Brighter Days: Chapter 3

Andrea heard all sorts of things about Endbringer battles. She’d heard of the chaos that came with dealing with Behemoth’s kill-aura and the constant, devastating strikes of Leviathan’s waves. She’d heard of the Simurgh’s scream and the collars that popped your head like a watermelon if you spent too much time near her. They were hard to deal with, but the world mostly knew how they operated, what to look for and what to avoid.

Apollyon though? She was different. With her, you didn't have to deal with literal forces of nature as the Endbringer tried to bring your city low, no… You just had to deal with the people she got to first.

“Come on, you’ve got this, sir. Focus on my voice. Just my voice, nothing else.”

Andrea was crushed in the back of an electronics store, gently speaking to a shivering man whose body was half melted ice and half human flesh. Fractals of frost spread across the floors and even the ceiling around him, sinking deep into the stone walls as if the store itself had been the subject of a localized ice age. Andrea’s nose was cherry red from the chill and her breath fogged the air in front of her face as she slowly coaxed the man back into some semblance of human form.

This man had crawled into here after an encounter with Apollyon and had been curled up just like this for the past fifteen minutes. The only reason that anyone even noticed was because the ice around him was spreading to the street outside.

An explosion in the distance rattled the CDs on the shelves around them and made the man before her shout in fear. Andrea frowned as ice shuttered across his body until he was fully consumed by it again, undoing her progress in an instant.

“I-I can’t!” He shivered, curling in on himself. Andrea placed a comforting hand on his arm. It felt solid, like stone, and she was very glad that she didn't have fingers to freeze anymore as she gently rubbed his shoulder.

“You can sir. Think about your wife, don’t you want to see her again?” Andrea asked gently. The man nodded, “Then you need to focus. You can’t see her again if you’re freezing everyone around you so I need you to turn back, okay?”

Using the same tone she normally took with scared toddlers, Andrea managed to slowly but surely coax the panicked man back to his usual human self. Once he was back to normal, the temperature seemed to rise and the frost on the floor retreated back towards his body, no longer encroaching on the entire shop.

Once he had returned to himself and was stable enough to move without risking a resurgence of panic, Andrea gently guided him outside, whispering reassurances into his ear as she brought him out onto the street, “Don’t worry, sir. You’re safe now; Apollyon almost never targets the same person twice.”

As she pulled him out onto the street, a flash of black and gold descended from the sky in the form of a cape in a gleaming suit of power armor, ready to whisk him away to safety. She handed him over and watched him go, happy that she had managed to salvage the situation and save the newly-traumatized man before he hurt himself or those around him.

As he disappeared, Andrea sank in on herself a bit, the weight of the day settling on her shoulders. That was the third new trigger she had aided and unfortunately, one of the least damaging. She now understood how Apollyon was so dangerous. The monster’s strategy was simple, but the result was always brutal and deadly.

With a deep breath, she unfurled her wings and launched herself into the sky, soaring towards the top of a nearby skyscraper to continue her hunt for the unfortunate victims of the Endbringer’s wrath. From this vantage point, she scanned the city, her enhanced eyesight combing the horizon for anything worth investigating. Screams sliced through the air and plumes of smoke stained the air a dim grey, marking points of Apollyon’s recent devastation, and Andrea frowned deeply.

Apollyon was like a ghost, elusive and destructive. She was hard to predict and even harder to contain than Leviathan or Behemoth. Of the three times she had appeared since last year, she had only actually been driven away once. More often than not, she just showed up, did her business, and disappeared, leaving whatever city she visited to pick up the pieces. If Andrea wanted a city to call home, she needed to do her best to help however she could.

The tinker set a course for a nearby smokestack, knowing that there was likely someone there she could help, or at least someone who could point her in the right direction. As she grew closer however, she found that people had already shown up to do her job, including one in a very familiar costume.

