***

Jackie found herself being dragged, blunted with a mumbling of cursing.

She couldn’t have been happier.

“Madison!” she said with strained glee.

“Jackson! You’re still fucking heavy as fuck!” the small teen said with a faux-joyful-then-turned-sarcastic sneer.

She had curly black hair that hit her neck, freckles, smooth olive-oil skin and a youthful face and voice—which should paint a very cute image…

Madison Solomon would berate the concept given form, point out all their values, and force it to question their existence.

She wore a thick leather jacket studded with spikes along the arms and shoulders, ripped navy blue paints (with another pair or some fabric under so she could withstand the cold), and while Jackie couldn’t see the shirt she was wearing—she knew it was going to have something vulgar broadcasted on it.

Her voice was light and youthful—but her tone caused it to sound rough as if 5 years worth of seas water was poured down her vocal cords. Even not pissed off, every single sentence rumbled after.

And above all? There’s nothing more stark about her cute features and the actual person than her disposition. With lowered eyes, scrunched up lips, and a natural expression of a grimace—nothing told people to fuck off more was her resting bitch face.

And even then, she’ll still tell you to fuck off.

“Anytime, Jackson!” Maddie grumbled. “You’re like—250 or something of muscle and I’m 50 pounds overall--!”

“Maybe this is penance for not responding to my text—” Jackie quipped.

“I’M HERE NOW, YOU OVER-THE-TOP POLICE CADET—” Maddie screamed at her.

Jackie instinctively tried to hush her by waving her hand, but as she started to truly come to, she noticed the present state of things around her.

Supernatural powers being launched and whizzed throughout the air, all manner of colors and shades illuminated the night, and the bus station echoed with the sounds of people screaming their declarations of existence.

Of course, they were drowned out by attack phrases that activated once they used their pow—abilities. Jackie still struggled with the difference of the two words, especially watching this insanity before her.

She struggled to get up—hearing a “fucking finally” from Maddie over her shoulder—and continued to grab her hand, leading her towards a stone stairway that lead out of the tunneled bus stop and into the mall, straight forward. In their case however, they hid on the right side of it, so they had a makeshift trapezoid stone wall against the chaos.

“Man, they’re gonna fire all those Shiftication jerks after you prove that some steps can block siVis shit—” Maddie’s wit was dry.

Jackie sighed, “We need to get our bearings or else we’ll both get knocked out…”

“Maybe you should stop using your power of ‘I blow things up with punch but I get K.O.’d’ less, again, you’re fucking ripped.”

Jackie looked down.

“…You didn’t even use it, did you--?” Maddie squinted at her tall friend, even when sitting down.

“Well, what’s your all-perfect excuse for basically ghosting me--?!” Jackie argued, her deeper voice—to contrast Maddie’s—sounded mature until you hear her use it.

“Um, the fact that we’ve been through this every single time?”

“What--?!”

“Jackson, you do whatever you do other than work out or pick litter or save cats from trees—you get mad about not being able to do shit, you roam around at night waiting for some shit to happen, and you message us. The fuck are we supposed to do about that?!”

“Be ready!” the tall girl rose her arms in astonishment. “Like I’m being ready--!”

“Fuck me—” the small girl sighed in disbelief.

“What about you then?” Jackie questioned, looking down at her while she tilted her head. “If you were done with my shit, why are you even here--?”

“I was JUST here!” Maddie exclaimed. “Seeing about a deal I heard on ad! Trying to scrape by with the money that I don’t have a lot of! Living a life--!”

Jackie got dark, her raging dread taking her face again.

“You know how easy it is to lose that, now,” she said in a hushed, bitter tone.

“We went through what we went through to get a chance to live a life,” Maddie spat back. “Unlike you all, I’m happy with that chance. Better than the chance I had before. That’s what life is—chances and fuck ups.”

“It shouldn’t be that way!” Jackie argued. More at the sentiment, and not her frenemy. “That’s not even surviving!”

