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Fantasy City of Heroes (Bettsyboy & DramaKween)

bettsyboy

Four Thousand Club
It all started 3 years ago. An asteroid, Keti - 6646 came remarkably close to earth. The news as they did, stirred up panic across the globe, over 4km in length and weighing over 300 tonnes, it looked to be an asteroid that could cause significant damage. When the day came for the impact, like millions of others before it, it burned up harmlessly in the atmosphere till finally a 50 meter chunk, the largest remaining piece, exploded over the Gobi Desert in China with the force of a small nuclear device. The only casualties were two North Korean defectors fleeing across the desert, one being hit by a chunk of the asteroid, three others recieving partial hearing loss.

Nobody knew what effect this would have in the long term however. Across the globe, individuals who inhaled dust from the asteroid, which drifted and settled across the globe, began to develop certain abilities. People began to control solid matter with their minds, others became impervious to nearly all physical damage, some gained the ability to manipulate the minds of others and some even, the ability to channel elements at will, transforming their bodies in the process. At first many were excited. In the middle east, africa and afghanistan these people faced one of two fates, execution for becoming an abomination, or praise as heroes blessed by god. In other places though, some became celebrities, so famous that existing celebrities began pretending they had powers too. But none really did. In the more shadowy areas of the world however, those with abilities were experimented on, and used as super-soldiers in hundreds of conflicts around the world. But many simply settled diwn, migrating in particular to L.A, where the U.S hoped to gain a monopoly on super-powered humans, but this didn't go as planned.

Black Tuesday it was called, when superhumans tried to assert themselves as a new power on earth. Air Force One was torn down from the sky, the president, VP and much of his cabinet died in the crash. In China government officials including president Xi were attacked in the streets, Beijing and the surrounding countryside became a warzone. Across Europe far-right wing groups attempted to sieze power, with their few super-powered nembers to spearhead their assaults on the european parliment, tge house of lords in the U.K and many others. Mecca was bombed and in the span of 2 weeks after Black tuesday, Israel was wiped off the map, it's population exterminated, the survivors sold as slaves across the region. And L.A, and a wide swathe of land around it, from the southern tip of san Francisco to just across the U.S-Mexico border in Tijuana, an independant nation was declared. With a hundred different names. A nation for the super-powered. Needless to say the Military Emergency government refused to stand for this... that was four months ago, the bombs have been dropping and the guns & missiles have been firing since.

Our story opens on southwest San Bernadino, smoke chokes out the morning sun as the morning is met by the distant rattle of gunfire. Inch by inch the military has been advancing, but every inch is paid for in lives. The highways towards the coast are unuseable, choked up with traffic and abandoned cars. Resistance fighters laden with heavy packs trudge East for another day of combat, "Super humans" dart across the landscape, some to fight, others to help the civilians evacuate. Electricity kicks in at 7am, power, like everything else must be rationed. Across barren, empty streets, radio and tv broadcasts echo with news anchors on the other side of the country reporting on what's going on just outside the people's doors. "Operation Reclaimation comes to the close of it's third month of operations, supreme commander General Don Mattas reports the main force of the so-called "resistance" is finally on the ropes as U.S troops pour into San Bernadino, the general says he is under "no illusions" that there won't be further casualties as this operation has already cost ove r 10,000 military lives, stay with us after the break, this. Is CNN" comes from one house, while the "talking heads" rattle off from another. So few have left their houses this month, many wonder if their neighbours are even still alive. But so many are too scared to eme rge even for a minute to check.
 
Christine Volkov had lost her footing as the cement ground around her shattered when several launched grenades bombarded around her feet. She felt like her ankle was atleast sprained, maybe broken, and she'd acquired some nice new cuts and gashes to her face as she met the jagged concrete ground. She wasn't as young as she used to be. It had been a long time that they'd been on the run, and she was tired. It hadn't been a nice fall. It hadn't been pretty. It didn't feel pretty. Naturally, her light footed husband and rather agile daughter and son had diverted the explosion. Her heavy feet were nothing like the airy ones of her Husband, Jeric, or the smooth gait of her son, Marcellus. Not even Adeline, who was known for being the youngest and at times blatantly clumsy had fallen victim to such a simple assailant. Christine knew that she was holding her family back. She'd known for days, now.

"Jeric! Take them! Take the kids! I can't...I can't anymore...." Naturally, it was Adeline that was back at her side. Young. Energetic. Adeline was the youngest and so more of her life had been as a Super than anyone else in the family. "Addy no....Addy please....." But Adeline was already trying to pick her up.

"Mom....Just....If you can just get up...If I can get under you...I can carry you....I can put your arm over my shoulder and I can carry you...We are almost there! I think we are almost there!"

Christine Volkov was hearing exactly what she'd been waiting to hear. "Firebug. Sweet, littlest firebug. You can't carry me anymore. You can keep me with you...But you ....you can't carry me forever..."

Adeline's eyes glossed over and watered in a millisecond. Ever since she'd became a super, three years ago, her entire life had been ignited. Ignited in ways that she could not explain. Her entire family had been 'touched' by the asteroid, but Adeline felt differently than the other Volkovs. Adeline felt like this was who she had been all along, she had just been waiting for it to all come out. Everyone else had detailed the curse of being a Super or the burden of having ability. Adeline felt like it was....natural. It was who she was, who she'd been, and who she'd be.

And so, when Jeric Volkov had told his family that they would not in anyway be joining any kind of Super Army or Super Resistance, Adeline's heart broke just a little bit inside. She wanted to be with her people! She wanted to be on the right side! She wanted to do the right thing! Jeric and Christine didn't see 'sides'...They just saw that there was going to be blood and death and they didn't want their young daughter, now 19...Or their son...23...any part of any man's war. And so...instead...they'd been refugees. Marcel was satisfied and Adeline was bitter, but atleast they were safe.

They had been safe until they'd literally been flushed out of one place and then another. The military was rapidly adapting ways to detect and track Supers and went after any and all of them, even those like the Volkovs who had just wanted peace. It wasn't an offer for them, though. There was no room for negotiation or conversation. The military's goal was to wipe out Supers, even the one's whose only goals were to survive.

Adeline had wanted to fight! Adeline had wanted to burn and blaze and ignite until the world was promising her that her family, the most important thing in existence, was safe. But no. Instead, they ran. They ran and hid and then ran some more and now they were finally close to their goal. They were finally close to the borders of San Bernadino. "Just a little further Mom...."

Christine had a sad, sad smile. How was she going to get Adeline to go? She'd reached behind her neck and took a simple necklace she wore, a string with a stone bead on it, and handed it to Adeline. "Keep me close, sweetheart. Always. I will always be a part of you, little bug." Christine took one last look at her dark haired, blue eyed child. Beautiful. Adeline was beautiful. Even in the torn up, old ratty black sweatpants and tee shirt from the last shelther they'd stopped in. If she'd done one thing right in her life, it was Adeline. Christine's eyes started to close and Adeline went into full panic mode.

" No no no! Mom! Please...." Adeline was so caught up in holding her mother's hands, and her brother and father were trying not to watch, that Adeline didn't hear the soldier that had started to stalk just behind her.
 
Private Ray Mcaan and Cpl Oliver Stone were the last of their squad, just before dawn when they set off they were a part of a 50 man strong assault force sent in as part of a much larger assault, but early into the morning's fighting they met heavy resistance. Resistance fighters had planted bombs in the piping below one of the city streets and had possitioned themselves in the nearby houses. In a moment, just as the Sarge was talking about the "good old days" back in Afghanistan, of course compared to this it was the good old days, the street erupted from below them and gunfire rang out all around them. The Abrams behind them survived and was crawling out from the crater in the street, chunks of concrete raining down on the survivors, Mcaan and Stone fell back and took shelter in the crater. Then they saw it, the first "super"... a child. A little hispanic girl in a torn dress, caked white as a sheet in dust and mortar, a bleeding gash across her face. Tears rolled down her face, the men froze, at least those facing forward where the collumn was facing. To the sides grenades and bullets were fired into the nearby houses. Stone raised his rifle and opened fire, not at the girl, but at a resistance fighter carrying an RPG behind her. The fighter took 2 bullets in the chest, one in the neck, and one hit the rocket he was about to launch, blowing the fighter's body into little chunks. The girl inhaled and screamed.

It wasn't any scream, the sound came at them with a visible shockwave. Men screamed, their ears beginning to bleed, men with glasses got shattered glass in their eyes, officers shouted orders but the sound was so loud is drowned out their voices before it could even reach their helmet microphones. The tank lowered it's barrel and fired. It missed the girl but hit a couple meters in front of her. Sending concrete chunks straight up at her. When the dust settled the girl's corpse could be seen covered in mortar, her tiny body bent and broken with pieces of concrete sticking out of her. The sound was gone.

The tank swivelled it's turret around, spraying the nearby houses with high caliber bullets, the soldiers did so too, firing wildly in every direction, from every other front porch, behind every other front door, resistance fighters slumped down, lifeless, only to be sprayed with bullets to make sure they'd stay down. And then. Silence.

The men crawled from the crater, so many were dead in a firefight that lasted only a few minutes, but it was done. Officers reported in. One of the three tanks had been destroyed, one had it's tracks destroyed and it's wheels damaged. Only the front of the collumn, the one that killed the "super" was still operational. 19 of the men were dead, a further 14 were wounded. Mostly from grenades lobbed into the crater while they were taking cover. Stone and McCaan's squad, the only one without casualties was ordered to move up and secure the intersection further along the road, but they would take another route. The tank would go over the sidewalk and front yards, the men would go from house to house. For almost an hour they met no resistance. Some scared families, at one point they were assaulted by a shotgun, but after hearing the assailant screaming obscenities at the so-called "Resistance" they talked him down, showing they were soldiers. The man surrendered and came out with his hands up. They told him to leave his weapon and head north, if he wanted to help, offer to join the local militia. They neglected to tell him local militias had the highest casualty rates, but they had orders not to tell that.

