XX: Into Darkness, Part 5
The bind explodes.
Then, the net detaches – and she begins sliding.
"No, no, no - " Bree desperately claws at anything to keep her from falling, but the angle of the roof fights against any resistance.
Bree's heart stops as she spins off the edge and falls into the cold, open air.
– Ϟ –
Solar Flare dodges the photon blast Anomaly threw at her. She barrels onto the hard cement unceremoniously at first, but years of experience had her gracefully breaking with her forearm before it causes more damage.
She gets up just in time to see Gray Granite tackling Anomaly to the ground.
Right then, the two Anomaly clones notice her and charge towards her.
She quickly generates fire in her hands then shoots it towards them, flinging them away.
The counterattack drains their allotted energy. They vanish before they hit the ground.
In that rare moment of reprieve, Solar Flare works to catch her breath. They had been fighting Anomaly and Sonic Shriek at this dock for a long while now.
It doesn't seem much at first since she and Gray Granite can usually subdue even a team of three.
But considering how her archnemesis can multiply into crowds and that Sonic Shriek, while not the strongest, is one of the most persistent villains out there, the two of them are starting to feel the exhaustion.
Not to mention, they still have a teenager they have to save.
"Any updates from the ground? Have any of the kids been retrieved yet?" Blue Tornado asks over the comm.
"Uh - " Gamma Girl gasps. A moment later, she roars a battle cry.
Despite her determination, it's clear that she's getting worn out, too. "Alley Cat and I are still busy with Cannibal."
"Spotlight!" Sharp exclaims.
"Sharp?"
There's silence for a split second. Then, "Spotlight's down," Tecton reports. The building animosity in his voice is palpable. "Sharp and I need back-up."
"Almost there," Surge reports.
"I'm jumping in," Skylar says.
"No," Tecton tells her. "You stay put."
At that moment, Solar Flare sees Anomaly gaining on Gray Granite. "It's impossible to get to the kid at the moment," she reports quietly. Then, she calls to the supervillain, "Anomaly! I'm the one you came here for!"
"Anomaly?" Surge says. "I thought he had been exiled to a hostile planet? How many times is he going to come back?"
Anomaly, sensitive to the conversation between the heroes, grins wolfishly. "As many times it takes to get rid of you," he tells Solar Flare. "Forever."
"Never mind that," she hears another voice, one who she can only assume is Mr. Davenport's. "My kids are going to die if nothing is done! Aren't you guys supposed to be good at this?"
Solar Flare fumes. Not only was she forced to rescue children who thought too much of themselves, now she also has to listen to their imbecilic father question their credentials because things aren't being done in the time he wants it done.
Do they not know what a nightmare this is for her? Facing an enemy she could never seem to get rid of however hard she tries? Facing an enemy who always haunted her in her worst nightmares?
She generates fire in her hands – and the anger and wild fear in her heart quickly turns the flames blue.
Anomaly's eyes playfully widen. "Ooh. I've never seen it that color before," he says. "Is that a new trick, Little Candle?"
For a moment, the moniker elicits fear. Two words, and all of a sudden she's reminded of the times she lost both friends and strangers because he was much more powerful than her, because she was inadequate and couldn't save them from him.
For a moment, she felt as weak and defenseless as she did back then.
However, just as loneliness and dread begin to settle in, she catches a glimpse of Gray Granite rising quietly to his feet behind Anomaly. He looks her in the eye and lets her know that he knows how the villain makes her feel.
I'm here. I will help, he says through a nod. You're not alone. We'll do this together.
She swallows, suppressing the urge to cry.
Anomaly mistakes it as fear. His grin widens. He raises his opened palms where consuming darkness blooms. "Let's try it again, shall we?"
At that moment, her heart pumps hot blood throughout her body. It sends an overwhelming adrenaline to fight for her life that the blue flames begin to pale into white flames.
She will not doubt herself.
She will not miss this time.
– Ϟ –
Bree screams as she hurtles down from the building. Her brain blanks. With her hands and feet tied together, there's very little she can do to resist the murderous gravity pulling on her.
Suddenly, a force jolts her, changing her trajectory from downward to sideways. After a few seconds, it stops.
She's tossed up in the air like an acrobat.
"No, no, no, no!" Bree gasps then screams as she starts falling again.
This time, however, a pair of hands catches her. "Gotcha!" the person says triumphantly.
At a glance, Bree sees that the one who has her in her arms is a woman. Her hair is styled in a faux hawk, the color of salt and pepper. She guesses she could be the same age as Mr. Davenport, but the woman's kind eyes and even kinder smile makes her look a decade younger.
