Dr.Moon

Welcome to my library of strange stories from all over!

[dr-moon-stories]

Gunpowder 3

Mexico Countryside - 23 , September, 1990

Sonia was in her truck with her husband moving supplies to the village, she had packed the entire truck with food, clean water and medicine, things that they would need for the next few months, her most precious cargo was s cooled set of polio vaccines for the town doctor and medical supplies for the elderly. She drove with care for all the time she was in there. The road was not in the best condition since governmental focus had changed in the last years, however some things seemed to remain absurdly similar.

The truck slowly arrived at Santa Clara del Sol as Sonia and Petro park it close to the church, the priest was an old man with an attitude but no o ne could say he did not care about Santa Clara and its people, Sonia locked the truck in place with Pablo and left outside as Padre Marello approached “You are late!” he approached with his balding head and his small limp.

“Good afternoon to you, Padre, we are late yes, but you know how these things work, lots of cops around jthe streets, things have been happening a lot lately with the heroes and new villains going around, there is a bit of chaos” she shook her hand, already walking to start unloading the truck.

Petro rushed to put the boxes down with her, she smiled, the priest sighed. “Excuses are not good on the house of god , missy” he lookd at her.

“Then how about you start helping unload, man of god” Sonia was indeed annoyed at his attitude, regardless they all started to unload as the priest did some complaining about his knee and his back, she did let the heavier things for the younger ones of course but was better than listening to a lecture from Marello.

A few other people joined in to unload everything, as they were unloading everything Sonia got up on the truck front and grabbed the cooled box with the vaccines, she looks at everyone “I will deliver these to the clinic” she said calmly and walked down the small road.

“Dona Amora!” Sonia was really happy to see Amora, an old lady there in her 70s now seemed to be examining a boy that was laying there, Amora smiled and waved to her “A second, sweetie”

She finished examining the boy, he had several growths on his skin that seemed to be strange, Amora was collecting a few samples of it, she smiled after that and placed the thing on a microscope before turning to the boy “You may go Juan, I will keep you informed” as the boy smiled “Thank you miss Amora, bless you” he said before walking out to play football with his friends. 

After that Amora turned to Sonia to give her a tight hug, “Welcome home, sweetie, you seemed to be away for a good time now”

“Getting all the resources did take some time, we had to improvise during one of the moments because the money would not be enough for all the supplies, and then we had to argue with the government to send the vaccines through us” remembering of all that process brough a sigh to her, Amora seemed to agree with the feeling at least.

“You are home now at least! Have you talked to your sister already?”

“No, not yet, just a question, Juan is a meta? like the ones that are appearing around here?”

Amora had to nod “Well it seems yes... These new times are trying, at first we thought to be skin cancer which would be a big problem to bring treatment but soon the scales started to form, then I tested for maybe some mutation and asked a friend to see if it was a disease.”

They walk towards the freezer of the clinic to carefully place all the vaccines there, Amora locked the freezer and looks at Sonia once more with a smile “It was not, I was collecting a sample just to be sure, but, as it grows it really seems Juan is Meta”

“I see. Is that a problem with the others?” she looks just outsie

“Not so much for now, I do fear it might cause some ostracism but Juan is hardly the first meta on the town. And will not be the last if things continue as they are” Sonia knew that about 600 of the people on the village were meta at that point. She did not know what to think.

“Are the numbers... growing?”

“yes, hija, it doesnt seem to be dangerous to people but last year there were 58, this year there are 62 people on town with the condition, we dont know how long it can escalate, it is not contagious at least”

“I have to wonder if it would be so bad if everyone here became a meta?” waved

“Dios mio, I would have to relearn all the medicine from scratch, I am old you know ? Do you want me to die working?”

“At least would prevent the Priest from giving more work to people, he could do it himself?” with a laugh Sonia lens on the wall while she sits on a broken chair, looking about the clinic was not very big, just a couple of stretchers, one doctor with Amora and one nurse, the rest was all helping around.

Amora shook her head with a small smile “we should not speak of a priest like that, hija”

“The priest is a drunk who complains too much” she rebuked

“And he works for us in the way of Jesus, especially in such trying times around these parts. ”

“Yeah, of course, I do not hate him, but he does get in my nerves” Sonia leaned in, closing her eyes, she was indeed tired

“Be careful with resentment too hija, it is a path of glowing rocks directly to hell”

Sonia gave a laugh “of course miss Amora” she rolls her eyes “Well, not like much happens around these parts anyway, so bad mouthing someone is not that bad” she grinned

“You don't seem to like whhen I do it to your husband”

“Because he is my husband” she opens her eyes “but I should get tsome sleep before I pass out on some stretcher around here”

Santa Clara del Sol - 25 , September, 1990

Petro wakes up Sonia that evening “Something happened to Maria ” he seemed worried.

Their house there was a brick and mortar house, their room was quite nice she thought to herself, they were able to use the money from the travels to grab a few nice things, she got up naked and dressed herself still waking up “Which Maria?”

“Dona Maria, from the store, they are calling people to the meeting hall”

The meeting hall was also the party hall and sometimes the storage area, was just to the side of the church, was built and painted, had a big roof as well, was one of the few places on the village that had a functioning air conditioning system which seemed to drag people there in especially hot days. It was a big space with a few columns in the middle, had several chairs spread and a small elevated area that was used as a stage sometimes.

The mayor, Monseñor Luis approached, the place was packed, perhaps the whole town was there, the mayor looks at everyone and grabs the microphone.

“Hello everyone, many of you might be wandering what is going on” he seemed a bit nervous “This morning they found Dona Maria tied to her farm horse... the horse was wandering aimlessly” there were gasps of horror and worry “She is well and Amora says she will do a full recovery but... We sent someone to check the farm”

There was a tension in the air there, no one dared to speak, one could hear the air freezing, the expression on the Monseñor face was enough to make Sonia blood go cold.

“Her husband was dead. Her son was also dead and her daughter was missing, her horses had been killed except for one and the crops had rotten” he seemed to be shaking

There was a uproar, people were afraid, people were angry, the mayor tried to calm everyone down, Sonia however was in a daze, she knew her, Maria, her husband, she played with the kids, her expression dropped and she could feel her stomach churn. She was sitting up and fell before Petro could hold her there.

The mayor finally was able to grab something “We do not know what happened, we tried calling the city to send a patrol and they said it would take a week... At least. ” he shook his hands on the air, Sonia knew that was to clear his nerves.

“alright...” he said now “So, we dont know, it is not time for panic! Could be a cartel, we all knew that Mister Carlos had his name in a few of them, we will gather for the funeral and all the stuff as well.” he seemed nervous not believing his own words. 

The tension would grow, people would comment and people would be afraid, on the next day anothe person would disappear, he was trying to get his son to a hospital on the city, no one heard from him again.

Santa Clara del Sol - 27 , September, 1990

People were armed on the streets, people had been fortifying their homes the best way possible, another disappearence had happened, Sonia was at the church that day, a special mass for the souls of those who disappeared, no signs of the patrols and now communications were going out as well. Morello was praying for Jesus and god blessing for Saint Maria to look after them, Sonia had her eyes closed praying for Saint Maria there heavily. The priest prayed for peace.

Just after the Mass, war came there.

Sonia was getting up and thinking of everything, Petro held her tight there in worry, he was also worried, that is when shooting started just outside. People screamed. 

“close the doors!” screamed Morello as people rushed to close and bar the doors, Petro looked out “I will check the bell tower, there could be ways I could help!” he said , she held him “no please... I dont like this”

He looks at her “I will be right back” and he moved to the back of the church to check what was going on. Time passed slowly as every excruciating minute felt like hours, Sonia looked around and felt a strange anxiety there, something she did not feel usually, except when things were about to go bad. 

And they did end terribly, soon there was a scuffle outside, shots had been fired and a couple of bullets passed through the old church doors, hitting one of the girls in the arm, Sonia rushed to hold her with Amora. And then the door bursts violently, several men and women, all of them were visibly meta, all of them had hate in their eyes. She trembled as they passed there.

Morello rushed ahead “Please, I beg of you, we are a poor community, we have nothing to offer, take what you want but let the people live! This is the house of god, please by Jesus, by Maria... spare the peo-” and there was a scream as the priest was pierced by the hand of the man that was ahead of the group

“You dare to tell us what to do , old man” there was a grin in his face, Sonia looked in horror that she could not hide, her hand was trembling and she had to hold a hand on her mouth not to scream. A woman, one of the older ones, screamed.

“PADRE MORELLO!” and she was shot down as she tried to approach the corpse of the priest. Everyone else was frozen, unsure of what to do, there was an air of horror there and fear. People moved trying to comprehend and process what was going on. There the leader looked at his men.

“Divide the women and the men, divide the humans and meta! Go!” The men started to obey the orders and followed with anger and violence, pushing people, kicking them, one of them , a tall very strong man grabbed Sonia by her arm and pushed her out, Sonia still was trying to help Dona Olinda, she was pushed out of the 50 year old bleeding woman and dragged as she struggled into a corner of the church, others were moving the benches around , tossing them to open space. She was dragged with all the women in there, all the men were dragged around as well , then they were divided into the obvious meta in another corner also men and women.

They were all keeping them, soon they brought more people over from the village, separating them the way they could see, Sonia saw one of the meta girls to her side, were they only looking for the very obvious meta people? What was happening, soon more and more people enter the church, Sonia saw her husband on the other side. 

