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  “Listen you dirty, mean, nasty, old demon! What do you want with me now?” Nick screamed.

  The footsteps stopped. Two heads poked around the corner. Nick screeched with joy.

  “OLIVER! SPENCER! OH, HALLELUJAH!” Nick cried.

  “Ah, yes! You were right, Spence! Can I call you that? I’m going to call you that,” Oliver laughed happily.

  “Please don’t,” Spencer said quietly, surprised by the outburst. Oliver didn’t hear him. As Oliver walked forward to play catch up with Nick, Spencer glanced at the tank, which was almost full. He continued to examine Nick and stopped at his bloodshot eyes. Nick must be exhausted. Spencer walked over to Nick and peered through the bars.

  “Are you getting sick?” he asked with concern.

  “What? No, just . . . tired,” Nick sniffed.

  Nick’s face was pale, his eyes red, and his hair messy and greasy. Then again, so was everyone else’s. Nick closed his eyes for a minute. Spencer was about to ask if he were okay, when Oliver whispered in his ear, “We need to get him out of here now.”

  “No kidding. He looks awful,” Spencer whispered back.

  “Well, yeah, that and the fact that there’s a timer on the ground that’s counting down from an hour and a half,” Oliver mentioned casually.

  “What? No! I forgot about that!” Spencer yelled as he reached out to pick it up.

  “Forgot about it? You were here?” Oliver questioned suspiciously.

  “Yeah, I told you I was. I got captured, too,” he said hesitantly.

  “No, you didn’t,” Nick mumbled just quietly enough for Spencer to hear it. Spencer pretended he didn’t.

  “Hey, Spence?” Oliver began, “I need to go back and find the others, so I can tell them about this place and get them here!”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Bring them to the outside of the dome so they don’t get hurt. Make sure the doors are closed though. If those animals get out, it could end our world,” Spencer said, fidgeting with Nick’s cage.

  Oliver paused on his way to the portal and slowly turned around, processing what he had just heard.

  “How exactly could that end our world?” he asked, suddenly feeling very nervous.

  “Well, the monsters all came from this realm and their presence next to the portal is sustaining its balance. If your friends stay in this world for too long, this world and your world will become unstable. But, because we are just simple Supers, and there are at least hundreds of us spread across your world, the catastrophe wouldn’t happen for a few months. Because the animals by the portal are so deadly and there are so many, if they all flocked throughout your world, they could destroy, literally, everything.

  “Not only that, but if they are away from the portal and out of the dome, it could cause the collapse of the world we are currently in. And because there is a portal open into your world, your world would be sucked into this one, destroying both. But, only an idiot would leave those doors open, so you don’t have to worry about any of that.” Spencer explained, still fidgeting with Nick’s cage.

  “And how long would it take the worlds to collapse?” Oliver wondered, breathing harder.

  “I said a month! Weren’t you listening?” Spencer hissed, annoyed.

  “Of course! I just have a lot going on. Especially now!” he yelled.

  “Look, just go find your friends. Everything’s going to be okay,” Spencer assured him. Oliver Flew quickly out and through the portal, racing off to go find his friends, and Spencer followed. The timer read one hour and still counting down. I’ve got to do this fast!

  Suddenly, Spencer heard voices, many voices. He knew they could overpower him, but he called out anyway.

  “Who’s there? This is my compound, and you’re trespassing!”

  “I recognize those voices,” Nick whispered. His eyes were no longer red, and color had returned slightly to his face, but his hair was still a mess.

  “Maybe if you call out, they’ll recognize you,” Spencer suggested.

  “Guys!” Nick called out, his voice cracking. The footsteps and voices had stopped. Then, they started again, but faster and louder. Four people appeared around the corner. One of them had burnt hands, another one was being carried, another one was chewing on an animal bone, and the final one was an adult.

  “Oh, no! Dad!” Nick yelled, suddenly perking up.

  “The Stranger!” Spencer whispered under his breath.

  Damian was about to attack Spencer in order to save Nick, when he stopped out of curiosity. He looked around and saw a tank filled with green liquid. Damian recognized the liquid from his days back as The Stranger.

