Bruce and Chester sit at the back right corner of the field, using some trees as a shade as night draws closer, they inspect the stones on Bruce’s gauntlet and look on in awe, three of the six stones already collected, “When you actually put your mind to doing the work you’ll see good results” says Bruce to Chester, Chester nods and continues looking around the field. “Us mutants have to stick together, together to take down these creatures of filth” Bruce says as he turns to Chester. Chester looks uncomfortable as he says this, “What?” questions Bruce, Chester assures him it’s nothing but Bruce doesn’t seem phased by this explanation, “Is there something you're not telling me Chester?” asks Bruce, the stones on his gauntlet power up a little and Chester begins to panic. “No-no it’s nothing it’s just that… that… we shouldn’t call ourselves mutants! It’s a word created by people below us made to hate on us!” Chester says through quivered panicked words, Bruce looks into Chester’s eyes before nodding and turning away, “Yeah yeah, I get it honestly. How about we create a word for ourselves… to show who respects us and who doesn’t” Bruce asks, Chester nervously nods. They begin brainstorming ideas for the next couple minutes before settling on the title of ‘Bettermen’ they shake on this title and express how much better it is. Before Bruce crumbles into a stone hard pose sitting next to Chester. Chester looks at him before standing up and walking towards the cloudy T Block, as Chester approaches Bruce's tentacles grow out of the ground and around slithering onto his face and covering his mouth. “I’m sorry about this Bruce” says Chester sadly before pulling out his shank and cutting the tentacles off from their base attachments leaving just parts wrapped around his face and body. The split tentacles seem to create a shrill screaming sound as they fall to the ground. Chester looks determined as he strides confidently into the engineering area of T Block. He walks up the extremely cloudy steps and looks around the room, he spots a decaying body with a missing face but still discernible white hair. Chester hoists him onto his back and carries him outside of T block, he drops him onto the ground and presses his hand upon his chest. A light blue light glows from Chesters eyes as the body begins to reform, the reforming parts glow a similar blue. The face reforms showing Grant Miles laying on the ground. Chester places both hands on Grant's chest and his eyes increase in glow strength. Grant pops upward and sharply inhales, he begins breathing heavily and looks toward Chester, “Stop… stop yakking…- Chester! What a great student, what do you need?” Grant says as he wakes up, dazed at first but moves into excitement at the sight of an actually good student of his for once. Chester snarls at Grant and places his hand onto his forehead, their eyes both grow Blue, Chester holds for a moment before releasing, “Make” says Chester sternly at him. Grant looks at Chester angrily, “Your just as bad as your fucking counterpart… I'll make you a gauntlet… on one condition…” says Grant with confidence this time, Chester nods slowly. “You actually spared my life this time, not like the betrayal shit Bruce did. Actually spare me” says Grant and Chester looks away. Chester lightly nods and allows Grant to stand up, Grant suddenly gets grabbed by the tentacles from behind him and they wrap around like how they wrapped around Chester, he panics momentarily but Chester ensures him it's fine. They both turn to T Block and walk in.
Aidan injects more purple liquid into his arm and he stands up straight once again, he lets out some happy sighs and stretches once again. Aidan crouches down and begins removing more purple crystals from the floor, somehow the crystals had grown substantially since the day prior. Suddenly the crystals begin to grow in large clumps quickly in front of Aidan, Aidan stumbles back as the crystals rise higher, the crystals appear to be resembling a hand pointed directly upwards. The hand shaped crystal grabs downward onto the floor on the other side, it begins to pull up what appears to be a purple crystallised human body through the floor, the crystals shift into different shapes and positions until the large figure pushes itself onto the floor. Aidan and Damon look on in somewhat shock at this crystal creature, the crystals begin to shift around the body revealing a large dirty man with long brown hair and a round-ish face. Connors dirty face is seen through all the crystal dust, Aidan looks on in complete shock and awe, “I literally watched you die! How the fuck are you alive?” yells Aidan at Connor in a state of shock. Connor stands up, revealing a thinner body with a purple triangular stone in the middle of his chest, purple crystals spread out from the stone and wrapped around his chest slightly. “It's kind of a long story,” Connor says as he sits down in Aidans chair. Aidan looks back at Connor in somewhat annoyance at the fact he's stealing his chair, Connor begins explaining, “So it all started around a week ago…”
