What would—should’ve been a tense stand-off between the fledgling victims facing the power-abusing teenagers.

But it was pure confusion, written on Bentley and his cohorts faces. They even looked at each other, as if they were in a sitcom.

“…See, I noted your eyes but…” Bentley genuinely wanted to figure out what Jackie meant. “No color in them or re:Birthmarks… You lot don’t seem fresh, you feel like you just got it a second ago…”

“Does it matter?” Jackie said point blank.

“Oooh,” Gently cooed over his shoulder.

“…I feel like this is less about me and I don’t like that—”

Maddie had to siffle a laugh, which Jackie looked back at her briefly.

“Hey, at least we have the same bastard friend,” Bentley tried to be jovial from before. “Can’t we bond because of that--?”

“You’re implying that we’re friends,” Maddie playfully volleyed back.

Bentley shrugged and then cocked her head towards her, “Hey, first impressions are everything, luv. That’s why I put my best foot forward~”

“So you can trip over yourself breaking your leg and dick in the process?” Maddie responded. “See? Implying things is flawed, I’m implying that you’re bigger than like, 2 inches—”

Gently had to cover his mouth, to let the harsh laugh hit against it as his body tensed. He turned to his friend, “At least I don’t go that far, man… She’s creative, I don’t think we can fuck with you—she literally took our jobs—”

“We’re getting away from the actual point,” Jackie suppressed the conversations. “You have a few moments to explain yourselves or leave.”

“aah—” Tracy meeked out.

“That’s clear escalation there, Jackie—” River tried to cut in.

Gently and the others went completely silent. The former even began to rustle to get up, it wasn’t until Bentley raised his bat, a signal to call everything off.

“Alright, alright…” Bentley complied. “It’s clear you’re all rustled up. And considering how impossibly green you lot are, I guess I better illuminate you ladies to the rules… It’s rather simple.”

Bentley looked up at all of them, scanning his eyes across all of them, lazily but purposeful.

It was so weird. He looked to have blue eyes, normal human eyes… But they were made up of siVis parts, just clear and color-coordinated of how his eyes must’ve used to look.

Jackie instantly thought back to Blaire, and how she assumed that she had normal eyes. Now in her headspace, literally revieing the memory briefly, she could see the hints of the parts now. She shuddered in real time.

“We’re siVis users,” Bentley bluntly put. “Nothing applies to us blokes anymore, like… Nothing. Traffic laws, federal laws, even common decency like indecent exposure—it was built by people, for people. We’re just not people anymore, sorry luv.”

“I like how you conveniently left out any and all Shift/siVis guidelines in that literal excuse,” Jackie was angrily glaring at him.

“Made by some senile old bat that was going mad anyways,” Bentley confidently swung back, unnerved. “And even if she is completely right about everything, it’s not like there’s a status quo. It’s mercurial, like quick drying cement this is… Amend and write everything up all you want, but we still go on.”

“Wow…I can’t believe it,” Jackie said in disbelief. “It’s amazing how you’re complete bullshit not only from head to toe, but from the inside-out as well.”

“Alright lady, just because you’ve just started exercising today doesn’t mean you can take anyone you see—” Gently spat venom at Jackie.

Bentley just raised a hand, “Gent, I can handle this. There’s no need to call her out of her name yet.”

“Oh wow! Common decency!” Jackie shouted. “As if you’re capable of it and you’re being a massive hypocrite!”

“I’m a hypocrite because I worry about myself and the people I care about versus nebulous world problem shite?”

“Yes! Because that can be extended as baseline kindness, you Australian dick!” She shouted more, less at him and more unfocused.

“I’m sorry that people actually caring about their own lives bothers you so much!” Bentley shouted back. Everyone in the diner was starting to get up, starting to swarm out. “Now look at—Look lady, we just wanted to do what we always fucking do! Whatever! Just going around, doing whatever, fucking Manifest Destiny! Is that so wrong?! Does everyone have to be the Shift Police now? When did living your life become such a crime?!”

“WHEN YOU INVOLVED OTHER PEOPLE, TAKING ANYWAY WHAT LITTLE LIFE THEY HAD LEFT--!” Jackie roared.

