Skai

The Darkest Minds Never Fade in the Afterlight

First post coming up! I'm assuming that they weren't separated into colors before they were put into cabins. If they were, let me know and I will adjust the ending accordingly.

The Promise - Second Star to the Right, and Straight on 'til Morning.

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Staying upright was getting harder and harder. Eli could feel the blood trickling down her sleeve. It wasn't bad. It wasn't her main concern. It was the growing pool under her leg that worried her. She found herself staring into it, where the edges were getting closer and closer to the blood that flowed much faster from the terrorist. She didn't dare look at his face. She was sure that the same expression of shock remained. His eyes were blank and lifeless. She killed him. He killed plenty of others, and almost herself, but she still killed him. It was an accident, right? She wasn't sure if she'd meant to shoot him or not. Does it matter?

Eli's dazed state was interrupted as she felt a presence at her side. She turned her head, the hand that held the gun twitched, but it was only Keaton. She would have felt relief if it weren't for the gaping hole in her calf. Keaton was here. She was okay, for the most part. Her voice shook- her hands shook as they reached for Eli. Eli could feel her fear, but she was too numb to relate. Keaton told the girl to help and lifted Eli's arm around her shoulders. Eli felt her friend's body tense, and her eyes drifted towards the bloody spot on her denim jacket. She didn't want to move. It was going to hurt. She wanted to sit here with her gun, and wait for The Promise staff to finally come to the rescue.

She didn't protest as the shaky girls lifted her, but as her grazed arm wrapped around the younger girl's shoulder Eli hissed through her teeth. The pain rippled down her shoulder and spine, and joined her dead-weight leg. She heard herself whimper, but her focus was on the gun. She couldn't waste a bullet by a slip of her finger. She also didn't want to shoot Keaton or the girl on accident, or hit another barely-alive student among the bodies. It was just there for the men in masks.

Eli saw the other man in the room regain his senses. I have to kill him too. She thought, but before she could raise the arm that held the weapon, Keaton was gone. Her good leg was shaky, but it did a hell of a better job than the other at the moment. The younger girl looked like she wanted to run. Eli's focus was on Keaton, but she did her best to move with the girl towards the cafeteria. As expected, the pain was much worse moving than sitting still. The girl couldn't hold her up on her own. Eli had to tear her eyes from Keaton's armed figure to focus on walking. If it was even considered walking. Without Keaton's support, Eli was forced to take every other step with her left leg to stay balanced. It took as much strength to put weight on the leg as it did to step over the lifeless students that littered the loading bay.

They were moving too slow. It hurt too much. It took every ounce of Eli's willpower to keep going, even though she could still hear gunfire from the cafeteria. Were they even heading towards safety? Was she leading this girl in the right direction? They were close to the large hallway, but Eli took a moment to look back for Keaton. She'd lost her. The gunman was dead, but Keaton was nowhere to be seen.

That was when she saw Archie...

Eli could see his body writhing. Was he dying? She stopped moving completely, much to the young girl's dismay. The girl was saying something to her, but she didn't hear it. Her eyes were transfixed on Archie's contorting body. She suddenly thought of his heart monitor, which disappeared after the homecoming party. She heard his voice in her mind. Saw his sheepish smile on his innocent face. "I'm Archie. Archie Anderson... The doctors back home said I gots a condition and all."

She knew that heart monitors were only given to those with certain dangerous conditions. What her eyes were seeing now was completely different than what she had in mind. The grotesque scene of flesh that melted off of his body, the bones that threatened to burst from his morphing skin- that wasn't what Eli envisioned. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped. Every cell in her body was screaming to run, but she was frozen in place. The monster's roar shook their bodies and rang in Eli's ears as the girl next to her shrieked. Eli pushed her away, but her eyes never left the sight before her. "Run," she breathed. She knew that the girl's best chance of survival was to go on without her. Eli heard her terrified whimpers as the girl stumbled across bodies behind her. Towards whatever was waiting them in the cafeteria.

