darkSpyro

Junak was walking back to the cabin, and made an enormous jump to the door. The ground near him rumbled as he landed. He walked in, soaked, and headed to his room, leaving wet prints behind him. He walked in his room, took a towel, dried himself and sat on his bed. He let out a big sigh before leaning back into his bed and fell asleep.

Shane had been startled by the hand placed on his shoulder, he despised being touched by others and nearly ended up flipping the young boy over his shoulder, thankfully he was able to control himself. He had no idea what had just occurred, it felt as if something was inside of his head, running down his spine and travelling through his entire body, it felt as if someone or something was trying to communicate with him, but he wasn't sure how or why, like any other teenage might have, he shrugged it off as imaginative, after all, he had been just getting back into social life recently, it may have just been a chill of change. He was so deep in thought that he had forgotten to answer the boy, well, half-forgot, he didn't want to answer him.

But when Raymond approached, he became a bit cautious, ready for what was about to happen, in case he had been the one that caused the odd sense. "Shane...And you're name?" He had no tolerance for such hard-headed and seemingly rude people, this man had just barged in and demanded an answer, he didn't even know who this guy was, he wasn't about to share any information with him, it was that and the fact he had no idea what had just happened to him.

Nathan turned to look at the fuming Raymond. Pyromancer he thought to himself, balling into his hand into a fist, angered this pyro just barged into their convers-well, not really a conversation, more like a meeting of people who were just kind of there. "Nathan...what do you want? We were just minding our own business, and you just barged in on our conversation. Who does that?" He asked, anger rising in his voice. Whoops he thought to himself, scared the pyro would burst into flames or something not knowing his power were useless when he was wet.

Nathan looked up at the man before him, confused as to both the Freeze part of his name and the fact that he'd never seen any of us before in all his time here. "Dude, I've been here since I was like....12. I've been here for awhile." He said, forgetting agin about how he could possibly, and probably would, light up like a human torch if he didn't watch his tongue.

Shane could only give a small chuckled, it wasn't exactly a sarcastic chuckle, but it wasn't a pleasant chuckle either. "Nice to meet you, Raymond." He knew that the man standing before him probably had a tough life in his previous years, as was the case with most of the Outcasts in the camp, so he always tried to be kind, despite their shortcomings or their attitude. Shane always knew when and when to watch his words and his attitude, and this was one of those times.

"I'm not exactly sure, to tell you the truth, ever since the new camp leader was appointed, things have been quite strange around here, I've been getting odd feelings every now and then." This most certainly hadn't been his first encounter with this oddity, he had felt it at least twice before. "And that's quite plausible, it is a large camp, but I am the ancestor of Deidicus, the man who created this safe-haven." He was quite proud in his words about his ancestry.

Nathan shrugged, realizing he was right. A Pyromancer with a last name of Freeze? Weird. The fact that he had a hot-tenor, not so weird. Everything else about him....it looks kind of weird. "Yeah, pretty much." He said, laughing a little and scratching hai back. "But I also have had strange feelings as if someone was trying to get inside of me. I thought it was just paranoia." He said.

"Not at all, I've just been going through some things..." Shane wasn't cautious due to the fact of his being a Pyromancer, far from it, he found it amazing, his cautiousness stemmed from his lack of social skills throughout the months, but as one could see, they were quickly coming back to him. Like riding a bicycle. He thought. "Is your cabin far from here? You seem to be fidgeting quite a bit, my cabin is just a few minutes from here, you can get dry there if you'd like." He was beginning to warm up to Raymond, (No pun intended) he could see in his eyes that he was a good guy, he just had a rough exterior.

"I was planning on the new wing place, but the storm is getting quite bad, and the food court is topless, they'll have to put the tarp over it, and the noise of the raindrops on the tarp isn't very pleasant. You're all welcome to come to my cabin while the storm dies down. We can discuss these odd feelings we've been having over a cup of hot chocolate."

Desperate to get out of the rain, Michael had made his way to stand under the porch overhang of a nearby building. He looked the structure up and down, having no intention of going inside. Now that he was not in any danger of getting wet, he was quite content to watch the rain fall. The patter of countless droplets hitting every surface they were brought down upon, the smell of rain and damp bark from the scant tree here and there… He loved it all, except for the wet part, which he had just now escaped.

