silvericepipeline - Tumblr blog

[silvericepipeline]

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I started this Tumblr as a place to put down stories or other works I had created. And that is what's it's been used for so far. I posted here last in 2019 with a short story I wrote for my high school creative writing class.

This isn't a piece of fiction writing. This is almost like a journal entry of things I can't get out of my head. I've been in a weird headspace tonight and I'm not sure what to do about it, so I decided to put my thoughts out into the void of Tumblr. This is going to be chaotic, there will ve very little flow to my thoughts, I just needed to get them all out there.

"Exhaust yourself, boy exotic. Wear your body and your mind down to a sand, and then come back."

I was reading a story entitled erode. earlier tonight, and that quote got me thinking.

What is my purpose in the universe? What does the universe expect me to do with my one lifetime? Is me being here necessary for the state of the universe? (The answer to that question is 'probably not,' but I'm not about to kill myself or anything like that. I'm not suicidal, I promise.)

Those questions then led to more questions.

Who am I? What am I doing?

the thing is, I don't know who I am anymore. I've been pretending about who I am for so long that I don't know how to stop. I don't know how to just be me. A friend told me to find someone I can be me around, but I can't do that if I don't know who I am.

Am I the happy-go-lucky person that I show off to everyone at work? No, that's just who I'm pretending to be when I'm there.

Am I normal like the rest of my family? No, I'm very much the black sheep of my family (very much literally too). I dress in all black more often than not, I'm queer, I'm gender questioning, I love pop-punk and rock music, I hate makeup, I love video games, and that's just to name a few. But around my family, it's easier to just pretend than be criticized for looking weird.

And I know that list makes it seem like I know who I am, but honestly, I really don't. I don't know how to explain it.

Everything is changing so fast, and I know this and did some of it to myself but I also want everything to stay still. And while everything is changing so fast, I also feel like I'm stuck, like there's no way out of where I am.

I want to erode, or do as the quote says. "Exhaust yourself, boy exotic. Wear your body and your mind down to a sand, and then come back." I don't know how. But I know I want to, and I know I should. I need to find myself, and the me that is here right now isn't fully me. But I don't know where to begin.

Maybe I already have to some extent, but something tells me that I'm not done eroding yet, that there is more to be done until I understand what I need to.

[silvericepipeline]

Red Eyes

Written for Halloween 2019 Word Count: 587

Footsteps. The sound wasn’t unusual in the middle of the night in our household. My father had a habit of staying up late, pacing around the first floor of our house as he mulled over work assignments. I sighed, sliding out of bed, shivering as my feet hit the cold wood floor.

The wood creaked slightly beneath my feet as I tiptoed past my brother’s room. I paused outside his door, waiting until I heard a small snore from him before continuing. I crept down the stairs, pausing as I reached the bottom floor. The footsteps had stopped.

I shrugged it off, turning to walk into the living room, the usual place where my father did his pacing, intending to pull him away and send him off to bed. A hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me back towards the staircase and into my parents’ room. Another hand clasped over my mouth as I squealed.

“Quiet, Sophie,” my father hissed, shutting the bedroom door behind us. The footsteps started again, slowly getting closer to the room we were in. “We can’t let it hear us.”

“Dad? What’s happening?” I asked him, my body beginning to tremble as I listened to the footsteps. “If you’re here, and mom is there,” I whispered, gesturing to the still sleeping figure of my mother in the bed, “then who is walking around our house?”

“I’m not exactly sure, Soph,” he whispered back, “but I know that thing isn’t human.”

The footsteps got louder, pausing outside of the closed bedroom door. The door slowly crept open as a pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness.

A low growl cut through the tense silence that had settled over the darkened room, the red eyes narrowing as they studied my father and I. I let out a whimper, moving back towards the bed where my mother still slept on, unaware of the being that had invaded our house. My father moved back with me, and the figure narrowed its eyes further as it watched our movements.

“Dad, what do we do?” I whispered, my voice barely audible even in the quiet room. 

“I don’t know, Soph.” The being moved towards us, its shadowy body becoming visible as it made its way into the beam of moonlight coming through the window. 

It paused, a sinister smile overtaking its face, its sharp teeth on full display as it continued to stare at us. I shuddered at the sight of the teeth, quickly looking around for anything that we could use to defend ourselves.

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. Nothing useful that we could use to defend ourselves from the monster that had invaded our home. 

We hit the edge of the bed, stumbling and falling back onto the mattress. We scrambled up, scanning around the room for any sign of the glowing red eyes that were terrorizing us. Nothing. They were gone.

