What was the name of your favorite stuffed animal from childhood?
Emery wandered the streets for a time after that, taking the liberty of watching the current news on a TV outside of an appliance shop and getting caught up in all that he had missed. He had also taken the chance to change out of the old clothes he had been wearing that were covered in vent dust and dirt.
Paying for the shirt was easy enough as he just rooted around in all the other second-hand item's pockets until he had found enough lost loose change to pay for them while the shirt he wore under his old one with the collar spiked up to hide the fact that he was wearing more than two layers.
When he was outside, he shrugged the old undershirt off and tore a strip off, sitting on a nearby bench and tying it tightly to the area where the bullet had skimmed and then leaked blood down his leg. He had nearly forgotten about it in the flurry of meeting the Umbrella Academy; the painful stabs resorting into an incessant throb until he had all but forgotten about it. He cursed, hoping the thing wasn't infected. The bullet had only skimmed him anyway, in a few days, the wound would seal up and he'd be left with nothing but a scar.
He patted himself down for any trackers the Handler may have been able to sneak on him and eventually retired to a beaten-down donut shop down the street with enough coins in his pocket to get him a donut at best. It was empty of people when he arrived so he just sat down and waited, stacking the coins into a tall pile and moving them this way and that over and between the tips of his fingers absentmindedly.
The doorbell chimed a few moments later
"You only have a faint accent." Five said, taking a seat right next to Emery. "You weren't in France very long."
He scoffed, hardly surprised that the boy was here. "That's what you got from this?"
"Your consciousness is sixteen so something must be slowing you down because you weren't in Texas long either. You saw your chance with me and you took it. You were running from something- someone: the Handler. You can't time travel or you would have done it on your own and sooner but you were born on the same day as the rest of us so you must have the ability that allows you to travel through time. The question is what is it?"
Emery moved to respond but stopped when he noticed a gleam in Five's eye. "Why do you care?" He asked instead. "Last time I saw you, you looked like you would rather burn me at the stake than willingly spend another minute in my presence."
"You're an anomaly and you might be linked to the apocalypse."
"The whole thing the Handler was on about?" Emery asked. He knew the world was ending because of the old crow so it didn't come as a surprise when he figured out how little time they had left.
"Yeah. That. It's happening in eight days. And now I'm wondering if I should kill you now or wait to see if you actually have anything to do with it." Five seethed, looking very much like he wanted to follow through with the first option.
"Considering you still don't know what variable 'x' is, I'd suggest waiting or you're just as bad as her." Emery didn't have to specify who her was.
"What ability you have." Five answered for x, shaking his head as he tried to piece it together.
"Come on, you're so close." Emery teased with a cheeky smile.
Five rolled his eyes and reached forward, ringing the service bell a few times as he waited. The door chimed again and an older man walked in, sitting down to Five's left with a resigned sigh as he looked through the paper, a picture of the late Hargreeves on the front cover.
"Sorry, sink was clogged." A waitress donned in a pink uniform and accompanying sailors hat said. "So, what'll it be?"
"Uh, give me a chocolate eclair." The stranger said.
"Mhm, sure." The waitress said, writing down on her notepad. "Can I get the kids a glass of milk or something?"
"Any donut is fine." Emery shrugged, readjusting his coin tower.
"The kid wants coffee." Five scoffed. "Black." He gave a large smile.
Emery jabbed his elbow into Five's side who dropped the fake smile into a glare the moment the waiter left with an anxious laugh to fill their orders.
"I forgot you're an entitled old white man." Emery said, ignoring the accusing look the other man gave them as he focused on the puzzle in the paper.
"Don't remember this place being such a shithole." Five said, ignoring Emery. "I used to come here as a kid. Used to sneak out with my brothers and sisters and we'd eat donuts till we puked. Simpler times, huh?"
"Eh." The man said, beyond confused. "I suppose."
"Here." The waitress came back with their orders.
"I got theirs." The man said.
"Thanks." Five said. It was the most genuine thanks Emery had ever seen from the boy and then, "You must know your way around the city."
"I hope so. I've been driving it for 20 years." The man said.
"Good." Said Five. "I need an address."
Emery's eyebrows drew together as the man gave Five the address he needed for a manufacturing company. When asked about it, Five just responded with a simple word: variables. Needless to say, it sent Emery's eyes rolling.
The door chimed again but Emery didn't bother looking back, knowing full well that they were never going to catch a break.
"Hmm, that was fast." Five said. "I thought I'd have more time before they found me." He said to Emery who cursed at Five.
"Okay." One of the men said. One of the men with guns. One of the men with other men behind him. Also with guns. "So let's all be professional about this, yeah? On your feet and come with us. They want to talk."
