I awoke with a start, a bead of cold sweat dripping down my forehead. I couldn't remember what the nightmare had been about, so I just tried to lay back down in the bed. A pounding headache made its way into my mind and I sat right back up. Restless, I threw the covers off my shivering body and pulled on my boots. I tip-toed by Naomi's sleeping form and made my way halfway down the hallway before I heard growling. It wasn't scary, it sounded like a human. I opened the door and slipped out into the night, pushing it shut behind me. I made my way over to the sounds of growling and was shocked at what I saw.

Matthew was appearing and reappearing everywhere. He flickered from next to the fire pit to the outskirts of the cabin grounds. I gaped for a good two minutes until I moved again. He seemingly hadn't noticed my existence, so I made my way over to the fire pit. I sat down on the log and yawned, looking up at the sky. Matthew appeared a few inches away from my face, his hands gripping the sides of the log by my hips. I jumped back and fell off the log with an 'oof' and Matthew disappeared from in front of me and appeared behind me, lifting my body back onto the log. He appeared before me again and my heart jumped to my throat.

"What are you doing up so late, Liz?" He asked, his dark eyes a mix of emotions. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I could ask you the same question," I retorted, crossing my hands over my chest. He sighed in frustration and grabbed my arm. A second later, we were next to the river where Thomas had fallen in. I gasped for breath and brushed my crazy hair away from my face. Matthew appeared in front of me, running his hands through his hair nervously.

"How much did you see?" he asked, leaning towards me slightly. I shrugged.

"The part where you were going haywire with teleporting," I answered simply. He leaned against a tree for a second, lost in thought. I exhaled in relief and sat back. He didn't have that. We started walking and talking down the trail, listening to the quiet sounds of nature. The stars shined brightly above, bouncing off his honey-colored hair and making him look even more enchanting than usual. After hiking about a quarter of a mile, we stopped on the edge of a cliff. The view was insanely beautiful.

We sat down so our legs were dangling off the edge of the rock and watched the stars move along the sky. I gazed in awe at the night, forgetting Matthew was even there. He cleared his throat to get my attention and I looked up at him again.

"Why are you awake?" He asked, searching my eyes for something I didn't know. I shrugged, blushing lightly at his staring.

"Nightmare. You?" I replied, yawning and stretching. He stared off into the distance to avoid looking at me, then answered.

"Insomnia. What was the nightmare about?" he asked. I tried to remember, but all I remembered was the dark. Darkness.

"Shadows. A lot of them, coming for me," I murmured, the nightmare slowly ebbing back into my mind. Surprise flashed across his face and he nodded along.

"Isn't your arch-nemesis' name Shadow?" he thought quietly. I sighed.

"He isn't my arch-nemesis," I muttered, shoving my hands in my pockets and standing up. Matthew smirked and stood up next to me.

"Because you like him?" he asked, cocking his head to the side slightly and smirking. I blushed and cleared my throat.

"No!" I exclaimed, shaking my head, "No, it's just... An arch-nemesis is someone you can't defeat!"

"You can defeat him?" Matthew raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure," I replied honestly. After a second of silence, I looked up again. "Your turn. What're your powers?"

"Like I would tell you that," he scoffed. I gaped at him.

"And why is that? You know mine," I retorted, crossing my arms and cocking my hip to the side. He sighed and looked away from me. I attempted to stifle a yawn, but he noticed and used it as an excuse not to answer.

"Alright, time to go," he said, grabbing my arm.

"Wait! You-" I got cut off as I landed on my bed. I bounced up and rolled off, landing on the floor painfully. "Ouch!" I muttered. I heard a creak and scrambled to my feet.

"What were you doing out of bed?" Naomi asked, getting up and walking over to me. I shrugged and backed away, right into a wall.

"Nothing!" I whisper-yelled in a strained voice, rubbing where my arm bruised when I had hit the floor.

"That's not working on me again!" she glared, crossing her arms. I started to try and explain, to find an excuse, but in the end, I sighed.

"Really, it was nothing. I just had a nightmare and decided to go on a hike. That's all," I told her, figuring I was telling the truth. She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Were you with anyone?" she asked. I shook my head. It looked more like a jerk than a shake.

"No! Of course not!" I answered too quickly. She glared at me a second longer, then decided I wasn't worth her precious sleeping time.

"Alright, whatever. But if you lied to me..." she trailed off, leaving me with a chalk-white complexion. Even though Naomi was my friend, I knew she could be very menacing. I slipped back into my bed and curled up, closing my eyes and replaying the events of tonight in my head. With that, I fell into a deep sleep.

---

I yawned and sat up, stretching. Naomi's bed was already made and she was pacing back and forth in front of the door. I got out of bed and changed into some hiking clothes in the bathroom, also brushing my hair and teeth. I walked back out and opened the door for Naomi.

