Delta 6 (The Pack)

Chapter 11

Warnings: none

~Mitch's P.O.V.~

     As a moment of harsh coughing shakes my body, pain erupts in my arm, face, and side. Whining in pain, I push myself up into a sitting position, immediately determining that I have at least one new broken rib in addition to the ones I broke in the Nether.

     "Ugh... What... What happened?" I croak, clutching at my arm, which has a nasty gash on it.

     Shaking my head slowly, and wiping the soot form my face, I groggily glance around and try to recall where I am. My eyes shift over the dancing flames, bits and pieces of buildings, and the dead bodies scattered across the ground. Another throat burning cough escapes my mouth, and I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling as if I weigh no more than a feather. Swaying, I swivel my head the other way, still trying to take in my surroundings and regain my memory-which is vaguely starting to return. But when I see the figure standing there, silhouetted against the flames reaching into the night sky, not twenty blocks away, my mind goes blank with shock.

     "J... Jerome...?"
"Biggums!" Jerome exclaims happily, a wide smile breaking out on his face.

Jerome bursts forward, covering the ground between us in seconds, and practically tackles me to the ground with the force of his hug. The action causes another wave of pain to shoot through me, and I cough, flinching. Jerome hastily backs up, making an apologetic expression. But then his face turns serious once again, and Jerome casts me a worried and confused look.

"But what are you doing here? I thought you were off on a Nether Fortress raid with Brandon and Matt."
I sigh, "I was."
"Then what happened? Where is everyone else?"

I stare at Jerome for a second, debating my options. I could tell him the truth, about my gem and all that, and risk him reacting badly, or, I could trust him as my closest friend to be there to back me up, and even if he doesn't quite understand it, accept the fact that I'm now a white gem and the world basically rests on the shoulders of my and five other people. Nodding to myself, I decide to go with the latter. If anyone is going to understand and help me through this, it's Jerome. But as a quick afterthought, I decide to compromise, and leave out the white gem part for now until I feel more comfortable telling him. Taking in a deep breath, I sneakily cover my hand, and then being to tell him what happened.

"Well as you said we were off on a Nether raid with the noobs, and along the way I made an embarrassing mistake. I accidentally let my guard down, and a ghast ended up shattering a couple of my ribs. So due to humiliation and the fact that I knew I'd only slow them down, I decided to head back here and get some medical help. Along the way a um... Enderman... Teleported near me and I accidentally caught it's eye. And dude, those things hit hard. I got knocked out but thankfully I guess it teleported away..." I bluff, making up an excuse on the spot, praying to Notch that Jerome buys it. "So then I came to a little bit later and-"
"An enderman didn't knock you out." Jerome states bluntly, crossing his arms.
My throat suddenly becomes scratchy and dry. I rub it subconsciously. "Wh-what?"
"A weird light streak thingy knocked you out. And now you have a white gem."
I stare at him in shocked disbelief. "Y-yeah... How did you know?"
"I saw your gem when you were knocked out."
"But then how did you know about the... Light... Str- wait. Does that mean you...?"

A small smile touches Jerome's lips, and he holds up his hand to reveal a white gem. I don't even realize my jaw is hanging open until he chuckles, and uses a finger to push it shut.

"We'll talk about that in a minute, but first, I want to know what happened here."
"Yeah right, of course." I mumble, nodding several times. "So after waking up from that dream thing, I made my way back here. As soon as I stepped through the portal, I knew something was wrong. As you can see, well... The entire village was a blazing inferno. There were literally hundreds of mobs swarming the area, and all of them had glowing white eyes. Now I was in bad condition and tired as it was, not to mention still overwhelmed with the fact that by some strange happenings I had become a white gem. So I tried to flee, only to have a huge stone beam fall off a building and pin me underneath. I'm lucky to have survived, and even luckier that you found me. Which reminds me, howndidnyou survive anyway?"
"I was out delivering a message to Notch and came back here as soon as I woke up form the dream, so I could go warn everyone. But when I got here... It was a fiery ghost town."
I nod sadly, dipping my head in silent despair, remembering all the bodies of my friends I had seen. "Yeah... But I guess at least we know one thing for certain-Sky, Ty, and Jason are still alive. Sky was off at a Royal gathering off in the South, and Ty and Jason were out dealing with some sort of annoying squid infestation. And thankfully I'm pretty sure I saw Brice bolting away on a horse."
Jerome raises an eyebrow, a sad suspecting frown crossing his face. "What about Ian?"

I shake my head slowly, trying my best to keep the tears from surfacing. Jerome silently nods, rubbing the nape of his neck.

"Well... Then I guess we better get going. We need to find you some potions, scavenge for items, and get out of here. I don't want to risk those mobs coming back this way."
"Good idea, and then we have to figure out how on earth we're supposed to find four other people, when they could be literally anywhere."

Jerome nods his agreement, and sticks out a hand to help me up. I accept it, clasping his hand with my good arm and letting him pull me to my feet. I let out a little yelp as I nearly got toppling over, and face planting into the ash covered ground. But thankfully Jerome catches me, setting me back up two feet.

"Dear Notch Jerome, have you been working out of what?" I laugh breathily, poking his arm.
But Jerome doesn't seem to be so amused. "No, and that's the thing. When I pulled that pillar off you, it felt like it weighed nothing. I thought it was adrenaline but..."

He trails off there, and it clicks suddenly as I catch what he's implying.

"Dream Notch or whatever said we have powers, right?"
Jerome nods. "Right."
"I wonder if that means... Yours is super strength?"

~~~
Question of the chapter:

Who here was guessing super strength as Jerome's power? Also, any guesses as to what Mitch's might be? (Just to clarify, I haven't given any hints to Mitch's power, unlike with Jerome)