Episode 2.5: After the End, but Before the Beginning

welian · Aug 11, 2016

Spyfall… Spooky Scary Skeletons… Flight of the Vallkyries… Party in the CIA... and Angel with a Shotgun. Long ago, the five scenes progressed together in harmony.

Then everything changed when the timeskip attacked. Only the game master, master of all five plots could stop it. But when the roleplay needed her most, the site updated.

A week has passed, and the players have discovered a new thread, titled Episode 2.5.

Although the thread’s potential is great, there’s a lot to post before the next scene premieres. But I believe Episode 2.5 can continue the roleplay.

Please continue the Five-way Fiasco scenes in this thread, presenting them as flashbacks.

TerraBooma · Aug 14, 2016

PARTY IN THE CIA

Collaboration Part 1

“Ughhh…” The shouting, the noises – the director slowly raised her head, after several seconds of unconsciousness. Two young girls were by her side. Scarlet blinked, and stared at them. Her eyes widened in recognition – this was the girl she had just bumped into! And the other a student, a –

“You need... to run...” she told Jamie and Marianne, but her voice was lost to her own ears, still ringing horribly from what had apparently been a stun grenade. A bit of blood stained her blouse, where an emptied dart pinned the fabric to her skin.

“I’d listen to her if I were you.” The drawling suggestion came from one of the Knights, passing unimpeded through the smoke thanks to his mask and goggles. He approached the women, a heavy and sinister-looking rifle pointed down at the pavement.

“I’m a southern gentleman, so I’ll be real nice. If you listen to your elders and run, I won’t shoot.”

“Of course you won't.” Jamie grinned, a malicious rictus on her face, while Mary narrowed her eyes at the cowboy soldier statement. ‘I won't shoot’. Obviously, he was trustworthy enough to keep his promise of not shooting them after their back were turned.

Like hell anyone could believe that.

Jamie was only just about to make her move, when the sound of shattering glass made her flinch. Mary tried to look up, but the angle of the portal prevent her from seeing anything. The knight looked up as well.

“What the he-”

“Uh… Borrow what?”

“Your filing cabinet. I’m pointing to it, dude.”

“Y-you can’t-”

Chris ripped the two middle drawers out of the box and tossed them somewhere out of the way, then planted his feet, grabbed the cabinet, and swung it across the floor, making a horrific screeching noise. “EVERYBODYMOVE!” he began to run with it towards the window, shoving it as if breaking in a door as it hit the plate glass, making sure the moment after to grab one of the handles.

The heavy metal (heh) plummeted along its trajectory towards the unknown assailant, and Chris held his body straight up and down towards the ground. As he landed, he brought himself down and into the fetal position in the center of the cabinet, the area with the most give. That, plus the ‘cushioning’ directly underneath the box minimized injury, though it didn’t perfectly negate it. His leg still hurt from his fucking super test.

That said, whoever it was that fell victim to his ambush wasn’t having so rosy a time of this roller coaster as he was, judging from the sound of cracking bones, dented armor, and screams..

The two girls watched the filing cabinet land, smashing into the cowboy wannabe. Mary jaw's drop at the sight, while Jamie waved away the dust, and, without missing a beat, made a single comment.

“Guess he’s not coming out of that closet any time soon.”

Just for safety’s sake, she pulled on her tether, teleporting the cowboy’s gun into her hands. She almost collapsed under the weight. It wasn't as easy as the movies made it out to be.

Gus · Aug 14, 2016

Aaron Mallory

Location: Hospital room

Nearby: Eve

Mood: Heavy heart

@s @Aldur

Aaron sighed as if the weight of the whole world was on his shoulders. That his shoulders weighed more than the world did was an irony that his therapist had pointed out to him on more than one occasion, but after today's events, it did nothing to make him feel better. He was sitting by Eve Knox's hospital bed, keeping vigil. It was way past visiting hours, but nobody seemed to notice him sitting in the corner. As usually happened to him, if he just sat quietly, people looked right past him. Anyway, it wasn't as if they could move him if they tried, and there was no sense in him going home at this point. It was nearly midnight, and by the time he got there, he'd just have to turn around and walk back in order to make it on time for the student funeral. Not likely to get any sleep tonight in any case, so the very least he could do was keep watch over his colleague. He wasn't much use for anything else, obviously. The only reason he had refrained from proffering his resignation to Director Swan immediately was that Eve was in no condition to teach class in the near term, and he couldn't imagine abandoning his post without coverage.

“You need to get well soon, Eve,” he said aloud.

The monitors continued their monotonous beeping and blipping; whatever they had her on, she was out for the count. He sighed again. Therapy wasn't until Thursday night, though Lisa would probably make time for him if he asked. Then again, there were probably a lot of folks needing therapy right now, and it wasn't as if he had any clear idea what to say. Better not to waste her time. Best to find some way to handle it himself. He spoke aloud again, surprising himself. Once he began, he found it hard to stop.

“You should be teaching the class, Eve, not me. My time is long over and done with. I'm a dinosaur. The lessons that took me a decade to learn are two decades out of date, or more. I screwed up so bad today I don't even know where to begin to fix it. I thought I had a bead on things, just for a little while. I gave 'em a question, and then I shut up and let them talk. It's not like I know anything or anything, so listening seemed a good tack to take. I don't understand the way kids think anymore, but I thought maybe I could learn if I could keep them talking, you know?

“But then when it was time for action, all I could think was that I wanted everybody to be ok. I thought that was what being a hero meant: keeping people safe. Everybody. Is that crazy? To try to save everyone? This morning it seemed achievable. Now it seems like a pipe dream. Trying to protect Avecca got Esther hurt, and it was totally my fault. Didn't stop to talk to Ioana before I bustled her off to the clinic. If I had, I'd have known she had charge accumulators in her suit. I'd have known she tried to download school files for the terrorists and then tried to kill Ioana while trying to escape. I'd have known she was dangerous, and maybe treated her the way she deserved to be treated. But I didn't. I was so focused on finessing the situation that I let a normal get hurt. A normal nurse, old enough to be a grandmother, who was just trying to help. If I had just stopped to listen maybe I'd have tossed that pasty white snoop into a basement cell in the first place, and there'd be one less person in the hospital tonight.

“Everybody knows it too. When she tasered that poor old woman, I panicked. Totally lost my cool. Smashed the spy between the two clinic beds and twisted the frames into a pretzel with her inside. Could have broken her in half, or suffocated her, and the fact I didn't is just down to dumb luck. Everybody heard me yelling and came running in, saw the whole thing. Saw me out of control. Saw their school nurse on the ground, twitching.” “DeKlerk got her squared away, like the consummate professional he is. Morgan held the door to the basement for me, stopped me having to knock a hole in it with Avecca's makeshift prison, and look even more like an incompetent jerk. For a minute I thought the worst was over, but it just wasn't that kind of day was it?”

Aaron paused, reflecting back on the royal chewing out Alexis had given him as he stuffed the spy into a proper cell, mattresses and all. Every word of it was burned into his brain, because every word of it was true. He had shown more concern for the intruder than he had for his students. Having them turn off their limiters had been rash and irresponsible. Their restraint in pursuit of Avecca had not been practiced, but desperate. They had not been hurt, but they surely could have been! He had left them to watch a complete unknown, a wild card who apparently had enough charge to have triggered at least two potential cardiac events. Dumb luck alone had protected them. And worst of all, when they had looked to him for reassurances, he had taken their quarry and walked away. Left them thinking he didn't care about any of them, trying to present his idea of the perfect hero. Thirty seven years with more power at his disposal than any other being on earth, and he still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing with it.

“The thing is Eve, I am so afraid of my own strength. I have so much potential to cause collateral damage, that I can't for the life of me see when a little bit is an acceptable consequence. If I overuse my powers, the world could break. If I hesitate to use them, people get hurt. I can't seem to see the forest for all the trees in the way. All I know is that I did my students a lot of damage today. Damage I don't know how to repair. And I know: in the context of the rest of the day, it seems like small potatoes. But all the violence we have seen today just drives the point home for me. I am not cut out for this life. I don't know how to deal with any of this stuff. And I don't know how these children are going to learn about collateral damage from me if I am too afraid let them experience any, and apparently too stupid to recognize their need for good counsel when they have. To be honest, I don't think I can do this for much longer, Eve. I feel like a total fraud.”

ManicMuse · Aug 14, 2016

Isabella Chase

Izzy

Location: Home > Ceiling

@:

Mood: Blahhhh

A few stray rays of sunlight trickled in through the blinds every time the fan passed by on its rotation. Richard had insisted on placing every blanket they owned on Izzy when they had gotten home, the fan did not offer much relief. Rolling over, still hidden under a pile of blankets, Izzy's pale blue eyes flickered open. It took a few moments for the time on the alarm clock to become readable. It was 10 o'clock in the morning, she had not been awoken by the blaring alarm, as was the norm. A thermometer and a bottle of decongestant sat to the right of the clock on the nightstand.

Slowly sitting up, Izzy opened the bottle of cold medicine and took a few swigs. It was most likely more than the recommended dose, but it was still the children's brand. Talk about demeaning, almost a teen and still on the kids crap, because she was so small. Turning around Izzy grabbed her favorite blanket and draped it around her head and shoulders. Tip toeing over to the closet, she carefully dug out a pair of mouse shaped slippers.

A piece of yarn, representing a tail on each slipper, flickered about with every step, trailed by yards of blanket that hung down to the floor. Izzy crept out into the living area. The flat screen mounded to the wall was already on, but her father was nowhere to be seen. After grabbing a glass of apple juice to try and sooth her throat, Izzy curled up on the couch. Both mousy slipper hung over the arm rest, appearing to be keeping watch.

A female news reporter, wearing far too much blush, was on the tv screen. She seemed to over enunciate every word, making Izzy's head throb with every attempt to listen. Different pictures and video of destruction around the city were being shown. They were urging people to not go outside or travel unless it was necessary.

Taking that medicine on an empty stomach might not have been such a good idea. Izzy could feel it go straight to her head. Laying down on the couch, she closed her eyes and listened to the obnoxious reporter, with the over highlighted cheek bones, droning on.

It did not take long before the events of Saturday came back, playing out like a movie in her drowsy mind.

It had been hard enough, just trying to get along with those other kids at the Facility, but then things had gotten so weird, so fast. The girl with the amazing cool outfit falling through the ceiling. The evil teacher with the loud guitar. Almost killing that spider girl, after launching herself at Mr. Mallory! Then to make matters worse, that water from the sprinklers and the cold snow. That was probably how she got this awful cold. At least Hannah had been kind enough to offer a towel, once Mr. DeKlerk had ushered them to the clinic. That towel was wonderful, and plush. Mmmmm, like the blankets.

Izzy had been quick to find a corner as to huddle up in and hide before drying off. The damage from the last visit to the clinic was still quite evident and Izzy had no plans to recreate that chaos. Instead, she had a date with her lunchbox.

In fact, she had only just bitten into a carrot coated with hummus, when the poor nurse went down for the count, just a few feet from where she was hiding. Peeking up over the top of a medical supply cart, she watched as Aaron squished the pale girl in between two beds. It was a big shock, he seemed mad. After everything that had happened, Izzy did not think he could get mad. That strange girl must have been the cause of the nurse's condition, it had been hard to tell with all the yelling and mashing of metal. Just as Mr. Mallory started to leave the room with the girl incapacitated in her mattress cage, a small metal gizmo toppled out and onto the floor.

At first, she thought to speak up and tell the teacher but nothing came out of her mouth. He had seemed so angry, she really did not want to risk making it worse. After a moments pause, a mischievous Cheshire smirk had appeared on Izzy's face. With the nurse still twitching occasionally only a foot away, Izzy crawled out from behind the supply cart. A thin spindly white tail flickering around in the air, the rest of Izzy's body glued down inches from the floor while she scrambled over snatched the treasure up and disappeared back behind the medical cart.

Isabella the thief, happily ate the rest of her lunch in peace before hiding, what appeared to be a compact grappling hook attached to a cable system, into her lunchbox. Mr. DeKlerk was still trying to bring the nurse around when Izzy scampered off to join the other students.

The sound of Richard walking down the hallway, talking on his cell phone caused Izzy to stir. Sitting up, she watched from the couch as her dad wrote out a note, then grab a set of car keys, his wallet and disappear out the door. After the house fell silent again, she walked over and inspected the note.

Had to run to the office, be back soon. Chicken rice soup in the fridge. xoxo -Dad

Rolling her eyes, Izzy snatched a cupcake, she was not suppose to know about, before heading back to her room. With frosting coating the corner of her mouth, carefully she pulled a box out from under the bed. There in the old shoe box, sat the newest addition to her collection. Carefully picking up the device, she poked at the frayed wires. Then an idea struck.

Thirty minutes seemed to go by in a flash. Disassembled fan parts lay scattered across the bedroom floor. Izzy stood with the gizmo in hand and a finger on the light switch.

Flick. Nothing happened.

Izzy peered down at the grappling hook and huffed. Giving a firm smack to the side, the unmistakable sound of a piston firing off, hissed from within. The grappling hook flew up, nicking her ear in the process. No sooner did the arrow head embed its self in the bedroom ceiling, did the mini gears inside the box start to turn, reeling in the cable. Izzy clung to the box with both hands. Suddenly, she was dangling from the ceiling of her bedroom.

"This is AWESOME!"

Then, the front door of the condo opened, "Izzy I'm home!"

"Uh-oh."

ManicMuse · Aug 15, 2016

"Gavin."

"Gavin, are you still with us buddy?"

"Huh, what? Uh, yeah sorry," he brushed a few stray hairs out of his face. Plaster, wood chips and blood still clung to him from head to toe. His gaze was locked on the scene before him. Dozens of people, packed into an already over flowing Emergency room. One of the nurses could tell, he was using watching to avoid the current situation before him. Coming around from behind the gurney, she pulled closed the curtain, using it as a poor illusion of privacy.

"Gavin, what I am saying is, you seem to have a minor concussion. Your ear drum appears intact but you may hear some ringing over the next few days to weeks. We have re-stitched your shoulder. I am going to give you some pills to help you calm down a bit. I also am referring you to someone," the doctor paused and cleared his throat, "someone you can talk to, about what happened."

"Yeah, okay."

The doctor removed his rubber gloves and ticked off a few more boxes on the screen of his computer. "Oh, almost forgot. You are going to need to be on an antibiotic for a couple weeks until those wounds close up."

"OK, doc."

Gavin was clearly still in shock. His mothers on the other hand, were in a panic over everything that had happened to him. Even as the doctor began to leave, he was quickly followed by both of them and their few hundred questions. The nurse gave Gavin a few pills with a dixie cup of water before chasing after them, to help grapple the onslaught of questions.

