Disclaimer: I don't own the W.I.T.C.H. series. Nor do I own the any of the copyrighted materials mentioned by Silverio, including movies, literature, or musicial material.

New Bad Girl in Town: Observations of a TDB

Chapter 5

Will walked away from the lunch line, tray in hand, looking for a place to sit. She noticed Silver at a table with his sit placed against the wall with his feet resting on another chair. He was typing away at the computer on his lap while listening to an mp3 player that rested on the table next to his lunch tray. Silver raised his head and meet his eyes with Will's for a brief moment before returning to the screen.

The thought of sitting with him was a very unpleasant after that embarrassing moment in class. She hoped to avoid him for the rest of the day but it was a little difficult. They already shared another class and now had the same lunch period. Will tried to ignore him and continued looking for a new place to sit and immediately noticed Irma and Hay Lin calling her over. It still wasn't an ideal arrangement but she did need to talk to them eventually and it was preferable to Silver's table.

"Hey guys." Will greeted as she sat down. "So are we really gonna do this?"

"You mean this whole guardian thing." Irma started enthusiastically, "I'm in it sounds exciting."

"Hold on guys." Taranee interjected, "Before we really get into this, what do we do about him?"

The girls looked over to Silver who continued typing away and repeatedly looked up to watch the girls sitting across from him.

"I say we call the cops." Cornelia suggested, "He's already admitted that he's spying on us."

"Great idea Corny. Why didn't I think of that?" Irma commented, "Oh right cause I don't want to be the one to tell my dad, "Hey Dad, we have an alien stalker following us because we were chosen to be super heroes. Be careful though cause he can open doors out of thin air and escape into other dimensions." Yeah that'll go over well."

"Fine then what do you suggest."

"Maybe we should just try talking to him?" Hay Lin offered. "Let's invite him over."

"No!" both Irma and Will shouted.

"It was just a suggestion. And it looks like I'm not the only one who thought of it."

The girls looked and saw Lucy Rockwaller walked up to Silver and started a conversation.

"That girl is such phony, she'll do anything to be popular." Cornelia said angrily, "And Silver's no better, he's such a show off."

"What, you mean that singing he was doing in Collin's class?" Taranee asked.

"Not just that, in gym he was showing off to everyone." Cornelia explained.

"Seriously what happened?"

"Coach Jones was having the boys play basketball, you know shirts vs. skins, and Silver starts arguing with him saying how he's not taking off his shirt. Well you know how Coach is he doesn't let the boys switch sides just because they're embarrassed. So Silver starting calling him a pervert and that it was sexual harassment to force him to play shirtless."

"No way, he didn't really say that?"

"He did, Will can back me up she has gym with me." Cornelia turned everyone's attention to Will.

"Uh, yeah actually he did. I've never seen a teacher that mad before. I honestly thought he was gonna hit him."

"So what did they do? Did they actually fight?"

"No," Cornelia took over, "but I think he thought about it. Coach Jones just told him to run laps but Silver just kept antagonizing him. He didn't just run around the gym, he ran up and down the bleachers from one end to the other and then ran to the bleachers on the other side of the gym."

"Wait, he just had to run around and he added the bleachers on his own? Why?" Irma asked.

"That's what Coach asked him. He said something about wanting to get a decent workout. That when he told Silver to do a hundred pushup."

"Ouch, bet he regretted that."

"Like I said that guy just likes to show off. Instead of pushups he does a one-handed handstand and starts doing pushups like that. Coach almost lost it and told him he had to do two hundred pushups with each hand."

"No way!"

"It's true." Will confirmed, "He even finished by the time class was over. He had just enough time for one more argument with Coach when he refused to shower. Said that he hadn't even broken a sweat and didn't need a shower."

"The weird thing was everyone was into it." Cornelia clearly annoyed, "The guys were having a laugh at how he was messing with the coach and most of the girls were all impressed like he was so cool."

"Just cause he was all." Cornelia began in a mocking voice, "I'm so tough and athletic doing bleachers and handstand pushups and I'm not even tired."

