We stood about 5 blocks away from the edge of The Dome. Lucas wouldn’t let us get any closer. I had my crows fly up and around. I could see much further into it when I looked through the eyes of the one I had linked to.

  The building, streets, everything in there was covered in ice. There was a thick and heavy fog or mist that seemed to hang around the whole area. Doors and windows looked to be sealed shut with the amount of ice covering them.

  Then I looked closer.

  I saw cars spun out on the street. Other cars were crashed into buildings, and yet the damage didn’t get worse. No cracks were visible on the ice. The people within the vehicles, the people on the streets. They were frozen. Covered in ice. The whole area looked as if it was one giant ice sculpture. I couldn’t make out any material that wasn’t ice.

  “This,” Lucas started. “Is what the city now calls Frostveil. It wasn’t always like this. It was actually the largest residential area we had for some time. Lots of families, young and old. Schools, corner shops. Then The Storm happened.”

  “The storm?” I asked softly. My crows continued looking around. I saw people frozen, right on the edge of the dome, of Frostveil. They had almost escaped.

  “The Storm. We don’t know what else to call it, but it was a force of nature. It arrived six months ago, and we couldn’t stop it from taking this section of the city. Every Exalt joined the fight. It was the first time anyone had seen heroes and villains working alongside each other… and it was the last. The Storm was something inhumane, no one even got a glimpse at the thing, it was hidden within the fog it produced. So far, it has never even appeared again. No, the most damage came from another Exalt. He went crazy at the sight of something that… Inhuman. Like something in his mind snapped, he just started killing anyone who got close.” Lucas clenched his fists. “The more he killed the harder it became to stop him, and the easier it became for him to kill more. He controlled blood you see.

  “Well, after that happened, many of the villains backed off. The heroes did too. Both thought the other was taking advantage. By the time the situation was understood, and the threat neutralized, we had lost the section of the city. It took all the remaining Exalts to push The Storm away. Now, Frostveil exists as a perpetual monument to our failures. The ice no longer spreads without The Storm’s presence, but the air seems to drop the temperature around the city, to the point we are in a perpetual winter.

  “Believe it or not, The Order actually were the ones to raise the alarm on this before the heroes even knew! According to our boss, he sent the information to New Dawn himself. They denied the validity of the claim. New Dawn is still trying to get their feet under them, and they couldn’t stand to be behind a known villain organization. Pair the lack of preparedness with the eventual betrayal we weren’t expecting… It’s lucky the damage was only this bad.”

  I could see the cold fury Lucas was holding back. It was enough of a drastic shift to start scaring me. I released Shade, nearly instinctively. But I didn’t retract it, instead opting to keep Shade hidden. Lucas kept going.

  “Do you know how many people died? Too many to count. The civilians never stood a chance. Those who managed to run, only succeeded in stampeding over themselves until they were all frozen solid. Then there were the deaths of the Exalts trying to push back The Storm! That bastard managed to kill thirty six Exalts on his own. Thirty six! If you ask the mayor, or New Dawn, they’ll tell you this was a good day. That for being unprepared it could have been far worse.” He scoffed. “‘Only a section was lost.’ That’s what they would say. “

  With that, Lucas broke down. He cried, letting everything out. This must have been the reason for his slips, the sadness that kept creeping in.

  “I-I had friends, Exalts and civilians both, who died in there. Who are frozen and can’t even get a proper burial, because we can’t bring their bodies out of there! The person I mentioned who had amnesia like you? Worse than you, because he can’t even remember his own name? It happened here. The mist got too close to him. He managed to get out, but not before some had apparently made it to his brain. How only his brain froze and not his head, I’ll never know.” Lucas sniveled, tears running down his cheeks.”H-he’s still in the hospital, and to this day can’t remember anything, or make new memories! I’m the only one who visits him. The doctors say he is lucky to be alive, but can you really call that living?

  “The worst part though. My family died in this attack. I gave them a heads up, told them to evacuate as soon as I heard the warnings. They were nearly to the Exalts when the fog reached them.”

  Seeing that there was no threat, I recalled my shadow silently. I didn’t know how to comfort Lucas, so I let him cry, and get it all off his chest. I wouldn’t judge him. He was alive and able to remember the people he lost. Had I lost friends, loved ones? People who had no one else to remember them but me?

  I had this sudden urge, or need to know what this was like. What the feelings were when faced with something like The Storm. I could see how it was affecting Lucas, but how had it affected Andree?

  I didn’t have to try hard to find the memories. They had been pushing at the wall since Lucas had said the name ‘Frostveil’. I picked one at random and watched. When I was done with one, I watched another. Then another. I was linking his memories together, forming a picture of the man who had tried to kill me, all in an effort to better understand the pain Lucas was feeling. I wanted to know, I needed to know.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  When I finally came back from my dive into the memories, the world seemed colder. The light dimmer. Was this how Andree saw the world? If so, his actions made a bit more sense to me. I looked over at Lucas. He had gotten himself composed. I understood now. Who The Storm broke that day. I understood Andree much better now, but I felt like I failed to grasp Lucas’ feelings the way I had hoped.

  For the entire walk back to base, we were silent. No talking. No questions.

  When we got back, I was surprised to see Kaitlyn was still there. I had expected her to have left. She didn’t say anything. One look at mine and Lucas’ faces were enough to tell her that it wasn’t a good time. Instead, she threw a small box towards me.

