《Marrow Marionette》


 Start

    Wire, that''s what it is. Wire, padded with crumpled tinfoil and clay then smeared with craft glue. Then, the cured pelt is carefully stretched and held on with needles. Finally the semi circular plastic eyes were inserted into the vacuous holes. It was the neighbors cat but a scant few days prior. Now it sits drying on a messy kitchen table. Sitting a cross from it, with his chair dragged back far from the table, Elmore marveled at his work. Elm stared at the dead cat, one eye was slightly lower then the other, the head was sloped and lumpy in the wrong places. But to elm it was beautiful. It was his most ambitious project yet.


    He''d seen his neighbor burying the cat a couple nights before. But it took him a day to work up the courage to finally sneak over in the early morning and steal the body. Elms heart beat fast even now as he thought about the heist. If his father was ever home he''s sure he would''ve been displeased, lucky, if you could call it that, his father worked in another city and simply paid Elms rent as well as a small monthly allowance.


    Tearing his eyes away from the un-cat, elm looked over to the counter where a clear plastic container liberally smeared with blood contained the grisly muscled internal remains of the cat. Above that, Precariously balanced on the rim of the container, the knife his father gave him on his 12th birthday. He walked over and picked it up looking at the dried cat blood on the mini bowie knife reminded him he''d definitely need to get it sharpened before he started his next project. The edge was never amazing on it, but last night proved he needed something sharper if the ragged state of the cats pelt was any indication.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    While washing his knife in the sink, using a scrub brush to get the blood out of the engraving of his name on the side of the handle, he heard his alarm go off up stairs. With a sinking feeling he looked out the window to see the first light of day brighten up the furthest parts of Cytokine city as it peaked over the nearby mountain. Drying his knife and placing it in the dish rack Elm reluctantly walked up the stairs to get out of his blood stained black shirt blue jeans and don a mostly clean but at least not bloodstained version of the same outfit.


    While yanking on an odd pair of socks Elm glanced at his collection, so far he had 3 un-squirrels, 2 un-pigeons, and an exceptional tattered un-rat. He kept the cleaned bones just off to the side in a small clear plastic container with several car fresheners both inside and outside the box. He wasn''t sure why but he found the chemicaly cleaned bones smelled much worse the then the slight smell of death coming off his un-animal army. But he couldn''t make himself throw away the bones, they were just too cool. Speaking of, Elm headed downstairs grabbing a garbage bag and some industrial strength acid, he wrapped the bag around the container of cat gristle, then brought the whole batch outside to his small back deck. He positions the box snugly between two bricks then slowly started pouring the acid, being careful not to splash the liquid or breath the fumes. He didn''t need another awkward visit to the hospital. He quickly put the bottle away and put on his shoe as he went to catch the bus.

 School

    School was unpleasant for Elm, and not because he was bullied, though he was. It was mostly the loneliness that got to Elm. He had friends when he was younger sure. Through middle school he was actually kind of popular. Though that changed as kids became teens and realized that the oddball that liked gore videos wasnt just doing to shock his friends. That and how a rumor started that he smelled like death, which didn''t really make sense as he didn''t start making his collection till high school, when his reputation was already un-salvageable.


    Squeezing his way though the hallways he made his way to his second class of the day, Paradise history. Often he would bump shoulders or trip over legs as his made his way down the packed hallways, usually being sent cascading off into more small collisions. But he couldn''t really blame people, it was ridiculously croweded in this school and he was pretty sure only some of them were actually aiming to send his scant frame flailing.


    After somewhat stumbling into class and finding a desk, close to the back, Elm grabbed his class relevant book from his bag and placed it on his desk. It had the Paradise flag, a blue square with a diagonal grey line though it as the back drop to a burning white house. Elm wasn''t a huge fan of this class as it mostly existed so the school could convince the Paradise council to not cancel funding for the schools sports teams. As such the whole class carried a sense of dragging their feet and just doing it because you have to. It was also the only class the school quite literally wouldn''t let you fail, Elm found that out last year in 11th grade finals when they wouldn''t let him leave the exam till he had a minimum of 65%. Hence this year, he decided to at lease pay attention, a little.


    So when the teacher, a thoroughly board looking Mr. Paning, walked into class carying a newspaper and turned on the prerecorded lesson I started trying to take some notes.


    "The great shift changed a great many things, for one it brought to light the Gifted, for another is gave the great nation of Paradise the chance to break away from our oppressors. Some think it was inevitable, that a great and beautiful people like those of Paradise would always have achieved independence. We were in the perfect place at the perfect time. While the rest of the world was rocked by swarms of mutant creatures, out remote location and hardy populus allowed us to unite under the powerful leadership of the don. As we continued to grow, our great leader declared, that we would be free from the whims of so called democracy, instead, with a solid long term leader, the don. Our new government sprouted with never bofor seen prosperity! The surrounding lands and city''s eventualy cried out to join our meteoric rise and so, willingly bent the knee to the don. Over the course of the next 200 years, paradise attracted the most Gifted of any region in north America, and with our new power we ...."


    At that point Elms tired mind realized that it was just a review and allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by the familiar recorded voice.


    Plunk


    Plunk


    Plunk


    A series of light baps against the back of his head woke him up as he idly brought his hand up to rub where he was hit. Something wet and sticky met his fingers. Upon trying to remove it Elm found that what ever it was, was thoroughly stuck into his hair. In some amount of pain and now quite awake, he turned around to check who might''ve launched the projectile. There, one row behind him, Derick Wains sat with a Cheshire grin, several balled up pieces of gum lined up on his desk. Derick was what Elm would consider his personal bully. While yes other kids would also bully him, it was only Derick who would go out of his way to pick on him. Sighing Elm opened and placed his Paradise history book on the back of his head as a sudo shield, he would have to go buy some special shampoo after school to get the gum out without an embarrassing haircut. It did remind him he needed to go to the bank and take out his allowance after school. For the remainder of class Elm drifted into and out of consciousness as much louder plunks from gum hitting his textbook would periodically wake him up.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ***


    After school Elm got on a bus headed downtown so he could visit the bank. Luckily he had a baseball cap in his locker so he could hide the gum in his hair. Looking out the window of the bus Elm could see some smoke coming from the southern rim district, kind of the crappy part of town. The police hardly ever patrol there, most crime is just handled by the local vigilantly group. Though the police would never admit it.


    The bus finally gets to his stop after an hour drive, most of which was stuck in traffic, followed by a 5 minute walk to the bank. The air was warm as always. Along the way Elm waved to a homeless man he remembered talking to once.


    The Central Vegas Bank is one of the larger government sanctioned banks, though this was just a comparatively small branch office it still towered over the small local stores it shared the street with. Massive glass doors, hinged to yet more glass, marked the entrance where a line of 5 or so people waited to get in. Just outside the door a couple armed security guards did the job of being bouncers. A couple people in line were turned away, not wholly unusual if there where too many unruly people inside.


    Finally It was Elms turn to be interrogated by one of the guards, the younger of the two guards stepped forward. He looked to be in his early 20, with a clean shaven chin and a light scar vertically on the left half of his mouth. He glared down at Elm with a stern determination.


    "Id and bank card." Elm showed him both. With a deepening frown the guard grabbed both the cards and scanned them with a device he had tethered to his bulletproof vest. Before handing back the cards.


    "Can''t let you in, were too full at the moment." a little taken aback by what the guard said, Elm glanced past him into the bank, while the place did have a lot of people, it was nowhere near capacity.


    "There''s only like 50 people in there? I just need to take out some money."


    "No room" the guard said stone faced


    "I can clearly see there is" at that the guard looked around a little awkwardly, meeting the eyes of his fellow guard. Seeming to have come to some silent agreement the guard looked back to Elm, eye''s squinted.


    "Alright you go in, but be out in 10 minutes"


    Somewhat confused but glad to be past the unwanted interaction Elm walked past the guard into the bank, surprisingly almost everyone was at the front desk or waiting to be there, so Elm took his chance to head for one of the free ATM''s.


    Bloop bloop doo


    A light musical tone greeted Elm as he placed his hand on the scanner, shortly followed by him parroting the prompt to place both his bank and id card into the machine.


    Bloop bloop bloop...


    The tone continued as the verification process did it''s thing. Then kept doing it''s thing... Maybe that''s why no one was at the ATM.


    Mashing the eject card button Elm waited impatiently as the screen continued to load. And load. And load. Finally a werring sound followed by his cards being ejected let him start back from square one. Elm checked his phone finding he already wasted at least 5 minutes. He looked back to the door only to see both of the guards missing. Supposing he could just wait with the other patrons, he walked up to the waiting area and grabbed a number.


    The guards never seemed to return even after Elm had been in line for a 3/4ths of an hour. Then he was finally called up to the desk, a small woman with a massive fake smile started the same task he had tried with the ATM though without the music and many more awkward pauses, he never was good around girls.


    He heard it then, it was quiet, but it seemed to suck in all other sounds around it, it sounded like a thousand small pieces of wood snapping. Then the sound returned. And the screaming started, he turned around only to see half of the crowd behind him grabbing at bloody wounds. His eyes were drawn up words by movement as a man a flapping cape despite being indoors was standing on air in the middle of the room. The man glanced around the room then waved his hand causing that wood snapping sound again as another part of the crowd when up in screams and this time Elm saw people collapse, body parts hitting the floor and blood spurting surprising distances.


    In utter shock Elm watched as people fell a third time, then the flying man look down at Elm. The man was wearing a black suit and red tie, but no mask. The mans dark skin now slightly speckled with blood made him look positively demonic. He then raised his hand for another swipe, Elm was frozen, he looked into those dark eyes. This is how he would die, the man swiped his hand, Elm closed his eyes then there was that sound.


    crackcrack-bbbooooOOOMMMM!


    Slightly muffled by the effect of the mans swipe, the force of the explosion however sent Elm, as well as plenty of smoke and debris careening across the room just as the area he was standing was bisected.

 Bank

    The smoke started to clear, and down the hall Elm could make out several people collapsed on the ground. In the air the villain in the suit seemed to be gesturing his hands as he spoke to someone on a device, Elm however couldn''t hear anything but the ringing in his ears. Several people in black military suits with white masks ran out of a side room carrying large duffel bags, "ah, they were after money then" elm thought as he saw one of the minions drop his bag to search a particulate wealthy looking woman, as she lay there unconscious. Elms eyes started to loose focus, he could feel a lightness starting to seep into his mind as his vision started to darken around the edges. Falling back from his sitting position he felt his head hit something wet and fleshy. This seemed to snap him out of his daze a little as he glanced to his left to see what he fell on. A short blond head of hair on an average looking man in his mid thirty''s, his eyes were staring just past Elm, unblinkingly. Warily Elm slowly turned his head, only to see the large hole in the wall they got him in this mess. He turned back to the man, maybe to question him, only to finally relies that what he was looking at was only top half of the mans torso.


    Elm stared into the dead eyes, he didn''t usually get to do that. Usually the eyes were the first thing to go on a body. They would shrivel up an rot within a few days even without animal intervention. Like with the cat earlier this morning, they eyes were already raisins. So Elm looked into those eyes, he thought he would see some emotion on the dead mans face. Maybe surprise, or fear, but no he was simply staring. He looked like a lot of the people Elm had seen on the street, just going about there day. But this man was dead. He was very dead, Elm was fairly sure even tinker tech couldn''t save this man. Slowly sound started to filter back into Elms ears, barely recognizable past the still harsh ringing. Hearing the round of someone retching, Elm turned his head towards the sound to see a minion half collapsed with his mask up just over his mouth as he spilled his guts out.


    "He he", Elm laughed a little at the irony. He slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position. Looking at the skin of the minion, he was white and young he seemed so familiar, especially the faint scar on his mouth. The minion seem quite distracted and Elm would rather not die here so he slowly started to stand. Pain shot through him as he put weight on his left leg, almost blacking out again Elm collapsed. Whatever noise he made seemed to have alerted the minion as Elm heard the retching come to an abrupt stop. Foot steps approach as Elm struggles to keep conscious, it seems faint, faraway, like the feeling of slowly cooling wetness on the back of his head, the memory of the man who elm is now using as a gruesome pillow, briefly Elm wondered if the people who found his dead body would wonder why he had gum stuck in his hair. The minion kicked his broken leg and Elms mind turned white.


    "I know your faking it!" the voice was faint, distorted as if though a tunnel


    "Don''t ignore me! Tell me what you saw!" someone is distressed, the voice is familiar, though Elm can''t put a finger on from where.


    "damnit, can''t risk..." The voice gets smaller and less important as a cool cloud engulfs Elms mind. He can feel his body, he can feel the bones, his left leg is snapped half way up to the knee from the ankle. His head has a gash and something lodged into the left half of the skull just above the eye. His thumb on his left hand has a small fracture. He can feel all this, but he can also sense more just behind his head. A skeleton complete and intact except where it is cut cleanly from the right shoulder down to bisect the last rib on the left side. Beyond that he can feel the other piece, calling out somewhere to his left. "This is wrong" came elms groggy thoughts, "they should be together" as he thinks this a wave of strength seems to leave him from somewhere he didn''t know he had.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The minion, Grent, standing above Elm, glances around. No heroes had shown up, but this whole ordeal had really been way more then he bargained for. The stupid cape was supposed to keep casualties to a minimum, instead the crazy bastard had gone about swinging around his power, killing civilians like there was no tomorrow. This is why he hated working with newbies! Amateurs! Now he''d gone and shown some of his face to this kid. If a super with any mind powers got there hands on this kid they''d be able to track him down and he''s get at least life for taking part in this massacre. Sighing, he reached down to his belt and grabbed his hand gun. Damn shame too, seemed like a good enough kid when he talked to him earlier. Turning around to get a quick look for extra witnesses he saw his fellow minions finally filing out with the remainder of the cash into the van parked outside. Not wanting to be left behind he quickly turned around to pop the kid. That''s when a hard white and red fist smashed into the side of this head knocking him to the ground. Blinking past the bright lights pounding his brain he stared up at the figure that just decked him.


