The world stretched and twisted around Abigail like warm taffy. She was used to this sensation - the brief moment between here and there, the fuzzy edges of reality as her power carried her through space. Usually, it lasted just a fraction of a second.
This time was different.
The stretching continued, longer than it should. Colours blurred and mixed like wet paint, and Abigail felt Riley's grip on her arm tighten to the point of pain. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
A force yanked at them, not the usual gentle pull of their destination but something violent and hungry. It felt like being caught in a riptide, if the ocean was made of static electricity and broken glass. Abigail tried to scream, but no sound came out - there was no air here, in this stretched-out moment between spaces.
Riley's fingers dug deeper into her flesh. Through the kaleidoscope of warped reality, Abigail caught a glimpse of her friend's face - eyes wide with terror, mouth open in a silent scream. They were being pulled off course, away from New York, away from any place they knew.
The stretching sensation snapped like an overstretched rubber band.
Suddenly, they were falling.
Real air rushed past them, cold and sharp in Abigail's lungs. The night sky spun above them, stars wheeling like a time-lapse video. Far below, dark shapes that might have been trees rushed up to meet them.
"Riley!" Abigail managed to scream. The wind tore the word away.
The ground was getting closer. Abigail could make out individual trees now, their tops silvered by moonlight. They were falling into what looked like a ravine, a deep gash in the earth bordered by steep rock faces. In the darkness, she couldn't tell how deep it was. Riley was still holding on to her, but her grip was loosening with every second they barrelled towards the ground.
A massive shape loomed in the darkness - some kind of cliff or mountain. Abigail caught a glimpse of what looked like an enormous face carved in stone, but that couldn't be right. They were spinning too fast to be sure of anything.
The trees were right below them now. Abigail closed her eyes and tried one last desperate teleport. Nothing. Riley's hand squeezed hers so tight it hurt.
They crashed through the canopy. Branches whipped at them, slowing their fall but leaving stinging cuts everywhere. Abigail felt Riley's hand tear away from hers. She tumbled through layers of leaves and wood, each impact driving the air from her lungs.
The last thing she remembered was a final branch giving way beneath her, and then the ground rising up to meet her with terrible finality.
Darkness.
The first thing that Abby felt when she regained consciousness was pain. A burning, a throbbing, a pounding, and the ensemble would of course not be complete without a pounding headache.
Then, the sounds arrived. The wind shaking the trees, the pouring rain on a wooden roof. She tried to open her eyes, but could only manage a slight flutter. She tried to get a feel for her environment through the pain - she was definitely lying on a bed of sorts. Maybe she was in the hospital.
"She's waking up," a young boy's voice said. "And she's in a lot of pain."
"How much?" A girl's voice asked. Someone had found them. Bad, bad, not good, she thought. Where was Riley? Was she even alive?
"At least a six. Maybe a seven." A pause, and someone stepped closer to her. "And she wants to know if Riley is alive. I guess that's the other girl's name?"
"What did I say about reading other people's minds, JP?"
"You know I can't help it."
"Look, just... give us some space. Go over to Jake or something."
A sigh, the opening of a door, and footsteps leaving. Abby tried to open her eyes again. This time, it worked - she was looking up at a wooden ceiling, lit by dim fairy lights. She was indeed lying on a bed, a makeshift one from pillows and cardboard, but a bed nonetheless.
She tried to look for the source of the voice. She found it sitting on the ground next to her - a girl, maybe seventeen years old at most, but what looked to be almost twice as tall and wide as her. Her arms and chest were muscular, and she looked like she could bench press a semi if she wanted to - but her face was kind. Her warm brown skin projected a sort of warm radiance into the room, and she had dark red short hair with buzzed sides. Abby opened her mouth, tried to talk, but it felt like someone was stabbing her with a thousand needles directly in the throat.
"Don't try to talk. You're injured, but you're safe." She handed Abby a cup of water and helped her drink. "I'm Sadie, and you're among friends."
The water helped to soothe the pain, even if not by much. At least she managed to croak out a single word. "Riley?"
"She's alive. But she hasn't woken up yet. Her injuries are a lot worse than yours. Marigold is with her."
She could do another word, even if moving hurt and talking hurt even more. "Where...?"
"All things considered, you're pretty lucky. You're in South Dakota. Black Hills."
Abigail laid back down. No way that was where Riley had intended to go.
"I know this is all confusing to you right now, but you're safe. We know you can teleport."