Sighing quietly, he was brought out of his rain-gazing and into awareness when he felt.. conflicting emotions. Turning his head, he saw the same group from before, with another. It was clear to him now that he was detecting emotions from separate individuals, if not all of them. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, he tried to pick out whose feelings belonged to whom. It might have seemed like an activity of little significance, but to Michael - who sometimes couldn’t even differentiate others’ feelings from his own - it was a practice to help him make more sense of his involuntary abilities.

He could feel irritation, though he couldn’t pinpoint the source. It was possible that the entire group shared the same feeling, but he couldn’t know for sure. There was also.. uncertainty. Or was it.. a feeling of shock? He sighed. Human terms for emotions were very limited in defining them. It was difficult to put into words just what he felt, and that only made it more confusing. Shaking his head, Michael decided to instead try to determine the source of this.. confusing phenomena he was picking up.

It was then that he gasped softly, shuddering a bit. Michael lifted a hand to his temple instinctively, though the motion really didn’t serve any purpose. He’d felt.. exposed.. for a moment there. As if someone had been in his head… Taking a deep breath, he let himself relax. He thought that his intensive concentration in picking out the group’s feelings had somehow alerted them, and that perhaps one of them – the telepath, perhaps – had searched via his own mind to find the source of the disruption. Perhaps this was why he had felt as if his mind was being probed.

What he didn’t know was that it hadn’t been his mind that had been searched, but Shane’s.

Nathan licked his lips, and odd that mmmm noise that you do when you're expecting something good. "Hot chocolate." He said, his mouth watering. "That's be amazing!" He saidm jumping up and ready to go to Shane's cabin. "C'mon you guys!" He said, laughing while he was running around in the rain. It was a thing he does. When he's been outside in the rain for too long, he starts to go a little insane. Not for long though, it wares of eventually.

Nathan just accidentally ran into a tree. "Woah." He said, stumbling around, holding his hand to his head. "Sorry, I don't know why that happens. When I stay outside in the rain for too long, I start to go crazy. Usually it goes away after a few minutes. Or if I can get inside. I guess hitting my head into a tree works too." He said, a huge grin on his face as he walked over to the group. "Why don't I use my telepathy to take control over your body. I could stop the flames if they tried to start up?" He suggested, hopeful he would agree.

Shane stared at Nathan confused, at both his odd behavior and his actions, but he had to remember that everyone was different and most people had emotional and psychological scars from their past. Turning back to the Pyro he nodded in understanding, he was able to relate to a degree. "Well, I do hope you can reconsider eventually and you'll find yourself at my doorstep, I'd love to converse further on the topic, things just seem strange and I have a feeling that I know why...But I can't be sure."

He always suspected the man in black, the camp runner, of being at the helm of whatever was happening, it was even odd that they were having such sporadic weather conditions, just last week there were warnings of twisters, and in their region that was very unlikely, it seemed as if someone was changing the weather to suit however they felt.

Nathan shrugged. He had known his idea was a pretty far-fetched one. He also knew he'd probably catch on fire or something from it. "I'd probably burst into flames." He joked, a huge laugh escaping his throat. "Just imagine me running around on fire." He Joe,d again.

He looked at Ray as he said his idea, "that's actually a pretty good idea." He said, nodding his head, thinking how to counter anything that could go wrong.

Shane wasn't exactly sure what he had meant by that, Raymond was definitely an odd character, Shane had never encountered anyone quite like him, but that was also to be said about Nathan and Michael, everyone he had met today was so interesting in different ways. Shane seemed to think of himself as boring as not interesting, but he was holding a conversation with this Pyro, so he must have something to him.

"And what does that mean?" Shane had very little, if any, evil impulses inside of him, the worst he had ever done was put a fork in a microwave, and that wasn't too evil. He also wasn't sure how flames could seek out the source, especially in the rain, whatever was doing this was clearly powerful.

-----

What they didn't know was the cause was untraceable, if they made any progress, the source would just disappear, he was too smart to be caught by such imbecilic Outcasts. The source, of course, was The Director, he had been asking for files of the different Outcasts, but only a select few. The Director was planning something, it would all be discovered soon enough.

