Orphans

September 18, 2046, Yellow Stone, Downtown, the top of a sky Scrapper:

The cool breeze of September air, my ears freeze in its touch, my hands open, eyes gazing at the distance between me and the bottom of this ledge I stand on.

-Shutting my eyes, taking in a deep breath, I cancel out the storming sounds of a past I wish to forget, focusing on the bustling of a bird in the distance. A little black crow, flapping its wings on the edge next to me, readying to take flight.

The crow's feathers spread out; I brace myself. And the bird takes off, as I dive headfirst from the top of the skyscraper, that touch's the clouds peaks.

I seek silence. Scream I constantly envision, replace in the sounds of rushing wind colliding against my fluttering thin clothing. Nothing, no one to save me, a empty quietness of my own solitude-

-My body smacks into the floor, eating by a shadow of another below. I hear a shout, but that man sudden fear didn't matter to me, reappearing out of another's shadow in the center of Yellowstone bank.

-Guns point to several civilians, three men face me wearing black masks, holding military equipment, LMGs. Class 1 weapons.

-Shaken, one of the men points his weapon directly in my face, "Who the hell!?" His thumb twitches on the trigger, eyes locked on my plague doctor mask that covers only my mouth, ready to fire if forced to.

- I step forward, the crook fires his gun, regardless of not knowing what I was capable of. Following him, the goons behind him.

The hostages shriek to the top of their lungs, bullets splashing in a wall of shadows, dropping to the floor on each fire.

Their SMGs runs out of bullets, clacking in panic.

"What in the hell?!"- He looks behind him, they no longer had allies, hostages vanished along with them. "Eh?! N-No!"

-His hands shake, throat swallows, and skin jump. The same impression I gain on each scene I arrive to, looked on as death approaching closer to them.

-"S-Stay away!" He pulls out a small pistol from the side of his pocket. I thought they stop selling those pocketknives years ago.

The gun fires- A streak of lightning, striking the back of the man's neck enters the bank, fluttering paperwork, causing the lights to flicker on and off as if she's a rushing storm, sending a jolt of electricity when latching her hand on the back of his neck. Enough volts to tase him.

One of the light bulbs burst, Ella standing the place of the crook, cooling the raging electricity coated around her, revealing the black leather coat she wears over flexible metallic armor. Yellow light glows from the lines on her face mask, turning like gears, sync to her breathing.

Ella kicks over the man, checking if he's fully stunned. She then eyes behind her, checking the empty checkout tables, eyeing no hostages. -Her eyes lock to me, shutting of her mask, revealing a pissed of face along those dimming brown pupils.

-Cutting the distant between us, her hand smacks across my face, forcing me to continually look to the floor and think about my action.

"I told you to stand guard, why didn't you listen?" She lashes out at me, pulling down my mask to gain a better view of my face.

I don't care...

- "Answer! Now!"

-I brush her off of me, taking back my mask, putting it back over my mouth, not giving her a single answer.

I look up to the glass ceiling of the bank. I want this to be over already, like all her lectures. She's not my mom, she's not my brother...

The people in danger are safe, outside the bank, and the crooks were capture by my shadows, put in the back of police cars, guns empty. What more did she want from me? What else was there to do? -

-"I defended you that day... But..." Her eye color fades colder. Heartless, confused on what to say to me.

She might bawl up and finally cry in front of me. Comfort me, tell me everything's okay, not fully my fault. I want to break the charade of you constantly trying to protect me. I'm old enough to protect myself now...

"But you continue to act like this. Vile was right, you're uncontrolled. A reckless brat..."

That... Kind of hurt. -I try walking away- Ella's hand grip my shoulder.

"Zenith, wait..." When she speaks my name, I feel a sting in my heart. A certain urge of guilt rushing through my bones, seeing a flash of me facing my older brother's back.

"I'm sorry, I slapped you..." She glances to the crook on the floor, feeling guilty herself. "I just hate seeing you like this. Acting as if you were the only one who suffers from that day." She looks me directly in the eye. "Me, you, Juna, Vile included, we were there. We remember how it felt. We all lost someone that day. Vile pretends he doesn't care. But us,"

Standing taller than me, she puts her hand on top of my head, closing in, hoping I get this message clear than anything else she says.

-"Is all we have now." Ella hand falls off my head, dropping it to her waist. "I'm not telling you anything that'll get you killed, you understand that much, don't you?"

Dad's hand, big bro's screams tell me otherwise. I'm scared.

-"I know that..." I can't bring myself to face her on my own, recalling all the desperate pleads to run. "I know we're all we have..." My hand clenches to a fist. "I know that all you wish for me is to be safe..." But what does that have to do with now?

My powers began to seep from between my fingers, aligning the frustration I gained, the shouts ringing in my ears on loop. Shut up... Want you all just shut up...

-"Why can't you see I can handle this on my own? -I can protect people, fight villains, the voices... I can handle them all on my own."