Snubnose was using her massive armored body to prop up a semi-truck, trying to lift it off of a cape wearing a red and black costume. She was making some progress but the truck was fully loaded and despite her size, the woman’s armor didn’t grant her any form of super strength apart from what she was able to supplement with her own power. Certainly not enough to lift something that big without help.

Even though she knew she’d probably get in trouble, Andrea didn’t hesitate to fly down and land beside her mentor. Snubnose glanced at her, surprise evident in her posture as she caught sight of the Ward, “What the hell are you doing here, kid?” she asked, her voice bouncing off the walls of her armor.

Andrea ignored her for the moment, extending her right hand and sending a thick beam of light towards the unconscious cape trapped under the truck. The light wrapped around them, forming a thick dome of hardened sunlight to protect them from harm as Andrea gave her senior a nod.

Snubnose got her meaning immediately and let go of the truck. It dipped, landing on Andrea’s dome but not moving an inch further as Snubnose raised a hand and slammed it into the side of the truck. White sparks burst from vents on her gauntlets, spraying all across the side of the truck before it was suddenly sent careening away, rolling end over end until it was stopped by a building a few feet away.

Andrea’s dome faded away, allowing the other capes nearby to tend to the man as Snubnose approached, staring down at her with a dirt-stained helmet. Andrea stared back, unashamed despite knowing full well that she had no permission to be here.

Their stare-off lasted for several long moments, long enough for the capes to decide that the injured man was good enough to transport and leave them alone. Snubnose lifted a hand, completely unreadable, before clapping it down on Andrea’s head with surprising softness as she spoke, “You’re gonna catch hell for this, you know that right?”

“It’s worth it to help people.” Andrea said stoically, and Snubnose stared at her for another few seconds before shaking her head.

“Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that.” Snubnose sighed as she took her hand away, “I told them that we should’ve hand-delivered you to that shelter. You’re such a bleeding heart that there’s no way you’d sit something like this out.”

“I would have found a way out anyway.”

Snubnose chuckled, “Yeah, I’m sure you would have. Well, since you’re already here and the shelters are locked off, I guess there’s nothing else for it. You can help, but I want you stuck to my side like you’re welded there, understand? You aren’t running around this warzone without a proper babysitter.”

“Understood.” Andrea nodded without complaint, happy that she wasn’t being forced off the battlefield. Snubnose crouched down and took off in a runner’s sprint, stampeding down the road like a nine-hundred pound steel bull, and Andrea followed after her with her wings, easily keeping up with the older woman as they headed to the next location to receive Apollyon’s wrath.

For the next half hour, the two of them made their way around the battlefield, never running into Apollyon but only the carnage she had left behind. Often they found only corpses, beaten into a state barely resembling the humans they had once been while others, they find situations similar to the one Andrea had just come from, though not usually as… severe.

It was exhausting work, mentally and physically, but Andrea worked through it with raw determination, helping the people of her city struggle through the worst days of their life, one person at a time.

Andrea gave a loud sigh as their most recent victim was loaded into the back of a truck and carried away. The street around her had been a shifting kaleidoscope of colors, but as the truck receded, those colors seemed to fade with it, returning the world to its normal shades. As she sagged with exhaustion, Snubnose walked up behind her, the woman's armored boots banging on the cracked pavement. She clapped Andrea on the shoulder, her touch surprisingly gentle. "You alright, kid? Want to take a breather?”

Andrea shook her head, pushing a stray strand of hair from her face. She was filthy, caked with dirt and sweat, but she still managed to stay strong. "No, I'm good. Apollyon's still here, right? Our job isn't over yet. There are still people we can help."

Snubnose let out a low whistle. "Always the hero, huh? You're making me look bad, you know that?" There was a note of something akin to fondness in her voice, a hint of respect.

Andrea managed a tired smile. "I learned from the best. You were there too, I guess."

“Smart ass.” Snubnose chuckled, the sound rough but genuine. "Alright then. Let's get moving. See if we can find anyone else who needs a hand."

