"Well, since you're all so energetic already, we should get started on our walk." Alex picked her jacket off of the floor, helping Bloom up as she fixed her hair.
Chase groaned at the thought of walking.
"C'mon, we only have about three more hours of walking until we get there. Then it'll be a fifteen hour flight-" Bloom was cut short.
"Fifteen hours?!" Chase exclaimed. He dropped to his knees in preparation for exhaustion.
Vida opened her eyes slowly. She rubbed them before noticing her awkward positioning.
She tried to get her head up, but noticed that Hendrix's head was resting on hers. Her eyes widened as she noticed the position her and Hendrix were in.
She jerked up instinctively, startling Hendrix awake.
"What. Are you okay?" Hendrix half whispered, still almost fully asleep.
"Uh- yeah." Vida answered, standing up in a hurry.
Hendrix wondered to himself what was going on, oblivious to what Vida could be flustered about.
"We'll leave in five. Get yourselves together before we head out." Alex announced, walking up the stairs that led to the basement.
The kids got busy getting their shoes on, joking with each other all the while. Hendrix smiled at the sight.
"They all seem so happy. I know they're not, but they're trying to make the best of it. They're all so amazing." Hendrix thought to himself as he stood up.
He glanced at his pitch-black guitar resting against the wall. The sight of it made him think of that masked man.
The sight of his piercing yellow eyes from across the street filled his mind once again.
Hendrix shook his head to reset his thoughts, wrapping the guitar strap around his shoulder.
"Babe, did you get the picture?" Chase asked Amora.
Amora pulled her hoodie's sleeve back, revealing that she was shaking the polaroid in her hand to help it develop.
Chase silently laughed as the others joined him while trying not to alarm Hendrix and Vida.
As the group wrapped up getting ready, Vida returned to the spot where she slept, walking up to Hendrix.
"Hey." Vida looked at Hendrix, who was busy tying his black boots.
"What's up?" Hendrix looked up at Vida.
"Uh. What happened to you last night?" Vida asked. She didn't know why she hesitated, since Hendrix had always answered any question she had. He would never hide something from her-
"Oh nothing." Hendrix responded. He stood up and walked towards the front of the room.
"You coming?" Hendrix asked, looking back at Vida and smiling.
Vida began to fidget with her nails while looking Hendrix in the eyes.
"What's wrong? Hendrix?" She said in her mind, but didn't have the courage to say it out loud.
"Yeah." Vida answered Hendrix's question.
"Alright, we're heading out." Alex called from up the stairs. They climbed the stairs and were hit by a blast of sunlight.
Alex looked out the windows of the shop, looking for any cop cars that might be trying to keep a low profile.
After confirming the coast was clear, she opened the door to the shop, ushering the group through the door.
"Alright. We'll keep a steady pace so that we don't burn out." Bloom smiled at the group, her expression once again rejuvenating hope in the group, even if it was just a little.
They walked into the alleyway between shops, where the sun still hit the group.
It was a sunny yet cold and crisp November morning. There were almost no clouds to be seen. The electronic billboards across the city showed the expected weather for the day. Cars rushed past, their drivers chasing paychecks for tasks that meant nothing.
The group kept a medium-paced walk, hoping to get there before noon.
"I wanna see what Japan is like. Isn't that where anime used to come from?" Chase asked while tossing a rock up into the air.
"Yeah. They used to speak a language called Japanese before the government standardized language. Mrs. Frewin used to speak some of it." Akilah pushed up her glasses as she tried to remember one of the words Mrs. Frewin taught her.
"I wanna see the cherry blossoms. Vida, don't you remember showing me those trees in one of your books?" Amora turned to Vida, who chuckled.
"Yeah. They're really pretty." Vida smiled. She kept her answers brief, just long enough for no one to notice.
She and Hendrix walked behind the group. That was usually the way the group walked, since Hendrix was usually a man of few words and Vida liked to stay behind with him, but today they both spoke even fewer words than usual.
Vida fidgeted with her nails, taking glances of Hendrix every now and then, wondering what to say.
Hendrix didn't seem to notice. He looked slightly upwards as his overgrown pink hair waved in the fall breeze. His piercings shined in the sunlight, as his eyes stared at the bright blue sky ahead of them.
Vida blushed. She had to catch herself before she stared at him for too long.
"What- What am I doing?" Vida asked herself.
"Hendrix I-" Her words were cut off.
"What are you excited for? When we reach Japan, I mean." Hendrix asked, keeping his focus on the cloudless sky.
"Um, probably the cherry blossoms. They are super pretty." Vida smiled at Hendrix. He chuckled.
