Anna had phoned them just like she had promised to. It was after Astrid had finally managed to calm Sam down, telling him he could go and beg for his job back after they at least had a plan as to how they were going to deal with this. She said he could argue personal problems were completely done with after that. They had just moved on to complaining about how reckless Diana was to take Caine to work with her, and how Sam was going to drag him back at that very moment, when Anna had called them from the hospital.

Something was wrong. At the exact time that they had managed to kill the Butterfly, Sinder had woken up. They had run tests but the plants seemed to have melted and evaporated in her blood, leaving her clean and healthy again. That was great. But then there was something new wrong with Sinder. Only now there was something wrong with her mind rather than her body. Anna had been allowed to visit her for a very short time and had seen exactly what they were talking about. Sinder sat in her bed, staring at the wall in front of her with terrifyingly wide eyes and her lips pressed tightly together. When Anna had tried to talk to Sinder she hadn't responded, she just stared at the wall and when she did speak all she could say was "grow". Finally they had ushered her out, saying Sinder needed time to rest, and when she asked what was wrong they said Sinder was relapsing to her days when she was in the psych ward.

"They said that it happens." Astrid grumbled as she retold the stories to everyone else. "That relapses are completely normal for people like Sinder."

Sam nodded. That made perfect sense to him. He knew nothing about the mind and considering Sinder had only just gotten out or therapy and was then attacked by a killer Butterfly that put her in a coma for a whole day, it didn't actually seem that ridiculous for her to be falling back. But when he looked at Astrid she was pursing her lips and frowning.

"You don't think that's the case." Sam guessed.

"What else could it be?!" Kevin scowled.

Astrid turned to glare at him but said nothing. She stood and went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea like she always did when she was running out of things to say.

"We're getting nowhere." Dekka said. "I say we travel to New York and try and catch Duck."

"That's easier said than done." Quinn grumbled. "It'll cost money to get there."

"I have money." Dekka shrugged.

"I think jumping on a plane to New York is risky move considering we still don't know how to kill these things. And how are we supposed to trap Duck to bring him back? He can grow so heavy a plane couldn't carry him, let's not mention a box." Edilio explained.

"Edilio's right." Kevin nodded immediately.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Quinn groaned.

They fell silent and Astrid slammed the cup down hard enough on the counter that she spilled tea over the sides and onto the counter and she very nearly broke the handle off. Everyone turned to look at her as she stood there, clenching her teeth and her fists.

Sam stood and went over to her side. He stood beside of her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her close and kissing the back of her head in a way he knew that calmed her down. It didn't seem to be working but she didn't push him away either. After a moment she turned and hugged him, burying her face in his shoulders. This just seemed to be piling up on them just like before, it was hard for anyone to handle anymore and Astrid was by far the strongest.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment longer, allowing Astrid and Sam to have their moment together.

"Sitting around here isn't doing any good." Edilio said finally. "I think we need to get ourselves organised."

"You're right." Astrid said, pulling away from Sam. Her nerves gone now. She was going to be strong for this.

"Okay." Sam nodded. "Firs things first, anyone who hasn't already, make calls to family and let them know you'll be staying here for a few days. The last thing we need are disappearance reports on you guys."

They nodded, Kevin headed for the phone while Emily and Roger pulled out mobiles and began to send parents messages. Edilio and Quinn had assumed as much and didn't need to contact family as they had already warned them they were heading off for the next few nights. Dekka just generally thought her parents wouldn't care but asked Emily to borrow her phone just in case and sent a simple text message.

"After that we'll start coming up with plans to look through the streets, cutting it into sections and capturing as many animals as we can. We should know which are which because the ones with powers will fight us back." Sam explained. "After we've caught a few we can work together on killing each of them here in the apartment. We'll try fire with some more, the rest can be stored in the cupboards."

"But how will we catch them?" Roger asked.

"Yeah, you don't have anymore boxes spare, do you?" Kevin snorted.

Astrid frowned and went into her room. She came back a few moments later with a plastic box the same as the one Diana had used for the lizard. It was full of belts and hair bands.

"This is all I have." Astrid explained.

"Okay, maybe we can call Diana. She works at a cafe so maybe she has some spare boxes lying around." Sam suggested.

