Feels so good to have the Injustice Squad back in action. And it would appear Daina is doing a very good job leading them, even "getting along" with younger sister, Tika, who appears to have fully recovered from her injuries in the joint training battles earlier. It's amazing how effective these school nurses are, right? Also, how many of you actually thought Poppy left the Squad to go back and work for Vassago? Yeah, there's no way in hell she'd actually do that. Nope, just a cover so she could obtain at least one dose of Trigger for the Squad in their upcoming plan. Yep, a prison break is upon us, but we're not quite there yet. First, let's get on track with a character I know a lot of you have been wondering about. Enjoy!

-POV: Cry-

It's been over a month now since I fled from that hero. Wrath Queen was her name? I can't even remember at this point. Running away for this long.... it changes you. I'm trying to find out who I really am, what i'm supposed to do. But everywhere I've gone, it just leads to more dead ends. All I remember is my name and my quirk. But then there's these voices.... I hear them every so often in my head. 

There's two of them I often hear. One of which is from that Wrath Queen. And the other is from a man named Markus. I don't know either of them, but they're both constantly saying, "Son, come back to me." Queen hurt me, so I have no reason to listen to the voice and return. And I can't trust the other voice either. For all I know, Markus could harm me as well. 

My trek had taken me hundreds of miles north of where I started. I know after my fight with Queen, I was in Philadelphia. But now, i'd traveled all the way up to New York City. But with nowhere to stay, I had to resort to living in alleyways and abandoned buildings. I used my quirk to make some warmer clothes for me as well seeing as the colder months were arriving. Each night, despite the fact i'd make myself a fire, felt more cold than the last. The struggle was undeniable, but I have to keep moving forward. I have to find out who I really am. And I will not let anyone get in my way. 

After a long day of wandering around the city, keeping my jackets hood on so no one would hopefully bother me, I decided to find somewhere to rest for the night. The reason I change locations every day is because every so often, I notice the same 4 people appear wherever I either am or once was. One was a girl with incredibly long ear lobes, the other girl had long orange hair with a side ponytail, and the first boy had medium length gray hair and spiky teeth with a bit of a beard growing on him. And, the last boy had short blonde hair and he wore this.... I don't know, tuxedo-like outfit to him. It looked weird. 

I grew the suspicion that they were following me, thus is why i'm always moving. But walking around in a massive and busy city all day can really tire one out. So, I searched for a suitable and somewhat easily defendable location to rest for tonight. And after the sun went down well over 2 hours ago, I finally came across the spot i'd sleep. 

In what seemed to be a factory district, I came to what looked to be an abandoned steel mill. Broken walls, shattered windows, vines growing along the walls, rust everywhere; yeah, i'd say it was abandoned. The front doors were locked so I slipped through a broken window and got inside. The place was still cold, just like outside, but it was dry in here. If there was an office room in here, that'd probably give me the most comfort. And after a few minutes of searching, I found the office room on the second floor, with a dusty and slightly ripped chair inside. 

"Guess that's better than sleeping on concrete..." I said to myself as I went and sat down in the chair, making a fire on the floor near me with a barrier around it to keep from spreading. I then shut my eyes to try and fall asleep. 

.....

"Man, the look on that guys face when we took his wallet was priceless!" I heard a girl say a few minutes later as I woke up and snuffed out my fire. I got off my chair and went over to a nearby window to peer down to the main floor.  

"Yeah, no kidding! Saved his store from being mugged and then took what he had on him! Never gets old!" Another person said, this time it was a boy as I saw the main doors to the building open. 4 people stood there and walked in, I assumed it was those 4 people who'd been following me for the past month. But even though it was pretty dark inside the building, the moonlight was illuminating them enough for me to see it wasn't them. This was a different group of 4. 

"Hey.... You smell something?" Another boy asked as the fourth and final, who was also a boy, started sniffing the air. 

"Yeah... smells like smoke. Last I checked, all the equipment in this place is shot too. Which means someone's moved into our place." He said as the four of them suddenly spread out around the inside of the building, one of them going up the stairs to my level. 

"Crap, crap, crap, just go away. I just want to be left alone..." I thought as I hid myself under the desk in the office room, pushing the chair into place to look like I was never here. 

"See anyone yet?" One of the boys asked the others. 

"Nothing yet. Maybe they just passed through!" Another boy suggested as I heard the door to the office open up. 