The white and silver eyeliner decorating her eyes are not lost on her.
"You're okay, little mama. Nothing's going to happen to you," the woman says. She frowns after spotting the bind on Bree's hands. She then draws air into her mouth. Then, she tersely blows a breath toward it.
The bind breaks cleanly in half.
"There you go," the woman says, grinning. "Much better!"
Bree's eyes widen. She glances down to the ground and is struck by the great height she could still fall to.
Though unsure whether she's truly a friend or really a foe, she holds onto the woman tighter.
"Okay, okay, okay. That's a little too tight," she says, leaning away from her grasp.
"Please don't drop me," Bree begs, her eyes closed.
"Why would I do that? You're Bree, right? The bionic speedster?"
Slowly, Bree opens her eyes to look at her.
She grins. "My younger brother called you in. Apparently, the rest of the League are in Europe handling a supervillain – but you know that. He needed someone nearby to get to you on time and, here I am."
"Who...Who are you?"
The woman sighs, disappointed. "I guess with a steady stream of new heroes, you really won't know who I am anymore," she says. Nonetheless, she smiles. "You're a speedster of the land, I'm a speedster of the air. I'm Jet Stream."
"You're...a superhero?"
"Eh, retired. But occasionally I help out the League when they need assistance."
Bree blinks. The air up there still feels cold, but it's not as vicious anymore.
Jet Stream – she seems trustworthy, too.
Jet Stream assesses her state. "I'm taking you straight to Mighty Med. Blue tells me your family is still there."
"Did they also find Adam and Chase?" Bree asks in dread. "They're – they're my brothers. They were at Paris with me."
Jet Stream thinks about it for a moment. The look that comes next into her eyes stirs in Bree the same fear she felt for her siblings earlier. "Not yet, but I wouldn't lose hope," she says. She smiles. "Now, I know you're used to it, but I still need you to hold on. I'm flying you to Philly. They're waiting there for you."
Though disheartened, Bree nods. She holds onto the superhero tightly.
Then, with a loud boom!, they begin flying at the speed of sound.
– Ϟ –
Oliver jumps as something metallic clinks against the steps.
"Free yourself!" Alley Cat tells him as Cannibal engages in a fight with Gamma Girl. "See if you can use that to free your friend, too!"
As Alley Cat's attention switches back to the fight, Oliver hesitantly picks up the black knife. He carefully turns the needlepoint towards him then, once he gets a good grip on the handle, he slides the blade under the zip tie and begins to work.
He pauses from time to time to avoid flying debris, but after a minute of slicing, the binds come off. "Yes!" he mutters in victory before moving to the tie on his feet.
"Oliver?" Chase calls.
"Wait a minute. I'll let you go next."
Chase takes in a breath and then mumbles something incoherent.
That raises red flags inside Oliver's head, causing him to look up.
Chase shakes his head slowly, his eyes unfocused. "I just...Can you…"
Oliver gasps when he faints. "Chase!"
The panicked call gets Gamma Girl's attention. She shoots a blast of gamma electricity towards Cannibal, sending him across the room. Then, she quickly retrieves a white, hexagonal object the size of her palm from her right boot. "Oliver!"
Oliver startles but catches the object.
Gamma Girl opens her mouth to speak, but she's cut off when Cannibal tackles her.
She tries desperately to keep the carnivore subdued, rolling across the floor of wildflowers and debris. However, Cannibal overpowers her and ends up on top.
He opens his mouth wide, baring his razor sharp teeth, and tries to chomp on the superhero.
But Gamma Girl keeps him at bay. With her forearm just beneath his throat, she wards him off him far enough so as not to get her.
Oliver looks at Alley Cat, hoping that she had recovered enough to jump into Gamma Girl's aid, but she's still dazed after Cannibal's last attack.
It doesn't look good. Gamma Girl had grown too weary from the fight that her hold on the villain is growing weaker.
He glances at Chase. The device Gamma Girl threw him is obviously meant to disarm the gadget that The Incapacitator used to imprison the bionic teenager.
Without Gamma Girl's knowledge on how to operate it, though, it's useless.
The only solution makes him queasy, but he pulls himself together to get it done. He looks around him. He finds a big enough rock, picks it up.
Then, against all warning that his mind flashes at him, he slings it at Cannibal.
The villain roars as it hits him on the head, causing him to fall over sideways.
Gamma Girl, surprised, looks wide-eyed at Cannibal and then Oliver.