They continued their duties, helping people wherever they came across them and as they worked, Andrea somehow found the time to ask Snubnose why she decided to join search and rescue. She was one of the most effective hand-to-hand combatants in the entire city thanks to her armor and one of the few people that Andrea could imagine going toe to toe with a monster like Apollyon.

“Well…” Snubnose’s voice was thoughtful, “You’re right that I could probably get a few hits in, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to knock that big bitch up and down the block a few times. But I guess I chose not to for the same reason you didn’t, kid.”

Andrea tilted her head, not understanding, “What reason?”

“That it wouldn’t make a difference.” Snubnose replied, “Sure, I could lay into her all day and maybe I’d even knock her down a few times, but all I’d be doing is delaying the inevitable. I’d get killed or knocked out of the fight and that would be the end of all my contributions. I can help a lot more people doing this than throwing my life away trying to fight that monster.”

Her words rang in Andrea's ears and the girl found herself smiling. Despite the woman's cocky attitude in fights, moments like this made it easy to remember that she was also a truly heroic person at heart.

As they reached another potential trigger site, they were surprised to see that everything had already wrapped up and the new cape had already been calmed down, thanks in part to a friendly face.

Triptag looked more exhausted than Andrea could ever remember but he smiled as he saw them, raising a hand in greeting, “Hey, you two. I should have guessed you’d sneak out to this party, Halcyon. How have things been on your end?”

“There isn’t a single reality where I sit something like this out.” Andrea said as she landed on the ground beside him, “And things have been good. Tiring, but good. We’ve managed to save a few people so far. We might actually have a few new team members after this is all over.”

Triptag’s smile dimmed slightly, “That so? That’s good. We’ll probably need it.”

His words confused her and he seemed to notice, giving her a look, “You haven’t heard the news yet, have you?” Andrea shook her head, worry curling in her gut as her friend sighed and looked away, “Mandolin and Fortress got hit by Apollyon. Mando didn’t make it and the big man lost an arm and is in critical condition. I’ve been checking in on him every so often, but it isn’t looking good.”

“Shit.” Snubnose said as Andrea went silent, absorbing the news. She hadn’t been close to either of the two men but they had still been her comrades. Their loss would definitely hurt once she had time to properly register it.

“Have you heard anything about anyone else?” Asked Snubnose.

Triptag shook his head, “No. I only heard about those two because I was stopping by triage earlier and overheard someone talking about it. I haven’t heard anything about anyone else.”

There was worry in his voice and Andrea felt it acutely. A lot of their comrades were participating in this battle. Pretty much everyone from the Protectorate decided to show up, even Gascognade despite his power not really lending itself to this type of situation. Was he alright? What about Anton? She was pretty sure he was part of the brute team; what happened to him?

A heavy hand was placed on Andrea’s shoulder before her thoughts could spiral any further. She glanced back at Snubnose, finding the woman gently holding onto her whole her other hand did the same to Triptag. The woman’s helmet obscured her face, but Andrea knew her expression was soft underneath it.

“I know what you kids are thinking and you need to stop it. It’s not gonna help anything.” she said, “If you haven’t heard anything about the rest of them, it just means they’re okay. Don’t get caught up worrying about something you can’t control. We need to keep ourselves safe first and foremost.”

Triptag swallowed, “That’s easy for you to say. We aren’t wearing suits of armor wider than a minivan.”

“You wouldn’t be able to move it anyway.” Snubnose snorted, flexing one armored arm. There was no musculature underneath; the woman was practically smothered under layers of rubber and dense metal, but the ridiculousness of her statement caused both Wards to smile anyway.

The good mood was destined to be cut short however. A loud crash resounded from the end of the street, the sound of metal crumpling and shrieking as it failed to withstand pressure that it simply wasn’t made to handle. The group froze before turning as one to witness a truly gruesome sight.

