Shadowy Burn

'It burns, why does it hurt so much?'

Agony.

That was all he felt, his body, flesh, muscles, bones and even blood were hurting. He had been burned a few times when he was younger, but this one was different. Way different, it was eating him alive, one part of his body at a time like a predator slowly enjoying his prey.

Writhing and gripping into the concrete, the fingers of his hands scraped and bloodied, he slowly got up as the pain became too much for him. He couldn't take it anymore, he needed to act fast else he will definitely die this time.

But what could he do?

'It's too much, everything hurts even breathing'

Yet he powered through the pain with gritted teeth and stood to his feet, spasming from it.

"Do something!, the brat is dying!" The crazed one yelled frantically pacing back and forth like a caged animal, as he could feel Mort's life force wane quickly.

Without batting an eye, all his counterpart did was shake his head.

"If we interfere yet again I fear that, they will find us"

Stopping midway through his frantic walk, he looked at his friend in an incredulous way and gripped his shoulder yelling at him, eyes wide and scared.

"Well I don't wanna die to such a measly attack!!. Since when did you ever care about what 'them' anyway?!. The only one strong enough to beat you can't live without your existence and with the right preparations you could hold him off for a while, heck who even knows what you're thinking?!."

Gripping the hand on his shoulder, he gave a calm yet stern look to the short brash being in front of him.

"Well then, what do you propose?. If we try to save him we get exposed, worse the kid may not even survive. His body is too frail, he has no physical or mental training to handle the stress of our mingling.

Hell, I'm even surprised he lasted this long!"

'Thats the first time I've seen him this worked up since...'

Letting go of his shoulder, he sighed in defeat and made his way towards the downed writhing body of Mort.

"Kid, if you can hear me, and want to live, then survive this"

Calmly, he stretched out his right hand, making a shooting sign with his fingers and shakily breathed out, his face now grim as he looked at the boy laying a few feet away from him.

Gathering at the tip of his pointer finger, sparks begun to fly and take a round shape. Forming a small white marble, which could barely hold itself together.

He let out a sharp breath and the marble smoothens out, taking a more stable appearance.

Taking some few more seconds to contemplate if he was indeed making the right choice, he steeled his resolve.

"Eradicate"

Was all it took for the marble of lightning to be shot at Mort finding it's mark, his left eye, entering it without any resistance.

The clouds gathered, the wind picked up as it got dark. Sirens blew through the city alerting it's citizens of the approaching storm.

Baffled, James and Jake stared like children seeing fireworks for the first time. The sudden change of weather was not what they expected to occur. Something was definitely wrong.

But what hand could Mort have to have in this phenomenon?.

It just didn't make any sense.

Without warning, a lightning bolt struck at Mort's body only to be intercepted by a domed barrier, made up of blue tiny pentagonal shaped discs.

'Oh the barrier, I forgot that was up'

Jake thought to himself nervously.

The barrier was set up to prevent anyone from entering or hearing anything that came from the alleyway. He got it from an associate of his father's, a well reputed scientist of Nexus. Normally, it wouldn't appear to the naked eye, it'd seem, from the outside looking in, an empty dark quiet alleyway.

'I forgot about it, maybe if it wasn't activated our friends might still be alive.'

James looked down gloomy. He still couldn't believe what was going on, it was was supposed to be easy. Beat up Mort and leave, simple as the ABC's.

Yet here they were, witnessing something they, in their pre teens could never dream of, murder.

Sure they've seen animals getting killed but these are humans, their classmates.

Scoffing at the intercepting of his attack, he readied another.

"Do they think a human made barrier will stop me?, I must admit I am a bit impressed it held up after that. But..."

He formed another marble of lightning, slightly bigger in size and more chaotic looking, humming and whirring.

He looks at his shadowy partner, someone he always thought he knew, a mysterious person.

Most of the time he could never predict him.

And he, was supposed to be the unpredictable one.

How absurd.

Smiling calmly he nodded at him. "We have to do this old friend, I know you'd rather not interfere much. But we both know what's right"

With that said he turned his gaze back to Mort's body, a more determined look on his face.

"Eradicate"

The marble once again shot itself into his left eye, entering its target with a hum this time.

As the storm brew, dust began forming outside the alleyway as people ran to seek shelter.

James quickly grabbed unto Jake's hand and tried to run but was met with resistance as Jake gave him a questioning look.

