Before Captain Steel came on the scene, the slow introduction of OHs into society was littered with many road bumps. At one point, consent had to be redefined legally because a crafty lawyer argued that the victim did say yes; did it matter that the defendant had psionic abilities and could 'nudge' the victim in whatever direction they wanted? According to the jury, it did not. So the law was changed and it wouldn't be the last time something like that happened because of what some OH did. Due to incidents like that, anti-OverHuman propaganda was easy to come by and they were the perfect scapegoats for most of society’s ills (and that’s without taking into account the Madrono incident). What Captain Steel, Michael Masterson, did by going public is that he made OverHumans 'safe' for mainstream consumption. He used public acts of heroism combined with great marketing and a captivating personality to flip the narrative. Suddenly nobody cared that some studies showed OHs are more aggressive than Norms because Captain Steel was cool as hell. It was Captain Steel that made the first contact with an alien race; he's the one that made humanity into this hip new galactic kid on the block. His example allowed OHs to similarly have public-facing personas. Some turned out to be bad eggs—and Cap had to knock em' out—but that's our species for you.
-A snippet of an episode of "Everything you needed to know about:" focused on OverHumans.
Everything was dark in the void save for what Wes Gibson was being forced to watch. With Lady Steel long gone, it was just him facing a tiny window outside into the real. It was like a lone TV screen going off in the middle of a dark living room; the gunk softened and let him go so he sat in front of it and stared at it like he was suddenly 5 years old. At first, he tried to look away at certain moments, such as during Lady Steel’s massacre, but tiny branches would just emerge from the void and force his head to look. Once, when Roxanne had emerged victorious, he tried to walk away. He thought maybe he could just vanish into the emptiness for some peace but it would all come alive and bring him right back to that spot.
When he first saw Roxanne, there was hope there but also a little bit of anger. Endless whispers surrounded him; they told him that this was her fault. That if she had been responsible, she would have seen what was happening to him. Wes fought this or tried to. Look at her out there! Wasn’t that awesome? Roxanne was his best friend, even if this was her fault she wasn't malicious!
But hasn't she always been selfish? They'd ask him.
Five years ago she just wouldn't leave him alone. She just couldn't understand that she was this constant living reminder of the incident. That every time he saw her she made things worse. Why couldn't she ever get that? What was her problem?
Wes got angry. Her vanishing five years ago was probably one of the best things that ever happened to him and the simple act of her being back all of sudden—it was selfish. How could it not be? She is still just a stupid child, the voices said louder than ever. Yes, of course, it all made sense; damn her. She ruined his life. His new life. It was all he had and she basically ripped that away by coming back.
You are sick because of her.
Your fiancé is dead because of her.
This is our beautiful hatred. Its our bond.
Wes tried to cry, but the black wouldn't allow that either. He thought about closing his eyes but they kept getting forced open. So he just watched, and sat, and listened, and lost a little bit more of himself. He was so intertwined with the void that he didn't know where he ended and it began anymore; he gave up trying to figure it out.
On the screen, Wes could see that the Nameless had brought them to the museum, where it had all begun; for him, at least. There were robot guards posted at the main entrance but the spark was crushed out of them under a mudslide of black sludge. It engulfed them all and then forced the main doors open with a loud crunch. More security bots hit the scene and the view had risen above the ground; the bots were crushed under a large unctuous fist.
Colossal inky stalks jutted down from the edges of his vision, they were viscous tree trunks that pulsated and bubbled as they moved. Their body transformed into a disgusting beast that let out a hellish scream as it crushed robots and other displays under its massive weight. With most of the area destroyed, the view shrank again as the goop contracted back inside their body. Formless, they stretched to the top floor.
The exhibit, the shrine to the alien, was still standing. The predecessor. It was her fault too. Wes felt more hatred run through his cerebellum. Although it wasn’t his own, that didn't seem to matter much anymore. Azonne's statue majestically stood there practically taunting them both. Replicas of her rings sat suspended in stasis beside her and it was clear they were not the real thing. They were of a duller shade of gold, more yellow than anything. It became clear to Wes that the Nameless despised her far more than any that had come before her.
