Jack—
Oh God, oh jeez, oh crap, was all I could think as I dodged attack after attack.
I tried to stay close enough that I could see them fighting. I would've jumped in to help—hell, even a DISTRACTION would have been useful—but I couldn't find a place to jump in, I'd have been in the way of some attack or other. I was kinda panicking. What could I do?
They'd both gotten hits in—bruised ribs here, cracked shoulder there. I'd seen enough fights to know it was time to end it. Dad and Syndrome stopped for just a split second to catch their breath, standing across from each other with eyes locked, when a weird sound finally caught everyone's attention. I could hear it from my vantage point. A beeping, like….a homing beacon?
As soon as Syndrome heard it, he looked down at one of his cuffs. A look crossed his face for a millisecond, just a millisecond. Like, recognition, and maybe relief. He looked back at Dad, suddenly all casual again.
"Sorry, I've gotta cut our reunion short. It's been…disappointing, as always."
"What?" Dad said. A villain leaving in the middle of a battle? That was new, even for Mr. Incredible.
Rude! I wanted to yell.
"I'll leave you to the Sentries now. The Sentries and the lava pits." With a final grin, Syndrome took off again, too fast for Dad or me to do anything.
The forest at the far side of the clearing started to rustle. Robots started to emerge from all corners of the area (I counted 6 to start with). They moved to cut off Dad's escape routes. I knew I had to get someone—Mom, Vi, Dash, anyone—to help. I got out of there as fast as I could, just as the machines were starting to close in.
I made it out to the beach in record time. The first person I found, weirdly enough, was Dash, on his own, crouched in the sand.
"Dad's in trouble, send someone to help. What happened to you?" I blurted out.
Dash kept rubbing his eyes under his goggles. Something wild had gone down. "Girl got away, went back into the forest. Jack, I can't SEE…"
I figured he probably got sand in his goggles. That stuff gets everywhere, and Dash could be a drama queen when he wanted.
"You fix that, I'll get the girl!" I said. Then I was gone. Dash yelled something to me just as I was jumping away, but I didn't hear it. Oh well.
My message was delivered. Mom, Vi, and Dash, they could handle the Dad situation. Meanwhile one of those kids was out in the jungle, and there was a villain at large. The least I could do was bring the girl back safe. (I thought the two missing kids were named Brandon and Chris…? Maybe I mis-heard.)
All the fighting and jumping from earlier today had worn me down, but I was determined. Like, Queen-song-playing-in-my-head determined. I got this. I Got this, with a capital G.
I was so focused on capital G's and Freddie Mercury's angelic voice that I wasn't really watching where I was going. I'd teleported to a new spot, taken a step, and bumped into someone. A split second later that someone smacked me in the face.
I stumbled backwards, shocked out of "Don't Stop Me Now"'s chorus, fists up and ready to defend myself. Imagine my shock when I saw just a girl—a girl my age, with wild white hair. She looked as shocked as me.
We looked at each other. She had blue eyes like mine, I noticed. Slowly she straightened up, put her fists down, and smoothed out her shirt.
"Christ, you came out of nowhere. Don't do that!" She scolded me.
I was so caught off-guard (she didn't even ask who I was) that I just said, "Oh, uh, my bad….Wait, you hit me!"
"Sorry about that. Strange guy just bumps into me, what am I supposed to do?" She asked, and kept walking deeper into the forest.
I got a good look at the situation. She seemed to be alone. She was wearing the same uniform as the other kids, ruffled and battle scarred and everything. On her wrist was this white band—I wondered if it was a weapon. She walked confidently, hardly looking down at all. The look on her face was…a little unhinged, if I was honest with myself. The girl looked more determined than me. If I was totally honest I'd say she'd been awake for a few days. There were freckles scattered across her nose. Some romantic, lizard-ey, teenage part of my brain chimed in, She's kinda cute. I ignored that and focused on my mission.
"I'm glad you know self-defense and all, but can we go now? I'm here to rescue you." I told her.
"No." She said simply.
"No?"
"There are things going on that you don't understand." The girl kept walking, I hurried to keep up with her. "There are weapons on this island you don't know about. You need my help."
"Uh, crazy-stupid-wonderful idea, you can help from the Incredijet! It's not far from here—" I started.
Someone else appeared beside us. Violet, my sister—she'd been with us the whole time.
