[h1][color=lightgray]Carl Semken[/color][/h1] [@Maxx]
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[color=lightgray]“[i]Yes[/i].”[/color] Carl replied to Sam, making his way over to the KINGFISHER’s company. [color=lightgray]“Corner Reserve right? I’m feelin’ it.”[/color]

Carl and Sam weren’t old friends. They’d actually only met a day or so prior, at the headquarters’ firing range. Once they did meet though and got to a long while of chatting, they buddied up pretty quick. They were both meta, they were both Texas born, and they both held an appreciation of conventional firearms, hence their place of meeting. They talked about each other’s powers for a bit, comments passing over between “hey you ever go invisible and check out ladies in high school” and “you ever look at yourself in the mirror and use one of your meme things to get your flow going”.The notion that Sam was the stealthier one was pretty set in stone, Carl taking no interest in attempting to prove his sense of subterfuge. He didn’t even have one.

The two seemed like they got along well. Enough to go out drinking in the same party, at lease. And the Corner Reserve was a long time mainstay of Carl’s life in Verthaven.

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[h1][color=crimson]Veronica Marlowe[/color][/h1]
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She’d slept for a while. Veronica slowly awoke, eyes a little watery, neck a little sore. She rotated her shoulder, looking down at her lap to see the undone cloth, sitting there with no little crimson child inside. She shut her eyes a bit, and felt her mind walk away. To a little further down the cistern. To Red.

[color=crimson]Red.

Red was the largest child. Red was the strongest and the most durable. Red could fend off passersby in the sewers by roaring at them, and he could kill them with his bare hands. Red was the defender. Red was the protector. Red was near and dear to his mother’s heart. They shared minds. Not that Red had much of one on his own, but still.

As Veronica’s vision left her own eyes and transferred to Red’s, she felt herself standing in the goliath’s body. Her feet in his, walking back through the cistern, peering past the corner and beholding his birthplace. Red knelt down and simply stared at her. Though he possessed the least developed brain amidst Veronica’s children, he still possessed his own little shred of instinct. This was the mother. This was the life giver, time and time again. He knew protecting her was his purpose for which he was birthed. He let her take the reigns over his actions as she desired, and while she was awake, he stood close by on his own. He was the guardian. He was the sentinel. He was the first and last line of defense.

He stood, and turned. He watched the cistern closely, waiting for potential assailants. They both watched, eyes melded, thoughts shared, being contorted. And they waited.[/color]