  “You thief! You’re stealing his Powers!” Damian screeched. His hands lit up with black fire, and his eyes lit up with black fire. Spencer shrieked slightly and bent down to cover his head, then he realized he could fight back. He stood back up and lit his hands up with the same black fire.

  “Everyone, chill,” Nick croaked. “Dad, Spencer has been trying to help me escape for a really long time.”

  “He has Dark Magic! He can’t be trusted,” Damian insisted, stepping forward.

  “Dad!” Nick demanded, “Look, you have Dark Magic too! For all I know, I do, too! Just stop. I don’t have much time left.”

  Nick gestured to the timer in Spencer’s hand. Damian quickly walked to Spencer and yanked the timer from his hand. “Fifty minutes left? Fifty minutes left until what?” Damian questioned hastily.

  “Until my father zaps Nick’s Powers completely,” Spencer said. He realized his mistake too late and, instinctively, he slapped his hand over his mouth.

  “Oh, no,” Spencer muttered.

  Will stepped up. “Who’s your father?” Will asked, eyebrows raised.

  “He doesn’t know. He’s never seen his dad’s face. It’s a complicated relationship,” Nick answered quickly.

  “Hmm, how sad,” Damian sighed.

  “Time is ticking away, guys!” Rachel shouted, gesturing intensely to the timer now in Damian’s hand.

  “Wait, I just need to know one more thing. Did you know about your dad’s plan?” Damian wondered, stepping forward again.

  “Y-yes, but I never agreed with it. I just wanted to free him, but my dad doesn’t know that I know Nick. I do, from a war we fought in together, a long time ago,” he explained.

  “Sweet!” he laughed, pumping his fist. “That’s awesome!”

  Damian began to fidget with the timer, then came to a realization. “All right kids, I never thought I would have to trust you with something like this, but I need you guys to mess around with this until it stops. DON’T BREAK IT! Just try to deactivate it. This kid and I will try to get Nick out of the cage—because we have Dark Magic.”

  “My name is Spencer,” he stated.

  “Great, let’s get going then, Spencer!” Damian muttered.

  Spencer and Damian began to go at the cage. But first, Damian tossed the timer to Will. Avery, Rachel, and Will began to fidget with the timer, while Spencer and Damian fidgeted with the cage. Forty-five minutes remained. Fifteen minutes had passed in complete silence and concentration.

  And then . . . “Spencer! I’m back. I came as quick as I could. I’ve got the others,” Oliver shouted happily.

  Damian, Will, Avery, and Rachel looked up in surprise. “Hurry! Nick doesn’t have much time!” Spencer replied.

  Jason, Mason, Darla, Teddy, Ondrea, and Jessica ran in, and, all at once, the room erupted in noise. Rachel, Avery, and Will got up to greet them. But, Avery, forgetting about her leg, stumbled. Rachel caught her. Damian kept furiously working to get Nick out of the cage.

  “What does the timer say?” he wondered aloud.

  Avery picked it up. “Twenty-seven minutes,” she said, fretting.

  “Explain the situation!” Jason demanded.

  “Well,” Spencer began, “this tank could drain Nick’s Power and possibly kill him in less than thirty minutes.”

  “Oh, no,” Mason mumbled.
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br />   Jason walked over to examine the tank on the side of the cage with great care. After a few minutes, he discovered a nearly invisible tube that connected the tank to the cage. Jason didn’t see how this cage could be draining Nick’s Power. Mason ventured over.

  “I’m bored,” Mason stated.

  “I am trying to figure this out! Could you go bug someone else?” Jason hissed, clearly annoyed.

  “Look, everyone else is busy doing their own thing. I don’t know how to do any of it, but I do know how to work with you. We’ve been figuring things out together our whole lives. Let’s not stop now. Please let me try to help,” Mason begged.

  “Fine, give it a go,” Jason exclaimed stepping back.

  “What’ve you gotten so far?” Mason questioned, now excited.

  “Well, there is a tube that leads from the tank to the cage—but that is it,” Jason explained plainly.

  Mason examined it thoroughly, and an idea popped into his head. “What if the cage is drawing Power from him and the tube is collecting it? This Power must be for someone or something. Sure, Nick is Powerful, but not extremely Powerful,” Mason thought out loud.