"Hellooooooo......? Anybody taking residence in here?" The girl asked as I could hear her walking around, coming from my right. She was getting real close and I tried to stay as quiet as possible, not even making a sound as I saw her feet and legs come into view. She crouched down and put her hand on the floor where my fired had been. "It's warm here.... and there's even a bit of ash too..."

The girl then looked to her left at the desk and saw me sitting under it. Her eyes widened and it looked as though she was about to yell something, but before she could, I kicked the chair away from the desk and into her. I then got out of my hiding spot and made a mad dash for the main doors, leaving the office room and heading for the stairs. 

"Someone's here, he's making a run for it! Up top!" I heard the girl shout as the three boys on the bottom floor all turned and ran for me. One of them ran underneath the platform I was running along and he literally ripped apart the support beams from underneath it. This caused that part of the platform to collapse, which I was still on as it did. I fell but managed to catch the edge of the next section of the platform. But before I could get myself up, a second boy jumped up and off the side of the wall next to me, grabbing onto my leg and pulling me down to the ground.

"Get the hell off me!" I shouted as I landed on my back, the first boy who was breaking the platform trying to stomp onto my chest. But I rolled out of the way in time and then smashed my right arm into his leg, making him fall over for the moment. It gave me the time I needed to get up, but the second boy who had grabbed me also got up too and went after me when I tried to run. "Stay the hell away from me!!" 

To keep the boy off me, I used my quirk to make a barrier between us as we were running. He ran right into it as he was knocked down, allowing me to get away from him and the other two. But as I kept heading for the entrance, I came to a stop when I was met by the last boy. And this one had a hunting knife in his left hand. 

"Now just hold on there, dude. We don't wanna hurt ya now. But keep things like this up and we'll have to, understand?" He said to me but I really didn't want to take his word. 

"And why the hell should I believe someone like you? Not wanting to hurt me? This is coming from the guy holding a freakin' knife." I said to him as he just shrugged his shoulders at me. 

"Fair point. Still though, stop resisting and we won't have to get rough." He said to me as I could hear the other three kids gathering behind my back. 

"From the sounds of things, i'd say it's a little past that point. Look, all I want is to be left alone, okay?" I told them all as I looked over my shoulder. One of the other boys was giving me a rather curious look. 

"Putain de merde. Sais-tu qui est-ce?" He said to his friends. 

"English, Konner. Can't understand your French, remember?" The boy blocking my escape said as the boy named Konner sighed. 

"I said "Holy shit. Do you guys know who this is?" Look at the right arm, the left hand, his face. It has to be him!" Konner said as the other three tried to take a closer look at me. 

"What am I, some display to you? And what the hell are you talking about, anyway? Agh, I don't have time for this! Just let me walk out of here." I said to them but the one blocking my exit shook his head. 

"No can do. Even if you're who my friends thinks you are, we ain't lettin' you leave. Can't risk you potentially going to the cops and tattling now." He said to me as I activated my quirk, beginning to produce fire from my right arm. 

"Let. Me. Leave." I demanded.

"Not a chance, kiddo. You ain't leavin' here." The girl said to me as I turned and pointed my arm at her.

"Hold it!" The boy in the entrance shouted as I turned my head back to look at him. 

"Okay, it's obvious things are about to get pretty rough here. But, how about we do a win/win situation for everyone here. Instead of all 5 of us fighting here and causing chaos, let's say just you and me duke it out. Sound good to you? Either way you're gonna get stomped, it'll just be better for you by just having to fight me." He said to me which, honestly, pissed me right off. 

"Excuse me? Wanna run that by me again?" I asked him as his three friends all backed off and went off to the far side of the room. 

"Jeez, you got bad hearing or something? I said i'm gonna kick your ass, plain and simple." The boy said to me as he cracked his fingers a bit. "Marnie, turn on the lights please."

The girl named Marnie stood next to a rather large lever on the wall, and by flipping it up, all the lights in the steel mill flicked on, giving me a chance to get a better look at all these people. 

The boy who decided to fight me took off his hood, revealing medium length black hair that drooped over his blue eyes. He had a scar partially over his left eye as well. He wore a leather jacket with a fairly ripped up white t-shirt underneath, along with black jeans, some fingerless leather gloves and dark brown boots. 

The boy named Konner had short blonde hair with bright blue eyes, and he wore a yellow and black jock jacket, dark blue jeans, and red sneakers. 

Marnie had long bright red hair that curled a bit at the ends with similarly coloured eyes. She had a few scars are her face as well. She wore a black biker jacket with ripped off sleeves, ripped up jeans, and dark blue and black sneakers.

