The first thing that came to Nathan's mind was how badly his head throbbed.

He opened his eyes, almost immediately being blinded by the room's lighting. He was about to wonder why he'd go to sleep leaving the lights on, when he registered the complete unfamiliarity of the walls and ceiling. This wasn't his room.

He shot up in the bed and instantly regretted it. He'd clearly forgotten exactly what state he'd been in before he crashed into bed. He let out a groan and rubbed his head.

"Woah there, Silent Boy," a girl's voice called out from beside him, as he felt a hand on his shoulder, "Take it slow, would you?" He looked to his side to see a familiar face.

"Rai?"

"Well," she smiled, "at least you aren't completely out of it."

He buried his face in his hands. Everything from yesterday cam crashing down on him. The Darkness, the way he'd ruined that area of the forest, the horrors that had been flying through his mind. He sat up cross-legged, and groaned again. He'd been hoping all of yesterday had been a nightmare, but that sliver of hope was yanked away as soon as he saw Rai's face.

"Oh, man," he rubbed his face, looking up, "I don't even know what to say."

Rai chuckled, sitting across from him on the bed. He took a closer look at her, and noticed the bandage wrapped around her head. Her face had a few scratches here and there, but she otherwise looked unharmed. Nathan could only hope he looked the same way. From the way his face ached, he doubted that entirely too much.

"How long have I been out?" Nathan asked, almost dreading the answer.

"About five days," Rai answered, her face falling. Nathan balked, and let out a squeak, which he wasn't too proud to admit. Rai laughed, throwing her head back.

"Relax, dude, you were only asleep since yesterday evening. It's about eleven in the morning now," she said, checking her watch, " how're you feeling now?"

"Like I've been steamrolled," he answered, "Are the others here as well?" He looked around, finally taking in his surroundings. He seemed to be sitting in a regular room, which, given the day before, he was pleasantly surprised by. Clearly, the room was really old, almost to the point of looking abandoned, with nothing in it except the bed he sat on. The bedsheet and pillows seemed completely new, which looked completely out of place in the dank atmosphere of the room.

"I called them, when you started coming around, they should be coming," she raised a hand, sensing his next question, "and don't ask me where we are, none of us know too much about this place either. Roy told us strictly that he'd had 'orientation'," she made little air quotes with her fingers, "and we've been waiting for you to wake up, basically. The twins woke up about an hour ago, and I've been up since like, seven. Doing virtually nothing except getting knocked out doesn't exactly tire you out."

Nathan must've still been woozy, because it took him a moment to register what she'd just said. He noticed how her face had fallen, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you did a lot, yesterday. We didn't have any experience with anything, yesterday, and hey," he smiled softly, "if it makes you feel any better, all three of us passed out, just at slightly different times."

Rai looked up, and was about to say something, when the door burst open, and in stumbled the twins, closely followed by Roy and Dahle. The twins were covered in scratches and bruises, bandaged up everywhere, but their hyperactive aura seemed unharmed.

"DUDE," Fletcher exclaimed, "You're finally awake? Like, no joke, you only need like, a change of hair colour to blonde for me to call you sleeping beauty." She knelt beside his bed and clapped his back, ignoring the way he flinched.

"But, man, what you did yesterday was like, holy cow blew my frickin' mind."

Finch seemed quieter than usual, but nodded appreciatively at Nathan. Roy was the only one out of the whole bunch who looked miffed. He gestured to Rai, who vacated her place for him. He sat and looked at Nathan, concern betraying the look on his face.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Nathan nodded, a little self-consciousness settling on him. He hated being the centre of attention and now without fail, everyone in the room was looking at him. Regardless, he wasn't truly prepared for what came next.

"Are you," Roy started, his glare worsening by the second, "OUT OF YOUR MIND!?"

Nathan was so surprised he scooted back, while Fletcher fell backwards out of her position. He looked at Dahle, for some sort of explanation, but the man only offered a disappointed shake of his head.

