"Welcome everyone to tryouts this year for the JM Ice Demons.  Only twenty-five of you will leave here today on the team," Coach Ryder began.  He looked out on about sixty or so boys and two girls, nearly all of them looking extremely nervous.  "Okay then.  Let's start with some drills.  Mike, get in goal."  Brystol's ex-boyfriend, a senior named Mike "the Wall" McCall got up and skated toward the goal.  Mike was one of the best goalies in the state.  "The rest of you get in groups of two and line up for some slap shots."

          Everyone paired off and got in line.  No one was really talking.  Very few people were guaranteed a spot.  Of course Allora, Morrigan, and Johnny knew they pretty much had one. Allora was the leading scorer as a freshman on the team last year, and Morrigan and Johnny were starting defenders, but they still stayed silent.  They didn't want to seem cocky. 

A few people ahead of them stood Drake and Trey.  Allora was very interested to see Trey in action.  A few minutes later, it was Trey and Drake's turn up.  Trey shot first, it was really nothing special as slap shots go, but this was only the beginning of the tryouts.  Drake's slap shot, however, was amazing.  He had more sheer force behind it than Allora or Johnny had ever seen.  Morrigan was in awe as well.

          As the tryout went on, Trey improved.  He showed amazing speed that rivaled even Allora's, while Drake continued showing his astonishing force, though he seemed rather lazy and slow.  After awhile, Coach Ryder called them all to the center of the rink.

          "I have seen everything each one of you has to offer.  I have to say this is one of the best groups I've had try out.  It will be a difficult decision.  The roster will be up in the school lobby tomorrow morning.  I would like to thank you all for coming out and good luck."

          Everyone staggered away, except for Allora, Morrigan, Johnny, and the designated team manager Truman, who still had some things to discuss.  They all met Brystol outside the rink and walked toward the usual meeting place in the woods behind the school.

Morrigan and Truman walked ahead of the rest of the group.  Morrigan was still slightly peeved at Allora and wanted to get as far away from her as possible.  Her footsteps were graceful and quiet while Truman's footsteps were loud and booming. Truman was clearly nervous about what was going to be said, and Morrigan could sense it.  He had to get his mind off it.  It, of course, was a mystery to everyone but himself.  He decided to make conversation and looked to Morrigan.  "Don't you think that those new guys who tried out today were good?"

          Morrigan nodded and smiled.  "Yeah.  And they were cute, too."  She looked up to the September sky and sighed.

          Truman eyed her suspiciously.  "So what's with the sigh?"

          Morrigan nodded, giggling to herself.  "Well... to put it simply... Drake is extremely hot, but then, you already know that."

          Truman rolled his eyes.  "Yes.  I really should have known."

          "Yes, you should have."  Morrigan laughed and pulled his arm.  "Here we are," she said walking into the lush clearing.  It created almost a perfect circle.  In the middle sat some tree stumps-exactly five of them.  It was amazing how lucky they were to have this place.  It was like a second home.

          Everyone else came into the clearing shortly after, and they all sat on a separate tree stump.

          Truman nodded and gulped.  He tried to make his stride casual looking as he walked to the center of the clearing, but he failed to do so.  "You have to keep this a secret, guys," Truman began.  Everyone urged him to go on.  "Well, you all know how my father was in Ireland for awhile, researching these ancient mounds.  Well...while he was working on some top-secret project, they sort of found something. It appeared to be a portal to another realm or something like that."

          Everyone remained quiet expecting Truman to smile and say everything was a joke, but he didn't.  His voice and posture remained serious and he continued again.  "They would have explored it except what appeared to be demons according to some Celtic legend attacked them and forced them to leave.  Those 'demons' also destroyed most of their records and equipment."

          Everyone frowned and gave Truman ungrateful looks except for Johnny, who seemed confused, as usual.

          Truman folded his arms.  "You guys don't believe me?"

          "Huh?" questioned Allora.  "Are you proposing that this the truth?"

          Truman nodded.  "There are much better things I could be doing rather than standing in the woods, but I felt this was important."

