Chapter 38

The Meeting.

Damien Reyes

Time/Area: August 1st/ Mabel Mansion

“This is the Superhero Training Program!” Jason exclaimed, raising his notebook in the air before quickly pausing, ‘Wait, we should all get code names.”

Selina rolled her eyes,

“That’s the dumbest name I’ve ever heard…” She told him, fiddling with the blue strands in her hair as Jason frowned.

Right now, we were all in the mansion’s backyard, a sizable distance between us and where the fight had gone down.

I was still getting over how big the land was. I mean, we could barely even see the construction workers fixing the fence from here, and from what I saw when we came outside, they had brought all sorts of trucks and equipment. From here, one would’ve barely been able to tell that a fourteen year old boy decked a monster into the air and broke a tree.

I had to hand it to Mrs.Mabel; she had ordered all this in what only felt like an instant, and somehow she was still having her meeting. She was definitely committed to keeping Jason’s family business running, and It was impressive how she somehow made time for me too.

Over on this corner of the yard, the rigidly set border of trees seemed to thin out, instead providing a scattered, forest-like feel to this side of the land. It was like whoever designed the setting wanted to emphasize exactly how rich whoever owned the property was, and If that truly was the goal, the job was done to perfection. Closest to us was a pair of tall standing trees, light from the high sun tearing through their shadow of leaves and boring down on our group. In front of the trees laid a neatly stacked pile of firewood, very similar to the stack on the other side of the yard. It seemed like the area was the perfect balance of wild and urban. You had the trees with the large masses of leaves, but you only needed to step to the left to see Central Park Tower. You had the freshly cut and trimmed grass beneath your feet, but a somewhat immersion breaking fence cut off the trail only a couple yards from where we were standing.

Speaking of the fence, this corner’s part of it also overlooked a massive lake, giving us quite the view of the hundreds of buildings in Manhattan silhouetted against water. A steady breeze drifted through the air, cold enough to excuse a coat, but not so cold for anything else.

I was next to Jason, both of us facing the rest of our friends as he explained what was happening.

“Damien thought it was dumb too..” He muttered, opening up his notebook,

“Anyways, since you guys want to find out D’s powers so badly, you can just watch the remainder of the tests as I conduct them.”

Selina shrugged in her blue trench coat, “Yea yea, whatever,” She said impatiently. “You better have heat vision or something, Dami.”

I threw my hands up, recalling similar words from when I was hanging out with Jason, ‘Why does everyone expect me to have that?”

Hiru looked at me, his body hunched over in his black sweater as he eyed me mysteriously,

“You mean you don’t have heat vision?” He clarified, “Then what’s with the circle-shirt?”

I glared at Jason, “Blame him for the shirt,” I nodded towards him, “But erm, when did circles imply ‘heat vision’?.”

I was wearing a brown, zip up jacket over my second compression shirt, my hands tucked into my pockets to keep them from fidgeting. I wasn’t entirely thrilled about my friends getting closer to uncovering the truth about me, and I didn’t want my nerves to show through shaky fingers.

“Who gives a crap about any of that stuff?!” Melissa interrupted, stomping in her tennis shoes, “I wanna see some action!”

Melissa was dressed in an orange jacket, a blue shirt underneath, and black leggings, and was making no effort to hide the obvious excitement in her eyes.

I cleared my throat, “Uh, Jason, what’s the next test?”

Jason blushed at his notebook, skipping over a page entitled ‘Heat Vision’ to a sheet labeled…

Invulnerability?

Oh no.

“Imma test your resistance!” He exclaimed, dropping his notebook and picking up the bow he had brought.

Jason’s bow was some kind of recurve model, and it had been spray painted black to represent a character from Fight4life. Unfortunately for me, he had remembered to bring it to Mrs.Mabel’s house when we were moving in.

I gulped, “Th-that’s why you brought your bow out here?” I backed away, “To shoot me?”

Jason nodded as if this was routine, nocking an arrow on the rest of the weapon and facing me, “Mhm, now stay still.”

Selina gasped, “Jason stop!” she ordered, “Don’t shoot him!”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Relax Selina,” he said, “This shouldn’t do anything.”

“Shouldn’t!?” Me and Selina asked simultaneously.

Hiru stepped in front of Jason, “Okay,” He said, “Um, I’m the oldest here, so I’m going to be the bigger person and tell you to stop.”

Jason glared, “Cause you’re old?”

