Volume 2: Prophase
Issue 9: Kingdom Come
Jannette Adrian Churchwell
By Nova
I found myself lying on my back, my head in a puddle, and my arms and legs pointing all the wrong ways. My vision faded in and out, my ears rang, and wave after wave of muted pain washed through me. My powers reported strange data, tracing through the puddle I was lying in to tell me that it was mostly made of blood and brain.
My blood and brain.
The memories came rushing back with this realization, reminding me of the impact I took from Sasquatch, the tumble I took through the air, and the crash into the ground. I tried to look around, to see where Sasquatch was, but—at least for the moment—I was paralyzed, my spinal column pounded into dust by the hits I took. My powers were hard at work, piecing together ruptured organs, replenishing lost blood, and knitting together my fractured skull.
My power told me that the impact had completely destroyed about twelve-percent of my brain. I saw in flashes; drinking coffee one morning, sitting in a Stanford lecture hall, barely dodging a swing from the Gentleman’s scepter… It was incongruent, disorienting… but clearing. I counted myself lucky that my power backuped my memories into my third helix, so, as it stitched me back together, the flashes became more congruent, comprehensible, and I began to return to reality… though I still had no idea what happened after the impact.
But that didn’t solve the Sasquatch problem.
The ringing ended with a sudden pop as I regained my hearing. I heard Sasquatch’s voice, his human voice, shouting “Let’s go, move it!” It sounded like they were packing up everything and getting ready to leave. It also sounded like I hadn’t done much to slow him down.
Still though, I had completely taken out his left arm. The second I could piece myself back together I’d be back in the fight at a hundred-percent and he’d be too slow to stop me. The thought invigorated me as limbs shifted back into position, bones knitted together, and feeling returned to my fingers as the paralysis began to lift.
I rolled onto my belly and raised my head to get a good look at Sasquatch, ignoring the spike of pain as the sudden movement reopened a few wounds. I didn’t see him at first—just a few First Way goons loading what looked like the vials and beakers of a chemistry set into an empty van. What happened to the first van? Did it leave already? How long was I out? Were Ripple and Ramirez close by?
Where was Sasquatch?
As if to answer my question, Sasquatch stepped out of the ice cream shop holding a metal briefcase in his hand. He was in his human form again and, to my disappointment, looking no worse for wear. I had long known that injuries on one form didn’t carry over to the other, but still, seeing him fully healed like that was disheartening.
Nonetheless, in this form he was no stronger than a particularly athletic baseliner; he’d go down fast, even with my own injuries slowing me down.
Sasquatch seemed to notice I was awake and shot me a grin. He strolled over to the van, slid the briefcase into it, shut its door, and idled into the street. “Get outta here,” he said to his men, who scrambled into the van which—tires squealing—roared off. I struggled to my feet, healing a few critical injuries as I did so. My regeneration was working slow and seemed to be mostly concerned with keeping me alive and conscious rather than battle-ready. Each shaky step forward was met with another recovered memory of the same action, in a hundred different times and places. I shook my head, trying to clear the intrusive thoughts, or at least to urge my powers to work faster, but I seemed to be running on fumes.
I briefly wondered whether I had enough energy left to affect anyone else.
But Sasquatch was still in his human form. Had I damaged his other form enough to keep him human? He looked confident; too confident. I saw him glance down at his tattoo sleeves. I followed his gaze.
His tattoos were shifting… or completing? They looked slightly less detailed than earlier. I saw ink tracing its way up his arm, slowing down… stopping?
Sasquatch gave a slight chuckle. “Time’s up,” he said.
I took an involuntary step back as Sasquatch’s tattoos began to glow again. His body flashed a bright white, twisted, warped, and swelled as he grew to that monstrous form. The light faded, replaced by brown, wooly fur. Sasquatch reared to his full height and gave a deep laugh and a realization hit me that shook me to my core.
Both of his arms were working. Injuries not carrying over was one thing… but his transformations must heal everything.
I guess we never realized that. Whenever we took him down in the past—the thought summoning a handful of images of the two of us standing over an unconscious Sasquatch—we never gave him an opportunity to transform again…
He reached out to a nearby car—a parked Beetle—and grabbed it, hoisting it effortlessly above his head.
