***

“Okay, I’m gonna need you to relax for me…”

The very word “relax” made Jackie tense.

Too bad that signaled to her siVis structure to tighten in response.

A shard of glass was wedged into her toned side. And her side was completely siVis-activated and had the shard in a vice-grip that still shook with weakness. The only good thing about this scenario was that she was wearing a crop top, so no clothing was in the way of anything.

Sparks were emitting from this wound. Jackie still getting used to the fact that she can no longer bleed like a regular human anymore. Just have her pieces be damaged, and crumble due to said damage.

Her CAST was blinking like a siren, the reflected surface was revealed to be scuffed up with deep, varying scratches. But of course, Jackie noted bitterly, still functional. It was an eternal tug of war, the device suppressed her siVis metastructure, and her trauma-defined, now-unnatural reactions pushed back as hard as she could.

“Kid. I understand that you need more than a moment to yourself right now. But you have to understand that this cannot be in you any longer. Work with me. Let me help you. So I can help the others.”

The poor girl looked forward. Her vision was waving under the stress, so much that her-normally-enhanced sight, she couldn’t see the person in front of her, much less the background around them. Such a sturdy person, reduced to off-color waves before her.

She gripped her ruined jeans, and the flaps rode up so badly that they hit her balled-up fingers. Her eyelids fought against her, but she managed to close her eyes.

It wasn’t hard to find the localized area. It was turgid, spread across, clamping down into the two-inch glass shard.

Feeling out, surging siVis out of her body before gathering towards the area. She dug deep within her control, forcing the wounded muscle to buckle before it snapped back within seconds.

She was fighting against her own trauma.

“That’s it…” the woman eased her. “Don’t do too much, just give me an opening.”

It was the gritting of her teeth that startled her because she was straining so hard that she thought something cracked. Jackie didn’t have great siVis control, to begin with, and now it was pivotal that she holds and open the wound.

Then it hit her.

Slowly lifting her neck upwards, as it trails with sweat, she shot down another round of siVis until it reached the spot. Giving her dwindling control more time.

But she exceeded her limit, and instantly her control stopped, the pieces retreating into the surface of her skin. Her eyes shot open in realization.

“Good job, kid!” the woman yanked her arm backward, raising the shard within her tweezers. “Guessing you don’t want it in a jar or something?”

Jackie was panting, looking forward as her vision finally focused.

Noumena Medical Response crews are mostly anonymous by design, so the woman before her wore a full-face mask, thick gloves, heavy coat, wrap-around goggles, and padded pants. All various shades of gray. The only possible lead to identification was her cap allowing her chestnut brown, neck-short hair.

“Well?” the aid’s chin moved against the mask’s light gray fabric. She cheekily waved the shard. “Wanna museum piece, luv~?”

Jackie was taken aback at that, the mask literally also masked any possible accent.

“N-no, it’s fine…” Jackie held her side, feeling herself close up and tense again. “Sorry for wasting your time.”

“… I don’t think the injured are allowed to say that,” the aid tilted her head. “Since, y’know, you lot got buried under buildings with no fault of your own.”

Jackie bit her tongue. No point in sharing her sorrow at the moment.

So she just nodded, as the aid reached up and pat her shoulder with her free hand. Rising up, and rushing away, Jackie looked around to take in everything.

It was an underground lot—the emergency tunnels forming into a space that rivaled a supermarket. Maybe two.

But multiple people of varying races, creeds, and sizes—all sworn across the stainless metal floor. All portray the same level of defeat. Devastation. Dread.

Parts of families were holding together. People who were still searching for others looked more and more lost by the second, questioning Extant forces as the volume of their voices rose. Many found the nearest wall or corner to simply weep out at whatever this thing did to them.

The worse were the ones that had no emotion. That stared blankly forward, and through anything that tried to catch their attention. The people whose minds simply cannot accept what just happened, the untold aspect—unique casualty in these strange events.

And only a handful of them could be eligible for siVis. Could.

As if the present guilt could be piled upon further, Jackie just hung her head low. Her vision wavering only because her own tears were altering her vision this time.

But it was the sound of distant guitar strums, that caused her to turn her head.

Wiping her eyes quickly, she followed the sound. And more importantly, she saw the gathering crowd surrounding the source.

The mumbling of lyrics became more focused, and a person in the center came into view. All he had was an acoustic guitar to him. His clothes were badly torn to ribbons, sans the straw hat upon his head, the brim being enough to cover his face whenever he was looking down, along with his greasy hair that hung in strands.

But once he rose his head, it was enough to take Jackie aback. And once that shock wore off in that tenth of a second, made her on the verge of tears again.

His face, most of the side of it, was warped. All of his features were blinded into a white paste with a sickly texture that was smooth but pasty. His right eye, most of his nose, and only left with a quarter of his mouth were left.

And yet he continued to sing, to the masses around him who looked with awe.

“Even…” it wasn’t exactly mumbling, his words were muffled, but he still carried on playing. Singing. “Move… Move… Like you always…”

It became clear to her, once she took on the lyrics and the melody. She knew what song he was singing to everyone. Trying to play such an uplifting song when many people would’ve blown him off. Called him attention-seeking.

But he’s being an example.

Jackie smiled, despite it being so heavy to do. Crossing her arms, she listened to the man continue to play. Finding such calm within this terrible, unending storm.

Eventually, he got to the end of the song and was met with a chorus of applause.

“T…Thank you…” he tried to turn his head in all directions but was limited. He pushed and tried to open his mouth further, despite it seeming to hurt to do so. “I know… W-we all had a… -retty b-bad day… I lost my face, so—”

Everyone chuckled, clearly relieved that he was somewhat at peace over what happened. The air around the place lifted due to the levity provided.

