The consequences of D's situation were coming in fast, and the ground even faster. He felt light as a feather directly after jumping off the rooftop where they'd landed. He thought for a split second if Max had lied and his power was actually flight.
This thought was quickly forgotten when he began hurtling towards the earth.
The HAL-TECH cuffs were on so long that his glow was lagging behind. The adrenaline pumping through his system had caused him to jump before he noticed the delay.
He was falling so fast he didn't notice his entire body take on the metallic composition of the coins in his hand. The living metal coating stretched till his body was completely covered just before he hit the ground. With his body completely coated he curled into a ball right before slamming into the grass and dirt like a cannonball.
Standing upright in the small crater he had made, he looked down at his hands, his new metallic skin, and cracked a smirk.
"Well, any landing you can walk away fro—" A gunshot rang out, a bullet cracked him in the back of the leg.
He winced and grabbed his leg only to discover a small hole in his pants instead of a gunshot wound. He found himself raising his arms above his head instinctually to block the gunfire despite not needing to as he bolted for the woods.
He purposely jumped off the side closest to the large patch of woods. The trees were a deep oak brown, they were tall, wide, and the perfect form of cover.
Foliage crunched under his aching feet as he darted into the forest, barely avoiding a shot to the back by darting behind a large oak tree.
Soon the building, Max, the guards, and Spire were all too far back to see as the woods grew thicker and he ran farther. He noticed the bullets had stopped as well, but figured they were definitely pursuing him on foot.
Although his heart was pounding and his stomach churning, he could keep running for another 20 minutes or so. All the conditioning his father made him endure was more than enough to keep him going physically at least.
His glow, on the other hand, was already starting to return to normal. Max's ability was already barely in D's system. One moderately strong high five was only enough juice for two minutes if he was pushing it and didn't have to focus on anything else. Unfortunately for him, he'd been running for just about two minutes, and was focused on not dying.
He ducked behind a large tree to stop for a moment, as he felt the last vestiges of power leave his system. The glow in his eyes became dimmer and his body slowly morphed back into its original material. He rolled back his head and tried to catch his breath.
"O-okay... okay... we're p-playing on hard... mode now." He let out a pained chuckle and sighed with all the air in his lungs. He prepared to pick himself back up to begin running when he heard something sharp and shrill. His head and eyes darted in the direction of the sound like an animal on the hunt.
The sound came again, this time slightly less shrill and slightly more melodic. D slowly peeked his head around the large oak he'd been using for cover, hoping he didn't get his head blown off. Surprisingly, not one guard in sight.
The sound played again, this time fully in tune and accompanied by a female voice.
"Finally! There we go... now for the other five."
D crept ever so quietly over the woodland floor so as not to make any noise. Another shrill twanging sound rang out. He hid behind another oak tree and peered to where the voice was and saw a bright red-haired woman in a black school uniform sitting in a striped hammock with a guitar in her lap.
"I'm gonna kick Flynn's ass over this stupid thing!"
The anger in her voice made him pause behind a tree and think. Wait, I don't know who this chick is, and what do I even ask her? I can't just say, "Hey, is the way outta here in this creepy-ass forest or is there an evil castle I should look for?"
The woman let out a frustrated sigh and said, "You gonna keep creeping or are you gonna come say hi?"
D put his face into his hands and swore. Gotta think of a good lie, he thought.
He stepped warily from behind the tree with his hands up in a gesture of good faith.
"Alright, alright, I'm not a creep, I'm just lost, and trying to get to the beach," he said in his best frat bro impression.
"Me and a few of my bros are throwing a rager, you know how it is." He cracked a smile and stepped closer to the woman.
She looked at him confused. "A party? On the first day of the school year? Righttttt." Her red eyes went from confused to suspicious in an instant.
"So where's your uniform? Since you obviously know students must wear one at all times," she said as she looked him up and down, her eyes particularly interested in the dried blood on his clothes.
Sweat dripped from D's brow, and he didn't know if it was from running or this girl's question.
"Oh yeah, my uniform, I normally do keep it on at all times but I just felt a little ballsy today, y'know?"
The woman set down her guitar and stood up from her hammock and chuckled. "Yeahhhh except there is no rule that says that. Students only have to wear uniforms for official events or club-sanctioned activities."
"O-oh yeah, I k-knew that, I was just uhhh..." He stammered, trying to find something to get him out of this situation.
She cut him off with a raised hand and said, "Look, freshie, I can tell you're one of the new students this year. You don't have to pretend to be an upperclassman." She threw her arms above her head in a stretch and walked a bit closer to him.
At this range, D noticed something strange about the girl: she had tattoos on her wrists and neck that looked like stitches. The tattoos made her look akin to a sewn-together red-haired doll. He tried not to stare at the strange markings as she continued.