"Do you have any idea how bad the situation could have gotten? I specifically told you to NOT try and defeat the Darkness, but I suppose you kids simply cannot understand simple instructions, can you? Oh no, you had to go around blowing up forests because, why, exactly, you're superheroes now all of a sudden who have no responsibility of what they do?"

Nathan narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything, while Rai spoke up, coming to their defence.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked, looking incredulous, "You told us to keep the Darkness away from the kids. And mind you, we did exactly that. Do you happen to have any idea what facing that thing is like? It's all your worst fears, in one place, so apologies if we didn't behave rationally."

"He didn't tell us anything before you woke up, by the way, so this is new to all of us," Fletcher whispered to him.

"You should've run. The minute Finch came to get you, you should've run then and there, but mister I'm-so-powerful-why-shouldn't-I-broadcast-it here just couldn't hold back, could he," Roy turned his glare back to Nathan, who shrunk back even further, his cheeks heating up.

"And now, we somehow have to come up with some explanation of this to tell the forest rangers and the police department, because no one believes an entire area of the forest can simply vanish," Dahle finally spoke.

Finch, who'd been surprisingly quiet this whole time, raised his hand.

"Um, sir, just curious, but," he cleared his throat, "Are you planning on keeping this whole, Darkness thing a secret?"

Roy looked at the boy like he'd dropped out of space.

"Well, no, we're going to put up billboards everywhere, do you want to help? Of course it'd to be kept a secret. Other than you four, and the sheriff, no one knows the details of this operation. All the men we've used have been told superficial things."

"But at this point, wouldn't like, calling in an entire force be more useful than us? And shouldn't everyone know about this so they can be prepared?" Rai asked.

"You were prepared. Lots of good that did you," Roy scoffed.

"Actually, they can't bring in soldiers and artillery, cause like, once close to the darkness, they're going to be powerless, and clearly weapons can't do jack squat to harm it. It would be beyond dangerous because, can you even imagine a giant group of people terrified and having hallucinations with weapons?" Finch said, then immediately realizing he'd spoken for the wrong side in the argument. Rai gave him a sour look and he blushed, mumbling something in a weak defence.

Although, what he had said had been right. Telling people wasn't an option. And no way was Nathan going to agree to letting people know about his abilities. He had enough trouble making friends and he didn't want to be shunned at school. And without a doubt had the word gotten out that kids with powers and abilities existed, and the supernatural was a real thing, their small town would be swarming with media and unwanted attention in no time. And no one knew how it would've been taken.

"Kid's right. Telling people isn't an option, but what I'm more concerned about is your states. Have you not seen yourselves? Nathan, when you came back, you were barely breathing. Blowing up the forest drained you completely, and didn't even put a scratch on the Darkness. You need to understand this," Roy's expression was slowly giving away to one of worry, "You can't, and I mean literally can't defeat the Darkness on your own. Not even with these three."

Silence hung in the room. Roy seemed to see what he had said hadn't exactly had the best effect on morale, so he backtracked quickly.

"Which is why now we're going to tell you about phase two of the plan."

"Back up," Rai held her hands in a time-out gesture, "Your plan has phases?"

"Woah, woah, back up more," Fletcher interjected, "you have a plan?"

"Gallagher, did you really think that after all this time of studying this we didn't come up with a plan to at least start defeating this thing?" Dahle gave her a look of contemplation. Roy stood up and brushed his legs.

"Can you walk?" he asked Nathan, who nodded weakly. He gestured to Fletcher to help him, as the girl helped him up, putting one of his hands around her neck.

"Come with me," Roy walked out the door, closely tailed by Dahle.

"We're probably going to the conference room," Rai offered, as all four of them walked behind them. Nathan tried to lean the least amount of his weight on Fletcher, since despite what she claimed, she was clearly in pain herself.

"Where are we, really?" he asked, to no one in general.

"From what I've seen, we're in an abandoned house, on the far side of town. We're pretty far from the town, but also pretty far from the woods, so that's a plus. These people have sort of teched it up to become a head quarters of sorts, and from what I can tell, besides the four of us and those two, there are two technicians and one nurse lady," Fletcher rattled off. Nathan looked at her in awe, as Roy and Dahle stopped and turned around.

