Defied Reality - 9. Chapter 9: Dark Fire

"So...I didn't want Mia to rat me out." Cole stood in Tess' darkened living room, looking around at the candles that lit the room.

"Well, you tell her not to jump off the bridge, she'll jump." Tess turned around. "I honestly don't care about Mia...and I don't even know that Felix guy, but being part of this is dangerous."

"I'm not scared of dangerous. So...what exactly can you do?" He asked.

"Truthfully? We can do many and varied things, we're actually reality warpers, but we're learning so much at a time, you know, think of it like WoW or something, we're going from newbie to epic." Tess grinned momentarily and then looked around.

"Well, I guess I could show you how I did what I did to Mia." Tess walked towards the front door. "I'll have to be really quick with this, come here."

Cole walked over to the door.

"Go open that door to the side, see what the stairs to the apartment looks like. That's the interior entrance."

Cole walked over to the door and opened it and looked inside, there was plain white tiled floor and another door to the right that lead outside and stairs straight across from that door to the left.

"Keep that door open." Tess then opened the front door to the house to reveal the entrance to the apartment from the interior door. "Look."

Cole looked at the front door, seeing the entrance to the apartment on the other side instead of the outside, like it should of been. He then looked back into the room of the door he was holding and suddenly saw another Tess standing there and in the background, he saw her living room from the point of view as if he was standing at her front door. His eyes widened. "Woah..." He then stepped back and let go of the door and he let it fall shut.

Tess closed the front door and looked at him. "That's essentially what I did to Mia. Instead of seeing the back of her locker, she saw straight through into mine...and I reached in, grabbed her and punched her."

Cole laughed a little, not sure if he was nervous or if he just found it somewhat funny or amusing. "That's quite a gift. Not to sound all Felix or anything...but could you do that to a bank vault?"

Tess shook her head. "The doors have to be similar. I can't open a normal front door and expect it to open a big, large, gigantic vault. That would be like trying to cut a normal size door into it. Doesn't work like that."

"Well, how did you guys get out of that whole Good Will thing? How is Taylor not caught?" Cole asked.

"Because the cop was a nice cop?" Tess tilted her head to the side and then wandered over to the fire place and grabbed the fire poker and lightly poked at the wood. "And...we didn't necessarily get away with it, higher people know and we dealt with them and...I'm pretty sure we'll deal with them again." She looked up. "Not to mention the other supernatural threats out there, waiting to dial our number."

"Well, again, danger doesn't scare me." Cole said.

"They use snipers." Tess put the fire poker away and turned to look at him. "Do you know how many times they could of killed us? They haven't because they want to use us. I was standing at a window, I could have been shot right in the head if they wanted me dead. And if they knew...just a bit of our DNA was all they needed to make their little children of the corn? That's a secret that can never get out. They have to think that the only way to get babies from us is the normal way, otherwise they would just kill us, make some and then raise them conditioned perfect to order."

"Wait...so if you gave me your DNA, would I become like you?" Cole asked.

Tess grinned. "Sadly, no. You would just become a carrier of the gene and gain the ability to implant that gene into your babies and then any future babies that woman has with who ever the hell she has them with because the gene infects the woman, kinda like an STD."

Cole's eyebrows lifted. "Oh..."

Tess grinned and laughed.

Gage sat Indian style on the couch across from Taylor, a book in his lap with a piece of paper and a pen in his hand. "Okay, now I'm going to go over the various ways that your powers can work. Just because your freeze turned out not to be time based, doesn't mean that your starting powers weren't meant to be. You do your time zones, that's time based and...in fact, it's not really creating an alternate time zone. When you do that, it's time distortion. Simply put, you can distort time in any way, stop it, yes you can stop time if you want to, you just don't need to confuse it with your other ability. The freeze takes far less energy and power on your part, this takes far more, so you'll know the difference by the time it takes you to do it. You can rewind it...or create a space where time moves faster or slower than outside of it. So essentially, you haven't been creating time zones. You've been distorting time within the space of your surroundings while pulling yourself outside of it."

Taylor looked confused. "Outside of it...okay...but if it's not a different time zone, where am I at?"

"You leave time temporarily, think of it like as if air were stripped from the room, well time is stripped from the room, as far as you're concerned, separating you from everything and everyone within, allowing you to be the controller." Gage explained. "Like a video game where days go by but in real time it's only really been an hour except...in real time imagine there is no time."

