Signs of Humanity Chapter 12 - Sign 1
Out in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, a lone figure cladded in bright yellow armour drudged up a snow hill. It was struggling its way to a temporary shelter capping one of the many peaks overlooking the Helix Towers. As the armoured individual wrenched open the door, stepping into the warm, cramped interior of the metal hut their dome-shaped helmet hissed and clicked as it separated from the suit. Commander Hilux pulled it off quickly to let the warm air crash onto her face. "Christ it's a cold walk from the transport to here, once this is over, I think I'll take a job somewhere a bit warmer."
At the sudden commotion the other occupants of the hut all turned to the doorway to see a tall woman with shoulder-length black hair and what seemed a permanent frown dressed in the bright yellow of the Seon's commander armour. At once all three white armoured individuals jumped to their feet and snapped a salute "Good day Commander Hilux, Sir" they shouted in unison.
Hilux surveyed the men for a second, three un-remarkable grunts all uniformly dressed and groomed, more than likely a result of an indoctrination program, not worth remembering she thought to herself. She moved further into the hut squeezing in-between racks of equipment and supplies and moving to the table the men were stationed at. A long table with three computers lined up facing the only thing of note in the entire hut a large window with a clear view of the Helix Towers.
Clear was a bit of an overstatement, the small black mass that looked like a blemish on the white landscape outside no bigger than a thumbnail was their prize. Although for what they were planning on doing, this was close enough. "So, boys, who wants to bring me up to speed?" One of the men piped up his voice cracking with the fear of a schoolboy talking to a rather scary teacher. "Yes ma'am, sir I mean. The drone is on its way we had to delay take off because the winds were too strong, but it should be ready for your detonation command within the next two hours."
Pushing the 'ma'am' comment a side Hilux addressed the man with a grunt. She wasn't too happy she would be spending the next two hours in the musty room sitting on her hands, but it couldn't be helped. She calmed herself with the knowledge that soon Subject 24 would be disposed of and she would be able to take credit for the deed. Sure, she would need a nuke to do it but honestly, what did it matter what tool she used?
"Keep an eye out men, let me know if anyone tries to leave the Towers, I'm going to catch a quick nap if anything changes wake me at once. Where are the beds?"
The three men turned around to her with a confused look on their faces "What? Did you not understand my orders?" Hilux barked back with annoyance.
One of the men addressed her, with the same vocal crack as before "No sir, we just don't have beds."
Hilux sighed and whispered under her breath "definitely an indoctrination unit."
Far from the eyes of Seon, below the range of their sensors deep beneath the ice their prize was unaware of the outside dangers. Even if they were aware they, frankly, were a bit too preoccupied with more immediate dangers to care. Jericho had just caught back up with Lillith and without a second to spare they were back into the fray; Olsen was hot on their heels.
At first, Jericho didn't see a point in fighting, for one he would be doing all the work he was the only one who could fight. Lilith was good with a gun but lacking one she was just an untrained psychic who thought she was a human he might as well be throwing her into a meat grinder. For two Olsen had no legs to speak of her only form of movement was to drag her lumbering body along the ground with the mass of tentacles that flooded from her tree-shaped torso, they could easily outrun her.
That however failed, while from afar Olsen couldn't influence the minds of Lilith and Jericho now with them so close, they were easy pickings. While she couldn't crush their minds unless she made contact, she could still change their perception of reality and flood their minds with noise which gave the two a splitting headache.
As such Jericho and Lilith found themselves unable to leave the gardens, each time they reached what they thought was a door it would transform into a blank wall. Feeling around the wall it seemed to be real as if the door was never there, forcing them to run off and look for another. All the while Olsen would be dragging herself closer, the sound of which thundered in their ears as if she was always right behind the two making it impossible to know exactly where Olsen was. All at the same time Olsen seemed to know exactly where they were, occasionally a tree would come crashing down from above ripped up by the roots landing feet from them. No matter how far they ran or in what direction whenever they stopped for a breather a tree would come crashing down.
