"No, this is just how I look on a daily basis." She said. "No caffeine since the finals." "Good for you." He mumbled and glanced at the filthy blankets. He sorted them out and got a whiff of vomit. Maks rolled a young girl in a white hospital gown to the kid's ward. Her hair was shaved off but she had to make do with red curly hair and a woollen beanie. "I hate it here." She said in a raspy voice that reminded him of Jessica when she didn't get enough sleep.She fumbled with her black jacket."It's for your own good." He said drily, pushing the door open. The kids played Spartans and she shrunk in her chair as if she were being sent to her death bed instead. "I'd like to see my parents now. This place smells funny." She self-sabotaged. "Do you complain about everything?""No, only just about the things I don't like.""Would you like friends?""I don't have any." She murmured. "I got sidelined a lot."He swallowed. "I'm sure they're nice. They could use a new team-mate."She flashed
Hypnos grinned when his limbs were starting to feel like jello. He felt like he was walking through quicksand. He staggered and the world around him blurred out. He felt like he was on a rocky ship trying to find his sea-legs without his system. Maks had been doing this for what felt like hours, non-stop, and he was so strained and tired that he would have stopped thinking altogether. He was almost forced to go on autopilot. Maks studied Hypnos for a long time while he fought the Leopard-Man. In combat, he barely even let The Leopard-Man touch him. He just let him try to hurt him until he was used up. Without his powers, he tired his victims out by trying to bring them into submission.His power worked on a higher frequency now. He saw a vision of Tucker calling Doreen about his dad getting a mild stroke at their work station. She was in the living room at the time and she looked distraught."This can't be true, are you sure?" She said."Stay still, doctor's orders." Hypnos grinned wh
He checked the package and brought up a brand-new tablet and grinned. "Wooo!"[ How would you rate your experience without powers? ] He was virtually sweating when he inputted his answer to the system's satisfaction. [ Ask later ][ What's my package? ][...]... Melvin walked in from the gym with a duffel bag and he downed a water bottle. He had a gut feeling that something was stalking him and he didn't know what it was. He turned to look and there were just denizens going about their business. Maybe he was in over his head. Meanwhile, Elvis watched him toil undetected and he marched into the gym where an obese guy tried to figure out the buttons on the treadmill. He tapped it and the belt began to roll. "Oh, thanks." Melvin gave a thumbs up and checked the mirrors. He had not slept in two nights on shifts. He decided to busy himself on a treadmill, going one mile, the numbers recorded. He huffed and puffed running. "I really let myself go." He said to himself as his knees beg
He steered away from that direction and honked at the traffic. Jessica's teacher stood outside arms folded and she hurried to the car. "Jessica!" Her teacher called."How was school?" Jessica turned to him and bit his arm. "What took you so long?" She said and climbed in. He started the car with bite marks on his hand and drove her home. Checking the time. 4:05pm.The package was tucked safely in his bag. Melvin blew a breath, he should have asked him to pick up a gallon of oil on the way. A man watched him from a bush and cocked his gun.... Maks frowned, he couldn't play the fall guy, the fact that the package had to be delivered at five in the evening was horrendous. Her number was still not going. What if she was in some kind of scrape with the police? The man in the picture did not look trustworthy. His name was Alfonzo. He rolled his eyes, this was far too different from monsters, this was his mother he was talking about, if he sent the package to the receiver, then he
To...clear my prison record if I brought proof, led them on a false trail. Besides, it's not the...first time I've been held at gunpoint.""And it certainly won't be the last."They glared at Fred and he clamped up."So you've worked with Reagan before and you were okay with this." He was beginning to have one hell of a rude awakening. "Rigan. Hard to get by when you're a convict." She said while the paramedic took out a metal plate from her back with a skeptical look on his face. "You owe me." Fred said pointing at her. "Until I got shot.""I'm just glad that you're not going back to your old life of crime." "What made you think that?" Emily said smiling. He looked wild at that while the staff reeled her into another ambulance. "Please don't tell your father, pretend this never happened and go home." "I'll come...visit."... He drove home and he set the window wipers in motion at the wind blowing sand his way. He waited through traffic and parked, he gazed at Doreen contendi
The wind blew and blew until six p.m. and people with sandy blight in their eyes jumped with relief, as soon as the wind stopped. The wheezing of trumpets died down as the band retired. Spectators made their way to the tallest building. The sand rolled as the wind picked up again. [ Anomaly Detected ] He watched the long line of people eager to have a closer look from the top of the building. The sky was dimming. His system was chiming, he had to keep a lookout. There was a vessel anchored on the still waters, the captain listened to his lieutenant talking about some techie named Francis Flair. He stared grimly at the man in his early teens. "You're kidding." He said in a baritone voice at the young man. Francis beamed at him, he always liked it when they stared. "We have a sufficient batch of gunpowder and an automatically set timer. The flames will go off. The viewers will be impressed with my new and improved pyro technology, compared to the blustering fiasco on the Ch
The sand engulfed him, densed around him and dragged him out the mess hall, he fell face flat and looked up at the fallen men, others groaning at sand blights in their eyes. Granula gazed at him. She grunted and cocked her head to the firework devices. "Disarm." She said in a gravely voice. Francis Flair swallowed pulling back when she made herself look big. Her features changed even when he tried to focus and make out something out of her.Her order resounded. "I can't! It's set to blow up in...two minutes." She growled and extended her arms to shoot him off the boat. There were twenty devices and they were very dense. He landed on the boat with the head of an eagle, body of a lion. The Chimera Program's upgraded package. He dumped Francis who looked scared to death on the deck paddling away from him. Apparently all the Nian Shou were missing in action, they thought that he was one of their own. Telling by his qi energy, she could see through his tricks.Granula shot sand at him
"What?" She didn't know whether to feel relieved or to get angry when they laughed. "You're letting me go?"He took off his police cap. "Of course not, anyone who sets up sound equipment that efficiently deserves a place on Cadence. And you're delightful." Ben winked. Victor looked perplexed. "What?" "Stone, you'll get in trouble with the media if you don't cop on." "I'm sorry, Mark, that was just too good.""Cadence?" Artemis said. "So you're just a couple of low lives with no principles and nothing better to do?" Artemis braced her hands on her hips. "Whoa there. It's a gimmick." Ben said."We're trying to sell It." The third guy chimed in."On Independence Day." Mark added."Sell it? Gimmick?" Irma said re-registering their words. She brushed her eyes. "We apologize for our misdemeanour. We'd like to make you an offer to be our cover girl. You know for marketing and stuff?" "No pressure." The brown-haired guy passed her a flyer. "We'll leave you with our contacts. We'll be t