Act VI Special: The New World
A KRON News van pulled up at the other side of the mob-filled street. By then, the rioting had already begun, forming around the Kapacity Korp facility that had otherwise did nothing to offend or instigate a reason to be attacked the way it was right now. The people clamored, yelled, threw water bottles and rocks at the building, shattering the glass and striking metal. Meanwhile, the guards inside had stayed far back from the windows; the place had gone on lockdown yet but soon, the agitated citizens would burst in and attack everyone. That was to be expected when it had been happening rather slowly the past few weeks, but not like this. Not with the fight being taken to these facilities.
The news team of two, Katherine Mulligan and her cameraman Roger Willis, set up shop where they were. Katherine, the smoking hot woman of tan skin, a long ponytail that ran down to her back, and a common choice attire of a yellow sweater with a yellow skirt, held the microphone at hand, giving her assigned partner the nod to start. The headpiece emitted a voice with a countdown starting. "You're on in five. Four. Three. Two..."
Roger Willis centered high and firmly on Katherine and the angle to overlook the angry mob.
Katherine brushed her face last second before the voice stopped the countdown, and then she began to speak into the camera. "Hello, I'm Katherine Mulligan, reporting live from Atlanta, Georgia! What you're seeing behind me is an aggressive mob assembled at Kapacity Korp southbound on 28th! This, following in the aftermath of a controversial video that had been uploaded on YouTube by user Tacitus Kid. The lack of police present only leads me to conclude that it has only happened literal moments ago, when-"
The crowd broke in, and Katherine moved out of the way to get that better angle. "Oh! As you can see, it looks like these angry protesters have managed to break into the facility! Oh, dear, this isn't going to go well! Um, this group here seem to be pro-phenos from what I'm able to distinguish- Here, let's take a better angle from the side! Maybe we can get an inside scoop-"
Shots rang out.
"Oh- Oh, I just heard gunshots. Hey, can we get an aerial view, Megan?"
Declaration of War! - 4:52
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Initiating playback;
In the last few years, there has been a surge of chaos and social unrest within the nation. Oh, who could ever forget what we all have lived through? Who could forget the names of the dead who've lost their lives during the endless commotion? For the past few months, we've had a new development here on domestic soil. We've got those beings that escaped Vial Corp facilities, the ones we brand phenos. If you aren't with the program yet, these phenos have the ability to destroy what they can, what they feel they can when they want. They are super-powered freaks that have no business being part of our community. I've seen it from a distance, I've noticed that some of you have taken matters into your own hands. Phenos have been killed, but the process in itself- you do this in hit-and-run maneuvers when you should be rallying together! You should be unifying as one to combat this inevitable menace! They are bound to become our latest threat here within the states!
As you know already, Alexander Elmont, the lead director in charge of this Patriot Division nonsense has employed a group of phenos- The members of the Loud family just to remind you- to work with him. That being said, what can you ask yourself but to wonder what it is that they know? A friendly reminder that among that group, you have Lincoln Loud, an old Freight, and the zoomer twins Velocity and Momentum, both of whom operate in the eastern coast. The Superbeast of Dadetown is another one, too, but where are they? Why haven't they made contact with any authority yet? We all know that they've gone into hiding... Because they are criminals. They are criminals of a new class, and they must be stopped.
The way I see it, the enemies of America right now are not just these nefarious powerful phenos, but the very persons responsible behind them. Project Ultimate's files is out there already, and you should not remain ignorant to the situation. This dream, this diabolical agenda founded on the idea to mold a human to perfection, calls for a sort of global genocide. Vial Corporation has wished to clone all humans that are not involved with them so that things could change! The end of poverty! The end of war! The end to all the problems as minor as anger! But what kind of world would that be? A world where everything is generic and dull? A world born through global carnage? Is this what you want? Or will you take it into your hands and tear down Kapacity Korp facilities?! Let the records show that these fall under the recently deceased Peter McMahon's jurisdiction, but no longer! Go down, go to all of them! Strike them now so that no one will get that idea again! Make them resign their posts, put them in jail! Make them pay for this horrid crime against humanity! All must pay! Today is the day for an uprising! Today is the day we must speak out against the injustice that has been building up! You, all of you! Take up arms! Lock and load! Take the fight to them! The conspirators and the super freaks coming out of the woodwork! This is far from over! Today, we will personally see the end of the Loud family of freaks and the allies they make and all others!
Strike them all! Strike them now! Keep your world as was! Keep them from being the devastation of the United States! Don't stop! Never stop! Wipe these monsters from the face of the earth!
