Illusionary: UnOrdinary Fanfic

Meddling Macrea

The problem arises when we try to counter this insecurity by cultivating this illusion of control, and we start taking ourselves and everything we know too seriously.

-Sushant Singh Rajput

For once, Malachi wasn't under Sandra's protection.

She was going to find out what happened at the turf war at some point, and when she did, she wasted no time trying to find everyone who was involved to find out who hurt Malachi. Of course, he had attempted to tell her nothing really happened to him, but Seraphina had to call out his odd behavior, which left Sandra unconvinced. She'd probably go over to Agwin if she had to, but if things went Malachi's way, he'd never have to see Agwin again.

Especially not Rein.

The plan was to go find Seraphina and John to make sure nothing happened to them. Despite the lack of stalking after that incident, and even Sandra's reassurance, Malachi still felt they could be found somehow.

Right as he started heading to the roof, however, the sound of a locker slamming rang out. He stopped to turn the corner. Sure enough, someone was being bullied again. The culprit was Brea, a mid tier with orange twintails, who had a few encounters with John before. The victim was someone Malachi hadn't seen before. A girl with pink pigtails was crouched on the ground as Brea hovered over her. Since she was just taking the insults, Malachi figured she had to be a low tier. John was the only cripple, after all, and Malachi knew of all of the mid tiers.

No one else was around to notice, unless the others who were around before were low tiers who were afraid of getting hurt, or high tiers that just didn't care. Even Malachi himself had pressing issue to address, and Sandra wouldn't take it well if he got beat up while she was gone.

Of course, he knew that wasn't enough to convince him to ignore her. He started to formulate a plan as he walked up to him. Grabbing the girl and running would be hard, as Brea's ability was ranged. Which means he'd have to get the girl to leave first.

As Malachi approached, Brea was about to slap her victim right across the face. He grabbed her arm right before contact.

"Hey, Arcane Wizard."

Brea and the girl were shocked by the interruption, though Brea's recognition of the nickname was immediately followed by her trying to slap Malachi with her other hand. Malachi narrowly dodged.

"Stay out of this, cripple!" Usually, she'd try to hide what she was doing so Sandra wouldn't know what she was doing. Which means Brea already knew she left.

"Straight to the point this time?" Malachi tilted his head. "What'd she do, breathe in your direction?"

Brea threw her arm out of Malachi's grip. "Don't act tough with me! I know Sandra isn't here for you to hide behind, so you'd better not piss me off even more!"

Malachi glanced at the girl, who was just watching the interaction in slight fear. Why wasn't she running? He was giving her the perfect opportunity. Telling her was gonna attract Brea's attention back to her, though. He was gonna need to stall until she figured it out.

He smiled a bit. "Oh... but aren't you the one hiding right now?"

Brea made an incredulous expression, but said nothing.

Malachi took that as an opportunity to continue. "You have all this power, and yet you can't find a good use for it. To hide the fact that you feel useless inside, you beat up people who are weaker than you to feel a false sense of security. Now, all power to you for finding a coping mechanism, but me personally.. "

He throws his hands up in a dramatic shrug.

"Sounds like a meaningless existence."

Brea's face contorted into a sneer. "I'll show you meaningless!" She started to charge up a beam.