River's Dream
Chapter 6

At the club, all the girls were sitting with their guys, except Carrie who still hated Joey, and Amber, who was sitting alone at the bar, sipping a scotch and soda while she watched the party around her. The DJ came blaring over the sound system, a peppy voice, obviously happy that they were all there. "All right, guys and girls! Put on your dancing shoes and get out on that floor. This is a request for Carrie Smith from her hoping-to-be-boyfriend. Good luck man, you're going to need it!" The song 'I Drive Myself Crazy' came on and everyone left Carrie sitting at the table. A blinding, white spotlight landed on her. 'I hope Greg didn't follow us. Wait a minute, isn't he still in jail? He's doing six months, so it can't be him.' A hand placed itself gently on her shoulder, and she turned to see Joey standing behind her with a pink rose in his other hand. He got down on both knees and begged for forgiveness.

"I shoudln't have done what I did. I should have trusted you. I am so sorry, Care." He stared up at her in earnest.

"You did this, all for me?" Joey got up and grasped her hands in his, a mirror image of her and Greg all those days ago, but this time, she knew she wasn't going to pull away. Joey smiled a little and answered her honestly.

"I did it for us. Like the song says, 'I drive my self crazy, thinking of you.'" She stood up on her own accord and kissed him.

"I love you, Joe."

"Really? Then, I love you too, Carrie Smith." They danced off to the floor together, leaving the rose on the table. Amber looked at it from her seat at the bar and remembered a brief moment that hadn't been lived by her, a moment that had been just like a pink rose.

Later that evening, Carrie was sitting on Joey's lap in what was once again their hotel room. "I missed you so much, Carrie, but you knew that didn't you?"

"I did, even though it was only five days." She laughed softly and hugged him tightly.

"Five days too many. I'm glad we're back together."

"I am too, but if you beat up anymore of my friends, I'll make he last break-up seem like a pleasure cruise." She gave him her darkest look and shook a fist under his nose. He swallowed hard. Then, he clasped his hands in prayer and stared at the ceiling.

"I promise I will never harm another of Carrie's friends so long as I live. Amen." She laughed at her lovable clown and laid her head on his chest. She had always loved to listen to his heart beaking, knowing that it only beat for her. "What would you do if I did that thing I'm not supposed to do anymore?" She spoke up suddenly. Carrie leaned away from him to get a good look at him, he wasn't kidding about the question.

"Well, first off, you wouldn't be dealing with just me. If one of us witches gets offended, we all get offended. Then, we get even... and you don't want to know about that." Joey went wide eyes and pale. Carrie smiled and laughed then, to show him it was all right. She leaned on him again. Joey started to play with her hair without even realizing it and she put a stop to it. "Please don't do that. I don't want anymore of my hair ripped out."

"What happened the last time I did that?" So, she told him abbout her abilities, premonition, her ability to freeze people and to control water in any form. he didn't even look surprised. When she had finished talking, Joey got an idea in his head that pertained exclusively to guy stuff. "Hmmm... if you can do all that, then you can foresee what I'm going to do next." Carrie pretended to think.

"You're going to be kissing me in the next second." eh raised his eyebrows in that look she knew so well and loved.

"You're good. He said and kissed her.

Window shopping in New York had always made Carrie's head clearer. This was one of the things that didn't make her feel so alone in this world, and all her friends could torment her in public. She had to argue with Lindsy and Wendy on Joey's behalf and keep an eye on where they were in the big city.

"Thank God we got you away from Lover Boy! We thought you died or soemthing!" Wendy joked, but Carrie didn't think this was funny one bit.

"His name is Joey."

"No, his name is Lover Boy, because I said so." Carrie looked for some sympathy from Amber, but she didn't look like she was paying attention to them. 'What on earth could she be thinking so deeply about to not even hear us?' Carrie didn't know, Amber's mind had been sealed shut from outsiders for a long time now. Lindsy brought her back into the arguement.

"I have to agree with her, Carrie. You haven't opened Joey's foor in two days, not even for room service!" Carrie finally spoke in her own defense.

