what ive been typing

The year is 2313. Since 2099 scientists have tried to find ways to increase human expectancy and strength. In 2105 they had a break through. The serum worked…a little too well. The serum mutated and affected the genes inside the DNA, causing the person’s body to mutate. Usually the creature of the aftermath was genetically based around a certain substance; fire, earth, speed, etc. There has never been a combination of substances, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The serum became airborne and started affecting a larger mass of people. In 2121 scientists made an antidote that combated the serum. One of three things happened. First, the antidote didn’t work and you turned. Second, it worked and you were normal. Third, and last, the antidote mutated with the serum causing you to retain your human body, but you came out with a supernatural gift. Since the outbreak a large dome was created to keep the normal people safe from the serum. The air is continuously filtered to stop the spread of the serum. Homeostasis is kept easily by controlled factors in the dome. When the population gets too large robots will leave the dome and section off an outside area for addition. When people get their abilities they are recruited to scout out the outside. Most groups leave when there are at least three people in the party. They are to leave and gather information for the dome scientists. Some of the groups, though, become corrupt and fight against the other people. There are two main leaders. One for those who wish to rule with fear (bad guys) and one for those who wish to help live life safely (good guys.) For now it is a tied battle, but a change is coming soon…very soon.
A young man just turned 18 and his two friends and him are running to the only window in the whole dome.
“Come on Sakem!” one of the friends called. “Kadeem,” the young man called. “Hold your horses! Riemniar is beating you.”
“Leave me out of this,” Riemniar laughed. When the trio reached the window and they got insanely quiet. Outside the world was a mass of jungle and danger.
“It looks like…freedom,” Kadeem said.
“At least we’re are still alive, right? Sakem?”
“I don’t really know,” Sakem said. All three crowded around the window. At that exact moment a type of creature slammed against the window and everyone jumped. Sakem laughed.
“I can’t believe it!” He said. “It can’t get through.” The creature backed up and took a running start to slam against the window again. A crack jutted through the window and a greenish mist burst through, making a cloud around Kadeem and Sakem. A siren wailed and a metal sheet rocketed over the window and air boosters sucked the air out, but most of it already evaporated into their skin…and they already started mutating. Sakem started oozing a black gel till it covered his whole body. Kadeem started to twist and convulse, his skin seemed to rot and fall off, showing scales underneath. Four robots came out, two for each person. The robots took them to the hospital, and Riemniar followed.
At the hospital Sakem and Kadeem were put into two different rooms. In Kadeem’s room his whole body was covered in scales and his eyes were yellow. His head elongated and his legs fused together into a long tail, and more was happening. A robot came in to hold Kadeem down and he tore it to shreds. Another one came into the door and it had a long needle with the serum inside it. When it saw the other robot in a pile of scraps it pushed a few buttons on its arm. The needle retracted and the arm started to shift shape. When it raised its arm it was in the shape of a tube with a laser sight on top. The robot shot the serum into Kadeem’s arm with perfect precision. Immediately Kadeem stopped thrashing and the scales turned to a paper like material and fell off one by one. They all kept falling until the human Kadeem was left on the bed, nothing on, shivering in a curled up ball.
In Sakem’s room his body was still covered in the gel. Two robots came in, one had the needle and one had two spoon type arms. The one with the spoons tried lifting Sakem out of the gel, but the gel stuck to him, not letting go. It set him back down. Then it tried to pull the gel off, but the gel would not release. The robot separated the gel showing Sakem’s skin. When the robot moved and the one with the needle moved forward. Just as it was about to administer the serum and the gel reformed. The other robot came over and separated the gel again and this time held its arms there. As the needle was about to enter his skin the gel reformed around the robot’s arms. The one robot pulled out its arms and reseparated the gel and immediately the needle was thrusted into Sakem’s skin. As the serum entered his body the gel receded into Sakem’s skin, leaving Sakem lying on the bed. As the robots were leaving a dark figure wrapped around them and crushed the two robots, making four pieces.
“Let me see him!” A woman was yelling at a robot behind the counter at the hospital.
“Would you please sign this waiver miss,” the robot said.
“LET ME SEE MY SON SAKEM!” the woman slammed her hand on the counter and a beam popped up on the floor.
“Right this way please.” The robot pointed to the designated path.
“Thank you!” The woman followed the lighted path leading to Sakem. When she reached his room a guard sentry was standing at the door. When she tried to enter the room the sentry blocked her.
“Name,” it said in a mechanical tone.
“Let me through!”
“NAME!”
“Kame Figliolia.”
“Voice recognition confirmed.” The sentry moved and Kame entered the room. Sakem was sitting up in his bed, shielding his eyes from the bright lights of the hospital room. When he saw his mother he jumped off the bed and ran to her. They hugged and then Kame gasped.
“What’s wrong mom?” Sakem asked his mom.
“You’re taller than me.”
“Not by much.”
“But just this morning you weren’t! And you’re a lot fitter too!” When his mother said this Sakem looked down and realized that he was a great deal more fit than he remembered.
“It’s nothing mom.”
“Nothing! What are they feeding you, doing to you! I almost lost you to the plague! I’m not leaving you!”
“Then that’s going to be a problem,” a man said, standing in the doorway. “We still need to run some tests on your son, Mrs. Figliolia. Then when he is all fit and set to go you can take him and do whatever horror stricken mothers do to their children.”
“WHO ARE YOU!” Kame yelled, with a tone of fear and rage in her voice.
“Jorget,” the man said. “Dr. Jorget, and if anything tragic happens to your son you can hold me accountable.” Kame looked at her son then at the doctor. “Either way he is coming with me AND we are going to do the tests. I really don’t think you want me to have the sentry guard escort you out of the room.” Kame looked at the doctor with a bewildered look.
She shakes her head and leaves the room without saying anything else.
“Now that that is out of the way,” the doctor turned toward Sakem. “If you don’t mind…” The doctor pointed to the back of the room and a concealed door opened. Sakem walked through and the door slid shut with a soft thud. Sakem was left standing in total darkness, yet he seemed to be able to tell where he was in the room and what (if anything) was in there with him, alive or inanimate. Just as he was about to get used to being in total darkness a bright light filled the room.
A slight whirring noise started up and a flat hospital bed rose from the center of the floor. Another door opened up and Dr. Jorget walked into the room followed by seven robots. One of the robots was equipped with a needle on its arm, three went straight to pushing unseen buttons and sending unheard messages to the machinery in the wall, two were preparing Sakem for the tests, and the final one, and the most human structured, was talking with Dr. Jorget.
“What is all this?” Sakem asked.
“Declarative:” the robot said. “We are setting up tests to see if there are any changes in your biological, physical, or mental structure.”
“Who are you?”
“This is TAIB,” Dr. Jorget answered. “Technological-Artificial-Intelligent-Being. He is a great help when it comes to communicating between me and other robots or persons that are giving me a difficult time.”
“Then can you tell me what these tests are for?”
“TAIB already told you. When the antidote was given and you still seem to have stayed the same, you may have had a few…changes. I just want to see if there are any.”
“Will they…hurt?”
“I’m not going to lie…” at that moment Sakem was strapped down to the bed with great force by the robots. “Maybe a little.” Then Dr. Jorget walked to the wall followed by TAIB and exited another hidden door.
In the room where all the test results were being sent, Dr. Jorget was sitting in a chair, watching a screen that showed Sakem in the test room with all his vitals and a constant scanning process. TAIB was standing by a podium in the middle of the room. He was watching a series of signals and kept pushing a pattern of buttons. A light popped up and list followed.
“Read,” Dr. Jorget said as he slowly spun in his chair.
“List of physical differences after introduction to serum and antidote mutagent,” a mechanical voice said from the screen. “Height increased four inches, skin tone two shades paler, pupil circumference grew one half sizes, muscle mass increased ten-fold. List of psychological differences after introduction to serum and antidote mutagent, aggression doubled, brutality doubled, passion fourthed, joy fourthed, hate double, anger doubled. He also seems to emanate an odd energy reading, and it gets stronger the angrier he gets.”
“Bring the ionic grid over the glass.” A bright light came over the window, it showed static coming off Tanoth constantly. “Take the picture and put it through as a negative of the old time film.” The whites turned black and the blacks turned white. A large with flame was in the center of the room. “Digitally enhance.” The flame turned into a constant out pour of mist. “Fill in the colors with what the naked eye sees.” When the image finally cleared the doctor gasped in astonishment. Tanoth’s body was producing a mist that was equal to what was in the vial. Once it reaches past one foot the mist dissipates.
“What does this kid have?” Dr. Jorget whispered. "Test his physiological structure."
“Now testing for internal or anatomical differences.” Dr. Jorget stood up and started walking around the room. “Ten percent.”
“It could be trauma.”
“Twenty percent.”
“But that doesn’t explain the physical changes.”
“Forty percent.”
“Maybe the mutation with that gel coming out of his skin made him stretch!”
“Sixty-five percent.”
“Not probable and highly unlikely.”
“Eighty-nine percent.”
“The robots didn’t do it.”
“Ninety-three percent.”
“And he isn’t a shape shifter.”
“Ninety-seven percent.”
“Or a mimic.”
“Ninety-nine percent.”
“THEN WHAT!?!?” The computer beeped and an almost transparent holographic image of Sakem popped up above the podium.
“Exclamatory:” TAIB said. “You better have a look at this, doctor.” Dr. Jorget walked over to the podium.
“What is it?”
“Declarative: the results have come from the anatomical test.”
“Well?”
“Declarative: he seems to have grown an extra venous system inside his circulatory system.” The doctor looked at the hologram and pushed a sequence of buttons on the podium. The body dimmed and the colors glowed inside of it, red for the arteries, blue for the veins, and black for the new system.
“Just like a pyrokinetic, but it’s black!” Dr. Jorget spun toward TAIB. “What is it?”
“Inquiry: what do you mean b…”
“I mean what fills this new system? Do we have a sample?” A small door opened in the wall and a ledge extended out. One the ledge was a large container with a black mist like substance.
“Sympathetic: we have no recorded data in the archives. The closest thing we can relate to this substance is darkness.”
“Darkness.”
“Declarative: that of a dark origin, shade in color. Synonyms; shadow, blackness, emptiness, umbre.”
“Repeat that last word.”
“Umbre…”
“…Kinesis.”
“Inquiry: kinesis is the control of said substance, why did you just say that word?”
“Umbrekinesis…”
“Declarative: Umbre is darkness or shadows, kinesis is control of.”
“Exactly!” Dr. Jorget yelled. “How much do you want to bet that is what he has!”
“Pity: the odds are greatly against that prediction.”
“Don’t pity me T, you should know what happened after my encounter. That was why I was able to make you.” Dr. Jorget looked back at the screen that showed Sakem. He had an agitated look on his face as the robots continuously scanned him and took samples of blood and the dark substance. “Knock him out. He obviously doesn’t know what he can do. Let’s make him find out.”
Down in the test room one the robots put a greenish liquid in one of the IV’s.
“What is that?” Sakem asked. No answer. “What is that!?” Still no answer. “WHAT IS THAT!?!?” Sakem was starting to drift, and his anger was cooled as the robots kept doing their routine. “What is that?” He kept saying over and over, more silent each time. “What is that? What…is…th…” Blackout. A robot picked up Sakem and two others removed the wires and IV’s. He was carried out yet another hidden door.
When Sakem woke up he was in a jungle, or what he saw was a jungle. He was in a giant hologram room filled with nanobots. If you didn’t know you were in there you would think you were where ever the hologram pictured. He was dressed in a tight outfit that cut off at the knees, elbows, and neck. Back in the observing room Dr. Jorget was continuously watching Sakem.
Sakem walked around till he saw a crashed land-to-land flight ship. He walked into it and it was completely obliterated. As he was searching for signs of what destroyed the ship Sakem came across a holographic data recorder. When he pushed the on button nothing happened. Tossing it to the floor Sakem resumed his search. The recorder slid and bumped into a chair. Then it sputtered to life.
“Date, March 13, 2103,” a holographic man said. Sakem turned around and saw that the recorder was now working. “We have found a nesting ground to one of the mutated. It seems that a few may mutate into the same thing. They are able to mate and then reproduce young with the same traits, like animals. A type of evolution, which was what we aimed for. It just went wrong. We have named this type of beast kiltam. We chose this name because they stay mostly secluded, yet they travel in groups. They have brute strength and handle every thing with aggression.”
At this Sakem smiled and thought ‘that sounds like a wonderful thing to play with’ in a tone of sarcasm. “Day in and day out we have been studying the kiltams and they seem never to notice our presence. The next step we are goi…” He stopped as a sound like a scream burst through the background.
“Go,” a female voice said in the background. “Abort the test!”
“What happened out there?”
“No time! Get ready to lift off, set the thrusters, retract all landing beams…NOW!” There was a sound of tearing metal and a roar that bellowed with rage. A creature came into view and Sakem guessed it was a kiltam. It walked like an ape, with its front arms huge and muscular, its hind legs were smaller yet they strained with power. The top of its head barely reached over its shoulders and its neck (if it had one) could not be seen. The main color of its body was red, but it seemed to wear small, ornamental jewelry. It tore through the passengers as a hot knife cuts through soft butter. When all the people were dead the kiltam walked up to the recorder and picked it up. It looked in it for not even a second and then threw it away.
Sakem was holding the recorder in his hand. The only picture was the frozen kiltam with its arm outstretched as if reaching for the recorder. Sakem shook his head and dropped the recorder.
Back in the observatory Dr. Jorget smiled as Sakem watched the actual footage of the attack. He pushed a button on the pad in front of him and a picture of a cage showed in the top corner of the screen.
“Do you think he’s ready, TAIB” Dr. Jorget asked his assistant.
“Declarative: as ready as I think he’ll ever be,” the robot replied. Dr. Jorget put in a code on the pad and the picture of the cage showed the gate opening.
Back in the ship Sakem heard a screeching of metal. Then after a few seconds thought the ship was just really old and decided to look around some more. Then a low rumbling growl sounded in the back of the ship where it was too dark to see; yet Sakem already knew it wasn’t the ship. Silence. Then the kiltam flew from the darkness at Sakem like a deadly missile. Sakem dodged and jumped through the entrance to the outside. When he stood up he was shocked to realize that he was that fast. The kiltam tore through the hull of the ship (only that it was nanobots that imitated the whole thing) and charged for Sakem. Again he jumped out of the way only infuriating the kiltam into further rage. The kiltam charged again and this time Sakem wasn’t so lucky. He flew twenty feet when he landed and slid another two. Sakem stood up and a blinding pain was sent through his shoulder. When he looked up the kiltam was charging full steam at him, a large hunk of brutal rage. Fury surged through his whole being. His pupils completely filled his eyes, making them all black. He stood fully straight and his muscles tensed.