An unfortunate cape had been launched into a small sedan that had been parked in front of a row of buildings. They had been launched so hard and with so much force that they literally sheared straight through the vehicle, scattering shattered metal and plastic across the street as the obliterated it and were subsequently lodged in the brick wall behind it. Blood leaked from their twisted, broken limbs, and it was easy to tell even from so far away that they were dead, mostly thanks to the fact that their helmet had been crushed like a soda can. With their head still inside.

“Jesus Christ…” Triptag whimpered, and Andrea felt like joining him as a tall, armored figure strode through the smoke and debris left behind from the cape’s impromptu crash test.

Apollyon’s body was littered with blood and wounds that leaked a thick, black ichor onto the street below her. Her trident was stained crimson and the spikes on her armor were covered with viscera, doubtlessly the only thing that remained of her fallen foes. The Endbringer was turned away from them, looking at the body of the cape she had just so brutally massacred as if she was examining her handiwork. Andrea almost wanted to hope that they hadn’t been noticed, but that was quickly and decisively dashed as Apolly slowly turned her helmeted head towards them and, with a heart-stopping slowness that had to be deliberate, raised her trident to point…

Directly at Andrea.

‘Why me?’ The tinker thought, quivering in place as Apollyon lowered her spear and took a step forward and disappeared from sight.

A hand slammed into Andrea's chest, knocking the wind out of her as Snubnose interposed her massive body between the young cape and the monster whose attention she had somehow gained. Reinforced armor tore like butter as the Endbringer's trident sheared right through the woman's shoulder and Snubnose grunted but held fast, grabbing onto the monster’s weapon with thick fingers. She shouted at the Ward, her panicked tone echoing off the walls of her armor and tinged with pain, “RUN!”

Andrea's wings snapped outwards and she kicked off the ground, but she didn't get anywhere as a pulse of bright blue light suddenly burst from the eyeholes of Apollyon's helmet, still locked onto her.

Something shifted. The world turned upside down and inside out all at once and Andrea's stomach turned. A disorienting burst of colors bloomed in front of her eyes, unnatural light searing pain into a part of her brain that simply didn't want to comprehend it and growing stronger and stronger until, when she didn't think she could bear it any longer, it suddenly stopped and Andrea found herself in a city once again.

A city, but not her city. The tinker was slow to regain cognizance of her surroundings, but she realized this in an instant. The buildings were far too tall for one, and the sky was bright, with not a cloud in the sky to block the sun. Most telling of all however, were the people milling on the streets around them where none had been before.

Most of them were frozen or at least seemed to be, those beyond the boundary of the bright blue bubble that Apollyon had erected around them, but several weren't so lucky and had been trapped within the Endbringer's power, confused and wary until they noticed the monster in their midst, held back only by Snubnose’s armor wrapped around her trident.

A scream split the air, then another and another as the civilians finally noticed them. They cowered or simply fled, running towards the boundary of energy that had brought Andrea and her friends here in the first place. Their hands scrambled against the field but it didn't even waver. Whatever power Apollyon was using wasn't going to be damaged by mere mortals.

Their fear spurred Andrea out of her fugue. Her wings slid back into their containers as she turned towards Triptag who had been just close enough to be pulled into the field with her and Snubnose. Her teammate seemed to be completely frozen, captured by the intimidating appearance of the monster before them.

She couldn't blame him, but she needed him moving and helping if they were going to survive this. There were innocents present, and neither she nor Snubnose could fight to their full potential if they had to worry about protecting civilians.

“Triptag!” She shouted, putting his attention on her instead of the Endbringer. As he looked at her, she pointed to the crowd of people on the edge of the barrier, “We’ve got civilians! Play keep away!”

The order seemed to break through whatever spell had overtaken him. She could see his face shift as the words took hold, and he gave her a decisive nod as he scrambled to his feet, running towards the group of people who shied away from his presence like the plague. Standing in front of them, the teen slammed his hands on the ground and a wave of bright green energy spread out from his fingertips. Five rectangular patches of energy coalesced, forming a semi-circle that connected with the barrier on either end of the crowd.

