FANG THE ILLUSIONIST
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the flock members, JP does, I own but a mere black candle. My first fanfic. Enjoy, this is just one of my many different powers to endow upon Fang.
Fang's POV
I've been staring at the same chunk of forest for hours. It's my watch. The others are sleeping. Usually when it's my watch, I just think, but tonight, I am particularly, well, bored. Around my fourth hour on watch, I decided to let Iggy and Max have the night off to sleep. It's now my fifth hour on watch.
As I sit and stare at the trees around me, my mind drifts to Max. I can't help but grin at the still-fresh memory of her expression when Ig and Gazzy used her shirt to substitute as a slingshot for their latest mini-bomb. The bomb had ended up detonating before leaving the shirt, completely shredding it. Her face was priceless right then. She's just so attractive when she's mad.
My grin fades, and I'm bored again. Looking off into the distance, I begin to think of Ari. Planning my next moves, and how much force I will deliver my punches with. I start to kind of work up an adrenaline rush just thinking about how I would defeat him the next time we meet. I am pumped now, and sorta wish he was here so I could kick his hairy butt, once and for all.
Off in the distance, I see something…or someone, moving swiftly through the trees. As the dark silhouette takes form, I see….Ari! Speak of the Devil!
"Max!" I whisper, nudging her shoulder. She jerks awake.
"Wha!" She mumbles, trying to wake up.
"Ari," I reply quietly. "Wake the others." She does, and we get ready to fight. He's just thirty feet away now. I begin to realise, something is off…he's alone. Since when is Ari ever alone? As I get lost in my thoughts, I realise something else, he's disappearing! He is literally fading from view! I can see Max's facace, her eyes are wide with shock. Within seconds, Ari is gone. No trace of him remains.
"OHMYGOSH!" Nudge squeals. "What was that? Was that like a hologram? Like in movies? Where did he-"
"Nudge!" Max yells. "I don't know, okay? We are all as weirded out as you!"
I walk over to where Ari had been standing, turning around in a circle. Was this a trap? How could he just disappear? I start to think I was dreaming, making it all up. But the looks of confusion that are plastered all over everyone's faces tell me that it DID happen. How was this possible? I may not talk a lot, but my mind is never at rest.
----LATER THAT NIGHT----
"Do you know what this could mean?" I ask Max quietly. She's sitting right next to me against a giant tree. I hope she doesn't leave. "If he could disappear like that, who's to say he couldn't just reappear like that?" I ask, snapping my fingers on the "like that"'s.
Max reveals a horror filled expression and looks at me frantically. "That could totally ruin us! If he could do that, we would never be able to prepare and protect ourselves from them. Have they finally won?"
"Fang?" Max asks after a minute of silence.
"Yeah?"
"Isn't it weird that Ari was alone?" She asks, her brow furrowed.
"I was thinking the same thing. If this is a new skill that the Whitecoats have developed, then maybe he was just sent to test it. Right before he…never mind," I say, mentally kicking myself for what I almost said.
"What were you gonna say?" She inquires, lookin up at me with those…eyes. I decide to tell her, no matter how stupid it may sound.
"Right before he showed up alone, I was thinking about him, how I would fight him, just him. I just got the feeling that maybe my thoughts and his strange appearance were somehow connected…" I let my voice trail off, realizing how silly I sound. It's nonsense, I know, but I can't shake the feeling. Max's eyebrows are slightly raised, she thinks I'm crazy.
"Wow. You think you had something to do with Ari suddenly showing up?" She seemed to be contemplating the notion. Then she seems to zone out. Her lips moving with unspoken words. "Max?" Attempting to get her attention. She turns to face me again.
"Where you thinking about Ari really intensely?" She asks, with an expectant look on her face.
"Umm, yeah, I guess you could, say that," I stammer, surprised at her words. Then she seems to be looking straight through me again, her eyes partially glazed over. "Max?" I call, waving my hands in front of her face. Then I get it, she's talking to her Voice.
"Try something for me," She commands, giving me her full attention.
"What would that be…?" I ask apprehensively.
"Think of a candle, a black one, with white stars on it," She says excitedly. I raise an eyebrow at her.
"Why?"
"Please, concentrate on a black candle, just the way I described it. Concentrate!" She's very anxious now, it's kinda scaring me.
"Why?" I ask, yet again. She sighs exaggeratedly.
"I think you did have something to do with Ari tonight. So please, humor me," She begs. My curiosity now fully aroused, I decide to try this…experiment.
"Okay," I say cautiously. I turn around so my back is facing Max.
"Hey, what are you doing?" She asks, peering over my shoulder.
"Just give me a sec," I hear a mumbled 'okay' and begin to focus on the candle. I close my eyes and it seems to help me concentrate. I can see the candle in my mind. It's black with shimmering white stars of various sizes that encircle the candle in an uneven line. The wick is lit. There is a white marble base on the bottom to collect the liquid wax. It's just over four inches tall, and tree inches wide. I hear Max gasp softly behind me. As I open my eyes, I do too. Like a carbon copy of my own creation, set before me is a black candle, glowing dimly in the night air.
"You did it!" Max whispers, staring at the candle. I reach forward to pick it up; It's real.
"How did you know?" I ask Max, still gently fingering the candle.
"The Voice," She answers vaguely, as if that explained it. "It said you just had to concentrate on an something and it would materialize before you." I sat staring at it, hardly believing what I was so clearly seeing.
"So Ari can't really do that, I just made him up?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"I guess so…" says Max, and then she sighs a huge sigh of relief. "Fang, this is awesome! You finally have your power." I smile at that, the realization setting in. This is pretty cool. To create something from nothing is amazing! The candle begins to dim, and I am reminded that Ari had eventually faded away. So my creations aren't concrete, they are more like illusions. Like a mirage, here one second, gone in the next. I set the candle down as it disappears. "Wow," Max breathes, her breath on my neck. She is still looking over my shoulder.
"Max? What do you want right now?" I ask her, turning away from where the candle had been, staring her straight in the face.
She grins and says, "Homemade double chocolate chip cookies!" she doesn't quite understand what I am getting at, so I close my eyes and visualize. She squeals and I open my eyes. In her lap is a huge plate of cookies, just what I ordered. I grin as she picks one up and examines it. She shrugs, finding it acceptable, and pops it in her mouth. I sit quietly watching as she whimpers in delight. Pretty soon she has wolfed down the entire plate, well not the plate, you know what I mean.
"I wanted one." I say, with a completely serious face. She looks up at me with wide eyes. I grin to let her know I was kidding, and she punches me in the arm.
"Those were great!" Max exclaims, grinning. "I mean, for you being the one who made 'em, and all." The plate begins to fade and she turns to me and says, "Thanks, that was really nice of you"
"You welcome, Max," I say, happy to have pleased her. "Did they taste real?"
"Totally," She assures me. "But I'm felling a little empty, like I haven't eaten in twenty-four hours." The reality was, that we hadn't eaten in twenty-four hours, so I guess they weren't real enough. She sits there, giving me a friendly smile, and my heart kinda leaps into my throat, as if to say, "Let me out! I now belong to Her." The silence grows awkward, so start to say something, when I hear an all too familiar whine.
"Maax, I'm hungry." Nudge. She gets up from her spot by the fire and everyone else starts to get up. It was time to start a new day.
I finally had my power.
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