Bloodwrath

[Sairen]

The air was crisp while the sun shinned high above with a few clouds here and there. Casting its shadows against the hard concrete while people hurried across it. It was a bit warmer than usual, but Aden enjoyed days like these. Where the sounds of cars honking, rings of doors opening and the occasional laughter of a group of teens would fill the air. Sadly he couldn't enjoy this rush since he was quite busy at work.

Aden had managed to get a small job at a diner. A job that was hard to get considering the fact he was apart of the minority. Others hated people like Aden yet it wasn't his choice. It was never a choice, but the majority could care less. With that there was only but a few places who were willing to hire and the only job the diner was offering was the dishwasher. Sure it wasn't an ideal job, but it meant a little pocket change instead of nothing. Aden did his best to be good while he worked. Doing every task they may ask of him. Even if it meant being yelled at ninety-five percent of the time. Usually he just ignored the yelling and just did his job.

The boy was doing his best this afternoon considering he had awaken just a few days ago. Aden had no idea how his ability worked or what it did but for now he kept it to himself and continued washing dishes. By time the newest batch of dirty plates came he was out of dish washing liquid. He quickly dried his hands off on his apron and went to the back. While looking for the soap he needed Aden had passed the fuse box and his body sucked the electricity out of it. Lights went out, the air conditioner had stopped and the kitchen was as a screeching halt.

Commotion from the front made the young boy come out to see what was wrong. The staff was busy looking for a new breaker to put in the fuse box. They were complaining it happened often only because the diner was old and needed a new fuse box. While everyone was out of the kitchen he went ahead and put the plates away for the cooks. "Aden, turn off the stoves. They're gas and I don't want the place to be filled with it." The cook had told him. Like any worker would do Aden did as he was told and went to turn off the gas stove. Except his body had other plans and a large spark came from his hand when he got too close to the range. A large plume of fire torched the ceiling and sent Aden falling back. All he could see was fire eating away at the ceiling and walls in the kitchen. All of the grease and dirt on the walls and shelves only allowed it to spread faster. The fire alarm rang as smoke started to fill the building and everyone was scrambling out of the building. Except for the cook and the owner tried to stop the fire. Aden managed to crawl out of there with his hand in tack, but could see the building being swallowed by the flames. Sirens wailed in the distance as firemen, ambulances, and cops came onto the scene.

 

[Ruko]

Hiyomi was sat in a small diner in a rather less well-known district of the city. She was still completely obsessed with her ability, even though she had awoken almost 2 weeks ago. She was sat in the corner, idly throwing a small bouncy ball up in the air. When it was about halfway at full height, she would activate her ability, move the ball, then release and watch it continue upwards on it's altered path. She had wondered if this could be a way of simulating teleportation, but after searching the ability database she knew it wouldn't work. Her ability preserved everything that was affecting the item during teleportation, so if the object was already moving, it would continue moving in the same direction after casting and releasing her "seal" (as she referred to it), whereas teleportation resets the values, so teleporting the object while it was moving would have it simply fall to the floor when it finished teleporting. She had been practicing with it whenever she got the chance, so she had become quite adept at figuring out how something wass going to move when time was resumed.

She had just caught the ball again when the fire alarm started to ring. There had been several reports of high levels using the outer areas of the city to test their abilities on each other, so she instantly assumed that the building had been caught in the crossfire in one of these matches. She calmly began to exit the building, knowing that if the worst happened, she could probably pause time for long enough to push through the small crowd and use them as a kind of shield. Upon being outside, she noticed a boy wearing clothes that would suggest he worked in the diner. He wore a kind of startled expression, and his eyes showed the pain and distrust that meant he was a level 0. At the same time though, they hid something else - the look of guilt and unease she had become all too familiar with when she looked in the mirror. She liked to think she had learnt how to control these feelings, but she wasn't really sure she had.

She walked over to the boy. "Hey. You OK?" She spoke softly, like she always did. "You've used an artificial awakening method, haven't you?"

 

[Ray C]

Daisuke was brooding. Even the people at nearby tables could feel the dark aura hanging over him. He was angry: angry at the slow service; angry at the bland menu; angry at the noisy patrons and the overly-cheerful waitress; angry at the entire, stupid city; but most of all Daisuke was angry at those frauds who said they could give him a power. Well, they'd whacked him, jabbed him, zapped him, and baked him, but nothing--nothing!--had changed. Daisuke was still the same as when he woke up that morning: a level 0. A sub-citizen. A Broken.

