Sera is walking down the halls with two guards next to her, as she walks down the hall, another escort joins them. The officers talk among themselves as Sera sees Eugine and Lanna next to her, both with blindfolds on. "Pst, hey" she whispers. "Huh, where are you?" Lanna asks in confusion with a whisper. "I'm right next to you," Sera spoke. "Yeah, I hear you, who are you?" Eugine asked. "You're the new inmates. Did a certain man in a black suit and cape ever find you? I heard rumors of trouble being stirred up by this vigilante." Sera waited for a moment for an answer. "Wait, how do you know about him?" Lanna asked. "Lanna, it's her," Eugine said as the guards brought Eugine and Lanna into a dark room. Sera walks by when the sudden crack of a baton against the two other inmates made Sera stop in her tracks. "NO!" Sera yelled as the guards began to drag her by force. "Leave them be!" Sera hears the sounds of yelling and hitting as she's taken to another holding cell. Inside a woman with red hair and a trench coat stood tall. She smiled sinisterly, her eyes glowing yellow. "Hello there, Seraphina" she spoke sinisterly.
Meanwhile John is in the cabin with Dale, Jackson, and the two boys Uncle Bob. They all eat a splentastic pork dinner that was prepared for them. The tension however, is thick. Dale gives Jackson dirty looks, as Jackson looks at Bob nastily, all while John tries not to cringe while eating his meal. Once again, he feels powerlessness over a situation. "You're mad about your uncle in The States, aren't you?" Bob asks to break the tension. Jackson gets up and slams his fist. "You're damn right I am!" Dale responds to this by matching Jackson's energy. "Jackson, he offered us a roof and gave us food, how could you be so-" Bob holds his hand up, silencing the room. "Dale, it's okay. I appreciate it but he's right, well, he doesn't know why I did what I did. I'm not sure if you do either."
Jackson looks down in shame. "The tribe's gone. We're all that's left. They're not just wiping out folks like me and Goldy here" Jackson says, pointing his thumb to John. "People like my brother, we're being kicked off our own land." Bob sheds a tear. "Jackson, I'm so sorry, you too Dale, let me tell you all what happened. John, is it? I need you to listen as well." Bob takes a deep breath and claps his hands together.
A plague struck the land many years ago. It killed a few, but made many sick. Our government quarantined, and the virus evolved." Bob turns his head to John. "Our government has always been incredibly isolated on the world stage. Having a pandemic develop in a country like ours is a blessing to the rest of our world. That's what we thought, but the virus kept evolving on a monthly basis, nothing like we've ever seen." Bob takes a deep breath. "It first spread by coughing, sneezing, and bodily fluids, but soon it became airborne. Its symptoms didn't stop as a respiratory illness, it began new symptoms. People started to bleed whenever there was a hole, vomiting and shitting all their fluids out like they were toothpaste tubes being smashed. Fear was just as contagious as the virus itself, and as a result groups of rebels and factions emerged, criminals who were high tiers, some were even devil-like, not human. When we lost the president at the time, all hell broke loose." John leans back in his chair.
"Devil like?" he asks as Bob's eyes begin to glow a bluish white. John's, Dale's, and Jackson's glow the same color. "They say this kind of ability is unnatural. I have one, and it allows me to show you what I'm saying."
Bob: Ability, Telekenisis, UnNatural, whole picture, allows him to tell a story from another perspective.
"I was raised in a family of three, it was me and my older brothers Colson and Kale. At the time Colson was a father and had his three year old boy, little Jimmy and his cute pink hair, just like he did before he lost it, then there was his wife, and they lived a happy life. Kale was always getting into trouble, and I…. I was only seventeen. This is when the nation was under lockdown."
"Woah woah woah, how long ago was this?" John asks in confusion. "I'd say fifty to seventy years back. It's hard to remember exactly at my old age, but I was a young lad during all of this." John clears his throat. "How come no one else has heard of this?" Bob laughs. "We're a tightly locked down nation." John smirks. "Sure, but leaks happen all the time. Our government has the-" Bob interrupts. "What reality presents is merely an illusion. Leaks are disclosed to keep you under their illusion. If everything was kept a secret, you'd be suspicious. You've only been taught about our nation in a manner to keep you riled up against it, a common enemy of the world. But there lies one more that not even the world wants to acknowledge." Bob shudders as John looks at Dale and Jackson confused. "Yeager" he utters, before clearing his throat to continue his story.
"The nation was under quarantine and Colson was delivering a package, working overtime to provide for his family, when suddenly the package exploded, the only thing that saved him was his ability.
