Imagine going to a grocery store, ready to make a nice breakfast for the following morning. Then finding yourself caught up in a major conspiracy. While it has been raining for a few hours, those close calls back on the bridge really brought the storm down. Molten hot swords, taser sticks flashing, and major misunderstandings occurred before my very eyes. Then the icing on the cake was the broken skull tag choking my neck. 

Amara gritted her teeth, “Hey, get that off right now!”

I jumped from her shout and took a step back. “Whoa, wait, I’m just as surprised here. I don’t even remember putting this on.”

“Get that off now!” Amara shouted again.

Nathan turned back to her, who was even more confused by the whole thing. “Yo, it's just a fucking necklace; what’s your deal?”

“It's not a necklace!” Amara and I both shouted, and I felt the chain tighten. “Oh, I can’t…” I croaked and tripped back on my own foot.

“Jake?” Nathan's heart skipped a beat, and Amara dashed over to me.

“Damn it, that's why I was telling you to take it off!” Amara sat me against a tree and tried to get the skull tag off. Every bit of oxygen was escaping me fast. She attempted to unhook the string attached to the chain, but the chain’s small skeleton hand at the end clung tighter to the string. Like it was afraid of letting go of me. All of this while I continued choking. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“What the hell is this! Jake, please, man!” Nathan also tried getting the chain off, but Amara sat her hand out.

“Can you back off? You’ll just make him choke more!” she yelled at him.

“He’s my friend; I’m not letting him die!” Nathan knelt next to her and continued tugging at the chain. Amara clicked this screen on her gloved wrist, and a pocket knife appeared in her hand. She inserted the knife carefully under the string around my neck and began cutting away. “What do you know about this?” Nathan demanded.

“I’ll explain later; I just need to cut this!” Amara continued cutting away at the string. Then the chain began crystallizing over the string slowly. “What, no! Crap!” she freaked out but tried keeping her cool.

“What kind of chain is this?” Nathan decided to go behind me to hold me steady. 

I felt like blacking out with every gasp. Each time I blinked, I saw a small silhouette sitting on the grass ahead. Their ears twitched, and they looked upset. They stared at me with big, frowning, blue eyes that were so beautiful. Next, the chain stopped crystallizing, and Amara sighed contentedly.

“Okay, it stopped moving, but he’s still in danger!" She checked my face over for any color change and cupped my face, "Hey, stay with me, I’ll get this off!” Amara held the knife again and cut the last threads of the string, and it finally fell off. The skull tag collapsed to the floor, and I was able to catch my breath.

“Ah! Oh god!” I coughed a bunch of times with Nathan patting my back.

“Jesus Christ, let it all out, man. Breath,” he said while still gently patting me.

Amara fell back on the grass and panted. She wiped some sweat from her forehead and threw the skull tag to the side. “It's over.” She whispered and looked up at the cloudy sky before looking at us again.

“Thanks, guys.” I croacked with my throat feeling sore. 

“Jake, what the hell was… No.” Nathan turned to Amara with a solemn face. “You know more about this, don’t you?” His fists clenched into tight locks.

“Hey, watch yourself. Instead of coming up to me like you’re ready for a fight, go take care of your friend! Cause I can guarantee that this dance won’t end well for you.” Amara said while standing back up and padding her shoulders.

Nathan stared at her and took a deep breath, his arms relaxing. “I just need to know what that thing is. No one has to get hurt here.” The two of them stood in a confrontational position as I leaned against the tree nearby. 

Amara walked over to me to check. “Hey, are you alright? Sorry about the kick; it was a reflex,” she said in a softer voice now. I held my neck with one hand, looking into her amber eyes.

“Yeah, a little better, I guess, Amara?” 

She closed her eyes and smiled faintly. “You know my name again how exactly?”

“Oh, sorry, I just recognized you from school, that's all!” I scratched my cheek since it sounded a little weird now that I thought about it. “I’m Jake, by the way. And he’s Nathan.”

Nathan sighed and looked to the side. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” his mocking tone was clear as day. 

Amara rolled her eyes and turned back to him. “Anyways, first things first, I want to apologize for all of this. There are too many things to explain, but I’ll keep it short. That skull tag is an Enhancer relic.”

Nathan’s eyes widened when he looked back at Amara. “Excuse me?”

“Enhancer relic? What’s that?” I asked.

Amara then said, “Enhancer relics are objects that contain the abilities and powers of specific Enhancers. Think of them as rare power-ups you can find.”

I stared at Amara, feeling dumbfounded and lost. Nathan then bursted, “What the hell do you mean Jake had an Enhancer relic on!”

“It's my fault he had it on; we fell into the river, and it must have dropped.”

