For Decades!!

Looking down at the destruction that the explosion caused, my eyes felt stained. Sirens from police, firefighters, and paramedics blared while citizens grouped away from the blazing building.

"Fuck, this is bad. That building was a popular dinner spot, it should've been packed at this time!!" Looking around, Desmond was mortified.

Burned bodies laid around the building and he could tell there were many more inside the fire. Cursed energy swirled around the building and from the corpses, curses rose.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Danielle said. Looking over at Desmond she saw his eyes flashing from one area to another, shocked at everything happening.

Wailing and screaming into the night, curses ran wild and rapidly spread out into the vacinity.

"Desmond we need to- DESMOND!?!"

He jumped from the building, releasing his cursed energy and in front of dozens of people, he started fighting the curses.

His eyes glowed over with power and rage as he went on a rampage destroying the curses. The people watched as he fought with all of his power fighting against forces that were invisible to many but not all.

The damages of them being knocked into buildings were evident so people knew something was there.

Punching a curse square in the face, it flew back and dematerialized into nothing.

"H-Hey isn't the building about to…"

"EVERYONE GET AWAY!!!"

As if his words were an a command, everyone fled. Hearing the screams of the people, the wailing and cackling of the cursed along with the sirens, Desmond's mind was everywhere.

*CRACK!!* *CRUMBLE!!*

Seeing that the foundation of the building was crumbling, Desmond looked around and saw Danielle evacuating nearby citizens.

As the building began to lean forward, Desmond braced himself. His energy hardened around his body like armor as the building feel forward completely collapsing over him.

As the building smacked into the ground, debris was flung everywhere and completely blocked off the street.

"DESMOND!!" Dani ran towards the collapsed building using her mental abilities to find him completely crushed under the building.

Seconds after she started moving debris, Desmond silently rose from the rubble and looked around. At his feet were numerous burned limbs and blood covered stone.

Around him there was nothing but destruction and the curses that followed. Dani stumbled towards him over the rubble and grabbed his arm, tugging it to grab his attention.

With his head hung low and his mouth closed to discussion, Dani didn't speak to him and instead silently hugged him amidst the destruction and chaos.

Images of curses taking hold of him as a white light left his body, flashed in her mind. Along with those images, she felt the waves of emotions that wrecked him.

Pity, sorrow, rage, hate, anguish and deep confusion…it was such an unbearable torrent of negativity that Dani shed a tear and tightened her huge around him.

Feeling a foreign sensation enter his body, Desmond came back to his senses and looked down at Dani's face in his chest.

He gave her a light hug back before telling her he needed to go get some things from his apartment to help clear out the rubble.

"I'll call some friends to help."

Nodding at her response, Desmond walked away looking at the moon before he exhaled and jumped around the buildings getting to his apartment easily.

He opened the door and walked in. It was quiet, comfortably warm, and filled him with a sense of peace. His eyes landed on the shrine placed on his livingroom table.

Taking a seat in front of it, Desmond clasped his hands together, but stayed silent. He couldn't get any words out or even form a single coherent thought.

Instead, he simply took paper for his talismans and began silently writing in the dark with the somber glow of the moon shining on him.

….

[Danielle Moonstar]

"Shit, how the hell did this happen!?" I pushed a slab of concrete off the road and looked back over at a firefighter. He quickly took his eyes off me and I sneered.

With how these people acted towards mutants, I was sure I wouldn't even be able to get some answers from them.

Suddenly, I saw a friend dropping from the sky and thanked her for coming.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, Skylar." Her powers weren't that strong, but she could help out a lot with moving all the debris. Her telekinesis was strong enough to make it into the team, but she didn't want to join anyway.

"No problem, I saw it live, but I didn't know what to do." Her tone was low, but I didn't want her thinking she was obligated to help people out just because of her powers.

"It's fine, there was nothing any of us could do." I said, consoling her.

"Then what do you need me to do, just push all of this to the side?"

"Yeah, I've been trying to see if I can find where the explosion originated, but with this much destruction I don't think I'll be able to find it."

