Grant's Army of Broken (Open!)
 

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More training. Greeaat. Trent told himself as he watched Grant's body start trembling and mutating. He had to be more careful than last time. Grant didn't go easy on his experienced students and last session had ended with a crater in the concrete wall the size of Trent's body.

Trent looked nervously over at Richard, some envy in his eyes. Richard was the best student Grant had and he was twice as small at Trent, younger too. It rubbed Trent the wrong way when he thought of how a boy younger and smaller than he, could best a man twice Trent's size.

With a ground trembling roar from Grant, Trent was snapped from his thoughts and back to the situation at hand, the three males tensing, waiting for the first move. Two Broken fighting against a mock Infected.

Grant moved first, swiping at Trent with his large violet and azure hand while his other arm swiped at Richard. Trent dove to the side and rolled to his feet but the more nimble Richard lazily acrobat'd his way to safety, ending up several yards from his previous position. In midair the boy had tossed two seeds that were sprouting too quickly into some sort of plants at Grant who batted them away like gnats though one took root in his fist and hampered that arm's movements.

The other fist though, came around at Trent again, catching him off guard and slinging him against the wall, leaving another crater in the concrete but this time Trent didn't loose himself to his chaos though he felt the rage boiling just beneath his control.

"Good!" Grant called at Trent as he continued to pursue Richard, his swings always seeming a second to slow to catch Richard. It was no wonder the boy was so good when Richard was Grant's first student, Trent being his second.

The training lasted for several hours until the sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon and Grant's energy ran too low. He had to release his twisted body to his human one. Grant, as always was exhausted but still managed to grin toothily at the other males before him, "Good fighting today. Trent, you're doing well on controlling that temper of yours. We'll keep working on getting you to where you can use that chaos without killing and of your friends in the process."

After a few more critiques and praises Grant slapped a hand on the two boys' shoulders and nodded towards the exit of the old sports stadium, "Let's get going. No telling what kind of Broken animals'll be out after dark tonight." he said and they started their long trek back to Home, their living place above the grocery store near the center of the city.

Molly walked around the home she shared with Grant and the other students he was training. She sang a song to herself as she tried to straighten things up. Despite being blind, she had a great memory and knew where almost everything was. While she was at their home, she kept her cloak off, just the bandages across her eyes were enough to keep the colors out. She didn't need to medicate herself as much If she stayed inside and away fromlots of people.

She felt her way through he kitchen and began to make dinner. She had made sure she wouldn't be completely useless to Grant and the others so she wanted to have dinner ready by the time they got home. It wasn't much or anything fancy, but it was enough to feed them.

When the door creaked open, Molly instinctively grabbed the baseball bat she carried at her side. With her other hand she pulled down her bandages and looked over to where she knew the door was. She saw a dark green figure, Richard, a red figure, Trent, and grant's blue form. She put her bandages back on and set her bat down.

"so how'd training go?" she asked with a smile.

Rik had been up all night again. He was getting pretty worn out doing all night watches and then traveling in the morning. He had to keep going however, he had to keep searching. He had to find out why he was here in the world, why he survived and had these powers. All he could remember was waking up in the bunker, a place called the Vault. It had looked like some sort of fall out shelter. That was about three months ago or so. Since then he's been moving from settlement to settlement, working for whatever supplies he could. He saved most of the suppiles he earned, only using what he needed to trade for what he needed to surivive the travelling. He had been lucky enough to not run into any of the rumored infected humans. He had heard about them in his travels, and the horror they caused. Which is why he offered to do night guard for some of the smaller settlements.

Rik had a sword strapped to his back and a small handgun strapped to his leg for protection. There was a lot of bandits and rouges out in the world trying to steal what they can and kill whoever may fall in their clutches, he had seen it too much before. He didn't want to be one of those poor beings. At first he had tried to help, using these powers he had. It didn't turn out well at all, not for the bandits nor the victims. He had fried too many innocents before he decided not to use them unless he was being attacked himself.

Rik paused on the long open road he was one. He had an old tattered map, something he had grabbed on one of his scavenager hunts. He didn't know where he was, it wasn't on the map but then again he didn't know how old this map was. He sighed and sat on what looked like the shell of a car. It was hot and dry, the sun shining high in the sky, beating down on him. "Fuck.. what am I going to do now?" He muttered to the desolet landscape.