“So it's yours then!”

“Yes, and no.”

“I don’t give a crap if you’re with the Unitarian Guard or not, but why the hell do you have something like that on you!”

“That’s classified, sorry, but look, right now there’s a group of enemy Enhancers looking for it. So I need to get it as far away as possible. But I’ll help you guys out first.”

“Just take that thing and go; we’ll be fine on our own.” Nathan refuted.

“I can’t leave you guys alone with enemies around. It's my…”

“Duty?” Nathan finished Amara’s sentence. “Duty, duty, duty, duty, it's always like that with you people in blue, isn’t it?”

“You got something to say, Nathan?” Amara’s eyes changed, her voice growing serious.

“You’re going to arrest us, I can tell.”

Amara was taken aback by Nathan’s words. “Why would I arrest you? It's my fault that Jake had the Enhancer relic.”

“Exactly, and what would your higher-ups think if they found out? Which is why you won’t let us leave once we’re out of this forest.”

“You’re jumping the gun, a very wide gun here, Nathan.”

“Then why don’t you aim it at me?” He stepped closer to Amara.

“You’re setting a good example for your friend. Unbelievable, I’m just trying to help you guys!” 

“We don’t need nor want your help! You’ll just bring more trouble!”

Amara scoffed and turned back around. “Whatever, those are your words though. Jake can speak for himself. Look, Jake, I’ll get you two out of here…”

“Help, me…” The skull tag was on my neck again and choking me once more. 

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!” Amara and Nathan both shouted and ran over to me.

3 minutes later

Amara and Nathan knelt grass after cutting the tag off again. “Damn it, how can it just jump back on you!”

“What if…” Nathan caught his breath. “What if it keeps doing that?”

I rubbed my neck and was sort of scared now. “Can’t we just throw it into the river?”

“Finally, we agree on something,” Nathan said.

“Hey, you can’t just!” Amara jumped up as Nathan grabbed the tag and threw it across. Right before the skull tag touched the water, it paused like a car suddenly braking. Floating just above its own reflection.

“Eh?” The three of us sighed before the tag backtracked and shot straight at my neck. 

“It's no use, it just keeps coming back. Amara, you should take Nathan and get out of here before those Enhancers come back.”

“Like hell we’re doing that!” he yelled.

“Nathan, can you be quiet for like two seconds?”

“I’m not going anywhere until we keep that tag away from Jake! And I can handle a couple of superpowered bastards!” 

Amara shook her head and looked at me with an “Is this guy for real?” face. “No, you can’t! All you’re doing is yelling and stressing the crap out of me!”

Just when Nathan was going to argue back, there was the sound of a branch snapping nearby. 

“What was that?” I shifted my eyes around to the sound. The two at each other’s throats next to me also tensed up when the odd noise occurred. 

“Get down!” Amara quickly whispered, and we went behind a tree for cover. She literally yanked our arms cause we took too long to notice. 

Nathan was weirded out by Amara’s sudden movement. “Hey!”

Amara got in Nathan’s face with a loud, “Shhhsh! Don’t you see that there are some sus people over there!” Nathan sighed and glanced to his right, catching a group of darkly dressed assassins patrolling. The group walked down the tree line on a path that led to the nearby park. Though I doubt assassins would make time for a park stroll. 

“What in the shit is going on here?” Nathan squinted his eyes to get a better look. The enemies wore black hoods, others maroon, and some had dark brown, much like the assassin I encountered on the bridge. Those gas masks of theirs reeked with pending danger and the “don’t screw with us!” kind of aura.

“Shit, there’s more of them than before. I can’t believe they tracked us all the way here!” Amara clicked the side of her advanced goggles to get clear footage of the enemies. Her goggles zoomed in with target circles locking onto the assassins. Then orange signature readings appeared on her goggles. “They’re Pyro Enhancers.” She scanned them for more information, such as faction. “Working for the Sky Pirate Ghost Pepper Gang?” She said with a long pause.

“The what?” I asked 

“You’re saying these are the guys that attacked you? And what the hell is a Ghost Pepper Gang?”

“They’re really close, guys, maybe we should…” A red dot appeared on my back, and I was pushed along with Nathan to the side. Amara’s taser sticks slashed an Energun (energy gun) blast bolt behind us. Sparkling flickers of electricity zapped in the cold, nearly shocking my hair. The enemies up ahead were alerted and directed their focus to our hiding spot. The red dot flashed again as a light in the forest's distance. 

“It's a sniper! Run!” she shouted.

Nathan gritted his teeth once the Ghost Pepper Gang Enhancers began charging, and he got into a defensive position. “Fantastic, we’re boxed in.” 