Looking to her left she saw Amora praying heavily on her rosary, Adelia was holding her child and asking for Maria protection, Lucia was trying to comfort people there, on the other side of the church she saw her husband trying to keep the people calm, he was looking at the others.

Sonia sat down worried until soon all of the village was there, she noted a lot of people were missing, her heart sank with that. Gulping with her throat dry to think of what could have happened. Once everyone was there their leader moved to the cross and smiled. He started speaking.

“You must be scared, you should, but not by what we are doing, these are simply growing pains of this new world!” he went towards the cross as there were a few gasps and he started floating, he raised his hand and the cross started to shake and break from the holds on the wall, it floats and then the cross, floating in the air is slammed in the ground 

She shakes down with that, her eyes could not look away in the same way of a trainwreck, that man smiled, Morello blood still dripping from his hands, he continues “Your god is an old senile god, WE ARE YOUR NEW GODS!” with a movement of his hands the grunts started rounding people.

Someone grabbed Adelia and forced her child off her, she cried out loud and was kicked there, Maria was dragged out, someone grabs at her “ARE YOU A POWER ONE?!” She could barely resist, Petro was screaming at them from the other side as they started looking for any metas it seemed, the man forced her into a wall “ANSWER ME!”.

She had barely time to react “No... I am not!” and she then is pushed back towards another group there. Soon they had grabbed everyone with powers there, placing them separately again. The men then grabbed the others and held them strongly into their places, they started going through the meta ones, Sonia saw as they were grabbing the more defiant ones and moving them outside. Then they came to her group.

“What do you do?” The man had a gun to her, she was trembling

“I.. I am... I am a Supp-”

Amora interrupted her “she is a nurse! she is my nurse with Marcia!” , she could only look at her as the man nodded and pushed her with Amora and a few others, then she noticed, she was being grouped with others, there were different groups, she saw the two teachers of the city being grouped into the other group, soon... they were lead outside.

“What is going on?” whispered to Amora

Amora lowered her gaze “I saved your life, hija, I understood what they were doing... The useless ones...” she looks at the ones being guided out, there were screams.

The leader got up on the table and smiled “WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LIFE! THOSE WHO ARE WORTHY ARE SAVED!”

Sonia eyes dropped, she wanted to cry. She did not see her husband anymore.

Mexico Countryside - 23 , September, 1990

Sonia was in her truck with her husband moving supplies to the village, she had packed the entire truck with food, clean water and medicine, things that they would need for the next few months, her most precious cargo was s cooled set of polio vaccines for the town doctor and medical supplies for the elderly. She drove with care for all the time she was in there. The road was not in the best condition since governmental focus had changed in the last years, however some things seemed to remain absurdly similar.

The truck slowly arrived at Santa Clara del Sol as Sonia and Petro park it close to the church, the priest was an old man with an attitude but no o ne could say he did not care about Santa Clara and its people, Sonia locked the truck in place with Pablo and left outside as Padre Marello approached “You are late!” he approached with his balding head and his small limp.

“Good afternoon to you, Padre, we are late yes, but you know how these things work, lots of cops around jthe streets, things have been happening a lot lately with the heroes and new villains going around, there is a bit of chaos” she shook her hand, already walking to start unloading the truck.

Petro rushed to put the boxes down with her, she smiled, the priest sighed. “Excuses are not good on the house of god , missy” he lookd at her.

“Then how about you start helping unload, man of god” Sonia was indeed annoyed at his attitude, regardless they all started to unload as the priest did some complaining about his knee and his back, she did let the heavier things for the younger ones of course but was better than listening to a lecture from Marello.

A few other people joined in to unload everything, as they were unloading everything Sonia got up on the truck front and grabbed the cooled box with the vaccines, she looks at everyone “I will deliver these to the clinic” she said calmly and walked down the small road.

“Dona Amora!” Sonia was really happy to see Amora, an old lady there in her 70s now seemed to be examining a boy that was laying there, Amora smiled and waved to her “A second, sweetie”

She finished examining the boy, he had several growths on his skin that seemed to be strange, Amora was collecting a few samples of it, she smiled after that and placed the thing on a microscope before turning to the boy “You may go Juan, I will keep you informed” as the boy smiled “Thank you miss Amora, bless you” he said before walking out to play football with his friends. 

After that Amora turned to Sonia to give her a tight hug, “Welcome home, sweetie, you seemed to be away for a good time now”

“Getting all the resources did take some time, we had to improvise during one of the moments because the money would not be enough for all the supplies, and then we had to argue with the government to send the vaccines through us” remembering of all that process brough a sigh to her, Amora seemed to agree with the feeling at least.

“You are home now at least! Have you talked to your sister already?”

“No, not yet, just a question, Juan is a meta? like the ones that are appearing around here?”

Amora had to nod “Well it seems yes... These new times are trying, at first we thought to be skin cancer which would be a big problem to bring treatment but soon the scales started to form, then I tested for maybe some mutation and asked a friend to see if it was a disease.”

They walk towards the freezer of the clinic to carefully place all the vaccines there, Amora locked the freezer and looks at Sonia once more with a smile “It was not, I was collecting a sample just to be sure, but, as it grows it really seems Juan is Meta”

“I see. Is that a problem with the others?” she looks just outsie

“Not so much for now, I do fear it might cause some ostracism but Juan is hardly the first meta on the town. And will not be the last if things continue as they are” Sonia knew that about 600 of the people on the village were meta at that point. She did not know what to think.

“Are the numbers... growing?”

“yes, hija, it doesnt seem to be dangerous to people but last year there were 58, this year there are 62 people on town with the condition, we dont know how long it can escalate, it is not contagious at least”

“I have to wonder if it would be so bad if everyone here became a meta?” waved

“Dios mio, I would have to relearn all the medicine from scratch, I am old you know ? Do you want me to die working?”

“At least would prevent the Priest from giving more work to people, he could do it himself?” with a laugh Sonia lens on the wall while she sits on a broken chair, looking about the clinic was not very big, just a couple of stretchers, one doctor with Amora and one nurse, the rest was all helping around.

Amora shook her head with a small smile “we should not speak of a priest like that, hija”

“The priest is a drunk who complains too much” she rebuked

“And he works for us in the way of Jesus, especially in such trying times around these parts. ”

“Yeah, of course, I do not hate him, but he does get in my nerves” Sonia leaned in, closing her eyes, she was indeed tired

“Be careful with resentment too hija, it is a path of glowing rocks directly to hell”

Sonia gave a laugh “of course miss Amora” she rolls her eyes “Well, not like much happens around these parts anyway, so bad mouthing someone is not that bad” she grinned

“You don't seem to like whhen I do it to your husband”

“Because he is my husband” she opens her eyes “but I should get tsome sleep before I pass out on some stretcher around here”

Santa Clara del Sol - 25 , September, 1990

Petro wakes up Sonia that evening “Something happened to Maria ” he seemed worried.

Their house there was a brick and mortar house, their room was quite nice she thought to herself, they were able to use the money from the travels to grab a few nice things, she got up naked and dressed herself still waking up “Which Maria?”

“Dona Maria, from the store, they are calling people to the meeting hall”

The meeting hall was also the party hall and sometimes the storage area, was just to the side of the church, was built and painted, had a big roof as well, was one of the few places on the village that had a functioning air conditioning system which seemed to drag people there in especially hot days. It was a big space with a few columns in the middle, had several chairs spread and a small elevated area that was used as a stage sometimes.

The mayor, Monseñor Luis approached, the place was packed, perhaps the whole town was there, the mayor looks at everyone and grabs the microphone.

“Hello everyone, many of you might be wandering what is going on” he seemed a bit nervous “This morning they found Dona Maria tied to her farm horse... the horse was wandering aimlessly” there were gasps of horror and worry “She is well and Amora says she will do a full recovery but... We sent someone to check the farm”

There was a tension in the air there, no one dared to speak, one could hear the air freezing, the expression on the Monseñor face was enough to make Sonia blood go cold.

“Her husband was dead. Her son was also dead and her daughter was missing, her horses had been killed except for one and the crops had rotten” he seemed to be shaking

There was a uproar, people were afraid, people were angry, the mayor tried to calm everyone down, Sonia however was in a daze, she knew her, Maria, her husband, she played with the kids, her expression dropped and she could feel her stomach churn. She was sitting up and fell before Petro could hold her there.

The mayor finally was able to grab something “We do not know what happened, we tried calling the city to send a patrol and they said it would take a week... At least. ” he shook his hands on the air, Sonia knew that was to clear his nerves.

“alright...” he said now “So, we dont know, it is not time for panic! Could be a cartel, we all knew that Mister Carlos had his name in a few of them, we will gather for the funeral and all the stuff as well.” he seemed nervous not believing his own words. 

The tension would grow, people would comment and people would be afraid, on the next day anothe person would disappear, he was trying to get his son to a hospital on the city, no one heard from him again.

Santa Clara del Sol - 27 , September, 1990

People were armed on the streets, people had been fortifying their homes the best way possible, another disappearence had happened, Sonia was at the church that day, a special mass for the souls of those who disappeared, no signs of the patrols and now communications were going out as well. Morello was praying for Jesus and god blessing for Saint Maria to look after them, Sonia had her eyes closed praying for Saint Maria there heavily. The priest prayed for peace.

Just after the Mass, war came there.

Sonia was getting up and thinking of everything, Petro held her tight there in worry, he was also worried, that is when shooting started just outside. People screamed. 

