Apombrotis chapter 1: Redrum (Patreon)

Living in Brockton Bay sucked, it sucked a lot and for everyone. It's just that it sucked more for some than others.

Brockton Bay was a cesspool of gangs, misery and poverty. It was a city where the major gangs were guilty of human trafficking or pure and simple nazism.

It was one of the cities of America with the greatest cape concentrations, real superheroes and supervillains capable of doing things that most would have expected to see in TV shows and comics, not in real life.

Jayden Laborn was unlucky in the sense that he was a fourteen black bot, a black boy in the Nazi capital of America, where only one step could mean not only his death but the death of others he cared for.

He had been taught since he was younger what he needed to do and what places he needed to avoid to survive. He had always felt like a trapped animal.

He was seen as a black man by the world and this qualification was enough for him to know that everything he'll be doing would be treated differently. Brockton Bay just made it more obvious.

A teacher saying it was expected when he failed a task, being treated as a nuisance, being accused of having cheated on a text after having the best grade and having to all do it again because how could someone like him be smart?

It made him angry, it made him bitter. Those feelings, Jayden knew he would never have the right to freely express them and he hated it. He felt weak, helpless, like a prey animal just waiting for a predator to pierce his neck with their fangs.

Something cold pressed against one of his ears bringing him back to reality. He hissed at the contact and turned toward the perpetrator “What was that for?” he asked.

The perpetrator was a black girl the same age as him, one he knew very well due to the fact they were literally cousins, Aisha. “You were doing that stupid thing where you zone out.” she held in each hand cans of monster. One of them was probably what touched him.

“It's not enough of a reason to,” his gaze turned toward the object in the right hand of the black girl “Do what you did. You could have said my name or done something else.”

Aisha shrugged “I could have but it would have been boring.”

“I fucking hate you,” Jayden told her.

“That's because you suck and can’t see my greatness dumbass.”

One of the eyebrows of the boy lifted slightly “Do you think you could be talking?”

“It's not because you got better grades that you're smarter.”

“Oh, please tell me Aisha, share your great wisdom,” the boy said sarcastically to his cousin.

She sat at his side on the bench “Of course Dumbass, allow me to illuminate the fuck out of you. I’m the smartest here because I don't try to have good grades.”

“Truly, you're a genius of the same level as Einstein.” Jayden moved stealing one of the cans.

“Hey, what is wrong with you asshole?!” the girl shouted.

“Stop acting as if you didn't buy it for me. I'm going to be listening to your bullshit. It's only fair I do it while drinking something. The monster will melt my insides allowing me to focus on something more important than your yapping.”

“Fuck you Jayden.”

Jayden opened the top of the can “Love you too Aisha.” before taking a gulp. “Yeah, you can begin.”

“It's spilling on your chin. You are a grown-ass man. Stop acting like a child,” the girl said to her cousin open disgust in her eyes.

“I am a child I want to remind you. Also, stop acting as if you were better.”

The girl also opened her can before taking a gulp “I am me and you are you. Everything I do is inherently better.”

“Fuck you, Aisha.”

“Love you too, cousin,” she taunted him by repeating his past words.

“I don’t know why people like it.”

“Probably because it is less expensive than mineral water,” Jayden before taking another drink from the can.

“I saw Asian teens steal in daylight some Hennessy,” Aisha admitted for a moment.

“They were ABB right?” Jayden asked her.

“Yeah, they were. The clerk looked so frustrated but I knew looking at him that he knew he could do nothing. They saw me. I left before they could come closer to me and start shit.”

One of the things the Asian gang of Brockton Bay was infamous for was its human trafficking rings. Everyone knew but no one did anything because of how powerful the gang was. How many stories were there of girls being forcefully inebriated before being kidnapped?

Aisha like every member of Jayden’s family was attractive. It wasn't him being prideful or narcissistic. it was the objective truth. He may have not been popular with the administration of his school but saying it was the same thing with girls would be false.

When you had shoulder-length locs, were kinda tall, good-looking like most members of his family were and black, being popular with girls was easy. The trick was to be smart enough to act as if you didn’t know.

Jayden had heard the story of a guy in Winslow who unknowingly made the mistake of dating a white girl whose brother was affiliated with the empire. The boy called Tyrone disappeared shortly after. The guy’s body was found hanged and bloodied in an abandoned warehouse two weeks later with the word Nigger cut and written onto his skin.

There were other similar stories with Asian girls. You never knew who was or wasn't affiliated with a major gang in Brockton. Sometimes, not doing anything, staying alone with the people you know meant surviving.

He watched from the corner of his eye as the grip of his cousin over her can tightened. More and he feared she would hurt herself.

Aisha and Jayden had a particular relationship with Alcohol and drugs. They had seen what it could do a loved one, how it could change them so completely. Drugs were worse than death in his opinion because Death was mercy, it was an end. Death allows your loved ones to grieve and try to move.

Drugs and alcohol, addictions killed you, warped yourself. The person before and after wasn’t the same. You found yourself looking at all the worst traits amplified of someone you used to know, someone you used to trust, someone you used to love.

Jayden remembered Celia Laborn before things went really bad. She had been more than the wife of his uncle, more than the childhood friend of his mother. She had been his aunt.

Things were bad when he was young but there still had been a sliver of hope that things would get better. Celia had tried and they had trusted her. They shouldn't have.

Aisha and Jayden had made themselves many promises to each other when they were younger. One of them was to never become like Celia Laborn. They promised each other to never become addicts. This is why he knew Aisha even though tried to hide her fear that she was scared of the ABB. She was scared to become like her mom. He knew she preferred Death before this fate.