While she's still struggling to get up, Cannibal has already staggered back to his feet.
The glare he aims his way afterwards causes Oliver's blood to curdle. "He told me not to hurt you," Cannibal says in a low, quiet voice, his anger cold and sharp. He shakes his head, stepping over Gamma Girl. "I never was good at promises."
Then, he crouches, ready to jump the distance between them.
Cannibal let out a loud roar, shaking the church and shattering nearby windows. Oliver is sure that he's dead then. One jump, one swipe, and his life is over.
He takes a step back, gasping as Cannibal jumps…
Then, a lasso wraps around the villain's arms, wrapping it close to his torso, and yanks him back.
Cannibal falls to the ground pathetically.
Alley Cat grins. "Bad kitty," she purrs at the villain.
"I owe you one, kid," Gamma Girl tells Oliver as she dusts herself off after getting up.
Her words barely register. For what seems like forever, Oliver struggles to move again.
Somehow, his mind is telling him he's still in danger.
"Get me out of this!" Cannibal growls at Alley Cat.
Alley Cat smirks. "No can do. You don't play nice."
Breathe...Breathe...Oliver tells himself. He starts with taking in more and more air. Then, he forces himself to blink.
"Oliver? Did you hear me?"
Oliver turns to Gamma Girl, thawing a little more.
"All you have to do is attach it on the device. It's a small, localized EMP. It'll shut it down." Gamma Girl takes another, longer look at Oliver and the terror etched deeply on his face. "You don't have much time, doctor."
Her words shake Oliver awake. He manages a shaky nod, and then he turns to the translucent bubble. He poises to attach the device on the hilt then glances at Chase.
He stops. Chase is slightly glowing.
Glowing.
That stills him.
"Oliver, I know you're scared, but you don't have to worry about Cannibal." Gamma Girl glances at the villain, still wriggling and glaring at her from the confines of Alley Cat's lasso. "We got him under control."
"No, no. It's not that." Oliver creates a distance between him and Chase. He looks at Gamma Girl. "I...don't know that we should open it."
"What?"
Cannibal roars, flexing his muscles against the lasso.
To the superheroes' surprise, the restraint snaps little by little.
"Uh, he definitely couldn't do that the last time I saw him," Alley Cat tells Gamma Girl as she braces for a second round.
"Disarm it!" Gamma Girl tells Oliver as Cannibal gets up in a disturbingly inhuman speed.
"I can't!" Oliver says as the women engage in another battle with an angrier villain. He looks at Chase. He's gotten brighter. "It's his chip! We couldn't tell his family earlier, but our cure left plutonium to build up in his chip! He could explode!"
Alley Cat growls as Cannibal lunges at her.
Gamma Girl takes a step to help Alley Cat, but then she pauses. "Did you say plutonium?" she asks Oliver.
"Yeah!"
"Disarm it."
"Uh…" Oliver looks at Chase and sees the threatening brightness to him. "I don't think—"
"Disarm it!" Gamma Girl commands before jumping in to help Alley Cat.
Oliver stalls. He wants to do as she says – but all four of them can die in the explosion. Does she not know that the amount Chase harbors can level the whole building? It's a horrible thought, but with Incapacitator's bubble, it can at least be contained.
The three of them can survive.
But, he knows who lives and who dies is not his call. If Chase doesn't go home to his family, he knows he won't be able to sleep tonight.
If he allows Chase to die to save them, then he would be as horrible as The Incapacitator says he can become.
So, Oliver takes a deep breath then approaches the bubble. The device at its base is mostly inside, so he holds out the EMP slowly, closer and closer…
"Ow!" he yelps, losing hold of the device after the caustic heat of the bubble singed him.
"Any minute now, doc!" Gamma Girl says.
"I'm trying!" he yells back, frustrated. Try doing this without superpowers, he thinks. Annoyed, he picks up the device again.
This time, he places it very closely to the black, rectangular device, right in front of it. Then, he flicks it forward.
It immediately attaches to the base. The middle of it glows, starting from a dot until it encapsulates the whole face of it.
Oliver quickly stands up, backing away as the bubble begins to melt. Chase is not looking safe. If the chip goes off, he will be the first one to get hit. "Gamma Girl!" he calls to the superhero. I hope you have a plan!
Gamma Girl turns to him. She glances at Alley Cat. Then, she holds a hand towards the bionic teenager.
Chase awakes in a scream as the superhero withdraws the plutonium from him. Gamma Girl holds up her other hand, and in a matter of seconds all the intense, fiery energy is in her disposal.