A group therapy session went on tonight. The type where multiple victims of loss, trauma and darkness had come around to seat themselves in a circle. This particular set of people just so happened to be phenos, meeting after their last gathering, which had just taken place a week ago. Sixteen of them, ranged from eighteen to forty in a mix-and-match variety. They were all silent save for the one person, twenty-one-year-old Mandy Carson, whom had the floor. She talked to them of her own experience behind the glass. Of how she was a teenager working a Starbucks in her hometown when she'd been nabbed through a false construction detour. They stopped her and took her out of her Subaru, and things got hazy from there.
They comforted her when she cried, when she told them of how she returned to her parents, only for them to disown her for her status as a pheno today. In their eyes, Mandy was an abomination with freakish abilities, to render her rights as a born human invalid. And it wasn't fair, it wasn't just. It just was not right in the eyes of the other fifteen phenos that were, unnaturally, the object of the public's controversy today.
"It was so much easier when I would put my checks into my account and split half of it into my savings," Mandy shared to the group amidst her sobs. "That was supposed to go to my college, and I planned to major into social sciences. I- I had it all panned out and everything. I had a life and a future, and... And these..." She hated how things were, and at no doubt did she feel and know it was mutual for them all. "Why me? I didn't d-do anything to anyone ever! It- It doesn't feel random... I have to confess that I'm- I'm a virgin still, I'm a Christian and- How could God f-forsake me like this? It doesn't make any-"
Robert Burton was on her left, and Sheila Martin was on her right, and both older folk consoled her greatly, to relieve and destress the state of Mandy's confused, lost mind. The poor brunette girl had then bawled into her hands, her heart aching greatly. At one fine moment, she could have even passed away from how devastated it had become. A damn vase that could be so fractured just from one fall. It was all it took today.
"Would anyone else care to speak? It seems that our friend Mandy here-"
Darceline Holmandollar leaned against the doorway, looking upon the group. For a second, she thought she wanted to enter and contribute; the young woman had stuff tp contribute, and that wasn't accounting the strange phenomena she had experienced awhile back, where her hands and legs fizzled out like she had been disappearing from the timeline, but she thought nothing of it yet. Perhaps the woman had been tired. But even still-
"Ah, I see we have another guest!" The organizer had caught sight of Darcy and signaled her over. "Come here, don't be shy! Everyone, let's give this wonderful woman your utmost attention. Barney, if you can find us a chair-"
One bearded fellow from the group got up to fetch another of the foldable chairs they were using, beckoning Darcy over nonverbally.
"I- I'm just looking-" Darcy attempted to excuse herself, but she found herself unable to budge from place. "Wait, I-"
"Please... You're among friends if you are one of us..."
Darcy saw someone raise their hand and emit fire right out of their palm, scaring her silently. She obliged and nodded, moving closer. She had no thought anymore, but she didn't feel like she had reason to run- yet stay. Whatever, she left it to chance. Who knows? She probably needed to talk. And she had some words inside. "Um, hello... I'm, uh, Darceline, but I go by Darcy, a simpler name-"
"Hello, Darcy," the groupers simultaneously said altogether.
She sat down and waved weakly, studying everyone's faces. "I don't know what to say, I've never been in one of these."
"That's okay, you can just share what you feel the need to share. You know, things you need to get off your chest."
Darcy lifted her hand to her face. "Well... I'm a pheno, that's obvious on your part, right? I... I'm stronger than I was in the before time." Her eyes rolled away, dropping to the ground. "Um... I have my own... I don't know how but, I have my own grave all of a sudden. It's like... I'm actually dead. I searched my own name up on Google and I'm suddenly dead-"
"That seems to be natural," one said. "They've made us look like we're dead so that they could get away with experimenting on us."
Darcy knew it wasn't true on her part; she was alive and she had been living in hiding. With Nicky Cromwell, with Eric Langston. Victoria Thompson. Terry Smythe. Her own peeps that weren't so fortunate, but together, the sinking boat they were in kept afloat. At least, it had been keeping afloat, until very recently. Recently, when things had begun to change out of goddamn nowhere for her, and young Darcy could not explain it. But she could not actually share her findings simply because she didn't know why it was happening. "My own friends I share a crappy apartment with just disregarded me out of nowhere. I might have said something but they seemed accepting of me! I don't get it, I don't get why they're- They're pretending they don't know me. It's all bullshit."
It's all bullshit.
Later
Darcy called for Lincoln multiple times using their secret Freight signal again, but she got no reply from him, and she had begun to feel something was terribly wrong here. He'd never ignore her calls when she requested it; they had a pact, a form of understanding that she was still a friend. She needed him to see her as that so that she'd be spared. Damn it, Lincoln. Not you too.
Still, she persisted, continuing to call out for him.
Say something had gone wrong, what then? Where would she go? How would she strive to survive these next few years? Or maybe... Maybe she needed to do some investigating. Find him herself- Him and the answers as to why Darceline Holmandollar had stopped existing all of a sudden. Perhaps Lacey St. Clair had said something prior to her death. Oh yes, an order dispatched to her punk friends, the three assholes who met her to push their agenda. Then- Have you all fucked me over? Is that how the wealthy operate?