    A skeleton still covered in blood and loose gristle stood locked into a post punch position. As if sensing the Grents bewildered stare, the skeleton then straightened out. The Grent almost fainted right there. Then the skeleton took a halting step forward, and Grent decided now was the time to nope right the fuck out of there, picking himself up, turning around and engaging in a sprint that would be the most athletic achievement in his recent memory. He then barreled in a near swan dive into the open back of the van which quickly closed its doors and drove off.


    Elm looked down at his own body. He was thin, with dark hair, a pale face with sunken looking cheeks, the body lay there peacefully almost as if he were sleeping. He wondered briefly if he had died before realizing his body was still breathing. More confused then anythin he looked down at himself, or at least from where ever he was currently seeing from. Bones, bloody bones is what greeted him, bony hands with little chunks of flesh. It was very odd, he looked down further and he could see clean though his new rib cage, then something caught his eye as he was peering though the empty-ness of his new chest, his shoulder down to his littlest rib was cut clean though diagonaly. He could also see an odd blue glow emanating from between the cuts. Actually now that he looked closer he could see the same glow coming from between the joints where his bony body was connected. Making the connection he looked up to the deadman his original body was using as a pillow, expecting to see something gruesome he was still woefully unprepared for what he saw. The already mangled man seemed to have been peeled open in a fleshy explosion as the stringy meat silhouette of the man made it hard to imagine it was ever human. Collapsing down to his knees Elm felt the primal need to vomit, though he was quite used to gore the mere sight of the chunky remains made his non existent insides revolt demanding to be expunged. As his skeletal frame dry heaved he started to taste the bile in his throat. Then opened his eyes in time to see a bloody skeleton collapse ontop of him, he then turned his head only to hurl up his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


    After his stomach was thoroughly evacuated, Elm blacked out for the final time that day.

 Testing box

    Beep


    Beep


    Beep


    It was dark, Elms extremities felt cold. He felt a new but familiar tingling at the back of his mind, Elm also felt a dull pain all over his body. Well except for his left leg. He couldn''t feel that at all.


    Shooting awake in a panic, Elms numb hands slapped uselessly against the thick white blankets covering his legs. Taking a few breaths he realized he did feel a lump of some-kind under the blanket where his leg should be. So he calmed himself, prepared for the worst then lifted the blanket. To his relief, he saw a polymer cast and his still living toes poking out a big hole at the end. He could even wiggle his toes a tiny bit, though he still couldn''t feel any of it. Just some targeted anesthetics, he reasoned.


    Taking a relieved breath as he leaned back, Elm settled into the clean and comfy sheets of the bed he was in. He took some time taking in his surroundings. He was in a sterile white room with the whole ceiling making up a bright unnatural feeling light, making the few accommodations in the room seem as though they didn''t have shadows. A couple empty chairs obviously meant for visitors sat in the corner next to a plain white door. There were a couple cabinets to his left with obvious locks on the handles. Finally, to his right was a small end table where he could see plastic tub with his cloths, washed and folded. On top of that pile, sat his phone, slightly dinged on the cheap black protective case, but still mostly intact.


    Elm reached over and grabbed the phone, his numb fingers fumbling to get a grip on the smooth plastic. Hopefully just a side effect of whatever drug was keeping him from feeling all the pain he should be. Eventually managing to snag the device Elm looked it over more thoroughly. The small, out of fashion phone was an impulse buy after the ancient phone his father had given him upon leaving for Paradise had been mocked by other kids at school one to many times. Unfortunately the lady who sold him the phone neglected to tell him that this phone was still a couple years out of date, so it never really served its intended social purpose. The ability to connect to the web was definitely a perk though. Pressing the on button Elm happily found it did still work, though it looked like the screen was slightly cracked in the top left corner. Checking his messages he found to his surprise that he did indeed have one. He tapped the screen hopeful, only to be disappointed when he found wasn''t a message from his father. It was just the school letting him know he would be given a week off for recovery. It also contained a list of assignments he would need done.


    Sighing Elm looked away from his phone and up to the ceiling light. "A whole week..." he thought, before checking the date and time on his phone again. "Well 5 days at least" he amended, noticing that he had been unconscious for around a day and a half. It was 11:31 at night so most of the Hospital staff were probably gone. What would be left would mostly be AI nurses and cleaning staff. Fumbling along the side of his bed he found a cord that he pulled until small button attached to one end was freed of his sheets, he grabbed the device and pressed the button. A minute or so later a robotic nurse opened the door and entered the room, it was a crude approximation of a female nurse, with mat gray, obviously plastic skin and too big eyes.


    "Hello patient Elmore Analcime, welcome to Bishops General Hospital, I am N02351, how may I be of assistance?" Spoke the robot nurse in a smooth but mechanical female voice, tilting head its head with reprogrammed cuteness.


    "Umm, ah... What happened?"


    "Hold on, bringing up patient, Elmore Analcime''s file... yesterday at 6:35 Elmore Analcime, was involved in a violent incident, at 7:00 Elmore Analcime, was recovered and given first aid. Initial diagnosis, minor lacerations, internal hemorrhaging, heavy head injury, broken leg. At 8:45 Dr. Amin Toumen began surgery on Elmore Analcime''s head injury, found no broken bones, Elmore Analcime, was given anesthetics and placed in an artificial coma. Was this answer adequate? "


    Elm looked blankly at the robot, "Uhh, yeah... but what happened at the bank?"


    "Patient, Elmore Analcime, requesting access to case file 009984231, Access deigned." The corners of the nurse bots lips moved up in the facsimile of a smile as its wheels slowly started reversing it out of the room.


    "Ah wait!" Elm called in a bit of a panic, causing the nurse bot to stop its retreat. "Umm, could I get some food?" it nodded at Elm


    "Affirmative, request for ''food'' recognized, it will be delivered posthaste. Is that all, patient Elmore Analcime?" Staring once more at Elm.


    "Yeah, I think that''s all." The nurse bot then left the room, its electric engine werring as it sped down the hallway quickly being cut off as the rooms door closed.


    Elm gave a tired sigh as he reached behind him self to prop up his pillow so it would support his back better as he sat up. Now he had one more thing that had been bothering him since he woke up, an odd feeling at the back of his mind. As the bot had been prattling on about his injures, a memory had resurfaced it''s self, during the attack on the bank. He remembered that odd nothingness that came before he could suddenly sense every bone in his body, and, most importantly, the bones in another body. As Elm focused in on that feeling at the back of his mind, like a connection to a numbed third hand. After a confusing flash, he suddenly found his surroundings changed, instead of being in a well lit hospital room, he was now staring at a blue colored sheet of metal that seemed to be only a foot away from his face.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Surprised by the sudden change in perspective, Elm shot up on reflex.


    Fomp


    The thin blue metal absorbed Elms high speed head bump letting out a hollow sound as it sent him reeling back. A dull sense of almost pain flashed through his head as it bounced a couple times against the much harder surface below it. Bringing his hand up to his face in reaction to the odd sensation, he stopped when he noticed the odd blue hand that was very much not his own. He realized then, as he looked at the skeletal hand, that the odd blue color of everything in the room was emanating from the spaces between the bones were on a human there would''ve been joints. Flexing his new appendage, he could see the bony digits moving and rotating smoothly like a normal flesh and blood hand, smoother if anything.


    Glancing past his hand to what he assumes is steel sheet metal, he can see a blurry reflection of a skeleton looking back at him through the matte finish on the sheet metal. Looking closer at the skull he can see a bright blue flickering light coming from where the eye sockets should be. A sense of worry then overtakes Elm as he realizes he doesn''t know how to return to his real body. ''Umm return?'' He tries speaking, but no sound comes out as his jawbones clack together. Trying instead to just focus on the word he starts repeating ''return'' in his head for around a minute, in different variations, before giving up and just laying back to think of a better idea.


    As he loses focus he starts to feel a tingling at the back of his flesh-less skull, just above where bone meets metal. As Elm concentrates in on that spot, the feeling becomes more clear, almost like a single hair being pulled lightly. He can feel a thread of some sort stretching away from his skeletal body. He mentally prods at this sensation, eliciting a rush of feeling as his mind seems to break through a thin flim like barrier, and is zipped along the line through the steel wall, into a corridor that he''s not given time to process as his perspective accelerates through the wall on the other side, then through countless other rooms and corridors that all blend together in a jarring sequence of light and dark. All ending when his eyes shoot open back in his room at the hospital.


    Blinking away the black spots Elm waited for his flipping stomach and the spinning ceiling to calm down, Elm glanced around the now much too bright room. No large changes. Elm smiles, "Cool!"


    Sinking back into his pillow and closing his eyes tight. Giddy to test the limits of whatever his new gift is, he quickly focused back in on that tingling sensation, quickly finding the pulled hair feeling. He pushed his mind against it until feeling something give way and his perspective starts to shift, first showing a quick glimpse of the room he was in, then the hallway past it, before devolving into an incomprehensible garble of light and dark. Finally, finding himself back in the blue lit metal box. Looking down at his bony hands he clasped one before giving a boney fist pump, ''FUCK YEAH!''


    After several more transfers back and forth, Elm found the task slightly quicker and a little less disorienting. However, on the 9th switch back to the skeleton, just as he was feeling for the connection back to his own body, he noticed something else. Eight other, very weak connections seeming to be coming from all around the box he was in. Tentatively he reached for one of these connections, like he had for the one between this body and his own. This however seemed to take much more effort, it was almost as if a thick wall was keeping him from forcing himself down the line. Somewhat confused Elm started from scratch, instead just trying to feel out the connection, this bore much more fruit, as upon further inspection, the line seemed to open up, not changing Elms perspective but instead, flooding his mind with information. Information that coalesced into a detailed memory of a skeleton, not the same skeleton as the one he was inhabiting though. He could tell by the shape of the skull and hip bones that this body was female, the small micro cracks in the finger bones told him they worked with their hands, damage to the left ankle suggest they, at some point, broke it. Though it showed signs of healing. Most noticeably, and what the brain dump seem to be implying was most important. The scrapes along the third rib cage on the left side and the vertebrae immediately opposite it, Mean this woman died being impaled, likely through the heart.


    The absolute Flood of information came so unexpectedly and with such force that as Elm was trying to process all this new information, he found himself involuntarily switching back to his own body in the bright hospital room. Before he could fully adjust to all the sensory overload, a loud mechanical voice pulls him partially out of his daze.


    "Patient, Elmore Analcime, food has been delivered. Do you require further assistance?"


    Not yet able to focus on the world around him, and with the beginning of a massive headache tickling at the edge of his brain, Elm answered with the most eloquent response he could.


    "Uhhhhhhh."


    "Response not recognized, returning to normal duty, patient, Elmore Analcime, enjoy your meal." Elm watched in a slowly dissipating daze as the


    6 armed cleaning bot, a slightly fancier model then those who cleaned the school between classes, drove a hasty retreat past the door to his room and down the hallway before he could even think about giving of a proper response.


    Almost a minute later, he finally realized he should have just said thank you. The headache now in full force, and a long ignored hunger spiking at the smell of food, he decided to at least get rid of one of those pains. So, he dug into his meal. It was eggs with the taste and texture of something that was once powder, bacon that was almost certainly was just poorly disguised tofu, and finally some individually packaged butter flavored toast with a box of apple juice. The whole meal had a distinct, just heated in the microwave feel, complete with random cold spots, but Elms ravenous stomach convinced him not to complain.


    The much-needed meal was gone much too quickly, and Elm leaned back into his pillow, pushing the table away, so he could sink back into the welcoming sheets. The mostly hot meal seemed to have staved off his approaching headache, and the accumulated fatigue of all that intense focus made him decide to postpone further experiments until tomorrow.


    "Hehe I''m going to be a super hero."


    Elm drifted off to sleep, dreaming of caped justice and Derick getting decked by a skeletal fist.

 Doctor! Doctor!

    There was a something off in the room. Elm lay peacefully in his bed at Bishops General Hospital, his breathing calm and orderly. It would be obvious to any outside observer that he was asleep, and he was. The problem in the room, would be that there was indeed an observer. A keen set of yellowish green eyes tracked the up and down motion of Elms rhythmic breathing. The figure moved from the open doorway closer to the bed, letting the door start on its acceleration towards its closed resting place. With a glance back at the door to get the timing right, the figure lunged toward the bed, reaching it as soon as the door slammed shut.


    Bang-


    "What''s your superpower!?"


    "-BWAHHHGHGHHhh!" Elms Upper body shot straight up almost colliding with the figure leaning over him as it leaned back, away from the expected reaction. Elm Glanced around in a flurried mix of fear and confusion, before his eyes came to rest on the small brown man in a lab coat in front of him.


    "What?" then what the man said as he was quite rudely woken up finally hit a working part of his brain, "WHAT?!"


    "Ahh, So you do have a power!" The man stood straight back, crossing his arms as a smug smile sprouted on his lips.


    "Wha-, no... I DON''T!" Not great with social situations at the best of times, Elm mind spun with all the consequences if he was immediately exposed as a Gifted with no chance to build a secrete identity. "I umm, wait! Why would I have a super power?" For now, he decided to try denial.


    "Ah! That''s the question you see!" The, what Elm presumed was a doctor, leaned in, " How many people do you think develop a superpower? One in a thousand? One in a million? One in a billion?"


    "Umm one in-"


    "Doesn''t matter! It doesn''t work like that! People don''t just get powers laying on the road you know! They need a trigger! A catalyst! How many people need to die for one person to gain powers! Now that''s the real question!"