Bentley became silent along with the rest of the guys.

He reached down to his pocket, on the verge of pulling something out.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Jackie focused every bit of energy that was in her and unleashed it in her swing fist.

siVis Ability!

The energy explosion created a hole where the booth used to be.

When Jackie awoke, the sounds of screaming and panic quickly made her regret coming to.

Within her pained glancing, she saw the people running. The people that stayed because they wanted to see what they were going to be running from. Fear. Anger. Disgust.

Exhaustion. It was so clear, despite different expressions and facial structures, different skins and different languages that told everyone to go away. That so called peace, that so called break, that rest that they all dreamed for. Ripped away.

It became full circle. Jackie became the problem she hated.

“Y’know. We were just gonna run from you. Use our abilities to scare you off as we bolted.”

Jackie cocked her head and stared down her enemy.

A dandy walking from the smoke, patting himself off, pissed that his evening with his boys was ruined.

“Now? Now you’ve made it personal… If you want a taste of good, old fashioned siVis conflict, we’ll show how outclassed you are to even get that.”

Jackie instantly forced herself up, running towards him with a charging fist with a deranged expression.

“I gotta admit, you have scary-as-fuck potential there—one hit and anyone like me could straight up get broken,” Bentley spoke calmly, which unnerved a Jackie that’s consumed by anger.

She got struck in the back of her neck by something, causing her to cough up spit and forced her back down, face down, and smacked down.

“But what’s an exploding fist compared to a ball gaining momentum~?” he smugly asked.

The searing pain was nothing compared to the panic frenzy Jackie was having, with something that fast hitting her point blank at her neck; she could be paralyzed now. She repeatedly clutched her hands, shuddering in relief but instantly reeling from the dead-on hit.

Bentley just extended his bat out, and the red, rubber ball somehow landed straight onto it.

HOT SHOT!

Jackie glared at him again.

“C’mon,” Bentley playfully sighed. “The thing searches your mind, you don’t really come up with the name. But it always fits~”

He only glanced upwards as a discharging streetlight was falling towards him.

As Jackie quickly guessed, it was Aiko taking over said streetlight so she could be used as a flail. She struggled, coughing and gasping so she can tell Aiko that she was going too far, until Gently more or less came from behind his friend with his hands raised.

URBAN BLACKOUT!

Gently created a forcefield of lime, pulsating vectors that only pushed out further and further, meeting the light in moments as it instantly lost the electricity, snuffing it out. And due to the con of Aiko’s abilities, the light was becoming more mishappen, becoming undone.

But of course, Bentley wasn’t just satisfied with that.

HOT SHOT: CURVEBALL!

His eyes flared to life, as if they were forced open without his will, they shone a deep purple before they started to dark unnaturally, using his head to aid them as he looked everywhere in a stiff and analytical fashion.

Then they settled, as if he gain control again.

He threw up his ball, and impossibly—he hit the streetlight, batted to the right, then to the left, before aim at an insane angle to which he used the ball’s curve as a sword slice to destroy the light—forcing Aiko out and landed on her back.

“What’s with this smoke, Gent?” Bentley wiped at his purple glowing eyes, details such as pupil and iris intact yet swallowed by the color. “Nearly tore my eyes outta my sockets there…”

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

“One of them has some smear ability, I think,” Gently answered, ready for any of his enemies to attack. His eyes were caked in lime, giving him a ghoulish appearance along with his hood hiding most of his face. “It’s thick, like it has volume thick.”

“Fuck me…” Bentley wiped his eyes again. “If only you girls knew what you were doing, then we would’ve had an actual fight on our hands—”

“Shut up!” Aiko ran, quickly hopping on a nearby car. Melding onto it, the revving of the engine sounded low, growling as it instantly floored it, barreling towards the duo.

“ESPECIALLY THAT ONE, FUCK ME THAT’S A SCARY-ASS ABILITY!” Bentley screamed, legitimately.

“Sure,” Gently sauntered towards Aiko’s path, placing hands on his chest. “But means shit against a hard counter like me.”