She never bothered to look at the news, to catch up on domestic and global events. She feared seeing footage of herself attacking the anti-pheno protesters, which did the phenos no such favors. Oh, how she was helping about their downfall. She disgraced them- and she didn't know a damn thing about them. The only one pheno she knew possibly didn't see himself as one, but her- Oh yes, Darcy upgraded herself from a base human, she had considered herself special. But that special had spread like a wildfire, and that special...
It was becoming the new commonplace.
She went and smoked her third cigarette off the Marlboro pack, lighting it up at the peak of a five-level parking garage, graciously looking over the dark city of New York. Not much people in sight at these hours, in the hotspot of muggings, rapes and random robberies around. She'd see shadows, singles or in pairs, move east and west, north and south- but the thing was, she was looking down at them. Down from this height, and it was funny and significant in a sense; she was a pheno with brute force to be displayed and used when she willed it. That made her some goddess before. Four years ago, when it wasn't a thing launched out to the entire nation.
A goddess that...
Darcy exhaled the tobacco smoke.
A goddess that could not accept her role. She had to remain in hiding for four years and she had missed some chance to be... Different.
She sucked in another whiff and blew it out of her lungs again.
Wait, was Darcy ever going to do such a thing? Suppose she could. She could have. She could have risen, been alongside those zoomer twins around here. And yet-
Why am I cowardly? Why didn't I put myself to good use? Why am I still...?
Things were just too complex as they were. Darcy had never lost sight of the one thing that mattered, that came before anything else; survival. She took her eyes straight down, over the barriers and onto the streets below. If she fell from this distance, would she survive that impact? Or would she break her entire body? I can't do this anymore... It must be punishment for being... Locked away by my own accord.
Darcy flicked the cigarette out of her mouth, letting it fall before she crushed it beneath her feet, and then climbed over the barrier, now firmly standing over the edge. Here, she knew fear again. Her heartbeat rose up and pounded rapidly, legs and arms shaking. One step forward, it was all it took. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to stabilize her body. I can't do this anymore... I can't do this anymore. I have been neglecting my abilities just to live in-
She stepped off.
Fear.
And fell.
Three bodies were hung on trees in Central Park. These were lynchings yet again, to be marked the fifty-fourth one nationwide. These bodies of young pheno minors who've only dreamed of freedom, to return back to normal society. Their names and faces unknown to those who cut them down and covered them, but they were younglings, poor buckos who got the short end of the rope. May God have mercy upon their souls, is what one middle-aged fellow had said that early morning.
However long they were there...
"Jeez..." The man had called the cops and waited around after laying them down. He sat and he mourned the strange kids, wondering why it was the way it was. Animals, monsters of all shapes and sizes, and to no end of the spiking tragedies. The atrocities. The turmoil that hadn't just ended, would probably not for awhile. "You poor kiddos."
Lynn Loud Jr walked with the line, chained up in her arms and legs, dressed up in the average orange prison uniform, just like the rest of the phenos were. How funny it was for her, a member of the Bureau, to be here like this, when she did no wrong but run alongside the group of her siblings investigating the crooked corporation Lisa had made possible. As of now, Lynn had lost count of the days she was here, but it had still been fresh in her mind. Her capture, and the untimely shootout that occurred on her way to Site Prime, a secret prison to hold the phenos such as her. At no doubt it was their enemies at work, but Lynn had no way to prove it. Nor did she have any means to escape. Zoomer power suppressed, and with multiple guards and sentries keeping this place at max security details, escape surely seemed impossible.
And there would be no time to remotely depend on her sisters to rescue her. Not them. Certainly not Lincoln, and surely not the clone he shot down at point-blank range. Still, Lynn had a lot of work ahead of her, and her vow to avenge her own girl crew had yet to be accomplished. For them. She made it certain that it would have its end. She'd find a way back to the future and stop it. Stop it and rewrite both present and future. And simply because she was now a designated zoomer, things could very well be different.
Lynn stopped just when she, her fellow phenos and the guard in charge, came to the steel thick entryway, exiting cellblock B. Afternoon lunch was next on the daily schedule, the food of which was just a bunch of bad meat and gloop. Meatball and mashed potato fused, maybe. The taste had been wired into Lynn's tongue memory already, quite the nasty stuff she could never erase.
The only good thing about the cafeteria period was that they were unchained, allowed to walk around. Lynn carried her tray, careful not to move it about unnecessarily, taking herself to one of the rectangular tables at the far end of the cafeteria. She could overlook the entire floor this way, and it paid to be safe. Most of these phenos were guys, too few girls that had some grievance with the captors. Oh, Lynn had already figured out these were the ones that were fighting the good fight and gotten themselves captured.
