Young Writers Society

"Huh, that's a fun name to call a set of powers," said Stean, "not what you expect."

"Wait a minute though, all humans have that where you're from," said James, " this is totally not fair."

"Like you ever cared about not having powers," said Harry.

"This is more on behalf of the human race," said James.

"Hold up...I think you missed something important out of that. I can very clearly see that this one isn't human, so he's a demon isn't he?" asked Vankous.

Harry looked at Mage, raising his eyebrows, silently asking him for permission to reveal his secret. Judging by the way his hood was pulled over tight, he didn't seem to want to let on that he was a demon.

Mage wished he could deny it and say that he was human, but he knew that they would never believe him. Vankous was already convinced he wasn't human; his eyes had probably given it away. He didn't meet Harry's gaze when he looked over at Mage. Mage didn't even realize he had been given a look in the first place.

He took a deep breath.

Then he pushed back his hood, revealing flame-colored hair and a pair of horns. His tail, which had previously been incredibly still underneath his cloak, started to swish from one side to the other.

"I am," he said, looking Vankous right in the eye. "I'm a demon."

He took a step closer.

"And you can ask me any questions you have about who I am," he added. He fought to keep his voice level. He just knew there was another voice crack waiting to happen, but he wasn't going to let it happen here or now.

"Well crap then," said Vankous, staring right back at mage. "And stop staring, its weird."

"Why is that crap exactly?" asked Harry.

"Yeah I don't see any issues here," said Stean.

"The issue is that...wait you don't see any issue there?" asked Vankous, "Seriously?"

Stean and Harry both shook their heads. Harry even looked over at Mage.

"He's another species, not the strongest of species, but I really don't see an issue there," said Harry.

"No doesn't that mean you're brother is slipping up a bit down, you know...there," said James.

Stean and Harry facepalmed simultaneously.

"Dude, demon doesn't mean he's an actual demon," said Harry, "its a name used for a different species that lives in a totally different environment. I don't think we've actually encountered Mage's species before, even me and you know what that means."

"That you've been sloppy?" asked Vankous.

"Really?" said Harry.

"Okay, problem solved then," said James, jumping in before they started an argument.

"Not quite, I guess we should still check the powers," said Harry.

"Yup," said Vankous, "I want to calculate the levels."

"Fine," said Harry.

He turned back to Mage. "Hmm, tail, I haven't worked with someone that had a tail in...oh my God its been too long. Hmm..tails are super useful though, especially on missions like this where a ton of parkour is involved..."

"...or levitating for people who don't waste their energy unncessarily," added Vankous.

Harry frowned.

"...or have practically infinite energy," corrected Vankous.

Harry rolled his eyes. "That frown was to tell you not to comment."

"I k..."

"And let's move on," said Stean jumping in this time. "So, Mage, just how big of a fireball can you make? Nice hair color by the way."

When Vankous continued to talk like he wasn't there, Mage wanted to say something. He was going to say something. But then Harry beat him to it. Worse, most of the conversation was going completely over his head. He felt like he was back in Infernum, listening in on a conversation his parents were having with his relatives on topics he could just barely comprehend at the time: human culture and the war.

"I've never tried to see how big I could make it," Mage said. "There hasn't ever been a need to."

He glanced at the rest of the group.

"And I don't need to be tested," he said. "I've traveled alone in woods like this for the past three years. I know how to fight using my Sin."

He looked away.

After a moment of hesitation, he glanced back at Stean.

"...But thanks for the compliment," he muttered.

"W..." began Vankous.

"No problem, "said Stean, silencing Vankous' snapping reply with a quick glare, "well then, we can't guarantee you're going to be safe here against these creatures."

"Or of any use at al..." began Vankous again but was silenced by another glare from Harry this time.

"Let's figure that out when we run into one. Between the four of us, we should be able to easily dispatch the thing anyway...hmm...unless." Harry winked at the other three.

Stean shook his head violently.

"Oh yeah it can be quite violent sometimes," said Vankous, catching on. James nodded enthusiastically and Stean sighed.

"Don't let them get to you. It is easily dispatchable. Shall we just get going then, Captain Hardy?"

"Right...Mage, you ready? Vankous, Stean, James, ready?" asked Harry.

Mage didn't miss the wink, but he didn't question what it was for. He just wanted to find whatever the group was looking for so he could prove that he could protect himself - and that he didn't need to be tested.

"I'm ready," he said, giving a nod. Stean had called Harry captain. That implied that Harry wasn't just a member of this group; he was the leader. Mage didn't know too much about government and military, but captain was a title he had heard his parents mention years ago when talking about the war. He knew it held power.