“Don’t ever,” Sakem started. “Run at your enemy without seeing what they can do.” He smiled and his shadow swung out from behind him. When it reached twenty feet out in front of him it stood up and solidified. The kiltam lunged at the new enemy, but was baffled when it went through the shadow. It fell to the ground and stomped the shadow. Sakem laughed and a large shadow hand popped up and grabbed the kiltam. The hand threw the beast across the jungle. Sakem charged the beast as it was trying to get up. His shadow popped up behind and solidified into a large, bulky giant lumbering behind him. Sakem got six feet from the kiltam and swung his right arm with his fist clenched. His shadow copied his exact move, except his shadow rammed its huge fist into the side of the beast. The kiltam fell and bellowed. He kept swinging his arms and having his shadow pummel the kiltam. When he stopped his shadow sunk back to being normal and the kiltam stopped moving. Sakem was breathing quick, deep breaths. His eyes returned to normal and he fainted. The hologram stopped and the room was an empty expanse. Two robots came out, one picked up Sakem, and the other picked up the dead kiltam. The robot with Sakem’s unconscious body brought it back to the test room where Dr. Jorget and TAIB were waiting. The robot laid Sakem on the bed and attached multiple probes and wires to his head. Dr. Jorget pulled a screen and a keyboard out from under the bed. Wires that led from Sakem connected into the devices. Dr. Jorget typed something into the computer and the screen fuzzed. After a while the screen showed what Sakem saw. He was in an old town that was deserted and covered in a desolate fog. He could only see ten feet in front of him. Sakem was just aimlessly walking.
“Come here…” a small, gravelly voice whispered. Sakem looked around.
“Who’s there?” Sakem yelled. The screen went to third person.
“Meee…yoooouu. Over heeere…” The voice was coming from nowhere yet everywhere at the same time. The screen moved behind Sakem, looking over his right shoulder. A black glow was emanating in the distance.
“What do you mean me and you?”
“Come…aaaand ffiiiind out.” Sakem moved closer to the glow. The screen floated till it was looking down on Sakem. “Thaaaat’s iiit…clooossserr.” As he moved closer the glow started to take shape. It was a person, shrouded by a black mist and skin was as black as coal. His skin actually seemed to not be skin, but an empty space with definition. Sakem stopped eight feet in front of the figure.
“Who are you!?!?”
“Iii alllreeeady aaaansweeerd thaaat, meee…and yooou.”
“What do you mean?”
“Iii exissst innnsiiide yooou. Iii am allllso a ssseperrrate ennntity. Iii am yooou…and meee.”
“I don’t get it?”
“Wheeen yooou fought theee tilkaaam Iii was theeere with yooou. Iii am aaalwaaays thherrre and heeere.” Sakem’s eyes widened.
“You…my…the voice…”
“Yesss, nooow yooou sssee! Iii am iiin everrrry thing, Iii thriiive in the daaark. Nooow yoooou do too! Thiiis isss a mutuuual benefit, weee need to wooork together and Iii will dooo greaaat things throoough you.” “How?” The figure just laughed a crackling laugh. It floated over to Sakem and stopped one centimeter in front of him.
“Watch…” The figure burst into a frenzied mist that swirled around Sakem. He swung his arms and tried to escape the vortex. “Dooon’t fight meee, it willll only make iiit worse.” Sakem stopped moving and the mist black mist evened out. As it spun the mist sunk into Sakem’s pores. When it was all gone the screen moved in front of Sakem’s face and he opened his eyes. They were covered completely in black. The screen fuzzed out.
Dr. Jorget snapped his fingers and TAIB nodded. The robot that hooked him up removed all of the probes and wires. Sakem woke up and sat up. His eyes were still all black and he covered them from the light.

“Good morning sleeping beauty,” Dr. Jorget said. “Have a nice nap?”
“You should know,” Sakem said. Dr. Jorget’s expression faltered for a second, but it snapped right back. “What now?”
“Well, we find out what you are going to wear.” Dr. Jorget motioned for Sakem to follow him and walked into another room. Sakem stood up, shook his head, and followed. In the room was a center platform and robotic arms on pedestals around it. Dr. Jorget was nowhere in sight.
“Step on the center platform,” Dr. Jorget’s voice came out of a hidden speaker. “And try to stand as still as possible.” Sakem did as he was told and the robotic arms moved towards him. “This machine is one of my greater inventions. It scans your DNA then outfits you with the most probable thing you will wear, and the most useful. The outfit will have all the attributes it needs to make it easier for you to be successful in battle and using you abilities.”
One of the robotic arms stuck a needle in his skin and he saw blood, the black material, and a piece of skin go down the tube that was connected to it. The arm pulled back and the other nine moved forward. They moved over his body with lightning speed, knitting and fitting stuff all over his body.
“Another neat thing about this machine,” Dr. Jorget started. “Is that it fuses all the cloth and other materials it uses with the material ability data it gains from you DNA, so that it is basically a part of you.” The arms continued to knit and fit. When the arms moved away Sakem’s outfit was finished. He had black shoes, black gloves, black pants, a black T-shirt, a black trench coat with a hood, and a black blindfold. Sakem stepped of off the platform. What he saw was amazing. He saw through energy that the darkness saw. He could see every hidden door, camera, speaker, and robot waiting to be called on. He saw in colors, but like what we regularly see. Different things had different auras. The machines were kind of a dim rust that was a steady glow.
Dr. Jorget was walking down the hall to the dress room, followed by TAIB. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he asked TAIB.
“Inquiry: what do you mean?” the robot replied. “Him! He is wearing a blindfold and yet he acts like he can see. His clothes would really stink in battle because it looks to billowy, he might trip or something.”
“Declarative: perhaps, perhaps not.” When Dr. Jorget reached the door he put the code in on the panel and the door opened. He jumped back, surprised by what he saw. Sakem was standing in the doorway, grinning like a child who had his first rush when he stole something and knew he wasn’t going to be caught.
“Hello doctor,” Sakem said. “It’s going to be harder to sneak up on me know.”
The group was walking yet to another room. Inside there were at least fifty small portholes, covered with metal, on the floor.
“In this room,” Dr. Jorget spoke. “We will find out what type of weapon you will do best with. You get one combat weapon and one long ranged weapon. There will be a little metal ball that will roll onto the floor. A green colored liquid will float around it and it will take shape of a person. It will fight you until you find a combat weapon, then it will turn into something else that will help you find your long range.” Dr. Jorget stepped back and the door closed, TAIB was already waiting for him in the hallway. They immediately made their way up to the observatory.
Sakem heard a clink and turned away from the door. A metal ball the size of a soft ball was next to the wall. Green liquid started poring out from its pores. After there was about six liters the liquid rose and lifted the ball with it. It took the shape of something like a person. It made a high pitched gurgling sound and started walking toward Sakem. The hole next to his foot opened and a ball mace popped out. He caught it in the air and the liquid figure ran toward him. Sakem charged and swung the mace in a slow, side swing. The mace slid through the liquid and it reformed. Sakem dropped the mace and muttered a curse under his breath. A Bo staff was next and Sakem thought it was better, but it was too long. He dropped that one also. The order he went the weapons was this; nun-chucks, sais, gauntlets, short sword, axe, double-bladed sword-staff. Nothing seemed to fit until the hilt of a particular samurai sword landed in his hand. He cut the liquid machine and it fell to the floor. Sakem nodded and a hilt appeared at his side. He sheathed the sword and waited for the next test. This time the metal ball floated and a smaller amount of green liquid encompassed its surface. A bow popped up with three arrows attached to it. Sakem notched an arrow and let it fly. He was off…way off! The bow fell with two arrows still left on it. A small pouch popped up and inside were shuriken. Sakem threw those and was only a little better. When the robot saw that he was better it beeped and columns shot up from the floor. Sakem was able to see around the corner but couldn’t make the shuriken get there. These are the weapons in order that he used them; kunai, laser gun, senbon (flying needles), dagger attached to a whip cord, wrist launcher with darts, returning discs, and a windmill shuriken (large shuriken that folds up for storage and/or transportation.) He seemed to not have any long-range skill at all.
Back in the observatory Dr. Jorget was getting impatient. TAIB was seeing how his heart rate was starting to increase.
“Declarative:” TAIB said. “Perhaps he is best suited for only close range physical attacks.”
“Or,” Dr. Jorget said. “We are just giving him the wrong equipment.” Dr. Jorget looked at TAIB and raised an eyebrow.
“Agitative: Sir! No one has been able to use it, not even you, and you built it! What on Earth makes you think that he could accomplish a task that is two hundred forty seven thousand to one?”
“Just a gut instinct.” Then he typed something on the keyboard and a long barreled gun popped up. It was a handgun that was produced by Dr. Jorget himself…with only three bullets, and one was used for the test fire. The barrel was a foot long, there were sights instead of a scope, the handle was gripped, air vents were at the end of the barrel, the barrel was four inches wide and five inches tall, a tube under the opening in the gun was put to make it lighter, and it was all black.
Sakem had just got the windmill shuriken stuck in a column when the gun popped up. When it landed in his hand every thing seemed to freeze. He smiled because the gun felt like it was a part of him, he could feel it move in his hand. He saw the robot float around at high speed around the corner. Sakem aimed and watched as it disappeared again. He smiled, let his arm fell, shadow tentacles came out of his sleeve and wrapped around the gun, side swung his arm, and pulled the trigger.
Dr. Jorget and TAIB watched all of this with liquid slowness. They watched the bullet leave the barrel. They watched the robot speed pass around another column. They watch the bullet curve, and connect with the robot around the opposite column of Sakem. Dr. Jorget laughed a loud bark and turned toward TAIB.
“What about the odds now?” he asked. TAIB just stood there, replaying in his memory banks what he saw. He nodded and walked over to the keyboard.
“Declarative:,” TAIB started. “I think you should analyze this.” TAIB put his arm out and a cord extended and plugged into the terminal. The screen stopped and rewound to the point where Sakem grabbed the gun. Then it started to play frame by frame. “Declarative: as you can see the gun works, and that was all you hoped for.” The screen focused and stopped, showing the tentacles coming out of Sakem’s sleeve and gripping the gun. “Declarative: he obviously was the one who was able to curve the bullet…” The screen resumed the frame-by-frame, staying focused on the gun. It stopped again as Sakem was pulling the trigger. “…Here he was able to transfer some of his energy to the gun AND the bullet. He can fuse the darkness with whatever thing he touches and makes it somewhat better.” The screen resumed and it showed the bullet being fired, but the flare had a black tint to it. As the bullet was moving along the projectory path a black mist could be seen moving around and along with it. “Your gun has exceptional power and great accuracy and you are to congratulate. Just don’t think you made the bullet curve.”
“I know and completely agree. But she is a beauty and I made her. He couldn’t have done it without that.”
“Inquiry: yes, but I still am baffled. How was he able to SEE the trajectory?”
“TAIB, sometimes science can’t do everything. Sad to say, I’m just going to have to live that.”
Dr. Jorget led Sakem to an outside area. When they were alone Dr. Jorget pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Sakem.
“What is it?” Sakem asked.
“That,” he said, “is one of the most valuable things I have made. The Jayden .01, which is the gun, is the only one of its kind, and so is its ammo. If you ever come across any hard diamond, rock, or metal place some of it in the hollowed center. Close it and press the button on the top and watch the magic happen.” Sakem put the device in his pocket. “Before I tell you anything else you should probably go home and let your mom know that you might not be back for awhile.” Sakem nodded and left the hospital’s property and headed for home. When he reached his house his mom and dad were arguing.
“I think they are going to take him!” mom.
“Even if he did get abilities they are probably weak and dumb, just like him!” dad. “He probably can shrink!” Even if his real dad had died and this was his step-dad, he went too far. Sakem walked through the wall, without breaking it, and stood behind his step dad. He lifted his index finger to his mom and she understood.
“What if he does have good powers? What if he actually is really strong? What will you do then?”
“To prove it to you when he gets here I will fight him before I even ask him his power I’m so certain!”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Sakem said. “DAD!” His father turned around.
“You will refer to me as Sir Robert,” Rob said.
“And since you got sneaky powers I get to take a bat.” Sakem nodded and Rob got a metal bat out of the closet by the front door. Sakem stepped outside and went to the back. Rob came out and stood fifteen yards and points the bat at him. “Now let’s see what the little baby can do.”
“I won’t even move.” Sakem crossed his arms. Rob started running at him, but faltered when he saw Sakem’s shadow grow and solidify. Then it moved in front of him and went toward his father. Rob swung the bat and the shadow grabbed it. It stared into his face and a low growl came from it, but it was heard through the mind, not the ears. It ripped the bat from his hands and lifted him up.
“Weak powers?” Sakem said. “Really?”
“I’m your father and I order you to put me down!” The shadow lifted him up higher and dropped him. Sakem walked up to him and bent down next to him.
“STEP-father.” Sakem’s shadow sunk back and he went back into the house, leaving Rob shaking in the grass. Once inside his mother ran to him and hugged him.
“YOUR OKAY!” she cried.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sakem’s shadow grew and put its hand on his shoulder. Kame jumped back and gasped. “It’s okay mom, it won’t hurt you. I’m umbrekinetic, controller of shadows and darkness.”
“So that means…”
“Yeah, I came back just to let you know, and to make sure that pig isn’t doing anything.” He made a gesture with his head toward the back yard.
“Will I ever see you again?”
“I’m pretty sure, but I gotta go. I love you mom.” Sakem hugged his mother one last time before he left. Rob came in and looked out the window.
“The baby left,” he started. “I showed h…” Sakem’s shadow was standing in the doorway. It grabbed Rob and dragged him outside. It stretched his arm and lifted him to the roof. It dropped him right on the edge and sank back down. “Come back here!” He crawled to look over the gutter and saw Sakem standing in the front yard. He tipped his finger off his head and turned around to walk away.
At the main gate that leads to the outside Dr. Jorget was standing next to the keypad. Sakem walked up to him and waited for him to open the door.
“No,” Dr. Jorget said.
“What do you mean?” Sakem questioned.
“You can’t leave until you get one more person to go with you, at least one more.”
“That’s great, just great!” Sakem threw his hands in the air. “Where am I gonna find a partner or a team member at a time like this?”
“Fudar’s Tavern.”
“Now where am I going to find that? I never even heard of ‘Fudar’s Tavern!’”
“Hopefully you haven’t.” Dr. Jorget started to walk and Sakem followed. “It is only a place drunkards of sorts and new recruits will ever hear of. Maybe a desperate person looking to take a quest to make some money as well. Actually, know that I think about it, anyone who wants to make money usually finds a way there. A lot of…unique people are there. Try not to fall for any tricks, schemes, or…maidens who try to catch your eye. Some are better than others at pulling you in, but you have to try.” He stopped. “I suggest putting your hood up, you’re new and they will be vicious. Well here we are.”
