I do not own W.I.T.C.H. Alexis and Ty Lee (from Avatar) must have gone to the same school to find boys, because they both give the same advice!
Chapter 2) An Orb of Blue
Just before the bell was suppose to ring, the hall bustled with students. Jaden, Alexis, and Rachel stood outside the academic office, waiting. Ulani appeared from within the office with a single sheet of paper. That Tuesday morning Ulani and Jaden had arrived early, trudging through the fresh three inch layer of powdery snow so Ulani could get her schedule set for the rest of the year.
"So?" questioned Rachel.
"They're making me take lunch," complained Ulani, handing over her class list.
"You're taking six AP classes?" exclaimed Alexis.
"I would be taking more if I didn't have to take lunch and gym," Ulani frowned.
"Why don't you want lunch?" demanded Alexis.
"And don't you like gym?" added Jaden. Before Ulani had a chance to respond the bell rang, flooding the halls with even more rushing students.
"When do you have lunch?" asked Rachel.
"6th period," Ulani said, "right after AP chemistry and before AP French.:"
"But I thought you were taking Spanish," Jaden said, grabbing Ulani's list.
"I am," Ulani answered, "I'm taking two languages." The warning bell rang and Ulani turned on her heels, ebony hair flying, and hurried down the hall. The black feather flashed in her hair as she turned the corner and disappeared.
Rachel waved to Jaden and Alexis, and she hurried towards the English wing of the school. She collapsed in her desk just as the bell rang. Her teacher, a young woman just out of college, entered the room and begin passing out a worksheet on commas, subject verb agreement, and other basic grammar points. Rachel looked down the worksheet, reading the bold print at the top first; Test Tomorrow. Rachel groaned and let her head fall onto the desk, breathing in and out to calm herself. She felt her desk shudder as her partner slid his desk over. Rachel looked up and waited for him to start reviewing the problems.
"So what did you get for number three?" he asked. Rachel looked down at the question.
"I don't know, the sentence looks correct," Rachel said.
"Oh, well I think there should be a comma after the word teacher," replied her partner, "didn't you pay attention in class?"
"Yes," Rachel replied, "but I still don't get it. If I don't get a good grade on this test, I'll be in so much trouble."
"Do you need help?" asked her partner, "because you could come over and I could help you study tonight.
"Really?" asked Rachel, "that would be helpful."
"Ok," agreed her partner, "how about after five?" Rachel nodded and turned back to her worksheet with a renewed vigor as she tried to finish the worksheet. The next four periods of the day passed without incident. At lunch, Rachel met with Jaden, Alexis, and Ulani and pulled out her lunch.
"-all the class had no idea," Ulani said, finishing her sentence; her lunch had not been touched.
"So, I'm going to see if we can get Brianna to meet to practice tonight," Jaden told the girls.
"I can't," Rachel interrupted, "I'm studying with my partner tonight for my English test.
"Who?" asked Alexis.
"Cody Grant," Rachel answered, looking through her lunch bag.
"A boy?" grinned Alexis.
"Alexis," Ulani laughed, "don't."
"But she needs to know how to act, it's her first date!" Alexis exclaimed.
"No!" shouted Rachel, her face heating up to a violent shade of chili pepper red, "it's just a study date!"
"Sure," grinned Alexis, "remember now, look cute, and remember to laugh at everything he says, no matter how stupid it sounds." Rachel gave up trying to explain that he was just helping her study and looked to her lunch. "-study dates are a way to see if you should give the boy a chance, you've been invited to his house, so-" She droned on about scenarios that would never happen, but then advised her that the boy had already taken an interest in her and she should do whatever it would take to stay on his good side.
---
Rachel made her way up the driveway of the large house, not too far away from Brianna's, the address of Cody's house. The brass letters on the mailbox read GRANT for all to see. She rang the doorbell and waited, hearing footsteps on the other side of the door. Cody pulled the door open and welcomed her inside. He led her through the kitchen, past the indoor pool, and into the family room. The room had a vaulted ceiling and three large fish tanks lining the three walls of the room. The fourth opened into the dining room. Rachel smiled as she saw fish swimming placidly around the glass aquarium. On the coffee table, the dreaded, red grammar book sat, turned to a page with a book mark. The black folder which held all of Cody's English worksheets lay next to it.
