Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 13:33:06 -0000 From: Tim <power@utvinternet.ie> Subject: Powers Within 6 I know this one is a bit on the short side but I promised to have it out today... I know that I'm taking my time with these, but I've got no choice, what with the amount of school work that I've got to do this year. Sorry. Make sure to let me know what you think of this hair- raising chapter. It's sure to spark your interest! power@utvinternet.ie is the e-mail address, please e-mail me. Thanks to Tim, and all the people who wrote with - 'What's taking so long?' as the main part of their messages. This is fiction. Nothing, except of the characters names, is taken from reality. I do not claim to know the sexualities of the celebrities mentioned. If you're too young... ----------------------- All thoughts of patrolling left my head as I healed the girl as quickly as possible and got ready to say the teleportation spell, but I felt vampires flying in, probably hoping for a snack. I sighed and stood up, searching to see how close the nearest human was. Satisfied that there weren't any nearby I called out. "I know that you're out there, and I know that you can hear me, either face me now or leave." "You *are* an observant little human, aren't you?" Purred one of the vampires, a beautiful female who looked like she was in her twenties. I reminded myself that my shielding disguised my power from the lower immortal species, which included most vampires. "Yes I am." I said, quickly counting how many vampires there were. Thirteen in total, and she wasn't the dominant one, there was some else, pulling her strings. Thirteen was quite a few for a group like this, but not unusual. "Now, are you going to leave before I become angry?" "What's someone like you doing all the way out here? I don't think that this is on the tourist trail, do you American?" She asked. "Oh very impressive, you know that I'm an American, well I'm not buying it." I said, and extended my hand. Pulses of white light shot in from my fingers and collected in the palm of my hand before shooting out in a brilliant flash and the plasma struck her full on in the chest, incinerating her before she'd time to raise an eyebrow. "Anyone else?" I asked. I sensed some nervousness in the pack, but one growl from the dominant and five more vampires scurried out from the bushes to meet me. They stood up, tall and proud, not one of them under six-foot and tried to fan around me in a semicircle. "How about I give you some light?" I asked. I kept one hand out; ready to cast any offensive spells that needed casting, while raising one hand to the sky, and firing a ball of shimmering white light into the sky, where it hovered, casting light over the area. At the same time I changed to my black robes and sensed a new fear emerging in the vampires. I could have easily killed them, but I was trying to conserve my power. "That's right. I'm a black robed white mage, and I could kill you like that." I said, snapping my fingers. Three of them jumped backwards when I did. "Then why don't you?" Asked the dominant male, who'd finally come out of his hiding place. "Because." I said, smiling. "It would be easier just to kill you." I shot a beam of the same pure white incandescence at him and he disintegrated. With him gone the others scrambled over one another trying to get away. When I was satisfied that they were gone I knelt down beside the girl again and teleported us back to the mountain. "You really are powerful, aren't you?" Asked the girl weakly once I'd gotten her to the mountain. "I like to think so, but there's always someone more powerful." I said, and it was true, even though there were only 2 other black robed mages in the entire world there were at least on a par with me, and then there were all the black magic people, a lot of whom could take me on any day. "Come on, let's get you inside." I said, firming up my grip on her and carrying her through the doorway. The main hallway had quietened down significantly since I'd gone out patrolling and as soon as they saw me three healers rushed up to meet us and took the girl from me. "Bye." I called after her. / Where's JC? / I asked, telepathically sending a message to Baram. / He's here with me, with the rest of the group. / She replied. / In the Elder Hall. / I started walking down the hall to them, noticing as I did the new hum that the mountain had to it, the halls echoed with the sound of conversation and laughter, doors opening and closing, the sounds of people living. "What is it Tom?" Asked JC, who'd been informed by Baram that I was looking for him. "Why didn't you tell me that you had a girlfriend?" I asked. JC's face dropped and I could tell from the shift in the atmosphere that it was the wrong question to ask. "Because." He murmured, so that I'd to strain to make out what he was saying. "She disappeared a long time ago." "Well." I said, sounding unsuitably cheerful. "You might want to go down to the healers then, because they've got a woman who claims to be your girlfriend." I send him a mental picture of what she looked like and he instantly shot out of his seat and up into the air. Lance calmly pulled JC back down to the ground before he hit the roof and JC didn't even stop to say thank you before he left the room, giving the door barely enough time to open. I went over what had happened with the others and they told me about when JC had lost his girlfriend. "Even when you lost Justin, at least you knew what had happened to him." Said Lance, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "JC didn't even have that. His girlfriend was gone, and he hadn't a clue what had happened. It's been two years since she disappeared and he's never stopped loving her completely. But, if she's back..." "Then we're not going to see him for at least a couple of days!" Laughed Justin, lightening the mood. "Anyway, I want to hear more about this bolt of light thing that you did. Sounds pretty effective." "I'll show you now if you want me to." I said. "Yeah." Confirmed Justin. We left the room and started heading down towards the library, to use one