Guardians Academy

"You set up the traps. I'll go find her." Riki offered. "Where could she have gone?"

"Maybe the market? I heard there was a sale from the Shuttle Shoppe lately. Funny, it seems to have ended and I don't even remember seeing it." Farmer Andrews mentioned.

"Uh…" Riki decided not to talk about the Time Stop during weekends. "I'll be right back."

So he said, and so he ran around the whole village, twice, looking for Farmer Andrews' wife.

But after an hour of fruitless searching, he finally gave up and went back to report to Farmer Andrew.

Only to discover that Farmer Andrews had disappeared.

"Farmer Andrews? Hello? HELLOOO!?" Riki yelled.

But there was no reply.

He barged in and scoured the house looking for the man and his wife.

But they were nowhere to be found.

"Great! How am I supposed to complete this bounty when my team has disappeared?!" Riki protested. "Help? Orb? Somebody?"

Orb responded. "Would you like to search for unoccupied classmates for help?"

"I'll take any help I can get!" Riki g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

Orb was silent for a moment, then said, "There is one student current not on a mission and not in a team. Would you like to contact that student? You will have to approach him physically."

"Yes! Where is he?" Riki asked.

"He's in Multi-purpose Hall 2."

***

Riki barged in. "HELP! Somebody! Anybody!"

"Wha…?! Riki?!" Cody almost fell over in the midst of his practice. "What happened?"

"My team is missing! My WHOLE TEAM has disappeared!!" Riki shouted, grabbing Cody by the collar. "It's the Mole Serpents! They're onto us! They're after us ALL!!!"

"Uh… okay. So… should we run?" Cody asked, hesitantly.

"We have to find them! We have to save them!" Riki exclaimed, shaking Cody by the collar.

"But you just said they disappeared." Cody pointed out.

"Hey, can't I even panic in peace?" Riki protested his protests crossly.

"Oh. Go ahead, then." Cody invited.

"Right." Riki took a deep breath, then tore at his hair and started running around the hall in circles. "My teammates are missing! They've completely disappeared! It's the MOLE SERPENTS! They're after us! THEY'RE AFTER US!!!"

Cody gasped anxiously. "Oh no! What do we do?"

"We must find them! We must save them!" Riki exclaimed.

"Right!" Cody raised his practice sword. "Let's go!"

"Let's GO!" Riki dashed out.

Not quite knowing where they were going or why or even what was really going on, Cody followed him.

***

They arrived at Farmer Andrews house only to see rows of broken traps, massive trails all over the yard leading into the plantations, and a broken back fence.

"Didn't you say they were taken by Mole Serpents?" Cody squatted, squinting at the tracks everywhere.

"Yes! It's the Mole Serpents!" Riki nodded vigorously, grabbing a machete from the shed.

"Aren't Mole Serpents like… this big?" Cody stretched his five year old arms two feet apart.

"Uh… I don't know. But something tells me there's something wrong with this bounty!" Riki declared.

Cody froze. "Riki… you took a bounty? This is the Mole Serpent Bounty?!"

"Yeah! Why?"

"Aren't the Bounties the ones that can grow stronger?"

"Uh… I dunno. Why?"

Cody gulped, eyeing the tyre-sized tracks all over the yard. "Just how strong can they actually get?"

To that, only the creaking of the broken fence at the back answered him.

"Anyway! We have to go after them! To the rescue!" Riki said, and charged towards the plantation after the tracks.

Gulping to himself and fingering his sword nervously, Cody went after him.

***

They went in among Oil Palms, following larger and larger tracks. The serpentine lines in the dirt now look like they'd been made by a tractor's wheels. Cody felt distinctly worried as they went deeper into the plantations and more and more tracks appeared everywhere.

"Just how many Mole Serpents are there?" Cody asked.

"More than one." Riki said, with certainty. "Definitely more than one."

Cody squatted to examine the tracks. "Wait. This is strange."

"What?" Riki frowned at the ground. "What do you see?"

"This is the newest. It caused this weed here to get squashed, and it's still dripping sap, so…" Cody glanced at Riki. "The tracks are different."

"Different, how?" Riki asked.

"They're headed east. Away from the plantation."

Riki lit up. "Maybe it's the kidnapper! It's the one that got Farmer Andrews! Let's follow it!"

"Uh… how do you figure…?" Cody scratched his head, but Riki was already hot on the trail leading north-east, back towards Initial Village, just toward the northern side instead of the southern.

