The third chapter is here. With the new world in front of them, Gwen and her group will have to face the harsh truth about their situation, and there is no way back. With an uncertain future ahead, what kind of things await our group as they venture into their Second Chances…
Aztec 13: I'm glad you enjoy it
A Few Hours Later…
The past few hours were rough for our group. Waking up directly under the supervision of soldiers and the incredibly high chance that they might have actually jumped 700 years into the future has given a lot of them immense stress. Once the proper preparations were finished, the group were sent onto transport trucks as Blisk didn't have a lot of places for them to be.
We see Gwen sitting down silently in the back of one of the trucks, with a lot of the group crowding the back. She stared at the trees moving by as the transport made its way towards the outpost.
"The future, huh?" Gwen says to herself. "As if I didn't have enough problems from Chris, Scarlet just had to come by and ruin it for absolutely all of us."
Gwen turned to see her companions sitting solemnly, taking in the reality of their situation.
"Like I knew she was heartless, but more than 80 people? That's fucking nuts." Gwen states. "And better yet, why did she leave us here? She couldn't just abandon her work after just three mutations."
As Gwen reaches into her pocket, she feels something pointy inside her pocket. She pulls it out and sees that it was a pencil, drenched in blood that had been dried long ago. Her eyes open wide at this.
"Shit, I keep forgetting to throw this pencil away." Gwen says angrily. "Fuck, I can't even look at it. Well, better late than never. Might as well leave it behind like my old life."
"Shut the fuck up Harold!" Heather yelled.
Annoyed by the interruption, Gwen turns to the yelling, still holding onto the pencil.
"I was just saying, it's entirely possible for us to be in this mess." Harold defended himself.
"I know that! But you have been talking about it for the past 20 minutes!" Heather yelled.
"It's his way of coping, we all have our different ways to cope!" Leshawna yelled.
"Well his coping is getting in the way of mine!" Heather yelled. "You weren't awake while I was risking my ass against the Prowlers!"
"Guys, can you just be quiet? We can dwell on those thoughts once we make it to a safe area." Gwen says.
"And why do you care?! Your sissying when you held that Goliath by the neck could have killed more of us!" Heather yelled.
"I didn't want to kill it. Is that so hard to understand?" Gwen asked.
"So what? If I were the one with mutant strength, I would've killed that thing like how Eva did." Heather says.
Hearing this, Gwen grits her teeth in anger, unknowingly holding her pencil like a dagger.
"Listen, mi amor. I know it would be nice for you to be the one with mutant strength, but don't enojo the one who actually has it." Alejandro had to intervene.
"And who's side are you on?" Heather asked.
"Whichever side wants to get through with this peacefully. Please consider the state of the group if we keep fighting." Alejandro says.
"Ugh, fine. But maybe Harold should keep his ramblings to himself for a change." Heather says.
"That I can do." Harold says.
As the conflict diffused, Gwen calmed down as things went quiet. She then turns to the pencil in her hand, and grasps it tightly.
Chapter 3: Blood And Iron
We then see Emma sitting down in the back of another truck. She looked onto the wave of people around her and noticed their griefed expressions.
"Hmm…" Emma began to go into thought.
"You're already thinking of a plan?" Kitty asked.
"Of course. I'm not gonna sit around and let this group be in a mess." Emma says.
"And you're gonna do that how?" Noah asked. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you've got over 85 people to watch, and that includes Chris, Chef and Don."
"Don's here as well?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah, he's in another truck." Noah says. "But there's also the fact that we don't have anything to our name anymore. No money, no status, no belongings. We're literal nobodies here."
"Maybe we can ask Blisk for help. Even if we are nobodies, that won't stop us from getting help." Emma says.
"Heh, now that's the determination I know from you." Kitty smiles.
"We now know where to start. Once we reach somewhere safe, we can ask Blisk as a start." Noah says.
"Sounds like a plan." Emma says. "For now, let's just ease off the stress, okay?"
"Okay." The other two states.
As the three begin to relax, Emma feels someone lying down on her shoulder. She turns to see Dwayne and Junior. Dwayne was already fast asleep lying down on his son as Junior seemed down.
"Hey, you okay?" Emma asked.
"Oh. No. Not exactly." Junior says. "It's… obvious if you can tell."
"I know. We're on our own now. Any life we've had before has been thrown out the fucking window." Emma says. "And of course, we can never go back to our families, our friends."
"It… hurts…" Junior states. "I mean, I couldn't give a shit about my classmates, but the same could never be said about my mother."