  “What are you getting at?” Jason wondered, now intrigued.

  “I’m saying, what if the material in the bars is amplifying his Power as it’s going into the tank? I’m sure he tried to break out, but he couldn’t because the bars are too strong and must be made out of some stronger material!” Mason finished with the excitement of having figured it out.

  “You’re probably right!” Teddy exclaimed coming up beside them, “So, if we try to destroy the tank, it won’t do anything. It will just continue as is.”

  “That’s right!” Ondrea added, “We clearly can’t destroy the cage because it’s made out of a stronger material, but there must be something around the cage that isn’t indestructible!”

  “Yes!” Spencer commented, “And we could destroy those! You guys are geniuses!”

  “But where are they?” Jessica asked, joining in. By now everyone had come over to hear about what was going on.

  “Could they be on the inside of the cage though?” Darla questioned. “Because If they were sucking his Power from the inside of the cage, they would most likely be on the inside of the cage.”

  “Maybe there would be a way to reverse the pull of Power,” Will suggested.

  “But wouldn’t that overpower him? His Power has been amplified, which means there’s more Power in the tank than he originally had, plus the Power he still has left,” Mason warned.

  “It could kill him, but it has a higher chance of getting his Power back—because he is a Master Healer, and Master Healers have more room in their body since their Healing Power is always being used,” Jason predicted.

  “He can also use his Power Steal and give excess energy to people. His body is used to receiving a large amount of Power, then emptying it. He might be fine,” Jessica added.

  “Also, wouldn’t the Power electrify the cage enough so that the substance would weaken and be easier to break?” Rachel pointed out.

  “Hey! We did it!” Darla shouted. “We figured it out! Good job guys! But, if we’re going to do anything, we should do it now because this kid doesn’t have much longer!”

  The timer read seven minutes.

  “Guys,” Nick said in a quiet voice, “it’s getting really warm in here.”

  “Maybe we can reverse the pull with Dark Magic, but we only have so much,” Spencer said.

  “If the Dark Magic users connect in any sort of way, you will be able to combine your Power. But that’s never been done before with Dark Magic, so it could be very dangerous,” Jason said.

  Damian grabbed Spencer’s shoulder and nodded. They were both in. They stuck out their hands together feeling each other’s energy pulsing through them. The Dark Magic shot out of their hands and immediately engulfed the cage.

  “Guys, we should probably get out of here,” Avery called, hobbling to the hall. Everyone followed.

  Suddenly, with Dark Magic still swirling around the cage, the tank drained. Green, black, white, and red electricity flowed through the cage and exploded brightly. The Dark Magic was able to shield the blast. The Dark Magic settled, and Spencer collapsed. Damian was very tired, but still effective. He looked at the no-longer-functioning Spencer, panting on the ground beside him. Damian grabbed Spencer’s arm and dragged him into the hallway. Damian raced to the cage and peered inside. Nick was unconscious but alive.

  “Guys, there’s no way for us to pry these bars open. Nick is unconscious and I just realized that our normal Powers don’t work in this world,” Damian said.

  “Yeah,” Spencer croaked from the floor, “and I’m too weak to use my Dark Magic. I assume Damian doesn’t have any to spare.”

  “Not if we want to make it out alive, I don’t,” Damian stated firmly.

  “I hope the electric shock and explosion deactivated the Power-draining process,” Oliver said warily.

  “The timer!” Darla yelled. She ran over to it and picked it up. “Three minutes left!” she shouted, panicking.

  Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, The Boss walked in. Everyone became very alarmed and began to back away because they didn’t have any Powers currently working.

  “Relax dimwits!” The Boss screeched. “There are bigger problems than this boy!”

  The Boss stuck out his fingers and shot a jet-black ray of light toward the bars of the cage. The entire cage fell apart. In shock, Damian ran to Nick and grabbed him, carrying him out of the cage.

  “What’s going on, Boss?” Damian asked, confused and scared.

  “What’s wrong? I’ll tell you what’s wrong! ONE OF YOU LITTLE IDIOTS TOOK THE DOORS OFF THE DOME AND ALL THE CREATURES HAVE ESCAPED!”

