With the thick clouds in the sky, the sun went dark much faster. Blue Hills had transformed into a military occupation. Trucks rolled along the streets, drones flying above. Armed soldiers stood by every crossing, every entrance, having locked them down. No one was getting in or out.

The civilians were all locked in their homes, all except for certain families.

One single lone truck approached, its ID registered as the one the kids stole.

‘Its here, let it pass.’

They moved out of the way, letting slowly roll in and onto a parking lot where two squads surrounded the vehicle, aiming and ready.

‘Slowly, one by one, step out of the vehicle.’ one of them declared, not noticing the ghostly shape of a boy phasing into the ground underneath it, moving below them towards a certain location.

‘I repeat, step out of the vehicle!’ No answer. Two slowly approached the back doors. With six aimed directly they opened..to an empty truck.

‘What the..’ none, even the driver seat was empty.

‘What the actual hell....tell the sergeant now!’

Sam moved trough the buildings, phasing trough apartments and shops and avoiding the streets as much as he could.

Then he saw it, by the town square. A erected antenna stood taller than the street lights. Many soldiers and other personnel was everywhere. Huge machines walking on two legs and minigun arms stood by the corners of the square, watching the roads.

Those things would be trouble..

But he needed to get to that antenna, and he saw how. A large cable connected to it led to a huge box, which then connected to a breaker attached to the wall of bank. It was clear they were using the towns electricity to power that thing, the center of communication.

Phasing trough the street, anyone who looked at just the right time would have seen the ghostly image of a boys upper head, sliding along the street and into the bank. Possessing the power cables he transfer himself trough the cables, into the communication center instantly.

A sea of data instantly revealed itself to him. He knew the location of every truck, every soldier, drone and the identified “Armored breakers” that currently guarded the corners. He also saw what he was after, the location of the their families. Step 1 complete, now for the next one.

He shut down the antenna, breaking communications between them. The soldiers noticed immediately and he saw some confusion among them.

Following the power lines he instantly got to the power distribution for the town. A gate off area with steel towers, thousands of cables connecting in a random mess. He switched off the lights for the whole town, throwing Blue Hills into a cloak of darkness. Only the sun kept it from going pitch black, and most was blocked off by very dark clouds.

‘That’s the signal, lets go.’ Scott whispered went in ahead, knocking out and hiding soldiers. The remaining three snuck out of the forest and went to the car repair shop. Its backyard was gated off, but with the touch of her fingers Samantha melted trough, creating a opening. They snuck trough the back yard, trough the shop and onto the streets, Scott taking care of the patrols ahead until they reached the meeting point. A abandoned water wheel from the towns founding, Sam was waiting for them.

‘They’re at football arena, the whole place is swarming with guards.’

‘Ok we go in, bust them out, and get out.’ Sneaking over there proved the bigger challenge. Trucks still rolled along the streets, the guards were being on higher alert from the blackout.

They reached the apartments, then the park, then the large sports arena. The football field was mostly fenced off, besides the main gate the only entrance was the locker room entrances, below the stands.

As predicted a whole bunch of guards stood outside. They hid by a gathering of trees and bushes.

As one truck drove by they took a deep breath, it was now or never.

‘Ok...lets do this.’ Scott flew out, knocking out the guards. The rest ran up the door, Sam possessed the door, opening it. Cody and Scott carried the guards and guns inside, closing the door behind them.

‘We don’t know how long we got till they notice so where are they keeping them?’ Jacob asked Sam.

‘I don’t know, the files only said the football field.’

‘Its not that big so lets just look around. They hurried down the corridor, surprisingly devoid of guards. It was pitch black, Samantha had to use her fire so they could navigate.

They came across the storage, where the door stood locked. Cody punched it open. A bunch of shocked guards pointed their rifles at him and fired. The bullets bounced off easily, he pushed the first into wall, knocking him out with ease. Then Sam took the other, slamming his electric baton into his gut. The usual sports gear were gone, instead a series of huge glass boxes stood lined up. Samantha lit it up some more and to her immense relief she saw her parents on the other side.

‘Samantha!’

‘Mom! Dad!’