“It’s nothing,” Maddie shrugged. “’Life is this’ and ‘Life isn’t that’—Life literally doesn’t care. You live until you can’t anymore, or you get those chances and avoid the fuck-ups. It’s really as simple as that. Anything else is a bonus.”

“People thinking like this is the reason we’re in this mess, Maddie!” Jackie had boiling passion bubbling up her throat.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Maddie glanced at her up and down, noticing something that she didn’t.

She looked down. She was shaking, but she knew that, she couldn’t help herself. She always shakes when she was high emotion.

But her siVis, being linked and defined by her emotional state, was causing the pieces of her body to pop open—literally due to the rage she felt. Her flushed pink skin, emitting an unhealthy white light where the pieces opened up her skin. Showing the tensing of her muscle structure of her arms, flexing with various parts of their own.

Once she noticed this, and felt sick about herself with her own body, she forced the pieces to slam down, causing her to shiver. And it wasn’t due to the sudden on-rush of cold air as she cooled down.

Maddie sighed. “We’re not getting anywhere with this. And considering we have to get somewhere now in a place like this—it’s counterintuitive. We’ll move on with that.”

Jackie put her hand against her own face, feeling the beads of bubbling sweat with her touch. “Yeah.”

“Not, y’know, because I ran out of argument—” Maddie looked at with a shit-eating grin. “I can out-argue you. It’s just that, y’know, it’s unhealthy for you or whatever—”

“I really hate you, Maddie Solomon,” Jackie sounded defeated.

The small girl did a mock, stiff fist pump in the air.

Jackie rubbed her face. “You think the others are on their way here…?”

“Yeah, totally. Since there’s actually something this time.”

Jackie turned back to her, staring. “It’s the fact that it’s not coming from a place of love, I think that’s truly the worse bit. No tough love, no love of comedy—you just—do it---”

“Yuuuuup,” Maddie reaffirmed. “I mean, it’s constructive. And right. If people set around and watch movies and get paid to riff on them, why can’t I not only do it in real life and actually add something to society?”

They both felt an acute rumbling, a non-organic reminder of the ticking away clock.

Jackie tried to pull out her phone… And realized that she had it in a siVis-death-grip of sorts. Her hand completely locked into pieces, working in unison to keep the device in it.

That’s the thing about siVis, she quickly ruminated on. A lifesaver, but makes you examine your life as well. End of the day, you’re going to be creeped out moreover yourself.

Jackie dialed back in, seeing the various screens that were “active”, making themselves bigger than the other screens. “Well, it’s Trending—so that’ll hopefully get their attention… And what do you know! ACTUAL replies! …I think I need to be careful…”

“Or what--?” Maddie jerked her head towards her.

“This might be a siVis ability trick—” Jackie said deadpan. “I never seen something like this happen before…”

“See, when you joke, it sucks the actual funny parts out and just fashion it into another lecture—” Maddie spat. Jackie then stuck her tongue out at her bitch-faced friend, causing the latter to chuckle a bit.

Jackie poked the screen, and scrolled down.

“…Oh no—”

“I don’t even need anymore information than that—” Maddie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “What did Kobayashi-Maru say…?”

Jackie sighed.

“‘I saw the news--I’m on my way! Gonna make it look cool, so be around the station or the plaza! Depends on the size of the truck!!’ Oh Aiko…”

“She’s going to kill us one day—” Maddie chimed in.

“No she won’t—” Jackie said exasperated.

“Yes, she will, and your last words will be ‘Oh Aiko’ while I scream at the world for being smart for this long and ended up doing dumb shit like this. Y’know, just dirtier and I don’t get that far because I strung up way too many curse words at once—”

“I’m just surprised that there’s a limit for you—and god damn it, Tracy or River didn’t even respond yet, but AIKO did!” Jackie recoiled with the revelation. She swiped the screen away and began to punch numbers in. “I’m calling them—Tracy first—”

“Yeah, you gotta guilt trip her under the bed first—” Maddie chuckled.

