Rose disarmed the King for the seventeenth time and sighed dramatically. "Must we continue, my lord?"

The King's spear/staff levitated back to his hand and he shook his head. "My skills with a weapon are not nearly as strong as my mental ones. If you want to go up against the entire enemy team and stand a chance, you'll need to use more than just those blades."

Rose peered down at her new twin obsidian swords. They where mostly black, with flecks of purple here and there that glowed faintly in the right light. She loved them, much more than the daggers she apparently used to own. They were more precise when killing an enemy, in her opinion.

She flashed back to the topic, suddenly aware that she was daydreaming. "Okay, so what other weapons can I use?"

The King shrunk his staff back into a small chain and gestured towards the door. "I'll show you."

Outside, a long hallway stretched in both directions. One lead to the bedrooms and the other to Anthony's office, if Rose's memory served correctly. Besides the white lights overhead that she could no longer see, the only other thing of immediate interest was a guard about half way down the bedroom hall. He stared straight ahead, as all guards were trained to do, but was obviously completely aware of everything in the hallway. Their seriousness used to scare Rose when she was little. At least, that's what Callum had told her. Interestingly, his soul colour appeared to be a rustic bronze, like copper.

The King seemed to be very interested in him. "As you know, each of my apprentices have been infused with a small fraction of my power to make them stronger. You, however, were given some of my less offensive abilities. Callum can manipulate energy into weapons, but you my dear, can manipulate on a whole knew level."

Rose faced him and crossed her arms. "Get on with it. I've been training all day so I'm tired."

The King narrowed his eyes at her for a second before continuing. "The fraction of power I gave to you comes from my mind. With enough concentration, I have the ability to manipulate my enemy's mind. I can change their actions; sway their thought patterns."

"Are you saying I have some sort of mind control power?" Rose asked, not bothering to hide her impatience.

The King sighed. "You were never this snarky before." He nodded his head towards the guard. "I want you to try and enter his mind. Your new sight primarily gives you the ability to see into other people's souls, but that's not all it can do. If you expand your mind and allow yourself to connect with another soul, you can directly control its emotional pattern."

Rose glanced back at the copper outline of the guard and gasped. "So I can control people's emotions, right?"

"Indeed."

She sheathed her blades and rolled back her shoulders. "Well, here goes nothing." She stared into the guard's soul, admiring the swirling bronze flames that danced through his body. They were more concentrated in some areas, like his chest and head, while smaller tendrils of light dimly illuminated his arms and legs. For some strange reason, Rose instantly knew that the guard was feeling upset. There was no indication, or any signs, she just knew. Could this be a part of my powers? Reading emotions? Rose thought.

"Indeed." The King repeated.

Okay, you can stop that now. Rose mentally snapped at him, then went back to concentrating on the guard. She could feel the sadness moving through his body now, like water running through cracks in the footpath. A small jolt between her eyes somehow told her that she'd successfully connected her soul with him. Now, she could feel the sadness flowing back and forth between them like a cool breeze.

"Oh my-" Rose shivered as her own emotional level started to descend into sadness as well. "I can't do this! I can't-"

Suddenly, the bond between Rose and the guard snapped like a rubber band. She stumbled backwards into the King, who held her until she regained her balance. Even then, stars danced around in the eternal darkness she still wasn't used to and her vision of the guard's soul was fuzzy. A wave of nausea had slammed into her as well, making her want to throw up.

"Ugh." She groaned. "I don't think it worked."

"Oh, it worked." The King stated, not even bothering to help her up. "You were connected, I saw it." He finally looked down at her, his eyes wide with excitement. "Rose, if you can master this ability, you'll be the deadliest of my apprentices."

Rose gave him a weak thumbs up. "Sounds great, could you get me some Panadol?"

---------

Wills showed up again at around 2 o'clock the next day. This time, he brought Quinn and Vlad, perhaps for a little extra security after last time. Quinn hadn't changed, except for their shirt. It now said something in Russian, most likely profanity. On the other hand, Vladimir was almost the complete opposite of Quinn. They were both Russian, of course, but the similarities stopped there. Vlad was at least six and a half feet tall with long black hair down to his neck and equally dark eyes. Just under his right eye was a tattoo that resembled some sort of hook. He wore a long bearskin coat with nothing underneath and a pair of black trousers. Altogether, he looked like a lumberjack that hunted bears for the fun of it.

Harley grinned nervously when the three of them stepped through the door. "Hey, Wills. Quinn. Is this Vlad?"

Vlad inclined his chin and stared down at him. "The one and only, drug."

Harley raised an eyebrow and turned to Wills. "Did he just call me a drug?"

"It's friend in Russian." Quinn interjected. "Though not particularly in Vlad's case. He has no friends, only associates or enemies."