Taylor slowly nodded. "Okay...well I know how to do the power...so I guess understanding it...somewhat is better than nothing."

"The more complex you go, the more confusing it can get." Gage said. "Now also with this gift, you can duplicate yourself, as in past and present versions, the risk in this is if your past self gets killed. There are also temporal loops, where you can trap a person in a moment or in a day that repeats so long as you make it happen. That would be extremely power consuming and for a pretty useless purpose. Now a less and more preserving way of using time manipulation is simply manipulating a persons perception of time, I think that is self explanatory."

Taylor nodded. "Noted."

"Okay and then...gravity manipulation, obvious. Gravitational singularity generation. That is simply concentrating the distortion to a single point as to create a black hole. " Gage looked up. "And then a space-time rift...which is very highly complex and dangerous. It's ripping reality through time and space."

"Wait, didn't Tess do that when she kicked the whiteness?" Taylor questioned.

"That was merely space, you throw time into it and all sorts of bad things can happen, it can become uncontrollable, it can erase objects, people, events...I don't think you even want to touch that or will even need to." Gage paused. "You're a hybrid, I doubt you even could."

Taylor nodded, jotting these notes down.

"Now...I want you to go study these more in depth...and find home safe ways to test them." Gage grinned. "Oh and since you will be using Tess's computer, tell her that her date is over, it's her turn next." Gage looked down at Trent's laptop.

Taylor nodded and headed upstairs and walked into the house. "Uh...Tess, your date is over, study time, bosses orders. I have to use your computer." Taylor then rushed off to Tess' room.

Tess sighed. "Want to come observe?"

"Why not?" Cole grinned.

Tess grabbed his hand and pulled him off the couch and headed down stairs and let go of Cole and flopped on the couch, Cole sat on a near by bean bag chair.

"He's observing." Tess said.

"Whatever makes you happy." Gage grinned. "Now you need more active powers, so I've researched, your abilities all come from imagination and creativity for the most part."

"Okay? So?" Tess shoved a piece of gum in her mouth and started chewing.

"Well there is one called power replication." Gage grinned. "This is actually copying an ability and using it, a mental power but much quicker to be offensive."

"So how does it work?" Tess asked.

"Well, there are various ways, for you I think the easiest would be tactile or...telepathic. Tactile would gain the ability through touch, of course telepathic, as you can already gain access to people's minds, it would be of better value as it gives you long range. All you have to do, I would think is be quick enough to link in as they are using the ability or seconds after in order to copy it." Gage explained. "That would require you to become faster on your mental projections, not astrally but mentally."

Tess grinned. "Oh that should be real easy." She said, sarcastically.

"Well once you can actually practice offensive powers, then I can start teaching them to you. Steps..." Gage said.

"12 steps..." Tess looked at Cole and grinned.

"Hey, I bet you'll like this one." Gage "Buoyancy Manipulation."

Tess' eyes squinted. "What?"

Gage laughed. "Fluid manipulation."

"That sounds slutty." Tess said.

Gage kept laughing. "No, listen. You can make people float like a balloon and uh...make ships sink into the water, alter weight, in regards to fluid, anyway. Uh...you can make things rise out of the water...and float, make a blimp not be able to float." Gage laughed. "Hey! Water walking."

"I want a real power." Tess said, not that amused.

"Fine." Gage laughed. "Cosmic Projection. The user can project an image of themselves through time and space to relay a message." He looked up. "Passive but could be useful, so don't write it off."

"Fine." Tess wrote it down.

"Event recreation. It's actually kind of similar to one of the things Taylor is meant to learn to do. Basically it's the ability to recreate any specific event, past, present, or future and you have the ability to change it." Gage looked up. "Might be useful."

Tess jotted it down. "Next!"

Cole placed his hand over his mouth and tried not to laugh.

"Flawless restoration. The ability to heal all kinds of damage, mental, emotional, or physical. The user can heal others and resurrect the dead." Gage looked up at Tess.

"Oh, resurrection would be awesome. But that part about healing others, does it say if it can work on myself? I'd love to lose that gun shot scar on my shoulder blade..." Tess looked at Gage.

"It doesn't say. I guess you could, if your mind was there."

Tess hummed for a moment and then jotted it down.

