Chapter Four: Slider's Perspective (Growing Power)

Author's Note:

Here's Chapter Four: Slider's Perspective (Growing Power). This is where secrets are revealed, and why he's really at the school. And, the principal knows... Check it out! Please read and review! See ya later! Gotta go and water the plants! ;-)

-CelestialTime93

Slider grabbed the longest twig he could find, and fell on his stomach near the lake, and reached the other end of the twig as far as he could towards Jackie, who was almost drowning in the water.

C'mon... Slider thought as he gritted his teeth, struggling to make the twig go further, Just a little more further...

Suddenly, he felt an energy pulse in his hand, as the twig began to slowly grow, and grow. Continuisly, it grew, until Jackie got a hold of the other end.

Slider felt himself slipping off the edge, until someone grabbed his ankles. It was Matt. And Inez was holding onto Matt's hips, as all three of them hauled Jackie out of the lake's water.

When Jackie was finally hauled out, she was coughing out water.

"That was a close one..." Inez sighed with relief.

"Too close for me!" Jackie choked, coughing out more water out of her mouth, "I almost got killed!"

Slider suddenly looked up as he saw a faint shadow over casting him. It was the druid. And it didn't seem happy that Jackie was alive.

"And we're all gonna get killed, if we don't do something about the druid!" Slider exclaimed, as the druid was ready to strike an attack.

"Slider! Hand me the twig!" Matt suddenly spoke up.

Slider was confused at what a twig can help with to defeat the druid. He was about to protest, but then went against it and handed the twig to Matt.

Matt took the twig and began charging towards the druid.

"Take this!" Matt cried, slashing the druid with the twig, making it scream in agony.

But something wasn't right with the mark that the twig left behind. It was a burn mark, not a scratch mark. Then, he noticed something at the end of the twig.

"Whoa!" Matt exclaimed.

"Matt!" Jackie exclaimed, noticing the same thing, "The twig! It's on fire!"

"Huh?" Matt looked at the end of the twig, and yelped, flailing the stick into the air, and landing on the top of the druid's head, making it scream even more.

While Jackie was sidetracked by the destruction done to the druid so far, Slider and Inez noticed Matt, suddenly crouching in pain.

"Matt!" Inez exclaimed, running towards him. Slider noticed the rock that Inez was going to trip over.

Before he could warn her, Inez already tripped over it, tumbled in the air, and landed in mid-air.

"Inez!" Jackie exclaimed, "You're flying!"

"I'm what?" Inez groaned. She looked down at herself to see that she was floating in mid-air, off of the ground. She yelped, "I hate heights..."

"Just live with it!" Jackie cried, as she stood up and pushed Inez towards Matt. Inez tumbled in the air, and landed next to Matt.

Slider ran towards the two, making sure that they were alright.

"You alright, Matt?" Slider heard Inez ask Matt.

"Just a type of burning, that's all." Matt replied, straining in pain.

"A real burn, or a burn from inside?" Slider asked Matt as he joined the two.

"Inside." Matt replied.

The three didn't notice the fiery druid, ready to crouch and fall for it's final attack.

Then, a stream of water was shot at the fiery druid.

Slider, Matt, and Inez noticed, and managed to get out of the way, before the druid fell into the lake, where it shrunk into a drift wood. Black mist evaporated into thin air from the drift wood.

There was a brief silence, then Slider spoke up, "What in the world was that?"

"Beats me." Jackie replied, "But, I doubt that it's from somewhere on Earth, nor Campus."

"Maybe we should tell this to someone." Inez suggested, as she helped Matt stand up.

"Oh sure, tell the whole world if you have to!" Jackie retorted in sarcasm.

"Jacs has a point." Matt said, "Nobody believes in this stuff anymore. If we told anyone, they'd think we're crazy."

"I guess." Slider replied, "But we need to tell someone we can trust. We can't deal with this alone. After all, the students did see this druid before we destroyed it."

"They'll just think that they're eyes were playing tricks on them." Jackie replied, "We gotta find out where the rest are."

Slider bit his lower lip. If they found out the real reason why he was here, then he'd have no choice but to take them back to Cyberspace, just like what Motherboard had told him to. But, when was the right time? Was it now? The principal was the only one who knew why Slider was really here. She used to be an aid for Motherboard years ago.

But did the others know?

"Slider, is something wrong?" Inez asked, noticing Slider's expression.

"Huh?" Slider suddenly perked up, "Uh... no. No, nothing's wrong. It's just..."

"Just what?" Matt asked.

Slider sighed. He had no choice. "Guys, I have to tell you the real reason I'm here. Motherboard said that I have to lead you guys back to Cyberspace. There's something wrong going on back there. And this time, Hacker's not behind it. It's someone else. There are different gaps forming in the barrier between Cyberspace and this place called the ShadowLands. Nobody has dared to go through any of the gaps to the daring world, but it's the other way around for the demons on the other side. Dark spirits escaped from the ShadowLands and took over some of the elements in Cyberspace and Earth. Like the drift wood that turned into a druid. Any more of these, and the world's in danger."

"But what about the people here then?" Matt counteracted, "What if the demons come back here? And harm any more people at Campus, or anywhere else?"

"The demons only follow us, since we're the only ones who have magic." Slider said, "And I can't believe I said that."

"Why?" Jackie asked.

"I..." Slider replied, "Didn't even know I had magic, until that twig in my hand began to grow. Man, Motherboard wasn't lying when she said I was annointed with the powers of Earth."

"And I'm guessing Matt's annointed with the powers of Fire?" Jackie said sarcastically.

"I guess so." Slider replied, not realizing that Jackie was being sarcastic, "That explains the burn mark and the flame at the end of the twig."

"Well," Jackie said, "I did feel the water's current push me towards the surface and closer to the twig. I guess that means I'm annointed with the powers of Water."

"And the way that I tumbled in the air," Inez added, "I'm annointed with the powers of Air. Man, I hate heights! Out of all four elements, why in the world did I have to get Air?"

"Just live with it, Nezzie!" Matt teased.

"Don't call me, Nezzie!" Inez retorted, "Matthew!"

Matt rolled his eyes.

He must really hate that name... Slider thought, as he and the other three walked back up the hill, and towards their next class.