"Are you alright?" I asked. She jumped slightly, then realized it was me and smiled a little.

"Yes, of course!" she replied a bit too cheerfully. I shrugged, grabbing my backpack and walking out of our little cabin. We met with the boys around the fire. Everyone except Kim looked ready to hike.

"But there could be poison ivy!" Kim whined.

"Just don't touch it, then," Thomas answered, helping Kim stand up from the log he was sitting on. They kept rambling on as they walked up a path and to the main hiking trail. Matthew's phone beeped. He looked at it quickly.

"Oh, sorry guys, I have to go back into the city. My mom's picking me up for my sister's birthday," He said, walking into his cabin then out again with a bag slung over his shoulder. Naomi and I both said goodbye and watched him walk to the parking lot. I glanced up at the gray sky then back at Naomi.

"Shall we begin?" I asked, gesturing towards the path Kim and Thomas had taken. She shrugged and we started walking.

After a good thirty minutes of walking in silence, Naomi asked, "Did you know Shadow used to go to OAKS Academy?"

"No. Really?" I answered, "I thought he was a villain."

"I still think he is. He got a record for teleports within 30 seconds in one of the classes," she shrugged her shoulders and swatted a bug out of her face.

"How many supers can teleport?" I asked. She waited for a few seconds, counting in her head, until she finally remembered.

"17 in New York. Not counting the dead ones or the ones who retired," she responded. I nodded, but she kept going. "Teleporting is a tricky thing. I would love to be able to do that, so no one saw me coming, or going, or at all."

I admit, it did sound pretty cool. Being able to be somewhere in a second. Well, I suppose you could count super-speed as teleport too because of how fast you're getting somewhere.

"So he used to be good?" I inquired, still a little suspicious.

"I guess so. I wasn't, you know, super yet." That sounded very strange coming from Naomi. I was so used to seeing her with powers, I can't see her without them.

"When did you first figure out you had powers?" As I asked this, thunder was heard in the distance and we both looked up.

"We should call Kim and Thomas and start packing to get home, don't you think?" I nodded and took my phone out of my back pocket. I quickly dialed Kim's number and he picked up within the first two rings.

"Hello? Kimberley speaking." I heard Kim's voice on the other side.

"Hi, Kim. It's about to rain, so should we head back to the cabins so we can pack up and leave?" I asked. I heard voices on the other side then Kim came back on.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds good. We're not that far from you guys, so we'll just start heading back. Bye."

"Bye." And with that, he hung up. I pocketed my phone again and looked up at Naomi, who was on her phone, with a weird expression on her face.

"Naomi, let's go back so we can meet up with Kim and Thomas," I said, starting to walk back to the cabins. She didn't move.

"Liz, look at this," she ordered, holding her phone out to me. A selfie of Naomi fighting Multi - Man popped up on the screen. I raised an eyebrow.

"You with your arch-nemesis?" She turned her phone back.

"Argh! No, this," She held out her phone again, and this time I saw a man - or boy - flying over the person who was taking the picture.

"I don't see anything," I squinted, trying to see anything that Naomi might want to point out.

"Look at the people under him." I did as she said and immediately saw what was wrong. All of them were famous supers. But their eyes were all white and they were looking at the boy who was flying as if in a trance. I gently took the phone out of her hands and a video popped up. I pressed play.

"Citizens of New York City!" The boy's booming voice echoed even in the forest, "My name is the MindMaster. From now on, all of you will obey me or else."

The news anchor popped up on screen, smiling, "As we can see, this new, yet seemingly not powerful super is attempting to take over the city. Let's see how our supers respond."

Right on cue, Tempest flew in, leading a group of the famous supers I had seen in the picture into the scene. The MindMaster turned to look at them and rolled his eyes, as if he knew he was going to win.

"MindMaster! We order you to stand down, or we will be forced to take action!" Tempest's powerful voice was louder than the boy's. He just laughed.

"Make me stand down! I would love to have some new henchmen. Oh. And women, too, I guess." Tempest glared at him and motioned for the supers to surround him. The boy just crossed his arms and floated there, waiting for them to attack.

"I repeat: Stand down, or we will be forced-"

"Forced to take action, yeah, yeah, I'm not going to, so why don't you just fight me?" He complained. Tempest slowly nodded to the super next to her and all of the supers just seemed to rain on this one boy. Tempest brought in a tornado big enough for the boy and another super helped her circle him. The anchor and the man behind the camera both ran to hide, but kept recording. All was chaos, until suddenly, the boy spoke up.

"Stop!" He yelled, and all the supers stopped on his command and drifted down to the partially broken sidewalk, all in a trance. All with white eyes. The boy started laughing maniacally and flew around, pointing to the citizens.

"Now you know how serious I am! Even your precious supers couldn't protect you." Then he looked right at the camera and teleported right in front, so we could see his dark eyes.

"No one can protect you now, NYC."