"Isolation, the ability to enter into a state of non existence. Actually, tell Taylor about that one too. I think you should all know it for emergencies sake."

"Huh? How can we learn to enter non existence when we don't know what non existence is?" Tess asked.

"Just imagine the black void...and the spinning light is the way home."

Tess wrote it down.

Gage sighed. "There are so many here. I think you have enough on your plate for now." He rubbed his chin.

"Maybe you should make a list of your own." Tess grinned and got up and nodded for Cole to follow as she headed up the stairs.

"Trent?"

Trent came from the bed room. "My turn?" He walked over and sat on the couch. "Throw it at me."

Gage flipped through pages on the lap top. "Energy constructs, a sub power of your energy manipulation. Those energy balls you create? Imagine turning them into a gun? Or a knife?" He grinned. "Or maybe just a new television." He nodded towards their broken television.

Trent wrote it down without question.

Gage grinned. "Pheromone Manipulation." He looked up. "Feel like something passive?"

Trent shrugged. "Why not?"

"And power transferal.. You have the most active powers of the three, might help them along if you shared yours. The affects are only temporary, unless they manage to learn it themselves and it sticks." Gage took a deep breath. "That's it." He closed his eyes.

Taylor sat in the booth with his coffee and he stared at Gage and grinned. "Okay, what's the occasion? You're usually drilling us."

Gage almost wanted to laugh, only a grin appeared. "I don't have to be a drill coach all the time. Plus, I feel all those extra abilities will sound so desirable to you guys that you will end up learning them impulsively." He paused. "Though, I have to be honest, I didn't go out of element with you yet, as I did the other two. I tried to give Tess a few more offensive powers to try, of course the foundation of them would exist on her pre-existing mental powers. And Trent? Well, I hardly gave him much of a list, he already has a lot going now. I...do want to take you out of that time manipulation realm if I can, if you want."

Taylor shrugged and shook his head. "Just learning my freezing power was completely different and then had a bounce off side power was enough of a jump...for now. I mean I feel like I have just as much of an active power as Trent, now."

"Yeah, but it's not always about the fighting, these are gifts and you should learn some that you can enjoy." Gage picked up the jar of sugar and poured some in his coffee. "Enough about all that, though." He sat the sugar down. "Do you want?"

"Yeah." Taylor took the sugar that was shoved his way and poured some into his coffee. "Well, if we're here to talk. I guess I want to say that I am feeling better. I don't know if...Spencer, or whatever his name was, I don't know if he was having some kind of affect on me or something. I just feel like...a weights been lifted and I can just go in the moment."

"He likely was, he was probably trying to hold you back, playing the passive, powerless human. He came to you, drew you in, naturally you felt like you had to stay in the back and play protector and let Tess and Trent take the offensive." Gage suggested in theory.

"And then...he was rather withdrawn, right?" Gage continued. "Then once he had you beat down, he moved on to Trent next. Then his plan fell apart."

"What about Tess? Think he would of..." Taylor trailed off.

Gage grinned and looked up. "I doubt it, Angel or not, it was clear who his type was. Besides, just getting two hybrids, the one with the offensive and the other with the defensive power would of been enough...and then if they had you all nice and brainwashed, you both would of probably been made to kill Tess, which wouldn't be that hard." Gage carefully took a sip of his coffee.

"It's actually not that hard at all. The sniper at the white house could of easily shot Tess in the back of the head from the windows. I was drugged, could of been killed myself if they wanted me dead. Powers, sure...but we have all the same human vulnerabilities." Taylor pushed his mug forward and tapped it against Gage's. "What about you? I mean you have to have strengths in those areas."

Gage laughed. "Well I don't have eyes in the back of my head...but we're immune to any substance...unless we allow our body to take it in. That's a small difference inside of us, our blood is like acid to any substance unless we're in a relaxed state."

"That drug put me in a relaxed state." Taylor said.

"That's because it had time to work you. If I was laying there and they put a cloth over my mouth, I'd be so hostile my blood would boil it into nothingness." Gage said.

"Well, getting you drunk and then pissed off would sure kill your buzz." Taylor laughed and idly stirred his coffee with his spoon.

"No, by then it's to late, it flowed through and affected the brain." Gage shook his head. "Whether it works or not is dependent on what happens at the initial ingestion...or in your case, inhalation."