"It wasn't that bad, I mean, sure I guess he was showing off but it don't think he was trying to impress everyone. I think he was trying to intimidate the coach." Will turned to Silver's table, "What do you think they're talking about?"

"Lucy's probably asking him out, or trying to get him to ask her out, thinking she can use him. Probably just wants to dump him later so she can say she was too good for him."

"You really think he'll go out with her?" Will asked causally.

"Probably, you know how boys are." Cornelia explained, "Guy's get even more stupid when they talk to a cheerleader. Don't know why they're just a bunch of stuck-up, snobby spoiled girl who think their better than everyone else."

"And Cornelia would know," Irma pointed out, "She tried out for cheerleading back in junior high. So, why didn't you join the squad?"

This earned a glare from the blonde girl and a smile from the rest as they polite stopped themselves from laughing.

"FUCK YOU!" Lucy yelled, drawing the attention of everyone in the lunchroom. "You had your chance and you blew it."

"Not much of a budding romance." Will commented with a satisfied smiled as she watched Lucy walked away from Silver clearly unhappy with him.

"More like, it just been pruned." Irma joked making a scissor gesture, "Couldn't happen to a nicer couple."

The two laughed at the joke and rest followed with suppressed giggles.

"So maybe he not all that bad or at least not that dumb," Cornelia consented, "but I still say he's a jerk and a showoff."

"So, what are we going to do about Silver?" Will asked looking at Silver who looked back at her with an orange slice in his mouth. "Are we just going to let him keep spying on us?"

"Any ideas on how to stop him?" Taranee asked.

"No, but if he's going to keep an eye on us, maybe we should keep an eye on him."

"You mean spy on him?"

"I mean," Will hesitated thinking about how he acted that morning, "maybe we should ask him to sit with us."

"Are you sure Will?" Irma asked also thinking about how upset Will had been because of Silver earlier. "You don't really want him sitting with us do you?"

"Not really, but we really don't know anything about him." Will thought about few things she did know about him that she hadn't shared with the girls. "What if it turns out he's dangerous. We should know, right?"

"Dangerous what make you think that?" Irma asked with noticeable worry mirrored by her friend looking on waiting for her answer.

"No reason, I just think that…" Will tried to think of an answer without revealing the attack or everything that happened before school. "the way he disappeared this morning, the way he's in our school, and how he confesses that he's spying on us like there's nothing we can do to stop him. And there isn't, is there?"

"So we should keep a close eye on him by letting him keep a closer eye on us?"

"Yeah, so what do you guys think?" The girls looked at one another hoping glean opinion on the matter. No one had any new reasons to oppose the idea they seem to silently agree before answering.

"I guess." "Suppose it couldn't hurt." "He might turn out to be nicer than we think."

"So who wants to invite the jerk?" Cornelia asked.

The girls were silent waiting for a volunteer, Will looked at Hay Lin since she first suggested inviting him over. Hay Lin started raising her hand.

"Hey!"

The girls look over to the voice and noticed a tall student in a letter man jacket yelling at Silver. It wasn't long before the boy grabbed Silver and threw him against the wall.

"What's he doing!" Will said looking on at the attack. "Who is that guy?"

"That's Billy Sampson, he's on the football team." Taranee answered

"Why's his picking a fight with Silver?"

"Maybe because he deserves it?" Irma quipped.

"Or maybe something dumb like his ego." Cornelia added, "Billy think he's this big football star and that he's so popular. He probably thinks that all the rumors about Silver is going to cut into his popularity or something."

They looked on, along with most of the student's in the cafeteria, as Billy repeated banged Silver against the wall before he started punching him in the stomach.

"Why is he just taking it?" Will asked "He could easily take that guy."

"What, you're not actually rooting for Silver to win are you?" Irma asked surprised.

"No, it's just I've seen him fight, winning should be easy for him. Why's he letting punch him like that?"

Billy then clocked Silver with a left cross knocking Silver head first into the wall.

