Monica
Monica watched the pillar of light in front of her. The sign that she'd succeeded in freeing Lelti and her sisters from their imprisonment.
Finally, the world would be set right. Finally, the world would make sense. The gnawing feeling inside her, screaming at every injustice, would finally go away.
A figure materialized in the middle of the light, floating over the part of the street that the beam had ripped up. A woman who looked like a living metal statue, adorned in gold and silver, just like Camilla had described.
Lelti landed in front of Monica. Her voice boomed outward - not shouting, but simply amplified effortlessly. "Thank you, Cybermind. Your aid will be remembered."
She raised her right hand, pointing to the sky. The pillar of light faded, and... something else radiated outward, rippled through Monica.
Her head spun, her insides began to churn. What was going on? Should she run? But running required standing, and... ugh. Monica dropped to one knee, trying to collect herself, and pulled off her helmet, gasping for breath.
"Wh... what did you do?" Monica asked.
Civilians were hiding indoors, but she could hear pained shouts from the buildings nearby. Some voices were clearly male, but others sounded female. Was this happening to everyone?
"Something's wrong," Roadripper said through the comms, then coughed. "Or... was this what Sniper meant? I didn't... think it would be..."
Roadripper trailed off. Monica vomited onto the pavement, leaving a puddle of black sludge. What the fuck was happening?
"You said you'd kill the men!" Monica shouted, as soon as her throat was clear. "We were supposed to be safe!"
"Is that what I promised?" Lelti replied. "What a shame. Turns out we had other plans."
"Is one of them there with you?" Roadripper asked. "I don't see any... URGH!"
They aren't all here. The others must be in Hamilton, or other places we targeted.
"You bitch!" Monica called out. "Fix thi- AAAAAUGH!"
Something was bubbling inside her. Not just her stomach, the feeling spread to her limbs, her head. She was sweating... was it sweat? What were they doing to her?
The noises from the surrounding buildings were getting louder. Impacts, panicked screaming. A man ran outside, the left half of his body starting to swell and darken. Before he could get far, he tripped and crashed to the ground.
And was this what was happening to her? She couldn't die like this, of all the violations imaginable, she needed to... what could she even do?
Roadripper had stopped talking, even really screaming, his noises had become garbled and strained. Monica turned her eyes back to Lelti's gleaming form, tried to say something, anything, but her mouth was different, wouldn't move right. Her costume was starting to pull, to tear, and parts of her were tearing, too.
The fallen man stood up. But he wasn't that man, anymore. His eyes were dead, empty, and his transformation looked complete. Still humanoid, but the proportions were wrong and irregular, now larger and purple and clawed. Torn clothes and melted skin hung off him.
Monica let out a distorted shout as her body shifted again. Lelti was barely paying attention to her anymore, instead eyeing the various other horrors that were emerging from the buildings, lining up around them. She felt tears welling up, if they were even tears. Just... get it over with.
Her body complied. A snap, deep in her brain, and everything faded.
Andre
Andre recognized the location as they got close. But the parking lot where Inferno had died hadn't had a huge hole in it, last time. And it hadn't been surrounded by... those things.
The monster closest to the hole slapped a hand down onto Roadripper's motorcycle. The motorcycle began to melt, flow up the arm, reconstruct into... Andre didn't want to stay long enough to find out.
Is that what happened to Roadripper? He became... that?
Fenrir, still carrying him on her back, had stopped about a block away. It still felt too close.
"We shouldn't stay here," he said. "I don't want to fuck with those things, not without knowing what they can do."
Anima said Fenrir's power was corrupted. Does further corruption mean becoming like this?
None of the monsters looked like a werewolf, but some had traits of other animals. Scales, feathers, horns... Most of them were gathering around the thing that had been Roadripper, but a few were splitting off, stomping towards the two of them.
Fenrir hesitated, then turned around. She seemed apprehensive, he realized. She helped cause this, and she knows it.
And we all failed to stop it. But... If anyone was still alive this close, there was nothing he could do for them. Not without risking becoming another powered monster.
Fenrir began to run back the way they'd come. As she picked up speed, the sounds of the monsters faded - they were almost as big, but not as fast.
"Seraph, Tameka," Andre called into his comms as they fled. "Are you two seeing this?"
