My alarm gets me up just in time to make it to today’s meeting. I roll out of bed and messaged Dylan and Sarah that I would be going by myself today. I just feel like biking to sort through my thoughts. They replied that they’d meet me there.

I walk downstairs, following a familiar smell.

“Good morning Allen! Are you hungry?”

“Eggs?”

“Yes, indeed!”

My mom hardly makes anything else.

“Alright, thanks.”

I took my time to eat. There is still some hesitation in me because of how real the last meeting was.

“Something wrong, sweetie?”

“No, but these eggs sure are delicious!”

“I’m glad. Take as many as you want.”

I finished up my eggs and left.

Biking is great. It’s fun and healthy. The feeling of the breeze in my hair is amazing.

Just before I got to the abandoned school building, I stop at a nearby gas station. I was thirsty and figured I could stop and buy a soda. Actually, I guess the school isn’t ‘abandoned’ anymore. We occupy it now.

What should I get… maybe a root beer? I’ll go with that. I don’t want to be late.

Picking up my drink, I head to the cashier and check out.

“Come again!”

The bell on the door chimes as I leave.

I crack open my pop and take a sip.

Refreshing.

“Don’t move,” A threatening voice sounds behind me.

I stop and fear overcomes me. A freezing cold chills the back of my neck making me jump a bit. It feels like a blade made of ice. It’s pressed a little into my neck and draws warm blood.

“Good. Now hand over your gem. Reach into your pocket and slowly reveal it.”

This man. He camped by our meeting place where he knew we’d show up, but waited for a single straggler to appear by themselves.

Having no choice, I gently grab my gem.

This horrible person. I hope he gets what’s coming to him. The world would be better off without scum like him. He should just die already.

No… I can’t wait around for someone else to punish him. I need to punish him myself. That’s right. He’s a villain. He’s evil. So I have to do something. No god will punish him for his actions. I’ll erase him from this world so he can’t hurt anyone else.

I’ll kill him.

Adrenaline surges through me.

“Hey is that you, Allen?” Dylan calls out to me from a car.

The attacker, not willing to take on more than one person pulls the weapon away and takes off. He escapes into an alley before I can catch his face.

“That was Luke right? What was he doing?” Dylan recognized him immediately, he couldn’t have see his face either.

“That bastard tried to mug me for my gem!”

“What? No way, Luke did?”

Did Dylan know him well or something?

“Damn! He got away! We need to tell the others about this.”

I get on my bike and speed off. Dylan says something but it’s too late. I’m already gone. I’m way too pissed off to participate in a civil conversation right now.

Furious, I stomp into the meeting room. Dylan and Sarah try to catch up close behind.

“Luke attacked me.”

Kyle nonchalantly looks up, unsurprised.

It was Simon, Kyle, and Christina that were there. Rachel and Luke skipped.

“Where’s Rachel?”

“She said she had something important to do,” Kyle responds, “Anyway, what was that about Luke?”

“He put a cold knife to my neck and demanded my gem. Dylan called out to me and scared him off.”

“I see… this fell apart faster than anticipated. Maybe it’s better we never hold another meeting. At the very least, Luke is out for us. If another person secretly wanted to steal our gems, it would be all too easy grouped up like this. I recommended that we never hold another. However, it is still important to keep in touch. I will give you all each other’s contact information before you go.”

“Thanks, Kyle.”

Simon looked horrified at the news, “You were attacked? That’s crazy! Are you hurt?”

“Oh, now that you mention it,” I showed him the shallow cut on the back of my neck.

Simon’s hand touches my cut. It stings for a moment, but then the pain disappears entirely. Along with the cut itself.

“That’s amazing. Thanks.” I’m still not used to the powers so it feels so fantastical.

He smiled with the most genuine face I’d ever seen.

“I’m glad I could help!”

Once again, I noticed the wrap on his wrist.

“What happened to your hand? Can’t you heal it?”

“Oh, that. I fell on it and it got sprained. It appears that my power can’t heal me, only others.”

“That’s inconvenient.”

That’s also his biggest weakness! Does he really feel comfortable telling me that? I figure that if I ask him why he told me, I would only hurt our trust.

“You better not get any wise ideas now that you know how his power works. Not like that idiot, Luke,” Christina making threats like usual. Although, I suppose that could be seen as cute with her standing up for Simon, who am I to say though?

“Of course not. I just got attacked, myself.”

Kyle gets us back on track, “At any rate, we need to notify Rachel and decide what we should do about Luke. It’s not Simon or Christina’s problem though.”

“Why not? We’re in this together!” I retort.

