6 Chapter 6

"Where am I?" Cem asked, dazed from the trip through time and space.

"What do you mean? You're in my kitchen, Cem." Jozie knelt beside him, feeling his forehead, concerned for his well being.

"When is it?" Cem rubbed the back of his neck and laid back down.

Jozie looked at the clock, "it's just past three in the afternoon. Why?" But Jozie had misinterpreted the question, Cem wondered the year, not the time of day, but he couldn't ask that or she'd ask too many questions.

Lochlann stepped around the corner and stared at Cem, "We thought you were dead!" He covered the ground between himself and Cem in three steps and grabbed him in a tight embrace.

"And where is Emma?" Cem asked, expecting her to enter the kitchen as well.

Lochlann let him go and stood back up, sharing a concerned look with Jozie before responding, "Do you have amnesia? What's the last thing you remember?"

"That's a difficult question to answer." Cem responded shyly. "A better question would be why were you handling the knives?"

Jozie stepped away from Cem, "there's another superhuman. Ones like us exist, Cem. There was the one at the news station, and there are two new ones right now. Jetzotz was just here, he released one of them into the world. Come with us, Cem, we'll need you to suppress the threat. Assuming you have a power."

"I do." Cem confirmed her beliefs. "Found that out very shortly ago. I can alter sensory information."

"That'll be useful," Lochlann replied, looking to Jozie. Fenrir stepped into the kitchen and sniffed at Cem.

"Who's this?" Cem patted Fenrir's head.

"Fenrir... it's hard to explain, but he's from Cyxdia." Lochlann explained quickly.

"Cyxdia? Who's that?" Cem asked.

"Don't you remember? The goddess that led us to the scientist?" Jozie was confused as to how Cem could have forgotten already.

"Jetzotz was here as well, he told us another one has come, another–" Lochlann was interrupted by another horrified scream. He stood up and grabbed the chunk of metal off of the island. He began to sweat, partially scared of any negative repercussions from eating the metal chunk again. But he talked himself out of his fear and swallowed the chunk, feeling the properties of the metal as his own flesh began to meld and form. It felt weird, almost as if his skin was rolling like waves on the ocean, but it stopped as suddenly as it had begun and Lochlann stared down at his hands, and his hardened flesh.

"That's his power," Jozie said, turning back to her knives. She held one up and one knife became two, two became four, four became eight, and eight became sixteen sharp steak knives. "And that's mine."

"You've relatively mastered your powers already?" Cem asked, partially dumbstruck.

"Well, no. This is the second time we've ever used our powers. As far as I know at least." Jozie replied. There was another scream, this one much closer than the first two. "We should move." Cem jumped to his feet and rushed to the door, waiting for Lochlann and Jozie. Together, the three of them opened the door. The street that Jozie and Lochlann had called home was now covered in blood. One woman stood out amidst all the people running around the road. She looked elderly almost, he grey hair flying about her like it would in zero gravity. Her left arm was pure black, and ended in a sharp claw, which was covered in blood. Her already brown skin was pure black around her eye, and it glowed a red colour, and had a piercing aura to it almost like it could see through any physical facade.

She seemed shaken partially and her gaze landed directly on the three of them. She let out a sharp shriek which caused Jozie to drop her knives and covered her ears in pain. Cem held up a hand and whispered "The sound doesn't affect you," to himself, not thinking to use his power on Jozie as well. Lochlann stood still, much like how a metal chunk would react to sound.

She dove down at them in a rage, aiming straight for Jozie. Lochlann pushed her to the ground and stood firm, the collision between this strange superhuman and Lochlann had the conclusion of a force moving at a high velocity hitting an immoveable object, the immoveable object didn't move. The superhuman fell back, rubbing her head, dazed slightly from the collision. Jozie grabbed her knives and got to her feet, jabbing one into the superhuman followed by another knife. The superhuman's reaction was quick, she flew almost straight up to avoid the next knife from Jozie, but not before Jozie had stuck two in her. The superhuman seemed slightly injured as she pulled the knives out of herself. Thankfully for her, Jozie had missed the spine by a matter of centimeters. She dropped the knives and glared at Jozie, she opened her mouth and roared an inhuman roar. Her hair began to recede into her skull and she began to increase in size, horns formed on her head and she formed a very similar resemblance to a stereotypical demon. By the time she finished growing, she was about thirty feet tall, and she towered above the main stretch of road. She lifted her foot and stomped down where Cem, Jozie, and Lochlann were. Cem and Jozie got out of the way, but Lochlann stood strong. When her foot was lifted, his legs, up to his knees, were in the concrete road, but he pulled himself up.

