It had been weeks since the fall of Calamity and yet it seemed like years. David felt a calm breeze as he sat on the tallest building he could find staring over the city he'd taken back from Steelheart a year ago.
He looked down at his hand, the hand that had been crushed by Steelheart that fateful day, flexing it. He looked back over the city slinging his rifle over his shoulder to look through the scope and get a better look at the people shuffling on the streets quickly to their own respective destinations.
He lowered his rifle gazing aimlessly at the steel buildings covered with mismatching paint that was haphazardly placed on the buildings to give them a sembolence of life. David sighed stepping back looking back down at his hand feeling the tingle of power at the tips of his fingers. He pushed back the feeling of power, he hated it the tingling in his fingers, he had to hold back this power.. this power that wasn't his.
These are Steelhearts powers, a voice said in his head they're not right.. He clenched his fist. He's only had to use his powers occasionally he used to want to use them regularly to help others but it just felt.. wrong. To use the power of someone who'd taken so much from these people, tormented them.. killed them, he couldn't stand them despite them also being the powers of his father ,who had tried to help him control them become practiced with them. He turned on his movie patching into the others who seemed to really want to talk to him.
"David," Profs voice rang in his ears, "We have reports of a hostile epic nearby your current location, we're sending Megan and Abraham over to you for assistance I need you to go in and find out what they're up to," David gave a quiet "Mhmm" to indicate his understanding of the given task.
"On it, Prof," He said before making his way down the side of the building via the steel fire escape. He slid down the elongated ladder and onto the ground. Not the greatest spot for a gunman of his caliber but right now he wasn't a gunman, a Reckoner, or an epic. He was regular old David, average citizen, he put up the hood of his jacket to hide his face looking around.
"Any details on what they look like," David asked in hushed tones, he found that he soon received a few photos and some info on this... Lucid or whatever. Strange name for an epic but then again all of them were strange. What was even more strange then the name was what little info they had on her. David opened and read the file as he scanned the area.
Female, 38, Marta Juenios, seemed to be some kind of illusionist, secondary power: Can create a dark, thick mist, believed to be Poisonous (theorized to cause swelling of the throat that leads to an inability to breathe) . Well that didn't sound good.
She could poison the whole city in a matter of minutes if they didn't stop her fast. He continued to read occasionally glancing at the photo. She looked Hispanic, her hair dyed a dark shade of lavender, most of her face was covered by a mask, but he could see her eyes which had a distinct drooping look to them and her eyes were strangely enough purple looking, though it seemed more like a dark blue now that he thought about it.
David continued until he saw a dark figure make it's way into an abandoned building, though it may not be entirely abandoned seeing as some people may have taken refuge there. He wondered why he hadn't heard from Abraham or Megan yet as he walked in following the figure who was wearing a dark hooded jacket. He turned unmuted his voice to Megan and Abraham moving close to the figure holding his rifle tightly in his hands using the scope to look closer. The figure removed their hood revealing Marta or Lucid underneath, she fluffed her hair out brushing tangled strands out of it before glancing around. She pushed her hair away from her ears making a clicking noise with her tongue.
What is she doing? He thought leaning closer to see, in the moment she turned her head in his direction. They locked eyes. There was no time to think, no time to hide, no time to decide whether what he was about to do was the right thing to do or not. He wished he had that time. He whipped around the corner his rifle trained on her head his finger on the trigger as a sweet smell hit his nose.
The mist.
It smelled of grapes, causing the world around him to warp and misshapen becoming something else. He shook his head temporarily gaining a visual on Lucid as she charged for him, he seemed to move slower not having enough time to back away as her hand grasped at his face scraping the skin of his cheeks. He pushed her back the world warping around him once more.
A familiar scene surrounded him.. a bank. He looked around taking in every aspect of it, the bank that had been engrained into his memory was here in front of him. And before him layed his father crumbled up in pain from the push that he could only assume was caused by him. He could hear his heart beat in his ear along with distant whispers calling his name, scraping his ears, he pulled out his ear piece chucking it at the moving figure standing in front of his broken father.
