Now, Manila

Eron streaked down toward Cal.

He was going to punch his brother in the head. Not as hard as he could, but close.

Dozens of feet in an instant.

Cal’s eyes twinkled even as his arms moved in slow-motion to protect his head.

Eron caught a large shadow out of the corner of his eye.

Despite his speed and that of his perceptions and reaction times he was too slow to do anything more than cover his own head as the shipping container smacked into him like a supersonic jet.

His vision went blank for a second, which was odd because that hadn’t exactly hurt.

Once again his head felt muddled, slower.

He was certain now that was Cal’s doing, but he wondered why his brother hadn’t kept that on him the whole time. Perhaps Cal wasn’t capable? It could’ve explained why Cal wasn’t using more mindscape trickery.

His brother could’ve been holding back the same way that he was.

His vision cleared.

“I am inevitable.”

A giant, purple-skinned humanoid with a nut sack-like chin stared down at him.

Eron burned twin holes through the giant’s chest.

“You’re not warriors. You’re pigs. You’re all pigs!”

A nun-queen-sorceress-looking woman stared down at him from the battlements of a black, spiky castle wall.

Eron set her on fire.

A large, eyeless creature with white skin that hung wrinkly and loose around its neck and from the underside of its arms approached him with closed hand. When it opened the hands in Eron’s face an eye set in each palm blinked at him.

Eron gave its face a proper pair of eye holes.

A man in blue and yellow armor came out of the sky flanked by a pair of shipping containers.

This time the heat behind Eron’s eyes didn’t respond when called.

He covered his head right before the shipping containers crushed him into the ground.

“Didn’t even hurt,” Eron growled as he shrugged them off and took to the sky.

Cal was nowhere in sight.

Eron spun, his head on a swivel. Searching, scanning the port for his brother.

Nothing.

Cal had erased himself from Eron’s senses, just like Lilah and the fog baby.

Eron set his burning gaze randomly through the port in the hopes that he’d get lucky and catch his annoying brother.

Warehouses, containers, trucks, nothing was spared from his sight.

Thick steel cables wrapped around his body, somehow he hadn’t noticed until it was too late to move.

He saw Cal then.

Standing on the ground with a giant crane arm in his hands.

Eron cursed as Cal wound back and struck him with the crane arm.

He went flying until the cable jerked him back.

The crack echoed across the quiet bay as Cal hit him again.

Once, twice, thrice.

Eron was jerked back by the cable wrapped around him like a mummy only to be sent flying by the crane arm. Expletives filled the air as he and Cal played a game of paddle ball that only one of them enjoyed.

As Eron spun he caught sight of the crane arm swinging in for another hit.

He burned right through the metal, melting a large chunk of it before it could hit him again.

Cal cursed as he was forced to leap away from the rain of molten slag.

Eron ripped the steel cable from his body and gave chase.

Cal flew low over the ocean.

Eron on his heels.

A mass of water engulfed Eron, but it only slowed him down a little.

He reached out to grab Cal’s foot, but was suddenly thrust roughly into the ocean by an invisible force from above. He surfaced quickly and was struck by a yacht that he broke in half.

Cal dived into the water.

Eron flew in after his brother.

They had covered miles in the span of seconds.

The ocean depths were dark and cold. Things which didn’t mean much to Eron.

He could see well enough and the heat within him meant that he could never feel cold’s touch.

Huge tentacles swept out of the deep, grasping for Cal.

At the last moment they abruptly stopped and reached for Eron.

He saw the monster then.

A great, tentacled shark. Teeth-filled mouth more than big enough to swallow him whole.

Cal was already shooting to the surface.

Eron didn’t want to waste time dealing with the creature, so he took the direct route to stay on his brother’s trail.

He went right into the tentacled shark’s mouth and out its side.

The blue became red and Eron was forced to spit desperately to clear out what he had accidentally got in his mouth. He had a bad habit of not properly keeping his mouth closed.

Fortunately, flying through hundreds of feet of ocean to get to the surface cleaned him of the monster’s blood and guts.

He shoot out of the water like a missile.

The air boomed several times as Cal flew back to the city.

Eron caught up just as his brother reached the bay.

Boats, ships and even half a submarine were pulled from the water to impede his path.

He flew and punched right through them.

Cal flew down to street level.

Slower now.

It seemed that his brother didn’t want to do collateral damage by flying too fast.

Eron slowed down, but not too much that he wasn’t still gaining on his brother.

Cal pulled cars from the street and sent them flying at Eron.

It seemed that his brother had acceptable levels of city damage that he was willing to inflict.