"You do that." Astrid said, pointing at Quinn. "Roger, you and Edilio go and get a map so we can plan who will look at what part of town. You can print one from Google maps. Emily, Dekka divide up everything here into five different piles for us all to use. Sam and I will raid the house and see if we don't have anything else hidden."

Dekka raised an eyebrow but no one said anything about Astrid making orders. She was best as organising people with jobs out of their group.

After they had called family, Quinn stepped forward and called Diana's work place on the house phone. The number was in a phone book that had been settled on the side and soon he was talking to a very angry man about a broken door and a puddle of oil on the floor. It took Quinn a while but finally he managed to get the man to tell him that Diana had left early after she had let a couple of men destroy the shop. He was still ranting about costs and damages by the time Quinn hung up on him.

When he looked around he saw Edilio and Roger were printing out different areas of the town and putting them aside. Emily and Dekka had settled down on their mattress and began to even out the belts and hair bands in the floor in front of them, working in silence. Sam and Astrid could be heard emptying Diana's room.

"Uh. Sam?" Quinn called.

"What?" Sam called from Diana's room.

"Diana's left work already. And the place was trashed." Quinn shouted.

That caught all their attention. Everyone looked up but no one said anything. Then Sam appeared, stepping out of the bedroom.

G*O*N*E

"Stop it!" Diana hissed.

Caine grinned and ignored her. He lifted his hand and knocked over, pushed, lifted up and spun anything that wasn't attached to the ground. She grabbed his hands and forced them down to his side but still he was able to twist them around and lift her up slightly, just enough so that she would let him go.

"Caine! I said stop! What if someone sees?!" Diana snarled, she glanced around nervously but they were alone, thankfully.

"You know no one will see us, that's why you come this way home." Caine laughed.

Diana growled as Caine came to a stop. Caine was grinning from ear to ear, he didn't seem to be noticing any more pains in his body and she hadn't seen him this excited or happy since Quinn came to ask him for help defeating the bugs. He hadn't stopped moving things since and had smiled as Landy had come in screaming at the mess. He hadn't even gotten angry when Landy had thrown them out the shop and threatened Diana. He wouldn't fire her. He would just make her clean it all up and pay as soon as he worked out how much it would all cost and had calmed down.

They were not even halfway home yet when Caine had stalled once more, staring at his hands and marvelling in the powers that he had come back to him. His smile stretched again and he waved his hand, knocking a bin so hard against the wall that it crumpled in on itself and was left broken and bent on the floor.

"I told you." Caine whispered, looking up at the sky as if he was thanking God. "I told you I'd get my powers back."

"Yeah, yeah, you're oh so smart and oh so strong." Diana scowled sarcastically. "Now can we get back?! You have to tell the others what you found out!"

"We will in time. I want to test this, see how strong I was. I feel stronger, but that could just be my reaction from going from no powers to all powerful again. I'm actually the strongest person here. I am. I could throw Sam and Astrid out the window, or crush Quinn's skull on the ceiling. Let that Ripley cop or anyone else come after me, they won't get within ten feet!" Caine was just getting started to a whole rant of how powerful he was when Diana slapped him.

She made sure it was a good hard slap right across the face. His head probably hurt again and the way his body snapped was definitely not going to be easy on his side. Caine froze before he turned and stared at her. There was anger, yes, but mostly he was shocked and didn't seem to know what to do.

"No." Diana snarled.

"What?" Caine blinked.

"No! I said no!" Diana shrieked. "We are not doing this again! We are not playing this game again."

"We're-" Caine began.

"NO!" Diana shouted. "I said no! No! No! No!" She stepped back and took a breath, stepping up against the wall of a building and as far as she could get from Caine. She placed hands over her face and slowly pushed them up, running through her hair and pulling it free from its pony tail, letting the hair band drop to the floor.

She did this several times before slowly turning to face him again. She wasn't crying but she looked like she wanted to.

"If you do this, I will kill myself. I cannot handle this again, not when I thought it was over. I can barely handle animals killing people again but if you start planning another take over and start hurting people again then that is it for me." Diana whispered, she was shaking.

Caine said nothing. He didn't know what he could say. Diana had been acting like this before but she seemed to really be shaken this time.

