Isa immediately stomps off to speak to 'some competent counselor', even though it's half her fault that things got so heated in the first place. Alright, so she's a tattletale, too, along with everything else. Amber grins after her, seeming to be unnecessarily satisfied with her part in the matter of destroying our one and only sleeping quarters in the blink of an eye.

"Ha, what a whiny, sniveling brat." She exclaims, calmly bending down and picking a shriveled rucksack up from the floor. She turns it over in her hand to identify it, ashen soot trailing silkily from her fingers. "This yours?" She finally asks, thrusting it towards Luka.

He glances at it and gasps, instantly ceasing his childish wailing. "My stuff!" He quickly snatches it away from her and flips it open, rummaging through its contents. Then, without warning, the entire thing suddenly disintegrates in his grasp, leaving him clutching at thin air. He sucks in a startled breath. "M-my sunscreen! My collapsible umbrella! My bug spray! My giant inflatable rubber duckie emergency life raft with bonus cupholders and paddles included! Everything is destroyed!" He cries out in despair, riffling through the black powder to see if anything usable is left behind. (Big shock: There isn't.)

"Luka?" Amber asks, her tone surprisingly gentle with him. "Do you really think that you needed all of that stuff to begin with?"

He turns to her, his expression blank and devoid of any noticeable emotion. "Amber, have you ever had a mother?"

Amber's mouth drops open. "Oh." She cringes. "I see the problem."

"I should hope so." Brianna has her hands on her hips, looking suitably annoyed, and suddenly sounding rather scary. "Are you planning on making this mutual destruction thing a habit? Because if so, I'm switching cabins." She rumbles, her voice a rapidly building storm.

Mentally, I'm screaming at them both. What cabin?! There's hardly anything left of it!

Amber snorts. "You can't do that! ..Can you?" She questions, biting her lip with sudden anxiety. Her hair bursts into flame again, and Luka screams and jumps away from her the moment that he notices it, throwing his hands over his face in order to try to protect himself.

"Just watch me!" Brianna jabs a finger at her threateningly. "I'll request a transfer. I'm sure that it's possible, given the obvious health and safety hazards to all included." A gust of wind flies forth from Brianna's fingertip, irritably putting out Amber's hair. "You're unhinged."

"And then you'll be all alone again." I say, picking up on Amber's distress. "We'll move away, and then you'll never see us again except for events and special occasions."

"I wouldn't even visit you on your birthday." Brianna adds warningly, frowning at her in disapproval.

"We'll be like those kinds of relatives that only visit you at your funeral." I add. "And even then we'll just be there to eat the fancy food, and then we'll leave you again."

Amber fretfully twists her sleeves, looking about ready to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! My Ember magic came in kind of late and is sorta wonky ever since. I've tried to work on it, I really have, but every time I get upset, or nervous, or angry, or whatever, it flares up and sets random people on fire."

"What?!" Luka shrieks, but Amber barrels on, unloading a lifetime's worth of problems onto our somewhat sympathetic ears and shoulders.

"..And then there was the time when we had a big family gathering, like, all 162 of us, (that was at the time, by the way) and I somehow managed to set half of the adults there alight, even though we're all supposed to be completely fireproofed, because we're freaking Vulcanites. Fire's our thing! We shouldn't have a problem with simple stuff like that! But there they all were, screaming and running anywhere to try to douse their heads, because apparently my magic short-circuited theirs, and their usual automatic heat proofing spells didn't work worth beans. Needless to say, we live surrounded by tons of volcanoes and lava, so that didn't go so well, because we really don't have that much water in our nation. We're used to drought-like conditions and rarely need to drink, anyways. So yeah, then everyone finally had had enough of me by that point, and they conveniently shipped me off here the first chance that they got, because they couldn't stand the stress anymore."

She wipes a glimmering ruby tear from her eye with exaggerated woe, showing it to us on the pad of her thumb as we bend closer to see it, fascinated. It sizzles and solidifies into a tiny diamond as we watch. "See this? Even my tears are made out of fire. Every time some dust or dirt hits them, they turn into these. You'd think that it would be really cool, but try being really sad and indulging yourself by bawling your eyes out somewhere quiet, and the next thing you see is a squirrel fleeing away from you looking like a boiled chicken, or otherwise being pelted by runaway diamonds. I can't do anything right." She wails. Flaming tears splatter onto the walls around us, and Luka throws his hands up defensively again, shrieking in absolute terror.

