Lance felt the cool air seep slowly into his skin as the metal blade sunk back in his body as flesh, bone, and blood. It felt rough in his body as it slowly deformed into what it used to be, leaving no marks on the outside of his body. He watched the tree he struck a pale sliver into as he thought hard silently, the rest of his team watching his unchanging expression, hoping it to change.

Hm… Lance thought in his mind secretly. "False alarm," he muttered, placing his arm back to his side, turning forward to continue on to their gate.

Marissa gave a long sigh as she swept her hand across the dark tree bark, trying to prevent herself from falling. She looked like she was about to go unconscious as she felt her breath leave her lungs quickly. "Don't scare me like that!" she demanded, pulling herself back up, her legs a bit unsteady. Her slender narrow sticks she called support seemed uncomfortable in the uneven soil. Her delicate fingers couldn't seem to let go of the cragged wood.

No… Lance thought, taking one last look at the tiny, thin cut he marked on the tree, the tiny sliver glimmering slightly in a dying sunlight. Something was there… but what? Lance thought, narrowing his stare. It feels like something is watching us… but whenever I check, it seems to disappear. How strange. Lance thought, holding up the team with his subconscious thoughts. "Just what kind of things live in this place anyway?" he muttered to himself quietly.

"Okay," Rick called attention, the other two turning their heads immediately. Marissa's hair whipped around like a spinning flower in the strong breeze. Lance turned his head slightly, half his attention still behind him.

"I'll stay in the back, just in case," Lance insisted, motioning for the other two Minors to run off ahead of him. Lance turned back once more for a second, then began to zoom off with the others, trying to catch up.

"Good luck," Rick wished his arms flinging by his side like opening and reopening fans.

"Yes," Lance accepted, unable to take his mind off of the reoccurring presence. Lance swallowed a huge lump that would have soon consumed his throat. That feeling… Lance thought, trailing off. Got to be careful, just in case. Lance ran quickly, his feet shuffling through the ground smoothly yet tangled-like. He held a hand close to his chest and watched as he felt weight form on his cool palms. Sunlight glimmered on floating, forming silver spheres that bubbled out of his hands like soap in water.

PoVS

Daniel sat up on the cold soil, the wet ground unsteady to his pants. He was sure that by now they were caked with all sorts of dust and dirt. He rummaged through the food sack, observing and counting how much food they had to last them the week. One week to eat all this… he thought as he peered hard into the piles of angel cakes, jelly cakes, cupped tea, and all other things. About… ten thousand calories worth of food in this bag, Daniel counted for the third time.

The plastic wrapping of certain foods crackled as they were touched, the sounds making him hungrier by the second, but he knew he had to stay on task. Ten thousand calories is exactly enough to last one person five days on a regular diet. Among three people… Daniel did the easy math in his head. Its one day and two-thirds of a day, which is also expressed as forty hours exactly and a little longer to last for us than that. I see.

"So the food was purposely made to short to provide more obstacles that would stand in our way for the week, and with all the poisonous plants and fruit here…" Daniel trailed off. His glasses reflected a decaying sunlight as he let out an obvious and huge sigh.

Meanwhile, Teresa stood a few feet in front of Daniel. She had a mean glare on, and her purple hair was dark and shaded in tone from all the dominant shadow. Her violet eyes peered from left to right, her mental and emotional systems busy. Cold air surrounded her that she ignored, and she desperately tried to force out the first level of Visible Darkness. Fading pentacles flashed in her eyes hesitantly, like a ghostly sight that was just a hallucination to the human eye.

Through her hard working eyes, she only saw traces and outlines of things in her path. She wondered hard about what they were, and dark, despairing whispers filled her ears. What… what's going on? She thought as she tried hard to keep her bare ability up. Her violet hair fell in front of her face but she ignored it. Ghostly figures showed barely, and seemed to dilate in appearance.

Suddenly, a hell stabbing pain hit the back of her eyes, forcing her to close her eyes for protection. She cried out as she fell to her knees, the pain soon overwhelming half her face. She squinted hard beneath the protection of her eyelids, and the deathly hurt soon wore off into a shimmer. I can't keep it up… Teresa realized. Why? Why could I keep it up before the Minors found me, yet I can't use it at all afterwards?

Her sudden pain and moaning caught Kenneth's attention. He came from behind a tree swiftly, looking for the problem. The sudden cry pulled Daniel away from his thoughts and caused his head to jerk up a bit, his eyes wide with surprise and just a distant kind of fear.

"You okay?" Kenneth asked, nearing Teresa with caution. His feet stepped lightly on the half dead grass.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Teresa pushed Kenneth away, holding a hand in his direction so he wouldn't come closer. She covered her eyes with her other hand as she tried to push even the slight pain into the back of her throat.

"What's wrong? Did you find something?" Daniel asked, losing his thoughts completely. He soon ignored everything else except the safety of Teresa.

"No," Teresa lied. "Nothing's wrong, nothing at all," she insisted. She swept her sleeve across her lidded eyes and forced them to open, feeling immense pain as she felt the stabbing effort take over her. I pushed it too far, she realized. She cried out again as she collapsed to the floor for the second time.

She could feel the sympathetic and curious stares on her back, wandering all over her, yet finding nothing. "I'm fine now," she said as she got back up to her feet, opening her eyes to a squint. Everything in her eyes was shaded purple for some reason. Great, she thought. I really, really can't do anything at all, she thought.

