A woman dressed in a police uniform was on her knees in a back alley, while three tough looking gentlemen surrounded her. As she was cowering in fear one of the men said, “Come on lady! After all that trouble you’ve put us through offering us your body is an acceptable way for you to pay us back!” The woman knelt in the man’s shadow as a crescent moon hung above them in the clear night sky. 268Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqUTdLYNryF
The woman shook in fear as she said, “No! I’ll do anything but that. Please!” She began to cry as one of the men slapped her across her face.
“Shut your mouth! Are you trying to wake up the whole neighborhood?” One of the thugs said as another one started pulling at her uniform trying to take it off.
She cried out into the night, “Someone please help me!” At that moment a homeless looking man in a dark brown trench coat came around the corner while attempting to light a joint that was hanging out of his mouth. The man stopped as the three thugs turned around and faced him. As they stared at each other, the man in the trench coat slowly hid the joint in his hand behind his back.
One of the thugs asked, “Who the hell are you?”
The trench coat man said nothing and was trying to think why a cop was on her knees with three thugs.
Another man shouted, “Hey fuck face, you answer when the boss is talking to you!”
The girl on her knees cried out, “I just knew a hero like you would show up to save me!”
“Shit!” Elliot thought to himself. He was just trying to sneak away to smoke a joint off campus when he came across these people. Still hiding the joint behind his back, he stumbled over his own words and finally said, “Yeah, like about that, um, so, I guess, like, here I am!” Elliot smiled at the unfortunate situation he had come across and was now becoming a part of.
The other thugs became to approach him with an intimidating stance and said, “Oh, so you think you’re a hero huh?” One of the men pulled a chain out from behind his back and Elliot put the joint in his back-trench coat pocket. The closest thug clenched his fist and threw it toward Elliot’s face. Elliot quickly side stepped him and swung the thug’s feet out from underneath him in one swoop of his foot. The man with the chain swung it at Elliot while he darted to the ground. The chain whip missed him and the man swung it down on the ground while Elliot rolled out of the way and the whip slapped the ground wrapping itself around a pole sticking out of the ground to block cars from coming down that part of the alley way. Elliot stood up and kicked the man right in the face while he spun in the air and kicked him with his opposite leg and sent the man flying into the remaining thug as they crashed up against a nearby dumpster. The lady scrambled to her feet with tears in her eyes.
“I just knew you would come to my rescue Mr. Hero!” she cried out.
Elliot scratched the back of his head while he said, “Yeah, so like how was a cop not able to take those guys on? They didn’t even have Esper powers?”
The lady looked away as she said, “Because this is just a costume. I was really stealing from them and they realized I wasn’t a cop and caught up to me.”
Elliot looked her up and down and said, “I see. So, I guess you’re also a criminal!”
The lady cried out, “No I learned my lesson please forgive me hero!”
Elliot laughed out loud like an asinine hero of justice and said, “Alright lady, go home and say like twenty hail Mary’s or whatever and change your ways! If you keep messing with punks like these, no good will ever come of it!”
The lady stood up and ran off into the night while shouting, “Thank you!” The thugs already ran off while they were talking, and Elliot was finally alone. He pulled the joint back out of his back pocket and sparked it up. He thought to himself why do people associate all the Espers as heroes? The government made strict laws forbidding people to act as police and use their powers as heroes. As Elliot sat there and smoked his joint, Dimitri came tumbling down the alley way. He had a bottle cap stuck to each of his front paws and was desperately trying to fling them away. He came rolling over to Elliot for help and Elliot picked him up and removed the bottle caps. The cat sat in his lap and gave a thankful meow.
Eliot said, “Why are you always following me little guy?” Dimitri had been part of the family for a couple years now. Zero rescued him one day when she was walking with Lux home from the store. They saw him in a tree above a busy river channel. Zero climbed the tree and tried to get him but in the cats fear it backed up off the ledge and began to fall in the water way. Without hesitation Zero sprang out of the tree and caught the cat mid-air. They both plunged into the water and traveled down the water way by the current. Zero’s arm became caught on some underwater debris as she used her other hand to hold Dimitri above the water. While Zero started to drown Lux had caught up with them and pulled the cat to safety. When she pulled on Zero to save her, Zero’s arm broke as she was pulled free. Zero risked her life with no abilities to save Dimitri and he’s been around ever since.
