Chapter Eight: Reunited
Author's Note:
Hey guys! Sorry for not updating so long! I've been trying to make an audio track of one of the songs I wrote called "Keepin' Up" on the MAGIX Music Studio 10 Deluxe, but, unfourtunatly, I couldn't get it to work properly on the computer. So, I'll have to think of something else. Anyway, if you live in the Coquitlam area of British Columbia, Canada, then look out for a Spring Recital by the BC branch of S.A.S.S.! But it's only a possibility. My S.A.S.S. instructors Dave Blair and Don McLeod only found a few students from different schools. And, guess what? I'm one of them! If the Spring Recital does happen, you can probably see me singing on stage my song, "Keepin' Up." But that won't be until April. Anyway, here's Chapter Eight: Reunited! I'll see ya guys at Chapter Nine: On Top Of The World (Featuring Jordan Cahill's "On Top Of The World" from "Disney's Stuck in The Suburbs")! ;-)
-CelestialTime93
"Let's get outta here!" Kim cried, preparing to skate out of the chamber, "Fast!"
"You guys take mom and dad with the Cybercoupe!" Slider hollered over the rumbling, "We'll meet you outside the cave!"
"Got it!" Digit hollered back from the ladder, and flew up out of the hole as Matt, Jackie, Coop, and Elyon climbed up the ladder and into the Cybercoupe.
Once the ladder was gone, the three skated out of the chamber and started skating at rapid speed down the semi-chamber, avoiding fallen icicles and rocks.
"How are we gonna get back up the cliffs without being killed?" Kim hollered over the noise.
"Best to keep our mouths closed and take a different route outside!" Inez hollered back, "C'mon!"
The three skaters zoomed past the obstacles and the cliffs through narrow passageways and ducked under small arches.
"Look out!" Slider cried, as a giant bolder was rolling down one of the tall cliffs to the skaters' left side.
"Can't we go any faster?" Inez called to her companions.
"Unfourtunatly no!" Kim called back, "This is as fast as we could go! Unless you could fly across the ice!"
Inez looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling would crumble completely if they managed to fly up there.
Then Inez had an idea. She felt her inner swan reacting.
Inez grabbed her companions' arms, causing them to scream "Hey!" or "What the-?".
"Hold on, guys!" Inez hollered over the noise, as she suddenly sped so fast on the smooth ice, that it seemed almost that she was flying over the ice.
"Oh my god!" Kim exclaimed, "How did you-?"
"I'll explain later!" Inez replied, "For now, let's try to find an exit!"
"There it is!" Slider cried, pointing at a glowing exit in the distance.
"Brace yourselves!" Inez cried, as the same glowing winds from before snatched the three skaters and pulled them out of the cave and over a cliff.
"We're gonna fall!" Kim screamed.
"No we're not!" Slider replied, "Look!"
Inez looked up to see the glowing winds flying after them, until they finally took grasp of Inez's shoulders, and formed themselves into swan-like wings, silver wind feathers fluttering in the air when the wings were released.
Inez set her mind to flapping them, and managed to gain her control. She flew after her friends and grabbed their arms once more.
"Whoa!" Kim exclaimed.
"Now I'm really confused..." Slider groaned, rubbing his head with his free hand.
The three soon landed safetly on the ground, beside the landing Cybercoupe.
Matt was the first one to leap out as he stared at Inez with wide eyes.
"Matt, what are you - oh my god!" Jackie screamed, when she also saw Inez.
"What?" Digit asked, popping out of the Cybercoupe, "Yoiks! What happened to you?"
Before Coop could even get a chance to get out, Elyon regained her energy, and accidently threw herself on Coop instead of over the Cybercoupe.
"Whoa!" The two landed on the snow with a soft thud. The two looked up and gasped when they saw Inez.
"What?" Inez asked, for she didn't notice that the wings didn't disappear yet, "Are they still there?"
"You know about them?" Jackie screamed.
"Well, at first I didn't." Inez frowned, crossing her arms, after letting go of her companions' hands, "But, I got used to them."
The others stared at her, wide-eyed, even Slider and Kim.
"Heh heh..." Inez laughed nervously, "Surprise?"
"Well, at least the wings disappeared..." Matt said, scratching his head, frowning.
"Just avoid the cold for a while." Digit said to Inez, patting her on the shoulder.
"But the Sectionals are next week!" Inez exclaimed, "I can't just drop out!"
"I think your mom already did." Jackie frowned, returning from a phone call.
"WHAT?" Inez screamed, "No! She couldn't do this to me! She couldn't!"
"I just called the people of the competition." Jackie explained, "I asked if they could move the competition more later so that you could heal, but they said you weren't even on the list anymore."
"How could she do this to me?" Inez sobbed, "How could she?"
"Inez, calm down." Slider reassured, sitting in where Digit used to sit, "Why don't you tell us why you like skating so much?"
Inez sniffed and then replied, "Everytime I go on that ice and start to skate, I feel beautiful and free for once in my life! Everytime I get off, and start reality again, I feel ugly, disrespected, and alone. I feel like no one sees me. I feel like I can't trust anyone."
