Red waltzed stoically down his home street of Long Beach, California, on his way to his job; his worn jeans hung at a low sag and on his shirt the word "RED'' was printed in bold on both of his high shoulders. A pristine desert eagle with an extended magazine sat in his waistband "Just in case" as he puts it. He walked past Uncle Daequan's Pies; his favorite place to eat. It had a real rustic feel. Chairs made of all natural wood and stuff. For unknown reasons, a comically large sardine fell from the sky and struck Red like a golden tear from heaven.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!" Red shouted before swiftly backing up, startled. He took a moment to calm down, setting a hand on the platinum plated desert eagle hidden in his waistband.

He stomped back up to the limp fish on the floor.

"That is a comically large sardine. I'll name you Merlot," Red picked up the fish with a small smile.

He let go of his firearm to hold the sardine in both hands. After a moment of relief, Red devoured Merlot whole, chewing bones and all.

"What a stupid fish. You can't survive on land!" He chuckled before continuing on his way to work.

"Hey!" An adult female voice rang through Red's head. He twisted around, confused. There was no one nearby. Did someone see him eat Merlot?

"Red! I am what is known as a vermion. I entered your body when you ate the fish," this apparent vermion explained in telepathic waves.

"Huh?" Red asked aloud, not fully comprehending what was happening.

"Vermions are subatomic particles that are directly tied to the universe as a whole. If a vermion is destroyed, so is the universe and vice versa. To prevent that from happening, vermions take hosts to protect them from outside sources. You are the host in this case," the vermion explained.

"Oh. Okay," Red shrugged and resumed his trek to work.

Red arrived at work. His job is to handle the exchanges of income at a very popular fast food chain (he works a cash register). Jamie, his coworker waved as he wobbled in. She has short black hair, a black uniform apron, and several silver chains and rings going across her fingers.

"Jamie, while I was gettin' here I ate- uh- I got something called a vermion," Red began while tossing on an apron as well.

"A what? How did you do that?" Jamie questioned with seemingly abundant amazement.

"Why are you so surprised?" Red looked over at her while getting behind the ancient cash register.

"Normal people can't hear or say the word 'vermion', only hosts can. To her, you just made an otherworldly sound," his vermion explained.

"Actually nevermind about that. Have I ever told you that my dad was an MMA fighter?" Red began.

"Uh. You haven't. I thought you said that you didn't have a dad?"

"He had this signature move called the McLillian rage waltz. It was supposed to be this, like, intimidating thing or whatever. It would deafen his opponents 'cause all they could hear is their heartbeat."

"That's kind of cool actually. Also, have you been eating out of the ice cream machine? We keep running out of ice cream even on days when no one orders any. But when we run out the number of cones stays the same," Jamie explained.

"I, uh. I dunno," Red shrugged as an overdressed customer entered the store. The customer was clad in formal attire with small wings on his shoulders and a four leaf clover sticking out of his hair.

"McLillian? Isn't that an ironic name for your profession?" The customer asked, looking at Red's name tag.

He had a deep voice with a sprinkle of a British accent.

"Uh huh. What do you want?" Red replied.

"May I have a vermion?" the customer ordered.

"What?"

"Oh I'm sorry! That's not what I meant to say. May I have a cheeseburger?" the customer corrected himself with an embarrassed chuckle.

"WHAT?!! BITCH!!!" Red yelled, jumping onto the counter and setting a hand on his firearm.

"Uhh, Red?" Jamie looked up at her crazed coworker.

"You have detected the aggressive vermion host. Well done Red. Take caution in handling the situation" the vermion explained.

"BITCH!!" Red removed the deagle from his waistband and began unloading the clip on the customer.

With superhuman speed, the man blocked every bullet using red hot brass knuckles. There is a branding iron positioned on the middle of each weapon in the shape of a V.

"My name is V, and I've come for your vermion" the customer proclaimed.

"What the hell is happening!" Jamie screamed.

"Uhhh. Vermion! What do I do?" Red asked.

"Go to the end of the blue line train track, there is help there!" The vermion explained in urgency.

"Let's go Jamie!" Red threw Jamie onto his shoulder and sprinted out of the store.

Jamie struggled and flailed in panic as Red approached the main road across the restaurant's gargantuan parking lot. As soon as V left the building behind them, the structure experienced a gas explosion. Several planes and cars appeared from seemingly nowhere and crashed into the remnants of the building leaving nothing but a somewhat comical hole in the ground.

"WHAT!?!" Red glanced back in astonishment.

With a hellish fireball, the establishment is completely engulfed and swallowed in smoke and destruction.

Red dashed across the empty lot and over to the main road before effortlessly vaulting onto a speeding white car without a second of hesitation. Jamie continued to flail in pure fear as they accelerated down the road.

"Red! What the fuck!" Jamie sputtered.

Red looked around while on top of the vehicle. He peered down at the driver, who was fast asleep at the wheel, utilizing the car's self driving feature. Red abruptly spun around as the sound of a revving motor rumbled through the air like thunder. What is that sound?

V appeared once again and flashed his glowing brass knuckles at Red while balancing boastfully on a robin's egg blue motorized unicycle.
"C'mon, McLillian! Just cough up that vermion and this'll be over," V roared, throwing his arms out to his sides confidently.

"Vermion! Give me powers like his!" Red ordered, deeply frustrated.

"This may be a hard concept to wrap your head around in such a quick time. I wanted to teach you about it more in depth but it seems the situation is dire, you must learn this quickly. Vermions have the ability to turn a conscious life form's brainwaves into a random weapon. Additionally, the user of the weapon gains a completely random power that is unique with each individual. All you have to do is think about using your weapon and it will appear," the vermion rushed to explain.

"Oh, cool." Red put his hand out, allowing a glowing white pistol to form in his hand.

Red tilted his vermion desert eagle onto its side and with surprisingly accurate aim, shot the unicycle in the tire while still carrying Jamie on his shoulder. The unicycle cracked and bent into the shape of a chair upon being shot.

"What? My power is the ability to turn anything into a chair?"
V leaped from his chair-ified unicycle and latched onto the trunk of the vehicle that Jamie and Red stood on.

"McLillian! The fact of the matter is, you will die if you continue to fight me! You may have gained the ability to turn objects into chairs, but I have the power of inflicting bad luck on anything! If you force me to continue fighting, I will be obligated to pluck the vermion out of your vaporized corpse," V went on, raising a fist.

"What kind of businessman is this guy?" Red exclaimed.

V let down his fist on the car's surprisingly flexible bumper, leaving a smoking dent in the shape of the letter V in the metal. Red anxiously whipped his body around to look ahead of the vehicle. The car's speed climbed at a very steep rate as a pillow truck pulled into the road ahead.

"Shit! Jamie! Hold on!" Red shouted, grabbing Jamie by the arm. Red shot the bed product truck's cargo, turning a portion of the aluminum container into a chair. The resulting opening that this created allowed Red and Jamie to land safely in the mountain of pillows stored inside the truck. Shortly after their previous ride fell into the sinkhole, several high rise cranes from nearby construction zones toppled and collapsed into the sinkhole as well.

Just as the dust began to settle, a satellite burning as bright as the sun sliced through the sky. Like a missle it tore through the ground and forced the sinkhole significantly deeper. Clouds of dust shook in the wind like backup dancers to V's chaos. Car alarms harmonized with each other giving V an ear piercing soundtrack while he arose from the incinerated rubble. He walked toward the pillow truck with brutal intent, wiping the dust from his luminous brass knuckles.

"Last chance, McLillian!" He thrusted his hands outwards, showing off the millions of dollars of damage he caused with pride.

"Bitch! I ain't scared of someone wearing a fucking tie!" Red jumped from the truck container, shaking his weapon around in annoyance.

"Stay there Jamie, this'll take a second or four."

With zero fear he stomped towards V, matching his confident attitude.
Raising his glowing white handgun, Red held down the trigger. He hurled countless rounds of energetic ammunition at V. Immediately Red's opponent snapped his arms around catching each and every bullet in his vermion summoned knuckles.

"That all you got, burger man?" V chuckled.

"No, bitch!" Red swung his arm forward, sending a bullet straight through V's left ring finger.

His finger twisted and contorted into the shape of a chair, squeezing the blood and muscle out of his skin like a wet towel.

"Ugh. Fine then," V shook his hands out before laying a forceful punch in the ash littered asphalt.

"Shit."

Red spun around, anxiously attempting to find any clues as to what could possibly happen. A street away a truck carrying a load of styrofoam pellets is hit in the side spontaneously by a pressurized manhole covering. Fragments of powdered styrofoam are scattered all across at least 5 city blocks. It's the first Long Beach snow in decades.

"What the hell? Is styrofoam supposed to be bad?" Red began to laugh.

Soon after, a truck holding a giant gasoline tank crashed into a black and yellow fire hydrant 20 feet away from the two vermion wielders. The crash caused gallons upon gallons of gasoline to quickly leak and coat the entire street, painting the gray asphalt black.

"Wait. Styrofoam and gasoline make— shit!" Red flicked his arm back up to a firing position.

"Correct. It makes napalm!" V let out a maniacal laugh before several fire trucks crashed into a nearby electrical transformer.

In a blinding explosion of neon blue light, the gasoline and styrofoam is mixed and ignited. V's crazed cackling blended in with the continuous buzz of metal tickled by lightning. V took a fatigued deep breath as the electricity dissipated, allowing the bright burn of napalm to dance into view. V is taken aback for a moment upon the sight of Red, completely fine, standing on what appears to be solid air.

"Well, I guess it makes sense. I can turn anything into a chair, so I'd obviously be able to make a chair of air" Red shrugged, flashing a smirk of mockery at V.