Sakem looked up and saw the tavern’s sign swinging. He looked around and saw that this part of the dome looked a lot older than the rest.
“Where…”
“Now that you have seen it you can get here again, that’s just how it works. But I’d rather not say and let you see for yourself. And by the way, from here on out you will need to Jorget.” Sakem nodded and Jorget led the way into the tavern.
Inside many kinds of merry making was going on. The tavern is a lot larger on the inside than it appeared. People dressed in different things were talking and bargaining with people dressed in other things. The variety of fashions and personalities was enormous. The bar tender was a large man, seven feet tall, with a large belly, and a beard that covered half of it. He was wiping out a glass mug.
Jorget walked over to the counter and Sakem followed. Sakem sat down on a stool, crossed his arms, and slightly leaned forward. The zipper on his trench was zipped up as high as it could go and no one could see into his hood. Jorget sat down next to him, but sat looking at the occupants of the tavern.
“What’ll it be fellah?” the man asked Sakem. “Say, I haven’t seen you here before. Who are you?” The man was reaching for Sakem’s hood when Jorget grabbed his wrist.
“He’s with me, Fudar,” Jorget said.
“Jorget, is that you?” Fudar laughed a big throaty laugh. “You still bein’ followed by the funny crowd, huh?”
“No,” Jorget shook his head. “New recruit.” Fudar stood up to his full height and got a good look at Sakem.
“He’s pretty different than the one before, if you ask me.”
“I’m not asking you, am I? Besides, no one ever is really the same, if you ask me.”
“Nuh, I guess not then. Well, what can he do?”
“He’s actually the first of what he is. And the fact we should do it in the back room.”
“The last guy that did it in the back room only went back there because what he did could make superman leave stains in his underpants. Over half the people in here can do something, but all that were willing to be recruited have already been chosen. But if you really want me to see it…”
“I don’t want you to, YOU want you to. Trust me.” Fudar looked at Sakem. He lifted a portion of the counter away and motioned for the two to follow him. Sakem and Jorget stood up and did as they were suggested. Before entering a stairway that led the cellar Sakem looked back, and saw that a robot, that looked like an old fashioned butler, was now taking and filling orders.
Once downstairs Fudar led them to a room that looked like it was supposed to be for storage, but it was empty.
“Now let me guess,” Fudar said as he closed the door. “You’re not bulky, so super any thing is out of the question.” Sakem looked toward Jorget.
“He’s trying to guess what you can do,” he said.
“More likely a type of ranged power. Definitely not a shifter, you would have a loose cloak. Not an alchemist, you wouldn’t have and sleeves.” Fudar scratched his beard. “The closest thing I can think of is yur a kinetic.”
“Bravo!” Jorget clapped his hands. “As clever as always my friend.”
“What’s his name?”
“Sakem.”
“His uther name!”
“He doesn’t have one, I was hoping you could help with that. Since your so good.”
“Well, let’s see it.” Jorget nodded and looked at Sakem. Sakem nodded and looked at Fudar. His shadow grew and solidified. Fudar just looked at it funny.
“What,” he said. “You can make mirages?” Then Sakem’s shadow moved to Fudar and laid its hand on his shoulder. Fudar went pale. The shadow went back and Fudar was about to speak when Sakem raised his hand. Sakem took a step back and disappeared into the wall. He came out right next to Fudar. Fudar looked at him and shook his head. Sakem stepped forward, but there was another Sakem still standing next to the shaken barkeep. The clone went back to Sakem and dissipated. Sakem extended his right arm and his gloved hand was sticking out. Then a black tentacle slithered out from the bottom of his sleeve. It flew straight past Fudar and went rigid, a mere inch from his face. When it retracted it was wrapped around an apple. The tentacle fully retracted and dropped the apple into Sakem’s hand.
Sakem gestured toward Fudar with the apple and Fudar knew what that meant and nodded. As Sakem bit the apple and broke the silence, so did Fudar.
“I am goin’ to have nightmares for quite a long time now,” he said. “What is it?”
“Umbrekinesis,” Jorget said. “It is the control over shadows and darkness. I, myself, am at a loss of words. I only knew he could do the first thing he showed you, not the rest. What marvelous learning time!” Jorget laughed nervously. “So, what should we call him?”
“Huh? Oh yuh…” Fudar scratched his scraggly beard again. “I say what he just gave me. He will now be known as Nightmare.” Both Jorget and Fudar looked at Sakem. Sakem pulled his hood down and grinned. Fudar saw that he was blindfolded.
“I like that name,” Nightmare said.
“You blind, kid?” Fudar asked, still staring at his face. Nightmare shook his head. “Then how can you see?”
“It’s hard to explain, and I rather not at the moment.” Fudar shrugged.
“Fine by me.”
Back in the tavern Nightmare left his hood down and signed the new recruits list.
“What now?” he asked Jorget.
“Whatever happens,” Jorget said. “The most we can do is wait. Get acquainted if you want.”
“But you sa…”
“I said not to fall for any tricks, I didn’t say to become a solely secluded man. You can still live, maybe even more than before.” With that Jorget went to gossiping with Fudar and left Nightmare alone. Nightmare looked around and saw an empty corner booth. He went over to it and sat down.
Nightmare listened to the piano music being played by a recorder, watching the hustle and bustle. People came in, and people went out. He could tell what people had gifts because everyone else had a gray tint to them. The ones who didn’t had a different color depending on the gift.
Someone walked over and sat next to him.
“Hey there cutie,” a woman said. “How are you doing today?” Nightmare looked at her and she had a undulating pink glow. “How would you like to go somewhere…private?” She took her index finger and slowly drug it up and down the side of his neck.
“Honestly?” Nightmare asked. The woman put her index finger to her lower lip and pulled it down, making a pout face, and nodded. The more Nightmare looked the more he fell for her, the more he fell for the trance he knew she was using. He was about to get up when someone walked to the edge of the table. Nightmare noticed him but the woman didn’t. She still was leaning closer till the other spoke.
“He’s lasted a lot longer than I did my first time,” he said. The woman looked up at him and Nightmare fell out of the trance. She looked back and realized that she lost her chance. She sat back and looked at the man. “Admit it, he was putting up a good fight, Katie.”
“He still is one though! I haven’t had one in a long time! Come on, Tik! Let me!”
“If he’s willing to be your guinea pig, go ahead.”
“Wait a minute!” Nightmare said. “I’m still what? I’m sane, I’m five-foot-nine, I’m still a guy, I’m…” He stopped mid sentence. “OH!”
“DING DING DING!” Tik said. “We have a winner!”
“Soooo…” Katie said as she scooted closer to Nightmare. “Wanna try again?”
“What’s your real name?” Nightmare asked.
“Kidakledisha.”
“Okay, now I’m ready.” Katie grabbed the sides of Nightmare’s face and looked into his eyes.
“You know you want to.” She was whispering quietly, soothingly. “It’s soooo easy.” Nightmare just smiled.
“I want to give in, but I don’t want to lose.”
“We’ll see about that!” Then she pulled him and kissed him. When she pulled away her eyes were filled with confusion, fear, and ecstasy. “WOW!” Mist came out as she spoke.
“It looks like she fell for you, man,” Tik said. Katie looked at him with a dazed look on her face.
“You would have, too! I’ve never kissed like that or been kissed like that before.” She turned back to Nightmare. “I will being seeing you soon.” She stood up, walked three feet, turned around and looked at his whole being. “Definitely soon!” With that she walked off with that dazed look still stuck on her face.
Tik shook his head and sat down at the booth. He laid back and relaxed. Nightmare just looked at him.

“So,” Tik said. “Are you a super kisser or something?” Nightmare just laughed.
“No,” he said. “Not even close.”
“Then what, huh? What can you do?”
“I’m umbrekinetic. Before you ask I can control shadows and darkness.” Tik stared at him for at least three minutes.
“Man! Then why did Katie take a liking to you?”
“I don’t know. Probably because when she kissed me she saw a few things.”
“What do you mean by ‘saw’?”
“I mean she mentally saw what I can do that involved something with her power.”
“Well her powers, she can seduce and change her looks (but that was what she really looked like), so th…never mind.” Nightmare just laughed.
“The thing was I saw it to, and if you weren’t here I’m pretty sure I probably would have went with her to where ever she wanted. That probably would have been…different.” Nightmare just leaned back and smiled. “So, what can you do?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m keeper.”
“Wha?”
“I can mimic other peoples powers and can store five at a time.”
“Kind of goddish, don’t you think?”
“So what if it is? I think being an, umbrekinetic is goddish! What is that again?” Nightmare leaned back and laughed again. He made a copy of himself and it sat next to Tik. When Tik tried to touch it and it dissipated. “Well that would make a drunk stop drinking.” They both laughed and stopped when a drink hit the table.
“One luv mug,” the waiter said. He left and Tik called him back. “What?”
“Who is that for and how much does it cost?” Tik asked. The waiter pointed to Nightmare.
“Him, and she paid for it.” The waiter pointed to a table in a shaded, secluded area. Katie looked up and blushed. Again Nightmare laughed.
“Hey man, she really DID fall for you.” Nightmare laughed again. Today is a good day he thought. He lifted the mug to his lips and tilted it up, but didn’t open his mouth. He magnified the glass and saw a substance floating in it. He put the mug down and gave a crisp sigh.
“Ahhhh,” He said. Tik looked at him.
“Good huh?”
“What’s in it?”
“Well, the best of the best, and a few liquid aphrodisiacs.”
“Anything…solid?”
“No, why?” Nightmare laughed again.
“She spiked it.”
“WHAT? With what?” Nightmare shrugged. He lifted up his index finger and gestured for Tik to wait. When he put his hand back down it was behind the mug so Katie couldn’t see it. A dark tentacle came out from his sleeve and slithered into the mug. A small glow came from behind the blindfold as Nightmare searched the darkness for some knowledge of what the substance was. The glow died and the tentacle retracted. Nightmare leaned back and grinned.
“Now she is going far for no reason!”
“What was it!?!?”
“A strong herbal aphrodisiac…junhen.”
“You lie!”
“Go and ask her. See if you can find out what she put in it. Tell her you know her enough to do it.”
“Well, I do, but…” Tik rubbed his chin then nodded. He walked over to Katie and sat down. Nightmare focused on the shadows next to them and heard every word.
“Why are you coming over here?” Katie said.
“I have a question, Tik. “Did you put something in that luv mug?”
“No…”
“C’mon Katie, I know you and I can see the way you look at him. The last person you bought a love mug…well, we won’t go there. I know that you wouldn’t buy another person another one unless you really liked him.”
“Maybe I did put something in there.”
“And I have an idea and I hope it isn’t what I think it is.”
“What do you think it is?”
“Junhen.”
“Shhhh!” She raised her finger. “He could be listening.” Nightmare smiled, but the other two couldn’t see him.
“Even if he did would he know what it is?”
“Do know you know what junhen is?”
“An aphrodisiac!”
“Yeah, but not just any one.”
“What do you mean?”
“If in the right amount, which is in that mug, the first opposite gender to go to him and even suggest something, that person is under there will for awhile. And junhen leaves a good feeling every time you think about that person.”
“You really like him, don’t you?”
“You wouldn’t understand. He’s cute, but when I kissed him…I saw something, and I want it.”
“I don’t need to know.” Tik raised his hand. “I’ll leave you to your planning.”
“I’ll be over in a minute.” Tik nodded and stood up. He walked back over to Nightmare.
“Told you so,” Nightmare said before Tik even sat down.
“You could hear?” Tik asked.
“There’s a large shaded area in the corner, I couldn’t help it.” At that moment Katie came over and put her arm around Nightmare. She looked at the mug and frowned.
“Don’t trust me or somethin’?” she asked.
“No,” Nightmare said. “I do.” He picked up his drink and downed the whole thing. Katie watched with eagerness in her eyes. What she didn’t know was that Nightmare was able to obliterate the junhen and not feel the effects, because he knew of it.
“Well?” Katie leaned forward. Nightmare put the mug down and decided to play along.
“It tastes really good!” He licked his lips. Tik is astonished that he still drank the drink. “I feel…like I can do anything!” Katie looked at Tik and smiled. She placed her hand on Nightmare’s knee. He took in a short breath and froze, still playing along.
Katie moved real close and started to whisper in his ear.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
“Uh…” was what he said. Her hand started to move back and forth. “Nnnnhh…”
“I thought I didn’t effect you?” Her hand moved to his upper thigh. Nightmare smiled and looked at her.
“You don’t.” Katie froze and Nightmare kissed her on the lips, maybe a little too much. Katie’s pupils went wide and she closed her eyes. When he pulled away she let out a slow, shaking breath that misted.
“What…ho…”
“I like you, and I knew about the junhen before Tik went to talk to you. I told him to ask you because I could tell it was in there. I like your style, but we need to put this…” he touched her hand with one of his and her waist with the other. “…Off until later.” Katie nodded and looked at his blindfold, like she was looking at his eyes. She kissed him, stood up, and left.
“Where’ she going?” Tik asked.
“Back home,” Nightmare said.
“How do you know?”
“She lives behind the building. A small shed. Go inside and there is a hidden trap door to where she lives underneath.”
“What’re you psychic too?”
“No, I can see through the darkness. It’s night out and that means there is a lot of it. If I focus I could find a lot of things right now.”
“Wow. I have one question, though. Did you sign up for recruiting?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I didn’t. I didn’t want to get some lousy partner who would get my butt killed!”
“I understand.”
“Well then, I’m going to go sign up and me and you are going to be partners.” Nightmare nodded and the two walked up to the bar. Fudar walked over and nodded to Nightmare.
“What can I do for yuh?” he asked. Tik tapped the counter and twitched.
“I would like to register for the requests,” he said in a low voice.
“Wonderin’ when yuh were goin’ to do that. I’ve been watchin’ yuh and I know what you can do. I see you met Nightmare.” Tik nodded. “Well then, hang on one sec’. Now are you willing to be his partner?”
“Yes, I know that he is a good one at that.”
“Well then, Jorget! Come over here.” Jorget staggered around a drunken couple that was kissing next to the bar.
“Ah, Nightmare,” he said. “Who is this?” Tik twitched and stuck out his hand.
“I’m Tik, and I’m Night’s partner.” Jorget’s eyes grew wide and shone like headlamps.
“Really? So you didn’t fall as every one else has there first time?”
“Actually, someone fell for him…HARD.” At this Nightmare grinned.
“Who?”
“Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“Katie.”
“The Khameleon?” Tik nodded. “My my, you seem to have quite the side effect my young man.”
“What is that?” Nightmare asked. “I keep hearing people saying ‘side effect’ this and ‘side effect’ that. What!?!?”
“Well depending on the power and the person a random side effect can pop up. Like Katie. She can change her physical appearance and she has the side effect of natural attraction. You didn’t fall for it and she fell for you. Help me a little bit Fudar.” Fudar walked over and leaned on the bar from the inside. He stared at Nightmare for at least five minutes.
