I could hear the pounding and slamming from behind me. The sounds of Fear patrol desperately trying to break through the sealed metal door I left behind. They’d get it, oh for sure they’d get through. It only bought me a few seconds at best but the thing about these Industry Sewers was that they were completely engulfed in darkness. Back in the olden days of the city’s developmental history, they were used by smugglers to run refugees and illegal products through the city by bootlegger shadow folk. I rested against the brick wall for a minute. I could hear my own heavy breathing getting worse. The bullet had gone completely through, which was good, but it had hit a little too close for comfort. The blood was getting warmer. My vision was getting blurrier, even though it was already pitch black. So that may have had something to do with my vision troubles, just maybe. Heh. I get funnier when I’m delirious.

I breathed in. Pain shot through my chest, lovely. I shook my head, regained my faculties as best I could and shot through the darkness. Shadowslipping was simple enough, especially when everything around you was complete darkness. I felt myself zipping through tunnels at high velocity. I bumped into something at one point but shook it off. I knew where I was going. The key to a successful slip was having where you were headed in mind already before you even start. The Bunker. My safe haven. It sat in all its glory in my head. Luckily for me, the sewers broke into a series of layers underneath itself and from one of those lower layers, it connected directly to my bunker. This system is such a maze of confusion that most who have tried scouring its depths have given up. Some have come close sure, but upon discovering the solid brass wall and a dead-end sign from the bootleg days, most just move on. Most.

I came across the dead-end sign, lit only by a small lantern of blue flickering embers. This is where things get a bit complicated. For all case and purposes, shadowslipping is purely scientific. It's a part of darkness. It comes built in when you’re born with shadow veins that run through your body. That's normal. What I did next is not. I haven’t even figured out what it is exactly. The reason no one has just strolled into my bunker, the reason I don’t experience a raid every other week as one might expect, well. It isn’t quite as simple as just being connected to the sewers. They lead to it sure, but it requires a little more oomf to get in.

I stopped, my boots tapping against the wall. I stepped back a few feet and looked around to make sure no one was there. I don’t know why this always makes me paranoid, maybe because it’s so unnatural, even given the fact that I can produce flames from my bare hands? I concentrated. It took a few minutes longer than it normally does. Maybe the pain was breaking my concentration? Everything finally quieted. The warmth of the blood and the adrenaline subsided. I felt calm. I felt cold. I opened my eyes and there I was, standing in a graveyard.

“NONONO. Why did you bring us here? You were supposed to travel through the walls. AJ, get us out, now.” The voice screamed in my head. I hadn’t done anything. This just sometimes happened during more advanced slips. I don’t have a name for it other than The Graveyard.

“I didn’t do this.” I whispered.

“Bullshit. Get us out of here, now. This never ends well. You know it just as well as I do. Last time we were here, they were too.” I had a good point I suppose. Every time I used The Graveyard I always found myself re-experiencing some kind of past trauma. It wasn’t fun, it was never a fun time here. But–It was unfortunately a side effect of trying to pocket slip. I’ll explain that one eventually.

“I’m trying. You know as well as I do that, I can’t just zap us out of these, I have to work through whatever nonsense it gives us.” I said calmly. I wasn’t fooling myself though. I was terrified because it’s true. The last time I used this means of travel, I relived one of the worst moments of my entire life and it seemed like that was going to be the case this time too. As I had this conversation, I could already smell the smoke.

No.

I could smell that charred smoke and see the burning embers roaring over the cemetery. I was there, at Harmony. My birth home. Which meant that soon enough I was going to start hearing–

The screams broke through the barrier of flickering embers. I was here, burning this town down again. I hated it. I hated every time I did this because it was bad enough, I had nightmares, that couldn’t have just been it right? I had to have this weird mythological supernatural bullshit experience happen where I literally relived the events? I wasn’t even sure which parts of this story were true anymore and which parts of it were just exaggerations I’d conjured in my head through the years of guilt. Harmony’s Haven, as it had officially been called, was an industrial oil rig of a town. We provided a lot of Industry’s major oiling assets which is what most of the vehicle manufacturing required. We were considered a priority. The town itself had its own private military militia, which freelanced out to the Industry Military. That's where my parents had come in. They were Officers in the Industry military and oversaw the means of production in Harmony. Story goes that mom and dad loved it so much they settled in and had a family. Giving birth first to Jannett and Stacy, then my brother and me, and the other siblings all followed. They both died during this event. Along with just about everybody else. Over a couple thousand people, all dead. All burnt to ashes, because of me. Because I wasn’t able to understand the full capabilities of my fire powers when I was a kid and now, they’re all dead. These gravestones that surround me on this hill, these are them. I know that now. It took this long to realize it but I don't even need to look at the names to know it’s them. I only ever heard of a handful of people coming out of this alive, including my siblings and me. That being said, I heard the voices of those that I wish had.

