TalentMaster

Two.

I woke up... On a train?

"Ugh.... My head hurts..." I mumbled to myself. Across from me was Jason, who was layer out in a restless sleep. He must have been having a nightmare. I got up, holding onto a hand rail to steady myself. Once I was comfortable with my footing, I walked over to Jason.

"Hey. Wake up." I shook him slightly and he instantly shot up, gripping my shoulders tightly. He was panting heavily and sweating buckets. After a moment he composed himself and rose, not suffering from the headache or nausea that I did.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"A train, I guess. Let's go look around." I answered. Without bothering to wait for an answer, I opened the door to the next car and saw the girl from before, with girls that looked around the same age as Jason and I, and another boy our age. They were in the middle of a pretty heated argument.

"You run off, into enemy territory, show your face, AND almost die." said the boy.

"Hey... Cut her some slack, that boy was obviously a Berserker. You know you wouldn't have done any better against him." said one of the girls.

"I'm with Don on this one, sis. What Leah did was pretty reckless. She could have been killed and we would've lost a good soldier." said the other girl. Then I spoke up.

"I wasn't going to kill her..." I lied. I probably would've.

"He's up! And his friend!" exclaimed one of the females. "I'm Tyra!" She said happily.

"You know Leah," she pointed to the female I had fought.

"That's my sister Drew and then there's Don." Only 5'3", Tyra was pretty short. Even shorter compared to me. After she gave me a welcome hug, she spoke again, "So who might you be?"

"I'm David. And my friend over there is Jason." I told them, figuring that I might as well be friendly. Tyra went to give Jason a welcome hug, but as soon as they came into contact Jason began to panic.

"H-Hey! Touching isn't a good idea!" He yelled, trying to pull back. It was too late, and she had already touched him. "This isn't gonna be pretty." He muttered, matter of factly.

Fear and feelings of terror would course through the girl, the parts of her brain that controlled fear lighting up. Her worst fears would come true around her, and he could see hers. Everyone hating and mocking her, laughing and pointing. Then Tyra fell to the ground, holding her head as tightly as possible. "No... No. No. No. No. No." She said, tears falling freely.

"What did you do to her?!" exclaimed Drew. Don was at her side, holding the crying female in a comforting way.

"I didn't mean to..." Jason began. "I think it's my talent. I had nightmares about this kind of stuff happening... I can see the nightmares of others and bring them into a false reality." Drew looked at him warily. Tyra was beginning to get better, her sobs less shaking, her tears drying her as she fell silent.

"So... You have a shade type talent? That's pretty rare. We only have a few of those at the Institute. Most people are elementals." said Leah.

"What's the Institute?" I asked, curious.

"We're the underground resistance, fighting against the King and his armies. The Learning Institute For Special Kids. TLIFSK for short. Or just the Institute." said Leah. "And we're home."

The train that we were in began to climb up a hill, daylight shining upon us.

* *

My jaw instantly dropped. How could some place so...big have gone unnoticed by the military?