"I don't know how, but they remind me of you." Hendrix smiled at Vida before going back to gazing at the sky.
Vida's eyes widened as tried not to get too flustered. She didn't even know if Hendrix had made the connection she had.
"I said they were super pretty. Then he said they reminded him of me. Geez!" Vida rubbed her eyes to try to reset her expression.
"You alright?" Hendrix asked.
"Yeah- Yeah." Vida chuckled as she finished rubbing her eyes.
"Hm. What flower would you be then?" Vida made a comedic thinking face at Hendrix, making him smile.
Hendrix shrugged. "You tell me!"
Vida thought for a second before lifting her finger like a genius, making Hendrix smile.
"You remind me of a sunflower!" Vida exclaimed.
"Why's that?"
"Because you're facing the sun!" Vida pointed at Hendrix's face, which was indeed looking up at the sunlight.
Hendrix burst out into laughter, catching his breath a few seconds later.
"Or… Maybe a poppy." Vida mumbled to herself.
"Why that one?" Hendrix asked. Vida got startled for a second, she didn't think she said that out loud.
Vida went silent for a second, deciding if she should say the real reason or a fake one.
"Because they grow on battlefields. Graveyards too." Vida mumbled, fearing that Hendrix might see the vulnerability in her answer.
Hendrix stared at Vida for a second, smiling softly.
"I see." Hendrix smiled at Vida, who smiled back.
A loud static interrupted the peaceful morning. The billboards lining the streets cut to a black room with a singular line.
"Attention! Mandatory announcement from the Correctional Forces of the United Nation!" A robotic voice announced.
The camera shook around the dark room before focusing in on a horrid sight.
A woman sat in a chair, facing the camera. She was beaten and bloodied, one of her eyes swollen shut. Bloom squinted at the billboard before her eyes widened.
"Jessica…" Bloom covered her mouth with her hands.
Jessica looked down at the floor in exhaustion.
"This woman is part of the rebel movement. She conspired with her comrades to overthrow this great nation, leading the world into a state of chaos. We will now show you her final moments. Dissenter, do you have anything to say to the public?" The voice speaking from behind the camera was purposely distorted.
Jessica coughed. She slowly raised her head with what seemed like her last ounce of strength.
"THE GOVERNMENT IS LY-" Jessica's scream was cut short.
A single gunshot rang out.
Jessica's head slumped forward.
Blood poured forward.
The camera shook.
"Oh god." Bloom's tears began to well in her eyes.
The kids stared in shock. They hadn't even been able to register the thoughts of the other compound residents.
They were all lost in their own heads, remembering the images of the dead compound residents that they had to run past.
The memory of their friends getting sliced into pieces, gunned down in front of them, it all flashed through their heads.
"To the rebels that are still out there, be prepared." The voice said as the camera cut off. The billboards cut to the symbol of the Correctional Forces on a grey background.
The group became even more shocked when they heard another noise coming from the street that the alleyway they were in was attached to.
"They're… They're cheering…" Taro said.
Cheering seemed to surround the group, crowds gathering around every billboard to rejoice in the death of their friend.
"You got what you fucking deserved!" They heard one voice say.
"Don't ever mess with the Correctional Forces!" Another voice yelled.
Hendrix gritted his teeth. Vida's tears juxtaposed Hendrix's dry, furious face.
"Are they really being lied to, or do they deserve to die too-" Hendrix stopped his thought. He shook his head, trying to erase that sentence from his mind.
"Let's move on." Alex covered her eyes with her hands, beginning to walk once more.
After another moment of shock, the group followed behind her.
The chatter that had once filled the alleyways they entered was no more. The excitement for the future seemed to quell.
The group walked another two hours in complete silence. Alleyway to alleyway, backroad to backroad, all the group could think about was death.
The group arrived at the very back of Hand of God airport. They faced a ten foot tall electric fence topped with barbed wire. On the other side of the fence, guards patrolled the runway in what seemed to be a random pattern.
Alex walked a couple steps into the wooded area that surrounded the airport. She returned to the group with a large rock, focusing her Mode to be able to carry a rock that big with such ease.
"We'll wait for the right moment. According to the schedule outside, that blue plane right there is a straight flight to Haneda airport. You guys are gonna feel a bit of whiplash, but you're gonna be on the plane in no time, got it?" Alex asked the group. The kids nodded in response.
Bloom squinted through the fence, trying to get a good look at where the guards were looking.
"And… Now!" Bloom exclaimed.
Alex threw the large boulder into the fence, ripping a substantial hole into the wiring.
In the blink of an eye, Bloom made four trips to the plane and back, bringing two passengers at a time. She ran up the luggage ramp, jumped into a gap on the boarding bridge, and dropped the passengers off in an empty area of the plane four times.
