Pleasure and Pain Part 1

Silence has almost always been the only home I've ever known. It's comforted me, protected me, valued me more than anything else has. Most free days, I would just lay in my room holding on to that silence until it got eventually ripped away again. But I had finally seen enough people know that silence didn't always mean good, especially when a group as loud as us remains so.

In this world of superhumans and superpowers, genetic lottery had already deemed us the worst of the worst. So we had to be the worst to survive this society under the moniker as The Cons. But, unfortunately, that distant aspiration may just "frag"ment and blow up right in front of us. Because aside from silence, all I know is self-destruction.

Per Rule #5, all 6 of us gathered at the diner table as each of us remained stiller than mice as Eternus pondered at the head seat. A slight twitch of the brow, a dart of the eye, and a twinge of a microexpression were all the evidence I needed to confirm his growing fear. Despite his frequent bluffs, our leader wasn't imposing in a physical sense.

His dark-tinted mulatto skin covered a lean figure of average height with messy black hair that fell to neck length. Eternus attire also didn't help as it mainly consisted of a grey ripped-up tank top with lazily put-together black shorts. His grey eyes, though, were what drew my accurate eye. Especially in times of stress, I would always see this tiny flicker in them, as if a flame braving against a blizzard.

"Be honest, Gum, how much do you think this Damage knows about us?"

"Too much Eternus," Gum said thoughtfully as she subtly tugged at her new bandages courtesy of Eternus, "Besides a couple of features, the hologram is a dead ringer for you. That combined with what Buzz spilled and our involvement, and I say they've got a good mark on all of us."

At the thought, Eternus slowly closed his fist with palpable anger as his subtle twitch made me quickly cover my ears. The next thing I know, Eternus picked up his wooden chair and started to slam its ground violently, all while ranting out.

"Of course, of fucking course, this had to happen to us all people! We can't have a fucking break now, can we! We just had to try and take what should be rightfully ours! And now we've revealed our entire flipping hand all while knowing jack shit about the guy that sounds like some edgy tween romance! FUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!

This wasn't the first time Eternus had disrupted the peace of silence, but that didn't make me any less unprepared. Every slam made my skin crawl. The violent heaving, the broken splinters, and the persistent echo attacked my ears like a jackhammer. But just as suddenly as it began, Eternus stopped again with a violent command.

"YOU KNOW WHAT SCREW THIS! FOR NOW, LET'S TRUST THE BUG! I'M CALLING A FULL CONS LOCKDOWN EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!!!!!"

History once again repeated as any potential voice I had got enveloped by another voice. And it repeated once more as we became quarantined from the city of Kirmo. But, unfortunately for us, Eternus made the incorrect call.

From my calculations, even with rations, we would lose food in 3 days and 5 hours, even when including our secret snack stash that everyone but Fury and I kept. And even under more dire circumstances, the earliest Buzz has ever contacted us has been twice that time. But that didn't matter much to me because for the first time in a while.

Peace took over The Burrow. Eternus and Gum worked on various plans while practicing the old raggedy punching bag. Fury meditated with her positive mantras, Port tinkered away at her garbage gadgets, and Ricochet drank himself to slumber.

While the rest quickly became stir crazy from said activities, I had made the most of my time. In my self-made crater, or more accurately my room, I listened to some lo-fi music, practiced my aim, and most of all: waited.

Even in light sleep, I counted the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds, hoping, bracing for my power to approach. And like clockwork, that curse came after some time. Then, at once, my body trembled under a rumbling power from within.

Like a rushing flood, my concussive power washed over the dam that was my body, eventually releasing out in an intense white shock wave that shook my body. Again, a violent, almost grenade-like sound crushed the ground below in an omnidirectional wave, dispersing upon impact. Once again, the hole grew a half-inch deeper, maintaining its strict ten-foot diameter. And once again, a suppressed frustration contorted my face into a state of anger as well.

Because after 14 years of study, five thousand days of research, and sixty-eight theories with half of them mine, my ability is still an uncontrolled unstable conundrum. The only consistency I can find is the simple fact I "go off" once a day. This energy naturally builds up in my body, and most of all, trying to control it leads to harrowing results.

From my various observations on the other Cons, one fact has remained clear: we were all molded by powers, but even after my liberation from society, they have still manipulated my every conscious action. And even with all my research, it seemed my power would still overtake me in the end.

I decide to get a drink from the sink to escape such depressing dilemmas. However, when I walked out of my room, I didn't expect to see "him."

Ricochet POV

Honestly, there are some days where I think that I'm the only man in the world who respects the good old R and R. Almost everyone has this weird thought in their minds about rising and getting famous like they don't know it's more trouble than it's worth. Most heroes and villains, for example, have to risk it all to maintain a public persona, lest they have their adoring public chew them up like an old teething ring.

But we lucky few have had this society of superhumans and superpowers view us as the worst of the worst. And frankly, why can't we just comfortably be the worst instead of ricocheting off the walls? Isn't that the reason why we are The Cons?

On this particular night, I decided to prove that name. However, I didn't expect to find a little stowaway. And I mean little, frankly, the kid wasn't my type (and my type was literally everybody). He was a relatively light-skinned Hispanic kid with an incredibly skinny frame that made Enternus look like Adonis.

His clothes weren't much better, wearing baggy gray pajamas that were two sizes too big for him. The only saving grace was his hair that had grown a cute little scruff look now that he had time to grow it back somewhat.

However, his dark brown eyes of his remained strong. Flirtiness aside, those eyes of Frag always creeped me out. Combine that with his silence, and I swear this man was watching my every move. And if it was going to take my little field trip, I needed to throw him off at all cost.

"Hey, short stuff, why are you up and about?"I said artificially while hiding "it" behind my hand in the most subtle motion I could.

In response, all he did was reach out his hand and raised it while arching his back in a swallowing motion.

"Oh, a drink? I can get that for you, maybe go to bed and-"

Before finishing my thought, Frag "asked" the question that I dreaded. All he did was shape his hands into a question mark and patted his clothes, signifying my surprisingly formal wear at this witching hour. I tried to develop something, but planning had never been my strong suit. I'm more of the "path of least resistance" type. So I decided to take my career's most significant risk and come clean.

"Look, I was getting a little cabin fever and thought I might get some fresh air. Hit up a joint. You know the works."

At that point, he shook his head in a "no" like fashion and pointed towards Eternus' room while putting his foot down.

"Eternus will never know if you don't tell him, Frag. We could have a fun time if you let this slide."

He still adamantly shook his head no through signaling away as if he was placing yet another expectation on me, and that fact messed with my vibe and brought up bad memories.

"Look, man, you don't need to bother yourself over me. Any mistake I make will be mine alone, and frankly, I would like to enjoy myself one more time before we all bite the dust," I said resolutely while staring Frag in the face.

For a tense few seconds, all the mute did was ponder the thought carefully while closing his eyes. Until he decided to give his answer, pointing to both us and the perilous outside while holding his fingers in a peace sign, then an opened hand, signifying rule #2 and #6, respectively.

"Fine, I can work with that. Trust me, Frag, you won't forget it."

And with that, the 2 of us decided to get dressed for the event that changed our lives forever.