"You okay Jamie?" Red shouted, looking behind at the mostly intact pillow truck. A shaky thumbs up hesitantly rose from a protective fort of plastic wrapped pillows.

"God, I hate the middle class!" V slapped the dust off his shoulders before creating vermion brass knuckles on the bottoms of his shoes.

Clearly angered, V stomped through the steel melting napalm towards Red, his weapons acting as protective stilts in the waking war crime inferno below.

"I'm the fucking best around! I make sandwiches and shit. The best in Long Beach. You hear that?! I'm the fucking best around! BITCH!" Red boasted, flicking dozens of rounds at V. "Shut UP!" V retaliated, clashing against the wall of bullets.

V stepped back and launched a rock at Red with a pitcher's form. Red aimed at the piece of asphalt flying at him before realizing it was branded with a V.

"Ah, shit!" Red grunted, using a significant amount of his energy to kick the rock off course.

Upon hitting the floor, the pebble is immediately pulverized by a falling pink train car. It appeared to have been thrown off its track by a vengeful tornado a couple cities away.

"You almost got me there." Red paused his onslaught of ammunition to think. He stood still on his chair of solid air, frozen for a few moments.

"Thank you for finally making this easy on me, it's much easier to hit you when you're standing sti- FUCK," V's sentence was wasted by several bullets spontaneously diving through his torso like olympic swimmers.

"You're probably really confused right now, so let me explain this to you, V. I thought about it, and realized that turning things into chairs is kind of a lame power. Luckily, it isn't just turning objects into chairs. It's also turning chairs back into their original material. I thought about the fact that I was standing still doing nothing, and turned that thought into a chair. After that, I flicked that chair into your head and turned that chair back into a thought, making you think that I was still standing still. I told you. I'm the best at everything, bitch," Red declared, raising two pistols at V.

"McLillian! My siblings and father will come to steal your vermion after me. This victory means nothing!" V gurgled as his body contorted into a chair.

"I'll beat them too."

Hello. As the chapter comes to a close I would like to speak directly to whoever may listen. I am Kricket Persephone Perseverance Osteosssss. With five Sssss. Do not forget. I may have later plot relevance, but who knows? I may be a random device to keep you wondering, or just for the sake of self aware randomness. But fear not, I know how cruel the punishment of impatience is. I will appear to help a child 5 years in the future. Perhaps much sooner. So make sure to look out for me then. I love you, young reader. Your life is valuable so do not waste it. I will give you a brief summary of everything that has happened before I go so that you do not forget the plot. Our good protagonist Red has killed a man named V in a rather gruesome way. Luckily, he has his great friend Jamie by his side. Loneliness is worse than execution, after all. Goodbye, young reader. I hope you have a fun journey.

"Oh. I thought more of you, V. You were my favorite," the well dressed man said to himself before tossing the note into the street to his right.

He walked leisurely through the bright city of Long Beach before stopping at a coffee shop.

"Well, I guess a sip wouldn't matter much. I have time," he said, adjusting his tie and checking the watch on his left wrist.

Inside the abnormally large shop there is a relatively long line to the cashier. The train of people trails around the interior, almost extending past the entrance.

"Ugh. Rush hour," the man shook his wrist out before brushing the lint off of his business pants.

The people in line seemed to forget that they were even in line. They began walking through the door like discombobulated ants in a confused fashion.

"What kind citizens," the man chuckled to himself, stepping up to the now open counter.

"I'll have a cup of kopi luwak," he removed a fish scale wallet from his pocket.

"A big spender I see. That is the most expensive coffee in the world. Can I have your name?" the cashier asked.

"Ion."

After speaking his name, almost immediately a paper cup of Indonesian kopi luwak appeared in the barista's hands.

"What? I guess here is your order? I might need to take a break, my short term memory seems to be failing me right now. Be careful it's hot," the barista chuckled.

"Thank you. Oh and by the way, would you like to hear some octopus facts? The oldest known species of octopus was dated around 296 million years ago. The giant pacific octopus is the largest in the world and can weigh 600 pounds with 30 feet in width," Ion nodded before tossing a thirteen dollar bill on the table and walking away with a hand in his internally heated pocket.

"Are you okay Jamie?" Red asked, patting the dust off of her uniform apron.

"I'm fine I think. I'm gonna give up on trying to figure out what's going on here and just assume that people with powers are gonna be something that we'll see more often now," Jamie said, fatigued.

"Yeah probably," Red shrugged while untying his shoes.

"Well, I'll stick around with you then, since it seems you are good at fighting. It's not like we could go back to work anyway."

"Oh, cool. Onwards!!"

"How did you learn to fight like that Red?" Jamie asked.

Well I saw how my dad fought, which I learned a lot from." Red looked up in thought.

"Did something happen to him?"

"Just cancer. He was strong but he had to lose a fight at least once I guess. Oh, I forgot to say, thanks for covering my shift yesterday. I lost my gun so I couldn't come to work,"

"You lost your—? Well, I'm glad to help, Red," she chuckled.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. I've been kinda meaning to ask you since we met. What are your thoughts on big dairy? Dairy is not an essential part of our adult omnivore diet, yet they seem to have forcefully advertised themselves onto the food pyramid. They make the populous believe that milk is essential in bone development with direct funding from the American government," Red continued, scratching his head.

"Uh. What?" Jamie turned her body to look at Red.

"Oh, check that out. The train station."

The two of them hopped up onto the relatively empty train platform. It's a great day out. Red looked up and saw the sun dancing in the center of the sky.

"It's close to noon, so the next train should be here soon," he said.

"Hey, that guy is looking at us pretty intently," Jamie tapped Red's shoulder and pointed at a man on the opposite side of the train platform. The man wore an abundant amount of gold and silver jewelry with a boot on one foot and a tuxedo shoe on the other. It appeared he had surgically replaced his hair with chains of varying sizes and metals as well.

"Huh. He seems like a nice guy. He might be homeless, do you have any money to give to him?" Red asked.

"I think he'll be fine, Red," Jamie patted him on the back with an awkward smile. She turned away to look at a large crowd of people mindlessly wandering out of a small coffee shop. Shortly after, a strange looking man garbed in sea food stepped out holding what looked to be an ice cold cup of coffee.

"Jamie! Run!" Red shouted, followed by a slicing sound that could be heard from andromeda.

Jamie twisted back around to see the gold and silver drenched man standing above a bleeding and collapsed Red.

"I didn't think you would go down this easily, McLillian. Dad will be ecstatic," the man cackled.

Now. All I need to do is take that vermio-," the man is cut off by two vermion bullets embedding themselves in his face.

Jamie looked down and realized that Red summoned his weapon in his open mouth, meaning he did not need to waste energy moving his arms to aim. The attacking man fell over just as the blue line train came to a stop at the station.

"Fuck you, Red, for making me do this!" Jamie anxiously dragged Red's half dead body into the train.

Her hands quake rapidly as the man began getting back up, weighed down by his chain covered hair. The bullets seemed to have missed his brain but left tiny chair shaped wounds in his skin.

"Rahhh! FUCK you McLillian! My name is E and I will avenge my brother and make my dad proud! And I'll do all of that while looking fly as fuck! Dripped out as a motherfucker!" he sputtered, his jewelry clashing together like a prisoner's shackles.

His diamond encrusted "hair" rattled like a snake as he forced himself up to his feet. The train doors began to reach for each other. Jamie's heart pumped faster as E drew closer to the not yet secured doorway.

"Red, I'm gonna need you to wake up!" Jamie screamed in panic while gently tapping the side of Red's face.

Jamie's breathing slowed in relief as the doors were finally sealed shut, leaving E on the other side. E placed his midas-like hand on the train door. With a rumbling crunch, the doors were peeled open.

"You idiot. I have the power to open anything!" E laughed along with the soft jingle of his jewelry.

"Shit," Jamie shook Red violently, attempting to wake him up again.

"Okay, look lady. I won't hurt you if you step away from him okay? I know being dripped the fuck out is intimidating and all, but I'm a nice guy. I'll forgive you if you just hand him over." E bargained with a diamond filled grin.

Jamie sat in thought for a moment before cautiously backing away from Red's mangled body.

"Correct choi-"

Jamie abruptly struck E on the side of his head, leaving a small cut on his temple. His skull was softer than a normal human's; it was probably made of gold as well. Jamie stepped back, baffled that she had just done that.

"Huh? Are you stupid?" E tapped the wound and looked at the dot of blood left on his fingers.

"Yeah. I definitely am. But Red's my friend," Jamie shrugged with fear trapped behind her eyes.

She began clumsily fleeing down the train car like a table with three legs. She heard the frantic clank of E's jewelry close behind her. Jamie let out a horrified wail. A heavy hand landed on her back, causing a rectangular wound to be opened on her shoulder blade. Blood spouted out of her flesh like a crimson fountain, creating a puddle for her to splash in as she hit the ground. Jamie curled up in pain, now fully realizing that she could die at this moment. She knew that she had to figure out how to beat E if she wanted to survive. What would Red do? Jamie fought past the searing pain and forced her eyes slightly ajar. Her focus darted from one end of the train car to the other. It was luckily rid of civilians, dust from construction caked a majority of the railing, silverfish scuttled around under the gum covered seats, and most of the windows were slightly cracked open. E seemed panicked, like he wanted to end this quickly. So why didn't he land a fatal blow? Red's powers only activate when he makes contact with something using his skin or his bullets, so maybe E has more prerequisites for his powers. Jamie sat up and painfully smiled at E. Her limbs quake while she pushed herself up to her feet. She stretched her arms out to her sides with open hands.

