Massive dust particles in the air were beginning to fade gently revealing a shattered building, a crystal wall and a red round aura. Few seconds later the aura faded away as everyone on board came out, and the crystal wall began to break into pieces as Delia and her SQUAD came out of it.
"Fredddda.... Fredddddda...." Zoe yelled almost shedding tears.
Zoe began to roam around in search of Freda... She was later joined by some of her classmates as they began to lift every rock and pebble on their way so they can continue the search. Zoe scattered a large rock off her way as she attempted to scrape through the ground with her hands.
Tears streamed past her face as she tried her possible best not to wail, Chiyo walked over to her and held her shoulder firmly.
She looked up to see Chiyo already giving up on finding Freda and in her eyes, she saw that she was beginning to accept that their friend is dead, Zoe shook her head in disagreement to the motion.
"No..... She isn't dead.... We just have to keep searching..." Zoe cried as she continued scrapping her fingers on the ground to push off rocks. "No it can't be.... She can't die now."
Everyone watched her as she crawl her way amongst the stones, sadness welling up in their hearts. Glen could no longer hold himself and burst into tears. Soon after Zoe joined him and wailed angrily and in agony, Jade ran towards her and gripped her in tight embrace as she struggled in his arms
Jayden pants heavily for a while as he shut his eyes in pain, the feeling inside of him could no longer be contained that he marched down to the middle of the building. He stood there for a few seconds with his arm slightly widened and clenched into fist, everyone watched him for a few seconds. He yelled as his fist made impact with the ground, sending shock waves into the area, sending clarity into those the wave shook.
"I haven't given up yet.... She's too strong to die in that blast...." He yelled. "So I won't give up on her either."
He roared as more waves spread around the building like ripples, in a matter of seconds the stones and rocks began to respond to the wave as they started lifting off the ground slowly.
They bounced as they responded to the wave Jayden emitted, and at that Ned spotted a foot and bolted towards its direction to pull it out from a rock that had trapped it though it was fruitless because the body hasn't escaped the grip of the rock that trapped it.
"Can you increase seismic intensity?" Ned turned towards Jayden.
Jayden applied more force to increase the waves intensity, few times he would strain and groan but never stopped applying more energy until he began to bleed... From his nose.
"We've got to help." Sandy dashed towards Jayden.
"What are you going to do about it?" Cheryl asked.
"Don't worry..." Sandy slut in a card into his gloves. "I have made this long ago and had used it so many times.... Time to test another of my theory."
He walked over to Jayden and placed his hand on his shoulders, upon making contact with Jayden; his eyes turned white.
The intensity of the wave became more higher than it was before that it lifted every rock into the air, they hung and floated in the air defying gravity. Ned pulled Freda from underneath the rock with Clint besides him giving an assisting hand, just as they had pulled Freda off from underneath the rock. The entire rocks fall back to the ground the moment Jayden collapsed, panting heavily with Sandy sitting close to him.
"She's still breathing...." Ned said after examining her pulse. "She will be fine."
Ned applied some pressure to her chest and pushed continuously before placing his mouth on hers in attempts of giving her air, the tension in the air was easily observed for everyone was in fear of losing one of theirs. After few pressure pushes from Ned and was beginning of get fatigued, she coughed for a while before opening her eyes.
They sighed heavily in relief... Some ended up crying... Others laughed.
"Hey... You touched my boobs didn't you?" Freda groaned.
"I had to give you a first aid CPR." Ned adjust his specks. "So be grateful."
"For touching my boobs.?" She smiled.
They laughed.
"He kissed you too." Chiyo yelled.
"Whaaaaaat....?" Freda said. "Am so gonna kill you for taking away my first kiss."
"I didn't kiss you..." Ned swallowed. "Chiyo....."
"Sorry about that then." Zoe laughed. "But kissing you isn't bad."
"Yeah... Especially if it came from him." Freda flirted.
Ned went blood red.
Delia watched them as they embark on their chatter before walking towards the far end of the room, she remembered that it was the passage way they ran out from but she couldn't find Neil anywhere.
"Thirteen, Fourteen..... Hey guys, we're still missing one person in this gathering." Delia mentioned.
Then it came to their notice that the one person still missing was no other than... Neil.
"I can't sense his energy signature anywhere." Rory lamented.
Sandy hurriedly stood up to try see if he could get a glimpse of Neil's clothes, everyone search around but found nothing.
"Neiiiiiiiiill...." Sandy yelled.
Silence... Screak...
Everyone turned towards the direction of what was headed towards them only to see Neil dragging his body to correspond with him, he placed his hand over his neck and panted heavily before dropping to his knees and exhaled heavily.
Sighs of relief were heard from everyone.
"Neil... Are you okay?" Sandy ran to his side.
"Did anyone get hurt?" Neil murmured.
Silence.
"Sandy please tell me who's hurt?" Neil spoke out.
"Hmmmm..." Sandy sighed.
