Chapter Sixteen: Channeller

Where was he going? There was nothing he could do in the medical room. There was nothing he could do anywhere. He was useless, and hating every minute of it.

As he reached the half open door of the medical unit, he could hear quiet talking inside. For a second he contemplated eavesdropping, but he was feeling much too cranky to do anything stealthy. Instead, he just walked into the room. Pitch was sitting up on the medical table, and Trance was sitting beside him, far too close to be called a professional distance. They were both smiling and Trance looked almost as if she was blushing. Had the man no shame! First Beka, and now this! Although, Tyr would much rather this. Harper would probably not be too impressed. And was Trance not supposed to like Milon? Well, it was obviously not natural. He was influencing her judgement, just as he had Beka's. And she was falling for it. Silly girl.

"Hey Tyr, what's up?"

Pitch turned his head and met Tyr's eyes. For a second, Tyr could see some of the warmth in the darkness, then it disappeared. Obviously Pitch knew better than trying to "charm" Tyr.

"What is going on here?" Tyr asked coldly.

"We were just talking..." Trance said quickly, jumping down off the table.

"Where's Miles?" Pitch asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Milon has decided to try and stop the overloaded channeller by letting himself get hit by the beam that opens the portal," Tyr told him curtly.

"What?"

That took the smile off his face alright. Pitch jumped off the table and stared at Tyr.

"Where is he?"

"Machine shop four."

"Yeah, like that means anything to me! Show me!"

Tyr felt like saying no. But he knew that would only spark off another confrontation. He had promised a truce... so instead he just shrugged his shoulders and walked out.

"Milon what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Pitch stopped in the doorway to the machine shop and just stared. He was blocking Tyr's view. Tyr pushed him aside enough to see into the room. Milon did not reply to his friend's outburst. As a matter of fact, he probably did not even hear him. He was standing in the middle of the room, glowing strongly. A beam of light extended from one of the five transmitters of the machine, straight to Milon's chest. It was making him shake, as if he was getting an electric shock. It was impossible to tell if it was doing him damage or not. It was even hard to tell if there was any pain. At least he was not screaming.

Harper had squeezed himself into a corner, just staring at the scene before him. As Pitch shouted out, his head snapped to the side and he spotted them in the doorway.

"Stay out!" Harper shouted.

"Stay out my arse..." Pitch mumbled and then before Tyr could stop him, he threw himself into the room, knocking Milon out of the way of the beam.

The machine was humming quietly, not shooting any more sparks. But Milon was glowing like mad, still shaking from the power.

"What did you do that for! It was working!"

Milon stood up. He was still glowing, almost too bright to look at.

"What were you trying to do? Kill yourself?"

"No! Just get the channeller to stop overloading..."

Harper ran out of his corner, over to the machine. He climbed on top of it and pulled out a screwdriver.

"Phew! That's it, I've deactivated it. We're safe..."
He had not even finished the sentence when a rapidly growing buzz started spreading in the room. Then, without more of a warning, the machine exploded. Deadly shards of metal whizzed through the air in all directions. They threw themselves to the floor, shielding their heads. Seconds later, it was all over. Where the homemade channeller had once stood, there was now a wreck of blackened metal. The three people in the room, and Tyr in the doorway, stood up and looked around. As if by a miracle, nobody had been injured.

"Harper!"

Tyr strode into the room and grabbed Harper by the front of his T-shirt, lifting him up in the air.

"Hey! I wasn't to know it was going to do that!" Harper squirmed to free himself.

"Put him down!" Milon said.

"You could have got us all killed!" Tyr roared at Harper, who just squeezed his eyes shut.

"Let him go!"

Milon took a few steps over to Tyr and grabbed his arm. It did nothing, Tyr hardly even noticed him, that was how angry he was.

"I said, let him go!"

Suddenly there was a bright flash and Tyr was thrown across the room. He slid across the room on his back at a fair speed. Looking up, he could see Beka staring down at him. And here he was, polishing the floor. How embarrassing. Then he hit the wall. There was a smell in his nose, like lightning or ozone. He was not really hurt, but confused. He stood up and looked over at Milon who was still shining brightly, giving him a sort of guilty, frightened look.

"You did that?"

It seemed an unnecessary question, but Tyr had just never imagined Milon that powerful.

"I didn't mean to... I've never done anything like that before..."
It was the power from the Channeller of course. All that raw force that the boy had absorbed. No wonder he had become more powerful than he had even known was possible. But how had he seen Beka? She was gone. She was in the other dimension.

"Did you see that?"

Harper was jumping up and down with excitement.

"Yeah, I think we all saw that..." Pitch said, "Miles. Any idea what you did?"

"Yes. No... I mean... you know the way we never knew what Genies channellers were? I think they can be any kind... it's like magnetism. I can't explain."
Tyr, Pitch and Harper just looked at him. Shining like a star, but not making any sense.

"Don't you understand?" Milon seemed to be speaking to Pitch now, "It's not the gelfs... it's the energy! All you do is... channel it!"

He laughed a small laugh and walked over to where the machine had stood. Now there was just a burnt chunk of metal.

"I'll show you then..."

They watched as the glow around Milon started to increase again. The five points of the star that had been the centre of the old channeller suddenly started to glow. The air seemed to thin, the middle of the room change. Then Tyr could see Beka again. And Dylan. And Rommie. They were just standing there, staring right at them. Or at Milon probably. He was shining so brightly. Then the glow died down, the room looked normal once again. And Beka, Dylan and Rommie were still standing there.

"Now do you see?" Milon asked.

And then he collapsed on the floor.