canaryrose

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Patricia didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as Pandora uttered the words, the girl skittered to the door and up the stairs. She was the first to make into the house above and held the door open for everyone else, waiting until everybody was inside before closing it. Still trembling and blinking tears out of her eyes, she observed the room, focusing on the new environment to calm her down.

It was… kooky. That was the first word that came to Patricia’s mind. Although Pandora appeared to be around Christina’s age, her home reminded her of Patrica’s grandma’s- without the old person smell, of course. Patricia paced around the room under the guise of exploration, running her hands along the walls. Everything here seemed… old. The carpets seemed as if they were from another century, and, when Patricia paused in the kitchen, she noticed that it was empty. There was no microwave, no dishes piled up, no dishwasher running. Pandora was one odd person. Remembering the cake in her hands, she swung open the refrigerator and put it in. She blinked as soon as she noticed it, surprised- there was nothing in the fridge. No food, no drinks, no nothing.

Patricia shook off the skeeved-out feeling she had and headed back into the living room. She sat down on the rug against the couch, setting her bag down. When Grace came up to her, asking for her laptop, she nodded silently and unzipped the bag for her. The news played on in the background of her thoughts, making her despondency rise by the second. Finally, while Grace was still unlocking her laptop, she found the remote and pressed mute. She didn’t want to watch that shit anyways.

“HE-” she began to protest, loudly, before realizing that she needed to be quiet, goddamnit and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Hey!” she whispered this time. “Am not.” She shoved Grace and then peered over her shoulder, watching her browse the Internet.

Nodding along when Grace spoke, Patricia itched for her phone to browse through. She wanted to talk to her mom, or somebody else that could help. “Mmm,” she responded to Grace’s plan. “I don’t know. Maybe we should-” but before Patricia knew it, Grace was gone, heading to the “bathroom”. Patricia just sighed. Wasn’t she the one who was supposed to be upset?

When Chad spoke, Patricia glanced up to him, eyes flicking to his face. “Who are you again?” she asked, a tired expression on her face. He looked familiar, but… she couldn’t place him. Then, realizing that what she’d just said might put him off protecting them, she hurriedly added, “O-oh. Sorry. Long day, you know?” She laughed insincerely. “Y-you look familiar. ...Chase, maybe? Anyways, Chase… it’s… don’t bother. Doesn’t matter anymore. I’m gonna go see if Grace is puking up her guts or just crying. You can browse around on my laptop if you want, I don’t mind. But if I catch you snooping, I will end you.”

With that, Patricia headed to the bathroom, bursting in without knocking. She wasn’t expecting Grace to be naked anyways. Just like she had been expecting, Grace was on the floor, sobbing her eyes out. Patricia sighed, and plopped onto the floor along with her. In a very much not Patricia-like move, she wrapped her friend-one of the only people she could trust- in a massive hug.

Patricia sniffled, barely holding back tears herself. “Maybe we should leave the city,” she proposed, voice cracking. “We can hide out somewhere in- in Chainstown, or something, until this whole thing blows over and everything is fine and normal again. I couldn’t- I can’t go to Coldwater, Grace. I can’t. And I know, like, Tom betrayed us and everything-” she sniffled again, “but I know you’ll always be on my side. That makes you better than him.” She spat the word out with contempt, and then buried her face into Grace’s arm, trying not to cry again.

@Hitman@Amethyst@Duoya

---

Jamie scowled at Nero, stalking forward to his broken body. She stood over him for a moment, examining. For a moment, she had thought she would need some bungee cord to tie him up, but it seemed that she had broken a little more leg than she had intended. Glancing over to the troll dude, it seemed that he was the same way as well. Shrugging, Jamie grabbed the plastic Target bag from her cart. “Don’t worry,” she reassured Nero, “I’m not going to kill you. At least, not today.” She smiled wolfishly at him. “Stay out of me and my friends’ ways and it’ll stay that way. Okay? Okay! Bye!” With that, Jamie walked off, heading out the doors and back to her car. She popped the groceries into the passenger seat as she got into the driver’s seat, turned the ignition on, and drove.

