Restless Silence

"Say what you have own your mind
  To yourself and no one else until its nothing more than wasted time
  Time to hurt and time to wait
  Time to see that its too little and much too late "

-Aftermath (Koethe)

(Note: This is a work of fiction)

You never really know when a person's gonna die. Or who's gonna die for that matter.
Family, Friends, Lover... We're all equal in deaths eyes.
And no matter who dies, life goes on, and you can't do anything about it.
But really, life never just goes on.
In a way, death makes you immortal, if only in others memories...
And in that immortality, it shakes the core of those who are still mortal by living standards. If only by the impossible silence they've created with their death.
That was how it felt my best friend, Will, died.
And if you think just learning a person died was devastating, it isn't as heart crushing as being the one to find them dead.
I should have predicted it, actually. Will had always been so happy and always had this smile on his face.
You wouldn't have noticed anything was different the past few weeks until you realized that his smile was far different from the one he had before things started to go wrong.
It wasn't like he was happy.
It was more like he was refreshed. Peaceful.
And my stupid mind couldn't comprehend the difference between the two until I finally took notice.
So one day he started messaging me out of nowhere to talk. So we did. We always talked.
That was probably the last time I saw him alive.
It was that night that I realized that something was wrong.
The day, we talked about memories that passed us by. Remincing was normal, but not to the extent where it got so far to how we met. And then we talked philosophy and how the world was changing and that life just went on.
He seemed so tired and refreshed at the same time.
It was 12 midnight when I realized that, so I decided I'd just go in the morning and see if he was okay.
When I got to his flat with the spare he gave me, I found him. Slumped on his refrigerator with a bottle of pills on his right hand. Belive me, I did everything in my power to try and revive him. I was CPR certified and I wasn't about to let my best friend die.
But he did.
And the medical examiner told me he had been dead for over 8 hours. So there really wasn't anything I could do.
It was at that moment that I felt this nagging, deafening silence pierce through me as the days went by with the fact that my friend has passed on, way too early than he should have.
There was no note to why he did what he did.
But there was one video on his phone. It was the last one he ever made. Like 3 hours before his plan.
He beamed that stupid refreshed smile again at me and with unnerving graititude, he said:
"It's a wonderful day. Wonderful life. I hope everything has been wonderful. I'll see you again."
There was nothing after that. Just that smile turning into pursed lips with a faint hint of the vanishing smile and one turn of his head.
His bright, gray eyes. Tired.
And nothing.
There was no whys he left behind.
Just whys that will never be answered.
I could never comprehend why things turned out this way.
He was loved, he never showed anything to make me or any of his friends believe that anything was wrong.
That he was always just smiling at us, telling us to have a good day.
This man that I vented to when my mother died. This man, who saved my sister from drowning. This man, who touched the lives of many others...
A man who saved everyone...
And no one was there to save him.
And in his wake, he left a bone crushing silence in my heart. The mark he left on me and our friends, aching for him to come back.
But he would never come back.
And time would renew again without another one of his trustful words or his smiles.
Sometimes, you'll never get a reason, and for that reason itself, you just have to find your own way of closure.
People say it gets better. And it probably will.
But never forget to realize that pain will stick around and it can be awhile before it really does get better.
So in the days after watching my friend get buried, I contemplated how I would continue.
Should I just dive after, ask him in the afterlife myself?
But then, why?
It leaves a lot of whys.
So instead, I took my time... I took the time to grieve and appreciate that he was here for me, if only for a while.
And as time went by... I coped... I healed...
I'll never understand why... And I probably never will...
But after a while, the silence didn't pierce my heart or ears.
Instead, it brought me warmth as I cherished the memories of his immortality.
And that in itself... has let me move on....

-Authors Notes
This short story shows us how life is an unpredictable element.
That life will move on as people vanish.
And that at some point, you have to just... Move on...
-Thanos Venge

A Stranger's Pieces

I didn't know you
Not personally, Not at all
Yet I saw you in the vast interweb
And I felt you touch my soul

I wanted to know you
See your life
But it was far too late for that
After all, death doesn't take calls

I long to understand you
You and your choices
And all the sorrow you left
In exchange for the peace you've gained.