Colson. ability, Lightning, 5.4
Many blamed him for the explosion, calling him a murderer, so his wife took little Jimmy and sent him off to live in The States. This was back when human trafficking was a lot easier to commit. The smugglers now won't risk their backs or their family's backs to do a good deed for good pay." Bob takes a bite from his food. "Wait, so you knew he was innocent, why didn't you tell her?!" Jackson yelled from across the table. "Dammit boy because if you'd let me get to that part, I'd explain the part where I saw a vision!" John's heart sinks as he immediately flashes back to Claire's visions of his own powers. "Because I saw what was about to come! Jimmy leaving meant that the lightning gene would spread throughout the states, and create the hero that will save this world!"
"It was me, and my two brothers that almost tore the city apart, see my brothers had lightning abilities from their family, but my ability came from my mother, it's a little more rare for females to get lightning, same odds it is for men to get telekinesis. I don't know, it's a weird genetic thing. So when I got my ability, I became something of a saviour to those around me. My ability was somehow strengthened after this incident, and others, well they lost their abilities entirely. The bomb that went off was a device capable of crippling thousands at a time, giving one person more power than one can imagine. This started the insanity that was to come. Our government formed from the chaos of an apocalypse, where people were crippled and beaten for their resources.
"I felt alive, my brother Colson, he saw all the crime and became a vigilante, Electroman! Yet he never had a super suit, he just wore a hood, he jumped around fighting crime whenever he saw it, that was until Kale decided to use his ability for his own, trying to create "safe spaces" for him and his loved ones. Everyone except for me and old Colson, who spent our days either recruiting cripples to our safety camps for security, or gaining their influence by stopping the rampant crime. We were heroes, until more like us emerged, a woman broke free from the labs in New Seattle city, people would go missing for weeks while she came up here. She was "recruiting" people of her own." Bob says recruiting with air quotes.
"This woman had the most pale white of flesh, she was bald, and wore red cult-like robes. She had two abilities, one that gave her spider-like powers, and the other was mind control. She was a monster." "Wait a second, is she-" John's skin crawled as he interrupted Bob. "Jimmy wasn't the only offspring sent to the states. Her blood line, along with a few others, made it there too. One of them you might know Mr. Doe." John's heart sinks as Rein flashes in his mind. She managed to overwhelm Kale's safe zones. Despite him outranking her, she had more people on her side. She could manipulate anyone with an aura less than her's, and with a whole nation it's a miracle that this place didn't become hers to rule. These people could not be saved, it was like they were zombies but more intelligent. So we called them, The Devil men. "They carried guns, wore her clothes, and slaughtered at her command. Kale barely made it out alive, he resented her, so did Colson and I, but we all disagreed on how to take care of her, we settled our disagreements to strategize. I had an army of followers behind me, we were called The Rebels. On the nose I know, but we were more like a militia than some kind of well established army of resistance.
These men were more armed to the tooth than those witches zombie devil men were. They only had rifles and cloth, my men had flame throwers, heavy machine guns, masks that could breath in any condition and intimidate. We even had vehicles at our disposal, and a well laid out base. We set traps, barricades, mines, anything all around the nation. This war we waged was our strength versus their numbers." Kale said I was only making things worse with my efforts. Colson was only focused on saving those taken by her rather than fighting back with any practical army."
"So you didn't work with Colson? His ideas didn't seem contradictory." Dale asks. "Me and Colson had our own disagreements. At the time I didn't care about the people who were taken. I had strategies similar to Kale but I was sortave a middle ground. While I wanted to save everyone, I was more realistic and wanted to focus on the enemy, save who I can save and make sure no one else suffers. Colson wanted everyone saved while Kale was on the path of extermination. So I started my raid plans immediately. We had no centralized army, no air force, no government left. When the virus struck and our president died, we completely fell apart. The cripple bomb was the straw that broke the camel's back. I believed that I was the spine surgeon to fix it. My men moved in while I was behind them. Colson would try his best to fight back in his own way, and for a while it seemed like it was working. We were taking back land, saving hostages, and tearing down her scarecrows." John shudders at that word, remembering Rein's scarecrows. "Colson had some mole men working with him to help the efforts, but with all these different factions they would eventually begin to fight each other. At one point a new breed of devil men emerged. They made crystals from other people's blood and weaponized them against us. The nation was a burning dumpster fire." The snow starts to pick up harder outside. John gets up to put a log on the fire. "We fought like hell, until Colson had the balls to find the devil bitch and bring her down himself.
"He was an animal…"
"SASHA! COME OUT NOW YOU FREAK!" Colson yelled as he traversed her lair. Sasha comes out with her spider legs, Colson sends a lightning strike towards Sasha, she dodges it, knowing that a strike will do extra damage with all the swamp water in the flooded building. Colson sends many blasts and shock waves, different variants of bolts and zaps at the devil woman. Her eyes glow red as she creates more arms and swings at Colson, hitting him to the ground, finally Colson has had enough and summons his ultimate attack, his unnatural, making his next level a 6. He sends down a giant lightning bolt onto the building he is under, the building collapses and buries them both, killing some of Bob's men that were cornering them. Bob walks with his men to get Colson and kill the witch. Meanwhile Colson stands in the corner of the destroyed collapsed building, looking down on the dead witch. He smiles, satisfied. She laid there bleeding profusely.
