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Jason stared into the flames. The other hunters were just as quiet, sitting around the bonfire they built for camp. He reflected upon Vivian's freakish... he didn't even know what to call it. The girl in the purplish mist wasn't a past reflection of her, was it? No, she'd never have survived the crash. That car had been going a zillion miles an hour. So, what was it? A friend of hers? And how the heck did she do it? The mist, the music, her voice- or, voices- and her glowing eyes were incredibly creepy. Then she just passed out and woke up like nothing happened.
He was vaguely aware of Avery announcing that he was going to bed early. Something about it being too quiet. Jason found the change quite nice. Avery paused, then his voice broke into all their thoughts. "Don't anyone say what everyone's thinking! She might be listening." he said sarcastically. Justin poked the fire, and it sent sparks flying in retaliation. "Your attempt to provoke a response is somewhat pitiful, Avery." He said it in a matter-of-fact, tired way. "It is I who shall retire early. Goodnight." The hunters mumbled their farewells as he left. Jason watched him go. Then he also withdrew for the night, but followed Justin rather than go to his lodging. He followed Justin from a distance, watching him plow through what crowds had formed. The night was young, and the adults were just getting ready to do what they do. Justin shouldered past anyone who got in his way, impatiently pushing past the peddlers who tried to sell him glow sticks & more. Jason frowned. That wasn't like him. Justin looked from left to right, then ducked into an alley.

Jason waited outside the alley, listening. He heard a clank and a thunk. Justin was most likely using a fire escape to climb up, grabbing the rail and heaving himself up and over. But why? Jason heard him climb up a few levels, then risked following to the roof. When Jason made it to the top, he saw Justin kneeling while he opened Vivian's bag. Light shined an object inside, which Justin was in the act of removing when he froze. Jason was standing behind him, trying to get a better look. Idiot, he thought to himself angrily, You should have waited on the fire escape. Justin didn't move. "I know you're there, Jason. I heard you before, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Come here." Jason hesitated, then complied. "Now that you're here, we each have responsibility for anything that happens, including opening this bag. Are you ready?" The way Justin said it was serious, like they were crossing a line, and on the other side was chaos. Jason's curiosity prevailed. He nodded and knelt beside Justin, who then withdrew the shining object. It was a little statue of some strange creature, unlike anything Jason had ever seen. It was... Alien. The light shined from somewhere within it. Then Justin's hands began to tremble- no, the statue was vibrating. Justin placed it on the rooftop, and the building began to tremble. "My God..." Justin murmured. Jason wasn't sure if it was an oath or a prayer. The rumbling increased, and the statue shined more brightly. The the whatchamacallit shot a beam of intense light to the sky. Jason shielded his face form the hot light with his arm. It held for about thirty seconds, then it died away. The little statue faded to plain glass, then crumbled away into dust. The two men looked at each other. The light had cracked their lips and singed their hair.

Vivian stealthily tracked the hunters, but Justin and Jason were missing. She considered searching their camp for her items, but before she did anything a beam of intense light shot to the sky, slicing through the photosynthetic dome over the city like it didn't exist. Vivian's eyes widened. Cedric found one of those statues near her after she had had her seizure. It had done the same thing, and something horrible and dark had been drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. She hadn't remembered until now. She didn't know what to do, but for starters, she'd find out who had the statue. Her purse could wait.

Jason rubbed his smarting eyes, astonished. Justin got up and pulled Jason to his feet. "Come on. People will be here soon. We need to find Vivian." Jason stared at him in a stupor. Justin slapped him lightly across the face. Jason blinked, suddenly back in touch with reality. "Pull yourself together, Jason. Let's go." Justin jumped down to the fire escape. With no other option that he could think of, Jason followed. When they reached the bonfire, the hunters were waiting, weapons at the ready. His tracker nodded in acknowledgement of the leader's arrival. "We're ready, Justin." "Where is Vivian?" "Behind you." he said. Jason turned and there she was. She looked fit to be tied. "What have you done?!" she cried. "What possessed you? And give me that!" She snatched her purse out of Justin's hand. She tugged at the drawstring and dumped the contents on the ground and searched through it in ten seconds flat. "Where is it?" she demanded. "Where did you put it? Speak!" Justin squared his shoulders. "The statue disintegrated, after it sent the shaft of intense light up." Vivian looked like she was going to pop a blood vessel. "You... WHAT?"

