I don't own anything except my own concepts and characters.


Chapter Eight

New Powers, Part One

After the big shock that they received Thursday, they returned to Heatherfield. Hannah spent Friday in the library of Kanrakar, searching for information on the past Dark guardians, seeing as it had been so long that now there were none around to help teach her. Now, the guardians are standing in the backyard of Will and Irma's house. It's Saturday and Hannah has been feeling better and is now walking.

Brianna watched almost comically as Hannah paced with excitement. Autumn and Madeline joined them in the backyard, coming to a stop next to Payden. "Finally!" Hannah said, spinning around and looking at them.

"Hey, Miss Energetic." Autumn joked, looking at her friend. "What's up?"

"You won't believe what I found out!" Hannah answered, a huge smile spreading across her face. "I can't wait to face that bloodsucker with my new powers. I'll show her who to mess with!"

"What're your new powers?" Madeline asked.

Hannah opened her mouth, but no words got to come out. She was going to wonder what her new power would turn her into, when suddenly she was circled in a tornado of Dark and Light. Brianna gasped and ran forward, but Payden jumped and caught her arm, effectively stopping her. "What're you doing?" Payden snapped.

"What're you doing?" Brianna snapped back with a glare. "She might need us!"

"She doesn't need us getting hurt!" Payden argued.

Meanwhile, the tornado of elements was dissipating into smoke. Autumn walked up, with Madeline slowly following her. "Guys…" Autumn said, sounding soft comparing to them yelling at each other. "We should check on…" Autumn's voice hitched as she looked where Hannah was supposed to be standing… Because now, there was a black panther there instead of their friend.

"Whoa." Madeline said, eyes widening.

The panther looked at each one of them, a look almost like confusion on its face. It opened its mouth as if to speak, but a cat like whine came out. Then the panther looked down at its paws, and turned its head to look at its tail. Suddenly, Autumn burst out into laughter. Seeing her friends' confused looks, she started to explain. "Her thoughts… Are so… funny…"

"Her thoughts…?" Brianna asked, and then gasped. "That's Hannah?"

Hannah, the panther, let out a whine. Then, Hannah's voice rang out in their minds. 'Aw, you don't recognize me? You're getting as bad as Pay-Pay.'

"Hey, don't call me that!" Payden said, but she couldn't help to smile along with the others.

Hannah ran in a circle. 'You have got to go get my mom!' Autumn's laughter had reduced, but everyone else's laughter grew when Hannah thought this. Her voice was so happy and care free. Madeline nodded, and went into the house. No one had to ask which mom she was asking about, seeing as Irma was at her job, being 'Irma Lair, on the Air.'

Will followed Madeline out into the yard. "What is so important…" Her question fell into the air as her eyes fell upon her daughter the panther. "What is that doing here and where is Hannah?"

"Hannah says she's insulted that you don't recognize her." Brianna said, her laughter dying down a little.

"Hannah… What…?" Will's forehead crunched in confusion. "Wait… Is that… Hannah?"

The panther nodded and gave a wide smile, then jumped gracefully and landed on Will, pushing her to the ground but not hurting her. "My daughter is a full grown panther…" Will said, blinking a few times.

Hannah nodded again, then changed back to her human form. "Awesome right?" However, she hadn't noticed one thing…

Madeline coughed. "Um… Hannah…"

"What?" Hannah asked, looking over her shoulder. She then noticed how her friends were looking down. Hannah was in her birthday suit….


Meridian. Elyon's Castle.

Cornelia laid on the queen bed. Suddenly, she found that ironic. It actually was a queen's bed. Sure enough, then Elyon herself walked in. Cornelia sat up with a smile. "Hey there."

"Hey." Elyon replied. "It's been a while since I've seen you." The queen walked over, sat beside her friend, and hugged her. "What's up?"

"Does something have to be up?" Cornelia joked. "I can't just randomly visit my best friend?"

