Alarms blared in the hallway as the band of kids ran through dodging soldiers left and right.

"Jessie I'm no expert at this kind of stuff but I know we can't do this forever. We have to get out of here quickly." Travis said as a trio of soldiers just missed them.

"I know what I'm doing. Follow me." Jessie said as he motioned for the others to follow him down a hallway.

This looks like the right way, I'm just gonna have to trust my gut.

As he turned a corner he saw a sign that read "Renovations ahead. Stay out."

"Yes! I found it." Jessie exclaimed as the others caught up with them. He turned to see Travis carrying Mia who was now asleep on his shoulder. She had cried away all her energy and fell asleep as soon as Jessie and Travis had left the room with her grandfather.

We have to get her out of here and fast.

"Guys down here. At the end of this hallway there should be an old elevator to the mental institution this hospital was built on." Jessie said as they ran to the end of the hallway.

"We can escape through the old building! That's so smart, but how'd you know about the institute?" Lily asked as they reached the end of the hallway.

"Down there!" They heard a man yell from where down the hall. They turned to see a group of at least ten heavily armed soldiers heading towards them.

"No time for small talk quick through the door!" Jessie yelled as he threw open the door. Inside was an old janitor's closet and at the far end was their prize, the elevator.

"Go! We'll buy you some time! Travis on me!" Jessie said while collecting smoke in his left palm.

"Here take her Rose. She might be the key to all this. Wait for us at the bottom we'll be down shortly." Travis said as he handed her Mia and headed towards Jessie.

"Travis! This is crazy just grab Jessie and let's go!"Rose exclaimed.

Travis turned around one last time to look at Rose.

"If doing this will guarantee your guy's safety we have to do this. Just go and make sure Mia stays safe." Travis said looking at Mia's face as she shook with fear in Rose's arms.

"Stay safe at least. For me." She asked with fear in her eyes.

Travis smiled and laughed. "Don't worry about me, baby. Worry about my opponents." He winked and closed the door phasing through it and locking it.

"He's really annoying but I kinda like his style. I can tell you dig it too." Lily said as she pushed the button for the elevator.

"Let's hope chimney and shortstop can handle themselves for now, let's bounce."

"Don't worry about them. They're my boys, and they can take anything." Rose said as they walked into the elevator and the door closed.

———

On the other side of the closet door, Jessie poured smoke and filled the long hallway with a thick cloud.

"Did the elevator work? Are the girls gone?."Jessie said as he stretched his shoulders.

"They are safe, I can't say the same for us. God they have guns how are we gonna beat them?" Travis said feeling around in the fog.

"Think of it like a game of tag, tag with guns. Just don't get hit." Jessie said shakily.

Suddenly a hand appeared and grabbed Jessie's shirt.

"I found one down here!" The man yelled.

Jessie panicked and swung his fist wildly, it connected and he heard a loud crack.

The mans body fell to the ground and Jessie could see his helmet was cracked across the side.

"Clark, repeat yourself where are they?! Clark!"

Thin beams of lights passed through the fog, red and green both trying to find their prey.

"How'd you do that Jessie? You holding out on some secret super strength? There's no way you cracked a military grade helmet with only one punch" Travis asked annoyed.

"I have no idea, I just swung and it broke. Maybe you have it too?" Jessie asked coyly.

"Show yourselves and we won't kill you." A voice said somewhere in the fog.

Travis looked into Jessie's eyes then at the helmet on the floor. He gulped and stomped on it causing it to break apart and fly into the fog.

"Sir! There's part of one of our helmets here." Another voice said in the fog.

"Be on guard, they may have killed Clark."

Oh my god did I kill him?

Jessie bent down and felt the man known as Clark's pulse. He felt it and breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to see Travis flexing and staring at his arms.

"I think there's more to us that I thought Jessie, we need to run some tests." Travis said.

"We need to get out of here first." Jessie said.

"I hear voices in that direction."

They turned and nodded at each other.

On cue Jessie felt a chill and the fog around them thinned out.

"The fogs gone." A soldier said looking around confused.

"Over there!" Another cried out bringing the others attention to Jessie and Travis.

"Jessie don't die on me!" Travis said as he ran at a soldier passing through him kicking another square in the chest sending him flying into another.

"Stop right there!" He yelled training his beam directly at Jessie's forehead.

Shit.

"Jessie look out!" He heard Travis cry out as he saw a gun being hurled towards him. It smacked the soldier directly in the back of the head causing him to fall.

"I was aiming for you!" Travis yelled as he phased his leg through a guy's head hitting another's gun in the air.

At this point, the fog was totally gone and Travis was completely exposed.

