The night dragged on, time blurring as the tedious task of checking each container unfolded. Clayton stood guard, his presence a comforting constant as John worked. The young man moved through the maze of containers with single-minded determination. His magic, for once in his life, was proving itself useful. John moved in a simple pattern, methodically stopping at each container and putting a hand against them to get a better feel. He always imagined photos of those thermal cameras that he had seen. Containers that bled more heat he imagined a cool red while those that were cool to the touch, empty or just empty of life, a cool blue that sucked in the heat from the air.

The search was punctuated by the occasional heartbeat of dread - an unexpected source of heat or a suspiciously large thermal signature. Each time, John would investigate, prying open the container with a crowbar Clayton carried if he had to. The first time, it was a batch of smuggled exotic animals, their bodies thrumming with warmth in the cool night. Another time, it was a group of contraband goods - electronics that were still giving off residual heat.

While John’s unique sense of heat and magic allowed them to work swiftly and covertly, the sheer number of containers was daunting. They stretched out like a metal forest, each one a potential hiding spot. The weight of their task settled on his shoulders, a heavy burden that made his steps drag slightly.

Clayton moved like a shadow, his footsteps echoing softly in the cold, still night. The older man kept a vigilant eye on their surroundings, his body poised to react at the slightest sign of danger. The two of them were a study in contrast - the younger man immersed in his task, the older man the ever-watchful sentinel.

Time slipped away, each passing minute pressing down on John like a weight. As the night deepened, so did their sense of urgency. Each container that they checked and found empty only fueled their determination.

Then, almost unexpectedly, John’s thermal sense picked up something different. A container was radiating a heat signature that was too uniform, too consistent to be any of the objects they had encountered. It was warm, indicative of living beings, and sizzled as it brushed against him meaning there was magic involved. All the children had been kidnapped because they had magic. His heart pounded in his chest, losing the feeling of his heat sense for a moment in his sudden excitement.

He approached the container, his movements cautious. The heat radiating from within was unmistakable. Clayton noticed the change in his demeanor and moved closer, his eyes never leaving the surroundings. It was the moment of truth. With a deep breath, John signaled Clayton, who cautiously approached the container, ready to confront whatever was inside.

Inside, they found a shocking sight. The container was filled with contraband - but no children. Rows of high-tech weapons, cutting-edge technology that was obviously military-grade, filled the container. Their metallic surfaces burned a soft heat, indicating they were recently used or their power source was still operational. The strange thing was these were magical. John had never seen magic and technology combined. he picked up what was unmistakably a rifle and looked it over. It was pure chrome and smooth with a container of blue liquid lining the top of the rifle. He had never seen anything like it in his life. This wasn’t from the Sylverdol military.

Still there were no children. with as sigh of frustration John shut the container door slowly. John focused again, sensing nearby sources of heat and was shocked to feel two sources of heat slowly walking towards them.

“Guards!” He whispered to Clayton.

John and Clayton both scrambled to close the container doors with them inside, leaving it open just a crack to look for the approaching figures. From the cool metal shape they held in their hands John saw the distinct impression of automatic rifles. Not the kind of thing people casually walk around a shipyard with. John motioned at Clayton who squeezed up against the door of the container, gun raised and trained at the opening leading down another path to their side.

John removed one of the spheres from his pockets and pricked himself on the single raised metal spike on its surface. As the metal broke skin and johns blood came into contact with the orb it began to glow a soft blue, tiny arcs of electricity swirled around it. John focused on the orb and issued a silent command in the ancient language before throwing it. He mentally began counting down.

5... The orb flew across the containers that were stacked side by side, traveling towards the opening in the labyrinth that gave way to the path the sentries were coming down. Quick glimpses of electricity silently arced between the stone orb and the metal containers. Dim sparks shot up from the container walls.

4.....3......

As the orb sailed past the last of the containers before the pathway opening, the electricity strengthened into a semi solid light that connected the orb to the container corner. It swung as if caught on a pendulum, flying around the corner and directly into the path of the oncoming sentries.

2...1...

With a snap the light disappeared and the orb whipped around the corner. It flew towards the men as they walked right into it, guns belatedly rising to search for the source of light that had dissappeared. He saw the sentries bodies betray their surprise at the approaching projectile, struggling to determine what the threat was.

0....

John felt all the hairs on his entire body stiffen with static electricity as a harsh buzzing sounded. John saw the bodies spasming as they were hit by waves of electricity that John felt as waves of heat shooting out from the orb and through the surrounding containers. As the waves of magical electricity hit the containers they began bouncing back and forth erratically before slowly dissipating. The men stood frozen in pained shock as volts of electricity shot through their bodies again and again from the magic. John waited until the bodies dropped completely and the object ran out of power before approaching the scene.

"Nice job. Max's work?"

