---

With a disgusted sound, she closed her fingers around the child's face, tight enough to shut the mouth and pull at the skin.
"Persequere!" Pursue!

Eyes snapping close, the laughing growing distorted to her. Liz felt like she was flying, the forest trees flying past before she settled on a clearing nearly a half mile into the woods. There the children were appearing before her eyes, and the laughing was coming from her mouth.

Releasing the child, Liz opened her eyes, the laughing having stopped.

"I know where to go. North, maybe five minutes if we walk fast. I don't care if you follow, but I'm going to go save my sister from... Whatever this thing is," Liz said in a subdued voice. "But...I could really use help."

With a quick sleep spell on the child, Liz turned and took off into the forest in the same direction Chef had.

---

As she neared the clearing she had seen, she slowed to a stop. Above her was the mean one. "You actually going to help me this time?" She called up to him. "Because of you this thing has my sister. It's threatened us and her."

Everything going on was quite confusing. And it wasn't the teens that were able to do all kinds of crazy things. She was one of them after all. No it was more the children that were apparently possessed. Possession wasn't a thing Lydia ever believe in but it did take her back to stories her father told her when she was younger. Ghosts, demons, living inanimate objects all kinds of things With her tendency to wander she assumed it was to scare her into staying indoors or going too far.

With the group of kids having fled any plan she had in her head for the moment fell flat. This coupled with the new voice from the one the lizard man had managed to subdue pretty much confirmed to her that whatever she was dealing with here was supernatural in some way. Everyone else probably had come to that conclusion well in advance but Lydia's train of thoughts were like a bowl of spaghetti.

The girl who apparently had her sister dragged off was justifiably angry and went off in the direction of the kids. While she missed what happened before her arrival she assumed that there had been some kind of conflict. But she did make it apparent that she needed help. After thinking through her options she decided to follow. While initially it might seem odd that a total stranger would help it made sense to Lydia. And that reason may be totally selfish. It had less to do with the girl that had been taken or that the others had powers like her. No it was because she lived in this neighborhood and she was worried that this thing would harm her parents.

Keeping pace with Marksman she stopped at the base of the tree. "If I have a little time I can take care of the demons." The possessed was what she meant, but once a term got stuck in her head she tended to use it. Since she had anticipated discharging more electricity earlier she she was a bit antsy and havinmg trouble sitting still.

Curtis kept his grip on the possessed child, he wasn't very pleased with the girl making threats, he understood why she was but that didn't mean he had to be a fan. The kid started speaking seeming confident given his situation but that facade was short lived the boy quickly descending into a panicked state. He was about to deliver them the information then screaming, the horrid screaming. Kurt could barely maintain his grip on the child, he felt awful, this kid was in utter agony and all Kurt could do was hold onto him and watch. It was gut wrenching. This mortifying display did not last long as the child seemed to instantly regain his composure somehow. What the hell? Suddenly the boy spoke in tongues making sounds that Kurt couldn't even imagine, the boys voice was now replaced with something... Else. Most likely the monster behind all of this.

The change was disturbing to say the least, and Curtis was actually worried that whatever had possessed this kid might be able to leech of into him via skin contact. But the fear of that was outweighed but what might happen if he let the kid go. Kurt listened to the hellish voice warn them about what would happen if they pursued. He didn't care for it, yes it was intimidating, but what was he meant to do? Just go back to the mansion knowing full well there were still so many children under the control of this freak? No way, that wasn't an option. The demon started laughing only to be quickly silenced by the girl who's sister had been taken. She then did some sort of magic,
whatever it was, it went straight over Kurt's head. Somehow she knew where the monster was hiding. He wasn't going to question it, he didn't have any clue on where the dark pit this thing would be lurking in, so her direction was better than nothing. "You can count me in, this monster has to be taken down." Thankfully the magical girl put this one child to sleep, he gently put the child into the boot of the van, get him out of the rain at least. He looked back to see that the others had already started heading off, he quickly locked up the van and headed after them.