"So? Before Amber and Wendy came, you were with Justin every night." Wendy took the chance to insult LIndsy as well as Carrie.

"And every night after that, don't forget."

"Yeah, well, 'night' is the key word there, not 'all day'." Lindsy turned the insult back on them, pressing them to be silent. They stopped at an intersection with a 'Don't Walk' sign flashing across the street. Carrie thought about how easy it would be to push them all out into the street, but somehow couldn't bring herself to do it. Suddenly, Amber seemed to faint standing there. Carrie was the closest to her and caught Amber before she fell into traffic. She had to hold on extra tight because MAber felt like a dead weight in her arms. They both collapsed on the sidewalk and the other two surrounded her and their fallen friend.

"Amber! Amber! Come on, wake up! Don't do this to me, girl!" Carrie was ready to slap her awake, but just then, Amber's eyes fluttered behind the red lenses and she came back to them. She sat up on her own and then stood wobbly by herself. Carrie kept a hand on her shoulder, just in case. "What happened?" AMber didn't look at her. She just stared across the street, and her voice trembled slightly when she spoke.

"Ash." The girls stared where she was looking and saw two men standing there across from them. One was a somewhat good looking man with blonde, wavy hair and dark eyes. The other was a Mexican lad with his sun-browned hair in braids and sunglasses on his face. Wendy's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Those are the ones that have been following me! Ash and Quake!" The girls glanced at her, but when they turned back tot he sot where the Destroyers had stood, they were gone. Amber turned around and began walking the other way, back to the PLaza Hotel. The other's ran to catch up with her. Wendy began the question/answer round. "Why where they following you and me?"

"Because we were alone. The better to spy on you with."

"Who are they and what are they doing now?" Carrie took her chances with a question.

"I don't know, but Wendy and I are going to find out. If they're all here in New York, and we're all here in New York, then something bug must be going down."

"Now it was Lindsy's turn. "Whata re we going to do?"

"We're going to train as best we can. Time is short."

"Hey guys! Come look at this!" Wendy motioned frantically to the other three in her hotel room to gather around her laptop. She and Amber were both searching for clues as to the identiteied of the Destroyers. She read out loud what she had found. "Quake, a.k.a., Mike Taurus. He's the Mexican guy, and he's an orphan after his parents died in a cave sollapse in New Mexico, 1988. They were biologists studying cave life. Here it says that he's a sculptor who's works usually end up in penthouse apartments belonging to multi-billionaires." Amer's computr made a beeping sound as she spke up nest.

"Brian Watts, know to us as Ask. What a coincidence, he's an orphan too. Parents died in a house fire, which was ruled to be an accident cause by faulty gas lines and electrical wiring. He, of course, is the blonde we saw. He's a dealer of fine art and antiquities." She pushed some keys on her computer and another page turned up. "Ah, the infamous Sam Jacobson, orphaned as a kid. His mom died in shipwreck and the man who fathered him died undergoing heart surgery before he was born. Sam is a jeweler for the rich and famous."

"I found him!" Wendy pointed to a page on her computer. "Issac Varateni, Storm to us. He's a computer programmer at Microsoft. That is the last time I by anything from them. Um, he's an orphan too, mommy died in childbirth adn daddy died later in a plane crash." She looked up and stared at each one of her three friends. "They're as much as we suspected, evil to the core. They killed their parents, though every single one looked like accidents. Now, thy're out for us." Lindsy and Carrie looked at each other in horror while the computers were being put away. Finally, Wendy had to yell at them. "What are you two waiting for? Go get your swimming gear and well meet you and everyone else in the lobby. We've got some training to do."

Almost everyone had made it to the uptown indoor pool; Cassi and Chris were nowhere to be found. Mo busied herself in the tanning salon, while the rest of the guys lounged beside the pool. Amber took her place near the diving board and called out directions to the other girls. "All right now! I want to start off with some front flips off the board!"

"Hey! Who died and made you instructor?" Lindsy called back as she laid out a towel on a chaise lounge.

"I just want to make sure you kow what you're doing. The others paid little attention to Amber, instead they slipped into the water with their boyfriends.

