MidwayLives
"What's your favorite scary movie...?"
"The Gifted are Great, the Gifted are Good! Uncle Sam go Home! Uncle Sam no more!"
It wasn't the catchiest chant in the world and if the United States government had any say in it, it'd NEVER catch on.
Which is why exactly seven years ago to the day in Tucson, Arizona, a battalion of the US Army with tanks, APCs, and dozens of soldiers standing at the ready, were staring down a sizeable crowd of demonstrators. Many of whom were carrying signs that demanded the Feds turn around and leave, others had slogans tattooed across their bare skin. Many of the demonstrators may have 'looked' normal to the average person walking past. Most people didn't stop to take in the finer details of their everyday lives. But unbeknown to most, they shared their world with a group of individuals known as 'Gifted.' They came with different sets of abilities that often dictated how well they'd blend into 'normal' society. But one thing that united them all in their misery was how, even going as far back as when Spain and Portugal divided the Americas between the two of them, Gifted were discriminated against and seen as a constant aberration of God's work. Freaks and beasts who carried man's sins everywhere they went. At a certain point, the Great Powers of the world made an agreement that under no circumstances were Gifted to ever be allowed to 'live carefree and under the light of God as though they were men.' An agreement that's lasted to the modern age, with some hiccups here and there (Napoleon, The Central Powers of World War 1/The Axis of the Second World War, etc)
If one wished to live freely as a Gifted, as their true selves, they'd have to either accept the likelihood that the government would either capture them under penalty of death for either themselves or the Gifted's loved ones. To exist as little more than a living and breathing pawn. To be used in proxy wars at their government's choosing, black ops type missions, assassinations or just as mindless warriors. With no regard given to their own feelings or concerns. Or you'd have to constantly fight the authorities, never having a moment's peace, always paranoid that the Government will attempt to strike when your guard is down or that anyone you might attempt to trust will betray you at some point. Neither were any way to live. An ice elemental from a small village in France knew that even as a young boy. Gifted lived alongside Normals with little to no fuss or intervention from the government. It was likely only accepted due to the fact that everyone generally got on well, so to come in and indiscriminately begin massacring your own citizens to try and keep to a thousands year old document would only feed the flame of rebellion and if you pushed too hard? You could risk a full on Gifted-lead rebellion with the majority of the populace supporting it. France decided then to pick it's battles a touch more wisely and let the village continue to exist while also doing their best to keep any news of it from getting out overseas.
The realization that neither normals nor Gifted had to hate each other? That one didn't have to dominate the other. It'd throw into jeopardy everything that some of the ruling parties in other countries had been screaming and clinging to with such reverence.
The young boy didn't care about any of that. He had his parents, his grandparents, and the love of his community.
...."Come here, boy! Come....here!"
"Let me go!"
"I said come here, you little son of a-"
"I said...LET ME GO!!!"
The young boy had been accosted by an older man. If others had seen the interaction, brief as it was, it wouldn't have been difficult at all to the paint the man as a pervert. Attempting to spirit the boy away with compliments and false promises. The boy was smarter than that and continued to refuse the stranger's advances. All until he simply lost control of his Gift for the briefest of moments. Despite his immediate regret, it was too late. He'd broken the unspoken taboo and had taken the life of a Normal. The authorities would never accept self-defense as an excuse. 'Your abilities are unnatural. You're a blight from God. How could any regular man have ever been such a threat to a creature like you?" The boy was an ice elemental-some of the strongest Gifted both in the past and present were of the Elemental typing and this boy hailed from a powerful lineage. His parents were ice elementals as were his father's but on his mother's side? His maternal grandfather had been a White Fire elemental, one of the rarest and most powerful typing there were. He'd since passed on by the time the boy was born, a shock since elementals could live well over 500 years. The boy had always wished he could have spoken to him. To see how life may have been for him when he was younger, if the divide was greater.
But it appeared that it wasn't meant to be.
