Balance of peace was momentary, for the collections of power were settling into place. Wind's whispers carried to all corners, pillars static began to move. Shifting in their corridors, patting the dust off, scraping through cobbled flooring to planted steel. Their eyes gleaming with greed and desire. A new threat was introduced to them and their powers, plans thought to be perfect were in danger.
Rad lay shirtless, a fan overhead showered him with cool wind. This was his twentieth day simply lying in his bed for a few hours. Pain covered his entirety, all he could do was sleep and stretch. A growl scrunched at his stomach. I'm hungry.
"What to do?"
"How are you?" Dante asked.
How did he…? "Hungry."
"Perfect, I'll give ya a ride."
"Where to?"
"District nine, Grease is feelin' good enough to chew."
"Impressive."
"Can't say the same for the swordsman. His partner said he's been in "isolated training." Whatever that's supposed to mean."
"Understood, but do we even have a car, practically everything was destroyed?"
Dante jingled some keys from his finger, leaving with a cheeky grin. Rad managed to prop himself up, he somehow had the energy to get dressed. A worn button up with plucked slacks. Messy to some, he bothered not to comb his hair or tidy his face. The parking lot was rather empty as construction was still underway.
"Suppose most don't want to park whatever possession they still may have around all this noise?" Rad murmured.
"Something like that, but it's mostly because you're the only one still living round here. Most folk have migrated to the center. Considering we own the entirety of the east, including portions of the north and southern points. It gives some comfort when moving, knowing it may not be so different. Other gangs aren't as soft as the east. So us having some sway just makes things easy."
"What is under your name?"
"The Azure Dragons currently hold post of district nineteen and twenty as our headquarters. We took over sixteen, so them Heart-Beats are now our lackeys, well more so yours. Janan pledged allegiance to you, but considering you're my vice-captain, it's pretty much mine. Other than that, we have real estate in eighteen and twenty-one through twenty-four. I was able to convince Grease that it was ridiculous for him to try and claim the Zeroes territory. His contributions were…well rather lacking compared to you and I. Plus he got Reo's thirteen, that place is huge in comparison."
Sigh "What a chore, well glad you're happy."
"Don't sound like ya are."
"I'm tired and my body feels almost lifeless."
"Well… Thank you, let's go get some food and see some friends."
Legs too long for a bed hung low off the edge, dreary eyes skimmed through a beat up comic. Ruffled hair dangled to the man's chin, the rest flowing down his back. Cracked lips marked the excessively scarred face of the pale reader. Flesh left like the aftermath of a great fire, yet his injuries came from no flame. Possessing seven digits, a thumb for both hands, a middle and index for the left, a missing pinky on the right. He managed, but he couldn't take his eyes off what was gone.
"How ya doing?" Dante asked as he entered silently.
"How the?" Grease put the comic down, prepping his throat, he said hoarsely. "I feel like shit."
"Figured," Dante replied, laying the basket of fruits on the table beside Grease.
"Hah, what do you want?"
"Just came to visit, see if you want to eat anywhere. I got Rad with me, he's just down the hall, probably taking a whiz."
"Couldn't ya have waited till I could actually walk?"
"Maybe so, Janan is out, so we were gonna drive down and invite her and Lev too."
"So I got to get in some stuffy car to then ride for however long for a meal I will barely be able to chew."
"You can still chew though."
"Kills me chest, hah. Just breathing exhausts me. Talking hurts too."
"So shut up and eat with us."
Grease closed his sore eyes. "Is this what they call friendship?"
"I'm unsure, but it can be," Rad joined.
"Then help a brotha out of this stinkin' brick they call a bed."
Janan drank her tea without much care, her sister Lou was busy braiding Lev's rather long hair.
"Seriously, how did your hair grow so much?" Lou asked, stunned.
"Must be a side effect of my devotion to our saviour Lord Rad."
"Ugh, sis he's starting again."
"Let it be. I have been informed by the rhythm that Dante…and two more are currently closing in." Janan said apathetically.
"Your hearing has seriously gone up like crazy, real crazy."
"A side effect I suppose."
"Ugh, not you too."
"Lady Janan truly understands, that is why she—eek! Don't pull so hard."
Squeezing Lev's hair Lou glanced out the window, a dusty low rider was slowly coming in from the distance. Two gentlemen stepped out of the vehicle. Rad turned to the back, opening the side door, taking an arm above his. Helping lift Grease to his feet, he had a bit of a wobble, but luckily his bent knee and slouching frame made it easy on Rad. For as tall as he was he took short steps towards the diner's entrance. Blue varnish covered the doorframe, pinks painted the walls, chiming of a bell rung as the three entered. Wood stripped varnish, worn leather seats, orange lighting above, clinking glasses and shuffling feet. Curved roofing made the larger entry way claustral with booths on both sides of their persons. The three docked to the ladies' rather small booth by the west window. Lou gave them a gaff look as they pushed her farther in. Rad dropped Grease beside Lev whilst Rad and Dante took to Janan's side.
