Hveth here.

I almost didn't manage to write this chapter, I was so unmotivated. After a while, though, I realized that I would be letting people down if I didn't. So I got off my ass and did it. Hurray!

This is a relatively short chapter, but I feel like everything that I wanted to happen in it, happened.

P.S. Released another chapter of Throne yesterday. Go check it out!

Happy reading!

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Simon shook his mother gently. With little effort, she regained consciousness and opened her eyes.

“Si... Mon? What... Where are we?”, she said confused.

“Somewhere safe, mom. Don’t worry.”, Simon told her reassuringly.

After they had left the mall, Simon had led the small group to a local police station in the hopes of finding some help. Unfortunately, the place was deserted. Something had taken a large chunk out of the west side of the building.

After clearing the building, they made camp in one of the offices deep inside. Simon had placed his mother in one of the office chairs and dispelled the contract.

Ms. Belfonse looked around the room, spotting Tiffany and Thomas, who was still glaring at Simon hatefully.

“Simon, what’s going on? Why did you take me here?”, she asked him.

Simon sighed. “You know that super nice and friendly guy Elliot, who offered to shelter and protect us for free?”

She nodded.

“Well, he’s rounded up a militia and is going to try to take over the city. He enlisted Thomas, and every other power user under him to go to war.”, he paused. Her eyes widened in shock.

“Tiffany and I disagreed with his ambitions, so I placed Thomas under a contract that makes him follow me, and we escaped.”

“No, no, you must be mistaken. Elliot wouldn't try to do that, he’s a nice boy, I’m sure of it! Sure of it...”, despite her words, she appeared quite uncertain of the fact.

“”We must take back the city!”, was one of the things he said, I believe. Is that right, Tiff?”, Simon turned to Tiffany, who nodded affirmatively.

“Yeah, that’s right. He called all the powered people up the the ‘mart, and gave this crazy speech about taking back our homes. He’s dangerous, Mrs. Belfonse. That’s why we left.”, she explained.

She turned to Thomas, as if to ask for his perspective. Thomas looked pointedly at Simon, who sighed and said, “Alright, you can speak.”

“Fucking finally!”, Thomas exclaimed. Mrs. Belfonse normally would have admonished him for such crude language, but she was quite shaken up, and didn’t seem to even notice.

“Elliot’s not the crazy one, you are!”, Thomas said, glaring at Simon. “He only wants to help people! If he’s willing to fight for that, then so am I.”

“Thomas...”, his mother said quietly. Thomas glanced at her, and a guilty expression flashed on his face when he saw the grief on his mother’s

“You were going to try and fight those people out there... You might have gotten hurt, or even killed, and you didn’t even tell me?”, she asked him tearfully.

“It’s... It’s to help people. I was saving lives...”, he muttered, refusing to look her in the face.

“Bah, you idiot!”, Tiffany exclaimed. “You can’t do anyone any favours when you are dead! I can’t believe you bought into that bastard’s fancy speech anyway. It’s clear all he wants is control of the city. He’s like a freaking Hitler wannabe. “Kill the people who have wronged us and take back the land that is rightfully ours”, isn’t that what he was saying?”

“N-no... I... He...”, Thomas tried to say, looking like he was about to cry.

Simon sighed, and said “Alright, enough. We’re away, we’re safe. It’s no use pointing blame without enough proof of it. For all we know Elliot might want to take the city so he could hand it over to the government after, however unlikely that is. Let’s just rest for now, we’ll be able to think better in the morning. Thomas, I’m sorry, but I’ll be taking your power for now. I can’t trust you to use it at the moment, and we need someone to be able to defend in case of an emergency.”

Thomas just grunted, looking quite conflicted.

Simon pulled up his contract screen and made a few changes. He wrote that Thomas would give him his power, and Simon would return it when he saw fit. When he tried to activate it, however, a low beep sounded, and a new message appeared in front of him.

***WARNING***This contract is structured to give too much advantage to one side. Please make changes so that an equivalent exchange is made. Failure to adhere to this message may result in irreparable mental damage. Unless an edit is made, you will only have one more warning.

“Oh. Damn.”, Simon muttered, frowning. This changed things. If he was unable to create a contract that held him at an advantage, he would not be able to use his ability in combat.

As a test, Simon added that he would protect Thomas to the best of his ability, and tried to send it through. It worked, and Simon felt Thomas’ ability moving into him. Thomas, who had sat himself down in a corner, only made a low whimper.

“Alright!”, Simon said to himself quietly. He noticed that everyone else had made themselves makeshift beds, and moved to do so himself. When his was completed, he laid down, and pressed his temporary new ability, Terramancer (Master). When he did so, a pressure assaulted his brain, and everything went black.

Oh crap, just realized I wrote David instead of Simon for most of the chapter. Whoops, guess I've got Throne on the mind. Fixed now.