Chapter Three-
A Satellite Transmitter
Ingrid stretched and yawned. It was the morning after their day of training was complete, and they were in Tress' room, wearing their Meridian dress robes again.
"I'd say that was pretty successful yesterday." She said, looking at the others.
"But you still have a long way to go." Derek was leaning against the door.
"Come off it, big brother. At least Wanda didn't electrocute you that last time. Her aim is improving." Smiled Cerella.
"Speaking of the little devil, where is she?" Asked Tress.
"I think she went out for a walk. She was getting rather cranky towards the end of the training again." HuiLing replied.
"Hey Derek, why don't you go find her?" Asked Tress.
"Great idea!" Ingrid jumped on the thought.
"Why me?" Asked a suddenly irritated Derek.
"Because she listens to you. You saw what happened earlier in the gardens." Said Cerella in a matter of fact tone of voice that annoyed everyone in that room.
Derek rolled his eyes, but left anyways. He did not want to see Cerella give her 'sad puppy dog eyes' again.
Wanda was standing alone, holding out the Heart of Kandrikor. She did not know what she was doing this for, but all she knew is that it might enable her to communicate with her parents. Closing her eyes, she felt the Heart leave her hands and float in the air.
"Mom... Dad... Can you hear me?" She asked.
Will jolted up in surprise. She had been laying, bored, on the ground.
"What is it?" Asked Terrane.
"Quiet! I think I hear Wanda...!" She said, closing her eyes. "Is that you, Wanda?"
Phobos frowned at Cedric.
"You did not bring me the guardians as promised." He said.
"Forgive me master, the Queen's power caught me off guard." Cedric was now in his human form, and he bowed.
"Nevertheless... I will have the Heart of Kandrikor. I'm going to send the Larvac. She should be able to penetrate my sisters' defenses." Phobos raised a hand, and behind Cedric slithered the giant worm-like Larvac. "She would like revenge on the Guardians as well as I."
"Mom! Where are you guys? We're so worried!" Said Wanda.
"Don't worry about us. Your dad and I are just fine." Replied Will in a confident voice. "How are you able to communicate with us?"
"The Heart of Kandrikor. The Queen and Caleb are helping us train to use our powers so we won't fight blindly." Replied Wanda.
"Caleb?" Came Cornelia's voice suddenly. "Are he and my kids all right too?"
"They're fine. Everyone's fine, Auntie." Smiled Wanda. "We're just preparing to come find you guys and bring you back."
"And using the Heart of Kandrikor as a satellite transmitter is going to help?" Derek's voice surprised everyone.
"Derek!" Wanda whirled around.
"So this is what you're up to. Trying to find your parents." He looked down at her with an odd expression in his eyes. Was it pity?
"Heh... Gotta go, Mom. Tell the others we're okay." She said before cutting the communication.
Derek looked down at her in silence.
"You know, you should have told us this was what you were really up to. We could have helped." He said.
"I know. But the girls are worn out as it is. I didn't want to worry them. Please don't tell them what I was doing." She said, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
"No need to imitate my sister." He looked away. He could not stand those red eyes looking at him like that.
"Hee..." Wanda heard a sound from outside suddenly, and turned to see what it was. "Uh... what's that?" She asked.
"A Larvac... a creature in the service of Phobos." Derek glared.
"Disgusting." Came Tress' voice from behind.
"Girls!" Wanda whirled around.
"We were worried when Derek didn't come back." Said Tress with a smile.
The Larvac gave a shriek that caused them all to look at it.
"Well... there's only one way to get rid of big, dumb and ugly." Said Cerella.
"You're still in training!" Derek objected.
"So were our parents." Cerella glared. "Wanda! Transform us now!"
"Right! Guardians Unite!" She called out, holding up the Heart of Kandrikor.
In a flash of light, they had emerged in their Guardian forms again.
"Chore number one for today: Use pesticide against giant caterpillars of doom." Ingrid flew up into the air right along side HuiLing.
"And by pesticide you mean us, right?" HuiLing looked at Ingrid, who nodded.
"Let's give Dad a bit of a lie in, we can handle big dumb and ugly." Cerella grinned down at her older brother, how scowled.
"Time for our first battle as the Guardians of Meridian." Wanda cracked her knuckles by stretching out her arms and holding her hands together.
"You know it's disgusting when you do that, right?" Tress was floating next to her.
"Sorry. Nervous habit." Grinned Wanda.
"HuiLing, we need to get its attention." Ingrid looked at her, and she nodded, zooming over to the Larvac.
HuiLing then raised her hands above her, then put them in front. They could hear the wind moving around it, then saw the clouds like a tornado that picked up the Larvac, forced it off the ground, then dropped it several feet away from the castle.
