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Chapter 1

Five months later

"What did Flash look like when you said that" Peter queried as they crossed the Polluted East river into Queens.

"Like a tomato" wade replied, his voice light and airy. The lighter patches of his skin had spread slightly over the months which caroused people to stare.

"And he made this mouse like sound" Matt adds, swinging his cane rhythmically. His red beanie now had two horns sewn in, which flopped about as he walked.

"God, why couldn't I have been there" peter wishes.

"Yeah but we got detention so" Matt replies

"How'd dec go, Pete?" Wade changes the subject causally though his heart pounded as it often did when he talked to Peter, which wasn't helpful when you live with him.

"Meh got most of the questions right"

"Smart ass"

"Just because you can't get chemistry, Matt,"

"But it's true" wade jokes, "you got like 250 iq and by some of the questions you mean all of them"

"238 and I didn't get the one on Bruce banners paper on grammar radiation's effect on the brain and neurological processes"

"Whatever, come on if we're quick we'll be able to get an hours of practice before he gets back" Matt excitedly replies. The three of them had been practicing together as a band though no one knew, and as they had no money for instruments or anything they just sang. But they had got quite good. They had a few songs, and are working on one now called war.

"Yeah, it's Tuesday right? So he'll be picking up some product" Peter says his mood mixed.

"Yeah I got vitiligo move on!" Wade snaps at a women who was staring for a particularly long time "junkies are gonna be lining up round block for the happy shot, hopefully we won't be able to smell it up in the attic."

They arrived at the old town house at half five, weeds growing in the sidewalks, trash and rundown cars that barely moved lined the road. The old town house was the only one on the row surrounded by rundown apartments. It's three floors of shoddy brick work were dirty and the balconies were rusted and unstable, the doors paint peeled and was flimsy at best.

The sight drew contrasting feelings from the boys, fear and sadness and get happiness and safety.

The inside was no better than the outside. mold had crept in years ago and the furniture was ripped and stained. The house was sweating in the summer heat and dead flies piled on dirty window sill. The whole place stunk of rubber and ammonia: they was no power in the building and only in the attic could you find a torch.

Which was lucky because that was where the boys spent most of the time, having moved they shit up there pretty quick after learning that junkies and they're foster care 'dad', Mr Campbell, would rob anything of any slight value. Over the few months they had gathered old blankets and cushions from where ever they could get there hands on and had made the place semi liveable. They used old fair lights and torches to push away the shadows, and Peter had scraped together enough tech from junk yards to somehow make a working pair of solar panels which powered his computer and a mini fridge.

The boys entered quietly and quickly, passing only a few crashed out junkies as they snuck up the creaky stairs.

Peter stuffed there bags into an old school locker they had scavenged while Wade and matt dragged a plank of wood across the hatch.

"So you wanna start a war" Matt sang quietly yet his voice resonated around the room. His voice carried an eeriness which was somewhat comforting.

The other two smiled, it was rare that Matt started there singing sessions.

"In an age of icons" Peter whose voice was that of an angels able to hit both the high notes and the low notes, joined in.

"So you wanna be immortal with a loaded gun"

"So you wanna start a war, war" wades deep voice joined to the chorus mixing the three voices into a bittersweet melody, combining the traumatic pasts and weaving together there untold stories into their music like silk in a cotton scarf.

"So you wanna start a war"