Are you 26 or 62, old timer?

Summer 2021, Week 4, Tuesday afternoon

Riverview Hospital Center, City Centre

Storyteller

The doctors had declared, in intrigued surprise, that Victory was out of the woods earlier that morning. His heart and other organs showed damage from electrical shock, but they were healing at a faster rate than anticipated. Not immediate like some other Evos, but enough they anticipated he’d be released in a few days after some final tests.
With him awake and alert, they made the decision he could have visitors. But the Police restricted that to only members of the AERI Team or Family for now. Victory amended that himself by saying there might be a few Evos who stop by that aren’t official AERI but he’d like to see if they came in. This list included Geb, Unbreakable, and Aelin.

Unbreakable

It was a long and annoying process for Unbreakable to even get close to the room Andre or well "Victory" was staying in. First he had to find the room which would have taken him hours if he wasn't smart enough to put one and one together that the floor with the most guards and more security then the rest was probably the one. Then he had to figure out which room the resident golden martyr was in, before struggling past security all the way to the door to Andre's room. Hell, he knew where it was half of it just wanted him to go up a floor discretely jump out of a window and fly down to the window. Though he was sure if he had not worn his usual now dirty outfit and facemask he would have been let in a little more.
Well, I've gotten this far, fucks sake might as well try and talk my way past these guards. With a defeated tone in his usually annoyingly heroic voice he admitted. "For fucks sake the idiot knows me, I just wanted to check in on 'em. I was the one trying to keep the idiot from dying or did they not tell that on the news...Look just let me in already I've got things to do besides talk Victory..."

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

“Jason, it’s fine. Let him in” Andre shouted from the room after recognizing the voice. Jason, the officer on duty outside his room, stood aside promptly to let Unbreakable past. Andre was sitting in bed, wearing his normal clothes because those hospital gowns were not the height of fashion or comfort. He had a clean white wrap going all the way down his left arm and circles under his eyes. Red lines lived in the white outside the golden irises, but otherwise he seemed fine.
He held a book in his hand, old and official looking. “The Categorization of Evolved Humans Vol. II” it read in grey font. Closing the book, Andre gave a bit of a smile. “You could have just flown up you know?”

Unbreakable

"See I told ya so." Unbreakable slowly made his way into the room. The goggles covering his eyes pulled down like a necklace his brown eyes carrying bags beneath them like an exhausted raccoon. Of course ignoring that the teen looked scarily healthily, not like a few days prior he had broken a ribcage, tried to keep someone alive worried about everything and everyone.
"Last time there was someone with a gun around and I flew upwards, I got a bullet scrape across my leg, I didn't wanna risk it again, plus can't give your golden dumbass a heart attack now can I?" Unbreakable chuckled a bit taking a seat near Andrea his eyes watering up before they were quickly rubbed away in almost an instant. He wasn't sure why his eyes were slowly doing that more and more.
"I feel like I've seen something similar to that before what is it?"

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

“Seems like you’re getting to the point guns don’t matter much anymore.“ He pushed himself up in the bed to be seated, moving the IV line out of the way. “You’re right, the doctors might not take kindly to my heart being pushed that far so soon. I keep telling them I’m fine but between them and Sloane and the Mayor I don’t get much of a say right now. I just want to get out of here.”
Brief memories of a shoddy hospital in NOLA came to mind. The slow beeping of an EKG machine. The smell of disinfectant and death. Thankfully, mercifully, Unbreakable pulled him out of that memory with his question. “Oh, it’s about the different Evo categories. Or what they knew when they wrote it in the 80’s. It’s not complete or exact but it gives good info. Specifically about Enhanced like us. For example, apparently my ‘miraculous but not evolved’ healing is thanks to my Enhanced Durability.”
Realizing he was rambling he waved a hand. “Sorry. You’re the first person to just sit and talk and not pester me with a million questions about how I’m doing. It’s a refreshing break. So th—wait a second, golden dumbass? Those are fighting words you know.”

