Chapter Text
Fwhip has decided he hates trains.
While it was the most convenient way to travel between cities (cuz city founders decided it was a good idea making all their cities MILES apart), but it was rickety. The train tracks from the Before were barely cleaned or unrusted before they set back up railway systems.
And Fwhip was buzzing. He has been on the train for five hours. While this would be agonizing for any fifteen year old, sweat beaded his face as he clutched his seat.
If he relaxed for a second, the train could derail. Crash. Stop. Explode. He wouldn't be able to get a hold of himself again.
Gem stirred in her sleep. At least SHE didn't have to worry about destroying public property. All she had to worry about was destroying people's perception of reality.
The more Fwhip thought about it, the more it made sense the two were orphans. Cuz Fwhip is a walking insurance liability, and Gem makes everyone around her realize they have emotional baggage.
Fwhip's power had been a hindrance since he was three. He remembered it clearly: his house bending and caving in as he threw a tantrum, the metal infrastructure bending in towards him.
And Gem, but it was only a few days later that he realized it was a power, they were twins after all. Even a few days prior, their parents would wake up SCREAMING in the middle of the night, Gem along side them. Even Fwhip once had a terrible nightmare, metal encasing him so he couldn't move.
With Gem just standing there. Watching.
It didn't take long for their parents to realize the twins had manifested their powers. The two were promptly sent away. Who could live in those conditions? Constant nightmares, the threat of your house caving in on you.
It was a hard few years in the orphanage, the caretakers didn't like them much, probably for the property damage and nightmares. Fwhip distinctly remembered being six years old when one of them quit, giving the twins a look of horror as he rushed out.
So yeah, running away was easy. Fwhip was the only one suffering from the nightmares so he was- well, not USED to it, but expecting it.
And normally they just hiked from town to town, but Empires City was too far from the last town, and the city was surrounded by gates and walls. The train station was the only way in and out, and was much more expensive than Fwhip would have thought.
Gem squirmed again, making Fwhip realize he was dozing off himself, which would be disastrous. "You good, Gem?"
Gem whined, hunching her shoulders and screwing her eyes shut. There was probably someone else sleeping on the train having a similar reaction.
Fwhip nudged her with his shoulder. "Gem?"
She leaned against the window, breathing heavily.
"Gem!" Fwhip shook her awake, grabbing her by the shoulders. "I'm here. Can you hear me?"
Gem hummed, still writhing. Fwhip took a few deep breaths, if he loses his chill the whole train might collapse. "Okay. Breath with me? One two three, one two three, one two three-"
A few counts later Gem sighed, leaning up against Fwhip again. Her breathing was steady, she didn't look nearly as tense.
Only another hour of making sure Gem wasn't experiencing someone's worst fear first hand as well as making sure he didn't capsize the train, they pulled into the station. With some more shaking, Gem woke up as the train skidded to a stop.
"Anything interesting?" Fwhip chuckled nervously. He felt bad he didn't know how to help his own twin through her struggles, but it's not like she could help with his either.
Gem got up with Fwhip as they went towards the door. Fwhip definetly noticed another passenger looking around skittishly, bags under his eyes. Ah. Found the victim.
"Just... more families dying," Gem sighed as everyone waited for the doors to open. "Lots of..."
Gem gulped, Fwhip tilted his head. "Lots of...?"
Gem shuddered. "Lots of BUGS. Eat- eating the family. Must have had some infestation power..."
Fwhip grimaced. "Come on, I'm sure an agency HERE can train us."
Hero agencies. Ones that train kids while they're young and brainwash them into little super powered government suck ups. Ever since they were what, ten? It was Fwhip and Gem's plan to sign up to become heroes, run away before graduation, and then become vigilantes.
Well, that last part only came about from the last city. A friend they had, going through the hero academy and crap. They congratulated her when she, well, graduated.
But that night the twins were attacked by a hero, same powers as their friend, brushing them off the park bench they were sleeping on. Like they were criminals for wanting a good rest.
So yeah, they don't like hero agencies now. But you do what you got to do.
"I'm sure ANY hero agency would LOVE to take in two random untrained fifteen year olds," Gem said in her voice, the one where Fwhip didn't know if she was genuinely naive or if she was being sarcastic. The door opened. "Let's go."
It only just occurred to Fwhip, only wearing a leather jacket with a red scarf for warmth, why everyone on the train had had cold season clothes on.
Gem was shivering, only having a purple wind breaker over her green dress as they made their way under the awning, out of the light snow.
"Fwhip." Gem hissed. "You said we had everything!"
