And superheroes come to feast...

woe

Each breath stung as the thick, chemically smoke flooded the poor lungs of the unfortunate young people with each shuddering inhale. It was not clear whether the odd tingles that raced the exposed skin of the pair came solely from the strange reverberance that came as the improbable spacecraft grew further and further out of sight, or if it was the lingering residual adrenaline that still managed to cling tight, sinking deep into each and every pore. The air hummed in a way that was almost musical, though once more this was unclear as it could have been no more than the ghost of a melody bouncing about within the deepest recesses of their mind, perhaps never to truly leave them again. 

It was maddening, overstimulating and baffling, but then again for Brad Majors and his fiance, Janet Weiss, the last few hours that had passed them by had been such a hedonistic blur that this paled in comparison. In fact, it would not be altogether surprising to think that even if they were to spend their lives chasing the high that night had gifted then, they could race from one side of the earth to the other for an eternity and it never would recapture the moment. 
But, of course, first times in any shape or form did not have any pre-established expectations to them so they were all very new and exciting, and by goodness - and by wickedness, and probably by anything else that happened to fall between the two extremes - did their evening bring with it a fair few first times for both of them. 

Janet turned her gaze to the sky, the first few rays of the coming morning sun already peaking through the clouds. With her dark curls framing her features, exaggerated stage makeup smudged and distorted as it blended erratically with a mixture of soot and tears she had not realised she had shed, she never looked more lovely. More so, she never had looked so alive. Had the chance to feel so alive. As she watched the morning creep in, she could not help but liken it to the coming of something new that had, until then, been hiding just beyond the horizon, forever hidden just out of sight. 

Brad, however, did not have the same privilege of reflection as he just simply could not see anything, so he had allowed his own gaze, how little it really was worth, downwards to the earth. It was an impossible hope at the very best that he could somehow find his glasses through the rolling smoke that really did nothing to help his vision, yet try he did. He did not have enough hands to count the amount of impossible things he had lived through that day on his fingers so perhaps he could count on just one more, as insubstantial as this one little thing might be. He never really had the chance to believe in impossible things before, but just now he found it a little easier to think he could, just possibly, begin to believe. 

Well, it certainly was not the pair of bulky eyeglasses that he was looking for that he managed to find in his search. He had not realised right away what it was that he touched, cool under his fingertips and sun kissed. With a shrill, panicked sound in the back of his throat, he drew his hand back as he scooted away a little. Up until that moment, he had never had the opportunity to touch a dead body, and, even with his mind still drifting in and out of the rose tinted haze that had clouded his judgement thus far, he came to the quick decision that it was not something that he had any intention of making a habit of. Squinting his eyes, he could make out the form of what had once been Columbia, their head sitting at an angle that was altogether wrong, their auburn hair obscuring their features somewhat as they just lay there, more still than any person in their prime should be. The man had only ever seen one other corpse before that evening, and his grandmother at rest in a coffin just sort of looked correct, presented with respect for the life that she had led, and so that she could lay with dignity as she met her eternity in the soil. The person that lay, crumpled on the hard ground, was granted no dignity, no respect for the life that they had lived and lived until their very last breath. 

The only casualty that remained was Columbia. This was only natural, however, as one could hardly imagine the Transylvanians would be so clumsy as to leave behind anything that might even possibly risk exposing them to those who had their existence confined just to earth, not until they were ready to at the very least.