Almighty- Chapter 1- Death of the Everyday

A Chapter by SpaceKnight

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My eyes are stapled to the rotting timber doors that lead out of the church. I can hear hundreds of sounds from the other side of it...and they're not good sounds... Machinery whirling, the crunch of human bones, screaming, crying, gunfire. I want to get out there and stop it. All of it. But whenever I even think of that, I remember what I'm doing here in the first place. I peer over my shoulder, careful to keep the doors in my line of sight as well. I've got a couple dozen innocent people in here with me...I've gotta hold out.

My my ears manage to grab something else...plucked from the edge of shadows.

In the furthest and darkest corner of the church, is my seventeen year-old sister, Sinthea. She's alone. She's crying. I should've just told her the truth as soon as I found her... She thinks I'm dead and she's been crying about that ever since I found her...she doesn't know who I am underneath this mask. I can't do it anymore...maybe I could in normal times but not now. There's too much at stake here. I have to show her who I am.

It takes me twenty minutes to be fully convinced that nothing's getting through the door and finally move from it. As soon as my stillness is broken, the gaze of every person in the church is stolen by my movement. They're looking up to me...when there isn't a hope left that they can give themselves. They look to me for reassurance...promise...shelter. The lives and minds of these survivors are upon my shoulders. Public speaking was something I learnt for the job; inspiration is a critical tool in what I do. So I inhale and prepare to give them what they need; hope. "A lot has been lost today. A lot of sacrifices have been made. For every son, every daughter, every father and every mother we have lost today, I could never apologise to them enough if I lost one more from the people here before me. They will want you to live; to move on from this. If we all remain united and proper, I can ensure that their wishes be fulfilled. So for the fallen, you must live or their sacrifices will be in vain."

When my last word drifts from my mouth, the people smile upon me. Some nod, some voice their approval. Within a matter of minutes, it's much more comfortable in atmosphere than it was before. Using the commotion as a distraction, I use my abilities to thread my molecular structure through the wall to the left of the main chamber. I emerge in the furthest, darkest corner of the church, where a teenage girl is reeled over on the floor, with streaks of shimmering tears running the length of her face.

"Sinthea." I gasp.

She leaps up, her eyes now widened and glistening at me. "B-Bluestreak! What...what do you need?"

Before she's done speaking, I stride closer to her and command my mask's molecules to peel back. It slowly unstitches itself and reveals my sweat-soaked face to my mourning sister... "It's me, Sin. It's Scott."

I don't have time to react before she lunges at me with the force of a semi-trailer. "Scott! Oh my god!!" She cries into my ear. At first, she hits my back with clenched fists... "You're a f*****g a*****e! F**k you! You f*****g left me!!" ...but her rage slowly turns to tears. We lock together for a good fifteen seconds and when we did, it was like nothing else mattered. We were together again and that was it. I could hear her breathing in my ear...I could feel her here with me. She pulls her head back so she can let her sight fall upon my face. She seems to analyse every feature on me, as if she's already memorised them and is looking at them just because she thought I was gone. "Scott...I can't believe I didn't figure it out... I mean, I can't believe I was so stupid."

I try to lighten the mood a bit, by gripping my little sister firmly and smirking at her as I say "I'm glad you were that stupid. That way, you didn't tell mom."

Sin sighs, both in cheerfulness and in sadness. Extremely out of character for Sin, she glazes over my insult and pays her full attention to my comment about mom. "I miss her, Scott."

"Hey, it's okay...I do too." I whisper, gripping her as tight as I would a pillow. I know what she wants from me already and she can't have it. I'm not leaving this country until we finish this war, whatever it's about. Then Sin's eyes seem to pierce right through me and into my mind. "What?" She asks me.

She's not going to take this very well... "...I've got some friendly choppers coming here to--"

"No! N-No Scott, f**k off I'm not leaving you!" She yells over me. Her voice feels like it's held together with duct tape...she's so vulnerable right now and Sin's never been a weak girl. With a deep breath, I start again. "I've got some friendly choppers coming here to take everyone away. I need you to get on for me."

