It’d been around three hours and we’d been waiting in the cold ass cabin for Twee’s friend to show up with nothing to do but eat shit from the fridge and watch TV. Luckily, the owner of the airstrip still hadn’t come back, but I dreaded when he did.

“You think perhaps we should clean up and try and make it presentable for the dude? He gave us his house for free.” Selene requested kindheartedly.

“If he’s coming back, I'm sure it will be with the police. He’ll have seen the news by now somewhere.” I pointed out, reclining in the old armchair.

“How far is the closest city or town?” she asked.

“This town named Raymond is… I dunno, like ten miles from here or something. I think we should just get out of here and start walking there.” Twee suggested, I dunno about you, but I’m not fit for that kind of marathon.

“Ten miles, in the snow. Are you sure about that? Nobody could walk that long without proper cold weather equipment, we don’t even have jackets!” I said, shivering at the thought.

“We could just take the road. It’s midday now and the sun is beating down. Perfect time for it.” Twee rebuked.

I’m gonna be honest, I reeeeally didn’t feel like walking all that way, even if the conditions were optimal... perfect even. I… don’t get outside much.

“I think that’s a pretty good idea. I think it’s too risky to stay here.” Selene concurred.

“I highly disagree. If we walk along the main road, the cops will run into us. Especially if he’s called them, may I add.” I retorted.

“If we stay here the cops run into us too.” Twee said, rolling her eyes. She posed a great point I guess.

“Alright, fine, I’ll go, but if we get caught, just let it be known that it was your choice.”

“They’ll probably shoot us on sight actually.” Twee smirked, trying to scare me.

I didn’t really wanna think about that possibility, so I just remained quiet for a while.

----------------------------------------

It was cold, undoubtedly. Canada isn’t necessarily an island paradise. The trees of the forest lining the road were capped in glistening, yet melting snow. It covered the ground too, but the road remained quite clean. I assumed they plowed this section as there was a bit of salt too.

It was the midst of February and things were still freakishly cold, I felt chills nipping at my spine, with it’s measly two layers. Selene felt bad about stealing the man’s clothes, despite me telling her that if we were on the run, we’d need to make hard decisions like this one. Although, we ended up not stealing anything, and leaving a note that our friend got into a fight and ran off with some stuff. I was internally pretty unsure if my already wavering conscience would stay intact through this journey.

“We honestly should have paid him back.” Selene said.

“I see someone hasn’t left her kind heart back on the plane.” Twee grumbled. She inhaled a short breath, her face showing regret. “Sorry, that was a bit cruel, even for me.”

“No, I get it. I gotta… stand up for myself a little more.” reaffirmed Selene, nodding passively.

“It’s also just her demon side talking.” I noted, taking a quick glance over at them.

I don’t think I’ve touched on this fully yet, but Twee has a bit of a dark side. I won’t go into too much depth, but she’s not really the only demon out there. Apparently, demons have existed for a long time, but they didn’t take physical shape until everyone became superpowered.

Twee once wasn’t like this, but now a demon possessed her. It doesn’t have control over her whatsoever, but it enhanced her, for better or for worse. She hasn’t really said what it has done to her specifically, but we know it enhanced certain parts of her personality, and toned down others, as that’s what happens to other people, and also changed her appearance.

The metal powers aren’t from the demon though, but they did exist before, and they are how the demon got into her.

“Yeah, maybe. I’m not really sure these days.” she said, grasping the back of her head in stress.

“Perhaps it’s become so far intertwined that you’ve kinda lost track of what is the demon and what is you?” I hypothesized. Honestly, she’d been getting a bit worse recently. The world doesn’t really know if they can even trust demons at all anyway, we don’t really even know if it’s more of a curse than a blessing. You know, like how we all trusted cigarettes until we figured out they were killing us from the inside.

“Yeah I don’t- wait… hold on… you hear that?” I listened closely at Twee’s usher, I heard it in the distance too, the sound of sirens echoing across the fields of snow and through the trees.

“The police! Get into the woods!” I exclaimed, all three of us immediately began to run deep into the woods, the trees low and whacking us in the faces as we went. The cold sensation of ice slid down my back, I’d gotten snow directly into my outfit, lovely. At least some slid down my arm and helped numb the extremely painful sensation in my broken hand from those rookies.

