"They say all dreams come true.... They forget to mention that nightmares are dreams too."

--

Bdubs wasn't focused on anything in front of him all morning. He'd nearly walked into at least four lampposts and several people, and nearly forgot his backpack on the dinner table. Not to mention how many times he'd slipped on the trail of ice Etho was leaving behind by accident (it took a moment for him to stop, but they managed to get it under control after a few minutes).

Keralis seemed to notice, but just assumed it was usual stress from school and such. If only he'd known...

Beef yanked Bdubs by his backpack so the boy wouldn't walk straight into the road. "Whoa! Bdubs, you've gotta be more careful! You doing alright, man?"

Finally snapping out of the daze he'd been in all morning, the smaller brunette looked at Beef wide-eyed. "I- I just- I-I'm fine."

His hands gripped the straps of his bag. He didn't know why he lied, but the words were out before he could stop himself. Rushing ahead of the other four, the thirteen-year-old phased back into his thoughts.

The rest of the group exchanged concerned looks before following Bdubs across the street.

The school day was a blur: all Bdubs could think about was what he'd seen the night before. Who was that look-alike? Who was the cyborg? Or all those other people? What was that place? Had that been real or a dream?

Pungence had to practically drag his brother home. "What's up with you today?!"

"Huh?"

The kid huffed. "Get your head out of the clouds and answer me, Bdubs!"

"I..." What was Bdubs supposed to say? 'Well, pretty sure our parents are evil scientists, Pungence!'

Bdubs sighed and kept walking. "Weird dream, I guess."

Getting suspicious, his younger brother followed, holding back a dozen more questions.

Seeing the door open from the kitchen, Mrs Baklo smirked. "About time you two. Dad thought you'd both gotten kidnapped or something."

Pungence laughed and threw his bag on the couch. "Nah, this idiot was being a slowpoke the whole time."

Not even looking up from the floor, his older brother gave him a small, unamused shove and headed to their shared bedroom.

"Bdubs? You alright..?" Their mom put down the towel she'd been using to dry the dishes and walked over to her oldest son before he could get to the hall. "Did you have a rough day or something, hijo?"

Bdubs hesitantly looked up. "No... just had... a weird dream last nigh-"

That's when he noticed the bandage. On his mother's left forearm. He swore his heart had plummeted through his body and six feet in the ground. "It's n-nothing Mami, just got- got a lot of homework."

He darted into his room, ignoring the concerned and confused looks from his mom and brother.

'No... no no no... that couldn't-?'

He did his best to not slam the door as he got into his room, dropping his backpack on the floor and practically throwing himself into the office chair he and Pungence shared. "This can't be real- That couldn't have been real! There's no way! I- I can't predict the future! Or whatever the heck that was!"

He got up and paced around, hundreds of thoughts buzzing in his head. Were all those people real? Had he seen his future? Or was it something else?

Bdubs stood up and glanced at his backpack. '... would that be overreacting? Actually- Is there any way to be overreacting to something like this??'

He gulped and slowly emptied his backpack, adrenaline and panic coursing through him.

'Oh god, what am I doing-?' Bdubs wasn't sure if he should regret his decision or not.

He looked out the window of the bus, ignoring the odd feeling in his stomach. He was really running away. What would his parents do about his disappearance? What if he had acted too quickly-

Oh no.
What about Pungence?

What if those bullies at school took advantage of Bdubs being gone? What if-

Something suddenly shook the brunette's senses. His head jolted up and he glanced around the bus. 'What the...'

Nobody else seemed bothered, so he tried to shake the feeling. But... it kept coming back. He looked up at the display on the bus, showing the stops.

'New York.'

Wait, why there?

Bdubs couldn't quite explain it, but a small voice in his head convinced him to go there. Maybe they had homeless shelters? He was kinda homeless now, wasn't he?

Dear god... what was he getting himself into?

--

Homework? Yep. Phone? Yep. Pencil? Eh... their first period teacher always gave them one first thing, they stopped packing their own a while ago.

Iskall slung their backpack on and went out the door. "Bye Dad."

"See ya, Iskall."

