Chapter Fourteen:

Innocence of Youth

Kayce Grey

"I guess… Bishop actually… did manage something… eh?" I mumbled, loudly as I could. My arm suddenly erupted in pain, but I did my best to hide it. It didn't look like Trish or Vi were convinced though. "D-Damn… that bastard…"

Trish tiptoed past the kids on the floor. All of it was my fault. All their pain, and all of their deaths. Some had even begged for mercy, but I wasn't in a state to give it. All the blood around me made me sick, and I had to fight back the bile in my throat.

"What happened here…?" Vi muttered.

I did a poor imitation of a shrug. "Bishop… sent them after… me…" I coughed. Blood came out. "Shit… I tried to… take it easy… Didn't work…"

Trish finally made her way over to me. I didn't think she'd noticed yet. After all, it blended in pretty well with my bloodstained clothes.

"C'mon; you need to get to a hospital," Trish said.

I laughed painfully. "Too late… for that…"

"What're you talking about? We can make it there! You just have to get up!"

I smiled. "You still haven't… noticed yet?" I lifted my left arm—that in itself took up a lot of energy—and rested it on the rusted and bloodstained steel bar coming through my chest. There was one more through my left thigh. "I'm… done… Trish, Bishop… controls dreams… He made me see… something that… wasn't there… And then he… stabbed me—."

"Don't talk! Goddammit shut the hell up!" Trish roared. "You're gonna be fine! And I'm gonna be there to tell ya, 'Told you so!' when you are! So just shut-up so I can get some help!"

I coughed again, this time more painfully. "If it missed… my heart and lungs… then I'll stick around to… buy you guys… some pop, 'kay…?"

Trish blinked. I didn't know she was crying. "Fuck!" she cursed. "Vi! We have to hurry! Get doctors, get someone! Let's go!"

They sprinted out of the building, yelling at the top of their lungs. I knew I'd be lucky if I made it through the night. I also knew that mom would definitely survive something like this. I mean, sure, she'd be bedridden for a while, but she had a healing factor. An unfair advantage.

I wasn't made for this, I thought dully. I should be at a normal, Human school right now. I should be complaining with my friends about teachers and classes, going to parties and living a good life. Not caught in the middle of a war zone…

My thoughts were the only things keeping my eyes open. Yeah, I was pissed and I was pitying myself, but… No, I had no excuse. There were lots of kids who were in my boat. I had no reason at all.

"Over here!" Vi's voice drifted through the debris. "She's over here! Just hurry up!"

The building suddenly crumbled further. The way that Vi and Trish had gotten through before was done for. I heard colourful cursing on the other side and looked at myself. The bar in my thigh was smaller than the one through my chest. If I could get that one out first…

I planted my right foot on the ground and slowly moved the bottom-half of my person upwards. God, it was agony. It was like I was in Hell. I knew it hadn't hurt that much going in—it was faster, and more of a shock. This pain was breaking me. No; I was past my breaking point.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, either. That meant that I'd lose more blood, and I'd have a hell of a time trying to survive. But it'd take everyone a long time to get through the rubble if I didn't help.

I moaned in agony as my left leg came free of the bar. I tried not to focus on the blood that was mercilessly gushing out of my leg. I was too busy wondering why the hell I was so cold as it was.

I carefully started to move forward. It was a whole new area of pain as I tried to slide the bar out of my chest. I can't count how many times I screamed. I think I blacked-out once. I'm not exactly sure though.

And then I felt it—or, rather, I didn't feel it. I fell onto the floor beside one of the bodies, smiling because I was free, crying because it hurt like a bitch. I adjusted my head so I was looking at the rubble and raised my left arm. The blue aura coated around it, and I was sure it was around the rest of me. I willed my new power to help. I willed it to move the rubble.

Piece by piece, it moved. Every once-in-a-while, I had to stop to rest. Breathing was damn near impossible. I could hear voices on the other side, so it wasn't like I could just blast a hole through it.

"Okay, just stand back," I heard someone say finally. "I'll get this done."

Stephanie Wallace. Another first-year Paragon. She'd made breakfast for us on the first day.

Boulders shifted out of the way with ease for her. She was definitely in a better condition than I was in. I inhaled some fresh air as the last large boulder revealed the room I was in with the bodies. By that time, all would be dead.

"Got 'er!" Stephanie said, a triumphant grin plastered onto her face.

