Part Two: The Twins

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*2 months later* I'm in the lab sitting back in my chair watching youtube videos until Reed storms out of the elevator asking, "Nate, did you know about this new government group?" I respond with, "No, who are they?" He shows me a news report on his phone about this new found government group named "SPI" standing for "Super Powered Individuals." I guess we weren't the only ones to come up with a way to have powers. "The SPI said that they plan to take charge and to protect the people, but I'll tell you what, I feel like that protect stuff is crap." He says, I nod agreeing with him and looking up more about this SPI on my computer. "It says here that they came up with a way to make these suits superpowered with some sort of way to implement the power directly into the suit so in theory it's not the same as the AD" I tell him, while we were discussing the topic an alert of a crime was broadcasted on our monitors. We were able to patch into the police radio comms to have direct access to any crimes, we are allowed to do this with special permission from the chief of police. Although, if I make any big incidents such as someone being killed because of one of my actions than I will not be allowed to do anything. I took a gamble and I accepted it knowing the consequences, but ever since Jacob left i've been training non-stop, getting used to being in my lightning form. "All right i'm going to head out." I say, "while your out could you pick something up to eat i'm starving" Reed asks. "You know what, I'll stop by a pizza place. But for now I have to worry about getting those guys who are robbing a bank, well how cliche could that be?" I attach the AD and it quickly activates as I enter the elevator. As the elevator doors close Reed shouts, "Oh and get garlic knots with marinara sauce please." I give him a thumbs up, the elevator doors close and I start to head towards the roof. Once I got there I activate my lightning form; my new and improved form stays bright yellow and last for at least thirty minutes at a time until I get worn out. I learned how to control the power of my speed and how to use it properly, it was easy after the hundredth time of failing. I use the roofs of the buildings as practice and to make it faster to get to my destination, as I get to the roof I zoom out and jump to the nearest building and start running to where the bank is. "I wonder what the deal is with the SPI" I think to myself, we made our suits to help people and they say they did too but I can't really trust that just yet until I see it myself. When I arrive at the bank I see cop cars stationed in front of it, it seems as they just found out there are hostages; that was to be expected. I jump down to where the cops are and I see the chief there talking to other cops, I go to him to say, "Hey chief, if there are hostages in there I'll just run inside and stop all of them at once." He stops talking to them and turns to me and replies, "I bet you could with that speed of yours but the SPI are already taking care of it as we speak." I'm glad and disappointed when I see a man with a suit similar looking to mine but with a bright blue light emitting from it instead. He walks out with the robbers in iced handcuffs, he hands them over to the police and does a wave to the crowd that's cheering him on. He looks around and spots me, he walks over to me looking at me up and down and I can already tell what his facial expression is without even having to see his face. "Hi, are you the one the one our boss talked about? The guy with a suit like ours?" He asks, I immediately start wondering who this guy's boss was and if he wanted something to do with me. "I suppose so, you are apart of the new SPI group then?" I ask in response, he seemed to be tense for some reason. "We aren't new, we were a group way before you made that suit of yours, so don't think we got this from you." He replies with a rude tone. These guys are heroes proven by the fact that he did take out those robbers with his ice powers, but I don't think their friendly with them. "I never said that I thought you got it fro-" I'm about to say until reporters come rushing towards us trying to get an interview with him and I, two superhero's talking to each other is a big thing to them. I don't think it's a great idea to be shown on the news too much this early into this superhero thing so I zoom off towards the top of a building. They all swarm him instead, but he's not looking at them but instead he's staring at me. When I saw this I realized that when I ran he was locked on to me as I was running, which I thought was strange. I went back to our building thinking about what he said to me, about how his group isn't new but was made before I made my suit. And I wondered who their boss was and if he was the mastermind behind their suits. I was already at the building before I knew it and I ran to the parking garage towards the elevator. I headed to the lab floor and Reed was there to greet me, as soon as I saw his frustrated face and heard the sound of his stomach growl, I knew that I forgot the other thing I had to do. I went back into the elevator and hit the roof button and went to go get pizza. Thirty minutes later Reed and I are eating pizza with garlic knots researching more about the SPI and how they were created. It said that the company that created SPI was called Frontlines, they intended it to be a military group but they needed to do a lot of law incorporated things to make that happen. So for now they are doing good deeds around the city to boost their approval rating but that's just what I say about it. "That guy you met at the bank is one of the top rated on their list. It also says that he has a counterpart, his brother, who is also top rated on their list." Reed says, that guy who had the powers to make ice, cryokinesis, and to control it, went by the name of Permafrost. For him to be a top rated member of the SPI must mean that he's really good at doing what he does. "So this guy with ice powers has a brother? It'd be funny if he had fire powers," I say. Reed looks at me laughing as he shows me that the brother does indeed have fire powers. I looked up the brother on my computer to find that his name is Jack Paris, he went by the name of inferno, he was apart of the military until he got accepted into the SPI. The guy I met earlier is Micheal Paris, he was also in the military until he was accepted with his brother into the SPI. They are twins and were both born in 1975, and when they got of age they joined the military. There's not that much other information about them on here because the rest is classified. The fact that they finally showed their faces after we made the AD makes me kind of nervous, but for now I won't think too much of it until they do something. I get up and get one last slice of pizza to take with me, I tell reed that I'm going to head upstairs to go relax for a bit, I go to the elevator and head upstairs to my place. I walk inside and start walking to the couch, as I take a bite of pizza I hear an explosion off in the distance, I go to my living room window to see smoke coming from the ground and another explosion and the screaming from people near the smoke. I run back to the elevator dropping my pizza in the process to head back down to the lab to grab my AD. As I got there, Reed asks what's going on and I shout, " I don't know I heard an explosion and saw smoke through my window." I grab the AD and immediately turn it on when I attached it to my chest. I quickly speed off to the emergency stairs that head out to the parking garage and run outside. I see a van being chased by police cars, the van has men with rocket launchers trying to get rid of the cops chasing them. I run to the van to prevent any other deaths but I'm stopped by a projectile made out of ice. It's an icicle and the only thing that could have shot that was him, and I was right. He jumps off a nearby building onto the driving van and blasts ice out of his hands towards the tires, making it stop and flip over with the guys in the back flying out. He jumps off in time to make sure he doesn't get hurt by it, the van rolls over a couple times before coming to a complete stop. He walks toward the police officers walking towards him until an injured man from the van still has a rocket launcher and begins to aim towards him. I see this and try to stop the rocket