Emotionally distraught fire mage: Check. We've got one of those, too.

"WINDFELL!" Brianna crouches down and hugs Luka, instantly shielding him with a magical barrier. He wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her shoulder, his eyes shut tight as he sniffles quietly into the fabric on her upper sleeve. Then I look around, suddenly realizing that I'm the only one left who's completely and utterly exposed to the elements. Most dangerous of all: Amber's element. "Ah, is there enough room in that spell bubble for me, too?" I ask hesitantly.

Brianna's eyes widen with realization, and she opens part of her barrier like a drawbridge gate in order to let me through. "Of course! Get in!" I yelp and scramble to comply before the floodgates open again.

Amber's bottom lip trembles for a few seconds, and then she lets loose with an earsplitting, earthshaking howl. Her pupils turn an unseeing, searing white as the floor suddenly rips up all around us, glowing rifts filled with blazing hot magma bubbling up and surrounding us as Amber desperately fights to maintain control of them. She obviously can't, because she just ends up making more of them, and the molten rock is now instantly doubled in volume.

"Amber, whatever you're doing, please stop that! You're making them worse!" I yell out.

"HOLY-!" Luka squeals in shock and begins to babble nonsensically as the flow of liquid earth splashes up against the swirl of Brianna's barrier, right next to his leg. It would have taken off his shoe, and easily his foot with it, if it wasn't for the spell pushing it back as soon as it nears us. However, Brianna's attempting to create a physical manifestation of her element, and I've read up enough on the subject to know that it's a big drain on any elemental, no matter how strong he or she may happen to be.

The magma begins to melt the rest of the raised floor away, and it shudders as it threatens to fall out from underneath us. I grab onto Brianna, who in turn takes hold of Luka's shoulders, all of us clinging to each other like a family of terrified raccoons found stealing food from the back porch. Brianna puffs her cheeks out with effort, trying to conjure another layer on the bottom to prevent us from dropping in, but it proves to be too much for her to handle on top of the other one. She pants, gasps once, and then releases her enchantment.

"Oh my Nox! AAAAAHHH!!!" Luka, despite what he said earlier, doesn't seem to want to give up on his life so easily. He scrabbles wildly at the charred edges of the floor, clawing at broken bits of rubble. Unfortunately, the angry remnants of Isa's melted ice turn into steam, hissing and spluttering into his face. When he swats at it, his grip slips.

We all slip with him.

"SECONDS, STOP!" A deep baritone voice calls out, his very words making the air around us hum with power. We freeze mid-fall, and yet another voice, slightly higher than the first, casts one more spell.

"REVERSION!" The entire cabin shifts into high gear, everything spinning back into place at the speed of light. Somehow, every single piece of furniture, every scrap of cloth, from the curtains to our clothes, return to their original state in seconds. Even the cabin itself literally rises up from the ashes to stand tall and proud once again. We all float, suspended, and watch things right themselves in mere moments, suitably awed.

Isa runs in, tall, dark, and furious, but maybe also slightly worried. "We made it in time, didn't we, sirs?" She asks the voices, a hand over her heart as she looks up at us. She then bends over, her mouth slightly open as she inhales and exhales rapidly. I notice that her battle dress is covered in twigs and soot, and her perfect hair doesn't look quite so perfect anymore. It floats around her crowned head in disarray, a small green leaf sticking straight out from the back of it as it surreptitiously hitches a ride.

"Indeed you did, Miss Blanche-Snow." The baritone answers. "Another moment, and neither Duliban nor I would have been able to save them." Head Commander Vidalia sweeps in and surveys the room, nodding approvingly at the state of the repair. "You're getting quite good at speed spells, Duliban."

"Thank you, Sir."

"How fast did you run for help, Isabella Grace?" Amber hollers from her bubble. "Aww, you do care about us after all, don't you? You're secretly really sweet underneath it all, aren't you, princess?" She pounds the smooth walls of the sphere with her balled-up fist, cackling.

Isa chooses to ignore the Ember mage's comments. "Please release her last of all." She begs the Commander, pointing with great disgust at Amber, who sticks her tongue out at her in retaliation. "That girl gets on my nerves. She's so very obnoxious with me."

The Commander smiles at her as he places a hand on her shoulder. "You did well, Miss Blanche-Snow. You did very well."

She almost smiles back at him. "I appreciate that very much, Sir. Thank you kindly." She then straightens up and fixes us all with a steely glare, looking much recovered. "What are you all looking at, commoners? Do you think that I'm not capable of getting help for you, or what?"

