Future Cleo.

So there I was, lost and alone in the wastelands of a broken world, when I suddenly hear a distant rumble. I look around, and notice a cloud of dust on the horizon. I start wandering in that direction, and slowly I can make out the dust has a shadowy blur at it's head. I've just lost sight of the dust cloud behind the remains of a building when I notice there's a helicopter pursuing it. I'm almost at the building, and the rumble has grown to a loud 'BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR' when I hear someone yell 'Forcefield!' Without thinking I put up a forcefield as a huge explosion rocks the building, blasting a hole in the back wall. Coughing at the huge cloud of dust it had made, I looked up to see a figure speeding through the hole. A woman, late twenties, with long black hair and dark shades. She was on a motorbike, that had some sort of rapid fire gun attached to the handlebars, missile launchers attached to each side, and various buttons, switches and a miniature screen. As it shot past, I was grabbed, and felt myself pulled onboard. 'They're nearly overhead! Quick, spark the exhaust!' 'I...What?' 'Well I can't reach round you with the lighter, can I? Fire. Exhaust. Now.' This wasn't a time to argue. I sent a small flame at the exhaust pipe of the bike. Strangely, it wasn't sending out thick, visible smoke, like normal ones did. The flame hit whatever was propelling us forwards, and at once something like a bunsen burner flame burst into life at the end of pipe, but bigger. A huge cone of blue fire exploded into life, and I had to grab desperately at the woman's black jacket to avoid falling off. We tore across the wasteland, yelling over the noise of the bike, and the helicopter. 'So Tempest, nice to see you're back at last! Where did you go off to for all these years?' 'Um, no, I'm Tempest from the past. I have no idea where current me is.' 'You're from...Oh great. There's been a rumour going round that Diffy got backup from another time. So you won't know anything that's been happening.' 'Nope, very little idea. I'm picking up bits and pieces, but Diffy refuses to tell me too much because of spoilers. It's actually rather unhelpful.' 'Screw spoilers! Here's the situation-' BOOM! A huge explosion behind us sent the bike flying into the air. We clung on desperately, and the woman grabbed a grenade from a clip, pulled the pin out, and lobbed it over our shoulders. Whatever had fired at us blew up, pushing us onwards through the air. 'Look, sorry, but, Who are you?' 'Guess!' 'Well, the only person I can think of is Cleo?' 'Bingo!' We slammed onto the ground again, and roared onwards, trying to outrun the wall of fire caused by the explosions. 'But, then, why don't you just use your powers? You had loads in my time, you must have hundreds by now!' 'Nope. Not a single power.' 'What?!' 'Long story. I don't even have my Aura Absorption. I only found you because this screen is an equinox power radar. Only a few people have a pulse like yours.' 'Wow, I'm so sorry. You seen to be coping though.' 'Yeah, I'm doing alright. As I say, I picked you up on the radar, and figured you needed a hand. Where are we going?' 'What? Oh, uh, the old base? Might see if there's anything else useful there before meeting up with the others.' 'OK, off we go! Speaking of the base, have you seen the message Glutton left you?' 'No? What message?' 'Oh of course, you can't read the blogs since the power went down. Well then. we have some clue hunting to do!' More soon, I'm off on a clue hunt, apparently. Glutton, if you're still alive, and you read this, thank you for leaving us a clue, thank you for all your brave work, and don't worry, I will avenge you.

Checkmate.

