Context: I remembered my old story draft before writing romance. A sci-fi action/fantasy made during my senior year at HS. It was as if my firstborn, who I hadn't contacted for a long time. The concept, the details, and the amount of time I spent in worldbuilding and character development, but its very heavy and triggering themes made me have an indefinite hiatus. For 4-5 years. After the AyeKay series, I'll work on it again. I didn't recall I could write action-packed scenes until I re-read this one, and it's a shame I couldn't write it like that now. I have to polish it again. Here are a few scenes.

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Sorrow washes over him again. After half an hour, he finishes and wraps a towel around his lower half. He peeks out from the bedroom. All quiet. "The girls are still enjoying themselves," he thinks. A new set of clothes is on the counter in the living room, showing that the girls shop for clothes and sent them over to their suite via delivery tube.

He walks toward the counter and sees Ames, who is still on the balcony bench, as her face etches with worry. Shaking his head, he doesn't want to worry about her unknown thoughts. She doesn't see him as her back faces the living room.

Quietly, he takes his new undergarments and pants from the counter, careful with his handcuffs. He heads back to the bedroom and locks the door. Later, Ames hears his bedroom door open and enters through.

Same coat but a different shirt. Same kind but new pants. No boots in sight since they're near the front doorway. Ames pulls out the cuffs and paces toward him.

"Oh no no, pull it together Mo. She won't understand about Heart." His face contorts to a scowl.

She sneers.

"I won't let you cuff me again."

"You're coming with me whether you like it or not," she spits out.

"You think I can't fight without my arms?" His devious grin shows up.

Ames' eyes widen. "Don't–!"

Mo swiftly places his feet on Ames' sternum and gives a forceful kick. He sets his mind that he won't harm her. "Just enough to incapacitate. Even knock her out while I get away. She can't track me later." With that, he keeps his power stored in the brain for the whole time.

Ames skids on the floor and soon regains composure. She shoots up and runs toward Mo, and he spins a roundhouse kick at her. She blocks him with her arm and he puts his other leg on her other side, sending both of them tumbling down. He tries to choke her with his legs. She catches him by surprise when she carries him and almost slams him down on a nearby table.

His upper body quickly manoeuvers to the nearest wall and his legs push her off. She grips the back of the couch to break the fall. They stop for a moment, and his chest rises and falls with heavy breaths. Mo's tall, athletic stature fights off Ames' lean, frail body amazes him. They stumble to the common room.

___

"Do you think Ames would wear this?" Cash pulls out a sequined shirt with a heart-eyed cat shape plastered on it.

Qit's face morphs to disgust and she walks away to check the bra section.

"She'll burn it." Rom hops to reach the plum-coloured bonnet on the top shelf.

Cash groans and puts the shirt back. She buys a new scarf for Mo and places it under the delivery tube where it's stuck on the store's wall. "That woman needs colour in her life."

"She's into emo. Let her be." Qit wears a D-cup bra over her dress and adjusts it.

"Gah! I don't truly believe she's only to that." Cash makes her way to the makeup section.

"This is so snug. Why do humans wear this? To make theirs perky? Cover nipples? Why do they have to make it so tight?" Qit tries to pull out the bra, but it's stuck on her head. "Help."

Rom, with her mountains of clothing in her arms, finally unhooks the bra.

"Thank you."

"Ooooo..."

They both turn to see Cash holding a facial neon highlighter. She tries it on, though the highlighter looks bland on her skin.

"Bummer."

"Because we have highlighter skins already, wacka," Qit reprimands.

"Hey, I'm trying something new, alright?"

Rom almost forgot that their skins were made from the ashes of the deceased, which were constructed by... She doesn't know. Because they were saturated with colour and abundant with glitter when she first met them. Now, they're still glowing, however, their colours are paler and the glitters aren't overwhelming.

She asks, "How can you make those ashes all glowing and glittery? What glues them together?"

Cash skips further into the makeup section, causing the cashier to worry from afar.

"Your dimension is all dirt-like. Lots of solid particles, and your air has lots of dirt too," Qit mutters, "you are made by one and you live on one. Humans' energy is earthly. Most of it."

"So, you both are...?"

"Light and fire. Mostly."