"She knows how to stop Syndrome, Jack-Jack." Vi said. I studied her face. She looked convinced of this.
We should have gotten the girl back to Mom, I knew. I should've protested all this. But if Violet was sure we'd succeed…And Vi was my superior in the field…
"Okay, if this is our best shot…" I said quietly.
Vi smiled and disappeared again. The girl (I still didn't know her name) smiled too, and said with the most confidence, "It is." She started walking again.
"Hey, what do they call you?" I asked the girl.
"I don't know yet."
"No, I mean what's your name?"
She gave me a strange look, like she was conflicted about using it. Someone else answered from in front of us, in the forest.
"Crystal Deirdre Averry!"
The girl stiffened. For a moment she looked terrified. I turned around and saw who the voice belonged to—a woman, with brown hair in a ponytail draped over her shoulder, dressed in civilian clothes.
"What are you doing out here? It's not safe, get back inside." The woman said, in a warm and concerned tone. I'd go so far as to say, a motherly tone.
I turned back to the girl to see her reaction. She was practically shaking, caught between horrified and furious.
"You know this image?" I asked her.
"…It's just a hologram. Don't listen to it. It's just Delta." She said. No idea what that last thing meant.
I walked up to the image and swiped a hand through it. A hologram, that's all it was. It flickered and went out. The girl, Crystal (Chrys for short—not Chris) had her eyes closed. She centered herself and put on a determined face again. Without a word to me or Violet, she kept walking, this time playing with the bracelet on her wrist and talking to herself.
"Murderer….I can't believe he used her voice, he'd use her voice against me…"
I felt like I had to say something. "Listen, those things are just like ghosts, okay? They aren't real."
"I know that!" she snapped, and I feared I said the wrong thing.
"They—they can't hurt you." I tried again.
She just laughed. "That's exactly what that weapon, Project Aristeas, was designed to do! Psychological warfare. I should know, I suggested it when I was seven. You'd better know what you're walking into, Jack Parr. Syndrome's had ten years to think about what your family did to him, a whole decade to come up with new ways to hurt you. Do you know what a near-death experience like that does to a person, psychologically? It's not pretty!"
I might've taken a step back. Where was her anger coming from? What had she seen?
"…I haven't seen anything, actually."
Oops, I didn't know I said that out loud…
When she blinked, the deep blue of her eyes faded away, replaced with cataract-white.
I haven't seen anything in nine years. It was her voice, but NOT her voice—she didn't speak at all. It was in my head, like a thought-voice. Little bits of information popped into my head. There was something about being half-Super, and bits about what Syndrome's weapons could do. I got a couple images from someone else's brain too—she knew where the last kid, Brandon, was stashed. That's where she was headed, with or without me. The endgame we were headed for would see us captured or Syndrome taken down. Knowing all this, you're still with me? I need to know you're with me. I'm going to need a little help ending this nightmare.
I needed a split second to process all the new information. She could do mind-to-mind stuff. Coolio. She also couldn't see, which posed a number of questions in itself. Finally she was giving me some good info on her plan! I assumed she'd already given Violet this talk. And Violet agreed. No argument, I had to help her.
I'm game if you are. I said in my head.
Crystal grinned, and her eyes were back to normal. "Good, we're getting close." She told me.
"Close to where the kid's stashed?" I asked. God, we'd been hiking forever. Did I mention I was sick of hills?
"Yes." She let slip, in her mind, that it was somewhere she used to play as a little kid. She didn't know I knew. One of her last sighted memories was a blur of red and blue (a sunset, I decoded) from that place. Or…a thousand feet above that place. She was a mess inside, I didn't have to read minds to see that. I thought (or she believed) what we were about to do would fix what was happening in her head. We both heard Violet scout up in front of us. The rest of the walk was in silence. The holograms, silent and haunting, watched us on our way. I stayed as close to her as I could.
Our route led us onto a footpath used by patrols. We followed that up to a flat place overlooking a good part of the island. Part of it was enclosed by the sheer walls of the island's main peak. The un-walled sides didn't have a fatal drop, thank God, but a tumble off of them wouldn't be fun. We were on the one path that connected to the place. Our entrance was hidden by plants—I used the cover to take a look around, but from the other side it'd look like there was no escape. I didn't see a kid out in the open—but he could've been hiding near the back.
