Chapter Author: YouAreNowIncognito

The next day, Gravity led them out from the city. They all took their animal forms to blend into forest better. Gravity rambled on about what he had seen and what he was afraid the black shifters could do. When he had nothing left on the topic he started to tell bad jokes instead. Sometimes he stopped and rose up on his hind legs to sense which way they should go. Finally, they got to an old abandoned human village. Ever since the humans had migrated to the bigger cities, leaving theirs villages empty and deserted, there were several ghost villages out in the wild. This village wasn't big, it was built around a big, old factory and had only one main street. The village had some old stores on the street but there were mostly dwellings.

“We’re getting close," Gravity whispered, “How close to him do you have to be to get a clear picture his mind?”

“I don’t need to be so close. A hundred meters is enough." Delmar answered confidently.

“Good." they sneaked around the village, a couple of meters inside the forest. The black shifters seemed to be in front of the factory building. They had a clear sight from the forest to the open area in front of the factory were the black shifters were standing. There were three individuals, one Komodo dragon, one male human and the one person everyone had been talking about: the black jackal, Black Hole. There was something off about the jackal. Delmar had a hard time focusing on it. It was like the light didn't bounce of his fur and the air around him made things behind him look weird and contorted. The jackal had purple markings on his face and down his legs, his ears were unnaturally long for a real jackal. The three individuals were talking but they couldn't hear anything from this distance.

“This is close enough,” Delmar whispered and laid down inside a bush. “Now I just need time. Hopefully they have a lot to discuss over there. Is there anything particular you want to know?”

“Who are they? Where did they come from? What is his powers? Do they plan anything?” Gravity answered.

“I will probably not be able to answer all your questions but I'll do my best.” Delmar closed his eyes and reached out for the jackals mind.

The jackals mind palace, was not just smaller than Delmar had expected. It was also weird in so many ways. It was dark and light at the same time. Some walls seemed more stable than others. Some of the memories was sorted in perfect order while others were all over the place. It felt skewed and completely normal at the same time. He took some time, to just look around, but the place gave him a headache and made him dizzy. He was starting to feel sick.

“Maybe I should just try to find what I came for, so I can get the hell out of here.” He took a random memory from the well sorted ones and took a look.

“Wilfred!” Black Hole turned around. He was dressed in black and stood in his human form right in the middle of the square, in front of the electrical faction’s main building, in the human city New Devantos. His skin had a dark gray tint and his ears were way too long, even in this form. A female shifter came running.

“They found something on the news, everything is removed by now, but Electrical wants us to take care of the shifter at hand." This shifter was short and she had a much better human form than Black Hole.

Suddenly the memory skipped some time. He was standing in front of a door knocking on it. The other electrical shifter was beside him. The door was opened by a short green eyed man with a hat. Even though he made his best effort to look human the trained eye could directly see he was a shifter. When the man realized that the two strangers in his hallway were shifters as well, he turned his ears into sheep ears, his pupils changed shape and his irises turned red. Red stones started to float around him.

“Are you Derek Dorian?” Black Hole asked, looking down into an electronic tablet.

“Y-yes? How can I help you?”

“We’re here to withdraw your human identification.”

“What? No you can't do that! I'm an artist for god's sake, I need my identity!”

“It looks to me like you've gotten a bit too famous, and a bit too carefree. The papers have started to write about those horns you keep hidden under your hat.” Black Hole said and held up the tablet with a featured article. “The human Derek Dorian will die in a car accident. You will go back to being Ruby the shifter and return to your faction. I'm afraid you can't have another identity for at least fifty years.”

“No! You can't do that! You’re ruining my life!”

The memory faded away. Delmar was puzzled. Had the jackal been a part of the electrical faction back in the city? It seemed weird. Why would he be a part of that faction if he has the powers of a Black Hole? He took another memory from the same shelf.

“Do you know what this gun does?” he held up a big silver gun against another shifters head. The other shifter was pushed up against a wall.

“Blow my brain out?” the shifter answered scared.

“Guess again, this is one of the electrical faction’s finest work.”

“I don't know!”

“Its bullets are specially made not to kill, but to rid you of all your powers. If I shoot you, you’ll return to whatever animal you are. You’ll be unable to shift back, or to use any of your elemental powers for a while. You’ll probably lay on the ground twisting in pain for a while. Hopefully this will teach you not to spill our secrets to the humans again." He pulled the trigger.

Delmar backed out of the memory disgusted. He hated the electrical agents and their anti-shifting devices. On the floor lay and floated other memories, like someone had just tossed them around. They differed a lot from the ones on the shelves. The ones on the shelves seemed to be a bit too perfectly ordered and they had a different feeling to them. These felt like memories usually do but they were in chaos. Once again he took a random memory.

Black Hole was standing in a clearing in the forest. He had one hand reached out before him. He clenched his fist and suddenly a big chunk of the ground shrunk into nothing with a loud noise. He opened his fist rapidly again. Where the soil had been was a perfectly round crater.

“What the hell?” Delmar said and backed out from the memory. He had never seen anything like it before. What had just happened? His curiosity forced him back into the memory.

Black Hole clenched his fist again and another chunk of ground disappeared. He did it over and over again. Every time he did it, the air seemed to suck into the crater and created the loud noise.