"Should we start?" asked Cody, scratching the back of his head. Rachel nodded. They each settled down on the opposite side of the table. Cody began a series of questions involving where to put commas and their uses in sentences. After missing the first one, Rachel immediately thought back to lunch, wondering if Cody had really intended to study the whole time and if he liked her at all. What if he thinks I'm dumb! Rachel asked herself, dreading not having him to help her in class anymore. She looked up and saw him staring at her.
"What?" she asked, her heart pounding.
"You stopped answering the questions," came Cody's simple answer. Rachel allowed him to continue, her nervousness building with each question she got wrong. Just as she was about to lose control and burst from the tension, she closed her eyes and clenched her fists tight to try and relieve the stress. A buzzing interrupted her thoughts and Cody looked down. He pulled out his cell phone and answered the call.
"Hello? --- Oh hi Mia!" smiled Cody, he stood up and asked Rachel to give him a minute, his voice floated into the room as he left, "I haven't forgotten about Friday, don't worry, I can't wait to see you!" Rachel sat nervously looking down at the book, trying to drive her mind from the fact that Cody probably had a girlfriend and he was talking to her now. He walked back into the room as he closed the phone and sat back down.
"Sorry Rachel," he apologized, "where were we?" Rachel jumped in surprise and realized that he was back in the room, her anxiety mounted once more. The fish tanks around the room suddenly shattered, sending shards of glass, waves of water, and a collection of colorful fish flying towards Rachel and Cody. Cody sprung to his feet in a mad dash to save the flopping fish, tripping over a vase of flowers in the process.
"Hurry!" he exclaimed in a mad panic, "help me save the fish!" Rachel starred opened mouthed, unblinking, at the soaked carpet and dyeing fish. She regained her senses and jumped up, scooping into her hands a fish. She turned, trying to find a place to put it with water so it would not die. The aquariums were shattered beyond use; Rachel almost tripped over the same vase Cody had and quickly came up with an idea. Cody had left the room to run into the kitchen. Flicking her wrist, the fishy water rose from the rug higher and faster then she had expected it to. The water flew up towards the ceiling leaving a spot in the perfect, white expanse.
Panicking, Rachel aimed the water towards the vase, only half of the liquid made it inside. She dropped the fish inside and scurried around the room to save the rest. Cody hurried into the room with a bucket of water from the kitchen.
"Where are all the fish?" he asked, scanning the room as he put down the bucket.
"In the vase," Rachel responded sheepishly. Cody peered inside and saw the fish swimming over one another. He poured the bucket of water into the vase to give the fish more water and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the ground; Rachel sat next to him.
"What happened?" mumbled Cody, he absentmindedly took a piece of glass in his hand and turned it over. Rachel shrugged, what did happen? Was it me who did that? How? It couldn't have been… could it?
"Rachel look," pointed Cody, "the glass didn't just break, it looks like it was stressed to the point of fracturing." Rachel saw the stretch marks, turned away, and bit her lip. Could I have made the water focus its energy and press on the glass to relieve my stress?
"Rachel?" asked Cody, waving his hand in front of her brown eyes.
"Huh?" responded Rachel, snapping back to reality.
"I asked if you were ok," he said, "maybe you should go home, you can take the study sheet, but you look dazed." Rachel nodded, accepted the piece of paper, and walked out the front door. Folding the paper and pressing it into her pocket, she made a left towards the beach instead of going right home. The night was slowly creeping closer, the lights of the city humming to life.
Rachel tried to focus on calming her breathing, taking deep breaths, in, then out, slowly returning to her previous state of mind. Holding her hand over the surf, Rachel flicked her wrist up, calling a stream of water to her. A tentacle of water rose from the bay, following her cues but growing twice the size she wanted. Holding her breath, Rachel flung her hand downward, sending the water back into the waves. Her sudden power vanished with the wind as she immediately felt drained. Struggling to keep her eyes open and on her feet, she stumbled away from the water. The wave of weakness passed after a moment.
"What is happening?" she mumbled. Turning her back to the water and the cool wind blowing off the waves, she trotted away from the beach and hurried home. The clouds seemed to build as she journeyed through the street along the houses. A fire truck screamed past her on the road, heading into the city. Rachel stepped through Aunt Irma's door and closed it behind her, leaning back on it and releasing a pent-up breath.
"Qué occuró a tú?" questioned Marisol, wondering what had happened to her sister as she jumped.
"Nothing," Rachel replied, Marisol gave her a look of incomprehension. Although Rachel knew her sister knew what she was saying, she repeated the word in Spanish, "nada." Marisol rolled her eyes in disbelief.
