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    Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to leave the hospital. In fact, it had probably been a really bad idea. Nevertheless, he couldn’t afford to wait for his shoulder to get better. In that time they would have figured things out and then they would have sent him back. He couldn’t go back, not after all this time. They’d all find out, he didn’t want to know what they’re reactions would be.

    Still, not for the first time today was he regretting that decision. His light jacket was doing nothing for the increasing cold and he was afraid he was going to get sick at this point. In addition, that wasn’t even thinking about the bandages that he hadn’t been able to change since he left the hospital. Either he was going to get pneumonia and die or get an infection and die.

    He walked through the back alleys, he didn’t really even remember what city he was in, just that it was big enough for a homeless population to exist. Ones that apparently stole shopping carts and filled them with stuff. Such a cliché, but one that might help him at least. Casting a glance about to be sure the owner wasn’t around, he began to shift through the stuff. Something that might be used as a new bandage at least or a water bottle. However, it didn’t seem like much was actually useful, most of it was collected junk.

    “ ’Ey! Git away from there!” Alex jerked up at the voice and saw a man rushing over to him. When had he gotten there? “Didn’t anybody teach ya not to paw through things that ain’t yours!” The man said this while grabbing the cart and yanking away from Alex. The man was older than him, bigger too, ragged hands clenched into fist. “Sorry, sorry, I just, I needed to uh…” Alex stammered backing away. He practically jumped out of his skin when someone put their hand on his shoulder, thankfully his uninjured one.

    “Take it easy Richard. Kid meant no harm, ‘sides nothin’s missing, right?” the voice behind him was another guy, younger than the owner of the cart but still older than him. If the clothes were any indication, this was another homeless guy. Hell, what was he talking about, he was homeless too. He watched Richard go through the things before begrudgingly nodding.

    “See, no reason to get all huffy. C’mon kid.” The guy’s arm settled around his shoulder, guiding around Richard and further down the alley. “W-where are we going? Where are you taking me?”he asked, bracing himself to run. “Oh, don’t worry too much, somewhere safe. Trust me, I did just saved ya from getting the tar beaten out of ya.” They turned and this alley way was far darker, he could barely see. “Tell me kid, are you a mutant?”

    Alex looked up at him with some fear, stomach twisting into knot, “W-why are you asking?” The guy looked down at him, grinning, “I’ll take that as a yes. Good we needed a replacement.” Ahead of them a light drew closer, making him squint as they walked. “A replacement? What do you mean, a replacement?” Alex yelped as the guy suddenly shoved him foreword, sending him tumbling out into the light. It took him a moment to adjust his eyes but he found himself in an abandoned building, the light he seen a mere fire.

    He quickly turned to face the stranger, eyes widening at the sight of a dark portal. “That was a portal? D-did you do that?”he asked, standing, body tense and ready to fight. “No, that was me.” a young voice answered behind the stranger. Glancing over he saw a kid, ten, maybe nine years old, peeking around the bigger man. And boy was the kid a strange sight. Pitch-black skin that was dappled with white dots that shifted and wavered like a living star chart and his eyes were a piercing gold, they almost glowed in the dim light.
    
    “This is the guy?”the kid asked the man, looking up at him. “This should be the one, Mad Merriam did say he’d be looking through Richard’s stuff.” the man said, looking a bit disappointed, “He’s scrawnier than I thought he’d be.”

    “Okay will someone please explain what the hell is going on?!” Alex couldn’t contain himself any longer, he didn’t know what was going on and it was beginning to freak him out. “Who the hell is Mad Merriam? Who the hell are you guys?!” The two glanced at each other before the older shrugged, “I’m Shield, this is Void, and you are going to be our third partner. Mad Merriam predicted your presence.”

    “Partner? What’s that supposed to mean?”

    “Geez, you ask a lot of questions. Our third Musketeer, three amigos, our partner in crime. That make any sense to you?” the older leaned forward, looking as if he thought Alex wasn’t too bright. “What like stealing or something?” Alex frowned not liking where this was going. Shield grinned, wide and toothy, “Bingo! The world takes from us so we’re gonna take it back! What’d ya say kid? You’ve stolen before right?”

    “Well yeah but nothing big…” Alex stepped backwards, wondering if now would be a good time to run. “Oh c’mon kid, we’re just going to take what we’re owed. That’s why you’re out here right, cause somewhere down the line someone betrayed you. They took what you had away or maybe you had to run before somethin’ bad happened?”

    Alex didn’t answered, but his eyes drifting downward, the pinched frown on his face, it was all Shield needed to confirm his suspicions. “Trust me kid, it’ll be fun.” The man said placing his hands on Alex’s shoulders and squeezing, the kid barely contained a cry of pain. “Oops, you injured?”Shield asked releasing Alex’s shoulders.