They continued on, till finally. Contact.

At the intersection a rocket came flying from a drain on the other side of the street. It punctured the armor between the wheels of the tank and ignited the ammo storage. The tank was blown into tiny pieces, shrapnel tore through the area, the other three men, including the sarge, were killed almost instantly. Stone and McCaan retreated, a final order from their dying sergant.

"Shit man, shit, y'know, when this shit started, i didn't think it'd be like this" rattled McCaan, Stone was checking every crack and crevice in their surroundings. "I mean, we've been studying supers for like, years now, right? We have artificial "supers", why not make us all like that? Right?" Stone responded calmly, but ironically he spoke and acted calm and collected when he was scared out of his mind, McCaan lacked this trait, Stone's tone was annoyed and harsh, but he sympathized. He just didn't want their possition given away "Cos 8 out of 10 recipients of the streatment have their skin fall off or develop cancerous tumors the size of their heads within weeks of getting treatment? Fuck that i'd rather die like this than risk going through that... hey, what was that dog your husband got?" McCaan snapped, getting defensive, expecting some homophobic quip. Irrational given the circumstances but he was used to having to deal with it in the military, it had become a subject he had grown paranoid about "what about it?" Stone responded matter-of-factly "dude, you're freaking out, just talk about the dog, it'll help keep your cool, but do it quiet-like, ok?" "Okay well... she's a corgi, we named her Jazzi, little terror she is, chews everything she can get her mouth on, my mother took care of her before we got her, she wanted her to be an aniversary gift for me and Kevin, but well, she got into mom's good linens and nope! She had to go, so we got her home and first thing she did, i swear to god..." he was stopped by Stone who raised a fist, McCaan readied his weapon and knelt down, Stone was right, indulging that little story had helped calm him, allowed him to focus.

Stone showed his tracker. "Super" readings dead ahead. They cane around the corner of the stone fence they were kneeling behind... it was a family. And all were giving off readings. Neither wanted to shoot them, but they knew the risk if they didn't. Slowly they crept up, heir weapons trained on each family member, darting between them. Finally they were spotted.

There was a moment of pause, the soldiers hesitated, but the man. In a brash move, made a sudden movement. Stone lost his nerve and opened fire, spraying the man with bullets as McCaan opened fire on the older man. Splattering pieces of both men sprayed out on the dried yellow grass behind them. When it was fldome they stopped. The men's hands shaking, sweat blinded Stone but he didn't let it show "h-hands on tge ground! Now!" He screamed, McCaan joined "Do it! Fucking do it Bitch!" Their hands were shaking wildly, barely even pointing at her.

All of a sudden McCaan was knocked to the ground from behind. Another man, dressed in converse sneakers, blue jeans, a dark blue hoodie, black gloves and a gas mask. As he landed on top of McCaan he used the momentum to drive a knife into the back of his neck. He pulled it out and stabbed it in again, but not a third as Stone fired a single bullet into his head. He slumped over as Stone backed up, his aim switching from the body to the girl. After a couple seconds he stepped towards the girl "I SAID STAY ON THE FUCKING GROUND! HANDS WHERE I CAN FUCKING SEE THEM! EYES DOWN!" but before he could say another word he was shot in the kneecap. The man he just show aas holding McCaan's pistol. as soon as he went down on one capless knee, he rest of the clip was unloaded into his face and jpper chest.

The man uneasily got to his feet, stumbling over to the girl. He adjusted his hood, there was a smoking entry and exit hole on either side of it. In fact his outfit was riddled with what were obviously bullet holes and tears caused by shrapnell. He held out a hand to her "i know it hurts, believe me i know, but you can grieve later, for now do what they wanted you to do and live, it won't be long till this place gets carpet bombed or they decide to start pounding the area with artillery before advancing, its only so long they'll hesitate cos they're in an "American city".. come with me, i know a way out, i'm clearing out of here too, wont be long before the resistance does too.. take my hand... Name's Michael by the way"
 
It happened faster than Adeline could have ever imagined. The spray of bullets that penetrated what seemed like every square inch of her father's body came out of nowhere. It looked like he was dancing, as the bullets rained into his body over and over again. It was such overkill. And, it was over. And they were killed. Jeric Volkov had been killed. Bullets. Man made, human used bullets had pierced the vital organs of her father's body, ricocheting off of her brother's bones, killing them both. Adeline turned back and saw that her mother was also dead. Just like that. In just seconds. Her family. Supers. People. They were dead.

Adeline had brought her hand to her mouth to gag what was going to be a horrified, gut wrenching scream. She felt herself losing control of what she wanted her body to do, and her her body wanted to do, as the tears erupted into her eyes. Before her brain could start to comprehend the chain of events and what had actually happened, her body was already reacting with the urges to cry out, to spill tears, to shut down completely.

How Adeline was alive? No one may ever know. Not a single bullet had touched her skin. Not a single scratch was on her body. She stood in smoke and blood and bits of mud and concrete covered her and her shirt.

Someone was telling her to look down. To show her hands. Her body wasn't cooperating. She wasn't going to hurt anyone! She wasn't going to do anything! She was crying and scared and lost but her arms wouldn't listen to her. They wouldn't budge. Instead her hands balled up into fists in front of her and she was going to do the only thing she knew to do. She was going to burn.

Instead, she watched a man who she knew had just been shot come towards her. The first thing he'd said was I know it hurts, believe me I know. Adeline's jaw dropped a bit. Even as her body and mind battled over cooperation, her hand moved towards his instinctively. "I know...you know....that it hurts....You....you were just shot. " Adeline was in shock and awe and she literally could almost see through him. Smoking bullet wounds. Did he know that he had them? "You....You know that, right? That...that you just got shot?"

There was hardly more time to react, as her hand was already in his and brief introductions were ended with them running away from everything that she'd just seen and endured. Running away from the horror scene that would haunt her memories for the rest of her life. "I'm Adeline...Call me Addy....Do you ....Do you maybe want to do something about getting shot?" But even as they ran, the scene behind them exploded and enveloped itself into a loud boom. It would be a crater in mere seconds with no remnants of remains of what had just happened there. Of what Adeline had just lost.....and....found.
 
Michael dragged her around corner after corner, stopping only to survey a street before sprinting across at top speed, whenever they had a moment he'd humor the girl's questions "welcome to the super-human Utopia, lotta people get shot around here, best not dwell on it, clear. Move!" He made sure to put a hand on the back of her head before moving in the open, to make sure she kept her head down. Her questions about him being shot however just kept coming "well, lets just say i keep getting back up and leave it at that huh? At least till we're out of the killzone, if we're not careful the Army will blow us to pieces like who I assume were your folks, or the Resistance will string us up on lampposts or nail us to billboards for not joining their fucking "new age" cult and dying on the front lines like tbe rest of their lunatic and brainwashed members" they came to a stop behind a fence. He pushed her down and put a finger to his mouth "shhh..." as behind them on the street, five men came walking down the street. Dressed all in black, three with combat vests, all armed with assault rifles, one with an RPG on his back wearing gas masks and red armbands... local Resistance Militias, they all had their own "uniforms" it made them feel like some special forces, in truth most of them were just young men, untrained but eager. Wanting revenge on a society and system that disenfranchised and discriminated against them for years. Taken in by a new ideology and movement that promises them a better world, but in truth sends them into a meat grinder. The men were going house to house, ransacking them for small valuables but more importantly, edible food and drinkable water. Michael glanced around the concrete and brick fence, looking down the street. He ducked back "aah fuck... more of 'em, coming this way, we gotta keep moving" he pointed back the way they came, keeping his head low he crept back behind the house and went through a hole in the fence to to
He next house's yard. Then over the next, they had to find a way past this street but yhat wasn't possible with all these resistance fighters everywhere. He finally came to a stop by one of the houses, squattihg down "tank coming, shh... listen..." he stood up, and ran to the nearby door, he kicked open the door after seeing it was locked and went in, beckoning her in after him.

He instantly went to the kitchen and began ransacking it "rotten... rotten... rotten, you dont think about how important refrigeration is to everything till everything starts going bad huh?.. ooh, score!" He showed her an unopened pack of bottled water and some cans of peaches and beans. Michael had a strong Australian accent about him, a gruff tone with clear optimism when he found the water and food cans. He took the backpack from his back and began stocking up "hey see if you can find anything good, i'll give it 5 minutes before the tank gets here, i say we hide in this house, let them go by, and while they're fighting the resistance across the road, we cross, what do you think?"
 
Adeline wasn't exactly 'in shape'. She wasn't out of shape either, since she and her family had been on the run for some time, but keeping up with Michael was certainly not easy. He was the one looking out and making decisions and with a streaming adrenaline kick. She was barely keeping up, confused, and she didn't even have to make decisions. How did he do it? Thankfully, her hand in his hand was enough to pull her along the way. Her fear was kept down by his calmness and upbeat demeanor, and her exhaustion was pushed away by the need to push a little bit further....for their lives.

Apparently, being shot was not an 'issue' for her new friend Michael. He had several entrance and exit wounds and probably more wounds than she could see and he was moving faster, smoother, and easier than she was. That's when it truly dawned on Adeline. He was a Super. Adeline did fairly well getting over the fences, all things considered, but by the time they went into one of the houses, she was fairly out of breath. She was trying to keep herself from making too much noise trying to catch her breath, but it wasn't easy. A tank. Another tank. They were big, metal, scary, and loud. And they were able to destroy everything and were sturdy and strong vehicles. How many were there? Were there people inside? Who was inside? Was this entire city like this? Adeline figured there would be time for questions later. For now, she just had to follow Michael, and hope that he knew what he was doing. He sure seemed confident, but was it a false reassurance?