The tags pulsed once, twice, five times, growing brighter every time until on the fifth, it was so bright that it was almost hard to look at. Triptag seemed winded and on the verge of falling over, but he held on, giving Andrea a thumbs up as his tag was set in place.

Triprag's power was classic area denial and perfect for setting traps on unwitting enemies. Using his hands, he could create glowing ‘tags’ that could impart a variety of effects on whoever crossed them, with that effect growing stronger with each subsequent tag of the same type.

The tags he just placed would were what he liked to call ‘no-go zones’. They would push back anyone who tried to cross them, sending them flying head over heels the moment they stepped one foot over. With this many, the force behind that push would be enough to kill any normal human who tried to croscross them from the outer acceleration alone. Usually overkill, but against Apollyon, Andrea worried it still might not be enough.

The blue barrier around them fizzled and cracked, overlapping layers of energy pressing against one another as they formed their arena. Apollyon still hadn't moved, standing as still as a statue with her trident impaled in Snubnose's shoulder as the armored cape held her fast.

Andrea swallowed heavily as she took in the Endbringer's intimidating form. Her battery began to slowly heat up as it began sending excess power to her limbs in preparation for the battle ahead.

Then, just as abruptly as Apollyon had made her appearance, the Endbringer moved. Snubnose shouted as she was lifted bodily off the ground, held aloft by the weapon she had stopped, before Apollyon's leg shot forward and slammed into her stomach. Metal crumpled like wet paper and Andrea's mentor was thrown off of the trident like she had been shot from the barrel of a gun, slamming into the barrier which pulsed at the impact before slumping to the ground lifelessly.

Andrea only had a moment to register that she was now the full recipient of Apollyon's attention before the Endbringer was rushing towards her. The tinker threw her hands up and light burst from her palms, forming a shield of hardened sunlight in front of her body to ward off the monster's assault.

Andrea's hard-light constructs were extremely tough. She could count on one hand the amount of times someone had actually managed to break through them; even Carson had trouble cutting through her shields, and cutting was what he did best!

So you could imagine the shock and horror that went through Andrea's kind as Apollyon's trident sheared through her wall of light like it wasn't even there. It wasn't even a chore for the Endbringer; her swing didn't slow or wobble as it passed through the light like it wasn't even there and headed straight for the young tinker’s body.

Reacting just in time, Andrea threw herself out of the way of the monolithic weapon. It shattered the ground behind her and three up shards of asphalt that stung her skin wherever it landed, even though her costume. Apollyon's head followed her as she backed away before the Endbringer turned and engaged her again.

A hard-light sword formed in Andrea's right hand while a shield burst to life in her left, and thus began the deadly dance between the cape and the monster seemingly made just to create them. The next several minutes of Andrea’s life were a whirlwind of movement and desperation as every system she had put within herself fought in tandem with her body just to keep her alive.

It was barely enough. As her weapons would lead one to believe, Apollyon’s specialty above all else was close-range combat. She was fast, durable, and most importantly, dangerous. Andrea’s augments were designed to make her stronger and faster than a human, and even some capes, could ever be, but they could hardly keep up with the Endbringer’s incredible might. Her eyes which could track bullets could barely catch flickers of the trident that aimed to take her head off, and the arms that could lift and throw even Snubnose’s armor threaten to break under the strain of blocking those same attacks. And that wasn’t even mentioning…

Andrea grunted as Apollyon’s shield broke through her sword, sending fractals of bright light in every direction before they were reabsorbed by the nodes on her costume. The Endbringer lashed out with her trident and it was only thanks to some quick thinking that the young tinker didn’t lose her head as she reached out in a panic and sent a beam of concentrated sunlight directly at Apollyon’s face, sending herself backwards but not without cost.