from hitting him and the police officers, until he turns around and quickly shoots a huge looking icicle towards the guy, impaling him with it. I'm stunned to see how fast he had killed him and also stunned by the fact that he did kill him. I'm shaking with disbelief of how easy that was for him to do, I shake my head and start to head towards him until I realize too late that it's a bad idea. I took one more step closer and he turns around thinking I'm one of the guys from the van and he shoots an icicle towards me, I lost control of my speed due to being nervous when I saw he killed that guy and I dodge just in time, if I hadn't felt shaken up then I would be dead right now. Once I moved out of the way I look around to see his reaction and it's nothing but a hard, cold stare. "He doesn't seem like he did it by accident, but everyone seems to believe that," I thought to myself. Everyone came towards him surrounding with cheers and applause until he shouts to me, "sorry about that." I was frustrated, and felt humiliated that I couldn't do anything to save them from death; no one deserves to die but only to be punished for the crimes in the correct way. I ran back into the building while the crowd was still distracted and headed back to the lab. Once I was back in Reed was at his desk still doing so research about the SPI until he noticed me and ask what happened out there. I told him everything, and that we needed some sort of way to put an end to the SPI. He quickly begins to tell me his theory about how they quickly get to the crime scenes so fast. "Look, the van was right in front of our building, so you should have had the advantage of being their first even without your speed. But the thing is, wasn't he all the way at the bank? And then he so casually was on top of the roof where the van was heading towards." I see what he's saying but it's too hard to believe, but it makes sense. The SPI are making fake robberies and using that to make them look like the hero's who saved the day so that their approval rating could go up. "It does make sense, but that's too big of an assumption to throw out there right now. And even if we were right we coul..." I'm about to say until I remembered a key detail. He killed that guy with an icicle, there's no way that they would kill their own just like that. I started to think deeper into this and thought maybe he would have killed him, thinking that maybe they would do whatever it takes to be a military program and to take over our world. I told Reed what I thought and he that it could be true as well but the taking over the world part is "down right too much" he says. After a couple of minutes we both knew that we were going to go paranoid if we thought about it too much so we agreed to take a minute from it and rest. As we were resting, Matt came out of the elevator with a lot of boxes, we both looked at him struggle as he carried them to his desk. "I don't think he notices us" I whisper to Reed as we both get the idea to mess with him. We both yell his name at the same time and he jumped up so high and dropped all the boxes on the floor spilling tons of blueprints of a project. "You know, It would be nice to not die of a heart attack," he said angrily. We both apologize and ask him what those blueprints are for. He explains that they are for an upgrade he's been working on ever since we started building our suits; they were for the problem of absorption capacity. Me and Jacobs suits both could absorb one thing per AD, we couldn't just absorb anything we wanted or the AD would be overwhelmed and blow up to put in simpler terms. "I've been working on a way for you guys to absorb multiple elements other than just one, I thought it would be useful but I'm not as smart as you guys so I was going to run the idea with you and Reed." I look through the blueprints to find that there's only a few minor mistakes but overall it's possible that his plan could work, but I wonder how he figured out how to do it without our help. As we were continuing to discuss about the things we would need for the upgrade, we heard an emergency alert on our phones about an empty aircraft heading straight for New York. We were shocked and went to go turn on the news to see it with our own eyes, sure enough there was a military aircraft heading straight towards us. They said it was empty so we assume that the people flying it got out safely. As I was getting ready to head out Reed handed me a prototype he had been working on for the last few weeks, it was a weapon module. "You don't have any type of weapon functions in your suit. You would only fight with punching and running so I made you this to use but it could only be used a couple of times before frying up since it is a prototype." Reed explains, I take it from him and attached it to the AD and the palms of my hands; it automatically begins to connect, I thank him and head out to go find the plane. "Sure enough, I bet he had something to do with this, but I won't let him continue any longer" I think to myself as I made my way to the roof. When I got there I immediately spotted the plane; it was headed straight towards Times Square. I jumped off the roof and began to run with it, but it seemed to be flying at the same speed as me so I had to run faster. I increased the power in my feet to give it a boost and that sure worked better than expected, it gave me enough speed to run three times faster than I originally did but it also hurt my legs three times as bad. I made it to a building taller than the others in Times Square and prepared for the plan I created when I was running here. I started to produce more lightning out of me and began to build it up as much as I could to charge my weapon systems and give it as much power as I could. I was planning on blowing the plane up, it doesn't seem quite logical but it is the only thing I could do in this situation since I can't catch a plane. If I aim right to where the middle of the plane is, I could possible make it explode into smaller pieces so I could run and catch them and not let them fall to the ground. As the plane gets closer, I stop charging up and take my stance to fire, as I do I notice to the right of me is Permafrost, he doesn't do anything but cross his arms and watches. I ignore him for the time being and start putting the lightning I charged up into the prototype. The palms of my hands were glowing and the feeling in my hands had went numb. I put up my arms and aimed at the plane and before I knew it, before my eyes could see it happen, I shot off all the lightning I built up to the plane. The lightning bolt was so huge, and fast that it created a loud sound wave almost shattering all the windows nearby. The plane exploded and there was no pieces falling to the ground; the plane was annihilated instantly. I fried the prototype in one shot and I was exhausted making me fall to one knee. The pain I have in both my hands from controlling all that energy was too much for me to handle, more training with it could benefit me in the future. I look at Permafrost to see what his reaction was, he was still standing in the same spot but I noticed that his arms were no longer crossed but they were at his side, and his eyes were wide open. I could tell that he was surprised and didn't know what to think but his thoughts quickly changed with a laugh. "That was impressive; the boss tells me that you already know about our secret, but did you know that the plane you had destroyed so easily wasn't even a regular plane?" He says, I'm shocked and don't know how to respond. I guess Reeds theory was true but that's not what concerns me, what he said about his boss already knowing that we had caught on when Reed and I had just talked about it. "That's not possible, there's no possible way that who ever he is could possibly know. Why are you guys even doing all this for?" I ask, he gives me a cold look, and folds his arms once again to reply. "It's too early for all of this, but the next time you get in my way I'm not going to play mister superhero." His words made me nervous; knowing that he had background history with the military isn't helping now. He jumps off the building and starts skiing away, he attached pieces of ice to the bottom of his shoes to make ice skates; that's his form of transportation. I'm still kneeling down and out breath thinking about what would have happened if that plane was real. "If my lightning shot had failed would he had done