Robbie Ackerman, sole survivor of the incident at Camp Flagg in Southern California just two years ago, finally racked up the courage to come talking to the lastest female catch in Site Prime. She dropped her tray hard on the table before sitting down. She slapped a hand on Lynn and addressed her like they had already made each other's acquaintance. "I had to see if you'd affiliate yourself into that group the chicks had formed. Turns out you just don't give a shit about all that, which is good for me."
"Sorry, do I know you?" Lynn focused on her unbearable food.
"I do now!" Robbie held up two fingers, making the peace salute. "Robbie Ackerman in the flesh."
"Lynn, just Lynn for now."
"Hey, what's new on the outside world?" Robbie made it an effort to keep up with updated events. "The last few weeks I've seen plenty of people come in. This place might need to be expanded to accommodate everyone."
"Wait, what do you mean? How long were you-?"
"Guards told me we're halfway through the first year of the new decade, but I've been brought here two years ago."
"Two?"
"They've tucked me away," Robbie explained. "Of course I know why, and it sucks... So please, tell me what goes on in the world of today."
"Uh-" Lynn nodded in firm agreement. "Yeah, sure... Just ask me specific questions, I don't wanna give a speech or something. Not like we have long here."
"That's true... Alright then, let's start it with... Uh, are we at war now? Has a civil war between the regulars and the supers started?"
"Well... In bits and pieces, it seems to be going that way. There are some phenos who've been getting killed around. Gen pop has been divided into pros and antis, but it's painfully obvious that there are more antis than pros. It's complex right now, everyone either hates the idea of freaks more than they pity them. It's a shame because they're the victims in all this, yet they're all..." She hoped this Robbie character knew what she meant to say.
"I'm not surprised..." Robbie never touched her food; she was hungry but this was more important right now. "Everyone seems to have all possible ideas in existence, wouldn't you agree?"
"Now that I think about it..." Lynn thought of her siblings. She thought of Lincoln, the brother with zero morality, but of a misguided conscious. There was Luna, the Luna who was the opposite; save all life when she was able to. It was Luna who had come to accept the clones were human, with human traits and rights, even when Linka's elevator didn't reach the penthouse. Lana and Lola, the vigilante twins with same hero ideology and nothing else from what Lynn could tell. An endless crusade for those two until death. Luan was a prime example of a dead person with a list of murders to her name. She ran away from help, from all of them, for a reason not yet clear to her, and it probably still had everyone worried for her- and for the misfortunate souls that would cross the unhinged Luan.
And then there was her, the young woman who landed herself into the life of danger plain and simple- and then some. Just a test, she'd tell herself. No, more like a series of them. She'd throw herself into the life-and-death scenarios simply to get better, to overcome failure. Adrenaline. Fear. Achieving superiority over the Grim Reaper. Right until-
Oh, Lynn. If you only knew this was your demise- in one way or another. In one way...
Or another.
"I guess you're right," Lynn agreed. "Multiple groups, multiple ideals and goals. It's kinda scary."
"That's not a world I wanna come back to..." Robbie frowned with discontent. "The last time I was free, it was in a camp. It was me, my step-sister and others. We..."
"Did you all...?" Lynn meant to ask if the whole camp got caught up with these guys.
"No, just me... Just me." Robbie let out a disheartening sigh. "Everyone else is dead, because it killed them all."
"It?" Lynn's attention was seized even greater. "What it? You don't mean a pheno, do you?"
"They didn't seriously think to call them that, did they? Mutant is still a word, isn't it?"
"I don't make the rules, Robbie."
"And... Well, I don't know..." Robbie shook her head slowly. "It looked like human, yeah. It was a baby, had to be. A baby that... That had these weird, green tentacles- Skin! Greenish skin and it- It was eating the others-" She stopped and gagged.
Lynn stuttered about, knowing what hideous creature Robbie was referring to. "Oh, God..."
"What?"
"You, you've s-seen-" Lynn's mouth withdrew into rattles of mumbles.
"Wait, you- You believe me? You do!" Robbie stood up. "Tell me I'm not-"
Lynn dragged her back down to seat. "I need to know! D-did you see the body of a-?"
"A blonde woman?! An FBI agent?!" Robbie noticed the reaction in Lynn's eyes; this brunette had been familiar with the case, or more... "You know!"
"Tell me, was she alive when you-?!"
"No...!" Robbie answered, putting to rest a long-running mystery that plagued Lynn. "She was dead, eaten by that thing... Her insides were hollowed out."
Lynn let go of Robbie, taking in the breathtaking revelation. P-P-Paula... Paula is... Dead? Paula is dead-
"You know what that thing was, don't you?" Now it was Robbie's turn to shake Lynn. "Don't you hold out on me! Please, I need to know what it was! And why... Why it..." Robbie grew desperate. "That... That creature put me here and I need to know why!"