Several metal fingers plinked to the ground as Apollyon’s trident sheared through Andrea’s hand. It was something that she normally would have been able to escape, and it only confirmed the terrified feeling that was slowly climbing from the pit of Andrea’s gut and up her throat.

Apollyon was getting faster. It was as if the Endbringer had begun the fight at a mere twenty percent and was steadily climbing her way to one hundred. If things continued like this, Andrea would be dead or well on her way before she even reached fifty.

Apollyon dashed towards her, faster than ever before, but Andrea jumped backwards, sending twin beams of sunlight screaming into the Endbringer’s face as her wings spread out behind her, sending her rocketing away as Apollyon used her shield to block the searing light. The tinker skated along the edge of the barrier, blasting away at Apollyon and searching for any hole in her defence yet finding nothing.

Anddrea skates along the edge of the barrier, blasting away at Apollyon and searching for any hole in her defence, but her beams are blocked by a shield as Apollyon's head follows her steadily.

This was not looking good. The fight had just started but Andrea knew intrinsically that she was hopelessly outmatched. Apollyon was to fast, too strong; her beams didn't have the output to actually hurt her in any way, and the idea of actually using a hard light weapon to engage her one on one was more akin to a planned suicide than a valid strategy.

Andrea let her mind flit from the battle for a single instant, gauging the energy left in her battery and mentally reeling in horror as she saw how much juice she still had left in the tank. The day had taken its toll and even with the sun shining above, she was running on empty. She needed to end this now or else she’d be running on fumes in no time.

But what could she do? Apollyon’s body was too hard for her beams to pierce. It was like her skin was made out of the densest, most durable material to ever exist, and even when she upped the output, all Andrea could manage was cosmetic damage!

The tinker grit her teeth, landing on the ground and powering off her wings to conserve what precious energy she had left. She took a moment to examine the situation. Snubnose was still out, slumped down against the edge of the barrier but hopefully alive. She hadn't moved since she fell but that armor was heavy. Without her power filling it up, the shifting of an unconscious person wouldn't move it at all.

Triptag was focused on keeping the civilians safe. His eyes were glued fearfully onto Andrea and her ongoing deathmatch but he hadn't moved from his spot cold. The civilians cowered behind him, crowding together in one spot and watching the proceeds with horror. Andrea wondered if they could even comprehend what was going on right now, if things like this existed in their reality or if they had been suddenly torn from the safety of their world and into the bleak brutality of Bet’s.

She'd make sure they survived the experience.

Andrea turned back towards Apollyon, filled with new conviction. The Endbringer was holding her shield in front of her body, slowly advancing on Andrea, wary of any more attacks, and it was here the young tinker noticed something.

Endbringers weren't human. Sure, some people debated on their exact origins, throwing out theories that spanned from messed up triggers to even extradimensional gods come to show humanity the error of their ways, but the general consensus remained the same. Endbringers, whatever their origin, weren't human.

But Apollyon acted like it. The way she moved, the way she fought, it was all intentionally crafted to make her opponents think she was just another cape. She wasn't the wild beast that Leviathan presented himself as or the omniscient presence that the Simurgh had shown herself to be, she fought with purpose. Like a warrior. She blocked attacks with her shield when she could simply tank them, reposting with her trident when appropriate.

It may have all been a facade meant to lull her enemies into a false sense of security, an enemy who could think was an enemy you could outsmart and all that, but it was a facade she was sticking to. And Andrea might have been able to use that to her advantage.

The tinker took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do. She planted her feet, tucking her wings away as she held both hands out towards her enemy. As she expected, Apollyon held her shield up, slowing slightly as if she was preparing to brace herself against it.

Andrea's beams so far hadn't done a thing to her, but still she acted as if she would be hurt if she didn't block them. Well, if she didn't block this one, she definitely would.

A warmth began to blossom in Andrea's gut, growing hotter and hotter by the second. Sunlight circulated through the coils in her body, drawn from her nodes and even the world outside as she drew every single drop of energy towards her battery, and then to her arms.

