A Delicate Web (gxg) | ONC2020 |

13. hero

When I was ten I wanted to be a superhero.

I had gotten into some old movies from franchises that don't exist anymore. Movies about vigilantes in suits or with powers who flew around helping people and stopping evil. I guess that's where my fascination with spellcasting started.

It's hard to hate your parents when you're ten. You fight, but you'll make it up again quickly. I told my dad about it, once.

He laughed and said the closest I'd get was where I was, right now. A princess with the fate of the country in her hands someday. Surely that was enough power for a little girl.

And where am I now?

Floating so high above my city that aerocars rush below me and the buildings are reduced to blobs of light. The skyline glows, broken by trails of smoke that reaches into the air. The monster deforms the horizon, an ungodly creation brought back with dark magic.

And me? Dressed in black from head to toe. Floating in the path of a rampaging monster. Face hidden, with no towering palace walls to guard me. Unprotected. And, despite everything, completely ecstatic.

This is the closest to superhero I'll ever get. And I'll be damned if I don't try to have some fun with it.

An explosion blossoms beneath me, throwing me back into the present. Heat rushes up towards me. I rub my hands together, rise up another few shaky inches, and call out.

"Hey!"

The thing's head doesn't even swivel towards me, not with the buzz of militia cars and news cameras swarming around it like an angered wasp's nest. My breath rattles in my lungs, but I turn up the volume of my voice filter anyways.

"Hey! Look at me, bitch!"

It swings its head in a slow arc towards me. My heart quivers in my chest as its brilliant amber eyes, surrounded by scale growth, meet mine. Its mouth opens, as if it's grinning, and then it begins to shamble towards me, ghost-like tail whipping back and forth behind it. I swallow and my throat tastes like bile. I suddenly can't breathe.

This damn city needs more spellcasters.

I steady myself in the air, rub my gloved palms together, and roll my shoulders. The creature is moving fast—it's like it's locked its focus on me as it rushes forward suddenly, dwarfing the city and smashing its many hands through the streets below. Its wings stretch up above it, reflecting the lights from above and below in huge, glittering expanses.

I extend my hands in front of me, heart thudding violently. It's suddenly too close, too fast—I'll never have time—

"Contain!"

A rippling wave of force extends from my palms, exploding in my face and lunging towards the creature. It engulfs it in a watery sphere of energy, wavering and pulsing in my fingertips. But I can feel the weak spots already—it's too big, too strong, and I won't be able to control it.

The monster pauses at the barrier, tilts its head, then extends a hand.

My shield falls.

My delicate web is destroyed.

The clawed fingertips smash through the surface in a shriek of breaking glass. It swipes at me from out of nowhere. All the air is pushed from my lungs. Lights swirl in and out of my vision and I only realize I've been knocked clear out of the sky when I hit the synth-glass of a building.

It shatteres in a cacophonous scream—or maybe that's me.

I hit the ground with a crunch of broken glass and am hit with a wave of déjà vu. This time, though, I'm not breaking in, I'm not in control.