Alvie assessed the situation quickly and carefully. His aunt was known not to miss, although he could faze and be unharmed by the arrows. He could directly attack her mind, but he felt like a little fun first.

He darted forward, ducking the first arrow, fazing the second and then he was in front of her. She swung at him, he danced around her, her bow smacked into his side and he kicked her legs from beneath her. With a wave of his hand, Riptide zoomed into his grip and he aimed the blade down, ready to bury it through her heart. She rolled aside as the sword fell, jumped to her feet and kicked out, catching him in the wrist and dislodging the sword. Stunned, he stumbled back and she advanced, slamming her fist into his solar plexus and winding him. He shifted away to a distance of ten metres. She loaded another arrow and fired. He let it pass through him, turning invisible. He hurried to the shadows, his breath gradually returning. He waited until the wooziness had subsided. She had loaded her bow again and was scanning her surroundings for any telltale sign of her nephew.

This is a bad idea, he decided, Alvie was not built for combat. And he sure could feel that now- Alvie's slight build was a disadvantage, little strength behind his physical attacks, poor resistance to her hits and a lack of quality endurance to keep fighting.

Louisa whipped round and nearly fired, catching herself at the last second.

"Kia!" She protested. Alvie smiled to himself. Excellent.

He rushed from his hiding spot, startling Louisa and her daughter. Louisa fired at him; the arrow whizzed straight through him. She cursed profusely and her bow vanished, replaced with her sword. "Get back, Kia!" She ordered. Alvie sprinted straight at her, Riptide reappearing in his grasp. Metal clanged against metal. Alvie was not a swordfighter, he knew that. But he only had to last a little while. Only until he could get to Alokia.

Louisa wasn't going to let him past her, side-stepping when he did, pushing him back and going for the kill. Alvie may not have been a swordfighter, but he had been trained as a legacy to know the moves even though he would never use them. He pulled this information from Alvie's sleeping conscious as well as a few other useful facts.

Such as... Louisa was scared of snakes. That would definitely come in handy.

With a wave of his hand, Louisa fell back.

"Mom!" Alokia ran forward to help. Her fatal mistake. Alvie caught her by the wrist and she screamed. "Mom!" Louisa recovered and hefted her sword. She took one step forward and Alvie struck. Energy drained from his cousin to him. "Mom..." She cried feebly. Alvie snapped his fingers and Louisa fell. She scrambled to right herself, but she was too late. Alokia crumpled to the floor.

"No!"

"Oh, please. You don't scare me." Alvie made to banish her again. Stopped by a ring of white-hot flames. He heard his uncle and other cousins beyond the fire.

"Lou! Kia!" Leo called.

"Help Kia!" Louisa insisted. Then she screamed. Alvie had willed the flames into a giant snake, one who could easily swallow a delivery lorry and still be hungry. He glowered at Elsie, who froze. Alokia hadn't just given him her energy- she had also given him her time powers. It was such a shame she never used them, she could have been so helpful...

The snake chased after Louisa. Leo was running alongside, shouting reassurances to his wife and doing his best to burn the snake. His fireballs irritated the snake, but it was 'programmed', in a sense, to go after the daughter of Poseidon. No-one else until she was gone.

Charlie was left alone; this didn't stop him from trying to put up a fight. He jumped up onto a car and then landed on Alvie's shoulders, arms around his neck.

"Leave them alone! Let them go!"

"As if you could stop me." Alvie grabbed him by the wrist and hurled him over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground. Charlie's head cracked against the concrete and his was out cold instantly. Leo cried out in protest and started running back, fire whipping through the air and snapping towards Alvie. Alvie had the snake turn and engulf the flames.

Then it morphed into Leo's mother. He had picked up on Leo's fears too via Alvie's consciousness.

"You killed me!" Esperanza screeched. Leo stumbled to a halt, the terror of an eight year old child losing his mother fresh in his eyes.

"No!"

"You started that fire, you killed me!"

"No, madre, please-"

Alvie was enjoying this too much. Leo fell to his knees, overcome with grief and despair. Esperanza towered over him, predator against prey, screaming her blame, denying his feeble and weakening protests and scorning his tears. "You call yourself a Valdez?! Rosa was right, you diablo!"

He never saw Louisa coming. Not until she clonked him round the head with her bow. Esperanza disappeared and he dropped to the ground, as oblivious to the world as his brothers were now.