Team Finity, book 2

Without lightning, ice, and fire, the most powerful being is darkness.

After creating Team Finity, Annie Zinc feels lost. The team is supposed to be an official organization, but with barely four members, she admits that it is really more of a Team Vicious hate club.

But when a mysterious new student attends her school, Annie knows things are about to change. From future-telling dreams to weird behaviour from Professor Zircon, Team Finity will take a turn for the better-or the worse.

I set the newspaper article on the kitchen table for my mom to read. It was about me. Of course it was.

I really wasn't surprised. I was the youngest person ever to create a team, but it had been easy, like Team Finity wasn't real. It certainly didn't feel real.

My Touchpad 360 pinged with a text message from Luke.

Luke: Can you help me with the washing machine?

Me: surwe

Me: I really need to grt used to tuping on this thing

I walked into the laundry room to find him staring at all of the different detergents. "Surely you washed your own clothes at Zirconium Palace?"

"Of course I did," he replied. "But the controls weren't this vague. Can you explain them to me?"

I suppressed a sigh. "This switch unlocks the tray where you put the detergent. You don't need very much. This knob controls how hot the water is."

"How hot should I turn it?"

"Very hot, unless you're washing jeans," I replied. "But due to the horrible infrastructure of this neighborhood, you can't take a shower and expect the temperature to be consistent while washing clothes."

Luke nodded. "Okay, I'll remember that. But what does this little knob do?"

"It adjusts the spin speed," I explained. "You want to keep it in the middle. Now flip the lock switch and press the start button."

"What happens if I don't lock it?"

"Nothing," I told him. "But due to an Eevee and two children living in this apartment, it's just a precaution. Venonat ate a detergent pod once, and he didn't feel too good."

Luke started to think about this for a minute, and I started to walk out of the room. "Wait!" he called. "Where's your dryer?"

"Uh, dryer?"

"Yes," he replied. "You know, for drying clothes."

"Oh, we don't have one," I replied. "You hang your clothes on that rack over there." I pointed to where my dad's flannel shirts were hanging.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Your dad dresses like an old-fashioned farmer."

"I think that's the idea," I replied. "Now, your clothes won't be done until after we leave for your game, you know." Luke had a hockey game almost every Friday night, and today it was against the Scratchemeowths, Normalia's hockey team.

"Okay," he said. "Let's leave in fifteen minutes."

"No, let's leave now," I replied. "We can't exactly teleport there, it's in Normalia City today."

"Actually, I want to do something else first," he explained. "Lily! John! We're leaving!" he called to my parents.

"Have fun!" was my mom's reply. "Skate and date!"

I felt my face turning rather warm despite the chill, thankful for the lack of adequate lighting. "Yeah, sure."

The slam of my front door echoed in the empty neighbourhood. It was the ninth of Zapach.

The Mica Realm didn't have "seasons," like the third dimension we had barely studied in Regions. Normalia was really the only region that had varying temperatures, but even here it was a very slight difference. Temperatures were almost never above 25 degrees.

We stepped into separate teleporting rings. Using the same one wasn't strictly illegal, but it was only allowed in Lightningland and Icotopia, neither of which we lived in. Not anymore.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" I asked.

Luke sighed. "I want to see my house."

His house. Zirconium Palace. We had been friends for a mere two months when I had had that fateful dream with Luke's dad and two best friends. It had been an unlucky coincidence that he had broken up with his self-centered girlfriend Bayleef a few days before, but his hair was already looking significantly neater.

"Looks more like Zirconium Rubble now," I said.

The interior had completely burned away, but the stone bricks still remained. 3iπcσniwm was etched in a few of them.

"3iπcσniwm," I muttered.

"Sitconyworm," Luke muttered after me, not quite replicating my pronunciation of the word. "I wonder what it means."

"Don't you know?" I asked, surprised. "You've lived here your whole life."

"Nope," he replied. "Let's leave. We don't want to be late."

"Right," I agreed.

We walked back to the teleporting rings, this time standing in only one. It wasn't illegal here.