“close the doors!” screamed Morello as people rushed to close and bar the doors, Petro looked out “I will check the bell tower, there could be ways I could help!” he said , she held him “no please... I dont like this”

He looks at her “I will be right back” and he moved to the back of the church to check what was going on. Time passed slowly as every excruciating minute felt like hours, Sonia looked around and felt a strange anxiety there, something she did not feel usually, except when things were about to go bad. 

And they did end terribly, soon there was a scuffle outside, shots had been fired and a couple of bullets passed through the old church doors, hitting one of the girls in the arm, Sonia rushed to hold her with Amora. And then the door bursts violently, several men and women, all of them were visibly meta, all of them had hate in their eyes. She trembled as they passed there.

Morello rushed ahead “Please, I beg of you, we are a poor community, we have nothing to offer, take what you want but let the people live! This is the house of god, please by Jesus, by Maria... spare the peo-” and there was a scream as the priest was pierced by the hand of the man that was ahead of the group

“You dare to tell us what to do , old man” there was a grin in his face, Sonia looked in horror that she could not hide, her hand was trembling and she had to hold a hand on her mouth not to scream. A woman, one of the older ones, screamed.

“PADRE MORELLO!” and she was shot down as she tried to approach the corpse of the priest. Everyone else was frozen, unsure of what to do, there was an air of horror there and fear. People moved trying to comprehend and process what was going on. There the leader looked at his men.

“Divide the women and the men, divide the humans and meta! Go!” The men started to obey the orders and followed with anger and violence, pushing people, kicking them, one of them , a tall very strong man grabbed Sonia by her arm and pushed her out, Sonia still was trying to help Dona Olinda, she was pushed out of the 50 year old bleeding woman and dragged as she struggled into a corner of the church, others were moving the benches around , tossing them to open space. She was dragged with all the women in there, all the men were dragged around as well , then they were divided into the obvious meta in another corner also men and women.

They were all keeping them, soon they brought more people over from the village, separating them the way they could see, Sonia saw one of the meta girls to her side, were they only looking for the very obvious meta people? What was happening, soon more and more people enter the church, Sonia saw her husband on the other side. 

Looking to her left she saw Amora praying heavily on her rosary, Adelia was holding her child and asking for Maria protection, Lucia was trying to comfort people there, on the other side of the church she saw her husband trying to keep the people calm, he was looking at the others.

Sonia sat down worried until soon all of the village was there, she noted a lot of people were missing, her heart sank with that. Gulping with her throat dry to think of what could have happened. Once everyone was there their leader moved to the cross and smiled. He started speaking.

“You must be scared, you should, but not by what we are doing, these are simply growing pains of this new world!” he went towards the cross as there were a few gasps and he started floating, he raised his hand and the cross started to shake and break from the holds on the wall, it floats and then the cross, floating in the air is slammed in the ground 

She shakes down with that, her eyes could not look away in the same way of a trainwreck, that man smiled, Morello blood still dripping from his hands, he continues “Your god is an old senile god, WE ARE YOUR NEW GODS!” with a movement of his hands the grunts started rounding people.

Someone grabbed Adelia and forced her child off her, she cried out loud and was kicked there, Maria was dragged out, someone grabs at her “ARE YOU A POWER ONE?!” She could barely resist, Petro was screaming at them from the other side as they started looking for any metas it seemed, the man forced her into a wall “ANSWER ME!”.

She had barely time to react “No... I am not!” and she then is pushed back towards another group there. Soon they had grabbed everyone with powers there, placing them separately again. The men then grabbed the others and held them strongly into their places, they started going through the meta ones, Sonia saw as they were grabbing the more defiant ones and moving them outside. Then they came to her group.

“What do you do?” The man had a gun to her, she was trembling

“I.. I am... I am a Supp-”

Amora interrupted her “she is a nurse! she is my nurse with Marcia!” , she could only look at her as the man nodded and pushed her with Amora and a few others, then she noticed, she was being grouped with others, there were different groups, she saw the two teachers of the city being grouped into the other group, soon... they were lead outside.

“What is going on?” whispered to Amora

Amora lowered her gaze “I saved your life, hija, I understood what they were doing... The useless ones...” she looks at the ones being guided out, there were screams.

The leader got up on the table and smiled “WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LIFE! THOSE WHO ARE WORTHY ARE SAVED!”

Sonia eyes dropped, she wanted to cry. She did not see her husband anymore.

[everyday-cutephoto]

[dr-moon-stories]

That meat is Raw! do not eat raw meat ppl

[dr-moon-stories]

Death and Taxes, part 7

Wicker Park, Chicago - March 6 - 1991 - Beginning of the day

Mirian Shar had her eyes on someone there, things had been crazy in the city so far, there was an attack on a Meta nightclub, a whole mess it seemed but she had the sensation that the police was intervening with the investigation so, as every time, it was up to her to uncover the story. 

With a smile she silently walked down the street in that mornign as people were getting ready to go to work, she had a lead that day, something that Andrea could have wanted those days, someone who claimed to know, so she was checking it out. For that she was with a small disguise, long sleeves, a gun on her belt, a small hat and fake glasses. She was proud at least of her fashion style.

Going into a breakfeast and diner she sits down close to the window, there was a sign close to her 'no muties allowed', she really did ot like places like that but was where the source agreed to meet her, she had not much of a choice. A young woman approached with a notepad “So what I can get ya?”

“Coffee, please. And bring me some waffles then” Smiling to the woman she leans on the chair, checking her watch, the woman writes down the order and moves out.

Soon someone enters the door and rushes to her side, she checked her watch, right on time, she liked it. Looked back at the source, to see what was going on, working with secret sources was sometimes frustrating. The man in front of her had a small frame. He was shaking a bit.

“The night was wild”

Mirian sighed, he insisted on a password “I dont know, I left early”, the man visibly relaxed.

“So... why did you want to meet so soon” said in a soft voice, the man was looking at her now, judging her reactions

“Everything changed now... Look. Our... Woman is going on hard on retribution and people are going to die, there is also what I figured out” he was looking around like in a daze of paranoia, Miria was worried but she leaned in the table.

“What are you worried about?”

“This has nothing to do with Andrea and her operation, at least it had nothing to do until this week, too much changed in what we were looking into” He fidgeted “So I started looking into Andrea targets this time, perhaps we could find someone willing to talk? Perhaps someone would be willing to bring her down” his eyes dart around again “Miss Shar...” he shakes a bit “There is a big group, I don't know who, but they are big group of metas trying to take Andrea down, and they are organized.”

Mirian leans forward a little as she listens , taking some notes on the table “And who are they?”

“I... Honestly do not know, they are organized and have many members , for what I know most of them are metas and they have no fear into taking down people around the city...”

“So that is why you chose this location?” she taps the table “Why not somewhere hidden?”

“I am leaving the city tomorrow, this is a public place, perhaps they won't want to warn the general public of what is going on around here, perhaps there is something else happening, I am not staying to see what it turns out into”he looks at her “I suggest you do the same”

“I cannot leave at this moment, once Andrea is down, well, I would be lying if I say this is not career building as well” she gives him a smile , she knew what she wanted, she did not like to consider herself too cutthroat but she knew her code and what she wanted

He gulps and nodded “Mirian, you are a good journalist, that is why I Am even talking to you about this, but listen to me, there is word on the streets, things are rearranging, and something is happening ”

With a smile she leans into her notes again “And what is the word on the streets?”

He does another discreet check around the place “We are with a group that gives food to people around, Andrea... pays a lot of our stuff... no do not write that down...” he held her and she nodded “She does it through the church and we keep our head down, the last couple of weeks we ... started hearing rumors on the hood... See apparently the punks in West Town got into a pretty bad fight with someone” he looked at her “They wiped them out”

“Are these punks some gang? or something?”

“yes... and no... they are some political group, anarchists I think, they got into a pretty bad fight with someone trying to recruit into their territory... After a few days they were attacked and killed, then there was the Riders close to Near West side... those are local criminals, always riding bikes and with a few metas... also wiped out... small groups, both of them, soon after we heard people were trying to recruit into the church lot”

“Could it not have been andrea?”

He shook his head “no, she has bigger problems and picture, if these small gangs keep their heads down and don't cause too much trouble they are left alone, better for business this way... ”

She took notes “So someone is recruiting people from gangs and then fighting them? Isn't that pretty normal?”her eyes move from the notes to him again, she was trying to see the picture here

he scratched his head with hurry “no no no! Look might look like that but four gangs were taken out by the same guys! The marxist socialist Metas , MSM, taken at the same week in River west, the human front taken out as well in the village” he seemed to be nervous, she extends her hand to help him calm down, holding his arm

“hey, stay with me... how you know its the same people? I am believing you, its just... small groups like this do tend to get bodied every year or so, replaced by new ones... even then, that would not me a threat to Andrea, would it?”

He nodded and took a breath “I do understand but belive me, it is not just that, these guys felt confident enough to attakc Andrea Marconi! They are doing this and maybe around the entire city... Look, these gangs to you might look like just gangs, right?” she had no way to deny, all of them were gangs “They attacked two left wing groups, a right wing group and one of the local territorial gangs without issue or fear at all, they are making lots of enemies, its not normal, these guys are bad news, believe me... there will be a war in this city streets if they continue and...”

Someone brought them coffee and the Waffles , the waiter smiled “sorry for the delay” she said and left them there, walking away, he grabbed a bite and drank coffee, she was not sure if it was alright for him to drink that, considering his state.