"Let's hope I'm the first one then." Harley said nervously.

An awkward silence drifted over the four of them, made worse by the fact that Vlad never took his eyes off of Harley. He seemed to be studying him, or deciding whether or not he'd be tasty in a stew.

"Should I call a team meeting?" Harley asked.

Wills shrugged. "Do what you want, this is your team apparently."

There was a little scorn in his tone, Harley noticed, but no other comments were made. Harley glanced back over his shoulder at the empty lounge room and sighed. "I'm so sick of meetings. Besides, we still need more intel on who the King's apprentices are before we can finalise any strategies. We only know one of them."

Wills turned to Quinn. "You said you couldn't find anything on your last visit, didn't you?"

Quinn nodded once. "They've upgraded their security since last time, for good reason. The entrances were all heavily guarded and electronically locked."

"You still got in though." Vlad commented. "Stop bragging."

Quinn's mouth turned up at the corner, which sent a shiver down Harley's spine. So these are the bad vibes. "Indeed. Getting in and out of places is never a problem for me. But I still didn't get far, or learn much."

Harley crossed his arms. "Damn. That makes things a little-... Wait. You said much. Did you learn something? Anything?"

Quinn closed their eyes. "One thing. The reason I couldn't go any further was because there was some sort of energy emission coming from the factory. I picked it up on my EMR detector, but the source was unknown. I'd already set up an alarm that would tell me if the King was around by picking up his unique energy radiation, but that was silent. Stranger than that, the levels were insane. Whatever it was, it wasn't coming from the King."

An unknown energy source certainly didn't sound good to Harley. "Okay, so why did you leave? Why not investigate?"

The look Quinn gave him was beyond dangerous. "There are very few things in this world that scare me, Harley Chase, and one of them is the unknown. There is an energy source inside of Stone Industries about ten times stronger than the Shadow King himself. Whatever, or whoever, it is, I don't want to find out." They gave Wills one last nod and headed back outside.

Vlad gave Harley a wink and turned his back on him as well. "I pray for you, drug. Quinn doesn't get scared easily, and I actually like you."

Once they'd left, Harley took a seat on the kitchen bench and put his head in his hands. "This is actually a nightmare."

He felt a pat on his shoulder and looked up to see Wills in front of him. "We've faced the impossible before, remember? We can do this."

Harley sighed. "That was different. The Samurai were one thing, but this is just plain crazy."

Wills raised an eyebrow, which earned him a chuckle. "Interesting choice of words."

The two boys started laughing, which led to a very confused Briannon walking in on them. "Didn't you two want to rip each other's heads off like three days ago?" She asked.

Harley waved a hand dismissively. "Mutual goals. I still want to rip his head off. Among other things."

Wills punched him playfully in the arm. "Like what?"

"Your clothes."

Harley widened his eyes in panic and whirled his head around to face Thea. "No! Not that! At all!"

Thea burst into laughter and sprinted out the back, followed by Briannon.

"Actually, there is something we could do in the meantime." Wills said, keeping his eyes on Briannon.

Harley closed his eyes. "Please say something besides ripping each other's clothes off."

"Briannon hasn't been initiated yet, has she?"

Harley furrowed his eyebrows until realisation kicked in. "Oh dear god. You mean..."

Wills nodded. "It's time for a duel."

------------

The team grouped up out on the back yard against the wall with Harley, Wills and Briannon standing before them. Briannon wasn't aware of what was going on, but she was about to find out.

"Alright everyone, it's initiation time." Wills announced. "You all know the drill, but for Briannon's sake, I'll explain. In order for a new member to join the team, they must undergo a trial to prove that they're ready to fight criminals of above average level. The trial involves a hand-to-hand duel with one of the team's commanders, with no weapons allowed. Or powers, in some cases. The duel is finished when either the challenger or the commander is declared the winner by the standing judge." He turned to Harley gestured for him to continue. "So, who's turn is it?"

Harley shrugged. "To be honest, we haven't really appointed any new commanders or lords since the battle."

"Huh." Wills raised both eyebrows. "In that case, who wants to fight Briannon?"

Several hands shot up among the group. In fact, the only two that didn't seem interested were Kira and Ruby.

Briannon threw up her hands in surrender. "Wow, guys. Where's the love?"

"Briannon." Wills gestured to the row of candidates. "Choose your opponent."

She glared at him but reluctantly swept her eyes over the group. After a minute or so of consideration, she pointed at Thea.

"Yes!" Thea exclaimed.