Vivian was about to pummel someone. "Before I kill you, explain what my purse has to do with the destruction of this city." Justin's brows knitted. "The statue was in your purse. What do you mean by 'destruction of-'" "Damn you, WHY?!! Don't touch my stuff, EVER! I don't know how to stop it. That statue was the only clue, and you destroyed it!" "What are you saying? Stop what?" "It's too late," Vivian moaned. "It's coming here." "What's coming?" Dylan asked exasperatedly. A cry of terror came from the direction Jason and Justin had come from, followed by more screams. Then a bloodcurdling shriek of triumph from some dark creature overwhelmed the resonating music. Jason and the others stared at Vivian, whose hand covered her mouth and a look of extreme pain crossed her face. She remembered how Cyrus had sent her home after her seizure, and then the beam of light she had seen from her home, two miles away. The devastated, charred forest was she where she had found Cyrus, sprawled on the ground, his body broken and burned. The forest was in no better shape. All the trees had been uprooted, snapped, crushed and burned. She had lost her secret, serene hiding place in the woods. She had lost her closest (and only) friend, and she had lost her childhood that awful day. She never knew her parents in the first place, so she had lost every living thing she loved. It had been the worst day of her life, and still was. She still had nightmares. And now... "Vivian, what is it? What made that sound? Why are people screaming?" She stared into space. "Vivian?". . ."Death." She whispered. Only Death itself could create such carnage. "What did you say?" "Death." she repeated. "Death."

Jason hated not being able to read minds. He HATED not knowing what made people tick. Despite her slim and almost childlike figure, Vivian had begun angry and determined to do something, though what she was going to do was a mystery. Her personality was cynical and apathetic, or angry, depending on the situation. And the dragon's massive, powerful and usually terrifying self had left her undaunted. And yet, the unearthly shriek had reduced her to the frightened girl she looked to be. Justin tried to get an answer from her, with no luck. "Vivian, what is it? What made that sound? Why are people screaming?" Jason tried to get her to at least look at him. "Vivian?" He had learned that once you learned her current name, she refused to respond to her old one. She mumbled something under her breath. "What did you say?" "Death. Death..." She closed her eyes and shuddered as the screaming intensified. She was so terrified, she couldn't say anything else. Justin suddenly growled in pain. Avery dropped his bo staff and snagged his medical box. Tim hopped on his toes to see over the heads of his comrades.
"Justin, why are your hands glowing?"

Justin's hands were indeed glowing, and shining brighter every second. Brighter and hotter. He gritted his teeth, unwilling to reveal just how much pain he was in. Avery was starting to panic. "Justin, I don't know what to do! Water, salve, mud- it all evaporates!" Vivian barely noticed. She was remembering every detail of what she called 'Black Monday'. She remembered every word she said or heard, what she wore, what she ate. Every detail, no matter how trivial, had burned itself into her memory, and every one was trying to take priority. She tried to concentrate on the events directly after her seizure. "Alyssa, I don't feel well." One of Cedric's acquaintances had felt Vivian's forehead. "Child, have you been in the sun too long? You're a little warm, but that's all-" Then the brilliant light shot upward, casting an unnatural glow through the window. "What was that?" "Cedric!" Vivian pulled away and ran back outside just as the light stopped. "Wait! Come back!" She ignored Alyssa and kept running until something shrieked, chilling her to the bone. She stopped, scared stiff, as a black cloud descended into the forest. The black cloud seemed to shroud something. She saw huge, black, gnarled talons stabbing down just before the smog reached the treetops, as if it couldn't wait to begin its horrific work. Then Alyssa picked her up, turned, and made a break for the nearest city limit, less than 50 yards. Vivian had struggled to escape moments after being picked up. "Let me go! We have to help!" Alyssa had ignored her. After all, what could they have done? The pair reached the city just as it screamed again. The memory may have been a bit jumbled, because of the many interruptions (that I have omitted because Vivian knew well which ones were out of place), but it seemed to be more of a frustrated scream the second time, as opposed to a conqueror's victory shout. What she didn't realize was that her memory of its high-pitched scream coincided with reality as it shrieked a third time, enough to appall the most battle-hardened of warriors.

Justin's growl of pain snapped her back to the present. She gasped in surprise. "Justin!" She didn't know what she was doing, but she pushed Avery aside. Justin was on his knees, trying to smother the light, burning the grass. She knelt down in front of him and covered his hands with her own. She felt energy flowing from his hands, spreading through her body. It was like static electricity, though very much alive instead of at rest. It mingled and tingled inside, instead of streamlining towards an exit point. In a matter of seconds even that was not sufficient, and she felt herself getting hotter. Then the energy did flow to a point, converging behind her eyes. She couldn't move her hands away from Justin's, and before she spoke the fluidic energy (that is the only word that fits) , applied extreme pressure to her eyes. Her first wild thought was that her eyes were going to pop, so she squeezed her eyes shut. Then she thought, If my eyes do pop, closing my eyelids won't help- what if this energy is trying to escape? Even if my eyelids were indestructible, they'd just cause the pressure to rebound. Better to let it run the path of least resistance. She tilted her head back and opened her eyes.