"Derek, what's going on?" Asked Caleb, running up to his son.
"The Guardians decided to act before you guys got here." Derek glared.
"Not good. They're inexperienced still!" Elyon said in alarm.
"Well, so far they seem to be doing just fine, actually." Admitted Derek.
"How do you know?" Caleb asked.
"Easy." Derek went over to the wall that surrounded the gardens, and climbed up to the top. Caleb soon followed his son, and saw the battle that was currently taking place.
Ingrid sent a wave of water from her hands right at the Larvac, Cerella raised her hands, thus summoning a giant ball of dirt and inserting it into the water, turning it to mud. Tress sent a giant ball of fire right at the mud, hardening it into thick cement around the Larvac.
"Nice work." Wanda smiled.
Next second, the Larvac broke free of the cement prison created by the Guardians.
"Great. Now what do we do?" Asked Tress, her voice full of sarcasm during the first statement.
The Larvac raised itself up, and opened its circular mouth.
"Tress! We need firepower! Maybe if we can't stop it in it's tracks, we can make it wither on the spot!" Wanda suddenly came up with an idea.
"Right." Nodded Tress.
The two flew side by side right up to the Larvac, then Tress put her hands together, palms facing right at the creature, and Wanda directed her own hands right at the pillar of fire that shot at the Larvac. With their combined powers, the lightning fire grew into a large stream right into the creatures mouth. HuiLing raised her hands, forcing it to stay put, while Cerella summoned thick tree roots so that the Larvac could not escape.
"It's working!" Ingrid said. When the creature let out a horrible yell, she sent a wave of water at it, and with HuiLing turning the air cold, the creature was frozen on the spot, held in place by the giant roots summoned by Cerella. The lightning fire from Tress and Wanda caused it to break into pieces that shattered everywhere.
"Our first successful fight!" Said Cerella as they flew back to the castle.
"That was great!" HuiLing zoomed around the gardens in a fit of end-of-battle adrenaline.
"All right speedy Ganzales." Wanda sighed, when they landed.
"Not too bad." Caleb jumped back down from the wall. "Your team-work could use polishing, but your powers definitely have improved since yesterday."
"Time for breakfast I think. I'm starving." Ingrid said as her stomach growled rather loudly.
"Where's HuiLing?" Asked Tress.
"Guardians, change back." Wanda held up the Heart of Kandrikor, and the girls were back in their original forms, wearing the Meridian dress robes.
There came a loud screaming from the air, and HuiLing landed in a lily pad pond.
"Found her!" Cerella pointed at HuiLing, who had a frog sitting on her head as she glared at Wanda. When she spit out water from her mouth, the frog jumped off into the pond.
"Nice landing." Derek commented, fighting hard not to laugh.
"Now if only you could use that kind of teamwork with your training." Said Caleb.
"Where's the fun in that?" Asked Ingrid.
They walked back into the castle for breakfast, and Wanda stopped upon seeing some strange writing on the wall.
"Hey, Your Highness... What's this graffiti?" She asked, and Elyon joined her.
"Leave it to Wanda to spot some weird text on a wall." Ingrid blinked at the text.
"It looks like the same stuff that made your mother pass out when she was your age." Caleb stared.
"What does it mean?" HuiLing looked up at him.
"If I'm remembering correctly it means 'The area is secure, continue your search for the girl.'" He replied.
Wanda was staring at the text as though in a trance.
"What would that message be doing here though? Mom told me about that story, and said that was just during the early stages for Phobos' hunt for his sister." Cerella looked up at her father.
"I have no idea who he could be looking for this time-" Admitted Caleb.
"Wanda...? Are you okay?" Asked HuiLing suddenly, seeing Wanda's eyes closing.
Derek moved quickly and caught her before she hit the floor.
"Nice one, prince charming." Cerella grinned at her brother, who glared back at that comment.
"It seems the text affects those who hold the Heart of Kandrikor." Caleb blinked. "Will was fine when she woke up, though. So no need to worry."
"Let's get her to her room. It's not like her to pass out like this." Tress looked worried, even with Caleb's reassurance.
"At least outside of math class." Agreed Ingrid.
The voices made no sense to her whatsoever.
"How could there be a spy in this castle? The Queen's Guards would have spotted someone entering."
"Maybe they came undercover, you know, while Cedric was attacking or something? We were all distracted."
"Hey! I think she's waking up!"
Silence.
Her eyes opened, and were dazzled by the sudden light from the room.
At first she thought she was back at home, and what she had heard was part of some weird dream caused by a book she was reading.
"Mom..." She asked.
But when her eyes became focussed, she saw Derek, HuiLing, Ingrid, Cerella and Tress staring at her, with Caleb and the Queen in the back.
