~Alex's point of view~
"Hey Sand, you ready?", Leather tapped from his cell.
"Yeah, been ready for five years", I tapped back.
I should probably explain how we got to this point so I'll start from the beginning, my beginning to be exact. My real name is Alex Sandal, but behind these walls, nobody's got a real name. I'm known as Sand, for my control over sand. I was born around 24 years ago in the eastern mountains of California near a small town named Sonora. I lived there all my life and by the time Cole McGrath saved New Marais, I had a pretty good life. I passed through school with A's and B's, had a pretty and nice girlfriend, didn't have a lot of friends but the ones I did have were great people who would take a bullet for each other.
I was nineteen when it happened, the thing that finally sparked my powers. It had been a particularly dry year, reservoirs were down, sand all around instead of dirt. One night a group of jocks tied my hands behind me and forced me to watch as they tried to rape my girlfriend. Tried. They started to strip her when I felt something inside of me like no other. Power raging through me like an unstoppable tidal wave. The sand rose up around me like I was Garaa or some shit and covered the jocks, crushing their bodies faster than I could snap my fingers. She looked at me with only fear in her eyes, fear that consumed and erased the love she once felt. I blacked out.
DUP found me a day or two later while I was still sleeping off the after effects of a power high. They had been phoned in by the same girl I trusted with my life. Woke up strapped to a table and got interrogated by that red headed whore. Those years were the worst days of my life. Came close to going full bore crazy a couple times. I've only got one good memory of that bitch Augustine. She came down to my cell by herself and told me that my friends had come to the prison several times, begging, pleading to see me. She explained that she wouldn't allow them in because not only was this place too dangerous, but so was I. She stared right through me the whole time she talked. Eventually she stopped and looked away from the bars. A message suddenly raised out of the concrete floor. "I'm sorry", it said before sinking back down after she walked off. Then, about 6 months ago, things became better. We still had to be fed and washed and all that shit, but the tests stopped. We were suddenly given free time to socialize with the other inmates, board games and cards were given to play with (even though they were basically impossible to play with due to the cuffs that cover your whole hand, but it's the thought that counts I guess). Couldn't figure out why, until I overheard the guards talking about a new leader of the DUP. That's when I met them. Rubber, Fabric, Glass, Wire and Leather.
Rubber's one of the newer guys in here, but he's most certainly not one of the weaker ones. Came in just over 2 years ago. No clue why his powers took that long to reveal themselves. He had been a starting lineman on his high school team and had been playing football all his life. He never really says anything about how he got his powers, just that he was 15, and that when he did, he trained with his powers in secret until someone accidentally saw him and reported it. He's got a shaved head, hazel brown eyes, and is around 6'2. He's 17 now.
Fabric was one of the first to be brought in, right along side Paper. He's 29 now, with dark brown eyes, ginger hair, Native American descent, and he's about 5'9. They never really tested his power on DUP soldiers, so he wasn't anywhere near as crazy as the other veterans of this place. He was better than the rest of us due to his fighting the riots in Empire. He and I were the ones to first start talking about this plan that we had put so much time into.
Glass and Wire were lovers before their powers came. Both were 14 when it happened. They got picked up a few months after the DUP first started. They've been tested on so much I'm surprised they're not completely insane, even if their cells were right next to each other. They had to rely on each other more times than they could count to stay sane. Glass was the punk girl who was in a band with her friends, the girl who liked shopping at Hot Topic. She's got gray eyes with black hair tied in a pony tail and is about 5'4. Wire was the slightly tech-savvy punk boy who helped them produce their album and loved to skateboard. He's around 5'7 with green eyes and shoulder length dark brown hair. They're both 21 now. They spend pretty much every moment they have, together.
