Anomalous

24-Little Black Blinking Thing

Immediately, I run over to help Leila, who's taking on a much larger man.

She whips around and slams her hand onto his shoulder. Her hand glows white-yellow, and I hear a singing sound. The man screams, and falls to the floor, a large burn on his shoulder.

"I didn't know you could do that," I grin at her.

"I didn't either," She smiles back.

Since Leila clearly needs no help, I run over to Ryith instead. Seriously, who left him to fight on his own?

I quickly imagine duplicates of Ryith and I, and together with the holograms, we surround the kako.

Confused, he whirls around, trying to decide which one of us is real.

I nod to Ryith, a little gesture that says go!

He swings his rake at the man's legs, sweeping him to the ground.

I aim my crossbow and shoot, wincing at the corpse.

Ryith runs off to help Oakley, who's trying to take on two kakos at once.

"Autumn! Look out!" I hear a voice call from across the room.

I whirl around and duck, just as a girl kako shoots. I silently thank whoever it was that yelled out the warning.

I fire a steady stream of arrows, and the kako goes down. A sliver of guilt starts to wiggle its way into my gut, but I push it away.

Across the room, I watch Nox flip a kako into the ceiling, then he lets them crash back down into the floor.

Nox grips his head, groaning.

"You need to stop before you overdo it! Do you want to faint? Trust me, you don't," Leila says. Her tone says sarcasm but her eyes say concern.

I hear a scream, and I look over to see a kako pulling a screaming Ryith out of the room. The kako clamps her hand over his mouth, but his muffled screams continue. The power flickers for a moment, but his screams fade and it turns back on.

I run after them, but I turn around when I hear a girl scream.

Another kako is dragging Mercedes away. Her taser lays on the other side of the room, presumably knocked out of her hand.

Her eyes wild, she thrashes, kicks and attempts to scream.

Suddenly, I see her hands go visibly blue, and she grips the kako's arm. Quickly, ice starts to spread across it.

The kako winces in pain at first, but then he smiles and puts something on the back of Mercedes' neck, and the ice melts.

I whirl around, trying to see how many are still accounted for, but to my horror, I'm alone.

I hear a muffled scream in the distance, and I follow it, running as fast as my still bruised legs will take me.

I see a kako and a curly head of hair disappear around the corner, and I sprint after them.

I skid to a stop, aim, and fire.

The kako drops, and I run over to Oakley.

"He stuck something on my neck, and the moment he did, I couldn't use my anomaly anymore," Oakley looks at me with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, we'll get it off," I say, bending over quite a bit to look. A little black circle with a green blinking light is stuck on his neck like a sticker.

I grimace, "Some of your hair is stuck in it."

I try and pull the curls out gently, but they won't come out, and neither will the little black blinking thing.