Chapter 117

"Time to capture some flags...Starting in 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!"

Team Bubbles vs Team Cracker

"Let's go!" Charlie exclaimed to Andy and Eric.

Giggling, the children weaved through the trees towards the Team Cracker base. They were as subtle as a parade of elephants, crashing through the bush.

Jenny and Rikki moved more carefully between the trees. They were taking a more strategic route to the edge of the boundary. They noticed the Team Bubbles kids further to their left, going straight for their base.

Rikki laughed quietly, shaking her head. It was very like Charlie to be direct and straight to the point. Sometimes with the twins it was like looking into a mirror.

'There it is' Rikki communicated to Jenny, using mindspeak. The duo crouched down, hiding behind some scrub. The enemy base was just ahead.

'I see Uncle Will at the top of the tower,' Jenny said. Rikki nodded.

Rikki was wondering why she couldn't see another defender when Anna appeared from behind the tower. She was patrolling the base of the fort.

'We'll wait a few minutes to see when the best moment to attack will be' Rikki told Jenny.

'Sounds good' Jenny replied.

OoOoO

"Here they come," Ben called out. Ben was at the top of the fort. Jay and Lewis were patrolling the base. Charlie, Andy and Eric were not discrete at all, charging directly at the fort with excited grins on their faces.

"Get ready," Lewis said.

As the kids got close, Ben started to use his powers.

Ben drew water from the air and built a wall of water in front of the fort, in front of his teammates. Once this was high, he drew his hand back before pushing out quickly, palm flat.

Charlie, Andy and Eric had to stop their running abruptly, coming to a halt directly in front of a ginormous ice wall.

"I think this needs a little heat," Charlie giggled. Andy and Eric rolled their eyes.

"That was really lame," Eric laughed.

"But true," Charlie grinned in reply.

Charlie lifted her hand and started melting the ice of the wall.

"I may not be able hold them long," Ben called down, "Be ready,"

"Yep," Jay called back. Lewis pointed his water gun at the where the ice was melting.

Ben continued adding more frozen water and re-freezing the whole structure to frustrate the other team's attacks.

And frustrate it did. Charlie started using her second hand, trying to make a second hole. As soon as the ice melted, Ben's diligent efforts had it re-frozen.

'Andy, try to pull the water out when it is melted,' Charlie said.

Andy nodded.

'Now!'

Andy used her powers to pull the water towards them. However, Ben had noticed and now Andy was fighting for control over it.

Taking a deep breath, Andy pulled with all her might. She grinned as she felt herself winning the water fight. With a gasp, the water came towards her, coming out from the hole in the wall by about a metre. Just as she was about to work on the rest of wall (as Charlie had continued trying to melt it), the whole thing froze solid again.

Not delaying, Andy created an object out of water that looked a whole lot like an axe.

'Eric, freeze this!' Andy directed. He did so.

With the axe, Andy brought it down on the frozen water pocket, and then handed it to Eric to start on the wall itself.

There were now gaps appearing in the wall. It was a good thing that Eric now had the axe, because Andy had to fight to stop Ben's water from plugging the holes – now that she could see what was happening.

"Yes!" Charlie exclaimed. There was a big enough hole now to get through – well big enough for the kids.

Still using her powers, Charlie rolled through the gap, with Eric on her tail.

As soon as they got through, Lewis used his water gun on them, and Jay used his powers to melt Eric's axe. Andy was still fighting Ben's water.

Without Andy to stop the water from hitting them, and Charlie more focused on her cool commando roll than melting the water, Eric and Charlie were hit, and before they could do anything about it, they became fish out of water, inconvenienced by their tails.

"Oh no!" Eric exclaimed.

'Charlie, start drying your tails. Eric, plug up Dad's water gun with ice. Both of you, start freezing and unfreezing the gel at the bottom of the tower – with Ben's weight on top, I think it might start to fall apart. I'll come through in a minute.'

'Amazing plan, Andy! Great thinking,' Charlie said.

'On it!' Eric said.

OoOoO

Anna was patrolling the fort pretty consistently – walking around in a circle, occasionally changing direction.

'We just have to wait for Anna to be on the opposite side to make our move'

'Exactly, Jenny,' Rikki said impressed. 'It's going to be hard to break open the gel tower without an ice user here.'

'Yeah' Jenny said, 'But, I should be able to break it open if I send water at it with enough force.'