Selina completely switched focus, no longer caring about my well being,

“Oh,” She laughed, “so you’re better than us because you’re a junior Hiru?”

She placed her hands on her hips, staring up at Hiru with an intimidating expression.

Hiru coughed, stepping back before he was assaulted, “Erm, n-no, my bad?”

Melissa was just staring at the bow, “Uh,” She looked around, “Are you gonna shoot him or..?”

Wow.

Jason sighed, “Yeah, Imma shoot him now,” He breathed, drawing the bow string back.

“Wh-whoa, wait a minute!” I yelled , backing up some more, “Chill for a second!”

Jason paused, “Dude this should be easy!” he explained, “Your arm was just ripped open and it healed in like a couple of hours!”

I gulped, “B-but it’s not like I enjoyed that-!”

WHOOSH

The arrow whizzed towards me before I could finish my protesting, not having time to formulate any kind of reaction before the metallic point of the rod had splintered across the fabric of my compression shirt.

Melissa yelped as the rod of the arrow was flung into the trees above.

I slowly looked up at Jason,

“You SHOT me!” I yelled, looking at the new, inch wide hole in my shirt.

Wait a second.

“You shot me…” I realized pressing a finger against my chest. I had felt it hit, but the sensation brought no pain.

There wasn’t even a scrape.

Melissa screeched, clapping wildly as she jumped up and down.

Selina stared at me, dumbfounded while Hiru’s mouth seemed to be fixed in a permanent ‘O’ position.

Like Jason had explained, this wasn’t entirely surprising to me, but the idea of willingly testing something like this still gave me pause.

“You’re invincible!?” Melissa laughed.

I looked down at the jacket sleeve of my right arm, knowing the scar that lined it, “Uhh, no.” I said, “I’m just…hard to kill, I guess.”

Hiru gave me a questioning look, “Run that back…” he breathed, “Shouldn’t we do multiple trials?”

I rolled my eyes, “N-no, that’s enough.”

I understood the request though, as I imagined having a literal superpowered friend would raise more than a few questions. Now that Jason was back to his ‘testing’ mode, questions once again began to form in my head too.

Like…was I invincible all the time?

Seemed like a dumb question, but I remembered when Jason had split my powers into two groups earlier: Passive and Skill. Something like increased resistance would naturally seem to be passive, but I wasn’t so sure. I mean, back at Inwood park, I distinctly remembered feeling pain when my ribs were being smashed in, but now..? Getting shot with an arrow barely even tickled.

I assumed that my level of ‘Excess Energy’ had something to do with it. Like, maybe my level of invincibility depended on how much food I had in my system.

Or maybe I had just gotten that much stronger since then.

I smiled.

Killing the monster definitely helped.

If not with my progress, then it for sure helped with my confidence. Don’t get me wrong, that was still scary, but...I still did it. When it came down to it, I could and did protect the people I cared about, no matter how impossible it felt.

“Well uh,” Jason started, closing his notebook, “Th-those were all the tests so…”

“What?!” Selina cried, snatching Jason’s notebook from his palm, “First off, you guys can test way more things,”

I blinked.

“And secondly,” She continued, “We didn’t even get to see what happened before!”

Selina averted her gaze towards me, “What’s this about falling from 40 feet?”

Hiru nodded in agreement, “Yea, what about that?”

“Oh wait!” Jason said, stopping everyone, “H-how about we take a break from all this stuff,” he suggested, “Maybe we should try coming up with a plan?”

Melissa scoffed, “What plan?”

Jason continued, “Like, the plan we were starting to make a while ago. You know, the whole zombie squadron thing?”

He laughed, “Now that you guys know Damien has powers, don’t you guys want to continue?”

Hiru looked confused, “I must’ve not been around for that part.”

Jason nodded, “It’s okay though,” he said, turning to Hiru, “We didn’t really know what was going on then.”

“And we do now?” Selina huffed, “As far as I know, we know nothing.”

Jason glanced at me, “S-still,” he went on, “We should at least try to talk about a plan. I mean, one did almost kill me.”

Hiru raised his eyebrow, “I’m not sure about that,” he said, “I’m pretty sure plans like these are like…not our job.”

Melissa nodded, her excited tone noticeably withering, “Yeah,” she agreed, “The whole monster thing is crazy, but why should uh…we have to really worry about it?”

She chuckled, “You know, since we’re all just kids.”

Selina joined back in, “Guys,” she said, “This whole ‘monster’ thing is very real.”

