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[△] -- Constantine hadn't spent a copious amount of time on European metros, but he was fairly sure they weren't supposed to move like that.

"Blyad'."

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The Brothers Valenko :: mob boys, killer kings, prodigal princes, soldiers, rivals, mortal enemies--Братья.

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Accessing Secure Trinity Files: // >Query>Subject: VALENKO, Constantine >History__[We're Stronger Together]__

It happened on one of the rare occasions the Valenko brothers were “disciplined” at the same time. The family bunker was mostly used for interrogating prisoners. Sometimes for times of danger to house the children. Then, it was always scrubbed clean, even before the most urgent of emergencies.

They didn’t bother cleaning it for two angry boys. The walls still stank of blood and old bleach. Viscous innards and gasoline. Charred black spots on the floor where molars could be dug out of the concrete if one so fancied.

Leonid sometimes fancied. After all, he said, they’d each put so many men into piles of ash in these very rooms—why not embrace it?

Constantine thought differently. In these times of incarceration, he tried not to focus on the location at all. Instead he sat, or slept, or stared at clean spots on the walls. He didn’t want to speak. He was usually too angry to scream and yell and rage at the walls. It was a still sort of anger. It kept him statuesque. Burning only internally.

This particular time, the punishment was longer. They’d gone far out of bounds. Orders were to torch a single building. To send a message. But they'd destroyed an entire city block, plus a church. Nine people dead. Well, nine in addition to the several dozen targets who were expected to be killed. It had started well enough. The best burn they’d ever done. It had felt so good. And Constantine had looked up, seen his brother’s grin, felt the glee throb between them—the feeling no one else in the world could understand.

They’d gotten out of control. The lesson being taught was restraint.

By the third day, even Constantine had started to pace. It kept his mind off the gnawing hunger in his gut. He couldn’t see his brother from his windowless room. Two feet of solid concrete and rebar webbing separated them, their cells side by side. But they could hear each other’s voices through ventilation.

They mostly yelled insults and threats.

By the fourth day, they’d shut up.

By the fifth, they blasted at the reinforced steel and concrete around the doors to their cells. Leonid always got further. His flames had always burned hotter. But he always faltered and gave out sooner, while Constantine kept up a steady stream of heat for full hours later. They burned until their hands were pink and raw, until their legs gave out.

By the sixth day, they lay on the floors of their cells, curled around the drains at the center, gasping for any fresh air, having used up so much of the oxygen in the sealed basement to burn their way out. And only minor charred divots in the doors to show for it.

It was the seventh day that Leonid called a soft apology, so quiet Constantine barely heard it. He whispered one of his own back, too nauseous with hunger to be angry anymore. They crawled to their shared wall, discussed the possibility they’d been forgotten, or that something was wrong up above. They talked about the progress they’d made in escape. Constantine’s melted area was wide enough to walk through, but shallow, barely a dent in the wall. Leonid's was deep, almost all the way through the front of his cell, but too focused, too narrow.

“It’s too bad they separated us, little brother,” Leonid muttered with a chuckle. “We’re stronger together.”

“That’s why we’re here in the first place,” Constantine retorted, unable to keep his own smile at bay.

He touched the wall between them. It might have been the delirium that came from starvation, but he thought he could almost feel his brother’s heat on the other side.

“I have an idea.”

It took them only an hour to burn through the wall between them. Constantine made sure they were positioned away from support beams and wiring, to avoid the whole bunker coming down on their heads. Or worse. With heat from both sides, their separate intensities mattered little. The fire doubled, fed on itself, ate up the oxygen between them as the boys panted and wavered on their feet. Leonid's heated blue flame mixed with Constantine’s steady red-orange and burned almost white. The wall popped, cracked, whined, melted away.

They crumpled along with it, passed out. When they woke, the hole between them had cooled enough that Leonid could reach through and grasp Constantine’s forearm, helping him slide through. His brother’s cell was identical, but felt different. The walls were blackened, none of the original grey showing. He'd destroyed bed, toilet, and sink in a fit. Constantine wondered how long he'd been without water. The progress Leonid had made at the front of the cell looked like a black hole, streaks of stress and heat directed toward the point of breaking like a dying star devouring light.

“We can do it,” Leonid said. “Together. We could break through.”

“We don’t have…enough oxygen…” Constantine shook his head. He could barely breathe as it was. “One more burn, it will all be gone.”

