“’t believe you survived that, girlie,” He croaked, blood leaking from his lips. His eyes were bloodshot, his jaw cracked, his reaming. “You’re one lucky bitch, if nothing else.”
She clutched at her chest and gasped out a sob, raising the on again and bringing it down against his chest. With a twang and scraping sound it clipped off of his body. She tossed it aside with a frustrated scream.
“Otis!” She howled his name, smming her fists against his nigh-iructible body. “Otis! Otis! Otis! Why?!”
“It was fun, so why are you b? I’m dead anyway, you’re dead, the world’s dead, it’s over,” He chuckled, smiling at her. “Why do you even care?”
She gripped the colr of his e and tried to pull him up to look at her. She couldn’t lift him. She didn’t have the strength anymore. She rest her hands on his fad let out another sob as the fmes raged around them, explosions, screams, life oh was ing to an end. Ruination. It wasn’t just his fault. All of them had bee so god damn corrupt, obsessed with their power rather than using it to fight, to do the right damn thing! She hated them, she hated how petty and stupid humans could be. She screamed in his face, “YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!” She howled, smming her fists on his chest again.
He didn’t respond.
Otis, the Nameless Hero, the most powerful man oh, was dead.
She was the st hero alive. A nobody. A nothing. Sonya ovna was barely even enough to be cssified as a hero. All she had were her eyes that clicked and whirred like clockwork traptions in her head. The glow that was once bright and pure had dimmed to barely a luster. She dragged herself off his corpse and rose, clutg at her chest, her e was torn and bloody. Everything hurt, her heart, her arms, her legs, her universe was nothing but pain.
She turned away and started walking, towards the ter of it all, towards the epiter of the chaos. The monsters ravaging the city paid her no mind, it was as if she did. She trudged along as people screamed, but she didn’t have the power to save them. She grit her teeth as a mother sobbed in the distance, her heart splintering again.
“The League of Heroes,” She muttered, “The Ameri Heros Guild, The Japanese Hero Society, The Korean Hero Association, The Russian…” She trailed off, the words tumbling from mouth. The groups that had once been a bea of safety for the world, the anizations that had stood stalwart against the creatures that had appeared more and more often, that were supposed to fight the worst of the worst. In the end, they’d bee what they fought against.
Otis was just the fulcrum, the govers of the world, the greed of the anization leaders, the corruption of the heroes. They’d styled themselves like gods to the ordinary people of Earth, l over them until their arrogance pushed them tainst one another. Earth couldn’t survive it, not as monsters ran rampant and heroes fought one another.
Sometimes, Sonya, people are just like that. You ’t make them ge.
“Bullshit!” She snarled, stepping past a ruined car and over the corpses of another pair of heroes, their faces and es burned beynition. “Heroes should work together!” She croaked.
It’s okay, love.
She staggered into the city ter, heedless of the soft voi the back of her mind. So warm, so full of love. She could smell her still. She could feel her hands on her face. Sonya felt her legs go numb but she just forced feeling into them, smming her fist ints and trudging onward. “No it’s not,” She swore, “I’ll never five them.”
You don’t have tive, but you ’t fet the good in people too.
Sonya squeezed her eyes shut and colpsed to her knees, gripping the sides of her head, her chest hurt so bad it felt like it would burst. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! If I could I’d kill all of them! Over and over! I’d turn their lives into a living hell and never let them escape!”
Is that what you really want?
Sonya’s hands dropped to her sides and she looked up at the red sky, “No, but if I could, I’d make things right. Even if…” She drew a ragged breath into her chest, “...even if I have to be the worst there is! I’d do it!”
A familiar st washed over her, her eyes opened and she gasped. “hua?” She asked, dazed, desperate. Something heavy thudded to the ground in front of her and she looked down. It was a box, a chest, two bloarble on a hi was engraved beautifully. She’d seen it before, the source of everything that had happened oh sihat day. Acc to the stories, the box had opened on its own in the middle of a crowded museum and the fsh of light that followed had turhe world upside down. “Pandora’s Box,” Sonya breathed.
The hope out, and try again.
Sonya grabbed the sides of the lid, she wasn’t sure what the voice meant, but if it meant she could have a sed ake things right, she’d take it. Her bloody fingers slipped on the lid and she grunted helplessly before finally getting a grip, trying to pry it open. The old story said that hope had bee behind when the box ehe first time by Pandora herself. Sonya forced the lid open and her world became nothing but blinding light.
—
“It’s the top of the hour and we have had ret reports of unusual seismic activity taking pce throughout the eastern seaboard, no injuries have beeed at this time but folks at home are enced to remain vigint of your surroundings, seismologist Lin Atwood said…” It was a familiar voice that Sonya woke to, the sound of a man talking over the television. She tried to open her eyes and was met with nothing but darkness. Her head hurt, her memories muddled and nguid.
What happened? She thought numbly, reag for her e, her fingers ing around the smooth, reflective surface. She felt the plushness of the couch beh her, the familiar fruity st of the air freshener she liked in the air, it was her apartment. Small, a bit on the u side, but home.
She struggled to remember, the thoughts ing in jumbles at first before hitting her in a deluge. A world of heroes, monsters, violence, death, war, fire, hua, Otis. She let out a cry of pain and grasped the sides of her head, letting out a wretched sob as fresh agony burs way through her brain. The sound of hurried footsteps, a hand toug her shoulder, someone’s voice, calling her name.
“Sonya! Sonya are you okay? Is the TV too loud?” Another familiar voice, she wrenched her arm away and tried to scramble to her feet. What was happening? Why couldn’t she see? Wait… she’d been blind before the box had opened.
I’m blind again? She thought, her fingers ing more tightly around the e. And that voice? Marta?