Curtis was far slower than the others due to his shoulder wound and his cumbersome frame, he missed Lydia's statement about being able to deal with the kids given some time. After eventually catching up Kurtis tried shifting the bandages on his shoulder around to try and cover the wound better. Unfortunately it didn't do much besides hurt a lot, he hissed and stopped his fiddling. "So... Do we have a plan?" Kurt's voice sounded a little agitated, he was still in quite a lot of pain from his shoulder wound. He really hopped that whatever was behind these possessed children wasn't as physically powerful as the demon he fought in the training "simulation".

Ally shuddered at the chilling voice that came from the small child. It was bad enough seeing him twist and writhe in pain, but to see a real possession was something entirely different. Although not a woman of religion, she did believe in spirits and demons. Seeing something she could on believe was true actually happen in front of her was definitely world shifting, especially since the evil side of her beliefs proved true. She tried to ignore this as the child went to normal.

Ally followed Liz into the forest, trying to keep a midway point between Liz and Kurt so Kurt didn't fall back too much due to his lack of speed. "We'll do whatever it takes to get your sister back," Ally assured Liz as they came to a stop. Her words didn't necessarily speak for everyone, but they certainly spoke for herself. Although separated from her family for less than a week, she missed her brother and father and would give anything to go back to them. If Liz could get her family back, Ally would help her. She hoped the others felt the same.

---

Liz had a single response to the beast.

"Over my dead body."

Knocking an arrow, she fired off several before jumping into a tree near Chef, firing several more.

With a glance around, she thought about what to do.

She didn't know what to do, actually. So she'd just keep shooting the damned thing until it died, or she died. Whichever came first, really.

No one seemed to acknowledge that she'd said anything. That was normal really. So she stepped away from the tree and group and into the clearing. Dumb move perhaps, but she had a plan and wasn't the best at articulating the things running through her head. It was like trying to catch a rabbit on caffeine. Pressing forward without seeming regard to the figure looming before her her expression was largely blank. While there was still some distance she stopped and glanced at the circle of kids around Liz's sister. Cocking her head to one side she looked at the sky for a moment.

Bringing her attention back to the monster she pointed back at the group of children. "How do we sacrifice her?" There were about a hundred different ways this could go wrong. To some extent she was relying on her difficulty to read. People usually had a tell when they were lying but she had a way of being blunt. She'd also cooperated with the boy from before. Her fingers twitched slightly. She was building a positive charge which was bound to result in her getting struck. She wasn't close enough just yet so she was risking getting hit by a bolt of lightning prematurely.

The monster began approaching the teenagers. As it advanced, heavy thudding was made from beneath its feet. It was almost as if the ground itself shook. Its jaw lowered to release a heavy roar. The size of the beast was overwhelming to look and hear at. "You had your chance to run," he mocked. The forest monster picked up his speed as he began closing the distance between himself and the teens.

He held his arm out as the arrows struck. His tree=trunk of arms were able to deflect them easily. During that moment, his throat vibrated. The bastard chuckled, not phased by the desperate attack. It demonstrated as he kept pushing eventually getting into close vicinity to Kurt.

Figuring that the man sporting the lizard skin had the most physical strength out of all the teens, he chose him as the first target. He simply lifted one leg, stamping to Kurt's chest to knock him into the surrounding trees.

The kids around the unconscious girl blinked a few times at the question. They did not expect the teenager to become interested in the sacrifice. Most of them growled and began stepping closer to the electric woman. "We first need to cut her wrists." One of the kids spoke up. His head swiveled to the left and right, he overall became concerned if this woman was trustworthy.

---

If you were a bit of a knowledge seeker, or you considered yourself as a bookworm, you probably would find a home at the city's library. The place remained quiet for your avid reader. People who were regulars would isolate themselves in the private desks. It was just one of the gifts the library had to offer. A lot of politicians donated to the building thus giving the library more essentials.