“Do you think it left?” I asked my father, shakily breathing as I tried to calm my racing heart. “I don’t see it anymore, do you?”

“No, I don’t see it,” he said. “But I wouldn’t count on it being gone. I think it’ll come back sooner or later.”

Silence fell over the room again. We looked around, waiting for the eyes to reappear. A chill passed over the two of us. We slowly turned around, holding our breath as we did so. A scream tore from my throat as I took in the sight before me. 

Red eyes, piercing through the blackness.

[silvericepipeline]

ATLAS- Beginning

Word Count: 2955

“Come on Shae, what’s the worst that could happen?” Alex asked his roommate from his bed. “It’s not like we will get caught, especially if Avery helps us.”

Shae hesitated, loudly sighing as he registered Alex’s words. “What’s the worst that could happen? If we get caught again, we lose our scholarships, or we get kicked out of school,” Shae grumpily told Alex, not looking away from the open laptop on the desk in front of him. “Besides, don’t you have homework to do?”

“Nope. I finished all of it besides one assignment for physics that isn’t due ‘til Friday,” Alex said, beaming at his roommate.

“Seriously dude, let’s go grab Avery and head out to the terrace for a night of fun and debauchery. It’ll be a team bonding night for the three of us,” Alex continued. Shae let out a sigh, running a hand down his face as he turned to Alex.

“If you get us caught, I will put all the blame of this little rendezvous on you without hesitation, got it?” Alex nodded, grabbing his laptop and phone off the bed before standing up. 

“Do you know where the headphone splitter is?” Shae asked. “I want to use headphones so we’ll be quieter.”

“I think it’s in my desk somewhere,” Alex replied, gesturing to the desk so Shae could look for it. “I’ll grab our headphones and you grab the splitter. We’ll be out on the terrace before lights out, no doubt.” The two moved around the room quickly, grabbing their phones and wallets along with the headphones and Alex’s laptop. “Come on, we gotta hurry.”

They slipped out of the room, the laptop and cords wrapped up in Alex’s jacket. They passed the boys in the surrounding dorms, ignoring the pandemonium that the twenty minutes before lights out always brought as everyone rushed to get ready for bed.

They walked to the girls’ dorms, dodging the guards who patrolled the hallways as they made their way there. The two boys snuck up to Avery’s room, ignoring the looks from the other girls as they knocked on her door. The blonde girl opened it, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the two outside her door.

“If you two idiots are here to ask me to do your homework for you, I thought I had already made it very clear that I absolutely would never do your homework for you,” Avery deadpanned.

“You have made it very clear, with lots of vulgar language,” Alex told her, shrugging his shoulders. “But that’s not why we’re here. We wanted to have a team bonding night of fun and debauchery by sneaking out onto the terrace.”

“He means we’re going to have a movie night on the terrace,” Shae butted in, rolling his eyes at his dramatic roommate.

“How did he rope you into this?” Avery asked Shae, earning a shrug from him.

“I’m never really sure how he ropes me into any of his shenanigans, to be honest. But seriously, are you down for this movie night?”

“Of course,” she said, rolling her eyes as she spoke, “I’ll finally get to test out my new tech on the security system.”

“You should have given her the same warning you gave me,” Alex mumbled to Shae, earning a sharp jab at his ribs from the other boy’s elbow.

“Give me a minute to change clothes and grab my stuff, and then I’ll be ready.” The two nodded as she shut the door, glancing at each other as they realized how weird they looked standing outside of her room. They snorted, moving to stand off to the side just as the door reopened. “Ready?” 

They nodded and headed off down the hallway, staying out of the guards' line of sight. Avery reached into her jean shorts pocket, pulling out a small, circular disk. She held it delicately in her hand as they crouched down next to the terrace door.

“What is that?” Alex asked her, confused as she placed it on the keycard scanner.

“It’s a hacking device for these card scanners that keep us from going into places. I could hack into these things from my laptop and make them open for us, or I can place this little device on the scanners and use my phone to unlock them,” she said, moving the flannel tied around her waist to reach into her back pocket to grab her phone. She unlocked the phone, clicking on an app and quickly typing something. The small red light on the scanner turned green, a small clicking noise coming from the door as it did so. “See, much quicker than using my laptop.”

The two boys rolled their eyes at her as they stood up and pulled the door open, walking out into the cool desert air. The three sat down on the concrete ground of the terrace, sighing as they looked up at the hundreds of stars that painted the night sky. 