“You are afraid. I do understand” she did, if what he told was true it meant that there was someone there attacking all kinds of groups and making enemies, she knew that was bad news as well, her face contorted a bit and nodded “Do you need protection? ”

“hah... no no... if I go to the cops Andrea will skin me alive, she has been acting quite paranoid these days as well, two guys from the soup crew said they hear screams on the warehouse where we keep our supplies... no one is never there but...” he trembled a bit “I will not get caught in the middle of this bullshit, Shar, I will not... Tomorrow morning I am moving out to California, you won't be able to reach me then.”

Mixed emotions were something hard to deal with, she could understad his fear and was better for him to leave, that meant one of her main sources on Andrea movements was now gone as well, at least she was glad he was going to leave, at the same time she was a bit frustrated. Nodding along she smiled “Do you need money?”

He shook his head “no...I will manage, I do have family there”

She sighed and closed her notes “Anything else you want to-” before she could finish describing it, a huge pressure wave came through the window, blasting it large and fast. Hitting him in the chest and her in the arm, she felt the pain. It was intense, was her bone broken? Reaching as fast as she could towards her pager and did a very long press on her distress button, special feature, they knew where she was now all that she had to do was to hold on. With her free hand goes to grab the concealed weapon before reaching to the man in front of her. “Ollie... Ollie are you alright?” she moves to shake him, he groans in pain as his wound was deep and ugly “Hell... SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!”

People were still reeling from the blast at that moment, when someone approached there from one of the broken windows, jumping over the small wall and kicking one of the tables, Mirian gets up and moves to one of the tables that had fallen down to point her pistol.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” her pistol was a P220 seven shots, she needed to make them count if this was going to be something. The one who attacked them was wearing a compplete costume for what it looked like, she pointed her gun at the person “STOP RIGHT THERE!” she was seeing them approaching Ollie, she shoot at them, the person erected what looked to be a high pressure area on the air as the bullet stopped, she moved and got up, people were leaving , some were hiding, she pulls Ollie closer to her into the back of the counter. 

She tries to point the gun again, the meta in front of her uses the air to move fast, she cannot get a good grip, she has to move, the waiter is hiding in fear. She should be hiding too but every fiber of her body was screaming that if she did not fight here she would die!

The meta steps back and launches another wave of compressed energy, she can see it cutting through wood, she dives out of the way , her arm was still hurting and she felt it a lot when she fell into the ground, she almost passed out, she could not, she raises her pistol to them again and shoots, 5 shots, this time the bullet passes through their body and grazes it, she smiled, not bullet proof!

“ollie... keep awake! HEar me!”

“uh.... Im... not...”

“keep awake!” she nudges him, looking at the waiter hiding close “You, keep pressure on his wound! fast!” she was worried, her mind was racing, the meta was taking more care now it seemed, being grazed might have made them less careless. Or so she thought, she turns and they are not in there, she looks around pointing the gun and then. She looks up, they are coming from above, fast, she shoots them 3 times before she is kicked to the other side, by some miracle she is able to hold into the gun. Her hand trembling her arm hurting.

The meta approaches Ollie, she points at the meta and smiled , shooting one more time, the meta looks at her “Annoying vermin!” they approach now annoyed at her, she got what she wanted, there were sirens already, the meta approached violently, extending their hand and preparing some slash, she shoots them one more time, the bullet falls to the ground, she laughed , the meta was provoked, she saved Ollie at least. 

“Know your place!” they move to attack and then... a force field appears on front of her, the slash of pressured air and energy hits it as Guiding Star comes in hard with a kick! She lets her gun arm fall, both her arms were hurting, her stomach huurt like hell and she might have broken a rib. She groans.

“haah... took you long enough” she teased him

He laughed and kicked the other meta, he was trained, he was in his full body armor. He grabbed at him there as Erin approached, police also came there.

The meta looks at the situation and groans in frustration before they move out fast , slashing everything in their way, Guiding Star has to protect Mirian again.

Erin moves “DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE! GRAB THEM!”

Mirian smiles a little bit “Ollie... take care of ollie... ” just before she closes her eyes she sees the medical team arriving, she could breath in relief at least.

[dr-moon-stories]

Heroes In the Dark - Death and Taxes, part 6

Downtown Chicago - February 22 - 1991

The room was dark and hazy, a man was tied up to a uncomfortable chair as he moved around, his chest was exposed with wounds from previous altercations, he had electrical plugs on his body as well, dirty torture tools rested on the wall now, Andrea walked in with Nora to her side and narrowed her eyes with intent. Her mind was racing with many thoguhts there, every moment she was considering what to do.

To the side there was the one who was condicting this interrogation, one of her more loyal subjects, she turned to him and he started speaking.

“He was the one who leaked the moment and exact date where Olive would be, he is the idiot who gave the info” he said, cleaning his hands wiht a towel and tossing it into sink, Andrea then looked at the man on the chair “what happened?”

“The idiot was drinking with his buddies, drinking and living and doing all the stuff, some girl approached him, apparently she was quite beautiful and was into him.”

“So... honeytrap?” Andrea seemed annoyed as she looked at the man terrible state “And just that was enough for him to just spill out information that would need to be specifically asked? Even if he was an idiot that degree of cluelesness...”

“You are right boss.. That would be too much of a stupid thing to do... What makes him an idiot is that he followed the woman to a special place... Somewhere full of drugs and Muties...” he groaned a bit frustrated

“And then he took the drugs and sang like a bird” Andra frustration was palpable, she could have thought a traitor, an complete idiot, something like that, at least the leak was dealt with, however these people are organized, her frustration grew “So... do we know our enemy?”

“Apparently not exactly but he does remember where they took him, would be a great place to start anyway”

She gazed at him with an expectant look, waiting for the answer there.

“Its a nightclub called Danii Desires, never heard of it, he said its a place where the Muties go around to drink and be left alone”

She nodded “Take care of him, Nora, come with me... Call our forces as well , we must take care of some... bugs” she said already turning around and walking out of the room in a ancient warehouse. As Andrea and Nora arrived at the car again the gunshot echoes and then stops. Nora grabbed her sattelite connected phone and started making calls “Gather the teams, bring all the guns, we are doing a raid... and” she looked at Andrea once more, and she just nodded in confirmation “and bring Caterina”.

Danii Desires Nightclub - That same night.

The nightclub had three bouncers, all of them were meta, all of them looked very angry and not up to play, Andrea observed them all from her car, her men were getting ready, she hated being made to look weak, that is what they wanted, to make blood soak the water, make her men distrust her, other mobs attack her, no, it would stop there. She grabbed a radio.

“Caterina group... you can advance... control group you can follow, cover her team back.” the voice was calm and collected in general but she was afraid her anger would betray her. She waited a bit and then she sees Caterina moving in, a small framed girl, curly colorful hair and a strange aura floating around her. Her impact made the floor tremble close to Andrea and she immediately lunged herself into one of the security guards, the guard barely had any time to react before he was on the ground bleeding.

The other guard created what looked like some form of energy blade out of his fist and struck Caterina who seemed to shrug it off before punching the guard so hard that he flied around into the asphalt, she had two other people with her there at that moment at least. while doing it the other two lunged at the last guard, decapitating them into a gruesome display.

Several cars stop at there soon after, armed men get out and start protecting the street. Andrea sees caterina moving into the nightclub as she herself gets out of the car, waving at Nora and her other bodyguards to accompany her to the nightclub.

It stood in a corner of the street , hidden between two buildings in a cross alley there, was almost hidden from everyone else at that point at least , with a smile she looks at the men and waves for them to accompany her to the inside of the building where screams were happening, the raid would start now.

The entrance of the nightclub had a neon sign above it, the door lead to a corridor where Andrea could see blood of another guard immediately, the corridor soon opens into a large hall full of people and a few appliances, people were cowering into the corner afraid, she advanced with her men that move pointing guns at everyone who could move. “keep the civvies alive for now... I just want the beetle headed imbeciles who thought would be a good idea attacking me... Let this be a message” she ordered them before walking in the chaos.

Caterina was fighting someone there, it seemed to be a meta with metal powers, they were completely made of metal and were shaping their own body, Caterina was dodging everything with a smile as she laughed, Andrea looks at her “Stop playing with pawns! But I do want that one alive!” Andrea screams at her seeing how the expression on the tiny woman changed from playful to extremely focused immediately.

The meta girl that was fighting is immediately grabbed and pressed against the floor breaking the tiles and then the snapping of her arms as Caterina mooves fast and strong, with skill and force to grab into her , she disables the woman below her with a few swings then. Andrea approached calmly, hands in her pocket with a smug smile “so... lets talk... ” she was feeling pretty good now at least.

“You see, someone interfered with a friend of mine, someone very , very important to me” she paced in front of the girl as Caterina kept her in place, she could see her gritting her teeth a that brought pleasure to her “I wat to know... who was it and why” she stopped and looked above the woman.

“As if I would tell a disgusting vermin lik-” she was stopped by Caterina slamming her face several times against the ground, her aura getting unstable

“YOU. WILL. RESPECT. MISS. ANDREA!”

With a smile andrea simply raised her hand “now now... lets not kill her yet...” with a gaze ahead Andrea could see the team Cateina lead, one of her girls was trapping someone withe her fast moves and precise control and the other girl was using telekinesis to move another person into the wall. The sounds of gunshots were still echoing through the venue. She licks her lips a bit.

“Thank you Caterina” her hand pets Caterina and then moves to grab the hair of the woman, pulling her head up a little bit “Now. You see that I have conquered this place and I will get this information out. If you do not know who did that Then tell me who know, you might even leave here alive”

Caterina slammed her head against the now broken tiles once more “Miss Andrea asked you a question!”