"Well I'm sure Xavior could help or even Wolfsbane." Shylar said as she pushed both of her hands out to start the cleanup.

"HEY!! Now I've stood here and tolerated one of you, but-"

*THOOM!!"

Landing onto the ground behind the officer, Desmond walked towards him as he turned around.

"ANOTHER ONE!? ALRIGHT, PUT YOUR HANDS UP!!" The officer said, drawing his gun and pointing it at Desmond.

I sighed, nearly at my wits end with law enforcement, but I remembered my position.

"We're here to assist you so-"

"SHUT IT, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU COULD DO, SO SH-" Grabbing the officer's gun, Desmond crushed it in his hands and flung it away.

"Sorry, but you'll have to tolerate one more mutant." Pushing past the officer, he looked around in embarrassment at the rest of the deployed units and firemen.

"You okay Des?" He looked at me and gave me a small smile before lifting up the talismans in his hand.

"I don't know how good they'll do, but I brought these to help with fixing all of this." I took one from his hand and examined it.

"Are these tribal markings?" I was able to recognize a few of them from the Cheyeene Nation up north. Even though they seemed a little altered.

"Yeah, but we can talk about that later. Who's she?" I turned my head and saw Shylar struggling to get all the debris off the road.

Quickly, I constructed a wall and helped her move everything.

"This is Skylar and Skylar this is Desmond."

Skylar turned her head and smiled at him as she was trembling from moving the weight of the debris.

Nodding towards her, Desmond pulled out another set of talismans and placed them over multiple sections of debris. Slowly, chunks of debri started to float off the ground and he applied another talisman on them.

I watched in awe as the rocks and rubble started to rebuild themselves. It was like time was being reversed as sections of the restaurant became clear.

"If he could do this, then why'd you call me here…?" Looking over at Skylar, I was just as surprised as she was.

"I didn't know he could do all that, haha…"

"Hey, we'll have to leave it like this for now and let the city handle the rest. I dont have enough talismans on me to connect everything, but the levitation charms should last at least a full day or two since I increased the energy in it." He said, turning around to me.

"Are you sure you don't want to join The New Mutants?" He laughed at my question, which was slightly annoying honestly.

"I'm positive. My presence is needed in other places and I don't want to be tied down to a team honestly."

Sighing, I figured it was worth a shot anyway.

"You guys better get outta here. The cheifs' on his way." A random officer said as he took his cap off.

"I also wanted to thank you for today." While I was a little taken aback by the sudden expression of gratitude, Desmon stepped towards him and extended his hand.

The officer didn't hesitate to shake it, but the look in his eyes was like he had just seen a savior or something.

"We didn't do much, just make sure the rest is handled properly, uhhh, McKenny." With a smile Desmond released the mans hand and turned to leave.

"Wait, can I get a name?" The officer asked.

"Ummmmmm, hmmmmmmm…there's not really one I can think of right now." Desmond replied.

"I see."

Waving at the officer as he turned around, Desmond glanced at me and smiled before walking away, down the empty road.

Forget how good his smile was, how was he able to do something Xavior and the institution have been trying to do for decades so easily.

Even a handshake, for over decades, we couldn't even get a handshake, yet…!!

"Dani!! Are you okay? It's not like the guys' gone forever."

My vision focused and I saw Desmond clearly. Looking over at Skylar, I smiled and nodded.

"I was just thinking about how different our ability are, even though Xavior told me they were similar."

"Really? Well he is getting up there in age."

"I doubt it. Maybe there's just more I don't quite understand yet…" I felt a bit of annoyance though.

He's Strong.

"He's definitely strong, but what idiot goes out without a hero name."

I lightly laughed, "What would his hero name be anyway?"

"Maybe something like…yeah I don't have a clue. Even I didn't come up with the name Mirage."

"Well you did help me think up the name, Lapse."

"Spur of the moment. You have that natural blue streak of hair so it just fit." I replied matter-of-factly.

"Well we'd better get out of here now."

Agreeing, I said my goodbyes and hugged her before we split up.