"I've got nothing to say." Five shrugged.
"It doesn't have to go this way. You think I want to shoot kids? Go home with that on my conscience?"
"Well, I wouldn't worry about that." Five said, bored. "You won't be going home." His hands idly grabbed the knife utensil laid out in front of him and in the next moment, he was gone in an instant, reappearing behind the man and slitting his throat.
Gunshots rang out and Emery ducked down as Five teleported again this time onto a table. "Hey, assholes." He said and then the guns were pointed his way and Emery took the chance to sneak around to the other side of the counter, ducking down when two of the men noticed him and fired where his head had been a second ago.
Lights flickered as the shots finally ceased when the incompetent men finally realized that Five had teleported and they had just wasted about twenty more bullets each.
The two men that were coming after him finally came around the bend where Emery had disappeared around, frowning when they were met with nothing. It was dark now but Emery could still see the pure shock one of the men had the opportunity to experience when the dark broke away like the red sea and his face was smashed in with a caramel-glazed donut.
Emery wiped his hands on the hem of his shirt and shrugged as if to say 'sorry but not sorry' when the man glared at him, now with donut on his face. Both guns were now leveled at his face but Emery just smiled as he clamped his hands together into a fist and sucked the light right out of the area. Bullets rang out blindly from the area of dark as the men couldn't see where they were aiming but Emery was out of the way with little problems, looking up to find Five wrestling with one of the other soldiers, holding him in place until one of his buddies shot at him to which the boy used the man as a shield.
Emery cracked his neck as he started his own advances, unclasping his hands so his palm was open. He gathered the light from the area until the space was nearing complete darkness and his hand was glowing with a dull blue light so bright Emery had to squint as he shoved his fingers into the man's eye sockets and held them there against the man's struggling until he went limp with a final cry.
He let the energy leave his palm in a single flourish and the shop was flooded with the light he had stolen. He ducked once more when more bullets came flying his way and took the light with him, shrouding himself in a cloak of darkness that followed him so when the lights flickered off and then on again, he was inperceptible for but a second. Not very long for the most part but it was enough to disorient the attackers when he disappeared and reappeared two feet to the left every time the lights flickered.
From this, Emery was able to sneak up behind one of the men and use the tie he presumed Five had used to kill one of the others. Slipping it around the man's neck, Emery pulled and held tight even as the man flailed and attempted to shoot him from over his shoulder.
"Three o'clock." Five called out as Emery watched him impale another guy in the eye, sending him crashing to the floor and withering in pain.
Emery turned and sure enough, there was another man coming for him, reloading his gun as he stumbled forward with a bleeding ankle. Emery backed up with his hands raised towards the door and bent down without removing his eyes from the man who was fumbling with the chamber. He picked up a long shard of glass and held it between his two fingers like he would with a card. With his other hand, he raised it in front of him, gestured forward, and mouthed 'bring it'. The man did not in fact step forward but he had apparently gotten back enough of his senses to successfully reload the gun and fire at will. But Emery was quicker. And before even the second bullet could be released, the glass shard was buried so deep in the man's throat, his body was hitting the ground before the man's own weapon.
Emery stepped over the man and pulled the shard from his throat with lips curled in distaste. Wiping it off on the dying man's overcoat, he placed the glass on the man's chest, patted it once, and walked away, ignoring how the man choked on his own blood.
"I never want to eat another donut in my life." He said, leaning against the counter as Five snapped the last man's neck and moved to sit down, digging a knife's edge into his skin and clenching his teeth as he dug into the laceration, fishing around until he found what looked to be a tracker.
"They didn't track you." Five said, showing Emery a device that showed a glowing circle where they were on the radar. "Just me."
Emery hummed absentmindedly, lips still curled when he saw Five's self-inflicted wound. He looked away.
"For someone who seems like a stickler about blood, you didn't have any issues killing those men." He heard Five say.
"You didn't seem to have any qualms either," Emery said.
Five smiled. "So, variable x. Light manipulation."
"Satisfied?"
Five looked at him considerately. "Maybe." He said. "Come on. I've decided I'm going to need your help with something." Five said, rolling down his sleeve so it covered his wound, standing up, and walking over all the dead bodies to the front door.
"Saving the world?"
"Ehh tomayto tomahto, same thing. Come on."
Emery waited a moment, watching Five swing open the door and step into a night, cursing the boy as he went and then cursing himself when he followed.
Sorry for all the notifications from me, I'm going through and editing when I realized how bad my ability to spell really is. Probably will not catch them all so bear with me.
SBB