On Hawaii

I awoke lying down, turning to see grass on all sides of me.

"That was some illusion," I sarcastically said, sitting up, groaning from the pain that began coming from the center of my chest.

"Why is it still there." I went to lift my shirt, seeing the clean-cut running up my chest entirely bloodless. "That's strange."

Now that I was up, I was able to get a clearer view of what was around me.

It wasn't just grass but beds of flowers, other small mountains, and even an ocean that ran alongside a black sand beach. Then off in the distance, I saw what seemed to be a woman crouched down as her hot pink hair flowed in the wind.

"That's probably Rose," I mentioned to myself, walking over to him.

I heard my feet rustle and brush against the grass as I approached him, thinking about what to say after what I saw.

"Geez, I had no idea that he could have been dealing with that," I complained, rubbing my eyes.

"So it was you," he said as soon as I reached him.

"What are you talking about?"

"I finally remember," he continued, "why I had the feeling to choose you that day."

"Are you joking? That was an illusion of your past." I clarified. "I just happened to be there because we shared the effect."

"Then was I in your flashback?"

That's when It dawned on me. Rose wasn't in mine. My flashback was just as I remember it, other than the fact that I had the advantage the most recently.

So then, if Rose wasn't in mine, then how did I get in his.

"Something happened," he broke my train of thought, "and the best idea I have is that while I was trapped here, you were off at some different point in time, and I'm guessing that was when my village was attacked."

"How could I even move through time?" I knew I had a worried expression but didn't care to change it. "It doesn't make any sense."

"I'm not sure either," I could physically see him trying to wrap his head around the situation as he said that. "I've never heard of it happening to anyone or anything before."

"If it was real, then wouldn't it be weird that I just showed up out of nowhere," I reasoned in an attempt to debunk his claim.

"You came in during a ceremony." he pointed out. "In fact, I noticed you, and now I know why you were looking at me like that then."

"So that would mean that it would be hard to notice a new face."

"And the thing that set off the red flag was when you were instantly able to close the distance to take the guy's knife."

"Well, I had some practice," I laughed off.

"Yeah, but that's beside the point. Spill it." He tried sounding intimidating. "How did you pull that off?"

"Trust me, if I knew, I would tell you." I put both hands up in front of me, claiming innocence. "But on that topic, why did you lie about your magic affinity?"

"What," he genially sounded confused. "Oh," his eyes widened, and he calmly looked down to his side. "I'm sure you can guess why."

Is he serious, I thought to myself.

"Yes, I am," He responded.

How can he read me? " How is it that you can read my thoughts, but I can't read yours?"

"It's weird," he explained, "your thoughts are like a stream that comes in when the dam brakes."

"So you went snooping around?" I sounded disappointed.

"What else did you expect me to do." He stood up, meeting my eyes. "We actually turned out to have some things in common and other things not so much."

"Are you implying that I should attempt to break into your mind?"

"Not at all," he reassured me, "You're not much of a thinker anyway, so I'm assuming you don't like to process much information, but you definitely can."

"Yeah," I agreed, wanting to end the conversation, "I'll leave that to you. Um, now can you wake me up?"

Without a word from him, my vision went dark as soon as I finished saying that.

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"Good, he didn't ask too many questions," Rose continued to himself. "That brings me back to my earlier point, just how did he travel through time, and why wasn't punished?"

Rose began changing the scenery, fitting it to a small urban setting sporting a similar atmosphere as Zackson's island.

"I remember his professor mentioning something about how strong emotions could enhance magical performance, but there must be something more," he reasoned.

He began frantically searching back through Max's memories, noticing a trend in the past day or so.

"He's been calling for me. That was his desire, the driving force, then there was me, who was trapped in complete darkness."

He paused for a moment with one thing still bothering him.

"Could it be that it's fictional," he questioned. "No way, anyone with heightened ethereal detection definitely felt that wave rush overall when the white gate opened up. Maybe they just haven't made a decision yet, but I still have to keep watch, and even maybe this new time ability can help me get my body back."

——————————————————————

"What is this," the double-ringed creature asked himself as he felt a shift in the time order.

He rushed over to the display board that showed the 20 worlds under his command, seeing the shift that occurred on earth.

He immediately located Max on a yacht heading to Hawaii. At a closer glance, it couldn't help but notice the aura coming off of him.

Could they be related, he thought, recognizing it as a mark left behind by the thing it's been searching for.

It further searched the ship seeing that Jacob had the same air around him and felt disappointed.

Maybe it's just a coincidence. Even so, they have a trace, it must mean that some sort of contact was made, and if I could grow that aura around them, I'm sure even that thing will become curious.

——————————————————————

"Hey, wake up," I heard softly come through as I felt the motion of someone lightly shaking me.

"You won't wake him up like that," I heard another respond in disapproval. "Let me show you how it's done," they continued, followed by the feeling of being in a 3.0 earthquake.

"Okay, I'm up!" I shot up in bed, grabbing the wrists of whoever was violently shaking me.

"See what did I say, Ophelia," Stella smugly looked at the both of us as she pulled away from my grip.

"Are we there," I asked, getting on my feet, seeing the morning sky.

"Yup," Stella confirmed, handing me a white t-shirt, black jeans, and the baseball cap I had bought before.

"Hurry and get changed," Ophelia smiled as she began to leave the room, "Jacob is already unloading our things, so don't be late."

"Yeah, and clean all the gunk you have on your face," Stella laughed, following behind her.

Gunk?

I ran over to the bathroom mirror, seeing that my face was marked up with the words "sleepy boy" on my forehead, along with black tears coming from my left eye and cat whiskers on both sides of my face.

"Really," I tonelessly said, "this was the best she could do."

I washed it off, changed into my new clothes, and headed off the ship.

The port had a big bright blue sign that read, "Welcome to Honolulu, Hawaii." Some ships were organized parallel to each other, and steel towers stood near the corners that viewed far over the ocean water.

"You're finally up," Jacob surprised me with a pat on the back. "Every time I went to check on you, you were sound asleep," he walked by me, carrying the final things from the ship.

I followed next to him as my stomach grumbled, realizing that I hadn't eaten for at least 3 days.

"Here," Jacob reached into the right pocket of his backpack, pulling out a granola bar and point it towards me.

I grabbed it without hesitation, thanking him as I did so, then finished it before reaching the others.

"Good, now that we're all here," Cristal said, handing us rolled-up maps of the inner city. "Our first priority is to memorize the layout of the city. This includes street names, local stores, and landmarks. We will scour the city in search of any new portals that appear and report them back immediately-"

The sound of Cristal's ringtone interrupted her speech.

"Sorry, I must take this," She said, pulling out her blue flip phone, placing it to her left ear. "Hello. Yeah, we just arrived. Alright, we're on our way."

She placed her phone back into her pocket, quickly handed each of us an armband, using her electromagnetism. They were light red with the US Flag sewed onto them with the words "US Service" under them.

"Change of plans," she began walking off the port. "Two portals just appeared in a department store between Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeaumoku Street; we'll neutralize those first."