Will stood up not thing of what she was going to do. Before she could decide what she would do, Mrs. Knickerbocker showed up to deal with the fight. They watched as the principal talked to the two boys. After only a couple of minutes the matter seemed resolved and Principal Knickerbocker left without any sign of her punishing either of them.

"No way they got away with that?" Cornelia said in disbelief.

"I guess if anyone could he'd be able to." Will said hardly surprised that the principal went easy on him. "I guess I'll go ask if he wants to join us for lunch."

Will walked over to Silver who was back to work on his laptop before looking up at her.

"Um, Silver?"

Back at the table the girls watched Will talking with Silver. She seemed nervous walking up to him but they noticed her relax as they started talking to each other. Will started back to the table with a smile on her face please with her success. Silver gathered his things and followed after her walking past a group of classmates that seemed to want to talk to him.

"Anyone want my salisbury steak?" Silver asked sitting down with the girls. The girls declined his offer and sticking to their own lunch. "Yeah, I'm surprised you can stomach as much as you've had already. So what have you girls been discussing?"

"Well we were going to talking about if we were really going to try being guardians." Taranee explained.

"Ah, deciding whether or not to commit to this. Yeah you don't want to half-ass this, that could get yourselves killed." Silver pointed out earning nervous looks from the girls. "What too blunt?"

"You're just trying to scare us aren't you?" Irma question still intent on being a guardian.

"Oh no, it's just a simple warning. Besides being guardians is likely your destiny and nothing good ever came from running from your destiny." He chuckled picked his orange juice, "So it's sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of thing."

"Well we're up to it, right girls?" Irma proclaimed.

"Yeah." Hay Lin supported immediately. The other girls joined in with less enthusiasm.

"Wow," Silver mocked, "evil beware, guardians are coming for you. So is there anything else on your agenda?"

"Well, weren't we going to try out our powers?" Will suggested, "You know, check to see what we can actually do as Guardians."

"Yes! Definitely, let's find out what we can really do." Irma encouraged.

"I guess that sounds like a good idea," Taranee agreed hesitantly, "but where are we going to practice being Guardians? We are keeping this secret right?"

"Oh, I have an idea where we can go." Hay Lin offered. "I'll show you guys after school it'll be a perfect place to practice in secret."

"So then it's settled?" Cornelia asked, "We're really going to do this?"

"That's what I'm hearing." Silver then bit into the foil cover of his juice and began drinking through the hole. "Man, I hope your practice area isn't one of the training spots that I've already scouted."

The girls looked at him and but no one bother to question that last statement hoping to avoid any more annoying comments from him. So with their plans made the girls spend the rest of their lunch eating and talking like any other day. All the while Silver sat silently watching the girls talk hoping none of them would turn the subject of their conversation back to him. Will noticed how quiet he was and that his eyes were shifting back and forth between the girls.

"Hey, Silver you've been really quiet." Will notice Silver's eye turn to her but to her eyes, "You really just going to sit there listening to us gossip?"

"It's not as boring as one would think." Silver noticed all the girls looking at him, Cornelia and Irma look annoyed at his comment.

"You're really just sitting there listening to us talk?" Will asked suspiciously.

"Yeah." Silver said stiffly as Will eyed him. They all look at him in silence wondering what had gotten Will attention.

"Does anyone hear something?" Taranee mentioned.

"I don't hearing anything." Silver announced.

"No I hear it too." Said Hay Lin as she and Taranee leaned toward Silver following the sound. "Is that music?"

"You haven't heard a word we've said have you?" Will accused.

"Well it's not like any of it was directed at me what do you care if I'm hearing your weekend plans, or who likes who, or teasing Irma about her crush on Andrew Hornsby."

"First off it's not a crush." Irma said with a blush, "And if you're listening to music how you do know what we were talking about."

"You're reading are lips aren't you?" Will claimed.

"Seriously, you think I can not only read lips but can read all five of your lips at once?"

"Yes."

"Okay then." Silver turn away and picked up his player.

"Hey!" Will yelled not wanting to be ignored. Hay Lin snatched the player out of his hand.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are you just reading our lips?"

"Are you still on that? Move on."

"You haven't answered my question."