"Come get me!" Jamie shouted in a voice caught with vibrato.

"Well, okay. Y'know, this is a real metaphor for the life of a fast food worker. You try really hard, but end up just throwing it away near the end. Or something like that,"

E tapped his palladium clad finger on her forehead and activated his power. But nothing happened?

"What the heck-" E began before being struck in the temple once again.

"I did it! I figured out your power!" Jamie shouted, hurling punches into E over and over.

"Since you didn't just open up the train car and leave me to fall into the rails, I assumed that there must be something wrong with the car. When I saw all the open windows, I knew that I figured it out," Jamie explained as E's semi-unconscious body struck the dust covered ground.

She began kicking and stomping on him to collect payment for both her and Red's injuries.

"You cannot open things that your subconscious deems already 'opened'. I opened my arms to you with open hands, eyes, wounds and mouth. In your mind, I was already open, so you could not have activated your power on me again!" She swung her foot into his ribs once more.

She could feel multiple bones and gold links being crushed under her company issued service shoes. A gold chain was caught under her shoe as she pulled back, causing a deep red tear in his scalp.

"You have a very stupid name!" Jamie shouted in victory.

"ASTATIIIINE!" E growled as his body seemingly vanished.

"Huh?" Jamie was hit across her jaw by what appeared to be the dismembered floating hand of E.

"I said I can open anything. That includes space!" E laughed as his palladium covered head poked out from a floating black portal.

Jamie swiftly swung up her arms to poorly block the barrage of unpredictable gem-filled attacks. Arms, hands, shoes and chains whipped and snapped at her through portals of darkness, bruising her skin and leaving blood on her uniform. Luckily, she was wearing an apron.

"This is what you get!" E jumped out of a portal behind her, raising a painite clad fist. Employing the Anglo-saxon technique of pocket sand, Jamie spun around and hurled an open pepper shaker at E's platinum glitter speckled face. He stumbled backwards, grabbing onto a pole for balance before taking another kick to the liver. The fear that clutched Jamie's heart and tapped at her shivering nerves before suddenly vanished. In place of that, sitting atop her high shoulders was the same confidence that Red presented.

"Huh. How does Red act like this all the time?" Jamie questioned, scratching her chin.

"Argh. My dad told me never to do this, but I'm not at home anymore, so it should be fine. Look what I have." E held up Jamie's driver's license. It must have fallen out of her pocket.

"OH NO! IDENTITY THEFT!" Jamie began tripping over her feet towards him.

"Y'see. If I can open space, I could also open time. Now that I know your name, I'll travel back in time to kill you as a child. Then I won't have to deal with you now!" E laughed as an elliptic red portal opened behind him.

"Shit!" Jamie stumbled desperately down the train, attempting to prevent E's exit. E's foot entered the portal with Jamie just a meter away. There has to be something she could do before he entered. Jamie knew that the instant after E entered that portal, she would die.

"Oh shit, I almost forgot! We use an antifreeze compound to absorb water in our food!" Jamie exclaimed to herself in realization before pulling a tub of antifreeze out of her apron pocket.

As a last resort, she opened the container and threw it at the deep wound found in E's head. He clutched his skull in pain before falling into the portal like an ornament off of a fir. Jamie let out a stretched exhale and closed her eyes, anxiously waiting for herself to be wiped from existence. A second passed, then a minute, then five.

"Y- yes! I did it! Antifreeze lowers the pH of blood which then causes antifreeze poisoning to affect multiple organs. I killed him in the past!" Jamie celebrated her survival while wiping the blood from her lip.

Ion took a moment to feel the gentle tickle of the afternoon sunlight on his warm salt sprinkled skin as a train dashed by him. He let out a relaxed sigh before the empty cup in his hand disintegrated entirely.

"I guess I took a bit too long to get my coffee. I'll take a shortcut down the alleyway. My kids will probably retrieve the vermion for me anyways," Ion nodded before taking a sharp turn down a suspiciously dark alleyway.

Very surprisingly, two armed men stepped out of the shadows. A copious amount of various illegal drugs fell out of their pockets with each step they took.

"Hey, hand over your cash!" One of the men ordered.

"Yeah! We are mugging you!"

Jamie dragged Red into one of the inhabited train cars, leaving a long trail of dark blood.

"I'm a doctor!" A young man hopped up and ran over to the two.

Jamie dropped unconsciously to the aluminum floor, as the doctor approached.

Red slowly but surely awakened. He was placed on a row of train seats with sweaters resting on top of him for warmth. He lifted his slightly stained t-shirt to see that his rectangular wounds had completely mended.

"What the heck? Where did all the holes go?" He asked in astonishment.

"I'm a very good doctor," the young man said, sitting next to a still unconscious Jamie across from Red.

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, probably gonna be asleep for a bit longer though. She had much deeper wounds."

Red glanced at her blood coated shoes and chuckled. She saved him.

"Thanks dude," Red nodded, smacking the blood out of his hair.

"No problem. I'm a doctor after all. Here eat this," he tossed Red some sort of spherical fruit.

"This is a Brazilian jabuticaba. A rare fruit that grows on the trunks of plinia cauliflora. I've modified it to have healing properties, it should ease any remaining pain you have,"

"Oh. Cool."

"Congratulations Red. You've managed to survive for quite some time. We are halfway to the end of our journey," the vermion communicated.

"Oh cool. What is even at the end of the blue line?"

"A friend of a past host."

"Do you remember the old hosts?"

"Yes. Many were resilient. Many died."

"Have any famous people been hosts?" Red questioned.

"You may not know him. His name was Benjamin Franklin," said his vermion.

"Y'know that makes a lot of sense. What was his power?"

"He was able to give people any sexually transmitted diseases or infections just with physical contact."

"Yeah I probably could have guessed that. Say, vermion? If you've had that many hosts, has anyone given you a name?" Red wondered.

"No."

"Hmm. Well then, your new name is Birch. How is that?" He smiled.

"That is nice. Thank you Red," Birch said in a slightly less monotone voice.

"No problem."

"Red. I sense a threat in the next car over. He appears to not be approaching, but he definitely has the strength to kill you or destroy me."

"I won't go in there, I guess," Red said before a man with almost glowing blonde hair slid gracefully into their train car.

"Red McLillian! I've heard a lot about you. My name is R and I am a god. I've come to take your vermion!" The glitter covered man shouted confidently.

R had short gold hair and vibrant sapphire eyes. He wore a pure white tuxedo, a sparkled glove on his right hand, rat shaped shoes and a tie made of pinwheels. He had a pink duffle bag at his hip and two taxidermy parrots sewed to his shoulders.

"Is that the threat?" Red asked himself.

"No," Birch denied.

"Bruh," Red stood up, pointing his vermion weapon at R. "Get away bitch! I'll fucking turn you into a chair! Then I'll make a sandwich on your grave,"

"McLillian, you point a firearm at a god like it will do anything. You have an explosive personality. If only others were like you."

"Hey man, sit down. There's no need for a conflict," a middle aged, fragile, male civilian intervened.

A deranged and ultra confident expression was splashed across R's face as his body crookedly turned towards the innocent civilian. He let out a wicked cackle without even moving his mouth.

"You seem the nosy but socially powerful type. I would describe it as- maybe sharp?" R snatched the man by the arm with another sinister snarl.

The bystander began steaming, melting and changing. His flesh and bone underwent some sort of transformation and his body morphed into brilliant yellow cheese. His shape was completely altered. The citizen was now an extremely sharp longsword made of cheddar cheese.

"How," Red watched blankly.

R swung the blade at Red, leaving behind a strong scent similar to that of the average woman named "savannah".

"Ugh, cheese," Red gagged while kicking the sword off course.

"The past two of my brothers you have fought were strong, but none of them were gods. I wield the power to turn living beings into CHEESE! FETAAA!!!!" R tore one of the stuffed parrots off of his tux's shoulder pad and hurled it at Red.

The parrot seemed to not be dead or fake, in actuality it was in a petrified state of medically forced and unconscious life. It exploded into semi-liquid cheese that functioned as a strong adhesive. Red's size 11, 250 dollar, red velvet basketball shoes became firmly fastened to the train floor.

"What the FUCK! BITCH!!!" Red shouted in an enraged panic.

He held down the trigger on his desert eagle, laying round after round in the adhesive cheese, escaping once enough of the cow product was compressed into coin sized chairs. Red tackled R into the next train car in blind fury, causing many startled screams from the passengers.

"Red! The threat is in this car!" Birch shouted in panic.

"Shit! I forgot!"

R got back to his feet and snatched a passenger up by the head. The hostage wore a business suit and tie.

"You. I don't even have to read your personality to see that you are evil." R smirked, glaring into the passenger's horrified eyes. "Because everyone in the business industry is malicious, of course!"

R let out another of his signature chuckles before lobbing the frail businessman at Red. He melted into green cheese that burnt through the seats, bars and eventually even the floor, leaving a hole to peer down at the blurred railway below.

"What? You can turn people into cheese and their properties reflect their personality? What the fuck kind of ability is that?" Red attempted to remove the remnants of cheese left on his shoes.

"One of a god, McLillian. Nothing complex about it."

R reached into his duffel bag, his gloved hand exited the container holding a whimsically large toad. One would describe it as a toad of radical proportions. A frog of supreme stature. An amphibian of amplified size.

"Jerome go!" R shouted as he threw the toad at Red.

Jerome transformed into a hard block of cheese before exploding, sending shrapnels of solid cheese in all directions.

"Shit, I can't dodge this!" Red tensed up, preparing for impact.

"Red! The threat is approaching!" Birch screamed in his head, overriding any other present thoughts.

