A sun rose then birthed its daughter, the moon, countless infinities over eventually coming to the final day of Kage's stay. They had all gathered, even Claire who snarled when Sophie entered. Gan changed from a wheelchair to a pair of crutches, Daniel, melded to some metal contraption around his ribs, and Isaiah confidently demonstrated the rings of black encircling either of his eyes. Meanwhile, Jacob hung to Daniel and Sam trading light jabs as Sam continuously fought to throw him away. Their teamwork during their fight undoubtedly strung a broad connection to each other.
Since his last meeting with Sophie, Kage had been caught up in detail on the events of that night. The Villains' plan was indeed to raid the bunker killing the civilians nestled inside of them. The vast majority of Villains had their plans thwarted because of Claire's quick relay throughout the flanks of Heroes but there were still two that had been completely destroyed killing some three hundred inside them collectively. A stain that furrowed all their brows as Heroes were never even discussed having checked those bunkers until all of the fighting ended. There could have been survivors, yet the Villains were left to prance in glee for hours before salvation arrived.
'Bastards.'
Then, the fact that the Black Queen managed to escape even Unity brought a distilled silence among them all. Not a single person in her tight knit group was captured. The fact stung deep in Kage as his own perception of the night twisted. Despite his knowledge of his own clouded memories, there was a lingering feeling that persisted even now when the truth was exposed to him. Unity did not mutilate his sister, he had, but there was simply not a reason found that would enable the Villains to have escaped the hero's grasp. Even while fighting his inner instincts, a sole purpose dare not avail his path. All that occurred that night was by design. The bunkers had never been the Villains' true goal. If it had then the measly few sent to each one would have been much stronger, they also wouldn't have waited in their massacre.
A grander play was in motion, one Kage couldn't even begin to surmise. However, at the heart danced the forms of the Black Queen and Unity. Forms he buried within his own as their bloodied clash left either gravely wounded no matter the stories spun by the media.
The upper district surrounding the park sustained heavy destruction with faults to several apartment complexes and business offices forcing the government to section off the areas until appropriate reconstruction could take place. There were close to an additional thousand who were at the staging area of some political rally during this period. None of them survived the collision between forces thus raising the death count to great proportions. In other words, the businesses would be compensated by the government while the displaced people were forced to find some other shelter for the meantime. A matter that the government felt no need to interfere in.
Yet not a word of protest was suggested. Instead, interest would be spun toward the approximate thirteen hundred dead as well as the endless more who had been injured in the event. Images plastered to the front of online articles praised the braveness of Heroes fallen and risen in the midst of combat. Of which, Kage was amazed to find his own figure forever cemented in a photograph. The moment must have been when he blacked out, his body limply kneeling on either side of the Villain he had fought while the bone gorged his chest. It had been expertly taken by one of those in the bunker. Despite the obvious similarities with himself, someone had taken the precaution to blur Kage's face, censoring the true identity of the Hero who had saved one of the targeted bunkers.
Below the photograph was a simple scrawl naming the photographer, a Jeiss Flint, as well as a blurb on the context behind the photograph.
"Captured is a teenaged evolved who collapsed after saving the lives of hundreds from two Villains while being wounded by the blade of one."
The reason for there being a lack of media presence or that of police officers searching for answers from the group of students came out from Gan who convinced his parents to do some digging on the matter. They found that an unnamed Hero took great intrigue into Kage's case. Using his influence, the Hero erased Kage's name from the outlets, forcing them away along with the police. Whomever this person was, he had incredible sway especially with such influential parties. Consequently, the hospital bills for all of them were paid by the same individual.
Kage refused the offer, or so he would have, but there was no way to do so due to the expenses already taken care of while he was comatose. Not even a description of this individual was allowed to be given to those who benefited from his hospitality. The staff effectively sealed off all information pertaining toward the person's identity.
This mystery was at first what Kage thought loomed over the group as they filed in, hung with weighty bags beneath their sockets. Until he realized he too possessed such a dour look did Kage find the answer in their collective lack of sleep. Since he regained consciousness, Kage could be lulled into a rest. Figures and faces pranced around under the covers sullying the rest with fits of panic.
'I saved enough, didn't I?
You let too many die It's your fault that their father won't be returning to them
Guts… they are the color purple when exposed
Their blood bubbled when exposed to the air I guess that's the sound from someone's last breath Hell Did I do my best? No
God please tell me I did enough That man prayed Death'
The phrases loomed over with heavy curiosity. Unable to obtain their interest they swarmed pecking out pieces to dreams corroding them to nightmares.
Kage stood tall over a collapsing pool eating him limb from limb. It attacked the senses plunging him to nothingness. All the while, screams persist. Screams gnarled by unbitten rage, sinful wrath. Finally, he ends back where he began, in a hospital room shredded to the bone with no strength left to give to anyone. Not even Lisa, laid by his side. Scars are reopened with a reenactment of each until he awakens with a jolt. Checking the clock, only an hour would pass leaving him to analyze the pasty white ceiling until morning.
Kage did not doubt that the others suffered terrors on par or worse than he had. Of them all, the bloodshot and gaunt expression shrouded over Daniel the worse. If the sounds from his time at the hospital were indicative, he may have felt something indescribable. Anguish unbidden by memories of the past but instead recent horrors which would persist a lifetime.
Daniel had not wished to tell any of them of what he saw in his nightmares. Why he would suddenly turn pale at the chirp of a bird or the squeak of some rodent. Jacob and Sam who witnessed and participated in their collective battle did not budge when divulging information on the matter. Another mystery that stung Kage.
Breathing in, holding the air, then returning the toxins into the environment, Kage was ready with pure hearing as well as sight. These worries were fleeting allowed to come only to be let go in a subsequent phrase.
The group remarked on their wounds with the revealing of scars by Jacob as he demonstrated a garish one that stretched the entirety of his back. A compulsory emotion overtook Kage with the need to outdo his friend's wound. He pulled away his hospital gown just enough at the collar showing the starfish pattern on his right pectoral. Jacob ran close to poke the spot and did so before Kage found the fortitude to toss him away.
While he watched the motion and saw the finger dab at the spot, Kage felt only numbness. A doctor had come earlier that very day to explain the irreparable damage caused by the injury. His mustache was thick and bristly but polished in oil giving it a slick chocolatey finish.
At first it was just a routine post examination, that was until the man was handed over some files from the assisting nurse. He sat down on a stool once archaic but refurbished with its feet replaced with wheels that squeaked every which way they turned. A sound which gave away the nervous expression that the doctor hid within. The doctor's face pouted out as he read the various charts and analysis from other examiners. The results were what they had feared.
Glossy beads of sweat dripped from the doctor's bald head. It was not his first so-called rodeo where he gave bad news to a teenager. But he shook at the thought of giving some to an Evolved. The lowest class ones could still crush a man's skeleton in a hug with no warning leaving there no way to stop them. Stories lined the mouths of the staff in this hospital. Stories that outlined events where Evolved went mad with anger tearing apart those closest. How birthed babies exploded partial wings killing dozens. Such menacing facts perused inside his cramped mind.
A mind now filled with one thing, the stare that lingered from this Evolved. Rubies that sparkled in the dead of night encompassing his nightmares for decades to come. The eyes of an Evolved glowed when their aura had come to a crescent or when their ability reached its peak performance level. But here, the man swore he had seen a faint speck in this boy's pair.