As of now, the library stood two stories high. There were long tables in the middle for anyone to read out in the opening. Around the corners of the building, private study rooms were available. These rooms had specific rules regarding that a single person couldn't use it; they needed to have more than one person given that it's for study groups.

Not that many employees resided in the book place. There was the librarian in the front, helping out others with questions. Some employees were picking up abandoned books on the table and returning them to the shelve. All that could possibly be heard was the constant page flipping or an allergy sufferer.

---

---

Entering the cyber cafe meant getting hit by a cloud of cotton candy scent. The place that allowed the use of their computers recently passed the rule that people can vape or smoke hookah inside. Clouds of smoke reached the ceiling and would then disipate. Usually, they had a fruity flavor attached to them: Apple Jack cereal, cherry, etc. There were a handful of employees.

One was directed to the front to receive payment. He was also in charge of distributing the snacks. They had several junk food items for sale. On top of that, they ordered a shipment of refrigerated coffee and energy drinks. This really hit it off with the regulars. The other employees walked around seeing if everything was up to the code and standard of the place. They also made certain that people were not using the computer after the amount that they paid for.

Some individuals found the computers to use for college work. It was concerning how one could focus in this place. Everyone else would happidly play one of the roleplaying games downloaded on the computer. The sound of people munching on their snacks was unavoidable too.

“You can’t smoke that in here,” Todd the owner told him.

He took in one more inhale of his cigarette and let it rise to the ceiling of the cyber cafe. He slowly put it out on the concrete, using his left leg to kick open the door. Julian gave Todd a look, “Let everyone smoke their fruity flavored embalming fluid in here, but not let someone smoke a regular cigarette. Do you see a problem with that? That’s discrimination on how people want to kill themselves slowly from the inside.”

“You can’t smoke cigarettes indoors anyway,” Todd tells him.

“You could in the 30s, 40s, even the 60s,” he replies, “What if someone doesn’t wanting to smell someone’s chemical cocktail of just water? Except you wonder how they get those flavors in there. Probably chemicals.”

“Why are you here Julian?” Todd asked.

He points to someone’s his age,“Meeting Chester.”

“It’s Chase,”

“Chase, I mean,”

Todd raises a brow and says nothing as he slips in as elegantly as a cat who just got struck by a bus, wrapping his arm around Chase who has just bought himself something to drink while working on a computer somewhere around here, Julian smiles at the somewhat chubby kid. He counted, ten, fifteen dollars.

“You could bother to learn my name before asking for my help,” Chase tells him.

“If I bothered to know your name we both would be wearing ankle bracelets,” Julian tells him patting his shoulder, “I counted fifteen dollars you pulled out. Get me something. Pretty please.”

Chase sighs.

“You could be nicer about asking me,” Chase tells him.

“I did, I said pretty please,” Julian replies.

Chase, “Coffee and some snacks?”

“That would be lovely,” Julian tells him, “Where is your computer at?”

Chase points, “But don’t get on it, You’re not even allowed to get on it.”

“I’m just sitting down, don’t be that way,” Julian slinks over, passing rows of people on computers. Some doing homework. Someone’s playing an online game, probably trying to bypass mom’s watchful eyes. This near a computer was a tempting sin. He isn’t just into computers, as his mother put it. He understood computers. The hum and whine of the fan was near as close as being able to read a human beings emotions. He could vision the binary code passing through the processor and onto the screen. His connection with computers is just as connected as one might be with another human being or an animal hoarder was to an animal.

He could tell when a piece of electronics was hurt, just in the way it hummed and whine. He could feel when a computer was being pushed to its limits. Forced to power through. He could tell when a system was weak and what system had muscles. It wasn’t just that he liked computers, they were a second being to him.

