Brighter Days: Chapter 2

Andrea stared at the TV for what felt like ages, watching the text but not really comprehending it through  the buzzing static inside of her head. The device had been muted for at least five minutes now but nobody had said anything. A muted sense of dread and hopelessness hung heavy in the air and the pizza that they had all been looking forward to sat unopened on the table in the kitchen behind her.

“What are we going to do?” The silence was finally broken by Justin, looking around with a grim expression.

Emily was the first to respond, shaking her head like the question itself was stupid, “What do you think we’re gonna do? We can't fight that thing. Half our powers are just localized friendly fire. They won’t work against an Endbringer.”

The girl’s voice was shaking, minute tremors audible through the confidence she normally put up. Just like all of them, she was terrified and trying to put on a brave face.

She was right though. Aside from Andrea, nobody here had a power that could be directed at a single person or force. It was often joked that the Seattle Wards were basically Team Shaker, with only two out of the six of them having powers that didn't have some number in that classification. It was useful when dealing with Hivemind and his minions but against an Endbringer – especially Apollyon of all of them – they would be less than useless.

The silence stretched again as none of them refuted her words. They all just stared at the TV, watching the news caster on screen speak with a frantic air, before Justin suddenly stood, drawing all of their attention once again.

He didn’t look at them, “I’m calling Carson and Anton to see if they’re coming here or to the shelter.”

“No point in going to a shelter. If she wants you, she’s gonna get you.”

Jamie’s statement hit all of them hard but none of them could refute his point. Justin clenched his fist and walked out of the room and Andrea stood as he disappeared, glancing at her teammates and speaking stiffly, “I’m going to my lab to call my parents.”

“Why? You already know what they’re gonna say.” Emily said. Andrea didn’t say anything in return, disappearing from the room without another word.

Emily was right of course. Andrea knew that there was no chance that her parents would ever let her fight an Endbringer, her dad especially. She knew for a fact that the day he signed her up for the Wards, he made sure that she would never step foot on the battlefield with one of those monsters until the day she graduated to the Protectorate, and only because by then, his opinions would be irrelevant.

It irked her, but it was more understandable than his usual paranoia. She could understand the fact that he didn't want his sweet little crippled daughter fighting someone who could destroy cities or break your mind with a glance. She understood…

But she wasn’t going to accept it. That just wasn’t the kind of person that she was.

Slipping into her lab, Andrea called her dad’s cell-phone. The dial tone didn’t have a chance to ring even once before it was picked up and her dad’s borderline hysterical voice leaked through the speaker.

“Andrea, sweetie, where are you? I need you to come home right now! We’ve already got all packed up and we’re heading to the shelter but there’s enough space that we can wait for you to get here first if you hurry!”

Andrea could hear the panic in his voice and felt a pang in her chest. Keeping her voice calm, she spoke smoothly into the receiver, seeking to reassure him, “Dad, calm down. I’m at the base right now.”

“You–”

“I’m not going to the fight!” She said hastily, “I’m just talking with my friends to see what they’re doing.”

“I’m not worried about them, I need you to get home right now.” He insisted. It might have sounded somewhat callous, disregarding all of her friend’s just for her, but Andrea knew that wasn’t how he meant it so she didn't comment.

“I can’t. My wings are broken so it’ll take me a little bit to get across the city and by then, the Endbringer will probably be here. Look, the base has an Endbringer shelter built in the basement so I’m just going to stay there and wait it out. You guys need to stop waiting for me and get to safety.”

Andrea felt horrible about lying to her dad but that feeling was somewhat alleviated when his voice came through again, sounding much more calm and less panicked, “...Alright, sweetie. Please stay safe. I’ll call you when this is all over okay?”

Andrea swallowed, “Okay dad. I love you.”

“I love you too, my little sunbeam.”

Andrea put her phone away, an awful, acidic guilt curling harshly in the pit of her stomach and making itself at home. That was probably the first time she had ever blatantly lied to her dad like that, especially about something so serious, and it didn't sit well with her. Not at all.

But it was necessary. Andrea turned away from her workbench, gazing at the wall of prototypes she had worked on all her life, cataloging them by usefulness and whether or not their chance of success in the upcoming battle would be worth the effort of bringing them along. 

Though as she eyed the wall – a physical representation of her time as a hero – a small, dark part of her wondered if they would even mean anything in a few short hours.

