『"Holding out for a Hiro..."』
Silence settled over the van as they pulled away from campus, leaving the wraiths and their hammering fists behind.
Amara stared out at the blurred lights, her hands curled into fists on her lap to keep them from shaking.
She wasn't sure if the tremor was adrenaline from the wraith attack or fury at being manhandled into this vehicle.
Probably both.
From what she could tell, it seemed as though he didn't know how to start. It showed in the tension of his shoulders, the way his jaw worked like he was chewing on something.
Fine. She'd break the ice herself.
"You're with the Institute." It wasn't a question, rather a statement that demanded explanation. "How did that happen?"
Ethan's expression shifted, then he responded, "I sort of grew up there." His voice went quiet. Stripped of the usual charm. "My mom... she was an Awakener. One of the best I'm told."
Past tense. Was.
Amara's fingers stilled on her thigh.
"She died on a mission when I was five." His grip tightened on the steering wheel, and the air in the car grew heavier.
He continued, "but the Director took me in. A promise he made to my mom or something like that."
Two years of friendship, and she was only now realizing how little she actually knew about him. She'd read his lies easily enough. She'd never thought to look for the things he simply never said.
Amara's instinct was to reach out, to offer comfort the way she did when Hiro spiraled or Raj needed grounding. But her hands wouldn't move.
Instead, she said, "I'm sorry." The words felt inadequate, but she said it anyways.
Ethan turned to face her for a moment then his gaze returned to the road. "Yeah. Me too."
Silence stretched between them, less hostile than before but still wary.
Then she looked out the window. "So why college? Why pretend to be just another rich kid chasing a degree?"
"Degrees are important, Amara. Of course, not as important as connections, and skills, and money, but they're still important." He said, a charming grin returning to his face like it was some defense mechanism. "Shocking concept, I know."
She looked at him. His aura didn't change. He wasn't lying exactly. Just choosing what to say.
Typical Ethan move. Using humor to deflect. But he wasn't charming his way out of this one.
"Ethan." She kept her voice level. "Look at me."
He slowed the car while rain hammered against the windshield, blurring the world outside. He looked at her. And that was all it took to get him actually talking again.
"I awakened three months ago. And before that, I had these crazy dreams. Heard voices that weren't mine," he said quietly after a sigh. "This wasn't typical among Vessel Awakeners."
"Dreams?" Amara asked. It sounded awfully familiar.
"Yeah," he confirmed. "Luckily, I had the background and resources to figure out what was happening. Had people who could help me make sense of it."
He glanced at her and continued. "I watched you for weeks, Amara. The headaches. The way you'd stare at people too long. I knew what was coming."
"And you said and did nothing?" Her anger was slowly returning.
"I know, I messed up." His jaw tightened. "Besides, I never expected you would trigger the others. Hiro. Raj. Whoever else is waking up tonight."
He tapped the dashboard screen. "The Five. That's what the Institute calls it. Five awakenings, linked. After I awakened, I could sense it, that all of us are connected somehow. I don't have all the answers, but the Director will."
Amara drew in a slow breath, centering herself as she straightened her spine and lifted her chin. "Let's find Raj and Hiro first. Then we'll worry about directors and answers."
Guilt flickered across Ethan's face as he turned back to the road. Then his expression shifted to focused concentration. "A signature just lit up near the campus bridge. This energy signature." His eyes scanned the holographic display. "That'll be the Boots."
He hit the brakes hard enough to make Amara brace against the dashboard. Then he pulled off the main road without explaining where.
Five minutes later, Amara saw him. Hiro sitting on a concrete barrier near the collapsed walkway, staring at his legs like they'd personally betrayed him.
His clothes were torn, hands shaking, and he was muttering to himself.
"I ran," he was saying, the words tumbling over each other. "I ran so fast, I swear I could see individual raindrops hanging in the air. I could count them. I counted forty-seven raindrops by the way. Then I realized, that should not even be physically possible, you know, given the limitations of human perception and—"
"Hiro?" Amara called out carefully, keeping her voice gentle.
From behind Amara, Ethan said quietly, "The Boots."
Hiro turned so fast, and relief flooded his features. It was so intense it was almost painful to watch. "Amara! Oh thank God. Please tell me you're experiencing weird impossible supernatural shit too, because if this is just me having a psychotic break, or—"
"It's not just you." She stepped closer, offering her hand, and he took it way too fast. "We're all experiencing weird impossible shit tonight," she pulled him up. "Welcome to the club."