"Oh yeah, guess not." He turned to Hay Lin, "Can I have my mp3 player back?"

"Stop ignoring me, what happened to you studying us? What are you listening to that so important."

"What I'm still observing. Seriously hand over my player." Silver reached for his player but Hay Lin held it out of reach.

"What is he listening too?" Irma asked receiving the player from Hay Lin who was playfully keeping from an annoyed Silver. Silver tugged the cord of his earphones yanking the player of their hands as they made their exchange. The player flew through the air towards Silver's waiting hand when the player boomeranged and flew over to Cornelia instead. Landing in her hands the player reached the limit of its earphones and it disconnected for the jack.

…got me rocking and a rolling, rocking and a reeling Barbara Ann. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara Ann…

"What is this?" Cornelia asked surprised at how loud the player's speakers were.

"Barbara Ann by the Beachboys." Silver answered. "What? You know they were big back in their day."

"You actually listen to this stuff?" Cornelia commented

"Check what else he has." Irma suggested

"Let's see," Cornelia skipped to the next song.

Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl…

"Yeah the Four Tops, also popular back when but that's not as strong an argument."

"You have such lame taste in music." Cornelia skipped through the songs listening to their beginning. "Lean on me, by the Temptations… Twist by Chubby Checker… Stand by me by B.B. King… Hard Day's Night by the Beatles, who are these people?"

"First off there's nothing wrong with my taste of music it just a little… out of date. Second, how do you not know the Beatles?"

"The who?"

"No not The Who, the Beatles. You know the "British Invasion""

"I've never heard of any of these artists. Have any of you heard of these guys." The girls answered with a shake of heads turning to each other checking if any of names were familiar.

"Really, none of you know any of these songs. I mean sure their before your time but come on, none of you have ever heard any of these classic songs?"

"Classics? These songs?" Cornelia scoffed, "I'm surprised anyone listen to this stuff especially you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well compare to those other songs…"

"Hey yeah, do you have any of those songs on your mp3 player?" Hay Lin interrupted.

"What songs?

"The songs you were singing in homeroom." Irma asserted, "The songs you sang while you were sleeping or pretending to sleep."

"While I was… fuck." Silver muttered under his breathe, "Well better than Spanish baseball announcer."

"What?"

"Nothing. So what songs were you talking about?" Silver asked.

"I don't know, a lot of different songs." Hay Lin tried to remember an example, "I liked the one "I've been sleeping on the porch drinking some cherry coke and everything is black and white.""

"Please stop." Silver interrupted, "I would say that sounds familiar, but saying that what you "sang" compares to the actual song is insulting to both the real song and the artist that preforms it. As for my player it had a ton of songs, frankly that was a rather interesting string of songs for the shuffle to pick."

"So what's next?" Irma asked as Cornelia skipped to the next song.

Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort.

Suffocation, no breathing don't give a fuck if I cut my arm bleeding.

"Aw sweet Papa Roach" Silver announced.

"This is my last resort." Silver sang along, his voice a perfect match with the artist.

The girls listened to the disturbing song of suicide with Silver enjoying it. Will in particular, listened to the song, identifying with the lyrics more than she wanted to. Under the table she thumbed her wrist thinking about the previous night and everything that had lead up to it. Every mistake, every vice, every sin, and every hurt her choices caused came to mind reminding her why she had even considered ending it all.

"Put on something else!" Irma demanded, Will snapping out of her memories.

"Nothing's alright, nothing is fine. I'm running and I'm… Hey what happened?" Silver asked in his regular voice realizing that another song had suddenly started playing.

"Ugh, country?" Cornelia groan at the song and skipped to through more songs. "Country, country, country, seriously, now it's nothing but country."

"Okay yeah there's a lot of country music on there too. Hey you try living in Texas without listen to some country on the radio. It's either adding that to your musical taste or tejano music. Or both but in the end my taste for Tex-Mex music didn't go far beyond Selena."

"Who?"

"Oh shut up, I'm tired of hearing that you don't know anything about music."

"Excuse me!" Irma reacted, "I know all I need to know and that Karmilla is the greatest singer ever!"

