Your mind is a terrible thing to lose

Travis had until just moments ago felt like everything was under control. They may have been in a cavernous, endless black hole under the ground somewhere unknown to both Travis and his new companion, Fayth, but they had felt like they were on top of that at least. It was dark, your eyes never saw a thing, your ears would hear only the faintest echo in the farthest distance, your body would shiver and squirm, either from the cold or the unrest; yet Travis had been reassured within himself. His reassurance had hung on the balance of a few small things: one was his ability to see within this endless darkness with his true "eyes" and the other was the lack of any more big bugs trying to bite, claw, rip, or tear at their rather tender flesh from their first encounter at the start of this cave. Of course it didn't hurt to have a new friend at a time like this, Travis had only met her a short time ago, despite her punching him in the nose and thinking him useless due to his blindness; here they were together, pushing through the darkness, she was the one warm presence in the previous emptiness and in return he was the light to her darkened eyes. It felt good to be useful for a change. Blind people were never useful.

They now stood in an illuminated chamber after wandering in darkness for so long, Travis no longer felt Fayth's soft hand in his or the warmth of her body near his and something began tugging at his auditory senses. His eyes never saw the light; in fact he couldn't even tell there was no longer darkness if it had not been for the fact that he could see the swinging light bulb hanging from the ceiling as it slowly paced back and forth until eventually coming to a standstill. The noise the light bulb now made was almost deafening after the sheer silence they had walked through, hearing only the odd movement or shift in the air. Travis could tell there was electricity being sent down here through cables, they must have been specifically put in for an occasion such as this, or maybe the spiders just liked the faint heat it gave off. Either way, someone put it here, right at this spot, almost to lure you to it; it was no accident that Travis had come this way, all the time he had been walking right into someone's carefully laid trap and what was worse is that he had brought Fayth along for the ride.

Travis had accepted many things in his most recent years off life, people could be different, he was after all very different. He had met Fayth, who he had also learned was able to hear people's thoughts, two strange individuals in a big world. He had seen monsters, even beaten one to a bloody pulp with his bare hands but nothing seemed as surreal as what was about to unfold next for him. He realised that he couldn't feel Fayth's warmth anymore because they had drifted apart, Fayth had found what they had come all the way down here to find in the first place. Reina was sitting cocooned in webbing from head to toe, in fact little off her wasn't covered. She was meshed in between what could only have been the main food source for the spider they had encountered earlier. He scanned the area quickly with his eyes, sweeping from left to right and when he refocused his eyes, there was something new and awful to greet his eyes. First it was a mass of eyes and legs, clearly a spider but nothing about it was normal. It crawled forward with deep rooted intent, closing the distance it began to change however, its eight legs slowly reducing down to two, its black hairy skin changing to soft and squishy pink flesh. Once a spider, now a man stood before the two friends, one that seemed to have an odd connection to Travis' new friend.

The man that had transformed from being the world’s biggest spider into the most annoying little naked man Travis had ever met spoke to Fayth alone, he clearly never even registered that he was there. Though that wasn't new, most people ignored him because he was blind but here at least, he wouldn't be able to tell he was blind, he was simply an ignorant ass. He addressed Fayth by name and instantly Travis' anger spiked rapidly, he didn't know why but he didn't like the way he spoke to her, he didn't even like the annoying way he spoke in that awful half insectoid screech, half lazy human drone he had for a voice. The air he had around him was one of arrogance and ignorance, neither qualities that were desirable but right now that didn't matter, even without this ugly little man's bad attitude there was no way he was down here for just a friendly chat, this was serious, or at least would be in a few minutes. He made moves towards Fayth in this awkward waddling, strutting fashion and Travis moved to step in front of him but as he went to move, something tugged back upon his calf muscles as he tried to step to his new friend’s side.

Travis twisted his head round to glance at his leg to see it completely covered in white, on second glance he realised it was the thick threaded spider webbing that had covered their victims that hung on the ceiling above him right now. It had only covered his foot at this point, but as his mind tried to figure out what was going on, more webbing began to entomb him as it crawled up his leg making it impossible to move his right leg at all now. He wriggled his left violently, hoping it would still be free but the bottom of his leg was being coated in the same trapping substance. He managed to break some of the webbing on his left leg and he moved forward an inch, trying to drag his whole body with him, the spiders had done a good job of tying him up however and that would be as far as he got, soon he realised it wasn't just the webbing he would have to worry about. The spiders themselves had decided that if he wouldn't come willingly they would make him come by force as sinister black and brown bodies wriggling and slithering from the shadows towards their new target, full of dark purpose and filled with their master's malice. It was no time at all before ten or twelve differently shaped yet all deadly arachnids had surrounded him.

It was only seconds before they were all on him, at first they scrambled over his back and hands, seemingly trying to get to the very top of him, if they got to his head, they could easily have him wrapped up in seconds, or worse yet, simply wrap up his face or mouth leaving no space for him to breathe and he would suffocate right here and that would be his end. A sense of dread, anger, frustration at his weakness, sadness, and recklessness washed over him as the adrenaline spiked within his body to an all time high. He was moving without even thinking, his body felt like it was on fire, brimming with new found strength, his will to survive was strong. He was thrashing at his new enemies in a blind frenzy, his fists connected with jaws, thorax, and spine equally, crashing hard against his would be attackers, some falling and others doubling back to calculate their next move as their comrades took up the fight a new with each swing off Travis' now bloody fists. His powers were now turning themselves on and off at random now as his madness grew with each blind swipe he took at his attackers, his fists always connected and after a few blows he could tell he had probably killed another few spiders here or there. His fists would catch the sonic energy every now and then adding extra weight and force to his punches knock loose the odd spider or two and killing whoever it would meet square on.

He kept fighting and fighting with what felt like an army of these spiders, each time he struck a few down, he could feel new fangs begin to bite at him and all the while when they could the spiders would coat more and more of him in their webbing, reducing his movement and reach capabilities. His feet were completely rooted to the ground, parts of his arms were webbed together and his shirt was wrapped tight to him but he could still move his arms and that was all he needed. His mouth had been coated in webbing and he could not shout out or call for help from Fayth but his left nostril was still clear so he could breathe, although laboured. He realised that with little oxygen being supplied to his body and his continuous fight with the spiders it was more likely he would die from exhaustion rather than anything else now. Panic set in and, beneath all the trappings of the webbing, he left out a muffled scream for help as he felt the lactic acid building up in his muscles from overuse. Doing anything now created its own little ripples of pain along his arms and legs and he could barely move anything anymore, but he would not give in; blood dripped from all the bites he had taken in the fight, which coated the white webbing a dark shade of ugly red as it dripped slowly from brow line down to his toes. He screamed again, sucking in what sonic energy he could to try and amplify his cries of pain and panic. He wasn't ready to die, not here, not yet!

His screams of panic were just audible to the ears of Fayth and "Insect Boy", snapping the pair out of their previous entanglements with each other. It could not have come at a moment later as Travis began to feel the life draining from him, with each move he felt his muscles weakening and preparing to give out, and his breathing was more laboured with each action. Soon he would pass out and his world would go blank, possibly forever if someone could not stop the endless torrent of attacking spiders that seemed to have made him public enemy number one. Travis sensed the shifting mood of the true enemy, as "Creepy Crawly Dude" was most displeased with all the crushed and broken corpses of his only friends. He had left Fayth and his focus changed to Travis and with his shifting attention, so to came the shifting of his own form. He went from soft, squishy human to enormous, green and deadly killer insect. He had changed his form into some sort of Mantis like super bug, which was ugly to the eye, but more worryingly was the rather large and very sharp like scythe-like arms, barbed and tipped with razor like edges that were swiftly making their way towards him. Travis bashed a spider beneath him by bringing his knee down on top of it from above and he saw a brief glimmer of displeasure rupture through the big bug eyes staring down at him.

His victory was short lived and any joy he could of taken from giving his enemy one last moment of displeasure was gone within seconds as he felt the air rush out from his lungs. The two scythes met each other and wedge awkwardly between the fleshy muscular chunks of flesh on his arm and reaching to within the outer layer of his stomach. Spiked barbs and points dug into him as he was trapped there, agony welling up within him to meet every new pained breathe he struggled to take, tingling all over as the spiders crawled back to their master. His mind started to go blank as he was at the last of his energy. His mind flashed through all the images of his life rapidly, he believed this must really be it, he thought when he died at least the pain would stop, his mind would fog over and it would all be gone. That one last breath that hurt and then it would be over but as his mind and vision faded the pain remained. It felt like time had kept moving without him as he felt the harsh grip on his pained body begin to release somewhat. In his blurred vision of his senses, he caught the faintest glimpses of Fayth within his mind; her tone was authoritative and full of intent. She ordered something that Travis' mind struggled to make sense of, as hurt was all his senses seemed to know right now.