"So what's up? You need help finding the dorms or something? Or is there actually a party at the beach?"
A light bulb went off in D's brain as he said, "Yes... there uh is one... later, I'm just helping set up for it."
The girl took out her phone and began texting. For a split second her eyes went wide but then quickly went back to normal as she said, "Cool, cool... is it alright if I bring a friend? She doesn't get out much but you two would totally hit it off."
"S-sure, yeah, invite your friend." His brow started to sweat again. This is getting way too far out of hand, he thought.
"Awesome, I'm Scarlett by the way." She held out her hand.
D shook her hand to be polite and said, "Uh, nice to meet you, Scarlett. I'm D." She cocked her head a bit to the side, definitely noting that wasn't his actual name.
She turned from him and started packing away her things into her matte black guitar case. D wasn't really sure how or why he told her she could come with him, as there was no actual party, but he supposed he would figure it out. Once her guitar was packed, she turned back to him.
"Did your friends tell you where on the beach they were doing this party? 'On the beach' isn't really descriptive enough on an island."
He pointed in a direction that he thought was south-ish; he barely ever paid attention to his father's survival tips as a kid. Scarlett, apparently needing no second thought, started walking in the way he pointed. D, not knowing what to do exactly, followed her from a safe distance.
He went to place his hands in his pockets but stopped just shy because he was with a stranger, and worse yet, she was a stranger with a glow too. They walked in silence for a while, only the soft crunching of the leaves beneath their feet to accompany them. D, being uncomfortable with long silences, decided he needed more information. "Sooo how far is the beach from where we are exactly?"
"Not too far, only about a couple minutes if you know the way, and lucky for us, I do!" He could hear the smile on her face as they strode along the makeshift path. "Oh okay... cool," he looked around for something to talk about, anything to fill the void of silence. That's when his eyes happened to glance over her red guitar case. "So how long have you been playing guitar? You're not half bad," he said as he gave a half smile. Scarlett turned to him and began walking backwards. She dodged every tree root and stick like she'd walked this trail hundreds of times.
"Do you do that a lot?" she asked while staring him down. He gave a confused and slightly annoyed look. "Do I do... what exactly?" She picked up her pace a bit and turned around only to reply, "Lie. Do you lie your ass off just for the hell of it, or is it like a medical condition?" D, quite frankly fed up with the amount of snark he'd put up with today, replied in kind, "Oh forgive me, it's actually a medical condition. It flares up in response to bad music." Surprisingly, she laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty bad, but it's important to have hobbies outside of, y'know, all of this." She made a wide open gesture with her arms. D's expression became puzzled. "All of this?" he asked.
She blew out a long sigh. "Homework, club work, extracurricular missions, hanging with friends, it can be a lot." D's mind worked as he tried to find a way to respond that wouldn't make him seem like a lazy sack of shit. Outside of the training regiment his father made him keep, he didn't get out much.
He learned early on that the less he did, the less likely he was to get a beating, so he sat inside playing video games and watching movies. "If you do all that, why would you want to add another thing to the list? Don't you ever relax?" he asked. She threw him a side-eye glare over her shoulder. "I WAS relaxing till some creep freshie needed directions to his own party," she snapped. D winced back at the comment and fell silent.
A quiet moment passed between them. "Sorry, that was a little mean. I didn't mean anything by it." D let out a sigh, "It's fine, let's just keep walking." Scarlett silently agreed, and they walked in silence for a good while till they happened upon a large clearing of grass leading to the beach. The field was a shade of light green and a mix of tall and short grass, with the grass becoming more sparse the closer it was to the beach. D could see the light blue water going out for at least a mile, but nothing else. No ships, no docks, not even a rowboat.
D let out a heavy sigh, a mixture of exhaustion and desperation washing over him in a roaring wave of emotion. He looked at Scarlett as she continued trotting along in front of him and wondered how he was going to get out of this. He stopped walking, crouched down, put his face in his hands, and rubbed his temples. His mind was in a desperate search for some sort of out, some sort of relief. Something it could latch onto to distract him from his situation getting worse. The weight in his chest grew unbearably heavy and his stomach sank as if he was going to vomit. He shakily inhaled and exhaled in an attempt to calm his nerves.
He took his face out of his hands and looked up at Scarlett. She'd also stopped moving, but she hadn't turned to look at him; she was just staring wishfully across the open field to the water. He realized she was probably looking for signs of people, a party, or anything in general, so he scrambled to think of a lie so he could slip away.