Gavin peered down at the handful of pills, considering not taking them. However, as if on cue, the throbbing in his shoulder was starting to return. Whatever, they had used to numb it for the stitches, was wearing off.

"Down the rabbit hole I go.", with that he plopped the pills into his mouth. The bitter tang caused his tongue to tingle. Washing it away with the bit of water from the cup, his fingers crumpled the paper and tossed it toward the nearest bin. It missed, instead the cup went skating across the floor, out into the great behind, that lay behind the curtain.

Gavin pretended to entertain the idea of staying put, doing like they wanted. Then he was on his feet, pushing past the curtain of false privacy. His feet still were having trouble doing what he told them. Stumbling at first, he caught himself just before falling into a elderly woman. She was laid out on a stretcher with gauze soaked in blood covering half of her face. The part left exposed wore an unwavering expression of terror. Gavin closed his eyes for a moment trying to collect his thoughts, instead all he saw were the mangled bodies, body bags and flat lining heart monitors.

The woman before him looked how he felt. Gavin reached down and grabbed her hand, squeezing it firmly. His mind went blank for a moment, then he just opened his mouth and said what he wanted to hear, "It is going to be okay. Today was a horrid day and monstrous people did these things to hurt a lot of people. However, heroes walk among us and they are going to protect us. You don't have to be afraid."

Whether is was the human contact or his words, the woman seem to calm a little. She even returned the hand squeeze with a little one of her own. As a pair of nurses came rushing up and began to prep her, it appeared she was going up to another wing for surgery. Gavin backed up and went on his way.

Be it the pills or the concussion, time seemed to be skipping around on him. He suddenly found himself in the cafeteria of the hospital. A bowl of half melted soft serve, topped with way too many candies to be respectable sat in front of him. Based on the gooey feeling of his teeth, he had already been working on devouring it. Watching the hot fudge as it slowly collapsed down the mountain of ice cream, the boy could not help but remember.

Leaning back in the cheap plastic chair, the pain in his ribs and stomach were a reminder of the men that had held him down, after they all had been ushered into the holding area. All of them sheep, cowering and sitting down without question.

"Maybe if I had stood up and spoken out! If I had told them to shove it up there - don't be stupid, they would have killed you dead, just like that poor girl...and all those people."

The older man covering the girl's corpse flashed before his eyes. The bombs going off all around and the screams echoed in his mind.

Gavin stopped, reached up and felt his face was damp, he had been crying. Quickly, wiping away the tears, he went to stand only to realize he was now in the car on the way home with his parents. Geez, he must have hit his head harder than he thought. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against the window, the chill of it felt good on his swollen jaw. When had he hit his head anyways?

There had been the guys holding him down, then the man covering the dead girl. He remembered trying to help some girl as they stood next to a pillar. Then...

A man had helped bind his shoulder wound so that it stopped blooding as much. Gavin had stayed at the pillar, until a few of the supers had scared off the last of the terrorists. One of the supers caught up in the fight looked really bad, near dead, her face had been nothing but a mess of mangled flesh, soft tissue, bone and blood. Someone had been trying to help her when he decided to try and make run for it with a group of other stragglers. They all had tried to take the long way around, avoid any booby traps that might have been outside. The group had made it, too.

He had felt so relieved to feel the sting of cold air in his lungs again. However, as he had rounded the corner, all sense of relief had left him. The booms that had been outside the building were just what they had feared. They had been directed at those fleeing after the initial attack. Men, woman and child were screaming and yelling over the wailing of sirens. Police and emergency services were already on scene but outnumbered to say the least. That is when he saw him, the guy who had been sitting on his chest. The guy had been an asshole but probably saved his life because of it. A fireman was struggling with the jerk, trying to tie something off. Out of instinct Gavin ran over, "What do you need me to do?"

The fireman looked confused at first but a fresh wave of blood erupting from an artery seemed to get him back on track. "I need you to hold him down. If I don't get this tourniquet on his leg right now, he is going to bleed out."

The guy was between them both, at this point hollowing, about the idea of Gavin laying a finger on him. They both ignored him and Gavin tossed all of his body weight on the guys chest, effectively pinning both arms. It would have been a great moment to reflect on irony and context but sadly, the moment was lost on them. Just as the fireman was giving the all clear, Gavin climbed to his feet and looked down at the would be bully, "You're welcome!"

Boom!

A delayed blast erupted to their right. Before Gavin could even raise his hands in a defensive manner the fireman tackled him, using his own body as a shield. The pair of them went down hard, right for the pavement and then darkness.

Coming to on a stretcher a few blocks away from the mall. They had set up a triage field center and Gavin was in the middle of it with a freshly sown up shoulder. However, he did not stay down long. It might have been the knock to his head or maybe it was just who he was, either way, Gavin bugged every single person he could find, until they finally started letting him help. It might have been grunt work, but at least he was doing something. Moving body bags to clearing down a bed after a trauma, he just kept moving, staying busy. Doing whatever it took to not think about what was happening.

"Gavin, honey. The water has to be cold." Gavin opened his eyes, finding himself in the shower. The water was indeed cold. He was not sure how much time had gone by since the car ride home. Climbing out of the shower he pulled on some boxers, backwards but whatever. Sara had been waiting for him the second he walked about of the bathroom with his favorite teddy bear and a blanket, guiding him to the couch. Susan had tea waiting for him at the couch along with his favorite show, Project Super Model.

They both left him to his show but he could still feel both of them watching him from the kitchen. After downing the tea, Gavin wanted to try and piece together the rest of what had happened. However, he soon found himself lost in a dreamland version of Project Super Model, were he actually had super powers too. Sleep finally took hold for good just as the sun was starting to rise on the Sunday after the day, the world changed for forever for Gavin Dabbs.

Gus · Aug 15, 2016

Flight of the Valkyries Flashback Post

Water sprayed across the parking lot, rinsing oily black goo off of cars, people, and dead birds alike. Most of the water flowed away down the storm drains, but due to imperfect sloping puddles formed. Some of the puddles extended outward, underneath the cars, reaching toward the edge of the lot, toward the one remaining hot power-line. Nobody heard it crackling and spitting quietly to itself, waiting to be shown an easier path to spread. The puddle crept closer.

Electric charges behave a lot like microscopic people who hate each other with a burning passion. Given the slightest chance, they will flee from each others' presence at very nearly the speed of light, trampling over anyone or anything that stands between them and the open range. The easier the path, the greater the flood, and the more damage that they can do as they pass. Water, in it's pure form, is actually a lousy conductor, being polarized and not ionic. Small comfort to those standing in the puddle, however; almost any contaminant, but most especially salts (such as those used in deicing parking lots) render it one of the best conductors possible at room temperature. As the puddle reached the outermost edges of the electric field surrounding the downed wire, electrons begin to skitter away between the water molecules, bouncing from ion to ion like demented escapees from a side scrolling video game. One could almost imagine their delight in escaping from their neighbors. Their isolation was short lived however, as their migration precipitated a mass cascade, a stampede of terrible power, the more deadly for its invisibility. Unthinking, unfeeling, like a band of murderous sociopaths, they sped toward the oblivious bipeds standing in their puddle; they had slipped their harnesses, and now they would exact their revenge for a century of slavery!

A split second after the charge had begun however, a curious thing happened. A reconciliation. Impossibly, 14 billion years of prejudice and mutual suspicion simply faded away, replaced by a sort of mutual curiosity. A hunger for contact and cooperation stopped the advancing horde in its tracks, reversing their flow, and bringing them back together. In the blink of an eye, they zipped back up the copper wire from whence they had fled, swelling their ranks as they went, recruiting newcomers to their new grand vision of strength through unity and mutual trust. In the blink of an eye, they were all gone, vanished into the endless maze of cables of Baltimore and beyond; a new thing under the sun, less murderous, but perhaps equally terrible.

Captain Hesperus · Aug 16, 2016

Flight of the Valkyries Flashback (Danny)

Russ got the car door open and Danny got in without argument. The door slammed shut and, after a brief pause while his big brother excused himself to the senior cop on the scene, Russ got in and started to drive. The police band radio was alive with chatter, ambulances had been routed from across Baltimore and even from neighboring districts of Maryland to attend the mass casualties that were being reported at Owen Mills and the Commonwealth HQ. Of course, there'd been casualties at the zoo, but, apart from the electrical kid, they'd been non-fatal.

The thought of that suddenly made Danny feel nauseous. He'd not known Lucas, barely brushed shoulders with him at the Facility, and he was kind of glad he'd not seen him at the end. The haunted expression on Victoria's face after she'd seen him was enough.

Dead.

Dead because of another rogue Super. But this time Danny had been there. And he'd not been able to prevent it.

He clenched his jaw and fought with the upwelling of emotion in his chest. He was suddenly aware that his face was damp, and he dashed the tears away with the cuff of his t-shirt sleeve. Of course he didn't have his hoodie. He'd dropped it on the ladder when he'd hauled Victoria out of the gunk on the parking lot. And his backpack was gone too. Victoria and.... Tabby, or something?, had it. Shit.

The police radio trilled a strange signal and a new voice cut in. It was an older man declaring himself to be Colonel Francis MacCollough of the Maryland National Guard and that he and his men were moving in to assist with the casualty recovery and law enforcement needs of the city. Even as he spoke on the radio, Danny and Russ watched as a column of camouflaged military trucks rushed through the streets, their open rears revealing National Guardsmen in full BDUs peering out that the snow-strewn streets. A squadron of military helicopters flew overhead, the dull thump of their rotor downwash a bass counterpoint to the growls of the truck engines.

"I dunno what's happening to this city, Danny.", Russ said quietly, the first thing he'd said since getting into the car, "But whatever it is, I don't want you involved."

"Fuck that, I don't want to be involved either.", he replied, "I just went to the zoo to shovel shit and pick up trash or something and then the whole fucking world exploded. I was useless."

"That's trash-talk, right there.", his brother replied, "I know you. You might act like an a-hole, but you've got Dad's words branded on your heart, just like I do."

The mention of their fathers' parables and teachings struck Danny dumb. He remembered sitting in his dad's car alongside Russ, as their father drove and talked to them. Remember, while the Law says one thing, the laws you have to remain true to is the laws in your own heart. Justice comes from treating people humanely, regardless of how you feel about them or how they feel about you. Don't ever betray your own morality, boys.

Pulling up outside his mom's house, Danny could see her watching out the front window. By the time Russ let him out of the squad car, she was at the open door, waiting expectantly. Danny's heart lurched. He wanted to run away. He didn't want to be here. Russ's hand clapped on his shoulder and his brother gently pushed him forward.

"Come on, Mom said she'd run you a bath and have food ready for you by the time we got here."

"I don't need that shit."

"Shut up, stupid. Like it or not, you're staying here til the police and the National Guard have the city back in some sort of order."

"Then what?"

"Then we'll see how things pan out."

The two brothers mounted the steps at the front of the house and followed their mom inside, closing the door on the cold, dangerous world outside.

lazee · Aug 22, 2016

Previously on A.E.G.I.S.

What a day. What a horrible, horrible day. Now, Klaus always wished that he and his foster daughter would be faced with an event that would break the ice between the two and make their father-daughter bond stronger, but not like this. Not a fucking terrorist attack. As the dust settled around the ruins of the Baltimore Mall and assistance from multiple parties started to arrive at the scene, they found the idea of going home increasingly appealing. The rest of the Facility staff present and of course the local authorities and 911 would lend a much better helping hand than the two ever would. So home they went, unfortunately having to walk again.

The two strode at a slow pace, speechlessly, Klaus holding his daughter by the shoulder. Because what was there to talk about? It was imperative that Minah get that horrific event out of her head as soon as possible, Klaus decided, and talking about it was counter-productive in that regard. Where they walked, a group of crows flew close by, following them. There was so much going on in Minah's mind right now, causing worry amongst her 'subjects'. The birds didn't bother them much and so they let each other be. Police cars and ambulances passed on by in their walk. The attack probably sprung the entire city to action. He wasn't even sure Baltimore had ever seen such a heinous attack in its long and boring history.

A full hour of slow, awkward walking later and they were home at last; the coziest, two-floor apartment known to the vos Scheiffers. Klaus didn't even need to knock, Karina opened the door for them and greeted them both with a tearful (and tight) hug. He could see from the doorway Sherina in front of the TV watching the news. It was a heavenly thing to see her face shift from anxious to relieved when she saw her father and sister safe and sound. His wife, however...

"You two had us worried sick..." she muttered in between sobs, punching her husband's back. Minah, upon seeing her foster mother cry like that, naturally begun to cry also. Klaus just sighed and patted them both in back comfortingly.

"We've survived worse, love. Can you take care of dear Minah for me while I make some important phone calls?" Karina didn't need to be told twice. Immediately, she took her still-sobbing daughter to the second floor, going to give her a well-deserved herbal bath to soothe her nerves. Sherina sprung from the couch to give Klaus a quick hug before following her mother upstairs. Left alone in the living room, the German walked towards the windows, solemnly gazing at the Baltimore skyline. From here, he could see smoke from the mall, as well as emergency vehicles driving to and fro. The sun was high in the sky, as high as it could and should be in the afternoon. He managed to chuckle to himself, reminded of an oft-quoted line from a video game he used to play in his younger days.

But jokes needed to be set aside for now. There was much work to be done. Klaus went for the kitchen and used the wall phone, the least used phone and funnily enough the most secure line in the apartment. He dialed the one place that he was certain his voice was needed the most.

The Commonwealth Headquarters.

Warm water showered over Minah's shivering, naked form. The dust and dirt on her body and the dried tears and ruined makeup on her face were instantly purged. Showers like this never failed to calm her down. There was a sense of purity to it, having whatever is wrong with your body wiped clean. It was a complicated sensation to put into words, never mind how difficult it was for her to put simple thoughts to English words. Thankfully, here there was no need for words. Just her, her mother and water.

"It's okay, sweetheart, you're home and you're safe," her mother said from behind her as she cleaned her back. The sincere gentleness in her voice was just...it almost made Minah blow into tears again. This was her life now. So much had changed for her in just two years. Back in those terrible times in Aceh, she had nothing, but now she had the one thing she needed the most: family. Minah's crows could only provide so much company. The vos Scheiffers filled that gap. Only God knew the magnitude of gratitude she had, for how much her life just went so....right.

The shower had to end sometime. Mother dressed her up in a nice and fuzzy white bath robe and led her to her room. It was here that Minah slept here, shared with her foster sister Sherina and, on the rare occasion that he visited, brother Arya. Right now, however, she was alone in this empty room. Minah changed into more comfortable clothes, a white tank top and plaid pajama pants, and inched herself onto the bed. After this tiring day, she deserved a good nap to get away from it all. Laying serenely on her bed, her eyelids grew heavier and sleep came just that much closer...