She drove aimlessly for a bit, not sure where to go. Obviously, even to Jamie, her house was out of the equation. They would be looking there, especially now that she had defeated the first reinforcements. She needed somewhere safe to go. Her first thought, as it always was, was her parents’ house- but she ruled that one out as quickly as it came. They hadn’t wanted to see her in six years- why would that start when she became a fugitive? HERO One, of course, but HERO was apparently done for. The idea was shocking, but she had faith that it would come back. Maybe… she was friends with some of the Destiny Knights. They might let her crash for a few.

Then, as she was thinking, Jamie saw something on the side of the road that surprised her. Her mouth formed a little ‘o’, and she slammed on the brakes and parked messily, scrambling out of the car.

“Joseph?! Oh, thank God! These two dudes attacked me at Target…” Jamie went over to him and started yammering on about Nero and Dungeon Troll. “Anyways, we should probably get out of here before somebody else finds us. Hop in. I got ice cream! It might melt soon, though…”

@Hitman@Rabidporcupine

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-415

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-414

《 H. E. R. O. 》

The cashier finished scanning and bagging Jamie’s items. “That’ll be… $40.27, miss. Cash, credit, or debit?”

“Uh, debit,” Jamie muttered. Her blue eyes glanced to the store doors warily as she put her card into the reader. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was taking the time to check out. It might’ve been a better idea to get out of there before someone found her, but she wanted to finish her shopping before being plunged into yet another disaster. Nobody in the store seemed to be aware of what had happened, which was good- no one was calling the cops. Since Jamie had only told her friends her location, she couldn’t imagine that the EAGLEs would know where she was- but they knew where she lived, so she had better find someplace else to go after she finished at Target. She drummed her fingers on the cashier’s table as the reader processed her purchase, senses on full alert.

Then, with a deafening blast, a thing burst through the walls. That was really the only way to describe it- tall and disgustingly green, with long, oily dreadlocks. Jamie curled her lip and readied herself for an attack. How had they already found her?! She knew for sure that there weren’t any Wings of Law on the group chat. That meant there must be a snitch. Jamie briefly wondered who it was before refocusing on this troll-looking dude. He yelled at her (which wasn’t very nice!) and then hit the ground, creating a rumbling shockwave.

Jamie, being intimately familiar with this move, didn’t even need to move away. She took the energy and turned it on its head. With a burst of her power, she redirected the shockwave right back at the villain with twice the power. The building shook, carts making clattering noises. A nearby window burst into shards of glass skittering across the floor. Troll dude was knocked off his feet and sent flying into a nearby wall, but wasn’t given a moment of rest before Jamie tried to crush him with a blast of concussive force.

"It's time for a clobbering, wouldn't you say?" a voice shouted out from behind her. Jamie turned, panting, and narrowed her eyes. "For the glory of Rome!"

Really?! They had sent two? And she half-recognized this one too. She did her best approximation of a glower in Nero’s direction, but really ended up looking like she was pouting. “I’ll clobber right back at you- ohhhh!” Jamie suddenly realized who she was, and then narrowed her eyes in a real glare. “You’re that dickhead who kidnapped us! I’ve been waiting for this…”

If they had been anywhere else, Jamie would’ve turned up her power to about an eight. But since they were in a Target, with innocents inside… she didn’t want to crush anyone. She wasn’t guilty of anything, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to become guilty of anything. So, Jamie extended her right arm and blasted Nero, only sending out a mild shockwave to get him off of his rhythm. Then, while he was unfocused, she used her left hand to blast his legs. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that to beat me!” Jamie jeered, grinning.

@Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Something was wrong. As Grace looked at her, expression pained, alarm bells clanged in Patricia’s head. Had something happened? Had someone... no, she didn’t want to think about it. One of their friends couldn’t be... She drew herself up, stopping the puppy eyes to look Grace in the face, wide-eyed and confused. "This isn't a mission, Patricia, agi," Grace said, being uncharacteristically gentle. Patricia’s heart jumped at her soft tone, and she backed up a step. “I-if it’s not a mission, then… everything’s fine, right? Right?” she pressed Grace, but Grace just stood there, looking deep in thought. Patricia braced herself for bad news as soon as Grace took a breath, determined to take it like a champ.