He could could hear laughter, all around him, his breath became labored and shallow as he looked around him. Eyes staring him down judging him for what he's done to his own father. The bank began to fade the normal world coming back to him for a second. In that second he saw her his arm and gun moving faster than he could tell it to stop shooting at her but the bullets didn't make their target.. No they hid something else.
Megan ,who'd been running for as long as it took for Cody to finish one story about Scottland and the wee fairies that stole his home, cursed repeatedly through her mobile subjecting Abraham to a muttered rant about David not having his line open for communication and how she was going to kick his good-looking @ss for it. She followed the location on her map leading her to where his mobile was supposed to be located.
She breathed worriedly, it wasn't like David to go quiet like this, especially on a mission like this. She suddenly heard a bunch of activity from his end of the line. Running, panting, laughter, none of which sat well with her. There was a clattering sound and then silence followed by a single gunshot. She stopped the sound was low she tried her best to hear it turning up the sound on her mobile to hear better.
"David?" She called out. No response. She called out again as she began to run again picking up speed after he didn't answer the third time.
Suddenly there was a scream, it was loud and frightening, filled with anguish and grief. It was his voice.
She broke into a sprint going as fast as she possibly could to the location which was close by enough that she could hear the scream even without her mobile. She skidded to a halt seeing a dark mist flowing out the open cracks on the building.
Oh no.. David no. She covered her face with a thick cloth mask, running in the whole place was darkened and hard to see the mist having no where to go so it just remained stationary low to the floor like a dark cloud. Megan told Abraham to issue a clearing of the area before she started busting through the windows which took some effort to break. After most of the mist had cleared she continued onward hearing a faint but heavy breathing. She raced forward seeing David on his knees, his hands covering his ears, his face was flushed red, his cheeks cut and bloodied. He was crying. Whispering to himself telling "them" to stop.
Megan wasted no time standing there, her body practically moving for her as she went to his side grasping his shoulders. She stared into his eyes which held a faint purple hue.
"David, David can you hear me?!" She asked, he didn't respond he only shook a bit lowering his head to his knees.
"It's my fault, " she heard him say, she hefted him up, taking his face into her hands trying to get him to look at her. She felt the wetness of tears and blood drippng and running against her hand.
She patched into Prof not knowing what else to do still holding David's face in her direction.
"Prof, there's something wrong with David, I think it has something to do with that mist stuff that was here," She explained tapping against David's cheek to snap him out of his trance.
"The mist?" Knighthawks voice chimed in, "Was it.. how much did he breathe in?" She was asked. Megan couldn't answer that question.
"I don't know, a lot?" She said seeing that he's finally reacted to her tapping his eyes slowly moving to look at her hand.
"You're dealing with Lucid correct? What information do you have on her?" Knighthawk asked. Megan sighed telling him all she could remember from the file groaning as David became unresponsive again, shaking more vigorously, his breathing seemed to become more labored.
"That's some dated information, that mist is what causes illusions of your worst fears or trauma, it doesn't do much other than that but depending on what the person sees or what he sees he could be in danger of losing his life." Knighthawk explained. Megan held David in her arms trying to imagine what he could be seeing.
It's my fault..
She let put a short gasp before a ripple began to open up beside her, she left her shivering mess of a boyfriend for a moment before coming back with someone else in tow.
David didn't want to look.. He didn't want to look into his father's eyes, he didn't want to hear the shouts of horror from the people around him. He scratched at his ears kept his eyes cast to the to the floor, the sound of his own heart beat in his heard seemed to drown out the whispers but the screams.
He felt two hands grasp his shoulders they were strong, familiar. A familiar scent hit his nose banishing the sickeningly sweet scent of grapes. The bank warped around him, he lifted his head meeting with his father's eyes and then another. Blaine, Steelheart from the other world, stared at him worry filled his expression.
"Dad.." He felt himself get pulled into a hug, a hand ran itself through his hair, he felt the wetness of tears on his cheeks.
"Its okay, it's okay now, don't worry. Don't worry."
That was the last thing he heard before passing out.
to be continued