Abigail found herself alone in what could only be called a giant city, albeit not one with an architecture and design that she recognized. Skyscrapers, if the giant structures in the uttermost corner of her vision could be called that, were actually rare. The few that she saw out-scaled anything she had ever heard about by orders of magnitude.
They had large circles on the ground that stretched in an ever thinner cylinder towards the sky, in what the girl believed to be almost endless. But alas, eventually, it reached an end where it enlarged, as if the heaven's immense weight themselves were being upheld by these artificial concave objects.
She couldn't tell if the roads were actually roads; they certainly didn't look made for cars. And indeed, there were no cars as far as her eyes could see. Nor was there a living soul.
The buildings were old—very, very old—but they showed only a few signs of decay. And there was nothing breathing in the city but her. The symphony of this city reverberated an absolute silence. No wind, no human, nothing made a noise.
A ghost city. Preserved in its emptiness.
For some reason, her vision appeared unable to focus on colors; it was neither black and white nor colorless, but there were no hues to be seen, perhaps because of the endless mist that engulfed everything in view. And her eyes strayed away from looking at the sky, rendering the girl without means of making sense of it; but, somehow, the sky scared her more than anything ever had.
And there were neither shadows nor light; it was neither day nor night. And yet, in the highest place of this city, Abigail marveled at its beauty; that was somehow clear to see.
But she never turned to look behind. She instinctively knew better—that she was not ready.
Soon enough, the girl noticed a rather peculiar thing. She could not see Ghost Girl; she was nowhere in her sights.
When this realization was made, Abigail felt a chill in her spine, and a cold bone-white hand came from behind to engulf her face.
She screamed.
- | -
Abigail didn't know why the man had called her to his business, but she certainly didn't appreciate how James knew exactly where she lived when his subordinate delivered the message. The girl rather enjoyed her sense of privacy. Thank you very much.
But as the older man had asked, she came to his office at night. A normally problematic sentence for a girl of her age. But alas, she would rather maintain a good relationship with the one who buys her stolen property.
The aforementioned office was generic and boring, with nothing of note to say. His papers were well organized, but not too organized. Abigail sat in the chair at the front of James's desk and made eye contact with him before speaking.
“What do you want to talk about, James?”
He was smiling like he always did, and the girl got annoyed at herself for her sudden thought of how handsome he was. “I am just worried about you, sweetheart. I know what you are planning, but you need to do it faster.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He-he. My dear, you don’t need to hide it from me; I am on your side. We know that some elements of this city need to go for us to prosper.”
“Eh?”
"There is no need to be surprised. It was rather obvious when I thought about it. Albeit, I must admit that you fooled me at first."
What the hell is this guy talking about? The sentence filled her mind as the man continued to speak.
"But I am afraid that it is a little too plain. After all, why would someone with your abilities join as a mere underling to Mr. Garcia, especially when he barely used you for weeks? And why would you join him instead of making a proposal to me? So the conclusion became clear in my mind."
"And that conclusion is?" Asked Abigail.
"Hm, indeed, never confess to anything; good, good. But there is no need for that between friends, honey." He put his elbows on the desk and interlocked his fingers, hiding his mouth behind his hands. “Your kind is in a very special position right now, Abigail. The world is changing, and a new order will be created to uphold the growing number of Empowered citizens. And you are in the first row. Eventually, civilization will learn how to normalize powers and how to deal with them. But for now, it cannot; they don’t know what to do. There is no better time to accumulate power. But you must strive to grow faster and seize this opportunity before the other side escalates it first.”
That was something that Abigail could understand, and it aligned perfectly with her thoughts. The part about how the world was changing, she means; the rest flew over her mind.
"Some interesting speculation. Why are you sharing them?"
“A new age is coming, dear, and I don’t play on the losing team. How can I hope to fight Empowered law without Empowered crime? And you are a very promising partner.” His smile enlarged. "After all, everybody saw how much stronger you are. Brutalizing without maiming was the perfect way to start your reputation."
She held a flinch at his statement. Abigail really didn't think like this when she was fighting the policeman, but it seemed like everybody believed her to be vicious and callous. She was not, really, and she does not understand why everybody is making such a big deal of how she beat her opponent when it was perfectly clear that he was fine.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Even Eric showed a little discomfort, the pansy.