"There's a club?" His eyes went comically wide. "Is there a secret handshake? Please tell me there's a secret handshake. You know what? Forget the handshake, I'll settle for a theme song."
"Get in the car, Hiro," she said, fighting the smile that wanted to break through despite everything. Hiro had a way of lightening the mood, and she needed that.
He climbed in. "Okay. Okay. Getting in the van." He started rubbing his chin. "Well, we're either all awakening, or having a collective psychotic break together, which is actually kind of nice when you think about it."
Ethan pulled back onto the road, already checking the display. His expression shifted as a new dot appeared on the screen, this one pulsing erratically.
"Next signature," he said quietly. "Near the medical center outside campus."
Hiro lunged forward, grabbing the pad before Ethan could protest. "Wait wait wait." Hiro's finger jabbed at the pad. "You can track awakeners with this? How long have you had this? How long have you been—oh my God, you knew?!"
He started tapping on his lips quickly, then asked, "so when were you going to tell us you were an Awakener, huh!?"
Hiro leaned forward. "Thinking back to the period you started acting a whole lot more shady... probably awakened a few months ago. Not cool keeping secrets, man. We're going to have a long talk about trust and friendship and—"
"Hiro," Amara cut in gently after noticing Ethan's face harden. "Let's focus on the task at hand."
"Right. Focusing." He kept exploring the pad until they arrived at the medical center to find someone slumped against the clinic's wall.
Hiro leaned forward, his usual intense energy dimming to something softer. "That's Sophia Delgado."
"You know her?" Amara asked.
"Not really." He tapped his knees and spoke too quickly, that anxious tell she'd learned to recognize. "She's in my anatomy elective. Keeps to herself mostly. She also volunteers three nights a week here."
His voice dropped. "I tried inviting her to study group once. She shut me down so hard."
Amara gave him a look. "Not really, huh?"
"Shut up." He looked away. "We have bigger problems right now."
"Well," Ethan said grimly, pulling to a stop, "it's no study group, but she might not have a choice this time."
He typed rapidly, pulling up university records. "Sophia Delgado. Third-year med student. 3.9 GPA. No family in the area." His finger tapped a glowing point. "And according to Institute sensors, she's manifesting psychic-class abilities."
Ethan's voice went grim. "Telepathy, uncontrolled. Probably hearing every thought in a three-block radius with no filter."
"That doesn't sound pleasant," Amara said quietly.
"Yeah." Ethan opened his door. "Which is why we need to get her stabilized before her brain melts from overload."
Sophia looked up as they approached. She looked smalll, her blonde hair plastered to her face by rain.
Blood ran from her nose and the corners of her eyes, smearing mascara down her cheeks, while her trembling, hands pressed to her temples like she was trying to hold her skull together.
Amara knelt carefully in front of her. "Hey," she called out. "I'm Amara. This is Ethan and Hiro. We're like you, we just awakened t—"
"I don't care who you are," Sophia snapped. "Just make it stop. Please, God, make it fucking stop."
Amara softened her approach. "I know you don't know us. But I swear we're going to help you learn to control this."
'Control it?' Amara's internal voice scoffed. She was barely holding it together herself, awakened less than an hour ago, still processing the sword that had appeared in her hands. Who was she to promise control?
But Sophia needed someone to believe. So Amara would be that person, even if she had to fake it.
"Control it?" Sophia laughed, the sound edging toward hysteria. "I can't even tell which thoughts are mine anymore. There are thousands of voices, and they're all screaming, and I don't know where I end and they begin—"
Amara reached out slowly, and placed her hand over Sophia's trembling fingers. "Then stop trying to think. Just focus on my voice. Listen to what I'm telling you right now: You're not alone. You're not going insane. And you're going to survive this night."
Sophia's breathing slowed and her grip on reality steadied. Amara had no idea if she'd actually helped or simply given Sophia something to focus on. Either way, she'd take it.
"There are five of us," Amara continued, holding her gaze. "Five awakeners. And we're going to figure this out together."
Sophia's eyes cleared slightly, focusing on Amara's face like it was a lifeline. "Five?"
