*HIATUS*Relapse

Lead

The air was still. The evening rested in silence, only entertained by the pitter-patter of the rain. Abruptly, its peace was disturbed by swirls of energy surrounding the shadowy figure that rose and plummeted in the sky. It flew over the high-rise buildings effortlessly, pausing for minutes before being able to ascend once again. The other shadow used its hand to propel itself upward and forward, not as fast and as high as the other, but fast enough to keep up with the first shadow as it leaped over the buildings. After a while, the running shadow clung onto the flying one, holding onto its back as it abruptly, unable to decelerate properly, came tumbling from the sky.

Malik crashed to the ground. Xander was thrown off of him, rolling to a stop. Both grabbed their sides that ached in embarrassment, and they began to stand up.

"It's been nearly two months since you got this ability," Xander grunted, "haven't you learned to control it properly by now? And why on earth do you keep jumping and landing? Can't you do one large leap?" Xander asked in annoyance.

Malik gave him a dirty side-eye. "It's incredibly hard to control. Not to mention incredibly draining. You made me jump so high on our way there that I had little energy to jump back. I also can't steer myself mid-air. I have to land before I can decide my direction. I'm still trying to figure out how to decelerate safely."

He looked away. "And what about you, Mr.Fancy? What was with that ma'am? The way you tried to sound heroic made me sick. Give me a break."

Xander let out a little chuckle. It had been two months since his mother was shot. Two months since Malik's parents killed themselves right before his eyes. Two months since Xander acquired this tacky telekinetic power and Malik gained this flawed super jump ability. And two months since they decided to become masked vigilantes, with the mission to kill off the restorationists and bring back the relapse. Or something along the lines of that.

So far, they had somewhat been on the right track. Restorationists made the Relapse disappear. Malik deduced that if they killed enough of them, the man orchestrating the massacre would notice, and they could find a way to get some sort of information out of them.

Xander just wanted to kill restorationists.

Either way, they had the same resolve, which proved to be much easier with their abilities. Everyone in Mayurr had become a fugitive. Anyone caught in the streets would be 'judged' by the soldiers' gloves. The soldiers were always in the streets, so finding them wasn't difficult. But that was about it. They knew all too well that they couldn't keep killing them forever. Killing the restorationists wouldn't bring the Relapse back. Everyone just knew of the relapse as an unknown regeneration ability. The most Xander knew about the Relapse was from school, and even those classes said nothing about its origin or what exactly makes it possible. In short, there was no useful information to work with.

Xander had checked a few hospitals to see if there were any medical professionals he could tie down and interrogate, since some knowledge about the relapse would be possible for relapse therapy to exists, but of course, they were empty. He wondered if his doctor had survived the ordeal, for more reasons than basic sympathy.

For the past few weeks, his thoughts were a stampede in his troubled mind. What was the Relapse and how did it work? What did it mean to die and to live? Why exactly were those damned restorationists going about killing everyone? It had only been about removing the Relapse, right? It should've ended there, but because of them, his and Malik's parents were dead and the world had fallen into chaos. Stores looted, homes compromised, and people dead. Too many questions.

And not enough answers.

"Let's move quickly before anyone sees us."

They were at the entrance of the railine that appeared to have collapsed in on itself. The hologram display was very realistic, after all, Xander had stolen the device. The boys moved in, phasing through what seemed to be a pile of rubbel. It was dark. Most of the railway cars had been seperated from each other. Even if someone tried to look for them down there they wouldn't know where to start. They walked towards the cabin furthest from the entrance.