“This can't be normal, can it? Why didn't they care? Or did they want me to think I'm normal?” Black Hole concentrated again suddenly everything around him sucked towards him. Stones, trees, dirt, everything. He stopped immediately when he realized what was happening, he didn't want to get crushed.

“Bad idea…” he reached out his arm again and used the same amount of energy a bit further away. Everything started to collapse into that area. He didn't stop until the ground he was standing on started to get sucked into the crater. The hole he’d left had a ten meter radius, he looked down over the edge.

“I can understand if they didn't want me to explore my abilities. Where does it all go?” He walked down into the crater to see if he could find any trace of the matter that just disappeared. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing.

The memory faded away and Delmar stood speechless. He had never seen anything like that before. He was starting to understand Gravity’s concerns. This guy was dangerous if he could make things just disappear like that. Another memory floated next to the previous one.

I hope they are connected, he thought, but he doubted it since everything was in such a mess.

Black Hole was standing in a small human tobacco and newspaper shop. He was reading a science magazine featuring the dark powers of the universe. There was one particular article that drew his attention: Dying stars and black holes. ‘Maybe I don't destroy the material? Maybe I'm just compressing it? Compressing it into almost nothing?’ he thought.

Delmar couldn’t watch more, this shifter’s ability made him way too curious. What was it really? He went deeper into Black Holes mind. Everything was very unsettling and unlike anything he had ever seen in anyone's mind before. But he still had to go there, he had to see for himself. Did he really have the powers of a black hole? Delmar had seen the memories of Black Hole’s destruction, but still… was it really true?

This is a bad idea… a really bad idea… he thought as he went further down. It was pitch black in there and the further he went, the more unstable the place felt.

Come on, where is your monster? It was just a big black empty space. He continued walking. With every step he took, the unsettling feeling he had inside grew stronger. This was the part of the shifters mind where they kept their inner demons. You could say it was their raw soul. But there was no demon there, just a big unsettling empty space. Delmar decided to turn back to watch some more memories.

Out of nowhere the grim reaper appeared in front of him. It was a hooded black titan monster. Under the hood, there was nothing, just an empty black space. It shouldn’t be able to see him, but he ran, ran in panic. It was just like a nightmare, his steps didn’t take him anywhere. Instead he was sucked back towards the black monster. It felt like he was running through syrup.

“No! This is not how it ends! You won’t get me!” He tried to break free of Black Hole’s mind but it wouldn’t let go of him. It had him in an iron fist, sucking him deeper and deeper in. He tried with all his strength to get free but nothing helped. He was also starting to feel a strong urge to shift into a stronger form, maybe if he shifted he would be able to break free?

“No… I mustn’t shift.” It would jeopardize the whole operation, giving him and his friends away to the black shifters in the real world, if he suddenly turned into a giant ice monster.

Finally, Black Hole’s mind let go of him. If felt like he tumbled back into his own body. He resisted the sudden urge to puke.

“Delmar, are you alright?!” Angi asked, terrified, as she saw his reaction.

“What the hell is that guy?” he gasped.

The black shifters were still talking like nothing had happened. Black Hole didn’t seem to have noticed the violation on his mind.

When they had put some distance between them and the black shifters, Delmar stopped and started vomiting. He emptied his whole stomach. When there was nothing left, he just coughed for a while.

“Are you alright?” Gravity asked concerned, he had shifted back into his human form and petted Delmar carefully as he trembled. The others stood worried around him.

“No… I’m not okay… That jackal, there is something seriously wrong with him. It’s like he’s not from this world. He had me stuck in there. I thought I would never get out again. But you were unfortunately right Gravity. I had to see it for myself and that was when he got me in his snare.”

“What are you talking about?”

“His powers!” Delmar yelled in panic. “His frickin powers! That man or jackal or whatever he is, could destroy everything if he wanted!”

They walked back to the city in silence. Everybody had hoped Gravity had been wrong.

When they got back into the apartment Delmar immediately shifted back into his wolf form and threw himself onto the sofa. Gravity had a no paws on the sofa policy but decided to let him be, the blue gray wolf seemed exhausted.

“So what did you get to know?” Gravity asked and sat down beside Delmar where he lay on the sofa. Delmar sighed.

“His mind was so weird, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. He seems to have been a part of the electrical faction. I don’t know what he was doing there, it’s not like he has any electrical powers. Also, his name seems to be Wilfred. I didn’t catch his last name though. He seems to have been an electrical agent quieting down shifters who got a bit too much attention. He seems very puzzled about his powers and why no one cared about them. But there is something wrong with some of his memories. I’m not sure what, some of them seem perfectly ordered and normal and others are all over the place. Some parts of his mind are so perfect it almost seems fabricated while other parts are so chaotic it made me ill. I’ve been told I’m crazy and insane, I’m nothing compared to that guy…”

“And his powers?” Gravity asked.

“It's just as you said, he creates some kind of energy that sucks everything into nothing. I don't know if you've seen the craters he’s created?”

“Yes, I have seen them… Did you see if he has any plans or anything about the other black shifters?”

“No, sorry, I had to flee the place before I'd started to look into that.”

“So, what now?” Neutron asked.

“It seems like we should have a talk with Electrical.” Radiation answered.