Joel groaned, Tristan grunted and Ella faced the wall and screamed while Briannon and Thea took their places opposite each other. Thea wore a scary determined expression while Briannon appeared bored. Wills started the match and the two girls slowly circled each other. Briannon kept her eyes narrowed and appeared to be waiting for the first move. If she was, it wasn't a long wait. Thea suddenly rushed forward and threw her fist towards Briannon's nose. Briannon kept the bored expression plastered on her face and simply leaned backwards to avoid it. Just as quick, she followed the dodge with a straight kick that Thea only managed to block at the last second. Apparently Thea had the strength while Briannon had the reflexes. The fight continued for a few more minutes with Thea violently swinging her fists and feet through the air and Briannon skillfully dodging it all. At some point, though, Briannon must've got sick of the repetition, because she stepped out of her routine and launched a punch of her own. Thea blocked it, of course, but just as quickly as the punch came, Briannon dropped to a crouch and kicked Thea's legs out from underneath her.

"Okay, I've seen enough." Wills announced, voicing everyone's thoughts. "I declare Briannon the winner. Congratulations."

Thea grumbled something under her breath and helped herself up. Briannon pretended not to notice and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Alright, Briannon, welcome to the team!" Harley said. "Officially, I mean."

She gave me a sideways glance. "Um, thanks?"

Ella suddenly punched the brick wall behind her. "I'm bored! Can we have like a big training session or something?"

"Better yet." Joel said. "How about a duel showdown?"

--------

Ella ended up pairing with Ruby and the two of them took their stances. The same rules applied as a normal initiation duel, so Ella ditched her mallet and Ruby chucked away her crossbow. Not even a second passed after Wills said go when Ella struck out with her fist. It connected with a very surprised Ruby, but she stayed standing.

"Concentrate, Ruby." Thea called from the sideline.

Ruby gave her sister a subtle glare and copped a foot in the side of her rib cage. She let out a heavy breath, obviously winded, but still stayed standing. Ella didn't miss a beat, a big smile plastered on her face. She unleashed a volley of attacks in quick succession, pummelling Ruby over and over. It was obvious that Wills had trained her to strike hard and fast, which Ruby wasn't used to. Everyone watched as Ella swung her foot around in a high arc, obviously hoping for a winning strike, but then Ruby surprised them all. She caught Ella's leg just before it hit and managed to use the momentum to throw her. Ella spun sideways and crashed into the grass on her stomach, releasing a cry of pain.

"Woohoo!" Thea cheered from the sideline. "Ruby wins!"

Ruby dropped to her knees and smiled weakly. "Thank god."

--------

The next two to pair up were Joel and Kira, which was a surprise. Harley laid on his stomach and glued his eyes to the match. Either of them could win. He thought. I'm not sure that I can even vote!

As they watched each other carefully from behind their fists, the rest of the group began to place bets on who they thought would win. From the sounds of it, Harley guessed that it was relatively even. It took a minute for the fighting to actually start, but when it did, it was fast. Joel had made the first move, attempting to grab Kira around the waist. However, she was too quick for him and managed to roll over his back and regain her footing behind him. She then went to kick him in the back, but Joel was just as fast, parrying her kick to the side. The fight lasted longer than Ella and Ruby's, but this one was definitely more entertaining. Despite their height and weight differences, Joel and Kira were pretty much evenly matched. That was, until Wills spoke up from the sideline.

"Okay you two, wrap it up." He ordered.

Not even half a second later, Kira put on a burst of speed that Joel wasn't ready for. She punched him in the gut, which made him lean forward and clutch his stomach, then she somehow swung her legs over his shoulder and flipped him over her entirely. He slammed into the ground with enough force to shake the house and stun the rest of the group into silence. After a few seconds of suspense-filled silence, he slowly rolled over and swore harshly.

"Uh..." Wills managed to speak before the rest of us. "Winner is... Kira?"

Kira swept her eyes over the group and gave each member a smug smile before sashaying off towards her greenhouse. Tristan grunted and followed along, leaving only two people left that hadn't participated in a duel.

"Alright you two." Joel winced and pushed himself up into a lazy sitting position. "Your turn. I'm going to have a shower. Then sleep."

Ruby helped him up and took him inside while Harley and Wills stood facing one another.

Harley smirked wickedly and raised his fists in front of him. "You sure you're up for this? Last time, I beat you."

"You had help." Wills countered, spreading his feet apart. "You've got no chance alone. I used to be your leader, remember? I trained you."

Harley chuckled at that. "Two years ago. A lot's changed." He then lowered his gaze for effect. "Besides, I never recall you actually winning."

Wills grunted and raised his fists to match Harley. "Begin!"

"Ten bucks on Harley." Thea whispered.

Briannon snickered. "You're on."

The two girls shook hands as Harley and Wills broke into a sprint and charged one another, eyes burning with passion.