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Chapter 6: A Battle Over Nothing

I woke up in a bed, with what sounded like running water in the background. I thought I was in a hospital, but instead I saw someone was in what looked to be a boxing ring, using it as a bedroom, I guessed. As I got up, my shoulder shot with pain, and I fell back down, looking at the bandaged arm. "Watch yourself, kid." came the voice of a woman. "You were a pretty good shot with your scissors there, but when you lose your arm with 'em, you can be as powerful as your battery." she had walked over to me by that point, and was sitting down looking at my arm. I was still afraid, so I moved away. "Who are you? S-Stay back!" she was unimpressed with me, and as she got up, she grabbed my wallet. She flipped through the pages and began reading out loud. "Mason Perdell, born in 2002, must be a typo. Do you live here? Or are you just a wanderer?" I was still confused about her saying my birth was a typo, so I went with that. "What do you mean by typo?" "your birth. There's a typo in your birth on this id card. Did you not notice?" "what? I was born in 2002. I came here through a shift storm, or whatever.'' By that, she became very quiet, and stopped walking. She looked at me with daggers in her eyes, and started to move towards me. "You came from a shift storm?" "Yeah, why? I- Is that bad?" she grabbed my wallet again, and looked through it. She grabbed all the dollar bills, and stuffed them into her pockets. "H-Hey! What are you doing?" "This is useless to us. The only people who will take it are the Pastlings." I got a confused look on my face, and she spoke of them after seeing it. "They were founded by another person from the past, and have been trying to put everything back to how it was in their world. Though everyone else seems to not bother with it, I feel that every single one of them can leave this place, 'cause I'm perfectly fine being a Super." "A w-" "Don't start another question, or I'll give you a second rip in the shoulder." I shut my mouth, a bit afraid of her again. I looked around the place, and saw pictures, most of them drawn, looking like her and six others.I was going to ask who they were, but when a voice from the shadows went off, I jumped again. "You see us all in that picture, even Ducky." I was afraid of the man again, but found that he seemed to look similar to that of the man to the right of the lady. I would ask who he was, but he had already answered. "The name is Engraver. I work in the sixth branch. The lady who saved you is named Ghost, seventh. The little guy next to me is Ducky, he worked in the fifth branch." "What do you mean by that?" I asked. As he got up, he pulled back a curtain, showing a short man in a medical bed being fed I.V.s through his arms. I looked in horror. He was alive, but he looked as though something terrible happened to him. I looked back to the picture and saw a big, bulked man in the back, wearing bear and tiger skin around him. Engraver must've seen me looking at him, and started talking about the others. "I see you found our oldest member, He's Rumbler, he works in the-" "First branch?" I interrupted. "Yeah, how'd you know?" I was dumbstruck, and as I almost dropped the picture, I sat down, "You alright, kid?" said Ghost, "I ain't pickin' you up again." "I need to get down to the first branch." They looked at me as though I was crazy, but went with it. Ghost patrolled behind us as Engraver got in his hot rod. It wasn't as big as Grrga's but was much faster. It seemed that the vehicle was built for more of a racer, driving down streets faster than any others, and with more sound. Many passerbyers had their hats blown off, and those that had been lucky enough to be far away showed gratitude at seeing the car. The gates weren't as bad, but were still a bit slower than I expected. When we finally got to the first branch, I told him to stop, and ran out to Grrga's house. As the door opened, he saw the car behind me, and got a tad bit of a sour face on him. I walked in, and started asking him why he hadn't told me about them. "I mean seriously, I almost died if it weren't for them. Why not tell me?" he sat down, and watched as the others came in. "I didn't think I'd have to, though I see now I was wrong." "Well why not tell me that you are one of them?" "Because I'm not." that caught me off my guard, and it felt like something got stuck in my throat.