(The New) Power of the 8 Elements: Part One

Chapter Twelve: Weapons

"A sweet friendship replenishes the soul." - Proverbs 27:9
PRESENT DAY
TERRY

Xan. Xan. Xan. That was all everybody talked about at school today. How awesome Xan was. How adorable Xan was. How amazing Xan was. How handsome Xan was. I just wanted them to give him a break. I hate it. I'm not jealous. Maybe I am. I just hate Xan. I don't trust him. It's too suspicious. I fall in the bay, and a random wolf just happens to save me. I don't buy it for a second, and I don't want the others, too.

Once school ended on Friday, I scheduled a meeting at Celeste's house. We were immediately greeted by Xan, to my anger. Everyone began talking with him, and he seemed just as eager to start a conversation with us. I felt ignored.

"Hey, aren't we going to talk about the virus mark?" I ask, grabbing their attention.

They turn around and stare at me awkwardly.

"Actually, Xan said he was going to show us a surprise," Amaya says, wiggling her fingers causing water droplets to swirl around them.

"When did Xan join the group?" I ask.

"Who died and made you leader?" Glamour says, throwing an arm on my shoulder.

"I have the virus mark?"

"Sure, Tori," Celeste pats me on the head with a snarky smile on her face.

"Alright, Xan, what's the surprise?" I ask, angered by my teammates as well as him.

"Well, if you all are so set on becoming superheroes, you'd probably want to train," Xan says.

"Oh, my gosh...this sounds like a superhero origin story!" Terri squeals.

"Just to reinforce, we are not calling ourselves "superheroes", right? That would be less believable," Lucifer says.

"When were we calling ourselves superheroes?" I think. "When were we calling ourselves anything?"

"You can refer to yourselves as whatever you want," Xan says.

"How about nothing?"

The floorboards in the ground open up and fall away to reveal a swirling dark purple hole in the ground.

"What is that?" Amaya asks.

"A portal," I answer, unknowingly.

"I didn't think anyone made those anymore," Lucifer says.

"That's, like, incredibly rare. Mrs. Ledger was talking about them today," Ferdinand says.

I began to recall the lesson. She had said that two things could form portals to other dimensions. One, an incredibly powerful wizard who had undergone hundreds of years of training. Two, a rip in the space time continuum made by a mechanism strong enough.

"Come on." Xan jumped through and disappeared into the darkness.

"Let's go!" Amaya started to jump in, but I threw my arm in front of her.

"Can we really trust him?" I ask.

"Seems quite stupid not to," Bones says. He fakes a British accent. "He's a magic talking wolf from England."

"No, no," Lucifer speaks up. "Terry's got a point."

I thank him for being the first person to agree with me. Lucifer laughs and scoffs.

"Who are we to trust someone whom we've just met. Shapeshifters are common now. Besides, none of our parents know where we really are, so if something were to happen, they wouldn't immediately know where to go if we weren't to return home."