The air around them even though they were told to stay out of the room it still felt incredibly thin. Eclipse even made it to where Aurora wasn't allowed inside and even though she didn't want to be left out Aurora did what she was told.

  Gale who usually thrashed about and murmured to herself when anybody was around was completely silent and she breathed normally and steady as if she could feel the presence of allies near her. Eclipse started to open the large door turning it very slowly as to not make too much noise.

  Even though they'd not been gone for long she could tell that the guards and researchers had left in a hurry. Even if everyone got out well mostly everyone the one subject that did not want to get free of their bindings was Mist. Even though Gale could take the oxygen out of the air and suffocate people her mental stability was also in question. Since when she used her abilities, it cost her some of her own breath to take from other beings and give to yourself or just to take and disperse. Well, there needed to be equivalent exchange. So, the oxygen to her brain when she would do those things would greatly diminish and if she spent too much energy she could collapse or faint. Mist on the other hand as long as she had water near her, she could replenish herself almost continuously that's why she was kept underneath the water. So, that there was no chance of it getting into her. Kept above water she had the ability even though it was slow to pull it towards her. However, if it surrounded her and she was unable to bring it to her she could not get out. So, her being protected was the best course of action. Since the others were limited in what they could do. Gale and Mist could not be allowed near each other because they together could produce massive storms and bring the world to waste and to ruin once again.

  All of this was at the moment a moot point as Eclipse finally heard the door click and she was able to pull it open. It was silent and that creaking sound of the door echoed around everything. Even though she could not see or hear Gale's gaze turned towards the door. Eclipse smirked moving forward very slowly since usually she was always rambling. Eclipse made sure to stay on her guard just in case her friend was playing possum and was going to do something erratic. She stayed a good distance away and used the shadow to remove the sound damping devices that were placed around her ears. It was as if she was pulled back up out of the water. The light sounds of breathing. The creaking of the metal around them. Everything flooded her ears and her psyche. She couldn't open her mouth to speak since she could use the air around her as a weapon. Eclipse wasn't going to remove the gag on her yet. First, she wanted to make sure Gale wasn't going to attack.

  "Hello, Gale, it's been a while since the two of us have been able to speak and I know you can't talk at the moment. You can't see but you can hear me. So, all you need to do is nod. Are you aware of what's going on at the moment?" Eclipse did her best to keep calm and collected.

  Gale shook her head no. Even though she had some type of notion or maybe an idea for the simple fact that Eclipse was inside her containment area. It still could be a trick since the only sense available to her at the moment was hearing there was no way for her to discern if anyone else was in the room or not. At least not at the moment. Nobody else was moving and even though she could hear light breathing the only one that she could significantly register on the outside of the containment area was Aurora.

  "I thought not. The alarm system down here was probably disabled, and you wouldn't be able to hear it through those annoying little devices anyway. I don't know why I don't just call them earmuffs or headphones or what have you. It just doesn't seem right anymore." Eclipse paused for a moment letting out a devious string of laughter. "Listen to be babbling on when there's more important things to discuss. No harm is going to come to you, and you need not worry this is not trick or a diversion or anything of that sort. If I was accompanied by anyone from the facility, they would not have let me remove your sound damping devices. I'm pretty sure you're keenly aware Aurora is outside, and you know I'd never put her in such danger. I'm going to remove the gag so that you may speak however make even the slightest move that I do not appreciate, or I feel threatened in any way I will confine you to shadow. This what they're doing to you now will seem like a vacation compared to what I can do to your senses. Are we agreed?"

  Gale nodded her head. She wasn't about to play around with Eclipse. They were good friends after all. Of course, they hadn't seen each other in what felt like a lifetime. There were times when Gale had trouble distinguishing reality from the truth, but that wasn't going to happen today.

  Eclipse used the shadows to remove the gag from Gale's mouth.

  She took in a deep cleansing breath through her nose since the gag was not only over her mouth, but over her nose. Even though she was being feed oxygen in small amounts just enough to keep her alive and coherent it still wasn't pleasant. She wasn't about to let anyone else put those things back on her. She started to hyperventilate for a few moments. The air was stale and even though what she'd been given through those devices kept her alive this was worse. She wanted to throw up. Gale cleared her throat a few times letting out a sigh.

  "What the fuck is going on out there?! I can finally hear and smell properly. Is that blood? What, what happened?!" Gale continued to breath a bit unevenly trying to balance herself.

  Eclipse started to laugh in a devious manner. Of course, it also sounded like she could burst into tears at any moment.