“Well, it’s kinda hard. I get fear out of him. I also get attraction, sympathy (sympathy is the side ability to know how a person feels and to be easily persuasive), and this type of hidden aggression I get in my gut. All of these…now I think that he can make a big impact on anyone. You know how Katie is. She felt the attraction, persuasion, and aggression. The aggression she felt was the…positive kind of aggression. I could probably tell you what she is doing right now.”
“I can tell you exactly what she is doing,” Nightmare said. Every one looked at him and he shrugged. “Hey, a lot of shadows.” The group laughed for a while.
“All right,” Jorget said. “Now that you found another member you can leave and start any quest you want to.” Tik looked at Nightmare. “Or you can just roam around outside, if that’s what you want.”
“I want to know what quests there are,” Nightmare said. “At least to know what we can take.” Tik nodded and looked at Fudar.
“Well let me see,” Fudar said. He pushed a button and a touch screen appeared on the board. “There is a cattle round up, but they’re not cows. Uhh, fruit findin’ job. The last one that you might find interestin’ is a clean out. That one is filled out by this guy that has a permanent residence outside of the dome, and some beasts are always bustin’ his shop up.”
“We’ll take it.”
“WHAT!?!?” Tik exclaimed.
“I don’t know. I just want to go gung-ho.” Nightmare shrugged his arms. He stood up and looked at Jorget. Jorget threw his hands in the air.
“Well then,” Fudar said. “I’ll sign you guys up. His name is Gormab and he lives past the forest outside of the dome.”
“But I thought it wasn’t safe to live outside!”
“See now, after people get the antidote they decide to live outside and help travelers or scouters who are immune. Some regular people actually learn how to use weapons extremely well.” Fudar looked at the group. “You can go ahead now, but try not to die.” Nightmare nodded and stood up. Tik was still sitting and Nightmare grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to a standing position.
“I’m sorry,” Tik said. “I’d rather not get killed on my first day out!”
“Too bad,” Nightmare said. “We’re leaving.” He walked out and Tik stood still.
“You can’t make me!” Tik stuck out his tongue. Then he went stiff and looked down. A shadow leading to him from under the front door was in his path. “Now that’s not fair!” With that Tik jerkily walked out of the door.
Outside Nightmare was waiting next to the door, leaning on the tavern.
“Took you long enough,” he said. Tik just scowled at him. “Shall we then?” The duo started walking toward the gate.
“Nightmare!” someone called from behind them. It was Jorget. “Wait!” He closed the distance between them.
“What do you want?” Nightmare looked at him with an expression of impatience. Jorget held out a card and he took it. “What’s this?”
“You need that to open the gate.” Jorget was huffing. “Having brains isn’t every thing. I need you to do me a favor when you leave.”
“What is it?”
“I need you to go to this address.” Jorget handed him a gps with two markers glowing. “The yellow is the request that you got at the tavern. The blue is the favor I need of you. When you reach the house, give the resident this package.” Then Jorget handed him a small metal cube.
“What’s in it?”
“You can’t know yet. I suggest going to the yellow marker first. The blue one might take longer.” With that Jorget tipped his finger off his head and went back the way he came. Nightmare watched him for about ten yards, and then Jorget disappeared. Nightmare shook his head and looked again, Jorget was nowhere in sight.
At the gate Tik walked up to the door. A panel slid open and a robot came out. It looked like a puppet, top half was a torso with two arms and a head, and the bottom half was a mechanical arm.
“Authorization?” It asked. Tik raised his arms and hands.
“What do you need?” he asked. The robot moved over him and picked off one of his hairs. The hair was drawn down a tube on one of its arms.
“New DNA. Scanning…done. Jarmeg Grand, now known as Tik. Power: keeper, mimic powers and can store five for repeated use.” The robot grabbed Tik’s right wrist and pulled it up. Then its other arm formed a scanner like tool and imprinted a design on his entire wrist. “Entrusted confirmed.”
Then the robot moved over to Nightmare. “Authorization?” Nightmare picked a hair off his head and gave it to the robot. It grabbed the strand and scanned it. “New DNA. Scanning…done, error.” It looked at Nightmare with deep focus. “New data?” Nightmare shrugged and shook his head.
“OH!” he said, remembering the card Jorget gave him. “Here.” The robot grabbed the card and slid it into a slot in its chest. It looked straight and a light went over its one, bulbous eye. It looked back at Nightmare.
“Error fixed. Sakem Figliolia, now known as Nightmare. Umbrekinetic, can control the shadows and powers of darkness.” It repeated the process it did to Tik with Nightmare. “Entrusted confirmed.”
Tik’s design looked like it was a smooth vine wrapped repeatedly around his wrist. Nightmare’s design looked like his wrist was covered in jet-black flames. After a minute the designs disappeared. Nightmare shrugged and looked at Tik. He also shrugged. They walked up to the robot and stuck up their wrists. The robot swung down and a red beam came out of its eye and over their wrists. As the beam went over their wrists the design could have been seen. When the beam died the robot nodded and retraced back into its hole. The panel covered it and the door swung open.
Nightmare looked back at Tik and vice versa. Then they left the property of the dome and into the outside world.
It was day outside. Nightmare looked back and saw the door swing close, but not before seeing that it was dark inside. When he saw that he realized that all his whole life everything was really controlled. The weather, the days and nights. People still found ways to conjure up mischievous acts and hinder the algorithms of certain robotic functions. But besides that… At this thought Nightmare shivered. He felt his strength slightly being diminished by the light.
Nightmare looked at the gps Jorget gave him. The yellow was off to his left and about a six-mile walk. When he looked up all he saw was overgrown trees.
“A little freaky,” Tik said. “Isn’t it?”
“Hey,” Nightmare replied. “This isn’t that bad. I know creepy, trust me.” Tik nodded and looked back at the trees.
“Lead the way almighty gps bearer.” At this Nightmare laughed. He started to walk in the direction of the yellow marker. As he walked Nightmare felt the bump of his sword’s sheath on his back, and the weight of Jayden (the gun) on his hip. With this a question popped into his head.
“Do you have any weapons?” Tik looked at him with a flabbergasted expression.
“Yeah, why?”
“What are they?”
“I have powered gauntlets for close range, and eight pointed shuriken. The gauntlets can have blades on the outer sides for when I’m really in a jam.”
“Can I see them?” Tik nodded. He tapped his arm and Nightmare saw a metal band he didn’t see before, on both of Tik’s arms. Tik clanged the bands together and they started to expand. When they stopped expanding the metal formed gauntlets completely covering Tik’s forearms. He stretched out his fingers and the gauntlets retracted back to the metal bands.
Then he pulled out two shuriken from a pouch he was carrying on his right, back pocket. On the inside of the shuriken was a small red dot. Tik pulled the red dot off and stuck it in the middle of each palm. Then he threw the shuriken in the air and they disappeared in the sunshine. He slapped his hands together and when he pulled them apart the dots were glowing a brilliant light blue.
When the shuriken came down and Tik caught them they slightly glowed and they were slightly larger than normal.
“Watch this,” he said. He threw the shuriken with great force and Nightmare watched as they sliced through sticks and branches. When they reached a distance of fifteen yards Nightmare saw Tik flex his hands out of the corner of his eyes. The shuriken immediately started to come back with great speed. Tik raised his hand in the air to catch one and Nightmare thought his hand was going to be chopped off. At the precise moment the dot glowed bright and Tik’s fingers closed on the shuriken. He caught the other one a moment later. The shuriken folded and the dot flew back to the metal.
“Pretty neat,” Tik said. “Huh?” Nightmare nodded. “Well I showed you, now you showed me.”
“If that’s how you play.” Nightmare pulled out his sword and the black metal reflected the sunrays with an ominous glare. Nightmare swung it around and did a few tricks with it, coming mere centimeters from cutting off his nose of ears. He sheathed the sword.
“What about the long range?”
“I need a really hard substance first.”
“Why?”
“When we find a hard substance I’ll show you.”
“That’s fine. Lucky for you that I mimicked an alchemist’s power. So here…” Tik closed his hand and when he opened it a round material was in his hand. “It’s the hardest metal ever made.”
Nightmare nodded and grabbed the metal. He pulled out the contraption Jorget gave him and placed the metal inside. Then he closed it and a small whirring noise like a fan could be heard. When it opened Nightmare upended it and four bullets fell into his hand.
“What’re those?” Tik asked. Nightmare held up a finger.
“You’ll see,” he replied. Nightmare pulled out the gun and put the bullets in. “I might need you to make more of that stuff for me later.” Tik nodded. Nightmare held up the gun in shooting position. “It has a kick to it, but I can almost always hit my mark, even around corners.”
“And why do I not believe you?”
“I’ll prove it. Go make a mark on a tree.” Tik nodded and went to a tree and marked it with an X. “Now do you want me to hit all the other trees, or just that one?”
“I want you to hit just this tree with three other ones in front of you.”
“Suit yourself.” Nightmare moved and Tik stood next to him. He held the gun straight, as if to fire, but dropped his arm and yanked his whole body to the left. The bullet made an arc around the three trees and hit dead center in the middle of the X on the fourth. “Let’s go look.” He holstered his gun and motioned for Tik to follow him.
Tik looked at every tree in the area and still couldn’t believe what he saw. When he finally came to the last tree with the X, he pulled the bullet out and handed it to Nightmare.
“Okay,” he said, “Now I believe you.” Nightmare shook his head and laughed. They both started walking in the direction of their destination. When they reached the place the sun was starting to set, but there was still at least an hour left of light.
Tik walked up to the door and knocked. Laser beams fell over the whole house and a voice came from inside the house.
“WHO ARE YOU?” The voice boomed. It was male.
“We’re here for the request,” Nightmare said. “Aren’t you the one who had a monster problem?” There was a click and the beams disappeared. The door slightly opened, but a chain was holding the rest of it closed.
“You’re the scouting party?”
“Yeah!” Tik said. The door closed and there was another rattle of locks and chains. The door popped open and a man with a red beard was in the doorway.
“Then come on in! Sorry about the security, but those pesky ferdinks keep wreaking havoc on my house and shop. Don’t be scared, come on in.” The man walked into his house and the two followed. “I’m guessing you know my name?”
“Gormed, right?”
“Wrong! It’s actually Bob, but Gormed sounds fancier. That’s why I put it in the requests. But no one has come, so I kind of gave up hope.”
“When do the…” Nightmare was asking.
“Ferdinks?”
“Yah, when do they come?”
“You see, I thought you were them! They should be here in a couple of minutes.”
“What! Now you tell us. No time to get ready or…” Nightmare was cut off because he heard a rumbling in the distance.
“That’s them. Let me tell you real quick, they’re strong and have almost no weakness except constant battering. They look like giant suits of celestial armor, but they are quick as well, what rank are you?”
“What do you mean rank?” Tik jumped in.
“From highest to lowest it goes alpha, higher beta, lower beta, gamma, theta, and then omega. Then there is rookie for those who haven’t been out yet.” The only sound that came from Tik was a small yelp.
“Then we’re rookies,” Nightmare said as the rumbling grew louder. Bob looked from Nightmare to Tik, and back to Nightmare.
“Well,” he said, “if you make it you will get a gift of my choice and a favorable discount.” Bob stood up and pushed Nightmare and Tik towards the door. “Now good luck, and if you do die, try to take some of the ferdinks with you.” With that Bob pushed the two out the door, locked it, and activated the security beams.
“Well he was a great help,” Tik said. It was almost twilight and the ferdinks weren’t far away.
Bob was right. The ferdinks were large bodies of ancient armor that had wings that folded into a shield and a large joust. Nightmare pulled out his sword and Tik activated out his gauntlets. When the ferdinks reached the house they stopped. They looked at the two standing in their path. They made grunts and clicks to each other.
Finally they decided to move around them. When Nightmare and Tik moved back in front of them the ferdinks stomped in frustration. One of them stepped forward and tried to spear Tik. Tik grabbed the end of the joust and was pushed back a couple of feet. Then he yanked on the end of the joust, flinging the ferdink over him. Another one stepped forward and tried to spear Nightmare. This time the spear went through him, but without harm. Nightmare made himself phase through the joust. He grabbed the end and pulled himself off, but held fast. The ferdink tried to shake him off, but he would not let go. Then the ferdink swung the joust up and Nightmare DID let go, but when he came back down he came down with the sword in his hands, cutting the ferdink in half.
A yellow liquid came from the being and formed a ball. The ball would not move. Without control a shadow tentacle came out of Nightmare’s back and skewered the ball. It pulled it in and the ball went inside Nightmare. He felt a little stronger.
Now all of the ferdinks went into a total outrage, and the battle begun. The ferdink that was flung had flown back and was fighting Tik. Tik had half of the ferdinks fighting him while Nightmare had the other. Tik brought out his shuriken, and between throwing he would pummel one of the ferdinks. One of the ferdinks grabbed him, but Tik’s eyes turned blue and it disappeared. His skin became covered in armor relatively close to the ferdinks. He still used the gauntlets and the shuriken.
Nightmare was using his sword and his shadow had grown and was acting on its own, completely demolishing the field. One of the ferdinks charged him and he dodged. Then two tentacles came out of his back and skewed the ferdink.

They lifted him onto its back and held him there. Then Nightmare phased into the ferdink and took control of its body.
Nightmares shadow was still fighting and could tell what ferdink he was in, but the other ferdinks didn’t. When Tik saw that one of the ferdinks was attacking the others he put two and two together.
“Go get’em Night!” he yelled. Tik crushed one of the ferdink’s face into the ground and it disintegrated. Nightmare skewered another ferdink, but then one skewered him. The ferdink he was controlling turned black and dissipated into a black mist.
The ferdink bellowed a laugh and then stopped when a crack went through the air. It fell over backwards and a smoking hole was in its faceplate. Nightmare walked out of the black mist; sword in one hand, Jayden in the other. He walked over to the ferdink and tore a piece of its armor off. He placed it into the mold and closed it. While it was whirring he shot a curving bullet, taking out three other ferdink.
When it stopped Nightmare opened it and seven bullets came out. The armor was made of a really strong material. One ferdink came flying out of the air and dove straight for Nightmare. He shot it out of the air and it fell on another ferdink, retiring it.
Tik was holding the shuriken in his hands and using them as close combat weapons. A ferdink would come charging at him with its joust out straight, and Tik would throw a hard punch and cut straight through the joust and pummel the ferdink. Tik used the alchemy he stored and grew two long swords out of the shuriken.
Nightmare was fighting off a ferdink when one used its open hand to ram him in the back. Nightmare fell to the ground and slid five feet. When he stood up black smoke was pouring out from behind his blindfold. He drew a sign in the air with his sword and it glowed a dark purple. Then he raised Jayden and put the barrel to the center of the sign. He pulled the trigger, but the bullets didn’t come out. Instead, shots of dark energy flew from the sign. When Nightmare turned the sign turned with him so he could shoot in all directions.