"Keep it down, keep it down," Lynn advised. "I don't know if I can give you everything, but that thing... It's an alien, an actual visitor from beyond. I..." Lynn contemplated in telling Robbie the reality of the truth; it had been Lynn and her company that freed the entity Lulu from her cryogenic stasis from that Prime Federation museum.
All my fault... This girl ended up locked in here because... Because I freed something. What sort of balance-?
"It was let out of its confinement by accident, that is what happened," Lynn vaguely said. "That woman, the FBI agent, was a friend of mines... I didn't know- I didn't know she-"
"Wait a minute..." Robbie recalled a detail. "We've tried to contact those guys but they told us that this woman- Uh, Paulie Ward, was alive. I don't-"
"Them covering it up," Lynn lied. "They need to make it nothing to avoid a panic. Yeah, she is dead and... I don't know about the others the thing killed, but I'm sorry... I'm sorry that this happened to you."
"I can't believe it..." Robbie was distraught. "I told them I would never say a thing but they wanna put me in a box to keep me from ever talking. This... This isn't right."
"No, no it isn't," Lynn agreed. "It isn't... They just want to cover it up because they must be scared... Like-"
"So, how did you end up here, Fed Girl? I thought you were a pheno too, but you've proven otherwise."
"Actually, I'm both..." Lynn dropped easily. "They wanted me out of the picture, I was getting closer to the truth behind the phenos."
"You're-? Alright, you're the best of both worlds- and the worst. I'm not gonna ask what you can do, but it must be cool."
"Well, I'm still trying to get the hang of it..." Lynn patted on Robbie's shoulder. "Hey... Maybe you can help me out with something."
"What's that?"
"You've been here long enough- Maybe you know how things operate around here, and-" She then proceeded to whisper. "-I don't plan on staying... So maybe we should stage a little... Prison break."
The virtual entity took control of the cameras in the cafeteria, making out Lynn's words through the shapes her mouth made. LinKAPACITY, accepting its nickname LK, had come through the backdoor of Site Prime's network firewall, quickly inserting tiny worms made up of itself, taking over the entire mainframe by means of infection. And surely but slowly, the A.I. LK had hacked and become the database, going through everything and monitoring the phenos and staff.
"That won't be necessary, Lynn Loud," the blaring intercom echoed through the cafeteria. "The time has come to liberate the phenos of Site Prime!"
And as fast as things had kicked off, the blackout happened.
Lacey St. Claire escorted Dylan Blood inside the theatre auditorium, reserved to the elder elites associated in the anti-pheno movement. Meeting was urgent, assembled at half-ass capacity following the Dietrich incident real recently. He was the last one there, seeing that more than half of the seats were full. The spotlight shone down at the center of the stage, right above an aging man nearing his sixties. Dylan identified the man as Ezekiel Barter, the head honcho of this group, the brain behind this all. He narrowed his eyes at the elder, wondering away if Barter had some ulterior motive or motives behind the curtain.
"Ah, and here he is now! Gentlemen, here is Mister Blood in the flesh!"
Of course, he didn't need that welcoming- not even the spotlight to shine right on him. He covered his eyes, squinting away like some vampire exposed to sunlight.
"Give this young man a round of applause for that little message he's sent out across the airwaves!" Barter rattled and waved the microphone at hand, smiling widely and pointing away at the boy among them. "What would have we accomplished without him? Why, I would have employed Nathan Niles and his young crew... But as you know, none of this can lead back to us! It is a grave shame that in today's world, internet users have become intolerant of... Well, they've all become whistleblowers to some degree. They hang each other, post videos of someone being racist, or being... Cruel- But these children are lost, deluded and hypocritical in their own sense. They won't survive, but we will. Lacey St. Claire over there will. Nathan and his buddies will. Maybe even Dylan here will, too. As you know his story, Dylan does not come from wealth, but he has proven his lower place by serving our needs, and he has done a well job. Now, if he would just mosey on over here so that he can share some words. Lacey?"
"Come on, honey," Lacey encouraged, taking Dylan's hand and leading him down the aisle. "If you overcome this stage fright phase, I'll be more than inclined to give you a show." She gave him a seductive wink to go along with her promise- however empty it might have been.
He ignored her, pretending he heard her. "A thank you is in order, sir," he platonically, if not passive-aggressively, told him. "I duly appreciate this open welcome."
"Unfortunately," Barter continued to address his fellow man, "Cornelius Dietrich has met a bizarre, unfortunate end. It seems that he and his staff were murdered by a pheno, which is rather poetically ironic, wouldn't you say?"
