Ok! So here's the sequel. Thank you turquoisesunset, TheRealDreadPirateRoberts and Casual nerd for reviewing! I appreciated it! Forgot to add a disclaimer last time… I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.
Two kids got offthe bus as it pulled up to the station. They weren't really noticeable, unless you were looking for them. Not among the crowds of people also getting off the bus. The oldest boy briefly thought about how weird it was, compared to home. Two kids, one of them a teenager, get off a bus alone and dirty and with huge backpacks? They would be the talk of Everton, Virginia. It was probably better if they could blend in.
The younger boy pulled on his brother's arm. "David, I'm hungry," he whined. He couldn't have been more than eight. The older looked around for someplace to eat that would be cheap, and decided on a Chick-fil-a a few blocks away.
The restaurant was busy, and the hungry children had to wait about ten minutes before the line reached the counter. The youngest one had already run off to the play area and the eldest boy, David, ordered two chicken clubs with fries. The boy taking their orders was no older than David, but had eyes that made him seem much older. "You needa take it to go?" he asked. David shook his head. Might as well relax for a bit before having to wander around in this huge city looking for a place to spend the night.
After eating, David looked at his phone while Les played in the play area. He saw that he had three texts from friends, and one ad about a new app he needed to download. No texts from his parents. That made sense. It was better that way, but he still secretly wished that they would check on him. But after everything that had happened… he couldn't blame them.
After about two hours or so leeching off the wifi, David decided it was time to go when he was the only person left in the restaurant. The two brothers walked silently outside, where they heard yelling coming from the space between the Chick-fil-a and a tall department store-esque building. Before David could react, Les was already sprinting over. Oh no. Les really wanted to be a superhero. He'd always wanted that. While David thought it was a cute dream, it had always had the potential to cause major problems. Like right now.
Two women were standing outside the restaurant, arguing with the kid who'd taken David's order. While this would be fine on its own, the fact that one of the women had a knife made it slightly more concerning.
"Leave him alone!" Les yelled. The woman turned around and stared at the strange child yelling at them, standing with his hands on his hips like Superman. The taller of the two women laughed.
"Well, looks like the little runt-" She took a step towards Les brandishing her knife, and didn't take another. Les tilted his head, and the woman went flying onto the roof of the store. The other woman yelled and tried to run out the other end of the alleyway, but Les tilted his head again and she ended up on the building's roof too. It was all over in about 20 seconds.
David ran up and pulled Les away from the boy, who was staring at them openmouthed. "I'm so sorry," he said nervously. "He saw you were in trouble and he really wants to be a superhero and he's not going to hurt anyone and please don't tell anyone-" The boy made the universal be quiet symbol.
"Not here," he whispered. "Come with me." He ran off, which really gave the boys no choice but to follow. They might as well make him happy, or they'd have to go back to Everton or someplace worse for sure. The boy ran along the streets, which were mostly empty since it was almost two o'clock. Eventually they made it to a small building, with a sign proclaiming "World's Library" and windows with warm light streaming out of them. The inside was warm and the librarians sitting behind the desk all smiled when they came in. The only other people inside were kids.
They looked like they ranged in ages from 9 to 17, and were all just sitting there reading in various places. All but one of them were boys, and all of them were wearing worn clothes. Most of them looked up when they entered, and a few even stood up. The boy went over to three of them, who looked like they were the oldest, and they all met up in a little hall leading to the children's area.
"First of all," the first boy said in a low voice. "Are you mutants? Both of you?" David sighed bitterly. He knew what happened next.
"Yeah."
"Good. My name's Jack. I am too. What're your names?"
"I'm Les Jacobs, and this is David!" Les piped up. David wasn't sure they should be telling these complete strangers who they were, but if worse came to worst Les could throw them.
"Good to know. Do you have parents looking for you?"
"Probably not?" "Oh great."
The boy- Jack- turned briefly to glare at a boy with blond hair before returning his attention to the brothers. "Alright. I presume you don't have anywhere to spend the night?" After David hesitantly nodded, Jack sighed. "Well, if you need to-"
"Wait!" The blond boy ran off, and returned a few moments later with a smal, dark headed boy about nine or ten. The new kid touched David's wrist and closed his eyes, which was rather creepy but ignorable. The entire exchange happened again, and this time everyone seemed to be watching the young kid. The only new question was the kid asking, "Are you going to tell the adults about us?" David wasn't sure what that question meant, so he just shrugged. Apparently that was a good enough answer, because the kid nodded.
