Walking into the eve of darkening night, in search for the truth of this world to wield. It finally donned on Jackie that she was back where she started in the first place. But the fact that she’s walking with others, armed with abilities, clothed, fed and with a plan—she started to get Stark’s idea of rebuilding.

Trying to strait through the ruins of once-rowhouse neighborhood, the idea felt more impossible and fleeting.

Jackie stopped at the fallen tree that was in their path, causing the others to stop. Each step, was crisp crunch, the leaves scattered across the neighborhood.

“Plan reminder:” Jackie began, turning towards everyone. “We sneak in, we find a map or layout of the school, we navigate towards storage or anywhere the canisters lie, we grab them and sneak away. Any complications, we run and cover our tracks.”

“If anything comes up during the middle of all that, or at all—we bolt and hide, figuring out what we can do next,” River followed up, tugging on her backpack strap.

Jackie nodded. “Anyone have something to bring up? Something that just occurred to them?”

“We’ll tell you when we think about it,” Maddie said point blank.

Jackie just sighed, and turned on her heels as she heard Maddie cackle behind her.

She grabbed onto the fallen Oak, scaling it by jumping up while keeping her grip, vaulting over it soon after it. As she landed on the crunchy ground, she backed away to make room for the others. Aiko followed Jackie’s lead with little to no grace, Maddie surprisingly followed after, but was clearly breathless for a bit.

Meanwhile, River emerged from, and squeezed through, the mess where the tree was uprooted versus changing anything. She turned, helping a whimpering Tracy who was terrified of getting caught by one of the twisted roots. Luckily for them both, they made it.

Jackie continued the walk, and it got dark in what felt like seconds.

It was eerie. The entire street, from what they could see even with enhanced sight, was covered in the deepest black and navy. The broken homes, the tilting street lamps, the scatter of debris that belonged to buildings many blocks away from here, all painted a scene from a horror movie. But instead of the unease of the monster or killer ready to pounce, it was just horrific ambience that forced the travelers to confront various facts.

There were people here, not too long ago. Despite being miles away from Steppe Ave, the reach of the Hospital incident still managed to make people lose their homes. Their lives. Davenport could be on the verge of being considered a Terminsys City, a major blow that could forever seal humanity’s fate against the Shifts. And the final truth.

Regardless of their choices, there is truly nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

They all instantly looked about, when they heard laughing in the distance. They tensed up, but were together.

“Hahaha…” the voice, gravely and hoarse—sandpaper rubbing against drywall. “Gots me the sucky-sucky!”

Jackie glanced back to a Maddie who repeatedly shook her head, and with that, she and the rest began to run away from wherever the sound was coming from, bolding down the street as the voice’s distance laughter acted as a gauge of how far they’ve gotten away.

Three minutes of running, getting out of that neighborhood, now at the crosswalk of the next neighborhood over. They all panted, before trying to speak.

“Did that man said he wanted a-a ‘sucky sucky’--?!” Tracy asked.

“Iunno!” Maddie shouted. “You fucking ask him, ‘cause that was instant bad news!”

“Jesus Christ…” Jackie wiped her brow.

“Sometimes? Shit’s funny and you wanna poke at them—or at least fucking let them ramble and listen…” Maddie explained. “But that? Nah. Way too many fucking questions at once and we were in some dark ass pit or alley or whatever.”

Jackie quickly glanced over at everyone, counting everyone present before sighing again, rubbing her eyes.

“Regardless, we’re nearly to the school,” Aiko pointed ahead. “Not long now.”

They resumed walking, down the broken roads. Cracked upwards, but nothing that prevented them or any possible vehicle to continue on their way.

The scene was more or less like the one from before, until they crossed a certain rowhouse.

A middle-aged lady, just sat on the porch of what Jackie presumed is her home, looking up. Jackie stopped everyone, only a few feet away from here. Jackie looked to Maddie, to which Maddie picked up on.

“Hey neighbor,” Maddie voiced. “What’s keeping ya’ out here?”