She briefly stuck her hands into her pockets, “I-I hear from all sorts of my dad’s co-workers about how they’ve lost contact with their families every day….it’s not like anything is getting better. Sorry Jason, but we just weren’t thinking clearly when this whole thing started.”

Hiru added on to her statement, “Yeah, and I mean, think about what just happened to you guys.” He paused, taking the time to point out the construction workers across the yard, “Powers or no, you guys almost died,” He said, “Literal things that rip people apart can just walk into your yard! These things are currently in the process of taking out an entire country…and will probably not just stop there-”

“Well yeah, that’s my point,” Jason protested, “I thought you guys were all ready to make an apocalyptic strategy to help with all that stuff…”

Selina tilted her head, “Like I said, we were doing that originally, but then..”

Her voice trailed off, remembering what happened after, “You know…life kicked in.”

Jason frowned,

“Yeah.” he thought, “Life.”

A silence passed over us, the only noise being the chirping of crickets and the sounds of machinery from across the yard.

They had a point; we were all just kids. I had thought these things before too. In fact, I had thought about it just this morning. Why did a fourteen year old have to punch a mutant creature across the yard? Why did a fourteen year old have to lose both his parents? Why did any of this have to happen?

Reality began to sink in for what felt like the one hundredth time as Hiru’s words began to replay over and over again in my mind. I mean, what the heck were we even doing right now? I killed one monster, okay. I almost died, didn’t I? Wasn’t I the one scared of a couple of bullies? And what about Sarah? Was she still…no..stop.

I felt like I was regressing back through emotions, and…I didn’t like that.

Yeah… I killed a monster, and I’d probably kill another one. I was already aware of how unfair the situation was, but there was a reason I wasn’t going to be depressed all the time. What was the point of moping over my dead parents? It wouldn’t bring them back to life. Everyone here was just pointing out what we already knew. It didn’t really matter to me how plausible the idea of a couple of kids fighting an apocalypse was, but when it came down to it, there was no way I was just going to stop trying.

I looked up at everyone, watching their saddened expressions take hold over their faces.

Idiots.

What was the point of any of this?

If they had already accepted the fact that we all could die, why not just…screw it all?

I decided to speak up, “Well, so what?” I said, causing everyone to look at me.

“So what..?” Selina raised her eyebrows.

I nodded, “Yeah,” I continued, “I mean, if we’re being real, there’s like no way to ignore this whole… ‘we’re all gonna die’ thing.”

Hiru squinted at me, “Was that supposed to lighten the mood…cause uh…it didn’t.”

I cleared my throat, “No,” I told him, somehow able to laugh, “ But it doesn’t change the fact that there’s still freaking monsters everywhere!”

Hiru looked confused, “Erm, Damien, are you okay-”

“I’m great,” I admitted, pointing at him, “But you guys clearly are not.”

‘Damien, the heck are you doing?” Jason asked mentally.

I ignored him, continuing,

“Guys look,” I started, “What I’m saying is…is that we can’t be all sad and stuff when we haven’t even tried, okay?”

Selina shook her head, “Dami,” she said, “What is there to try, this situation is…-”

“Hopeless?” I finished her sentence, “That’s my point!”

She blinked, “I uh…don’t follow-”

“Who-cares?” I said, spacing the words out so everyone understood me, “Cause I’m not just going to sit around and wait to die.”

Melissa spoke before Selina could,

“Y-yeah!” She said, somewhat shocking me as her excited demeanor returned, “S-sure, let’s uh…do it!”

Melissa walked over and stood next to Jason, dividing the three of us from Selina and Hiru.

Selina facepalmed herself, “Do…what?”

Melissa shrugged, nodding at me, “I dunno, but I like his confidence!”

Jason spoke up, “Erm, I don’t know, let’s figure it out in the house?”

“Dami…” Selina began to bring up another point, but I interrupted her.

“No no no,” I shook my head, “Just c’mon!”

Selina laughed, looking at Jason and Melissa, “It’s just that…guys, are you serious?” She said, “This isn’t like…a joke anymore…what plan could we possibly come up with to survive a-”

I gave Selina a pleading look, “You’re being a downer, Selina,” I groaned, waving her over to where me, Jason, and Melissa were standing, “We all know this isn’t a joke, but like…do you have something better to do?”

Hiru spoke up, “Guys,” he scratched his head, “I mean, Selina has a-”

I crouched down on the grass, finding a small twig before promptly chucking it at Hiru’s chest,

“Shhhh,” Melissa told him, the twig sliding onto the dirt next to Hiru’s foot.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Selina looked up at the clouds, her face slowly conforming into that of a grin before her feet began moving over to our side.