Taylor nodded. "Okay." He grinned. "So tell me about yourself? Or our home? Why did they get so upset? And...practically take our keys away."

Gage sat his mug down. "They wanted you to come for the most vague of information possible, which is what you got, then they took your...keys away and casted you back because for their reasons, they want you here." He looked up at Taylor. "You know the center room? Circular with the fountain in the middle and the doors all around? Each door opens to a different dimension...or reality, not a world or a universe or anything of that nature but just...like...small pocket dimensions, like rooms, made in the image of those that live in them. The actual planet is in the center...and surrounding it are unseen crossing realities and dimensions."

"That's...very interesting." Taylor said.

Gage tilted his head to the side. "How do you feel about everything? Do you feel cheated? Or like you never wanted your life to change or...what?"

Taylor thought about it. "I guess a bit cheated." He looked up at Gage. "I mean...I didn't ask for all the troubles but...if I had been there instead of here, there would be no troubles. And I would know and understand..."

Gage nodded. "Well, I'm not the best...but I'll do all I can to help you understand."

"Well, I'm just glad that you're handling things relatively well." Tess smiled.

"Well, I haven't exactly been through the danger part yet." Cole grinned and then heard a knock on the front door.

Tess looked around and over the back of the couch. "Huh...who could that be?"

"Want me to get it?" Cole asked.

"Sure, help yourself." Tess laughed and fell back into the couch.

Cole stood up and headed towards the door and opened it to find a man in a suit standing there with an FBI badge attached to his coat, the man appeared flawless and even to Cole, rather beyond handsome in a way. Yet after a second of a mesmerized daze, he shook his head. "Uh oh...Tess..."

"What?" Tess stood up and walked around the couch and saw the man but it was the FBI badge that caught her attention.

The man grinned. "You weren't the one I was expecting." He then grabbed Cole by the shirt and lifted him up and with a strength beyond human, he threw him and sent him flying across the room.

Tess screamed as Cole flew across the room and crashed into the wall and cried out in pain.

His eyes shut tight and he brought his hand up to his head, not even noticing that the impact had cracked the wall. "The irony." Cole managed to say, with a small grin through the pain.

"I don't think that's an FBI agent." Tess said. "Trent, get the fuck up here!" She screamed as the man proceeded to walk in and Tess walked around the couch, trying to keep the distance.

"So innocent, not even aware of what you could do." The man, or demon rather, grinned at Tess and then turned to the side just as Trent charged through the interior door that lead from the stairs and into the house.

"Well...lets get started." A black fireball then formed in the man's hand.

"I'm not ready!" Tess screamed and then dived to the side of the couch as the fireball was sent flying her way only to leave a hole in the wall as it flew onward.

Trent lunged an energy ball at the demon and hit him in the back, causing him to stumble forward and crash into the coffee table and then he ran forward just as the man was getting up. The man turned and caught Trent as he lunged forward and swung around and threw him, sending him crashing into the large mirror above the fire place and then looked down when he fell to his feet.

Tess had closed her eyes, telepathically connecting with the demon as he formed another dark fire ball to which he was ready to drop on Trent. Tess then jumped up and suddenly formed her own black fireball. Her eyes widened and then she threw it, only for the demon to turn around and throw his own, both collided, creating an explosion that destroyed the couch.

Tess flew back and landed on the floor just as Trent started to get up. He then reached up beneath the demons pants leg and grabbed at his leg and began to drain his life energy, closing his eyes.

The demon's eyes widened and he looked down, stunned as he felt the life being drained from him, making gravity around him feel heavier. He looked around and then twisted and went to kick Trent in the face but a black fireball hit him in the back and went straight through him. He stood there for a moment before bursting into flames, becoming nothing but a memory.

Trent sat up and looked at Tess. "You did it..."

Tess sighed and crawled over to Cole and shook him. "Wake up!" She tapped his face.

Cole's eyes opened and he looked at Tess and grinned. "We're still in your house...unless heaven looks like your house..."

Tess laughed and pulled him forward. "No, we're alive, goofy."

"Barely." Trent stood up. "If Tess hadn't picked up so quick on that power copy trick..."

"But I did...and now..." Tess twisted her hand around and tried to make it happen again and it didn't. She frowned. "What? It's only temporary? Not fair!"