“I wish the staff allowed us to come out here at night more often,” Shae whispered, the other two humming in agreement.

“You know, with that little device of yours, you could come out here probably every night,” a voice from behind them said. Alex, Avery, and Shae shot to their feet and spun around. A person dressed in all black stood just in front of the closed door, smirking at the startled group. “Relax, I’m not gonna rat you out; you guys seem chill. And besides, telling anyone that you were on the terrace would let them know that I was out of bed too.” The three relaxed slightly, small sighs leaving them as the person spoke.

“You’re Tucker, right? The one that’s had to switch teams multiple times?” Alex asked him, earning a nod in response.

“Yep, the one and only. None of my team members have wanted to work with me so I’ve had to switch a bunch of times.” Tucker shrugged, rolling his eyes as he spoke. “Did you come out here to look at the stars?”

“Nope. Team bonding movie night. The two of us know each other,” Shae said, nudging Alex with his elbow and pointing us thumb at Avery, “but she’s still a mystery to us.” Tucker nodded, a small laugh escaping him as he noticed the scowl Avery sent Shae. Alex looked over to Shae, raising an eyebrow at him. Shae nodded in response, a small smile breaking out on Alex’s face as he did so.

“Tucker, do you want to join us? You don’t have to, but since you’re out here with us...” Alex said, trailing off as he spoke.

“I would love to,” Tucker replied, walking over and sitting down next to the group on the ground. Alex pulled up a random movie, and the four settled into a comfortable silence as the movie quietly played through the computer’s speakers. A small blue light flashed off in the distance. Tucker scrunched his face up as he noticed it, the others turning to him when he tensed up next to them. They turned back and looked up to see the blue light off in the distance. 

“I’m not going crazy right? You guys can see that too?” Tucker asked the group.

“If you mean the random blue light coming from a rock in the middle of the compound, then yeah, we can see it,” Alex said, Avery letting out a snort as he spoke. “Should we go check it out?”

“Why not? We’re already out here, so what’s breaking a few more rules going to do?” Shae asked, earning a few laughs and incredulous looks from the others. “Don’t look at me like that, I can be rebellious too.”

“Hey, Avery, do you know how to Hotwire a car?” Alex asked her, as he noticed the garages off to their right. “We could get out there pretty fast if we take one of the Academy’s jeeps.”

“Sadly no, but let’s go check them out anyway,” Avery said, motioning for the boys to follow her. Alex scooped up his things, following behind Avery as they snuck to the staircase on the side of the terrace. “If we get lucky, they might have left the keys in and we won’t even have to worry about hot wiring it.” 

The sound of the jeeps starting up startled the group, and the four scrambled to hide in the shadows of the buildings as the jeeps sped past.

“Where are they going?” Shae asked the group quietly. 

“I have a feeling they spotted the light just like we did,” Tucker said. “Let’s go grab one while they’re distracted.”

“Okay, I know I said that I could be rebellious, but I’m seriously starting to think this is a bad idea,” Shae said, grabbing Tucker’s arm as he started to walk off. “There’s gonna be guards and Academy staff swarming all around the area, there’s no way we’ll not get caught.”

“Stop being such a worrywart,” Avery told the anxious boy, “everything’s going to be fine. We’ll figure out how to get in without getting caught.”

Shae sighed but nodded, the four jogging over to the mostly deserted garage. They ran inside the garage, jumping into the nearest jeep and starting it up. Alex hit the gas, making the wheels squeal against the concrete before they took off, racing towards the blue light that seemed to get brighter as they got closer. The four cheered and hollered in excitement, the wind whipping through their hair as they sped along the rocky ground, kicking up a cloud of dust in their wake.

“This is awesome!” Shae yelled, the others laughing in agreement. “Why haven’t we done this before?”

They skidded to a stop just outside of the circle of jeeps that littered the site, the blue light almost blinding. The four jumped out of the jeep, sneaking along the rocky area as they tried to stay hidden from the guards and staff, their eyes never leaving the glowing cave.

An explosion went off, startling everyone. The staff and guards jumped back into the jeeps, speeding off towards the site of the explosion.

A large headlight appeared as the jeeps sped off, growing steadily closer to the bright light.

“Looks like they had the same idea,” Tucker hissed, jumping up and running to the mouth of the cave as the person pulled up, the other three following close behind. “Who are you?” Tucker asked as the person climbed off their bike, pulling the helmet off their head. 

“Logan Frazier. And you are?” the man asked, tilting his head as he placed the sleek black helmet under his arm. 

