Underwood

I somehow found myself going back to where it all started. I came back to Underwood, the place that changed my life. The place that was decimated in a nuclear explosion.

I found the old Mall of Justice, which was ironically destroyed months before the city itself. So many memories...

I can still hear my best friend Walker talking about how he was going to one day take his girlfriend Carol and get the hell out of this city. His one dream was to live life to it's fullest.

After scavenging I found part one room of the mall that was untouched by the carnage. A special hidden room that was built. It was kind of like a trophy room, so we could always come back and remember the good old days;

The cryo chamber that was used to heal Wally when he was near death;

The magic camera that our enemy Eclipse used to literally capture us on film;

The Mirror of Noitcelfer, home to an evil demon who turned us to stone;

And dozens of other mementos that the Warriors collected over the three years of membership.

Then I started thinking of my other friends. The friends I made in the MBL, which brought me back to Thunder City.

I look at the shell that was home to TIAMAT and the MBL. So much death. So much destruction. A war that cost me my best friend's son. Lucky wasn't just Walker's kid. He was like a little brother to me. And I failed him.

I see someone who looks kind of like Gooz walking down the street. But he looks older, more devastated the leader I knew. But I guess that's what war does to people. It's probably happened to me, I just haven't taken the time to notice.

But where do I go from here? Most of my friends are dead or hiding, trying to build new lives away from here. What am I supposed to do?

I stop and look at my reflection in a broken window of a department store. I still look seventeen. My hair's getting a bit too long, but other than that I still look like I used to before the war.

But I'm not the same person. And I never will be again.

I stop to take one final look at the city before leaving it behind. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'll do, and I sure as hell don't care.

But I'm always going to remember the MBL.

<The End>