Jason and Melissa began clapping together as Selina stood next to me, “Eh,” she said, “Why not.”

Hiru let out something between gibberish and English, another surge of celebration washing over the rest of us as he stepped over.

“We’re all gonna die.” Hiru pointed out, “But it’s whatever.”

“Alright,” Jason said, beginning to jog back towards the house, “I’ll get the snacks, just head upstairs!”

Melissa slugged Hiru in the elbow before racing towards across the yard,

“Race you!” She taunted, causing Hiru to sigh before trailing her a moment later.

Before I could follow, Selina grabbed my shoulder, turning me around to face her before punching me in the chest.

What was with those two and hitting people…

She smiled, “Nice save.” She said, “And erm, sorry for all the depression.”

I shrugged, “Thanks,” I said, absently kicking the dirt with my shoe, “And it’s okay, I get it.”

She frowned, grabbing my hand at my side before beginning to walk towards the house.

I tried not to blush, but that was inevitable,

“Right…so are you…doing alright?” She asked, glancing at me, “We haven’t talked much lately.”

I sighed, “I-I’m better now.” I admitted, happy that it wasn’t a lie anymore, “I’m just happy we can hang out for a bit.”

Selina smiled again, “Me too,” she said, letting go of my hand before darting for the house, “ C’mon!” She called out, spinning around to face me while running backwards, “Really gonna let those guys outshow us?”

I rolled my eyes, chasing after her with a grin.

—---------[Later]-------------------------------

“Okay,” Jason began, sitting crisscrossed on his pillow, “What’s the first point to cover?”

Melissa sat closest to Jason, simply lying on the pillow next to him while Hiru sat on the edge of their bed. Me and Selina were on my bed, Selina propping her head against my shoulder while I leaned against the headboard. Between our two mattresses stood a table that Jason had dragged in from the movie room down the hall, on it sitting at least five pounds of chips, soda, and other unhealthy brain food for use.

“Ummm, how do we kill them…?” Melissa started, sitting up a little, “Seems important.”

Selina shook her head from beside me, reaching over to grab a bag of potato chips before speaking, “Maybe we’ve been looking at this thing the wrong way,” she suggested, popping the bag open, “First of all, the goal should be survival, not to take out the monster population.”

“So let’s start with the basic questions,” I added onto her words, “And we’ll build up from there.”

“So what’s a good question?” Jason wondered aloud, flipping through the STP notebook for a new page to write on.

Hiru coughed,

“How has no one seen a monster yet?” He pitched, “I mean…taken a picture of one.”

Melissa gasped, “Maybe they’re like vampires and don’t show up on cameras!”

Everyone paused, causing Melissa to shrink back, “Or...not.”

Jason addressed the point anyways, “Oh,” he said, turning to Melissa with mild excitement, “in Fight4life, vampires actually-”

“Jason,” I interrupted, causing him to quiet, “Uhh, maybe later, dude.”

He nodded, “Right, right.”

Selina shook her head, “Yea no,” She said, “I think they do something to electronics..”

Melissa gasped, “Like at the school- all the lights broke!”

I nodded, “Also just now,” I recalled, “No one was able to take a photo of that monster that attacked me and Jason because the power was out.”

Hiru spoke up, “Yeah, and I guess that means that it’s not even just the power being out around them either,” He added, “That means they would be able to mess with phones, watches, and everything else.”

“Even still,” Selina added, “We don't really know the range at which they affect electronics, so I bet monsters still try to be sneaky…”

Jason jotted some things down in his notebook,

“So that’s our theory….” he talked while he wrote, “ So what about their infection spikes?”

Selina sighed, “The glowing things on their arms? They all have those?”

Jason nodded, “Yea, like what Doctor Diamond mentioned on the phone a while back.”

Hiru blinked,

“Doctor who? Is that somebody at your school?”

Melissa laughed, “No, but that does remind me- when do you think this wide scale school shut down is gonna end?”

She continued, “I mean, I don’t really like school, but this is getting ridiculous.”

Selina shrugged, “Eh, I don’t know. But that monster in the school seemed crazy powerful. If it had been infected by something, I wonder how powerful that thing was.”

