Christian's POV

I flew back over and landed as silently as I could in the branches above the van. To my surprise, Wonder and Layla were already staring down the crazies. There were four of them, all looking like Erasers.

"Ready for round two?" one of them asked Wonder.

"Pretty sure we kicked your ass in round one," she said. "The real question here is are you ready?"

Oh boy, she's gonna kick their asses, I thought, silently laughing at these idiots. I don't think they really knew what they were dealing with here.

"Hey guys," the smallest one said hesitantly. "There's, uh, there's another one in the trees."

Well shit, they saw me. I jumped down, flapping my wings just enough that I wouldn't go plummeting to my death. That would be embarrassing. I landed right between them and the girls.

"Well hello," the one who had been talking to Wonder said.

"Sup?" I said back. "Who are you and why did you try to hit us?"

"Thorn. That's Peirce, Gamma, and this is Alpha," he said pointing at the smallest one, who looked a bit confused.

"Wait, no," Alpha said. "No wait, guys, that's not..."

"Shut up kid, these are the targets," Thorn growled. Alpha stopped talking but kept scanning the trees, clearly afraid of something. Thorn turned his attention back to me. "Full disclosure," he said. "We're supposed to bring the girls back. You on the other hand, we've been ordered to kill. Nothing personal, just orders."

"Yeah, that makes me feel so much better," I said. "Look are we gonna just stand here talking all day or are you dicks gonna do what you came here to do?"

"Well if you want to die that badly," Thorn said, his body starting to change into that of an Eraser, and his fur starting to look like knives. Peirce started to shift as well, claws coming out and teeth bared, both shining like freshly made steel.

Thorn and Peirce lunged at me, forcing me to jump back and start shifting into my Eraser form. They weren't gonna kill me without a fight.


As Thorn and Peirce lunged at Christian, Layla put her hand up, ready to stop them if necessary.

Until she suddenly felt as though something was exploding in her head.

Sorry about this, a disembodied voice said. I can't let you do that.

Layla fell to her knees, clutching her head.

"Layla?" Wonder said, worry in her voice. "Layla, what's wrong?"

Layla didn't answer. Everything was being drowned out. The voice of her sister, the fight between Christian and the two Erasers who seemed bent on killing him, until everything disappeared, leaving Layla alone in the woods.

Alone, except for the smallest Eraser, Alpha.

"What the hell is going on?" Layla demanded.

Sorry, Alpha's disembodied voice said again. Really, I am. But this is my job. I'm supposed to keep you busy so you can't help your friends out.

"How are you doing that?" Layla asked. "It's like you're talking from everywhere at once. How...?"

You don't know? We're inside your head. We can talk with our minds here.

"Well stop it. I've already had enough of this little mind game of yours."

The mind game hasn't even started yet. I'm... I really am sorry for this.

"For what?"

Let's see what kind of terrible things we can dig up.

Suddenly the trees and the ground started spewing out red liquid, like blood, quickly filling the woods. Layla snapped out her wings and tried to take off but found herself held down by tree roots that had grown around her feet. The blood converged on her and quickly consumed Layla.

Then the memories came rushing back, suffocating her, crushing her under their weight.

Layla gasped for breath but found nothing but the bloody sea of dread around her.

This one seems extra painful... I'm sorry.


Wonder tried waking her sister up, but to no avail. Instead of waking, Layla seemed to be choking.

"Layla!" Wonder shook her sister but nothing happened.

"Looks like your sister is having some fun with the runt," someone said. Wonder turned to see Gamma standing behind her. "Don't worry, Alpha will take good care of her."

"Alpha?" Wonder looked back at Alpha, who was sitting against the van, eyes closed.

"He's a more powerful telepath than your sister could ever hope to be," Gamma laughed. "Let's leave them to play their games huh? I wanna see what you can do anyway."

Wonder didn't hear him. She watched Alpha, rage suddenly taking over. That son of a bitch was doing something to her sister's mind. He was gonna pay for that. Wonder got up and began walking towards Alpha when Gamma grabbed her arm.

"Oh no you don't," he said. "You'll have to get through me if you want the runt."

Pink energy rocketed from Wonder's hand, blasting Gamma back into a tree, nearly crashing right through it. Turning back towards Alpha, Wonder raised her hand again, the pink energy ready to fire once more. Or at least until she heard Gamma laughing.

"That was good," he chuckled. "I bet I can do better." Wonder turned to see him raising his hand, green energy radiating from his palm. Suddenly a blast of green came rushing towards Wonder, who fired back her own energy to block it. The two colors collided, exploding on contact and taking down a few trees.

Gamma was still laughing.

"Go ahead," he said, shifting into his Eraser form. "Take another shot. I'm craving another shot of energy."

"What the hell are you?" Wonder asked.

"I'm an energy manipulator," he said. "But you can just call me, your death."