Caine looked away, tucking his hands into the pockets and his shorts and resisting the urge to bite his thumb nail in front of her. This was so unfair! He had his powers back and yet he was still being kept on a leash by his love for Diana. He had all this power, he should have been able to do whatever he wanted and yet here he was debating what he wanted more, Diana or power? Actually he had spent time with each of them. He had Diana on the island and that had been amazing but shortly after he had power and complete control of Perdido Beach.

Both power and Diana had been wonderful. But which one did he want? Which one could he not live without? Which one hurt the most when it was gone?

He wasn't sure. He had hated and survived both times.

"The fact that it is so hard for you to decide says it all." Diana whispered.

"No it doesn't!" Caine snapped.

She turned to walk away but Caine reached up and held her in place. He never liked using his powers on her but sometimes he had to. She stopped moving and just stayed where she was, not even bothering to fight his hold. They held it that way before Caine let her go. This time Diana did not try to run away and instead waited for him to talk.

"That isn't... Who I am." Caine began lamely.

"That's what you said last time." Diana sneered.

"Well it's true! I am who I am! I am me. This is me. You can't change who I am, if you did then I wouldn't be me anymore. If you love me then you won't want me to change, you will want me to be me." Caine argued. He had argued this many times but Diana never seemed to understand or at least she refused to accept it.

"You really don't get it do you?" Diana sneered.

"Get what?" Caine shouted. "That you don't love me? You just love someone you want me to do be!"

"You are such an idiot! You think there is one side to you! There were two sides to me and there are two sides to you! You just refuse to let one of those sides show because you didn't want to let people see it. You're either afraid or embarrassed when the truth is that if you showed that side more you'd probably be more popular than you are now!" Diana argued.

"There aren't anymore sides to me. Just this side." Caine snarled.

"That's what you think." Diana sighed. "But I have seen it. Little ways. When you saved me instead of killing Sanjit. When you gave yourself up to Pete to defeat Gaia. When you fought Gaia on your own or with Sam. You have another side. You just need to realise that."

Caine just glared at her. He would argue, but in honesty there was some truth. He wasn't as ruthless when he fought Gaia, knowing the pain it would cause. But he could argue he did that partly for himself anyway. But then he did save Diana. But that was because he couldn't live without her! Maybe Little Pete. Yeah. He did give himself to Little Pete and sacrifice everything so everyone else could live. Caine chose not to look deeper for his selfish reasons for that answer and instead turned, walking down the alleys, no longer playing with his powers.

Diana sighed again. "Come on. We need to tell the others what you figured out. Plus we were shouting so much, it's a wonder no one heard us and saw you!"

G*O*N*E

Ripley stood just at the far end of the alley. He had seen Diana and a mysterious boy and had watched them from afar. When they entered the alley he moved closer so he could see and hear everything they were doing and saying so he saw what the boy was doing and he heard who that boy was when she said his name. Caine Soren. It was crazy, he had seen his death on the cameras as had half of the world that was watching at that moment when they caught it. But yet now he had heard his name, he did see his face and he knew that was the boy that had killed all the other kids in the anomaly. And Princess and her friends were hiding him.

He leaned against the wall and smirked. He had them now. He had them all caught now. Princess was definitely going away forever. Torches and his girlfriend would too if Ripley was lucky enough to get them. And Caine? Well, he'd be lucky if he ended up in prison and not in a laboratory, which was where Ripley hoped to get him.

He had them! Oh joy, Ripley had them!

G*O*N*E

"Okay, we'll get to shouting at you both for running off like that later." Sam said angrily. Everyone had finished most of their jobs just as Diana and Caine had walked through the door. "First explain what happened in your shop? Your boss is pissed!"

Diana opened her mouth but Caine stepped in front of her and face to face with Sam. She hesitated but then sighed and headed for the kitchen, climbing over the mattresses to make a drink. She should let Caine have this one moment. And how better to start an explanation than for a demonstration.

"Brother." Caine beamed. "Can I show you a magic trick?"

"What?" Sam frowned.

"A magic trick. I want to show you one."

"Caine, I don't have time for your games." Sam snapped, turning to head over to Diana and demand answers from her.

