Chapter 1.2: ‘Friends from before’

Year: 2483 Month: May 26th

Kai and Nyx dispose of the officer’s gun down a drain and run to the nearest bus station. Kai empties out his wallet and only manages to scrape out a little under £3. Nyx pulls out her phone and takes off the case, inside the case there was two notes, a £10 and £5. Kai hugs Nyx and they slump down onto a bench in the far corner of the station. He looks down at his wrist, there was a small purple band around it. The after effect of using his flame. He pulls up his hood and closes his eyes, sighing. Kent is gonna be mad.

Kai is woken up to the sound of the bus pulling into the station. He grabs Nyx’s shoulder and shakes her awake. She yawns and sits up, rubbing her eyes. Kai stands up and takes her hand, leading her onto the bus. He takes the money and hands it to the driver. The driver looks at Nyx questioningly, scanning her up and down. She nervously creeps back behind kai and he stares down the driver. The driver looks away and prints their tickets, he hands them to Kai and gives him the change. Kai shoves them into his pocket and leads Nyx down to the back of the bus. They sit down and he pulls out his phone. There were 6 missed calls from Kent and 3 from an unknown number. Kai squints as he reads a message, ‘I have a proposition, meet at that spot you are so fond of’. He turns his phone of and sighs, he’s not going. Nyx was his top priority right now. The bus comes to a halt and kai gets up, Nyx quickly follows. They get off the bus and make their way to his apartment. Kai decides to take a backwards alleyway route, just to be safe. Nyx clings to kai as they turn down multiple different alleys, avoiding anything that moves. They finally reach the apartment building and quickly enter, only to see Kent playing solitaire again. But there was now another person sat next to him. Kai closes the door behind him and the sound causes the figure to jump up and whip around. They were wearing a black puffer jacket with a dark scarf wrapped around their face. Kai puts his arm in front of Nyx and one foot forward. The stranger raises their hands and cowers away from Kai’s deathly stare. Kent stands up and chuckles,

’’it’s just Cayde, chill out Kai’’ The stranger lowers their hands and removes the scarf, Kai relaxes as he sees the blonde hair and stupid smile of his childhood friend.

‘’Been a while Kai’’ Cayde chuckles, moving towards him. Kai smiles and shakes his hand.

‘’Far too long of a while Cayde’’ they hug and then Kai grabs Nyx’s hand again. Kent notices her and looks at kai.

‘’Why is she here?’’ Kent mutters. His expression was just as cold as his voice.

‘’We had no choice Kent’’ Kai explains, ‘’She would have been taken, or even worse if I didn’t do something!’’

Kent suddenly lunges towards kai and grabs him by the collar ‘’I don’t care! We spoke about this, I got her a safe building to stay in. It’s her fault she couldn’t keep herself hidden’’ Kai grabs Kent’s hands and pulls them off him. He shoves him away and hugs Nyx.

‘’I’m keeping her here whether you like it or not.’’

Kent glares at kai and sits back down on the sofa. Awkwardly, Cayde walks towards Kai and passes him a phone.

‘’I hate to admit it, but I’m not here visiting. There are some things on that phone that I think you could make use of’’.

Kai squints at Cayde and tilts his head, ‘’like what?’’

‘’ I don’t know to be honest, I was told to hand it to you, most likely things like police routes.’’

Kai looks at the phone and sighs ‘’I see, did Apollo send you?’’

Cayde nods. Kai slips the phone in his pocket and pats Cayde on the back, ‘’thanks Cayde, I’ll be sure to visit you two soon’’.

Cayde grins and puts his thumb up ‘’ I look forward to it!’’

Nyx tugs on kai’s sleeve and whispers ‘’ Who is Apollo?’’

Kai turns to Nyx ‘’She’s an old friend of mine that has quite the powerful position at the moment. She could probably beat me in a fight too.’’

Nyx pauses then nods. Turning back to Cayde, Kai looks at his eyes. They were brown with a tint of yellow around the edges. Cayde looks back in confusion. Kai thinks to himself, if him and Cayde were to try THAT, would they succeed? He shrugs it off and heads into his room with Nyx, leaving Cayde alone with Kent. Nyx lays down on kai’s bed and he sits at his desk. They both sigh and look at each other. Kai thinks, they have some allies, but it’s only a matter of time before the authorities find out they are power enabled. Plus, he didn’t kill that officer earlier so now they have their faces. The best decision would be to leave the country, but they have no way of doing that. So that leaves them with either getting caught or fighting for the rest of their lives. Kai is okay with fighting, but Kent is unpowered, and Nyx can’t control hers. Cayde’s ability is reliable support but only situational for offence and Apollo will most likely try to stay out of it. Kai either had to get stronger or watch the people he cared about get taken away from him again. He knew what he had to do. He had to find more people like him that were hiding from the authorities and make more allies. It was their only chance.