Chapter 2: Advanced Echelon
Phoebe woke up the next morning to the sound of knocking on her door, followed by Piper entering, "Cole phoned. He had a premonition." Paige peeped her head in too, holding a toothbrush.
"Oh no, no, no, he has not!" Phoebe shook her head in frustration, seeing if her denial would sort things back to how they were before they went up to Cole's penthouse the night before.
Piper sighed, "you know magic doesn't work like that. When you have both learnt from the situation, then it will all be back to normal. We need to deal with the premonition now. The sooner we leap to action, the more likely it is that something will occur from which you two can learn from. Now Paige, could you get Cole please?"
"Here?" Phoebe freaked, "I'm not even dressed," she said, but the next thing she knew was clothes flying out of her wardrobe, and she ended up wearing white cotton trousers and a t shirt.
"I didn't know you had t shirts," Paige glared.
"This is obviously not what I wanted to wear," she took the t shirt off, happy with the choice of trousers nevertheless.
"I hardly think it's what Cole would have wanted you to wear either," Paige noted.
"Look, I don't know how this works. Must've been just the first clothes that came to hand, or power, or whatever in my wardrobe," she choose a pink top without sleeves and put it on, "why the hell do we need Cole here?"
Paige orbed, while Piper explained, "because me, Paige and Cole possess the power of three now and we might need it to vanquish this demon. Besides, we still haven't heard the details of his premonition."
"His premonition! My premonition!" Phoebe growled, forming a smaller fire ball. Paige arrived with his passenger just in time in be greeted with it.
Cole tilted his head, "not again!" He leaped out the way, simply levitating up, then back down on the floor. The smaller fire ball vanquished a picture of the three sisters on the wall.
"That's right, why don't you three make a new picture now, posing as the power of three?" Phoebe tried to cover her tracks.
Piper glowered at her for a few seconds, then talked to the ex demon without taking her eyes off Phoebe, in case she did another stunt, "the premonition, Cole."
"It was in the elevator, after I touched the same button one of the neighbours did. She's a middle aged, dark woman. In the mental picture, she had her son wrapped in her arms, his body sprawled across her lap. As the body went limp and fell back there was a mist, I assume powers, coming out of it and into the woman's body. From her expression, she didn't know that her son had become a demon somewhere along the line."
"Where did this happen?"
"Car parking of the building."
"Any idea when?"
"Woman's watch says nine forty-nine."
"That's very nice and detailed, Cole," Phoebe sneered, "you saw all that?" She asked suspiciously.
"What's wrong with that now?" Cole lifted his shoulders.
"When you get struck by a premonition for the first time, it's really hard to figure out what's what. And you're using levitation correctly, while I struggle with even figuring out how many and what kinda powers you have! It's not fair!"
"Phoebe, I'm very accustomed to figuring out how to make use of different powers. Besides, it's all in the mind. What they all need to be used correctly is composure and control. And firm grounds to which you keep yourself when referring to the morality of their usage... "
"Where did she go?" Paige looked around as Phoebe suddenly shimmered out in the middle of Cole's explanation.
"She doesn't like lectures, I know that much," Piper offered.
Cole became transfixed all of a sudden and the sisters were thinking he was heaving another premonition until they followed his gaze. Soaking wet on arrival, Phoebe's clothes were virtually transparent, showing her sensual curves and well defined muscles as she was tightly clenching her fists.
"Where were you honey?" Piper asked sympathetically, remembering the time she orbed into the Spider Museum by mistake.
"I was thinking I was thirsty," Phoebe whimpered," and I ended up at the Niagara."
"You certainly could have not been that thirsty," Paige contemplated.
Cole sniggered, "you think too big. Everything is either yes or no for you. That's why you ended up at the Niagara, not at the kitchen sink. Besides, you need to control your body functions too. No shimmering into kitchens when innocents are at stake! Focus!"
"Have you lost your mind Cole? What is this innocents come first rubbish?"
"I felt her pain. And we need to hurry. It's after nine now."
"Let me get this straight," Paige construed what they knew so far, while Phoebe changed her clothes, "your neighbour is the innocent, right? So we need to stop her from getting the powers and becoming a demon and were not there to stop her loosing her son. Her son is a demon already. We can't save him. But why do you think he dies in the premonition?"
"Power struggles between demons I assume. Although it is possible that you will yourselves vanquish him."
"Wouldn't the body disappear?"
"Not if he was human at first."
"With time being so scarce, I don't have other ideas then going to the underground parking area," Piper held on to Paige, urging her to go to the scene.
"Can you do it?" Cole asked his wife.
"Dunno…" She said down on her bed, despairing.
Cole knelt down in front of her and took her hands into his, "first, you need to make your mind blank, so that when you think of the location you want to go to, no other ideas will pop into your head. No thoughts, no feelings. You repeat that as a mantra. Then imagine one particular spot in the parking lot, for example behind the first pillar as you exit the elevator…"
tbc