Cody ripped the doors off the adults embraced the kids, completely overwhelmed.

‘I can’t believe it...how...how are you?’ Regina tried to ask her brother only for him to cut the reunion short.

‘They could sound the alarm soon, we gotta get out of here.’

‘Ya..lets go.’ Jacob pulled his parents arms and soon the large group were on the move, moving trough the narrow corridors.

They reached outside, standing on the artificial grass in the wide open.

‘Ok..now what?’

‘Now you surrender!’ a loud booming voice echoed out. The stadium lights switched on, instantly showing the soldiers on the field, surrounding them. Then a loud boom sounded near them and a wave of vibrations felt under them. They turned to see a giant man, encased in robotic looking armor. His face hidden behind a visor.

‘Next time you cut the power, you might wanna make sure we can’t just switch it back on again along with our communications!

Still I’m very impressed, a bunch of preteens actually made it this far. I didn’t even expect you to make it up the road.’

They felt a chill run down this spines, cold sweat on their foreheads. This guy, everything about him screamed danger. That he was nothing like ordinary soldiers. This was different..

‘Now make it easy on all of us and give up. I have fought far worse than you kids so don’t think your fancy little powers will save you here.’

He kept mocking as he approached, stopping right on front of Cody who instantly felt small. His head just barely reached up to his lower stomach, this giant towered over them.

‘Who are you?’ Scott barely mustered the courage to ask.

‘Codename Charge. Head enforcer of FSI, that be Future Science Industry. You could say I lead their little private military, and my job is to make sure misfits like all of you are secured and brought back to base.’ He leaned forward, putting his head over Cody’s

‘And I love my job so please..choose the hard way..I dare you..’

They almost staggered, standing in this giants shadow, hungry for violence.

‘Promise you will let them go, and we won’t cause trouble.’ Samantha tried to reason with him.

‘HA! Listen to this boys! The kiddies thinks they can negotiate! That’s adorable!!’ He let out a very loud, fake, mocking laugh.

‘No. You don’t seem to know how this is gonna work. I take you all back to base, and throw your families into prison.

Refuse, and I beat every last one of you within an inch of your life, drag you back to base. And throw your families into the prison, hows that?’

There was no reasoning, this is the type who wanted violence and cared nothing for others. Everyone felt more scared now than ever before. Like they were already inches within death.

Yet...having their parents, their siblings, everyone they loved, thrown into jail just cause to some cybernetic thug with a anger complex felt like it was enough to stir anger in them. They came here, risked everything, to rescue them. And now there was only one choice.

Give up, and everyone gets locked away forever...

Or give their families one small chance of escaping...

Charge leaned down again, helmet inches away from Cody’s face.

‘Well...hows this gonna go?’

‘Well...that depends on how good your insurance is.’ In a split second, all hell broke loose.

Transformed, Cody uppercut the giant, making stumble and almost fall backwards. Jacob erected an ice wall as bullets came flying at them.

‘GET INSIDE!!’ Samantha forced everyone back into the stands.

‘We’re not leaving you!’

‘Yes you are! You’d only get in way so please, get out of here!!’

Samantha’s mother refused, understanding the situation Regina grabbed hold of the hysterical woman.

‘You better catch up later!’ she told her brother and pulled them inside. Scott nodded and moving in a blue flash, took out the shooters over the stadium. the fences were broken down as waves of trucks appeared around them, drones blocking out the sky, fire, bullets, flashes erected over the stadium in a storm of chaos. Cody charged and engaged Charge directly, the two juggernauts punching with enough force to shatter bones of a normal human.

Charge gained the upper hand, his training far surpassing Cody’s. Blocking strike after strike and getting in hit upon hit on the rocky face. Samantha shot pillars of flame, lighting up the ground, the soldiers scattering. Pillars of ice rose from the ground, tipping over the trucks as they approached and blocking the caravans, crashing into one another.

Sam ran up to a squad, bullets just phasing trough him like air. He struck, taking down soldier after soldier with his baton. They tried to retaliate, taking out their own only to go trough him, or for Sam to phase trough them and crashing into each other.

