Where Dreams Die

Sapphire's District Bar; Blue Shark's Gulp:

I was only born a few years ago, wishing to be a hero, wanting to be like the ones on T.V, that flew and zip through the skies to protect us all. I wanted and I believed that if I could wish hard enough, I could fly like the rest of them too. protect my dad from the bad drinks in the fridge, the bills he has to pay and the constant headaches of his. But as I fell to have powers of my own, I also fail at those things as well.

When I threw dad's bad drinks away, he screams and shouts at me. When I help around the bar, he only gloats at the money he gets, only to have spent it on another one of his betting matches with his meaner friends. I wonder what was so interesting about those sports, when you had people who could battle mutant monsters and such. -

Today, I was called a bastard... A boy who could do nothing, and worth nothing. I'm sure dad didn't mean that... Just those bad drinks of his fault.... I should work harder. Working harder is another way of becoming a hero. That is what Zero Storms says. She's my favorite hero. -

Dad... He says writing in a diary is something a whining little sissy dose, hitting me aside my head with an empty bottle from yesterday... he gets a little grumpy when he doesn't drink the bad stuff... What if it isn't the drink's fault? What if dad truly hates me? - No i can't think like that... Right, a hero should always think opstamit- ostasimictic- otstamic- Optimistic, that's the word. -

November Seventh, Twenty Forty-Six; Blue Shark's Gulp:

"Abrie!!" A yell at the bar table is made. My name. "Get your ass over here and rearrange these glasses! There is no way these are in alphabetical order!!"

I rush, setting the dish rack I held in my hand to serve the costumers on top of the bar table. When I got behind the counters, the drinks were perfectly organized, though I knew, if I mentioned anything, father would get upset. So, I just do what I always did in this sort of situation, switch the bottles closes to each other, until he decides to walk away switching them back. This time, oddly, someone walks through the door, even though it was bright morning, a woman wearing a strange face mask enters the bar, eyeing over the counter in a bending fashion.

"Are you little Abrie?" The strange lady asks, blinging earrings and eye liner, alongside her painted nails that rest atop the glass.

"U-Um... Yes. What kind of drink do you want?" I replied to her, figuring she came to a bar for a beverage.

"How cute. Do you really attend on pouring me drink, that's totally adorbs. I kinda wanna keep you now, make you my personal caretaker, since you're already a gofer."

A gofer? This lady gets stranger by the second.... Maybe she's another loan shark...

"Hey, hey. I have candy, you wanna try some?" She randomly put odd looking candy on the bar table, causing me to come up from the bottom to her. They look more like pills than actually candy. "I know it might look a little weird at first," She removes her mask for a quick second, popping two "candies" in her mouth. "It tastes really, really good, you should def try- Try.... Mhmmmmmm!!"

The strange lady eyes swirl up, looking up in dumbfound pleasure, and she presses her hands on the top of the table, cracking the glass.

"Dam- She then takes a hand full of the rest of the candies on the table, shoving it in her mouth. "I just... Really can't get enough of this!" She lifts her head to me, looking to be grinning under the mask. "Mhmmm, maybe, maybe, maybe... I should just use force. Iota doesn't know what he's talking about. Drugging a kid is way too dangerous-

Chains break through the glass counter, slamming my body into the wall behind me, smashing bottles of wines with it.

"Eh? Eh...ah-

"Shut up kid! You don't want to ruin this high I have right now. Scream, whine or cry, I'll def kill you."

"Sorry!" Was the first thing that came to mind, when grabbing onto the chain that stab my stomach, gripping onto dear life.

"Sorry? You should be saying thank you. It's not every day you can be save by a hero. You know, I had an old man that use to abuse me too. A disgusting ugly bastard, who done some real terrible things. Just like he did for us those many years ago, I saved you from an evil pig... You're cool now, you can live happily ever after. The bartender boy you are now is dead as your father."

Dad...? - I spot two large brown boots at the door entrance. She killed him the moment she arrived... How... Can she? - My hero?

"So cute, so cute, so freaking cute!!" The girl sways her body side to side, hands on her face, bringing me closer to her arms. "I really, really, want to keep you. Grind you up and eat you. Infact, I might love you on the same level as Iota and drugs. Iota, drugs and Aubrey, Iota, drugs and Aubrey, Iota, drugs and Aubrey, -

This girl.... This woman, she's scary... A villain? She's insane, a monster like father was. - Wait? Dad, he also hurt and abuse me... Is he, a monster too? Then was I always under a roof with villains? Monsters? I don't want to die... I still have that dream of becoming a hero-

Something explodes behind us, lights and sparks, whooshing flames to the wine bottles. In that moment of everything burning, another person appears inside. A guy, hair chestnut brown, falling pass his shoulder. Both his eyes were opposite colors, one being an odd red color.

"Phi... We need this kid... Settle down." He rests his hands on her chain in a calm manner. "I really do apologies," the same person then turns to speak to me. "Hatarei is what you would call, challenge. I do hope this doesn't give you a terrible expression of what Sigma Flames is meant to be."