Standing alone now, the monster that took Archie's place distracted by the few Silent Court members that remained, Eli painfully made her way to the wall. Adrenaline fueled every step and hobble it took to get there. Her heartbeat was loud in her chest as she heard the horrible noises behind her. She grunted as she finally rested her shoulder against solid concrete. The weight off of her body was finally off of her leg. She wasn't sure how she was going to move any further. She didn't want to move any further. She needed to find Keaton. Before whatever Archie had become found her first.

"Keaton!!" She shouted over the screaming of the last gunman that remained with them. She could see the lizard shaking his body like a crocodile with its prey. "Keaton, please!" The desperation was clear in her voice.

The explosion rocked the room. She cowered against the wall, her arm coming up to shield her face of the blood and flesh that pelted her side. Every sound was muffled for a few moments, but Eli felt the ground at her feet shudder. As if an earthquake had rattled the station. Eli had to brace herself against the wall to keep from collapsing. She slowly lowered her arm, her eyes squinting into what remained of the room. Keaton... Where's Keaton?

She didn't see Keaton. Her blood went cold. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she felt panic seeping into her soul. Archie. He-it laid no more than a few meters away from her. Like a sleeping dragon, his body shifted as he regained his senses. The explosion tore his jaw apart, and Eli looked on with utter terror as she saw his open and bloody maw turn towards her. Her wide eyes met the eyes of a predator. She saw him glance between Keaton, the girl, and herself. She couldn't let him hurt them.

The monster released a garbled roar, spattering blood on Eli's face as she cowered. Bits of charred flesh landed at her feet and bounced against her bloody boot. Eli trembled before the massive beast, and her eyes swelled with tears as she thought of the awkward boy she met in the mall.

"Archie?" She choked, her voice painfully tight.

It lunged towards her, covering ground faster than Eli could ever expect. She could see the intent to kill in it's large eyes. As Eli stared at the face of certain death, she could only think of what used to be her friend. She shut her eyes tightly, doing the only thing she could think of in this moment. Her body cowered, but her mind was acting. She pictured the sweet boy that Archie once was in her mind and projected it into the monster's vision. Her body was shaking, but the picture was clear in both of their heads. She thought of Archie's warmth that night, when he'd been there to hold her while Radvi bled out before them. The monster would feel it too. The blurred vision of Archie's face as he carried her to the hospital. So focused and determined. Of that far away gaze he had on his face when she first spotted him outside of Panda Express.

She wasn't sure if it would help him, or even stop the monster from tearing into her. She just didn't want to die seeing Archie like this. This wasn't him. Not really. Just another unfortunate side effect of the shitty world they lived in. She could hear it drawing close, but no matter how scared she felt, she kept the image of the real Archie in their heads.

"Archie, please."

The Darkest Minds Never Fade in the Afterlight

Okay, so here's my thoughts

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@alexfangtalon

Alex - Alyssa will definitely respect him for being brutally honest. She relates to him because he is another yellow, too. If he's ever tried to put smiles on others faces she'd have noticed. Maybe smiled on her own, from afar. She gets that he's usually a loner, so she wouldn't approach him unless she absolutely had to. If they were near each other, she probably would have at least made light conversation. They could have even tried cheering each other up at some point until the silence returned.

Mackie - Alyssa would probably have had many conversations with Mackie if the latter had approached her first. Alyssa would laugh when Mackie teased her, and joke with her too. I feel like Alyssa would consider Mackie a friend because of Mackie's social confidence. She may even admire her positive attitude. Mackie would be the friend Alyssa wished she had all along. She'd never admit it, though.

@Always

Harper - Although Harper may feel that way about her, Alyssa wouldn't feel the same. She probably thinks that Harper always gets her way, and is easily angered by the word "no". She probably thinks she has qualities similar to how you described Harper in her personality. She's just unaware of the underlying reasons. They've definitely had a few misunderstandings, but Alyssa has no harsh feelings towards her. She assumes its because of the stress that they're all under.

@morbidity

Min-a - I absolutely love the idea of Min-a and Alyssa dishing about the guards and camp while in solitary. That could be their first conversation with each other. After that, Alyssa would definitely be there to back Min-a up if she needed it. She agrees that they should stand up for the kids who can't defend themselves. I think Min-a has the best chance of being Alyssa's closest ally at the camp. Alyssa thinks she's smart when it comes to messing with the guards, so she'd get up to mischief with her any day because she knows it wouldn't cause any serious threat to her safety.