"The-"

He was cut short as the second lightning strike broke through the barrier shattering it like glass and with no more obstruction in it's path, it hit flames burning Mort. With that hit, the fire screeched out in pain.

Not expecting anything else to be able to hurt it, it loosened it's hold on Mort.

Sensing something wrong, it tried to escape, shifting to its original form. A Phoenix, but a large shadow tendril shot out of Mort's shadow and gripped it's leg, holding it in place.

The Phoenix screeched out in fear after noticing what what held onto it.

It flapped it's fiery wings harder in a frenzied state not caring for the burns it was inflicting to the walls slightly melting it like metal.

Jake, confident as ever looked on in confusion.

'Why was the Phoenix trying to run?'

He willed at it to continue burning Mort, but it did not mind it's summoner.

Flapping it's wings harder and faster, looking no different from a regular bird trying to escape a tangled mess it found itself.

A storm of fire formed out of it desperation, the heat from the flames spiked up to unbearable amount, cooking up the dead bodies in the alleyway.

Any more of this and they could light up and burn.

James seeing what the bird was causing hid behind Jake who was immune to the flames, trying to escape the onslaught.

Surprised at the unexpected help, he looked back at the cause of the tendril.

"You-"

He begun only to be cut off.

"-were right, just don't rub it in my face after this, knowing you... That's a fool's wish"

A dark marble the same size of the original lightning marble shot itself into Mort's right eye, as if soothing him, he stopped writhing in his fetal position.

The shadowy tendril started to eat into the Phoenix.

Starting with it's captured leg, slowly engulfing it.

It wrapped around it's wing's, unaffected by the fire released by it's panicked flapping of wings.

Effectively stopping the firestorm, all that was left was the head of the bird, it's eyes full of terror and regret.

But alas, in a matter of seconds, it was swallowed up, gone.

The two boys just couldn't believe it anymore, first the barrier now the bird.

It was the mythical Phoenix, it shouldn't be defeated this easy talk less of being scared of that tendril.

'What exactly was that thing?'.

Their thoughts were cut short as the flames surrounding Mort died down after the firestorm was snuffed out.

All that remained was the barely recognizable charred remains of his body.

The tendril then retreated and entered Mort's shadow.

Where it turned pitch black, darker than the nights sky and spread out across the alleyway ground.

It slowly started snaked up his burnt legs, and then up to his burnt body.

A soft red fiery glow emanated from within the shadow coocon formed.

James quickly shook Jake out of his reverie and gave him a look. Without any need of words,they came to a conclusion, they had to leave.

Both begun to run, only to be held captive by the tendrils from the pitch black ground.

Jake quickly summoned a flame ball in his right hand, taking aim at the tendrils.

"Don't try it"

A voice ordered from the cocoon.

It was so cold, devoid of life that it went literal chills down their spines.

In a matter of seconds it engulfs them all, wrapping them in a cocoon. The pitch black ground then spread more tendrils and covered all the dead bodies in the alleyway.

The soft red glow began to pulse slowly, going on and off like a Christmas led light.

From slow and rhythmic, it began to pulse faster.

Becoming more and more erratic till it begun to slow down, coming to a unified tempo.

Beating like a large heart.

The cocoons then slowly receded and in its wake, the bodies of the dead boys were healed, laid out on the ground, breathing.

The pitch black shadow covering the ground moved back to Mort's cocoon.

Slowly, the cocoon around James and Jake also fell apart leaving behind the unconscious body of both boys.

The tendrils then moved to Mort's, wrapping around his, making it thicker in density.

"I'm alive?" Mort asked, looking into the dark expanse where he first met the two entities that saved his life.

His voice dry and hurting from the screaming.

"More or less, I'm surprised you lived. We will meet soon. Now you need to rest."

A shadowy tendril then shot out of his right eye and engulfed his laying body, forming a thin layer around his form, putting him to sleep.

Mort was then gently laid down by the retreating tendrils, as the cocoon wrapping him fell back into his shadow.

In a matter of minutes the police of Nexus rushed into the alleyway, only to find a couple of pre teens knocked out and unconscious. The state of their uniforms were burnt and torn.

"Captain?"

A burly 6 foot man walked up behind a short girl barely reaching his shoulder, awaiting her order.

"Take them all to the hospital, except for the tan boy with the Afro. I want him taken to the Mayor's"

Her voice devoid of any emotion.

The men giving grunts of affirmation, began to do as they were told.

Taking one look at the unconscious Mort, she smiled sadly and shook her head.

"You poor boy, it's such a shame"