She turns to face the battle once again but this time armed with the winning solution. "Alley Cat, duck!"
Alley Cat staggers back after dodging Cannibal's swipe. Upon hearing that command, she backflips twice, clearing a way.
Gamma Girl blasts Cannibal with the plutonium energy. Cannibal screams, carried by the meteor-like concentrate into the air, only cut short when he vanishes into an invisible tear in space.
For a moment, deafening silence floods the church.
Then: "Where did he go?" Oliver asks slowly, cautiously.
Gamma Girl says nothing, only watches the space Cannibal has gone to as she catches her breath.
Meanwhile, Alley Cat comes over to help Chase to his feet.
"Backflips? Really?" Oliver says to her. "Did you have to show off like that?"
Alley Cat shrugs, smirking.
"We should probably get out of here," Gamma Girl says; Oliver notes how shaken she sounds. "The faster we can make ourselves available at the Eiffel Tower, the better."
Alley Cat seems to have picked up on it as well. She contemplates on what to say next but decided on a much better option. "Sounds good," she answers instead.
Gamma Girl begins to head out of the building but stops after a few steps. She turns around – and the cold anger that blazes in her eyes surprises Oliver. "Next time you and your siblings decide to play superhero, make sure you understand the rules first," she tells Chase. "We don't exist to clean up your messes."
Then, she leaves.
Alley Cat takes off, calling after her teammate.
Oliver only looks at Chase. It's obvious from the bionic hero's speechlessness that Gamma Girl's words caught him off-guard.
Oliver wants to say things that can make him feel better: 'she's just shaken up,' 'she doesn't mean that,' 'it wasn't your fault.'
But he finds that he can't – because none of them would be true.
So he only glances at him sympathetically, the only act of kindness he can spare him that night, before following Alley Cat and Gamma Girl outside.
– Ϟ –
Adam holds his head up to the ceiling, gasping in as much air as he can.
The water is rising to his shoulders. The dread sickens him. He's waited such a long time for anyone to rescue him, but it seems like no one can find him.
He's going to die tonight. He knows it. He just knows it.
But he's not ready.
All of this dredges up in him those feelings of paralyzing fear after that prank gone wrong, when he realized that the world is a dangerous place. There's nothing to be scared about, his father has told him, because when it's the right time he'll know what to do.
The time for action has long past. The awful ocean water, reeking of oil, fuel, salt, and rust, pricks at his nostrils and steadily climbs up his neck. He wants to throw up, to scream – but he can't.
He needs to breathe.
How come he doesn't know what to do?
His breath comes in a sob as he feels the full impact of the situation. He's scared. He doesn't want to die yet, but he doesn't seem to have a choice.
As the ocean pulls him closer to its grip, covering his ears and whispering to him the sound of the dead, a lump forms in his throat as he comes to the conclusion that his family may never find him.
He'll be below the waters, forever lost like the others, alone.
Alone.
"Help!" he yells – but the sound is only loud enough to break his heart.
The three seconds leading into full submersion are the quickest three seconds in his life. The next he knows, he is under, swallowed by darkness and separated from the noise of life by a line.
The container's creaking comes in muffled and sluggish. He also hears loud thumping, as if another object has smashed into another adrift container.
He pays those fearful noises no attention. Instead, he tries his super strength under the frail hope that the ocean has destroyed the dampener.
He tries to break the binds once, twice, thrice.
It doesn't move.
This is it for me, he realizes. As lack of oxygen slowly turns his windpipes to steel, he thinks of Bree and Chase. I'm sorry…
A flash of light surprises him. He opens his eyes to look—but screams as the foul water burns it immediately.
Another boom! rings at a distance, louder this time.
Adam's head swims for a few seconds. He thinks someone has wrapped a metallic arm around his torso, but before he can contemplate whether it's real, he blacks out.
– Ϟ –
There's only four minutes of decent fight left in him.
Tecton doesn't know if that's good enough. From a quick glance, it's obvious that their situation looks dismal with very little window for a win. Spotlight has long been knocked out by Incapacitator's power blast – a concentration from what he must have drawn from half of Paris.
Surge had fallen into one of the trap their opponent has laid out, thus unable to fight. Skylar had jumped in some time ago and are keeping the clones at bay while Sharp engages in combat with their nemesis.
Sharp is doing her best in putting up a fight—but she's worn out, too. Her breathing had become rugged, and her punches had been steadily losing in accuracy. It's not helpful either that Incapacitator doesn't seem to have tired out any.
