Chapter 34
The cloud of death peeled back from Point City, and where it had spread was suddenly silent. All life had been smothered by the Fenris Wolf.
As the cloud pushed back, the scarred face of the Fenris Wolf appeared, and it snarled at me. Then its howl shifted slightly, and the dead city began to come back to life, only in the most terrifying way as people stood up like marionettes with their strings plucked.
The titan dove back into the ground.
“Oh, hell.” That’s what I deserved for fighting an intelligent titan.
The shambling zombies down below were attracting interest from the rest of the city. Everybody was recovering from the shock, moving forward.
Mona, stick with Kim. Tell her she needs to alert the city to stay away from areas covered by the cloud.
The other issue we were about to face was that many naturally powerful supers had left for Pratt’s project. There weren’t as many in the general population to take on the zombies.
The Fenris Wolf has resurfaced north of your position. Mona projected an image of The Spine with a map of the city in the center and a red dot for the titan, a green dot for me.
I threw my consciousness again, and I saw the image shift. My dot disappeared and reappeared over the wolf.
It was breathing its cloud once more, so I threw a gale at it, pushing it back before I vibrated tendrils the same frequency that had worked before. Not wasting a moment, I instantly struck.
The titan was quick to react and try to dive again, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. My power strained, and I fought against the half-submerged titan, trying to rip it back up before I realized I didn’t have to.
Four more spikes of power drove themselves into the Fenris Wolf, causing it to howl and billow out more of that death fog, but hiding itself in it wasn’t going to stop me.
Holding it still rather than pulling it back up, I focused on the spikes and pushed them through the titan. It was a tough monster, regardless.
The titan continued to howl. The sound waves grew in volume until nearby buildings buckled and collapsed as ghosts emerged like they were being drawn from the distant past. Each one seemed to be painfully pulled from the ground.
I slammed more spikes of power into the Fenris Wolf as it stretched its power as far as it could, but I was different from the last two fights. This time, it couldn’t hurt me, and I just needed to kill it.
I wrapped one of the spikes across its spine and pulled with every bit of power I could muster. Its back buckled, and the Fenris Wolf howled before it became physical once more. Its paws were lost in the ground below and it let out a keening wail that made the recent dead pick themselves up.
With my ability to harm the titan, it was out-matched, and we both knew it.
With the wolf back in a physical reality, I didn’t have to focus as hard to maintain my power as I collapsed on it, smashing the Fenris Wolf to the ground.
A dozen beads of destruction appeared over my shoulder. The clouds parted, and the world was drowned out with light as I used my increased power. This wolf was a danger to my family, and nobody messed with my family.
The sound of the blast was so intense that nothing else existed for a moment. All the beads poured out raw energy that even a titan couldn’t survive.
The ground collapsed at the edge of the city as I buried the titan in so much energy that its body was nothing but the faintest particles in the end.
Scanning the area for ki, I spotted that an enormous mass of it was rapidly dispersing back into the air.
The titan was dead.
Given the stress of the last few days, constantly bracing for an attack on New Haven again, it felt like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders at that moment. I floated over the city, my toga flapping in the wind.
Two brave souls flew up towards me.
I glanced at them, only to see a woman in a stately purple blazer, riding on a patch of swirling wind, and a camerawoman with wings. There was a moment that I considered fleeing. The old me would have run, not wanting to deal with the nonsense.
But, I didn’t.
I’m proud of you, my fated. Mona kissed me in my mind, leaving me with a smile as the two arrived.
“Hello. I’m Mary from channel ten.” She fluffed at her hair, quickly trying to get camera-ready, but also in a hurry. “Mind answering a few questions?”
The camera woman had me in her sights and was flapping her wings quickly to steady herself.
I waved a finger in her direction, creating a platform and pressing her to it. “That can’t be a comfortable way to fly.”
“Oh, my.” Mary glanced at her camera woman standing midair. “Your power set is fascinating. Was that the Fenris Wolf you fought just now?” She seemed very calm for somebody who had just witnessed my power and been close to becoming a zombie resurrected by a titan.
But to be first on the scene, she had to have some guts.
“Yes, it was. It’s dead and Point City is safe from it.” I did my best to smile back at her, but I refused to glance at the camera.
It got progressively harder as the camerawoman inched closer. I could just box her in, but that felt petty.
Mary was pushing on her earpiece, shock flickering across her face as someone gave her an information dump. “Are you Deputy Director Mathers? Are you Void? The super that once killed Fortress?” Her questions came rapid-fire.