Richard just shrugged as he was instantly drawn towards the smell of food, still easily distracted in his young age, but Trent, rubbing at his severely bruised ribs, shrugged, "Still too slow. I didn't black out this time though." He said, smiling with the knowledge that his voice would carry the unseen expression.

He looked back at the older man who had been fighting to get the old, warped door shut though as he felt a large hand ruffle his hair, "Yeah," Grant said, "He's still an easy target." He laughed, prompting Trent to chuckle as well as they both followed the smell of energy and sustenance.

After all of a second Trent stopped, realizing that he was being rude,"What's for dinner, Mol?" Sure, the world was going to hell and manners didn't need to be used but, coming from an understanding family that loved him dearly, partially due to the fact that he didn't realize his powers until they were all dead, Grant had been taught manners and had taught his students to use them as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lilly, always passing from roof to roof, keeping to the highest ground she could when there was no roof, knew that one wrong step could be fatal to her but high ground was her best method to avoiding the infected, or at least the strong ones. She was graceful as a cat and even more silent than they but not all the grace in the world could've saved her from falling through the rotten wood roof of an old unused warehouse into a nest of moving shadows.

She tightened her throat and sucked in a breath for a scream but the beginning of that sound cut off sharply as one of the shadows, a rather large cat, large being nearly the size of a human toddler, trotted over to rub against her and purr. She smiled, the smile the strained smirk of someone who didn't often have a reason to wear such an expression but the smile only turned back into a frown and a heavy sigh when the animal hissed and ran off when it realized just how cold she was.

Molly smiled. "At least you are getting better Trent." she turned back to the food she was preparing. She felt the steam rising and was able to find the pots. "I made spaghetti, i figured you guys could use some good energy food." she transferred the pasta to the center of their worn table where Richard had already found a seat. She then grabbed a stack of plates and set them next to the pot. "Dig in boys." she sat down and propped her head up on her elbows with a smile as her makeshift little family ate.

As the others ate their meal, Molly pulled off her bandages, while the smears of color she saw tended to give her headaches, it was nice to see her family every now and then. Her golden colored eyes sparkled as she soaked in the atmosphere but before too long her temples began to throb and she replaced the bandages. She looked in Grant's direction. "So whats next on our schedule?" a piece of Auburn hair fell into her face as she tilted her head with the question.

Trent nodded, "Getting better isn't helping my ribs any. I need to be great sooner than later." hurrying the short distance to the table when he heard what Molly had made, "Oh, great choice!" He exclaimed as Grant pulled the chair out for Molly then sat down himself. As he'd explained when she first joined their small group, he only did it because he was taught to do so for women, not because of her eyes. All three tucked into their dinner, no complaints about the spaghetti came from them but all compliments. Richard stopped shoveling the food into his mouth as he usually did when Molly took her bandages off, staring at her while Grant and Trent always tried to keep their fascination with the color of her eyes less noticeable rather than the boy's doe eyed stare.

He began heartily eating again when the bandages were on again and Grant shrugged, "Well we need to go out for provisions tomorrow. I looked through the supplies we have and we're low on water and Richard needs to gather seeds for growing our food."

Molly normally would have protested when Grant pulled her chair out for her, but he had explained himself to her before. Just because Molly was blind, didn't mean she was helpless and she made sure that they all knew that. She knew exactly where everything in their home was and as long as no one moved anything, She would be able to navigate their home with out bumping into anything.

When the boys had eaten their fill, Molly took the dirty dishes and set them back on the counter to be cleaned later. She frowned when Grant said they needed to go get more supplies.

In the past Grant had been hesitant to let Molly come help them, he knew how much her head would hurt afterwords. "Is there anything i can do to help tomorrow?" she played with a piece of her hair, a nervous habit. "You know I don't like you guys going out there with out me, you cant see the infected like I can."

Rik growled lowly in his throat as he followed a river into a town. It was pretty desolate as well, but then again everywhere he had been looked the same. He hadn't used his powers in a long time, he wondered if they had changed again. Lately they seem to change after every use of them. He knew that was crazy talk, they couldn't change that quick. His powers only changed once he mastered a certain control over them. He wasn't going to try this time, it would attract too much attention to himself. He rather keep to himself and get through this town. There wasn't anything here for him, just like the last five citites he had been in. Rik kept to the edges of the town, keeping his smokey grey eyes open and alert to anything that might be a danger to himself. Rik had no one but himself, he had to be the one who cared for himself. He was glad he had no one else to look after, it made things easier. He had seen many mothers with their children, making the choice between what child to feed or to leave behind. It was a sick world they were living in now, but one had to do what one needed to survive it. At least that's how he thought of it, a sort of justification for the horrors one had to do.