"Rachel," called Irma. The brunette disserted her sister at the doorway and entered the living room. Her father was seated on the couch, her mother seated next to him, flipping through the channels on the TV. Rachel leaned over the cushioned, brown sofa and watched as her father flipped past a multitude of channels; a surfer riding a wave, a tornado ripping through a house, a news reporter standing in front of a body of water with a strange creature behind her, and a cartoon about a cat flashed before her eyes.
"Wait, go back!" exclaimed Rachel. Chris complied and flipped back to the news report. Rachel watched as the news reporter held the microphone to her lips and pointed to a giant blue being in the middle of Heatherfield Bay. The creature had white laced sections crisscrossing its liquid body. Rachel watched with her father; Marisol and Irma peeked in to see what had caused the silence as the creature expanded and extended four tendrils of water from the body. Rachel heard Irma hold her breath and listened to the newscaster.
"-to be a strange creature from Heatherfield bay. Fire fighters, police, and a SWAT team have arrived at the scene and are working to keep this strange, and almost alien creature, from coming any closer to the city. We'll keep you updated on the story every ten minutes-" Rachel hurried into kitchen and grabbed the phone from its holder on the wall. Her fingers flew to the correct buttons as she dialed Jaden's number. Pressing the phone to her ear, she waited, tensing each time the phone rang that Jaden did not pick up.
"Hello?" came Jaden's voice in the receiver.
"Jaden, have you seen the news --- no? well there's this giant creature in the bay and we have to do something about it, I just know it! --- ok --- yes I can do that --- met at Shell Beach ok --- ok, bye," Rachel hung up the phone and jumped when she saw her sister standing in the doorway of the kitchen, watching.
"Dónde estas viendo?" she questioned, as she watched Rachel grab her coat from the chair.
"None of your business!" shouted Rachel as she ran outside and let the door slam shut behind her. Running as fast her legs would carry her, Rachel hurried to Shell Beach. She hoped Jaden had called Brianna and Alexis and that they were on their way. Skidding to a halt, Rachel let her jaw drop in awe as she looked up at the creature in the bay. It stood as tall as the buildings in downtown Heatherfield, slowing inching towards the crowded city. Two helicopters circled it from above, shining their spotlights upon it.
Hearing panting, Rachel turned and saw the four other girls hurrying towards the beach. Brianna looked less than thrilled as Alexis pulled her down the sidewalk; her outfit suggested she had been pulled from a formal outing. Ulani and Jaden halted first, breathing hard to catch their lost breath. Alexis and Brianna came to a rest soon after. Throwing Alexis' hand off her arm, she scowled at the eldest member of the group.
"What is it?" asked Ulani, pointing to the giant creature in the lake. The other girls joined her gaze as they stared at the being, slowly inching towards the skyscrapers of the city.
"Did you bring the heart?" asked Alexis.
"Of course I brought the heart!" snapped Brianna. She pulled it out of her pocket and held the crystal by its string. "Guardians Unite!" The girls transformed in a blink of light.
"Water!"
"Fire!"
"Earth!"
"Air!"
"Quintessence!" The five guardians took to the sky. Ulani spun in a tight circle, examining her feathered wings in happiness. Joy radiated from her as she swooped and spiraled, happy to take to the sky once again. Fire burned in Alexis' brown eyes as she eyed the creature in the bay. She shot forward, followed by the other girls and approached the monster. It loomed larger and larger each second they flew closer; soon they saw the magnitude of the opponent they faced. The ocean, blue monster towered above them at least seven stories, the four swinging tendrils of white, foam laced water had expanded into five. The center one stood in the center, unmoving as its siblings swung in wild circles. The waves crashed and merged with the base of the creature, aiding to its growth as the tide came in.
Alexis swung her hands in front of her and blasted a stream of fire in the direction of the being. Since the monster was so large, her bad aim did not matter and her fire blasts hit one of the tendrils. The fire mixed with the water, severing the connection and causing the water to fall back into the bay.
"Yeah!" shouted Alexis, her smile faded as the monster re-grew the lost appendage. Ulani tried next, sending a hurricane of wind towards the creature to try and freeze it still. Jaden extended her arm towards the beach and waved it in front of her, a stream of dry sand flying under her direction into the liquid body of the monster. The air froze only sections of the being, sections which quickly sunk back to the water of the bay and floated away. The sand circled the being but had the same effect; the newly wet sand was absorbed into the monster's body and sunk to the bottom of the bay. Brianna pushed her red hair behind her ears and held out her arms, electricity running down their lengths. The bolt of energy hit the monster, pausing it for only a second.