  "Why are you laughing?" Gale didn't find any part of this funny.

  She continued to laugh ignoring Gale's question for the moment.

  "Come now don't laugh. She is our friend give her some common courtesy. You can be so inconsiderate for someone who dares to care about all of us." Glade walked in the room walking straight passed Eclipse who was about to reach out with her shadows and stop Glade, but the iron ball that followed her made a sheet in-between them as Glade walked over and ripped off the vision impairment apparatus that was on her.

  Aurora came into the room followed by Alexandria. Valentina elected to stay outside of the room for the moment not wanting to dive into this new mess just yet, but she did stay as close to the door as possible since there was no way she wasn't going to be within arm's reach to protect her captain.

  "That's better now, isn't it? It's good to see you." Glade was happy to see Gale again after so long.

  "Glade?" Gale smiled weakly up at her.

  She smiled at Gale nodding her head.

  "If you're out does that mean...?" Gale tried to ask a question but was cut off by Glade.

  "Mist is still contained for the moment. All of the researchers on the top follows are dead. Eclipse killed most of them and this woman not too far behind me her people killed the rest. They also came here to destroy this place. Eclipse and I have agreed to join them. I assured them that you and Mist would join us since we are together on this well it is my belief that we are. At least who we were before inside of course." Glade hit her chest twice with her fist turning to face Eclipse bringing down the iron sheet that she placed between them.

  "Don't you ever throw your powers at me again. She told you she wouldn't attack and all you did was stand there and laugh. Have you so fully eroded into your power that you forget your own friends? We are not going to have a repeat of this with Mist. I will go inside her chamber, and you will stay out. You may be the leader, but you need to sit down and put your mind back together. Am I the only one that kept my sanity? Am I the only one who for lack of a better word who's been grounded? Even though I was the only one suspended in midair and the rest of you especially you don't throw your power at me again unless we are training, or I do something reprehensible that you need to put me down." She turned and ripped off the restraints that were holding Gale against what looked like a vertical bed. She dropped and Glade caught her trying to help her stand up.

  "You need to get your legs under you. We have much further to go and this next part will not be easy. We're going to have to rely on Alexandria and her friend to get us through that."

  Eclipse had remained silent through Glade's speech, but when she said that Eclipse was done being silent. "Excuse you, Glade. Thank you for the rousing peptalk you just gave us. It is appreciated. I was laughing because I didn't know what else to do and if you don't like it then next time you can..."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "That is enough!" Everyone went silent and looked down. Aurora had stood in between them her arms folded pouty look on her face looking from Glade to Eclipse and then finally to Gale. We do not need to fight right now. There's no reason for it. The three of you are acting like children and I'm the child here. Mother, you are the smartest person in the room but just remember you're the one who basically set off this entire epidemic not on purpose. So, deal with it so the rest of us don't have to keep you in check. Auntie Gale I'm sorry that you had to stay locked up so long. I'm glad you're free. There's actually some food hidden in this room. We should get it, and you should eat just so you can have the strength to walk because nobody needs to be carrying anybody else. All of us are going to have to do something to defend each other when we go further down. Auntie Glade thank you for your words they needed to be said, but don't cause friction were there doesn't need to be any. State your purpose and try to do it without angering each other." She took in a deep breath letting it out with an eye roll mostly at her mother. A little bit at Glade and of course none of it was directed at Gale since she had been incapacitated.

  Valentina moved into the room. She had been watching from the doorway and saw where Aurora had pointed to where the stash of food was located. She got it out as Glade pulled up one of the researcher chairs so that Gale could sit down.

  Eclipse left the room for a moment. High heel steps and a scoffed followed her out the door. Even though she knew her daughter was right she still had much to deal with inside her own self. Laughing and being a leader was the only way she could distracted herself. So, being put in her place by not only a child but her own child was a humbling and agitating moment for her.

  Valentina opened the package and handed the food to Glade who then in turn tried to give it to Gale. Gale did her best to eat and she drank a little bit of water and the only sounds inside the room were the shuffling of people walking around, the packaging for the food, and then Gale's chewing. She took in a deep breath and looked around for moment.

  Eclipse was still outside the room pacing back and forth mumbling to herself trying to everything inside her head in the correct order. She had been using her powers way too much and it was affecting her psyche. She needed to tone it down or she might turn into an enemy before too long.

  "That was a crazy experience. Is that how it was for you Glade? You said that you were suspended in midair."

