The Fight for Fire

Chapter 1 - The Man

I shook the unwanted memory off.

"Let's just go to the next place then call it quits for tonight..." I mumbled, avoiding Claire's concerned gaze.

We usually used the regular bar-hopping technique, picking a street to go down and going from place to place. Being that most of us were underage, I used some compulsion to get us inside.

The only person in the Big Six that was exempt in these expeditions was Mackenzie. Despite the fact that she was now a teenager, thirteen was still a bit young to be experiencing bar life. She argued it too, saying that I can just manipulate her appearance to make her look older so she can help, but we all said no. Her youth was already corrupted enough with the responsibilities that were placed on her and everyone else, there was no need to ruin that any further. Instead, she spent her days training and finishing up basic schoolwork. Even though she the only Electric Supernatural user out there, she still needed to do basic math and English work to at least function in society after all this was over.

That is, if we even had a future to look forward to.

The next bar we went to was a large, club style. There was a line out front of waiting people to get in but I didn't have enough patience to wait around and walked straight up to the front.

"Hey, no cutting!"

I ignored the annoyed humans and made direct eye contact with the bouncer. "We're on the list. Let us in."

"You're on the list," he repeated back to me in the robotic tone that people under my compulsion get. "Go right on in."

"What? That's no fair!"

It didn't bother me using compulsion as much as it did when I first discovered that power. It was needed to get what I wanted, the information I needed, and a step closer to Cole. I was willing to do anything and everything in order to bring him back.

I caught Claire's eye, a sad look crossed over her features and I knew she was reading my mind. They all felt bad for me and I've heard them all talking to each other about how I've changed over the past year. I didn't see much difference, to be honest, except for the fact that I took my duty and training more seriously. As Galen said, I couldn't let anything distract me and once my biggest interruption was gone, I was truly invested in being the Mind of the Big Six. I felt strong now, powerful even. I didn't know how I would stand up to Katherine in a fight, but I felt a lot surer of myself than I did when we first set foot on that island.

The inside of the club was crowded, loud, and smelled slightly of human sweat and cigarette smoke. I looked at Alex who nodded, immediately taking my queue to stand to my right and Claire to my left. The one perk of being in nightclubs was that it was dark, so when I used my powers to search for the energies of any Supernatural, they most likely couldn't see the feline nature of my eyes unless they stood very close. To counter that, my friends flanked either side of me just in case.

I looked through the crowds of people, the familiar feeling of hope washing through me as I took a deep breath, and focused my powers into aura manipulation. When I opened my eyes I only saw the faint and washed out colors that symbolized human power, immediately making me disappointed.

"Nothing..." I muttered, dropping my power. "Time to fan out."

The three of us began searching the crowd to see if Moroso was here but using a blocking power to stop me from knowing he was a Supernatural. I didn't expect that to be happening, especially since this whole mission had been very low-key and he shouldn't even think anything suspicious was happening, but it was good to double check.