[IC] A New World (of Powers) [Chukklehed + Jinxer]

[chukklehed]

Julia sighed, cradling a cup of hot tea as she sat on the park bench. It was early morning and almost nobody was awake yet, the chilled air creating a dense fog. She loved the stillness of it, letting her forget the brutal war that was only a few months past. She shivered involuntarily at the thought, and took another drink from her steaming cup. Rhia would be getting out of bed soon, but she hadn't gone far, and her friend of three years always knew where to find her somehow.

[Jinxer]

Rhiannon woke up with a jolt, breathing heavily and clutching at the bed sheets for protection as she emerged from her restless slumber. A few seconds of adjustment and she was calm again, the realisation that she was in the safety of her room taking root. She instinctively looked to her right but there was no one else in the bed; there hadn't been for some time now. Shaking off the cloud of depression that threatened to overwhelm her, the redhead kicked her way free of the bed sheets and sleepily made her way to the en-suite bathroom, showering and brushing her teeth. She looked into the mirror and noticed that the bags under her eyes were slowly fading; the nightmares were decreasing in frequency and severity as the war became less prominent in her memory.

She splashed cold water on her face before drying her face and hair with the dryer. Careful application of makeup followed, something she never used to do, so that the bags under her eyes were almost completely masked. Finally ready she walked out from the flat and closed her eyes, letting the sounds of the city wash over her. They were still subdued, most people still sleeping soundly in bed or in the process of waking up; not everyone was haunted by the war. Looking for a particular breathing pattern, by utilising a power she had 'borrowed' from Julius, Rhiannon found Julia and made her way there although in no rush; the war may have been over but she still remembered the immense destruction caused by it, sometimes looking powerless was easier than enduring the fearful gazes of the 'normal' humans.

[chukklehed]

Julia smiled softly to herself as she heard the gravel on the path crunch in a familiar pattern, then frowned with worry. "You're getting up earlier every day," She said without looking back. "Make sure you're getting enough sleep alright? I'd hate to get a reprimand from Julius about your sleeping pattern."

She turned to look at her long time friend, briefly thinking back on their history. In the begining, when Alex had assigned her as Rhiannon's bodyguard, she had seen the young redhead as just a job, something to keep her busy. Over the years, however, through the bloodshed and loss of the war, they had become closer than sisters. Sometimes she still joked around about her mission.

[Jinxer]

"I think Julius has better things to worry about that a little insomnia." Rhiannon responded with a small smile. It was true, she was getting up earlier than she had been but she had also slept more deeply; it was probably time to start going to bed at a normal time rather than early in the evening to compensate for her troubled dreams. As always, Rhiannon kept a lot close to her chest, largely because she was still unsure of some of her origins and she did not wish to burden anyone else, least of all Julia who had been her companion and protector for some time now.

"So what's on the agenda today? Does the old man want to see us or maybe he'll give us a day off as a special treat?"

[chukklehed]

"I haven't heard anything from him yet, but that doesn't mean he won't have anything for us later." She put her drink down and stretched, grabbing her wrist and pushing her arms up. "Honestly if he doesn't I won't know what to do. I'm not used to having days off, or free time in general, or money for that matter." Before Julius had found her, she had been living on the streets, so she had only really ever had enough to survive, and sometimes not even that. Since Julius had started paying them for the missions he sent them on, things had been different. "How does that man have money anyway? He was running a school, heads a bunch of charities, and has agents all over the world. Is there some guy around with Midas Touch?"

[Jinxer]

Rhiannon chuckled lightly at the thought before touching Julia lightly on the shoulder.

"I think you're forgetting the part where he was elected Senator and is the most favoured for President in the election a few months from now. Not to mention all the donations he gets... although that's mostly thanks to Ms Wilson. Or Mrs Gomez I should say now." A great deal had happened between when they had first met and now, the war being only part of that. Coincidentally, Rhiannon's phone rang and she picked it up, listening and responding for a few minutes before hanging up.

"Speak of the devil. Apparently there's been something going on between the Empowered and Human-First gangs in the slum area and the police had to get involved. We're supposed to head down there and see what's going on."

[chukklehed]

Julia grinned, standing up. "It's a good thing I never go anywhere without Gracia," She said, lifting the corner of her jacket to check that her favorite pistol was still holstered there, even though she could feel the weight of it. "I bet it's another group of 'purist' punks, picking on a couple of lost kids. People like that just make my blood boil." As she started walking, heading towards the seedier part of town, she fingered her necklace, what looked like an oversized iron alligator scale strung on a chain. "And I didn't forget, I just left those parts out because they didn't support my point."

[Jinxer]

"At least you don't have to reveal you're an Empowered to stay safe." Rhiannon grumbled, looking for all the world like any other innocent redheaded adolescent nearing proper adulthood. Together they made their way to the darker edge of town where even the air felt heavy with menace. Dark spatters on the wall were either graffiti or badly cleaned up blood stains, darkened with age but still identifiable. Many of them were from after the war, the violence forced underground and largely ignored by the officials in the area. Normally on one of their peace-keeping rungs they simply showed up and forced the various groups away from one another; not today it would seem.

