This is very good

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed! :)

I loved the atmosphere you made here, I could see and smell this dirty, dingy bar.

Love the cliffhanger!

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:') thank you so much for the kind words!

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Cop: where were you at 8:00 PM last Friday?

I was at The Alibi bar with some friends

Yoooo I need to sleep, 6-12 shift tomorrow

This is awesome! Where's the next part?!

Mandatory: Is this a prompt that I am not American enough to understand?

No, that's just Game of Thrones Season 8

Great work.

Lovely

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It's hivemind'in tine!

Sure thing. I had some issues so I will write it tomorrow.

this is fantastic!

I took a deep breath, straightening my posture and swaying gently back and forth. Moving slowly, I pulled a sheet of paper off of the stack on the table before me. As I slid it towards me I closed my eyes, listening to my fingertips, to the whisper of the paper as it slid across the table, to the paper's fibers slipping apart as I folded. Colors twisted and shimmered across my vision for a moment, but I stayed focused on the craft.

With a slow and final breath out, I opened my eyes.

Perfect. Six hundred and thirty-four.

I inspected the origami crane in my hands, admiring the sharp edges and clean lines I'd managed to produce. The on-site therapist was always encouraging me to have a calming activity, and had signed off on getting me an absurd amount of origami paper after I'd taken to the art.

Relaxing my shoulders, I stood slowly and paced towards the back of my little living room. Just as I was about to add it to the rows and rows lining the wall, the lights dimmed and began to pulse blue.

"Should I put some pants on?" I asked aloud to the camera in the corner of the room.

"Yes." I winced as the voice crackled through the intercom by the door. They'd done their best to avoid spiky disruptions to my environment - changing the blaring klaxon to those blue lights, building day/night cycles into my living space, turning down the speakers - but it was still a bit jarring.

When I was done getting dressed, I grabbed the earpiece off of my nightstand and put it in.

"We've had another activity spike," Alex's voice came through as I bent to put on my socks. "Doc's projecting a nasty breach in about twenty minutes."

I put on my boots, waiting for him to continue.

"She thinks probably on the outskirts, so it'll be drop procedure if that's alright."

"Yeah, I guess," I twiddled with my dampener cuff absentmindedly, sitting on the couch ten feet from the door as per protocol. "The sound fittings are done, right?"

"Yeah, should be a quieter ride than last time," Alex replied, and I could hear the concern in his voice.

-----

Real air. Outside air. Night air.

I didn't mind the facility, honestly. It was for everyone's benefit, I understood, and the people at the facility were very accommodating.

But god was it a rush to be out sometimes. Especially on a night like this.

My combat watch's readout ticked as I walked down the empty street, but it wasn't really for me. They just wanted the data.

"Ready?" Alex asked, more nervous than I'd ever been. I felt a little bad that they were all so scared of me, but I couldn't help it much.

"Yeah, go for it."

"Cool. Uh, be safe." I let out a small laugh, but his genuine concern was always touching. "Hot in five, four..."

My dampener cuff vibrated slightly, and I watched the little lights tick down.

It always hit like a ton of bricks. My mind flickered for a moment as the power crackled through me. Reality wobbled, warped, growing sharp, impossibly fractalline. I could feel the hum in my teeth.

The facts began to filter in, whispers at first.

I was about ten feet from the hotspot and I could taste it. Strong this time. Wicked. Hungry. Different.

The breach opened and a humanoid stepped out.

Humanoid? I wasn't supposed to hurt human-shaped things. No. I always felt bad.

But humans always smelled so soft. This wasn't soft.

The figure stepped forward, under a streetlight. Acrid, it smelled.

"Well, hello there." Its voice was all wrong, like gravel and velvet. "You're quite a thing, aren't you?"

"Yes." I dragged the words to the swirling surface of my mind. They echoed in my skull like a thousand voices speaking in almost-unison. "What.. are you?"

"Well that's a good question now, isn't it?" Cold and hot at the same time, the voice burned.

They'd all been animals, before. Destructive but. Blind. Heedless hunger. This was not an animal.

The thing stalked closer. Wrong, wrong, all wrong. Poison and fire.

"What the fuck is that?" Was it Doc's voice, in my ear? I couldn't tell.

"Ooh, it has friends," the thing said, tilting its head. "Friends that don't know what we are, do they?"

"Okay, listen to me," it was Doc, wasn't it? Her voice was full of triangles. "Do you think you can take that thing in?"

"No." The word was all I could summon before the thing lunged.

My vision fractured, the creature unfolding out along four dimensions, past and future spiraling out around it. I sidestepped, smearing myself out along the same impossible directions it had. The me that hadn't moved caught the thing by the throat. I split again, driving a fist at it's head from the side while dashing towards the breach where the thing's past stretched out behind it. Then again, the me that had it by the neck squeezing tighter while dropping my grip and stepping to the other side.