"Gage told you." Trent walked towards the door to go back to the apartment. "Now I hurt..." He went through the door.

"Yeah..." Cole looked up at the wall. "I definitely have a concussion, no doubt." He pulled himself to stand up.

"Well come and lay on the..." Tess looked at the destroyed couch. "Uh..sit in the chair." She helped Cole into the chair. "I guess I can...tell my parents I got into a fight with Mia."

Cole looked at the mess. "That would be the mother of all cat fights." He grinned even though his head ached. "Got some asprin?"

"Even better, I got percocets and vicodins." Tess grinned.

"I'd love to...but you're not supposed to sleep if you have a concussion. Don't know why, they just say that."

"Right, well...let me get you the Bayer, wonder drug." Tess walked off to the kitchen.

"I can't stand window shopping, all you can see is what's at the window." Taylor grinned, walking down the sidewalk along with Gage.

"Maybe you should learn astral projection then, just pass your body out like a drunk in the alley and go running through, wild." Gage said.

"And have my body violated?" Taylor laughed. "Oh god, that idea creeps me out. I doubt Tess would ever do that by herself without at least one of us to guard her." He grinned.

Gage nodded. "Got a point." He grinned. "Kind of creepy..."

"And never do it on the beach or you're getting dragged into the ocean to be lost at sea." Taylor said.

"What?" Gage laughed. "That's absurd, why would someone do that?"

"Just making a point that, obviously that's what that guy did to Natalee Holloway, they didn't need to make a huge drama out of it. I mean you murder someone on the beach alone at night, accident or not, what do you do? Throw the body out to sea, if you're a dirty liar that tries to get away with it." Taylor shrugged.

"Oh, crime." Gage nodded. "Makes sense."

"And Jodi Arias has her own damn self to blame for getting caught. First she should of went quiet, waited years, because she had to much drama going on with the victim. And she should of took the memory card out of the camera...then, hell, toss it in the washing machine if you want. And if the movies exact to the truth, clean your fucking hand print off the wall. I don't know why she had to drag him around anyway. She left him in his house in the end, why did it matter what room he was in?" Taylor rambled.

"Wait, she threw a camera in the washing machine?" Gage started to laugh. "Not that...it's funny...just...well..."

"Yep, started washing it and then turned the washer off and left it full of water." Taylor looked around. "And she should of come up with a solid story and stuck to it. You'd think all of those hours she spent having to drive to his house, she would have come up with one." He sighed. "Sorry, I'm sort of a crime fanatic."

Gage grinned. "Don't be sorry, finally a fact about Taylor. A character trait!" He clapped.

Taylor laughed. "Shut up." He grinned and looked at the ground. "I guess that is a character trait...or at least something to say about me."

Gage looked down and slowly reached over and slipped his hand into Taylor's. "You haven't expressed any hurt since Spencer died."

Taylor looked at their hands and didn't move to pull his away. He drew in a breath. "I guess part of me, maybe I felt something was off, even if I wasn't aware of it." He looked up at Gage. "I just know...I've felt better ever since."

Gage stopped at the corner of the street and turned to face Taylor. "Were you ever happy with him?"

Taylor thought about it as he stared back at Gage. "I guess to truly describe happy...was when we went and played in the ocean, it was like a childlike happiness. The best kind to me, just those simple moments...the small things that make you remember what you...always had."

"Always had?" Gage asked.

"Playing in the ocean, that's something that no one could be denied." Taylor smiled.

Gage leaned in and went for the kiss only to fall short when he heard Taylor's phone ring.

Taylor knew what was about to happen, he wanted it, yet it fell short by the ring that cried for his attention. He almost couldn't tear his gaze away from Gage and so he didn't. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, answering it. "Hello?"

"Taylor...we fought and killed our first demon...and ironically he posed as FBI..." She laughed. "One enemy posing as another enemy, how fucked up is that?! Thankfully we handled it with little injury. I did nail my power copying ability!"

"Wow...well, seems we missed a lot." Taylor said.

"Well, I just thought you guys should know, especially Gage, everything is okay now though..." Tess said.

"Okay." Taylor pulled the phone away and hung up, his gaze still locked on Gage's. "They fought their first demon...Tess pulled off her power replication ability, they defeated the demon. Everything is okay."

