House Of Memories
'Project Ex' had never been more fitting to the group. They spent lunches plotting instead of chatting idly. Instead of shared kisses, there were thoughts on how to use their powers in collaborative moves.
The remaining people were Mark, Dan, Troye, Hannah, Anthony, Shane, and Louise. They were extremely worried about the ones who'd lost, as they hadn't seen them.
"Ben said Level Nines are in Brant's personal circle." Anthony recalled, "And from what I'm assuming, that's not very much. So, we've got no hope of getting information straight from the source. I think we're a bit stuck for the moment."
"True." Dan agreed. He and Shane had become even more inseparable, now that Tyler was gone. Shane was oddly quiet without Joey, and Dan didn't have the same humor in his eyes. Instead, he truly looked as though he embodied his power- pale skin and dangerous gleam in his eyes, darkness seemed to trail from him wherever he went. That wasn't the only side-affect of the fight. Troye's voice became more aggressive. Anthony's mind seemed to become more strategic in manner. Hannah sometimes smashed things to dust on accident. Cecil had bitten three security guards and Mark had to try really hard to get Cecil to hide in his sleeve. Mark's ability seemed to draw more animals than before, once accidentally swarming them with ground squirrels during practice.
I would like to take this moment to remind you that they were in the desert area of New Mexico.
Random objects Shane touched would disappear, even one of the before-mentioned ground squirrels. Even Louise seemed to accidentally heal too quickly, the pain becoming almost unbearable for a second.
They were dangerous, they were ready, they just needed to know where their friends were.
.o0o.
The next week, something devastating happened.
"They- they're going to execute me in a week," Ben said, eyes wide in horror. They were in powers training, and Ben seemed extremely skittish.
"What?!" Dan whispered back, light flaring from his eyes.
"Then we'll just have to figure it out before then. I can do it." Anthony said smoothly.
"Then why haven't you figured it out?!" Mark asked, "You're supposed to be super-human... ly intelligent!"
"Nice English, buddy," Anthony hissed, "And I'm working on it! I've pretty much got it figured out. Shane, this will require some work on your behalf. The cameras have a ten second delay."
"What are you expecting me to do?" Shane raised an eyebrow in Anthony's direction.
"I have an idea. Ben, do the security guards know where our friends are being held?" Anthony asked the terrified man, who nodded.
"Good. All of them?" Ben shook his head.
"Okay, so only high-ranking ones." Ben nodded in reply.
"Wonderful. So, Shane, the Level Nine's have this little bird-emblem-thingy directly under their patch," Anthony addressed Shane, "I need you to steal one of their schedules. They'll probably think there's a glitch in the system. But, you'll have to keep the object invisible while you remain opaque. Could you do this?"
"Sure. Easy." Shane shrugged, smiling- although, it looked more like a grimace.
"Awesome. Tomorrow, the revolt begins. We'll be freeing the prisoners." Anthony said softly, clapping his hands together.
.o0o.
The map-stealing plan went off without a hitch. Shane was simply pretending to flirt.
"Ooh! Nice butt," Shane smirked, slapping the soldier lightly and grabbing the schedule out of his pocket.
"Hey!" The Level Nine grabbed for his back pocket, blushing furiously- clearly not used to being hit on by guys.
"You little-" He was about to attack Shane when another guard said, "Not worth it. The scum doesn't know what he's doing."
The two then turned their snooty little noses up and marched off, leaving Shane to struggle with his poker face. He allowed himself a proud little smirk and headed back to the group.
They all took comfort in it being their last night.
.o0o.
The next day, they were speaking in hushed voices at lunch.
"So, they're in solitary confinement?" Troye asked, "Poor things."
"Lou, we might need you on standby. No telling how well they've been fed." Anthony said.
"Oh- okay," Louise said, obviously concerned for her friends. There was a certain hopefulness in everyone's eyes- but it might have been covered up by determination and anger.
"Shane. You get Ben out, then join the fighting. Make him invisible, too." Anthony said, "I know you haven't been able to make a human disappear, but you have to." There wasn't an I believe in you, just a you have to, that kind of settled their resolve. They didn't believe in themselves- they didn't believe in one another. But they had to do this. So they would.
"They've got crazy powerful guns and we aren't immune to everything." Anthony said, "Keep an eye on your own six, since I highly doubt your partner can do it for you." He finished his cryptic message as Project Ex left the table. Their mission would start the instant they stepped onto the courtyard.
.o0o.
