9 --- 7

Roger gritted his teeth in frustration as he tried to hit the target again but all he could do was project light into his fist and nothing more. "This isn't working."

"Because you are not focused." Nate answered from behind him. "The will energy doesn't work on a whim, you have to mean it."

"Remind me again why we are doing this?" Samantha moaned in her usual bitchy voice. "We haven't agreed to join your suicide team yet."

"I promised you will be trained enough to protect yourself even if you decide not to work for me."

Roger tried to focus his energy again but the result was the same, glowing fists but nothing else. He sighed. "It doesn't matter how much I focus, this isn't working."

Nate nodded with a stoic look on his face. "Okay, give it a rest. Samantha, you are up."

Samantha half grumbled half dragged her self to take his spot and raised her hand to take aim. "Good stance, now you need to foc ——"

A blinding light burst out of her palm and completely eviscerated the target as it burst into flames. Nate reacted fast and grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the rising fire.

Samantha looked down at her hands in shock. Roger mirrored her actions, he then gave Nate an accusatory glare. "There is no way princess Barbie here was more focused than I was."

"Hey, that's rude." She snapped out of her reverie.

Nate met his glare head on. "It would appear Samantha here has more potential in energy manipulation than other aspects."

Roger's scowl deepened. "That hardly seems fair."

Samantha flipped her hair dramatically. "Life isn't fair, get used to it." Her smile made Roger's chest constrict in anger.

"I am sure you will soon discover your own particular skill set. Give it time." Nate said in an assuring tone. "I guess that will be all for today. See you later."

"Wait!" Nate stopped mid stride to Roger calling out. "I want to go out for a bit.

Nate sighed. "I already told you guys, it is dangerous out there."

"I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important."

"It is not wise to be out alone."

"Fine, I will take Brian."

"Brian is out practicing his portaling abilities. He is the only person to be out alone and that is only because he is a porter."

"What of Amber?"

"Amber is working here with Xena, I need them here for the grand opening of the club tonight."

"Since when does Amber get assigned duties?"

"Since she agreed to my terms and decided to work for me."

"Oh." He could not keep the surprise out of his voice.

"I guess that leaves you with…" He trailed off.

It took a moment to stop admiring her wreckage to notice both of them staring at her. "What? No way?"

"Why not?" Roger asked. "You are always bitching about not getting out if here."

"What Roger means to say is he would owe you one if you follow him, there are strength in numbers." Nate soothed her in his ever diplomatic tone.

She considered his words for a while before answering. "Fine."

"Good. Make sure to be back before night." He said before strolling off.

"Well you heard him, where are you going that is so important to risk both our lives?"

"You will see. C'mon, let's go."

They walked to the elevator and went up to the now completed club. Roger had only seen glimpses of the place during his stay here but now it was finished, it looked even immense and beautiful than ever.

Samantha scoffed under her breath. "What a waste of time and money."

He glanced at her weirdly. "What do you mean?"

"A nightclub had to be worst idea ever. Everyone knows this place houses willers. You would have to force people to actually come here."

Roger said nothing as they made their way out, the armed guards barely glanced at them. Roger hailed the first cab they saw and they both got in. They said nothing for a long while before he broke the silence.

"So, I noticed you didn't seem surprised about Amber agreeing to join Nate's team."

"I would if I didn't already know it was happening. You know Brian told me he portaled her and Anna --"

"Xena." Roger corrected.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "He sent them somewhere two nights ago and they came back all bruised like they had been in a big fight. She literally volunteered to fight, I could already see the writing on the wall."

Roger was quiet for a while before talking. "Are you considering it?"

"Consider what? The job? I don't know, I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my teenage years fighting bad guys."

"Do you think Brian is going to join?"

She snorted. "Obviously, you should see his eyes anytime he does that portal power thingy. He is a total power sucker." She looked over at him. "What about you? Are you planning on going superhero?"

He was saved from the answering because the cab reached their destination and they alighted. Samantha looked around at their whereabouts. "Looks like a real classy neighborhood, are you going to tell me what we are doing here?"

He might as well spill the beans now. "I am here to see my brother, Martin."

Samantha looked over at him and shrugged. "Fine, let's be quick about it. This place is giving me the creeps."

He nodded and walked the familiar route with Samantha following closely. "You didn't answer my question."

He scratched a itch on his neck. "What question?"

"In the cab, I asked if you are joining the team."

He scratched his neck again. "It is a nice idea to be part of a team. I have heard stories about that King guy. If he is half as crazy as they say, we would definitely want protection."

"But?" She asked expectantly.

"The job description is to protect humans from willers. Humans hate us, why would I want to protect them? If the roles were reversed, they wouldn't do the same for me."

"If every willer thought that way, the whole world would go to shit."

Roger looked at her quizzically.

"What?" She asked with a frown on her face.

"Nothing, you are just a lot easier to talk to when you are not being a bitch."

Her frown deepened. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Roger sighed. "And I spoke too soon."

They reached their destination. It was a shabby looking house, no different form the rest in the neighborhood. It was his home. He walked to the door and raised his hand to knock but froze suddenly.

"Do you need help knocking? Because Its getting late." Samantha quipped from behind him.

"Something is wrong?" He said softly and started backing away from the door.