While this frenzy occurred one of the shots flew next to Tik and knocked down a ferdink. Tik Looked behind him and yelled: “Watch it! You almost got me!” Then went back to fighting. When the moon was at its highest point in the sky Nightmare and Tik were sitting among pieces of broken armor.
Bob came out of his house and looked at the destruction.
“Well, well, well. It looks like you boys seemed to have finished the job. You’ve earned what you’re going to get.” He motioned for Tik and Nightmare to stand up. They did and followed him into his house. Once inside the two collapsed on the couch. Bob brought them a cup each filled with liquid that looked like coffee. When they drank it it tasted like almonds and ice cream. The drink immediately filled them with energy.
Bob sat down on the chair opposite the couch and had a cup of his own. “Now that we can talk in peace,” he said. “How are you still alive?”
“We fought,” Tik said.
“Really?” Bob sat forward. “All the other groups never came back, ha!”
“I have one question,” Nightmare asked. “What was that stuff that came out of the ferdinks?” Bob leaned back and took a sip from his cup.
“Their essence. It’s kind of like their soul. When a monster is killed their energy goes to you and their body can be used for many things. Speaking of,” he stood up and walked to the couch. “Hand me your weapons.”
“What!” Tik said as he stood up.
“Take it easy. I’m just going to make them better. I’m a shopkeeper, armor, and skill finder. The skill finder is a person who helps people find their natural skills, or in your case, learn to control your powers better. Only a select few know that I can do that. What you guys are going to get is free weapon upgrade and free skill session. I will give you a discount on my shop as well, now hand over the goods.” Tik took off the bands and handed him the discs. Nightmare just looked at him.
“Are you sure you can upgrade what I got?” he asked.
“I’m the only one who can.” Nightmare nodded and gave him Jayden on top of the sword. “Now what can you do?” he asked Tik.
“Keeper.” Bob nodded.
“What about you?” he asked Nightmare.
“Umbrekinetic.” Bob raised an eyebrow. “I can control shadows and powers of darkness.”
“I see…” Bob went somewhere in the back.
“Do you trust him?” Tik asked. Nightmare shook his head. He watched Bob walk across into the other room with the darkness. He watched him go down steps and then turn bright, sodium lights. Where the lights were at he couldn’t see.
“He’s smart though,” Nightmare said. “He might be able to help us.”
“Yeah, but he might be able to hurt us.” There was a loud bang and Nightmare scowled.
“He’s wasting my bullets.” He stood up and walked around. He went into another room and there was a bowl of cookies. A tentacle popped out of his back and grabbed one. It brought the cookie back and dropped it in his hand. Nightmare examined it and it was an oatmeal cookie. He shrugged his shoulders and bit it, nothing in it that wasn’t supposed to be.
Nightmare went back into the living room to find Tik looking at a large cut on his arm. He dragged his finger over it and it healed quickly. Nightmare sat down in the chair opposite the couch and ate the cookie. There were a few clicks from downstairs and a large thud.
“I wonder what he’s doing down there,” Tik said. Nightmare just shrugged and finished the cookie. There was a slam and repeated thoughts. Nightmare looked through the darkness and saw Bob coming up the stairs with a pack on his back. A door opened and Bob came around the corner.
He walked in and looked at the two just sitting there. He cleared his throat and spoke: “I’m done, now follow me into the training room.” He went around another corner and Tik looked at Nightmare. Nightmare shrugged and got up and so did Tik. They followed Bob around the corner.
The trio came to big, double, padded, steel doors. Bob put a code in and the doors swung open. Inside was a giant room with scrapes and burns everywhere. Columns reached up from the ground and ended with different levels of flat tops. On the other side of the room there were gates that led to some other area that was unseen.
“Here you go,” Bob said and walked over to Tik and handed him his bands. Tik put them on and activated them.
“What about my shuriken?” Tik asked. Bob nodded.
“Cup your hands like you were catching the and flex your forearm.” Tik did and glowing shuriken glowed in his hands. “Now throw the shuriken around one of the columns, and as it rounds the column make a fist.” Tik nods and throws his glowing shuriken. He aims it perfectly to go around and it does. As it is rounding the column he closes his fist and a cord glows from his wrist to the shuriken. The shuriken wraps around the column and glows.
“When the shuriken is wrapped like that,” Bob was saying. “You can mimic the other’s power for your own so you can be a distance away.”
“Sweet!” Tik exclaimed.
“Now for you,” Bob walked over to Nightmare. “The gun and sword are separate, but both are better.” He tossed Nightmare the sword first and Nightmare strapped it on his back. He drew the sword from the sheath. The sword grew in length as he pulled it out. The metal was black as a starless and moonless night, and a black mist was coming off of it. As Nightmare swung it and did tricks it seemed to pierce reality it self. He did a hard side swing and poured darkness into it. A dark energy slash flew through the air and cut the column that the shuriken was wrapped around in half. Tik pulled on the cord and the top half fell over.
“Nice,” Nightmare said. He looked at Bob.
“For you, maybe. But I need to fix that.” Then Bob tossed him the gun. The barrel was slightly longer and it had some mystical carvings in it. The handle was composed of piled skeletons that looked like they were climbing from the grave itself. It could hold more bullets than before and there were four holes were Nightmare could put shadow tentacles to fill it with darkness. He lifted the gun and attached the tentacles. His right eye fuzzed and he blinked it. When he opened it white cross hairs were in the center of it. He was able to see where the bullet could hit and he could magnify and focus on things faraway to get a perfect shot. He was able to see things in slow motion and see around corners as if moving. He swung his arm and shot a bullet. The bullet came out with a lot mare force than before and was quieter. The bullet curved around a column and hit one behind Bob.
Bob jumped and looked behind. Nightmare looked at the column and a large chunk was missing.
“I think it’s time to do the skill training,” Bob said. He walked over to Tik and tapped his arm and the gauntlets retracted. “I want you to bring out your strongest power.” Tik nodded and activated the armor and strength he got from the ferdink. Bob nodded. “Now hit me.” Tik shrugged and thrust his arm forward. Bob dodged it and uppercutted him in the face. Tik fell and grunted.
“What was that for!” he yelled.
“You need to feel the power, if you have more than one try combining them.” Tik nodded. He stood up and got still. The armor turned silver and sparkled. His right arm turned into a long sword and giant wings popped out of his back. The armor shifted its shape a little bit and fire jetted from the holes in his faceplate when he exhaled hard. “That’s it.”
“It feels great!” Tik looked at his arms and flexed his wings. Bob pulled a sword from nowhere and pointed it at Tik.
“Draw.” Bob charged at Tik and Tik blocked. Bob swung his sword around and clipped him in the back. Tik bellowed and fell. His wound was bleeding a dark purple. The wound started healing immediately. Tik stood back up and flew into the air. He thrust his sword into the air and it ignited into flames. He swung it and each time it swung a burst of flames shot through the air. Bob deflected each blast, but he was starting to sweat. On the last blast Tik appeared right in front of him and hit him with the flat of his sword. Bob fell down and Tik put the edge of his sword to the end of Bob’s throat. He pushed the sword aside and stood up. Tik was about to hit him when Bob put up his hand.
“You win,” he said. Tik nodded and stood up. He powered down and stepped back.
“Thanks for the lesson.” Bob nodded and motioned for Nightmare to come up. Tik stepped back and Nightmare walked forward.
“Now show me what you can do.” Nightmare nodded. He showed Bob all that he knew. He made his shadow grow, walked through the columns, made the tentacles pop out of his back, made the sign with the sword and shot magic bullets, took control of Tik with his shadow (which he didn’t like), and made clones.
Bob nodded and walked around Nightmare.
“Can you make wholes in the darkness?”
“Yes,” he replied. Bob nodded again.
“Huh… Well I want to try a couple of things.”
“What?”
“I want you to try and focus some energy into your hand.” Nightmare nodded and grinned. He cupped his hand and it started emanating a dark mist. “Now I want you to focus and contain it inside your hand, like a ball.” He nodded again and the mist started to bow inwards. As the mist balled up it started to become denser and denser. Finally when it was a deep, pulsating purple it stayed like that.
“Now what do you want me to do?”
“Hit me.”
“Okay.” Nightmare ran to Bob and thrust his arm forward that had the energy in it. The ball expanded and pushed Bob backwards as it left Nightmare’s hand. When the ball disappeared Bob was slightly smoking.
“That was good.” He was panting like a dog. “Very good. Now let’s try something else.” Bob walked over to Nightmare and looked at the blindfold. “Can you take that off?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Never really tried.” Nightmare raised his hands to his face and tugged on the cloth. Each time he pulled the cloth would sap his strength and he couldn’t move it. “Nope.”
“Alright. Tik,” Tik looked up. “Get behind one of those columns. I’m going to try something that may not go well.” Tik nodded and moved to where he was told. Bob looked at Nightmare and put his hand on his shoulder. “I have a theory. You can unleash a mass amount of force with that blindfold off. Maybe a little too much.
“But I’m going to take it off and step back. The thing is I don’t know what is going to happen and it might hurt. Are you okay with that?” Nightmare nodded and stood still. Bob raised his hands to the blindfold and firmly grabbed it. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Nightmare whispered. Bob nodded and pulled the Cloth off with ease. He dropped it and it disintegrated before it hit the floor. Nightmares eyes were pitch black. Bob raised his hand in a questioning gesture. Nightmare shook his head. “Nothing.”
Then Nightmare gasped and doubled over in pain. When he looked up his eyes were running with a black liquid and it was spreading over his skin. As it spread Nightmare bellowed with pain. He tried pulling the darkness off as it spread, but the attempts were futile. His shadow retracted into his body and his arms grew in length. When he was fully covered in black he hunched over and four black tentacles came out of his back. Two bulbs started forming on the backs of his shoulders and grew around till they hung over the front. The bottom halves of them opened to reveal very sharp teeth. When Nightmare opened his eyes they were a glowing, dark yellow. At the exact moment he opened his four eyes on each of the other heads opened, two on each side. His fingers were outstretched into claws and the tentacles arc slightly around him. A black mist rose from his body.
Bob wasn’t moving and Nightmare seemed to be staring right passed him. The two heads extended forward and seemed to examine him. Tik sneezed and the heads, along with Nightmare’s, turned toward the sound. Nightmare started moving toward Tik and Bob new he had dangerous intentions. He didn’t know if Nightmare could tell from friend of foe.
Bob produced his sword and the sound of it caught the attention of one of the heads. It looked at the sword and watched it gleam. Then it seemed to whisper to Nightmare and he looked over his shoulder. The other head looked and confirmed the sight. Nightmare turned and faced Bob.
Bob staggered back and thoughts of fear penetrated his head. He knew what was happening and pushed them out. Nightmare stopped ten feet and in front of him and stood there.
“He’s worthless cattle!” the left head spoke.
“But he could be a delicious morsel,” the right head spoke. Bob couldn’t believe he was hearing that he was deciding to eat him.
“True, but he might be a friend.”
“Then why is he holding a sword toward us?” Nightmare nodded and he lunged at Bob. He seemed to glide instead of walk. The right head lunged at Bob and he deflected it with his sword. Nightmare came up and grabbed him by the throat. He shoved him against one of the columns and lifted him up. Bob tried swinging his sword, but one of the tentacles grabbed it and pulled it from his hand.
Nightmare began to squeeze and Tik came around the column. The left head popped up and his right in front of him. With his free hand Nightmare extended his arm into the ground. When it came back out there was a pool of darkness on the floor. A hand popped out, then the other, and then a head. A shadow creature crawled out and stood in front of Tik. It screeched and jumped on him.
Bob began to look worried.
“Nightmare,” he strained. “It’s meeee! BOB!” Nightmare brought his face close to Bob’s and looked at him. The right head came close to Bob and opened its mouth. Then it stopped, closed its mouth, and looked at Nightmare. It’s eyes narrowed and it hissed. It nodded and the shadow creature jumped off Tik. It sunk into the ground and disappeared. Nightmare released Bob and took a step back.
Nightmare fell to the ground and a shriek echoed through the air that pierced the mind. The tentacles retracted and so did the heads. Nightmare stood back up and the darkness started its way back to his eyes. As the darkness reached his eyes it formed a blindfold, sealing the monster inside.
Tik flew around the corner with the blades on his gauntlets out. Only the blades were laser enhanced. Nightmare walked over to him and put his hand on Tik’s arm.
“It’s fine,” Nightmare said. “I’m back, it’s fine.” Tik nodded and the blades retracted, followed by the gauntlets. Bob walked over rubbing his neck. He kept blinking his left eye. “What’s wrong with your eye?” Bob looked up and flicked his right ear. The left side of his face extended, revealing robotics underneath. His finger lifted to one of the wires and straightened out. The face piece moved back and the blinking stopped.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“Your half robot, a cyborg?”
“Yeah. I’m really good at anything that has to do with using your hands. Including abilities and machines.” Tik walked up to him and stared at him.
“Then why did you hire someone to get rid of the ferdinks?” Tik asked.
“To find someone worth giving my gifts, and I was kind of bored.” Tik flew into a rage and Nightmare held him back. “Well I guess you should be on your way.” Bob pushed a part on his arm and there was a quiet beep. A panel in the roof opened and the tile they were standing on sprung up and ejected them into the air.
On the way down Tik sprung wings and started to slow down. Nightmare was still falling at full speed. Tik flew to tried to catch him, but wasn’t fast enough. Nightmare hit the ground, but instead of stopping phased through it. Tik landed on the ground and Nightmare phased back in a standing position.
“Now what do we do?” Tik asked. Nightmare pulled out the gps and the yellow dot was no longer on the screen. Now the blue dot was blinking faster and glowing brighter.
“I guess we deliver this package,” Nightmare said. He opened his trench and pulled out the package that Jorget gave him.
“How did you keep that in there without it showing it was there?”
“I am able to use the darkness to manipulate its size and shape.” Tik rolled his eyes. Nightmare replaced the package and looked back at the gps. He looked up and the sun was rising.
“This way.” Nightmare started walking and Tik followed. They walked over the hills and came to a canyon. There was a ladder that led down to the bottom and across the large expanse was a house sitting next to the side of the mountain on a single out crop.
“That’s where we have to go?” Tik said with a jumpiness to his voice. Nightmare nodded. “And we have to go down there?” Nightmare nodded as he looked down into the dark expanse. He walked over to the ladder and put his foot on the first rung. When he looked up and saw Tik still staring across the canyon.
“You coming?” Tik blinked his eyes and his neck twitched slightly.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” Tik walked over to the ladder and looked at Nightmare. Nightmare started to walk down the ladder when Tik spoke. “Wait!”
“What?”