@AelitaJezebelle

Sol - Alyssa thinks he's good company, but she isn't sure what his motives are. She's seen him in solitary too, but she didn't say much to him. She sees that he wears his emotions on his sleeves, and admires his optimism. She's a realist, so she may think that he's just trying to dream his way out of this situation.

Sam - If Alyssa has ever seen that Sam is sad, she'd try her best to make little gestures to cheer him up. Like give him the best part of her meal (like an apple or pudding cup if they allow the kids to have them) and just say "I'm not hungry" before walking away. She's impressed by his artistic skills, but she hasn't talked to him about art. If they're allowed to read, he's most likely seen Alyssa somewhere quiet with a book a few times. She doesn't read much, but she'll read to distract herself. She also thinks that he's the smartest at the camp. Maybe even smarter than the guards.

@silvermist1116

Alki - Alyssa doesn't like him much because he is selfish and rude. If she's ever seen him in solitary, she's looked the other way. If he's ever talked to her, she'd be pretty blunt with her words. He'd definitely get under her skin if he tried to, so she tries to avoid him. Her temper is too short to deal with him. He's probably the last person she'd want to be alone around. If he ever tried to deescalate a tense situation she was in with a guard, she might have a shred of respect for him.

@sly13

Chris- Alyssa thinks that they have the same short-tempered attitude. She's seen his kind side, so she can relate to that as well. She wouldn't openly try to get him out of his shell. They're pretty similar to each other, but the fact that he is quiet and she is reserved would keep them from becoming friends.

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Let me know what you think, and if you have anything to add.

The Darkest Minds Never Fade in the Afterlight

Alyssa

Alyssa Barker

_{"Electricity is really just organized lightning."}

Name: Alyssa Jane Barker
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Birthday: 06/07

Appearance

Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'7"

Other: Light freckles dot Alyssa’s nose and cheeks

Personality:

• Observant • Spirited • Courageous •

Alyssa is smart enough to know that she shouldn’t show it. She has a keen attention to detail, and it often gives her an advantage in situations. She keeps to herself because she’s only ever had her father to confide in. Even though her mother has been gone for years, she remains kind and empathic towards most people she meets. It isn’t very obvious at first, but the more she is around someone, the more she cares for them. Now that she’s confronted by the new threat of the government, she’s chosen to be quite brazen towards the guards. Her courage gets her in trouble, but she doesn’t care. She’s determined to find out every weakness the government has and exploit it. No matter how scared she is of the future, she will face it with her chin held high.

Strengths:

• Endurance
• Logistics
• Personal Hype-Woman
• Bullshit Detector

Weaknesses:

• Reserved: bottles up her emotions until they burst from her
• Perfectionist: often pushes herself too far or disappoints herself
• Her emotions affects her control over her ability

Likes:

• Sunny days
• Lightning Storms
• People Watching
• Longboarding
• Music

Dislikes:

• The cold
• Creepy Crawlies
• Bullies
• Being helpless
• People that chew with their mouth open

Fears:

• Small spaces. She's a verified claustrophobic
• Never seeing her father again
• Drowning

Other: Alyssa isn’t the type to look for a fight, but she understands what the government is doing at the camps. She is ready to fight back, and to return to her father.

Power:

Yellow: Alyssa finds it easy to generate electricity from thin air. She is unfazed by tasers or other electric weapons. Normally she is quite good with her ability, but if she is in a heightened emotional state she has a hard time controlling the quantity and direction of the electricity.

Family:

- Thomas Barker - Father - 39 - Alive - Head doctor at the local hospital
- Lynn Barker - Mother - Deceased

History: Born to Lynn and Thomas Barker, Alyssa grew up with an adventurous spirit. Her father, a doctor, encouraged Alyssa to be curious and attentive about the world around her. Her mother, a teacher, taught Alyssa to have a kind and generous heart. They had a happy little family, for a while.