Inside the stands, the adults ran for the back door till they heard a voice scream ‘OPEN FIRE!’ they narrowly managed to stop and jump back inside as bullets embedded into the iron doors.

‘Give up! You are completely surrounded!’

‘Now what??’ Regina ignored Sam’s dad and looked the floor.

‘Now, we do everything we can.’ she picked up one of the rifles.

‘You gotta be kidding me.’

‘You’d rather be locked up while your kid gets put under some microscope??’

‘I have never fired a gun in my life!’

‘Then start now!!’ she pushed it onto his torso and took up another one.

‘Take cover! They’ll probably blow the doors!’

As the doors blew wide open and soldiers charged in, the captives were already hunkered down and ready, covering behind the entrance desk and tipped over tables.

Two fell onto the floor as the parents opened fire.

‘PULL BACK! PULL BACK!’ the two sides locked down in a standoff.

Back on the field, everyone found themselves in a mythological warzone.

Besides bullets and soldiers, fire, ice and lighting flashed in the air, and shattered the group. The giant lights upon the stadium collapsed and fell onto the ground, pieces of metal scattered on the ground.

Tanks rolled in, firing their explosive shells. Sam looked up, seeing one of the giant mechs from the square stride in, towering over them, each step nearby felt like a minor earthquake.

That thing would be the death of them! He sprinted into its leg, taking control.

‘What the’ the pilot didn’t get to finish his sentence as it aggressively turned and raised the missiles out of its shoulders. Firing, it tore the tanks apart in a hellstorm. ‘Mayday! Mayday! I lost control of the mech, I repeat! I lost control of the mech!!’

Cody was thrown onto the ground, head spinning from the numerous punches.

‘Give up kid. This is far out of your league.’

‘Look around you. We’re destroying your little army.’ he stumbled back onto his feet only for a blinding red and incredible force to knock him back. Smoke came off his near indestructible body.

‘I was talking about me.’ Suddenly the ground around him tore off and sparks flew off Charges armor. Sam had turned the mech and fired at the leader.

‘Really? You don’t seem that tough to me!’ Sam’s voice echoed trough the machines speakers but ended with the same happened to him. A helicopter flew above, unloading its minigun straight into the machine.

The arms move up to counter fire but was to slow. The helicopter fired its own missiles that broke off the arms. Sam opened the cockpit and tossed the pilot out as a range of missiles and tank shells from all sides tore the mech apart. The burning wreckage fell back, smashing into the armored trucks underneath.

Charge rose up from cloud of smoke and dirt, numerous holes and dents in his armor, electrical sparks shooting off his side.

Cody charged him, slamming his fist into the gut. Charge’s torso was thrown forward and back bent, and then received a sideways uppercut to the chin that threw it up, turned in the air, and back onto the ground, landing on his hands and knees. He barely had a chance to react when Cody punched the side of his head, breaking a piece of his helmet and cracking his the glass.

Samantha fired a concentrated, thin beam of fire, condensed and superheated, right at the chopper. Its back tail was hit, melting trough it like a plasma knife trough butter. The back broke off, the helicopter began spinning out of control, vanishing beyond the park.

Scott shot down drone after drone, firing his lightning like bolts from his fingers, each drone exploding mid air and raining down burning wreckage from the sky.

A squad of soldiers lined to shot him till a sudden icewall appeared, pushing them aside.

‘So, how are we doing?!’ Jacob asked trough the loud chaos around them.

‘Ah you know, decent!’ Another giant mech appeared, Scott acted without thinking. At full speed he ran, and leaped at it. His body breaking trough the glass of the pilots seat, slamming into the man. His charge shot into the electrics and overloaded the mech, its systems fried, stopping it dead in its tracks.

Back inside the parents was pinned down. Not able to raise a finger above their cover as bullets flew like rain at them.

It seemed doomed, there was nowhere to run and soldiers were out to kill. The married hugged their spouses, siblings each other.

And as Regina thought about her brother one last time the sounds shifted, shots from a different gun rang out, desperate screams of soldiers dying and soon the storm ended.

‘Alright all of you! Get out of there! Its clear!’

She looked up from the desk and saw a stranger standing there, dressed in a coat and hat, face covered in some mechanical mask with neon red lights for eyes.

