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Runaways By
Myths n' Wraiths Edited
by Vindea "Maybe this wasn't such a good
idea," Ezekial whispered, leaning in close to his big brother and tucking
his knees in against his chest. The young boy's blonde hair was matted to his
forehead with sweat from the stiffling heat inside the submarine and his clothes
were beginning to stick to his bony frame. "It'll be fine, Zeke. Besides,
It's to late to turn back now," Jeremiah shot back at his little brother,
eyeing the Arachnos warrior who was lounging in a make-shift cot a few feet
away, making sure the minion of Lord Recluse was not listening in on his
prepubescent sibling's doubts. "And
could you do me a favor, Zeke?" Jeremiah added. "Wha'?" the nervous boy
asked. "Don't get so close. You
stink." Jeremiah elbowed his brother in the ribs jokingly and pushed him
off his chair. "Hey!" Ezekial protested,
and rubbed his sore ribs. "Enough, you two!" Tabitha
cut into the two brother's rough housing. "I swear, Jeremiah. Are you ever
serious?" the young woman asked sternly, scolding Jeremiah with her cool blue
eyes. "Not if I can help it,"
Jeremiah replied, flashing a warming smile to melt Tabitha's criticizing gaze.
He made an exagerated show of looking her up and down, from her short blonde
hair to her greasy tennis shoes, then added, "You should try lightening up
and enjoying life sometime. Never know, you might actually find something
redeeming about our whole miserable existence." "Don't bother," Jenny
interjected. The dark haired, dark eyed girl rested her chin in her tattooed
hands and absentmindedly scratched at her cheek with her black fingernails.
"I have been trying to find something redeeming about my life for a
helluva lot longer than any of you guys and..." "And what?" Ezekial asked
after a long moment of silence. Jenny rolled her eyes and replied,
"What do you think?" "You guys are so
depressing," Darek muttered from his seat toward the back of the group. "Tell that to goddess gloom
over there," Jeremiah retorted, nodding toward Jenny. "Just being realistic,"
Jenny retorted. "I mean, who in their right mind would run away TO the
Rogue Isles?" Ezekial tucked his knees tighter
into his chest, Jeremiah cocked his jaw and glanced back at the Arachnos
soldier, Tabitha fidgeted with her fingernails, and Darek ran his hand through
his long brown hair. No one replied. "Exactly," Jenny pressed.
"Who, in all of God's great creation, besides us, has such a miserable
life that they would actually smuggle themselves into the worst dive on the
planet just for a new shot at it all?" "We get the picture,
Jenny," Jeremiah cut in. "We have been over it all before. We make
the breakfast club look like the honor's society. I don't think it needs to be
said again." "Let's just get some
rest," Tabitha suggested with a weary sigh. "We will need our
strength up once we get there." When the hatch finally opened on the
submarine passenger bay and the children were released into the fresh air,
Ezekial nearly cried in delight. The older members of the rag-tag group climbed
out after the young boy and stretched their stiff limbs in the cool night air.
The salty breeze washed in off the ocean, waking their tired minds. "So this is the land of our
oportunity?" Jeremiah asked with a chuckle. The stout young man held his
square jaw with his thick fingers and whistled lightly while taking in the
decrepit and decaying landscape of the Rogue Isle port. All around the shore,
garbage littered the docks and houses that had fallen into disrepair long ago,
if they had ever been in proper shape to begin with. "Anyone else thinking we made a
mistake?" Tabitha mumbled to her companions while trying to fight off the
growing feeling of despair that was clutching her heart. "We made a decision,"
Darek interjected, flexing his fists and ignoring the grunge around him.
"Our environment may not be as nice, but we are far better for it." "Now don't ya'll go wandering
off," the Arachnos warrior commanded, crawling out of the submarine hatch
and brandishing his mace. "You have some work to do for Lord Recluse in
order to pay off your travel fare, and he don't like it when people try to back
out of their bargains." The Soldier's voice was deep and gravely. His mace
fell against his palm menacingly. Jeremiah yawned loudly and stretched
his broad arms with a show of boredom. Tabitha shot him a withering look and
Ezekial couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, uhh... I know we 'said'
we were going to enlist in exchange for a ride to the Isles," Jeremiah
said, scratching his head and shrugging his shoulders. "Watch your next words,
boy," the Arachnos soldier replied grimly and leveled his mace at the largest
of the children. The tip of the weapon began to crackle with crimson power
while the gloved fist tightened on its hilt. "Any thoughts of backing out
of this will just get you a hurtin'. This ain't your pretty little Paragon
City. This is the Rogue Isles; might makes right around here and Arachnos is
the might." "'Might makes right,'
huh?" Darek asked, lowering his eyes to the ground and shaking his head.