“Ghu...” there was blood leaving out of her mouth “Mister.... Louis”

Andrea was feeling pretty good now, her mind was racing, perhaps this was going to end quickly after all, she could even use this as a political tool, much could have happened here, so she waves to Caterina “kill her , lets go see this Louis”. And so Caterina obeyed.

Andrea did not see the snapping of the neck but she definitely heard it as they walked ahead, the sounds of shooting were far less present now. Going into the administration area it was just a few rooms , she goes ahead stepping over a corpse on one of the corridors to arrive at the scene of a man with glimmering sapphire eyes looking at her, he was under gunpoint by several of her men and one of Caterina underlings. She smiled.

“You must be Louis” with a move she pulls the chair and sits on it, crossing her legs comfortably with a soft look to him, she was feeling rather powerful now and studied the man. “Do tell... was it you who thought would be a good idea to attack me?”

The man looked at her causing a strange sensation in her body, maybe it was his meta powers there, she sighed

“no... but that does not matter does it... I will be leaving here in a coffin regardless” he smiled at her, she grins back

“Oh! Perhaps you will. But I must say that is the good option for you in this situation, I might even give you a bonus and let you live if you are nice enough”

“Lying wont work with me, miss Marconi”

“Is that so?” she got a bit annoyed and got up “Very well then” said in an annoyed voice before pacing a bit around the room “You might think yourself smart. You might think yourself clever even. You are not” with a low and serious voice she looked back at him “If you can tell when someone lies. I will tell you that a coffin is the good ending for you. How does that sound?”

He looked down “Like you are not lying...” his voice was also low. His posture changed a bit. and then he looks around. She was studying him.

“Do not try anything stupid as well. It will make it so much worse for you.” She grins with satisfaction “So, who was stupid enough to attack me?”

Caterina goes and holds his shoulder with such strength that he flinches an groan “Answer miss Andrea!” her voice was angry. Andrea thought she might need to help her loosen up after, still , she crossed her arms.

The man looks at her and then down, gulping a bit “The trio of them came in two weeks before they captured your man. They had some proposal, something big, really. Their leader, she had this powerful eyes, something you don't see usually” she eyes his hands as they were trembling and nodded.

He continued “I had no right to refuse, I knew it” his eyes moved around towards the books and then at his cabinet “They were crazy of course, kept saying something about a new world order, something to bring the divine again... And that I , along with the metas around here. We would be at the center of it all.”

“So you acted as their base of operations or something?”

“no... a Recruitment ground. They came here to talk to the people that hang around, recruit them into their little group or something, for a couple of weeks they just stood there, talking to people, preaching almost to them. Until one day they brought your man and conscripted me to help them”

Andrea let out a laugh “So you claim no fault in that? Seems convenient” she was now browzing the books he had and throwing them around “So why did you do it?”

“Money, recognition... and I must say that their promises were quite interesting as well, something big” he gives a smile “And purpose”

Andrea raised her eyebrow “Purpose. I see. What kind of purpose?”

“To bring a world that is not controlled by vermin like you, for one”

She gives a smirk “And you did believe them? What are they? Pretend revolutionaries? A cult? Maybe a club?”

“I think they were looking for salvation or somethting. They preached a lot about a new era that was being gifted to us, something about being the chosen ones”

“To us... huh. So a cult” She groans in frustration, a murderous cult, that was a problem she was not expecting to deal with. Crossing her arms Andrea focused on him again.

“Not you... Us , metas. Every meta around ”

With a laugh she just shrugged “Of course, I do not care about their insane ramblings, where are they?” her eyes focused about him.

“Honestly? I dont know where are they exactly but I do know where they bring in things, Southeast docks” he smiled “You know they will get you, they are-”

Andrea pulled a pistol and shot him in the head before he could continue “I told you I do not care about their insane ramblings.” she looks at Caterina “Gather every single person of our force, gather everyone, we are going to do a little trap for these assholes”

Caterina smiled “Of course miss!” her eyes were focused on Andrea, she smiled and pets her head “Good girl, lets move”

[dr-moon-stories]

Heroes In the dark - The meta crisis - All chapters in one place!

Cover art

Welcome to 1991. The world has changed.

When a mysterious meteorite crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1980, it didn't just fall, it rewrote the rules of the world. Everything changed there, people with powers appeared, heroes flying in the skies and villains using their powers for what they could. An entire world order was rewritten.

Detective Beatrice Vieira from Chicago leads a covert operation to take down Andrea Marconi, a ruthless crime boss and chief of the mafia. But when a ritualistic serial killer starts targeting both sides of the law, everything goes sideways.

This will reveal a world of hurt and a world of differences, this reveals a web of ancient and new tales, of political conflicts and building tensions. Welcome to the Meta crisis!

[dr-moon-stories]

00 - Prologue: The Barrel

Into the late night of 20th of April 1980,

Along the coastline of Chile two indigenous travelers are going along the coastline towards Valparaiso in their small car, they are camping along the road for the night due to a bit of poor planning but neither of them are prepared to what is going to happen.

Both of them were preparing the meal on their small portable gas powered stove there, talking about strange things on the road, no cars or people for kilometers in any direction, this is when a huge sound comes, a sound so loud one of them could swear it would be heard all the way to Lima.

On the sky a huge line of light yellow and blue and red crossed the atmosphere as it went directly towards the ocean, going deep and far. The meteorite was split in two, the smaller part hits the Andean range while the huge part was going towards the ocean, one of the travelers grabs their camera and took a photo of the event as the meteorite goes away into the horizon.

It would hit the Pacific Ocean in a few more minutes and the explosion sound could be heard far away. It was deep enough that there was no big problem or big wave that hit the shore. The travelers would publish that photo on a newspaper in Valparaiso for a bit of money a few days after.

A single photo of the event is all that there is, the event that changed the world forever.

Six months later those changes could be seen, small changes in fauna and flora started appearing, at first was a leopard in the Amazonian range, indigenous folk were saying a spirit of the forest was angry, no one believed them until several illegal prospectors were found dead on a devastation range. A few days after a pig that could speak was found on a farm. A week after a girl in high school discovered she could fly.

The meteorite had dissolved into the ocean, whatever alien properties it had were now spread. Preliminary analysis indicated that it was all over the biosphere, from the ocean to the rain to the crops, it had no negative impact at first at least, but those wild mutations started to appear.

An age of meta humans started, people changed drastically and so did the world. The Soviet Union closed itself, a coup happened by hardliners of the party, things started entering a crisis and internal conflicts came with it.

China enters a major production age, unprecedented until that era. Japan enters into its Neo-nationalist phase and the discussion of metas started on the summer of 1982. Something happened. The first self declared heroes started to appear and so did the first villains.

Meta humans are a part of the normal day, things are different now. Things have changed. A new era of bigotry, problems and several issues.

The year is 1991... Welcome to the Meta Crisis!

Sub Chapter: No one knows me better than you

Dancing and prancing through the street boots fell into the ground in rhythmic pace. The rain was falling over. The sky was dark, and yet a small cluster on the rain fog showed the moonlight. Full moon that night. The dance steps were soft and sweet. Behind them, there were heavy steps moving through the rain.

The two women stopped in front of a street light. The light flickered with every movement of the dancing one. She stopped dancing and moving as she looked at the taller woman. Two women, one about 2 meters and a half tall, the other 170 centimeters tall. Both of them looked at each other, deeply.

The smaller one spoke first. “Heh. Oh, sweetie. We arrived finally, but I must admit, we are pretty broke.” The second one just pointed at the bank on the other side of the street. As the small one clasped her hands, “Oh, sweetie! You know I love you, right?”.

[dr-moon-stories]

Death and Taxes, part 1

February 6 – 1991 - Some dirty place in Chicago

"So... Barry... What are we lookin at here ?" he said after looking at the rather gruesome scene, Barry was an older man, he was in his 50s already going into his 60s, but he looked healthy as a bull to Detective Johnson, who felt he was falling apart at half Barry's age. Still, he looked at the scene.

A corpse was strewn about in a cross like position, blood painted a whole cross around him on the floor, Barry looked back at Johnson "The victim is Jim Irons, meta human, was a small time hero around here, very small time, he was not all that powerful as well, all he did most of the time according to people was to walk around and stop some bar fights or do some security gigs... " he looked at the boy on the floor "22 years old, powers included super strength and super resistance, nothing to write home about".

The detective was not liking how Barry was evading the main point, it made him uneasy, but he decided to press a bit "How did he die, Barry", he said, looking at the scene forensics man that looked a bit distraught "Someone exploded his heart in... The strength of the punch was enough to break all his rib... that is not the most fucked up part..." he took a deep breath "Somehow whoever did that also, well, drained the blood out of his body".

Johnson was surprised "Exploded... how?" and the man shrugged "no idea... it just exploded... like from inside out... He has no heart left, and his blood is all over the place around here". Johnson raised an eyebrow, that was a new one, Barry always had some theory on what happened, well, considering the circumstances was not surprising, "Any known MO that we can pin on someone? Mafia ? Maybe some drug lord?" Johnson said almost with protocol, he didn't believe that any of those would be so loud.

Barry confirmed "Not that I can see... Too religious looking, some random drug lord or Mafioso would just have the boy dumped in the river or the lake or ... well Anywhere really. No... Also, it is not personal... too crafted for that and no signs of torture..."

The detective didn't like where that was going, having a potential serial killer was the last thing he needed right now. "What are you saying?" - "You know what I am saying, detective" - Answered Barry. "I need to hear someone speak" he responded a bit at a loss.