Furthermore, what does one expect from fighting people with supernatural powers? For us to cuddle and hug? Idiots. And now there is a team of specialists trying to find and apprehend her. Just great.
"But it's your mind that I liked the most." Continued James. "Your plan to join forces with the hero to overtake Garcia is impressive."
The fuck?
Blinking, the girl did not but stare at the man. After a few seconds, he broke in a laugh.
"I am joking, of course, Kitty; I know that you had no such plans. But that's how the world will see it if you use the opportunity to seize Mr. Garcia's assets and plunder your way to the top. I called you to help; it is within my interest to see him gone and for you to grow faster."
Ah!
“Oh, I see. You will release the information to the police by some moles, and because they are furious at the hero's defeat at my hands, they will go all in against Garcia. Then I steal from him and start rebuilding from the ashes of his organization.”
“You could overtake the entire organization at once.”
She blinked. “That’s dumb. I would have an entire chain of untrustworthy servants. Be the ones loyal to their previous boss or the ones unfaithful enough to throw their boss so easily.” She frowned. "Am I missing something?"
"No. You are correct." The man looked too pleased at her answer.
"There is a problem with your idea, sir. I don't believe in backstabbing allies."
"Ally? You have enormous amounts of infamy in your head and worked for the man for weeks; what did he give you as payment?"
"Very little, I will admit, but that's the deal that I accepted." She shook her head from right to left. "I am sorry, Mr. James, but I cannot break someone's trust like this, especially not in our field."
Wait. Why is she considering this idea in the first place? It is not like she wants to steal from the man. Neither does she desire to own such a large-scale criminal business.
"That's fine, my dear. I more than most understand how valuable our word is in this world." Abigail's rejection of his idea caused no facial expression changes. James looked as unbothered as one could be. "But if you change your mind, my help will be yours to take."
Abigail conveyed her thanks one last time and left the room with a head full of contemplations. What kind of conclusion the girl would achieve would soon be known.
After a few minutes, being certain of her leave, James reclined on his office chair and rested his closed fist on his right cheek.
"If he breaks his agreement first, then that would be well and fine, right?"
- | -
There was a straining and awkward silence between the two teenagers sitting alone on the wooden bench. There was not a single soul in their corner of the park.
It was one of the relatively rare days of clear blue skies, and they were watching the kids and parents playing inside the park without vocalizing a single spark of their minds. But alas, after a few minutes, they started talking.
"Sooo… The police are officially after you. What does that mean?"
"That I am fucked?" Answered Abigail as she licked her ice cream.
"And you knew that would happen when you joined this shady guy, didn’t you?"
"Of course I did. And so did you."
"Yeah, but not so soon. I kind of want to strangle your dumb head." Eric sighed and rested his head on the girl's lap. "Well, what's done is done. Are you going to tell me what you want to talk about now? There was a game today that I wanted to watch."
"Hm… You will be angry at me."
"I'm already angry."
"But you will be angrier."
"Spill it out already."
"Fine, fine. Well, I came to the realization that eventually I would not be able to go outside like today to eat ice cream, and it will happen sooner or later even if I live as a good girl."
"A normal life was never on the table, Abby. You talk alone more and more, and your body has recognizable patterns. Like the eyes and the temperature."
Abigail had already given up any illusions of a normal life; she gave these illusions up when she got her powers. Which was why they decided to commit crimes. But the last few days convinced her that money wouldn’t be enough; they needed more.
And at his loud admission of her so-called hallucinations, the girl's expression morphed in displeasure, and she pushed the boy's hair slightly.
"I don't talk alone! And you know that, asshole. It was just that I thought that I would have more time." The girl's eyes moved to stare at her wrist. "My body is still changing, and it's changing faster than I expected. And there is also the possibility of my brain changing too."
The boy did not speak to her for a moment; instead, he took a look at the girl's trembling hand.
"You are scared."
"Eric, I am terrified."
"These powers. Miami, you… Perhaps powers shouldn’t exist. Every day, we have news about someone using it to attack others."
