Chapter Text
It took longer for the bus driver to stop the vehicle than to resume the trip, even though the passengers complained and demanded the lunatic to see if he had run over something, or someone. Eventually he complied, if only to shut them up and in doing so didn’t seem to notice two teenagers slipping into the diner a few feet away, or maybe he just wanted to get off the highway as soon as possible and just let it happen.
Maybe it wasn’t such a strange story. Two teenagers running away from home to start a life somewhere far away from mommy and daddy. Perhaps it was normal enough that the driver just sort of let it happen. Or perhaps he knew exactly who they were and was reporting sighting them as soon as he got back in. Driving away just to give them the illusion of being in the clear. Amy Dallon could not discard the possibility, although a small part of her mind insisted that would be too far-fetched.
But what if the driver had been a thrall? What if all of the passengers were and they would turn around and assault the diner the moment the two teens relaxed even slightly? She didn’t know a lot about parahumans, but she knew for sure she couldn’t ever be certain.
“Miss?” The waitress smacked Amy back into reality. She looked at the effeminate-looking guy she ran away with, then at the waitress, trying to find something to say and not look more suspicious.
She saw Victoria, uniform and notepad notwithstanding, for a moment. But the image blinked off when Amy focused on the waitress fully.
They had the same blonde hair, but that was it. Amy would never have made the connection anywhere else.
“I’ll have what he’s having.” She blurted out, discreetly turning her eyes back to the window to her left. Just in case anyone suspicious tried to sneak in.
“Hot-cakes with a lot of jelly.” The guy chuckled as Amy snapped her head back to him, paling at the thought of her having tipped the waitress that something was wrong “And coffee. You want coffee?”
The question was for her, Amy caught that much at least.
“Sure, whatever.” Amy saw the waitress give her a funny look from the corner of her eyes, but turned to face the window again.
It probably wasn’t such a common occurrence to have a couple arrive at midnight. So maybe acting like everything was fine would be futile in the end.
Amy didn’t relax even when the woman confirmed their orders and left.
“She knows.” Amy exhaled as soon as they were alone. Keeping her voice down since they were basically the only customers around, save for an old man on the far corner and a girl drinking on the opposite side.
“No way.” He opened his eyes widely, motioning to cover his mouth in the worst fake surprise Amy had ever seen “How could she ever figure it out?”
…
What the hell did Amy get herself into?
“I’m…!” She gasped, realizing again she could be heard even without screaming “I’m being serious.”
“Well,” The guy slumped on his seat and stretched his arms to either side on the back “That sounds like a you problem.”
Maybe if she was fast enough, Amy could beat the smug right off of his face before the PRT arrived. She could even bring his pretty features back to normal and beat him up again since they kind of were in the middle of nowhere.
Amy chose to take deep breaths instead and stopped herself from thinking about the subject further. Her right temple and eye started pulsing a bit, no doubt the start of a migraine, and her hands trembled even when the waitress brought them their coffee. Which she started drinking reflexibly in spite of knowing it would not help her need to blow up then and there.
The guy scoffed, moving the dark curls he had for hair away from his face. Amy held her cup tighter, letting the burning feeling in her hands counteract her increasing blood pressure.
“What is stopping me from calling home and getting my sister here right now?” Amy finally released the cup, concentrating in deep breaths and how her hands stung from the burn.
She almost saw a figure in white land on the parking lot outside. Coming closer to get Amy to safety.
Her face snapped back to the window, realizing she stopped looking at it while talking. She scanned the dark area beyond the lit zones, but there was not a single person outside. Well, beyond the truck drivers taking a smoke and chatting among one another.
They looked busy doing their thing, but what if they too were thralls? Amy could never be sure.
“Nothing, really.” He replied nonchalantly.
Amy gave him a side glare, making him raise his hands as if to defend himself.
“Honest. By all means go ahead.” He looked down and moved his hand to his pockets, taking a few bucks and throwing them on the table “There, be my guest.”
It felt like he was making fun of her, but his expression looked closer to someone who had a mild interest in the topic, and not of someone trying to pull Amy’s leg. Like he didn't care about why Amy was so stressed out. Like it was just another ordinary midnight in his life.
