1.1
Speaker4thesilent
Crazed Deplorable
AN: Crossposting from SB
It was easy to lose track of time in a library and let the stress of a bad day just drift off into the ether. The bullies didn’t matter; most of them probably wouldn’t be caught dead around a concentration of books; they might be at risk of learning something. Teachers too blind to notice or too apathetic to care that Madison’s handwriting didn’t match what I’d written on the paper she turned in didn’t matter. The stacks served as visual obstacles for the few windows, the noise from outside was muffled, and the mind could latch onto an interesting story for hours under the soft light of the old-fashioned chandeliers unless otherwise interrupted. Like the interruption provided by the librarian that had just tapped me on the shoulder.
“I’m almost sorry to interrupt you, dear,” the elderly woman smiled as she spoke, but even I could see she was tired, “You looked so intent on what you were reading, but I’m afraid we’re about to close for the night.”
I could feel my eyes opening wide as I uncrossed my legs and moved to stand up. Judging by the pins-and-needles sensation from my legs, I really had been sitting longer than I thought. I took two steps to the left and was able to get a line of sight to the nearest clock. The hands confirmed the librarian’s statement. “Oh, God, my dad is going to kill me!” I lamented. Even if this was one of the nights he worked late, he ought to have been home almost an hour ago. Worse than that, the last bus was scheduled to leave from the bus stop down the road in about thirty seconds, so I’d have to walk home. None of the library’s pay phones worked, and I knew from past experience that the librarians wouldn’t let me use their phones.
“Well, if you want to check that book out, I can help you up at the counter. Surely he won’t be too hard on you if you explain what happened.” The platitude was mouthed with apparent sincerity. I gave her a nine and a half out of ten. She’d have had full marks except that her eyes indicated that she wanted me out of the building so that she could lock up and go home for the night.
Instead of delaying either of us with the paperwork, I slipped the book back on the shelves and departed. I wasn’t looking forward to the walk home in the dark, but it wasn’t going to get shorter or less unpleasant if I tried to delay it.
A quick glance confirmed that the bus stop was empty, the bus long gone, as expected. I slid my hands into the pockets of my jacket. It might only be the middle of September, and Brockton Bay might tend toward unseasonably warm weather through the fall and winter, but the sun had gone down hours ago and there was a stiff breeze. I might look a bit like an upright frog, but I didn’t actually have much extra weight on my tall frame, and I was feeling chilly.
I shot another regretful glance at the bus stop, but if it had been running late there would have been at least one person there waiting for it. I grimaced, kicked at the asphalt, and started walking home. At least it was a Friday, that meant two glorious days free from Winslow and my three tormentors. It also meant that if dad decided to ground me for being out after curfew, not calling him, walking home alone, or keeping him up all night worried about me . . . Where was I going with that thought?
Of course it was only now, after reading happily for hours that my brain decided to remind me that I started my day well before sunrise. I muttered imprecations at myself and trudged towards home. Then my stomach chimed in to remind me that I hadn’t eaten anything since a hurried lunch at school more than ten hours ago now. It was really not my day.
It was really not my day. I clenched my fists and fought back the urge to punch the wall. I’d done that once and ended up with a boxer’s fracture. Breaking another knuckle punching bricks would be stupid, and successful predators couldn’t afford to be stupid. Besides, it would be hard to use my crossbow with broken bones in my hand, and I wanted to be out hunting Nazis and weakling Merchants, not sitting around getting soft waiting for a break to heal.
Instead of punching the wall, I gave it a half-hearted kick and headed for home. I don’t know how they knew, but the fucking Empire stash house I’d intended to hit had been empty. Not so much as a single skinhead had been left there to knock around for more information. It was like being spit on. A trap would have been acknowledgement that they couldn’t take me in a fair fight, but to just be ignored . . . that felt entirely too much like they were saying I wasn’t even worth the effort. I realized my fists were clenched again and forced them to relax. No point in letting the bastards get to me. I’d just make sure to take it out of the hide of the next E88 thug I ran into.