“Wait, Nathan!” He was about to fight them like they were normal thugs.

“Don’t just stand there!” Amara pulled us both by the arms, dragging our bodies along the muddy path. We ran in the left direction where there was more rocky terrain. She moves pretty fast, not going to lie. The forest really looked like a horror movie now. 

“Quit yanking my arm!” Nathan yelled.

“You guys wouldn’t react! We have to get out of that sniper’s range!”

I perked up when fire blasts shot through the fog with heat radiating across. “Amara, behind us!” Amara gasped and threw Nathan and I like two frezbrees. We landed on the grass as Amara slid and ducked the fire blast flashing by her eyes. 

She dragged her hand along the grass, popping fountains of dirt and proceeding to ignite her taser sticks. Three Ghost Pepper Gang members dashed towards her. One had a flaming sword, the second used their bare fists, and another had chains. Amara blocked the swordman’s strike and exchanged swings. There’s only three; where did the other ones go? She pushed the flaming swordsman, then swung her next attack onto the barehanded pyro enhancer, who used their elbows to defend.

Over to the side, Nathan and I got up quickly to the sight of electricity and fire shooting around. We ducked when a flameball soared by us. “This is getting fucking crazy!” Nathan yelled and stood against the tree with a serious look. He watched the way Amara fought the Enhancers and Assassins, but his eyes only caught blurrs. They’re too fast. I’m sorry about this, Amara. “Jake, let’s bolt for the tree line over there while Amara…” He shook his head when I stood there like a statue.

“It's just…. Like…. Back then…” I dropped to the grass where my eyes halted from the sight of the flames. I got lost in these thoughts and became immobilized. Soon illusionary flames covered my sight with Old Northgate burning buildings rumbling from the very ground. 

“Hey, Jake! You’ve gotta snap out of it!” Nathan shouted, then three other Ghost Pepper Gang Enhancers crashed onto the grass with rings of fire burning every part of nature beneath them to ash. Nathan folded his hands into fists and stood in front of me. “Damn it…” He glanced back to Amara, who was beginning to wear out.”

“Ah!” Her shoulder was grazed by a fireball, and she held it for a moment. “Shit!” She gasped when Amara saw the Enhancers closing in on us. “No!”

“Hey, Shapiro!” Nathan called out, and Amara looked at him with a confused look.

Nathan took a second to look at Amara, then said, “I’m leaving Jake with you!’ 

“What!” She blocked another sword swing and dodged a fireball before glancing at Nathan again.

“It would have been obvious later anyway,” Nathan whispered and started slowly approaching the Enhancers who were running towards us. 

“Get a load of this guy! Thinking he’s some kind of hero!” The pyro Enhancers chuckled and were closing in very quickly. Their blazing fists and weapons slid out, ready to attack him. 

Nathan closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. He felt the cold breeze, along with the heat soaring by from attacks. His fists tensed the moment a sensation started on his back. “All those years…. All for this…. Damn it all…. Old man….” Nathan twitched and started feeling pain in his back, especially near the shoulder blades. “Fuckin shit!” He growled, and one of the pyro Enhancers ahead stopped charging.

I glanced up slowly from my nightmare vision to the sight of Nathan holding his face, only one eye being visible, though he faced away from me. “Nate? What’s going on?” My skull tag glowed, and I felt a stronger breeze of wind. Move away from him! A random voice echoed in my ear. “What?” Now! With no time to lose, I ran towards Amara, “Amara, get down!”

Amara paused when she saw Nathan. Then, “Ah!!!” The skin on Nathan’s back lifted, like something was trying to crawl out of him. Actually, it was two spots that were poked repeatedly and violently. “This is…. Who I am…. Ahhhhhhh!” The two spots on Nathan’s back ripped open, unleashing two mechanical arms with crane-like claws. Blood and flesh showered behind and fell on the grass. The two arms sprang high up before swiping at the pyro Enhancers that were chasing us. 

“Nate?” I said his name softly. 

Amara also stared at his extra, giant arms. Even the Enhancers she fought halted their sword and fire attacks. “No wonder he managed to tank my reflex attack. Your friend is also an Enhancer.” Amara’s grip tightened around her taser sticks. She wasn’t expecting this kind of surprise. Though it's not the first time she’s dealt with unexpected developments. However, this case was drastically unique to her. "Damn it, Jake, we're going!"

"What! No, we can't just leave..." Nathan's crane claws launched at us into a hold.

"Hey, wait!" Amara and I shouted.

"I said leave!" Nathan deeply said and threw us sky high. "Now then," He chuckled, "Let's finish this, Enhancer to Enhancer..."