When Alyssa was six years old, her mother was killed in a car accident. Although Alyssa was young, she was still devastated to hear that her mother would never come home again. Her father barely held on, his grief consuming him. For a whole year, he poured himself into his work. Alyssa spent time with friends and babysitters, but she still felt lonely without her parents.

In the next year, her father had a change of heart. He realized how much his daughter needed him, no matter how much she looked like Lynn. He reconnected with his daughter by teaching her how to longboard. Something he’d enjoyed when he was young. Alyssa instantly loved it, and the two became closer than ever.

For the next few years, Alyssa and her father learned to support each other now that her mother wasn’t there to do it. When she was struck with IAAN, they were unaware of the transformation. They both noticed electrical disturbances in the house, but it had a history of issues before. Alyssa began to notice that the electrical problems followed her. She was in denial of her new skill, and she tried to suppress it so that she wouldn't be taken away from her father. After school, she would sneak off to practice in a junkyard nearby. More cases of IAAN struck the town, and people were getting more and more suspicious of the children. Alyssa was caught in the junkyard one day by the owner. She ran home to her father in a panicked state. She was so distraught that every light post on her way home blew. It was the perfect breadcrumb trail for the authorities to follow.

The agents arrived fifteen minutes later. Her father knew that they would come. Alyssa was granted ten painfully short minutes alone with her father to say goodbye. He told her to be brave, and to keep her chin up. They would be together soon. Alyssa knew better than to believe him, but she left with the agents anyways.

Theme Song:

Electric Feel - MGMT
_{She got the current in her hand
Just shock you like you won't believe
Sun in the amazon
With the voltage running through her skin}

The Uncanny X-Babies - Concluded

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Elara

Location: Mojo... world?
Skills: N/A

Elara eyebrows raised a little, her head tilted to the side, and she frowned as she mulled over Bella's comment. She then shrugged. Despite Bella's agitation, Elara thought that this certainly wasn't the worst thing to happen to them. The slug in the chair could have done far worse than return them to youth. At least they didn't look like him- or it. Whatever the thing was.

She also agreed that they should find the others. So, she turned to follow Bella towards the house. As peaceful as it looked, Elara couldn't help but get an eerie feeling as she walked up the steps of the porch. It felt like more of an island in the middle of nowhere, and they'd been dropped off there with no escape boat. What was Spiral and the slug getting at by trapping them here? She thought about the slug's words. 'Did you bring anything useful for me?' Elara frowned once more as she noticed the door was already open.

"It looks like someone beat us inside." She said to Bella before stepping through the threshold.

Once inside, Elara looked over each direction they could take in the house. Her attention was immediately drawn to the room on their left, where she saw smaller versions of the others. She immediately recognized the son of Harrison Snow because of the small bow in his hands. The ginger must have been Evelyn, the blonde was Sapphire, and she assumed that the dark haired girl was Casey. She stepped towards the room, coming up behind Arthur and Evelyn. 'The show must go on! What did that mean? She reached up behind her head to rub the back of her neck as she thought, but her fingers didn't find the scar there. She pulled her hand away, looking a little uneasy. "This is so weird."

The Uncanny X-Babies - Concluded

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Elara

Location: Mojo... world?
Skills: N/A

Elara gasped as she sat straight in the bench. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The last thing she remembered was seeing that... thing. Spiral called it Mojo, but Elara wanted to call it many things. Of course the portal had been a trap that led them to some sort of doom. Wasn't that how it always happened now a days? First, Pryor's illusions. Now, a portal to what seemed like an entirely different dimension. Elara leant forwards to rest her elbows on her knees, and then planted her forehead in her hands as she stared at the ground below.

Except, there was something odd about her view. Her feet dangled a few inches off of the ground. She also noticed that her black running shoes had been replaced with a pair of white converse. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and then her eyes widened. She jumped up from the bench and immediately gave herself a pat down. She was much smaller than before. She wore jeans, a Scooby Doo graphic tee, and a jean jacket. When she pulled her hands back from her younger body, she noticed light pink nail polish on her fingers. "I'm dead. That thing killed me, and now I'm dead." She frowned when she heard how girly her voice sounded.