He thought he must have finally descended into delirium as the spiders that had once crawled over him in anger in an attempt to end his life now seemed to have turned on their master and had begun to gnaw at him instead. He left his mind drift for a moment, as things swirled in and out of focus for how long he could not tell from blood loss and exhaustion. His powers played tricks on him as for a time there was no sound or sight, just emptiness until an all too familiar sensation hit him. Pain surfaced once more, this time it was all over him, he felt it hit him and he realised that it wasn't clawing or stinging, it was the dull thud of a fall. He had fallen to the floor, he knew he wasn't dead or he wouldn't have felt the sting as he hit the ground, he thought that his opponent had grew bored of him and had discarded him, mustn't be worth the killing at this point. He laid still on the ground for a time as blood trickled from his cuts and his bruises made themselves known to him as each second they spiked his pain receptors every few seconds. He swam in his own thoughts; his mind reeling from all that had went on. He was content to just lie down on the floor and take whatever came next when suddenly a new thought bloomed within his mind, a question of why he was left on the floor, what had taken the focus of his attacker from him?

Things moved in and out of his blurred vision, even using echolocation or "seeing with your ears" seemed to distort and twist when Travis was in this much pain. He realised that he wasn't in control of his powers right now, as sound came and disappeared at irregular intervals with no prior warning. He guessed his cuts had probably hurt a lot more than he could even feel right now, the rush of adrenaline as the response to his original fight or flight instinct made him numb to the worst of it he had no doubt. He still had this intense feeling that the bugs had changed their attention to "Bug Guy", not that that made any sense but his senses were working on over time right now and he wasn't sure he could ask for much more from them. He told himself he would close his eyes for a few minutes but every time he felt his eyes get ready to close, pain would shoot through him and the thought of what he had left behind lingered making his mind drift back to the here and now. He pushed himself up on one hand and tried to take in the scene that would greet him. He had been right all along, Fayth stood alone and unaccosted by the Spiders and instead they attacked their former master with reckless abandon. It was almost like something had driven them mad.

He shifted his weight trying to get to his feet, pushing and pulling in any direction he could just to get up, but he hurt so much he could only struggle up a little bit at a time. He was glad he was in good physical shape or he guessed he wouldn't have even got this far at all. When he reached his feet, he felt sick and tired, his head still swirled but he was no longer fighting to stay awake, and his "eyes" had even focused so he could see the world around him clearly again. Fayth stood alone, she seemed to be rooted to the spot, all her focus clearly on their enemy but it was eerie, it felt like the atmosphere was empty, the bugs attacked their master enmass at any chance they could get, but they were swatted away, mostly knocked out or threw off in a hurry, though they came back almost frenzied. He knew Fayth could hear thoughts and talk to people mentally but he had no clue she would be able to turn the spiders against their own. Suddenly the feeling in the air changed when the spiders stopped altogether, they fell back and did not attack they simply stood in place and watched their two fighting masters in equal amounts and silence was all that remained, however short lived it would be. The next noise he heard was a piercing scream, so shrill and high at first he thought it was Fayth's voice until he saw the giant bug in front of him slowly turning back to its human form, clutching his head and screaming in that drone-like tone full of agony.

The sound was so deafening to the human ears that Travis had to shut out all outside noise, even only hearing the first few seconds had caused a constant ringing in his ear for the next few minutes. Shutting out all noise was possible but required severe concentration, the ringing in his ears made it awkward so every now and then damped soundwaves would make their way through. It still hurt to hear it but at least he was able to dull it as he slid along the floor, his wounds still bled and ached but he had to move, Fayth had proved her point, now it was time to go home and shut off the squeals of the beaten man. He finally made his way to Fayth's side, her face was full of rage and a hint of terror as she stared endlessly at the wailing mess of a man opposite. Fayth never blinked, Travis called her by name a few times and slowly walked round until he was in front of her. He called her name again, he waved his hand in front of her eyes but it was like looking upon glass as she seemed to see nothing. He shouted at her and took her in his hands and tried to shake her out of it. It had no effect so he shook her harder to no avail still. Something was wrong, very wrong. He didn't know what to do next; he was stuck here watching as she seemed to be mentally eviscerating him as his screams grew louder and more pained. He was lost outside their mental battle.

He went to Fayth and slowly tried anything he could, he poked her chest, then grabbed her shoulder firmly trying to apply pressure to see if she would respond to pain but it seemed to be pointless as nothing changed. The screams continued and Travis' grip on silencing both the pain in his body and in his head was slipping constantly. He looked at Fayth and for some reason he took both hands and placed them upon her head and as he did a new kind of pain hit him. A clawing at his mind perhaps as pain overwhelmed him in ways he didn't even think were possible. This must have been what she was doing to that other guy as he began to scream himself unable to control the pain. It wasn't like physical pain, it didn't have an entry point that it would hurt from, it felt like everything within him was on fire then frozen, electrocuted and then left bare, only for it all to start over and over again. It hurt like this for a time till eventually he sensed he had left his body or died as the pain disappeared altogether and he stood alone in a place he had never seen before. It was an empty space, a plain white building with an endless corridor, rows of seats all along the walls and there was nothing but the same scene repeated over and over as far as his eyes could see.

Strange, his eyes could see, his real eyes, there was no rush of sound or the usual static sounds that came with his over-sensitive ears. He didn’t have to bounce noise around the room to see, he just saw with his eyes like he used to when he was younger. He didn't have to block out the awful noises that came with his powers and he didn't feel the pain he had been up until now. In fact he realised he wasn't even hurt here, he was wearing only plain white clothes and he was completely unhurt. There was no bleeding and no screaming, he stood alone or he had until he turned around to be greeted by a somewhat familiar face. A young girl looked back at him, she was a good head and shoulders smaller than he was but she stared at him intently and something about her seemed familiar like he knew her. She spoke softly to him in voice he couldn't mistake but it didn't match the person it came from. "You’re not welcome here, go now or we will hurt you like we have hurt the other." The voice said, a tone of authority but not of menace. He was going to say something until suddenly beside the little girl came the same little man that he had been fighting only moments ago. He lay on the ground naked and afraid, clutching at his head and mumbling to himself.

Clearly still in pain and every now and then he would look up to see the little girl and he would retreat in fear from her gaze like a man who has seen into a demon's eyes. She looked at him with a plain look and then back to Travis once more. He felt like he could hear voices in his head as she looked at him, soft voices, then angry voices and then silence. He didn't know what was going on but he had to do something and he now stood beside the little girl as the scene changed again and the two were alone watching over three people in a dark lit room, two were dead and one was crying in the middle of them. Travis realised that the one in the middle was Fayth as she wept into her hands, the pathetic little man sat on one side and on the other he saw the lifeless form of himself face down choked on his own blood. He turned to the little girl and he went to his knees and he tried to cry out and tell her to make it stop but no noise was heard, he just shrank to the floor and held her shoulders, shaking and pleading in silence. He wanted so badly to scream, to make a sound, something he was so used to but now without it he felt so lost and all that flashed through his mind was the image of him left there lying in his own blood to die. He hadn't come this far to let it all end here.

Something hot and warm sprang forth within him; it spread all over him like the rays of the sun and then retreated back to a pinpointed mark on his forehead. Pain was the first thing he came back to, all his own aches and pains still remained but now a new one joined his already long list of woes. The warmth he had felt before he had come back to the real world was a thin trickle of blood on his forehead, he placed his hand up to feel why it was there but nothing was clear. He came back to the real world and saw both Fayth and the little man he had at once been at war with on the ground, though Fayth was lying in a heap right at his feet. He leant down to check she was fine, she was still breathing but had become unconscious somehow, till when running his hand over her face he felt the same little trickle of blood that was on his forehead on her's too. He had in his pain and confusion taken the only course of action he had believed was left available to him. He had headbutted her knocking her out and releasing her mental hold on him. He checked "shapeshifting spider boy", he was breathing too but unconscious, the attack had clearly taken to much out of him as he was trapped in that world of pain longer than Travis had been.

He tore off his shirt in strips and fixed them onto his deeper cuts, patching up what he could with what material had been left after all the spider bites and mantis claws. He tied them tight and could feel them soak through the cloth almost instantly. He scanned the area and sensed the one thing that had brought them here all along. Directly behind his fallen friend hung the very thing they had come all this way and endured all this pain for. Reina, a girl Travis did not know and had no knowledge off hung wrapped in spider silk, he guessed she was unconscious and unmoving but at least he could still hear faint breathing, she was fine and now they could leave. He rushed to over her, quickly channeling sound energy through his body, he brought down force behind his body and within seconds he had bashed his way through the webbing that held her trap within its bindings, taking her in his arms and leaving her down gently beside Fayth. He bent down to lay her there beside her friend and as he stood his feet felt like they had turned to water and he felt the rush of the ground as it charged up to meet him, falling slack on the ground as the very last of his energy was spent and his eyes finally closed.

