Chosen to Control

The Reunion

Chapter 27

The Reunion





Bobby and Stephanie flew side by side silently until they reached the Bermuda Temple. The boat they had rented was still anchored and floating where the temple should have been. They landed in the boat and sat down in some of the seats. Carla quickly came into view and asked “Yo dawgs what happened? You can’t leave me hangin.”

“I think were better off not talking about it,” said Bobby so as not to remind Stephanie that she nearly died. Stephanie rubbed Bobby’s hand and mouthed to him, “It’s alright. I can take it.”

“So? What happened?” asked Carla curiously.

“Well, we do not know how the others faired, but we stopped both of them. We have the tablet pieces right here,” said Bobby opening his hand and showing the tablet pieces to Carla.

“How was the fight though?” asked Carla seemingly excited.

“It was…” started Bobby.

“It was difficult,” said Stephanie, “I almost died. You see, Peter can change into animals like me, but for some reason he can change into animals that do not exist, or are part of mythology. It was really strange because I had tried that before, but it did not work. I have even tried to become an okapi after seeing its picture in a book, but I can only morph into animals I have seen up close and touched.”

“After he morphed into a griffin, he pretty much stayed in that form. He eventually came at us and we had him subdued at one point, but then he whipped around his tail and it hit Stephanie on the neck and it knocked her out. I thought she had died though, so I just continued fighting Peter,” stated Bobby.

“What about the other one?” asked Carla.

“Well I took a beating from Natalie, but then Steph over here stepped in and helped me out. Well, she saved my butt,” said Bobby looking a little red.

“Yea, that is another thing. Out of nowhere, this weird stick appeared and my stone changed shape too,” said Stephanie looking a bit confused.

“That’s right. We also got wings somehow while we were fighting and on the way back. We know how to use them, but we have no idea how they appeared. What I noticed though was that right before they appeared, the sharp part of my stone became smooth and they look like feathers if you ask me,” explained Bobby.

“That happened to me too,” said a voice from overhead. Something landed inside the boat causing it to rock. Bobby and Stephanie turned their heads to see a rather wet girl with black hair standing in the boat.

“Kemelly!” shouted Stephanie in excitement. She immediately ran to the front of the boat and began to hug Kemelly. “So how did you do sweetums?” asked Carla jokingly.

“I did pretty well if you asked me. The power shift was completely inconsistent. One minute he was winning, the next minute me. It was non-stop. It only became obvious that I was winning after this little charm appeared on the bottom of my stone,” said Kemelly.

“We have little charms too. Mine gives me a mace,” said Bobby, “and Stephanie’s gives her this strange staff with feathers around the top of it.”

“Well mine created these two things right here,” said Kemelly as she pulled from seemingly nowhere two sais. Both were identical and were covered in different shades of blue. Even the blades were made of a blue color.

“Sweet,” said Bobby in awe.

“Yea, but I do not really know how they get here, just that when I feel I want them, they show up,” explained Kemelly.

“I don’t know nothing about these weapons so I cannot help you at all with how they appear,” said Carla.

“Another thing,” said Kemelly, “Atlantis did not fall, just to let you guys know and no one died where I was at. The sirens got injured, but not because of Mark’s water attacks. They each have amulets around their neck that protect them from water attacks. They helped me out a little bit, but I told them to leave because it really was just between Mark and me.”

“No one died with us…” started Bobby but Stephanie cut him off. She looked at him darkly with her eyes and then turned to face Kemelly. Stephanie said, “We did have one casualty. Rebecca, the alligator, was killed by the two demons. They even began to eat her before we got there.” At this, Stephanie turned her head down and avoided eye contact with the others. Bobby sat down next to Stephanie and began to rub her shoulder comfortingly.

“I wonder how long it will be before the others get back,” wondered Stephanie.

“Well, if they are all going where they went for their winter break, then it will take a while. All those places are pretty far. They usually have to take really long airplane flights to get to those places. Even though those planes got at about four hundred and fifty miles per hour, it still takes like eight hours to get to Alaska and about a good twelve to get to Hawaii and Kenya. Colorado and Brazil are only about six hours away, so Jonathan or Patty should be arriving next,” concluded Kemelly.

“Yea, but that would be in a few hours if they took airplanes. We traveled back flying, so who knows. It might take a few days for some of them to get back. Either way we have quite a wait ahead of us,” said Bobby.