The three males exchanged glances before Grant stood from his seat, "Yeah, I need you to stay here. I'm picking up a couple jobs when we're out tomorrow. It'd do no good for you to have such a headache if one of those is to get rid of another infected." He patted her head as he went past her and started on the dishes while Richard grabbed the cleaning water and started washing the old worn wooden table, there being separate containers for cleaning and washing than for drinking.

"There's also been rumors of a few hooligans running around and breaking into peoples' homes while they're out. I'd rather have someone here if they decide to make our home one of their targets."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a glance around she decided that it was best to move on. A building with a rotting roof and a missing wall was no place to stay the night. She needed somewhere that provided more protection to her but she'd prefer it to be atop a building though places like that were rare and the only two she knew of were on the other side of the city so once atop the next building she pressed onward.

It was a while before she came to a suitable shelter, a small brick building with a stone fireplace and ash on the rock. Wood was scarce but she was lucky in what her talent was. She'd never freeze to death even during the winter and she never ran out of water. The young woman pulled a rag out of a small pack strapped to her back and wiped it along her skin, the frost there soaking the rag as it melted. When it was well soaked she wrung out the water into her mouth and pulled out an apple she'd acquired and began munching on it. Lilly was nowhere near being tired yet and needed to keep her energy up on the off chance she was discovered by a raider or, worse, an infected, human or otherwise.

Molly frowned when she was told to stY put. She didn't mind being in charge of the house, she loved the guys and would do anything for them. She just wished she could prove she could do things. It frustrated her when they thought she couldn't help. "fine, if you want me here, I'll stay here." she got to her feet and went to their small living room area. After counting the few books on the tinY shelf along the wall, Molly pulled a book off and walked over to where Trent was sitting.

After she removed her bandages, Molly looked up at him with big golden eyes. "I know you had a full day of training, but would to mind reading to me for a little bit?" Molly loved listening to Trent read. When ever she was frustrated the stories he read to her always took her mind off things. "please?"

Grant nodded, "I'd appreciate it. You're really the only one who'd know why they were here before they could even get it, Mol." He picked at a chip on a plate befroe deciding for about the hundredth time it was just a chip and set it aside for Richard to dry now that he was done with the table.

The heavy beat of fingers against the wood stopped abruptly when Molly asked her question and Trent turned towards her with a smile, "Sure thing." He responded happily, standing from the table with a groan, one arm back around his ribs as the other hand took the book to see which she'd picked. "Ah, good choice." he commented, heading for the living room to sit on the cushions there.

Rik frowned at the deserted town. Not one soul was in sight in this place. At least none he could see, not at this time in the night. He sighed to himself, wondering what he was doing here. "Well, no jobs tonight, I guess I can rest if I can find a place." He said to himself. He looked around for a suitable place for the night, he needed a place with a roof. Somewhere high above the ground. He wandered around for a little longer before he found such a place. After a few laps around the building, he deemed it safe enough for the night. Rik decided to set up camp for the night on the roof top.

Rik laid under the stars, chewing on a bit of dried meat. It was kind of lovely as he laid there, almost making him forget what was outside of his little safe house. He wanted to relax a little, but it was hard. He closed his eyes, trying to sleep. He fell into light sleep, no dreams coming to him that night.

Molly's smile faded somewhat when she head the groans coming from Trent, but he walked to the living room Area and sat down on a cushion as he propped himself up against the wall. She followed him and laid down on the floor nextto him, her head propped up on a hand. Her smile returned as he began reading, Molly loved to watch his color fluctuate as he changed expressions for the different characters and as long as she only focused on him, the headaches would hold off.

After a few pages, Molly put a hand on his arm and looked at him with eyes that seems to sparkle. "I know you guys train and can handle most jobs you get, but promise me you will be okay." it was the same thing she always made him promise, but after being abandoned as a child, Molly was terrified of loosing the new family she had become a part of. A price of hair fell into her face as she sat up and leaned on the wall next to Trent. "I know I ask it alot, but I just worry when I don't know what you guys are doing of there." she gave up a worried smile.

