“Ever?”

“Ever!”

“Ever…”

Why did he hold back? Why did he not use his full power again? He refuses to accept his stature, denies the greatness that he embodies! He is weak... Maybe I overdid things a little…

He knows he could rend this world in twain and yet it is as if he desires naught! What happened to our dream? What happened to our promise? Maybe he thinks he isn’t worthy… How ironic…

He is the one who must be reformed! Must be remade! I will not have our dream thrown by the wayside and all of our sufferings rendered utterly pointless! UTTERLY POINTLEeeeeEEEEHHHH! Such profound sentiments are pointless!!!

What can I do? What will it take to bring him back? Maybe… All I need to do is draw him back… So that we can be made whole…

“”Again””

Seth rubbed at the ache in his head as he walked along the dockside streets, that same feeling like it was vibrating. More an annoyance than anything but he coul;d really use the focus right about now. Because the once barely alive society that hid in the cracks and decaying rubble of this block was now bustling, though not quite in a good way. Goons and gangers were rushing down the trashed streets, high-viz overalls and heavy gloves now clearly common among them. Dockers running to defend their long since trashed base.

‘Huh… guess I never cared to notice their stupid uniforms before.’

Whatever regular people who still called this place home came out of the woodwork as well, though their reactions seemed muddled under the oppressive drone of the VTOL flight circling. Most were scared, more collateral damage and abuse in their future with no prospect of protection. Some few were happy, but that was a low hidden air kept from prying eyes. The blitzed among them just traced the flyers as they patrolled the air, reality lost to whatever they could get a hold of. But all of them looked on, as the heroes they had forced away long ago returned in force. And not at the lone figure stumbling passed them, head low under his cap and a hand glued to his head.

The world was dripping away in the echoing drone, like so much splashed salt backwash on his shoes. Washing away like the sky was nothing but justice catching up to him. Justice for what…

‘Eh, at this point who gives a shit?’

All he knew was that this headache wasn’t helping. The heartache was bad enough on its own, though at least it was subsiding now. His good deed for the day was really bringing back his confidence. Just… maybe not completely. There was a lot he had to atone for, a lot he had to do to ease this burden. But it at least felt good to take that first step. Even if it gave him a splitting headache. And brought his pursuers straight to him.

He was really not expecting Aegis to show up right then. Let alone at all. It was a good thing the Dockers had escape hatches for things like this. And it was probably for the best that she showed up when she did, he doubted he could have led all those people away without throwing this place into total chaos. Things just kind of worked out in the… end? The onlookers suddenly quieted their murmurs, simmering animosity carrying over. A whistle on the wind, powered flight. An instep sidestep threw him into an alleyway, not daring to pay the slightest reaction to the very identifiable sound of Aegis flying overhead. The alley was shadowed and full of stacked boxes, enough to hide behind as she passed through the darkening cloudy sky overhead. Seth’s heart almost skipped a beat as she came into his limited view, for all the good that would have done him. But… wait… no it was Alex. Seeing as Aegis didn’t have red hair and a red hue to her suit.

‘Fuck that was close! Never would have even had the chance to move if it was really her.’

Seth watched from his personal shadow as Alex zoomed down the lines of the street, ignoring the communal glare she was receiving in return. He was surprised they would even try to send out patrols into such hostile territory, though flyers at least had an out if things got bad. So… they would be everywhere by now… And probably already know what he looked like from the freed prisoners.

‘Crap… I have to use the sewers again.’

An exacerbated scan of his alleyway showed no sign of a manhole cover, but a look out toward the opposite side of the street showed a promising circle. Or at least as promising as a half made and probably half collapsed series of shit tunnels could ever be! A few more scans up and down the street showed the onlookers were going back to whatever day they had in this place before he briskly stormed out of the alley before another patrol could come through. Though there still seemed to be a good number of flyers still hovering over the Docker base. Maybe Alex wasn’t doing something official.

‘Fuck it, whatever. Hopefully it’s a good sign.’

A headache stymied manhole uncovering later and Seth was alone in the dark. Again. The smell was… actually better somehow. Earth, dust, mildew at worst, stale water at best. Maybe a cut off section, probably why few people lived here, no stable plumbing. It was still dark though, and the headache was throwing off his focus. The best he could pull from his enhanced sight was general outlines and a few bright spots. Surviving power grid running along uncut paths, a good enough guide to the intact main street.

