I clicked the pen repeatedly, spinning around aimlessly in my desk chair, which was probably too small for me at this point. I'd never really given any thought to what I would do once everything was back to normal. I never thought it would all be back to normal, in all honesty. I had lost faith that it was ever going to be normal... And now it was.

My phone began to vibrate. I quickly dismissed any chance it might be someone calling me. The only person who would call me was Alice, and I knew she was studying the same as I was. I picked it up and switched off the alarm. At least my study time was done. I closed the open textbooks on my desk. Grade 10 level maths. I'd always pictured myself as a pretty smart kid. I managed to design taser gloves at age fourteen after all. So being nineteen years old and still failing at tenth grade maths was more then humiliating. At least I was doing it all from home, and didn't have to actually go into a physical school. Alice had managed to find some website for kids like us who made it through The Blip without going through propped education.

Thats what people were calling it now. The Blip. I stood up and grabbed the keys to the wrecked Bentley. It seemed a pretty insignificant name for something that almost ended the world. It kind of got under my skin, how simply everyone seemed to dismiss it. I flicked through my wardrobe for a jacket. The plated metal gauntlets shone up at me from the floor of the cupboard, calling for me to put them back on. To do... Something. To get back our there. Not that I could. The world was fixed, and I didn't seem to have a part in it now. At least not the same one I'd been playing for the last five years. I jogged down the stairs, slipping on my jacket as I made my way to the car, bumping into Judy in the hallway.

"Hey." She said quietly.

"Hi."

She continued walking past, but stopped. "Listen, Neil." I stopped, the door halfway open. "I know we didn't get along too well before... You know. And I know its kinda weird cause we're practically the same age now, cause of the Blip and stuff, and I just thought..." She paused. "I thought maybe we should catch up some time." Judy said. "You know maybe you and that girl you're always with can come out with me and my friends sometime?"

I tossed the keys in my hand. "I uh... I don't know. I haven't really gotten used to crowds just yet."

She nodded. "Well how about just us then? How about we get coffee? Do you drink coffee now?"

I laughed. "Yeah. Yeah I drink coffee now. We can grab coffee sometime."

She smirked. "Cool, cool."

I nodded. "Cool. I'll see you later, I'm meeting Alice to study."

"Mm. Study."

"Shut up." I muttered, ducking out the front door and onto the street.

The Bentley was parked in the small alley beside the house that lead to our minuscule backyard. Mom and Mike didn't like it staying out on the street. They said it attracted too much attention, and to be honest it probably did. I'd managed to scrape together enough money from my savings before the Blip to replace the shattered windows, but the scratched paint, dented frame and bullet hole ridden doors still drew some odd glances on the roads.

I yanked the blue tarp off the car, and ran my fingers across the roof as I clambered inside. The engine revved into life, the car humming around me as I pulled out of the driveway onto the street. It was one of the few places I actually felt relaxed. A place that actually felt like home. I switched on the radio, and let the music wash over me as I headed through the city.

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I cruised through traffic. It was a little different now, with more cars on the road, but I was getting used to it. I could hear police sirens outside, and a few moments later saw the flashing red and blue lights in the rear view mirror, approaching closer and closer through the traffic. I wondered what was going on a for a moment, until it finally clicked. They were following me.

I pulled over to the side of the road as the police car appeared behind me. A cop, probably in his mid thirties, wandered over, and I rolled down the window. "Can I help you, officer?" I asked, tensing around the steering wheel.

The man took off his sunglasses and looked the car up and down. "Sir are you aware that your car is full of bullet holes?"

I relaxed a little. "Oh, yeah. They're from the initial riots... After the Blip." I patted the open window frame of the car. "Saved my life more then once."

The officer nodded for a moment. "And you didn't get it repaired?"

"Well, I've been slowly getting there. Money's kind of been the main problem, since everything, you know... Blipped back."

The cop sighed. "Well, I suppose it would be, yes..." Before he could continue, there was a crackle from the radio on his shoulder.

I couldn't make out much, except for the words "Car. Plates. Stolen." I froze. This wasn't going to end well.

"Could you step out of the vehicle please sir?" The policeman asked. I sheepishly clambered out of the car. "Were you aware that your car was reported stolen three months ago, after the Blip?

"No sir, I wasn't."

"Aha. And have you got a license on you there son?"

I could feel the blood drain from my face. "A uh... A licence?" He nodded at me. I tapped my fingers on my leg. "Erm... No. don't."

* * *

I leant against a wall in the police station, glancing over my shoulder at the officer watching me. "Come on, come on..." I muttered into the phone.

There was a tone as Alice answered. "Hey. Whats up, are you on your way?"

"Yeah, uh, Alice..." I sighed. "I might have to cancel the plans for this afternoon."

"Oh, okay. Is everything alright?"

"I um... I kind of got arrested."

Alice let a out a few choice words on the other end. "You weren't doing anything..."