Tingle directed me forwards, as smokey figures exploded around me. I looked around. I was only three squares from Don! 'Come on Tingle, is it clear for me to move?'
'No! Bishop to X37!'
'I'm so close though! How long until on of us reaches him?'
'Game estimated to finish in 0.5 hours.'
'Zero point....half an hour?!'
'T, I don't think we can last that long!'
'Sod it, I'm going for it! We have to rescue Don!'
'No!'
I sent a huge burst of air outwards in all directions, scattering the approaching hordes, put up several layers of forcefield, became intangible, and leapt towards Don.
'AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRIAAAAAGGGHHHIAAAYYYYOOOOOOWWWWWAAAAARGH!!!!'
I writhed in pain, suspended in the air, trying to absorb the shock. WM helped me recover quicker, and absorbed a lot of the energy. Sparking, I fell at the floor of the machine Don was in.
'Ow.....Hana...?'
'Doing it now.'
'There was a beep as I hauled myself to my feet. Rocking slightly, I teadied myself against the machine. A mistake.
'Ow! More shocking? Must everything shock? HG, you twisted freak...'
A shadow warrior ran at me, arms raised like Don when he was about to strike. Broadcast let out a yell, and a cone of sound burst my assailant.
'Thanks. Cover me!'
I tried to phase Don out of the machine, and got zapped. Technopathy to get the machine to release him? Nothing. i couldn't touch the machine, or Don!
'Alright, say hello to a new invention of mine. I think I'm going to call it Thunderfist!'
Coating my hand in a ball of electricity, I punched the machine several times. The shocks it sent out were absorbed my my thunderfist, making it more powerful. Heavily dented, smoking, and with sparks leaping from broken cables, the machine finally died. The faint glow of the tiles the others were on had flickered during my attack, but now seemed to recover, returning to a faint glow, with no clue as to which were deadly. Pulling Don from his prison, I had an idea. Looking at the others, I saw Jump was closest.
'Jump! When the floor's safe, get Don and run!
'What? Why? What will you be doing?'
'I can't turn off the teleport block that's on these squares, but you should be fine where Tingle is. Tell the others to run!'
'But-'
'I made two thunderfists and slammed the tiles in front of me. Electricity instantly started coarsing through my body, and I couldn't stop myself letting out a cry of pain. but the tiles were flickering, and dying.
'What the-'
'Run! Now!'
She grabbed Don, helping him to his feet, and ran, gesturing madly for the others to do the same. I rose into the air, absorbing as much energy as I could while my friends fled. I soared over the board, and noticed I was starting to smoke. Huge bolts of lightning struck smoky figures, destroying any that were about to attack.
I crashed to the floor by Tingle, with smoke and sparks wafting from me, and saw FDiffy shaking Tingle. 'He's not responding! Come on Tingle! We have to go, and it would really help if we only had to carry one recoving victim. Come on!'
Now, I don't know whether it was all the xtra electrical energy in my body giving me extra brainpower, or if I'd known for ages and the idea had been stewing away for ages, but I suddenly knew what to do. I pulled myself towards him. 'We need...to reboot...mind...something really...prepostriou....pepriostu.......something stupid.'
I leant up towards Tingle's ear. 'Diffy's better at crosswords than you.'
Tingle blinked rapidly, doing a double take. 'Don't be preposterous!'
'That's the word! Damn headache....'
He looked slowly up at the group. 'Oh, hello everybody, what's going on?'
'No time, talk later! Jump, your cue I think!'
Nodding at FDiffy, she grabbed him hand, as everybody started to take hold of one another. She reached out and touched my shoulder, and let out a scream as electricity zapped her. Wincing, she concentrated on teleporting, but as everything weny ripply and dark, she got struck by another bolt and flinched. We lost contact, and all I remember is a scream and a lot of flashes of energy escaping from me. Then I was dropped from nothing onto dusty, hard ground. I'm not entirely sure what happened after that, but I think I exploded. All I know is, my headache reached boiling point, and all the electricity I'd absorbed finally became too much for Weather manipulation to handle, and was forced out of my body. I regained conciousness in a middle sized crater, scorched flat and smooth, several burns and a sleeve on fire. My headache was gone though. I stood up and stared at the empty landscape. There was no sign of the others. I was alone.

Black and White

The black figures advanced towards us across the board as Tingle continued to mastermind our strategy. I 'took' one, by moving to it's square. The shadowy being leapt, as if to struck, and I hit it in the face with fire. It crumbled to wisps of smoke, and vanished.
'They aren't that tough! We can take them!'
I saw FDiffy smile, and noticed a ripple pass over everyone. We were all in white. A thin white ring of crenelations was rotating in the air around my shoulders, Broadcast had a Bishoply hat, Jump and Scorch both had crowns, Centaurs hair was bright white, and he had tall horse ears, and FDiffy himself kept flicking slowly through the entire set.
More smoke men were coming from the booths. They lined up at the edges of the board. Three of the four sides of the board.
'Oh now that's just not Chess!' called FDiffy.
'Then I don't see why we should stick to the rules either.' I commented, blasting in two directions at once.
One figure moved diagonally towards Centaur. 'Help! Tempest? He's going to take me!'
'So? Take him first! This is a game of WAR!'
He nodded, looking determined. He turned round, and, wincing, bracing himself for the worst, kicked out with his back legs as his attacker closed in. There was an explosion of black wisps, and Centaur risked opening an eye. Looking pleased, he snarled at an oncoming assailant, and I saw his arm starting to morph.
Now all we had to do was keep winning until we got to Don. Simple?