Trouble Always Finds Us

***ARTEMIS***

When Bai said those words, he started sweating bullets and he looked really pale. Unusually pale that I had to be very worried. I was also very confused at his words but before we could even ask him what he meant, he already fainted. Lei immediately attended to him as the healer of the group. But he seemed as lost as we were.

Moments later, Uncle Wu Fen arrived and asked us what happened to Pingjing and Bai.

"They just fainted, Mister Zhang!" answered Tim.

"Fainted? What do you-"

"Pingjing said something about poison and danger." replied Xander.

"Dad, do you know what he meant?" asked Chen.

"Danger? Oh no." Uncle Wu Fen stood abruptly. "Carry him and follow me!"

"But what about Bai?" Lei asked. "He suddenly fainted as well but I couldn't find any problems!"

"It's just a side effect of his abilities. He'll be fine Lei."

"Abilities?"

"We'll talk about that later. Someone will bring him back to his room to rest."

"I'll stay and keep an eye on him." offered Xander.

We all agreed. Kyle then gave Pingjing a piggyback ride and we all rushed out of the hall. We headed towards the forest. But as we got closer and then deeper, I could feel the waning aura of Pingjing and the aura around the estate.

'Poison.' I thought. 'Pingjing is the guardian spirit of this land, there's a barrier around it and he said he was in-charge of the estate's security. If he's out for the count then that means… Oh no!'

A dawn of realization hit me like ice cold waters.

"Lei! We're in deep sh*t!" I yelled in English.

"Stop cursing!" Seven yelled back.

"What do you mean Artemis?" Lei asked.

"Pingjing is in charge of this land's safety! If he's in trouble then that means the Zhang Estate is in trouble!"

"What?!"

"He's the freaking land guardian!" I exclaimed, frustrated at the questions.

"Artemis is right." said Uncle Wu Fen. "I don't know how she knew but she's correct. Pingjing is in-charge of the estate's security. If Pingjing's out of commission, that only means we're under attack."

We reached a pool of water after running for a few minutes. The pool had a wide area with its flowing water going through a small channel which I'm sure was connected to a nearby bigger water source. Around the pool was a lush green clearing with trees that provided shade. If we weren't in such a dire situation, I would've loved to hang out in there.

It was such a beautiful scenery and everything would've been wonderful, except, the water was unusually murky brown.

"The spring, what happened to it?" Chen asked, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Poison happened." Uncle Wu Fen answered. "Under that pool of water is Pingjing's core, and the water itself is part of his abilities. It's an excess energy he doesn't normally use and we use this place as some sort of healing spring. Looking at the situation right now, his core is poisoned and it's soaked with poisonous water too. We need to purify the water and heal his core. Preferably soon."

"Do you know anyone who can do that?" Calvin asked.

"Yes but she's in Indonesia right now."

Alarms suddenly blared around the area.

"Intruders." I heard Lei whisper. "The estate had been breached!"

Uncle Wu Fen took out his phone then dialed a phone number. He was speaking really fast and I couldn't catch up to it so I couldn't understand what he said but I could tell that he was giving orders to whoever was on the other side of the line. Lei verified it and stood next to me.

"What's your plan?" he asked, his tone edgy.

"I don't know. I know a purification spell but if the core itself is poisoned, it will make things more difficult. Even if e clean up the water, the core will continue emitting poison residue which in return will continue polluting the pool." I replied. "Plus the core is underwater. I don't have any spell for that."

"Liu Fen?" Lei called. "Any ideas?"

"Don't look at me! I suck at purification and healing formations."

Seven suddenly walked in front of us with a stern look on his face.

"I have an idea. I can control the water and empty out the pool." he said. "While doing that, Artemis will purify the water and Lei will heal the core at the bottom."

"Seven, that's too risky." Lei also said.

"I know, but we have to put the barrier back up fast, right? We'll have to multi-task."

Seven was really smart. He figured out Pingjing's importance just by listening to our conversation. I then looked at Lei who seemed to be pondering about Seven's idea. I saw him sigh.

"Fine. Can you handle it? That's a lot of water you know?"

"It'll be fine." Seven smiled. "You think of how to get down. Dean said it's quite deep."

"Dean could make stairs!" I suggested.