"Yeah." Ethan moved in to help her to her feet, supporting her weight. "And we've got one more to collect before this night gets uglier. Can you walk?"
"It's called Halohelm," Sophia whispered, touching her temple. "At least, that's what the voice said. The Helmet of Victory." She laughed bitterly. "Some victory."
Hiro raised his head up. "Uh... speaking of ugly... guys? We should really move. Like, yesterday!"
Amara turned to see shadows pouring from the ruptured sky, dozens of wraiths, their forms twisting as they moved.
Ethan and Hiro grabbed Sophia from both sides, half-carrying her toward the van. "Come on, come on, come on!" Hiro yelled.
They dove through the door just as the first wraith lunged. Amara threw herself into the passenger seat and Ethan gunned the engine.
The door slammed shut an instant before clawed shadows hammered against the metal with enough force to rock the entire vehicle onto two wheels.
"Hold on!" Ethan turned the steering wheel hard, and the car tilted at an impossible angle before crashing back down. More wraiths clung to the roof, their weight making the frame groan.
Hiro immediately pressed himself against the opposite door, as he tried not to look at her. Very deliberately trying not to look at her.
"Hey, Hiro," she said quietly.
"Hey," he said quietly. "You're, uh. You're bleeding. From your face." He gestured to her face. "Which is, you know. Not great."
She let out a soft laugh and asked, "how bad does it look?"
Hiro gave her a thumbs up. "Bad? No. You look amazing."
Meanwhile, in the front seat, Ethan swerved again, taking a right and Amara gripped the dashboard. Then she turned her attention to Sophia instead, who was curled in the back seat.
"Better?" Amara asked.
"It's... quieter in here." Sophia's voice was strained but steadier. "Still hear people, but it's muffled. Like they're behind a thick glass or something."
"The vehicle's shielded," Ethan explained, his voice impossibly calm even as he wrenched the wheel to avoid another wraith jumping from another direction. "Institute tech blocks most psychic interference. Won't solve your problem, but it should help until we can get you proper training."
More wraiths landed on the roof, their weight making the frame press inward as metal buckled under the pressure.
"They're going to tear through!" Hiro's voice pitched higher. "Metal doesn't stop them, I've seen what they do to—"
The blue van swerved and Hiro's face slammed into the back of the car seat while Amara's eyes tracked their route ahead.
There it was, the old maintenance bridge with its low concrete overhang that the university kept threatening to demolish.
"The bridge!" She pointed. "Get under it!"
Ethan's eyes moved to the rearview mirror, calculating angles and timing in a heartbeat. "You're crazy."
"You got a better idea?" Amara asked.
Ethan took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Hold on!"
He accelerated straight toward it, and Amara realized with sudden clarity that he was either going to time this perfectly or get them all killed.
She gripped the dashboard as the van shot under the overhang, and something sharp bit into her palm. But she didn't let go.
The concrete edge scraped across the roof with a sound like grinding metal, and the wraiths' screams cut off abruptly as they were torn away, dissolving into black steam.
Silence fell again, broken only by Hiro's panicked breathing and the steady drum of rain.
"Amara, your hand, when did you—" Hiro pointed at her hand.
She looked down. Her palm, shredded by glass from the coffee cup she'd forgotten, tore open again when she'd gripped the dashboard.
The delayed pain was like a dull throb. "Later," she said, wiping her hand on her jeans. "We don't have time. What about Raj?"
Ethan checked the display and a new signature appeared, a green dot. "The stadium." His eyes widened just a bit. "This has to be the Breastplate."
"Then we'd better hurry," Amara said quietly.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
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HIRO JOSUKE | The Boots
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Spirit Weapon: Acceleron (Boots of Freedom)
Rank: Dream Walker (Newly Awakened)
Ascendant Sigil: ▮ (1 Bar - Right Ankle)
Abilities Unlocked:
┣ Motion Energy Amplification
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
Status: Hyperactive, Using Humor to Cope
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SOPHIA DELGADO | The Helmet
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Spirit Weapon: Halohelm (Helmet of Victory)
Rank: Dream Walker (Newly Awakened)
Ascendant Sigil: ▮ (1 Bar - Left Temple)
Abilities Unlocked:
┣ Telepathy
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
┣ ??? [LOCKED]
Status: Psychic Overload, Stressed out