Team Crafted: Second Generation

Shane

The rain from the storm was coming down so hard, it felt like I was still in the river.

"Alyssa! You've got her, right?" I called, hoping to be heard over the wind and occasional bouts of thunder.

"Yeah! Everything's good!" I heard her voice yell back. "Except that she's unconscious. But hey, she'll wake up!"

"Yeah, well, she might not want to..." I muttered to myself, and turned back toward the water.

The wall of water towered over us, reaching the same height as a spruce tree.

How was this possible? How could Quinn even do that? Did she know she could do that?

All of the questions I had buzzed around in my brain, and as if that weren't enough to add to the terrible and confused mood, another thought came in like a punch to the gut.

Jeremy's dead.

The initial shock had finally worn off, and I literally stumbled backwards as if someone had punched me.

I felt a lump in my throat, and did my best to push it back down.

Not now, I thought. Help get everyone out of this storm first.

I watched as Skylar, Tyler, and Macey's blurry figures appeared in the water, and all of them crashed out onto the ground, Macey being pulled by Tyler.

Macey curled up on her side, shaking, not seeming to notice the rain landing on her glasses. Her eyes were wide open, and she probably blinked once every fifteen seconds.

Tyler went to his sister's side, not saying anything.

"Shane!"

I turned to see Skylar standing in front of me.

"Did Alyssa and Jenna get up here alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, they're over there." I said, pointing in their direction.

I looked past Skylar to the wall of water. "Hey, is Quinn stil-"

I was interrupted by the wall crashing back down into a river.

Tyler immediately turned towards the noise. "Quinn!"

"She'll be okay, she's part Mudkip." I called back.

Sure enough, even though waves continued to crash into the shore, Quinn's head appeared close to the shore, and she pulled herself on shore.

"Hey!" Skylar called, and everyone turned to see her. "Let's go look for shelter!"

Cameron came over with Alyssa, who had the unconscious Jenna slung over her shoulder, while Quinn came with Tyler and Macey, who Tyler had to talk to for a bit until she got up.

"I noticed a cave over there," Cameron said, pointing over to the group's left. "We could stay there until this storm passes."

"I'm good with that." Tyler agreed.

"Same." Alyssa said.

"Okay, so I guess we're going over there." Skylar said, and turned to Cameron. "Lead on, then."

It didn't take long to get to cave. It wasn't that big, and there were already no mobs inside.

Alyssa set Jenna down against the wall, and started helping Tyler and Skylar place blocks to cover the entrance, and I went over to help Cameron start a small fire in the middle of the room using the wooden supplies from our backpacks that we had managed to hold on to.

"No, dude, you need to set the wood like this." I said, placing the wood in a circular-ish heap. "There. Now it'll light just fine."

"That might be true, but it's much more efficient if you stack it in a teepee shape, like this." He said.

"Who cares about efficiency? My dad said that the pile technique works like a charm."

"Efficiency makes it last longer."

"Fair enough."

Finally, we got a fire started, and I looked over to see the others just finishing with the wall.

We all slumped against a wall, exhausted, and all sucked in a breath as one.

Macey went back to curling up on the floor, not shaking as much as before, but still barely blinking.

Tyler turned to Quinn. "You have some major explaining to do."

"No kidding." I agreed. "How in the Nether could you do that, Quinn?"

She stared at her toes. "I can control water."

"Well, obviously. We can see that." Skylar said. "How is that possible, though?"

She hesitated before speaking. "Apparently, there's about a one in one hundred chance of being a Mudkip with water powers. That's literally all I know about how I got it."

"You know something else about it?" Alyssa asked.

"I know that it scares the Nether out of me." She said, looking up. "I was hoping I'd never have to use them and you'd never find out."

"Why? That's not scary, that's...actually pretty cool." I said, smiling.

She gave me a look. "Talk to me when you're called a freak at age six because someone saw you using your creepy water-controlling powers."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Wait a minute..." Cameron said. "It was you!"

"What was me?" She asked.

"You literally saved my life, Quinn. When I jumped off of the ledge to go save my mom?"

"Wait, when did this happen?" Tyler asked, but we ignored him.

"I knew I was supposed to hit the ground." Cameron said.

"Yeah, well," Quinn said. "I couldn't just let you die."

"Still in the dark over here." Tyler said.

He was forgotten when I noticed Jenna open her eyes.

"Hey guys, Jenna's awake!" I said, and every head in the room turned to her, while I scooted closer to her, seeing as I had sat down next to her.

"Why..." She said, her voice the quietest I had ever heard it. "...why am I not dead?"

"We managed to get you out of the river before you drowned. Quinn has water powers."

She mumbled something under her breath, turning away from me.

"What?" I asked.

She turned around, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. "I was supposed to die, you-!"

She sounded like she wanted to say more, but instead just balled her hand into a fist and broke down crying.

"I can't...I shouldn't go on without him."

"Jenna, you're going to be okay." Cameron said, coming over and patting her shoulder.

"No, I'm not!" She yelled. "He was other half, Cam! He was my best friend! You expect me to go on without him like nothing happened?"

"No, that's not what I meant," Cameron explained, backing away a bit, nervous from her outburst. "I just meant that you shouldn't try and kill yourself over it!"

"I wasn't trying! It was just..."

She buried her face in her hands. "I don't know what it was. Can you guys just leave me alone, please?"

"Listen to her, guys." Alyssa said. "Just back off for now. We can all talk about this later, okay?"

Cameron hesitated, but nodded, going back to his spot next to Quinn.

"Thank Notch, I can finally get some sleep without you guys yelling." Skylar mumbled from the corner, lying on her side using her jacket as a pillow.

We were all silent, except for the occasional sound of Jenna crying, and she wasn't the only one. I'm pretty sure all of us cried at one point, except for Skylar, who had immediately fallen asleep.

Notch help us, I thought. Because we sure as Nether need it.