Winter mumbles something to himself, his gaze not leaving the helicopter until it's out of sight.

He looks down at Ray and the two brothers curiously, studying each one of them, still holding onto Jake with death's grip.

"Alright... i was told one of ya was the Atomsplit." He pauses, looking between them.

"Come on, which one of you is it?" Winter asks impatiently.

Silence falls, the boys look at eachother confused, they'd heard stories and tales of such concept, but never took them seriously.

Josh looks up at him curiously.

"Uh... what are you on about?"

Winter drops Jake and picks up Josh by the collar of his shirt, holding him up as if he's a misbehaving child.

"If i came here on my free time only to find out one of you is not the Atomsplit, i will be rather upset."

The words pour out of his mouth slowly, half-threateningly, though they know that he's probably more than capable of harming them after witnessing him take on one of Nyx's blasts without a problem.

Ray swallows his spit and pulls Josh down.

"Dude... do you think this has something to do with the atomic energy gun thingy you shot me with?" He asks, remembering the incident that led them here, Nyx attacking them without a second thought after reading Ray's energy levels.

Josh's eyes narrow contemplantingly as he looks over his shoulder to stare at Ray.

"No way... i thought that was just bugging out." Josh recalls, not convinced. He stares back at Ray, up until this point, he had convinced himself that his invention was simply broken.

"I mean... it only malfuctioned on you. Everything else worked as intended."

Winter leans down and stares at Ray, an all-knowing look gazing right into his soul.

"Hah, you put the kid through one of those energy measuring things?" He questions, tracing circles around them.

Josh nods vehemently.

"Something like that... measured like 12 million."

Jake eyes Josh curiously, as if he's had a revelation.

"That stupid little gun you asked for help with?"

Josh snorts, seemingly offended.

"It was not one bit stupid, it was revolutionary!"

Jake chuckles, not taking anything seriously.

"You just shrunk an existing technology. You didn't do much."

The two of them go back and forth, Winter's patience visibly wearing thin.

He chops Jake at the back of the neck, knocking him out.

Josh jumps back with a girly scream, landing on the floor.

"What was that for?!" He points to Winter.

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Winter picks up Jake and carries him on his back.

"He was annoying. Anyway. Pick up the slack. Which one of you can drive?"

Ray and Josh stare back at eachother.

Winter sighs, his gaze lowering mockingly.

"I knocked out the driver huh?"

He throws Jake off his back, Ray narrowly catching him by throwing himself on the ground below.

Winter points his pistol up, holding the trigger down for an uncanny few seconds. After a few seconds pass, he finally lets go of the trigger, a huge blast of atomic energy shooting straight up into the sky, exploding in the sky after a few seconds.

He looks back down at Ray and Josh, who both had their ear-drums pierced by the sound of the blast.

"Alright, we'll get picked up soon enough, for now just shut up." He sits down, seemingly uninterested in anything out of nowhere.

Ray goes to speak, but he's interrupted by Winter, seemingly talking to himself once more.

"I told you to stay nearby so i didnt have to make a damn flare. Dont go blaming it on me if abominations come around."

"Abominations...?" Ray murmurs to himself.

His face twists in annoyance as he talks.

"I dont care if Zayn doesn't wanna fucking drive, he doesn't wanna do patrol so he's on sucking up duty."

Josh whispers to Ray, not bothered to look in his direction.

"What the hell are we involved with?"

Ray rolls his eyes.

"Maybe we got drugged and didn't realize it."

A few hours pass, Jake has woken up by this point, but Winter has stayed quiet, aside from talking to himself every so often.

Jake stares intently at Winter, then at his brother, caught off guard by how this seemingly regular day turned chaotic.

Eventually, a van starts pulling up on the road infront of them, and Winter sits up from the ground he sat.

"Took you long enough." He signals for the boys to follow him as the van comes to a stop infront of them.

In the drivers seat, a young man is sprawled all over the steering wheel, feet on the dashboard, his hair is grayish, and in the front passangers seat sits a sword's scabbard, sealed shut with a lock. Zayn frontièr, Lightning realm atomic reactioneer #5

Winter peers his head through the drivers window, his eyes tilting in dissapointment.

"You dipshit, it was nowhere near a three hour drive, what took your ass so long?"

"Cry me a river, do you know how boring it is to drive through a desert?" Zayn snaps back without a care.

Ray and the brothers stare at eachother in confusion, and take a step back.

"W-well uh... Jake is awake so uh... we have to get going..." Ray says as they begin to make a dash for their own vehicle.

Winter chuckles and lets them try and make a run for it, not concerned in the slightest.

Before they can make it to the vehicle, it starts floating off the ground, out of reach, making them freeze in place.

The van's doors slam open from the inside, and a young woman walks out, chuckling and laughing the entire time as she approaches them, Tara Hellseher, Lightning realm atomic reactioneer #3

"Bwahaha! Is this them Winter? Look at them! They are just little babies!" She says, coming up to Ray and squishing his cheeks.

"G-get off of me, you crazy woman!" Ray yells, hands coming up to try and shove her away.

Jake and josh giggle as Winter pulls Tara off of Ray.

"Come on, quit playing." He says in a displeased tone, as if he's scolding a child.

Ray turns to look at the brothers.

"Quit laughing!"

Suddenly, they hear a crash, the vehicle falls down from the sky, watching as Tara effortlessly rips off part of the metal plating and bending it around with ease.

With a wicked glin in her eyes, Tara effortlessly brings Ray's hands together, bending the metal around them and handcuffing him. He tries fighting back, but she effortlessly overpowers him, shoving his face on the ground without much force.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He yells, looking up at Winter.

"Taking you with us." He says casually, not looking bothered.

Winter looks at Jake's and Josh's terrified faces, then turns back to Tara.

"Take those kids aswell."

Tara giggles and jumps onto them, effortlessly binding their hands together.

"Oooh! What are we gonna do with them?!"

"I'm willing to bet Flora is always in need of some lab rats!"

Winter squats down to stare directly at Ray, looking at him with a curious expression.

"You're not gonna cause me problems, are ya?" He speaks tauntingly, as if daring him to try and fight back, before grabbing onto him and throwing him in the van with the other two.

Winter and Tara jump inside alongside them, taking a sit as the boys are laid down on the floor like a shaken can of sardines.

Winter kicks the front seat, signaling to Zayn to get moving, he scoffs but starts the car anyway.

Ray looks up from the floor, staring at Tara.

"Where the hell are we going?! I know my rights, and this ain't one of them!"

He looks up at her expectantly, but he's instead met with more giggling, Tara reaching down to pinch his cheeks.

Winter can be seen trying to hold back a laugh as Ray tries to bite her hand.

"The Lightning realm, you're gonna pay a real nice visit to the 'big boss', might just die there instead."

Winter says teasingly, Tara's attitude now rubbing off on him.