It began with my brother and I having a fight. Not an argument, more like a power battle. We can both control elements of light. We don't have the same ability but we both counter each other so it's good to work off. My brother AJ has anger issues too so it's a good outlet to release emotion. He can control and emit light, which is very powerful. He can use the light around him to power his ability and the beams he emits can knock you back quite violently. I however can manipulate darkness. I can absorb the light into shadows which grow from behind me and I can turn them into solid shade that can slice objects and block light. I can also emit dark light creating pockets of darkness to those that enter. Everything I chuck at him can't touch his light, but everything he chucks at me is absorbed into darkness. So we have to use our abilities creatively to gain the upper hand.
We practice in an abandoned steel factory. For some reason no one wants to buy the land so we spend most of our days here. Our parents died not too long ago and the foster system wasn't helpful especially with our abilities. Our younger brother JJ is fine, he lives with a family a few streets away and we make do in the factory. He often comes to help with strategy around our abilities. He's clever and we're glad he has a home.
Anyway, AJ and I were having a battle. A "Save the President" game where JJ sits on top of a crane and we have to save him from the other brother who is likely to be a spy trying to kidnap him. I was using old boxes to block his light so I could create shadows closer to him in attempt to slice his legs. Any slice would hurt, disable and distract him as he needs to use his light to heal himself. Yeah, he has that too! A few slices in the ankles caught him off guard. I push a wall of shadow into the crane and caught JJ as he fell. I had to get back to base to win but a bullet of light hit my shoulder and I fell with JJ in arms across the ground. I got up as quickly as I could and went to grab JJ but he had gone. I pulled in shadows from around me to find his location but I could only feel boxes and a faint AJ as usual (as a beacon he doesn't give off many shadows). I built shadow walls around AJ to remove the light source and pulled my shadows in again. JJ wasn't there. I pulled back the walls as AJ leapt through and raised my hands in submission.
"You win! I don't know what you did, but you win"
"What? Why?"
"I can't find him. You took him and I have no idea how you're hiding him from me!"
"TJ, you cut me, I healed, then you trapped me in a box. I haven't been anywhere near him since you took him!"
"What?"
"Is this some stupid tactic to get me to surrender?" His hands started to glow bright, charging for a beam of light to blast at me.
"No I'm confused. I can't find him. I can't feel his shadows." I started to cloud my hands in darkness, ready for his beams to hit me. Suddenly he sent them early and in reaction I burst solid shade blocks from my hands to block.
"WHERE IS HE?!" The anger was building, JJ was better at calming him down than I, but I could keep blocking him until he wore out.
"I'll find him, just stop hitting me" He shot his beams skyward, tearing through brick and glass to burst and shatter. I created an umbrella of shade above me and caught the debris. A shard of glass caught AJ's cheek. "You're bleeding."
"I'm fine. FIND HIM!"
I closed my eyes and summoned all the shadows in the factory. I could feel the layout to the building across my skin. I opened my eyes, black, like a dolls eyes. I looked out could see through walls and floors. Out past the building, I could see the shadows. It was like looking at blueprints but only the shadows were visible. I could see people walking down the road but none took JJ's face. He wasn't here. He couldn't have got far. He was gone.
"He's not anywhere" I said, returning my eyes to normal. It took a lot of energy summoning that many shadows to reveal to me and I couldn't focus anymore. I dropped to my knees as beams of light shot into the ground and a bright light shone in front of me. AJ burst through the roof and flew away and he was gone too.