Strange Feeling

It was a strange feeling, wanting to get stronger. He never wanted it before. Not when the Advanced killed his mother, not when they tortured him for weeks on end, not even when he watched Gavyn as the life drained out of him and he was unable to help.

Back then, his only thoughts were of survival, and afterward, enjoying the company of his new family. Fate considered himself to be a simple man, albeit one with homicidal tendencies. Sure, he exercised and trained himself in weapons and martial arts, but he only did those because he felt it was necessary. It was part of the job, nothing more. But now…

Now that he could feel deep in his bones that there was a way to improve, a way to unshackle himself and become something greater, he couldn't shake the inexplicable *need* that he felt. He felt he needed to pound this grunt of the Advanced into the floor, to rip the soldier's arms off and beat him with them.

He was confused; he had never felt so… bloodthirsty before. He always ended lives as quickly and painlessly as possible, but now for some reason he wanted to lower himself to the level of the Advanced, torturing, treating life like a toy to be thrown about like it was given to a child throwing a tantrum.

No, he wouldn't lower himself to their level.

As the Prodigious soldier, whose face was covered by a helmet and full-face mask, raised their arm once more, a sudden peace came over him. Those strange urges vanished as if they were never there. He looked through the glass eyepieces of the soldier's mask and into his brown eyes, looking for something, but what, he didn't know. Then he found it. Fear.

The soldier felt fear. He had thrown Fate against the wall using the weight of an entire Raven Bike, at least five thousand pounds of force launched straight at him. And somehow, he was standing as if he was pushed by a simple breeze.

He didn't know how he had shrugged off such force, as even the slightly weaker Autumn had once broken several bones in his body when she used the full might of her TK against him, but he knew that wasn't important. What was important was the fear he saw in the soldier's eyes.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of death, of failure, of returning to his cruel masters with news that he had not lived up to their high expectations. Null saw all of this in the brief window, as the soldier was still raising his arm. Then he noticed how his eyes were slightly bigger and wider than a normal man's.

He noticed these things and then he vanished.

The soldier blinked, trying to remember why he had his hand up. Then he turned his attention to the four intruders, recalling that he was in a fight, and failure was not an option. He shifted his hand to point it at the group of four, determined to wipe this scum from the face of the planet.

He pulled the unbridled fury of his telekinesis and concentrated it all into his hand, ready to turn these fools into a smear on the reactor behind them. Then he noticed the man to his left drop to the ground, a cut on his throat nearly decapitating him. Then the man on the right fell as well, a hole in his chest, exposing the ragged remains of his heart.

Then another fell, and another. They kept dropping like flies until only he was left.

Suddenly her mask and helmet were off, letting her dark brown hair drop out of the messy bun it was in and down the nape of her chestnut-colored neck.

"Ah, that explains the eyes," said a man next to her.

She whirled around. When she saw his eyes and the bloodstains covering him, she suddenly remembered that she was going to kill him. She was going to kill this man, but then he had disappeared. How had she forgotten about him? He was as much a threat as any of the other four. And his eyes…

He was staring into her eyes as if he had seen her soul.

"They treat you like they do the Fildenen, don't they?" the man asked, a touch of sympathy in his voice.

She felt a bit of sadness. She had been subject to torments that were worse than even what the members of Styx had gone through when they were imprisoned by the Advanced. She had no way of knowing this, of course, because she didn't know who these people were. Then the feeling ballooned into a gushing torrent of feelings.

She fell to her knees, sobbing like a toddler and hating herself for it. Behind her, she could vaguely hear the footsteps of the other four.

"I can't tell why, but I feel like I've gotten stronger," Maya said quietly. She didn't want to disturb the poor woman at their feet.

"So, it wasn't just me, then," Fate said in a likewise hushed tone. "Did you get strange urges as well?"

"I did. That's why she's crying right now. I felt I needed to share my feelings about the Advanced and Gavyn's passing with someone."

"That's what that was? A way to grow stronger?" Autumn appeared bitter. "Missed opportunity, I guess. Maybe if we wait a bit, they'll send more flunkies."

"OR they'll shut off this giant energy furnace and make our job harder." Nikolas shook his head. "I say we do what we came for. We can try to recapture that feeling later, with whatever remains of the Cragost after this."

"Looks like you'll both get what you want," Tom said pointing at the elevator. Three more soldiers strode out, each carrying the aura of a Prodigy. "You two stand back, and take her with you," he said, glancing at the woman still sobbing on her knees.

Maya and Fate obliged, each grabbing an arm of the woman and helping her to her feet. They walked the hysterical woman to the very front of the reactor, turning their eyes to what would undoubtedly be an interesting fight. Nikolas, Tom, and Autumn all strode confidently towards the three Prodigies, Autumn audibly cracking her knuckles as she did so.