April 3, 2005 – 18:00 (Winnipeg Time)
"He can, and he will," said Sebastian.
"No, he needs authorization from at least an elder."
"It's been arranged already with High Mage Finnas and High Elf Yalor. Check with them. There, he's got authorizations from two elders."
The receptionist couldn't reach out to them, but High Fay Ellya walked in with Emery while he argued with Sebastian.
"He's fine. Write him down for me but Sebastian Larameer is correct, check the logs. Mr. Frank McNally has pre-clearance from Finnas and Yalor."
Meanwhile, Coralis and Alejandro were approaching South Africa. Upon arrival, they met with Whazk and Matasia on a floating platform driven by Giornie, a Shadow Elemental member, near the Kruger National Park.
"Holy gods from above, you two look worse than I thought you would," said Matasia, hesitating before hugging them. "You're good enough for this mission?"
"Yes, we got this," said Alejandro.
Whazk gave Alejandro and Coralis a bind and a sword each before reviewing the plan with them.
"One last thing. They do have the same kind of wards you came across when you paid them a visit at their Greenland plant, but there is a layer sensing new elemental energy within. Stick to your bind and sword as much as possible to prevent detection," said Whazk.
Giornie drove the floating platform above a tall tree standing near the middle of the compound they were about to invade. Coralis attached her hologram around her right wrist and connected it to the CMMA war room fixed hologram.
"Ready to dance?" said Whazk.
"Yes!" said Alejandro, shrinking his bind.
Alejandro slid his bind on his tiny paw as soon as he was in animal form.
"We're about to start," mind-linked Coralis to Sonylla before answering. "Yes!"
Matasia shifted into Minette, the nickname given to her pug dog form, and Coralis shifted into Cheetah. Alejandrito climbed on Cheetah's back while she slid her bind on a front paw. As soon as Minette had her bind on, they jumped off on a tree branch below them and bolted toward the compound's cells. Whazk turned into a raven and perched on a statue in the middle of the compound.
The cells were in an open cave near the northeastern border of the compound. Minette stood guard at the entrance while Coralis and Alejandro shifted back and passed their blades through the necks of the two guards standing there before they could raise the alarm.
Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, the people present in the CMMA war room screamed in victory when they saw Alejandro, from Coralis's wrist, opening some prisoners' cells. There were more people in them than just the four Shadow Elemental members.
"I see now why they are called Shadow Elementals," said Sebastian.
"Blue and Alejandro usually receive a first visit from their guards around 6:00. It's 5:40 in Sri Lanka right now, so they probably stroke down the two South African guards before anyone noticed they were gone. I doubt the witchy jail night guards paid close attention to the subbasement cameras," said Sonylla.
"That explains why the guards looked like they saw spirits from upstairs before they killed them. They weren't expecting to see Blue and Alejandro standing in from of their eyes," said Emery.
"As usual, they didn't see Blue coming until it was too late. Thinking she would stay away locked up in a human jail will be their downfall," said Sebastian, watching Coralis and Alejandro beheading more djinns as they entered a dormitory near the cave, with a pug standing guard at the entrance. "Holy gods from above, we can see blood splatter rolling off her hologram. Frank, good thing you're not squeamish."
Meanwhile, the four liberated Shadow Elemental members ran to where Whazk was perched, along with the other people who were imprisoned with them. Whazk shifted back to his mage form and gave a sword and a bind to each of his members. Tyna and Elko went to the management trailer to search it while Jourmol and Trew led the former prisoners to Giornie.
"It seems they are communicating to each other through mind-link or something. The people in the second dormitory were waking up when we got in," said Coralis to their crew while sliding her blade through a djinn's neck and grabbing another one's hair.
"I see someone running out of the dormitory beside this one. I got him," said Matasia, launching herself on the runner.
She dug her canines into the runner's right ankle to stop him from going further and shifted back, shoving her blade through his heart before he could cast a spell against her. Matasia stood between the third and fourth dormitory doors, facing the doorways and ready to attack the next one coming out of them when Coralis and Alejandro walked out of the second dormitory.
They entered the third one and saw half of the occupants sitting on their beds, half asleep, while four djinns were up and searching for their staff. Before they could find it, their heads rolled on the ground.
"Please don't kill us," said one of the half-asleep djinns.
"Why would we spare you? Just so you could run to the next group of nasties who'll promise you everything, and devise a new plan against us?" said Coralis as she killed one behind her.
"Weren't you supposed to be in jail?" said another.
"We were, but here we are," said Alejandro and they killed the remaining occupants.
They walked out of the dormitory and saw Matasia fighting three djinns by the last one. They joined her and more came out.
"We found where they stored their weapons, and I'm about to portal them to Milkya and Riwik. How is it going?" said Whazk through the Shadow Elementals mind-links.
"Three full dormitories of twelve djinn workers down. We're at the last one. Five are dead, and we're fighting the last seven. We got it under control so far," said Alejandro.
"Have you seen any manager or leader?" said Whazk.
"I don't think we did," said Alejandro.
"Why are you always in the way? You should be fighting with us, not against us," said one of the workers.
"Nah, I don't think so. In your way is where I need to be, but don't you worry, I will be out of your hair in a second when I send you back to your maker," said Coralis as she gripped his hair and slid her blade across his neck.
"They should ask their leaders why they insisted on training Blue on weapon combat. Clearly, it paid off well for them," said Frank, watching another head rolling off the ground from Coralis's hologram.
"I wonder why neither of them is using their elemental energies to fight them off," said Emery.
"I think it's because of the type of sensors in the wards there, but I'm not sure why now that they've been detected," said Sebastian.
"Blue is low in energy and stamina, thanks to low food intake and jail quality time. I'm assuming it's the same for Alejandro, but I'm not sure about the shadow member fighting with them," said Sonylla.
Meanwhile, as Coralis, Alejandro and Matasia finished killing off the djinns coming their way and looked around for more, they were suddenly thrown against the dormitory wall behind them, which shattered Coralis's hologram.