I looked around to look for Dean but the stoic young man was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Dean?" I inquired, confused at his sudden disappearance.

"I'll fly Lei down there." Kyle piped up and gave the unconscious guardian to Coby and Blake. "The moment the water is cleared out, Artemis can start her spell while Lei will heal the core."

"Will it work?" Kai asked.

"Do any of you have any other ideas?" Kyle inquired in a sarcastic tone.

"Well… no."

"What will the rest of us do?" asked Seth.

"Well shifu?" I asked Liu Fen. Shifu was the Chinese term for master or teacher.

"I suppose you can go all out." he said. "Okay, listen up! While Seven, Artemis, Lei and Kyle work on purifying the water and the core, we will protect them from any intruders! Coby and Blake will protect Pingjing. Now... amulets off!"

The boys took off their amulets with a smile. They had been training on how to control and use their respective powers, they were probably happy to be able to finally use it. They placed it on a flat surfaced rock and immediately circled around us.

I unconsciously counted them and noticed that three were missing. I remembered Xander was looking after Bai back in the main house, but where were Dean and Tim?

My thoughts were interrupted when Seven called my attention. I couldn't help but marvel at what I saw. The water was floating above our heads and the source of the water, the spring, was flowing upwards like gravity suddenly changed its mind and work the opposite way.

"You better hurry." Seven said. "I'm not exactly Percy Jackson[1] or Katara[2] to keep this up for long."

Lei and Kyle were already at the bottom and I could glimpse a golden glow which was Lei's signature when he was using his healing powers.

I did a few hand forms and imagined the magical formation for the purification spell. At the same time, my mind drifted to a purification spell I read on one of the grimoires Lei lent me. A golden magic circle suddenly formed and became three layered.

My formations were usually shapes and sometimes even ancient Chinese characters and scriptures, but the formations I produced that time somehow changed. There were still shapes and Chinese characters, but foreign letters and runes were added to it.

I heard Liu Fen gasp behind me.

"Your magic is getting more identical with Hauria's; a mixture of eastern and western magic."

"Seven! Can you make the water take the shape of a pillar?"

"Ah? Err… sure!"

The water slowly elongated and became cylindrical. The three layers of magic circles slowly passed through the water pillar. As each circle passed, the water became clearer until it became crystal clear. The poison and any dirt present in the water was pushed out and floated above the water pillar. To store it, I created a small pocket dimension and shoved all the poison and dirt I was able to extract. It was a trick I learned recently.

Beads of sweat rolled down from my forehead. The process was very taxing and it costs a lot of magic energy. It also needed the caster's utmost concentration that I even lost track of the fight that was happening around us.

I was told later on that they kicked the enemies' butts.

Once the water was purified, I glanced at Seven who was obviously struggling to control the water. His face was very red and beads of sweat were also on his face. I tried to catch my breath, and then glanced at the bottom of the pool and saw Lei had also just finished his job. He was a little unsteady on his feet and almost fell but Kyle caught him in time.

"Is it over yet? I… can't… any… longer!" Seven yelled.

"Kyle! Lei! Get out of there!" I yelled.

Kyle grabbed Lei and the two flew out of the pool. Just as they landed beside me the water came crashing down. And since I was standing just beside the pool, I was soaked when the water splashed to the sides. Well, Kyle and Lei also ended up in the same situation. At the same time, the rest of our companions also finished fighting whatever enemies they faced.

"Some got away!" Calvin said.

"It's fine." Uncle Wu Fen responded. "The barrier is already up since Pingjing's healed."

I stiffened at this. I just remembered that Uncle Wu Fen didn't know about our… abilities. I glanced at the patriarch if the Zhang Family, who was also my boyfriend's father and saw that he only had a neutral expression.

"Uhm… Dad, about this…" Chen hesitated.

"Superpowers huh. You've got some explaining to do kids."

"By the way, where are Dean and Tim?" Coby asked.

Everybody looked around but the two were nowhere to be found. Pingjing sat up all of a sudden and took a deep breath.

"They're in the vault! And they're in trouble!"

Note:

[1] Percy Jackson - protagonist of a famous book series. A son of Poseidon.

[2] Katara - a character of The Last Airbender. She's a waterbender.