"Who?" Silver responded.

"Ha-ha, now who doesn't know anything about music? You've never heard of the greatest singer in the world?"

"Maybe in this world, like it's that big a deal. So you have one talent that unique to this world. I'm talking about talent that transcends dimensions and manifest itself in more than… three-quarters… of modern… Earths." The girls stare at Silver who seemed to freeze at some startling realization."

"Crap!" Silver finally responded in frustration, "I'm in a world with suck-ass music."

"Hey!" each of the girls responded to the insult.

"Who are you say we have bad music?" Irma demanded.

"Okay you're right, that maybe a bit presumptuous of me. First off I guess should double check, maybe the bands I know go by different name, or you guys are just idiots."

"Hey!"

"And even if they don't exist in this world probably has plenty of entertaining musicians of is own, like what's-her-name Karmilla. Soon or later I was going to review this world's entertainment industry for a comparative analysis. I guess I'll just move that up and push back a few other checks like comparative analysis of history, religion, technological development, social-political relations… fuck, I'd almost forgotten how much crap I gotta do when studying a new world."

"You really have to do all that?" Taranee asked.

"Define "have to." If I'm gonna try to learn what I can from this world I might as well be thorough. Anyway can I please have my player back, or do I have to break your fingers and pry it out?"

"Fine," Cornelia consented and tossed the player back to Silver, "Not like it had any decent music anyway."

"Speaking of which, quick check have any of you heard of bands like Metallica, Gun n' Roses, or Led Zeppelin?"

"No."

"How about Journey, Aerosmith, Green Day, Fallout Boys, 3 Doors Down…"

"No."

"Megadeth, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Eagles?"

"No."

"Okay, how singers Micheal Jackson, Eminiem, Ozzy Osbourne, Meatloaf…"

"N- Meatloaf? You're a fan of someone called Meatloaf?"

"I'll take that as a no, what about, um, Whitney Houston, Kelly Clarkson, uh, Kenny Chesney, Elvis."

"Elvis, we've heard of Elvis."

"Finally, that gives me some hope, not really. So you have the King of Rock n' Roll but not the King of Pop."

"King of who?"

"Forget it, just wanted to know how far off the music industry from most modern Earths. And wow I guess there's gonna be a lot changes to be recorded for the world. I might need to start from scratch."

The bell rang and students began leaving the cafeteria. The girls and Silver quickly threw their trash, returned their trays, made their way to their next class.

Afterschool the girls followed Hay Lin to and out of the way spot beneath a bridge along a sidewalk near a pile of discarded garbage. The girls gathered around with Will standing in the center while Silver stood out of the way to observe their training.

"So what do you guys think?" Hay Lin asked, "Perfect right?"

"Definitely, now we can finally practice using our powers!" Irma agreed.

"You know guys I still have doubts about this whole thing." Cornelia argued, "No offense to your grandma but I'm pretty sure she's deluded."

"But what about how that plant grew when you just looked at it," Taranee countered, "or the water in Irma's glass, or that picture Missus Lin drew in the air?"

"I'm not saying it wasn't weird." Cornelia conceded, "I've seen to paranormal shows like Ghost Seekers and Real or Bogus: Paranormal Cases. I'm just saying most of that stuff can easily be explained by magic tricks bought off the internet. The picture we saw, probably just a fog machine and a video projector. That whole story was just too crazy to take seriously, she's either going senile or having some serious paranoid delusions."

"Let just see if the crystal is real before we worry about the story." Will suggested, pulling out the Heart of Candrakar from her jacket and putting it on. The Heart began floating and a moment later Will floated into the air with it. The others watched in amazement as the Heart glowed brightly with waves of pink energy pulsed from it. As Will hung in the air wondering what to do next, words entered her mind and soon escaped her lips.

