Airplanes

POV: MARCUS

I nervously looked around before slipping past yet another huge group of people in the airport. It wasn't the first time being out on my own; I've practically been doing that for most of my life. Yet trying to get back to headquarters after taking a not so excused absence without being recognized is proving go be a lot harder then I first anticipated." I thought to myself. The other reason was essentially the fact that people had been trying to kill me, and I wanted to see how much I could do to get out of that. Yep.

The thing is after my little interaction with Lydia the other day I have been followed. No doubt Jason sent some of his people after me once he noticed her change in personality or something. And I knew that a half-shaved head of rainbow hair was one of the most attention attracting cuts I could have chosen to travel, but since he would likely think I'd choose something that would blend in, I thought it'd be okay to go with the opposite. The thing about college towns is that, usually, just about anything goes. I wouldn't stand out all that much compared to others, maybe a four to six on a scale of one to ten of how freaky I look. Obviously if anybody did recognize me, I could always run off to change my hair and skin color to get out of the situation. At least with whatever is left of the magical shot Gavrel and his little protagays gave me. Even so, moving and trying to live out a normal life would do the job better in my own opinion. Besides, I kind of like the way I look right now.

I had paid extra to sit in first class knowing there was slightly more security. It meant living off of ramen and nutrition bars for the month or so since I decided to stay at that college for longer than I expected but as I slumped back into the plush chair, far away from the sound of wailing babies, I was starting to get pretty comfy with my decision. Some of the little kids and younger teenagers would look at me and tell their family members or whoever was going with them to L.A that they thought I might be some kind of rockstar because of my outfit and hair. Hearing them say things like that always makes me smile. While this probably wasn't the right practically for being undercover, I liked being noticed for something cool, especially something normal for me.

One little girl's eyes lit up like Christmas lights when she saw me, and she started to dig through her bag. The girl got out a little coloring book and a set of markers. She sat there for a moment, the matter of which color to choose seaming to be of the utmost importance. At the end no decision was reached. With a sense of urgency, she waddled over to me on stubby legs and held up her drawing supplies to me.

"Can I get your au-to-gra-ph?!" She asked, having trouble pronouncing the complicated word.

"uh?" I glanced up hesitantly at her parents who just shook their heads and raised there shoulders in confusion. Maybe the little girl thought I was some sort of popstar or something. I smiled at her and nodded gently taking her small coloring book and her markers before I started to write my name. I wrote my name in rainbow colors to match my hair and keep her from thinking I only liked one of them. Usually if you wrote your name in one color, they would try to make it their favorite color just to be like their idol, but, if you wrote your name in all of the colors, they can't pick and just like them all. I handed her the coloring book after I finished, hoping she would be pleased and her parents wouldn't be freaked out when they saw it because they could take it the wrong way.

"Thank you!" she said as she slowly waddled back to her seat and showed the book to her mother as she giggled happily. The mother smiled at her and helped her get into her seat before the plane would take off.

After they took off and had hit the correct altitude, the overhead lights dimmed, allowing the passengers to sleep if they wanted to. I refused to sleep however, a hard driven habit of mine form years of always expecting Jason to come in my room and pull pranks, or try to kill me. I stayed up during the whole flight wishing that the plane ride would be over and done with. After an hour or so of absolute boredom and frantically thinking that the guy behind me was a cereal killer, I tried listening to music, hoping to alleviate anxiety without nodding off. I decided to look at my requirements for the next month. Luckily, I'd kept a copy of the schedule page on my computer in case the wifi didn't work so well in whatever random location I happened to be in at the time. Turned out that I had missed a lot of shit going on in this past week or so. Things like.

Electrical power distribution testing

Recruiting from the local high schools

Buying and developing property in abandoned areas.

Power testing for higher ups

Psychology testing for interrogations with mind control.

Color and Emotional transfusion (whatever that could be)

Language development

Mandatory impact testing

Cryo regeneration walkup call (that was probably really funny)

Sometimes I sit around and wonder how I got mixed up in all of this high tech end of the world as we know it shit. For the most part my other siblings blame Jason for his part in not being able to control his emotions as well as his abilities. I sometimes find myself blame my parents for giving birth and raising the little monster in the first place. They knew what they were getting into by experimenting with angel and demon blood. As if using inhuman things would give them a good result. I also blame myself though for allow my Lydia into that cell when we all knew how powerful he was.

The airplane shook violently and I struggled to control my breathing as I found myself forced back into a memory.

The room was dark, save for a single light eliminating the back of the massive cage we all now started at. The monster within glared back with purely animalistic rage that sent chills raging down my spine. We all kept are distance from the edge. We had witnessed first hand his destructive power that had been demonstrated only moments ago when he ripped a man in half with little more than a glance. All of us kept our distance save one.

Lydia stood near inches from the bars and watched my brother with a sad curiosity. She tilted her head to the side every so often as if looking at him from a different angle would make him look less feral.

"Why Jay?" she said after several moments of silence.

He gave no verbal answer and instead shifted his gaze to her and I watched awestruck as his glare diminished.

That wasn't enough for her and I was startled as the normally mild tempered woman griped the bars. "Answer me!! Tell me why?"

The electrical current flowing through the bars had no effect on her and instead sparked violently as she added her own power. She shook the cage causing the monster inside to fall from his crouched position onto his face with a moan.

She then started packing and it took everything inside me not to rush to her, even if only to calm her down. Our only hope of reaching him from beyond this darkness he now resides within is this little emotionally charged firecracker. But if she gets to close, even being what she is may not be enough to save her.

He sits up after a moment of just laying there and rests his back against the edge of the cage hissing as the electricity burns into his.

I watched him as he raked his blood stained hands through his hair and allowed his eyes to follow Lydia as she packed the length of the cage. Eventually she came back to the main group and stopped two feet in front of me. The look she had on her face was all to familiar, it was that look whenever she was about to do something that she knew I would not approve of.