    "Wait? Dying Wha-"


    "Do you know how many people died at the bank 2 days ago?"


    "Uhh, noo are you-"


    "34 people died! Now by my calculation that means there should definitely be at least one super from such a loss of life! Someone within the 26 survivors. and I''ve already questioned all the survivors, all of them but you!" The doctor straightened back up and mimed holding a tea cup complete with the pinkie out. Then in a fake posh British accent," Now my dear Watson. What does that mean for you?"


    Seeing the smug look on the doctors face Elm squinted his eyes," Are you serious? It means there was no super."


    "What? But. No! You have to be a super!" with expressions similar to a child realizing someone had just taken their candy away, the doctor lunged forward, grabbing the bed frame, and putting his face directly in front of Elms.


    Leaning back with mock disgust, "Ugh, what was your name again?"


    "Oh how rude of me" the doctor put out his right hand for a shake, after wiping some the sweat off on his lab coat," My name is Dr. Amin Toumen, pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Analcime"


    Now with a slightly less put on expression of disgust, Elm leaned back away from the offered hand and looked Dr. Toumen in the eyes," Well then Dr. I hope you don''t mind when I ask your superiors about this... Interaction."


    "Oh aah, that... shouldn''t be necessary, how about we just forget about the whole thing! Haha." Dr. Toumen obviously paled as his slowly backed up towards the door. "Yeah, no hard feelings, just a, ah, joke between men." as he finished his last words he had just reached the door. Quickly turning around opening the door then sprinting down the hallway as his white hospital shoes sleeked loudly at each of his panicked steps. Then finally the door closed cutting off the squeak of the retreating doctor, and letting Elm breathe a sigh of relief. He doubted the quack of a Doctor would give up, but hopefully he could have a better lie made up before he came back with more questions.


    Though this experience definitely made Elm reconsider the whole hero thing. If he were to do it, it would be putting not only him at risk, but also anyone he cared about, admittedly it was a short list, really only containing his father. But he had already put far too much trouble on his dad, and with this new power he may finally start to pay him back, hopefully in more ways than just monetarily.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    ...


    After Calming down a bit, and calling for some food. Elm Transferred back to his Calcium alter ego, just to make sure it wasn''t just some weird dream, It wasn''t. After quickly transferring back to his body, then simply sitting back, content to just wait for his food to arrive. Which it did. Surprisingly quickly as well. One check to his phone revealed why, as it was just after lunchtime, so he obviously wouldn''t have to wait for anything to be reheated.


    Ignoring the cleaning bot as it left the room Elm looked down at his glorious meal, a cheese burger and fries, with the smallest bottle of soft drink he''d ever seen. Barely containing his hunger Elm pounced upon the meal, quickly discovering the burger was just more disguised tofu, but his ravenous body certainly didn''t care. This felt for him, like the most satisfying meal he''d had in months. Elm wasn''t sure if it was his new power making him so hungry or just his body wanting materials to heal with, he couldn''t tell. One thing Elm was sure of, is that he definitely needed to figure out how to make tofu burgers.


    After half a blissful hour wait for the slightly bloated but highly satisfied feeling to pass, Elm found himself where most people confined to a bed for any amount of time reach, he was bored. Luckily he had the perfect way to pass the time. Feeling to the back of his mind with his new-found mental clarity, he''d come to realize that was something likely influenced by his new power, he mentally pushed at the one, now slightly clearer connection that he found there. The now known, but still not comfortable, travel along the connecting line at a speed that must be what a bullet feels like. Elms vision is dyed in light then dark, as the rooms hallways and walls, make themselves known without any actual helpful information being passed to his brain. Then he was back in his new skeletal form. Already Elm head was cooking up ideas about the new super hero, Captain Skeleton!, trade marked. Running around town saving old women from muggers and pulling puppies out of fires. Though he''d probably have to work on that name. Skeleton was far too villainy sounding. Wouldn''t want people getting the wrong idea.


    Though now that he put a bit more thought into it. Wouldn''t a skeleton super hero be a pretty hard sell? He couldn''t imagine having someone not run away in fear if he popped out of an alley at night to return their stolen property. Hmm, maybe another problem for later, preferably after he''d figured out all the things he could actually do with this body.


    Looking down through his undead body, Elm could see into the inside of the rib cage using the blue flickering lights in his eye sockets to light up the cavity. First he would need to know the physical capabilities of this alter ego. Lifting his right hand, he first tried turning it at the wrist. Something not normally possible, as technically the two bones connecting it to the elbow are what twist. That is also what happened here, however when the two bones touched each other, when a wrist would normally be unable to rotate anymore, the hand itself seemed to disconnect and continue rotating independently. A little shocked and morbidly curious of the possibilities, Elm tried spinning it faster, and faster, eventually finding the limit at a speed similar to that of a cheap, slightly low battery, cordless drill. Quite impressive considering it seemed to have much more torque, as he wasn''t able to slow it with his other hand. After relaxing the imaginary arm muscles, the spinning hand came to a stop and forearm bones snugly swung back into their natural position.


    Thinking what else he could test, Elm remembered seeing the skeleton collapsing just before he blacked out at the bank. Deciding he should try recreating that first, a pile of bones is less conspicuous than a walking skeleton after all. So first he tried willing the right arm to fall to pieces, and to his surprise, it did. With an almost worryingly little amount of effort, the arm fell apart like a toppled Jenna tower bouncing pieces all over whatever metal tray he was laying on. Worried for a second he tried to will the arm back together, unlike making it fall apart however, pulling the pieces together took a lot more effort, more effort than anything else related to his powers so far. Well except whatever he did with that womans skeleton, but he really didn''t want to try that one out again anytime soon. Though it took almost a full minute of concentration as the bones floated up one by one, reconnecting with the arm stump. Until finally the last digit, the pinkie finger, was completed. ''FUUOOAAhhh'' releasing a mental breath, Elm let his bones rest back against the hard metal as he let his thinking muscles recover.


    Well he could now confirm there was definitely some cost to his power. Some actions seemed to stain him much more then others. As he relaxed back, just staring up at his blurry blue skeletal reflection, he wondered if he was able to effect the amount of light he emitted. Stealth operations would be very difficult if he was always a walking lighthouse. Testing his mental muscles by moving it between all the available connections, finding it mostly recovered, Elm stared up at the reflected skeleton and willed, ''dim''. As he did, the reflected skeleton faded until all that was visible was the barely still lit eye sockets. ''Well that was easy'' He thought. However upon trying to move his arms he found that, though he couldn''t see them move, they felt slower, as though he was moving them through water. ''So not really a perfect solution''


    After trying and failing to go darker than dim eyes mode, or brighter than his default, Elm returned to his normal glow and decided that was enough playing with lights. Now it was time to test the real important part for a super hero, strength! Reeling back his slender right arm, well as much as he could anyway, though it would still be basically been a zero distance punch. He let fly his fist, putting as much force behind it as he could, the bone met the thin metal ceiling.


    ClOOOONGG-


    The sound echoed even outside Elms box as he himself admired the massive dent and small knuckle imprints on the once smooth metal. ''Probably just a bit stronger than a very well-trained normal human'' He mused.


    "HEY WHO''S IN HERE!"


    Elms currently none existent heart leapt out of his chest as he heard that familiar voice, ''OH SHIT!'' Up until he felt the metal wall near his feet shift, as whoever he''d just alerted opened the freezer box door.

 Double O Skelly

    Sqeeeeeack-


    The heavy, insulated, metal freezer door slowly opened. Dr.Toumen leaned in to take a better look as he pointed his flashlight towards the body tray. The light cut through the dark of the Freezer, revealing the startling visage of a gruesome human skull. Small strips of frozen flesh dangled loosely from white bone, tracking down, the light revealed a detached jaw sitting in a mangle of other human bones and more strips of flesh. Further inspection revealed the remains of the body were in similar states of disarray. A displeased frown sank onto the doctors face.


    "What the hell were those damn bots doing, they''re supposed to organize the remains." After the complaint he remembered he was originally investigating a strange noise. Flicking his light about the small space, he searched for a culprit, pulling back to look about the room again, gave the quiet storage room a few glances, then ducked back into the Freezer he''d opened, "Now I definitely heard it coming from here?" On a hunch he squat down to get a better look at the ceiling of the freezer. The light revealed a large dent about halfway in. The metal deformity definitely seemed severe enough to match up with the sound he had heard.


    Standing back upright bumping his fist against his sore back, Dr.Toumen sighed, "Some punk probably playing with the temperatures again." Looking down at the tablet in his other hand he typed in the number listed on the front of the freezer unit and marked it down for repairs. Then, mostly for his own curiosity, he checked what was on file for the body inside. He skimmed the data then smiled,"Lightly damaged skeleton from a completely shredded body of an unidentified John Doe. Both flesh and bones found a distance apart from each other. This bank massacre just keeps getting more and more mysterious. haha!" Looking down at the time displayed he found that he had a hour break coming up, "hehe! Just your luck Mr skeleton, I''ve got just enough time to find out all of your secretes!"


    Pulling the body tray free of the freezer, several wheeled legs popped out the bottom as the doctor led his newest pet mystery down toward the nearest empty operating room, cackling the whole way.


    ....


    Sqeeeeeack-


    Elm was in deep shit. As soon as he heard the apparent door beneath his skeletal feet open, he panicked. Almost screaming ''fall apart, dim lights!'' Within his mind. His vision was briefly tossed around the freezer as his skeletal body collapsed into a disorganized piles. His skull, now resting on the pile of bones, came to rest with its front teeth supporting it directly pointing at the slowly opening door. Beyond the door, a familiar face greeted him as the same quack doctor, Dr Touman, who so rudely woke Elm up this morning, stuck his head into the freezer.


    More panic flooded through Elm! Why was he here now? Did he already track down his power somehow? Deciding he couldn''t risk being caught like this, Elm tried to pull his body together. Only to find the bones sluggish to respond, much more so then when he tried pulling his arm back together earlier. He watched with a sinking dread as one vertebrae responded to his call, and very slowly, started to roll towards him before getting caught on a discarded rib and stopping. ''Shit, I might''ve made a mistake'' Elm thought as the Dr. pointed his flashlight up at the ceiling of the freezer, revealing the massive dent in it. ''I''m so screwed!''


    Elm was currently on a metal tray in a clean white operating room. The skull that currently acted as his prison, had been re-positioned and held up using some kind of cushioned vice, pointing his vision directly up, into a bright operating light. He could sometimes make out Dr. Touman''s head as it bobbed into his cone of vision like a energetic storm cloud. He could tell the room was refrigerated, by watching the misty breaths coming from just under the Dr''s mad looking dark grey hair poof. After catching a few of the doctors mumbled complaints, Elm was convinced that, the not so good Dr, didn''t know jack about Elms powers. He appeared was just picking at the mysterious skeleton, because it was mysterious. Elm couldn''t really tell what the doctor was up too, he couldn''t feel any of feedback from the unattached bones. He could however feel whenever the skull he was residing in was poked or prodded, it didn''t hurt per-say, but it was definitely uncomfortable as the doctor drilled something just below his left eye hole. Elm didn''t just leave because he wasn''t sure what happened to the skeleton when he left back to his real body. If the skeleton auto reassembled or something it would definitely get confiscated. He''d also heard horror stories about Gifted who were captured or drafted because their power was too useful, so best to avoid that. If this skeleton was his only chance at an exceptional life, then he had to protect it, or he''d never get to be a hero.


    Elm didn''t however, spend his whole time stuck in the skull doing nothing. He''d plotted. See, he reasoned, if he could somehow block the freezer door as the doctor put him back, he could use then reassemble himself and escape to start his hero career! However for that to happen, he needed to be able to move the bones independently of when they were attached to himself. If he could move the bones toward himself when reconnecting them, he should also be able to push them in the other direction. then he would have full bone telekinesis, hopefully. Unfortunately, he had no way to test his theory. Elm still couldn''t see any of his other bones as he was stuck pointing upwards. He also couldn''t risk moving random bones around wile the doctor was watching. So he bided his time.


    A little over an hour passed, Elm was long past board. Without the entertainment of a new body to explore, or any real moving parts whatsoever. He was getting very close to just switching back to his old body, be damned with the consequences. But then, something unexpected happened.


    dee~ dee~ dee~


    The doctor looked down at the tablet he had stored a pouch attached to his belt, "Shoot, welp, looks like our time together is at an end for now, Mr Skelly. I''ll be back after my shift. Don''t go anywhere hahaha." The doctor continued to laugh as the operating room''s door closed behind him.


    This was a much better outcome then Elm had ever hoped! He wouldn''t even have to risk a bone being crushed by a freezer door! ''Nice!'' Quickly, Elm gathered all his mental ability, now it was time to pull himself together and pop this joint!This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ...


    It was several hours later, Elms brain felt like mush as he commanded another bone to roll over and attach itself to his arm stump. He tiredly looked around as he tried to collect his tired mind. He''d managed to rebuild himself up into a skull on a neck, with a little spine, one arm and the bare minimum to support it. Elm found out the hard way the minimum was, a shoulder plate, and the two ribs below it. It hurt thinking about all the time he''d wasted on his first and second tries building the arm. They''ed fallen apart as soon as he''d tried testing them. With a nervous but resigned sigh, Elm focused on his arm, solidifying the connection. Now came the part that always went wrong. Elm moved his arm. It didn''t fall apart. Staring at his completed arm he was almost too shocked to do what he needed next. Almost. Elm quickly got to work on the second arm, grabbing the necessary bones and placing them where they belonged, then channeling a bit of mental energy to keep in place, then moving on to the next piece.