"Promise. We plan on coming back and getting you if we're given any dangerous jobs." He knew that if they got any kind of job that seemed too dangerous they wouldn't come get her but there hadn't been any infected that bad in almost a year. He looked over as Richard passed through the room to get to the hall beyond that led to the bedrooms. It had been a long day and even the boy was sore and he hadn't been hit once.

After the boy left and the earthy smell faded Trent added, "Besides, there's no real reason to worry, Grant is stronger than most infected out there and has been fighting them since before he found us." With that Grant finally wandered in, "Time to sleep. I'm getting you up early in the morning."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as she was dozing off the young freezer, a slang term created to refer to the colder skinned broken and infected, heard footsteps. She quietly listened to them as the grew then faded but just as she thought the owner of those feet was gone the sound returned, and once more before she heard the sorce of the sound move to the roof. All the noise had her wondering enough to peer out only to find nothing within view. Of course if the person, or thing, was far enough back on the roof she'd see nothing but she debated whether to risk climbing on the roof or not. If prepared she could easily be shoved back off while trying to climb up. Ultimately Lilly decided she'd wait a little while before investigating the sound.

Molly's head follow Richard as he walked past before she turned back to Trent. She nodded as he spoke but it still didn't make her feel better. When Grant walked in and told Trent to get to bed, Molly got to her feet and watched him disappear down the hall.
Then she turned back to Grant. "so how are they really doing with their training?" her forehead creased as a headache began. She pulled her bandages out and wrapped her eyes. "trent just seems so frustrated, Richard seems to surpass him and for a guy like Trent, having a kid beat you doesn't seem right." she looked back inthe directionof the boys rooms and sighed.

Grant glanced down at her, "They're both doing just fine. Rich has reached his peak as far as how good he'll get. Training is more like daily excercise for him now. He's always been good. He had his powers mastered by the time I found him because he was so young when he broke. All I needed to teach him was a few techniques, he was already limber and acrobatic before. Trent on the other hand, should be frustrated. He is doing twice the work Richard ever did. Trent is trying to master fighting while learning his powers. He doesn't get countless hours to play around with them. He has to dodge, attack, and try to find the outlet, other than blacking out and killing us all, to channel them all at the same time. He's also stalkier than Rich but he hasn't figured out to use the bulk he has instead of trying to dodge like Rich." The huge man leaned against the wall and slid to sit on the floor, "I think he's surpassing expectations though to already have enough control that they don't get loose from him anymore."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't long until Lilly made the decision to investigate the noise from earlier, just long enough for her to wipe off enough of the frost that accumulated on her skin and wring it into a small bucket she'd found, doubtlessly for ashes, so that she might freeze the water to her skin for a small amount of extra protection, ice gauntlets of a sort is what they looked like.

Only then did she slip out the door with a fire poker and quietly climb on the roof, peering over the edge at first. Seeing a man sized shape she climbed a little further up to get a better look. When it didn't move she was all the way on roof with the firepower straight out in front of her. She had no idea what to say, anything she could think of was too aggressive so from several feet away she hit the roof with the metal rod in her grip,'making a sufficient amount of noise to wake the sleeping figure she thought.

Molly slid to a seat next to the big man that had taken her in off the streets. She appered so small next to him and even to the other two guys in the house. She agreed with Grant.
"you are right, Trent has improved alot, I just don't think he sees it that way." she rested her head on his shoulder. A few moment passed before she spoke again. "have told you lately how much I am thankful for you taking me in?" she smiled up at him, but it faded quickly. "I just wish I could be more help like the guys are." she rubbed her temples as the pain intensified within her skull.

Grant shrugged, "He's too busy comparing apples to watermelons." he responded, intentially throwing off the old saying. Richard was smaller and lighter than Trent. When she spoke again Grant couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh you're helping plenty. Neither of them can cook and I'm not very good at it. It was always sandwiches and raw vegetables before you came. You could start teaching them to cook though. They'll listen to you about that kind of thing. They clean more now too. They keep everything put away so you don't trip over anything." Noticing her beginning to rub at her temples he slapped his knee, "Alright, it's tea and then bed with you." he'd recently picked up an herb that if steeped in water and drank would help headaches.

Molly smiled and followed Grant to the kitchen where he fixed her a cup of tea. It had an odd taste, but it was good, so Molly drank the whole thing. As the warmth of the liquid spread down her throat she felt it's soothing effects and yawned as the pain lessened slightly. "thanks. And make sure i'm awake when you guys leave in the morning." she smiled at him and left the cup on the table as she headed back to her room. Just before she left the kitchen, she grabbed her baseball bat from the corner, she really doubted that anyone or anything would be stupid enough to break into Grants home, but you could never be too careful.