Adeline watched when he found the 'loot' as he started to fill the backpack. She hadn't had anything to eat or drink for some time but it just wasn't on her mind. What was on her mind? Following Michael's cues and directions if she wanted to survive. Adeline had just started to nod. "I think whatever you think sounds like a great idea!" Clearly, Adeline had no idea what to think. Adeline nodded though, and got to her mini-mission.

She found a pantry in the kitchen that looked like someone had ransacked it several times. She almost turned around, but instead decided to look in this beat up looking box towards the back. She pulled it away from the wall and looked inside. Crushed potato soup, some kind of weird cans of meat and soup, and a big bottle of what Adeline thought might be more water. "Hey....What do you think about this?" She kept her voice low, but called out to Michael. What she thought was water? Was actually a quart of vodka. Adeline looked back as Michael came to inspect her finds. "Are we just going to keep...running like this...forever?" Adeline was considering that maybe her family was better off. Was this life?
 
Michael examined the bottle. He inscrewed the top and took a sip, swishing the liquid around in his mouth before swallowing "pwaah... Vodka, nice find Kid... look, we're gonna keep running for a bit, right now this place is a warzone, there's someone i wanna check up on but after that i'm heading West" he put the bottle in his hoodie hip pocket, it was one big pocket, so each end of the bottle poked out the other end "you can come with me, or go your own way, fact is Kid, I helped you cos I was passing through, and i'd need to deal with those G.I's anyway, you got lucky" he grabbed a couple glasses from the counter "now, i propose we go upstairs, find some decent hiding spots cos pretty soon those troops outside are gonna start sweeping houses, and i can't take on a whole damn company" he headed for the stairs, ascending them two at a time. Pushing open the door to the bedroom. A harsh orange light bathed the room, clouds of dust and smoke smothered the outside. The North side was entirely on fire. He sat on the bed, pouring a glass of Vodka, the other sitting at his feet. When Aveline entered he poured a second glass and held it out to her "drink up... today's gonna be real fucking scary, a bit of numbing the fear will do wonders"

He leaned forward, nursing the glass in his hands gingerly "so... you said i'm a "Super?" Before right?" He pulled his mask off completely. He had his mouth uncovered before but now his face was showing. He had a round face, bald too with burn marks across his face, and his right nostril had been cut off completely. His lips on top of being cracked and dry had a large scar going right up the middle, deforming his mouth, giving it an almost 4 pointed star shape. On top of this his skin was dirty and sweaty, and both his eyebrows had been burned off. "I hate that name. Its the name "good morning America" and "Fox and friends" gave us, honestly i dont know what to really call us..." he looked at his right hand. Sighing and taking another sip of his vodka glass "all i know is, few months after the comet, i was mugged down in L.A, i tried to fight back, i got the piss beaten out of me, pushed down into a gutter and..." he made a finger gun and pointed ut to his forehead "... blamo... i thought i was dead, i WAS dead, but well... i woke up, my wounds were healed and i was fine... since then i've been clubbed, stabbed, shot, poisoned, blown up, hell, one crazy fuck threw acid on me, acid!... some shit leaves marks, some just fades. Sometimes i just lie there dead for days, sometimes, like you saw, i have a quick recovery... what about you huh? Those troops were freaking out when i found you, they musta detected something from you"
 
He was heading West? Adeline didn't even know which way West was....And she certainly didn't know what there was to find "West". Was the whole world like this? Just...a war zone? Would she ever hear quiet, without the sound of explosions and cries, ever again? Was she going to die? Had she been supposed to die back with her family where there was now a crater? He suddenly gave her the option to stay....or go. "Kid?" So....She was 19. "You're not that much older than me...." That was a guess, of course. Before Adeline even had time to think about it, she was following him up the stairs. Naturally, he was much faster than she was. She was still kind of out of breath, and by the time she got to the top of the steps, her chest kind of burned. She wished that her parents had let her train for a day like this, like she'd asked them to.

Adeline saw him sitting there on the bed, holding out a glass of booze to her. Adeline stopped in the doorway. She could very easily turn....And run. Run where? Go where? Why? She'd just lost everything, and everyone that she had ever loved. She'd started to nod. "Vodka sounds like a really really good idea...." She followed after him and sat at the other side of the bed. She was facing the window. She was watching the fire. The most beautiful and repulsive thing that it was.

They were abusing it again, the "humans". She'd seen them do it before. They used flame and fire to destroy and ruin when in reality, that wasn't why she...or rather...it....was created. Adeline took a long, deep sip of her drink.

The words he said distracted her from the view, and she turned to look as he took off the mask. Adeline's face stayed mostly neutral, but there was no doubt that he knew what she was thinking. Disfigured. He was disfigured. On the outside. How she felt, on the inside. Another long sip.

She stared for a few more moments as he spoke. "Acid?" It was the first thing she had said since he'd started to tell her his story. Her beautiful face scrunched up. "That's terrible." What world was this? And....did she really want to live in it? Maybe she would have been better off at the bottom of a crater.

Adeline was rather quiet, and for obvious reasons. She was sad. She was scared. She was heartbroken. Her family had been everything, especially since they'd learned they were different. As mad as she'd been when her father had decided they'd run, instead of fight...And hide, instead of Rebel....She'd still loved him. She'd still always loved all of them. Always. Forever.

"Me?" Adeline looked at him. How could she be compared to him? Bullet holes? Thrown off buildings? Stabbed? Shot? Poisoned? Blown up? He was super. Really. He was. And even though he'd said she was a 'collateral save', she'd watched him. He knew how to fight. He knew how to survive. He knew how to save. He was....amazing.

"I just um....." She kind of shrugged. Her family had always taught her to keep her ability private. Secret. Safe. They were gone now. Weren't they? And all of their secrets and mysteries had became problems once the humans had figured out how to detect. As though her father had been in denial, believing that they'd just be left alone.

But they would never be left alone. Some abilities were great, some were good, and some were just....fair. And there were some abilities that were rare. Very rare. And sought after. Elementists. It was one thing to have an ability within your body, or outside of it. Or even within someone else. Or even within something else. It was another to be able to control, manipulate, create, and use one of earth's very own original elements.

"I can do this...." Adeline took her last little sip of vodka just after a quick breath, and blew it out. Instead of vodka, though...Came fire. Red. Hot. Real. Fast burning fire. Vodka had a short burn life and so....there'd be no residual. Just the smell of a clean burn. One of Adeline's' favorite smells. She just kind of shrugged it off, playing it off like no big deal. But it was. It was a very big deal.

"I really just....I'm only allowed to do little things like...Parlor tricks and....for cooking and survival and....My Dad doesn't really like when I tell people...I mean....He didn't like when I told people....He....." Just talking about him made Adeline feel like someone had punched her in the throat. She wanted to cry, but at the same time she felt like she couldn't. Instead, the sadness just....choked her.

"More....Please?" She held her empty glass out.
 
Michael refilled her glass. The Vodka was warm and stale, the glasses dirty with dust, but neither seemed to mind. He sighed "your father was a smart man... you're naive, you think you'd be a superhero right? You'd fight injustice and bring safety to those around you" he stood up, throwing out his arms in big dramatic gestures "you'd learn to harness your abilities day by day! And yojmur legend would grow! The people would cheer for you as you soared overhead! Probably turning those flames of yours to fly like a rocket" he had seen her little fire trick before. He made his way around the bed "that is, till your first little outing, and you get shot at for the first time, you throw fire at them, they scream, scream so loud it makes your ears hurt, they slam into the walls, the fire spreading. It spreads upstairs, you run from the building to re-assume your secret identity, only to later realize you caused a block fire that killed 20 people, including babies" he swiftly smacked her across the face, hard. Leaving a red handprint on her cheek "get your head out of your ass kid. And don't go blaming your father for not training you, you sound like a brat. He didn't know how to control it and sounds like he was smart enough to not go starting wildfires so he could practice to learn something to teach you and smart enough to keep a low profile so his daughter didn't end up being cut open with no anesthesia and be tortured and murdered at some CIA Blacksite so they can learn how your fire throwing works"

He turned and looked back out the window "the first thing you learn when you grow up is in truth, adults are just kids with experience, we don't have all the answers... hell, back there, outside, i didn't know what i was fucking doing. I was just operating off instinct, look then move, look then move, what's the worst they could do to me? Kill me?" He started to laugh at that, a forced laughter as he went back around the bed, finishing his glass and pouring another. He sat back down on the bed "be happy your father didn't teach you, he prevented you from drawing attention to yourself and doing things you'll only regret. You have abilities, you wanna test them out, learn to harness and use them. It's understandable, hell i first discovered i can't really die, i went wild... and a lotta people got hurt and killed by my stupidity, and that was just from my own self destructive shit, if i could control fire, there'd be a goddamn nightly body count"

He finished his glass. Outside he could hear shouting and a series of banging a couple houses down. They'd started storming the houses "they're coming kid, best find somewhere to hide" he stood back up, smashing the glass on the floor "Dibs on the room to the right down the hall" there were 3 rooms to the right down the hall.
He entered the first one, a kid's room "heh, kid probably had to hear his parents fuck... god that's funny" he said with a chuckle as he climbed into the cupboard, burying himself under coats, shirts and boxes. And there he squatted, his blade drawn, to stay entirely still, but ready to pounce out with his blade at any given second.
 
Adeline's jaw literally dropped when she was slapped across the face. Had she ever been slapped like that before? Maybe by her mother once. Once. When she'd been a child. And she was no longer a child! She was all grown up! 19 years old and on her own and she was being slapped?

Adeline obviously quickly recovered, not wanting to show her new 'friend' just how hurt (more her pride than anything) she was. She blinked a few times rapidly while holding her hand to her warm, stinging cheek. "I....I didn't think about those things...." She realized. She hadn't really thought about anyone else getting hurt. She'd control her abilities ! That's why she wanted to practice! And she hadn't really thought about herself getting hurt, she had ability! The thought of someone cutting her open was terrifying. More terrifying than being slapped in the face. That was when Adeline realized it. It wasn't meant to hurt.

