Memento Mori

13

To say he was angry was putting it lightly. All Erik had done was save a life. A life which in turn seemed to wish to stab him in the back. His aid ended in Liesel going missing. It was roughly at this point in time that Erik managed to piece things together. If he was one of them, what would he do? He would do the same. Any chance of backup, he would remove that from the playing field. To be honest, it was a rather simple tactic, simple and effective. Not that Liesel ever needed to truly fight his battles, or even aid, but this was something which the people here didn't understand. All they understood was that he was not who he appeared to be, and that through lying he actually ended up being someone much worse than they could imagine.

Of course they were going to separate the two of them. Erik was uncertain whether they'd figured out if Liesel was a mutant too, they probably had. But that therein lied the mistake, they took Liesel. Regardless of everything else that had happened, they had taken her and he didn't know where she was. It was different in the past when they were apart, he knew where she vaguely was. She was never truly far away. But this...this was different. They had taken her, to some unknown location, in hopes of using her as some sort of bait or incentive.

Naturally, he was going to go get her back. That wasn't even in question. He just needed to first find her. And for that he would need to find the people who took her in the first place, wherever they may be. They wouldn't be far. Even he knew that. He just wasn't expecting them to be literally in the back garden, well, a little ways further on but more or less in the garden. Tilting his head slowly, Erik looked over the group who were present. Well, Liesel wasn't present which cemented the fact that she was well and truly elsewhere and completely ignorant to what was happening here.

She was clever enough to know that something had happened. She wasn't so stupid enough to presume she got whisked away for no apparent reason. Erik frowned, he was going to be in for one hell of an interrogation when they met up again, there was no escaping that. Nor was there any escaping the obvious: these people had to go, and that they would both never likely live here again. He shook his head, that was saddening really. He for one had become steadily used to the mundane life here. It was so simple. Nothing ever truly troubling appeared. He got it, after all these years, he got why Liesel wanted to settle somewhere. This was it. The simplicity of living without having to be too on guard, not having to worry about any attacks; both to them and to other people, not sneaking about under the radar of snooping government officials.

But it was much more than that, there was a reason which was so much simpler than all of the little things which came from being here: happiness. For the first time in a long time, Erik could admit to feeling something akin to happiness, he was happy to be here, with her, without any troubles. He got it even more then, in those little moments of spending with Liesel, why she wanted to get away and live somewhere. Every day things seemed so far removed now that he stared down the policemen who were shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, looking at him with apprehensive looks. Erik was under no illusion, they evidently knew who he was now.

"We just wanted to have a word." The policeman at the forefront said while looking at Erik sternly. He seemed to be one of the few who weren't standing holding a bow with an arrow notched. His tone wasn't welcoming, it wasn't like he wanted to talk to Erik at all. Not that he was surprised.

"You're not wearing your badges." Erik stated obviously, he couldn't see their police badges. All the policemen present wore the same uniform, just minus their badges on the front.

"No metal." The same man from earlier spoke. Badges or not, Erik could still faintly feel the metallic pull of buttons, belts. They clearly misjudged how much metal he needed to do damage. "Some guys at the factory said they saw something, something that didn't add up."