Connected like this Wes had complete unfettered access to its thoughts and memories; intense was just the tip of the iceberg of what he was feeling. Having managed to tip the balance so much in its favor; it was proud. She ruined that. Just when it thought she couldn't possibly stand in its way, she did. For a lifeform that has existed since the dawn of time, the time spent in that Bleed prison was relatively insignificant but the mere act of being imprisoned was enough to vex it. The monster lashed out at the display, grabbing the statue and holding it up in an immense black claw made of teeth. It squeezed and snapped the thing in two then swiped to destroy the rest of the exhibit.
This fury at the ignominy was the reason why it was taking its time. For the indignity, it was going to make not just the light, but its new pup suffer; what better way than the corruption of this vessel? What better way than the corruption of her idol? Every stray bad thought that Wes has had in the ensuing years was being mined to extract maximum pain.
Through him, it knew exactly how to trigger her. Through him, it could get into her mind. However, it appeared to Wes that the time for games has ended. Fun time was over. The planet was ripe and its hunger needed satisfaction. It was time to expand, infect, and move on to the next. With an avatar of its own, it could spread easier, have more fun, and really savor the carnage.
It never had one before, didn’t really see the point. Previously, it just played its role and even pretended to enjoy it. It bristled up against the invisible chains keeping it there, but those chains weakened when it first started to slightly tip the scales of the balance; once those chains faded even further it started to savor it. When that got taken away...
It was time to try something new. Anchored to a living being like this brought increased strength and newfound possibilities. Nothing could stop it now, not even the new pup.
Police and soldiers had stormed in while the Nameless had ruminated and reveled in the destruction it had caused. Wes could feel the joy as it noticed them. A spiked stem shot out and pierced 3 in the chest; they went limp immediately. Another snake lashed out and sent the rest crashing over the railing and down to the main floor below. The creature, still just mostly Wes' body, leaped over the edge and followed them down.
More soldiers hit the scene and Wes realized that he was licking his lips. They started pouring in from the outside, the filth lashed out at them—stuck to them—and started drawing them inward. They screamed; they pleaded. But the Nameless was hungry. Wes saw it subsume them and he grinned. Other dead bodies were being absorbed now; the creature started to grow. Suddenly it towered over the remaining soldiers.
Perhaps just a bit more fun.
***
Roxanne was less than a mile out from the museum when the roof exploded and out crawled a disgusting blob. It screeched unnaturally and spilled out over the sides like formless sludge. Was Wes even in there anymore? She wondered and circled the creature, her flight path leaving a trail of yellow light that wrapped around the creature. She glided close to the main head while hundreds of tiny eyes tracked and followed her; it made no moves to attack her.
Instead, a thick glob of it hit the street with a splat and took the shape of a malformed hand. Another glob followed that to become another hand; now both hands leaked more oil outward. They consumed everything within their radius. In her HUD, Central One informed her that the area is going to be quarantined and no more human soldiers will be sent in—only combat drones.
Any civilians still in the area will also not be permitted to leave, which seemed extreme. Roxanne thought to query what exactly it had meant by “quarantined” but got distracted by a tentacle whip that shot out from the top of the beast's head. Jagged white teeth lined the strand and attempted to slap her out of the air.
She cut right through it with a burst of plasma and then decided she'd throw some caution to the wind; she charged the main body. She increased the heat from her aura and punctured through the top of its head with a sizzle. Endless whispers engulfed her as she drilled through the sludge and darkness while increasing her energy output higher and higher. She curved her path upward slightly and shot out the underside of the creature with a weighty energy blast.
The Nameless screamed and deflated slightly. Hovering closer to the street, spikes jutted up at her from the enormous hands. She deflected them with a hard light shield born from her right ring, then she aimed at one of the hands with her left; it disintegrated with a burst. The sludge collapsed further and crushed the outer wall under sudden force.
"You still in there Wes?!" She shouted at the thing.
"Yesyesyes," the sound rippled out from the muck with an echo that cooled her down to her very molecules.