His mother didn’t get that. Neither did his father. And he was certain the government would have shipped him off to be part of some experimental project if he told them any of that. He was certain instead of being placed in jail or monitored the way he was now, he could have had a cliche superhero origin story. In his current lexicon of storytelling this was the least impressive. Got arrested. Then was released on house arrest.

Chase slides the coffee on the table and hands him some chips.

“Ah thanks,” Julian tells him.

“You didn’t touch the computer?” Chase ask.

Julian nods, “Scouts honor. But I uh have to check up on some emails.”

Julian’s standing up now, to stretch his back. These chairs were mighty uncomfortable. Chase gives him a side glance.

“I am not falling for that one,” Chase tells him.

“Ah come on,” Julian says standing behind Chase’ chair, “I promise I won’t,” he begins to thrust the back of Chase’ chair, “anyone’s computer.”

“Do you have to make me look like you’re pushing me around?” Chase ask him.

Julian shrugs.

“Let’s face it, you are being push around by me,” Julian pauses, “But that’s because you were too much of a sissy bitch to tell them how I got in the first place. Through your father’s security code.”

Chase face pales. He gets up from his chair quickly and Julian slides into the hot, moist, seat. Fat kid sweat. All right let’s see what is going on in the world. Julian begins to plug in a few keystrokes into the cmd.exe. Chase looks nervous, “You said you were-”

Julian put a fingers to chase lips, “Sssssh. I said I wasn’t going to fuck someone’s system over. I didn’t say I wasn’t doing something naughty.”

Running through the command prompt, throwing in a line of statistical algorithmic code, he was in his own backdoor. Time to plot for the next big plan.

“If the cops arrest me,” Chase mumbles.
“Misery loves company,” Julian tells him, “You can come over to my house and sleep in my bedroom. We can play prison mates.”

“I hate you,” Chase says weakly.

Oh trust me, I hate you more.

The monster was quite terrifying, even more so than any of the demonic children. So this is what was controlling them! Ally's heart pounded harder than it had ever before. Blood pumped through her veins, slightly muffling her hearing. What could she do against a huge demon like this? Punch it?

Then Liz began to shoot at the monster. It seemed unphased by these arrows. Its heavy footsteps sped towards Kurt, picking the largest target out of all of the teens to attack. Ally was frozen in place, unable to help her newfound friend out of cowardice. Each step seemed to shake the ground upon impact. Please let this be another simulation! was all she could think in the seconds it took for Kurt to make his move. Finally, Kurt was hit by the terrifying monster and knocked down.

"Dragon!" Ally shouted and began to race to help. Her skin shifted from soft flesh to hardened metal. She didn't know what she could do, but she had to act fast!

The closer she got to the monster, the more terrified she felt. The blood dripping from the living tree demon was now visible and her heart sank. Was this the blood of children? She didn't want to think about it. Her heart continued to pump as she raced through the forest. She finally had herself placed between Kurt and the monster. "Come on!" she shouted. At least if she couldn't directly damage the monster she could buy Kurt a few seconds to recover. How easily could this demon damage titanium anyway?

Marcus gritted his teeth, he witnessed the monster push back Kurt with ease. It was an unsettling sight to see how strong this forest being presented itself. The teen felt weak and stupid; he wanted to move, but could not find the courage to do so. His mind kept telling him to move forward though his body was rejecting his thought process. His legs shook and vibrated a bit.

He placed both of his hands on the tree trunk. Marcus was still in the branches, watching everything from above. He kneeled down slowly to get some blood in his calves. Knowing that his feather powerup was still intact, he stepped off the branch. Marcus then began gliding in the air; it was a lot different than flying. More so, the air current was basically carrying him.

Using the momentum and speed of his flight, he stretched out his hands to glide over Kurt and Ally. He sailed over to the monster. Though his body was not prepared, he had already begun his assault. He elbowed the horned creature in the chest before falling to the floor behind it. He scraped his elbow and knees. Knowing the feather power wouldn't really give him an offensive play, he began crawling away and up on his feet. "I'll worry about the girl!" He exclaimed.



