After Nicholas thawed out the frozen river, he demonstrated some of the other things he could do. Since it was getting dark, they had to stop and get back home, much to Marcellus's displeasure.
The sky had already turned dark. The two brothers walked through the thick forest back home. As they neared the forest's exit, they could feel that it had gotten hotter than before. They started to see some kind of orange lights from between the trees and they could hear crackling sounds, as if something was burning.
Suddenly a loud and sharp shrieking of a woman cut throw the darkening night as if of terror, incredibly startling the two brothers and making them jump, their hearts skipping a beat each.
The scream, however, came to an abrupt end, as if silenced by someone, or something. A cold shiver ran up their spines to the backs of their necks, making them shiver all over.
The brothers stood rooted to the ground, suddenly unable to take another step forward as a great fear fell on their hearts, making them not dare to move forward.
"Nicholas, what is happening?", Marcellus asked, his voice breaking as his body trembled with all the fear that he was certain he could almost taste.
"I do not know", Nicholas answered, his body similarly quivering with fear that he knew for a fact was not his. There was something or someone in the town, that was causing the fear they were feeling.
Their mother.
"Stay", Nicholas ordered as the thought of their mother struck his mind. He momentarily forgot about the fear he was feeling and rushed out of the forest.
However, he almost regretted his action the moment he stepped out of the forest. He came to a stop as heat that he had not felt before assaulted his skin. His eyes widened in horror as he saw what was happening to the town.
There were blazing flames everywhere as houses everywhere continued to burn. The streets were covered in blood, with limbs and body parts and organs laying everywhere he look. It took all Nicholas' will to keep himself from puking his guts out as he took in all the gory details.
He however hesitated for only a second before charging through the streets of the town, ignoring the pain of the heat from the flames on his skin.
Nicholas made a turn and continued to run at full speed, determined to home. He could only pray that his mother was safe and whatever did this to the town had not gotten to her. He came to a stop in front of a small, two floored house and immediately fell to his knees, tears falling from his eyes.
The house he had lived in his entire fourteen years of life continued to burn in front of him but that however, wasn't the reason he cried.
The door of the house had broken apart and burnt. With no door, Nicholas could see what was happening inside.
Right in front of the staircase that led upstairs, stood a man dressed in clothes only the rich could afford. At the feet of the man laid the body of a woman in a pool of her own blood. Her arms and legs were no longer attached to her body but were laying around her.
Nicholas couldn't even react. He stayed on his knees as his eyes teared uncontrollably, stunned. He couldn't even react as his brain went through everything all at once.
He was too late.
The woman, his mother, had been killed.
The man standing over his mother's body slowly turned around to acknowledge Nicholas, revealing his face to him.
Nicholas' heart almost stopped beating when he saw the face of the man that had killed his mother.
*****
"πΏππ‘ ππ ππ!!!"
Ryan gasped, startling awake and immediately getting assaulted by pain all over his body, especially around his neck.
He looked around only to find out that he was lying in a dumpster in some alley he didn't recognize. He let out a sigh of frustration, thinking that whatever was happening to him had happened again. He immediately got up to get out of the dumpster, ignoring the pain and throwing curse around. He jumped out of the dumpster and automatically checked to see if there were any injuries on his body.
Apart from the faint claw marks on his left arm that he didn't know how it got there, the little finger on his left hand was also not in the right position it should be in. He hadn't even felt the pain until now. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed hold of his little finger and snapped it back in place.
Now it was time to find out where in the world he was.
"π π’π!!"
A voice suddenly said, startling Ryan. He snapped to look behind him but there was nobody there. He looked around to find somebody but he was the only one in the alley. Finding nobody, he put it at the back of his head, thinking that he was just going crazy.
He left the alley and joined the crowds of people walking by the side of the road. He had to find out where he was. He didn't want to ask anybody since he was wanted by the authorities and someone might recognize him if he did that.
Ryan came to an abrupt stop. He didn't know why but his instincts were telling him to run. To run as fast as he could. Sensing an intense gaze on him, Ryan slowly turned around and looked back.
There were a lot of people walking by the side of the road but only one of them somehow stood out to Ryan.
It was a woman with long platinum blonde hair, and she wore a brown overcoat.
It was Detective Carlos. The same crazy detective that broke his door and shot Iris. Seeing her, Ryan immediately knew why he had to run away.
Ryan could also sense that there was something about the detective that had changed.
"π ππ!!!"
Not sticking around to figure out what had changed, Ryan turned around and bolted, paving a way through the crowd of people with his elbows, not bothering himself with the screams directed at him. Whoever the crazy voice belonged to, didn't need to tell him twice.
