Scribbles and Drabbles

Returning Home 2

"You're not a Civ," one croaked.

"I mean, I blend in well enough you came after me. That makes me civ enough," Asher grinned, crouching down next to the boy and patting him on the shoulder. "Mind you, I'd quite enjoy being about to test out some of my new tricks on bastards like you," he wriggled his fingers and let the man see the electricity form into a thin blade.

All remaining colour left his face, and he shook his head. "We didn't know you were a Reb."

"Sweetheart. You would have put a Norm in the hospital. I'll have to check how many you have already," Asher tilted his head and pressed his finger to the man's cheek. He shrieked. Asher calmly carved an M into his cheek. "Works pretty well," he chuckled, patting the young man's other cheek with the back of his hand. Tears ran the now scarred face. "You'll have to let me know how it heals."

"You won't be forgiven for this,"

One was already trying to crawl away. Asher tutted. "Stop, before I get creative with you," he ordered, the lights sparking out as he sent waves of energy through the air. The man froze. The chameleon was invisible again but not running. The other was staying perfectly still, was awake. "What's your tag?" he looked at the man he had just scarred.

"Don't have one yet,"

"Well, Vin," The look of pure terror made Asher grin again. This boy had no psychometry at all. Oh sure, Asher preferred playing the good boy, but the power of holding someone's life over them was intoxicating. "Your pick. Do you think it's fair I only marked you or are you satisfied?"

"What you mean?" Vin's brows furrowed wincing at the muscles shifted his new injury.

"Should I give your compansions matching marks or not?" Asher spelt the meaning out, trying not to sound too fed up with the dim man. No wonder he had no tag, the boy was just a grunt, a grunt who was willing to seriously injury normal humans for a bit of cash and would likely die in the warring within the next few years. Asher had simply edited the timeline. Most groups didn't take well to their members attacking Norms without permission, and Asher knew they didn't have it.

The young man looked over to his 'friend' still frozen in place, too scared to move another muscle. His lips trembled, and he swallowed harshly. Asher doubted he'd ever had to make a decision involving another person's future as drastically in his life.

"Tick-tock, time's a-wasting," Asher murmured, stepping to where the chameleon disguised as the ground below lay on his back. Poor thing was too scared to switch out of his inbuilt defence mechanism. Kneeling, he patted the guy's face and tracing his chin. The whimper reminded Asher of a wounded dog. Tony was close to hyperventilating.

"Don't please," Vin spat out, "Don't hurt him. Them. Don't hurt them. It was my idea to do this."

"I see," Asher nodded and let his talent fade. Vin cared about Tony, interesting. The street turned pitch black as the electricity from his skin stopped sparking. "Remember to tell your protectors the full story. I look forward to a public apology for beating up random uni kids. Or, I'll make sure you all have matching scars."

He vanished from the alley, skipping across town to the river. Shaking himself off, he started the walk back to his dorm. His powers were sparking in between his fingers. It was desperate to be unleashed again now it had a taste of it.

Those bastards were lucky he wasn't sure just how far they had taken the other muggings. Some of the rumours had been fairly vicious but in this city? With the amount of shit happening on the streets, it wasn't that extreme. Targetting Norms or Civs was not something Asher was going to let slide by without some kind of retaliation. Now, he just had to wait to see what excuses they gave whichever group they served.

-x-

The next day, a new report went out. The Corporation was laying out a new community service program for offenders attacking Norms, sponsored by many of the Rebel fractions. As well as a photo of some of the first people signed up. Asher grinned at the look on there faces. Someone had throughout chewed them out. Good.

He almost closed the story as he read through the bullshit about Espers needing to show a positive change in the community and make up for wrongs when something caught his eye. "Thank you to Howlwhip for bringing this to our attention. We ask that you contact us to discuss more."

"Urgh," Asher shut it and turned over his bed stretching out. He knew dealing with the muggers would gain attention. He hadn't quite expected them to guess it was him so fast. Nighttronic must have grassed on him. They weren't going to be happy with him scarring the mugger. He tapped his fingers on the wall and mentally debated what to do next. He could stay quiet and hope they didn't hunt him down. Or he could contact them.  He needed to go buy a burner phone. 

A/N: So this story I mostly have bits and pieces off. I don't have a love interest yet. What would people want for? Another Poly situation? Or a mono? Options of the top of my head for love interests would be: A former partner in the corporation, another survivor from the institute, maybe a rival from a different Reb group or a Norm in his class who he ends up getting undercover for to save him.