“I’m Alex Black, and they’re Avery Steele, Tucker Corson, and Shae Morgan,” Alex said, pointing to each of the group as he spoke. “You came here to check this out too?” The man nodded, setting the helmet down on the bike as he did so. 

“I set off the explosion. I needed a good enough distraction so I could sneak over here and check it out without raising the alarms. You Academy students?” Logan asked, earning four nods in response. “Cool, come on, let’s go in before those idiots come back.” The five slowly walked into the cave, shielding their eyes as the light continued to get brighter. 

They paused, the light dimming, allowing the group to take in the surrounding area. There were carvings on the walls. Carvings of snowflakes and swirls of water interspersed between drawings of wolves running and howling at various small moons. Alex walked over to the wall, lightly tracing one swirl of water with his finger, admiring the minute details of the art. The carvings suddenly lit up, glowing the same bright blue that they had seen.

“Alex, what did you do?” Avery yelled as the ground began to rumble beneath their feet. 

“I don’t know! All I did was trace one carving!” he yelled back, reaching out to steady himself on the wall as the ground continued to shake. 

The ground suddenly fell away beneath their feet, the five of them screaming as they tumbled down into the darkness. They landed in a pool of water, each of them sitting up and coughing as they tried to regain their bearings.

“Where are we?” Tucker asked, looking around the darkened room. Alex stood up in the pool of water, fishing his phone out of his pocket and turning on its flashlight. He moved the light around the room, pausing as a light blue shield appeared in the beam of light's edge. “What is that?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex said, moving the light closer to the foreign object. “I’m almost scared to find out.” Alex took a deep breath, trying to calm the pit of anxiety welling up in his stomach and moved the light over the object.

The light lit up the room, revealing a giant, blue and silver-colored robot wolf sitting behind the shield. Alex slowly walked up, ignoring the rest of the group as they told him to stop.

“Alex, are you crazy?” Shae hissed, panic bleeding into his tone. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Alex shrugged, continuing to walk forward towards the wolf. He placed his hand on the shield, an amused huff resonating through his head as he did so. The shield disappeared, starting the five as they watched the wolf move on its own and let out a howl. The wolf bent down, opening its maw, exposing the darkness of its cockpit to the group.

Alex hesitated, looking back at the others. They stared at the great beast, their mouths open as they tried to comprehend the sight in front of them. Another amused huff sounded in his head, startling Alex as he turned back to the wolf.

“Is that you?” Alex asked it, the wolf closing its mouth as it moved its giant head to nod at him. “You can understand me?” The wolf nodded again, opening its mouth as it rested its head back on the ground. 

Alex walked up to it, climbing up the ramp and into the cockpit of the machine. The others began shouting after him, fear in their voices as he disappeared into the giant robot. 

“Alex? Come back down here, seriously! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Avery shouted.

“Guys, I’m fine, seriously,” Alex shouted back. “Come on in, it’s not gonna bite.” The four hesitated before walking up the ramp, holding on to the wall as the wolf closed its mouth and stood. They walked into the cockpit, looking around at the sophisticated technology that the wolf was made of. “I don’t think it’s human-made,” Alex said from his seat in the pilot's chair. “I can’t read anything that it’s trying to show me on the screen, and it doesn’t look like any language I’ve ever seen.”

“Great, so we’re sitting in an alien robot that's somehow on Earth. At least we’re all here so we can die together!” Shae shouted, earning an eye roll from the others.

“We’ll be fine, Shae,” Logan said, placing a hand on the stressed boy’s shoulder. As he spoke, the wolf moved again activating its boosters and flying up towards the exit of the hole slowly. The screen above the dashboard cleared, showing the five what was happening in front of them. Shae narrowed his eyes at Logan, making the man raise his hands in defense. “Did you touch anything, Alex?”

“Not a thing! It’s like It’s on autopilot or something!” Alex shouted back, gripping on to the armrests of his seat.

The wolf reached the top of the hole, shooting off towards the mouth of the cave, blasting past the Academy guards and staff who had come back. The group of people on the ground pointed and the flying wolf as it hovered in the air for a minute.

The wolf turned around, blasting off towards the sky, flying higher and higher and through Earth’s atmosphere, not stopping as it continued flying through open space. The five watched in awe as they flew past the planets, the wolf sending more amused huffs to Alex through their fledgling mental bond.

“Is that Charon?” Tucker asked, pointing at the large moon revolving around Pluto. “How did we get here so fast? It usually takes us months to get out here, but we got here in a few minutes!”

