14 JANUARY 2019

(ABOUT 47 YEARS LATER)

Nearly two months after the first wave of Emergence. 

 

                 Usually, a night in the city of Portland, Maine wouldn't exactly be this quiet. The majority of everyone was inclined to hit the pillow at 8 PM or at least forced to stay inside their homes. The heavy winter days implied the inevitable arrival of a winter storm very soon, and two months were not exactly enough for everyone to fully adjust to the completely unexpected Emergence, which, while gave the world a batch of superheroes, equally plagued it as a price with villains and criminals so terrible calling them dangerous would be a serious understatement. The very existence of magic and superpowers meant more collateral damage and casualties caused by both heroes and villains alike, making it a hundred percent reasonable for the citizens to be overly cautious. Add the ever-growing political tensions throughout the country, and you've got yourself countless people expecting the Apocalypse to happen anytime soon, which, once again, is a very reasonable conclusion given the circumstances. 

                  The minority, however, weren't too keen on the very idea of hiding within their homes. Either they found it very silly, maybe they just don't have any concerns whatsoever, or they probably were confident enough to defend themselves after acquiring superpowers during the wave of Emergence. Couple Danicka Henderson and Preston Long both fall under the latter classification… or at least one of them.  

                   "Mmm…" nineteen-year-old Danicka moaned as she delightfully savored the taste of her lover's lips as their tongues danced. Twenty-year-old Preston, who simply sat in the driver's seat, in response, merely released a series of heavy breaths out of pleasure, feeling his hard member inside Danica, who was happily riding on his lap, tightly hugging his decently toned body as she continuously, yet gently thrusted back and forth. The raven-haired boyfriend inserted a hand under her tank top, reaching for the sizable chest.

                   At 10:23 PM, the snow-covered park was completely devoid of any visible individuals, automatically letting the dead silence and the shadows to victoriously linger as long as the sun still hadn't risen. The darkness of the night was amplified by the snow, but the light coming from the couple's Mustang parked right in the middle of a deserted… (sigh) park, was carelessly visible within a twenty-meter radius, letting you witness the hot couple in action as they went about their pleasurable business were you to be present. 

                    Danicka stopped her thrusting and untangled her tongue from Preston's in order to properly breathe for a short period. Although Preston suspected there may be more reasons than that alone. 

                    "... What's wrong, babe?" asked Preston. "Why'd you stop?"

                    She turned her head to check the car's built-in digital clock. "It's halfway to eleven now. We should… we should be going back at this time."

                    "You're worried about something, aren't you?"

                    "Of course I am, idiot!" she replied, pulling herself off of Preston and positioning herself in the front passenger seat in the process. "It's getting way too late already, which means this place is gonna get more and more dangerous every second. You never know when a supervillain, or worse-- a supernatural entity, might come out of the shadows and strike us."

                    "Well, if it really is the time to worry, I should be the one to be, not you," pointed out Preston matter-of-factly. "You're literally an Elsa, last time I checked, babe. You know what that means, right? The entire damn season's on your side!"

                     Danicka pulled a lock of her long bluish-white shiny hair into her field of vision, which reminded her once again that she was a Cryomancer now, all thanks to the Emergence; Cryomancy is the ability to manipulate ice or snow. This urged her to let out a long sigh. 

                     "I'm not that powerful, love," she reasoned. "Aside from being completely immune to the cold, I can only freeze things or create weapons or objects out of ice, and both these abilities of mine have their perceivable limits. I'm not even close to being powerful enough to conjure a snowstorm or an avalanche or something."

                     Preston raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What was that last week, then? You were like, able to summon a snow tornado to clear a path without hurting anyone."

                    "That took a lot of my energy. Like, a LOT. Well, I could theoretically summon a powerful blizzard within a small area and within nearly a minute at most, at the expense of depleting my energy to the point where I'd be hospitalized… or worse: dead." 

                    "E-eh… let's just hope that a situation where you get to do that never arrives, babe," Preston nervously implied. 

                    Danicka rolled her eyes, which had cyan-colored irises that permanently glowed in the dark. "Which is why I'm asking you to get us out of here."

                    This earned a sigh from Preston. "Fine, fine. But before we do…" he trailed off, switching his expression to puppy eyes, which both caused his girlfriend to chuckle and cringe. "... Can we finish this, please?"

                    Danicka rolled her eyes yet again. "Okay, fine, love. But please… do you even have the fucking slightest decency to fucking turn the lights off?!" she abruptly snapped, reasonably so. The parts of the seat she had her hands resting on immediately were coated in frost, which gradually spread like an infection throughout the car's interior, causing the temperature inside to slowly drop. The glow on her eyes was maximized as well. "If anyone was hanging around here other than us, they're most likely having a fucking good time harvesting their own milk right now!"

