"Hurry! Hide Sonserrè!" My sister shouted in a hysterical whisper. I just stood there… Petrified as our house shook. Sirens blared everywhere. The bright lights that pierced through our house's windows beamed directly into my eyes. The rampant shouting and screaming from the outside was such an unsettling feeling. Before I knew it; tall men with bulky red suits and face masks burst through our front door. It all happened so fast… "Haul off Gravid-VI. Leave the kid." These words left the lips of a strange looking man. The entire right side of his face was severely burned. He barely had any remaining skin left on that side. I will forever remember that horrid-looking face.
My body shuddered as I took slow steps back. My eyes were too locked on the man that I didn't notice my sister was already being dragged out of our house. "Stop! Where are you taking her?! Stop!" I ran towards the men aggressively carrying my sister, hitting one of them on their suits just to cause no real damage at all. I was just shoved to the ground. I laid there, crying and pleading. They all just left… Once the final two red suited men exited, I ran outside to witness horrors happening all around.
Several girls were being taken away from the neighborhood. There were so many—so many dead bodies… They were everywhere… I tried running to my sister but before I could even reach her, a lifeless kid fell before me. I knew that kid… Looking down to see blood pour out from the side of his head, I could hear my older sister calling out for me. All I could make out was her screaming in terror. Lights flashed so bright that it nearly blinded me. With my sight obscured by the brightness, I frantically followed her voice, running, hoping to lock arms with her once more. But a bullet pierces my head. And I fall…
I wake up quickly, heavily breathing in a panic. My body's completely drenched in sweat. "Fuck… I fucking hate that dream." I rise up on my cot, stuck in deep thought about my previous nightmare. Following a deep sigh, I look around, noticing a small ray of light peer through a little peephole in my shack's half-gone ceiling. A cold-shivered sigh escapes me while I finally slide out of my bed. Before I could even process it properly, the strong disturbing odor throughout my neighborhood had already hit my nose. The odor's distinct; smelling like pungent raw meat and urine. I walk over to my bathroom, which isn't too far away as it's directly across the room from my bed.
Hell, it wasn't very much of a bathroom to be honest. The exterior walls protruding outwards into my room were crumbling, nearly collapsing in on itself. While my door was completely ripped off the hinges, lying on the floor in front of it. The only thing that was really there was a toilet and a broken down sink next to it. I couldn't complain though; I mean the sink still worked, sometimes. After doing my morning bathroom routine, I walked over to the kitchen, which was in an entirely different room. All of my shack's walls had paint peeling off of 'em with various splotches of mold. Truly a shitty place to live. Outside was no different.
Heh, I guess you could say it was even worse. After making a mayonnaise sandwich, I make my way outside. I didn't have much of a front door, just a long curtain in place of it. As I said before, outside was no better… That foul odor grew even stronger as I exited my shack. Any sane person that'd come to Plague Slums is signing themself up for the worst living experience possible. Then again, who would ever want to come to this place? Oh, yea, Plague Slums. Right, so, this is pretty much a huge chunk of the southern and eastern parts of my city. The worst areas you could possibly live in. Many cities in the world have large places like this that house over thousands of Potentials. Plague Slums is one of the worst, though. It has absolutely no living qualities whatsoever. The worst of the worst live here.
This unsettling disease-ridden place is home to gangs, homeless, and people like me. By people "like me", I'm referring to Potentials. Kids with extraordinary supernatural mutations. Curses. To be born a Potential or grow up with P11G9 is pretty much a death sentence. Your life is pretty much thrown away now. Don't expect anything better in life with your curse. The farthest you could possibly get as a Potential is pretty much janitorial work. I just plop down in front of my shack, staring up at the blackened sky. The funny thing is, it's not even night, nor winter. Though from the liveliness that can be heard in the distance, I'd judge it's around noon. The only thing that brightens up my neighborhood is the minorly damaged street lights.
I let out a deep sigh, falling into thought. I truly hate this life… I've tried killing myself more times than I can count, yet I always… come… back… The first time I tried killing myself was when I was 8. I found a handgun near this worn-down park. Despite what you might think, it's pretty easy to find a gun in Plague Slums. So easy that you wouldn't even need to buy one. It's almost like they're just randomly placed here by someone… Just waiting for people like me to off ourselves. It sounds terrible that an 8 year old would even try to off himself, right? Yea, well unfortunately I failed.