The wolf paused just as they passed Pluto, the five passengers inside looking around each other in confusion. Suddenly, a wormhole opened up in front of them, the five lurching back as it appeared.

“Is that a wormhole?” Avery whispered, walking towards the front of the cockpit. “How? Those are only theoretical, this shouldn’t be possible!”

The wolf grumbled, sending Alex quick images of the wormhole through their bond. 

“Guys, I think it wants to go through that,” Alex mumbled, the others turning to look at him in shock. “I don’t know, I think I have some weird mental bond with this thing or something. It keeps sending me images of the wormhole, so I’m guessing it wants us to go through it. But I'm not going to be the one to decide everyone's fate. We’re going to do this together, or we’re not going to do it at all.”

“I’m down to see what’s on the other side of it,” Avery said, earning an eye roll from the others. Tucker and Logan nodded in affirmation, turning to Shae as they did so.

“I guess we’re all skipping class tomorrow,” he grumbled, a small smile on his face giving his true feelings away.

“Alright, let’s go,” Alex said, the wolf huffing through their bond before taking off and flying straight into the wormhole.

[silvericepipeline]

Paladins Talk- Atlas Project

The common room was quiet. The only sounds came from the paladins, the occasional sigh and the rhythmic tapping of Tucker’s fingers against the couch cushions.

Alex glanced over towards Tucker, noticing the way the boy was chewing incessantly on his lower lip. Alex reached over, grabbing one of Tucker’s hands in his own. Tucker’s head snapped up, his eyes wide as he stared at Alex in surprise.

“Hey, are you okay?” Alex asked him, a look of concern covering his face. The other paladins glanced towards them. “You’re biting on your lip a lot, and you do that a lot when you’re nervous or upset.” Shae let out a snort. Alex turned to glare at him, sticking his tough out at Shae. “I mean, I noticed you do that a lot,” Alex finished, turning back towards Tucker. Tucker shrugged and let out a sigh, his head ducking back down. Silence fell over the room again.

“I don’t know,” Tucker finally said. “I thought I was fine but then I started thinking about home and now I’m not so sure.”

“What about home?” Avery asked. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“My family mostly. I’m adopted, and even though I’ve been living with my moms and brother for like six years, they’re still worried that I’m just going to disappear and never talk to them again. They’re worried that I hate being a part of their family,” Tucker whispered, tears beginning to gather in the corners of his eyes. “If the Academy told them we just ran away or something, they will be heartbroken.”

Alex pulled Tucker closer to him, wrapping his arms around the teary-eyed boy. Tucker buried his face into Alex’s neck, sniffling as tears dripped onto Alex’s shirt. The others moved closer, leaning closer to the two boys who were still wrapped together.

“You’ll get to see them again, Tucker,” Logan mumbled, reaching a hand up to place it on Tucker’s shoulder. “We’ll all make sure that we all get to see our families again.”

“I’d be perfectly happy if I never had to see mine again,” Shae muttered, the bitterness in his voice startling the other four paladins. They looked at him with concern and he shrugged. “My family sucks, they aren’t the nicest group of people in the world.” Tucker leaned back, wiping his eyes and sending a small smile towards Alex before turning to Shae.

“Did they hurt you?” he asked seriously, narrowing his eyes as Shae flinched slightly. “Shae, what did they do to you?”

“I came out to them when I turned sixteen and I thought they would be okay with it and that we would just move on, but I was so wrong.” Shae paused, taking a shaky breath in. “They beat me so horribly, I couldn’t go to school for three days. After that they still hit me but it was more verbal abuse than anything.

“If I even did a tiny thing wrong, they would scream at me for hours and hit me a few times. They refused to pay for me to go to the Academy so I had to pay for it myself or get in on a scholarship,” Shae continued, looks of ager crossing the other paladins faces as they imagined what the boy had gone through. “I don’t have to be around them anymore thankfully. I just wouldn’t be too sad if I never went home.”

“Can I murder your family? I would gladly do it,” Tucker hissed, a deep scowl present on his face.

“No. No murdering,” Logan said, looking just as angry as Tucker.

“He’s right,” Avery jumped in, “let’s destroy them remotely. Let’s ruin their reputations and show everyone how shitty they are.”

“My family has connections everywhere, we could fuck with their lives a lot,” Alex said, a devious smirk appearing in place of the scowl that had been present on his face.