Emptily, wanting nothing but to vanish, I look at Ella, dark lines of shadows bubbling into the air. "I don't need you... Or your lectures..." That's a lie. "Just abandon me, like the rest of them."-

-Instead of engaging into a fight with Ella, my raging powers consumed me. I chose the option to run from the conversation.

The cold breeze smacking my face, the sky filled with the smell of smoke and sounds of a group of birds scattering on me entering. -Like the rest of them, they all leave at the sight of me. - I'm back on the skyscraper.

-Cupping my mask over my face, I eye the edge of the skyscraper. Only when i sky dive from this area, I feel the most peace, like a candle going out after tirelessly working it self to burn. Yeah, I love that feeling...

Over the edge, I slide off my wrist a beeping bracelet, hanging it from my fingertips, taking a seat on the ledge.

The device I dangle above the streets below is a gift from Ella's friend, the tech genius in Vile's team. This was giving to me and Juna on our first mission together. Something that symbolize the teams trust as well as being the thing we communicate with.

"Us is all we have..." Ella's words Vile said something similar. "But he abandoned me, too... -

-When I clenched the bracelet in my hand, the air grows heavier, massive white aura catching my eye, making me aware of another's arrival.

"Are you... Gonna drop it?"

I recognize that soulless voice under seconds, turning, to face her. Juna... Her pure white hair rustle in the draft of air, eyeing the communication bracelet in my hand.

"Wasn't my first thought..." I'm holding dearly to the idea, now that she mentioned it.

-"Why not..." Her bare feet are feathers on top of this roof, squatting down on the edge right beside me, leaning further over it than I do. Juna, she slides her communication bracelet off too. "We'll feel much better if we stop pretending to be a part of this team."

-She tosses the bracelet out, able to let it go quicker than me, edging me to do the same.

However, I...-

-I watch Juna eye the falling object, crossing her arms over her knees at the cliff of the building, downing her chin into them.

"Sometimes, don't you wonder.... " She twists her neck to me, eyes no longer that cheerful girl who wanted to play tag. She's instead replaced as a shadow of a monster worse than me. "How would it have felt?"

-"To fall?" I knew she meant something else, twisting my neck to stare at her, wanting to see if she feels the same as I do...

"....." Quiet, Juna peeks at my bracelet I still hold on to tightly. "You should throw yours away too..." Her hair scatters, taking off in the wind, forcing a smile on her face to encourage me in her own creepy way. "Or will you let me fall alone?"

-The bottom of the skyscraper reaches further than I thought, continuing to hold onto the device on Juna's question, spotting the cars as tiny dazzling lights in the distance.

-Chin up, I glance back to her, next, the sky above us. The sun is so bright, yet my hands are numbing cold. -Eyes fall back to the bracelet in my hand, clamp closed in my sweating hand...

Mustering up enough will, I lift my hand out over the height difference.

I take in a deep breath, shutting my eyes in the process, letting go as Juna did. Down, the bracelet fell, following behind Juna's that was no longer seen.

"I could never... Let you fall on your own..."

Our eyes met, seeing the memory of that tragic day. Remembering the question, he had asked us, the option giving to us.

I hated my father... But sometime down the line I also wish to see that path. The version of me and Juna in that family he envisioned. It might've been better than the out of place feeling we get, living everyday as a hero...

Admiring that feeling of letting something go, I felt another presence on top of the roof, answering how Juna got up here, a voice I believed to have left behind at the bank.

-"You two really have your own way of communicating..." Ella leans against the pole on the skyscraper, revealing her face. "Tossing your bracelet... Falling... Makes me wonder if you plan to go rogue or something."

Ella takes her back of the pole, deactivating her mask, walking over to Juna, placing her hand on the top of her head.

"I should've known," Ella gazes at me still pissed from what I did earlier, looking back to Juna. "Instead of talking to him like I asked you to, you managed to drag him down with you. You always been such a bad influence..."

Juna grips her wrist taking her hand off of her head. "...."

-"Fine, you two can do whatever you want..." Walking back to the poll, she looks at me one last time, gripping tight to it. "She has nothing else to lose Zenith... Don't die on me." She vanishes, bolting down the building in a rush of lightning, the same way she came up here.

"Great... Orientation is today..." Juna whispers, irritated by Ella leaving, no longer having a ride to school.

"We should just skip..." I look down to the shadow I jump through earlier. I want that to be just a joke and a dumb suggestion, but skipping don't sound too bad-

-A slight push sends me hurling over the edge, a push caused by Juna. She grew further, seconds before she jumps off right behind me. Next thing I noticed, in the midst of us falling, her arms wrap behind my neck, and though the flutter of wind filled my ears,

-"We can't..." Breaks out into my ear, plummeting to concrete.

My heart rushes. She's crazy, pushed me off the ledge, even so I-

-Our bodies smack the shadows of leaves on the sidewalk, covered by a splash instead of dying. Before fully transporting, I catch ear full of rushing shoes and a woman screaming oh my god in shock of two kids falling in front of her.

"