Obituary

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

A week had passed since the ghastly attack at the science lab at Cullen's, and Vipul was eager to put the entire incident to bed. The attack had cost the lives of dozens of his doppelgangers, but worst of all, the violence had an unnerving effect on his friends at the school. Left with three duplicates, Vipul dispatched one to deal with the unpleasant task of cremating bodies in a foundry, another to deal with the clean-up at the lab, and his last...

...he needed a break. Some sort of release from all of the trauma of recent events. He'd been far more worried over the safety and emotional well-being of Freight Train to care about what he'd figured to be insignificant collateral damage to himself. He knew she wasn't quite okay, and he didn't know how to make things right.

The chill of late autumn hung on his breath as he watched pidgeons congregate on the mall in front of the school. The leaves had long-since fallen from branches, leaving the grounds a mottled patch of brown on brown, with a sky of grey above.

[Stern]

Stern stood out more when the sky was dark or overcast. Despite his ability to completely turn off his light, he found it was too much to focus on all day, like trying to keep your stomach sucked in all day to keep people from seeing a developing paunch. So he decided he would continue to glow until he could exercise his mental muscle enough to keep the light in.

Stern, as usual, light-jumped to Cullen's to say hello to Anita during a spare moment. He could be anywhere in seconds, so nowhere was particularly out of his way. He stepped out of the door to Cullen's and looked out at the weather as it grew colder. Night was coming sooner and sooner nowadays. It bothered him.

To the side he saw Vipul standing around--possibly lost in thought. Anita had mentioned most of her colleagues to him at least in passing. With nothing to do for the rest of the day, Stern decided to introduce himself.

"Hi there," he said with a small wave. "Michael Stern." He offered his hand for the other man to shake.

[Thomas Seagraves]

Thomas walked the hall as absent minded as the rest of the school. Both teachers and students alike were still in a daze about the attack on the school. The worst thing about it was that Thomas' room was just a few halls over from where the attack took place. He was happy that the school day was over and was now able to let his mind wander.

It had already been about a month since Thomas arrived at the school for the gifted and he still had no one to hang out with. His powers, though not intimidating like the ability to control fire or read peoples minds, made many of his peers afraid of him. For the month he had spent at Collin's he had not had any physical contact with another person.

As he walked out of the main door and stepped out onto the front lawn of the school he looked over and saw Michael. He noticed he was talking with one someone so he did not say anything. He looked down at the ground and continued to walk. The air was cool, like back home in Ireland. He made his way to a nearby bench and sat down as he looked over to Michael.

Man, yar lucky. . .

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Distracted, Vipul looked up at Stern. Normally, he was eager to make new acquaintances, but with the burden on his mind, he stared in a daze a bit before realizing that he'd spoken to him. Apologetically, he met Stern's hand.

"Vipul Chandrashekar."

[Stern]

Stern shook it firmly as was his usual habit. This greeting that usually helped Stern to establish himself as a confident congenial purpose became a bit harder and firmer than previous so that some people tended to think he was holding back some kind of anger or rage.

He hoped that Vipul would not perceive the handshake as bone-crushingly tight, but it was not always the case. He released the Indian's hand and took a look around. "I like this weather," he said. For some reason it helps me think.

Stern caught Thomas looking his way in his periphery. He turned to look the kid more squarely in the face. He studied Seagraves for a moment, absently waved hello, and tried to strike up a conversation that could be a little bit more than small talk.

"Anita told me the school was attacked a while back. I didn't know any such thing had happened. Is everyone all right?"

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"I suppose they are."

It was a ridiculous answer, but the best fit really. The only casualties had been himself, and Freight Train's childhood.

"Some assailant with a notion that we were hoarding medicine or somesuch."

He made a crumpling gesture with his hands.

"Tens of thousands of man hours for nothing. Damn near destroyed the lab outright."