“You know,” Sasquatch said, his voice inhumanly deep and barely comprehensible. “I’ll admit I made a mistake.” He lobbed the Beetle at me. I leapt out of the way, my belly hitting the pavement hard as the car smashed into the ground barely a foot from my legs. A wave of nausea hit me as I puked a stream of blood, my powers helpfully telling me that my stomach had ruptured again.
Sasquatch knuckle-walked over to another car, hoisting it above his head. “I let you get close, shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “But…” He trailed off and lobbed the car at me—I scrambled away, not even getting to my feet, but was a little too slow this time. The car struck the ground and tumbled over my left leg, shattering it once again.
I resisted screaming as a new wave of fatigue washed over me. Sasquatch laughed again and, through teary eyes, I saw him reach over and grab another car. “But… looks like you can’t do anything without her,” he gloated, throwing the car straight at me.
I wasn’t going to be able to dodge this one; I was struggling to stay conscious as it was. This hit would put me down, though probably not kill me. A small mercy, I supposed.
But Sasquatch would get away, and we’d probably lose our only lead on what the First Way were doing. I couldn’t allow that… but I didn’t have a choice. The car seemed to arc towards me in slow motion and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
I had lost.
And then, mid-arc, in a flash of white, the car shattered into pieces, showering me with shrapnel but otherwise leaving me unharmed. I looked into the air. My heart raced. Sasquatch growled furiously.
Suspended in the air between us, where the car had been stopped, was an angel. She had long, flowing blonde hair, clear white skin, and wore an elegant white robe. Two white wings flanked her, flapping far too slowly to keep her aloft. Yet she hung there, staring down at Sasquatch.
A bemused look on her face.
“Darling,” she said, her voice a familiar, sing-songy, southern twang, “it has been a while.”
Neither me nor Sasquatch seemed to know who she was talking to, but a sense of dread began to fill me. A part of me wished that the car had hit me…
Seraph suddenly landed, shattering the asphalt as she struck the road. “Did’ya miss me?” she asked, leaving me, again, unsure of who she was talking to.
“Just taught your old pet a lesson,” Sasquatch growled. “Clear out, bitch, or I’ll fuck you up too.”
Seraph strode towards him. “Oh, I’d like to see you try, Bigfoot,” she said.
Sasquatch roared, pushing himself towards her with frightening speed. He raised a fist—a fist half the size of Seraph’s body—and swung it towards her.
She lifted off the ground and met his fist with a spinning kick; the impact sounded like two trains slamming into each other. The windows of the nearby cars cracked as a small shockwave passed over the street. They both reeled back from each other, but Seraph recovered faster and launched herself towards Sasquatch. He raised a massive hand to defend himself, but too late—she ducked under it and delivered a rapid series of blows to his chest, each one landing with a force that rattled my teeth and pushed Sasquatch back step-by-step. To the outside observer, Seraph was winning, too strong and fast to give Sasquatch an opening.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
But I knew better.
Each of Seraph’s punches hit with a force that would have pulverized a baseliner, killing them instantly. But they didn’t draw blood here, nor could I hear the cracking of bones. Sasquatch was tough. I knew it and Seraph knew it. She was faster, and maybe even stronger, but Sasquatch could take everything Seraph could throw at him and more.
And it wasn’t like he couldn’t dish it back at her. Sasquatch suddenly broke from his guard and lashed out with his right hand towards her. She dodged back, almost too fast for my eyes to follow, but Sasquatch—seemingly expecting this—waited for her with a sudden blow from his left hand. It hit her like a train, launching her a hundred feet down the street, where she skidded to a halt, leaving a crater in her wake. She got up, dirty but not bloodied, but I could tell she was dazed nonetheless.
Sasquatch laughed; the earlier tension in his voice was gone, replaced by more familiar confidence. Before Seraph could get up he grabbed a nearby truck and lobbed it at her like a fastball. It crossed the space between them in an instant. Seraph was only able to raise her hands when it struck her, knocking her sprawling back. She landed in a pile of wreckage, unmoving.
I glanced at Sasquatch, who seemed to be taking a few steps back, his eyes locked on the wreck a few hundred feet away. A few short laughs escaped his lips, but his monstrous face did not twist into a smile. Did he think he won, or was he unsure… He’d never gotten this far, after all.