“Hey, Hey AJ, what’s going on?” A girl's voice called out from behind me.

“No. No No. This isn’t real. We don’t have to answer it.” My inner voice rarely retracted like this. Usually, it was the one that kept me going, but for some reason, here in this place, it’s like we switched rolls. However, I agreed. We didn’t need to answer.

“AJ. AJ please. What's going on? They were talking about a rogue villain. Something about how someone with fire powers just exploded over in the digging district. Do you have any idea what's going on?” I heard his voice. I heard their voices. All of them. All six of them. My old friends. My old friends who didn’t die in the flames of Harmony, but at my hands. If I’d let this continue. If I continued watching this scene play out. I was going to kill them again. I was going to send a blast of sharding flame directly into them. I was going to discover that pyro abilities also included the ability for mini explosions too. I closed my eyes and counted backwards from ten.

“AJ. AJ? Yo dude, We came as quickly as we saw the fire. They said Harmony might have its first villain. The military is ushering people out. They were saying that Industry hasn’t seen a rogue like this in years dude.” There she was. My best friend at the time. Nope. I tightened my eyes as much as I could and counted faster. It will end. It always did.

“Yeah, It’s crazy. You'll find out soon enough.” A voice that wasn’t mine said. This voice wasn’t even one of my friends. Hell, I had never heard this voice before. I looked around. My friends weren’t actually there. I was still standing on the burning hill. The cityscape that should have been around the hill wasn’t there in this graveyard setting. Instead, it was just an open field of flames and the torment. I looked around for the voice. It was male.

“What, who are you?” I called out. No response. By the time I could even figure out what to ask next, everything started to glitch, like a static current. I jolted a few times and whipped my head around to try and find anyone out of the ordinary of this memory. I didn’t. Instead, The static jolted me again and I woke up at my desk in the bunker. Drool gathered in a wet spot on my hoodie sleeve as I blinked. My computer screens were on, the Jefferson unit wallpaper looked at me with that little thumbs up he likes to always give.

I slowly lifted my head, my curly and bushy orange hair kind of puffed around all over. I could see it out of the corners of my eyes. I blinked a few times, getting the water out of my eyes. I whipped the drool that still stuck around my lips with my sleeve and took off the hoody. It smelled of blood. It was soaked and dried and soaked again. The pain had dumbed down, but I guessed I’d taken a painkiller at some point before ending up asleep. I don’t remember coming out of the Graveyard and doing anything, but of course I wasn't remembering a lot these days, so anything is entirely possible.

“Heya there kiddo, you look a little rough.” Jefferson’s voice perked through the PA system of the bunker. The bunker is set up more or less like a single room apartment. I have a kitchen, a lobby room, a living room and a bedroom with an attached bathroom. I, of course, also have a whole training room with holographic simulators and training courses back through the false doors behind the kitchen. I use it to brush-up on my combat and I will sometimes try to learn new tricks with my fire and darkness abilities. I took a quick look around. Blood trickled leaving a trail of what I had done. Convenient and Inconvenient I suppose. I’d need to clean that but now I could trace my steps.

“Hey, Jefferson, You got any ideas regarding what I did when I got in here?” I ask. My voice was shaky. The lights around the bunker flashed yellow a couple of times–he was thinking.