"I understand. Just about all of us here feel pain one way or another." Emma says. "If you want, maybe you can help us manage the group."
"I'll think about it. Thanks." Junior states.
Suddenly, the truck comes to a halt, stopping the escort as a couple soldiers went out and moved to the back of the vehicle. They open a compartment and look into the gauges that are attatched to a large battery.
"Um… what's going on?" Emma asked.
"Hmm. The battery drained faster than usual." A soldier said. "Hey, have you felt any stinging? Like electrical grounding happening in this truck?"
"Ugh no. We felt nothing." Kitty says.
"Hmm. Must've forgotten to charge. Let's get this replaced." The soldier states.
Emma looms over the gauge of the battery's condition, but suddenly, the electrical charge of the battery displayed jumps up to half charge in a split second.
"Huh." The soldier says as he knocks the gauges to make sure it works. "Looks like we still have enough for the convoy."
The soldier closes the access to the gauge and goes back to his seat in the truck.
"Weird how highly trained soldiers forget to charge batteries." Noah says.
"I guess." Emma states.
As Emma turns around, she unknowingly dangles her arm next to where the battery was. Then electricity was seen manifesting between her arm and the battery.
"Huh?!" The driver of the truck exclaims.
The truck comes to a halt as the battery runs out of charge. The soldier goes out again and checks the gauge.
"Maybe I should check this thing." The soldier says as he taps on the gauge. "We'll just replace the battery."
"This is gonna take forever." Noah rolled his eyes at this.
A Few Minutes Later…
The convoy manages to make its way through the forest and reaches the outpost. The outpost was small, composed of a singular portable orange building made of a polymer. The rest were many white tents and vehicles arranged about.
But something was wrong. Blisk exits the leading truck to see that the outpost had been attacked, with many soldiers unconscious or dead on the floor.
"What the fuck is this, eh?!" Blisk exclaimed. "It's not safe here. Protect the convoy while I figure out what's going on." He ordered.
Hearing this, all the soldiers went out of their vehicles and surrounded the convoy. Noticing the situation, Gwen stood up and looked around the outpost.
"Shit… what happened here?" Gwen asked.
Hearing this comment, her companions also went up and looked around the ransacked facility.
"Whoa. Gnarly." Geoff commented. "In a bad way."
"Should we do something?" Duncan asked.
"Of course not. We aren't even supposed to be within ten miles of this carnage!" Courtney says. "Okay, Gwen. You'll be the one to head out."
"Excuse me?" Gwen asked.
"I agree. Except for Eva, I think none of us can rival your mutant ability." Leshawna says.
"I don't even know what my mutant ability is supposed to be." Gwen says. "I don't want to die as much as you guys. What I say is we should stay here and try not to get in the crossfire of what's going on."
As this went on, we saw Blisk approaching a tent of the outpost and saw a large device with a hologram projector. The device was already broken apart, but Blisk noticed that the data storage was missing.
"Huh?" Blisk states.
He approaches the device, but as he touches it, it still feels warm. He then realised some fresh smoke was coming from it.
"You didn't expect us to return back here for another hour, did ya?" Blisk then asked a question to someone nearby.
Blisk immediately takes out a pistol and points it at a corner of the tent. As he did, a man was seen appearing from thin air, pointing a pistol as well. It was a middle aged man with brown combed hair and a beard. He wore a similar jumpsuit to Blisk, but it was a lot more heavy and specialised for cloaking.
"So this is the infamous Kuben Blisk, huh?" The man asked in a silent but hoarse voice.
"Hmph. And who are you, some newbie?" Blisk asked. "Who are you working for?"
"Whoever is rich enough to hire us to snatch the data from your platoon." The man says. "There are a lot of them out there, so we take advantage of that."
"Us, huh? You work with a group?" Blisk asked. "I don't even care."
Suddenly, Blisk fires a shot at the man, who returns fire. Many shots hit, but are nullified by the kevlar armor as the two jump through the tents to escape the fire.
"He's more focused than I expected." The man says. "Sonya! Activate the EMP!"
As the man got up to continue his firefight with Blisk, we see another figure on top of the central building. A middle aged woman wearing black armor with streaks of purple lines. She had long crimson hair and wore red opaque goggles. She was preparing a large device on the roof of the building.
"Alright, Gus. Now time for the hat trick!" The woman, named Sonya, yelled.
Sonya activates the device, and a large electrical explosion occurs. The wave of electrical energy spread around the outpost, rendering all of the electrical equipment around them scrambled and unusable for the time being.