"The shiny woman that turned Cybermind and a bunch of other people into monsters?" Seraph asked. "I saw her, and I'm getting the hell away."
Shiny woman? Radha said one of them looked like she was made of metal...
"Whatever this is, it's big," Tameka said. "We need to send out an evacuation alert. People have been sheltering inside, and that's not gonna save them from this."
"Uh," Seraph replied. "Do we have a system for that? Rudianos never told me about one."
"You definitely do," Tameka insisted. "I'll find the people to talk to about it. You rally the rest of your folks."
Seraph paused before responding. She couldn't be happy about being undermined, Andre supposed.
"Fine," Seraph finally said. "We'll do that. Cygnus, you keep an eye on things over there."
"Will do." Andre glanced back. "Think we're far enough to be safe, for now."
The two other lines went quiet, and Fenrir stopped running. She pointed a claw at Andre, then down to the ground. He complied, hopping down to the street below.
Fenrir nodded, then turned away to bite into the soldier she was carrying. Guess she got too hungry to risk more delays. Andre looked back in the direction of the monsters, watching Fenrir out of the corner of his eye as she ate. Soon, she was human again.
"Fuck," Fenrir said. "If they only managed this because I started things in Hamilton..."
"Not the time," Andre interrupted. "Right now, we need to stay focused."
"Yeah." Fenrir's voice was distant. "Yeah."
From around the street, a recorded voice began to play. "EMERGENCY. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. EMERGENCY. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
Bustling noises came from the surrounding buildings. People began to emerge - first those who had just grabbed whatever was near them and ran, then larger numbers of them. Andre and Fenrir found a spot on the sidewalk where they wouldn't be in the way.
A cacophony of phone notifications erupted. Those who stopped to check called out to the others, warning them of the direction the danger was in, to take other routes. Thank god, we don't need to tell them all ourselves.
Most of the people piled into vehicles, either their own or whoever they could convince to let them in. Others hurried off on foot.
Cars began to come down the street, from closer to where the monsters had appeared. Car horns joined the other noises, as drivers fought for limited space and grew increasingly unconcerned with traffic laws. Andre felt the urge to try to get involved, but he doubted people would listen enough for it to actually help, rather than just complicating things further.
They've had months to realize that cape problems might mean a need to get away fast. But knowing how to do that well is another story. And a few people doing it wrong can cause problems for a lot of others.
Tameka's voice returned. "Looks like the monsters have only been forming within about two blocks of the light pillars. But... some monsters have started leaving that range."
"Then we'll face them further than that." Andre looked to Fenrir. "Let's go."
"Brian and Sirona went to go help with the evacuation," Tameka added. "I'm staying put as long as it's safe."
Sirona isn't supposed to take to the field. She's too valuable to risk. But... maybe the alternative is worse, now.
As the two of them moved back towards where the monsters had formed, Andre passed on the messages to Fenrir. When the crowds thinned, he drew his revolver, reloaded it, and held it out to her.
"You can use this, right?" he asked.
Fenrir had worried about the effects of transforming twice in a row. Andre doubted she'd be in a hurry to go for a third.
She nodded. "In this body, at least. Dunno how well I'd do in another."
Another set of noises came from further ahead, and Andre wished he wasn't already familiar with them. Stomps, and screams.
Andre tracked the distance as he moved, making sure that even with reasonable room for error, they'd be safe. About four blocks from the center, he spotted the first one - a hulking, purple, lizard-like figure, dragging a struggling man behind it.
They want to take people alive, so they can make more monsters.
Andre darted forward, drawing his whip. The lizard monster turned at the sound, tossed the man aside, and leaped towards Andre. He swung his whip, hitting the monster and increasing its weight enough to throw off its jump as he dodged to the side.
A BANG! rang out from Fenrir's direction, and black blood spurted from the monster's chest. It lunged forward again and caught his leg - not a deep cut, but the claw was sharp enough to slash both nemenon and skin.
Fenrir's second bullet pierced the side of the monster's head. It looked stunned for a moment, but not down yet. Andre took the opportunity to strike again with his whip, weighing it down further.
The third bullet struck the monster's head again. This time, it collapsed, and stopped moving.