Now, her eyes begin to glow with desperation and fear. "I'm not doing anything but staying here with you!"

"Damn it Sin, I'm not gonna watch you die!!" I explode. Her trembling stops and she becomes frozen in place. I continue... "I've already watch them take mom away from us and there's no way they're taking you. Now...when the choppers come, let them take you away from here. Stay with your dad in Australia. Hold out for me and I promise that I'll come back to you."

My little sister...the incredibly strong and boyish young woman in my life, is starting to cry like a baby. Her eyes are afraid of me right now, like she doesn't like me seeing her like this. Sin shakes her head once, so the fringe of her pink hair would drop over her dark, makeup smeared eyes. My hand brushes the locks of hair away as I speak "Don't do that, you're too beautiful to be hiding behind your hair."

She sighs at me, shaking her head as her lips tighten in the refusal to cry "F**k you Scott..." She dives at me again, still keeping the rest of the tears inside. "Promise that you won't die."

Without hesitation, I repeat "I promise I won't die."

I just want to stay here with her in silence...just us. I've misled myself...because I know I can't. My ear communicator buzzes frantically, snapping our solitude in half. God d****t... I lean away from Sin and push the button on the device and speak clearly "Bluestreak, go ahead."

The stern and crisp New Yorker accent of a US Marine hollers back at me, over the rotors of a helicopter. "This is First Lieutenant Marcus DeCarpo; them choppers you requested are inbound on your current position for evac."

"Good to hear, Lieutenant. What's your ETA?" I reply, al least trying to sound like I'm in charge.

"Give us five minutes. Don't worry, we'll knock. DeCarpo out." The transmission ends with a click and I tell my mask to wrap itself around my face again. As the fabric fibres crisscross over my face and cocoon me inside my suit, I speak "The Marines are five minutes away. Come with me, let's tell the others." Sin's holding herself back...she isn't trying to stay or swear at me. She knows I'm not going...no matter what. It feels good but at the same time, I can't be there for her. So zip past a few seconds, I've walked Sin back into the church's main chamber and made sure she's okay before pacing to the centre of the room.

"Everyone, I'd like to have your attention." I call over the top of numerous conversations. Everyone instantly sends their eyes to me, prompting me to continue. "The United States Marine Corps is roughly four minutes away from our position. I'm asking you to prepare your families, companions and belongings for when the helicopters arrive to take you to safety. Thank you very much."

Chatter floods the church as people move frantically to secure their loved ones and possessions before the Marines arrive. Sin finds me in the sea of people and grips my arm tightly as her wide eyes dart from person to person. She's never been a crowd person... I have to keep her calm. "Did you like my speech?" I quip.

She rolls her eyes at me, instantly picking the opportunity to tease me over being anxious. "You sounded like a p***y. You could've been like 'Hey, the choppers are coming so get ready'. You know? Like how a normal person would talk?"

"Well princess, you wanna take over? Because it sounds like you have far more experience than my mere twelve years on the job." I scold.

The doors to the church swing open and in march a dozen US Marines, who move around to tend to the various innocents. DeCarpo is the first to approach me."Heya Blue. Is this your sister?"

Sin's eyes fill with tears as she nods. DeCarpo, despite being dressed in full military gear, moves gently and takes her hand "You should be proud; ain't many around like him."

She says to DeCarpo "There isn't anyone around like him." One last time, her eyes meet mine and she gasps "I love you bro." almost too silently for even my enhanced hearing to pick up. As DeCarpo leads her to one of the multiple choppers outside, I call out "I love you too."

I try to distract myself from Sin's absence by assisting others with boarding the choppers. Still though...The only sound I can hear is the sound of Sin's breathing in my ear. Before too long, I find myself standing alone in the doorway into the church, staring after the choppers as they grow smaller in the horizon. Now that Sin is gone, along with the people that made this mass of concrete a town, my mind jumps backward to the times where it was all how it was meant to be. Peacetime. When wearing a costume meant standing up for what was right. What now though? What am I going to be forced to do...? It's not peacetime anymore kid...this is something different.