He gave me a sideways glance and turned to run, the ground shaking as he scrambled away on all fours. He barely made it fifty feet before the wreckage stirred and Seraph shot out of it at breakneck speed, a familiar sonic-boom shattering the windows on the street. She struck Sasquatch in an instant, with an impact that sounded like a bomb going off, shattering the pavement underneath them. I braced against the ground as the shockwave washed over me, knocking me on my back and sending me rolling down the street. I knew this was Seraph with no holds barred—she couldn’t hit too much harder than this.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Sasquatch was staggered by the impact, but still standing. He spun around, hands lashing out to knock Seraph off his back, before throwing a punch at her. Seraph didn’t dodge this one, instead meeting the fist—nearly the size of her entire body—with a punch of her own. The impact blasted a shockwave that nearly knocked me over again, as the two held their positions for a moment, trying to overpower the other.
Sasquatch’s arm shook under the strain as Seraph pressed in, a look of intense focus on her face. She noticed the attack from Sasquatch’s left arm too late, as it struck like a train and sent her spinning into a nearby building. She shattered through its wall, obscured by the cloud of dust and debris, but fortunately the structure—which looked like a small apartment building—didn’t collapse.
Seraph wasn’t winning this fight, but neither was Sasquatch. He looked exhausted and was covered with dirt and dust. I couldn’t see Seraph, but she was undoubtedly looking worse for wear as well. But I knew both of them could fight for longer, a lot longer. How much more damage could they do to this neighborhood? I glanced around, all the onlookers had fled as soon as Seraph arrived, but who knows how many were hiding inside the buildings on the street…
Or in the apartment Seraph had been flung into.
I gulped and struggled to my feet, wincing slightly in pain. I only had a few minor breaks left to mend, but felt exhausted. If my powers were running on fumes before, they were as close to empty now as they had ever been. Seraph could keep Sasquatch here for long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Ripple said she was coming, as did Ramirez, but where were they? I honestly didn’t know how long I’d been out, nor was I sure where Ripple was when she left, but one of them should have been here by now.
I looked around the street. It was a cracked mess of pavement and shattered glass. Broken cars littered it and every building’s facade was cracked and broken. If this fight continued any longer, someone would get hurt, if it hadn’t already happened. I looked toward Sasquatch, he had picked up two cars and was slowly backing away from the apartment, ready for Seraph’s counterattack, and not paying me any mind. The dust stirred slightly. I readied myself, thankful that Sasquatch seemed to have forgotten I was here.
There was a moment of silence. Then, Seraph shot out of the dust, striking Sasquatch in the center of mass. He reeled and flailed at Seraph, who dodged around his massive fists, barely avoiding the impacts. She passed low under his left arm and—for an instant—our eyes met.
A flash of understanding passed between us.
Instead of coming in for another blow, Seraph flew high into the sky, a sonic boom resounding as she climbed. Sasquatch craned his neck as he looked up at her, squinting slightly as she faded to a white speck suspended in the air.
I took the opportunity. As quietly as I could, I scrambled behind a nearby wrecked car. I prepared myself, I didn’t know how much time I would have, but I needed to act fast. There was another crack from a sonic boom as Seraph rapidly descended, wreathed in a vapor cone. Sasquatch roared, lashing out widely with his arms—but too slow. She struck him like a meteor, hitting his shoulder with a shockwave that shattered the asphalt and would have knocked me out had I not been taking cover. In an instant, she forced a roaring Sasquatch onto his back, who flailed wildly at her, trying to get to his feet. Seraph flapped her wings, flying forward to press him deeper into the ground, but she couldn’t keep it up forever.
I had to act fast.
I leapt out of my cover and sprinted towards Sasquatch. He didn’t seem to notice me and was still flailing at Seraph, who struggled to keep him down. Dust—kicked up by both the flailing and Seraph’s beating wings—stung my eyes as it clouded around me. Half-blinded, I charged ahead until, finally, Sasquatch was in reach. I grabbed at him with both hands, holding him by the right shoulder, and instantly set to work. My power coursed through him, once again tearing apart muscles, ligaments, and dissolving bones. I was working more slowly than last time and my whole body shook, protesting this expense of energy, but I poured all I had into this effort. This had to end here and now.
“No!” Sasquatch roared. I caught movement from the corner of my eye, a massive fist hurtling towards me. There was no time to react, and my power hadn’t even made it to his neck, let alone the left side of his body, there was nothing I could do as—as if in slow motion—the impact neared.
