the crows

Chapter 1

One warm afternoon in October, Jason Dallon climbed into the back of a van that housed one of the most wanted criminals on the PPAC list. That is, Micah Fae.

"So, how's it going?"

It was only when he turned around that Micah noticed the lack of earplugs on the newcomer. Thinking it was quite the careless slip-up on the side of his kidnappers, he pressed play.

"Well, that was quick. I didn't even get to introduce myself."

Now that he knew something was off, Micah backed up to the wall of the armoured truck, repeatedly pressing play. His power had never malfunctioned before, and he hadn't thought it could.

"So, I'm Jason Dallon, you can call me Jace, nice to meet you, Micah," he held out a hand, smiling, "Don't worry, I'm just here to accompany you to your destination."

Scowling, he stayed pressed against the wall, reaching to his neck as if to touch something before stalling halfway. Jace watched him as he sat down on the bench, fiddling with his hands.

Micah felt uncomfortable, it was unusual for him to be devoid of his battered black headphones unless he was sleeping, but the reassuring weight had been torn away when he was ambushed.

It was supposed to be a nice day spent at home, he had just been going out for groceries, since Isa wanted to make quiche. But now look at what happened.

Jace continued watching Micah. He was wearing clothes that enveloped his smaller frame, a rather fashionable outfit, in Jace's opinion. He'd surprisingly been able to keep the black beanie on during the tussle, but his headphones had been taken.

Micah sat on the floor, bringing Jace's attention to his ebony brown boots. Now those looked nice. Not that the rest of him didn't look nice, no, he was rocking the black denim jacket and khaki jeans.

Micah seemed to notice Jace's appreciative gaze, hunching his back. When he shifted, he could see the light glint off of a small earring in his right ear.

For sure, he was a strange character, and it wasn't a surprise they had managed to capture him, what with the silver streaked teal hair. Even so, his power was quite strong, if they hadn't taken precautions against it, they would have died.

"What are you doing?"

Jace straightened up, eager to strike up a conversation since he had decided to finally open up. However, his enthusiasm was dampened, but not put out entirely, by Micah's untrusting glare.

"Hmm?" He cocked his head to one side, wondering what he was talking about, as he'd just been sitting on one of the benches.

"With my power. What are you doing?"

"Oh, that! Well, I can suppress other people's powers as along as they are within a range of 50 meters. Of course, I can only suppress a certain amount of powers." Jace continued smiling, but Micah just turned his back on him again.

Jace shifted, trying not to get his uniform wrinkled. It was stifling in the van, especially with the divider up. Straightening his collar, he felt sweat trickle down his back.

It'd been a while since his last mission, Lance had forgotten all about him once he had been promoted, and he'd gotten used to sweatpants and wife beaters instead of the stuffy uniform.

The van came to a halt, causing a slight shift of their positions. Jace perked up. A traffic light? Couldn't be, they'd cleared the route beforehand. The only other answer was that Micah's friends had come to pick him up.

Varony was an unusual organisation. A mercenary group in this world wasn't really uncommon, but Varony was a group that was unexpectedly powerful and tightly-knit, given the smaller than usual amount of members.