Caleb stepped in front of me protectively, since all I had to defend myself was the cell phone in my pocket. He was also blocking me from the monster's view, because it hadn't seen me yet.

"Cedric." Will growled.

A bunch of creepy, mangled-looking monsters started pouring out of the space behind the snake man, running at the girls and Matt and Caleb...and me. Holy Crap.

Everything happened in slow motion. The girls shot up in the air, along with Matt, and Caleb began pummeling all the minions that came our way. I spotted a lead pipe I could use to hit the big creeps by a nearby dumpster, and I made a mad dash for it. Even though I couldn't quite comprehend what the haeck was going on and none of this could even possibly be real, I wanted to help my cousin and her friends anyway. The tip of a snake tail swept my feet out from under me, and I found myself landing painfully on my hands, scraping both my palms and possibly twisting my wrist. My ring turned black. i got back up and dove for the pipe, landing next to it on my stomach. Just as I rolled over with it in my hands, a creep lunged for me. I swung the pipe and hit it on the side of its head. The pipe made contact with a crack. I jumped up to make a swing at another one. It smacked him square in the face and he staggered back, wailing in pain.

How can I be doing this? I asked myself. I'm against violence!

Despite my mental objections, I hit another minion to my left and watched him fall over. All I could do now was fight. I didn't even want to think of what would happen if one of those things got me.

The giant snake tail swiped at me again, and I ducked. With a precision I never knew I had, I whacked another dude. I looked up to see all the girls fighting: Irma shooting water out of her hands and Taranee sending fire balls flying at the enemy from her hands as well. Hay Lin kept on reappearing in random places in the battle, like she was turning invisible and moving before becoming visible again. Cornelia summoned plants and rocks from the ground and wrapped huge vines around minions. Will was creating some kind of pink energy from her hands and dropping it on snake guy. He howled in annoyance at her.

Matt was off to the side, laser beams coming out of his eyes, incinerating everything in their path. Caleb was a few feet away, fending off some creeps.

Another one came up behind me and knocked me over. Standing over me, he grinned. "Humans. So weak." He raised his axe/sword/whatever the heck it was. I braced myself, but then a fire ball came out of nowhere, pushing him out of the way.

Taranee gave me a thumbs-up before going off to fight some more.

I spun around to hit one in the stomach. I guess years of playing softball can really pay off in self defense. The giant snake tail tried to take me out again, but I jumped over it.

A giant roar that echoed around us and at least three blocks down the road erupted, stopping everyone in their tracks. We all turned to see snake man climbing through something that resembled a rip in fabric, except it was blue and glowing. The minions all followed him, even though Will and her friends were trying to slow them down. Once the last one was through, the rip closed and disappeared.

I felt my mouth fall open in shock when I realized that they had gone in it, not through it.

Will landed in front of me. "Nina? Please don't freak out on me."

Caleb helped Cornelia up a few feet away. "Give her a minute to adjust."

"Yeah," Irma said, landing beside Will, "it's not every day that you find out that your cousin and her friends are secretly pixie warriors who defend the universe from evil creatures that want to take it over."

"Nina?" Will asked.

I blinked.

"Do you think she's in shock?" Asked Hay Lin, coming up behind Irma.

I shook my head, coming out of my daze. "No, I'm not in shock. I'm just...trying to figure it out." My mind tried to make sense of it all. Okay, one: Will and her friends weren't normal. Two: we all just fought some really creepy man-snake thing and his even creepier minions, who mysteriously disappeared into some kind of rip in the air. And three: I was oddly okay with it.

As I thought through everything, I twisted the ring on my finger. The stone was a bright and vibrant yellow, signaling my mixed emotions.

I took a deep breath. "Who was that? And...what's with the getup?"

"We'll explain everything at my apartment." Will assured me. Then they all changed back into their normal clothes, and she put her necklace back in her pocket.

At her apartment, we found a note on the fridge saying that Susan and Mom had left to go shopping and that they'd be home by five.

"Good. That'll give us plenty of time," Taranee said, leaning against the counter.

"So where should we start?" Hay Lin asked as she took an M&M from the bowl on the table.

Matt, who was now back to normal, stood next to Will. "Explain it the same way you guys explained it to me."

Will nodded. "Okay. Let's start with who that was. That was Cedric, a sort of...um...right-hand-man to our main enemy, an evil tyrant and ruler of Meridian named Phobos. Meridian is another planet, pretty much home to most of the evil forces we've fought. About two and a half years ago, Phobos tried to drain his long-lost sister, our friend Elyon Brown, of her powers, but he failed, only getting about half of them. We thought we had beaten him and returned Elyon's powers back to her. Apparently, we didn't do a very thorough job, because a year ago, Phobos came back, more powerful than ever. He overthrew Elyon, who had taken her rightful place as queen of Meridian. He imprisoned her somewhere i9n the castle, but we can't seem to locate her."

"As for us," Cornelia said with a flip of her hair, "we're kind of like the protectors of Meridian, and that funky necklace, which I'm sure you've noticed, is the source of our powers. It transforms us into what the people on other planets call Guardians. We call ourselves W.I.T.C.H."

"Because of your initials." I said.

Caleb nodded. "Any questions?"

I bit my lip. "So this...this Phobos guy-he wants to take over the universe...and you're the only ones stopping him." It wasn't a question. I knew it was true.

Will put a hand on my arm. "We've got it under control. I promise."

Irma snorted. "I wouldn't exactly call what happened last night 'under control'." She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

"Shush!" Cornelia elbowed her.

"OW!" Irma elbowed her back.

"Why?" I asked. "What happened last night?"

Taranee pushed her glasses further up her nose. "Phobos figured out another mystical power the Heart has."

"The Heart?"

"The Heart of Kandrakar." Will pulled the necklace out of her pocket. "Every planet has its own heart. We get our powers from Kandrakar."

"What kind of mystical power does it have?" I looked down at my ring, which I was once again twisting around my finger, the stone still yellow. I remembered what had happened between my ring and the Heart.

Hay Lin took another M&M. "Sometimes, if a piece of jewelry, or any object, really, that has a significant meaning to its owner comes into contact with the Heart, it can gain some magical qualities."

"Like what?" The stone on my ring quickly turned orange from my nervousness.

"We don't know. Phobos was talking about it before we ambushed him. He was going to try to steal it from Will for about the millionth time." Irma shook her head.

We all sat in silence while I digested all the information I had just been told.

"So?" Will asked.

"So?" I looked at her.

"Are you gonna freak out?"

I laughed. "No. I want to help. Tell me what to do."