As the fist made contact, I plunged a hand into the breach, grabbing the creature by its past, feeling the impact of the punch ripple through its timeline. It thrashed, twisting from my grip, but the me on the opposite side of it was ready. I drove my hand into its future-chest and it screamed.

I drank in the noise, and the me standing over the breach pulled.

To an outside observer, it probably looked like nothing had happened. The monster was there, and then it wasn't. But I saw it, felt it rip back into the hole in reality it had made a mere minute ago, sliding through my hands and back out of time.

Then everything went black.

-----

[I ran out of steam after trying to write that 4-dimensional fight scene lol. Let me know if that made any sense and/or if anyone would like to see me continue this a bit further.]

>"Yeah, well, fuck 'em." I shrug. "They didn't spend thirty years under a perception curse that prevented them from seeing anything positive about the world."

POV: you have depression and you didn't expect to be called out at r/WritingPrompts of all places

"Son, it's time we had the talk." My Father told me after knocking on my door, my Dad right behind him.

"Um yeah, what's up?" I asked as I scooted over to the wall on my bed. Please don't let this be what I think this is.

"Honey, we have been with you for so many milestones in your life." My Dad started before sitting down on my bed, as my Father squatted down towards me.

"Your Dad is right, and we are so proud of the person you are becoming."

"So proud." my Dad agreed nodding his head. "However as you get older you may realize some changes that may be happening."

Oh god no. My mind was racing a mile a second.

"You may start feeling things about yourself, and about other people, and that's completely normal."

"Completely normal." Dad nodded along with Father's statement. "We just want to let you know whatever you are feeling is valid, and we love you."

"The truth is..." Father started "Your father and I are were an ex superhero and super-"

"I THINK I LIKE GUYS." I blurted out loud. Wait. What

My Father covered his mouth in surprise, as my Dad looked equally shock. My Father turned to Dad asking "Should we continue what we were telling him-?"

Dad quickly brushed it off "No, no this is far more important." before staring at me. "Honey! When did you figure this out? How long have you felt this way? Are you okay? Were you scared-? Oh I'm so sorry if you were scared-"

"Let the boy take one question at a time Super Boy." Father patted Dad's shoulder.

"Yeah yeah, Dark Moth." Dad scoffed.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say before that?" I asked, still very dazed about my surroundings.

"Oh that was nothing really, we can talk more about it later. Oh gosh, we love you so much, please tell us everything." Father told me before hopping over to sit right beside me on my bed.

"Everything." Dad chimed in too sitting on the opposite side of me. I smiled and nodded, deciding whatever just happened before could wait.

ALIBI'S AFTERTHOUGHT

The Alibi served many functions, and its rules were simple.

Firstly, if you planned to use the Alibi for its implied name, you had to shoot Alissa a text first. Alissa kept a ripped copy of everyone's credit cards in a secure drawer behind her desk. She would use your card to buy a beer, and keep the receipt. She would keep the beer for herself or her staff, of course, but for the cost of one pint on tap, you had yourself a get-out-of-jail-free card. A good deal, by anyone's standards.

The second function was jobs. Although tensions were high in Caldew, not every gang had every skill they needed at all times. Some of the criminals were more freelance. For the right price, you could get a top-tier hacker, or a surgeon to patch up one of your thugs who couldn't be seen at the hospital. You could hire muscle, of course, but that was easy. There were more rare and in-demand skills than that.

The third function was recruitment. Alissa was not personally involved, but when young men and women came of age and had no better prospects, there was a room in the back where a gang leader could grab their latest bruiser, sneaker, or spy.

Of course the lawmakers knew almost all of this, but Alissa hadn't made it to her position by being careless or thick-skulled. She had blackmail and bribes for every possible problem prepared at all times.

There was only one problem Alissa hadn't thought would come knocking on her door: freakin' superheroes.

Superheroes weren't a thing. No one dressed up in spandex to enact vigilante violence. Superpowers weren't a thing, either! Yet here they were, a group of probably fifteen guys, barging into Alissa's Alibi and wrecking the place.

For a split second, the security seemed unsure what to do. When they jumped up and started putting the leotard-wearing losers on their rears, most of the regulars had already begun their counterattack.

Alissa herself got involved, not needing or even wanting to use anything other than her fists. Their outright audacity had her seeing red.

It took less than fifteen minutes before the fight ended, just as abruptly as it had begun. All of the wanna-be watchmen, on an unseen signal, turned around and ran. All except for the one Alissa held in a suffocating rear naked chokehold while her favorite bartender pelted him with the best featherweight punches she could.

Disturbing the Alibi was, under normal circumstances, grounds for a very immediate vacation from the land of the living. However, for the first time in the six years since Ali had founded the bar, she brought someone into the back room that had been kept empty, save for a few knives, lengths of steel rope, and hammers. Its purpose was self-evident.