But the news was worse than she could imagine. For a moment, all Patricia could do was stare, barely comprehending. Shock reverberated through her bones, eyes and mouth open wide. The Wings of Law… a coup? And they had framed her. But the Wings were gone, and she hadn’t done anything. “You’re… you’re kidding me. Right? You’re- you’re kidding. It isn’t funny, Grace, please, I-” Patricia cut herself off with a nervous laugh, desperate for it all to be an elaborate lie. In her mind, she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t true, that Grace was some horrible prankster. Maybe… maybe it was Korean April Fool’s Day? She accepted Grace’s hug numbly, and shuffled after Grace into the living room. She stared at the television, willing it all not to be true when Grace turned it on, and…

“No. Nononononono… this isn’t happening, I-I didn’t-” Patricia choked out, staring at her own face plastered across CCN. It was real. This was happening- her worst nightmare came to life. Panic swirled, her throat tightening and body shuddering. Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t want Grace or Eliza to see her sob like a baby, terrified. So she ran to her room, slamming the door shut.

Patricia sagged against the door, gasping for air. She didn’t have time to panic, didn’t have time before they got here to take her away, didn’t have time before she was carted off to prison for something she hadn’t done. But her body shuddered with terror, and she dug her fingers in her hair, unable to stop the tears from flowing. Why were they treating her like this? Why did Seraph have it out for her? He had worked on her father’s case, but that was no reason for this. Patricia sobbed into the collar of her dress, terrified. She didn’t want to go to prison, to be treated like her father. She had spent most of her life trying to build her own legacy, and, thanks to the Wings, all that had come crashing down on her in one fell swoop.

Patricia spent a horrible minute curled up like that. She was swathed in terror, overwhelming her mind and cowing her. But she knew she had to pull herself together, and, after that minute, stood up shakily and tried desperately to cast her attention somewhere else. Packing. Right. I need to pack. Patricia stumbled around her room, pulling out an old, tattered backpack. It was the one she usually used for sleepovers. This is just like a sleepover, she thought to herself. Tears still dripped down, and a horrible nausea was rising in her stomach, but Patricia dashed around her room in a panic, snatching clothes out of her drawers and shoving them into her backpack. She grabbed her laptop and its charger and shoved it into the bag. Luckily, she had saved a few burner phones from the mafia mission, so she dropped a couple of those into it too. Grabbing socks from her drawer, she wiggled them on and yanked her feet into a pair of tennis shoes by her door. Most importantly, she grabbed her stuffed unicorn, Veronica, and shoved her into the bag. It was a struggle to zip it, but she managed to after a bit of effort. Once done, she gasped for air and slung it across her shoulders. Seeing them in the corner, she also grabbed Eliza’s sleepover bag and her violin.

Patricia left her room, furiously trying to wipe her tears from her eyes. Before heading back into the living room, she popped into the bathroom to grab her toothbrush and some toothpaste. She didn’t stop to stare at herself in the mirror, instead charging straight back into the living room. Sniffling, she gave Eliza’s bag and violin to her and turned her gaze to the TV.

What she saw hit like a dull punch to the gut. “Tom?” she whispered, confused, as the newscaster… he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have betrayed them. Patricia shook her head, in disbelief. But if all this could happen, then that could happen as well, couldn’t it? He was her friend. More than that, even, like something she imagined a brother would be. She was too upset to be angry, at this point- just numbly sad. In moments, her life had fallen apart.

She simply nodded at Grace’s little speech, just staring ahead. Tears trailed across her face. She stared at the portal for a moment and then glanced around her house. Would this be the last time she saw this place? If she was arrested… well, she couldn’t imagine being exonerated if Powers and Christina were dead and gone. Her eyes snagged on the cake she had finished mere minutes earlier and, for a reason unknown to her, walked into the kitchen. She grabbed it, balancing it in her hands, and walked back to the room. Why let all that effort go to waste?