“Well Luke goes to North East too. Now that he failed his first attempt, he will have to assume we won’t be meeting here anymore. If he wanted to take someone’s gem, it would be the people right at his doorstep. The only ones here who go to North East are you three and Rachel. In other words, his targets. I suggest forming a group with Rachel and sticking together for now. As long as you remain close, he can’t attack. It would also be wise not to let him know where you live. I don’t believe that he’d go as far as to attack your relatives, but caution is always wise.”

Kyle seemed prepared for a scenario like this. From his word choice, he was expecting it. You’d think that something that he himself openly calls “paranoia” would be less helpful.

“You’re right. Can you help arrange a meeting with the three of us and Rachel tomorrow at school? I don’t have her contact yet and I’m sure she knows you better.”

“Of course. I’ll mediate between you and notify you when the plans are set up.”

Kyle is surprisingly reliable. Well, maybe it isn’t surprising. He did find seven ability users in the time it took me to find two. I’m starting to think it might be impossible for Kyle to have missed any. We may be the only users, at least in this city.

“I know Luke pretty well. We used to be good friends. I’m sure that we can solve this peacefully. So… I’ll talk with him,” Dylan slowly and carefully talked, his face somber and determined. He is usually upbeat and loud all the time.

So Luke and Dylan used to be friends? With his old friend having just attacked someone, he must be confused. I’m sure that when they were friends Dylan wouldn’t have thought of him as the type of person to resort to violence.

Kyle disapproved, “You know him better than me, but I still think that talking it out isn’t an option. If it were, he wouldn’t have jumped someone. He’s not the talkative sort anyway. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t talk to him, but I don’t think you should. But, no matter what, I’ll be assisting you wherever I can.”

“Thank you. But, I will solve this peacefully.”

Dylan wouldn’t budge.

When it’s time for us all to leave, me, Dylan, and Sarah are the first ones to go.

“Stay safe you three!” Simon waved us off.

“Stay safe, I wouldn’t want Simon to get upset,” Christina joined in.

I couldn’t drive back with Sarah and Dylan because I needed to bring my bike home.

I parted with them and headed home.

Taking a swig of my root beer, I pedaled as fast as I could.

The next day, Monday, I got a group message from Kyle that also went to Dylan, Sarah, and Rachel. It had the time for our meeting at school today.

I ate my eggs and left for school.

I’m worried about the thing with Luke. I don’t know how to use my ability, so if Luke singles me out again, I’ll definitely lose my gem. Dylan will be fine against him with his combat skills, especially because his power of flames would counter ice.

Lunch rolls around at school and I meet with Sarah and the others on the roof.

“Hello again,” Rachel greets me.

Looks like I arrived last. Dylan and Sarah were already here.

“Hello. Did you hear the news about Luke? It looks pretty dangerous right now.”

“Yes, I heard. Thank you for allowing me to have protection in your group. I hope I can help out as well.”

We all sit in a circle on the floor to talk.

“Tell us about yourself, Rachel.” Dylan starts the conversation.

“Well, I like cooking and playing sports. I’m on the track team. Do you guys play anything?”

“I don’t,” I never liked sports.

“I used to play on the basketball team. I quit last year, though,” Dylan said.

Sarah speaks up too, “I play on the softball team.”

“That’s fun. I played softball when I was little, but my favorite part was the running, so I switched to track. I know the rules so maybe we could gather some people and play sometime?”

“Sure!” Sarah looks happy to already have something in common with Rachel.

“Actually, I always feel like I’ve seen you around, Rachel, but I still can’t really remember much about you. Did you just transfer in or something?” It’s been bothering me for a while.

“No. I’ve been going here my whole life. We’ve even shared a home room a few times.”

“Urk-” That feels bad. She has a forgettable essence to her, even more so than Sarah.

“Don’t feel bad. I don’t talk much.”

“Well, anyway,” I change the subject. “When Luke attacked me, it felt like he had a knife made of ice. His ability has something to do with that.”

“That’ll make him a good match for me!” Dylan says, “That’ll make it even safer for me to negotiate with him.”

“You still don’t know how to use yours though,” Sarah points out.

“Oh, right.”

“Me either. Can you use yours, Rachel? If not then we only have one ability to use against Luke, and it isn’t even offensive.”

“Well… I still don’t feel comfortable talking about my ability, but I can use it on command.”

“If we tell you all of our abilities, will you tell us yours?” I barter.

“… Maybe. I guess we do need to know so that we can work together. Now’s not a good time to be skeptical.”

“Are you two good with sharing?” I look to Dylan and Sarah.

“Of course!” Dylan cheers.

Sarah on the other hand, was much more reluctant. She paused for a few seconds, considering every possibility, then she responded, “I guess so.”

“Then it’s settled. My ability is unknown, even to me. I suspect it may be super speed based off of my dream, but I can’t activate it. There’s probably a trigger we don’t know.”

“Same for me, although we’ve seen mine a little and can guess that it’s the power to create fire. The only time I’ve used it, I was fighting some punks. I burnt one’s chin.”

