Troubling Control
Prolouge- 3 years into the future
The mountainous- discarded clumps of rusted metal aggressively staggered similar to a teacher's pile of ungraded papers as Blossom peered out towards the perimeter of the once thriving city underneath her cozy perch. As the dusk began to roll in, so did Townsville's reality: a city so brainwashed, that even emerald city would be jealous .
In the last three years that, Townsville's erosion never cease to amaze her. Using her scrutinizing view, she saw the fractured highway remains where numbered bodies laid as scattered as children's toys. On the other side, zombie-like citizens orchestrated the last statue of Him while drones towered the heart of Townsville. Adjusting her head scarf, she picked up the now well-worn drift board; careful not to disrupt the foreign tranquility of the dislocated atmosphere before she started her way auburn hair whisked her freckled face fiercely in the arid wind, as she collected speed as well as a dust storm. Fragmentize memories stained her when she recalled the last bits of everyone she held close. Their terrible distress voices either pleading her to end them or cursing her for the tragedy she unknowingly released to them. Sighing, she shook her head, banking the turn as out gates of Townsville appeared. Sliding to a halt, she painstakingly reached out to them like an old friend; when the dark coating flicker off, Blossom couldn't help but smile as the faded commercial ads, the shattered city's greeting as well as the potholes from the last fight, welcomed her home.
It felt good to be back.
Assuring herself, no one seen her arrive; she discarded any evidence the high counsel could use against her underneath the towns' crumbled infrastructure. And continue to the safe house-Princess Morbuck's- in the dim lighting. Stuffing her thoughts aside, she continued to pass sacred areas of her life where memories parallel to flies to discarded cake. What she decided, was that was the easy part. Trying to coerce yourself a lie and say you didn't feel anything was the worse. Her thoughts betrayed her movements, echoing in the city's shadows. All around her, the cremated remains' eyes search for a savior, causing her throat to tightened. Since memory detected the delicate balance between illusion and reality, by recognizing the downtrodden state of her city. Graffiti coated buildings, endless faces masked in true terror, harass her senseless. Gasping, she begrudgingly lets the harness down towards fear and abandons protocol as a watch drone's siren goes off. . She has to make it there. The night cloaks her movements while she flees to her destination, sweat betraying her calculated persona by dripping over her face.
Passing over the train tracks, nostalgia rises as Princess's prime estate comes into view. Surprisingly enough, it hasn't changed since the big ordeal. Her flagpoles still smugly announce her endless wealth, by clanking fruitlessly in wind.( through with Him's reign it probably dropped, at least, ten fold). As the boundless flowers flourish near the entrance.
Blossom vacillates over knocking, however as the siren's wailing increases so does, any arguments over etiquette. She shifts the rustic oak door ajar. Sighing, she parted with her headscarf and made her way through a seemingly never-ending hallway; during her walk through it, the path lights up while her light footsteps echoed back to her. Family outings, baby pictures and medals coat every available inch of the background. to the point, it's a wonder it is still standing. Despite this, she feels forlorn emptiness as the hallway ends, leaving her, with one exit. Blinding lightning encloses her, as she makes her way into the unknown. The gasps and squealing that follow leave her momentarily distortion. When she glances out of her eyes, the ragtag survivors gawk as if by looking an apparition. Casting one look at Blossom, Princess's nasally voice broke the ice
"Welcome back ,"
The crowd swarmed her, bodies selfishly trying to connect from the lost time like puzzles pieces. Before the celebration of the prodigal child coming home could commence. Princess snapped her manicured fingers, simultaneously bringing the crowd back to earth as well as accommodating Blossom her plush chair, to tell her tale.
Blossom nodded, before starting off, her voice trembling as she stated her thanks."Thank you all, especially you, Princess"
Princess grunted,
"Yeah, well... The only jewels, I should be wearing are the ones encrusted in the family heirloom. Not the murderous ruby or vicious onyx, I'm currently nursing between my right arm" continually to file her nails as she revealed behind the mounds of her unnatural red hair, swollen battle knots.
"Blossom, honey, first how are you doing; second how is it out there?" questioned gently, voice etched in concern as she rocked the small kid on her hip.
Blossom stared at the group, disheartenment growing like the lump in her throat as she flatly spat out the statistics,
"Well as you know, thousands of thriving, populated cities were dislocated in mere seconds by my nanobots which were now a living entity of Him on my watch; due to my failure to recognize the chemical x components that nanobots fused with,"
Murmurs stirred like wildfire, but she was determined to let them understand, talking to them she continued
"The endless body count soared; eventually, the girls and I stopped claiming names to bodies altogether, but instead issued them a number. As it was easier to identify them, than wasting time scouring through their scattered ashes. "
"So how bad, are we talking here, Blossom.?" Robin probed, "Is this endgame?" her voice faltered as Blossom's dim eyes, met hers.
"Throughout the attack of Earth, the biosphere gave a valiant try; but even it collapsed into my man made evolution chain. After losing the precious battle of completing photosynthesis by the nanobots, selfishly, subjecting itself into the plants' chemical the current famine that followed has devastated any shatters of reconstruction"
She summarized lightly sparring them from the terrors she had witnessed. It was then that she felt, the tears streaming out of her eyes, as her feelings finally breached. Her self-composed image fluctuated the same despondent face and whispers of why she came back, flooded her flood her senses. Instantly she flitted back to that terrible scene where the nanobots are ripping Mitch apart and the closer she got to him, the more his skin starts to fall off and dissolve into nothing. He berated her to "Just end him, already," and that's when she touches him and just like he wanted he's gone.
In Mitch's place laid his ashes, and his last words etched into her skin "Just end me, already,"
Her eyes glance through scourging for the culprit after obtaining it in the sand, she gently placed her fingers in to retrieve it. Disturbance crept into her body as she acknowledged the resemblance of sand to his body . After obtaining the corrupt nanobot, a sick constricting paralysis, Hollowness erupted inside of her, as the reality of the truth sat in. "You finally tampered with something, you yourself don't fully understand ," everything within a mile radius was either the agonizing wails of citizens calling out why or the recently cremated bodies. Her sisters did their best but like Mitch, the closer they got the faster the owner's body disintegrated. It was another event in the mass chain reaction event she made. This was never the protocol
After reliving that painful memory, she fell to the floor convulsing as the citizens watched her put a self-constricting paralysis on her.
No, This was never the protocol.