John nodded silently before moving foward to check the guards. He looked around, ensuring no more guards were coming. The two guards lay on the ground unconscious, one man and one woman. Both carried military grade weapons in their hands, definitely not something that would be used by typical security here. They were getting close. John felt relief and anxiety mixed into one as he continued past the unconscious people. Feeling a hand on his shoulder John stopped and looked at Clayton who had his eyes closed in concentration.

“Giselle is calling. They found the ship. No kids though. Lots of medical equipment to transport them unconscious.”

John gave Clayton a deadpan stare ,” I’ve told you before. It’s creepy when you name them. And annoying as hell because they dont even agree to those names. Is that the bat or the panther.”

“Damn” said Clayton smacking his head “ the panther. i cant even pronounce the Bat's name. I call him Chuck”

“Chuck and Giselle..... great” muttered John,forging on ahead.

As John continued down the path the guards had come from he felt a distant heat source. They walked down the path cautiously. The heat source turned into multiple sources that grew in size as John approached. John couldn’t tell where they were coming from but he definitely felt new heat sources appearing at the edge of the group as they approached.

Feeling Claytons hand grab his arm roughly, John let himself be pulled back into the shadows. They were at the edge of an opening that had been created within the maze of containers. They were still about 100 meters from the ships but hidden by the height of the stacked containers. John squinted in the dim moonlights and saw movement in the distance as people moved around.

“Can you tell how many?” Asked Clayton.

“I feel a dozen or so adults” responded John pushing his powers as far as he was willing to. It roiled within him, eager to be used. To be set free. Ignoring the churning inside him John began counting, “with….. shit, 30 to 40 kids at least”

Clayton nodded grimly, “Crystal’s on her way. Girl will be here soon”

He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and pulled another one out of the pack. He put his hand in front of the cigarette and John helped to light it.

“How many more can you make?”

Clayton covered a cough with practice, keeping the noise to a minimum, “I’m down to 5 at a time. Any more than that and they’ll break down”

John nodded as Clayton inhaled deeply form the cigarette. The quickly moving embers illuminated his face in the night as he hunched in the opposite direction to conceal their presence. Clayton held the smoke in concentration for long moments after he finished before exhaling slowly and powerfully. The deep red smoke, tinged with swirling tendrils of black ichor, fell to the ground and coalesced into three distinctly writing masses. They slowly grew in the night, shadows darker than the deepest hole of the underworld, until they stood a foot taller than John. Each expanded to slightly different widths and became humanoid in form.

Humanoid was a loose term for it though. Each of the shadows had smoldering red eyes that stared with a cruel depth visible only from close up. They were of different heights but all were taller and thicker than John himself, towering silently in the night.Their limbs were knobby, twisted things that had sharp corners and spikes at odd places. None of these type ever spoke and would not help with anything other than killing, making it difficult for many of Clayton’s acquaintances to work with them. Clayton could control them, determine what damage was done and protecting innocents but the humanoid shadows would refuse to do anything but stand and stare at them unless there was fatal violence in the imminent future. John couldn’t help wondering what exactly Clayton’s magic did. What were these creatures?

John gulped and took an involuntary step away from the things, inadvertently in the direction of their targets but still not in any danger of being seen. His sweaty brow felt cool as a breeze blew through the dock. He centered himself and nodded at Clayton. They began scooting closer to the people. They would need to see who who was present. There was also the potential of magic users being there as well. A danger they wouldn’t now about until it was too late. Better to make sure no one had the chance to touch them, or anything for that matter. Magic made for a nice surprise when stored in objects like the orb he had hit the guards with. Those had been super charged by his cousin Max. Seeing the weapons stored in the containers, mingling with magic, John wasn’t sure what to expect here.

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As they got closer, John made sure to stay well within the shadows making as little noise as possible. He looked out into the opening and pointed out each guard to clayton who nodded in acknowledgment at each. 9 of the men had guns while 3 of them did not. It was likely that the other 3 men were either concealing weapons , or magic users confident in their ability to suppress whatever they faced through powers that defied the laws of physics and the foundations of reality.

The area was dimly lit by work lamps stationed in a perimeter around the open area and connected by thick power lines. The children all sat eerily quiet, not making a sound and all staring towards the east. They were of various ages between 5 and 16 and of both genders. They were arranged in a row, through which a pair of guards walked through with automatic rifles. A third armed man stood near an opened container while the remaining 5 armed men were spread around the opening watching from above. Each stood on top of a separate stack of containers and watched the opening towards the ships while occasionally walking up and down their container with glances towards the ground on either side. Thanks to Johns magical warning they had come down a path empty of sentries on top. 3 men, unarmed stood within the container entrance visible as dim silhouettes with the improvised lighting. They could bee seen urgently discussing something. Was one of them Devito?