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

We eventually stopped, hearing the several cars drive by down the road at record speed. They disappeared into the distance. We’d already walked around two miles I suspected, so we had a head start. Lucky.

“Well, should we consider taking the road still?” I queried as we walked back to the road in question.

“Yes, it’s far safer, and doesn’t leave footprints. Also, my friend will be able to see us. He still thinks we’re at the strip, and this is the only road to get there.” Twee explained, I loved that she had done some thinking… so I didn’t have to.

“Who is this friend, anyway?” Selene asked as we walked. We’d made light conversation the entire walk, and we still hadn’t asked the potentially crucial question.

“He’s a supervillain, sorta. He’s also kind of a hero though... He’s rather obtuse and uptight, but his heart is in the right place. He also taught my seventh grade English class, so that’s something.” Twee explained. Seemed like a generally good guy, I guessed. And, if he had powers, that was better, he’d be able to protect us.

“Oh, look, speak of the devil. That’s his car. The same one he owned back when I knew him.” the demonette continued, chuckling lightly as the white 1994 Eduron Cliffrider drove down the road, only slightly visible in the distance.

“Just wondering how you remember your teacher's car so well?” I suspiciously asked.

“Oh, he was like a really good friend. He was dating my aunt, who I lived with after my parents died. It fell through after he became a villain, but he’s still a good guy and they are still friends to this day.” she explained. I nodded as the car neared and stopped right beside us.

“Twee Oleander! It’s been a while!” he said with a completely opposite expression to the feeling of the speech as he rolled down the window to take a look at us. My sister seemed obstinate and a little closed off from even looking at him after he began talking. I was considering asking why, but I decided to give it a raincheck. She was probably just shy due to a totally new human entering her life.

“Oh gosh, I dunno, like forever! Now, can we get in real fast and save our lovely chat for later? I’m sure you noticed the police.” Twee smiled with urgency and swung open the passenger door, sliding into the seat.

“Yeah, get in. I’m all for assisting you folk, and I like a good cop chase, but I’d prefer if the latter didn’t occur.” he said with a stark voice and with uncommon words. Definitely an English teacher.

“Sure thing, friend.” I smiled as my sister and I hopped in the back seat, buckling at a timely pace. The man quickly swung the car around in a U-turn and zipped off down the road.

“I didn’t catch your name, sir.” I kindly stated.

“Oh, you’re… polite.” he said with perhaps some shock? Yeah, I bet you didn’t think it was possible either, did ya? “I don’t share my real name with new people, but my alias is Star Breaker. Uh, Twee, it’d be kind if you didn’t reveal my true name.”

“Sure.”

“Lemme guess, you break stars?” I jested cheekily.

“No, it’s complicated. I’m a Shifter.” Star Breaker replied, realizing now that I was a professional comedian.

Shifter is a term used to describe superheroes who could swap into an alternate form at will. That form has the powers, while the base form doesn’t. I guess that’s the simple definition, I expected him to kinda give that out since he’s an English teacher, but maybe I’m stereotyping him too hard. I’m starting to realize I’m extremely generalist to a lot of things...

“Oh, alright. Well, it’s great to meet you then. Nothing I like more than to meet a fellow villain.”

“Similar. Just try not to make a mess and we’ll be good.” he nodded, focused on the road.

He had black hair, still well kept and sharp for his age. He had obviously cared enough to keep himself in good physical health and fortitude. It mimicked his car, which is something I usually use to determine the type of person I am speaking to. The back seat looked as if it had been purchased today, yet it was a 1994 model. Slight imperfections arose as I looked closer, but still immaculate. His outfit was black, a faux fur heavy parka with a hood. He seemed to hold himself uptight and kept to himself, he felt… a little awkward to be honest, despite the cleanliness.

My sister stayed as silent as a mouse in her seat. She just looked down at her baggy jeans and occasionally exhaled and inhaled. She never liked new people, they scared her, she acted like this a little when Sal had arrived, come to think of it, he wasn’t even new.

“You alright?” I said with bated breath to her. She gave me a nod and scratched an itch, not giving me any eye contact.

“You sure?” I smirked. She gave a light smile back and sighed. My charm was impeccable, but honestly, my sister was hard to crack. I felt a little pride that I’d gotten a smile out of her, if anything.

“I’m not really cut out for this.” Selene whispered sorrowfully. I couldn’t do anything but agree.