I couldn't help but smile too. The next thing I knew, hands were on me and carefully lifting me through the hole onto a stretcher. Immediately, the doctors got to work on my wounds, even bandaging up my ruined arm.

I saw a needle in a doctor's hand. He saw my look and smiled. "Morphine," he explained, "to dull the pain."

I nodded. I got to close my eyes and blot out the world. In my head, none of it was happening. Not this stupid fight between kids. I could catch snippets of conversations as the doctors rushed past everything to the hospital. The frontline hadn't been broken through. There were lots of bodies in no-man's-land, but none of them were civvies. At least we saved them, I thought absently. And then I simply drifted off into sleep. A dreamless, and strangely cold one.

Joan Grey

"We've received another transmission from the kids," Anderson informed us with urgency. "That's why you were brought here today."

It wasn't just Cole, Lucy, Alec and I this time. There were some Human parents as well, but we weren't in the war room anymore. We were inside the government headquarters based in New Marias. Closer to home, I guess.

"Is there any way we can get in touch with them?" one of the Human parents asked, her voice filled with worry.

"That's another reason why you're all here." Anderson got one of the men in suits to turn on a television. "A few kids were recording what was going on, and managed to pass it on through the shield."

"How?" Lucy asked suddenly.

Anderson moved to the side. "Allow me to introduce Dilyn and Quinn."

I facepalmed as soon as they came through the door. "I should've known…"

"Hey! Kayce!" Quinn greeted.

"Joan," I corrected hastily.

"Before any questions are asked, we managed to get through because I'm a portal Conduit. I can make portals through time and space," Dilyn explained. "And before ya start yellin' at me, I can't bring all the kids through. That's not how it works, and it'd be a pain to explain how it does work, so just hear us out."

Quinn held up a DVD. "I didn't catch the name of the kid recording, but lemme just say this; he's been taping it all since the very first attack, all the way up to the first assault a few hours ago." Quinn looked sternly at everyone. "There's lots of wounded, and there's almost as much dead. No one's getting' outta this one unscathed."

Quinn handed the DVD to Anderson, who popped it into a player. We focused on the TV with unwavering eyes.

Kayce… Trish… Violet… My hands clenched into fists as we saw the carnage. The boy—whoever was taping—was running away from a dorm on fire. He turned the camera to look back at it and saw a kid fall. I'd seen death enough to know that she wasn't one of the survivors.

It skipped ahead slightly. He was still running, but with a group. The camera skimmed to the side, and I saw Trish, Violet, a boy about their age, and Kayce slung over his shoulder. I tensed.

The next scene had the boy slowly moving through a hospital. Heavy orange sheets covered the dead, while lots of the wounded didn't have a bed, and I knew there were only so many doctors. It reminded me of Empire City a lot. And then I saw the boy focus the camera in on a group. I recognized Trish, Violet and Kayce—not to mention the boy from before—and they were following an African-American girl. She looked like she commanded respect from them, and they easily gave it. The boy filming said something about her being the Paragon team leader. It must've been the team that those four were on.

And then came the hard part. A few of the parents started crying when the battle came on. They could recognize their kids, and some were dying. My fists were clenched so tightly that they were drawing blood. I saw Kayce in a few glimpses of the camera, but she wasn't using her powers. In fact, those didn't look like her powers at all.

She attacked a blonde boy. I could see her focus as she did. And then two people grabbed her and threw her, a boy spitting lava from his mouth. I didn't know if it hit. Finally, I saw the barrier start to shine, and the retreat was massive.

The DVD suddenly cut-off then. I felt like hyperventilating. I wondered if Kayce was okay. I wondered if everyone was okay.

"I'm bringing this to the Pentagon," Anderson stated as one of his men handed the DVD to him. "From there, they'll announce a crisis within the country, and we'll be able to send the United States Army to the scene. A full bombardment may be able to weaken the school's shields by forty percent if we continue it for a few weeks."

"A few weeks?" someone yelled. "Our kids are dying, General!"

"I understand that, sir," Anderson said calmly. "What we need you to do right now is take a few breaths and hope for the best. That's all you can do for now."

People started to leave, but the Admiral stopped us; the only friggin' Conduits in the room.

"I want you four on the front lines," Anderson explained evenly. "When that shield goes down, I want you to go ahead and get as many kids as you can out of there. The shield may not stay down for long, depending on the circumstances it was deactivated."

I looked at Cole, who frowned. He thought about it for a moment before he came to a decision.

"You got it."