The haphazard concrete tunnel echoed as he trudged on, the occasional muffled drone of a VTOL passing overhead the only adverse sound. It sounded low and full. The evacuations were underway. But his headache was getting worse. The stale air adding undue sting to the throb, like he was suffocating slowly. But, with every turn in the path he followed, the throb seemed to… shift. Like a compass needle stabbing into his skull, it demanded attention in a set direction, and increased if he followed it. Soon it rivaled his chest ache in annoyance, cried for something it wouldn’t give a reason for.

“Uggghhh…” ‘Why can’t you assholes just come out and say why-‘

“Ev… elp… co… ”

Seth stopped in his tracks, echoing step bouncing away as a voice filled his aching head.

“We… eed… hel...”

The throb, like disturbed static, was carrying a message, telling him something, talking. But it cut off as each pang receded, someone was trying to contact him. A frequency, like a radio signal.

“It… tim…”

It felt familiar, practically nostalgic.

“Com… ac… us…”

It had to be… had to be the Garkah! But something was wrong though, and his chest was demanding that he knew it. The beat of his malicious heart countered the throb, muddled the message like a jammer. Caught between splitting talking headache and guilt ridden chest ache, Seth wasn’t feeling the happy reunion. A desperate focus tried to regain the message, but it soon died down under the onslaught of physical guilt. But still he caught the essence of what was happening.

It was a faint signal, like a low powered analogue radio wave with the dial set too high. Not exactly the best form of communication for them but it at least had a source. A finite direction. A beacon and transmitter rolled into one. They were still in his suit. Either trapped or just based in it, they were using it to contact him. So he knew exactly where they were now. Or at least had a direction to follow. But… his aching chest demanded he reconsider. He wasn’t ready to face them, not yet. He wasn’t the hero he promised he would be yet, not the one that could atone their sins. Whatever his own were still weighed him down with every heartbeat.

“grrr…” ‘Why can’t ‘you’ talk to me? At least then I’d know what the- “Ghur” fucking total was!’

A calm moment in that dark damp tunnel allowed him a chance to recenter. A hand catching him as he lowered himself down. The floor covered in a grassy mat of algae and… actual grass. He slid his head against the wall and sat back, fairly cool air sitting low and waiting for him. He let the aches go back into the background, limited their inputs and let this emptiness lull it all away for now. The power usage was starting to take a toll as well, but that was at least manageable. Yet still a dulled throb persisted, his new compass rose demanding of him, drawing his attention toward his ultimate goal.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll come and find you… eventually. And we can all get back to paying off our debts together.’

A short rest and comforting environment felt like all he needed right now, as all this back and forth pain fell on his deprived eyes. He slid lower and his head farther back, soft carpet meeting and proving this a better choice than continuing. Who knows, maybe he’d fought off his nightmares as well. But the day had already felt pretty full as it was. So what was an attempt at a nap going to hurt.

“Ever?”

“Ever…

Does he not care? Did he not hear me? No… He didn’t understand… Didn’t feel the urgency…

Why won’t he come? Why does he not see? Why does he resist?? He will understand… I will make him understand!!!

“”Again””

The rumble and thunder of a returning VTOL shook Seth out of his mossy nap. The same thunder and blood stained fire he’d walked through. A tame reminder, but still enough to prove he wasn’t free yet. Short breaths of earthy garden put that mild nightmare to rest as he picked himself up out of it. Another desperate yet defeated rub of his face to clear it all away and he was back to trudging through this decayed sewer. Though the dilapidation soon, unfortunately, led to more maintained sections. Ones still in use.

“Gugh fuck…” ‘At least I’m close.’

A quick focus revealed a line running up, a ladder. As well as the streetlights of the main street only a side street away. A hurried climb and pop of the cover freed him of the ungodly stench that was trying to take away everything that was good in this world.

‘Fucking place is less sewer system and more mass septic tank.’

A breath of fresh alleyway air and a frantic kick to re-cover the grotesque underworld below later, he was back to skulking in plain sight. The sky was another shade darker, rain approaching yet again. The actually functional main street looking to be in as much of a tizzy as the dock streets despite this. Crowds were gathered to watch the skies over the docks, waiting for more heroes and VTOLs to appear and… well… make life harder for them. Though, one group seemed a little happier than the rest

“Uggh.” ‘It’s the Zors. Better go debrief them.’

