Consumed

"Woah," I mustered as I stared down into the gigantic pit that was at least ten meters in diameter and fifty meters deep. I could not help but be petrified from the evilness that was emitting from inside. Only Jericho didn't seem to be fazed.

"My least favorite place to be," Steph muttered.

"Get the systems set up," Jericho pointed to the equipment linked to the pit of darkness, and Steph paced towards it, clicking away on keyboards and whizzing around on computers.

"Gin, power doesn't come from your body, it comes from the brain and heart," he tapped on his chest. "Focus. I know you can do it, don't die, Gin."

Jericho and the others stepped away and a glass panel fell down that blocked me from them.

I looked into the pit of darkness and aimed my hands towards it. Power comes from the heart, his voice echoed in my head. Get out of my head! I screamed mentally. I visualized the darkness piercing into Harrison's chest, and felt the power surging through my body. Get out of my body, I willed. The die appeared in my hands, and I dropped it onto the ground. It landed on the black side - darkness. It might've been the only time I would ever hope to land on darkness manipulation.

The darkness flowed out of my hands, and flew into the container. I felt a spike of unconsciousness as my darkness merged with Jericho's, and I continued to milk the darkness out of my body. That's when I heard the hatchet to the room open. Alfonso immediately teleported, Myron braced himself, Alaric had wires ready in his hand, Steph was hiding behind Myron, and Jericho simply stared into the hatchet and gestured for me to continue.

The voice sounded all too familiar. I clenched my teeth.

"Well, well," Simon's voice chilled the room. "Gin, what are you doing?"

"Who are you?" Jericho commanded. "How did you find your way here?"

"I assume you're Jericho, the leader of you clowns. I'm not here for you, I'm here for Gin," he said as he stepped out of the darkness and I saw who he was dragging, trussed up and gagged.

"Thomas!" I shouted, halting my darkness, and ran towards them, only to bump myself into the glass and almost passing out.

"Gin, I told you the deal. Dark Accelerator, for Thomas," Simon said innocently.

"Thomas, why're you here..." I shook my head.

Myron threw himself towards Simon, ready to pounce and throw him against the wall. Simon pressed his hands on the ground and a beam of ice shot through the ground, and hit Myron in the chest, freezing him on the spot in a huge chunk of ice.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Simon laughed like a maniac.

Alaric suddenly appeared behind him, with a pipe and inches from striking his head. Simon ducked and grabbed the pipe, as Alaric seemed to disappear again, then reappeared and aimed a punch at his body. The punch landed, but was almost ineffective to Simon's build. Simon grabbed his arm, creating frost patterns, and Alaric dropped to the ground, clutching his arm from frostbite, shivering and panting.

"His arm will be useless now," Simon chuckled and I glared at him with rage, yet my body was depleted of power.

Jericho stepped up to him, with Alaric nervously twitching the corner and Steph scared to the bones. "Get out of my facility," Jericho said. Simon sized up to him, being half a foot taller, but Jericho did not faze, instead stepped closer to him and stared right into his eyes. "Get. Out."

Simon snickered, and turned around. "I give you twelve hours, Gin! I am not a patient man," he shouted as he walked out dragging unconscious Thomas and firing arbitrary beams of ice everywhere.

The glass pane between us rose, and I crawled forward to get to Alfonso, who was cradling his arm as if it were the last thing he had in his life.

"Oh... my god..." Steph stifled out as she glanced between the frozen Myron and Alaric, in pain on the ground.

"Who was that?" Jericho asked me with hints of anger in his tone and expression.

"Simon Dent, he was my classmate," I responded, trying to sit up against the wall. Jericho looked at me with scary patience. "Earlier he... he told me to give him the Dark Accelerator or..."

"Or what?" Steph urged, as he treated Alfonso.

"Or he'd kill my friend," I looked down at my hands. "Damn! If only I'd been stronger, I could've..."