    “Y-yeah…”Alex murmured as he found himself spun about and sat down at the fire. “Alright, shirt off.”Shield ordered sitting behind the younger boy. “W-what?” Alex glanced over him bewildered. “You heard me. Void, grab the med kit.”

    Void hopped to his feet from where he was sitting to rustle through the numerous bags they had. By the time he turned around with the kit in hand he found Shield wrestling the jacket and shirt off the new comer. “Ow, ow! Damn it, I’m not taking off my shirt!” Alex shouted trying to tug his clothes back into place. “Stop whining you big baby! You’re no use to us if you’re hurt!”Shield grumbled, pulling on the clothes.

    In the end, Shield won out, leaving Alex pouting by the fire whilst the older pulled back the old bandages slowly. The young man whistled lowly at the sight of the stitches, “Gross, this looks like it’s getting infected. If it’s not already…” The old bandages were tossed aside, much to Alex’s concern. “Wait, can’t we still use those?”

    “No way in hell I’m using ragged used bandages.” Shield grabbed a water bottle from the kit and poured it on the wound before dabbing it with some fast food napkins. “’Sides, we won’t have to resort to that for a while yet. I’m going to use disinfectant, keep calm.”Shield warned as he reached into the kit for the hydrogen peroxide. Alex had little time to brace for the pain that came when the chemical was poured on. “Ah, shit! What the hell?!”He shouted trying to stand up but Shield had a good grip on his shoulder. “Language, Newbie. It’s just peroxide and if it stings it’s working.” Alex could feel the man pat down the spot with more napkins. “So, what should we call you?”

    “Well my name’s-“

    He was abruptly cut off by the kid who had been watching quietly this whole time, “No, no, real names. Just alis-es, allusis, um, what was that word Shield?”

    “Aliases.” the older answered, ripping open a package of new bandages.

    “Right, just aliases! Like mine’s Void and his is Shield.” The younger said excitedly. “He insisted that if we’re going to use fake names we might as well choose ones based on our powers.”Shield said as he began to place the new bandages. “Like superheroes!”Void exclaimed.

    “Oookay…Uh, then I really wouldn’t be able to tell you what my name would be.”Alex murmured awkwardly, wincing when Shield lightly slapped the newly placed bandages, signaling that he was done. “Then just show us your powers newbie.”Shield chuckled, “Unless they’re really lame.” Void rapidly nodded in agreement.

    “My powers aren’t lame they’re just…difficult do without the right material. That and I’m starving.”
The two shared a look after Alex’s explanation before the older got up with a sigh and went to their bags. After a bit of shuffling about the young man turned and tossed Alex a granola bar. “Think that’ll help? I don’t know about materials though.”Shield said.

    “No, no, this is fine.” Alex muttered, opening the little package and eating, saving the last bite to show off his powers. He sighed deciding to keep it small and simple and went with a handle full of small bugs. “So you turn for into bugs?”Shield asked, “Not exactly useful.”

    “Well it’s a bit more than that. I’m just tired and hungry and I can’t really do anything bigger right now.”Alex explained. “So you can make things other than bugs? Like anything you can think of, you can make it?”Void questioned and got a nod in return, “Pretty much.”

    “Well, what do you think Void? What should be the newbie’s name?”

    Alex frowned, newly bandaged shoulder still throbbing from Shield’s rough treatment, “Now hold on a second I never agreed-” It didn’t seem to matter to them. “Rebirth!”Void shouted, completely ignoring Alex’s protests. “Huh, weird name, but it’ll do. Welcome to the team, Rebirth.”Shield chuckled. What could he do? He had no choice in this situation.

"C'mon... we should go, yeah? Ain't nothing up here but dusty old paintings and shadows... I'm sure some fresh air will do you some good."

He sniffled and nodded, pulling away. "Yeah..." He felt drained, too tired to do much of anything but she was right. They had to move, not only for his sake but because security would be on it's way to check the noise. A gun had been fired after all, no way they'd ignore that. His grief could wait. On standing he heard the ding of the elevator down the hall. "I think we should take the stairs."he murmured whilst Ace, who had been standing a foot a way from them, fluttered back to his place on his shoulder.

He looked around, waiting for Shelby to stand before feeling his way toward another hallway. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long and they wouldn't get caught where they shouldn't.

Alex relaxed a little when the guy didn't question his story further. At least for now anyway. There was always a chance he would. Not that he did anything wrong, just something very dumb. Pick a fight with the wrong guy, get the short end of the stick. He really ought to know by now to mind his own business. Still this was a better result than what could have been.