I wish it wasn't you
You who connected
To this stranger's heart
To have left of your own accord

I hope happiness is with you
Because there was nothing I could have done
All but ask
Why?

Authors Notes:
This poem is about the deceased Youtuber/Musician Nathan Wills.
I didn't know him, but I heard great things about him.
And the moment I saw him on the net, I just felt a weird connection.
With that, a sadness came over me, and I didn't know what to do.
-Thanos Venge

The Co-Pact: Intro

"No one can hear you, Not at all."
-Escalators (I The Mighty)

The City of Vinctum had a pretty beautiful park. Comparable enough to that of the likes of Eastbrick City's. Enough to get it treated as a tourist spot for its fantastic view of the shimmering buildings built with fortitude and the best materials. The mayor of the city practically laughed with pride as he muttered to himself how the owners of Eastbrick and Westbrick would eat their hearts out from jealousy.
Of course, Vinctum park was notorious for one thing.
Attacks from superpowered threats. It was practically a battle ground for heroes and villains alike.
Every town or city of the Brick Circle, as people now call the circle of towns that are parallel to East or Wesbtick, all have their own gimmick. Eastbrick had a vigilante hacker. Westbrick was a small town subject to many mysteries that never seem to leave its vicinity. Vinctum's gimmick was that they had superheroes and villains.
They're practically like Gotham or Metropolis.
Except people aren't surprised anymore. There are a lot of heroes nowadays and Vinctum was one of many cities home to various superpowered beings.
Of course, that meant that there are about at least 4 or 5 attacks every week or 2. And the local heroes usually deal with them.
Though Vinctum battles are low profile that villains around here are usually defeated in an hour. Heroes here usually immigrate to the cities where there are larger threats. And not to mention they get called to battle when a gigantic threat threatens to destroy the world. Again.
So that usually leaves the city vulnerable.
But while the buildings have been made to prevent damage, and people having enough common sense to get out of the way, the villains here, while often mediocre at best, are still that. Villains.
Of course, there are some high class villains that pose a real threat, such as Ragdoll, a metahuman capable of creating high strength, high capacity cloth that can't be cut with any old knife, and Trip, a junkie with acid powers. Those two, who are attacking the park right now to try and get a bunch of college students in a photoshoot to give them their money and equipment, were a sinister force to be reckoned with.
And since there's a gigantic alien somewhere down in New York, that left this city virtuallly helpless.
Almost.
If push comes to shove, Vinctum had one more group of heroes that they could call upon.
Though this group was an uncanny bunch that didn't seem to fit like any ordinary puzzle.
The Co-Pacts.
A group of super powered humans who grouped up to cooperate on a pact they made. To this day, the citizens have no idea what sort of pact they had. But its what keeps them together.
"So, what have we got?" Dressed in a detectives trenchoat and face covered with a masquerade mask designed like a set of playing cards, Razor Flush was the defacto leader of the team. While he didn't want to, opting for a democratic teamwork, the team had occasionally needed directions and he was usually the first to direct and notice things. "Aren't you being a little too petty?"
 Ragdoll stretched his cloth hands, extending them towards Razor Flush. Of course, it was useless. The cloths had been diced into tiny pieces before Ragdoll could strike. Razor Flush's playing cards fluttering from where Razor Flush threw them.
Razor Flush had the ability to manipulate an objects density and sharpness. A mix of Picnokinesis and Aciukinesis. And so with that, he usually manipulated playing cards into becoming dagger-like projectiles.
"Maybe you need a trim." Razor Flush revealed a bunch of sharpened cards from out of his trench coat sleeeve and took a step forward to Ragdoll.
Of course, that just wasn't enough of a threat to Ragdoll as he tried again, trying numbers to overwhelm Razor Flush.
But of course, that meant the second member of Co-Pact stepped in.
The cloth, now frozen in ice, were all sliced off by a single stroke from Fencer's blade.
Fencer, clad in a graceful gold combat skirt and fencing coat and her own special mask, is a metahuman gifted with the power of Aqua and Cryokinesis from a gene splicing experiment gone wrong, made number two in Co-Pact's numbers. She fights gracefully with her sword and fencing, hence her name.
"You seriously need to give it up." She said.
Trip was the next to attack, showering them with green acid.
Of course, it didn't hit. A sacred light engulfed the liquid and burst them into nothing. A feat only Sacreed could have done. A young man with the power of Light gifted to him by another hero. He is practically the definition of a comic book hero. Not to mention his outfit was one with all the stereotypical things on it. A logo on the chest and a cape Edna Mode would never approve of.
"Miswire, a hand?"
"I gotcha." Miswire, the youngest member of the team, is a teenager gifted with the Technokinesis and Electrokinesis from being electrocuted during a freak blackout. She's suited up in a black skin tight outfit with a off shoulder top and miniskirt filled to the brim with gadgets over it.
With a snap of a finger, She stunned Trip into submission and Razor Flush Pinned Ragdoll down into the ground.
"Let's cut to the chase." Razor Flush snorted as he said that. "We either beat or kill you, or you leave with your tails between your legs and call it a day."
This was one of the reasons why Co-Pact wasn't a person's first call for help.
The team had a practically gray moral line. With Sacreed being the sole hero to uphold the usuall superhero morals of being pure and good.
Razor Flush, more of a mercenary in attitude, could care less about the methods or lives. Not to mention he was a dirty fighter. Fencer, though fighting fairly and usually gracefully, was not above killing those who she thought needed to go. And lastly Miswire, though not as easy to justify killing, is willing to commit certain acts that couldn't be considered ethical at times. And she was one to beat someone into submission if she had to.
Of course they gave chances. So Ragdoll and Trip surrendered. They were arrested and the team dispersed, uninterested in interviews.