“We were taking of your delusions, of you thinking you are smarter than me,” he said to the girl trying to change the topic of conversion, to lift some of the heaviness he could feel on his cousin’s shoulders.

He knew Aisha understood what he was doing but she still played “I was saying that I was smarter because unlike you, I understand what really matters!”

“Bad hair dyes and trashy clothes?” he taunted her.

“You’re one to talk with my when I was younger, my father took me to the city ass clothes,” the girl fired back.

A scowl bloomed on Jayden’s face. How dared she? It was his fault that back clothes were the best looking! “Fuck you, Aisha! You hatin, cause you ain’t drippy.”

“You’re out of your goddamn mind if you think I want to look like you Carlton!”

He prepared to lunge toward the shorter girl “I'm going to kill you!”

A daring grin split her face “Auntie Ve and Brian will make sure you follow me directly after Dumbass!”

Jayden’s hands twitched as he forced himself to not strangle the girl before him. It would be so satisfying but what would come after would be so much less. He didn't know why but his mother saw Aisha as the eighth wonder of the world when he knew Aisha was all but that.

Reluctantly, he retreated away from her. The grin of the girl widened in victory “You see, I'm way smarter than you.”

“Fuck you, Aisha,” Jayden grumbled before taking another drink from his can of Monster.

Aisha came close to him and playfully slapped his face “Love you too Jayden.”

He was going to kill her! He didn't care! He was going to make her pay. ‘Brian, your mom, think clearly. Brian and your mom,’ his brain reminded him.

He turned away from Aisha. Unfortunately not quickly enough to not be able to see her grin widening even more.

“Continue taking,” he grunted.

“So like I was saying.” Jayden could hear almost a smile in her voice “I’m smarter because I understand that in the end, it doesn't matter.”

His attention piqued, he turned back toward her “Never took you for a nihilist.”

“I'm not nihilistic. I'm just a realist. Brockton Bay is dying or maybe it has been dead since the beginning. We're black. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we won't be allowed to really succeed because of the ABB or the empire. Black businesses are destroyed by Empire goons more quickly than I can say call the police. The people in power are white or close enough to it and rich. They aren't really affected so why would they care?”

“I still think that saying that it won't matter is too excessive. Sure, the Bay is fucked and had been since the beginning but it's not as if one day, we won't be able to leave Brockton if we try really hard.”

“It's possible,” Aisha admitted “if you forget the fact that the Empire is almost everywhere in America. Brockton Bay is just their base but we all know they have total or partial control over remote white supremacist gangs in all of America.”

Every black person in the US knew too great success could mean death and always meant danger. A guy called Obama had tried to become a presidential candidate. Two days after the announcements, the bodies of him and his family were found shredded as if they had been thrown into a shredder. The same thing happened with the previous governor of Massachusetts who was shot by white supremacists. It was known that Iron Rain before dying had liked to take trips outside of Brockton to kill those she called loud monkeys.

A star from an old TV show. Jayden think his name was Will Smith or something was beheaded by the cape before numerous eyes. There were so many other names he had forgotten but who died simply because they were seen by the Empire as bothersome.

“The only other safe places for people like us in America are again places where you would be accepted only if you were too rich too powerful or New York due to the legend,” Aisha continued.

“There are a lot of other black people living in other cities even if they aren't as bad as here,” Jayden pointed to his cousin.

“Can you call it living though? Living in poor neighbourhoods where drugs are rampant, living in places where they fear each second, and minute because it could be their last. They aren't living Jayden. They are surviving. Also with the Endbringers, America would probably be more of a hellscape than it already is if we make it to adulthood”.

“You really know how to uplift moods cous,” Jayden said sarcastically.

The girl at his side grinned “I know, it's a gift. So as you can see, I'm clearly the smartest because unlike you I'm not stupid enough to try when I know it won’t matter in the end.”

He knew what to say to wipe out the grin on her face “I'm going to tell my Mom and Brian that you purposefully get bad grades.”

She reared back away from him as if he had slapped her “You won’t dare and even if you did they wouldn't believe you.”

“Maybe my mom won't at first but Brian will and I know that if he believes so, my mom will too. After all, you are her smart perfect little girl. Of course, you get bad grades because you don’t try.”

She threw his can at him. He dodged by moving his head “You’re a snitch!” she accused him.

Jayden bolted away from the bench. Instants after, Aisha like a cat had pounced on the place where he had been “I am indeed a snitch but one with legs!”

He began to run away “I'm going to tell her,” he shouted to her.

“Oh, you won't!” He turned to see she was running behind him trying to catch up.

“See you later slowpoke. Maybe if you weren't so lazy at school, you would have already caught up!” he taunted her.

“It is unrelated!” he heard her yell behind him as they raced toward Jayden’s apartment building.

*scene*

The building where he lived with his mom in the docks was an old one but it was one Jayden had always called home. The building was burning. Spectators stood in front of it looking, watching at his home was consumed by flames.

His mom, his mom! He knew her schedule like the back of his hand. At this time, his mother would have been in the building. ‘Jayden, everything is fine! She probably was able to escape,’ his mind tried to reassure him. His legs moved without his input making him go close to the bonfire.

“Jayden!” a voice called, stopping him in his tracks.

The owner of the voice was Miss Robinson. She was an old woman that was old even when Jayden was a toddler. She was always complaining about the youth and how they were all disappointed. Personally, he thought she hated him. This is why when She came closer and hugged him, his body stiffened “I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Honey.”