"Anything to recommend?" Dante asked no one in particular.
Cracking her voice Lou frustrated asked."Hey, who said ya could sit here?"
"Any problem with that?" Dante said, looking to his right.
Janan ignored the two, barely sipping her now lukewarm tea. Grease's rather lanky build kept one leg into the walkway as his arms stiffly settled in his lap; too tired to bother keeping his limbs close he ate most of the room Lev could provide. Lou being stubborn kept her elbow into Lev's side to keep the limited space she now had. Seeing the issue Rad got up and took a couple chairs so that he and Grease could sit at the table's end.
"Should have picked a bigger table," Dante said unabashedly.
"No one invited you, you slimy lizard!"
"What's with this squealing rodent?"
"What did you just call me?!"
"This place must not be making enough if they can't even afford pest control."
"You're fucking dead!"
Dante laughed without smiling before Janan slammed the table a second after Rad stood up.
"Enough both of you…" They said simultaneously.
"My apologies, just teasing is all."
"You're doing too much Dante," Rad said, exhausted.
"Lou don't let him rile you, he just wants some chaos. Don't give him what he wants," Janan said coldly.
"Is it that time? Why the cold expression?" Dante said grinning.
"Rad it astonishes me how you deal with him. I pray he isn't always this way."
"After recent events it seems to have only gotten worse."
"Either way, I congratulate you. It is an achievement to conquer as you all have."
"Thank you."
Dante looked annoyed, but couldn't do much. He simply ordered, the six of them ended with a somewhat cordial brunch. It was the day's hottest, Grease was gently leaned into the car as Lev put away Janan's wheelchair. Rad gave his goodbyes as Lev chauffeured the sisters back home. After dropping Grease off at the hospital, Dante stopped by the beach. Trashed with scrap and still hot rock from days ago. Dante stood out to look upon the glistening waves, Rad was too tired to care why they had stopped to stand by a beach. The air was cough inducing, the reflected light coming from the littered sand blinded their eyes, but it didn't stop their stares. Ruffled winds that cooled the sweat sticking to their clothes. Throbbing head that brought no sickness, neither pleasant or miserable, it was as it was.
Their voices are gone…
"Rad, can you see it? That's the road I must travel along. It holds a destination I can not see, nor may ever see. I know not what leads ahead, but as the ancient philosopher Brahman once concluded: 'We, us the individual and the unity, possess power as of now and of before. Let it sink that all stories have neither a beginning or end, merely the middle. Be as in might, forsaken in strength, the end is as vital as thinking of the beginning. We, us the individual and the unity, are in a new order.' It isn't his most popular, or shall I say well known. But it made me think as I left my home, am I real and what is this world made of. Accepting reality places us in an illusion. Fighting such reality places us in disillusion. Both ends lead to despair. The answer Brahman found at the end of his text was 'The One.' He had reached it. Some say Nirvana, a plain I am unsure of. Some say a different realm entirely. What it produced was the idea of the Space Wizard. Something akin to a primordial entity.
"I realized then, that there is a higher power, but not one in which we can create. No its existence is something I can't fathom. What I predict is that we are being touched by an outside hand. Rewriting our existence in the time that I speak. Do I even know the next words I will say, my very thoughts, existence, form, or identity. It all comes down to what it chooses. I am not free. Brahman became The One because of the first touch. He saw the truth and became closer to it. So I too tried finding it. You won't be able to guess what I found. I touched a fragment, so small, maybe just a one out of a googolplex. I know what it is. It exists now, but also doesn't. For the hand that touches us hasn't written it yet. The powers that lie within this trinity can transcend all things. I believe you were created by one of the trinities. Rad you are a son of Atlas, Atlas Sween the trinities son. I believe… Well it looks like I will have to tell you another time, you've fallen on me."
Dante looked down at the sleeping figure, picking him up and helping him into the car. Dante drove back to their apartment. Rad didn't wake till morning, he could barely recall the previous day, and that was just fine with Dante as the two would share poorly brewed tea.
"A cloudy waking ain't it?" Rad mentioned groggily.
"Couldn't be truer," Dante replied.
"Plans?"
Dante shrugged, taking a sip of the bitter brew.
"Not much…aye, plannin' on a game."
"Sure, what you up for?"
"Pieces, possibly Draco command."
"Pieces, Draco gives me headaches, takes forever to finish too."
"Aight, well who's pullin' the box?"
The two glanced at each other, cups hovering above the countertop. The two shook their fists swift enough to make a blur, in the end Rad lost. Having to put his mug down he rotated to the living room. Pulling out the box for the game Pieces. The two would sit on stained blankets as the rumble of clouds could be heard in the distance.