And the last boy, he had medium length dark green hair, glasses, and he wore a navy blue jacket, black jeans, and green sneakers. But most interesting were his eyes. Both looked like clocks, but each only had one clock hand in them. I was sure it had something to do with his quirk. 

"So what do we call you, because "Mr. Leave me alone" isn't going to work." The boy I was about to fight asked me. 

"My name is Cry. Mind telling me yours so it makes it easier on me too?" I asked him, still aiming my fiery arm at him since I was expecting him to attack at any moment. 

"The name's Deimos. And you'd better remember it too, since it's the name of the dude who's gonna knock your freakin' lights out." He said to me with much confidence in his voice as he cracked his neck a few times. But then, he took his knife and jammed it into the side of a metal wall. "Won't use that. Makes things more even and more interesting for us."

"Are you going to keep talking, or are you going to attack me?" I asked him as Deimos just chuckled a bit. 

"No man, i'm waiting. I wanna see what you're gonna do first. So i'm just gonna stand here until you decide to do something." He replied as, for some reason, I felt like I heard that before. He then looked to his right and said to the boy with the clock eyes, "Felix, things 'bout to get real messy 'round here. Probably gonna need your quirk for clean up when it's quieted down."

"Fine! If you won't do anything, then I will! I warned you to leave me alone, so this is what you deserve for getting in my way!" I shouted as I unleashed a huge burst of flames right at Deimos. In response, Deimos rushed over to the nearest wall, jumped up and then pushed himself off of it using his right leg. He went over my flames as he came right down onto me, reeling back his left leg before thrusting it into my face as he came down. He made me fall over as I slid along the ground before being stopped by a concrete pillar. 

"I've dealt with a lot worse than flames, dude. That's not gonna slow me down." Deimos said to me as I quickly got back up to my feet.

"And it takes a lot more than some punches and kicks to stop me. Now please, just let me leave this place. I don't want to have to hurt you." I said to him but he just kept on coming over to me. 

"Nope. Sorry. Not a chance. We don't risk things here." Deimos replied as my veins began to glow with their purple hue. 

"Then what comes next is your own fault...." I said as I opened two portals, one in front of me and one above him. I jumped through the first and fell through the second, reeling back my right arm as I generated lightning through it. "Let's see you stand up to this!"

Deimos was able to look up and see me coming for him in time, with him just diving out of the way as I slammed my fist down onto the concrete floor, sparks erupting everywhere as I went to use my quirk again. 

"I'm not letting you escape me either!" I said as I closed my open hand into a fist. Doing so made the ground that Deimos was standing on shift towards me, bringing us closer as I brought back my left arm and rammed it right into his chest. I made him stumble back a bit but he quickly came back to his senses and brushed some dust off his shirt. 

"That all ya got?" He taunted me as I was growing infuriated with him. 

"I'm just getting warmed up, asshole!" I told him as I opened two portals again, the first in front of me once more but the second appearing to Deimos' left. I went to go through but Deimos moved quicker than me. He reacted to the portal next to him opening and reached into it. He grasped onto my hair tightly and pulled me through, throwing me until my back hit another concrete pillar. He wasn't done though as he came running at me. He brought back his right arm and threw it at me, but I dropped to my knees to avoid the attack, his fist colliding with the concrete and actually cracking it. 

"Okay..... maybe he's a bit stronger than I thought he'd be...." I thought to myself as I quickly got up and uppercut him in the jaw, sending him flying back. But he flipped himself right side up and landed on his feet just fine. 

"That's our Deimos for ya, always a show off...." Marnie said as she, Konner, and Felix just watched on the sidelines. 

"Pour un champion, je pensais qu'il serait plus habile." Konner said. 

"Konner, you're doing it again. Speak English." Felix said to him. 

"I cannot help it, it is my first language. I said, "For a champion, I thought he'd be more skilled."" Konner said as I looked over, a bit confused as I knew they were talking about me and not Deimos. 

"Wait, what? Cham-" I tried to say as Deimos capitalized on me looking away and drop kicked me, busting me through the same concrete pillar.

"Ow....." I groaned as I laid on my side. But despite the pain, I slowly got back up and wiped off some rubble from my clothes. 

"Okay, you're fast and powerful....." I said as I looked above Deimos and saw a huge metal support beam above him along the ceiling. I activated my quirk and made the bolts keeping it in place fall out, causing the beam to collapse above him. "....But let's see if you're strong enough to catch this!"

The steel beam came crashing down over Deimos, way too fast for him to dodge this time. And as he attempted to reach up and catch it, it made contact and he became shrouded in dust. 