“Just waiting,” the lady responded. Her hair was gray, her face marked with wrinkles that haven’t totally taken the youth from her face, her brown eyes reflecting the moon-lit skies.

“For…?” Maddie asked.

“Sky to fall, the Moon to drop, the Sun burning us—” the lady shrugged, still looking up. “Anything, really. Because why not at this point?”

Jackie glanced at her possible home, and surprisingly, it wasn’t in shambles. From the dim lights she could see from her windows, it seems that she has some source of light at least.

Which made Jackie sad to her core, because this could be a damage that’s entirely mental.

“I could just go in, do something else—but I’m afraid if I do, I’d miss it. I won’t know what’s going on. There’s nothing we—nothing can be done, so I wanna at least see it happen.”

“We’re just going to pass you, okay neighbor?” Maddie cautioned. “Nothing weird or more than that.”

She didn’t respond. Just watched the sky.

The girls walked past her, feeling much worse than running away from a possible danger. They walked past once a possible future.

Finally away from the ruin of people, the girls reached the park segment of the area. Street and sidewalk bordering the mini parks leading to Evermore.

Walking past the trees, they can see them part to show the compact, futurist-inspired building they wanted. White, grey, black—with dark navy-tinted windows. It was like if the building was a jenga tower, parts jutting out in the sky. At it’s base, however, was a brick building that housed everything else the school needed—like a gym, concert hall…

The girls ran, then jogged, towards their designation—wanting to gain ground quick but didn’t want to alert anyone near. River was the first to walk up to the glass doors, the lobby/hub of Evermore just behind them.

She toggled the Shift Security Cuff, exactly the same as the Megaplex’s. She dialed three keys, then had to pause. Thinking, closing her eyes while her eyes where down.

“See, I remember the starting code just all the schools have the universal start… But what was…?”

“They really should just skip all this prestige and just make multiple keys under door mats,” Maddie quipped, looking around along with Aiko and Tracy.

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Ever the—”

Maddie then made some babbling sounds, cutting Jackie off.

Jackie turned to her, “Are you really that immature to resort to making noises to make fun…?”

Then Jackie saw what made her babble.

A Nulgarrt, had to be one. There was no way that a dog’s legs could be so elongated.

A cross between poles and toothpicks, this dog-like thing was hunched forward, it’s mouth hung open which made up most of it’s body, which was a white bean-shape that was cracked open with feelers throbbing about above it’s body-mouth. Likely how it’s able to sense it’s surroundings.

It was standing there, between the park trees.

“Aiko,” Jackie said with urgency. “Use the scooter.”

The girl saw the electronic scooter placed on the field, and then nodded. She practically jumped towards it, letting herself get sucked into the device before she made it stand up on it’s own and rev.

Jackie was the next to run over, grabbing Aiko’s scooter by using her energies. She picked it up, swung back, and hit the Nulgarrt dead-on—using the propulsion of her blast to add extra power.

A blackout.

Then coming to.

Aiko was cheering, jumping in celebration that made Jackie jump. “WE DID IT! FIRST NULGARRT KILL!”

Jackie quickly shushed her, causing Aiko to stiff.

“s-sorry—but still! We didn’t even get our guy!”

Jackie looked down at the corpse herself, and was dumbfounded more than anything.

“F-fucking—” Maddie was walking up along with River and Tracy. “Dog-bean-man was fucking looking at me and… Fuck, I don’t know. That shit was…”

Tracy voiced what Jackie was feeling, “There’s no way we took out a Nulgarrt… We haven’t improved in the slightest! N-not taking away your achievements, but—”

“You’re right…” Jackie concurred. “That was way too easy. This should’ve been us figuring out how to run to Allies with our tails between our legs.”

Jackie then picked up the broken scooter, using it as a tool to flop the body on it’s side.

And once she did, all of their collective hearts sunk to their stomachs.

The Nulgarrt’s hide from the side was completely and utterly shredded on it’s side.

It was fresh.

“Oh no,” River genuinely sounded scared. “She IS here.”