Gage slowly nodded. "That's great." He said, rather passively, as if he couldn't think about it right now. He then leaned in again and closed his eyes and softly began to kiss Taylor.

Taylor gently gasped in a breath and closed his eyes as he fell into that blissful kiss with Gage, his nerves being brought close to a blissful wreck. He wrapped his arms around Gage and pulled him close.

Gage slowly broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against Taylor and looked into his eyes and then looked down towards the ground, still holding his hand. "I didn't mean for this..."

Taylor opened his eyes and then briefly grinned. "Why not? I got bragging rights now...you're the full blood." That grin slowly faded and he pulled in a breath and closed his eyes. "Everything has felt so right...from the moment you took my hand, that's when I knew, there was a connection."

Gage smiled briefly and then pulled back so that he could look at Taylor. "I'll make this real for you..."

Taylor shook his head. "It's already real."

Gage smiled and then lifted his free hand and blue particles of light appeared and then came together and lightly flashed to form what appeared to be a crystal. "If we were home..and I made my own place, this would be the rocks..."

Taylor took the crystal from Gage and smiled and then put it into his pocket. "And they would float high in the sky...so in the day time, the sun reflects..."

"I like your imagination." Gage grinned and wrapped an arm around Taylor's shoulders and walked around the corner and headed down the next block.

There was another knock on the door. Cole looked at Tess and his eyes widened. "Think it's another bad guy?"

Tess looked up. "In one night? I'd hope not." She walked over and opened the door to see Mia and Felix and sighed. "Well, at least one of them is a good guy."

Mia gasped and pushed past Tess and walked in. "What happened to your house?"

"My life...the one you so suddenly care about getting into." Tess yanked Felix in by the shirt. "And since you are part of it...you're contributing." Tess flung the door shut.

"Contributing?" Mia turned around and grinned. "We're your guests...we shouldn't have to clean."

Tess stared at Mia. "How I'm even going to begin cleaning is beyond my mind..." She shook her head. "Telling my parents how the apocalypse happened in the living room, however is in reach."

"So, how?" Felix grinned.

"We all got into the apocalypse of fights." Tess said. "Felix and I came home to study because the library closed. Cole was waiting for me here, Mia shows up, Cole gets swayed by her Barbie boo's, there, and we catch y'all." Tess looked around. "And then all of this happened."

Felix busted out laughing.

"Why would I contribute to such a lie like that?" Mia crossed her arms.

"Because you wanted part of this secret of ours, so start dealing with some consequences, we have to." Tess frowned.

"Fine." Mia shook her head and walked over and looked at the couch. "Where the hell are we supposed to sit..?"

"Ya know, Tess, being that I'm the only one with a...visible injury, and I'm sure you may have your bruises tomorrow, that story might be hard to pitch, if you compare the damage to flawless faces." He looked up and grinned. "You might want to really throw some swings at each other."

Mia grinned. "See, I knew it was a dumb idea." She looked at Tess. "Better to toss some of your things in Felix's trunk and call in a robbery."

"Still, we could claim trying to defend against them, causing the damage...but with no injuries..." Cole trailed off.

"We don't have to fight them. Robbers randomly trash places all the time after getting what they want, it's a rush of power for them." Felix said.

Tess frowned. "Hello! ADT would of caught them! Explain that away!"

"Hey, ADT didn't even answer when the demon guy was flinging you and Trent around, you'd think the sound of shattering glass from that mirror would of alerted them." Cole grinned.

"I think that only counts if glass doors or windows break." Tess paused. "And I don't know how they would react if you break it from the inside."

"So test it out." Mia grinned.

Tess narrowed her eyes at Mia. "My parents are going to be upset enough as it is. And if I do it and ADT does respond...they are going to ask questions..." She looked away. "I could just say I left the door unlocked for Cole, so he could get in and hang out until I got home and then he got here and found the place like this."

"Well then you better steal some items." Mia waved at Felix.

"What if they search the cars?" Felix looked up, rather nervous.

"Ugh...we'll just say some bullies did it, thrill seekers or something." Tess grabbed her phone and started to dial the police.

"Wait." Cole held a hand up.

"What?" Tess paused.

"Can't you do that...uh...what did you call it, event recreation, thing?" Cole asked.

