Misc. Writings: Tale of the Fanta

“UUUUUGH! We’ve been walking for hours!” Emily said with a sigh. She and a group of friends were off in the rainforest, searching for some strange energy sign Penny had picked up.
“Walking builds character.” Sismic said nonchalantly.
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT CHARACTER I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT GETTING A REST”
“We got something.” John interrupted, his watch beeping.
“Energy signal?” Trenton asked.
“You got it. Can’t identify it. Looks like it’s coming from some ruins or something.” John replied. “Penny, can you get me satellite view?” The watch beeped and the words “Sure thing!” appeared on the watch with a smiling Penny face.
“…soooo what do you think this thing is?” Emily asked.
“It’s gotta be something cool!” Maddy shouted, running up behind the group. Emily literally jumped in the air – she hadn’t been with the group earlier. Turning around, Emily spotted Madelynn, Jon and Eon there, with a floating TV monitor showing off Ryan’s face.
“What are you guys doing here?!” Emily asked, flailing her arms cartoonishly.
“Trenton contacted us and we decided to follow you.” Ryan replied.
“Besides, we figured more people looking for this thing couldn’t hurt.” Jon said.
“Jon’s right.” Trenton replied. “More eyes, more of a chance of finding this thing.”
“Is that where we’re going?” Sismic asked, pointing ahead. Pushing aside a leaf to see what Sismic was pointing at, John laid eyes upon a classic Malaysian temple. He looked at his watch to verify his coordinates.
“Yep. Satellite view confirms this.”
“Then what are we waiting for?! LET’S GO!” Maddy shouted, taking out a whistle and flags before marching along like the most enthusiastic tour guide. Jon and Eon shrugged at each other as the group followed Maddy inside the temple.

Entering the ruins, Maddy looked around a bit… and couldn’t see anything. “Wow, it’s dark in here.”
“Let me help with that.” Sismic replied. Snapping his fingers, he created a ball of fire. Throwing the fireball forwards, he then pulled it back and forth in order to light up all the torches in the room. Emily walked forwards… but was then pulled back by the collar of her shirt by John.
“GEH! What the hell was that for?!” she asked.
“Another step and you would have landed on that pressure plate.” John explained, pointing to the barely-visible plate. “I saw the light reflecting off of it before Sismic lit all the torches. This place is booby-trapped.”
“No duh.” Eon replied. Transforming into Kitsune form, he hopped around the room looking for traps. Seeing nothing, he rejoined the group and returned to being human. “All clear. Probably.”
Taking care to avoid the pressure plate, the group all made it to the end of the hallway where a single wall blocked the way forwards.
“Pppppth.” Maddy tongued. “There’s nothing here.”
“Not true.” Trenton replied, going over the wall with his finger. “Sismic, some more light.”
Sismic opened his palm, creating another fireball. The wall was covered with moss, but behind the moss was something strange. Sismic burnt away the moss, allowing Trenton to read it.
“It’s like some sort of rune alphabet or something. Like hieroglyphics.” Trenton stated. “I don’t know what language this is, though.”
“I can search for reference from here at the lab.” Ryan said, tapping away at a computer. “Found it. It’s Skrull. Rough translation is ‘If you can read this then you are a huge Marvel Comics nerd.’”
“How do you pronounce it in the original language?” John asked, trying to test a theory.
“Si puedes leer esto, entonces eres un gran nerd de Marvel Comics.” Ryan responded.
“The hell?! That’s spanish!” Sismic replied. He was cut off short, however, as the door started to rumble as it fell into the ground. “Why is Skrull Spanish?!”
“I guess it just is.” John replied, and the group continued onwards.