"Guardians unite!" Will called out as streams of colored energy resembling orange flames, blue waters, green leaves, and light gray mist, began flowing out of the Heart and reached out for the other girls. Each of them felt a tingle as the energies spiraled around them and left them up into the air before all five of them disappeared in a flash of light, replace by balls of energy matching the streams that surrounded them. Silhouettes of the girls in fetal positions were visible in the balls slowly changing as the girls seem to grow and develop before the shadows drastically changed into symbols including a circle, triangle and a curved equal sign. In another flash of light the girls reappeared changed into young women with clothes all color coordinated in a combination of pink, blue, green.

Will looked around, her amazed by the transformations of her friends. Looking down at herself she was surprised by how she had changed not only in attire but in form. In mere moments ago she had gone from the flattest chest possible to very generous B-cups and actual curving hips. She couldn't help but think about the mirror version of herself that she had seen that very morning. She knew that she didn't stack up to the girl in the mirror, but she was pleased that she had taken more than a few steps in that direction. Will took another look at her friends and how they had changed.

Taranee had grown and developed the same way that Will had, though will noticed how mature her face had become and wondered whether her own face and matured the and grown more beautiful like Taranee. The most distinct difference between Taranee's change and the other girls was her hair that was styled with six dreadlocks, a look that suited her well.

Hay Lin's transformation seemed to emphasize her exotic beauty with her lean frame and her pale skin. The skirt she wore with its two slits did a great job showing off her lean legs though Will was pleasantly surprised that Hay Lin's bust had not grown as much as her own. She knew it was shallow to think that, but it was the first time she'd wasn't the flattest girl in a group.

Cornelia's change maintained her status as the tallest girl in the group with her lean body, shapely legs, perfect blonde hair and makeup. Will couldn't help feeling a little jealous how gorgeous she was with the looks of a super model. She could easily picture Cornelia posing on the cover a fashion magazine.

The jealously Will felt toward Cornelia was nearly forgotten when she turned to look at the final member of their team. Irma was not fat by any means, but she was the chubbiest of the five girls before they changed. The transformation caused everything but her waist to grow as she now stood with the fullest figure among the five girls. She was the only one among them with impressive C-cups and hips to compliment them. While Cornelia was perfect for the cover of a fashion magazine, Irma's new body made her more suited for the centerfold of an issue of Playboy or the swimsuit issue of a sports magazine. Looking at Irma, Will kept telling herself that as attractive as she was Irma still didn't quite compare to "Mirror Will" and her amazing curves. Another shallow thought but she couldn't help wanting to think that hot as Irma was that there was a version of Will, as fictitious as she was, that was hotter still.

"Wow that was incredible!" Hay Lin exclaimed breaking the silence, "Can you guys believe this?"

"Actually, I can't believe your grandma actually wore this?" Irma said commenting on their clothes.

"Wait," Hay Lin said looking over her shoulder, "What do we have on our backs?"

"Forget our backs, what do we have on our fronts?" Cornelia laughed arching her back to show off her new endowments.

"Well they can be wings." Will declared looking from Hay Lin's wings to her own and managed to start flapping them. "If they were wings then when we went like this we would whoa!"

Will floated back up into the air spinning and tumbling out of control. Hay Lin followed suit and shot up into the air with far greater skill as she flew fast and effortlessly. She was literally able to fly circles around Will who still couldn't manage to float right-side up.

"This so rocks! You do something." Irma excitedly called point at Taranee.

Taranee hesitantly held out a hand and released a fireball, the recoil of which knocker her on her butt. The fire shot out and spun around zinging and zinging wildly until it slammed into the ground narrowly missing Cornelia who ducked to the side.

"See that's why I hate fire." Taranee whined.

"Irma you're water put it out!" Cornelia demanded.

Irma stuck her hands out and water formed in her palms and blasted a stream out that also blasted Irma back into a pile of garbage. The water flew as wildly as the fireball before it dumped itself on Cornelia, with a splash big enough to dowse the nearby flames as intended.

"Ugh great." Cornelia groaned shaking off the water then looking at the surrounding area of short grass and a concrete path. "Oh pooh, there's no soil or plants here. I can't do my thing like, "rise toward me" or whatever."

