Papercut

"It took us a few minutes, but we're here," Noah said to the group.

All three of them approached the door, Amelia taking the lead shortly before knocking.

THUD, THUD, THUD.

Three loud bangs echoed from her knocks and then it went silent momentarily. A few seconds begin to pass before the door creaks open with someone standing on the other side; Aaron. The "companion" that Amelia and Noah hadn't seen in over a year, finally was met again by his friends.

" Amelia? It seems you've finally returned after being gone for about a year I believe. You also seem to have brought a visitor. Whom might you be?"

"I'm Carter, Amelia's brother."

"I see," Aaron said quietly, "who's the other fellow behind you?"

As Amelia moves to the side, Noah is revealed from behind her. Aaron stood there in disbelief without words, seeing as he hadn't seen him since the night he died.

"Noah...I thought-"

Noah had cut off Aaron, "that I died? Yeah, I know, but as much as I'd enjoy telling you about how I'm here, time is urgent as of now. We're actually in a hurry, so to summarize my story into a sentence, I'll just say that Amelia saved my soul from the King of The Underworld; Hades."

Swallowing his disbelief, Aaron stuttered slightly. "I uh- guess I can believe that. However, why are all of you here now, what's the urgent matter at hand?"

"It's your ability. We need you to use your hybrid ability to help us track someone's location"

Aaron furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin before uttering, "is it Olivia you're trying to track?"

Amelia buŧŧed into their conversation. "How'd you know it was Olivia we were trying to track."

"Honestly, I always knew something was up with Olivia. Still, I figured that if I tried to delve any deeper into the situation that I would've probably been ȧssassinated or something. I've always found Olivia's behavior quite peculiar. I've no quarrels with Olivia herself nor do I necessarily hate her for killing Noah. Nevertheless, I've still decided to help the three of you. I like to call my ability 「 Pinchpoint 」."

Amelia looked at Aaron in confusion before echoing back to him, "Pinchpoint?"

"Yes," Aaron begins, "Pinchpoint allows me to see the 'stream' of every person I've ever interacted with, something permanently embedded into the fabric of the world and that can never be erased. It creates vividly painted lines that only I can perceive, however, I have the ability to give others 「Pinchpoint」for up a limited time."

Upon finishing his explanation, Aaron steps to Amelia laying his hand on the center of her ċhėst, slightly above her brėȧsts.

Amelia begins to fluster as her face fills with red, "Hey what-"

He shushes her. It was then that Amelia began to sense something warm and she detected something that, initially, was shrouded to her. She could see Olivia's stream as it gave off a blazing warmth that only Amelia could feel and "see". Aaron removed his hand from her ċhėst before stepping back.

"Now you should be able to see Olivia's stream. If you follow it correctly, you can arrive at her exact location, but you should bustle since you only have about twenty-eight minutes left of my power." .

Understandably, Amelia nods.

An abrupt quake seized the ground once more, the earth rumbled viciously as the lights in the building began to flicker and the furniture slid and shifted across the wooden floor. The ground soon ceased its shaking as it once did in the past.

"Carter, we have to go, now! We're running out of time!" Amelia demanded.

The two of them begin to leave out of the door, being followed by Noah, however, he's soon stopped by Amelia.

"Noah, I can't let you come with us. For your own safety, you should stay here with Aaron."

A shocked look spread across the boy's face. "What, why?!"

"Ever since you've lost your powers, you've only become more vulnerable to danger. We can't afford to protect you and, if worse comes to worst, I don't want to see you die again. I won't. If you really care about me and want to help me as much as you can, I need you to stay here. Please?"

He stood for a moment, looking saddened for a few seconds while gazing at Amelia's concerned expression. Noah understood that he would only be a burden, but he still couldn't see Amelia facing Olivia without him. But, he still cared about her feelings and, in doing so, he respected her request.

"Fine," he said. "I'll stay, but promise me you'll come back.

Amelia immediately runs into him, embracing him tightly. "I can't promise you that, but I can promise that this isn't the last time we'll see each other."

Sighing, he squeezes her back before their hug comes to an end. Carter and Amelia finally depart from the building, leaving Aaron and Noah to catch up on all they've missed.

Amelia and Carter both came to a stop a few meters away from the door, Amelia holding her breath. The temperature around them began to drastically decrease while thick layers of frost formed from beneath her feet. A mighty gust of arctic wind blew in from seemingly nowhere as Amelia exhaled and suddenly, her wings had sprouted from her back.

After the small scene that had occurred, she looked over at her brother, realizing something. "Oh wait, Carter, you can't fly can you?"

He chuckled. "Throw me up."

"What?"

"I want you to grab me and throw me past the clouds, slightly above them, if you will."

"Are you insane? A fall from that height would kill you, you can't fly right?"

She hesitated, but he seemed as if he could fly or something similar, which she knew he couldn't, at least to her knowledge. "I'll do it, but I don't know what you're onto. We need to hurry if we're gonna catch Olivia soon."

Carter held out his hand, readying for Amelia's grasp and she did as asked; firmly, she grasped his entire arm and, with all the force she could muster, launched her brother into the sky. Carter soared through the air like a baseball and at that speed, he'd become a human bullet. Soon, he pierced the clouds above them, only continuing for another few meters before begin to descend again. Seeing her brother beginning to fall, she attempts to fly towards him but stops as she sees Carter plop on top of a cloud as if it were a pillow, gripping the sides of the cloud while standing atop the inflated thing.

Amelia looked up and yells at him. "So how long were you waiting to tell me you could ride clouds?"

"No time to explain, just go on ahead I'll catch up and probably explain when we get time."

She nodded and darted into the atmosphere within seconds, following Olivia's stream, while Carter followed shortly behind the frost breeze being blown from her wings' trail.