Unknown Location Unknown Time
"No one picking up?" asked a slightly teasing voice. A girl with shaggy brown hair held back in a loose pony tail and a headband chucked the communicator on the ground in frustration. "Dammit! That's not funny… Flash Boy."
"Kid. Flash. It's not that hard. What's wrong, Cammie?" Cammie bit onto one of her nails nervously. "When we intercepted the transmission from Endpoint… I wonder if everyone is alright. They've collected several new members, you know."
Kid Flash sighed. "I know, I know. How long do we have stay here?" Cammie pinched the bridge of her nose. "As soon as I get done!" Her plain face scrunched up in frustration. "Someone's jamming my signal. I can't get in contact with anybody. Damn…"
"So… that means we have to go in person, right?"
"Yes."
"So… we can leave now… right?"
"Yes."
"Finally!" Kid Flash threw his red-and-yellow hands into the air in celebration. He ran over a scooped up Cammie in him arms. "Ready to go?"
Cammie rolled her eyes. "Hahahahahahah no. Put me down, smartass." He dropped her on floor. "Gah!" she complained. Kid Flash shrugged she grinned at her.
"You act like you're my age and not your age."
"How old are you anyways?"
"Now? 15. Oh wait… what's the date?"
"The 23rd."
"I'm 16. Happy birthday to me."
"You're spending your birthday defusing bombs and hacking into people's computers? That's sad."
"Story of my life. You wanna help me pick up this crap?"
She motioned to the small tech base that was set up in the abandoned apartment. He winked. "Gotcha." It was packed into a clunky backpack that looked like it came from the army surplus store. He passed it over to Cammie, who slid her arms into the well-worn sleeves.
"Okay hotshot, let's go."
In a flash, they were out of the apartment and down the streets of the slums.
Empire City 4:15 pm Nora POV
I stand there in the middle of the high school's gym with a bustle of people running around me. "I-I'm sorry, Brandon." I say. He shakes his head. He looks…well… not good. "It's not your fault. Yuri was hiding something. She was hurt when the apartment building crumpled."
"She was?" He nodded. "I know, knew, her well enough to tell that something was wrong. A glass shard hit her in the stomach."
"Oh."
He looks down at his daughter Mae.The baby girl is sleeping in his arms, exhausted from the day. Suddenly, sleep seems like a good idea too. "We should… go. Back to The Cave, I mean." Brandon shakes his head again. "I've got to take Mae home. I'll be back later tonight. Taking care of Mae requires a lot of love. And diapers."
He gives me a little smile and walks off into the crowd. "Nora!" calls a voice. I turn around. It's Braydon, the kid from Blue Valley. Next to him is Myra.
"What are you guys doing here?" I ask in surprise. "Empire City isn't a long phase time through here." Braydon grins at me. "Artemis told us to come and get you guys."
"Where are the others?"
"We're all kinda wiped out. Luckily, I know how to take a punch and Myra has her cast… Myra, where's your cast?"
"What?" Myra asks, distracted. She looks down at her arm. The light purple cast I had set was gone, leaving only the light cotton stuff underneath. "Dammit! I must have phased through it. Be right back."
With that, she disappears into the floor. Braydon faces me. "So, how'd it go? Save any lives?"
I can't tell if he's joking or not, so I say; "Just two." I point over to where the man and woman we pulled from the wreckage are sitting in the far corner.
Braydon pales quickly. "You've got to be kidding me." I look over at them and then at Braydon. "What?" I ask him. "That's just my freaking luck. It's my old man and his girlfriend." He glowers at the couple, and then spins around. "I'll be waiting outside."
"Hey! Wait!" I call after him. I begin to chase after him, but not before slamming into a kid first. We both go tumbling onto the floor. It's a girl. She's wearing a hoodie jacket with the hood up. "Oh my gosh, are you alright?" I ask her. She nods wordlessly. I stand and help her up, and at the same time, I feel her brush up against my pocket. Then, without another word, she gets up and runs out the door.
I stand there for a minute, bewildered.
That was weird. I think
Then I remember Braydon, and I head out the door and look around for him. I finally spot him leaning on the gym wall near the cafeteria. "Are you alright?" I ask him. He looks very sad to me. "Should have let them die. Both of them." I'm astonished that anyone could hate their parents THAT much.
"Let's go find Myra and get out of here. Parents are… overrated anyways!" I exclaim, trying to help. He chuckles. "Yeah. You're right."
Unknown Location Unknown Time
Two figures are tied up high over a boiling pot of lava. They're in identical clothes with identical brown hair and eyes, their skin the same mocha color. "Oh my god Mandy! Just knock it off!"
"ME? You're the one who got us into the mess in the first place!" She swung herself backwards, bringing her leg up to kick her twin sister. The ropes and chains binding them together lurch and swing, and the chain dropped another
"Shut up Hannah! You're gonna make us fall quicker!" Mandy, the one who kicked Hannah, rolled her eyes. "I have a knife in my pocket! Get it out and cut the ropes!" Hannah sighed in frustration and moved her hand into her sister's pocket, stretching to grab the knife. "Almost… almost… got it!" Suddenly, the chain dropped another inch, and the knife slipped from her fingers. It fell into the lava and melted down with a sizzle. "Whoopies!" Hannah exclaimed.