Detective Carlos immediately run after him, pushing away anyone that stood in her way. Her speed kept going up as she narrowed her eyes at Ryan's back, determined to catch up. Gradually, she went from the speed of an Olympic runner to speed that only a super soldier can achieve.
Ryan made a left turn without bothering to slow down and almost fell. He managed to stabilize himself and charged through the crowd.
There were too many people for him to run at full speed and the detective was getting too close too fast. Ryan didn't know how in Captain America's godly ass she was running so fast but he knew he had to get away or he would surely die.
"πΆπππ π π‘βπ π π‘ππππ‘!"
The voice that Ryan thought was in his head sounded again.
Ryan looked at the endless streaking of cars on the road and immediately threw the thought out of his head.There was no way he was doing that.
"πΆπ πππ ππ»πΈ πΉππΆπΎπΌππΊ π ππ΄π·!!"
The voice in his head yelled so loud that Ryan thought his eardrums would burst.
Then suddenly, Ryan felt his body being constricted as an invisible energy wrapped around his body. Without any warning, Ryan's body was lifted off the ground, over the busy road and dropped at the other side of the road. without giving him time to get his head around on whatever was happening and panic, the energy prevented him from falling to the ground and dragged him, making him continue to run.
Ryan let out a terrified scream when he was finally able to realise that he had just been flung over the road by the energy constricting his body as if he was John Carter. Now he couldn't even control his body as it continued to run on its own, still wrapped up in the invisible energy.
Meanwhile, Detective Carlos who was now only a few meters behind Ryan leapt with ease, landing on a moving truck as if it was nothing, before jumping to the other side of the road. She immediately charged at Ryan who was now also running at super soldier speed due to the energy that was pulling him.
"ππππ π‘βπ πππππ¦".
The voice in his head sounded again. Ryan wasn't sure how he was going to do that when he wasn't even in control of his own body. It took his everything to him from freaking out more. Right now, he was hoping that this was all a dream and that he'd wake up in his bedroom any time.
The moment he reached the opening of the alley, his body turned and dashed without stopping, into the alley. Meanwhile, Detective Carlos who was only a few meters behind Ryan couldn't slow down in time to run. By the time she was able to brake and run into the alley, Ryan had been able to put more distance between them. The detective didn't relent and charged full speed after Ryan, a newfound determination glinting in her eyes.
"ππ'ππ πππππ ππ’ππ!"
The voice in Ryan's head alerted him when he was nearing the butt of the alley, which opened to another busy road.
"What?", Ryan shouted. The last jump wasn't really something he would call "thrilling" on a good day, or any other day, in fact. Anyone who willingly does that either has a death wish or isn't human. And now the crazy voice in the crazy, fucked up brain of his was telling him he was going to do another one.
"No", he shouted. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no", he kept on protesting and tried to gain back control of his body but to no avail.
The moment he stepped out of the alley, the energy wrapping around him made him jump with enough force that he was flying right into the middle of the road as there was no truck to land on this time. Ryan let out a high pitched scream, thinking that this was the end of the road for him, when he defied the laws of physics and landed midair on nothing, performing another jump which safely got him to the other side of the road, where the energy pull him into another alley.
Detective Carlos performed the same trick she did earlier and jumped with super soldier level strength, stepped on a passing car, jumped across the road like it was a kid's game and dashed into the alley, after Ryan.
"Shit", Ryan could help but to curse. This alley was a dead end. The only way out was by going back, which wasn't an option since there was a detective who surprisingly enough, turned out to have superpowers, chasing him.
"πβπ ππππ ππ ππππ".
By now Ryan knew that he didn't have to do anything and that the thing dragging him would do everything. The voice in his head was only telling him what was going to happen so that he wouldn't freak out too much. Not that it was working.
Ryan's body jump almost three floors into the air when he got close to the fire escape and grabbed onto it. The energy around him pulled him up, making him land on the roof with ease. Just like that, Ryan had been able to climb a building with six floors in record time.
"πβππ π€ππ’ππ'π£π ππππ π π ππ π¦ππ’ βππ ππ’π π‘ πππ‘ ππ ππ".
The voice complained just as Ryan felt the energy around him dissipate, giving him back control over his body. He laid on the roof, feeling too tired to do anything.
The detective performed the same feat and climbed the fire escape to the roof with only two jumps. But just as she was about to land, a great force knocked her down. She crashed into the floor of the alley like a boulder falling from great heights, causing the ground around her to crack and cave in.