Thank you to AIRbooks and Haku Elric for reviewing the last chapter of My Fight. This is the third and final fic, and I strongly suggest you enter with low expectations. Disclaimer: Do Not Own.
Step by step, heart to heart, left right left
We all fall down like toy soldiers
Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win
But the battle wages on for toy soldiers
(Toy Soldiers: Eminem)
1 year earlier
"The Powers were offered a chance to assimilate, they continuously abused this right, and therefore they must be neutralized."
"How is the mass murder of thousands something that can even be brought up for debate? Not all Powers are killers, just as not all Norms are, how can you justify the culling of one and not the other?"
"Powers are the bigger threat."
#
"...death toll rises as protesters take to the streets in support or condemnation of the Powers."
#
"I don't feel safe allowing my children outside when people like them are roaming the streets unchecked."
#
"...public outcry has led to the formation of a new military of Neutralizer Powers, all other Powers have been declared threats. The military denies having been given the order to kill on sight."
/:/:/
Present day: 3rd June
Japan
Ide struggled not to allow his grimace of disgust show when he and Ukita made their way through the abnormally silent police station. Disgust, because what the officers were made to do these days was beyond sickening. He refused to let his eyes linger upon a closed door which hid a room of times long gone, behind it. Ukita wasn't so controlled in his daily emotional response, a muttered expletive reaching Ide's ears despite the gap between them.
'I agree old friend, I agree.'
In the beginning nobody paid any attention to the lobbyists. They should have. The lobbyists became those in power and they were quick to act. It only took a year before everything changed. Ide and Ukita remained officers because they had a job to do, many left on day one. Many never had a chance to return.
/:/:/
Present day: 2nd June
England
Mello crouched down behind an overflowing dumpster in the corner of a rank smelling ally, blue eyes focused on the two Neutralizers at the mouth of the ally. He rested his leather clad hand on the butt of his gun, tensed in preparation for a potential fight. He knew from experience he wouldn't be able to use his abilities once the pair decided to attack.
He absently brushed shoulder length blonde hair back into place, hiding the scarring from a third degree burn that spanned the entirety of the left side of his face. When the orphanage was attacked he had tried to fight back using his abilities, but the Neutralizers cut him off and his own power turned against him.
The high level Level 4 Firestarter crouched down even lower behind the metal bin, fighting to hold back any disgusted noises from the stench emitted. The two Neutralizers stood for a moment longer before continuing on their way, not once did they look back, not that Mello made to move until he was certain they were gone.
Once he was certain he was in the clear Mello flew from the ally, running down silent streets as most people were indoors asleep, but he had somewhere important he needed to be before sunrise. Four blocks later, breath coming harder from his nose, Mello stopped and scanned his surroundings before entering an abandoned building. Inside he'd tracked Powers who'd been hiding out on the streets since the attacks. The first time he'd turned up he was greeted warmly, Powers relieved to see other Powers alive and like them. This time the building remained silent, an uneasy foreboding air about it that spoke of bloodshed.
Mello swallowed harshly, free hand flying to his rosary beads before he dropped his hand and produced his gun. 'Please still be alive.' He prayed, though the feeling of unease grew. The first thing that hit him was the smell. The metallic tang of fresh blood. The second were the bullet riddled bodies of fly strewn corpses. Mello didn't even stop to check for signs of life, the military never left any survivors, he backed out of the building of death, hand covering his mouth before he violently hurled into browned shrubbery at the side of the entrance. 'They were all alive only hours ago.' He thought in disbelief. Men, women, children, all Powers who didn't want to harm anybody, some who couldn't harm anybody, all gone.
He had to get out of there. The military would be coming back to clean up the slaughter. He couldn't be spotted. Spitting one last time in a failed effort to rid his mouth of the taste of bile, Mello kept his gun in hand as he fled the scene, eyes continuously searching for enemies. 'I'm so glad I didn't have Matt come on this mission.' Mello wouldn't have been able to bare the look of horror his best friend would have worn at the sight of all the friendly faces they'd met, slack with death. The Y8 sprayed upon the wall in tacky red paint.
/:/:/
1 year earlier
England
They'd kept track of the news, it was hard not to and stupid to try. They had to know what was going to happen, what people would allow to happen. At first there were protests, Mello went to every rally held in London, chanted the same chant and protested the same rights. Then the enemy came into power. The protests began to die out as more and more people began to suddenly vanish. Mello knew that despite what was being reported in the media, the mass culling had begun.
Mello had gathered every child within Whammy's capable of using their abilities to protect and defend, with Matt by his side and Near at his back, the trio had held down Whammy's against the initial onslaught. Then the Neutralizers were called in. The Firestarters; like Mello, Hairstrongs, Empaths, Truthseekers, Warpers; like Matt, Neutralizers; like Near, had all been rendered useless. Then the enemy broke through the walls and the bloodshed began in earnest.
Despite the Neutralizers under Near's command fighting back once they'd managed to rally against those of the same ability, they couldn't use their abilities on guns and bullets. They lost thirteen of their fellow Power students and all twenty-four of their Power teachers fleeing Whammy's. That was the largest attack against the Powers at that time. It was quickly lost in the overwhelming attacks that soon followed.
Mello, Matt and Near had managed to get the remaining survivor's, all forty-six of them, to a secondary location that'd been set aside to be used in time of need. Nobody willing to venture further then where they knew. In the following day's attempts at reclaiming Whammy's ended in failure, they never lost a fighter, but Whammy's burnt to the ground as a result. Mello suffered severe burns to his face, he could still remember the screams of the dying trapped within the burning walls of the orphanage one year later. Through it all, they'd yet to succeed in contacting L or Watari. They didn't even know if they were still alive.
...