D stood up and walked a bit closer. "Looks like the guys haven't gotten here yet. How about you stay and wait for your friend and I'll go look for them?" He gave her a fake plastered-on grin and a thumbs up even though she wasn't looking at him. "Y'know, for someone who lies a lot, you're not very good at it," she let out a long sigh of her own and continued. "This place isn't so bad, it's a safe haven for people like us. I don't know why you'd want to leave."
D's muscles tensed and he stepped back from her, the fake friendly & playful atmosphere between them shattered with just a few words. This whole thing was a bust, D thought. The cool ocean air breezed past them, the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore the only sound as they both stood there wordless.
D reflexively slid his right foot back and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet in a light fighting stance. Maybe he could still salvage this, maybe he could try again. "Leave? What do you mean leave? I'm just here to party and see the cool boats passing by—" She cut him off, her words cold and indifferent. "There are no boats here, they're all stored offshore. I know there's no party either, there's no friends, there's nothing here and there never was."
She let out a small pained chuckle and continued, her tone unreadable. "Truth be told, we're both liars, you and me." She turned around, her fiery red coils swayed as she did. "We lie at the detriment of others, we lie to save ourselves, we lie just for the sake of it."
"Who is we? Yeah, I lie sometimes, sure, but so does literally everyone else." He took a step away from her; he had to get the hell away from her. "Quit being dramatic! I'm not here for some stupid education on how to rob grandmas like you are!"
She sniffled, her voice was shaking. "Yeah, you're too advanced for the mugging class, maybe we can get you into Murderers 101?" His blood began to boil as despair and frustration turned to anger and rage. "You don't know shit about me!" he said. He closed his fists so tight his hands felt like they'd bleed. She choked out a laugh between her sniffling.
"I know you killed a man, your own dad no less. There's no place for you besides here, why don't you see that?" She held one of her wrists with her other hand and turned around so he could see her face. Tears streamed down her face, and a well of tears sat under her eyes. The sight of her like that momentarily halted D's spiral into rage and set his mouth slightly agape. "I miss them sometimes, y'know, but this school... I-is... it, it saved me and it'll save you too." She smiled weakly through her tears, her slightly dripping nose, and wet skin.
"Please just say you'll stay. We don't have to do this!" she said, trying and failing to hold in her tears. D's mind snapped back into feelings of rage and frustration. "WHY DO YOU CARE, HUH? YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME!"
From behind D, a calm voice cut through the clearing. "Ever that temper, Mr. Cross. Maybe Murderers 101 is for you after all," he knew immediately that it was her. In a split second he turned to face her, putting his fists up into a fighting stance. Spire was leaning against one of the few trees in the clearing. She was in her school attire, a black sweater with a red tie and a long grey skirt. "You! You're the reason I'm in this mess in the first place, and I'm done playing your game."
Spire smiled softly, put her hands behind her head, and sat down next to the tree. "You misunderstand, I'm not your opponent. She is." D's eyes whipped to Scarlett and he said, "Oh sure, and what're your powers, tear manipulation? You gonna cry me to death?" Scarlett's eyes went from soft and weary to cold as stone in an instant and she wiped her tears.
She repeated her plea. "Please, I don't want to hurt you, D. You've got a chance most people with Glow would kill for." D let out a harsh laugh. "I would rather die free than live in this place."
Spire let out a long sigh as she said, "Fine, suit yourself." She stood.
"Student 3704 Scarlett Hemlock, codename: The Red Queen, as leader of the student security committee I hereby authorize you to detain Mr. Cross." D looked back at Scarlett, not sure who was the bigger threat now. Spire continued, "If he resists, you are permitted lethal force. Do you accept?" Scarlett and D's eyes met.
"I do."
Scarlett reached into her pocket and moved her hand around--looking for something. She pulled out her hand revealing a small sharp sewing needle. She held out her wrist before suddenly jamming the needle fully into her wrist where her tattoo was. "W-what the fuck is wrong with you?", D took a few step back from her.
"You still don't recognize me? I guess it was dark and you were knocked out." She pulled the needle out slowly as her eyes began to glow. "Maybe this'll jog your memory." She fully pulled the needle out of her wrist, but instead of blood streaming down her arm it followed the needle and floated mid-air. The ruby red liquid flowed between her open palms. It bubbled and hardened, folding in on itself till it became a small gelatinous looking orb. The orb then popped out two arms and two legs, and a doll like face to match.
His mind flashed back to the police cruiser, what happened to the officers, the creature that night. "It was you that night, that creature was yours?" She coddled the creature as if it were a baby. "Yeah..my beautiful blood puppet." She suddenly dropped the small creature. "All right honey, go get him!" She crouched down and patted the puppet on the head, and it let out a disgusting gurgling sound of delight. The moment she removed her hand it turned around, hissed, and dashed straight towards D.