'Okay, Anna's behind. Lets go!' Rikki said.

Rikki and Jenny rushed towards the fort, ready for anything.

As she moved, Jenny started lifting her hands up, collecting the water from the air.

A thin sheet of water rose up like a wave behind her. It looked terrifying.

"Anna!" Will yelled. "Incoming!"

Jenny divided the wave into two tentacles with heads like battering rams. She sent them at the tower base.

The tentacles came to a shuddering halt inches away from the tower as Anna rounded the corner. Anna and Jenny struggled for control over the water.

Will started shooting his water gun at the offensive team. Rikki had it handled, evaporating the water before it got to them.

Will made a sound in frustration and started to descend the tower to be more useful on the ground.

The only way to get the objective was to destroy the tower. Jenny wasn't making headway with all Anna's focus on her.

What could she do? Lightning wasn't allowed in this game – though she was sorely tempted. Ah! Rikki sent her heat at a bush behind Anna. It burst into flame.

Anna saw the light out of the corner of her eye and felt the heat. She turned away, giving an opportunity to Jenny.

Jenny pulled her tentacles back and flung them at the base of the tower with all her strength. The resounding thud was very satisfying to hear. Impact cracks were created on the surface of the hardened gel.

Will extinguished the flames with his watergun.

Jenny managed to get a second hit in before she and Anna were fighting for control again.

Rikki focused her powers into Jenny's water tentacles, energising them to boiling. The combined powers were starting to overpower Anna. One of the boiling tentacles got free and hit the tower. This did more damage than the first attack. Team Cracker were making headway.

As the tentacles came in again, Will jumped in between it and the tower with his shield raised. The tentacle hit his shield instead.

"Be careful, Will," Anna said.

As Jenny tried to manoeuver the tentacle around Will and his shield, and outfight Anna, it never quite got past - Will seemed to be everywhere.

In frustration, Jenny used her powers against Will.

Suddenly, a wind that looked a lot like a tornado hit Will and flung him out of the way.

"Will!" Anna called out in concern. Her distraction gave Jenny the extra oomph she needed.

Jenny merged the tentacles into one ram and hit the tower with force.

It was enough- it broke through the gel and the tower shattered. Rikki ran through and grabbed the flag.

"I'm alright, Anna," Will called to her, "Jenny didn't throw me too hard," he laughed. "Get after them,"

Anna breathed a sigh of relief and started after them.

Rikki and Jenny were just ahead of Anna, booking it back to their base.

'Kids, we have a problem – Rikki and Jenny have our flag, tell me that you've got theirs,' Anna called into the minds of Eric, Charlie and Andy.

'Very close,' Charlie responded, 'Working on it!'

"Right," Anna muttered. Anna slowed her run and sent two of her own water tentacles to hit Rikki and Jenny. The duo were focused on running and didn't see the water coming at them.

They were hit.

Rikki wasn't able to dry them in time.

They toppled over onto the dirt, orange tails splaying behind them.

"Oh no," Rikki said. She quickly got on to drying them both.

OoOoO

Meanwhile, Charlie, Eric and Andy had just got their legs back again.

The process was slower because Lewis kept re-wetting them. The kids had changed tact a little bit – instead of plugging the gun up with ice immediately, they communicated via mindspeak that they could use their powers against the tower while Team Cracker thought they were trying to dry off.

It had been working – Eric was freezing the base, and Charlie was heating it up, over and over again. Andy had a few tiny water axes chipping she was controlling, chipping at these extreme temperature weakened areas. They were so small that the defenders hadn't noticed.

'We're almost these – a few more hits will do it – Ben's weight will do the rest,' Andy said.

'Time to get our legs back?' Eric asked.

'Yep,' Charlie replied.

Charlie started using her powers more obviously on drying them out – steam was rising from their bodies.

"It really is silly, Charlie," Jay said smugly, "We keep re-wetting you,"

"We'll see," Charlie said with a cheeky grin.

'NOW!' Charlie said to Eric.

Lewis' water gun froze over.

"Jay, a little help here?" Lewis asked shaking the gun. As Jay started to melt the ice, Andy enlarged the water axes and sent them crashing into the side. Their legs re-appeared.

"Oh no!" Ben said as the cracks travelled up the tower to where he was standing. The whole structure was weakened.

"Whoa!" Ben exclaimed.