URBAN BLACKOUT!

Gently tensed for the briefish moment before letting the pulsating force erupt from his chest, outstretching his arms forward to smother the car.

And like before, everything that made the car go instantly shut off, causing Aiko to cripple herself by breaking her construct before her enemies ever did, the car flipping onto it’s side as it wrecks into a screeching halt before Gently.

“…As much as I’m grateful mate, I think you really need to figure out your subsets—” Bentley commented.

“Like I said,” Gently crossed his arms. “If it ain’t broke, there’s no need for fixing—”

“Yeah, but you could control machines maybe or even upgraded them somehow or something,” Bentley bantered back. “How is it you got siVis and yet you’re the most uncreative fucker in existence--?”

“Get bent, Bent,” Gently joked with a middle finger. He then turned to the fallen girls, “Hey: any tech’s dead, idiots. There’s nothing you can do now—"

Jackie screamed, running up towards Bentley, readying her fists to take him down the old fashioned way.

“Y’know—” Bentley looked at her, then his eyes quickly zig-zagged again.

HOT SHOT: FIELDING!

Bentley began to dodge every swing, every punch Jackie was issuing out—his eyes settling near an area near, and him forcing himself to move opposite. “If—you—keep—screaming—your—special—attacks—will keep failing—”

A gushing torrent of smoke darted towards the area, Jackie’s eyes catching that it was River confirmed that it was indeed all her.

“Aw fuc—” Bentley uttered out.

Jackie socked Bentley square in the face, using the confusion to finally gain the upper hand.

Bentley’s body refused to bend to the attack.

He slowly fought back by solely using his neck and head, staring right into Jackie who had a horrified expression. He should be having trouble adjusting to the smokescreen, just like they did.

“You really should’ve used that ability to juice that up,” Bentley calmly responded.

“I-I don’t need any bullshit power to win against you! I refuse!” Jackie rejected.

“No. You can only survive by using your abilities against us.”

HOT SHOT:

DEAD HIT.

“Where do you think the ball is, dear?” Bentley grinned.

As she could hear the crackle of the air as the ball soared directly towards her head, the only thing that saved her at that moment was Maddie pulling her down and away as the ball made of rubber crashed into the cement like a lead cannonball.

Jackie panted, sweating more than she already was, as the heartbeat pounding in her ears was set to Bentley bemoaning that he wasted a great one liner.

“We’re fucking ending this,” Maddie used her ability to literally dig into Jackie’s wrists, using the strings to lace into them with her fingers. “We’re getting Aiko, we’re finding Tracy, and you’re gonna throw away this stupid as fuck fight, Jackson. If you don’t let go, I’ll fucking rip your wrists apart.”

Jackie, with fresh memories of how moments she was close to death or worse, shook her head, not making a sound.

Maddie took her fingers out of one of the wrists, and quickly lead Jackie away from Bentley and Gently.

River’s smoke should’ve had given them the advantage, they were used to it and found a way to adjust their visions to it. It should’ve left Bentley, who seems to have some sort of aiming power, completely useless.

“BOYS! NAMELY CHIMNEY OR HARV,” Bentley bellowed out. “MY EYES ARE STILL ADJUSTING, THIS SMOKE IS PRETTY GOOD!”

The fact that Bentley’s kill shot was based on a guess completely paralyzed Jackie. Maddie was the only source of movement, as she picked up an angry Aiko and started to drag her away too.

River somehow appeared next to them, huffing and covering her mouth again, using up all of her smoke she could produce.

“RATTLE THEM, CHIM!” Bentley shouted. “AND FUCK THEM UP, HARV—I KNOW YOU CAN!”

And just like clockwork, as if he summoned the two, they were before the girls. Chimney held two metal bars, that looked to be from the smashed diner wall, in his hands. While Harvey was trying to calm himself via breathing.

“We could’ve avoided all of this,” Chimney said, as he brought the two bars upwards.

He then stabbed himself in the opposite arm each, and his eyes began to glow around his irises.

PATH BUILDER!