Once he had regained his composure, Michael had taken to watching the others again. He was a bit disturbed by Nathan's suggestion of using his telepathy again. In his mind, going directly into a person's mind was intrusive and invasive, like a mental version of rape. The thought made him shudder, and admittedly, it made him nervous about going anywhere near the telepath. He knew he shouldn't discriminate against someone solely because of their abilities, but.. but he could never allow someone to enter his mind, for his sake and theirs.

His interest was piqued at their suggestion that they try to locate the source of the disturbance they were facing. Just what was it they were facing? They were suggesting trying to hunt down something insidious. Had he missed something in their conversation? All he had felt was... Oh. Was it possible that the feeling he had gotten had originated in one of them, and not in himself? Michael sighed, shaking his head. It seemed he could never truly identify his own feelings from others'.

Nathan was still in deep thought when he heard Shane's comment. "Well, I think he means that anything that has a sense, drop, whatever you like to call it, of evil in it, his flames will start to burst put of control. What he's saying is he can't control them at that point." He explained, hoping he was making sense. He tended to go off and talk about crazy things, going form one idea to the next. He wondered if it was a part of being a telepath. Or was of the secret powers he needed to learn. Or was it just his personality. She shook his head as he realized he was doing it again.

Nathan looked in awe at the pyro doing this crazy feat of turning himself into a flaming skeleton pretty much. His mind was boggled trying to think about how it was scoentifically possible. He then came to the conclusion that it isn't. Well, none of their powers are scientifically possible, he amended himself. "It's....incredible." He said, awe very evident in his voice. "I wish I could do that!" He asked, jumping up and down.

"I've seen scarier." It didn't seem to phase Shane, he was more focused on the plan that this maniac was providing, "I still don't quite understand how we can locate whoever is doing this, you say it will scare him into submission, but we have no idea who or what has been doing these things, and it would be wrong to harm that person even if we did know who he was." Shane had always been told he was able to rally people to be on his side, to calm them, but Raymond was different, he was unique in his ways and his views.

"I find your way to be quite...Creative, to say the least, but the weather is getting even worse and it's getting dark, plus we don't know how dangerous this force is." Everything he spoke of was true, it was getting worse, winds were picking up and the rain was falling hard, and the man they were looking for was indeed dangerous.

Michael was gaping mutely at the pyromancer's sudden transformation. It was clear that he was not in any pain, both from his mannerisms and the fact that he wasn't picking up anything from Raymond. Still, that did not make the transformation seem any less.. frightening. Despite the fact that he was now hiding timidly behind a trash barrel, Michael was slowly getting his initial fright under control. Though now that he had taken in the man's appearance, his words were beginning to sink in.

He made it sound like he had to constantly keep a tight reign on his abilities - not unlike himself, he thought idly - and if he let that control go lax, then his abilities would, essentially, go berserk, like unleashing a monster within himself. Michael shuddered. If that happened, he didn't want to be anywhere near this place. Quietly slipping away, he eventually broke out into a run as he put as much distance between himself and the small group. There were two reasons he was making such haste. One, what the man proposed seemed incredibly dangerous for anyone in the vicinity. And two... If such anger, such rage within the flames, was unleashed.. Michael wasn't sure he could keep it out of his own mind. Distance seemed to quell his involuntary reception of emotions, so he ran, and he ran.

Nathan then snapped out of the trance his eyes had put him in as they saw the impossible sight. He then looked around as he felt the roan pelt against his face, and the strong winds torrenting against him. "I say we go get that hot chocolate." He said, zipping up the jacket he had brought in case it had rained when he'd set out to train.

When Michael finally slowed down, it was because he was out of breath, not because he felt safe with the distance he had put between himself and the.. uncomfortable situation. Turning his head about this way and that to determine his location, he found that he was standing in front of a cabin. 4727, was its number. Remembering the number Shane had given him, he decided to go ahead and find cabin 4716, to at least familiarize himself with the place. Walking down the row of cabins, he finally came upon his destination. Its exterior didn't look any different from the others, but Michael had expected as such. Scurrying under the porch overhang to escape the wetness, he sat awkwardly next to the door, hugging his knees to his chest. He sat both to escape the rain, and simply because he could.

Nathan just slumped his soldiers as he saw Ray stop his fires. "Oh well." He said, waving his hand in farewells to the pyro. "See ya later?" He said in more of a question, walking off towards the cabin. "What did you day your cabin number was Shane?" He asked the shapeshifter.