When no is not enough for men

The monstrous spider began to move towards Fayth in a lazily, slow manner. As it did, its form rippled and shifted as its four of its eight legs retracted back into its hideous body. The two front legs pushed and heaved itself upright onto its hind legs, with the long hairs on all four remaining legs growing shorter and revealing paled skin underneath. The same was happening to the body and its shape decreased to half its size as the enormous abdomen and spinnerets shrunk and disappeared into the now naked body. A lump formed around the eyes and swelled up until it vaguely resembled the shape of a human head. Long, brown hair grew from it in a wavy length, as the multiple eyes shifted into two rough bumps, which opened to reveal dark hazel and very human eyes. As the last stages of his transformation were completed, a creepy smile stretched across the person’s face, and the identity of their adversary was finally revealed to Fayth.

Danny Crumpus.

“I don’t like it when you keep me waiting…”, Danny purred as he stopped and stood in front of Fayth in his human form. There were several arachnids and insects upon his naked body, but they stayed there as if they knew that his skin was safe to be on. “I was worried that you weren’t going to show. But I knew you would. You wouldn’t leave your poor friend all alone, would you?” 

Annoyance stirred within as Fayth remained helpless in her frozen and silent state, but it was not enough to loan her the strength to break free. She watched as the little man waffled on about something, and her mind connected it to the other times that Danny had tried to hit upon her at the university library without much success. The same creepy smile, the same egotistical attitude where only he mattered in this life, and the same perseverance of his attempts to impress and woo her. Fayth had at first kindly declined Danny’s offers of dates, but he kept coming back to her, with more unusual endeavours until she had to report him for harassment at work. However, she should have at least suspected that that wouldn’t be the last she would see of him; now he held her and her friends captive, all because he wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

“…and here we are. Let us seal the deal of our new relationship with a kiss…”. Danny leaned forwards and planted his chapped lips onto hers. He tried to force his tongue to part her lips, but thankfully, they were firmly sealed shut from the mental and physical paralysis.

Anger and hatred started to seethe when Danny’s dried lips touched her own and Fayth could do nothing but watch in revolt at the violation of her body. Fiery rage erupted in waves even though he had failed to use his tongue to gain entry into her mouth. But that hot wrath flowed through her and began to melt some of the malicious glee that froze her, and she could feel parts of her mind beginning to thaw.

There were loud stomping sounds coming from behind Danny, who had a pained expression flashing across his face with each stomp. The little man quickly turned his head behind him and Fayth looked past the tiny man to find that her companion was trying to fight back. Despite his height and physical build, the many spiders had started to weave webs around Travis, who was struggling to move or speak freely against it. However, they were not quick enough to completely restrict his every movement, so Travis lashed out at the arachnids and crushed some of them with either his big hands or large feet. Each splatter of several spiders brought about a momentary victory, but the void of space was quickly replaced by a new set of spiders. The arachnids were endless as more and more of them crawled from the weak webbing on the floor, but Travis continued to desperately battle with them.

“YOU! So you are the one who has been hurting my beauties!”, Danny cried out. He turned around completely and sluggishly staggered towards the tall man, and his body began to transform into another monstrous form. With Danny’s focus elsewhere, the malicious glee slowly eroded and Fayth’s own fury aided in dissipating the emotional energy that pinned her down. Her thoughts trickled back and her mind cleared itself as if she had awoken from a groggy naps. External sensations came back to her, and she picked up on something unusual….

By now, Danny had assumed the form of a gigantic praying mantis and he stopped in front of Travis, who continued with his never-ending war against the arachnids. The huge mantis lashed out with its newly formed front legs in a blur and plucked the man from the web bindings, lifting him up to face its head. Sharp spikes dug into the fleshy area between Travis’ chest and arms, who reacted by shaking and letting out a muffled, webbed scream in pain. Spiders continued to wriggle among his body, but they soon started retreating back to Danny via the mantis legs grasping the tall man.

“You are a pain!”, Danny screeched loudly in that unnatural sound again. “I wondered how you managed to bypass the sentries…No matter. You won’t live for much longer!”. It started to bring Travis closer and closer until his head was an inch away from the deadly mandibles parting open.

However, a large cluster of spiders quickly crawled up onto the mandibles and darted into its mouth, while other clusters spun a thin cocoon to bind the jaws together. More clusters moved in on reinforcing the webbing and some had started webbed the rest of Danny, with more spiders on the ground marching their way up his mantis legs to join the binding.

“Huh…what?”, a confused and muffled screech emitted from Danny’s mutated mouth. “What are you doing? My beauties…”

Release him, echoed a powerfully thought within both of their minds. It resonated with an authoritative tone that demanded the attention of both men to turn their heads at the owner. They were met by Fayth and her hand outstretched towards them, while she was on her other hand and knees. She was visibly shaking from the effort, but she kept her eyes intensely fixed upon them. A large cocoon of webs was being dragged towards her by clusters of large spiders, and the face of her unconscious friend poked out through a fragile layer of the webbing. The spiders that had clung to her body had scuttled off and joined the rest of the clusters moving towards Danny.  “I said, release him”.

At that command, the spiders all over Danny simultaneously stopped in motion and began to attack him with their fangs. Their former master cried out in pain as they bit into him in all places, which caused him to release and drop Travis to the ground. Danny began to swat the spiders away from his monstrous mantis body; desperate to end the torment while taking care not to harm any of his “beauties”.

“Ho-how are you doing this?!”, Danny screeched in surprise.

Fayth didn’t answer as she focused upon the psychic link between Danny and his arachnids and insects. It took most of her concentration as her mind was immersed within that mental channel and she sent her own commands to the bugs while warding off Danny’s orders. She was also trying to not lose herself again as the connection itself was driven by that malevolent joy from Danny himself. Though his attention had been distracted with Travis before, Fayth now faced the mad will of Danny Crumpus. It was vastly overpowering and she could barely manage to keep his creepy crawlers at bay from her and her friends.

Danny let out a screeching sound that vaguely imitated a cackle, as he regained control of the insects and once more sent them scurrying towards Fayth and her friends. Fayth gasped as she lost the mental battle, but the fear she felt radiating from Travis and her desire to protect her friends urged her to renew her efforts. Despite her already tired state of mind, she grudgingly sank back into the roaring currents of Danny’s will. Instead of employing the same tactic of building a dam to block off his commands to the bugs, she swam upstream towards his exposed mind. It was tough and Fayth was nearly swept away several times, but the solid force of her own loathing towards Danny made her will relentless and unyielding. When she finally reached Danny’s mental barriers, it only took her a second to plunge through with the intent to lay waste to his pathetic mind.

Spiders are tingling my senses

After their unkindly encounter with the insects, Fayth and Travis carried on following the tunnel and they eventually reached a large chamber. Unlike the total blackness of the tunnels, a single lightbulb was hanging from the ceiling and illuminating light within the chamber. It wasn’t enough to banish the shadows from every corner, but it was enough for the sighted to see again after their journey of darkness.

The light hit Fayth’s eyes and after a few minutes of her eyes readjusting to the brightness of the world again, she started to make out her surroundings and was shocked at what she saw. There were spider webs all over the place, spanning across the enormous ceiling, along all four walls of the chamber and covering the floor that she and Travis were stepping on. As with any webs, there were spiders upon which they hung, waiting for any food to come along and become entangled within their silky, sticky traps. There were spiders in the thousands, all of different sizes and species, but all were hanging freely waiting for their next meal. Despite not being an arachnophobia, the presence of so many spiders sent shivers down Fayth’s spine.

The webbing was not simply smooth or flat decorating the chamber; there were various lumpy shapes that the webbing was holding in place along the walls or on the ceiling.  Along the floor, however, the webbing was weaker as their feet broke the fragile silk with each step they took, and objects appeared to be randomly littered around them. Upon closer inspection, Fayth was revolted to find that they were the bone carcasses of dead animals, empty of flesh and life. She looked up at the many webbed bumps and saw that some were fully cocooned, while some were only suspended by the webbing and partially displayed what was inside. Fayth guessed what most of them held though: something still living and ready to be the next meal of many spiders.

Her assumption was reinforced by the background of psychic energies that Fayth was picking up from her surroundings. The further she and Travis went into the chamber, the more she could sense the feelings of desperation, fear, and maliciousness, which were faint but impressionable to her. At times she would receive an instant flash of a miserable animal pleading for its life or spiders in the process of securing their meal with their webbing or a dark, sinister, and vague form.

Her gaze continued to track the lumpy cocoons and stopped at one shape in particular. Her heart sped up and tears started to well up in her eyes as relief washed over her. Finally, her brain reconnected with her mouth and she whispered, “Reina”.