Dylan expected some cries of mourning, but instead, he received only laughter from the crowd. Laughter... For a dead man; his first victim from this lot, and they didn't know it. Yet.
"Dietrich was just a fool, one out of a great many, but we will not let his death be in vain! No, in fact... This proves the phenos are indeed cutting the wealthy down to size!' Ezekiel Barter practically knew how to preach, what tunes to play for his songs. "It's already happening! They're smarter than we anticipated, and this proves that we must devise a plan faster! Actually, why I bring you here is just about this very topic indeed! They're closing in, but we have the money, so we have the power and influence, which still amounts to something in the end. I've got several politicians in my pockets, and through them, fine police from multiple precincts! Utilizing Dylan Blood here, I do believe we can intercept the incoming reports of phenos so that he can clean up the streets!"
Dylan faced the audience, light still on him. Am I know an anti-pheno unit? Granted, that's what I've been up to, but-
"You can do this, can't you?" Ezekiel stepped back from Dylan and took out a gun hidden inside his gray business suit- and immediately the rest of the audience had brought out their shooting irons- namely pistols, revolvers, and in one case, a P08 Luger- out in the open, aiming right at the Tacitus Kid. "Well, we would have wanted you to, but then we-"
"So, you've all grown wise, have you?" Dylan raised his hands up. "Didn't think I'd outlive my usefulness today if I'm to be honest."
"You wouldn't have had to..." Barter brought Dylan right down to his knees. "We've had Dietrich bugged, but none of us were counting on you showing up there. To us, he was a leech, a loose end we were looking to cut out, so I hereby express my gratitude-" He cocked his gun, finger on trigger. "-by making it painless, Tacitus Man."
"I didn't choose the Man part," Dylan grunted out. "I prefer Kid."
"We're too foolish to not have seen it sooner, but maybe next time we'll pick someone who doesn't hate us rich farts the way you do. So, any last words?"
"Repeat after me..." Dylan Blood smoked another cigarette from his end of the desk, not looking at Lissandra Autumn Mercer or Bethany Kira Chang. "August 7th, 2030. You're there to observe, this is who I am. This is-"
"P-Prime Supreme-" Lissandra, commonly known as Lizy around here, was visibly scared. "I beg of you-"
"BEG NOTHING!" He angrily bellowed. "YOU HAVE ALL FAILED ME! FAILED MISERABLY! THIS IS NOT A WIN FOR THE PRIME FEDERATION! NOT A WIN FOR ME OR YOU! YOU..."
"Sir-"
"You are a disgrace tonight..." He inhaled and exhaled the tobacco smoke. "Go now, both of you."
Bethany silently took her leave and waited out the door for Lizy. We... Lost.
"I said now!"
"Y-yes, sir," Lizy nodded shamefully, hopping from the chair and rushing out, right into Bethany's loving, comforting arms.
"Is this what he wanted to show us?" Bethany watched from the balcony in silence. Right now, half of the auditorium was gone thanks to a bomb that had gone off in the center. It reduced Dylan's enemies by half, but the few that remained were quickly shot, gunned down by him. He only had a knife and the detonator to do the trick- and no one had checked him. Funny how that worked out for him.
Lizy only heard the commotion, but had not been looking over. She was crying softly, taking in the loss too personally. "Did we really mess up? D-does he think little of us now?"
"No, he can't- He's put too much time into us to discard us!" Bethany reasoned. "But we know better. We've learned much about our new enemies now. You and I did. The Commander did. Alex, Liberty... And Rose."
"A-are you sure? Or are you just-?"
Bethany ducked down to Lizy's level. "Of course I'm saying that! But it doesn't mean I'm deliberately bullshitting you, Lizy. The six of us are going to be better prepared next time we face them."
"We- We will?"
"We've got a woman who helms a super suit that can go invisible, who can top that?"
"Well-'
"Hell, she and Rose are both phenos, too, same power as... Well, I don't need to say it, do I?"
"I know... Prime Supreme's got a full team of phenos now-"
"Ahem," Bethany fake-coughed.
"...Except you."
"Oh, I take it back now, I don't wanna be the odd one here."
"Hey-" Lizy wiped her tears. "He still wants to make that zoomer's second daughter a Primer. I don't know how to feel about that, they're the ones we're trying to kill-"
"Smart on his part," Bethany shared. "I'm sure he thinks if he can get to her he could make her talk, turn her... Corrupt her. Ha, making her the next Primer. And what of the eighth one? Will he clone Letenko? Or... Someone new?"
"We'll know soon..." Bethany kissed Lizy's cheek and then returned back to check over the balcony. Dylan had taken his leave, but the bodies of the dead laid scattered about- and when Lizy smelled blood, it was game on. "Hey, hold on-" The beast in Lizy activated and took control, but Bethany lept on her and tried to contain her. "That's so yummy!"
