(I shall forewarn you, lovely readers. The last part nearly made me cry as I was writing it)

PART 10 (continued): as told by Massie

My aunt shot me a look as she took her seat. It was something between disdain and smug triumph. I could've easily appeared behind her and gladly knocked that smile right off her face. But what would that achieve? Especially with that camera watching, recording—monitoring our every movement.

The mayor entered the room, hands in pockets. A few guards met him to lead him to a seat.

"What the hell is going on?" Derrick demanded. A guard clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't interrupt the demonstration," he scolded Derrick.

I caught Claire's eye. "Teleport?" I mouthed, raising my eyebrows.

But the only one I could save was myself. There was no way I was fast enough to teleport all of us out of here. And I couldn't even touch Dempsey, let alone teleport five people at once.

She shrugged, and the guard beside her took note of our silent communications and scowled. He picked up her chair, while she still sat in it, and moved across the room.

The lights dimmed a little, and all the chatting guards went silent.

Jose stood beside Landon and Dempsey now, with no guards to protect her.

Dempsey was standing uncomfortably with his hands bound and useless. Landon seemed to be sleeping at his feet.

"Welcome, Mayor, to my demonstration," she announced. The guards applauded her heartily. The mayor glanced around with a puzzled look on his face.

"You believe that anti-super related things are no longer first priority in this city," Jose continued. "You dismissed these criminals and left the task to me because you were more concerned with crime. Well let this demonstration prove that supers are crime."

Jose returned to her seat.

Two guards worked to unsheathe Dempsey's hands. One of them tried to stand Landon up, but he was as limp as a rag doll.

Jose sighed heavily and stood, motioning for a gaggle of guards to come to her. They spoke intently for a few moments, and then glanced up at me.

I stiffened.

"Clearly, this boy needs an incentive," she announced, looking down scornfully at Landon.

A guard seized my shoulder and stood me up, shoving me towards the center. He held a gun at my head.

"What's your name?" Jose demanded loudly of Landon. He didn't reply.

She nudged him gingerly with her foot. "YOUR NAME," she bellowed.

Landon cringed and turned over, disorientated. "Landon," he said finally.

"Well, Landon, if you don't pick yourself up, my faithful guard here will gladly insert a tranquilizer into your good friend's brain." She smiled.

Landon squinted at me. My current position registered in his mind, and he was upright in seconds. "Let her go," he commanded firmly.

"Not until you fight, as arrange," Jose said, giving Landon a little shove towards Dempsey. "The cameras are watching, as is the mayor," she added, lowering her voice. "If people don't believe you're savage, as I know you to be, then Foster City will become a neutral city once again. A super-accepting city. And I just cannot have that."

"I'm not fighting him," Landon said resolutely. "You can't make me."

"But I can make him fight you," Jose said mysteriously.

And then Dempsey was on Landon.

I shouted at them to stop, struggling against the adamant grip of my captor, but Dempsey was strangely determined. He wasn't himself. Something was controlling him.

His hands were at Landon's neck. Landon kicked, and Dempsey flew several feet away from the impact, landing with a sickening crack on the floor. The guards cheered.

"Those chemicals did some good work," Jose said, smiling sickly. She looked at me. "Which one do you want to win, Massie? I think it'll be mighty interesting to see a violent death, inflicted by the one on chemicals. But it'll be equally as nice to see that other boy get his hands on our chemically induced boy, and see him die slowly at his touch…" her eyes were wide with amusement.

"You're sick," I said.

Jose was too focused on the battle to answer.

Dempsey had recovered. Landon wasn't willing to advance on him. He backed away trying to shout some sense into his friend. But Dempsey's eyes were locked on Landon in a predatory fashion, and his hands were exposed and waiting at his sides to grasp at Landon's bare arms and neck.

"Dempsey! Stop! What are you doing?" Landon shouted, backing away quickly from his friend.

Cam, Claire, and Derrick contributed to the chaos too by shouting encouragement to Landon and begging Dempsey to stop. But their guards quieted them quickly.

Dempsey was nearly on Landon. For defense, Landon produced some kind of translucent force field that enveloped him. I'd never known he had obtained such an ability. But clearly it wasn't well practiced, and the force field began to flicker and wane as Dempsey pounded it doggedly with his fists.

Landon ducked away and hurried to the other side of the room. Dempsey followed, and was soon dangerously close to Landon again.