Taking in the scenery quickly, I couldn't help thinking I'd traded in one battle arena for another….
One major difference—Syndrome was waiting for us here.
Before I could stop her, the girl walked out to meet him.
"Crystal, Crystal, Crystal…look what you've done now." I heard the villain chide her, in a low voice that failed to mask all that hatred.
I almost face-palmed. Of course she would go out to face a homicidal maniac, alone! How did I not see that coming? Better question—where'd Violet go?
That homing-beacon beeping stopped when Syndrome pressed a button on his cuff. Crystal worked that band of hers off and tossed it into the forest below.
"I'm just following in your footsteps…" the girl said, "…and ruining everything, Mentor."
Syndrome's eyes widened in shock. Mine did too. I could see the villain was just barely—BARELY—keeping himself from back-handing the girl off the mountain. I would've just grabbed her and gotten the hell out of there, but…I'd never teleported another human before. I didn't know if I could do it, or if it could kill the person, or what. So Crystal just stood there, in front of the guy that wiped out a whole generation of Supers, smiling like she was just meeting an old friend.
Let this be a lesson. Always make sure your friends aren't suicidal before following them on missions.
"…Fine, I'll cave. What's this all about? You've arranged quite a show, I'm almost impressed." The villain admitted.
Crystal just fake-laughed. "Like you don't know! I thought you knew everything!"
"If this is about your sight—"
"NO!" That touched a nerve. "No, it's not about that particular failure."
"Then why the temper-tantrum?"
"You've created something ELSE you can't control."
She was talking about herself, I guessed, the Omnidroid and herself. (There was something terribly cold and steely in her voice.) If she was going to say something else, she didn't get the chance. Syndrome was having none of the sass. Without warning she was caught in a beam of light, and held two feet off the ground for good measure.
"You're going inside while I clean up out here, Gadget! Understand me?!"
I had to do something, so I went with the first (and the stupidest) thing my brain came up with. I teleported right into the beam of light, between the bad guy and Crystal.
I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. It was like the time Dash buried me up to my neck in sand at the beach and left me—only a thousand times worse. I could see outside through a shifting haze of white-blue, and Syndrome was looking at me with the best "what the hap is frickening?" expression.
Crystal was free, I heard her drop to the ground behind me. Quick as she could she moved (I hoped she was getting to cover) and one of Violet's red forcefields streaked across my line of sight. It just barely missed the beam, but her red forcefields explode, so accuracy isn't always necessary. It touched the ground a couple yards to the left and blew up.
The beam of light let me go for a split second. It was enough for me to jump away. I was back by Crystal's side, and Syndrome turned the weapon to my sister. She didn't get the courtesy of the full beam. The villain fired wild shots in the direction that forcefield had come from. The third one hit her (I don't know why she didn't move, it was like her common sense or survival instinct was shut off or something). She went visible for just a sec as it knocked her flat on her back. Syndrome turned on me, pointing with the hand that didn't seem to have that weapon on it.
"Oh, you're just here to ruin my life!"
"What did I do?!" I shouted, more to Chrys than the villain.
The fight was back on. Crystal pushed me out of the way just before a blue shot sailed between us. I jumped to the left of the circle arena. At least I could play the distraction, keep him away from the girl. I'd barely jumped when I was caught in that beam again. This time I wasn't let go.
"I'm not just blindly obeying you! Never again!" I heard Crystal yell.
I couldn't even look towards the action, my field of vision wasn't facing the right direction. I could see plants moving at the edge of the arena. Velociraptors? No, the kid, that kid must've been hiding back there. I could get to him if I wasn't trapped. The seconds dragged on and on, fear made me believe I was running out of air way too fast. I wasn't claustrophobic, but I'd never been so helpless before, if only I could jump out—
Wait, I hadn't tried just teleporting away. Dash would've smacked my forehead and said "Duh!". I saw an empty spot a few feet in front of me and concentrated on it. Suddenly—
I was free.
Sweet, sweet oxygen! I turned around, got grabbed by the beam again, and was thrown across the arena, straight into a still-invisible Violet.
"If that's how you want to play." Syndrome said in a scary, scary voice.
Vi's bony elbow had caught me in the side of the head, jeez that hurt. I dragged myself off my sister and saw the villain had taken off a glove. Why…? I looked past him and saw that kid (I knew it was the one we'd been after because he couldn't have been 10 years old and he was wearing the same uniform) barely clinging to the cover the plants provided. He was looking from the villain to the path. He was going to make a break for it!