"Got the oldest bionic kid, Tecton," Titanio reports through the com. "Passed out, but I think he'll live."
That news sounds so good that it almost moves him to laughter.
"Anomaly is neutralized," Solar Flare follows. "Gray Granite, you think you can take the kid back to Mighty Med? Titanio and I need to head back to Paris."
Neutralized. Tecton turns to the rings Sharp had set on the ground earlier. They're fixed triangularly, about eight feet from each other, each circle just a measly a feet and a half in diameter. They blend into the light gray asphalt, glowing neon red from time to time.
The best part of it is that they're not that far away—and The Incapacitator doesn't seem to be aware of them yet.
"Incapacitator!"
The villain catches Sharp's fist as she tries to land a hit. He pushes it away then kicks her, causing her to gasp as she falls to the ground.
Finally, he turns to the leader of the League.
"Adam, Bree, and Chase are safe. All of your allies had been arrested." Tecton shakes his head. "It's over."
For a moment, the look of defeat that Tecton has anticipated casts a shadow on The Incapacitator's face. But it goes just as soon as it almost came, and in its place rises an expression that makes him nervous.
He's smiling, the glint of his teeth and the spark in his eyes so murderous, so sure.
It's as if it was all just part of his plan.
"Tecton. Over? It's not over until I say it is." The Incapacitator shakes his head, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "It's like you don't know me at all." He raises his hands, palm up, until it's level with his torso.
Then, with his arms glowing neon green, he begins to draw power.
Tecton immediately feels it. It's as if his chest is slowly, painfully collapsing on itself. The pressure is crushing, so much so that he instinctively clutches at his heart to keep it in place.
"Tecton!"
Tecton, now on his hand and knees, strain to look at Sharp. It scares him to see her slow collapse. Her suit, made with the incomprehensible technology born from her own mind, willfully yields the power it had to their enemy.
As the lights in and around the Eiffel flickers, Tecton realizes that this might be their last moments. He was right: in this battle of light and dark, darkness will win this time. Solar Flare, Titanio, and Gamma Girl would come – but by then the fight would have been lost for the four of them.
He clenches his teeth and his fists as he feels the first, inundating wave of a blackout. He never thought he would be that scared to die, but now that he's faced with it, the dread proves more challenging than he thought.
At that moment, he looks at the neutralizer just a few steps away from The Incapacitator.
A few steps. That's how close they would have been to victory.
That's also how far they were from it.
Unknown to him, Skylar sees where he focuses his attention. She caught a bit in the comm earlier about a neutralizer. She looks for it quickly and is signaled by the neon red lights that flashed briefly inside the rings.
She calculates for accuracy. Then, seeing that The Incapacitator is still distracted, she readies, runs, and then jumps to deliver a powerful kick to his torso.
The force knocks The Incapacitator out of the draw and into the triangle. Sensing a shift in energy, the neutralizer quickly engages and barricades him inside.
The rings in the plates light up, the bright red within it starting with a slow pulse.
With the crushing pain now gone, Tecton blinks back the stars that had started to cloud his sights. He takes breaths, and with each ounce of strength that it brings, he's able to recover.
He doesn't know how long it takes, but soon he's able to get back on his feet.
Sharp, also having recovered, chuckles weakly as she watches the villain pound and yell against the glass-like red panels created by the neutralizer. "It works," she mutters.
"Skylar." Tecton turns to the teenage superhero. "You did it."
Skylar looks at him, eyes wide in shock at first.
Then, a smile of recognition emerges.
"Let me out!" The Incapacitator growls, but his voice comes muffled.
"Tecton? Are you alright?" Solar Flare's voice comes through the comm. "We're about ten minutes out. What's going on?"
Tecton looks at Sharp and find that her eyes are also on him, a relieved expression on her face.
Sharp laughs then reports, "We're fine. Skylar saved us." She grins at the younger girl as she draws closer to them. "The Incapacitator is neutralized. It's over."
"What?"
"No way! The little girl from Caldera."
Sharp shakes her head, laughing again but this time because of the frown on Skylar's face. "Superhero from Caldera," she corrects Titanio.
As the team descends into a banter, Tecton turns his full attention onto his nemesis. Soft, red mist clouds the space containing him. It doesn't look harmful, but its presence seem to enrage the villain even more.
Tecton walks closer.
Catching his movement, The Incapacitator looks at him.
"It's better this way, Joel," Tecton says, in a tone just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "It's better that you live. Your son would prefer it end this way."
