6: Growing

The next day Terri, Emma (who now was also a little concerned for her mum as she had been kept in the hospital, as it wasn't quite time for the child yet), Amy and Rachel went to school as if nothing had happened but word quickly was getting round that they had stopped Holly from a wild rampage and that it was deliberately started, tho only the 4 of them and the staff knew who did it. Jessica was handed a term long break, lunch and after school detention for her actions, but only after spending the next 2 weeks on suspension. Despite the fact word had gotten out about their actions, the fact they had done it while using strange abilities remained a secret between them. Janet spent the day off school having found her knee was dislocated in the incident, fortunately Zambalen's heal quickly, Amy had already had her slash mark completely gone. Despite the knowledge of what happened they just pressed on with the day. Tho for Terri she clearly noted Holly wasn't in school, she just assumed her aunt had decided to keep her out for a day to recover.

After school they all met-up and Emma led them to a quiet area on the south-east side of Heatherfield. This area was the ruins of an old industrial area from the late 2300's or early 2400's. The place was open but had hills blocking views all around it. The ground was made of concrete with overgrown grass covering some of the area. There was some bits of rubble made up of metals, concrete, bricks, wood and plastics lying around the area too.

"So what you think, perfect right?" Emma asked as she jumped onto a pile of rubble, her talons wrapping around a pipe as it act as a perch for her and she crouched down on it.

"I guess it will do for practicing" Terri commentated as she and the others looked around.

"Certain we won't be discovered here?" Amy asked as she picked up a small 1 inch long copper pipe from some of the rubble.

"I come here all the time and never seen anyone else here" Emma re-assured her.

Rachel just wondered around, purely curious to some of the odd shaped things in the rubble, she picked up the odd thing and placed it back down as she investigated the stuff. "What was this place?" she curiously asked.

"Not certain, but stories are this was where the early prototypes of the fold generators were built" Emma replied, tho clearly not 100% certain herself but she at least sounded convinced.

"So how are we going to work out how our abilities work?" Amy asked as she swing the pipe around a little.

"Well I think we should try focusing on what we know they did, and I know this may sound odd, try feeling what you felt when you did them" Terri spoke out, clearly she had been thinking this through.

Over the next hour or so they spent the time trying to get there powers to work, by the time they decided to call it time, they had barely just been able to get them to activate.

The rest of the school days played out the same way, go to school, out to the ruins after and practice. The while time Terri was herself getting concerned for the fact Holly still hadn't returned to school but apart from that she spent her spare time online looking through libraries of information about their symbols and how they liked to alchemy. Emma finally had her mum hone on Thursday with a foot high egg (surgically removed), that would contain her baby brother or sister inside and would hatch in a couple of weeks, it was kept in a incubator next to her parents bed. Amy just went on as normal, she would go home and mess around with her sister or play some rugby with some other girls in the forest. As for Rachel, she would just spent her time in her room back at the orphanage when it wasn't food time, but she did feel like she finally had some people she could rely on, but she still remained a little distant emotionally from them.

In practice they were making progress, they were able to now get there abilities to work when they wanted. Emma's super-sonic scream she had been able to make directional to only be in front of her. Terri's hardening ability they worked out to be able to prevent anything they could find from harming her (tho it didn't stop the force of something big hitting her knocking her back). Amy's illusions they found that she could control what they saw but real world objects and physics remained. Rachel managed to learn how to do shape her shield to act as a dome rather then just as a wall or to make it fit into gaps, and while there was a size limit she could do (roughly a done big enough for 3 people) she could generate it up to 10 meters away and it blocked pretty much anything that wasn't wanted to pass through from doing so, they also found she can move the shield while she was using the ability, finding it can lift possibly a ton or so in weight, something they thought may be handy for lifting some things, only if they know why they had these powers.

Friday came around, and after school Terri decided that enough was enough, she hadn't seen her best friend for 4 days now so she persuaded the others to come with her to Holly's home to see how she was. It took them a simple bus ride to get to a stop near her home and then a couple of minutes to walk to it.

"So what exactly are we going to tell her anyway" Amy asked, a little uncertain about what they were going to tell Holly. They all had agreed she should know they the rest of them had similar dreams and felt drawn to a one of the symbols she had found. But what Amy wasn't sure on about telling her was the powers. She then continued a little sarcastically "Guess what, we all have some powers that we never had before we used to stop you."

"We see what she remembers first, if she doesn't then don't say" Emma voiced her opinion.

"Agreed with Emma, the voice, dreams, symbols are definite, we originally discussed them so she know about that I had them too, but we let her know about you lot." Terri lectured the other 2, Rachel was staying behind them and quiet like she normally would. "If we all had the same kind of experience then theory put it as to her having developed a power too, but we mention ours only if she has one herself, or if she remembers our ones."

