John is Drawn Into the Void

Wesley watched John for a long moment, unable to bring himself to actively respond for a moment. Not because it was necessarily difficult, but because trying to explain everything in a short amount of time wasn't easy. "I don't have the same Framework as the rest of you," Wes spoke, his tone quiet as his gaze flickered around to the others that were gathered.

Of course, the rest of them knew about this already, but he wasn't willing to let this come out so easily to those that weren't part of his crew. "My framework started with all zeroes. No Life, Death, Space or Time," Wesley continued, his dark brown gaze boring into John.

"Wait. Is that even possible?" John asked in return, his features twisting into a frown. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, well. We all saw it, dude," Jay offered from the side. "Wes didn't have any Framework at all. And he only had three Skills, too." The larger fellow was quiet after he spoke, leading John once more to look to Wes for an answer.

He opened his mouth once before he closed it again, trying to get ready to actually speak. "Okay. So you didn't have any Framework. Then how did you have Skills? Aren't they based on your Framework?"

Theodore coughed, causing several pairs of eyes to move to him. It was fairly undisputed that he was the most intelligent among them... even if it took some time for him to actually get to the point. "They are... and so are his... The three skills... that Wes had... are called 'Void Skills...'"

"So that grey stuff you're doing, that's one of your Skills?" John asked, wrapping his head around the situation as best he could with the limited information he had. "What is it? What does it do?"

Wesley looked down at his hand, which was still covered with the faint grey energy. "It's called Devour Energy. It lets me take Framework away from people. Or things. I got some from the Beast we fought this morning too," Wes added, closing his hand.

"Wait, but weren't you using other Skills this morning, when we were fighting against the Beast?" John asked, trying to figure this out as if it were all some sort of bad dream that he was trying to wake up from.

"Yeah! Wes can just sorta copy any other Skill, as long as he has enough Framework!" Evie called out with a grin. "So as long as he knows what to do, he can do it!"

Sasha snorted. "It's totally bullshit," she spoke, with a mix of annoyance and amusement in her tone as she looked at him. "But are you done playing twenty questions, or can we go down there?" Her words were punctuated by another loud screech of tearing metal, and John winced slightly as the sound tore through the air.

Looking back at John, Wesley could see that he was ready to ask another question, and Wes raised a hand. "Look. I don't know why. I don't know how the system was able to recognize it. Neither do any of the Majors. But that's not important right now."

Wes looked down to where the Traitors were, pulling off another part of the Wall. "That- that right there. That's what's important right now. You understand?" Wesley spoke, looking directly to John. "We can talk later. We need to act before they make the situation worse."

John's teeth clenched tightly- one could see the bulge on each side of his jaw as he did so. He supposed the rest of them were just... used to this already. But he and Andrew had been part of the same family line for years, and he'd never heard of or seen anything like this.

"You border dwellers just roll with the punches, don't you?" John asked, glancing to the group. "Okay. For now, let's just do what we were going to do. But you and I are going to have a talk later," John said, pointing directly at Wesley.

Wes nodded in response, before he glanced back at the others. "All right. They're not going to be expecting us. Which means we go in hard, and fast. Sasha and John can get down by themselves. I'll take Jay, Evie takes Ted and then I'll get her down and bring up the rear."

He opened his mouth to speak again but closed it after a second, as if he were at war with himself. There was a very real need in him to kill these people that were down below... but the others were right. These were people, down there. They were other humans- he couldn't just murder them outright, no matter how much they were acting against the interests of humanity.

"We have no idea how strong they are, so if things get too dangerous, we'll back out and retreat. We'll flee back to the Camps, and I'll make sure no one gets left behind," Wes spoke.

The leadership role seemed to fall naturally on his shoulders, and while Sasha might give him some sass, or his brother might poke some fun at him, none of them could deny that he seemed to take control of the situation easily enough without getting too flustered or having to think too hard.

"All right. Sasha, John. Go start the fun- the rest of us will be along in just a few seconds." Wesley's words fell upon the pair, and they nodded at one another before they vanished from the rooftop. As soon as they were gone, Wes set a hand on Jay's shoulder and let him vanish, with Theodore doing so a second later.

"Have Mr. Woodhead keep Ted safe. These aren't Beasts that we're fighting against. If they can see that he's got Restoration Skills, they might go right for him," Wes spoke to Evie, and the girl gave a salute before she too vanished from sight, and soon Wes was left alone on the rooftop.

He breathed in slowly, closing his eyes, trying to quiet the nerves in his stomach. Them coming out here was definitely the right decision. If the Beasts were getting in through here, that meant the Traitors had been doing this for some time. The question was why the Government hadn't gotten involved yet.

But those were questions for another time as he allowed the Space Framework within him to start to kick into gear and in a blink of an eye, he was gone down from the rooftops, down to the ground below.

It was time to defend humanity.