Cornelia felt the rumbling for only a moment before she was lifted into the air and onto her butt by a cactus that spouted up directly beneath her feet. Cornelia looked up to see the ten foot tall cactus with a pretty but comically oversized flower blooming of it. A moment later Cornelia looked down to find an earthworm crawling on her hand. With a scream she shook off the worm and ran off screaming failing to notice Will still flying out of control before crashing right into Cornelia.

"Wow," Silver said lacking enthusiasm, "I figured you girls would be a little rough but that was reckless. First off, Cornelia soil and plants are just about everywhere you just need to play more attention and recognize it's there then when you can't see it. Although I got to ask, did you make that cactus yourself or was there actually a cactus seed there to respond to your powers?"

"I don't know."

"Then find out." Silver demanded and turned to Irma and Taranee who followed to check on Cornelia. "You two got the same problems, lack of control and a weak stance. Take it slower, Taranee focus on creating a flame and control its size, growing and shrinking, slow movement then work on shooting it in a straight line and later on guiding its path. Irma similar practice, start with less water maybe using one hand at a time and please brace yourself for any recoil."

"Hey what make you think you can just order us around?" Irma argued.

"You don't have to listen to my suggestions if you've already thought of you own training method then by all means follow through with it. Any thoughts on how you'll improve your control?"

"Practice." Irma turned away and shot another stream of water, throwing her foot back. The water flew toward the river then started flying wildly narrowly missing Hay Lin who flew out from under the bridge.

"Hey careful Irma." Hay Lin called out flying off course and flew down past everyone and into a wall behind them. Irma looked back after seeing Hay Lin pick herself up, she noticed Silver's hand resting on her back right where he caught her before she would have fallen to the ground again. She pull away from him and Silver turned toward Hay Lin.

"Yikes, I was going to ask you to trying working on your other powers but maybe you should keep flying. In fact maybe you can give Will some tips? They say that even teaching is a learning experience. So that the closest thing to help I can offer good luck." Silver found another spot to rest and watch the girls continue with their practice.

"Well I think we've destroyed enough of Heatherfield for one day." Will commented after a couple of hours of practice. In the twilight of the approaching sunset Will used the a Heart to change the girls to normal as they all glowed like solid bodies of light before shrinking back to normal forms and fading back to flesh and blood.

"Where'd Hay Lin go?" Irma asked a moment before Hay Lin fell from the sky and into a pile of garbage.

"Found her!" Cornelia announced pointing to Hay Lin in the trash. The girls then started to walk away leaving Hay Lin to climb out herself and catch up.

"Dang that's cold" Silver commented on Hay Lin being left behind. His face fell as an unusual but somewhat familiar feeling overcame him. The next moment a blue light appeared growing into a large circle catching Hay Lin's attention.

"Uh, guys." Hay Lin called to the girls.

"Come on Hay Lin you can play in the garbage anytime." Irma joked.

"But I really think you guys check this out."

"Check what out?" Cornelia asked as she and the other girls turned around and gasped at the sight of the portal. "Stay back, don't touch it!"

Suddenly out of the portal a teen boy, in a brown long coat, flew out of it crashing next to Hay Lin scaring her back to her friends. The girls all continued to look at the portal as an image of a strange creature with a horrible face, vicious teeth and very muscular chest and arms. Through the portal it came slithering out with a huge snake-like tail for a lower body. The creature hissed at the girls for a moment before turning its attention to the boy it followed through the portal.

"Will the crystal!" Taranee yelled to Will in a panic. Will failed to hear her as she was scared stiff as Taranee tried to shake some sense into her.

"Will, change us back now!" Taranee finally getting through to Will who pulled the crystal back out and released its energy and in a flash of light immediately changed the girls back into guardians. The creature captured the boy and was pulling him back into the portal when the light of the Heart and the girl's transformations caught his attention.

"Fire!" Will commanded.

"Who, me?" Taranee asked nervously feeling she'd been put on the spot.

"Everybody!" Will clarified. The girls surrounding Will gathered their powers and released pink energy into Will's hands. Will in turn released a whip of energy that, unfortunately, lashed around uncontrollably failing to hit the creature she tried to attack.

