This chapter isn't great either because I'm kind of ill, and where I had planned to have lots of spying and sleuthing and clues, my head hurt when I was trying to come up with something clever and complicated. I got pissed off, so I settled for random violence instead. : )

Chapter 10: the battle of Sunken City

The first thing we did was go to the top of the building to check our whereabouts. We were in a 3 storey block of flats near the edge of sunken city, and, checking each room we came across, we eventually found a map. Some-one had conveniently marked a little red dot with the words "you are here". We took it with us to the rooftop and looked around at the landscape below us. Very few of the buildings were higher than two storeys, so we could pretty much see everything around us. Using the clues in the letter, we established that the bomb was planted in the town hall, almost at the centre of the city. I wondered if Powers was watching us and looked around to the edges of the stadium, realising that we were now closed in by a high metal wall that had risen up around the edges of sunken city.

"You know, Sunken City isn't a very imaginative name," I commented to the others, who were trying to come up with a strategy.

"Whatever," Will said. "Come help us Rain, we need to figure out a way of getting to this building without being seen," he pointed to a building on the map which was right across from the town hall.

"Well, the instructor said something about ventilation shafts…" I said, thinking back to earlier.

"No, that's for moving around in the building." Layla said. "We need to get to the building in the first place."

I shrugged. "We could fly over there… Will could carry you." I shrugged.

"Or I could carry Warren and you could carry Layla," Will said.

"Carry Warren?" I was confused.

"What, you expect Warren to sprout wings too?" Will asked amusedly. "Hang on, you haven't recently sprouted wings have you?" he turned to Warren, who shook his head. "Exactly." Will turned back to me.

"Err… you do know Warren can fly, right?" I asked.

"What? Warren? Since when…"

"You're not really good with keeping up to date, are you Stronghold?" Warren said. "Pick your girlfriend up and let's go,"

Again I felt the familiar itching-burning sensation in my shoulders as my wings unfolded. Warren was already powering up, flames erupting from under the soles of his shoes, rising to engulf his lower half as he rose of the ground. Will paused for a few seconds, as he watched Warren with intent curiosity, before quickly sweeping an unsuspecting Layla into his arms and taking off. I flapped my wings, pushing air under them to lift me off of the ground. We flew quickly, flitting from building to building, not daring to go any higher or fly straight for fear of being spotted. We were starting to treat it like a real mission.

Unfortunately, to get to the building we needed to; we had to fly across the open space of the park area. And there people there, two teams. They didn't seem to be fighting.

"That's totally unfair; we're not supposed to team up with others!" Layla hissed as we stood poised on top of a particularly low building.

"Lets just go and hope they won't notice us," Will said, taking off.

"Will, wait-" I started, but it was too late, he was already in the air, Layla in his arms.

Unfortunately, the two teams on the ground did notice us. And immediately attacked. The acid spit guy was there, as was Brett and Jenny, the metal guy and the flying girl. And also four others that I didn't know. Will tried to dodge, but was eventually hit in the shoulder with a ball of acid spit, which was fired so rapidly it was actually quite amazing. I folded my wings, not getting rid of them completely, and stepped off the edge of the roof, dropping two storeys and landing easily on the ground level with them, balls of blood already igniting in my hand. And then… it was like something out of a film. Too fast for me to comprehend, I was fired at by the acid spit guy and some other random person who was throwing some sort of weird purpley-black energy balls. I didn't have time to think, I just ducked and dodged, spinning and firing simultaneously, missing the energy balls and Brett's slicing blades by centimetres. I was hit in the left shoulder by one of those weird energy balls, and immediately pain spasmed down my arm and my back, spreading from the point on my shoulder where it hit me. The guy, who I think was related to Jenny because they looked kind of similar, was advancing on me, a triumphant smirk on his face as he casually tossed an energy ball from one hand to the other, as I sank to the ground, clutching my shoulder and squeezing my eyes shut to stop the tears. Fuck, those things hurt! I opened my eyes again in time to see him fall forward, a look of outrage, surprise and pain on his face as he stumbled, before whipping round. He now faced away from me and I saw what had caused his fall. Almost right in the middle of his back was a large burn, which went through his clothes, revealing a circle of blackened and blistered skin. It looked nasty and painful. He had other burns on him, his shoulder, his leg etc, which I had been the cause of. But none of mine had been hot enough to do that kind of damage. I knew it was Warren, and the sight of the nasty wound in front of me served as an almost disturbing reminder that no matter how tame and under control Warren seemed to be, there was a reason everyone at school was afraid of him. I looked up to where he was standing, hands on fire, the corners of his mouth turned up in satisfaction as he stared down Jenny's brother. The others, who had been watching me, acid-spit-boy (who I just called acid in my head), Brett, and Jenny's brother (wasn't his name Joe or something?) as we fought, also turned to Warren, looking slightly worried.

Without warning, Warren let loose a flurry of attacks that where almost too fast for the eye to see. Brett was hit, as was Acid and Joe (or whatever his name is) and some of the others, before they even realised what was happening. But Warren didn't stop, he fired another round, before striding across the playground and pulling me too my feet.