One of the men was Kieren. He led one of the larger drug organizations in Quorluna and had a rap sheet with the police a mile long. He pushed a special drug called “Eclipsium’ which was highly addictive giving him a crowd eager to please for their next fix. The police didn’t know what to do but it wasn’t entirely their fault. What they didn’t know was that Kieren was using magic to enhance the drug. He had created a mob of fanatics willing to throw themselves in the way of guns and to tear down prisons to get him out.

Intel from the Nexus of Balance said that Kieren was instilling his own blood into the mix which could explain the fanatic addiction people fell under. Blood from a magic user still had power,still had the users will. It could enhance or diminish the effects of some powers if ingested by others. They weren’t exactly sure what his powers were but the drug was definitely of a magical origin.

Kieren gleefully walked down the rows of children, patting a head here and there. He leaned over as if to touch one of the children but stopped his hand just shy of a the child’s head. He patted the air above fondly and a purple mist began floating up from the stoic child. He used his hands to waft it slowly towards him, inhaling the vapors deeply before giggling and moving on to another child that had caught his attention. What was this sick mans plan? How was he involved in a child smuggling operation and what was their connection to Sovaria?

There were too many questions going through Johns mind. He shook his head. Focus on the matter at hand. No distractions. He pushed the questions back, reminding himself that he would get his answers but not tonight. Tonight the children were all that mattered. Distractions could get you killed when magic and guns were involved. He could get people killed.

John saw a green flash of light from within the container and all the men within the opening turned in the same direction. John pushed out with his magic, feeling the heat sources inside and counted the number of people inside the container.

1…2…3…4…5…6

He’d scanned the container earlier and excluding the guard at the open door there had only been two heat sources inside of the object. Two magic users he was sure. Suddenly there were 4 new sources, about half the height of the two that had originally been there. Children then. But how had they gotten there? The flash of light had surely been the evidence of magic, but what kind? A teleporting power could be dangerous but it depended on the type. Most typical teleportors could only teleport themselves, able to take objects with them but unable to move people or animals. John had heard of some who could open doors or paths that other people could follow. Their powers not really teleporting but connecting two different physical places. Maybe something like that had occurred here. Could this traveler be the Candyman mother Aurora had seemed worried about?

One of the men came out of the container leading the children in a line, holding hands, and lining them into order with the other children. John squinted trying to get a good look at the single man remaining within the container. Clayton sent his three shadows above, preparing to help take out the snipers. Finally the man within the container came out into the light. Devito stood in the open space, illuminated by the artificial lighting. He was dressed in an expensive suit, polished shoes reflecting the light as he walked in between the seated captives.

“Kierin stop messing around! Its time to go. Jora! Start loading up!”

John finally noticed what had seemed odd about the man. He walked in the same strange state of hypnosis that the kids did, blindly staring into the distance once accompanying the children to their places. Something was wrong with him. The man swayed as he stood there holding the children’s hands. At Devito’s snap he jerked and began leading the children away down a path through the the containers towards the docked ships.

One by one each of the children rose and followed the man down the path.

Clayton nudged John, “This is is boy. you ready?”

John just nodded and readjusted his grip on his pistol. He quickly scanned in the thermal spectrum again to make sure he knew where everyone was. They watched as the children were led away, some of the snipers following above and keeping watch. Devito and Kierin stood to one side with the single guard. The other two stood on either side of the large group of children now.

“Crystal sees the candyman. Waiting on our signal. Ill take the two guarding the kids. you take devito and the other two”

John pulled out his remaining sphere, repricking his finger on the spike to draw blood. With a grunt of effort he threw the orb as far as he could concentrating on the metal container wall behind the guard. It zipped through the air, trailing lines of blue electricity as it shot through the air. As it traveled JOhn saw from the edges of his vision as one of the guards on the ground level went down to one of Clayton’s shots. Multiple screams erupted from above as Clayton’s shadows ripped through the sentries. The orb hit the guard John had aimed at, throwing him into the metal wall shocking him with blinding arcs of electricity.

Devito dove into the container and Kieren scrambled behind a line of kids as shots erupted into the night. The children didn’t react to the noises, continuing to stand up one by one and follow after each other into the distance. Kierin screamed at some of the kids who stopped and circled around him, blank eyes staring out without seeing anything.

John dove behind a corner as shot erupted and sparks flew up around him. He returned fire, forcing the guards to run for cover of their own. Kierin was yelling at his small group of children, leading back to the cover of the open container and to Devito. Devito was yelling at him to go another way, hand waving at him out of the interior. Clayton took down the other guard on the ground, the shadows finishing up with the sentries on top of the containers.

John came out and advanced on the Devito gun aimed. There were only two left, Devito and Kierin with the children. Banging and the screeching of metal could be heard further away where the children had been heading towards. It sounded like Crystal and the other shadows had intercepted the candy man. John hurried fowrad as Kierin reached the container.