Yea, "unfortunately". As the bullet pierced my head, I quickly fell to the ground. My brains splattered all over the pavement. I just layed there as my body twitched in short rapid spasms. Convulsing and jerking as blood sputtered from my huge open gash. I laid there for about a couple of days. I woke up, though. My head was completely normal. It was almost as if that entire moment I experienced was just some lucid dream. So, after that, I kept on trying… and trying… and trying… To no avail; I realized that I just couldn't die. In fact, I could regenerate—amongst other things. Fucking sucks. "Are you seriously sitting here sulking again?" My head slowly drops down, locking eyes on a short black kid near my age, with long braids, and a scar going across his face to compliment his rough looking facial features.
That's my friend, O'shai. We've grown up in Plague Slums for a good while now. "No. Are you in one of your rancor states again?" I let out a brief sigh after I spoke; my attitude obviously leaking through my austere demeanor. "Damn, bruh. What the fuck does that even mean? You can't just call me a normal insult? Heh heh." O'shai says as he plops down beside me. He wraps his arm tightly around my neck, resting it on my shoulders as he pulls me in closer. "So, what's the quota today, bro? Flakhead and Cortez gots some jobs lined up for people looking for work." His voice is filled with expressions, lively as ever, surprisingly. You'd almost believe that O'shai actually enjoyed living here. I finally respond after a brief period of staring off into the distance.
"I don't know right now. It doesn't really matter." O'shai roughly scratches his head, quickly jumping up in irritation at my putting-down statement. "Ya know… They shut down the school." I tilt my head, now looking up at him. "Who?" I respond quickly, curious on the matter. "Who do you think?! The Government, bro. The fucking government…" A long moment of silence follows. O'shai let out a loud sigh. He steps away from me and turns as if he was planning to walk off, but paces back towards me. He scratches his head again before breaking the silence. "This fucking government. They— We'd have to go to school all the way across town now. And ya know what those guys on the eastside of the slums do to scrawny little boys like us. Tcht…"
"Even if we're like them, they'll use their potencies on us and chop our body parts up, selling 'em off to the highest fucking bidder….. I heard some real rich businessmen have been doing just that. They get off on buying Potentials, dead or alive." Cringing at his own statement he stops in place for a sudden moment. "Ya know what, fuck it… Fuck it… I don't really need school anyways, we've been surviving on our own already." The more and more O'shai talks, the more I could tell he's just making himself angrier. "O'shai, shut up." I fell back onto the surface of the hard ground as I stuffed my face with the last bit of my mayo sandwich. His anger quickly washed away as his face lit up. "That reminds me—", before he could even finish his sentence, a bright flash of light pierced my eyes. I raised up and he was gone. After 2 quick seconds pass, he reappears, the bright light flashing before my eyes once more.
I quickly lift up my arm, trying to block out most of the light from hitting my face as it slowly dies back down to just dimly glowing around O'shai. "Look at this bad boy, heh heh heh." O'shai presents some type of object that didn't seem like it belonged in our world. Something almost futuristic-like. Most of it appears to be a three dimensional image generated by interfering beams of light, forming into a physical object. "What the hell is that…" I quickly ask. O'shai lets out a quick laugh prior to his response. "It's a fucking holo-emitter. I heard these things can do all types of shit." I slowly raise up from the ground, my eyes firmly locking onto the glowing light radiating from the device.
My arm slowly moves in to touch it as I get closer. "Don't touch it! What are you doing?!" O'shai yanks the holo-emitter away from me as he backs up. I look up at him puzzled, waiting to hear if he has a follow up response. "I'm selling this bad boy to Flakhead and Bad Mutt. We're going to be rich and I don't need you messing anything up this time." O'shai's expression shows that he's somewhat proud of himself; like he made a huge accomplishment. "We could seriously get somewhere with this. The typa money this is worth is crazy. We could finally get outta here, or at least get more properly on our feet," he proudly proclaims. "Where did you get that?" I finally respond, breaking off from my long stare at the device. "Oh, uh… I got it from the dump some de—" I began pondering where I've seen such a thing, thinking long and hard as O'shai went on.
It finally dawned on me, though and just like that I took off. "—Woah... Hey! Where are you going?!" O'shai yelled at me as he proceeded to chase after me. Quick flashes of light repeatedly beamed behind me as O'shai's body disappeared and reappeared a few inches away from every single step I took. I came to realize that that device O'shai showed me was a recurring object within the broken memories of my childhood. I just can't anticipate which memory, yet. Over time we finally make it to the garbage dump. Giant towers of trash come into view. Heaps of numerous garbage stacked on top of eachother. O'shai's dim glow dies down as he now leads us ahead to where he found the device. We end up coming across a dead body. Or so we thought…
The man is covered in bruises and deep gashes. He's wearing a ripped suit jacket; the suit being nothing we've ever seen before. At least around here. I squat down next to him, inspecting his clothes and wounds. "See? Dead…" O'shai proclaims as he kicks the supposedly dead body. But with just a simple action, the body reaches out and grabs my arm since I was the closest to it. O'Shai and I both panic. While he disappears and reappears a few feet away, I struggle to release the man's grip from my arm. His grip only tightened, though. O'shai prepared to throw some garbage at the wounded man before we realized that he's trying to speak. "W— wah— tu#%—" The man's speech is gravely impaired.
