After the world burns

Act one : The mistakes we made.

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"What's wrong with you!?"

A girl yelled at a boy pacing back and forth in an empty school hallway. The boy stopped and glared at the girl.

"How was I supposed to know there were hostages, Sophie?! They said there weren't any!"

Sophie crossed her arms as tears weld up in her eye's.

"I don't understand what went wrong, Dante... I mean, we did the right thing... didn't we?"

Dante looked to the floor as if reason would be found there, as if there was something resting near the ground that would give him clarity. Dante clinched his fists and gritted his teeth.

"Maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved. I keep running through it in my head and all I see is how I screwed up."

A tear fell from Dante's face onto the cold floor, it not being the only tear to escape Dante's eyes. Sophie wrapped her arms around Dante as tears rolled down her face, erasing all traces of happiness from her mind.

"It wasn't just you, Dante. You can't keep blaming yourself... we all messed up."

Dante put his arms around Sophie and embraced her gently, running his fingers through her long, soft, black hair.

"We need to find Ben, Nikki and Violet... we should make sure they're all okay."

Sophie nodded in agreement, then she followed Dante out the school exit to go find their friends.
Ben punched the brick wall of the alley He, Nikki and Violet sat in. The wall cracked and nearly caved in from the force of the blow, leaving loose bricks and stone shards barely hanging in place. Nikki sat with his arms wrapped around his knees and his face hidden behind them, rocking back and forth in an attemp to calm himself. Violet stood in the back corner holding herself as she cried quietly.

"What could he have been thinking?! Dante knew the risk of even attempting to use his powers and he did it any way!"

Violet stomped her foot, the ground shook intensely and set off a car alarm in the distance.

"Shut up, Ben! It wasn't just Dante's fault! Did you forget you collapsed the entire east side of the bank?!"

Ben glared angrily at Violet and clinched his fists.

"Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for y--!"

Before Ben could finish he was slammed against the wall which he had punched by a massive jolt of electricity, the wall caved in a little more and the loose bricks fell from their places. Ben looked to his left and saw Nikki standing with his hands held out in front of his body with his fingers spread open. Electricity crawled over Nikki's body, scorching the ground and wall behind him.

"Why don't you shut your mouth, Ben! Stop trying to give yourself amnesty from this! We all messed up more than anyone ever could have! Your the one who murdered that woman and her baby, remember! You killed them, not Dante, you!"

Ben laughed as he stood up out of the rubble and dusted himself off.

"What are you going to do, Nikki, Kill me? Because I promise you...That's a fight you won't win. You say I'm a murderer...but you forget that Dante killed everyone else. He would've killed us all if Sophie hadn't created that barrier!"

Nikki walked over to Ben and pushed his forehead against Ben's. The electricity spraking off of Nikki's body burned holes in Ben's shirt.

"You think that little shock I just gave you was all I've got, Ben? I could fry this whole block without even breaking a sweat... and your forgetting, you only have invulnerability, you aren't indestructible. As for your strength and all your other enhanced senses and abilities... how will it all help you when there's an unlimited amount of high voltage electricity surging through your body faster than you can blink?"

Ben smirked and pushed back against Nikki's forehead.

"Try me..."

Before Nikki or Ben could do anything to one another the ground once again shook immensely and a stone pillar rose up between them, forcing them apart.

"Is this how it's going to be from now on? If we're all going to be at each others throats then I don't want to see any of you anymore!"

Violet said with her hand raised from creating the stone pillar as tears ran down from her eye's. Ben and Nikki looked away from each other. Nikki walked over to Violet and wiped some of her tears away and stared into her eye's, tears building in his own eye's as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Violet. I'm just...scared and confused, I guess..."

Violet stared back into Nikki's eye's and placed her hand on his.

"It's okay, Nikki... I feel the same way..."

Ben crossed his arms in anger and looked the other direction only to see Dante and Sophie walking down the long alley towards them.

"Hey, Ben, Nikki, Violet... how are you guys holding up?"

Dante asked with a slight hint of discomfort in his voice. Ben glared at Dante in anger at first but his glance slowly faded to a calmer state and he was able to speak.

"We're fine, How about you two? How are you guys holding up?"

Dante and Sophie shrugged as Dante ran his hand through his hair.

"Sophie and I are doing okay, I guess."

Violet and Nikki walked over and joined there friends, Nikki's anger had subsided and his face was once again filled with sorrow. Violet had stopped crying but her eye's were still glazed over. Ben stood with his arms folded, he was no longer angry but now frustrated. Sophie held tight onto Dante's hand and looked at the ground mostly. Dante looked around at all his friends, he wondered why they had to be the ones to receive these "gifts". He wished they had all remained average and not gained any abilities at all. A feeling of guilt weld up inside of Dante as he stared at his friends and wished he could change everything back to before they gained there abilities, but as hard as he tried he had to face facts and come to terms with what they had done. Dante finally, after a few minutes of silence, spoke.