Somehow, the answer came easier than I’d thought it would. “Yes.” Chills ran up my spine as I felt I’d just changed my life forever.
Green dots appeared alongside the reporter and the camerawoman’s face, and I suspected they were on me too.
I flicked my wrist, and a barrier appeared before several dozen large caliber bullets, shells really, peppered themselves against my barrier, straining it as they exploded.
“What?!” Mary lost her cool.
“Military,” I said simply. I took the opportunity to paint Hendricks and Pratt as poorly as I could before I dealt with them. They were overdue for a visit. “Your Mayor and General have tried to kill me on multiple occasions.”
“But you just saved the city from not just a titan, but the Fenris Wolf, a notorious city-killer.” Mary pushed the microphone at me and talked quickly, like they were going to run out of time any second.
“Doesn’t matter. They are working with a force outside of the city. Most of our leadership here is compromised, but I’m not. And that makes me a problem for the conspirators.” I glanced to the side as another barrage of shells exploded against my barrier. “Apologies. I’m going to move you to the BSH while I deal with this.”
The titan was just the beginning.
My return to Point City was going to be a rather bloody one. I wondered if I should keep the officials alive a little longer to help the city recover from the attack. And I probably would have if they would have been any actual help. But something told me they’d just make everything worse, focusing on trying to save face.
My avatar appeared on the roof far away where military personnel were stationed with rail guns. They all flinched at how quickly I arrived, and then I blew them apart into red mist.
I didn’t kill all of them, but the others must have been having trouble tracking my movement.
I disappeared from the rooftop and reappeared on the street.
“Mona, where is Pratt?” I asked the air, but I knew she was always listening.
Kim and Beatrix are on your side for this. The BSH will be behind you. Beatrix has a list of those who appear to be working with Roach.
“Put it on a screen in The Spine.” I pulled at my avatar and had it appear in the middle of The Spine, toga and all.
“Miles!” Kim shouted as I appeared. “The City is insisting that all forces, BSH included, are to engage you.”
“I’ll deal with this infestation and then go quiet while this all blows over.” I smirked.
Beatrix changed the giant three screens up front, and they were suddenly covered with faces. Analysts all over The Spine were turning to look at me in awe.
My mind quickly scraped all the faces off the screens, but then I glanced at the analysts, seeing my own team that I brought from the marketing agency. Everyone was fretting and concerned; they needed to know what was happening.
“There is a large issue with our leadership. Someone capable of dominating people’s minds has worked their way into our city like an infestation. I have no choice but to cut out the problem. Do not send your heroes after me, or they will die. Give me the locations, Beatrix.” I glanced at the analyst.
“City Hall is going to be your biggest batch.” She swallowed. “Be careful.”
I threw my consciousness again, feeling it strain Mona. “You all right?” I asked as I stepped onto a fancy red carpet that ran down the center of a marble hallway. Large, stately wood doors braced with brass polished within an inch of its life lined the hall.
Fine, she replied, which was the universal female code for anything but ‘fine’.
No, I’m really fine. Just maybe limit how often you do that. It strains our connection.
I sent her a mental kiss before I recognized one of the women in the hall from the board. She turned to paste as soon as I was able to verify it was her. The red mist smeared across the beautiful marble, but it at least matched the carpet.
“All right. Who is up next?” I threw open the first door and spotted another two, who instantly blew into fine red mist.
The doors were closing on a myriad of stunned faces before they even had a chance to scream. I floated down the hall, opening doors, scanning the occupants and moving on.
“You can’t be here.” A guard leveled a gun at me and fired twice without even waiting for my reaction.
I let both hit my body and bounce off. “You are just doing your job, so if you put your gun down, I’ll continue on.”
He didn’t move, but I felt sympathy for him. His job was to protect everybody in the building. So instead of pasting him, I just dealt a swift blow to the back of his head. His eyes rolled up in his head, and I caught him, lowering him to the floor carefully.
Then I moved further down the hall. There were faces peering around the doors and watching everything I was doing with horror.
I knew I didn’t have long before it all got messier, a few people doing what they thought was right and trying to protect the broader group.
Those behind me began streaming out of their rooms, running to escape. They didn’t understand that they were already safe.
Softie. There was a point when you would have just crushed the entire building. Mona was following along with me.
I realized that she was right. A while ago, I wouldn’t have cared if the city collapsed. But now I had people I cared about, and I was starting to judge based on actions and intentions. The guard’s had been pure of heart, but I couldn’t let him get in my way.
