ƬΉΣ ΣПᄃӨЦПƬΣЯ

Skye took a deep breath of the clean night air as she sat on the edge of the terrace, her feet dangling in the air. She tore open her chocolate bar and grabbed a bite.

Two hours. She slept for two hours before she jumped awake. Skye was so used to sleeping light and getting up early that it got to a point where she could no longer sleep through the night. She had sneaked out of the room, Bryce still sleeping, pulled over a hoodie and walked upstairs to the terrace.

She stopped chewing when she realised the wind was no longer blowing. Skye sighed as she took another bite.

“I know you’re here.” She mumbled. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

No reply. Skye slowly got up. “I know you’re here. I don’t understand why you would bother hiding though. It’s not like there is any paparazzi here. So whichever bimbo you are dating right now won’t read anything off the news.”

Still no reply. “Fine. Have it your way. I’ll bring you out.”

She stood on the terrace sill. “Bye, Breeze.”

Skye leaned backwards, slipping from the sill and falling downwards off a ten-foot story building. She saw the ground getting closer and suddenly she was caught by a warm body. She turned around to see her saviour.

She grabbed another bit off her chocolate bar, that she held tight in her hand. “Knew it was you.”

Tristan rolled his eyes as he helped her stand. “You could have died, Skye.”

“You talking about right now or a few hours ago?” Skye asked smirking. She turned around and began to walk away from him.

“I honestly believe you want to die, sometimes,” Tristan said as he walked beside her.

“So, what’s the reason behind the visit?” Skye asked. She held the chocolate bar in front of his face. He took it from her hands and took a bite, and then passed it back to her.

“Can’t I just want to visit the only love of my life?” he shrugged.

Skye shrugged back not letting herself think about his words. The only love of his life. “Did you?”

“Yeah, I did. And to congratulate you on Hermes’ death. That must have been a big win for you. I was going to talk to you in the bar itself but you seemed a little preoccupied and then you disappeared. Decided to come home to talk to you and realised you were...busy.”

Skye tugged at the ends off her gloves without removing them. She didn't bother to reply. Who she saw or didn’t see was none of his business.

The awkward silence was broken by the sound of his phone ringing. He pulled it out of his jacket and checked the caller ID. “Sorry. I have to take this.”

Skye nodded. “More news?” he spoke into the phone. After a few “hmm”s and “ah”s, Tristan finally concluded the call. Tristan was one of the heads of the VPC: Villains protection council. He kept track of the rogue villains to make sure they did not make problems for the others and kept track of the threats in general.

“I’ll be back by tomorrow. We’ll talk then.” Saying so, he cut the call. “Turns out, whatever killed Hermes, also killed Dominica and Captain Savvy.”

“No way,” Skye exclaimed. Dominica was probably the only hero that she envied. Her powers of teleportation and control over lightening were probably the coolest thing ever. Captain savvy, on the other hand, did nothing. He just got about manipulating others into giving him what he wants. He wasn’t really that big of a hero but he was Dominica’s brother so he got fame. “Man, I would love to shake the hand of whoever is doing this.”

“Whatever. Turns out it’s a robot type thing. Not a person.” Tristan corrected.

“Who do you think made it? Maybe the Butcher?”

The Butcher was a really old man who loved tinkering out with cars. Everybody thought he was just a crazy old bat who lost a few screws. That was until he took down four heroes in the last war.

“Not possible. He died of a heart attack a few months back.”

“What? Man, I really wanted to meet him. He was a war hero.” Skye muttered.

“Isn’t Bacchus a war hero?” Tristan asked back.

“Yeah,  but Bacchus also has beer on his cheek. He isn’t really the looking up to type of guy.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m lying.” Skye agreed. If there was anyone she ever looked up to; it was Bacchus.

“Someone’s there.” Tristan suddenly stopped. He hovered a hand over Skye’s chest as he slowly walked ahead. Skye followed him, pulling her hoodie sleeves up to her elbows.

“Don’t...touch me...” Skye heard a woman’s voice. She immediately pulled Tristan back and walked forward. It was the same woman from earlier that night. She was crouched between the building and the staircase leading to the door.

“Hey. It’s me.” She said softly. “What happened? Why didn’t you go home?”

She pointed to the building beside her. “That’s my house. A guy just mugged me. He ran that way.”

She said pointing straight ahead. “Mugged huh? You must be having a really bad day.” Skye turned to Tristan. “Get her in the house, I’m going to go after the guy.”

Tristan nodded. “No. Please.” The woman begged. “Can you stay?” she looked at Skye with pleading eyes.

“I’ll go after the guy. You get her inside.” Tristan replied as he took off. Tristan a.k.a Breeze had super speed. Skye never really thought of it as a power that could be used to fight another person. Running away, however, was a definite check.

