Chapter Text
It was his first time slipping onto a bus without paying.
He felt wrong, dirty, and almost like he was being watched all at the same time. He hated this, the feeling that he was committing illegal crimes at every moment. He always feared death and it’s endless void, yet living like this was horrifying as well. His face all over the news, police searching cities he was supposedly in, having no one to go to for help or shelter. He was considered hazardous, a threat to society. He never really committed any crimes, not on purpose. Anything he did, anyone he hurt, it was an accident. He couldn’t help it, he couldn’t control it.
What made this whole thing worse was the fact he had no money, he was dead broke and didn’t even have any money in the bank. Hell, his whole bank account was torn away from him when the FBI began their search. No one wanted anything to do with an illegal criminal who was on the run.
His thoughts were torn apart when the bus reeved to a stop; and then Adam looked up to see the bus driver staring in the rearview mirror. Right at him. When his eyes narrowed, Adam’s widened; and he sat up, getting ready to run with any word. The longest break of silence was held and Adam flashed a gaze to the digital clock on the radio of the vehicle. It was so late, this must have been the last stop; and he must have been the last on.
“I don’t remember letting you on,” the man remarked and Adam tensed up even more, nails digging into the leather bus seat he was sat upon. “You’ve gotta pay mister, a lot of money too. You’ve been hitchhiking, that’s illegal and-”
Adam watched him contort from confusion to slight fear. Which only lead to the man hastily locking the bus doors. He knew, well, of course he had to have known. Every public transit worker needed to, to understand letting this man on a bus, in a taxi, on a train, anything with anyone else was extremely dangerous. Then, the driver had a phone out; and three numbers being dialed made it easy to assume that he had just called the police.
As the man quickly explained everything, how he had Adam on the bus, locked on; Adam stood and looked around. He had to think quickly, now the police would be onto him. He felt like crying, yelling, hurting. Hurting the man who would’ve been fine keeping his mouth shut. Although he stopped those thoughts and stepped back, unclenching his fists after heaving out a sigh. His anger got the best of him too easily.
Causing destruction would only have the government workers prove him right of what they assume he is. A reckless monster. He only had about five minutes, until the police would be flooding the area; SWAT teams, men in hazmats. Adam’s breathing was quickening to these thoughts and he had began to feel a little lightheaded. A slight wheeze came from him when the phone was hung up; and the man looked at him. Fear raced through his thoughts, most likely being less afraid of Adam then Adam was with him. Adam did feel like a monster, or, one of those spiders you see and your fear is expressed as nothing compared to the spiders. All the spider sees is a large human ready to stomp down with a shoe or crush them with a book. Adam totally felt like a spider now that he thought about it. So helpless, but so scary at the same time. Which was why he looked at one of the large, double paned windows of the bus. His gaze flashed back to the driver before he made his move.
Nothing was heard for a long few moments, and then the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the whole dark, grim city street they were stopped on. The glass of the window shattered outward and Adam reopened his eyes after doing this. He was ready to use his terror as a weapon, as a defense. He didn’t have the time to be afraid. Adam did not even need to touch the glass to manipulate it and crush it into a million pieces.
Then, Adam was leaping out of the window; catching his balance when on the ground. He felt the glass beneath his feet and looked down. Good thing he had grabbed his shoes when running away. That would’ve gone bad if he didn’t. He heard shouting from inside of the bus, and turned around; seeing the man telling him to stop, that he couldn’t keep running away.
So, Adam did what he knew best. He ran. He sprinted right down the street and thanked any of the Gods he believed in that it was late and there were no cars threatening him. Yet he didn’t exactly know where this plan was going, or where he was running. Away from the cops, that was where he was running yeah; but the man was right. He couldn’t just keep running.
That was proven right when sirens were heard and tires screeched around the corner of the block Adam just bolted right through. Cursing beneath his breath, Adam found his best idea deep within his thoughts and let it take the wheel. Which essentially, lead to him cutting off to the left into a dark, echoing alleyway. An alleyway with a dead end and nowhere to run off if he had been caught.
Okay, maybe this wasn’t his best idea.
Everything was dark, though. So, Adam took his chances shuffling behind a few trashcans and sinking down to his knees on the wall. He lifted a hand before he looked down, and covered his mouth. He was trembling in fear and it was only when a police car slowed down that it got worse. His trembling lead to other near items trembling, like the metal trash cans. The rattling of them caught the attention of one police officer. Who directed his pistol that had a flashlight on the tip right at the noise. Adam wasn’t that visible, and he attempted to shut up his thoughts, his fear. He gripped two tight fists in his short, mossy brunet hair, and rocked his body back and forth. He told himself to shut up, to stop every thought of fear from coming. Almost like a hateful meditation.
