Multidimensional Fighters

Chapter 8: A Friend Turns

They were all sitting around the fire for a while when they started to hear some scratches, "What was that?" Steven said jumping to his feet, pulling Blunt out. He looked around spastically like a lizard. "Just calm down Steven you're going insane, we all are in the hell hole." Nathan said looking down at the ground. Max slammed his hands into the ground shattering the silence, "So Bradey! What exactly do you remember happening?"

Bradey's eyes shot up staring at Max, "Well... Now that I think about it, I don't remember anything thats been going on besides a crystal creature holding me up and waking up." His eyes slowly moved down to the ground once more. Nathan looked over at Bradey noticing him gazing off and his stare becoming empty, "Bradey! Stay with us man!" He yelled and Bradey blinked rapidly looking back up. "Sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me, when I first saw him, he was made of crystals but the second time he looked different. Like he'd grown bigger."

There was another scrape slightly closer than the first, "Steven, we're waiting for you." whispered a voice. "Huh? Who's there!?" Steven yelled out looking around quickly. Nathan looked at him suspiciously, "What's wrong Steven?" He asked slowly walking toward him. As he moved closer he noticed Stevens eyes looked different. "Steven what's wrong with you? Snap out of it!" He yelled and slapped Steven causing him to fall to the floor. "What the hell man!? What was that for?" He yelled holding his hand to his cheek.

"Your eyes. They're different, they aren't your normal eyes." Nathan said quietly cautiously backing away from Steven. "What are you talking about? How can they not be mine?" Steven asked struggling to get back up, "Maybe it's because of how dark it is in here, or something might have hit it and busted a blood vessel, anything is possible but..." He paused hearing the loud roar of the creatures voice, "They are MY eyes, a covenant if you would, binding us together. He is now my faithful servant and must do whatever I say." Bradey, Max and Nathan looked up trying to find the creature, "What do you want with us!? What have we ever done to you!?" Max yelled out with a long silence following.

"Kill them." The creature spoke in a low, hardened voice, a blur of light flashed past them and disappeared. "Steven, are you okay? You aren't actually going to listen to that, thing, are you?" Bradey asked calmly as they all looked at Steven. He was sitting on the ground limp breathing heavily, "Isn't my master amazing? He uses words so exceptionally!" He slowly looked up smiling demonically, "What's wrong guys? Cat got your tongue or are you actually scared of me? Oh how absolutely terrible that would be hmm?"

Bradey, Max and Nathan stood staring at Steven, or what had once been Steven. "What are you doing Steven, this isn't you!" The three of them pulled out their weapons ready to fight as Steven slowly stood up with his head hanging down, "So how are we doing this? Are you going to run or just block my attacks since you're probably too afraid to kill a friend? That would be oh so boring if you were to do that, I'd rather you fight me so I can just kill the three of you." He said slowly looking up smiling at them.

In a swift and sudden movement, he lurched forward without needing to move his feet. Bradey Max and Nathan all dove out of the way rolling and looking back looking toward Steven, "What is going on? He isn't even touching the ground!" Nathan yelled breathing heavily. Max stood up and pulled out Thunder, "It doesn't matter what's wrong, we need to knock him out so we can try and fix him!" He charged forward and Steven turned toward him shooting a corrosive shard at Max. It hit Thunder and a huge wave of energy exploded in front of him sending him flying back hitting the wall.

"Max!" Nathan yelled standing up as quickly as he could and he turned toward Steven, " What the hell are you doing!? He is your friend! Just look at what you're doing and stop it Steven!" He yelled pulling out Cold and Hate connecting them together creating Death. He began spinning it around himself generating an immense amount of sparks and flame, "I've been learning how these work, alone Cold can create lightning which can explode violently, Hate can generate heat, which creates fire. When I put them together, the lighting intensifies the heat of the fire and the fire intensifies the explosion of the lightning."

"So what? You heard Max, you can't kill me!" Steven said as he positioned himself to attack. "Oh no, that's not my plan," Nathan said laughing as he turned toward Max and Bradey, "Sorry guys but this is the only way I can do this." He threw Death into the air then jumped into the air grabbing it and slammed it into the ground sending out a shockwave of energy knocking them all out except himself.
Nathan stood up looking around to make sure Steven hadn't escaped, "Good, now I need to find a way to get rid of whatever he's being controlled with." He said realizing he was talking to himself. He smacked himself in the forehead and walked over to Steven. "Maybe it's..." He smacked his own face again, he began examining Steven to try and find what was happening.

He pulled Stevens eyelids open and thought, 'if I can find what's wrong or we'll never get out of here.' He released Stevens eyes and began to look around more, he noticed a small pentagram on Steven's hand. 'What the hell is this? Could this be what's making him do all of this? How am I supposed to get rid of it?' His mind raced with questions, "I'll release him, for a price." came a mysterious voice. "What do you want?! Who are you?!" Nathan yelled looking around.

The creature had disappeared, Nathan continued thinking to try and find a solution. "Just one small thing and he's back to himself again." The voice returned. Nathan looked around quickly, "Just tell me what you want!" He screamed hearing only the echo of his voice. "I want my power back." There was a long silence, "When you walked into that room, the door malfunctioned and I used my power to try and fix it but it was forced it into you instead. If you let me take my power then you can have this flesh bag back."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Nathan asked with his head hanging down. "Like this." The creature said as it slammed to the ground behind Nathan with his arm held back ready to strike. Just as he forced his arm forward, Nathan spun around and shattered the creature's arm with a blow from Death, "I never said I would do it, and now look what you've done, you revealed to me that you are weaker without your power. Using common sense I figured out that the only way to kill you is using your own power."

With a loud roar the creature slammed its other arm against a wall and jumped away, "Damn your mortal soul! I will have my revenge!" The creature had disappeared back into the darkness. Nathan fell back sitting down breathing heavily, he heard shuffling coming from his side. "Steven, is that you? Are you alright?" "Ya, why does my head hurt so bad? Where are we?" Steven said grabbing his head. "Don't worry about it man, I'll explain later. Just rest a bit, I know I need it." Nathan laid back and closed his eyes thinking to himself, we have to be close, I can't lose them and I can't keep fighting them.