Her psychic senses reached out to her friend and found that Reina was still alive, but unconscious. Fayth was about to alert Travis when she noticed a crawling sensation on her legs. She looked down and found several large spiders were making their way up towards her. Several more spiders were beginning to join them, as they revealed themselves from beneath the graveyard of broken webs. Her psychic senses had picked up on that malevolent joy again, the same one she had felt earlier that day. However, the emotion was more intense than before, and her mind started to freeze up in response and prevented her from reacting. She tried to call out or send a thought to Travis, but she was effectively trapped; her physical and mental self was paralysed by the spell of that malicious glee. But her sight of her companion filled her with dread, as he too had his own overly friendly creepy crawlers to deal with.

Then came the form of a gargantuan sized spider into Fayth’s view. It silently slid from the ceiling on a thick web from its enormous spinneret and landed soundlessly in front of the frozen telepath. It adjusted itself on the solid ground, disturbing many of the weak webbing as it did, and peered right into Fayth’s eyes. An eerie, almost alien, sound that was more of a screech than speech came from the mouth of the spider. “You’ve kept me waiting, Fayth Svartalf…”

Sometimes... Things are more than they appear

Travis could no longer think back to how this all started, it seemed somewhat off a blur from one second to the next, he remember heading into the city to track down a hidden figure fleeing the scene of the creature that had attacked Travis only a few hours earlier, he had pounded down streets, alleys and every little crevice along the way. He had been stopped by a little girl who seemed to know more than she let on and just as quickly as he had stumbled upon her, she had disappeared into the pressing crowds of the city. Thinking to find somewhere back on his original path he crossed the road to an ongoing commotion and in doing so he had stumbled upon a broad daylight attack on other people. Was it a chance encounter or was some strange hand of fate working all around this city?


He knew deep down there was something more to it than suddenly turning up here and so many strange and shocking things manifesting itself before him. Inside the shop, the riot that had sprawled out from within was like something only seen in films. A storm of bugs, to many to not have been somehow put or forced there had wrecked the shop, screams and yells filled his ears, hurting his senses intensely until suddenly one scream above the others had turned his blood cold, if even only for a moment. A woman had screamed, not for herself, the sound betrayed her emotion as clear as a smile might give away happiness and tears would forewarn sadness. It was so thickly accented with fear, fear not for herself but someone she had cared deeply for.


He had learned the woman had lost a friend later after he had taken care of the swarm of bugs that had surrounded them like a winged tornado, biting and stinging all they could in their path. The woman Reina she had been called was taken by a figure Travis had only seconds to have caught a glimpse of his shadow he left as he vanished with his prize. With his sense's Travis got a brief glimpse of the man who had been the kidnapper but the more Travis thought about it, he didn't really seem like an ordinary person. He was much bigger, his mass taking up more space than normal and something else was off with him. Either Travis was mistaken or he had felt like this guy had more than two legs, he moved with movements unnatural humans, speed faster than he could normally have achieved on two legs also further compounded his idea's on the matter.


Today was a weird day, that wasn't even the weirdest part of his day yet to tell it true. The girl who had screamed at the loss of her friend had panick-strickenly ran out hunting her friend, something within Travis had made him follow, was he a fool or a brave man, it was hard to tell, now more than ever. His new friend had not only punched him in the face one moment but next she had fallen to her knee's in some strange moment of weakness or perhaps a flood of emotion from some past event Travis could never have shared with her. There was only pity inside him for her at that moment, he had reached his arms around her and embraced her close. What was going on in his head right then and there he had no idea, he knew women were trouble, all of them only brought their own brand of mischief and misfortune. Yet he had hugged her, they had sat in silence for a time till she no longer sobbed and they parted. Travis let go off her awkwardly, not really sure what was going on but he realised that she had something else on her mind and she hadn't even noticed.


They had pressed on hard after any lead they could find, eventually a break came for them when Travis noticed and endless stream of marching feet, tiny and silent to ordinary sense's. In his head it sounded like the beat of a drum, they marched onwards as if called to war. It was strange, here he was helping some girl he hadn't even learned the name of yet and he was leading her after someone who had kidnapped her friend. He still hadn't found the man he was looking after all of this still to, though part of him had hoped that whoever they were chasing now would know the man or perhaps if he was really lucky he would find it to be the man he was chasing after all this time. Something sparked his memory to earlier on that day, the little girl he had meet, she had said something about the man he was chasing. It chilled his spine and he wondered even more as to what path was he walking down now. His own, or his hunter's?
"He knows about...us"
They had been following the ants for some time, on and on they lead them, till the reached beyond the limit's of the city and suddenly Travis felt his muscle's begin to ease and no longer was he so tense, he no longer had to block out all the noise that would assault his sense's, he felt so free now. He could always hear footsteps, the sound a person's chest made as it moved up and down with each breathe, even the twitching and straining of muscles in the body. People had become so immune to noise they never heard half of the sounds that were in the world. Travis could hear his stomach grumble internally when he was hungry long before the audible grumble would be heard by those around him, he even heard the blinking off eyelash's. How bad it had been at first when every noise he heard was like a stabbing shrill pierce at his nervous system. With time he had learnt to calm every nerve and stop things getting to him so much but now, in the quiet he allowed everything to flow back to its normal level. He could hear his partner's heavy breathing, she seemed fearful now, more so than she had been back inside the city.


He wondered had she ever been in a situation where she had to defend herself, not from a simple bully or a simple mugger. Travis' sensed only malice awaiting them with whoever they found. If that creature earlier had taught him anything, the world wasn't quite so friendly as he had thought only that morning. He flexed his muscles as he followed on and on. He felt like a puppy, being led around by it's master. Strangely she had led him by hand most of the way, he figured she had him pegged as blind and that she had to lead him by hand everywhere, he went with it, at least for the minute it wasn't all bad. Her hand was soft and smooth, his hand in her's didn't seem to be awkward or uncomfortable, at least for now anyways. It soon started raining, the soft pitter patter to the ordinary ear was transformed into a song for Travis. It was like the sky and the ground were doing battle, it was soft still, not harsh like metal on metal or the crunch of bone. It was always in motion, like waves and flows. It was beautiful in it's own way, so unlike what you would hear when you listened to it with your own ears. Travis enjoyed it, knowing only he knew the real majesty of rain. He liked the sound as it dripped off this and that, the splash and even the plop's as it hit more water below. He had little time to enjoy it.


He had followed the trail with his new partner but they had come to a standstill outside iron bars. They had been pulled apart as if by a bear with the sheer force it would of required to bend these bars. The whole that was made to make room for whatever pasted through here was of an unnatural shape and size. It didn't matter he figured, they had come this far, to stop here would be pointless, especially if the kidnapper was to keep his threats against this girl Reina. Travis had a sudden surge of adrenaline course through his body, it sent ripples of pain and pleasure through every muscle, he would of almost screamed but he collected himself as he realised that the feeling was suddenly pushing him forward into the darkness, his hand had already begun to reach for her, she had been talking to him, he could tell that much but there was such an overload of his sense's that he never heard a word she said, there was noises within this tunnel that both exhilarated and frightened him all at once, his blood felt alive and within him an energy was stirring. He couldn't tell what had brought these feelings over him but it was to late, he felt alive again like back when he could see with his own eyes.

"Wait...give me a second." She said, Travis had been pulling her for only a few inches before she froze in her tracks. Clearly she wasn't as interested in what was hiding at the end of this little cavern under the world above. He had forgot that his eyes seen what no one else could, this cave was no doubt dark and full of terrors to normal eyes but to him he could already see small passageways, precipice's, cliff's and even the odd chasm. He wondered more how this person had found a place so helpful for them to hide in. This was no doubt a hideout for whoever they had been tracking, this was his terrain and that meant they would be at a disadvantage no matter what. Though Travis figured they weren't counting on a blind who heard everything coming with force to claim their prize they believed they had stolen. Fayth took to much time to ready herself but Travis was patient and eventually a new sensation took over him. It felt like something new was crawling under his skin, something familiar yet so strange, it felt like.. well like.. his new friend was in his head, how could that be? His mind began to struggle, he couldn't fight her and all the noises in his head at once so his mind went into lock down instantly.

"Just relax and...breathe." He did what he was told but it all felt alien to him, he could feel as if she was gliding through his mind passing through his thoughts, like a flicker of the wind against a candle and suddenly it guttered out and disappeared and he felt at ease but as the peace came to him, he almost jump out of his skin as the woman's voice once more spoke to him, she was trying to be kind and reassuring but it was something unusual to Travis and the little girls warning flashed to mind once more. Someone knows about us... someone knows about me... the little girl.... even this woman I met. He felt much happier when he thought he was more alone in his gifts than right now as he had a woman in his head, a man who had watched as the monster had attacked him and here he was standing in some strange place with more questions than he could ever find answers for. They exchanged their names in complete silence, their minds binded together, though he sense's a little crudely, she wasn't in the deep reach's off his mind and he was thankful for that, your thoughts were your own for a reason, he didn't need her hear of the things he had only learnt of today just yet, he would tell her in his own words in time if he believed she could be trusted with it, right now they had far more pressing concerns as new noises were being picked up by Travis' ears. A familiar noise but not a friendly one.