We all hem and haw, looking in different directions, as if searching for an answer on the newly-fixed walls. Commander Vidalia then slashes through the air with a finger, and our bubbles all pop with the sound of a small bang. We drop like stones, but Isa kindly conjures small beds of snow for us to land upon.

..Except for Amber, who gets a large icicle directly in the rear.

"Ow, my butt!" She complains loudly, but we all ignore her to swarm around our saviors.

"That was amazing, Sirs!" Brianna swirls around the two powerful Hunters, her breeze gratefully cooling them down as they undo the rest of the remaining heat spells. Luka nods at them enthusiastically, smiling in relief and picking up his re-manifested book.

"Thank you so very much for allowing us to live another day. Well, we're grateful at the moment anyway. We'll get back to you with a satisfaction rating in another week or so. That is, if we can ever even manage to survive with these two crazy neurotic people for that long here, but I wouldn't count on that." He tells them seriously, flipping open his novel and becoming rapidly engrossed within it once more the moment that he finishes.

"Oh, look. His personality's coming through at long last." Brianna whispers to me. I chuckle in response.

Amber limps up, still massaging her backside. "Yeah, thanks for the save, Sirs." She remarks, deliberately avoiding mentioning Isa's own part in the rescue. She winces at her tender spot. "Owie, that smarts!"

"If only you'd be as smart as your-!" Isa begins to fire off a sharp retort, but the words die off on her tongue as she realizes she's not alone. She coughs delicately. "My apologies, I forgot myself."

Miss Burns, Miss Blanche-Snow, you do realize that you simply cannot expect us to continue to keep bailing you both out, night after night?" Duliban comments gently. "We have about two hundred operatives in this location alone on a busy evening, and we can't constantly be on the lookout for the next explosion. The last one was dicey enough. Eventually, you two are going to have to learn to get along and work together."

"Um, not to mention that we're all at serious risk of dying right along with them." I point out helpfully, in case they're forgetting about us.

"Quite right." Duliban agrees, seeming surprised to notice that the rest of us are still in the room, alive and actually breathing.

"And that's precisely why we're forcing you to live together under one roof." Head Commander Vidalia agrees, startling Amber.

"Forcing..?" She whispers derisively. "I thought that it was just a really bad punishment."

Commander Vidalia shoots her a grave look, silencing her. She gulps and bows her head quietly as he continues. "We've got to make sure that you learn to control your emotions, Miss Burns, otherwise we'll most likely all end up being burnt to a crisp one day soon. There will be a day when we will be too slow to arrive, unless you can stop the problem yourself before it happens."

"Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir." She mutters, head still lowered as she stares at the floor, acting thoroughly chastised.

"Stupid." Isa mutters to her.

"I hate you, too." Amber snarls back underneath her breath.

Head Commander Vidalia catches their exchange and groans quietly to himself. "And the rest of you, please help them come to some sort of agreement not to do any more bodily harm to each other. We can only have so many broken bones healed on the same two people each time before the Healers want to quit."

Luka's head jerks up from his book in response. "What?! Just how do you expect us to be able to do anything about them?!" He cringes as both girls turn towards him and shoot him equally malevolent looks. "Ack! Help me, not them! They terrify me! They're powerful! They're dangerous! They're probably both insane mass murderers whose sole purpose in coming here is to get their next fix of-!"

"Luka, no." Brianna carefully muffles his protests with her hand and drags him to the floor, depriving him of enough oxygen to make him act much more calm. "Shh, don't struggle. You'll only make things worse for yourself."

"And us." I mutter, as Luka takes shallow, dazed breaths. His oxygen deprivation is now beginning to show clearly on his face, and his eyes roll back in his head as he falls flat on his face, twitching helplessly for a while.

"Kill." Amber hisses viciously at him. "Kill." She drags out the second one until she gets another look from the Commander. She then clamps her mouth shut again as Luka flicks his eyes open and drags himself back into a sitting position, wheezing painfully.

Duliban rubs his chin, thinking hard. "Hmm, I was about to suggest that we make Amber and Isa team up together for tonight's event, but on second thought, we'll probably need the hospital space.." His eyes rove around the room, inspecting all of us. Luka spooks, cringes, and then vehemently shakes his head no, Brianna gasps and looks the other way, and the two warring women silently glare hatefully at each other, growling underneath their breaths. I gulp when Duliban's eyes finally settle on me. "You'll be perfect. You can team up with Amber, and we'll have one of the other crewmates join up with Isa for the time being. One who won't make her feel like killing us all."