"He could blast away for years if you let him"
Her eyes glow red as she creates more arms and swings at Colson, hitting him to the ground, finally Colson has had enough and summons his ultimate attack, his unnatural, making his next level a 6. He sends down a giant lightning bolt onto the building he is under, the building collapses and buries them both, killing some of Bob's men that were cornering them. Bob walks with his men to get Colson and kill the witch. Meanwhile Colson stands in the corner of the destroyed collapsed building, looking down on the dead witch. He smiles, satisfied. She laid there bleeding profusely.
"Once my men reported she was dead, we all celebrated," Bob said somberly. "Everyone but Colson"It was at that moment I was proud of Colson, he was a hero of mine, and even after what happened next, he still was, he saved me from becoming a villain to my army. He sent some more lightning strikes towards my men, he was getting stronger, but very uncontrollable, destroying the whole neighborhood. He blew up all the buildings and killed all of my men, taking out the next threat to Seattle city, he then looked down on me like some villain." Bob takes a sip of water and sighs. This would always break my heart. My army was torn apart by him within weeks, and now there were only bodies of my men and the devil woman. It felt like we broke my brother, turning him into a hardened machine of war."
"Another militia was rising to take my place, many more were rising in fact." Bob said with a broken voice. "What about Kale, what happened to him?" Dale asked.
"Kale wanted pure revenge, this woman ended up killing ma and pa when he broke into his base. He didn't care how he got it, who would suffer, he just wanted her dead. So he formed a group called The Chosen One's, they were a team of researchers and scientists who would make the bomb that would cripple all of…..mankind, they-" Bob pauses as he finds his hands shaking. "Uncle Bob?" Dale asks. "It was him," Bob uttered.
"Kale remade the same device. He and Colson fought, and Kale beat him to a pulp, being a better lightning user. All I could do was watch as Colson's crippled friend took out a revolver and emptied it into Kale, helpless as the super human stood with his cloak flapping in the wind. My own brothers broke each other. My brother's friend, he wasn't exactly a clean guy. He started riots that led to the downfall of our military. His own army died at the hands of our crumbling military and…." John, Dale, and Jackson watch as Bob breaks down. His words turned into a ramble.
His name was Zenn, and at one point had the bomb. He had a choice to activate it or destroy it, he thought it would give him more power if he used it, all he could do as a cripple was hack into stuff, he wanted more, so he activated it, not knowing that Kale was manipulating him.
"It was just constant fighting between everyone." Eventually after several long years of brutal killing, destruction, and violence, Colson ended up winning against Kale. It wasn't anything hard after some time. Kale was a hateful vengeful soul. Colson's counterpart, all Cole wanted was to help people with his powers. I, I was always the devil's advocate for both sides, sometimes I think, if I just picked one, even Kale. I'd somehow be happier and more at peace with all this, but Cole, I regret most not working with. He was the better of the brothers, despite me being the middleman of the trio, Kale was the older brother who would always bully me, and Colson was the middle brother always defending me, the younger brother, so to see him see me as Kale, it just-" Bob pauses for a moment as he cries. "Oh God I'm so confused" he said as he began to stutter.
"John, you must know the sins of this nation! I believe you are the key to preventing this, the world doesn't know what's going on here, they think we're just a poor democratic society, not the dictatorship lying scheming nation that we really are. We're all responsible for its making. Kale recreated the device, and now after some time our new ruler is willing to use it on everyone!" Bob's hands continue to shake. "The fighting didn't end with Kale. His men were taken out, and the next militia rose to power. The same cycle happened with a new sciuto dictator and an army thirsty for blood and-" Bob pauses.
"You're in a rush aren't you?" Bob asks as he gets up and gets closer to John. He puts his hands on John's shoulders. "To be patient is to be wise, to wait is true strength, take hunting for an example, you lose a friend and you hear rustling in a nearby bush, you just made a bet with your friend that the first one to find a game and kill it would win. Now if you wait for the rustling thing in the bush to pop out, that's faith through patience, in waiting. You're trusting in a plan that you can't understand, because if you were to take the shot and it was your friend tying his shoe instead of the bush, you'd kill your friend, now that's not good is it. Having faith would save your friend, which is more important than any game." John watches as Bob takes a seat back into his chair. He smiles, showing his old yellow teeth. John looks back at Dale and Jackson, slightly scared. They shrug as they look back at him.
"Now where was I?"
Meanwhile, Jake and Evie are walking together down the path to New Seattle City. "Oh, it's starting to snow," Evie comments. Evie shoots lasers out of her eyes and hands, the white lasers soon turn orange when she puts more energy into them.
Evie, Illuminating laser, level 3.2, extra power (orange lasers) 4.2. (Equipment like laser guns and grenades bring her up to a 5).