DREAMSCAPE
1:42 AM…
As the boys drifted into sleep, their minds did not find peace. Instead, they were plunged into a shared, chaotic reality. One by one, they were isolated, their deepest fears brought to life in a terrifying dreamscape.
Nasir found himself back in his childhood home, but his hands were useless, his aerokinetic powers gone. His father, a drunken, hateful figure, stood over his mother and sisters, shouting abuse, his hand raised. Nasir tried to move, to use his powers, but he was rooted to the spot, a helpless spectator to the pain he couldn't prevent. His family's pleas for help were muffled by the wind he couldn't control.
Umar was in a classroom, his brothers standing over him with his parents. The teacher held up a report card with nothing but failing grades, a symbol of his deep-seated fear of disappointing them. As they berated him, his brothers showed their parents a small bag of cocaine, their faces twisting in disgust and betrayal. He was powerless to defend himself as they condemned him, leaving him alone in a silent classroom.
Ahmad stood in his house, but it wasn't empty anymore. It was burning. His mother's face, a distorted image of terror, appeared in the flames, her voice screaming for him to save her. He unleashed his fire, but it only made the blaze stronger, consuming everything he loved, leaving him utterly alone in a world of his own making, a prisoner of his lack of control.
Sadiq was back in his family's living room. He tried to speak, to warn them, but his words made no sound. He reached out to his parents, but his hands passed through them like smoke. They were there, laughing with his sisters, but they couldn't see him, hear him, or feel him. He was a ghost in his own life, completely erased, his existence a meaningless whisper.
Sadiq, ever the analytical one, was the first to snap out of the terror. He looked at his ghostly hands, at his indifferent parents, and a cold clarity settled in his mind. This wasn't a normal nightmare. This was too specific, too personal. There was a common thread: their deepest insecurities, their worst fears, and a power capable of manipulating dreams. There was only one person they knew with such an ability.
"Zainab!" Sadiq's voice was a mental shout, a concentrated thought that echoed through the dreamscape. "Zainab, it's me! I know you're doing this!"
A low, mocking laugh answered him. The dreamscape around him began to distort, dissolving into a swirling vortex of color and light. A figure materialized in the center, not the Zainab he knew, but a dark, powerful version, her hair a mix of black and purple. Her eyes glowed with a malevolent light, and a condescending smirk was plastered on her face. The other boys' dream worlds shattered, pulling them all into this new, shared reality. They stood together, facing the source of their torment.
"Ahn ahn," the dream-Zainab sneered, her voice a chilling echo of her usual tone. "The tech bro has finally figured it out. I was getting bored with these your nightmares."
"Zainab, stop this! It's not you," Sadiq pleaded. "You're just scared! We can help you!"
"Scared?" she laughed, a sound like glass breaking. "I'm the one who makes all the rules here! And your gang of boys, belong to me." She waved her hand, and the world around them began to twist, turning into a nightmarish, burning battlefield, a corrupted version of their training field.
THE VAULT
4:32 AM…
In the real world, G had woken up for morning prayers and went to wake the boys, but they ere unresponsive. After a few minutes, G woke Reed up to help him figure out hat as wrong with them. They rushed into the boys' sleeping quarters. They brought in vital monitor screens, on the screens, the boys' vital signs were plummeting. Their heart rates were erratic, their breathing shallow, and their brainwave activity was spiking erratically. They were trapped in a deep, unnatural sleep and their bodies were shutting down.
"What is this?" G demanded, a cold fear gripping him. "They're dying, Reed! What the hell is happening to them?"
Reed, frantically tapping on his tablet, his face pale, shook his head. "It's a psychic feedback loop. A neural overload! Their minds are under attack from an outside source. And it's draining their life force. Its killing them!"
DREAMSCAPE…
In the dreamscape, the boys were on the defensive, struggling to fight back against the reality-bending onslaught of dream-Zainab. She threw burning cars at Ahmad, created crushing earth beneath Umar, and suffocated Nasir with air he couldn't control. They were outmatched, their bodies in the real world growing weaker by the second.
"This is who I am now and ho I've alays been!" she shrieked, her face a mask of pure hate. "You think you can save me? You're all just tools! The only reason you're here is to entertain me!"
Sadiq watched her, his heart breaking. He saw a flicker of her old self in her eyes, a brief moment of terror and sadness before the malice returned. The trauma she had suffered must have created a dark entity within her. He had to reach that person. He had to find the Zainab he knew.
"That's not you, Zainab!" he yelled, dodging a collapsing building. "That's not who you are! You're the girl who used to talk to me in class. The girl who laughed at my jokes. You're the girl who hated her powers because you were afraid of hurting people, not because you wanted to!" He was appealing to her good side, the Zainab who was still in there somewhere.
His words hit home. The malevolent glow in her eyes flickered, and she staggered, clutching her head. "Shut up!" she screamed, her voice splitting into two distinct tones, one of pure rage and the other of a broken whisper. "You don't know me! You don't know what I am!"
"I know you hate this!" Sadiq countered, pressing his advantage. "You hate hurting people, you hate feeling alone! We are your friends, Zainab! We will help you! Just fight it!"
He reached out, his water manipulation not a weapon, but a symbol of his emotional plea. A thin, crystalline stream of water, pure and clean, flowed from his hand and touched her face. It wasn't an attack; it was an offering.
The dream world screamed, tearing and ripping at the seams. Dream-Zainab roared in pain, a physical embodiment of the war raging inside her. The dark, malevolent side writhed, fighting for control, but the small, quiet girl, the Zainab they knew, was breaking through.
With a final, heart-wrenching sob, Zainab's full power unleashed. Not as a weapon, but as a wave of pure, white energy that shattered the nightmare world.
THE VAULT
12:15 PM…
The boys opened their eyes finally, sitting up from their beds, gasping for air, their bodies drenched in sweat. The alarms in The Vault were blaring, G and Reed running frantically between their beds. Their vitals were back to normal, but they had been in a coma-like state for hours.
"Sadiq!" Ahmad coughed, catching his breath. "What the hell was that?"
Sadiq, shaking, but with a look of triumph, held up his wrist. His comms screen, which should have been offline, flickered to life. A single, pixelated map appeared, with a blinking dot on the outskirts of Abuja. A voice, small and shaky, came through the comms. "I... I'm at an abandoned warehouse. I'm okay now... I think. Please you have to come get me. You have to save us from this."
G and Reed looked at the boys, confused but relieved. Ahmad, now with a new purpose, a new fire in his eyes, looked at the map. "Lets go."
Without hesitation, the boys got up, grabbed their gear, and prepared the dropship. They were going to rescue Zainab. This was no longer just about revenge; it was about building their team.