A/N: This is a play that I partially stole from myself from last year (let's just say coming up with a pun for that Science competency took quite a few hours). It's a play on, "What were you thinking?"
Change Happens
Chapter 4: Water You Thinking?
"Phoebe, could you please fill this bowl for me?" Max asked, his voice muffled by the fact that his head was currently stuffed in the herb cupboard. Without waiting for her reply, a tan ceramic bowl drifted up from the island and into Phoebe's awaiting arms. "Thank you."
"Well aren't you bossy?"
Max snickered. "It comes with old age."
"Well if you're old then that makes me..." Phoebe frowned as she stopped at the sink and placed the bowl in the basic. "Hey, you totally tricked me into that!"
"I know," Max grinned, pulling his head out of the herb cupboard.
Phoebe reached for the sink handle and turned on the water, unfortunately too high and it hit the bowl, splashing back onto the psychic witch. Suddenly her body went rigid and her lids fluttered, as the water provoked another premonition.
----Premonition----
"You!" Huldra roared, raising her beefy arms and flinging them outwards. Hurricane force winds, combined with a tsunami of water, literally blasted the magical walls of pentacle. The fire was drowned out, the soil washed away, and Pearl slammed across the park and landing in a wet heap in a clump of bushes. "I should've taken all of you out when I had the chance!" She waved her arm again, summoning the water into a counterclockwise whirlpool, immediately sucking Pearl and Brandon under. Huldra's chest heaved, as she cackled at the sight of drowning victims.
----Premonition----
Phoebe felt her body collapse into the strong arms of thenow 25-year-old Max Franklin. She raked at the collar of her shirt, as Max helped her back to her feet. "Pearl," she gasped. "Brandon!"
"What about Pearl and Brandon?" Paige asked, suddenly alarmed.
"Huldra! She's-she's..." Phoebe struggled to breath. "She's drowning them!"
"Where are they?" Paige nearly screamed, her brown eyes becoming the size of two root beer colored boulder marbles.
Phoebe shook her head, blinking as she tried desperately to place the scene. "I-I don't know!"
----
Brandon could feel the frigid water pounding against his body, bruising his ribs and coursing up his nose and into his mouth. His eyes burning and all he could see was the murky, swirling masses around him. He'd tried several times to teleport, but he couldn't. Now he could feel himself becoming less and less coherent. What was worse, he knew he was drowning. He knew he was dying and so was Pearl, but he couldn't do anything to stop it.
Huldra pounded her palms together, forcing a powerful wave to crash over the youngsters with bone crushing power. She howled with wicked laughter, preparing for another full on assault. Before she had time, however, she felt her body taking flight. She stared down, her spinning blue irises wide with confusion and, almost, fear. Then her body went hurdling backs and was flung directly into the a granite park monument, inscribed with the park's name and its founder. From her weight and the force of the blow, the monument instantly cracked in several places and collapsed under her weight.
Pearl's lungs burned as she desperately tried to inhale, which only resulted in her lungs filling with rushing water. Her eyes bulged as her chest caved in on her and she could feel her life swiftly draining away as she sunk like a brick under the swirling whirlpool.
ThenPearlinda found herself stopping and her course reversed. Now she was heading towards the surface like a rocket, propelling away from the Earth's surface. She inhaled as soon as her nose reached the air, her throat and lungs burning. Then she felt her body convulse, as she spewed the sickly water from her stomach and lungs. She gazed around, searching for her savior. She saw nobody, yet she was still suspended in mid air. It was almost as if two, invisible arms were wrapped tightly around her body.
Brandon!The Blessed One's mind screamed, as her senses came flooding back to her. "B-Brandon," she choked, her eyes searching frantically for her best friend. Then, from her peripheral vision, she saw a cloud of orbs descend from the sky and materialize into the three slender figures of her mother and two aunts. "M-mom!" She mustered,salt filled tears beginning to pierce her red eyes. "Brandon!"
Paige's eyesdartedaround the swirling water and then into the air, herchest giving in slightly as she knew that heronly child was safely above Huldra's whirlpool, for now. Then Pearl's words stung her mind. "Brandon!" She screamed. Had she hadplaintelekinetic powers,it iscertain thatthe sheer power of hervoice would've rocketed the entire park.Mere milliseconds later, swaddles of orbsdeposited the drenched brunettemale at Paige's feet.
"Leo!" Phoebe screamed, dropping to her knees and beginning to push her palms into Brandon's chest. She turnedthe witch's head to his side, allowing the water from his lungs to gush out his mouth. "Leo!"
Moments later, a flurry of baby blue and angelic white deposited the whitelighter onthe ground, next tothe teleporter. He quickly held his hands overBrandon's sopped body and goldenlight began to illuminate him.
"Thankthe heavens," Paige breathed, dropping to her knees aswell. "Will be okay?"
"Yeah, just give me a moment," Leoanswered, as more water trickled from Brandon's nose. "It's okay, son. Just breath." Thehealing light faded and he placed his hand behindBrandon's back, propping him upright.
Brandon rubbed hisneck, allowing a few coughs to rack his body.
"Are you okay?" Paige inquired.
Brandon looked around. "Where's Pearl?" Heasked suddenly. "Is-isshe okay?"
The psychic laid a gentle hand on the boy witch's shoulder. "She's fine, Leo's going to go check on her right now." She shifted her chocolate gaze to her whitelighter brother-in-law, "Right Leo?"
Before Leo could respond however, his body was literally blown off his feet by tornado force winds. His body crashed full force into the ground and shattered into blinking orbs.
Piper whirled around, coming face to face with Huldra, with was glaring malevolently at her. "Bitch!" The timer screamed, thrusting her palms outwards and blasting the ground beneath the water-air demon, sending her sailing through the air.
