SNOWBALL

YESTERDAY

"A brief study on Neo Evolved Xenogeneic Terrans..."

The voice of Professor Pryce plays through the speakers of an armoured vehicle with a man in the front seat wearing a camo uniform with blue lines running down the shoulders of his shirt, right ending in a silver button.

The audio plays on:

"As we all know, that's a name given to the unique species that appeared after the 4th world war.

My take on the formation of the five great nations? It's about time nations admit they enjoy lording their superiority over others.

Blizzard kingdom, which was two nations that recently merged into one cluster...oh, I'm not allowed to say that? Fine...a quagmire.Anyway, the Sand kingdom, the Ore kingdom.

Each of these nations has monarchs that have an ability that matches the name of their kingdom, as well as a device that can amplify their zone tremorously."

Oh, and then there's the rest of the world, which just decided to band together because they don't stand a ghost if the others decide to attack them. The UAGN...for those listening, I'm rolling my eyes right now."

Oh, regarding the "psedo...humans? I'm not sure what you're talking about.

...Right back to the N.E.X.TS; they're characterised by glowing veins associated with a visible or, in most cases, invisible dome around them known as a "zone". Within this zone, they're able to control a particular element if it is also within that zone."

In the back of the vehicle are children in orange prison uniforms, each with a branded number on the underside of their wrists.

The vehicle approaches a toll gate, and as the security guard approaches the vehicle, the driver presses a button on the blue line, and the outfit rearranges itself, and the colour changes to appear like a postman.

"Hello, sir." The man in the seat of the car says to the security man.

"The man looks at him and inside the car.

"What do you have in the back?"

"...books."

He looks back to open the door.

Alright, lil' lady, you know what to do..."

He presses a button on the dashboard, and the blue light around the ring in the centre of Six's collar fades.

She sighs, then her veins glow white.

As he opens the door, he only sees stacks of books and cartons at the back. He leans to pick one of the books, as he does Six Strains, and he picks a blue novel, eh even smells the book before tossing it back in.

As the foor closes,.the illusion fades.

Six gasps for air as her veins slowly return to normal

He nods his head and lets the vehicle drive off.

The audio continues

"You may be wondering, if there are groups of people who have these powers, how would we non-powered people feel safe?

Well...if you thought that, then you deserve a round of applause for basic reasoning, but the solution is simple: radiation. A.E.R., meaning Anti-Emission Rays."

The car hits a road bump, then suddenly, a hologram of a man in a hoodie with an LED mask on.

All the kids are in shock.

"You're free to go."

The driver looks back.

"What the...?"

The hologram points to the cuffs, and they break off.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

He presses the button on the dashboard, but nothing happens. The car suddenly speeds forward, and he presses the brakes, but the pedal is stiff.

The car speeds off the road and into the wall of a house, making the windscreen crack.

The back doors open, and all the kids run out, except for two.

Six escapes and runs back to the vehicle

"Come on, guys,, let's go."

The kids, a taller caucasian male and an asian boy, are too afraid to step out.

"W...wwhat if he catches us again? I th...think we should just stay put."

"Are you guys insane! This is our ticket outta here!"

The man comes down from the vehicle and goes toward the back, cocking a gun.

"Look, Six, w...wwe can't. Just go without us.

The man fires a gunshot at Six Eho, just barely dodging.

Her veins glow white, making him have an intense migraine, and he loses his focus."

"I will come back for you guys. "

She runs off.

"Y...you know what, maybe we should try.

"No...remember what happened the last time he caught us?"

He goes to the back just as the shorter ones' veins glow yellow; he looks at a far-away bridge. He focuses on the bird perched there. When he claps his hands, he and the bird immediately swap places.

"Hey!"

He aims the gun at the last kid in the van.

"Put on the cuffs!"

"O...okay."

The audio goes to static, but proceeds to play:

"Whether we like it or not, N.E.X.TS are now our greatest resource.

The man pulls out a shirt with blue lines on it.

"On second thought, put this on. We're rounding all of y'all up."

The boy puts it on, and he puts a bulletproof vest on.

"Listen, follow my instructions and don't try anything funny "

The boy trembles as he speaks.

"Got me?!"

"Y..yyyes sir."

He gives the boy a bulletproof vest.

"My employers paid well to make sure you and your little friends get delivered alive, so try and stay alive, boy."

The audio continues playing:

"This source of their genetic alteration is not unknown, but I haven't put in enough time to research it."

The man in black checks the boy's wrist.

"No...forty, damn,.you're the weakest of the bunch." He hands him a headset.

"Wait for my instructions."

He says through the headset and tracks Six down to a coffee shop.

"Well, maybe the boss won't be too mad if just one of them gets taken out...by "accident"."

He pulls the trigger, er, but a green dome appears over the coffin, op, and the bullet moves slowly under it.