                     "Okay! Okay! I'm turning it off!" Preston nervously and hastily responded, before proceeding to switch the lights off. Danicka's eyes glowed brighter than ever which initially creeped Preston out, yet aroused him so much more the time he got used to them. Upon speaking again, however, his expression changed. "Sorry, babe… it's just… pretty rare for us to go on a date these times, you know? With all the chaos going on throughout the world, added with college stuff… it's pretty hard to find a schedule for us, so I just have to enjoy every single time with you as much as I can, minor details like the lights be damned. Being with you is more important than that."

                     Upon those words, a gasp was heard escaping the throat of Danicka. In a matter of seconds, the car interior's temperature, maintained by the built-in heater, returned to normal as all the frost she created disintegrated into water vapors. Before Preston could even see it coming, she was already on his lap once again, aggressively going for the kiss, in which he gladly received. With that, he decided to wrap his masculine arms around Danicka's body. She may be an Elsa, but boy is she fucking warm, and he ain't letting her go anytime soon. 

                   Danicka momentarily broke their kiss to say something.

                   "Sorry about that," she whispered. 

                   "Don't be, babe," whispered Preston back. 

                   Danicka proceeded to do a forehead-to-forehead with her lover before whispering back again. "I love you, dear." 

                   "Likewise, babe," breathed Preston. A second right after, the distance between their faces little by little ceased to exist until it reached the point where their noses touched each other. Closer. Closer. Closer again, 'till their lips united for the third time, their tongues eagerly preparing to continue their waltz, just like what Preston's key and Danicka's keyhole were already doing. 

                   "Mmm," moaned Danicka as she thrusted and danced her tongue with Preston's who continuously breathed heavily. 

                    Flap.

                    Preston's eyebrows were reflexively raised upon hearing that… unusual and unexpected sound through his enhanced senses given to him by the unforgettable storm. 

                    Softly, yet urgently tapping Danicka by the shoulder, he was able to successfully signal her to stop their business momentarily. 

                    "What's wrong?" Danicka asked in sincere curiosity accompanied by the slight disappointment resulting from the interruption. Her eyes glowed beautifully in the darkness as she stared at her lover without any signs of looking away unless he answered her question. 

                   "I just heard something. Not far from here."

                   "Do you mind telling me what it is, love, if it's important enough for us to stop the second time?" she asked with suppressed annoyance as she returned to the front passenger seat, pulling her underwear and denim skirt back to her hips as she did. I mean it was my fault the first time, but still! 

                   "It's the sound of wings flapping around, babe," Preston plainly responded. 

                    With that, the Cryomancer Danicka found herself freezing in place (not literally, of course) out of fear and worry, as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. "It's-it's… it's just a bird, right?"

                    He didn't answer, as his eyes slowly, but carefully scanned the outside through the car windows. 

                    Flap.

                    "Preston? I swear to God if this is a joke, I'll..."

                    Her lover abruptly turned his head to a certain direction, clearly focusing on the sound, and clearly not paying attention to his worried girlfriend's question.

                    "Preston...?"

                    Flap. Flap. 

                    Preston's eyes slightly widened, before speaking. "I think it's getting closer."

                    "Please tell me it's A FUCKING BIRD PRESTON!" she screamed out of fear and frustration, in which she previously tried to bottle up before failing miserably upon hearing her boyfriend's latest implication.

                    "Alright! Alright, babe! Calm down! Shush!" he hastily replied as he tried to prevent Danicka from going into full-on panic mode. He could hear her heart rate gradually increase… and feel the temperature drastically decrease, yet again. "I'll tell you if you calm down."

                    "I am calm, I am calm, I am fucking calm," she rapidly stated, contorting her lips to a smile as an attempt to be reassuring, yet her widened and freaked out look in her eyes, as well as her trembling hands, betrayed it. It instead ended up making her look creepy due to her glowing eyes.  

                    "No, you're not."

                    "Yes. I. Fucking. Am."

                    Preston released a long sigh, followed by a light chuckle. "Of course, you are, babe. The frost all over the steering wheel tells me so."

                    "I-... Sorry..." Danicka guiltily said, before converting all the frost into water vapor once again without physically doing anything except willing it. "These powers can be… annoying at times. I--"

                    Flap. Flap. Flap.

                    Danicka whimpered, as she herself could already hear what only Preston himself could earlier. As a result, she felt tears welling up in her eyes, which glowed brightly themselves. 

                    "It's much closer now," whispered, a bead of sweat or two running down both of Preston's temples. "Like it's coming right towards us."

                    Danicka's supposedly sweet voice was trembling, no matter how hard she tried to keep it steady. "It-it does sound like a bird. An… an abnormally gigantic bird. Oh God… oh God..." she spoke in a hushed tone, her voice nearly cracking in the process.