Connor runs out of T Block with the others and attempts to jump over the railing but his foot hooks onto the upper railing and he tumbles over onto the ground, Cooper falls right beside him due to seemingly the same reason. Bruce stomps down in front of Connor and a wave of ground comes crashing towards him, the wave pushes Connor into and through the wall due to the force of the stomp. Connor begins falling down into a massive caverness area, he doesn’t know this though due to being blinded by ash and rocks from the stomp. After a while of falling down Connor splashes into a little puddle like area and wakes up from the impact. Connor floats at the surface and gasps for air. He pushes himself out of the puddle and looks around, he sees a gigantic caverness area around him, surrounded by general overgrowth and decay. Around 2 kms above Connor he sees the place where he had fallen from, an absolutely gigantic height to fall from and it shocked him that he landed unscathed. Connor sighs and turns around to see an old 1970s looking building behind him, a small rotted wooden panel reads ‘S Block’ through decaying ink and wood. Connor stands up and walks towards the building, he pulls open the rickety-ish metal door and walks in. He sees ruined and decayed lockers that looked outdated even for a ‘70s, Connor sighs into a smile and he continues walking. The more he walks the closer he gets to an illuminated purple triangular stone. Around it he sees tendrils of purple crystals hugging the walls, gleaming under natural light that was somehow spewing from the ceiling. Connor reaches the stone and picks it up, he rolls it around in his palm and stares into it. His irises glow a light purple colour as he's doing that. Connor feels the power coursing through him, he looks down the hallway and begins sprinting down. Seemingly getting ready to utilise the powers of the stone, he holds the stone at an angle and skips it across the puddle outside of the building. Clearly Connor did not know that the stone was important and just wanted to skip it for some odd reason. The stone spreads crystals around itself in the water and Connor picks it up, looking at it more intently this time, Connor places the stone on his chest and it begins to form a suit around his body. Connor immediately takes it off out of surprise before hearing a large thud sound from behind him and snapping around, Connor looks to the ceiling to see a hole formed by the sinkhole. Connor wearily creeps over to where the thud came from, he sees a body laying face down on the ground. Connor looks at his stone and then shoves it forward, creating a crystal rod. Connor rolls the person over using the crystal rod and sees a very dead Darrin M, his face and front of his body burnt off revealing a skeleton. Connor jumps back in shock and curls over, he throws up into a puddle on the ground but quickly turns back to Darrin. Connor shoots the crystals forward and they lock onto Darrin and pull him upward into a standing position, the crystals form over the entire front of his body and he stands upright. Two holes open in Darrins face for his eyes, they begin to glow with white light and Darrin turns to Connor. “Connor… what's going on?” asks Darrin through an echoey and metallic voice. Connor just stares at him in shock, “Am I… am I dead?” asks Darrin in a terrified tone. Connor tries to speak but fails and the crystals fall off Darrins body, Darrin hits the ground with a thud and Connor begins running to the wall from where he had fallen from before. Connor tucks the crystal in his pocket and attempts to climb up the rock wall in front of him. At first he fails but then the crystals spread from his pocket and up all over his body. Connor sinks into the wall and his hands grip onto seemingly nothing but he is able to pull himself up. Connor begins pulling himself up the wall, he slowly but surely makes his way up the wall but right as he's about to pull himself up through to around half way he falls back down to the ground, the crystals break his fall. Connor looks up to the top of the wall and sighs. It's going to be a long lot of trial and error until he gets even close.
After days of attempts Connor finally does it, by which point his body has slimmed down and he has become dirty from the poor conditions of the cave. Connor pulls himself up and into the ground, he pulls himself through to the room above him and lies on the ground beneath Aidan and Damon, he then moves to the chair and begins explaining what happened.
“You gotta give him the stone!” yells Damon at Connor, Connor looks slightly annoyed at Damon before turning and staring deeply into Aidans infected arm, “You’ve been through a lot haven’t you?” says Connor to Aidan, Aidan nods. “Connor, you could potentially save Aidans life! You gotta consider it right!” says Damon while shaking his hands towards Connor. Connor looks between the two deeply in thought. Eventually he pushes himself up from his chair and walks to Damons work desk, Connor pins a necklace part to the stone and turns back to Aidan. Connor hooks it around Aidans neck. Aidan holds onto the stone, feeling the power coarse through his fingertips, he shifts it around his hand and begins moving the crystals to his shoulder. Covering his injured area. Aidan shakes Connors hand and pats him on the back, Connor smiles. “Go Aidan… It seems you've got a world to fight out there” he says as Aidan turns his body to crystal and phases through the wall.
