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Every reason to be as far away from the welcoming activities slipped out of Eli's mind as she listened to her friends chat. The few times that the four of them had been in the same place together were a strange mix of pleasant exchanges and awful misfortune. Oddly enough Eli was all smiles as she looked at the three of them now. For the first time in what felt like forever, Eli felt as if she could finally enjoy a day in public. Here she was, standing with two increasingly important people in her life and Amelia, whose mischievous grin and witty remarks intrigued Eli. Maybe they could enjoy this bleak day in each other's company.

With a group like this, she knew that there would be plenty of remarks about the way The Promise's staff ran things here. Surely the girls had been aboard long enough to notice a few things about the station. After all, this was the first boarding day since they came to the space boat. The last time any launch pod came to the station, it carried the three of them over. She made a mental note to ask them about what some of her friends were calling the "godzilla fight". All that she remembered hearing of it was that a student turned into a giant lizard and wrecked the cafeteria. It was long due for the dining hall to buy new tables, but she never thought it would happen that way.

Just as she was about to ask them about it, she noticed that the final shuttle's doors were opening. The student greeter entered the pod, but Eli's attention turned to Lynn as she began to speak. Lynn never reached the end of her sentence.

There was suddenly a heavy crack of noise from inside of the last pod. Eli felt the air stale around her, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood tall as she stared at the empty space before the third shuttle. She recognized the sound. She'd heard something similar in the woods at the homecoming party. Right before she'd seen Agent Radvi's face blown apart. Except this sound was louder and more sinister.

They came out of the shuttle like agents of death. Armed to the teeth, dressed like they were going into war, they swarmed the launch bay like bees. Most of the students were already making their way into the cafeteria. That's where [i]they[/i] should have been already, but they hadn't had enough time to register it. They didn't even have time to run.

The bullets came at the crowd like tiny rockets. Instant panic set in. Eli felt her body freeze, but her heart beat loud and painfully in her chest. She'd heard about attacks like this on Earth. Articles that described the massacres and mini genocides dotted every parahuman-written news source Eli followed. She could never imagine what those poor parahumans had endured. She'd never wish it upon anyone, nonetheless expect the hate to make its way onto The Promise. But it was [i]here[/i]. On the only place she felt safe enough from the people driven by malice. People like the men and women before her, who carelessly sprayed bullets with the intent to [i]kill.[/i]

The noise that filled the launch bay overwhelmed all of Eli's senses. Every scream and boom of a rifle melted into one loud symphony of chaos. She cowered as a particularly fortissimo [b][i]CRACK CRACK CRACK[/i][/b] sounded nearby, and as she heard the bullets whiz by her head turned to see them land in Lynn's chest next to her. Another [b]WHIZZ[/b] and her head whipped around to see a bullet slice through Amelia's neck in front of her. The shock slowly registered in Eli's expression. Her mouth hung open as if she was choking on air, her neck tensed as if she were about to cry out in terror, and her eyes were already brimming with tears.

For a few seconds, Eli stood amidst the bloody bodies around her. Everything was happening so fast. So many people were falling. Each thud of a body on the launch bay's floor sent another chill down her spine and she trembled. She turned her head to see that Keaton was still standing too, and then noticed that Archie was among the fallen. She looked into his eyes, and they shared a brief moment of shock together before Eli felt as if her left leg was torn from her body.

Eli's cries melted into the noise. She lost sensation in her body for a moment as she overcame the urge to faint. Her unhurt leg wobbled until she knelt onto the ground to relieve it of the weight of her body. The pain quickly returned. A burning sensation so strong that she thought she'd dipped it in lava. She gripped her knee, her body shaking as she looked down at the wound in her calf. The legging covered most of her leg, but she could tell that there was something extremely wrong by the shape of her calf. Blood soaked her legging and dripped onto the floor below.

Eli grimaced at the sight, a strained whine barely making it through her clenched teeth. She doubled over from the pain and hoped that anything would relieve her of this [i]torture[/i]. Her nails dug into her leg above the bullet wound. Which unfortunately did nothing to distract her from the overwhelming sensation of fire she felt in her leg. She tried shutting her eyes in an attempt to block out the chaotic world around her, but it didn't work. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the blood. She could look upon every lifeless student on the ground around her. She saw similar images in her dreams, but of the bodies from the breakout. So much blood. So many of her people dead. She screamed into the blood spattered ground before her.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Lynn had crawled over to Amelia. Eli barely registered that Lynn was cauterizing the wound. She could only see the darkening splotches of blood in the back of her hoodie. She'd been shot twice, but she could still move! And here Eli was, completely immobilized from a bullet to the leg. [i]How?[/i] How was she so weak in comparison? How could Lynn move on as if she'd only been punched in the chest?