A thousand voices at once, then suddenly it doubled and then tripled and before long there was more voices than even Travis could separate out in his head. They were surrounding him and Fayth, each one sounded angry, as if they had been riled up by some outside force. Travis could hear them but beside him he could almost feel the tension in his companion, he forgot that he had never told her it was him that had gotten rid of the bugs back when they first appeared when he wasn't sure whether to reveal his powers or not, he had kept silent and now he guessed it was probably time to fill her in, he moved suddenly so he was facing her, even in the darkness he knew she would see and feel him beside her, he closed in tight to her and whispered to her in as soft and soothing kind of voice that he could muster at that point. Leaning in closer and closer, he put his mouth to her ear, each time she breathed it was loud and clear, her heart pumping the blood faster and faster, each breathe pushing her chest in and out, all these things and more he could hear from within her, he felt he could even hear the girlish impulse to scream about ready to burst from her lips but as he had moved close she had seemed to forget the rest of the world and her focus was on him. He could smell her, she was sweet and from his eyes she looked pretty even in this darkness, even with his twisted vision, he breathed only a few words in her ear and then things had changed so fast.

"Close your mind...hands on your ears...pray this works..." He spoke the words soft and careful, he even slowly place his own hands upon her's and together they cupped her ears and blotted out what sound they could as Travis shifted and tensed every muscle in his body, it felt as if he was drawing in all the surroundings as it seemed like there was nothing but the feeling of being trapped in a vacuum as he drew in all the sound around him before shortly let it burst forward from his lips. It was painful to do, his vocal cords rippled and vibrated so hard it felt like they would burst. His stomach shuddered it's disapproval as he used every muscle from foot to head in his expulsion off sound and might. It was focused, twisting it into a shrill high pitched wail of sorts, the bugs were no sooner upon Travis and Fayth than they were assaulted by what Travis had named his power as the "Banshee's Call." The noise he had used to fight the bugs before wasn't going to be powerful enough to pierce every corner, this time he had to use real force, when using sound as a weapon Travis' ears would go completely deaf, during his attacks he was completely blind and deaf but he held onto Fayth tight with her warmth beside him he took comfort, she didn't shake or cower in fear. There was trust for him, however small it had been but it did not matter. He had screeched for what felt like a year and as he stopped he felt weary and tired.


One second he was standing holding Fayth's hands in his own and the next he was on the floor coughing blood. He hit the dirt hard and fast without even noticing it, he landed in a pile of dead insects, he didn't know whether his blast would kill or make them flee but he got the feeling he had maybe slightly over did it as he felt the bugs underneath his weight crunch. He wretched up blood violently at first but shortly it stopped, he figured he had torn a vocal cord or something. It had happened before when he was testing out the strength of his own powers a while back. He would be fine, in a short space of time it would have healed and his powers would work like nothing had even happened to him, it still hurt like hell though. He got back to his feet and soon he was once again able to take in all his surroundings once more. He saw the corpses of all the bugs he had killed, it was an awful sight, he hadn't been aware of just quite how destructive his concussive sonic blast would be, he had meant to hurt them not kill them. He guessed he wouldn't be able to apologise now, usually no one cared when they crushed one little bug but this was more like a killing field. If they were to move forward he was going to have to watch very carefully were he stepped. He wasn't really sure what had happened with since he had let his powers loose, he had felt almost blank until he had regained his feet.


He put his hand out to her as he starred out vaguely with his blank eye's scanning the area around them for were to go next. He studied the area and something seemed to stick out more than the rest, the was one area far off that seemed to have the constant sound of truly distant chattering. It was like things communicating with one another but it was so far off and strained that even with his abilities he couldn't exactly pinpoint it down to the last inch but he could get a vague idea as to what general location they would need to go, in a place with so little in it, there was only one sense he could trust. The noise of life in a lifeless place. It was a long way down, it seemed as if there was caves within caves around here. His enemy clearly had the advantage, he had no doubt they were walking in to a trap, what for he couldn't really guess. Had this new person kidnapped this girl Reina because she was one of "them" to? He had never asked Fayth about her more than he needed to, it was strange, she felt warm and comforting but something within Travis held back and held his tongue. It was to long since he had someone he could talk to... at least properly. He began to make the decent, his hand still held out to Fayth, if she followed him he could no longer tell, there was some new awakened curiosity with him than made him plunge deeper with pure determination.


Travis was a man of conviction and determination, in all his life if he had put his mind to it, it had come to him one way or another. His new found quest for knowledge was his current lust and little but exploring this cave to it's very heart and locating the culprit would slick his lust now. It was cold and damp around them, it had a very earthy and rich smell, not to say it was necessarily pleasant, it was times like this that Travis was glad that his sense of smell had been more less taken from him altogether. In truth he had lost more of himself than his eye's that fateful day but the only thing that anyone ever noticed was his eye's now, one stare at his cold implacable eye's and people no longer looked at him again. They treated him like he was diseased and contagious. Travis began to realise that beneath all this earth and dirt, it was growing colder and the air thicker and harder to breathe in. In truth the dirt filled air seemed to grate against his torn vocal chord sharply, like sand paper on an open wound. Occasionally he would cough and blood would trickle out amongst his spittle. He could feel it but not see it, it was warm and much thicker, he could tell with his vision but there was no colour, just a black canvas with a blue-ish tinted outline to people and the objects around him. Thankfully Fayth wouldn't notice if she was looking on as in the darkness no one would tell the difference between blood or water.


Down and down they delved deeper into this seemingly endless cavern they had stumbled in to, all to follow this mysterious attacker that had started this whole thing. Travis followed the faint noise of chatter to it's place of origin, it had been at least a good 40 to 50 feet below were they had come in, he stopped suddenly in the middle of a far more spacious chamber that opened into a wide space. He crossed to the middle of this new intersection and he could tell something was different, there was a squeak from Fayth, at least he assumed it was her that made the noise as something different had taken his attention, the room they were now standing in the middle off was well lit. Travis couldn't see light no more than he could see the sun or the sky anymore, what gave it away was the sound of the electrical current coursing through the light bulb, a slow droning noise it made, on and on it chirped in his ear, even up above him and quiet as it was, no sound escaped Travis. The light bulb swung from it's ceiling hinge high up above, something had passed by here recently, on it's path it had crashed past the light as it swung back and forward with vigour, each pass it made making it slow until it came to an eventual creeping halt. Travis felt strange, why lead them in darkness for so long to leave a single light on, there was something all wrong with this situation.
"Fayth.... You still there? ...I don't think we are.... alone anymore.... Fayth?"

I'm with Batman...or is it Man-Bat?

Fayth and her companion stood facing the entrance of a tunnel shrouded in darkness as it was hidden underneath a bridge. Water dripped from above as rain had started to fall in Novum Aurora and each droplet entered the flowing river underneath the bridge, which made loud echoing sounds. The stone surfaces underneath the bridge were heavily covered in artist graffiti, some of which were more stylist than others. Despite the invisibility offered by the shadows, the entrance to the tunnel was usually blocked by iron bars. Someone, or something, had effectively bent the bars to create an opening that was larger than the averaged sized person to slip through.

The trail of ants that Fayth and the blind man had found and followed was moving as a single line into the dark tunnel. It was evident that wherever the ants had taken them, they were leading the two to their destination.

“I don’t like this. How on earth can I see?!”, Fayth growled as she glared into the darkness of the tunnel. Her rhetorical question was met by the usual silence of her companion, who was facing her as she turned to look at him. “Oh…yeah. I forgot that you couldn’t see…”

In response, her blind friend took her hand and started heading into the abyss of the tunnel. However, Fayth grounded herself, which made the blind man turn back to her with a questioning expression.

“Wait…give me a second”, Fayth said as she closed her eyes. If they were going into the lair of whatever took Reina, they would need to prepare themselves. Although she was not combat-oriented, her time with Reina had developed her skills at using her powers to communicate and direct her friend, who was much better suited to the field than she was. Similarly, she suspected that the blind man was not as disadvantaged as she had first believed.

As she had found from playing around with her powers, connecting to a mind depended upon the interpersonal bond between her and the person she was linking to. Fayth remembered how easy it was when she connected to Reina due to their established friendship, as well as how difficult it was when she tried linking with strangers. Although she may not know the blind man well, Fayth felt a connection with him may already be forming; a blossoming bond forged from their current situation and recent events.

