Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 21:41:58 +0100
From: Tim <shiningstar@oceanfree.net>
Subject: Power That Be 9

I don't really have much time to write anything special here. Just want to
thank the usuals, and everyone who's written to me. I love getting your
e-mail so please send more! shiningstar@oceanfree.net. Let me know
what you think. I welcome anything that you have to say.

	This story is fiction. Anything that is said here about any real
people (i.e. - the celebs.) is made up, so I wouldn't pay too much
attention to it. I don't know their actual sexualties. If you're too young
then don't read it.

--------------------------------

	"So, where are we going?" I asked. Contrary to what I'd
thought was going to happen, JC took us towards another terminal and
another flight instead of outside.

	"We're going to a part of Ireland called Kerry, it's got some
really remote places so we can practise the more powerful spells without
being seen" He said.

	"And when were you going to tell us about this?" Asked Justin.

	"About now." Laughed JC. He knew how upset Justin was that
we were leaving the states behind us but now that he knew we weren't
even going to be in a city...

	"Bastard." Said Justin, and left it at that. "I suppose we're
going to be staying in some little cottage or something to. When are you
going to tell us that JC? Does it even have TV?"

	"I don't know, I haven't seen it yet."

	It turned out that it wasn't a cottage, it wasn't even something
that I'd call a house. In fact, it was a fairly respectable mansion with 8
bedrooms and a huge amount of land surrounding it on all sides.

	Justin whistled. "I take it all back, this place is amazing."

	"Just shows how much the council love us." Said JC.

	"The council are paying for this?" I said, surprised.

	"The council own this. They've been around for a couple of
thousand years, remember? Plenty of time to build up money."

	"Yeah I know, but it's one thing to be told it and another to
actually see what you mean." I replied.

	"There's a pool!" Yelled Chris from somewhere in the back.
We all rushed down the hall to see it and true to his word, there was one.
We spent the next hour exploring the place (It really was that big!) and
picked out our bedrooms. There were eight, but we only really needed
four of them. (With Lance and Joey sharing and Justin and I sharing.)

	"So," said Joey, flopping down on the sofa beside me. "What's
the plan for today Lance?"

	"There isn't one. That I know of, anyway. You should ask Josh,
he seems to know the most about what's going on here."

	"If the whole idea about being here is to teach Tom to use his
power then that should be the plan, shouldn't it?" Said Joey.

	"Who told you you could start making sense?" Said Lance,
digging at Joey.

	Joey sighed. "Well someone around here has got to. And it
seems like the burden is going to fall on my shoulders."
	"You poor baby. I'll look after you later." Said Lance, just
before he sprang up out of his seat. "Come on, I feel like a fight. Let's
go outside and see what we can get up to."

	We headed outside to the extensive gardens and before
anything else, Lance scanned the area to make sure that no one was
around. "Man, Josh wasn't kidding, we really are in the middle of
nowhere. I can't sense another person for miles around."

I took a good look around me all I saw were acres of grass
surrounded on all sides by tall oak trees. To the left a hill raised out of
the ground but that was far off, other then that the ground was almost
perfectly flat.

	"So we can do what ever we want? Cool." Said Justin, who'd
just joined us.

	"Two against two sound fair?" Asked Joey.

	"Depends on which two." I said grinning.

	"You *know* how this is going to happen. Anyway, let's set
some ground rules, first, I don't really want to be aching for days, so lets
make this a basic fight, and it's to help Tom so be sure to point out if
he's doing anything wrong. Everyone ready? Good." Said Lance, pairing
up with Joey.

	I went over to Justin. "Anything that I should know?" I asked.

	"Just that I like it with lots of fire." He said. He leaned in and
gave me a quick kiss. "But you should already know that."

	Lance called over. "Remember Tom, the most important thing
to protect yourself, so make sure that you keep yourself shielded at all
times and don't be afraid to fall back, if you die today you can't fight
again tomorrow." Just as he finished speaking I saw the green sparkle of
his magic in the air surrounding him and he took up a fighting stance.
Joey did the same and out of the corner of my eye I saw Justin's red
power protect him. I took a deep breath and shielded myself, just in time
before a fireball hit it, from the colour I saw that it was one of Lance's.

	I focused a hurled one of my own towards him as fast as I could
but in the blink of an eye he'd moved out of the way and was running
towards Justin.

	"Justin!" I yelled, taking my attention away from Joey. I saw
that Justin was already taking care of the matter with Lance now fighting
against a strong wind pushing him away. Suddenly a shadow loomed
above me a huge bear slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.

	I looked up and just before a huge paw crushed me I rolled out
of the way and scrambled to my feet. Before my eyes Joey changed back
into his human self and grinned.

	"Never get distracted like that Tom, you should know that
Justin can look after himself. But instead you looked to him, the
distraction was enough for me to get to you and knock you to the
ground."

I nodded acknowledging Joey's words of advice, but I still couldn't help
but look to see how Justin was doing. He was hovering twenty feet
above the ground throwing lightening bolts down at Lance, who was
etching some sort of rune in the air. I brought my attention back to Joey,
who was holding his hand out in front of him with the air shimmering
around it. I got an awful premonition and jumped out of the way just
before a column of molten lava flew towards where I'd been standing.