Then she heard the sound of tapping on the window glass.

It sent her jumping instantly. The raven-haired raven girl rose from the super comfy position to check out what the hell just disturbed her rest. And outside the window, there was a crow. Minah heard his thoughts, poor bird was concerned for her and wanted to check on her. With a soft smile, she opened the window and let him in, putting up her hand so the crow could perch on it. This one was an old bird, he had plenty of weathered scars all over his body. The two went into 'conversation', trading thoughts in a way that only she could. The bird, apparently desiring to be called Rocky, expressed his concerns after he felt warning shocks coming from the mall. Minah assured her that she was alright now, but asked that he warn his fellow crows to be careful out there, as the threat of another attack still lingered.

In some semblance of an officer taking orders, the bird's posture straightened and he chirped in affirmation. Minah gave Rocky a quick kiss on his beak and allowed him to fly away to return to whatever crows' business were this time of day. If birds could smile, she knew that he would be positively grinning ear to ear right now. She supposed this was one of the perks of her powers. Birds, especially crows, idolized her. Queen of the Ravens. Not a bad title to be had, to be sure.

She closed the window and once again laid down on her bed, this time going into a proper sleep. Eyes shut, she anxiously anticipated the nightmares to come...but it didn't.

And Minah could not be resting any more peacefully than she was now.

yoikes · Aug 23, 2016

Mitch Castle

Location: Her apartment

Mood: Drained

Tags: N/A

Mitch sat on the floor, holding a turned on hair dryer in her hand and a couple of mostly dried Political Power related books laid down on the floor while contemplating how many bad things could happen in the city all in one day and all at once. She thought such thing could only happen in fictional stories, to progress the plot. Her train of thoughts distracted, as she turned off her hair dryer and touched the pages of the book, carefully turning it one by one. It's dry enough. Satisfied, she smiled and closed both of the books and moved them to on top of a table. Then she stood up and look for something to eat and unsurprisingly found nothing. She's too exhausted and occupied to stop by to buy some ingredients to cook a simple porridge or a takeaway. Sighing, she reached for her phone and ordered pizza. A large carnivore pizza, 8 slices all for her with a healthy salad to counter all that calories.

While waiting, she turned on the TV and sat on the couch. She did not really pay attention to the movie, however. Her mind wandered off on it's own like it oftenly did. First, she thought about the mysterious blue-blooded girl. She has heard that she came falling down from the ceiling. How did she able to enter the supposedly highly guarded facility and what is she doing there, Mitch had no idea. Maybe she should've asked, but her teachers are not too eager to talk about the girl when someone has the guts to organize an attack both Owens Mill Mall and Commonwealth office and then there's also the chaos of Baltimore Zoo. Because of some luck and a positive case of wrong time wrong location, all of the events are managed to be defused with 'a minimum amount of causality and damage'. At least, that what she finds out from the news. She can only hope that she'll find out more about it in Political Power, they will definitely talk more about this in that class. Hopefully, they will. Or Mitch will regret not taking the First Aid class instead.

Slouching on the couch, Mitch suddenly started to feel so sleepy and exhausted. She remembered drying her phone with a towel lent to her, then finding out all 19 missing call notification and over 30 message her family sent to her (Even from her that rebellious sister of hers! Surprise, surprise!). She called her mom first. Here's something that Mitch did not tell anyone, but her father: Her mom asked her to return home.

Back to China, back to Shanghai. Or at least somewhere out of Baltimore, maybe meet with her father in NY and fly home together with him.

Going home and be... what, try to return to her normal life? Attending a school without a blue-blooded girl crawling in the ceiling, studying normal math instead of how to use her power, sat inside a boring class taught by a lady in her 40s instead of some superpowered dude who appeared in the news for a 'powered-related accident' a day ago? She is unsure think she can return to that boring life.

That's what she said to her father. He did not say anything, but Mitch knew he understood what she's trying to say. He promised to talk to her mother, that this is where she wanted to be. It's not like things could get any worse than this, security will be increased and in much more alert condition.

Ding dong.

Mitch Castle stood up and approach her front door, eager to fill her stomatch with tasty pizza before going to sleep.

Gus · Aug 23, 2016

Aaron Mallory

Location: Basilica of the Assumption

Nearby: A priest

Mood: Chastened

It had been a rough ten days. Aaron had yet to sleep. Perhaps he was just coasting on decades of over-caffination, or perhaps he only slept out of habit anyway. In any case, it seemed he had given up both habits for the time being. If there were any ill effects to loss of sleep or sustenance, he had yet to notice any new symptoms distinguishing it from the haze that had descended over him during the afternoon of the fourteenth.

He had debriefed with Director Swan, or at least he thought he had, though he honestly could not recall anything that had been said. After that he had walked to the Bayview hospital to visit Eve. Having little else to do, he'd stayed by her bedside until dawn. He wandered the city aimlessly while waiting for the funeral for the boy, Lucas; the McCully-Polyniak Funeral home was in Brooklyn Park, and only a few hours walk from Bayview. It wasn't as if he had known the kid well; they hadn't even met in passing as far as he was aware. Lucas had not made it to the Collateral Damage session on the thirteenth for some reason, though he had been on the schedule. Still. He couldn't imagine not attending a student funeral. He'd stood in the back, staring without really seeing anything. It had been closed casket. Apparently all they'd had left to bury was some scraps of clothing; some speculated that Lucas's electron based biology had caused his body to dissolve when the parking lot was hosed down. Aaron had seen messier deaths, back in the twenties, but somehow the reality of it was as bad as ever. He felt, if anything, less ready to face such grim circumstances than he had ever been. Perhaps he should have stayed in exile after all.

He'd missed most of the graveside service. Cedar Hill Cemetery was not a long walk, but longer than by hearse caravan. People were starting to drift away as he had arrived, but that suited Aaron fine. Fewer people meant less effort spent avoiding conversations. He'd stood by the graveside a while, lost in thought, and the next thing he knew the sun had been setting. As twilight fell, he wandered off with no clear direction in mind. Sometime before midnight he had found himself at the entrance to the zoo. He'd looked around at the detritus left over from the bird incident and the hasty clean up efforts, expecting perhaps to feel something, but left feeling more hollowed out than before. He visited Eve again, on the way back to 108 for Monday morning classes, but she was still out of it. Or out of it again; it was about 3 in the morning...

That first week's classes had been an absolute grind. His ceiling had been repaired, though his desk was still showing signs that it had known better days: the holes from his fingers were inexpertly patched, and there was ample water damage. The sprinklers had left the threadbare carpets damp for the whole week as well, leaving a scent of mildew in the air, with the faint tang of stale coffee underneath. Aaron didn't leave his desk until Thursday except to hit the photocopier. In each class he had just handed out AEGIS approved worksheets, with a multiple choice test at the end. Several students grumbled, but nobody seemed to have objections strenuous enough to voice aloud. For his part, Aaron didn't speak a word to anyone. The few who tried to engage him, he'd just stared at blankly until they went away. Thursday afternoon, he was told that his evening class was covered so that he could meet with Lisa, which was good, because otherwise he'd have forgotten about it completely. Or maybe that would have been better, since despite her best efforts, he could not find anything useful to say. She seemed pretty concerned for him, but also harried. Aaron imagined she had also had a rough week, and so he kept his silence; perhaps he was not doing so well at finding his own way through, but at least if he kept quiet he'd be sure of not adding to anyone else's burdens.

The therapy session did at least nudge him to get out of his classroom. He took to wandering the city at night, people watching, and trying to get to know the city a little better. He stopped a couple of muggings, assaults, and one spot of very explicit harassment that seemed to be testing the waters for a rape. In that particular case it had turned out the young lady had powers of her own and could clearly handle herself. He'd paused to watch her self defense techniques, a dazzling flare to distract, a heel stomp to the backside of the knee, dropping him into a waiting choke hold. It looked rather like Krav Maga, but with more restraint. Admirable restraint, and nearly flawless economy of motion. Aaron almost had time to shout a warning as the would be attacker tried to pull a knife, but she'd caught his wrist with her free hand before he'd brought it halfway to bear and twisted expertly, stopping just barely shy of causing a fracture before sending him packing into the night. While catching her breath, she had nodded hello and said

“Thanks for backing me up. Just in case. Name's Batel. See you around.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her where she had trained, but he just nodded in what he hoped would pass as a friendly way. Perhaps he would check the database later; the odds were decent she was a former student at 108.

Saturday night, he'd spent some time at a soup kitchen where he bumped into Joey Belladani making the soup. Joey gave him a hard time about not ordering any groceries for over a week, told him he needed some of Aaron's big hearted tips, or he was going to end up on the other side of the soup line by spring. Aaron had smiled weakly at this, told him he would think about it, the first words he had spoken aloud since late Saturday night. There was something about Joey made it awfully hard to resist being drawn into conversation. But then he'd switched seamlessly to flirting with the girls who had come in behind him, and Aaron decided it was better if he moved on. Joey let him go, seeming to sense that he was not in the mood for talking. He glanced back as he went out the door though, and locked eyes with one of the young women Joey was chatting up. It was Batel from the previous night. Small city, he supposed. He waved to her, and walked on.

By the time he was through with classes on Monday night, he was just about through waiting for Eve to take over. His students seemed to have finally resigned themselves to doing meaningless busywork, and the absence of even grumbling about his poor performance as a teacher pushed him deeper than ever into the depths of depression. He had intended to visit Eve after the late class, as he had every night, but he was afraid he might put pressure on her to come back and take this burden from him, and he didn't want to do that. So he wandered past the hospital, into the heart of downtown baltimore, hoping perhaps some crime would distract him from his thoughts. The city was unusually quiet however, and eventually he found himself standing outside the Basilica of the Assumption. It was a beautiful work of architecture, seamlessly blending from neo classical Greek columns, to almost Russian style onion shaped domes. Admiring it in the pre-dawn stillness took him back to his late teens, back to before he had his faith. Not just in God, though. Aaron had lost his faith in lots of things over those years. But looking back on it, God had probably been the first to go. As the glow of the sun began to light the sky behind the domes, Aaron shivered and fell to his knees. He crossed himself and bowed his head, mumbling to himself. He wasn't sure exactly what to say, so he just said the first words that came into his head.

“Please, Lord, if you are listening, I need your help. I don't know where else to turn. I thought I was ready to come back to this life, but now I think maybe I will never be strong enough to face it. Please help me. Help me to be strong. Tell me what I need to do. Or send me someone to show me the way.”

Aaron touched his forehead to the steps, listening with his whole being, but he heard nothing. He felt nothing but the whirling spinning of the solar system's rocks and balls of gas, careening heedlessly through space. He choked back a sob, but could not stop his tears from seeping out from behind his tightly closed eyes. And then a voice spoke from behind him.

“Son, if you're a Muslim, that's fine, but the steps of the basilica is an odd choice of place to pray. And if you're Catholic, I am guessing you're a wee bit out of practice with the rituals. Either way, would you like to come inside perhaps?”

Aaron looked up, sniffed hard and wiped his eyes. An elderly priest was looking down at him, bemused, or perhaps amused. He gestured toward the doors and started up the steps without looking back. Aaron hesitated a moment, then stood up and followed him.

They sat in the front pew together and for a while neither of them spoke. At last the priest asked if he would like to confess his sins, indicating the confessionals. Aaron hesitated.

“I'm not exactly Catholic, father. I just need to know what to do. I have almost unlimited power, but whatever I do, I seem to make things worse. I feel like maybe I should just go back into self imposed exile.”

“Oh, son, confession is good for everyone. Since you ask though, I will tell you that you are sinning in pride. Only God has unlimited power. You are not expected to fix everything, Aaron. All that is given to us in this world is to do what we are able to do. Use the gifts you have as best you can. That is all anyone can ever do. What are you doing now?”

“Teaching.”

“And are you doing everything you can to do it well?”

“Well, no. I guess I am pre-occupied with the terrorist attacks and things.”

“Well then. You have your advice. Leave those things to others, and to God. You are called to teach. So teach! Teach like you mean it. Guide your students to work to make the world better. Swallow your damned pride, and do the work the Lord has brought you into the world to do!”

DJ MagicHat · Aug 24, 2016

Asher Torchinovich, Alexis Devan, Viola Porter

Collab - @DJ MagicHat, @Giyari, @CloudyBlueDay

Location: Asher's office, Facility 108
OOC: Giy, Cloudy, I left the text colored so it's a bit easier to tell who's saying what; if you'd like, I can edit that later.