Rachel stopped looking around behind them, she could feel something off as the voice came in her head "Soon, destiny". She paused to think before running up after the others as they arrived at house number 14 of the road they were on.

They walked up the path to the front door, the grounds were neatly cut grass with 5 foot high bushes around it. Terri placed her hand on a small black panel next to the door and then took it off. A couple of moments later Sophie answered the door, she gave a smile seeing it was Terri. "Well, I figured you would come over sooner or later, and I see you brought friends."

Terri smiled back at her as they were let inside. "Thank you Sophie, umm how has been?"

"She hasn't left her room apart for the bathroom this whole time, she had been very down" Sophie replied, sighing, she was clearly feeling down herself. "You can go to her room, hopefully a friendly face will be good for her."

"I will do my best" Terri smiled to Sophie. "Oh, you didn't get properly introduced at the school. Emma, Amy, Rachel, this is Holly's aunt Sophie, and Sophie this is Emma, Amy and Rachel." She introduced everyone pointing out who was who. Before heading off to Holly's room.

"Greeting" Amy politely waved as she went past.

"Thank you for having us" Emma also said politely as she went past.

"It is nice to have visitors" Sophie smiled to them as she went over into the kitchen area.

While everyone else had been chatting and now heading off Rachel was wondering around the lounge part looking at various images, they showed Holly at different ages and of Sophie from when she was young with someone who looked also looked similar to her and what she assumed were the parents, clearly that was Sophie's family. She then came across the image that Holly had been looking at on Monday morning. She stared at it curiously.

"That was taken when she was only 3 weeks old" Sophie's voice came from behind her.

She jumped as she turned around and stumbled to speak quietly "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"No it's fine" Sophie reassured her. "This is actually the only image of her with her father, he passed away not long after that was taken." She then pointed a few more with someone who looked similar to Sophie but had eyes that matched Holly. "She passed away in a collision when Holly was 3. It was someone getting away from the police, jumped a red light at a junction, taking it too fast as well. Hit her car. Told she was badly wounded on impact, the auto brakes on the car had been disabled so he could do his getaway. As for my sister's car, well the way he hit it meant she was luckily to have lived at that point. She died in the hospital a few hours later, not before I promised to look after little Holly as if she was my own kid." She wiped a tear away from her eyes.

"You didn't have to tell me" Rachel said to her in her soft quiet voice.

"True I didn't, but you seemed like you are seeking an answer to something" Sophie spoke back to her. "And before you ask how, I work as a behavioural analyst for the police."

"So what does that say about me?" Rachel curiously asked.

"If you really want me to do this" Sophie checked with her. Rachel nodded and then she started. "You are a lonely child, clearly having not lived with a family in your life for the part you can remember, this leads you to be curious as to how a family is. This curiosity also means you like to know what something is, does or was. The loneliness is clearly something you suffer with, leading you to not want to open up to others, meaning you have tried to keep yourself separated from others, but you have found something in the others here that means something to you." She then paused for a moment. "There is something recently that has confused you, and you seek the answers." She finally finished. Rachel just stared at her, she had just pretty much completely described her personality.

While Rachel was left behind with Sophie the other 3 had gone up to the door for Holly's room. Terri then knocked on it as she softly called though it "Hols, it's me, you ok?" There was no answer, she knocked again. "Holly, come on, I am really concerned for you."

There was a click from the door which allowed Terri to open it and lead Emma and Amy into Holly's small room. As they went in they couldn't see anyone else in the room.

"How did the door unlock if she isn't in here?" Nervously asked Emma.

"That is because I am here" Holly's sad voice came from somewhere in the room, she did sound a little down.

"Does this mean we know about the power thing?" Amy whispered into Terri's ear.

Suddenly there was a faint pink blob that looked human shaped and has what could be a tail come out through the wall, they could just see through it, as it then solidified and then changed into Holly. "So what is this about powers?" she asked as she then jumped into her bed. She looked back at them, clearly suppressed at what she did and knowing what was whispered. "I was standing in the wall next to you the while time."

"How long you been able to do that?" Terri quickly asked.

"Since I woke up Monday." Holly replied sounding rather down. "Oh and sorry for whatever happened while I was, well you know."

"You weren't yourself." Terri told her softly as she moved in and gave her a hug.

"Still, your my best friend, and that didn't stop me trying" She said as a tear fell from her eyes, she whipped the tear away, feeling a little better. As she and Terri came out of the hug she asked a question "So, you probably want to know about what I did there right?"

"About that" Amy jumped in, she then used her power causing the room to appear to be twice as big. But they could still feel the wall's where they were. She stopped the illusion after a few seconds. "You are not the only one with some ability."