An unreasonably loud sound spiraled down Red's ear and violently shook the train car. The bass from this sound vibrated his sternum and grasped his heart like attacking butterflies. The rolling rumble of thunder continued and abruptly stopped as a man wearing a pale teal gi appeared in front of Red. Every piece of cheese shrapnel was safely placed on top of the man's hand.

"How are you guys doing that? Can you teach me?" The teal garbed man asked.

"Red! That is the threat!" Birch continued to panic.

"Why are you so scared? He seems cool," Red commented to himself.

"He is able to see me, Red."

The man dropped the cheese shrapnels through the singed hole in the train floor. They land on the track below and quickly zoom away.

"My name is Tellurium the Teller, a martial artist from east Mexico. Nice to meet you two. Or maybe four? Are those things speaking to you?" the man tapped his finger on his chin, seemingly lost in wonder.

"Bruh. Pray to me or something," R snatched a baby out of a passenger's arms and hurled it at Tellurium.

The martial artist stepped with his right foot forward as the child turned into extremely heavy, metal-like cheese. Tellurium swung his right arm straight through the child of cow, cutting it clean in half.

"Woah. How do you do that without a vermion?" Red asked.

"Without a what? That is such a weird noise. How did you do that?"

R pushed five people into the train car, sending them at high speed towards Red and Tellurium. They all explode into a mass of different kinds of cheese. Red ejected forty rounds, slowing the wall of dairy product by compressing it into chairs.

"Don't worry! I'll save you!" Tellurium happily shouted, swinging his arms back and forth like a sharpened toothbrush in prison.

With every strike the cheese, regardless of consistency, turned into powder and fell to the floor. A distant rumble like the hum of a lion grew louder as he pulverized the liquid and solid cheese.

"My name is Red! You're pretty cool!" Red laughed in excited amusement.

"Hello, Red. You have a cool ability as well. Is there a technique to it?" Tellurium conversed while fighting back the barrier of dairy.

"Well both me and that weird guy got our powers from these small atom things. But where did you get your powers?"

"So that's what that odd particle is. I have no powers, only skill. In Mexico I trained my body and soul in a martial art that I created in order to impress my father. My training regiment along with the specific movements I learned allow me to predict where atoms, molecules and particles will be. That combination gives me the ability to strike matter in a way that would not be normally possible. Additionally I can even control the atoms in my own body. I call this art, the Fist of Precision."

The wave of cheese was completely pulverized, leaving R baffled.

"I didn't think you would survive that,"

"Alright Red. You seem interesting and you have a cool power. I'll join you after we take care of this guy!" Tellurium flashed a stoic, shimmering smile.

"Let's go!" Red pointed two vermion pistols at R, his fingers ready on the triggers like a two headed cobra.

"As said in the bible, 'die,' I can turn you into fucking cheese. You vermin are underestimating me!" R emptied his bag of animals and small creatures.

Pigeons, baby monkeys, snakes, mice, hamsters, and baby dogs scurry all across the train making the car a giant terrarium.

"Take this McLillian! Red is a shit color anyways!" R shouted with hysterical laughter as the animals exploded into tons upon tons of cheese.

"You should probably get that checked out!" Red shot back.

A rush of heat filled the car as the remaining passengers were also converted to copious amounts of multi-colored cheese.

"Uh oh. You have any other powers, Red?" Tellurium nervously chuckled as burning and acidic liquid cheese began attempting to embrace them.

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot, luckily we're on a train. You can survive in contaminated air right?"

"Yeah. I can select what molecules my lungs absorb."

"Ok, cool," Red nodded before flicking multiple bullets at train seats.

The chairs were reverted to their raw materials. A wall of aluminum ore expanded with a loud crack, blocking some of the cheese from getting to them. Natural gas, oil, ethane and propane is expelled everywhere acidifying the air. The train began tipping over as the weight from the cheese and aluminum became too much to handle. The stressed sound of metal against metal wrung through the gaseous air.

"You sure are interesting Red!" Tellurium laughed while holding onto the atoms in the floor for support.

Red molded some of the remaining oxygen into a bite sized chair and released it in his lungs, allowing him to bypass the poisonous air. The train fully tipped over with a loud and reverberating crash. Sparks flew and ignited the flammable gasses and oil, exploding into a grand fireball.

"Urrrrgggrgrgr," R growled while crawling from the flaming rubble.

Red and Tellurium dragged Jamie and the doctor from the debris. They seem mostly unharmed.

"That was a close one! Also, isn't that the richest man in the world's car over there?" Tellurium turned and pointed to a graphite black sports car with two visible engines and eight LED covered wheels.

"Huh. I guess it is," Red tilted his head.

"AGHHGGGHH! I could do that too, PEASANTS! I'll show you my true power since you all seem to want to play the devil. Let there be LIGHT!" R slurred and rambled, throwing his hands into the smoggy sky.

The microorganisms dancing in between the molecules in the air transformed into gaseous dairy of various properties. The sky gained a glint of orange and the clouds shifted downwards under the weight of cheese micro particles.

"Red! Hold your breath again, I'll snatch the cheese out of the air!" Tellurium smoothly swung his arms around him, destroying any cheese particles in a dome of strikes. The rumble of a low bass fell off of his hands as the burning, acidic and organ tearing cheese was annihilated between his fingers.

"Tellurium! Go protect Jamie and the doctor! I'll try and solve this predicament!" Red ordered.

"On it!" Tellurium swiftly jumped into action to help the two unconscious individuals, swatting the microscopic cheese particles out of the way.

Red darted to his right, flicked his wrist and sent bullets flying at the highly expensive car sitting on the flaming road. Following a loud pop, it dented and morphed into a giant black recliner. He quickly ducked underneath it and took refuge inside the reclining mechanism.

"The richest man in the world luckily coats his car in hafnium carbide. The most heat resistant metal in the world which has a melting point of 3900 degrees celsius," Red smirked, readying his glowing firearm.

The intense disturbance of air caused by the sound of Tellurium's onslaught gently shook every molecule around the environment. The heavily acidic air began to be cleansed as he protected the two civilians. With an ear scratching crunch, the giant metal recliner turned back into a car. Red fell into the lavender leather interior with an eager grin. He slammed his hands on the bismuth patterned steering wheel with zealous joy.

"YEEAAAHH! CAR!" He laughed, excitedly kicking the velvet floor behind the pedals. He tapped the ignition with his finger, allowing it to twist into a tiny chair and start the engines. R looked on at the incredibly neon car with wide eyes as both of its monstrous external engines began shrieking. The twenty exhaust pipes began forcefully ejecting both rainbow dyed steam and engine smoke.

"MCLILLIAN!" R painfully spat, deeply afraid for what's to come. The ball shaped rows of tires began rapidly rotating, kicking dust off of the floor. The engines continued to wail as the futuristic vehicle jumped at R.

"I can't BELIEVE you're forcing me to do this!" R lifted his foot up towards the incoming vehicle as if to block it.

In a nova of glowing cheese his leg is transformed into dairy before quickly exploding. The car is pushed backwards, leaving a gaping hole in the tinted windshield. Red went to shield his face from the incoming cheese gas. He sat with his eyes closed before realizing that he wasn't being burned. The smoke and dust from the car probably displaced all of the cheese contaminated air. Tellurium quickly dashed back to Red's side now that Jamie and the doctor were safe.

"Red! Rush in! I'll provide support!"

"It's okay, I won't need it. I just need you to tell me something," Red began, climbing out of the car through the window.

R dipped his left hand in a nearby puddle and turned the mosquito eggs left on his skin into solid cheese gloves.

"Red. I'll see you in hell," said R.

"Blue cheese sucks!" Red shouted, walking towards R with a desert eagle in one hand and tiny chairs of air in his other.

"This is what you get for meddling in a god's plan!" R swung at his opponent with his hardened cheese gauntlet.

R's legless torso struggled to stay upright as he attempted to transform Red into cheese. Red quickly evaded and landed five shots right in R's shoulder. His shoulder twisted into a stool formation before falling to the ash swept ground along with the rest of his right arm.

"Argh! Fuck! You idiot! Did you think my power activated with my right arm? It activates using my left! All that did was hurt me! Why make moves when they end up doing nothing? Get turned to FETA, BITCH!" R laughed with muddy insanity lodged in his throat.

He backhanded Red across the face with his cheese plated hand and a moon shaped smile. With the conditions met, Red can join everyone else and become impossible cheese.

"Well, that last move was for something. My buddy Tellurium over there told me that your vermion was hidden in your right shoulder," Red grinned right back at R, wiping the small stream of fresh blood from his lip.

"What? My power! You fucking bitch! I'm still a god even without my _____. I- I can't say it anymore!"

"Tellurium, let's go," Red ordered, spinning his two desert eagles around his index fingers.

"No! My father! I'm doing this for my father!" R choked.

Tellurium jumped at R and sent hundreds of high speed hits into his body, shattering every single tendon and organic structure within. The rumble of rapid sonic booms echo and shake off of both R and Tellurium's bones. The air vibrated so violently that R's heart beat stuttered against the dancing waves of shivering pressure.

"I'm doing this for my father too!"

With one final and roaring strike, Tellurium liquified the corpse, leaving barely any evidence.

"Hey! My fucking car!" A man with 100 dollar bills pouring out of his pockets approached the wreck as Tellurium and Red dashed away, carrying Jamie. "You Hooligans!!"

Ion allowed an elderly tailor with a gray chevron mustache to take his measurements. He straightened his crab patterned orange tie.

"When do you think a new suit would be ready? I need it in two hours max. This one has too much ketchup on it," he said.