The air around her began to heat up. Sweat beaded on her skin and turned to steam as her skin grew too hot. The heat in her stomach was painful now. Every single muscle in Andrea’s body clenched as a horrible burning sensation passed through them, searing organs and bones alike as her battery was forced to work at a standard it simply wasn’t designed for. Her organs felt like they were boiling, liquifying in her body, but she held fast. She had been through worse, after all.

She kept both of her arms aimed towards Apollyon, keeping her in view. It wasn't hard; Apollyon wasn't even trying to evade her gaze, slowly walking towards her, the picture of statuesque intimidation behind her shield.

‘I was right. She’s not even going to try and dodge.’ Bloody lines spread across Andrea’s cracking lips as they spread into an almost manic smile. Her hands were shaking and she felt like she was about to die, but she stayed on target, waiting for the Endbringer to get as close as possible.

Once Apollyon was a little over ten feet away, just far enough that a full extension of her trident would hit Andrea, the girl let loose. A beam of concentrated sunlight, over two hundred percent as powerful as her strongest so far, screamed out of the lenses on Andrea’s palm and slammed into Apollyon’s shield, washing over her like a tidal wave. The Endbringer disappeared underneath the attack like a planet under a solar flare and the barrier rippled as sunlight scorched its surface.

To Andrea's utter horror, the Endbringer continued walking forward at a steady pace, striding through her attack as she approached. Andrea’s eyes–uniquely adjusted to see though the harsh light that she was capable of outputting, watched as the monster's skin bubbled and cracked just like the pavement underneath her feet. Chunks of flesh turned molten and sloughed off her body in waves, but still she kept moving.

Gritting her teeth, Andrea put out even more power, not caring what happened to her anymore. The nodes on her costume burned like iridescent flares and the heat in her body raised even higher as her beam widened, taking up two car lengths worth of space in front of her.

Her feet slid backwards as her attack pushed her physically but it also stopped Apollyon in her tracks, trapping the Endbringer within a roiling storm of heat and fire. Andrea grinned through the pain, keeping on the pressure.

“Halcyon! The tags!”

Andrea looked back at her teammate's shout and her lips thinner as she noticed that thanks to her beam, she was steadily getting closer and closer to Triptag's barrier. If she didn't stop her attack, she'd hit his tag and then… Well there was a reason he wasn't allowed to layer effects more than three times.

Andrea glanced at the tags and then the cape who created them, before her gaze moved past him to the civilians he was protecting. They all looked scared, terrified of the battle they had been dragged into, but her eyes locked onto one pair specifically. A mother and the child she was clutching to her chest.

Resolve settled in Andrea's chest and she turned away from the group, redoubling her efforts to drive the Endbringer away. She wasn't just fighting to keep herself alive, she had forgotten that in the heat of the battle. But now she had been reminded and she wasn't going to hold back

Andrea's battery was draining at a rapid pace and she knew she only had a few more seconds so she had to make them count. She focused through the pain, shuttering the lenses on her palms and narrowing the beam as much as she could to focus the energy, and that was her mistake.

The lens on her right hand, already cracked from repeated encounters with the Endbringer's trident, couldn't stand up to the power she was attempting to focus. It wavered and then shattered, sending hundreds of tiny pieces of tempered glass in every direction. The sunlight that it had been focusing came out in an uncontrolled torrent, dimming her attack and scorching Andrea's skin as tongues of burning sunlight whipped back towards her body.

The Ward was blown off her feet, flying backwards as if she had been launched. She didn't even have time to process the malfunction as she crossed the distance between herself and that barrier behind her in a single instant.

And the moment that Andrea’s foot crossed those last few millimeters separating Triptag’s barrier from the rest of the battlefield, any hope of escape fled as she was suddenly and irreversibly brought under the thrall of his power. It was as if a bullet train of invisible force suddenly slammed into her body and the beam of sunlight driving her back flickered and died as her teammate’s ability enacted its will on her.