It was a reality check.

In the moments after that, he'd told her about how he'd gotten people hurt and killed with 'stupidity'. Adeline's eyes were focused on him, and she was about to ask something when the banging and shouting started. "Wait I....I...." He moved fast! She was much slower. At first she was following him, and then he'd said he was going into the room. "But wait I...I don't know your name...I don't where where to...."

He ducked into the room he said he was going into and moved to hide. They were coming! They were really coming. He'd just brought her cockiness down several levels. She didn't want to follow him since he hadn't told her to. She didn't want her stupidity to get him hurt or killed. "Just...Just don't leave here without me!" She had so many things to ask him, so many things she wanted to say but....

She had to hide.

Adeline just picked the next door after the bedroom. It was a bathroom. A little, tiny, cramped bathroom. Bad choice Adeline, bad choice! She was going to turn around and run back into the hall to try the next room when she heard the stomping and banging coming up the stairs. "Oh no, oh no...." She whispered and turned back around. She had no choice. It was this little bathroom, or the CIA cutting her body open for parts. The little shower was too obvious, so she ducked down behind the door, squatting all the way down.

She tried to whisper to him "They're going to find me! What do I do?"
 
Michael ducked down inside the cupboard. He treated the girl harshly but it was nessecary, she had to grow up fast or she'd be dead before long. In truth he didn't blame her. The years between the end of one's teens and into their twenties saw huge differences in people. Nobody even by 25 could say they're the same person they where when they were 18 or 19, god knows he couldn't that. She was still naive, innocent even. Despite only meeting her a couple hours ago, he was concerned. He wasn't really a "big softie inside" but basic concern for fellow people caught up in trouble they didn't cause or deserve. But his train of thought was cut by the sound of boots thumping up the stairwell. Five men, no. Four. The rest of the squad was still downstairs. He could hear them smashing things, looking for anything small of value. Modern or ancient, looting was almost traditional in war. The bootsteps began creeping through the hall, cautious but speedy. "Clear!" Came a call from down the hall "clear!" Came another. They worked their way through the building. One came to the bathroom door. He tried to open it but there was resistance "sir! Got a blockage over here!" The soldier got down on one knee and listened... he heard what he was listening for. Breathing, quick panicked breathing. He pushed again on the door as two more gathered on each side of the one talking, raising and readying their weapons "this is the U.S Army, open up or we will be forced to open fire!" Meanwhile the last of the men came into the bedroom at the end of the hall, he overturned the mattress and began looking around. Michael watched, unblinking through the cupboard shutters. He could hear, they found her. He began to run his options through his head. He could kill this guy quietly, and jump the ones in the hallway. But if he failed they'll assume she's part of the resistance and shoot. If he made a sound and the soldier in front of him svreamed, they'd shoot. These soldiers were scared and jumpy.

A thought ran through his head... why hadn't they found them yet? He slipped up before and forgot many units ate equipped with scanners that could detect them the second they walked through the door, but instead they're going room to room, like they're looking for regular soldiers... finally, it clicked. This squad had no scanner! Either those with scanners were dead or they hadn't recieved one yet. He put his knife away and tapped on the inside of the cupboard. The soldier shot up, spun around and raised his weapon "we got something in here!" One of the three in the hallway broke off and went to the bedroom "who's in there! Come out with your hands up!" And Michael complied. He twisted his face to forve his eyes to water. Slowly and shakily he pushed the cupboard open and slowly made his way out "p-p-please d-don't shoot" he pleaded, his eyes watering enough for tears to start flowing "we're not part of... them" "who's in the bathroom!?" Barked one of the soldiers, his gun shaking "I don't really know her... i found her next to a crater, some people she knew, family i think, were hit, they didn't have any weapons or nothing so i dont think they were resistance either.. please sir, please, she's a kid and she's scared out of her mind" one of the soldier's eyes narrowed "what are you doing here? This your house?" "N-no s-sir, we're just hiding here. We saw Resistance fighters just down the street so we came here to hide, i think they're getting ready for an ambush, we saw rocket launchers, mashine guns, BIG machine guns and there were a lot of them, just down the road" the soldiers looked at eachother, Michael was shaking. One turned on his radio "This is Bravo two-eight-niner come in "Birthday bash"" after a few seconds there was a response "This is Birthday Bash" "we just got some intel from some civilians in the third house on the south side, hostiles have a supprise waitin for us just down the road" "copy Bravo two-eight niner, stopping the convoy, over" the soldier raised his weapon "a UAV will verify what you've said, come with us, and tell your friend to come out" Michael nodded "y-yes sir" he came out in front of the two men, in front of the bathroom he knocked on the door "Hey... kid?... it's okay, open the door, it's gonna be alright"
 
19 was confusing. Confusing. Confusing. Confusing. More than she could say. More than she knew. It was just so….confusing. And being a Super with the end of their time inevitably coming? She didn’t have time to be confused. She had to grow up fast, or die. Clearly, she didn’t seem like she wanted to expire, just yet.



Adeline didn’t think to count footsteps or men, she hadn’t counted stairs or doorways, and she hadn’t estimated the square footage of the hall. Adeline didn’t understand or know what the soldiers were saying, she just knew that they were going to find her. No one in the history or history had lived by hiding behind a door. How hopeless was she? But she did have hope. If there weren’t too many of them, she could burn. She could burn them all away and start over.



Forest fires were her favorite kind of fire to day dream about. It was a kind of blaze that swept and surrounded, incinerated and combed through any weak or dead underbrush to make room for new life. Wild fires created next life. Adeline could burn and blaze until it was time for the next life, the “super” life, to take over.



But the man she had met after her parents had died had quickly extinguished those dreams. Not only had he slapped her, but he had woken her up from the childish inclination that she was going to snap her fingers and change fate. She wasn’t even going to get out of this house alive! Like he’d said, people would get hurt. Would she hurt him? He couldn’t be hurt, he’d said. Yet, others had gotten hurt because of his ‘stupidity’. She didn’t know enough. She hadn’t learned enough from him. She hadn’t learned enough about him. Honestly, they hadn’t even had time to exchange names, not that it seemed like he’d wanted to. He seemed perfectly content calling her “kid”.



It was when the men got to the bathroom door that Adeline’s thoughts and resolve melted away. She thought the man would start to slam and push on the door. She tried to hold her breath, but instead ended up with a few wild, rapid breaths that she couldn’t catch before they’d left her lips. There was a shoft moment of silent as the men got ready. Adeline mistook it for perhaps they hadn’t noticed and were walking away. Could she sigh in relief? Holding her breath was actually painful.



Instead, there was a shout. Adeline clamped her hands over her mouth and tried to be silent. She was going to scream. No other sound, no words. She was just going to scream. Her body was already preparing to release it. It reminded her of her mother’s scream the moment she’d died. That was exactly how she was going to die.



But, there was no scream.


Before she could she’d heard the faint sound of…knocking? And then shuffling feet and clicking metal and men’s harsh voices. And then, she heard his voice. But…It wasn’t his voice. It was….fake. It was her new friend’s voice, but fake! Adeline was learning quick. She realized that he’d given up his safety for her. Again. How was she ever going to repay him for saving her life twice?



It wasn’t over though, obviously. It may never be over, but those soldiers were still in the house and now they had her new friend. Her only friend. Adeline stayed motionless and curled up in her little corner behind the door as the words and deep voices of each man bounced off of the hallway walls and through her little bathroom space. She wanted to drop down and hide her head under her arms and shut down completely. Or she wanted to storm out from behind the door and scream until she lost her voice. Kid. He kept calling her kid. She had to grow up. She had to grow up fast.



First, she had to survive this.



Adeline didn’t move until she heard her friend’s voice tell her to. Until she’d heard his knock and his nickname for her. Almost automatically, she stood up from her little crouching position behind the door so that the door could open and he’d see her standing in the space that was the shadow that the door made. She didn’t just look like she was shaking, he actually was shaking. She didn’t just look like she was scared out of her wits, she was scared.



Adeline’s deep brown eyes focused on Michael. He was the only thing keeping her grounded. He was the only thing keeping her in control. “I’m just….so scared…” She whispered it, though the men behind Michael could clearly hear her. “I just…don’t know who to trust anymore….” She was telling him that she did trust him. He was her trust.
 
Michael held out a hand "its okay..." he turned to the soldiers "she's just scared guys" a couple of the soldiers looked at eachother, then they all looked to one. He must have been their commander. After a brief moment one by one they lowered their weapons "just get the fuck outa here" ordered the commander "this place won't be safe for long" Michael nodded "yes sir! Thank you sir!" He didn't wait for her to take his hand, he reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, he didn't drag her, if he started giving off rape-y vibes by forcing her to come with him he'd likely get blown to a million pieces right then and there. Inatead he pulled gently, guiding her out. As they began heading to the stairs the commander spoke up again "there's a checkpoint to the north, you can get medical treatment there, stay safe you two" after this he ordered his men to finish their sweep. Michael hurried Adeline diwn the stairs and out the back door, past the other soldiers.

Once outside, in silence Michael kept leading her, till finally he let her go. He began panting and fell to his side, leaning on a piece of ruined brick wall and sliding down to the ground, clutching his chest. His eyes were bulging, his skin a sickly pale, his breaths hurried and rasping. With a shaky hand he reached into one of his pants pockets, pulling out a pack of cigarettes with a lighter inside it.

He quickly lit the smoke and took a long drag "oh my god oh my god oh my god, that worked, it actually fucking worked!..." he took another drag and after exhaling he turned to Adeline, offering her one "scanners can detect Supers within 20 feet, at least the handheld ones can, i figured if they didn't detect us the when they first broke into the house then maybe they didn't have one..." he took another drag "sorry, shoulda thought of that earlier, then i wouldn't have seperated - but oh my fuck it fucking worked!" He let his head lie back and took a deep breath.

