CH64:FEAR OF WAR.

"EVERYONE HOLD ON TIGHT!!" Zain slimmed his body into a more aerodynamic figure and lifted up higher into the sky. The beasts, though with wings, were too heavy to lift themselves at such heights but they too had methods of getting to them.

"Oh my gosh. They've got…"

"Fire!!"

"What the…"

The attacking beasts were a few feet below them but they were releasing great volumes of fire at Zain, partially scalding parts of his body that were so unfortunate to get hit. To prevent this, Michelle moved to the back of his body while Hurt generated clouds to buy them some cover.

The beasts, however, used their fire breath and melted the clouds away. Michelle quickly redirected the flames away from them and even sent some back to the beasts. She'd also throw in some lightning with Jason at the beasts hoping to stop them, but neither of them had enough strength to stun these creatures.

"We could really use some help here guys." Michelle pleaded. "These creatures aren't backing down, and I can't keep redirecting all these flames."

"Hang on tight guys." Zain replied. "I'm going to try something risky." Zain placed his wings on his sides, lowered his head and just let his body drop to the ground. He passed the attacking beasts and continued falling but at a slow pace.

The others held on as tight as they could while he partially opened his wings and started to drop even faster. The attacking beasts saw this and instead of copying him, they flew straight down while flapping heavily in hopes of gathering more speed than he did.

"Move faster man," Jason anxiously shouted while repeatedly hitting Zain's sides. "They're gaining on us. FASTER FASTER FASTER."

*FWOOM*

All at once, the beasts released a thick cloud of fire aimed at Zain. The cloud was unlike anything any of them had ever seen and none of them thought Zain would be able to dodge this on time. Lilly quickly formed an energy shield around them, but the flames went through it like they were nothing but spiderwebs.

Michelle clasped her hands together and formed a stream of cold air which went through the cloud and partially dispersed it. The beasts took in deep breaths and released another fire attack again, only this time, the flames came out in straight lines of six. Michelle couldn't redirect of them and Lilly's shields were practically useless at the moment.

Before they knew it, Zain's wing was halfway burned, forcing him to spiral out of control and crash into the thick canopy of the forest that was just a couple of hundred feet away from him.

Hurt formed a small tornado just in time to capture everyone and make their landing much more bearable for them, even though they had a tough landing. Once on the ground, Luke quickly attended to Zain's injuries while the others kept watch for the beasts.

"Do any of you see them?" Jason asked while using the infrared option. At this time of day, it was practically useless to try and read the heat signals belonging to the beasts since it evened out with that of the hot desert environment.

"No, I think they're gone." Lilly sighed in relief. "That was a close one. Too close for comfort." She then looked at Zain with disgust and said, "What's wrong with you? How come you didn't transform into something that could move much faster or into some large flying beast."

"Like a dragon." Jason pitched in.

"It's not as simple as you think it is," He sneered back at them. "Like you, it takes a lot of energy to do what I do, only mine is more complicated."

"Oh please," Lilly begun to argue, "All you do is grow weird parts and act more beastly than you already are."

"Guys, please," Michelle tried settling the situation, "We shouldn't argue right now. Just look where we are. We're back to where we started."

"Yeah no sh*t Sherlock," Jason barked back. "It's no thanks to this guy." He pointed at Zain.

Hurt stood by Zain while facing Jason and Lilly and loudly said, "I didn't see any of you try anything to help or redirect him. Michelle tried redirecting the flames and this one's shields didn't do sh*t for Zain at all."

"What are you, his boyfriend?" Lilly yelled back. "I didn't see you do anything either other than make fancy wind which didn't help us with our crush landing situation."

The Gifted teens went on for five minutes plus arguing over who contributed the most. Michelle spoke less than the others, but she felt hurt even though she was the second to contribute the most. As all of this happened, Luke simply picked up his gun, collected his thoughts and moved on.

'And then my parents wonder why I refused to have kids.' The general made his way to the forest's edge and caught a glimpse of a black mound in a distance. His eyesight wasn't exactly the best, but he was sure that the mound could have been walls to a building.

'Could that be a human settlement?' He wondered. A thought sparked in his mind and he quickly drew out a rectangular gadget that resembled a flip phone. In the center of it was a green button under a mirror=like screen. He quickly pressed it and aimed it towards the black mound.

The screen showed green signal waves, showing that there were communicators in that area. 'Thank God,' He sighed with relief and proceeded to try and make communication with them.

"Mayday, mayday. This is General Luke from the ArkVille Gifted Military Base. I'm requesting for clearance to your settlement. Repeat, requesting for clearance."

"Hello?" The voice of a scared little child resonated, making Luke fear that something tragic happened.

"Little one," He spoke back, "Can you please call any adult to answer this? It's and emergency and I need to…."

"They're all dead." The child answered while sniffling. Luke's heart dropped to his stomach as a gut-wrenching feeling numbed his thoughts. The very thought of hearing a little child say such words without breaking down excessively brought unwanted thoughts to his mind.

"S-stay put, little one," He said. "Help is on its way."

----

"General Luke? Is everything okay with the mission?"

"I need backup on standby. I don't know yet but I have a feeling the aliens are killing innocents. We're about to go into war."