Maximoff Anomalies

Kamala I

Kamala should've turned around earlier. She didn't hear the gunshots. She didn't understand what had happened until she heard the scream. 

Nakia was running from the van, over to where a boy lay collapsed on the ground, blood pouring from his head.

"Bruno!" Kamala ran to her best friend, clutching his head and trying to hold back sobs. She tore her eyes away, looking up to where the Damage Control lady was frozen, her hand holding the pistol still aimed where Kamala had been standing.

"Please, Bruno. Don't do this to me, please Bruno!" Kamala slapped his face lightly, trying to wake her best friend up. He can't do this. He can't leave. Not like this. Bruno was her other half. He had always been there, and Kamala had not imagined a time when he wouldn't be at her side, even if they were on opposite sides of the country.

"Oh my god," Zoe pressed her hand against Bruno's gunshot wound. "Oh my god. Somebody call an ambulance!" she turned to scream at the audience watching, before turning to whisper to Nakia, who shook her head immediately.

"I can't. Bruno-"

"Nakia, we both know he's-" Zoe paused, closing her eyes as a tear ran down her cheek. "Kamala needs you. She won't leave him alone. I'll go with him, you take her home."

No. Kamala wouldn't leave. Bruno was her best friend and had been for as long as she could remember. It was Kamala, Bruno, and Nakia against the world. Kamala couldn't keep going without them. Everything she ever thought she knew had already tumbled to pieces, she couldn't lose Bruno too.

"Come on, we have to go," Nakia tried to pull Kamala off, although her heart clearly wasn't in it.

"No. Naks, I can't. I won't leave him alone," Kamala's hands shook as she tried to hold onto him.

"He's not alone. He has Zoe. Your family is here. But we need to go. You can't be here, okay," Nakia's voice shook, and she pried Kamala's hands off gently. "We need to go."

"I'll take care of him, okay? I promise," Zoe said quickly. Why would she promise anything? She couldn't do anything for him.

Kamala turned to lock eyes with the lady from Damage Control, who was being yelled at by the crowd of spectators. The disgusting excuse for a human being who did this. Who kill- who hurt Bruno.

"How could you!?" Kamala shouted, her voice quieter than anyone else's, yet the crowd turned to look at her immediately. The so-called 'hero' getting to her feet and glaring at them with blood on her hands and tears running down her cheeks. "He's a kid! He was just a kid! He just wanted to fight for something he believed in, life his life and now he can't. Do you even care? Because of you, he can't go off to Caltech, or grow old, or do anything kids do. You've taken his entire life from him because he believes you shouldn't shoot another kid. And you shot him for that!"

"Kamala," Nakia put a hand on her shoulder, and Kamala turned to look as her friend wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Both girls collapsed into the embrace, crying and sobbing for the lost third of their souls.

Nakia took Kamala home. They didn't talk the whole way. Kamala felt numb. Like she'd cried everything she could, and was just left as an empty shell.

The moment Zoe texted, Kamala and Nakia froze. This was it. The confirmation they were waiting for. Bruno was gone. She knew he was gone. He couldn't be gone.

Gone.

Dead.

Instead, Nakia looked at her phone and immediately fell back against the wall, tears forming in her eyes. Kamala hadn't thought she had anything left to cry.

"So he's gone," Kamala whispered.

"No," Nakia shook her head, pursing her lips. "He was, but now... it's a medical miracle. He came back."

"Is this a joke? Because it is not funny, Naks," Kamala snatched the phone, staring into a photo Zoe had sent. 

Bruno was alive. Bleeding and bruised, but alive. He was looking at one of the doctors, and a dent in the side of his bleeding head from the bullet. Nakia had phrased it perfectly. Medical miracle.

"We have to go to the hospital, come on!" Kamala raced to the door, but Nakia stopped her.

"We can't drive. No license, and no car. Let's just wait for your parents," Nakia reminded her.

"I can-"

"No, you can't." Nakia turned back to her phone. She began texting frantically, and Kamala sat on her bed, going numb again. Leave it to Bruno to exceed expectations. Kamala snorted and Nakia frowned. "What?"

"Just thinking," Kamala sat up. 

"About?"

"If anyone was going to be a medical miracle, it would be Bruno," Kamala mused, and Nakia snorted. "I mean - he's Bruno!"

"It's Bruno, we shouldn't be shocked," Nakia chuckled softly.

Kamala had always found it unrealistic when people laughed through the pain in stories, but she understood now, as she was rolling on the bed laughing with the other girl. They were still laughing when Nakia's phone dinged, and Kamala rolled around to look at the message, her smile fading.

the girl who thinks she's an influencer
He doesn't remember

"What did she say?" Nakia asked.

Kamala lowered her eyes. "He doesn't remember. Zoe called him 'Bruno' and he thought she was talking to the doctor," she read off the screen. "But that's okay, right? Statistically, most amnesia patients recover their memories, right? He'll be okay, right?"

Kamala desperately needed Nakia to confirm. To say it'll all be okay. That's all she needed to say.

Instead, Nakia bit her lip. "I don't know. I mean, yeah, but he died. He didn't hit his head, he died. It's such a rare thing to happen - naturally, I'm not counting whatever is going on with the Avengers - so I can't say."

Kamala grabbed her pillow and screamed into it. "That's healthy," Nakia muttered, before copying her actions.

"Interesting name you have set there," Kamala gestured to Nakia's phone, because apparently joking around instead of thinking about your currently screwed up life is healthy.

"Well, don't we hate her? Or used to? I have no clue." Nakia grabbed her phone and typed before holding the screen up.

the girl who thinks she's an influencer --> tolerable influencer

Kamala rolled her eyes, and Nakia began to laugh before freezing. "What?" Kamala's eyes widened when she realized what Nakia heard. 

Car.

Kamala grabbed her phone and ran downstairs just as Ammi, Abbu, and Aamir came inside. "Oh, beta, I'm so sorry," Abbu reached for her, but Kamala shook her head, pushing past him. "He's alive. Come on!" 

"Wait, what?" Aamir turned, but Nakia was already dragging him out the door and over to the car. 

"Come on, we have to go to the hospital!" Kamala shouted back as she climbed in.

Kamala had never seen Bruno like this. He didn't even seem like the same person. He seemed nonchalant and not even caring about what was going on. Bruno didn't even care that she was a superhero (which he'd figured out the second she ran into the room), more interested in her powers. He was sassy and... it was strange. Weird.

And then there was the fact that he didn't know anything about most of the Avengers, only recognizing two names out of everyone. His semantic memory was all screwed up, but he seemed to be at least interested in learning.

"It's like he's not even Bruno," Kamala shook her head when she'd left the room.

"Well, his semantic memory is all screwed up, and his episodic memory is gone. Everything that makes Bruno, Bruno, has been forgotten," Nakia sighed.

"What do we do?" Zoe asked.

"Educate him, tell him about his life," Kamala turned to look back in the room. Bruno had a large smirk on his face like there was something he knew that they didn't. "Help him. That's all we can do, really."