Sandstorm {Discontinued}{Rewritten}

6. To Be or Not to Be Take Two

Deserey sat in the cargo bay, watching Ray fiddle with the Atom suit and the criminals play with their weapons. Sara stood in the back corner, sharpening her knives.

No one said anything; the room was filled with border line awkward silence as everyone just continued mindlessly staring at the four walls. 

The five only started to speak, when a blue beam shot from the arm of Ray's suit. The beam hit the wall, narrowly missing Mick, who was sitting on one of the random crates. 

"Watch it!" the arsonist growled. 

"Sorry!" Ray sighed. "Sorry..." He looked around, meeting everyone's eyes.

After a moment, he said, "What's the point in us even giving it a second thought? Rip has already seen the future."

Deserey looked up from where she was sitting, glancing at the scientist, disinterested. She got the feeling this would be the first (and probably last) time she'd ever hear him say anything negative.

"He knows exactly what's in store for each of us," Ray muttered. "Might as well have stayed dead."

Deserey guessed she wasn't supposed to hear that last part. She had no idea what he meant by that.

"Cause the world doesn't need any of us," Ray went on. He glanced at Sara for a moment. "You're just a lost assassin." He nodded at Heat Wave and Captain Cold. "You're just a pair of good for nothing criminals."

"I can live with that," Mick grunted.

"Well I can't," Ray said sadly. "I can't live with someone putting a cap on my destiny. I spent my whole life working to be something greater by becoming something smaller...Then, some guy comes along and tells me that being the Atom is as insignificant as an actual atom."

Deserey snorted, and all the attention fell on her. "At least you've actually done something with your life," she muttered bitterly. "Me? I haven't bothered to do anything. I can't do anything. I always screw it up somehow. I can't get my friends to stick around. My husband left me, because I can't even make myself feel happy around my family.

"I dropped out of college. I can't keep a job. Then, two years ago this...machine blows up and I get these powers, and I don't even know how to use them, because I haven't bothered to learn how."

She gestured around the room. "At least you all have the super hero thing...or -" she glanced at the crooks, "- villain in your case."

Deserey shrugged hopelessly. "My ex husband told me to come here to fix my issues...I should have known it wouldn't work. I'm useless now. I'm useless in the future...We're all just a bunch of useless nobodies."

Sara shook her head. She stood up, looking back and forth between Deserey and Ray. "That's not what he said," she said, referring to Rip. "He said in his future we're nobodies...but this mission is about changing the future."

She shrugged. "I mean, we have the power to change the world, don't you think we have the power to change our own fate?"

"For better or for worse," Leonard added. Deserey still wasn't sure why either of the crooks cared, but they seemed to be listening to the assassin's speech too.

"That's a very good point," Ray nodded. He seemed to be feeling a lot better about things now, but Deserey wasn't convinced yet.

"That speech is very uplifting and all," she said, "but how are a bunch of nobodies suppose to save the world? How are we going to change the future when we obviously don't matter very much?"

Sara hesitated, unsure of how to answer her pessimistic ramblings. "We'll figure it out," she said after a moment. "Eventually. But we're not going to change anything by just sitting around in the cargo bay whining to each other. If anything's going to happen, we're going to have to make it happen ourselves. This isn't some fairy tale land.