"No, no. It was the Bentley. The original owner reported it stolen once he Blipped back. And I didn't have a license."

"Genius."

I sighed. "Yeah. I know."

There was a long silence. "Are you at the police station?"

"Yeah, wh-"

"Stay there." Alice said before hanging up, leaving me with the officer behind me.

In less then an hour I was sitting twiddling my thumbs as Alice paced up and down in front of me. "I can't believe you didn't think about the car being reported as stolen."

"I know, it was a stupid mistake."

"And not to mention you were driving it around the city full of holes, without a license mind you, which is going to be a $250 fine."

"I know."

"Not to mention legal fees when this guy presses charges."

"I know."

"I've looked it up and there's a law firm in Hell's Kitchen that might take us, their rates are pretty low, they're called Nelson, Murdoch and-"

"Mr. Williams?" A female officer asked, stepping in front of us.

"Yes ma'am?" I answered

"Good news kid. Mr. Richmond isn't pressing charges for his car. Says his insurance covers it. In fact he's willing to sell you the car, seeing as it's little more then scrap metal now. You'll have to register it, of course, and undergo road safety tests with the conditions its in. Provided you have gained a registered license by that point in time, which of course you will be fined for not having. You will have 28 days to pay for your fine, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am." I sighed.

She nodded, scribbling something on a clipboard. "Alright then... You're free to go."

"Thanks." I said to Alice, slipping my hand into hers as we walked away from the station. "I uh... I don't know what I was thinking."

"You never do." She smirked.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I sighed. "Hey Alice?"

"Hmm?"

"Do uh... Do you ever think that maybe... Maybe we could be doing something?"

"We're doing a lot as it is. Trying to reconnect with family. Catching up with school, which is so much harder then I remembered it to be. You're getting arrested."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah." She said after w pause. "Listen, I'm not going to pretend like I don't miss it sometimes, but... We did our part. And now we have a chance to go back to what we lost. Imagine how your family would react, how mine would react, if they saw the scars we already have, let alone turning up in the middle of the night with fresh wounds from fighting muggers. Not to mention you were literally just arrested."

I sighed. "Yeah... Yeah I guess you're right. As always."

"You said it, not me." Alice smirked. A car pulled up at the end of the street. "That'll be my lift." She said. "You need a ride home?"

"No, no I'm fine. I can walk. I'll see you later."

She leant up and kissed me. "Later."

I stood on the sidewalk as I watched Alice drive off. Dark clouds were moving in overhead as the sky grew darker, and by the time I'd managed to get home, rain was beginning to fall around me.

"Do you want to talk about what just happened?" My mom asked sternly as I walked through the door. "Do you want to explain why I just got a call from the police station explaining my son was arrested and, why his scrap heap of a car is getting towed back to our house sans-plates because it was stolen?"

I paused, tapping my fist against the stair rail. "Not particularly."

"Well thats too damn bad Neil. I don't care how hard you think it is coming back to all this because it sure as hell isn't as hard as it has been on me." She paused to take a shuddering breath, wiping a tear from her eye. "I missed a lot of your life, and I will never forgive myself for that-"

"Mom that wasn't your fault."

"Thats not the point, Neil. That time changed you, and I get that, but I just don't want that change to be for the worst. I want to be here for you now, even if I wasn't before."

I didn't have anything to say to that. "Mom I... I don't..."

"Tomorrow." She sighed, glancing at her watch. "You are going to explain everything to me tomorrow."

I nodded, taking a step up the stairs. "Okay. Tomorrow."

* * *

My phone was buzzing. For a few moments as I awoke from a dreamless sleep, the buzzing was all that registered. I wasn't used to having a phone again. I'd left it behind the night I ran away, and by some miracle the device was still sitting there under my bed five years later when I came back. It dawned on me it could have been Alice, and I hastily rubbed the sleep from my eyes, my hand stretching out through the darkness and grasping the blinding light.

Two in the morning. Why would anyone be trying to ring me at two in the morning? I blinked at the screen until it came into focus. It wasn't a phone call. It was an alert. An alert from...

I sat bolt upright. It was the app. The app I'd made years ago to try and get pictures of Spider-Man. The app that tracked police calls and radio frequencies. The app that was going absolutely nuts right now, flashing a location at me.

I fumbled around for a few seconds as I opened the app. I replayed the most recent police call, which the software had recorded.

"Nine one one, what's your emergency?"

"Oh God." A womans voice said. "God please. Please theres someone here. Everyones dead, they, they-"

"Ma'am please, calm down, can you tell me where you are?"

"Oh Go-" The woman was interrupted by a noise. Even through the recording, the high pitched noise was agonising. There was a terrible, gasping sound from the woman, and the call ended.

I scrambled out of bed, rushing to pull some clothes on. I didn't even think about what I was doing, what was happening. All I knew was that someone was in trouble, and I could get there. Even on foot I could probably get there before the cops. And I could help.