“I do not. I have footage of you stumbling about yesterday, but I don’t have anything after you got to your desk.” He answered. His monotone voice always still manages to sound somehow cheery. It’s like he’s always happy to be talking to you. Jefferson looks exactly like the poster hanging in my room. The little top hat floating on his circular head. His body looks like an oval. Some Jeffersons have different colors to indicate what kind of service they provide. Customer service Jeffersons for grocery stores and things like that have blue, health and medical ones are white and red etc. Mine? Mine is orange and black because when I spliced Jefferson from the integrated network Industry uses and jailbroke him, I changed his colors to fit my aesthetic. I was younger, ok? Mine is also a little more functionally sentient than others. I wouldn’t say his life or anything like that, he’s still just a sophisticated program that does a very specific set of things, but mine is a little more advanced than the other ones. I would say not trying to brag but fuck it. Your girl is smart as hell when it comes to technology, and I want everyone to know it. I’m more than just some fire and street tags spray painted throughout Industry.

“You have footage? Yes, please show me.” I said a little as-a-matter-of-factly.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Will do.” Jefferson flashed an orange blink or two and live feed from the security cams played on the monitors. I have two double wide curved monitors on my desk, the keyboard and mouse that are hooked up to the hefty beast I call a computer. The desktop itself is stored away under the desk though, which is a horseshoe shape lined against the walls. I’m noticing that my pre-transitional tastes were all minimalistic. I’ll need to change this at some point.

I watched myself stumble through the bunker. I banged into practically everything and I could see the massive amounts of blood that had been erupting from my wound. Damn. Melony really got me good this time. I understand that's her job too, but a little rude really. Monitor me stumbled around a bit before disappearing into the bathroom. A good while went by as Jefferson fast-forwarded it for me and I came back out. I’d set the Vile I picked up from the drug deal I busted onto the desk, which I could see now. Blood stained the little glass bottle as it sat wrapped in a napkin. I’m glad I took the time out from possibly dying to make sure my desk didn’t get stained.

The footage showed me wrapping it up and setting it down, moving over to the laundry baskets and tossing the old bloody clothes in wrapped up and then tossing on something new, which is what I was wearing now, and it ended with me passing out at the desk. Which is entirely weird because typically, Graveyard traveling isn’t like happening simultaneously to real life, generally it is just another way to shadowslip, albeit with some worse side effects.

“Wait, Jefferson, you said this footage is from yesterday? As in, a whole entire day before today?” I asked, astonished.

“Yeah, you’d been knocked out for like a day. I thought about waking you, but I figured you’d come around sooner or later and you did! I judged the blood loss and read your vitals and came to the conclusion that medically speaking, you weren’t in any real danger of dying yet or anything like that, so we had a little while. I thought maybe the sleep would help you with the memory loss. Evidently not.” He smugly nodded at me with that grin on his face.

“Evidently not.” I agreed. I checked my cell. No calls. Weird, I’d have Stacy tell Jess I was swinging by, surely, I’d have gotten a couple missed calls followed by some worried voice messages by now if I had been MIA for an entire day again. Seriously, what the fuck was going on with this? I had suffered little spouts of amnesia like this before, but this was something else, on an entirely different level.

“You have an idea what might be causing your delays in memory, AJ?” He asked as the image on the monitor showed him idly riding on a hoverboard.

“I have none, no. I was hoping you’d possibly have something. You said you were monitoring my vitals. Is there anything, like, weird in my bloodstream possibly?” I asked, changing my shirt from the tank top I had on to a band shirt that had been left the last time I was here.

“I could do a deeper scan, but I’d need you to- '' He began, but before he could finish, I was already holding a needle I’d gotten out of one of the little emergency medical kits I have stashed around. The needle pricked into my skin as I drew blood, which never bothered me like others I knew, I set it onto its own Kleenex and left it for Jefferson.

“If you could scan this for me, I have a couple of errands I need to run, I want to make sure that Jess is ok, and see why she hasn’t been blowing up my phone.” I laugh. I love the girl, I do. She's very protective and I need someone like that in all honesty to counterbalance the stupid I experience regularly. I got up from the chair, dabbing the fresh little hole prick in my arm and pulling the sleeve back over it. I grabbed my mask, which I found sitting on the right-hand side of me, laying on the floor tossed against the wall. I looked at it for a second and could have sworn it was smiling.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, you little shit?” I asked it in a hushed, angry voice.

“Come again AJ?” Jefferson asked. The little hologram danced about as he started scanning the blood sample I left him.