Neil looked at Sandy gesturing him towards the crowd, he adverted his eyes to see everyone staring at him... Everyone except.....
"Freda.." Neil gasped.
.
.
.
The calm cold evening seemed to be fading into darkness as snows fell gently on the ground, Neil sat at the balcony of the infirmary with his arms to his mouth and in deep thought as he wandered around his head trying to recover what had happened during the incident that occurred few minutes ago.
He watched the snows as they fell gently to the grounds all the while trying to listen to everyone's thoughts as they went on with their routine in the infirmary, he began to listen to the voices inside his classmate's heads. They were all replying the accident in their heads, not long enough he began to smell fear in their thoughts.
He stopped and covered his face but tears couldn't crawl down his eyes, he tried to shout but nothing came forth.
"Why can't I cry?" He asked himself. "Am I becoming a monster?"
He heard the door opened and closed again letting out an individual who seemed to head towards him, he looked up slowly to meet the gaze of Prof. Hiro.... He buried his face into his hands again and waited, Prof. Hiro sat beside him and watched the yard that was nearly covered by snow.
"You know...." He began. "Blaming yourself for what happened isn't going to ease your ego... Besides you saved everyone."
"By nearly killing them....?" Neil said. "That's encouraging."
"Ummm.. Nope." Prof. Hiro scoffed. "Besides... It wasn't your fault."
"Then who's fault.?" Neil asked.
"The curse you bear is to blame." Prof. Hiro said.
Silence.
"So you knew?" Neil looked at Prof. Hiro. "When....?"
"Before you were admitted.... Your aunt told me about you." Prof. Hiro folded his arm. "So we decided to help you break it."
"Is that why you keep sending us out on this dangerous missions.?" Neil asked.
"I have only sent you on one.... " He replied. "But you should know... Learning to control yourself is one way to break curses."
Prof. Hiro gave Neil some advice on what to do, letting him know that he could only clear his guilt by protecting those closest to him.
After a long talk, he stood up and walked towards the office with his arm inside his pockets, Neil watched him disappear among the darkness of the night.
"The only one who can clear your guilt is yourself." Neil recalled. "How should I do that now?... Because am getting scared about myself."
Neil sighed heavily with his eyes closed before interlocking his fingers behind his head, he remained like that for few seconds.
"How long are you gonna stand there?" Neil lifted his right eyelids. "You know even with my eyes closed... I could still see everything."
Silence
Delia walked out of a shadow outside the building and headed towards the door, she opened the door and then halted close to the door post.
"You're here to ask if I'm still beating myself up?"
She tilted her head slightly to the left.
"Hmm..." Neil sighed. "Should I not?"
"Suit yourself..." She opened the door and walked inside.
Silence...
"Damn..." Neils thought. "Sometimes I wonder if she's just cold or heartless.."
Neil stood up with the decision of going inside to see Freda's wellbeing, he pushed the door and went inside her ward with the intention of knowing what all of them were thinking. He got close to the Freda's bed without anyone noticing him and stood by the wall in wait of what they had to say.
"Does he still blame himself for my injuries?" Freda asked.
"Well he hasn't come inside that's for sure." Jayden answered. "Maybe he's scared of facing us."
"Uncle doesn't have full control yet... I wouldn't blame him." Chiyo said.
They all agreed to Chiyo's comment.
"At least... Delia came to see me." Freda laughed. "Seemed you're beginning to care about us, D"
"Hmph." Delia replied immediately. "Neil did you guys the favour.. If it were me...."
"It would be worse..." Sandy grinned. "We know..."
Neil laughed softly as everyone except Delia burst into wild laughter, she looked from the corner of her eyes and spotted Neil not to far away. She looked away almost immediately as Neil looked at her, Neil chuckled before walking towards his friends.
"The man of the hour has arrived..." Jayden yelled trying to imitate DJs "ma... Ma.... Make way."
"There's no need for that." Jade knocked Jayden.
"Hey... Am trying to add some flavor ya know." Jayden said.
"Behaving like a DJ makes you look like a talking donkey." Sandy teased.
"Well..." Ned adjust his specks. "The..."
"Don't even think about it." Sandy warned.
"Don't shut me up when you don't know what I want to say." Ned yelled.
"Ofcourse we all do know what you wanna do." Sandy yelled back. "You want make corrections to my sentence again."
"When you are wrong... I can't help it but correct you." Ned yelled.
"I don't need your help... you walking dictionary." Sandy yelled.
"So says the asinine...." Ned yelled.
"Ned..." Lyn yelled.
"What...?" He barked.
"English....." Everyone added.
.
.
.
It was a pitch black alley down in the mountain side of Capital, an extreme vague shadow dwelt in the heart of the forest as it expands and contract almost simultaneously.
Titan walked towards the shadow and stood in front of it.
"I have a proposition to make..." He said. "What do you say?."
The shadow gave out an eerie noise that could make a grown up shiver in fear, but Titan just smiled... devishly....