Chapter 19: Blurs & Blasts
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As Sean, Brett and the others were facing off a horde of cannibals in the Preserve, Hazel finds herself guidance from an unexpected source through her dreams. And someone new enters the story…
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Hazel stood alone in a grey, misty space, standing before a strange tall, oval mirror that reflected someone strange.
The reflection was of someone who looked like her but wasn't somehow. They shared the same face — the same cheekbones, the same nose and mouth — But their eyes were older, colder, almost despondent. Not necessarily cruel; just... mature? Experienced? Or something in between.
And, instead of Hazel's dark brown, curly hair, the reflection had auburn red-brown hair.
Most importantly, the mysterious Sun mark Hazel's had since forever was different on the reflection. Instead of the Sun and its rays, Hazel saw the reflection had a Moon and stars atop her forehead.
Hazel wore a white t-shirt, jeans and a brown denim jacket while her reflection wore dark blue jeans, knees ripped up a bit, a red and black stripped shirt and a black leather jacket. Hazel had light brown, honeycomb-colored eyes while her reflection had dark brown eyes that carried an unseen, evidently heavy, almost dead-like weight.
Lastly, both Hazels were seemingly ghosts or just see-through — But, while Hazel glowed with a faint, but pure white hue, her reflection glowed with a wispy orange-red one in contrast.
"Who are you?" Hazel asked in confusion. "And why do we have the same face?"
"I am you..." her reflection said after a beat. "Or rather, you are me."
"I-I don't get it...." Hazel just felt more confused at this. "Wha—?"
"It doesn't really matter. It's not like you will be remembering me or much of this encounter to begin with," her reflection waved a dismissive hand. "You'll remember what I want you to, what you need to, but that's all."
"I don't—" Hazel tried, but her reflection wasn't having it.
"Hush now and watch. See," Madison said as she touched the surface of the mirror and suddenly, Hazel could see Liam, Brett, Sean and the boy — Isaac — fighting desperately against a swarming tide of razor-toothed, white-eyed humans — No, monsters — And they were just barely holding their own. "What is this?"
"Your friends are in danger," her reflection said plainly. "If you want to save them, pick up the ring."
"What ring?" But before Hazel could get an answer, her reflection reached a finger from the mirror and tapped her forehead as all went white just as every memory aside from the crisis at hand was buried deep into the recesses of Hazel's mind.
And she woke up gasping, with sweat soaking her form and the weight of a strange ring — A silver ring with a bronze-yellow crystal etching into it and a large "H" made from the same crystal — A warm crystal that gave off a strange but almost supernatural energy.
[Ring Reference Image]
Hazel took a moment to process the ring before she wore it and a list of information entered her mind.
The ring was a talisman of sorts that could massively enhance psionic based powers and blasts out solar energy beams from the solar energy it passively siphons from the environment around it, thanks to the strange crystal it was made with.
"That's all fun and all, but I'm not——" before Hazel could even finish that thought, memories long thought lost entered Hazel's mind: Memories of psychic lessons with Mason and grandfather, her first mind-reading, a few others.
She sensed it wasn't everything — That whatever sealed this knowledge from her was only showing a portion — A small portion — but even that little bit made Hazel feel just a little more whole than before — As if she had re-discovered something vital to her identity.
She was grateful for it.
Then she remembered her friends and quickly rushed out the window, coated in a white-golden aura as she shot across the sky at breakneck speed like a comet.
Meanwhile, Sean and Brett were dealing with the greater majority of the cannibalistic fiends, so that Liam and Isaac — the newer wolves — only had to deal with the small handful of wendigos that got past them.
Brett clawed at the chest of an approaching wendigo before side-stepping its charging form, leg outstretched and causing it to trip over its own momentum. Then, running forward, Brett summersaulted over two colliding wendigos before landing on the shoulders of a third, backflipping off that one and causing it to stumble backwards as he kneed one of the colliding wendigos in the side of the head with a loud CRUNCH!
He tried to grab the third into a headlock, but was tackled by a fifth one that he kept from biting his face off by pushing against its snapping jaw with as much upper-body strength as the beta could muster.
Then, kicking it square in the chest, Brett rushed to his feet, spotted a large log just a few feet away, lifted it and, just as the wendigos charged forward——
WHAM!
Brett swung the large log sideways, hitting the creature square in the stomach with enough force to knock it from legs and rattle bones. It went flying like a cannonball.
But Brett wasn't safe. Four more wendigos led groups of 3 wendigos his way.
He readied himself for battle.
Where Brett tried not to kill, Sean was no stranger to it nor had he any aversion to it — Especially against filthy, wretched cannibals.
His claws pierced through vital areas with a precision no 16 year old should possess — Pressure points, veins in the neck, vocal cords, hearts, ribs and lungs were all targeted by Sean's claws. Bodies began piling around Sean and yet his eyes remained glowing a fierce gold.
He felt no regret.
They came at him to kill him.
They had no idea he was a Hale — And that was their own mistake.
There was a reason why the Hale name carried weight in the supernatural community — And no, it wasn't just because Talia Hale could shift into a full wolf. The older Hales before her time were an extreme force to be reckon with. As their descendant, Sean aspired to be just as strong as them; ruthless and cold to foes like the Old Hales, but warm and compassionate to those his own, like Aunty Talia.
But Sean's energy supply, great as it was, was finite. And the number of wendigos just kept on increasing.
Liam and Isaac stood back-to-back, seeing an enemy that just kept coming. Isaac's agility and Liam's fury paired well together. Isaac's speed made quick, precise jabs and claw strikes possible, while Liam's anger, flaring and true, made his physical strength go off the rockers, which made muscling the cannibals off very much possible.
Unfortunately, the numbers just kept coming, forcing the 4 werewolves into a circle for better defense positioning.
"We might not be making it out of this alive," Brett murmured but everyone heard it.
"I can do this all day," but Liam was already panting, falling to a knee.
"Let's… let's just keep going," Isaac said as he pushed back another wendigo.
'There's just too many,' Sean forced himself to stay fighting. 'But I have to——'
Suddenly, a blur of movement——like someone running at speeds that should've been impossible——passed through the clearing and the next moment, a huge swath of the wendigo swarm were unconscious and bound in vine to the trunk of a tree.
It happened so fast——Faster than a blink, but Brett saw what he could only guess was a blond man——No, a boy probably around his age——in a blurry figure vanish off into the distance.
Before he could chase, he remembered that there were still another 45 or so wendigos active.
Brett gritted his teeth, preparing to fight once more——But a blink more and 20 more wendigos were unconscious and tied to the base of a tree before the same figure vanished again.
There were still 25 more wendigos, but before anyone could respond, a series of golden-white beams blasted from the sky, catching at least 15 wendigos aflame and leaving the remainders to run off away in a hurry.
All looked up to see Hazel hovering above them, ring fist extended before her as she had been enveloped in a golden white aura of psionic-Sun-empowered energies.
"Sorry for being late," Hazel grinned, but Brett was still looking at where that figure had vanished.
All the while a Barn Owl circled overhead, his sight catching everything as a consciousness in the warehouse a few miles used its sight to see everything happening…
An auburn brown-red haired girl that looked exactly like Hazel grinned.
"So the Holloways has finally joined the game?" Madison chuckled, almost to herself. "Good. Took him long enough."
'In the mean time,' Madison thought to herself. 'I guess I should go see Derek. Splitting my soul into her and I, and creating a proper body for her to have a life in——That's exactly the kind of achievement that a night with Derek would be more than enough reward for. They've got this, it seems, and I really want to snuggle that grumpy muscle wolf.'