I tried to get my legs under me. But I wasn't quick enough. Not knowing he'd been spotted, the kid dashed for safety. All Syndrome had to do was lunge for him and catch him by the back of the jacket. Brandon was caught.
Vi pushed me out of her way, I felt her as she darted past. She went visible as she went straight for the villain. Her attack was cut short by a wall of flames appearing out of nowhere—she barely threw up a shield in time to save the three of us. I still felt the heat and heard the roar.
When the fire died out, it was deathly still for a moment. Brandon was frozen with his hands on his collar, trying to get free. He hadn't done that. Who had?
The answer was simple. Syndrome's free hand was still stretched towards Violet, and he was wearing an evil, triumphant look on his face.
Villains with powers. About as lovely a combination as sharks and tornadoes.
The first sound we heard after the roar of flames was Crystal's unhinged laughter.
"I was right!" she cried. "You do have—That is RICH—"
Syndrome's look got a little less triumphant.
"—Even after you were rejected—your own father—oh man!"
Yeah, that struck a nerve with the villain. He straightened up and looked about as ticked off as anyone I've ever seen.
Can you NOT try to die? For like, five minutes, please? I wanted to scream at the girl.
"Crystal Averry, you're going inside, or the friends I picked up for you are going to die!"
The white-haired girl pretended to think about this. Key word being 'pretended'.
"Hmm….no." She said. And then she was back to grinning, absolutely ecstatic, doing impressions of two people I'd never heard. "Tell me if this sounds familiar—'Why? Why SHOULD I stick around? The kid's not even gonna have powers!' 'Don't you DARE hold that against him—'"
Three rapid-fire shots of blue light hit the ground, very near her. Whatever that beam was, it packed a punch. There were holes blown in the ground by her shoes. Warning shots. Angry warning shots. I'd have called foul, but Jesus on a skateboard, what was that girl doing?! Even I knew not to take it that far with a villain. That was more than banter, or even egging a villain on, that was psychological warfare…
She just looked down at the scorched ground. "Cute. Now let me show you how REAL Supers fight!"
A red forcefield the size of a softball left Violet's hand, barely missing Syndrome. Vi's attack caught me off guard, something that never happened when I was fighting with my sister. She had rules for battle. Patterns. Her shot could've hit Brandon. He was certainly in range of the explosion that followed it. Did I see Crystal make the same motion Violet did…?
Vi went invisible as Syndrome's counter-attack sent up a wall of flames where she stood. I didn't know if she got out of the way. Smoke was suddenly drifting in the air, from both Syndrome's and Violet's attacks. That would only make the chaos worse.
Attack after attack split the silence. Red flames were mixed in with blue beams, cutting through the fog. I was worried Chrys would get hit, but she stood confident and still, like she knew she wouldn't. All the action was aimed at my sister. She was fighting like a wildcat. It was hard to tell what damage was caused by who…
Brandon, he was caught at the center of the mess. He was in harm's way. But what could I do? I kept jumping around the edge of the fight, helpless again, watching the trapped boy. His terrified eyes caught mine. I was just about to jump in and try to pull him away, when a single blue beam caught my sister in the shoulder. She fell back about ten feet from where she'd stood.
"Last chance, Gadget!" the villain yelled to the girl. "Tell me what this is all about, and walk away."
When Crystal answered, her voice was soft, barely above a normal speaking tone, and full of something vulnerable.
"Why did you kill my mother?" She asked.
There was a hint of something that crossed Syndrome's face. Recognition.
"What?" He asked back, in the same soft tone. If I didn't know him to be a liar, I'd say he really didn't know what she was talking about.
Crystal's voice broke the silence, rose into a scream.
"I want to know WHY YOU KILLED MY MOM!"
She raised both her hands above her head. Violet, who'd pushed herself up into a sitting position, did the same thing. A reddish forcefield appeared in her hands, and when Crystal made a motion, Violet threw the weapon. Syndrome barely dodged it. My sister's eyes, they were—why hadn't I noticed this before?—there was something not right with her eyes—
"I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU KILLED MY MOM!" Crystal screamed again.
Suddenly Violet was on her feet, attacking again.