Though… they seemed to have a few new members. Or were taking care of someone who broke their leg. Someone who really liked holster-

‘…FUCK, ITS RAZOR!!!’

A red hue girl trying to look not completely out of place next to him told Seth enough of what happened, Alex had brought him along. The fucking Zors had ratted him out and brought the League here.

‘Crap! Crap! Crap!! Okay don’t look, don’t draw attention, don’t even breath funny!’

Head down, step quick, he hurried as nonchalantly as he could to his apartment. Better to clear it out than-

“EV!!! AIN!!!”

He was stopped dead in his tracks, hands gripping skull, splitting headache turning to downright axe meeting forehead.

‘Why the ffffuck now?!’

He stumbled as the mother of all throbs slammed into him, bumping him into a passerby as chalantly as possible.

“Watch it creep!”

His eyes went wide, as he felt eyes on him. Mixing about, some knowing and unknowing. The barest look back from below his cap saw Mr. ‘Immortal Zor’ smiling ear to ear and waving him down… as Razor and Alex turning in kind with none of the enthusiasm and all the energy of hunters who just found their prey.

“Hey Dude!! You did it!! You-“

Razor put a hand up to stymy him. Alex flexed illusionary muscle as the throb in Seth’s head pulled him like a stuck hook.

“Hey!! We need to have a word with-“

‘FUCK NO!!!’

Seth immediately bolted, head down and letting that hook drag him all the way to the fucking cutting board! Alex sprinted after in tandem, no hesitation in the slightest.

“STOP!!!”

“Hey wait a- GAH!!”

Razor though stumbled after her on one good leg. Seth weaved around the crowds that thronged the sidewalks, all eyes still locking to the sky. Though a few turned down to the foot chase that was a hell of a lot closer. Alex must have copied someone powerless to lay low or else she’d be turning Aegis and slamming him into the pavement. But she was still as quick as he was. She weaved in unison, practically following his steps beat for beat.

‘Is it too much to ask that she feel the same CLEAVING HEADACHE!!!’

“COM!!! US!!!”

“AHAAHH!!!”

A throb slammed Seth down, narrowly to the ground. A passing TV shop flickered in the signal’s wake, displays flashing static and dying out to the grumble of the crowd watching it. Alex winced in her matched pursuit, the radio in her ear squealing in the interference.

‘What the fucking hell are you guys doing!? The knob doesn’t go that high!!’

Off his stumble, Seth ducked into an alleyway stacks of boxes making makeshift barricades and easy climbables. He focused, as best he could when his skull was being battleaxed from on high, power pushed to leap a few easy bounds and leave Alex behind in elevation. The empty rotten wood creaked a little too unstably but there wasn’t really time to worry. The top box shattered as Seth tried to jump to the roof adjacent, chest slamming the air out of his lung as he scrambled up, just as Alex reached the deteriorating stacks.

The roofs on the main street were thankfully level, but still heavily lived upon. Seth halfheartedly dodged a rooftop garden and barreled through either privacy sheets or dirty laundry as he tried to gain distance. Alex scrambled up behind with a good deal more air in her lungs just as he bounded across the first gap, coat and scarf fluttering in the-

“COME!!! TO!!!”

A wave smacked Seth and tossed his balance away like trash. He slammed down sideways and rolled across the graveling roofing surface, undo pricking to go along with becoming a GODDAMN RADIO TOWER!! Alex winced as well, enough for her to slow and pull her ear piece out, and enough for Seth to scramble himself back up.

Another bound and another rooftop, but an extra anxious feeling permeated as the rooftops seemed to end just ahead. But also the air was changing, electrifying. Something was building, the clouds hanging in the sky were ominously silent and stretched over the hills back toward Kadia. The pull was growing, almost dragging Seth as he hit the last rooftop and ran for the edge. The throb was like his brain was being pulled from his skull. Like they didn’t care that he needed to actually be alive to-

“COME!!! TO!!! US!!!”

“AAAAHhahhhh!!!”

The sky thundered all at once, clouds lit up like angry gods as the throb tore him down to his knees. Alex’s hanging ear piece screeched as she bounded to that final rooftop, stopping dead as Seth gripped his head over his cap, desperate to shut out the pain. She winced at his agony, at the cacophony that filled the sky in its wake. But she didn’t need much else to confirm who he was.

