Stolen Powers: Rise of the NGZ

Chapter Two: Heartbroken

Brianna felt numb for the past few weeks, emotionally, that is. It felt like when every hour passed, she'd think about...him. Thinking about him pissed her off more than it should. It's one thing to leave and say goodbye for a while, but without telling her? All Quentin did was give her a desperate stare and turn his back on not just her, but the entire group.

The thing was, she wasn't even that mad; Brianna felt more disappointed than angry.

"Why does this have to weigh so heavily on my mind?" she mumbled to herself. "It's in the past. Get it out of your head, Bri."

"Still can't get over it?"

Brianna, still laying in her bed staring at the ceiling, already knew who it was. She signed and turned to face her. "No, Kaylie, I can't. I feel betrayed, you know?"

She nodded. "I know you do. We all do. I don't think anyone really expected Quentin to do something like that. He seemed like he loved us."

Brianna stayed silent. Hearing Kaylie say that made her remember something he said around a month ago. She couldn't exactly remember most of it, but it was along the lines of him asking her about whether or not Lin was truly evil or not. At the time, Brianna was struggling from a bad migraine due to her overusing her powers on Mason's father. Because of that, she couldn't remember some of it. She sighed, failing to recall back to it. "I know you loved him."

Kaylie perked up her head, clearly taken aback by it. She began to blush. "U-Um, I-I-I mean, I don't-"

Brianna smiled, causing her to stop. "It's okay. We were official, but we never took anything too serious. Besides, if Lin found out, we'd both be on the Death Wheel."

Hearing that name made the both of them shiver. Kaylie sighed. "I hate his guts now, anyway. I don't care about him anymore."

Brianna didn't quite know how to take that. Her mind was in a state where she knew that it was best to move on and forget about it, but her heart said otherwise. To avoid a conflict with a fashion freak, (and we all know how well arguments with sassy girls go), she reluctantly agreed. "Yeah, I know you do. I do too."

"You don't seem like it," she said. Kaylie finally stepped inside the room and sat down at the and of the bed and faced her. "I know everyone thinks of me as sassy and ignorant, but you can talk to me. I can keep secrets."

The older girl looked towards the window. It showed a vast rain forest with the sounds of many bugs singing their usual songs. It was annoying for a while, but the Falcons managed to get used to it after a while.

"You're sweet, Kaylie," Brianna answered after a while. "But there isn't much to talk about. You already know how I felt about him. It broke my heart."

Kaylie slowly nodded. "Seeing our supposed leader betray us as that felt like a spear going through my heart, but you know dang well that you can't show that to Lin. He'll punish you for that."

She was right. Dr. Lin had told them to not speak of his name or show any reticent towards Quentin. If so, they'd be locked in their rooms with very little to eat for two weeks. On top of that, an eight-page essay (front and back) on why they should not do what they've done. Trevor had to do something similar to that, but surprisingly not to that extreme.

"Yeah, I know, and I'm trying." She looked back at her friend. "I really am."

Kaylie surprisingly smiled softly. She said in a gentle tone, "And I'm feeling the same pain as the rest of us. I know you've had it a little rougher than the rest of us, but you just have to keep your head held high. Michelle might force you to if you don't, and I'm sure you wouldn't want that."

Michelle was normally bossy, but after Quentin left, she sort of switched ten times worse. She was always up everyone's nose, kicking them around like slaves, and one slip up might cost a limb. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but two hundred pushups, if not more, might just feel like it.

Not to mention, her power is also extremely painful. The sudden drain of energy is too much for the brain to process, so it sends pain to your nerves. The longer she holds it on you, the more it hurts. What makes Brianna more nervous is that she's beginning to do it out of nowhere. It was getting to a point where Michelle does it for fun.

"I don't want Michelle to lead us," said Kaylie after some time passed. "She scares me now."

Bri nodded. "Me too, but we have no choice but to deal with it. Sucks, but if any of us say something, we'd get punished."

Kaylie didn't say anything else. Instead, she yawned and stood up. "Well, I'll head on back to bed before someone catches me out of my room. You'll be okay, right?"

It seemed really out of the ordinary for her to even ask that question. Hearing that out of her mouth even seemed foreign. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

She smiled and turned to leave. "Good night."

"Good night, Kay."

She closed the door and left Brianna to herself once again. Although, she had to admit that her emotions were definitely calmer now that she talked to someone, even though it wasn't necessarily a lot about what was going on.

A weird feeling suddenly came over her. It felt like a sudden realization. Now that Quentin was gone, there were only two people that could really stand up to the Powerclan. Herself, and unfortunately Michelle. Trevor was also powerful, but when it came to combat, he usually chickened out. On top of that, Lin usually held him back from actually killing anyone, a move Brianna certainly wasn't expecting.

Brianna eventually rolled over to face the window, and sleep eventually caught up with her.

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Donovan laid wide awake in his bed. This was becoming more normal than he intended it to be, but there was one person on his mind that was causing this. No, not Jamie, believe it or not.

It was Mason.

It may not seem like it to other people, but Mason's bedroom was usually neater and well-organized. Now, there are clothes everywhere, his bed is always messy, stray bottles of water and soda are sometimes littered, it's a mess. That's why Donovan was worried.

He sighed and sat back up in his bed. It was so quiet throughout the halls that you could hear the soft humming of the air conditioner. During the day, the building was usually bustling with constant activity. It was tempting to believe that Donovan was the only one here.

Switching his lamp back on, he reached for his notebook. In it, he usually wrote down the stuff that he found necessary to remember in the future. Whether that was reminders of stuff to do the next day or years from now. He always read through from the first page to where he left off. As he was scanning, something caught his eye.

"Mason is turning into a different person since this has started. He was usually the guy you'd see in class that doesn't talk much, except to his close friends. Sometimes, he'd get the occasional girl that wants him, but he lightly pushes her off and moves on. So, it surprised me that he chose to keep Bailey."

He stared at the last line. Something about it unnerved him a little, and it gave him a feeling of dread.

"Mason, I think she's the only one that can save you now," he said to himself.

No, there was something else about it. There was something that wasn't settling right with him, but there was no way to tell what it was. Donovan guessed that he'd have to wait and see.

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