"Why do you think we came to this place?" "Perhaps you should watch my
words," Jenny added, pulling up her sleeves and baring her forearms. The
darkly garbed young woman whispered unintelligible words at one of her arms and
the tattoos that decorated its skin began to glow with pale, radiant power. She
whispered in a soft voice to the other arm and a murky, writhing energy began
to seeth from the tattoos around her wrists. "So that's how you kids want
it," the Arachnos soldier chuckled and gripped his mace in both hands and
aiming it at Jenny. "I won't mind teaching your pretty li'l arse a few things." A blast of crimson energy lanced out
from the tip of the soldier's mace. Tendrils of furious electricity followed
the blast in its arc towards Jenny, burning air and filling the area with an
acrid ozone smell in testament to its power. The electric charge came to within
inches of its target before being caught by a broad thick palm. Jeremy looked
down at his sizzling hand with an amused grin and clenched his fist, squeezing
the energy out through his closing fingers and disipating it into the night air.
Jenny lept gingerly over her
companion's extended arm and waved her darkly shrouded arm at their enemy. A
shadowy mass of nether energy flew from her arm and landed at the Arachnos
soldier's feet where it exploded, showering him in an impossibly delirious fog
of negative energy. He stumbled shakily on his feet and teetered back and
forth. Jenny leveled her briliantly radiant hand at the man next, and held it
steady while the light continued to grow until it was nearly blinding in the
dimly lit night. Jenny released the energy that had built up within her,
allowing it to split the night and collide with its target's chest with a
horrible crash. The soldier was sent carreening over the submarine's hull, out
past the docks and deep into the growing tide where he disappeared with a faint
splash. "Welcome to the Rogue Isles,
bro'." Jeremiah spoke with uncharacteristic sterness and mopped his
younger brother's blonde hair with his still-warm hand. The younger boy clung
to the leg of his big brother's cargo jeans and hid his face from the scene. Darek walked up behind Jenny and
patted her firmly on the shoulder. "I just killed that man, didn't
I?" she whispered to the lean figure that stood at her side. "You did what you had to
do," Darek said firmly but with a note of compasion. "Put it out of
your head, Jen. I'm sorry things have to be this way, but we knew what we were
getting into." His words seemed cold to Jenny but
Darek's voice held a calmness and certainty that reassured her in a very
uncertain moment. She turned to him, cocking her head slightly. Her hair on the
side of her body that she had used to slay the Arachnos minion was stark white,
as were the fingernails on the same hand. She looked down at the nails and
brushed the white hair away from her face, frowning at the color that
contrasted her usual obsessively back attire. "And I hate wearing
white," she muttered. Darek smiled back at her. His sandy
brown eyes chose not to see through the lighthearted remark that was covering
the hurt and fear that sat beneath the surface. "We should get out of
here," Tabitha whispered, glancing nervously around herself at the shadows
that littered every alley, crevice, and low place, all of which were in high
supply in this new environs. "Yeah," Ezekial agreed,
shaking his head furiously. The group gathered tightly around
each other and headed away from the scene as quickly as the winding and
unpredictable byways of the neighborhood
would allow. They disappeared into the shadowy night with the aid of
another of Jenny's tattoos; the group was drawn into the shadows themsleves,
hidden from the eyes and minds of the many curious and horrible creatures that
inhabited the streets of the children's new home. "Are you sure about this?"
Jeremiah muttered quietly after pressing open the door to the dingy little dive
of a hotel that was filling a particularly dark, dead end street. "We've got to stay
somewhere," Tabitha countered harshly but softly. The five young meta-humans shuffled
into the dimly lit lounge that reeked of liquor and cigarette smoke. Across the
creaky wood floor, several small tables hosted card games for a dozen
disreputable men with tattoos of flames around their arms and necks and singed
leather jackets on their backs. A few faces turned toward the
unusual site of five kids walking out of a Rogue Isle night into a fire trap
establishment. Most eyes quickly dismissed the crew as nothing of interest but
one set of eyes lingered. A blonde haired, solidly built man in the back
corner, who sported burns on one side of his chiseled face, eyed the children
with for a long moment. A twisted grin spread across his scarred face. Tabitha
met the man's gaze for one uneasy moment before glancing at the floor and
turning toward the counter that guarded the patron of the establishment. Darek stepped up to the counter and
waved to the old, balding, and rotund man that squatted on a flimsy stool by a
cash register. "We were looking for a place to
stay for the night, sir," he said politely. The old man looked up for the first
time and his eyes grew wide with curious amazement when he saw the young group.