Grace’s hand waved through the portal, and Patricia looked to Eliza. “It’ll…” she choked on her own words, unable to reassure her. “Come on. Let’s… let’s go.” Not waiting for Eliza, Patricia stepped through the portal, cake in hand.

She emerged in a florist’s shop, resplendent with summer flowers. Patricia took a breath, both trying to calm herself and smelling the flowers. It smelled nice. She glanced at Pandora and Chad, and then examined the room with her eyes. She vaguely recognized the two of them- especially Chad, who she had yelled at about a week ago. She cringed at the memory- hopefully it hadn’t left a sour taste in his mouth. She listened to Grace speak, and then took a breath in to say something herself.

“I’m- I’m Patricia. Aria. Whatever.” She stared Pandora in the eyes, trying her hardest not to cry even more. Against her will, another tear slipped out, but she couldn’t let go of the cake to wipe it from her eye. “I know what you probably saw on the news, and I-I promise, that wasn’t me.” Patricia sniffled. “I’m innocent. I didn’t kill all those people, Seraph made it up. I’m a good person, I swear. I don’t know why this is happening.” Patricia’s voice cracked on ‘I swear’, her mouth quivering. She moved past it quickly, though, and she awkwardly extended the cake, at a loss for what else to do. They were screwed if Pandora wouldn’t let them stay. She might even call the cops. “H-here. If you’re going to let us stay here, you might as well get something out of harboring fugitives. It’s homemade, and I don’t know how good it is, but…” Patricia smiled, hopeful, although weak.

"...Miss Pandora...this is Alpha aka K Nine...member of Hero One now officially with CPD SWAT...please let me in...we need to talk…” A voice sounded at the door, making Patricia jump into the air. The cops?! Fuck fuck fuck fuck… How had they found them already!

“Oh, shit! The cops! M-ma’am, do you have someplace I could hide? Like a closet or something… I really don’t want to go to prison,” Patricia whispered, glancing at the door. Her heart beat in her chest frantically, expression terrified.

@Hitman@Amethyst@Zoey Boey@Duoya

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

For a moment, Cal thought they might be able to figure it out. Both girls stopped hitting each other and stared each other down, glaring. Summer approached and Calypso tensed up, preparing to dash in between the two of them and break it up. But instead of punching… she touched Dakota’s head? Like a boop? Surprisingly playful for Summer, Calypso thought, until she stopped being an idiot and remembered magic. Oh. Oh no. Whatever spell she had just cast could not have been good. Calypso watched in horror, still cradling Astro in her arms as she watched it take hold. Dakota started panicking in seconds, stumbling and falling. Calypso ran forward, looking confused and rather distraught herself.

"Callie!"

Calypso dropped to the ground with Dakota, concern showing on her face. Dakota always kept her cool- something was wrong. “I’m right here, Kota, everything’s fine! What’s wrong?” She listened as Dakota spoke, horror dawning on her face. Summer could blind people? Was it permanent? If it was, maybe Summer would be kicked out… hm... Calypso hugged her close, rubbing her back until her sight came back. “It’ll be okay. Promise,” she reassured Dakota, although she wasn’t quite sure of that herself.

When her sight came back, Calypso let out a sigh of relief. She offered a hand to help Dakota up, but her friend refused it and stood up by herself. She rolled her eyes playfully. It relieved her to see that Dakota was fine, even if she was clearly still shaken up. “You are not fine. Look at you! It’s time for some TLC. Stat. C’mere.” Not waiting for Dakota to say yes, Calypso yanked her friend back to their sleeping bags, gesturing for her to sit down. “Stay here. I’m getting us s’mores, then we talk.” With that, Calypso turned around and went to the fire, searching for Hana’s s’more stuff.

She found it fairly quickly and pulled out the marshmallows from the bag, finding two sticks that she hoped were sterile and stabbing them with it. She put them both over the fire in one hand and prepped the graham crackers and chocolate with the other. Not wanting to take long, Calypso pulled them out while they were freshly golden brown and pressed them into the s’mores. If she was being perfectly honest, she had never really made s’mores before, so she just kind of put them together like she thought they might go together and went back to Dakota in record time, holding up both s’mores triumphantly.