Sarah was still hesitant.

She waited a moment and then spoke, “I can turn invisible.”

She demonstrated by disappearing and reappearing soon after.

Rachel stopped to process the new information, “I see. That’s a very useful ability. I guess I’ll uphold my end of the bargain. I can… transform to look like different people. It’s kinda weird, but I’ll demonstrate.”

Her face started shifting. The changes were very small, but to the human eye, which is so skilled at recognizing people, each subtle change made her look like a whole new person.

She slowly opened her eyes and the once beautiful blue hue had changed to brown, like my own. Actually, she looked identical to me. It was like seeing a photo of myself. The rest of her body remained the same.

“I can change the rest of my body too, but I’d have to see the target in more detail first,” Her face, my face, turned bright red. “W-wait. That sounded a bit weird. I didn’t mean to suggest that I wanted to see- Never mind.”

Her face shifted back but remained red.

Creepy.

“That’s incredible,” I try to keep the unease out of my voice.

Dylan points out, “Yeah, don’t know if it will be useful against Luke, though.”

Rachel breaks eye contact and looks off to the side. Her ability is kinda gross, so I see why she’s embarrassed. That must be why she was so hesitant.

If Rachel was hesitant because she was embarrassed about her ability, not because she didn’t trust us, then why did Sarah hesitate so much? I wonder if she is scared because of the Luke fiasco.

I start the conversation back up, “So that leaves us with zero offensive abilities to rely on. We don’t even know the extent of Luke’s ability yet. If worst comes to worst, the only one who can protect themselves is Dylan, because of his hand-to-hand fighting skills.”

“We shouldn’t worry about fighting too much,” Sarah suggests. “Dylan is planning on talking him down anyway. We should message him and ask if he wants to meet up later today.”

“I don’t think we can get through to him. He attacked me without any warning, but I guess I’ll believe in Dylan for now. I’ll message him and see if he wants to meet after school.”

“Deal.”

The serious talk ends there.

“So, what did you guys bring for lunch?” I try to lighten the mood.

Dylan brought a simple sandwich, Rachel had a can of soup, and Sarah had what looked like a whole feast! She made some sandwiches, salad, and cookies. I just bought a school lunch. It was simple mac and cheese today. I don’t have time to bring my own food with how much I sleep in. If I had my mom make it for me it would just be eggs. I figure this is the best alternative.

Dylan devours his food really fast. He finishes his sandwich before I even get a chance to eat much of my food. He looks starved still. For a person his size, he needs to eat more than one sandwich for lunch.

He eyes Sarah’s food enviously, “You’re going to eat all of that?”

Sarah takes her lunch box and spins around. She hunches over to protect her food.

“It’s mine. I made it all by myself.”

Does that mean she made the cookies too? She must be quite the chef.

“Aw, come on! You know you can’t eat all of that yourself. You’re like a third of my size. You’re even short for a girl! Can I please have some?”

Sarah silently scoots farther away.

“No! Wait come back! Is it money you want? I don’t have much of that but I can provide anything else! I can give you…,” He looks around desperately. “My undying loyalty?”

“Does that taste good?”

“Well-”

“Then no deal.”

Sarah takes another bite of one of her sandwiches.

“It was worth a shot.”

Rachel watches in amusement. You’d expect the contrast in personalities between Sarah and Dylan to make them dislike each other, but they get along really well.

Ding-Dong Dong-Ding

Before we knew it, the bell rang and it was time for the next class. Surprisingly, Sarah ate her entire meal. She has quite the stomach for someone of her small stature.

We walked down the hall together and Rachel was the first to split off. She joined a group of the most popular girls in school and started chatting like it was nothing.

Doesn’t talk much my ass! She’s a popular girl!

I split off with Sarah and Dylan and went back to my class.

The rest of the classes were boring as always and I bide my time until the end of the day.

We all decided to meet at the exit after school. The best time for Luke to attack would be as we leave, so we’ll stick together. If we see him, we’ll let Dylan talk it out.

I group up with everyone and get ready to leave. But, Dylan’s missing.

“Have you two seen him!?” I worried.

Sarah shakes her head and looks very nervous herself.

Rachel keeps her cool, “I haven’t. Something is definitely wrong. He wouldn’t be late for anything because of the circumstances. Given his personality, is it possible that he left to meet Luke on his own? I don’t know him well, but he seems like the type of person who thinks that it’s heroic to do something of that sort.”

She’s right. He has a short temper and he probably feels really betrayed by Luke. If I were in his position, if Dylan had betrayed me, I’m sure I’d do something similar. It would feel like it was my responsibility to set him straight. Maybe even my fault that he caused trouble.

“You’re probably right. Thank you, Rachel.”

She looks surprised, “No need to thank me. What is it that you’re thankful for?”