“I want to go first.” Nightmare shrugged and two tentacles popped out of his back. They stuck into the wall of the canyon and lifted him off the ladder. Nightmare gestured with his hand.
“After you.” Tik walked to the edge and looked down. He shrugged and started his descent. When Tik passed Nightmare the tentacles retracted and he grabbed the rungs. As they went down the light started to dim till it was totally black. Then the further they went down a dim green light started to appear. When they reached the bottom they found what the source of light was.
Along the walls ran plants that gave off there own glow. Nightmare put a gloved hand on one and a glow came from behind his blindfold.
“There’s no known knowledge that I can find right off the bat about these,” he said. “But there is something that is close to them. I don’t know.” Nightmare shrugged and started walking down the path. The light got brighter as they kept walking. They reached a room where there was a rope ladder leading to the outside. Tik ran over to it with eager excitement, but before he reached it the ladder rolled up to where it couldn’t be reached. Tik just grinned and wings sprouted from his back. He started to fly up when a hand came from nowhere and swatted him out of the air.
A large monster walked out from behind a large glowing trunk. It was covered in scales and was as tall as a three-story building. It had a tail that was as long as a bus and as thick as a tree. It’s face looked like a lizards face that was smashed in. Its eyes were large and red with a yellow center. Its teeth were on the outside of its mouth and its tongue was sharper than steel. It had three fingers and one opposable thumb on each of its four arms. On the tip of its tail was a large claw-like structure.
The creature roared and hurled itself at Tik. Right when it was about to slam on top of him a large figure moved in its way. It was Nightmare shadow.
“Tik,” Nightmare yelled. “Get up!” Tik shook his head and sat up. He looked at the shadow holding the creature by the wrists.
“How…” Tik started, but was cut off.
“It’s pretty dark in here, that’s how! But I can’t hold him for long.” As if to prove a point the shadow was pushed back by the reptilian like creature and it sunk into the ground. Nightmare fell to one knee and looked up. The creature lost sight of Tik and know had its eyes on him.
The thing ran at Nightmare and he dodged, pulling out his sword while rolling. Tik powered up and took flight into the air. The creature was still focused on Nightmare when Tik hurtled through the air and connected his feet with the creature’s face. The creature howled and tried to grab Tik, but he was already out of reach.
Nightmare ran forward and stabbed the creature in the foot and the creature kicked him against the wall. Nightmare hit the wall with great force and landed dazed. Tik hurtled a fireball at the creature’s face and the fire harmlessly burst on its scales. Then it hit Tik and he spiraled into the large root. Nightmare stood up and two tentacles lifted him onto one of the flat roots. He drew Jayden and looked at the creature.
Tik jumped on it and tried to absorb it power, but there was a large flash and Tik was flung off of the creature’s body. Nightmare created a ball of energy in his hand and lunged at the creature. Then he thrust his hand forward and caught the monster on the jaw, making it stumble. Tik jumped back up and the blades on his gauntlets popped out. He flew into the air and soared at the creature’s neck. The creature dodged, but Tik took out one of its eyes. When he stopped in mid air he looked at the gauntlet and saw the eye stuck on it.
“Gross!” he yelled and tore the eye off. He threw it and it landed on Nightmare’s head.
“Watch it,” he yelled at Tik. “If I’m going down I want to go down CLEAN!” Tik laughed and a large blade grew on his gauntlet like a sword. It burst into flames and Tik started to slash at the creature. Nightmare pointed his finger in the air and drew a magical symbol. The symbol glowed and he thrust his sword into it. The sword began to glow a bright purple and grew in length. Nightmare swung the sword and a dark energy slash flew across the expanse, hitting the creature in its only soft spot, the groin.
The creature bellowed and Tik took this momentary distraction to fly down and grab the creature’s tail. He began to tug, but only made a fraction of a movement. Then it looked at him and fire jetted from its nostrils. Then the creature fell and Tik was tugging the tail, with the help from Nightmare’s shadow.
“Pull!” Nightmare yelled. Tik tugged and his whole body began to glow. The creature was lifted off the ground and was swung in a large arc. Its head slammed into the giant root and there was a sickening crack. They let go of the tail and gave each other a high five. Tik powered down and Nightmare put away his weapons. Then the creature groaned and Tik and Nightmare jumped.
Tik walked over to the creature and tried mimicking it. The scales softened and Tik felt newfound strength. Nightmare walked over to the creature’s eye, put Jayden next to it, and, since it was weaker, put it out of its misery.
When Nightmare walked back over to Tik he pointed at the ladder. It had unrolled and they were able to climb out of the dark canyon. Tik ran over to the ladder and hugged it. He immediately grabbed the first rung and started climbing. Nightmare followed.
Outside Tik jumped in the air and cried out in joy. His wings sprouted out and flew in the air, doing flips and barrel rolls. Nightmare climbed over the edge and watched Tik in his antics.
“How come you didn’t just fly us over here?” Nightmare asked. Tik landed and walked over to Nightmare.
“You know,” he began. “I never really thought of that.” Nightmare cuffed him upside the head.
“Come you numb skull! We need to get to the person’s house and give them this cube.” Tik nodded and started walking with Nightmare, rubbing the side of his head.
Far away the house seemed like a normal house, but close up the house seemed to be thriving with power. There were magical symbols drawn all over the yard and the door had a skeleton engraved on it. The skeleton had bone wings and was holding a scythe. There was a knocker hanging in the center of the door.
Tik walked up to the door and tapped the knocker three hard times in a row. He turned around and shrugged. There was a hiss and the door seemed to bulge outwards. Tik looked at the door and the skeleton’s eye sockets flashed and dimmed. Its free arm popped off the door, then its leg, wing, body, head, leg, wing, arm, then scythe.
Tik jumped back and ran to Nightmare’s side. The skeleton slowly walked to the two, hunched over, using the scythe as a walking stick. Its head seemed to be following Tik. When Tik moved behind Nightmare the skeleton seemed to look through him, then at him. The top of its sockets lifted and the skeleton knelt down on one knee.
“My liege,” it spoke. Its mouth didn’t move and the words came from the mind. “What is it that you wish of me?” Nightmare walked up to the skeleton and laid his hand on its shoulder. The skeleton looked up and its eyes swirled with black vortexes. When Nightmare removed his hand the vortexes vanished.
“Thank you,” Nightmare said and the skeleton bowed its head. “I will call you when the time is needed.” Nightmare pointed to the house. “Let the resident of this home know we are asking an audience.” The skeleton nodded and walked up to the house. Then it molded itself back on the door and it opened. There was a drifting sound of a harp being played.
Nightmare walked up to the house and Tik grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait,” he whispered. “It might be a trap.” Nightmare shrugged his hand off and motioned for him to follow. Tik nodded and the two slowly walked into the house. Inside the doorway the harp’s music was louder and soothing. As both of them stepped fully in the door silently closed and Tik looked back. Nightmare kept walking.
In the hallway the two passed a dining room, a living room, library, study, and came to a large room at the end of the house. In this room the walls ended and the mountain’s rocks were expertly cut away and smoothed, making the room bigger than it would have been. Up on the stage, near the back of the room, was a woman with long, flowing black hair. She was playing the harp and singing a soft song along with the melody. Her voice echoed through the walls and her voice was soothing. She was wearing a long, white robe and her fingers seemed to move through time itself.
“Do you love?” she sang. “Do you fall for the stars as I do?” Nightmare couldn’t help but feel like he knew this woman. Like a long lost memory that was trying to break free. “We share the same moon, and share the same soul.” He couldn’t place it. He walked closer.
The woman kept playing, but she wasn’t singing. She looked at Nightmare and her eyes were fogged over and yet she was still looking at him. He moved even closer and could smell her smell, that scent that made you feel alive. Now he was an arms length away. She reached out with one hand and the music never faltered. She lifted his face up and seemed to look into his eyes.
“I know why you’re here,” she said. “But do you?” Nightmare nodded and pulled out the cube. The woman shook her head and the cube floated up from his palm. It disappeared. “That’s not the reason.” Her voice was so calm and soothing, peaceful.
“Then why am I here?” The woman slowly blinked and smiled.
“You will find out later.” The woman finished playing the harp and stood up. Tik was in the corner, looking at everything to make sure it wouldn’t attack. The woman smiled and giggled and her voice was otherworldly. She walked off the stage and dragged her hand over Nightmare’s shoulder. He looked at Tik and flicked his head as in a gesture to follow. Tik came out of the corner and followed.
They were back in the hall, walking. The walls seem to have changed their pattern. The woman turned a corner that wasn’t there before and kept walking. Tik tapped Nightmare and Nightmare nodded. He closed his eyes and focused on the building. The whole building seemed to be alive. It moved halls and rooms, making new paths and doorways to new areas. Nightmare placed his hand on Tik’s shoulder and shared what he saw. Tik took a deep breath and exhaled when Nightmare removed his hand.
At the end of one hallway the woman stopped and turned around. A doorway appeared and she waved her hand and did a curtsy. She turned again and walked into the room. It was a large, sectioned off bedroom. One bed in each of the four corners and there was some type of podium in the middle. The woman walked over to the podium and made the metal cube appear. Then she put it into a slot and a bright flash went across her eyes.
The skeleton that was on the door came from another appearing doorway, carrying his scythe in one hand and an ancient book of some sort in the other, reading it. It looked up and saw Nightmare. Then it closed the book and bowed.
“My liege,” it spoke into his mind. “I’m glad you are able to stay for awhile. I have much to tell you.” Nightmare looked at the woman and she smiled.
“My name,” she began. “Is Aurora. This is my friend. He has taken a liking to you, which is quite uncommon.” Her lips didn’t move, but both Tik and Nightmare could hear her.
“My liege, my name is Zerkin. I hope I can be of service to you.” The skeleton stood back up and went back to reading.
“If you don’t mind, what is your power?” Nightmare looked at Aurora.
“Umbrekinesis,” he said. Aurora walked over to the podium and placed her hand on a half ball on the left and a hand shaped slot on the left. A hologram popped up and pictures started to rapidly flash across the screen.
“Huh…” Her eyes were a constant gray, but they seemed to be moving. “That’s why.” The hologram stopped and Aurora stepped off of the platform. “Well know I see why Zerkin has taken a liking to you. Shadow walker.” There seemed to be distaste in her voice, but her smile never left her face.
Aurora walked over to Tik and looked at his eyes. “Now I am guessing that you are this famous keeper?” Tik nodded. “There was only one before you, and his choices led him down a path of tragedy and death.” She ruffled his hair with her hand. “But you seem to be a promising figure. I am what you would call a daughter of Hera. I am gifted with great knowledge and love and many other gifts.
“I hope Jorget has told you that you would be staying here, but I’m guessing he didn’t.” Nightmare shook his head. “Yes, that is just like the man. He told you that it might be awhile. Well, your stay is going to be awhile. There are a few things you must do and I will give you some things in return.” She walked over to one of the beds and waved her hand. A door grew in the doorway and it was completely black. “This will be Nightmare’s room.
“My house will be your house while you stay here. But my bedroom is off limits unless I am with you. Come here, Nightmare.” Nightmare walked over. “This room is like a portal into the darkness, yet it remains in reality. In here will be books and other things that will help you with what questions you have.
“I will help you as well with things you do not understand, and I’m sure Zerkin will also. I suggest making an area for a permanent stay for him while you are here. He will find it more…comfortable in your presence. Be nice to him.” Nightmare nodded and Aurora walked to another doorway and waved her hand over it. A large steel door appeared and bolted shut.
“This will be your room,” Aurora motioned to Tik. “Here you will find to control the powers you have and use them to their full extent. You may also be able to learn to hold more than five abilities at once. If you have any questions you may ask me as well.
“As you may have noticed my house moves and changes constantly. All you have to do is walk and think where you want to go and you will get there.” She walked back to the center of the room and the others came to her. “Through out your stay you will receive many messages from me. Do not ignore them. They come quietly and you must listen in order to hear. Now the places in my house are infinite. No place that a building has my house doesn’t. I bid you farewell for now.”
Aurora walked to one of the walls and a doorway opened up and closed as she left the room. Nightmare and Tik stood standing in the center of the room.
“Well,” Tik started. “I guess that we should get some sleep, I’m bushed.” Nightmare nodded. The last time he slept was when he was unconscious at the hospital. Tik went to his room as Nightmare entered his. Inside Nightmare’s room there was a wall covered in books. A bed was shoved into one corner with blankets black as night. The room was dim and it seemed to give off some small amount of light. Near one corner was a raised platform big enough for one

person to sit Indian-style on it. There was a cage built into the wall and a trap door on the bottom of the floor that led to a large stone chamber beneath. There was a mirror that was clouded over.
Tik’s room was a plain gray. On one wall it looked like it was made of liquid. A soft bed was in a corner and some sort of machine was in the other. Tik walked up to it and read ‘physical holographic training.’ He shrugged and sat on his bed. The color of the room changed to a light blue and he realized that the color changed with his mood. There was a small table that had a drawer in it. He pulled out the draw and it was empty. He closed the drawer and wished he had a picture of his mother. There was a small thud from the desk and he opened the drawer. When Tik opened the drawer he stumbled by what he saw. The exact picture that he wanted was laying on the bottom of the drawer. Tik pulled the picture out and closed the drawer. He thought of a pistol laying on top of a bouble cheese burger next to a chocolate shake. He waited a minute and opened the drawer. There was a book on the mechanisms of a gun and a picture of the food on top.
“Darn,” he said as he realized he will only get material for learning or viewing.
Nightmare was sitting on his bed, reading a book about types of energy and how to channel it to certain parts of the body when a knock rang out on his door. “Come in.” The door remained still, then there was another knock. Nightmare stood up and walked over to the door. When he opened it he was face to face with a skeletal grin.
“May I come in, my liege?” Zerkin asked. Nightmare looked at him for under a second and stepped aside. “Thank you.” Zerkin stepped in and walked over to the platform. He set his scythe next to the wall and floated to a siting postion, crossed legged. Then he glided over to the platform and sat down.
“May I ask why you are hear?” The skeleton looked up and nodded.
“If I may, I find it…relaxing in here.” Nightmare nodded. Another question surfaced to his mind.
“Are you Death?” A rattling laugh echoed in his mind.
“No. No one can manifest the entity ‘Death,’ but I am a harbinger. I work for those who are stong enough and take to the grave those whose time has come. I am a mere worker among many thousand of my kind.” Zerkin gestured to the scythe. “We all have partake in the action of death. I help with, how you say, gruesome side of the job.”
“Are all the ones of your kind like you.” Zerkin shook his head.
“No. Most of us are different. I am the only one who acts and behaves and is…free as I am.”
“What do you mean ‘free?’”
“I have served out my duty as a harbinger past the time due. I am allowed to walk the Earth in its realm, not the one of darkness. With this I am able to help those whom are worthy, but I can still be called for duties to deliver the souls of dead and bring the living when their time has come.”
