Aftermath

The behemoth’s form lay motionless beneath the humming black cylinders. All three had separated and started scanning the creature, collecting data to send back to home base. Darrius’ mind was split between analyzing the leviathan, commanding the support drones, and checking on Felipe in person. The support drones had all but cleared out the supermarket’s parking lot and had most customers on their way away from ground zero.

“I’m sorry,” Felipe apologized, still afflicted with labored breathing. “I thought if I gave it everything I had it wouldn’t have stood a chance. But it took it all… I burnt myself out…” Felipe was confused and ashamed. This had never happened to him before.

“It was stronger than before. My blasts should have flattened him from the start. It even shot one back at me,” Carol knelt beside her husband staring at him, worried.

This leviathan was different. Stronger than the last batch they fought all those years ago. It seemed like it wouldn’t go down no matter the force they hit it with. Whether it had an innate ability to fire sonic blasts, or it had somehow copied Carol’s power was unknown. If it wasn’t for Darrius’ ability to analyze the physical makeup of the beast and locate a weak spot for his final attack, they might not be alive. Even more alarming was the fact that it was alone, and it gave them this much trouble. If there was more than one, they wouldn’t have had the resources or power to stop two separate threats. Sandusky would have become a wasteland.

“Move into the transport,” Darrius commanded the couple. “Recover while we wrap up assisting civilians. It shouldn’t be long.”

As soon as Darrius turned to leave the roof via his liquid silver disk at his feet, the twins materialized through a black and purple portal with Art and Mark in tow.

“No civilian casualties in our area,” Art nodded in approval. “Local authorities have set up checkpoints down the highway to keep traffic moving and everyone heading away from this area.”

“I can’t believe no one got hurt,” Mark said in shock at how everything went. His face was full of surprise and naivety, “I knew that wouldn't be so tough.”

“People did get hurt,” Darrius corrected. He pointed out past the leviathan to the area that was in the path of a sonic blast. “The people that live on the other side of those trees got hit with Carol's power. The glass has been blown out of multiple buildings and emergency services are en route to treat the injured.”

“There’s always damage, Mark.” Art tried to teach the younger superhumans whenever he could. He wanted to try and mold the younger minds to think beyond the orders of DOSA. “Especially when fighting a threat as great as a leviathan. The thing you must remember is to fight the threats in a manner that causes the least amount of damage. Direct your strength in the path of least destruction. Reposition yourself, restrain your power, and redirect momentum, this is how you can save civilians while battling amongst them. If Carol wanted to, she could have hit that thing harder by not restricting her power as much as she did. But she fought with her mind, not with all her force.”

Mark shook his head, “Yeah well I wish I could have had a crack at that thing! I could have shown you how I do it, and still not have a casualty!” Cocksure to the end, even though he hadn’t been tested through the fire of an insurmountable enemy like a leviathan. He knew in his mind that he was the strongest. He had always believed that he was smarter, faster, stronger, and just plain better than those around him. Even when he was a coward.

Darrius turned away, annoyed. Just then he saw a feed of information across his eyes. It was a police transmission. A report came through from a bystander that reported seeing something unusual on the road of fleeing vehicles. The message claimed there were unregistered superhumans on foot trying to help fleeing civilians that were involved in a motor vehicle collision. They were wearing ski masks to hide their faces just like the old hero ‘Man.’ This made Darrius grit his teeth. Within ten seconds Darrius received an incoming transmission from DOSA Lebanon.

“Darrius, it’s James,” the familiar dispatching agent greeted his friend.

“James… let me guess. This is about the unregistered helping with that wreck isn’t it.”

“Ten bones man,” James shouted off in the distance to someone who just lost a bet. “Craig never learns. Home base wants you there as soon as possible to collect them. You’re probably already heading there,” James guessed.

Darrius smiled to himself, “I’m not moving yet, but we’ll start heading there now. You got a location?”

“Three point five miles northwest of your current location. There are three of them. I’m not sure what type of abilities they have, but they have been verified as superhuman. We’ll keep a lock on them in case they move before you get there.”

“Roger,” Darrius accepted the new task. “Where do they want me to drop them?”

“Lebanon,” James said.

“Home base?” Darrius was shocked. Unregistered could be taken to any DOSA office to be dealt with.

“Brass wants them here. No one has said why but I get the feeling this leviathan has them looking under every stone.”

“Home base it is.” Darrius cut the transmission.

Surveying the area with great criticism, he said, “We got new tasking.” He didn’t explain right away. Darrius was caught up in thought.