  I fumbled the catch, and the box fell to the floor. Picking it up quickly, I saw it was a phone. Opening the box, I pulled out the phone. It seemed like a fairly simple one, without a ton of gimmicks to it. Just flip it open, dial or select the contact, and call. It also supported text messages. I noticed the names in the contacts were ones I recognized.

  Lucas (M)

  Kaitlyn (N)

  Keiji (D)

  I shot her a questioning look, and she merely shrugged. Lucas had left the common room, going towards the rooms.

  “The boss had it delivered while you two were out. Don’t worry about if this falls into the heroes hands, the boss is able to remote wipe it if it’s not in your possession.” She looked towards where Lucas had walked off too. “Are you guys alright?”

  “I… I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s my place to say, but going to Frostveil, it seemed to bring back bad memories for him.” I looked away from her gaze as she looked back at me. “I didn’t remember anything of note from it. But I feel like I understand better, or as better as I can with not having been there.”

  Kaitlyn nodded in understanding. “I wasn’t there either. I hadn’t really found out about my powers in full yet. I knew I had them, but I didn’t know the extent in which they worked. I thought I was just a human flashlight for the longest time.” She gave a hollow laugh. “The day The Storm hit changed everything for everyone. I decided to push my powers afterwards, to see if I could have been of help and… well let’s say my only option became to be working for Broadcast. Lucas joined two months later.”

  “And now me.”

  “And now you.” She nodded again.

  We stood in silence for a bit, neither of us knowing what to say. Then, something that Lucas said on the walk came to mind.

  “Kaitlyn, Lucas mentioned something on the walk. Something about people thinking The Reaper was related in some way to the arrival of The Storm. That the only reason he started his rampage was due to the weakened state of the city. He also mentioned an Exalt who turned on everyone during the fight.”

  “You want to know if perhaps the two are related? One in the same.”

  “Yes.”

  “You and everyone else.” She let out a sigh, leaning back in her chair. “Our boss already confirmed it isn’t. The guy who went psycho was some guy name Hemo something. The boss was actually able to track him down. That’s how we know he is not The Reaper. Plus, the way The Reaper kills is, different. From what Keigi and Andre had gathered, he kills them all pretty quickly, and then tears up the bodies. Hemo whatsit would have torn the bodies to shreds while they were living.”

  “I see.”

  We lapsed back into an awkward silence after that. Trying not to be rude, I started making my way over to the hallway with our rooms.

  “Thanks for the help today Kaitlyn. I’m gonna go and get some shut eye. It’s been a lot to take in and get used to over the last two days.”

  “Yeah, goodnight I guess. I’ll be here in the morning. Might stay out here in case Lucas needs anything later.”

  I looked back at Kaitlyn in slight puzzlement. It was the first time I saw genuine concern on her face, and for Lucas at that. Given how she treated him all the time, I’d just assumed she didn’t care much about his well being. This shattered that notion. I quickly left the common room, and made my way to room. Falling on the bed again, I realized I had never brought the other two crows back with me when we returned to the building. They were probably outside still. A tomorrow problem.

  It’s not that it was late, but I was mentally exhausted. I hadn’t expected the dome I had seen to be a constant reminder of something that terrible. Then, whatever I had done with Andree’s memories seemed to be doing a number on me. I still saw the world a little darker, felt a little more distant from the world. I didn’t like the feeling, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Trying to close my eyes, my body became more restless. I wasn’t tired. I didn’t need to sleep.

  I cam back to thinking of my name. Broadcast was expecting an answer tonight. I needed to make a decision. I thought long and hard about it, and I felt like I kept coming back to the same name each time.

  “Hey boss, are you there? I made my decision on the name.”

  No response. I checked the phone again. No number programmed in for the boss. How was I suppose to get in contact wit-

  “Yes, what is it?” The voice echoed in my room, and it sounded impatient. “I’m a little preoccupied, so best make it quick.”

  So I did. I let him know the name, and then there was silence again. No confirmation. Maybe he hates the name I chose?

  Regardless, I laid back in bed closing my eyes again as I tried to find sleep.

  As I checked my phone sometime later, I knew I was not going to find the sleep I wanted.

  It wasn’t even that I felt I needed the sleep either. I didn’t feel tired, but I knew that I should be. I had been laying in bed for over an hour at this point, tossing and turning. It was only just past eight in the evening, but still, with everything going on, my mind felt like I needed to go to sleep, and yet my body didn’t agree. Tired of just sitting in my bed, I got up, and left my room. As I passed through the common room, I noticed that Kaitlyn was no longer in the room. Continuing on, I reached the training room we were in this morning.

  I made my way over to the weights and tried to pick up the 25 pounds. I could barely lift them up, my arms were so weak! I ended up dropping them on the floor as I felt them slip from my hands. I couldn’t believe how weak my arms were, it didn’t seem right. I tired picking them up again, and this time went better, but I could still feel my arms straining and struggling.

  Ok, so weights were out. I looked at the large open area of the training room. I could stand to work on my cardio. So, I started to run.

  It started with one lap. Then I did two. Four. Eight. I finished ten laps and was drenched in sweat. Pushing myself like that had made me exhausted and worn out, but I still didn’t feel tired. I knew I should be exhausted at this point, barely staying awake, and yet I wasn’t. I knew I couldn’t run anymore, but I didn’t feel the pull of sleep. I checked the phone again to see it was now a little past ten. After sitting there for some time, I got back up and started to run again.

  The pattern repeated all night. I would rest a little, run ten laps, then rest and check the time. When it was past four in the morning, and I still felt nothing, I was concerned. What the hell is wrong with me?

  Is it wrong? Or is it an advantage?