The sound was deafening, shaking and shattering buildings and foundations from downtown to the bay. It was clear the beast was in its last legs, the weight of the sea-beast slowly buckling its stumpy legs. With a final roar, the creature shuddered and then fell to the ground, sending shockwaves across the city.
"That was...difficult' Solarion added, looking at the fallen form of Gakiza, slowly wiping sweat from his brow. The city had suffered from the rampage, from the Eastern points of Central Park where Gakiza had carved a new river to the Sentinel headquarters. Now, at long last, the terror from 50,000 fathoms had been stopped.
Solarion landed, looking at the Mistress of Might, Heraclea. Heraclea, the daughter of Hercules stood on the back of the beast, pulling massive cables around to secure Gakiza, and assist in the removal.
Solarion was reaching towards his communicator to signal the rest of the Sentinels about downgrading the emergency alert, when the skies seemed to shimmer, cascading into a brilliant flash of light. The light itself seemed to be of the most vibrant purple he'd ever seen, followed by an almost cascade of indigo. Long shadows fell over the city, as the Blurr moved up to Solarion's side.
"Whatinthehell?' The Blur started quickly, moving everywhere at once, 'Whatnow?'
Solarion gazed skyward, his eyes focusing into the spectrums of energy not often seen by the methods of detection available to normal technology. After a moment, he turned back to the Blurr, 'I've no idea...it doesn't match anything I'm familiar with...almost...a lack of anything'
The Blurr touched the side of his cowl, moving with an inhuman speed that none save mighty Solarion could see. 'MultiplereportsofaccidentsandproblemsstillduetoGakizaneedtogo'
With that, the Blur took off in a blink, and Solarion remained hovering close to the ground, actually shielding his eyes as if it would give him a better vantage to see. Staring hard upwards into the darkening sky, Solarion thought he made out several figures beginning to emerge from the shadows. In a moment, Solarion realized what they were....satellites...space debris...and large asteroids, falling as if pulled from the heavens. Immediately heading upwards, Solarion tried to cast his empyrean beams to stop the majority of impacts, but reports coming over his com-unit immediately let him know this was not a localized event. How could these things happen? The Bulwark defense system was to prevent such things, and now…
The blast took him by surprise as he felt himself spiral downwards. Expecting it to be Shadower taking advantage of the catastrophe, he was surprised when it was someone that hadn't registered on his spectrum senses....a figure that even the GAIA communications system had not picked up. Recovering quickly, he ran the image through the SAFEGUARD database, and was surprised to see it come up empty. Solarion quickly returned fire, and the battle over New York was quick and decisive, with Solarion managing the smallest of victories.
As Solarion tried to make sense, he could see the massive machine fall into place, and felt the very energies he powered himself with begin to drain away. At that moment, a flash of light struck him, and he felt...nothing. His last thoughts were questions...who were these people...what did they want, and why did so many innocents have to d---
The world warped and twisted, as if reality itself began to unravel in front of Solarion. The white-hot energy that had felled him ceased, replaced now with a twisting sensation that seemed to pull Solarion apart and remake him in one fell swoop. Solarion screamed in agony as the reddish light cascaded around him, and he became faintly aware of the city, smoking from Gakiza’s massive attack alight with a ruby haze. The smell of brimstone was matched with power gray ash that fell around the World’s Strongest Superhuman. Solarion could feel an acrid coldness as he started upwards, unbelieving for a long moment as the sun, the source of his power and life on all earth, turn from its familiar yellow to a shadowy blue – an eclipse that showed no climax or passage.
Feeling his own strength ebb away, Solarion stood for a moment, before launching himself upwards once again. The city wasn’t just reeling – It was decimated, bleached by ash and debris that had rendered even Sentinel Stronghold a smoking crater of what it was once. Somewhere in the back of Solarion’s mind, he could recall the genetic memory of his once proud home world, the last moments of his father and mother as they secured him amid the destruction of his sub-dimensional world. Although he could not have understood what was happening, Solarion felt the empathic sense of fear and loss that sent tremors of terrible sadness through his mother’s arms and shone in his father’s eyes. That moment of utter desolation had been the defining moment in which a lifetime of battling for truth and justice had been built, and he was feeling the terrible brunt of that emotion again. Solarion was shaking, trembling as if he felt the intense cold that normally he would shrug off. There was a purpose in the madness he now faced: An odd out-of-place feeling that made him question the very fabric of his world. Solarion fought against the weakness building within him, flying upwards, gaining speed as he moved, hoping to break atmosphere and whatever was distorting the sun.
For a moment, Solarion felt the rush of the outer atmosphere, and he stared, unbelieving, at the sight that greeted him. The non-Euclidian shape of the craft defied his ability to understand it. The craft, for what else could it be, simply could not exist, and yet, there it was, hovering like a grimly silent warden above the Earth. Solarion closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the coldness of space, the harshly silent vacuum that revealed nothing more. Solarion opened his eyes, and flew directly at what he determined the center of the ship to be. Building up space, Solarion flew faster than he had ever pushed himself, fighting back the strain and weakness, moving against a terrible force which threatened to end him. There was progress, and in that moment, Solarion felt the vestiges of hope swell within him.
A center spot ahead seemingly appeared out of the blackness, a red light that seemed to build into intensity, as if a beam has somehow been fired, but was not racing the speed of light. The beam arced with a slow and methodic deliberateness to it, and then almost seemed to stop – suspended in mid-air against the laws of time, space, and reality. Suddenly the beam flared forward, racing with a speed that even the superhuman speedster Blur would be unable to dodge. The red light engulfed Solarion, and in that moment, the sense of hope and possibility of success died. Solarion felt himself cry out, not just for himself, but for the billions he had failed. Hope deserted him, hemorrhaging from his heart, soul, and spirit. Solarion saw his father looking at him as the red whispers crept into his very being. There was no strength simply left to Solarion, as the light intensified, consuming everything in a crimson inferno.
Solarion was Eclipsed.
No comments:
Post a Comment