Huldra's body began to shift and fizzle, dissolving into a whipping tornado and spinning wildly at Piper, stopping her attack before it could do any harm.
----Flashback----
A tornado of windblasts through the front door.
"Phoebe!" Piper screamed.
The telekinetic Charmed One echoed her call. "Phoebe!"
The tornadorockets throughthe foyer and knocks Prue and Piper to the floor. A booming clap of thunder breaks the air, and the tornado calms downto revealShax. His body is outrageously tall and his skin appeared the color of decaying flesh.The wind demon was clad in a pair of tattered pants and an unbuttoned shirt.
Doctor Griffiths cowered in fear. "Dear god!"
"No!" Prue leapt from the ground, racing at the innocent and shoving him out of the way. Before she had time to react, her body was impaled by Shax's massive energy ball and she literally crashed through the wall, landing in a heap of plaster and blood.
"Prue!" Piperscrambled to her feet, only to be met with the same fate as her older sister.
----Flashback----
Piper threw up her arms, her fingers flexing in front of her as she activated her ability to slow down time. She watched as her newest power slowly took effect on the twisting tornado, slowing it top the speed of an F2, where it had originally been the speed of an F5, the highest on the Fujita scale. Then the freezing witch narrowed her eyes, her fingers stretching out once more as she activated her first ever power, the ability to freeze time. Her heart was pounding as she willed the tornado to stop in its tracks. Moments later, the leaves stopped fluttering and the birds stopped chirping. The air was still and everything in Corona Heights Park was frozen, except for the witches.
"It won't last long," Piper whispered, turning to her younger sisters. "She's too powerful. It took nearly everything I had." Her eyes fluttered as she teetered on the brink of fainting.
"Are you okay?" Paige asked, concerned.
"Fine," Piper replied, her voice sounding bitter and cold.
"How do we contain her? We need her to find Prue." Phoebe spoke up, looking between her baby and elder sisters.
"And we need to hurry!" Paige said, goose pimples prickling her tender white skin. "I can feel her evil slowly breaking through."
Phoebe's body began to shake as yet another premonition over powered her. It was just the same way it had been in Prue's room. Completely unprovoked and just before her mind was pulled into the premonition, she wondered how.
----Premonition----
The being waved her ghostly hand and the bloody water rose from the ground and manipulated itself into a gurgling massive ball, which cast itself into Prue's stomach and knocked her against the wall. Then a red tower of water arose around the raven haired witch and trapped her. The creature glided through the water over to Prue's bloody column and shoved her hand into the water.
----
A small shaft of magical light glowed from the center of the room, revealing a large column of water surging water. Place squarely within its center lay the infamous eight month pregnant, Prudence Trudeau. Her raven hair shook silkily against the rushing water and her skin gleamed between the light and water. A small bubble surrounded the great witch's mouth and nose, apparently there so that she wouldn't drown within the column.
"Prudence," came The Source's acid tone. He glided over to the water column and continued to whisper to the Charmed One, although he knew she couldn't hear him. His flaky finger stroked longingly against the water. "You'll bring me great pleasure," his voice cooed from deep within the darkness of his hood.
"My Liege," a husky voice praised from the darkness.
"Come forth, Huldra."
A familiar eight foot tall beast arose from the shadows and sauntered towards The Source. "I've kept her preserved, just as you've asked."
----Premonition----
"Phoebe!" Paige screamed, as the wind began to whip her hair wildly around her face.
"I have an idea!" Phoebe gasped, propelling her body into the air with her levitational powers. She narrowed her eyes, empathically summoning Huldra's powers to herself, just as the tornado broke through Piper's powers.
Huldra, in tornado form, quickly accelerated back to F5 power and darted at Piper, sucking everything in her path. Just as she was about to vacuum in the eldest of the remaining Charmed sisters, she felt herself bounce backwards, as if hitting an invisible wall. The wind howled, as she morphed into her demonic form and rose up on a tower of blasting water. "Witches!" She screamed, looking for a telekinetic among the group. To her surprise, she saw none of whom she knew possessed telekinetic powers.
"Kiss this!" Paige screamed, fling out her arm and forcing a tree to dissolve into orbs and impaling itself into Huldra's chest as it reformed. "Phoebe, hurry!"
Phoebe spun around in mid air, narrowing her eyes as the pools of water left over from Huldra's whirlpool attack and swirled her palms together, making the water rise into the air and manipulate itself into a gurgling ball, just as Huldra had done in her premonition. She flicked her body in the opposite direction and thrust out her arm, using Huldra's own abilities to cast the water ball straight into her body. A column of murky water instantly arose around the beast, trapping her inside, just as she had done to Prue. Then she lowered herself to the ground.
"But how?" Brandon asked. "I thought since she was water and air, she was immune to being trapped in water?"
"Just because Prue's telekinetic, doesn't mean she's immune to telekinetic attacks, Brandon." Phoebe gently explained, helping the boy to his feet. "Come on, we need to get out of here before someone sees this." Phoebe took Paige's hand. "You and I will take her to the basement. Brandon, I want you to take Piper and Pearl home, where Leo can check Pearl, okay?"
The teleporter nodded and walked over to his best friend, who was no longer being held in mid air, and formed a circle before transporting the three of them to the Manor.
"How long do you think this will hold?" Paige asked, warily walking towards the water column.
"I don't know. In my premonition, it looks as if that's what The Source has been keeping Prue in."
"This entire time?"
The clairvoyant nodded. "Come on, just orb us to the basement." She took Paige's hand.
Paige timidly placed her palm against the swishing column and the angelic lights culminated around them, before sweeping them into the air and disappearing towards the sky.
TO BE CONTINUED...