Damien, William and Ella all begin walking past T block and down to the foods room, they had found tarpaulin on their travels and covered themselves with it so as to not be spotted. They cower in a little fear as they draw closer, the only area they hadn’t really looked at. As they approach the building they see what appears to be figures inside the window, they all duck and enter through a back entrance. Damien and Ella draw their weapons while William holds out his arm in front of them creating a small amount of illumination. As they travel down the narrow hallway they see light emanating from one of the doorways. They slowly pull the door open but their cover is blown but the large creaking of it, Damien lets out a sigh and they all enter the room. The figures they saw prancing around are all dishevelled and look worn down from the events. Some notable faces in the group are Hunter W, Henry T, Koh T, Jason L and Sophia OJ. The group of around 15 people wave at the three poking out through the door and they enter. Heavy steps can be heard entering the room and a figure enters, a lean man with curly blonde hair, facial scarring, an eye-patch, a dark brown overcoat, a shoddily put together prosthetic leg and black gloved hands. The man places his hands on the largest chair in the room and sits down, he looks up at the group and they get a glimpse at his face. Joel Meijer stares back at them with a glum yet serious and stern expression on his face, “Welcome to the survivors, it's been tough out there…” he says as he beckons the three to sit down with the others. They approach chairs and sit down in them, the group seem to take interest in Williams arm but don’t say anything. “So what's your guy's story? Feel free not to share… we all understand” says Joel with confidence in a reassuring nature. The three look at each other before beginning their recap of the events that had transpired over the prior week. This recount went on for at least an hour but by the end of it most of the group were on the edges of their seats with anticipation, “Now thats a story for the ages! Not trying to make fun ya know but you’ve spun an extremely interesting tale” says Joel with a happy expression on his face. The three chuckle a little and smile at each other, they hadn’t realised how much they had actually done over this time, bad and good. Joel looks over to Hunter and raises his eyebrows slightly, Hunter nods back in response and leaves the room to retrieve something, he returns holding a metal baseball bat and a bow with a twitching rainbow arrow, these items had a certain unexplainable glow to them. Hunter hands the items to Joel and Joel stands up and walks over to Ella and Damien, “I present you with these items, I found them on my travels… they hold some sort of unexplainable power, I sincerely hope they can aid you on your journey” says Joel as he presents the items forward. Damien holds his hands up declining the offer, “But these are yours” he says with generosity. Joel shakes his head and smiles, “If you're going to save us all you're going to need something powerful, please take them” says Joel almost pleading. Ella and Damien reluctantly pick up the items and equip them to their sides. They nod and smile as they stand up to leave the room, they wave bye and the group waves back.
The three of them leave the room with a new kind of hope, their statues taller and their spirits the highest they had ever been. Suddenly they hear a burning noise and begin to smell smoke, they turn back around and see a figure floating in the air shooting fire beams towards the buildings. They rush back in and begin to usher everyone out fast before returning to see the identity of the figure, Vetri. Damien taps his bat against the ground before throwing it at Vetri, it hits Vetri and his beam falters. The bat returns to Damiens hand almost like magic. Vetri recovers in the air and dashes quickly towards Damien, Damien dodges out of the way and starts getting strong hits on Vetri with his bat. Vetri takes a few hits before turning his skin to a strong titanium like metal. Damien gets a really good hit in and dents Vetris' shoulder inward, Ella fires the arrow at him but it misses. Magically the arrow returns to the bow with a glitch like particle, Vetri grabs onto Damiens shirt and hoists him into the air a little bit. Ella and William attack Vetri but it doesn’t seem to have any effect through the metal. “Im done fucking around with you weakling humans” he says angrily before shooting his laser eyes directly through Damiens eyes. He releases Damien and his body falls to the ground, William and Ella stare on in complete and utter bewilderment. “Ungrateful ass bitch… he should have respected me… his god…” Vetri says angrily before flying away with haste. William drops to his knees and attempts to heal Damien using his arm, his arm doesn’t seem to have any effect on the situation. Tears well up in William's eyes and he looks into the sky, he sees the red afterglow of where Vetri had been and looks on in complete and utter anger. William hugs Damiens body momentarily before taking Cody's hat from his head and placing it upon his own, he also grabs Damiens bat and attaches it to his hip before standing and looking up to the sky. His words come out as shrill and angry, tormented cries, “He has fucked with the wrong man. Prepare for a life of fucking hell Vetri, the burning grasp of my fucking hands around his throat will be the last thing he ever feels. I will avenge Damien… I will avenge us all.”
Cooper, Luke, Jake and Sam all walk out of the underground tunnel and emerge on the surface, they look up at the night sky and realise they have preparation time, they begin walking to the campsite they once had in B Block. Suddenly William storms by at extreme pace, Ella trails behind him attempting to match his speed, “What's going on?” asks Luke. “Vetri killed Damien” says Ella in a sad and low tone. The group look in horror and sadness at William as he rips open the door to the A Block offices. Ella wearily waves goodbye and runs to catch up with William. The group walks slower, feeling petrified by the murder of Damien but knowing they must continue on. They enter the breakout space and sit down on the couches in there. They all sulk separately at the loss of Damien, Cooper places his head in his hands and cries. Sam walks over and pats Cooper on the back, Cooper sits up fully and pats Sam on the back to show a sign of thanks. They all sit and look out the window, waiting for morning to draw in.