‘Who are you?’ she asked suspicious.

‘An enemy of FSI. Now leave or stay and die, your choice.’

He ran passed them and towards the football field.

‘Well you heard him! Lets go!’ Cody’s mom said pulling her children to their feet. Everyone ran out to the many bodies on the street.

‘Get in the truck, we’re leaving!’

‘What about the kids??’

They froze up just as new shots rang and everyone threw themselves.

‘What about Cody?! We can’t leave him!’

‘I’m going back for them! Just leave!’ Regina yelled and ran back inside, rifle in hand.

On the field Samantha suddenly felt a metallic tentacle grab her.

Her hand glowing in bright orange, it sliced trough the steel, leaving glowing hot sides as it fell off.

‘I’m really sick and tired of these things.’ A quick thin line of her focused heat went right trough it, taking down the robot immediately.

Shots went off behind her, she turned to face them only to see a newcomer. Some strange looking cyborg man in a hat and coat, firing off two small automatics, jumping and dodging their bullets with superhuman agility.

Then a rocket launcher suddenly appeared out of thin air as he fired at a tank, taking it out in one shot.

He moved like a killing machine, taking them out with perfect precision.

‘Who’s that??’

‘Dunno! He’s not on their side that’s for sure!’

With the enemies temporarily defeated he approached them. ‘So you’re the kids who’s causing chaos.’

‘And you are?’

‘Name’s Hunter, that’s all you need to know. Look you you gotta get out of here, they will never stop coming. Even if you take out SFI’s entire army the government will just send in the military, and you can’t fight them all.’

‘What? We weren’t the fighting military already?’

‘No! This is but a taste. Grab your friends and run! I’ll handle the big guy.’ he turned to Charge, currently still fighting Cody and regained the upper hand.

Summoning a shotgun he blasted the shells into the opening on Charge’s shoulder. With a cloud of sparks flying out he tumbled to the side. Before returning fire with his hand laser. Hunter dodged with ease, and kept firing at the giant, more spark flying off wherever they hit.

‘This is it Charge. After all these years I’m finally putting you down!’ he declared, firing yet another shell at the head. Charge stumbled back, yet more cracks began covering the glass by his face.

Seen an opening Cody charged him from behind, a mistake. Charge elbowed him and face, grabbed his arm and pushing him in front, kicking the back of he knee. Cody fell to the ground, now two hands grabbing his head and the sounds of the lasers being charged up roared straight into his ears.

‘How far are you willing to go Hunter? Kill me now and the cannons go off.’

‘Let the kid go Charge!’

‘Why don’t you make me?’

Cody began to screamed as the sides of his head began glowing red and smoke seeped out.

‘You really are a monster. Going after kids!’

‘They are SFI property, just like you and me! If I can’t bring them in alive, then I’ll bring their corpses!’

‘Good to know.’ out of nowhere sparks danced around his hands and the cannons shut down, warning screens of power failure appeared before Charge’s eyes.

Scott then jumped aside as Cody pushed the hands away, standing up and punching Charge in the gut with full strength.

Before he could retaliate his head was encased in ice, cutting him off from air. He punched it loose, shattering it. As he tried to catch his breath a sudden wave of fire struck him from the side.

‘You should never have done that.’ Samantha said, fire surrounding her hands. ‘Cause if you mess with one of us!’ she fired again, surrounding the giants entire body in flames. He pushed towards her, not seeing anything but bright fire.

‘Then, YOU MESS WITH ALL OF US!’ a truck leaped into the air behind him, landing straight on top of him. Sam ran out of it, the whole gang regrouped. Surrounded by carnage, embers flying along the wind, the once green fields with torn up. A scrap yard of burned steel, clouds of smoke and embers, and brown earth ripped from the ground.

One last squad of three soldiers came around corner of a broken tank and aimed their rifles. Just in the last second shots rang out, one falling the ground and the other two taken out by Scott’s bolts as while they were distracted. They turned to see Regina running towards them, carrying a rifle.

‘What are you doing here?? You were suppose to get out!’

‘The others have escaped! Its just us left now!’