"No, we have to go!"
"Lickety-lick."
"Babe!"
"I know why you had me look at that, sir..." Bethany had returned to master, whom still had been on the same cigarette. "I think I get it."
"Then please enlighten me on your findings, Bethany."
She sat down where Lizy had first and promptly set her hands on the table. "You've sacrificed a ton while you climbed to this position, put yourself, your own life at risk. This was you telling us that you didn't do that just so we'd fail here, right? That we should have tried harder?"
"See? You do understand after all..." He stood up, puffing out another cloud of smoke. "You're an excellent young girl, you'll go far I'm sure."
"Sir?"
"Go ahead, speak what's on your mind."
She bowed her head and closed her eyes. "Thank you for incorporating me into the Primers, sir! For giving me a chance to prove my self to you!"
"Well of course..." Dylan simply waved at her- but she wasn't looking. "As you were, Bethany. It brings me joy to see that you comprehend the stakes of my dream. You'll do well to learn from this atrocious failure, I hope."
"I will, sir!" Bethany promised, going back up. "Thank you."
"Dismissed, be on your way."
"Thank you, sir," Bethany repeated, bowing again.
Hello, I write inside you again to inform you, or rather, for me to remember when I look back, that something odd happened. My sister Lynnette and I somehow ended up back in the past when it had already happened. Lynnette tells me of this military group she got mixed up with and told me of a friend she met whom our interests aligned with. She went to him to acquire aid when... Well, when my morality got the better of me again. I didn't think a due-over was possible, but I'm gonna ask my mom and aunt Lynn about that.
Still, I couldn't bring myself the second time to help Lynnette on this mission. I mean... It was my father. It was a life. There had to be another way, right? Like, keeping him locked away from the world, maybe that could save the lives of millions. Just one... It's just one, so why do I always feel bad about this? Why do
Lupa aligned her stretched hand to the row of cans twenty-five feet away from her, just at the border of Grimmtown. The sun was vastly setting, but she would not miss the coming of the night. Lacy and Liby closely watched as Lupa snapped her fingers- and the first can on the left got knocked right out of place; Lupa had discovered a worthy upgrade to her telekinesis. And she smiled with a dark expression of pure satisfaction.
Loanne Wardell had started her day like a regular Tuesday, but underneath her regular clothes, that gray hoodie that concealed her face, along with khakis and pink sandals (oh yes, no socks!), the wonderful Loanne had a voice in her head, courtesy from the being in black that was hiding somewhere within her. Him- or it- didn't exactly explain the specifics just yet, but it was a leech that fed into the anger it verbally influenced upon Loanne, driving, compelling her to sin for their benefits. No, it said it was for the two of them, but Loanne understood its English; reasons for revenge.
And that's where it warped her from inside.
No one had noticed her yet, but of course they'd be talking about her. The actress who wound up in some tragedy, to be the object of pity. Oh, she hated that- She hated just about everything that one thing brought upon. The delay of her movie, possibly a cancellation. She didn't want to go back to the studio, not even back home, the very same one she shared with Jen. She could see the paparazzi forming there, camping out to await her return. She wouldn't give it to them. Let Loanne Wardell's career die, nothing seemed to have value anymore.
And her parents. Mother and father surely left her a series of phone calls and messages, but why stop there? Who else had been trying to reach Loanne?
She walked towards a parking garage, where Darcy came crashing down right into a red pick-up, caving the roof in. "Whoa!"
"Where do you think he's hiding?" Lemy placed his bandana over his mouth and nose before scoping the landscape with binoculars. "One Lincoln Loud in a city of millions. Where the hell do we start?"
"He won't be long for this world," Lynnette opinionated, "this'll be over soon."
"And then-" He lowered the binoculars and faced her.
"Well... I'm not sure," she shared. "But I'll be there with you, I know that much."
"I'd love it if you were," Lemy let out, getting sappy for her. "You're pretty cool. A zoomer, by my side-"
"Is this you sucking my dick?" Lynnette joked, shoving him. "I don't need you groveling at my feet."
"I- I mean, maybe-" Lemy coughed and tried to brush it off. Nothing subtle or suave about it, either. Pure middle school level cringe.
"No, please continue to shower me in adoration and compliments," Lynnette winked. "Guess I'm just that sexy, huh?"
"Errr..."
"Let's make things clear, you're my slut!"
"How dare!"
"I'm gonna fuck you."
"P-please-" Lemy gagged midway. "I- I like it-"
"Okay, that's enough of the sex talk..." Lynnette pointed down to the streets. "Hey, look down there."
A group of protesters had assembled, coming right into the streets about two blocks wide. Lemy only saw the riot forming, but Lynnette was able to both see and hear from this distance. She heard their cries, their rage and demands for equality and justice for those of her own kind. "What's all that about?"
