Chapter 2 - Tears of a Monster


After turning off all the lights in the building, Armie and Rat, using the latter's speed ability, decided to run around the world to check and see how many living beings of the surviving half were left in the world.

"You're fast?" Armie asked his big friend. "That's a great discovery, Rat. We could traverse around the world to see who's left."

"Why do you think I'm using it in the first place, Armie?" Rat replied.

"But I dunno if we should make ourselves known to the public," Armie said, worried. "People would fear us for what we are—monsters."

"Monsters?" Rat repeated. "Us?"


Armie and Rat's journey to check for remaining life had taken a sudden stop to the town of Brightburn, Kansas. It was there that they heard a child crying—male, preteen.

"Armie, d'ya hear that?" Rat asked his little friend.

"Yeah," Armie replied. "It sounds like a kid cryin'."

"Indeed," Rat agreed. "And I think it's comin' from…" Rat followed the sound, and he pointed. "There!"

Their journey led to a farmhouse. They crept closer to find the source. Inside the house, they saw a brown-haired twelve-year-old boy kneeling next to a pile of crumbled dust that was once a human. He was crying. They couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Oh, man," Armie whispered. "That boy lost a parent to the Snap."

"Maybe we should leave him alone to be with his parent's remains," Rat suggested, pulling back.

They didn't know that they were about to bump a broom. When they did, the broom fell over. This snapped the boy out of his crying, and he gasped in surprise at the sight of Armie and Rat.

"Wait a minute, kid," Armie said. "Don't be afraid of us."

"Yeah," Rat added. "We're good guys."

"Who…" the boy began, stammering. "Who are you?"

"I'm Armadillamingkat Berkowitz," Armie introduced. "Call me 'Armie' for short. This is my friend Warratduck Smith, 'Rat'."

"Yeah," Rat agreed. "Together, we're Armie and Rat."

"Who are you, kid?" Armie asked.

The boy didn't know what to say at first.

"M-my name's B-B-Brandon," he replied. "Brandon Benjamin Breyer."

"What happened, Brandon?" Rat asked.

Brandon hung his head.

"My parents turned to dust," he said. "It started when my dad and I were on what seemed to be a hunting trip."


In a flashback that took place earlier, in a forest, Brandon and his father, Kyle, were at what looked like a hunting trip.

"There are deer tracks," Brandon said to his father.

He was unaware about what Kyle was really planning to do to his son.

Brandon kneeled to the tracks. "Looks like there's more than one set of tracks," he continued.

Kyle aimed his gun at the back of Brandon's head. Hesitant, Kyle pulled the trigger and shot. However, the bullet didn't penetrate his head.

Realizing what his father was tying to do, Brandon turned on his father.

Kyle, horrified that he failed to kill his son, backed away. He reloaded his gun to try to shoot his son again, but when he aimed it again, Brandon was gone. He was a bit more horrified.

"Brandon?" Kyle called, his voice echoing in the forest. He gasped. "Oh, man."

Kyle dropped the rifle, turned around and ran as fast as his legs allowed.

However, he didn't get far enough, as Brandon descended feet in front of him, wearing a red mask with laces in front of it.

Kyle was desperate prey. He turned and ran again, trying to get away from his son. But Brandon caught up to his father.

"Please, please," Kyle begged as Brandon walked closer to him.

Brandon grabbed his frightened father by the jacket collar. His eyes about to glow an angry red.

"Brandon, please, stop. Don't hurt me, okay?"

But no sooner did Kyle say these words, he crumbled into dust, startling Brandon. From one of Kyle's jacket pockets before he crumbled completely, his cell phone dropped.

A few seconds of silence.

"Dad?"

"It was there that Dad turned into dust," Brandon narrated.

The cellphone rang. Brandon picked it up. It was Tori, his mother.

"Mom tried to call him," Brandon continued. "And when I picked up…"

Brandon answered. Silence.

"Mom?" he said. "Mom, are you listening?"


On the other end, the then-crumbled dust that used to be his mother fell like snow inside the living room at Brandon's house. Her cell phone dropped.

"Oh, I get it," Brandon said at the other end. "You're giving me the silent treatment because you probably have found my drawings in my backpack. Well, Dad's been turned into dust, but it wasn't my doing. I'm coming for you next, Mom, you hear me? … Mom? … MOM!"


"There was no answer on the other end," Brandon continued. "And by the time I rushed back home…"


Brandon flew at blinding speed all the way back to his house, pushing the front door open. When he saw what was inside, his rage slowly gave way to shuddering sadness, and he removed his mask. Tears swelling up in his eyes.


"…I was too late," Brandon concluded. "Mom had shared the same fate as Dad."

Armie and Rat understood. They looked at each other sadly, then at Brandon.

"Brandon?" Armie began, getting the boy's attention. "Your parents were part of the unfortunate half of the world's population."

"Yeah," Rat added. "A group a' heroes called the Avengers tried to stop a Titan called Thanos from usin' a mysterious glove called the Infinity Gauntlet, but he snapped his fingers with it on an' it resulted in half a' the planet gettin' turned to dust, includin' yer parents."

"Half of the planet?" Brandon repeated suddenly, breaking out of tears. "You mean…?"

Brandon then dashed past the two at blinding speed, startling them.

"Woah," Armie said, stunned. "He's fast, too?"


The duo followed Brandon's trail to another house; the mailbox for it read "Connor". The boy sat atop the house's roof, again crying. While the duo climbed, they stopped to see an empty bedroom, with dust on the bed—another Snap victim.

"People of Brightburn, Kansas," a female reporter's voice on the radio in the bedroom said, "we are getting reports from the police station that they have also lost Chief Deputy Tom Deever, age 45, to what reports call the Snap. Deputy Reyes mentions that the loss of her partner is deep and personal. We will deliver more about the death toll as the story develops."

"Another two from here are goners," Rat realized.

"Unbelievable," Armie replied, facepalming. "But we must still go to Brandon."

They continued on their way to the roof of the house, and got his attention. It was almost dark.

"We saw the empty bedroom, Brandon," Armie whispered. "Someone you cared about?"

"Caitlyn Connor," Brandon answered, voice breaking. "She was a girl who I admired back in school."

"I'm so sorry," Rat understood. "Sometimes it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

"Who said that?" Armie asked his friend.

"Lord Alfred Tennyson," answered Rat, "in 1850. But what Armie and I wanna know is how you rushed here so fast, Brandon."

Brandon wiped his tears away and looked at the duo.

"I'm not originally from here," he said. "I'm… an alien."

Armie and Rat were stunned.

"You're a what?" they said.


Author's Note: If I were to assign a voice for Brandon in this fanfic, it'd be Michelle Ruff (who voiced Young Lelouch in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion). I'll bet that Jackson Dunn, who portrayed Brandon in the superhero-horror film Brightburn, is a teenager now. Kyle would be voiced by Thomas James Kenny, who voiced Tony Stark/Iron Man in The Super Hero Squad Show.