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher sat at his desk, shuffling through papers that didn’t look at all organized. Now that everything had settled down somewhat, it was time to take care of...a couple more loose ends.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]And he was just about ready to start with the more frayed of the remaining loose ends.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]He stood up and strode to his office door, adjusting the two chairs he had set in front of his desk slightly on the way, before opening the door.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Alexis? Viola? Please, do come in.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis sighed. There was no escaping some kind of talk like this. She’d had lots of talks like this. They were all the same in some way. She didn’t offer Viola any glances, instead occupying the time waiting outside the office by gazing at her bruised knuckles. Smart move, Alexis, she told herself. Always making the smartest moves.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She slunk into the office, avoiding Asher’s gaze at all costs. She flopped into one of the chairs positioned in front of her desk, crossed her arms, and donned a frown and directed her gaze to the side wall or whatever was pinned upon it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Get on with it.”[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] She huffed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]The light squeak of chairs against lino and Asher's voice sounding into the hall broke Viola out of her daze, called to his office for trying to contain a shitstorm he was one of the main causes of… an interesting turn of events.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Quietly Viola followed Alexis through the doors, the girl was probably much more worried than Viola herself, what with causing a direct assault on a member of staff. Sitting down at one of the chairs, she locked eyes with Asher as he began his "I'm a teacher and I work here so respect me" routine… which was weird coming from a man a few years younger than herself.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher sat back down behind his desk and calmly clasped his hands in front of him. He looked at each of them for a moment, then got right into it:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I could say that I’m not overly pleased with your actions the other day,” he began. “However, I think we all know very well just how much of an understatement that would be.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]He turned to Alexis first. “Alexis, I understand you can be a bit...short-tempered at times. In fact, I can understand that better than you probably realize. But that does not give you any reason to physically assault anyone, much less the faculty of this school.” He paused to take a sip from his thermos and adjust his glasses. “For that reason, unless you show phenomenal improvement in the coming months, I can guarantee that you will be front and center in Mental Discipline for at least one or two extra terms. And I mean front and center. Front row, one of the seats directly in the middle of the classroom.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]And now…”Viola.” Asher managed to keep the ice out of his voice, but it was definitely more difficult than usual. “Acting rashly, directing the use of your powers towards faculty performing their duties, and purposeful destruction of another’s property. Regardless of any other factors, that last is the most insightful to your rash nature, but the fact that you damaged a teacher’s property takes this to a different level entirely. And that’s without going into the other factors involved. The fact of the matter is, you had no right or reason to damage Sebastian, and where Miss Alexis has hope of redeeming herself of her one extra term in my class, you are guaranteed a minimum of two.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Oh, he could understand she was a bit short-tempered at times, now could he? How much comfort that gave her. Alexis rolled her eyes in the clearest way possible, making sure he could see just how much she respected him. Maybe she’d felt guilty before, when the wound was still fresh, but now as the punishments were being dealt, Alexis couldn’t care less. Though the fact that Viola got a more severe punishment did amuse her, Alexis couldn’t quite understand why Asher thought slapping her in the front and center of his shitty class would solve anything. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]"You mean, you're more annoyed about your stupid guitar than your face? I could have fixed that for you in a matter of minutes if you'd asked me. With the level of current I directed at it there as probably no more than a blown capacitor or fuse. And let's not forget your shoot first ask questions later actions that led me to incapacitate the thing before you blew the situation more out of hand than it already needed to be. I know you're a member of staff, but I can assure you my intelligence is far beyond your own, I carefully chose my actions to cause the least damage possible." Viola retorted, keeping her tone to an acceptable, if not obviously annoyed tone. Crossing her legs the best she could with her servos in place, Viola brushed a lock of hair from her face as she let her words settle into the room.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher stared calmly as Viola vented. He knew what she was like, from much experience in the past with other, similar people. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Granted,[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] he thought, [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]she might very well be the worst case of this I’ve seen yet. But that just means…[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I guess we’ve got to make it three terms, then,” he said calmly, not acknowledging anything she had said. “You are my student, and as such you are to follow my lead when such a situation arises. Your rash assumptions and actions only show me that you have much to learn about where you stand and how to accept your role, whatever it may be in spite of your interpretations.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher started to turn back to Alexis, but stopped and turned back to Viola. “Oh, and that’s just what I’ve got in store for you. After this, you are to report directly to Director Swan, who will determine the severity of the rest of your disciplinary action.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“What’s this supposed to fix, huh, asshat?” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis growled.[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] “Put us in the front of your class and suddenly we’ll become model students? Serves to show us how much of an idiot the fucking faculty can be, while they still hand out punishments like we’re the one that fucking attacked the school. This is bullshit. You heard that? [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Bullshit. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Send me to whoever the fuck you want, it doesn’t change the fact that you fucked up too.”[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] Alexis leaned forward, grabbing the edge of his desk menacingly, charring the wood beneath her fingertips.[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“You could’ve done just as much damage as that goddamn spy could’ve done. Hell, you were lucky that me and Viola were there to stop you from blasting the ceiling off on us! And then when it finally fucking came to stopping the spy, you know who did it? I did. The students did. Without your help, or your protection, or your goddamn [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]common sense![/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She shouted, eyes flaring red for a moment before returning to their normal black color.[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I mean, I had more fucking sense and I’m the one that set fire to her --” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis abruptly stopped herself, jolting upright in her chair and tightening her crossed arms. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“You get the point.” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She said, staring Asher straight in the eyes, begging him to bring it on, not a trace of fear written on her face.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher stared at Alexis as she ranted at him. He could feel the ice coming back, and he wasn’t sure how well he could keep it out of his voice this time.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Viola,” he said quietly. “You should go see Director Swan now.” He never broke eye contact with Alexis as he said it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Well this was new, Alexis agreeing with her? Not that it would be any stretch of the imagination for them to agree with each other given the circumstances. Maybe it was Viola's hot-headedness showing through, or maybe it was Alexis' rationality making an appearance, either way it was nice to know Viola wasn't the only one who didn't like these turn of events… [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Standing up with a nod to Asher, Viola placed a hand on Alexis' shoulder, giving her a light squeeze to show her approval of the girls outburst, or something along those lines. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]"I'm sure you've already briefed the director on what happened, but I'm sure he would find a statement from another perspective enlightening." Viola said calmly paused in the doorway. Good day, Mr Torchinovich." She added sternly as the door closed behind her with a slight thunk.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Viola walked quietly through the hallways towards Director Swan's office, a whirr of machinery sounding with each step. it wasn't long before the director's office door came into view. Locking her eyes onto the doors nameplate, Viola scowled slightly… and continued past towards 108's entrance lobby, and out the main doors into the cold Baltimore winter air. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]What was she here for, training? A blue badge? She certainly didn't need the training, and the blue badge was just a piece of paper, a mark against your name, a little symbol that let you [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]legally[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] use your powers under certain restrictions. Maybe a blue badge wasn't what she needed after all.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher waited for Viola to close the door, and then another ten seconds after that to be safe. He never broke eye contact with Alexis; he wondered if it was making her uncomfortable for a fleeting moment. Finally, he spoke again.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Why are you here, Miss Devan?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis paused before answering, almost sure it was a rhetorical question until a silence enveloped them. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Mostly just because I'm forced to listen to your bullshit.”[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] Alexis snarled. His gaze did not make her feel uncomfortable -- it, in fact, invigorated her, knowing that she held any semblance of power over the authority, holding him locked within her gaze. The squeeze on the shoulder from Viola only fed her confidence more. Whatever he had to say, Alexis was positive she could spit his words back at him with a bigger bite. If she was going down, she was taking him with her.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“No, not why are you here, in my office at this very moment,” he responded calmly, keeping his true feelings leashed. “Why are you here? At Facility 108?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]...Well, [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]mostly[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] leashed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“Because the way I see it, you’re here to learn proper control of your powers, and all that that entails. That brings about a hefty responsibility, one that the bratty child in front of me is clearly not ready to handle.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Anger flared through Alexis’s expression, her grip on Asher’s desk still continuing to char the wood.[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] “Fuck you,” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis growled. [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I’m not here because I want to be. And really, calling me a bratty child? That’ll get you points on the staff leaderboard, now won’t it?” [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]The words stung, just a bit, but no matter how much they bothered her it didn’t show. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“No, not in the slightest,” Asher replied calmly. “I’m simply stating the facts. That is what I see in front of me at this very moment.” He leaned back in his chair, not breaking his eye contact with Alexis. “Alexis Akiko Devan, age 17. Abilities manifested roughly one year ago, when you were 16. You came from a...rather poor upbringing. Your father was an alcoholic, and when your powers manifested you got angry and lost control of them. An easy thing to do, when they manifest for the first time, and not an uncommon occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. However, when your powers involve something as volatile as fire…” Asher paused for a brief sip from his thermos, “...well, let’s just say that I, for one, don’t blame you for what happened. In fact, I don’t expect you to have any regrets about it for a long time, if ever.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“And that brought you here,” Asher finished calmly, his gaze still locked directly onto her eyes. “It was here or a juvenile detention center for your sins, and this way you stand a chance of earning the codename of, I believe, ‘Spitfire.’”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher leaned forward again, lacing his fingers together in front of him, ignoring the damage being done to it. “You may think what you will of me,” he continued, not giving her a chance to speak again yet. “But believe me, in my short tenure here at this facility I have seen many others just like you - and worse - come and go. Some left as you are now, barely able to contain themselves. Others left having been star pupils, exemplary people in almost every way. Others still…” he paused, remembering the faces associated with those memories. “...Well, many of us try to forget about those students. Some harder than others.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I asked you why you’re here, Alexis, because it’s something I want you to think about. Yes, some people came here of their own volition, but you - like many others - didn’t. And unlike your friend Viola, I think you can gain control of your powers - and yourself - rather quickly if you focus your efforts and take that first step towards being the best you that you can be. You’re young, you’ve got much of your life and growing up ahead of you. I’m not going to try to convince you to make the most of it, you wouldn’t listen to that even if you did take me seriously. But I am going to tell you that I hope you try to make the most of it.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]And with that, he fell silent once more, waiting for her response.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She kept her teeth gritted throughout, or at least, as long as she could. Oh, here it came, the retelling of her tragic back story. Great. But even though Alexis had braced herself for it, her harsh, angry expression began to falter, as she realized, she didn't want to hear this. Everyday was a reminder, she didn't need to be told about her shitty father all over again. Her expression softened but her fists stayed clenched, and she spoke not a word.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Now came surprise at the mention of a codename -- Spitfire. She stared at him, mouth slightly agape. Why was he going on about this, expecting good things from her? Spitfire, she had to admit, had a nice ring to it. But she hasn't even dared dream of getting that far. She'd honestly not even wanted too.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Alexis pursed her lips at the mention of Viola. She felt a quiet urge to defend her classmate, likely because they were in the same spot together. She couldn't understand why Asher hated Viola much more than she did, but Alexis decided she'd better not push her luck any further at this point. He was trying to be nice, and calm. The next step after that came a full on screaming match. Maybe that would be best to avoid today. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“..Are you done yet?”[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] Alexis murmured, looking to have calmed down considerably, a look of bewilderment in her eyes. Some part of the girl looked miserably, probably from such a forced confrontation. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher kept his gaze steady on Alexis, debating how best to answer her question. This one did deserve an answer, and not just because he’d ignored so many other things she had said so far.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“In terms of this little chat, yes, I’m just about done. In terms of helping you reach your full potential, however, I hope you realize I’ve only just begun.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher’s voice suddenly took on an extra quality - one of wistfulness, reminiscence, nostalgia. He could feel his shoulders sink a little as he relaxed, remembering. “I realize that I had it easier than most,” he said. “You don’t even know my story the way I know yours, and indeed, those of your fellow students as well. But even then, I knew. I’d heard the stories. I’d seen the news.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]His voice seemed to come back to the here and now. “I am here, Miss Devan, because I believe I can use my abilities to further our society in many good ways. My powers in and of themselves have allowed me to further research in several scientific fields, with my ability to act as a signal processor. I can live out every young child’s dream and be a hero, even though my powers restrict me to a support role rather than that of Superman or Captain America or Thor or Iron Man. And perhaps most importantly...I can use my knowledge to help others just learning of their abilities how to control them. How to master them. How to make the most use of them that they can, and in ways they will enjoy as much as I enjoy the ways I get to use my abilities.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“And so, Miss Devan,” he said, “you still have one guaranteed extra term in my class, but you can still redeem yourself in my eyes. And unlike your friend, you won’t be restricted to any one section of my classroom. But I expect to see you put forth the effort to succeed. Work hard, especially to reign in that temper of yours. I can tell that deep down, you truly want to do that. And so to that end, there is one last stipulation to my disciplinary action for you: a homework assignment.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Another short sip from the thermos.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I want you to think about this very carefully, and when you think you have your answer, come back and answer this one question for me: Why are you here, at Facility 108?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]He shifted slightly in his seat.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I will be setting up a one-on-one meeting with you once a week like this, so you may give me updates on your assignment. But if you think you’ve found the answer, or have made significant strides towards it, you may come see me whenever I’m in my office and we can discuss the matter further. Until then, I look forward to seeing you in my class, working hard.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“If you have any questions for me, now is the time for them; otherwise, you may go if you wish. I’ve had my say.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Alexis's expression drooped as he said he was going to set up more sessions like this. Great. Not even with Viola, (which she still couldn't understand why he hated her so much) she would be forced to go through this every week.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Grabbing her backpack and standing up slowly, she gave Asher one last, tired, look, and began to exit the room. “See you later.” She muttered, as she let the door to his office close behind her. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Asher counted to fifteen after his office door closed, and he exhaled. He never liked doing anything like that, and this was certainly no exception. He hoped he had left a lasting impression, in a good way.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]He sat there, calmly contemplative for a minute or so, ignoring the damage to his desk and not letting himself think about how much trouble he’d gotten himself into with Viola by giving her three mandatory terms in his class [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]and[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] whatever Director Swan decided to dish out. He knew she needed it; she made boars seem amiable by comparison.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]“I think I’m going to take up weightlifting,” he mused aloud to nobody in particular.[/SIZE]

RemainingQuestions · Aug 26, 2016

Denzil de Klerk

Denzil, despite what he wanted, didn't head home right after he finished his smoke. Instead he went inside, and tried to be a functioning adult as well as a good teacher. He didn't interact with the students more than necessary though, and he didn't check why his phone kept buzzing in his pocket. It was likely nothing important, likely just friends texting or some news that wasn't important, the channels he followed had to send out notifications every once in a while, hadn't they? He tried to keep calm, but he was pulled in so many directions. He wanted to scold the Alexis and Viola, yet praise them too. He wanted to ensure the safety of the spy, yet ensure the safety of the facility and its students too.

After all that mess at the facility Denzil decided to walk home, bike in hand. He needed the time to think, but he also needed to repair a few bits of his bike. The fall this morning seemed so inconsequential now, after everything that happened. He took a longer route that passed through the park, the green that was slowly breaking through the snow calming him. Instinctively he let his powers reach out, gave the flowers and shrubs a soft boost for an early spring. A smile curled on his face as he watched the soft plant life grow around his feet. What he didn't see was how soon the plants started to wilt after they left his aura of influence. They weren't made for this cold after all, and his powers couldn't hold the entire park green.

As soon as he got home, his mind slowly settled, he checked his notifications and the balance that he had found on his walk was lost again. Two attacks, one by a super one by an anti-super organization. His topic today seemed nearly too appropriate now. The trouble with his bike immediately forgotten, he started to research just what had happened at the mall, at the zoo. Hadn't there been an outing to the zoo today? Reports were still streaming in when he got a video call. His mother. It should be evening or later there now. Had they heard the news of a terrorist attack on his town during dinner?

He kept searching, kept notes as the stories updated while he talked to his mother, who was later joined by his father too. He could see that they wanted him closer, that they couldn't really believe that he was fine until they could hold him. He told them what he knew of the two attacks, and what he could share of the intruder at the facility without worrying about getting into trouble. He realized soon that there were several colleagues of his involved at the mall, and he made a note to visit Eve in the hospital. He should bring her flowers. A notification made him aware of another bouquet that needed making, but one that would have a lot less hope in it. Lucas, the boy he had talked to only the previous day. He'd seen him naked, and given him a fire blanket. He should've done more, somehow.

Of the two bouquets, Lucas was the more balanced one. The simpler one too. White roses, white lilies, and pink carnations. Simple, yet filled with meaning. Denzil knew it wasn't enough. He didn't wear his customary flowers in his hair when he attended the funeral. It wouldn't be right for the family, no matter the meaning of the flower that Denzil chose. Funerals and Denzil never matched that well, and he left quickly after the ceremony. He went home, and picked up the much more hopeful, more mismatched bouquet he had made for Eve. This too, should have a clear message. Healing, courage, protection, and perseverance. The blooms were mostly round, soft white or pink, the match between Eve's and Lucas in color wasn't on purpose, but Denzil didn't miss it either. In the middle the king protea stuck out, with its spiky outside leaves, and the brightness of its red, yet it too, was an important part of the message, there was a reason that Denzil had put that in the middle after all. Soon after the funeral, still wearing his black suit, he was in the hospital. He didn't stay long, since Eve was still out, but right before he left he gave the blooms a final boost. Hopefully they would stay beautiful until after Eve woke up.