Around them, other inhabitants seemed to realize what was happening. They weren't looking at the building anymore. They were looking at him with pity, with sadness. Why did they look at him like this?!

“My mom Miss Robinson, please where is my mom?” he asked, no begged.

The onlookers seemed to get even more sadder. They turned their gazes away from his as if they were ashamed. “Jayden, your mother…there was a fight between Lung and Purity. One of the beams of purity struck against the building…exactly where was your appa—”.

The old woman didn't finish but he didn't need her to do so to understand. His mom, his mom, she couldn't be dead. She couldn't be dead!

He pushed with all the softness he could muster at that moment the old woman away from him “My Mom isn't dead. I'm sure of it!” He ignored how hopeless he sounded. “Did any of you try to check?!”

They didn't answer him. He saw in their gaze their pity worsen and it made him want to vomit.

He turned his gaze away from the people around him to look at the building ‘His mother wasn’t dead. She couldn't be dead!’

Jayden moved rushing toward the enflamed building. He felt hands trying to stop him but they weren't strong enough to do so. He pushed through flames and it hurt. The fire licked his skin but he continued. The pain he was feeling now was nothing before the anguish at possibly losing his mother.

“Someone stop him!” he heard some of them shout.

“Don’t go kid!” others yelled.

He threw his hoodie which fortunately had taken the brunt of The flames leaving himself in a simple black t-shirt. He patted the remaining embers that ate at his flesh.

“Jayden, no!” a voice shouted with such anguish, such pain that it made Jayden look behind.

His gaze met the eyes of his cousin “Don't do it,” Aisha’s eyes screamed.

‘I’m sorry Aisha,’ he tried to convey with his eyes before he entered fully into the burning building losing sight of her.

He took the stairs running on the heated ground to the floor where was the apartment he resided with his mom.

Miss Robinson had been right, the first place that had been struck had been his apartment. There was no door or wall anymore. He could smell something. It reminded him of sausages being cooked for too long. He entered doing his best to avoid the flames and not breathe the black smoke.

He finally reached what remained of the kitchen and he saw her. He felt his legs give up as he continued to look at the corpse of his mother.

It didn't even look like a corpse anymore, it didn't look like a person. It was mangled, burnt beyond belief. The only reason why he knew it was his mother and not smother poor soul was a thin chain that gleamed brightly around the neck of the thing. This was his mother's chain, one she had received as a wedding gift from his father before his father passed away. His mom was truly dead. She had died alone in such an ignominious way when she had done nothing to deserve it.

Jayden had lost his mother, he had lost his last remaining parent. Behind him, he could feel the heat of the flames as if they were closing on him.

He turned to look at the path he had taken to come. A part of the ceiling chose this moment to fall blocking the way.

He took a deep breath of smoke making him become lightheaded and leaned against one of the remaining walls. He should be trying to escape, to survive but he was too exhausted to care. He closed his eyes as he felt the flames come closer. His last thought before the flames consumed him with a mind-broking agony was ‘I am so sorry Aisha.’

*scene*

Jayden opened his eyes when he knew she shouldn't have been able to. Bright lights blinded him making him close his eyes and groan painfully.

“He's awake!” he heard a voice said.

“Someone call the doctor!”

Jayden eyes turned toward the origins of the sound. He could see women dressed in what he recognized as the Brockton Bay hospital nurse uniform.

“How?” he tried to say but what escaped from his lips was a mix of a cough and a rasp. How could he still be alive? He remembered dying! He remembered burning! Even if he had been saved, he would have expected to be awakened looking like a giant three-degree burn. He could see in the corner of his eyes his skin, his spotless brown skin, unmarred skin:

‘Panacea,’ he realized. Only Panacea, a cape from the new wave could have healed him. Capes with healing power were rare. She was one of the two healers in America at least who could have done so. It could only be her because the other one was a member of the Empire.

What made it surprising was not everyone was lucky enough to be healed by the cape. There were literally millions who wanted to be healed by the cape. There was a list but a lot of people bypassed it by paying which meant that most of the time except for particular situations, people not rich or lucky enough were not able to access the healer.

This is why he didn't understand how it was possible for him to have been healed by her. He was now a dirt poor orphan. Even if his uncle and his cousins had tried their best to gather money for him to be healed, he knew it wouldn't be enough.

A nurse pushed a tall cup toward him “Take this, this is water.”

Softly, he opened his mouth and drank. He must have been more thirsty than he imagined because, in an instant, the water had disappeared.

A door opened and a frazzled-looking man who seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown entered.

“Mr Laborn,” the doctor spoke. “Your family was really worried about you. I just called them. They’ll be here soon.”

The doctor turned toward the nurse “I'll handle it for now. Can you go wait outside for his family?”

The nurse nodded and left giving the cup Jayden just had drunk from to the doctor. The doctor moved slowly before the eyes of the boy as if he had all the time in the world. He took a bottle of water and poured all the water remaining in it in the cup.

The doctor took a chair and sat on it before giving back the cup to Jayden. The gaze of the doctor felt creepy, dissecting as if Jayden was an interesting bug.

“What?”

“Your family,” the doctor repeated “You had been unconscious for almost two months. Your sister was there each day to visit. The other members of your family came to see you one time each Sunday.”

Aisha, Jayden knew he was talking of Aisha “I don’t have a sister. She’s my cousin” he told the doctor.

The eyebrows of the plan lifted and his eyes widened in surprise “Sorry for the error. With how the two of you look alike and with the fact you both had the same names, I thought it was the case.”