"Well, it wouldn't be that soon, probably in a day. I don't have very long work hours. By the way, has anyone told you that you look strikingly similar to John Lennon?" the tailor answered.

"Ok. This one will work, I guess. You need to boost your service rate, old man. I'll probably stop by a burger place on the way down. Hopefully, there isn't a comically large crater in the place where the city's beloved MacDonalds was," Ion rambled, walking out of the tailor's establishment with a wide stride.

"By the way, Red. I caught that R guy's atom thing and put it in this soda can if you want it," Tellurium said, holding up an empty red can.

"Eh. Save it for a rainy day or something," Red shrugged.

The three of them conversed as they traveled down the railroad.

"So uh, how?" Jamie looked at Tellurium with intense confusion.

"I trained my mind and body to be able to feel every atom both within and without,"

"But how? That doesn't make any sense. Red's power could be justified by weird universe magic or whatever. But the fist of precision has no scientific basis at all."

"I don't really understand myself. I wanted to impress my dad cause he didn't really notice many of my accomplishments. So I just trained and trained until one day I spontaneously gained this sixth sense. He was pretty taken aback when I punched our table in half." Tellurium chuckled.

"I see. Maybe there just isn't an explanation then. Was your dad impressed?" Jamie asked.

"Not really. He was a tad peeved that I cut our table though," he giggled in response.

"My mom never really was proud of what I did either. She'd rather scream at me about something I can't control than praise a drawing I made."

"Why'd she do that?" Red asked.

I don't really know. She wasn't the reasonable type," she replied.

"Well, she has to be proud of you now though! You got promoted to manager after half a year working even though I worked there for two years before you. That's a great accomplishment!" Red grinned accompanied by a thumbs up.

"Uh. Yeah," Jamie paused, curling her lip in a mixture of regret and disappointment. Red kicked a rock at a nearby picket fence before abruptly turning back to the group.

"Hey guys this is important, what are your favorite trees? Mine is the quaking aspen, Utah's state tree. What is kind of odd about this though is that many state trees are the same as other states trees. For example, the sugar maple is the state tree of not one, but three states. Personally, I would think a unique tree would be cooler, like the Nevada bristlecone. That one looks insane." Red nodded in agreement.

"Uh, Red?" Jamie tilted her head in confusion.

The sun kissed the horizon and painted the clouds with gold and pink. The salty smell of the ocean flooded the air like a falling dam as they approached the end of the train track.

"Tellurium, you and Jamie go get fries from the shop at the docks. I'll catch up soon, make sure to order all of the marinara sauce you can for me," Red said, walking towards a lone home on the beach.

"That sounds like a fantastic idea!" Tellurium nodded before sprinting away towards the boardwalk, dragging Jamie along with him.

Red turned back to the elevated shack sitting in the fine white sand.

That is it Red. Inside is a person that can help us," Birch confirmed. Red took a step forward, laying his basketball shoe in the sand. In a sudden turn of events, an entire stop sign pole is impaled through his foot.

"FUCK! MY SHO-" Red began in pain but was abruptly cut off by the hellish feeling of detailed action figures filling his throat.

His eyes widened as he realized what was happening was real. Red shot his throat, turning a portion of it into a chair. This new opening allowed him to remove the figurines from his body. He returned the chair to its original form, fully healing his throat. Red began coughing and wheezing up the remaining dust particles stuck in his esophagus.

"Wh- what the hell," he sniffled.

"Hello, McLillian. It appears you've killed all of my brothers. I will not be so submissive, however," a woman said.

She stood a few meters away, blocking his path to the beach house. The woman wore a dark blue and black skirt, a striped belt charmed with a large silver buckle, a black turtleneck patterned with golden stars and a beret atop her dark brown hair. A shiny leather backpack hung off her left shoulder with a casual weight pulling her posture back slightly.

"I am M, and I will avenge my dead siblings," she commanded confidently. Red didn't say anything back. Sound had to be the trigger of her powers. Maybe she can create objects with sound, Red thought.

"It appears you know my power's trigger. I heard you were a loud mouth, so this silence from you is telling," M commented as a glowing blue pipe appeared in her hand.

She put her vermion weapon to her lips and with a powerful shot of air, a dart is embedded in Red's shoulder. An excruciatingly nerve crushing pain pulsed through his entire right side. He needed to think of what to do before he subconsciously made a noise from the damage. To his knowledge, vermion weapons shouldn't have any effect that doesn't come from the user's power, meaning that the poison is something new. Can vermion holders edit the properties of their weapon? Red shot himself in the throat again; only one way to find out. Using a significant amount of focus and attention, the bullet left the chamber without disturbing the air and making a sound. His throat is punctured, allowing his vocal cords to twist into chairs, inhibiting any vocal sound. Blood dripped onto the sand as Red glared at M dead in the eye.

"I guess I underestimated y-" M is taken by surprise as her leg twisted into a chair as well.

Red aimed to take another shot. His heart dropped to his stomach as a plane flew overhead.

"McLillian! I WON!" M laughed as the wind began picking up. "My power is to move objects through sound waves! The closer we get to the noise, the faster we move!"

Red and M are snatched into the air, moving towards the plane several miles above the clouds. The engine roared like an angered mountain lion, providing an ample amount of sound to be dragged by. Red swung around and landed as many shots on M as he could. A portion of her left arm and lower back was hit and painfully bent into the shape of his signature furniture.

"It's over McLillian!" She growled, her voice muffled by pooling blood. Their eyes meet one final time before Red mouths the words:

"Sound doesn't travel in a vacuum."

He held up what appeared to be a miniature chair made out of compressed gas. The sound from the plane was quickly snuffed out as the two began falling back towards the beach. Red threw the chair made of air underneath him and released it as he neared the ground. The resulting burst of high speed wind slowed his fall enough for him to land completely fine on his feet. Shortly after, M hit the ground hard with a cartoonish thud.

"That's right BITCH! I'm the fucking best ever!" Red shouted into the sky as his vocal cords returned to normal.

He exhaled, calming down before putting his hand in his pocket. Almost immediately a butter knife pierced his hand, tearing through his tendons like silk. Red's eyes widened in pained surprise. He lifted his arm to shoot himself in the throat again but abruptly his shoulder was completely shattered. He felt a broken glass bottle shifting around beneath his flesh and muscle.

"McLillian, I told you. I will not die so easily. But thanks to you, I am now blind. My hearing has been greatly enhanced. Now to get rid of that annoying drumming sound," M choked at a rough whisper.

Drowning out all of his previous pain, Red's heart is filled with rocks, sand, sticks and toy cars. He dropped to the ground, forcing his eyes open in an attempt to stay conscious. His knees hit the sand before a piece of driftwood dived through his right thigh, splintering his femur into pieces. M began dragging herself away with a wicked smile, blood poured from her mangled body like a river. Sweet revenge.

"Hey isn't that Red up there?" Jamie pointed up at the sky in the direction of a plane. She held two fry baskets in her free hand.

"Huh. Yeah I guess that is" Tellurium, puzzledly looked up, carrying a gallon container of marinara sauce. "We should probably go help him. Onward James!"

"Bruh."

The two of them began sprinting back in the direction of the beach house, clutching onto their food items.

The sun began to hide beneath the glowing clouds and distant dark horizon. A cold wind rushes across the beach as Jamie and Tellurium make it to a very quickly dying Red.

"Oh shit. The movement of the air from the sound of his heart is weak. Actually, there is barely any movement at all. Hold this Jamal!" Tellurium tossed the gallon of marinara at Jamie, who swiftly fell over into the sand.

Tellurium placed his hand on Red's still chest, applying a small amount of pressure and precisely rotating the atoms in his hand around the atom's in Red and his clothes. Using this method he eventually got his hand around the foreign objects lodged in Red's heart. With subtle atomic vibration, he attempted to remove them.

"Hey, get out here!" Jamie kicked on the palm wood door of the hand crafted, beach house. "You're the person who's supposed to help right?"

"Bruh, what the hell is happening out here. Can you guys quiet down?" a tired dark skinned man opened the door.

He wore a paint splattered apron with a seashell necklace over it. On his nose sat a pair of glasses with hexagon shaped copper wire frames and purple lenses.

"My friend, Red, over there is kind of dying. His little power atom thing said that you could help," Jamie explained.

"Oh. That means he's- Well, it looks like that karate guy has the situation under control. You guys can just come in if you want. The name's Indigo by the way," the man allowed, his expression jumped briefly between surprised and neutral.

He walked back inside his shack, leaving the door open.

"Tellurium! Bring Red in here!" Jamie called.

Tellurium set Red on a multicolored fuzzy sofa inside before getting back to work. The interior of the shack is very artsy. Paint brushes and cans litter the surface of every countertop and piece of furniture. A potter's wheel was in the kitchen sink haphazardly while what appeared to be an anvil sat in the open, otherwise empty refrigerator.

"Guys, this is the second day in a row this has happened to me. What is it this time? Is the cupid coming to kill you or something?" Indigo chuckled while kicking a green prosthetic limb out of his way.

"Well, these guys with weird powers kept attacking us, so Red took us here and we found him dying," Jamie continued.

"An average Thursday to be completely honest with you."

Indigo lifted a hot glue gun off of his countertop and pocketed it. There was an abrupt and gentle knock on the front door that followed a delicate and catchy rhythm.

"Alright, you come with me lady. Karate kid and the dead one will stay back there until whoever at the door is gone," Indigo explained, walking towards the door. "Don't step on the rug by the way, it's trapped."

Jamie cautiously followed Indigo, unsure about the current situation.