I protest strongly, or at least I try to. "B-but-"

"-Wonderful! I'm glad that you agree. Goodbye." He states abruptly, quickly hurrying out of our quarters before I can say anything else, like arguing for my basic human rights.

Head Commander Vidalia snorts in what I assume is understanding amusement, and then he too beats a hasty retreat.

"Wait, wait. What?!" I shriek. "Why me?!"

Amber slaps me forcefully across the back in what I hope is supposed to be a happy acceptance. I stumble forward with the force of her blow, quite sure that she's cracked a rib or two, and she looks at me apologetically. "Oops, sorry. I should learn to hold back with that."

"Control your fire instead, you madwoman!" I screech, but she (rather too conveniently, I think) doesn't seem to hear me. "Good luck, Isa." She growls, crossing her arms across her chest, hostility clearly sparking off of her every word. "We'll slaughter you."

"Ha! That's what you think, you obnoxious flaming fireball. You're going to pay dearly for everything you've done."

"I'd like to see you try it, you snooty ice witch." Amber retorts, spitting at the ground like the rogue she is. Isa recoils from it, suitably disgusted.

"You complete and utter heathen-!"

"This isn't even about us anymore, is it?" Brianna sighs, while Luka inhales and exhales rapidly in a full-blown panic attack. He sobs, pulling a large paper bag out of his back pocket and breathing into it erratically, his eyes glazing over with pure fear held captive within them. He then rips the bag away from his mouth to speak for one moment before continuing.

"I'm telling you that we're all going to die!" He wails.

Not too long after the first incident of what I'm sure is many to come, Duliban and Grim's magically-amplified voices reach us once more.

"Treasured Night Hunter apprentices and seasoned veterans alike, we welcome you to the 317th annus of the bimonthly Hunter games-"

"-Which basically means that we've been doing this whole farce every two months for the past few hundred years, you pack of dunderheaded dolts." Grim interrupts, huffing.

Duliban's voice immediately fills with tension. "It's a great and noble game, designed to help teach you the fundamentals of-"

"-And it's actually been three-hundred-nineteen years, you great doofus."

"What? Impossible!" Loud sounds of paper rustling filter in through the cabin windows as Duliban presumably riffles through their records. "How could I be mistaken about this?" He mutters. "One would think that I could easily remember the date of the founding.." The sounds stop abruptly, then start back up again, louder this time, more vigorous, finally culminating in an earsplitting slap of a large sheaf of paper hitting a table and bursting apart. "Grim, you liar! It has been 317 years!"

"Oops, my mistake." Grim snickers, not sounding very mistaken at all.

"I'll have you tarred, feathered, and strung up on someone's flagpole if you don't shut up soon, you miserable old blind bat!"

"Ooh, I'm terrified now. I'm quaking in my little booties, Duli. What, you're gonna ban me?"

Amber, Brianna, and I all giggle at the very obvious name pun.

"Yeah, you know you liked that, everyone. It was funny, real comedy gold." Grim announces cockily, his chuckle like rough sandpaper in our ears.

"Get out of here!" Duliban screams back, losing it at long last. "Move it! Get! Shoo!"

"I'm not going anywhere, you three-toed newt with swamp water for brains.." Grim's voice suddenly trails off, becoming very hushed. "..Oh, hello, Head Commander Sir. How long have you been standing there?" He squeaks out weakly.

"Long enough." Head Commander Vidalia booms. "Please carry on, Duliban."

"Y-yes, Sir. Of course, Sir." Duliban hesitates, then continues on. "Please begin making your way to the main clearing shortly, and decide on your duos, teams, or groups posthaste."

Grim seems to forget himself, because he suddenly yells out. "And remember, the sooner you pick your team, the sooner you can start mauling people!" There's a soft, fast rustle, and then he screams. "Owowow, I'm sorry, Sir, I didn't mean it! Please put me down, I can't breathe like this!"

Duliban sighs in aggravation. "Oh! One last, very important thing that Grim's just reminded me of. Absolutely no killing each other!"

"You shouldn't have to be told this, but we have to do it anyway because of certain potential incidents waiting to happen." Commander Vidalia rumbles out. "..This announcement is now finished."

"We'll see you there."

"Come on, Luka! Let's be in a daring duo!" Brianna enthusiastically grabs his hand and drags him out the door without waiting for an answer. He audibly gulps as they disappear from view.