“Where is Pratt?” I hadn’t seen his face on the screen in The Spine.
Not in the city.
I clicked my tongue in disappointment. I’d have to deal with him later.
At the very end of the giant hall that was city hall were two ornate doors, bigger than the rest. And the wood was plated in brass, almost as if to make it look like two golden doors.
I threw them open to find a quivering secretary.
“She’s gone.” The woman fell down to the ground and looked like she was going to make a mess.
“Where?” I asked.
She pointed at a bookshelf, and I ripped it off the wall to see a solid door, one thick enough to be a safe room, even among a city of supers. Of course, she didn’t let her own secretary into the safe room.
A screen flickered on in the room.
Hendricks was sneering at me through it. “Don’t you fucking dare. I am the mayor of this city, and I will bring it all down upon you before you can touch a hair on my head.”
“Interesting. One way to find out if that’s true.” I used a finger of my avatar and made it hot enough to melt the door like butter, pushing it right through the metal vault door.
“Defend me, Muriel!” she screamed.
I assumed that Muriel was the secretary. And the poor thing was so loyal she went from crying on the floor to snatching up a letter opener and trying to stab me.
She wasn’t even able to manage a scratch on my avatar as she made a noise between a sob and a scream of battle. Honestly, the noise was really irritating.
I hit her in the back of the head like the guard. “You really fucked these people up.”
“They should read their contracts better.” Hendricks acted as if she had the high road. “You won’t win, though. Even if you kill me, everything is in motion.”
“Yep. I’ll deal with the rest later. Right now, I’m going to enjoy killing you.” I put some mock pep into my voice as my hand melted fully through the door. I was up to my biceps in the steel door.
The door really felt like overkill. Either a super couldn’t get through something half as thick, or you didn’t stand a chance, anyway.
On the screen, I could see Hendricks rush my hand and put a taser to it. The device clicked twice before it was a melted piece of plastic and metal. The mayor recoiled, holding her burnt hand.
“Careful, some things are hotter than you can imagine.” I smirked and used my other hand to melt and pull open the vault door. “So, are you in love with Roach, too?”
“Eww, that thing? No, I’m not one of his sycophants.” Hendricks was glaring at my hand, though I could keep an eye on her on the screen. The look on her face told me that she still felt in control.
She was trying to slow me down, hoping reinforcements would arrive.
“Then why?”
She rolled her eyes. “Because he is my biggest donor by far.”
“That simple?” I continued to pull her vault door apart, splashing molten metal on the ground. It was taking too long, so I resorted to digging through it like a snow bank because Mona didn’t want me to reform my body too many times in a row.
“Those are the rules of the game. If I didn’t accept the money and win, the next person in line would have. Really, as someone who is going around and deciding for the entire city that I’m not fit, you are the real problem.” She tried her best to twist everything around so that she was right and I was wrong.
But that didn’t change the fact that she was helping a mad man get a grip on the city and use military weaponry to harm citizens. The Roach had disturbed the Fenris Wolf and almost killed two cities.
“You know, Roach was the one who drew the Fenris Wolf here?” I told her.
“What?” she snapped at me.
“Yeah, you were dead to him. He’s gotten whatever he wants. Pratt is almost to the vault. You’ve become useless to him.” I smirked as I could see her and stop talking to a wall of steel.
Hendricks was fuming. “That asshole.” She looked away from the screen to see me. “With your power, you can control this city and keep me as mayor. Do that and I’ll help you.”
“Nah. I’d prefer someone with an ounce of integrity in charge. I mean, look how quickly you just flipped on him. Bet you cheat on your husband, too.”
She snorted as if that was a given.
I had no interest in being in charge and dealing with all the headaches. I needed someone from outside the warren of rats to lead things once this was done. But I’d make that Kim’s problem. I was just the exterminator.
“So. Anything else you can tell me before you die?” I pushed her to keep talking.
“You know about the vault? Of course, you just mentioned it. There’s all the money he’s been giving me. I funneled a lot of it off into an account in Coast City. I could give you some of that.” She clutched her burnt hand to her chest and her eyes darted around the room, trying to trigger some thought that she could use to stall me further.
She was running dry on options and offers. I could have killed her earlier, but I wanted as much information as I could get. Given she was done, I was done waiting.
With a flick of my fingers, she was paste.
I stopped pulling at her vault and turned around to a door full of cops with guns pointed at me. I smiled, glad that the BSH hadn’t made me kill any heroes.
And I really didn’t want to deal with the cops, even if it would have been easy.
Sorry, Mona, going to do it again.