Luci Tolbert

It didn't take long to get the two teens Luci was next to the attention of a medic. The medic was kind enough that he even gave Luci an icepack, a welcome reprieve. Still, several of the other medics gave him second looks, or even glared outright. He tried not to get in the way, but nonetheless he kept bumping into people. Luci didn't know where to go, didn't know what to do. There was no precedence for these situations, no rules he could hold onto. He tried to find his sister, but he couldn't see her in the mess of people, and she didn't react to his messages. If they even got to her, things like these tended to overload the systems. New year and danger, those were the moments that the system simply wasn't built to deal with. Luci knew this, yet he still worried. He clenched his fists, and eventually broke free of the crowds, left the mall out of a side door. He only saw more nightmare fuel.

He tried to call his father, and then his mother, but they didn't pick up. Surely they did know what had happened, or that something had happened? Maybe they were calling him and Narcissa now, and that's why they couldn't be reached. Maybe. Luci started to worry even more, and his light glared bright against the charred vehicles. The ice pack was the only cool spot on his body. Narcissa could have found him already, right? He was hardly hard to spot, even in a dense crowd. Narcissa, on the other hand, could be hard to find whenever she wanted, Luci had more than enough experience with that. He called his little brother, that had the sleep over. He had likely had his best rest since months now that he hadn't needed to share with Luci and his light. Draco quickly picked up, and the joy, the simple relief that he now knew that at least Luci was safe was palpable. Still, the worry for Narcissa and their parents soured the conversation quickly.

Draco would stay where he was, which also happened to be safe. Luci would walk to the jewellery thing his parents were going to, and find them. Meanwhile Draco would keep trying to contact Narcissa and their parents. If he got any of them, or got any news, about anything, he would let Luci know. It was only minutes after Luci hung up that Draco called again. The mall hadn't been the only place were shit had gone down, the zoo had also been attacked. There was also a group of supers that reacted there. Draco hung up again, and Luci kept walking.

His parents were outside, and surprisingly easy to find after everything that had gone wrong. Luci called Draco, and again, the relief of the conversation was soured with worry about their sister. Luci realized that the last time they spoke, he hadn't even told her he loved her. Hell, he couldn't recall the last time he told her he loved at all. She could have died by an anti-super terrorist group and her stupid younger, super, brother hadn't even told her he loved her in months. The last time they had an extended conversation it had been an argument. Had they argued in the car too?

With no idea what to do, his parents took Luci home. They all left messages in Narcissa's voicemail, asking her to contact them, to do anything. Draco was brought home as soon as they told him they were home safe. The parent that dropped him off sneered at Luci as he opened the door and Luci could feel himself become nauseous. They left the lights on and the door open, burglary not a thought in any of their minds when the night fell and their lost member still hadn't come home. Still hadn't contacted them, either. They had tried to contact some of her friends, but Luci didn't see who she went of to meet, and the friends they knew of and could reach didn't know anything either. The only comfort they had was that she wasn't on the confirmed dead list. Yet.

Well after midnight, long after Draco's and even Luci's bedtime the boys were sent to shower and sleep. The parents would stay up, and wake them up as soon as they knew anything. The water ran dark in the drain, and Luci hadn't even realized how grimy he was. Was Narcissa not on the list of dead because she was too close to an explosion, and now there wasn't enough remaining to quickly identify her? Banging on the door pulled Luci out of his morbid thoughts, but they were still there, running beneath the surface as he pulled on his pyjamas. He pulled close the light blocking curtain around his bed, and tried to close his eyes and see something other than the scene at the mall today. God, one of his teachers had been injured. He hadn't looked closely enough to see which one, the blood, god the blood.

He could hear his brother getting into bed, and the light above the curtain dimmed as he turned his light of. Luci wished he turn his light of too. He closed his eyes, and tried not to focus on the blood and gore he saw too much. He tried to sleep, but his mind kept returning to various corpses he had seen. God, those had been living breathing humans only moments earlier. Could he have passed by his sister without even realizing it? Surely... Surely he would have seen something, noticed something. Eventually, he fell asleep, not gently, nor was his sleep gentle. He woke up his brother two times, and both times Draco shook him out of his nightmare. He didn't question what the dreams were about, and Luci wondered whether he was having nightmares too, if his were worse because he wasn't there, and could imagine the worst, or if Luci's were worse because he knew that what he saw was real. The second time Draco woke him up, he crawled into his bed too, and Luci welcomed him. It was an empty comfort, this surety that Draco was safe, but it was the only comfort, the only kind of comfort either of them had.

Eventually the dawn broke, the sun shone, but neither Luci nor Draco woke, Luci's light shining brightly. When Luci woke up because of a nightmare of Draco, silent but violent, the opposite of Luci's nightmares, he noticed the sunlight. He dragged Draco down to get breakfast, and their parents were still downstairs at the kitchen table, nearly exactly as they left them. The most notable difference was that their phones were plugged into their chargers. Breakfast was a quiet affair. They could hardly swallow, and the bowls were left half empty. Normally, breakfast was a rowdy moment. All five of them hurrying to eat, talking about what they had planned, what their wacky dreams were. Luci wondered how long breakfast would be silent without Narcissa there. Before...before, Luci had thought Narcissa cold, but now he realized that she was a vital part of their family, of him.

There wasn't a mention of homework, and the TV was on in the background, but the news was now mostly what they had already heard. Eventually, Luci threw the remote at the wall, an explosion of noise and movement in an otherwise silent and still moment. The remote broke, and Luci turned the TV off by hand. The silence, however, was soon worse than images of things he'd already seen. He wanted to cry, but also not. There was still a change that she was alive, wasn't there? But the lady on the TV herself had said, only moments before, how long it could take to identify those corpses too charred or damaged to identify on sight.

A phone buzzed, and hope quickly soared but burst even quicker. It was one of Narcissa's friends, who said another friend of Narcissa's had come home safe. She had been with that friend, or that had been the plan, as far as this friend was aware. She was sorry she didn't know anymore. The rest of the day was spent in that haze. They heard more of other friends, through texts or the Internet, and once a parent called that their child was home safe. The list of the dead grew longer, but most of the easily identified bodies were already on it. The posted pleas on the Internet with Narcissa's face in every place they could think of. Her friends called and texted and maneuvered the Internet as best they could, but they still didn't hear anything. By now, only three of the giant group of friends were missing. Narcissa, Allie, and Kathy. Sunday evening, after a silent and forced meal, they heard that Allie had was safe. Unfortunately, she had been hit in the back, the spine. She couldn't use her legs anymore. She also had lost sight of Kathy and Narcissa during the attack. The only thing that she could tell them was that they had been together. The various messages on the Internet were edited to include this information, and Kathy's family reached out, so that they could contact the other as soon as anything was known.

Then it was night again, and then Monday. Luci and Draco went to school, Narcissa did not. It could be that she had been hit in the face, cosmetically horrible, but still alive. Still alive. The angry stares and whispers were even worse than usual. His friends stood even closer than usual. Luci was silent during the entire day, and hardly ever annoyed the teacher with his tapping and knocking on surfaces. Did the teachers know that Narcissa was missing? Did they go easy on him because of that, or harder because he was a super? They had lost someone too, or knew someone that lost someone. This was an attack against supers, yet most of the dead weren't supers. Some of them blamed it on the Knights, that they shouldn't have targeted a mall when they were only aiming at supers. Most people blamed the supers, Luci's teachers, for making it worse. If only, if only, if only.

A day passed, and nothing was heard of Narcissa or Kathy.

It was easier to fall asleep, even if Draco and he still fell asleep together, clinging while they could.

A day passed, and nothing was heard of Narcissa or Kathy.

Breakfast and dinner didn't make Luci quite so nauseous anymore.

Still, nothing was heard of Narcissa or Kathy.

Necessity4Fun · Aug 27, 2016

Cecilia Rizzo Pellegrini

Realizing her stop was the next one, Cecilia got up from her seat and pressed the button from the bus to stop. Despite her apparent calmness, the events of today's morning still perturbed her mind.

After the fire alarm and the sprinklers came to life, she helped taking the green haired girl to the clinic with Morgan. He was only one who knew the way so he guided them there.

Right by the door was a kind girl offering them all towels. Cecilia asked her to put it by her shoulder, as she was still helping the other one inside... Thinking again, she hadn't asked for anyone's names AT ALL! Argh, she would have to do so if she came by them again...

Inside the clinic it became VERY clear that something weird was going on... The teacher had had rushed them all out of building was holding a pretty pastel colored girl. They had passed by in the corridor so fast that the Italian hadn't noticed what a lovely shade of blue her hair was. Such an unusual color! The nurses inside seemed a lot busy too, whatever was going on seemed to be some kind of emergency.

Not wanting to get in the way of their work, Cecilia stood just beside the exit, at this point, the green haired girl wasn't using her as support anymore, Cecil hadn't kept track of where she had went...

Suddenly, the girl with pretty blue hair reacted and then one of the nurses was down for some reason!

Cecilia tried to rush in to help, just to have Morgan ordering everyone to get out of the clinic and letting the teacher handle it.

They all left, the door closed and it was all that happened.

Not one had ACTUALLY explained her what was going on after all...

With a sigh, the Italian decided to just catch the bus and go home.

Cecilia left the bus and as usual, walked until her apartment block.

It was strangely silent for this time of the day...

"Perhaps there's some event going on and everyone just went there?"

Yeah, that had to be it, It's Saturday after all! Not everyone's day had to be as chaotic as hers right?

Turning right on the next block, Cecilia was right in front of her place. At least those two neighbours that were always talking by the door were still there. Now that's a good sign!

Or was it?

The Italian greeted both of them cheerfully as she always did, but instead of receiving cheerful greetings back, this time they looked at her weird, as if suddenly, she was an alien or something... As the girl just ducked past them and went towards the elevator, they starting chatting again. Cecilia noticed it wasn't a usual conversation, instead, it was almost a heated up discussion...

Yep, there was no more doubt, something had DEFINITELY happened.

She took the elevator to the third floor and entered her own apartment. It was a small and modest two-room place she was renting, but despide it's size, for someone who wouldn't stay too long indoors like her, it was good enough and cheap.

Just as she closed the door, the telephone rang.

The rushed and panicky Italian at the other side of the line could only be her grandmother.

Cecilia asked her to calm down, Fiore wasn't making much sense.

That's when she told her she had seen something in the TV, and though she didn't' know enough English to really grasp what the reporter was saying, the images were shocking enough and the header clearly said "Baltimore"

Wait, the TV?

The girl instantly grabbed the controller, that was right behind her above the table, to turn the TV on. At that moment, she wondered why she had done such thing...

According to the news, several places had been attacked that day. There had been what seemed like an terrorist attack at the mall, whoever had done it had been prepared, they exploded the building, so one really knew the situation fully because the authorities and the paramedics were still handling the situation, but apparently a lot of people had died... There had been a lot of chaos in the zoo too, but it didn't seem like anything as serious.

The voice on the other side of the speaker kept asking about it. If she said the truth, Cecilia would worry her grandmother who was far away and had absolute NO way to deal with this...

She decided to lie.

'Oh that? It's just the filming for a movie', she had said, trying to sound as convincing as she could and trying not to show her own worries. Her grandmother accepted that, if she had been fooled or not, there was no way of knowing. After she said how worried she had been and how much she loved Cecilia, Fiorenza Pellegrini hang up.

The in-existent current of air in the apartment turned to a soft breeze as Cecil was further troubled.

Cecilia just hated herself for lying.

She hated herself for feeling relieved that she wasn't at the mall when the attack happened. She felt more confused and scared as ever, she had barely, BARELY started living in Baltimore and now everything seemed to be going bonkers!

The girl sat down in the couch. The TV keep bringing in live news from the mall attack. It was terrible all just terrible! The images, the survivors and eye witness reports, all of it was TOO MUCH!.

What had once been breeze of thoughts started swirling faster, until Cecilia herself took notice of it, and everything went calm again.

"Calm down, Just calm down me."

The Italian turned off the TV and went closer to the window...

...And she cried. More than when she got bullied, more than when she moved, more than when her parents threw themselves into work after her newborn sister didn't make it. It was as everything she had been holding inside, came out at once, and this time, she was really all alone...

She stood there, in the floor, by the window, shaking, looking at the outside world that she didn't knew what to expect from anymore.

Tomorrow, she wasn't leaving the apartment at all.

Oh, how much Cecilia desired to be back in Italy right now...

Necessity4Fun · Aug 28, 2016

PARTY IN THE CIA

Collaboration Part 2 (THE BIG ONE)

Ding.

The elevator doors opened, and a smartly dressed agent in a black suit, sunglasses, and an earpiece stepped out onto the roof of the Commonwealth building.

“Marley? Oh man, thank God you’re up here already. The entire building is going on lockdown, those spaghetti sauce bitches finally - hey! Why are you pointing that thing at m - “

The popping sound of a small handgun firing echoed through the cold winter air and the old Baltimore bricks and pavers.

“That’s for stealing my lunch,” Marley informed his fallen former coworker. He bent down and dragged the limp body out of sight from the rooftop door, and resumed his position as lookout on the roof. Across the street, he could see his new friend finding a good spot for a second shot.

The double-crossing agent pulled out a small radio, and turned off his earpiece. He pressed the button on the radio, preparing to give the sniper additional advice, but… nothing. It was completely jammed. Marley swore, and made up his mind. If he wanted the Director gone, he’d have to do this himself.

Inside:

Kendrick had stopped to wait for Kennith to answer, but Marianne's panicked shouting towards someone beyond the portal, that had appeared out of nowhere, reminded him of how urgent it was to call 911.

He typed in the numbers, raised the cellphone closer to his ear and waited.

Nothing, not even the sound of the call going through.

He pulled the cellphone back and stared at the notification area, where big white words welcomed him and clearly spelled "No Service":

"Uhh, everyone? We seem to have a problem regarding contacting an ambulance... There's absolutely no signal.", he informed, in a surprisingly calmer tone than it should have been.

Then, the double sound of breaking glass, that he could hear coming from outside, but also faintly from the portal door, took his attention out of the device and was soon followed by the loud thump of something heavy falling:

"Marianne, what is happening outside?", Kendrick asked worried.

He could hear what was happening but couldn't see anything as Mary was blocking the way.

Mary stood unmoving, only briefly glanced at Kendrick. “The attacker getting hit by a cabinet.”

"Wait, What?", the boy let out in surprise, that had certainly not been a answer he was expecting, "That's something I HAVE to see by myself."