“Come on.” Skye pulled her arm over her shoulder wincing as she realised she had a wound. Skye pulled her up and helped her up the stairs to the door. As she shuffled around her pockets to find the keys, Skye’s mind wandered away. The time she had spent with Tristan was probably the best time of her life. But she got too scared of what might happen that she didn’t even want to think of it. Skye didn’t need to be told that she had commitment issues. She knew she did but she couldn’t do much about it. The only one who was constantly around in her life was Bacchus and it wasn’t like he could run away anywhere even if he wanted to. He worked at the bar she went to every night.

“Thank you so much.” The woman said as the lift pinged open. She lived on the seventh floor. The building looked pretty old, like a run down motel. She stopped in front of her door and began to unlock it.

“Well, I think you can take care of yourself now,” Skye said as the woman walked inside.

“No. You should come in. I’ll make you some tea?” She asked.

Skye shrugged. “Coffee would be better. Thanks.” She said entering. The house looked as bland as the outside did. One chair in the middle of the living room and a single bed in the bedroom. The kitchen was basically just a counter with a stove and a sink.

“So, you must be Bane, right?”

“You have heard of me,” Skye commented as she walked about the living room.

“Not a lot of famous villains. Though you don’t seem like one.” She said as she poured the coffee into a mug. “Sugar?”

“None,” Skye replied. “I don’t? Really? Even after you saw me kill the guy?”

She paused for a second looking into Skye’s eyes. “Yes. Even after that.” She said slowly. She blinked for a few seconds and then seemed to snap out of it. She walked to Skye holding the cup with both hands. “Here is your coffee.”

“Thanks,” Skye said as she took the coffee from her. Skye took a sip as she noticed the woman staring at her. “You know, I never learnt your name.”

“It’s R127.” She said smiling, and then seemed to realise what she had just revealed. Her mouth turned into a small ‘o’.

Skye dropped her glass and quickly pulled out her gloves as the woman's clothes got ripped from the middle. She had a circular, ragged blade like thing attached to her waist, that rotated with a really high angular velocity. Skye flicked her right hand and felt the familiar feel of a snake wriggle through her arm to her hand. Unlike other usual weapons, hers was a pet and a green rod. When in need Basilisk hardened into a two-foot long rod.

R127 lost no time in bothering to explain as the circular disk began to spin on her body as she inched closer. Skye backed against the balcony door. She couldn’t do much against the robot, Skye’s powers helped only in close combat and that was hard when the opposition had a pizza cutter in the middle. Skye spun her rod and smacked R’s head leaving a cut, that should have been bleeding instead just showed the wires and circuit boards underneath.

Skye pushed the rod as hard as she could against the balcony door behind her and cracked the glass. She tried to push her self through the gap. Halfway through, she felt the searing pain of the metal cutting through her skin.

“Don’t fight it, Bane,” R127 said softly. “Your mom is dead, your dad is dead and your Godfather is going to be dead soon too. There is no one in this world who cares about you anymore. You will die alone.”

Skye yelled out in pain as she held her hands out into R127's face. The venom passed through her tips but did nothing to hurt her. Skye squeezed through the gap and immediately clutched her skin with her right hand, Basilisk turning back into a snake and slithering up her arm.

“Say goodbye,” R127 said as she walked closer. Skye had nowhere to go other than jump of the building.

“Goodbye,” Skye muttered, already hating her decision. She swung herself over the rail, the wind hitting her as she fell off the seventh floor. “BREEZE!”

Skye clutched her eyes tight as she fell. She refused to open her eyes even after she could feel Tristan's arms around her. “To the bar.” She muttered, her hand still over her wound. She couldn’t risk letting the venom flow through when Tristan was so close to her. Tristan placed his hand on the back of her neck and head and took off.

After about a few seconds, the world stopped spinning and helped her stand up. Skye let the venom flow as she held Tristan at an arms length to make sure she didn’t fall down if she passed out due to the pain.

“Skye,” Tristan muttered.

“One minute.” Skye breathed out as she concentrated on keeping her eyes open, staring at the ground.

“The bar.” He muttered again. Skye’s head shot up as she looked at the bar. The closest thing she had to a family was in that bar. “I’m so sorry.”

Skye didn’t reply. She just stared at the massacre that had taken place. She could barely make out the colour of the carpet on the ground with the amount of blood spilt. The robots weren’t just after the heroes. They were after everyone who wasn’t human.

Skye let a teardrop as she saw the man she loved more than anyone lying beside the bar counter, his neck sliced.

Clutched in Bacchus’ right palm was a picture of Skye as a child with her parents and big brother. And for the second time in her life, Skye was without a family.

▬▬▬▬▬▬

||A/N||- Pen down a thøught!!!
Vote!!!

I actually was planning to make Skye smoking on the roof but then changed it to a chocolate bar, because smoking is bad, kids. Nah, it was because chocolate made it seemed more casual.

Skye is a character who is very strong, one of the strongest even, but she is still optimistic because she lost everything as a kid and made it out okay.

The whole "idgaf" attitude never exists. No matter how many books you read about it. There will always be a tiny voice called conscience in everyone's head.

Anyway. VØTE.