I wouldn’t have been able to think straight, not without her level head to keep me grounded. She’s already a nice addition to our team.

I slowly shake my head, unable to express my feelings.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go look for Dylan. Maybe we still have time to stop him.”

“Well, I’m not opposed to looking for him, but it may be dangerous. If things look hairy, we’ll all need to run. We shouldn’t take unnecessary risks. Where do you think he went?”

That… is a good question.

Sarah spoke up giving her silent insight, “He doesn’t have a car or a bike so he can’t have gone far. I doubt that even he is stupid enough to get in a vehicle with a potential assaulter. They had to have met somewhere near the school that is hard to view from the road. His main goal in choosing the meeting place wouldn’t be keeping us away, but uninvolved people. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was meeting at the forest-ish place beside the school. The one where he fought those thugs. It would fit all the criteria well.”

Sarah is the brains of this operation. She always had the best ideas, despite her visible nerves.

“Thank you too, Sarah. That’s perfect,” I place my hand on her shoulder and look as thankful as I can.

Her face turns red and she shrinks back, “N-no problem.”

“I think it’s worth checking out! Are you all in?”

They both look confident.

“Sweet. Let’s go find him.”

We stick close together and hug the school wall. I lead in the front while Sarah stays in the back.

We get to the corner where the forest starts and stop walking.

I haven’t added much to this group yet. All I’ve done is worry and tangle my thoughts. I’ll try playing the lead this time.

“Sarah, can you go invisible to check around the forest close to the wall? Make sure the road is clear, or rather, let’s hope it’s not.”

She gave her simple nod before vanishing.

Me and Rachel sat back nervously for around ten seconds that felt like several minutes.

Suddenly, Sarah appears in front of me out of no where. I jump back in surprise.

Covering up my start, “Did you see them?”

“No, they weren’t close. They may still be back there, but they aren’t where Dylan fought last time.”

We turn the corner and are met with the overgrown foliage and trees. We split up and glance around. Even though we’re searching for large people, it still feels safer to scan every inch of the forest.

I hear a faint voice coming from deeper in the woods. The voices come from a direction that is away from the school. The farther from the school the forest gets, the denser the trees and more plants there are. The voices lead both away from the school and road. A place where your voice can’t escape from and where eyes cannot peak. This feels like where a murder would go down.

“Sarah, do you hear those voices over there? Can you go investigate them?”

“Of course.”

Sarah fades away once again.

She pops back in a minute later.

“That’s them. Luke and Dylan. They’re in a heated argument. From what I picked up, Luke wants someone else’s gem for some reason and won’t let it go. Dylan is trying to tell him that it isn’t right to forcefully take something but Luke won’t listen.”

“Come on guys, lets go calm them down.”

“Wait. Let’s not. I suggest that we watch from a distance to see what happens. If we trust Dylan, maybe he can handle it without our help.” Rachel says.

“Thanks again, Rachel. You really help me think straight. I do trust him so we should wait close by.”

We all walk through the woods until they are both in sight but we’re hidden by bushes. We crouch down and watch.

Dylan yells, “Luke! You can’t assault someone like that, my friend like that, and expect no one to care. I’ll give you a pass because we’re friends, but you can’t do anything like that again!”

“No. That isn’t how this works. You can’t expect to convince me like that, not so easily. We aren’t friends anyway. We may have been long ago, but this is now.”

“Luke! Don’t say that! You can’t cast aside our friendship like that! We were in it together, for the long haul!”

“Dylan! It doesn’t matter now. If you want me to stop trying to steal someone’s gem, then give me your own. If you believe in our friendship so much, then prove it to me.”

Dylan looks furious at that remark.

“To cast my friendship aside like that, to demand that I give you a gem that may even kill me, to say that our friendship only exists if I give you something! You’re crossing a line! You need to swear that you won’t hurt anyone else again!”

The air heats up and a sudden warm wind blows past.

“No. I refuse. I need a gem. I need to test the hypothesis. If it’s to make my dreams come true, I must sacrifice anything. So Dylan, give me your gem, or I’ll be forced to take it.”

The gloomy figure of Luke faces the intimidating Dylan. They’re both much larger than the average person.

Embers begin to form around Dylan and he wears a pained expression of betrayal and fury.

Noticing the change, Luke activates his own ability. Small particles of ice float around the air, reflecting light, glittering.

Luke’s face stays cold and unforgiving. He isn’t mad, he looks the same gloomy way he always does. He stares down Dylan with eyes like ice.

Winds of both cold and hot begin to swirl around. The trees rustle and they both prepare themselves.

“Fine then! If you will not submit, then I will take your gem by force!”

“I’m sorry, old friend, but you’ve never beaten me in a fight. Even though you’re no match to me, just for you, I will go all out!”