Once again, Kai was avoiding sleep.

He lay on the hard, splintering floorboards of the ragged apartment like a corpse, eyes open, unmoving, drowned in silence - but his mind was a storm of noise.

No dreams. No peace. Just the endless churn of frustration clawing at the inside of his skull.

'Powerless... Again.'

It burned him - how easily Nyx still played with his life like it was some grand experiment. How that sadistic bastard was out there, somewhere, still pulling strings, unleashing chaos on the world like a child ripping the wings off flies.

And Kai?

He was stuck. No memories. No direction. Just flashes of pain and power and rage.

His fists clenched at his sides.

The apartment was mostly silent now. The others were sprawled out, scattered around the room in various poses of sleep. A faint snore from the corner. A soft shuffle of fabric. The occasional twitch from Lenny's massive, scaly body.

But inside Kai's head, it was anything but quiet.

With a low groan, he finally sat up and reached into the pocket of his ragged jacket, pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes. Sven had snagged them for him earlier without asking too many questions.

Kai didn't have a brand or a preference - he didn't even smoke often. He had also only started recently, or so he assumed, since he couldn't recall much prior to Nyx's facility.

He just needed something. Anything. A small fire to distract from the inferno inside.

And something soothing came from the smoke, despite it tasting disgusting and the smell not being the greatest.

One cig between his lips, he slipped out the door without waking the others.

The streets were quiet on this side of the city at this hour, cloaked in a dull, orange glow from flickering street lamps. New York had pockets like this - desolate, eerie little corners where the chaos didn't quite reach. At least for the most part, ignoring the fact that a giant lizard lived there.

He wandered until he found a run-down park a block away. A single broken bench under a bare tree.

He sat.

And sighed.

Then blinked, fumbling with his pockets.

"…Shit." No lighter.

The cigarette dangled from his mouth like a joke.

Just as he was about to get up and call it a waste of time, a subtle shift in the air tickled the back of his neck. There was someone approaching him. No, multiple people.

His muscles tensed, and he acted immediately.

Kai's eyes lit up blood red as he activated his Blood Vision, scanning the area, ready to tear into whoever was approaching.

But the moment their signatures registered in his senses, he relaxed and slumped back against the bench.

Of course.

"Any of you got a light?" he muttered, not even turning his head.

Nadya, Sven, and Isaac walked into view.

Sven looked like he'd been dragged from a nap - messy hair, yawning like a bored house cat. Isaac moved quietly, his gaze distant, lost in thoughts he didn't feel like sharing.

And Nadya… Nadya had that same stormy look in her eyes. But this time there was some guilt and worry mixed in.

Wordlessly, she stepped forward and snapped her fingers, a tiny flame flickering in her palm.

Kai leaned in, and she lit the cigarette for him.

He took a drag, exhaled slowly.

"…Thanks."

None of them spoke right away.

Maybe they couldn't sleep either. Or maybe they just didn't want to let Kai be on his own again. After all, last time, they had left him to face the Messiah's ultimate attack alone.

The guilt was written all over their faces.

But Kai didn't hold it against them. If anything, he was more pissed at himself.

'Why the hell did I need to rely on anyone in the first place?'

Even Lenny stepping in to help... it had helped, sure - but it was another reminder.

There were mutants out there with terrifying and monstrous power, borderline transcendent.

And he was still far from the top.

So they lingered there in the cold night, beneath the empty sky. Misfits, criminals, outcasts - staring off into the dark, all with their own thoughts too heavy to voice.

Sven eventually disappeared for a bit, and when he returned, his arms were full of clinking bottles.

Beer, whiskey, vodka - he didn't discriminate and brought enough to get an entire army drunk.

"Figured we could use a little help sleeping," he muttered as he cracked one open and tossed another to Nadya, who gratefully accepted.

Kai, of course, refused; it didn't taste particularly nice and he couldn't get drunk either, so there wasn't much point.

The others drank in silence at first.

But it didn't take long for the alcohol to start peeling back their layers. Laughter returned, faint but welcome. The sting of betrayal, of chaos, of survival - it didn't vanish, but it dulled. At least for a while.

Their mission had technically been a success, but none of them felt victorious.

They had made an enemy of one of the most feared figures in New York's underworld. They were now blinking red on the radar of the Association and the authorities. And worst of all, they'd drawn the attention of the Messiah - a mutant cult leader who clearly wasn't finished with them.

They had enemies on all sides.

And to make it worse, Takeshi was still missing.

One of their own.

A ghost of a man, but a pillar of their group.

Gone without a trace.

They didn't say it aloud, but they all felt it.

Their world had changed. And not for the better.

Kai took another long drag of his cigarette, letting the smoke coil around his face like a phantom.

The city around them felt quiet for now. But the silence? It was a lie.

Because deep down, they all knew:

This was just the calm before the next storm.

-

Eventually, they made their way back and managed to get a little sleep - if it could be called that. Kai awoke first, his shirt clinging to his back with cold sweat, his breath short, and his eyes glowing faintly in the dark.

Again, that hunger.

That vile, twisted craving.

It wasn't normal - not something you could compare to lust, hunger, or thirst. Those were human needs, sometimes inconvenient, but always natural. This wasn't. This was monstrous. A gnawing, inescapable desire to spill blood - to rip through flesh, to hear screams, to soak himself in the warmth of death.

Even now, the mere thought made his body shudder in anticipation.

Disgusting.

And yet, he was used to it. Familiar with the horror of waking up like this, consumed by something he couldn't fully understand or control. But at least he wasn't alone in his misery.

Sven and Nadya were sprawled out nearby, nursing pounding headaches, the stench of alcohol still clinging to their breath. They had drowned their demons last night in cheap liquor, but it seemed the demons had learned to swim.

Isaac looked equally wrecked, sitting half-upright with a blank stare, like he'd spent the whole night fighting ghosts in his head.

Only Amina and Lenny looked somewhat functional and rejuvenated. Amina stretched with practised grace and calm, seemingly unfazed. Lenny just looked miserable, less because of how he felt and more because he had to wake up and still be a lizard.

"Still cursed," he mumbled, running a clawed hand down his scaled face. "Fantastic."

He had dreamt that it was otherwise, but at least the Mutant Suppressants gave him hope.

But none of that mattered right now, because the others had all woken up with the same thing burning in the back of their minds.

"We gotta find Takeshi today," Kai said grimly, already pulling on his boots.

"Yeah," Sven added, rubbing his temples. "And we have to get in contact with Shadow. If we do that, we can give him a report. Then he can help us locate Takeshi and we can finish what we came to this city to do."

"Two birds with one stone," Amina said, already geared up.

They all nodded. It was the clearest path forward, and more importantly, the safest. Wandering the city aimlessly was a death wish - too many eyes, too many threats. They couldn't afford to attract attention. Yelling Takeshi's name in the streets wouldn't do much other than place a target on their backs.

Meanwhile, Lenny blinked.

"Wait, hold on. Who's Takeshi? And Shadow? Are you guys just making up names?"

The others looked at him for a moment, then burst into light laughter.

None of them bothered to answer.

They just moved on, gathering their things, exchanging tired glances. It was too early for explanations, and too risky to waste time. There'd be time later. Maybe.

Settling down for a quick breakfast of random things they found in Lenny's filthy kitchen, they ate in silence. It was nothing fancy, just enough to wake the body and dull the edge of exhaustion.

And as soon as the last bite was swallowed, and the mugs were drained, they were on their feet, moving like they had somewhere to be.

Because they did...

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