something about it or just watched?" I ask myself. I try to get back up and get back to the lab but It's impossible, I'm numb all over and feel like I'm carrying boulders on my back; I fall to the ground and pass out. *3 hours later* "Reed, can you hand me that ratchet next to you?" I hear Matt yell as I wake up, "Here, and don't talk so loud you'll wake up the kid" Reed shouts back. "You're shouting too," I shout to both of them. They both quickly turn their heads at me and begin to apologize for not knowing how loud they were. "Do you feel alright?" Reed asks, I then respond with "Yeah, just a little light headed from the shouting coming out of both of your guy's mouths, other than that I feel alright. The last thing I remember was being at Times Square?" He shows me a tablet with a beeping dot on it, he then explains that the dot is my AD. He had installed a tiny micro tracking device to find me if any of these situations had happened; and I'm really glad that he did that. "Sorry for not telling you about this, I thought it was necessary." He says, I give him a pat on the back and tell him thanks. I stand up and I expected to feel lightheaded but I felt perfect, they both were surprised that it was that easy too. I thanked them both and noticed that my AD was on Matts desk. "Why is my AD there?" I ask, "Oh, Reed and I were going to surprise you later with the new up upgrade we are installing, but I guess we could tell you it now." He replies, he picks it up to show three more slots added into. The AD Is a pentagon shape that had only one slot that had the space for one absorbed element, earlier Matt had the idea for an upgrade that would allow me to absorb and store more elements into the AD and the three new slots he had added is more space for three new elements. "The maximum it could hold was four, anymore and the elements already stored wouldn't have enough room to generate more." he explains, this means now that I could have more powers than just lightning. "You can't use it yet until the update is done installing, so no activating lightning powers until it's done. I'm almost finished with the weapon module, in the meantime go and rest at your place." Reed says, I feel bad most of the time when they do a lot of the building for new upgrades, so I decided to stay and help. Although, Reed is a strict guy and doesn't allow me to stay, he kicks me into the elevator and sends me to my room floor. It's nice to know that he hasn't changed over the years. When I made it to my floor I came to see that Karley was taking a nap on the couch, I was tiptoeing to my room until I notice that she is watching the news from earlier. She had red streaks going to down her cheeks, she had been crying while watching the news which meant she was crying for me. "She must have felt so worried for, I wouldn't even know what I would do if something were to happen to her." I whisper to myself. As I leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead she woke up and thought I was some sort of intruder, it startled me enough to make me fall and hit my head on the floor. "Oh my god I'm so sorry, are you okay?" She says as she rushes over to me to help me back up. "Yeah I'm alright, I didn't know you were going to wake up that easily," I respond. She looks down and I tilt her head back up with my finger and tell her not to worry anymore, I won't go out tonight anymore and that I would spend time with her. She instantly smiled and hugged me. We started to hang out and mess around, she wanted to watch a scary movie so I agreed even though I'm terrified of scary movies. After we finished the movie we decided to go to bed, she had to help me to our room because I couldn't move from all the fear that filled my body. "I had such a good night, thank you for staying." She says, "I did too, but I should always have time to stay with you no matter what, I don't want you to worry anymore because then it makes me worry and then you worry more about me worrying and it's just going to keep on going and going until we bot-." I'm about to say until she shushes me and gives me a kiss and tells me goodnight. She turned off her lamp and fell asleep, I turned mine off and laid down looking at her face before I fell asleep. The next morning she was still asleep next to me, I woke up from a phone call from Reed. He then texted me to come down to the lab immediately, I looked over to Karley and carefully gave her a kiss on the forehead not waking her up. I dressed and got ready to leave, I left her a note telling her not to worry and that I'll never leave her side no matter what. I will never let her worry about me again, and that's a promise. As I reached the lab floor, I could hear screams and shouting coming from inside. I prepared for the worst, "Could there be intruders? Aliens? Or even a loose lab experiment?" I say to myself as the elevator doors open. I'm surprised to find the lab in a mess and to see Reed and Matt watching the Giants game. They looked like they haven't slept all night, I hesitated for a second if I should disturb them, I worried that they would fight over how to eat me. "H-h-hey guys" I finally utter out, they both quickly turn their heads me in shock as they had no idea that I had been standing there. "I hope this isn't what you called me do..." I'm about to say until the game on the tv shows that the giants won and they both shout in excitement forgetting once again that I'm there. I start to get a little bit flustered which makes me start walking towards them to snatch the remote from Reeds hand and shut it off. They both start yapping and complaining about wanting to see the replays but I quickly shut them up and ask them what they called me down for and why it was so important. Reed stops complaining and gets up to start walking to his desk to show me my AD. "This is just my AD, what's so important about it?" I ask, he hands me it and tells me to put it on. I start wondering on what it could be, but all could be found out by putting it on. I attach it to my chest and it activates wrapping inside a newly designed suit with a functional working weapons module. I start looking at it with amazement and notice that the AD has four slots instead of one. "You guys did all of this in just one night? I ask them, "yup, Matt and I did all of that in five hours the rest of the night we drank and watched movies in celebration in ourselves but now that I say it out loud I think I better head home and hit the hay." Reed says, I deactivate the suit and put it back on the desk to give Reed a hug and thank him goodbye. Matt says that he's beat too and should head out, I thank him goodbye as well. As they both leave Reed tells me that there's a note on my desk explaining most of the functions of both the weapons and suit itself. The note tells me first about the weapon module, the weapon prototype wasn't good enough to be used more than once. This new one should last forever if I use it accurately and not too many times in a row, the other thing is that it's not just set to be used to shoot it could be set to be used in other ways like a close range blast that could shock someone away. In addition to the weapons on my palms, he also added something to my forearm which I don't know what it does but I'll figure it out. The AD is now upgraded to be able to absorb more elements, but the note clearly states in permanent ink that absorbing anything whilst in a transformation is extremely dangerous. "I can tell that Matt wrote this note, his handwriting is always bad," I whisper to myself. There's so many new upgrades that are listed on this note that I don't even know what half of them do. I decide to train with them at our training room on sub level three, before that floor was just storage for parts that we never used so we had the place remodeled. I pick up my AD and begin heading towards the elevator until I hear gunshots coming from upstairs, it startles me but doesn't stop me from activating my suit and head upstairs. Once I reach the lobby floor I see men with guns and tactical gear, and I'm surprised to see Permafrost here as well. "Hey, what do you think you're doing here threatening the people of this building ?" I shout to him as he walks towards me. The guys with guns quickly turn towards me and prepare to start shooting, I don't have enough time to move out the way. They all start pouring shots into me put none of them land because I figured out what one of the many new upgrades are