Isa then grumbles and drifts out after them, leaving Amber and I to follow last of all, conversing together as we head towards the clearing.

"Hey, Amber, I was wondering.."

She raises an eyebrow at me questioningly and smiles an encouraging smile. "Yes?"

"It's about your hair."

"Is it now?" She relaxes, and it immediately goes out all of a sudden. I'm now able to examine it at my leisure without having the constant worry of getting burned by it.

"My friend Arissa's a natural redhead, (you know the type, normal, non-magical) so I don't know what I could possibly call that." I say, poking at the temporarily-dormant strands of her sleeping hair. "Is that really human hair, or is it elemental in origin?"

"Hmm.. Oh, this?" She idly lifts a lock of her hair off of her shoulder, studying it carefully as she replies. "Well, yeah, it is actually real human hair, it's just really immune to my own element. ..But as you know, I am a child of the flame, insanely gifted with all manner of-"

"Get to the point, Amber!" Isa barks from a small ways off, already irritated by the girl's perpetual carefree attitude.

"Oh, right." The Ember mage pauses, then shrugs as we stop at the edge of the clearing. "I dunno, it's Ember magic stuff, I guess. Most Vulcanites have some form of fiery shade from somewhere in the warm spectrum gracing their heads, so I'm guessing coloration also comes from magic, as well as immunity, and transformations from normal to supercharged. You should see the bright gold ones. Or the multi-colors! Ooh, what do you call that thing again? Hete- Hetera- Heterochromia, right? Oh, I bet I'm right. Those styles can get so wild."

"Get into position, you two!!!" Isa commands again sharply. Amber sticks her tongue out at her and flounces over to the far side of the clearing, while I send an apologetic glance Isa's way. The tall woman harrumphs and turns to her partner, a rather overawed, intelligent-looking young man with a silken turban wrapped neatly around his head. They bow their heads together, no doubt coming up with an expert battle strategy on how to hunt us down, kill us, and then shift the blame to someone else entirely. I can't be sure, but I'm quite positive that I hear the terms 'flanking maneuvers', 'traps', and 'deadly weapons' each come up at least once in their hushed conversation.

I freeze at the next one and do a shocked double-take at the duo. Did they just say 'murder?!'

I run after Amber as she enters the woods and flings herself down behind a large fallen tree, joining her. It's plenty big for the both of us to hide behind, and the dense ferns and foliage surrounding it means that we could have a fair chance at actually winning this thing with minimal damage done to ourselves.

Unfortunately, I don't think that Amber's goals quite align with mine.

She whips around to face me, her eyes already intensely sparking with the flames of battle. "Okay, we're going to get Isa first, agreed?" She says, not waiting for an answer as she pounds her fist into her open palm. "Game plan, go." She makes as if to leave, but I hastily pull her back behind our cover before we're discovered.

"No!" I gasp and muffle the sound of my own voice with both of my hands before we can be traced by someone. I continue in a low whisper. "Let's not incur her wrath just yet, alright?"

Amber immediately settles back down again. "Aww..! Well, whatever you say, newbie! Let's see what you've got." She replies obediently, cocking her head at me and waiting for my own sagacious insight.

I glare at her. "I've got dead people, so let's try to save that wild card for when we really need it."

She shrugs once more and peeps out over the top of our log, her hair gradually starting to light up again. Trails of flashing sparks magically flow down from her roots to her tips, like a very dangerous glowing waterfall.

I poke her in the shoulder, pointing at her head. "This may yet prove to be a serious problem, you know."

She glances at me, then sassily whips a brightly smoldering lock away from her tanned face. "Oh, that's why you said all of that stuff earlier. It's because my hair's kind of a dead giveaway, isn't it?"

"Yes, I rather think that it is."

She frowns, thinking deeply. "Okay, then. Let's get this over with before anyone can find us first and fight back. I'll be your firepower and your shield, and you can get rid of any stragglers that might happen to slip by me. I'm built to last, so don't worry about me, I'll most probably be just fine! And just so you know, I can easily survive being playfully dipped into lava as well, so I'm basically automatically fireproofed, too! Man, siblings teach you the best stuff about yourself!" She exclaims, flashing me a brilliant dimpled smile and an enthusiastic thumbs up.

I speak up before I run the risk of getting blamed for whatever insanity I sense brewing over the horizon. "That's wonderful. Now let me remind you of one very vital thing: You do know that you're not supposed to kill anybody tonight, right?"

