XTRAVAGANZA

Chapter 2: Anomilies

A young woman ran through a dimly lit hall. Screams and cries could be heard behind her, followed by loud bangs.

As she trekked further down the hall, it only seemed to get darker. The hall seemed infinite, never ending. The young woman turned around, wishing to head back the other way but all she was greeted with was a brick wall where there previously shouldn't have been one.

Turning around again, the infinite hall way that was once infront of her, is now nothing but a black void. As she looked around confused, she could see a faint silhouette in the darkness. "HELLO?!" She screamed out, slowly approaching whatever the hell was in front of her.

As she got closer, she could make out more details of the shape. It was a plastic and metal chair standing on a pile of...something.

As she continued walking towards it, she realized what the singular chair was stacked on top of, it was a pile of human bodies. Their skin was gray, holes of darkness replaced where their eyes should've been, and their faces had a constant look of fear and shock etched into them.

The woman began backing away in fear. As she did, she slowly raised her head to the top of the corpses where the chair was. Now, the chair was no longer empty. A man was seated on it. The man had a bluish-gray hoodie and pants. He dawned gloves and shoes of similar coloring. Bandage wrapping was around his neck. And on his face was a dark gray mask.

The woman began backing away faster, not knowing what the hell was going on. The man seated on the chair slowly began to rise up. A part of his mask began to glow a light blue color in the shape of an X. Slowly, the man pulled out a gun, pointing it towards the fleeing woman. He raised his finger up to the trigger, pressing down.

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X suddenly jolted awake, rolling off of his bed and falling face first down onto the floor. As he slowly rose up, he got a piercing headache. His vision began to morph and change, everything looked like it was glowing and splitting apart. Almost as if reality itself was ripping. Quickly, he slapped himself across the face and the headache, along with the hallucinations, stopped.

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. He slowly got up, grabbing some dirty pants and a shirt that was lying on his floor. As he opened the door, he realized it was the twins. "What do you both want at this time?" He asked, looking out one of his windows to see the sun hasn't even risen yet. "We need to tell you something..." the right twin exclaimed. X had figured out yesterday that both of the Twins names were Raelynn and Lila, beautiful names.

As he let them inside his apartment, he closed the door behind them. "So, what is it you wished to discuss?" He asked, gesturing them over to a crappy recliner his grandfather used to own, and to his blow up matress one of them could sit on. "You see, me and my sister aren't exactly...well to put it simply, normal" Raelynn said, her sister nodding in agreement. "What? you got some type of disease or something?" X said, jokingly with a hint of concern in his voice. "No, no. Nothing like that" Raelynn said, waving her hands in front of her. She looked down into the floor, sighing slightly before asking. "Do you know what anomalies are?" She asked, sheepishly. X had heard of that term before. Following world war 3, numerous accounts broke out of people having strange and unexplainable abilities. Those people later being dubbed anomalies. No one knows exactly what causes them or how they fully work, all they know is that they're dangerous and unknown.

As X exited his train of thought, he replied with a quiet "yes" Raelynn looked hesitant, but she continued to speak. "Me and my sister both have anomalous abilities. I can store energy in my legs to jump high and deliver powerful kicks, and my sist-" Lila had cut her off before she could finish. "And I have increased hearing and can map out a location in my head based on how the sound waves bounce around" Lila said, before going quiet once more. "So that's how you knocked out the thug in the alley so easily" X replied, putting the pieces together. "Well frankly, that just makes me realize even more that I made a good choice hiring you two" he said, looking at the twins two relieved faces. "Thank you for being so...understanding, I suppose" Raelynn said, standing up from the recliner. "I suppose me and my sister should leave now, you can go back to resting"

As the two twins began to saunter their way out of his apartment, X shouted "Hey!" The twins quickly turned around, looking at him. "We're business partners. And since this is a business, I have a job for you two." The twins stood in the doorway, glancing at each other before turning both of their attention to him. "A man named Siobhan is coming to Neo City today. He's a well known businessman from Russia. What most of the public doesn't know however, is that it's just a ploy. He actually is the leader of a crime organization over there. So, what I want you two to do is track him down and tell me his location, I have a proposition for him." The twins slightly nodded after X finished his little speech. "Of course, sir" Raelynn replied, before both of them closed the door, leaving his apartment.

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A jet black limbo pulled up to a fancy hotel, decorated in gold accents and lights that constantly lit it up, highlighting its beauty.

Out of the limbo stepped a man wearing leather shoes, long, black pants, a gray shirt with a black tuxedo vest with dark red accents. The man also sported a metallic mask that covered the lower parts of his face. His eyes shined a bright red and he had black hair with a singular gray streak in the middle of it.

Out of the car stepped two more individuals with the same mask as the first man, but with different outfits, that being tuxedos. "Come now, we have business to attend to" the first man said, in a slight Russian accent.