*see i'm not dead!!!

*if you don't remember what happened last chapter (because i did not) here is a summary:

*the aurora wings go to estherwood to help people bc of the whole sinkhole thing, timeline promises to himself that hes gonna find elijah's family, timeline and hopewing find two sisters named leah and penny, but penny's legs are heckin mega-broken because she got crushed by a telephone pole so they help her out and penny and leah get taken to the hospital in an ambulance, then hopewing says that him and timeline make a good team and timeline agrees

-ᴍɪɴᴛʏ

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"He's going through a bit of a phase, you know how kids are..."

"For the past 14 years? He's just so insistent, I think we have to do something to prove to him that he's wrong. He doesn't have any weird powers. Humans just... can't do that. They can't hear sounds like that. I don't want him to become an adult and still think that he's a superhero."

"Have you heard the neighbors talk? They think he's crazy. They pull their kids inside when he goes out."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!"

Elijah Ruiz was tired of this. He really wished he had never told his parents about his weird ability. 

"Elijah, you can't still believe this. I've tried everything, told you in every way that you cannot make or hear ultrasonic sounds."

That was his psychologist. He had first spoken to her when he was only 7. It had been 7 years, and she still didn't believe him. She thought he was just a dumb kid!

"I can! You can't convince that I can't because I know."

His psychologist tried to fight back her sigh, while his parents' were much more obvious.

"What if," she suggested, "we do an MRI on you, just to prove that your brain is exactly like everybody's else."

His parents shared a worried look as he agreed. He was certain they'd find something that would prove he wasn't lying!

Elijah wouldn't say he "wished" he had been wrong, but he was certainly curious about how different things would be if he had been...

»»»«««

Of course, it had gone viral. The kid who could make ultrasonic sounds? That was unheard of. There was a whole thing about him and some other people who had been discovered to be able to do things that were previously thought to be impossible. 

Elijah had heard about a woman who had become immune to all physical damage after an accident, about a man who could read minds, about people who could manipulate light or heat or the weather.

Screams of humanity evolving or of aliens hidden on earth or whatever other explanation people could come up with littered the news.

Elijah had always heard that people were afraid of what they didn't understand, but he didn't really know what that meant until recently.

Elijah continued his walk home from school as he always did. His first year of high school had, honestly, been a complete mess. He had always been scrawny and short, with lots of acne and hair that seemed to be greasy no matter how often he washed it.

He was the kind of kid who would probably be bullied, even if he didn't have "supernatural abilities".

"Hey, freak...!" someone shouted, then proceeded to make some squeaking noises, reminiscent of a bat. 

Elijah snapped his head over to see who was taunting him, when someone from behind him suddenly grabbed his hair and pulled him to the ground. He cried out and flailed his arms, but whoever had a hold of him had to have been much stronger. As he looked, he suddenly realized it wasn't just one person, but a whole group of them.

Elijah bucked and fought as hard as he could, but there was nothing he could do as they dragged him into a dark alleyway, out of sight.

Elijah cried out in pain as a heavy boot connected with his ribs, and he clenched his eyes shut tight. A couple more kicks later, Elijah coughed, and the taste of blood filled his mouth. He heard laughing and taunting, but the sound of his own sobbing almost drowned it out.

Then, one of them grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to his feet. Elijah's eyes flickered open. Blood was dripping down Elijah's face and into his eyes until he could hardly see anything at all.

One of the kids shoved Elijah, and that did it. He stumbled backwards, tripped over his own two feet, and as he fell, the back of his head collided into a brick wall.

"Hey! What's going on here?" A woman's voice cried out as Elijah crumpled into a mass on the ground. Elijah heard a group of footsteps running away, and just two rush over to his side. Elijah heard the woman snarl a nasty noise before the sound of several screams entered his ears. 

Then a moment of silence.

"Oh dear, oh dear," the woman's voice said. "Let me see what they did to you."

Suddenly, Elijah felt a hand touch the side of his face and he flinched away, "Don't-- Don't touch me."

The woman was quiet as Elijah wiped his eyes clean. He hadn't been able to see very well, but had chalked it up to being the blood in his eyes.

However, his eyes were clean now, but...

He still couldn't see. He closed his eyes and opened them, and then again and again. He shook his head. He looked down at his hands, expecting to see them coated red.

But he saw nothing at all.

No-- No way-- There was no way-- 

"Hey, are you okay? What--What are you doing?" she asked.

"I-- I can't-- I can't see-- I can't see anything--"

"Oh no, oh no--" the woman said. "Here, I'll-- I'll take you to the hospital. I'm-- I can get you help. I-I'm gonna call for an ambulance. I'll go with you to the hospital."

"No, you don't need to--"

"You're just a kid. I'm not letting you ride in an ambulance all by yourself.

Elijah was seriously freaking out. He did his best to hold in his tears. He didn't want to look like a baby in front of his woman.

"Come on, kid. Can you stand? I can help y--"

"No!" Elijah cried, despising the idea of her laying even a single finger on him. "I'll--I can walk."