"Nothing's working!" called Alexis.
"Rachel, why aren't you doing anything!" called Ulani, flying over to her to see what the problem was. "Rachel?" The guardian of water watched as the tower of water crept closer to downtown Heatherfield. A firm expression set on her face, her butterfly wings fluttered harder as she darted away from Ulani and the other girls, heading straight for the water creature. Flying low to the water, she reached out and pulled a thick rope of liquid with her. Flying upside down, she pulled the stream of icy water through the air with her, encircling the creature. The other girls continued their attacks as she worked. She avoided one of Alexis' stray fire balls, but she did not see the thrashing tentacle that flung her way. The water hit her hard, sending her spiraling into the depths of the bay. Rachel felt the pressure build in her ears, but she ignored it, her mind numbing as she sank deeper.
Opening her brown eyes, she saw the monster extend from the sand of the bay up to above the water. The water had a frosty edge to it; Rachel felt her fingers numbing. Her breath was running short, yet her primal instincts to find air were overridden by something else. She knew the water would never hurt her somehow; her eyes felt heavy as her heart thudded wildly in her chest.
A sparkle caught her eye, waking her from her trance. Looking past the denser, darker water that made up the trunk of the water monster, a small sparkle appeared again. Pushing past all her basic instincts, Rachel forced open her eyes in the salty water and swam towards the shining object. Her powers over the element that surrounded her were forgotten as she kicked through the thicker water that made up the creature. Using her last stores of breath, Rachel pushed through the jelly like liquid and reached out to grasp the object. Dusting it off from the silty, sandy bottom, she held a luminescent orb in her hand. No larger than a billiard ball, it shown with a light all its own in the dark depths of the bay.
--- ---
Ulani noticed the creature had paused in its journey towards the city. She summoned another blast of wind and directed it at the water monster. The water froze over easily unlike the first few times she had tried; something had changed. Brianna spun in the air, sending a bolt of energy at the creature. Instead of being absorbed, the energy pulsed through the monster's water body, lighting it up like a Christmas tree. The girls paused to see what would happen.
"Look, I think we're winning!" smiled Alexis.
"But where's Rachel?" questioned Jaden, searching the area with her green eyes.
--- ---
Rachel felt the blast of electricity reverberate through the entire length of her body. Gripping the orb closer to her body and tighter in her hands, her remaining energy was sapped from her. The orb took on a stronger glow as Rachel's last remaining bit of air escaped into the water as three small bubbles.
--- ---
"Look!" pointed Ulani. The girls hovered in the air above the monster watching as the main tentacle turned to them and then slowly dove into the water.
"Rachel!" exclaimed Jaden, "that thing has her! It must! Someone has to go get her!" No sooner had the words left her mouth that Alexis complied and closed her wings tight against her back. The wind whipped against her face as she gained speed in her five story high dive. She slid into the icy water with only a small splash and zoomed through the darkness. Forcing her eyes open in the salty water, she searched the water for Rachel. Instead of finding her teammate, she watched as the tendril of water sunk next to her, searching. Kicking her feet harder, Alexis felt the rock bottom of the bay and gasped, her remaining air escaping her lungs.
"Rachel!" shouted Alexis, but only bubbles left her mouth. Feeling the burning sensation in her lungs, Alexis propelled herself through the water and grabbed onto Rachel. The tentacle and the monster were dissolving around her as Alexis looped her arm around Rachel's still form. Her skin was cold, the guardian of water seemed lifeless as Alexis swam them both the surface above.
Only inches of water separated them from air when Alexis suddenly started sinking. She felt Rachel slide through her arms, and took a breath of water in her panicked state. The water rushed into her lungs, Alexis held tight to Rachel as she lost ground. A dull splash echoed in the water. A flash of blond and then red floated in her vision. The guardian of fire felt her arms being untangled from her teammate, and pulled up towards the air. She closed her eyes and let the cold wind greet her as she inhaled huge lungfuls of air.
"Alexis?" asked Jaden's voice in her ear, "can you hear me?!" Alexis coughed up water and nodded. Ulani flew over to Jaden and Brianna, guiding them to the beach. Brianna set Rachel on the sand next to where Jaden put Alexis and squeezed out her red hair. The redhead bit her lip, biting back her previous comment about getting her newly permanented hair wet as she watched Rachel's still form. Jaden reached over and shook Rachel's shoulders, trying to wake her.