Finally the smiley waitress brought out his food. For one brief moment, Daisuke stopped hating the world; then the fire alarm went off. Everyone had to evacuate. Daisuke looked at his food, looked at the evacuating patrons, and decided he would be the last one out the door. Itadakimasu. Daisuke shoveled down three bites of food when that annoyingly happy waitress appeared above him. Her smile was gone, replaced with a reproving glare--the kind that mothers used to say, "You know you aren't supposed to be doing that." Daisuke tried to ignore her and finish his meal.

The woman would have none of that. She lifted Daisuke by one arm and dragged him out the door. Daisuke tried desperately to escape her and reclaim his food, but (to his utter humiliation) the waitress was bigger and stronger than Daisuke. He was manhandled out the door before she finally let go. He tried to dart around her and get back in, but crashed headfirst into a barrier that a certain someone had set up in front of the door. Daisuke turned around and glared at the waitress. She must feel so smug, Daisuke thought.

He pushed his way through the crowd. He gave up on the forceful exit after two feet, switching to unhappily weaving through. The late lunch he'd wanted was ruined, he'd been manhandled by a girl, and he didn't have any ability. In short, life sucked. Life had sucked every day since...

Daisuke clamped his eyes shut, clenched his fists, and banished the thought with a mental roar. He let that rage play out for several seconds, making sure the thought wouldn't come back. Finally Daisuke relaxed and opened his eyes--just in time to see that the person he was walking into wore a dishwasher's apron. If Daisuke's life didn't suck, it might have gone like: the two topple over, Daisuke somehow landing on bottom, then he looks up to see a cute girl sitting on top of him. Instead, Daisuke crashed into a boy and just bounced off, landing on his butt without so much as budging the dishwasher.

"Ouch," Daisuke stated flatly, looking up at the boy. He was tall, and had long, black hair that split at all the ends. Standing on the other side of him, and apparently interrupted by Daisuke, was a small girl wearing a middle school uniform. A middle school he recognized, oddly enough; it was the one associated with his high school. It was the middle school he had graduated from. Hooray for crazy coincidences, Daisuke thought with dripping sarcasm. The girl didn't matter; it was the boy he'd bumped into. He was supposed to say something after running into a person. "Give me a hand?" he asked, reaching up for a lift. Like he would say 'sorry' for that.

 

[Sairen]

Aden stayed a bit far off from the scene, since he really didn't like how it was looking. Cops were keeping the civilians away from the scene while the firefighters did their jobs. They had managed to get the owner and cook who tried to save their place from a fiery death. The two didn't look happy which only made him feel worse about what happened. He didn't want any of that happen, but he barely had any control over his ability. That was his fault on his part.

While the boy was deep in thought he was approached by a girl. She had medium length brown hair, large brown eyes and a soft face. "I'm fine but I don't think the owner will be." He said with a light accent. What struck him as odd was her question. "Artificial awakening?" He questioned and soon shook his head. Aden has heard about it many times about it sure, but he wasn't the type to use something like that. "You would be crazy if you think I would do somethin' like that. I never wanted this whole thing to begin with." He said. Aden sorta thought it wouldn't cause much problems but seeing a place being burned down didn't help.

Aden needed to start paying attention since someone had walked right into him. "You should probably watch where your walking." He told the boy as he pulled him up. The fire was slowly dying as the firemen did their best to put it out.

 

[Zackymas]

Wind gazed at Vlado as he was just staring at the sky from a building's roof, for some reason, there was flowers growing on a basket, their amazing smell called over Vlado's attention, when he turned his head to observe them, he could immediately note that they were growing at an unusual rate, right in front of him, the flowers petals fell and grown over and over as it the time was passing faster for them. This was the reason why he was taken into this Japanese city. "Retrained Hormonal Retribution", some scientists called Vlado's "ability", he still isn't sure of how it works, but it for sure does. Vlado took out his headset from his backpack before noticing a fire coming from the south, the red flame was taking over a building as he could barely see how the smoke went over the sky as drowning the pure air of the atmosphere.

"Uhm… Maybe I should go and take a look…", Vlado thought as he walked over the stairs to come back onto the streets, he made his way over there walking, when he finally reached the place, it was already over, the firefighters had already turned off the fire, it seemed to be that there was no dead, only some injured, as expected, this city's emergency service is fast and effective, this made Vlado feel somewhat sure because that meant that accidents aren't a "Day to day" thing. Vlado placed his headset over his ears and connected it to his phone, he just put some electronic music and stared at the whole scene.