Landon's hands ignited with dark flames, and he cried out in surprise.

"The chemicals are taking effect," Jose said cheerfully. "Now, his emotions control his abilities."

Dempsey was wary of the flames, but his approaches didn't waver.

Landon looked around the room wildly, searching for Claire. "Claire!" he shouted. "I can't control them!" Evidently he was referring to the 3 feet flames coming from his hands.

Claire nodded and concentrated. The flames disappeared.

"What is this?" Jose shrieked.

Landon hurried around Dempsey. Too quickly. Suddenly he was at the other side of the room, stumbling dizzily from the sudden speed.

He tried to take a step, and ended up on the floor several feet away. "Claire?" he called. "Control the speed?"

He stood, and to my relief, was at a normal pace again.

Dempsey became frustrated. He ran now, at Landon.

Landon dodged his advances, but his lack of control over his abilities was making him messy and clumsy.

His hands continued to ignite every so often, but Claire thankfully would suppress him, and assure that the fire never touched Dempsey.

I looked around the room, registering every person, considering who looked mysteriously concentrated. I knew it was mind control. Someone in this room was a super, a super who was very good at keeping their identity hidden, and they were controlling Dempsey.

The guards seemed normal. They were either focused on keeping their captive from struggling (Cam, Claire, Derrick or me) or watching the battle with the normal focus one would apply to observing a hand-to-hand fight. The mayor seemed a little vacant. Either he was deep in thought, or he was secretly a super—and controlling Dempsey.

"Stop running, you coward!" Dempsey growled.

"I don't want to hurt you!" Landon cried.

He skittered around him a few more times. "But I'm going to have to knock you out!" Landon declared.

Dempsey made a sudden lunge for Landon, who disappeared.

I frowned. Had Landon just accidentally turned invisible?

But it was working to his advantage. Suddenly Dempsey cried out and stumbled, having presumably been hit over the head.

Landon reappeared. He hit Dempsey again, and I couldn't help but wince.

Dempsey fell to the floor in defeat. He was looking around wildly, gasping. "What happened? How did I get here?"

The mind-control had been released, apparently.

Landon exhaled loudly. "Thank god, you're back to normal."

Dempsey stood slowly, glancing around at his seemingly unfamiliar surroundings. "What am I doing here?"

Then he did something very unexpected. He grabbed Landon's neck; having thoroughly tricked him into thinking he'd been released from mind control.

"Landon!" I screamed, and instinctively teleported beside him. Without thinking I slapped Dempsey across the face. The impact with his skin burned my hand, but I was more concerned for Landon. He lay on the floor, eyelids fluttering.

"There's a lot of thoughts in this room," he mumbled deliriously. I wished he'd never met Alicia and absorbed her power. Not being able to control mind reading was like instant death. The thoughts just flooded in and consumed everything. And the chemicals enhanced the overall experience, unfortunately. He wouldn't even be able to think.

"Landon," I said, cradling his head in my arms. "Can you hear me?"

"Let me finish him," Dempsey said stonily. "I don't want to have to kill you. Let me finish him off."

Tears of fear and worry for Landon's health momentarily blurred my vision, but I looked up at Dempsey. "Whoever is controlling Dempsey," I said flatly. "I will kill you if you don't leave him alone."

"I hear her," Landon said, still delirious from the onslaught of thoughts. "I hear her voice in his head. She's controlling Dempsey." Then he drifted into unconsciousness.

Her.

The only females in the room were Claire and me. And—

I gasped.

Jose.

"All along," I said distantly. "You filthy hypocrite."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded angrily.

I should've noticed she had been watching the boys fight with unusual concentration. I assumed it was just her sick nature. She wanted to see violence, she wanted to see one of them die in the other's hands. She had been controlling Dempsey. She knew they wouldn't fight on their own accord. Even with an incentive.

Aunt Jose, an anti-super, was a super.

"You're a mind-controller," I said. Then I said it louder. "You're a mind controller. You're a super."

The room went eerily silent.

"You've gone utterly insane!" Jose shouted.

But her concentration had broken. Dempsey was looking around perplexedly. "What the hell is going on?" he said. "Where are my gloves?"

She'd been exposed.

She snatched a gun from a nearby guard and pointed it at me. I had only a second to react. I hit the floor.

The bullet sound had Landon conscious and on his feet in seconds. "Claire stop the thoughts!" he called out to her.

He began walking determinedly towards Jose.