Fuck this.

Jessie pushed up his sleeves and breathed heavily gulping fresh air. He faced Travis and saw him get hit in the leg by the butt of a gun. He cried out and fell to his knees.

Jessie reacting without thinking pouring his smoke providing a fog back into the air as fast as he could providing cover. Jessie pushed the told to his palms and tendrils formed one by one.

Ok guys no killing.

Jessie watched as his tendrils swayed and down as if nodding. Snapping himself back to reality he ran towards where he last saw Travis and was surprised to see him fighting with two of the soldiers. He rammed his elbow into one's visor and broke it causing him to scream and fall to his knees.

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean for that to happen!" Travis said as he kicked the legs of the other out from under him. Jessie ran and picked Travis up by the waist.

"Dude I was on a roll! I could have taken them." Travis said getting to his feet.

"I can see that, but now it's my turn." Jessie raised his hand forcing the tendrils into the smoke and his heart dropped as he heard screams of agony and gunfire. A stray bullet found it's way to Jessie's ear giving him a brand new piercing. He lost focus and the tendrils faded into smoke joking the cloud.

Silence filled the area as Jessie let go of travis and held his hand to his ear. With his free hand he called back the smoke cloud and it sank back into his skin. The entire hallway was littered with bodies. Blood everywhere.

"Jessie what did you do?" Travis said as he ran to one of the soldiers.

Oh god.

"I-is he?" Jessie asked a tremor in his voice. Travis turned to face him and smiled.

"He's alive definitely won't be able to go to the beach anytime soon but definitely breathing." Travis said as he ran back to Jessie grabbing his wrist.

"I almost killed them."

"I know but we need to go. Something tells me the next set of soldiers who find these guys won't be too happy with us." Travis said as he rammed his shoulder against the closet door.

"Shit I forgot." Travis said as he phased and unlocked the door.

They walked through and locked the door. As soon as they reached the elevator they heard a soldier cry out.

"There!"

Panicking Jessie grabbed a broomstick and jammed it into the door handle. Jessie and Travis walked into the elevator and descended down.

"So you think those guys are gonna be ok?" Travis asked coyly.

From above them they heard a soldier yell at one of his companions.

"Dave you fucking idiot."

"Yeah they'll be fine." Jessie said as they could no longer hear the world above.

"How do you know how to fight Travis?" Jessie asked as Travis sat on the floor and massaged his leg.

"My dad wanted my brother to be interested in sports so he thought maybe jiu jitsu would be good for a child. Nevertheless watching him got me interested and he taught me a few things." Travis said wincing as he touched the spot where he was attacked.

"Your brother sounded like a standup guy." Jessie said. "Why didn't you ever try any of that stuff against Patrick or any other bullies?"

"I promised Damien I wouldn't hurt people, only help them. I guess I broke that promise."

A tense silence ensued and Jessie fidgeted.

"So why did this institute need an elevator underground?" Travis asked changing the subject.

"It was for people who had contagious diseases and for those with incurable mental disorders." Jessie said.

"So we are going where the kept the diseased and psychopaths. Neat."

"How do you think the girls are doing?" Jessie asked checking his watch.

———

As they reached the end of their elevator ride the doors opened allowing Lily and Rose to be enveloped by darkness.

"It's too dark to see anything and look at me without a flashlight." Lily said as she coughed from all the dust in the air.

Suddenly a great source of light came from her right and she saw as Rose held a ball of fire in her offhand. She moved out of the elevator and looked around for a light switch.

"Oh, that's so cool. You're just like Jack from my favorite game." Lily said as she stepped out mesmerized by Rose's gift.

"I know your excited but right now our focus is finding a way out." Rose said as she found a switch. She turned it on and suddenly the whole room was enveloped by a dim light from old bulbs.

"It's a miracle the electricity still works down here." Rose said as she sniffed out her light.

"Well, actually the company that runs the hospital decided to leave this section connected to the main power grid in case they decided to use this space." Lily said as she looked around the room.

It was a giant room, filled with catwalks and small rooms built into the walls. They had bars on them and she noticed a building at the top of the room that looked strange. It had four windows.

"How do you know so much about this hospital?" Rose asked as she walked towards a desk that was directly in front of them.

"I spent a lot of time here as a kid since my brother was always getting hurt. When your a kid and you spend a lot of time in a big old building, you'll do anything to stay entertained and for me, that was learning about the hospital."

"Why was your brother always getting hurt? If you don't mind me asking." Rose said as she laid Mia on a musty old chair. Mia coughed and she sat with her head resting against the head of the seat. She closed her eyes and was silent.