"Then tell that to your mom." Slider said, "Tell her how much skating is important to you, and tell her the differences in how you feel when you do, and when you don't. And maybe we'll find out who that imposter was who got into a fight with your mom."
"I doubt we'll be able to - hey!" Inez cried, whirling her head around to face Slider completely, "How'd you know-?"
"Your face told me that." Slider replied, "I had the same face when I had an arguement with my mom several years ago. And I know you couldn't have fought with her because you were in Cyberspace. And, you're not exactly the kind of person who would fight with their parents, unless it's really necessary. So, c'mon. First, we'll start with finding out who the imposter is. And then we'll tell your mom who it really is."
Inez, Matt, Jackie, and Slider, peeked into the window of a house, where a certain girl was using a special voice changer to make her sound like Inez.
"I knew it would be someone like her..." Inez growled.
"Who's she?" Slider whispered.
"A girl from school named Cleo." Matt replied, "She's a skater like Inez, only she'll do anything to knock someone out of competition. And I'm guessing she was right after Inez."
"I came in last place." Inez explained, "She came right after. And in order to get her in, I have to drop out. And she just made my mom do that!"
"Inez! Don't-!"
It was too late. The glowing winds returned, and shattered the window the small shards.
"-start..." Matt frowned.
"Guys! Isn't that Inez's mom?" Slider asked.
"Get her over here!" Inez told her friends, "And I'll deal with little Cleo here!"
"What do you want, Garcia?" Cleo sneered, dropping the voice changer and hanging up the phone.
"Payback!" Inez cried, "You're a sick cheater, you know that, Cleo!"
"I am not a sick cheater!" Cleo retorted, "You're just a sore loser!"
"I gained that position fair and square!" Inez retorted.
"Ineza!" Alizia called, as Matt, Jackie, and Slider, led her towards the broken window. The four jumped over the windowsill and joined Inez, "Where are your parents, Cleo? I'd like to have a word with them."
"They're not home." Cleo sneered.
"Oh, I think they are." Slider smirked.
"And who are you?" Cleo snapped.
"I'm a friend of Inez's." Slider replied, "But I should warn you, I also told your parents about what you just did, and they're coming upstairs, right now."
"You'd better have an explanation for this, Cleo."
Cleo gasped and turned to the doorway to face her parents. Her mother was holding up the voice changer.
"I am so sorry about this." Cleo's mother said, "We had no idea our daughter was into kicking others out of competition. We always thought that she won her positions fair and square. I guess not. Cleo, you owe the Garcias and apology!"
"No way!" Cleo cried disgustingly.
"Cleo!"
"Forget it!"
"She says sorry."
"I'll tell you what." Cleo's father said, "I work with the Young Skater's Competition. I'll get Inez back in."
"Thank you so much!" Inez exclaimed.
"And I'll deal with Cleo." Cleo's mother frowned at her daughter, "You're grounded for 2 months! Which means, no more skating for you!"
"I still don't know how time managed to pass through." Inez muttered as she and her three friends walked down the sidewalk.
"Unless someone we don't know passed through a portal to the real world, I doubt it was possible for time to start moving." Slider said.
Just then, there was a dim glow of purple-pink light, and then Kim shot out of the bushes, bits of shrubbery in her hair and stuck on her clothes.
"I just found out how time started moving again!" Kim exclaimed.
"SHHHHH!" the other four shushed, covering Kim's mouth with one hand and putting a finger on their lips with another.
"Sorry." Kim replied in a muffled voice.
"WHAT?"
"It's true." Kim said, "Hacker did send someone we knew through the portal time stream, to make time move in the real world again. And that someone, was someone we knew and befriended."
"A traitor?" Inez wondered out loud, paying full attention to the happenings of the group.
"But that's impossible!" Jackie hissed, "Unless they could disguise themselves as humans like what Slider and Kim did! They definatly look like one of us in this form!"
It was true. If you looked closely at Slider and Kim, they weren't exactly human. Not to mention that their bodies could change forms if made contact by magnetite. Like aging, and a growth of size of an effected part. But, now, these two cousins seemed more human-like.
And Inez thought that Slider looked more handsome in his human form...
"Hello?" Jackie snapped, waving a hand infront of Inez's face, "Hey! Snap out of it!"
"Huh?' Inez just realized that Jackie was talking the whole time she was thinking the whole thing over! So much for paying attention...
"What is up with you?" Matt teased, "Thinkin' of someone you like at school?"
"Matt!" Inez cried, preparing herself to slap Matt on the face if she had to, "Say something like that one more time, and I will hit you!"
"C'mon!" Matt continued teasing, "Were you?"
SLAP! Inez's blow was so hard and fast, that it was unavoidable.
The other three gasped, as Matt stood up and rubbed the red spot where Inez had slapped him. Matt groaned and Inez huffed as she sat down once more.
"So?" Inez said, "Where were we?"