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Bloody Mary brought the girl up to the top of the rocky cliffs, nearly tripping over the stony path several times. She wasn't thinking straight anymore; the adrenaline was messing with her head. It wasn't fear itself that she was feeling, but somehow she felt that she was being "hunted". She pulled the other girl along, who, surprisingly, didn't put up much of a fight. As the two got to the top of the overlook, she stopped dead in her tracks. Somehow, her former companion was already there! He was staring straight at her, and a strange tingling sensation grew in her stomach. She felt the strength leave her muscles as her wound--still unknown to her--closed up, sealing off the blood that fueled her power. A cold, numbing sensation of helplessness seized her body. Instinctively, she grabbed her weapon and leveled it at his head. "Who are you?!" she screamed, her voice tainted with an intense, primal anger--one that prey held exclusively for its predator. She tried to hold the piece straight, but the rage and confusion building up in her caused her to quiver.

As she backed up toward the edge of the cliff, a voice behind her caused her to whirl around. The boy was flying--FLYING--while aiming a bow and arrow directly at her. Her eyes widened. For a few seconds, she stood there, paralyzed with fear. She was cornered, caught between two superhuman beings. She needed an exit... somehow, she had to create it. In a moment of weakness, she did something she thought she wasn't capable of doing, something she thought she wouldn't be able to bring herself to do. She placed her hand on the small of the girl's back and gave a strong push. She didn't even bother looking back; she began to bolt away, hoping she'd find some sanctuary somewhere. But, in the back of her mind, she felt like no matter where she ran, she'd never find safety.

The sight of Austin with wings was enough to make her not regain her balance. Alma thought he was hiding something, just not something like that. She felt her body teeter precariously when Austin called her name. She smiled faintly before she let herself fall.

It was as though time had slowed down a hundred fold. Alma refused to let herself succumb to the adrenaline again. This wasn't a time to revel in the fear. Death, last time she checked, only happened once. That adventure was much preferred for another day. She willed her mind blank, allowing the darkness that had formed the day she received the sword to take over. She whispered a single command under her breath.

Come, my Shadows.

Through her gathering Shadows, Alma felt a winged form flying towards her. A realization threatened to flood her Shadow-infested thoughts.

He might find out about my powers. He doesn't need another reason to fear me.

Though she had no idea where the second half of that thought came from, she decided to let him save her. Carefully, she willed the gathering Shadows to slow her descent, not totally stop it. Her Shadows instantly obeyed not unlike when one wills their arms to move. In the fading light, the dark aura around the goth went unnoticed, even by her. However, if anyone had been paying close attention, they'd have seen the girl falling unnaturally slow, almost five times slower than she should have been.

I'll let him know about my powers... Just not today. Today, I'll let him play the hero. I'll just pay him back someday.

<<

Just when Austin had submitted himself to the shame of being unable to help Alma, his outstretched arms wrapped around her body. Reacting on instinct, Austin pulled her in closer to him and angled himself upwards back over the cliff. This couldn’t be happening. He knew that there was no time to save her.

Regardless, he shot heroically through the silence of the coming night. Such stillness was exactly what he’d hoped for. A quick scan of the area, with vision sharper than average, he could tell that nobody else was there. Briefly he wondered how they could have gotten away so quickly, but it was irrelevant. He lay Alma down behind a bush. This way, he’d hear them if they were hiding.

“We’re safe,” he promised. His wings retracted. As he helped the girl to stand up again, he made eye contact with her. A twig splintered under his feet as he stepped backwards. The girl’s eyes were red. Like – unnatural, demonic red. Almost forgetting that he’d just sprouted wings and saved her from certain death, Austin stumbled over his words to make a question out of her abnormality. It sounded something like:

“Uhhh?”

Seven hours. Seven hours was how long Michael Greene was submerged in the dark depths of the ocean. And yet, he didn't need to come up for air. Ever. He kept on checking his watch every hour and promised himself that he would come out and dry off. But the young teenager couldn't resist the adrenaline high he got whenever he took in a breath... while underwater. For the time being, Michael was mimicking the properties of a fish, more specifically it's ability to breathe underwater. But now, his aquatic adventure was over; he was hungry and needed food. Plus, moving around in something more dense than air itself was quite tiring. Slowly surfacing, Michael scanned the immediate for any sort of threat. He didn't want anyone spot him using his abilities. After seeing no one, he slowly switched from an ability to breathe underwater to the flight of a bird, and safely ascended the jagged rocks to the cliff face above. As his feet touched the ground, however, he had the feeling that others were there... whether it was paranoia or intuition, he didn't know.

"Hello?" he called out, unconciously taking a slight battle stance. He held on to his ability of flight for now... he didn't know whether or not he'd need to use it to escape.

Are you crazy?

Alma felt drained and alone. The one that saved her... The one she had thought about actually telling her secret to... Thought of her as something below him, maybe even not human.

Tears welled in her eyes as they shifted back to their dull brown. Pulling out her glasses and placing them on her nose, she saw her belongs and bike only a few feet away. An escape route. She turned to leave but a sharp pain in her chest and head made turn back and raise her hand. With a sicking loud smack, Alma slapped Austin across his cheek as he looked off towards some voice she hadn't bothered to register.

"Maybe... maybe if I wasn't a goth, if only I was some self-absorbed prep like yourself, you wouldn't have cared," Her voice began to shake as she struggled to fight back the tears, "Just r-remember, I know your secret and you don't know mine." She hadn't planned on using that but he had hurt her and didn't care, so she'd hurt him back. "R-r-remember that. Hopefully, you'll treat me like a h-human being n-next time, you-you jerk."

With that, Alma ran to her stuff, not realizing her sword had somehow gotten back into its makeshift sheath. Hastily, she put on Chibi and her scarf the climbed onto her bike. Without a look back at Austin or the supposed other person, Alma took off towards her house, sobbing uncontrollably and not knowing why.

<<

He was everything she called him. Austin knew it. This accusation had been laid upon him before, and he had learned to shrug it away. Confronting it would be detrimental to his confidence. He watched Alma hurry away, through the bushes and into town. A weight was dropped inside of his chest – the same weight that accompanies the knowledge that you’ve made someone hate everything you are.

Very quickly, the presence of the person behind him turned Austin a new direction. He still could not see the person, but he was surely there. Before there was anything else heard, seen, or said, a figure shot into the air. A human figure. Of course, Austin didn’t recognize him, but he knew he could fly in his trail.

The fellow super was too far gone before Austin made up his mind, so the teenager turned around and picked up all of his equipment. With a heavy heart and insistent intrigue, Austin realized he had no choice but to go home. Within minutes, he was trudging down the darkening streets of Delmor, back towards Norris Ave, circumventing the street and restricting himself to shadows. If somebody saw him with his equipment, he was sure there'd be questions asked. An easier option came to mind, but he could not quite figure out why he simply did not want to fly.