Kendrick tilted his head from behind Mary, just so that he could get a glimpse of the commotion beyond.

What he saw was a cabinet, clearly in top of something, and in top of the cabinet was the hoodie emo-looking guy from his tour group:

"DID HE THROW THE CABINET? BY HIMSELF???", he thought, while stepping away from the portal, dumbfounded.

More and more this situation resembled an action movie and Kendrick didn't know whether to be thrilled, or terrified.

Outside:

A cry of muffled anger came from across the way as the other, much younger soldier saw his teammate go down in the form of cabinet based ambushing. Upon closer inspection, the second soldier wasn’t even a young adult. His lean build and stature revealing himself to looking more like a late teenager. He ran towards the group, but instead of leveling a gun at them, he revealed a strange looking grenade and pressed a button before tossing it in the direction of the others.

As he did so, Chris stood, hoisting one of the cabinet drawers out of the metal box, and swung it around like a hammer throw, spreading carefully sorted paperwork all over the sidewalk. The canister spun through the air, before landing with a clang on the side of the drawer, getting launched high into the air. On the next swing, Chris let go of the drawer and sent it hurtling towards the attacker’s face, subsequently ducking back down behind the cabinet.

The driver of the van, having recovered from the situational whiplash while watching the scene in his mirrors, clambered over the stick shift and grabbed his rifle from under the shotgun seat, ironically.

Agent Harry's POV:

“- So then I said, that’s no class seven biogenetic malformation, that’s my wife! Hahaha… And then she slapped me. And then tried to suffocate me with a plastic bag, and that’s when we broke off the engagement. But anyways, that’s how the laboratory works. Any questions?”

Agent Harry turned around, expecting to see the students lined up like little ducklings, hanging on to his every word. Instead, he was completely alone in the laboratory. Even the scientists who were in the middle of scanning evidence when they all walked in had fled when the alarm sounded.

The alarm that Harry didn’t hear, because he was too busy talking.

“Uhmm….”

He stood in the lab, lost and alone and confused, turning around in little circles as he tried to figured out what was going on, based on the angry shouting he could hear down the hallway. An attack drill? No, no. Those were scheduled on Mondays, and they already had this month’s drill. But then why would everyone be screaming about - oh.

Oh no.

“... I have to save the kids. I’m not qualified to save kids!! I’m not even qualified to give CPR!”

Kennith's POV:

As everything had been going down, Kennith had felt an uneasy confidence within him. Mary and Kendrick seemed to have the right idea on what to do, with Mary’s portal and Kendrick’s toys deploying in close to no time at all. Even when things looked rough and Kennith was debating an all out charge at the southern gunman they had been saved by the boy from earlier...in a cabinet ex machina sort of situation. As the confrontation continued, Kennith had regulated himself to a simple but difficult job: Find the Sniper.

Someone had to have taken out the director, and as the other kids were busy dealing with gunmen, mysterious grenades and truck drivers Kennith’s eyes were gazing across the buildings across the street, facing towards where they were...the shooter may have moved, but he couldn’t have gone that far right?

Eventually, Kennith’s efforts were rewarded, and not a second too soon as he realized it was being aimed at one of the three students. With a cry of “Guys look out!” Kennith leapt forward and dragged Mary a few steps back from the portal, not a moment before the sound of a gunshot rang out and a spout of crimson erupted from Kennith’s arm. He gave a shout of pain as the force knocked him backwards, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Everyone else's POV:

It all happened too fast.

Kendrick had stepped away from the portal but right after that, coming from beyond it, the teenager heard shouting and multiple different noises, probably from different objects as well. The fighting had restarted.

At the same time, Kennith stared through the 'artificial' door, and the amount of focus he was pouring into the task betrayed that he was clearly searching for something... But what?

Suddenly, the person in question looked alarmed and shouted at them to look out, before pushing Mary aside:

The moment a gunshot rang out, the portal blinked away. Mary turned away in shock. "KEN-"

His arm was bleeding. The bullet got him. Some people might be relieved that it ‘just’ hit his arm, but all those action movies lie because one still could die from a shot to the arm. That how it was in the battlefield, James told her.

With a slightly trembled hand, Mary knelt and reached for the first aid kit that Kennith dropped. Come on, you have combat medic as an uncle, you should at least could do this much. At this time she internally curses herself for not paying too much attention to her uncle's teaching. Gunshot wound, arm, what was it that he once said about treating it?

At the same time, Kendrick had hurried to check on the kid who was laying down in the floor, bleeding. His hat falling to the floor in the act. He crouched down beside the boy and, Oh Heavens, that wound looked really painful!:

"Hey kid. Kennith, Kennith are you still with us??", he called, but the teenager seemed to have passed out.

There was no denying it, he cared for the boy. It's just, he was so happy, innocent and cheerful, and Kendri had wanted to protect that, but he had failed. Hell, he had vowed to protect everyone and he had FAILED. Maybe he was truly useless as he was so used to hearing...

No, No, NO.

This was the wrong time and place for pessimism. Vacillate and you're dead, just like a movie where even the main character could die. He had to keep calm and think, his team needed him and he wasn't going to let them down twice.

Looking at Kennith again, he realized it had been a shot to the arm and sighed relieved, it was bleeding but it wouldn't pose much risk to the boy.

The he saw it, his toy-friends were nearby. They had also followed him towards the kid. It had been such a strong mix of emotions that the order went through without him noticing.

To Kendrick, it was like they were encouraging him to not give up and fight back. It was the little push he needed.

He got up and picked his hat back up. Putting the accessory on was like assuming a character, a more determinate and confident character. Any similarity between him and his dad, was NOT mere coincidence:

"Hey Marianne, do you know what how to treat this?", his voice had a cold, serious and calculating tone to it.

Pressure. It’s the first thing. She looked up at Kendrick. “Yes, please help me hold his arm above his heart.” That was the second thing. Mary opened the first aid kit and grabbed the bandage and gauze. First, pressure...elevate the wound...and the last…

With a nod, Kendrick approached the kid on the floor again. His toys going inert behind him as every bit of his attention shifted to the task he had been assigned.

The tennager gently raised Kennith's arm towards the ceiling and held it in that position. Afterwards, he stared back at the girl, ready to act in case she gave him more instructions.

Since he knew nothing about first-aid, all he could do was assist her...

She carefully pressed the gauze over Kennith's wound and started to wrap it with bandage. It must be enough to stop the bleeding, but not too tight that it cut the blood circulation, she recall from her memory. Her uncle said something about losing limb from doing it wrong, and she certainly didn’t want that to happen. Mary frowned a bit as she finished wrapping the bandage. She hoped she did it correctly.

Looking at Kendrick, she said, “It should be enough to stop the bleeding temporarily.”

Kennith’s form shifted slightly, but the teen remained unconscious, and there was no further reaction to the procedure. The wound on his side was still bleeding, but the bandage and basic first aid would hopefully be enough to see him through it.

The sudden movement startled Kendrick a little and he stood right there, in silence, staring at the wounded boy for a second longer.

Looking at the bandages, evoked a mix of frustration and anger. He wanted to make the attackers REGRET PROFOUNDLY of their decision to interrupt his day and harm his friend. Damn! He was a HAYWOOD, He shouldn't let this pass so easily!

But clearly, that emotion would be more of a distraction than an advantage...

The teenager took a long, deep breath and got back up when calm again. He had to decide how to proceed.

There were multiple ways to approach this situation, but with that nuisance outside, it was better to act fast. Relying on a possibility was risky, but it also was their best choice. He hoped someone from the other group was distracting that sniper, or else he might be plummeting himself and Mary into trouble next:

"Since, it seems there's nothing else we can help that kid with, and he'll be a lot safer inside...", Kendrick gave his hat a thug before going on, "Marianne. Please, get ready to open that portal again, same spot. We'll have to make a run for our lives...", he spoke slow and calm, as opposed to the information he had just relayed.

"...It bothers me strongly, but I'm entrusting ourselves to Lady Fate. Well, unless you have a better idea, of course."

Mary shook her head. "Although we will depend on our luck no matter what, charging to the very same spot where Kennith got shot sound more like tempting bad fate than anything." There’s an uncharacteristic rigidness in her voice. A small portal materialized before Mary's eyes. "At least let me check the condition outside first."

Outside - Chris POV:

Chris, taking cover behind the filing cabinet, noticed the van rock back and forth somewhat. Too long to be someone getting out. Someone was repositioning. And there was a glimpse of somebody’s head in the passenger window. The door flew open and Chris lept like a cat to the side of the van, just barely preceding a spray of lead. “BURN IN HELL, DEMONIC CHILD!” As the driver began to steady the gun pointed towards his target, Chris grabbed a shard of glass from the ground and threw it into the man’s face.

“YEAARRRGHHH!” the blinded driver fired his rifle all over, and Chris made a desperate rush into the fray, grabbing the gun and ramming the man in the face, then stepping back and slamming the door into his head. He spun and trained the rifle with red hands and determination on the remaining knight, covered from the sniper by the van.

“Dropitfuckingdropitrightnow.” His breath was short.

Inside:

The first thing Mary could spot from the height of her portal was Chris, in the process of making another person fall unconscious in door-slamming fashion. Inside the van… no more movement. That person is the driver. If so, then… she stared at the view below, an idea formed in her mind. For the first time after the whole fiasco, she smiled. “Well Kendrick, I think I found the most efficient way to escape. But…” she gestured Kendrick to get closer and pointed at the next important things she noticed. “…we need to take care of this first.”

Mary explained the plan to him. “…and that will be your part.” she stared at him intently. “Can you do it?”

While Mary was checking the outside, Kendrick had been feeling rather silly. The fact that he could have just asked her to do this from the start, but it hadn't crossed his mind, just revealed how bad he was at teamwork...

However, by the time she turned around again to let him know the plan, the teenager had already managed to assert himself back.

It wasn't a bad plan, in fact, maybe if he had been calmer, he could have reached the same conclusion. There was just a thing about it that worried him: leaving Kennith behind, completely alone in his current state.

"I'm sure I can handle that. I'd just, like to leave Maverick here in standby, in case that kid needs protection. If someone does reach the Lobby, I could share-vision with it from the rooftop and defend this place too. Would you allow that?", Kendrick hoped he wouldn't HAVE to do it, as vision-sharing required a great amount of focus, but still, it was better than leaving a member at his own luck.

Mary nodded. “Yes for a short time. I’ll come back as fast as I can, don’t worry.” She raised her hand. “Are you ready? On the count of three.” She paused to give Kendrick time to prepare. “One, two... ”

Having his worries eased, Kendrick crouched down to get the rest of his team.

Kefir, Lt. George, Harry and Ted came towards him. The first three were caught in a hug and the teddy bear, as it was used to, climbed all the way to the boy's shoulder and held on to him. Meanwhile, Maverick left the others to stay beside Kennith.

Heading back to Marianne, who was counting down, Kendrick nodded at her, letting the girl know they were ready to go.

“-Three!”

The portal opened.

Outside >> Earlier - Jamie's POV:

Did the girl just leave the redhead on the ground, and shut the portal behind her? What the hell? She took it back. Her luck was definitely just going downhill. Now cuties were ignoring her instructions. Grunting, Jamie discarded the cowboy’s rifle, and backed towards the redhead. She looped one of the redhead’s arms around her neck, and hoisted her up to her feet. It was only then that she realised that she had no rightful idea of where she should be headed. The sound of a rifle being shot only made her thoughts even more muddled.

“Uh...alright, snipers shoot from a high vantage point, since that gives them more to see, and more to shoot, so uh, uhm, I go up? To not be shot?” Crap, her sentences were getting fucked too. This wasn’t good. Jamie, not wasting any more time, acted on her own thought processes, and aimed one of her latches towards the roof of one of the buildings that probably housed the sniper, and pulled.

She stepped onto the ledge of the roof, and surveyed her surroundings.

The sniper was having a frustrating day. The kid who had surprised even her with his cabinet based ambush, and she couldn’t take the shot she wanted at him after he went after the truck driver since she couldn’t get a clear shot. Then she had gone after the portal creator, but one of the kids had again foiled her. The woman gave a cold smirk. He was going to regret that decision. She would have finished him off then and there if prior business hadn’t brought itself back into the equation. Things were going south but...she did have a bargain to keep. The woman took aim at their little canary on the roof, and set up her shot. She went to pull the trigger…

As her body went through the motions, she heard the sound of footsteps. Startled she turned her head, shot going wide. “What the hell? How the fuck did you get up here.” She pointed her rifle at the newcomer.

“Get the hell off my roof.”

Outside >> Earlier - Chris's POV:

The last soldier stopped at first, not sure of what to think of this seemingly unstoppable teen who was now holding the escape driver’s guns. He stood in fear for a second, and then, very slowly, dropped his gun. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite done, as anger reignited his rage and determination. He glanced over at the slumped form of the southern gentleman, and then drew a knife from his belt. Holding said knife in one hand, and pulled another pink gas grenade from the other. He pointed the knife at Chris, and screamed.

“YOU KILLED MY FATHER, PREPARE TO DIE!”

Letting out a roar and putting his faith in his armour, the teen charged at Chris, knife raised high, a plume of pink smoke following behind as he charged the teen who had caused everything to go wrong in a cabinet based fashion.

Chris should have shot him ages ago. How he hadn’t as soon as the man started gearing up was a mystery. Now it was too late. Father. The word hit him like a battering ram to the chest, and much of the other words in the sentence were not so kind. His finger fell out of the trigger, the gun fell out of his hands. In the few seconds between him and his attacker, his heart pounding and head pin-pricked with perspiration, he tore himself apart inside. Maybe he deserved to die.

He tried to make his peace with the rapidly approaching serrated steel. To no avail. An instant too late, primal instinct kicked in, and he swung his hands up to the soldier’s hand and elbow, reverting to his most basic training: shomenuchi ikkyo. His hand, as far as his nervous system was concerned, exploded as he began his end of the technique. His face splattered with hot blood, he flinched. The knife had caught his hand on the way to the grab. Even as his hand continued past it and made the grab, the pain of contact with his wound and the slippery blood caused him to slip, and his hand went past its target.

He still had his left hand on the man’s elbow, and he was still out of the way of the swing. He pushed against the soldier and staggered sideways, tripping over the empty cabinet shelf.

The soldier, let out another hoarse scream, and continued his assault on the fallen Chris. The smoke had now begun to take effect, and Chris would have felt his powers abandon him. The soldier, now with a hot streak of crimson along his mask moved forward, the canister of smoke now spent dropped out of his hand, leaving only his knife. Something was strange however, and the knife he had previously held with such conviction was now shaky and loose. The soldier threw himself on Chris, pinning him down with his legs as he raised up to deliver the final blow.