It took about twenty more minutes to get her answers, with some enthusiastic help. Ali then picked up her phone to start a group call with the two biggest gang leaders in Caldew. She stepped out into the cool, slightly drizzly night to collect her thoughts while the call connected.

"What's good?" One of the voices responded.

"Ali. Must be important for you to call both of us at once."

"I need both of you to take this seriously. I had a breakin at the Alibi."

"That is goddamn serious. No way it was any of my boys, right?" The first man responded.

"No, neither of your crews were involved. This was...well, it was a group of fifteen guys. Very sturdy guys. We gave them a thrashing, broke tables over them, they did not shed a drop of blood, and not one of them got knocked out either."

"Okay. Could be simple luck." The second voice responded, already bored of the call.

"No. I kept one of 'em. Got him to tell me a very interesting story. Someone out there is inventing superheroes. They've apparently synthesized a drug that can cause advantageous mutations."

The second voice scoffed. "If there was a drug lab working on human enhancement, I'd have bought it already."

"They're motivated against crime. This round they were all tough. Apparently with each fight they gather more data, and the men can receive another dose. Next round is more powerful, and when they get back from the second fight, they can get a third dose, which is even more powerful, and so on."

"So, what, superman? Green lantern? What kind of mutations are they supposed to get?" The first one asked.

"I don't know, because my...um. Newfound friend, he didn't know either."

"And who were the volunteers?"

"Memory wipe. Not sure, but if you want to lend me a contact in the police to run their faces against missing or wanted posters, I'll share everything I learn."

"Superheroes. Pff. Guess it was only a matter of time before reality became stranger than fiction." The second voice replied.

"Uh, yeah, speaking of round two..." The first gang leader said, as his voice faded away from the phone. "Someone made of fire is walking right into my Grave!"

I'll continue on my sub :) r/nystorm_writes

Detective Quincy entered the locally famous Alibi bar east of Los Angeles. It was a smoky, dimly lit bar filled with ex-cons, their rough exterior and hardened expressions betrayed their past lives behind bars. The air was thick with the scent of cigarettes and cheap liquor. Glasses clinked and low murmurs filled the room. The patrons sat at dark wooded worn tables, nursing their drinks and swapping stories. The atmosphere was tense and uneasy, as if at any moment a fight could break out. In the corner, a lone figure sat, playing a melancholy tune on a worn out piano.

Leaning up against the bar, Quincy waited for the bartender Maurice to come by. He wore a tight black shirt and tight black pants.

"Hey I'm Maurice. What can I get you this evening?" The bartender asked.

"Just the man I'm looking for. How do you do?" Quincy asked. "I'll actually pass on the drink, but thank you, though. I'm here to talk about Jonathan Byron. You see, I'm a detective. Was he here last week on Monday? That's 10 days ago."

"Oh yes, Jonathan Byron. He was here 10 days ago."

Detective Quincy smirked. "Was he here on Tuesday?"

"Yes, he was here on Tuesday."

"Very interesting. What about Wednesday?" Detective Quincy rubbed his chin. He knew that Maurice was lying.

"Uh-huh."

"Thursday?"

"Yep."

"... Friday?"

"Jonathan's got a real drinking problem if I'm being candid." Maurice chuckled.

"That's funny, so his Alcoholics Anonymous attendance is purely for show then?"

"I guess so. I don't judge." Maurice shrugged. "What's this about anyways?"

Detective Quincy scanned the bar. He knew the place well, one of the only people on the police force that actually understood what Alibi was all about. "You see, Jonathan actually disappeared. This was the last place he was seen according to an eyewitness."

"Oh. He disappeared?"

"Yeah, but he didn't take any money or steal anything. We're actually worried about his safety, Mr. Maurice. There's no way he was here this whole week. He disappeared on Monday night. Last seen going east in Arizona on Tuesday."

Maurice scoffed, irritated by getting caught in the lie. "I don't know what you want me to say. Why don't you bother the Arizona police force and get them to shake their asses for you?"

Detective Quincy cleared his throat. "This may seem like a weird question, Maurice, but how's your wife recently? Has she been depressed?"

"What else is new, pal."

"Moreso than usual?"

Maurice narrowed his eyes at Quincy.

Detective Quincy frowned. "I only ask because, and I hate to tell you this, Jonathan was having an affair with your wife."

Maurice had a vein pop in his neck. "Wait. Who is this guy?"

"I thought you knew him? I thought he came here everyday?" Quincy mocked.

"Look, I don't know this guy, okay? And stop spreading this lie that my wife is having an affair!"

Detective Quincy took a deep breath. "Maurice, I only say this because Jonathan and your wife are both in grave danger, and I need as much information as I can get if they are going to survive. Now, I can imagine you don't care for Jonathan, but you still love your wife. We need to take action now to protect her."

Maurice looked like he was about to explode with rage, but he exhaled and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket. "Meet me out back."

r/randallcooper

Bonus points for using sapient correctly!