He took less than two steps when suddenly his feet left the ground and he began to rise up into the air. Sam shouted and reached up, pressing against the ceiling and trying to push himself back down but an invisible hand held him in place. Everyone turned their eyes on him before they slowly looked down to where Caine had his hand pointed out towards of Sam, palm out with a grin on his face.

"Caine..." Astrid croaked.

"I killed a dog today." Caine explained cheerfully, pushing Sam across the room before setting him down on top of the bookshelf. "This dog lifted me up much like I lifted Sam. I killed it... And then I could lift things again." He beamed. "I have my power back."

There was a shocked silence before Astrid, jumping up and knocking things off her lap in her haste to rush to his side. "Tell us everything! The whole story from beginning to end! How did you kill it?!"

Caine smiled at her. "Best part. I worked it out. Way before you, Astrid. I worked out how they die. They die, by their greatest fear. We are literally scaring these animals to death. And their power is our power, so their fear, is our fear.

Astrid blinked and after some nudging from Diana they sat down facing one another and Caine began to explain everything for the second time to those around him. It was clear he exaggerated a lot. The way he said it there was a blood bath and the dog threw him around like crazy before he half beat the dog. But he did tell them how the dog used his powers, how it had acted like him in the sense where it didn't like being challenged and how he had killed it with his own greatest fear. Though Caine pointedly refused to tell them all what his fear was. Diana knew and that was already one person too many in his mind.

By the end Astrid was nodding with a look of wonder on her face. She nodded again and again and looked excited. This all made sense. This was a great step forward now that they knew how this had happened and what they needed to do to beat them. She couldn't help but grin at the others around her. But then a thought came to mind that made her smile drop drastically.

"But wait..." Dekka said, catching on at the same time as Astrid. "The dog dies and you get power back. The butterfly dies and Sinder looses it?"

"I told you. She just lost her mind." Kevin said.

"It seems to make more sense now since Caine's fine." Quinn shrugged.

"No." Astrid argued. "I don't feel like that's it."

"Then what do you think it is?" Emily frowned.

Everyone turned to look at Astrid. She took a breath and frowned. The truth was she didn't have the answer, only guesses that she had made up. She couldn't even put it into words properly of how she was feeling. All she knew was that something didn't feel right. Sam was feeling the same but he wanted Astrid to say it first so he knew he wasn't alone but the best way either of them could think to describe it was simply instinct telling them there was something more behind it.

"It's like... Maybe..." Sam said.

"Maybe what?" Edilio asked.

"Maybe it's not as simple as killing these things." Sam said slowly. "Maybe when we kill our animal each, we get powers back but if someone else kills them... It breaks a part of us."

"Even if that's true, how will we know?" Edilio frowned. "Is someone going to offer up to test it on?"

Silence.

"I will..." Emily said slowly.

"No. We can't ask someone that." Sam said immediately.

"You're not asking." Emily shrugged. "I'm offering."

"It's doesn't even matter!" Quinn interrupted. "We don't even have any of the animals to test on."

"Quinn's right. Let's divide up the maps and catching equipment and see what we can find." Sam said suddenly.

"Catching equipment?" Diana snorted, raising an eyebrow down at the hair bands, belts, rope and string gathered into a pile.

"It's all we have." Astrid shrugged. "We're also going to give money and buy a few dog leashes in order to catch the larger animals. We'll go in twos, each taking a part of the town and spending the day searching. It might not be much, but it will be a start. Maybe as the days go on we can move in with others in other towns and search."

"What if they're not in America?" Diana whispered.

No one answered, not even wanting to think of those possibilities. None of them had the money or the time for that possibility.

"Caine will have to stay here." Sam said, ignoring Diana's question.

"He will not." Caine snorted and jumped in before any of them could argue. "I have power now! I have a better chance of catching these things than anyone. And if I stay in this apartment for even a moment longer I will go crazy. If I wear the hat and sunglasses and avoid people then no one should recognise me and I can help defeat these buggers."

Sam glared at him but Caine just smirked and shrugged, holding out his hand pointed at him but not using his powers. No attack, just a threat.

"You can't exactly stop me anymore." Caine snorted.

"Fine!" Sam spat. "But you stay with Diana! Diana, he is your responsibility."

Diana scowled but said nothing against it. "Fine, what area do we get?"