The three decided to wait for the others before going inside to put a stop to David. Night had already begun to fall, so they decided to take shifts keeping watch. Carla agreed to keep watch the entire time to make sure David did not leave the temple, but she requested the help of one of the three at all times. They divided it into two hour shifts. Stephanie went first, then Bobby, and then Kemelly.

Nothing unusual happened throughout the night, but in the morning, Kemelly spotted something unusual. She got the others and they all stared straight into the ocean. None of them could make out what it was, but they could tell that it was in the air flying and that it was definitely not a bird. “Gimme a sec. I can tell you what it is,” said Stephanie. Her stone glowed and she began to change shape. She shrunk and all over her body sprouted rust colored feathers. Her feet changed into talons and her arms into wings. “Nice lookin bird you got there,” said Carla, “What is it?”

~Oh, um, it’s a red-tailed hawk,~ stated Stephanie, ~They have really good eyesight. And that over there is Patty. I cannot see how she is flying though. But I am sure it is her, I cannot really see her face, but the red hair and the green eyes gives it away.~

Stephanie quickly became human again and the three anxiously awaited Patty’s arrival. She landed on the boat and the three quickly went and gave her a hug hello. “I am so happy you came back Patty!” exclaimed Stephanie.

“Yea, we really missed you and were getting a bit worried,” stated Kemelly.

“It’s good to have you back,” said Bobby as he hugged Patty.

“You guys will never guess what happened!” shouted Patty.

“Let me guess, you beat the demon?” asked Carla sarcastically.

“No silly,” started Patty, “Oh well yes I killed it if that is what you mean, but that is not what I am talking about. I am one of you Carla.”

Carla leaned over to Stephanie’s shoulder and whispered, “If that girl, as white as she is, thinks she is now black like me then there are a few things wrong with her head.” Stephanie chuckled and Bobby asked, “What do you mean Patty?”

“Look let me just show you. I got two little surprises so I guess I can show them to you guys at the same time. Let me count to three. One. Two. Three!” As Patty finished counting, she lifted her hand into the air. Her stone glowed and in her hand appeared a long whip made of thorns. Her stone continued to glow and from her back shot out wings. The wings, however, were not the type of wings Bobby, Kemelly, and Stephanie had. Hers were like Carla’s. They were fairy wings.

“Girl, how did you get those?” asked Carla in shock.

“I guess I just admired you so much that my stone let me be like you,” guessed Patty.

“Oh my lord…” said Carla still in shock.

“Let me see your stone for a second,” said Kemelly as she walked over to Patty avoiding the thorn whip. “You guys, come here and take a look at this,” instructed Kemelly. The two walked over and looked at Patty’s stone. Kemelly held it up and pointed saying, “Look at ours and look at hers. We all have different charms for our weapons, but us three,” said Kemelly referring to Bobby, Stephanie, and herself, “have feather-like structures hold our stones in, while Patty’s has something else. It seems to look like her wings.”

“I guess so,” said Patty shrugging which made her wings lift up. The four continued to wait for the others, but in the meantime, Patty explained what happened in the rainforest. “You guys remember what I told you about the Amazon queen Ariel right?” asked Patty. Stephanie, Bobby, and Kemelly all nodded and Patty continued, “Well, she is the middle child. She has two sisters. Her older sister Veronica is really cool. She has like ESP and everything. She can move objects with her mind, she can heal other people, she can float in the air, and her soul can leave her body.

“Her other sister’s name is Melissa. Melissa is the younger one just so you guys know. She is a freakin beast. She can take any type of pain. She is a really good hands on warrior. I mean Ariel is a good archer and Veronica is psychic, but neither can fight like Melissa can. She has this awesome weapon thingy. It is like a spear, only it is sharp on both sides,” Patty stared into space for a second. Carla gave her a soft slap in the face and she continued, “Wow, I just went really ADD there. Anyway, what was I saying?” asked Patty.

“You were saying something about Melissa’s spear…” said Bobby not sure if he should remind her.

“Oh well I was done with that. Oh but anyway, the three of them and their Amazon army kept James at bay until I got there. They kind of roughed him up a bit before I arrived, but he was about to kill Melissa who was their major stronghold. But of course, I came and saved the day,” said Patty with a big smile on her face feeling very accomplished.

Patty would not shut up for quite a while. The sun began to set, and as the sun was about to disappear on the horizon, Bobby saw something. “Hey you guys. What is that over there?” he asked.

“Well that’s pretty strange. It looks like there is a fire in sky over the ocean,” stated Kemelly.

“Maybe it’s a UFO!” exclaimed Patty seeming a bit too excited for comfort.