"Sorry, you three, but you might have to find a new fourth for your group." I told the others watching as they didn't actually seem worried at all. 

"Dude, do we look concerned to you? Just keep your eyes on what's important." Felix said to me as I looked back. The dust was beginning to clear away and what I saw was, honestly, shocking. Deimos was down on one knee now, but in both his hands, he was holding up the steel beam just fine. He looked in a bit of pain and there was some blood coming from his palms, but besides that, he got out of all that relatively fine. And as he forced himself back up to both feet, he raised the beam up high and smiled with confidence. 

"Now it's time for you to catch!" Deimos yelled as he chucked the huge beam at me and then ran after it. In response, I began to create a condenses beam of energy from my right hand that went out about 4ft. I then waved my arm and sliced the beam in two as it neared me. But as both ends dropped to the floor, Deimos was able to close the distance again on me. He ran right up as my energy beam dissipated, and he grabbed my arm and extended it right out. He had a firm grip on me as I wasn't able to retract or bend my diamond arm at all. 

"Get... off.... of.... me!!" I shouted as I tried activating my quirk, my veins beginning to glow again as I went to make a portal. But before I could, Deimos headbutted me hard, causing major pain to my head which caused me to lose focus for the moment. He then pulled on my arm again, my guess was to try and break it off me. But all the force he was putting in caused us both to fall backwards onto our backs, Deimos still trying to pry my arm off despite falling too. I tried getting him to let go with my other arm, hitting him in the face and hands over and over, but he had a death grip on me. "If you won't let go like this.... then maybe this'll get you off me!"

I began to generate electricity through my right arm again, and since Deimos was touching it, it spread to him as well. I channeled over 50,000 volts to him. He was grunting and screaming a bit, yet still, he kept on trying to break my arm off me. 

"I.... ain't.... losing.... to..... anyone!!!" He shouted as he did a backwards somersault while still holding onto my arm. He now sat over my head and he proceeded to wrap his legs around my neck, squeezing tightly as he leaned down to my other side to pin my other arm. To try and get him off me, I raised up my legs and squeezed his head between them. I attempted to pull him off, but he wasn't budging one bit. And, I was beginning to lose consciousness. I was losing air.

"*Ack!* Can't..... breathe..... Get off....!" I tried my absolute best to say as I focused as much as I could with my quirk and made my diamond arm detach from me. With Deimos still having been pulling on it, all his momentum made him lose his balance on me, relieving pressure on my neck and my other arm, allowing me to slip my arm away from him so I could bring it up. I then brought my two fingers together and rammed them right at Deimos' throat, hitting him hard as he started to cough and roll off of me. We both got up at the same time as we both grasped our necks, trying to take in some air. 

"Cheeky little bastard.... like to fight dirty, then?" Deimos said, rubbing his neck as i'd left a bruise there. I on the other hand reached down and picked up my right arm and reattached it to myself.

"Just doing what I can.... to get out of here...." I told him, coughing a bit more. 

"Strong quirk, survival mind, solid set of skills.... you ain't half bad after all. Too bad I've still gotta kick your ass." Deimos said, cracking his knuckles once more as i'd had enough of him at this point. 

"We'll see what you say when i'm the one knocking your fucking lights out. There's no way you're taking this hit." I said to him as my right arm began to vibrate wildly. 

"Going for your best move, eh? Alright, i'll show you a specialty of mine too!" He replied as he came running at me. But before he could even get close, my arm started vibrating at its strongest frequency, completing its charging sequence.

"I'd say sorry if this kills you, but you've already pissed me off enough! I hope this does!" I shouted as, when he neared me, I threw my strongest attack, my Absolute Mass Hammer, right at him. But as I threw my punch, Deimos leapt off the ground with one leg, going fully horizontal as he spun and flipped sideways right over my arm, making it totally miss him. He then extended out one of his legs as it spun with him. He delivered the shot of all shots when his leg uppercut me square in my jaw, sending me flying up into the air until I came down and landed hard on my face.

"No.... Can't.... quit.... need to.... keep going.... gotta know... who..... I am...." I said as my vision was so blurry, both from a mix of being beaten in the face a couple times and from blood running down my eyes. My strength was weak too as I was struggling to push myself even off the ground a few inches. Deimos, all the while, casually walked over, crouched down next to me, grabbed me by my hair and lifted me up to eye level. 

"Had enough yet?" He asked me.