of the practise rooms. "So, how's your power keeping up?" I asked, slipping my hand into his. "It feels like it's going to last forever." Said Justin. "Hopefully." I said. "This latest thing isn't going to be fun to deal with." "Really?" Justin grinned wryly. "Why else do you think that I'm actually trying to learn some more magic!" "True." I laughed. I brought Justin into one of the practice rooms dedicated to Black-Robed Mages and I worked on teaching him how to do what I'd done earlier in the day. Within an hour he'd managed to do it a couple of times in a row and I was satisfied that he had grasped it. "How about we go visit JC?" Suggested Justin. "Good idea." I said. "His girlfriend's probably sick of him already!" "I actually doubt it. The JC that you've seen... he'd been tempered by the loss of his girlfriend, convinced that it was because he wasn't careful enough, that's why he's been pushing us all so hard. Before that he wasn't as strict and it was really Lance who kept the group organised. Maybe he'll go back to being more like the old JC now." "Why hadn't anyone told me?" I asked. "It wasn't ours to tell you, we figured that he'd tell you when he was ready, he doesn't really talk to any of us about it actually." Justin looked at me. "You're not pissed off that we didn't tell you, are you?" "No. I would have been nice to have known though." I commented. "Sorry." Justin said. "Don't be. You were just respecting what your friend wanted you to do." I said firmly. At this stage we'd reached the infirmary where JC would be. Justin opened the door and we went in and saw him sitting on chair bent over a girl on a bed, holding her hand with tears dripping down his cheeks. Justin placed his hand on JC's shoulder, who hadn't noticed us come in. I held back, after all, Justin had known JC far longer and also knew his girlfriend. JC jumped a bit and relaxed again, seeing whom it was. "How is she?" Asked Justin. "She's going to be alright, She'll need to get a couple of nights of good sleep, but aside from that she'll be fine." JC looked up at me. "Thank you so much for bringing her back to me." I just nodded, not knowing what I could say without it sounding corny. All of a sudden a great shudder ran through the solid rock of the mountain and I looked around in panic. Something like that was not meant to happen here, in the mountain. I looked at Justin in alarm; he was looking at me a JC with shock. / Baram? / I asked, telepathically. A flood of information filled my mind, from the winces on Justin's, JC's, Angela's and the healer's faces I knew that they'd just had a telepathic load dumped on them. The information dumped contained pictures of the area surrounding Ireland's coast, I could see that black mages were converging, co operating, to try to breach the defences that unbeknownst to the people of Ireland protected them, and us. I knew that the images that the defences had already been breached, and the shudder of the mountain confirmed that. They were attacking! "Come on!" I shouted. "We've got to get out there!" Justin ran out ahead of me, and I dragged JC out the door. "You're not going to be able to protect her from in there!" I shouted, over the panicked screams coming from all around, children and lesser mages raced to the core of the mountain and against them flowed a current of people in red, orange, blue and other coloured robes - racing to defend the mountain and the twenty thousand people contained within. The doors were flung wide open, with about twenty lesser mages casting a shield, through which only white mages could pass. As soon as I was outside I threw myself upwards, Justin still at my side. We went towards the front of the group of mages and I, as the most powerful mage there, took charge, until I saw Baram approaching. "You shouldn't be out here!" I exclaimed. "Why not?" She asked in her eternally calm voice. "It's my job to protect these people." I submitted to her prerogative and she shouted above the noise of the crowd, only part of that noise was people talking - the rest were people charging spells of devastating power and of unworldly magnitude. "Listen Up! We're going to do this in two halves - I'm going to the front with a small group, I want the rest of you to surround the mountain in two circles, the inner one defending the mountain and the outer go on the offensive, fanning out, but never fewer then three mages together!" I noticed something that I'd been ignoring for the last while, in fact, something that I'd first noticed when I found Angela, but it was stronger now - Drayn's ring was throbbing on my finger. Baram lowered her voice, addressing Justin, JC, one of the other black robed mages who'd just flown in and me. "I know how it looks, but we can beat them. They think like vampires, there's always a dominant. We're going to try to take him out." She looked up. "Ah excellent." She said as someone flew in with each of our battle robes. I slipped mine on and noted that Justin had a new one, and that Baram's had dust on the shoulders. In fact lesser mages were starting to fly to everyone, bringing them staffs and battle robes, preparing them for the battle. Behind every army there was a logistics force, I reminded myself, as the staff of Onanis popped into existence beside me. Suddenly light blazed up in the sky, forming words - Give us the girl - I formed the connection between me bringing Angela back and this attack immediately, the next connection took slightly longer - that Angela was the turned mage. Baram caught my eye and nodded. "You knew?" I asked "Yes." "Why did we bring her in to the mountain then?" "Where there is life there is hope, and she is one of ours." She said simply, then raised her voice. "Are we ready?" "We are." Said Justin, JC, the other Black Robed Mage, and the five thousand strong force behind us. "Then let us go." She said, floating up into the air, a staff crystallising into her hand, as thousands of people took up their positions. ----------------------- Did I leave it at a bad time? :-( Sorry about that. Make sure and let me know what you think of the chapter. power@utvinternet.ie Tim.