	What did I know that could possibly counter any of the spells
that they were casting? They'd had years of practise and I'd been doing
this for what? A couple of weeks? That sounded fair. I kept on running
as fast as I could and when I came out from my thoughts I noticed that I
was in fact running far faster then I'd ever done before. I remembered
back to when I'd seen JC reading a book and doing it incredibly fast.
Did you speed up with magic? Time to find out. I started running in a
curve, turning back towards Joey. Let's see how he liked it. An idea
flickered across my mind and grinning, I tried it. Flame burst out along
my entire body. I could feel it's heat, but it wasn't burning, just letting
me know that it was there. I concentrated further and the fire intensified,
growing brighter and stronger. I pushed as hard as I could and sped up to
speeds that I'd thought were impossible. Joey looked up from whatever
spell he was casting on the ground and his eyes grew wide in realisation
a second before I slammed into him and his shields. My momentum kept
us going for about twenty-five feet before he fell and I stumbled over
him, somehow I managed to regain my footing and with Joey
temporarily out of the way I glanced over to where Justin had been in
the air but he wasn't there anymore. I looked around me and saw what
looked like a giant cocoon on the ground. Feeling forward with my
magical senses I could tell that Justin was in it.

	/What the hell did he do to you?/ I asked.

	Justin mentally groaned. /One of his favourite spells. I should
have seen it coming./

	/Can you get out of it?/

	/Not by myself. Help me would you?/

	I went over to the cocoon and knelt down beside it. Before I did
anything else I took Joey's advice and looked around for Lance, but he
was over tending to his boyfriend who hadn't gotten up from the impact.
I extended a finger and formed a blade of fire on the end of it. I cut into
the fibre making sure that I didn't go too deep and hit Justin. I sliced
from one end to the other and once I'd done that it dissolved into the
ground, leaving nothing there to show that it had ever existed.

	"Are you ok?"

	"I am now. But don't you think that we should be paying more
attention to someone else?"

"I don't think we really need to right now." I said, gesturing
over with my head to where Lance now had Joey sitting up.

	"Holy shit! What did you do him?" Asked Justin.

	I mentally showed Justin what I'd done because it was simpler
then telling him.

	"That's some serious fighting magic! I'm glad that I'm on your
side!" He exclaimed.

	"Damn right." I said, indignant that he could even consider
being with the others. "But you don't seem to have been much help, why
don't you just go have a nap?"

	"I'm alright." Said Justin, jumping to his feet. He shouted over
to the two on the ground. "You want to keep going?"

	Lance looked over at us. "Give us a minute?"

	"Sure thing!" Justin turned to me. "Well, we're going to kick
there asses anyway!"

	"What makes you so sure?"

	"Well, you've already dealt with Joey..."

	 I cut him off before he could continue. "That's something that
I wanted to talk to you about! You know all these spells and I don't have
a clue what I can and can't do!"

	"I don't think anyone taught you how to do what you did to
Joey and you did that! Just make it up as you go along. And besides,
you've got me as a teacher haven't you?"

	"But Lance managed to deal with you fairly easily." I pointed
out.

	"That's only because he managed to catch me off guard. I
didn't expect him to cover me in webbing when I was flying in the air!"

	"That's not the point. The point is that he managed it and he
beat you!" I said, trying to rile him.

	"Yeah well... it won't happen again." He said.

	"It had better not! I do want to win this you know."

	"I know." Said Justin, patting me on the back. "I know."

	"Then let's do it." I said. "Are you ready over there yet?"

	"We are if you are!" Said Joey. "And you won't get me so
easily this time!"

	The fight continued for about hald an hour without either side
getting the better of the other. Eventually we called it a truce and since
we were all bushed we just lay down on the grass. It started to rain.

	"Is that rain yours Justin?" Asked Lance.

	"Nope."

	"Then could you do something about it?" Asked Joey.

	"I'm too tired. Leave me alone." Replied Justin.

	"Then I guess we'd better go inside, if *he* won't do anything
about it." Said Lance indignantly.

	"You've got to let *some* of the weather act normally Lance,
just like you don't go around looking at everyone naked."

	"Ouch." Laughed Joey. "He's got you there."

	We all got up and went inside to the main sitting room where
we all collasped onto the same chairs that we'd been on earlier that
morning. The only difference was that JC was sitting in one of the other
armchairs.

	"I was talking to the council while you were out playing with
each other." Said JC.

	His pun didn't even get a response. "What did they have to
say?" Asked Lance.

	"They were talking about the guy on the airplane. They found
out what he was about."

	"Well don't just sit there. Tell us!"

	"He was working for Drayn."

	That got our attention. "What was he doing?" I asked.

	"They don't know, but they think that the idea might have been
to test you without us around." Replied JC.

	"Great, that means that he's still after you."

	"Right. I think that we can expect a confrontation soon."
Confirmed JC.

	"Sooner then you think." Said Drayn from a doorway.

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	Make sure to e-mail me! shiningstar@oceanfree.net

		Tim.