Derrik ran back into the room and slammed the door shut behind, a panicked expression on his face.

"Bad news, it's HOG, and she managed to get them a message." He nodded towards me.

Everyone turned to me and since I couldn't give a grin, I raised an eyebrow.

The blonde man turned on Penelope.

"I thought you said that if she couldn't move then she wouldn't be able to use her powers."

Penelope shrank back and tried to form a response.

"I-I."

As they were distracted I allowed the frost to seep into the front of the sand bonds. The sand became brittle all the way through and all it took was a small burst of power for me to break free.

The freezing sand shot out in all directions and I leapt to my feet, ready to make a break for it.

However, all of them made a start towards me and some sent black sand into the door to keep it shut.

All at once they sent stands of black sand towards my limbs as I sent pillars of ice towards them to pin them to the wall.

Some managed to avoid that and sent more strands that managed to latch onto me. In response I formed blades on my arms that extended over my elbows to my forearms and began slashing at them

I spun in a circle, using my own momentum to slash through the sand. They kept trying, and I kept slashing.

However, while I was fairly fit from my training, I was getting tired, and they were not.
I managed for a couple of minutes, but some of the strands were getting through. Before it got too far I drew my hands upwards, forming a protective dome of ice.

I leaned against it, panting as they tried to break through. They wouldn't be able to, this was some of the thickest ice I'd ever produced, it would take half an hour of solid work to get through it. Provided that they didn't all rush at once, in which case it would shatter all too quickly.

I recovered my breath and stood still, my hands clenched at my sides and eyes closed. I took a deep breath and flung out my arms and opened my eyes at the same time.

The ice began to crack and then shattered, before the shards hit the ground I sent them flying at all of them. I did my best to aim them at clothing to pin them to the wall, but
I couldn't help the odd scrape.

I lowered my arms and assessed the damage I'd caused.

All of them were pinned to wall in one way or another and were either unconscious from the blow earlier or unable to move from the spikes.

At that point the sand holding back the door weakened from hardly anybody controlling it.
Behind it I could hear yelling and my heart rose.

It was my Branch!

Suddenly the sand condensed again and there was a whooshing noise.

I began to turn as a whip of sand wrapped itself around my arm and pulled it away from me, causing me to stumble backwards. Another person had stepped out of the shadows and had begun to attack.

I still had the elbow blades, so I used them to slice the sand.

All around me the shadow's condensed and around ten more people stepped out into the room. Some began freeing the others, while others began attacking.

I continued trying to slash my way through the sand, but more were joining the attack as they were being freed and I wasn't given any time to stop and summon a shield.

I quickly began to tire again and one of the sand whips latched on and stretched out, rendering that limb useless.

Quickly each one of my limbs were held taut away from me so I couldn't move them. Several had wrapped around my chest and torso, ensuring that I couldn't move. Once I was in place more sand was wrapped around my fingers so that I couldn't move them to manipulate ice.

The blonde one had freed himself from my ice and now carefully walked towards me, avoiding the various streams of black sand holding me in place.

"Well then. Looks like we won't be needing you just now. Let's see if we can't get you out of the way for the minute while we deal with your friends."

In response I let out a sharp breath, which caused ice to form on his face.

He staggered back and cursed, trying to pry it off. He stopped when he realised that he couldn't get it off and glared at my slightly smug face.

"You five, take her back to base. I want a guard on her."

Five people I couldn't see got handed the sand and I dropped to the floor since no one was holding me up.

I got dragged across the floor into a shadow. Everything went black and I felt rushing feeling in my stomach that made me feel really sick.

By the time it was over I felt like I was going to vomit and didn't put up much off a fight as I flung into a cage made of sand. The sand strands were tied to the bars until they were taut and were in such a way so that I was hanging off the floor.

The door disappeared into the sand and became all bars, and once I'd recovered, all I could do was lean my head back and sigh. There was no sand close enough to my mouth for me to freeze it, so I was helpless now. No doubt if ice began to creep due to my own fear it would get spotted by the person guarding the cage.

Yep, not much I could do here.

I leaned my head forward again and got a good look at who was guarding me, and got the surprise of my life.

"Penelope?"

She was facing me, but at that moment her gaze went to the floor.

"I'm not talking to you."

"Then I'll talk to myself." I decided out loud. "I'm surprised to see you here, but I suppose it's good that you've found somewhere."

"Exactly. I found people who understand and care."

My mind went back to earlier, when I'd been bound and still used my powers. She seemed so afraid when she was confronted by Blondie.

"Do they really? They seemed a bit rough to you earlier."

"They took me in, which is more than you did!"

"I would have, if you hadn't tried to hurt my friend."

"Oh, so it's MY fault is it!?"

"In a way, yes, but we're both at fault I think."

She snorted in contempt and folded her arms.

"Seems like we both have something to learn about social interaction."

I smiled slightly at that. "Seems that way."

Silence for a second.

"How's Jamie?"

I hadn't expected that question.

"He's fine, up and running the next day."

"I never intended to hurt him you know. I've had a lot of practice with my powers, I know where the vital stuff is, and I never intended to seriously injure him."

"So you did it purposely to make me run away, not because you were jealous or something like that?"

"Of course I was jealous, but I didn't want to hurt him too badly."

"The fact you hurt him is still wrong."

"Do you think I care right now!? What's right and wrong never seemed to apply when I was involved!"

I blinked in surprise; from that one outburst it seemed that Penelope seemed to carrying as much, probably more, emotional baggage than me. I almost wanted to question what happened, but didn't get a chance as the shadows on the side of the room condensed and a large group of people walked out.

My mouth fell open as 12 people walked out in groups of three, each carrying a member of HOG in various forms of motion sickness.

Billy looked the best and was yelling and kicking with all his might, but he couldn't seem to get through the sand.

Nigel was a depressing sight, he didn't look sick, but he looked like he'd just given up and just let himself by dragged along.

Tina looked very green in the face, but was still doing her best to weakly fight, even if she didn't dare open her mouth.

Sally looked the worst. Her blonde hair was stained black in several places and it seemed to be spreading. She seemed to very weak and I couldn't tell if it was from the motion sickness or something else. I couldn't even tell if she was conscious.

Blondie was the last to go through, flanked by two others and with no ice on his face. The three of them approached Penelope.

"Any issues with this one?" He asked, nodding towards me.

"Just a little mouthing off, nothing big."

"Well, you know what to do to stop her mouthing off again, don't you?" He said, a little irritated.

She nodded and turned her gaze to my face, her hand waved in front of her, palm facing me. Sand quickly began to form around my mouth, forming a gag.

I let out a sigh through my nose as Blondie walked past me and Penelope resumed guard duty.

I could feel panic rising in my stomach and instinctively clamped down on it. I need to keep my head clear if we were to get out.

Almost as soon as I thought that my mind drifted back to the last time I felt this afraid, I had sent ice all around the room and had turned the chairs to icicles. And no one could stop it without stopping me.

I could do that again.

Jack's mentoring had covered controlling my ice when my emotions got out of control, which was mainly breathing exercises he'd picked up. However, right now, I needed to panic.

I let go of my rigid control and allowed my imagination to go wild. I imagined what would happen if we didn't get out, I'd never see my parents or Jamie again.

I had no idea where we were, so even if we did get out, how were we going to get home?

All these questions and more went around and around my head, and the ice began to spread.