Something about the leviathan’s corpse caught Darrius’ eye. He couldn’t quite place what it was, but something was off. The way its front leg was shattered. Massive bones stabbed out and into the ground where it landed. In the heat of battle, he was thankful for Carol’s attack that dropped the beast back down long enough for the cylinders to charge. However, once his mind was cleared, he started to realize things.

After a quick portal jump, Kody and Kyle appeared with three shackled superhumans. The vigilantes agreed to willingly board the transit jet back to DOSA Lebanon with the heroes that took down the leviathan. Once in the presence of the greats, these young superhumans were more in awe than worried about the many laws they had broken by coming out into the open and using their abilities in a public situation. However, this wasn’t anything new. This was common in the world and if any more leviathans showed up Darrius could imagine a whole heap of new people with strange abilities would step out into the light. These three, two young men and a girl had all removed their masks and settled in the transport jet. They were probably early twenties, college-aged with great ambitions that finally broke through in a crisis. DOSA would identify every aspect of their powers, register, and put them into a probationary status as long as this was their first infraction.

“Carol,” Darrius started in the silence of the cockpit. The only other noise was the high-pitched ringing of the jet engines propelling them forward.

“Yeah,” she looked up from Felipe to a thoughtful Darrius.

“When I was charging up for the final attack on that thing, how did you get down to its leg fast enough to take it back down? I didn’t command your platform to move there…”

Carol didn’t know what to say. She was confused by Darrius’ question. “I didn’t…” she trailed off, realizing what Darrius was getting at.

Art was listening in and realized what was happening once Carol admitted she didn’t attack the leviathan's leg. “Mark was with me the whole time. He didn’t attack!”

“Yeah, and he’s not strong enough for that!” Kody laughed.

“Hey, fuck you, Kody. Strong enough for what, anyway?” Mark snarled as he sat next to the starstruck unregistered.

“I was just thankful at that moment that I had a few more precious seconds. I never assumed anyone other than you, Carol. I didn’t doubt it until we were about to leave. The way the bone was broken is more consistent with a blunt impact. If you would have done that, the bone would have been in smaller fragments than what was left.”

“Carol didn’t take it back down?” Mark finally caught on.

“No,” Art said thoughtfully as he stood tall from where he leaned against the hull of the aircraft. He turned inward, thinking very hard about what was just discovered. “That blow was powerful… very powerful.”

“If she didn’t do it, then who did?” Kyle asked.

“Whoever was right under our noses out there and we never saw them,” Darrius spoke, looking over to the three unregistered they just picked up. He doubted it could be them, but maybe.

Once back in Lebanon, Darrius personally walked the three young superhumans to the detention center. After dropping them off, carefully watching them go into a holding cell that should nullify most abilities, he tracked down Director Peterson’s location within the obelisk immediately.

“Director,” Darrius greeted urgently as soon as he barged into Peterson’s office.

The tone in Darrius’ voice, and the fact that he called him ‘Director’ sent chills down Peterson’s spine.

“Darrius… what is it? Is something wrong with the recovery team?” Peterson feared that the leviathan had stood back up now that the second team was at the site with a recovery team to begin dissecting and removing the monstrosity from the area. If it wasn’t dead, they would all be killed.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Nothing like that. I think we had help. Someone else was there with us, but…” Darrius was almost ashamed to admit this, “I never sensed another superhuman in the area. I should have, but I didn’t.” This hadn’t happened to him in a very long time.

“You collected all three that were reported nearby?”

“Yes, but I don’t think one of those three has that much power. My scanners identified them once we got in range of them. I would have sensed them around the leviathan. I don’t think it was any of them.”

Peterson thought carefully. “We’ll send detail scanners out from the local office. See if they can pick up on anything.” Peterson picked up a phone on his desk and made a call. As the phone rang, Peterson told Darrius, “Explain to me what happened. In detail.”

Darrius had only ever known of one person that could do what had been done to the leg of the elephant-like titan. But he knew that wasn’t possible because he was dead. It had to be someone else… but who? Darrius had never again seen that level of strength since that fateful night when everything changed, and DOSA had no one left to oppose them. That was the night that Darrius had killed him. His best friend.

Kate pulled to a stop in front of their house. The car was dead silent. None spoke another word since the moment Kate slapped Sarah across the face after she spoke ill about her father.

“Everyone out. Go to your rooms and stay in there until I come to get you!” Kate ordered her children. It wasn’t because she was angry. She had calls to make.

The children didn’t understand, of course, Sarah especially. Yet, they all complied. Except for Phoebe, who went into Jack's room and curled up in his spare bunk bed. She and Jack were both too scared for their daddy and they didn’t want to be alone. They didn’t know why Sarah was so mad. Sarah was still angry. She was fuming on the inside. She went to her room alone, slamming the door behind her. She wanted to be alone, and she wanted to hit something.