He stood up from the tiny stool that barely seated half of his mass and leaned
over the counter to get a good look at the children. "Y'all got to be kidding an old
man," he said, his red cheeks rippling with each word. "What are five
youngsters doin' in this part of town at all, much less at this time of
night?" "Our business is our own,
sir," Darek replied firmly but without agression. "And we truly would
like a place to stay for the night. We can pay in cash." The old man cocked an eyebrow
curiously and shrugged before saying, "Well, of course you can pay in cash
or not at all, but kids are trouble and I'll not be having any more than I can
afford here." "We'll be no trouble,"
Tabitha replied, trying to smile as broadly as her tired lips would allow. "A cute li'l group of chil'ren
find their way into the seedy side of Port Oaks, into my weary old dive, and
saying you won't be any trouble. Well, it isn't that I don't believe you little
lady, it's just that trouble follows y'all like my old lady follows Days of
Our Lives. If it didn't, you wouldn't be here in the first place trying to
convince me that you ain't no trouble," the barrel of man said, rubbing
two of his three chins with his thick fingers. "Sorry, but I don't think
you'll be able to stay," he concluded with a sad frown and shake of his
round face. "Sir, please. It is just for
one night," Darek said, his voice growing more forceful. "Ain't cuz of me I'm saying no,
son," the old man said more quietly than before, then nodded past the
children and continued, "it's cuz of him." The group turned to see the scarred
man aproaching them. His eyes danced across each of the children but lingered
on Tabitha. "What is a group of kids doing
in Hellion territory tonight?" he said, his voice an audible sneer of
contempt and cockiness. "Whose brats are you guys,
anyway?" He moved closer to the children, stepping into the middle of them
and coming close to Tabitha, trapping her between himself and the counter. "We're just looking for a place
to stay for the night," Darek replied, stepping up to the man and
clenching his fists. "Is that so?" The Hellion
thug chuckled and glowered down at the shorter, younger man. He switched his
gaze back to Tabitha and his voice grew a little deeper. "We might be able
to work something out. For the little lady's sake." Tabitha cringed under the man's
gaze, gripping her low-cut pink blouse around the neck and pulling it closed.
She stepped along the side of the counter, trying to put some distance between
herself and the leering gaze of a scarred and ugly face. The man matched her
steps until he bumped into Darek. His eyes went from lusting to enraged when
the young man didn't move out of his way. "What do you say, Char?"
the Hellion shouted to one of his friends that had gotten up out of their seat
and aproached the small group from behind. He clenched his fist and a flame
ignited in his grasp. "Should we give these kids a warm, Hellion
welcome?" The second man, who was head and
shoulders taller than even Jeremiah, the largest of the chidlren, began to spin
a small sledge hammer in his hand while stepping closer the the kids. "Wouldn't have it any other
way," he said with a broad grin that showed a mouth missing as many teeth
as it boasted. Jeremy stepped in between the large
man and his friends and ushered his little brother behind him. "Look, old man," the stout
blonde boy said squaring his jaw. "We don't want any trouble but we ain't
scared of it either." "Darek, I don't want to do this
again," Jenny exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest and backing away
from the two Hellions. "Don't worry, Jen. You won't
have to do a thing," Darek replied through clenched teeth. He shrugged his
lean shoulders and his brown leather jacket fell to the floor. He held his
right arm extended to his side and after taking a deep breath, looked over at
his opened hand and exhaled heavily through his mouth. A heavy wisp of dark
vapor flowed from his mouth, curled around his arm and flowed down toward his
palm, where it gathered and formed into a shimmering sword. The radiant steel
katana's blade glistened, catching the faint lights in the room and reflecting
them back with unatural clarity. "If it is a welcome you want to
give us, then play the host," Darek spat at the Hellion, abandoning all
diplomacy in the face of certain conflict. "I have no problem taking a
little heat from you... as well as the hand that wields it." "Well, well," the scarred
Hellion growled. He opened his palm and fire lept from his hand while he said,
"Looks like we have a live group here." The flame encircled Darek, grounding
itself to the floor and trapping him inside. Jenny and Tabitha lept away from
him in suprise, but Darek simply shook his head in disgust. "You bring parlor tricks to a
knife fight, Hellion," Darek chided before his body exploded with tendrils
of nether energy. The lights in the room suddenly flickered and faded to
nothing. The fire that had surrounded Darek turned a pale white before being