Leonid grasped the back of his neck, pulling their foreheads together. His own breaths were hard and harsh, rasping horribly. “Then we die faster rather than slower.” His other hand gripped Constantine’s neck. It was mostly to keep him upright. “Are you with me, little brother?”

Constantine closed his eyes, licked his lips, and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’m with you.”

Half an hour later, two exhausted young men stumbled into the hall, gasping at the barest hints of extra oxygen outside. Constantine lay on his back. Leonid knelt beside him.

“No guard.”

“I can’t—” Constantine arched his back to somehow pull more air into his lungs but there simply wasn’t any.

“There’s no…no guard, Constantine. Just one more door. One more, little brother.”

Leonid had to take a fistful of Constantine’s shirt and haul him up off the ground. They half-carried one another, stumbling like two men melted into one. Up the steps. To the final door. Simple wood. Heavy wood, but simple. On the other side, unfamiliar voices. A fight. And precious oxygen. They just needed to get through to it.

“Just…one…spark…”

Their hands slapped to cool wood in unison. Grimy and burned and raw. They drew air into their lungs. They exhaled. The air around their fingers heated.

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Corridor 02 by duster132

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Suzume waited patiently, eyes wide, blinking intermittently. Her trademark grin bloomed at his question. “Hai.” She giggled a little, reached up and pointed at his mouth, just a few inches away, as if she were going to poke the corner of his lips up into a smile. “You’re sad. Or thinking. Constantine says that’s what he’s doing when he’s not smiling. He also says ‘Go away, Sparrow.’ But he’s nice, really. You seem nice, too.”

“Jesus Christ, Suzy,” Flash muttered. He rolled his eyes and took a step forward, shoving the last of his power bar into his hoodie pocket and reaching out for the girl’s arm. “Listen, I’m sorry, man. She doesn’t get out much.”

A Walk on the Surface

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Powers: Pyrokinesis

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A Walk on the Surface

Everyone in the bunker was allowed topside on their own, if they so chose (with clearance, of course). Even Flash, though he often found himself on probation for incidents. Even Eddy, with his brain damage, was big enough and powerful enough to defend himself. And he knew to retreat if he couldn't handle anything. He knew how to run home. He also knew to scoop the little sparrow up and run with her if she was with him.

Today she was. 

Or rather, he was with her. Because Flash wasn't the first pick for escorting the only member of their little family who actually needed protection. Protecting someone at all made him nervous. And he was jumpy to start out with. His power was naturally built for fleeing. He wasn't eager to develop it past that.

But Suzy did need someone. She had no sense of danger. She had no sense for anything, really. Like the bird she was named for, she often would sit and chirp until it was too late. The little sparrow only flew out of the way of the oncoming car at the last possible moment. Flash was good at determining when to run. And Eddy was good at making sure they got away. They made a neat little trio.

Anybody else would just think it was three teens out for a walk.

Unless they were paying very close attention and saw Flash occasionally seem to glitch on the air. Twitches that were too fast for the human eye to catch. Eddy usually glared solemnly at him. Suzy never noticed.

Today she didn't notice because she'd spotted a man sitting on a park bench and had plopped down next to him with absolutely no prelude. 

"Why are you sad?"

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God knows you're lonely souls

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Buzzcut Season || Lorde

I remember when your head caught flame It kissed your scalp and caressed your brain (I remember when your head caught flame) Well you laughed, baby it's okay It's buzzcut season anyway (Well you laughed, baby it's okay)

Explosions on TV And all the girls with heads inside a dream So now we live beside the pool Where everything is good

We ride the bus with the knees pulled in People should see how we're living (We ride the bus with the knees pulled in) Shut my eyes to the song that plays Sometimes this has a hot, sweet taste (Shut my eyes to the song that plays)

The men up on the news They try to tell us all that we will lose But it's so easy in this blue Where everything is good

And I'll never go home again (Place the call, feel it start) Favorite friend (And nothing's wrong but nothing's true) I live in a hologram with you Where all the things that we do for fun (And I'll breathe, and it goes) Play along (Make believe, it's hyper real) But I live in a hologram with you

Cola with the burnt-out taste I'm the one you tell your fears to There'll never be enough of us

Explosions on TV And all the girls with heads inside a dream So now we live beside the pool Where everything is good

And I'll never go home again (Place the call, feel it start) Favorite friend (And nothing's wrong but nothing's true) I live in a hologram with you Where all the things that we do for fun (And I'll breathe, and it goes) Play along (Make believe, it's hyper real) But I live in a hologram with you

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