Jason staggered back, catching Avery as he was pushed off balance and fell against him. Vivian touched Justin's hands and stiffened. Justin's rigid form relaxed in contrast. Then she tilted her head back, and twin beams of light shot out for about ten seconds. The light died away. She blinked and slowly shook her head as if fighting off grogginess. Then she stood, slightly swaying. Nobody touched her. She looked up, and everyone else looked as well. The smog was over the building Jason and Justin had been on. Searchlights tried to cast come literal light on the situation, but it was just absorbed, illuminating nothing. Twin blood red eyes glowed from its center, staring at them. Then it floated in their direction, unhurried. Vivian's face melted from fear to apathy. "We're doomed." Jason glared at her. "Why do you always do that?" "Do what?" "You just do something completely non-sequitor, then you insult someone. In this case, I think we can SEE the problem, which might NOT be trying to kill us. But you, oh you, always see the glass as half-empty." She glared right back, suddenly angry again. "The 'glass' is bone dry, stupid. Why don't you just shut up, because you haven't the faintest idea of what that thing is going to do. I know, but I didn't want to scare you." she mocked. Jason opened his mouth to zing back a retort, but then she shoved him away and ran towards the thing. "HEY, YOU!" She yelled. "Yeah, that's right! I'm talking to you! Get over here so I can rearrange your face! Oh, that's right- you don't HAVE a face!" Vivian had officially lost her mind. Jason was sure of it. So were the hunters. "That's it. She's cracked." "She's flipped." "I knew she'd drive herself nuts." "Absolutely insane." "Psycho." Logan cleared his throat. "Uh, Vivian? I think it heard you." The red eyes locked onto her with a menacing gaze. She pulled two knives out of her boots as she ran to intercept it. Justin stood and brushed Avery off with "I'm fine." Then he yelled, "What exactly do you plan to achieve? It's a cloud, for Pete's sake." Vivian stood in the clearing that had been for the archery contest. "I've got a score to settle with you! Get over here and face the music, you disgusting troll's reek!"

This day was definitely runner-up to Black Monday. Vivian had no idea what was happening to her, and somebody had some explaining to do. She had never been so scared of anything since that day, but she was no longer caught between 10 and sweet 16. She was 17, and she was not going to be reduced to a pile of tears anytime soon. Then again, how the heck do you fight a combination of foul-smelling fumes? So, they were dead. Unless, with all the weird events that had happened to her, the enchanted knives could do something. Since everyone was dead meat anyway, she may as well try. And since it only required one death and lots of destruction, according to pattern, it could take her life and save her a lot of trouble in the long run. She didn't exactly have a nice life to look forward to, and everyone else did. Nobody really liked her, so she wouldn't be missed. Thus, having analyzed her options, she concluded that it would not be a foolhardy suicide mission. If it failed, minimum loss. Sure, she was terrified, but that wasn't about to stop her now. And if she was more angry than scared, she could manipulate her flight response to fight. She called Cyrus's broken image to mind, and focused on her anger for the thing that had killed him. Jason interrupted, blathering about something or other. She responded with hostility, summoning as much anger/adrenalin as possible. Then she taunted the thing, trying to draw it away from everyone else. It was working... sort of. It was focused on her, at least. She was going to try to keep it that way.

Vivian continued to hurl insults at the thing, jumping up and down, screaming her lungs out. She was very creative, considering how hard it is to insult a vapor with eyes. She kept yelling something about an old man, and how she would avenge his death. It must've understood her, because the ominous cloud was now gliding straight for her. "Yeah, that's right! Get over here, you sick, demented, murdering freak!" The red eyes flared with orange. Apparently, it didn't appreciate backtalk from a tiny mortal. It hissed, chilling Jason to the bone. Logan was the least affected. "Justin, tell us what to do." "Like what?" he asked. "Just what are we supposed to do? Sit here and watch? Help her in whatever insane, half-baked idea she has? Evacuate the city, as if we could help without getting trampled? Or run for our lives? You tell me, because I don't see how any of these could help. Do you really think you can outrun that thing? Good luck." Logan shook his head, then notched an arrow. "How about... you all run while I shoot arrows?" He never got a chance to shoot those arrows, as it turned out. A random person just appeared directly behind him and shouted, "OH, YEAH! HERE WE GO, Y'ALL!!" Jason jumped about three feet off the ground at the sound. "I SO KNEW I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE!" Vivian's head snapped around. "Who are you? This is MY fight!" "Oh, the fun has just begun, little missy!" "WHAT did you just call me?!" And just when Jason thought he couldn't raise his voice another decibel, he yelled, "HEY, YOU! REMEMBER ME?!!" Remember him? As if anyone could forget a character that shouted like that. Still... remember?