They locked the door behind them and stumbled down the stairs, holding back curses. 'Wait-'

They thrust out their hand, and time... just stopped. Luckily, Iskall purposely affected gravity too (they'd learned how to do that the hard way) before slowly rewinding to when they'd gotten to the first step.

They let out a sigh of both relief and worry as they trudged back down the stairs, more smoothly this time.

Iskall had gotten their powers a while ago. They couldn't remember the details, but they remembered being around ten when Mom nearly fell off a tall rock... then suddenly being back on it. After telling their parents about this, Iskall expected someone to tell them they were going crazy. But, their mom had a clue of what was happening.

Not that their father had bothered to explain as Iskall's mom started going on more and more work trips. Maybe it was odd for someone their age, but Iskall still didn't know exactly what their mom did for a living. They knew she had to travel a lot, but that was it.

Little did Iskall know, they'd get thrown into their mother's kind of life soon.

--

Late at night, a young twelve year old hides his computer under his sheets, training his ears for any sounds other than the occasional light clicking of the keys on his keyboard. The search bar currently read "pym particle functions". He clicked on the link and started reading.

Most kids that were Mumbo's age wouldn't understand 70% of the words in that article, but he knew the meaning of nearly every one of them. Probably because he wasn't like most kids. Most kids weren't able to make small rotors out of broken fridge magnets, paper clips, empty soda cans, and rubber bands.

'Okay, I understand that the space between the atoms end up shrinking... but how?'

He scanned through the article.

"Not much is known about the true nature of the Pym Particle."

Yeah, he could tell. The article seemed incomplete, and more about how little Mr Hank Pym shared about the particle than how it actually worked.

Hearing his parent's door open, Mumbo did his best to silently rush his computer under his pillow. 'Oh dear- Please don't come in, please don't come in-'

Laying down and shutting his eyes, he trained his ears for the sound of his own door opening. It didn't come. After a few minutes, his parent's door closed again, making him give a small sigh of relief.

'Nearly had a heart attack... It's pretty late, I should get some sleep so I'm not a complete mess tomorrow.'

--

Tango walked into his house, repocketing the key to his house. "I'm home!"

He heard a few small "hi"s from his siblings and parents around the place. Heading to the living room, the blonde plopped down his backpack on the couch.

He switched on the TV, which was currently on the news channel.

"-some officials have been debating how we should handle the existence of superhumans. All over the world, people that are currently being called 'mutants' are developing super powers at puberty. Some people call this a hoax, others say these people are about to become a great danger to society."

Tango cringed and quickly switched channels. 'Stupid jerks, acting like we wanted this...'

"Whatcha watching?" His mom asked from the kitchen.

Quickly thinking of a half-lie, he responded, "Nothing yet! Went on the news by accident."

--

"-it, this can't be real..." The snowy-haired Void sighed, sitting next to his brother. Xisuma choked back a sob.

"How..? How could she die?"

"Better question... Who?" Alex kept his voice quiet, which made the brunette uneasy.

A moment of silence passed.

"What do we do now?"

Saying nothing in response, Xisuma just leaned against the other. "I... I don't know. We never had a plan for this. We never thought this would happen, did we?"

Alex shook his head, delicately wrapping his arms around Xisuma.

Another few moments of quiet passed, both sorcerers trying to wrap their heads around the fact that their mother figure was really gone. Who'd be the Sorcerer Supreme now? What if nobody was up to fill such shoes?

"... we should get moving, it's getting dark. Wong always told us it gets cold here during winter, remember?" Alex gently got Xisuma to stand. He double checked that his compressed staff was in the hoodie pocket before taking Xisuma's hand and wandering into the streets.

X was only half paying attention to where they were going, until he heard a small whimper from around a corner of a building they'd just passed. He pulled Alex's arm back as he glanced into the alley (how many of these were in this city?) to see someone in jeans and a black t-shirt curled into a ball, shivering and seemingly crying.

"... 'ello?"

Trying a bit of a new format to distinguish events and scenes, let me know if it works :D

Things have happened... poggers! Haven't really got much to say other than hope you had a great Valentine's Day and have an amazin' day, evening, and night! BYYYYE!!

- CaptainMarra (is mining through plans like TFC every season)