Top

Top! This is post 300! Let's keep going, please? I love this story and I'm not ready to give up on it. I'm gonna see it through.

Okay, I'll post. It may not turn out that great, though.

Rex

~

I tie the jacket around Saana's arm as a makeshift sling, and we begin to roam the streets, looking for Shaia.

"If you were an evil scumbag murderer with two pet snakes, where would you be?" I ask the world at large.

Saana stares at me.

"What?" I say. "I'm just wondering."

This is my city. The deepening shadows turn the pavement blue-grey. Way out past the crumbling storefronts, out west on the horizon, a glimmer of dying sunlight paints the sky pink and purple. These sights are familiar, but never dull, never taken for granted. I've lived here all my life. Evernaught City has its problems – and believe me, there are huge problems with it – but it has beauty too. You just have to look beneath the surface to find it. You just have to look up at the sky once in a while.

Tracking down a murderer. Main priority. Right.

Saana's watching the shadows. She looks uneasy. I follow her gaze, but there's nothing there. "You okay?" I ask, concerned.

She's silent for a long moment. Then she says, "Is Shaia really evil? Are we evil?"

I want to say something like "I didn't mean for it to come out that way". But I know it's not true. I had called Shaia evil. She killed my parents and my brother. But I've killed before. Saana has too. Are we evil?

I know that in the minds of the vigilantes, the line between good and evil is clear. They, the heroes, defend the populace. They're noble. They're good. We, the villains, kill and steal and kidnap. We're bad. We're evil.

But if you look a little further, you'll find that's not true. Beyond the facade, the lines begin to blur.

I don't get pleasure out of killing people. I guess I like stealing. It's an adrenaline rush, like when your teacher tells you not to do something and you suddenly want to do it way more. Still, I definitely wouldn't steal if I didn't have to.

Evernaught City has an inadequate, incapable government. The rich stay rich. The poor stay poor. When you're a eleven-year-old kid with nobody looking out for you in the entire world, being a criminal is the only way to stay alive.

Am I guilty? Yes. But not evil. And I suppose Shaia isn't truly evil either. Every victim of mine or Saana's had a family too. We just conveniently forgot that. Conveniently forgot that the little boy left dead in the alley was someone's son, someone's brother.

I don't know what to do.  

AHHH! My last post got deleted! I AM SO MAD!!! Bit of advice, never use emojis that are on the ipad, only use the ones Criket lets you use. If you do, everything after the emojis is deleted. SO ANNOYING!!! Meow. So anyways, I feel like my character is kinda out of it right now and i don't totally know what to right cause you guys are all such good writers and I'm kinda a newbie. Any pointers?

I really don't know what to post... but here's my post. Does anyone know where Skylar's owner went?

~Shaia 

"Come on, Nightrunner."

"Following you, Darkness Princess," Skyler says in a sarcastic tone.

We move away from the vigilants, watching Will o Wisp shoot into the air, "What a laser beam, huh?"  I laugh, "Thinks she's off to kill Leopold. What a little girl." 

Nightrunner nods behind me, "A little girl. Too bad she doesn't know she'll fail."

We both laugh cruelly, though something within me twists. I dismiss it, "Let's go find Leopold."

Nightrunner nods, and for a moment, we lock eyes. An emotion passes between us, something other than the cold uncaringness we've felt for the most of our lives." 

I run, toward Leopolds lab, with Skylar, "Hurry up."

I wrench open the doorknob, and open the door, looking around, "What a desolate place."

"Nothing like our headquarters, huh?" Skylar laughs.

I hear a noise, and instinctively whirl around, "Come out, little duckling."

Will'o Wisp flies through the window, and Skylar raises her eyebrows, "Little Peter Pan."  

She looks at us coolly, and I glance at Skylar to see if she's realized it, too. She nods. This isn't the same worthless vigilante. She's changed, and I have no idea how- or what she is, now.  

Star and UNSUSPCTNGSTRYLR I kinda want to know what your charrie's reactions are to this whole thing. Let me know if this is ok.

Zandibar~

My question hangs in the air for a few seconds. Will you help me? They both look at me, and then Gem says,

"Sure. What do we have to lose?" A whole lot, I silently answer, our lives, for one thing. But I don't say that. She's trying to be brave, and I'm grateful. Starbringer nods,

"Let's go." We run towards the lab. I try my best to keep up, but start to lag behind. My head is spinning and things are rippling. Larger, smaller, larger, smaller, in waves. I grit my teeth and keep going. I can't give up. Not on myself, not on Will. I know she's still in there. I know it. 

We reach the tall, dilapidated lab. I swing my grappling hook towards the window sill, but the world is distorted and I miss. The hook thuds to the ground and I reel it back in to try again. Miss.

"Sorry. I think I might have a slight concusion," I say, handing the grappling hook to Dawnstreak. She takes it and makes the shot on the first try.

"Nice," I say approvingly and start to climb up the rope. Gem follows, with Dawnstreak close behind, taking up the rear. I've just reached the sill, when I hear Gem say,

"Uh oh. We've got company." I look down and see two figures looking up at us, one male, one female. The female seems to have only one arm, and I can't tell who they are. Gem clambers onto the sill behind me. The figures are getting closer to the end of the grappling hook's rope.

"Hurry, Dawnstreak," Gem urges, "we need to reel it in fast!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Dawnstreak mutters. At last, she pulls herself up to join Gem and me. I start pulling up the rope as quickly as I can.

"Wait! That's Saana! Her arm's tied up in a sling!" Gem hisses, grabbing my hand to stop me from raising the rope. I realize she's right. Gem must have really good eyesight.

"So the guy must be Rex. Lower the rope, Skylock!" Dawnstreak commands.

"Yes, ma'am," I say sarcasticly, but I obey. The two people seem to be in discusion for a minute, then Saana hops onto Rex's back and holds on, one handed.

"What the...? No way. He's not going to try and climb like that!" I gasp. But he does, pulling himself up, hand over hand and bracing himself with his feet. He's incredibly strong, but he can't possibly get to the top like that. I start to help him by pulling up the rope. Gem and Dawnstreak aid me until the two reach the top. Rex collapses on the wide sill, panting. 

"Thanks. We were trying to find a way in before you got here. Have you seen the Darkness Princess by any chance?" Saana asks.

"Yup. She's in there," Gem points inside the big room, where I can see the Darkness Princess and Nightrunner standing together. And one other person. It's Will. Is she confronting them? But nobody's pulling out weapons. What is she doing? She couldn't possibly be... joining them? 

TOP

Are we still writing this thing? I'm not ready to give up, but I can't just keep topping this thread forever. Are you people even reading my posts? Did everyone just leave? PLEASE answer me! I can't stand not knowing. It's so depressing. :(