Heavy footsteps marching down the hall just outside had her turning away from her work and towards the door instead. It slid open and Andrea watched as a large, hulking suit of armor stepped inside. It was wide, almost bulbous, and had to squeeze itself through the large door to even get inside. A woman’s head was peeking out of the top, tan and almost swallowed by the sheer size of the suit that she was wearing.

Snubnose looked around the lab as she finally got her suit through and her eyes immediately locked onto Andrea, frowning as if she was almost disappointed that she was still there, “Hey kid, they need you down in the shelter. Hop to it.”

“I was just grabbing something really quick.” Andrea said, turning back to her bench as if she was looking for something. She glanced back at the heroine, glowing eyes inquisitive, “Who decided to go? I know Emily and Justin are out but what about Anton? His power would actually be useful.”

“Anton’s going and so is Jamie. Carson’s sitting this one out. But you don't need to worry about them. You just worry about keeping yourself safe.” Snubnose put her helmet on, sealing it in place with the hiss of hydraulics, “Head to the lowest level you can. We don’t want to go losing our best tinker anytime soon.”

Andrea nodded and Snubnose let herself out, oblivious to the thoughts storming around the seventeen-year-old's skull. Andrea listened to her go, feeling her heavy, thudding footsteps fade away into the distance. Once she was well and truly sure that the woman was gone and had no intention of coming back, she walked over to the panel on the wall beside the door and pressed several specific keys, happy as she discovered they hadn’t locked her out of the controls yet.

The door locked with a loud click and beep, keeping out anyone and everyone who wasn’t Andrea herself. Stepping back, the tinker then stepped up to a seemingly empty area beside her wall of inventions and placed a hand on the wall, sending a burst of concentrated sunlight directly into the panel and the hidden sensor beyond.

The wall slid open with a hiss, revealing the spare costume that she kept in case of emergencies. She stared at it for a long moment, taking in the blinding white and burnished gold encasing the mannequin, before slipping her clothes off and putting them in a pile on the floor.

She put on each piece of her suit with painstaking care, slipping on the white bodysuit first and then the armor. The suit had been made specifically to work with her prosthetics so it was much easier to put on than her everyday clothes.

Slipping on her mask, she moved the mannequin out of the way, looking herself over in the mirror just behind it so she could easily adjust things that were out of place.

Her costume hadn’t changed much since her debut. It was still mostly white with accents made of gold where the bulk of her technology was held. It looked less futuristic than some tinkers, but there was no denying that no normal human could make something as complex. Gleaming nodes of trapped sunlight were situated in different places along the costume, from her golden pauldrons to the armor on her legs and thighs. In stark contrast, the chest was a plain white panel of armor to protect her. She once thought about putting an emblem there but she could never think of one. Eventually, it just became normal not to have one. 

Just like her wings, the entire suit was connected to her internal battery via the nodes in her back. The moment it clicked into place, the bulbs along the suit’s surface began to glow even brighter. Her face was covered by a golden domino-style mask that extended to her ears, covering them in two small bulbs holding all the communication tech she’d need out in the field. The eyes of the mask glowed as her eyes did, drawing people’s gazes to it instead of the rest of her face.

As the last pieces of armor clicked into place, she gave the mirror a sunny smile, forcing a brave face to break through the turmoil inside just as she always did so she could bring comfort to whoever witnessed her.

A shining beacon of better things, of heroism and the good they could bring. That was who she was supposed to be. Who Halcyon was supposed to be. 

And Halcyon didn't run away from villains if it meant the innocent would get hurt.