Eventually, they came to an underground lake. Maddy took the lead here, using her trusty pen and paper to create a boat for the group to sail across. As they sailed, however, something dropped down from the ceiling to attack them. Specifically, cyborg monkey golems.
“WHY THE F&$% ARE THERE CYBORG MONKEY GOLEMS HERE?!” everyone shouted at the same time. John turned his watch, and holographic figures appeared on a turnwheel around the watch. John slammed his fist on the watch when it was over Rex, and transformed into his Mega Man OC. Eon went Kitsune mode and Maddy drew herself some fencing blades. Trenton pulled out a ray gun and put on his math visor, and Sismic summoned more fire. TV-Screen Ryan put himself in front of Emily and Jon, who as far as the group knew weren’t able to do anything yet.
Rex (John) fired off some X-Blasts, sending them reflecting off of the walls and slicing some of the cyborg monkey golems apart. Trenton and Sismic provided covering fire (literally in Sismic’s case) for Eon to rush up and tackle a cyborg monkey golem, tearing its head off. Two landed on the boat, but were instantly cut to pieces by Maddy and her swords.
“Did you see me there, Jon?! I was kick-ass!” Maddy boasted before being hauled into the air by two cyborg monkey golems.
“Oh, of course they have wings.” John responded, launching another X-Blast at the two. They dodged, but Eon jumped right onto the back of one, tearing at it. All of a sudden, Jon could be heard screaming.
“LEAVE EVERYONE ALONE!” Jon shouted, light red tendrils of energy coming out of him and slashing apart the monkeys. Once they were all dead, Jon crouched down, shivering.
“…well, I guess we know what his power is now.” Sismic said, walking over.
“You alright, Jon?” Maddy asked.
“Fine… fine.” Jon responded. Suddenly, the boat shook with an impact. They had reached the end of the river.

The eight adventurers descended from the boat onto hard marble, and the boat vanished. Maddy no longer felt the need to waste her energy sustaining it. John and Eon returned to normal as the group came to a door. There was a name on it that made the group shake.
“Emily.” Trenton read aloud.
“Think it means you?” Eon asked, turning to Emily.
“That would make practically no sense.” Ryan said. “The structure of these ruins indicates they’ve been here for at least two thousand years. Unless we have a time traveler here (which in this world wouldn’t be completely implausible for a particularly powerful Charm to have) then this couldn’t possibly be referencing Emily.”
“There’s a handprint here.” John said, putting his hand up to it. Nothing happened. “How about you try, Emily?”
Emily nodded, walking up and putting her hand on the wall. She was the only one among her friend group who wasn’t a Charm, and was sad about it. John could transform into his OCs, Sismic had fire magic, Trenton could create technology at will, Maddy could turn drawings into real objects, Eon could transform into a Kitsune and Ryan had an IQ of over 300. Hell, even Jon had a power now – those weird energy tendril things.
Suddenly, the door opened. Emily stepped back, gasping.
“It… it worked?!”
As the door opened, the group peered inside to find a circular chamber with a single table inside. And on the table was… a can of orange Fanta?
“The hell is this?” John, Sismic and Eon all asked at the same time.
Maddy walked up and dashed around the table a few times before standing in front of the group and nodding, happy with herself. “After intense observation I can say with total confidence that this is a can of orange Fanta.”
“Observation of the year.” Trenton said sarcastically. Meanwhile, Ryan was losing his mind.
“Wh- how- why- what- WHAAAAAA?!” Ryan exclaimed, a circuit blowing on the monitor.
Emily simply smiled. She was incredibly thirsty, and could use a drink. It didn’t matter why this was here, how she had been able to open the door or what that energy source was. Not to her at least. With that can right in her sight, all she could think of was how thirsty she was. Emily walked over and grabbed the can.
Then it happened.
As Emily grabbed the can, energy coursed through her body. Everyone in the room knew what was happening – it had happened to them as well. In order to become a Charm, a certain object crossed the path of the person. A single interaction would boost their energy to incredible degrees, and allow them to activate their own unique power. Emily screamed in pain as her energy fluctuated, her body attempting to compensate for the new boost. Then the can of Fanta exploded, sending steam coursing through the room.

When John lifted his arm from his eyes, he saw something incredible. Emily was down ass-first on the ground with another strange person lying down beside her. Emily opened her eyes and instantly shot up, the mysterious girl doing the same.
“WHO THE F%$# ARE YOU?!” they both said at the same time, pointing at each other.
“W-well, I’m Emily.” Emily replied. “A-and you?”
“Sicily Armani Grazziani.” Sicily responded.
“Wait, WHAT?!” Emily shouted, shocked. She then began to circle Sicily, looking her over. “…all the details match… you’re my OC?!”
“Wait, but then that means…!” John said.
“Congratulations, Emily. We’ve figured out what your power is… and that you’re a Charm.” Trenton said with a smile.
“AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWEEEEEEESOOOOMEEEEEEEE!” Emily shouted, jumping up in the air.