"This is hopeless she has us trapped; we can't get away" Lilith screamed after the last tree slammed into the ground.
Breathing heavily Jericho nodded "Yes your right, we can't keep running, she'll catch us eventually at this rate"
"What do we do now? We can't even hide from her."
"What do you mean? It's simple, isn't it?"
Lilith looked at Jericho in shock, if it was a simple matter why would he wait to tell her? "What do you want us to do? Fight her?"
There was a pause after Lilith's question which just involved Jericho staring at her.
"Well..."
"No! No there’s no way you could think we..."
Lilith was cut off as the noise of another tree crashed through the canopy above them. Jericho lunged for Lilith dragging her out of danger. Olsen's voice rang in their minds. "Come on now lovelies looks like you're running out of steam."
Jericho turned to Lilith "Look she has backed us into a corner, with no way out, if we don't fight, we might as well give up. Besides it's not like you will be fighting, I don't expect you to, but you will need to stay close to me. We might not find each other again if we get separated the way Olsen is messing with our minds we won't know up from down."
Lilith didn't like the news, but Jericho was right, there wasn't any other option, and he did say she wouldn't be fighting, plus he said he wouldn't leave her so that was some comfort.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Lilith steeled herself.
"First we need to find out where she actually is in the Garden, I'm sure she's hiding her movements well. But luckily for us her massive body will make it easy, we just need a good vantage point."
Lilith looked around the Garden from their vantage point her eyes locked on to the large hill in the middle of the massive dome that housed an artificial waterfall. She thought about it for a second and she remembered that the peak of that hill had been visible from every area of the Garden. She didn't pay it much mind before, she was more focused on leaving and wasn't in the mood for taking in the landscaping. But now...
"Up there, we can see the whole Garden" she pointed drawing Jericho's attention.
"That's perfect" Jericho made to run towards the hill, but Lilith went to stop him.
"Wait, what if she's up there?"
Jericho smiled "Then we will have found her".
Once the two reached the bottom of the hill Lilith seemed to lose some hope in the plan. The hill was steep and would take some time to climb. "We, won't make it, she'll fling trees at us before we get anywhere close to the top."
Jericho proceeds to scoop her up in his arms.
"What, what are you doing?" Lilith thrashed around and hit him in the head with her elbow.
"Ow stop it my head is hurting enough, sorry but we need to speed this up, hold on tight"
Before Lilith could protest any further Jericho had crouched down and launched up into the air clearing 10 feet easily as Lilith began to scream. They were about to slam into the sheer side of the hill, but Jericho caught them with two large spider-leg-shaped spikes that shot out from his back. Lilith screamed louder.
"Please stop that, I need to concentrate" Jericho muttered as he braced his feet in some foot holds, then launched them again into the air. Lilith continued to scream.
Jericho repeated the movements until they were on top of the hill. Lilith pushed and squirmed out of Jericho's arms falling to the ground. Her hands grasping at the ground like she thought she would float away if she didn't hold on to something.
"Don't do that again!" She couldn't even look at him, she knew Jericho wasn't normal but knowing and experiencing it were two different things.
Laughing Jericho said, "I can't promise that. We still need to get down."
Lilith turned to glare at him but suddenly remembered that Olsen could be right in front of them she turned back to the small bushel of trees ahead of them and whispered to Jericho.
"Do you think..."
Before she could finish Jericho had stretched out an arm into a black whip with a white edge that flicked through the trees with a crack. A second later the trees fell apart with a neat cut at their base. Flummoxed Lilith let slip "You're a monster."
"I know, she's not here let's get to work" Jericho moved forward but stopped.
"What is it?" Lilith said her voice choked with fear.
"Does your head hurt less?"
Now that he said it the pounding in her head wasn't as bad as it was a second ago, in fact, the scraping noise also seemed a bit more distant as well.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, do you think we have put some distance between us and her?"
With a smile Jericho turned to Lilith "I think we have, now we also know how to judge how close we are to our prey."