Barry looked and sighed "Detective... This was ritualistic, too ritualistic... It is likely we have a serial killer" Johnson sighed "Fuck!" he grabbed his phone "I gotta call the commissary" he said while moving away.

That day was being shitty, and it had barely started.

Johnson spent the rest of the day reporting everything to Commissary Joanna Heart, she decided with a few members of the city council and the mayor that it was better not to release things to public for now and start investigating. They chose Detective Johnson to head the investigation.

"Fucking Luck of mine..." he was not amused, he could not turn it down, it would be a bad look for him and his companions and business. He groaned as he walked into the direction of his usual night bar, he had a date, not the kind he liked at least. The scene from earlier was still on his mind, he had a hunch that would not be possible to sleep while sober.

The bar he enters has a security guard, a meta man with steel skin, he recognizes the detective with ease and waves, the detective himself goes in after waving back and taking in the scene. The bar itself was quaint, all around made of wood, reminiscent of prohibition era. He sat down and looked around, "Bill, the Usual... double please".

Bill was a nice bartender, on his 20s, he didn't speak much but was good at what he did, however this time his expression was puzzled "You are not the type to be looking like that, you are usually smiling like a scumbag" he said as Johnson sighed "gee... thanks for the pep talk... work was messed up" the bartender looked back "I wonder what is needed to get you squirming like that..." Johnson sighed and grabbed the drink when ready, enjoying every sip of it.

Things stayed silent, people coming and going for a while until someone came in, Andrea Marconi , Johnson sighed, "shit" he muttered under his breath, and she was coming directly to him with her two meta girls always around her. He faked a smile "Boss! How can I help you?" he looked at her and waved his glass, she looked and judged every moment and every little movement he did.

"Oh, now you want to help me? I want to know why the bitch is still alive? mmm?" her eyes were focused and sharp enough to cut glass, she probably could cut glass with one of her meta girls around her, he didn't like that, he waved her "Look boss... You know how things are, not always things go like planned... I was... held up" he seemed annoyed but didn't want to upset Andrea even more, and she didn't seem willing to be pissed off even more. "Held up... what could be more important than doing the things I pay you to do ?" she looked at him with scrutiny, and he sighed, he looked around and finished his drink "Not here... Let's go to the office" he said.

She was a bit taken aback but nodded as she went with him, as they entered into a small office area, it had a couch and a shelf full of ledgers and data, it also had a personal computer there on top of a desk. He looked at her with a distressed look as she impatiently spoke "Well... go on then, what can be so important?" - He then took a deep breath "There is a serial killer in town... A nasty one at that and likely a meta one at that..." she looked at him "Worrying, but what do we have to do with it?" and he sat down on the couch of the office and pinched the bridge of his nose "Well lets just say I was place in charge of the investigation".

"Fuck!" were the only words leaving Andrea mouth as she heard it. "Yeah, my exact reaction... This one is also fucked up... Like seriously so, I have seen my fair share of death and bullshit, but this is ... fucked up".

"Fucked up how?" she said and sat on the other side of the couch as he replied "So far they found only one meta dead... everything was so... ritualistic, disgustingly so, they removed the whole mass of the boy blood and spread out in a cross and weird symbols" , Andrea raised an eyebrow "And you know it is a serial killer with one death?" and he nodded "Yeah I do... everyone did... too ritualistic... it was left there for us to find which means... there are other bodies around."

Andrea clicked her tongue, that could go either way for her, Johnson knew that, more police around asking questions was trouble, they could either start finding her stuff or be so distracted with a serial killer that her business would go unnoticed for a while, regardless it was a coin toss, and she would do all in her power to stay out of the police radar.

"Regardless... That is not of our concern right now, when can you put down the bitch that is annoying my business?" then his gaze focused on a random ledger "I will try to stall the investigations and then claim I cannot continue with them after a month, they will just get someone else to go after the killer while I can go low profile again." that answer didn't seem to please her. "A MONTH?".

He cringed a bit after the scream "Yeah... that is the minimum, look boss I am good... I had it all figured out, I even tried to get out of the deal with the commissary, but the mayor got involved and all that... I could not deny it without being too suspicious" despite accepting that explanation she didn't like it one bit "So what... are we supposed to wait a month?" - "You could always get someone else to get the girl where you want it" he said nonchalantly, and she groaned "no... She blinded herself for the last YEAR! You get me, she got herself a whole team of wannabe heroes that are hard to get each one of them, she even operates into a different place from the police! We cannot just toss this opportunity, you are the only one close enough to her currently... I suppose a month is not that bad" and Johnson smiled "That is what I thought! I will be drinking if you need me, boss"

She waved him off. He went to drink those horrible images out of his mind.

[dr-moon-stories]

Heroes In the dark - The meta crisis - All chapters in one place!

Cover art

Welcome to 1991. The world has changed.

When a mysterious meteorite crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1980, it didn't just fall, it rewrote the rules of the world. Everything changed there, people with powers appeared, heroes flying in the skies and villains using their powers for what they could. An entire world order was rewritten.

Detective Beatrice Vieira from Chicago leads a covert operation to take down Andrea Marconi, a ruthless crime boss and chief of the mafia. But when a ritualistic serial killer starts targeting both sides of the law, everything goes sideways.

This will reveal a world of hurt and a world of differences, this reveals a web of ancient and new tales, of political conflicts and building tensions. Welcome to the Meta crisis!

[dr-moon-stories]

00 - Prologue: The Barrel

Into the late night of 20th of April 1980,

Along the coastline of Chile two indigenous travelers are going along the coastline towards Valparaiso in their small car, they are camping along the road for the night due to a bit of poor planning but neither of them are prepared to what is going to happen.

Both of them were preparing the meal on their small portable gas powered stove there, talking about strange things on the road, no cars or people for kilometers in any direction, this is when a huge sound comes, a sound so loud one of them could swear it would be heard all the way to Lima.

On the sky a huge line of light yellow and blue and red crossed the atmosphere as it went directly towards the ocean, going deep and far. The meteorite was split in two, the smaller part hits the Andean range while the huge part was going towards the ocean, one of the travelers grabs their camera and took a photo of the event as the meteorite goes away into the horizon.

It would hit the Pacific Ocean in a few more minutes and the explosion sound could be heard far away. It was deep enough that there was no big problem or big wave that hit the shore. The travelers would publish that photo on a newspaper in Valparaiso for a bit of money a few days after.

A single photo of the event is all that there is, the event that changed the world forever.

Six months later those changes could be seen, small changes in fauna and flora started appearing, at first was a leopard in the Amazonian range, indigenous folk were saying a spirit of the forest was angry, no one believed them until several illegal prospectors were found dead on a devastation range. A few days after a pig that could speak was found on a farm. A week after a girl in high school discovered she could fly.

The meteorite had dissolved into the ocean, whatever alien properties it had were now spread. Preliminary analysis indicated that it was all over the biosphere, from the ocean to the rain to the crops, it had no negative impact at first at least, but those wild mutations started to appear.

An age of meta humans started, people changed drastically and so did the world. The Soviet Union closed itself, a coup happened by hardliners of the party, things started entering a crisis and internal conflicts came with it.

China enters a major production age, unprecedented until that era. Japan enters into its Neo-nationalist phase and the discussion of metas started on the summer of 1982. Something happened. The first self declared heroes started to appear and so did the first villains.

Meta humans are a part of the normal day, things are different now. Things have changed. A new era of bigotry, problems and several issues.

The year is 1991... Welcome to the Meta Crisis!

Sub Chapter: No one knows me better than you

Dancing and prancing through the street boots fell into the ground in rhythmic pace. The rain was falling over. The sky was dark, and yet a small cluster on the rain fog showed the moonlight. Full moon that night. The dance steps were soft and sweet. Behind them, there were heavy steps moving through the rain.

The two women stopped in front of a street light. The light flickered with every movement of the dancing one. She stopped dancing and moving as she looked at the taller woman. Two women, one about 2 meters and a half tall, the other 170 centimeters tall. Both of them looked at each other, deeply.

The smaller one spoke first. “Heh. Oh, sweetie. We arrived finally, but I must admit, we are pretty broke.” The second one just pointed at the bank on the other side of the street. As the small one clasped her hands, “Oh, sweetie! You know I love you, right?”.

[dr-moon-stories]

Heroes In the dark - The meta crisis - All chapters in one place!

Cover art

Welcome to 1991. The world has changed.

When a mysterious meteorite crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1980, it didn't just fall, it rewrote the rules of the world. Everything changed there, people with powers appeared, heroes flying in the skies and villains using their powers for what they could. An entire world order was rewritten.

Detective Beatrice Vieira from Chicago leads a covert operation to take down Andrea Marconi, a ruthless crime boss and chief of the mafia. But when a ritualistic serial killer starts targeting both sides of the law, everything goes sideways.

This will reveal a world of hurt and a world of differences, this reveals a web of ancient and new tales, of political conflicts and building tensions. Welcome to the Meta crisis!

[prokopetz]

You know, when I've remarked that a lot of the responses to my posts feel like people are just plucking out keywords they think they recognise based on the shape of them and replying to what they imagine the post says based on that, the possibility never occurred to me that this is actually how many American schools are currently teaching kids to read.

[prokopetz]

Like, my assumption this whole time has been that when folks go "I misunderstood this post that says [thing] as saying [unrelated thing] because I mistook [word] for [completely different word that happens to start with the same letter]", that was a bit. What do you mean they're teaching kids a reading method that's tailored to produce this exact error?