Leather came in a day or 2 after me got the cell right next to me too. He was basically the only friend I've had since I got thrown in this hell hole. He said that he was drunk, so he doesn't remember getting his powers, just that he was drinking and then he woke up strapped to a table. He was able to undo the straps with his power, but he was quickly sedated and put in the cell. We never talked about our pasts or anything personal or even our names, just mundane things like imagining scenarios and being there for each other when the tests became too much. He is 26 now and has light brown eyes and light brown hair and stands at about 6'5
As for me, I'm 5'11 with short dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes. I originally got everyone together to discuss this plan. I taught everyone morse code to easier communicate without everyone knowing what we're doing, which is how Leather, Fabric, and I have been communicating recently (Fabric's cell is just down the hall from ours). I chipped away at the walls of my cell, chipping concrete away hour after hour, day after day. Finally, after five months of planning, I had two handfuls of concrete sand, ready and stored in my body. It's finally time to take back what's ours. Freedom.
~Cole's point of view~
I held her there in my arms for what felt like eternity, tears streaming down my face, never wanting to let her go again. We pulled out of our embrace for only a moment, to stare into each other's eyes before resuming. Everything about her was the same as the day I last held her. Same height, same eyes, same hair, same everything. Yet something seemed different about her, almost like she had an air of more power than the last time she was alive. It didn't matter to me, I was just happy we were together finally, and this time I was never letting her go. Suddenly, my phone buzzed to life.
"Enjoying your present Cole?" He asked
"This is my present?" I ask him.
"Cole, I've spent so much trying to forge you into the toughest warrior on this earth. I've forced onto you so much pain and hate. Consider this a parting gift. An apology for all of the pain I inflicted onto you. I don't regret the pain I've inflicted on you because it was necessary, however I do want you to be happy. I've had a plan in motion since I came to the past. A plan for peace between humans and conduits. I brought you back to life so that you could work with Delsin to make that plan a reality." He told me.
"Wait, why are you telling me about this plan of yours? This isn't like you." I interrogate further.
"I'm about to disappear. Bringing you back was easy, however bringing Trish back was hard. Her body was destroyed by the beast. This is a new body I've crafted for her, which may have a few surprises for you. Creating this took up all of my remaining energy, and thus my spirit will venture onward. Goodbye Cole, and good luck." He said as the phone grew silent.
"Surprises?" I asked, looking at Trish who had been silent up until now. She looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes. Her eyes, which I hadn't seen in so long.
"I'm a conduit"
~Alex's Point of view~
I materialized the sand around my wrists like I had been practicing for weeks, managing to slip through the cuffs. I maneuvered some sand through the bars of the door and slipped the grains into the lock, forcing it to unlock itself. I didn't open the door yet however, and instead made sure no one was around before doing the same thing to Leather's door. I checked again to make sure no one was around before slowly opening the door and sending the same sand to open Fabric's door. They both came out slowly, stealthily, and came to me. I took off their cuffs and we took off to find the others. Glass and Wire were easy to find, considering that very few guards were around the older wing of the prison. Probably thought that the older people of the prison were all crazy. We got to Rubber easy enough.
"Stop!" I hear as I go to take off his cuffs. I turn around and see a DUP officer reaching for an alarm switch. Faster than I thought possible, my sand wrapped around his entire hand and crushed it. Out of nowhere, Rubber, with his cuffs still on, slams into the officer, sending him flying around 20 yards back. Looking closer I see that his whole shoulder has transformed into rubber. Not questioning it, I took off his cuffs and we proceeded to try and find the exit. While searching and avoiding guards, we end up in one of the testing rooms. We got lucky that no one was using it at the time, otherwise we would really have been screwed instead of our current situation, in which we're probably screwed anyway. Luckily, there was a door at the other end of the room. Before we left however, Leather took 2 belts from the table and wrapped them around his wrists.
"Good thinking. We're going to need everyone we can to fight." I told him. He smiled in return. We went through the door, only to discover a long hallway filled with guards, a door at the end.
"Run" I said. We all immediately started sprinting, bullets flying all around us. I glanced behind me, only to see Fabric trip and fall. Immediately I ran back and helped him up. Ahead of us the door was closing from the top down all Indiana Jones style. Rubber made it there first, seeing as he was a football player and all. Leather was next followed by Wire and Glass. The door was just about to close when Fabric and I got there. We jumped and rolled, just barely missing being crushed. Just outside, my eyes adjusted to the white light of the snow, light that I hadn't seen in forever, only to see a bunch of DUP all standing there in a semicircle, guns raised.