It used to be a person. But we don't know if there's anything we can do for these things, and we can't afford to pull our punches.
The man was fleeing past the two of them, Andre noticed. Hopefully he'd be safe.
This thing was no Fenrir. But there's only one Fenrir, and a hell of a lot of these.
Madison
Madison felt frozen as she watched the computer Seraph's voice was coming out of. This... what were they even going to do?
She wasn't sure how to wrap her mind around it. But... she had powers. That meant she could help, right?
So... she just needed to focus on that. At least, if she could do it without getting... corrupted. Like Cybermind and Roadripper had, apparently.
"Artemis," Seraph addressed the other cape in the room. "If we can trust you to behave, I'd like your help."
"I can try," Artemis said. "But I'm not sure how much I can do without my suit."
"You can have the suit," Seraph conceded. "No lasers, though."
"Not like I can aim like this," Artemis grumbled. "Thanks, Fenrir."
Madison spoke up. "I could... I could give her a power boost. If that's okay."
"It's temporary, right?" Seraph asked. "Fine. Do it."
Madison offered a hand to Artemis. A guard unlocked Artemis's handcuffs, and she took Madison's hand. Madison reached out with her power, feeling out for Artemis's enhanced strength and senses, and pushed more strength into them. For as long as the effect would hold, at least.
Artemis met Madison's eyes. "I... thanks. I won't... I'll help. I promise."
Madison nodded. Please don't make me regret this.
"I'll get you set up," the guard offered. Artemis nodded, and the two walked away.
"What should I do?" Madison asked.
"Support Flashstep," Seraph said. "He's helping to get people out, but his power has limits. Any boost you can give him will be a big deal. Take a headset, so you can find him."
"Okay," Madison agreed.
Another guard supplied the headset, along with directions to where Flashstep was working, and a bike. Sounded like clogging the streets with more cars heading back towards the danger would cause its own problems.
As Madison headed out, she noticed a number of cars just using any lanes available, even ones meant for traffic in the other direction. Thankfully they were letting her through intersections, at least. How well can nemenon handle getting hit by a car, anyway?
The air was starting to feel different, she noticed. Like the leak in Louisville, but more intense, more stifling. The weight of the power the immortals were using to... to slaughter people. But... hmm.
Flashstep was at a grocery store, apparently. The monsters had cut off enough exit routes to trap a bunch of people, and they'd holed up inside. Flashstep was teleporting them out as fast as his power would allow, but that wasn't fast enough.
As she got closer to the north of the city, she heard the commotion. Monsters came into view - a dozen just on one side of the store, keeping watch over broken windows and walls. The sound of gunfire came from within.
In a burst of light, Flashstep appeared, hand in hand with a woman and a kid. The pair thanked him, then ran off.
"Hey, Anima," Flashstep greeted her.
"Hi, uh, Flashstep," she replied. "I... there's something I want to try,"
"We shouldn't stay out here." Flashstep offered her a hand. "Come on."
Sure enough, a pair of the monsters seemed to be taking interest. Madison took the hand, and light flashed around her.
The change was dizzying for a moment, as noise and indoor air surrounded her. There had to be a few hundred people around, including a number of soldiers. Some were on the floor, wounded.
"So," Flashstep asked, "what's up?"
"There's this..." Madison gestured to the air around her. "Ambient power around. More than I've seen before. I don't know how dangerous it is, but..."
"You could use it to give me an even bigger power boost," Flashstep continued. "To have a shot at clearing this place before we get overrun."
Flashstep glanced at a woman on the floor, missing her left leg below the knee. Flashstep hasn't moved the wounded people because he couldn't get them far enough to be safe, Madison realized. Maybe he already tried and failed.
"Yeah," Madison agreed. "Again, I don't know what would happen, but..."
Flashstep paused, as another round of gunfire filled the air. "I don't know how long we have. And if it works, it could let me help other people, too. Let's do it."
"Okay." Madison put her hands on Flashstep's shoulders, and reached out into him.
It was like the power boost she'd given Artemis, but more complicated. She took in the energy around her, tried to... filter it, as best as she could, then poured it into him. She pushed past the limit she would have had on her own, as much as she was sure Flashstep could handle.