"What the?!" Gwen exclaimed. "Everybody get down!"
"Light 'em up!" A soldier ordered.
As the group tried to stay in the cover of the trucks, the soldiers began to fire at Sonya, who ducked behind her device to avoid the fire.
"This will make 'em stay put as we escape." Sonya states. "Hey Gus! We've gotten everything we need! Let's book it!"
"Alright! On it!" Gus yells as he takes out a flare gun.
Gus points the flare gun into the sky and fires, sending a flare into the sky.
"What's going on?!" Kitty asked.
The drivers of the trucks try to turn them on, but due to the EMP, the mechanisms wouldn't start.
"We're stuck here?!" Junior asked.
"As if this couldn't get any worse." Noah groans.
As this happened, a large high-tech jet flies above the outpost, and its back opens up so that people can get in.
"And things got worse." Noah states.
Kitty slaps Noah upon hearing this, and as the group tries to hide in cover as they figure out what was going on, nobody notices pieces of metal floating near Emma.
Guns on the back of the jet begin firing, shooting around the truck convoy as it tries to fire on Blisk's squadron.
"Activate the shields!" Blisk yelled.
"The EMP has gotten through the systems! The shields won't activate!" A soldier yelled.
As this happened, Emma felt something surging within her hand. She turns to see that her hand is being engulfed with electrical energy..
"What the?!" Emma exclaimed.
The built up electricity shoots downwards into the truck, with the electricity spreading out through the entire truck convoy. After a few seconds, the trucks activate energy dome shields around.
"Whoa! That's convenient!" Kitty exclaimed.
"How is this possible?" Noah exclaimed at the sight of the dome shield.
With the trucks now protected from gunfire, the group loosened up a bit. Except for Emma, who looked at her own arm due to the energy it bursted out.
"Shit! The EMP must've been defective." Sonya exclaimed.
"Sonya! Let's get out of here with the data!" Gus yelled.
"Alright!" Sonya complied.
As the two begin to run to the jet hovering over the ground, Blisk and some of the soldiers begin to fire at the two.
"We've got fire! You know what to do!" Gus says.
Sonya reaches into her armor pouches and takes out a small device that she throws at a truck. The device attaches itself to the truck, and lights up.
"Get behind me!" Gus yelled.
Gus begins to fire his own shots at Blisk's men as Sonya hides behind him. She then activates a hologram interface from her wrists. Suddenly, the truck with the device revs to life and rolls its way towards the soldiers.
"Shit! Look out!" Blisk yelled.
Blisk and some of the soldiers jumped out of the way, but some didn't react on time.
"Alright! I'll jump in." Gwen states.
Gwen jumps out of the truck and uses her shoulder to bash the front of the truck. This didn't damage the truck much, but it managed to stop in its tracks.
"What the?!" Sonya exclaimed.
As Sonya still controlled the truck with her hologram interface to throttle it, Gwen still managed to hold her ground, with her arm and leg muscles beginning to glow blue from her mutant ability.
"Graaaah!" Gwen let out a battle cry as her feet begin to dig into the ground.
"Whoo! Go Gwen!" Owen yelled.
"Let 'em have it, girl!" Leshawna yelled.
As Gwen kept the truck from going any further, she notices the control device on the hood of the truck.
"Eva! Over here!" Gwen says. "There's something here overriding the controls of the truck."
"Okay. I see it." Eva says as she begin to stretch her joints.
As Eva steps out of the truck, Sonya stops the accelerator of the truck, letting Gwen push it forward.
"What the?!" Gwen exclaimed.
Sonya immediately activates the accelerator once again, speeding it up on a still confused Gwen, knocking her backward.
"Oof." Gwen lets out a small puff. "Eva! The device!"
As the truck moved forward, Eva rips the hood from the truck, disconnecting the device from the truck's systems.
"Good. Now this thing won't cause anymore trouble." Eva says. "Now."
"Alright." Gwen says as she returns to the front of the truck. "Return to sender!"
The two push the truck away from them with enourmous energy mostly from Gwen, sending the vehicle tumbling forward to the mercenaries.
"I think now's a good time to hop on the jet." Sonya states.
"Agreed." Gus says.
The two mercenaries dodge the incoming vehicle, and headed straight for the jet. The two board the jet as the soldiers begin to fire at it with their guns.
"Get us out of here, Bruce." Gus says to the pilot.
Gus turns to the group and stares at Gwen, with her glowing blue strength still being apparant. Gwen notices his gaze and frowns at him.