Their small victory was interrupted however by the rushing sound of leaves coming from above. Another tree was falling towards them, thankfully this one missed and slammed into the base of their lookout.
"Looks like she is already gunning for us, Lilith you take that side and keep an eye out for the next tree." Jericho said as he spun around scanning the forest beneath them, the next time Olsen lobbed her next tree they would know.
After seconds of silence that felt to stretch on for minutes Jericho caught sight of the next tree flying into the air. With his enhanced sight given to him by his release the sudden movement might as well have been a spark in the night. As he turned to grab Lilith...
"Over here" Lilith sang out pointing off in the opposite direction.
Sure enough, there was another tree rocketing up from the ground, in fact glancing around Jericho could see several other trees either launching from the ground or already in mid-air coming down on them.
"Lilith, come over here now!" Jericho yelled as he raced to the middle of the plateau. Without hesitation, Lilith met him in half a heartbeat.
"Are there others down there?" She asked grabbing onto Jericho's arm as she looked up taking in the barrage coming at them.
"Not likely" Jericho said stepping away from Lilith as his arms blackened, melted like wax and fell to the ground in long slick tentacles that ended in massive black spheres that looked as hard as iron. With some effort, he began to swing his new limbs back and forth building up momentum to lift the massive spheres and fling them into the air.
The massive spheres flew up to meet the falling foliage, instead of the expected crackling sound of splitting timber. Silents persisted as Jericho's attack passed through the first tree unabated as it blew apart like mist.
"They are illusions!" Lilith yelled in shock.
"One has to be real." Jericho grunted as he pivoted and used the momentum from the first blow to swing the next arm into the second tree.
This one also blew apart like mist as the massive ball passed through it. This was frustrating, Jericho needed to attack each Illusion with the strength needed to blow away a real tree just in case the next one was real.
This was exhausting work, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, they needed to find Olsen's whereabouts quickly. After three more Illusionary trees Jericho's swings encountered a real one, which cracked and snapped as it was knocked off its path flying to the far side of the garden.
"Lilith! Eyes on the ground below, don't look for trees look for any other movement, Olsen will be readying her next shot." Lilith didn't even glance back at Jericho she dashed to the edge of the hilltop and began scanning the ground.
Her eyes darted across the ground below looking for the slightest hint of movement. There was no wind or animals in the forest below her, it was more like a painting of a dark nightmarish landscape than a real forest.
Suddenly a tree shoots out of the ground in the corner of her eye, she gasps for a moment but court herself. While it did look like the tree came out of the ground in that spot nothing else around the tree was disturbed by the movement, like the tree simply jumped out of the ground with all the grace of a gymnast.
Lilith jumped to her feet and moved to another spot on the hilltop, quickly she glanced back at Jericho, who was still swinging his massive ball-tipped tentacles at the storm of trees falling on them. Suddenly Jericho smashed away another real tree, she glanced around but there were so many trees trying to guess the origin of one seemed impossible.
"I think that one came from the left" Jericho said with his concentration still locked on the task at hand.
Had he been keeping track of all the trees in the air? No matter Lilith was moving to the left side of the hilltop before she had time to question him.
Again, she took in the scene below her looking for the smallest rustle, a hint of some out-of-place movement. The world seemed to fade away as she concentrated on the scene below her, all she could hear was the faint hum of Jericho's arms orbiting above her as they cut through the air.
Lilith was about to give up, she had caught sight of four other illusions while Jericho had batted away two other trees. When another tree flew up from the far edge of her sight, it was to her right, but the lip of the hill blocked her sight of that area. She was ready to disregard it as another illusion when Jericho smacked it out of the air. At once Lilith turned and dived to the right hitting the ground and almost sliding right off the top of their vantage point.
"You see something?" Jericho yelled out.
"Wait, wait." Her eyes scanned the ground below, relatively close to the base of the hill Lilith caught sight of a tree swaying back and forth like it was been twisted out of the ground by a giant invisible hand. In between the trembling leaves, there was a hint of bright red, a massive bulbous eye staring up at her.
