A series of explosions set off on Glasspoint, making the ground shake with the intensity of an earthquake. Four unfortunate teens lay low, their weapons by their side, while hiding behind some old infrastructure of a once-bustling office building.
They look at each other, their hearts racing, hysteria in their eyes, trying not to draw the attention of the parasite to them. The parasite was in the form of a strange entity, with long, dangling limbs, an oddly blurred face, and the horrendous smell of guilt. They've fought many entities before, but the feeling of remorse deep in its soul was overpowering, suffocating, really. Desperately speaking in hushed tones, everyone tries to make a plan, the cold air of the entity blowing against their skin as they remain out of sight.
Ava, keeping her eyes on the entity, whispers to the others, "Well, in the nicest way possible, we only have one shot at making this spawn of a parasite disappear." She explains while ducking lower to the ground to stay out of the eyeline of entity. Niya sighed as she took a look at her teammates, "If we only have one shot, we might as well try and use all of our powers at once," she suggested with a slight shrug, picking up her falchion that had a midnight blue handle and an obsidian edging for the blade. "That's not a bad idea, but consider if it regenerates itself. What power would we still have then?" Ava suggests laconically.
Before anyone could answer, the entity came crashing through, destroying what little was left of their hiding spot and leaving only the smallest coverage for the ants, possibly scurrying out of fear of being crushed. Cheyenne jumps back before the entity could reach her, the others following, all landing in their formations, their weapons clutched tightly. The misanthropy that the entity possessed was rather infuriating to the group. Ava quickly slid her dark purple CD into the mini player that was attached to her uniform and swung her staff, revealing the scythe that the staff had mysteriously shifted forms to with the help of the disk. "Since when did you have the time to modify your weapon?" Niya asked, her jaw dropping a little in confusion. "You ever wonder what I do when we're not in school or on missions?" Ava inquires. "That's not fair, you have more than one weapon. Oh, when we're done with this mission, I oughta-" Niya exclaimed while in the middle of sliding in her midnight blue CD into her own mini player that was clipped onto the bottom of her uniform, charging up her own weapon, and pointing it at the entity before getting interrupted.
"Stop bickering. With the state of what we're fighting in, we don't need this right now. She can modify all of our weapons when we get home!" Logan shouts as he beats away a smaller entity coming their way, "Ava, in front of you!" he exclaimed. She goes for the attack on the entity, but before even landing a hit, Logan, using his ancient scorpion kunai, tied the chain around the entity and crushed it, finishing it off for her. "I could've gotten that for myself," Ava barks with irritation.
Niya looked back at the two who were slightly bickering now, not saying anything, just watching before turning back around, racing at the enemy, she sent a sharp jab to the main entity's abdomen, the treacly black ink slowly pouring out from the stab wound and around her blade, causing the entity to let out a piercing, high-pitched scream and fail helplessly as one by one its limbs desiccated till the only thing left was one inky eyeball that had a bright.
Cheyenne, who had just finished fighting off another smaller entity with her viola-shaped crossbow, slides a bow back into the carrier and walks over to the eyeball of the main entity, carefully avoiding the glass shards, and picking it up, popping out the small, gemstone-encrusted CD, and tossing it into her quiver. "Well, at least we can finally leave this horrific island and just go home to sleep." She said, letting out a sigh of relief, already making her way to the sandy beach shores that were just down a couple of blocks from the now-empty battlefield. As they all began walking, the sun finally started to set, casting an almost ethereal glow on the waters, like peace was restored upon the broken island, but only for a bit, because with the parasite still roaming free, who knew when the next attack would break out.
If anything, arriving at school the next morning was like feeling a cold bucket of despair being dumped over your head, like they did after sports games, but the only thing being celebrated was surviving another day, especially after the immensely tiring battle. The air was like ice, and there were only the gray, cloudy skies that barely gave out any sun. Niya, who always arrived earlier than the rest, got out of the car, walked into the old, cockroach-infested building that they called school, and sighed in defeat, accepting that today was another boring day of sitting through classes and hearing things no one would want to hear for it being only 7 a.m. on a Monday.
She took a seat at their usual meeting spot, which was a table in the back corner of the school cafeteria. Still feeling her muscles sore, she started slipping off her jacket. She was wearing an old shirt of her mom's that she paired with jeans, nothing too special, as she grabbed her laptop, wanting to do work while she waited for everyone else to finally show up. And gradually, they all did, taking their own spots like there was comfort in having something intangible.
Ava, who wanted to lighten the mood, was showing a video to Niya on her phone first to speak up, "Hey Niya, get a load of this," she says as she starts blasting 'All The Single Ladies' by Beyonce; everyone else in the cafeteria looked at their table but too tired to care they all went back to their own things and Niya, looking as confused as ever, just got up and started doing a little dance. "Ok, vibe, I guess," and Ava got up and started dancing with Niya. This was just another one of their ways to find a small way to enjoy life as it was. Both still laughing like a couple of idiots, sat back down in their seats.
Logan arrived third in the group. He didn't say much, but he sat down next to Ava with a subtle look on his face, a look that could make many feel concerned for their well-being. Then, Ava looked over at him in concern since he hadn't even said hello yet. "Good morning, Logan. You seem upset. What's wrong?" Ava asks, "It's nothing really, I wanted to apologize for starting that fight between us yesterday." Logan replies, "Dude, it's okay, I mean it. All it was was you trying to protect me since I had already been preoccupied, I totally understand." Ava said with a slight smile on her face. Though that was a soft start to the day, Logan couldn't help but notice how Ava seemed to look at him that morning, a warm, tender, almost amorously; not to ruminate on the subject, the last of the group, being Cheyenne, who showed up at the table, a few minutes before the bell, sighing as she threw her bag down on the ground next to her seat. "You have to be kidding me, I just got to school and I already see couples making out in the hallway," she says as the others look at each other while rolling their eyes. Logan, of course, didn't seem to care, but still gave off that sense that he longed for a kiss. "Why would anyone feel the need to do that at almost eight in the morning? That's so weird." Ava asked. "I don't know, man, the air is infested with, mind you, not only black mold and asbestos, which I honestly thought was illegal, but also some weird chemicals from the janitors closest so I see why they don't honestly care and go at it" responded Niya as she slowly started dozing off, her peace interrupted by the monstrous ring of the bell. Groaning, the group got up, having to separate, and the group split off in pairs; they would be united at lunch.