"We're here." Rhiannon spoke softly as the stopped at a corner. There was conversation going on around the corner but it was calm, the voices elated with success. Then there were a few muted, pained groans. Peaking around the corner Rhiannon saw at least a dozen people on the ground, many her age but a few clearly wearing the uniform of the local police force as well. A mix of adolescents and older men and women were standing in the bloody carnage they had caused, armed to the teeth and inspecting their work.

"Looks like these aren't just a bunch of unorganised thugs. Let's go in quietly and pick them off. I'll support you."

Both of them were practically immortal but being injured and dying still hurt.

[chukklehed]

Julia silently inspected the carnage, he demeanor changed instantly from the teenage girl she had been before to a seasoned soldier. She nodded once and moved towards the group, silent as a shadow. Lifting a brick that was lying nearby, she carefully took aim and threw it, hitting one of the men in the back of the head and knocking him out. Before the others could react, she wrapped her elbow around one of the women's necks and held her with a strength that didn't match her size, putting her between herself and the majority of the group. One of the men behind her brought up his firearm, but she kicked back and caught him in the groin, taking him out. Reaching under her jacket, she pulled her pistol and took aim. With three shots, she took out the boys in front of her without killing them, but crumpled into a heap as the man she had taken out with a brick returned the favor.

The last two standing in the group, the man and the woman she had caught, looked over her body. Before they even had a chance to finish the job, her pistol shot up and rested for half a second in the middle of the woman's forehead. With a muffled bang, Julia pulled the trigger, but took three shots to the back before she could turn to the man.

[Jinxer]

"Maybe stay back a little next time, Julia."

The remaining man twisted around at Rhiannon's voice immediately behind him but before he could raise his weapon she sunk her fist deep into the man's chest. A shockwave rippled through his body making his limbs wave around like a grotesque spider suffering a fit before he went limp and collapsed to the ground.

"I did say pick them off, not charge right in." Rhiannon knelt by Julia's side and placed a hand over the girl's wounds. They were already healing quickly but Rhiannon attempted to help speed up the process. That was until she heard more footsteps, lots of them. Running towards them too. Barely hushed orders she could hear, carrying across the wind to her, alerted her to their allegiance. Deftly levering the injured girl over one shoulder, Rhiannon sunk into the shadows and then wrapped the darkness around them so that no one would see them just as well over two dozen heavily armed men and women emerged into the area.

"I think there's more to this than a simple gang fight. Let's just watch for now." Rhiannon spoke telepathically to Julia, observing the group and listening out for any clue to as to their intentions.

[chukklehed]

Julia watched the group of men storm in, completely oblivious to their presence. "I could take them," Julia thought at Rhia jokingly. She tried to listen closely, but by sheer dumb luck the blow to her head had managed to cut off her hearing, and her senses always took the longest to heal. Her mind wandered to a time she had spent three days blind after the rest of her body had healed, and wondered if she might have a concussion too, daydreaming in a situation like this. "Let me know what happens, alright?" She asked Rhia, closing her eyes and letting her body use more energy for healing.

[Jinxer]

"This is why I tell you to be more careful!" Rhiannon moaned mentally before listening in more intently. The armed men were searching the bodies and dispatching anyone still alive, regardless of which side they were on before it would seem. Then one of them, holding a strange device, pointed directly towards where the two girls were hiding.

"I'm getting a reading from there. They're hiding and watching us!" Guns turned and blazed fire and bullets towards them, forcing Rhiannon to leap from the shadows and speed down an alleyway at an empowered full sprint. Bullets ricocheted all around them and off walls but none came close to hitting the two girls with Rhiannon moving deftly to avoid any that had the potential to do so. Before long they had lost their pursuers but had entered deeper into the grittier part of town with the armed band between them and the safer areas.

"Well this isn't so good." She checked her phone but as expected, there was no network; the Humans-First seemed to have some kind of jamming signal in the area. Rhiannon ducked into a shelled out building which still had enough wall and roof to provide plenty of shadow in which to conceal themselves naturally without use of their powers. Finding the darkest corner she laid Julia onto the ground and took watch through a shutter.

"What was that thing they had though? It found us in the shadows but we should have been completely concealed from heat sensors. Maybe the rumours of a Empowered Sensor are true? At least, the detecting of a power in use that is."

[chukklehed]

Julia groaned and spasmed once, a sickening Pop resounding from where she had dislocated a vertebrae. "Sorry, what did you say?" She asked, trying to listen through the ringing in her ears. She leaned back against the wall and shoved her hand in a pocket, bringing out what looked like a T.V. remote, except it only had one button. She tapped the button in a fast rhythm, closing her eyes as she recalled her lessons in Morse code. At the end she held the button down for a few seconds, and the light on top flashed red three times, then green. "Remind me to thank Grace for making that subradio pulse whatsit. At least Julius knows something is going on. I told him we could handle it for now, but if I send him a single dot it means 'get our asses out of here.'" She pushed herself off the wall and stood up. "So what's the plan from here?"

