On their journey from Arthur's home to the ocean-side, none of the friends spoke to each other. Kage simply basked in the sights of the world, sights that appeared a bit too dull for his tastes. Sheens of monochrome filament appeared to have slated over his eyes.
Synthetic grass swayed with the breeze, birds chirped as these travelers passed underneath their nests, while the light which remained from skyscrapers far in the distance shone with no brilliance. Those were the sights that should be undeniable, yet under this sheen Kage perceived the reality of the matter.
That grass was a plastic product mixed with the latest solution to abide the minds of humans. Birds vomited bile pollutants as the human-created carbons staked their souls. Then the buildings, mounds of dirt pounded by skeletal remains, twisted as a grin blocked out the light.
Finally, Kage saw the world as it had become, a ruined decrepitly dying principle. Never had his vision been so open at that moment.
'What's the saying? Those close to death suffer from unrestrained knowledge?'
Ghosts surrounded him yet he knew none of their faces. They whispered nonsense about places he couldn't possibly have been, but they persisted despite his troubled memory. In this vortex of coinciding beliefs, Kage marched further without paying mind to them. He could feel that death was on his heels licking his spine, sending chills down his soon-to-be corpse. In its proffered tongue did he not emanate a cooling sweat. It was as if he was simply being returned to a rightful position.
Several more steps, then before him stood a boy shot with a wild mane of red hair, unkempt after time without a bath. His clothes were a simple uniform white with thin black stripes horizontally decorating the cotton material. However, those sectionals of black produced strips of bounded chains which restrained the boy's movements. William stroked his chin, watching the elegant posture of his friend pass unbidden with dark thoughts.
"Ya know, Kage? It's been a hell of a time." Kage spared his right eye to grasp the boy walking beside him. His figure held no solidarity as the puddles he trudged on produced silence. William's attire placed the boy into a strait jacket from head to toe with the ankles clasped in chains, forcing the figment to hop instead of walk.
'Who are you?'
"You'll find out soon enough." His purple tongue flickered out between his lips slathering them up with a putrid saliva which stunk of a skunk's fumes. "Now, go fucking die for your friend."
Kage continued to stare ahead only catching William's last words as he went, "I'll be waitin', friend."
The steps of his real friends rang from behind motivating Kage to consider the ghost gone. He, as well as the rest, were figments of his imagination. Therefore, they would and could not harm him. At least, that was his way to combat the countless figures which began to line up on either side of him.
Many were without faces as if they had been torn away then feasted upon by a predator. Meanwhile plenty remained ambiguous because of their dark shadows which gave provocation to neither name nor appearance. Some he thought he knew as victims from the massacre in Dolemeut Park, others hurried away under his watchful gaze fearful of what stood there in the swirling rubies, but they disappeared just as he reached to ask.
Not much longer passed when Kage was compelled to stop. Another ghost appeared. One that wasn't dead at all.
The man caught Kage's attention by the glare in his glasses, specifically the shattered left frame which exposed the stark florid eye that ate the boy's soul. The eyes of complimentary Demons stared at each other. It was a battle of will which arrested the other catching hold of a semblance of some superiority. A concept unfounded in the child as he harshly jittered to shy away. Blood tied by blood as offspring shook in the presence of its creator.
The spectacles of the man slid down his nose as he looked deeper into the soul of his son. Studying the sins created, a soft smirk approached the man's expression as if in surety. Proudness flooded the man at the future of his lad, or that was what Kage perceived by the clasp in the man's hands.
Suddenly, just as the man was created, he left, evaporating out of Kage's path.
"Is this it?" asked Isaiah.
Kage turned his face up checking the fence they came upon. Far on the right a board spoke of the location, "Old Bay Harbor, Dock 13, Warehouse Storing Facility."
The place seemingly teleported before them. It was somewhere that only those with the name stuck in their head could understand then enter into. A simple trick done by an immensely powerful Evolved who was absent, or so the air dictated. Yet, it was an element suspected by Kage as the location only became recognized by him once he heard it spoken from Kandra's lips. A utility ability used by a particular Villain named The Voice, seemingly the culprit for this trickery. Although his affiliation with the government was deep, at the end of the day Heroes and Villains were only loyal to those with the income to sway their minds.
In fact, there was no presence of any Evolved within the complex. The three fledglings were left alone in their endeavor unbidden by the grand weight of a stronger foe. A fact which relinquished a heavy burden off from Claire but brought immense alertness to Kage with Isaiah not knowing one way from the other.
Kage snarled. There wasn't a reality that foresaw this conclusion. Security measures would always be installed no matter the situation. A terrible foe lay ahead; they just hadn't stumbled on them, yet.
He threw a glance at Isaiah who reciprocated in understanding the command. Metal cylinders steadily popped from slits in his palms rolling onto the tips of his fingers, balancing them like a mound of rocks. "I'll go create a perimeter." As soon as the words were muttered, he dashed off flinging the objects every which way around the complex as well as adjacent streets. They stuck without much effort to steel beams, light fixtures, glass, even sloshing puddles. Then, once the steel objects connected to whichever surface, they immediately blended with it, camouflaging to be the same tint.
Once Isaiah finished surrounding the warehouse with the cameras, granting him access to any potential reinforcement coming to stop them, he would maintain vigilance awaiting their return. Kage now trusted the boy with maintaining his exposed rear. A position that Isaiah took on without the self-doubt to dissuade against the order. He earned this right at least.
A softly billowing breeze stole Kage's instinctually driven plan. The crisp cut suffuses of salt water drifted to him and Claire as if to convey some far distant peaceful future. A future that made him weary at the idea.
His hair sprang back as he tied it for a final occurrence, ensuring to grasp all the loose strands that escaped his palms the first instance. An accusatory snip to Claire scrunched her expression into a clean stare devoid of emotion. She had prepared herself far before they left the now abandoned bunker which housed his potential for sin. With them long gone from the abode, Claire mistakenly thought the idea pushed far from his mind. But this exact series of assumptions died on her tongue as she peeked into Kage's irises.