The back entrance to the jet closes as the jet flies away from the outpost. As the heat died down, Blisk looked around the outpost to look at the damage the mercenaries had done.
"What was that?!" Gwen asked.
"Seems to be mercenaries. They took private data from us." Blisk says. "Looks like we have to part ways for now. Some of my men will continue to escort you to the nearest settlement while I try to track these guys down."
"Hmm. Well at least trouble will be attracted to you rather than us." Heather states. "It's a nice trade-off."
"Well. Okay. But once you reach the settlement, there is something you should know." Blisk explains. "My men will explain it to you there."
"Oh. Alright." Emma says. "But aren't these guys dangerous?"
"I've handled worse. Now if you excuse me, I have to collect the dog tags of my dead men here." Blisk says.
As the escort prepares new batteries, Gwen walks to where the jet hovered over the ground to let Gus and Sonya escape.
"Mercenaries, huh?" Gwen asked herself. "These guys seem well coordinated."
Gwen looks to the ground and sees a necklace on the floor. She kneels to see that the ornament was of two bullets, who have seemed to collide against each other.
"A necklace… they seemed to have left this on the floor." Gwen states. "Well, it's now mine. Better than to leave this thing in a warzone."
Gwen grabs the necklace and walks to the truck convoy, who have already replaced the batteries and are ready to go.
We then cut to the inside of the jet, where Gus and Sonya were recovering from their blitz. The pilot was seen in the cockpit. It was a middle aged man, with a large build and barrel-like chest. He had a red jacket over gray armor, and jeans. He had a red and white helmet covering his hair, and he had blue eyes.
"Man, what a rush back there, wasn't it?" The pilot, named Bruce, asked
"Why weren't you using your machine guns on those guys?" Sonya asked.
"I used them all up on the initial attack." Bruce says. "It wasn't my fault Blisk's squadron came early."
"Enough bickering you two. Let's get the data to our client." Gus says.
As the two calmed down, Gus goes on to check a notepad of his contacts. He tries to look for something in it.
"Say, remember the guys that worked on human genetics? The ones who asked us to find samples before?" Gus asked.
"The Feuerstien Brothers?" Sonya asked. "Didn't we decline that request?"
"Yeah. I remember them. Their demands were way too restrictive for my taste." Bruce states. "Do you think they have loosened their demands?"
"I don't know, but I don't think it needs to." Gus says. "I have found a new target."
"Really? Who?" Sonya asked.
"Do you remember just a few minutes ago? When you tried to use the truck to run those bastards over?" Gus asked.
"Yeah. That girl somehow stopped it in its tracks." Sonya recalls the event. "Wait… are you saying…"
"Yes. There is something special about that girl." Gus says. "She is something more than human. Her overwhelming strength says it all to me. She is a mutant."
"You're saying you found a mutant?! Here?! On Earth?!" Bruce asked.
"Yes. And if we find a way to capture her, the Feuerstien Brothers will pay us handsomely." Gus says. "Now contact LS. He needs to know about this."
We then came back to the truck escort as it continued its way through the forest. We see Emma, Noah and Kitty near the back.
"That was a setback." Noah says.
"How so?" Kitty asked.
"Well other than the attack, Blisk broke off to find those mercenaries. We can't ask him for advice when he's goodness knows how far." Noah states. "This is getting harder by the minute. What do you think, Emma?"
But Emma was spacing out, staring at her hand. She didn't know what to make of it, but she knew she shot out electricity a while ago.
"Um. Sis?" Kitty asked. "Whatcha doing?"
"Hmm? Oh. Nothing." Emma sighs. "I've just been… shaken up by what happened."
"Yeah, like who wouldn't." Kitty states. "But you're the last person I expect to be spacing out at a time like this. Something wrong?"
"Is it about that encounter we had with the mercenaries?" Noah asked.
"No. Not exactly." Emma states. "You guys seem to have forgotten the fact that some of us might not even be human right now. Even if we have a sliver of a chance, does it not worry you?"
"Hmm. I never actually thought about that." Noah says. "Good point though. It's hard to think about."
"But still. As long as you've got the spirit and resolve of a human, you're still one." Kitty says.
"You have a point there, Kit." Emma states. "Let's just hope whoever else is a mutant understands that."
And that's it folks. The third and shortest chapter of Second Chances: Rewritten. With stuff happening around them, the group will have to find a way to adapt to the indifference around them, all the while Emma of all people makes the revelation of her being a mutant, this will get interesting from here.