Flashstep gasped, then stepped back. "Whoa. That... yeah, I can work with this."
Madison looked around the crowd again, now conscious of how many eyes were on the pair of them.
"Okay," Flashstep said. "Everyone, either grab me, or grab someone who's grabbing me. Or have someone grab you, if they're connected."
It took some shuffling around to complete the web of bodies - everyone they could find, except for the soldiers still actively fighting. Flashstep promised he'd come back for them.
"Three, two, one," Flashstep counted down. "Now."
Madison felt Flashstep's power reach through her, through each of them, as the world once again disappeared into light. Hundreds of people spilled out onto a street blocks away - many of them stumbling, falling over, but safe, for now.
She'd helped. But... how many more scenes like this were out there?
Natalie
Natalie had practiced for emergency uses of her power. She hadn't wanted to use it on a person unless necessary, bodies were so much more complicated than the projects in her lab - but she'd used it to help treat injured animals a few times, enough to feel reasonably confident that she wouldn't make things worse. It was no match for Seraph's healing power, but it was something.
She hadn't expected that moving on to humans would happen while the world went to hell around her.
Natalie withdrew her hands from the man on the ground in front of her. He'd been caught in one of the many car accidents that were happening in the panic, but hopefully he'd be in at least a slightly better condition now.
"Give him a few minutes before moving him," she told the man's family. "And when you do, be as gentle as you can."
Evacuations weren't well suited to such short notice. But according to Tameka, there hadn't been a choice. Anyone who stayed anywhere near where the light beams had appeared was probably going to die.
Natalie retrieved the carrying case she'd set down, then left the family and returned to Brian. "What next?"
It wasn't easy, using her power so precisely. She normally worked in broader strokes, pacing herself. And the more tired she became, the less safe it would be to keep doing this.
"There's a commotion a couple of blocks..." Brian paused. "Wait. Do you feel that?"
More rumbling. Natalie's eyes scanned her surroundings, looking for signs of trouble. As she looked northwest, a new pillar of light formed.
Northwest - that was where Fenrir fought Sniper. Probably the exact spot, if those were the locations the immortals were targeting. How many more people are about to die, now?
"Fuck," Natalie gasped. "We can't... we can't do anything about that from here. Hopefully people have been clearing away from that area."
Hopefully people haven't already gotten stuck there.
As the rumbling died down, Natalie turned her attention back to the scene around her. People trying to get their bearings, reassuring each other, and...
The reassurances stopped, replaced by a new round of panic. People were watching the sky again, but the north this time, and shouting about something there.
Natalie looked back up. A dark shape was descending - like a bird, but bigger than any normal bird. And on its back, a shimmering figure. Lelti.
"RUN!" Natalie shouted.
She and Brian ran, and others around did the same. So much for having that family wait. Natalie gripped the metal case at her side, feeling her lab coat flap around her. The closest thing she had to a cape outfit.
WHAM! The bird-monster crashed down half a block ahead of them. Before Natalie could remember to turn back the other way, Lelti grabbed the monster's head and snapped it back, breaking its neck.
That looked stronger than the other monsters. Was it made from someone who'd gained a flight power? But why would she...
As Natalie ran back the other way with Brian, a chill passed through her, followed by a familiar rumbling. She glanced back to see a new light pillar, tearing up the street next to Lelti, where the monster had been.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
After a couple of blocks, they turned, heading east, to avoid getting too close to the other monster spot they'd been evacuating people from. Natalie felt herself lagging behind Brian - he was bigger and should have had more stamina, but was that all it was?
The sky was getting darker, she noticed. It was still afternoon - looked like stormclouds.
Cygnus's voice appeared in her comms. "Sirona! Brian! What's going on over there?"
"Lelti showed up," Brian said. "She made another one of those light beams. We got away."
Natalie felt something twist inside her, followed by an itch on her left palm. She stopped to catch her breath, and took a look at the hand. There were purple spots on it - and more were appearing before her eyes.
Ahead, Brian stopped, looked back to her. "Sirona?"
"I think they got me," Natalie murmured.
Brian's eyes widened as he looked at Natalie's hand, then checked his own. He seemed clear - at least, he hadn't shown signs of feeling anything wrong.
