Hurricane: Day 22, Part Three
Jackson stepped over the door.... He held out his hand and helped me to my feet. I had a huge gash across my chest now, and somehow my leather jacket and my shirt had been slashed up as well. The gash must have been from the first attack. It hurt. A lot. Now, my favorite and almost new jacket had been ruined, (so was my T-shirt, but that had been wrecked ever since me and Evan fought.) I stood up, groaning. Chloë looked at me and said, "Your bleeding a lot." I glanced at my chest. My vision was already tunneling. I could see black spots dance across my eyes. My knees started to buckle, and Jackson and Chloë caught me before I could face-plant. I could see smoke, but I didn't know where it was coming from, but from the looks on my friends faces, I could tell it was pretty bad. "His cut is smoking," Evan said, "Whatever that guy cut him with must be deadly in different ways. He will die if we can't treat him."
"I am right here you know," I said deliriously. The pain at this point was almost intolerable. Imagine being consumed in flames. The heat overwhelming, and all you can feel is the flames searing into you. That's how my body felt, just 10 times worse. One little cut should have not affected me like this. I groaned, and blacked out.
When I came to, I was still lying on the roof, but my friends were gone. The sky was black, with a lava red moon. I stood up, looking around. I felt claustrophobic. I felt like something was pressing in on me.
"You have only witnessed a small taste of my strength," a voice rasped, "soon, it will never end, and you will be the first to die, descendant of the four elements. Give up little hero, and despair."
I gasped and sat bolt upright, immediately my sword was in action, and I almost took the head off of a guy who was kneeling over me. Time slowed. He stepped away from me calmly. Time returned to normal, and I sliced empty air. I leaped to my feet.
"Whoa!" Jackson yelled. "Dude, calm down, he just saved your life!"
My hand was still itching to use my sword, but I sheathed it. I glanced at the guy who had been kneeling over me, and narrowed my eyes.
"Your the one who was fighting the the master," I said warily. He chuckled. "Close, but not quite. For one, you see, the "The Master" was never here. His official name is the "Shadow Lord," but even his followers are to scared to refer to him by that name. So, that's why they call him "The Master". Second, that guy that I was fighting was just another one of his "Shadows," as I call them. They are people with powers, who were abducted and possessed by the Dark Matter. Third, The dark matter comes from the Shadow Lord naturally, his body literally expels that stuff all around him, without him even trying, and he is still in his weakened form. He's immortal by the way, in case you have not figured that out. Each time somebody is possessed, they get a small taste of what his powers are like."
"So, your saying that we just fought one of his servants basically, and he was powerful enough to do that?" I pointed at the wreckage he had caused down on the street level. "Exactly right," the guy said. He held out his hand. "You can call me Aaron." I shook it, "I'm Troy. These are my friends, Jackson, Chloë, and Evan." Jackson raised his hand. Evan nodded politely. Chloë waved with a burger in her hand. She tossed a take-out bag to me. I set the bag down. My stomach growled angrily, but I still had more questions. 'How did you heal me?" I asked. Aaron was eating his own burger. I gave in. I tore open the bag and took a huge bite of fries. He swallowed. "My power is I can control time in certain areas. I don't control time itself everywhere, but I can reverse or stop or slow it in certain areas. I did that to your gash, reversed the time in that area to before you got cut. Your jacket is OK as well. I was grateful, both to the burger, and Aaron. "Do you have any siblings?" I asked.
His expression turned from friendly and easy-going to guarded. He took another bite of burger. After a second, he said, "One." He glanced over my shoulder, and his jaw dropped. I looked behind me, and there was nothing. Then, I realized that was exactly the problem. The guy we had just fought was gone....