in my suit, a field of lightning stop the bullets in their tracks and making them fall to the ground if they get anywhere near me. They all look shocked but they quickly act by trying to come with different types of weapons. I now have time to react and use another new upgrade to the suit which was called "Zoom?" I immediately knew that Matt came up with that name because of how childish it sounded. Either way that upgrade me move instantly knocking out all of them with just one step, the lightning around me attacked them as I moved past them. I turn to look at Permafrost to see him clapping, "I wanted to test if you got upgrades like the boss predicted, so I guess now I don't have to hold back." He says as he makes a sword out of ice. That sword looks like a regular knights sword you would see in the movies but I shouldn't take it lightly, it may possess the power to cut through my suit. His sword spans more than six feet in length and the tip of it is sharper than regular steel. "Alright, let's get this fight started then!" He shouts as he starts speeding towards me. I prepare to start fighting, and I begin charging my power to charge at him. As I'm doing so I start to realize that this is all happening so suddenly, they came in with guns and started shootings the walls for no reason. "Do they have some purpose in all of this? I don't understand why he's rushing at me without some sort of plan." I thought to myself. As he got closer I decided to rush him too but I couldn't move from where I was; I had finally realized as I looked down to see what was holding me that I stepped into a trap. He had to have set it up while I was busy focusing on the others, I was too dumb to think that he didn't have a plan. The ice started to rise above my kneecaps and he also had started to get closer, I tried to break free but I didn't have enough time. As I struggled to come up with something my suit started to talk to me, "May I suggest using the device on your right forearm? It said as my suit automatically lifted my right arm and aimed the back of the device towards Permafrost. My left arm also lifted up but was charging up power at my palm, then as he was about to strike me with his sword my suit jammed my left palm into the device creating this huge blast of electricity propelling him into the ceiling, it also had enough force to propel me out the ice and make me fall to the floor. "Am I dreaming right now? Who's talking to me?" I ask, "I'm one of the newest additions to the suit. I'm Sam but you may change my name to whatever you like and my purpose is to assist you and help you make better decisions." It responds, Reed must have came up with this idea and he must have been working on this for awhile now and finally finished last night. "That device on your right forearm is called Discharge, it allows the power that is placed into it to be doubled and released on the other side." It explains, Permafrost gets back up and starts to look a little annoyed. He stabs his sword into the ground and runs at me even faster than he was before. I responded by preparing to fight him with my hands other than any other abilities. He starts throwing punches that I dodge with little ease, I throw punches back and only a few land. He creates an icicle out of nowhere and tries to stab me at my side, I was lucky enough that static wave was able to break the tip of it so it wasn't allowed to pierce through my suit. While I was focused on his icicle I didn't notice his punch coming right towards me, my static wave ability is ineffective against his fist so he was able to land a punch on me. I was knocked back a little bit by it and then he quickly through more and more punches at me making me a bit overwhelmed. He blasted me with ice at my feet and made stay in place. "I don't want to do this but I have no choice," he says to me as he blasts more ice freezing me into a huge ice block. It was enough pressure to disable my lightning form, and I was unable to break free from how cold the ice is. I was trying and trying but was trapped in ice and wasn't able to get out. I thought I was finished I knew I was finished until I remembered at the last second. As I was trapped in the block of ice, Permafrost smiled and started to walk towards the elevator. I can only assume that he was going to our lab to get something but I didn't know what. As he was about to enter into the elevator there was a loud vibration heard from behind him. It was loud enough to catch his attention, as he had looked back another loud vibration was heard and he realized it was coming from the ice. As more vibrations occurred, cracks in the ice could be seen. As he started to notice what was happening he created another ice sword to prepare for what was coming. The ice then shattered showing me looking directly at him with blue eyes instead of yellow. My suits design color was blue now emitting cold air from it. I used my palms to create my own ice sword, it looked like his but mine was a little more white due to how cold it was. He seemed a little ticked off, he started to run at me as fast he could but it wasn't enough for what happened next was over in a second. Before I was able to go toe-to-toe with him with luck and my fast reflexes but he ultimately would win if we continued so I didn't want to waste anytime dancing with him. I ran at him full speed impaling his right leg with my sword. "You must be quite happy with yourself, but you will never know the reason for my sudden appearance until he wants you to know." He says to me as he falls to the ground in pain. "You could have won, why did you let me win?" I ask in reply. He didn't respond but was looking at someone who was standing at the front doors. "JACK! Why are you here? This wasn't part of the plan!" He yelled at him as he started to walk towards us. I was able to see him clearly and notice that he was wearing a suit like ours, he had fire erupting from his suit which only meant that this guy was the other twin Reed and I read about, come to think of it we did see that their names are Jack and Mike. "What plan? All I heard the boss say was to hurt him. In my head that means to kill him." Jack says with a menacing tone. My heart started to beat faster and I was feeling light headed, I only needed to get him out of here and then we could fight without damaging the building anymore. I prepared to begin my plan until Mike got up and began walking to him. "The boss said no" He said to him, that made Jack frustrated and upset but he turned around and started to walk back. I was relieved the second he turned around and I was finally able to start breathing again. Until the next second his face turned around with a face completely absorbed in fire, he raised his arm faster than I could raise mine and shot a flame looking spear straight at me. I was unable to move at all, unable to dodge. Then that spear flew straight through the upper right part of my chest making me fall on my back, in shock as the wound started to bleed. "Jack, I said to stop" Mike says angrily. "Alright, I just wanted to have one shot at least." He replies, I powered down from my ice form back to my regular state. As they finally left, I was alone and unable to get up, I was stuck bleeding only able to think about what had just happened. It all happened so fast, how was I not able to dodge that spear? How did he throw it so fast? The more I thought about everything the more pain I felt in my chest. "Do you need my assistance?" Sam asks me, I had completely forgotten about him and how he helped back then. "Yes please" I utter out. As he tries to get help I hear the elevator doors open up from behind me. "Nate!" I hear Karley scream as she runs to me to make sure I'm alright. "Oh dear god what happened? You're bleeding and have a hole in your chest. I'll call for help." I grab her arm and said to her that it's fine and that help is already on the way. I held her hand tightly as I start shaking in fear, for the first time I felt helpless and scared. She squeezed my hand and started to cry, "I heard all the gunshots and explosions and feared the worst, I knew that something bad had happened." I wiped her tears and deactivated my mask. She stopped crying and was shocked to see that I was crying too. "I will never let anything bad happen to you, I will stop all this and protect you all." I say to her, she looks at me crying more and showing a big smile. She grabs me and gives me a hug, I scream in pain