Around the time Loie started college she connected with Dr. Cleary who'd come to speak at her university. The woman actually happened to be the CEO of Silverwing hospital, and it was beyond her as to how or why what a successful woman such as herself could see something in Loie. Dr. Clearly helped Loie get a job as a medical scribe at her hospital which was great seeing as Loie was a pre-pharmacy student. As exciting as it was, however, Loie knew it was gonna be a difficult and exhausting job. Sometimes success meant hardship. She’d managed to stick with the job for several months at this point, and while she knew she was becoming stronger and smarter, every day was still such a challenge.

Loie woke up at 5am on the dot did her usual early morning routine. Turn on some pretty acoustic music, shower, skin care, wishing she had a pet rabbit and so on. Loie blow dried her strawberry blond hair and smoothed it down to its usually pristine bob before putting on her uniform which consisted of a blue collared shirt and kaki pants that really didn’t do her petite figure any favors. She liked to leave at about 5:30 so that she could stop and journal with a cup of coffee at one of her favorite cafes before arriving around 6:50 just before she needed to get to work.

The day wore on, and Loie was preparing procedural documentation for a patient’s discharge when she felt herself getting lightheaded. She’d been working such long hours the past few days that it had been hard to get enough sleep. That coupled with the consistent paranoia haunting her every step made it nearly impossible to do so. It occurred to her she’d also been skipping meals recently in favor of getting more things done, opting for some espresso to keep her going.

Loie pulled off her glasses and rubbed them on her shirt. She needed to get things together. She wouldn’t be able to do her job properly if she didn’t take care of herself. Lunch break was coming soon, normally she might’ve just continued what she was doing but it was time try and improve. As small of a thing as it was, forcing herself to stop working for a moment and at least get a sandwich was a good step in the right direction.

When the time came, Loie stood up to make her way to the cafeteria. Sweat began to form on her brow from her low blood sugar but she finally made it to her destination and got a sandwich and a drink. Her first swig of soda did wonders. Not that the stuff was necessarily good for you, but it typically balanced her low blood sugar pretty dang quickly.

Loie sat down and ate her sandwich. It should’ve been a time to relax but that was difficult. Throughout the day she kept catching glimpses of the masked man in the corners of her vision. His strangely calm voice echoed in her ears sometimes. All Loie wanted was to be a hard worker, be successful, help others and make her family proud. Why did everything have to go wrong? She was too exhausted to do her job properly, too weak to save anyone and there was nobody to be proud of her anymore.

Loie barely managed to down her last piece of sandwich as she blinked back tears. Her mind wandered back to the strength of the woman she’d met at the festival. If only she could have that kind of power. That kind of confidence. Then she wouldn’t feel like she needed the approval of her family and she’d be strong enough to deal with anyone who messed with her.

Loie marched back to her work space, still battling with circular thoughts. As much as she wanted to be strong, she was worried that if she ever gained the ability to fight for good she would lose her ability to show compassion. She didn’t want to become battle hardened and cruel. There had to be non violent measures she could take to make a difference.

Loie sat back down at her desk and sighed. After finishing up the discharge papers, she stocked up office supplies and time stamped conversations. Getting a proper meal in her stomach actually proved to help her work more efficiently the rest of the day, who would’ve thought?

Eventually the long work day came to an end and Loie trudged back into her apartment in Old Town. She barely had the energy to change into a nightgown before flopping onto her mattress. It was a long and tiring day, but she knew she’d done well.

Fourteen years old.

The boy, shirtless, would fall to his hands and knees, panting heavily as a mixture of sweat and blood leaked from various places on his body. His older brother and superior, One, stood above him, holding a sturdy wooden staff. He was also shirtless, considerably larger in muscle mass and height, and was relatively unscathed in comparison. He was a man with short cut, black hair, and eyes that looked just as black and lifeless.

”Pathetic, Five. Get up. We’re not done yet.” He would say, not having broken a sweat at all. Five remained on the ground, trying to catch his breath as he shook his head. ”Come on, One. Just give me a minute to catch my breath, man.”

One would look down on him with contempt. ”There is no time for rest on the battlefield, Five. Once you’re out there, your enemies won’t give you a chance to rest. You fight with everything you have, or you die. Now get up.” He demanded, to which Five looked up at him in disbelief. ”Yeah, well we’re not on a battlefield, are we? You can afford me a minute before you beat the shit out of me again.”

Oh, how he forgot how he wasn’t meant to swear in his superiors’ presence, or show any insubordination whatsoever.

Not liking his answer or his attitude, One would swing that heavy staff around, striking Five directly in the side of the stomach and sending him rolling across the ground as he stopped in a painful heap several feet away, coughing and gasping for breath.

”You’re toughening up one way or another.” He barked, gesturing with his hand at two others. Two and Three, blonde male and female twins who were only a couple of years older than Five, would approach. They walked up to either side of him, leaning down to grab him by the arms and hold him up, he was barely able to keep on his feet, but they would force him to stand upright. One would make his way around to stand behind them.

