Black. That’s all I see. My body is aching, begging me to keep my eyes closed and to go back to sleep. Instead, I crack my eyes open, only to be met with a cloud of dust. I cough as I push myself up into a sitting position, my bones creaking as I move, and my body aching with every breath. I scan my surroundings and see that the dust is beginning to settle. I seem to be in the rubble of what used to be a building, although I don’t know how it was blown up.
Wait… I think How did I get here? Where am I? Who am I?! I frantically wrack my brain for anything, anything at all, but all I can find are blurred and jumble images. I start shaking as I clutch my head and bring my knees towards my chest. I know something important just happened. What was it? I want to remember. I need to remember. What was it? What was it? What was i.. A firm hand clamps my shoulder, and I let out a startled screech. I pop up and spin to face the a black hulking shadow. I start to back away, trembling with fear, but then I bump into another figure. My eyes are wide with fear, when two more appear. I look around frantically, but I’m boxed in, there’s no way out. “P-p-please don’t… P-please don’t hurt me.” I stutter, still shaking like a leaf.
The first, and the biggest of the shadows, says in a deep voice, “You don’t remember what you did?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, a dull ache pounding my head.
“I-I don’t! P-please… whatever I d-did, I’m sorry.” The ache in my head is getting stronger as I try to remember, and I feel hot tears pricking my eyes. “I don’t know w-who you are. I d-don’t know who I-I am. I-I don’t know w-what is going on!” I shout, quaking as I speak. For a moment no one speaks, the silence presses down on me, when a soft, warm voice begins to speak.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.” I slowly open my eyes. There’s a woman, about 30, in front of me. She looks at me with warm, dark brown eyes rimmed by caramel colored skin, wearing a light blue skin tight bodysuit with a strange emblem on it, her black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. “Just breath” she smiles, putting a hand on my shoulder. I automatically flinch from her touch, causing her smile to waver for a second.
“But..” the man with the deep voice says, but the woman shuts him up with a sharp glare. I can see now that he’s also wearing a skin tight suit with the strange emblem, but his is red. He has blond hair and looks to be about 35 years old with broad shoulders and an arrogant air about him. I shy away from his piercing stare, his hate very apparent from his crossed arms and tense stance.
“You really don’t remember anything?” The woman gently says. I shake my head as I wipe my tears away.
“D-do.. do you know me?” I ask quietly, looking into the woman's eyes.
She hesitates, then mumbles “Sort of.” avoiding my gaze.
“W-who are you?” I ask. She stands up straight, startling me, but looking a bit relieved at the change of topic.
“Call me,” she says placing her hand on her chest, “Sky. That,” she says pointing at the grumpy man in red behind her “is Red.” The man called Red glares back at “Sky”. She then points at the two other figures on either side of me. “Those two are Juniper and Mauve.” Juniper and Mauve have the same type of suit as the other two, but Juniper has it in dark green and Mauve’s is purple. Mauve appears to be a 23 year old man with wavy dark brown hair and a rather slim frame. Brown freckles dot his nose, his expression serious. Juniper on the the other had looks like she’s only 15 with bright green eyes and long red hair, and seems a bit confused.
“Do… do you know my name?” I ask as I finally start to calm down.
“Well…” Sky says softly “Not exactly.” I exhale, the disappointment evident in my eyes. “But, I have an idea.” She says cheerfully “What about we call you… Hmmmm...” She snaps her fingers as an idea comes to her “Raven! Yes, that’s your name now.”
“Raven…” I whisper, liking the way the name rolls off of my tongue.
“We need to leave.” The solemn sound of Mauves voice startles me, and I turn my head to look at him. “There could be more coming.”
“But what are we going to do with...” Red answers angrily, motioning at me
“We take Raven with us” Sky fiercely replies, emphasising my new name.
“No way. We can’t”
“Yes way. We have to!”
“It’s not happening!”
“We are going to bring Raven with us.”
“No”
“Yes”
“N…”
“Red! Sky!” Mauve interrupts, effectively shutting them up. “We don’t have time for this! Just bring the da** kid!”
“But,”
“We. Don’t. Have. Time.” Mauve growls, looking Red dead in the eyes. Firmly grabbing my wrist, Mauve pulls me over to a sleek purple car, making me stumble, and the rest of the team follows, Red and Sky still glaring at each other. Mauve roughly shoves me into the back seat, then sits behind the wheel. Sky sits in shotgun after giving Red one last death glare, and Juniper and Red sit on my right side. Juniper is between me and Red, as it obvious that he doesn't want to be anywhere near me. The silence in the car is almost tangible, even the motor seems to be nothing more than a murmur. I fidget, waiting someone to do something, but no one makes a move to do anything. The discomfort in the car starts to freak me out, so I whisper to Juniper, shattering the silence.
“Are you… are you guys superheros or something?” Juniper flinches a bit at the sound of my voice, then turns to me. She gives me shaky smile
“Y-yeah. We’re part of a s-superhero group called Prism.”
“So it that why you use pseudonyms related to your color?”
“What?” Juniper asks, her smile frozen on her face
“You know, like how Juniper is a shade of green, Mauve is shade of purple, Sky is a shade of blue and Red, is, well, red.”
“Yeah.” She says, visibly relaxing. “We use them mostly so that our superhero lives don’t interfere too much with our regular lives.”
“So why is Red called Red? The rest of you are different shades, but he’s just the name of the color.”
“Well…” Juniper says, cracking smile “Evidently there aren’t many “manly” shades of red, and he wasn’t willing to be The Brick.” The idea is so absurd, that I begin to chuckle “What’s so funny?”
“I was just imagining Red going up to a villain and being all like, Fear me! For I am the mighty Brick!” Juniper starts to giggle too, until Red speaks,
“You know I’m right here!... And don’t call me “The Brick”” Juniper and I just look at each other and bust out laughing.
When we finally calm down, Juniper has a real smile on her face and I don’t feel nearly as terrified. Maybe it will be okay.