Mutation

Chapter 22: Illusions and Confusion

Hazel

I couldn't believe my eyes. Or what was left of my now fuzzy eyesight. Linus stood before me, laughing at my weakness. The smoke and the heat of the fire surrounding me would kill me at any moment. But why hasn't it already? This was unnatural. Something was wrong with Linus.

"Hello, beautiful Hazel," he said, smiling. I wished I could get up and throw him across the room into the fire, but I was bound up with the invisible ropes too tightly. I tried to concentrate enough with my mind to throw a force field at him, or even communicate with Leo or anyone else telepathically for help. My mind was too dizzy to concentrate from the lack of fresh oxygen reaching my lungs.

"Linus," I gasped. "What? How..." I tried to speak, but the ropes only got tighter to prevent me from talking, screaming, and barely breathing.

Linus smiled his sickly smile again. I remembered his eyes being brownish before, but now they seemed black. Then, he snapped his fingers and the flames around me disappeared. There was no more intoxicating smoke and blistering heat to swallow me up. The ropes remained around me, only less tighter. The room looked completely normal now, except Linus glowering before my weak, defenseless body.

"You see what I just did, Hazel?" Linus said. "I created this illusion with my own powers just for you. The fire and smoke? Fake. The ropes? Fake. All of it is in your head. I have the ability to create powerful illusions that seem impossibly real to people. I even fooled a telepath."

The last sentence he said made my stomach sink. He had fooled me. Linus was a mutant, and a pretty powerful one too. I had to figure out a way to fight the illusion. If I could just concentrate on believing the ropes around me were fake, then I could free myself to attack. I had to conceal my fear and focus. Focus....

I had to distract him first.

"Linus, why are you doing this?" I asked him, trying my best to empty my mind of the fear I was feeling.

"You haven't figured it out yet, Hazel? Gee, I would've thought you could've figured all this out already. Yet, I created an illusion for myself by making others believe I was just a troubled non-mutant. Even that fooled you, Hazel. The so-called, 'Best Telepath Around.'"

I had to admit, Linus was clever. He did fool everyone at the colony. Even me. I couldn't help but feel ashamed that I didn't figure this all out before. I was supposedly powerful like he was.

"You still didn't answer my question, Linus. WHY are you doing this?" I had to keep him talking. Maybe if I attacked at just the right moment...

"God, Hazel, stop acting dumb! I should kill you right now, but I'll leave that to Dr. E," he sneered.

I'll leave that to Dr. E.

I should have known Linus worked for that monster Evansby.

And it was that very thought that caused me to snap. I couldn't control my powers any longer. The ropes snapped, and I thrust a gigantic force field outwards, probably the size of the whole colony. It was stressful on my body, but I couldn't stop now. My mind was racing, and I knew this could turn out violent.

That's when I burst the force field, and the whole building exploded.

Leo

I skidded to a stop in front of the flaming Z building. Chunks of the building flew past me. I felt like I was in the middle of an action movie, only it was 10 times louder than the theater speakers. I had a million questions on my mind. And I was terrified to discover the answers to them.

What the hell was going on?

Where was Hazel?

Where was Evansby? Linus?

Where is the Mutant Army to help when we desperately needed them right about now?

What about Dana, and Maxine, and Jazz and Sonni? Even Dr. Baker and Sergeant Hammond?

I didn't have time to ask any more in my head. My answer to question number 2 was levitating above the burning Z building, throwing pieces of ceiling and wall and whatever else that seemed deadly at somebody. And that somebody happened to be Linus, who was floating in the air just like Hazel. Hazel's eyes were glowing and bright purple, which was a terrifying thing to see in the darkness. And (don't tell Hazel I cussed) she currently looked pissed.

Right now, I didn't know what to do. If I tried to help Hazel while she was in her current state, she might rip my guts apart. If I tried to crush Linus, there was no telling what he might do to me.

Then I heard Linus yell at Hazel, "I didn't want to do this, Hazel, but you leave me no choice!"

Hazel then screamed in fear, a horrible scream, and floated back to the ground. I didn't know what she was looking at, because it was one of Linus's illusions. Whatever it was, it made her cry and claw desperately at the ground to try and hold it. Immediately, I charged at Linus. He was so busy torturing Hazel that he didn't see me coming.

Not controlling my strength one bit, I punched him in the stomach. Linus groaned and instantly started gagging on blood. I knew I probably broke his ribs, but I didn't care. I wanted Linus dead at the moment. My ears were relieved to not hear Hazel's pained screams anymore.

While Linus was coughing up blood on the ground, I zoomed over to Hazel. She was curled in a ball, shaking and staring at the spot on the ground where the illusion laid. I wondered what she saw, but that wasn't the problem. I knew there was something terribly wrong when Maxine, Dana, Jazz, Sonni, and a few other kids they'd rescued appeared at my side. It was now nearly pitch black in the colony.

"Leo, Evansby and his army are invading the colony," Maxine said.