Collateral Damage

I would have posted this earlier, but, oh, SO many things happening since this took place, wiping memories, looking for Don, we don't know if he's still angry, or if he's in trouble, he might just be a pile of dust by now, it depends how that yellow energy affected him. Let me explain:

(It should be noted that Dragon stayed behind during this to work on the Aura around Omni, which still wouldn't open.)

During our evening of attempted 'normal' life, I got a call from Don on his evening out. He was in a panic by the sound of it, and I put him on speaker phone so everyone could hear. It sounded like he'd done the same, because I could hear his friends clearly:

'Tempest! It's Don! There's...trouble at the cinema......my friends are here... hang on...' There were sounds of fighting, a yell from Don, a clatter as he dropped the phone, a grunt of pain from someone who sounded familiar, and a few new voices calling out warnings to Don. There was a lot of panting and a new voice spoke into the phone, sounding winded and in considerable pain. 'Tempest? Is that you? We were told you could help. These two men showed up, one of them leered at us, and then-'

There was the sound of a large explosion, and I heard Don yell from far away 'Tell him it's Leech! Have you got that? Tell him it's Leech, and a shadowy guy!'
'Did you hear that, Tempest?' asked Don's friend hurriedly, and there was a scream for someone in the background. By this time I'd picked us up in a forcefield and we were flying to Hill's road as fast as I could manage. Before anyone starts to wonder I couldn't use the doorknob that Jorge gave us, I'm pretty sure it got left in TP, or the void. It had been left behind in a rush at some point anyway.

I gave my phone to Doolittle while I navigated us at top speed. I heard her call 'Don? Are you still there? What's going on? Who's the shadowy guy?' Precog sighed and muttered to me. It's probably shade. You know how I can't sense him while he's a shadow? He could twist all my predictions out. The way I see it I think there are two ways this could go.' I could hear things getting worse at the cinema and we flew round a corner at top speed as I heard Don yelling 'From what you said about him, I think it is Shade, and, listen, I guess you were right about not being able to have a normal day, but he's got worse guys! Leech is worse! He's learnt how to absorb kinetic energy too! Every time he can see an attack coming, he absorbs the force of it! Most of my hits do nothing!'
'Don, we're nearly there! We're at the end of the road!' I yelled, as The college and the cinema came into view, tiny at the end of the long road. We tore up it, and I could see shadows racing us there, leaving buildings and trees and converging on the cinema, and a distant dark something growing in front of it.
All of this only took a couple of seconds, I was taking us at the speed that gets us to America in under four hours, but while it was happening we heard one of Don's friends on the phone 'Why do they keep calling you Don? Your name's- AAAAARGH!!!!' there was a strangled cry, screams, a loud thud, and the line went dead.
We could already see why. We had reached the cinema, and as we descended, and I split us onto separate forcefields so we came down surrounding the chaos,and saw a horrific sight.

Don and four boys were there, everyone else having fled the scene. It looked like Don's friends had tried to help him fight Shade and Leech off, and got involved, while all the civilians had left the scene in a hurry. there were shopping bags, handbags, empty pushchairs, bits of food, scattered over the ground, with other items, all showing a hasty evacuation. Don was on the ground, a gash in one leg, furiously pummeling Leech's legs, while one of the other boys was being strangled and attempting to hit him with the handle of a pram that had been smashed to pieces. One of them was spread-eagled on the concrete, his eyes closed and a nasty burn all over his left side. The third friend seemed to have injuries to both legs, because he was sliding around on the floor, pulling himself along by grabbing hold of supports in a row of bike racks, and he kept turning round to look at the front of the cinema, and throwing a piece of stone from the smashed flagstones around him at someone there. We followed the stone shard with our eyes and saw Shade, a wide grin plastered on his face, growing slowly darker and larger as the shadows around him gathered round his and merged with him, while the fourth boy we didn't know hurled a jet of fire from it from his hands, desperately trying to dispel the shadows as Shade grew in size. Shade laughed and spread his hands, and shadowy tendrils snaked out along the ground, and made the boy fall as they shot towards the burned victim. We all leapt into the fray, as Don yelled 'Finally! What took you so long! Turns out Brian can make flamethrowers, we only found out ten minutes ago when his life started being in danger. He attacked Leech before I could warn him, I was still in shock, and, well, Leech used that to get Dave. Taz got both his legs broken from an attack Leech did before I knew he could absorb kinetic force now, and the shade got my leg when I went for Leech again. James? James are you ok?!'