“Anyway,” the doctor continued “You should be alright. You were healed by Panacea and we checked after but it's always possible we missed things. How do you feel young man?”

“Exhausted as if I had crawled out of a tombstone.”

“Dark humour, it seems that we were right,” the doctor said chuckling.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s all. Things would have been different if you hadn't been healed by Panacea young man.”

“How is it possible?” he asked the doctor. “My family ain't rich.”

“At first, it honestly seemed as if you would have died. We had tried our best to stabilize you but even then, the chances were too slim. Your family tried to negotiate, to become indebted to the hospital, pay partially now and handle the rest later. They were refused.”

“Then how?” he asked the doctor. How was he still alive?! Why was he still alive?!

The doctor sighed “Do you believe in miracles, young man?”

“This is Brockton Bay. No one here believes in miracles,” Jayden answered.

“When we came back to your room, We found a cheque at your bedside. A cheque with a note where it was written for Jayden Laborn. Your uncle went to the bank and was able to withdraw the necessary amount,” the doctor explained

“That's bullshit, it's Brockton Bay.“

“I understand you young man. This is extraordinary. This is a new chance you were given. I see a lot of people your age and younger Jayden Laborn that aren’t as lucky as you. They died where you lived.”

“What if I don't want to live?” he asked softly the doctor.

“In the end, it's your life. Waste it if you want, live it to its fullest if that's what you want. I don't really know you. I'm just an underpaid guy watching more children die than helping bring new ones into this world. I won't tell you life got a meaning or something alike but I think it would be sad if you let yourself die when a little girl came each day and sometimes had to be threatened to leave you alone. Don’t do it for you. Humans rarely have their best personal interests at heart.”

Jayden heard voices, familiar voices that with each instant came closer to the room. The doctor stood up “Do it for the ones who care about you.”

“May I have your name?” Jayden asked him. “You know mine but I don't know yours.”

“My name is Cameron Lindsay and I hope today is the last time I see you for a long time Jayden Laborn,” the man answered before the door opened and an Aisha missile flew toward him.

*scene*

They had left the hospital. His uncle had gone to talk with the doctor about some things Jayden didn't feel like caring about for now before he was discharged.

It was recommended the doctor had told him before they left to schedule meetings with a therapist. Apparently, they thought that Jayden was traumatized or something as stupid as that.

Jayden sat at the back of the car Aisha at his side. The girl was holding his hand with such a grip it felt as if she would rip it out. Normally, he would have teased and mocked her. He couldn't when he knew she almost saw him die, he couldn't when he knew she did so because she wanted reassurance that he was still there, that he hadn't left her.

Marcus Laborn, his uncle was driving. The man who rarely showed his emotions or any kind of loving gesture had hugged him. Jayden had been to see behind the black glasses of the black man's eyes that were red as if Marcus had been crying minutes ago.

On the second front seat, Brian sat silently at the side of his father. The only telltale sign that Brian was affected was the way how he looked through a window at Jayden each time he thought Jayden wouldn't see it.

The silence felt tense, almost oppressing. He should said something. I'm sorry maybe? Sorry for making you worry. Sorry for rushing into a burning building for nothing because people were right, right when they said that his mother was dead. Sorry for dying almost uselessly.

He chose to stay silent. Instead, he turned his gaze to the road, to the city of Brockton Bay bathed in the darkness of the night and its sickly dilapidated lights.

People moved, walked, laughed, frowned, rushed and lived as if nothing had changed. The world was the same. His mother was dead and the world didn't care. There was no angry rain, there was no worldly cataclysm.

The person who cut the uncomfortable silence was his uncle “Aisha had taken notes for you while you were absent from school.”

Jayden turned his gaze toward the man “What?” he said in disbelief.

“Hey, what does it mean?! I'm the smartest between the two of us, don't you remember,” Aisha said in false outrage. It was clear to anyone that it was forced. They all chose to not point it out.

“You, taking notes?” he taunted her trying to muster the same levity he had before. “I'm screwed aren't I?”

“How dare you?”

“I dare when snails can write better than you Aisha!”

“Snails can’t even write and why even snails? Why didn't you choose another animal or something?”

“Because a snail is the only creature you can come close to intellectually Aisha.”

“That's funny coming from the guy who was sent to remedial classes because even a doctor would baulk at his writing.”

“Fuck you, Aisha.” Normally, this would be the moment when an older member of their family like Brian would chastise them about their language. Neither Brian nor his uncle did anything.

“Love you Jayden~” Aisha taunted him. He knew Aisha was saying it honestly with The way her grip on his hand tightened and the way he saw her eyes shine

“Love you too Aisha,” Jayden whispered.

In the front seats, smiles bloomed on the faces of Marcus and Brian. ‘Things would be hard like they had always been’ Brian thought. It was fine. Brian will stop at nothing, nothing to ensure that no one, no one whether it was an empire goon or Scion himself would be able to hurt his family again.

*scene*

The car stopped moving. Jayden turned to his uncle “Why did we stop here?”

He scanned with his eyes their surroundings.  ‘Welcome to the Brockton Bay Cemetery, it read.

Why would they sto-.  Oh, it hit him like a brick. He had lost his mom. It had been two months since the fire. His mother was probably already buried. He had missed her funeral.

Somewhere in the cemetery, in the maze of tombstones, the corpse of his mother was lying six feet underground in the dirt.

A flash of the thing she had become assaulted his mind, a flash of her burnt corpses. He couldn't breathe. It felt as if a noose had been put around his neck.