“Is there anything you know about me that you could fill me in on?”
“I am allowed so much, for the Fates can still have my head, as with any other leaders of such affairs.” Nightmare shrugged. “All I ask is that you not be disappointed when I can only tell and show you so much.”
“You have my word.”
“Then I will show you what I can.” Zerkin outstretched his arm and his scythe floated up to it. He turned it so he was holding the blade. Then he thrust the handle straight into Nightmare’s head. It sunk in with ease and without pain.
Images and sounds started to flash and pop in Nightmare’s mind. He heard Zerkin’s voice float through his head. “What you are about to see was not meant for eyes that shy away from the darkness.” The was a terrible screech that rang out in Nightmare’s mind and when he tried to move he found he was in a state of paralisys.
Some sort of animal was walking in a forest. It was night outside and the Moon was full in the sky. Out of nowhere a creature lurking in the shadows lunged from its hiding place and pounced on the animal. The creature was as tall as a human, but there were other appendages coming off of its body. Its eyes glowed a vibrant yellow, and Nightmare recognized what it was.
The creature looked into the dream camera and its eyes narrowed. It lunged at Nightmare, but the vision immediately changed to a new scene. This scene shown huts and small campfires. It was twilight, going from dawn to dusk. People were dressed with feathers in the hair and paint on there faces, Indians. A witch doctor stepped out from a hut and stood on the edge of the campsite. The shadows in the trees have grown increasingly dark and a figure seemed to being moving from one to the other.
It would start at a tree far off and go behind it and come from behind another that was closer. The figure seemed to be wearing a black cloak. It stopped at the edge of the woods, where light was still reaching the ground. The witch doctor narrowed his eyes and said some unknown word. A succulent goat was brought to the edge of the rock that he stood on. The figure nodded and the witch doctor stepped back. When light turned to dark the figure grew extra appendages.
“As you can see,” Zerkin’s voice came from the depths. “The darkness has been around since the beginning of time.” The figure lunged at the goat and started to devour it right before the encampments eyes. “It has never been controlled, only slightly contained.”
The figure stood up and all that was left of the goat was a pile of bones. The right head moved forward and spoke something to the witch doctor. The witch doctor shook his head and grabbed a charm from his belt. The head retracted and the figure raised its hand. The witch doctor replaced the charm and sighed, nodding as he did so. Another phrase of words was spoken and a women was brought from a hut.
The witch doctor took her in his hands and said something in her ear. Her eyes grew wide and tears started streaming down her face. “It would only take things that were pure so it could take the goodness and feed off it, defiling it.” The witch doctor bound her arms and pushed her towards the trees. The figure smiled and one of the tentacles extended and caressed the gairls cheek. Then another appeared and she was drug off into the trees. There was a blood curdling cry that was aloud to drag on. The vision faded.
As the vision switched from one to the next, Nightmare was granted to a momentary reprieve. From deep inside he knew the girls name, he new that she was a virgin, and ,with a sickening feeling of pleasure, he knew what happened to her in the woods. He knew that she came back, and he knew what became of her child that was banished from the clan.
The next vision he saw was in a castle. Inside the castle are many hidden passages, and in one of these passages is an ancient wizard. The wizrd was meddling with black magic when it happened, the darkness over took him. Inside the upper levels of the castle was a king whose queen has long since passed. The king hired the wizerd to find a way to bring her back.
The darkness covered itself in a cloak and walked up to the king’s room. Inside the king was sleeping on his bed. The darkness walked over to him and said something in ole latin. Then it dissipated into a dark mist. As the king breathed in the mist was inhaled into his body. The kings eyes opened and they were a dark yellow.
The king stood up and walked to the mirror. The mirror changed and showed the king’s daughter sitting in her bed, grooming her beautifully long, blonde hair. The king smiled and walked back to the bed. He lay down and exhaled. The mist came out and the darkness reformed. It walked through the door and made its way to the princess’ room. He knocked on the door and the princess opened. She looked at the figure and thought it was the wizard.
The figure walked into the room and closed the door…and locked it. The princess then sat on her bed and began grooming her hair. Then the figure jumped on her and the canopy fell and covered them. Later the king walked into his daughter’s bedroom because of a bad dream he had. When he saw his daughter he fell on his knees and began to cry. Sleeping on the bed was his daughter, hair a pitch black.
The vision faded. It was a pitch black scene, but Nightmare still couldn’t moved. Then a the figure of darkness popped out of nowhere and didn’t move.
“Who are you?” Nightmare asked.
“Yooou knoow who Iii am,” the darkness said.
“The darkness, that’s what you are.” The figure smiled.
“Yeeeessss.” The figure nodded and the two heads popped out of its shoulders. They extended and started speaking to Nightmare.
“I have been waiting…” the right head spoke.
“…For someone with your…” the left head continued.
“…Aptitude…”
“…Now that we can…”
“…Work together and combine…”
“…Our forces to greatly increase…”
“…Our odds of defeating our enemies.”
“Join us in our…”
“…Quest for dominance!” Nightmare started laughing. He looked at the darkness and said one word.
“No.” The darkness hissed then laughed. It burst into a mist.
“It is going…to be harder…to persuade you to… be on our side…we never had a problematic…entity that thought for itself.” The mist dissipated.
The visions stopped and Nightmare was looking at Zerkin. The skeleton removed the handle from Nightmare’s head then Zerkin sat stright and stopped moving Nightmare left his room.
He then started to walk over to Tik’s room. He knock and waited for Tik to answer the door. When Tik answered the door he had an excited look on his face.
“What are you so happy about?” Nightmare asked.
“I got this sweet thing-a-majigy! I go in it, and-and-ohrahhh!
“What do you mean?”
“When you wanna blow off some steam…”
“I could use that right now!” Tik nodded and pulled Nightmare into the contraption in the corner. Once inside Tik pushed a button and a bright flash covered both of them in light. When the light dimmed Nightmare were in a different scene. The sky was an orangish-red and there were bones littered all over. Also in the mix were weapons and armor of sorts.
“Where are we?” Nightmare asked Tik.
“I don’t know,” he began. “The thing is at random. All I know is that we fight things, and when we get hurt we feel it, but when we go back we are completely okay, just a little sore.” Nightmare nodded and started exploring.
The bones on the ground started to rattle and move. Then a whole army of skeletons were standing across from the two. There was some type of green symbiote attached to the bones, that was what was moving the bodies.
The skeletons stayed still, clicking and rattling in their armor. Then two of them lurched forward and tried to grasp Tik. He activated his gauntlets and disassembled the controlled corpses. Another two walked forward and one that carried a spear tried to pierce Nightmare. He phased through it and pulled out his sword, slicing the skeletons in half in the process.
The bones on the ground started to rattle and shake and the reassembled. Nightmare tried to control the skeletons, but the symbiote was a living creature that controlled the skeletons first hand.
“How do we take them out?” Nightmare asked. “I can’t control them!” Tik looked at the skeletons and studied them while they stood there. He watched as most of the symbiote seemed to be protruding from the base of the skull and out of the holes in it.
“Kill the bug thing on it,” he said.
“I tried, but it moves out of the way.” Tik thought real hard.
“Hit the head! That’s where most of the thing is coming from.” Nightmare nodded and waited for the first attack. The skeleton that was most fashionly dressed for battle lifted its sword and a clicking noise came from its mouth. The other skeletons raised their weapons and started to charge.
Nightmare and Tik went into battle, arms thrashing wildly as they cut down the forces. The symboites knew that they were vulnerable and they protected the head a lot. Tik soared into battle, brandishing his shurikens as he went. He tucked in his wings and fell from the sky. Then right before he landed he opened them and a large gust of wind was sent through the battle, making room for him in the middle.
Tik landed on the ground and fire blazed around his fists and shuriken. He threw one of the shuriken in one directing and the next in the other. He spun a complete in three-sixty and the shuriken started to fly around in constant changing directions, cutting flaming wounds in the skeletons. He drove straight into the blunt force of the battle and started rampaging.
Skeletons would run at Tik and flaming bones would fly back. He was having a hard time killing the symbiote that possessed the bones because the creature reinforced the skeleton’s strength. Tik got stabbed in the leg by one of the skeletons and a flurry of sharp arrows pierced him in his back. He fell to the ground and a war hammer was dropped on his hand. Tik bellowed in rage. His body started to glow and his gauntlets grew sharp swords. The shuriken’s flame extinguished, but they started to glow a bright white and grow double in size.
Tik roared and his body used all the powers he had at once. He powered up and started obliterating the skeletons. The shuriken started moving with minds of their own.
Nightmare watched Tik go through his transformation. When he finished and started wreaking chaos among the skeletons Nightmare smiled. He ran into the skeletons with his sword, leaving a trail of black that the sword moved over. He seemed to disappear and the only knowledge of where he was that trail. The skeletons would watch the trail and be confused because his body was somewhere else.
When Nightmare stopped moving he materialized and a group of skeletons fell over. When he turned around some skeletons stood back up. He made a ball of energy and shoved Jayden into it. The gun drained the energy and Nightmare lifted it. When he shot bullets of darkness left the barrel, annihilating anything in their path.
Nightmare’s shadow grew and was able to grab the symbiote and crush it through the protective skull. Nightmare phased into one of the skeletons and possessed it. The skeleton’s bones turned black and the symbiote shriveled and fell out. Then the skeleton steamed black mist and the bones sharpened. Then he attacked and started killing other skeletons.
One of the skeletons sliced Nightmare’s in half and he was forced out of it. When he reformed he drew his sword and made a hole in the darkness. He jumped in it and the hole closed behind him. The skeletons were put into mass confusion and were running all over. Then one of the skeleton’s head fell off and was disintegrated.
The skeletons started to panic and more started to disintegrate. When mass chaos was upon the skeletons Nightmare was fight he appeared out of a hole into the darkness. The hole closed and he smiled at the destruction. The skeletons saw him and charged. Nightmare had two tentacles grow out of his wrists and they shot out and stabbed through the skulls of skeletons repeatedly, killing off the symbiote.
Tik and Nightmare had backed up to each other and were fighting off the rest of the skeletons. Nightmare put his hands behind him and started to make dark energy. Tik cupped his hands over Nightmare’s and the energy was combined with some of the energy from Tik. Nightmare grabbed one orb and Tik grabbed the other. Each person thrust their arms out and a large blast shout out in the direction they were facing, obliterating anything in the path of the energy.
When the energy died down, Nightmare and Tik sat down. They were covered in a bright light and were sent back to Tik’s room. Nightmare was the first to step out and he leaned against the wall. Tik just fell out of the machine, exhausted.
“Well that was interesting,” Nightmare said. Tik propped himself on his arms.
“I told you so!” Tik said in a stressed tone. Nightmare pushed off the wall and walked to the door.
“I’m going to my room. I need…a little break.” Then Nightmare left Tik laying on the floor and closed the door. The house had changed since he was in Tik’s room. Nightmare was standing in a large hallway that was a dark, slate-gray color. Nightmare remembered what Aurora said and thought about his room. The walls seemed to bow, but nothing happened. Then he started to walk and he saw his door appear on the left side of the hallway.
Nightmare leaned against his door and phased through it, to lazy to open and close it. Zerkin was no longer meditating and Nightmare was glad, he didn’t want a harbinger of death watching him sleep.

That night as Nightmare slept, he had a nightmare of his own. The darkness was there, inhabiting him. It was controlling him, it was like watching a movie, helpless. He was back at the tavern, sitting in the seat that he sat when Katie tried her stunt. The darkness was sitting there, with the hood up, looking around. Someone approached the table and placed their hand on its shoulder. It was Katie
Katie said something, but couldn’t be heard, and the darkness nodded. It stood up and followed her to the door. The last thing that was seen was feeling the darkness smile and knowing its thoughts…

Nightmare woke up in the middle of the night, full of sweat. He was in his shorts and his jacket was on the floor. Nightmare stood up and his shorts grew and made the rest of the suit. He stood on his jacket and it came apart and reassembled itself in the right position on his body.
Nightmare left his room and started aimlessly walking. He appeared at some sort of balcony. The moon was shining brightly. The balcony was coming out of the other side of the mountain. Nightmare stepped out of the doorway and there was a shining figure leaning over the railing. It was Aurora.
“Having trouble sleeping I presume?” Aurora said. Nightmare shrugged and walked over to her. He leaned on the railing and looked out to the moon in its fullness.
“You might say that,” he said. “What are you doing out here?” Aurora looked at him and smiled. Then she looked back at the moon.
“Listening.”
“For what?”
“Not for, to.”
“Then, to what?”
“I don’t know. You should get some sleep, I have something for you and Tik to do tomorrow.”
“I’m umbrakinetic, basically nocturnal. I won’t be able to sleep till tomorrow night.”
“Good night.” Nightmare was about to protest when Aurora kissed him. His eyes got heavy and everything gave way to nothing.
Nightmare woke up in his room to the smell of eggs and bacon. He sat on his bed and rubbed his head. He remembered the night before and stood up. His clothes assembled themselves and he let his jacket stay in the shadows.
Nightmare opened his door to find Zerkin standing next to the podium. The room was arranged the same way when they were first shown their rooms. Tik was sitting at a newly placed table, eating a gourmet breakfast. Nightmare walked over and sat down across from him.
“Here,” Tik said, and pushed a plate of food over. “Eat.” Nightmare nodded. His shadow grew and emptied the plate in its mouth and sank back down. “Uhh…okay, that was quick.” Nightmare burped and sat back. “Don’t get too comfortable, Aurora has something for you to do.”
Nightmare looked at Tik and sighed. He got up and walked out of a doorway that appeared. It closed after he left. Walking down the hallway he realized he wasn’t told were to meet Aurora. He had an idea and tried it. Nightmare turned down a corridor and kept walking. An old fashioned door appeared and he walked up to it.
The door was made of acacia wood and had gold hinges. It had a knocker in the shape of a lion’s head that was also made out of gold. He knocked the knocker and the head moved.
“Who goes there?” it asked.
“Nightmare,” he replied, with annoyance in his voice.
“You are a nightmare, how do I know that you have good intentions? How do I know that you didn’t sneak in here or come here for the wrong choices, hmm?” Nightmare was starting to get angry.
“Wouldn’t the guard have come?”
“What is his name?”
“Zerkin, or was it Santa Clause?”
“Don’t get smart with me! I Don’t believe you. You could have been informed by someone.” Nightmare grew impatient. He dove down into his mind and called Zerkin.
“Zerkin, you there?” he called.
“How may I serve you, my liege?” He was there, great!
“I was told to meet Aurora and this stupid knocker is making me mad!”
“Nicodemus…huhhh. I’ll be there in a minute.” Nightmare came back and waited for Zerkin to come.”
“What,” the knocker mocked. “Are you getting tired? You’re a pansy!” Nightmare nodded and leaned against the other wall. A corridor appeared and a soft glow came from it.
