Link Six (completed)

Chapter 21 - Answers

Rhea steps out of the tent first and looks towards the boys' tent. Coincidentally, Colton is the first one out of their tent.

    Neither of them say anything, they just take seats on the ground next to the campfire. Leeanna sits next to Colton with Emma next to her. When Howie and Gerald come out of the tent, the two of them sit next to Rhea, but, there was a noticeable space between them.

It's silent for a few moments. The kids look from one to another, not saying anything, and not using their abilities either. Finally, Emma, not able to stand the tension, breaks the silence.

"Should we eat? That is why we came out here. One of the reasons, at least," Emma says. She grabs some candy bars and hands them around, as well as fruit cups.

They nibble on the food quietly for a few seconds.

"So..." Rhea says.

"So..." Gerald says.

"For crying out loud!" Howie says finally. "Can you guys just tell us what happened with the whole broken leg thing, already?"

"We're not the only ones that have some explaining to do!" Colton cries defensively.

"Shh," Leeanna hushed them.

"Here's an idea: how about we start explaining from the beginning to the end, and everyone just fills in their part?" Emma suggests.

"Well, it started with you running off..." Howie puts in.

"Okay, you see, I have this thing where I feel what other people are feeling," Emma starts. "That's the only reason why I've been so grumpy, because you've" -- Emma sends a pointed look to Howie - "been this whole time."

"Oh." Howie says.

"So, that's why you were mad at me before, right?" Gerald asked.

Emma looks at him with a frown.

"Sure, let's go with that," She says dully. "So, I ran ahead and then I tripped and I fell."

"I'm a telepath, meaning, I hear other people's thoughts and can put my thoughts into the mind of other people. And, I'm better at communicating through thoughts than through speech, so after Emma got hurt, I thought I had called her name out loud, but I guess I hadn't." Leeanna explains.

"Then, I wasn't that scared, but all of you guys were really scared, so it multiplied how scared I was by 6, so I started freaking out and crying." Emma continues. "And you see, I can also put my feelings into other people, and I guess since Rhea was the one with her hand on my arm, I projected to her first."

"Yeah, that's why I started freaking out, because all of the sudden I was terrified and panicky and I didn't know what to do," Rhea adds in.

"I fought off Emma's empathy for a little bit, but emotions are stronger than thoughts. So, she started projecting to me and everyone's thoughts started coming into my head. The one thing that I made out was that Gerald could heal people," Leeanna says.

"Yeah, I got that too," Colton says. "I can sort of see other people memories, and I kind of remember everything, so once I see someone else's memory I can't forget it, ever. So, while you" -Colton looks at Gerald - "were grabbing onto my arm, I got a memory of you healing your mom after she fell down the stairs."

"Alright, that makes a whole more sense, because I thought I was being really not clear about the whole healing thing, before," Gerald says. "Well, yeah, you guys pretty much said it: I'm a healer. I can heal most injuries, and I fixed Emma's ankle."

"Yeah, and I still went to go get Eddie, because I knew you guys probably wouldn't be able to make it up the hill without our help. I'd gotten a memory from Leeanna about a really bad hospital visit when they were little, so I knew what one of Emma's empathic projections can do to someone." Colton explains.

"Alright, and lastly, I knew that I would know exactly when Eddie was sleeping because I can see people's dreams, while their sleeping." Rhea says.

"That's not everything, Howie didn't tell us what he could do," Emma points out. Everyone looks at Howie, and Gerald tries to whisper something in his ear. Howie waves him off.

"I have telekineses, so I can move things with my mind," Howie explains.

"Wow," Rhea says. "That's really cool."

"It's like having the force," Colton adds.

"Not really. Everyone knows that Jedis have the force. No one knows what I can do except for my parents and Gerald, and they don't count," Howie says.

"Why don't they count?" Emma wants to know. Howie looks at Gerald for a half a second then looks at Emma.

"Family doesn't count, because your family knows everything, whether you tell them or not." Howie says.

"It would be cool if we could tell everyone at camp," Colton says.

"No it wouldn't," Leeanna says simply. "We'd be hated."

"Leeanna's right," Gerald agrees. "People won't like us, just because we can do stuff that they can't."

"I know, I said if we could, it would be cool." Colton replies.

"Hey, what we can do is cool, whether people know about it or not," Rhea assures everyone.

"What would be even more cool, is if we trained ourselves to use our abilities like superheroes do," Emma said.

"We don't really have superhero powers, though," Colton says. "Well, everyone except for Gerald and Howie."

"Training is still a really good idea," Rhea says. "We can use the camping trips."

"Yeah, that could be cool, we can become an undercover hero squad," Gerald says.

"Training is a good idea," Leeanna says. "But, maybe not the whole undercover hero thing, it's too risky."

"So we're just going to train in the middle of the camping trip? That's a stupid idea, Eddie will find out." Howie says.

"Not if we do it at times when he's left us to ourselves, or times like now, when he's asleep." Colton says.

"So, it's set? The camping trips are now our super secret training days?" Emma says.

"We all do need the training," Leeanna says.

"And, it seems as if our parents didn't do too great of a job of teaching us to control ourselves." Colton adds.

"I'm in it on one condition," Howie says.

"What?" Emma wants to know.

"No going into my head without my permission," Howie says.

"Deal," Leeanna and Colton says.

"Yay," Rhea cries. "Now let's all get some sleep. First day of training is tomorrow."

With the prospect of weekend training sessions on each of their minds, all the kids retire to their tents.