"THERE!" Lilith screamed out before she suddenly felt her body being wrenched up into the air.
Jericho took his eyes from the skyline of falling trees and locked on to Lilith. She was pointing to a spot below maybe a hundred meters from the base of the hill. Where a tree twisted out of the ground and launched into the air.
In one fluid movement, Jericho whipped one of his massive extended arms around in Lilith's direction letting the momentum of the swing guide him as he jumped off the ground. As he came down on her, his other arm began to shrink, the ball at the end disappeared, however he stopped it from going back to normal. It was still somewhat tentacle shaped as it securely wrapped itself around Lilith's waist.
Now the next part would always be argued between Lilith and Jericho whenever they would retell the story. Lilith would be adamant that she never screamed, but Jericho would always laugh, and say she screamed louder than ever. As it happened Jericho had to deactivate his Release for a moment, just to give himself some relief from the pain his enhanced hearing gave him, as Lilith's scream was deafening. It was his fault admittedly he could have given her a warning. However, the explosion of the tree slamming into the ground they were just standing on, seemed to even the scales in his mind, making it all a little comical to him.
Olsen was panicking, she had never been in a fight before, not even one as a child on the playground let alone against a full-grown Brute and this one was Seon's most wanted. She was terrified as well as furious, Subject 24 had robbed her of her new body and a new life, and he needed to pay. If she could summon followers, it would be all too easy to do away with him, however, all those that were close were now dead, drowned by Subject 24's reckless destruction of the walkway.
There was still a few trudging through the Helix towers, but it would take time for them to get here. Could she hold Subject 24 off for that long? Keeping him and the girl here was easy they were close enough that she could affect their minds but if they attacked could she win?
She had taken to a tactic of hiding herself and keeping the two running in circles, but that wasn't working anymore, they had retreated to the top of the hill in the middle of the garden in an effort to search for her. They were changing tactics; they might be looking to go on the offensive.
Suddenly a loud scream filled the air as a mass of body parts came slamming down from the sky, landing meters from Olsen. The two bodies parted as one with bright red hair squirmed out from the other's grip, breathing heavily and punching and slapping the tall blue-haired one. Subject 24 didn't seem to be angry, determined or even stoic, he was laughing.
"I told you to stop screaming, now get up you're keeping the doctor waiting." Jericho laughed at Lilith.
"Shut up, why didn't you..." Lilith caught herself as she looked up at the fleshy tree before them.
Was this a joke to them? Did they think she was so weak they could take her lightly? Olsen suddenly forgot her fear and was gripped by a white-hot rage. She pushed out her mind, to create a pressure that could overwhelm those before her.
Suddenly the headache Lilith and Jericho felt doubled and tripled, the pain was unbearable, Lilith fell to the ground clutching her head Jericho faltered for a moment but stumbled forward and began to sprint at Olsen, his arms bulging and expanding with clawed tipped hands. With 3 large blades for fingers each a foot long made of sharpen white bone he plunged at the horrific verdure.
For a second Olsen thought that Subject 24 had found a way to resist her attack, but the look of pain in his eyes told her, he was simply pushing through the agony to fight. She tried to double her efforts, but he was too close now and was readying his attack. She broke her concentration and sent a projection to Jericho, a very subtle one, he wouldn't even notice but it would make it look as though Olsen was moving to the left when she moved to the right.
It worked, Jericho saw Olsen try to move out of his path of attack by shifting her massive body to the left, but she was too slow. He leaped in the air and lashed his clawed arm out carving out her eye. But his hand passed harmlessly through the air with absolutely no resistance. Hitting the ground Jericho turned around trying to see what had happened. He was too slow; a tentacle came flying into his side lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the tree.
"What's the matter Subject 24? Eyes not what they once were?" Olsen mocked throwing another barrage of tentacles. These missed Jericho as he quickly recovered and was back on his feet ready to attack again.