Total panic is what ensued. Nobody could find Shane or Dan, and Troye was hypnotizing anybody who dared to step out onto the courtyard. Hannah was working on breaking down the towers, bending steel to her will.
"Good luck, asshats." She said as a tower collapsed, sending the tower's inhabitants toppling. There were three huge towers armed with machine guns capable of infared searching- which was Bad News. She took rocks and hurled them at the remaining towers, knocking bolts loose. It was really quite satisfying.
.o0o.
Dan was searching for the prisoners. It was what he was supposed to do- and take out anybody who stood in his way. He rounded the corner to a huge team of agents, each armed to the teeth. Luckily for Dan, shadow wasn't something that was tangible.
Until he needed it to be.
The shadow snaked into their helmets and they started suffocating.
Too easy, Dan smirked. He wondered for a moment what it would be like to one moment be doing your job and the next surrounded by suffocating darkness- then immediately ditched it. He wasn't having an existential crisis in a fucking prison. He reached a room that was marked Solitary/Correctional. Lovely.
He picked it with his shadows and the door creaked open.
It was Tyler.
"Who- who's there?" His lisp was even more prominent. His voice was shaking. Dan immediately materialized.
"Hey, man, it's me." Dan smiled reassuringly, undoing the chains. Tyler attempted to stand up and nearly collapsed.
"I got you," Dan soothed, nearly carrying Tyler out. He had a black eye and it looked like his nose had been bleeding. A lot.
"Troye's out there, he's fine," Dan said. Tyler seemed to breathe easier. The whole time, he could only see Connor's broken body, his snapped neck and glazed eyes, and he couldn't help but see Troye laying right next to him. They arrived to Troye singing House of Memories.
"Baby, we built this house, on memories. Take a picture, now, shake it 'till you see it!" Troye sang the guards to sleep, and whirled around to see the new threat- Dan and Tyler.
"Ty!" Troye gasped at the man's form. He was thin and his cheeks hollow, malnourished beyond imagination.
"I'm here," Tyler clung to Troye's suit, not making a sound. He didn't trust himself to.
"Everything's going to be fine." Troye said, smiling down at the other man. Tyler was safe.
Dan turned back to shadow and was joined by Shane, invisible. Shane could spot Dan's shadow moving along and followed him to the next cell- Ingrid's. Her hair was soaked and her room half-frozen half-filled with some sort of static.
"It us," Dan smiled, unlocking her chains. She didn't even try to stand up, simply slumping forward in to Dan's arms.
"Clear my six." Dan said to Shane, who nodded and disappeared. They only ran across one guard, who didn't even know what hit him when Shane had him in a choke-hold extremely quickly and had him on the ground. Hannah could hold Ingrid up easily, so the two immediately went to clear another cell. This one held Jon.
"Oh my God." Dan gaped at the destruction. Jon's head hung down, almost not moving, as blood dripped steadily from his mouth, joining the already alarming large puddle. A soldier's helmet lay abandoned and the floor was nearly coated in grotesque red.
"Ew. Tic-tac." Shane weakly attempted to joke, lifting Jon up. He was barely breathing- but that was certainly better than not at all. Cecil seemed to have grown attached to the man within seconds of meeting him, and Mark carried Jon bridal-style, merely because Jon couldn't walk.
The fourth cell held Ian. Bullet holes riddled the walls and he seemed to be mostly unharmed, except for a haunted look in his eyes.
"You okay?" Shane asked, Ian being perfectly fine to walk on his own. Ian shrugged.
"I'm cool to walk. Let's go get someone else." Ian said. The last two cells held Joey and Phil. Yeah, I set this up for drama. Not going to deny it.
"Joey?" Shane asked, stepping into the room. The silver-haired (it seemed, now permanently) man raised his head. He was twitching so fast that it almost appeared blurred.
"Sh-ane what d-do you wa-ant?" Joey stuttered, shaking so hard it was impossible to speak clearly.
"I'm here to get you out." Shane said as Dan opened the shackles on Joey. Joey immediately took off, running like lightning.
"Seems he was a bit cooped up," Dan noted. Shane chuckled.
"I want to see him alone," Dan said somberly. Shane nodded, not questioning it, and lead Ian outside, the other man limping.
"Hey, Phil," Dan smiled at the man.
"Get it over with," Phil moaned, lifting his face to reveal horrific bruises and a few cuts on his shoulders and torso that would certainly scar.
"What?" Dan asked.