A few housesdown gunfire and explosions erupted. But it rapidly began to distance itself from them. The Military was acting on the intel he gave them it seemed and they made good use of it. Michael looked up as a car sized hunk of concrete soared through the sky, the attack helicopter it was aiming at swerved out of the way just in time and began retaliating with a hail of minigun and rocket fire. The shells from the minigun rained down like a trickle from a tap below it. It seemed there was a Super among the resistance he ratted out. He wondered if that Super would survive the encounter. Superpowered or not, a bullet or explosion killed most supers like any human.

He relaxed his body, trying to tune out the chaos unfolding nearby. Even the footsteps of a fighter dashing across the other side of the destroyed house he was leaning against. He looked to Adeline "I have a friend to the nearby, an old woman, Columbian i think she is, came here in the late 70s... we're not gonna save her, but i need to see her one last time before we head west" he finished his smoke with one last drag, pulling his gasmask back on "the Resistance is headquartered to the West, I got unfinished business with them, i'm laying this out right now kid, if you follow me, its your own choice. I know its a lot to process, this day's been a shitshow for you, but you're your own woman now, your choices are your own. I'll try and help protect you if i can, but i'm going West, and there's nothing that'll stop me"
 
Adeline had finally mastered the art of holding her breath, now that she was standing and hand in hand with Michael. This skill would have been very useful just a few moments ago. She nodded when he’d told her that it would be okay. Her wide, scared eyes were real and authentic as she stared into his. She was too afraid to look away from him. She was afraid she might scream.

He didn’t have to do much to guide her out of there, she followed just like he’d planned as they walked by the soldiers that had just (thankfully) lowered their weapons away. Being dirty and scared made Adeline look even younger than her already young 19. She was scared and she was innocent and that helped to sell it.

After only a few steps outside, Adeline felt like she could collapse. All of her adrenaline was on and off so rapidly and frequently that her body just wanted to give out. She held on, though. She held on with everything that she had until Michael let go of her wrist. When he did, and when he fell to the side, Adeline exhaled heavily. Adeline blinked a few times when she gained her composure and realized how….pale….Michael had gotten.

He’d lit up a cigarette before she could blink. And then….he offered her one. She’d never smoked in her life. It wasn’t really something her family would ever promote or condone. But her eyes were drawn to the tip of his white cancer stick. The little red glow. The little fire. Adeline took one quickly and didn’t even need a lighter. She put her lips to it and inhaled, and the cherry was lit and the end was smoldering. It was that puff, that very first inhale, that was so satisfying. Adeline literally sighed in relief as the smoke left her lips in a neat little plume.

She decided right then and there that she rather liked smoking.

Adeline seemed to be about to say something. She had opened her mouth to respond but then….she stopped. She smiled. She actually smiled. She took another drag of her cigarette and then said softly. “The scanners can detect Supers huh?” After that whole talk, he used the very same word. That’s what they were though. They were “Super”. They were as the definition said: an article of a superior quality, grade, size, etc.

Adeline just shrugged after that. “I owe you my life…Twice.” She was surprised to be alive, but refused to think of the circumstances or consequences of it. Not now. Not yet. Not while they were still in some very unsafe territory. Adeline leaned her hip against a stray beam as they watched the sky together. Flying concrete, a storm of gunfire, random explosions. This was their life. This was their reality.

When Michael spoke again, Adeline stood up a bit straighter to listen. When he spoke, she usually learned. Adeline blinked a few times, realizing that her cigarette was done around the same time as his was. How….sad. Adeline turned the little white cylinder so that she could look at the end of it. She watched the cherry burn the edge of the filter before she sighed. She knew the answer, she didn’t know why she was pretending to think about it.

He’d said that she was a woman and he’d said that she could make her own choices. And she knew that he was her best chance for things to stay that way.

“Then let’s go find your friend….” Adeline shrugged. “And then we’ll go West…”
 
Michael nodded, resting his head against the wall "just... in a moment, gotta catch my breath first" Michael felt... old. He wasn't old, he was only in his 20s, but this day, the day before, and before. He wasn't a soldier, he didn't get rotated back and forth, given any reminders he still had a family who loved him and that life still existed outside the warzone he found himself in. He'd lost track of how long he'd been running, how long he'd been fighting, how many men, some younger than this girl at his side, he'd killed. He closed his eyes and his mind drifted back to the early days of the war.

After a few seconds he snapped back to reality, jolted by a reminder, one that haunted him. That prevented him from being able to close his eyes. A hundred eyes staring back at him. Bulging, tearful, terrified and angry. Men lying on the ground around him, holding their innards as they spilled out, screaming and crying out for their mothers. Men with missing limbs, continuing to fight without realizing they'd been dismembered. And the realization of what's happened to them.

He got himself to his feet and tilted his head "c'mon, lets keep moving. We can rest soon, promise" he kept hunched over, checking each corner before passing through. But the carnage was getting further away. The explosions and gunfire while still loud no longer had the shockwave and the sound hitting them like a hammer to the chest. As they continued on, Michael decided to try making idle chatter to help keep tgem both calm "... heh, hey, you remember.. that but from the simpsons" he began snickering as he started remembering the scene with more clarity "when bart met Milhouse's mom's new boyfriend and he broke a chair on his back, so he goes home and smashes one on homer's back when he's in the tub?" He acted out the bit of homer, whistling while pretending to soap up his arms, then made the chair smashing noise with his mouth and acted out homer's scream of pain. He stopped in a fit of laughter. After this he sighed "what episodes do you think they're playing in the reruns these days? Back home it used to be on every night on channel ten, six o-clock sharp, god i love that show, everyone says seasons 3-9 are the good ones, they're good but i don't think they passed into being shitty till probably past season twenty when every episode was about iphones, ipads, and every other episode had a celebrity guest they fawned over" he shuddered. The one thing he was happy that seems to be dead now is that same celebrity worship culture. He never liked it, at all

"Hey, you ever been to a celebrity mansion before? When we go west we're gonna be going past Beverly Hills, i wanna crash at Nicolas Cage's place, what about you?.. oh! We gotta raid the playboy mansion too! We just GOTTA!" They came to a stop by another road, after looking both ways Michael got into a ready stance "on three, we go for the fence behind the green letterbox... one... two... three!" He launched off, running at full speed, just hoping Adeline would be behind him. Once on the other side Michael caught his breath and gestured for them to keep going "just a few blocks now..."
 
Adeline noted when Michael said that he needed a moment to catch his breath. The truth was, she’d been having trouble with her breathing since the moment she’d met him. The only time her breathing had been ‘normal’ was when they’d been in that bedroom talking. Otherwise? She was breathless, trying to catch her breath, or trying to hold her breath. “ Me too….That’s a good idea….”

Michael started to move again and so Adeline was close behind. So far, he was the only reason that she was alive. He’d saved her ass. Twice. Probably more times all things considered, but at least twice. Did that mean that she owed him her life? Like, literally? Did that mean that she was expected to save his life? She didn’t know what the ‘rules’ were out here, if there were any. This city was unlike anything she’d ever seen. Her ‘simple’ life on the run with her family seemed so….distant now.

Adeline couldn’t help the tiny smirk at the corners of her lips when he started to talk about some kind of television show. “My parents were not really into letting us watch TV very much…Even before….” Before. Before the end. Before they had to be on the run for their lives. Every. Single. Day. “I don’t really remember …that…show…” Or any show really. Or anything before she woke up a Super, really. Adeline took a deep breath. Life was….heavy.

“I’m sure it was great, though” A lot of things were probably great, and a lot of things were definitely gone. Forever.

Adeline had started to shake her head. “No I’ve…I’ve never been…” Adeline had kind of laughed. “Well…okay….yeah! Yeah! We should do that! We should do those things….” Why should she be sad about living? Why should she feel guilty about surviving? She liked her new friend, whose name she still did not know, so why couldn’t she enjoy life? “Let’s go to Nicolas Cage’s house and the Playboy mansion!” Why not try to have fun?

And then, Adeline got ready to run. She was learning to keep up with him, she hoped. The first few steps were a stumble when she took off after him until she caught her footing and started to run. She was just behind him. Not as fast as him, not in nearly as good of shape, but a slight bit younger, and with less time on the street, there was a bit more ‘juice’ in her body. As they got to the other side, Adeline felt like her chest was burning and her lungs were on fire.

“Oh my gosh…I’m not very good at running like that…” Adeline put her hand over the center of her chest and groaned playfully. “How long have you been….running?” She didn’t mean running as in sprinting. She meant running as in on the run. “And….I mean….If you don’t want to share I understand but…I still don’t even know your name….”
 
Michael raised an eyebrow under his gas mask "Seriously?.. huh, musta overlooked that. Name's Michael" he held out a hand but paused. One two three four... four... where was his ring finger?. He looked back and saw it on tge street. His face went pale, he didn't even hear the shot! The adrenalin must have numbed the feeling but still, his goddamn finger was off! He instantly moves his hand to Adeline's head, shoving her down to the ground as he slid down "fuck... did you hear the shot? I didn't hear shit!... aah goddamnit, it'll grow back, that's part of my abilities, but when the adrenalin wears off this is gonna... HURT!" He instantly regretted loudly groaning that last word as the concrete on the top of the fence exploded as another bullet skimmed over the top. Still, no shot.

Michael held up a finger to his mask meaning "shh" and pointed down the side of the house, he got on all fours and started crawling. If they still had some luck left over from their encounter with the soldiers it'll he assumed they were just civilians and let go.