"Can we cut the hand off?" Brian asked. "Wait, fuck, your cheek..."
Now that he mentioned it, her right cheek was starting to itch, as well.
"It's probably too late for that," Natalie admitted.
"It's not too late!" Cygnus shouted. "Get to Anima, she'll... she'll think of something! Like with Fenrir!"
Brian winced, and Natalie felt herself do the same. It seemed to be progressing slower than with people who'd stayed nearby, but... they both could see there wasn't that kind of time. And Natalie had the feeling this was more than what Anima could handle.
"Sorry," Natalie said. "But I don't think I'm getting out of this. At the very least... I won't become one of those things. And I can make them hurt."
She gripped the handle of the case in her right hand, then met Brian's eyes. "Go. I'll deal with things here."
Brian wrapped his arms around her in a hug, avoiding contact with her itching cheek. She used her right arm to return the hug.
He broke the hug and stepped back, his face unreadable. "Bye, Natalie. Good luck."
Natalie gave as much of a smile as she could. "Thanks, Brian. You too."
"Sirona," Cygnus pleaded in her ear as Brian left. "Nat. Don't do this."
Natalie flipped open the carrying case. One compartment held regular first aid supplies. Another held the vials she'd hoped to never have to use.
She hadn't wanted it to go like this. But there was something freeing, about having nothing left to lose.
"Is that supposed to be an order?" Natalie teased as she moved vials to her lab coat's pockets. "We're co-leaders, remember?"
"We need you," Cygnus said. "I need you."
"Yeah," Natalie agreed. "Sorry again. And to the rest of my patients, too."
She started walking back towards Lelti, towards the sounds of more monsters emerging. Something shifted inside her, moving in a way it wasn't supposed to. Gotta do what I can while I can still stand.
"Tameka!" Cygnus shouted. "Make her stop!"
"I don't think I can," Tameka replied.
Please listen to her. However much time I have left, I don't want to spend it arguing.
Two monsters stomped towards her. Natalie withdrew a vial from her coat pocket and pushed her power into it, shoving the molecules within into increasingly unstable configurations, holding them there.
She threw the vial in an arc towards the monsters, then shut her eyes and stepped back.
BOOOOM!
She reopened her eyes to a cloud of smoke from the explosion. The monster on the right was down, the left one was covered in burns but starting to move again. Natalie grabbed a second vial, backing up further as she repeated the process.
Another explosion. This time, neither of the monsters kept moving, and parts of them had caved in or been blasted away.
"...Nat?" Cygnus asked.
"I'm fine!" she called back. An itch down her legs reminded her that no, she really wasn't. "Er, relatively. Looks like we can blow these things up."
Natalie staggered forward, towards where she'd seen Lelti. She grabbed a third vial and started preparing it - the one that would pack the biggest punch. As Lelti came into view, Natalie felt a wave of nausea roll through her. I'm back in range, now.
Three monsters stood between them. They advanced, and Lelti followed.
"You must be Sirona," Lelti's voice boomed. "Here to accept your fate?"
"Why the hell are you doing this?" Natalie demanded.
"We've earned it," Lelti replied. "We worked for this, harder than you can imagine."
"Christ," Cygnus said. "What a bunch of fuckwads."
She could feel her body changing shape, now. It'd have to be soon.
Natalie stepped closer, then dropped to one knee as her head spun. "So you'd make whole world like this? Just to..." She coughed. "Just to give you something to rule over?"
"Whatever it takes," Lelti said.
Natalie felt her throat starting to tighten. "Fuck," she gasped out. "You guys take it from here."
"NATALIE!" Cygnus called out.
She threw the vial at the ground between her and Lelti, and-
Isaac
"God DAMMIT!" Cygnus roared.
Even without hearing the other end of the conversation, I'd picked up enough. Was there something I should say? Was there anything he'd want to hear from me, right now?
We'd fallen back from the front lines. Cygnus had gotten too tired to keep fighting, and I was out of bullets. And it seemed like most people who were going to get away had already done so.
Cygnus was still speaking into his headset. "Tameka, everything we did was built around her. What are we doing to..."
I turned my attention elsewhere. The two of them would lean on each other - best for me to stay out of it.