This made Elyon laugh and smile. "Of course not. I was just wondering. Although, if there were something going on, I guess the others would be here as well… So how's the guardian business these days?"

"All dried up. For us, anyways." Cornelia said. She waited until she saw understanding on her friend's face before continuing. "There's a new set of guardians."

"Really? Why?" Elyon was shocked. She thought the guardians were doing fine.

"Who knows?" Cornelia answered. "Oh Great Bald Guy thought it was for the better, but of course he didn't tell us why." Cornelia shook her head. "Anyways, that's only part of why I'm here. One of the new guardians had a vision that a village was terrorized. They think they stopped it, but I wanted to be sure."

"Nope, everything is fine. Who would terrorize us, a new bad guy?" Elyon asked, getting up and looking out of her window. She felt as though her kingdom had gone through enough troubles, she didn't want anymore.

"Two, and one's a girl." Cornelia answered, walking behind her friend and patting her shoulder. "But don't worry. They don't seem like the type to take over a world. The new guardians can control it."

"Is that pride I hear?" Elyon asked, turning and looking at Cornelia with a smile. "Is my Corny proud of a new guardian?"

Cornelia scoffed. "Hardly."


Will and Irma's House

Hannah sat on the couch, her face in her hands. She couldn't believe that she hadn't recognized sooner that she was… Hannah shuddered again. The looks on her friends faces… Although one thing did make her smile slightly, the blush that spread over Brianna's face.

But still, Hannah shuddered. That wasn't her brightest moment. Brianna walked into the room and handed Hannah her tea. Then Brianna sat in a chair next to the couch. "Stop shuddering. It was just us. It's not like you did that in front of the whole school or something."

"I know, I know." Hannah muttered. She sat back and sighed. Part of her wished that her friends were still here. They had to go home, and Will had to go to work. Irma was working a double shift, leaving Hannah and Brianna home alone for a few hours. While Hannah wasn't complaining, she kind of wanted her friends her. Their banter could distract her from her thoughts.

Brianna sighed and shook her head. She sat her tea on the coffee table, then grabbed Hannah's cup from her hands and set it down beside hers. "If you don't smile…" Brianna began, looking completely serious. "I'll just have to…." Brianna suddenly jumped on top of the shorter girl and started tickling her. "Tickle you!"

Hannah laughed uncontrollably. She couldn't get Brianna to stop though. Maybe she could, on a normal day, but today Hannah was still feeling weak. After getting her new power, she was worn out and completely tired. Finally, after minutes of being tickled, Hannah grabbed Brianna's hands. Hannah pushed her hands away from herself and on opposite sides of her. She hadn't realized what that did until she had done it. Now, Brianna lay on top of her, hands on either side of her, supporting her own body weight. Looking into Brianna's eyes, Hannah's breath caught.

"I'm sorry…" Brianna apologized, but she hadn't moved yet. Instead, her eyes traced Hannah's lips slowly. Both of them were breathing hard, and neither of them would move.

"I can't…" Hannah sighed, yet she didn't move either.

"Why not?" Brianna asked. The last thing she wanted to do was move, and she was going to try her hardest to stay in this moment.

Hannah felt this way too, and that meant that she also felt as if her feelings were betraying her. She wouldn't-no, she couldn't fall in love again. "Last time… I fell… in love…" She almost couldn't get the words out. "It almost killed me… I can't go through that again…" Even as Hannah said this, she could feel the pain. However, she also felt how Brianna took away the pain, how Brianna made her forget…

"Hannah…" Brianna's voice was soft, a step away from being a whisper. "We're friends, teammates even. I didn't let you fall Thursday, and I'm not planning on letting you fall again. I'll always be there for you, I promise. I'll always do my best to keep my fearless leader away from harm." This made the both of them smile. "No matter how much she tries to run towards it." Brianna leaned down while she said this and rubbed their noses together. Hannah's smile grew. She closed her eyes then closed the gap between their lips, accepting that now she couldn't turn back. Her life had already changed a lot, and they were all starting to accept that it might not stop changing. They could deal with it though, as long as they were together.