They made it to the back of the yard, it was close now, their destination. Michael pulled a board from the back fence, then kicked out another, making a small gap for them to squeeze through. Once they were through he went to the corner of the next house, looking around the corner he saw what he was after. A deep purple house surrounded by gnomes, garden flamingos and overgrown in weeds and hedges long neglected "alright, we're close... we can crash at this place for at least one night, old girl owes me some favors... come to think of it, mighta been one of her boys who took those shots at us, we're in her territory now" he turned back to her "alright, this time we don't run... we approach the house slowly, we stand up straight and we have our hands up" he looked back then tried to compose himself. "Hey... what's your name by the way?" After he responded he nodded "It's a pleasure Adeline, now... lets do this" he came out past the house, his arms outstretched and standing up straight. He announced himself calmly and clearly "Easy guys! Easy!... we just wanna see Grams! She'll know me when she sees me! Be cool!" He turned before getting to the front door, instead heading to a cellar door around the side.

Although the street was deserted, even a quick glance around would show eyes and gun barrels trained on them at all times. This street wasn't deserted, it was on lockdown. And that was obvious. He knocked on the cellar door. It cracked open and a deep male voice spoke out "the fucks you?" "A friend of Grams" "Grams aint no friend of you fool, git the fuck out here" michael jammed his fingers in the crack of the opening as it was being closed "Grams its me! C'mon open up!" There was silence for a moment. A mufled voice behind the door. After a tense minute the door opened and Michael beckoned for Aveline to follow him.

The basement, while cramped was warm and colourful. Brighly coloured sheets blanketed the windows as christmas tree lights dotted the roof. Within were only two. One was a large man, as strong as he was fat. It was clear that he was not just an obese guy who loved some McDonalds, his was the kind of fat one got with a high protien diet designed to build muscle mass and maintain it. The other was Grams. An old woman, skin so dark she was almost pitch black with short curly gret hair, dressed in a bright purple cardigan and long multicoloured dress with jewelery a-plenty. Her hands were covered in gold and diamongs, a large pearl necklace hung from her neck and large tinted glasses adorned her face. Michael walked up to her and knelt, kissing her hand before standing back up, giving her a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek "Grams! God i missed you, i'm happy to see you're still safe" the old woman smiled and chuckled "I'm glad to see you still won't stay down. How many times have they tried putting you down since your last visit hmm?" Michael thought for awhile "lets see... five times by the military, four by the Resistance, never stops hurting, oh and once by your boys" he held up his mutilated hand "just a few minutes ago, so your boys are taking shots at folks without uniforms now?" Grams just waved it off "oh give it a rest, those "resistance" fucks have been using plain clothes for weeks now out here, its how they got all those fucking bombs set up for the troops to set off... course most weren't set off by troops, most was just kids, families, shit.... this neighbourhood was covered in red long before it was covered in green" Grams tilted her head "who's this?" Michael stepped asside "oh, Grams, his is Adeline, girl's folks were killed by jumpy soldiers, been towing her around all day" Grams beckoned her over "get on over here girl, lemme have a look at you"

When she touched Adeline when she came over Grams knelt back rather suddenly, her body shook for but a moment, then she leant forward "aah... fire, i get you now, you best be careful with that gift girl, you'll need to make good use of it before this is over, 'an people are gonna burn in your wake" Michael leaned back, crossing his arms "Grams sees things, knows things, you best hear what she has to say and not pry, Grams, we need a place to crash tonight, mind if-" Grams again waved him off "yeah yeah, dont think i forgot what you've done, you two can have the spare room in the house, but i want you gone by morning, y'hear?" Michael nodded "fair enough, oh!" He reached into a pocked on his cargo pants, pulling out a small bag and tossing it to the big guy "reckon i could get some smokey-smoke with that?" The man opened the bag and had a look in. Pulling out jewel encrusted rings, bracelets, necklaces and more. Michael shrugged "relax, nobody was living where i got em, musta left months ago" the man nodded, reaching into a box and picking out a bag of green herbs (weed) and threw it to Michael. Michael nodded thanks chief" he looked back to Grams "well... alright then, cheers Grams" he began ascending the stairs, heading to the room.
 
Adeline had only kind of shrugged. She supposed that names weren’t all that important to someone who had seen so many people….die. They had died, and he couldn’t. Adeline didn’t give herself the time to let that sink it, she had her own survivors guilt at the moment that she was battling. Adeline smiled when they finally got to have a nice, normal introduction. She reached for his hand and….Her own eyes opened in terror and fear. Was he always missing that finger? She looked at his face. He was as a white as a bed sheet. Before she could react any further, he’d pushed her head down.

“Your finger!” She’d said it like she had to say it because he didn’t know. Of course he knew! They’d both just looked over at where it as lying on the street. She’d started to shake her head when Michael asked her if she’d heard anything. She hadn’t. Nothing at all. “Your finger!” She repeated herself, as though it was the only thing that she could say. “Michael! Your finger!” Why couldn’t she say anything else?

Michael had motioned for her to be quiet and so she stopped repeating herself about his finger. She stayed low with him and did a fair job of following him. It must have been the adrenaline, really, because only moments ago she’d been absolutely weak and exhausted. As they moved through the fence, Adeline came through and came face with face with…

A gnome.

Adeline gasped out loud at the small, ceramic, rosy cheeked, bright blue eyed gnome with the pointy purple hat. It took her only a second to realize what it was and that it wasn’t real, and as she started to move again, she’d almost got tangled in a garden flamingo, she’d just barely avoided touching it. Adeline put her hand over her chest. “This place is like…like…a mine field!” Well, not quite, but she’d been rather surprised! Adeline’s eyes shot wide open when she realized that Michael was leading her to the people that had shot at them. She’d started to shake her head but he’d asked her for her name and….that had distracted her.

“Adeline. My name is Adeline….” She realized that he hadn’t given her his last name, so she with held hers as well. Then again, those things weren’t as important in this time and place. It was a good thing, though, that he’d distracted her, because the next thing that she knew she was following him out into the open, her hands up just like Michael’s were. The only difference was, she had all of her fingers. Truthfully? She really, really wanted to keep is that way. Her hands were starting to shake, and the harder she tried to make them stop, the more they trembled. Adeline shot a look at him. Grams? They were there to see someone named Grams? They’d just been safe. Why were they risking it all to see this ‘friend’ he said he’d had to see? Why hadn’t she questioned it? Why hadn’t she questioned anything?

Just because he’d saved her life two times, should she be following him so blindly?

Before she knew it, they were at the door. She took it back, in her head. Yes. Of course she was going to keep following him. He was the best bet she had to keep her life. That and…She owed him. That and…she liked him. No. Not him. She liked his company. She liked that he was a Super. She liked that he, in a way, understood everything that she was.

Adeline followed closely behind Michael, her hands clearly visible, as he approached the door. And knocked. He just…knocked? Adeline’s eyes widened as she listened in on him trying to make it past the gate keeper when Michael threw his hand in the way of the door slamming. “Your finger!” Damn. She was on repeat again.

As that tense minute passed, Adeline whispered to him, unable to stop herself. “Your finger.” Like he didn’t know? It was just all she seemed to be able to say lately. The door opened, and Adeline exhaled visibly just before following him inside. She was going to say something about his finger, again, when her eyes opened wide as she looked around once they were inside. The sheets were pretty colors, the Christmas lights twinkled, and just as her eyes followed them her gaze came upon a big, very big, strong looking man. Adeline’s eyebrows raised in surprise no matter how hard she tried to keep her expression neutral. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen a man so big. She realized after just a few seconds that she was staring, and she knew it wasn’t polite to stare. She had to blink and pull her gaze away from the very, very intimidating figure and brought it to a much….different…sight.

Grams.

She was so small and so dark that if she wasn’t in those bright colored clothes she might not have noticed her. However, there was a lot to notice. Gold and silver, pearls and jewels. Before she knew it, Michael was hugging her and kissing her cheek. Grams.

This was Grams.

Grams wanted an update on Michael. She bit her tongue and waited for him to mention his own fingers. She’d said the words enough. Adeline was trying to follow the conversation. She was trying to learn. Resistance. Military. Uniforms. Bombs. There was so much to know, so much to learn, and at any moment they could die.

Grams.

She was quick to change the subject, it seemed. She’d noticed that Michael hadn’t came alone. Was Michael supposed to come alone? Had Adeline just learned some things she wasn’t supposed to know? Could they really trust this woman? Was she a Super?

Adeline looked at Michael, who had introduced her and was about as calm as he had been since they’d met. Adeline just kind of nodded and stepped forward as she’d been beckoned. “It’s very nice to meet you Miss ….” Grams? Was her last name Grams? Honestly, Adeline wasn’t entirely sure what to say, or how to act. Honestly? Adeline hardly knew who she was anymore. She was lucky to be alive. But was she lucky? To be alive? Adeline hadn’t exactly realized that Grams was going to touch her, but by the time she had it was too late. Adeline gasped and tried to reach for Grams when she knelt back and shook. Had she just killed Grams!? “Oh are you….”

Fire.

This woman knew that she was fire. Adeline’s eyes narrowed and her eyebrows furrowed. How? How? Grams went on, and Michael helped to explain. Adeline gradually smiled. She knew because that was her ability. Grams was a Super, just like them. Adeline was nodding to the woman as she told her about making use of her talents. Adeline decided in that moment, as they were told that they could spend the night, that she really liked Grams.

Adeline watched Michael with mild curiosity as he made his exchange, but she was more curious to let her eyes wander around the room. The home of a Super. She was rather taken by all of it. Adeline realized that Michael was heading to the room while she’d been daydreaming and gazing about. Adeline started to follow but she stopped. “Thank you for….for….” For not judging her? For helping her? For helping Michael? For….more than she figured she understood. “Thank you for letting us stay the night….” Adeline’s blue eyes watched Grams for just a second, but then all that was left was a view of the back of her head and dark hair as she followed on Michael’s heels up the stairs.