The villain had really backed himself into a corner, trying to hold onto Brandon and keep Violet at bay at the same time. But he managed. I kept looking for an opening to jump in and grab the innocent kid. Maybe that would break whatever connection Syndrome had with Brandon's power. My specialty was hostage rescue, after all—but there was no opening!
Crystal started taking steps forward. "Here's how it's gonna go down, Mentor! You're not just going to tell me why you killed her! You're gonna take off your mask, and I'm gonna RIP the memories from your brain! I want us BOTH to re-live that day! And then, one way or another, I'm going to kill you mySELF! I don't care how!"
Another red forcefield exploded, just in front of the villain and his hostage, to emphasize this.
Violet, my sister, she wasn't doing that—she wasn't in control of her power—someone else was using her!
I looked at the white-haired girl. Her face was a mask of rage. She looked like a creature made of steel and fire just then, a thing designed to kill.
Superheroes, we…we don't kill villains. We don't kill. I didn't care who did what to who, it wasn't right, what she was going to do, it wasn't right…
It suddenly clicked for me. The message, summoning us, the fighting, Dash, the homing beacon…it was all her, it all led to this, her endgame. We'd all been manipulated. All of us. I had to do something, I had to stop it.
Syndrome caught Violet in that beam. Just barely. There was a pause in their battle, enough time for the villain to try to take control of the situation again.
"No, here's what YOU'RE going to do!" He commanded the girl. "You're going to give this up. Then you're going to hand over your power. You're going to go inside, I'm going to clean up the mess you've made here, and then I'm going to decide what to do with you!"
"Or WHAT? You're gonna burn me?"
"No…I'm going to burn HIM." Syndrome pulled Brandon to his feet, by the back of his collar.
Chrys and the villain glared at each other, twin expressions of rage.
I had to do something. I had to teleport Brandon out of there.
"I'm going to start counting, you better make up your mind." Syndrome warned.
More glares.
"Three…"
I got into position. No one was watching me. No one but Brandon, the boy whose eyes were frantically trying to send me some message. He saw me and subtly shook his head no.
"Two…"
Oh man, I'd never teleported a human before, oh man, oh man…No time to think of what-ifs.
"One."
With a flick of the wrist, Violet was carelessly thrown away. Brandon was thrown forward, he landed prone in the middle of the killing floor. Time seemed to slow down. I saw Syndrome with both hands in front of him, aimed at the boy. I sprung Brandon's way.
Just as my foot left the floor, I jumped right to Brandon. I grabbed him and we rolled away from the blast, I could feel the scorching heat on my back, and suddenly—
There was sand everywhere. I accidentally let go of Brandon and my momentum rolled me away from him. Sheesh, that was a far jump, we made it all the way to the beach. I sat up so quick my head was spinning. Brandon, was he alive?
Yes—he scrambled to his hands and knees, shocked, scared, but alive. I'd done it!
I crawled to him as fast as I could. "Are you okay?" I asked. (Maybe my voice was breaking a little.)
"I'm—I'm fine. I'm fireproof!" Brandon said. "You shoulda saved Crystal!"
I stood up (my knees were still a little shaky), trying to show that I was brave. "I'll save her." I replied.
We heard a shout from down the beach. I looked the way it was coming from. A ways down the beach sat the Incredijet, and racing towards us were two figures that looked like Mom and Dad. Dad—he was okay!
"They've got you. I'll be right back." I told Brandon. I had the coordinates in my head, and in a second, I was back in the arena.
I'd only been gone a second but the fight had ramped up. The spot I'd jumped to was half-gone. One of my feet landed over nothing, and I almost slipped into the tiny ravine made when a stray blast split rock off from the cliffside.
Crystal had gotten closer, she was almost halfway across the arena. Violet (I knew then she was only a puppet) was throwing everything she had at the villain, while Chrys was just yelling everything she could. Her voice was rising over the tremendous sound of the battle. She was bordering on hysterics.
"Why?! She was safe at home, your fight was OVER! Why?!"
Syndrome probably wasn't listening. My interference hadn't made a difference, he still had use of Brandon's power, but Ultraviolet was an amazing Super. She kept attacking and attacking, shielding herself from counter-strikes, going invisible and moving to another spot. Syndrome wouldn't attack the puppet-master. He was losing.