"Uh...I'm supposed to, haven't done it yet...and I imagine it'd be like a Final Destination effect, where you see all the crap happen and then suddenly it's at the beginning again, plus it would bring that creep back." Tess fell back on her trashed couch and then let out a light scream when the thing collapsed on the side she sat on.

Mia started laughing.

Cole tried to talk through his poorly attempted hold back of laughter. "Yeah, except you would know who's at the door. Don't answer."

"He would then bust in. His politeness was probably a first approach tactic." Tess looked up, annoyed. "Would someone sit and collapse the other side of the couch?"

"Sure, I'll wreck your stuff some more." Mia walked over and collapsed onto the couch without holding back, causing the other side to collapse to the floor. "There, nice and level..."

"Maybe we could do arson." Tess said. "Collect on the house insurance." Her eyes widened. "We could get a beach front condo."

"Yeah and then the twins and that Gage guy would be homeless. Pretty sure you can't hide them in a condo." Cole sighed and looked around.

"They could figure it out." Tess said. "I want a beach front condo..."

"So, you really want to set your house on fire?" Cole asked.

Tess slowly nodded. "Yes, lets burn this bitch down." She looked around. "Trent! I need you up here!"

"Coming!" Trent called out and soon walked into the living room. "What's up?"

"We're making a huge change. See this mess? It's inspired me to arson my own house for the insurance money so that I can make my parents buy a beach front condo."

Trent's eyebrows lifted. "Then we can't live together..."

"Well...you're supposed to be learning that one power...go in and make an ATM spit out all the cash. We can get some money and buy you guys a beach front condo too."

"Without being legal?" Trent stared at Tess. "Who would let a minor do that?"

"Hello? Gage?" Tess rolled her eyes.

"Okay...so how are we going to burn the house down? Without making it look on purpose? Insurance companies can be picky about that." Trent said.

"Well, I could try my event recreation power..." Tess stood up. "Mia...off the couch."

Trent's eyebrows lifted. "That's going to bring the demon back."

"Exactly." Tess said. "Okay, Gage said I could make my own trigger." Tess closed her eyes, thinking deeply on the event in mind. "1...2....3." She then snapped her fingers.

"I don't feel anything." Cole said.

"Everyone open your eyes." Tess opened her eyes, as did everyone else to see that all the damage had been undone. Then that dreaded knock was heard on the door.

Mia's eyes widened.

"It's him..." Tess whispered. "We have to get him to burn the house down..."

"How? His fireball just put a hole in the wall, it didn't catch." Trent whispered before another knock was heard.

Tess then gestured off towards the kitchen. "Out...all humans out...backyard." She whispered, watching Cole, Mia and Felix retreat.

Trent stared at Tess.

Tess walked a few steps towards the door. "I'm not opening the door! So I guess you'll have to huff and you'll have to puff and you'll have to blow the house in!"

Trent's eyes widened. "Oh no..."

"What?" Tess looked at him.

"ADT will capture this...if he doesn't blow the place." Trent said.

Tess walked over and yanked the curtains, ripping them off the window just as the guy busted the door and sent it flying across the room.

"ADT! Leave the premises now! We're calling for..." The demon smashed the code panel and sent heat into the wires, enough to burn them and disconnect the security company.

"Oh crap..." Trent took several steps back.

The demon formed the dark fireball and immediately Tess closed her eyes and reached for his mind with her telepathy in order to catch the thought process that triggered his power, copying it. Her eyes opened just to find the ball lunging at her. She screamed and suddenly the ball of dark fire bounced off the air as if some invisible field had surrounded her. "What the hell? I'll take it."

Trent saw what happened and ran around the couch and over beside Tess. "It bounced! You better create a pretty big one this time!"

Tess grinned and brought her hands up as she started to create a dark fireball and as her arms lifted and her hands distanced themselves, it began to grow larger and strengthen in power, she watched the demon do the same. "You got an escape route, right?" Tess whispered.

"I'm ready." Trent wrapped an arm around Tess's waist just as she threw her ball, seconds after the demon threw his. Trent didn't wait to see what happened as they both dematerialized into particles and quickly faded into nothingness only to appear and rematerialize in a clumsy landing outside as the entire house blew up in black flames.

"Black fire...?" Mia stared at it. "Black fire?"

Tess and Trent stood up and turned around. "Can you change the color?" Tess asked, but within moments, the black faded as the flames shifted into a normal color after the demon's demise.