Astrid handed them Diana's own large bag with the belt, map, hair bands, rope and string inside. She shuffled through and unfolded the map, glancing at the poorly printed Google map image while the rest of them received their bags.

"Edilio and Kevin." Astrid said, handing them one of Sam's old backpacks.

"Dekka and Emily." Astrid gave them Emily's own backpack that had been emptied of her things into a corner of the sofa.

"Roger and Quinn will stay here and be ready for incoming calls and text messages. And Sam and I." Astrid grabbed her new shoulder bag and they stood.

"We'll do it until this afternoon, eight o'clock we all have to be back here." Sam said. He didn't say what would happen if they weren't. If they weren't back by eight they would assume the worst had happened...

G*O*N*E

The four different pairs made their way down in different parts of the town. They carried their bags and made sure to avoid the crowded areas whenever possible. It was near impossible the way they were searching to find these animals since they had no idea if there were even any animals left where they lived, but they had seen first hand that some animals were territorial while the others just crazy and they all attacked when approached. That was the only way to tell them apart from other animals. But it still didn't stop them from making mistakes.

Emily tackled a large black dog to the ground and spent ten minutes being shouted at by his owner with Dekka apologising on her behalf. She scratched her legs after pinning the dog down and had to walk with the stinging sensation for the rest of the street. While Kevin had stomped on a rat and accidentally killed the poor creature which led to a young child shrieking and crying to her parents how he had murdered the rat, meaning him and Edilio had to run before anyone caught them and asked uncomfortable questions. And then even Sam had screamed at a little boy to watch out when a cat was seen stalking him from behind. It turned out just to be an extremely friendly stray.

The only ones who hadn't attacked any creatures at random animal yet were Caine and Diana and that was just because Diana was so nervous about Caine being caught that she wouldn't let him go after any animal, even the ones they were suspicious of. They mostly wandered doing nothing but ducking whenever they saw people or with Diana shoving Caine's hat further down to hide his face.

"I don't think we're going to find anything." Emily groaned.

"We have a whole two hours left." Dekka argued. "Don't just give up because you were stupid enough to jump on a dog and hurt yourself."

Emily blushed and scowled. Her and Dekka had gotten the south of the town. They had been walking around the cities in silence mostly but every now and then Emily would ask her a question she refused to answer.

"What's your last name?" Emily asked for the twentieth time. Dekka was starting to keep count now as part of a new game in her mind.

Silence.

"What's your last name?"

Silence.

"I'll stop asking if you just tell me what your last name is." Emily frowned.

"Talent." Dekka growled. "My name is Talent."

"Dekka Talent..." Emily mused.

"I thought you said you'd shut up." Dekka snarled.

"I said I'd stop asking questions." Emily growled, glaring at her. "And don't tell me to shut up."

The two turned and scowled at one another. It seemed they might actually start a fight when Dekka seemed to see something over Emily's shoulder. She turned and blinked. Emily was slow but she looked around and followed Dekka's gaze.

It was a snail. It was settled out in the field with its eyes lifted up and looking straight at the two girls. They couldn't see its eyes, they could just make out its snail body but it was obviously staying still and looking directly at the two of them. And then it disappeared. And appeared sitting on Emily's nose. She stared at it in shock as realisation settled in when she remembered that this was her power. Before she finished the thought, she and the snail disappeared and appeared in the air. Not high enough to kill but certainly high enough to hurt when she hit the ground awkwardly and fell down onto her back, scraping her elbows and banging her funny bone on the pavement.

Emily let out a shriek before she landed on the pavement a good five feet away from where she had originally been standing. She sat up, wincing at her injured leg just as Dekka appeared behind her, somehow staying on her feet but still wincing when she twisted her ankle as she landed. They blinked and looked at one another, then turned and squinted ahead where the snail must have appeared again.

"Was that Taylor?!" Dekka gasped.

"No..." Emily mumbled, no idea who this Taylor girl was. Maybe they had similar powers or something but Emily knew it was her by pure instinct and feel when the power had been used on her. "That's mine."

"You're the snail?" Dekka blinked.

She hadn't said it as an insult, more like she was just stating the fact out loud in an attempt to understand it. But Emily was still annoyed. A snail?! Of all creatures she was a snail?!