Plus, I could have used the money. Basic broadheads were alright, but some of the fancy heads they made for hunting big animals, like bears, were wicked. I’d been eying some of those for weeks now, but they were under too much security to risk snatching and they were expensive. A pack of three-just the heads-was fifty bucks. Still, with chisel points for breaking bones and the rear-deploying blades . . . the thought of what one of those would do to even a mid-ranked Brute was enough to bring a smile to my face for a moment. Then I remembered that thanks to some too-clever Empire jackass, I couldn’t afford them and my mood soured again.
I made sure to change my route up tonight. The last thing I needed was to let the Empire track me back home. Besides, it was good practice to pick out a new path along the rooftops on the fly. I made another long jump in my shadow form and landed back on the roof of the abandoned building I’d set out from earlier that night. A quick slip into my Breaker form dropped me through the roof and into the single room in the top floor without leaks. I swapped out my costume for the clothes I’d worn when I left home earlier, then moved to the boarded-up window in the room next door to make sure there was no one who could see me drop down into the alley.
There was a girl walking home that’d be out of sight soon, bu-
I did a double-take, and couldn’t believe my luck. Hebert, out alone this late at night? What, was the useless bitch trying to get abducted by the Merchants or something? A wicked grin stole over my lips. It could be awful dangerous on Brockton Bay’s streets at night. Maybe I should put Hebert in her place and do my good deed for the day by demonstrating what can happen to a stupid sheep that wanders away from the safety of the herd.
Yeah, I decided, that sounds like fun. With the damn Nazis standing me up, I had some aggression to work off. Checking again to make sure the coast was clear, I phased through the wall and dropped lightly to the alley floor. I had to walk a bit quickly to catch up to Hebert. I was familiar with this stretch of road and had just the location for her education in mind. There was a dead end alley up ahead that I’d run a Merchant dealer out of as Shadow Stalker a week or so ago. Given the beating I’d laid on the assholes, they wouldn’t dare to show back up there for another couple weeks yet.
I shook my head in disgust as I stalked up behind Hebert on silent feet. The idiot was hunched forward making far too much noise as she walked. The sound of her feet dragging on the sidewalk was more than loud enough to cover for my almost totally silent footsteps. It really was like she was asking for it.
I’d be happy to deliver.
I had timed my approach perfectly. With a lunge, I buried my left hand in her hair right up by the scalp to make sure I had a good hold, and then slammed my right fist into her back over the right kidney. Instead of a scream, all that emerged from the stupid bitch’s throat was a soft, pained gasp.
Her back arched reflexively to try and move her away from the pain, and with my left hand, I was able to steer her into the mouth of the alleyway. Much as I would have enjoyed ripping a fistful of her hair out, that was the sort of thing that would draw too much notice. As she started lo lose her footing I gave her a helpful shove that sent her tumbling to the ground.
Yeah, this was what I needed after the disappointment earlier. “Really should watch your footing, Hebert. It’d be a shame if you ruined those clothes.” I gave just enough of a pause for who I was to sink in and for her eyes to slide up to meet mine. The ugly bitch looked like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. If she was that useless, maybe I should break her glasses while I was at it, since even with them she couldn’t see what was right in front of her face. Then, before she could manage to string together something to say, I continued, “Oh, wait, you’re wearing them. They’d be worthless even without the stains.”
It might have been petty, but Herbert deserved it. At least with me administering the lesson she might toughen up a little bit and she wouldn’t get raped. Hard to imagine someone desperate enough to touch her, though. Plus, I’d get to enjoy working her over where there wasn’t a teacher nearby to intervene if she screamed.
Hebert tried to scramble to her feet, but the trash along the alley wall where she’d fallen slid out from under her feet, and she went back down again. “S-Sophia?!”