  Oliver stepped back a little. Spencer, now standing straight up, saw this movement and glared directly in his direction. Oliver shrank farther back. Spencer crept toward Oliver quietly, so his dad wouldn’t see him. Damian saw this and crept toward them to listen in.

  “I can’t believe you, Oliver! You should have told me that you took the doors off!” Spencer hissed.

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t think anything of it when I first did it, plus they weren’t opening. I couldn’t have saved you if I hadn’t!” Oliver said shyly.

  “I could have gotten out myself,” Spencer huffed, turning away. Oliver bowed his head in defeat.

  “Listen! It doesn’t matter who hates whom right now!” The Boss yelled, sneaking up on them. “We need to get those stupid animals back into the stupid dome with some stupid doors! I am not powerful enough to take them on my own, surprisingly! So, you guys, my son, and I are going to get those animals back— because I want to live in a world that still exists!” he announced.

  “Wait! We’re not going anywhere with you! You tried to kill us!” Mason said stubbornly.

  “Guys, if he’s not powerful enough, then we need to do this. I don’t want to help The Boss any more than the next guy, but we don’t want the world to end,” Ondrea pleaded.

  “Guys! Nick’s awake!” Damian exclaimed happily.

  “Whoa!” Nick yelled, “I feel Powerful!” Nick looked around and eyed all the grim faces. Then he saw The Boss.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” Nick asked.

  Damian whispered in his ear.

  “What! The world is ending?” Nick asked. “Well come on! I’m tired of being in this place.” He ran forward and grabbed Spencer’s arm pulling him on the way out.

  “And he wonders why I kept him in a cage for so long,” The Boss muttered.

  Damian shrugged and followed Nick. Oliver and Jessica went next. Everyone else just followed, with The Boss walking behind them. On the other side of the portal, there was a strong pulling sensation as if gravity wanted to fling them back into the portal.

  When everyone made it out, Oliver had an announcement: “All right guys! First things first, Ondrea needs to Heal Nick because he’s been through a lot and is obviously pre
tty beat up. Once that’s done, Ondrea, you may need to get to work on Avery. Nick you’ll have to Heal Will, considering he’s been walking around everywhere with burned hands for who knows how long. Almost no one has slept in days, so we’re going to have to try and be bearable, people.”

  “I feel fine! No need to Heal me! Extra Power, remember!” Nick chanted.

  “All right, Nick share your extra Power with Spencer, Ondrea, and Damian. They’ll need it,” Oliver commanded.

  “You got it, chief!” he replied.

  “Great, start doing your thing, guys!” Oliver cheered, with a small grin. Everyone separated to do their thing: Nick began Healing Will’s hands, Ondrea began Healing Avery, and everyone else went their separate ways to talk. Oliver looked around for something to do. He saw Damian talking with Spencer.

  “Hey, guys,” Oliver said, walking over to them.

  “Oh, hello, Oliver. I was just conversing with Spencer over here,” Damian said, nodding his head toward Spencer.

  “Ah, fun. Whattcha talking about?” Oliver asked, suspiciously raising his eyebrows toward him. “Anything pressing?”

  Damian glared at Oliver. Spencer looked back and forth between them.

  “Uh. What’s going on?” Oliver questioned.

  “Spencer!” Nick called jokingly. “You ready for ultimate POWER?”

  “Yeah, coming!” he called.

  When Spencer was gone, Oliver faced Damian. “What was that all about?” Oliver questioned,

  “I still don’t trust him very much. There’s definitely something he isn’t telling us that I think is really important,” Damian exclaimed, angrily.

  “Well, stop cornering him and making him feel uncomfortable, all right?” Oliver asked.

  “What if he’s up to something?” Damian wondered.

  “Well, if he is hiding something, he can suffer from the guilt until he tells us,” Oliver said firmly. “Now lay off.” Oliver looked over Damian’s shoulder. “Nick is ready for you. He’s waving.”

  Damian walked over to Nick. Meanwhile, Spencer went to his dad. He pulled The Boss far away from the group.

  “Dad, what are you planning?” Spencer asked.