The monster was focused on the giant lizard monster. He expected that one would become the most troublesome given its size. Even then, he found himself distracted by the other pests. First, a woman of hard metal got between them. Then a flying male struck him in the chest. The attack was awkward and not very clean. The monster simply laughed it off. "Is this it?" He could see the kid crawling away. Most likely, the flying boy realized he wasn't cut out to fight him.

The being heard the kid then speak about saving the little girl. He scoffed, "He chooses not to fight me so he decides to be a hero another way. Doesn't that make you mad? Don't worry, I will kill him the same." The forest monster proceeded to rush forward. Its arms retracted back as it prepared to give Ally a whopping punch.

---

---

The computer lab remained as busy as usual. About half of the store did share looks with each other regarding the strange man kicking the door down. His scent of cigarettes did force people to give him slight glances. The loud kick did make people wonder if a scene was going to occur. Once they realized that it was another computer nerd, they brought themselves back to their screens. One particular customer did not appreicate the rule-breaking.

A male probably in his early twenties stood up from his computer. His browser currently showed an opened page on Facebook and two other tabs for Pinterest and an article on what's the best fruit to put in a salad. His attire was one that screamed hipster. His bald, black head was covered by a beanie. His eyes were surrounded by a thick, black eyeframe though it did not carry any lenses. His wrists were covered in rubber bands with several quotes supporting his favorite tv shows. Lastly, the dude wore suspenders. A lot of other qualities were definite about the guy, but you get the picture.

He took out what appeared to be a giant battery. Placing it into his mouth, one would realize that it was just a pocket vape machine. White smoke drifted out of the hipster's nostrils as he confronted the owner of the cyber cafe. "Hello, sir. I would just like to inform you that the gentleman came in and has already broken a rule. There is clearly no smoking here. I don't like cigarrette smoke nor do I like second-hand smoking." His voice seemed flamboyant and light.

Todd the owner was helping someone else at the moment. A much, younger woman with colored highlights. She pouted and tried to show the man that she was speaking first; however, it seemed the hipster did not care at the moment. Todd was not sure what to do at the moment. Does he kick out Julian?

Ally was glad Marcus stepped in to help, even though the attack did virtually nothing. At least they were both able to buy Kurt a few seconds of rest. The monster spoke and his words were true. Marcus wasn't able to be a large force in the fight against the monster, especially not with feather powers. Contradictory to the monster's words, Ally was glad Marcus decided to go along with helping the girl. If anything he would get in the way against the monster. How could she be mad at her teammate making a smart decision? Or was it a cowardly decision?

These thoughts heavily distracted Ally to the point that by the time she saw the punch coming, it was too late. The power of the monster's blow sent her flying backwards, similarly to how it did Kurt earlier. Her head was spinning as she was knocked down onto her back. For a second she had trouble telling which was was up and which was down. She sat up, terrified by the monster's power. How could he hurt her so much in her metal state?

Ally stood, her mind refocused on the situation, but a pain in her side was bugging her. Actually, she usually never felt much pain in this form, so why was she feeling so much pain? She traced along her ribs until her fingers felt an indentation. Her jaw dropped to the floor. Never before had she been dented in this form, so what would happen when she returned to normal?

Her train of thought shifted as blood began to rain from the sky. Who's blood was this? Did the sacrifice end? Ally looked over to Kurt clawing at the demon. He could handle this, right? It looked like he had this under control. She figured if they could stop the sacrifice, it would prevent the demon from becoming anymore powerful. She cast another glance at the fighting Kurt, hoping that he could pull off his attack against the demon, before going to the ritual area.

Marcus was now attacking the children, and at this point Ally's morals were slightly bent. It didn't matter that these were children, they were vicious and menacing. Not only that, but so much magic seemed to be involved. Couldn't they just be healed?

"Need some help?" Ally asked Marcus as she reached the now breaking up circle of children, ready to fight.