"My name is Jericho! Quit it with that stupid number!" he yelled as he swung out at one of Olsen's outstretched tentacles, cutting it off in 3 segments. Olsen let out a pained scream, but Jericho didn't let up the more damage he could do the better.
He jumped forward at Olsen again, she tried the same illusionary trick, however, Jericho was ready this time as she moved, spikes erupted from Jericho's back shooting off in different directions. One stabbed into an illusion passing through the air the other slammed into an empty space in the air, using the spike pulled himself into the space readying an attack.
Olsen dropped her projection and, in a panic, flicked up tentacles to push Jericho away. Jericho reflexively battered it aside, but his arm passed right through them, and then he was clubbed by an unseen mass forcing him to the ground.
"What's the matter? Having trouble seeing what's in front of you?" Olsen mocked as she slowly advanced on Jericho. Jericho pushed himself to his feet breathing heavily, the effects of the Heart Cutter were beginning to fade, and he could feel his strength starting to wither. He was going to need to end things quickly.
"Well, let me show you what you really face!" As Olsen yelled a forest of tentacles blossomed from her. This illusion was meant to confuse and overwhelm Jericho, but luckily this wasn't the first time he had fought someone like this.
"It's too bad, I already know how to fight someone who uses illusions!" Jericho mocked as both his arms cracked into long blades and six black crab-like legs burst from his back each tip with bone-white scythe blades. "You just need to lay waste to everything!"
Olsen cackled "If you think you can maintain it then be my guest." A sudden pain crushed down on Jericho's head Olsen was assaulting his mind, unlike his fight with Ely, this one would be far more difficult, however this time he was unrestrained.
As Olsen launched her attack flailing both her real and illusionary limbs at Jericho, he too closed in on her. The flailing tentacles moved with speed that would have been hard to trace for a normal person, but thanks to his enhanced vision given to him by his Release, Jericho could see each one as clear as day. He couldn't tell the difference between the real one and the fakes so it was best to cut everything. But the real threat came from the ones he couldn't see a single hit from them could be enough to brake his concentration. So, to remove the distraction of the movements he made the bold choice to close his eyes.
He didn't need to see he just needed to create a never-ending defence that would shred the air around him, while he focused on the unending pain filling his skull. The pain increased the closer he was to Olsen's mind; at this range the changes were almost unnoticeable. But he could feel the smallest difference whenever he moved, it did mean however he needed to focus on increasing the pain.
Once Olsen saw Jericho close his eyes she was filled with a sense of overconfidence. Thinking this was a sign of weakness she doubled her efforts to crush Jericho and began to flail wildly at him. She didn't want to drop the illusion in case this was a bluff or if he changed his mind and opened his eyes, she was focused solely on reducing the man to a puddle of pounded meat.
To Lilith the sight was uncanny, there was Olsen who seemed to be standing still. Her massive body standing straight and unmoving as a blur of writhing tentacles flew below her. They flowed over Jericho like a flood water, engulfing the man. It was hard to concentrate on the fight, she was still gripping her head, and the pain of being so close to Olsen was unbearable, how was Jericho moving like he was?
Jericho was spinning, hacking and leaping around while the legs on his back moved around madly cutting at nothing and everything, he resembled a spinning top that was only gaining momentum as he spun and did, he? Have his eyes closed? What was he doing was he trying to show off?
It seemed like nothing was happening, Jericho's attacks were passing through the tentacles unharmed like the two entities were overlapping images of each other. But suddenly Olsen screamed as blood flashed up and out of the writhing mess. Jericho had done it Lilith thought for a moment, but why was he speeding up? And was he moving away from Olsen?
"Jericho..." Lilith was about to warn him but then she heard it, the unmistakable sound of something massive being dragged along the ground. A tree rustled a bit to the left of Olsen like something was pushing on it, which also happened to be the direction Jericho was moving. How could he come up with a tactic for such an outrageous circumstance like this on the fly? Had he fought things like this before? Were creatures like this common in the world? The fear of the thought gripped her chest and made it hard to breathe, but Lilith calmed herself "No don't think about that yet, I need to just focus on this here and now but what can I do?" These thoughts raced through her mind when a sudden guttural roar rang out from Olsen completely capturing her attention.