In a snap of his fingers, the rising fire vanishes and so do the girl, though the wound was still in my body when sliding down the bar wall, proving that this all wasn't one of my imaginations.

Crushing glass beneath his meatal boots to my side, the man squats down to my level, rubbing his hand over my head, again and again.

"You poor thing..." He spoke. "Only been in this world for eight years but experience the worst. Instead of school, you remain at a bar for another man's labor. Instead of love, you were run by fear. The belief of an optimistic future became a faded image of impossible for you..."

He knew my entire life, reading me like a book... This man knew pain.

"Luckly... There is a place for broken souls like yourself. A team of heroes, who do anything to rebuild the world within their belief. Join us on this cause. Join the Sigma Flames Abrie, then your dreams and wishes, they will all be yours."

"Even... Even if I don't have powers?" I'm useless. Maybe if he knows that, he'll treat me like father.

However, he only laughs at my words. "Powerless?" He questions. "Whoever told you that?"

November Seventh, Twenty Forty-Six; Ruby District's Motel:

"As I establish earlier, before you interrupted me, the Sigma Flames is determined by the Greek Alphabet."

Sitting across from Nako, she reloads the hologram of information from before we went on a rant about Nova. She then pulls up numbers of photos, the events that happen up until now.

"For example," Nako states. "Your brother, Zel, goes by Alpha now. Nova marked his title as the Flamming Tyrant as well, seeing how he destroys most to everything in his path."

I look to the photo of Zel. "These titles, they some sort of profiling?"

"Spot on. That including what they call themselves. Most titles were just heard from their mouths." She declares, swiping her finger on the neck bracelet, moving on to loads of other pictures. "Gamma: The Durable, Tau: The Unmovable, tittles were leak to the entire District of Yellowstone, along with their identities, the day you fought them."

"Gamma... Tau..." I glance at the photos, sighting the guy I killed beside the photo of that insane kid. "Why leak their identities?"

Nako swipes to more photos. "That's what we were trying to find out. Maybe to cause an uproar in the system. Think about it, a young man who originated from a school of heroes, including a kid who was heavily influence by that person, would definitely put a bad mark on the school's record and how a district governs the children."

"Villains would start kidnapping the young as well, trying to mold them into destructive children."

"Exactly. The effect is not necessarily aimed to destroy the district, but to inspire villain's ideas. That's where we step in, the real reason why I'm here." Nako shows me an image that darkens the room, a picture of the one with one glowing red eye. "We trace the IP address of the leaker, and shocking how this may be, we found the location including this guy's tittle. Iota: The Intelect." She shoves another image to the face. "This pic here, it's the place where Nova traced him. Though, accounting his title, my detonator, she suggests that it might be a trap."

I look at the photo closer, noting that it was a shed near the docks of Yellowstone, reminded of the times that our little group would hang there and play.... Infact, that's where Myune would have gone to clear his mind. He once told me and Zel, that its sooths his raging thoughts before going on missions...

"Yeah... It's definitely a trap... Me, Zel, Myune, Ela, Vile and Juna, we use to all hang there, listening to the sounds of the waves. The entire area is vacated, and little knows about it, except the ones in charge of ship goods."

Nako clicks off the hologram, laying back in the bed lifting her hand in the air. "Really now? You seem to be connected to the Sigma Flames more than what that bitch predicted."

Does she always have to refer to her detonator as bitch?

"Well, with that said," Nako pops back up in the bed. "We should be heading there now, don't you think?"

She seems full of energy for someone who passed out an hour ago. "I mean yeah, but what about you? Its barley been two hours since you shut down at the coffee shop. Are you sure you can go?"

"Good point." She smiles. "However, stuff like that only happens whenever I go pass my own R.lvl. It should be fine as long as I don't pull a stunt like turning into Ella again-

"No, I'm serious... I don't need you passing out on me when we have to fight another one of these monsters. Every time I face a member of the Sigma Flames, something is taken from me. I never once won against them either, even when my powers awaken. They're on an entirely different level. So, if you really aren't fully recovered, please, get some rest...."

I spoke to her in a discreet way, being sure that the words of "I want to keep you safe" came across to her. I... I wouldn't be able to bare another failure. I can't keep allowing the Sigma Flames to take everything I hold dear. I can no longer let them win.

"...." Nako moves her eyes to the celling. "Fine... I will sleep for a bit. And for only a bit!" She spites at me. "Wake me when it's dawn. And you... You should get some rest also. Don't want you dying on me either."

Laying back in the chair, I sneak a chuckle, finding what she said a littlte humorous. "Really? Iconic coming from the one who place a bomb on my neck and came in shooting."

"That was the past... Go to sleep." She faces away from me, curling up under the covers.

"Right... I do need the rest." And I, shut my eyes, making the chair I sat in my bed.

Maybe, having someone like her on my side, that took out the ghastly figure in uncle Keysei's coffee shop with ease, will be a good omen... Oh wait... I forgot to ask about that one. The ghost who she seemed to know. I wonder if they were old friends somewhere.... I wonder of this girl's past...