"Well since we have time to kill I might as well tell you." Lily said as she took a seat on the desk.

"I have two brothers, my younger brother Min-jun and my older brother Yi-jun." Lily looked at the rooms and noticed how weird they looked.

"My older brother was always kind of sick. Not in the 'I've got the flu' kind of sick either." Lily said with air quotes carefully placed.

"He used to hurt Min-jun and badly too. He used to beat and even put out cigarettes on him. He had scars from it. My parents were always in denial that their sweet firstborn could do those kinds of things." Lily looked deep into Rose's eyes looking for anything in them.

"The last straw was when he went too far and changed my brother's life forever." Lily put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a photo. She handed it to rose and she gasped.

"Your brother only has one eye?" Rose asked tears in her eyes.

"Had. I found him on the kitchen floor with a bloody spoon next to him. He died later that night."

Lily looked at Mia and smiled.

"To make a long story short my brother was arrested and my parents split up. My dad was American and was my moms second husband so I went to live with him here in this nowhere town. "

Lily looked at Rose sadly.

They heard sobbing above them and suddenly Lily and Rose were both on guard. Both immediately went to Mia's side.

"What is that Lily?" Rose asked fire in her eyes and hands.

"How am I supposed to know?" Lily asked coiling her hands.

"Stretch up and check it out."

Lily scoffed and stretched her neck up.

"Why don't you stretch up shorty." Lily muttered under her breath.

"I heard that. Your way shorter than I am." Rose said annoyed.

As she looked over the catwalk railing she saw a huge dark hole where two rooms were supposed to be.

"What is it Lily?" Rose asked from down below.

"I don't know I can't see, not enough light."

"Hold on"

Lily turned to see a ball of light heading towards the catwalk. The moment it hit roof above her Lily could see what was inside. It was a giant spider. It was attached to a man and he was crying.

Lily screamed and reeled back to her body. Mia shook awake and looked up at Lily confused.

"What's going on? Where are we?" She asked rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you little girl. I promise my intention wasn't that." They heard a voice say over the railing.

Rose looked up to see a man looking down at them.

Rose guessed he was in his late forties, he was balding and wearing a tattered lab coat.

"Who are you?! And why are you down here." She flashed her fire in a warning.

"Oh miss there's no need to be afraid, I'm Michael and I'm looking for my daughter." The man said. He took a step back.

"Stay where I can see you!" Rose exclaimed.

"Young lady I don't think you want to see me, and I don't want to scare the little one ." He said as he took another step back.

"What are you?! Is that why you were hiding?! Why were you crying?" Lily yelled in a high pitched voice.

"It's hard to go out when you look like me, and I was crying because your story was so sad." Micheal said disappearing from sight.

"Come out into the light Michael and I promise I won't hurt you." Rose yelled.

"Ok but don't say I didn't warn you."

Micheal reappeared but he seemed taller. Suddenly he was a giant and he had no legs, he was connected to some strange body.

As he revealed his true form and descended from the catwalk Mia screamed and ran behind Rose.

He was a massive spider or at least his bottom half was. Wear his torso met the spider it was a tangle of hair and burns.

"He's like a centaur but for a giant creepy spider." Lily said as she took a step back.

"I can go back to my cell if you want, I understand being scared of me." Micheal said as tears streamed down his face.

As he moved back Mia pulled on Rose's skirt and she looked down at her.

"Kaan says he's a good man, if he's not scared I'll be brave too." Mia said as she held up her stuffed turtle.

Rose smiled and looked back at Lily.

"Ah shit. Fine, Michael, you can stay down here with us. How about you tell us how you ended up that way and why your down here." Lily said.

"Y-you girls aren't afraid of me?" Micheal asked as he scurried towards them on his massive appendages.

Suddenly they heard a door open behind them and all of them turned towards the noise.

"I'm telling you Jessie Overdrive has to be by far the best band of this generation." Travis said.

"I'll admit they are good and oh my fucking god!" Jessie screamed as he fell back on his butt.

"That's a big ass spider ." Travis said looking at Rose in fear.

"Guys he's a nice guy I mean he looks mean but he's a giant softie." Mia said excited to see Jessie. She ran to him and hugged him.

"Yeah he's cried like twice already." Lily said looking through the drawers of the desk.

"Well, that's nice to know we don't have to worry about the giant spider guy." Travis said still on guard.

"Hi giant spider guy!" Travis said while waving dramatically.

"Oh, it's not me that's the scary one down here." Micheal said shaking hands with Travis.

"Wait who else is down here?" Jessie asked worriedly.

"I believe he's talking about me." they heard a voice rang out as the lights shut off.