[buggyhuman]

Three cueing. Once you learn about it, a whole lot of very frustrating online discourse with US Americans makes so much sense 😭

How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have

[woodsfae]

If you were taught to read with the three cueing method, and now struggle to read fluently, you can still learn to read properly!

-> Phonics For Adults <-

If you're a teenager, you can still use this resource.

[dr-moon-stories]

WAIT , that is stupid, like absurdly so, why are you not teaching people how words sound? how to pronounce them ? And even more how to infer meaning for real and if you cant just look at a dictionary or something, like...

IS THAT WHY AMERICANS ONLINE CONSTANTLY ACT OBTUSE AND STUPID?

[ahmnorhein-zkn]

Repost, now do your honors.

[dr-moon-stories]

Fuck ICe

[dr-moon-stories]

Nazis should cease to exist

[dr-moon-stories]

Fuck ICe

[dr-moon-stories]

Fuck ICe

[ahmnorhein-zkn]

Repost, now do your honors.

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

“I wish I was more powerful, like you guys. Even casting fireball takes it right out of me some days.”

“Hey, none of that. You're a valued member of the team, no matter what your power level.”

“I just don't understand how you can tear open that portal to the fire dimension so easily.”

“… fire dimension?”

“Yeah. Where the fire lives. Before you summon it. For fireballs.”

“Dude. We've been creating explosions by igniting flammable gases in the air. What the fuck have you been doing?”

[dr-moon-stories]

Gunpowder 2

Anomalous Elements Temporary Investigation Facility, Leningrad, USSR - January, 1983

'Vremennyy ob"yekt po issledovaniyu anomal'nykh elementov'

The place was a converted prison that seemed to constantly be under some form of repairs; an old man was in his cell, one of the few non enhanced individuals who were being held there, not that there were many at that point, but they were becoming problematic, it was a cold and unforgiving place. The man was no one important in life but saw himself becoming much more important in death, he was Captain Haarstad, a commercial ship captain with decades of experience and one of the few unlucky survivors of the Hail Mary.

The room was bare of anything apart from the fundamentals and even then they were not very high quality, the entire place felt like it was some last-time solution to a new problem, Captain Haarstad looked at his only book of the week, all he could do was curl into his not-so-hot sheets and wait, he had no idea why they were even holding him, not like he was some big shot that knew what was happening.

He heard muffled screams in the corridor, sometimes they did happen. He was always unsure of what exactly that meant, if it was any regular prison that would be easy to figure out but here... Here it was different, all he could do was sit and wait. He did that for a while before he heard the bars being moved on his door. From there two officers walk, a woman and a man. Accompanied by two guards, the woman looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

He slowly got up, all he could do to ease his pain as he looked at them, the man ordered something to the soldier; he brought a strange portable heater and placed it on the side. They spoke something; he did not speak Russian. He sighed, the woman looked at him and then at his file “Ogden Haarstad” she spoke, then continued in accented Norwegian.

“Born in Norway, migrated to America when young, captain of several ships and lastly captain of the ship formerly known as Hail Mary” she looked at him, he narrowed his eyes for a second.

“That is me” he responded back in his native tongue.

She kept looking at the documents for a few moments and gave a smile “Mister Haarstad, we understand that you might be frustrated and fearful with this situation, we understand that this might be a lot” she gave a smile, he was not impressed, he leaned on the chair.

“so what do you really want to keep me here? In this place? Not like I am alive, am I?” He looked at her, she looked back

“True... In fact you are officially dead” she checks his documents again “We want to know about the travel of the Hail Mary... everything” she looked at him, now with a serious expression, he observed her fake niceness disappear, she looked at him now with a focused aura. He knew that there was not much he could do there... They would get the info weather he wanted to share it or not.

He looks at the wall for a second, at one of the old stains, he then looked back at her “I don't have all the info... but you know the international expedition after the detection of the strange elements on the biosphere? It was traced down to something in the South Pacific... Eventually someone connected to the meteorite theory” he tapped his foot on the floor a bit.

The woman started taking notes , she was looking quite calm there “We are aware of that... so... where did you find the meteorite piece?”

“Not in the ocean... The man who hired us and is probably now on the bottom of the sea... Harry Monroe... He was a British entrepreneur... he did some calculations and grabed a team, he found the meteorite on one of the Andean mountains, it seems, I don't know the details, he is dead and I was not there...” he tapped his foot a bit more

She took some notes, looking at the documents and then at the man once more, she spoke something he did not understand to one of the soldiers who gave her a clear glass with a small glistening rock “This is a small fragment of the meteorite, we are studying it right now. What do you know about the rock?”

He shrugged and looked at the rock for a second “Its a pretty rock for sure, could be radioactive, I don't trust glowy things... We were just transporting it Miss?” he looked at her, she had not given him a name so far.

“Alexeeva” she said and took more notes, he shrugged “So... why a transport ship and not something more... scientific or governmental?”

“He was a rich man and wanted the glory of finding it and delivering it for a large sum of money. He hired the Hail Mary because he wanted it to be as fast as possible to transport, he hired us by invoice when we were in Santiago... He had not even arrived yet, we were paid to wait and to transport whatever they brought as fast as possible to New York, we were in Santiago.” He looked at the wall once more, remembering.

“What happened then?”

“I don't know, we just waited and a truck came with the meteorite on it. He boarded the ship and refused to leave until we reached New York; we moved fast...” He let out a frustrated sound “Mister Monroe was ... very anxious all the way there, fearful and I noticed he always had a gun with him... he was paying a lot... I started finding it a bit strange... Before I could figure out anything it happened...”

“Before you give me the details, can you describe the Hail Mary for the record” she was getting ready to take some notes as well, he sighed “It was a commercial transport ship, not huge, nothing too fancy, was fast, I guess that's why he wanted it... to be as fast as possible... The ship had just 50 crewmembers, we were for fast cargo as well...”

She took note “now... Tell me... what happened in the Gulf of Mexico before the Revolutionary Guard arrived?”

Gulf of Mexico , Commercial Transportation Ship Hail Mary - October, 1982

The ship was rocking gently against the waves, captain Haarstad was checking the instruments there the best he could. They had a few good days still to the port but the behavior of Mister Monroe was giving him the creeps. He should confront him eventually. Especially the bit of him always carrying a weapon.

“Merry, I will check the cargo” he said walking out in his usual small limp, he walked fast towards the cargo hold, the corridors were small and smelled of fish and rust, he walked towards the hold, it was their largest hold, was specially padded for this event as well. He arrived at the hatch and saw Billy, one of the crew, he seemed nervous.

“Billy... what are you doing here?”

The boy, young one, was begining in the industry, he immediately started trying to divert “uh... yeah the boys... uh... Im just here, how are you boss?” he clearly forced a smile

Ogden looked at him and sighed, he moved and pushed the boy out of the way “What is going on?” he said and opened the hatch, there he sees five other of his men scraping the big glowing rock of the meteorite a bit into smaller pieces, he sighed and took a deep breath

“WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?” he screams at them there, the five there scramble to adjust

“B-BOSS!” someone blurts out in some fearful voice “We ... uh... we were , checking it... uh...”

He groaned and walked to them, looking at the hammer and the box they were collecting small parts of the material, he snapped it from their hands “I will ask one time and you imbeciles better answer truthfully! What were you doing here??”

One of the boys looks at him “we... were grabbing the piece... it’s a very nice rock and... well we wanted a bit, not like the big boss will miss it, its several tons!” He seemed to try and defend himself, The captain groaned with the stupidity he was seeing there “ARE YOU ALL INSANE? WE DON'T KNOW IF THIS THING IS SAFE! IT COULD BE HELLISHLY RADIOACTIVE!” he screamed at them at the top of his lungs, “GIVE ME ALL THE ROCK YOU COLLECTED!”

The boys all scramble a bit, mentioning radiation made them a bit queasy; they all hand their small samples of rock each, he was relieved, they could be doing something really stupid in his view at least, he grabbed all the rock and placed it on the same box that he confiscated “Everyone hit the shower now and clean your clothes!”

They all scrambled out; he waited for them to be away before he looked at the rock a bit more, was difficult to really blame them, it was a pretty thing, it had a yellow golden glow to it that seemed almost ethereal, seemed to emit some sort of aura even in well lit environments, but here, it was pretty clear as the light flowed through the dimly lit room. He knew that this kind of glow could be dangerous. Mister Harry had assured them that the Geiger counters were normal, so he would believe it for now... The rock did give him a mix of foreboding and wonder sensations however.

He moved calmly to the corner to check if everything was in place, all the clamps seemed to be working, the entire room was made water tight for some reason and Mister Harry had forbidden any water even close to it. He did not understand why but he was not paid to question much. He moved out and made sure to lock the room properly this time.

“Stupid boys” he was mumbling to himself as he walked out towards the captain's cabin. He opened one of his secure drawers, he places it to the side of his trusted old revolver and a few bullets, locking it again. He would figure out what to do to it once they arrived. Now he had duties to attend to.

The sun was starting to settle, he was in the tower checking the instruments when the radio came in “Abnormal storm... abnormal! All ships hai-” the radio died , he rushed with his first mate to grab it “Repeat, what storm? Sky is clear here! Repeat” his mate looked at him “what could possibly be...” and then... out of nowhere, came deep intense clouds and lightning like it was some sort of strange spell, he felt a chill down his spine as the ship started to rock back and forth, he moved “Get everyone ready... I don like how this is feeling” he really did not, he rushed to check the engines, his mate went to the radio calling everyone for duty.