Jayden’s body shook in fear and began to hyperventilate as the boy began to drown himself in his memories.

Aisha stood helpless as before her eyes, her cousin, her family broke down before her. She wanted to do something, anything but she didn't know what. She was frozen the same way she was the accursed day she lost her aunt and almost lost him.

Brian moved more quickly than Aisha ever thought possible moving through the car with the grace of a cat. His hands grabbed the shoulders of his cousin to make him still.

“Jayden. Try to breathe, breathe. You are here with us. Everything is fine.”

The breathing of Jayden began to even out “Yeah, just like that. Concentrate on your breathing. Stay in the present. Stay with us."

“I'm sorry,” Jayden whispered. Shame could be felt through his voice. “I don't know what happened.”

“It's okay. We’ll handle it later.”

Brian turned toward his father “We can come another day Dad.”

Marcus sighed “You’re right. You’re right.”

Marcus’s foot moved to the accelerator. The car’s engine roared to life as they left the hope, the illusion that things would immediately be better crushed.

*scene*

Marcus Laborn has felt useless and powerless all his life. He had felt powerless when the world changed in his youth with the beginning of the era of the Parahumans.

Things were bad at that time but they had thought, people his generation, his friends and family members had seen a better future for all.

The black panthers were on the rise. Black-controlled gangs had really become able to contend against their white counterparts.

This was an era of dreams. This was an era of hope. Things were so different back then. There was light in the eyes of people instead of the crushed despair and hopelessness he only saw those days.

Celia was different, the antithesis of her of now. She was so smart, so kind, so caring, so alive. If the old Celia had seen what she would have become, Marcus knew she would have chosen to shoot herself into the brain.

He still had his brother, his twin at his side. They had promised themselves to never give up, to never let each other down.

Marcus had broken his promise. He stopped hoping. He stopped fighting. He kneeled instead of trying to fight because he was a godamned coward.

With the appearance of Parahumans, capes like they were mostly known today, everything in his life fell apart.

What was the point of having guns when your opponents could crush concrete into dust with their fingers? What was the point of having guns when the other could use his unnatural powers to burn dozens in less than an instant?

Parahumans weren't humans. They were more akin to gods, heroes from antic tales who chose to follow only the rules they deemed worthy to be followed.

Parahumans only brought one thing in their wake and it was disasters. Parahumans appeared and he lost everything.

Most of the people he grew up with were outrightly killed in the streets or assassinated. There wasn't a day without waking up and hearing that someone they knew died gruesomely.

If he hadn't been for his twin Jason, Jayden's father, Marcus thought that they would have all died in New Orleans.

At that time, Celia was pregnant with Brian. Marcus hadn't wanted to lose his son before he could even live so they went to Brockton Bay.

The empire already existed back then but it wasn't as powerful as it was today. Capes who fashioned themselves as heroes back then tried.

Some capes had moral codes, they had honour. There had been an active cape Marcus and Jason had known would have been able to protect them.

The cape's name was Marquis. It wasn't to say that things were perfect, that the cape protected them because he was kind. After all, in exchange, Marcus and his brother became his underlings, some of his enforcers.

Things seemed to have stabilized, things were becoming better. His son was healthy, he was married to the woman he loved and they were trying for a second baby and he had his brother at his side.

His new normality broke when Marquis fell against the Brockton Bay Brigade or as they are known today, New Wave.

The empire attacked in the vacuum left by the fall of Marquis. They all almost made it. Marcus and Jason had been able to save a lot of money.

His brother had advised him to do so because in his words “Everything could go wrong at any moment.”

Oh, how he wished he hadn't been right. He woke up one night learning that his brother had been killed, killed by empire goons and hanged before his body was set aflame.

Veondre, Celia’s best friend and Jayden’s mom had been pregnant when it happened. He had lost half of his world with his brother died but his brother had left something before dying, something Marcus needed to protect, needed to ensure lived on.

He had promised himself to be the father Jayden would never be able to have. He promised himself that he would protect his family and failed.

He hadn't been the only one affected but he had almost forgotten it too lost in his mind, in his grief, too lost in his head to be there, to give attention to his pregnant wife and because of that, Celia fell into addiction.

Veondre may have told him it wasn’t his fault but he knew it was the case. Time would only prove that the only thing he was good at was failing.

He failed to stop Celia from turning into an addict. He failed to make sure that his children and his nephew wouldn’t be affected.

He chose to leave the house he shared with the living mockery of the past Celia he had known and his children. He would learn later that because of his cowardice, Celia would cheat to fuel his addiction his children would be suffering, abused by the ‘boyfriends’ that brought Celia drugs home.

He was thankful that Veondre was there. Things had been bad but they hadn’t been as bad as they could have been due to her.

He failed to be there for Brian, for Aisha, for Jayden. The only thing he was able to do with the money he had been able to save was open a little gym. He hadn't been stupid enough to open a big furnished one. He was still a black man in Brockton after all.

With the gym, his savings and the savings left by his brother, he was able to do the bare minimum and ensure that his family wouldn't have to worry about money, about their basic necessities.

When Brian chose to stop leaving with Celia, Marcus was able to buy him a nice apartment near the boardwalk.

Veondre, Jayden’s mother never had to worry about rent. Marcus made sure to always pay in advance before rent was due.

He was still a failure but not a complete one. That had been what he had thought. This was until he lost one of his oldest friends and almost lost his nephew.

Marcus had been the one to cradle the burnt mess his nephew had become in his arms. Marcus had been the one to bury Veondre.