Lynn looked over at her, but before Eli could even sputter out a word or two she saw Lynn's eyes move away. She was still afraid. Just as afraid as Eli felt right now. So, how did she appear so calm? She'd looked the same on homecoming night. Yet she still sprung into action. She still ran into the ravine and put pressure on Radvi's wounds, while Eli grasped at straws in a foolish attempt to capture Arianna. She was jumping into action even now, and Eli could only endure the pain in her leg and watch as more of her people were taken down.

A young girl shrieked to her left and Eli's gaze hazily made its way to look at her. The girl was around the same age that Eli came aboard The Promise. Her dress was covered in blood, but it looked as if she had only been grazed on the cheek. The blood came from the dead students in front of her, and it seemed as if she'd just regained consciousness. The girl's gaze was fixed on the figure walking towards her. A few of the men remained in the launch bay, and Eli realized that they were putting a bullet into anyone that moved in front of them as their fellow terrorists continued into the cafeteria. The girl cowered as the man slowly made his way towards her now. His hands reloaded a handgun as his LMG rested across his back.

Eli looked around her, her eyes searching for [i]anyone[/i] or [i]anything[/i] that could help them. Where was the robot? Hadn't D been here, just a mere minutes ago? [i]Where's Rad-?[/i] She looked back towards Lynn and Amelia, but as her eyes laid themselves on Lynn's slumped figure she was hit with a terrifying feeling of deja vu. [b]Lynn's[/b] face was a mangled mess of blood and skin. Just like Radvi's had looked that night. This time there was no Lynn to put pressure on the wound. Instead, Eli watched as Amelia came into view by Lynn. Eli quickly closed her eyes, hoping that Amelia would be able to get Lynn to safety. When she opened them, she saw that they were gone. A few tears trickled down her cheeks as she looked at the spot where Lynn once was.

The girl continued to sob and shriek behind her, and Eli turned to look back at the scene before her. Her heart was racing. The girl was frozen in place, just like Eli had been what felt like ages ago. The attacker was focused on his gun. The magazine had been prepped long before he stepped foot on The Promise. He'd already dropped the empty magazine onto the ground. It clattered to the ground next to the lifeless boy he stepped over. Now he slid the new one into the base of the pistol. With a powerful grip, he snapped it into place and cocked the gun. Eli jumped as she heard the pistol's slide SNAP into place. A second later, the man was a few meters away from the girl. Eli could see the crinkles of pleasure around his eyes as he raised his arm and aimed for her brow.

[b]Ba-dump. . . ba-[i]dump. . . ba-dump[/i]. . .[/b]

[b][color=E5D0FF]"NOOO!"[/color][/b]

Eli shrieked before he could fire, her anger manifesting in every inch of her expression. It felt like a dam of emotions burst from Eli's body. She hadn't felt [i]this[/i] scared in her lifetime. She hadn't felt this [b]angry[/b] in [i]years.[/i] She thought of her murdered friend, Ezekiel; of Radvi and Lynn, who had now been shot in similar ways by similar people. Of every time she'd been hit or thrown to the ground by others that didn't understand her. That knew she was different and targeted her for it. Of all of the times she'd heard of a little girl or boy slaughtered on her way home from school, or families killed at their dining tables for simply [i]being parahuman.[/i] All of the grief and frustration she felt for her people came barreling out of her and into the man that held a young girl at gunpoint and any of the other false soldiers that remained in the launch bay.

The man's view of the girl suddenly distorted. The world around him began to spin and warp at unimaginable speeds. An overwhelming wave of nausea struck him like the bullet that struck Lynn in the chest, or Amelia in the neck, or Archie in the shoulder. Or the bullet that missed the girl before him and lodged itself into the wall behind her. Eli continued to scream at them, her pain and anguish fueling the barrage of [color=E5D0FF][i]v e r t i g o[/i][/color] that disoriented the few terrorists around her.

