Legends [Book Two]

8

The group of mutants gathered around a pile of dirt that Warlock and Shadow had just finished putting over Split. After a short argument between Polaris and Junhee, it was decided that Junhee would take Blizzard back to the warehouse where they would collect Split's body to give him a proper burial.

Ash and Ghost were clinging onto Stone who was trying his hardest to stay calm for them. In the past twenty-four hours he had become their shoulders to cry on. It felt like a lot to put on his shoulders, but he knew someone had to do it. Next to the three of them was Death, his arms wrapped around Joy who was silently crying as she held onto his hands. He squeezed her hands lightly to reassure her, but it didn't matter. She may have not known these mutants for long, but she had grown to care about them, regardless if she was a human.

"Split was a pain in the ass, but I had spent most of my life around him," Rogue exclaimed as he wiped his eyes.

Fortis silently pulled Rogue into his arms, crying into his shoulder as he thought about all the memories he had with Split. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't form the words without wanting to cry. They all tried so hard to keep their emotions in line after Rain died, staying cold at her burial, and ignoring how they were all feeling. However, this time, it was too much for them. They lost so much at once and they couldn't hold it back any longer.

Wiping his tears away, Ira cleared his throat and looked around at the other mutants. "We should start making a plan before we run out of time. We're safe now but that doesn't mean we're going to be for long."

Instead of responding to what he said, the mutants nodded and went back into the house where they gathered in the living room for their discussion. For a few minutes no one said anything. It wasn't until Morph cleared his throat that Polaris decided it was time to speak up.

"I think we need to go to one of their bases and destroy it," he exclaimed as he stared at the floor, his eyes following the cracks in the wood as if they'd lead somewhere.

"I know the perfect place," Joy said, forgetting that she was one of the humans they were supposed to be at war with.

Death tightened his grip on the hand he was still holding, gaining her attention. He then pinched his eyebrows together and said, "I don't want you involved in this."

"She's involved, whether you like it or not," Pitch said as he plopped down on the couch. A cloud of dust flew up from the couch and a few mutants held back laughter as Pitch tried to swat the small particles away with his large hands.

"He's right," Joy said, giving a nervous smile to Death who didn't look happy. "There's a base in California that has around two hundred humans. It's one of their main bases and if we start there, we might have a chance of survival."

"I hate to be the one to pull this card, but why are you helping us? You're human," Inferno quickly shot out with a cocked eyebrow.

Joy took a deep breath in and looked around at the mutants that she had started to grow close to. "Because you want to eradicate the humans and I believe that most of them need to die. This war has gone on for far too long and I think it's time that someone else takes control of this Earth. Someone who isn't human."

The mutants nodded in agreeance, some of them surprised that a human was agreeing with them. However, the one who was the least surprised was Polaris. He knew there were humans who thought like him, it was just a matter of finding out who they were. Of course, there was no way to find that information out until it was almost too late.

"I have an idea," Byeongkwan said, gaining everyone's attention. Byeongkwan had proven that he was more than just shy. Since him and the other four had arrived, barely anyone had heard him talk since he arrived, and when he did talk, he had everyone's attention.

"What is it?" Polaris asked.

Byeongkwan moved a pebble around on the wood floor with the toe of his shoe as he tried to ignore everyone's eyes. For a moment he wondered if it was too late to back out of saying what he was thinking. When he realized that he needed to just get it done and over with he closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and said, "I think we should split into two groups. If we attack two bases at once, they won't know what to do. If we do it successfully, they will start to scatter, trying to find a way to win against us. They will think that we have enough mutants to overpower them all at once." He spoke quickly and ended his statement fast.

Polaris nodded as he thought about the idea Byeongkwan had just explained. It was the perfect plan and it would give the allusion that they had more mutants than they did. "Yoochun is right, it's the best plan we could possibly come up with. I think we should do it."

"But how do we split up?" Vortex asked.

Before Polaris could go into an explanation, Doc ran into the room. Sweat was running down his face as he looked for Ira, panic in his eyes. "Ira!" he yelled as he finally found him. "Hurry!"

"What's going on?" He asked as he pulled away from Warlock.

"It's Bunny, something's wrong."

Ira quickly followed Doc out of the living room and into the dining room where he saw Bunny lying on the table, her eyes wide open as she stared at the ceiling. For a moment he thought she was trying to figure out where she was, maybe she was confused. But when he saw that her mouth was quiver and her body was starting to convulse, he realized that she couldn't breathe.

"What happened?" Ira demanded to know the answer as he rushed over to Bunny and thought of what he could do to save her.

"I don't know," Doc said as he shook his head. "She started gasping for air but when I tried to help her, her eyes shot open and she started hitting me away."

As Ira worked hard to try and give her a chance to breath by cutting a hole in her throat, Vortex ran into the room. Before he could take one step towards her to urge her to fight to survive, she stopped struggling. Her eyes slightly closed and her back slapped against the wood table. Vortex took a step towards her and started to panic.

"No," he repeated over and over.

Ira looked over at Doc with a look of distress. Doc looked down at his hands that were holding tightly onto the table. The rest of the mutants quickly came to the dining room when the sound of Vortex screaming, "No," filled the farmhouse. It was then that they all came to the realization that Bunny was gone.

Bunny was dead.