"They- they said you would kill me. They'd make you kill me." Phil said, a tear slipping down his face.
"I would never. I won't ever. Not again." Dan said, reaching out with the darkness. Phil seemed to flinch for a second, then realized that Dan was unlocking him. Phil smiled and stood up, stumbling. Dan caught him and the two walked out of the building, which was virtually empty.
Except for one man.
"Now, now, boys," The southern American accent rang through the halls. Dan gasped and Phil couldn't do much in the way of processing things quickly, so he just stood there, rather blankly.
"Didn't I tell you to behave?" He purred. Brant stepped out from the shadows.
"You. Monster." Dan spat at him. He was the one who'd killed Connor. He was the one who'd kept them all captive. He was the one who'd tortured half of them.
Dan didn't realized he'd said all of those things until they were out of his mouth- not that he cared.
"Oh, you think those things were my fault?" Brant said, falsely sympathetic, "No, no, all of those things were your fault! You drank the beer, ate the pizza, misbehaved."
"Dan, where's home?" Phil asked drowsily, not quite processing where he was. Dan could feel the situation slipping away, and could think of one thing to do. He hadn't killed anybody- not on purpose- but he would have to make an exception.
"Goodbye, Brant," Dan said, dropping Phil gently to the ground and striking out with tremendous force.
"You sneaky little-" Brant cursed as Troye appeared practically out of nowhere.
"Oh, let me make one thing clear." Troye smirked, "When you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And damn, you fucked up with Ben." Brant's eyes widened as Troye began singing.
"Welcome to the end of eras," Troye's singing was entrancing, but Dan's focus on Phil kept him above water, "Ashes melted back to life, done my time and served my sentence, dress me up and watch me die." At the word die, Brant toppled over, gone before he hit the ground.
"Pretty... singing..." Phil slurred, leaning heavily on Dan. Dan felt Phil's forehead to discover that it was burning up.
.o0o.
"Lack of nutrients. He's got an infection." Anthony said immediately after they walked outside.
"Lou!" Dan yelled. Louise hurried over to find Phil and heal him. Phil started coughing and tears dripped from his eyes, which grew red. After a few minutes, he was weak and shaky, but standing. He was lucid, and turned to bury his face in Dan's chest.
"Missed you." Phil said, gripping Dan tightly.
"You too, you idiot," Dan said back, hugging equally as tightly. They stayed like that for a while. Dan became concerned, however, when Phil began to cough again.
"What?" Louise peered at her hands.
"Perhaps your power works like a battery," Anthony suggested, "Ian recovered in regards to his malnourishment, Ingrid did not."
"Oh no." Louise realized what this meant. In the field, Tyler was walking towards Troye and fell down- he'd been one of the last ones to be healed. Jon slowly thinned out and clutched at his stomach. Ian's eyes became even more clouded- almost as if he'd seen something that no human should see.
And perhaps he had.
.o0o.
The next day, Project Ex started to walk.
"Where do we go?" Became the Question of the Day.
"I know a place." Ben said.
They kept walking, taking turns carrying the weakest until Louise could heal them. Phil was almost in critical condition and Tyler kept limping along, wincing at every step and clutching a rib.
"Tilly," Troye said, kissing his cheek, "You're doing such a good job."
"I can't keep this up," Tyler groaned, laughing at his own pathetic-ness.
"Hannah could carry you-"
"No." Tyler immediately shut that idea down, "There are other people who need it more."
"Like who?" Troye questioned.
"Jon." Tyler pointed out, as the man could hardly move on his own and was the one currently being carried by Hannah. After the night, Louise had been able to cure Ingrid's famine, but nothing else.
"I don't think I can survive another night," Tyler admitted. In Hannah's arms- and it would have been a hilarious sight given different circumstances- Jon coughed and shivered in the desert heat.
"He's not doing so good either," Hannah noted. Cecil the Lizard nudged Jon, trying to get his friend to move. Mark picked up the lizard and set him on his shoulder, Cecil curling up for a nap in the sun. Sometimes, animals would sort of stop by, as if visiting an old friend, and deposit water bottles or food, from where nobody dared to ask.
But hey, it was good.
"So is he the mascot?" Phil asked, beginning to hack. A bit of blood flew out of his mouth and Dan became worried.
"Yeah, Phil," Dan said. Phil wasn't going to last the night either. Nobody could afford to lose anybody, and they might just lose everybody.
"It's just us," Ben said, after a few hours of deathly silence, "Us against the world."