Just who was Harry?

"Perfect," said Harry. He turned to the other threw.

"Weapons hot," said James," except the flamethrower, for obvious reasons, I did manage to find one of the newer cold guns on the way here, so that should hopefully do the trick."

"Nice," said Harry, "Stean."

"Lasers ready to fly, and I packed my javelin just in case," said Stean.

"Good call with the javelin," said Harry.

"And I did not bring my staff because I don't like burns on that perfect shade of white on the wood thank you very much, but...well...my mind is here and that will be sufficient, also I brought several bags of chips."

"The best item so far," said Harry, nodding.

"What are you packing?" asked Stean.

"At the moment, kind of nothing, but kind of everything 'cause this was not supposed to get this dangerous, but lemme call my sword real quick, just in case." He held out his hand.

There was a sudden intense flash of dark cyan and a small pen appeared in his hand, looking for all the world like a normal clicker pen expect instead of a brand name it had Ancient Hydranian runes etched on it.

"This ol' thing should be good enough," he said sliding it into a tiny notch for the pen on his communicator's strap. It whirred into place below his hand, the notch growing into a full holster. "Aaand let's hit the road...well stretch of relatively foliage free dark forest...that is."

Mage wasn't going to relent and say that he wasn't prepared for whatever battle they were heading towards, but he did hesitate when he saw and heard what the others had at their disposal. Weapons were hard things to come by; they were even harder to use. He couldn't remember the last time he had a decent knife to protect himself with.

As the group walked through the woods, Mage's darkness clung to his arms underneath his sleeves. He eyed the woods around them, brain conjuring up images of monsters leaping out of the shadows. It wasn't until they had been walking for a few minutes that he realized the actual monster wasn't anything like the dark, hidden beasts he had imagined.

This monster was bright.

...And on fire.

And floating.

The monster had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a bright, blinding flash of light. Mage tried to get a good look at it, but it was hard to with all of the spinning fireballs surrounding it. It was clear that his fire Sin wouldn't do anything against it - if anything, it looked like it would add any fireballs he threw at it into its collection of flames.

The darkness grew into tiny condensed balls in the palm of his hands. He could handle himself on his own, but he wanted to see what Harry and the others would do first. He didn't want to get in the way.

Harry quickly stifled a yawn as he sized up the first monster that had been unfortunate enough to stumble onto their path.

"Good Afternoon there, sir or madam or whatever," he smiled at the monster.

"It is hard to tell with the whole I'm just surrounded by fire thing," said Stean.

"The cold gun I brought is nowhere near enough to do this," said James, taking several rapid steps back," I knew I should have taken the biggest one."

"You haven't even tried to shoot the thing yet," said Vankous.

"Correct," said Harry, "also this is a great way to make sure Mage can handle himself. The things we might run into down the road will be much much worse than this."

"Now that is the most sensible plan you'll have had all day," said Stean stepping to the side.

"Everyone jump to the side and clear a path for Mage," shouted Harry, doing exactly that. The three of them sidestepped neatly, leaving a path open for Mage. James was currently somewhere behind Mage.

Harry smiled. "Let's poke this thing."

Vankous let out a smile that was entirely too evil looking and waved his arms. A tiny ball of water smacked the monster right in its eyes. It didn't even faze it. However, it definitely got the thing's attention.

It threw a barrage of fireballs at the nearest target it in its line of sight: Mage.

Mage's elation at not having to follow someone else's plan was immediately dashed when Vankous threw water at the monster's eyes. The monster turned at him. He wasn't even the one who had hit it, but it didn't seem to care.

He gave a startled yelp and dove out of the way - voice jumping with an unfortunately timed voice crack. By the time he popped back up, the monster was readying another round of fireballs. He wished he had water and darkness Sin instead of fire and darkness; that would have made this a lot easier.

But he had to work with what he had.

When the monster finally released his attack, Mage deflected it with a wall of darkness that appeared right in front of him. That was one of Kiera's favorite tricks. He had thought it was cooler to make his darkness into a sword, but Kiera had shown him how helpful going on the defensive could be.

...She would be absolutely horrified if she could see what he was doing now.

The fireballs hit the wall of darkness. Some were sent back to the monster, but a few of them lingered up against the wall. He could feel them pushing against the darkness. In an attempt to stop them from moving, he grabbed onto them with the darkness and absorbed them into the wall.

Then he felt nothing.

He let down the wall. The fireballs were gone; the darkness had snuffed them out.