It looked like Jericho had cut through the empty air, but blood had erupted from his blades, with a large tentacle appeared out of nowhere and landed on the ground with a thud. He had completely cut off one of Olsen's tentacles at the base. Before he could press the attack, he stopped suddenly as his arms snapped to his side and began to rise slowly in the air. Olsen seemed to snap to a different position like a video skipping ahead a few seconds as she dropped her illusion. She was now covered in small bleeding cuts with a massive bloody stump that was bleeding freely. Olsen screamed out in their minds, "How dare you, trash, I may not be after your body, but I will take what comes to me!"
Lilith's heart seemed to stop, as a tentacle-like the one that almost engulfed her to steel her mind away from her body was now expanding over Jericho. If Olsen took Jericho's body, what would happen to her? Jericho was strong and against him, she would be like a gnat.
Panic gripped her heart, as the fleshy cone slammed down on Jericho covering him down to his shoulders. But she felt a bit of relief? Or was it confusion, perhaps a mix of both as she could swear, she heard Jericho laughing moments before he was silenced. A half second passed as Olsen began her mind transfer when large black pointed cones erupted from the cocoon of fleshy tentacles that covered Jericho's body. The sudden appearance of these black cones was accompanied by Olsen's monstrous scream and a splattering of blood.
Reflexively Olsen through Jericho to the side revealing his body covered in these spikes with a triumphant grin on his face as he slammed into a nearby tree. Lilith ran over to his crumpled body, as he wasn't getting up straight away.
"Jericho, are you ok?" Lilith said in a panic.
Laughing "Yeah, I'm fine, I just need a second." The noise of bones cracking came from his body as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Lilith looked over him, one of his arms and legs were broken and pointing in different directions and he was covered in gashes and blood. Not to say for certain how much was his or Olsen's, but the wounds were closing, and his limbs were snapping back into place. It looked gross and immensely painful, but he was smiling, nonetheless.
"Guess she didn't know, you never want to get into close combat with a Shifter, let alone grab them." Jericho said as he looked at Lilith's pained face. she was doing it rough, going from the realisation the world she lived in was a lie, to seeing monstrous nightmares, and now watching manic mutants hacking away at each other. The stress from the situation must be horrible, he needed to end this quickly so they could leave and finally rest.
But before Jericho could let the fantasy of finally resting sink in, he and Lilith were bombarded with crushing pressure in their minds. The constant attack Olsen had been hitting their minds with seemed to have increased. Olsen must have been getting desperate to finish this and was now pushing herself to dominate the two.
Through the pain Jericho, clutching his head in a vain attempt to sooth himself, tried to get a look at Olsen to see what she was planning next. But his vision was filled with the sight of the wooden bark of a massive tree feet from his head. It took him a few seconds to gather what he was looking at; the tree wasn't moving rather it had simply stopped. Scanning the tree, he noticed Lilith standing in front of him one hand also on her head, the other on the trunk of the tree. Black smoke seemed to be floating softly from her hand and coating the tree, she had a shocked look on her face as she glanced from the tree to Jericho and back.
From Lilith's perspective, it seemed like everything was falling apart, Jericho was holding his own, but for how much longer? Eventually, he would run out of steam, then where would they be? Olsen's attack had brought back the memory of her capture, and a fear gripped her that she might lose her body soon and be trapped here forever with Jericho's corpse, completely alone. Her body was beginning to feel hot again, but the pain in her head distracted her from the heat. Again, in her desperation she could feel deep inside her, a power that she had always felt but until now never needed. Slowly, she took hold it as it began to leak into her, making her feel complete. Like it was filling a piece of herself she never knew she was missing, when she suddenly felt something move behind her.