  "I was. In some sort of I don't even know if it was plastic. It was a material that I wasn't used to. It's not from our old world, but it's also not native to this one. It could be a hybrid of the two. After the fall the loss of technology was so vast that the things that they have here seem lightyears ahead of what it is on the outside. That's because the facilities that they took over were from our age. If it wasn't for us, they would not know how to operate anything, but yes, I was. Thanks to Aurora though she would come at guard change and bring me different parts of nature. Sticks, dirt, different minerals, stones, and the like. It helped keep me sane. This ball you see that is hovering near me this is all that energy that she gave me plus more. Alexandria here gave me a big chuck of iron. Well, it was crude, but it did have all different types of minerals and materials from the ground. It's what I used to block Eclipse's shadows from touching me. That's we she used to take the headphones and the gag out of your mouth. She didn't actually step up to you and take those out with her hands. She did it with her power. Eclipse apparently has been using her power a bit too much and it drives on our sanity and our psyche. That's why you feel out of place because they force you to use your abilities to test them to see what they can glean and gain. We are ground zero as far as this virus and these powers are concerned and without us all their research is diluted versions of the originals. Of course, the powers have mutated. The one who handed you the food that is Valentina. She has the ability to manipulate space and time very powerful. The other one that's captain Alexandria she's a shape shifter. I haven't seen her transformation yet, but she boasts the ability to transform into animals only ones that she has seen. It is interesting very much so. We have decided to become her personal guard and join her pirate group with plans on toppling the current government. Of course, that is going to take some time and from everything they have told us about the outside it looks like they were leaked this information in order to capture them. Which is why they are rallying around Mist. The harshest and most strict security protocols are down there. So, getting to her is going to be tricky." Glade turned her attention to Alexandria since she wanted to let Gale rest and eat for the moment.

  "We may need to call on more of your crew for help. While our powers are strong as I just mentioned we cannot use them without grave consequence because we don't just have one. We have multiple. We are breeding grounds. I'm sure you've all been told that anyone from your age who tries to give themself another ability will die, and it is true. We have seen it happen. However, people like us our bodies are much more resilient. So, they are able to play with them a bit more. So, we have many two or three. We have one main which is the nucleus or cluster and inside that cluster it has different branches. For instance, Eclipse's ability to manipulate shadows and darkness and then you saw her puppet strings at work, and she can also see through that darkness. Also, an ability to creature shadow creatures. Those are all based on the same thing just different branches. Now, the researchers did tell us one thing or say one thing around me. That they had found a way to manipulate that ability in your people and that was the next step. That is why they were capturing so many of you. The more powerful ability users. They find that the more powerful the ability the better chance the host has of surviving the splicing. That's what we would call it. I'm not sure what your scientists call it, but we call it splicing. The ability to manipulate what is already there and grow it and put different segments onto it like blood from other ability users to grant them a portion of that ability. However, there is no more time for anymore talk. We must get ready. Beyond this point there are traps and all manner of nuisances to get through not to mention the guards. Eclipse killed about a quarter of them. However, the top brass and his best are probably down below. So, we will need more capable fighters which means you need to bring your people before we can advance any further down. Gale will not be much help until she's recovered and even with this little bit of food and rest, she will not be able to do much. I think the most powerful out of all of us right now is me. We cannot let Eclipse use her power any more than looking forward or listening. Anymore and she'll break and then we'll have to fight her. That is one thing I do not want to do."

  Alexandria let out an exasperated sigh. They were already so far down and now one or more of them had to go back up to get reinforcements, but if what Glade was saying was true, they had no choice. Even with her shape shifting ability and Valentina's ability to control space and time that still would not be enough against a fully outfitted security force. Even if Eclipse took a quarter of them out seventy five percent was still a lot and if these are the elite forces all of them might as well be alive because the elites could be worth three, four, five, six, seven, close to ten soldiers by themselves.

  "Very well if we're not allowed to move forward anymore without significant difficulty then I will call on my crew, but we first also have to check the situation outside." Alexandria was hopeful that soon all this would be over.

  "That is something that I can do. It may be limited, and Glade is right I need to stop using my powers for anything more than observation. Thank you, Aurora, and everybody else for putting me in check the way you did. I will have a look topside and Alexandria if you touch me while I'm doing this you will be able to speak. Hopefully someone is close, and we can communicate our needs." Eclipse smiled at everyone taking in a deep breath feeling a bit better.

  Finally, things were moving forward again. Even though the progression was extraordinary they were still one person short and now had to fight another battle after just finishing everything else. However, there was a silver lining. They did have reinforcements upstairs and one of the people that needed to come down there who hopefully had enough rest was Eve. In close quarters combat there was no one better.