CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Ultimatum

"What's going on?"

Patrick looked towards the ceiling as an alarm sounded through the building. It wasn't a piercing alarm like a fire drill, nor was it one that sounded like school had been let out, it sounded like white noise getting louder and softer as each second passed.

He looked over at Noah, who didn't have an expression on his face; he knew what it was for and didn't want to move unless he was called.

"You should know by now," Noah stated, with a lazy roll of his eyes towards Tori and Tora. He nodded towards the door, motioning for them to leave. "You know that Core is going to call for you two, he's not going to want us to go right now."

"Gotcha," Tori nodded and pulled her twin sister to her feet as they hurried towards the door. When she pulled it open, Reihu was standing in front of her, which was odd. In WingzCorp none of the different divisions would ever talk to each other, they could only interact with those in their significant divisions until they were called to fight.

"What' sup?" Noah questioned calmly.

"You need to bring the prisoner girl along with you." Reihu stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's very important."

"Do you know why?" Patrick tilted his head to the side, displaying the right amount of innocence and interest at the same time. Reihu turned to him and stared at him for a few moments.

The room was silent as the two looked at each other. Patrick's lips curled into a taunting smile as Reihu turned to go, he was definitely causing a little stir in the part-lion half-breed, but it was obvious that Reihu still didn't know what was going on.

"No, I don't know why." Reihu replied shortly and then pointed at him and his twin. "You two are ordered to stay put, since your brother is still on the run."

"I thought so." Noah smiled and gave a single nod as Tori, Tora, and the Reihu left the room. He turned to Patrick when he was sure that the others were away from the room and talked in a very low voice, just to make sure that it wasn't picked up by the cameras in the room. "You're a real jackass, you know that."

"I know," Patrick shrugged, talking quietly too. "But it's really fun to mess with them when they don't know that anything is wrong."

"You don't know that for sure," Noah pointed out.

"Trust me," Patrick fully smiled. "I do."

James rolled over onto his back and looked at the ceiling, pulling his hands behind his head. He still couldn't believe the news that he had just gotten. He and his friends were going to die. He didn't believe it for a second; he's too young and too good looking to die, but part of him was really scared.

He had the new powers that he didn't believe in at first and now here he was, being told that he was going to have to save the world, and that he really believed. You didn't just get powers and were expected to sit on your butt and mess around with them (liked Carlos wanted to do at first) movies didn't work that way.

But it wasn't a movie, it was real life.

And that was still hard to come to terms with.

James continued to lie there, looking at the ceiling when he suddenly had a cold feeling wash over him. He sat up and looked around and all of a sudden Carlos sat up as well, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Did you feel that too?" James asked breathlessly.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded and then looked a little worried as he pulled at his covers. "I didn't wet my bed did I?" he stuck his head under his covers and started to feel around before pulling his head back out and grinning. "Oh good, I didn't."

"Carlos," James stated impatiently. "That's the same feeling we get anytime one of those guys from WingzCorp come around, and if we don't hurry, something is going to happen to someone in the Palm Woods and we don't need anyone else to get hurt." He jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed.

"Guys!" Logan opened the room and he and Kendall hurried inside, already dressed. "We have to-"

"We know!" James and Carlos replied in unison.

Kendall and Logan waited, shifting anxiously as James and Carlos finished getting dressed. Together, they left the apartment as quietly as they could and hurried up to the roof of the Palm Woods. Once there, their guardians appeared at their sides.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Lakin questioned as Logan questioned.

"We don't have much of a choice," Logan reasoned. "We either go and fight, which I'm usually completely against, or we just sit by and let innocent people get hurt."

He sighed and held onto the fur of Lakin's back, his legs just behind its wings. He turned to his friends, who nodded at him. "Let's get going." He nudged Lakin with his feet, right behind the ears, and flew off into the air, his friends following him.

The first time that they had taken a ride on their guardians, Carlos had fallen off so many times that Logan was sure that he was doing it on purpose, just to get a rush. Of course this didn't help as every time he got really excited he would accidentally set something on fire.

"Whatever happens guys, don't run away unless you really have to," Kendall stated from Kadin's back, easily falling into the role of the leader. "We want o make sure that these guys stop whatever they're doing."

"You're thinking about what Sydney said yesterday, aren't you?" James questioned gently.

"Did somebody say my name?" Sydney asked as he suddenly appeared at their side, sitting on his staff. He had an impish smile on his face, something that Logan had gotten used to seeing him have, as if he was holding a secret from them all the time.

"Were you really serious when you said that we were going to die?" Carlos questioned in a quiet tone. Unbeknownst to his friends, and he was never going to admit it to them, he was terrified of dying. He hated the idea of not being able to see his friends anymore. "You know? With the prophecy and everything?" He fell silent as he looked down upon the bright lights of the city as they passed.

"Maybe," Sydney shrugged. "Maybe not, you never know with prophecies, they can be about anything."

"Well, what did the prophecy say?" Logan asked impatiently.

"Don't worry about that now," Sydney replied. "You have to worry about Jo." His smile finally disappeared. "They have her; they're going to do some sort of a trade or try to lure you in with her. Either way you have to be on your guard"

"How do you know this?" Kendall demanded, urging Kadin to stop. Jayger, Cairo, and Lakin fell in with him. "How do you know everything that has to do with these guys?"

"Because," Sydney paused. "It's like I said, I've worked with them before."

"No," James said firmly. "How do you know everything that's happening with us now? How do you know that they have Jo? How do you know about the prophecy?"