A crash made Adam flinch away from his thoughts and jolt up. Above him stood a police officer, shouting into a radio that was hooked to this shoulder, hastily and quickly. Something about Adam being found, and how he needed backup. Adam would’ve been gone, running again already; if it wasn’t for the pistol pointed right at him in a threatening manner. His mouth twitched as well as his hands which he had raised, and Adam had fear glistening brilliantly in his eyes.
The bright shine of headlights, red and blue sirens, and the flashlight in his face was all blurring. Adam’s eyes were glossing over with tears of nothing but fear, something that was so rare but so hard to help. Anger began to bubble in him and he tried his best to stop it, because anger lead to destruction. He didn’t need to hurt anyone, he just needed to get away and run. Another officer was in the alleyway in a timespan of minutes and overall, both of them looked afraid. Like Adam was an animal, a monster threatening them both. Threatening all of the “Normal” people around him.
When the officers were talking heatedly, keeping quick eyes on him; Adam sat up and slowly made his moves to stand. Yet he was stopped by the gun pressing against his skin now, at the point of his chest. It was only momentarily, though. Just to shove him back and it did hurt, only enough to made Adam freeze. He raised his hands again and stood up fully, tilting his head to rest back on the brick wall.
He didn’t want to go back to that God-forsaken place, the place he had to break out of. Jail, interrogations, mental therapy with a man who was too scared to make eye contact even though Adam had been in a goddamn straight jacket. Which was why Adam bolted in fear when one of the men pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Which was why Adam flinched back when another man who held a rifle tightly in both hands was shoving him back right after he got out of the alley. Which was why he stepped back all the way until there was nowhere for him to go. He had no other choice than to be caught again or use his defensive ways to get out of this.
With a shaking hand, Adam held his right arm up and out when the men inched closer. They abruptly stopped and threatened Adam. Shouting at him and jerking their weapons ahead, telling him to raise his hands where they could see them. Which he ended up doing; after closing his eyes and taking a deep, shaking breath. Now he was being shouted at directly, told to put his hands on his head and stay quiet.
Which Adam obliged to, falling to his knees slowly when told to do so. He looked down, the shine of headlights, sirens and flashlight bulbs enough to let him see the ground in a blurry figment of dull grey and cobalt blue flashes.
The officers were rough, and they didn’t hesitate to get a hurt reaction out of Adam. He was an escapist, though. It was understandable that they felt the need to use such force on such a young, seemingly helpless man. Although, Adam didn’t expect when he had one handcuff latched on for everything to stop.
Dead stop.
Looking up, all Adam saw was the officer who had been handling him so harshly holding his chin and cheekbone in pain; dropping his gun in a similar manner of agony. This confused Adam, did someone hit him? Did he do this? It wouldn’t really be shocking to figure out some of the anger in his mind triggered the wind to do this, but Adam would’ve felt something.
There was blood coming from the officer’s mouth from where whatever, whoever punched him; and the others took it upon themselves to threaten at Adam in accusation. Adam opened his mouth to say how he didn’t do it, and if he did he didn’t mean to; but halfway through the sentence another police officer was hit. This time, on the back of the head, hard enough and precise enough to make him fall to the ground. What made Adam finally flinch up to his feet again was the sound of a gunshot blaring through the alleyway as the man fell and took his rifle with him. It hit no one, but everyone was looking around. Even Adam.
That was when the police car’s sirens flickered to death and everything fell silent. Adam’s back pressed against the wall a little, looking at the man who was knocked out. He wasn’t doing this, because from what he knew; his mind didn’t need to open the car door to control the sirens. He could do that from thinking them quiet; no switch involved.
The third officer, who had been untainted by this mysterious force; made his way back to the car with the first one who had been clocked in the chin. They got in the car but didn’t drive away, calling for backup and keeping a stern eye on Adam. This was when Adam himself felt someone touch him.
It scared him, by default really. If you’re seeing men being hit and beat down by an invisible figure, you’re going to get scared if something, or someone touched your shoulder in such a tranquilizing way. Everything was calm for a few moments and Adam peeked over his shoulder, flinching to look ahead when hearing a voice.
“Hey! Don’t acknowledge me.” It was a male, probably around the same age as him too...was he going insane?
Adam wouldn’t be shocked if that were the case.
Although, he nodded once inconspicuously, keeping his gaze ahead at the officers who had the sirens deactivated still. Adam only merely looked over when he felt his wrist being gripped in a firm yet caring motion. Not that he liked it, Adam usually hated being touched by, well, anyone.