“Sorry dad.” She whispered as she grabbed a small cube from her wall of creations, “I’ll do my best to come back safe.”

~~~

The device attached to Andrea’s back hummed loudly as she soared through the bright skies of her city. Sunlight bent around the young cape like a lens as her invention went to work, shifting photons around her and rendering her bright costume completely invisible to the naked eye. This was the only reason she was able to escape the watchful eyes of the personnel on base and the only reason she hadn’t been stopped on her foolhardy quest.

Alarms would probably be raised when they realized that she was missing, but by then it would be too late. After all, in the panic of an Endbringer fight, people rarely cared about a single Ward.

She touched down in a large, open venue, folding her wings and deactivating her stealth field as she did so. A large crowd was already gathered, dozens of costumed individuals who had come from all walks of life mingling together around a large stage just to battle an impossible threat. There were a lot of them, more than Andrea had ever seen in one place, but it made sense considering who they were fighting. If it was Leviathan or Behemoth walking towards Seattle right now, Andrea doubted even half of them would have bothered showing up.

Knowing that it was best not to be recognized right now, Andrea took her place on the edge of the crowd, by a large tree. A small group of capes were already there and none of them looked particularly heroic. Andrea was pretty sure that any head of PR would have a fit if they saw that much leather and bare skin on one of their heroes.

One of them, a tall man with a green and black costume, gave her a sharp grin… literally. Andrea wondered how he didn’t bite his tongue off with those teeth. She responded with a sunny smile that she normally reserved for children, making him blink, before his lips split in an actual smile

“You ain’t scared, little hero?” He asked. His voice was hissing and strangely snakelike. Andrea shook her head.

“Of you?” No.” Andrea shook her head, “The Endbringer though…? Check back in an hour or two if I’m still alive.”

Her words earned a laugh from the villains around her. The snake guy even went so far as to pat her on the shoulder, “I hear you there. Where you from? Out of town or is this your place?”

“I’m a Seattle girl, born and raised.” She held a hand out, “Halcyon. Longest running member of the Seattle Wards for the past three years.”

Her declaration earned a bit of surprise from the group but the man she was talking to took her hand without hesitation. His grip was strong and his fingers were scaly. She had a feeling that if he wanted to, he could crush her prosthetics in an instant.

“I’m Python, leader of this sorry bunch of suicidal idiots.” He said, giving her hand a firm shake, “I’m surprised a kid like you even showed up. You got a death-wish, girl?”

Andrea shook her head, “No, but could I really call myself a hero if I ran away anytime danger came knocking? Seattle is my city. I’m not gonna let anyone tell me that I have to sit down and watch while it gets destroyed.”

Python seemed to respect that, “You’ve got guts. I hope they aren’t all over the street by the end of the day.”

“You and me both.” Andrea muttered before turning towards the stage as someone walked up to the microphone set up in its center. It was a tall man wearing bulky yellow armor with crisscrossing black patterns like police tape. He had a helmet that sat snugly with the rest of the outfit, possessing an opaque white visor that obscured his entire face from view unlike Andrea’s own mask.

She recognized him easily: Fortress. The de facto leader of the Seattle Protectorate and a mid-tier barrier cape with the unwavering attitude to make it work. Andrea hadn’t worked closely with him but she’d had plenty of contact with him over the last five years. Enough to be recognized at a glance. With that thought in mind, she ducked down, manually dimming the lights on her costume just in case his gaze was drawn to her.

“Thank you all for coming.” His voice boomed over the crowd, strong and steady, “I understand that for some of you, the choice to fight was easy, but I am still glad to see so many of you here, villain and hero alike.”

Stepping to the side, Fortress gestured to the projector set up behind him and it burst to life, displaying an image on the white screen set up behind the stage. A single figure was displayed prominently, wading through the wreckage of what had once been a busy street. 

Andrea took the image in, swallowing at the sight. Apollyon was easily the smallest Endbringer to date, standing at a mere ten feet tall, but that didn’t make her any less intimidating. With obsidian skin styled and grooved like armor – complete with cape – and a horned helmet with eyes that glowed with a ghostly, pale blue, it was easy to see how she had earned her name. She looked like a dark knight, pulled straight from the depths of hell to torment the world once more.

The weapons in her hands only added to the image. She was wielding a dark trident in one hand and a round shield in the other. Andrea knew from discussions online that she wasn’t really holding them. They were part of her body and just like the rest of her, practically impossible to destroy.

Fortress’s voice was grim, “As you all know, we are facing the youngest of the four Endbringer’s today. Apollyon appeared less than a year ago and she has already ended the lives of at least a hundred capes, though that number is probably closer to two. If that seems high to you, that’s because it is. And that’s what makes her so dangerous. 