I tilted my head absently, remembering that we were supercharged. Terry had said that we were the most powerful emotion, but…what was that feeling I felt when I woke up earlier? I could've sworn I heard voices. Whatever the case, I was finding Terry’s words hard to believe at face value…

“Well, we don’t know exactly what infected Ter- I mean that thing,” Jason said, jotting down more stuff, “But you do bring up a good point. Like, does the power level decrease as the said infection is passed down by each monster?”

“Well that’d be great,” I thought to myself,

“Less problems for me.”

Hiru looked confused, “Isn’t that system flawed though?” He quizzed, “If monsters can only make weaker monsters...how bad will the weakest one be?”

I thought about this for a moment,

“Well, it kinda doesn’t matter,” I said, “As long as original monsters keep getting made through that red gas Sarah was talking about, there will always be extremely powerful monsters, right?”

Hiru nodded, “Oh, right? Whose Sarah? A-and does she also know that Doctor you were talking about?”

Oh right; Hiru wasn’t exactly caught up with us.

“She’s my sister..” I explained, “She’s in Paris right now, but we were able to call her and Doctor Diamond before.”

Hiru, “And they know so much because-?”

“They erm,” I coughed, “Worked for Energis, and were kind of involved with the creation of this whole thing in Paris…”

Hiru froze a bit, “O-oh…Paris. Wait, you called her?”

“We used a satellite phone, but now she won’t respond..” I continued, “But I guess we can’t even use that anymore seeing as all the Communication Satellites seem to be down when it comes to calling out of the country.”

“Yeah,” Selina picked back up on the conversation, “And I guess that monster at the school could’ve been infected by the gas thing to start.”

I wanted to tell them that the infection was based around emotions, but knowing them, they would probably ask how I knew that, so I just stayed quiet. I knew Doc had mentioned it on the phone too, but I didn’t think anyone remembered.

When I thought about it, there was actually a lot I hadn’t told everyone. In fact, Jason was still the only person that knew about the truth behind my parent’s death.

I couldn’t reveal that though…and I didn’t really want to talk about it.

“A-Are there any signs that someone could be infected?” Hiru questioned,

“Like… does someone immediately become a monster or is it over a period of time? How do we even know if this gas thing is…you know…here?”

Melissa gulped, “S-so one of us could be infected?”

Everyone looked at me.

“Wait a dang minute!” Melissa gasped, standing up and pointing at me.

I blinked, “Uhm…what’s up?”

“Well…your blood is black..” Hiru explained, scratching his head.

“A-and you were stabbed by that ‘infection’ spike..” Melissa added.

“Your voice...is also…like..monsterish.” Selina spoke, shrugging.

I coughed as Jason rushed to my aid, “Well guys,” He started,

“Damien has powers, so it stands to reason that he could be..immune to infection or something.”

As last minute…no…second explanations went, that wasn’t half bad.

Selina didn’t pause on that for a second, “Or,” She said, now just following her own thoughts instead of really trying to incriminate me, “The powers could be a symptom!”

“No,” Melissa shook her head, disagreeing, “I feel like Jason’s right. If Damien was a monster, wouldn’t he be like…” She paused, “I don’t know…taller?”

I frowned at Selina, glancing at her next to me, “Erm, Selina?”

She was still leaning on me, which probably meant she wasn’t scared, but that was just because she was excited by her theory.

“I-I’m not a monster.” I laughed a little, watching her expression shift, “You know that, right?”

Selina’s face twisted apologetically, “O-oh sorry,” She almost whispered, “I didn’t mean to…-”

“O-oh it’s fine!” I interrupted, relieved, “I can see why you guys would think that, haha.”

A moment of the most awkward silence passed over us, and it was only interrupted by Hiru’s hand reaching for a can of soda on the table.

He cleared his throat,

“B-but what would we do if..uh,” He took a swig of the drink, “If one of us did get infected?”

I suddenly felt Selina stiffen against my shoulder, glancing at my left just in time to catch her eyes widen briefly,

“W-well we would probably keep it quiet.” She whispered, “To keep that person safe.”

I coughed a little, “Y-yea,” I agreed, still relieved that she didn’t know, “Monsters probably won’t be the only problems anyway. People will probably start acting out.”

“Have to make sure to protect each other…” Jason said aloud, scribbling some more things down.

Melissa bounced on the bed, “RIGHT, there are always those terror groups and looters and...maybe cultists if this gets weird.”

“Do you think the monsters are organized?” I asked, switching questions, “Like, if they really are intentionally sneaking around, maybe they can actually make goals?”

Hiru tilted his head, “Are they intelligent?”