At the end of it when he let go and shook his head, all the boys sighed. "Well, David and Les," Jack said slowly. "If you want to, you can come spend the night with us."
"I have no idea who the heck any of you are!" David whisper-yelled. He may have spent most of his life in a tiny town where nothing happens, but he knew that even if they're kids, just don't go to stranger's houses. It never ends well. Jack frowned.
"Well, we're just like you. Mutants who got nowhere else to go. That's why you're here, right?" David stared. People like him? He'd never met another mutant, much less a teenage one. He knew they existed from reading magazines and watching the news, but nothing out of the ordinary ever happened in Everton. When he was younger, he'd even thought he was the only mutant in all of the world. And now a bunch of them were asking him for a sleepover?
Les tugged on David's arm and whispered, "I think we can trust them." Of course he did. Les trusted almost everyone. That was fine back home, but here? In the giant city surrounded by strangers? No way. But… maybe Les was right. David felt like he could trust these kids. They felt… right. And maybe that was just wistful thinking because he had never met another mutant before and they might actually be ax murderers and cannibals, but what other choice did he have? In all the superhero movies he'd watched with Les, everyone was all like "trust your instincts" while training the superhero. Well, David decided to do just that. He nodded at the boys, who were all staring at him expectantly. "Yeah. Thanks."
Jack nodded. "Sure, Davey. Race, go get Tommy Boy and Lucky. Take them home as quick as you can, then come back. Got it?" The blond boy, apparently named Race, nodded and ran off. A few seconds later he returned with another boy and the girl. The three of them, plus the Jacob brothers, all walked out of the building and to a more worn section of the city.
Most of the buildings here were old and lifeless, and the streets were lined with factories belching smoke. When they reached the heart of the area, the kids jumped a fence around an old factory, the only one not producing smoke. At the back there was a rickety ladder leading to a high-up window, which David didn't feel like was completely safe but had no choice but to climb up too. The window opened into a wide, empty, gray space, with no furniture or anything to suggest anyone lived here. The girl smiled and waved Les and Davey over to a narrow metal staircase. "Hi!" she exclaimed. "My name's Lucky! Your room is right up these stairs! I figure you guys could sleep in our guest room tonight, since you're new and…"
The girl continued talking as they walked up the stairs, but Davey stopped paying attention. He tuned back in again when the girl gestured into a small space set off another wide open room at the top of the staircase. This too was featureless, and had a small built-in counter in one corner. "This is the guest room!" Lucky said excitedly. If all of the kids in this building had that much energy… Davey was probably going to go insane within an hour. "You guys can get set up here! Tommy Boy and I will be downstairs, and the rest of the kids should be home in about… an hour or so. Bye!" And with that the girl happily skipped off. "Weird," David whispered. He turned to face Les, who was already unloading his backpack and putting out his sleeping bag. David shook his head and did the same.
In a few minutes the space was filled with a few of Les's toys he'd brought, two sleeping bags, and a few books. David briefly wondered where these kids went to school and what the heck was happening right now, but decided that questioning would only make the insanity worse. Instead a valuable use of his time would be to go look around the factory, and hope he didn't find any bones or screaming children locked up in cages. After making sure Les would be alright in the room with his toys, he left the small space and walked down the stairs.
The place was… actually kinda boring. There were four floors, each connected by a metal staircase in one corner, which didn't seem completely safe if there was a fire. Each floor consisted of a huge open space, while the floor David was staying on had the small room. It looked like across from his new room was a section for other kids to sleep, that was surrounded by curtains. The floor below it was the floor where they'd come in. That floor was empty, except for Tommy Boy and Lucky, quietly sitting on the floor and playing Uno. The two floors under that were filled with sleeping bags and pillows, with everyone getting their own space. That was something. Though it looked like there was another room built into the wall of the bottom floor. All David could see was a closed door, and while it seemed innocent enough, he wanted to make sure it wasn't where they cooked their children. He started walking towards it.
'Hey!"
David whipped around to see Lucky smiling at him. "I wasn't sure where you were! The others are about to come in." When David walked over to join her, she leaned over and whispered, "I would suggest not rummaging through the stuff in here. None of it's yours." David nodded slowly before asking, "Do you guys have a leader or something? Where do all of you come from?"