She found the superficial thoughts of the blind man, and followed them back to his mind. Her own mind brushed lightly across his and she could feel his response, his surprise at her mental presence outside the borders of his own. As a result of this, his mental barriers fortified themselves, as the brief surprise reinforced the will of his mind.

“Just relax and…breathe.”

As deep breaths of air were inhaled and exhaled by the blind man, Fayth felt his mental barriers begin to part ways, and as she willed herself through, she became acutely aware of the tangible force of sounds surrounding her. As she moved through and navigated his mind, Fayth realised that the sounds belonged to the blind man’s perceptions. Loud and powerful waves echoed through his mental domain and it was enough to disorient Fayth, but she strengthened her will and carried on.

Once she was within the eye of his consciousness, Fayth laid a psychic link as she retreated back to her own mind. She slowly opened her eyes and sensed his presence within her mind, just as he was sensing her presence in his mind.

“There. We can communicate this way without needing to speak."

“How…?”

“You may have your talents, but I have my own as well.”

The blind man hesitated for a moment, but seemingly accepted this as he turned and headed into the darkness that awaited them.

“Hey. I never got your name. I’m Fayth.”

“…Travis.”

-

It was like a whole other world as Fayth and Travis walked in complete darkness through the tunnel and deeper into the underground maze where Reina was kept. The air was damp and the walls moist as a large stream of water flowed through the middle of the floor, separating the path into two. An unpleasant odour lingered in the air, which assaulted Fayth’s nose and almost made her throw up when she first encountered it. But what truly disconnected the tunnel from the city was the eerie emptiness and lack of life underground. Fayth’s psychic senses, which were so used to the diverse vitality of people in the city, were acutely aware of the sparse energies around her.

Fayth was fascinated by the psychic realm of Travis’ mind as she was finely attuned to it through their link. She could hear all sorts of things with much more clarity and intensity through the way his mind perceived and processed auditory stimuli. And despite his blindness, a mental representation of their surroundings was constructed by the sounds that he could hear. With each step he took, the sounds bounced back and were received by his ears to shift the mental representation reflecting their movement through the tunnel. As Fayth realised, it similar to the echolocation of bats and how they use sounds to navigate at night.

She was also aware that this may make them alike in a way.

Suddenly, according to Travis’ ears, something was audible straight ahead of them. He stopped and concentrated on it, which Fayth could sense through their connection. They waited in anticipation, and although Fayth heard nothing through her own ears, she was aware that something had appeared on Travis’ sonar radar.

It hit her through her psychic senses, just as recognition of the sounds hit Travis. A swarm of insect, accompanied by that same evil cheeriness that she sensed earlier that day, was rushing towards them. Fayth panicked and began to turn and pull Travis back the way they came, but his strong hand gripped hers tightly to prevent her from escaping. Fayth turned back and found that Travis had not been moved by the oncoming bugs; he stood firm and strong as he mentally readied himself. As she took a quick panicked breath, Fayth fought the instinct to scream as the insects descended all around them and upon them, unleashing their hellish bites by the millions.

I punched him in the nose. Now we're friends.

“ARGH! Where the fuck did he go?!”

After roaming the crowded streets in search of Reina and her kidnapped, Fayth was becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of clues that would lead to their whereabouts. She was also finding her silent tagalong annoying, as he offered no help at all in her search-and-rescue mission. He was, however, a convenient target for her outburst of anger over the helplessness of the situation, and as such, she turned her irritated attention to him.

“And you aren’t helping, so why are you even following me?”

She was once again met with silence, which fanned the flames of her fury into a devastating inferno of aggressive emotions that spilled out from her. Caught up in her own rage, Fayth failed to notice that her intensive and hostile emotions were influencing the people passing by her and the blind tagalong. Her mental influence wasn’t coercively strong to reflect back upon her, but it was enough to shift behaviours. People became temporarily harsh and unfriendly, as apologises turned into insults and nudges became shoves. Thankfully though, most of them simply went on their way after their brief hostility with each other.

A hand pressed down on her shoulder, to which Fayth immediately responded by turning around and using her momentum to throw a punch at the person stopping her. Not surprisingly, Fayth had punched the blind man following her. He fell to the floor, clutching his now bloodied nose. His face looked panicked and his unfocused eyes were darting everywhere, as if trying to see the world all at once.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”, Fayth almost screamed at him. But despite her heated words, they did not reach his ears. Fayth was about to turn and resume her search, but she caught his eyes as they focused back upon her and their gazes met for a brief moment. It was long enough to halt Fayth as her mind flashed back to a memory buried deeply some time ago. In her mind, the frightened eyes remained the same as the scenery changed, and the face of the blind man warped into that of the bully who had harassed and assaulted her younger brother. Just as the facial features re-emerged, the memories of guilt and shame came rushing back to her as she was reminded of the bully’s fate, done by her hands. Although she had not known about her powers, she used them to destroy the bully’s mind, as guided by her intent and will. The bully, only slightly older than her brother, would now live his life in a comatosed state for an indefinite time. Once again, Fayth remembered the extent of her abilities and how destructive she had acted, as those panicked eyes shocked the foundations of her emotions. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she began to speak but only managed a stutter before breaking into sobs. She crumbled to the ground and avoided the gaze of the blind man, as well as ignoring the presence of people passing by and their now concerned thoughts.

A lone presence drew close to her and she felt arms surround her, pulling her gently into the comfort of their own body. Their close proximity felt almost intimate and warming, but Fayth's body and heart welcomed the reassurance and safety that it desperately needed. Their hand found the back of her head, stroking it gently as they made quiet, soothing sounds. Fayth leaned closer into the hug and stayed there for an entirely while her torrenting emotions began to gradually settle down. Once she was feeling calmer, Fayth looked up, only to be surprised to find that it was the blind man hugging her close to him. His face was a bloody mess and his nose was slightly out of shape, but the bleeding had stopped, and she found his eyes staring blankly down at her.

"W-w-why?", she asked timidly, as the sight of his face reminded her of how she had treated him only moments before. But her question was met with his usual silence, but rather than irritate her as it had done before, Fayth greeted it with gratefulness. She was reminded at how Reina would have similarly comforted Fayth during her emotional breakdowns, and although they had only recently met, the blind man was offering the same comfort to her despite not knowing each other. It was at that moment that Fayth realised that the blind man genuinely meant to assist her find her friend, and his additional presence would be helpful than if she was on her own.

"Um, thank you. I'm...sorry about...your nose.", she apologised awkwardly as they both rose gradually from the floor and attempted to fix their chaotic appearances.

"Let's go. My friend still needs me.", as she once again met that silence expected of the blind man. They both set off down the street, and Fayth was silently glad that she had a companion backing her in this search.

-

"Wait."

Fayth stopped upon the command of that single word, but rather than wait for her blind companion to explain, she instantly bombarded him with questions.

"What? Did you find something? Are we close?!"

But her desperate questions were met by his typical silence, which although she had become accustomed to, irritated her on this occasion. Instead, she saw his answer by the movement of his arm and out-stretched finger, pointing at the source of the blind man's halt. Fayth followed it and found that he was pointing at a busy trail of ants. Fayth looked closely at it and saw that something was different about the trail. It was a neatly formed line of ants, moving in a singular formation towards one direction, and their movements was exactly and strangely precise to each other, the motion of one ant was the same as any other in that trail. Following the trail in the direction that it was moving, Fayth saw other trails of ants joining with the singular line and they moved as one towards their particular direction.

"Follow the trail of my beauties, if you see to see your friend, alive...".

As that recent memory resurfaced within her thoughts, a spark was ignited as the words fuelled her with anger and reminded her of the person who took her friend away. Despite their futile search, the peculiar sight of the ants became a reassurance that she would find her friend. It was only clue they had come across so far, but Fayth knew deep down that this phenomenon was not a casual coincidence. Her upsurge of rage began to transform into a fierce force that she thought she had been losing for some time now. 

Hope.

“This is it! Come on!”, Fayth almost screamed as she grabbed the blind man’s hand and dragged him with her, following the trail to their unknown destination.

Two heads are better than one.

Insects of all kind invaded the small coffee shop, and panic soon erupted that crippled Fayth and grated against her psychic senses. People hastily escaped from their chairs and tables to the open safety of the road and the other side of the street. The coffee shop had also been infested by the bugs, and more people were rushing in the same direction towards wherever they would be safe. Screams could be heard from both inside and outside of the coffee shop, though this was quickly muffled by the buzzing of the winged insects. Nearby the coffee shop, innocent civilians scuffled away and stopping once they were out of the immediate danger. Despite this, no-one made any attempts to help those still trapped inside the coffee shop, and whilst they were concerned about the severity of the situation, there were no actions taken to call for emergency services. Rather, bystanders simply looked around to see if anyone else had taken up the responsibility, yet not bothering themselves to take out their own phones.