          Brystol rolled her eyes.  "Well, how did you find all this out anyway?"

          "Well this may seem rather stupid, but I went into my dad's office to borrow his stapler and found his files laying open on his desk.  They seemed interesting enough, so I read them."

          Morrigan ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.  "As the resident Wiccan... I'll tell you this much: demons aren't good.  The demons are probably why the mounds were never explored before.  They are vicious, evil creatures.  We can expect a lot of panic and destruction when word of this reaches the public."

          "As the resident normal person, I already know demons aren't good," Brystol said.  She was being oddly derisive today.

          "Cute, really," Morrigan replied in the same mocking tone.

          "Of course there will be panic," said Johnny, ignoring both Brystol and Morrigan.  "But, why do demons care if we see these mounds or not?"

          "Because," explained Morrigan, "there's probably something in those mounds.  Something they don't want us to see."

          Everyone stared at the ground in awe.  "What should we do?" questioned Truman.

          "Wait a minute.  I blanked out for a second.  What are we doing?" asked Johnny.

          Brystol eyed Johnny.  "We haven't gotten that far yet."

          "Oh," replied Johnny sheepishly.

          "We have to do something!" declared Allora.  "I will not stand around while people get hurt!"

          "Do you even know if people are going to get hurt?  Seriously, this is rather stupid," Brystol said, looking around as if there were people listening.

          "You can never know with demons," Morrigan sneered.

          Brystol shrugged.  "I suppose, you're right," she commented, although she looked a bit frightened and was shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

Allora cringed.  "I really hate to say it, but do any of you think all this has anything to do with our dreams?"

"That's right!" exclaimed Truman.

Morrigan frowned.  "Perhaps.  And if it does, I can't exactly say I'm glad.  Our knowledge of this may have put us in danger.  Super natural things like demons can read people much better than even some of the best psychics.  If it's all right with all of you, I have an idea.  I know a protection spell we could use."  She looked at all of her friends.  "Please join hands."

          Drake and Trey stood completely lost in the woods.  "I thought you said they went this way!" screamed Drake in frustration.

          "They did!" Trey yelled back in defense.

          "Yeah?  Well, where are they?  It's getting dark!"

          "I dunno.  I could have sworn…"

          Drake buried his face in his hands.  "Damn it!  I am never ever following your advice.  I lead now."

          "But..." Trey started.

          "Just shut up and follow me!" 

Trey nodded reluctantly and followed Drake.  They walked for a few minutes until they came to clearing, which gave off an extremely bright glow.

"What's going on?" asked Trey, shielding his eyes.

Drake squinted.  "It's them, and they are chanting something.  I think I've heard that before. Yes, I have.  I think it's supposed to be a protection spell.  They also seem to be creating that freaky-ass light."

Trey pulled his black jean jacket closely around him.  "Should we interrupt them?"

Drake thought for a second.  "No.  Don't.  That could be dangerous.  We might as well join in, though.  But, don't let them see or hear us."

Trey replied with an "okay" and began the chant, as well as Drake.  "Mother, Goddess, give us strength to protect your creations and your land.  Mother, Goddess, give us power to fight the evil, which against we stand," the seven teens repeated the verse twelve times until an even brighter light engulfed them all and the circle broke.

It was night when the five awoke scared and cold.  Johnny rubbed his eyes and opened them.  He found himself staring up into the star-filled, dark night sky.  He blinked.  What happened?  He moved his arm and felt it bump into something hard.  He looked next to himself and saw a rock.  He muttered to himself and sat up, rubbing his elbow.  But, the pain woke him up a little more.  Allora was laying a few feet away from him, so he picked up a stick and started poking at her with it.  He kept jabbing at her, but she refused to awaken.  As a last, desperate measure, he shoved the end of the stick up her nose.  Allora woke with a loud snort as she blew the stick out.  She glared angrily at Johnny, who just shrugged at her.

"What in the hell was that about?" she snarled.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?  You wouldn't get up when I was jabbing you in the ribs," he pouted defensively.

Allora continued to stare at him.  "Did you try speaking?" she asked as she massaged her sore nose.