”What are you do-” Five was interrupted as One’s staff struck him in the back. He let out a gasp of pain, and One would strike him again. With each strike, Five felt the pain shooting across his body, to the point it had become to be too much. He would lose strength in his legs, falling to his knees despite the support of his siblings. He lost count of the strikes, his mind seemed to push everything out as he grew numb. The tears that streamed down his face were innumerable, and the blood and bruises that covered his back were many.

Soon, he would be laying on his stomach in a bloody heap as One, Two, and Three stood above him. The twins would leave without a word, and One would look down on Five. ”I don’t know what Mother sees in you. I suggest you take this more seriously, or else she might throw you away. And I don’t think she’ll be as forgiving as I was.”

One would drop the staff next to Five, the heavy wood landing with a loud clang next to him. He was too beaten to react to it, and One would walk off, leaving the room. A few moments later, a figure would enter quietly, rushing over to the fallen Five.

”Five! Oh god, what did One do to you?” Seven would shout. A young, petite woman with platinum blonde hair and ethereal eyes. She was barely younger than Five, and just as small as he was. She would examine him, pulling some supplies out of her bag to try and clean him up.

”One’s not even this harsh on the older recruits. I don’t understand why he’s roughing you up so bad. This isn’t combat training, it’s… it’s brutality.” She would say, trying not to cry.

Five would weakly try to push himself up, his hand brushing Seven’s away as she tried to help him. He would position himself so that he was sitting on the ground as the now drying blood covered him.

”I can’t show weakness...” He would say, and Seven would take his hand. He barely acknowledged her as he stared into nothingness.

”If I don’t get stronger, I’m as good as dead… that’s the way of this world...” He choked out, his voice numb and shaky. ”He was enjoying this, Seven… I can't give him that satisfaction again...”

The pain was becoming his best friend, slowly. He had to remember this feeling, or One might kill him before his Mother ever did.

[attr="class","dialogue"]

The water raged below, a stair-step formation of rocky waterfalls forming white rapids. Whether it was from snowmelt or rain, she wasn’t sure– but she knew that last time she was here, the water wasn’t as high or running as fast.

This part of the trail runs along the shallow ridge of the waterfall, normally rocky and relatively dry this time of year, now angry and violent, threatening to pull in anyone who makes so much as a wrong step.

Addy had been hiking the familiar forest all day– the Alabama wilderness here being one that her caravan visited every other year or so– accompanied by an old friend she’d run into every once and a while during her childhood.

Despite his age, Kelly Savard showed not signs of slowing down. He was a gentle soul, one that Addy met at a fair in Utah when she was younger. The fourty-one year old man traveled with the seasons like her caravan did, and the ex-pilot made a simple living as an acoustic guitarist who played at some of the fairs Addy’s family vendored and performed at. When you attend many of the same fairs and festivals every year, sometimes you’ll see familiar faces. Kelly was one of them.

“Careful, kiddo,” He warned, taking a cautious step into the water, which rose up to about his knees.

“Fuck, you don’t think there’s another way back, do you?” The nineteen year old girl asked, one hand holding on to a tree that leaned diagonally over the water, a foot taking a step down to join him. She hissed and jumped back up onto the shore. “Crap! That’s freezing.”

Kelly shrugged and started walking carefully along the waterfall’s ridge. “Unless you want to hike another five miles back where we came from, this is going to be our only option for now.”

The trail was a long, rigorous loop, about seven or eight miles ups and downs and steep creek crossings that paled in comparison to this. It was another two or so miles this way, across the river, or they weren’t going to make it back to the campsite before night fell.

Addy looked upstream, noting how the river only got wider and didn’t appear to get any shallower or calmer.

Fuck.

She took two steps back in, her bare thighs almost stinging from the briskness of the stream. She was grateful she wore shorts– pants would’ve made this a miserable experience. She adjusted her bag on her shoulders before she started walking across, trying to pay attention to where Kelly had stepped on certain rocks up ahead.

The rocks below weren’t very stable, and she had to take cautious, experimental steps to test the integrity of their support. Last thing she wanted to do was slip. The water brushed passed her legs with alarming speed, and while the water wasn’t rushing as fast as it was down the waterfall, she could still feel the current threaten to pull her under.

“You doing okay back there?” Kelly asked, looking over his shoulder at the younger girl.

“My socks are gonna be soaked.” Addy whined, dreading the slush and squish of her socks in her boots once she got out of the water. “Do you think this is snowmelt or rain water?” Addy’s hands extended slightly to balance herself on a particularly wobbly rock. Nearly halfway, at least.

“Snowmelt, probably. I think I remember seeing on the weather channel that this area had a lot of snowfall this winter. That, and it’s not the rainy season yet,” The man spoke.

True, Addy normally wasn’t here this early in the spring, so she wasn’t used to the rivers being so high right now. Rainy season was probably in another month or two, she guessed. She wasn’t here often enough to be familiar.

Her foot stepped on one rock before deciding it wasn’t stable enough for her. She tried another, but it wasn’t much better. She took a large step towards one a little bit farther away.


And then she slipped.


She felt herself pulled into the rush before she could catch herself, her hands struggling to find purchase on the smooth surface of the rocks as they slipped from her fingers.