“If they’ve been supercharged..” I thought, once again remembering my conversation with Terry. I wondered if Sarah knew about the whole ‘supercharging’ thing yet…

“Let’s say that they were..” I added, careful to how I approached the question.

Hiru shrugged, “Then I guess..maybe?”

I shivered at the thought of that. An organized group of monsters would be terrifying.

“Okay okay, now Let’s talk about weaponry!” Jason exclaimed, “We need swords, axes, an-”

“How about guns?!” Selina raised her eyebrow, “Like.. freaking machine guns..”

Melissa frowned, “We can get swords too!”

Selina frowned, “But why…” She said, trying to understand their logic, “Sarah said that one had the force, what are we gonna do with bows and swo-”

Hiru coughed, “Actually Selina,” he started, “While I agree we need guns, I bet it won’t take long before they become kind of like a last minute thing people use.”

Selina whipped her head to face him, “Cause they’re idiots?”

Hiru shook his head, “No, because there’s nothing else to use. Ammunition might be kind of hard to find after a while...assuming this apocalypse thing is for real.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” I said, sitting up, “There’s a hunting store next to Mr.Drake’s place. They have guns and stuff there.”

I didn’t know how to use a gun, since I had never shot one, but they seemed to work against monsters in Fight4Life, so why not have them?

Jason and Selina nodded,

“Oh yea,” Jason said, “that Huntsman's place or something.” Jason recalled.

Hiru frowned,

“Mr.Drake’s that funny guy that was at the, “He stopped himself, “He was at the..er..-”

“Funeral?” Jason finished, “We’re not allergic to the word you know..”

Hiru nodded apologetically, “Sorry.”

Hiru continued, “Well, regardless, you guys can’t just walk into a store and buy some guns.”

Jason frowned, “Why not?”

Hiru laughed, “Really?” He asked, “Do you have a license?”

Jason thought for a moment, “I’m not sure-”

“You don’t,” Hiru said, sighing, “It was a rhetorical question; you’re not even old enough.”

He paused before continuing, “Heck, I’m only seventeen, so I’m not old enough to carry. Although I’ve shot many guns before.”

“Well, whatever,” Selina shrugged, “When all hell breaks loose we could just run in there and take some stuff.”

At this point, I wasn’t even really surprised by what came out of Selina’s mouth.

Melissa bounced again, “Ooh! We should all learn Martial Arts!”

Selina laughed, “We need quick things to get, not something that takes years.”

Hiru sighed, “Yea, it took me like...three years to get my black belt in Taekwondo.”

He looked at me, “You do it too, right? How long did it take you?”

I scratched my head, “Uh, four. In the first year I just got beat up.”

I paused,

“Well, in all of them I got beat up, but the first one just hurt a lot.”

HIru slowly nodded, “That’s rough…”

Melissa spoke again, “Hiru, teach ME!”

Hiru glanced at me, “Well uh, wouldn’t you want someone closer to your age to teach you? How about Damien?”

Melissa shook her head, “Noo,” she said, “I want you to do it!”

Ouch.

Hiru raised his eyebrow, “Uhh, cause I’m Asian?”

Jason choked on the soda he was currently drinking while Selina cackled.

“Oh, uh no!” Melissa blushed, pointing at me, “I thought he just sucked.”

Double ouch.

Hiru shrugged, “Eh, okay then, maybe some other time.”

“Oh, what about the city’s water supply?” Selina asked suddenly, “Couldn’t that get infected?”

I shrugged, genuinely not sure about that one, “Erm, maybe we should buy packaged water from now on… to be on the safe side.”

Everyone shivered a little.

Jason stood up on his bed, “Okay, so this is what I have so far,” He started,

“We need swords, guns, packaged water, and facial masks. We need to watch out for crowds of people, any obvious monsters, and looters. We need-”

“Wait a second.” Melissa spoke, sounding serious. We all got a little nervous since she never sounded serious, “Wh-what about our families? Phones can’t call anyone past the country anymore so what will happen to them?”

That has been the question on everyone’s mind lately. I had no other family now besides my sister, but these guys had cousins, aunts, and uncles to worry about across the world.

Jason sat back down, “I-I don’t know, but I’m sure they’ll be alright.”

I looked at Melissa, “Hey, I’ve seen your Dad, but where’s your mom?”

Melissa grew an angry expression, “Oh She’s the worst,” She said, shocking everyone but Jason, who I’m sure has already asked this question in private,

“She works for the Unstable Energies department of Energis in Greenland.”