"Good Morning Indigo. Long time no see. At least it has felt like an eternity. I assume McLillian's vermion told him where to find you correct? What a tricky creature," Ion stepped into the house, having to duck down to fit through the doorway.

Jamie stepped back in heart stopping horror. Ion towered at well over 8 feet tall and was still very proportionally muscular.

"Bruh. Okay. So I kind of understand your cause for concern now," Indigo looked back at Jamie.

"Indigo. Old pal. I'll strike you a deal. Hand over that other color named fellow and I won't give you fucking Alzheimer's. You could also allow me to take your vermion as well, I wouldn't complain about that," Ion bent his knees to be at eye level with Indigo.

"Nah," Indigo walked away before hopping over the shag carpet. Jamie instinctively quickly followed behind.

"Difficult as always Indigo!" Ion stomped forward, his left foot landing on the rug. With a loud crank of metal, a large toothed bear trap, that appeared to be painted to resemble the carpet, bit down into Ion's shin.

"Okay, time to go lady!" Indigo took Jamie's hand and sprinted down the hallway to what looked like a dead end.

"AUURGGHG! The mimic octopus has been seen mimicking and disguising itself as other animals such as sea snakes, lionfish, zebra soles, jellyfish!" Ion growled before ripping his leg out of the trap.

"Ironic isn't it?" Indigo grabbed a piece of the barren wall in front of him and pulled it open, revealing a hidden door.

He dragged Jamie into what looked to be a shadow drenched stairwell to the basement and slammed the concealed door behind them.

"Lady! Put these on. I don't need them, I think. I pretty much remember where everything is," Indigo quickly passed his hexagonal glasses to Jamie as they ran down the stairwell. "I have the power to change the color of any object. Looking through slim cut purple agate lets you see past the color however."

"Oh, yeah okay," Jamie catches the glasses, fumbling to keep them in her hands as they descend further.

When looking through the bubbly lenses at a certain angle, it appears light is magnified basically hundreds of times. There is a loud crash coming from the door as they arrive at the basement. Jamie expected to see a safe house, perhaps with heavy artillery weapons or maybe an armory of assault rifles but was instead met by a giant expanse of ice. Despite being underground, the vibrant blue sky was visible all around.

"What the heck is— this."

"Lady, put on the glasses and get ready," Indigo commanded, running away from the stairwell entrance and completely disappearing from view.

Jamie set the oddly shaped glasses on her face and the icy expanse was revealed to be an impossibly large and empty parking lot. Indigo peaked out from behind a concrete support column and agitatedly motioned for her to hide. A heavy footstep echoed throughout the stairwell, urging Jamie to also duck behind a support column.

"INDIGO. WHERE DID YOU GO?" Ion stomped out onto the damp parking garage floor.

"What? Do you have some sort of teleportation power? God, you've been such an annoyance ever since you got that vermion. Y'know, we could have been good friends."

Ion continued to ramble about what could have been as Jamie realized there were countless compartments embedded in the floor, the ceiling and sometimes in support beams. Indigo snatched an indigenous macana from a box before lunging at Ion. The weapon seemingly vaporized and left worm shaped cuts in Indigo's skin.

"What th—," Indigo lost his breath as Ion's tungsten soled boot violently tapped his solar plexus.

He fell to the cold ground, clutching his stomach.

"C'mon Indigo. Buddy. You could do better than that can't you?" Ion taunted, taking a pink handkerchief out of his pocket and dropping it on Indigo's quaking head.

With a sudden shout, Indigo pulled a long chain of grenade looking weapons out of the ground and swiftly swung them overhead at his opponent. With a loud crack, dozens of flash bangs exploded into balls of light, wiping Ion's sight. The hulkingly tall man dropped down to a knee, pressing his palms against his eyes with a grunt.

"Lady! Let's go!" Indigo snatched an oversized rpg out of the ground.

"Uhh. Woah okay!" Jamie darted out from behind the column and poured the giant bucket of marinara over Ion's stunned head.

Indigo tossed the rocket launcher over his shoulder and pulled the trigger. The missile's tail burned before ejecting a stream of smoke at Ion. Before the rocket could strike him, it was quickly dismantled, sending shards of shrapnel into the ice behind him.

"Indigo. Nice, nice try. Nice, nice try, Indigo."

Ion stood up, wiping the marinara sauce off of his brow.

Jamie's legs wobbled as an ocean of sweat accumulated at her temple. What the hell is his power? With the limited, fear binded strength she had left, she forced her body to take a couple steps backwards.

"What is a fast food worker doing here? You don't have a vermion, do you?" Ion closed the distance between Jamie and him.

His blood stained hand gripped a fistful of Jamie's shirt which he used to pull her closer to his face.

"Did you know that the smartest type of octopus is a species called the veined octopus?" Jamie began struggling, weakly kicking and punching at Ion's sea themed attire. "Did you know that some species of octopi have been seen lifting over forty times their body weight?" Ion looked through Jamie, lifting her up by her uniform shirt. "Did you know that—," Ion's octopus fact was cut off by a twelve section tungsten staff being buried into his liver.

"ION!" Indigo cried, snapping the massive staff back for another attack.

Ion threw up his forearms to guard the dozens of succeeding attacks. The metal in each section corroded slightly everytime they struck their target.

"This is more like it, Indigo!" Ion roared, bursting forth overjoyed laughter. The twelve section staff shattered into pieces across Ion's arm, prompting Indigo to remove an oversized sledgehammer from a disguised compartment in the frost colored floor. The hammer lasted one swing, before crumbling to pieces as well. Ion walked backwards, shielding himself from incoming attacks with a clown-faced smile. Indigo chased his opponent, tearing a camouflaged chainsaw claymore out of a nearby pillar.

"I could use some help, lady!" Indigo continued to lunge forward as his chainsaw claymore began jittering, expelling engine smoke.

Jamie closed her eyes for a moment. She's done this before. All she has to do is beat Ion like she beat E before. This should be easy. Her eyelids snapped back open as she let an irrational confidence control her. With many heavy steps against the water colored concrete, Jamie made her way towards the fight, throwing a sharpened fry cutter at Ion as Indigo simultaneously swung his chained sword. Soon after, Jamie followed up by throwing a hard russet potato (a potato with extremely tough skin). A low rumble shook the air before all of the incoming objects were shattered around Ion. What? The surroundings began to slow as Jamie locked herself in her thoughts. What was going on? What the hell is his power? It can't just be the ability to destroy things. There has to be some sort of condition or he would've killed them already. Jamie's eyes widen as she catches a glimpse of something through her grape glasses.

"Indigo, keep him busy!" Jamie shouted, removing one of the almost opaque lenses from the hexagonal copper frame.

"Yeah, I'm attempting!" Indigo darted back, kicking an invisible lever which caused a metal cage to fall from the foggy sky.

The metal rectangular prism crashed into Ion from above but was seemingly forcefully dismantled to allow Ion's exit. Jamie put the dislocated lens in front of her eye and began tilting it at different angles. At a certain point the light received by the lens was magnified thousands of times.

"What the hell— is that?" Jamie leaned in closer to the lens as she pointed it at the beast that was fighting Indigo.

"Can he control organisms that can also use his weapon?! What kind of weapon even is that? Is that some sort of engine?" Jamie questioned, continuing to gaze through the mineral glass.

Indigo swung a fifteen foot long, bronze war scythe at Ion. His muscles flexed through his paint smeared shirt, seemingly putting all of his power into his blows now. Consuming little to no energy, Ion ducked and blocked every approaching slash, removing pieces of the weapon each time. Jamie looked through the stop sign shaped lens and finally witnessed the horrific process of Ion's ability. Immediately switching targets, Ion's head whipped around to look at the very stunned Jamie.

"Hey Lady! I'm gonna need you to snap out of it!" Indigo cried as his opponent began darting towards her.

"Indigo! Ion's ability is to summon microscopic creatures with bombs on them!" Jamie shouted before being struck in the chest by a swarm of organisms.

A hole was burnt into her apron. With a harsh thud, her body hit the ground as she struggled to contain air in her spasming lungs.

"That's close, but not quite, you see. My brilliant power is far more complex than you can possibly imagine! These organisms are modified spirostomum ambiguum. In water, these creatures can move 200 meters per second using their tentacle-like bodies as springs. My vermion weapon, a thermonuclear generator, allows them to take in energy from heat. When my weapon is broken, it releases remaining energy in a microscopic explosion. Explosions like this in mass collectives allow me to break apart matter easily. Additionally, they can transfer energy from the generators into my own cells which allows them to regenerate faster, however this process requires energy and proteins taken from plants. That is my grand ability! It's perfect! It's powerful. It is so fast! The common octopus has a top speed of 24.9 miles per hour!" Ion cackled, trailing off as his laughter drowned out his further speech.

He continued to ramble on and on, his feet twitching in his shoes as his vision went out of focus. He spoke about his power as if it was one of his own children.

"That's— that's cool and all Ion. But you should really gain more environmental awareness," Jamie coughed after regaining her breath.

Ion tilted his head to the side in confusion before looking around. Indigo seemed to be thirty meters away, sitting on an invisible object. Ion squinted to try and get a better look before a stunningly fast object slammed right through his left shoulder. In a firework of blood and smoke Ion fell to the ground, now realizing that Indigo was piloting a camouflaged turret. Ion grunted in annoyance, clutching the right side of his body. Employing billions of his organisms, he was quickly dragged up and out of the icy parking garage through the stairwell used as an entrance.

"We got him!" Indigo shouted, dismounting the turret.