“Great thing ab-bout these days… If all else fails… Then you do whatever you love…” he rubbed his ruined side. “No ma-ma-matter… How much you could do… You still do it -ecause… Why not at this p-point, huh?”

There were shouts of “yeah!” before the crowd’s clapping started to pick up, building into a thunderous pace and sound. Jackie couldn’t help but smile, clutching her fist in glee she’s never been allowed to feel for such a long time.

After the noise died down, he mumbled out that he was taking requests as he strummed his old guitar. Allowing Jackie to look around, and spot Maddie a ways away from her.

Walking up to the short girl, Jackie took in the damage her clothes took. Her t-shirt that had a built-in, mock black tie had a huge hole at her side, exposing her midriff. Her jeans were ruined like Jackie’s, not only ripped up but fabric hanging off. Her sneakers were already dirty, but now they’re stained with black, brown, and caked-in white within the laces. She turned her head at Jackie, her face having multiple scratches that got skin-deep, distracting from her freckles at the bridge of her nose.

“I thought you came over here to talk to me,” Maddie had her arms crossed.

“And I can’t really imagine you being over here, to begin with…” Jackie responded. “Wouldn’t you consider this a pity party or something?”

“Jesus fuck, Jackson,” Maddie shook her head while looking on. “I’m not a heartless bitch.”

“But you called yourself a heartless bitch once before—” Jackie’s tone was marred in confusion.

“No no no. Coldhearted bitch. I have one, it’s just fucked beyond belief.”

She then took her two fingers, creating a small gap between time. “There’s a sizable difference. Enough to flip me off, or beat the shit outta me, but not wanna fucking kill me—”

Jackie sighed softly. “I guess I understand that.”

“And here I thought that you weren’t gonna accept that,” Maddie coyly admitted. She smiled at the tall girl before her. “You do surprise me sometimes, Police Cadet Barbie.”

“They don’t even make those—” Jackie said in an embarrassed huff, pouting as she looked to the side.

Jackie then turned back towards Maddie.

She said “Let’s—“, but the other girl couldn’t have possibly heard her, over the sudden screams of fear.

Snapping towards where the crowd was parting and running away from, she saw the ceiling above slowly give away.

Not falling apart, not being forced open. But carving a perfect-sized hole for the statue to shoot down in an even trajectory.

No.

Her fist was already building up with blue energy, as it didn’t shake due to the sudden power surge, but due to Jackie’s rage.

INNATE…!

Her siVis ability call rang out, from everywhere and nowhere. The purpose of alerting people that the ability was in use, to steer away.

She found herself leaping in the air, only noticing in the spilt second that she used up most of her energy to jump this far into the air to meet the flying object.

She didn’t care. She had more than enough to finish this, and she simply had more than enough in general.

Pulling her arm back as the blue energy was just building and building within her fist. Her gaze dead set towards this tumbling thing that was getting much closer by the millisecond. Her mind was clear, but boiling white-hot. She just imagined whoever is doing this, as this statue, and focused her useless hate into this fist.

Her CAST flared red within the second that she needed, and suppressed her energy.

In that one, precious second that she needed, it was all wiped away. Her progress. Her dedication. Her declaration. Thrown all away due to this purposefully harsh world.

She couldn’t even scream or shout anymore. She lacked the energy to do so, as she continued to sail across the air.

All she could now see, what she noticed at just the worst possible time, was that this statue had a corpse that was clawing at its now-gone neck. Frozen in eternal agony.

No way to stop or change the angle. She and this statue were going to collide within the next moment.

It was only because of the blur that came from the corner of her eyesight, that tackled her out of the air and right into the ground at greater speeds, that she managed to survive.

No longer something she could say she’s done herself, anymore.

The statue crashed into the floor, many feet behind where she lay.

The person who was over her, that saved her, rose up.

It was the chestnut-haired woman. siVis-user, had to be one.

“The hell was that about, kid?! You could’ve been killed right there had I not—”

The woman saw her shaking. Saw her breathing heavily from her nose, and felt the shuddering behind it. The anger.

In response, she put her gloved hands on her hips, looking down.

“I don’t know who you are, but you better get your shite together, girl. You can’t be a hero if you can’t even save yourself if it ever went wrong. And you can’t be a hero if the situation doesn’t call for one.”

The words struck, and she couldn’t even see what the person looked like.

Jackie let go of her fists, letting them fall back to being battered, useless hands.

“I, uh…”

Rising her head, she saw River approach from the woman’s side. “I got her, ma’m. Sorry for the trouble.”

River reached down to pick Jackie up by the arm, slight whimpers as she did due to the effort, ultimately pulling it off and having Jackie lean against her. Second tallest of the group helped, but Jackie was still inches above her.

Jackie just looked downward. Her own face becoming frozen in forever-agony.

“Wait.”

Jackie turned back, with River aiding her. The woman was looking at Jackie in particular, hands still on hips.

“Save your strength, kid,” she gave her the beginning of her last wisdom. “Don’t waste your life on a dream. Keep surviving reality as is.”

The woman saluted subtly and turned towards the crowd that was watching, asking if anyone was hurt as Enforcers rushed in to assist her.

River helped Jackie along, facing a Maddie that was tapping her foot.

“I really don’t want to hear it,” Jackie said softly, but not any less drained. “Not right now.”

Maddie shrugged and closed her eyes. “Saving it for later, gotcha.”

“C’mon,” River cut through a possible fight she knew was going to brew. “Davenport’s going to give his Extant Speech/Report thing in a minute. We’ll find the other two and see what the hell’s going on.”

“Yeah,” Jackie just let the response fall out. No strength to carry it or make it louder than a whisper.

As if she had any power to begin with.