Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. This is a work of fan fiction.
Season Three Episode Six: "Damascus Road, Part Two" Chapter One
When the Guardians caught up with Miranda, she had returned to her human form. She was down on her hands and knees, head bowed. Clearly she had taken a blow of some kind and was roughed up. She was shaking. They landed near her in a half-circle. As they approached, intent on securing the stasis-cuffs, Cornelia noticed something she would never have expected. "Is she… …crying?" the blonde asked.
Hay Lin took a risk, walked up right next to Miranda. Knelt down. "Miranda?"
Without looking up, the girl motioned towards a distant truck. "They stole the shelter's donations. I thought… I thought that maybe I could…." Miranda's voice broke. After a moment she continued. "I thought that maybe, just once before I went back to prison… Just once I wanted to do the right thing. But I wasn't strong enough. They got away."
Eyes still closed, Miranda stood and held out her hands for the stasis-cuffs. She was surprised to feel, not the cold metal of the cuffs, but something soft and warm. Looking up, Miranda saw Elyon holding her hands. Her smile was the warmest thing Miranda had ever seen. "C'mon," Elyon said, "Let's go get that money back."
"Johnny did youse see dat? Dat puma turned into a girl when it hit da wall!" Johnny shouted. "A girl, looked like a teenager! What's goin' on around heres?"
"Calm down Frankie. Youse seein tings agains." Johnny said. He wasn't about to admit he had seen it happen too. "And it weren't no Puma, it's was a cheetah.'
"Puma, cheetah, cougar, whose cares? It weren't normal!"
"Youse gots dat right Frankie." Johnny thought, but said nothing. Focused on driving, he turned right onto a side street that would lead to their neighborhood.
Miranda changed into a large bird and flew high into the sky, looking down with a hawk's vision trying to locate the truck. The Guardians flew next to her. Staring down, she caught sight of it racing through an intersection. "There!" she shouted. "West, half a mile, headed to the south."
Together, they all flew towards the spot Miranda had seen the truck. When they arrived, they looked to the south and saw the truck continuing south. They followed.
"How could anyone rob a homeless shelter?" Irma asked, "It's the lowest of the low. What slime."
"I should warn you they were armed." Miranda said. "Some kind of earth weapon we don't have on Meridian. I don't know how powerful those things are, but when one of the thieves pointed it at the people chasing him, they turned and ran back inside. Then he used it, and there were three loud banging noises."
"Guns." Irma said. "How big were they?"
"Not big. He was able to use it with one hand."
Cornelia said, "I'm not worried about guns. That's what telekinetic force fields are for. I'll deflect anything they shoot at us."
"You all realize that this means people here on earth are gonna see us as Guardians, right?" Taranee asked.
"They don't know us personally." Will said. "And we look older as Guardians anyway. They'll never I.D. us in human form.
"I hope you're right." Elyon said. "But we've got no choice. We can't let them get away with this." Together, they followed the truck's trail, descending toward it.
Theresa Cook decided to take a break from her work. She leaned back in her chair, turned from the computer, and walked to the kitchen to get something to drink. As she passed the den, she saw Lionel watching television alone. Peter wasn't in sight. "Probably out with that Cassidy girl again." she thought.
The more Theresa thought about things, the more certain she became that something unusual was going on. First there was Taranee. The girl was still maintaining her 4.0 GPA, but she was always distracted and disappeared with alarming regularity. Some of it had to be Nigel. She remembered when she was Taranee's age, and had a hard time blaming her daughter for that part of it. But there was something more as well.
Also not-quite-right was Peter's new girlfriend. Cassidy seemed nice enough, and was unfailingly polite and respectful, aside from a sense of humor that was annoyingly similar to Irma Lair's. And Peter wasn't disappearing all the time or getting in trouble. But somehow, Cassidy just seemed off. She was awfully mature for someone so young, and frequently lapsed into slang and mannerisms that were outdated even when Theresa was a teenager.
"I've got to get to the bottom of this." she thought. "For the kid's own good, I've got to find out what this is all about."
On edge, Johnny continued to drive southward. He had felt safe on the main roads, but now they were driving along a industrial service way with no other traffic. He tensed at each movement he saw, expecting that weird cat to jump at him from an alley or out of a building.
Next to him, Frankie could tell Johnny was tense. "He cans lie all hes wants." Frankie thought, "He saws it too." Frankie glanced out his window, saw nothing. Looked into the mirror. "Aw, no. Not again."
"Not agains what Frankie?" Johnny asked, "Whassup now?"
"We gots fairies Johnny."
"We gots WHAT?" Johnny looked in his own mirror. Saw what Frankie saw. "Oh, youse gots ta be kiddin me!"
Working together, Miranda and the Guardians swept down from above and fell into pursuit just behind the fleeing truck. Miranda shifted from the bird into a cheetah again, dropped to the ground, and ran.
"There's no where for them to go." Will said. "This road's too bad for them to go faster, and there's no way off of it for a truck this big."
"Let's bag some burglars" Taranee said. "Fire!" Taranee shot a stream of flame at the truck's rear left wheel, which exploded. The truck ground to a halt, as the Guardians landed behind it.
Miranda shifted back to human. "We just want the money back." she said. "No sense scaring them any worse."
Elyon stepped forward. "C'mon out! There's nowhere to go!"