Her bones cracked, joints popped, and tendons screamed in protest as a blinding wave of pain consumed her and she was sent rocketing away. Her flight was so powerful that she didn’t even feel her feet leave the ground, but she did feel it when she collided with something far too solid before her vision mercifully dissolved into blackness.

When consciousness returned, Andrea found herself lying on the unforgiving ground, surrounded by a concerned crowd of people yet somehow not dead yet. Dazed and in utter agony, she struggled to focus, her gaze darting around as she searched for any sign of her enemy. But the Endbringer was nowhere to be found… and most horrifying at all, neither was the shimmering bubble that had encased the battlefield.

With an immense amount of effort, Andrea managed to push herself to a sitting position. Her organs ached and one of her arms refused to cooperate, and a glance to the side revealed why: her right arm was a mangled mess, ripped completely out of alignment on top of the fingers she was already missing . Her elbow was bent at a grotesque angle and shards of metal from her prosthetic poked into the side of her costume, digging painfully into her skin as they had ripped straight through the armor. She must have landed on it first, which was probably the only reason she was even still alive.

Gathering her strength, Andrea managed to stand despite every nerve in her body telling her to take it easy, to lay back down and wait for help. The crowd around her gasped and muttered as she limped past them, staring at the place where Apollyon’s arena had been only moments ago. The Endbringer and her companions were gone, vanished along with all the civilians who had been trapped with them. The only remnants of the devastating battle were the deep cracks in the asphalt and the bubbling, burning trail that her own energy had carved into the road.

It took a moment for Andrea to recognize what had happened. Her faltering mind simply didn’t want to entertain the idea, but with every passing moment that she stared at the empty street, and as sirens rang in her ears from police that simply shouldn’t even be there, she had no other choice but to accept the cruel reality that had been dealt.

Andrea had won. Apollyon was gone, but she was still here. She had been left behind.

{Post chapter note}

Hey all, since this is probably the last time we'll see these guys for a while, I decided to give you a few inside detailed about the Seattle Wards and their powers! You know, just for those who are curious. It's not very detailed, just something I cooked up while writing.

Andrea Hayes (Halcyon)

Rating: Tinker 8

Halcyon is a tinker a specialty in Solar Power granting her the ability to create almost anything as long as it is powered by and uses sunlight. Her costume consists of a white, grey, and gold armored bodysuit with tinkertech interspersed throughout.

Jamie (Triptag)

Rating: Shaker 5, Striker 2, Trump 2

Triptag can create up to five ‘tags’ by touching anything inorganic, imparting a variety of effects on each. If more than one tag casts the same effect then the effects are compounded for every subsequent tag. He can usually be found wearing bright green streetwear with a bandana and goggles.

Emily (Feud)

Rating: Master 3, Shaker 2

Feud can create an area around her that steadily dissolves the bonds made between people, turning them into strangers or even enemies the longer they are inside. She wears dark red robes over a black bodysuit with a hood and domino mask.

Justin (Cloudburst)

Rating: Shaker 5

Cloudburst can create localized thunderstorms by manipulating magnetic fields around him. He can direct these storms and the effects within, bringing lightning, rain, or hail down upon his opponents. He wears a black and white spandex outfit with a small cape that hangs down to his lower back, alongside an opaque black helmet.

Anton (Gridlock)

Rating: Brute 3, Shaker 1

Gridlock’s body passively creates a force that expels things that get near his skin. This makes him both more durable and stronger as forces on him are diminished and while those he puts out are amplified. His costume consists of a baggy black and blue jumpsuit and domino mask.

Carson (Flamberge)

Rating: Striker 4

Flamberge can enhance the properties of any item that he is holding, from the durability of a shield to the cutting edge of a sword. He dresses as a stereotypical knight with the weapons to match