"What the...?"

He presses his headset

"Forty, levitate some asphalt."

His veins glow brown, and the asphalt in front of him starts to crack.

He strains as he levitates the black blocks.

"Good...Now sharpen them."

He focuses, and the blocks break into smaller pieces with sharp tips.

"Bow throw 'em."

He raises his arm and swings towards the target, and the shards enter the field, also moving slowly.

There's wailing of police sirens,, and Forty runs behind a building.

One of the police men opened fire. He evades behind a trash bin as he adjusts. He hits the button on the shirt against the wall, and it changes to. The colour of the trash bin allows him to blend in better.

As he emerges, he sees six with someone, and he sees him in a dark coloured outfit.

"Good, now incapacitate them."

Forty is hyperventilating at this point.

He flexes his hand and covers them in an asphalt box.

He runs to the side of the box, says

"Hey, S...six, it's me."

A green dome appears and then vanishes.

When it does, you're both gone.

The man in black presses a button on the underside of his boot, and it generates a powerful force, launching him through the air. He reaches for the railing at the top of the tree, and then they come to the bottom

He walks on the roof of the train and opens the emergency exit and enters the train at the exact same time, six, and that person jumps out and up into the sky.

He looks around for his gub, but he left it back on the building's buttthe, under his boots again and jumps out of the train, landing back on the building.

He looks up and sees green domes fading and reappearing, each one getting closer than the last.

He speaks into his headset.

"Boy, get yer keester over here now!"

"No, ss..sir. I'm not helping you catch her."

"Fine, but just because of you, I will make sure she suffers when I catch her ."

"No...!"

"Yeah, now get over..."

Forty can't hear anything from. The headet but sees the green dome hovering over a building and runs to it.

As he does, he hears gunshots and police sirens catching up to him.

His heart races and his eyes water.

"L...leave me alone!!"

His veins glow bright brown, and the ground shakes violently; the vibration is so strong that it causes the building to start collapsing.

"No, no, no...!"

A green dome appears and all the people in the building, including the man in black, Six and the guy she was with.

The man in black starts talking to them, but Forty isn't listening; his chest is tightening, and he starts losing consciousness.

Six's veins glow, making him and the man in black experience a strong migraine, knocking both of them out as the police arrive

When he wakes up, he's in a prison cell so small, his body scrapes the wall as he stands up. His hands were tied behind his back.

"Hello? I...is anyone there?"

He notices a large puddle of ink appear next to his cell.

In the interrogation room, the man in black is handcuffed to the table.

Two policemen stand at the other end of the table while he sits.

"You gonna ask me. Something? If not, lemme outa here already."

The men simply step out as a woman in red hair rolled into a ponytail, a white shirt and a plaid skirt with heels on walks in behind him.

The man looks up at her.

"Who the hell are you? "

"Your boss."

"Nah, my boss is a man."

"Voice changing software, you do realise we've never met in person, Peter"

"Oh crap. Listen, it wasn't my fault, someone hacked out vehicle and..."

She sits on the edge of the table, nodding her head as she speaks

"Did you not fore a shot with the intent to kill one of the numbered children?"

"I..."

"...and don't lie...."

She takes out a pen and the ink inside shoots out at him as an amorphous blob crawling along his face and into his mouth.

"That blob of ink is going to your system."

"You have less than a minute to tell the truth, and I sense you're lying, then I'll just end you, you right now.

The man struggles to breathe, holding his chest.

"I ...did..."

He says, nodding his head, painfully.

"Good. See the truth did set you free..." she says, walking behind him, and an ink puddle appears under them.

"...From me"

They both fall through the puddle, and the ink seeps into the ground as though it were never there.

That evening, Six runs downstairs, out of a building, when she meets Pryce outside waiting for her. He leans against the door frame with a smile.

"Number six. You're really making my job difficult. "

Her veins glow white, and he starts developing a migraine. But he simply winces and puts on a glove with three vertical white lines on the back of it.

The white lines glow, and suddenly Six feels a sharp but painful vibration in her head. She attempts to scream, but no sound comes from her mouth.

"You're so primitive. Simply causing pain by stimulating the entire brain instead of focusing on the parts that control speech or emotion."

Suddenly, tears start rolling down her cheeks.

"Pathetic,.But I suppose that's why you're still a bloody experiment and not a final product...Walk," she starts walking beside him.

When people start looking at the man walking beside a crying girl.

He puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, your mother will be home soon."

He says

He starts speaking to her through a mental link.

"You and your friends have made a really annoying mess, but that's fine, I'm going to recapture all of you and find the person who's responsible."

"You're sick, you and everyone you work with will pay for this. "

"I wonder, maybe I should have a chat with that boy you just met today."

"W..what do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious? I want to save the world."