Bonus Chapter: The Lessers
Oriyun Saint
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"Reports are exploding around the nation of what the government labels 'Lesser Aberrants', it seems that many of these individuals are unstable both physically and mentally in most cases." The reporter pushed a stack of papers together as she took in a deep breath against blaring stage lights.
"Many who have come into contact with these post-humans are contracting a virus...A zero-contact policy is in place as the nation awaits the presidential address later this evening--" The big-backed television ceased its high volume.
The man sitting before the screen smiled yet, the creases in his young face made it hard to tell. With a small amount of effort, he stood from the legless couch that was the only bed he had known.
The pain was gone. Every sensation in fact had disappeared from him; from the arthritis and bone spurs he was cursed with to the bruises and welts from how clumsy he was...All of the pain was gone.
He stood alone facing the window to the city, Old York, burning and choking its citizens on the bitter ash and soot of the grime-filled debris. There were screams outside, more than usual due to the Aberrants but still familiar in the slums.
An urge formed within his core--The inferno-like desire to be more than just a weak-willed homebody. Oriyun stared at the reflection of himself; seeing the scowl on his own face not matching the joy he felt in his heart.
The sight of a man took his mindset, seeing a fresh blood trail coming from a dripping white baseball bat that he clutched to his chest as he made himself small in the alley outside the 2 story apartment.
He was crying. It was easy to tell, his quivering shoulders and controlled breaths were almost as plain as day with Oriyun's newfound senses; the newly incarnated Aberrant could almost smell him through the glass, taste the cortisol wafting in the air another figure rushed past the alley and was shot dead within an instant.
Oriyun's attention turned to the visible slit at the far end where the shot rang out and saw a group of men loudly making their way into it. "Fucking things blood was blue--I told they weren't people." A head man spoke out among them from behind a bandana'd meat-head.
The man at the other end of the alley had stilled, the sobbing had subsided the moment the other had been shot. Oriyun heard the slowing beat of his heart and thought of the alley cats he fed that were often too sick to protect themselves from the vicious dogs that roamed the streets.
Many in the incoming group were coughing, spitting brown mucus loudly as they rifled through trash and other nooks the alley held. When the leader caught sight of the man with the bat he stopped, pulling down his mask to reveal a disfigured jawline that looked chewed. "There's that piece of shit's father...If we all are gonna die because you wanna hide your freak kid--" The man pulled a pistol from his belt loop and aimed it at the already cold body.
Immediately glass shattered from above causing him to accidentally fire off a shot that ripped through the skull of the Aberrant's father. Oriyun landed heavily, in truth with alot more force than he thought he could muster. "He was already dying...What kind of sick fucks shoot somebody for protecting their own son?" Oriyun knew it was rhetorical, this alley was frequent for these men; day in and day out he had watched them beat, rape, and murder people with no outside forces to save the city like New Heaven.
The leader took one look at the rising figure before him and cocked his head. "Hey MT, isn't that the cripple...no fucking way he's a freak too--"
A much better-dressed man in a suit to his side only pulled up an eyebrow before speaking. "Just shoot him so we can bring the body in for the cash down at the station...You're making this worse and much louder than it needs to be."
The moment the leader raised his weapon the second time was the moment Oriyun lunged forward. His body now enhanced and able to bridge the 6-foot gap between them as he was still pulling the trigger.
The man fell to the ground as his chest caved in, letting out an audible crunch of bone and imploded organs that softly echoed into the alley. "Fuck! SHOOT THIS THING!" The suited man screamed as he let off a shot that was barely dodged by Oriyun, clipping a tear in his orange pajama bottoms.
Oriyun swept his leg out like he had seen done in kungfu movies. But instead of clashing with the 2 closest men and sending them to the ground with the momentum his ankle tore clean through their bone and he was able to return upward as their shins sprayed blood to the night sky. One quickly lost consciousness while the other wailed in shock at the sudden dismemberment.
Oriyun wasted no time sloppily grabbing the face of another man as he ran full speed, sending both of them crashing into one of the buildings containing the alley and exploding the gangster's head like a spoiled melon.
The only man left was the now fleeing suited man who only turned to catch a glimpse of who had just killed his childhood friends. All he saw was Oriyun smiling with vacant-looking eyes as blood dripped from his hands, the only emotion he might have been displaying was possibly overstimulation...The man did not stay to find out.
As Oriyun stood amidst the carnage he'd created, a flood of memories washed over him. For years, he'd been trapped in his failing body, forced to watch helplessly as the city devoured those he loved.
First, it was his parents, gunned down in a senseless act of violence during a routine grocery run like cattle. Then his older brother, beaten to death by a gang when he couldn't pay their "protection" fees on the building they lived in. One by one, friends disappeared or turned up dead in the gutters before even high school age.
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The pain of loss had been almost as crippling as his physical ailments. Oriyun had become a prisoner in his own home, watching the world burn through grimy windows, cursing his weakness and inability to make a difference.
But now, as he flexed his blood-stained hands, Oriyun felt a surge of dark satisfaction. No more would he be the helpless spectator. No more would he cower in fear as others suffered.
"Never again," he whispered, his eyes sweeping over the broken bodies around him. "I won't be weak...Thank you."
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Fate Rose
The office was sweltering hot, especially the woman in cubicle 19B on the 17th floor. Armistead INC. was not the type of company she could complain to, the last 18 requests for sick time had gone unanswered causing a new frown line on her forehead to form.