She sounded as stupid as she looked. Or almost, at least. That tone of voice? It had ‘victim’ written all over it. If she whimpered at some gangbanger like that? He’d skip right past suspecting she’d be easy prey right into knowing it. “God, four-eyes, I know you can’t see straight, but don’t you use your brain for anything but filling the empty space in your skull? I’d think you’d be used to laying on the ground looking up at your betters by now.” I waited for a moment, to let her start to scramble to her feet before I kicked her legs out from under her. “Or are you just strung out?” I asked, remembering the rise we’d gotten out of her last year with a similar line of insinuations, “What, spend all evening on your back so you could get high?” The result this time was disappointing. Hebert used the few seconds I gave her while I waited for a reaction to scramble away from where she’d fallen into a cleaner section of alleyway and clamber to her feet without the garbage fouling her footing.Seems I needed to turn it up a notch.
Hebert was looking past me, already trying to figure out how to escape. Run away. Just like the worthless sheep she was. Couldn’t have that. Time to pull out the big guns. Emma knew her best, time to take a page from her book. “I wonder what your mother would think if she could see you now. Nothing but a whore for th-”
Hebert’s eyes moved from the road behind her to making contact with her own, and suddenly they looked like anything but prey.
This. This was just the last straw. How dare she?
I’d call the sound that came out of my mouth a yell, but it was nothing so formal as that. It was a year’s worth of rage and hate distilled until there was no impurity left to remove, focused and thrown at one of my oppressors. I stepped forward behind it, and threw the most forceful punch I could manage. It had to have been sloppy as hell; the sum total of what I knew about how to throw a punch was that you didn’t put your thumb inside the fist unless you wanted a broken thumb. I still made the lightest contact with Sofia’s chin as she stepped back, eyes wide. How dare she?
I stumbled over something on the asphalt and nearly fell, only barely registering that Sophia’s right fist had just passed through the space that my head had just occupied a second ago. I was too off balance to even try to hit her again, so I just lowered my head and let myself fall forward. There were advantages to being tall, and the crown of my head hammered into Sofia. We both went down in a tumble of limbs, and a small part of me took satisfaction in knowing that at least I wasn’t the only one who would be replacing a set of clothes this time. How da-
Sophia’s right elbow slammed into the top of my left shoulder, and my whole arm went numb from the contact. Before I’d recovered, her left fist hammered into my lower right side once and then again. I could feel my ribs creak and tried to move away from the source of the pain. All it did was let Sophia grab me by the shoulders and throw me over on my side. I tried to fight the motion, but my left arm was still uncoordinated and my fingers skidded uselessly across the pavement. All I got for my effort was a spike of pain as a nail tore, then Sophia slammed her clenched right fist into my face.
I felt something pop and the burst of pain had me seeing stars. I tried to swing at her with my right arm, since my left wasn’t cooperating, but she fended the blow off easily with her left arm and slammed her right down onto my left breast. For the first time, pain overcame shock, and I let out a feeble yelp. That one had hurt more than the one to the face which had probably broken my nose. I tried to curl up around the blow.
Sophia didn’t let me. She adjusted her position so that she was sitting across my stomach despite my attempts to buck her off, then she threw another right-handed fist at my face. I flinched at remembered pain and twisted. Instead of another blow across my probably-broken nose, her knuckles skidded off my cheek. I abruptly realized that Sophia was screaming at me, and had been almost since the start of the beating. “-thless little bitch! How fucking dare you lay a fucking hand on me!” she yelled and drove another punch, left-handed this time down at my face. I twisted to take it on my right jaw and tasted blood, then her right hand flashed in faster than I could follow and contacted the bridge of my nose.
If I hadn’t had a broken one before, I certainly did now. For several moments, I was simply stunned by the pain, my vision whited out and my glasses either dislodged or broken, Sophia was just a blur over top of me.
A blur that reached down and wrapped her hands around my throat. As she began to squeeze, I panicked and reached for her with my right hand. Sophia let go of my throat for a moment, and I tried to snatch a gasp of air. Instead I started coughing helplessly as she pinned my right hand with her left and went back to strangling me with her right. “-amn, bitch! Whore! I’ll fucking kill you, yo-” Sophia had leaned down so far, she was practically spitting in my face as she yelled.