After about half an hour of lying on her bed in anger towards her mom and her dad, she started thinking about her father differently. He stayed there in the parking lot with that thing approaching. He didn’t look afraid, but he had no way to fight that thing. Unless the agents that DOSA had dispatched were able to stop it, her dad surely would have been killed. For the first time since it all happened, Sarah began to cry. She hoped her dad was okay.

Kate was calling repeatedly. She was dialing and redialing Jake's number. She had to get ahold of him. He had to come home just like he always did. She didn’t want to admit it, but she started to let the fear creep in and infect her mind. She started to think the worst.

There was no answer. Kate couldn’t get through, and she gave up. If Jake was okay, or if he wasn’t, there was nothing she could do. She knew the rules, though. She and Jake had run through these possibilities countless times. She knew she was supposed to keep the kids safe at the house and Jake would do what he had to do and make it home. This scenario specifically was not ever imagined, but it didn’t matter. The threat wasn’t planned to be a leviathan, the threat could be anything that made Jake act. He would do whatever he had to do, and then he would come home. That’s what they had planned for, and that is what Kate placed her faith in. Jake would come home. She just had to wait and be strong for the kids.

Sarah woke up in her bed. She had fallen asleep after crying silently in her room for her dad. She played through thoughts of her dad from her childhood. She remembered how close they used to be. She remembered him sitting with her on the couch as she watched cartoons. She remembered running with her dad out in the yard and spending so much time with just her when she was younger. Her father was always taking care of the family, silently and consistently always present in their lives. He never failed to hug them and tell them that he loved them. He tucked her in so many nights and told her before she fell asleep how much she could do if she just believed in herself. Jake would say prayers with all of his kids, telling them how much they meant to him, and that they could do anything as long as they kept trying, kept getting up, and kept praying to God. All of the old memories of the time she felt inseparable from her father flooded her memory. She missed him, and she was terrified she would never get the chance to see him and say the words she used to say when she was just a little girl. “I love you, Dad!” She spoke into her pillow as the tears flowed from her face.

Once she woke, however, the angry emotions and memories returned. Once she got to middle school, and her friends became a bigger part of her life, she started to not see her father in the same light. The critical thoughts about her father put a wall between them, even when he’d try and crack through her shell and stay close to her. She kept pushing him away, embarrassed of him and his lifestyle. Jake never pushed too hard, just waiting on Sarah to let him back into her life as she used to when she was a little kid. Sarah knew it, and it made her even more angry that she felt that way about him, and in turn made everything worse. It made things worse because she felt like the bad guy, even though she thought the things about her father and it felt real to her, deep down she knew the truth. She let the thoughts of others change her into something other than she used to be.

Sarah crept outside and began walking to the back of the property towards the woods. She paced, growing angrier with every step as she passed into the shadows of the overgrown forest. She remembered every time her father had found her bordering the edge of the trees and having to turn her back to the house. She had only ever wanted to go out and see what her father did when he went out there. He never let her close to his secrets out there in those trees. He always made her go home. Her rage grew more at the thought.

Something began to build in her. The rage in her mind filled her entire body. She just wanted to let it out. It was like a fire raging inside of her and it felt like it would grow and consume anything she focused on. Anything that she would let her rage fall on would falter and crumble beneath her intent to harm. Sarah had never been a physically expressive person with her anger and frustration, but it was exploding out of her. She saw a rotten tree barely standing in the middle of a group of trees. She felt like she had just discovered her archnemesis and let it all out.

Sarah moved with murderous intent, streaking into the rotted wood faster than she realized. She slammed into the tree, toppling it to the ground. A thud stuck the thick jagged wood into the mud beneath where the decrepit old tree used to stand. Sarah heaved and gasped for oxygen after the intense exertion. But no, she wasn’t done. She leaped forward and centered herself on the trunk, grabbing it around the center in a bear hug. She stained and muddied her clothes as she scrapped with the inanimate object in the silence of the forest. Lifting the trunk with ease, she hurled it at a more solid-looking tree, grunting in exertion. The flying wood splintered and dispersed around the solid, healthy base she aimed for. That didn’t suit her. She jumped from where she stood, flinging up muck and leaves from her standing place as she rocketed towards her new enemy. Purple fire blazed within her eyes, but she couldn’t tell. No one could see what was happening inside of her. The enraged teenager came to blows against the healthy tree and carved her fists through the solid wood like a hot knife through butter. The thick trunk only took five enraged haymakers from Sarah before the canopy started to sway to her left. The towering tree slowly fell to the side and plummeted to the ground, landing with a deep thud into the earth.