I frowned, “She works for Energis?”

Melissa nodded, “Though technically, she probably isn’t even aware of what’s happening because of the apparent Wifi issue.”

I hadn’t even thought about that all that much.

A lot of the world was completely in the dark. No one has communications functioning properly, and even though the government claims everything is fine, everyone knew it was most certainly not. At least we could all still call people from within the country, but who knows when that would change.

Selina rubbed her temples, “There’s just so much to consider here..-”

“But we should focus on making sure any family in the country is safe,” I suggested,

“Selina, what about your mom?”

Hiru looked down, avoiding Selina’s face.

Selina fidgeted a little, “Oh, I haven’t told you!” She chuckled a little, but then got quiet, “she uh...passed away.”

My eyes widened, “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t kn-”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Selina shrugged,

“It happened when I was eight- it doesn’t matter anyway.”

I took that as a sign not to press any further.

“Wait!” Jason said, breaking the tension, “Whoever is in charge of the secondary Energis building would technically now be in charge of Energis now, right?”

I glared, “But that would be assuming that Jordan J was dead.”

Jason paused, “O-Oh right. But I was just saying that if he was, maybe the new director would be nicer and help find a cure!”

Selina began to crack up, causing everyone to look at her,

“Sorry,” She said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, “Delilah Johnson? Nice? No.”

I blinked, “Who i-”

“She’s the head of the Unstable Energies building, and is Jordan J’s sister.” Melissa explained, “The Energis building over there is like… a radiation zone or something.”

Selina nodded, “Yea… she would take over the world if she got the chance. There’s a Synth plant over there too, but they just route deliveries and test prototypes.”

Jason scratched his head, “ Oh right. I’ve never met her, but I’ve heard about how she treats her employees in Greenland.”

Another blink, “Um, well I guess she wouldn’t help then.” I concluded,

“But the Energis building here has to have something on the virus… or maybe my sister’s notes.”

Selina’s eyes widened, “Yea!” She said, “Wasn’t your sister trying to help?”

I nodded, “Yea, but I don’t know how. I haven’t been to the building since early July, and she didn’t really talk about what they were doing for the ISAC.”

Hiru nodded, “Yeah, my mom and Mr.Synth were trying to dig up whatever they could on the Energis project, but they didn’t get anything.”

Selina laughed, “Well who cares at this point, right?” She continued, “It obviously didn’t work.”

Selina tilted her head, “The United States probably doesn’t even know about Energis’ involvement in this yet.” She said, “Heck, half of this place still doesn’t believe monsters exist! If we could just get into Energis…”

Melissa squinted at Selina’s expression, “Don’t even think about breaking in. The place is practically spewing guards. ”

Jason snorted, “Yea, that’s because the acting CEO of the one here is just the head of security.”

“Yeah,” Selina shrugged, “But what choice is there? Who knows what’s in that place? Maybe Sarah’s notes in there have something that can help with this whole apocalypse.”

I looked down, “And the Energis employees that stayed behind in New York instead of going to Paris know that their lab is responsible, so they’re just trying to save their own skin.”

Jason shook his head, “Those guys don’t even know what is going on, and they still just care about money.”

I had to admit, Energis wasn’t the most noble of organizations. In fact, I only ever liked the place because of my sister and Doc.

Hiru coughed, “Okay, so what I’ve gathered from this is that Energis, the bad guys, has stuff for like…a possible cure? And we can’t get it because they’ll do what exactly?”

I frowned, “Kill us?” I suggested, looking around for confirmation.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Melissa nodded.

Jason copied her actions, “Yeah.”

Hiru’s eyes widened, “Wow” he said, “Well okay then.”

Selina shrugged again, still somehow considering this, “Damien and I can get in...especially with his powers an-”

“Selina!” I interrupted, “I’m not getting you killed by sneaking into Energis.”

Selina glared, “You’d rather sit around?”

I glared back, “I’m pretty sure I’m not totally bulletproof, and I don’t know how to use my powers that well anyway. The answer is no.”

She groaned, switching the conversation, “Well, I gotta go back to my house now guys. It’s getting late.”

She got off the bed, heading for the door,

“When you guys wanna talk again, text the chat!”

Hiru got up as well, “I gotta go meet my friends for lunch, since I canceled ours to watch Damien get shot.”

Jason chuckled, “Are they also freshmen?”

Hiru laughed, “No, but they go to your school. They’re three guys named Henry, Timmy, and John?”