He then absorbed the metal into his arms, as the sides of his body turned silver. His once burly arms whipped out, becoming a fence on opposite ends of his body, creating an area around the girls. Cattling them.

“WHAT THE FUCK—” Maddie honestly voicing what the other three thought.

The Chimney-fence had a layered, intricate design to it all. It prioritized one thing: it was hard to escape from. There was no holes or groves for the girls to climb, compact enough that they simply can’t punch through, and seemingly alive as well so the guy could simply grow it higher or control it.

But it didn’t change the fact that he was still human in the middle, only the sides of his body changed.

Jackie glanced down at her wrist, where Maddie lessened her grip in awe.

“Sorry Maddie, I have to make this right—”

Jackie slipped away, running towards Chimney as Maddie cursed at her for doing so.

She hated herself, but she readied a fist—and started to channel her energy once more.

She didn’t even get the chance to make it official.

SKILL SWAP!

A band of light hit Jackie’s side, as she then produced a band of a light of her own that went towards Harvey, the boy taking it in as he sighed contently.

It didn’t hurt.

But it did worse than hurt her.

Jackie felt her heartbeat go out of her control, her chest tight, all of her strength sucked away—turned into hallow, bodily pain as she buckled onto the street.

Harvey, meanwhile, displayed athletic ability that he no way had before, racing towards Maddie and Aiko who were trying to back up Jackie, only to grabbled them both and push them aside, knocking them down hard. Even Harvey was surprised by the strength he seemingly stole.

But Maddie growled, recovering by bolting towards the boy, as he activated his ability again.

SKILL SWAP!

The band of white light streaked across, swapping with Maddie, possibly at the worst possible time.

The change of power in her momentum threw Maddie off, causing her charge at Harvey to completely over shoot, causing her to crash roughly onto the pavement. He quickly swapped back when he saw Aiko coming at him.

Again, swapping with Aiko, and the change of power in her body caused her to buckle and trip onto the street. Once again, he swapped.

He didn’t need to deal with River, as she was still gravely affected by her penalty of her ability. Coughing, struggling to maintain breath, just standing there.

Jackie was admist a full blown panic attack, it felt like. Her fingers went cold, it felt like her chest was ripping itself apart. She could only ball up on the street, rocking on her knees back and forth.

“It’s funny…” Bentley strolled in from nowhere, behind the girls with Gently following after. “Chimney and Harv, there? They recently got their siVis. Chim was two years ago… And Harv? During the Hospital incident.”

Jackie looked up, her pupils shaking along with her, “Y-y-you were there--?!”

Harvey could only look away, with his rings glowing a faint cream.

“Not inside no,” Bentley continued to explain. “But he witnessed that whole thing. We found him and he was a total mess like you lot. Turns out, treating strangers how you want to be treated made us pretty good friends—”

“S—shut up already… Just fucking—”

“We’re not going to torture you or some creep shit like that,” Bentley said, readying his bat. “We’re gonna leave you with a very important message, a lesson… Maybe you should get shit in order with yourself, before telling people off about shit.”

Before Bentley could issue it, there was incredibly forced coughing as a figure appeared from the smoke.

It was Stark, waving the smoke away with her loose sleeve that covered over her hand.

“Phew… What a mess this is.”

Harvey looked behind him, clearly shared despite possibly having the physical strength of Jackie Jackson now, “B-bentley, that’s Stark Terri.”

“I see that, Harv—” Bentley said.

“That’s Stark Terri, we should run—” he chittered out.

“Nah,” Bentley shrugged. “She’s a weirdo. Sweetheart, even. There’s no need.”

She stopped before the gate. “What do you have to gain… For doing any of this--?”

“Peace of mind,” Bentley smirked. “We need all of that or else we’ll become like the Trends, right? That’s what the self-help people prattled on about to us, Terri?”

“Honestly, it’s below you to do all of this, Bentley,” Stark said, strait-laced. Her eyes, still covered by her overgrown bangs. “Let it be. You gave your so-called message. Go… Hit on women or whatever you do nowadays.”

“I think there’s a sense of pride to this, now,” Bentley looked down at Jackie. “She really nettled the shit out of me, with what she said—what she’s about. Maybe--?”