With a painful crunch, Ion landed in a small shrubbery installment. He grunted as blood continued to pour out of the abyssal hole in his body. His spirostomum began dismantling the organic matter around him and converting it into material for regeneration. He coughed up remaining blood lodged beneath his throat before hesitantly getting back up to his field boot clad feet.

"What the hell? John Lennon? I thought you were dead!!" Tellurium stood dumbfounded, barely a foot away from Ion.

"Why does everyone here know my brother's name?" Ion looked down at the unnecessarily close Tellurium, a small hint of surprise lingered in his voice.

"Wow. The Beatles are connected to quite a bit of shenanigans," Tellurium put his hand on his hip and tapped his foot on the sand below.

Ion let out a sigh, tilting his head up to the gray blanketed sky. A drop of water slapped his pale nose, escaping the sea of clouds above. He flashed a wicked smile at Tellurium, with an overjoyed scoff.

What's up?" Tellurium asked, brightly gleaming back at Ion.

"It's starting to rain you small, little man. I am much more powerful with all that water around. Just like the Caribbean reef octopus, which requires a minimum of 50 gallons of water to live moderately," he knelt down to Tellurium's level in an attempt to intimidate.

Ion had a glint of roaring anger performing in the back of his eyes. Bloodlust and a drive for pain seemed to be caged within his skull. Tellurium leaned in to look, his face full of wonder.

"You have cool eyes, Mr. Lennon,"

"RAHH!"

With a flick of Ion's sleeve, billions of explosive armed organisms dashed across the short distance between the two of them. Tellurium continued to keep his eyes locked with Ion's and with just as much speed, if not more, he flicked each individual spirostomum away from him. After his confusingly fast defense, he moved on to offense and switched up his stance. Swinging his hip and back forward, allowing for maximum force applied to his claw shaped hand. Like a fleeting dart, his speeding fingers smashed into Ion's collarbone. The sound of pulverized bone echoed around the beach like the crunch of a store brand chip. The rain began to pick up as the painful sound subsided, as if Ion's bones were crying for help. Ion stumbled back, regaining his focus once he realized it was raining significantly more than before.

"Huh? California never rains. What an odd occurrence," Tellurium exclaimed.

Without a second thought, the brother of John Lennon leaped at the teal-clad martial artist, coating his tight fists with explosive organisms. Like a card juggler, Tellurium elegantly redirected each punch with an open palm. The two danced with each other in a graceful but power riddled figure eight, evading every attack that each of them presented. The heavy rain seemed to greatly improve Ion's speed and range. The organisms around his hands ricocheted between the falling drops of water, attempting to join the intense ballet. Tellurium responded to the request with an even faster backhand. The low growl of the fist of precision vibrated and shook the sand beneath their feet, forming ripple-like ellipse patterns on the floor.

"What an odd miniscule fighter. You've gained my respect!" Ion shouted over the jungle-like roar.

"Thank you John Lennon's brother! My dad will be ecstatic when he hears about your kind words! My name is Tellurium the Teller!" Tellurium smiled with glee before planting his fist in Ion's stomach. The wind violently changed direction to follow his arm. In the same instance an invisible beam of spirostomum managed to graze Tellurium's face, leaving a scratch the size of a needle on his cheek.

"Your fighting style is powerful, man of minimal stature. But you have some openings," Ion exhaled, wiping away the ink-like blood left on his lip.

"I don't appreciate the commentary too much. Your brother's music sucks by the way. I'd say the most overrated artist in history," Tellurium raised his fists to attack again.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"RAHHHHH, take this! Bitch!" Jamie ran out of the beach house alongside Indigo, mimicking Red's war cry.

With a clumsy but nimble hop, she hurled dozens of Vivian lettuce (a very large species of lettuce) heads at Ion. He responded with a wave of his microscopic suicide bombers rushing to protect him. Tellurium quickly snatched the barrier out of the air, allowing the lettuce to weakly strike Ion's body. Ion stood stunned for a second, baffled that Jamie used such a weak attack.

Once the last lettuce leaf hit the floor, Indigo took advantage of the distraction and plunged one end of a double sided weed wacker into Ion's teeth. The three of them began circling around the octopus garbed man like sharks, taking turns striking him. Jamie removed numerous cooking items from her apron pockets and launched them at her target like makeshift cannon balls. Tellurium's hands rumbled like engines as they stripped the membranes off of Ion's cells. Despite the constant rush of damage, it did not seem like Ion had an immediate urge to fight back. He didn't even attempt to evade or block.

"Have you had enough yet?" Jamie smiled, stepping back along with the rest of the group, out of breath.

Ion stood as tall as usual, however he sported a blank expression that was tilted towards the floor. His demeanor resembled a shriveling willow.

"Hey Tellurium. Where is Red?" Jamie asked.

"After I finished patching him up, he said he had to go get something but he'll be back soon probably," Tellurium shrugged in response.

"I— I cannot believe you guys are actually serious about this. It is so crazy that you all think you can win," Ion shakily said, still peering down at the sand. "You all are—."

"Hey guys!" Red interrupted, running across the beach to meet up with the group. He appeared to have a scar on his neck now and a duffel bag at his hip, similar to R's.

"Red!" Tellurium and Jamie jumped in excitement simultaneously, pausing the attack on Ion.

"You guys will not believe what I saw. There was this crazy looking moped that this cop was riding down the street. It had police lights and everything!" Red explained, chuckling to the group.

"A moped? Police still ride those?" Jamie asked curiously.

"I guess so, I thought it looked pretty fu—."

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A FUCKING GAME MCLILLIAN? This is NOT a comedy Red. This isn't a fucking fairytale. Need I remind you? You killed my family, so I guess I have to do the same to you. Let's get that murderer side of yours up and running again, shall we?" Ion roared, flicking remaining flesh and bone off of his scarred arms.

Tellurium fell back into the sand with widened eyes as Indigo positioned himself closer to the ground in preparation. Red gazed down at the crimson beach, attempting to piece together what just happened. He still had to pay Jamie back for covering his shift. He closed his eyes, trying to wake up. There is no way this is real. How would vermions even exist in reality? That is fucking ridiculous! This is all just a big nightmare that will end as soon as he opens his eyes. Why did he have to take her along? She could've just stayed behind and everything would have been fine. God fucking damn it. Red opened his eyes, awaiting the sunlight of morning through the one window in his apartment. His eyelids peeled back to reveal Ion gazing down at him while standing in the mangled remains of his coworker; his best friend.

"Give me your vermion, McLillian." Ion lowered his voice, providing some sort of non-verbal implication that this is his last chance to surrender.

"My dad was an MMA fighter when he was alive," Red stared right back at Ion's red dotted face.

The soft patter of rain was immediately silenced and pushed aside by the rumble of Red's heart. He locked his sight on Ion's guiltless smirk. Jamie. She didn't do anything wrong. She didn't deserve this. That smile is so disgusting, that smile is so painful to look at. Red let thoughts of anger flow through his body as he waltzed down the path of bloodied sand towards Ion. His bones shook uncontrollably and his teeth felt like they were being friction welded together. Red did not care.

What is this? It seems like an ability that forces everything around him to allow him to make the first move; but how? His vermion isn't moving so it isn't part of his chair ability. Could this be an ability like that man wearing teal? Or— is McLillian actually making me too afraid to move? Ion thought to himself while hesitantly keeping eye contact with Red.

"Ion," Red uttered while opening his duffel bag. His movement was slow but seemingly no one had the ability to attempt to stop him. He pulled a pitch black chair the size of a quarter out of the bag at his side, not losing sight of his opponent.

Okay. If this ability lets him make the first move, all I have to do is tank this first attack. After that I'll be able to push the fight back in my favor. Yes, yes. This'll be easy. After I take his vermion I'll go back and retrieve the vermions from my fallen children as well, Ion planned. "ION!" Red lunged forward, swinging the dark chair at him.

The impossibly black chair exploded into 30 feet of empty space, driving Ion into the ground with enough force to snap a pure tungsten wall.

"Argh! McLillian!" Ion coughed, helplessly struggling to inhale. Red sprinted through the wet sand, shooting himself in the hand without leaking even an ounce of hesitation. A translucent pink chair the size of a penny fell out of the subsequent wound. He threw the piece of tiny furniture into his enemy's head with precision unparalleled. His vermion shook, turning the transparent chair back into its original material; pain. Ion clutched his forehead in annoyance while allowing his organisms to tear him out from beneath the sand. Ion became aware of a speck of fear lingering behind his tongue. This situation made him feel uneasy. This vermion host is powerful. But it isn't just about power. No matter how erratic or violent Red moved, the whites of his eyes were somehow still in clear view to Ion. It appeared that Red would not be losing sight of his target anytime soon. Ion leaped over a set of shrubs before exiting the beach and landing on wet concrete. His creatures carried him across the thin film of water at extremely high speeds. Red replied by tossing a chair made of scrap metal onto the concrete ahead of himself. The chair swiftly morphed into a Mediterranean sea green convertible with a roaring engine. Red mounted the vehicle and pumped through the rain in pursuit of Ion.

"You forgot who I am, McLillian. I am the strongest of my family!" Ion spun around and spat a beam of microorganisms at his pursuer.

Red threw a mini rocking chair made of wind after pulling it from the bag beside him. With a loud pop, the erratic armed creatures were blown away. With one hand on the wheel and one on his vermion desert eagle, he casually floored the gas. Ion continued skating across the road at ludicrous speeds, evading the constant stream of bullets thrown from the convertible behind him.

"Red! Calm down and focus! Ion's vermion is hyperactive, he is planning something!" Birch shouted over the car's screeching engine.

"Thank you for the advice, Birch, but I got this," Red replied in an abundantly calm tone of voice.

