Chapter 26: Inferno

 

The old city hall overlooking the park had gone from ‘dilapidated but charming public building with a lot of very creative graffiti’ to ‘raging inferno’ frighteningly quickly. Eric had never seen stone disintegrate that quickly. Thrown to the ground, he– 

Hold on, Amy said, you were thinking about yourself differently a second ago. Yes, well, immediate crisis took precedence. It didn’t look like anyone was inside. In fact, all the employees were standing outside, like someone had pulled the fire alarm beforehand. Eric squinted. 

“It’s him,” he said.

“It’s who?” Tony asked, picking himself and the others back up. “That Arsonal guy?”

“Yes,” Eric said. “Don’t ask me how I know.”

“How do you know?” Serena asked, then shrugged when Eric shot her a glance. “Tell me what to do again and I’ll tell your mom. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Something’s wrong,” Amaranth said, and it took Eric a second to realize that she’d said it out loud. The others looked confused. How did she know? What kind of thing? Amaranth answered as she slipped out of the driver’s seat. I don’t know how. But something’s wrong. Almost in response, the hair on Eric’s arms stood up. 

“What is it?” Tony asked as he took the others by the elbow and slowly moved them to the edge of the park opposite from the fire, despite the slight resistance Eric was putting up.

“I don’t know,” Eric said. “Amaranth doesn’t know either.”

“Maybe she, uh, she’s picking up on something but doesn’t know what?”

That could be it, Amy said. Also, she sees me as a person! Celebrate later, Eric thought. What do you think you’re picking up on? I think… I think I’m remembering something. Well, you are. Well, I’m remembering one of your memories. 

“Well, what is it?” Eric asked. 

You went on a field trip here, Amaranth said. They were talking about things that didn’t interest you at the time so you weren’t paying attention. Something about city parks and infrastructure. Oh. Oh no. 

“I remember,” Eric said. “Get out of the park!” he shouted as he made a run for it. “Get out of the park now!!” The others kept up, looking at him with panic and confusion. “The park,” Eric yelled, “it’s an access point! To the city’s gas main!” 

The ground trembled, and there was a muted rumbling sound coming from somewhere. Muffled. On more than one occasion, Eric has tripped and fallen in his life, and the phrase ‘the ground coming up to meet him’ had been apt. Never this literally. The ground buckled and then just came up, throwing him and the others flat down. The noise was the worst thing, at first. A ball of gray rock and black smoke went straight up, sounding like a dragon waking up from a long slumber to lay waste to the world. Then, chunks of stone started to rain down around them and the sound was the least of their worries. A second explosion, a little further, rocked the park again. 

A chunk of stone the size of a watermelon crashed on the ground next to Serena. Before Eric could do anything, Anthony had grabbed him and Serena and shoved them in front of him. It took them a second to realize what he was doing, wrapping his arms around them as they moved forward. Shielding them. He grunted when a shard of rock came down on his back. 

“Tony, stop!” Eric wrestled himself out of his friend’s grip. Tony wasn’t even dignifying it with a response, and grabbed for him again. Eric jumped back. A block of concrete, much too large for Tony to survive and too fast to push him out of the way, sailed through the air. Eric only saw it because Amaranth had drawn his attention to it. “Shit,” Redshift said and jumped. Amy wrapped around their fist by the time it made contact with the stone, shattering it. They landed, wings spread up and out, covering their friends from more falling dangers. Eric barely felt the rain of debris.

Tony and Serena stared. He couldn’t exactly blame them. He hadn’t wanted the reveal to happen like this, but he’d rather the lid on his secret identity be blown off than Tony’s head. “What,” Serena said. If there was anything more to the sentence, it wasn’t coming. 

“Wait,” Tony said, “you’re–”

“Yeah,” Redshift said, just as a fourth explosion rocked them. Like this, Eric was able to keep his footing, but others were thrown down. Without waiting, Redshift grabbed them both, an arm around either of them, and jumped off. They landed just outside the park and he set them down. “Just… get to safety. I’ll explain later.”

“Wait!” Anthony said. “You– You’re a girl,” he said. “Are you Amaranth?”

Eric grimaced. “No. And yes. It’s complicated.” He spread his wings and turned back to the park. There were undoubtedly still people stuck in the park. People that could use a red-clad flying superhero to carry them to safety. He was about to take off when he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

Serena looked at him. “Alyssa?” she asked. She might as well have punched them in the stomach. Redshift beat their wings and took off. People to help. Billowing smoke rose to meet them and Amaranth covered their nose and mouth, fully sealing the suit. It’d be impossible to breathe, otherwise.

You can help people as Alyssa, you know. Amaranth said. 

“Shut up,” Eric said as they scanned around. There. A woman holding a baby. They swooped down. “I don’t have time for this.”

But you want to be Alyssa! You wanting to be Alyssa is making this a lot harder because you’re not letting yourself be! I can quite literally feel you eating yourself alive. This hurts you. Let me help!

They landed next to the woman. She screamed. Well, that was to be expected. Eric held up his hands. “Ma’am,” he said, “please relax. I’m here to help. I can fly.”