He had feared that he would do the same thing with his nephew. He tried to pay so that Panacea, one of the children of the original capes of New Wave would heal his nephew.

What Marcus had wasn't enough. Maybe, maybe if he had sold his gym and used all the money he had been able to save, maybe it would have been enough.

That was what Marcus should have done but he had been a selfish coward and didn't! ‘What would happen after,’ his mind had whispered to him.

He would have saved his nephew but lost everything else. If he lost everything, who would take care of Brian and Aisha? Who would take care with love, who would pity two black children in Brockton Bay?

He thought that he would have to bury the last thing that remained of his brother but a miracle happened and due to this miracle, Jayden lived.

‘Not because of you,’ his brain reminded him. ‘He almost died because you were weak because you were a failure. What would have Veondre thought? What would Jason, your brother think?’

He failed again when he brought the boy to the cemetery. He should have known that he wasn’t ready, that it was too soon!

The only thing he was good at was fucking things up. This moment was the one he knew he should have stayed with his family. Jayden needed him, they all needed him.

His family was suffering and Marcus chose to leave. He left the three of them at Brian’s apartment before leaving.

He ignored the disappointment in the eyes of his son. He avoided the sad gazes of his daughter and his nephew.

Time had only shown that everything Marcus Laborn did failed. He had already failed too much. He had too many wrong things. The best he could do, what he needed to do for the good of his family was to stay away.

“I am so sorry brother,” he said in a silent prayer as Marcus went further and further away from the apartment.

That day, the wrong twin had been killed “If I could be different if I could be just as strong as you were, I would have.”

He trusted Brian, more than he trusted himself. He was sure that his son would do better than him. He was after all one of the only things he did right in this world.

*scene*

Jayden listened to Aisha's breathing. It helped him relax. She was asleep at his side. He knew he should be resting too but he couldn't. There were too many things on his mind for him to be given the mercy of Hypnos.

Brian was sleeping in another room. Jayden knew that at any loud sound, his cousin would be barging into the room he was supposed to be sleeping in.

They were family. This was what was expected right? Then, why did he feel like such a burden? Why did he feel so ashamed?

He logically knew that nothing was his fault but emotionally, he felt as if he was only dragging down his family with him.

He had lost his mother. Things would never be the same. Jayden was now an orphan. Things would be changing and not necessarily in a good way.

He knew without having to be said that due to the fact, that he was still a minor, someone else would be assigned to him whether he wanted it or not.

The only family he had left was his uncle Marcus, Brian and Aisha. He loved his uncle but something in him knew that there was no chance the man would accept to take him in. The man didn't even really take care personally of his own children. The same thing wouldn't be changing with Jayden.

Jayden knew Brian would try to take him in, to become his tutor before the state but Brian was still 17 even if soon, he would be 18 years old.

Aisha and Jayden knew that His older cousin even before the fire had been trying to do the same thing with Aisha. He may have tried to hide it but Jayden and Aisha weren't dumb.

Even if Brian was legally an adult, it still didn't mean that he would still be allowed to take Jayden in.

His mother had died and as a result, he would probably be alone, separated from his family. He already knew that the foster care system in Brockton only led to homelessness and addiction as least when you weren’t white and conventionally attractive in a white sense.

He was fucked in any sense of the term simply because a fucking cape, an Empire cape chose to kill his mother!

Things would have been better if his mom was still there. She always knew how to solve so easily any problems. She always was able to dissipate any of his worries.

Tears bloomed in his eyes and ran down his cheek. He pushed down the sob that wanted to escape from his throat. He already fucked his family up by being stupid. He didn't want to fuck their night again just because he was a crybaby, just because He wanted to hug, talk to his mom.

He just wished he could even though he knew it was impossible ‘You could,’ his mind whispered to him. ‘You know where she is right now.’

The cemetery, his mother was in the cemetery. She was dead but maybe, maybe talking to her grave would be better, able to distract him from the fucking pain he actually felt.

It would be quick. He would leave and come back before Brian and Aisha could even realize. He also knew Brockton enough to confidently navigate it even at night.

Slowly, he moved to not wake Aisha up. He knew that if he did, she would ask to come with him, she wouldn’t accept if he said no. It was better like that.

He turned his gaze to one of the windows of the room. Slowly and with prudence, he left the bed, hopping in red and white baskets before reaching the window.

He knew that there was an evacuation ladder just meters away. He should be able to reach it and from it jump.

He opened slowly the window to make sure it wouldn't make any noise. He gave one last look at Aisha before jumping.

Aisha and Jayden had in the past entertained the idea of trying to parkour in the city. Maybe if things were different, he wouldn't be alone doing it.

His two hands gripped the ladder stopping him from a fall that would have probably been grievous.

Slowly, he went down without making any noise. He prayed that Brian or anyone else wouldn’t see him.

He reached the end of the ladder. He was closer to the ground but even then, he knew that if he made an error, he could still hurt himself.

He leaned on his side holding himself with one hand. His gaze travelled to his surroundings making a plan to ensure nothing wrong would happen. A leap of faith, it was just a leap of faith. Jayden took a deep breath and jumped.

In that brief moment in the void, with the wind in his hair, he felt free. For a moment, nothing mattered and a grin split his face.

He travelled through the air, his form reaching the wall in front of him. He bent his legs, preparing his knees. One of his legs and one of his arms reached the wall. Jayden pushed against it slowing himself down but changing his direction now falling toward the ground.

He came down on the ground softly taking two more steps due to his fall before stopping himself.