Eron dodge the cars or slapped them straight down to the street as he continued to chase.

Cal led him through many twists and turns.

They flew over a shanty town and Eron was sprayed with metal, concrete and other detritus.

He grabbed a length of iron rebar and hurled it at Cal like a javelin.

It skipped off Cal’s armored back, but knocked him off his flight path.

Eron chased his brother to the street where Cal managed to right himself and suddenly shoot straight up.

Eron was caught of guard and took two fists to the chest as Cal punched him out of the way.

The chase continued until the city was a speck beneath them. Where the line between atmosphere and space grew blurry.

Cal raised a hand toward Eron and clenched it into a fist.

Eron felt immense pressure from every direction, wrapping his body tight. It reminded him of when he had descended into the Marianas Trench out of curiosity.

Invisible fists suddenly battered his face.

Much stronger than before.

It seemed that Cal wasn’t going to hold back now that he had taken them far from the city.

“Fair is foul and foul is fair,” Eron whispered between blows. He knew that Cal could hear him.

It was a mistake to take him up to the edge of the atmosphere.

More of the sun’s rays could reach him.

The heat within him quickly reached heights it had never before. He had always been worried and careful in the fear that he’d unintentionally hurt those around him.

“But you can take it… can’t you, bro?”

Eron released the energy he had gathered behind his eyes.

----------------------------------------

Cal was forced to drop his hold on his brother.

The heat and light from Eron’s eyes was different this time. Much stronger, much brighter. It was like staring into the sun.

Cal intercepted it about half way to him with a telekinetic shield, which shattered and sent a spike of pain through his brain.

He instantly raised another, then another and so on.

Multiple layers in the path of Eron’s eye beams.

Each one that shattered sent a lance into Cal’s brain.

Until he managed to outlast the energy with only a few feet of space to spare.

He silently thanked God that the eye beams didn’t move at the speed of light.

Eron streaked toward him.

The vast yawning depths of the darkness of space stood in contrast to the brilliant brightness coming from his brother.

Eron made space shuttle rockets look like sparklers.

Cal hammered at his brother with telekinesis, all the while doing all he could to telepathically slow his brother down and speed himself up.

It was a losing battle.

Cal felt renewed wetness on his upper lip and running down his face and the side of his jaw and neck.

Eron closed and sent him flying toward the blackness with a thunderous uppercut.

Cal fought his wild spin and gained control just in time to block another punch with a telekinetic shield that sent a spike through his head as it shattered. Desperately, he countered with a telekinetically-boosted punch to the side of his brother’s head that sent Eron spinning back toward the Earth.

Cal followed while hitting his brother with telekinetic hammers.

Eron grunted as he righted himself and powered through to hit Cal again.

Stars danced in Cal’s vision as shadows grew around the edges of his perception.

Eron grabbed him by the front of his chest armor. “Give it up. You’re hitting way harder than before, but it doesn’t really hurt me. And you’re bleeding out of your face holes. I thought you’d gotten over that problem.”

Cal’s head snapped back from a punch that multiplied and widened the cracks in his faceplate.

“Though, I guess you’ve never fought someone as strong as me,” Eron said through grit teeth.

“Congratulations!” Cal mocked, “you’re the worst I’ve fought. Giant, flying manta ray kaiju, a sadistic golden angel, an eldritch skin-woman… ripped a quarter of my skin off, ate two fingers and trapped him in a mindscape for a long time… and yet, you’re the worst—” he coughed blood against his faceplate, “and do you know why?”

“You’re going tot tell me even if I don’t care,” Eron growled.

“Because they were all monsters. It’s in their nature to cause destruction, to cause suffering, to do evil… but you… you’re a good person.” Cal stared into Eron’s eyes despite the brightness of their inner light, at Eron’s cocked fist without blinking. “And there’s nothing worse than a good person doing bad things on purpose… I should know.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Do as you say, not as you do,” Eron sneered.

“Yeah…”

“Not good enough.” Eron’s eyes narrowed as he looked past Cal’s shoulder down to the planet. “I guess we found the limit to your range or maybe I knocked you around hard enough to mess with your telepathy.”

Cal suddenly found himself spinning toward the black void as Eron burned a trail back to Manila.

Eron had opened up a several mile lead before he was able to right himself and give chase.

There was no way Cal could catch up without cheating, so he did.

He hit Eron’s mind with the direct manipulation that he hadn’t wanted to do, but that was the lesser of two evils. He couldn’t allow his brother to wet his hands with innocent blood.