"We have to go, we need to sort some things out and make what might be the biggest decision of our lives."

Nikki, Sophie, Ben and Violet all agreed and they headed out of the alley and down the road, not knowing what was to come next. Dante lead his friends to a small park on the edge of town, He turned to them, greatly nervous, and said.

"We need to think about turning ourselves in. We're already wanted. It would be for the best if we just gave up, they'd probably go easier on us."

Sophie, Ben, Nikki and Violet sat in a dead silence, each with a look of disagreement on their face. Violet brushed her hair out of her eye's and cocked her head to the side.

"Well, maybe we could pretend like it never happened."

Ben quickly and sarcastically replied.

"Yeah, right, and then maybe candy will rain from the sky."

Violet glared at Ben for a moment before returning her attention to Dante.

"All I'm saying is they're looking for five teenagers. There are millions of teenagers everywhere, and they don't know what we all look like."

Dante looked to the ground pondering Violet's proposal. Sophie, Ben and Nikki did the same. Ben stood from the bench he was sitting on, streched his arms into the air and yawned.

"Well, you all can do as you please. There is no way I'm turning myself in. I'll see you guys when all this blows over."

Dante grabbed Ben's arm and jerked him back before he could walk away.

"We're all in this together, Ben! Your not going to abandon us."

Ben pulled his arm away from Dante and tilted his head to the side.

"Oh, really? Why can't I abandon you guys? You aren't my family, We're just friends... though, as this day drags on I'm not even sure of that anymore. You give me me a reason, Dante. One good reason why I can't just walk away from this and forget it."

Dante grited his teeth and glared at Ben with a furious gaze.

"I won't let you..."

Heat began to resinate from Dante's body, Nikki, Sophie and Violet all backed quickly away from Dante and huddled together.
Ben stood his ground as the heat grew more intense. Sweat rolled down Ben's face, Dante stood motionless, glaring at Ben as Ben glared back. Ben began feeling light headed as he fell to his hands and knees, the growingly intense heat was rapidly dehydraying his body and he could barely move or breathe. Dante didn't move, he just focused on Ben and continued to increase the heat coming off of his body. Tears weld up in Sophie's eye's as she yelled to Dante.

"Stop it! Please stop it, Dante! You'll kill him!"

The heat resinating from Dante's body quickly dispurced as Dante snapped out of his state of rage. Ben gasped greatly and felt reliefe now that he could breathe easily again. Dante Looked at his hands and at his body as smoke rolled off of it.

"What am I..."

A tear rolled down Dante's face but it turned to steam before it could reach his chin. Nikki and Violet held each other tightly and were shaking as they looked at Dante in fear. Sophie ran over and firmly embraced Dante while he stood in disbeliefe of what he had just done. Sophie whispered gently to Dante.

"It's okay... we don't have to do this, we can just leave it all. We can pretend like it never happened and no one ever has to know..."

Dante stepped back out of Sophie's arm's and looked into her eye's.

"I can't... not yet. I have to figure some things out... I'll find you when I'm sure..."

Dante's kissed Sophie gently then turned and ran away from his friends. Sophie dropped to her knees and began to cry.
"
Dante! Wait! Dante! ...Dante come back!"

Violet laid her head down on Nikki's shoulder as Dante faded over the horizon. Nikki stroked Violet's face softly and shook his head.

"We should all go our seperate ways...I think Dante had the right idea. We all need to figure some things out."

Ben finally found the strength to stand but he didn't speak, He looked around at Sophie, Nikki and Violet, then he walked away.
Violet Looked up at Nikki and placed her hand on his chest.

"I can't do this alone, Nikki... I need you to help me..."

Nikki smiled and stood up with Violet in his arms.

"You'll never be alone so long as I'm around."

Violet and Nikki hugged each other firmly, then they walked over to Sophie. Sophie was laying on the ground, her hands covered her face muffling her cries.

"Sophie, come on, we have to go now." Nikki said placing his hand on Sophie's arm. Sophie knocked Nikki's hand away and looked up at Him and Violet.

"I'm not going anywhere unless Dante comes back! so why don't you two just leave!"

Nikki started to argue with Sophie but Violet stopped him.

"Leave her alone, Nikki...she'll be fine, let's just go."

As Sophie laid on the ground crying, Nikki and Violet walked away from the park, Dante was gone, Ben was no where in sight and the sun was setting on what was looking more and more to each of them like the end of their friendship.