"Close it, close the portal!" The boy called out from the creature's grasp.

"How?" Will asked.

"The thingy, use the crystal!" Hay Lin suggested.

Still firing the energy whip Will grabbed the Heart and fired a beam at the portal just as the creature retreated into it with the boy captive. The portal immediately closed and vanished leaving the girls alone under the bridge.

"You lost him!" Cornelia accused, "That thing got him!"

The girls stood there in silence staring at where they last saw the boy they failed to save. The girl eventually changed back and left to speak to Hay Lin's grandmother about what just happened.

Silver watched the girls go then walked over to where the portal had been. He looked up to where it closed and floated up to wave his hand over that very spot. Slowly moving his hand he searched for some that didn't seem to be there until he clenched his hand like he was grabbing a handle.

"Ah there it is, guess I'll be coming back to check this out later." Silver then floated back down and followed after the girls.

"What did he look like?" Hay Lin's grandmother asked after the girls explained what had happened to after their practice.

"I don't know." Will answered, upset by the questioning. "He was just some boy, it all happened so fast."

"Do not blame yourselves." Yan Lin comforted.

"I don't, I blame her. She totally blew it." Cornelia declared pointing at Will.

"Take it easy Corny." Irma defended.

"No, you take it easy Irmy."

"Guys!" Taranee called trying to end their dispute.

"Enough!" Silver joined in with a deep commanding tone. "It wasn't Will's fault, it wasn't anyone's fault."

"What are you talking about," Cornelia argued, "she froze, she let that thing take him. All she did right was close the portal and she didn't even do that until after he was gone."

"What I mean is it either wasn't anyone's fault or it was everyone's fault." Silver countered, "It wasn't just Will, none of you managed to save that guy. I didn't see you rushing to the rescue."

"That's because Will waited so long to transform us."

"That's your excuse? Whether she waited or not you could have used that time to think of a way to save him but you were just as panicked as everyone else which is my point."

"What point?"

"You weren't ready. None of you were ready for this." Silver took a calming breathe. "The fact is it was too soon for any of you to face something like that thing. You all show some progress during your training but frankly you're all lucky it retreated when you did. Because if it turned into a real fight, it would have been a fight you could not win."

"If you know so much why didn't you try saving him?" Cornelia berating Silver, "You're some powerful alien thing or something why didn't you help?"

"Not my job, it's yours."

"So that's it, that's your excuse?"

"Yep." Silver turned to Hay Lin, "So how's that drawing you're working on?"

"Huh, oh done." Hay Lin answered holding out a drawing pad to her grandma. "That creature looked like this."

"Oh dear, Lord Cedric." Yan Lin said recognizing the picture.

"Lord? They got some pretty low standards for knighthood over there. / Lord? They'll let anyone become a knight over there, huh." Irma and Silver spoke simultaneously and looked at each other with annoyance over each other's similar statements.

"Cedric is not always in this form."

"Well that's good news for his wife. / Lucky thing for that guy's wife." Irma and Silver were even more annoyed at each other.

"Would you two stop joking, this is serious." Hay Lin yelled.

"I know that, you think I'm not scared?" Irma replied, "I'm just…"

"Enough, all of you." Yan Lin interrupted, "You must stop this fighting. You only have each other and you have begun an adventure that will require all of your talent and strength just to survive."

The girl sat silently thinking about what happened and what they would have to do. Silver watched them quietly for minute before he started to head out.

"Where are you going?" Will asked.

"Just need to check something out. You all get some rest, I suggest you get yourselves ready for you next training session."

A/N:

Sorry again for the delay in this update. Last couple of months were kinda rough, nothing serious but my arms hurt for about a month or so writing was a little and painful, longer hours after I got back to work and a bout with strep throat couple weeks ago didn't help getting me into a writing mood.

Oh, and it didn't help that the first half of this chapter had to be written in tandem with the first half of side-story chapter.

So we're back to TV series events with this chapter hope you like the changes and I hope I can post the next update sooner that this one.

And of course I ask, please Read & Review.