Fayth observed glimpses of this while being overwhelmed by the onslaught of anxiety and panic that struck her deeply, like blades of distress pinning her to her chair. She was shaking intensely, as she also felt the bugs physically crawling on her from the insects on the ground and the insects in the air. The sensation was irritatingly ticklish as the legs of multiple bugs explored her all over. As they made contact with her, through all the distress of the public and the wriggling of the insects, Fayth felt something else with her psychic senses. The feeling was almost gleeful, yet malicious in nature like the events taking place was satisfying to someone.

In that moment, Fayth swooped her gaze to Reina in an attempt to mentally contact her. Reina's immediate response to the unfolding events had been to stand her ground and locate where the source of the insect invasion. But due to the masses of winged bugs, her vision was blurred and she was forced to protect herself and her face from the swarms flying everywhere. Instinctively, Reina had held her hands out in an attempt to use her powers. To her surprise, she looked up from her outstretched arms and found that the insects surrounding her had been suspended in the air, frozen in the time that she could control once again. Wasting no time, Reina resorted to the other spectrum of her abilities and proceeded to accelerate the lifespans of the bugs, and swarm by swarm, they died and withered away in a blink of an eye.

But Reina had her limits and she was nearing the end of hers. Accelerating time, especially the short lifespan of insects, was relatively easy compared to the ongoing effort to freezing or slowing time down. But the constant accelerations began to take it's toll upon her and she was beginning to feel the drain of overexerting her powers. In the moment that Fayth turned her attention to Reina, she could sense and knew that her friend would only have moments before she too was overwhelmed by the bugs.

Several things happened from that moment onwards. In the midst of the chaotic scene, a higher pitched scream broke out and Fayth sensed a change from the confusion and panic to fear and terror emitting from the crowd of bystanders. A moment later, a large, black, disproportionate, winged figure swooped from above Fayth's field of vision and snatched her best friend from her defiant stance. Exhausted from her extensive time accelerating, the shock of the impact knocked her unconscious and she became limp in the arms of her winged kidnapper.

"Follow the trail of my beauties, if you wish to see your friend, alive...", the winged kidnapper shouted as he flew away with Reina.

Another moment later after the departure of the winged kidnapper and her friend, Fayth felt a sudden pressure nearby being built up. Sound seemed to become distorted around her and the pressure eased off as the pent up energy was released. The warped sounds snapped back to normality as the invading insects collapsed and fell from their places, dying from whatever had been released. Silence followed immediately as the last of the bugs died, which gave Fayth time to recover from her psychic shock. Yet, even after the nauseating effects of her psychic shackles, a burning determination exploded within her that ignored the discomforts she was self-inflicting upon herself.

"REINA!!", Fayth shouted both mentally and physically, despite the rawness of her mind and senses. Once the aftershocks of her mental overload wore off, Fayth set off on a sprint in the direction of where the winged kidnapper went and ignored people who expressed concern for her.

After a while of sprinting that gradually became an exhausted, light jog, Fayth stopped to take a moment to rest and to stuck fresh oxygen back into her lungs. She looked up quickly to see if she could spot any signs of where the winged kidnapper would have gone, but she had lost the trail a few streets back. All of a sudden, her psychic senses picked up a particular presence in the street behind her, one that was uniquely different to the ones she had felt before. She concentrated on it and sensed a curiosity and a desire, but not entirely sure what for. She whirled around to face whoever it may be, and almost bumped into tall, muscular man of African descent. He wore a simple plain light blue t-shirt that contrasted against his dark skin and tight shorts that Fayth had seen athletic runners wear on the track. At first glance, Fayth couldn't help but notice how his legs and arms bulged in his clothes, but eventually she snapped back to the reality of her situation.

"Oi, watch where you're going!", she said violently, which was emphasised by the push she gave to distance them both from each other.

"Sorry, I'm sorry.", the man said as he held his large hands up in an apologetic gesture. "Look, I saw what happened at the coffee shop, with your friend."

"Yeah? Like you did anything to help!", Fayth viciously spat back at him.

The man remained silent for a moment and Fayth could feel his reservation at wanting to reply back at her comment, but he quickly dismissed it. "I came after you because it's dangerous, whatever that thing is that took y-".

"I can handle myself, thank you very much."

"It didn't look like you could earlier..."

"Oh, and I suppose you're coming to help me, are you? What could you...", Fayth trailed off as her eyes wandered and noticed the way the man's gaze wasn't focused entirely on her. Rather, they weren't focused on anything in particular, yet they had an intense look, as if he was concentrating on something else. Fayth's intuition suddenly sprung to a conclusion and worked it out.

"You're blind! How are you going to help if you're bloody blind!?"

"Yes, I am.", the man said as he lowered his voice. "But I can help. It's like that saying, two heads are better than one.", he said and offered a smile to Fayth.

Before the man had even finished his sentence, Fayth had already fine tuned her senses and focused upon the superficial thoughts of the man before her. Although her senses became sensitive to stimuli around her, they wouldn't be a usual interference for a simple psychic task such as this one. Yet, what she found from her engagement with this man's thoughts was that she could hear noises more intensely and louder than before, and rather than hearing them with her ears, the sounds were present within her mind. The crunching of pedestrian's shoes hitting the ground, the hasty and heavy breathing of people as they went by on their daily journeys, the metallic shifts of mechanical gears operating within vehicles, and the blaring chattering of people from all directions as if she had been submerged in a very crowded room of cheering sports fans, amidst many other sounds of the urban life. Among the super concert of noises, Fayth picked up on a single thought from this man, but only barely:

I'll still see, just not like you do...

Fayth quickly withdraw her mind from his before she experienced a second psychic shock of that day. She looked up at the man again and directly into his eyes, which only stared blankly ahead of him. The urgency of her situation scratched at her again and she abruptly turned on her heels and spoke quietly enough for only the man to hear.

"Come if you want. Just don't get in my way."

Don't let the bad bugs bite

Reina hastily strode out of the library and through the university campus, passing all sorts of people, academics and pedestrians alike. Even with her time abilities, Reina had lost track in her studies and was only alerted when her stomach started growing. Before she had left to go to her lectures that morning, she and Fayth had arranged to meet up for lunch. Since Fayth had the day off, she would visit the site of where the supposedly lizard man had attacked her, which much to her disappointment, Reina was unable to join her. Still, her little feet moved with the hurried determined sense of purpose, and it was not because Reina was hungry. The thought of meeting another with a power had interested them both, though one more expressively than the other, but nevertheless, Reina was excited about the prospects. Apart from Fayth, Reina had been the only person in her home village to exhibit extraordinary abilities. Although her mother had previously possessed her own unique talents and taught Reina how to use hers, it wasn’t quite the same experience to relate and share with someone on an almost intimate level, like her friendship with Fayth.

Lost in her thoughts and in her determined haste, Reina hadn’t quite noticed when a cyclist was riding towards her from her left side. Even though the cyclist had rung her bell, Reina’s attention snapped back to reality at the very last moment before they violently collided into each other and fell into a heap of books and the bike. Both of them had landed onto each other without causing any serious injuries to one other, but it was Reina who was more shaken up by the experience.

As Reina was helped up by the cyclist and a number of other people around them, someone handed her the books she had dropped. Although, in her shocked state, they clumsily fell from her grip and Reina kneeled down to pick them back up. A moment later, Reina managed to peel herself away after reassuring the cyclist and the other people that she was fine. Yet Reina was walking away feeling far from it, as a number of thoughts rushed through her mind and worry started to set in.

Despite Reina’s usual carefulness, the deliberate clumsiness of dropping her books was a test to prove something, which was very much validated by the books hitting the ground. Before the crash with the cyclist, Reina had managed to take notice at the last moment and immediately tried to prevent the collision. Yet both outcomes confirmed what was running through her mind: what happened to her powers?

-

“Wherever he went to, it looks like someone got to him first. The Police were taping the area off, and there was a big crowd gathered around the scene. I could only get so close, but the crowd almost overwhelmed me. The Police didn’t have much, from what I picked up on. They just thought the scene was a bloody mess!”, Fayth reported to Reina on what she had found from revisiting the area earlier that day. But Fayth sensed that Reina was not entirely focused upon what she was saying.

“Rei…is everything okay? You’ve barely touched your food since you got here…”, Fayth asked worryingly. Since her arrival, Reina hadn’t interacted much and her eyes were unfocused and less intense than they were usually. Fayth could sometimes tell what was on her friend’s mind, even without having to rely on her psychic abilities as that was the nature of their friendship over the past year. But Reina was currently closed off and distant, and Fayth contemplated speaking to Reina through their telepathic connection to find out what was wrong. But just as that thought crossed her mind, Reina answered her, though it seemed to be gentler and vague than usual.