“Here. Eat. Being upset takes energy!” Calypso shoved the s’more into Dakota’s hands and plopped onto the ground next to her. “How are you feeling? Do you need some water? Another hug? God, I’m gonna kill that bitch… do your eyes hurt? No, it was probably just an illusion… you’re okay now, though! Do you want me to punch her for you?” Calypso munched on her s’more, miming punching the air. “Seriously, I will. I’m not very good at it, though. But I can do it! Whatever makes you feel better.”

@Hitman

《 H. E. R. O. 》

It was a perfect day to be out and about. The sun was shining, the brilliant blue sky void of any clouds. The city, as always, was bustling. Everybody, everywhere seemed to be in a good mood, bolstered by the good weather. It was the middle of summer vacation in Castleburg, so the city’s students had the freedom to run amok. In the borough of East Flank, where Patricia lived, summer was especially hopping. Farmers’ markets were open, selling all sorts of summer produce; the smells of street food wafted in the air, accompanied by all the rest of the typical city scent. It was hot out, the sun bearing down on passersby. It was a truly perfect day to be outside.

Unless your names were Patricia and Eliza.

Patricia was in an uncharacteristically good mood. A week ago, the Wings of Law (some of her least favorite people on the planet) had finally gotten their comeuppance. For what they had done to her and her friends, they had been fired from H.E.R.O. This week, Patricia hadn’t had to worry about any of those elitist snobs showing up to take her job or insult her- because they were all gone! Vengeance felt amazing.

What made her mood even better, though, was the presence of her girlfriend, Eliza. She had been so worried about her when they had been kidnapped, but Eliza had turned out alright, if a bit traumatized. Today, they were hanging out at Patricia’s apartment. Usually, they would hang out at Eliza’s place (it being much larger than Patricia’s two-bedroom, one-bath apartment), but Eliza had wanted a change of pace. So here they were, in Patricia’s apartment. It was pretty small. On the fourth floor of an apartment complex in East Flank, there was a great view of the street and alleyway outside of the apartment from the windows- but they had to be careful not to jump or run around so as to not disturb the people living on the lower floors.

They had neglected to tell Eliza’s parents, but Patricia’s mother had had to go to work that day, leaving the two of them alone in the apartment. In Patricia’s bedroom, with the door closed. Being alone with Eliza, no supervision, made Patricia’s heart light up with elation. Finally, they could have some fun! They were recording a song cover in Patricia’s bedroom for Eliza’s YouTube channel, Inviolisible. The music had been flowing for a good hour, the two of them doing take after take of the song, making sure that the product was perfect for the Internet. Noise-blocking headphones were clamped tight around Eliza’s ears as her fingers and her bow flew across the violin, and Patricia’s hypnotizing voice rang above it. She sang directly into a microphone, while Eliza played into another.

The gear was set up in the tight space of Patricia’s bedroom. Unable to squeeze a chair into the space with the tripod set up and the fancy mics, too, they had both resolved to sit on Patricia’s bed and record the song. Sheet music sat in front of the both of them, on stands under the mics. Patricia had a full bed, with a purple quilted comforter. There was a small wooden desk in the corner, set up with Patricia’s laptop. It currently looked rather abandoned- Patricia had not done any schoolwork since summer had started, so the desk hadn’t been used much. There was a sliding door along one wall. If opened, it would slide open to reveal Patricia’s dresser, some clothes, and a whole shitton of old stuff (backpacks, stuffed animals, dirty clothes, etc.) crammed in there. Fairy lights hung along the walls of Patricia’s room, and, above her desk, there was a row of clothesline clips. Pictures of her and her friends (Brie, Eliza, Tom, Grace, etc) hung from them, crowded onto the clips, along with a picture or two of her and her mother together. The window, which was to the right of the bed, had lacy white curtains hanging from it, currently open to reveal the alleyway below, and a fire escape directly below her window.

