"So you guys are a part of the Mutant Outlaws?" Kai asked, recalling the group of criminal rogue mutants mentioned on the news.
"Yup, that's us," Nadya confirmed proudly, but Isaac quickly jumped in before there was a misunderstanding.
"We are a group of mutants spread around the world that refuse to submit to the Association or any government. We're freedom fighters that also deal with mutants who are misusing their abilities."
Kai simply nodded his head and had no reason to doubt Isaac's words or even care. In his eyes, no one was worse than Nyx, and an enemy of his enemy was his friend.
"What about the sword guy?"
Nadya scoffed, tipping her bottle back for another drink. "Yeah, he's one of us too. He's rarely around, and it's hard to tell what the hell he's thinking, but he's there when you need him. Like earlier when you woke up like a bloodthirsty demon."
"We nearly ended you, haha," she laughed.
Isaac was immediately ready to defuse the situation if Kai reacted badly, but he merely sighed in response.
Everyone seemed to be opening up tonight.
But when it came to his own past… there was nothing.
Or rather - nothing before Nyx's facility.
There was no childhood. No home. No memories of a life before he woke up in that hellhole.
All he could remember was pain.
Kai downed the rest of his drink, the burn doing little to distract him. "I can't remember anything before the facility," he admitted. His voice was even, but his grip on the glass tightened. "And to be honest… I wish I could forget what I experienced there too."
Nadya said nothing.
Isaac only stared at him. Out of everyone, he likely understood the most, being well-versed with Nyx.
Kai exhaled, his breath misting in the cold air. "The stimulation chambers… they were torture." His voice was quieter now, but there was no hesitancy. "They wanted to force out our latent potential. To make us break in just the right way."
A muscle in Isaac's jaw twitched, but he didn't interrupt.
"And Nyx…" Kai's fingers tapped against his knee. "He enjoyed it. He didn't just experiment - he liked tormenting me. The worst part wasn't even the pain. It was the cell."
His mind flickered back. The damp, the cold, the suffocating darkness of the underground holding cells. Locked away for days, with nothing but his own thoughts.
"I wouldn't wish that shit on anyone," he muttered.
He raised his glass, shaking it slightly. Empty.
"Maybe if I get drunk enough, something will come to me," he joked, though there was no humour in it.
Nadya remained uncharacteristically silent.
Isaac just kept watching him, as if trying to piece together what kind of hell Kai had actually been through.
But no one said anything.
The cold wind whistled through the ruined city, and the three of them sat there - each lost in their own thoughts...
-
Kai knocked back drink after drink, letting the burn trail down his throat. He wasn't aiming for enjoyment - he just wanted to numb his mind. To quiet the thoughts clawing at the back of his head.
But no matter how much he drank, it was useless. His body filtered out the alcohol before it could take effect.
"Tch." He exhaled sharply, staring at the glass in irritation. Had he always had this kind of tolerance? Or was it just another side effect of his mutation? His blood likely worked too efficiently, burning through toxins before they could even touch his system.
Across from him, Nadya had slumped back against the railing, her usual sharp smirk replaced with a lazy grin. She was properly drunk now - her speech slurred, her movements looser, and her mood shifting unpredictably.
She started laughing, pointing at him like he was some kind of cosmic joke. "Hah! You can't get drunk, can you? What a shame, what a damn shame." She waved her bottle dramatically, nearly spilling it. "You can control blood, heal from injuries in minutes, but get drunk. Nah. The universe said, 'fuck you, Kai'!"
Kai let out a slow breath, rolling his eyes.
Isaac, who hadn't been drinking anyway, simply reached into his coat and pulled out a box of cigarettes he rarely indulged in. He held the pack out to Kai. "Guess you're out of luck."
Kai hesitated before taking one. "I guess I'll just smoke instead," he muttered, placing it between his lips.
Before he could reach for a lighter, Nadya snapped her fingers, summoning a flickering orange spark in her palm. "Here, let me."
She lurched forward slightly, nearly missing. But the ember finally caught the end of the cigarette, lighting it with a faint crackle.
Kai inhaled, letting the smoke fill his lungs before exhaling slowly.
The taste was awful.
'Hah. I never did understand why the old man liked these,' he thought, the bitterness lingering on his tongue. "They taste like shit."
There was a sudden flicker of something.
Faint, yet familiar.
An image just at the edge of his mind, slipping through his grasp like smoke. A figure. Someone important.
Someone he knew.
The old man.
No, not just any old man - Gramps.
A dull ache pulsed through his skull as he tried to force the memory into focus, but all he got were fractured glimpses.
Still, it was something.
"I was a soldier… and I had a grandfather," he murmured, the words spilling out before he could even process them.
He let out a low chuckle, exhaling another puff of smoke.
'It's a starting point, I guess.'
Drunk Nadya squinted at him, watching as if he had just lost his mind. Then, with a shrug, she simply took another drink.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
The wind howled through the ruined city, distant yet ever-present, carrying the echoes of the world's collapse. Their gazes lingered on the horizon, lost in their own thoughts amidst the chaos of the times they lived in.
Then...
"Alright!" Nadya suddenly shot to her feet, bottle in hand, stretching with an exaggerated yawn. "Enough brooding. Let's get wasted!"
Isaac sighed, rubbing his temple. "Here we go…"
Kai smirked slightly, glancing between the two. Somehow, he had a feeling the night was far from over.
Meanwhile, above them, perched atop the roof overlooking the balcony, Takeshi sat in silence.
His presence was unnoticed - just another shadow in the night. But as he listened, his sharp eyes flickered with something almost imperceptible.
A faint, nearly invisible smile.