    Based on his miserable experience with telekinetic moving bones around, there were some conclusions Elm could make with regard to his powers. It definitely seemed that Bone telekinesis was a minor bonus ability at best, because it drained him quite significantly, whereas moving the bone body around once connected to his skeletal body was so trivial he could do it seemingly without cost. He had also discovered a great use for that seemingly useless knowledge he''d absorbed from the other body back at the morgue. He still had a perfect recollection of all that information, giving him plenty of reference wile putting his other arm together. After a comparatively brief 5 minutes, Elm was back up to two functioning arms. Now it was but a quick game of skeletal Lincoln logs, and he could make his escape.


    Step Step Step...


    A sound coming from the hallway outside the operating room drained all of Elms positivity. Looking down at himself, he was still only the top half of a skeleton, wile he technically could just leave all his other bones and run away on his hands, he didn''t know if he would ever get more bones or if they would attach to his skeleton if he did get some. No, he''d spent far too much effort on getting this stupid skeleton out of the damned hospital for him to just leave half of it lying around. Scanning the room he saw a grocery bag over in the corner with a half-eaten cup ramen, and a drained bottle of pop. Quickly, Elm leapt off the dissection table and attempted run over to the bag on his hands. He moved a little like some kind terrifying drunk bird as he awkwardly fumbled his way over there. The footsteps were getting closer. Quickly but quietly laying his torso on the ground he hooked the bag around his shoulders, then ran back to the table. But he was too late, the footsteps stopped at the door. Elm hid behind the operating table, the disposable sheet blocking him from view of the door. He heard the door open.


    step step step


    Whoever it was, walked over to the edge of the room, next to where Elm just picked up his bag, this is when Elm finally caught a glimpse of them. The first word that crossed elms mind when he saw the intruder was yellow. There standing at the edge of the room, at around 6 and a half feet in height, was a broad shouldered man with a massive yellow cape that draped down from his massively broad back and reached the floor with plenty of extra fabric dragging along behind. This was definitely a super of some kind. The man turned around as Elm, brain tried to process what was happening. The man was even more massive looking from the front as his bulging muscles stretched at his orange suit. A yellow cartoon symbol of a smiling face was outlined with black in the center of his chest. Looking up told a very different story though. The mans heavily scarred face was plastered with the deepest scowl Elm had ever seen, it almost made it look like the edges of his mouth were trying to escape down the sides of his exceptionally square chin.


    The man, no, the hero, didn''t seem to notice Elm. ''Dammit'' Elm thought. He really should''ve spent more time looking into the different gifted instead of pulling apart dead animals. Elm stayed still, kept his eyelight dim, and waited. The yellow caped man looked around the room. Barely even glancing at the pile of bones on the table in the center, or the frozen half of a skeleton obscured behind it.


    "Come out evil doer, I know you''re there!"


    Elm swallowed some non-existent saliva and just about stepped out from behind the table, before stopping at the last moment. He realized the man was looking at a random corner of the room, and not, at the table or him. So instead he waited.


    "False again? Hmm?" After a minute the man spoke, his demeanor shifting to more annoyed and less ready to fight. The man then meandered his way out of the room sighing as he pushed open the door and walked out into the hallway.


    Elm watched the doors intently as he listened to the mans heavy steps getting father and father away. When he could finally no longer hear the footsteps he let himself relax, plopping his spine down as a third support for his inexperienced hands/makeshift feet. After a quick moment to let go of the tension that had built up in his bones, he climbed onto the table again, with how light he was, it was quite easy. Too much crazy crap had been happening and Elm was definitely not going to risk the 20 minutes or more that would be required to put the rest of this skeleton back together. Instead, he just quickly threw it all in his bag and tied it off before re-affixing it to his shoulders. With his bag of bones packed and ready, Elm made his way over to the door. He gave it a push, and the door barely budged.


    ''Oh come on!'' he was about to flip his shit with all the things that had gotten in his way today, when something caught his notice. Looking in the murky reflection provided by the metal plates at the bottom of the door, he realized he was still in dim mode. Internally sighing, Elm mentally commanded ''Bright'' as he watched his eye holes in the reflection light up. He pushed against the door and this time they opened with ease. Elm peered out into the hallway, the room he was in seemed to be at the end of one long corridor with several other operation rooms along it. He could see his room and one other just before a perpendicular split, were the only other rooms with the operation light over them on. Elm slowly started walking down the hall, being careful not to let the bones of his hands or the bag of bones clacks too loudly. Quietly reaching the operating room, Elm stopped for a second to listen to the sounds he heard coming from inside.


    Beep. Beep. Beep.


    "Scalpel... Forceps... Clamp "


    He was pretty sure that was Dr. Toucans voice. So that quack was a surgeon after all. Elm silently moved to the end of the hall where the path split. Down one, he could see several more doors and branching hallways. Down the other direction He could see much the same, however what really caught his eye was a large board sticking out of the wall. Elm excitedly ran over to the base of it. It was a visitors map! Complete with a, you are here marker. Elm quickly went over the map, searching for the quickest rout out of the building, that''s when he discovered two massive problems. One, he was current on the basement floor, so it was unlikely he could just find a window and slip out. Two there were only 2 ways out of this part of the building and both of then involved getting past a security checkpoint. Elm checked over the map another time, hoping for something he''d missed. That''s when he saw something that might be promising, just next to one of the two guard posts was a laundry room. And within a building this large it probably had a laundry shoot. If he could get to that laundry room he reasoned he could find away up it to a higher and less secured floor.


    With a plan in mind Elm was ready to enact it.

 Freedom

    Elm, stared up into the light. His plan to sneak into the laundry room, then climb up to a higher level, was working. At least it had been working. Elm sighed, he looked away from the light and down at the nurse bot currently fitting his broken leg with specialty shoe, so he could walk around. Apparently he had just out stayed the amount of care his heath insurance was willing to pay for him staying at hospital.


    Elm had learned something new about his power at least, he now knew that if an annoyed nurse bot tried to taser him awake, it would force him back to his body even if he was half-way up a laundry shoot. Elm sighed again.


    "Do you, patient Elmo re R. Analcime, require anti depressants?" The robot nurse tilted its head as it held out a packet of Alprazolam.


    Sighing Elm shook his head. He tried standing up with his new oddly large shoe. He''d already switched out his hospital cloths with his black shirt and blue jeans. The jeans now sported a new rip in the left leg and struggled in general to deal with extra mass provided by the plastic cast. After moving around the room some more as the nurse bot watched him, occasionally giving out helpful tips, like " Don''t trip" or " A child usually masters walking by 14 months". Getting the message that, for whatever reason, this nurse bot wanted him gone, Elm allowed it to lead him out of the building.


    Standing in front of the entrance to the massive hospital Elm looked up at the sign just above the door he came from, ''Bishops hospital emergency ward''. Remembering he had a mission he was forgetting, Elm looked around for a place he could leave his body without the worry of getting mugged. He then spotted something that reminded him he hadn''t eaten since first waking up, and the sun was currently setting. He walked over to the nearby Ms Fantads Eastwood that he''d just spotted. Entering Elm walked up to one of the free service bots affixed to a faux old-timey looking till. His eyes hungrily scoured the menu, before they halted on the largest burger available.


    "Hey could I get a Ms Triple Full combo?"


    "HECK YEAH! That''ll be 17.95!" Came the overly enthusiastic reply from the server bot, But he''d just realized his mistake. Elm felt down to his pants pocket and took out a dreadfully thin black leather wallet. He opened it up with a sense of dread. He''d never managed to actually take out any money from the bank before shit hit the fan. He pulled out the only bill in the whole wallet. A single heavily wrinkled, gold 10 dollar bill.


    "Damn."


    "Language young man!" the service bot interjected with mock anger.


    "Oh sorry, could I get a Ms value with fries and also book a booth for an hour instead?"


    "Of course! That''ll be 8.99!" Elm handed over the golden 10, one of the service bots arms came down and grabbed the bill before depositing it in a slot in the bots body, the old-timey looking till then made a caching sound, though nothing on the exterior of it moved. "Your food and change will be delivered to your booth, which is number 121! Have a FanTad day!" The bot handed Elm a receipt, then turned to the next customer behind him, Elm had honestly been too hungry to make much note of them, and continued to be.


    Elm walked off past the till and headed down the hallway marked BOOTHS. He continued down it until he came to the booth marked 121, he then placed the receipt on the doors lock after which he heard a click. Opening the door and walking in as it closed behind him, Elm observed the room. The booth was comprised of a small table with two armless plastic chairs, lit from above with a single too bright spotlight. The whole booth was able to seat 4 people uncomfortably, the bright red of everything in the booth only added to the discomfort. Schooching himself over to the center of one of the large seats, Elm relaxed back into the smooth plastic. Though some might find it uncomfortable, Elm had a lot of fond memory''s of going to Ms Fantads with his father. Back when Elm was a kid they would come to a Ms Fantads every Friday, grab a booth and some burgers, then they would just talk. They would sometimes go over how Elm was doing in school, sometimes his dad would tell stories about all the jobs he was working. Like the time he was a janitor for a supervision, or the time he got a security job protecting a manhole. Elm Smiled as he thought of all the time he and his dad had killed just sitting in one of these booths.


    REEEEEEurt-You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    A tray popped out of the wall and slid to a stop in front of him as he was reminiscing. On it was his meal, as well as his change. The money reminded Elm of why he and his dad didn''t go to Ms Fantads anymore. He remembered when him and his dad were at their lowest, the night that the bank foreclosed on their family home, how that night, they had spent sleepless in a FanTad booth just like this. He remembered his father muttering that he would never let it happen again, he left for work in another city a few weeks later. Elm looked down at the meager meal, he grabbed the burger and quickly started eating. He agreed with his dad on one thing, never again, Elm would use this new gift of his.


    He would have a father again.


    ...


    After elm finished his food, he transferred his mind back to the skeleton. After the jarring perspective shift, Elm looked around. He was genuinely shocked when he noticed he was still half-way up the laundry shoot, his bony fingers were clutching onto a protruding metal lip just past a riveted edge. He supposed the skeleton must just stay locked in position if he''s not controlling it. Mentally shrugging elm reached his other hand up to grab the next lip. He had to adjust his footing, so he could reach all the way up.


    Elm paused mid motion, he looked down, there attached below the spine was a completed pelvis and a single fully assembled leg. He distinctly remembered only putting together the upper torso of the skeleton... ''Whelp, that''s a problem for latter.'' Elm refocused on scaling the shoot. After a couple tense minutes of climbing he''d reached the first opening for laundry, he slowly pulled himself level with the metal door. The hinges seemed to be positioned on the bottom, meaning the door should swing down vertically. But, before he could try sneaking into the room he had to make sure it was empty. Elm quietly pressed the side of his skull against the metal.


    "- Told you I searched the whole basement, and I found nothing!" Came a voice Elm recognized, it was the Hero in the yellow cape from the operating room.


    "Maybe it was just your powers giving a false positive again?" a different much younger sounding male voice replied, they sounded a little exasperated.


    "But I would''ve felt it dissipate by now if it was just a false positive! This feeling is continuous! That only happens if a crime is still in process." The Big hero guy sounded really defensive.


    Sigh~ "Alright, you''re the boss, we can stay a little longer. But if it turns out your just sensing a kid downloading movies again or something, you''re buying me Ms Fantads for supper." The doubtful younger voice responded.


    "Thank you for understanding Hotspot! And don''t worry! I''m sure there''s a real crime this time. You go to another check of the basement, and be sure to ask the guards if they''ve seen any suspicious individuals! I''ll check this floor and start making my way up the building."


    "Alright whatever, I''ll make it fast and take the laundry shoot then"


    step step step


    Quick footsteps headed towards the shoot door caused Elm to almost lose his grip as he quickly scrambled up above the door and pressed his bony body as close to the wall as he could. Just as he got into this new position, the door opened and a man shaped ball of fire shot straight down the shaft and curved off just as it was about to hit the pile of dirty clothes at the bottom. Elm used this chance to stick his toe bones into the lip of the door as it was closing, preventing any locking mechanism from engaging. The heavy metal door slammed on Elm''s skeletal toes. Elm felt the pinky toe shattering completely and a few others cracking, though luckily it didn''t actually hurt. It was definitely not comfortable however, kind of like a tingling that quickly emanated from the broken parts.


    "Argh, that boy." Came the voice of the yellow hero. "He needs to learn some patience."


    Elm waited until he heard the heroes tell tail loud footsteps leaving the room, as well as the sound of the door closing behind him before he detached his wedged toe bones and climbed back down in front of the door.


    Elm pushed the door open, being sure to catch the detached toes. The opening was only 2 1/2 feet squared pointing up. Still, plenty of room for a skeleton to fit through though, so elm clambered up into the room beyond. It was a small janitors closet with the usual accessories that entailed, but what captured Elms attention most was the small window just touching the ceiling and positioned above the industrial sink. It was just a small square thing, like what you would find in a public washroom, but the hinges on the top of it meant it could be opened.


    Elm climbed up onto the sink, he then stretched out, so he could look out the window. It was just shy of nighttime, the sun was low and shadows were long. The perfect time for a skeleton to slip out of a hospital unnoticed. Elm grabbed the latch locking the window and flipped it, the window then was easily pushed open. He stretched out once more and grabbed the edges of the window frame. Then in one motion, pulled his bony body into a 5-foot free fall into a bush just outside the hospital.


    From the cover of his bush, Elm glanced around the garden he''d fallen into for witnesses. There were non. Elm, finally able to release some tension, sank down into the bush. Now he just needed to recover the skeleton and get it home, and he knew just how he was going to do that.


    Elm looked down at the grocery bag held in his thin white fingers.

