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.

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…

Am I inappropriately dressed for crime-fighting?

“Behind you!”, Fayth psychically screamed at Reina, who was in the midst of tying up a gang of armed robbers. Reina had temporally frozen and apprehended most of the gang and was in the process of tying them so the proper authorities could deal with them, although she had forgotten to securely disarm one of the robbers, who revealed a gun from a hidden holster on their person. Since working with Fayth, Reina had grown accustomed to the telepathic warnings that she received and immediately ducked without looking to see what the danger was. Stretching out her hand and focusing her will into stopping whatever attack that would have been a fatal one, Reina froze the armed robber just as he fired the shot. Taking a moment to compose and stand herself upright, Reina concentrated on the temporal frozen robber while immediately scanning for any potential threats that might creep up on her. She even consulted Fayth to mentally scan the untied robbers’ thoughts to see if they posed any further risk to her. Once she was given the all clear, Reina stalked over to frozen armed robber, disarmed his weapon and delivered a hard blow to his nose, releasing the temporal stasis at the moment just before she made contact with his face.

“Great, now my sari is dirty”, Reina muttered angrily under her breathe as she started to tie up the robber.

“No time for appearances, dear. Let’s wrap this up and get gone from here. I can see the lights of the police approaching…” Fayth telepathically urged Reina. From her place on top of a four-storey building, Fayth had access to the view of the street of where the events had taken place. It was from there where she could assist Reina without being seen by civilians and avoid the intense liveliness of the situation. To anyone passing by, Fayth would just seem like any other civilian, who happened to be witnessing the events, thus avoiding suspicion that Fayth was actually involved at all. Even if she did arouse suspicion, Fayth could easily convince them otherwise, placing suggestions within their mental thought processes if she needed to.

“Alright, I’m done now. I’ll meet you back at rendezvous point.”

Fayth gathered herself and left the rooftop by the fire escape, which led down into the dark, damp alleyway below. Once she stepped out from the shadows, she began a casual jog back to the designated place. Dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie, Fayth would appear like a night-time jogger in the city, further avoiding any suspicion and passing off as an innocent civilian. As she took a few turns and minor detours along her jog, Fayth turned a corner of a street and was greeted with a faint, ominous feeling picked up by her psychic senses. Although it was weak, Fayth sensed the hint of desperation and tension nearby, almost as if someone was anticipating for something to happen. Fayth quickly dismissed it when she could see no immediate danger in the vicinity, but her pace quickened, as the anticipation leaked into her own feelings and facilitated her jogging speed.

She jogged past a darkened alleyway, and to her surprise, a person jumped out and barged her to the ground, crashing her side into the ground and knocking the breath out from her. Disorientated, Fayth attempted to scramble away from her attacker, but her hair was grabbed from behind and pulled back so that her neck arched backwards. Without so much as a warning, Fayth could feel the cold surface of a blade pressed lightly against her exposed neck and she could feel the heated breath of her attacker close against her left ear. To her psychic senses, she could feel the attacker’s heightened adrenaline, the exerted pressure that they applied in restraining her hair and steadying the knife against her throat, and that same feeling of anxiety and nervousness, only much clearer now that their physical and psychic presence was closer to Fayth now.

“G-give me all your money!”, her attacker practically shouted in her ear. She could hear the panic and urgency evident in his voice, which also extended to the hand holding the knife to her throat, as it was slightly shaking with tension.

Fayth remained still, intently aware of the blade and trying to not move a muscle in case the slightest movement resulted in her throat being sliced opened. In desperation, Fayth mentally screamed out to Reina, but when her friend’s thoughts did not answer her psychic distress, she knew that she was alone and on her own for this.