The tower came crashing down, Ben falling along with everything else. Andy picked up the flag and hightailed it out of there, Eric and Charlie behind her.

'Got it, Anna,' Charlie said.

'Great work, kids!' Anna praised. 'Rikki and Jenny are almost back, we need to get our flag off them to win!"

OoOoO

Rikki, Jenny, Charlie, Eric and Andy locked eyes. Both teams were running quickly towards each other, each with the other's flags.

Just as the kids were about to do something, Anna's water sent Rikki and Jenny to the ground.

"Not again!" Jenny exclaimed.

"That's really getting old, Anna!" Rikki called out with an exasperated laugh. It was the second time in the run that they'd been transformed by Anna's water.

Anna used her powers to try and pry the flag from Rikki's hands.
It wasn't working – Jenny joined the water struggle.

Charlie, Eric and Andy tried to run past but before they could, Jenny quickly sent a spray of water at them. Charlie dried it off fast enough.

"Oh no you don't" Jenny said, sending more water after them. She encased them in a ball of water. Charlie and Eric turned after some time, but Andy was able to hold the water from touching her skin.

Fortunately for Team Cracker, Ben arrived and took over Jenny's role of helping Rikki keep hold of the flag.

Andy pushed back against Jenny and broke them free of her water sphere.

It was a sight to behold. Team Bubbles and Team Cracker were in a showdown, each with the other's flag. Neither could win until one team had both back at their base. Every team member was now in the middle of the game area – halfway between bases. Each mer had their hands up ready to fight, each human had his watergun and shield (damaged or not). All had been dried off and had their legs. It was like there was a temporary unspoken truce, waiting for the other team to make their next move.

Rikki was the one to break it. Rikki created a ring of fire around the edge of where they were standing, so the fight was contained.

Immediately, Jenny conjured another tornado and sent it towards Team Bubbles. They were all knocked off their feet. Lewis ran in and grabbed hold of the flag while it had been release. As he started to move back towards the Team Cracker base, his daughter Andy sent a wind of her own and tripped him up.

Water balls started flying – iced ones and boiling ones. These were deflected, evaporated and redirected by various mers or shields…it was chaos.

'Let's do what we practiced,' Eric said, speaking to Charlie and Andy. They nodded.

The three combined their powers of ice, snow, wind and heat, and from Andy's water came a dense cloud with snow and wind gusts falling over the group.

"Oh wow," Anna said.

"I can't see anything," Jay exclaimed.

"Keep hold of the flag," Rikki said. "Jenny, Ben, try to blow the cloud away,"

By the time Jenny and Ben had started using their combined powers against it, Eric had dashed over and pulled the flag from Jay's disoriented hands.

"I'm sorry," Jay called out.

"It's alright, buddy," Lewis said already running, "Let's chase them,"

Team Bubbles had quite the head start. They ran back towards their base.

"That cloud was brilliant," Will said. "I didn't know you could do that,"

"Neither," Anna commented, out of breath, "Not to that size anyway,"

Charlie, Andy and Eric grinned in response.

The wrecked base came into view.

"There's not much left of the tower," Charlie laughed.

"No," Anna agreed. "Andy, lets quickly rebuild it – Eric get ready to freeze it,"

'Amy, let your daddy know that Team Bubbles is about to win,'

'Ok,' Amy responded.

They put both flags in the rebuilt tower, and Eric froze it in place.

"We won!" Charlie exclaimed as the defeated Team Cracker arrived.

"So you did," Rikki said, breathing heavily. "Well done," she congratulated.

Ash arrived and gave his referee's approval that Team Bubbles had indeed won the first round between Team Bubbles and Team Cracker.

The other teams match had finished moments before.

Team Shark vs Team Sea

Team Shark's initial attack had not gone very well – Cleo and Ariana had tried, but Emma kept freezing Cleo's attacks. While frozen ice spikes had made a dent in the tower base, they needed heat to make the spikes have more impact.

'We need you, Leila,' Ariana called out in mindspeak. 'Mum is here and she is freezing Auntie Cleo's water,'

'Be right there,' Leila responded.

"I need to go and help attack," Leila said. "They're having a hard time getting through because Emma keeps icing and shattering their water, and Jessie is a strong water and jelly user,"

"If you leave, we're probably not going to hold out here much longer," Zane replied. "I think you should stay. Alex, Jake and Daniel are making headway. Bella and I can only do so much,"

"They said they needed help,"

"They're just panicking, they can find a way around it – Cleo can move iced water if she needs to," Bella said.