“Huhh… Just stop… We can end this before-“

*BAM*

The door to the stairway behind her slammed open, a panting Zor with Razor carried along on his back bounding out onto the roof. The pair meeting Alex’s surprised as Zor thumbed toward himself once he knew he’d succeeded, preemptive cut off succeeding too well.

“Immortality has its… heh… perks…”

*thud*

He fell over, overexerted and over enthused. Razor picked himself up off his back and just shrugged.

“He’s just like this.”

Before hobbling in alongside her, nervousness rising to palpable but managed as they turned toward their prey.

“Just… just give up. We don’t want to have to…”

The air buzzing again cut him off, hairs bristling on their own, sky laden and ominously silent. Save for the drone of another VTOL headed back to Kadia… back through…

‘No…’

Seth inched up, head tearing itself apart just trying to look up as the heavy transport lumbered below the roil above.

“NO!!”

Static laden air quaking, thundering, waves upon waves crashing over and over until nothing could hold them back.

“NOOO!!!”

Those words tore through Seth’s head like a freight train, no regard for what they were doing to the world.

“COME TO ME!!!”

*BWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOO*

A wave, a burst, a wanton annihilation of anything electrical. An EMP slammed those words into his mind, into everything unprepared to take them. Disregarding everything it caused, everything it took, everything it destroyed. Alex’s earpiece burst in sparking death, street lights shattering below, the dim lights on the horizon turning to abrupt darkness… And that lumbering transport coughing its demise. Engines sputtered in disynchronous horror, pushing it odd and whirling it off its straight path. Inertia enough to throw it over those obscuring hills, enough to crash it down in fiery death upon the already fried city. More guilt to add to the pile, more crime to add to the tally, more death to pile over him. More, more, more….

“NO MOOORRRE!!!”

Seth shot up, tearing grey matter an afterthought. A pull, all that power still hanging in the air like maliciously spread poison, still tearing the sky asunder. All still connected and directed at him. The world lit up and froze, low light aurora towering and crashing over everything flared to stellar waves Tendrils splayed, cut and condensed, found their shortest paths, found their freed brethren and gathered them to their cause. An almighty pull. But a push in kind. Hands shooting forward, reaching out across excessive distance… reaching out to catch that falling bird. Tendrils, fibers of pure energy, threads upon threads upon threads, lightning with more thought and more control. Arcing from atom to atom, zigzagging across the sky from density to density, pin balling a path of fastest connection and deepest reserve. Dragging all that excess power to a cause. He had to reach it. He had to save them! He had to-

“Mayday Mayday!!! This is Transport 5 5!! We’ve lost all power!! We’re…”

Alarms returning, telemetry screaming, altitude spiraling, “Pull Up!!”, fuel pumps flooding out, automated systems trying, “Climb you ugly duck!!”. Screaming passengers, ‘they don’t deserve this’, “I don’t want to die”. Gravity and torque, itchy bandages, pits upon pits upon pits, sore on sore on too tired to even scream in terror. Warmth, desperate holds, found and shared loves, shared pains. Hopelessness, ‘I don’t want to die!’, spitefulness, ‘I don’t want to die!!’, screaming into the void in desperate chance that it will listen and, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!”

Finally a clear sight line, outside world flashing past as it whirled about, a line stretching back in bright blue as if aimed. A burning held back warmth, silent thoughts, burdened memories, the feeling of a hand holding tight to hers even if it hurt him. She was looking back at him through the VTOL’s window as the moment froze, eyes meeting despite distance. Brown eyes meeting hazel ringed in blue glare. A tree slowly cutting across, altitude dropping in inescapable slowness, the barest thread of connection about to be severed.

‘I have to save them! I can take, I can feel, so that means I can cross them over!! I can save them!! I can bring them back!!! I WILL BRING YOU BACK!!!’

*CRRRRAAAAAKKKKKK*

Another pull, another almighty demand, an arcing glare filling that stretched thin tendril for all it could carry. Life turned to data, shot back in the sudden realization of this horribly slow reality. As another lightning bolt of transfer , of implantation, of conscious crossover tore the sky asunder. Minds, beings, cumulative existences all dragged away from the hell they were doomed to and held tight. More overwhelming feelings muddled together as they passed through. Names, faces, memories, pain, sadness, “BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!”