#

It took them a while to actually get along and actually be friends.
So a few months ago, it would have been strange watching them eat pizza together at a local restaurant.
"So, what do you think about this Thanos Venge kid from Eastbrick?" Miswire asked, her interest in hacking attracting her to the famous vigilante of Eastbricj.
"Eh.. I'm not impressed." said Razor Flush as hesliced the pizza with his nail. "He gets people to pay him to avenge them. He's a mercenary, not a hero. Besides, I heard from a friend the last two battles he saw the kid fighting, he almost died if he hadn't had a gun to shoot them with. He's probably not impressive in combat."
Fencer nodded. "I agree. He should stick to his computers and mind his own business."
"But technology is sooo much fun. The way he executes justice like that... I want to know who he is!"
Sacreed laughed. "Well Miswire, if you really want to know, can't you just use your powers to hack him?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I want to find out myself without cheating like that." The Co-Pact looked at her, unbelieving.
She groaned. "Fine, his thousands of computer protection is too much even for me to crack."
A grin emit from Razor Flush. "Hmm. Maybe he isn't so bad after all."
His watch beeped and he stood, a slice of pizza still in his hand.
"Leaving so soon?" Fencer asked.
"I got work. Unlike the rest of you, I happen to like my day job."
"You should quit." Sacreed said. "Its really only gonna get in the way."
"You'll understand someday, Holy Breath."
He waved goodbye, gulping the pizza in one bite, and ran out of the restaurant.
The rest of them followed suit after having the leftovers bagged.
All of them, with a story to tell, continued on as they split from their circle.
Just another day for the Co-Pacts.

-Author Notes
This has been a lingering idea of mine for a while now. I'll probably upload art as well.
Expect a prologue of the Co-Pacts, detailing how they came to be, individual chapters for each character, and even more stories, leading up to their current team.
Hope to see you again!
Arrivaderci

-ThanosVenge