Kenneth cleared his throat, desperate to change the subject. "Anyway," he began. "We should stick together," he said, calling Daniel forward. Daniel obeyed and he soon found himself at Kenneth's side

"Yeah," his brother agreed. "We don't know what might come after us, and at this point, we're sitting ducks," Daniel explained. He picked up his glasses forward his nose. He felt they were getting so greasy that they were about to fall from his nose like feet on wet, flat ice.

"We should camp up or somewhere, make a place where we could keep ourselves safe in the meanwhile," Kenneth explained, motioning his arms in the air, feeling the cool breezes brush against his forearms. Daniel nodded in agreement. "But where?" Kenneth asked, looking around, then above and below. "Underground? In the trees?" he insisted several possibilities.

"No," Daniel rejected. The two brothers continued talking as Teresa just stood there, searching for any signs of longing pain that remained in her body, squinting her eyes now and then once in a while. "We don't know what kind of societal dangers live where specifically," Daniel reminded. "We'll have to try above the surface. It's where we can actually sense any of them coming towards us and posing a threat. Anywhere else would be out of our element," Daniel informed, brushing his fingers down the side of his face.

"Then, I guess," Kenneth said, peering to Teresa with two fingertips upon his chin. "For that, we'd need Teresa," she said, catching the Mind Minor's attention.

Teresa sighed as she tried hard to concentrate. Slowly, she began to push away the ground and lift things out of the ground.

PoVS

Okay, we're closing in, Eric realized as his team rushed through the forest. Trees passed by like zooming walls that failed their purpose. Light flashed in patterns that was almost unhealthy as they ran side by side, feeling the rush of their own winds flutter down their clothes.

"Okay, this is what I think we should do," Eric said, expressing his thoughts. His arms swung at his side like crazed machines serving their purpose and their purpose only. They moved so manually, like they were in perfect proportions and motion.

His voice caught the attention of his team members. They turned their heads to find the back of the Fire Minor about to say his plans. "We've got three of the Base Minors in one team," he noted. "We should have a good chance at succeeding this. We also of course, should stay together, and we have a variety of moves in our arsenal," Eric said.

Walter muttered slightly in agreement with a narrow stare, his hair bouncing up and down slightly as his fast paced feet rushed through the soil.

"Yeah," Mark agreed, feeling wind push his body backward.

"All of us should be ready to support each other with our powers, and since we have a limited amount of food for energy, we have to savor that," Eric noted as well.

"Mm," Walter muttered, his feet growing barely tired as they shuffled in the air.

"Looks like you guys all got that," Eric said, not turning back to find their expressions painted on their faces seriously. "We'll definitely win this then," Eric concluded.

PoVS

I rustled in the cloudy, lush bushes, and pushed them away from my face. I saw three young boys rush by, the one running headfirst shouting to the two others behind.

I smiled as a new though sprout in my mind. "Oh?" I whispered, peering out of the clouding plant life that spilled specks of sunlight in. "Visitors?" I said in my raspy voice. My body felt uncomfortable waiting in the dirt, my back heavy with uneasiness. "It's been so long since I've had visitors," I noted in a raspy voice. "And I've gotten so… hungry," I muttered to myself, licking my lips, feeling my long tongue smack around my lips, dampening the sides of my; mouth.

PoVS

No sign of any enemies just yet, Derek thought as he sat comfortably against the tree. He sat up, feeling bored as he let the cold, numbing light spill on his face in tiny dots. It's so boring here… the Shadow Minor thought as he peered from left to right, looking for something unusual to at least notice. The desperate teenager found nothing. Maybe the societal dangers are scared of Zack, too, he thought as he let out a huge sigh of boredom.

Derek looked up to find clouds of canopies of trees above him. They looked so hopeful yet despairing at the same time, the dark green ominous to his eyes. Through the tiny holes that filtered sunlight, Derek found the rolling clouds that blistered bright, white light. Crashing filled the Minor's ears as yellow brightness blanketed his face in a kind of fearful protection.

It's about to rain soon… Derek realized as his eyes were stuck above, his sockets unable to find them again. Derek sighed and thought, might as well…

He felt around the side of him, trying to find something, yet finding nothing. "Hm?" he muttered as he felt more frantically now, forcing his eyes to peer at both his sides. Now he knew for sure that what he was looking for wasn't there. "Where'd the food go?" he muttered to himself.

He got up on his feet with a strong struggle and looked back, peering to where he had last seen Zack and Dylan. "Do you guys know where the…?" Derek was cut off as he found the two teammates, and he didn't like what he saw.

He pointed a finger towards them as he caught their attention, and his mouth dropped open comically, his eyes turning pale and circled with humor.

"Hm? What is it, Derek-san?" Dylan asked, noticing his teammate first, his voice choked and filled.

Derek said nothing, and his finger began to shake as it pointed directly at the two people. Over there in the midst of a barrier of trees, Derek found the two boys separated by a blanket, with food spread all over it that was covered with bites and chews, and the food bag against the tree, limp and empty.

Zack was chewing indistinctively and Dylan stared at Derek with wondering eyes with moving cheeks and teeth. Empty plates filled the green blanket that sort of camouflaged with the dead grass.

"Hey!" Derek accused. "It's barely been half a day and you guys ate all the food?!" he blamed, his voice loud and completely vindicated in this matter. His comical expression would never wipe away.

Dylan flashed an innocent smile and snickered slightly in guilt. Zack looked completely out of it, sitting comfortably on the floor with his eyes closed and mouth moving nonstop.

"Tell me there's more," Derek said, his voice returning.

"Nope, sorry," Dylan said, smiling even wider.

"How're we going to last the rest of the week with no food !" Derek began to scold. He sighed deep in his mind, saving it for later for a calmer time. "How am I going to survive?" he asked himself as his expression went a comical depressed.