Hi everyone! Did you all get great presents for Christmas? Hope so! I know I did! But, anyway, you guys didn't look up my story to hear me blabber on about what I got for Christmas, right? And it's about time I told you guys what happened to our little buddies in the crocodile swamp, so here we go again.
(And yes, I am hyper.)
Phineas' pov
The fall was surprisingly short. It didn't even hurt to hit the water, just stung a little.
Yeah, that's not a good thing.
I swam with jerky strokes towards the surface. My head exploded from the water and I coughed, looking around frantically.
"Isabella!" I screamed. "Liz! Josh! Baljeat!" I looked around the churning water for my friends. The churning water. There was no current before we had hit the water. Oh. No. "Anyone!" I screamed. "If you can hear me – swim for shore as fast as you can!" I followed my own advice, swimming to my right, only to stop as I came face-to-face with a gigantic croc. "Oh, crap." I squeaked. It opened its mouth and roared, and I uttered a much more colorful series of words and swam, trying to use my telekinesis to propel myself into the air, but I couldn't seem to get a grip on my powers because I was really freaking out.
Something hit me in the head and I was suddenly underneath the water. I tried to claw my way up, but I didn't know which way was up anymore. I opened my mouth to scream as two glowing eyes flashed in front of me, and a huge amount of water rushed in. I was choking and gasping, but all I was getting was water. I was fading out when I felt the teeth bite into my leg.
Isabella's pov
I screamed as we fell, seeing a crocodile right beneath me. I was panicking, yes. But I did have instincts. And those instincts activated my powers and shoved my hands in front of me. I didn't even realize what I was doing until I hit the croc's back. I pumped enough power into the animal to heal the entire US marines of third-degree burns. A small part of my mind was wondering what to do if the thing got stronger, and the other 90% was wondering if I was screaming out loud or in my mind, then just not caring and screaming louder.
The crocodile, however, was shrinking.
A minute after I had hit the two-ton croc's back, I was wrestling with a tiny, itty-bitty baby crocodile. I gasped, hanging on to the baby to keep my exhausted body above the water. I looked down at it as it towed me to shore, then curled up against my soaked side. It was actually kind of cute, now that it wasn't trying to eat me alive. I suddenly jerked up, startling the baby and causing a backlash of pain in my head that almost knocked me out – I must have hit the croc harder than I thought – and gasped in shock.
"Homigosh!" I yelped. "I just reversed the aging process!" Not that I had long to comprehend what that meant, because that was when the world exploded.
Liz's pov
Yes, I was panicking. Yes, I was about to die, I'm sure. Yes, I was surrounded by dozens of hungry crocs. But that didn't mean I curled up in a ball screaming 'Don't eat me! Don't eat me!'. Nope, that meant I got really pissed.
"Why! Does! This! Keep! Happening! To! Me!" I screamed, blowing up another croc as it made a move at me. I flew above the frothing, churning water, looking for the others. Okay, Isabella was on one of the metal shores of the swamp with a baby croc. Weird. As usual. What did she have that I didn't? I grimaced, zapping another animal. I was so over him. Wait, where was he? And I mean Phineas, if you guys didn't catch that.
"Phineas?" I called. "Josh? Dystopian? Indian kid?" I looked around the water, desperately hoping to find someone, if only so I wouldn't be alone with the raven-haired beauty queen. I caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of my eye. I turned towards it, hoping against hope that it was Phineas and not the remains of one of my team mates. "What the…" I began. Because it was neither.
It was a girl.
She was taller than all of us – except maybe Dystopian, who I hadn't seen since the bridge collapsed – had light brown or dark blond hair, and green eyes. She was wearing a red bandana that she took off and dipped into the water. Half the crocodiles swarmed towards it and she flipped over them gracefully, diving into the water without so much as a splash.
Without as many crocodiles, I could see better into the water. I could see Josh's icy head, anyway. His body was covered in ice, like a shield against the croc's huge teeth. I dove down through the air towards him, zapping feisty crocs out of my way. I grabbed his arm and towed him up, up, up - out of the danger zone for croc teeth.
"Liz?" He asked groggily, the ice fading in his effort to stay awake.
"Yeah, don't worry, you're safe now." I said soothingly. I looked down and saw the mystery girl appear behind Isabella on the metal bank, her arm hooked around an unconscious-and-bleeding Baljeat. "Four down, two to go." I whispered. Then a huge, fiery, explosion blew out of the area with the most crocs.
"Where's Phin?" Josh yelped in fear.
"I think I know." I said, watching until the flames opened, and a small boy appeared standing at their center.
Carter's pov
"She's in." I said, turning to my team members. Karo, Tark, and Camille nodded in synchronism.
"Are you sure this is the best idea?" Camille asked. "We already know that there's a weird telepathic connection between the blond and your boy there. Do we really want to chance another freakish development?"
"Stephanie is the perfect hook." I told the little girl icily. "They won't ever expect anything."
"Yeah, but her name's not Stephanie." Karo pointed out. "The girl's still in there. And the truth has an annoying habit of getting out." She looked pointedly at me. "And your child freaks are usually unstable."
"If it looks like they're catching on, I'll pull the plug and you all can go wreak havoc on the helpless little children." I said. "If you've forgotten, this is my operation. You can all make your own plan some other time."
"What about the anomalies?" Tark, who had not spoken yet, asked.
"No." I said. "We can use the anomalies, and we need Stephanie."
"Aw, Carter's finally developing a sense of fatherly love." Karo mocked. I glared at the cyborg girl darkly.
"I love no one, and nothing. The only thing I love is power." I turned back to the cameras and gripped the desktop, my hands shaking. "And even if this fails…we will have more power than anyone would ever imagine." My voice shook with the prospect. "The children may stop this from going through, but they will never be able to stop what they will put into play."
What is Carter talking about? Who is the mystery girl? Who is Stephanie? What plan? Review if you want the answers to these questions! And thanks to 'Oh for the love of Phineas' for their character idea and for giving me the chance to use this character.