Eron turned and flew back up, straight toward Cal.

Cal saw the look of surprise on Eron’s face the instant before they collided.

The impact blew a large hole in the cloud that they had flown into.

The telekinetic shield around his body was the only thing that saved Cal from serious injury and unconsciousness.

He saw Eron back in gravity’s hand, tumbling down.

Cal flew at Eron, strafing him with telekinetic blows that juggled him through the air, farther away from Manila, from the baby.

Eron responded with a burst of energy that caught Cal in the chest.

Alerts flashed and blared in his battered helmet as the heat became unbearable.

He forced Eron’s eyes shut and dived in with more telekinetic attacks.

Eron overpowered Cal and opened his eyes.

Cal recoiled from the blazing heat and flash of light.

The momentary distraction was costly.

Eron cracked Cal with a punch to the side of the head.

The alarms went silent, the HUD winked out.

Cal punched his brother in the throat before taking another hit that rattled his head.

He grabbed the side of Eron’s head and pulled it close to land an elbow with his opposite arm.

Eron pressed both hands on the sides of Cal’s head and slammed a forehead into the faceplate.

It could’ve taken a tank shell to the face with barely a scratch.

Eron shattered the faceplate.

Cal pushed the shards away from his eyes with an instinctive burst of telekinesis. He spat blood in Eron’s eyes.

His brother responded with a wild swing that Cal just managed to duck under.

He tried to fly away and get some space, but Eron’s hands snatched out in a blur.

Impossibly strong fingers dug into the Threnosh metal.

Cal’s armor had taken a beating, layers had been partially melted.

Eron finally found its breaking point.

The metal deformed and squealed in his hands as he began to tear it.

Cal struck at Eron’s elbows with telekinetically-boosted punches, but couldn’t pry them loose.

The wind screamed in Cal’s ears as Eron pushed him toward the ground.

Miles and miles covered in seconds.

The rate of descent scrambled Cal’s insides more than even his superpowered body could handle.

Bile and blood shot free from his mouth.

Eron caught it full in the face.

Cal was caught between choking and laughter as Eron desperately spat.

Before Cal could say anything he felt his back crash into the ground.

The long dark hallway called to Cal. He took a few steps into it before backing out.

He blinked.

The sun shined down on him.

The real one, not his asshole brother.

Cal realized that he was inside a sizable crater, big enough that he couldn’t see the street from where he laid.

Eron floated down and landed with one foot on either side of Cal’s body.

“You puked in my mouth!” Eron snapped.

“That’ll teach you to keep your mouth open when you fight… you’ve always been a mouth breather,” Cal rasped. His throat burned from spewing up his guts. “Least I could do, considering you broke my armor… my one of a kind armor that I can’t fix and can only get on another world… dick…”

“It’s just armor. I’m trying to save lives,” Eron sighed.

Cal regarded his brother’s slumped shoulders and bile-drenched face. There were chunks in Eron’s hair.

Perhaps, his brother was right. That might’ve been worse than the broken armor.

“Feels like a million needles are stabbing my brain right now,” he rasped.

Eron scowled down at him before looking up and around. “Even with that you’ve managed to block their presence from me again. I didn’t even notice. Pretty slick.” He leaned down and tore Cal’s helmet free. “I’m knocking you out now,” he raised a fist.

“That’s not the only thing you failed to notice.” Cal stared up as Eron’s shadow fell across his face.

The punch descended.

Cal didn’t blink.

It never landed.

Another strong hand caught it.

“That’s enough, both of you!”

A stern voice, filled with disappointment and anger surprised one brother.

“Explain yourselves, now!”

Their father had arrived.

Somehow, Cal managed to keep the smug grin from creeping across his face.

----------------------------------------

Cal sat on the edge of the crater. He had only gotten up there thanks to his dad’s help. He had tried to stand at first and promptly vomited.

Eron paced nearby as their dad watched Cal’s face like a hawk.

“Are you sure you don’t need a doctor or a healer?” Phillip said. “Throwing up is a sign of a concussion.”

“Definitely,” Cal agreed, “I probably have a psychic concussion too—”

“That’s not a real thing!” Eron snapped.

“You be quiet. Both of you will only speak to answer my questions,” Phillip regarded Eron with disappointment.

“Honestly, Dad, I’ll be fine,” Cal said.

“Okay, then you first. What happened?”

Eron opened his mouth to argue further, but shut it at his dad’s glare.