Harry met him halfway , he was nervous, more so than usual, he had his gun on his side, unlocked, Ogden grumpily pressed him “What are you doing?” He looked around “you need full power ahead! Now, we need to get out of this now!” he seemed almost deranged. Ogden pushed him to the side “Get out of here! And move go to your room and keep out of the way!” he said and rushed to the engine room, the ship started rocking more and more and started almost shaking, he arrived at the engine room, looking at the engine mate there, Orson.

“Capta'in the engine is workin at a higher rate, its quite strange, where that hellish storm cam from?” he seemed confused

Ogden moved out, grabbing and starting to release a few pipes “I dont know Orson... Keep the engine running” he tossed the engine flow key to him “If you need release all the pressure, but keep the engine live!” he rushed to start to try and stabilize then he heard shooting.

“What the fuck!” Orson was a bit scared

“Stay here! I will check this out!” he rushed out, more shots were fired. Had the employer gone mad? No... those were rifle shots, he picked up the pace as he could, turned into a corner and went to his quarters to grab his revolver. Lightning light was coming from the ship windows now, he moved to his quarters, more shots, there were screams, other shots.

He fumbled into the drawer, grabbing his gun, locking the box again, it felt like the right thing to do. All seven shots were there, he grabbed his radio to his mate “What is going on??” he said as he heard shooting on the other side “Not sure captain! Some people boarded us!”

Boarded them? In that hellish storm? what the hell was going on. He was careful, moving towards the front of the ship, moving with care, keeping the gun in his hand, he sees one of the invaders, large man, tactical gear, he waited for him to move away before Ogden moves once more, he needed a better position, more shots, the soldier turns his back to ogden and then he shoots.

The man falls face first with blood pouring into the floor, the Captain moved to him and grabbed his gun, checking the cartridge before moving out, there was another firefight, he went to the outer door, seeing a few men shooting at his mate on the tower he started blasting at them with his rifle.

He was not very good with it but was able to take a couple of them down before they turns to shoot him, he closes the door and rushes out, one of the bullets grazes him on the shoulder “HELL!” he groans going towards the top of the quarters. He moved as quietly as he could which, he knew was not very much, he was not a soldier, never was one, he stumbles into a table as he sees a man coming on the corner.

For a second he thought he was dead then Harry appeared, his relief was instantaneous, his lift arm had a wound in it “Captain!” he seemed relieved “We need to strap the meteorite to the ocean and then... leave! He cannot have it!”.

The man fell to the ground when Ogden punched him full strength, pulling him up again before he could recover making him drop his pistol, pressing him against the wall “YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT? TELL ME NOW! WHAT IS GOING ON AND YOU BET YOUR HELL ASS THAT I AM NOT GOING TO ABANDON MY CREW! WHO THE HELL IS 'HE'!”

Harry bumbled a bit, he looked around and then looked back at the man staring daggers at him “H-his name is Faust... He is- Was my partner in the research... He came in with many funds, well... something was wrong I knew it... And now he wants the meteorite we... cannot let him have it! He wants me alive...” He looked around “We need to go now... he will kill everyone here! Please!”

He looked at the groveling man in front of him and let him go, he scrambled to get his pistol back and they walked slowly “So... What is going on... really?”

“Faust must have found me somehow... Well... he must have paid someone to get the info... I was being fast not too discreet... ” he sighed heavily looking around

“And why do you think he will let you live? He wants the meteorite no? isn't it about money? ” he looked at the man in a glance as he shook his head

“That thing is the most important item in human history... I am one of the few people in the world who knows even a little about its properties... he... Wants it and wants me..”

They walked a bit more when they heard some running and shooting on the corridors, coming on the corner Billy , full of blood and extremely scared , the captain advanced onto him and pulled him behind turning on the corner and shooting already, he is able to get one of them and injures the other, who tries to go to shelter but the rocking of the ship makes so he could not rech in time before Harry shoots him.

Billy was quite affected, he looked at them “What should... I do... Captain...” he seemed terrified

“Lets move on boy!” he said, practically pulling the boy with him, he changed his rifle by one of the men on the ground and kept going.

“Where to?” asked harry, very fearful as well

“We can send a distress call from the command room, we need to get there... if we are able to we can at least try and keep them away until help arrives...” he looked around

“But the radios were not working properly” Harry protested “We got to get to one of the escape boats”

“If they are smart they dumped those already... ” he seemed distraught, to be honest he did not see many ways out of that place as well “The distress signal will send a constant radio wave around... if someone picks it up they dont need to understand it... just to see it , it has sattelite connections as well... we can get out” at that point half of it was to convince himself as well.

They move out and start hearing something loud, machine loud and the rocking of the ship was improving as well, the light outside was better, everything went wrong not long after.

He walked as fast as he could towards the control room, no more shooting now, it meant most of the crew was captured... or dead... The control room had 3 men there, one on the controls, one on each exit, Ogden and Harry come shooting, Billy behind them. Harry is shot on the leg during it... both of them are without ammo.

AS the captain reaches into the controls he sees that they are trying to lift the rock out of the cargo hold, another ship has arrived, he starts the emergency signal and places the code to be transmited on piracy. Harry leans on the table as Billy takes care of him.

Billy was still in shock “Captain... he is in bad shape... we need... or ... he is losing so much blood”

Harry smiled and pushed himself up “Dont fret... We just have to hold out... just holding out... We do... need to...” he took a deep breath “To prevent them from taking the meteorite, you know... they are surrounding us right now...”

He looked at harry and the scared expression of Billy, he activates the engines as the ship that was side by side with the Hail Mary started to scrape together, both ships now in a destructive dance “Hellish man... You know how cruel it is to make a captain sink his own ship?” he looked at Harry, who gave a pale smile “Oh... I am sorry... I hope to meet you down there at least” he leans on the wall now and slowly falls to the ground, they can hear men approaching on all sides.

Harry reaches into his pocket and grabbed two grenades, the Captain immediately gets scared “What the hell! You had those??”

“I was waiting for a better chance of using them... now is better than any... Got them from one of the soldiers... Just.... toss one on the corridor... it is going to open the way for you two to escape... There should be life boats on the storage right.... I will stay...”

Billy looked at him “no way! no... Lets go I can carry you”

“Boy... you are too good... Captain Haarstad there already did the math, look into his eyes .... I am dead... I can feel myself getting weaker... Get out” he was right, Ogden knew... the second he pulled the grenades he knew what he had to do... He got a bit scared on how readily he was going to sacrifice a man, he grabs one of the grenades and tosses it on the corridor after pulling the pin... He holds the boy down and protects his ears... He starts pulling the boy.

They hear the explosion behind them as they try to rush to grab the lifeboats on the storage...

Leningrad, USSR - January, 1983

“So... then we arrived?”

He shrugged “We were able to get to the storage and grab one of the inflatable boats before the shooting started... Your ship arrived... We were both injured and trying to flee when... well , Faust got to us... ”

“He did?” she leaned forward “What happened to Biilly and Faust then?”

“Billy was shot in the chest and fell into the ocean during the fight that was happening... Ironically, a few explosions broke the meteorite piece that they were lifting... jut about half of it fell into the ocean... I saw Billy fall into the deep waters...” he looked down , he was sorry for him, really, he then looked at her “Faut I saw die soon after... one of the stray shots... Everything went wrong .... And now I iam here, there, that is all that I know... Are you going to shoot me?”

She let out a smirk “If you believe we would shoot you regardless... why tell?” she looked at him , seemed more curious than anything, he sighed “Because I don't want to be tortured by you commies... I rather take a shot to the head , just like that”

She smiled “Mister Haarstad” she got up “Oh do not be mistaken, We are not here to execute you... You see , you did help the poeople of the Soviet Union to get a invaluable piece of the meteorite, you also cooperated, It might take a while but I will help you as you helped us”

He let out a cynical laugh “sure girl, sure.... And I am the queen of england”

She smiled, got up and ordered the men to leave “Oh do not worry, I do have something that interests you” she grabs a photo “One thing that you said got me thinking... Faust is dead... right?” She held a photo close to her chest

“Unless he can survive a shot to the head and a fall into the deep ocean ... uh , yeah... I saw him die”

She placed a photo... was Faust; he knew his slimy face “So... What?” - She grins, “This was taken 20 days ago...”

He got up fast, his eyes focused “How? where?”

“See mister Haarstad, every day new mysteries appear in this world, and I want your help with several that are appearing around this country...”

He sat again “No way in hell that I help commies” he groaned

With a sigh she turned towards the door “Maybe... But something is happening mister... many things at once... And not just here... So... Maybe consider it? You can have the photo”

She left... he tried to look at the wall for a while... But his heart was fast... All the emotion... Hells, what the girl was talking about...

[dr-moon-stories]

I hate when I am reading someone story and I go check their magic system and is just a caste system.

[dr-moon-stories]

about magical schools

One thing I thought today is that if you are writing a magical school, don't be a coward about it, schoools are messy, often wrong about many things, authoritharian institutions, full of terrible people on all levels, some are nice but institutions work on balace as well, so there should be nice people, not just assholes and not just nice people, especially among teachers... and make schools messy, teachers argue and the curriculum being wrong, for most schools in history they were wrong about most things, explore the school as it is! In short, do not be a coward of the school being just exposition ground and being right about magic and the world; make it messy; make it fucking messy!

Also horny, people are horny as fuck in schools gods damn

Still make people exist in that authoritarian shithole of an institution and explore it; otherwise, it's just "exposition hole where things happen", DO NOT BE A COWARD!