But the blade never descended down onto Chris, and if he were to look up, he’d make eye contact with the teen behind the mask. His whole body was shaking, and tears were rolling down his face, to the point that even the mask couldn’t hide them. Chris saw confusion, fear, anger and sorrow in the eyes of the teen. The knife was still raised high, but seemed trapped in the air. The soldier let out only one word.

“Why…”

“I-I…” Chris’s throat ached with the precursor to tears, mind racing and empty all at once. “I’m sor-” he choked “Sorry.”

The teen shook his head, body still shaking. His voice was low, as if struggling to contain his emotion. “Sorry won’t… sorry won’t bring him back.” The teen shook his head. “This was supposed to be quick… in and out. Why did you all have to screw it up!” The teen let out a frustrated scream. “Why!?”

“I-” Chris closed his eyes for a second, squeezing the tears down his face and out of his vision. Something in him suddenly clicked. Something in the words hit a brick wall in his mind. “... Wh-what… What did you say? Wh- Why?” Chris’s expression slowly hardened, coming to terms with the idea that he already knew the answer to his next question. Looking the soldier straight in the eye: “Why? You first.”

The soldier’s hand shook, for some reason, he couldn’t help but continue to talk and scream as tears rolled down his face. “Nobody was supposed to die dammit! Just in and out… grab the red haired lady… my dad said he would be proud…” He let out a frustrated cry. “He’s never proud of me… I’ve always been a failure. But now… now he’s dead!” He drew the knife close to Chris’ throat, but stopped before it met flesh. “All I wanted was…” The teen bit back tears. “All I wanted was him to be proud of me… And now he’s gone!”

“Nobody was sup- herk -supposed to die?” Chris gestured however he could towards the guns and the injured director. “The- cough - think about that for a second. Why would you-” Chris made his move, taking advantage of the teen’s trauma and apparent attention to conversation.

He flashed upon his mother teaching him martial arts. The lesson she gave him after Garth Simpson beat him up in second grade. “手中的天空” she said. Chris thrust both hands upwards, inside the teen’s arms.

“扫圈” Chris widened his arms and lowered his hands, bending the teen’s elbows as far as they would go. The knife nicked the front of Chris’s neck, missing anything vital. Now the knife was too high to do anything more, and the soldier’s grasp was tenuous, but not so as to drop it.

“飞机俯冲” Chris sent his hands into the teen’s shoulders and rolled over on top of him, switching places. “Sorry.” Chris hit the teen’s chin to the sidewalk with his right palm, twice. The aim was to knock him out, the strike likely to cause concussion with or without body armor.

Chris’s blow struck true, and the surprised soldier lay unconscious on the ground, the remnants of tears still rolling down his face.

Chris sat panting on his sparring partner for a second, failing to catch his breath, before he realized that holy shit did he hurt. After the first omnipresent wave of pain, he could differentiate the pain in his ankle, leg, neck, hands, side… Side? He looked down to see that a whole quarter of his shirt, the lower right one, was covered in blood and still bleeding. “Oh.” he remarked, touching the wound, causing it to spike in pain. “Bullets…”

He fell onto his back and crawled, painfully, away from the unconscious soldier. “Fuuuuuuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!” went his progress dragging himself to the side of the van. He sat up against it, panting, and after a minute opened his eyes, pointed limply at the sky, and said “h-h-heh heh… Prissy.”

Then he passed out.

Rooftop:

Jamie clicked her tongue in annoyance, one hand rubbing her ear. The shot still rang in her ears, and she hadn’t heard a single thing the sniper said, but letter’s intent was clear. There was nothing else she could do, but to strike first, then. She held her hands forwards, as if she were cradling an invisible rifle, and winked.

Then she pulled the trigger on the sniper’s rifle, now in her hands and the barrel directed now at its previous owner.

The sniper wasn’t sure how to react at first, simply staring in shock at her rifle as if it had betrayed her for half a second, before her instincts took over and she darted to the side, taking cover behind a vent and screaming angrily. “So you're one of the damn freaks too huh?” She pulled her sidearm, a simple pistol from her side.

“Let’s dance sunshine!” Popping up from cover, the woman took two quick shots before ducking back down behind her cover.

The duel had truly begun.

Jamie slipped behind her own set of cover, her first shot’s recoil knocking it way off the mark. She won’t miss again. “Whoa there, ‘freaks’ is kinda stretching it, my huckleberry friend.” She tried to peek over her cover, only to have two shots force her back behind it. “I prefer the term ‘living paranoia fuel’.” She checked the rifle for the next chambered bullet, then dived out of the cover, rolling into a crouched position,

and pointed the rifle at the head of the sniper, the muzzle touching her temple.

“I’ve never done this before. And, for once in my life, I’m just going to beg you to not be my first time. Drop the gun and walk away, or I’m going to be forced to blow my load on you.

That's when, leaping through Marianne's portal, Kendrick landed on the rooftop and quickly hid behind the roof door structure.

The girl, who was most certainly a student, had managed to hold the sniper in place, setting the rifle very close to her. He wouldn't have another opportunity like this!

Picturing the maneuver in his mind, and relaying it to his team, Ted and Kefir started 'Operation: hide’. It had that name because it was what Kendrick used to quickly close his notebook when someone entered his bedroom without being called.

Coming from behind the structure, the teddy bear was riding the metal lion and both of them headed into the battlefield. After catching a good speed, Kefir crouched down, fast enough to launch Ted up in the air, and the plush stuck out his right leg forward.

Unlike the normal ‘Operation: hide’, the goal here was not to close a notebook but, to kick a sniper in the face.

The sniper started laughing at first, quietly but persistently. This girl had spunk after all, if she wasn’t trying to kill her...maybe she wouldn’t be so bad, but for now she was the biggest threat. Unlike the rest of the knights who had attacked, the sniper actually had military experience, so where others might have broken down or delayed, instincts took over, and the sniper began to move. A practiced maneuver, a surprise attack that pushed the rifle away from her head as she brought up the pistol to finish off the girl who pestered her.

And then she was kicked in the face by a plush teddy bear.

The surprise and force of the kick sent her sprawling to the ground, shot going wide and missing her mark. She looked up in shock at the foe that surprised her, a...teddy bear? Was it some kind of controlled thing? The sniper growled and spun around, before realizing there was some kind of cat thing too. She was outnumbered…

Still, she was nothing if not persistent to the cause, and she started to retreat towards the staircase, firing one shot at Jaimie to pin her down behind cover, before aiming a barrage at the weird teddy bear thing that had ambushed her. She’d make it pay if she could…that and she needed to escape, Raguel would want to know what the hell happened here.

Not long after Kendrick came in, Mary stepped onto the roof. As the sniper was distracted by both Jamie and Kendrick, she swiftly moved to where the Director laid hidden from view. It didn’t take long for Mary to lift her by arms and hoisted her up. Knowing she was still within their earshot, she spoke. “You said something about lunch. After this, we are all going to lunch and it will be my treat.”

Then she left with the director as fast as she arrived, the portal closed behind her.

The sounds of someone falling down informed Kendrick that 'Operation: hide' had been a success. He gave a little peek on the action to see how things were going and was worried sick when he saw the sniper point her pistol at Ted.

Quickly, He made the teddy bear bounce around in an attempt to dodge the shots, but the last one still managed to make a hole one of the plush's ear. Kendrick felt a single, sharp instant pain from the feedback, but held himself together.

It was time for the rest of the team to join the fight.

The remaining toys got out from behind the roof door and Kefir and Ted joined them. Lt. George jumped on Kefir and stuck his rifle out, he would poke the sniper with it as Kefir leaped and swatted at the woman's right leg with a front paw. Meanwhile, Harry had been charging full speed in direction of her left foot, and Ted was right behind ready to leap and punch the woman as soon as the miniature car had crashed onto her.

The sniper was starting to get pissed off at all the plushies. She had started to line up a shot to finish off the bear when more of the damn things jumped out of her. She had been forced onto the defensive, being attacked on one foot before being charged at the other. Unfortunately for Kendrick’s small army of toys, the sniper had become quite good at tracking her awareness, so as the toy car attacked, it found itself the victim of a hard kick, sending it sprawling away with repeated clacks where it lay upright, wheels finding nothing to drive on as they uselessly pointed at the sky. “Damn things…” The woman muttered, until Ted’s second attack struck her again, knocking her back slightly. “God damn you!” She called out, starting to get frustrated with the repeated attacks. She kept retreating, but found she was running out of space. In one desperate breakaway, she managed to clear the small horde of toys, and found herself at the edge of the roof, back facing the streets away from the commonwealth building. She had her pistol out, pointed at whoever would move. She had a grim look on her face, this wasn’t good. Still, she had a clear line of fire at whichever toy moved first...but she wasn’t sure she had time to reload, and she was running low on ammo. “You brats put up a hell of a fight, you know that?” She smirked. “Resourceful little bastards you are.”

Jamie chucked the rifle aside, and straightened up from her hiding place. The sniper had revealed herself again, the only weakness that Jamie needed. She waved one hand, and plucked the pistol out from the air. She released the magazine from the gun, and let it clatter on the floor next to her, before discarding the pistol behind her. “That’s enough, miss. Can’t we just talk this over a cup of coffee? Preferably, amicably? Heck, if you're the type for tea, I could hazard a Darjeeling.”

“Much as I’d love to sunshine, I think I’ll have to take a rain cheque for now. Name’s Jessabelle.” The woman gave Jamie a quick wink before pulling a normal smoke grenade from her belt. Tossing it up into the air and blowing the super a quick kiss before falling back arms wide to either side falling jesus style towards the streets below.

After a couple seconds of freefall, she activated her boots with a click of the heels, and her boots let out a whir as the technology magnetized onto the building with a dull clang. She slid for a bit, and almost lost her balance before regaining control of herself and running down the rest of the wall with practiced ease. As she reached the ground, she deployed more smoke bombs, and another click of the heels had her speeding towards one of the nearby abandoned cars and moments later all could be heard among the smokey road was the tearing away of the sound of burning rubber.

Jamie could feel the heat on her cheeks, and she was experienced enough to realise that she was blushing. She touched the bill of her cap and dipped her head, hiding her stupid grin from any onlookers, and gave a sigh. One hand grasped at her heart, feeling the quickening pace, before she accepted the one clear fact:

She was in love.

She sat down on the rooftop, and looked on as her newest obsession sped off into the sunset in her new ride, giving another lovelorn sigh. What style, what...panache. She absolutely must see her again.

Since it got more silent, Kendrick took a peek from behind the structure to notice the sniper had been gone.

The boy got out of behind the roof door and finally revealed himself, laughing.

Despite the damage, battling the sniper had been fun. Oh, how he wish he could have seen the woman's face when a group of toys started assaulting her, seemingly from nowhere!

As he moved towards Harry, who was upside down, the remaining toys got out of battle instance and started following him around. The miniature's car damage wasn't more than a few scratches on the paint. Kendrick made a mental note to ask someone to buy him red paint to fix this later.

Next, he waited Ted to approach him before crouching down and inspecting his injured ear further. Almost 3/4 of it was gone, the circular mark where the bullet had hit the teddy, left a burned circumference in the exit. He sighed and added fabric and cotton to his mental list. Petra would have to rebuild his ear while he wasn't at home...

"You did well buddy.", He petted Ted in the head, "You all did good, I'm very proud of you all.", Kendrick smiled at his friends, still with a bit of sorrow, before getting back up and noticing the girl sitting by the rooftop.

"I believe, this is the part where you say 'Thank You'.", the boy let out, trying to get her attention.

Jamie didn’t seem to have heard him. If she did, she did not respond. At least, not immediately. After a moment of silence, she raised her cap and brushed back her wild hair, then replaced her cap. Only then did she turn to face the boy. Her expression was not one of gratitude, but of something between anger and disappointment.

“I had it under control,” she sniffed disdainfully. “But thanks for letting this one get away too.” Jamie sighed again and pulled her knees to her chest, turning away from the boy. “Lady Luck is just playing hardball today, ain’t she?”

"Huh?!", the girl's contempt stroke a nerve.

It was being the HECK of a day already and this person made absolutely NO sense... Plus, that damn sniper shot one of them, for the love of God!

Kendrick took a deep breath, he actually felt like facepalming but refrained from doing so, instead, running his hand through his face, buying time to find some patience to deal with her:

"Look, this is not my plan. I'm simply following it. If you have a problem with me helping, then you should discuss it with Marianne... LATER.", despite the formality, the fact that he was annoyed shone right through, "Right now, I'd be glad to get back home in one piece, thank you very much."

"Also, since I mentioned Marianne... She's waiting for us and we shouldn't let her do so for too long or, She'll think we died or something... You're supposed to take me back down too.", he didn't even wait for her to reply before continuing, at this point, all the boy wanted was to get back and end this pointless exchange as soon as possible.

“Ugh, fine.” Jamie straightened up and rubbed the back of her neck. “One way ticket down, here we go. Hold on tight, and don’t let the quantum zombies touch you.” She took one glance down over the edge of the building, then grabbed the boy by his wrist, and

then they were on the ground floor again. Jamie released the boy and glanced about. The van was still parked all the ways over the end of the road, and the place still looked like a frat party of supers tore through it. But no sight of the Marianne that the boy was talking about. She aimed a questioning look at the boy and raised her eyebrows.

One minute he was in the rooftop, the next he was already back down, right outside the Commonwealth building. The boy hadn't had the time to do anything...

"Woa.", Kendrick let out impressed.

He ignored the girl beside him and turned around, it was similar to how he imagined an action movie set would look like, after the footage. The filing cabinet had been smashed in the impact, some of the drawers had been removed and thrown about. In the floor laid down the guns, knives and empty grenade cases used in the assault. It was total and complete chaos! You would expect trained terrorists to be at least more organized but clearly, it was the opposite. Or, perhaps they hadn't been trained enough? Either way, he felt pity for the person who would have to clean this mess...

And then it hit him. He was alone. I mean, the girl was still there, but nothing else.

Oh, OH NO. That's it he had had enough of this, Scarlet killing his mood, terrorist attack, he was probably in trouble for not getting back home in time, the damn cellphone has no signal and he can't warn ANYONE, Kennith got shot, helping someone and NOT having his efforts appreciated, because THIS TIME, HE WASN'T BEING COMPLETELY USELESS, and now, NOW TED AND COMPANY HAD BEEN LEFT ON THE GODDAMN ROOF! How could he REMAIN ANY CLOSE to calm after all THAT??

