached a level high above Cleita’s head it stopped flowing. The water had formed around Cleita into a giant water golem. Cleita could still be seen inside the thing, floating in the center. From either side of the golem, two hulking arms formed, with three fingered hands. From the top just a little bump of a head popped up, with tiny whirlpools for eyes. The whole thing lacked legs; its torso just rose up in a standing wave from the arena floor.
The golem rolled towards Sandalphon riding the wave of water. Once in range it swung an arm at Sandalphon. Sandalphon grabbed the arm and to Max’s surprise the water golem was solid to Sandalphon’s touch. It swung the other arm over and Sandalphon grabbed that one in his other hand. Sandalphon and the water golem were then locked in a struggle.
The golem loomed over Sandalphon, being much larger, it looked like it was about to crush the avatar. Sandalphon was not as big as the water hulk, but he was just as strong. Pushing back at the golem Sandalphon managed to hold his ground. Forming above the hulking water golem, from its back, a third arm appeared. It swung down to hit Sandalphon. Sandalphon kicked up with a foot and blocked the blow. Then putting both feet on the things hulking chest, he jumped off its body doing a back flip away, breaking their grapple.
Immediately after landing Sandalphon rushed back in at the hulk slamming into its chest with his shoulder sending it rolling back. Sandalphon followed up with a series of punches and kicks. The golem’s form began to waver; Lizzy was having trouble controlling the hulk.
Sandalphon needs more power in his blows, Max thought.
As if obeying his desire the bronze bracelets of Sandalphon phased onto the golden steel gauntlets on his hands. Powered by the steel gauntlets, Sandalphon’s punches started doing more damage to the water hulk. Where he now punched, he left holes that leaked water. The water golem grew smaller in size as more and more water leaked out of him.
Not waiting for all the water to fall out, Lizzy had Cleita stab out of the water hulk, at Sandalphon, with her trident. The rest of the water golem fell into a splash at their feet. Max had seen the move, and had Sandalphon grab the trident mid attack. The water hulk was nothing more than a large puddle now. Unable to pull her trident free Cleita reached into her shoulder guard and tossed a net at Sandalphon.
Sandalphon released the trident and caught the net in the air with both hands. As he caught it, he tore it in two. The net was just a momentary distraction and Cleita backed away from Sandalphon. Taking in a huge breath, she unleashed a sonic blast at Sandalphon from her mouth. Sandalphon held up his hands to block the blast, but it still struck him. The sonic blast stunned Sandalphon making him wobble in place.
“Got yah,” Lizzy said. Cleita came over to finish Sandalphon off like she had done to the minotaur in her previous fight.
Max begged Sandalphon to move, but he just would not listen. He stood there wobbling on his feet. Almost all control over Sandalphon had left Max.
“Goodnight,” Lizzy said in a sickeningly sweet girly voice. Cleita set herself to make a powerful two handed blow with her trident to finish Sandalphon off.
Max was desperate for Sandalphon to move away from Cleita. Every command he sent Sandalphon just turned into more wobbling. An idea came to Max. He just stopped trying to move Sandalphon at all. Sandalphon went limp and fell down right as the trident swung at him. It nicked Sandalphon as he fell, causing the trident to spin out of Cleita’s hands. She overswung with the attack, having been expecting to hit something.
Her fumble of the trident had given Sandalphon time to recover, right as Cleita recovered and came in with a second swing. Sandalphon held up a gauntleted fist to intercept it and sparks flew as the trident bounced off his steel fist. Cleita sent a water blast at Sandalphon from an open palm, sending him sliding across the arena. She reared herself up to send another sonic scream blast at Sandalphon.
Max would not let her get Sandalphon this time. Swirling light formed around Sandalphon’s left hand. He grabbed at it and materializing in his hand was Medens. Cleita sent her sonic blast at Sandalphon and this time he blocked it with Medens, completely absorbing the attack. A light bubble, surrounded Medens, flaring up as the attack hit. Cleita sent another sonic blast at Sandalphon and he blocked it with Medens again, a light bubble shined again around Medens.