She panicked for a second and then what Redshift had said seemed to sink in. “I, you, wh… You can fly?” 

They nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get you out of here.” They held out their hand. The woman looked at her crying baby and held it close to her chest. “Alright.” Redshift wrapped their arms around the woman and made sure they had a solid grip, before taking off. When she was safe, they went back in. The fire from the city hall was spreading through the park, probably through the piping. With how hot it had been the past few days, the trees and grass was dry enough to catch fire at the merest hint of a spark. 

Redshift flew back and forth as many times as they could. There were people all over the park, many of them trapped by the destruction and the flames. It wasn’t long before the heat was starting to take its toll on them. Constantly flying and carrying people wasn’t great, either, but that didn’t hurt as much. 

“Where the hell is Penumbra?” Eric groaned. “This is the kind of thing they wanted to be doing anyway.”

They’re not here, Amy said. And the fire department will be here too late. We have to pick up the slack. 

“There can’t be that many people left,” he said, circling the park. He’d lost count of how many people they’d rescued. There were undoubtedly more to save. There was a figure sitting under a tree, huddling in what looked like a dirty old overcoat. Lockridge Bay, despite attempts of its police department, had a sizable homeless population. It made sense there were a few in the park. 

You have a second to breathe. Take it. Think about what your friends have said. 

“I can’t afford to, Amy,” Eric said. “It’s not like I can–”

Can’t what? Turn into a girl? You think your friends, who spent a good fifteen minutes telling you how much they accept you for you, might not be accepting of you?

“No,” Eric said, “I can’t. Now, are you going to play therapist or help me save this person?” He started his descent.

Don’t do that, Amy said quietly. Don’t shut me out like that. I’m just doing my best. I want to see you happy. I want you to smile the way you did when we grew our hair out as Redshift. The way you did in the diner with Serena. The way you do when you think of Tony.

“Okay, fine,” Eric said. “I’m sorry. But then we can talk about it later?” he asked.

“Took you long enough,” the person said just as Redshift landed. 

“Oh no,” Eric said as Arsonal sized him up. “It’s you.”

“Me,” the faux-fireman said. “Good on you for cleaning up the park. Figured one of you hero types might.” He was holding a gun in one hand, loosely by his side, and a grenade in his other. “Don’t make any unnecessary moves, kid.”

“I can’t let you get away with this,” Redshift said. “You blew up a whole park. I was going to say it’s a miracle nobody got hurt, but nobody got hurt because of me. I’m taki–”

“You’re not taking me anywhere, kid,” Arsonal said. “Yeah, the park was unexpected. Wasn’t really the intention. I’ve been getting people out myself.” He actually had the gall to wave. And yeah, just at the edge of the park were two kids, faces covered in soot, waving back. “Smile, hero.”

“You almost killed them,” Eric growled.

“Yeah, but I didn’t. That wasn’t the point.”

“Then what is, you maniac?” Redshift circled him but kept their distance. Eric knew he might be able to close in before the man could do anything, but he wasn’t going to risk a repeat of last time. Besides, the longer they waited, the more likely it was for the police to show up. They’d be on his side. “What kind of moral justification do you have for endangering people’s lives like that?”

“The system is broken,” Arsonal said matter-of-factly. “I’m burning it down. Simple as.”

“You can’t just–”

“Clearly,” the man said, waving at the burning park and what remained of city hall, “I can. You don’t understand, kiddo, what I’ve lost to… all of this. Even if this was just retribution I would have been fucking justified. But what’s going to come out of the ashes… that’s going to be a world worth living in.”

“Oh my god,” Eric said. “You’re insane. You’re going to kill innocent people! Don’t you– Don’t you have a heart? Don’t you have a family?”

That seemed to upset Arsonal more than a little bit. His eyes narrowed and he squared his shoulders. “Yeah,” the man said. “I did.” He raised the gun and that’s when Eric realized, too late, that he’d underestimated his opponent. Again. Amy’s memories of Penumbra’s adventures had told him that, while it would hurt to hell and back, they could walk off a bullet wound. 

A flare? Not so much. Look ou– Amaranth managed, and then the pyrotechnic hit them square in the chest. It was like being punched by a stovetop. They flew backwards, trying to get the fire off, rolling in the grass and igniting it. Amy didn’t speak anymore. She was reduced to a sort of terrified hiss.

Redshift managed to get all the burning material off of them while crawling onto the dirt path. Arsonal kneeled down next to them and showed them the grenade.

“You know,” he said, “last time I hit you with one of these, it was a flashbang. I’m nice like that. Maybe I’m not going to be so nice this time. Do you know what an incendiary is? What it means?” Eric just coughed. “Of course you do,” Arsonal said. “It keeps you from keeping me from doing what has to be done, hero.” He stood up. Eric heard the metallic sound of the pin being pulled. “This is nothing personal.”

“You’ll never get away with this,” Eric said. 

Arsonal sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that,” he said, and walked away. A few seconds later, as Redshift was pushing themselves to their knees, the incendiary landed in front of them. 

The last thing they thought before it went off was fear, and a question. 

Where the hell was Penumbra?