"That sneaky serpent! It's hiding my team mate among our own buildings!" Riki gasped, chasing the trail to another homestead…

There, the trail led straight to Melinda.

"It was YOU!" Riki roared. "YOU'RE the Mole Serpent!"

Melinda looked at him blankly. "Wha…?"

Beside her, Laila looked at Cody, stunned. "Melinda is the Mole Serpent?!"

"I would never have guessed!" Cody exclaimed.

Melinda gave them both a flat look. "Seriously, guys?"

Laila just burst out laughing.

"It's you, dastardly villain! We're here to rescue Farmer Andrews!" Riki pointed the machete at Melinda. "Release my team mate!"

"I didn't even touch your team mate!" Melinda glanced at Cody. "Tell him!"

"He's not talking about me." Cody tried to explain.

Then Farmer Amos' shed door burst open and a huge maw opened up and surged directly toward Laila's head.

"Laila!" Cody tackled her, knocking her aside. They rolled in the dirt to one side as Melinda let out an ear-piercing shriek, and Riki almost cut his ear off as he moved to cover his ears with both hands while still holding on to the machete.

"Kill it!" Farmer Amos yelled, coming around the side of his house with his hoe raised high. His wife was there by his side, with her trusty saucepan in hand.

Cody turned around hurriedly raising his practice sword as he and Laila scrambled to their feet.

Only then did he finally get a good look at the Mole Serpent.

That thing was huge! The front half, the mole part, had a head as big as a bear's, large enough to take off Cody's entire skull in a single bite. There were large fangs growing out of that mouth, and its red eyes were larger than both of Cody's hands put together. The snake body that followed was thicker than old bamboo, and much, much, much longer than the two feet Cody had expected. How long was it? Twenty feet? Thirty?

It was also injured. Several bear traps had bitten into it and broken through its lower scales. It was bleeding all over, but still it survived, and it was angry.

"Scrap. This practice sword isn't going to cut it. Pun intended." Cody grimaced.

"I have a machete that we're not using!" Farmer Amos offered. "Except…"

"Except, what?"

"It's in the shed." Farmer Amos grimaced.

Cody shook his head. With the Mole Serpent blocking the entrance, getting in was out of the question.

The Mole Serpent lunged. Cody barely had time to raise his practice sword to block it before he realized his mistake.

Uta was not a Form suitable for blocking. It wasn't good at blocking other swords. It wasn't good at blocking heavy items moving at him at fast speed. It certainly was NOT good for blocking giant Mole Serpents attempting to bite his head off.

The impact literally sent him flying. Cody went numb, completely numb as he tumbled several feet through the air until he crashed into the wall of Farmer Amos' house.

"Charge!" Riki yelled, swinging his machete dangerously as he closed in on the Mole Serpent.

Laila darted in to flank the Serpent on the left. Melinda, Farmer Amos and his wife swept at it from the right. The Mole Serpent hissed, and fell back defensively for a moment.

Then, it surged forward again, and full battle was joined.

In a moment, the Serpent had Farmer Amos' hoe stuck into its teeth, with his wife banging her saucepan over its head frantically. Melinda had her own practice sword stabbing at the Mole Serpent's face, trying to gauge out an eye, while Laila stabbed it in the side with the pitchfork, only to fail to pierce its thick, heavy scales. She angled for a strike at its lower, softer belly, but the Mole Serpent thrashed around, trying to knock Amos and his hoe away, or at least close its mouth, or something. It failed to brush Amos off, but successfully sent his wife and her saucepan tumbling away to one side, and Laila to another.

Meanwhile, Riki was trying to jump on its back and was apparently trying to cut its head off, but he wasn't faring any better than Laila at piercing its scales. With a flick of its head, Riki, too, went flying, separated from his beloved machete as it fell out of his hands and landed six feet away from Cody.

Cody's hands and legs were shaking, but he knew the moment of truth had come. As numb as his body was, he could only charge forward and pray that his muscles would hold out just a bit more.

His hands closed around the hilt of Riki's machete. Psuche lit up as he actively focused power in his arms and legs.

"Get clear!!" Cody roared, and charged straight for the Mole Serpent, the machete pointed right at front of the creature's giant Mole throat.

The Mole Serpent saw him coming, but didn't dodge. Enraged at his impunity, it lunged right at him in turn, and took a single, quick bite.

All Cody saw was the teeth and the maw cover his vision.

Then everything went black.