V.I.R.A.L

The whimper and cries echoed through the playground, just out of reach of the teachers on watch. A boy lay on the ground bleeding from the nose, sobbing curled up while another stood over him with bloody knuckles and a crazed look. Taking serval deep breaths, he began breathing heavily, smiling. "I am stronger. No one will be stronger than me; mark my words. Henry Truman will be the strongest person in the world!"

****

Seeing Rhinefield in ruins was enough to leave quite the impression on Zinnia. She hadn't seen the outcome firsthand, so bare witnessing the carnage left behind had pushed her further than she imagined. Thoughts ran through her mind; the one most adamant was guilt as she began to question herself. Could she have stopped this?

Emil shook her shoulder lightly, whispering. "Are you alright?"

Still dazed, Zinnia licked her lips, turning to Emil heartbroken. "I'm sorry."

"Apologising when you haven't fixed the problem won't get us anyway. Apologise to everyone once we stop the Garden."

Jinx climbed up the hill, moving her arm around feeling sluggish as she grumbled. "What a shit hole. You better be right about this, Florence…. We spent almost two weeks traversing back and forth like headless chickens if we haven't."

Florence stood over the hill, searching through the endless battlefield for her destination. Pointing to a point beyond the central city on the outskirts, she spoke up, clearing her throat. "There. Henry will be there. I know it."

"How can you be so sure?" Zinnia questioned, trying not to get her hopes up too much.

"I just know. It's a special place for us. It's where we grew up, the only place we ever called home. If my brother would go anywhere, it's there."

Emil stepped forward, getting everyone's attention, still wary about all of this. "Just to make a few things clear. I hold no intention of trusting Henry as I fully expect him to stab me in the back the first chance he gets. He's greedy, selfish and outright insane. In fact, I'm not sure he's much better than the stages of grief. He'd fit right alongside them."

"He's still my brother, you know," Florence stated with a frowned sigh. "But I suppose I can't deny those facts. You don't have to trust the bastard, but he will help us."

"How are you so sure on that?" He snapped back on edge about the whole ordeal.

Turning back to the city, she tightened her gloves, whispering. "Given the chance, Henry will fight anyone stronger than him."

****

After a short walk, the small group were a little at ease by no presence of the Garden. In fact, they came across serval survivors collecting any belongings left after the attack. Everyone was in the same boat here; everyone was a victim of some kind. Florence looked around, shaking her head. "So those rumours were true. The Garden had retreated after the attack. But why and for how long is the question here."

"Do you think Alton had any role to play in that?" Zinnia questioned.

"Maybe. We can't be sure for certain." Riley thought, overseeing Zinnia's concern. "Did you want to look for him?"

Shaking her head, Zinnia gave off a half-hearted smile. "No. We don't have time to search; like you said, we don't know when the Garden will attack again. Finding Henry first is more important."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

"Ok…. We're almost there." Florence ended up with the small talk staring at a burned down husk of a house. Giggling faintly, she leaned back, taking in a deep breath. "I'm home."

Walking up to the heart of the house, Jinx tapped the side as part of the house collapsed. "You lived here?"

"The house was a bit nicer a time ago. But a freak storm struck the house setting it on fire. I didn't know until it was too late. My brother cast an illusion on the house to trick me. By the time he lifted the illusion, the fire was already in my room. I escaped, but our mother wasn't so lucky."

"What the hell is wrong with him?! Why would he do that?" Emil barked, furious to learn of these events.

Florence shrugged, unsure. "I still to this day don't really know. I've only seen him once since then. But if I had to guess, it was probably because he hated the fact, he was related to someone so weak."

"That bastard. And we're going to trust him to help us?"

Florence stepped up to the porch lifting her hand out. "I don't trust him one bit."

The moment Florence touched the door, the house came to life in a sudden flash as the broken-down ruins had changed to a view of the modern spectacle. The door opened as Henry stood taking a bite from an apple slurring with his mouth full. "Now that's not a nice thing to say to your brother, dear sister."

Florence smacked Henry only to vanish, appearing further into the house sitting on a sofa, legs up yelling. "Please come in. After all, it's our house." Florence stepped in, looking at the interior, the floating chandler hovering over the stairs fitted with a red carpet. Pictures of the family were planted on the wall, which had a flowery wallpaper. At the front porch was a coat hanger and a mat to wipe your feet. "Please, please. Don't bring the dirt in."

