Out of control - Masterminds #1, Chapter 13
If the news of Heila's engagement wasn't already unsettling for Nya, she soon learnt that she would be excluded from the next mission... The only one, in fact, to be left out...
It’s so unfair!
Why me…
Why am I always the one that’s left behind?
“Focus, Nya, focus!”
Nya didn’t know how long she had been running, but Dany’s voice brought her back to reality… just in time to dodge the sharp claws of the shapeshifter that had sprung out from the shadows.
She came to a halt as she stared back at the monstrously deformed hyena in front of her. Her breathing was ragged and her shoes were covered in mud. It was dark in these parts of the woods, but under normal circumstances, she should have been able to predict that attack.
Wasn’t darkness her friend?
She leapt at the same time as the monster but before it could rip off her arm, it got sucked into a black hole that had formed right under its paws. One of the easiest tricks in Chaos’s books. One of the few techniques she could use without losing control.
Although she knew she was on the verge…
She landed back on the ground, but stumbled and fell to her knees.
“Stand up!”
Dany’s voice was persistent as always. How much could he see from his little safe room up there? How much could he discern from her body language? He would always push her to a tipping point… a point of no return.
Unfair…
Everyone’s against me…
As she got back on track and started running again through the neverending rows of trees, she could feel a darker energy growing inside of her. A ball of hatred, resentment, and envy ready to explode into chaotic madness.
Two more shapeshifters tried to attack her but this time, her instincts were sharper and she engulfed them into darkness. Then three of them came at her. Again, she wiped them out into emptiness.
“Great, you’ve picked up the pace.” Dany’s voice resonated from above again. “Now, remember, always remember to stay grounded. Know who you are. Here they come…”
Two shapeshifters appeared in front of her, then two more from behind, then another…
An ambush.
Again she formed a black hole… but the moment she took them down, more started to appear. And double the numbers.
Her usual tricks wouldn’t work this time. She had to tap into her greater abilities… But in doing so, she could lose control and blackout… yet again. Like she always did during those training sessions.
Remember who I am…
Dany would always say that whenever he felt that she was about to lose control. Maybe he could tell after all, how mad she was, how chaotic her heart was. At that very moment, she knew she was even readier to give herself up to the true Chaos inside of her.
Let her… let her destroy everything…
I’m so tired of fighting…
“But I have to…” she muttered. She had formed a barrier to protect herself from the constant attacks as she struggled to compose herself.
If I stop fighting, if I give in to my desires, Chaos will take over and if Chaos takes over, not only in this space but in the real world, then I will really be the trigger to the apocalypse.
If I cannot control my power… everything will end.
With a gesture of her hands, she pushed the barrier towards the monsters. They were thrown away and exploded into the air, leaving traces of sticky black blood behind.
More of them appeared again.
But would it be that bad if everything were to end?
Nya’s whole body started trembling. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She cried out.
She had reached the tipping point. The darkness dragged her down. She sunk deeper while Chaos took over her.
As she floated into nothingness, the memories of the previous evening flashed into her mind…
“What do you mean I’m not going?”
Nya was staring at them all. Heila had just told her that all of them were needed in the underground ambush Judy and she had planned to defeat the Rogue Writer currently in the wild.
Except her.
Even Ray would get his very first opportunity to fight and help in Heila’s and Judy’s pursuit of the serial murderer. His first real-life battle. He’d be able to use his Mastermind powers as they should: for the better good of this planet.
But she, the Mastermind of Chaos, couldn’t.
Why couldn’t she? Of course, she knew the answer before Heila or anyone could answer that.
“It’s too dangerous, Nya,” Heila said. “Right now, I can’t risk you going out to use your power and fight against a potential Hybrid and killer. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt as I did or…”
“Or for me to hurt everyone else, right?”
“Nya—”
Dany stepped up. “Listen, I’ve watched and trained Ray, Ash and you closely. And I’m sorry, but I know you’re not yet ready to apply your power to a real-life situation.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t have said that a few weeks ago. Just because of one slip-up against months of progress…”
“And another ‘one slip-up’ could mean the end of everything.”
The room turned silent. It was Judy, and not Dany, who had spoken up in reply.
Judy continued. “You know it’s true.” Her eyes stared straight into hers. She knew she was saying what everyone else had in mind but didn’t have the courage to form into words.
“I… I just want to help,” Nya said. She didn’t want to give up just yet. “I’m tired of feeling useless.”
And tired of feeling like an enemy, like a threat.
She wanted to feel like she was on the same side as them for once. It always seemed like it was them against her. That everything they were doing, keeping her close and training her, was because they were against her.
That they were afraid of her.
She locked her eyes with Heila but the latter looked away.
That slip-up… had almost killed Ash after all. That was his last training session with her before he had flown off to university.
Nya couldn’t get rid of the images… Of blood staining his silver hair, of his limp body lying on the cold floor, of Dany’s hurried footsteps after he had cut off the simulation abruptly…
The forest around them had been replaced by the white high-ceiling room in the penthouse which was used as a training room: a space that could be morphed into any kind of landscape with the feature of simulating attacks and other kinds of fighting scenarios.
“Don’t worry, it’s not the first time,” Ash had said to her when he had regained consciousness.
That was the problem though: it wasn’t the first time she had lost control and attacked him instead of attacking the surrounding enemies. And if Dany hadn’t been there to hold her in place until she passed out, it would have been worse…
“I’m not saying that you’re useless, Nya,” Heila said.
“Then why am I always left out?”
Ray, Dany, Judy, Jake… They were all surrounding her, staring at the commotion, staring at her. She hated that feeling. That feeling of being caged, being trapped by their piercing eyes and unsaid comments.
It was even worse when Heila was as cold and distant as she was at that moment.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I have the final say in this. And you are not coming with us tomorrow. Please understand that I’m doing this for your own good.”
Nya’s eyes start to sting.
“I… hate… you!”
She stormed off and ran past them, up the stairs. She could hear Heila trying to call her back… but then a softer voice, that of Dany’s, trailed right after…
“Let her go. Let her cool down for now.”
When she came around, the woods and shapeshifters were gone. She was lying on the cold white floor of the training room, alone.
“You have failed again,” Dany said through the speakers. “So much for trying to prove yourself.”
D. K. Waye