"What are you on about? We already got here, the least you can do is knock."

A buzz was slowly building up in his ears and the itch on his neck intensified. "Samantha, we need to get out of here n ——"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door suddenly blew off its hinges, throwing them back with full force.

He was stunned, everything seems to be in slow motion. He tried to get up to his feet and ignore the ringing in his ears. "Samantha." He called out, his words echoing back to him.

He looked up to the doorway and saw someone that was definitely his younger brother come out closely followed by someone in behind.

The person at his back was a dark skinned woman with several tattoos on her body. He could see the fear etched on Martin's face.

"Roger help." He saw him say the words but didn't hear it.

The woman pushed Martin aside, he winced as his younger brother went down with a yelp.

His unknown opponent pulled out a sword from her back and smiled savagely at him. "King says hello."

She said and swung her sword at him. He stumbled back in a desperate attempt to dodge, scrambling backwards to put some distance between him and the armed woman.

He got up quickly and put up his fists in a fighting stance. The woman lunged forward, he dodged her attack and attempted to punch her in the ribs but she expertly evaded him and kicked him in the guts. He stumbled backwards but still managed to keep his footing.

There was a loud cry from Samantha out of nowhere, the woman's eyes widened and she suddenly flipped backwards. Samantha, who was running towards her came hurtling towards Roger instead and they both went down in a heap.

The woman stood and laughed without mirth. "Is this the team that is going to stop King from taking New York." She spat on the floor. "Pathetic."

Samantha got up first and stretched out her hands towards the woman. "Take this, bitch." He hands glowed intensely and she fired out a long stream of light. The woman moved like lightning to evade the light and threw a knife towards her. Roger noticed the knife first and pushed her away, his reward was the knife slicing through his arm. He groaned and held firmly to the the blood that was already welling out.

The woman stood lazily. "You guys should give up, I promise to make it painless."

Samantha eyes blazed in anger. "You are going to pay for that bitch."

The woman looked amused rather that threatened. "You have a mouth on you, I think I will save you for last." With that, she charged again but Samantha was ready, she waved her hands and this time fire erupted all around them. The woman put up a glimmer of a shield just in time to protect her self from being burnt.

Roger removed his hands to see that the bleeding had slowed significantly. His healing seemed to have kicked in but the wound still looked deep and life threatening.

But he was more worried about Samantha than his injury, she was projecting powerful fire all over but she didn't seem to be in control.

He decided to reduce her burden, he focused his will into his hands just as Nate had taught him and ran towards the woman. A strong punch cancelled out her shield, she reacted by swinging her sword at him but he dodged and struck her in the hard in her stomach. The force of the blow knocked her a good distance away. He extended his palms to blast her away but the result was the same as training, his hands glowed but no light came forth.

The woman smiled and came forward to attack him but stopped abruptly. Her smile faded into horror and it took a while for Roger to figure out why, there was a glowing fist protruding from the side of her stomach.

She knelt down on one knee in apparent pain to reveal Minx in all her pink haired glory smiling savagely.

"Hello." Her chirpy voice sent shivers down his spine.

"M—Minx, what are you doing here?"

She removed her hand from the woman and tried to brush away the little blood that accumulated on it. "Nate asked me to keep an eye on you dumb idiots." The woman keeled over on her side, blood exiting her body rapidly. "Looks like he had the right idea."

"We didn't need your help." Samantha said from behind, the fire around her was already subsiding.

Minx snickered. "Now you are being delusional, Blondie."

Roger left them to go to Martin's side, a bruise was already forming on his forehead. "Hey, you okay little bro?"

Martin winced as he sat up. "Am fine, she didn't hurt me. She sneaked into the house a few seconds before you came, it's a good thing you didn't move close to the door, she was ready to stab you with her sword." Martin looked over at the body on the floor. "Is she?"

Roger looked back at the woman's body which was barely quivering. He couldn't explain it, but somehow he knew she was going to die in a few seconds. "Yeah, I think so." He looked back at Martin.

"I am so sorry I put you in danger."

"It's okay, I haven't seen you since she and her friends kidnapped you." He said, looking over at Minx. I thought I was going crazy, I went to report to the police but they wouldn't help once they knew were a willer."

"It's okay. What of mum?"

He looked away. "She's been worse in your absence, I convinced her to stay at aunty Greta's."

A familiar feeling twisted Roger's heart but he didn't let it show on his face, he had to be strong for them.

"Are you friends with them now?" Martin asked, looking nervously at Minx and Samantha.

"It's complicated, I will explain later."

"Hey, Roger get over here." Samantha called out to him.

"Gimme a sec." He left Martin to join the girls over the woman's body. She was obviously dead now, he could see the fear she felt in her last moment in her lifeless eyes. "What is it?"

"This fell out of her jacket when she fell. Samantha handed him a rectangular shaped card.

He collected it, careful not to touch the bloody tip. It was black with a lot of colourful writings on it, it was a ticket to a place called Tartarus.

"What is Tartarus?"

Minx and Samantha stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

Minx spoke first. "Do you pay attention to anything, idiot? Tartarus is the club you have been living under these past few days."

"Why would she have a ticket to the opening of the club." Then he connected the dots. "Oh no."