Lucky frowned. "It's none of your business, but I guess Jack kinda is. He's the oldest, so…" The boy apparently named Tommy Boy ran down the stairs, stopped when he saw David, muttered, "good, you found him," and ran back up the stairs. "Nice talking to ya!" Lucky yelled at him.
In the entry room, a lot of children were already crammed inside. David recognized the little boy from earlier, but didn't see Jack. The boy was talking excitedly to Les, and the two looked like they were already best friends. That's always good. Another boy with bright red hair walked over to David, frowning. "So what's your name?" he asked, not sounding necessarily pleased or happy he was there.
"I'm David. Nice to meet you."
"Eh, sure. What can you do?"
"What?"
"What's your mutation? And the kid's?"
"Oh." No one had ever asked David that question before. No one except their parents had ever really known he was a mutant before. Well,now all of Everton probably assumed, but that was unimportant. He honestly had no idea if these kids really were mutants. What if they were just kidding with him? What if they just wanted him to admit his mutation so they'd know how to trap them later? "What's yours?"
The boy smiled and turned into a statue. David jumped back, yelping in alarm. The two boys who'd wandered over to watch laughed as the statue turned back into a normal human. He shrugged. "So what can you do, Davey?"
Well, at least they were mutants. And, while this may seem stupid, none of these kids felt dangerous. They felt like kids. Normal kids, the kind he'd see at school or at a party. They felt trustworthy, and David's instincts had never steered him wrong about that sort of thing. He quietly mumbled "I can make technology do whatever I want."
"That's cool," the red haired boy said impatiently. "Now what can the little one do?" "He's telekinetic, I think."
"You think?"
"Well, we never took him to see a Mutant doctor, so we don't know the official name for it…"
The boy shrugged. "Well, cool. You can demonstrate later. I kinda wanna see what happens!" He stuck out a hand towards David. "Albert. These guys here are Finch and Mush." As David shook his hand, he asked, "Are those their real names?"
"Nah," Finch laughed. "That's just my awesome name. Most of the kids here got nicknames of a sort, except some we couldn't think of one for. Like Al' here."
"How long have you all known each other?" Davey asked. The boys glanced at each other briefly. "We'll tell you if you decide to stay," Mush finally said. If?
"For now, go take a shower! We get water, but not much and we only have a few bars of soap and no towels- but it'll be great! And when you come out, the others will hopefully be home!"
The shower wasn't great, but at least David had remembered to bring towels. And true to Mush's word, when he got out Jack and Race were both at the factory and the entire group was grouped in the entry area. When David walked in, everyone turned to stare at him except Les and the other young kid, who were still talking.
"As most of you probably heard," Jack said, loud enough to be heard above the kids, "we have two new kids! This here's Davey and Les, and they're like us. They may be leaving soon, but for now they're here. What are your powers?"
Before David- who was apparently now named Davey- could do anything, Les called, "I can move stuff without touching it, and Davey can make technology listen to him!" Jack looked intrigued at the last part.
"Really? If you decide to stay, that could be useful." Davey wondered why they kept saying if they decided to stay. Where else could they go? There weren't other places like this for mutants… were there? He didn't have any more time to think before Jack started talking again.
"Well, even if we have new kids, that isn't the most exciting thing happening today! Somebody is turning ten today, and he was promised a party!"
The little boy playing with Les squealed with excitement, while the others laughed. They quickly stood up and made a line to the ladder out the window. "Get in line, Dave," Jack said, walking up to stand beside Davey. "We're gonna show you how life is in the factory."
Yeah… I don't think this was that good but sure! It was pretty fun to write! In case you were wondering, I made a list of everyone's powers and ages. Because I'm bored.
Jack: 17, can cause people to see illusions
Specs: 17, can hear things from far away
Davey: 17, can manipulate technology plus maybe one other thing
Albert:16, can give himself an armor of rock
Race: 16, invisibility
Elmer: 16, can freeze things that he touches
Henry: 16, electricity powers
Tommy Boy: 15, firebender
Finch: 15, can fly
Crutchie: 14, can heal other's injuries
Jojo: 13, super strength
Lucky: 12, sonic scream
Mush: 12, manipulating metal
Romeo: 10, sensing and (to an extent) manipulating emotions)
Les: 8, telekinesis
Thank you for reading! If you have any suggestions for what could happen next, questions, things you want to see or constructive criticism, leave a review and let me know! Later, potaters!