"Are you scared to fight?" She demanded. "Or do you prefer playing giant monster?!" Roxanne felt ridiculous, bravado and taunting did not suit her at all, but she needed to coax him out if she had any chance of severing it from the host body. Being surrounded by all that crud just made everything that much harder.
From the spilled slop, shadow beings rose. They started climbing on one another in desperate bids to reach her while she hovered a few feet above the melee. Hundreds of shadow men spilled out from within the building as the muck transformed further and lent more and more of its mass to create them. One shadow jumped from the piled-up bodies and collided with her in mid-air, exploding into boiling black pools all over her. This staggered Roxanne enough to allow for another jump; then another; and another until she crashed to the street. She was being mobbed, punches and kicks thundered around her.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Roxanne energized her aura and sent it outward with a thunderclap and turned about fifty of them to ash. More shadow men poured out and made a bee-line toward her. A group of five rushed Roxanne; she sent them into non-existence with a blast. The energy continued traveling and took care of another chunk of the mob, as well as destroying the bottom half of the Captain Steel statue. The sculpture groaned as it toppled forward; it crushed even more pulsating shadows underneath it.
Another charged Roxanne and threw a punch, but she flipped backward to dodge it, kicked a shadow that had circled behind her, then used the momentum from that to launch herself at her previous attacker. Her aura grew hot and she burst right through it, then continued crashing into another and another, eventually circling the courtyard in a tight spiral. From above it looked like an oil spill had come to life to chase a supersonic firefly.
She skidded to a stop and extended a hard light beam from her right ring. Another small mob burst up from the puddles of destroyed void creatures and they ran at her. She swung the beam and softened the light to give it some slack turning it into a whip. She cut off the head of one, then spun around and split another pair of them in half. Each side of the desiccated creature burned vividly, ejecting embers into the air. Each movement was fluid, they flowed easily from her muscles like they were honed from thousands of hours of training.
Her predecessors spoke through her synapses and she felt powerful.
Roxanne spun the beam and weaved in and around the crowd. She ducked sharpened claws and teeth spiked vines while cutting down further shadow beings; still more came. Roxanne stopped, expanded her aura, and hardened it to create a small safe space for herself while she caught her breath. The shadows pounded against it with the intensity of hooves hammering against a gravel road. She winced with each blow and she shuddered when they started clambering over one another to spread all over her dome.
In the haze kicked up in all the destruction, Roxanne could see Wes emerging from within the museum. His movements were unnatural and jerky; he kept a hand out to his side as if he were trying to keep steady. He drew in the shadow men, pulling them toward him and sticking them to his arm. More shadows peeled off her bubble and into his orbit, rapidly he had a massive oily fist.
Roxanne's eyes grew wide as he charged. Wes took a big swing and collided with her bubble, sending her flying down the street through a huge department store. She bounced around the inside like a ping-pong ball, rag-dolling her within the hard light bubble. Roxanne slammed into a power box inside which set off a series of explosions that rocked the entire street and blew up the first 3 floors of the store.
Roxanne landed flat on her stomach and groaned. As the explosions died down, the bubble cracked and shattered in a mesmerizing cascade of light. She rolled over, winced, and thought that maybe she had a concussion. She sat up and took in the scene around her: Fires raged on and smoke danced as the store burned all around her. She couldn't feel much of the heat, surprisingly, and felt momentarily hypnotized by the swaying flames.
The auto fire-suppressant system kicked on just then, laying down sheets of foam intermittently to snuff out the flames. In the haze kicked up by foam, dust, and smoke, a figure appeared. It was Wes, his face taut with black veins that were stitched both under and over his skin. His eyes twitched and he seemed pained but only in short bursts as his expressions alternated between anguish, swagger, and pain. Head swimming, Roxanne tried to get up to one knee but lacked the muster to do so. Wes made the act easier by slipping a tentacle around her throat and lifting her off the ground.