Seth recoiled back, the flash of fifteen souls haphazardly saved like solid-state backups slamming him in the face. The air shattered and kicked and buzzed with the excess, washing over, washing away the ache and pain and callous demands. As his cap was loosened and lost to sudden will brought to life. As his disguise became little more than pointless trife. As pure white hair stuck in shock came free at last. And the world returned to its normal speed, in all its painful glory.

Alex and Razor unshielded their eyes, rubbing away the indistinguishable flashes that occurred outside their perception, wincing at the blaring ring deafening it all away. But all they saw was a trail of sputtered thrust disappear below the forested hill. Some level regained by the VTOL, but nothing was going to stop its fall. Both freshly named heroes glared their uncertainty, their unknowing disdain, their fearful hesitation at the still smoking, plasma sparked Seth. As he stood there facing his crime, still seething ozone from twice borrowed power. As he leaned down off the weight of a crime they couldn’t understand, retrieving his cap from the tared roof around him, eyes burned of emotion and laden beyond their reasoning. It was undeniable now, it was him. Electric power still traced up in the sky in their singed vision and concerningly white hair being smoothed down to return his already blown disguise. A new red scarf bunched around his neck for good measure or lost nostalgia. Alex shifted forms as her fists tightened, features kept her own but body and suit clearly copied from Aegis. Even she’d held back her real potential.

“What the hell have you done?”

The demand felt more bluff than intimidation. Even with Aegis’ power, she couldn’t match what she just saw. But her anger was denying her shaky authority already.

“What the hell did you do!?!”

Seth barely turned, more looking back at the cleared skies over the Docker base, flyers still circling but no VTOLs leaving with more survivors. They were none the wiser despite the terrifying light show and thunderous announcement. Distance, interference, and local surroundings drawing them away and leaving them in the dark. A temporary condition, one he had to make use of while it lasted. He turned back to the hills, dark clouds losing out over the city proper. He didn’t like leaving the story to someone else, for it to fester when he could clear it. But he didn’t have time.

“I did what I could…”

Before either hero could react to a single word, a foot pressed down to the molten rubber roofing with an almighty stature. And the power he had amassed pressed down with him, threads spreading down through the roof like those corrupting pulling tendrils. But instead of disintegrating, they held tight. All at once the roofing shot back at heroes, the corner lip shattering to chunks and heavy debris. Their target exploding away, already approaching the tree line with a single bound. Delayed reactions finally realized as Alex pressed in similar fashion, but stopped as the debris in her face… shot back into place. Infinitesimal, temporary threading pulled the shattered lip back into place like a slacked weave, structure returned without seam. The roof was repaired like it was never destroyed, still dilapidated by poor maintenance but back to its previous state. A flashed up framework threaded and returned in Seth’s wake. A display, a demonstration, a silent exclamation that he wasn’t going to leave destruction behind again. And another thing to fear and stymy their outclassed pursuit.

He boomed through the tall trees he’d passed through the week prior, canopy rushing by with passive prickling threat. A twist, a foot brought round as a tree grew too close to ignore. Wood splintered as it stamped it in line with momentum, launching him faster against the pine filled air drag. As before, spread threading pulled taut, unsplintered the grievous wound and returned its arbor splendor. He didn’t have time to hold back, to stymy himself and preserve what happened to get in the way. He could feel his cargo, fear and confusion bleeding in, strange experiences not helping their weathered psyches. But worse still, he felt the passive fade of his hurried process to save them. Their bodies copied fair enough, but he couldn’t simulate them. Couldn’t provide solidity. They would lose themselves, dissolve into empty hollowed husks as they felt themselves suffocate simply because they don’t have lungs to breathe with. They would degenerate into amalgams… like his mother would have. He had to keep his focus on them, constantly give them what they were bereft of. Constantly care for them, share his senses and feelings and stimuli just to keep them stable. The wear was already draining, cutting into his reserves, but purpose tore that existential fear away. He couldn’t delay just because he might break something, so he refused to hold back.

Splinters showered and reformed, and the city came back into view. Clouds still hanged but the threat of rain on the darkened city seemed to have passed. But the pillar of smoke refused him relief. Tree tops turned to metal coping, but the destructive steps did not abate. Metal caved inward and rebounded like heavy trampolines, concrete underneath shattering and returning from its denied defenses. The streets below were filled with cars, all stopped in their lanes. The plaster of flowing crowds filling the spaces between them. All exacerbated by the second mass disruption of their orderly society. A few heroes scrambled about, more wrecks to clean up and damage to repair. But all of it was moot, didn’t mean a single fucking thing! His eyes were locked ahead at the steadily dying out column of grey.