Now that she'd come to the conclusion that she was back in fifth grade, she turned around in a circle to examine her surroundings. It looked like she was on Earth, but it was odd that there was only one house for miles. The yellow paint and picket fence made it feel like she was in a dream. Her eyes squinted into the horizon and she shielded them from the sun. Nothing. Nada. Just a long, never ending field. "Am I in a dream?" She whispered to herself.

It was then that her eyes fell on the only other person in the area. Another young girl laid under a tree. Elara immediately began to make her way towards her. The blonde looked familiar, and Elara was sure that it was one of the other women that came through the portal with her.

"Uh... Sapphire? Bella... Bella?" She couldn't remember her name. They hadn't exactly introduced themselves before following Spiral through the portal. "It's Elara. I think Spiral has gotten us into a lot of trouble." She pressed her lips together for a moment. Out of all of the million questions that ran through her mind, she found trouble picking which one to ask first. So, she decided on something simple. "Are you okay?"

The Darkest Minds Never Fade in the Afterlight

I will most likely finish my CS this weekend! You may start without me, if you'd like to

The Promise - Second Star to the Right, and Straight on 'til Morning.

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Every reason to be as far away from the welcoming activities slipped out of Eli's mind as she listened to her friends chat. The few times that the four of them had been in the same place together were a strange mix of pleasant exchanges and awful misfortune. Oddly enough Eli was all smiles as she looked at the three of them now. For the first time in what felt like forever, Eli felt as if she could finally enjoy a day in public. Here she was, standing with two increasingly important people in her life and Amelia, whose mischievous grin and witty remarks intrigued Eli. Maybe they could enjoy this bleak day in each other's company.

With a group like this, she knew that there would be plenty of remarks about the way The Promise's staff ran things here. Surely the girls had been aboard long enough to notice a few things about the station. After all, this was the first boarding day since they came to the space boat. The last time any launch pod came to the station, it carried the three of them over. She made a mental note to ask them about what some of her friends were calling the "godzilla fight". All that she remembered hearing of it was that a student turned into a giant lizard and wrecked the cafeteria. It was long due for the dining hall to buy new tables, but she never thought it would happen that way.

Just as she was about to ask them about it, she noticed that the final shuttle's doors were opening. The student greeter entered the pod, but Eli's attention turned to Lynn as she began to speak. Lynn never reached the end of her sentence.

There was suddenly a heavy crack of noise from inside of the last pod. Eli felt the air stale around her, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood tall as she stared at the empty space before the third shuttle. She recognized the sound. She'd heard something similar in the woods at the homecoming party. Right before she'd seen Agent Radvi's face blown apart. Except this sound was louder and more sinister.

They came out of the shuttle like agents of death. Armed to the teeth, dressed like they were going into war, they swarmed the launch bay like bees. Most of the students were already making their way into the cafeteria. That's where they should have been already, but they hadn't had enough time to register it. They didn't even have time to run.

The bullets came at the crowd like tiny rockets. Instant panic set in. Eli felt her body freeze, but her heart beat loud and painfully in her chest. She'd heard about attacks like this on Earth. Articles that described the massacres and mini genocides dotted every parahuman-written news source Eli followed. She could never imagine what those poor parahumans had endured. She'd never wish it upon anyone, nonetheless expect the hate to make its way onto The Promise. But it was here. On the only place she felt safe enough from the people driven by malice. People like the men and women before her, who carelessly sprayed bullets with the intent to kill.

The noise that filled the launch bay overwhelmed all of Eli's senses. Every scream and boom of a rifle melted into one loud symphony of chaos. She cowered as a particularly fortissimo CRACK CRACK CRACK sounded nearby, and as she heard the bullets whiz by her head turned to see them land in Lynn's chest next to her. Another WHIZZ and her head whipped around to see a bullet slice through Amelia's neck in front of her. The shock slowly registered in Eli's expression. Her mouth hung open as if she was choking on air, her neck tensed as if she were about to cry out in terror, and her eyes were already brimming with tears.