She whispered to Michael, once they were almost all the way up the stairs. “I like Grams.”
 
Michael looked over her shoulder "same, she rented her son's old room to me wgen i first moved to the states, treated me like her own... she's a harsh momma" he chuckled a bit, remembering the time Grams took a shoe to him when he first moved in and tracked mud into the house. They came to a room with a large hole in the door. It was splintered outwards, so something from the inside had hit outwards. But the harmful splinters had been sanded off but the hole remained. Michael opened the door and entered. The room was small, half of thd roof sloped down to accomodate the house's roof and a single bed lay beneath the window. An old sheet with clowns across it covered the window and the floor was covered by a rug. Michael sat on the floor next to the white dresser. The room smelt stale, like it hadn't been inhabited in ages, everything was coated in a thick layer of dust. Michael removed his gas mask, once again revealing his disfigured face as he leaned back on the dresser. He reached into the same pocket he had his vigarettes in and pulled out a small metal pipe and a thin white filter. After putting the filter in he put some of the weed into the pipe, lighting it up and inhaling deeply. Exhaling a small cloud of smelly smoke "oooh..." he said, wrigling to the shiver that rolled up his thigh "i needed that... guess it'll start kicking in soon" he looked to Adeline with a smile "hey, wanne see something fucked" he held up the hand that lost a finger, and where the stump was, a small figure was sprouting out. Like a little tiny baby finger! All red with visible veins, lile an embryo. "You should see it when i lose a whole hand, guys around here still call me "baby-hands" for that exact reason" he looked to his growing finger, poking it and cooing "aww, hey there little guy! You're gonna grow up big and strong by tomorrow aintcha? Huh? But for now, you just really REALLY fucking hurt don'tcha? Huh? I wanna cut you off to stop it hurting so goddamn much but then i'll need to do this all again, so im gonna get suuuuper high so there's less pain. Yes i will! Oh yes i will!" he looked up briefly "oh you can take the bed, my neck's all fucked up from... well, when we met, bullet musta gone through my jaw and the back of my neck so something hard and flat'll do better for me"

Once she was on the bed he looked at his watch. Only 5PM!?... well it had been a trying day, and Michael had been on his feet since around 4:30am. He slumped to the ground, getting comfortable as he loaded up another pipe after picking it clean with a toothpick "so, Adeline.... Adeline Adeline Adeline. Long day huh? How you holding up? Guess you got a lotta questions huh? So... shoot." He lit up and began inhaling as she spoke.
 
From what Michael was saying, Grams had 'rented' but welcomed him into her home. They weren't family like her family had been, but....they were family. Adeline looked curiously through the hole in the door that looked like it had been blasted with a cannon ball. A person could fit through that hole! Adeline glanced around as she and Michael walked inside. Was this what a home looked like now? Was this what it was like to stay in one place? How did Grams stay safe all that time without moving around? Why hadn't her family thought of something like this? If they had, would they still be with her in that moment?

Michael's face was less of a 'surprise' this time when he took off his mask. She watched him sit and she kind of stood there awkwardly, wondering if she was supposed to sit down as well . She just kind of glanced away, her eyes curiously exploring the room as he set himself up with his pipe. Adeline could pretty much feel when he lit up, and the scent was very pungent and very strong. Michael drew her attention away from the smells and feelings when he held up his hand.

"Your finger!" She was back to repeating those two words all over again, her surprised expression back. Her jaw dropped when she looked really closely at it. It was a little bud of veins "Your ...finger?" It looked like it hurt but....it was just a cute little nub of brand new flesh and.....wait! How was it cute? Adeline kind of ended up smiling. She found strange things funny and cute. "Well....I guess it's a good thing that you'll have it back! Right?"

Adeline only nodded when he'd said it would be a better idea for her to sleep on the bed. She stepped over towards it and then only sat down at first. It was a little dusty but....who was she to complain? She literally had nothing. Her mind very suddenly and very quickly shifted into some very depressing, very dark, very sad thoughts. No family. No home. No friends. No one.

No. That wasn't true. She had Michael.

He'd started to say her name over and over and....it made her smile. It...relaxed her. She sighed a little bit and decided the hell with it and laid back in the bed. As her head touched the pillow it felt glorious. She nearly sighed out loud. She hadn't realized how exhausted her body was. It was her mind she was most worried about. She was afraid that once she started to think, once she went down that dark trail, there'd be no turning back. She didn't want to think. Not now. Not tonight. And just as she thought about that, Michael had seemed to voice her thoughts about distracting her.

He was so.....sweet.

Adeline sighed as her head just kind of sunk into the pillow and her body just kind of relaxed into the mattress. "I'm okay...." She said gently, about how she was holding up. Not her very best, and these weren't her very best moments but she was managing. And the invitation to ask questions? Of course the 19 year old was going to take it..... "What happens if your head falls off? I mean....does that grow back too?" Of all things, that was what she wanted to know. Of all things, she wanted to know about him. "Like....does everything just....grow back?"
 
Michael let out a snarky laugh when she said "I'm okay" he retorted instantly "no you're fucking now! You little fucking liar!. You just watched your family be blown to bits right in front of your eyes, you've been in a warzone all day, were held at gunpoint by jumpy soldiers, and were - unknowingly - under a Sniper's scope not an hour ago. You are NOT fucking okay. I'm an easy person to lie to. I believe a lot of bullshit. But THAT... that's too big even to get past me"

He lit up again and finished the pipe load as she asked her questions. He thought for a minute "okay, first. My head. It doesn't grow back. It's hard to describe but, basically if my body gets destroyed, like blown up... well i'm not exactly concious when that's happened cos y'know... blown up. But i've been told that all my blood and bones and bits almost... just gather where i was blown apart and my body reforms. When i wake up almost all my skin has finished reforming, but decapitation? That's a tricky one. I need to be bought back to my body so it can re-attatch, or my body could i guess be turned to mush and it might start rebuilding itself from the neck stump down, not like i'm eager to try it, getting decapitated... it hurts, i mean it REALLY hurts. Almost all your nerves get cut in one place. That tends to hurt" he loaded up anotger pipe load. His eyes were turning to a deep red and yellow, becoming increasingly bloodshot as it was really kicking in. And he could feel himself getting stoned out of his mind "uhh... for things like umm... fingers and hands and feet and stuff, it kinda happens like this, it just sorta... grows back over like, a day or two. Dunno how long a thingie... uhh... what's it called?.. uhh fuck what was it?... arm! How long an arm takes to uhh... grow... grow back" he was having more and more difficulty forming cohesive, complex sentences. But on the bright side he couldn't feel his baby-finger anymore.

He slid down slowly. Becoming uncomfortable he re-adjusted. As he relaxed on the hard floor. His back could be heard cracking slowly followed by satisfied groans. He'd tilt his head and take another hit. He glanced up and looked at his pile "in case you're wondering, no you can't have any, not hoarding or nothin, its just that in your state, this shit can give you like, full-on existential cryses and cause like, massive depression and shit if you go into it with a bad mindset like i bet my balls you're in right now... oh jesus i just realized... i could lose them... multiple times. Just one is a nightmare scenario but... goddamn" with that he took another hit.

He felt like he was sinking into the hard floor beneath him. He loosened up and accepted it. Almost asking the floor to swallow him up. He let himself go from his pains and fears of the moment and just enjoyed it. Letting his mind empty. He imagined himself floating on the suface of a still cool lake. The smell of death and war nowhere, no fires and no chaos. Just serenity. In reality while still concious his mouth hung open and he began drooling as his eyes rolled back and his eyelids slowly closed. He mumbled softly "anything else you wanna know?"
 
Michael suddenly reminded Adeline of everything that had happened that day (even though it was only 5 pm) and….it all came cascading and crashing down. Her face curled up and she’d started to cry. Not just cry. Ugly cry. Within seconds he had a sobbing, tearing, sniffling 19 year old beside him. Her family. The Warzone. Being caught behind the bathroom door. Getting into Grams’ house.

Her father was dead. Her mother was dead. Her brother was dead. And there was Michael, listing the ways she had just barely escaped death. Why? Why was she sitting there, and they weren’t? Adeline cried for several long, awkward, dramatic minutes. Sitting cross legged on the bed, she picked up the bottom of her shirt so that she could dab at her bottom eyelids and then quickly wiped her nose and sniffled a few times.

“In a weird way….That kind of made me feel better….I’m sorry that I cry so ugly….That’s what my brother used to say….” Adeline wiped away a few warm tears with her fingertips, and then she moved the heavy pillow towards the foot of the bed so that when she laid down she was just next to him above him on the bed, so that she could look at him. She was rolled onto her side. No. She wasn’t okay. But yes, she was going to try to keep the rest of herself together.

Like Michael, maybe there was a reason she’d been ‘kept’ alive. Maybe she could put herself back together. Maybe she had a greater purpose. Maybe her body and soul would find a way back together. Or….maybe she’d wake up dead tomorrow.



Adeline watched him as he spoke. She wrinkled her nose a bit when he’d mentioned being blown up or decapitated. It wasn’t exactly the lightest topic that there was to talk about, but who better to talk about it than with another Super? She imagined a puddle of Michael coming back together, or a head and neck finding each other. Adeline nodded, understanding that he felt pain even though his body might regenerate.

Michael forgot the word ‘arm’ and it made Adeline laugh. Her nose was all stuffy and sniffly and her cheeks were red and her own eyes bloodshot from tears but….this had to be the best that it could be, right?

Adeline decided not to stare while he tried to get comfortable. He’d offered her the bed and she was thankful. She heard things cracking and popping. Adeline had just kind of shook her head when he mentioned that he wasn’t ‘sharing’. “You’re probably right….Can….Can I have one of those other ones again though? Like the one you gave me before?” Adeline watched him with curious eyes. She had liked the heat in the smoke in the cigarette. The next time he took a hit, Adeline playfully increased the heat at the tip of his bud so that he’d get a bigger hit. She smiled playfully. “Please?” She was awfully cute. And her control of her ability was awfully precise. Day by day there were less and less Supers, but that just made Adeline and Michael more unique and special. It also made them….hunted. Wanted. Endangered.