"I don't know..." Lynnette blinked-
"LYRA!" Lynnette was off, sprinting away from the building that used to be the mint. Only, Lyra had not been right behind her, and when she realized it, she became scared and concerned for the brunette zoomer. "LYRA, IT'S THAT CHANG GIRL AGAIN-"
Lynnette had goofed again and left the inexperienced Lyra to fight the elite force of the Prime Federation. These damned Primers were adamantly set on capturing or killing the Domicile's resistance forces at whatever cost. The Primers were still a number of three yet, but even so... Laika Letenko, Bethany Chang and Lissandra Mercer were deployed specifically for them, which meant they weren't needed anywhere else at the moment. Supposedly it was good for the resistance, no soul had the pain to deal with this headache.
Lynnette did a 180, ascending back to the mint, where then Lyra had come out doing barrel rolls hard, bleeding away on the marble steps. "SIS!"
"You'd all do better to stand down," came Bethany's voice, followed by the ominous appearance of an Asian girl in a black uniform, wielding one katana in both hands. "He doesn't want to kill you just yet, but you make this harder by resisting us."
Lynnette moved and picked Lyra up. "We won't give ourselves up to you-"
"I've given you a choice, but she won't." Right behind Bethany, Lizy came galloping towards her prey on all fours, showing off her morphed reptilian form. "TIME TO EAT!"
Lynnette heaved Lyra from her arms, tossing her back to spare her from this ravenous fate. Lynnette closed her eyes and accepted, in that slow moment where she was truly scared, that death was at the door, coming to collect. All she had to show for it was... Nothing. Nothing in the end, after all that they've come to, gone through, with and without the others they've known.
But the true factor that decided today was not Lynnette Laude's last day on earth was none other than-
Lissandra withdrew back to Bethany after the round burst of a 50. Cal machine gun struck against her skin, snarling lowly. "Not her again..."
"Is it-?" Bethany placed her katana back into her scabbard, eyeing the technical with the mounted weapon. No one had manned it, meaning-
"Yeah, she's here..." Lizy sniffed the air around, detecting a familiar scent. "Grimm Girl is watching."
Lupa wiped the row of cans.
Lynnette bent down to let Lemy ride piggyback. "Hold on tight."
Lyra sat alone, gazing into the lively, but otherwise quiet skyline view of the city.
Lyle and Gloom were both determined to find Lindsey Sweetwater.
Lynn Loud and the phenos were in the midst of breaking out, fighting their captors once the dampening technology was down. Game on.
Leia lightly knocked her head back into the steel door that separated her from Lily. She endured the self-torture, condemning herself to listen to the teenager's weak cries. "I'm sorry, girl..."
Loanne helped Darcy Holmandollar on her feet, curiously drawn to her, wondering how the tan-skinned girl hadn't died from the impact. "Hey, what happened to you? Are you-?"
"My back!" Darcy whined. "Agh!"
Liby and Lacy clapped, applauding Lupa's skills. "Amazing!"
Gwen and Marsha wandered the roads on their own. "She'll come around, I just know it."
"She'd better."
Lindsey Sweetwater, still driven by the Medi-Sin concoction, rampaged through a park, mindlessly wandering about with no clear goal, drooling and growling like the primitive being the serum had reduced her to.
Dylan Blood stared at the monitors, all of them filled with different live broadcasts of news outlets. So far, the fires of the impending chaos had gone burning steadily. His message to the world had been meant to cause the stir, but it was also made to wake the sleeping. All that he had acquired and achieved up to here, a high-stakes gamble he could not afford to lose. In the stir, they'd see the Tacitus Kid as some righteous figure, the person of reason and action. They'd all go on, gunning for the supers, chasing them with stones and sticks, while he alone made his first move onto the Loud clan.
Six Louds from what was implied, including the zoomers, the Superbeast of Dadetown and that main one, that Lincoln Loud. The one that bridged the personal beef back to Dylan. 'Oh, you're all going down..."
The monitors automatically switched from the outlets to various footage of other phenos in real time. Accessed footage of the breakout when Lemy and Lynnette had tried to assassinate the only male Loud. Footage of Lindsey Sweetwater from civilians' phone cameras. A surveillance camera capturing Darcy's fall from the other side of the street. Phenos... Children-
He cocked an eyebrow. What if...?
He looked back outside to the empty hall. Leia Prescott was just the first one he persuaded into the crusade; was it possible he could bring in more? And... Was he about to consider taking phenos in? Could he...
Form my own Patriots?
He smiled.
Yes, I can... And instead of six, why not seven? Seven... Deadly... Medi-Sin Kids?
AN: These specials will now be more connected to the main fic, DBD chapters are no more. On another note, civil wars, here we come. Lastly, PMs temporarily off for now.