Eli continued her onslaught, and while the man felt [i]extremely[/i] sick and dizzy, he managed to aim his pistol. It was pointed in the direction of the screaming parahuman, whom he assumed was behind his sudden sickness. He fired twice, both landing in the ground to the left of Eli. Eli's rage had filled her eyes with tears, but through the blur she could tell that he was shooting at her. She could feel the wind of the bullets as the passed by. The sound they made as they connected with the floor or dead bodies behind her. In the back of her mind she was aware that she should be afraid. That she shouldn't have drawn his attention towards her. What else could she have done, though? Sat and watched as he killed the girl? And eventually bit the bullet when he made his way towards herself? No. This was the only action Eli felt like she could take. That she [i]must[/i] take.

The man stumbled towards her. Both of his hands gripped the pistol in an attempt to steady it, but the vertigo made it feel like up was down. Like left was right. At least three or four, he couldn’t tell, of Eli swam in his vision as he snarled in frustration. He fired again, and again. The first bullet whipped past Eli’s shoulder and hit the ground behind her, her hair tousled by the wind of it. The second grazed her left arm.

Eli yelped, the momentary shock of pain halting her illusions for a moment. She reached up to grip her arm, while the man slowly steadied his pistol as his vision regain normalcy. Eli looked back up at him, her face contorted in anguish. He couldn’t win. She wasn’t going to become one of the thousand children that never returned to Earth. She wouldn’t accept this death. Certainly not from a man who fired at defenseless kids.

Just as the man’s aim gained stability, the barrel pointed directly at the forehead, Eli regained focus. Suddenly, the view of the frightened girl in front of the gunman slowly faded to black. At first he wasn't frightened. He'd killed in the dark before. He could still feel-... the trigger? The warm metal of the handgun vanished into thin air. In fact, he couldn't even feel the ground under his feet. He... he couldn't [i]feel[/i] anything. He knew his arms were moving, and there was a soft pressure on his body where he placed his hands, but he couldn't feel the sensation of cloth to skin. He could only hear the distant gunfire, the clank of metal hitting concrete, and the heavy breathing of the girl. He suddenly realized that he'd misplaced his gun. Anger consumed him as he heard her scramble for something on the ground between them. The feeling of the charged air returned to his fingers, and he grinned as he felt the solid floor of The Promise beneath his feet. She was weak. He could still crush her even as a blind, weaponless man. With a roar, he flung himself in her direction.

Eli hadn't expected the man to lunge for her. She'd been too busy fumbling with the gun. Her shaky hands weren't trained to hold a weapon like this, and it was hard to focus on the terrorist as well as the task of gripping the gun the right way. She hadn't even realized that he'd regained the feeling in his toes. His body crashed into hers, his knee momentarily connecting with her bloody calf. Pain rippled up her leg and it came out of her throat as a pained whimper. His hands were grasping at her as they fell to the ground. One found her hair and held on tightly, the other pushing her throat downwards with force. Her head connected with the floor just as her finger found the trigger. In her shock, she [i]squeezed[/i].

They both froze. As the gunman's eyes regained their vision, he was numbly staring into Eli's brown eyes. They were widening in terror, the reality of their brief tussle dawning on her as she felt the gun that was pressed between their bodies slowly become coated in warm ooze. The gun had fired, directly into the man's ribcage. He coughed and sputtered, blood spattering Eli's face as she flinched. His grip in her hair slacked, and as Eli opened her eyes she saw him fall off of her onto his side. They both trembled next to each other. Eli stared at the ceiling as she listened to the man take his last few ragged breaths.

Her calf burned like the sun. Her head felt sore against the concrete. Her left arm was tight and she felt blood trickling down her sleeve. The gunfire in the distance was growing less frequent. Was it over? Eli wanted it to be over. She wanted to be back in Arizona. With the warm sun shining on her face. She wanted to be back in her room watching cheesy movies with Keaton.

[color=E5D0FF]"Keaton..."[/color] She croaked, realizing that she hadn't seen her friend in the melee of violence since she'd been shot. She turned her head to look for her, her eyes brimming with tears as she grew worried for her friend. [color=E5D0FF]"Keaton!?"[/color] She dug her elbow in the ground below her, grunting as she tried to sit herself up again. Someone was suddenly next to her and Eli cowered, but it was only the girl from before. She was sobbing and reaching for Eli to embrace her. Eli felt her heart break into pieces as she listened to her repeat the words "thank you" over and over until she pulled away to catch her breath. Eli could only offer the girl a shaky smile. [color=E5D0FF]"It's alright, now,"[/color] she murmured, yet she kept her hands firmly wrapped around the handgun.