Discovery

Luka paced, relentlessly. It was four fifteen and Phoebe was supposed to be home at three forty five. No one was answering his calls and he was ready to go hunt her down and string the Chasers up by their necks in the nearest trees.

"Luka, calm down! I'm sure she's just use to the home by dark rule." Jahara wasn't even sure of what she had just said.

"No calls have been answered. I'm going after her." Luka went out the door.

He ran to the place Phoebe told him they would be at. When he got there, he halted. Stones were scattered everywhere. "Either some kids are asking to die or they got attacked," he said with a scowl.

As he walked through the scene, he saw something. It was a scrap of pink material but there was something on it- blood. This didn't help Luka's mood at all. He looked harder and occasionally moved a stone around. Among the items he found included a mostly red shoe, a pair of glasses, a card holder that refused to shut, another scrap of bloodied cloth, and a hair tie.

"Okay," Luka muttered. "These items came from the Chasers and Phoebe. Why is there not an item that could have come from Mem?"

Motions from a pile of stones distracted him from the items he found. "Tai Chi Ja Pierce!" The rocks shattered and a dazed kid sat up.

"Note to self," Donha wheezed. "Never get on Mem's bad side."

"Where's everybody else?" Luka practically demanded.

"We all got buried from my understanding. I think Phoebe is behind you."

Luka turned around and moved some boulders around. Sure enough, Phoebe was there. She was breathing which was a tremendous relief to Luka but she was still horribly beat up.

After getting the stones away from her, Luka thought about the fact that there were still four more kids trapped. He made a quick call.

"Luka, have you found her?"

"Yes, although I'm going to be stalled. Something happened and all I know is that the kids got on Mem's bad side. I'm going to have to get some help though. It's a big mess over here and there have been injuries. Phoebe's unconscious and banged up and Donha beat up too. I don't know about the others as I haven't found them. But I'm going to call some parents, Elder D, and Elder Komorka, and get them over here."

Jahara was making a face. "There goes our babysitter and plans for the evening. Do you want me to call anyone to try and speed things up for you?"

"If you want to, call the Elders." The call ended really quickly after that and the other calls were made. Once the calls were made Luka turned to look at Donha.

"How did you guys get on her bad side and what all did she do?"

Donha fidgeted. "Rai started up a conversation about the forbidden symbols and Mem didn't really like it. We discovered that she's rather fond of them. When that happened we saw her in a different form. Her eyes were glowing, her nails had grown into talon, her teeth were fangs, there was a black aura around her, and a symbol glowed on her forehead and the back of her neck."

Using blood as his ink, Donha drew the symbol on his hand. Luka gasped when he saw it- an incomplete box with an 'x' in it. "The hideous character?" he said in shock.

Donha nodded. "Her attacks were horrible. She sent an explosion at us then using the ocean character, she got water up to our ankles. Of course none of us was concerned about that but then she activated the lightning card. Except, she didn't use any cards at all. She shocked us for what seemed like a long time, probably just a few minutes."

Luka cringed at the thought of that. "Then she activated the stone character?"

Donha gulped. "She activated that along with pong the wind character to cause the stones to fly all over the place. Trying to defend ourselves didn't work very well as we had been shocked but then she activated the slippery card to challenge us further. After that we all got buried with the stones. I didn't become unconscious right away so I heard her use a portal symbol. No doubt she didn't want to stick around."

"Okay. Just take it easy now. Your parents are on their way." Shortly after saying that, parents arrived, kids were found and accounted for, then taken home; except for Finn. There were no signs of him anywhere.

Laura and Luva were still there. "So they got attacked by a crazy blind girl?" Luva said.

"Crazy is hardly the word I would use for her," Luka said. "Monstrous maybe but even that hardly touches on it."

Komorka walked around trying to find Finn. "Mem is crazy and monstrous. If she knew of the good that exists in the universe, I doubt she would be the way she is but she doesn't know of it which made it hard to work with her. To say the least, trying to introduce her to it this way was not a good idea."

A soft sound and some stirring from Phoebe pulled Luka's attention away from the conversation. Phoebe opened her eyes. "Luka?" she whispered.

"It's okay now Sis. I'm going to get you home now."

"I think Finn's underneath me." Phoebe coughed. Luka was surprised. He didn't see how another teenager could possibly be under her. Still, he carefully picked her up then saw something underneath her.

"Hey, I think Phoebe is right. Finn was underneath her." Luva walked over to see Finn

"Darn that girl," he muttered as he picked Finn up. "I'll take care of him soon. But right now, we both have youth to get back home and care for."

Luva gave Finn to Laura then picked Rai up.

"Are you and your family going to be alright?" Laura asked. "Rai told us that you had some twins join your family eleven days ago."

"I don't know. We should be okay; we have some family support."

Laura nodded. "Okay. Just wondering because being a new parent isn't easy. It's fun but it's a lot of work."

(So every youth [except for Mem] got beat up, Luka and Jahara didn't get to go on their date, families are distraught, and Mem is now missing. And in case you didn't catch the hints, Finn is a doll again. Yes, I am horribly cruel to anyone who isn't one of my OCs.

Cyborg: I probably was a little tired when I did 19 but I wanted some sort of transition for the story. I'm not sure how to word that. As to Mishka being alive, it depends on the point of view. And yes, Mem knows, she just hasn't acknowledged it. I meant to put that in but I forgot so it'll just be delayed.

Happy New Year to you guys!)