                    Preston reached a hand to Danicka, gently brushed her hair and cupped her face to calm her down. "Hey, hey, Nicka babe. Calm down. We'll get through this eventually."

                    Danicka proceeded to pull him close instead to kiss his lips the umpteenth time, despite getting scared by their current predicament. "We'll be getting through this once you start driving!" she worriedly muttered once she let go of his lips. 

                    Flap. Flap. Flap.

                    Like his lover earlier, Preston proceeded to pull his pants and underwear back up and fastened them with his belt, before pulling out a little something with a steady hand from the vehicle's compartment. Whatever this was, it wasn't normal… eh, not that it says anything anymore after the Emergence. Regardless, more likely than not, their lives could be in danger. 

                    "Preston?" Danicka anxiously called, still very much cautious about limiting her volume. "What do you think you're doing?"

                    Her lover carefully inserted a fifteen-round 9mm magazine to his trusty Glock 19. "Preparing to defend ourselves in case it's something dangerous, babe." Cocking the firearm immediately afterwards, he safely placed it in a flat surface just behind the steering wheel, turned the headlights on, wrapped the seat belt around his torso and began to drive just as his girlfriend logically demanded, and added: "Not exactly the most effective weapon to use anymore after the storm literally normalized the fantasy stuff, but still better than nothing." 

                    "I agree. And at least you didn't fucking do anything stupid like heading out the fucking car and somehow deciding to waste bullets on something that could be probably unkillable and could tear you to fucking shreds --applying the context of the Emergence-- instead of running away when you get the chance. That's literally a green light for turning yourself into a fodder in minutes if this was a horror movie," she started to point out, momentarily regaining her composure as she wore her seatbelt and converted water vapor in her hands to form a light yet deadly katana made out of ice as hard and as effective as the materials used to make actual katanas. "So let's get out of here, love." 

                  Being an above-decent kendo practitioner herself, a katana would obviously be her deadly weapon of choice in defending herself; a kendo shinai wouldn't be as effective in doing the job in her humble opinion. Guns, on the other hand, she wasn't very fond of. And even if otherwise, it was still beyond her abilities to create such a complicated machine it would merely be a waste of her time and energy to try. 

                    But despite her powers and the winter greatly favoring them, Danicka never felt secure about their safety; they were mostly clueless about whatever this something is, aside from it being birdlike, or simply winged. Due to how superpowers and the supernatural have become rampant all over the globe, the possibilities for everything were now simply… nigh-boundless. With this, it struck a creeping dread within her which constantly reminded her not to let her guard down. For who knows? It could be a supervillain or a grotesque beast that would easily murder them both once it managed to catch them. And that dread becomes a seed that'll slowly grow into genuine terror. 

                   Even when he was driving the mustang out of the park, Preston's ears were still focused on their surroundings outside their running car. 

                   "Huh," muttered Preston, bringing his lover's attention to him. 

                   "W-what's wrong?" she abruptly asked, her hands unable to hold the katana in a steady manner as a result of the fear she was currently resisting. 

                   The mustang was only a few meters away from reaching the minor road leading to a main one. Preston heavily stepped on the gas pedal to hasten their departure from the deserted park. "I'm not hearing it anymore, ever since we started driving."

                   Danicka's face blossomed in hope, like a flower. "Really…?"

                   "Yep. Gone now, babe. Maybe it's just some kind of an overgrown magic bird coincidentally flying around near us, after all. Maybe--"

                   Whoosh!

                   Just as they were on the verge of reaching relief, Preston could've sworn his peripheral vision had caught a dark figure darting past them from ten o'clock to seven right outside their mustang. It was incredibly fast, to the point where it nearly looked like nothing but a blur or a glitch in the matrix, and to the point where it made no noise aside from a little whoosh only Preston was able to hear. In shock, he was forced to hit the brakes for a while, lest he might risk their safety through unsteady driving. 

                   "Love?" Danicka called out. "Why'd you stop?"

                   "I…" Preston was about to continue if he hadn't seen Danicka's trembling hands, the slight twitching of her lips, and focused on her heartbeat.

                   "I, uh… it's nothing, babe. I, uh, just had a sudden urge to uh… take a dump. But I- but I can hold it, don't worry! But yeah, like I said, it's probably just a bird, babe, so we shouldn't worry that much. So, yeah… I'll just get us out of here in no time, don't worry."

                   Danicka frowned, although refused to bring up any questions. "... Let's go."

                   "On it."

                   Preston was about to step on the gas, when he immediately…

                   Whoosh!