Unbreakable

“With good reason, no offence to you dude, but you were basically dead when I started compressions on you. Look just take ya time. I’ve kinda been doing your job. Though less well I think.”
Unbreakable had decided to not pester with a million questions about his condition. Like what could he ask? He had all the info he needed about it. Victory likes to be an idiot but luckily has the endurance to barely make it. None of his business was it?
“Oh yeah I think I had to do an essay on the types of evo’s before sum- Ahem anyway, next time there’s a live or death situation maybe leave it to the man who doesn’t have just miraculous but evolved healing.”
Unbreakable chuckled and dismissively waved off the rambling. “Hey I get it. Look all that matters is you’re breathing and awake right? That’s a big win for alotta people out there, and yeah golden dumbass, I know them are fighting words, one of us is stuck in a hospital bed, after being a dumbass who happens to have some weird fuckin’ gold shit going on.” He chuckled a bit jokingly shadowboxing a bit before sighing.
“Though I’ve been meaning to ask, are there any specific routes you take when you patrol?”

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

Andre’s gaze went distant when Unbreakable mentioned how he almost died. Because you couldn’t handle it. You couldn’t cut it. The thoughts came unbidden. “I’m not the type to have others go in harms way while I stay safe, regardless what they can do. I assume you already knew that, but the offer is nice.” And what does it say about you that you even need that offer. Victory needing help because he can’t take a hit.
“Alright, bet. Next training session it’s on. We can see just how Unbreakable you are.” Andre shot back with a grin that didn’t fully reach his eyes but did it’s part to silence the thoughts. “I try to avoid a pattern. But typically I’ll start somewhere public during the day. Downtown or city centre. Just so people know I’m around. Then I just zip about. Usually the Industrial Districts when they let out around 6. Downtown at 8 when it starts swinging into the night life. I’m still getting a feel for it, but I go where I’d expect trouble to be. Places people worry about, you know? Getting mugged after work, attacked at a club. So I check out those places.”

Unbreakable

“Yeah, I put that together but you gotta remember you’re not just Andre the uh whatever you were before you became victory. You’re basically he poster boy for what good an evo can do, it’s okay to accept your limits and slowly push them but I think you should probably avoid jumping into a transformer of an evo again. At least not without rubber gloves. You saved the day but I think it’s important to know you’re kind of part of a whole movement now. If I die I might I dunno, come back maybe? I mean it’s not too big a leap from a badly broken rip cage to that. Anyway no one will bat an eye but if you go, it’s gonna go one of two ways both that absolutely fucking suck.”
Unbreakable shook his head softly listening to the patrol route general idea’s and writing them down in his phone with a light chuckle. This was a bit to heavy for him at the moment so he gracefully accepted the easy out. “Oh yeah grandpa? After I’m gonna be done with ya you’ll have to get a name change to defeat. Go black and red with your pyjama’s and go through a leather jacket phase.”

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

"Keep that attitude up with your new healing trick. Let's see how far that gets you when I toss you into the high atmosphere." He shot back laughing, feeling the moment of stress free joy flood his system. "The leather jacket might look nice though. I should give that a try."
"I'll be out of here in a day or two and I'll pick up some of the slack. Then I can show you how its really done." The smile was still there even as his mind returned to previous thoughts. He couldn't take it easy, not after that night. Too many people got hurt, far too many died. Never again. Not as long as I'm alive. My life is fine, not theirs. That's why he needed to get out of here. He'd spent far too long on his ass.

Unbreakable

“oh yeah try keeping that attitude when you watch my body crunch back together, and Nah you shouldn’t. I’m young so when I do it it’s cool and edgy. When you do it it’s a midlife crisis.” The teen joined in on the chuckling for a bit anxiously rubbing where his rib cage was.
A brief flash of pain overflowed his senses for a moment as he remembered his body being telekinetically slammed into an Unbreakable sized hole, then another flash of remembering pain, his rib cage breaking itself down and building itself back up.
“Hey, you should be the last person in a rush to get out there. You ain’t the only evo who can do this work. Hell it’s my job as an evo to protect people. Moment I got my powers I shoulda been doing it. But I just gotta improve as best I can.” Unbreakable rubbed his face before he dug into his bag and pulled out a pair of grip trainers trying to use them without snapping it like a twig.

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

“I’ve seen the news. The longer I take to get out there the worse it might get.” Andre watched Unbreakable use the grip trainers. Smiling as he saw the young man successfully avoid crushing it. “You’re right I can’t do everything. But I can do my part just like you’re doing. If I wasn’t at par I wouldn’t rush out there. But every day I’m in here when I’m feeling fine is a waste of time. Old guys like me don’t like wasting time since we don’t have much left” He quipped back. “You’re doing good though. I’m impressed. Add to that I haven’t heard of many buildings having a kid size hole in them lately.”