Shane frowned a bit, he didn't agree with Ray's methods. "I don't want anyone harmed, you hear me? I have nothing against you, but if you scorch anybody, I won't be held responsible for what I will have to do to you." Shane didn't look it, but he could be quite feisty, he wouldn't accept any harm to come to anyone while he was around.

Turning to Nathan he spoke with a stern expression. "4716, But I think you should head to your place, I'll see you tomorrow perhaps." with that, he began to tread off to his cabin, his cabin looked the same as all the others, but he had planned on decorating it, he had been mainly focusing on the inside, his cabin was smaller than the average, but that was upon request, he liked smaller spaces. "Michael?" His expressions changed to surprised when he saw the empath sitting on his porch, 'It's freezing out here! Come in, You're soaked, I'll find you a towel." He opened the door for Michael.

Said empath blinked owlishly at Shane and his words, but didn't say anything in return, as always. With a consenting nod, he rose from his spot and, after several moments of vigorously wiping his shoes on the doormat, entered the establishment. He stayed put near the entrance, not wanting to track water all throughout Shane's cabin. Scanning his eyes over the interior for a moment, Michael returned his gaze to his host, a neutral expression on his face.

Nathan shrugged, not really caring, suddenly feeling really tired. "Sure." He said, letting lossless a huge yawn. "I was getting tired anyways." He said, walking towards his cabin. When he reached it he walked in, walked over to his bed and laid down, strangely really tired.

"Kick off your shoes and enjoy the scenery!" He tried to be as kind as he possibly could to his impromptu house guest, it was clear that Michael would be staying there until the storm subsided. "Y'know, a lot of weird things have been happening around here, it seems as people's thoughts have been breached." Shane wasn't sure how he could hold a conversation with the boy if he wouldn't respond back.

Michael did as the other said, untying his shoes and placing them neatly next to the door. Straightening back up to his full height, he regarded Shane with a curious expression as he spoke of the strange happenings within the camp. He nodded raptly, expressing his understanding and his agreement. So apparently someone's mind had been invaded. This both relieved him in knowing that he wasn't losing his mind, and concerned him about what was happening.

"Hmmm..." The Shifter had gone to his kitchen which was linked to his bedroom, it was basically a unit in the wall, he grabbed himself a glass of chocolate milk and sat down on his couch which was located just outside of his bedroom in the living room. "I'm not sure about that Nathan guy...Oh, help yourself to whatever you want by the way." Shane was curious, he didn't exactly think that Michael was a true mute, there was something about him that was...Different.

Michael nodded to him in both acknowledgement and thanks, taking off his drenched coat and hanging it up on the coat hanger where it would - hopefully - dry off a bit. With the coat having taken the bulk of the moisture from the rain, he was left a bit damp, but otherwise dry. Walking over and sitting down on the couch, at a respectable distance from Shane, he folded his hands neatly on his lap and stared down at them quietly. It wasn't as if he could start any conversation they might have. That would be Shane's job.

Thunder cracked and roared in the sky, and lightning flashed immensely throughout the night, it was one hell of a storm, rain flew through the skies at record speed and the wind was grabbing anything it could and trying to tear it out of the ground. Meanwhile, inside of Shane's cabin he, and Michael, the empath, sat on his navy blue leather couch, surrounded by rock music records from the 70's and CD's from the 80's, there were dozens of pizza boxes in the corner of his room, near his garbage that he hadn't gotten a chance to dispose of yet, a medium sized TV sat in front of the couch, game systems could be seen in the entertainment unit, along with dozens of games. "I sure hope no one else is out there..."

-----

The Director had been quite careful thus far, his intentions were unclear, only he knew what he wanted and he would do everything to get it. He had been taking files of certain Outcasts and reviewing them, keeping on a few that he deemed worthy, the rest he returned to their original place. "Such a daunting task...My patience is growing thin." It was clear that there was something preventing him from furthering his plans. He decided he would have to go out himself, and do some in-the-field research.

Michael nodded in agreement, staring out the window and watching endless sheets of water hit the glass. He’d wrapped himself up in the towel that had been offered him, even though he was pretty much dry by now. It was more of a comfort thing rather than serving any practical use. He would turn his head every so often to look at Shane, as if to make sure he was still there. He didn’t want to be left alone right now. Storms had always unsettled him, though right now he was more concerned about what was happening within the camp.