The boy's parents were horrified. The authorities would try to take their only son and either write him off as an uncontrollable asset and kill him or turn him into a soldier against his will. If the villagers tried to band together to aid the boy and his family? Chances were high that the military would be called in and more would lose their lives. Every decision seemed like grabbing a sharper knife by the blade. Until a man who claimed to be from the US, despite his incredibly thick German accent, showed up on the family's doorstep and promised that he'd keep their son out of harm's way. ...All they had to do in return was sign over custody to him. It broke their hearts but if they had to choose between losing their son forever and letting him grow up in assumed safety, it was a simple decision to make. Once the papers had been signed, the man assured that everything would be cleared up with France and that the family would hear from their son again very soon.
The boy never saw his parents or his home country ever again.
He even lost his name.
"Renee Moreau? Hmmm...Well, can't have you coming to America with baggage can we? No, you need a new name I'm afraid. Something with poise, something that leaps out at you. Something that says 'hello, I'm an American and I'm proud of it! ...I know! How about...? Zeke?"
Zeke....
"Zeke!"
The ice elemental's eyes snapped awake as he rolled to his feet, a black-haired woman-couldn't have been older than twenty- lay nearby on a makeshift sleeping bag with a toddler bundled under her arms. 'Zeke' as he'd been branded by the US GOVT, stood at around six feet, zero inches and had a dark blue hoodie hanging loosley over his broad shoulders. A plain black t-shirt clung to his chest wet from having woken in a cold sweat. Brushing a hand through his cool white hair, he dusted off what looked to be snowflakes from the top of his head. "The Shade....What's wrong?" Zeke asked, his Parisian accent still clinging to his words even after years of living in America, bags under his eyes as his yellow eyes stared at the figure standing a few feet away from him. He'd called the man 'The Shade' and it was a fitting enough moniker.
Shadows swirled around the Shade's person, obscuring the cane he'd needed to walk without a visible limp, and also masked the clear age difference between the two. Zeke was chronologically only eighteen but would look as though he were at his peak for years to come. It was only when elementals started to lose their mental faculties that their physical appearance started to suffer. The Shade had been 'working' for the government since before Zeke was even born and had used his Gift, [I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW], of the Physical typing to control his shadow and have it make up for being an old man(late 50s) in a young man's game. Despite the age difference, Zeke still considered The Shade and the rest of the Gifted hiding out with them to be his 'family.' They'd seen much, spilled blood and lost those they'd cared about together. In Zeke's mind, a 'big brother' was what was needed to try and keep everything together.
He'd met The Shade and those he'd consider his 'blood brothers' at a military base disguised as a 1960s-style summer camp. 'Camp Hope' was the name the Feds used. In hindsight, Zeke wasn't sure how much crueler they could have been calling it that. Hope's purpose was to take Gifted individuals that'd been 'bought' or straight up kidnapped from their homes or even countries in Zeke's case, and train them to be good soldiers so that when they turned eighteen? They'd be presented before generals from allied countries to see if they'd be potential fits for that country's 'MGUs (Miltary Gifted Units). During this time, Zeke did many things he's since regretted. Hurting people the government told him to, destroying buildings that were 'suspected' to be housing Gifted terrorists, and even taking innocent lives if they so much as looked too deeply into the existence of Gifted kind. It was only after meeting and forming a rather, ahem, close friendship (his brothers would tease that the chemistry between the two was obvious, much to his other brother Ink's chagrin) with another Gifted named Mai that Zeke started to create a plan to rebel and destroy Camp Hope before it was too late. Mai had been kidnapped from her home country as well-China in her case-and had been subject to all kinds of humiliating experiences like the staff wondering what would happen if Mai 'bred' with other Gifted types (usually considered a Taboo as it made beings known as Surprises-a Gifted that contains elements from two different typing. Zeke's brother Black Ink was a Surprise) and that she was weak and there was no way she'd live long enough to be recruited. Black Ink had attempted to worm his way into her life by painting a false picture of his overall influence among the base-which was to say little to none-only to be soundly beaten in front of his peers after Mai found out the truth and rejected him.
It was by fate (in Zeke's mind) that he and Mai would cross paths not too long after. He'd wished to apologize for Ink's behavior and that of the other boys across Camp Hope for treating Mai so disrespectfully. She accepted it and the two became fast friends, training together, swimming together, and continually pushing the limits to see how much they could get away with before Hope's administrators(one of whom was the very same man who'd 'bought' Zeke) cracked down on them. The key moment that made the two inseperable however was one that neither could have ever expected. The administrator had acquired an infant who's Normal parents simply couldn't handle. His Gift, [MR LONELY] would create mindless golems that resembled Greek statues and bled this foul-smelling white blood substitute and had the strength of ten men. Zeke and Mai were tasked with 'raising the infant as a sick experiment. To foist parenthood upon two teenagers who'd had their own childhood stripped away from them. It was utterly despicable but both Zeke and Mai knew that the baby played no role in it.