A new feeling joined the throbbing pain - panic. How did they know? Did Riley know these people? Did she find other empowered teens and reach out to them? Before she could try and ask any more questions, a new person entered the room. She was around Abby's age if she had to guess, and wore her long dirty blonde hair in braids, with green accents. She was wearing a long hoodie, so long she had to hike up the sleeves. She looked tired and sick, with black circles underneath her eyes and a runny nose.
"Ah. You're awake." She said, sniffling. "Scale of one to ten, how horrible do you feel?"
"Eight?" Abby coughed.
"To be-" A sneeze shook her. "To be expected."
"That's Marigold." Abby drank a little more of the water, and could finally speak again.
"How do you know about my-"
"Your powers? We all have them. But more specifically, JP can read minds, and that's how we know about you."
Abby laid back down on her bed again. "This is... a lot."
"Yeah, that was my experience too" Marigold said and sat down next to Abby on the floor. "And I didn't even fall out of the sky mid-teleport." She put her hands over Abby's chest, hovering maybe three inches or so above her.
"What are you doing?"
"My powers allow me control life" Marigold explains. "Specifically, plants. But I do have minor healing abilities, so I'm trying to make you a little more comfortable." She sneezed again, but took care not to do it in Abby's face.
"Are you sick?"
"Allergies. I'm allergic to the plants I grow."
"That's... kinda funny."
"Not to me." She sniffed again, and a gentle glow emanated from her hands. The pain went down - not away, but enough to be bothersome. "Better?" Abby nodded. "Yeah, thank me later."
Suddenly, the three girls heard a shout from outside - Riley, definitely. Abby got up from the bed, her ribs still hurting a little but not enough to make moving impossible, and followed Sadie and Marigold outside.
Her head spun when she realised how far up she was. The cabin she'd woken up in was just one node in a network of treehouses, connected through rope bridges and wooden pathways. There must've been ten or twelve of them, and the one she was in was one of the smaller ones.
Sadie opened the door to one of the smaller treehouses and let them inside. There, Riley was lying on a mattress, much nicer than what Abby had woken up on. "Get out of my head!" She shouted at the boy standing in the other corner.
"Don't worry, Riley! We're friends here, we all have superpowers, and you're safe here and- see, you're thinking of Abby, and she's doing pretty well all things considered, and-"
"JP, stop reading her mind." Sadie sighed and picked him up with one arm, carrying him to the door. "You're freaking her out."
"What the hell is happening here" Riley panted, holding her chest in pain. "Where am I?"
Sadie kneeled down next to her. "You're safe, and you're among friends. JP gets a little overeager, but he was telling the truth." Riley's gaze fell on Abby, who was standing in the doorframe, next to Marigold.
"Abby? How did we get here?"
"We... fell."
"What do you mean, we fell?" She groaned as she tried to sit up. Marigold already kneeled beside her and started using her healing powers.
"I mean, we fell out of the sky, mid teleport. Where were you even trying to go?"
"New York" she answered, sheepishly. "Also, what is she doing?"
"She" Marigold said, a little annoyed, sniffling, "is trying to put your broken ribs back together. Hold still, damn it."
"New York? What's there?"
"It's the furthest away place I've been so far. If I had went to Europe, I'd have tried to teleport us there."
"I'm glad you crash landed here instead of the Atlantic" Sadie said. "You can stay here. As long as you want, no strings attached."
"We're leaving as soon as possible. We can't stay." Riley said and tried to sit up again, but Marigold pushed her back down.
"You're not teleporting anywhere in this condition," she said and wiped away the mucus from her nose. "You might be able to walk tomorrow, if I stay up all night, but at that point I haven't even touched your bruises, your cuts, scrapes, and we can't rule a concussion out either."
"You don't understand. We don't have a choice, we're... on the run."
"So is everyone here." Sadie said. "That's why we stick together."
A question formed in Abby's mind. The treehouse complex seemed to be large, and so far she'd only seen three other people. "Who's we? How many are there?"
"Used to be almost twenty. But with you, we're down to seven. You two, Mari, JP, Autumn, Jacob and myself." She didn't explain what used to be was supposed to mean, but that didn't bother Abby for the moment. All that counted was that she was safe. "Plenty of treehouses for you two. So, what do you say?"
The sun was slowly rising, the first sun rays hitting the cliff face the treehouses were supported against. Four enormous stone faces slowly revealed themselves, bathed in the orange glow of first light. "I... sure. Thanks."
"Great." Sadie said, relief audible in her voice. "Welcome to the Mount Rushmore Superhero Camp."