"This isn't your fault," Jericho clutched my shoulder. "Alfonso, get Gordon and Violet over here as soon as possible."

"But... the enemies..." Alfonso stuttered, almost tripping.

"I don't care! We need to save them!" Jericho shouted, and Alfonso almost immediately disappeared. He looked into my eyes. "We are going to find this Simon Dent character, and we are going to bring him down."

"Are you sure this is where he is?" Jericho turned towards me, and I gazed up at The Baxton Tree, one of the tallest trees in the forest, with a beautiful color to the wood. The leaves rustled, and Jericho gestured for us to hide. Alfonso, Steph, and I stepped back into the trees as we watched Simon fall from above. We couldn't hear the voice from the distance, but we could see they were arguing. That's when Jericho threw his hands up in the air. The signal. We ran back into the forest a bit, then Alfonso touched us, teleporting to the opposite side of the tree, Simon's blind spot.

"Why can't you teleport us onto the tree?" I whispered as we ran towards the base of the tree.

"I can only teleport to places I've stepped on before," Alfonso replied, and we hit the base. We noticed there were frozen pieces of wood that stuck to the tree that acted as steps. It circled around the trunk, and hit a platform of ice at the top. "You guys stay here," Alfonso whispered. "I'll go up first and come down to get you guys. It'll be more discreet that way." We nodded as Alfonso made his way above.

We could hear the argument between Simon and Jericho clearer now, though they still weren't coherent enough to be understood.

I willed the die to appear in my hands in case anything went wrong. It had never occurred to me until now that I had landed on darkness manipulation three times already. I was nearing the limit. I... It only just suddenly came as a revelation. One or two more landings on darkness, and I... I might lose myself to the darkness. I felt something icy hit my head and look above in fright, only to see Alfonso saluting and bowing his head to me. I rolled my eyes and waited. And we waited. Jericho was still debating whatever with Simon, but Alfonso must've gotten up to the ice platform by now. Unless... something had happened. Simon wasn't known to be simple even back then.

"Steph, I need to go find Alfonso, something's definitely happened to him," I whispered frantically. She nodded her head 'go'.

I tiptoed my way up the ice steps, and almost lost it when I saw Simon right underneath me, almost losing my steps. I was afraid my body heat would melt the ice too. It would be a dead giveaway. It didn't take long for me to reach the platform. Only, when I got up, I saw Alfonso cradled up in the corner, unconscious. And next to him? Thomas.

"What, did you think Dent works alone?" A man's voice appeared above my head. I looked up and a hand grabbed me by the collar, lifting me up. He was a blonde, and would be your typical cowboy except his eyes were glowing white.

"Oh... I am toast..." I whispered loud enough for him to hear.

"Oh, yes," he laughed. I wondered what were the chances he and Simon were related. I dropped the dice. I was relieved to see it land on the icon of a flexing arm. Peak human body. I ripped out of his grip, as strong as it may be, and delivered a roundhouse kick to his torso, throwing him against the walls of the frozen tree base.

"Alfa! Thomas!" I snapped back to reality a second later. I untied Thomas but he was still unconscious. Alfa was on the verge of waking up. I sensed something to my right, and saw a pair of eyes in the wall close and disappear. Spies. That's when I heard someone walking up the steps. Simon!

I desperately looked for an exit in the frozen treehouse, but couldn't find anything. I was getting desperate. I considered slapping Alfonso awake, but instead I looked around for salt. I spotted a small container to the side, and spread it over Alfonso's nose.

"Woah woah, I'm awake."

"Alfonso, I need you to teleport us back to Steph right away," I urged. I pressed against Alfonso and he grabbed Thomas' hand. "Even this guy? He looks like enem-"

"Just do it!" I shouted under my breath and we teleported. I felt the trunk of the tree against my back and sighed.

"Isn't this...?" Steph started, but she stopped as she saw my eyes. "Alfonso, get Jericho, we need to go immediately."