His hair was covering his eyes. He pushed it back. Step 1, leaving without being detected was completed. Now was time for step 2, reaching the cemetery on foot.

*scene*

Here laid Veondre Caileen Laborn, loving mother.

Those were the words written on her white tombstone with the dates of her birth and her death.

It looked so quaint, so mundane. It was stupid. His mother wasn't there. She wasn't. She was gone.

His mom wasn’t a silent grave. His mother was a person full of life. His mother wasn't that thing yet he didn't leave. It was as if he was bewitched by a superior force to stay. Maybe for catharsis or some bullshit of the same kind.

“Mom,” he spoke. “I…I don't know what to say. I know you already knew I love you. There wasn't a day I didn't say it.”

“I am scared,” he admitted. “I don't know what to do, what I'm supposed to believe in, to become now that you're gone. I'm sure you would say a kind person but here you are Mom.”

His voice broke “Here you are Mom, dead! I hate them, Mom! I hate them all. Purity killed you, she took you away from me and nothing happened! Nothing will happen because she got power, because she's a cape!”

“Maybe if we were as strong as them, maybe if we could make them as scared of us as we are of them, maybe things would be fucking different. You probably can't hear me but I already miss you, so much. I wish you were still here.”

Something stole his attention away. It was like a mini star had fallen from the sky. The light had a humanoid shape, the shape of a woman. Purity, his brain recognized the cape before him, the killer of his mother.

He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to strangle her with his bare hands even if he knew it wasn't possible. She was a cape and he wasn't. Only capes could beat other capes and even though he hated it, this was the rule of this world.

Maybe it was how it should be. Miracles were after all just repurposed curses. Nothing was free. Things went too well. He just was sorry that he would make the member of his family feel another loss so soon after they thought they had him back.

“May I talk to you?” the cape said softly, more softly than Jayden expected a Nazi parahuman to sound. What was her angle? She was a white supremacist cape. He was a black boy. Why was she waiting before killing him?

“What more do you want?” he asked the glowing cap.

“What more do you want to take from me? Hadn't you done enough?” he asked her. He didn't back down. He didn't care he was talking with a cape capable of annihilating buildings in one move. He didn't care that he was courting death.

Jayden had lost his mother, the last true reason that made him try to continue living. Why should he care anymore when she was dead?

“I didn't…I wanted to apologize. It was an error, I didn't want to hurt anyone. It's just…she was in the way and things went….so quickly,” Purity said trying to justify, to absolve herself at least partially.

“Please leave,” Jayden told her. “Just leave…Please,” the boy said to the glowing cape.

His words instead of making the cape leave instead angered her “I'm trying to apologize!”

“I don't ducking care about your apology! Oh, I'm so sorry, it was a mistake. Your mistake took my mother! Your mistake took the most important person from my life! So, you and your apologies can go fuck yourselves Purity of the Empire 88.”

“You have to understand!” the glowing cape shouted her light beginning brighter, illuminating the cemetery. “I didn't wan-”

The sound of steps stopped her. She turned to look from where she could hear them coming. Jayden copied her.

He was unmistakable with his bare chest exposing his tattoos and his dragon mask. Only one man in Brockton Bay had the right and dared to wear such a mask. Lung, the leader of the ABB.

“Lung?” the voice of the Empire Cape rang in disbelief and fear. “What are you doing here?”

There was a cape, the strongest cape of Brockton Bay in front of Jayden. Lung was the cape who fought against the entirety of the Protectorate and won.

Lung was the cape known to publically execute the people he didn't like whether they were his underlings or not but roasting them alive with his flames.

Everyone in Brockton Bay feared Lung. Lung wasn't seen as a cape. He was seen as a moving disaster, a walking calamity akin to an S-class threat like Ash Beast or the Slaughterhouse Nine. You didn't try to fight them. You tried to survive.

The voice of the man rumbled “I was informed of your presence in my territory, so soon after our last fight where you ran. I came here alone to remind you, to remind your empire, your Kaiser that you exist because I had found you beneath my annoyance.”

Brockton Bay could be said to be divided into three different zones. Every true Brocktonite knew this. There was Downtown, the zone controlled by the Empire 88. The zone under the control of the Protectorate was the Boardwalk. The wards and cape from the protectorate rarely ventured outside of it. They were quick to intervene and sign autographs in this zone but Jayden never had seen them in the docks patrolling, doing anything.

There were the docks that were under the control of the Azn Bad Boys, under the control of Lung. This had been unfortunately the only place where his mother had been able to rent a place. This was also where she was buried.

They couldn't live in Downtown even if they had the means to because of the empire. Doing so would only be taunting the empire and no minority except the Asians were crazy to try to do so.

The Boardwalk was also too expensive originally made for tourists who had not enough brains and too much money to spend. The fact that Marcus had been able to find an apartment for Brian near it was nothing short but miraculous

Jayden took a small step back. The attention of the head of the ABB was on purity and hopefully hers on him.

It should give him enough chances to escape away from the two capes. His plan was destroyed the moment Lung opened his mouth “You take another step without me allowing you to and you die boy.”

He froze at the words of the parahuman. “He didn't do anything Lung! Let him go!” Purity said to the other cape.

A rumble began to escape from the chest of the man. Jayden realized that the man was laughing “A nazi asking me to allow a black boy to leave. A nazi trying to save a black boy! I wonder if Kaiser and the other members of your empire know this.”

