9.4
Jelani had discovered the mycorrhizal network–a system of fungi connecting plants, regardless of species–that created natural links between life, ideal for channeling an authority such as his own.
This maze of light, suddenly appearing within the darkness of his mind, provided so many possibilities that he almost froze from the sheer shock.
But he had dawdled long enough, and teeth had already broken the surface of his skin.
With no time and no understanding of this absurd phenomenon, he did the only thing he could: donate all of his authority to the system at his feet.
Urge it to grow beyond possibility.
The street disappeared, reduced to asphalt shrapnel.
Roots crawled up into the air, writhing back and forth like a dying spider's legs.
Rogues shrieked; bullets soared.
Jelani tripped on the deteriorating ground and fell, blood pouring from every part of his body, but still, he kept his hand on the trunk and his mind in the dirt.
Although injured, his three companions were still breathing, and they scrambled across the jagged pits that the ground had become, praying that Jelani hadn't been eaten alive, or pierced by his own attack.
Through the seething jungle of crooked wooden spears, they spotted his crouched figure. He knelt on one knee, each hand clasped around the neck of a root–his handles of power.
Narrowly avoiding his erratic stabbing attacks, they rushed to his side.
Echo grabbed Jelani's hair and yanked his head upright.
"Heal yourself," she ordered. "I can take this for a minute."
His hands released the roots and he slumped, barely saving his body and mind from breaking down eternally.
Sasha, who'd somehow maintained his grip on his rifle the entire time, thrust the gun into Yumi's arms and knelt at Jelani's side.
He placed a hand on Jelani's back, gazing in horror at the wounds in the young man's body.
How is he alive?
He gritted his teeth, pained so deeply by the sight of Jelani that it was as if those brutal injuries were his own.
"Yo!"
While a flash of light erupted from her fingertips, Echo called out to him.
"If you wanna help, try healing him."
"How?" Sasha asked breathlessly.
"You can do it."
Echo wasn't in shape to be simultaneously fighting off rogues while defending herself and three others, so weaknesses were bound to arise.
Sasha focused his attention on Jelani's heaving chest, wondering how he could possibly do anything to help.
"Hey, Sasha."
Yumi had scooted to his side.
She spoke just loudly enough for him to hear her over the screams, crashes, and bangs. "Close your eyes."
"Why?"
"I saw that girl doing it."
Sasha dutifully closed his eyes. He tried to imagine healing the heaving chest beneath the palm of his hand.
It didn't make any sense. He didn't understand the powers of the elements. He didn't know how they had helped his own body heal the injuries he'd received, let alone how he could use them to heal someone else.
"Agghh."
Jelani groaned and sat back on his heels.
When Sasha opened his eyes, he was almost convinced that he had done something.
Jelani's injuries seemed to have undergone a sudden spurt of improvement, and the young man opened his eyes.
He took deep breaths, preparing himself to put his life back on the line.
Sasha turned to look at Yumi, and she smiled back at him as if saying 'Good job, Sasha!'
But with a sudden jerk, his body pitched forward.
He fell against her, blood splattering the chest of his jacket as a bullet passed cleanly through him.
Yumi's smile disappeared.
She felt a ringing in her ears and a burn in her chest, sensations she'd thought she would never experience again.
Echo's vision had blurred, and her legs shook beneath her.
She too felt a fear that had been buried beneath the depths of time.
Her heart throbbed, and her stomach sank.
Her body couldn't do what she was telling it to, and in that instant, it suddenly hit her.
It could all be over in no more than five seconds. Everything that mattered to her in life; the thing that she'd spent every waking minute chasing after for year after year after year.
In one moment, she could be ruined.
A hand fell heavily on her shoulder.
Her senses flooded back into her body, and she turned suddenly, facing Jelani's silent side profile with a sharp inhalation of the smoky air.
She stared at him, momentarily forgetting the concept of time and the concept of danger.
Then, with a single step backward, she handed over the reins, allowing Jelani to take over the biome he'd created for himself.
In this environment, essentially a three-dimensional spiderweb of living wood, Jelani was at a huge advantage.
Everything was his weapon, and everything within the reach of his mind was at his command.
In other words, as rogues leapt through the leafless forest, he could selectively chop them down, directing the nearest root on a path through their heart.
But his accuracy was far from perfect, especially at longer ranges. The speed and detail of his world visualization were far lower than they could have been, but what he had was enough.
No matter how many attempts it took, he could take down any rogue that approached them, and between Echo's defense and the wooden mesh, incoming bullets were rendered ineffective.
But they weren't clear yet.
As he stood there, alternating between closing and opening his eyes as he switched between the real world and the atomic one, Jelani had one fear.
Fire.
His first attempt at using wood had literally gone up in flames, so he knew there was a being capable of destroying everything he'd created.
How could he prevent it?
He didn't know, so all he could do was glance at the sky through his web of roots, wondering how long it would take.
He felt the heat before he saw the flames.
Whipping his head around, he saw a wall of pure orange, creeping down the wooden stalks like running water.
"Echo!"
After yelling her name, they shared a moment of eye contact, and he turned on his heel, dashing head-first into the obstacles he'd created himself.
He snapped the thick roots with his shoulders and pried them apart with his hands, Echo following closely in his wake.
Sasha and Yumi weren't there.
Jelani fled from the fire behind him while attacking the animals ahead. Slowly, the mess of roots thinned, and he and Echo stumbled forward with greater speed, ready to keep running forward until the end of time.
The bullets stopped coming.
The sky was light, almost ready to accept the rising sun, and the rogues' twilight had come to a close.
Jelani spun around and looked Echo in the eyes.
"It's over!" he gasped.
They stared at each other, each heaving for air and hardly able to believe what they'd accomplished.
Echo was the first to snap out of the trance. She looked in the direction of the rising sun, trying to get her bearings.
"This way."
She broke into a sprint, heading for the road they'd driven in on, which would lead them south, straight into the center of Portland.