For a few seconds, Eli stood amidst the bloody bodies around her. Everything was happening so fast. So many people were falling. Each thud of a body on the launch bay's floor sent another chill down her spine and she trembled. She turned her head to see that Keaton was still standing too, and then noticed that Archie was among the fallen. She looked into his eyes, and they shared a brief moment of shock together before Eli felt as if her left leg was torn from her body.

Eli's cries melted into the noise. She lost sensation in her body for a moment as she overcame the urge to faint. Her unhurt leg wobbled until she knelt onto the ground to relieve it of the weight of her body. The pain quickly returned. A burning sensation so strong that she thought she'd dipped it in lava. She gripped her knee, her body shaking as she looked down at the wound in her calf. The legging covered most of her leg, but she could tell that there was something extremely wrong by the shape of her calf. Blood soaked her legging and dripped onto the floor below.

Eli grimaced at the sight, a strained whine barely making it through her clenched teeth. She doubled over from the pain and hoped that anything would relieve her of this torture. Her nails dug into her leg above the bullet wound. Which unfortunately did nothing to distract her from the overwhelming sensation of fire she felt in her leg. She tried shutting her eyes in an attempt to block out the chaotic world around her, but it didn't work. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the blood. She could look upon every lifeless student on the ground around her. She saw similar images in her dreams, but of the bodies from the breakout. So much blood. So many of her people dead. She screamed into the blood spattered ground before her.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Lynn had crawled over to Amelia. Eli barely registered that Lynn was cauterizing the wound. She could only see the darkening splotches of blood in the back of her hoodie. She'd been shot twice, but she could still move! And here Eli was, completely immobilized from a bullet to the leg. How? How was she so weak in comparison? How could Lynn move on as if she'd only been punched in the chest?

Lynn looked over at her, but before Eli could even sputter out a word or two she saw Lynn's eyes move away. She was still afraid. Just as afraid as Eli felt right now. So, how did she appear so calm? She'd looked the same on homecoming night. Yet she still sprung into action. She still ran into the ravine and put pressure on Radvi's wounds, while Eli grasped at straws in a foolish attempt to capture Arianna. She was jumping into action even now, and Eli could only endure the pain in her leg and watch as more of her people were taken down.

A young girl shrieked to her left and Eli's gaze hazily made its way to look at her. The girl was around the same age that Eli came aboard The Promise. Her dress was covered in blood, but it looked as if she had only been grazed on the cheek. The blood came from the dead students in front of her, and it seemed as if she'd just regained consciousness. The girl's gaze was fixed on the figure walking towards her. A few of the men remained in the launch bay, and Eli realized that they were putting a bullet into anyone that moved in front of them as their fellow terrorists continued into the cafeteria. The girl cowered as the man slowly made his way towards her now. His hands reloaded a handgun as his LMG rested across his back.

Eli looked around her, her eyes searching for anyone or anything that could help them. Where was the robot? Hadn't D been here, just a mere minutes ago? Where's Rad-? She looked back towards Lynn and Amelia, but as her eyes laid themselves on Lynn's slumped figure she was hit with a terrifying feeling of deja vu. Lynn's face was a mangled mess of blood and skin. Just like Radvi's had looked that night. This time there was no Lynn to put pressure on the wound. Instead, Eli watched as Amelia came into view by Lynn. Eli quickly closed her eyes, hoping that Amelia would be able to get Lynn to safety. When she opened them, she saw that they were gone. A few tears trickled down her cheeks as she looked at the spot where Lynn once was.

The girl continued to sob and shriek behind her, and Eli turned to look back at the scene before her. Her heart was racing. The girl was frozen in place, just like Eli had been what felt like ages ago. The attacker was focused on his gun. The magazine had been prepped long before he stepped foot on The Promise. He'd already dropped the empty magazine onto the ground. It clattered to the ground next to the lifeless boy he stepped over. Now he slid the new one into the base of the pistol. With a powerful grip, he snapped it into place and cocked the gun. Eli jumped as she heard the pistol's slide SNAP into place. A second later, the man was a few meters away from the girl. Eli could see the crinkles of pleasure around his eyes as he raised his arm and aimed for her brow.