Halfway down the hall Molly stopped. She listened to the gentle snores coming from Trent and Rich's rooms and smiled. She loved her guys and would do anything for them, even if it was just cooking and cleaning.

When Molly entered her room, she laid the bat down next to the small sleeping cushion. Her room was mostly empty, a small box of clothes was on the other side of the room and an old Teddy bear sat on her bed, but that was it. Molly crawled under the old patched blanket and clutched the stuffed animal tight. She tried to get some sleep, but for some reason tonight, sleep just wouldn't come.

Rik tossed a little in his light sleep. He thought he heard a sound, he woke and laid still for a moment. He could hear footsteps walking close to him. He looked up without moving his head and saw a female coming towards him with what looked to be a fire poker in her hands. He thought as quickly as he could, wonderng what would be the best form of action. She didn't seem like the infected, who hunted without thought. Or so he knew of them from the stories he had heard. He had decided to jump up before she got any closer to him. He sprung up from his make shift bed, his hands out infront of him. "Who are you?!" He demanded as he backed up towards his bag, his right hand reaching for his weapon on his back. He slept with all his weapons on him, just for situation like this one.

Lilly jumped back a step when the figure suddenly bolted upright, demanding a question of her. It took her a moment to answer because, damn it all, it'd been too long since she'd actually spoken to someone and she'd nearly forgotten how to speak! "I-I think I should be asking you the same thing." Her voice was scratchy and her words hesitant but with a little use and some more water it'd even out to be smooth and delicate. "You're so noisy!" She hissed, glancing about without turning her head. It was dark enough that she figured he couldn't see her eyes move but the moon provided just enough light that he'd be able to see which way her head was facing. She hoped they could come to some sort of truce or agreement soon as she began to feel the metal rod start sticking to her subzero fingers.

Molly sat up and rubbed her face. She just couldn't get to sleep. The sound of the floor creaking in another room stole her attention. It was too heavy to be anyone but Grant. The girl rolled out of bed and debated putting her bandages on. she decided not to and drug her feet as she walked out to the living room. She stood in the doorway wearing her sleeping shorts and a tank top as she rubbed her face again.
"I couldn't sleep." she mumbled, knowing Grant was listening. Molly went and plopped down on the floor next to him, her hair slightly messy from tossing and turning in her bed. At least her head didn't hurt at the moment, the tea Grant had given her did it's job.
"Do you know what kind of jobs you guys are doing tomorrow? Or haven't you figured that out yet?"

Rik was still in his defensive stance as she spoke, he knew now that she wasn't a threat to him. She was amerely like him, well not like him, but she was just a traveller like he was. He didn't let his guard down. "Hey, I asked first. And how did you get in here?" He asked, lowering his voice. She was right, he was being rather loud. His voice was scratchy and a bit rough, from months of traveling the dry wasteland they lived in. He could feel his electerical current build up from his excitment of being surprised awake. It's how his power worked, he couldn't just call out lighting from his hands at any even moment, there had to be enough of an electerical current to get a charge out. He didn't know what would happen if he let the current build inside him and not let it release through lightening.

Grant, having been staring at the ceiling, glanced over when he heard speech and smiled, "Any reason why?" He asked, watching her as she came to lay on the floor with him. He let the question drop when she asked her own, "We're taking any kind of a job with reasonable pay for the task. We won't be going to fight any infected for just a blanket."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lilly glared, her fire poker still held out defensively in front of her as the ice on her arms traveled closer towards her hands, "I don't have a name. People like to call me Lilly and someone called me Lillian once. Happy?" She paused a moment, not wanting to answer, "I was here before you, that's how." She answered, "Now you." She sounded strained as she requested him to return the information. The slow steady dripping of melting ice was coming from her hands as she started to lose the energy to keep so much water frozen. Finally with an exasperated noise she shook the ice of and let it shatter as it hit the surface of the roof.

Molly curled up next to him and returned to his question. "I don't know why i can't sleep." She sighed and put her arm under her head to use it as a pillow. "Maybe i just need some fresh air. it's been a while since i've left the house." she looked in his direction. "Do you think maybe one day here soon, we could just go for a little walk somewhere? Just so i can stretch my legs and get some fresh air." she shivered, her pajamas not offering much warmth.