The parahuman chuckled “It almost makes me want to let him leave. Almost. Unfortunately for you, I crave violence, I crave blood. It's clear He's from my territory. He lives in my domain. It means I ownhim.”

A burning beam of light flew from the hands of the Empire Cape to the head of the ABB. Lung didn't try to dodge.

Instead, he moved his hand to encounter the beam of light. At first, it seemed as if the light of purity worked. It was after A beam of light capable of making a building go low.

This was what Jayden thought until before his eyes, the burning hand became bigger and scales began to grow all over the body of Lung.

Lung moved his hand and the light bent. Jayden’s instincts flared up screaming at him to dodge.

He followed them, throwing himself to the side. Something bright, absurdly bright blinded him for an instant before crashing against something with the noise of a bomb exploding.

Jayden’s ears rang. His thoughts felt muddy as if he was intoxicated. Slowly but surely, his vision came back.

He realized quickly that something was wrong. The deflected beam of light had left a path of destruction, exploding and destroying things on its path. One of those things had been Jayden’s mother's tombstone. The second of those things was one of his arms.

His left arm had disappeared at the elbow as if it had been cleanly cut and computerized at the same time.

The realization that he lacked an arm was the moment everything went white and his brain chose to bombard him with mind-numbing pain.

He could hear them talking. Everything hurt, everything was getting colder. Jayden knew he was dying. He didn't want to die at least not like that.

“Lung!” Purity shouted in hatred at the head of the ABB. Her light became even brighter banishing night, replacing for a moment night with day.

The parahuman was growing in size taking a more draconic appearance. At that moment, Purity and Lung looked like an angel and a devil battling for something more. They looked more than human. They looked like gods.

“We all know how those dances end Purity. In the end, you'll realize you're not a match for me and flee away. Today, I'm going to make things different. I may not obtain the satisfaction of directly hurting you but I'll never forget the fact that I killed as you were powerless someone you tried to protect, someone you would not be able to avenge because he is seen as lesser by the members of your Empire.”

Jayden wanted to live. He wanted for once to live proud. He wanted to proudly live without having to fear the consequences. He wanted to make the world regret everything it put him through yet his strength was leaving.

The boy tried to move, to try to escape. Maybe if he could reach his uncle, maybe if he could reach his cousins, things would be alright he thought.

Jayden’s story was one in a thousand In Brockton Bay. This wasn't the story of someone blessed with a shard of a higher entity that would allow him to try to fight back.

This wasn't the story of someone living in a fair world where logic and empathy would prevail.

This was the story of a common black child in Brockton. This was the story of someone whose only sin was to be born unlucky.

Under the cold uncaring moon, meters away from the grave of his mother, meters away from Purity and Lung fighting, Jayden Laborn died.

Jayden Laborn died and he saw something infinitely vast. It was a creature as big as a planet, one made of infinite fractals and tongues of shadows. It was looking at him. Jayden could feel his curiosity akin to a solar tempest. An appendage from the creature moved and touched him. It touched and Jason could feel himself change, become mo-.

“What is this?” a voice interrupted the process, the communion. “How interesting?” the voice spoke again. The voice came from a shadow in the form of a man. The only thing that could be seen was his scarlet eyes, the eyes of a god.

[QUERY!]

The man was something so much more than a man. He was something unknown. He was something beyond the shard.

Scarlet eyes with Magatama inside froze the cosmos “I can see with my eyes the hopeless dance your kind had been part of. You all are scared.”

[CYCLE!] [INFORMATION?] The thing didn't speak in any language yet Jayden understood it. The thing was shocked, scared of the knowledge of the stranger.

“My eyes see everything. From Yomi to Svarga, nothing can escape from my gaze. Let's make things interesting. Isn't it after all what your kind want?” the stranger in the shadow of a man spoke.

[INFORMATION?] [TRADE?] [AGREEMENT!] The giant creature was excited. Jayden could feel it. It hadn't realized unlike Jayden that he was in danger, that its greed would be its fall. After all what else would take the form of a human if not a predator?

A divine mandate was forced on reality as the stranger whispered “Tsukuyomi.”

An invisible wave struck the creature. The thing that was emanating feelings, understanding stopped doing so. Jayden looked at it and saw scarlet eyes in the impossible fractals making the creature, the same ones he had seen in the stranger.

A dark void appeared under Jayden. It roared in hunger and everything began to fall toward it. Jayden began to fall as if Gravity had been turned on “You understand, unlike my foolish brother how the only thing that matters in the end is strength. I'm giving you the opportunity to ascend beyond your station. Make me proud child. Don't make me think my actions here were wasteful.”

Jayden Laborn’s eyes opened again. Lung and Purity were both looking at him in shock. They were seasoned Parahumans, seasoned fighters. They knew that something had changed.

The dragon stood proudly, as tall as a little house. A snarl of anger was drawn on his face to hide the fear blooming inside him as the boy who should have died, the boy who had triggered looked at him. It reminded him of a woman, the one who broke him.

Lung was stronger than ever! Lung wasn't scared. With a growl, he spewed a wave of fire toward the boy.

“This will be the last time I directly help you,” the stranger whispered in one of Jayden’s ears.

Jayden felt his body move without his input as if he was a puppet. His two hands joined to form a mudra. Someone new, something strange seeped and travelled through all of his body from his stomach before reaching his eyes “Let me show a glimpse of the strength of Indra Otsutsuki!”

A tear of blood fell from his left eye “Amaterasu!” the boy whispered and a black unquenchable flame bloomed high as tall as the medhall tower if not more into the world swallowing everything in Jayden’s visual field.