Vigilante (Under Construction! Please Excuse the Dust!)

Prologue: no demons, no angels.

Author's Note: HELLO READERS! I know it's been a long time and I'm sorry to say it but I'm very unhappy with how Vigilante is turning out, so I'm going to be EDITING EVERYTHING! So, that being said, the core concept and characters aren't going to change, I just have a bit of world building and reorganizing to do! Please be patient! -Silvered

---

It has long been said that the development of superhuman abilities was eventual. No one expected it to be so sudden, of course, but at some point, eventually had to come.

The first known Powered individual in the entire world was a tiny Chinese girl. She was born with two membranous wings that had a wingspan almost twice the size of her little body. The world exploded into equal parts disgust and horror as well as amazement and wonder. Headlines filled internet news outlets and were talked about pretty much hourly on any talk show you could find. She was coined "The Angel Baby" by a radio show host. The name quickly stuck.

She wasn't called "Powered" back then. Then, she was "anomaly," "mutant," and "freak." Powered humans didn't exist in the public eye until Huiliang. She, truly, was the first. 

No one expected the baby to live past a year. She was premature and her body was so fragile that not even her mother was permitted to touch her until she was two months old. The world wondered when she would die in online forums and what it truly meant that someone could be born this way.

Huiliang did not die, though that does not mean that she didn't very nearly numerous times. Her bones were very nearly hollow and the production of hemoglobin in her blood was very low due to this. Her blood carried almost no oxygen and it was said that should she be off of an oxygen supply for more than a few minutes, she could suffer an extreme drop in blood pressure or heart rate and die.

She lacked endurance, strength, and hope, but despite the expectation, Huiliang lived to be sixteen months old. "A year and then some," the same radio host said of her, but, again, the eventually had to come at some point.

Huiliang died from respiratory failure and the world stopped for a few quiet moments to acknowledge the death of an agonizing miracle. Millions of people sent condolences to Huiliang's family. Some hundreds sent scathing messages about how happy they were that the Devil-child was finally dead.

Her mother was asked to be interviewed by so many people and, after a considerable time of grieving, she agreed to attend a few talk shows to answer questions about her daughter, revealing more bits and pieces of the puzzle that was Huiliang as she did so.

"She was always in pain," the mother said. "Even though she couldn't tell me, I knew. You can't carry a life in your own body and not have that connection."

"If you don't mind me asking, how bad was your daughter's condition?" the host asked.

Huiliang's mother looked solemn and withdrawn. She paused before answering.

"There was so much wrong with Huiliang's body. She fought for so long, but was so small and so weak," she hesitated to wipe at her eyes. "It was like those things on her back were sucking the life out of her and they wanted all of it."

"Did you and your husband ever consider having them removed?" the host asked.

Huiliang's mother shook her head vigorously.

"No," she said. "The idea did come in mind, but we immediately refused it. The doctors all said that removing Huiliang's wings would most likely leave her paralyzed. They were a part of her and taking them away would have only hurt her more."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks now and she brushed them away as quickly as she could, trying to keep some semblance of composure even when no one would dare ask it of her.

"I am... so grateful for the precious time I had with my Huiliang," she said, voice thick. "My angel."

After Huiliang, an incident with a forty-four year old German man named Frederick Lange shed even more light on the subject.

Frederick Lange was at work one day, trimming the hedges and trees of his neighborhood for friends and family, when his body very suddenly began to expand with muscle and an influx of blood to his brain caused it to hemorrhage. 

Frederick snapped a thirty year old oak tree into jagged pieces and hurled it two hundred feet before collapsing from the bleeding in his brain. Ambulances that arrived pronounced Frederick Lange dead on the scene.

After Frederick, Mona Durand, an twenty-two year old French student, sent her abusive spouse flying through the front windows of their fourth floor apartment, where they plunged to their death on the concrete below, with just a thought.

Then, reports of this types of phenomenon began to pop up all over the world. Telekinesis, superhuman strength, flight, manipulation of elements, teleportation, and various other categories and subcategories of powers were appearing everywhere in the world.

Many people panicked and riots were commonplace then. The newly born Heroes were dangerous and violent. Some of the world called for a culling of these individuals.

But the world had forgotten the tiny, innocent baby girl that had begun it all. Forgotten the wonder, curiosity, and love that the birth of Huiliang had wrought and that there were no angels as there were no demons.