As soon as the motion stopped, Sarah looked down at her closed fists. The only thing covering them was mud and leaves. The anger was gone but replaced with adrenaline and confusion. She knew what she had just done, but how? She looked around at the damaged area, taking into account what her anger had done. Her breath was rapid. Her heart was in a flurry. Her eyes darted back and forth between her fists, the scattered splinters of wood, and the jagged stump that she ripped through like a buzzsaw.

She never spoke a word, she only stared at the ground and her hands. She listened to the ringing that filled her ears. She had so many questions. She didn’t understand what had just happened. She had never done anything like that before.

Carlton Black dialed a number on his phone and waited for only two rings. Nick Taber’s voice came through the speaker.

“Sir,” Nick greeted.

“Nick, I hope the new laboratory is to your liking.”

“Yes sir, it is an improved version of my setup in New York. How long have you had this place?” Nick asked. He was suspicious that this place had already been around for a while. But if so, why hadn’t his mentor offered this place up before?

“You’ll find this lab more attuned to leviathan-specific research,” Carlton assured.

Nick didn’t doubt a word of it as he gazed around at incubation chambers, seawater tanks, and a whole swath of tools that he didn’t have in the New York laboratory.

“This is one of my labs that was never uncovered by the government back when the first leviathans were made. I’ve kept it off the grid until now so I could update security measures to keep this site off anyone’s radar. We should be secluded out here,” Carlton informed.

“Where is here?” Nick asked. He had no idea where exactly he was anymore. About thirty minutes into the transit from the lab in New York, the driver forced him to put a black bag over his head. He was apprehensive, but he wouldn’t question Black. Not anymore. He was shown too many secrets he had craved. Moreso, he was afraid of Carlton Black and what he would do if he ever got on his bad side. Nick was beginning to feel like he had been dug into a hole, where the only other person in the hole was Black himself.

“The location isn’t important for what comes next. What I need you to focus on now is producing more specimens. You’ll find this lab equipped with all the materials and equipment you need.”

“More, sir?” Nick was agog. Fourteen was an unstoppable force. What would be the purpose of more?

“Yes, son. The one we set free is already down. The news feeds haven’t started yet, but DOSA sent their best to take it out. It's already dead,” Carlton told Nick with no emotion.

“Already… sir, should we hold off? If they already took it out, won’t that hinder your plans?” Nick was beginning to get scared, panic striking every word in his voice. What if the heroes and the government stopped them before he could release his secret leviathan? He feared that Carlton Black’s plans would derail to the point of complete failure. That couldn’t happen. He had to get his leviathan out somewhere.

“Find your resolve, son!” Carlton barked through the phone. “This changes nothing. The first wasn’t meant to fight and kill the heroes. It was always meant to be killed.”

“Sir,” Nick was taken aback. He never would have imagined this was the plan. “Why would we just send it out to die like that?”

Carlton took a deep breath on the other side of the phone call, slightly exasperated. He had hoped Nick was catching on to things at this point, but it seemed he wasn’t as intuitive as Carlton had hoped. “The first was an announcement to the world. Its only purpose was to signal that the old threat still exists. To smear the DOSA name after they assured the world that the leviathans would never return. If I wanted to hurt DOSA right now, don’t you think I would have chosen a different one? The elephant DNA made it strong, but slow. It was a walking target,” Black explained. “Even so, I hear the DOSA agents they sent out had some trouble.”

“So, we continue then…”

“Yes, Nick! We start by making more. The next step is crucial, we must start the process of creating more larval-stage leviathans. We already have one down, but soon there will be more dead with it. I will be coming to your location soon to grab the case. I will begin traveling to certain locations and releasing our current specimens in certain locations. These won’t go down easy, and they won’t be walking targets. These creatures will be fast, vicious, and devastatingly powerful. They won’t go down by themselves. They’ll take the superhumans with them!” The passion in Carlton’s voice was pouring through the phone.

“Yes sir!” Nick understood. “I’ll begin immediately.”

Nick didn’t know the full extent of Carlton’s plans, but just hearing this little glimpse was enough to spark a fire inside of him again. The fear he felt moments ago was gone. It was replaced by an excitement to see what his creations could do. He took stock of the new lab and saw the possibilities in his near future. The secrets he could discern, the power he could create. It was overwhelming to him. In the silence of the lab, Nick’s heart was pounding with adrenaline and excitement. He wanted to test what he could create in his leviathans against the powers of the strongest heroes.