It was as good a place as any to stop for the day. They parked the truck between two warehouses and got out to stretch their legs, wandering up to the end of the alley.

"Isn't it weird that it doesn't even feel strange to see a place like this empty?" she asked, gazing up at the huge buildings. He laughed, drifting over to join her.

"Feels like there should be trucks."

"Probably should," she agreed, flicking a strand of her hair from her face. "Come on. Let's go see if they left anything behind."

Some of the warehouses were empty, but others contained rotting pallets, boxes of children's toys, rolls upon rolls of fabric, and stacks of lumber and lengths of iron.

It was eerie seeing it all sat there rotting, but no one was ever going to come to use it.

She salvaged a frog puppet and mussed his hair with it, making it chew on his ear. He batted at her. "Cut it out!"

She laughed, stuffing the puppet into her pocket.

"You're not keeping that?"

"Sure, why not?"

He shook his head. "You're such a child."

"I'm older than you baby brother."

He stuck his tongue out as something brushed across her back. She put her hand back to push it away – probably a spider – and froze as cold metal touched her neck. "Neither of you move."

She looked at him and he looked at her. A moment later she heard the sickening crunch of a body hitting the wall behind her. With the weapon gone, she spun round, and held her hand out, a spinning disk of rage forming above her palm. A thin, greasy looking man with long dark hair and a matching moustache glared back at them, struggling to scramble to his feet. His gun lay several feet away where it had been knocked from his hand. He drew a knife from his belt. Her disk spun faster.

"Who are you?"

"Who are we? You're the one attacking us mister!"

"Cos I don't know who you are."

Because logic!

Another figure appeared in the entrance to the warehouse. She turned on them, her disk lurching forwards. This one was dark skinned and younger, with white eyes that were very clearly mutant. He held his hands up. "It's okay! Fade, it's okay. They're obviously mutants too. Can you… Put the murder disk down?"

She lowered her hand and it vanished.

"Thanks."

"Who are you?" he growled, still staying close to her side.

"I'm Shatter, that's Fade. We're mutants in hiding."