Quest for the Omnistone

Chapter 51: Fire and Bones

Crystal:

So the guys had girlfriends, most of them VG characters. Well, then. If I had been younger and still residing on Earth, I might've laughed at the ridiculousness or maybe thrown a fit at being kept in the dark for so long. But after two years in the multiverse, wrapping my mind around new strange things had kind of become second nature to me. Yep, 'strange' definitely summed up my entire life. But a strange life was the least of my worries.

I had nearly finished the heavenly slice of cake Alisa handed to me when Lee pulled me aside to the other end of the porch, taking my plate out of my hand and putting it on the pinochle table behind him. I scowled but it didn't faze him.

"What happened?" he demanded, hands on his hips.

I looked away from him, the frown on my face melting away almost immediately at the question. Lee was bound to ask sooner or later. Why couldn't he have picked later? "What happened where?" I muttered, not wanting to go into the subject. Lee however, didn't take the hint.

"Crystal, I left you with Nico for less than an hour and you managed to completely disappear from my radar. Upon return, you're completely wet with the short explanation being you fell into a lagoon. What else could I be talking about?" He said, frustration in his eyes.

'Last week's training session?' I thought sarcastically. But the look on his face compelled me to answer his first question. "Nothing happened... much," I began weakly, remembering the feeling of being dragged underwater, unable to escape my captors. I felt my chest tighten and forced myself to focus. "There was no bridge, so we had to swim across—"

"Couldn't you have let your cousins go without you? They're grown boys. They could've handled it. You know you can't—" He noticed the look on my face and softened a little. He scratched the back of his head before asking, "What was down there?"

"Water demons," I murmured, fiddling with the new bracelet on my arm. Lee tensed up, probably remembering the first time we had faced them. "Max was drowning. I had to do something."

Lee sighed, running a hand over his face. He thankfully decided to drop the subject. "Well, I'm glad you made it out safely. Otherwise getting you this," he held up a small translucent pouch, "would have been for nothing."

I observed the small red fruits inside and my eyes widened in surprise. "No way. You remembered?"

"Just as I promised, a bag of Zerran strawberries fresh from the farm." He gave me the same lopsided grin he made when he first told me about his family's farm.

I took the bag from him, but my thanks was cut short as Johnny doubled over in pain, his plate hitting the steps with a loud crash. "Johnny?" Alisa was at his side in an instant, rubbing his back in a soothing gesture. The sight was so strange that I was one of the last to make my way over to my fallen cousin.

"Johnny?" Steven kneeled down in front of him, shaking him slightly. It was obvious that he was having problems with his hearing and/or sight again.

Observing the look on Alisa's face, I realized that I wasn't the only one the guys had been keeping secrets from. She had no idea about the boys' power malfunctions. "What's the matter with him?" She demanded, raising her voice a little, unaware of the effect it would have on Johnny. He winced and Alisa turned her attention back to him. Max was on his other side, trying to hand him his earplugs.

Lee caught my attention as he pointed with his hand. "He's probably hearing the noise from over there." I followed the direction he was pointing to and spotted around a dozen figures— very familiar figures— battling at the foot of Half-Blood Hill. Two of them seemed to be the leaders of the two sides, clashing blades over and over and failing to hit the other. I was too far away to distinguish their features properly, but one of them seemed to radiate power... very familiar power that teased my mind as I tried to figure out what it was. It was like an idea at the back of my head, whispering too softly for me to get it all, but just loud enough to notice, which bothered me to no end.