Mai called him 'Multi', Zeke approved, and the baby giggled.
Multi it was then.
Aa Zeke and Mai's makeshift family began to grow, the staff at Camp Hope tried to crush the growing rebellious spirit in them. Sending them on their first mission resulted in Mai losing all but one of her cabinmates, saved solely by the fact that she was a fire elemental. Further missions, struggles though they were, only served to strengthen Zeke and Mai's resolve along with the rest of their newfound family. When Zeke and Mai turned eighteen, they sprung their plan into action. Mai wounded the general's guards-to defeat them outright wasn't the goal and likely would have been a suicide mission-and Zeke tore apart the base. The adminastrator was left to rule over a frozen and burning waste. Hundreds of captives fled into the nearby woods. Many of whom would be re-captured or killed. But through the combined efforts of Zeke, Mai, and the friends they'd made, they fled with at least 100 other liberated 'campers.'
They'd been on the run ever since. Moving from city to city, state to state. In order to try and lessen the amount of people they had to try and ferry around, the group attempted to get in contact with local underground Gifted movements to try and spirit away those less capable of surviving on their own (the elderly, the weak, and those who simply didn't have Gifts conductive for combat and would likely have been executed if they were ever recaptured.) By the time they'd settled in Tucson, the original group of escapes had grown down from 107 to 50. Some had been lost to disease that nobody had the equipment/skill or ability yo treat. Others fled in the night and were presumed dead and others had successfully gone into hiding, to try and live another day and hope that society would eventually change. For the most part, the military had been trying to keep from interfering directly lest they kick up too much dirt and the media gets a hold of things before Psykers(military slang for Mental-types) could erase the minds of the masses. Working through mercenary groups and the like. Zeke made it a point to try and avoid killing those that were sent after the group. To try and gain support and show that they were just trying to live in peace. If they murdered everyone who came after them on Uncle Sam's dime, it could be used as propaganda and make it even more difficult if the Army ever officially stepped in.
...Well, today seemed to be the day.
Zeke and co had been taking refuge inside an abanonded automobile factory and supporters of their cause (a mixture of normals and Gifted) had been giving supplies (blankets/food/medical aid) but it wouldn't be too long before they'd have to likely move again. Staying too long put the other people living in the area at risk of being targeted.
"...The Army's here, kid. They're done beatin around the bush."
Zeke paled.
"...You're sure? It's not mercenaries?"
"Used my Shadow to take a peek. It's like Top Gun out there. Tanks, armored carriers, must be at least a thousand or more soldiers. Looks to be one or two MGs in the back."
MGs were the creme of the crop. If you needed something done and utterly wiped out, they were the go-to. Just the fact that they were here meant that the Feds had grown tired of this game of cat and mouse and were either going to take Zeke and the others back by force or they'd burn Tucson to the ground in trying.
"...I can tell you're hesitating, Shade."
"...He's here too."
The Shade refered to the one who'd murdered Mai's friends back when the group were just a bunch of teenagers. A lava elemental gun for hire. He never introduced himself and the kids never bothered to learn his name. He was simply 'The Mercenary.'
"...Those townspeople that've been helping us are sticking their necks out. But...." Both Zeke and the Shade knew it wouldn't be long before people got hurt. "...Okay. Okay. Elliot..." Zeke rarely ever used his brother's real names. He despised 'Zeke' but as the others had grown up calling him that, so it stuck. "...Could you take Multi? I need to speak to Mai."
"...Sure, kid. Just don't mess around. Not on something like this." The Shade's shadow quietly plucked Multi from his erstwhile mother's arms and the two quickly moved to exit the makeshift bedroom(it was the owner's office that Zeke had turned INTO a makeshift bedroom. He'd been sleeping behind the desk.) As the protests grew louder outside, Zeke reached over to shake Mai. "...My love. Please, wake up."
Fuyou-Kay