                    … Heard the very same whoosh yet again, followed by Danicka gasping in shock. Upon turning his head to take a concerned look at his lover, he could see her entire body was already intensely shaking in sheer terror as her eyes were glued to her side's window. Through his ears, Danicka's heartbeat was going berserk, banging like someone repeatedly smashing a sledgehammer to a concrete wall as fast as an automatic assault rifle.

                    "Nicka?" he called. She did not answer, at least within several seconds. "Nicka?" he called again. Her heart rate at this point beat so fast even Preston was getting infected by the fear she was currently experiencing. 

                    "Can we please just… go?" she requested, her voice indicating she was holding her tears back. 

                    "Babe…" Preston reached out to embrace her. 

                    "STEP ON THE FUCKING GAS, DAMMIT!" she screamed, forcing Preston to stop reaching for her.

                    Helplessly, Preston couldn't do anything at the moment but to start driving. Letting out a stressful sigh, he shifted the gear and stepped on the accelerator pedal. The engine roared, as expected it would when the car would move… except this time, it didn't. 

                   "What in the--"

                    No matter what he did, the mustang wouldn't budge an inch, despite the engine forcing them to. It was as if…

                    It was as if all the tires were completely deflated without them even noticing! 

                    But how? How could one even quietly and completely deflate not one, not two, but four tires to the point they were unusable in such a short time?  

                    Preston decided to stop his attempts of forcing the car to run lest it might inflict more damage to it.

And focusing on Danica again, her heartbeat now thumped wildly like a marching band. The glowing tears she had been welling up earlier finally prevailed and freely flowed down her cheeks, while her eyes were wide open in shock. Her breathing was uncontrollably and abnormally fast. Panic was winning over her body. "We're… stuck…"

                     She was suddenly, yet carefully, held by Preston by the shoulders. "Nicka! It's okay. Stay with me, Nicka. Focus, babe! Okay…. okay… That's it, that's it. Now, deep breaths. Deep... breaths." 

                    

                     Danicka complied.

                     "Inhale…"

                     Danicka inhaled.

                     "... Exhale."

                     Danicka exhaled.

                     This went on for a few times until the bluish-white-haired girl's heartbeat slowed down, and her hyperventilation dealt with. As a result, she was able to get ahold of her overwhelming emotions. 

                     "All better now?"

                     She nodded, before quickly hugging him, being careful with her ice katana as she did, her tears still flowing, this time caused by momentary comfort. "... Yeah. Thanks a ton, love."

                     Preston proceeded to wipe her glowing tears with his hands, which led to him caressing her smooth cheeks. "Please remember that you can defend yourself better than I can. You've got a goddamn katana and an entire season at your disposal, for Christ's sake! If there's anyone in here who should be scared, it's me! But since I'm far from being scared, there's no reason for you to be so. Think about it, babe." 

                     "You're right," she replied, before blowing out a sigh which signified the full retrieval of her composure and confidence. 

                     "I am right, babe. We'll get through this in no time."

                     She then temporarily placed the katana in the backseat to pull out her phone, which was kept in her skirt pocket. "I'll call for help."

                     FLAP. 

                     FLAP.

                     FLAP.

                     She flinched in response to the sudden return of the flapping, this time significantly louder than before, hinting that its distance between them… may not be very, very far off.

                     Picking up his Glock 19, Preston pulled Danicka closer to him instinctively and proceeded to aim the pistol at each car window one by one as he scanned their surroundings. 

                    "It's back," whispered Preston, his hand holding the gun visibly sweating.

                    Despite her shock, Danicka hastily, and rationally, dialed 911. 911 can be dialed to send a hero to you --all thanks to OMR (short for Heroes Organisation for Mutual Assistance and Services)-- whenever the problem was big enough to require the intervention of a superhero or two, or if said problem was caused by a naughty supervillain.

                    After a second of beeping as she held the smartphone to her ear, the call was picked up by a woman, who luckily wasted no time in asking what the issue was. Danicka quickly replied, her voice shaky. "We desperately require help at the moment! A superhero's help! Our car was immobilized and we're most likely attacked by either a creature of sorts, or a supervillain. We can't do anything right now but to stay ins--"

                   BANG!

                   The right side of the mustang, where the couple sat, was suddenly hit by a devastatingly powerful force, causing the whole car to get knocked back a few meters away. Glass shards were scattered everywhere as the all the windows of the mustang exploded, unable to withstand the applied force's impact before the vehicle dangerously and completely flipped over. It was as if another vehicle that ran at a decently high speed had crashed into it… except this wasn't the case. There were no vehicles in sight, nor were there anyone around at all. 

                    Except, of course, that very same dark figure Danicka and Preston had seen earlier. The figure appeared to be about seven feet in height, clad in a hooded cloak completely concealing their body. The garment was so dark in color they could easily pass for a shadow at night. 

                     The figure simply stood still not far from the damaged and upside down vehicle... Observing.