"Yeah. But I don’t think that it makes that much of a difference. At the end, Empowered are just another type of individual that possesses more powers than their neighbors.
Nothing special."
"Nothing like Miami has ever happened before, and I don’t think it will be the last."
"That’s fair. Perhaps they amplify things indeed, for better or worse."
"Ah." He stopped. "You changed the subject, naughty girl. Why will I be angry at you?"
"You already know."
"I want to listen from your mouth."
She sighed. "A normal life was never on the table, but the way things are going, I will have no life at all. Sooner or later, the government will mobilize against people like me. And you know exactly where they will throw me."
"I was there."
"Yeah, yeah. So, basically, merely stealing will not make it. We need to be more than thieves."
He did not talk back. He gave no reply.
Trying to ignore her current state of anxiety, Abigail observed with more attention the kids playing at the playground. Perhaps it was because of her emotional state, but the girl felt a disconnection between her and these normal citizens. She could not, for example, understand why a little girl who fell to the ground was crying instead of getting up.
She understood the mother that was spoiling the child even less. How did the lady expect her children to grow properly if she was cuddling her daughter at every step?
When another child started to cry as well, Abigail felt the need to fill the silence with an examination.
"These kids are weird. They cry so easily."
"I really don't want to be a gangster, Abby."
"And I don't want us to live hiding for the rest of our lives."
"Working at real crime will only make both of these things true."
"Not if we do it properly."
"Which means?"
"We make a gang, or organization, that has principles above profit; to make this city better instead of worse. And we recruit politicians, too, to guarantee enough power to be left free in this city out of fear of retaliation."
"This won't work. We will get big, and they will cut us out."
"It will be hard. But with enough threats, bribes, and manpower, it can be done."
Eric pressed a fist at his forehead and bit his lips.
"You are totally serious. Fuck."
Abigail blinked at his reply before punching his head. "No bad word."
"Sorry."
"We don't have a lot of time, Eric. Another Miami will surely happen at this rate, and then everything will change. When these attacks become a certainty instead of an accident, people will react. We need to grow as fast as possible before that."
"Who put these ideas in your head?"
"James." Confessed Abigail without the slightest amount of hesitation.
"I will kill him."
"He's right though."
"…"
"Eric?"
"What kind of proposals to get the city better do you have on your little, dumb, pretty head?"
"No killing or maiming civilians; interfere with the local economy as little as possible; use a part of our profits to remove people from the streets. To summarize, we make the streets safer while getting money." Seeing the boy's lack of reaction, Abigail hurriedly added another phrase. "And whatever more you want?"
"My head is hurting. You punched it too hard." Eric grabbed one of the girl's hands and put it on his head. "We should get Empowereds then, Abby. If your case is anything like average, I doubt that most of them would be the kind of people to be satisfied with the world. And you were right."
"At?"
"I am angrier. We were supposed to be thieves; to just hit some big cash prize with your power and make enough for the rest of our lives."
That was the plan to which they agreed, indeed, but…
"I want more than that. I just didn't realize it at the time. Why do we need to hide for the rest of our lives? We didn’t do anything wrong. And with stronger guys like Ascalon appearing, I can’t do it alone."
Eric scoffed, even if he had already decided to follow her in what he considered to be insanity. "You talk a lot about the positives and about the negatives? The real criminal world is messed up. You will need to be feared, respected, and paranoid. You will torture, maim, and become a murderer."
The girl ate the last of her ice cream.
"I'm already a murderer anyway."
"It did not count, Abby. And you damn sure know that."
"Whatever. No regrets. Would have killed them again."
"Dammit girl. You said that I am not a murderer; if I am not one, neither are you."
"Yeah, only you feel bad about it. In any case, you are right; we will also extort, smuggle, bribe, and kidnap, and the devil knows what more. But that's for way later; for now, we recruit some people to steal with us and get our IDs. It will just be more permanent than previously planned."
"Anything more? God, please finish destroying my day."
"Well, your team lost. Also, she looks super satisfied right now. And smug."
Eric exhaled loudly and spoke.
"You know... sometimes I hate you, Abby."
"I know."