Johnny looked surprised.  "You're up, so get over it!" he yelled, though he did look apologetic.

Allora stood up and pounded a foot on the ground, and gave Johnny a menacing look.  "How about I stick a stick up your nose?" she screamed crossly.

With that, about five small bolts of lightning flew about the clearing, splitting a few trees in the process.  Allora and Johnny exchanged frightened glances.  After a moment, Johnny cleared his throat and tried to compose himself.  "Uh..." he began, but couldn't finish.  There was nothing to say. 

Allora looked around cautiously and shrugged, a move that she tried to pull off as casual.  "Unexplained phenomenon?" she offered lamely.

"You know what this means, don't you?" asked Morrigan from behind her.

Allora jumped and whirled around.  "Oh, Morr, you're awake."

"Well, something like that is likely to wake up anyone... except for those two," she said as she motioned toward Truman and Brystol, who laid side by side a few feet away, still sleeping soundly.  "Anyhow, I guess our little séance harnessed some supernatural current.  Get mad again."

"What?" asked Allora, slightly confused.

"Just—just get angry again.  I want to see what happens."

Allora looked at her strangely.  "I can't just get mad.  I have to have a reason to be mad."

"Well how about I give you a reason?" Morrigan suddenly seemed to explode.  "Like, you are the most ignorant person in the world!   Do actually think I've forgiven you about the Drake thing yet?  Hardly.  Dammit!" roared Morrigan, and turned off to stalk somewhere.  She would have, too, if the entire ground beneath them hadn't started to rumble and a sharp pillar of stone shot out of the ground a few inches from her foot.  Though the stone wasn't large, it was still alarming.

"Whoa..." she gulped, and stepped back from the pillar slowly.

"EEEEK!" Brystol shrieked, and leapt to her feat.

Allora turned to her calmly.  "Calm down, Brys.  It was an. umm... little earthquake."

Brystol shook her head violently.  "No, no!  It's not that!  I was asleep on the floor of the WOODS!  Dirt and rabid animals and disgusting insects everywhere!  And, my hair is a MESS!"  She picked at a loose strand of hair despairingly.  She looked down, and her eyes widened.  "My cheerleading skirt!  Bunnie is going to have a fit!  This is horrible!"

Allora seemed impatient.  "This isn't the time to talk about Bunnie Ramone.  Didn't you notice what Morrigan just did?"

Brystol's face fell as she attempted to straighten out her hair.  "I just didn't want to believe it."

"Neither did I," Morrigan admitted. 

Allora seemed deep in thought.  "We didn't just get these powers.  They were given to us."

Everyone seemed to agree.  "But why?  And by who?" Johnny asked. 

"Whom, Johnny.  Whom.  Not who, whom," Allora instructed.  Even in times of crisis, good grammar was a must.

Then he looked at Morrigan strangely. "Hey, I remember.  Morrigan gave us these powers.  Didn't she?"

"I certainly did not give you these powers.  When we held the séance, we must have harnessed some super natural current, like I said before.  But, a super natural current has to be powered by something in order for it to exist, and for us to receive powers like these, that 'something' is bound to show up at some point.  So, I guess we'll find out," Morrigan explained, in an almost grave tone.

Brystol grimaced.  "But there's still a much bigger problem.  There is DIRT ON MY SKIRT!" she screamed, and a small ball of light hovered above her head.  She looked up at it and put her hands on her hips.  The clearing quickly filled with giggles and laughter, mocking poor Brystol's somewhat pathetic power.  "I think I got gypped...  But we haven't seen your powers yet," she said, looking at Johnny and then at Truman, who had been awakened by Brystol's ear-piercing scream.

Truman and Johnny exchanged frightened glances.  Bravely, enough, Truman spoke up.  "Well, you'll have to get us mad then," he stated.

"Okay, Tru.  That shouldn't be too hard for you, Tru," Morrigan began with a callous tone of voice.

Truman turned an angry red.  "You know how I feel about being called Tru!"