It sounds like the more he attempts to talk, the more it strains his voice. But even with just somewhat of his broken speech, I'm kinda able to make out what he's trying to say. "Water? You want water?" I ask the man with an anxious look upon my face. I presume it's the right answer due to the halt of the man's attempted speech. I quickly turn my head to O'shai as I motion forward with my head, signaling him to go on and retrieve some. With swift ease, O'shai was gone and a bright light appeared in his place before slowly dying down into a dim aura, then completely disappearing entirely. "What happened to you?" I lean forward, hoping that if I got closer, it'd be easier for me to make out whatever he tries to say.
"Com— exus…" He attempts to say the word as clear as possible, yet still failing to say the whole thing correctly. Even still, I'm able to make out what he says once again. Complexus… Did he really say Complexus? If he really means what I think he said then I should be worried. Complexus is a secretive organization established from a private branch of the CIA specifically designed to deal with potentials. They're the ones that— They… They took my sister away from me. An expression of rage consumes my face. "Complexus did this to you? Why?" I briefly look around, hoping to see an indication of O'shai's bright light appear, but to no avail. I turn around, looking back at the man as he attempts to speak once more.
"Keep— holo— safe—", he tells me. My eyebrows furrow as I stare at him. Before I can react any further, his grip tightens even more, causing me to see glimpses of memories appear before me in a series of see-through images. And with that, I feel compelled… A sense of urgency flows through me, commanding me to take care of that device O'shai found. Speaking of O'shai, he finally returns with a small dirty looking bottle filled up with water. "What took you so long dude!?" I exclaim in question. The images appearing before me quickly disperse as I become aware of O'shai's presence— His bright light slowly dying down into a dim aura again.
"Do ya know how hard it is to find FRESH water in Plague Slums???" He responds. He throws the water bottle to me in sequence with the man finally releasing the vice grip on my arm. I lift the man's head up, slowly pouring drops of water in his mouth. "Well, there's nothing we can really do about him, now. He's fucked up, far more gone than when I found him. He'll likely die in the next few minutes or so." O'shai… That dumb ass, no respect whatsoever. Why would he just disregard this man's life right in front of him like that? I let out a shallow sigh, quickly responding to his harsh statement. "Shut up, O'shai."
"What? It's true.. Let's just leave the guy here and go sell off the holo-emitter like we planned." His tone is nonchalant. He truly doesn't care about the situation at all. As to what anyone would expect from a person growing up here. We see these typa things everyday. "O'shai we can't sell it!" I yell at him, my anger slightly getting the best of me. We begin to fall into an argument. I stand up, now facing him off as we push one another as immaturity consumes the both of us. As our arguing goes on, a loud ringing noise pierces our ears. O'shai and I yelp in pain as we cover our ears, attempting to somewhat distort the loud noise. O'shai falls to his knees, the pain seeming to get the best of him more than me.
This goes on for about a minute; the ringing being so loud that it nearly renders us from even moving. But then it just stops. A few moments later, a gust of wind hits us from above, followed by a large cylinder shaped spotlight. Next thing we know, we hear a man speak on a loud speakerphone. "Potentials stay where you are. Do not make any sudden moves or you WILL BE fired upon." O'shai, finally able to come to his senses, slowly looks around. "Shit… Sonserrè we gotta jolt, bro." His glowing aura slowly gets brighter. "Sonserrè let's go!" He reaches his arm out towards me, waiting for me to grab his hand. But before we even realized, his arm was quickly shot. Just like that. A huge hole could be seen in the place of the chunk of flesh that had been incinerated. "Ahh, fuck!!! Fu—#%$ing b#%€$#! F— what th—" O'shai's speech goes incoherent.
His survival instincts immediately kick in as a bright flashing light appears in his place. He's gone, though a fair distance away, still able to be seen from here. "Move, move! Contain the Deviants and extract the target." A group of men in red body armor of presumably advanced technology begin chasing after O'shai as they pop out from one of the lanes within the garbage dump. I look around still, not knowing what to do. My best bet is to just run and so I do. I dart into another trash lane protruding into numerical branches. Guns from above firing upon me. Some bullets miss while others pierce my skin, burrowing as they burn incredibly. I almost fall down from the immense pain, but I continue to run. Before I know it, though, a group of armored men are chasing after me as well. Where the hell did they come from?