I don't fly for some reason...I guess I just wanted to take it slowly for once. Every time I wanna be somewhere, I blink and I'm there. This time, I want it to take time. I know there's an invasion going on, but I'm too smart to just rush in head first and expect to make things better. Solving a war needs planning...not thoughtless violence. I won't solve anything if I rush...so I need to think things over. I need to see Titus...he's the only one who can help me.

I've been slogging it down a highway for about twenty minutes now. This city was called Welling, a relatively large one but now...It feels like I'm walking on a bridge over a crop field. That's how many tall buildings are still standing around me. I remember those days when I was back in high school and I'd take Sin out here to hang out in the park. I'd get her a hot chocolate, and I'd grab a coffee...heh and we'd go video game and music shopping together. It was perfect... Flawless. It's always perfect when I'm with her...lil' sis.

When I start to get to the outskirts of Welling's central business district, I see something on the highway ahead of me. The highway closes up into a tunnel and...I think I see something on the wall. D****t...my energy's a little low from all this walking in this heat...my enhanced vision isn't working properly. I start to move a little faster so I can make out what that thing on the tunnel is... It looks like...a body. My feet hasten their pace. I can't make out anything yet but...wait. Oh my god.

I break into a sprint as soon as I make out who it is. There...strung up with barbed wire on the wall of the tunnel, is a friend. "Spider...!" I breathe when I arrive at her side. The tight black tactical outfit she's wearing is torn and peppered with bullets. The barbed wire is tied deeply into her wrists, waist and ankles...it makes me gag. Her helmeted head weakly peers up at me. The weak voice beneath it is barely enough to overpower the wind. "Scott..."

Spider was an agent of the government...a damn good one. We worked together a few times. I clench my hands upon hers and speak calmly to her "I'm going to kickstart your immune system. When I do, your body will heal at an extremely fast rate. It might hurt a little." This is probably gonna suck me dry...might even die if its too much. I'm not about to let that stop me from trying.

Breathe, Scott. Focus. Expel foreign materials first. As I grimace, the dozens and dozens of bullets slowly wriggle their way out of Spider's body. She screams in immense pain "Stop! Please stop!"

My stomach drops. I-I can do this. I can save her. "Keep it together, it'll be over soon." I say, surprisingly sternly.

She struggles, tenses and lunges back and forth in pain. "Scott, I don't want you to save me!"

Don't listen to her, Scott. Don't listen to-- AHHH! God, it hurts! I can't even...think. Feels like...a screw is going through my brain... I let go of the dying Spider and instantly feel it stop. My eyes widen at her. Oh no... She's rejecting my command over her molecules. I've...I've never felt a rejection that intense before. She wants, with all her heart, to die. "Goddammit let me help you!!!" I scream.

"No. I...wasn't good enough, alright? That's my price to pay. Just...win."

My gut feels like it's going to explode. For the first time in my life, I'm forced to watch someone die slowly right before my eyes. For the first time, I was given enough time to save them but I couldn't. There have been others who I definitely couldn't save, but Spider...I could've saved her ten times over. I just stood there and watched one of the capes who have been operating since I first started, leave this place. First she stopped moving and her breathing slowed...then it stopped. What was she thinking...? Was she scared? Did she deep down, want me to save her but I just gave up? Did I just let her die knowing full well that I could've waited for her to get weaker, then try?

I stand before Spider's body for about ten minutes, not sure whether I'm not good enough, or I just didn't want to. I was completely silent. I...gotta keep moving though. A person screams behind me, making me jump. I spin around and find myself surrounded by soldiers. S**t...are...are they friendly? I don't know uniforms... Three men are surrounding me, their assault rifles pinned to my head.

They speak to me in a different language...sounds like...Russian or a derivative? I raise my hands and remain completely still. "Are you with America?"