“Stay still, or it won’t work.” The voice said; and Adam obeyed. He had nothing to lose, because if this voice was real, and it wasn’t going to help him out, then he’d still be headed to a mental ward or some crazy place like that. If this voice was some figment of his imagination, then great, he really was going insane and needed some psychological help.
Either way, Adam closed his eyes and heaved in a light but long breath, waiting for either something or nothing to occur.
Something happened, and it was a something he couldn’t really explain.
Firstly, he felt his fingertips static up with electricity. Secondly, he heard a painful ring in his ears, and thirdly, Adam opened his eyes to see a large, rundown building.
It was still dark, though; almost too dark to see but a streetlight at the end of such a large driveway lit up the whole scene. Adam looked to his left, then down to see his wrist red from where the metal cuff was clenched on so tight.
Looking to his right, Adam almost screamed. His wrist was being held by someone visible and he snatched it away. When he did this, Adam rose the hand and used his cuffed up one to rub against where this man was holding.
“Wait a minute..” Adam began and looked up to see the guy’s face for the first time. He looked younger than he sounded. Honestly, with the way he sounded Adam would’ve guessed he had been in his mid-twenties. Yet now he saw such young features, and Adam knew those couldn’t belong to anyone over eighteen years old. The boy had very messy hair that had an almost beige scheme to it, and his eyes lit up everything else about him. They caught your attention the second you looked, and the thing your eyes would go to next was a large, deep violet mark beneath his eye. His skin was so pale it’d be impossible to cover such a mark up. Yet, Adam just chose to ignore it and try to figure out who he had been looking at in the first place.
And, how they hell they just did that.
“How did you just do that?” Adam asked bleakly, his tone wavering while his gaze went off to the building again. “Where are we?” He chose to ask next, before he stepped back and turned around. He saw two cars, both of them shut off and parked. “Who are you?” He finally ended the questions once he saw the license place of one of the cars. It read Virginia.
He looked back, and saw the guy grin dryly before going to speak. “I’m Noah, and you really don’t know what I just did?” He asked and tilted his head. Adam took the name into account and after he did this, he perked up in the slightest to the question.
“N-..no, I don’t. Should I?”
Before the blond man could answer, Adam flinched to another voice.
“Christ, Noah I told you no.” He looked over and saw a woman this time. Her hair was short and framed her face, and in this light her skin was mildly dark. Adam stepped back when she got closer.
“He was almost caught,” Noah said in response and smiled a little to her sigh.
“Noah,” she said and rested a hand on her hip with her next set of words. “We can’t save them all.” Was all she gave and Noah nodded.
“Yeah, I know.” He claimed and then she looked over to Adam. Adam didn’t like whatever was going on. Somehow, somewhere in his thoughts; he prefered the asylum.
“Blue,” she held a hand out. Her nails were a matte black and looked fake, but Adam took up the hand anyways. Her hand wasn’t cold, unlike Noah’s which felt like being held by a block of ice. “Sorry you got into this, he’s not easy to keep track of.” She explained and looked over with Adam to see no one else next to them. “Example A,” a smile grew to her lips as their hands separated.
“Uh,” Adam released and blinked once, letting his hand fall down to fiddle with the tight cuff. “What is this place? Why did he take me here...and, how?” Adam chose to ask and raised a dark eyebrow, looking down to the shorter lady with a questioning look. She grinned.
“You’re Adam Parrish, right?” She asked and got a light nod. Her arm flung around the boy’s shoulder and got no reluctance before continuing. “Saw you on the news, we all did actually. Adam, this is Monmouth Manufacturing.” She pointed to the building.
Of course it was some factory, Adam figured that. Although he wished to know why people were coming in and out of it like a living space.
“You’re wanted for running from authorities, right?”
“Yeah?”
“What are they after you for?”
Adam paused, and looked ahead to the building. He took her grip off of his shoulders and looked over. “I don’t really..know.” Was his answer and he gave a shrug.
“Anything to do with...powers?” It was a ridiculous word.
Powers, like they were some super hero squad.
Adam nodded anyways.
“Nice,” Blue chanted twice and smiled. “This place,” her hand was back to pointing at Monmouth. “Full of runaways.” A thumb placed against her chest. “I’m kinda the newest one here. Noah isn’t supposed to just go out and help anyone he sees; it's a bad habit. Someone else helped me out though.” Her smile faded away along with her words, and her hand dropped to her side. She saw the worry and anxiety in Adam’s eyes.
“Hey,” her hands placed on his shoulders and she gave him a light shake. Looking up to him, she smiled reassuringly. “It’s gonna be okay, none of us rat out anyone. The cops won’t find you. Not when you’re here.” Adam was blinking a dull response again.
Adam figured that he would believe that once he saw it, but until then; he was keeping his thoughts to himself.