"How do we kill this thing!?" Cem shouted to Jozie from across the road.

"I don't know yet!" Jozie shouted back.

Another roar was heard, this time not from the superhuman, but instead from a wolf as Fenrir leapt onto the road. His hackles were raised, he seemed very on edge.

"A puny mutt is to defeat me in battle!?" sneered the giant superhuman. "No mere dog can stand up to Sheila's demonic might!" She breathed in a deep breath and exhaled a stream of purple flames aimed right at Fenrir. His raised hackles grew in a split second and formed a shield in front of him, transforming into steel as the demonic flames hit. After the flames had stopped, Fenrir's hair returned to normal, but then his entire body grew until he was the same size as Sheila. He opened his jaws and clamped them around Sheila's head. As a reflex, she extended her arm, which had become a claw, and stabbed it into Fenrir's stomach. Fenrir shook his head, completely severing Sheila's head from her body. Her body flew out of his mouth, into a building some distance from Fenrir. Her hand had left a gaping whole where Fenrir's stomach was.

Fenrir slowly returned to his relatively normal size. He fell to the ground and a pool of his own blood began to form. Cem, Jozie, and Lochlann rushed to his side. In Fenrir's last moments, he wasn't sure what they were saying or doing, but he remembered Kai, Lochlann's dog, a pleasant thought as his vision blurred further and breathing became increasingly difficult. Jozie cried into Lochlann's shoulder as Fenrir released his last breath. Cem closed Fenrir's eyes, wishing him a fulfilling afterlife. His fur fell from his body as he shifted again from a wolf into his original form, that of a 17-year old boy, dead and unable to keep his body in his wolf form.

Police sirens blared as several SWAT vans approached the road. Sheila's body had returned to normal size down the road, headless. Several heavily armored SWAT officers got out of the vans and aimed their assault rifles at Cem, Jozie, and Lochlann. One of them shouted out, "Get on the ground!" at the group. Cem passively laid facedown on the ground, Jozie followed suit and so did Lochlann. Three officers ran over and slapped handcuffs around their wrists. The officers pulled Cem, Lochlann, and Jozie to their feet and then pushed them into the dark back of one of the SWAT vans. Lochlann, Jozie, and Cem sat in the quiet dark, afraid to speak and be prosecuted for what they said.

* * * * * * * * *

Emma sat down in the chair and faced the man across from her. They stared at each other for a moment, studying each other. The man was created to look aged, around mid-fifties. His skin hung a bit loosely on his face, and part of his lower jaw was completely missing. His ears were pierced, completely uncovered by his short, black hair. The two earrings he was wearing were shaped like termites and colored a nauseating brown. His sudden cough shocked Emma as it ruptured the silence that was hanging around them.

"Sorry, I've been fighting a cough these past few days," he said, regaining his composure.

"You know why we're here?" Emma asked him.

"Not really, but I don't expect you to tell me anything more than I need to know."

"We're all pawns in this unholy quest the gods have. I need you to convert the opponent's chess pieces into our chess pieces. I need you to sway otherwise opposing forces to see the light, to come to the realisation that they're going to lose this war." Emma extended her hand over the table, "I'm Emma, I hope we'll be working together for quite some time."

The man stared at the hand before extending his own arm. As he grabbed Emma's hand, several small bugs that looked like termites fell out of his flannel shirt and he quickly pulled his arm back. "I'm still learning to control them..." the man said, looking down at his hands, which were now in his lap.

"Control can take time, but I'm here with you and I have every intention of helping you. As long as you're willing to help me in return..." Emma took a moment to probe slightly into the man's mind, "what do you say... Konner?"

A look of shock replaced Konner's embarrassed look, "how did you know?"

"I see everything that you are. I know every thought in your mind, everything that you perceive and all that you have perceived. It's an open book to me. It didn't happen overnight. I required a lot of help, and I got it. The people that helped me can help you too, Konner. I just need your skills."

Konner smiled, "If you help me control myself, I'll help you in anything you seek to do."

* * * * * * * * *

Lochlann sat in the corner of his cell, holding the piece of metal in his hands, worrying about where he was, where his wife was, where Cem was, and if Fenrir would ever come back. But for now, he was trapped in the dark room. The only source of light was the slightly glowing red from the eight or so circles of the night-vision video camera trained on Lochlann. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had reached the end of the line. Perhaps this was to be the end of his life. Perhaps he wasn't supposed to have even made it this far. He had no way of knowing.