After an hour or so of recording, the two girls finished up, turning off their mics and chatting for a bit. Not wanting to go through the ordeal of taking it down, they left the camera and mics up in their spots. After they finished (mostly) cleaning up, they had intended to review the takes and see which one was best, and maybe refilm if needed. But then Eliza started talking about this new show she had heard was coming out on Netflix earlier that day, and, well… plans change. The two headed into the living room, leaving the equipment and Eliza’s violin in the room.

Patricia’s living room was a nice, homey affair. The floors were sturdy light-brown hardwood, but there was a blue area rug directly in front of the couch and a welcome mat in front of the door. There was a dark brown sofa along one of the walls, under a large window looking out onto the street below. There was also a matching armchair angled towards the television. They were both decorated with varying types of throw pillows. The sofa was dark brown and worn, looking comfortable and deep. Patricia knew that, if she sat in it while she was tired, its comfortableness would almost immediately lull her to sleep. The front door was only a couple feet away from the couch, along the same wall. The couch faced a television on a table, and the remote sat on a coffee table directly in front of the couch. Patricia and Eliza sat there and snuggled up under a soft quilt, turning on the television and navigating to Netflix, turning on the new show.

An hour later, Patricia found herself drifting off, unable to keep her eyes open for very long. Nestled under the warm blanket, it was difficult to stay awake. But she wanted to stay awake, so she crept out of the blanket carefully, making sure not to rip it off of Eliza. She glanced down at the other girl, planning on suggesting that they do something else, before noticing that she was peacefully asleep. Her heart melted. She looked so cute sleeping there, so Patricia resolved to leave her alone until she woke up. But what to do until then… hm…

Just then, Patricia suddenly remembered something that was sitting in her pantry. Yes! That was such an awesome idea! That weekend, her mom and her had bought a box of angel food cake mix, ingredients to make whipped cream, and strawberries. Her mom hadn’t ended up having enough time to bake it that weekend, so the strawberries would spoil unless Patricia ate them. She had been planning to eat them as snacks, but this was a much better idea! She could make strawberry shortcake!
It would be such an awesome surprise for Eliza. Patricia tip-toed into the kitchen. The kitchen was right off the living room, so it wasn’t much of a trek. She pulled out the ingredients she needed and got to work.

For the next hour, she baked as quietly as possible. After all, this needed to stay a surprise. She had turned off the television but ended up putting on some soft classical music from Spotify while she baked. The instructions on the box were simple enough, and she had everything she needed. Every so often, she’d glance into the living room, checking to see if Eliza was still napping. Once the cake was done, she took it out of the oven and smeared whipped cream all over it. It had three layers, and she put small-cut strawberries in between each, along the sides, and on top. She couldn’t help herself, though- she had ended up eating a quarter of the strawberries that were in the container, and did lick both bowls clean.

Finally, around 3:00, she was finishing up. Mozart played quietly in the background as she put the finishing touches on the cake. It didn’t look professional, but it looked… nice. Especially considering Patricia was not awesome at cooking. She didn’t have one of those spout thingies, so she had just used the spatula (and, admittedly, her fingers) to smear the whipped cream around. The only thing left at this point was to make plates and then wake Eliza up. She leaned back and smiled, satisfied with herself.

Then, when she least expected it, there was a sound of sudden feet on the floorboards. Patricia blinked, confused, and then sort of sad. Had Eliza woken up already?! Damn, she’d wanted to set up a romantic table and everything too…

"Patricia?" A voice yelled out from the living room. Patricia raised her brows. That wasn’t Eliza. "We need to go. Soon. And by soon, I mean right now."

Oh! Grace! Patricia scowled. Just like Grace to come in here and ruin her day with some stupid mission… she raced to the living room as soon as she heard her, putting two fingers on Grace’s lips and pulling her into the kitchen, shushing her. She had whipped cream smeared across her cheek, which she was unaware of, and flour dusting her dress.