Great! She thought to herself after catching a view of her reflection in the loading screen on her monitor; When would there be time for her to actually use any of the money she had saved? 10,000 dollars...10k and nothing to show for it but another meeting with clients that didn't care about her and more hours pretending to be busy in the insane mid-day heat inside the office.
Rose sighed, not really wanting to waste another day but needing to finish her report that had been dropped on her minutes before her lunch break. The elevator ride to the first floor was long, it was okay, it gave her time to be grateful for the security the highrise had versus the ruined outside she knew was boiling beyond the brutalist onyx building walls.
Rose stared at her reflection in the elevator's polished doors, barely recognizing the woman looking back at her. She remembered a time when her eyes had sparkled with hope and ambition when she'd believed that hard work and determination could conquer anything. That was before the fire that had claimed her parents and sister, leaving her alone in a world that suddenly seemed cold and indifferent.
Her parents had sacrificed everything to send her to the academy, believing it would secure her future. Now, that future felt like a prison. Each day at Armistead Inc. was a reminder of dreams unfulfilled, of the life she'd imagined slipping further away.
Since the eclipse, a new fear had taken root in her heart. Strange sensations, moments where the world seemed to slow around her, a burst of speed she couldn't explain--was she becoming one of the very Aberrants she was supposed to fear? The thought terrified her, yet a small part of her wondered if it might be her ticket out of this suffocating existence.
Rose closed her eyes, imagining the places she longed to see --the ruins of Paris, the canals of Kyoto, the lush jungles of Brazil. Would she ever walk those streets, breathe that air? Or was she destined to waste away in this tower of cement and steel, forever chasing a happiness that remained just out of reach?
The bronze doors of the elevator slid open to the ground floor which was an open-air courtyard with only a cement gate as a decoration. Rose quickly made her way to the cafeteria that was on the east edge of the perimeter, increasing her pace further as she passed the paramilitary forces that tried and failed to make conversation with her.
"Oh wow! It's the chick from the 17th...What are you doin' down here with us basers?" She turned to see a smiling face attached to a high-cheekboned janitor who had frequented her cubicle during the late shift, her brown hair was messier than usual and she had sleep stamped in her eye but was still cheerfully grinning.
"The upper floors get boring sometimes..." Rose did not want to speak but she did, also not wanting to upset this person who apparently took more stock in their relationship than she did. "Besides the 8th-floor Cafe doesn't have mint donuts."
The janitor's eyes went wide. For a moment Rose had thought her plan of mentioning the disgusting flavor of sweets would deter the woman. "I LOVE THOSE TOO! Let's go get some!" The woman said as she began to smile ear to ear.
Rose felt obligated now to follow her, stepping in line with the many grim-faced factory workers who made small remarks about her upper-level status. It was quick and efficient, the staff had time to ask and ignore anyone not willing to push their way into the line and out the exit door to the back of the small cubed building.
She herself had only gotten the donut she loathed and a full burger and beans combo which made her genuinely happy as she stared at it on the platter. Seating wouldn't be a problem for her once she got to it; her key card unlocked almost any of the many terminals needed to spend wages on "luxuries" as the company put it.
Rose flicked the orange card from her pocket and slid it into the titanium casing as the janitor spouted on about the mint donut. After she punched in her employee number the charge went through and let loose a large bench that the many factory workers flocked to like seagulls on a carcass.
The janitor and she just stood there watching, waiting for the last of them to filter out as they began gradually eating their meal. "Y'know Rose...It's really nice of you to let us have somewhere to sit whenever you show up! I know everyone appreciates it alot."
"It's not a big deal--" Rose said as she chomped into a bit of beans. "I would want you all to do the same for me if I needed it." Her hands shook slightly but she willed them to stop, her hunger could not cease; ever since the eclipse she knew that something was wrong but could not place what it was.
Rose's face must have looked too vacant for Nala, which caused her to jab her friend with an elbow. "You hear that they have been able to create a cure for the virus already? I was up on the 18th floor and heard some of the execs talking about how well it's doing...The Boss is probably rolling in cash!"
"It must be...But it makes it harder to know who is an Aberrant. I didn't study for a bunch of years in sales just to be killed by mutants." A man's voice came out from behind the two standing women. "The only thing we need to be doing is trying to weed out the freaks who try to pass just like the unstable ones!" The suited man was limping as he sipped a cup of coffee, the black tones on his clothing stained with some grime that must be from outside the pristine Armistead building.
"Exec. David, are you okay?" Rose pretended to be concerned while trying to finish the last of her beans.
The man patted his chest while repressing a cough that came out as an awkward jerk. "Perfectly fuckin' fine Rose...The outside is full of scum! We had to chase some worker and his damn kid out of the factory housing, lost some good Execs. and workers in the process."
Rose could tell he was withholding something, most of her outside contact was amicable when she had to escort workers to the exterior. "Was the Aberrant unstable?" She asked as she looked down at her Executive bade, wanting to clean it but knowing better than to pause on the moment.
"It was not a threat virally, no powers making him airborne at least...I will handle it with my own sweep, stable or not that little shit is gonna die!" He motioned to a goon squad of men that were lining up toward the large gate of the facility. She knew better than to trust him, with not even half the time spent in the academy and even less success rates; there would of course be issues.
Rose pulled her hand up, handing her keycard to Nala along with the rest of her uneaten burger. "No--" She stated plainly while they watched the janitor pay to throw away the garbage with a smile on her face. "I will handle this myself. And go fix your suit--You look like a mess."