"How the hell are we supposed to get close enough to catch it if it can take itself, or us, anywhere it wants?" Dekka demanded.

"I don't know." Emily growled.

"Well it's you, isn't it?" Dekka snapped.

"It's my power!" Emily shouted. "It isn't me! Do I look like a snail to you?"

Dekka ignored her and frowned, trying to come up with some kind of a plan. She turned to look at Emily then shook her head.

"No. Sam's right. You have to kill the snail. This is no time to experiment with your life." Dekka mumbled out loud.

"Glad I could convince you." Emily snorted sarcastically.

"We need to kill it. Tell me your greatest fear." Dekka demanded.

Emily hesitated. She thought back to all the things in life that had frightened her. When she was younger she couldn't stand heights or the dark but she outgrew them. Now, at this moment she was afraid of needles but... But was that what they were looking for or did it have to be from the FAYZ? If that was the case maybe the dark, that's what she had been scared of when the wall changed... No! There was something that she had been afraid of since she was little all the way up until this very moment now!

"I'm..." Emily started then paused and scowled. "You tell me your fear first. I don't want to look like an idiot being all scared."

"You're not." Dekka sighed. "But if it helps, I'm afraid of being eaten..."

"Eaten?" Emily blinked.

"Yeah. I have been thinking about this all day since Caine told us how the creatures were killed. And I remembered that I was nearly eaten alive by bugs in the FAYZ." Dekka shrugged.

"Oh... Well... I'm scared of small spaces. I feel like I can't breath and that I'm being crushed and-" She stopped short and blushed. "I just don't like them."

"Small spaces..." Dekka hesitated. "I think if we catch it in a small space then it will be too afraid to teleport." She emptied Emily's bag on the ground and stood up. "You have to catch it. If I do it will count as me killing it."

Emily sighed and took the bag.

"Once you catch it, hold the bag closed as tightly as you can, don't worry around crushing it. Just grip it tight." Dekka warned. "I'll help but I can't do much."

Emily nodded and turned. "If you distract it..." She began but came up short. "I know!" Emily said. "You run at it. It will teleport you back here, get it away from whatever it must be watching over, and before it can teleport off, I'll throw the bag over it. You might get gunk on your face though."

"That's fine. It's a plan." Dekka nodded. "Get ready."

Emily crouched slightly and held the bag wide open. Dekka waited a second after that before she ran pelting towards the slug. She rushed as fast as she could but didn't get close to the slug before she vanished and appeared by Emily's side again. The problem was she kept running, not realising she had been teleported until too late, and moved out of Emily's way before she could catch the bug.

"Try again." Emily called.

"I won't run this time." Dekka nodded.

She walked, slow. She left the town area and approached the dry grassy earth when the slug appeared on her face, settled on her nose just like before. Now up close she had a second to realise it was glaring at her before she was falling once more. She hadn't even hit the ground before Emily had thrown the bag over her face and pinned it in place. Her body was lying down from the fall that had been slightly higher than before. She momentarily wondered how many times she would have to had approached the slug before it took her so high she fell and died. Dekka held her breath. This was so when the slug wouldn't get it in her mouth but also because there wouldn't be much air by the way Emily was holding it closed.

At first she couldn't feel anything and Dekka dreaded that the slug had teleported off her already. If it could get out even when scared then they had no possible way of catching it. But then she felt it jerk, half on her nose, half between her eyes. It twisted and jerked for a few moments on her face, and then it slowly grew frantic. It moved back and forth, jumping up, crawling over her face. Dekka shut her eyes just in time for it to dart over her eyelid.

Dekka tried not to breath but the slug was acting slow, taking it's time to realise it was trapped in a small space and slowly getting more and more upset. Then it began to thrash on her face, twisting and turning, rolling its slime over her lips, nose and eyelids. At one point it fell into her hair and quickly crawled back up again, throwing its body around. She could hear it... Slugs couldn't make sounds as far as she knew but she could hear the slug. It shrieked and moaned in the same voice was Emily. It moved back and forth and made loud frightening noises.

Just when Dekka was sure she might lose consciousness by holding her breath she felt it. It felt more like egg than anything. She didn't feel the ash though she was sure she could see it if she looked, but it was egg dribbling over her face, on her cheeks, lips nose and over her eye lids. A small part seeped up her nose and she snorted desperately to keep it out. She said she was fine with the creature melting on her face but now she was reconsidering.

