John began to yawn as he slowly opened his eyes but became shocked. He looked up to see the woman standing over him with her right hand aimed at him. He saw glowing blue veins appearing on her arm as an aura of energy formed in her hand. John raised his hands to surrender as she turned away. He was surprised when he noticed that most of her wounds had healed. Her eyes were a bright grayish-blue color and appear to glow.   

“You’re welcome.” John said as he slowly stood to his feet. 

He peered out of a broken window to see it was almost morning. The woman stood silently as she looked around the broken-down house. Debris was everywhere and the furniture had been scorched. John saw a few pictures scattered around the room. He picked up one to see it was a family that lived in the house.

“Your help was not required.” She said in an emotionless sounding tone. 

John shook his head as he placed his hand in his pocket and leaned against the wall.

“Well, you might have died or been taken by the task force if it wasn’t for me.” 

John began to fold his arms across his chest. He turned his head to see her in front of him causing him to glance over where she had stood earlier. He looked down at her as she stared up at him. She was about five foot six and John could tell she was extremely athletic. She grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. More debris to fall around them.

“Who are you and what do you want?” She questioned in a monotone but menacing voice. 

 John gently placed his hands on hers. He stared at her as he slowly pried her hand off of him. Once she let got she moved away. “I’m John and… I saw a woman in a ditch and figured I’d help her. What were you doing out there anyway?” 

She turned to him as she looked around the building once more.

“A failure trying to atone for my father’s sins.” She said vexingly. 

“Who is your father?”

“I am Diane Lee the false daughter of Dr. Lee.”

John realized she must be related to Dr. Lee. The scientist who somehow formulated a serum that helped him create his own race of superhumans. 

“I thought Dr. Lee only had two kids…” John trailed off.

Diane glared at him with an angry look on her face. She looked outside appearing to be scoping out the area. She waved at John as if she wanted him to follow her as she stepped outside. John groaned as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped over the debris to catch up to her. John stepped outside to see that the layers of snow in the ground was thicker. It was everywhere which meant it had snowed again.

“When I was in my mother’s womb she had a disease from some kind of mutated gene that was slowly killing her and would have killed me if I was born.” Diane said as John looked over at her with a creeped out look on his face.

“Okay…so what happened to you?” He questioned as she pushed him in another direction as lights flashed near them.

“They took me out four months early to do a procedure on her. Once they were finished they never put me back in.” She said as they both ducked behind a hedge of bushes as a task force vehicle drove by them. They waited silently until all the vehicle were gone.

“How the hell do you explain yourself?” John questioned as Diane began moving once more. He took a deep breath as he proceeded to follow her.

“I was born in a lab where I had genes put into me and extracted from me. It kind of explains why I’m not the same race as either of my parents. I have someone else’s DNA inside of me.” 

John struggled to process this information. He couldn’t begin to understand why someone would do that to their own child. The two kept sneaking around until they ended up on the normal streets of Darko city.  

“Listen, I got to get going soon. I should hit the road before I get into more trouble.” John said as he started to back away. Diane nodded as she folded her arms while she stared at him. John stood unmoving as he waited for her to speak.

“You seem like a person with no purpose. Join me on my quest to save the city from Dante and my father whenever he returns.” She requested. 

John rubbed the back of his head nervously. He had no intentions of sticking around longer than he had. John waited to get going and save himself the trouble of having unwanted memories. He knew the more he stuck around bad memories would return to haunt him. John hoped to forget as much as he could about the city. All his trouble came from growing up in this place.

“Look I did my share of helping people today. I’m not a hero and I don’t care enough about this city to save it. This is not a place I belong.” John said in a serious tone.

 Diane shook her head as she rolled her eyes while turning away. “I didn’t take you for a coward but I guess I was wrong.” 

He stood silently for a moment before he finally gave in. “You know nothing about me…” 

“No… I don’t. But you did take the time to save me instead of leaving me to my fate.” 

Her words were true and John couldn’t deny that. He hated to admit that she was right. Why did he help her? Why didn’t he just leave her in that ditch for the task force to pick her up? 

“I don’t have anything important coming up so I guess I’ll come with you. Although, first I’d like to go get some things.” John sighed. 

“Well… we better get going.”

 Diane turned with a faint smile on her face. She walked back toward John before stopping in front of him. She grabbed him and leaped high into the air. John looked down at the ground and became nervous.       

“You didn’t have to do that!” John yelled. “Wait, take me to Shade-arc inn.” John demanded in a slightly panicked tone of voice. 

Diane landed on a building as she continued running, dragging John on her back. He felt embarrassed as she leaped onto another building. The foggy clouds of the morning dawned on them as she continued to leap from building to building. After a few minutes, they were on the building beside Shade-arc inn. She leaped down with John causing him to quickly get off her. He glanced at her before he headed to the front entrance.    

“You sure you want to go in there like that?” Diane called after John.

He merely shrugged as he turned the corner. He stumbled through the doors of the inn as he stretched his arms. He entered the lobby as he noticed people staring at him frightened. The clerk at the desk slowly stood up to her feet.

“Mr. Xile are you alright sir?” She asked as John raised a thumbs up to her as he staggered over to the elevator.

“Just a typical night saving people from fires.” 

He waved casually as he stepped inside the elevator as someone followed him in. The woman stared at him as he noticed her holding her purse. He leaned over to her causing her to become frightened. He shook his head as the elevator door opened to his floor. He walked down the vacant hallway until he got to his door. John dug in his pockets until he found his key card. Once he was in his room he took off his shirt and headed to the bathroom. He was able to get a better view of his body. There was not one sign of a scar. He took a deep breath as he turned on the shower. John got undressed as he waited for the water to warm. When steam started to rise he climbed inside. 

The warm water greeted his skin as he leaned against the wall. All he could do was wonder what was happening. Why did he even decide to stick around? He covered his face as the steam from the water made it difficult to see. After another minute he finally got out. John hurried and got dressed putting on a pair of black jeans, Dark blue shirt, and his dark blue boots. He quickly packed his things in his duffel bag before finally walking to the door. John closed the door behind him and hurried down the steps. He descended each step by hopping down to the next one. He went to the clerk and handed her the key card as well as money before walking out of the building. John stepped around the corner to see Diane leaned against the wall with her arms folded across her chest.