"I thought I did!" Fwhip defended, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. He took the bag off his back. "Toothbrushes, every coin I have encountered in the past eight months, all that crap!"
"And you didn't bother to, I don't know," Gem pretended to think for a second. "Check the weather of the city YOU suggested we go to?!"
"In my defense-" Fwhip put his hands up, even though the cold bit his fingers the moment his arms uncrossed. "It's June."
"Either way, we're still freezing out in the open, with a plan to stay on the streets." Gem sighed. "Come on, let's go get another ticket."
Gem grabbed Fwhip's forearm and dragged him over to the lady at the desk. Of the two he was usually the one who dealt with the people side of things, while Gem worked the planning and the smart part.
Fwhip huffed. CLEARLY it was Gem's fault they were in this situation. She made him do the research in the rickety library.
Well, to be fair it WAS Fwhip who complained that he was the one who always ended up doing errands.
"Excuse me, miss," Fwhip smiled. He widened his eyes and audibly shivered, trying to milk the orphan act as much as possible. The lady just looked down, unimpressed. "Can we get two train tickets please? We weren't expecting the cold, and we might freeze over if we don't get out."
The lady rolled her eyes and clicked some buttons on the computer. "That will be a hundred fifty dollars."
"What?!" Fwhip and Gem yelped at the sane time.
"Surely-" Fwhip shivered for real as a draft went through the station. The metal creaked above them. "Surely you can lower the price? We're just kids, who knows how long it will take us to make that money. Gem! Gem, how much do we have?"
"Thirty..." Gem said through chattering teeth. She looked up at the awning nervously, which was starting to creak. "Fwhip..."
"We- hrmmmm..." Fwhip clenched his teeth, slowing his breathing and counting like he did for Gem on the train. "There's nothing you can do for us, miss?"
She shook her head and called for the next in line. Fwhip and Gem stood close together, sitting down on a way too cold metal seat.
"We need a job." Gem said between shaky breaths.
"We NEED a place to stay." Fwhip pointed out. "Can you see advertisements on the pillar or anything?"
Gem grabbed her glasses from her pocket, returning her hands to Fwhip as soon as she got them on. She must have took them off to sleep on the train, her glasses usually made the nightmares more vivid.
"Those... aren't advertisements..." Gem stood up, pulling Fwhip with her so they could stay together.
And... the best way Fwhip can describe what was on the poster was stereotypical western wanted posters.
There were four, all issued by the hero agency.
From left to right, Temple wore a long multicolored furry cape (the drawing was in black and white, but Fwhip assumed the different shades represented the different colors). He was smiling.
Assassin looked... young. He also had a cape, dark with a hood over his face, but he looked quite baby faced based on the bottom of his head.
Wolf Spirit, cropped hair behind a wolf mask. She didn't really have any visible defining features. Her only crime listed was "vigilantism", which was not a good sign to the twins
And finally, Exor, in some sort of mask with really big horns. If Fwhip had to guess an animal, he'd PROBABLY say deer? But that wasn't quite right. They wore a big jacket, which was making Fwhip really jeleous right now.
"Are these..." Fwhip squinted. "All villains?"
"Seems rather inefficient," Gem commented. "A bounty board? Why not just put reminders on the news channel or something?"
A draft went through the train station as the winds picked up. Fwhip's breath hitched as he heard the awning creak again.
"If this is the weather in June..." Fwhip looked at the sky. "Then I doubt they get much reception with the storms all year."
"Oh wait, look!" Gem pulled off a slip of paper tacked to the side of the board.
*RIFFS LIBRARY
HIRING
OFFERING SUMMER JOBS TO STUDENTS 14-18
OFFERS INTERNSHIPS TO COLLEGE STUDENTS
1354 MAIN STREET
TALK TO MR. RIFFS FOR MORE DETAILS
STAY WARM!*
"Students fourteen to- hey!" Fwhip smiled. "WE'RE fourteen to eighteen!"
"But are we students?" Gem crossed her arms.
"Well..." Fwhip looked off to the side. "I'm sure we can negotiate something with the man. He's a librarian, after all."
"We don't even know how much he pays..." Gem groaned. "Fine, we need to get out of this city- out of the cold at least as soon as possible."
Fwhip held out his fist for a fist bump, which Gem begrudgingly returned. "Come on, we've got this. If we lay low, stay out of sight, make our powers scarce... I'm sure we'll get out of here in no time."
There was a scraping of metal as the awning noticeably shifted. Stupid powers. Revealing he wasn't as cool and collected and awesome as he appeared.
"Come on," Gem looked up, grabbing Fwhip's hand and leading both of them away from the metal structure. "Let's go find Mr. Riffs."