Elliot could see lights flashing from down the alley way and heard footsteps along with a police radio. He knew those thugs probably ran to the police and made up some bogus story. He stood up and ran in the opposite direction as the police down the alleyway. He ran out of the alley way and down an alley across the street that went up against the back of the school’s perimeter wall. He did a series of jumps and hoped over the tall brick fencing. Once he landed on the other side, he leaned up again the wall with his joint still hanging out of his mouth. Footsteps and people running came down the alleyway and slowly disappeared off into the distance. Elliot stood up and put out the remaining part of the joint and dropped it in his pocket. After walking across the school’s lawn, he went behind it and entered a gated area that led to the shrine. He stood in the doorway and peered through the glass part of the door and saw Sukudo kneeling in front of one of the portraits. It was the portrait Elliot had been talking to earlier that morning. It was a portrait of Sukudo and her parents when she was little. Elliot pushed the shrine door open and walked up next to her and began to kneel with her.
She quietly said, “You reek of cannabis.”
Elliot said without looking at her, “And you reek of booze, kid”
They both sat their quietly and offered their respects to Sukudo’s passed on biological parents.
Sukudo eventually quietly said to Elliot, “It’s getting hard to remember them.” Elliot saw tears streaming from her eyes as she continued to say, “Someday I won’t remember them at all. I can hardly remember what their voices sounded like. All I have is this picture to cry in front of.” She began to weep heavily as Elliot put his arm around her.
Elliot began to say, “Hey now, don’t worry. If you ever forget I’m here to always remind you!” He imitated her dad Ryell and said, “Sukudo put those down! Swords aren’t toys!” Sukudo began to laugh a little while she cried as Elliot continued to say, “It’s my job to make sure you always remember them. I’m like a computer bank of memories so when ever you feel like you need to hear about them, I’ll always be here. They’d be so proud of you, just so you know. Your dad would be so proud to learn you followed him down the road of the samurai.” He stood up suddenly and without Sukudo realizing, he had both her swords unsheathed and in each of his hands. In his left hand he held up a completely black katana and said, “This is Asmodeus, the demon sword. Your father swung this sword proudly and fought off evil with its own creation!” He then lifted the other katana which was white from top to bottom. “And this one is Azrael, the angel of death! Your mother wielded this blade justly and would strike her foes with the justice of god!”
Sukudo was laughing hysterically now and said, “That’s all myths and legends none of that is real!”
Elliot protested back while holding up both swords, “Well it makes for a good story! And these were actually the swords your parents used. Myth or not you carry those legends with you now. Those are still extremely rare weapons that some people would do anything to get their hands on.” Elliot handed them back to Sukudo and said, “I’m going to go inside, don’t stay out to long.” AS he walked out of the shrine he saw Dimitri sitting a top one of the perimeter walls staring up at the moon. After a moment Elliot called out to Dimitri to come inside, and like a dog, the cat came leaping down from the wall and trotted his way inside with Elliot to the elevator. The doors opened and they went inside and ascended up to the fifth floor. Elliot entered the kitchen area and Jazlyn and Liam were putting away the dishes they had just finished cleaning.
Liam said, “We took all the leftovers and divided them up into lunches for everyone tomorrow. Also, we did the dishes, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
Jazlynn turned around and asked Elliot. “Are you going to the roof to stargaze? Everyone is mostly up there already.” Elliot opened the fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of water.
He then said, “Of course Jazy, you know I started that tradition.” Elliot, Liam, and Jazlynn left the kitchen area, turning the light off when they left. They went up the elevator to the roof and joined the rest of the group. Everyone was sitting under blankets looking up at the night sky as the stars hung above them. Zero and Chloe were sharing a blanket while they sat cross legged gazing at the stars.
Lux said, “There’s supposed to be a star shower tonight. So, if you see a shooting star make a wish that Elliot stops drinking and becomes a stand-up figure and takes his teaching seriously. Penelope, Toshiro, Hikari, and Ashlynn were lying on their backs all in a row while Ashlynn was pointing out all the constellations that could be seen. Elliot walked up to everyone and at his feet were Yoko and Tsuki passed out underneath a blanket. The two most talkative of the bunch were already sawing logs and about to miss the light show. Everyone else was seated by Lux as she shined a laser pointer into the sky and was pointing out certain stars in the constellations that Ashlynn had been pointing out. Jazlynn was sitting the farthest away from everyone when Chloe and Zero suddenly appeared next to her on each of her sides with the blanket over her heads.
Zero said, “Don’t be so lonely Jazy. Me and Chloe will keep you company.”
Jazlynn said back, “I don’t mean to appear so sad all the time, I just miss Loki.”
Moyasu piped up from across the roof, “is that why you’re always still cooking her dinner and leaving a plate for her at the table? I always thought that was weird.”
“Jazlynn shouted, “Shut up! You don’t even have any real friends so what would you know? Someday she’ll come back, and I want there to be a plate there for her when she does.”