A haphazard police line starting to mark up the proceeding street, a few roofs torn up and bearing metal wreckage. But the main focus was the throng that filled the street. A grand triage scrambling into being, what medical staff and applicable heroes outnumbered fifty to one. White and black and grey mixed in with a sea of humanity… and hinted with red dripping and pooling about. All victims he couldn’t have spared from this. Seth stepped from the rooftops, security overwhelmed or non-existent, and excessive power stymied at last. But horror ate at his demanded focus. That familiar tinge filled his nose, one he could never forget, but mixed with antiseptic and burned fuel. His muscles tensed to fight off the memories, the ever waiting return to those bloodied streets and ash filled skies, but a sensation washed that rising horror away. One of rebooting power grid. A partial focal shift, enough to see the city returning to its powered status quo. And raise his hope above the past.

Without a thought against it he stormed through the triage, a pull refusing the city’s return just a little longer as he assertively charged toward the nearest unattended. A boy with blood streamed from between fingers desperately pressing an arm, a piece of shrapnel stabbing bone deep in. With a forceful hand, Seth pulled his disguise apart, replacement scarf rendered needed compress. No words but slight protest as he pulled that hand away, blood free to spurt before a magnetic hand dragged over and dislodged the offending piece. A whimper thwarted by the sudden wrapping of red fabric tight over his arm, and a bit of electron threading pressed and pulled to staunch the worst of the wound. A needed proof, but a thankful hand was too slow to catch as he pulled away without so much as a glance. His time limit only partially losing out over demanding duty.

His coat was off before he reached another, beaten sternum and internal bleeding forcing a man to the ground, chilling his body and threatening him without outward cause. A samaritan hanging over in vain care was surprised up by the sudden blanketing coat over her charge, foreign hands pressed down on the already struggling, hands pressing threads to where they were needed through already laden cloth. Nothing to be scared at but the brim of a cap and a demanding tone.

“Keep him warm. Don’t leave his side.”

Before she could question he was away, invisible threads already through with their repair and left up to normal healing. The blood lose at least staunched. Seth scanned down the triage, more medics streaming in to fill the gaps as best they could. But he did not stop his crusade. Hands suddenly pressed to a broken arm, threads pulling it back into place and staunching its path. No cover to obfuscate his powers, just hope that none would recognize him or notice in time. A head wound fused as another piece of shrapnel clinked to the pavement, a shattered shoulder reforged, a burned and broken leg healed as if it were never put to flame. An impaling spear of wanton metal disintegrated, power locked away pushed back in as threading closed vain and organ. The hole in his side was going to have to heal on its own. He didn’t have the time to codify this poor guy as well.

Seth stumbled off, drain finally winning out over excessive expenditure but not enough triage left to scour. Frantic looks between overburdened steps at the last few crowds offered him nothing else to heal… And none of his cargo. Nothing but the overpowering smell of burning metal… and flesh. The triage abated to his horror, wreckage filling the street ahead. The hulk of the VTOL broken over itself, burned through layers of protection coloring it like rust and salt. Steam fizzed and hissed as the heat was extinguished alongside stubborn flames. Heroes surrounded the hulk, milling and staring as two figures pulled away from the wreckage. A third form passed between them… charred… and small.

Cauterizer’s olive bard uniform was hard to ignore, smoke framing his burdened expression. As was Depthcharge’s full plate diving suit as its eyes glowed closed and bore a body to add to the rows. A bulky woman standing over the gathered covered forms, white sheets obscuring truth from onlooking eyes. But there was little to hide. Names and memories and shared feelings rattled off as Seth scanned over them, matching a consciousness to each. Guilt narrowly refusing to accept that he could bring them back. That they were all safe with him and not charred meat on the ground ahead. But his fight almost fell away as he watched the last be laid in line. The woman pulled a tarp up, fluttering it over with obvious struggle. Depthcharge smoothing it out, foam armored hands delicately pushing the trapped air out and making sure the little girl beneath was properly respected. The memory of those beaten eyes and that blue fire sting of her hand in his refused Seth his focus, his placid composure.