Rom's eyes go huge with awe. "That's pretty mirabile."

"Yeah, mirabile. Or whatever... Hey, why did they put this on eyebrows too?" Cash questions.

"This highlighter is multipurpose."

"Pff, our skin can do that too. Rom, can I put mine onto your eyebrows?"

Before Rom can answer, Cash's two fingers press hard on her cheek and brush over Rom's eyebrows.

Qit shoots daggers at Cash. "You just practically put your host's dead ash on her."

___

Most furniture is broken by their fights. Mo notices Ames is getting paler and putting more on defences instead of offences. He uses this advantage by doing a false uppercut, causing her arms to block her face. Then he hits pressure points beneath her upper arms, making her wince as an agonising pain kicks in. Immediately, he grabs both of her wrists and pushes her to a wall. He pins her wrists between them and his lower body onto hers.

"Blood pressure getting low huh? I'll give you salt if you let me go."

"No," she pants out.

"Let me out from these HANDCUFFS!"

She struggles more.

"You don't know what I can do."

"Mo."

"Just because I'm against Thofili now doesn't mean I'm a good guy. I'm the same assassin. The same doer of those crimes. The same man that tortured his victims."

"You wouldn't do anything to me," she shakily breathes out.

He leans over and whispers in her ear. "If I'm not unbound by this minute, I'll knock you out. I'll do things to you with the most fucked up things you can think of."

Cringing, he shuts his eyes for a while. He feels so wrong to say that, especially to her. He has never done those things and knows it's beneath him. Though he wants to get out. Now. He watches her. Her eyes are closed shut, holding in her tears.

"You wouldn't do that. Stop lying."

"I'm not the same boy you met in the alleyway," he growls.

Her eyes open and squint. "No, you're not. You're both."

He blinks and frowns. "Having faith in me?"

"You just want to find answers."

"In which you don't understand, I have to find that fucker! You don't understand that I was only three blocks away from what happened that night! I was buying an ice cream that papa craved so much. I can't even save him. Three blocks away for thirteen minutes..."

For a moment, they're both breathing deeply.

"Mo."

"Let. Me. Go."

"You're not to blame. You don't have to make amends for him by doing this."

She nailed it. And she still doesn't let him. He has to get out. Bound or no bound. He'd come this far.

He lets her fall on the ground, rushes to the balcony, jumps out of it, and sprints to the streets. Ames drinks her vial from the floor in a hurry, coughing hard and on her knees. A few seconds later, she stands up with a wobble and chases him.

The girls go shopping at the next store until they see Mo and Ames running on the streets by the lobby windows. They share looks and scramble out through the lobby's door.

Mo is running through the ruined buildings with Ames behind him. He dodges the falling ceiling and escapes to the wet pavements. A slip catches him, but he regains his balance with his cuffed hands. Because of this, Ames catches up and jumps onto him. They fall and roll around, and soon she knees him near his crotch, causing him to panic. She gets the upper hand and out of the blue, she unchains his handcuffs and gets off of him.

"What?" he rasps.

"Go on. GO!" She clenches her teeth and turns toward the hotel.

"You little—" He blocks her and says, "I'll handle that piece of shit later. I'm not going to let you go easy after everything you did to me."

"Just go! Don't make me regret my choice."

"WHY THE FUCK YOU RATTED ME OUT AND GOT ME INTO PRISON?" He tries to not shout. Tries.

She looks away and frowns.

"After what we have both been through," his voice shakes.

"Please go."

"You promised me that–"

"We were kids. Now, go. You're free."

A seething flare shoots up to his head. A question pops up in his mind. "You know, the inks of the cuffs are the same as my powers. Did you capture or steal some of Heart's powers? Since you guys are so invested in The Assistants." His suspicious glare is thrown at her.

She avoids looking at him.

A frown mars his look. "Don't tell me..." He keeps staring at her and begins to show disbelief.

"Heart Bearer is with you."

Her breaths stutter.

"With Siren. Right now."

Both of them don't utter a word. Until...

"You didn't tell me... You know I was searching for him. YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"

"Yeah, well." She carelessly throws the cuffs away.

"I'll fight you all."

"Have fun trying to fight off five thousand Sirens. Have fun trying to kill Heart."

"Who said I will kill him?"