I jumped right in front of Chrys, and held onto her shoulders, trying to get through whatever rage had a hold on her.
"This isn't right, you've gotta stop—"
She moved my hands and stepped past me. She couldn't see me. Like I wasn't even there.
"Crystal!" I shouted.
Nothing again.
I wanted to shake her, jump her out of there, SOMETHING. But when I moved towards her, suddenly I was immobile. I couldn't process why. Syndrome had found a chance to grab me with that beam. I was thrown to the ground, across the arena, away from Crystal. There was no air in my lungs and my back hurt…
"Is it because she survived the Omnidroid?!" I heard Crystal shout.
All I could do was roll over and watch. One of Violet's fields exploded in front of Syndrome's chest, throwing him back, but not knocking him off his feet.
"Is it because she escaped from you?!"
Violet didn't stop the attack, oh no. She must've been bruised and exhausted, but she didn't stop. Like the Terminator. Syndrome quickly recovered and started dealing death-blows to my sister. Just feet away from him, Violet blocked all the attacks (Syndrome was getting desperate, his moves were easy to see coming), countering with her own equally violent ones.
"Why did she have to die?! I need to know!"
I tried to push myself up, but I was still struggling to breathe. I couldn't focus. Thoughts that weren't mine were swirling in my head, suffocating me, tearing me apart. A psychic maelstrom.
Murderer, a child's voice cried.
Two red forcefields grew in Violet's hands. She threw one at the sheer, rocky ground just in front of Syndrome. Shrapnel—like bullets—pierced the air. The suit Syndrome was wearing (and his arms, thrown up on instinct to protect his face) took most of the damage. The second forcefield hit him square in the chest.
Murderer.
The blast (I could feel the shockwave from where I lay) knocked the villain back a good couple of yards. I lost him for a second. I wasn't sure he was still alive.
"Take off the mask!" Crystal screamed.
I scraped together enough of myself, enough will, to beg her, Don't do this.
The wild-haired girl just crossed the distance between her and her mentor. Violet closed the distance too. The voice screaming in her head was way louder than me.
Murderer!
Syndrome tried to climb to his feet, but the girl was there with Violet, hands raised to attack. In Violet's palms another red forcefield was already growing. Syndrome stopped, down on one knee, my sister's weapon towering over him.
"TAKE OFF THE MASK!" Crystal commanded. Her voice had risen, she was the only thing I could hear.
Don't do this… My cry was weaker than before.
"TAKE OFF THE MASK!"
She was pleading too. Her voice broke on the last hysterical scream. Like some part of her saw herself clearly then, saw what she'd done, what she was about to do…
But she wouldn't stop. Violet raised the killing weapon just a bit higher.
And Syndrome, in one smooth motion, ripped off his mask.
It was like the whole world held its breath. The psychic storm stopped dead. Just silence.
One second.
Two.
I dared to watch. It seemed time had stopped, one moment stretched out a torturously long time. The killing strike never fell. I saw Crystal, still breathing hard, and the forcefield flickering over my sister's hand. Time had passed but Syndrome wasn't dead. The world held its breath until Crystal took a step back, lowered her hands to hold the sides of her face, and broke the silence with a question.
"…Why didn't you tell me?"
Vi, still copying her movements, put her hands down too. The forcefield flickered out. With no more death-orbs aimed at his head, Syndrome stood up and brushed off his suit. He answered her easily.
"I know you, and—"
"—if I'm anything like you, I wouldn't take it well." Crystal—she seemed so small and vulnerable—took in the scene around her. The carnage. She turned her head to my sister and Vi fell, a puppet with her strings cut. "…I guess I didn't take it well."
My head was spinning. I tried one last time to pull myself to my feet. The two of them were wrapped up in whatever psychic nonsense just went down, they weren't even concerned with me. I could still teleport the girl out of there. I could still…
Chrys looked so torn. She was processing what she just did, in the context of whatever information she got from Syndrome's brain. There was a look of some bad emotion on her face. Guilt. Or horror.
The villain held out his bare hand to her—a wordless request. He was asking her to give over her powers. Crystal was still for a moment (maybe she knew she could still walk away). Then she reached for him.
At the last second, she pulled back.
"One condition." She stated. "You don't hurt them. Just put them to sleep."
The villain was grinning, I could hear it in his voice. "Thy will be done."
Crystal handed over her powers, and everything went black.