“Hands up or we shoot!” shouted Clayton as he followed behind John.

Devito paled at the sight and dove towards one of the children pulling the smaller form in front of him. John let off a shot at Devito hoping to get to him first but the man raised a hand and John heard a soft thump followed by a clinking as the bullet bounced off ineffectively and fell to the ground.

“Back off or i kill the kid!” shouted devito

The child began struggling to breath as Devito held him in between John and himself. John didn’t know what Devito’s magic was. So far he knew it allowed him to deflect bullets but while in contact with the child, his magic would be extended. Whatever he could do, he was now affecting th child. THe child clawed at his throat, his face slowly beginning to turn blue.

John put his hands up immediately, Clayton did the same next to him. All of the guards had been dispatched with the expection of Devito and Kierin. The sounds of a disturbance could still be heard further in the distance where the rest of the children had walked off to. The end of the line continued walking even as Devito held the last child, the only one who seemed to had broken out of his stupor now that his life was in danger. Clayton shadows stayed out of sight above, waiting for their opportunity to strike.

“Stay back!” Shouted Devito, almost hysterical now.

Kierin was looking dumbfounded between everyone, looking for an escape route.

“The gig is up Devito. Give the children back.”

Kierin started laughing as he watching the child continuing to change colors, “Give them back to who? no one wants them. We picked these kids off the streets. They were as good as dead to begin with.”

Clayton shook his head, “Don’t lie. You got greedy Devito. You went after the Guardians. Big mistake there.”

Kierin’s eyes went wide and he looked at Devito, “You said not to touch them. Is that why they are so potent?”

“Shut up!” Devito shook the suffocating child in front of him, “You wont ruin this. Not for me!”

Devito motioned for Kierin to join him. Kierin reluctantly went towards him.

“Do it. Now!”

Kierin reached towards the child, who Devito allowed to gratefuuly gasp air.With his eyes closed kierin concentrated. He pulled his hand slowly away from the childs head and as he did, multi colored tendrils clung to his hand as if a viscous fluid. THe child sreamed in horror, eyes glazing over at sum unseen nightmare.

And thats exactly what it was John realized. Kierin was a mind ripper. Pulling this childs darkest nightmares from his mind and giving them shape, making them real. He watched in horror as more and more of the visous liquid clung to kierins hand and then dropped to the floor. It flowed and moved before finally beginning to take shape.The monster had dozens of razor sharp teeth, shared across two mouths on each side of its head. Eyes peered out from everyone alongs its body and spines poked out from the skin, bone white and dangerously sharp. As it solidified it roared to make its presence known.

“Kill the old man first!” shouted Kierin.

CLayton dove behind a container as the monster lunged for him. All three of his shadows flashing across the space as tendrils of darkness to defend him against the attack. JOhn couldn’t do anything. Devito still held the child firmly, keeping him between john and never letting his attention wavor. JOhn flinched as the monster roared again, out of sight now and mixed with the occasional screeching of wrent metal. Shouts were beginning to sound from inland now. The shots and destruction too much for the workers in the vicinity to ignore.

John tried moving closer, thinking that Devito’s attention was focused solely on Clayton. He was mistaken though. with a savage wrench Devito pulled the child towards him and squeezed tightly. John heard a distinct snap in the night air and the child shrieked with pain. His mangled arm dragged by Devito. John stepped back quickly.

“Stop it Devito!”

Devito bent over and began rummaging through the coat of arms fallen guard, careful to keep his eyes on John. As he stood John saw what he gripped tightly in his hand. A grenade.

“‘Is this kid that important to you?” he shouted menacingly.

“Devito don’t do anything stupid!”

“Let’s see how much you really care.”

He tore the pin out with his teeth and JOhn felt his stomach drop out form under him. This man was insane.

Devito threw the kid, inhumanely strong, through the air in between JOhn and himself. He laughed manically before throwing the grenade in the direction of the child and running off in the opposite direction.

John ran forward, it seemed like time had slown down. A million thoughts ran through his mind, none of them staying long enough to make any sense. All he saw was the small boy as he bounced on the ground, the bone sticking out from his broken arm. All he heard was the cry of pain and the pounding in his head. Someone was going to die. JOhn had gotten someone killed again. His feet pushed him forward. Ignore the fear. Hide from the pain. Just do it. He couldn’t kill another child. Not again.

The grenade bounced twice before landing only feet away from the boy who thrashed in pain on the ground, his arm clutched tightly against his chest. John dove as far as he could, arms outstretched and reaching for the dangerous object. He fingers closed around the sphere, nails tore against the concrete as he frantically grasped for it. He pulled it to his chest, much in the same way the child clutched his arm and closed his eyes as tightly as possible. His teeth clenched hard and he felt a throbbing in his head that beat in time with his heartbeat. He waited, waited for the inevitable, waited for the end.