Before a second had passed, Bloom was sitting in a plane seat with the other eight of her group.
"So fast… How is that even possible…" Kai thought. Just when he had gotten confidence in his speed from fighting Officer 1060, Bloom proved how farther he would have to improve.
It took a second for the group to get over the side effects of being carried at lightning speed, but they all got settled in.
"Good evening, passengers. This is your pilot speaking. We are ready to take off on our non-stop flight to Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride." The pilot spoke over the intercom.
The group felt the plane move, before the kids got startled by the rapid acceleration.
"Oh god, we've never been on a plane before." Akilah gripped her arm rests until her knuckles turned white.
"Don't worry, Aki-" Kai's bravado was cut short by his sudden instinct to vomit onto the seat in front of him. He held his mouth closed with all his strength.
After takeoff, the group got settled in for the fifteen hours of quiet flight.
About an hour in, Chase noticed that his screen could play movies. His eyes lit up as he scrolled through the airline's extensive catalogue.
"Wait, that's why that lady gave me earbuds!" Chase whispered to Amora as she chuckled in response.
Chase clicked on a Justice League cartoon, his eyes rarely straying from the screen.
"You've been talking about being a hero so much, how is that going?" Amora asked Chase with a smile.
"Oh, babe. You should've seen me and Kai fight that bad guy. It was like Batman and Robin fighting the Joker. I'm Batman, of course." Chase smiled. Amora chuckled and nodded. "One day, I'll be able to catch up to Hendrix. He can't keep getting beat down for us." Chase said while looking at the screen.
Amora looked at Chase, digesting his words.
"You're right." Amora responded.
"One day, you'll never have to watch any of our friends hurt. You'll be able to just sit back and enjoy life, Amora. I'll make sure of it." Chase kept his eyes on the screen like he was talking to Batman, who was talking in Chase's movie.
Amora chuckled.
"Hm, nah. I think I'd rather keep going on adventures with you, babe." Amora held Chase's hand.
"I'll think about it. Love you, babe." Chase smirked.
"Love you too." Amora responded
"Do you love me too, Amora?" Akilah interrupted the tender moment from the row behind them.
Chase rolled his eyes, getting an empty water bottle chucked at his head from over the headrest.
"How many of those do you have?! That's like the fifth one!" Chase asked, making sure to pause his movie.
"This crybaby right here won't stop emptying his guts. The flight attendants keep giving him water." Akilah pointed his thumb to the hunched over Kai next to him.
"Give him another three hours, he'll be alright." Taro put his complimentary sleep mask back on, snuggling into his pillow.
"Babe, I think I'm gonna die." Kai grabbed Akilah's hand, who quickly tore it away.
"Number one, I'm not your babe. And number two, don't touch me with your vomit hands." Akilah cleaned her hands with wet wipes.
Alex chuckled from the other side of the plane.
"It seems like they're having fun." Alex looked to Bloom.
"It's amazing how resilient their souls are. They're stronger than they know." Bloom spoke with closed eyes. She rested her head on Alex's shoulder while holding her hand.
"You're right." Alex looked over to the other side of the plane.
Hendrix and Vida sat next to each other, sharing earbuds as Vida showed Hendrix a documentary on the world's flora.
"And this is the iconic cherry blossom, Japan's floral pride and joy." The voiceover stated.
"They might be one of my favorites." Vida said.
"You're right. They're very beautiful." Hendrix muttered as he kept his eyes on the screen.
Vida's eyes widened as her mind began to race.
"Wait. He said it himself. He said they're beautiful. He said I remind him of cherry blossoms. So- Wait no. Snap out of it, Vida. Don't get ahead of yourself." Vida's thoughts were running marathons.
"Poppies, huh?" Hendrix muttered.
The screen showed a field of pink poppies covering what seemed to be dozens of rows of graves.
"I think those are my favorite." Hendrix smiled at Vida, who couldn't help but blush.
Vida played with one of her dreadlocks to slow her mind down.
"You've got something in there again." Hendrix started to pick leaves out of Vida's hair. "Must have been from those trees in the shopping district."
Vida looked up at Hendrix, who smiled back at her before going back to focusing on her hair.
"I think I…" Vida couldn't even think.
"Thanks." Vida smiled.
The rest of the flight seemed to go by in no time. The group spent most of it sleeping, although some of it was spent eating the complimentary airline meals.
After about 12 more hours, the group felt the plane descend.
"We are now landing at Haneda airport. The local time is three PM." The pilot exclaimed over the intercom.
"Welcome to Tokyo!"
End of Volume One.