"You ok?" he asked.

I shrugged. "My shoulder…" it had gone numb. "What the fuck was that?" I said, to nobody in particular.

I walked over to the swing and sat on it. Massaging my shoulder, as a something flew through the air, right past my ear and hit the chain of the swing. Acid spit.

The chain broke and I landed on the cold, hard ground under it. Now I was pissed.

"You little…" raising my hand, I fired a flaming ball at him. And another. And another. Relentlessly I fired, hitting either him, or the acid that he sent hurtling through the air. None of it reached me. I was dimly aware that I was using my left arm, the one that was hit, and that I was feeling none of the usual pain that came with using my power. There was no burning just under my skin all the way up my arm, no pins and needles sensation as the blood poured from my hands. It was because the energy ball had deadened my nerves. He'd unwittingly made it easier for me… I kept firing, but Joe had risen, a second patch of blackened skin on his arm, and was preparing to fire. As soon as he raised his arm, I ducked out of the way and ran, still firing as I leapt over the see-saw and to the tiny climbing frame. It was one of those kiddies' ones, for 5 year olds. It took me only a second to step onto it, using it to propel myself through the air. I wasn't going to risk opening my wings at this point; they were huge and would only make me an easy target. I fired at the acid-boy as I sailed through the air, and crashed into Joe, who had almost hit me with another of his energy balls. We both fell to the ground, but this time I didn't fuck up my arm due to the fact that I had a soft landing. Namely Joe. Before he could push me off and get up, thick thorny vines burst from the ground, wrapping themselves tightly around his arms and legs. The others were similarly incapacitated, and Will was on the ground next to Layla, a bandage round his shoulder (where the hell had she gotten a bandage from?) where a nasty dark substance was seeping through. It wasn't blood.

A few minutes later we were on the roof of the Town hall, deciding to scrap the plan that involved the building across the street. It involved patience and stealth, and after the fight none of us were feeling particularly patient or stealthy. We were going to storm in and burn/smash everything to oblivion, and disarm the bomb.

"We should make sure there's no-one else in there first," Layla said. "I don't want you two getting carried away whilst there are people in there."

I assumed she meant Will and Warren, but then I realised she was actually looking at me and Warren.

"Me? What the hell have I got to-"

"Just let me check if there's anyone inside." She interrupted, and Will lifted her again, disappearing over the edge of the building. Seconds later, they returned, Layla's face looking a lot less happy than when she had left the rooftop.

"Um… I don't think we should go storming in," she said. I looked at her questioningly, but it was will who spoke.

"Lasers. They have these laser things in the entrance hall. Motion detectors or something, you know, like in the movies,"

"I guess we go down the ventilation shaft then…" Warren said from just behind me.

Which is why, before I knew what was happening, I was trying hard to ignore that fact that I was once again held tightly in Warrens arms as we descended through one of the shafts that Will had easily ripped open from the roof. Will was below us, holding Layla, and as soon as his feet touched the ground he pushed the panel which clattered to the floor. We stepped out one by one into the room, where at the far end we could see the laser thingies, which were moving. It kind of reminded me of the corridor in resident evil… except hopefully, these lasers did not slice you up into little pieces.

We walked over to the large fake marble reception desk thingy (are town halls supposed to have reception desks? I didn't think so…) where a little black box sat, its red numbers flashing as the timer counted down. It said there were still 45 minutes left.

"We're early," I remarked as I pulled the red wire out of the side.

Half an hour later we were back at the estate, laden with huge bars of chocolate, which we had received as prizes for winning in Sunken City. Deciding to go for a swim in the pond, we got changed one by one in the bedroom with the door closed. First magenta, then me, and then Layla. As she went in and shut the door, Magenta and I waited for her. We had met Magenta in the nurse's outpost after our activity, where we were treated for our various injuries. She was in an oxygen mask because she had inhaled something or other which had caused her to have an asthma attack. As I pulled on a pair of denim cut-off shorts and a yellow tank top on top of my green-blue two-piece swimsuit, a scream came from behind the closed bedroom door. Without thinking, I slammed the door open and burst into the room closely followed by Magenta. The sight that greeted me stopped me as if I had hit a brick wall. Layla was facing the window, holding her duvet against her. Standing behind her, I realised why when I noticed that there was nothing covering her buttocks. She was in fact completely naked, save for the duvet which was covering her front.

Putting two and two together, I deduced that some-one must have looked in the window as Layla had been changing, so I ran to it and put my head out the window, looking both sides to see who it was, but there was no-one there. I turned to Layla, who's face pretty much matched her hair at this point and asked "who was it?"

She shrugged and mumbled under her breath "I think it was Brittany."

Right, that's it, I'm going to kill that little blond bitch the next time I see her. Unless it was an accident… I'll ask her right before I beat the shit out of her.

I know, I'm sorry, it's not great... so as compensation, I might put a little bit of Warren/Rain in the next chapter, k? Oh and remember, no reviews, no chapter. Death threats warning me to put up the next chapter or else are always welcome.