Eyes widening, he scrambled to dodge another round of fireballs. He covered a few of them in darkness and made them disappear, but that wasn't his focus.

He paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and made darkness shoot out of the ground around the monster. He couldn't do it all at once, but he could make the darkness climb and slowly extinguish some of its flames.

Harry paid careful attention to the wall of darkness. As he'd predicted it was good enough to easily snuff out the fireballs without taking too much damage and Mage was starting to press on the offensive. It was a good strategy and one that would work out pretty well in the long run, if he had the energy to keep going long enough to snuff the entire monster out.

Fingers itching to engulf the area in darkness with a wave of his hand, Harry nodded to Stean who flashed a thumbs up. Vankous gave a sharp nod from the other side. James was still out of sight.

"Hmm, pretty good reflexes there buddy, should help you out against the things up ahead. Watch the darkness a little bit, snuffing things out is very effective but also tends to use up precious time. I'd recommend trying to bat the fireballs aside...perhaps with a sword of some sort...that's usually the fastest or at least a bow," said Harry.

"Or we could step in and finish this now that we know he can handle himself?" asked Stean.

"Yeah please. This is taking far too long and I'm getting bored," said Vankous, stifling a quick yawn. It was impossible to judge if that was real or he was acting.

"No, Mage is handling this fight very well so far, just a few minor time consuming mistakes but neither of them should be life threatening. Let him finish the job, well until the fire is snuffed out at least. Without being able to control ice, you can't exactly finish this thing off," ordered Harry, holding his hand to stop Vankous whose hands were already glowing.

"That you can't," came a tired sounding voice somewhere behind Mage. James was apparently within earshot.

"Noted, Khaos, could you back up a little further? you're too loud," said Vankous, dropping his hands back to his sides.

"Shut up Cerebro," said James, this time coming into view from behind Mage and moving to stand behind Vankous. "I was just scouting the perimeter for more threats."

"Sure you were," said Vankous, rolling his eyes.

"Cerebro, Khaos, focus," said Stean, holding a finger to his lips.

"Did you just shush us Lazerbeam?" asked Vankous, "also why the code names?"

"You guys started it," said Stean, "and yes I did. That's what you do to five year olds."

Harry just sighed. "Everyone, pay attention. We're in the middle of a fight here. Look around to see if there's anything else headed our way."

"Yes Captain," said all three of them, snapping back into position. Only Stean and James had the grace to look sheepish.

They watched as Mage continued fight it.

Mage could hear Harry telling him what to do, but he was tuning it out. He wasn't used to using his Sin - or even fighting in general - with many people around. To his adrenaline-fueled brain, it was more like they were part of the background noises.

He dodged another round of fireballs, throwing up a tiny miniature shield to block the ones that got too close. One flew right by his right side; he could hear a crackling noise as a little ember caught on his cloak. He was trying to focus on making the darkness cover more of the monster, but the smell of his cloak burning was getting too strong to ignore.

He snuffed the burning part of his cloak out, leaving a noticeable burn mark on an already slightly stained cloak.

Then he ducked as another fireball was flung at him, closed his eyes tight, and let the darkness cover the little bit of the monster that was left.

When he opened his eyes and the darkness fell a few moments later, the flames had been completely extinguished.

Harry gave a couple of quick claps.

"Not bad. That was like at least a four point two out of ten. Pretty decent job," he said. "Now I don't believe you quite have the tools to finish the job."

"Yup this thing has to be frozen in ice in order to kill it," said Stean, nodding," stay back please Mage."

"I have the tools, lemme take this from here," said James stepping in front of the monster.

"Oh now you get close when the fire is out," said Vankous.

"Cerebro," chorused Stean and Harry warningly and Vankous fell silent.

Mage took a step back.

"I didn't realize you would be grading me," he muttered. He had said he didn't want to be tested - that he didn't need to be tested. He knew that they had to figure out if he could handle himself, but the number made him feel off in a way he hadn't expected. Harry hadn't even given him half. It was closer to four, and four out of ten was a failing grade in Kiera's homeschooling program.

"We did say it was a test," said Stean, "but don't worry, you did pretty well."

"Can I finish this thing off already?" asked James.

"Go ahead, "said Harry, "everyone else keep a lookout or anything else lurking in the trees, that's far from the worst thing we can run into."

James smiled. He pulled out what looked like a small handle from his pocket and with the press of a button it was a handheld cold gun, capable of blasting out quite a bit of power despite the small package.

He turned it to the monster and it slowly began to freeze, already disoriented and weakened by the extinguishing of its fire.

Behind them, there was a large crackling sound.