 Home Boned

    Elm looked down at the bag in his hands. He''d picked it up after leaving the Ms Fantads, and grabbed a bus home. He''d received a few odd looks when his package started smelling halfway back in the sweltering people box. Luckily no one complained before he made it to his stop. And so, he stood below a streetlight, in front of his dark, lonely home, with a literal bag of bones in his hands. Though today when he looked at the dead house, he held more hope for the future then he did in the past few months combined. With some trepidation and excitement, Elm walked up to his door, unlocked it, and entered.


    Immediately something was different. He could sense a connection. One besides the obvious connection to the bag in his hands. Elm followed the connection out onto the back deck, where a plastic box covered in a garbage bag sat. Now remembering what he''d left in here on the morning before the bank heist, Elm bent down to look at the cat bones sitting a Dark pink slurry. The reaction had long ago finished, leaving a clean, if slightly acid damaged, set of cat bones. A little curious, Elm walked over to the cheep deck chair on the other side of the deck, put down his bag of bones, and sat. He leaned back as he focused on the connection coming from the cat bones, and then pushed.


    A quick flash showing the deck, and Elm perspective was shifted to that of half submerged, seeing nothing but pink, and half seeing a garbage bag. Elm made to sit up, but found this new body was much harder to move then the skeletal one, the feet bends were at all the wrong joints and the general shape didn''t allow for human like movement. Instead, his cat skeleton body flailed around in the organ and inert acid slurry before he decided to just give up. He switched back to his actual body. So controlling animal skeletons was possible, but it would take some practice. Elm looked over to his bag of bones, before he tried those, he''d need to lay them out properly so it wouldn''t take hours to put himself back together. Elm went inside, he''d deal with the cat slurry latter.


    Inside he headed to the kitchen table, he cleared off the used plate and bowl, then emptied the bag onto the table. He roughly spread out the bones, then grabbed the skull and placed it at the head of the table. He then grabbed the jaw bone attempted to place it loosely where it would go on the skull, however, as soon as the jaw bone touched the skull a blue light lit up in the eye sockets and Elm felt a weak pull on the bone in his hand. Elm, mostly out of shock, allowed the pull to drag the bone into it''s correct placement. The bone then got stuck as if glued. Elm could also make out in the dark room, a faint blue glow coming from the points where the jawbone met skull bone. In awe, elm placed the skull back on the table, where, to his astonishment it proceeded to hop using its new jaw towards the pile of vertebrae.


    For a wile, Elm just watched as the skull hopped over to the pile of bones and proceed to hop from one to the next. When a bone touched the forming skeleton, it would roll around the exterior of the already attached bones until it reached it''s intended spot whereupon it would sit in position and a blue glow would connect the new bone and already attached bone. Elm watched as the skeleton did by itself in minutes, what took Elm hours. After it was done, in an impressive 5 minutes, it just lay there, on the table. Elm looked at his new skeleton for the first time in its entirety. It was honestly much more gruesome then he thought it would be, with strips of flesh draped off of it and that unnatural blue glow shining in the dark room. He did notice however that the cut that originally split it diagonally across the chest appeared to be gone. He stared into the eyes of his skeleton, and now that he thought of it, the way it vacantly stared forward reminded him of a cleaning bot when they had no tasks.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Elm paused... That couldn''t be it. His power was possessing a single skeleton, wasn''t it? With some trepidation Elm felt for his connection to the Skeleton. Then instead of push on it, he gave a mental command, ''stand''. The skeleton stood up. Elm stared. ''umm get off the table'' The skeleton took a step over to the end of the table leaned down and grabbed the edge, then turned around as it eased itself down to the floor. The skeleton stood next to the table facing away from Elm.


    "Turn around and face me" Elm tried a verbal command. The skeleton didn''t seem to respond. ''Turn and face me'' at the mental command however it responded by turning, Elm could see just past the eye sockets a deep blue flame burning in the middle of the skull. He still hadn''t turned on any lights since he got home and the way the skeleton stood there impassively started to get to him. At least until Elm heard a scratching at his patio door.


    "Blagh!" Elm let out an odd scream as his heart lept at the unexpected sound. He turned around quickly only to see a skeletal cat clawing at his patio door. "HHH?" Elm watched as the undead cat sat there pawing at the door with little bony digits. It even opened its mouth as though to meow, though no sound came out. With an uncomfortable tingling shooting up his spine, Elm crept over to the patio door and, against his better instincts, opened it. The skeletal cat stared for a second at the open door, then entered the house. In shock elm watched as the cat walked over to the human skeleton and sat next to it.


    That''s when Elm noticed the puddle of pink sludge pooling under the cat, and as he traced his eyes along the path it walked over from the patio door he saw dark pinkish puddles wherever it stepped.


    "Oh shoot!"


    ...


    A couple hours later elm sat in his well lit living room, relaxing on the couch he almost never used. Next to him sat a freshly cleaned human skeleton, and in the kitchen, a cat skeleton sat in the sink playing in the water poring from the tap. Elm sighed. The human skeleton seemed to act like an android, it moved around as told, and attempted to the best of its abilities, to complete any complicated tasks given. He''d had it clean itself of all the fleshy bits, while he''d spent an hour scrubbing the cat skeleton. The cat also seemed to follow commands, and try to complete tasks, but it was much worse at them, and it also seemed to get board. After the fifth time Elm had commanded the cat to stay still while he cleaned it, he''d figured out that after about 5 minutes the commands seemed to stop working on the cat, and it would start wandering. It also seemed to be endlessly fascinated with knocking things over, so Elm had no choice but to find a way to distract it, hence why it was playing in the sink. It had been there for almost 20 minutes now without getting bored, so Elm would call that a success.


    He looked over at the skeleton sitting next to him. It didn''t really freak him out as much now that it didn''t have strings of pink muscle draped all over it. The pure white bones along with the bright room made it a lot less threatening. ''I should give it a name'' Elm thought. If he was going to be a Super hero, he would need a hero name as well. If the skeleton was going to be his hero alter ego, he might as well make the two names the same. It''ll help avoid confusion. He''d need a name that related to skeletons while not seeming scary. He''d probably have enough trouble as it was not getting mistaken as a villain, so a wholesome name was best.


    He''d also need some kind of costume for the skeleton. ''Boneman? Naw too generic. ''Calcium man? Ugh, that ones awful.'' Elm wanted a hero name that could inspire people, make them hopeful...


    "Ah, That could work" Elm stood up and walked in front of he''s skeleton. ''Alright, stand up'' The skeleton stood up, it was a full head taller than Elm. ''I want to be a super hero, are you going to help me?'' The skeleton stood there unloving. ''Alright I''ll take that as a yes.'' The skeleton continued to stare straight ahead slightly past elm. Elm had another 3 days before he had to be back to school, in that time, there would be a new hero in Cytokine City.


    ''Alright from now on your name will be-'' The skeleton finally reacted, looking directly at Elm


    ''-Wishbone.''

 Preparations

    Elm had a busy day ahead. It was the day after he''d gotten home from the hospital, with only 3 more days until he had to start attending school again, during this time he planed to start his hero career. Today he planned to get the required materials for a basic superhero costume. He also needed to get to a bank and take out the money he needed, so he could afford the materials he had in mind.


    Doing some quick online searching he found the location of another bank close to a hardware store. Elm grabbed his wallet and headed out the door. As Elm was about to cross the threshold he stopped. Looking back, he easily spotted the towering skeleton holding a skeletal cat following just behind him. "Umm",''wishbone, stay inside and guard the house... also don''t let the cat leave." Wishbone nodded as the still unnamed cat struggled to escape. Closing and locking the door on the odd pair Elm continued on his way.


    Elm smiled, it was a pleasant thought that at least he wouldn''t be coming home to an empty house anymore. Even if the occupants were all dead things. He sped up his limping gait as he neared the bus stop. If he missed this one, he''d have to wait an hour for the next bus. As he rounded the corner he could see the bus careening down the nearby hill, mere moments from his stop. Luckily someone was already there, a massively muscled man with blond hair, who held up the bus when he saw Elm hobbling to get to the bus stop. Elm shyly thanked the heavily muscled man as entered the bus, the man didn''t seem to be taking this bus and just waved the driver off.


    Elm settled himself into a seat near the back of the bus. He pulled a out a small pocket notebook he''d been jotting ideas in all morning, most of them related to his power and being a hero. He added a note to the bottom, of his still rather short, list of superhero activities.


    Spoiler: List of superhero activities:<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">


    catch muggers


    fight super villains


    become famous


    ????


    Profit


    Help people catch the bus


    During the bus ride Elm went over his plans for the suit he would make for Wishbone. He''d wanted to make an armored suit, but the materials he''d first checked out like, poli-carbonite and nanite weave, were either government restricted or prohibitively expensive. So, Elms solution was to buy high gauge, casehardened, steel sheet metal and some cheaper industrial fabrics and use them to make a sort of medieval style hauberk and embed the steel plates in key areas. He also planed to make a full steel helmet though that might take a bit longer to finish. He doubted he had the cash to buy tools to make anymore complicated armor. He''d probably be never able to make even this if he didn''t have a very strong untiring worker who followed instructions extremely well, so cheap manual tools could be used to great effect.


    He also wanted to give Wishbone a cape, the hero at the hospital had inspired Elm, and convinced him he had to give his alter ego an impressive cape. But that would all depend on elms available funds. He was sure the cost of the surgery and subsequent stay in the hospital had effected his fathers finances. The insurance was unlikely to have covered all the costs, and there was the distinct possibility that Elm would be stuck high and dry for a month.


    Elm disembarked the bus and walked to the entrance of the bank. As he stood in front of the doors a sense of trepidation washed over him, scenes of people in a crowd screaming as bodies and blood hit the floor. He remembered the face of the man whose skeleton was now at his house. The man whose skeleton was wretched from his still warm corpse so that Elm could play at superhero.


    Elm realized he was being shaken, he wasn''t sure when it started, but the jerky motion drew his attention to the fact people were screaming. Wait, no, not people just one person.


    "Hey kid! Can''t you read! No loitering!"


    Elm looked up into the eyes of the bank guard. He had blue eyes.


    "Uhh, s-sorry, I just need to go in, to withdraw some... money?" The words felt weird in Elms mouth, they came out on their own, though his conscious mind didn''t seem to be able to make sense of why. Elm completely missed the incredulous look the guard gave him.


    "Do you have a bank card and ID?"


    "..."


    "Kid?"


    "Uhh, Yeah. I do." Elm handed his whole wallet over to the guard, who took it with an odd look.


    Elms mind buzzed with static, it slowed his thinking to a crawl. His thoughts floated around ''''???I???.???.???.??? ???W???a???n???t??? ??? ??? ??? ???t???o??? ???, ??? ???b???e???''????'' whenever a string of his thoughts came together into a cohesive whole, he would remember some detail from that day, and it would throw him back into disarray. He remembered the day he broke.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    .


    ''????????? ??????????????????????M??????????????????????????????????o??????????????????????m???????????????????????????????''????????????????????? ??


    .


    "Alright checks out, go on in ya little freak."


    .


    .


    ''???????????????T????????????????h??????????????????????????????????i?????????????????????????s????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????m????????????????????????????????????????????????????????a??????????????????????????????????????????????????n??????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????h?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????a??????????????????s?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????a?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????s????????????????????????????????????????????k???????????????????????????????????????????????????????e????????????????????????????????????l?????????????????????????e??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t???????????????????????????????????????????????o????????????????????????????????n????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????i?????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????c???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????o????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????u?????????????????????????????????????????????l??????????????????????????????????????????d???????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????u?????????????????????????????????????????????????????s???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????e??????????????????????????????????????????''?????????????????????????????????????????????


    .


    .


    .


    Elm walked into the building. There were several people lined up at the ATM''s. As he approached an old woman had just finished with the ATM, so he silently took the machine she just left.


    "HAY?! Didn''t you see the line punk?"


    Elm took out his card and placed it in the machine.


    "OIE! I KNOW YOU HEARD ME!"


    Elm put in his 6 digit pin code.


    A heavy hand landed on Elms shoulder and roughly turned him.


    "DON''t IGNORE ME YOU LITTLE SHIT!"


    A fat man in a business suit griped Elm by the shoulder, the mans face was red, sweat pored off of him in thick droplets. Looking behind the man, Elm could see the crowd of people who had gathered to watch the spectacle. Most of the people in the crowd were much older than Elm, though he could see a few kids with their parents. It didn''t seem any of the crowd would be willing to step in to help him, if anything several people seemed to want to join the fat mans side.


    "LOOK AT ME DAMMIT! Who do you think you are? Did anyone ever teach you any manners!"


    He could see the security guard in the crowd. He was just standing there. I suppose good help''s hard to find.


    "Ha... HA... HAHAHAHAHA" Elm started laughing.


    The fat man recoiled at the unexpected response, dropping Elm, who proceeded to keep laughing as he turned around and hit some more buttons on the ATM.


    "WTF, Are you high? STOP LAUGHING!" The fat man reeled back for a punch and delivered it to the back of Elms head.


    Elms head shot forward, impacting the faux gold trim above the screen. The man however, realizing he just assaulted a minor in front of a crowd of people ran away while covering his face.


    The boy didn''t move. The guard, finally forced to do his job, approached the boy. As he got close however he heard a werring sound and stopped in his tracks. The werring stopped and the boy stood up. He turned around, blood was dripping down his face, and he had a small handful of 20 dollar bills. He then proceeded to walk past the guard and out the door. The guard looked back the ATM. The "gold" trim looked slightly bent, but besides that and some blood smeared on it, there didn''t seem to be any real damage. Not wanting anymore paperwork, the guard simply called in a repair and clean bot on his tablet placed an out-of-order sign of the ATM, and called the matter resolved.


    ...


