Hveth here.

Erm... Well... I kind of thought today was Saturday. Don't worry, I'll be posting a second chapter in a bit to make up for it, as well as a possible chapter tomorrow as an apology.

In this chapter we get to see a little hint of Tiffany's past :)

Happy reading!

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When Simon woke up, the pale light of the morning sun was shining through the barred windows. He sat up and yawned, looking around the room. He noticed the defined lump in a pile of blankets that was his mother, and his brother slumped against the far wall, but couldn’t spot Tiffany anywhere.

Unhurried, he got up and wandered off in search of the woman. He found her in the next room sitting at a windowside table sipping from a mug, staring out at the street. She noticed him and smiled.

“Want some coffee?”, she offered, lifting her own mug.

Simon smiled back tiredly and said, “Sure, I’d love that.”

She poured him a mug, and they sat down together at the table. For a few minutes, they enjoyed the hot beverage and the morning air.

“Will your brother be alright? He looked pretty beaten last night.”, Tiffany asked him after awhile.

Simon sighed, and looked deeply into his mug. “Yeah... He’ll be fine. I just hope he doesn’t do anything dumb before we get to somewhere safe.”, he told her.

Tiffany stared at him for a moment.

“You worry about him.”, she stated.

He gave a wry smile, and said, “How could I not? He’s my little brother. I’ve got to look out for him.”

Tiffany nodded, and leaned back, sipping her coffee delicately.

“I know the feeling.”, she began. “I have a little sister back in Brazil. I’ve been trying to save up money the past few years to bring them up here, but... I only recently got a decent job. She’s a good kid, a real good kid, she deserves to be up here.”

Tiffany swallowed hard.

“I just... I just hope she’s okay.”, she whispered. “There’s a lot more bad people in Brazil than here. People who would abuse their power, and this opportunity.”

Simon put down his mug and put his hands on hers reassuringly.

“I’m sure she’s okay. You’ll go down there, and everyone will be fine. You just have to believe that.”, Simon told her.

She clenched her jaw, and whispered barely audibly, “I hope so...”

Simon smiled sadly at her, and pulled his hands back. When he moved to pick up his mug, his hand was scalded, as the hot liquid was spilled from the rumblings of an explosion.

“Damn!”, he exclaimed, and snatched his hand back, holding it against his chest. A shattering of glass was heard as Tiffany’s mug smashed against the ground.

“That was really close!”, she said fearfully.

“C'mon, we’ve got to get somewhere safer.”, he said, and grabbed her arm, leading her out of the room.

The sprinted down the hall and blasted through the door into the room they had slept in. Thomas was up, staring out the window, while Ms. Belfonse was sitting up rubbing her eyes sleepily.

“What’s going on?”, she asked them.

“We don’t know yet mom.”, Simon told her. “Thomas, do you see anything?”

Thomas shook his head just as the window was obscured by a cloud of dust, casting the room into a dark gloom.

Simon turned to Tiffany.

“Do you know if there’s a basement or crawlspace in the building?”, he asked her seriously.

She seemed to think hard for a moment, then shook her head.

“The closest thing would probably be the contraband vault, but it’s locked and I couldn’t find the key.”, she told him.

Simon stroked his chin and paced around the room for a moment.

“Alright. There’s manhole right outside, right? We’ll have to escape through the sewers. I’ll make sure the roof doesn’t fall on us with Terramancy.”, he said finally.

There were nods and fearful looks all around.

After the announcement, they started frantically packing up the things they thought they would need to take with them. While david was rolling up blankets, Thomas came up to him.

“Give me back my power. I can use it better, it’s practically instinct to me now, and I doubt you can do much in combat even with my power. You haven’t thrown a single punch in your life.”, he told him flatly.

Simon hesitated. “Can I trust you?”, he asked after a second.

Thomas nodded seriously. “There’s no way I would put mom in danger. You know that.”

Simon sighed. No matter his shortcomings, Simon knew that Thomas would never let anything hurt mom. And despite their recent falling out, Simon knew he could entrust his own life to him as well.

“Alright. Get us out of here.”, he said, and edited the contract. Thomas still had to follow his orders, but he could use his power freely now.

Thomas smiled slightly and nodded thankfully at him.

Soon they were ready to go, and Simon peeked out the front door carefully. He couldn’t see anything on the street, so he ordered everyone to file out. With a flick of his hand, Thomas made the manhole cover pop out and fall onto the asphalt, leaving a dark hole in the street.

“Let’s go, you first, mom.”, Simon waved her over, and she began climbing down the metal rungs carefully. Next was Tiffany.

As Simon was about to crawl in, a huge explosion came from behind the police station, kicking up a cloud of dust. Another one came immediately after, and Simon saw a figure clad in blue fire go flying off into the sky about twenty feet.

Simon smacked Thomas’ leg, and yelled, “Time to go!”.

He jumped into the sewer, not bothering with the rungs. As soon as he felt his feet touch solid ground, he rolled out of the way, and soon heard Thomas land as well. There was a short silence, and then a click as Tiffany turned on the flashlight they had found.

There were a few more explosions, and dust floated down from the ceiling, but it didn’t collapse on them immediately.

“Thomas,”, Simon said, nudging his brother. “Keep the roof from falling on us. Let’s go.”

They headed off into the dark sewer, only the light of a single flashlight keeping the darkness at bay. Only the efforts of a single man keeping the roof from collapsing atop them.