The Stronghold

Pool Partay!!!!!!!!

A day or so later and we'd all met up again, moving onto a different hotel. Tom and I had made our escape from the creepy Gormans before too many questions were asked and I'd ditched the hat, despite it looking pretty damn cool.

"So what do we do now?" I asked Salt. We were both lying down on sunloungers, staying out of the sun by hiding under the trees.

Josh was talking to the lifeguard, blending in with the staff under my command and Georgina was... somewhere. Shaade was showing off by doing flamboyant dives into the pool using rainbows to make things more shimmery and gay, Rebecca and Sophie were staying close to the hotel for better WiFi, Emmi was training her water Pokemon and Tom was doing lengths in the pool, much to many bikini-clad girls' excitement.

"Keep away from those Gormans," Salt replied. "They seem bloody suspicious."

"I honestly thought you said Germans for a second," I giggled. Salt gave a short laugh and then gave me a stern look.

"My family, the one I was sent to, they were German," he said, "and Josh lived in Germany for a year so watch out."

"You said it!"

"I said Gormans! I can't help it if you're bloody deaf!"

"Stop shouting," I said in a whisper, a grin on my face. Salt sighed and went back to reading his book.

"Are you two ever going to swim?" Tom called, resting his arms on the side of the tiled poolside. Salt shook his head and lowered his sunglasses.

"Sunlight burns me," he explained. "Well, more than the average person. I'm not proper albino, just antisocial and a vampire."

"No, Georgina's the vampire," I said, seeing her approach. "Aren't you?"

"Aren't I what?" she frowned.

"A vampire."

"Oh. Oh yeah. An antisocial, nocturnal vampire with freckles." She grinned and sat on my sunlounger, shoving me off. I grumbled at her but stood up, unstrapping my watch (despite it being waterproof) and pulling off my shirt. I had swimming shorts on instead of normal trousers and so I was able to dive into the swimming pool immediately, swimming underwater and tugging Tom's leg.

He yelped and twisted around, searching for me with a cunning glint in his eye. I surfaced a few feet away, laughing, my hair flat to my head. I brushed it out of my eyes but by the time I'd done that Tom was on me, cannoning into my front and sending me backwards. I made use of my speed to get away, a ripple in the water. Shaade dived over my head and tried to stop me, laughing and joining in the fun.

"I'm filming this!" I heard Georgina shout.

"You can't do that, ma'am," I heard Josh say back, laughter in his voice.

"And what are you going to do if I don't stop?"

"Throw you into the pool."

There was a shriek and a splash and lots of laughter. Georgina tossed her hair and made a rude hand gesture at Josh with her metal arm. She climbed out of the pool only to be pushed back in again by Sophie and Rebecca. Unfortunately Rebecca was dragged with her whereas Sophie sprang backwards, hissing at the prospect of getting wet.

"Will you lot just behave?" Emmi sighed, sending a Piplup over to irritate us. For her comment Tom sent a sneaky ribbon of ice to push her into the pool with us.

By that time the only ones in the pool were us Super Glitches - apart from Salt.

Get Salt into the pool, I sent Tom, keeping my mind closed from Salt. He nodded and grinned and I saw Georgina's eyes light up as the message was sent to her. Somehow Tom had a psychic link with Georgina, I had a psychic link with him and Salt had a psychic link with me.

Everybody could talk in their heads, basically. That theory was probably true - Rebecca and Sophie kept on making evil plots together without us knowing, Emmi could communicate with her Pokemon and Shaade and Josh? God knows what goes on in their heads.

Three, two, one... Tom broadcast. Go!

Simultaneously the three of us leapt out of the pool and grabbed Salt by the arms and legs. He was the only person not wearing swimming trunks and so it took him by complete surprise. He yelled and struggled, shouting for help. Josh looked on in amusement as the others shouted encouragement. I nodded to Tom and he told Georgina to move back. She did so, starting the camera that activated through the palm of her hand.

On a telepathic count we threw my twin into the swimming pool, howling with laughter.

Salt coughed and spluttered and thrashed his way up to the surface, white hair covering his eyes. He flicked it upwards and the same bikini swooners sighed at him. He glanced over in mild concern, swimming to the side of the pool and dragging himself out like a dead seal.

"You two," he growled, hair wilting so that he looked like a sheepdog, "are dead."

Salt burst into a sudden sprint, breaking Tom and I apart so that we ran in opposite directions. Salt chased me whilst the bikini bunch chased Tom, screaming with joy. It made me laugh to know that he would probably end up caught, covered in kisses and then abandoned against a wall.

"Catch me if you can!" I taunted, running backwards with ease. Salt stopped his sprint and narrowed his eyes. I felt a rush of emotions crowd my brain, pain and sadness overwhelming. I fell to my knees with a cry, clutching at my head.

As unexpectedly as the emotions arrived they vanished.

"What did you do?" I gasped, looking up at Salt with anxious eyes.

"Used your own subconscious emotions against you," he shrugged.

"Stay out of my brain in future, please."

"Only if you never throw me into water and sunlight again."

"Agreed." I held out my hand in a peace agreement. Salt reluctantly took it, looking at me through narrowed eyes. I used him to pull myself upright before blurring away to look for Tom.

I found him against a grey painted wall, looking around anxiously. When he spotted me he at first jumped and then calmed down.

"Have they gone?" he asked in a soft voice. I nodded and walked over.

"Did Salt catch you?"

"Only by invading my personal brain," I said grumpily.

"Been there, done that," Tom shrugged. "No big deal."

"No big deal? It felt as if my brain were splitting apart!" I cried. Tom shrugged again and glanced to his left, still looking for those girls. To pay him back for his comment I started to search for them, peering about the poolside.

Within seconds I'd seen them and knew they were in earshot. I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled.

"Oi! Ladies!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. They all turned and saw me with a cowering, furious, shirtless Tom just behind me.

"Come and get him!" I blurred away before Tom or the girls could do anything for me. Tom's slightly panicky cries for order and help rang in my ears as I made my way back to my sunlounger and back to a nice, dry towel with only one girl hankering after me.