The soldiers pause after my words leave my mouth. Then, they begin to argue with each other. All I can do right now is wait...I don't want to hurt them if they're not the enemy. The arguing stops. My heart starts to beat a little faster now. I don't even hear it, it's like its so loud I just couldn't hear it. I get slammed in the shoulder and I watch in slow motion as one of the assault rifle barrels smokes before me, blood squirting from the wound on my shoulder. Scott...you gotta do something. Sure you could harden your skin, but how long could you keep that up? They did that to Spider...and thousands more. I have to...I-I have to.

Within half a second, the bullet falls out of my shoulder and I leap at the closest soldier in front of me. When I jump at him feet-first, I wrap my legs around his neck and bring him onto the ground so quickly no one has fired another shot. I increase the mass in my fist and slam it onto his face once. I don't care to see what I've done to him...so I grab the nearest soldier and decrease his mass significantly. With all of my strength, I hurl him at the tunnel wall with a blood-curdling crunch. The last one raises his gun, but by the time he does, my right hand is already wrenched around his neck. With a squeeze, his neck pops and his movement stops. My fingers instantly loosen and the body falls to the ground. It...it happened so fast. Now...now the horrors I just committed finally meet my eyes.

The first soldier's head is destroyed completely. A portion of his chest is cracked open and inside I can still see his insides pumping and shifting...that's how fast I killed them...? The second soldier lays motionless by a gigantic blood splatter on the wall. The concrete has been cracked and several pieces of flesh and bone are wedged inside. His body is twisted and tangled inhumanly. My stomach churns. The final soldier's neck seems as if it was bent and stretched like a length of wire.

A worm begins to churn deep inside my stomach. What...did I just...do? I murdered these men so quickly like I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. My steady breathing morphs to shallow panting. My fist curls. I feel like I'm going to explode...then I do. A deafening roar escapes my throat and I slam my fists onto the ground. The highway shakes and buckles and I collapse onto my knees. What...have I done? I don't deserve this costume anymore...I saw no crime in brutally and mindlessly killing these three men for fighting for their country.

Then a breeze sweeps by me. I've felt it too many times to think it's just a normal breeze. My head turns over my shoulder and I see him. "Titus..." I whisper.

His presence is godlike. He towers over me, clad in ceremonial armour from his home world. His helmeted head is facing me and the glowing aqua eyes upon it are gazing down on me. My head turns back to the men in front of me as I wheeze to my mentor "I...I did this, Titus. I killed these men."

His gravely voice instantly answers "You did what you had to."

"Then I can't fight this war."

There is a pause. Titus' shadow is motionless. "You must." He speaks, treading closer to me.

I'm shivering at this point. Why is he putting all of this onto me? I need him... "Fight it with me." I plead, turning to face him. He is as stern and stoic as always...the great Titus. His navy blue armour is angular and intimidating; almost knight-like. Although he was a father to me, he always seemed to be watching everything from the other side of a window. Like he is right now. His maroon cape flutters in the wind and he stands there...indifferent. "I cannot. But I can advise you. You must unite the remaining transhumans. United, under a common leader, is the only way this war can be derailed."

I should've expected this. Titus was always extremely firm on staying away from military business. But now...at least he approves of me doing this. His hand reaches down for mine as he speaks once more "You were meant to react in a way I never could, Scott." Titus...he's always lifted me up. I grasp his hand tightly and allow him to pull me to my feet. Dropping his arms by his side, he continues "For reasons that I cannot yet disclose to you, I have failed. I cannot interfere in the current events in risk of worsening it. I have failed Earth. I predicted this and trained you. Scott, you were intended to take my place from the very beginning in case a day like this would come." His hand slips into a pocket on his belt and he reveals a circular metal disk. He firmly encloses my hand around the disk as he steps back.

I don't even have enough time to think about the disk before he simply vanishes before my eyes, with an immense updraft of wind shooting away from me a second after he'd gone. God d****t Titus... In a time like this, he shifts all responsibility onto me and runs off. My eyes drift down to the disk in my hand. I have a feeling that I have to know what this is...and right now all I have in my mind are questions. Why me?

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