swallowed by the darkness. Char, suddenly realizing that the
fight was about to commence, and wanting to get the first swing, raised his
hammer high over his head and brought it down with all the strength his stout
frame could muster onto Jeremiah's skull. The metal handle of the heavy tool
bent ackwardly under the pressure and its head cracked on impact but the young
man's head did not budge. Char looked curiously at his hammer, a dumbfounded
expression crossing his wide eyes. Jeremiah grinned crookedly at the
shocked Hellion. He and Darek retaliated in the same instant, Jeremiah bringing
his heavy hands up, palms open, to box Char's ears and Darek moving like a
living shadow with his sword the only point of effective light in the room. The shimmering katana reached out
with amazing speed, severing the Hellion's hand just above the wrist, then
lashing out across his neck before he could manage to scream out in pain at the
loss of his limb. Jeremiah followed up with a brutal
haymaker to Char's head and the large man crumpled to the ground, his skull
crushed and oozing blood. The shadows slowly receded around
Darek and when they had vanished totally, so had his sword. The young man stood
over the Hellion's dead form, breathing heavily and staring sternly down at his
victim. Tabitha walked up quietly behind
him. She reached out to him and whispered, "Darek, it's okay." He
flinched at her touch and his eyes slowly turned to look into hers. To her
suprise, they were calm and steady. The only reminder of his recent slaying
were faint dark wisps of residual energy that passed around the outside of his
irises. "I know," he said
reasuringly, then turned to look at the other patrons in the lounge. None had
even bothered to look up from their card games, much less take exception to the
death of two of their comrades. "So," Tabitha said setting
her jaw and turning to the patron. "Do we get that room now?" The room was in little better shape
than the rest of the city, but when the lights were out it seemed safe enough.
Jeremiah and Ezekial had taken up the full-sized bed and Jenny had passed out
no sooner than she had laid down on the sofa. Tabitha had desperately wanted to
take a shower, but when the water had come out browner than tea she quickly
changed her mind. She opted for a sponge bath out of the sink, which was only
marginaly cleaner than the shower before emerging back into the dark bedroom.
She spotted Darek sitting in a corner, leaning up against the wall with his
arms resting on his knees. The athletic blonde walked up to him and sat down,
curling her legs in tight to her slender frame. "Not going to get some
sleep?" she whispered, not wanting to drown out Jeremiah's snoring. "I don't sleep like normal
people. Not since I received my birth right. I just need to spend a few hours
in the dark and I am good," he said with a shrug. "Your birth right? You mean
your powers?" she asked, sliding in closer so she could understand his
deep voice when he whispered. "The sword, yeah. The man that
gave it to me said it was my birth right," Darek replied, supressing a
chuckle. "It is a long story." "Well, coming that close to a
live flame will have my powers raging all night, so I wont be sleeping either.
Looks like we got plenty of time," Tabitha countered. "Besides, you
are the new kid to the group; why not open up a little bit?" Darek shrugged his shoulders and
said, "I would rather spend the time figuring out our next move. We have
no idea where to go or what to do next, and that is a dangerous thing in a
place like this." "Figuring out out our next
move, or just trying not to think about the fact that we have been here six
hours and already killed three men?" Tabitha countered, her voice soft but
not timid. She brushed her short cut blonde hair out of her face and looked over
at Darek, but his face was shrouded by both his long dark hair and the deep
shadows in the room. "It was going to happen. We all
knew that. I don't like it more than anyone else, but there was just no
avoiding it. Besides I don't plan on losing any sleep over a few less thieving
and murderous villains." "But that's what we are now,
isn't it?" Tabitha replied, a tone of intrigue and excitement edging into
her voice. "No," Darek disagreed.
"I may be a thief and a killer, but I am no villain. I don't prey on the
innocent or helpless. I don't bully and terrorize good people." "Always so serious,"
Tabitha chided with a mock frown. "It's cool, I kind of like that about
you." "Nice to know I am
accepted." Darek grinned at her through the shadows that surrounded them. "It is just reasuring to know
that someone else has got their mind on something other than the next meal is
all. Who knows? We might just make it on our own after all." "No doubt," Darek agreed.
"Who knows? Some day we might just have our own little Island country
where we can rule with an iron fist and wear gay masks and capes like all the
other grown-ups." This time Tabitha could not hold
back the laugh. "The Runaway Island, huh?" |