As Elijah moved to get on his feet, he remembered the very thing that got him into this situation. He let his mouth fall open, and with a quiet squeak that no one else would be able to see, he saw. 

Well, not exactly, but from that day forward, it would be as close as he could get.

Elijah could barely walk. He leaned on the wall for the most part. When they finally got into the open, where they could be seen by the ambulance that was on its way, the woman did her best to keep Elijah calm until it arrived.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Elijah," he said, figuring he probably shouldn't share his last name with a stranger.

"My name is Cassandra," she said.

And, although Elijah would never be able to see it, this particular woman--Cassandra--was known by most for her bright pink hair.

There was another moment of silence before Cassandra spoke again, "Sorry, I'm not very good with kids."

"It's fine," Elijah said plainly, then asked, "Did those kids run away?"

"...yeah, they did."

Elijah turned his head around to "look", but a siren wailing around the corner distracted him.

And it was a good thing he was distracted, for if he had turned around, he might've spotted some piles of ash that had been left in the middle of the alleyway. 

Cassandra turned around to watch as the ash disappeared in a gust of wind. She smiled.

»»»«««

Alley Cat, Nightwave, Stormbringer, and Makeshift had spent their next few hours dragging cars out of the way so ambulances and firetrucks could get closer to the edge of the sinkhole. However, soon enough, most of the roads had been cleared enough for cars to go through, and so they also began to scan the mess for any signs of life.

Makeshift had not been as lucky as some of the others. 

It seemed like every time he found someone, they were dead already. He had pulled probably 5 or 6 bodies out of the rubble and back to the police so that they could hopefully be identified. He couldn't imagine how many people--corpses?--were left.

These people had been killed in their homes. They were asleep when their house collapsed on top of them. 

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" 

Makeshift fell silent, listening for any sound. Dead people didn't make noise, but if someone was alive--

"...help, please help..." 

"Stay where you are, I'm coming...!"

Makeshift hurried to the source of the noise as quickly as he possibly could, scouring around him for whoever had spoken. Soon enough, he spotted someone and fell to his knees right beside them.

It was a man, probably mid-to-late 20s. Certainly older than Makeshift, but not by much.

Makeshift looked over him. He was laying on his back, blood in pools across his clothes and the ground around him. There was a metal rod through his stomach. The rod was probably holding in most of the blood, but there was a constant dripping that had been going on for hours.

Makeshift winced as he could already tell this man was on borrowed time. Makeshift looked around, spotted the nearest ambulances, and felt very uncertain they would be able to make it.

"Sir, sir, can you hear me?" Makeshift said.

"Yeah, yeah," the man said, letting his eyes fall closed from exhaustion, "I--I can't feel my legs."

"Oh-- Okay, okay okay," Fionn said. He must've been paralyzed. "My name is... Fionn. My name is Fionn. I'm gonna--I'm gonna get you out of here. I'm gonna get you to help and you're gonna be okay."

Fionn tugged off his mask and tossed it to the ground beside him. Right now, Fionn felt like this man didn't need a superhero, he needed a friend. And it didn't matter that much at all if he knew who Fionn was, this man was going to die. 

Fionn was surprised he was still alive at all, let alone conscious. 

Fionn called for help anyway.

"What's your name?" Fionn asked, sliding up closer to the man. It seemed like a fairly normal thing to ask someone, but it was actually Fionn's way of helping the police. If Fionn could get a name, the police wouldn't have to identify him.

"My name? It's-- It's Oliver Taylor," the man said, "Am I... dying?"

"No, no," Fionn said. "You're gonna be alright, Oliver. I'm calling over some of my friends and we're gonna get you over to those ambulances right over there-- see them?"

Fionn pointed, and Oliver's eyes opened as he looked. 

"Yeah, as soon as my friends get here, we'll take you over there and you'll go to the hospital and they'll--" Fionn choked, "--they'll fix you. And everything will be fine."

Oliver Taylor opened his mouth to talk but then suddenly coughed, splattering blood all over Fionn's face like red paint. Fionn wiped at his face, but only really succeeding in smearing the blood around.

Oliver's eyes fell closed. Fionn gently held Oliver in his arms. He continued to talk about how Oliver would be fine and how everything would be okay, not even sure Oliver could hear him anymore.

Fionn watched Oliver's chest heave one final time, and then Fionn watched Oliver fall completely still.

"Makeshift? Makeshift, where are you?"

Fionn scrambled to put his mask back on before answering, "I'm over here!"

Timeline suddenly climbed over a pile of rubble and landed beside Makeshift, and after one glance at Makeshift blood-smeared face, hissed, "Jesus, are you okay? What happened to you?"

"I'm fine. It's fine. It's all fine now."

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*so yeah Cassandra murdered a group of teenagers

*and someone died in Fionn's arms (it's ALWAYS fun being a superhero)

*wow what a chapter to come back to tbh

*next time we're finally gonna discover what happened to elijah's family, but no spoilers until then!!
(so you probably won't find out for like 4 months sorry)

-ᴍɪɴᴛʏ