as the wound I have starts bleeding even more. She lets go of me dropping me back to the floor hurting me even more, she repeatedly says sorry and laughs a bit. A little bit later an ambulance came and picked me up and took me to the hospital. I deactivated my suit so they wouldn't know that I was that lightning superhero, I really should have my own name. I made them think that I was a person who was shot from all the shooting. Reed and Matt came to the hospital after they had their eleven hour nap, they really had worked all night working on the suit. They felt just as bad as Karley did but they got over it faster and started getting upset that I was taken down so easily from that fire guy, I was pretty mad about that too. Inferno was his superhero name, or super villain after we finally found out that these guys have something different in mind than actually saving people. That guy was able to move faster than I could, he had shot a spear at me faster than my eyes could move. There had to be something I missed that explains how he did it, does it have anything to do with the flames that consumed his face and his arms? I continued to think and think about it as throughout my stay at the hospital and came to a theory that he use the flames to boost his movements like a rocket. I was finally able to leave the hospital after a couple days and was feeling a lot better. Karley drove me home and did a lot of unnecessary things to make me feel better and would take care of me like I was a baby. I felt thankful but hoped that the nightmare would end already. The day after I was completely alright and was able to get over the pain, I started to get to work with Matt and Reed on trying to figure out a plan to stop the two of them. "That Mike fellow wasn't trying you say? Why do you think that?" Reed asks, I replied to him saying that he kept going on about his boss's plan and the fact that he had rushed in starting a fight for no reason was odd. We need to figure out what they plan to do and who their boss is but we have no leads and no way to find those leads, if you haven't already figured it out we aren't detectives. He agreed with me and already had a plan to deal with it, he asked for help from a friend of his to come over and help us with our situation. One of the only reasons for her agreeing to work with us was the fact that I was rich and would pay a lot for her service. Her name is Madison Rivers, she studied in forensics for a large portion of life and is a very good mentalist. He said she would be here a little later today and would keep a lot of the information confidential to hide from being spread to prevent any distress among everyone. The elevator doors opened and Matt came out with sushi boxes in his arms for all of us to eat. "Surprise, I was going to get your favorite food Nate but I saw a sushi place and I was in the mood for it, and I know that this is Reed's favorite food too so I just decided to get this instead." Matt explains as he sets down them down on his desk. Reed sure is surprised by it and thanked him for his generosity, I thanked him with a cold look knowing that the closest sushi place is pretty far. After we ate, we had worked on more things for my suit but as the day went on their was no call from Madison. Reed reassured us that she might have just forgotten about today and thought we had asked for her to stop by tomorrow. It was already night time before we knew it and Reed told us that he was going to head home. We told him our goodbyes but as he was leaving Matt stopped him and had given him a present. "What's the meaning of this? It's not my birthday" Reed says, Matt told him to just open it and be surprised. We both looked at him open it and reveal a picture of us all gathered in front of the building that we had taken years ago when it had finally been finished. Reed smiles and thanks him for such a great photo but asks again why he did this. Matt explains that after everything that's happened he thought that Reed must have been worried deeply for Nate and Jacob but always hid it so they wouldn't worry. Reed admits that he's right and that he never wanted to make a fuss about it. I get up to give him a hug and tell him not to worry anymore and to go home and get some well deserved sleep for all his hard work. He starts to tear up a little but then laughs at me calling me a wimp for acting so emotional. I punched him on the shoulder laughing at him for crying, Matt starts to walk back slowly to his desk as we both start making fun of each other for getting emotional. Reed finally leaves leaving Matt and I by ourselves. "When was the last time you got Reed a present?" I question him, "I just felt worried for him, he tends to show more emotion to me than to you and Jacob." He responds, it makes me think of all the good times we had back when we were little kids. Jacob and I would always play superheroes while he watched us with a smile. I knew deep down that he would always cherish those moments with us, he cared for us like we were his own children. He lost his wife to a fire that erupted from his house, they were really close as I could tell from all the stories he told us back then. He never really moved on from it and never wanted to get back into dating. He told us that he never thought about having kids with her, but when he finally had the idea to it was too late. We felt bad anytime he brought her up so we tried to never remind him of what happened and to let him slowly move on. A couple minutes went by after he left and I was just stuck at my desk thinking about everything until I noticed that Reed had left his necklace he always has with him. I'm kind of shocked that he forgot a precious thing that he cared for so much. The necklace had a picture of him and his wife and he would always carry it with him everywhere he went. I picked it up and decided to go take it to him, I knew he would worry if he couldn't find it when he got home. Matt was working on projects that Jacob had sent us to help him with so he didn't really seem to care that I left. I decided to drive instead of using my AD because it still hurts my chest a bit when I put it on. I quickly got to his condo that he had not to far away from the lab. As I got to his front door I noticed that it was open, I got a shot of fear throughout my nerves that something bad had happened. I ran inside to look for anything that was wrong and that's when I found him on the floor face down. My heart started to beat fast and I started to feel light headed, I ran to him to see if he was alive. "REED! REED TALK TO ME!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, I noticed that there was a hole in his side which made me realize that it had to be done by him. "Don't scream to loud, I have neighbors you know." He says, I was so glad that he was still alive, I got my phone out to call 911 but he grabbed my arm and shook his head. "What are you doing? I need to get you help." I explain to him but he didn't budge. I realized that his wound was bleeding at a fast rate; he knew he wouldn't make it. "I think you know better than I do that It's too late." I freeze in shock not knowing what to say to him, I was about to start crying until he squeezes my arm telling me not to cry but to be happy that he finally gets to be with his wife. I ask him what happened and if those twins did. But before he tells me the story of what happened I went to go get a rag to stop the bleeding. *10 minutes earlier* As I unlock my door and head in I noticed that all the lights were off, usually I leave one light on. I closed my door to see two lights egnite, one was blue and the other was red. The red light moved a bit and as it did a flame lookin chain came at me and wrapped around my ankle pulling to them. It startled me as the chain unwrapped and vanished, then the lights came back on and it was Mike and Jack. "You two, what do you want?" I said to them in a demanding tone. Jack's face was engulfed in flames and Mike's was covered with ice. "Don't go asking us questions there old timer we just want to rough you up a bit." Jack replied, at that moment I was frozen in fear and didn't know what to do. He made a spear out of fire and stabbed next to my face, he bent down towards me and explained that this was part of the plan. And the next thing that happened resulted in me being stabbed in the side. As Reed finished telling me what happened I didn't know what to think, but the only thing I felt was