"Well, how do we know that you know what you're doing?" Wendy yelled between swimming away from Lance and being dunked under the water by him. Amber narrowed her eyes and showed them all that she knew exactly what she was doing. She took a running leap onto the diving board, oblivious to angry shouts by the lifeguards, and did a flip into the water. As she disappeared into the water, the otehrs swam towards where she was. Carrie peered down into the water, but all she could see was the red blob of Amber's hair.

"I think she's sitting at the bottom of the deep end, but I'm not sure, all I can see is her hair."

"No way she oculd be sitting down there. It's at least twenty feet down to the bottom! Her eardrum would have popped before she hit ten and she'd com eup crying!" Wendy poked her head underwater to get a better view. She came up fairly quickly. "She's down there all right, with her arms crossed and everything."

"I think she's jsut teasing us." Carrie said and dived down towards Amber, but couldn't quite reach her. She came back up gasping for air. "She isn't kidding! There's no air bubbles I could see." Suddenly, a great plume of bubbles blocked their view and when they cleared, Amber was gone. "Where is she?"

"Right here." They all spun in the water to see Amber floating on her back behind them. All their jaws dropped open at the same time. Her bathing suit had changed from a fiery red one-piece to a dark red two-piece, and her hair was back up in it's usual braid. The gold star on the chain around her waist winked in the flourescent lighting.

"She is a witch." Joey whispered in wonder.

"Now, do I have to teach you again, or are you going to practice?" The other girls nodded, but Lance, who hadn't been told there were witches traveling with the group, raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Practice for what? How did you do that? And what's with all this stuff about witches?" Amber looked over at Wendy.

"He's your boyfriend, you deal with him." Wendy smiled nervoudsly and began towing Lance to the side of the pool.

"Lance, sweetie, could I talk to you?"

The next day, five people and the dog piled into Carrie's jeep. Joey was at the wheel with Carrie jammed next to him, while Wendy and Lance rode in the back seat. In the very back, where groceries could be put, Amber and Indigo sat on the floor. "Would someone please tell Lindsy tog et her creepy little ankle-niter to stop staring at me?" Amber tucked herself into her corner as far as humanly possible. The dog had bitten her every chance it got.

"How much farther is this 'big surprise'? I don't want Amber to be freaking out before we get there." Lance opened his mouth to answer Wendy, but changed his mind. This had to be a pretty big secret if the guys had to convince Lance to keep quiet. Joey spoke up as he flipped on the turn signal.

"Not far now. For this to be a really good surprise all the girls have to close their eyes and not peek. I'm sure Chris is telling everyone behind us the same thing, and so is Justin."

"Oh, like she'd listen." Wendy cracked and covered her eyes. Lance stuck out his tongue at her to make sure she wasn't peeking. She clamped onto it with her nails and pulled, her eyes still closed. "Keep this," she yanked hard, "in your mouth if you want to keep it at all." She let go and wiped her hand on his shirt. Joey braked and parked the jeep. The rental car and the motorcycle behind them did the same. The guys helped all the girls out of the vehicles and led them over to where they wanted them to stand.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now." They all did as they were told and gasped in amazement. They were at the entrance of a very empty Coney Island. "What do you think, girls? We rented it and the employees for the whole day. No lines, no waiting." Carrie ran to him and wrapped his arms around her neck.

"Oh, Joey! I love it! Thank you!" Then she kissed him passionately.

"If you could finish that up soon, the rest of us would like to go in now." Amber said impatiently as she lowered her infamous red glasses and looked at the couple. Carrie blushed, took up Joey's hand and began walking intot he park. The others followed willingly. Amber trailed behind, staring up at the gathering clouds. Then she slid her glasses back into place and hurried to catch up.

After they had been having fun for a while, not even Carrie could ignore how ominous the day had become. Everything had gotten very quiet, like the calm before the storm. The tiny group of eleven, twelve if the dog was counted, was walking down the game midway when a large mob of strange people and creatured swarmed toward them. "Shadow Minions!" Amber told her three friends through telepathy and the four geared up mentally for a fight.

"What do you want?" carrie asked the army of darkness. A giant cat-like creature with ebony fur and putrid slit green eyes, obviously the head demon, answered her.