“I’ll take care of this,” said Stephanie as she began to morph again into a red-tailed hawk. Stephanie strained her hawk eyes out into the distance. She stared for a few seconds and then said, ~It looks like the flames are wing-like, but I really cannot tell. The fire is just so bright that it hurts these eyes to look at it.~

As the mysterious floating fire approached the boat, all of them began to feel the heat waves against their faces. “Man, this is hot!” shouted Carla in a bit of discomfort. Everyone turned to look away. The light was too bright, and the heat was too powerful. Suddenly, though, it all just disappeared, no heat and no bright flames. All that stood before them was Nick.

“Good to see you made it Nick,” said Bobby as the three girls went to say hello. “What’s wrong Nick?” asked Patty, “You seem really upset.”

“Yea, did anything bad happen?” asked Kemelly. Nick just kept his head down and didn’t say anything.

Stephanie decided to take things into her own hands. She just has a way of dealing with emotional things. She can get inside the person’s head and feel what they feel. She walked up to Nick and grabbed his chin. She lifted it just a little so that her eyes could meet with his. Stephanie asked him somberly, “What happened?”

“People died. Innocent people died. A whole mall burned to the ground. They were locked in by the flames and I could not do anything,” said Nick. He looked and felt as though he had just been through hell.

“Oh my God,” said Stephanie in awe. She immediately hugged him tightly and said, “Don’t worry. It is not your fault. Do not blame yourself. I know you gave it your all.”

Nick whispered back into her ear, “It was not enough.” At this Stephanie held him tighter and said, “Just get through this. We need to stop David and none of this will ever happen again.

“She’s right,” started Bobby, “This is the end. We stop David now, we stop suffering caused by the demons. We just need to put our stones into that tablet and it is over with. No more pain, no more suffering. Nature will be at rest and we will all be fine. We just need to stop David first.”

“I’d hate to say it Nick, but we will only be able to stop him if we all keep it together. Otherwise, we will be looking at a few more problems and possibly a few more deaths,” stated Kemelly.

“I have nothing to say,” said Patty, “What can I say? A bunch of people die from burns and smoke inside a mall. You feel like it is your fault and who knows, you might have been able to stop it, but that is the past. You must move on. What can I say? Sorry you had to experience that.”

“It’s just that look that was on Vanessa’s face. I felt like I let her down, so many of her friends must have died. I just got there too late really. I guess I cannot blame myself for it. Plus, I think that demon, Celina, might have been their leader,” said Nick.

“She very possibly could have been their matriarch,” thought Kemelly aloud.

“Well what weapon did you get?” asked Patty.

“How do you know about the weapon?” asked Nick seeming a bit surprised.

“Well so far, each of us has had a set of wings, although Patty’s are a bit different, and a special weapon based on our element. Since you had the wings, and you are here now meaning you won, you most likely had a weapon to help you win cause the tide of the battle did not turn for any of us until we got our weapons,” explained Bobby.

“Well, my weapon is a hammer. It’s really big and the head of the hammer is really hot. And you’re right. I only really won because of it. If it wasn’t for the hammer, I would’ve been dead, and the island would have been covered in lava with everyone dead,” said Nick.

“You see, you did do something. You must have saved a good five thousand people at least by stopping that demon. You did fine,” said Stephanie reassuringly. Nick nodded his head and gave her a hug saying “thanks”.

That night, no one else showed up and they decided that this time, Patty would watch first for one hour, then Nick would watch for two, then Kemelly would watch for one, then Bobby would watch for two, and finally Stephanie would watch for one hour. Morning came, and there was no sign of good weather out on the open ocean. Huge clouds were towering in the sky and lightning was striking everywhere. Bobby and Kemelly stood on the bow of the boat and calmed both the winds and rain, but there was nothing they could do about the lightning.

“Too bad Andrew isn’t here,” thought Kemelly getting a bit worried.

“Oh do you miss me?” said a voice behind Kemelly. Kemelly jumped and lifted her hand into the air. A sai immediately formed and she turned around to find Andrew standing floating on the side of the boat with the help of his golden, eagle-like wings bursting with electricity.

“Whoa there Kem. No need to kill me now is there,” said Andrew a bit shocked.

“HEY! I almost killed you. You are so not funny! Where the hell did you come from? And why don’t you help get rid of this storm?” shouted Kemelly in a bit of anger.

