Ava EQ #12 - Above the Clouds

Above the Clouds

Easy Quest

Requirements: None

Reward: 1,000 Zeni

A storm looms on the horizon. Far above Earth in the heavens themselves, resides a cloud created by the gods. But one can not simply fly up and claim their prize. The clouds that surround the artefact are almost impenetrable by mortals. Find a way through.
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Ava woke up to the sound of a huge storm brewing outside. She was still training with Kami at the Lookout. A clap of thunder shook her right out of her bed, and sent her plummeting towards the white tiled floor. She looked out the window from the floor with groggy eyes, rubbing her head, while starting at the dark thunder clouds building outside.

“What the hell…” she said, getting up.

She had been here for three months and in that time, she hadn’t so much as seen a wisp of a cloud, let alone a huge ominous storm. She walked out, looking up at the sky. It was dark and menacing. But something seemed strange about these clouds. Something magical and evil. She saw Mr. Popo and Kami standing at the edge of the Lookout, looking out into the storm clouds.

She walked up to them.

“What’s happening?” she asked them.

“Something has gone wrong in the Nimbusian Plain…” Kami said to her.

“The what?” Ava asked him, looking up into the clouds.

“Nimbusian Plain. It’s where the Nimbus cloud lives.” Mr. Popo said to her.
She shook her head.

“You’re going to have to explain that to me. I’m an alien, remember.” Ava reminded them.
Kami turned to her and as if he only remembered now just how little she knew of Earth.

“It is magical cloud that was created by the gods many millennia ago. It lives in the Nimbusian Plain, until it chooses a new master.” Kami explained.

“But something has gone wrong, you said.” Ava said, looking up at the clouds.

“Yes. It seems that you might have to go save the cloud. He needs to stay pure and innocent.” Kami said to her.

It was obvious. Something needed to be done and saw the closest and most capable.
It was a no brainer in her mind.

“Done.” Ava smiled.

“Take some food from the kitchen and head off, we have very little time.” Kami said to her, seeing the lighting jumping from cloud to cloud.

She did as he said, got dressed into her battle jumper, armour and boots and gloves. She swung her cloak over her and slipped on her new amethyst ring. She walked out towards Kami and Mr. Popo.

“Head out to the heart of the storm. No doubt Nimbus will be putting up a fight.” Kami told her.

She nodded and dove off the Lookout edge, powering up mid-flight and heading off towards the swirling black clouds.





As soon as she was in the air, she noticed a difference in the air pressure and currents. They were all over the place, and going in all different directions. It was like flying in a tumble dryer.

Ava tried her best but every now and then, she would get blindsided by a rushing air current and get pushed off course. The good thing was, she had the big black clouds ahead of her as a guide and they were pretty hard to miss.

After fighting with nothing but air or what felt like hours, Ava finally reached the edge of the black clouds. She stopped and watched as they swirled and writhed in front of her, like a threatening black dragon just waiting for her to make her first move so he could devour her.

She needed to test the extent of this clouds power, so she shot a couple of ki balls into it. She watched as they disappeared into the swirling vortex, making clear little wormholes as they went and then being consumed by the cloud. She wondered, did the cloud absorb them, or did they just shoot right through.

She focused on the cloud, trying to get a handle of it power level, but it was nothing but a load of air swirling in front of her. She felt no energy within it. So it obviously didn’t absorb those ki balls, or she would have sensed it. She flew up to the edge and stuck out her hand, unsure of what she would feel. She ran her hand over the face of the cloud and felt the cold air running through her fingers. She plunged her hand in and felt the coldness consume her limb and begin to crawl up her arm. She quickly pulled it out, flying back a little as she looked at her hand. It was freezing cold and the tips of her nails were frozen and icy white already.

“All that for just two seconds…” she said, looking into the darkness that was the cloud.

Suddenly, she felt a crack of ki appear in the cloud.
She stopped and flew back. Was it a fighter; was it the thing that was creating this cloud? How strong was this person?

Without warning, a white arm of ki cracked through blackness and grabbed her leg. She was shocked senseless as the lightning grabbed a hold of her and discharged all of it’s built up anger.
She felt her organs and ki pool freeze up like it was the middle of winter. She began to drop down to earth, unable to control her muscles.

She plummeted through other normal clouds, their vapour leaving little traces of water streaks on her face as she fell to earth. Their coolness awoke her from her little shock induced coma and she shook her head, retuning to full functionality. She quickly gained control of her ki again and as if she had been attached to a string that had no run out, she stopped falling.

She looked up at the cloud from below and saw that every now and then it would light up with lightning, rippling through the dark clouds.
She growled and shot back up at it, feeling the anger bubbling inside her body.

She had to find a way to get through the clouds and get to that cloud. But how? It was super cold and seemed to have defences and offences. Was there any way to get to the cloud and save it?

She stared out into the cloud as it swirled in front of her as she got back to the edge.
She had to think about this carefully. Her ki attacks didn’t affect it, but it’s affected her. If she was struck with another lighting bolt, she might not be lucky next time round. No traditional way of fighting could kill this monstrosity. She would have to think outside the box for this one.

Then she had a brainstorm.

“My blasts just flew through the cloud no problem.” She realized, looking back at the cloud.
“So, if I make a huge ki ball and push through with it, then I should be able to pass through the clouds.

She turned her body towards the cloud as if it were a living, breathing adversary. She held out her hands, palms facing each other, shoulder width apart. She closed her eyes and delved deep into her core. She felt the lake of energy that was her ki pool and began to siphon some ki up out of it. She gathered it into two balls and drew them up into her body cavity, pulling them up to her shoulders and pushing them down her arms to her hands.

They began to heat up as the ki filled her palms and fingertips. It began to flow out of her palms and she opened her eyes to see the balls growing in size as she pulled more ki from her pool.

She had to remember to keep enough of her ki in case she had a fight ahead of her so she stopped pulling power from her reserves. The balls stopped growing and she smiled. She slowly brought her hands together and the balls melded together, forming one big ball of ki as wide as her shoulders.

She pushed the ball out in front of her, holding it tightly as she neared the edge of the cloud. She pushed the ball into it and the clouds seemed to move away from it slightly. She smiled. Suddenly, she thrust her way into the cloud, holding the ball out in front of her. She knew she had to get to the centre of the black clouds, as Nimbus was sure to be fighting, as Master Kami had said.

She pushed through the clouds more and more, until she felt the cold of the clouds gripping at her feet. She looked back to see that her boot heels and toes were turning white and frosty as she flew. This was a good plan in theory, but it wasn’t working in practicality. She powered up slightly, causing the ki to flow through her body momentarily before returning to her ki pool.

The ice melted slightly, but as soon she realised she had bigger problems. She had reached the part of the clouds where they were rubbing together, causing lightning. She watched as the licks of light tried to grab her legs and feet. She looked ahead of her and saw that the ki ball was attracting lightning, and feeding into it, making it bigger and bigger. Soon it would be too big to control and too volatile to re-absorb.

She would have to jettison it.

She quickly turned onto her back and shot the ki ball out behind her into the cloud. She watched as her ki was overrun with lightning. It became a nucleus in a cell of pure ki.

It was beautiful to see, but deadly to stay. She powered up and shot through the clouds, away from her ki ball. The lightning tongues were all drawn to her ki ball, so she just needed to deal with the cold. She flew through the last few clouds of cold, ice forming on her eye lashes as she broke through the last cloud, into sunlight.

She wiped the ice off her face and hands and looked into the clearing.

She gasped as what she saw.

“What the hell…” she whispered, looking around.
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Quest Status - Completed
WC – 1668