hatred. I needed to get Reed out of here and to get him help but he wouldn't budge, he was determined to stay. "You forgot your necklace back at the lab, that's why I came here." I say as I take the necklace out of my pocket. He takes it and smiles, he then puts it back into my hand and closes it. "It's just a necklace, I know the real thing is up there waiting for me." He replies, I know he told me not to cry but I start tearing up and breaking down as he tells me his last words. "Listen, you are my son, both you and Jacob and even Matt. I'm glad I get to call you that at least once in my life. Tell Jacob he was stronger than he realized he was and that he could do anything he could put his mind to. Tell Matt that he may not be a super smart scientist and I may not have known him as long as you too but he is still my son and I have high hopes that he would change the world too. And Nate, I'm so proud of you, I'm proud that you came so far with your mind and that you never let up and kept on pushing your limits. I would give you a hug but I really can't move anymore. One last thing, Karley's a beautiful girl, you should man up and propose and be happy with her for the rest of your life; I love you all. And Nate, you're my favorite." He says as he closes his eyes and takes one last breath. I stop crying and stand up, I look at the rag that has been filled up with blood and I drop it. I don't know what to feel anymore, I feel sorrow and I feel hatred. I go to wash the blood off my hands and and clean up the place. That is what a completely normal person would do, and that's what I wish I would have done but after he took his last breath I ball my eyes out and I start to feel hatred grow inside me. "I'LL KILL THEM BOTH!" I scream as I pick Reed up and lay him on his bed with his arms crossed. I rushed back to my car and take my AD out from the front trunk and I put it on. I activate my lightning and I zoomed around the city trying to find where they would be. I ran faster than I ever did before which lead to me tripping over a pothole. I tried to get up but I realized that what I was doing was wrong, that I let my anger get the best of me. I came back to my senses and I decided to go home. As I was heading there, Sam asked me if I felt any pain in my foot from tripping at that speed. I was surprised again by the voice of Sam as he only speaks at times I don't expect. "I'm fine Sam, thanks for caring." When I got there, Karley was there watching t.v. "Hey, look the Office is on come and watc-" She's about to say until she sees that I'm crying. She gets up and comes to give me a hug and repeatedly asks what's wrong. I sat her down and told her everything that happened, she starts crying more than I did and gives me another hug. I cry into her shoulder releasing all of my emotions. After ten minutes of that she told me that she will take care of Reed and told me to go rest and try to feel better. She leaves and I'm left alone to think about everything. I take my phone out to make a call, as the phone rings and rings Jacob finally answers and I tell him the news. *1 week later* "We are here today to remember the great memories we all had with David Reed. We all remember him in different ways, some of us may have thought of him as a wonderful and joyful person with so much life in him and some of us may have thought of him as a pain in the ass. But we all saw him as the sweet, caring, and thoughtful human being he was. I knew him ever since my elementary school days with my brother, Jacob. He cared for us like we were his own children, which we also thought of him as our father, he would later on teach us everything we know today and taught us how to be a better person. David was my mentor, my teacher, my father figure, but most importantly he was my hero. I will never let him down, I will always be the great person he always wanted me to be. Thank you all for coming today." I say as I finally conclude my speech that I wrote for his funeral ceremony. I walk off the podium and back to where Jacob and them are. As they begin to lower down Reeds casket Jacob turns to me with a tear going face and tells me that he regrets not visiting before this happened. I look at him and tell him what Reed had said to me that Jacob was stronger than he realized and that he was really proud of the man he became. We both turned back to see the casket lowered into the ground, and everyone says their final goodbyes before leaving. Karley and Matt say their goodbyes and tell us that they will be waiting in the van. Jacob and I are the only ones there and we both watch as they start to fill the hole with dirt. "You know, I always forget that the guy was fifty five and he was still working hard with us." I say with a little laugh. Jacob responds with a laugh back and we both say our goodbyes and head to the van. *David Reed. 1964-2019.* When we got back home we all had dinner and played charades. When it got late Matt said he was going to head home. Jacob told us that he booked his flight for tomorrow and would stay in our guest room until then. Night came along and all of us were already sleeping except for me, I was awake stuck in my thoughts. What would have happened if I never noticed the necklace? What would have happened if I took care of both of them when I had the chance? What if we never created the AD? I tried to stop thinking about it and go to bed but in the back of my head the thought of it being my fault and that I could have prevented it. Karley and woken up and told me to hurry and go to sleep, I took that in a thoughtful way and smiled as I fell asleep. As the next day had arrived Jacob hugged us goodbye as he needed to rush back to florida for the reason that this SPI group was over there as well. That was one of the things we had discussed last night when we had dinner. He had been fighting this guy with this liquid metal ability and he's been in the same boat as I have been this whole time. When he left I had no time at all to take a break, because the day after Reed's passing Madison had come in contact with me at my lab. "I'm very sorry about Reed, I wish I could have came in yesterday but I had another client that called last minute." She explains as she takes out a folder titled "Frontlines." She then went on to explain that she had been researching and investigating the SPI for a very long time which is why she didn't hesitate to work with us. She showed me several locations on where they would possibly be located, she got this by following their movements. Matt walked in and took a look at the locations and told us that he had an idea that could work. "That fire twin guy's transformation must emit a bunch of heat fight? Why don't you guys scan that location of emenss heat signatures to see where is the hottest to pinpoint that he is there." He explains as we both consider that a great idea and begin our searching. Today we already know where their hideout is but I'm still not ready to fight the both of them, especially Jack. I've been training none stop perfecting the new abilities that Reed and Matt had created for. During my training, something has been happening to my lightning form, it's been pretty responsive to the point that it makes me feel light. I've tried to figure out what it could be and nothing so far has given me a hint for the cause. "Nate the heat signature is spiking at their location. It's time for you to end this before they come back." Madison says as she gets up to hand me my AD. I take it and put it on and I say my goodbyes. As I took the elevator to the roof I noticed that I stopped at my floor. The doors opened and Karley walked in, "Nate? Where are you going?" She questions me, I was put on the spot to come up with some excuse to tell her so she wouldn't continue to worry about me. "I'm going to go to this other bank robbe-" I'm about to explain until she cuts me off to tell me goodluck. I was shocked that she knew exactly where I was going, she knew that I was going to go fight them. She wished me good luck and told me to make Reed proud. When we got to the roof I walked out thanking her and telling her "Don't worry, there's no way I couldn't make him proud." I jump off the edge, dashing to the other building across. I began to run towards the location of the heat signature and as I ran I began to question whether or not I was ready to face them. But the image of Reed kept filling my mind with the idea that no matter what happened, I would