It was an odd sensation, like a bubble had formed around her but was also connected to her like her skin extended meters away from her body. In that bubble, something was moving through it and fast. Reflexively she shot out her hand to try and slow whatever it was, while the power she felt reacted in kind. Like it was giving her exactly what she needed in that moment energy flooded up her arm and out.
Her hand met a firm wooden surface, stinging as it slapped into it. A massive gust of wind flowed over her making her stagger, but she held firm. Slowly she opened her eyes to examined whatever it was that she had just caught. Her breath caught in her throat as the sight of the massive tree trunk seemed to be floating next to her engulphed her vision. The thin wisps of black smoke pouring from her hand covering every inch of the wood, reminded her of a slowly smouldering piece of incense. But the wood wasn't burning it just sat there still and unmoving. She turned to look at Jericho to see what he had done but the look of fear on his face was unnerving.
"Wha..." But before Lilith could get out a word, Jericho had scrambled to his feet and began sprinting away.
"Don't come near me Lilith, just wait there!" Jericho screamed out not bothering to look back at her. He was treating her like a monster now. The smoke on her hand suddenly burst into flames as the tree slammed into the ground. Lilith screamed as the flames suddenly engulfed her body.
As Jericho ran from Lilith ducking under branches and leaping over rocks the memories of his childhood and what he had learnt from his mother played over and over in his mind. When a Psychic child uses their powers for the first time, it happens with a bang like their powers need to rework their bodies so they can use them. Memories of his friends setting fields on fire, encasing their homes in ice and reading the minds of everyone in the village haunted him. The children were always fine, their powers could never hurt them, but anyone nearby could always suffer the fallout.
The powers of children were always weak, any adult could brush them aside, but he remembered that one day one of the girls in town suddenly blew apart the town hall during a meeting. She was a few years older than what was normal for a Psychic to develop their powers and the result even injured some of the stronger Brutes and Psychics in the village. After the event he remembers asking his mother why it was so much more devastating this time. She told him the longer it takes for a Psychic to develop their powers the more powerful their first time becomes.
His mother also added "it was a good thing she was only a Telekinetic and not a Multikinetic" When Jericho asked what the difference was, he would always remember what she said, it wasn't an important memory but something that he could always recall. His mother answered "You know how Alice can move stuff with her mind now? How she covers her hands in that white smoke and whatever she wants to move with her mind also has that white smoke all over it? Well, when a Multikinetic does the same thing, the smoke is black."
Jericho didn't understand why that was so bad, so his mother continued. "Multikinetics can use other forms of kinesis not just Telekinesis, depending on the individual they could also be a pyrokinetic, electrokinetic or anything else, the black smoke is just an indicator. If Alice had been a Multikinetic all the forms of kinesis would have exploded out of her in equal force. If that had happened many people could have died."
Now the same thing was about to happen here, underwater and he couldn't do anything to help Lilith. In fact, she would be fine, practically unharmed, he was the one in danger. What was this going to look like, how many years had her powers been building? They were about to run unchecked as they flooded out from her all at once. Jericho tripped and stumbled and bounced off a tree, soon he would be out of time and had no were else to go, so he latched on to the nearest tree, fingers bursting into makeshift claws as they dug into the wood, closing his eyes and hoping for the best.
Olsen found herself being blinded by a bright light, it was hard to look at, "What are those two doing over there? Did they start a fire or something?" The light was too bright to be a simple fire, it had to be something more. That’s when the light started to rise into the air as black smoke poured from whatever it was. Thinking about it for a second Olsen concluded that it must be Lilith, was this her power? What a splendid display, maybe if Olsen could play this right, she might still be able to get Lilith's body. Suddenly large bolts of lightning sprung forth from Lilith crackling the air and burning the ground. Olsen shrank back a little, maybe Lilith wasn't in complete control...
Suddenly the light expanded from a vaguely humanoid shape into a rapidly expanding ball that filled the Garden. The force of it ripped trees completely from the ground, setting them ablaze as they flew into the air then finally being blasted apart by incalculable bolts of electricity.