Normalia City wasn't the only town in Normalia, but it was the capital. All the other Normalian cities were too small to show up on dimensional maps, just like with many other regions. The only nonregion city was Lookout City, situated beside Lookout Lake in the Infinity Mountains.

The streets were crowded tonight, filled with Scratchemeowths fans wearing brown and white. A few Crowbolts fans were wearing yellow and black.

We walked into the rink. Most of Luke's team was already there, throwing pucks around(a Mica Realm tradition) and eating peanut butter cookies from All-Buy. He waved goodbye and joined them.

I chose a seat closest to the floor so Luke and I would be able to see each other. But then Bayleef stomped up in what appeared to be high-heeled mountain boots and sat down beside me. "Move out of the way, and don't mess up my Roggenrolas, they're expensive."

I did move, but by the time I got up, pretty much every good seat was taken. I found a spot in the corner, in the very back. When the players walked out into the floor, I couldn't tell which one Luke was.

I shoved my way to the front. Now I could at least see Zirconium on the back of his jersey. Bayleef was staring at him obsessively.

I had never been to Luke's hockey games before, but it was similar to the Normalia vs. Lazassa games my dad used to take me to. Hockey games were the biggest sporting events in the Mica Realm; though basketball and soccer existed, they were nowhere near as popular.

"And the Crowbolts have the puck!" the announcer screamed. "Zirconium is whacking it with the force of a Rampardos! Oh! Scratchemeowth Leona is blocking the puck from reaching the goal! He's the best goalie I've ever seen!"

The announcer was just barely visible from where I was sitting. He had a brown goatee and beard, was wearing a red hard hat, and when he spoke, I noticed that he had a huge gap between his front teeth. He had a Diamond Realm accent. "Now Zirconium has the puck again! He's sending it toward his own goal! Zirconium, what in the Mica Realm are you doing?"

Luke whacked the puck with what appeared to be all his strength. It sailed close to where Bayleef was sitting. She looked up from her Touchpad just as the puck bounced off her shoes. "My Roggenrolas!" she cried.

After the puck bounced, it sailed toward Leona again. This time, he was unable to block it as it sailed into the goal. "That's a goal for the Crowbolts!" the announcer shouted in his familiar voice, though I wasn't sure I had even heard it before. "Good grief, that Zirconium is a good player-"

The door burst open with a loud bang. The announcer went silent.

At first glance no one appeared. Then a boy stepped through the doorway. "Greetings, human beans."

I caught a glimpse of Luke muttering to the Crowbolts goalie; the other players were gaping with shock. No one dared interrupt a hockey game in the Mica Realm.

The boy dabbed, a cheesy move ditched by most people a few years ago. Then he took off his shoes and slid into Normalia's goal in his socked feet. Leona stifled a cry of outrage before the boy slid into Lightningland's goal.

Suddenly his Touchpad 360 rang, on speaker. "Hello? Yes, Mom. I'll be home in five minutes." A woman's voice blared out, but I was too far away to hear any words. "Okay, Mom." Then, after he spent two seconds putting his shoes back on, he literally crashed to the floor and slithered out of the room.

"Well, that's quite a nice way to spend an evening." Luke rubbed his hands together, his breath fogging.

I raised my eyebrows. "What?"

He rolled his eyes. "Not really."

"I could tell," I replied.

He muttered, "Yeah, sure."

"Let's hurry," I said. "It's cold out here."

"I know that," Luke replied. "Have you not seen my hands?" They were quite red from the chill, though I was pretty sure it wasn't that cold.

"Why are you sweating?" I asked.

He shrugged. "How dare that boy mess up my hockey game? In front of Bayleef?"

"He looked like a shadow type," I suggested. "Maybe he's not from here."

"But surely he's been to a hockey game before!" Luke was furious. "Probably from Ghostown or something."

"Ghostown is a ghost town," I reminded him.

"Exactly," he replied.

I sighed. "Maybe he just has a whole bunch of siblings and wants attention."

"Attention," Luke repeated. "Yeah, I would say so."

"Oπ rmaybo ho wamAb Aσ jσim Toarm FimiAy," I suggested.

"What?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I couldn't repeat it if I tried."

He gave me a funny look as I opened my front door.