come out victorious. A little more running and I finally arrived, I was at a pier with an abandoned warehouse next to it. It looked like it was one of those secret lairs that super villains had in the movies. I silently opened the front doors to find that no one was there, as I walked inside I started to investigate the place for any signs of a stay. I came to the conclusion that no one was here so I decided to go look around the area elsewhere until all of a sudden. *BOOM* An explosion at the front doors occurred making them fly towards me, luckily my training paid off and I was able to dodge it with ease. I looked at where the doors used to be to see Inferno standing there with his whole suit engulfed in flames. I began to feel the hatred again, I only saw the hole that had been blasted into Reeds side, a hole that was identical to the one I had in my chest. I knew he was the one to have done it, he was the guy who killed Reed. I was about to go into another fit of rage, I activated my lightning form and began charging up, I was going to charge him head on as he teased me until the words that Karley had said to me before I came here popped into my head. "Make Reed proud" Those words continued to repeat in my head as I cooled down. Inferno didn't look pleased by this as the next thing he did was blitz right to me. He was as fast or faster than I could move, he punched my in the gut sending me flying to the other end of the warehouse. I had to make a quick recovery as for he was running straight towards me with the intent to kill. As he launched a punch that exploded with flames I jumped out of the way in time. He made a quick turn and caught me mid-air with one of his flaming chains pulling me back down to the floor. "Ha, didn't even take me a minute. Mike, what was that plan you told me about?" He turns to ask Mike as he walks in from the blasted down doors. "Don't worry, just don't kill him, but you could fight him so more if you want to." He replies which makes Jack excited to the fullest. His face that has already been covered with flames had ignited a greater one that made even being next to him feel like you were next to the sun. Next thing I know he grabs me by the throat and threw me against the wall so hard that I go unconscious for a couple of seconds. When I got back to my sentences I had to quickly run around and think of a plan. I shoved all of the energy that I charged up into my feet allowing me to run faster than him, but it wouldn't last long as for the reason that this ability makes me use up more energy than I have. As I was running I noticed a critical flaw in his power, anytime that he would boost himself to run he would have a delayed amount of time before he did so. Meaning, that everytime he was about to move, he stops for a moment, that is my window to get a shot on him. As I wait for my opportunity to strike I realize that Mike is still watching which made me wonder if he was going to jump in and help him if he had the chance. I didn't have enough time to think about it as Jack was about to stop moving. I ran around him one more time as he finally stopped moving and prepared to move again. I used my zoom move to attack him, he turned to me as I struck him right in the face with a lightning punch. I sent him flying out the warehouse out into the water outside, I felt a bit excited myself that I was able to do it. I turned to where Mike was to see that he was no longer there, I looked around to feel a cold breath on my shoulder. I tried to jump away but couldn't as I have already been frozen to the ground. He walked in front of me blocking my view of the wall that Jack went flying out of. "Look, what's about to happen next is going to hurt if you don't succeed in what you're supposed to do." He says as he then walks away revealing Jack standing far behind him with his arms up. I knew what was coming as I finally went into my ice form that I had been hiding this whole time waiting for this moment. He charged up his flames into his palms creating an immense beam of fire that he had shot straight at me. The flame was huge as it approached me, scorching the nearby walls with burn marks. I lifted my arms and started to charge up an ice blast that I had been been perfecting during my training. I shot it straight at his blast creating our own tug-of-war battle, his was too big for my small ice blast to handle resulting into his win as my ice gives out and the full force of the flames explode in my face. The fire was so hot it started to melt the ice away from my suit disabling it, I had to get out of this before I was burned alive. Then it hit me, the very thing that saved me back when I fought Mike, when I was trapped in that ice block all I remembered was absorbing a chunk of it out and breaking free. I started to absorb his flames still holding on as I pushed forward. "Jack that's enough already" Mike demanded him to stop but Jack didn't listen as he pushed more fire into the beam. Jack started to laugh as he went crazy until he felt some resistance in his beam, he felt a pressure at the other end of it which made him confused. Then as he realized what had happened it was already too late as I had completely absorbed enough of his flames to transform. His beam of fire had no affect on me anymore as I raised my hands and prepared to fire my beam at him. I fired a beam that was double the size of his towards him and it was too much power for him to handle with made him lose his footing and fall to the ground. The beam flew right over his head, he turns to me in shock of how much force and fire I was able to produce. As he looked at me, he realized that the flames I absorbed were much greater than his own which made him full of excitement. I also noticed the change in my appearance, I had been engulfed in fire like him but my fire was bigger and the heat it was producing was extraordinary. "So was this part of the plan? Because either way I'm having fun." He says to Mike but he doesn't say a word other than stare in interest. Jack released all of his built of fire and dashed towards me. He thought he had the advantage of surprise but I quickly caught him by his neck. He had no words, he didn't show anything which lead to me punching him with full force. As my fist reached his face I had shot off at the same time a blast of fire to give the punch a boosted effect. It was effective to the fullest making him fly to the other side of the warehouse, he was struggling to stand up but he still showed some excitement in his face and started to laugh hysterically screaming that he wanted this rush all along. Seeing how he was enjoying this made all the more furious, the images of Reed filled my head as I charged up an immense amount of fire all at once. Jack quickly got serious again and began to prepare one of his spears that he could use to throw at me. The moment I finished charging up I boosted towards him, he wasn't fast enough to dodge as I punched him to the ground creating a crater with the amount of force I used. He couldn't do anything as I punched him over and over again with a tremendous amount of power, he took every single blow I threw at him. Then as I was about to copy one of his spear moves he suddenly became enraged, he tried to blast me off of him but I grabbed his arm and slammed it back down. I created a spear and stabbed it into the same spot that I had gotten stabbed in. He screamed in pain but I wasn't satisfied enough, I made another one and stabbed it into the other side of his chest. He didn't scream this time, he looked up at me with nothing to say. I didn't know what to think of it, I stabbed him twice in his chest and he doesn't seem to care. He disabled his mask showing me his wretched face, he had scars and a missing tooth. He started to smile, trying to make me more angry than I already am. "That's right, get mad, show me more of that strength of yours." He teases, I charge fire into the center of my palm preparing to hit him with it, he continues to smile not activating his mask which makes me hesitate. I slam my palm down releasing so much power it creates a huge shockwave that makes the hole warehouse shake. He looked at me with and anger and disappointment as he realized that I shot the blast next to him. "No matter how much I want to kill you I will not," I explain to him as he no looks furious, he uses his last remaining charged up power to blast me off of him. I get sent flying towards where Mike is, he doesn't