Their trek towards mount weather went smoothly, Markus stayed at the back for a while inspecting the flora around the area.
This was made easier with his newest ability Nature's Forge, allowing to be able to sense and inspect the genomes of every plant, tree and seeds around a certain area around him.
In that time period he had found a plethora of edible roots, flowers that could be dried and crushed into spices and even seeds from fruit trees that were edible.
He even collected some poisonous plant seeds for later cultivation for himself and others he would keep close to his side.
When he wasn't picking up any flora or seeds for his uses, he was sharpening the piece of metal he had taken from the dropships debris, slowly carving away bits and bits until it slowly sharpened.
Monty and Jasper seeing his antics had come up to him, mostly asking on why he was collecting herbs, seeds and the like and on why he was sharpening a piece of metal.
He mostly deflected on answering their questions, throwing his own questions at the duo and slowly bonding over stupid jokes.
" Hey! Guys, can you try to keep up?" Clarke muttered, turning back to face their trio, she being at the very front alongside Octavia who for the better part of the trip was pestering Clarke on information about him.
" Why are you so antsy for all of a sudden?" Markus asked, picking up a purple flower and pocketing it.
" Oh I don't know, maybe because while we're been walking for hours now we haven't seen any animals." She replied, a bit sarcastic." isn't that a bit weird to you? Aren't you worried that we haven't seen any because the radiation killed them all?"
Markus sighed at that, he wasn't worried really. His sense provided by natures forge had pinged him on everything around him, so of course he was able to find small critters and the occasional rabbit or squirrel in the forest, so he wasn't worried about radiation killing him if it hadn't killed the small defenceless animals on the ground.
" Calm down Clarke, if the radiation was strong enough around here to kill us, trust me, we'd already be dead by now." Markus replied offhandely." Plus, I'm pretty sure any lingering radiation left around after so many years wouldn't kill us."
" Oh yeah? And how would you know?" Wells jumped in, malice in his voice.
" Because, smartass, we were stuck in space for so long we had to have developed some resistance to the stuff, basic biology." He replied, mostly pulling shit out of his ass but getting the point across.
At his words he saw Jasper and Monty actually debating upon his words if the scrunch on their face said anything, again, his Social Talent[3] paying it's dividends in helping in reading social cues or expressions.
" That's not possible, to have obtained resistance to something in that short span of time." Wells argued.
" Hah! Possible? Please, I don't know if you've noticed or maybe you've just been up your ass so much that you didn't realise but nothing since we've landed has been normal." He rebuked with the confidence of a know it all.
" Do 100 teenagers getting supernatural abilities all at the same time after entering earth's surface seem possible? No." He continued." So please take your reasoning and shove it up your a—"
" Okay! That's enough!" Clarke quickly interjected, already knowing where this would have gone from seeing the seething Wells as Markus rambled on.
" Markus might have a point, but that still doesn't explain why we haven't seen any animals." Clarke continued, getting her worries back on their topic.
" Well, maybe the descent of the dropship scared them away." Monty said, giving his opinion.
" Or they'll all dead." Octavia also gave hers, quickly getting their attention as most stared at her weirdly." What? Come one, what could survive hundreds of nuclear bombs?"
At that everyone started debating the thought of life on Earth having been wiped out.
" You never know, life has a strange way of finding a way." Markus muttered, already knowing that yes, life had found its way.
" Maybe the few animals that were left, mutated, same as the plant life and are just so few in numbers that they don't stretch this deep into the area." Markus again came up with an opinion.
" Like how we obtained superpowers?" Finn chimed in, joining on their conversation.
" Probably." Jasper replied, not really paying attention that much to the conversation.
" You think it's the radiation?" Octavia asked no one in particular.
" Our... abilities, do you think it's the radiations fault that we have them?" Octavia reiterated her question clearly.
" Well, it's the only reasonable answer right now." Finn muttered.
" Oh come on, really? Radiation giving people superpowers? What are in? A fucking comic book?" Wells interjected, finding the entire idea ludicrous.
" Well, smartass, what more reasonable answer do you have that would explain it then?" Markus once more threw shots at the boy.
" Anything that isn't something as cliche as radiation giving people powers!" Wells answered, a crackle of electricity sparking in his hands which quickly got everyone's attention.
The others watched in both surprise and wariness at the sight, as they took a couple steps back from the boy who bore his eyes at one person in particular, Markus.
" Wells!" Clarke, having been the closest to him shouted, succeeding it disorienting Wells enough that the crackle of electricity slowly subsided.
" Get a hold of yourself, we are all allies here!" Clarke told him, clearly alarmed and a bit fearful, she did a good job at hiding the last part though.
" Oh...I...I'm sorry." Wells muttered after seeing the faces the others were giving him alongside the distance that they had made away from him.
A second later he turned and walked off infront, slowly putting distance from them.
" Well, that went great." Markus muttered, feeling a bit proud of himself even though he was a bit scared that he would have been roasted by electricity.
" *Sigh*...." Clarke gave him a reprimanding glance before walking after the boy in slow strides." Come on, we still have a distance to go."
Not needing to be told twice, the group of teens walked up behind her.
Though not noticed by the others were the settling vines that had closest to Wells at his little outburst, having been ready to burst out at a moment's notice with the command of Markus.
' Damn, I should really get a hold of my emotions before they get me killed.' Markus thought, replaying the entire small altercation that definitely his fault.
But he couldn't help it, the lingering memories and feelings of the body he now resided seemed to peak everytime Wells was around.
' Oh well, I might as well look at my status and see if anything has changed.' He thought, quickly opening up his System and widening his eyes as he saw changes that weren't there before.
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—Author Note - If you're looking to support me, please go over to my pat-reon – I'll be uploading advanced chapters there and there are some other fics I'm writing over there so get there to get early access to the fanfics below ↓
—patre*on.com/Artificers_Legacy [remove the *]
—The Shannara Chronicles - Pool Of Potential.
—Teen Wolf - The Thief's Avarice.
—Movie-Verse - Eternal Ascendancy.