The Last Flameling of Solnis

Inferno

"Don't fall asleep now!" Muse orders the cold and draining touch of their leech fades. I'm struck in the jaw as I start to slowly slip back into consciousness. My head is spiraling as if I have just come off of a super charged merry-go-round. My vision sluggishly inches back.

Through blurred vision I scan the room. There's a recessed light in the low ceiling that acts like a spot light for me. I can see three men surrounding me. The two on the sides slowly turn back into the twins. Their copper skin seems unfazed by our fight. They both stand there dressed down, their waves just catching the light. Up so close, so visible, they don't even look as old as I once thought. They can't be more than twenty-one.

     They can't be them though. They were both just laid on the floor of the tank room, but now they're here and they seem perfectly fine. I try to rationalize my reality but can't seem to wrap my mind around it.

     "You should be dead." I growl through my confusion at Muse.

     "Surprised to see me?" I actually am but I won't let on to it. I won't give them the satisfaction.

     "How did you do it? Is there a healer here?" I respond as calmly as possible. "There are other people here aren't there? Or are those other tanks I saw just for show?"

     "Someone's got a lot of questions." Wraith, the one I spared, laughs. "You barely did any damage to us at all. Just our clones." He continues as he approaches me. I prepare myself to ignite them both in hot red flame, making it final this time. Show them what I can really do, until the next words slither out of his mouth. "It was all a test of fight or flight."

     "Fight or flight?" I question.

     "Yeah. We had to test your limits and you showed us what we needed to see." He must see the confusion splayed in the shift of my brow as he continues. "Don't worry. We were in the same position as you. We're just like you."

     "You're nothing like me. Y'all are all part of some sick joke. You screw with people's heads, people's lives,  and play mind games," I cut him off, trying to get a hold on my anger.

     "You're not human and we sure as hell aren't, blessed by the stars and such, so that kinda makes us the same." Muse proclaims. He slowly works his way over to me as well and before I know it the two of them are directly at the sides of my face.

"What you fought back there was a doppelganger. We baited you with a few insults to see what you'd do to us and it worked. You're well on your way to Specialist status." Wraith finishes too close for comfort. I try to grab his throat but I'm stopped by the chair. As soon as I try to move, the arms of the chair grow over mine. The chair liquefies and encases my arms in a steel shell that quickly hardens.

     "That's courtesy of Dusk himself." He gestures to the chair and then to a silent Drew Sr. who now sits on a Plexiglas desk I hadn't paid any attention to.

     "Allow me to explain," he offers as he unfolds his arms. I don't even feel his pressing aura. It's as though he's unguarded and relaxed. At home. "That is one of my many ingenious inventions. That chair is made of an engineered metal alloy with the ability to sense and act upon movement due to the organic matter of nature's predators. The more you move, the more the chair will restrain you. If you fight it, it will compress you tighter and tighter, eventually killing you like a snake would a rodent." As sick as his creation, his eyes light up upon his explanation of it. And with that in mind, I remain still. I don't trust anything they say but I won't take any chances either.

     "Alright then, what exactly is a specialist?" I question moving straight to the point.

     "Adventure, power, wealth and most importantly esotericism." Wraith answers with excitement.