Finally, my left hand more-or-less listened to me when I tried to get it to do something. I’d mostly meant to aim for her jaw to try to push her away. I was a little taller than her, right? That meant I had longer arms. I could push her away, and-
Leaning forward to get down in my face like she was, Sophia couldn’t have had a good angle to see what I was doing, so when my nails moved right in front of her eyes, she flinched backwards and, for just a moment, she dissolved into shadows, and my nails passed through them before my tormentor’s face reformed.
For a moment, we locked eyes and it was as if the world was frozen. Mine were wide and incredulous. Sophia had powers. She was a cape. I was dumbfounded. Sophia was a cape, and she didn’t have anything better to do with her time than ruin my life? She-! I-! For a second I could almost read Sophia’s mind. For just a second, she thought about running. Then she changed her mind.
. . . I’d seen her use her powers. I knew her secret identity. And I had no reason not to yell it from the rooftops. Sophia was no longer screaming. I tried to get my hands in the way, but I was too slow, and another thunderbolt of pain rocked my world as her fist hit my broken nose again, then her fingers latched onto my throat and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make her loosen her grip again. I battered at her with both hands, but my arms were only a little longer than hers. Not enough to make a difference. I was weak. So weak, and even aiming for her eyes didn’t work. She just shifted her head to the side, and I . . .
. . . There was something in front of me. I had nothing to compare it against, no sense of scale, but I knew bone-deep that it was massive beyond any other living thing I’d ever seen. Ever imagined. Parts of it, pieces I knew were the size of continents were coming off, and each of them was tiny in comparison. A worm next to a whale, swimming away as if each was directed by an invisible hand, but I had no more time to look, because one of them was coming straight for me, growing larger, and larger, and-
I tried to force my eyelids open, but they each felt like someone had tied a barbell to them. What just happened? Had I really seen . . . something. Something big, and . . . maybe little pieces? Babies? Something.
Tha-thump
My eyes were closed again, and I couldn’t . . .
Thump
There was something important. Something I needed to do, but . . .
thump
I couldn’t remember.
thump
Why was it so . . .?
1.1
It was easy to lose track of time in a library and let the stress of a bad day just drift off into the ether. The bullies didn’t matter; most of them probably wouldn’t be caught dead around a concentration of books; they might be at risk of learning something. Teachers too blind to notice or too apathetic to care that Madison’s handwriting didn’t match what I’d written on the paper she turned in didn’t matter. The stacks served as visual obstacles for the few windows, the noise from outside was muffled, and the mind could latch onto an interesting story for hours under the soft light of the old-fashioned chandeliers unless otherwise interrupted. Like the interruption provided by the librarian that had just tapped me on the shoulder.
“I’m almost sorry to interrupt you, dear,” the elderly woman smiled as she spoke, but even I could see she was tired, “You looked so intent on what you were reading, but I’m afraid we’re about to close for the night.”
I could feel my eyes opening wide as I uncrossed my legs and moved to stand up. Judging by the pins-and-needles sensation from my legs, I really had been sitting longer than I thought. I took two steps to the left and was able to get a line of sight to the nearest clock. The hands confirmed the librarian’s statement. “Oh, God, my dad is going to kill me!” I lamented. Even if this was one of the nights he worked late, he ought to have been home almost an hour ago. Worse than that, the last bus was scheduled to leave from the bus stop down the road in about thirty seconds, so I’d have to walk home. None of the library’s pay phones worked, and I knew from past experience that the librarians wouldn’t let me use their phones.
“Well, if you want to check that book out, I can help you up at the counter. Surely he won’t be too hard on you if you explain what happened.” The platitude was mouthed with apparent sincerity. I gave her a nine and a half out of ten. She’d have had full marks except that her eyes indicated that she wanted me out of the building so that she could lock up and go home for the night.
Instead of delaying either of us with the paperwork, I slipped the book back on the shelves and departed. I wasn’t looking forward to the walk home in the dark, but it wasn’t going to get shorter or less unpleasant if I tried to delay it.
