Argent Eye II

26

Irina and I filled Ronan and David in on what the guy had said, and what we saw before he vanished. Ronan had also managed to pick up a piece of the frozen fake Prometheum from the floor, which he said he'd get to someone to be tested.

"Well, we found some of the students." David pointed out. "But they disappeared."

"How is it that his power was able to hurt you?" I asked, looking at David. "You can't tell me that he was actually stronger than you?"

"He'd barely had the power two minutes." Ronan said. "You could tell. He was clumsy."

"It wasn't like my lightning." David said, his hand on his chin. "It felt wrong."

I remembered when I'd taken the fire from the girl- it wasn't the same as my fire. It felt polluted. Unclean.

"It's unnatural." Ronan said. "Artificial, if you like. The power they have does not come from the universe- it comes from a lab."

"Like the fake Prometheum." I pointed out.

"Yes." Ronan nodded. "Even though they use our power and our materials to create it, it's still not the same."

"The thing that pushed us over." Irina said, looking at me. "It was like air, but at the same time it wasn't. I manipulate the air from my surroundings- this definitely wasn't from the surroundings."

This was all rather confusing, but at the same time it made sense.

"And it seems they have the ability to teleport, too." Ronan said. "Meaning they must have Dreamwalkers down there as well as Argents."

"How would they even get near a Dreamwalker?" I asked, knowing that they were all old and wise and very powerful.

Ronan shrugged. "How was it that you weren't able to call me from inside the lab?"

He had a point. "So do you think you'll be able to teleport in and out of there?"

"Probably not." He said. "Which is why we need a careful plan. If I can't teleport, then it's going to be dangerous. If their elements can hurt you, it's going to be dangerous. Everything about it all is going to be dangerous."

I sighed. Initially, I hadn't thought the situation to be that bad. When I escaped once, I thought I'd be able to do it again, but likelihood was that the doctor had upped his game. He was clearly recruiting more students for his experiments, to create more artificial Argents. Who knew what else he was up to? He had access to Black Prometheum, Dreamwalkers, and everything he shouldn't even know about.

"You two made a pretty good team, though." David said, looking at Irina and I.

I looked at Irina, and smiled. She smiled back.

"We did." I agreed. "In fact, I'm curious as to how you got outside before me."

"I jumped out the window." She said casually. "Used the air to cushion my landing."

"Oh." I said, as if it were obvious. "And that whip thing? When you grabbed his ankle?"

She smirked, clearly proud that she could do that. "That took me a long time to get the hang of." She said. "I can compress the air to make it grab things."

My eyebrows went up. "You're gonna teach me that." I said, keen to discover more creative ways in which to use my elements.

"Anyway, I'm not the only one with tricks up my sleeve." She said. "Since when could you fuse with the ice?"

"You can fuse?" David's head perked up.

"I figured it out yesterday." I said. "But I can only do it up to my elbows."