All of her limbs felt like jelly, mostly because her brain felt like pure mush and applesauce. One of the rings sparked at her side but only resulted in a lackluster light show that barely tickled him. Goopy tendrils emerged from his body and snapped onto Roxanne. First, her hands and arms followed by her legs. Coherent thinking was a luxury at the moment, so she started to panic instead.
It was the easiest thing to do.
Wes lifted her a few feet higher; he stared at her. His mouth alternated between grimacing and grinning, although functionally there was little difference. Roxanne noticed that his eyes would occasionally soften as if he were constantly battling with himself, but she may have just been projecting hope where none existed. He screamed at her; a high-pitched monstrous scream that no human being could make and she trembled.
"...Wes...?" She managed to choke out, and the screaming stopped. Again the eyes softened, but only for a brief microsecond before he turned his body and tossed her back out onto the street violently. She crashed through the remaining walls and hit the pavement hard before skidding to a stop. She groaned again as her face burned, with her aura down she felt every bit of impact. She turned over and her face felt cool; blood.
She could hear footsteps approaching over the din of raging fires. Blinded by the blood in her eyes, she fired in the direction of the sound but her hand was slapped away. The resulting blast fired off, pierced another building, and set off an additional series of explosions. Wes reached down for her but abruptly stopped.
"Rox...?" he uttered. No echo, he was still in there somehow.
In an instant, his face changed again and he grabbed her by the collar. He lifted her off the floor and laughed that cavernous inhuman laugh once more. It pointed a finger at her; gelatinous grease poured out of it slowly and form into a solid black spike. It grew inch by inch until it finally pierced her shoulder and popped out through the other side.
Roxanne screamed.
Between her head pounding and the pain from the spike, all manner of defensive options vanished in a puff of smoke. "Youyouyou diddiddid thisthisthis tototo ME!" Multiple voices shouted at her. Black slime poured out of his ears, nose, and eyes; it engulfed his face while multiple eyes jutted out and opened themselves. "Selfishselfishselfish!"
"Wes..." she barely managed to let out above the echo.
"WHYWHYWHY COULDN'TN’TN’T YOUYOUYOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!" It screeched forcefully, somehow focused. Another spike split off from the first one; it traveled a small distance to pierce her other shoulder. Roxanne choked back a further scream.
Abruptly her eyes glowed a fierce orange followed by her hands, rings, and her entire body. Whether this was pure instinct or Azonne had taken a small bit of control out of self-preservation, she didn't know. It didn't matter because the monster screamed as it started to burn. First, the spines burned away, then the pain became so intense that he had to drop her completely.
Roxanne was surprised when she didn't drop on her butt. Instead, she floated there a few feet off the ground. Her aura was up; a surge of energy welled up in her. She let loose an explosion from her chest, an eruption of plasma that sent out a silent shock wave that rattled every building in a ten-mile radius while every glass pane split into thousands of jagged pieces.
The energy geyser connected with Wes and engulfed him. Again, he screeched before being blasted right back into the destroyed courtyard of the museum. The remains of the statue, the pedestal, greeted him as they burst through. The momentum carried him further back until it came to stop inside of what remained of the building.
Roxanne wasted little time and followed the streak as it tumbled in that direction. She was tired and hurt, and her brain felt like hot garbage, but it was now or never if she wanted to succeed. She burst through the smoke and landed in front of the prone Wes who barely had time to stir. She raised both her fists and let loose a wave of energy that made him contort in agony. Again she tried to visualize the process, only this time she was met with more resistance.
This wasn't just some mere corrupted, this was the source and it wasn't going down without a fight. Her knees buckled; she swallowed hard and stood her ground. The air buzzed as a dark fluid burst from within Wes. It combined itself around him, attempting to take its usual horrendous shape. Gross white teeth emerged from within in haphazard ways and they, along with various eyes, shifted across his body as it quaked. Wes screamed a decidedly more human cry that was eventually joined by the monster; it was a hellish symphony to her ears and she hated it.
Roxanne gritted her teeth; she could feel the Nameless losing its hold. It was working. She was doing this. She almost felt elated but stamped that down; this wasn't over yet. She poured it on and abruptly she could feel something else:
Fear.