    Elm headed down to the hardware store. His forehead felt wet. Bringing a hand up to check what the wetness was Elm stopped when he spotted the Tell tail gold of Paradise currency. He looked down at the fistful of money. He didn''t remember going to the bank, had he done that? He remembered needing too. A little confused, he put the money away in his wallet. Then dabbed a couple fingers against his forehead, then brought them back in front of his face covered in blood.


    Elm looked at his hand now covered in red, that was quite a bit of blood. He looked in a nearby shops window only to see his entire face covered in blood. Did he fall and hit his head? That could be quite serious if he hit his head hard enough to lose memory of it. He should probably visit the hospital. Elm did an about turn and instead headed to a nearby bus stop that had a bus that drove hospital.


    20 minutes later Elm arrived in front of the hospital, he walked into the emergency ward, grabbed a ticket and waited in a seat. He was called up fairly quickly, where he explained he thinks he fell and hit his head but could''t remember it. The nurse bot thanked him and sent him to wait until his name was called. Almost exactly three hours later he had just received a x-ray and EEG. The doctor gave him clean bill of health, a wet cloth, and a bandaid then set him off.


    Walking out into the dimming light, Elm decided he would pick up some if the materials on his way home, though he probably wouldn''t have time to actually build the costume. At some point he''d also have to find the time to research the other heroes in cytokine as well. There were a lot of things a new hero had to do to get started, Elm was realizing. It was a lot more work then he expected.


    Though he did come up with a good idea for a temporary disguise for Wishbone during the plentiful time he had to think wile sitting in the waiting room. Elm decided he needed to give this hero thing a good test, to find out if he liked it.


    Tonight, he thought, would be a good night to dip his toe in the crime fighting business.

 Wishbone

    It was dark. The sleepy suburban street was all but bereft of life. The houses lining both sides of the street and their occupants had long since fallen asleep. The lights meant to illuminate and push back the dark were all unusually absent.


    Without even a flicker.


    A figure walked down the middle of the dreary street. Under their dark boots, the reflective yellow road paint seemed to fade and lose it''s reflective shine. The figure continued down the road, coming to a stop at fork, and glanced down the two opposite streets, both lit by still working street lamps. The figure waved an arm towards the leftmost street and, as if candles hit by a gust of wind, the lights were all snuffed out as the figure continued down the chosen street.


    Elm crouched, his figure hidden behind a bush half a road away, peeking out from between the foliage. He was currently possessing his skeleton, Wishbone. He''d been right when he thought he wouldn''t have time to finish his planed super suit, he barely had time to finish the sketches, and show wishbone how to use the hack saw he''d bought, before it got dark. So still intent on an outing. He''d dressed Wishbone in a pair of jeans, a black shirt, and a long black trench coat with a hood he had in the back of his closet. The whole getup hung loosely from Wishbones, well, bones, but it was the best he could do with the stuff he had in his apartment. He also had to tape some of his dads old work boots to the skeletons feet, so they wouldn''t slip off the thin skinless foot bones. Finally, some cheap work gloves, and a dish rag he tied over the lower half of Wishbones face to obscure the fact he was a skeleton, and the disguise was ready.


    Sure, Wishbone now looked more like an edgy mugger, but he really only wanted tonight to be a simple testing of the waters. Just trying out his first night as a hero, maybe scare some muggers away or something. Then, after wandering around the streets near his apartment for an hour or so, he saw this mysterious person snuffing out the lights. Elm was pretty sure he wasn''t ready to fight any other gifted. He wasn''t even really all that sure on fighting normal people yet. But this person was just too suspicious!


    As Elm followed a good half a street behind the light snuffer, he started to imagine what would happen if he managed to foil a super villain plot on his first night! Wouldn''t that be a great debut? He could probably apprentice under a famous hero if he did that!


    A little giddy at the possibilities Elm decided to speed up his pace and get a little closer to the potential villain. Make it easier to hear any evil plots.


    Elm slowly decreased the distance between himself and the suspected villain. He was only one house back when the figure turned left and approached one of the many identical houses on the street. Elm freaked out a little at the unexpected movement, and dived into the front garden of the neighboring house. Luckily the soft bed of soil muffled the sound of his impact, because when Elm peaked up above the tall flowers obscuring him he could see the figure entering the adjacent house seemingly unaware. Mentally breathing a sigh of relief, Eml stood up from the loosely packed soil, brushing off some of the damp dirt still clinging to his coat and pants. He was about to start moving toward the house the figure just entered. Then everything went bright. Elm glanced around. It seemed like all the lights that were previously turned off by the mysterious gifted, had just turned back on all at once. Including, it seemed, the motion activated light pointed at the garden Elm was currently in.


    SCREEEEEEP SCREEEEEEP SCREEEEEEP SCREEEEEEP


    Also an alarm


    "WHO THE FUCK, IS FUCKING WITH MY DAISIES!"


    Which had apparently woken up the occupant of the house.


    Elm stood there in shock. He should probably have run, but his panic response was closer to a possum then a gazelle. He rationalized his lack of doing anything by thinking,'' Well a hero would clear up the misunderstanding'' Though that delusion was blown away when an oddly familiar looking fat man, came out of the house waving around a massive double barreled shotgun.


    "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM? NO ONE FUCKS WITH MY GARDEN!"


    Even if Elm was capable of speaking wile controlling his mute skeleton, his panicked mind probably wouldn''t have been able to respond. He''s barely ever seen a gun outside of movies or games, let alone had one pointed at him. Not knowing what else to do Elm simply shot both of his hands straight up in the air. A mistake it would seem.


    BANG


    ...


    Startled by the intruders sudden movement, Clark had reflexively pulled the trigger. The hip fired shot took the garden vandal full in the chest, knocking them clean off their feet, only crash to the ground right on top of Clarks prized African Lily''s.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "OH SHIT!"


    Clark had only intended to scare off whatever bastard had messed with his garden. Concern written on his face, he slowly edged forward toward the un-moving body with his gun held loosely in his left hand.


    "Uhh, you still alive?"


    He walked right up beside the body. No movement. He poked it with the barrel of his gun. No response.


    "Shit, Teddys going to be pissed."


    He really shouldn''t have shot this guy. His nephew had pulled some strings to get him this gun, and it would likely take a lot of money to shove this whole incident under the rug. Well it''s better he faced the music now, rather then later. Clark pulled out his phone, and called the ''friend'' in the police that Teddy had told him to contact if anything like this happened.


    As he was pacing around his ruined garden, yelling into his phone, describing the events that took place to his police contact. A gloved fist smashed into the back of Clarks head, knocking his bulging form to the ground. Shaking his head, he peered up with bleary eyes at the person he''d just shot standing over him. He could see a massive hole through the left half of the chest where light was bleeding through from the streetlight beyond. Above that the rag covering the lower part of the face had fallen off revealing a pure white skull of a face. Clark quickly brought the phone back up to his face, completely forgetting the fallen shotgun.


    "Holy shit balls! The skull faced fucker just got back up an--THWACK


    ...


    Wishbone punched the fallen aggressor.


    -THWACK


    Though the structural damage done was rather minor.


    -THWACK


    The amount of force involved was certainly enough to prove a threat to his masters control.


    -THWACK


    Wishbone decided that elimination was the best way to mitigate this threat.


    -THWACK


    -THWACK


    -THWACK


    -SPLACK


    -SPLACK


    -SPLACK


    -SPLAT


    -SPLAT


    ...


    Elm lay on the ground recovering from the shock of being shot, mostly by crying and a having a small panic attack. The surprise more then anything, had been what made Elm disconnect from Wishbone. He slowly recovered, his back shuddering with his sobs, against the living room floor. He''d managed to flail off the couch when he''d first disconnected. Once he''d calmed down enough to reconnect to Wishbone, he returned to laying on the couch, closed his eyes. He need to see how much of the situation was salvageable. He pushed on the connection. His perspective was zoomed through his living room, though the unused TV and off into the night. When he opened his metaphorical eyes in Wishbones body, he found himself grabbing onto the shoulder of the man who shot him, looking directly into the mans mangled face.


    Blood oozed out of the mans eyes, ears nose and mouth. He could see the right ear was hanging by a small thread and the left arm hung uselessly at the mans side. Likely broken trying to defend from the skeletons hammer like blows. Elm looked into the mans un-focused eyes, one was listlessly rolling around, while the other simply didn''t move. Elm looked up at Wishbone''s still raised fist, ready to enact more pain on this man. Elm fist. The cheap work glove was bloody and torn, through the rip''s elm could see the tell tail white bone. Stained red. There was blood on his hands. Elm let the fat man drop and brought both of his hands up to look at. How did this happens?


    The blood was very red.


    "???? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ?? ??? ????"


    Elm glanced down at the phone sitting in the grass. The threat of arrest seemed to finally snap Elm out of his confusion. He quickly stood up. He''d need to hide. But he couldn''t risk leading the police to his house, so he''d have to find another place to hide the bloody cloths and Wishbone for the day.


    And so Elm ran.


    ...


    The captain of the integrated hero policing team looked over the report on his podium, before looking down at his gathered subordinates. Four heroes, generally not strong enough to go solo, and one ex vigilante on probation, not trustworthy enough to go it alone. A sorry lot.


    "Listen up! Earlier this morning an APB was put out on a possible new villain in town. Power unknown, but they at least seem able to take a 12 gauge point-blank and still kick the crap out of the mayor''s uncle. They are described as having a skull for a face, but we don''t know if that''s just a mask, or related to their power. Unfortunately our only witness is currently getting their face put back together, and the security cameras at his house seemed to have been tampered with as they cut off recording 10 minutes before the attack was suspected of happening. I''ll be sending you all out in your usual squads, Except for Ms probation, your going with Dan and lynda. I''ll be adding however, that you are not to engage directly unless you get your other squad as back up. There will also be teams of the boys in blue helping with the search, so stay glued to those radios. Alright that should be it, questions?"


    "Are we going safety''s off?" A serious looking fellow near the front wearing an upgraded swat uniform spoke


    "Negative, perp is likely a new gifted! And so, were using kid gloves, so hopefully we can avoid making anymore villains or vigilantes if we can. However prioritize protecting yourself or civvies if the perp seems unstable."


    "Are there any bonuses related to this case?" Asked a very mercenary looking woman in the back


    "Not yet, but I wouldn''t hold my breath for it, seems most likely it''s just a bruiser, and not a particularly strong one. No ones gonna put a bounty on a probable trash power like that."


    "..."


    "Alright questions done, your search routs have already sent to your communicators. So shove off and find me that runner!"

 Debut

    Elm sat in an alley with his arms crossed over his bony legs holding them close to his chest. In front of him, a set of bloody tattered work gloves, sat on the grimy tiles of the alley. The sun had already started to rise, slowly illuminating his surroundings. Aged posters hung partially peeled from the rusted metal walls of the building opposite him. A large blue trash bin separated Elm from the slowly populating street. He''d run here shortly after the... Incident. He held his body, like he had many times before and sobbed. However he couldn''t feel anything. He felt no pain, as his body was wracked with phantom sobs. He felt no cold from the damp ground. He felt no warmth as he clasped his legs as close to his center as possible. He felt nothing. He couldn''t stay like this. So with all his remaining concentration he felt for his connection. The tether to his true self.


    Elm pushed on the connection back to his body. Not really noticing the disorientating perspective shifts, he simply lay there for an unknowable period of time releasing the pent-up guilt and stress. After what felt like hours, Elm felt truly empty, in more ways than one. He glided up off the couch, and into the kitchen. Making himself a bowl of cereal, he sat himself down and ate. The sugary food substitute tasted bland and flavorless as he mechanically gulped it down in moments. He stood up and stumbled up the stairs to his room. Falling face-first into his soft bed, he didn''t bother getting under the sheets and simply waited for sleep.


    No


    First, he had something to do. ''Wishbone, I order you, never to hurt anyone ever again.''


    His conscience momentarily sated, Elm drifted off into dreamless a sleep of pure exhaustion.


    ***


    Wishbone sat in the alley that its master had just left it in some time ago. It did not understand why the master had reacted as he did to that situation with the hostile human. The threat was nearly eliminated, so it should have been a celebratory event. Like when Wishbone held the small uncooperative servant of the master back from escaping the "house", and was later vindicated when it had been given the order to continue the task. This lack of consistency was disturbing. Could the master have been incorrect? Impossible. Perhaps it would have to look further ahead when attempting to assess its masters wishes. Wishbone decided it would need to create a default set of orders falling back on should the master not give it a command but is still forced to act. This should help alleviate the distress it''s master was feeling after retaking control of wishbone earlier. The sensation was not at all desirable. It very much disliked disappointing the master, Wishbone decided.


    As wishbone was ruminating on a source code to follow, someone was looking down at it from the roof of the rusty metal warehouse opposite it. A woman dressed in a black leather coat, black yoga pants, and with a blue armband with, "Temporary Gifted Officer" Printed on it. The woman in her late twenties, past her gloved hand over here buzz cut scalp as her other hand she tapped onto a hot pink cellphone.


    ***


    Data: yeah I told you I''d find the guy.


    Dan: Damn it! The chief told you to stay with us!


    Data: Naw, you guys are just too slow. If i stayed with you, we''d still be searching. Did you get the pic?


    Lynda: WOW! Did we ever! SO COOL!! (¡ä?O?`) Dan spit his coffee all over the dash when he saw we were dealin with a literal skeleton!


    Data: HAHAHA! Really? Any pics?


    Dan: WHAT! NO I DIDN''t!


    Lynda: Just sent (????)?


    Data: HAHAHAHAHAHA!


    Dan: Dammit, Just do your job! Or should I tell the Boss! Huh?! Miss probation!


    Data: Hahaha cool it Dan, It''s just a joke man. We still cool on a 60/40 split if you guys keeps this from the chief?