She still brandished the gun, and she was holding it, aimed at him, shakily. "You know what really sets off a super who's on that chemical we injected into you?" she said as he continued to approach. "Pain." She pulled the trigger. Landon crumpled. And it wasn't a tranquilizer she wielded. It was a real, bullet propelling gun.

"Landon!" I knelt beside him.

"Massie, you have to leave," he said, wincing. "She's right. With pain, I can't concentrate on suppressing my abilities."

"But Claire, she can help," I insisted. The smallest of tears dropped down onto his clenched fist.

"Too late."

The guards, confused as to who their superior was now, flocked to the mayor.

"Jose," the mayor said, with an air of authority. "You're a liar, and a sick, sick woman. I'm a good man, so I won't tell anyone about your disability. But I never want to be involved with you again." He left the room, escorted by the twenty-nine guards who had just dismissed themselves from their contemptible master.

"Where are you going, you stupid men?" she hissed.

The lead guard stopped in the threshold and raised an eyebrow. "We don't work for supers," he said.

Jose raised the gun once again—at me. "You stupid b"—

Dempsey ripped the gun from her weak grip and was wrestling with her on the floor. Cam, Claire and Derrick rushed to our aid.

"He's just hanging onto consciousness," Claire announced solemnly, wiping sweat from Landon's forehead.

"We need medical help," Cam said.

"In Foster City?" I wanted to laugh, but this wasn't exactly a humorous situation. "Think about who we are."

The smallest of flames ignited in Landon's hand.

"Claire, get that for him," I ordered briskly as I worked to shake Landon out of his trance.

"I—I can't," Claire choked.

I glanced up at her. "Why the hell not?" I demanded impatiently.

"There's a barrier. Something's not letting me get to him. It might be the chemicals. They're really taking effect now."

I cussed.

Behind us, Dempsey was standing over my aunt's motionless form.

He joined us.

"Ten seconds?" I asked absentmindedly as I wiped sweat away from Landon's face.

"Twenty," Dempsey corrected me coldly.

My heart skipped a beat.

"You killed her?" Cam's eyes were wide with horror.

Dempsey nodded. "It was necessary."

I didn't know whether to thank him or to fling myself at him, hitting the life out of him.

The flames were growing. "Massie." It was Landon speaking. "Thank you. But you have to go. I can't control the flames. No one can. You'll die. Get out of the building."

"Never."

"Stop being stubborn. You'll die."

"And you'll die too if I leave you."

Landon attempted a smile. "That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

The floor underneath his hands was sizzling, threatening to ignite at any moment.

"Claire, come on, suppress!" I shouted, losing my temper and patience.

Everyone watched gravely, already having accepted what I wasn't willing to accept. Saving Landon was a hopeless quest.

"Do you know what the former owners washed this floor with?" Landon asked at random. He was stroking the floor beside him. "Oil-infused water. I can smell it."

"Oil-infused water," Derrick echoed uneasily. "But that means that…"

"This entire floor will go up in flames," Dempsey finished for him.

Landon grimaced. "You have to go. Now."

"You know I won't."

"Derrick? Get her out of here."

Derrick reached for my arm.

"You know I'll just teleport back."

The floor ignited. Everyone scattered, but I stayed, kneeling beside Landon.

The air was dry and hot, but I could feel the tears moistening my face better than the licking, hot flames.

"Give me your hand, Landon, I'll teleport you out of here."

"What about the others?"

"They've probably already escaped."

Landon shook his head emphatically. "Not Dempsey. He's in love with you. He'll wait."

"Give me your damn hand."

"You know why I can't, Massie," Landon said, abruptly becoming angry. "You know how the power-obtaining thing works."

I tried to wipe the tears from my face, but fresh tears followed right after. "I don't understand."

"Try and grab my hand, Massie," he said.

I did. The physical contact stung me like hell, and I reeled away, gasping.

"The death touch," Landon said grimly. "And now I have it too."

"Massie!"

It was Dempsey who called my name.

"He's waiting," Landon said. "Go." The flames were reflecting in his bright blue eyes. His dark hair was covered with dust and ash.

"Landon," I said, but I was crying so hard I couldn't even form words.

"Go."

I stood and began to follow the sound of Dempsey's voice.

"Massie?"

I turned.

He lay there pathetically, looking up at me, managing despite everything, to smile. "Don't you dare forget me."

…

….

….

….

(Have no fear. There's still one more chapter!)