Ba-dump. . . ba-dump. . . ba-dump. . .

"NOOO!"

Eli shrieked before he could fire, her anger manifesting in every inch of her expression. It felt like a dam of emotions burst from Eli's body. She hadn't felt this scared in her lifetime. She hadn't felt this angry in years. She thought of her murdered friend, Ezekiel; of Radvi and Lynn, who had now been shot in similar ways by similar people. Of every time she'd been hit or thrown to the ground by others that didn't understand her. That knew she was different and targeted her for it. Of all of the times she'd heard of a little girl or boy slaughtered on her way home from school, or families killed at their dining tables for simply being parahuman. All of the grief and frustration she felt for her people came barreling out of her and into the man that held a young girl at gunpoint and any of the other false soldiers that remained in the launch bay.

The man's view of the girl suddenly distorted. The world around him began to spin and warp at unimaginable speeds. An overwhelming wave of nausea struck him like the bullet that struck Lynn in the chest, or Amelia in the neck, or Archie in the shoulder. Or the bullet that missed the girl before him and lodged itself into the wall behind her. Eli continued to scream at them, her pain and anguish fueling the barrage of v e r t i g o that disoriented the few terrorists around her.

Eli continued her onslaught, and while the man felt extremely sick and dizzy, he managed to aim his pistol. It was pointed in the direction of the screaming parahuman, whom he assumed was behind his sudden sickness. He fired twice, both landing in the ground to the left of Eli. Eli's rage had filled her eyes with tears, but through the blur she could tell that he was shooting at her. She could feel the wind of the bullets as the passed by. The sound they made as they connected with the floor or dead bodies behind her. In the back of her mind she was aware that she should be afraid. That she shouldn't have drawn his attention towards her. What else could she have done, though? Sat and watched as he killed the girl? And eventually bit the bullet when he made his way towards herself? No. This was the only action Eli felt like she could take. That she must take.

The man stumbled towards her. Both of his hands gripped the pistol in an attempt to steady it, but the vertigo made it feel like up was down. Like left was right. At least three or four, he couldn’t tell, of Eli swam in his vision as he snarled in frustration. He fired again, and again. The first bullet whipped past Eli’s shoulder and hit the ground behind her, her hair tousled by the wind of it. The second grazed her left arm.

Eli yelped, the momentary shock of pain halting her illusions for a moment. She reached up to grip her arm, while the man slowly steadied his pistol as his vision regain normalcy. Eli looked back up at him, her face contorted in anguish. He couldn’t win. She wasn’t going to become one of the thousand children that never returned to Earth. She wouldn’t accept this death. Certainly not from a man who fired at defenseless kids.

Just as the man’s aim gained stability, the barrel pointed directly at the forehead, Eli regained focus. Suddenly, the view of the frightened girl in front of the gunman slowly faded to black. At first he wasn't frightened. He'd killed in the dark before. He could still feel-... the trigger? The warm metal of the handgun vanished into thin air. In fact, he couldn't even feel the ground under his feet. He... he couldn't feel anything. He knew his arms were moving, and there was a soft pressure on his body where he placed his hands, but he couldn't feel the sensation of cloth to skin. He could only hear the distant gunfire, the clank of metal hitting concrete, and the heavy breathing of the girl. He suddenly realized that he'd misplaced his gun. Anger consumed him as he heard her scramble for something on the ground between them. The feeling of the charged air returned to his fingers, and he grinned as he felt the solid floor of The Promise beneath his feet. She was weak. He could still crush her even as a blind, weaponless man. With a roar, he flung himself in her direction.

Eli hadn't expected the man to lunge for her. She'd been too busy fumbling with the gun. Her shaky hands weren't trained to hold a weapon like this, and it was hard to focus on the terrorist as well as the task of gripping the gun the right way. She hadn't even realized that he'd regained the feeling in his toes. His body crashed into hers, his knee momentarily connecting with her bloody calf. Pain rippled up her leg and it came out of her throat as a pained whimper. His hands were grasping at her as they fell to the ground. One found her hair and held on tightly, the other pushing her throat downwards with force. Her head connected with the floor just as her finger found the trigger. In her shock, she squeezed.