Cleita sent out a double blast of water from her palms at Sandalphon. Medens blocked those attacks as well. The light bubble around Medens flared up when blocking the attacks.
Lizzy was shocked. “Are you toying with me? If you could block my attacks with that mace why didn’t you do that before?” She shouted at Max.
“I wish I had,” Max responded. He still was not sure how he got Sandalphon to summon the weapon. With two of her abilities now sealed by Medens, Sandalphon was free to intercept Cleita without being knocked back or stunned. Sandalphon dashed at Cleita. Cleita met him with her trident, Sandalphon was able to defect Cleita’s trident easily with Medens. Holding her trident with Medens to the side, Sandalphon punched in at her with his right fist. Cleita tried to dodge, but Sandalphon was in too close on her, and his attack hit hard on the green fish scale armor she wore.
Reeling from the blow she dove down low and swung her fin out and around Sandalphon’s feet to trip him like she had done before. Sandalphon fell to the floor and Cleita rolled on top of him. Holding her trident in both hands over her head, she was going to thrust the spear down right into his head. Sandalphon caught the attack in his right gauntlet though, and brought up Medens to connect hard with Cleita’s right temple knocking her down. She fell off Sandalphon to the side and her hologram broke up into shards of holographic light.
The announcer claimed Sandalphon as the victor. The crowd cheered for Sandalphon who now stood alone in the arena.
Max walked over to Lizzy’s side of the stadium. “Good fight Liz,” he said, holding out his hand in a sign of good sportsmanship.
She barely touched his hand before walking out of the stadium, saying, “Whatever.”
Chapter 16
From foe to friend!
Monday, Max showed up to the after school Clash club again. He knew that he needed more practice and that the club offered the best place for him to get that practice. The Clash Center offered the same equipment to practice on, but it was difficult getting there from school and it was further from his house. Max had made good friends with TJ as well along with the other members, making the Clash club much more fun.
“Max, great fight,” TJ said, as the two met up in the club room. ”I imagine Lizzy is going to be really angry though. She wanted to beat you more than she ever wanted to beat Jason.”
Lizzy walked into the club room just then. She looked over at Max. Max could not read her face. It did not seem as though she was angry or anything. She walked over to the table he was at and sat across from him, ignoring TJ.
“Sandalphon is really strong,” she said. “I’m not going to lie, I was really worried about fighting you. I don’t know if it is luck or something else, but you ended up with a really strong avatar.”
“Thank you,” Max said.
“Why were you ranked last?” Her face was still emotionless.
“I had only gotten Sandalphon the day before the tournament. Gervasee was only my second Clash fight.”
“What?” Her face came alive with surprise. “Are you telling me that I lost to someone who’s only had an avatar for two weeks?”
“Not only that, but I can’t make Sandalphon’s gear come out when I want it to.”
“What?” Lizzy sat there with a look of complete surprise. “Haha, I thought you were messing with me.” She said as a smile appeared on her face. “So during our fight you didn’t mean to summon Sandalphon’s gear right when you needed it?”
“I don’t know how I get Sandalphon to bring out the weapon or the armor. I wish I knew because outside of a match I can never get Sandalphon to do any of those things.”
“So, if we were to have a rematch right now could you make Sandalphon do those same things as before?” Lizzy asked.
“If we had a fight, maybe, but there is no guarantee.”
“I don’t want to have another fight anyway. I really thought you were toying with me.” her face got serious “You better not lose in the quarter-finals though.” She said sternly. Then smiling again she said “So, you going to join this club? Every few months we have a competition against the high school club. With you on our side, we could finally beat all those jerks.”
“The high school club is really good,” TJ said. “They have four out of the top five ranked in the tournament. You already beat Gervasee and he was ranked first.”