“Oh nothing, I wasn't talking to you. I’ll catch you later dude, I’ll be back tonight.” I strolled through the bunker and left out the double, heavy-duty doors in the front.

The sun was setting by the time I was properly in the city. I strolled the tops of the cityscape, dashing and leaping off the edges, catching myself on the next one. I wasn’t exactly on patrol; I’d been killing some time. I’d finally gotten a hold of Jess and while she was busy now, she said to meet up with her later on, so I had nothing better to do than to kill some time. I leapt again and rolled into a crouch at the side of a particularly large banking building. Industry has loads of banks, but the National Industry is definitely the most iconic. I could see the Fear Patrol building from here too. Technically, as AJ Green, I could go over and take a quick peak in and see who was working. I know most of the staffers on duty there. I shook my head. If I run into Melony or the new team there, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contain myself from saying, or doing, something dumb after the last encounter with them.

I watched the building though, cars flew by, into and from it. I watched as several agents left and came, most likely to come find me, which is funny because here I was unmasked. I was high enough up and away from the general crowd and if a passerby hoover-car sees AJ Green sitting on the top of a skyscraper that's fine. They’d just have some written piece about me in the Company news. Why it’s called The Company, don’t ask me, but Industry’s acolyte society has never been entirely bright in their naming schemes. I sat there waiting, fiddling with the mask tucked away in my hoody pocket. The sun started lowering even more.

Bored. I was bored. There was no way around it. I wanted so desperately to do something, go on some form of patrol. Maybe a small one, but Jess would be getting out anytime now and she worked in the military building. Of course, I had to date someone that was working to move their way up the chain of command of the very people that want to lock me into The Basement huh? Yeah, that tracks for me. Speaking of The Basement, I’d need to go over the list of new inmates and take a look at all the new guys. I threw my mask back on and started pacing, I jumped up to the rooftop, which was admittedly much smaller of a pacing space than where I just was, but I digress.

I pulled my phone out and started scrolling social media posts. I should make a darkfire one at some–A sharp pain slammed through my body. I felt warmth pooling all around, shooting from both sides. Everything was shutting down, nothing vital had been hurt but my body was absolutely going into shock. I dropped down to try and catch my breath when I realized.

I was impaled.

Something, a long metal pole of some kind, stuck through me. Someone ran me through. I liked this hoodie and the shirt I had on too. My vision was going. Everything was a tint of green instead of the darker night sky. I sucked as a vigilante as of late. I moved my hands as little as I could manage and felt along the pole. It wasn’t metal, the more I looked at it. It was sharded darkness. What the fuck? Someone knew darkshard?

“Well, well, well. I had a feeling I’d find you somewhere around here. I heard you like to keep an eye on things from the shadows of the obvious.” A shrouded voice surrounded me. It might have been how quickly I was losing my facilities, but I swear it looked like just a specter of moving shadow lines stood before me. They looked their hand over, checking their nails.

“Who-the fuck-are you?” I struggled to ask. They smiled with a head tilt. Ah, villain. I knew that tilt anywhere.

“I’m a little hurt that you don’t already know me darkfire.” They responded, clearly knowing my name.

“Sorry, I’ve been having-trouble-lately in the knowledge department-” I spoke through broken pauses as everything screamed at me. Even my inner monologue was silent. Shit. I figured I was dying.

“I’ve heard, I’ve heard. Look, I don’t have too long here but I’ve been planning this night for a very, very long-time kiddo.” They spoke again, now a knife twirled between their fingers.

“Kiddo? You don’t –get to–call me that.” I said through gritted teeth. As I looked downwards, I saw the pool of blood growing even larger underneath me. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to drift away into nothing and take a long nap. I needed a nap. A long sleep sounded really good. I felt the weight of my eyes slowly forcing themselves shut. A hand grabbed my chin, clenching me as I was now staring eye to eye upwards into the face of this shadowed line thing.

“I will call you whatever I wish. You’re the one impaled and I am standing freely.” They said, Fair. It was fair. They kept our gaze.

“What is it then– that I should call you?” I asked.

“I’m known in the underground circuit as lines. But I’m trying to branch out you see, and I wanted to properly introduce myself to the biggest game in Industry. Well, one of the biggest. There's a few of course but you’re one of the goats dear.” They circled me, still keeping a shadowed grasp on my chin.