"We haven't told you anything yet, how did you know that? Did you hack into our system or something?" Roy inquired. Fletcher laughed.

"Dude, have you like, seen your security system, it's so weak I could hack into it from my phone. I didn't," she held up a finger, "but I could've. I simply looked around and figured things out, it wasn't rocket science."

The officers shook their heads and kept walking. Nathan was once again surprised by the twins. Given Finch's analysis previously and now Fletcher's breakdown of their surroundings, the two were clearly much smarter than they let on. Nathan knew he'd seen them around in his school, but all of them belonged to different classes and friend groups, so he knew basically nothing about them. Even then, he knew he'd heard their last name pop up in various prizes.

The thought of school sent a wave of worry through him, as he was hit with an urgent and unsettling thought.

"Wait, sir, what about our parents?"

They stopped next to a room, and Roy opened the door, motioning for the kids to go inside. In the room, which was clearly, like Fletcher had said, a dining room, the dining table had been stripped of all decorations that made it look homely, and eight chairs surrounded it. In the centre, amongst a mess of book sat a projector, aimed at a screen that had been hastily set up on the far wall. The lighting was surprisingly bright for such a dull room, with its grey walls and complete lack of décor.

The four of them occupied a chair each, as Dahle and Roy stood at the end near the projector. Dahle started to tinker with it, while Roy turned to Nathan, who had been growing increasingly restless.

"That's the first thing we need to talk about. Basically, we've told your parents that the four of you have head off to a spring camp of sorts, which is affiliated with the police department. We've told them we picked four talented children from your school, and you happen to be one of them. All this was explained to them by Finch here, because the three of you passed out almost right after coming here, and he had to tell Rai and Nathan's parents that they had gone out for some work and would call them as soon as possible." He explained.

Nathan shook his head. No way his parents would've been satisfied by that little an explanation.

"Of course, this wasn't sufficient," Roy continued, "Both your parents came down to the station to talk to the sheriff, but he knows about this whole fiasco and backed our story. We've even managed to talk to your principle, telling him it was for a top-secret investigation on sorts, so when they inquired at school, our explanations were confirmed. Obviously, for them to be completely convinced, they'll need a phone call from you, which is the first thing you'll do after this discussion."

The projector started, and after clicking around for a little while, Dahle opened a presentation. Roy grinned, clearly pleased with his work.

"Now, as you all know, the Darkness is an entity made of pure evil. It's real, yet supernatural, and can somehow shape reality to whatever need be."

Fletcher snickered, "Yeah, no this is completely new information, we didn't just literally go a round with that thing."

Roy turned to look at her, "If I hear one more snarky remark from you, you're being robbed of ice-cream privileges."

Evidently that thought was horrifying enough for Fletcher to shut up. Nathan didn't even know they had ice-cream privileges here, but when he looked at Finch for an explanation, the boy simply smiled and shrugged.

"Moving on," Roy clicked on the next slide, which was an extract from the journal of Dr. Craig, the insane scientist. Nathan couldn't make out the fine writing, but Roy began to explain all the same.

"Craig has done a lot of research about this Darkness. In fact he's given almost is whole life to it. About ten years ago, he came to Oakwood Bay, because the news reports of this town had struck him as unique. He knew something was going on here. So, as you all clearly know, he kidnapped seventy-five kids from various parties on a single day, and took them out to a lab he had built. He'd always claimed the lab was for research purposes, but we'd found it all the same."

"Out of all the kids he'd taken, he selected a few to experiment on," Dahle added, "the ones he thought would be able to bear the effects. Finch, you were experiment one. The first child he took. It was because he succeeded on enhancing you, that he went on to your sister," he looked at the boy next to Nathan, whose expression looked astounded. Neither officer gave them time for reactions.