"Oh don't worry about it. Let's just FALL to our DEATHS, INTO a pit of LAVA!" Mandy shouted, rocking the chain. It dropped another inch and both girls shouted in alarm.
"This is your entire fault! Now the sing-y guy is gonna come back!"
"My fault? Why didn't YOU get the knife from YOUR pocket?"
"Oh I don't know! MAYBE MY HANDS ARE TIED!"
The door to the catwalk suddenly opened.
"Hello ladies! How are we doing?"
"Like shit!" both girls shouted in unison.
He laughed and sang; "Gears Grindin', Ropes Bindin, Coils windin, for two super saps! Death Trap! Pistons Pangin, Clamps a Clangin, Springs Sprangin, It's the last laugh, Deathtrap... "
"No encore for you two this time! I'm afraid it's closing night for the both of you. Now the world awaits my final number, and I shouldn't keep them waiting!" He laughed again and walked out the door. Both girls were praying what would come out of their mouths next wouldn't be a song, but the pitch had been sung.
"Acid steaming, Blades gleaming, Lasers beaming, Final Night Cap… Deathtrap! Bones crushes, Flesh Mushes, Gore Gushes. It's a dirt nap!
Deathtrap…
Deathtrap…
Deathtrap!"
The chain inched down again and the man laughed again, and left the room. "God I hate that guy!" Mandy complained.
"Me too!" Hannah exclaimed. "His pitch hypnotically controls anyone who hears it… and he uses this power to make people sing…"
"He's a sexual sadist." Mandy grumbled.
"He's a singing sexual sadist." Hannah nodded in agreement. The chain dropped again. "Swing time sister!" Mandy exclaimed. She started to rock back and forth, swinging the chain wider and wider, higher and higher. The chain dropped another inch midair, allowing Hannah's feet to latch onto the rail of the catwalk suspended over several boiling pots.
Hannah swung herself and her sister onto the cat walk. Mandy looked around. "You'd think he'd choose a musical-like place to have an evil lair." She commented. "Maybe the acoustics are good in here or something." Hannah replied.
Mandy rolled her eyes. "Maybe. How about I take these collars off?"
"Yes!" Then Hannah suddenly winced. "Wait! No head-butts."
"Aw, what?"
"You know that nobody wins in a head-butt."
"Fine." Mandy shifted her weight, lifting Hannah a few inches off the ground. With that, she walked over to a control panel, and then kicked her foot up and down on a button. Both collars fell off the twin girls.
"Finally!" Hannah said. Mandy nodded. "I feel ya, sister." The ropes that tied them together snapped. Mandy stepped away from her sister and stretched out. "Geez, that was uncomfortable."
"I know, right?" Hannah agreed. "I really hate when we fight like that."
"It was because of the collars taking away the empathy link. In any case, he didn't need two. One was enough to break the empathy link." Mandy commented. Hannah looked at her watch. "Ah, shit. We're late. Artemis is gonna kick our asses."
"Maybe just you. It'll hurt me." Hannah laughed. Mandy laughed too, catching on to her sister's glee. "Let's blow this joint."
"Ah, what about MM?" Hannah asked. "Oh yeah." Mandy said. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them "Done!"
The Cave 4:30 p.m. Anaji POV
"Twins?" I ask Artemis curiously. "To replace Adam. They can connect people's emotions to others. It's a very powerful power."
"Why are the two of them replacing one… err, Adam?"
"They're practically the same person. They share in empathy link with one another. It's their strength and weakness. If one sees something, the other is also seeing that at the same time, plus what they're seeing at the moment. They can inter-connect webs of people's emotions to their own to see what they're seeing. The only issue is the fact that if one of the people in the empathy link gets hurt, the other person will feel it, but not receive the injury."
I consider this for a moment. "So if one of them breaks their leg, the other one will feel the pain, but won't need a cast or whatever?"
"Exactly. This also connects to death. In a normal empathy link, if one person dies, the other person will as well. However, since the twins were born with the empathy link already in place, if one dies the other person won't. But the bond will break between them, sending the person into an endless spiral of depression. It'll practically be like that person is dead. It would take a lot to get the one twin back on her feet, even more effort to prevent the twin from killing herself to join her sister."
I widen my eyes. "Whoa." Then a thought comes over me.
Is that what happened to Artemis?
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Don't you just love me? *winks at you*
Anyways, thank you to SpunkyGirl6487 for being awesome! Please go check out her story The Targets! I'm still accepting Villains, PM only!
DO NOT say you can't wait for your character to show up, cameo or not. I will make them wear a bra and panties in public, regardless of gender. I'm uber serious about this one.
Thank you again to SpunkyGirl6487!
Again, REVIEW OR DIE!
Peace and Mist,
Rlb190