Chester watches intently as Grant forges his gauntlet, Chester smiles and nods while he watches it being forged. A perfect silver to match Bruce's gold. He pats Grant on the back and Grant pushes forward a little out of surprise and fear. Chester then returns to his seat, watching Grant finish his creation through the thick maroon smoke. Grant grabs onto the gauntlet and turns to Chester, momentarily it appears he wants to attack him but he quickly decides against it and hands Chester the gauntlet. Chester puts it on and flexes his hand. Chester reached into his pocket to pull out his mysterious rock but paused, “Bruce thinks I’m a mutant like him… better to keep it that….” he thought to himself before dropping the stone back into his pocket. Chester hoists Grant onto his back and carries him out of the building, he dumps him outside and tears the tentacles off. “You stood true to your offer.. you will be spared by me” says Chester walking away, he turns back and grins menacingly at Grant, “Have fun facing the elements though” he says as he turns back around. I gulp sounds from Grant's mouth as he looks at the world around him, he made the wrong decision.
William storms down the steps of the green hooded man’s library, he pushes open the main door and enters into the arena area, he looks around for a moment and doesn’t see the man. He continues to trace his original pathway backwards and returns to the original room where his arm got changed. The man is standing there slumped over beside a desk, “Tell me everything, I need to fight them… they killed my best friend!” says William angrily to the man. The man’s hand visibly digs into the desk, the metal digs in and ruins the table's surface. “He is not us… they are not us” says the man, carefully stringing words together through gritted teeth. The man stands up from the table and picks up a journal like book, he passes it to William alongside a satchel for it to hold, “Learn about me through here, I’ll return to the surface with you… seems like some people have gotten out of hand” the man says as he begins walking back towards the exit. William takes the book and opens it to the front page, he spots a very smudged signature on the bottom middle of the page ‘S…. ..o……’ is all that can be discerned from it. William pushes his fingers slowly through the book as he travels back to the entrance, channelling his anger into the understanding of the words he collects. As he approaches the door the green hooded man is waiting for him, “I respect your commitment to ‘The Phantom Limb’ your doing us a good service” he says as he ushers William and Ella out the staircase ahead of him. They both nod and travel up the stairs to the surface. William and Ella split ways with the man at that point, William continues toward the far end of A block and the hooded man seems to travel into the shadows to observe the outside world around them. While walking William explains to Ella some of the information he absorbed from the book, evidently calmer at what he read despite some of its chilling information. He explains that the hooded man is a caretaker of sorts, a holder for mutant beings, he contains them underneath the school. Upper Hutt College is actually a front for a government experiment, the ‘U.H.C project’ is a rehabilitation area for mutants to teach and return to the normal world under surveillance. Somehow Bruce managed to escape unnoticed and became a teacher here, he supposedly has some sort of tentacle powers but the information is foggy. William jokes about how the man's identity didn’t seem to be included in the journal, but he also mentions information about his arm. It turns out that at full potential his arm can mimic people he has connected with, creating projections of sorts to fight alongside the wielder. William seems to be happy at the thought of this information, maybe he could avenge Damien with Damien.
Bruce awakes from his dormant state and looks around, he spots Chester walking towards him wearing something on his hand. As he approaches Bruce gets a glimpse at exactly what it is, another gauntlet. Bruce smiles as Chester approaches and they shake gauntleted hands, “This gives me an idea” Bruce says, “Something with your stone perhaps” he says gleefully. Chester looks surprised, “I thought you didn’t know?” he says confused. Bruce chuckles and looks him in his eyes he utters the phrase, “Of course I did, I always do. But we can be Bettermen together, I wasn’t born that way and neither were you. But we both always have been and always will be.”
Martin returns to his house that night, tired from all the research he had done. As he approaches his door he sees black suited men standing waiting for him, they offer open hand shakes to him and he accepts. “We’re here on behalf of the government” one of the men sees, “You my source?” Martin asks and gets a set of nodding heads. “Why are you here then? Are you going to… kill me?” asks Martin a little nervously. “On the contrary.. we can see your expertise can be used somewhere else… we want to offer you a job at the government, helping us with this situation… under ‘Project UHC,’” says one of the men. Martin nods and thinks for a moment before gleefully shaking the men's hands, “I'll take it!” he yells excitedly.
← 5. ‘Till death do us part
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