“Oh… oh, nothing much. I’m just…really tired.”, Reina said wearily, as if the words themselves had sapped her of the strength to explain it better. But Fayth would not take that for an answer.

“Bullshit.”, Fayth blurted out, which startled her friend. Despite her outburst, Fayth realised that whatever has happened to Reina, she had to remain patient and allow her friend to speak, rather than approach the topic in a coercive manner. “Sorry, Rei...what happened? Come on...you can talk to me…”

Reina hesitated for a moment, and opened and closed her mouth several times before she remained silent to choose her words carefully.

“I… I don’t know what happened… there was a bike…and it ran into me…I- I tried to stop it, but…I…I don’t know…nothing happened…”, Reina finally broke out in sobs, after what seemed like an eternity to Fayth. But she listened patiently to her friend while she tried to get the words out. “I…I think…my powers… I couldn’t use them…”

A sudden shock went through Fayth, and she was about to respond when a sensation crawled up her spine. It was almost ticklish and it felt like a thousand pins were running up the length of her back. Fayth froze, partly in shock of what Reina had said and partly because of the sensations she was experiencing. The prickling began to intensify and the sensations spread all over Fayth’s body, the feeling more itching rather than the previously gentle tickling. Suddenly, the area where Fayth and Reina sat was invaded by the abrupt burst of insects, which began to flood the floor of the street and the air was soon filled with flying insects. Panic quickly settled over the people caught in the assault of the insects, and the buzzing sounds of winged insects seemed to drown out the screams of the public.

Who was that scaly man?

“Look, lady. Just give me what you have and I’ll let you go.”, the attacker spoke a little more at a normal volume, though still retaining that sense of urgency and the tension that he held onto Fayth’s hair and the knife at her neck. It was useless to struggle against his grip, as the hair close to her scalp was encased within the iron fist grip of the attacker and any sudden, violent attempts to wriggle herself free would result in the blade accidentally cutting her throat open.

Fayth quickly reached within the tender awareness of her psychic power and focused her attention upon the thoughts of her attacker. As their minds touched one another, Fayth could faintly hear disconnected pieces of the attacker’s thoughts.

“-it, shit, shit… fuck have I…n’t look like she ha…er pockets…maybe she’s go…”, the thoughts were incoherent and nonsense, but the mental link was weak between them and Fayth did not intent to read her attacker’s mind, for that wasn’t going to help her to escape.

Fayth quickly conjured a surge of intense and raw sensations and solidified it with a hard casing of her will, then forcefully sent it through the psychic connection with her attacker. The mental projectile shattered whatever mental barriers that the attacker had erected from the tension that they held, and exploded upon impact with their mind. Pain stabbed through the mind of her attacker, piercing attention and thoughts, and ripping areas of the psyche.

The attacker painfully cried out and released their grip on both Fayth’s hair and the knife held at her throat. Though the psychic explosion destroyed the fragile mental link between them, a spike of pain returned back upon Fayth’s psyche and she gasped in discomfort and surprise. Her mind became disorientated from the blow and nauseating dizziness washed over her, forcing her collapsing to the ground on her four limbs and breathing hastily and heavily to calm the unpleasant sensations.

After a moment or two, she quickly recovered and turned back to face her attacker, focusing her mind once again to deliver another psychic blow if necessary. Groaning came from where her attacker was, and Fayth thrust her mind forward, only to found another that was ablaze. She sensed that her attacker’s was still burning with pain from the psychic blast, and like putting a hand into a fire, she recoiled back upon the touch. But she could still feel the erratic pressure thrashing about within the attacker’s mind, spawning more of the disorganised thoughts and unpleasant sensations.

The attacker was hunched over on their knees, with their head held intensely in their hands. Though it was dark, Fayth could see that the attacker wore a plain brown jacket and dark, baggy trousers. What drew her attention to the attacker though was their skin, which appeared to be covered in scales. Fayth also noticed a scaled tail that was frantically thrashing about, making deep thudding noises as it hit the ground. As soon as she absorbed the sight of this, her battle spirit was soothed to curiosity and she drew closer to her attacker to get a better look.

As she did, the groaning and mental discomfort died down, but Fayth was by the attacker’s side, crouching next to them and placing a hand on their back.

“Hey? You alright there?”, she asked tentatively, aware that her psychic blast had done more damaged than she had mean to.

Her attacker flinched at the sound but slowly looked up to the sound of her voice, trailing their eyes up to meet hers. But in that instant, her attacker panicked and wildly lunged into Fayth, uncontrollably throwing their clawed hands into whatever made contact. Both of them fell into a heap of their bodies and it ended with Fayth on her back with her attacker on top, clawing at her arms that partially shielded her face from the onslaught. But as quickly as the scrap had occurred, Fayth felt the weight of her attacker lifted from her body and she could hear feet scurrying away as her attacker fled the scene.

Fayth lowered her arms and achingly gathered herself up. The sleeves of her hoodie were ripped to shreds, which revealed that her arms and the exposed areas of her face were covered in bleeding cuts, and she could feel bruises developing in places where she had been hit and landed. Although the encounter had left her a little shaken up, her attention was entirely focused on her escaped attacker. She started to head in the direction of where she has heard the footsteps run off to, crying out and mentally scanning for mind of the attacker, but after a few minutes of searching, she was unsuccessful. Her mind was racing with excitement and she decided to run back to the rendezvous point, as she was eager to tell Reina of what had happened.

-

“Finally, I was startin-holy dreams! Are you okay?! What happened?!”, Reina emerged from her bedroom, dressed in her oversized pajamas, when Fayth returned back to their rendezvous point. Their rendezvous point and base of operation was in actual fact the apartment that they shared together. A cosy flat on the second floor of the building near the university campus; it wasn’t huge in terms of space but it wasn’t terribly tiny to be uncomfortable for residence. It was furnished with second-hand items that were slightly marred though not completely ruined beyond comfortableness, and the walls were painted in a horrid cream colour that was standard in most rented accommodation near the university campus. The living room greeted people when they entered the apartment, where to the right resided the kitchen next to bedroom, which was opposite another bedroom and a bathroom on the other side of the living room. The floor was carpeted light blue and utterly spotless, as were the rest of the surfaces in the apartment; it was surreally neat and organised that one would have thought the flat was the showcase display for potential new residents.

Fayth certainly thought that at times when she entered her apartment, but not on this occasion. Her mind still ecstatic with thoughts of her attacker, but she could sense the rush of Reina’s frantic worry as her friend went over to her.

“Rei-Rei! I ran into someone with a power, and they sort of attacked me, b-”, Fayth burst out as soon as she came through the door, but she was soon interrupted by her flatmate.

“They attacked you!?”, Reina’s concern for her grew intense and Fayth could feel it tickling the edges of her psychic senses and threatening to overwhelm her.

“Yeah. Look, stop fussing for a moment. Your emotions are a bit all over the place right now…”

“Right, sorry.”, taking a few deep inhales of breathe, Reina forced her distress for Fayth to calm and the tension she held onto began to subside. Her worries did not disappear completely but they were merely minimised; contained and kept at mental bay to avert the risk of another explosive expression that would torment her friend’s mind. If something terrible had happened to Fayth, then her concerns would only further hammer at her friend’s psyche, which she assumed would be fragile from the trauma.

“Thanks. Honestly, I’m fine. Just a few cuts and bruises. But did you hear what I said? There’s someone out there who might be like us!”

“A power? What makes you say that?”, Reina asked and waited with anticipation.

“Yeah, I think I saw they were part-lizard or something. I don’t know, I only saw a little bit before they got away. I tried running after them, but they were damn fast. Do you think you could use your powers and see where they went…?”

“I don’t think I can. My visions don’t work like that, and I would need something of theirs to get a vision from.”

“Ahh, damn”, Fayth cursed as she remembered the knife that her attacker had dropped. In the thrill of the situation, she had completely forgotten about it and she didn’t notice if it had been retrieved or left out on the streets. Already, the late evening was shifting to a darkened night, and if she were to go back out to recover the weapon, she could get lost within the maze network of the city streets. Just like the last light falling victim to the night, Fayth’s enthusiasm began to wane at the unlikelihood of finding her attacker.

“Sorry.”, Reina apologised as she could see the glowing excitement begin to fade away in her friend’s eyes. But she quickly had a thought and shared it with Fayth in hopes of comforting her. “Maybe we could go check out where it happened and I’ll see if I can pick anything up, if we get up early enough?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!”, Fayth beamed at the idea and hugged her friend in appreciation.

Reina hugged back, glad to see Fayth hopeful. But she was left curious and though she didn’t express it as openly as her friend, she too was stirred by the prospect of meeting another like them, another with a power…