BAROS--!

Stark jumped up and proceeded to loop around, orbit, with everything around her.

She rotated around a streetlamp, then wrapped around a metermaid, then to another car, before catapulting from sheer momentum over Chimney’s fence, before quickly orbiting around each of them, landing near Bentley.

And the telling part of it all, was that the pathway Stark made began to become visible.

The streetlamp bended, the metermaid started to uproot itself, and each of the boys started to become distorted, as if the path was a funhouse mirror.

And the Voice of siVis, despite activating for a while, still shouted BAROS--! All in leveling degrees.

As if it’s being charged.

She looked up, as she was crouched. “I can let this go and make this into my problem, and you know that.”

Bentley, who developed a cold sweat, nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We’d have to fight for real, then—”

Stark sighed. And seemingly by that sigh, it disengaged the effect she was having on her surroundings. She got up properly, patting herself down.

“Alright boys!” Bentley announced. “We’re done here! They get the picture…”

Chimney returned to normal, the fence breaking into nothingness. Harvey used Skill Swap again on Jackie, returning her strength to her while meekly saying sorry under his breath. The boys regrouped, looking at the spent girls.

“Hopefully,” Bentley turned on his heels, walking away as he waved. “You’ll be a lot better when we cross paths again! For your sakes!”

He laughed as they all disappeared into River’s fog, that was starting to lift instantly.

Jackie got up, and noticed that the hole made in the diner was covered up… By the sidewalk.

Tracy let the sidewalk fall, shaking in her boots as she knew her opting out and using a shield for herself versus helping was going to incite some arguments.

“What if I never came, guys?” Stark asked. She didn’t even meet their eyes.

“Well, you did, so—” A pissed Maddie struggled to get up.

“No. What if I never came? Huh?” Stark crossed her arms. “And don’t give me ANY or all ‘put downs’ like, ‘when did you become our moms’ or something. I’m one of the few on the Trend list that would or blatantly cares about you.”

Jackie could only look down.

“What happened…?” Stark asked. “All I asked was one thing… Have a meal. Just relax. And you throw yourselves into things again. There was no need to prove you worth there, whatever they said. I get that it hurts you, deep down, because you know not only is he being selfish, but he’s HAPPY being selfish. Because guess what? They’re the types that become more and more frenzied, cruel trying to prove their worldviews to you—and they think they’re rational and calm.”

She was met with silence, so she continued on.

“End of the story; choose your fights. You can choose. Even when faced with confrontation—think, achieve something that can stop it, heck—RUN. There’s no shame in that, never shame. Because from what I sense, you being reminded how flawed you are hurts more than whatever shame you would’ve felt letting a lowlife continue to be happily a low life.”

Stark put her clothed hands on her baggy-pants waist. “Tell me, here and now, what are you guys going to do after this?”

“…Try to go to Evermore…” Jackie piped up. “Get the info we need… If we notice anything weird, run.”

“And where to…?” Stark asked.

Jackie shrugged. “Whatever alleyway is clean, I guess.”

Stark rubbed her chin.

“…The Allies District,” Stark brought up. “You can go from Evermore to there and use your siVis to get one of the houses working. That should be your goal. Go there. Find info without hassle? Yay! Go to Allies. If you instantly see something, work out what you need to do, then still go to Allies.”

Jackie nodded, still looking down.

Stark rubbed the back of her head, clearly saddened. “I was gonna make a reservation for the family… Guess I have to stick with you at least until you all ate. Eaten? I think eaten was the word—”

“A-and hey…” a familiar voice rang out.

Jackie turned to see the waitress, who was waving from the whole next to Tracy.

“We don’t blame you for the mess… We’ll be happy to take your orders. Even you, Stark Terri…”

Stark smiled her smile. “Always small beams of light, within pitch black darkness…”

After most of the cleaning and short notice restoration that took up the waiting time, the girls finally got their sadness cereal among other meals. It was agreed on that they shouldn’t speak, something Stark allowed.

They all looked at each other, as they felt every crunch.