In the near distance I can hear a series of gunfire. Likely the other group chasing after O'shai. I hope he's ok. I try my best to make my way to an exit but there are guards everywhere—spurring out from every turn I take. A guard even leaps on me, attempting to tackle me from behind. My arms extend abnormally long as I plant them onto the ground. Given my fair arm strength, I push my lower body upwards with force, breaking free of the man's grip. My body just spins over the armored guard like a literal play swing, contorting my arms as if I have no bones within my shoulders. I prepare my knees to go deep into the man's back. With success, I send the man flying forward onto the ground, coordinatively landing on his back. As I run over him, I look behind me to notice that even more guards are still chasing me. That bright cylinder shaped spotlight still flared over me as a large helicopter tails us.
As I make my way further out of the garbage dump, I notice an exit. Small, but still a good one. A minor hole in the tall fence that surrounds the entire place. I'm filled with faint hope, almost reaching the exit, when a bolt of lightning suddenly appears before me. Its loud thundering roar could likely be heard from several blocks away. Gusts of thick smoke flooded the area. I wave my arms around trying to clear it away, but to no avail. After a minute, the smoke finally clears and I'm completely surrounded by guards. Beyond the smoke is a figure that emerges. A tall man, standing probably at about 7 feet tall. "Give it up kid. You either stop running or I turn your body into char." His deep voice makes my body shutter.
He has no hair. In the place of it are a bunch of tattoos. They cover his entire head, even circulating around his neck. It probably covers his entire body, though it's hard to distinguish due to the large business suit he's wearing. He grips a large knife in his hand, its blade glows red, as if he laid it next to a fire prior to the engagement. His eyes radiate an azure glow. To the point of actual blue strings of steam rising from his eyes. His entire body is covered in unstable electricity. Random volts pulsating in and out. I look around, not liking the odds. The only thing left that I could do is fight. I know. I'm stupid… My arms instantaneously erect, swiftly protruding directly towards the man as my fists abnormally enlarge.
My attempt to even lay a hit on the man pitifully fails. I didn't even register the fact that he had already severed my legs from my body. When did he— I fall forward on my stomach, my head still looking up towards him. I barely feel any pain for a brief moment. As soon as my arms hit the ground though, an intense stigma of pain jolts throughout my entire body. It feels like being stabbed a thousand times with swords. The sensation then formed into burning. I scream loudly as I lay there, my eyes almost rolling to the back of my head as my arms slowly attempt to retract back to their normal state. The man walks over to me chuckling. He steps onto my left arm and before I can even register that, once again half of it is severed.
This time lightning marked the spot where my arm was cut, leaving a hot ashen gust of steam resonating from the ground in its place. I scream even more. Louder even. As my right arm completely retracts, the suited man is now standing over me. "Should I turn you completely into char? Or should I just leave the ground with the steaming outline of your ashes?" I began going into shock, the intense sensation of pain consuming me. My eyes start fading as my mind zones in and out of reality. The man kicks me hard in the head, leaving a large gash. "Would you shut it already, you deviant! You asked for this the second you tried to use your shitty potency on me." Soft flowing words from a woman followed his statement. "Cease your aggression, Special Agent Alazar." A loud sound of clacking heels on the ground makes its way towards the suited man and I.
The man, presumably "Alazar", steps back. A woman appears before us, squatting down in front of me. Her hair is jet black just like her nails and lipstick. She'd also be wearing a suit like Alazar, though instead of pants, she has on a short skirt with stockings underneath. She's smiling, her face angelic-like. Her long fingernails latch onto the back of my head and grip my hair. She lifts my head up to look at her as her nails are cutting deeper into my skin. My face winces with more pain. "You shouldn't have ran. You look guilty when you run. Don't worry, though. My partner and I plan to treat you with care despite the ill-mannered actions he just displayed." Alazar says nothing. Instead, his eyes do most of his current dialogue as he rolls them in exasperation.
The woman stares into my eyes for a short moment as I begin to fall completely unconscious. The last words I can only make out, "Grab the boy, Alazar. Boys, find the other and use lethal force if necessary. I highly recommend you all make this mission performance a success unless you guys want to lo—". And that's all I hear before I pass out. My head drops to the ground hard as she lets go of it. Fuck! I got myself into some bullshit. I would've never thought that today would be the day my life would change completely.