‘Guess that’s our cue to leave then, before more shows up.’ Jacob said, as the sounds of giant footsteps approached them.

They turned to Hunter who merely waved for them to leave already.

Jacob nodded a thank you to him as they took off, leaving the broken battlefield. Hunter turned to the last two mechs marching towards the field, missile launcher appeared in his hands.

‘Alright, who’s first?’

 

The group jumped into one of the few remaining trucks a bit further away from the battleside. Sam possessed it, driving everyone away.

‘Where did our parents go?’ Samantha asked.

‘No idea, i came back to make sure you guys got out.’

‘Guess we just have trust that they got out of town. Like we have to.’

‘Ya...we did everything we could.’ Regina moved over and gave her little brother a hug, tears flowing as the battle finally had ended.

The truck remained silent until they got out of town, leaving a chaotic mess behind. There, just out to the country did she finally let go.

‘So...where do we go now?’

‘We leave the country, go wherever the road takes us. Hopefully we’ll run into our families again somewhere.’

‘And one other thing...what about these crazy powers of yours?’

‘Well you see sis...funny story..’

*

‘So let me get this straight.’ the voice behind the monitor barely contained its rage.

‘Not only did you fail to apprehend a group of children, but you locked down an entire town, tore a stadium to pieces, lost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment in a single battle, badly injured your main enforcer, had dozens of soldiers killed or badly injured, and then let them escape, all the while exposing our operation to the whole damn planet?!’

‘It seems we badly underestimated them. It won’t happen again.’

‘No commander...it wont.’ the door opened to his office opened.

He was about to yell at whoever dared to just walk in unannounced when several shots from a silenced pistol went off. He froze up for barely two seconds before his body collapsed, falling dead onto the floor.

The assassin, dressed in full body, black carbon armor approached the screen.

‘No witnesses agent.’ the call ended as they began to spray something all over the room, the desk, walls, floor, every surface. Then walked out, leaving a trail of material. Casually and caring passing by the rooms filled with dead bodies. Other agents sprayed down every wall and desk. Barrels strapped with C4 placed in the labs and hallways, data downloaded to hand held devices before they were wiped clean. Once finished all of them left, barely a few minutes after being emptied the bombs exploded, fire instantly carried off along the sprays.

Any room not smashed directly by explosion was instantly ignited by a firestorm, soon only a giant inferno was left behind.

Of the agents there was no trace, they vanished as quick as they appeared.

*

Off the west of the USA, near the city of Aberdeen, a yacht currently drove off the coast. Its six passengers, dressed in stolen clothes, not carrying any wallets or phones, left their lives behind.

The boat was stocked with fuel, food and a map.

‘Are you sure this thing will get us all the way Japan?’ Scott asked, not trusting this ship.

‘Would you rather go back and risk getting caught?’ his sister Regina asked.

‘No..but its a luxury boat.’

‘Canada will hand us over the US when asked and Mexico is to risky with the amount of soldiers out looking for us, not to mention the intense border security there. This is our best shot at leaving the mainland and getting far away from it.’ Regina explained.

‘And what do we do once we get there?’

‘We’ll have to build some kind of life off the radar. It wont be easy but its our only choice. After Blue Hills they’ll shoot us on sight.’

‘How long will it take?’

‘Dunno. We’ll have to ration what we have for now.’

On the back end Samantha sat on the floor, staring back home. The mainland was barely visible now, vanishing behind the planets curve.

Cody slumped down next to her, sighing from exhaustion. They had done nothing but run and hide for several days now, staying off the main roads, robbing stores for food and desperately hoping the authorities wouldn’t find them.

‘Do you think they’ll be fine?’ Samantha asked, her worry still edged on her face.

‘I know they will. Mom is a bit of scaredy cat but dad’s pretty smart. They’ll find some way to get out of there. And someday we’ll find them. When things cool off.’

‘I hope you’re right. I just keep imagining them being found, arrested. Being held at gunpoint and locked up some dirty cell somewhere.’

‘They wont...they wont.’ he wasn’t sure which one he tried convince. He could only keep hoping.

For now it was days, perhaps over a week at sea. And off to a brand new, much darker world.