In the next cell over, Jozie was still crying, up against one of the walls of her own pitch dark room, thinking of Fenrir's soft fur in his final moments of existence. He had only been a child in the end. The real question on her mind was how he had ended up so close to Cyxdia. Perhaps she had raised him as a child out of loneliness or perhaps he was kidnapped by her or maybe he had somehow stumbled upon her world through a portal. There was no way for her to ask him, he was gone. And then her mind went to Lochlann, what if they were beating him thinking he was invincible before they realised he was dead and mortal like everyone else?

Cem gulped in air as the two soldiers holding him pulled his head out of the bucket of ice cold water. His hair wasn't back in a ponytail as it usually was and his exposed flesh was covered in goosebumps from the sudden shift from cold water to the normal air. His teeth chattered as he stared hatefully at the army general in front of him.

The general raised his hand, clenching the whip tightly before bringing it down. The brown leather tails lashed against Cem's face, and he screamed out in pain. The general brought his hand back up, and the whip lashed against Cem's neck. The general nodded to the soldiers and they pushed Cem back into the icy water. The general brought his hand down and whipped Cem's back, causing red lines to form where the whip had struck. The soldiers brought Cem back out and threw him to the ground. This was the first time Cem could actually look at the room, as he had been brought in under a black hood and released right before the first dunking. He noticed no cameras in the room, the black walls seemed to be made from some sort of cinder-like material and the four cylindrical lights in the ceiling were completely exposed.

"I think he may be ready to talk now," the general whispered to the two officers. "Now step out while I ask him some questions. Lock the door and don't open it until I'm ready. If you hear any screams, tune them out." The soldiers nodded and stepped out of the room. The general waited for the click of the locks before he turned to Cem, smiling devilishly.

"Cem Oluwaseun, age 48, school teacher... previously a school teacher at least." The general repeated to Cem the information he had found during the quick background check he had done on the three detainees. "In the cells next to this one are Lochlann and Jozie Bertram. You and Lochlann have lived in Tyrphilia for all your lives, Jozie is from France originally. I know everything about you three. At least, everything on record. What's not on record is your unique gifts. Taking down a 30-feet tall demon isn't something an average citizen does in their free time." The general paused for a moment, staring intensely at the shivering Cem. "How did you manage it?"

"We're not average," Cem spat as he rubbed his arms, trying to warm himself, "we've got powers a shit-bag like you could only dream of wielding."

The general scoffed, "you think I'm a shit-bag? I have to say, Cem, I thought four years of studying history in college would help you understand that hostages should never insult their captors." The general raised his hand, readying the whip to strike Cem down again. Cem held up his own hand and the general laughed, "do you think your hand can stop my whip?"

"You're going to drop the whip," Cem said calmly, still shivering slightly.The general didn't respond. "You can't feel it as it slips from your grasp." The general seemed surprised as he heard the whip fall to the ground from his open hand. "And now, you're thirsty... the ice water in that bucket is the only way you'll survive. You have to drink it all, consume it all. Your lungs beg for the water, you don't think you can breathe this air, it's toxic, the water is your only chance at survival."

The general looked around, alarmed, before he ran over to the metal bucket filled with ice water and dunked his head in. His body seemed to want to resist and his arms flailed about wildly, but he kept his own head under the water until his entire body went limp.

Cem pulled the general out of the ice water and pulled off his clothes. He pulled the clothes on himself, they were slightly too large, but they'd have to do. Cem also picked up the whip before making his way to the door, which he rapped on three times with the butt end of the whip. The guards opened the door and saw the man at the door wasn't the general. They looked slightly confused, but Cem held up his hand and spoke softly, "I am the general, you can see clearly that I am him, the need to release the two prisoners in thee net two cells is flooding your mind, you feel your feet moving over there, those are exits from this hell and then you'll escort the three of us out of this facility to escape the pain of being in this area, the pain you feel."

One of the guards pulled a ring of keys from his belt and unlocked the next two cells. Lochlann and Jozie stepped out of them and Lochlann ran straight to Jozie, embracing her lovingly.

"Now escort us out and escape the slight, nagging pain in your body that being here is causing," Cem directed. The guards nodded and began walking through the dark halls. Jozie and Lochlann followed closely behind the two guards, Cem followed them, hoping no other guards would question what was going on.

A hand of seafoam green reached out from the shadows and pulled Cem through the wall, into a room lit only by a torch Hilohr was holding. "It's time to live out your life, Cem." Hilohr threw a wad of thick substance at Cem's face. He coughed and coughed. When his vision cleared, he was standing in front of a class, teaching math. He instantly gained his memory back and he recalled that it was his first day teaching.