"He writes in his journals, that the darkness is essentially, an energy. It's a form of evil, supernatural energy, but it still is an energy, similar to heat and light. Now, after we captured him, we sent him to an asylum," Roy changed the slide to show the asylum in question, "and had weekly sessions of interrogations with him. Unfortunately, his mind had completely given out. He'd gone completely crazy, so any hope of gaining any information from him was lost. We've tried multiple times again now, when the incidents started happening again, but there's been no change in him."

The slide changed again to show a video, a recording of an interrogation room, and Nathan's throat closed up. That face... it sent chills all through him. Next to him, Fletcher stiffened. Craig's face was every bit as haunting and manic as it had been when he'd dragged Nathan to the labs day after day, sticking wires in him, telling him it was all for his own good.

But now, watching the interview, Nathan knew what Roy meant. The guy had gone completely off his rocker. He shook his head, mumbling what appeared to be absolute gibberish, no matter what the officer in front of him asked, who, from what Nathan remembered of the papers, was officer James O'Reilly, Roy's senior. It was almost too disturbing to look at, watching a man be reduced to this mess. Rai turned away and Nathan clenched his fist. Roy took the hint and changed the slide to another page from the journal.

"It's only gotten worse now," he said grimly. Nathan couldn't make out much from the page but the heading of the page was clear.

In a large font, it said SUBJECT: 04.

"Now, from yesterday's experience, all of you must have figured out that the Darkness isn't just a physical threat, it also affects people mentally. You can't go near it without being forced to face your darkest fears, and the more scared you get, the stronger the Darkness becomes."

"But you need to understand one thing about the enemy here," Dahle rested his hands on the table, "this thing, it isn't a sentient foe. We don't have a classic movie villain with a horrible plan to take over the world or anything. This is just a form of energy, which seeks to expand, grow in a sense. Now you may ask, why, if it isn't sentient, did it attack you when you went in?"

All four kids nodded in unison.

"Well, think of it this way. Is a chemical reaction sentient? No. But under a specific condition of its surroundings, it'll behave essentially one way, giving a single product. This is pretty much the same scenario."

It was beginning to make sense now, how mechanical the Darkness had been.

"Well, at least we won't have to sit through a villainous monologue, if y'know what I mean," Fletcher somehow found it in her to smirk, but immediately quieted down after receiving a glare from Dahle. "Please don't take away the ice-cream," she squeaked.

"Anyway," Roy said stressfully, "While the four of you together can keep the Darkness at bay, physically, all of you are at a weak point when it comes to mentally standing against it. Which is why you need help. Now Finch, you, were subject oh-one, Fletcher, you were oh-two. Rai, you were oh-three, and Nathan here," he looked at him and smiled, "was oh-five."

The effect of what he said resonated within the room almost immediately.

"What!?" Rai burst out, "You mean there's someone else out there, like us? How have we not known about this kid, this subject oh-four?"

"Because he moved away shortly after he'd gotten his powers, and with an understandable reason too," Roy stated.

"Wait, hold on. All four of us went against the Darkness and could barely hold it back. What's so special in this dude that he's suddenly going to be the main key in unlocking the secret?" Finch asked.

"He isn't the main key," Dahle answered, "But we need him if we're going to win this."

"Because you see," Roy set down the remote, and looked each of them in the eyes, one by one, "while you have the abilities to control elements, light, electricity and objects, he's not entirely like you. He has the ability to control other minds."

Everyone's jaws simultaneously hit the floor.

He was talking about a telepath.

~.~.~.~.

A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!!!! WOOHOO! ANOTHER CHAPTER UP I'M ON A ROLL WITH THIS HEHEHEHEHE.

SO WE FINALLY LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SITUATION AND FINALLY WE GET INTRODUCED TO THIS NEW CHARACTER HEHEHEHE.

More on him in the next chap. Don't worry, I aint makin' it easy for these kids anytime soon.

*evil smile*

But seriously, please tell me what you thought. I would love to know what improvements I could do, and what people think of my story. I'm trying to stick with the plot as well as give the characters their necessary growth, but hold your horses cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride ;-)

Until Next time then,

Wizard