Amber hesitates in confusion, her mouth hanging open for a second as she processes this. "Oh, um, I guess that I'll just have to dial back the scale of the attack, then." She answers disappointedly.

"Please do. I happen to like this forest with all of the trees in it still intact."

"Pine trees blow up so nicely when they're full of sap.." Amber sighs excitedly, a blissful look on her face. "So combustible." She shivers with obvious pleasure as she says this, and I inch away from her, a bit concerned as small flames begin to dance around her body in a warlike fashion.

"Is it too late for me to change partners?" I call out, but nobody seems to be around. Amber lunges for me and tackles me to the ground.

"Shh!"

The start gong sounds, and we gauge each other, mentally calculating each other's abilities.

Amber inclines her head at me, apparently pleased with what she sees. "So, are you ready for this, Evvy?" Amber asks me, smirking. "We can totally win this, just you wait."

I nod and return her look evilly. "I'm sure we can. Let's see who wanders into our trap first, shall we?"

Amber grins and high-fives me gently, taking great care not to singe my arm off in the process. "I like the way you think, girl." I then stare at her in wonderment as she begins to sing a weird song. "A is for arson, B is for blaze. C is for crimson, when I blow up your face.. Okay, I'll shut up now."

My jaw drops open in shock. "Are you okay? You sound a little disturbed, Amber."

"Hahaha! Thanks!" She giggles loudly, searching around for her first targets. A branch cracks a small way off, and I hear a sharp intake of breath, followed by someone's hissed breath berating their companion.

"No, you misunderstand me. That really wasn't a complime-"

"-Destroy them all, Amber." She whispers to herself, growling aggressively as her eyes hone in and follow a small group of badly sneaking young teens who really could be better concealed. She starts singing quietly under her breath again, maybe thinking that no one will notice in the heat of the moment. "D is for your doom, E is for ember. F is for fire fuel, it just keeps on getting better!" Amber's hair immediately lights up in full response to her song, (or maybe it's a strange new kind of spell?) and her hands start to glow a dangerous mixture of colors as she powers up. Scarlet, orange, and marigold tongues of flame dance rapidly around her fists, and she suddenly pops up over our tree trunk to hurl handfuls of fire at our opponents. Agonized screams meet her attack, and she cackles maniacally as she metes out a fitting punishment for our foes.

Several cries of 'Get him/her to the infirmary! Quickly, this one's in critical condition!' fill the air, but she pays them no heed.

I try to tap the girl on the shoulder to get her attention, but every part of her has already burst into flame. I am now deeply concerned for her.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!! EAT FLAME, FOOLS!!!" She screams out at the top of her lungs, spinning around in ever more dizzying circles to maximize her area of impact.

"I thought that you said you would scale your attack back!" I yell at her.

"I am!" Amber yelps. "I mean, I was." She then rips up a tree (trunk and all) from the ground, entirely barehanded, and zaps it with her magic, instantly creating a giant flaming battering ram of destruction. "HAHAHA!!! POWER!!!" She then lunges at the next unfortunate group to cross paths with her. They scatter in a blind panic as she spins around and scatters golden fireworks all around her, jabbing her burning tree trunk at the other team and cackling evilly.

"Someone stop her!" A defenseless little boy shrieks out, utterly terrified. He sounds like he's about to cry as he's pressed back into another tree by her attack, no doubt awaiting his sad demise.

"I'm trying!" I holler back at him as he unhelpfully hunches over into a small ball and turns himself invisible. I watch a few tiny green plants snap and become crushed by his fleeing feet when he makes his inevitable escape into the woods, sobbing brokenly. "I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore!" He weeps as he literally vanishes from view.

"What the-? You get back here this instant!"

"Oh, no! Here we go again..! I can't control it anymore!" Amber screams, looking half-terrified and half-overjoyed at witnessing the state of her own unstable magic. "WOOHOO!!!"

"Stop sounding so Nox-darn happy about it!" I yell at her, casting my gaze about for something that I can use as a blunt force weapon. Someone's iron club lies cast aside in the dirt, (its owner no doubt already incinerated by my own personal deathtrap mage) and I quickly snatch it up, using my death ability to turn completely black and sneak up behind the out-of-control teen. "I really hope that you're as resilient as you say you are." I mutter quietly into her ear, raising the club and swinging it forcefully at her head, knocking her out and down to the ground.

She doesn't move again.  

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