Dekka didn't want too long after the slug started to melt before she reached up and patted Emily's arms, pulling the bag off. As soon as Emily lifted it away Dekka sat up, spitting and gasping, wiping the black egg like liquid and ash from her face. It didn't smell. Or she couldn't smell anything from it but it was sticky to her skin and she struggled to wipe it from her face as well as her hands.

"It worked..." Emily whispered.

"Test it on us." Dekka moaned. "Teleport us to the apartment so I can wash properly."

Emily did just that. One moment they were in the streets the next they stood in the bathroom back in Sam's home. Dekka washed her face for almost ten minutes and let Emily take her back before Quinn or Roger even knew they were there.

She had checked herself in the mirror. There was now a stain on her face. Her skin just a darker shade than usual where the dark liquid had spread over her face making a strange marking on her face that made her cringe. It also coated on her hands and made them look darker too. Emily politely said nothing about it. She was too busy grinning much like Caine.

Emily liked powers and was just as excited as Caine to have them back again.

"This is great! Tell you what, Dekka." Emily grinned. "Why don't I teleport a bit further out away from the town, see what there is and come back. We can check so much more area this way."

"And if someone sees?" Dekka demanded. Already Emily was getting too cocky.

"I'll vanish before they can say anything. Or I'll play dumb." Emily shrugged. "Do you know how many people have claimed they saw powers when there weren't any? No one will believe them and we're not even doing it in town. We're checking outside the town where hardly anyone is."

Dekka hesitated. It would be a quicker way and no one would see. And she could see Emily was itching to use her powers.

"Okay. But take me with you. You can do that, right? What's your range?" Dekka asked.

"Let's test it."

They disappeared from the town... And appeared in a completely different city. It was bright with signs up everywhere in a completely different language. After a glance at the signs, it only took them a few moments of looking around before Dekka realised where they were.

"Oh my God!" Emily shrieked, beaming. "WE'RE IN CHINA!"

"China... No way..." Dekka whispered.

"Our powers... They must be ridiculously strong now. Imagine that. After we get them back we're as strong as we can possible get." Emily whispered, looking around before looking down at her hands in wonder.

"Get us out of here!" Dekka snapped. "We're lucky it's night and no one can see us!"

Emily grinned and nodded. She took them exactly back to the same space as before, shaking with excitement. She jumped slightly in the air and grabbed Dekka.

In seconds the two of them searched almost every inch of space in between their town to the next several surrounding it. It was all open space and all empty. No more animals or people. The only thing they saw was the small hole where Emily Snail had obviously been guarding. They moved around in quick bursts, appearing and disappearing. Dekka had to admit it was nice and while it wasn't her power it was like having a power back which did give her a bit of a boost. She could see why both Emily and Caine were so excited.

For a moment she wondered about getting her own power back... But then shook it from her mind. First keep an eye out and maybe if they came across their power then worry about it. She wouldn't allow herself to get so cocky like Emily and Caine had clearly gotten.

"Okay. I think that's everywhere we can look." Dekka sighed, looking back towards the town in the far off distance. "Why don't we go back into the town? But that means you can't use your powers anymore."

Emily said nothing.

Dekka frowned and nudged her from behind with her elbow. "Come on, take us back to town."

"Dekka..." Emily's voice sounded small and... She found scared. "That isn't an animal."

Dekka frowned and turned around. She didn't have to look far to see what Emily saw.

"No. No that isn't an animal, Emily." Dekka whispered, hearing her own fear now. Her heart froze for a second before it began to speed up and she grabbed nervously at Emily's hand. "We have to get out of here. We can't beat that. We can't beat them two!" She knew exactly who they were. They had almost human faces after all.

"What is that? That isn't an animal." Emily croaked.

"Ever seen the cartoon film Hercules?" Dekka asked.

"Yeah." Emily mumbled.

"Then try and remember Hercules' first heroic fight." Dekka pointed at the creature in the distance that was already walking towards of them. "That... Is a Hydra."


37)Who do you think the Hydra is?

If you don't know what a Hydra is you might wanna look it up. Or remember the old Hercules film. The thing with the many heads.