By this point I'd tackled Leech to the ground,Diffy had taken up the role of hitting Leech with the pram handle because James had gone limp, and Tingle had wrestled James from out of Leech's hands. Healthbar had been running to Dave and Taz, but Shade had cried 'Ha! Too slow!' and grabbed her with a wisp of darkness, lifting her into the air by her ankle as she screamed. Precog had looked at the scene in pure horror, yelled 'This isn't right! Shade is messing with my visions! I can't see him so his presense wasn't taken into account! I have to stop him!' He checked three things in his notebook, went even paler, gazed up at the slashing tentacles of shadow between him and Shade and, for what seemed to be the first time in his life, turned on his new near-sight vision by choice. His eyes shone white, he made a dash for the shadows, and began ducking and dodging, calling things like 'Ha! Totally saw you coming THIS time! Oooooooh, so close! Too slow! Did I mention You're stupid and I'm awesome! Ah, you nearly had me that time, keep trying!' and he ducked and dived his way towards a snarling shade. Playwrite was standing between Leech and Shade, concentrating, and every now and again he struck his hands towards them, out sideways, with his eyes closed and they would falter, or clutch their heads and groan, but then he would start to shake and let go of his mental hold, crouching down and panting, while they recovered and began fighting again. Doolittle helped Don into a kneeling position and sat on Leech, preventing him from getting up, while Diffy leapt onto his chest, yelling 'Remember me?!' and Leech gave a small scream as Diffy world of nightmares descended on him once more. Don and me were looking at James with concern. He wasn't moving. I checked his pulse, but it was very faint. 'Healthbar! Help James!'
'With you in a minute!' She screamed at Shade, and burst into a brilliant, glowing white. Light shone from her, lighting up the night sky, and Shade shrieked and shrank as the shadows around her broke apart, dissolving into the light that she was casting. I caught her in a gust of wind, and she hurried over to us, freeing Precog, who's new sight had faded again, from the clutches of a shadow as she passed. There was a yell and a thud from behind us, and I turned to see Leech, on his feet, with Doolittle cast down next to me, as he and Diffy fought, with Leech now touching Illusions, absorbing them, and sending out his own. Diffy was looking fiercely at his, saying over and over 'They only my spooks gone bad, they only my spooks gone bad...' and with a wave of his hands a huge teddy bear leered down at Leech, and a nightmare cloud started to engul his head, but he broke free and ran for Healthbar, slamming her to the ground with a cry of 'I don't think so! The humans stay dead!' and before she could retaliate, he crashed her head into the paving slabs, knocking her out. Her head started bleeding, and in the background I saw Shade, sort of enveloping Brian in shadows, and he was beginning to moan. I stood up. 'Doolittle look after the others. I have to stop Shade. I'm beginning to think Cleo's right. Get rid of them when you have the chance.'
I made a forcefield and flew into the air. The clouds thickened and thunder rolled out over the sky. I was really angry. I knew I should have fought properly earlier, but I was afraid of using my abilities on Leech and I'd left Shade to Healthbar and Brian while I saw to Don. I heard Don below me, muttering to Doolittle inan urgent whisper, and caught her answer 'I know. I've only seen him like this twice. When he gets really angry, his powers just sort of surge out of him in a wave. That's why there's a thunderstorm.'
I looked down at Healthbar, and then at the dark, cloudy sky above me. 'It's the only way. I can't believe I'm doing this.' I muttered, and I created a wind that swept away some of the clouds, revealing the moon, and letting it's light shine down on the scene. And on Healthbar. I charged at Shade, my forcefield crackling with electricity and struck his huge shadowy mass, blasting fire in all directions, and I heard a screech of pain as he fell to the floor, more shadows deserting him as he became more and more human again. I had one of those moments where time seems to slow down, and everything seems earily calm, even when your surrounded by deadly whisps of shadow and fighting with everything you have. I was using Ice, Fire, Electricity, Wind, Water, Earth, everything I had, and yet I heard, quite clearly, Healthbar moan and Don explain to Doolittle about how Leech could only absorb physical force he saw coming, and her asking to borrow the ring he had. I saw Pete thrown aside as he tried to take Leech's power, Tingle trying in vain to pull Brian from the shadows, and having to give up before they got him too. I saw Taz get pulled in by a tendril and dragged towards us, and Shade turn to smile at me, through my attacks, and melt into a shadow, only to appear behind me, mutter 'These pathetic friends of yours will soon be nothing more than shadow fodder' and sweep down to enclose Taz in his dark embrace, sending a wave of shadow to throw me backwards, where I just managed to avoid a metal column of the cinema building (One of the few bits left standing) by regaining control of my forcefield, and seeing Shade was nothing but a shadow on the floor, and untouchable by me, I went for Leech. Don yelled 'Distract him!' and I rammed into him with my forcefield. He grinned as he was shunted forwards, he had his hands out to touch the forcefield, and dug his heels in. He came to a stop and shoved at me, sending my flying backwards into the air. I came at him again, I felt unsure about using fire but, as a distraction.....

I shot him with it,and as he was cackling as his hands glowed with the fire, gaing power from it ready to strike back, Doolittle yelled 'Absorb this!' And swung one of the large metal benches from near the bike racks into his chest. He gasped as all his breath left him and he was flung backwards, over the road and crashed into the college through a window and disappeared.

'Oh dear' said Don, staring.
'What? Surely that's good?'
'Nope. That's a science lab.'
'Oooooooooooooh.'

BOOM!

The college exploded. Nearly completely destroyed. I managed to enclose most of it in a forcefield, but some people are going to find little bits of college in street tomorrow. I saw Healthbar standing, her head fully recovered, with the gaunt look on her face, but not quite as bad, as if she had a bit more control this time. She looked at the shadow that was shade, and she ran to him, forcing all his remaining shadowsout of him, leaving him nowhere to hide and making him become human once more. She shone with light again, and seemed to become more light than girl, as she leapt onto him and leapt onto him, tackling the screaming man to the ground. She seemed to drift into him and he seemed to cheer as his darkness blotted her out, and she dissappeared, and he smiled as we looked on shocked, but his smile was replaced by fear as he began to crackle with energy, and light shone from folds in his clothes and from his eyes as he screamed a terrible note of pain, before breaking into tiny wisps of shadow that faded away into the night, leaving a brilliantly white Healthbar standing where he had been. She looked dazed, and smiled at us dreaily as she said. 'I have no idea how I did that, and I don't want to do it again. It was gross.' and with that she collapsed, falling to the floor, having fainted.

I will post what happened to Don and the repercussions of Healthbar using the moon later. I can't bear to go on just now.