[Jinxer]

"At least they won't be jamming that." Rhiannon murmured in agreement, watching a group of heavily armed adults rush past the outside of the shelled out building; clearly they were being searched for. "This lot are a bit better organised than the usual ones. And they've got better aim." She glanced at Julia's healed wounds for emphasis before standing up and helping the other girl to do so as well.

"We need to find some more info on what's going on so how about we just follow some of them for a while? We can't use our powers or they'll find us so we'll need to do it carefully. You ready?"

[chukklehed]

"'Not use our powers.'" Julia muttered, "You say that as if they won't kick in the second one of us cuts our hand on a nail." Regardless, she fell in behind Rhia. "Well, if that fails we can always go with plan B, or as I call it 'plan: Turn-into-metal-and-punch-people-in-the-face-till-our-problem-is-solved'." She crouched down low, waiting for one of the groups to pass by again.

[Jinxer]

"Then we just can't get injured." Rhiannon spoke matter of factly as she slipped out from their hiding place and dashed across the street as quietly as possible so that she was hidden in the shadows once again. They tailed behind a group for some time, carefully following once they were out of sight before stopping and waiting for their prey's lead to extend again.

"They're patrolling as if they own the place." Rhiannon whispered to Julia after they passed the point where they had started their stalking. "Let's head to the centre and see what they're hiding." She lead the way down an alleyway, still keeping low and close to the wall until they were in a small square with dilapidated apartment blocs around the desolate place. Tents were pitched in a uniform manner with casually dressed men and women walking around the small camp. High military grade armaments were everywhere and the organisation was precise in both the layout of the camp and the actions of those inside.

"They must be soldiers. Or at least lead by one. Maybe remnants of the war?" Rhiannon whispered to Julia as they crouched behind a stinking trash heap. "We should get out and tell Julius. Let's do a head count and then go."

[chukklehed]

Julia had counted 16 patrolling so far, grouped into squads of four and meeting each other at regular intervals. "Definitely military. I've seen actual armies with less organization. We shouldn't risk getting too close, let's get a rough count from here and get out." She looked nervous for the first time in a while, probably since before they had left the school the first time. Something about how tight the structure was here freaked her out, and she just wanted to get out.

[Jinxer]

Rhiannon nodded in agreement and they began their headcount, dividing the camp into two and quickly estimating numbers.

"Okay, now let's go as we came." She murmured and they began to creep away from the trash pile. Suddenly a high-pitched siren sound blasted out from the camp, attacking their eardrums relentlessly. Rhiannon grimaced, clamping hands over her ears and looking around to see uniformed men approaching them rapidly. She began to summon up power to whisk the two of them away to safety but control fell away through her fingers leaving her powerless as the soldiers pushed them to the ground and roughly handcuffed them.

Minutes later they were both thrown into a metal cage with the door shut and bolted from the other side with heavily armed guards all around.

"Definitely in over our heads this time." Rhiannon grimaced, rubbing her bruised temple. It wasn't healing like it normally would; the high-pitched noise seemed to be jamming their powers. "Tell me you got that message of though?"

[chukklehed]

Julia thumbed the button on the remote, but the light in her pocket didn't change to green. "It looks like they have a more impressive jamming system here." She said, leaning back against the bars. "The signal didn't get through." She subtly checked her weapons, showing Rhia the results using signals they had developed. She crossed her pointer and middle fingers over her waist, meaning that her gun was missing, but with her thumb and ring finger she made a circle over her boot, indicating that she had a knife still.

"Lot of good it would do us anyway," she said, as if continuing the previous conversation. "We can't get out of this cage, and anyone with powers would be useless in this noise." She held up her hand in an O shape and then held up two fingers, meaning those were their two objectives. Luckily none of the guards seemed particularly interested in watching the two prisoners moan about their situation.

[Jinxer]

"Well that's a worrying development." Rhiannon muttered; she had assumed Grace's inventions would surpass their captors' but it would seem they were on their own. "We could always just wait until someone comes to find us. Wouldn't look good on us though." She said in a normal tone. One of the guards glanced at them and she winked at him before he turned away with a look of scorn. She leaned forwards, pressing her face against the cage.

Time to get some info then.

"So what are you guys? Militants? Humanity-First? Disaffected soldiers?" None of the guards looked their way. "Maybe they're deaf? That high-pitched noise is pretty loud." Rhiannon spoke to Julia, although loud enough so that nearby guards might hear. One of them took the bait and turned with a snear splashed across his face.

"It only affects mutants, wench. And it doesn't matter who we are, not to you at least. Once the Enforcer is here you won't be able to tell anyone anything." He spat in their direction and turned back away.

"Enforcer? How original. You know you lot could do with a bit more chara-" Rhiannon didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as the nearest guard whipped around and cracked her forehead with the butt of his weapon sending her sprawling to the floor of the cage in a daze with a bloody brow. The same man waved the muzzle of his gun in Julia's direction.

"Don't follow her example."