“Lines is–kind of stupid. -” Really, that was all I could manage to say. I was dying here with a new villain introducing themself to me, locking our gaze and I insulted their name choice?

“It wasn’t my idea dear I assure you. I’d prefer to be known as Trophy Hunter. If you manage to survive this, look me up under that name on the streets, ok?” They said, turning finally. I held my hand out trying to catch their attention or trying to blast a fireball towards them–whichever came first at this point.

Trophy Hunter huh?

“Oh, and one more thing dearest, I would adore it if we could be rivals. I’ve followed your career for a while now and I know most things about you. Even some things you’d prefer I didn’t. I would also like to have that Vile you took from the warehouse. You need not give it to me now, obviously you’re a bit preoccupied but, I’ll call again soon. Provided you live, that is.. Ta-ta for now.” In an instant they were gone. No flash bangs, no theatrical explosions or smoke bombs. Just. Gone. They simply vanished into nothing. I sensed the smallest faint traces of a graveyard. Someone that was good enough to get this kind of jump on me and that might have connections to a graveyard. Interesting. Trophy Hunter was at least worth looking into after getting out of this. Speaking of–

“Get the fuck up dumbass. You are dying. You were impaled.” I was stating the obvious here, but I think that sometimes I need that.

“Dumbass, I can’t just get up from a shadow–oh wait.” I stopped.

“Yeah, thank you fuck head. They forget the dark part of your name is darkness? Counter thing and let's get to a fucking hospital!” I spat out. If anyone was listening it would sound like I was yelling at myself with several pauses in between. But– bigger matters to worry about. I grabbed the shadowshard and concentrated as best as I could. I had a wonderful point. I might not be able to create these things yet but dammit if I was going to let one kill me. Fire was my birth ability, but I’ve had darkness my entire life. I concentrated, clasping my hands over the shard and with my own shadowtouch, I shoved the blade back through me as it fell to the floor.

It fell through and disappeared as it clanged to the ground. I stood, barely, after what felt like hours trying to get up. I almost fell forwards tumbling off the side of the building at one point, but I finally situated myself. I got my bearings and stood. That's when I remembered the watch I wore had a Jefferson app installed onto it.

“Jwefferton. Jwessferson.” I said into my watch, swaying.

“How can I–You do not look good darkfire.” Jefferson said reading my vitals I guessed. Jefferson had been instructed to always refer to me as darkfire when I called from the watch. It was a way to keep any accidental use of my real name. It's a wonderful working plan when I actually remember it’s there.

“No shit. Call–doctor–” I said as my voice drifted, I too found myself already shadowslipping through the night. Bumping into walls and hitting everything that I could. If there was a point system to this game, I was winning for sure.

“The Doctor. You got it. Pinging the last location, we have for the nearest outpost now.” Jefferson said. Outpost? Did he mean outpatient? I needed an inpatient or ER but whatever, I’d take any doctor's office right now. I slipped and tripped my way through the city, a few more back alleyways later and up a large abandoned looking complex. My delirious brain didn’t think much of it and continued into the building. I found myself at a very heavy set of wide brimmed doors, much like those of the bunker. Its shade of green clashed with the tan-like colored walls of the rest of the building. I had never seen a doctor's office quite like this before, but I shrugged it off and knocked. I knocked. I knocked again and again pounding with every bit of strength I could muster up. I Pounded one last time before starting to feel myself give in to the sleep when finally, the door hinged and creaked open.

A man stood in silhouette. He stood, much taller than myself, looking down at me. I could tell from the lighting that his shirt was off, he had probably not been expecting company. The glaring lights behind him shone in my eyes causing me to squint. I saw him leaning against the door, his well-toned muscles, dark skin and that stubbled face. I couldn't see him directly but once my brain realized where Jefferson took me, I saw everything from memory. He aged like a fine wine. It had only been a couple years, but still. I smiled up at him, realized I was still wearing the mask and chuckled a little.

“You’re not the doctor's office I was looking for. But it’s great to see you, Simon.” I slammed down into the wall, finally throwing myself headfirst into a sea of dreams. The last thing I remember hearing before clocking out entirely was–

“Well, that’s new.”