A quick glance confirmed that the bus stop was empty, the bus long gone, as expected. I slid my hands into the pockets of my jacket. It might only be the middle of September, and Brockton Bay might tend toward unseasonably warm weather through the fall and winter, but the sun had gone down hours ago and there was a stiff breeze. I might look a bit like an upright frog, but I didn’t actually have much extra weight on my tall frame, and I was feeling chilly.
I shot another regretful glance at the bus stop, but if it had been running late there would have been at least one person there waiting for it. I grimaced, kicked at the asphalt, and started walking home. At least it was a Friday, that meant two glorious days free from Winslow and my three tormentors. It also meant that if dad decided to ground me for being out after curfew, not calling him, walking home alone, or keeping him up all night worried about me . . . Where was I going with that thought?
Of course it was only now, after reading happily for hours that my brain decided to remind me that I started my day well before sunrise. I muttered imprecations at myself and trudged towards home. Then my stomach chimed in to remind me that I hadn’t eaten anything since a hurried lunch at school more than ten hours ago now. It was really not my day.
XXXXX Shadow Stalker XXXXX
It was really not my day. I clenched my fists and fought back the urge to punch the wall. I’d done that once and ended up with a boxer’s fracture. Breaking another knuckle punching bricks would be stupid, and successful predators couldn’t afford to be stupid. Besides, it would be hard to use my crossbow with broken bones in my hand, and I wanted to be out hunting Nazis and weakling Merchants, not sitting around getting soft waiting for a break to heal.
Instead of punching the wall, I gave it a half-hearted kick and headed for home. I don’t know how they knew, but the fucking Empire stash house I’d intended to hit had been empty. Not so much as a single skinhead had been left there to knock around for more information. It was like being spit on. A trap would have been acknowledgement that they couldn’t take me in a fair fight, but to just be ignored . . . that felt entirely too much like they were saying I wasn’t even worth the effort. I realized my fists were clenched again and forced them to relax. No point in letting the bastards get to me. I’d just make sure to take it out of the hide of the next E88 thug I ran into.
Plus, I could have used the money. Basic broadheads were alright, but some of the fancy heads they made for hunting big animals, like bears, were wicked. I’d been eying some of those for weeks now, but they were under too much security to risk snatching and they were expensive. A pack of three-just the heads-was fifty bucks. Still, with chisel points for breaking bones and the rear-deploying blades . . . the thought of what one of those would do to even a mid-ranked Brute was enough to bring a smile to my face for a moment. Then I remembered that thanks to some too-clever Empire jackass, I couldn’t afford them and my mood soured again.
I made sure to change my route up tonight. The last thing I needed was to let the Empire track me back home. Besides, it was good practice to pick out a new path along the rooftops on the fly. I made another long jump in my shadow form and landed back on the roof of the abandoned building I’d set out from earlier that night. A quick slip into my Breaker form dropped me through the roof and into the single room in the top floor without leaks. I swapped out my costume for the clothes I’d worn when I left home earlier, then moved to the boarded-up window in the room next door to make sure there was no one who could see me drop down into the alley.
There was a girl walking home that’d be out of sight soon, bu-
I did a double-take, and couldn’t believe my luck. Hebert, out alone this late at night? What, was the useless bitch trying to get abducted by the Merchants or something? A wicked grin stole over my lips. It could be awful dangerous on Brockton Bay’s streets at night. Maybe I should put Hebert in her place and do my good deed for the day by demonstrating what can happen to a stupid sheep that wanders away from the safety of the herd.
Yeah, I decided, that sounds like fun. With the damn Nazis standing me up, I had some aggression to work off. Checking again to make sure the coast was clear, I phased through the wall and dropped lightly to the alley floor. I had to walk a bit quickly to catch up to Hebert. I was familiar with this stretch of road and had just the location for her education in mind. There was a dead end alley up ahead that I’d run a Merchant dealer out of as Shadow Stalker a week or so ago. Given the beating I’d laid on the assholes, they wouldn’t dare to show back up there for another couple weeks yet.