Amy stayed in place, staring at the money like it'd grow a tail and sting her.
"Don't trust public phones?" He smiled humorlessly "Can't blame you, here."
He half placed, half dropped a cheap-looking cell phone out of his pocket. Didn't even try to pretend it wasn't a burner phone he'd throw away the next time he got it out.
"And give you my family's number? I don't think so." Amy replied like she hadn't been a beat from taking it "I don't trust you."
"Fair." He shrugged, taking the phone and money off the table "Smart. Too smart. Are you perhaps actually a hero?"
Amy stood in a single motion, inches away from slamming the table but stopping in time by sheer force of will.
“What is…?!” She lowered her voice more “What is wrong with you?! Don’t you understand the situation we’re in?”
“I do.” He motioned with his arms as if to placate her. Amy just tightened her fists in reaction “Could be worse.”
Or so he said while Amy could only stare at him in utter disbelief. She had thought there could be no new low after being attacked by literal children, and being dragged into a wild goose chase across the country. But clearly, she was mistaken. She was now in the middle of nowhere with a complete idiot.
It was as if life had a shovel to keep her digging lower and lower. Amy considered just giving up and telling the waitress everything. She would go to the Protectorate, explain the situation, and get herself locked in the parahuman asylum as she would be forced to explain that. To explain the vivid hallucinations one of the children created.
Amy shuddered, remembering the ghastly sensation of ‘Victoria’s’ hand running through her shoulder.
“You still under the influence?” The guy tilted his head “So it’s stronger than I thought.”
“You didn’t know?” Amy shook her head and tried really hard to concentrate on her coffee.
“No, Candy didn’t have powers before.” He ran his fingers through his hair again, correcting his posture a bit “Must have triggered recently.”
Wait. Hold on.
“‘Candy’? Do you guys know each other?” Amy knew these two were related somehow. She had put the girl to sleep after it became clear she was a parahuman, and both of their brains appeared to be messed up in the mind’s eye of Amy’s power, but she had hoped they weren’t that close.
Because, again, she was in the middle of nowhere with one of them.
“What are you gonna do? Run away?” The guy chuckled “Relax, you’re in good hands.”
“Maybe,” Amy tried, and failed, to not gulp down her anxiety “If you don’t answer my question.”
“Where do you plan to go?” He almost sounded genuinely curious, but that expression of his betrayed the fact that he really wasn’t.
“Away.” Amy looked back at the window. Had someone done a fly by? Or was Amy still seeing things? “I-My family will come for me. I don’t have to deal with you or them if I don’t want to.”
Her answer earned her a scoff.
“I’m serious though.” Amy leaned forwards to put emphasis in her words.
“Calling your sis to kick my ass doesn't sound too nice.”
“Then maybe you should be nice first.” Amy smirked “Vicky’s not as patient as I am.”
“Truly magnanimous.” The guy nodded sagely.
Amy scoffed.
“I want answers.” She pressed a bit more “What’s the deal with the children? Who are you…?”
“Alec.” He grabbed her hand from across the table, his messed up neurological patterns springing back into her consciousness, and waved it as she kept her arm limp until he released her “The pleasure’s all yours.”
Amy could have made him go unconscious, maybe give him some nasty disease while she was at it. She could have made him unable to fight back, searched him, and gotten the hell out of there.
The almost-Victoria reflected in the waitress distracted her, and her power didn't take hold before 'Alec' released her.
The order was placed between them, and the waitress gave Amy a strange look before leaving. It took Amy to follow Alec's eyesight to realize there was a single pill bellow one of the plates.
His grin almost split his face in half, but didn't openly laugh. It was the only thing that convinced Amy not to strangle the idiot then and there.
"This isn't happening." Amy whimpered as she buried her face in her hands "Why me? I haven't done anything to deserve this."
"Oh, c'mon sweetheart think of…"
"Don't you dare." Amy raised her face, glaring so hard it wouldn't be strange if Alec suddenly combusted or got struck by lightning.
He raised his hands as if to ask for a truce.
“Okay.” He sighed.
“Okay?” Amy repeated, already expecting something else that would piss her off.
“Yes, okay.” Alec started digging in, using the honey the waitress gave them like he had bought the spares himself “Look, I know you’re not asking for help.”