“Ahh, here! The guard is coming to take you away! I will laugh at you as he does, HA!” Zerkin came around the corner, holding his scythe and lantern. He walked up to Nightmare and bowed. The knocker’s mouth dropped open.
Zerkin turned to the knocker. “Do I have to deal with you personally, Nicodemus?” Zerkin was able to make one of his eye sockets rise to make the evil eye. The knocker shook its head and froze. The door opened and Zerkin turned to face Nightmare. He bowed and left Nightmare to go about his business.
Nightmare walked into the room to find out that it was a library. However, these books were ones of magic and sorcery, maps and charts, anatomical and psychological. Books that were kept by those who were trusted not

to use them for the wrong reasons.
Nightmare walked in and quietly closed the door. He activated the darkness vision and quickly found Aurora. She was sitting at a table reading a book. Nightmare started walking around shelves of books and scrolls. When he came around he stopped and used the shadows to make himself unnoticeable (better than invisible.) He walked up to Aurora and sat in a chair next to her.
Being unnoticeable she didn’t notice that he was there. He became noticeable and sat there. Aurora finally looked up and jumped when she saw him.
“I didn’t hear you come in!” she gasped. Nightmare laughed.
“Well,” he started. “Nicodemus gave me a hard time…”
“Wait! You came to this library, not the other one? This is a library that only certain people can get to, only if they know it was here or was told. ZERKIN!” Nightmare laughed again.
“No, actually. I just thought about…well, I thought about you and I was led here.” Aurora blushed and hid her face in her book.
“Wow! That’s…um…cool.” Nightmare let the power of persuasion seep out of him, maybe a little too generously. Aurora put her book down and ruffled with her skirt. Her face was a flash of red.
“I need you to go some where for me,” she said. “It’s a town not far from here. Give me your gps and I’ll put in where it is.” Nightmare handed her his gps, letting his ungloved hands touch hers. When she got it she pulled back quickly.
Aurora handed the gps back and stood up. “One of my relatives, sad to say, is in some sort of trouble. You’re going to have to get going soon,” she said quickly. “I put some money in the trench coat in your room. Be safe.” Aurora left and Nightmare sighed. He stood up and his trench formed over him. Nightmare walked out the door.
Outside in the hallway Nightmare sighed again and shook his head. He walked and went back to the area that Tik was in. Tik watched him as he kept walking.
“Were are you going?” Tik asked. Nightmare looked at him and sighed again.
“I have to go somewhere,” he said. “And I don’t think you are allowed to go. Aurora said for me to go, I think she has something separate for you to do.” Tik nodded and went back to eating his breakfast. Nightmare walked out to the hallway and went to the door. The door opened by itself and Nightmare left.
Out in the open Nightmare looked at the gps and a red dot was blinking on it. It was morning and the sun was coming up. He shrugged his shoulders and put the gps back in his pocket and started walking.
The town wasn’t really that far. The gps led Nightmare to a large building. The town itself was small, but it was pretty far in technology (not as far as the dome.) Inside there was a short man sitting at a desk. Nightmare walked up to him and dropped his hands on the desk. The man jumped and looked up.
“How may I help you?” the man said. His voice sounded strained.
“I was sent here for a job,” Nightmare replied. The man stood up and he was just over four feet. He looked Nightmare up and down with “hmm’s” and “ahh’s”. Finally the man nodded and started walking away. When he came back he was holding a video display with a picture of a man on it.
“This man was caught with the commisioner’s daughter. His daughter is one of great beauty. His name is Burn. He’s a pyrokinetic. When he was found out he ran. The commissioner has a price on his head because only one is good enough for her. That is the other town’s commissioner’s son. We will reward you greatly for the capture of this man, if you can.” Nightmare laughed and looked at the short man.
“Oh, I will catch him, you can trust me on that!” The man looked at him out of the corner of his eye and scowled.
“That’s what the other six said.” Nightmare smirked and had his shadow solidify behind the man. The shadow put its hand on his shoulder and the man looked up. He let out a small cry and the shadow dissipated. Nightmare laughed and the man gathered himself up. “Maybe you might be able to. Take this,” the man handed him a small computer chip. “If you have a gps this will show you were he is. It has his DNA in it, so don’t lose it, until you find him and take him in. In that case you can keep that device as a gift.” Nightmare nodded.
Nightmare walked outside and put the chip inside his gps. The red blinking dot was now a constant orange and it was moving. Nightmare followed it and found that Burn wasn’t walking very fast. As Nightmare walked the crowd seemed to grow and congest. The heat of the day seemed to get hotter as well.
There was a fountain in the middle of the park he was standing in. There was a man with orange and red hair that looked like it was aflame. The water hit his skin and it dried almost immediately. Nightmare looked at his gps and the gps was glowing brightly now. He walked up to the man and sat by him.
“So what’s your story?” Nightmare asked him.
“What?” the man said. Nightmare grabbed the man’s shadow with his so he couldn’t run.
“Your Burn, right? Why do you have a price on your head?” The man shook his head.
“I never had someone come to me this way.” Burn sighed. “I’ve gotten straight fights and sneak attacks, but not this. No, but nice try, I won’t go easily.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to take you in, I just want to know why?” Burn shrugged and sighed.
“The commissioner’s daughter was coming on to me, who am I to say no.” Burn laughed and relaxed a little bit. “You probably know that I am a pyrokinetic. Well, for some reason ever since I got it chicks dig me a lot, aight?” Nightmare nodded.
“It’s a natural side effect to your power, you’re ‘HOT!’ It’s a natural attraction thing. I have that side effect and a couple of others.”
“Now that I know that I think you will be going.” Burn flung a fire ball at Nightmare’s face. The mist from the fountain made it less hot, but it still hit dead on. Nightmare’s face was contorted, but Burn didn’t know he was using the darkness to make it do that.
Burn tried to get up and he realized he couldn’t move his feet. He looked down and saw that Nightmare’s shadow was going against the sun, laying on top of his. Burn looked up and look at Nightmare to see his face wasn’t contorted any more, but an expression of anger was on his face.
“What are you!” Burn cried.
“Never, never, underestimate your enemy. Especially when you know nothing about them.” Nightmare stood up and extended his arm. Burn tried to throw another flame, but he couldn’t move. Nightmare’s shadow seemed to climb up his body.
“I thought you were a special martial arts person, with the blindfold and all.” Nightmare shook his head.
“I’m Umbrakinetic. I can control shadows and the powers of darkness.” Nightmare snapped his fingers and Burn and him became unnoticeable. “Now listen to me and we can get out of here easily. I told you I wasn’t turning you in.” Burn nodded and had an expression of confusion on his face.
Nightmare walked and Burn was forced to follow. Walking to the gates Nightmare had to help Burn maneuver around people. At the gate there were two guards. Burn tried stopping, but was forced to keep going. They passed and nothing went wrong.
Once outside and far enough away, Nightmare snapped his fingers and they reappeared. He let Burn go and he sat down.
“It’s draining enough to stay unnoticeable for that long,” Nightmare said. “But it’s a lot harder to make you unnoticeable and hold you as well.” Burn looked at him and shook his head.
“Why did you save me?” Burn asked. Nightmare sighed.
“I’m living with one of your relatives. She’s kept an eye on you and she wanted me to help you.” Burn shook his head.
“Sis.” He laughed and sat down. “So you’re like her personal pet or something?” Burn slammed hard down on his back and grabbed his head. He let out a sharp breath. Nightmare’s shadow seeped out of his head and back to Nightmare. Burn stopped convulsing.
“No,” Nightmare growled. “Not even close.” Burn nodded.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side.” Nightmare nodded. He stood up and pulled Burn to his feet.
“We better get going. There are monsters out here and I’m stronger at night. I don’t want to get caught out here if a big one comes.” Burn nodded and the two started walking back toward the mountain.
On the ridge next to where Nightmare and Burn were walking was a hidden group of monsters. They were watching the two with great fascination. The monsters were four feet tall, had sharp claws on hands and feet, had mouths full of razor teeth, eyes a faded green, and their bodies were a smooth, teal. The chattered and chattered in their language and cackled. The cackling caused a small slide of rocks on the slope above them. When one noticed a larger rock falling it thrust its hand toward it then behind itself. The rock was pushed by an invisible force and fell safely away from the group. The creatures cackled again and started running toward Nightmare and Burn.
Burn was the first one to notice that the creatures were coming. He tapped Nightmare’s shoulder and Nightmare shrugged it off. He let his hand fall on it and let his hand get hot. There was smoke and Nightmare looked at the hand. Dark mist surrounded it and Burn pulled his hand away. He pointed to the ridge and Nightmare looked up sighed.
The group of creatures were closer now. The patch on Nightmare’s shoulder mended itself. Burn ignited his hands and stood still. Nightmare looked at Burn and shook his head.
“Do you have any weapons?” he asked Burn. Burn nodded. He had a ring on each finger and he slammed them together. The rings spread across his knuckles and formed metal knuckles that had small studs on the end. “Any long range?” Burn shook his head. He launched a fireball and gestured to it.
Nightmare drew his sword from his back and it started to steam black. Burn looked at it, and looked away quickly. With the sun beating down on his head Nightmare lifted his hood up. Now the creatures could be seen and Burn started to laugh. Nightmare looked at him and shook his head. Burn was laughing hard.
The creatures came up and the one in the front thrust its arm forward. The laughing was replaced with an out rush of air and Burn was lying on his back the next time Nightmare looked. There was an expression of surprise on Burn’s face. He sat back up and anger replaced surprise.
Nightmare waited for something to happen to him when the darkness filled him in with what they could do. They were able to “push” things with their mind. Nightmare started to run so they couldn’t get a lock on him. Burn copied to see if it would work.
Now the creatures were using their ability to force themselves forward into fighting. The little buggers were quick. They jumped high and ganged up on the two. The creatures seemed to buzz with energy and excitement, as they seemed to be winning. All this was happening as the two fought.
Burn jetted himself in the air on a stream of flame. As he was coming down he came fist first, coming down like a flaming meteor. When he landed he completely obliterated six of the nearest creatures. He stood up and and knocked one of the creatures across the jaw as it came flying at him. He felt its jaw come loose with a sickening crack as some of its teeth came flying out. He spun around, throwing a flame. One of the creatures turned to cinders and another one flew at him. He swung his arm and it lit before it made contact. The creature fell to the ground, missing the upper part of its head.
Burn started to run, fast. He was leaving burning footprints in the grass where he just stepped. He mad a large circle and started tightening it, closing off a small section of the creatures. He made the circle tighter and tighter. When Burn stopped running there was a small tornado of flame that got smaller and smaller. When the flame dissipated all that there was left was a spiral scorch mark on the ground.
Nightmare was having troubles of his own. He had his sword in one hand and Jayden in the other. He would cut down a few creatures and Jayden would be swung around and shot. The bullet would travel along a curved path and mow down four of them in a row. He would grab a few and their eyes would go black and they would attack their own for a time and fall to the ground, dead. He swung his sword in a large arc and a sweeping blast shot out from it, cutting down creatures in its path. The sun was starting to go down and Burn was getting weaker and tired, but Nightmare was starting to get stronger.
Burn was hitting creatures left and right, Nightmare was cutting them down. The two were getting closer and closer together. Burn swung his arm and caught Nightmare in the face.
“WHAT WAS THAT FOR!” Nightmare yelled as he fell to the ground. When he reached the ground a group jumped him. Burn got distracted and got taken down.
NO, Nightmare thought. NOT YET…
We can help; a voice came out of his head. We will win! Nightmare shook his head, feeling a tooth sink into his skin.
I’D RATHER DIE.
But you won’t… Nightmare shook his head again, but somehow a clawed foot got stuck on his blindfold, and it got tore off.
NOOOOO…
“…OOOOO!” Nightmare started to cover in darkness. The creatures covering him stopped biting and scratching and started scrambling to get off of him. Nightmare stood up and immediately devoured two of the creatures with the extra heads. He looked at his hands and flexed his pointed fingers. The creatures on Burn jumped off him and made a perimeter with the others around Nightmare.
One thrust its hand and a force knocked into Nightmare’s shoulder. His shoulder was blown and then reformed. Two of his tentacles shot out and started mowing down the creatures. When they realized that standing still wasn’t going to help they started darting in different directions. Nightmare looked around and then stopped moving. He seemed to take a deep breath, drawing in the extra heads and tentacles, focusing his energy. When he was finished he hunched over and spread his arms and flared his fingers. A black mist started trailing off of his body.
Nightmare started to run on all fours, a galloping motion. His fingers grew into grotesquely sharp claws and his eyes were down turned in anger and rage. When he came close to one of the creatures he would launch into a fury of attacks; physical, dark, and energetical. He would cut into the creature and drain its energy, leaving it a shriveling mass of skin and dust.
Burn sat up, full of scratches and bites, watching in awe at the battle that was going on. One of the creatures jumped at Nightmare and he put his arm out. The creature stopped in mid-air and started to squirm and squeal. Then there was a sickening crunch as the creature was forced into a ball and continued to get smaller as Nightmare increased the gravity field around it. The creature fell to the ground in a crumpled mass as the field was dropped.
Nightmare howled and he split into four beings of darkness. They split into separate directions and started bring chaos among the rest of the creatures. The things would fall out of the sky and shrivel into dust. When Nightmare and his clones finished the last one off they reformed into one being. He walked over to Burn who was now sitting up. When he extended his hand Burn cringed at it.
Nightmare stood up and straightened. The darkness started to recede back into his eyes. When all of it was gone Nightmare’s blindfold reformed and covered his eyes. He looked down at Burn and smiled.
“Sorry about that…happens every now and then.” Burn looked up at him and shook his head, standing up and brushing himself off.
“Well, what do we do now?” Burn asked. Nightmare turned and started walking in the direction they were originally walking, back to Aurora’s house. The sun started to fall towards the horizon. A group of large birds flew overhead, seeming to carry the night sky with them. Nightmare turned toward the now rising moon and took a deep breath, darkness being inhaled in through his nostrils. He then looked Burn and sighed. Burn was getting exhausted.
“What happened to all of that energy?” Nightmare asked. Burn looked at Nightmare and flipped him off. Nightmare looked at him and steam seemed to be coming off of his skin. Realizing the sun gave him energy and that the cool night air was weakening him Nightmare smiled. “Well it looks like what makes you stronger weakens me and vice versa.” Burn just sneered and kept walking in the direction they were heading. When they reached the mountain Zerkin appeared from the door and looked at Burn.
“Ahhh…sir,” he bowed. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance.” Burn looked at the skeleton.

What the hell is this shit?

i story i have been typing and dev told me to post it up.

Is this just some random story or is this supposed to relate with the site somehow?

maybe maybe not....we shall see.

(its random but some ideas might be used.)