Suddenly, the fist stopped and a shockwave passed over me, nearly knocking me away from Sasquatch. I barely managed to hold on, grabbing at Sasquatch’s wooly fur, and, as the dust cleared, saw Seraph groaning in effort. With one hand pressed against Sasquatch’s left fist and the other his torso, she kept Sasquatch at bay, who roared furiously at her. She cast a strained look at me and, between gasps for breath, muttered “Faster.”
I was happy to oblige. Cell-by-cell I tore into Sasquatch, weakening him more and more with every passing nanosecond as my power coursed deeper into his body. “No!” he roared again. “No!” But, between Seraph and I, there was nothing he could do. I forced his massive heart into cardiac arrest, filled his lungs with the fluid of his own dissolved alveoli, and ordered his monstrous immune system to turn on itself. Bit by bit I tore him apart, his roars echoing around me.
As my powers reached the left side of Sasquatch’s body, his arm felt limp at his side. Seraph let go and started pounding on Sasquatch’s face with her fists. “Give… up!” Seraph grunted as each impact sent off a small shockwave that put me in a loop of ruptured and regenerating eardrums. “Yield!” she shouted.
Between moments of deafness, I heard Sasquatch’s roaring grow weaker until he gave a monstrous groan that shook me to my core. Suddenly, the wooly body under my hands glowed a brilliant white and shrunk away, leaving a dusty—but otherwise uninjured—human in place of the beast. Glaring at Seraph, he held up two arms, bare of any tattoos. “I sur-” he started, but Seraph didn’t let him finish. She struck his face with a brutal punch that splattered an arc of bloody teeth through the air.
“No darlin’…” she said as Sasquatch clutched a clearly shattered jaw and incoherently screamed. “I’m gonna show you your mistakes,” she said as she reached down towards his right arm and, as casually as one might crush a plastic water bottle, shattered the humerus with one quick squeeze. Sasquatch howled in pain, kicking futilely against her, but she didn’t even flinch.
I pushed myself back from this display, silently trembling. I had seen this one too many times before… and I knew what came next. Seraph systematically broke his toes, fingers, bones, and, seemingly satisfied, struck Sasquatch’s skull with a swift kick, knocking him out. She stepped away from her handiwork, a self-satisfied grin on her face. Slowly, she turned to me.
“Stitch, darling,” she said, her grin widening, “it’s so good to see you.” Her white robe and wings were besmirched by dust and Sasquatch’s blood, but still seemed to shine in the dim light of the twilight. “How’ve you been?”
I took a few steps back. “I’m not doing it, Seraph. I’m not…” I took a deep breath. “This is your mess.”
She swaggered over to me, wings spread wide. Behind her, I could see Sasquatch, his body shifting slightly as a puddle of blood pooled beneath him. His tattoos were slowly reappearing, dancing their way across his arms, though slower than before. I turned to look at Seraph again, who stood barely a foot away, towering above me. “My mess?” she asked, smiling.
I gave a curt nod, but said nothing, not meeting her eyes. “Oh?” she gave a slight chuckle. “Well, consider it a favor then… After all, I did s-”
“Stop,” I whispered, looking down at my feet. I clenched my fists, my whole body shaking.
I saw her take a step back in my peripheral, disappearing from my view. I didn’t turn to look at her as I tried to stop my body from shaking, but, if anything, it got worse. I felt some kind of noise welling up in my throat. I stood there, in silence, for what felt like hours, shaking and unable to control the small, pathetic noises that escaped my throat.
I heard a sound, as if Seraph was about to say something, when a sudden crash sounded down the street. “Stitch!” Ripple shouted. I opened my eyes, turning to see Ripple running towards me, spear in hand.
She wasn’t looking at me though. She was staring at Seraph, who stood a few yards away from me, her expression unreadable. In an instant, Ripple stepped between us and grabbed my shoulder. “Are you okay?” she asked, a note of panic in her voice.
I nearly said yes, but my voice caught in my throat. I nodded instead.
Ripple looked at Sasquatch, whose breaths looked shallower than before. “Is that…” There was no answer, from either me or Seraph, but Ripple cast her gaze around the street. “I see…” she simply said.
Ripple turned her gaze on Seraph. “Leave,” was all she said.
“I thin-” Seraph began, but Ripple lowered her spear and pointed it towards her. Seraph, her expression still unreadable, spread her wings. She shifted her gaze from Ripple to me and, for a moment, our eyes met.
Then, with a familiar suddenness, she launched into the sky, disappearing with a sonic boom.