“I―.”
“Been there, done that.” ‘Alec’ interrupted, getting his mouth full but keeping eye contact as if to keep Amy from interrupting “I don’t know what’s up with you and your family, and frankly? I don’t care. But.”
He took a swing of his coffee, sounding oddly pleased with having stuffed his face and making Amy strangely hungry from just looking at him eat.
Granted, they hadn’t eaten anything from the moment they ran away. So perhaps that had something to do with it.
“Where was I? Right. But, the way I see it, you have two options.” Alec raised two fingers and scratched his forehead “One, you get the hell out of here and do… I don’t know. Start a new life? Go back to your team-slash-family? Or two, you stick with me for a bit and shake off the old man’s cronies.”
The old man… Right. It would make sense he was from a family of parahumans, what with the similarities between the children and him. Amy suspected they might be a team of child soldiers, or something similar. Some dark counterpart to the Wards organized by villains, or maybe a Protectorate strike team from a shady part of the government. Who knew?
It still meant he, and therefore the children as well, were likely on the wrong side of justice.
“Why would I choose to stay with you?” Amy finally gave in and took a bite of the food. She was hungrier than she expected.
“Because you don’t want to go back to your family.” The nerve of this guy…! “Don’t give me that look, you’re shit at hiding it.”
“That’s my problem.” Amy dropped her fork, cutting the silence in the diner for a moment. She didn’t care a whole lot anymore “You’re not giving me any reasons to trust you.”
“I know what I’m doing.” Alec insisted.
“I can borrow a phone and a computer just fine.” Amy got back to the food “I don’t need your help.”
Besides…
“Besides,” Amy tried to invoke Vicky’s natural smugness “It sure sounds like you need my help.”
His answer was to sit further back and scoff.
“No comment?” Amy took another bite.
“Not really.” He admitted nonchalantly “Just thinking about how you’d deal with them.”
“They are children.” One of which made Amy hallucinate about her sister, but that was beside the point.
Alec’s answer was to smile innocently. Or well, as innocently as someone with no remorse could.
“Heartbreaker’s, but yeah.”
They are… What?
“Oh…”
His smile widened “Oh, indeed.”.
Wait. Then that meant…
“You… You are…?” Suddenly, calling for Vicky didn’t sound so bad at all. In fact, screaming and getting everyone’s attention sounded like a fantastic idea now.
“A runaway.” ‘Alec’ shrugged “And someone who knows many things. Which brings us to my main point: Them? Us. There’s something pretty interesting when it comes to mind stuff. There is a… Resistance, I guess, to powers similar to ours. Yet you put Candy to sleep no problem.”
Her stomach turned, as if it was being squeezed by the mention of her power.
“Surprised? I know a pretty clever girl who was interested in your power.” Alec scoffed and took a sip from his coffee “She’s an ass, but she’s usually onto something with her line of thinking so…”
She couldn’t breathe. Only Vicky knew about the full extent of her power, and she would never tell anyone. Who the hell would find out? Or, more importantly, how?
He extended his hand with a small smile on his face. His fake cheer looked a lot more sinister after realizing who he was “Will you help me shake them off? I know the bitch that got them back on my trail.”
“...They’re coming for you, not me.” Amy whispered. Was the diner always this cold? She was shaking on her seat.
“As I said, power resistance.” Alec dropped his hand without changing his expression “I don’t think they’ll let go of someone who can bypass it. That’s not how the old man rolls.”
Amy looked down, hands shaking a bit and sweat running down her face. His gaze felt a lot more predatory now, his chuckle a lot more cruel. Had he looked this rotten from the beginning?
“Take your time.” Alec stood up and walked out of Amy’s sight. She wouldn’t have done that because she would have suspected everyone that was there, and those who weren’t but could be.
Now was the time to run. To go as fast as her legs would allow her and ask for help. Maybe from the truck drivers that remained outside. They looked like they would leave at any moment. It was the perfect opportunity. Then she could call Vicky and… And…
And then what? Amy couldn’t quite shake the things she saw back then. Would she have the strength to face her sister so soon?
She hadn’t moved from her seat when Alec returned.