    Lynda: Yup! (=w=)


    Dan: Sigh~ alright, but be sure to be done playing with them before we get there.


    ***


    Looking back up from her phone, Data found the skeleton still slumped unloving against the wall of the alley. If she hadn''t followed it into this alley in the first place she might''ve thought it was simply a slightly early Halloween decoration. Easing her breathing, Data stood up from her perch. Now came the fun bit.


    ***The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Wishbone had decided upon a basic list of commands it would use to compose its source code. The list would necessarily be subject to change as Wishbone discovered more about its masters wishes. So far it had, in order of importance:


    -Protect the master (obviously)


    -Don''t let the small disobedient servant out of the house


    -Guard the house


    -Maintain functionality (or else it won''t be able to serve)


    -Hide its features (it''s master seem''ed very focused on this task though it had yet to be given any commands related to it)


    That was its list so far. It was quite proud of the amount of things it had been trusted with by the master. Wishbone had also decided to place any order given by the master above any it had deduced were implied by its masters actions. Well except for -Protect the master. That would always be the most important.


    Wishbone then detected movement coming from above the alley it was in. Focusing in, it saw a small, thin, human. Very much unlike the larger human specimen from earlier today. It seemed to be covered in a mostly black substance, except for the large vulnerable skull substitute, and the also vulnerable lower torso. Wishbone had theorized that a human was a similar, if less advanced, device to it. But whereas a human had many vulnerable squishy bits, Wishbone, who was designed by the master, was obviously built without such unnecessary vulnerabilities. Obviously Wishbone was of superior workmanship.


    "Ha, so you''re the punk that kicked in the fat bastard face. If I wasn''t told to bring you in, I might just buy you a drink. Since I have been ordered though, I''ll give you one chance to surrender peacefully. Because I''m nice."


    The Human simply stood there making sounds wile flapping its jaw bone alternative. Wishbone had seen it''s master do this activity as well, usually it would receive an order shortly afterwards.


    "No, answer? Are you going for the whole strong and silent type? I''ll save you the trouble, no one likes those edge lord Capes. So take it from me, just act like a normal human being. Might be refreshing to actually have a few a those around the Cape scene."


    Wishbone decide to wait for some form of useful communication from the human, before it acted. Besides, its master would likely disapprove of another violent interaction, especially if he were to drop in halfway though.


    "Alright, you''re starting to tick me off kid! Start talking, or I''m going to start hitting!"


    Wishbone then noticed that it''s hands were uncovered. Looking down the gloves it''s master had given it were on the ground in front of it. That would likely be disruptive to its disguise, it decided. So Wishbone leaned forward and grabbed the gloves.


    "AH, Holy shit! You do move!"


    The sudden action seemed to have startled the human. Luckily this human didn''t seem to be armed with a projectile device. Wishbone decided however it would be easier to react to unexpected actions if it stood up. It did so, wile pulling on its gloves.


    "Ah, So there''s some fight in you after all. Alright then Square up punk! I''m going to teach your mute ass how to sing."


    After some more pointless noise making, the human suddenly lunged at Wishbone. The human accelerated at a rather ridiculous speed as she swung a fist at Wishbones hooded head. If it had to estimate, which it did, it would conclude that the woman was likely moving at a speed comparable to some of the fastest human transports it had seen while it''s master was finding this alley. Unfortunately it was unable to match the human in speed, so wishbone decided to instead sacrifice it''s left arm to block some of the incoming damage.


    However the actual impact that Wishbone was expecting based on the humans velocity and expected mass, fell woefully short. The impact failed to even break the offered arm. The actual strength of the punch was actually considerably less then what one of Wishbones own punches could deliver, though not by much. It seemed this humans speed was deceptive in some way. Wishbone decided then it was probably best to remove this human. It didn''t understand this human and could therefor not risk it becoming a threat to the master.


    "Haha, you have more oomph in you then I gave you credit. This might actually be fun!"


    Wishbone prepared a punch as the human momentarily moved back in preparation for another lunge. The human shot forward in similar way to last time, so Wishbone threw a punch at the area the human would occupy should they move at the same velocity as previously. However contrary to expectations the human dropped at the last moment and slid across the ground, ignoring friction, and swiping Wishbones feet out from under it as the human slid past.


    Briefly airborne. Wishbone twisted it;s torso mid fall, keeping vision on the hostile human. Deciding more proactive tactics were required, Wishbone landed in a hand stand, absorbing the force of the fall by coiling its arms, then launching its self at still recovering human. The human had just stopped it''s self against the wall of the alley. It''s stood up whilst turning only to be met with a booted foot to the face.


    "SHIT!"


    Wishbones flying kick drove the human''s skull like appendage back into the brick wall behind it. This seemed to have dazed it as it did not immediately rebound from the attack. Not one to miss opportunity like that Wishbone moved in to deliver a full force punch to the human.


    However, something caused wishbone to divert its blow into the brick wall instead. Wishbones fist impacted the brick wall at full force, sending cascading fractures throughout its hand and arm bones. The brick hit and several of those around it exploded into chunks of rocky shrapnel peppering the surroundings. Wishbone then turned away from it''s stunned opponent and ran.


    It had just received a new cherished order from its master, one it''s put at the top of the list.


    ''Wishbone, I order you, never hurt anyone ever again.''


    Deciding that escape is the only way to avoid ''hurting'' the human (likely what is meant by an ''anyone''), and therefore breaking one of its masters direct orders. Wishbone ran out of the alley and into the middle of the road. It''s had found that both the large human transport devices, and the self-propelled humans avoided this area. It was even marked In a flashy yellow color, through Wishbone had yet to deduce a reason it was marked with such importance.


    Transport devices sped past wishbone on both sides as it sprinted along the yellow line, it risked a peek over it''s shoulder bone to see if the hostile human had decided to pursue. Not seeing any obvious pursuit, wishbone decided now was the best time to distance itself from the area. It grabbed onto the back of one of the larger transport devises that were moving past, making sure to use it''s undamaged arm. The violent acceleration almost pulled the appendage it had used to grab on free. However it had held out, barely. The connection between the arm, and it''s neighboring bones was noticeably weaker for a few seconds as the blue energy was redistributed to repair the connections. The other arm would take longer to fix, as the physical bone was what was damaged.


    Wishbone pressed itself up against the flat back of the device as it was brought farther from its master, and instead closer to the smoke rising from the lowest parts of the city.

 Amalgamation

    Light streamed in through the blinds, igniting glowing moats of dust as they revealed the room. The beams of light slowly crept up a the floor revealing a messy bed and it''s gangly occupant, still on top of the sheets, and dressed in the clothes of the day before. A pale, thin boy, only a few short months from being considered a man. The light crept up until it finally revealed the troubled look and tired bags under his eyes.


    Elm opened his eyes as the light broke him from his fitful sleep. He turned away from the painful brightness, rolling over to his right side. Blinking away the sleep, he was met with the sight of his bookshelf where he kept his taxidermied collection. He looked into the glass eyes of the cat he had taxidermied a few days ago. Back before all of his had happened. Back when all he had to look forward to after high school were crap jobs and a soul sucking grind. He would never have been able to afford university with the paltry sum his dad was able to make. Society was unfair like that. But now, if he revealed he was gifted, he could be sponsored into university by the state. He could learn all he needed to get a valuable position in one of the super corporations, and then he could be the one sending money to his dad. Unfortunately he would almost certainly be drafted into the military if he chose this option, and Elm would rather avoid that.


    However that didn''t mean he didn''t have more options now. Heros had other options separate from government money. They were often privately funded by super corporations to protect their interests. Not the most Heroic pursuit but even the lowliest vigilante needed funds to keep up with the super powered arms race. And so, if Elm could position himself as an up and comer hero he could attract a sponsor, get into university as a normal student and avoid the Gifted draft. He''d have to come up with a reason for having the money without revealing he was gifted, but that was small potatoes compared to actually getting the money.


    Feeling a little better after thinking about a positive future, Elm slowly rose from the bed. Today was his last day before he went back to school and he might not get many chances to improve his superhero persona wile juggling it with his school life. He knew he had to give it his all from now until graduation because, the higher his final test scores, the cheaper the university entrance cost''s would be, and the less money he''d have to explain away.


    As this was his last day before school, he briefly thought about spending it as Wishbone, and trying to establish himself as a hero. He then remembered that mans face. The blood oozing from his eyes.


    .


    .


    .


    The B????????????????????????????????????????????????????????L???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????O????????????????????????????????D?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


    .


    .


    .


    .


    After calming down from the brief panic attack, Elm decided to leave Wishbone in that alley for a few days. He might check on him in a day or so, just to make sure no one''d buried him or something, but he just couldn''t deal with that right now. He got up from the bed and walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Quickly washing a pan, Elm stared making himself some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. As he was mid scramble however, he happened to look out the window, his eyes were drawn to movement coming from his neighbors yard. He returned to dealing with his eggs when he saw it was only the neighbors kid playing with his skeletal cat.


    "OH NO!" Elm did a double take.


    The 6-year-old boy was currently petting the skeleton of his dead cat, and the cat seemed to be arching its back like it enjoyed it. Panicked, Elm ran towards his porch and started frantically putting on his shoes. Only to realize half-way though, that if he went out and grabbed the cat, it would be so much worse, because then the living skeletal animal would be connected to him. Instead, he ran to the back deck, still with one shoe on. He stumbled over to the edge of the deck, leaning heavily against the railing to get a better look. The cat was currently being picked up by the boy, so Elm sent it a desperate command, "Escape and come inside the house".


    The cat wriggled a little in the boys grasp in a pitiful attempt to escape. This didn''t even last long however, as the wriggling devolved into the cat simply snuggling into the boy.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "Damn cat!"


    Elm cursed himself ever animating the stupid creature. Well, there was only one way out of this now. Elm sat down in the lawn chair and connected to the cat.


    The rush, was complete ignored as Elm assessed his options in the cat body. He was currently held tight in the boys arms, one hand was even halfway up the rib cage like some kind of gruesome puppet. This would be difficult to get out of. But it wasn''t even the worst part.


    "Stuffy''s back! HAY DAD, STUFFY''S BACK!"


    The kid started yelling and running toward the house. Time was of the essence. The boy would have to suffer a little so that elm could keep his secrete. Elm raised a skeletal paw, and brought it down in a powerful raking motion directly onto the boys face. However, Elm didn''t account for the fact, skeletal cat''s didn''t actually have claws. So the potently devastating strike, became more of a bap. It did have the desired effect though.


    "Stuffy? Do you want down?"


    The boy looked questioningly at the bone cat in his arms. Elm, shocked that his blunder succeeded, nodded absentmindedly. Luckily the kid didn''t seem to care that animals normally didn''t respond to questions with nods.


    "KAAAAAAY!"


    Elm was then unceremoniously dropped to the grassy ground.


    "OK, Stuffy stay here. I''ma go get some treats."


    Elm watched as the boy disappeared into the house. That was plenty enough of that for today, he decided, and ran over to the fence that separated this property from Elms. He found the loose board he had used to sneak into this yard and steal their dead cat, and pried it open with the surprisingly nimble, cat bone fingers. He then scrambled through the gap, and into the relative safety of his own yard.


    It was then a simple matter of climbing up to his deck and sitting on his own lap. He prepared himself however, before reconnecting to his body. He lunged forward as soon as his consciousness touched his body, and bear hugged the escaping "Stuffy".


    "Oh no you don''t! I''ve got plans for you."


    Elm then brought the uncooperative bone cat inside and up to his room. He grabbed a dirty shirt from his laundry pile, and started wrapping the cat in it until it looked like a lumpy squirming burrito. He then took the "Stuffy" burrito and thew it in his pants drawer before closing it.


    With that dealt with, Elm calmed down. At least until he smelt the smoke.


    ***


    One aired out kitchen and recooked meal later, Elm sat in his less smokey living room, and ate his eggs and toast. As he ate, he thought on how he would spend the rest of his day. He still needed to complete his suit, and since Wishbone would be out of the house for a bit. He would need to figure out another way to process the materials he had. He still couldn''t afford power tools, and Stuffy was far to unreliable to be used for this. He thought briefly about raising the other animal bones he had in a bin in his room. But an army of defiant bone animals, seemed like a bad idea. It did however give him an idea.


    Rushing up stairs Elm grabbed the plastic box of bones and brought it down to the living room. He pried open the layers of duct tape and lifted the lid. Only to release a horrid aroma of death, mildew, and acidic chemicals. Retching Elm ran over to the kitchen and dumped the container into the sink and ran the tap, before retreating back to the living room. Nope. He''d give that an hour or so.


    After an hour, the smell had barley calmed down enough for Elm to venture into the kitchen, after which he spent another 30 minutes scrubbing all of the bones clean.


    Deciding he''s ready to test his idea, Elm takes the bones and carefully spreads them out on the kitchen table. Now came the fun part. He started by arranging the bones based on what animal they came from. When finished he has three separate piles. One pile containing three squirrels worth of bones, one with two pigeons worth, and one pile for the single rat skeleton.


    Elm then began the more creative part of the project. He started by using the extended squirrel spines to create 3 bone tentacles, each tipped with a skeletal pigeon leg. The main body of the creature was made up of the rib-cages of the multiple animals, sans the rat, interweaved to create a wide platform to facilitate the remaining pigeon leg, rat arms, and squirrel arms all being positioned in the front, so they could easily manipulate materials. The 4 pigeon wings were combined into 2 large graspers that stretched around the smaller arms, so they could be used to stabilize a material for the more nimble appendages to work on. The 6 squirrel, and 2 rat legs were placed, so they could be used for movement. Finally, all the skulls were attached to the remaining rat body, with the rat skull in the center and the others fanning out from it, which was then placed on top of the other rib-cages.