Jackie leveled her hand to her mouth, waiting for the call to connect.

Within an instant, the pixelation of Tracy Goodwin appeared. Despite looking like a sprite, Aethernet took great pains in detailing her long red hair, her doughy eyes, and her nervous facial expression.

“Now Jackie—I--I knew you were going to call me—” the red-haired woman explained fearfully.

“So what’s the pre-prepared excuse--?” Jackie quipped back at her.

“I’m dressing!” she said in despair.

“You’re trying to find an outfit for a supernatural death battle?!” Jackie questioned.

“No! I went to sleep! I just woke up!” the statement didn’t end up as whining, because she perfectly enunciated her desperate honesty.

“You went to bed—at 9 PM on a—well—was supposed to be a weekday, Tracy?”

“It was a long day…” the woman said pitifully. It was hard, sometimes, that she was the eldest of their group. By a year, but everything else about her was night and day compared to the rest of them.

“Regardless, you better get your candyass down here—before some line of guys start drooling over it and relive their childhoods,” Maddie teased.

“… Good evening to you too, Maddie,” even the nervous wreck sounded done with the spiteful girl. “B-but don’t worry, Jackie! I’m coming! I really am! I wouldn’t dream of abandoning all of this--!”

“I hope you know every time you say that, you’re the one putting the idea to my mind…” Jackie practically sighed out the words.

“…” the woman stood in silence. “Heheheheh—five minutes, boss, I promise—Checking back in five minutes with you—”

And with that, Tracy stopped the call.

Jackie knew that Maddie was going to quip something if she didn’t immediately call River, so she instantly dialed.

For what it was worth, River instantly answered. But no projection.

“Uh… River?” Jackie said in question. “Are you there, buddy?”

***

The shaggy, plump girl was pressed against various humans that were looking in confusion ahead of their stopped train.

Through the front windows of the first passenger cart, there was a man.

Well, once a man.

A man that made himself more men. From the limbs of his body. And they became something goblin-lite, crackling as they point at the five of themselves.

And without warning, the train became shielded, with metal casting, and stood in place. Hopefully with help on the way.

River rose her phone, as she was in darkness.

“Uh. Gonna be late. Trapped under a tunnel. …Byyyee…?”

***

Jackie had her face onto her free hand, as she hung up the phone.

“Don’t you wish from time to time, that you got your powers along with some Seal Team Six motherfuckers?” Maddie asked.

Jackie nodded slowly, due to her head being at an angle.

“Same,” Maddie looked up. “Iunno how, but I wish I squatted and some junior Enforcers did come at me for doing it and bam, I would’ve been set—”

Jackie rose her head up, looking at Maddie with a grimace while the latter fluttered her long eyelashes at in mock parody in response.

“Regardless,” Jackie stressed. “We should wait for them, group together and brave the rest of this shit.”

“So sit on our asses for like an hour or something?”

“In your painfully cynical world, yes~”

They heard an unnatural crunch to their side.

Within seconds, the stairs entire were ripped off the concrete—revealing the two despite the massive influx of smoky debris.

“I knew I’d find you…” a man, Shattered, his massive arm shrunk away as he let go of the staircase. Leaning on his side as the arm was still too broken, too swollen. “You thought you could brush us off! I remember you! I’ve seen you before! On the reports of that day—that you were a part of the miracle cases. Like us, but you managed to get the full package that we’re supposed to get…!”

“Trust me, cousin—” Maddie threw the term of endearment along with what was coming next. “We’re still shit regardless of being cured of Shattered-ness, so your grudge or whatever’s even dumber.”

“Doesn’t matter!” the arm-monger continued to slink forward. “I’m going to wail on you until you’re broken again!”

Jackie jumped up, readying her fists. “Ready to fuck around for hour or so, Maddie?”

“More like getting fucked…” the small girl got up, and put her hands into her pockets.