He turned around back at the girl and she had this doubting, eyebrow raised look on her face, and Kendrick just lost it. The teenager pointed straight at her and let it all out:

"Now. You listen here. I've been dealing with all of this pretty well, a DAMN TERRORIST ATTACK happened, a kid GOT SHOT right next to me, I can't BLOODY CALL AN AMBULANCE, I risked MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS RESCUING YOU and you didn't even as much THANKED ME and you left EVERYONE behind in the BLOODY ROOF. Everyone must be going INSANE at home, I can't CALL them and tell them I'm OKAY, my dad is going to kill me if he ever discover I was in the middle of a GODDAMN FIGHT and IF I SAID THAT MARIANNE EXISTS, THEN SHE EXISTS and I HAVE TO GO FIND HER NOW, TO GET MY TOYS OUT OF THE ROOF thanks to YOU. Now, sit back and DO NOTHING as I search for her and for God's sake, think before you act young lady, think."

After a deep breath, Kendrick wandered away from Jamie, looking for Marianne to ask her a favor.

“Stop.” Jamie raised her head just a little, just enough for her eyes to peek out from under her cap. The boy would find that his progress away from the girl was reset back to nil, and was right back in front of her. “Shut the fuck up and listen, young man. I’m not here for a vacation. I’m here because your fucking Aegis eggheads thought I needed a card. Furthermore, I didn’t ask for a rescue. If anything, had you not jumped in all gungho-like, I’d’ve been sipping coffee with a nice lady right now. I didn’t need your damn rescuing, and I don’t need to thank you for a thankless job. That’s what you supers were supposed to do, ain’t it? Save people? Well, get used to it. No one ever thanks real heroes, just have meaningless holidays for their deaths. D’you think I give a shit about your friends? You shoulda just watched your own backs.” Jamie spat on the floor and wiped the flecks of saliva off her lips. “That’s the way of the world since the beginnin’. The weak die, and the strong live. Evolution. Darwin. Your friend died, big whoop. Sacrifices had to be made, and were made. Count yourself lucky you ain’t the one bleedin’ and dyin’ right now.” She took a look up the rooftop, and gave another growl. “And how the fuck was I supposed to know you were a big boy still playing with your fucking toys? Was I supposed to be your personal minder in my past life or something?” Jamie turned on her heels. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, why don’t you have a good cry about your toys in a corner. This young lady’s got things to do.” Jamie snapped her fingers and vanished.

Kendrick just stood there, his mouth agape. He had never been countered like this before, and he didn't really knew how to react. Usually, he talked and people listened, and people obeyed, but this girl, this girl had the nerve to reply even further. It was mesmerizing.

Feeling a strange mix of disgust, admiration and confusion, the boy stood frozen in place, wondering what the heck had just happened as the only sound around him was the wind:

"I'm not crying in the corner... I'm just, worried sick...", he muttered to no one in particular.

That's when he heard someone call his name from behind...

Marianne's POV:

Both Kennith and the Director were laid down under the relatively safe cover of receptionist desk. Mary’s next destination was the van. One portal and a step later, she opened the van’s front door. The driver was still there, beaten up and unconscious. With a bit struggle, Mary managed to drag him out of the van. For a moment she had an internal debate whether to leave him there or move him with the others. Well, it can be decided later, she thought. She moved on to the next task: checking the back of the van.

When she opened the back door, what she saw there was not too far from what she had expected. There were weapons, first aid kit, rope, and many other useful tools. But the most important thing was that there’s enough space for the injured people. Satisfied with this, Mary moved the portal closer to her and stepped back into the lobby. Knelt under the receptionist desk, she reached out to the nearest person- who happened to be director Scarlet- and carefully dragged her through portal into the van. She would have immediately come back to get Kennith, but by a chance Mary caught a glimpse of the other side of the van, and what she saw stopped her on her track. “Holy-!”

The previous hooded boy was there and there’s so much blood. “Hey-” she rushed towards and knelt beside him. “Hey, are you still awake?” No answer. Nope, he was completely out cold. And she thought Kennith’s condition was bad enough. Dragging him right now would make the bleeding worsen- but wasn’t it better to haul him into the van and drive as fast as possible to the nearest hospital? No, the blood wasn’t black, mean at least he didn’t get stabbed in the liver. There’s still hope then. Mary stood up and sprint to the back of the van to get that first aid kit that she saw before. Wait, was that Kendrick she saw across the street? “Kendrick!” she waved to him. “Glad you’re alive and well- but please come here, someone else is dying!”

"Another one?!", the boy let out surprised, being taken out of his thoughts at once.

Holding his conductor hat with a hand to make sure it was not taken by the wind, Kendrick turned around and rushed to Marianne's encounter:

"Okay. I'm here. What can I help you with?", he asked, already back to his usual more level-headed self.

Mary looked at him from head to toe. “You really are not injured!” she said with relief. “Did you beat the sniper? About help-” she grabbed the first aid box, “Help me move that guy into the van. He is worse than Kennith.”

Kendrick smirked at her:

"Beat the sniper? She ran away with the tail between her legs! Wish I could have seen it!", he laughed softly, "The other girl did pretty well too."

"Now without further ado..."

The boy moved towards the hooded boy beside the van and just stared for a second. It was messy, really messy and the was so much blood and though he was worried and also a little nauseous, he couldn't help but to think how much it would stain his current garments, beyond fixing. Goodbye light blue shirt and black vertical striped blazer, you'll be missed, until I can replace you...

Holding in the will to panic again, Kendrick crouched beside the other boy:

"W-where am I supposed to h-hold him?...", he asked a little shaken.

“Lift him by his shoulders, if you may.” Mary answered. She thought it would be easier if Kendrick do that, since he was taller than her. “I will hold him by his knees.” Seeing how he looked a bit shaken, she added. “But if the blood bother you, we can change place.” she shrugged.

"N-No. I offered to help so, I AM going to help.", Kendrick replied stubbornly, "A Haywood should always keep his word."

Despite how gruesome and messy it looked, the boy's pride wouldn't let him back down. Also If he did, there was a probability that Marianne would never let him forget this display of cowardice.

Kendrick moved closer to the injured boy, now in a proper position to comply with what he had been asked to do, and nodded at her with conviction:

"I'm ready."

“A Haywood, huh.” For some reason Mary looked a bit amused by this, although she quickly revert back to serious mode. “Alright, put him in that position. One, two-”

With two people, it’s easier to move the injured boy into the van. They put him beside the director, and after that Mary dealt with the wound as much as she could.

Unseen by the two, a capped figure materialised behind them, holding in her hands a mountain of toys. She bit her lower lip and thought to approach the boy, but, after quite a while of wrestling with her own pride, she decided to lay the toys aside, out of the way to avoid getting any more beat up, but just in the way enough to be spotted. Wordlessly, she vanished again.

Gus · Aug 28, 2016

Flight of the Valkyries Flashback Part 2

Sunday January 15th 11:42 pm

Baltimore Zoo

A two door sleek black electric car turned off of Beechwood and rolled quietly into the turnout of Safari Place. The driver killed the engine and the lights, lurking just outside the edges of the pool of illumination cast by the nearest street lamp. The doors opened and two men climbed out looking about furtively. The man in the street pulled something like binoculars off of his belt and held them up to his eyes. His compatriot, the driver, came around beside him, squinting in the direction he was looking across the grass and through the trees toward the main entrance.

“Is that him? It's him, isn't it. I can tell by his gait. What's he doing here d'y'spose?”

“Shut the fuck up, Joey.”

“That's hardly called for!”

“Oh but it is. If I don't remind you, you forget your charm doesn't work on me.”

“Hmph. I'm going to wait in the car if you're going to be like that.”

“Good.”

“Fine.”

The driver climbed back in and closed the door. His companion slunk through the lightly wooded area, stopping by each tree to peek through his binocular device. When he got to the edge of the trees, he stopped and waited, watching a very large man wandering aimlessly around the zoo entrance. Eventually the man wandered off toward the parking lot toward the northwest. The man with the binoculars watched him go, and when he was long gone, he stepped out and had a look around. His eyes swept the area, as if taking in every little detail of it. Some areas he investigated more closely, taking samples, photographs. He walked down Safari until it met Beechwood again, crossed to the small lot where a few vehicles had been left over night. Two of them had already been marked for towing, meaning they had been abandoned for more than 24 hours. He walks over to the red one, an ancient Subaru Justy. He pulls out his binocular device and, holding it at arm's length, swept the sensor end back and forth over the car. He peeked at the read outs, nodded to himself. He looked up at the recently repaired power lines, then spread out an old school paper map and some kind of blueprints on the hood of the car, examining them with a small high powered flashlight. He shut off the light and stared up at the sky, but with eyes shut tight, lips moving almost imperceptibly. After a moment, he folded the papers back up and put them in an inner pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a tiny box and spoke into it.

“Joey, get over here. And Fathiyya? We found your big boy at the zoo. You two better hop to before you lose him again. ...how you lose somebody who walks that slow is beyond me.” This last was muttered to himself as he put the box away.

A minute or so later, the black two-door glid to a stop beside him and he got in. He punched an address into the car's navigational assistant and put his seat back, closed his eyes. The driver looked at the address and whistled low.

“That's pretty far!”

“Well you'd better stop talking and start driving then, genius.”

“You're a real dick sometimes, Tony.”

“Anthony.”

“Yeah, that'll stick any day now. Keep saying it.”

“Just drive.”

The car slipped away up the road and was gone.

Monday January 16th 3:45 pm

Somewhere in western Pennsylvania

The car was dusty from the dirt road as it stopped by the fence. The gate stood slightly ajar, held closed only by some kind of off brand police caution tape used by professions that lack the authority to demand you keep out and have to stick to strong suggestions. Tony and Joey walked up to the gate, stretching their legs and lower backs as they went. Tony produced a box cutter from his jacket and swiftly sliced through the caution tape. The gate swung outward under its own weight, and Joey caught it, examining the latch as Tony walked in.

“Hey Tony!”

“Yeah?”

“The latch looks, melted or something...”

“Yep.”

“So how do we know it's safe in there? There's all kinds of high voltage signs all over.”

“Listen a second.”

“I don't hear anything.”

“Exactly. Power substations hum when they are active. This one is dead as a doornail.”

Joey shrugged and let go of the gate, which swung wide, and he walked in. The two men cut through another web of caution tape and stepped in between the giant transformers. On the ground between the towers there is a mess of wire that has tumbled out of their ruined walls, and burned into the copper wire is a distinct silhouette of a human body. They glance at each other and Tony pulls out his little black box.

“Hey Rae? Tell the director he guessed right after all. Comptroller. Fine, I don't care what the fuck he wants to call himself. No. No, he's long gone. Ten, maybe elven hours. He's in the wind. What should we do? Seriously?! Shit.”

He put the box back in his pocket, glared at Joey for lack of other targets for his ire.

“Man, we seriously need a bigger labor pool...”

Necessity4Fun · Aug 29, 2016

Kendrick Haywood

He would have loved to stay and have lunch with the others now that everything was fine again, but with the lack of phone signal Kendrick couldn't inform anyone about anything. They were surely growing worried back at his house.

Since he couldn't call anyone, the boy decided to walk back. He had to take his blazer out and fold it in a way the blood splatters wouldn't show as he carried it. The light blue shirt, though also a bit dirty, would not cause people to run towards him and ask nosy questions.

When he finally got back home, Kendrick barely had the time to enter since as soon as he opened the door people came towards him relieved:

"Oh Lord, Master Kendrick you're alive!", it was a boy he didn't really remembered the name of.

"Hey, Maya! No need to try connecting to the police anymore, Master Kendrick is finally home", someone else from inside screamed towards the lady in the phone.

"He is?!", the lady, that clearly was called Maya replied in surprise.

"Why didn't you call home? I'd have sent Igor to get you!!"

The last voice was Petra, and she looked legitimately worried about him, not her job like most of the others probably were:

"It wasn't for lack of trying, but there was no signal... And, we got attacked at the building."

"THERE TOO?", the maid replied in surprise.

"Wait a minute. Too?"

There had been more attacks today? Thinking again, The streets were quiet, TOO QUIET.

Kendrick finally crossed to the living room and turned the television on. At this point, it had been a while since the mall inside and the channels were all focused in relaying the footages and reports of the survivors. It was horrifying, could be something straight from a horror movie:

"E-excu-se me...", the boy threw his backpack and blazer in the couch and dashed to the bathroom.

As soon as he got there Kendrick threw up.

He had been holding it the whole day but the images in from the news threw him back at the attack at Commonwealth, Kennith's shot in the arm, the hooded guy passed out in a pool of blood, the scattered knifes and weapons...

To calm down, the teenager lead by the sink and for the first time after this crazy morning, he looked himself in the mirror, and just realized how terrible and messy he was!

Immediately, he called one of the servants to clean the mess and went to take a bath upstairs, of course he also ordered someone to discard today's clothes, they were beyond saving.

Now clean and relaxed, the boy was in his bedroom.

In the bed laid the emptied backpack as all of the toys were back in their usual places, but above his desk were several notes.

Each note had the inform of a teacher that was supposed to come for his extra home-classes, as usual, but they all cancelled, probably because they were concerned with the attacks.

To Kendrick, that meant some free time.

He leaned closer to table and pressed the servant-call button. Instantly, the internal communication system turned on and a voice replied:

"Yes, Master Kendrick?", it was pretty obvious who had the answered call.

"Petra, would you be up for a chess round?"

The maid at the other side laughed softly:

"Sure, but you're aware you always win, right? Shouldn't you be looking for a better opponent?", she teased.

"Maybe next time. I could REALLY use a friendly conversation right now."

"Usual place?"

"Usual place."

And thus, Kendrick grabbed his chess set and went to the library to meet Petra. It wasn't an actual library, just a room with books and paintings but it was quiet enough for them to enjoy the time.

At the first round, he checkmated the maid in just a few moves. As they kept going the rounds became longer. Whether it was Petra getting in the game or Kendrick going easy on her, didn't really matter. They were having fun.

Petra played while recalling older stories of the boy's childhood. Kendrick got flustered and denied some of the facts, while he manipulated the pieces around on his turn. As they kept on playing, the library was filled with laughter.

Despite the world being pure chaos outside, the rest of the Saturday went on, peaceful and enjoyable inside the Haywood's household.

Episode 2.5: After the End, but Before the Beginning

welian

#BlackLivesMatter

TerraBooma

Two Thousand Club

Gus

Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

ManicMuse

I ax-o-lotl questions.

ManicMuse

I ax-o-lotl questions.

Gus

Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

Captain Hesperus

Harbinger of the End Times and Apostle of Ghan

lazee

give me oblivion

yoikes

The (Not So) Evil Mastermind

Gus

Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

DJ MagicHat

Powerful Wizard

RemainingQuestions

Knight of Doom

Necessity4Fun

I'll keep trying, even if I'm not good enough...

Necessity4Fun

I'll keep trying, even if I'm not good enough...

Gus

Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

Necessity4Fun

I'll keep trying, even if I'm not good enough...

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