“Who is the other one in the top five that is not in the high school club?” Max asked. He pointed at Lizzy, but she shook her head no, she was not one of the top five ranked.
“That one guy Logan with the avatar Degoth. He is from the mainland, he is ranked second. He takes the ferry to Collis every weekend, just to fight in our tournament.”
“I’ve seen him,” Max said. “He wins his battles really quickly. With some kind of shadow attacks. His avatar is a half dragon or something.”
“Yeah, it is a draconian,” TJ said. “He breaths out black fire, kind of like a dragon. I’ve been watching all his battles. He is crazy strong. Gervasee would have been a really good match up against him. Logan is a jerk though. He is always talking a lot of trash to everyone he beats.”
“Talking trash? What does he say?” Max asked
“He says things like ‘you shouldn’t even play Clash’ or ‘this island is just full of lame avatars.’“
After hearing that, a fire was started inside of Max. He did not like anyone talking down to his island and the idea of Sandalphon being considered lame made him ill. “I guess I will have to beat him,” Max said, with determination in his voice.
“You should worry about your next two opponents both of them are the previous champs. Both of them are in the high school Clash club,” Lizzy said.
“I remember that, Troo and Femur are their avatars. Troo the robot and Femur the necromancer. What were their rankings?”
“You will be fighting Troo next. He ranked fifth and he is really fast, maybe not as fast as Gervasee, but really fast. And Femur was ranked third, he is unique. I have managed to beat both of them at least once, but that was a long time ago. They have gotten new moves by now I bet. If you had joined the club a while ago you could have been able to play them.”
“How do you know I will be fighting Femur after my next battle? Won’t he had to win his fight first?” Max said.
“Femur will win. He was last year’s champ. I am sure he will win his match,” TJ said.
“Yeah,” Lizzy confirmed.
Lizzy looked at TJ then back at Max.
“Hey Max, play with me over here,” she said, as she went over to one of the holographic-emitter tables used for Clash. She switched the game table to Ring-Out, a game where you toss rings onto pegs on a wall from a line. The higher you throw the ring the more points, but the pegs stick out less making it harder to
hit. TJ went to play with other club members. Max followed Lizzy to the table and linked his band making Sandalphon appear on the game field.
While they were alone Lizzy asked, “Max would you like to come to April’s birthday party this Friday as my guest?”
Max thought about that for a second. “If April doesn’t mind me coming to her birthday party, then sure,” he said.
“Don’t worry about a present or anything,” she said.
“Okay, sounds cool.” Max was trying to figure out what was Lizzy’s angle on asking him to the party. He doubted that she was trying to get revenge or anything; if like, when he showed up he was going to get ambushed. Trying not to worry about it Max asked a question that was bugging him about their fight. “Liz, why didn’t you use Cleita’s cape to deflect any of Sandalphon’s attacks?” Max asked.
“The cape doesn’t work like that. It can only deflect flying projectiles that are used against Cleita” Lizzy responded. “It doesn’t work on melee attacks.
“Ah, that was bugging me,” Max said
Max and Lizzy played through other games on the holographic-emitters. The two ended up hanging out every day after school that week. They exchanged phone numbers and added each other as friends on some online social networking sites. In the morning he would head over to her locker before school. And at lunch he started sitting with her and April instead of sitting with his own friends.
Chapter 17
Max and Lizzy: more then just friends?
Max showed up to April’s house more than a little nervous. He was greeted at the door by April’s mom and he explained Lizzy had invited him. Even though he was told he did not have to get a present he had brought one was anyways. He did not see Lizzy right away so he called her with his phone. She came out of a back room and over to talk to him after the getting his call.
“I am so glad you are here. April’s family demands all of her attention during her birthday, so I barely get to hang with her. Last year I had gotten her a Clash band and we weren’t able to play a match for hours. Her cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles all force her to talk about everything going on in her life. They all have these crazy expectations for her. So because of that she is in like twenty clubs at school.” Lizzy said.