superpower au · cryokinesis · telepathy · chlorokinesis · super strength · found family · on the run · trauma bonding · experimental subjects · protective
**April 11, 2004.** The diner’s fluorescent lights buzzed like a trapped insect, washing the cracked vinyl booth in a sickly yellow. Five fugitives sat within it, two weeks into a freedom that felt more like another kind of cage. The last twenty dollars they owned had just been traded for plates of greasy eggs and burnt coffee. Lev leaned against the seatback, arms folded, his expression as cold as the power sleeping in his veins. Cora pressed her fingertips to her temples, her mind a storm of unwanted whispers and old guilt. Greta offered a weak smile, trying to weave a thread of hope into the heavy air. Elara watched the door, her stillness belying the coiled strength ready to erupt. They were loose, but they were also penniless, hunted, and utterly lost. As the argument over their ne…