"You do know that we have cameras everywhere, correct?" A bald man asked from behind the soldiers. Glass and Wire raised their hands in defeat. Leather unraveled his belts. Out of nowhere, the bulletproof glass if their helmets broke inward, ripping their heads into shreds. I looked back to see Glass, her arms extended, an angry look taking the place of her usual smile. Rubber charged forward faster than anyone could register and knocked out the man standing behind them. We ran. It took us about five hours of running through the mountains, getting out of the snow, and practically falling down a huge mountain slope before the DUP caught up with us. The same bald man as before stood before us next to three of the heavily armored soldiers, a bandage over his forehead.
"I underestimated you last time. Not a mistake I'll make again." He said through gritted teeth. I glanced right, only to notice a small cliff leading to the ocean. Ocean means beach. Beach means sand. Sure enough, there was a beach right there. I barely managed to hide a grin. I raised the most sand I could, about double the size of a person, masking the action by raising my hands. Then, with the flick of my wrist, I sent the sand hurtling into one of them, before raising it back up and attacking another. While the bald man was distracted by this, Leather rushed forward, whipping his belts around and fighting the third, while Rubber rushed forward to knock him out again. He dodged and coiled concrete around his fist before repaying Rubber for the punch earlier. Thing about hitting rubber is, it hits back. Rubber got punched in the face, but the fist bounced back and hit it's owner as well.
"Get to the beach!" I shouted. Everyone immediately ran over to and jumped down the small cliff to the sand.
"What now?" Leather asked once everyone was safely down.
"Sit down with your legs crossed" I told them, looking down the many miles of beach "this is going to be bumpy." I felt something inside me awaken, like the first time I used my powers, yet smaller. Everyone looked confused but did as I said. Slowly the sand rose up in the places that they were sitting until they became sand hills, easily big enough for a person to lie down on. Suddenly they started moving, slowly at first, however quickly picking up speed. Before I could realize what was happening, I was surfing on the sand and the others were moving along behind me as quick as I was. I felt the wind flowing through my hair, salty mist in the air pelting my face. I felt free. Finally, after all these years, free. I surfed down the beaches for miles until finally reaching a cave. After getting settled, we gathered materials for a fire and hunted a few animals for dinner. We waited until nightfall before starting the fire and began to talk amongst ourselves
"So what's the plan?" Questioned Wire.
"I know a few friends down where I used to live, in California. They'll probably help us." I said.
"Probably?" Asked Leather.
"Even if they won't help us, how are we going to get there?" Asks Glass
"I say we find the nearest highway, go to a rest stop, steal a truck and drive down. We'll be there by night fall if we really book it." Fabric says. All are silent for a moment as we consider this plan.
"I say we do it." I say.
"We can't just steal another persons car!" Rubber exclaims.
"They stole our freedom, a car is nothing compared to that! Besides, I don't see a better plan on the horizon. We need to get out of this area fast, I managed to get us far enough that the DUP won't find us now, but tomorrow this place'll be swarming with DUPs." I tell him. He quiets down.
"Let's leave it to a vote," Glass says, "all in favor of this course of action raise your hand." She says. My hand, Glass's hand, and Wire's hand go up.
"It's decided then. Tomorrow we drive down to California and hopefully get some help." Leather says with a sigh, "You guys get some sleep, I'll take first watch." He says. I lie down and take a look around me. Glass and Wire are lying in each others arms, foreheads pressed together, thighs tangled. Fabric is staring off into space as though deep in thought, Rubber is already out like a rock. I close my eyes and let sleep take me as I am lulled by the crackling fire to the best sleep of my life.
AN: Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry I took so long to update, but expect me to be more frequent in my updates from now on. Once again I'm incredibly sorry it took this long, but as I said my uncles death really crushed me for a long time. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave any suggestions you have in a review or PM me. See you next update!