In the same motion as a fish out of water, Ion snapped around and rushed towards Red, aiming to ram into the vehicle. Trillions of his single celled worms coated his body, preparing to annihilate the incoming convertible.

"Ion," Red grunted angrily, shifting gears and abruptly flicking the wheel to the left.
He managed to rotate fast enough for Ion to only clip a single taillight. Red looked back, stomping on the brake for a moment to whip the car back around to face his opponent again. The tires screeched as they picked up and spat out water vapor. With the speed of a diving hawk, Red's hand pounced on a glowing orange chair the size of a purse.

"Bitch!" Red jumped out onto the hood of the automobile and violently pitched the chair at Ion.

Turning back into its original material, the piece of furniture exploded into a ball of fire and shrapnel, leaving cuts and burns across the octopus obsessed man's body.

"How did you even find an explosion to turn into a chair?" He coughed, falling to a knee.

"I blew up a house."

Red stepped down from his unnecessarily expensive vehicle and marched towards his target, holding his chin high.

"That ability you used before. What was it?" Ion asked, sapping matter from a nearby tree.

"Fuck you, Ion."

Red spun two pistols on his index fingers before locking sight on Ion's head. Glowing bullets punched through the water riddled air, rapidly sprinting at their target. Zigzagged beams of ricocheting spirostomum jumped between the raindrops in order to meticulously halt each round of ammunition. With a burst of molecular scale force, Ion shot himself forward across the wet landscape, closing the distance between him and his attacker.

"I won't fall for the same tricks over and over again, McLillian!" Ion barked, landing an explosion amplified punch on Red's right shoulder.

Red winced but repaid Ion with a left hook to the side. The two continued to trade punches with each other, adding more and more of their powers into their style with each hit. Cuts and burns are printed onto Red's skin while a variety of Ion's muscle fibers are squeezed into the shape of wheelchairs. Adrenaline coursed through Red's burning veins, pushing the pain away from his line of sight. He is taking way too much damage here. He needed to do something to swing the fight back in his favor. There is no way he has enough stamina to outlast Ion in a battle of attrition. With help from the momentum gained from a blocked hit, he hopped backwards, creating more neutral space in between them. Using this larger time frame, Red put his hand up to his head, using his vermion to turn one of his thoughts into a transparent purple chair. Just before enacting his plan, the small chair was molecularly dismantled.

"McLillian. You fail to understand. I am not arrogant like V. I am not greedy and incompetent like E. I am not delusional like R. I am not weak like M. It is insulting to attempt to use the same strategy against me," Ion snarled as his fist struck the side of Red's face to add flavor to his words.

Red fell to the floor, blood exiting his body and anger flooding his heart. It seemed the longer the fight went on, the stronger and more determined Ion was to win. Red is quickly cornered, adding a new scratch to his pool of wounds with every passing second. Looking back on all that has happened today, Red played with the idea of Ion maybe being right. Maybe he did toss around death too carelessly. Jamie still had more to do. She wanted to start up a car shop. She wasn't content with her life yet but it was cut short. Although it was self defense, Ion's children didn't have to die. Even so. Jamie didn't do anything to deserve her death. Ion's children died because they followed his orders. How many more deaths will this man cause if he is allowed to live longer?

"RAHH FUCK YOU, ION!" Red shrieked, pushing Ion back, allowing him to break free from the barrage of hits.

"What? Are you frustrated? A childish feeling compared to losing all of your family is it not?" Ion cackled, raising his fists in preparation.

"Your family's death is not my fault. Over and over again you sent one of your children to DIE to ME. You should've learned your lesson after the second one. And then after losing so badly you have the audacity to kill my best friend in a blind rage? Ion. You ARE weak like M. You are stupid like R. You are greedy like E. And you are so terribly arrogant like V. Bitch. My father once told me that the easiest thing someone can do is give up. He was wrong. You've shown me that the easiest thing someone could do is fucking talk," Red spat as thunder tore at the black sky above.

Red's gaze shifted to a mother and her five year old child exiting a shop titled Uncle Daequan's Pies a couple properties down from them.

"Let's see if you can handle another death on your conscience, Red!" Ion began dashing in the direction of the soaked family.

"Shit!"

The cephalopod-esque man tore the child from his mother's arms, flashing a pumpkin faced smile through the rain.

"Frank! My baby!" The woman shrieked, stumbling over one of the shop's outdoor wooden chairs in pursuit of Ion.

"Shit! Sorry Mr. Quan!" Red shouted before hurling one of the beautiful, clean, well kept, rustic, artistic, elegant, majestic, talent crafted, pristine, high class, maple chairs that was sitting on the store's patio at Ion.

With the pop of a whistling bullet, the noble piece of furniture was turned into an uprooted, old growth maple tree. Ion was lifted into the air, snatched by the expanding branches like a feasting bear trap. Red clenched his teeth as his eyes finally let go of Ion and moved over to the child he had hostage. That baby has such a beautiful life ahead of him. He hasn't even had the joy of driving a car yet.

"ION!" Red leaped forward, releasing his wrath.

Time seemed to slow as the McLillian rage waltz began once again. The very air molecules in front of him darted out of the way to welcome his attack. His veins seemed to sting like wasps as he focused his whole body into editing the properties of his weapon. His brain bled and his vermion shook like California every couple of years. His muscles all simultaneously cramped as a bullet moving at the speed of light essentially teleported through Ion's arm. Everything around them lost the ability to make sound as a sort of undetectable noise moved any stray noise out of the situation.

Ion's arm collapsed on itself, causing it to implode into a chair shaped cloud of blood. The sound of heavy rain and thunder returned as the captive child began his descent towards the wet concrete below. Red fought through the lingering mental and physical torture and turned the particles of flesh in the air into an elastic and disgustingly wet car seat for the young boy to fall safely into. In confusion and relieved panic, the mother snatched her child out of the stool of gore before running like there was no tomorrow. Red continued to glare at the slowly regenerating Ion in a shivering state of fury. Blood leaked from his eyelids and a deep pain stung through his eardrums.

"Wha- what the fuck is wrong with you McLillian," Ion began crawling out of the deteriorating tree as his utterly mangled and burning body struggled to heal. "Why would you put so much power into that? You could've died along with me."

Red coughed, releasing blood which ran to his chin.

"I'm sorry about your family, Ion. But I will not be sorry about you," He replied through a raspy clot of blood trapped in his windpipe. "I'll give you time to regenerate. I need time to get ready anyways."

Removing the last miniature chair from his torn duffle bag, Red pushed himself out of Ions sightline.

Your space chairs sure are something McLillian. You're really cocky, you know that? Even in your fucking blind rage you crack jokes and even let me regenerate. You're pathetic. I've had the upper hand basically this whole time. Your ability to make the first move in a fight will not fucking help you! Even with your weird tricks I will still win! You know, an octopus is theorized to be more intelligent than the average dog!"

"FUCKING DIE ION!"

Ion snapped his view upwards at the airborne Red before he threw a fucking skyscraper at him.

"Shit! McLillian!" Red clenched his teeth, fear gripping at his mouth.

Bomb carrying organisms coated Ion's arms as he tossed them up into a gaurding position. The intense rumble of lightning and collapsing infrastructure shook the entire city like a dubstep concert. Metal support beams snapped like crackers as rods of iron whipped themselves out of melting concrete blocks. Clouds of dust mixed in with the rain, forming a black fog. Red landed on the highest piece of rubble as the collapsing building began to settle. Lightning waved in the sky, replacing the destroyed lamp posts as the main light source. Ion clawed himself out of the brittle pile of asphalt, covered in muddy blood. He coughed in pain, turning to look up at the equally injured Red. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped abruptly in confusion as Red put his arm up to the sky.

"You are not just a revenge kill. This is a warning Ion. This will be the fate of anyone who tries to steal my vermion. I'll see you later," Red commanded as a bolt of lightning flashed through his arm. Red closed his hand into a fist, catching the surge of electricity. The blue zigzag of energy coiled into an erratic and glowing chair the size of a backpack, turning its focus onto Ion. With a throw in a similar posture to a trebuchet, the white hot chair exploded into an arc of lighting.

Ion's weak and failing body crashed straight through a brick building before landing right back on the wet beach they started on. His vermion summoned organisms began dying en masse as regeneration became too much of a challenge. His heart beat at an inexperienced runner's pace, slamming against his collapsed rib cage like an impatient dog. He blinked, attempting to remove the sight of Red's blood soaked shoes from his vision.

"McLillian. Please," Ion began in a pained whisper.

An ear popping boom reverberated through the air as a bullet entered Ion's head. It seemed he was not able to block it. Red walked away, not even giving him the time to turn his body into a chair. His aching feet dragged across the sticky sand, painting it a deep rose. He dropped to his knees at the shredded remains of Jamie's top half. He opened his mouth to say something but grief and the weight of realization appeared to block his speech. She didn't have to come with him. Thoughts swirled around his head as he sat regretfully on the blood soaked, impossibly red beach. All he could think about were the words "I am sorry."

"Well young one, wasn't that a wild and somewhat traumatizing experience," Kricket said sitting down at the foot of Frank's bed.

"Who are you?"

"Someone with a lot of names. Just call me Kricket. But I have a proposition for you. As a sort of reward for persevering today. You can wish for anything you want, ok? Isn't that exciting!?"

Kricket grinned with a sort of emotion?

"Really? I want the world to be more like a videogame!" Frank smiled with glee.

"Your wish will come true in the morning. Thank you young one," Kricket smiled back.

"Yay! Are you a genie?"

"No. I'm just a very determined human. Say bye to the audience Frank!" Kricket waved, looking at you.

"Bye?"