They both froze. As the gunman's eyes regained their vision, he was numbly staring into Eli's brown eyes. They were widening in terror, the reality of their brief tussle dawning on her as she felt the gun that was pressed between their bodies slowly become coated in warm ooze. The gun had fired, directly into the man's ribcage. He coughed and sputtered, blood spattering Eli's face as she flinched. His grip in her hair slacked, and as Eli opened her eyes she saw him fall off of her onto his side. They both trembled next to each other. Eli stared at the ceiling as she listened to the man take his last few ragged breaths.

Her calf burned like the sun. Her head felt sore against the concrete. Her left arm was tight and she felt blood trickling down her sleeve. The gunfire in the distance was growing less frequent. Was it over? Eli wanted it to be over. She wanted to be back in Arizona. With the warm sun shining on her face. She wanted to be back in her room watching cheesy movies with Keaton.

"Keaton..." She croaked, realizing that she hadn't seen her friend in the melee of violence since she'd been shot. She turned her head to look for her, her eyes brimming with tears as she grew worried for her friend. "Keaton!?" She dug her elbow in the ground below her, grunting as she tried to sit herself up again. Someone was suddenly next to her and Eli cowered, but it was only the girl from before. She was sobbing and reaching for Eli to embrace her. Eli felt her heart break into pieces as she listened to her repeat the words "thank you" over and over until she pulled away to catch her breath. Eli could only offer the girl a shaky smile. "It's alright, now," she murmured, yet she kept her hands firmly wrapped around the handgun.

The Darkest Minds Never Fade in the Afterlight

I’ll be working on a character tonight!

The Uncanny X-Babies - Concluded

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Vertigo

Location: Sisterhood Base
Skills: Sensation Negation/Sensory Deprivation

Deathstrikes words did nothing to affect Elara. She wasn't afraid of the woman in cuffs, no matter how sharp those claws looked. In fact, Elara only glanced at her and shrugged in response. Her head turned to look at the woman with cryokinesis. Sapphire. She remembered Gardner-no, Wyngarde, speak of her. So, the man that was now pinned to the floor was the "dead" teammate. The reason they were all sent here in the first place. Her eyes returned to him and she wondered if he could still be under Pryor's influence even if she was unconscious. She frowned and looked back at the unconscious woman in red. She was a powerful enemy. Elara felt like she'd have to watch her back for the rest of her life if this woman was alive.

Sapphire moved to essentially cauterize Arthur's wounds with ice, and Elara felt like she should help him as well. Before she could act on her empathy, Spiral appeared from a portal in the room. Elara eyed the woman with suspicion. She'd been helpful earlier, although Elara was still upset that she hadn't seen through the illusions. She would have to keep her guard up in the future so that it wouldn't happen again. Elara looked around at her colleagues as she listened to Spiral's words. Would they trust Spiral? Could she trust her?

Watts spoke, and Elara looked him over. He didn't look well, but he did make some points. Of course Serval wasn't safe anymore. How many other employees were under Pryor or Wyngarde's influence? She frowned as Arthur continued to barrage the red woman's body with explosives. His pain and anger had control of him. As unhealthy of a coping mechanism it was to enact revenge on his father's murderer, she couldn't help but think that he had a reason to hate the woman. Watt's then collapsed, and Elara decided that she was more helpful as a medic than a guard for Deathstrike at the moment. She focused her ability on the two men, Arthur and Watts, and made her attempt to remove their sensation of pain. Arthur, at first, was difficult to influence, but she felt relief as she successfully stopped him from feeling the pain of his wounds. With Watts, she was only able to relieve a small amount of pain from his chest. Whatever was happening with him was beyond her capabilities.

With that taken care of, she looked back to Spiral. As much as she didn’t want to trust her, it seemed like they’d have to. The injured needed almost immediate care. If the others chose to go with Spiral, she would follow too. If she attacked the moment they went through, they were capable of holding her off. Evelyn’s question also intrigued Elara. What was her motive by helping them?