"Is she ok?" asked Ulani, landing beside the girls on the beach. She pulled at her feathers with nervousness.
"Rachel!" called Jaden, shaking the girl's shoulders harder. Alexis sat up, a gentle noise filling her ears as she looked at Rachel. A small glint of pearl light flashed as the orb rolled out of Rachel's grasp. The moment it left Rachel's body, the glow vanished, leaving in its place a light blue colored orb.
"Rachel," pled Jaden. The guardian of water's brown eyes fluttered open at the sound of her name.
"Oh Rachel, thank goodness!" cried Ulani. Jaden pulled her up into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around her. Rachel coughed, regaining her stolen breath, and shivered in the wind.
"Where's the creature?" she asked, her voice shuddering as her body was racked by shivers.
"It disappeared," explained Ulani, "here, you dropped this." She picked up the orb and handed it to Rachel. Rachel examined it under the moon light and set it back down as she felt dizzy for fear she might drop it.
"What is it?" asked Alexis, slowly getting to her feet. A spot light from the sky suddenly found them on the beach as the noise rose in their ears.
"What's that?!" screamed Ulani, over the roaring noise. Rachel stuffed the orb in her shoe to keep from forgetting it.
"A helicopter!" explained Jaden, "hurry, we can't be seen!" Taking to the sky, Jaden and Brianna helped Rachel up while Ulani guided Alexis. The light followed them across the beach, past some astonished newscasters, but lost them as they darted around a building and into an alley. They transformed back into their clothing, still dripping wet, and waited as the spot light from the helicopter past over their hiding place.
"That was close," breathed Ulani, the only one who was not suffering from the wind chill on wet clothing.
"We'd better get home," Jaden said.
"I'm ready for a long, hot shower," Brianna agreed, squishing out her hair once more. Alexis walked with Rachel home as the other three girls went the other way. Rachel thanked her for saving her life, and slipped inside. She saw that she had spent more time then she thought out, the clock just past eight thirty as she slipped into her room.
"Dónde estaste?" questioned Marisol, looking over her math homework on her bed, "nuestras padres tuvieron miedo para tú. Y por que eres mojada?" Marisol looked over her sister as the water from the bay seeped through her clothing, wondering where she had disappeared to for two hours. Rachel ignored her sister's questions; she knew Aunt Irma would help her come up with an excuse at why she was gone, since she probably knew why anyway.
After a quick shower, Rachel made her way into the family room. She pulled out the orb and studied it once more. The pearl surface she remembered under the water had been replaced by a gentle, sky blue color. It was heavy in her hand, yet it could not have weighed more than a baseball. She carefully set it in one of the drawers to keep it safe.
"Rachel, good you're back," smiled Irma. Rachel pulled away from the drawer and let her aunt hug her, Irma added "You smell like salt."
"Still?" sighed Rachel.
"No," Irma laughed, "you got it all out."
"Good," sighed Rachel, "wait, then how did you know?"
"The water creature in the bay, plus, you gone," Irma replied, "is a recipe for the guardians." Rachel laughed at her aunt's ridiculous way of making her feel better and was silently glad that she would never have to come up with an excuse to get out of the house.
---
"The first sensor has been deactivated," explained a silhouette in the darkness. Another figure, a tall slender being, stirred with the news.
"How?" it questioned, "did it recover any information before that?"
"The energy source that switched it off was remarkably powerful compared to the source the sensor had landed in. The orbs only respond to the same substance after they are activated, though. And it did not catalog anything about how it was turned off," explained the shadow.
"Is there no way to discover the identity of what did it?" asked the second figure, the tone carried by the voice grew harsher.
"I will send instructions to the control and see if it can equip the other sensors with adequate ways to discover what happened," replied the shadow.
"Good," came the response.
- - - So, did you like it? I hope so. I know writing a review is difficult, I have a really hard time starting mine off, but I really need to know what you all thought of this story! So many people have read it and favored it! I want to know what parts you liked, didn't like, didn't understand, who are your favorite characters, which characters seem strange / Mary Sue-ish, and what you think is going to happen or whatnot. (Just in case you need help writing a review ) Please tell me! Next chapter is coming up soon.
View my profile for my new poll as well, as well as my new story ideas! I have a lot of one-shots running through my head at the moment!