And if not fear, then outright panic. All of the Nameless’ eyes darted around; this wasn’t possible. A clearer face formed in the goo, with all the eyes and teeth shifting to a 'proper' position. It spoke:
"You think you can banish us?!" The voice was low and un-enhanced. It was the true voice of the Nameless and Roxanne didn't like it any better than what she had already heard. She ignored the words and continued to push; black globules pulled themselves from Wes's body and all hundred eyes grew wide simultaneously.
"Stop this, or I will take you," it hissed. "You're defenseless!"
Roxanne considered that. All her concentration was directed toward this task. She had no aura up, all her mental energy focused on a single point; she was completely wide open. But she called its bluff:
"I dare you."
As if in immediate response to the challenge, a large black tentacle shot out of the creature's ‘mouth' and pierced Roxanne in the chest. It was cold as she could feel it spreading in her cells rapidly; she ignored that and pushed on. Quantum tons of energy are released from each ring. Both screamed while the Nameless attached another branch to her, followed by two more; the gunk rapidly spread all over her body. She could hear whispers in her mind followed by intense despair.
Still, she pushed on.
What seemed to be the last bit that was still attached to Wes finally decoupled from his body and swarmed Roxanne. It pulled her arm back and forced her to stop her beam. She staggered backward, coughing, choking. The whispers were now shouting and she could feel bits of her start to slip away; her consciousness unraveling slowly like an uncoiled spring.
Roxanne crouched low, she drew energy into her and called on it all around her. The spectrum was ever present, both seen and unseen, and hers to command. Her light was slowly fading but it still burned hot inside her chest. After a second, she leaped into the sky with a massive silent explosion that put out every fire in the vicinity.
In seconds Roxanne had burst through the cloud top, moments after that she was in low orbit, and then finally she'd broken through the Izanami atmosphere into the cold vastness of the void. Immense chunks of the Nameless still clung to her as she traveled through the vacuum. Her HUD flickered in and out while she tried plotting out a course to Brachium. The white-hot main star of the system loomed small on the edge of her peripheral vision. The bigger it got the more her HUD faded; her connection to Azonne waned.
She thought of grandparents, who she hoped would be proud of her; of her parents, who were just an image on her cloud storage; and of Wes, who she hoped had been truly saved. She thought of them all, and she smiled.
Roxanne pierced the stellar atmosphere and corona of Brachium, then plunged through the photosphere before vanishing into the radiation zone of the star. The Nameless screamed an unholy sound while they were bathed in plasma. Her vision went stark white when she did so; soon all the voices faded as did her vision. Her body burst through the other side silently with a coronal mass ejection being released in her wake.
The band of white plasmic energy glowed radiantly against the backdrop of deep space. Roxanne floated lifeless, riding the wave of energy slowly moving away from the star until she finally came to a dead stop moments later. Her vision was pure black until her HUD flickered back to life and her rings slowly pulsed. They fired up swiftly and caused her aura to re-energize all over her. Roxanne abruptly sprang awake, gasping heavily as if she'd just been saved by drowning. She pawed at herself, checking to see if everything was still attached. They were.
Once done, she perked up.
"Where is it?" She asked.
Roxanne...I'm not picking up any traces of it. Anywhere. You...you have somehow destroyed the Nameless.
"Wow, it totally worked," she said. The last thing she certainly expected was such an ancient evil being done in by a childish taunt. "Unreal."
Roxanne, if you've truly broken the chains of the Balance I fear for what that might mean.
Roxanne broke away from Brachium's gravity well, she chuckled to herself and began flying in the general direction of the speck of green that was Izanami. This is an interesting development, she thought. Had she created a new balance by simply removing it?
"Well," she started. "I guess we'll find out together won't we?"
Izanami grew larger as the minutes ticked by. Roxanne couldn’t believe she was here, doing something she’d always dreamed of doing since she was a little girl. The entire universe felt open to her. She entered the atmosphere violently, and a smile danced on her face at the same time as flames danced off her aura.