The smoke started to clear, and down the hall Elm could make out several people collapsed on the ground. In the air the villain in the suit seemed to be gesturing his hands as he spoke to someone on a device, Elm however couldn't hear anything but the ringing in his ears. Several people in black military suits with white masks ran out of a side room carrying large duffel bags, "ah, they were after money then" elm thought as he saw one of the minions drop his bag to search a particulate wealthy looking woman, as she lay there unconscious. Elms eyes started to loose focus, he could feel a lightness starting to seep into his mind as his vision started to darken around the edges. Falling back from his sitting position he felt his head hit something wet and fleshy. This seemed to snap him out of his daze a little as he glanced to his left to see what he fell on. A short blond head of hair on an average looking man in his mid thirty's, his eyes were staring just past Elm, unblinkingly. Warily Elm slowly turned his head, only to see the large hole in the wall they got him in this mess. He turned back to the man, maybe to question him, only to finally relies that what he was looking at was only top half of the mans torso.

  Elm stared into the dead eyes, he didn't usually get to do that. Usually the eyes were the first thing to go on a body. They would shrivel up an rot within a few days even without animal intervention. Like with the cat earlier this morning, they eyes were already raisins. So Elm looked into those eyes, he thought he would see some emotion on the dead mans face. Maybe surprise, or fear, but no he was simply staring. He looked like a lot of the people Elm had seen on the street, just going about there day. But this man was dead. He was very dead, Elm was fairly sure even tinker tech couldn't save this man. Slowly sound started to filter back into Elms ears, barely recognizable past the still harsh ringing. Hearing the round of someone retching, Elm turned his head towards the sound to see a minion half collapsed with his mask up just over his mouth as he spilled his guts out.

  "He he", Elm laughed a little at the irony. He slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position. Looking at the skin of the minion, he was white and young he seemed so familiar, especially the faint scar on his mouth. The minion seem quite distracted and Elm would rather not die here so he slowly started to stand. Pain shot through him as he put weight on his left leg, almost blacking out again Elm collapsed. Whatever noise he made seemed to have alerted the minion as Elm heard the retching come to an abrupt stop. Foot steps approach as Elm struggles to keep conscious, it seems faint, faraway, like the feeling of slowly cooling wetness on the back of his head, the memory of the man who elm is now using as a gruesome pillow, briefly Elm wondered if the people who found his dead body would wonder why he had gum stuck in his hair. The minion kicked his broken leg and Elms mind turned white.

  "I know your faking it!" the voice was faint, distorted as if though a tunnel

  "Don't ignore me! Tell me what you saw!" someone is distressed, the voice is familiar, though Elm can't put a finger on from where.

  "damnit, can't risk..." The voice gets smaller and less important as a cool cloud engulfs Elms mind. He can feel his body, he can feel the bones, his left leg is snapped half way up to the knee from the ankle. His head has a gash and something lodged into the left half of the skull just above the eye. His thumb on his left hand has a small fracture. He can feel all this, but he can also sense more just behind his head. A skeleton complete and intact except where it is cut cleanly from the right shoulder down to bisect the last rib on the left side. Beyond that he can feel the other piece, calling out somewhere to his left. "This is wrong" came elms groggy thoughts, "they should be together" as he thinks this a wave of strength seems to leave him from somewhere he didn't know he had.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The minion, Grent, standing above Elm, glances around. No heroes had shown up, but this whole ordeal had really been way more then he bargained for. The stupid cape was supposed to keep casualties to a minimum, instead the crazy bastard had gone about swinging around his power, killing civilians like there was no tomorrow. This is why he hated working with newbies! Amateurs! Now he'd gone and shown some of his face to this kid. If a super with any mind powers got there hands on this kid they'd be able to track him down and he's get at least life for taking part in this massacre. Sighing, he reached down to his belt and grabbed his hand gun. Damn shame too, seemed like a good enough kid when he talked to him earlier. Turning around to get a quick look for extra witnesses he saw his fellow minions finally filing out with the remainder of the cash into the van parked outside. Not wanting to be left behind he quickly turned around to pop the kid. That's when a hard white and red fist smashed into the side of this head knocking him to the ground. Blinking past the bright lights pounding his brain he stared up at the figure that just decked him.

  A skeleton still covered in blood and loose gristle stood locked into a post punch position. As if sensing the Grents bewildered stare, the skeleton then straightened out. The Grent almost fainted right there. Then the skeleton took a halting step forward, and Grent decided now was the time to nope right the fuck out of there, picking himself up, turning around and engaging in a sprint that would be the most athletic achievement in his recent memory. He then barreled in a near swan dive into the open back of the van which quickly closed its doors and drove off.

  Elm looked down at his own body. He was thin, with dark hair, a pale face with sunken looking cheeks, the body lay there peacefully almost as if he were sleeping. He wondered briefly if he had died before realizing his body was still breathing. More confused then anythin he looked down at himself, or at least from where ever he was currently seeing from. Bones, bloody bones is what greeted him, bony hands with little chunks of flesh. It was very odd, he looked down further and he could see clean though his new rib cage, then something caught his eye as he was peering though the empty-ness of his new chest, his shoulder down to his littlest rib was cut clean though diagonaly. He could also see an odd blue glow emanating from between the cuts. Actually now that he looked closer he could see the same glow coming from between the joints where his bony body was connected. Making the connection he looked up to the deadman his original body was using as a pillow, expecting to see something gruesome he was still woefully unprepared for what he saw. The already mangled man seemed to have been peeled open in a fleshy explosion as the stringy meat silhouette of the man made it hard to imagine it was ever human. Collapsing down to his knees Elm felt the primal need to vomit, though he was quite used to gore the mere sight of the chunky remains made his non existent insides revolt demanding to be expunged. As his skeletal frame dry heaved he started to taste the bile in his throat. Then opened his eyes in time to see a bloody skeleton collapse ontop of him, he then turned his head only to hurl up his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  After his stomach was thoroughly evacuated, Elm blacked out for the final time that day.