33 Through Hell and Back

Waze trudged through the school looking like she had gone through hell and back. She had dark bags under her swollen eyes, was covered in bruises and cuts, and was slouched and exhausted. She had garnered a lot of stares from her classmates. It was fair though, she definitely looked worse for wear. Waze slouched onto the ground where Byrd, Collin, and James were already sitting and let out a loud groan.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" Collin looked down at Waze in disbelief, Byrd and James giving her similar expressions.

"I was assaulted."

"No shit, sherlock. We can tell. By who?" Collin frowned at Waze, who dragged herself around to the front of her friend group forming a small circle. She decided to give up on sitting, and promptly laid down on the ground. Waze gritted her teeth as she spoke.

"Ebony."

"Ebony?!" The three shouted at the same time.

"Ebony as in that human trafficking group on the news?" James's face was laced with concern.

"Most likely."

"How are you still alive?" Collin's face was a mix of anger, disbelief, and concern.

"I had a friend with me. There were still a lot of them, though."

"Last night, with Cassidy? Is she ok? Are you ok?" Byrd looked at Waze with worry.

"Cassidy's doing better than I am, but she's still beat up. We tried not to use our abilities too much since high-steps are in high demand, but we've still got a huge target on our backs now. My hand is fucked up and my foot got shattered."

"Your foot doesn't look shattered..." Collin trailed off as he looked at Waze's feet.

"I went to a healer. She could only heal my foot though, I'm still really banged up and I've got a massive gash on my hand. My right one. My dominant hand." Waze groaned as she stretched out on the ground.

"How'd you get a cut on your hand?" James asked.

"Some sorta barbed whip that I grabbed." Waze nodded in Collin's direction before speaking her next words. "There was a guy with an ability like Collin's. I broke my foot on his side and ended up sprinting home despite that. I'm telling you, last night was one of the worst nights of my life."

"It shows..." Collin looked down at Waze who had closed her eyes and now looked quite lifeless on the ground.

"Can we help in any way, Waze?" Byrd looked at Waze in distress.

"If someone fucks with me cause I'm injured, can I count on you guys to back me up? It's a lot to ask but I really don't think I'm in any shape to do much fighting today."

"Of course! We'll help you." James nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah! I might not be able to do much, but I'll help if I can." Byrd gave Waze a soft smile.

"If anyone tries to hurt you, I'll kick their ass." Collin cracked his knuckles with a grin. Waze smiled. She was lucky to have people like this around her that could help her.

"Thanks guys." And with that, Waze went to sleep.

------

"Jesus CHRIST, what happened to you two?!" Duke looked at Waze and Cassidy in disbelief. They were the last two in and had come in at the same time, making quite an entrance.

"We were assaulted." Waze repeated what she had said earlier, expecting a similar reaction. Waze and Cassidy trudged inside and threw their bags down on the ground.

"Yeah but by who? What the hell?" Marco looked incredulous.

"Ebony, probably." Cassidy answered for Waze.

"You let Ebony beat you up like that?" Michelle scanned the two of them.

"If we'd gone full out, we would've put an even bigger target on our back than we already have. High steps are selling for a lot, apparently, remember? We did the bare minimum, but boy, did we still get wrecked." Waze groaned and stretched a bit. Taking off her hoodie, even more bruises came to light. Cassidy barely looked any better.

"Damn those freaks. I'm gonna fucking kill them..." Duke muttered under his breath. Even Sable looked angry.

"And so, Marco we need a favor." Waze looked at the black haired boy who looked determined to help.

"Can you drive us home from now on?" Cassidy finished.

"I mean... yeah? Is that all you guys need?"

"For now, yeah. We're just gonna try to stay out of situations where we could get attacked again. My mom's gonna start driving me to school too. We've gotta work hard in training too, and learn more about handling multiple enemies." Cassidy nodded in agreement with Waze's words.

"Boy am I beat though. I feel like the embodiment of death. Every inch of my body aches." Waze sighed heavily as she started stretches with the others.

"I'm right there with Waze. Though she got beat up a lot more than me." Cassidy glanced in Waze's direction with concern evident on her face.

"Oh, I did get to meet the healer though. And let me tell you: boy oh boy does healing hurt."

"Why'd you need a healer?" Sable glanced at Waze.

"My foot got positively shattered. Broke it on some guys side, I think he had some sort of skin hardening ability or something. Either way, it hurt and healing hurt even more." Cassidy nodded before adding on to Waze's words.

"Not to mention, after Waze broke her foot we sprinted all the way home. I have to give you props, Waze. You can certainly push through some pain."

"Trust me, it wasn't easy. Hurt like goddamn hell." Waze let out something between a groan and a scream. "Man, I'm so stressed! This sucks! My body hurts! I hate this!"

The other team mates did their best to comfort Cassidy and Waze, who were griping heavily at this point.

Training wasn't as bad as it could've been. Norris let Cassidy and Waze tone down their workouts and do some easier versions of the exercises. She also let them sit out of sparring and instead focus on ability training. By the end, though, they were still pretty wrecked.

"What should we even do, Waze? We need to learn more about Ebony but how even?" Cassidy looked up at Waze. Suddenly, Waze had an idea. There was one person who was the best researcher Waze knew, and would be their best bet at getting information. Plus, she hadn't been spending enough time with him lately.

"I know someone we can ask." Waze glanced at Cassidy with a smile. "You haven't met my friend Alec yet, right?"