I shook my head in disgust as I stalked up behind Hebert on silent feet. The idiot was hunched forward making far too much noise as she walked. The sound of her feet dragging on the sidewalk was more than loud enough to cover for my almost totally silent footsteps. It really was like she was asking for it.
I’d be happy to deliver.
I had timed my approach perfectly. With a lunge, I buried my left hand in her hair right up by the scalp to make sure I had a good hold, and then slammed my right fist into her back over the right kidney. Instead of a scream, all that emerged from the stupid bitch’s throat was a soft, pained gasp.
Her back arched reflexively to try and move her away from the pain, and with my left hand, I was able to steer her into the mouth of the alleyway. Much as I would have enjoyed ripping a fistful of her hair out, that was the sort of thing that would draw too much notice. As she started lo lose her footing I gave her a helpful shove that sent her tumbling to the ground.
Yeah, this was what I needed after the disappointment earlier. “Really should watch your footing, Hebert. It’d be a shame if you ruined those clothes.” I gave just enough of a pause for who I was to sink in and for her eyes to slide up to meet mine. The ugly bitch looked like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. If she was that useless, maybe I should break her glasses while I was at it, since even with them she couldn’t see what was right in front of her face. Then, before she could manage to string together something to say, I continued, “Oh, wait, you’re wearing them. They’d be worthless even without the stains.”
It might have been petty, but Herbert deserved it. At least with me administering the lesson she might toughen up a little bit and she wouldn’t get raped. Hard to imagine someone desperate enough to touch her, though. Plus, I’d get to enjoy working her over where there wasn’t a teacher nearby to intervene if she screamed.
Hebert tried to scramble to her feet, but the trash along the alley wall where she’d fallen slid out from under her feet, and she went back down again. “S-Sophia?!”
She sounded as stupid as she looked. Or almost, at least. That tone of voice? It had ‘victim’ written all over it. If she whimpered at some gangbanger like that? He’d skip right past suspecting she’d be easy prey right into knowing it. “God, four-eyes, I know you can’t see straight, but don’t you use your brain for anything but filling the empty space in your skull? I’d think you’d be used to laying on the ground looking up at your betters by now.” I waited for a moment, to let her start to scramble to her feet before I kicked her legs out from under her. “Or are you just strung out?” I asked, remembering the rise we’d gotten out of her last year with a similar line of insinuations, “What, spend all evening on your back so you could get high?” The result this time was disappointing. Hebert used the few seconds I gave her while I waited for a reaction to scramble away from where she’d fallen into a cleaner section of alleyway and clamber to her feet without the garbage fouling her footing.Seems I needed to turn it up a notch.
Hebert was looking past me, already trying to figure out how to escape. Run away. Just like the worthless sheep she was. Couldn’t have that. Time to pull out the big guns. Emma knew her best, time to take a page from her book. “I wonder what your mother would think if she could see you now. Nothing but a whore for th-”
Hebert’s eyes moved from the road behind her to making contact with her own, and suddenly they looked like anything but prey.
XXXXX Taylor XXXXX
This. This was just the last straw. How dare she?
I’d call the sound that came out of my mouth a yell, but it was nothing so formal as that. It was a year’s worth of rage and hate distilled until there was no impurity left to remove, focused and thrown at one of my oppressors. I stepped forward behind it, and threw the most forceful punch I could manage. It had to have been sloppy as hell; the sum total of what I knew about how to throw a punch was that you didn’t put your thumb inside the fist unless you wanted a broken thumb. I still made the lightest contact with Sofia’s chin as she stepped back, eyes wide. How dare she?
I stumbled over something on the asphalt and nearly fell, only barely registering that Sophia’s right fist had just passed through the space that my head had just occupied a second ago. I was too off balance to even try to hit her again, so I just lowered my head and let myself fall forward. There were advantages to being tall, and the crown of my head hammered into Sofia. We both went down in a tumble of limbs, and a small part of me took satisfaction in knowing that at least I wasn’t the only one who would be replacing a set of clothes this time. How da-
Sophia’s right elbow slammed into the top of my left shoulder, and my whole arm went numb from the contact. Before I’d recovered, her left fist hammered into my lower right side once and then again. I could feel my ribs creak and tried to move away from the source of the pain. All it did was let Sophia grab me by the shoulders and throw me over on my side. I tried to fight the motion, but my left arm was still uncoordinated and my fingers skidded uselessly across the pavement. All I got for my effort was a spike of pain as a nail tore, then Sophia slammed her clenched right fist into my face.