    The final product looked like a freaky undead rat sized scorpion man with too many extra arms.


    A little nervous all this work would be for naught, Elm reached out and searched for a connection to the amalgamation. After a tense moment, where he didn''t sense any connection, he finally found the thin thread connecting to it. He sighed, settling himself into his chair, and pushed on the connection.


    The sensation was as usual, disorienting, but when he opened his eyes, he realized he was still looking out from his original perspective. Looking down, he was also still in his body. Concerned it didn''t work, he stood up and examined his project. The thing, sat motionless. Without any movement or will. Curious, Elm shut off the lights. Yep, it was defiantly glowing. So that meant it must have worked. Still uncertain, he concentrated on an order wile focusing on the connection. ''Get off the table''.


    The amalgamation jittered into motion, slowly crawling it''s way over to the edge of the table. Then simply flopped off the edge and smashed into the laminate floor. A single full squirrel arm was flung skittering across the floor to the corner of the room. Elm looked down at his creation. Well, It was probably his dumbest creation yet, but he didn''t need a genius to use a hacksaw.


    And hey, at least this one followed orders.

 Debut 2

    There was a fire raging, lighting up the night. It had been burning for several hours now. The fire danced among a forest of apartments, houses and stores. Sound of screams, yelling, and flames raging, emphasized the lack of sirens. A black pillar of smoke rose up from the smoldering remains of a warehouse near the center of the blaze. On all sides fires rose up, spread and died down. On the charred ground, surrounded by warped and partially melted metal, lay a charred corpse. The body had been ravaged by the flames, striping it of the heat protective clothing it once wore, leaving it as little more then a skeleton surrounded by a crispy crust. It was not alone however. Standing above it, was another skeleton, a skeleton who''s body language showed genuine confusion as it looked down at it''s blackened brethren.


    Wishbone had gotten off the large red human transportation device as soon as it had stopped in front of this building and humans started pouring out of it. Wishbone had run off into a nearby alley stay and watch as the humans used large hoses, connected to a small red tower by the side of the road to deliver a liquid on to the building, suppressing the fire. The humans wearing the thickest gear then ran into the building, as the remainder continued to suppress the flames. A few minutes latter the humans came back out carrying large boxes, lifted two humans per box. This repeated itself a few times, until a final time when several of the humans didn''t come back out of the building. The remaining humans then packed everything away in their transportation device and drove away.


    Wishbone had then waited in the alley watching the blazing fire for several hours. At one point one of the two buildings it was between, caught fire, so he was forced to relocate to the middle of the street. It had to dodge out of the way of a few other large red transportation devices, but for the most part it simply watched its surroundings burn and crumble. An indeterminate time later the fire had finally finished with all the surrounding buildings, the warehouse had burned for the longest of the surrounding buildings, but maybe that was just down to its massive size.


    Wishbone had entered the building when it had seen the last of the orange glow dissipate. It was not really sure what the flickering substance was, but the way it seemed to eat through the large surrounding structures had convinced Wishbone to wait before exploring. And explore it would, because when the red transport had brought it here, it had noticed something odd. It was a connection similar to the one it had to it''s master, though much weaker. It was the same kind of connection it had felt, back when it was in the box where it''s master had connected to it for the second time. It hadn''t been able to investigate those connections at the time seeing as it was stuck in the container, so this time it would find the source. Perhaps it could be something helpful to the master? Wishbone had trekked through the unstable shell of the building until it had stumbled on the source of the connection.


    It looked down at the charred resemblance of itself. The burnt skeleton seemed to be curled up in a ball. ''Perhaps for easy storage?'' Wishbone bent down and poked the skull, finding that the brittle material crumbled away at his touch, forming a hole into the dark center. ''Structural damage caused by the flickering substance? Or perhaps simply inferior design?'' Rubbing the char between its digits, Wishbone found that the material seemed to cling to and discolor its gloves. Perhaps that could serve some use? Wishbone was ready to leave the building, it''s curiosity sated. However the sound of a heavy impact caused the surrounding walls to shake slightly, followed by some loud human sounds. Determining it would be preferable to not be spotted by humans, Wishbone chose to hide.


    "Dammit man! Careful with the knocking shit over. You don''t want to bring the whole damn thing down on top of us do ya?"


    "Oh don''t be such a pussy Grent. Me hittin on wall''s not gonna do nuttin."


    "Well RazorMind put me in charge, and I say no more knocking down walls!"


    "Ugh, this is why no one likes you. Such a stick in the mud. Why not live a little? What the point of being a minion if we''re just gonna be followin a bunch a rules anyway."


    "Cus, minions who don''t follow the rules get hit with lethal supers power, instead of just getting punched. And what''s the rules have to do with you bringing the building down on us? Just cus your retard strength of a power means you''ll probably live, doesn''t mean I won''t get crushed."


    "Sigh~ FINE! I won''t punch anymore walls."


    At this point the two voices entered the room were Wishbone was hiding. It was fairly confident in it''s disguise, so it simply observed the two intruders. One was familiar looking fellow. It was wearing a similar uniform to the human it''s master had first used Wishbone to attack. Just behind that human was a massive human, easily twice the mass of the familiar human. The familiar human was wearing a full face mask, while the massive human only had some form of thin black garment that covered the top of it''s head.


    "Oh hey Grent, look, too dead ones here!" The massive human pointed at wishbone and it''s bony companion.


    "Well that gruesome. Looks like they died together." The familiar human approached Wishbone, who was curled up next to the other skeleton with it''s hood down and covered in ash.


    "Do they have any cash on em?" The Massive human crouched down in front of the charcoal skeleton and gave it a poke, his massive finger causing half the skull to collapse in on itself.


    "What!? Dude were not stealing from the dead!"


    "Oh? Is that also part of the ''minion code'' or whatever? Not to loot a dead body?" The massive human reached down toward wishbone and started patting down it''s coat.


    "Hey Grent, this body is weird." The human continued it''s pat down.


    "How so?"


    "Well that one''s so fucked it fell apart when I touched it, and this ones right next to it''s not even charred?" The Massive human started trying to take wishbones jacket off.


    "That is weird. Maybe someone was tryin to get rid of a body, and just dumped it here?... Why are you taking its coat off?"


    "It''s a nice coat."


    "Come on man. Leave the coat. It''ll probably smell like death once were out of the smoke anyway."


    "Aww but it looks all edgy and shit. The boss would love it."


    "Dude there no way it''ll even fit your fat ass."The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "WTF! Man it''s cus of my power! And I''m not fat, just big-boned."


    "Haha sorry man, lets go see if any of the CF34 survived"


    After the two had left, Wishbone waited in place for a wile. It had almost attacked that human when it had tried to remove the disguise it''s master had bestowed upon it. However Wishbone had held back because of it''s most recent order.


    ''Wishbone, I order you, never to hurt anyone ever again.''


    It was a direct order from the master and Wishbone had almost broken it over one of the less important, assumed rules. It would have to be more careful in the future.


    Standing up off the ash covered floor, Wishbone retraced it''s steps out of the structure, and back onto the street outside. The sun was just starting to peak over the distant mountain, shedding new light on the desecrated remains of this corner of the city. For about a kilometer around all the building that had crowded around were now either complete flattened or, like the warehouse it had just exited, were brittle husks. Entirely un-perturbed Wishbone Sauntered off toward the distant line of still intact buildings.


    As it approached, Wishbone noticed a crowd of humans blocking one of the larger streets leading out of the burnt section of the city. The whole line of houses just outside the burn area, actually seemed to be blocked by a transparent, faintly shimmering wall. It actually seemed the crowd of humans were standing in front of a contested gate of some kind. On the other side of the wall, a smaller in number, but much better organized group of humans stood in a straight line facing the unorganized crowd inside the barrier. Approaching closer, several humans noticed wishbone, but only gave it a passing glance before returning to chanting at the humans beyond the barrier.


    Wishbone joined into the crowd, it was a good thing it''s master gave it such a good disguise. As soon as Wishbone was mentally complementing it''s master a human in white clothing with red a cross on their chest, approached it. After making very quick and complicated human sounds, they then started patting Wishbone all over. Unable to harm the human, Wishbone tried pushing the human lightly away, however the persistent device continued to cling to Wishbone as it navigated the crowd. At least the human wasn''t actually holding Wishbone back much, as it could simply pull the human along as it approached the barriers gate. The crowd started to part in front of wishbone as it made its way to the front, probably because of the white humans loud noise making. Once at the very front, Wishbone stopped in front of the odd transparent wall. up close it was more visible that the wall had a slight blue tinge to it, it was quite unlike anything it had ever seen before. Which wasn''t really hard, so it was likely something rather ordinary to a device older than a few days. So Wishbone reached out a hand to touch the wall. The white human yelled something wile backing away, but wishbone continued it''s action anyway.


    -ZZZZAP!


    As Wishbones gloved hand made contact with the barrier, an arch of electricity rocketed through Wishbones body dissipating into the ground, burning a small hole in the rubber sole of wishbones left shoe. Wishbone pulled back its arm and assessed the damage. Mostly surface level. Nothing that would take more then an hour to repair. The barrier also seemed immaterial, as wishbones hand had passed through it without hitting anything solid. Not a very effective wall it decided. Wishbone then noticed the surrounding silence. Looking around, the odd jelly filled eye sockets that humans had were all pointed towards it. This was likely because it had touched the barrier when it wasn''t supposed to. So, to better blend in, Wishbone decided it shouldn''t try to cross the barrier until everyone leaves.


    Wishbone, mingled into the crowd, or at least attempted to. However it seemed whenever it moved to a new area in the crowd, it found that the humans would give it a wide berth. This would be a problem. Perhaps it would be best to try crossing the barrier from another less crowded area. Wishbone left the crowd and head over to an unoccupied section of wall. The crown seemed to have a different idea however as they followed Wishbone to it''s new position, leaving it with the same problem as before. Even the humans on the other side of the wall followed as they noticed the crowd on this side migrating. Unsure of why it''s plot was foiled, Wishbone simply stepped into the barrier.


    -ZZZZAP!


    This time the shock was actually more manageable as it was distributed throughout all it''s bones. Sure, more damage in total was done. But no individual part was as badly damaged. The trip was quite short as the barrier was millimeters thin. Now on the other side Wishbone was staring down a veritable army of humans in heavily padded clothing, wearing helmets with transparent visors and all of them seemed to be equipped with a black club and a shield. Not wanting to fight such a group with it''s ''no hurt'' handicap, Wishbone starting walking toward the edge of the human line. ''Perhaps they would be as docile as the other crowd of humans?'' The armored humans seemed to expect this however, and their line bent into a ''U'' trapping wishbone against the barrier. The humans closest to the barrier, doing their best to block Wishbones path, while also keeping a distance from the Barrier. ''Perhaps the field does pose more of a threat specifically for humans?'' Wishbone mused as it strode toward the human closest to the barrier.


    The human braced it''s shield against the ground and brought back it''s club, ready to strike. Then as Wishbone was in a little more then an arms length away it brought the club down in a mighty swing, releasing a loud yell. Easily catching the club, Wishbone pulled forward the club and off balance human along with it. The human stumbled and fell forward, before being caught by Wishbone. That was close, there''s the possibility the human could get hurt from such a fall. Picking up the human wishbone then ran though the opening the human had left in the armored formation. Ducking under a horizontal club swing, it then broke out in a dead sprint as it sped down the road. It could hear shouting from behind it, and the human it still held was struggling with some success. It would likely escape its grasp falling to the ground and hurting itself if things continued as they were. So wishbone stopped and plopped the human down on the ground, careful not to drop it too hard, then broke back into a sprint.


    Wishbone darted for the nearby alley. All the while, frantic footsteps from the pursuing armored humans slowly got farther away. Reaching the mouth of the alley, Wishbone dived over a fallen trashcan, into a hand spring and back into a sprint. A few seconds later it heard the sound of the pursuers tripping over the can. The alley split halfway through, one end leading to the opposite street and the other seemed to dead end at a set of steel doors. Wishbone chose the open end and continued his escape, at least until a large human in the same padded armor blocked the exit. Stopping briefly, Wishbone deliberated between the possible dead end and the Massive human. However the decision was made pretty easily when the human pulled out a familiar long metal tube and pointed it at Wishbone. Nope. Wishbone one-eightied and practically leapt into the dead end alley. Sure the device was unlikely to do drastic damage, but the impact alone would give its pursuers plenty of opportunity to incapacitate Wishbone while it was unbalanced.


    Approaching the steel double doors at the end of the alley it proceeded to use the door handles as a spring board to grab a prominent window ledge, half a story up. Wishbone reasoned there was the possibility that the door itself was operable, however that would simply delay the physical encounter. However if Wishbone could reach where the humans couldn''t, and with those heavy looking armors, it was unlikely they could climb, it then had a chance at escape.


    Wishbone scrambled up the ledge and continued to climb up using the various outcroppings. It reached the top of the building and clambered over the lip onto the flat roof. Just as a wave of shrapnel struck the wall where it was just hanging. Wishbone ran back towards the entrance of the alley it had originally come from. Looking down, it could see the crowd it had left behind the barrier slowly moving through a hole in the barrier that seemed to have been made using a section of chain link fence bent to form an arch. Drawing off the armored humans seemed to have given the docile humans the opportunity to implement an escape plan. This would be perfect for Wishbone, it could blend in with the crowd and follow them to somewhere without armored hostile humans.


    Wishbone backed away from the ledge, then leapt over the edge swan diving into perfect roll. The force from the fall mostly dispersed, with only a small fracture on the right shoulder blade for it''s trouble. Wishbone followed a group of escaping humans as they unknowingly led it away from the current danger.