"You're in Meridian, remember?" Asked HuiLing, a concerned look on her face.
"What happened?" Wanda sat up.
"You saw this weird text on the walls and passed out." Tress replied. "And I'm pretty sure it wasn't from being overwhelmed by math equations."
"Well, at least it's still summer break back at home." Smiled Ingrid as Wanda sat up. "No one there is going to miss us while we're getting our parents back. You could've been unconscious the whole summer and no one would be the wiser."
"Uh... Ingrid... I don't think that's really helping. Your mother's sarcasm can only get you so far." Cerella looked pointedly at Wanda.
"Hey, I tried." Shrugged Ingrid.
"It's all right. Hey, want to go grab a bite to eat before attempting to destroy the Queen's gardens again?" Asked Wanda with a smile. "I'm starved."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" HuiLing said rather quickly, before Derek could protest, which he certainly looked like he wanted to do.
"Derek, you can be Mr. Protective later, right now, we ALL need something to distract us, and for Wanda, that's food." Cerella grinned at her older brother in an evil way.
"I wasn't trying to be protective. I was just... thinking for her well being. She did after all just go through a concussion." He glared at his sister.
"But, she looks like she's fine. So no more protectiveness, buster." Cerella pointed her hand roughly in his chest, causing him to fall off his chair.
"Hey, Cerel, when you're done telling off your brother, let's get some grub, okay?" Asked Ingrid over a particularly loud grumble from her stomach.
"Coming!" Cerella trotted off after her friends after giving a nasty look at her brother briefly before smiling brightly at him.
They could swear they heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like:
"Girls."
They returned to the gardens after eating.
"Guardians Unite!" Called out Wanda, holding up the Heart of Kandrikor.
At once HuiLing took to the air.
"Obsessed with flying much?" Asked Ingrid as she flew over their heads.
"I just love it so much!" HuiLing spun around in mid-air, sending a tornado of air at them. "Sorry!" She said as they all had to take to the air to avoid it.
"Hey, I have an idea... why don't we ask the adults if they know where Phobos and lizard boy are hiding our parents?" Asked Wanda. "I'm quite personally sick of this training."
"Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one." Nodded Ingrid.
"I mean, who knows what could be happening to them." Tress looked out in the distance.
Down below, Caleb grew suspicious of the girls just hovering above them in a group talking in low whispers with serious expressions on their faces.
"Girls, you're supposed to be training. Not having a chat session." He called out.
"Hey dad, we have some questions for you." Cerella was the first to come back down.
Caleb looked at them all and the seriousness of the expressions on their faces.
"We need to know where our parents are." Ingrid said, her arms crossed.
"You're not ready to face Phobos yet." Caleb said rather flatly.
"Who cares?" Snapped Cerella.
"Our parents are in his hands right now, we don't even know how they're doing!" Tress glared, balls of fire forming in her hands.
"Uh... confession..." Wanda raised a hand, standing partly away from the group.
"What? You don't mean to say you have an idea?" HuiLing blinked at her.
"Actually, I do. This morning when you guys sent Derek to find me, I wasn't just going for a walk. I remembered Dad telling me stories of Mom using her powers as a means of telepathy to keep in touch with our Aunts. So I thought I'd try it with the Heart of Kandrikor. I managed to get in touch with mom and the others." Wanda stepped farther away.
"Did they say where they were?" Asked Caleb, suddenly alarmed.
"No. All they would tell me is that they were all right, and Auntie Cornelia sends her love to you." Cornelia had said no such thing, of course, but Wanda knew it had been on her mind.
She saw the brief look of relief on Derek's face when she said this.
"Fine. You all seem to have a handle on your powers already... I guess a real test would be to send you to confront Phobos." Elyon stepped into the gardens after hearing this. "I'll send a certain pass-ling to track them down first, and then you girls and Derek can go find them on your own. I've already got guards set up to find any spies that may have penetrated my defenses."
"Thank you, Elyon!" Wanda smiled brightly at this statement, flying forward and giving her a tight hug.
"Besides, I want to see Cornelia again and ask her why she hasn't come back to Meridian to visit me all this time." Elyon smiled back.
"You knew my mother?" Asked Cerella in disbelief.
"Of course. Didn't she ever tell you that we grew up together? We were best friends." Elyon smiled at Cerella. "And I must say, you're the spitting image of your mother, Cerella."
Cerella put her hands behind her head and flipped around her hair as if to say it was nothing.
"I'm not sure if that's a good thing." Ingrid stared. "Ego stroking has an odd effect on Cerella."
Tress, HuiLing and Wanda all gave a giggle-snort of a laugh at Cerella's glare that she gave to Ingrid at that statement.