I felt something pop and the burst of pain had me seeing stars. I tried to swing at her with my right arm, since my left wasn’t cooperating, but she fended the blow off easily with her left arm and slammed her right down onto my left breast. For the first time, pain overcame shock, and I let out a feeble yelp. That one had hurt more than the one to the face which had probably broken my nose. I tried to curl up around the blow.
Sophia didn’t let me. She adjusted her position so that she was sitting across my stomach despite my attempts to buck her off, then she threw another right-handed fist at my face. I flinched at remembered pain and twisted. Instead of another blow across my probably-broken nose, her knuckles skidded off my cheek. I abruptly realized that Sophia was screaming at me, and had been almost since the start of the beating. “-thless little bitch! How fucking dare you lay a fucking hand on me!” she yelled and drove another punch, left-handed this time down at my face. I twisted to take it on my right jaw and tasted blood, then her right hand flashed in faster than I could follow and contacted the bridge of my nose.
If I hadn’t had a broken one before, I certainly did now. For several moments, I was simply stunned by the pain, my vision whited out and my glasses either dislodged or broken, Sophia was just a blur over top of me.
A blur that reached down and wrapped her hands around my throat. As she began to squeeze, I panicked and reached for her with my right hand. Sophia let go of my throat for a moment, and I tried to snatch a gasp of air. Instead I started coughing helplessly as she pinned my right hand with her left and went back to strangling me with her right. “-amn, bitch! Whore! I’ll fucking kill you, yo-” Sophia had leaned down so far, she was practically spitting in my face as she yelled.
Finally, my left hand more-or-less listened to me when I tried to get it to do something. I’d mostly meant to aim for her jaw to try to push her away. I was a little taller than her, right? That meant I had longer arms. I could push her away, and-
Leaning forward to get down in my face like she was, Sophia couldn’t have had a good angle to see what I was doing, so when my nails moved right in front of her eyes, she flinched backwards and, for just a moment, she dissolved into shadows, and my nails passed through them before my tormentor’s face reformed.
For a moment, we locked eyes and it was as if the world was frozen. Mine were wide and incredulous. Sophia had powers. She was a cape. I was dumbfounded. Sophia was a cape, and she didn’t have anything better to do with her time than ruin my life? She-! I-! For a second I could almost read Sophia’s mind. For just a second, she thought about running. Then she changed her mind.
. . . I’d seen her use her powers. I knew her secret identity. And I had no reason not to yell it from the rooftops. Sophia was no longer screaming. I tried to get my hands in the way, but I was too slow, and another thunderbolt of pain rocked my world as her fist hit my broken nose again, then her fingers latched onto my throat and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make her loosen her grip again. I battered at her with both hands, but my arms were only a little longer than hers. Not enough to make a difference. I was weak. So weak, and even aiming for her eyes didn’t work. She just shifted her head to the side, and I . . .
. . . There was something in front of me. I had nothing to compare it against, no sense of scale, but I knew bone-deep that it was massive beyond any other living thing I’d ever seen. Ever imagined. Parts of it, pieces I knew were the size of continents were coming off, and each of them was tiny in comparison. A worm next to a whale, swimming away as if each was directed by an invisible hand, but I had no more time to look, because one of them was coming straight for me, growing larger, and larger, and-
XXXXX Sophia Hess XXXXX
I tried to force my eyelids open, but they each felt like someone had tied a barbell to them. What just happened? Had I really seen . . . something. Something big, and . . . maybe little pieces? Babies? Something.
Tha-thump
My eyes were closed again, and I couldn’t . . .
Thump
There was something important. Something I needed to do, but . . .
thump
I couldn’t remember.
thump
Why was it so . . .?