"We're looking for the Guardians," it hissed venom, "You pretty girsl wouldn't know where we could find them, do you?"

"Guardians? Never heard of'em, but maybe you'd like to tango with us." Carrie retorted. The cat looked down at the four girls as the rest of their group retreated to safer ground, and laughed hideously.

"Okay, you witches, let's play." Amber snapped her fingers and a ring of tall, wild flames surrounded the mob. The cat waved a massive paw tand the flames died down. Then, it held out a curled up paw and sent the gils flying when it opened it's appendage. carrie was separated from her friends and fell behind some dumpsters. Now was as good a time as any to transfrom into River. She prayed that this time it would work.

"I am River!" She called out as she waved her hand over the star. A blue glow covered her and she changed into River, a dusky skinned beauty with deep blue eyes and black hair done up in dozens of small braids that were then tied back into a ponytail. Her blue boots, pnats and shirt that had only one shoulder strap were mostly hidden by golden armor plating and chain mail. She touched the handle of a dagger strapped to her right thigh and smiled wickedly. Then, she took super-human leaps to get behind the mob of demons.

For a small while all the by-standers could see was the writhing of many bodies and shadows, occasionally a figure would fall to the ground either dead ordying. Eventually the mysterious women could be seen as the demons dropped like flies around them. Drake was now using her double-ended spear, quarteers having been too close for comfort. Breeze still held her swords, and River now held her own sword, all of her daggers and knives lost in the mounds of the dead and there was no room for her to use her mace. Stone had left her axe embedded into the head of a demon and was using her twin nunchuks to beat down the rest. River motioned for them to regroup. There were only a few demons left and she intended to finished them all in one blow. She and her sisters shoved back the ones they were dealing with and fell back a few steps from the remnants of the army. The cat, who was injured but still very much alive, hissed at them menacingly. "Retreateing? There's no retreating from Lord Flood's dark army!"

"Yeah right!! River called back as she wiped sweat and demon blood from her brow. "You wanted to tango, didn't you? Well, let's see how well you dance to my beat!" She sheathed her sword and held up her hands so that the backs were touching with the first two fingers on each were raised. Above her finger tips, a small blue ball of energy formed. "Double Wave Crusher!" She called out a power as she separated her hands. The ball split and formed two huge glowing waves of power. The wave crashed down on the demons and liquefied them. The remaining energy from her attack faded away to nothing, along with the remains of the dead monsters. river sighed with relief and went with Breeze and Stone to gather up their fallen weapons. The group of spectators came out of hiding and cautiously spproached.

"Who are you?" Chris asked.

"Your life savers." Drake answered as the spearheads melted back into the staff she held. She holstered the staff on her back and turned to gather her sisters. Chris opened his mouth to say more, but Breeze stopped him.

"Don't ask anymore questions, we won't answer them." She handed River some of her daggers and went over to Drake. Stone trotted after her without a word.

"Consisder yourselves lucky. Who knows what those monsers could have done if we hadn't shown up." River sheathed the last dagger and turned to follow her sisters. She had almost reached them, when all four disappeared.

"The girls!" Lance, Joey and Justin yelled at the same time and rushed off to find their missing girlfriends. They came back a few minutes later, helping the girls along. Lindsy, Carrie and Wendy were bruised and dirtied, but otherwise fine. They all smiled wearily at their guys, who were babbling on and on about the battle they just witnessed and the mysterious warriors who vanished without a trace.

"Where's Amber?" Carrie asked, but no one knew. Indigo scrabled out of Justin's arms and ran around the corner of a building. The next thing everyone heard was Amber screaming.

"Lindsy! I'm going to kill your stupid dog if she bites me one more time! Ow! All right, that's it you little mutt! Get back here!" Indigo came trotting back, followed by an injured Amber. She was limping along on a twisted ankle.

"Well, everything seems back tonormal." Carrie said and everyone laughed. "Let's go home. It's been a long and interesting day." Joey swung her up into his arms and began to carry her out of the park as the clouds broke open and rain began to pour down.

"Good idea."

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