"Oh, I'm sorry…"  Morrigan was in her glory.  "Tru!  I'm so, so sorry, Tru.  Please forgive me for calling you Tru, Tru."

Truman's eyes narrowed at Morrigan and a jet of water came out of Truman's palm, drenching his khaki pants.  "Ahh!" he yelped at the top of his lungs until the water stopped streaming.  Then, he turned to Morrigan.  "You know, I think that you enjoyed that."

Morrigan looked at Truman teary eyed.  "Why would you think that?"

Truman looked at Morrigan untrustingly.  "Because, you're Morrigan Downs, girl who takes pleasure at other people's expense."

 "Enough arguing you two.  This is going to be difficult," Allora commanded.  "How about you Johnny?"

Johnny frowned and kicked a rock on the ground, looking disheartened.  "I don't think I got one."

"Well, maybe stupid people don't get powers," Brystol shot, though it seemed to take some effort.

Johnny was very sensitive about his intelligence.  A snarl formed across his normally cheerful face, and then fire shout out of his palms, which were, luckily, aimed at the ground, not at his feet or legs such as the unfortunate Truman had experienced.

Truman quickly tried to get it out with his water jet, but he couldn't seem to get anything to come out.  Brystol grabbed her purse and got out a small spray bottle which had "water" written on it in marker.  She began to spray the fire furiously.  Allora rolled her eyes, grinning to herself.  What idiots…  Thinking fast, she ran behind Truman and tried her best to surprise some water out of him.  To everyone's happiness it worked and the fire was out.

Very quickly, though, they all seemed quite sick of finding out their powers.  They just looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking, and they all began to walk home, which wasn't far for any of them.  Morrigan informed them to meet at her house the next day to discuss things.  Everyone agreed and staggered home.

Drake and Trey were in for it when they awoke.  Trey was piled on top of Drake in a most uncomfortable position.

"Ah!" screamed Drake as he was awakened by an earth tremor to find Trey lying on top of him

Trey rubbed his head and opened his blue eyes.  "Huh?  What's going on?"

"I don't know.  You're the one sleeping on top of me," growled Drake as he pushed Trey away.

Trey landed with an "oomph!".  "What's with you?  That hurt!"

Drake smirked his usual smirk. "I'm sorry..."

Trey shook his head, freeing dirt from his matted bowl-cut.  "Yeah, anyway, what do we do now?  It's nighttime.  And we don't know our way through this forest... How are we supposed to get home?"

"Yeah, well if you hadn't gotten us lost, we'd be fine right now," Drake stated firmly while brushing his trench off.

"Yeah! Well, whose idea was it to follow the girls out here?" exclaimed Trey as he started to get angry.  Suddenly, as if right on cue, a ferocious dust devil appeared right to Trey's left.

Drake's smirk turned upside down.  "What did you just do?" he asked as the mini tornado started to disintegrate.

"I don't know.  What the hell is going on?" shouted Trey, in distress.

"I don't know either. Do you expect me to know everything?  Really," said Drake.

"I think it stopped, though," declared Trey, thoughtfully.

"Thanks for the newsflash, Mr. Obvious," Drake sneered.

"Mr. Obvious, huh?  Well, you know what?  I don't even think Morrigan liked you.  You think you're such a charmer, and you're not!"

Drake's eyes became mad slits.  The air around them turned cold and the moon's light disappeared.  Only a few seconds later, everything was back to normal.

"What was that?"

Drake closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.  "I think the chant thing backfired.  I believe the main goal of it was to gain protection, like I said.  But the form of protection we were given was powers."

"Well if that's true, you certainly have a dumb power."  It got slightly colder and slightly darker.  "I really wouldn't want to cross you in a dark alley.  It might get even darker."

Drake laughed in his usual sardonic manner and they both began walking away, though they had no idea how to get out.

          "We should have left a trail of breadcrumbs or something," Trey suggested.

          "Okay Hansel.  We wouldn't be able to see them anyway."

          They walked for what seemed like forever until they found themselves on school grounds again.  "Finally, thank God we live in walking distance of the school," Drake said.

          They then began to stumble with exhaustion home.