I pulled on the thick trench coat over my jacket, and finally pulled the box out from the bottom of the wardrobe. The gauntlets shimmered in the moonlight, as if the electricity was already arcing across the plates. I pulled the mask up over my mouth and the goggles over my eyes, hearing the electric hum as I switched them on, the dark world being illuminated in shades of purple and orange. I pulled the gauntlets on, pushing open the window and dropping down into the alley between the house and the fence where the Bentley once sat. Without a second glance back up at the house, I took off into the night, the rain slamming against my shoulders.

I slid to a halt outside of the building where the call had come from. Hammer Industries. Makers of advanced weapons tech. I could already tell I was in way over my head, but by this point it was too late to have any second thoughts. I scanned the front of the building. There were a handful of police cars, all of which were empty with their engines cold. I could see the heat signatures of at least two dozen bodies through the tinted glass windows, all seemingly unmoving and surrounded by pools of warm blood. One, single figure moved around inside. Slowly, carefully, I slipped inside the open door.

"Honestly." A woman said, grabbing one of the limp bodies by the shirt and pulling them up from the ground. "You'd think one of the leading weapons manufacturers would have something worth my time." She purred. I watched as she dug a knife into the paralysed mans throat. He coughed, a wet, gargling sound, before dropping to the floor. I could see the bright orange blood spilling onto the floor. He was dead. I could tell even from over here. They all were. Civilians, cops... All of them. And she killed them. I ducked behind a desk, cringing as the gauntlets clanked slightly against the tiled floor of the reception area.

There was a terrible, ghastly silence throughout the room. "Oh... Hiding, are we?" The woman asked. Her voice was cold, but smooth. Like having freezing water tipped on your back, and calm collectedness sent a shiver down my spine. "Well... If you do insist."

I sat pressed against the desk, waiting to hear her approaching footsteps, but nothing came. I moved to risk a glance around the desk. Before I could move, there was a faint click in the darkness, and everything seared with pain.

I couldn't move. Couldn't blink. I couldn't even breath. The dull, painful ringing in my ears was all that my brain could comprehend as it struggled for air. Every single muscle in my body tensed and cramped by itself, and I felt myself sliding sideways across the desk, cracking my head against the floor with a resonating thump. I tried desperately to move to no avail. I could hear her footsteps now, over the ringing in my ears as bright white spots began to dance in front of my eyes.

And then she appeared. Like a devil, silhouetted in red against the violet thermal sky. A tall, thin woman, her features indistinguishable through the goggles. In her hand, she held a small, glowing blue device, little bigger than a lighter. She released a finger from the device, and the ringing noise stopped, leaving me paralysed.

"What is this getup?" The woman asked. "It's cute, really. The little vigilante that could." I tried to speak, to gasp for breath, but emitted nothing but a dry, wheezing choke, which the woman scoffed at as she knelt down beside me. "Oh I wouldn't bother." She chuckled. She drew a knife from somewhere, its blade glowing cold, and used it to push the thermal goggles up off my head, shrouding the room in darkness as my eyes struggled to adjust to the light. "I'd say it wears off, but it won't get the chance."

I tried desperately to scream as she dug the blade into my chest just under my ribs, but I was silenced by my own tensed vocal chords. In the only movement I could muster, I clicked the button on one of the gauntlets, which sparked to life briefly. An arc of electricity shot between it and the knife as she withdrew the bloody blade from my ribs. The woman sqeaked slightly as the shock launched the knife across the room, where it disappeared, clanking in the darkness.

"Now that wasn't very clever." She said, staring off after the blade. "I was going to just slit your throat... But I suppose now the poison will just have kill you slowly." She stood up, taking a moment to kick me in the face, snapping my nose in the process before she walked out, her long green dress shimmering in the moonlight as she left.

I lay, cold and immobilised on the floor, bleeding out onto the tiles. After what felt like ages, I inhaled a lung full of freezing cold air, which I almost immediately coughed back up along with a fair amount of blood. I could feel my muscles relax, only for the pain to be replaced by the burning sensation flooding my veins. I dragged myself, slowly and painfully across the floor, eventually pushing myself upwards and staggering into an alleyway beside the building. I could feel my phone going wild in my pocket, signally more cops were probably on their way. I collapsed behind a dumpster, sliding the gauntlets off and fumbling for my phone.

"N-Neil?" Alice muttered groggily from the other end.

"Alice..." I gasped, coughing up another lungful of blood.

"Neil what's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Hammer Industries..." I wheezed. "I'm at..." I coughed again. "Alice I-I'm sorry..." The phone slipped out of my hands, and I scrambled for it on the ground with my now numb fingers.

"Neil? Neil!" I could hear Alice's voice on the other end, panicked and distant.

My whole body shuddered, the burning sensation enveloping my senses, and I drifted off into darkness, alone in the rain in alleyway...