Many changes had been occurring as of late. It was often said that change was good. Michael knew from experience that change was neither good nor bad; but it did mean that things wouldn’t be the same. Michael was a person who was content in nearly all aspects of life. He had been content with life in the camp before, and he had assumed that he would be just as content with life in the camp even as these changes occurred. Yet now, he wasn’t so certain. In a way, he didn’t feel.. safe.

Looking to Shane again, he mentally noted to stay with him even after the storm subsided. If there were dangerous times ahead, he didn’t want to face them alone.

Nathan tossed and turned for the first thirty minutes he tried to sleep. He couldn't fall asleep because of that damned storm. "Ah forget it!" He said, getting up form his bed and walking towards his closet to switch into some clean clothes. He then looked outside. "It'd be pretty stupid to go out there right now...." He said to himself, as he was having ideas of going to Shane's cabin to talk to him. "but, I am pretty stupid myself." He joked, grabbing his coat. "I'll wait a little while. Enough for the rain and winds to die down a bit.

Shane denied himself sleep for the night, he wouldn't let himself drift away and have his mind open to be probed again, he wouldn't allow it to happen. He then began to worry immensely, shooting out of his seat and walking over to the window once more, staring out into the darkness that was the night. "Asa..." He had last seen her when they had met Raymond, and he had been so caught up with talking to the Pyro, that he had lost track of her, he feared she was still in the storm, with no one to help her, he hoped that he was wrong. She's at her cabin...She has to be...Stop worrying. But worry he did, he knew Michael was safe, he knew Nathan lived not far from where he had last seen him, plus he was a telepath, he would be fine, Ray, he wasn't too worried about, he seemed to be able to handle himself, but Asa, all he could hope for was the storm to die down.

Curled up in a ball on the couch, Michael was still awake, as well. He felt worried, a sense of foreboding in him, and it wasn’t just from his speculative thoughts on these recent changes in the camp. It took him a while, but he was able to determine that these feelings were not his own. In all honesty, it was Shane’s emotions that were keeping him awake. That didn’t bother him, though. In truth, if not for Shane’s emotions, then it would be the loud claps of thunder keeping him from getting any sleep.

He couldn’t blame the thunder, and he couldn’t blame the guy standing anxiously at the window, either. Laying his head on the arm of the couch, his eyes fluttered a bit until they were closed, only to jolt awake again at a loud crack of thunder. Sighing, Michael resigned to his fate, and sat up in his place on the couch. It would seem they’d be awake for a while.

Asa had been with the group while they met Raymond Freeze, a sarcastic and intimidating pyromancer. She wasn't surprised by his aggressive demeanor, as he harbored the power of fire. But there was something else about him that seemed unnerving. He knew something... something elusive and dangerous...

She had sneaked away while the group dispersed, and briskly went her way, very worried. The rain bothered her, but not nearly as much as the conflicting emotions her mind was occupied with. She had never seen Shane act like that. Well, there was the sudden bravery concerning his discomfort with socializing, but that was obviously a good thing. No, what concerned her was the strange feeling he got on their way to the wing hut (which they never arrived to; the storm was too intense). He described it in such a way that implied that it was some sort of... intrusion.

Asa had walked as far as to where they started the group's hike, by the lake she and Shane played in. No longer with the silky smooth sheen, it rippled with the heavy, pounding raindrops of the thick, blue-black rainclouds. Now that she thought of it, she did see something strange in the light waves. A disorder in the pattern of somewhere between ultraviolet and x-rays... too high of a frequency for normal human eyes to see. What was that?

Pulling out of her thoughts, realizing that she was in the middle of a thundering, roaring storm and was soaked to the bone, she quickly trotted back to the village area. She had to find shelter, and she needed to tell Shane what she saw. There was something, and it was something wrong. She was running now, her alpine figure gliding over the pavement effortlessly, until she pulled to a halt at her friend's hut. It only took her three more steps to be standing right by the door, and she knocked, slowly, lightly, but still with a certain sense of urgency.