Jason fell off his bed while I choked,

“Those guys are bullies dude.” I told him, “They suck.”

Jason got up, “Yea, And Henry’s the worst!”

Hiru’s jaw dropped, “Wh-what?! I doubt that.”

I huffed, “Maybe you should talk to your ‘friends’, Hiru.”

I decided to leave out the part where I wiped the floor with them.

Hiru stood up, “Wait, slow down,” he said, “I guess I’ll talk to them, but don’t insult them until I do, okay? Anyways, cya guys.”

He darted out of the room.

Melissa stood, “I’m going to inform my sister about this conversation,”

I frowned, “But what about my p-”

“I won’t tell her that obviously.” Melissa interrupted, giving Jason a hug before zipping out, “Don’t die!” She called out

-

Once everyone was gone, Jason moved over onto my bed,

“So,” He said, “How was STP?”

I sighed, sinking back into the headboard , “It was actually pretty fun.”

Jason looked triumphant, but I continued,

“You didn’t need to wake me up so early though..”

Jason frowned, “Oh, well you’re going to have to get used to it.”

I looked him in the eye, “Why?!”

He chuckled nervously, “That’s the only way to avoid suspicion!” He frowned, “And besides you have to practice more. You can’t be having full on ‘boss battles’ with monsters that could just be small fries in this apocalypse.”

I groaned, not wanting superpowers to seem like homework,

“You terrible person,” I joked, sitting up, “But I’m still kind of tired, so I’m gonna sleep now.”

Jason nodded, “Maybe we both should,” he suggested, “That way we’ll wake up super early.”

“Not like I have anything better to do today…” I realized.

“Exactly,” Jason thought, standing up before leaping into his bed.

I shook my head, finding myself questioning for the hundredth time the sheer randomness of my powers.

“When is Mrs.M getting back?” I asked, getting under the covers of my bed.

Jason sighed, “She’s probably not getting back until later; her and uncle T are doing a lot of stuff to keep the family business afloat.”

I nodded in understanding, “That makes sense,” I said, turning over to face my side of the room, “Well, goodnight, I guess.”

Jason laughed, echoing the words before I began to drift off.

—--

“Your friend is much smarter than you Damien, it is good that you are now training. You will become more powerful if you keep this up.”

I rolled my eyes as I entered the common room, the void that was now feeling like a second home beginning to wrap around our figures.

“Yeah yeah,” I sighed, but then perked up when I remembered we hadn’t really spoken like this since the fight.

“Hey,” I said, not able to keep a grin off my face, “We were pretty cool out there, huh?”

Terry’s deformed, muscular body shook from something that could only be described as laughter. His face twisted into a smile,

“Yeah…” He admitted, looking down at me, “You did good-”

“We did good!” I tried to compliment him, laughing, “C’mon dude, give yourself some credit…I was the one who was basically frozen.”

Terry slowly nodded, which relieved me because I didn’t really, truly want this to always feel so awkward. I was learning to accept this whole situation, and that meant treating Terry like…a friend.

“Well,” I moved on, “ I…I have a question for you..”

Terry tilted his head, “Speak.”

I recalled what I had first experienced prior to waking up from the fight, trying to separate dream from reality.

“A-are you 100 percent sure we are the most powerful-”

“Out of everything I know, yes, I am sure.” Terry admitted, slightly annoyed, “ But I do not know the..future Damien, like you expect me to. Why do you ask this time?”

I gulped, wondering whether to mention whatever I heard this morning. I wasn’t really sure I had even heard…well… anything.

“What about that burning feeling I had in the park?” I recalled, “ It was like…super intense.”

Before Terry could respond, I found myself ranting, “And when that monster attacked me and Jason just now, I only felt a small one…. And in the school, I felt a big one when you were near. Also….earlier today, I could’ve sworn I heard a voice-”

Terry sat down in the void, interrupting me as his height was only slight less imposing,

“So you think that your...burning sensation is some kind of...mutant detector, and the amount of pain is how dangerous the mutant is?”

I gave a half hearted nod, the feeling of someone clarifying my distorted thoughts proving less than comforting, “M-maybe.”

“Interesting,” Terry spoke, “especially since this ability did not come from me.”

I shrugged, just satisfied that Terry was thinking about the possibility,

“I-I’m just saying… if it is…”

I looked down, realizing what this could mean as I recalled all the times my spine burned. A lot of those times, I didn’t even think there was a monster around.

I gulped, “Something may be watching us...”