“I can’t exactly explain how. Mindscape stuff is tricky. Half dream, half vision, half conscious, half unconscious… pretty crazy,” Cal began. “But, to simplify things… basically, Lilah and myself somehow managed to convince the fog entity to turn itself into a human baby… uh… that’s it…”

Phillip remained silent for a moment as he processed his oldest son’s words. The moment turned into a full minute before he spoke. “That explains why I found Lilah with a baby, bu—”

“Where is it!” Eron jumped.

“It’s not your turn,” Phillip warned.

The muscles in Eron’s neck flexed as he visibly forced himself to keep his mouth shut.

“When you say ‘it’ are you referring to the baby?” Phillip continued.

Eron gave a curt nod.

Phillip stared at his youngest son with confusion. “What? You can’t see them? They’re right—”

Cal cleared his throat and raised a shaky finger. “Don’t say anything until you ask him why he was kicking my ass across the sky, please, Dad.”

“Well?” Phillip regarded Eron.

Eron’s eyes bore into Cal’s… with metaphorical heat this time. “He says it’s a human baby and I’ll admit that’s what I sense, but we can’t risk the chance that it could one day turn back into the fog. There were over ten thousand people in Manila before the fog appeared. Now there are a hundred. I won’t be responsible for a repeat. I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing. I can stop that possibility right now.”

“You can’t even give me the probability of that happening,” Cal rolled his eyes then swayed, almost falling over as the world spun.

“And you can’t do the same of it not happening,” Eron scoffed.

The two brothers bickered until Phillip cleared his throat. “What you’re both telling me is that you’re certain that the baby is just human? Nothing more? Nothing less?”

Cal replied immediately. “Human body, organs and shit. Mind and thoughts are also human. He has no memories beyond the instant of… existence,” he shrugged. “I did a deep dive. I didn’t find anything hidden. You can ask Lilah too.”

“I will,” Phillip said. “What about you?” he regarded Eron.

Eron didn’t reply quickly and when he did he couldn’t look his father in the eyes. “I can only speak to the physical… it seems human to me.”

“And you wanted to kill it?” Phillip kept his tone even.

“It’s not that I want to!” Eron snapped. “Someone has to do it and it’s my responsibility,” he sighed.

“And you would kill a potentially innocent one to prevent a potentially dangerous situation.” Phillip took a deep breath. “That’s not right, Anak.”

“Ten thousand people, gone because I was too late. Our relatives… gone. Innocents… gone,” Eron whispered.

“There’s nothing we can do to bring them back,” Phillip’s voice softened, “it’s not your fault. You’ve flown all around the world helping people everywhere. I don’t care how strong you are now. You can’t shoulder the weight of the entire world. You aren’t responsible for it.”

“What am I supposed to do then?” Eron threw his hands up. “It feels like I’m the only one doing anything. Everyone else close to my level are more concerned with consolidating their power in their own territories or going off to other worlds. We should all be working together for everybody’s sake. Instead, it’s wannabe warlords, bullshit slavery or old governments turned dictatorships to keep a hold on what remains of their authority.”

“How are you going to do that with an innocent baby’s blood on your hands?” Cal said flatly.

“Cal—” Phillip warned.

“No, no… Eron’s right on that account. We have this power and I’ll admit I could’ve done more for this world. Could’ve, should’ve worked harder to fight the abuse while setting up good settlements like you’ve been doing.”

“Words without actions are meaningless,” Eron frowned.

“Eron—” Phillip warned.

“That’s true,” Cal nodded the sudden head movement made him gag, but he kept it in this time. “What’ll it take for you to not kill this baby… I can’t believe those words came out of my mouth,” he muttered.

“A guarantee that it won’t turn into the fog one day, which you can’t provide. No one can,” Eron folded his arms across his broad chest.

Cal looked to his dad. “I probed the baby’s mind. What else can I do? My plan was to get him checked out by that Doctor you got, as well as different mages and the magitech stuff.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Phillip said.

“I mean, I had Lilah conjure her sigil and the baby just cooed at it. Touched it and nothing happened. You’d think that was big enough proof that there isn’t a fog entity lurking in him,” Cal sighed.

“Is that true? Can you do it again? For me?” Phillip turned to an empty space next to him.

“They’ve been next to you the whole time,” Eron frowned.

Cal lazily waved a hand.

Wide-eyed Lilah suddenly became visible to Eron.

A scared girl, betrayal in her eyes as she cradled an oblivious baby in her arms.

Eron tensed, but he didn’t move. “Lilah, let me explain—”

She looked away and moved behind Phillip to hide behind a big body.

“I was keeping them invisible to Eron,” Cal explained.