'We're now frozen solid in an iceblock,' Cleo said via mindspeak.

"Okay, nevermind, they need you," Bella said. "Go Leila, we'll do our best,"

Leila ran off.

The boys grinned. After a few failed tries, it would be easier now that Leila had left.

Daniel sent water at Bella. She turned it into jelly and gravity made it fall to the ground.

Zane shot his water gun at the boys as they came towards the tower. Hmm, where was Jake?

Alex evaporated the water before it got to them.

While Zane and Bella were focused on the frontal attack, Jake had sneakily gone around the back of the tower. Using his elasticity power, he created a trampoline out of a puddle on the ground. He used this to jump higher on the tower. He could see the flag planted in the middle. He turned a small section of gel into jelly, and then let it revert into water. He was surprised how easy it was for him to open it up. He pulled himself inside and grabbed the flag.

'Got it,' Jake communicated to Daniel and Alex.

'We'll keep them busy, give you a head start,' Alex said. 'Go, go, go,'

Bella and Zane were preoccupied with the other boys for a few more minutes before they realised.

"It's gone!" Zane exclaimed. "Jake mustn't have gone back to defend, let's go!"

It was too late. Cleo, Leila and Ariana had not yet been able to open the tower up. Jake ran straight to the tower, deflecting a few attacks by turning it into jelly. He successfully planted the flag with their own one.

Team Sea were the winners in that match. A few minutes later, they saw the end of the Team Bubbles victory.

"Okay everyone," Ash began, "Looks like the final showdown is Team Sea vs Team Bubbles. Return to your bases and I will take the toddlers to build the final fort. Amy will let you know when we are ready to start,"

OoOoO

"3, 2, 1, GO!" Amy's tiny voice called into the mers heads, starting the final match of the day.

There was no base to defend in the finale. The whole teams were offensive this time. Both teams decided to have everyone split up to cover the most ground. They needed to find this new base to get the coveted orange flag.

Emma and Eric were the first to find the tower. They ran towards it while using mindspeak to inform the rest of their teams. Eric stretched his hand out and froze his mother's feet in place.

Emma gasped indignantly.

"Eric!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry mum!" he called out, still running. So, naturally, Emma did the same to him.

"Awww," he groaned.

"Neither of us can do anything now," Emma grinned, "We'll see who gets here next,"

About fifteen seconds later, Anna and Jessie arrived, quickly followed by the rest of both teams. Neither team had anyone reach the tower before the fighting began.

People were getting frozen in place, drenched with water (Will had given up on keeping dry in the first match's skirmish), and missiles were getting thrown all over the place.

Anna sent a water tentacle towards the tower, reaching for the flag. Jessie used her powers to push back, keeping Anna's away. As Jessie tried to send her own, Andy intervened – then Daniel helped Jessie, causing the four water movers to be locked in a stalemate. The missiles lessened considerably. All the mers were using their powers to assist in the stalemate. For example, heat breaking through Anna's frozen water tentacle, spikes turned to jelly before they could do anything.

They heard Will shout above them.

What?

All the mers had been so preoccupied with keeping the water away from the tower, that Will had been able to sneak to the tower and climb up, without being noticed. He took advantage of their distraction. Will grinned as he thought about how little attention had been payed to him – probably because he had no powers. It was a little anti-climactic, being easier than it should have been. However, it meant they won, and this meant they had bragging rights.

He lifted the flag up above the mers and shouted to them.

"We win!"

OoOoO

"Team Bubbles is the winner!" Ash declared. "Great game today everyone!"

"It's time for the victory feast!" Cleo said. "Let's head back to the dining hall. We've all worked up an appetite I'm sure,"

"Well done, Will," Rikki said, clapping him on the back. "That was brilliant. You should've seen the looks on their faces. Total stunned mullets," she laughed.

A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry that it has been a while, but here is a super long chapter to make up for it! Let me know what you think, I love reading your comments.

Thanks so much to the following people for reviewing. I really appreciate it. It lets me know that you're still there enjoying the story when I get to upload, and sometimes even gives me ideas. Love you guys.

Thanks to YaleAceBella12, Walker, ZikkiLightwoodShadowhunters, Rock Mint Swirl 22, kitty4600, CrazyHayniac, and Guests #1, #2, #3 & #4.

See you all next update!