#all43starters

“Excuse me, sir, but you are not one of the forty-three.” 

The disembodied voice made him swear loudly in his native language, looking around for the source, but nothing. He tried to shove the door open again. “My fr- friend is. Dakota.” It felt odd to talk to nothing, and even odder to call Dakota a friend - their relationship had been much more than friendship, at least on his part, and obviously a lot less on hers. 

“Come on, open door.” He grumbled, shoving at it again. The presence of someone walking up behind him made him rattle the handle again. “They make big tower, but they don’t share. Not nice.” 

Klaus knew that he could have stayed in his own apartment. He paId the rent after all. However he had found that his newest favorite hobby was falling asleep, or drunkenly passing out in various rooms in the academy. He enjoyed startling all of the new visitors.  However it wasn’t all pranks, sometimes he truly just didn’t have the energy to climb up to his childhood room. 

“Everyone shut the hell up!” His stern voice projected to the crowded room, his eyes scanning the people as he caught their attention. Diego knew how bad everything looked. From the Hargreeves family reaching out to all of the other gifted adults to join their sad attempt to stop the end of the world, to the deadly animal outbreak, to the chaos of a Toymaker blowing up New York and his childhood home. 

“This is a fucking shit show, for anyone that hasn’t been paying attention. Forty-three adults, all capable of doing something the rest of the world can’t. Now, I don’t need to tell you all how many bodies are being put down every time we fail.” --every time we take our time. every time we’re just too late. According to the Toymaker.-- “You all have seen that for yourselves. But how the fuck are we supposed to save the goddamn world when we can’t even save this fucking city?” 

His words may come off as harsh but they’re the truth. The harsh truth that they’ve been doing a lot worse than their last time at stopping the apocalypse.

“No more fucking up. No more dead bodies.” He sighed. 

“And if anyone has seen my mother or Pogo, let me know.” He stated before stepping away from the eyes, remaining on the side of the room for anyone with information on the whereabouts of his mother and Pogo. He was worried sick but, he would never visibly show it to anyone.

It was only three steps, but they seemed almost insurmountable. She couldn’t leave the grounds, but she also couldn’t leave a mess like that, it just wasn’t right. 

The news played in the background of the bar while he wiped down the glasses. He merely shook his head at the announcements from the screen, tsking audibly. “I better not see someone bring a teddy bear into here.” He spoke to the customer on the other side of the counter. “Or any stuffed animal for that matter because I will start throwing shit.” 

Frances supposed she truly hadn’t lost her spark. For months she had been worried that she couldn’t stand up for herself anymore, that she had become too reliant on Sebastian. She was just trying to ride the subway like a normal person, Thomas holding onto her hand. Of course that meant some creep was going to try and interrupt. 

“Gotta admit I’m not digging the whole tower thing.” Holden hummed, making a face as he looked around. “I mean, it’s pretty bad ass, but I kinda miss being able to scare people from across the house.” he sighed, leaning back in his seat. “I guess I’ll have to do it the old school way, find bad people and make them piss themselves.” he laughed. 

With no social obligations, she decided to leave her hearing aid at home and decided to go explore. It was what she often did when bored, picking some random part of New York to go wander around. Often, she found great little niche shops, or maybe cute little cafes, and she’d feel less alone than sitting in her gorgeous apartment. 

Just as she walked into a shop, someone behind her knocked into her. Turning around, she started signing at them. Watch it, idiot. She loved sign language, it felt much more natural than speaking.