Damian stares at his ceiling as he lays on his hammock.
"It's not your fault, there was no way we could foresee that." Grant enters Damian's room and takes a seat in a chair.
"I knew about the rumor of the black cloud, I should've been more vigilant." Damian looks away from Grant.
"We all should've, it's not like you didn't say anything." Grant leans forward as he tries to comfort Damian.
"Just quit your whining, we all know the dangers of living like this. If it didn't happen yesterday then it was going to happen eventually." Natalie walks into Damian's room. "People die, that's just life. I lost Cade, and others too." She clutches Damian's shirt forcing him to face her.
His dumbfounded expression causes her to leave before her tears show.
"Hey Damian, this world has undergone some serious shit. We all cope in our own ways." Grant takes a swig from a bottle, and then holds it out for Damian.
"You know I'm underage right?" Damian takes the bottle, holding onto it.
"According to HighSpire? Doesn't look like we're in the city at the moment." Grant pokes Damian in the head before walking out.
"Any word on our next move, Henry?" Damian leans against a wall beside Henry.
"The boss took Grant and Natalie to go find jobs, he also left me here to figure out a scheme to beat up that long nose." Henry itches his chin, glancing over to Damian.
"I'll help then. Natalie can take out a massive chunk of the swarm, but then is left in a weakened state." Damian pinches the ridge of his nose as he thinks.
"We could use some of the military weapons we got for dealing with the bandits." Henry jolts up.
"What kind of weapons do we have?" Damian cocks his head.
"We've got a blood letting dart, three fire grenades, a forceful push staff, a pair of strange glowing stones, a laser musket with nine charges, a mind knife, a serpent sword, and a lightning bug bulb." Henry lists off the items as the pair enter the armory.
"The fire grenades would be useful for the mosquitos. The forceful push staff could keep them away from us. I think we should figure out what those stones do." Damian stands over the glowing rocks.
"I agree, they're useless to us if we don't know what they do." Henry takes hold of them and walks out of the room, Damian follows shortly behind.
"Let's think of this as training. We're honing our minds and bodies, the goal is to beat the other and figure out what these stones do." Henry holds one stone as he points across a field to Damian.
"Bring it on." Damian holds his stone as if something is supposed to come out of it.
After hours of mock fighting the pair have made no progress, and the setting sun stings the eyes of Damian. He sits on the ground with Henry above him.
"Do you think we could swap pla-" Damian is cut off as he feels weightless for a moment.
He finds himself standing above Henry, their places instantly swapped. The stones resonate with a powerful glow that quickly fades back to their normal luminosity.
"They're a linked teleport item? And here we thought they were a weapon." Henry sighs as he stands up.
"This is huge actually. if we choose the right people, they could move around instantly and react just so." Damian stares at the stone in awe.
"It would be better if it had more than just that. We should go back to the base, I'm sure everyone is back now." Henry turns, making his way back to the base.
"I guess some ability where we could both end at the same place. I'll figure something out, it's best we leave." Damian briefly feels weightless.
Opening his eyes again he notices he's at the edge of the field next to Henry.
"Did you just teleport?" Henry feels the resonating stone in his pocket.
"Not on purpose, these stones may be word activated and have multiple uses." Damian gives Henry a little thumbs-up.
"Alright, let's go share this info with the others." Henry slaps Damian on the back as they keep walking.
"So this is where you ran off to? Not my first pick, but it'll work. Let's have some fun, Damian!" A hooded figure watches the group's base, shrouded by the surrounding forest.