Cataclysm

2.9

Only a few of them actually agreed to help me, once I proposed my plan to the other Gifteds, and Varien was definitely not on that list. That threw a brick at my plan.

My idea was to hit the games' power plant - they had a personal generator, so it would only knock out the power for the games and surrounding facilities, and probably not the entire city. No power meant no fights, and that meant I had time to figure out a better way to do this. I needed Varien because even without his power, he was good at blending into the shadows to avoid being seen. With his power, he'd be able to knock out their generators easily.

I quickly ran through who I had on my side: Aaron, an illusionist, earth moving powers, and Sky, though I found it kind of ironic that he could control water. But that was it. We could get the job done, especially with the couple of fireworks I'd bought, but it would be hard and dangerous. I needed someone else with a power that would make things explode.

Even before I approached him, I felt guilty. It had only been two days since his outburst.

I found him sitting on a balcony with Sky, both of them talking in hushed tones. I took a breath to ask my question, and he started to say something - no doubt telling me to go away - but for some reason, he paused. "What?" he muttered instead.

"Leo, I need your help," I said.

"With what?" he grumbled.

I braced myself for what was coming. I knew what he'd say, but I figured I'd try anyway. "I have this idea -"

"I know," he interrupted. "Now you want me to help you, don't you? You want my power."

I shifted nervously. "Yes and no. Nothing I say will change your mind, so I'm not going to say anything."

"How could you ask him to do this?" Sky suddenly demanded, gesturing roughly at his friend. "Look at him! You know what he's done, and now you're going to ask him to put himself in danger like that?"

I hadn't expected Sky to explode. He seemed like such a cool and collected person, and I was caught off guard. "No, I -"

"No!" Sky shouted, his voice cracking. "The answer is no! Leave him alone, Joel!"

My eyes flickered to Leo helplessly. "Do you want to help?" I asked softly.

"No," he mumbled.

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks for listening."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Okay," I repeated. "I'm not going to force you to do anything. Your answer was no. Thanks for listening."

He exchanged a glance with Sky and then sighed almost angrily. "Alright, fine, I'll do it."

"You will?" My hopes rose against my will.

"With you acting all nice, I'll feel guilty if I don't," he grumbled.

"You sure?" Sky asked.

"I guess so." Leo kept his eyes on the ground, staring at the camp miserably. "When do we leave?"

"Tonight," I said proudly. Now we had a chance. Now we had some fire power on our side.

"Yippee," Leo muttered.

...

"Braken, why do you walk like that? Are you hurt?" I asked. He just shook his head, but he was stiff as he moved, and that worried me. I hadn't let him go on this mission with us because I didn't want him to get hurt, but it seemed like he was hurting anyway. "Can I help you?"

He hesitated, and then sighed and pulled me off to a corner, slowly tracing letters on my wrist. BACK HURTS TO DAY.

"May I see?" I asked softly.