Unbreakable

"Jeez, tell me how ya really feel. Look dude, your part is gettin' back to full strength and taking care of yourself. Can't have ya coming back and being thrown right back in here. All you older guys talk about wanting to do things right the first time around. So how about you do it right first? Don't worry about the streets, one idiot who can heal and fly is scary enough."
Unbreakable chuckled at the quip grinning back. "Yeah well, EHEA might been keeping an eye on me, gotta wear my Sunday best, and hey I am ambiguously aged thank you very much not a kid."

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

Andre squinted and smiled. "Yeah. Totally ambiguous. Couldn't possibly put together a fair estimate." They all younger. That thought scared him. He was only 27. Sloane was close to his age, but beyond that most of them were in their early 20's. A bunch of recent college grads against the world. "I heard about the EHEA being active again. I'll need to talk to the Mayor about that. I'm not all up to speed on how separate the City's rules are from the country, but things could get bad for us if we don't clear it up." So much on his mind, so much to do. The exhaustion started to hit him. The mental fatigue. The need to get out of this damn bed and do something, anything, other than sit in a bed all day.

Unbreakable

“Well I’d love to see ya guess. Not that I’ll tell ya but if you guess too old I won’t be offended. I ain’t that vain.” Aloy wished he was a village grad student, another member of the team in their early 20’s having more figured out then he does at least. Though looking at Deandre a single thought crossed Unbreakables mind.
Maybe me being forced into this now is a good thing, I mean the failure of the team hit me hard, but I can blame it on being an idiot teenager.
“Yeah, I feel a shitstorm coming our way if those rumours are true in any way I think there might be riots in the streets, but you just let the youngin’s worry about that. I mean, when I get a chance I wanna talk to AERI, I have a few idea’s for how y’all should operate and fight. After all there’s good potential there y’all just weren’t in sync with each other.” Unbreakable slipped the grip trainer away and stood up opening the window in the room and leaning lightly on the frame.

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

“Tell me about it. The team needs a lot of work. A lot of training, individually and together.” Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. “I didn’t foresee it being an issue right now to be honest. No one expected this, not this early. But I’m used to a well oiled team. This…this was a bunch of kids thrown into the wolfs den. That’s gotta change.”
He went into his own thoughts for a moment before smiling again. “Come by sometime and share what you got. Can’t be any worse than what the rest of the Gen Z folks got.” His grin said he was teasing, but his eyes also said he was getting tired. Either mentally or physically it was getting to him.

Unbreakable

"Well that's all you can try, do your best and if it fails. I dunno what do they do in sports? Re-watch the tape or something? I dunno, I was never really picked for sports. but look, alright I think y'all need to I dunno sit around a campfire drink and sing kumbaya. Most teams work well when they know each other really well. Easier to guess what someone is going to do when you know who they are." Unbreakable gave a thin weak smile that was still hidden behind the mask, he was trying to be positive but his tone and the stare of someone leaving the universe betrayed him.
He seemed almost detached when talking about how the group should try and be friends. He'd never been part of a team or gone camping with friends, closest thing he'd ever had to a friend was that one time he tried to beat up a bully to protect some poor kid who needed the lunch money that was being extorted out of him. Of course there was the orphanage but he didn't consider the kids there friends. Everyone feels like an acquaintance.
He shook his head side to side the hood shifting with the fine quick movements of his neck. "Well I mean I dunno if I'm that old to be gen Z but I will. You're looking pretty tired so I'll head out. You've got my number don't be scared to call me. Anyway I'm gonna do a fli-" Before Unbreakable had finished his his final sentence he leaned back outside the window with a wink and let his body fall until he flew away.

DeAndre Walker (Victory)

“Take it easy man. I’ll be in touch.” Andre said as the man made his way out the window. At least he’s feeling more comfortable with flying now. Once he was alone, he let everything crush down to normal. The weight wasn’t unbearable, just a lot. The needs to change the team, the weight of all those deaths, the urge to be better. But after talking to Aloy he was starting to feel like he knew what to do next. Recover. Every journey started with one step. And he couldn’t tackle everything unless he was healed. One more day. Then I can get to work.

Type

Record, Historical

Medium

Digital Recording, Text