“Well first of all, I am definitely funny. Secondly, there was no need to react like that, I mean you almost did kill me. Thirdly, I traveled inside of these big thunderclouds. And finally, I have not gotten rid of the clouds, because I thought they would help me make a grand entrance,” stated Andrew.

“Give her a kiss you idiot,” whispered Patty into Andrew’s ear, “Maybe then she will forgive you.”

“Ah, good idea,” responded Andrew. He then walked over to Kemelly and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Kemelly immediately smiled and gave him a hello hug.

“Well isn’t that a strange relationship?” asked Nick to Bobby.

“Yea, tell me about it. One minute it’s hell, the next they are in heaven,” responded Bobby.

“So how did you do Andrew? Was everyone in Samburu alright?” asked Stephanie curiously and sincerely hoping that no one died.

“Well I wish I could say that everyone did survive, but before I got there, that demon played possum and pretended she was dead. Then when everyone gathered around her seemingly dead body, she attacked them with a spear killing a handful of people, about twenty total with the help of her pet hyenas,” responded Andrew.

“Oh man…” whispered Stephanie under her breath.

“Hey man, don’t worry about it. The fire demon Celina burned down an entire mall killing everyone inside of it. A good four hundred people must have died,” said Nick trying to make Andrew feel better.

“Ouch…” said Andrew in response.

“Hey, shouldn’t Jonathan be here by now?” asked Patty somewhat randomly.

“Yea, that is true,” said Kemelly, “He went to Colorado and that is not nearly as far as Samburu. He should’ve even been here before Nick.”

“I wonder if he is alright,” thought Stephanie aloud becoming increasingly worried.

“Don’t worry Stephanie. I am sure he is. Jonathan is a tough guy. It will be hard for that demon to bring him down,” said Bobby comforting her.

“Um, do ya’ll feel it getting colder, or is it just me?” asked Carla changing the subject.

“Yea, I guess it is getting a bit colder,” said Kemelly.

“What in the world is that?” asked Andrew pointing out at the ocean.

“I’ll check it out,” said Stephanie morphing back into the red-tailed hawk. She stared out near the surface of the ocean and noticed something there. She saw someone familiar. ~It’s Jessica you guys. She has some wings too. That must be what is making all you guys cold. Nick’s made us hot and Jessica’s must make us cold,~ announced Stephanie to everyone.

Stephanie morphed back and they all waited there until Jessica arrived at the boat. While they waited, Andrew showed them all his axe. Afterward, Jessica made a swift landing on the boat.

“Welcome back,” said Bobby looking at Jessica somewhat relieved to see another member of the group back.

“Hey what took you so long?” asked Kemelly.

“Yea, I was way further away than you were. Did you stop to buy some burgers or something on the way back?” joked Andrew.

Jessica looked at them all in the eye and said, “There were, a few complications.”

“What do you mean there were complication?” asked Stephanie.

“Are you OK?” asked Patty.

“Yea, I’m fine. I beat the demon, I have a special spear with an ice tip, and I got my wings. Everything worked out fine for me,” answered Jessica.

“So then what were the complications?” asked Nick somewhat confused.

“It’s about Jonathan,” started Jessica. Everyone stared at her, each one fearing the worst. “Jonathan, is not going to make it.”

“Are you saying he is dead?” asked Stephanie holding back tears.

“The demon was too much for him. She killed him. The demon was about to kill his Colorado girlfriend when I got there and took care of the demon,” explained Jessica.

“Oh my God…” said Kemelly. She turned and buried her head in Andrew’s shoulder crying. Andrew reassuringly rubbed her back saying, “It’s going to be OK.”

“So you’re sure he is dead?” asked Patty beginning to cry, “Are you sure he was not just knocked out?”

“I saw his body lying there on the ground with his intestines all around him. He is dead. Get over it,” said Jessica.

“What? Jessica, what is wrong with you? One of our friends just died and you do not even care?” asked Stephanie walking up to Jessica’s face letting her see the tears in her eyes.

“Him dying is not the big problem,” said Jessica ignoring Stephanie’s attempt of having her feel some emotion, “The demon took his stone. She has a weapon now too. I stopped her and killed her, but she did not leave behind his stone, she left behind a bracelet and the tablet piece which I have right here. That girl Brittney really wanted that bracelet so I let her keep it.”

“Oh man this is too much,” said Bobby feeling slightly overwhelmed, “We lost Jonathan, and we also lost his stone. You guys, we still need to finish off David. We can wait out here a few minutes. We cannot have any of us breaking down in the fight with David. We need our heads there, not on Jonathan. Be focused, we need to win.”