Sydney's right eye twitched and he let out a sigh, rubbing his head. "Riley, you're going to kill me." He murmured before looking at the four boys. "Look, I don't have a lot of time to explain this so you're getting the reader's digest version. The only reason that we weren't able to help you guys for a while was because we went back into WingzCorp. The only reason we did this was to get information from them, then I snuck back out to warn you about everything they're going to do as Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah continued to sabotage WingzCorp."

"You went back to them?" Kendall asked, his green eyes slowly turning blue.

"No time," Logan interrupted. "I can feel the evil energy getting stronger and if we don't go soon, and if what Sydney says is true, Jo may not have much time left."

Kendall looked at Sydney and nodded. "Alright," he started to fly off again, this time Sydney brought up the rear, an apathetic expression on his face.

Kendall, James, Carlos, and Logan landed on the ground in the middle of downtown LA and faced Koto, Reihu, Tori, and Tora with their faces set in grim determination. Carlos noticed that Jo was with them, her hands tied behind her back. Kadin, Cairo, Jayger, and Lakin glowed their respective colors and went back into their masters.

"Someone, help me!" she shouted, not noticing that they were there. "Please! Someone help!"

"Usually you would want to keep your powers a secret," Sydney stated as he landed on the ground nearby. "But in this case, it may be a good idea to use them so you can save her." He paused. "Unless you want her to think that you're freaks and be afraid of you."

"You know you never really say anything that's helpful." James stated sarcastically.

"I am being helpful," Sydney pointed out. "It's something that everyone who is an elemental has to go through when their loves ones are in jeopardy, let them know what's going on, or try to keep what they have a secret."

"The same thing happened with Katie." Kendall realized, his eyes growing wide. "That one day when we were hanging out together."

"Water Whirlpool!" Kendall waved his arms around and Katie gasped as she leaned over on Kadin's side, looking down at the ocean water. It started to swirl around until a whirlpool appeared in the water below the pier. Before her eyes, it rose up into a giant pillar, much like the geyser, but it was still a whirlpool and it was still spinning and crashed into Koto, sending him flying back into a metal streetlight. "Kadin, turn around!" Kendall commanded and smiled when his guardian did so. "Harden" He held his hands up, which were now glowing blue, and closed his hands into fists. Koto cried out in pain as the water that was on his clothes and still hitting him started to harden and turn into a block of ice.
C'mon, let's get out of here."

"As you wish, Master Kendall." Kadin replied and started running back to the Palm Woods. When he arrived Kendall and Katie slid from Kadin's back and Kadin turned to his master. "Don't worry Master Kendall," he stated, a soft purr rumbling in his throat. "Whenever you need help I'll be around to protect you."

"Thank you" Kendall smiled in reply. Kadin nodded and disappeared in a film of blue light that hovered over Kendall and went back into him, causing his hair and eye color to turn back to normal. He turned toward Katie and noticed that she was looking at him curiously. "What is it?" he asked, ready for the questions.

"How…did you do that?" Katie questioned in a whisper of awe. "You…could jump really high, your eye and hair color changed; you were able to control water."

"It's all really complicated to explain," Kendall replied as he rubbed his forehead.

"So this is what you've been keeping from me?" Katie asked, looking a little hurt.

"For good reason," Kendall replied, looking concerned. "I didn't want you or mom to get into trouble for what I've become and that's already started to happen."

"How long has this been going on?" Katie asked and Kendall was confused. These weren't the kinds of questions that he was expecting from her. He was expecting something that would get her money from what she had just discovered.

"A couple of weeks," Kendall replied as he scratched the back of his neck, looking around. "We haven't really gotten full control of our powers yet, so I was lucky that nothing bad had happened."

"We?" Katie repeated. "So the guys have powers too?" her eyes lit up. "So the whole time that you've been sneaking off and everything, it's because of this?"

"Yes, and you can't tell anyone," Kendall replied and looked at his hand as he turned them back and forth. "We don't know how this is happening but we have an idea why." He sighed. "And I can't have you getting in trouble all of the time. So you can't tell anyone."

"I promise,"

"Now, we have to figure out whether or not we have to tell Jo what's going on," Kendall muttered under his breath, but he knew that his friends could hear him. "And if we tell Jo, we're going to have to tell everyone else, putting all of them in danger."

"I don't know what to do." Carlos whimpered.

"You better decide fast." Sydney murmured, standing a few feet away, looking right at Koto.

Koto looked over at him and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Sydney just raised his eyebrows in a friendly gesture, brushing his aqua blue hair out of his face as he did so. The other WingzCorp members noticed Sydney then too and soon all of them were shaking with anger.

"You traitor!" Reihu spat. "You betrayed us again!" In a flash, he turned into a half-lion. "You're working with them!" he snarled, flicking his gaze back over to Big Time Rush. "You're dead meat!" He ran forward and jumped up into the air, aiming for Big Time Rush.

As he came back own, his claws extended, Sydney rushed forward, swinging his staff in a wide arc. "Spirit Shield!" he called as he did so. He and his staff glowed a light blue and as the staff swung through the air, a shield of energy formed around him and Big Time Rush. Reihu collided against it and held himself there, scratching at the barrier.

Sydney turned to face Big Time Rush, holding onto his staff tightly, blue energy running around his hands. "I won't hold this up much longer," he stated. "You have to make a choice, save your friend or be guilty."

A/N: Yep, we're getting back into the action packed chapters again. A few more chapters left, just to give you a taste of them learning to live with their elements and the next story when they actually try to save the world. I'll update again soon. Hope you liked it.

-Riley