Adeline shook her head and laughed again. “Don’t bet your balls….And…Don’t lose them….I don’t think there’s enough of that stuff to numb that kind of pain….” She teased gently even though she didn’t have a ‘set’ of her own.

Adeline rolled and laid back on the bed and let her head sink into the softer pillow and let her body finally give in and just be….weak….into the mattress. She could be weak, here. She could be young. She could be a girl. She could be herself. She could be Adeline. He had mumbled so quietly that she almost hadn’t heard him. She only turned her head towards him.

“Do you wish you could…..” Her voice was rather low. A little dark. “Do you wish you could just…die?”
 
Michael handed her a cigarette "don't go burning the house down, y'hear?" With that he slumped back down and listened as she spoke, then came her question. He just shrugged "i dunno, i guess, i mean, when i'm regrowing a lumb or when i've just been shot, i do sonetimes just look at the sky, i say "please god, just let me die, i don't wanna feel this anymore" but then things grow back, i come back to life and that old instinct of self-preservation kicks back in and i'm fighting to survive again, so i guess to answer your question... sometimes" he went quiet for a bit. Hearing the low rumble of an explosion in the distance. It was getting dark early and the fighting was still raging. But while the room was quiet his mind was deafeningly loud. "You know what does scare me though?... i'm scared i'll grow old and... well, see, my grandmothers, both of them, got dementia in their old age, what if I get dementia too and... and I never die? What if my body just gets older and older and my mind fails, i forget everything and everyone i know and i just deteriorate forever without dying?... i'm past being scared of dying young, i'm scared of wasting away" he finished the pipe and tucked it back in his pocket. He wriggled around on the floor, his back and arms cracking some more. He sighed heavily, letting his head roll to the side "... Adeline... we're leaving tomorrow before dawn. Grams gets up well before dawn, at like, 4am, we'll see her tomorrow, get some intel on what's ahead of us, maybe a bite to eat then we leave... there were thousands of Resistance fighters entering the area today, i saw them coming before I found you, either they'll attack, the army will attack or they'll crash into eachother in the morning, we'd best be well away from here before that happens"

He started moving, he plugged a charger into the outlet on the wall and his phone lit up "... holy shit, Adeline, this place still has power! Charge while you can" he pulled out a second phone charger from tbe drawers beside the bed and hoped under his breath it still worked. He put it down "any news?" He asked, closing his eyes again. Outside was the rumble of a distant explosion. Sounded like a car bomb followed by the brief crackle of gunfire. Michael assumed it was a small group of resistance fighters hitting the military's front lines. They were probably dead or wounded after those few seconds of gunfire. "Also, you should delete your social media, people start tagging you in shit on facebook and you'll be hunted, if you gotta post things, go to the troll hotspots, 4chan, 8chan, those places, keep it anonymous, the NSA's tracking everything they can... in fact, what's your number? I'll sent you a program, it'll fry your phone's gps capeabilities but it'll hide you too, there's word going around drones are zeroing in on phone gps signals to hit their targets, and thats the last thing we need"
 
Adeline’s eyes lit up when Michael handed over the cigarette. It really was relaxing, and she liked the taste and the smell. And the feeling. It felt good to have smoke in her lungs, it was satisfying. Her body wanted to burn. It felt like it had been changed to incinerate and blaze and burn brightly. Instead, everyone kept telling her to keep it in, control it, and not use it. Except Gram. Gram had told her that she was going to be able to use it one day, and she’d use it to help people like her. Like them. “I won’t….I promise….”

Adeline listened, but also kept glancing when she heard the sounds of explosions and screams. Adeline sighed and tried to get comfortable on her pillow. Well, not her pillow. Gram’s pillow. She didn’t have a pillow. She didn’t have her own pillow or blanket or anything. She didn’t have anything.

Before the drowned in the own drama in her head, listening to Michael pulled her back away again. She nodded a little bit and she smiled. “Well….I’m sure you still have a while before that….You’re only what? 50? 60?” She teased, playfully, since he was always calling her ‘kid’. “Just kidding…You have a lot of time before your brain wastes away….And who knows, maybe we’ll find a way to …you know….end you….before that happens. I can help. If you want. I owe you my life. Twice. I can owe you a death.” There was a playful hint of seriousness there. She would. If he wanted her to. She owed him that much.

When Michael started to rattle off the plan about tomorrow, her tummy growled. “Eating sounds good…. “ It almost seemed like that was all she heard. Adeline was rather small, petite even…But she looked like she could eat forever. She liked to eat. A lot. And she didn’t get to do it nearly as often as she’d liked. "Eating sounds so good"

Adeline started to try to relax when she heard him moving around and shuffling. Adeline raised an eyebrow when he started talking and she shook her head. “I don’t have a phone….Or….Facebook…I mean…I had one before…you know….before the Meteor….And then….” Adeline shrugged. “My parents weren’t really into phones or social media or anything like that…They were just into surviving…Besides…I wouldn’t have anyone to call or Facebook anyway….” Adeline shook her head. “Everyone is dead.” Her friends. Her family. Everyone she’d ever known, really. The town she’d grown up in was ash, as far as she knew. Adeline smiled. “Except you….I could Facebook you…” She teased a little bit, she seemed to like to make light when she was feeling down.

“No phone…No Facebook…No number….I guess you’re just stuck with ….” Adeline yawned, her body and mind finally recognizing that she was exhausted. “good old fashioned talking to me…..”

Whatever she’d said, she’d pretty much fallen asleep halfway through it. By the time the morning came, she’d finally learned to sleep through the sounds of bombs, rapid gunfire, and explosions. Her arm was hanging off of the bed and towards him, she’d apparently rolled in that direction at some point, the pillow clutched underneath her as she….snored. A very light, soft snore. But she snored.
 
Michael lay awake most of the night. Frankly, he was scared. Scared to hell and back, he kept thinking of what'd happen to him, and this girl. He was concerned about her, she only met him today and yet she already seemed to be bonding to him. This was... unsettling, but he figured he might as well let her for now. Fact was, if he pushed her away she'd cling to the next guy to show her a shred of kindness, and he knew what men in a warzone were like. Didn't matter if it was ancient times, modern, westerners, asian, russian, african... didn't matter. In a warzone men would kill, loot and rape as they saw fit. And a young pretty girl like her, vulnerable and willing to bond so quickly. A real prize to the soldiers crawling over this city. They'd use her, sell her for ammo and cigarettes, whore her out for money and loot. He couldn't bring himself to let this happen. But he'd need to keep her at arm's length, minimum.

He finally got his eyes closed, but his deams were haunting. Those bloodstained eyes, screams in ten thousand voices. Screams for mercy, screams to be saved... screams of agony. Sensations were in his dream, his right arm shook as he remembered tremors of impact resonating up his arm, the copper smell of warm splood that splashed on his face. He awoke in a cold sweat, jerking upward, panting. Michael was shaking. Curling up his knees to his chest. His eyes were bulging. He was scared and angry, all he wanted was one night. Just one night of sleep! But no. He knew he didn't deserve it. But still he wanted it. He was just so tired.

He glanced at his watch. 4am. He was supprised, he must've had a whole 4 hours sleep, but still he was tired, 4 hours was the best sleep he'd had in months. Still, it was better than nothing. He took a deep, shaky inhale before shakily getting to his feet. He reached down and shook Adeline "hey, hey c'mon get up" he shook her a bit harder and waited for her to collect herself "it's time, we gotta go" he stretched a bit, cracking his joints "we gotta get some distance before dawn, i don't fancy spending another day dodging bullets and bombs do you?" He opened the door amd went out to the hallway, soon heading downsairs. But waiting by the door was Grams.

"Heading off so early?" She asked, almost teasingly, Michael nodded "yeah, we're heading West, might get out of the shit before it starts y'know?" Grams nodded "not even gonna say goodbye?" "We couldn't take the risk of waiting, i was planning to but..." Grams cut him off "Couldn't sleep right? Need to keep moving so your mind can be quiet, i don't blame you" Muchael looked back to see Adeline coming down the stairs "Grams... i got-" again she cut him off "Just leave it on the kitchen table, i had a bag of some goodies left for you, some spam, canned food, that sorta thing" Michael sighed, bowing his head "thank you Grams... and one more thing" Grams held out her right hand, Michael reached out and took it. Again Grams shook as her eyes rolled back in her head. After a few seconds she was back to normal "... it's not gonna be nice... horrible, i see fire, an endless fog, a golden veil and a throne of ashes and... the Black Sun" Michael's heart almost stopped. His stomach dropped and his face went pale "are... are you sure? The Black Sun?" Grams nodded "oh yes, the Revenant will rise cradling the Black Sun over a world of ash, nothing can prevent it, you can't abandon your path, no matter how hard you try, you and it are one in the same, and at its end is ruin for all" Michael let go of her hand. He glanced to adeline "... i'm... i'm gonna go get supplies" he darted off to the next room towards the kitchen.

Grams held out a hand to Adeline "good morning sweetheart, here, take my hand, let me have a look-see at what's ahead of you" after she made contact with Adeline she began having convulsions, hey eyes rolled back, but only for a second. She lurched forward in her wheelchair, panting "aah... i shouldn't do this one after another... girl, your future is emblazened before you, i see fields of souls scorched away, skin blackened and blistered, a burning pheonix below a dawn sun, burning away a world of rot" she rested back in her chair, a slight smile spreading across her face "aah... there, it's done, the Soldiers will find me today, likely in the mid afternoon, i know this, and your companion most likely knows too, you should go and see him, see if he's finished having his little panic attack hmm?"
 

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