"So that's what you did," The Incapacitator fumes. "Involve my own kid in this. Turn him against me."
"We didn't turn him against you. He knows nothing of this," Tecton says. "It's better this way."
The Incapacitator chuckles bitterly. "You talk about things being better. Who is it exactly better for: for people like you, or for people like me?"
"For everyone."
"Which everyone? Your everyone or my everyone?" The glower in the villain's eyes grow indignant. "That's the difference between us, Tecton: you live in a fantasy, I live in reality. This world will never be better for people like me."
"It can—"
"Stop lying," The Incapacitator enunciates through gritted teeth. "You see it, too. You're not so stupid not to. This world only offers a future to men like you, to kids like Davenport's children. But men like me? Children like my son? There is no better. Taking it away from people who won't do anything to change the way things are is our better."
"Tecton?" Sharp calls worriedly.
"You wear a suit and show yourself as the good guy," The Incapacitator tells him, "but let's be honest: between my son and those bionic kids, you will always choose those bionic kids."
Tecton shakes his head. "That's not true."
The Incapacitator growls and shoots a plasma grenade towards him.
Tecton steps back – but the walls of the neutralizer had already blocked it.
"Tecton!"
Tecton holds up a hand, stopping both Sharp and Skylar from coming closer. "I care about Leo," he tells his nemesis. "I - We care about his future!"
"We? Who's 'we'? You and the League?" The Incapacitator asks. "The same League that was stolen from my mother? From my family?"
Tecton's brows furrow. "What are you talking about?"
"If he didn't kill my parents, if he didn't steal the League of Heroes from my mother, my brother and I would have been the heroes that everyone loved, and my son would have been the one to inherit a legacy." His glower intensifies with hatred. "But that's what you're all good at, isn't it? Stealing."
Tecton shakes his head. "I – I don't know what you're talking about."
The Incapacitator scoffs, smirking. "I thought you were smarter than that...Alex."
Tecton's eyes grow wider. "You know who I am."
"And I thought you were smarter than this," The Incapacitator says, his attention to the neutralizer rings. He turns his hands toward them then begins another draw.
Tecton backs up as the rings begin blinking rapidly, the walls they created blinking in and out. He looks back at his colleague. "Sharp?"
Sharp shakes her head. "It should hold. Katrina designed it to withstand tremendous draw."
Skylar's eyes widen as The Incapacitator's hands and arms glow a much brighter red and green. "He took power from a whole city nearly three times," she points out to Sharp. "Can those withstand that?"
"It should," Sharp says, but her tone lacks the certainty. She continues to watch as the rings blink red, then at times white. As she does her confidence dwindles even more. "Maybe?"
The Incapacitator roars as energy builds, but soon Tecton picks up on the sound of pain. "Sharp, something's wrong."
Sharp swallows, her heart now gaining crescendo. "No, no, no, no. It should just neutralize the energy. It should just…"
Both Tecton and Skylar gasp as The Incapacitator collapses to his knees, screaming, arms held down cruelly by a force within the rings. "Sharp, do something!" Tecton says.
Sharp scrambles through the commands built on the forearm of her suit, but as seconds go by Tecton realizes that she's just as lost as everyone else.
They're running out of time. It's obvious that the neutralizer rings had turned renegade and had assumed the role of a punisher. It's overwhelming The Incapacitator with too much energy.
A person, Tecton thinks. It's killing not a villain or an alias.
A real person.
He gathers plasma grenades into his hands. "Hang on!" he tells Joel as he moves closer. "I'm going to destroy—"
A blinding white light burst inside the walls of the neutralizer first. Then, the concentration of energy becomes an explosive blast.
Tecton's ungraceful landing reminds him of the many things he had probably already broken that night – but only briefly. The ringing that pierces his ears dominates his attention, followed by a realization that stops his heart from beating.
He shakes the disorientation to get back on his feet. His effort is abysmal. He falls twice after making a few steps forward and only manages to prop himself up on a hand and a knee.
He looks at where the neutralizer used to be and the sight makes breathing difficult. He tries to swallow instead.
When he does, all the sound in the world goes out.
Two of the rings are on fire. The blast has tattooed the ground with a haunting color of black, and…
And only scattered ashes stand in the place The Incapacitator used to be.
He's gone.
He's gone.
"He's dead," he says, so quietly that he wonders if it's even true at all.
As the world lies completely still, the truth sets heavier and heavier on his muscles, on his bones.
He promised Leo that his father would come back alive—but all he will carry back with him is a news with the weight of a thousand broken promises.