"Where is Rachel?" Emma then asked, seeing Terri was about to tell Holly everything, noticing they were a person down.

Terri poked her head out the room seeing Rachel talking with Sophie. "Found her." She commented before calling out "Rachel, you going to join us?"

Rachel herd the call, and left Sophie and went up to join them in Holly's room, Terri closed the door behind her. Rachel quickly spoke "Sorry, your aunt was just showing me what she does."

"Don't let that get to you" Holly sighed, she always hated it when her aunt did that on guests.

"Right there is a lot to tell you" Terri started before between her, Amy and Emma they told Holly about the others having similar dreams just with different dragons, the voice, being drawn to a symbol from the ones Holly had picked out, what happened while she was feral, the reason behind it, and the abilities they had developed.

"So you think the dreams have something to do with us having powers?" Holly questioned.

"Possibly, plus I found out something on the symbols" Terri said as she placed a holo tile on the floor between the lot of them, now all sitting, Holly had got some cushions out from a wall panel for them to sit on. The holo displayed the 4 symbols. She then spoke again. "I checked the education list, you are sown the symbols but not told fully what individually what they are. These 5 a meant to represent the elements. Fire, water, earth and air." She pointed out the triangle with missing corner as she said fire, the wave for water, circle with dot at earth and the more curved upright version of the water symbol for air.

"Then what about the 5th one?" Amy asked as she pointed at the curved equals one.

"Quintessence, the energy of life, sometimes mistaken for lightning, it is often classed as the 5th element." Terri replied.

It was then something strange happened. The marks on each of them then appeared, glowing in the colours that went with them.

"What is this?" Rachel quietly asked, a little shocked by what was going on.

"I don't know but it feels like my entire body has some energy going through it" Emma commented as they all looked on each other as an aura matching the mark colours started flowing over them.

On top of the tower from where she arrived Will was kneeling down meditating, she felt a surge from the heart. Her eyes snapped open. "It is time." She commented as she stood up. The sun was just dropping below the horizon behind her.

"I agree it is time. Time you gave me what I want." The voice came from behind Will.

She didn't bother to turn around as she spoke. "You really think I will surrender it to you? You are more of a fool then you were back then."

"I let you monitor the new guardians, and quite frankly I don't care which 5 humans you picked, they won't save you, but now you can save those 5, just give me my key." He was both threatening and ordering Will at the same time, and while he did, around the edge of the roof the 4 black cloud creatures rose up from under the floor.

Will turned around and lowered her hood to face him. He still kept his hood up. She smirked. "You won't be getting you key, and as for the new guardians, you underestimate them." She them opened up her cloak so he could see the heart around her neck. She then held her arms to the side as she whispered to it. "Old friend, help me"

There was a blinding flash of pink energy that emitted from the heart and when the light faded after a couple of seconds Will was now wearing her guardian outfit from back in 2010, except it was re-coloured. The top and boots were pure white and the symbol on the top was gone. Her gloves remained black. The shorts were a dull white and the leggings were now light and dark grey. Her wings remained the black framed but the segments were now a grey shade between the 2 on the leggings. The heart was still hanging on its chain around her neck.

"If you want it, come and get me." She taunted. Immediately the 4 creatures launched themselves at her. Her wings flapped into life as she quickly went up into the air and they all flew into each other, something they quickly pulled themselves apart from. They then floated up in the air after her, she then flew off with them following. As she few he placed her right hand on the heart and spoke "The highest tower, come now for your destiny awaits."

Back in Holly's room the aura's and marked had disappeared and they had been trying to understand what that was when they all clearly herd Will's voice in their heads.

"You get that?" Rachel asked.

"Yea I think we all did" Emma spoke, looking at everyone else.

"So what do we do?" Ami questioned.

"The person sounded like they were in danger" Terri commented.

Holly took a deep breath "Well for me, I am going, I may have been beating myself up over what happened Monday but if someone is in danger and is possibly the one who knows what happened to us then maybe we should find out what this destiny is." She then stood up.

"I'm with you as always" Terri smiled as she rose.

"I'm in, but don't expect me to be much help up in a high place" Emma told them as she stood up.

"I'm with you too" Amy smiled as she got to her feet.

There was a pause from Rachel, but then she stood up, looking at them, and she finally quietly spoke "Count me in too then."

The girls all ran out of Holly's room and down to the front door, saying goodbye to Sophie on their way past who was watching the news. Holly just telling her she would be back later, with Sophie telling her not to be too late.

Outside the sun had only been down a couple of minutes and they charged towards the central area of the city, all of them knowing the building they had to go for.

Next time: it's time for the new guardians to enter.