intervene when I do but stays idle staring at Jack as he starts transforming his flames to all strive to his back. I start to get a sense of what he's trying to do, he runs straight towards me punching me in the gut but it's not enough force to make me move. "His speed has increased tremendously but his strength hasn't. My guess was the flames he put to his back would be a thruster that would boost his speed to the maximum but I already noticed something wrong with this. He would only be able to use that speed running forward, he can't use it to dodge." I thought to myself, Jack knows better than I do of his weakness but he did it anyways. I grabbed his arm and punched him back, he was falling to the ground but he boosted himself back up to throw another hit on me. I quickly dodged and attacked with a kick to his side making him cough up blood. Before he could get back up I grabbed him and absorbed every last ounce of his fire so he wouldn't be able to use his powers anymore. He finally gave up and passed out, I made sure of it by using his own fire chain ability to tie him up. Mike finally talked and congratulated me on my win, I didn't take any chances as I made another chain and grabbed him with it pulling him to the floor. I asked him who his boss was and what he had planned but he didn't answer. I transformed into my ice form and started to absorb all of his ice powers until he deactivated it before I could get it all. "It's not time for you to take all of mine yet, maybe the next time we meet you won't even need it anymore." He says as he breaks free of my chain; blasting my hands and feet with ice as he runs away. I transform into my fire form and melt the ice but as I get outside to find him it's already too late as he is already gone. I feel a bit of disappointment that I let him go, I don't want to risk anymore of my friends or anyone else getting hurt. I go back inside to retrieve Jack to take him back to the lab. When I got back, he was still passed out, and instead of getting the police into this we decided to tie him up to a chair with a rope. He finally wakes up, he looks around to see me standing there in front of him. "So, if you're planning on an interrogation I'll better save you the time and tell you that I really don't do anything but you could still waste your time." He explains, "I could already guess that, most of the time during our fight you barely seemed to know what your guys own plan was." I respond, he lays back in the chair telling us that he's going to go back to sleep and to wake him up when we need him. I yelled to him to not do that but I learned quick enough that when he falls asleep he would not wake up. I sit down at my desk trying to figure out what to do next until I get a phone call from Madison. "Hello, it's me Nate. Okay. Yeah. All right. Talk to you when you get here. Bye." I spoke to her on the phone as she explains to me why she wasn't at the lab when I arrived. Ten minutes later she arrived with three boxes of pizza, the reason she was out was because she was hungry. "Ok, it seems you did good in fighting them and you even were able to take that fire dude back here. Well now it's my turn to work ok? I'll handle this, you can get some rest." She says, I was relieved that I didn't have to do anything as she pushed me into the elevator and made me go up to my floor. When I got home I saw Matt and Karley, they were at the kitchen table talking. "Hey guys, don't tell me this is what I think it is?" I jokingly say, they both looked at me making me think that what I said was true until Matt broke the news. "That's not it, I didn't know how to tell you this but It's about my mom, her doctor told me that she may only have a month to live and that it could be even less than that." I was shocked, Matt never really had a family as he was an only child, his father had already passed away during an accident that occurred when he was fifteen. The accident is still a mystery till this day but everyone who knows about it just says that it was his own fault, that's why Matt really never talks to us about his dad. "She means everything to me which is why it's hard for me to say this to you after everything that's happened but I need to be by her side right now, I hope you unders-" as he's explaining I interrupted by giving him a hug, telling him that it's alright and that he shouldn't worry about what I think but should worry about his mom and should go to her. He starts to tear up until I let go and start yelling at him for crying saying to him that Reed would be annoyed by those tears. I'm quick to notice that those tears are tears of joy as he starts laughing, it makes me smile and laugh with him as Karley is still in the kitchen wondering if there's seriously something wrong with us. The next day Madison had gotten Jack to speak, I have no idea what she did but it had to be deadly. Apparently, SPI was completely bogus, it was made up to be used to allow them to move around the city with everyone thinking that they had a reason. Another shocking piece of information was that it was said that the SPI had more than fifty people involved within their ageny but the truth is that they only had five including their boss. Jack didn't really seem to care that he told us which lead me to think that he could be lying but nothing about this made me actually think he was, but I still needed to be sure. Madison made sure to have Jack placed in prison, he was too violent to be left unchecked. Matt texted me a little bit ago telling me that he got on his plane and was about to take off. He seemed to feel really bad about leaving but I know that it was the right thing to do, if he didn't tell me about his mom then I would have never forgiven him for it. Most of the day I spent trying to figure out what Mike's next move was, we had no luck getting any of that information from Jack as that was the only thing that he really had no clue about. Madison explained to me that she'll try to find out everything about this as she can as this is her specialty, she didn't want me to help out in this and should only worry about what comes after. I had a lot of free time on my hands as there were no serious crimes or accidents happening anymore, I felt bored in a way, I was so used to playing hero that I completely forgot what my life was like before. I decided to hang out in the lab and mess around with the suit and the AD. It lead to me being even more bored than I already was, so I stopped doing that and went to our couch and watched more YouTube videos. I didn't complete a single video due to me always leaving it for another one just to do the same thing to that one, it was an endless cycle of boredom, I had nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to talk to. Karley was at work, Matt left, Jacob was still in Florida, and Reed... I turned the t.v. off and got comfortable on the couch and fell asleep. I woke up a couple of hours later by the sound of the elevator doors opening, I got up to look at who it was to see Matt come out talking to someone, it was a man whose face I couldn't see. "Matt, what are you doing here?" I question him, "Oh hey Nate, don't worry about that, I wanted you to meet someone." He replies as he turns him around to reveal that he was wearing a mask that looked similar to ours but it had a different type of design to it. The man deactivated his mask and it took off to show the dead face of Reed, he spoke and said to me "Why? Why did you let this happen?" I woke up sweating and panting, I tried to take deep breaths but I felt like I was going to vomit. "It was a dream? It felt so real," I thought as I got up to wash my face in the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and tried to get that image out of my head, his face filled horror throughout my mind and made me think that it really was my fault, that my actions had led to the death of him. I couldn't go back to sleep after so I went to my place and waited for Karley to come home, when she did we had dinner and she gave me the company that I desired all day. We spent the whole night together until she fell asleep, I still took time before I dozed off. This whole thing is out of control, if I let it continue more people could die, I have to stop this, it's my duty, my job to end this. I'm the only one who could stop them, to figure out what their going to do. I have to make Reed proud and save everyone.

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