School was unpleasant for Elm, and not because he was bullied, though he was. It was mostly the loneliness that got to Elm. He had friends when he was younger sure. Through middle school he was actually kind of popular. Though that changed as kids became teens and realized that the oddball that liked gore videos wasnt just doing to shock his friends. That and how a rumor started that he smelled like death, which didn't really make sense as he didn't start making his collection till high school, when his reputation was already un-salvageable.

Squeezing his way though the hallways he made his way to his second class of the day, Paradise history. Often he would bump shoulders or trip over legs as his made his way down the packed hallways, usually being sent cascading off into more small collisions. But he couldn't really blame people, it was ridiculously croweded in this school and he was pretty sure only some of them were actually aiming to send his scant frame flailing.

After somewhat stumbling into class and finding a desk, close to the back, Elm grabbed his class relevant book from his bag and placed it on his desk. It had the Paradise flag, a blue square with a diagonal grey line though it as the back drop to a burning white house. Elm wasn't a huge fan of this class as it mostly existed so the school could convince the Paradise council to not cancel funding for the schools sports teams. As such the whole class carried a sense of dragging their feet and just doing it because you have to. It was also the only class the school quite literally wouldn't let you fail, Elm found that out last year in 11th grade finals when they wouldn't let him leave the exam till he had a minimum of 65%. Hence this year, he decided to at lease pay attention, a little.

So when the teacher, a thoroughly board looking Mr. Paning, walked into class carying a newspaper and turned on the prerecorded lesson I started trying to take some notes.

"The great shift changed a great many things, for one it brought to light the Gifted, for another is gave the great nation of Paradise the chance to break away from our oppressors. Some think it was inevitable, that a great and beautiful people like those of Paradise would always have achieved independence. We were in the perfect place at the perfect time. While the rest of the world was rocked by swarms of mutant creatures, out remote location and hardy populus allowed us to unite under the powerful leadership of the don. As we continued to grow, our great leader declared, that we would be free from the whims of so called democracy, instead, with a solid long term leader, the don. Our new government sprouted with never bofor seen prosperity! The surrounding lands and city's eventualy cried out to join our meteoric rise and so, willingly bent the knee to the don. Over the course of the next 200 years, paradise attracted the most Gifted of any region in north America, and with our new power we ...."

At that point Elms tired mind realized that it was just a review and allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by the familiar recorded voice.

Plunk

Plunk

Plunk

A series of light baps against the back of his head woke him up as he idly brought his hand up to rub where he was hit. Something wet and sticky met his fingers. Upon trying to remove it Elm found that what ever it was, was thoroughly stuck into his hair. In some amount of pain and now quite awake, he turned around to check who might've launched the projectile. There, one row behind him, Derick Wains sat with a Cheshire grin, several balled up pieces of gum lined up on his desk. Derick was what Elm would consider his personal bully. While yes other kids would also bully him, it was only Derick who would go out of his way to pick on him. Sighing Elm opened and placed his Paradise history book on the back of his head as a sudo shield, he would have to go buy some special shampoo after school to get the gum out without an embarrassing haircut. It did remind him he needed to go to the bank and take out his allowance after school. For the remainder of class Elm drifted into and out of consciousness as much louder plunks from gum hitting his textbook would periodically wake him up.

***

After school Elm got on a bus headed downtown so he could visit the bank. Luckily he had a baseball cap in his locker so he could hide the gum in his hair. Looking out the window of the bus Elm could see some smoke coming from the southern rim district, kind of the crappy part of town. The police hardly ever patrol there, most crime is just handled by the local vigilantly group. Though the police would never admit it.

The bus finally gets to his stop after an hour drive, most of which was stuck in traffic, followed by a 5 minute walk to the bank. The air was warm as always. Along the way Elm waved to a homeless man he remembered talking to once.

The Central Vegas Bank is one of the larger government sanctioned banks, though this was just a comparatively small branch office it still towered over the small local stores it shared the street with. Massive glass doors, hinged to yet more glass, marked the entrance where a line of 5 or so people waited to get in. Just outside the door a couple armed security guards did the job of being bouncers. A couple people in line were turned away, not wholly unusual if there where too many unruly people inside.

Finally It was Elms turn to be interrogated by one of the guards, the younger of the two guards stepped forward. He looked to be in his early 20, with a clean shaven chin and a light scar vertically on the left half of his mouth. He glared down at Elm with a stern determination.

"Id and bank card." Elm showed him both. With a deepening frown the guard grabbed both the cards and scanned them with a device he had tethered to his bulletproof vest. Before handing back the cards.

"Can't let you in, were too full at the moment." a little taken aback by what the guard said, Elm glanced past him into the bank, while the place did have a lot of people, it was nowhere near capacity.

"There's only like 50 people in there? I just need to take out some money."

"No room" the guard said stone faced

"I can clearly see there is" at that the guard looked around a little awkwardly, meeting the eyes of his fellow guard. Seeming to have come to some silent agreement the guard looked back to Elm, eye's squinted.

"Alright you go in, but be out in 10 minutes"

Somewhat confused but glad to be past the unwanted interaction Elm walked past the guard into the bank, surprisingly almost everyone was at the front desk or waiting to be there, so Elm took his chance to head for one of the free ATM's.

Bloop bloop doo

A light musical tone greeted Elm as he placed his hand on the scanner, shortly followed by him parroting the prompt to place both his bank and id card into the machine.

Bloop bloop bloop...

The tone continued as the verification process did it's thing. Then kept doing it's thing... Maybe that's why no one was at the ATM.

Mashing the eject card button Elm waited impatiently as the screen continued to load. And load. And load. Finally a werring sound followed by his cards being ejected let him start back from square one. Elm checked his phone finding he already wasted at least 5 minutes. He looked back to the door only to see both of the guards missing. Supposing he could just wait with the other patrons, he walked up to the waiting area and grabbed a number.

The guards never seemed to return even after Elm had been in line for a 3/4ths of an hour. Then he was finally called up to the desk, a small woman with a massive fake smile started the same task he had tried with the ATM though without the music and many more awkward pauses, he never was good around girls.

He heard it then, it was quiet, but it seemed to suck in all other sounds around it, it sounded like a thousand small pieces of wood snapping. Then the sound returned. And the screaming started, he turned around only to see half of the crowd behind him grabbing at bloody wounds. His eyes were drawn up words by movement as a man a flapping cape despite being indoors was standing on air in the middle of the room. The man glanced around the room then waved his hand causing that wood snapping sound again as another part of the crowd when up in screams and this time Elm saw people collapse, body parts hitting the floor and blood spurting surprising distances.

In utter shock Elm watched as people fell a third time, then the flying man look down at Elm. The man was wearing a black suit and red tie, but no mask. The mans dark skin now slightly speckled with blood made him look positively demonic. He then raised his hand for another swipe, Elm was frozen, he looked into those dark eyes. This is how he would die, the man swiped his hand, Elm closed his eyes then there was that sound.

crackcrack-bbbooooOOOMMMM!

Slightly muffled by the effect of the mans swipe, the force of the explosion however sent Elm, as well as plenty of smoke and debris careening across the room just as the area he was standing was bisected.