GraceFall [ONC 2024]

15

At the edge of the crater ...

These were once office buildings, with the odd, expensive apartment complex in the mix. Betty stumbled to the top of the rubble and tried not to think about how many people had died here, or remained trapped beneath tons of concrete, steel and shattered glass. She had visited war zones, areas where natural disasters had devastated the land, and had seen the aftermath of numerous battles between supers, but she had never seen anything like this.

And, in the centre of the deep crater, she saw Principle. On all fours, the hero looked wracked with pain as the evil aspect of Psycona, Phaross, hovered above, like a vengeful god laying down apocalyptic judgement. He had changed again. He looked bigger even than before, and far more monstrous, green flames surrounding him like an aura of spite.

Beside her, the human aspect of the former-hero, Sean Smith, struggled to reach the crest. So odd that, even though Sean only looked real, being a projection from Phaross' mind, he still acted much like a human. As though Phaross had given the illusion a sense of self. Or had separated that part of himself entirely from the whole.

Then, slowly, interminably slow, Phaross turned in the air to face her and Sean and the grin upon the savage features widened even further. His teeth had become fangs, extending his jaw. The helmet had become horned, glistening in the fires that surrounded him and Principle. He said nothing for long moments before emitting a terrible, keening laugh that echoed around the crater.

"Here she is! The architect of Psycona's downfall." Phaross swept his hand to indicate the destruction around them. "Let us, the mighty, look upon your works and despair."

Betty's legs had turned to jelly. Before now she had felt a determination that always came with following a story. That drive to eke out every last drop of information, the last ounce of evidence, to ensure her reports told the world what it needed to know, but now she could not move. Every muscle in her body trembled, screaming at her to run, to hide, because she knew, deep in her soul, that this alien before her could kill her with a glance and would think nothing of it.

It was all there, in his mind. The turmoil. The aspects of his personality warring with each other, but Phaross remained in ascendence, squashing all the others into insignificance. Psycona screamed for freedom in his own mind. Zjahn Zjmit accepted his mental incarceration as a penance. The only aspect missing from Phaross' mind stood beside her and he must have a reason for excising that part of his personality.

"You must stop this!" Sean stepped forward, gaining the courage from somewhere. "We must become one again! We are diminished when we are apart!"

"Diminished? Look at me!" Phaross rose higher in the air, the flames about his body burning brighter and hotter than before and Betty could feel the heat from here. "Without you wittering in my ear, I have become what I should always have been. A god among creatures that are little more than bacteria infesting this planet. You, my pathetic, human, friend are inconsequential. It is you that lessened me. You!"

How? Betty reached out with her newfound powers and searched Phaross' mind, trying to find the reason for this self-hatred, but it was not there. She looked at Sean beside her and knew that what she needed to know lay within that illusion's mind, but that mind did not exist. Sean remained only a thought projection, cut off from the whole.

At the epicentre of the crater, Principle howled in pain. Betty had seen so much footage of the great man's feats, but she had never heard him make a sound like it and, after a fashion, that made her respect him all the more. Even though he suffered, she could still see him trying to stand, trying to gather his powers and launch an attack against Phaross. Principle was dying and still forced himself onward and, if he could do it, so could she. She stepped down into the crater.