Zero wrapped one arm around Jazlynn and said, “I know she will come back someday. My big sis would never leave us behind forever. She just holds on to grudges and she’s been mad at Elliot for a long time. But I know her! I know she will get over it. Mom would be so angry at her right now if she knew she ran away and left us. I know she knows that too. If she doesn’t come home soon then I’ll, I’ll get Ash to make her eat dirt in front of everyone. Loki was Zero’s older sister and Jazlynn closest friend. She ran away almost five years ago out of nowhere one day. Elliot told everyone it was because he had upset her but never explained any further and blamed himself. No one knew where she went or where she currently was. Jazlynn looked up at the stars with tears in her eyes. She was wearing a black long sleeve t-shirt and thing leather gloves. Because of her wildcard ability she had to wear gloves because if she touched someone she would inherit their ability and if she didn’t realize which ability she currently had, like if she bumped into somebody while walking and inherited their ability, it could mean life or death in a fight, or could cause chaos if she thought she had something simple and turned out to be something devastating like an explosion ability or fire without realizing it. She usually covered most of her body because her skin making contact with someone else’s could trigger her sub ability. Part of her weekly training routine was to spar while borrowing other people’s abilities to grow accustomed to as many abilities as possible. The more abilities she became accustomed to using would eliminate any failures or self-harm from not knowing how to properly use those abilities or similar ones. The last person to ever beat her in a sparring match was Loki. When she fought Loki she would Inherit her ability and it would be a battle between two psychokinetic Epsers. Penelope was also a psychokinetic Esper. Penelope was shy and quiet and usually never sparred with anyone. She always hid underneath her puffy winter jacket and chose not to say much. She would make everyone write on her note pad when they wanted to talk to her or when she wanted to talk to people. She wasn’t deaf, but she was socially awkward when it came to interacting with other people.
Yoko and Tsuki rolled over under their blanket and stuck their heads all the way out and asked, “Dang, did we miss it?” Before anyone had a chance to respond, one by one, meteorites started to burn up across the sky. Within moments the sky was almost set ablaze by a dazzling meteor shower. Everyone watched quietly as they painted a picture across the sky. Elliot looked around and saw everyone lost in the meteor showers beauty. He thought to himself how long will he get to spend moments like these with everyone? Before he was responsible for them all he never pictured a life where he would have his own kids and now, he sat there unable to picture a life without them. Such vast age differences and opposite personalities were sprinkled throughout the group. His own blood family wasn’t even this big when they were alive.
Zero looked over at Elliot and said, “Oh no, are you sad to Elliot?”
Ashlynn cut in and said, “He’s sad because he’s worried about us leaving him when were all grown up!”
Elliot turned to Ashlynn and said, “What the hell Ashlynn? What did I tell you about reading people’s minds?”
Ashlynn replied, “It’s different with you Elliot. To be honest, even when I try my hardest, I can never seem to read your mind at all. So, when I get moments like these, I take them. I look at it as a form of training for my ability and your more like the final boss!”
Elliot wanted to yell some more but what was the point. He knew she was young and was going to do what she wanted. Anyone with her ability would probably be the same way. It’s not like she was winning the lottery with her abilities or cheating money from casinos. Elliot thought through his meditations he did daily he had been able to block her out pretty much all day, but he guessed in his moments of vulnerability he let his guard down. He came up with a method when he was around Ashlynn, where he could think of words in certain patters or spam a word in his mind to block her ability to read it. He used to train with her by having her try to mind control him or simply read his mind and he would fight it with his will power. For awhile it seemed to work and she no longer had access to his head, but after awhile she started to be able to break through and Elliot stopped that kind of training.
Moyasu called back out while watching the stars, “Don’t worry you big baby, we wouldn’t leave or powerless but fearless leader behind. You spent a good chunk of your life raising us when you didn’t have too so the least, we can do is stick around. Plus, I was kinda hoping you would like take care of me forever. I mean, no rent, free meals if you show up to dinner. What could be better? And also, can’t leave you behind because the few friends I have, I told them you were my dad. Thought it’d be a lot easier to say than then tell them my parents are dead and start that whole story up. Everyone else besides Lux started to say the same thing. The thing that everyone of the kids shared, was that their parents were dead. Even though Elliot almost wanted to cry, and he didn’t know why. Did they really look at him as a father figure? Elliot wasn’t one to get emotional and have deep heart to heart talks all the time, but tonight felt different to him. He didn’t know why, but he felt a sort of weight lifted from his shoulders that he couldn’t explain.
Zero started to talk again and said, “See Elliot, we won’t leave you behind! Even Loki will come home some day and we’ll all be together again. The rest of the meteorites slowly burned up in the sky like tiny fireworks as everyone watched in amazement.268Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOrokNwHEh
