Chapter 5.1: Baptism of Fire

"The food has gotten better." Ray said with a happy tone while chucking a piece of bacon into his mouth. He looked very satisfied, even if it was just another miserable piece of bacon that was no different with the one he had for breakfast back home.

Nick scoffed and then playfully ruffled Ray's hair. "You're just in love, my man!"

"Whatever." Ray shrugged, contuing to eat his lunch with a gleeful expression. "I mean, you two are already on it, so-"

"No," Caitlin stammered, embarassed. She was blushing, and Nikolai just looked away while taking in a mouthful of noodles. "It's... umm... complicated..." It's true, though. She really liked Nikolai in the romantic sense, and the feeling was mutual. It was just as her mom said it was; an unspoken attraction, a spark that flickers every now and then when feelings are high. One thing was for sure though; it was awkward for both of them to talk about. At least not in front of their friend, who is quickly becoming a third wheel in this relationship.

"It's okay." Ray chuckled, downing a sunny side up egg yolk. "It won't be long before I also get someone in my life, too."

There was a golden flicker in Caitlin's eyes, though Nikolai simply crossed his arms. "Ugh. Kids these days. Always looking for a relationship..."

"You're getting pretty close." Ray said with glee. "Just a need little push."

At the meantime, though, dark forces were at work. They wouldn't notice it at first, but everyone except for the three of them and seven other kids in the entire cafeteria would simply stop moving, frozen in time like statues. They were just there...

"Guys?" Caitlin pointed at the nearest other person, who was stuck in a rather quirky expression. "Something's wrong."

Nikolai stood up, getting his feet on the chair that he had been seating on this whole time. "Oh my." He almost gasped. "Everyone except for the Psykes sisters are paused. And... there's four others that are still moving. They're freaking out... guys? Are you hearing me?"

Nikolai turned around, expecting to see his friends behind him. He did see them, but they were now unconscious, being dragged away by a pair of creatures straight of a mental patient's nightmares.

The creatures had a pitch black exterior, though there were yellow catlike eyes on where those should be. Their shape was roughly humanoid, though they seemingly have no mouths or ears, being simply blank shadows with unsettling eyes. What was most wierd, however, were the blue outlines of faint light that emblazoned their pitch black skin, forming a strange, incomprehensible pattern of shapes that would not register as being from any known human language anywhere on Earth. They had clawed fingers, which did not deviate in terms of color. They emitted a low, droning noise... and had a tail. A tail with a stinger.

A stinger. Of course.

Aided by his powers of precognition, Nikolai jumped down from the chair, narrowly  avoiding being stung by a paralysis agent from the eldritch creature, whose now visible mouth began to crease into a hideous smile of serrated yellow teeth.

"Get away, slender man." Nikolai fired a surge of dimensional energy at the shadow creature that attempted to sting him, causing it visibly writhe in pain as the energy ravaged its cells. It fell to the white tiled floor, shrieking with a maddening scream as it slowly crumbled to ashes.

Nikolai turned his attention to the other two, who had held his friends hostage with their sinewy limbs. Letting both Ray and Caitlin go, they lunged forward... only to enter a portal that led towards an open road, and in tandem with that, a moving truck, which mowed both over like a bunch of grapes.

The lights have obviously began to dim right now. The non-mutant students and faculty in the cafeteria were still frozen, unaware of what was happening around them as a group of shadow creatures shambled out of thin air, chasing after the ten Neu-Volke present. The Psykes Sisters were defending themselves vigorously, using their hivemind like connection with each other to strengthen their telepathic and telekinetic abilities. They were down one member, though, as one, Maria, had been stung by one of the shadow creatures, and narrowly avoided being carted off when Emma and Kara telekinetically ripped apart the shadow creature that had been trying to drag Maria away.

As for Ray and Caitlin, they were out cold, so Nikolai would have to portal them. Right! Portal! They didn't need to be here just to get dragged away when he wasn't looking due to trying to fight off these things. "I need you guys outta here..." Nikolai held one hand our, attempting to summon a breach in space. Energy began to coalesce on his hand; for a moment it seemed like his friends were going to get out this predicament unscathed, if not knocked out. And... Nothing. The energy fizzled out into nothingness; a promising spark that lit no fire at all. Clearly, something had begun disrupting spatial-chronokinetic abilities in the area, and there was no way out of this except to fight back.

As if in cue, the darkness intensified, the lights becoming even dimmer. The creatures could only be seen through their eyes now, and Nikolai heard a scream in the darkness. Someone was getting taken.

He couldn't move. Not like this. He wasn't going to leave his friends, not for anyone else's sake. Nikolai fired another surge of energetic radiation at a shadow creature crawling on the floor towards him, turning it into ash. He then repeated the process for Lord knows how long; in reality, only a few minutes passed, but to him and everyone else that was awake in there, it felt like it took hours.

"There's too many." Nikolai burnt another of the things to a crisp. Two more came out out of the shadows to replace their fallen brother. Or sister. Or whatever. Either way, there just too many of the damn things for him to hold off for long. He was not one to back down from a fight, but this was just getting... tiresome...

ssssssshhhnk. A beam of yellow light seared through a line of the shadow creatures, blasting them into ashes. Ah, right. Nikolai had been too busy fighting them off in his own corner of the cafeteria to even notice. It was really hard to focus, anyway; between avoiding hitting the still frozen people, and making sure that Ray and Caitlin did not get dragged off again, there was simply no room to check on anyone else. But now, someone else has his back.

"Nick Sapohznik?" A brown haired white boy came up to him, wearing a red t-shirt and grey jacket. His hands were glowing yellow, though his right arm seemed to be wounded, with what seemed to be a gash from one of the creatures' claws cutting across his sleeve. The thing was, his blood was glowing, as if he was bleeding pure light energy. "I'm Nathan Rossi."

"Nice to meet you." Nikolai turned and fired another energy surge, blasting another bunch of shadows into ash. "They just don't stop coming."

"Can you keep me safe for a few minutes?" Nathan asked, grunting as he covered his glowing wound on his arm. "I could dissipate the darkness, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, got it." By this time, Ray and Caitlin were finally getting back to their senses; it seemed that the strings weren't meant to last long, and this was supposed to go without a hitch. Obviously, whoever planned this renewed kidnapping operation was an idiot', and was wasting time and energy.

Ray got up shakily. "What... Why is it so dark?"

"Someone's trying to kidnap every mutant in here." Nikolai explained, firing another beam to turn a shadow creature into ash. "Why? I don't know, but we need to cover Nathan here as he... does his thing."

"Oh, my." Ray gawked at Nathan's bleeding. "Thats some shiny blood you got there."

Nathan didn't respond for a second, straining to answer as he was gathering energy. "You're not helping..."

"What are these things?" Caitlin asked, firing a gust of cold wind mixed with ice shards that eviscerated a shadow creature with brutal efficiency. "And why is everyone but us frozen?"

"Let's not ask question while fighting for our lives, shall we?" Nathan grunted, still not looking at them. "Oh crap."

"What?" Ray asked. Something has gone wrong. The answer would be visible across the cafeteria, as the shadow creatures could be seen dragging three unconscious bodies towards the exit.

"They got the Psykes sisters..."

"Son of a bitch."