The sound of a helicopter rumbled from above. Seemed risky, with the weather getting worse, but it was an emergency and there hadn't been any-
BOOM!
A flash of lightning, and the helicopter exploded. The first lightning I'd seen today.
I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't a coincidence.
Radha
Radha drove her wrist blade forward, into the heart of the monster looming over her. The arm it had raised to strike dropped limp to its side.
She tried to tug the blade back out, but it was stuck. She braced her right hand against the thing's shoulder, and shoved - and a snap resounded through her.
The blade had broken, half of it left behind in the monster. It had served her well, here, but that was the end of it.
Was there anything else she could do? While Anima was enhancing her powers, the vision in her remaining eye had sharpened enough that Radha had wondered if she'd be able to aim a gun again. But that had worn off, by now. Maybe she could talk to Seraph and see if she'd built up enough trust to get her laser back.
"My blade broke," Radha reported into her comms. "But the immediate area's clear, now."
August's voice replied. "Fall back, then. At this point, we've probably done as much as we can."
Radha tensed at the idea of taking orders from a man. But... she was trying to not always listen to that part of herself, now. The part that had told her to go along with... with everything Monica and Camilla had said.
It was an instinct she had developed for a reason. But that didn't mean it had all the answers.
"Okay," Radha said. "I'll retreat."
Isaac
We regrouped in the south of the city, near the bridges that spanned the river to Covington. Some people were fleeing the city entirely, but none of the surrounding regions were entirely friendly, so a lot of folks were taking their chances on the parts of their home city that remained safe for now.
It could get ugly, especially if they dropped another monster spot on all the people gathered here. But according to Madison, this area was sturdy enough to resist that, at least for the moment. Meanwhile, Lelti and her monsters had switched from expanding their territory to consolidating the parts of the city they controlled. From the sound of things, Muriel and Pandora were doing the same further north, in Hamilton and its surroundings.
At least we were finally getting the chance to catch our breath. Chroma and Mirage had already been injured in Hamilton's original attack, and Flashstep had exhausted himself from overclocking his power. The injuries, at least, were easy for Seraph to heal, at the restaurant she'd commandeered to serve as the new headquarters. Flashstep was asleep somewhere in the back.
Seraph called the rest of us together: Chroma, Mirage, Neodym, August, Cygnus, Tameka, Madison, Artemis, and me. She'd never been involved with the previous meetings, but this time, I could feel Sirona's absence. At least she'd apparently succeeded in keeping herself from becoming a monster.
We'd lost track of Sculptor, Phantasm, and Radiance. Seemed like they'd fled to the north alongside Hamilton's mundane troops.
"So," Seraph announced, "this is... well, a fucking disaster. But I promise you, we're going to put an stop to this."
Neodym spoke up. "I hope you're right, but, uh... how?"
"We have a few things going for us," Seraph said. "One, those immortals just pissed off a LOT of people. Other cities aren't going to want to wait to be the next ones swallowed up."
That doesn't mean they'll all bother to help do something about it, though.
"Two," she continued, "we have Anima."
"I can try to do the thing I did for Flashstep, for more of you," Madison explained. "I don't know if it'll work as well, though. And... I might be able to protect powered folks from being corrupted? Like what I did to block the immortals' influence."
"If that works," Seraph said, "it will give us a way to strike back. Three, at least we can shoot the damn things."
"We can shoot them for now," I added. "They made monsters out of two tech capes, and they're always up to something. They could start churning out nemenon soon, or something like it. And if not, it'll be because they're building something worse."
Seraph nodded. "More reason not to wait. The longer they're out there, making more monsters, more monster zones, the stronger they'll get."
"If they last long enough," Mirage began, "are other cities gonna start dropping bombs on them? At least, once the weather clears up."
"The weather isn't going to clear up," Tameka said. "The clouds are covering everywhere near any of the monster spots, and any aircraft that comes close gets hit by lightning. It's their air defense system."
"So we have to fight them on the ground," Seraph concluded. "And I'm sure they're developing more countermeasures for that, too. We can't give them the chance. As soon as we can get some rest, set up protections, and coordinate with anyone else we can, I want to throw everything we have at them."
We all nodded. Either we'd win, or we'd become the pyre on which the rest of the world would burn.
