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Finding the child was easier said than done.
His only lead was the gas station, which was a full with agents. It was probably a dead end anyway. His sibling was long gone from the scene of the crime.
They would probably hide in the woods, away from people. He remembered how much was he overwhelmed from all of the new things. But if so, the search parties would already found them.
They could have already left, but he didn't believe that. The time frame is to short and no scared and panicked child can leave that fast.
They have to still be somewhere.
He started driving around the neighborhoods, seemingly on random stoping his car and closing his eyes.
The bad thing about his powers is that he has a short range. The closer he is, the easier he sees their emotions.
If he would go all the way in the black void and turned his radar all the way up, he would easily drown in their emotions and lost all of sense of himself. Which wasn't fun.
So he has to put a blockade over most of his range and do it repeatedly on a different location. All while not look suspicious. Easy.
-Just focus, Seven-
He ignored Brenner's voice in his mind and instead focused on a familiar buzz of others.
It was hard to explain how it feels. You could still feel your own emotions, but also others. But most of the time you could tell there are not yours. You could feel them, but also… not. Like you aren't in your body or not in a correct one. You still feel it, but you can't move it. You are somehow detached from them.
Sometimes he wondered if that's what it feels when you are dead. If there are no heaven and hell, but you all actually still trapped in your body. Forever.
It's a depressing thought.
Anyway he was slowly losing hope. There were so much bad emotions flowing around. Fear, anger, exhaustion, depression,…
He could slowly feel how it affected his energy and determination to find the runaway sibling. He is been doing it for hours and he was starting to feel hopeless.
Even if he finds them first there is no quarantine, Brenner isn't going to take them right from his hands.
He couldn't protect them. Not fully. They would go back being nothing more than an experiment, a number, just another lab rat. And they would hate him for it. For a broken promise.
He would rather die than let that happen but is that really enough. Is he enough?
»Steve!« yelled somebody and he turned his head to see one Nancy Wheller on the sidewalk.
He looked around and realised just in which street he was. Just a block away from the Wheller house.
»Hi, Nance,« he opened the window and smiled, trying to get in his King Steve mindset. Just a normal teenager, living his life of highschool.
Who doesn't have to worry about a maybe missing sibling and people trying to kill them.
»What are you doing here?« she asked. »I didn't see you at school today.«
»I didn't feel well,« he lied ignoring the first question.
»What happened to your nose?«
»Uh,« he grabbed a handkerchief from his seat and cleaned some of the blood from his nose. He got the feeling it didn't really help much. »It just happens sometimes.« Nose bleeds were common for some people. Right?
Nancy didn't look like she really believed him, but just nodded while her mind was probably going through different scenarios.
He loved her for this. Not taking anybody's word for granted truth. God knows that's usually not the case. Still it wasn't fun when it was directed at him.
He taped into her emotions to find how deeply her suspicion goes. What he found instead was that she was nervous about something.
»Do you want to… uh… come over? I still have your homework.«
»Uh, okay.« It was weird. She wasn't like his usual company.
The girls he would usual date were just for show. They knew they only used eachother for popularity and at the end of the day they were more friends than actually dating.
Nancy was different. They had meet when he was looking for a tutor and one of the teachers recommended her. She was absolutely brilliant. The genuine emotions she readied were enough to turn his head when she came in a room. They were beautiful. She was ready to success and she is going to fight for it. Not a lot of people have that level of strength.
A small part of him whispered that maybe she was even strong enough to carry some of his problems too. At least the broken pieces that were left after the end.
Or would she be disgusted with him?
»Shouldn't we move,« she smiled.
Oh, was he staring at her this whole time. »Of course,« he agreed, hoping his face wasn't red.
He climbed out of the car and put his sunglasses on the side. He was at here house a couple of times. Probably more times than her parents knew.
It was always weird going in the houses in which actually people lived. Of seeing their history and chaos of normal life. They made the whole house… well home.
He followed Nancy to the kitchen ignoring the ugly jealously in him. He thanked for the glass of water, just realising how thirsty he actually is.
»So what were you doing out there?« she asked.
Of course she noticed. She was to smart and to kind for Steve's bullshit.
He was saved from an answer because of a crash. They both followed the noise to the floor.
»What was that?«
»It's just Mike and his friends.«
Huh, he nodded. He had met her younger brother a couple of times. Although the younger boy haven't liked him a lot.
People were always so overdramatic with nerds vs jocks. Does it matter?
That's when he felt it. A light touch, but he would recognise it anywhere.
Before he knew it he jumped up and started running.
He vaguely heard Nancy panicked »Steve!« behind him.
And there they were. Down the stairs in what was apparently a quick and unsuccessful scramble to hide themself.
He vaguely noted the rest of the children that were hovering around protective and Nancy's shocking breathing behind.
He only had eyes for one person. And they seemed to have to. He couldn't really tell their gender and he couldn't wait to see their hair grow. He wasn't even sure which number they were.
He stepped forward but they stepped back.
They didn't recognise him. The last time he saw any of them was four years ago. And he had changed quite a lot. He doubted that even his younger self would be able to recognise himself.
They had to feel something because they tapped their wrist in silent question.
Steve couldn't give them that. Where there should be a tattoo was only a scar left behind.
But Seven could gave a different evidence. A dangerous one.
He ignored the feeling of eyes on his back and instead cupped his hands. It wasn't hard to pull his emotions on display. He hasn't really been thinking which one but a gray blue flower with yellow tips on the petals spined in the air. Sadness and hope. An interesting combination.
A hand reached to the flower and slowly touched it. It exploded in yellow, orange and pink.
»It's… it's beautiful,« said somebody behind. He remembered he wasn't alone and turned back to Nancy. At her gasp he knew his eyes were shining in the same colours.
Before he could say anything he had a weeping child in his hands and they both fell on the ground.
He hold them back like his life depended on it. In a way, it did.