Depthcharge looked up from their charge, looking up at the struggling young man who hid his tears behind a simple cap brim. Their look drew the bulky woman’s gaze, blond short hair revealing another burdened gloom as she turned back toward him. Duty driving her up, the need to comfort others in their times of need and keep the site clear. Rather vain and oddly familiar brand emblazoned on her chest, chrome detailed surplus suit missing an over exemplified sword to match. A softened voice tried to calm him before his burden drove him down.

“Hey. It’s… it’s gonna be okay…”

But none of who they were or what they thought mattered. An almighty pull fading away as she drew within range. And a clenched fist coalescing every bit of focus and power he had left to give.

A fist bearing all his power, all his burden, all the souls he swore to return rose. Rose before any could react to the sudden electrifying of the air, rose to the sky in denial of fate and callous result, rose just to shoot back down with the wrath of a god scorned. That almighty fist slamming to the asphalt without care for the repercussions, for the wanton possibilities, or even the goddamn consequences! Sending the ground to feel this burden, to fail its hold, to crack apart as the world froze for the barest of moments. As electron threads spidered out with crisscrossing direction and burdened purpose. Teeth gritted as everything he had shot away, memories, forms, frameworks, copied structures, and carried consciousness. Blackened bodies tethered in burning wire, filled with thread too bright to deny, outlining and flaring from beneath their certain deaths. The moment only returning as the heroes watched that overburdened ground crack beneath them, flared in jagged paths straight to their own burdens-made-physical. Sheets glowed brighter and brighter, bodies of char turned bodies of light. But he needed more, he needed matter, he needed energy, HE NEEDED MORE!!!

The other hand rose over, air sundering as it bore all his rage, all his being, and all the power he knew he had. And all of it to the beating tone of his twofold existence. Another almighty fist slammed down and that cracked asphalt shattered as all of it shot through everything. Rubble, shrapnel, wreckage, and refuse. Bodies both live and reforming were denied to gravity in slowed shared perception, as the ground heaved out from below them. Plasma drenched path refusing their infinitesimal size shot out and through it all that could spare. Metal and concrete wrapped in malicious beating light, ripped apart in resonance tone for all they had, feeding back into those blazing bodies still rowed in place. The steaming crashed hulk cracked apart at its seams, dooming coffin turned to repurposed matter. Muscle, bone, vain, organ, microcosm and mental construct. Memories and consciousness realigned to reforming pathways, nerve impulses overlaid. Skin, hair, teeth, and scar, even the fucking ratty clothes on their backs! Everything they were, everything copied in desperation and guilt ridden fury. All of it laid out and spun through that beating resonance, framework lattice shining as matter and energy were shunted back into place. Fury throwing all that Seth had at bringing them back and making them whole… All while an invisible hand made sure he knew how.

The flare crescendoed, sheets burned away and repurposed. All once gone made whole again! A final flare rippled through, a jolting startup to restart life cut too short. And a last bright glow of the spread threads as they dwindled and disintegrated the last vestiges of that burned metal coffin. The moment finally returned in full, to a manageable speed for the rest of the world. As a chorus gasped for the breath they had been denied, instinct and fear driving them up in sudden transposition. The little girl rising up in heave, a hand to her chest fighting a phantom pain, glowing with her blue burn… but not wantonly. New thought put in with the old, old pain dimmed and put right, control taught in the flash of revival. Tasha wasn’t going to be forced to suffer those burdens anymore. Seth made sure of it.

The heroes, off balance and trying to make sense of what they just saw, what they just felt and ungraciously stood in the middle of. Their charges made whole when death was all they had been left with. Their scene emptied and of all the wreckage that made it callous to the eye. But all of them failed to take this in, all looking back at the smoking and reformed asphalt opposite them. At the kneeling young man in the middle of it. Looks of pure awe, dumbfounded disbelief, burgeoning jealousy, whatever they were feeling was lost on him. Seth had used everything he had, everything he could borrow. His breaths were haggard, his face dark under his cap, all the energy sapped away and weighing him down. But one piece held him up, the softening hold in his chest. Blind guilt reasoned within, remunerated. A weight long overdue lightened, like a little bit of the world was finally lifting off his back, even if he could barely move at all. But the growing stares of all the gathered and outdone were driving his internal elation down. Namely as the bulky woman advanced on him with a tenuous step and a tensing-

“HOLY SHIT, DUDE!!!”