Her senses were flooded, the cold of the water being secondary to the sheer force of being dragged into the torrent as she struggled to pull herself over the surface of the water. If her head breached, she’d barely get a gasp of air before the water hauled her back in violently. A sharp pain was felt on her knee, another hit of blunt force to her shoulder right after as the water tossed her against the rocks. She could barely see or hear anything other than the rush of water, her lungs gasping for air and her limbs aching with every obstacle she encountered. She struggled to grab anything under the force of the water, the rocks being too slippery to actually grab hold of. She hardly registered how far from shore she was, and in her panic, she tried to push herself in one direction, hoping she could get close enough to shore to grab onto a branch or a less-weathered stone. Her heart was beating in her ears– the only sound she could hear other than the loud current she had been swept into.

Her hand found purchase on what felt like the root of a tree, and she held onto it for dear life as she tried to bring her other hand over to it. The rush of water made every little motion feel like she was encumbered by lead bracers, her limbs heavy and useless. She could feel her grasp slipping, salvation evading her fingers as the tide violently ripped her away.

A hand caught hers.

She felt herself get jerked up and out of the water enough that she could pull herself out, her hands digging into the dirt as she made it back up onto shore.

Addy took heavy breaths, feeling like she couldn’t get enough air in her lungs. Kelly was there, looking like he’d aged ten years as he too caught his breath, sweat rolling down his forehead.

“Oh my G-Gods,” Addy spoke, noting how her knee had split open and blood was running down her leg. She had other cuts, everything aching like she’d just been hit by a car. “I-I’m so sorry, holy shit, I should’ve been more careful, I’m sorry,” the words tumbled from her mouth.

“Stop apologizing, kiddo,” Kelly spoke, standing up straight as he threw his bag back on, offering her a hand. She took it and stood, all her new scrapes stinging at the simple motion. “You almost died, thank god you weren’t alone. Christ, I mean, you’re lucky you didn’t hit your head on a rock or something.”

“Yeah…” she agreed, still a little shaken up. She examined herself, drenched like a wet dog, and she was thankful at least that she still had her bag on her.

She looked around, noting where they were in comparison to the waterfall upstream.

“Oh,” she started. “We’re on the other side.”

Kelly gave a tired laugh. “But we still need to hike back to the trail…”

[newclass=.dialogue b]color:#95a1eb;[/newclass]

Drift pulled her firetruck red hair into a ponytail and stood in the center of the banquet room. Tomorrow, Ethegarde would be here celebrating business accomplishments. It had been easy enough so far to avoid the bounty hunters they continually sent after Radium, but now they’d pushed her to the edge. A bitter laugh threatened to break free from her lips. Beam really thought he’d pulled the wool over her eyes. For all the time he’d worked with her, Dr. Lavender and Halo, you’d think he’d know he couldn’t slip anything past them.

Drift walked a few paces into the hallway and opened the janitors closet where she’d planted a large tank of liquid just a little earlier that day. The sound of sloshing gasoline brought an odd warmth to chest as she carried it back out into the larger room. Drift splashed the liquid over the tables and chairs. Over the tapestries, garlands and curtains. It glistened on the walls and in pools in the corners from the faint moon light that washed in through the windows. 

Beautiful. 

This joy she felt was different than any she’d felt before. It was muddled by anger, but that made it so much more intense. Drift flung the canister across the floor once it was empty, it felt weightless like a feather after weighing her arm down before. A smile tugged at her lips and she turned around, sprinting a yard or so before planting her feet and sliding across the slick floor. A laugh finally slipped out and she did a little spin. If she closed her eyes it was almost as if she were an ice skater. This was her performance, and it was almost time for the special effects. 

Drift scaled the stairs to the balcony over looking the banquet room below and leaned on the railing. All it took was a single move. Her anticipation almost made it hard to move. The smile never left her face as she struck a match carelessly tossed it over the edge. It dropped like a tiny falling star towards the darkness below. Flames exploded upward and she threw her arms out. She could feel the heat burning her cheeks and singeing her eyebrows. Things creaked and crackled beneath her. Her eyes closed and she just listened. Better than any symphony. 

It didn’t take long for Beam to rush into the entrance and look up at her.

“The hell is this, Drift?” He roared.

Drift stepped up onto the railing and gracefully dropped to the floor below. Flames licked at her ankles, but she was having too much fun to feel the pain. 

“I was about to ask you the same question. What are you doing here?” Drift called back.

Beam hesitated, his gaze flicking between her face and the burning wreckage surrounding them. 

“Nothing to say? Thought so,” Drift sighed, “Not big on listening to traitors anyway."

She yanked her gun from her waist band and fired at Beam, but he was quick. He dove behind a burning table before booking it back down the hallway.

“Get back here you damn coward!” Drift tired after him down the hallway. It was only after she left the flaming room that she really felt the extent of how badly she burned her ankles. Totally worth it. Pain made her stronger. 

Fin twisted to fire back at her as he sprinted, but his bullets grazed the walls around her. Did he really think he could fight while running away? There was a time where she’d cried about the loss of her adoptive family, but she was far, far past that now. This wasn’t just about her anymore. This son of a bitch put thousands of lives on the line, and he wouldn’t get away with it.