Payden had to clear her head. So much had happened in what had seemed like such a short period of time. Her life was changed, really changed. It had changed some much that it was now past the point of being able to go back to normal. On top of it, she had no control over her life anymore. She had no choice but to go along with it, and she hated herself for not resisting.

While she didn't like what was going on, she did enjoy her newly found connection with the earth. It seemed as if all the plants would grow a little when she was near them.

Because of all this, she was walking in the Heatherfield Park. It was a good day and she was most definitely not the only person in the park. She had seen a great number of happy couples, you and old. She had recognized some of them, and others were complete strangers.

Eventually Payden had strayed from the path and was now walking in a part of the park with a lot of trees.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. Leaves started flying around Payden and she felt as if she were shrinking. As quickly as it had started, it was ending. The leaves were falling back to the ground, the earth became still again.

Payden wondered if she was the only one effected. Instantly, she knew that others were effected too. She heard little kids crying because the fell off their swings. She heard the reassurances that men were giving women. She could hear the alarms of the police and ambulances that were heading towards her.

Payden suddenly became confused. How could she hear all of this? At that moment, she noticed how the trees had grown, how much closer she was to the ground. She looked over her shoulder and gasped, her eyes widening. She had a tail! She had fur!

'Guys…' Payden thought, broadcasting it so her friends could hear.


A few minutes earlier…

Autumn was thinking and mindlessly walking. Shaking her head, she began to realize where she was. She was behind their town's Sonic. It wasn't busy, thank the lord, or else she would've gotten hit by a car. She sat against the brick wall, and went back to thinking. She had been wondering why Payden was so upset with what was going on. Autumn was happy. She could make a change, do something good. On top of it, she got to the bottom of why she had new powers.

Autumn sighed and looked up at the sun. She smiled, noticing how she didn't have to blink when she looked up at the sun anymore. Suddenly, its heat began to intensify. Autumn gasped and looked around her, finding herself suddenly in a circle of fire. Her thoughts ran, and she instantly realized what was going on. It seemed as if Hannah wasn't the only one with that new power…

Once the fire had calmed down, Autumn ran. She stopped only when she was surrounded in greenery. She then looked down at her paws and over her shoulder, wagging her tail. She was right.

Suddenly, she heard Payden's voice in her mind. 'Guys…'

'I know…' Autumn replied, 'It happened to me too…'

'Payden, did you cause the earthquake?' Madeline asked. 'Are you okay?'

'She's fine.' Autumn answered for Payden. 'Remember what happened with Hannah?'

Madeline gasped. 'You two are panthers?'

Autumn laughed and Payden replied, 'Nope. I'm a wolf.'

'I think I'm a fox. Oh, yeah I accidentally set the Sonic on fire….' That was Autumn.

'So our powers go crazy when we change…' Payden said, now lost in her own thoughts.

'Hannah, Brianna, are you two hearing any of this?' Madeline asked.

'Huh?'

'What's up?' Hannah asked. Both she and Brianna sounded groggy, as if their minds were on a different planet.

'What were you guys doing?' Payden asked, suspicious.

'Nothing. What's going on?' Hannah was now in her leader position.

'Payden caused an earthquake and Autumn set Sonic on fire.' Madeline answered, acting as if it were something thing that happened every day.

'Hey!' That was Payden

'Aww…. I really like Sonic…' Brianna said, upset.

'What did you guys do?' Hannah asked, concerned.

'Apparently, you aren't the only one who got that new power…'


Author's note: I would've made this at least a little longer, but I got stuck for ideas so I decided to go ahead and post it. I hope you enjoy. Please review!

Oh, and I'm going to try to give the chapters titles from now on. Emphasis on try...

Phantom