“You guys don’t have to do anything, I think just going back to rub the fact that I’m a defender of the universe in their faces would be good enough,” Shae laughed, the scowls on the other’s faces disappearing. “Are we just all talking about our families now?”

“Why not? I mean, you, Avery, and Alex may know each other fairly well, but Tucker and I don’t,” Logan said, Alex snorting quietly at his words, earning a confused look from the others.

“Okay, you go then,” Alex said, trying to get the others to stop looking at him weirdly. “What is your family like, Logan?”

“My mom died in a car accident right after I turned eighteen, leaving me to finish my senior year of high school with my dad. He started drinking after she died to forget about the fact that she wasn’t there. He quit drinking right before I graduated my senior year and helped me go to the Academy and pursue my dream of going to space.”

“Do you miss your mom?” Tucker asked, sending a small smile towards Logan.

“Always. She was the one who got me interested in space, but I feel like I’m honoring her memory by being up here,” Logan responded quietly, a smile appearing on his lips. “Avery, your turn.”

“I have a big family, and we’re all super close. I have like, five siblings,” she laughed at the shocked faces of the other paladins, “plus my parents so that in total makes eight of us. I’m one of the middle children, and the only reason I stood out amongst my siblings was that I was super smart. We spent a ton of time out at my grandparents’ ranch, and I got really into in space and the stars while spending time out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Ranch?” Shae asked, his head tilting as he looked at Avery confused.

“My family is from Texas, we have a ranch,” she laughed again. “Alex. You’re up.” Alex sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. 

“Avery, Shae, what last name did I give you when we met?” Alex asked the two quietly, gaining more confused looks from the group. 

“Are you not Alex Black?” Shae asked him. “Who are you?”

“I am Alex Black-Girardier. Black is only one half of my last name.”

“Girardier? Like-” Logan stopped as Alex cut him off.

“Andrew and Andrea Girardier? Yep. Black is my mother’s original last name and my parents hyphenated instead of choosing between the two, something that has come in handy over the years.

“But yeah, my parents are billionaires, whoop-de-do,” Alex continued monotonously. “It’s not like it makes any difference up here, I can’t spend any of the money I have. I don’t exactly promote that my family is insanely rich because it makes people want to get close to me so they can use me and my connections for their gain. That’s why I tell everyone my last name is Black. My siblings do the same.”

“Thank you for telling us Alex,” Logan said, sending a genuine smile towards the boy.

“You guys aren’t mad?” Alex asked quietly, glancing at the other’s faces quickly.

“Nah, I’m kind of shocked you hid it that well,” Shae laughed, punching Alex’s arm.

“I’m annoyed that I didn't figure it out earlier,” Avery grumbled, the others breaking out into laughter as she pouted.

[silvericepipeline]

Atlas Project

The heat was the first thing he noticed.

His body was limp against the ground. The heat seared into his skin making him flinch slightly. He reached out for Kai and his magic in an attempt to cool not only himself but everyone else down, only to come up blank.

Kai was gone. But then where was he? And what planet was he on? Had the Vene gotten them? Why couldn’t he feel Kai? Had they taken him too?

He reached out for the others, again coming up blank. The bond that the five of them had shared for so long had suddenly disappeared.

He opened his eyes, his breaths becoming more labored as he attempted to take in the situation. He flinched as the bright light of the sun present in the sky entered his vision, quickly shutting his eyes. He opened his eyes slowly again, keeping them squinted.

His eyes moved around slowly. He took in the flat red rock that he was laying on, his fingers moving to touch a loose pebble that was on the ground. He grasped it, moving his arm close to his face, his body groaning with the effort.

The rock color looked familiar. It was something that he had seen time and time again while staring out of windows late at night, and it looked like one of the last things he had grabbed from Earth before they had left for space. 

Earth. Was he on Earth? Where was he? Where were the others?

He dropped his arm back to the ground, moving his eyes away from the small rock he was still grasping in his bare palm. Where were his gloves? He lifted his head up, his body taking in the plain black t-shirt and shorts that he had on his body. His feet were covered in his sneakers, protecting them from the harsh heat of the desert. Where was his armor?

He saw Logan out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to look. The boy was limp, the same black shirt and shorts covering his muscular body. He reached his mind out towards him, trying to feel the bond that he had shared with his partners, only to come up blank again.

He sighed but attempted to slow his breathing as he took in Logan. The boy was uninjured, and aside from being unconscious looked healthy. He guessed the others were nearby, but laid his head back onto the hot rock as his eyes drifted shut again, exhaustion taking over his body again.

Where was he?