“Grace!” Patricia hissed, gesturing for Grace to keep her voice down. “You couldn’t have knocked?! Eliza’s sleeping.” She glanced at Eliza, who had somehow remained asleep through all that. “Good, you didn’t wake her up. Can whatever mission this is wait? I made a surprise cake for her, and we’re going to eat it and then, like…” Patricia almost said kiss, but caught herself and blushed scarlet. “Pleaseee? I’ll let you have some with us!” She looked up at Grace with puppy eyes, clasping her hands together and puffing out her lip.

@Hitman@Amethyst

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-409

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Jamie’s brows took on a furrowed tilt as she browsed through the racks of shirts. It was 8 days until her and Brie’s birthdays, but she was determined to find the perfect gift for her roommate. No lame gifters here! If Brie was going to get her a gift, then she might as well return the favor. But… she had no idea what Brie actually wanted, despite having lived with her for almost two months. So, naturally, Jamie had decided to head to their local Target. They had everything, after all- perfect for an indecisive gifter. In the weekday afternoon, the Target wasn’t nearly as crowded as it usually was. Most people were at work on a Tuesday afternoon. Even Jamie had planned on working today but, strangely, the mission database had gone down 2 hours ago and had not come back up. She had attributed it to technical difficulties and then, when it hadn’t come back up for a half hour, had decided to just go shopping instead.

She wasn’t finding too much, unfortunately. She had found a funny birthday card which now sat in her cart, but she had quickly gotten distracted by the clothes section. Maybe Brie would want some clothes? But Jamie couldn’t help but keep thinking of herself as she browsed through all the adorable maxi dresses and tank tops. After all, that dress with the embroidered floral hem would be so cute on her! And her last maxi dress had been kind of ruined by the combination of jumping into a pool and fighting ogres. No amount of detergent would ever get that smell out. Convincing herself against her better wishes, Jamie grabbed a gauzy embroidered floral dress off the rack and plopped it into her cart alongside the card.

Now that she had indulged herself, Jamie turned her cart towards the decorations section. Seeing a relatively clear aisle, a smile quirked on her face. Perfect. With a gleeful grin, Jamie kicked at the ground and put both of her feet on the cart, careening carelessly down the aisle. “Weeeeee!” she shouted, childlike, before seeing the decorations aisle and slamming her foot back onto the ground, stopping the cart in its track. She twirled it around into the aisle, beginning to browse through the decorations with a giddy smile still on her face. Hmmm… something bold, maybe? Bold, fun colors for Brie. Ooooh, this would be nice for Jamie’s wall…

When she was about halfway through the aisle, pawing through decorations, Jamie’s phone buzzed. And then buzzed again. And again and again and again… who was texting her so much?! Jamie snatched her phone out of her purse, opening it and swiping through her texts, stomping her foot. She was busy, damnit! She had five texts, all from different people. Her brow furrowed as she read them, her foot slowing its stomping. Four of them were from acquaintances, but one was from… Melissa? Her eldest sister, who she hadn’t spoken to in at least a year. “She never texts me,” Jamie muttered under her breath, shell-shocked. She opened the text quickly, worry starting to build up in her chest. Why would Melissa text her?

jamie wtf did you do???

ccn.com/former-heroes-wanted-for-mass…

Mel

Alarmed, Jamie opened up the article. She skimmed through it quickly, expression becoming more horrified by the second. HERO gone? Seraph taken over? Patricia accused of murder? Jamie scrolled through the article, jaw hanging open. She had to put her hand against the shelves to stabilize herself. Her heart began to pump with terror as she saw the photos of herself plastered across the article, alongside those of all her other friends. “FUCK!” she yelled out, an uncommon occurrence for Jamie. She needed to call someone. Brie, maybe? Blake? Tom? But first… well, she had to get out of here. She could leave the birthday shopping for later. Hands shaking on the cart, Jamie rolled it over to the checkout counter. She smiled numbly at the cashier, loading her items onto the belt (chocolate ice cream, a card, the dress, and a scented candle). Evidently, the cashier hadn’t seen the news yet, because she didn’t even blink at Jamie, only smiling and starting to scan her items. Jamie pulled out her phone, navigating to the group chat.

wtf is going on??? where r u guys we need to meet up, i’m in the target on 12th

Jamie

@Hitman

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-401