Lost, lost in his thoughts, lost in the realization that things were changing for the worst, things weren't evolving but getting worse. Swirling winds prevailed in knocking down trees from their roots, bright, white lightning had been striking in the far distance towards the east where his window faced, dark clouds surrounded the sky, as if blocking the stars from breaking through to twinkle up in the beautiful night sky but the storm seemed to be the least of their worries, as he and Michael sat in that cabin, trapped from the outside world, evil was afoot.

Startled at the knock on his door, he jumped, frightened initially, and then surprised and confused, what idiot in their right mind would be out in this storm, it was deadly, the sirens could be heard wailing, signalling the Outcasts to retreat to their homes, thankfully if things got worse Shane had a basement which could be retreated into. Quickly he sprinted over to the wooden door which was amazingly still standing, he opened it. "Asa!" He practically grabbed the girl and brought her inside, closing and locking the door behind her. "What in god's name are you doing out there? You could have been killed! Do you have any idea how stupid that was! You should have just gone home at the site of that rain!" Shane's behavior wasn't stemming from anger or anything of the sorts, it was from worrying, he had been worried sick about his friend. "Are you okay?" Grabbing her a towel and wrapping it around her.

Nathan was pacing throughout his entire cabin, wishing that the storm would freaking just stop. "I need to goes to Shane!" He yelled, smacking his fist into one of the walls in his cabin. He had later on into the storm started to feel something weird. But it wasn't in his head, but more that he felt a powerful mind doing something. He couldn't read it from the distance between himself and it, but he could feel it, he knew it was this mind that was causing the storm. He also realized that the beginning if all these strange thing happened around when The Director came. Maybe he brought a curse that he had on himself to the camp? he thought to himself. He knew that he needed to talk to Shane.

At the knocking at the door, Michael perked up a bit, tilting his head in confusion. Who could that possibly be? In such weather? He was about to uncurl from his little ball in the corner of the couch and answer the door, but Shane seemed very intent on doing that himself. He watched silently as he practically bolted towards the door, threw it open, and all but dragged the person standing out in the rain inside the cabin. Who was..? Ah, he remembered. He didn't know her name, but he knew her face from earlier.

Michael mutely watched the scene unfold, observing Shane's worry for the girl - Asa was her name, he knew now. He immediately felt a certain.. protectiveness.. inside of him upon seeing her, like he needed to make sure she was safe. He didn't identify this as Shane's influence over his feelings; such strong emotions tended to make him simply act on them, rather than think them through. It was a flaw, a flaw he needed to remedy. So he forced himself to stay where he was, not sure how to respond to the sudden barrage of feeling - feeling that he wasn't even sure if it was his own.

Asa remained as stiff as a board while Shane reached up to drape a towel around her soaking shoulders. "I... I don't know." She really didn't know what became of her out there. The heavy lightning should have stimulated her and her light sensitivity, but she practically ignored it. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I..." she looked out the window, which was beginning to shudder at the battering winds. "I'm worried, too," she added, too shuddering. "I haven't seen a storm with so much power in a long time. It feels... wrong... so very wrong..."

The sirens only made her worry and growing, yet oddly controlled internal terror harder to subdue. Sirens had always scared her when she was a child, like when there was a tornado outbreak one windy spring. It was like it was designed to send endless chills of fear down the spine.

Michael frowned softly, an expression not out of disapproval but of worry. It seemed that everyone's tensions were so high. That in itself was bad for everyone, but even worse for him. There were times where he couldn't distinguish his emotions from those of another single person's. When several people felt the same thing.. it tended to wear on him even worse.

Wanting to find some form of escape from this situation he was in, he stared blankly out the window. Unfortunately, the heavy rains and winds only seemed to remind him of how tense things were.

"Why did you come here?" He demanded an answer, his facial expression displayed anger and annoyance, but his voice and his eyes clearly showed fear and worrying. BOOM! The clap of thunder shook the entire house, records fell off of shelves and things moved about, the wind was gusting hard and loud, the windows wouldn't hold much longer, Shane needed to do something. "Basement, now, both of you, GO!" His anger came from wanting them to be safe, he wouldn't lose someone else close to him, not if he could help it, even if he couldn't, he would do anything for the people he cared about. Shane had opened a trap door under his rug, a staircase led down into a basement. "It's not safe up here, hurry."

Michael jumped a bit, both at Shane's authoritative tone and at the sudden change in atmosphere. Hurrying up from his spot on the couch, he followed the other's instructions, hesitantly heading down into the dark basement.