For those of you who don’t understand or haven’t attended an Endbringer battle before this day, listen very carefully because I am only going to say this once. Apollyon isn’t like any of the other Endbringers who just want to destroy. Her end goal, for all that we have been able to extrapolate from our limited contact with her, is to create Trigger Events. This is not limited to those who haven't triggered yet.”

Murmurs spread through the crowd as his words registered and a wave of nervousness seemed to ripple through the venue as the uninformed among them heard that. Andrea had known the broad strokes beforehand but she was still shocked and almost horrified, recalling her own Trigger Event and the scars it left on her to this day.

“I understand that some of you may be put off by this and if you choose to rethink your decision tonight, then I won't stop you from leaving. I just ask that you do so now.”

Several people immediately departed from the venue, walking or flying away without any regrets. Andrea didn't blame them, but she made no move to follow their lead either. Even though a large part of her wanted to.

Fortress waited patiently as the venue slowly but surely emptied out. Those who came here expecting easy fame or those who just thought that it would be an easy fight quickly disappeared, leaving them with half of the capes they started with.

Around a minute later, movement seemed to cease within the crowd which had been reduced to around one-third of its original size. Fortress glanced around, making sure that everyone who was going to leave had done so already, before speaking again.

“For those of you who have stayed, you have my gratitude. I will now begin explaining the particulars of Apollyon’s powers and her modus operandi, as we have been able to figure out.”

The picture on the screen changed, this time shifting to an image of the Endbringer far in the distance, like a smudge against the lens, “We have only battled this Endbringer four times but she has yet to deviate from her set pattern. First, she will appear exactly ten miles outside of whatever city she has targeted and begin walking towards it at a pace of two miles per hour. This is the only reason that we have been able to muster like this on such short notice. Right now, she is a little under thirty minutes away from what is generally accepted as the borders of Seattle. Once she crosses that threshold, things will change.

Despite her sluggish pace outside, make no mistake, Apollyon is the fastest Endbringer to date; even faster than Leviathan. If the Simurgh is the greatest Master on the planet then she is the greatest Mover. She has been clocked breaking the sound barrier numerous times, and on occasion, she can move even faster. Once she is in the city, she will target those with a Corona Pollentia – active or otherwise – through unknown means, and methodically seek these people out. This brings me to the next, and most important part of her powerset.”

He paused and though Andrea had no way of seeing his expression, she could tell he was bracing himself for what he was about to say, “Through unknown means, Apollyon is capable of breaking through the barrier between dimensions and transporting herself, as well as anyone near her, to alternate earths. If you are targeted by her, you will be essentially kidnapped to these alternate earths alongside her.”

This was the part that Andrea had known about, and it was why the Triumvirate weren’t allowed to attend battles with Apollyon anymore. Not since Eidolon was left on the other side and almost didn’t make it back. Almost a quarter of the losses when fighting her happened on the other side of that barrier between worlds as capes were either killed or just didn’t catch the ride back. The other half were the ones who died trying to stop her.

“Reports vary on what exactly she does once you are there with her but whatever happens almost always ends with the victim either dying, or triggering. Once this happens, Apollyon returns to Bet and picks out another target, leaving us to clean up the mess that she’s left behind.

Like the rest of the Endbringers, there is no way to drive away Apollyon apart from significantly wounding her and that is what makes her so dangerous. She may not be as outright deadly as Leviathan or Behemoth, but like the Simurgh, her appearance has significant ramifications for the places where she appears. So many new triggers caught up in the panic of an Endbringer fight can create more chaos than Apollyon herself. It’s our job to slow her down and mitigate that.”

A shrill beep from somewhere up above had the entire crowd, including Andrea, flinching. Fortress glanced to the side where a PRT agent was standing and said something before turning back to the crowd.

“That was the bell to let us know that the battle is about to start. We have less than fifteen minutes before Apollyon arrives in the city so it’s time to go set up. Those of you who think that you can withstand an attack from Apollyon or slow her down, please go stand in a group off to the right. Everyone else, you’re on S&R. Please move to the left.”

“Good luck kid.” The Python villain patted Andrea on the shoulder as he stepped towards the group gathering on the right. Andrea watched him go, debating with herself on whether or not she should join him or not. Her beams were pretty strong, strong enough to blow down buildings in a few shots if she put enough charge in them, but against an Endbringer as fast as Apollyon, she’d probably do more damage to whoever was with her than the monster herself.

Besides, she wasn’t here to fight an Endbringer. She was here to save her city. All the people caught by Apollyon would need help, and someone needed to be there to give them that help and show them that things were gonna be alright. Who better to do that than her?

Andrea joined the group on the left.