Florence ignored this, walking in. "You made it look exactly like I remembered it."

"From the mouldy corner to the half-done carpet. Of course, I would ring out the red carpet for Florence Truman, or do you go by Montague now?"

Standing in the living room, Henry watched some old recordings of the family in their youth as Florence chose to ignore this. "Well, one family tried to kill me, so the other one sounds better right now."

Leaning over the sofa, Henry tried putting the pieces together, whispering under his breath. "Just to clear things up, we are talking about our family, right?"

"We're not here to mess around Henry." Zinnia exclaimed, standing in the hallway.

Henry vanished as another copy of him appeared next to Zinnia. "Why if it isn't the girl hero who knocked me down a few pegs. You're still alive…. A shame. Oh, lookey, lookey more high school rejects. What is this? Are we filming a reunion or something? Should I have ordered a pizza?"

"Enough games, Henry! We came for your help." Florence yelled, having just about enough of Henry's teasing.

The moment this was said, the illusion faded, and the real Henry sat on a wooden box in what was the kitchen in misbelief, squinting to himself. "Whoa, now hold the phone. You need my help? After all these years, poor, weak old Florence Truman needs help from her brother. And here I thought you were here for teas and scones."

"I'm sure we don't need to remind you what's going on out there. The Garden is going to attack again soon. We're planning on stopping them once and for all." Emil exclaimed, putting his hands in his pockets, finding it difficult to speak the last few words. "And for that, we need your help."

"My help? Ah, come on, Emilia, you don't need help from this geezer. You have a freezy boy and doctor X or whatever."

"You mean Professor X."

"Professor X! Of course, I was just well, umm. Testing you."

"Scarlett is dead." Riley pipes upstanding, not far behind everyone. "Alton has vanished, and with any hopes of winning gone as well. So, as you can see, we are quite desperate."

"Who's she?"

"I'm Riley, in case you hadn't worked out yet. Scarlett was my sister."

"Hmm, seems I've missed a bit since our last adventure. Last I saw Alton, he was in between life and death. But I guess no one wants to help me catch up with all that…. So, let's cut to the chase. I assume you want my help to defeat the Garden. I don't know who you think I am, but your band of merry men is more than enough. You don't need me."

"The Stage of Grief we're going after, Denial, has an ability to sense the doubt of her opponents to overpower and defeat them. We want to take her out as quickly as possible." Jinx started getting to the point.

"Ah, now this makes sense. You want me to case illusions so she can't tell when you're pissing your pants. Got it, and since my useless sister here is nowhere as strong as me, you came crawling to the next best thing. Honoured I truly am, but I'll have to decline. Unlike you I'm, what do they call it…. A suicidal maniac."

"No, actually, that sounds exactly like you. You love fighting others stronger than you, doesn't this call to your need to prove yourself." Florence teased, walking around Henry. "Defeating the stages of Grief is like the biggest flex out there."

"I see what you're doing. Getting into my head to trick me into helping you. Nice try, but it won't work. Sorry nope." Henry snapped back smugly, leaning forward.

"You helped Alton for a reason, did you not?" Zinnia questioned. "You love watching events play out that you help the cause. If we take down Denial, we can steal their power for our own. All of that will be because of you."

"So, what you're saying is that the stake of the world is in my hands? Hmm, I like that. Tell you what I'm game. It could sound like fun; the Garden prowls around thinking they are the hot shit. Well, I'm about to change that." Henry proudly claimed to himself.

"Umm…. That was much easier than I expected."

"Trust me, he isn't a hard cookie to crack."

Henry stretched back, yawning. "So, the real question remains then. Who's going to take the Stage?" Everyone was left dumbfounded as he smirked. "That's what I thought. Can I make a suggestion? Emil should have it?"

"Me?"

"Yes, yes. The underdog of Team Rhapsody gains the power to destroy the Garden. It does sound like quite an inspiring story." He smirks to himself. "Is there a problem with that? Or were you afraid I was going to what was it? Stab you in the back?"

"You were watching us?!"

Henry stepped out of the ruins bowing with a cheeky grin. "I've always been two steps ahead of you foolish children. We have no time to lose; let's go and hunt ourselves a Stage."