“There will be no more hurting. We’ve had more than enough of that,” Phillip regarded Eron.

“That thing could turn the entire world into gray emptiness,” Eron said.

“That’s true,” Cal added. “In the interest of full disclosure, we,” he gestured toward Lilah, “sorta shared dreams or visions with the fog entity and one of them was a barren gray world in which it took everything. To be fair there were other visions in which the fog got beaten.”

“Why are you fighting me so hard on this?” Eron said.

“I already told you, like twenty times,” Cal shook his head. A mistake. This time he vomited.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Phillip said.

Cal wiped his mouth before waving away his dad’s concern. “I’m getting better by the second. Why don’t we have Lilah show you why we’re pretty sure that the baby is safe.”

Phillip eyed Lilah. “If you’re willing.”

“I can do it,” Lilah said. She wasted no time in tracing her sigil in the air right above the baby’s face.

The yellow-gold light shined as the baby reached a hand through it.

“See,” Cal said.

Eron didn’t say a word.

“You’ve seen that twice, bro. Tell me, please, how can we convince you to not want to kill the little guy,” Cal said.

“The risk—”

“Don’t you think it’s worth taking, if the alternative is you staining yourself with innocent blood? C’mon, man… if killing him was impossible, what would you do?”

“I’m not going to play theory crafting games with you on this. The stakes are too important,” Eron scowled.

“Eron,” Phillip said.

“Fine,” Eron sighed. “It’s very simple. I’d want someone or something… powers, spells or tech, preferably all three, that can detect the instant the fog entity might be coming back. That’s the first part. The second is the capability of destroying it in that same instant. This system has to be in place for the rest of its life.”

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Cal said flatly.

“You asked, I answered,” Eron replied.

“Alright, deal,” Cal said.

“What?”

“What you outlined. I agree. For starters, I’ll keep an eye on him,” Cal tapped his forehead. “The rest we can figure out later after I rest my brain. I’m pretty sure it’s bleeding.”

“I didn’t agree to anything!” Eron snapped.

“Yes, you did. Too late, no take backs.”

The two brother’s bickered for several seconds before Phillip cut in. “Enough! That is our best course of action right now,” he forestalled Eron’s protest with a glare and wiped the smug look off Cal’s face with the same. “I won’t allow my son to kill a baby and I won’t allow two of my sons to continue a fight that burned, broke and otherwise laid waste to a city.”

“A small portion of one,” Cal mumbled.

“One condition,” Eron said. “For Cal…”

“Sure.”

“You’re responsible for it,” Eron pointed at the baby.

“I already said I was,” Cal shrugged.

“Exactly. That means it doesn’t leave your sight.”

“Okay… hold on a second. That’s excessive—”

“My one condition… that you asked for.”

“Fine, but only until we’ve put him through all the tests and stuff that completely clears him.”

“Not possible, but I’ll allow it,” Eron said. He rose to the sky.

“Where are you going?” Phillip said.

“I was in the fog for months. I need to check on a few places and people around the area and on the other islands.”

“FYI, that senator dude a little north of here, well he and his people were doing slavery, Slave Class and everything, didn’t even know that was thing—”

Eron cursed. “I warned that bastard!”

“Um… I freed the enslaved and scared the shit out of him,” Cal said.

“I need to make sure it stuck,” Eron grumbled. He zoomed out of sight in seconds.

Cal groaned as he rose to his feet. “Getting better by the second.”

“Are you sure?” Phillip said.

“Absolutely, say Dad, can you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Baby needs milk, diapers and clothes… can you get some and also keep an eye on Lilah and him? I mean, the streets are safe for now. No monsters. The only ones you’d have to worry about are the ones inside encounter challenges and buildings.”

“Of course, but what about you?”

Cal pointed to the Greenwich Pizza Restaurant down the street. “It’s been a few decades and I want that, so I’m going to go get it.”

“You’re in no condition to fight,” Phillip said.

“Monsters are easy,” Cal waved away his father’s concern as we staggered down the street.

“I guess we need to find a grocery store,” Phillip regarded Lilah and the baby. “Would you like me to carry him?”

“I’m okay, he’s not that heavy,” Lilah shook her head.

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling a lot better,” Phillip smiled.

“I don’t have to keep my wards up,” Lilah grinned.

“I think I saw a store a few streets back. If you’d like I can carry the two of you and we can jump?”

“That’s okay, I’d like to walk in the sun,” Lilah said.

“Of course,” Phillip laid a hand on Lilah’s shoulder, “if anyone deserves it, it’s you.”