"No.... way..... Only way.... you're winning.... is by.... killing.... me...." I told him as he just rolled his eyes and sighed. 

"Yeah, don't think so. But, since not even that was enough to knock you out, I guess I've got no choice." He said to me as both his eyes suddenly turned pure black. "I'll have to use my quirk. Now witness your fears..."

My vision went dark for a mere moment before things began to flash before my eyes. I saw myself on an operating table, a man wearing a green jacket, a purple boa, and a red and yellow plague doctor mask standing next to me injecting some sort of needle into my neck. It made me afraid. And I could feel myself beginning to tear of. But everything shifted when the setting changed, now showing me Wrath Queen and another man who had black and white hair, with similarly coloured clothes. 

"My son, please come back to me...." Queen said to me. 

"No, come to me, my boy...." The other man said. Their words confusing me to the point of pain as I was bombarded by a massive migraine that caused me to scream out.  I tried to question it all but Deimos suddenly pressed two fingers on his left hand against a spot on my neck. He applied some pressure and it caused me to instantly black out again.

-2 Hours Later-

I don't know exactly how long I was out for, but when I woke, a massive pain surged through my head. My vision started out blurry when I woke, but it cleared after some time, allowing me to look around. My right diamond arm was gone, most likely having fallen off and shattered after I was knocked out. And my left arm was tied to a nearby pole. I'd been laid down onto a couch as well, and close by were the other four who sat on another couch watching TV. As far as I knew, we were still in the steel mill, most likely in a room I hadn't checked yet. This one was full of furniture and stuff like that, a bunk bed, even a ping pong table. 

"What the hell....?" I groaned as I saw all four of them look over to me. They turned off whatever they were watching and walked over to me, surrounding me on all sides. 

"Have a nice nap, dude?" Deimos asked me, first checking my pulse and then putting his hand on my forehead for a few seconds. 

"No....." I said in pain as I felt like i'd been hit by a bus.

"Well, it's what you get for comin' in on our turf." Marnie said to me, playing with my hair a bit. I tried to use my quirk, but all the pain was making it hard to focus. I couldn't activate it at all. 

"So what now.... you gonna... hand me over to the police....?" I asked them. 

"Pas exactement. Nous ne pouvons pas parce que nous sommes en quelque sorte recherchés." Konner said in French, none of us knowing what the hell he just said. All his friends gave him a look, giving him the idea to talk in English. "I said "Not exactly. We can't because we're sort of wanted."

"Yeah, can't risk taking you in without us potentially getting arrested too." Felix told me. 

"So then.... who the hell are you guys.... thieves....?" I asked them. 

"To others, we might be. To us, we're..... "Heroes," I guess." Deimos said to me. 

"What the hell.... are you talking about?" I asked them. 

"All 4 of us belong in the same boat. Kicked out of hero schools and all of us disowned by our own families. So, we just decide to do things our way, ignoring all the shitty laws normal heroes follow. We do things our way, and unfortunately, that way hasn't gone so well in the eyes of the authorities." Marnie explained to me. 

"I see.... so then.... what're you gonna do.... to me....?" I asked them since it was obvious they weren't letting me go. 

"Well...." Deimos said as he pulled out his knife again. "After listening to what you've been saying, you know, before I kicked your ass, it's clear that you're someone like us. You want to be left alone and just want to do your own thing, right?"

"Yeah... more... or less...." I replied as he moved his knife close to my neck. 

"So here's what we are offering to you. Join our crew. After all, you've got nowhere to go, like us. As far as we know, you don't have a family who cares about you, like us. And, with your quirk, we know you can do some good out there, even with us." Deimos said to me as he took his knife away and cut my arm free from the pole. I sat up and rubbed my wrist a bit, thinking about their offer. 

"And why the hell should I trust any of you? How do I know you're not just gonna use me, or even kill me?" I asked them. 

"Because we don't kill here, and we look out for each other. We're like a happy dysfunctional family." Felix explained. 

"And you should join us because, you know, we can't exactly let you leave. Sorry, but can't risk it." Marnie said to me. 

"Well.... what do I got to lose, then?" I said to them as Deimos chuckled a bit before reaching out his left arm to shake. 

"Welcome to the Lost." He said to me as I shook his hand, beginning a relationship that I was sure wouldn't end well.

I've been running for so long now, growing distrust with everyone i'd ever come across. But now, these four people, they bring something new to the table. A chance to connect. They bring a bridge that I can potentially cross, a way to trust them. But only time will tell if I actually can trust them, or if they just plan to use me for themselves.