"What's your name kid?"

"Alex, what's yours?" Simple answer for a simple question. Besides it wasn't like the guy needed to know his full name. It would only serve to have something to give to the cops if he so chose to call them. Best to keep his answers short.

"Let's start at the beginning. I feel like it makes sense that way."

He nodded, deciding to focus on the map and not her face or the nervous clenching in his stomach. "Alright, um, the beginning..." He pointed to the beginning of the line, the first circle. "So I started off here, rode my bike as far as I could then ditched it by the side of the rode. I-I must have traveled, two weeks or so before I ran into a small group living in those woods. If I'm remembering correctly they started living out there because the mutant camps and they just never bothered to move back."

It got easier as it went on, this was the simple stuff, nothing major to hide. "So I went with them and I learned a lot about survival. A-and how to steal, every time we'd come across a gas station or something, we'd take what we'd need. I didn't like it at first but the forest doesn't provide everything, so there wasn't much arguing after the first time I needed it." He glanced up at her, "I don't know if the security cameras ever caught my face, never stuck around long enough to find out."

He followed the line and stopped at the next circle, taking a breath to calm himself. He didn't need his constructs to remember this clearly. "We were heading south for winter and it was getting harder to find food with it being out of season. Not to mention me, since I didn't know what I was doing half the time we didn't always have enough to go around. So one of them suggested we hold up a food semi, you know the kind that goes to grocery store n' stuff. At first, nobody thought it was a good idea, then we got desperate...It was better than nothing. Long story short I ended up getting shot." He could still remember the feeling of the bullet piercing him, nearly bleeding out. "I don't remember much after that. Somehow they got me to a hospital." He tapped a nearby city on the map. Just above the next circle. "The nurses told me I was lucky not to have been kill, apparently there's an important artery where the bullet went in."

“Nothing much, I was reading when I heard all of those. It wasn't hard finding the source.”

He glanced back at the rather large swarm and smirked, shrugging. He couldn't blame the kid, the buzzing was rather loud. Though he found it rather soothing, rather than annoying or scary. Then again that might just because he was connected to it and vice virsa. "Sorry if it bugged ya. Kind of hard to keep them quiet."

“Anyways, I saw you making them out of dead leaves. Just what is yo mutation?”

"Creation of organic life from organic matter, to put it simply." He really had no other way of putting it. At least not in simple terms. He had a few ideas as to why or how but honestly no testing to back them up. "What about you kiddo? You live in the mansion right?"he asked curiously. He wondered what power what the kid had. He remembered being that age and being terrified of his mutation. It made Alex silently glad this kid wouldn't really have to go through that.

"It's okay to be nervous about this. And I understand that walking away seems like easier to do. But are you sure that you would not regret it if you did? Because I know I would. And I know you have already thought this over. You even prepared a map."

She was right, he would regret it but he was also sure he'd regret being tied down to one place. The constructs grew louder, making it hard to think. He looked down at the folded up map in his hand trying to remember why he had been so determined to retrace his path, why he felt being clear had been so important. He wanted...he wanted...normalcy, safety, rest? Something like that, it was getting too crowded in his head. He clenched his eyes shut, as if he could block out all the clamor from the constructs so easily.

"How about this. Come in and tell me some of it, and if you want to stop at any point to re-think all of this, or maybe take a break and continue later, that's okay too. How's that sound?"

He looked back up at her, knowing that just a few steps would put him in her aura and the noise would be cut out. He nodded and stepped in, purposefully putting himself in her aura. It was jarring, all at once the noise was cancelled out, turned to the weird pressure but at least it was silent. "It...sounds good."he said softly. It was hard to think without access to his constructs but at the same time with them being so aggressively against this it was better this way. He felt in control again.

Just as his frantic heartbeat had settled he was startled again. A soft displacement of air and the thumping of boots in the darkened room alerted him to a new danger. And here he thought he could hide out for a little while. How silly that thought was.

"Alright, stand up slowly and we can all walk away from this."

He stiffened at the implied threat and did as he was told, holding his hands up in a show of surrender. "No need to get violent. I wasn't doing anything wrong."he said before giving a small self-depreciating smile, "Okay, I opened the door to place that wasn't mine. But to be fair it was unlocked." He wondered if he should explain why he was hiding out in this dark office and if the guy would even buy the story that he was being chased by a couple of thugs. Probably not.

Though he did have a couple questions of his own. Like how did the guy get in here without opening any doors. However it didn't seem prudent to question the owner of the place. Or at least he assumed it was the owner, it could be someone completely different. That was another question that he could ask, "Are you the owner of this place?"