“Marta?” Sonya asked, trembling.
“Bad dream, Sonya?” Marta’s voice offered with a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Sonya felt an ache explode in her chest. Marta had been killed so early on during the war, sughtered with everyone ected to the The Ameri Heroes Guild, anyoely close to her had been annihited, even if she had been a nobody. A glorified scout. She felt her body try to cry, but her damaged tear ducts couldn’t weep. The terrible acid burn that had rendered her disabled had rui for her. She reached for Marta’s hand, the caretaker who had been by her side even after bei go by the gover who had paid for her employment with Sonya. She squeezed the woman’s hand desperately. Warm, real, solid. She was alive.
Pandora’s Box had sent her back! Her mind whirled first in disbelief, then in panic.
“Marta! What day is it? What’s going ht now?”
“Sonya, seriously dear, are you okay? You sound terrified,” The woman trailed off as Sonya gripped her wrist.
“The date!” She begged.
“It’s March Third!” Marta gasped, “What’s gotten into you?”
“The time!” Sonya insisted.
“Ah! Uh… just a bit after noon? Sonya, seriously, you’re sg me, did we miss an appoi?” Marta asked.
Sonya dropped to the coud scrambled, muscle memuidio where she always left the remote on the coffee table. She snatched it up and fumbled with it for a moment, remembering where all the buttons were before hurriedly pung in a new el. She felt Marta sit dowo her and could practically sehe caretaker’s . The sound clipped out for a moment oelevision before a new voice cut in.
“I'm here at the National Archeological Museum in Athens where a new exhibit featuring artifacts discovered during the Hesiod Ruin Excavation is on dispy. Of note are numerous ons found at the dig site and an unusual marble cube, as you see, the cube appears to be hinged but researchers have yet to find a way to open it,” A reporter said.
“Was this what you were worried about?” Marta asked, “It’s just an exhibit-”
She was cut off as sounds began to e from the tv, shouts of surprise and fusion. Sonya braced herself, she’d barely been awake a few moments after ing bad already things were kig off. It looked like she didn’t have any time to prepare. “Marta, make sure the front door is locked,” Sonya urged her, gripping the seat as the shouts from the tv grew more frantic.
“There seems to be something going on inside, excuse me!” The reporter called.
“Miss Sonya?” Marta started but Sonya turned and did her best to give the woman a sightless stare. Marta hopped to her feet somewhere nearby and hurried to the door, “It’s locked!”
As if those words were a gunshot fired at the beginning of a race, screams erupted from the s. Marta let out a gasp of horror, “What is that light?”
Sonya pursed her lips together, Here it es…
Sonya braced herself before she felt something wash over her like a tidal wave. She was knocked onto her back, prone on the couch as a burnied in her head, her eyes were on fire! She cried out, she’d fotten how much this had hurt the first time it’d happened. She grit her teeth, fog on the pain rather than running from it. Her memories of what had happened befing to the surface with a white hot fury. Anger boiled her blood and she snarled, she wouldn’t bck out from the pain this time. She wouldn’t wake up on the ground while chaos erupted ireets.
Light assailed her and she wihe light began to dissipate and soon colors and shapes began to make themselves known, particles that solidated intnizable forms. Like the first time, her sight had returo her. She looked down at her pale fingers for a moment. Even after all she’d experiehe first time around she couldn’t believe how easily that fsh of light had ged everything. She felt that odd heaviness in her head, the straig, the sensation of those meical eyes in her skull once again.
Tick tick tick tick tick.
It was the same as before, a remarkably mundane power that because of its weakness she’d never been able to properly foster. She heard Marta groan nearby and got to her feet, hurrying over to the caretaker. She pulled the woman to her feet. Marta looked up at her in bewilderment. “Miss Sonya! Your eyes!” She gasped, raising her hand to her mouth.
Sonya shook her head, “We’ll talk about it ter, do you hear that?” Sonya urged her and took the woman by the wrist. She looked into the woman’s face, a middle aged woman with brown hair and frantic brown eyes. Her hair was a mess and her blouse was askew from having been knocked off her feet. She always looked a bit harried. Just as she remembered her. She tried to remember what else came , the light, her vision, there had been so much fusion.
A bestial roar sent the windows shuddering and a chill rushed up her spine. Marta froze in terror.
That’s right! A monster appeared ireet outside the plex. Ah e on Sonya! What happe? Remember!
“What was that?” Marta cried, stepping back against the wall.
Sonya opened her mouth to say she didn’t know and choked, she tried to speak again but her voice came out strained. She grabbed her throat, fused, and looked up at Marta’s face. She was growing paler and more terrified. She tried again and choked once more. Why? Her mind raced, because what she was going to say wasn’t true? That hadn’t happened before! Sonya grit her teeth, she didn’t have time to think about it, “Whatever it is, isn’t friendly!” Sonya said and the words came out easily. She frowned, avoiding a direswer worked, it seems.
A noisy crash outside shook the building, Marta screamed, and Sonya grabbed her again by the wrist and started to tug her towards the door to the bedroom, her training as a field hero kig in. They o get away from outside windows and walls. Monsters rarely spawned inside of buildings, she khat for certain, they o appear in areas exposed to open air or the sky for some reason. The building shook again. Why couldn’t she remember what had happehe st time? It was all a blur.
Her thoughts raced as Marta finally found the strength to stand and move, Sonya guidio the bedroom and shutting the door behind them.
“What is going on?!” Marta cried, “Was that a monster? What was that light? What happeo your eyes?”
Sonya opened her mouth again to lie and say she didn’t know, but the words choked ihroat. She coughed and turo look at the door, she had to figure out a way to calm Marta down without sounding like an absolute crazy person. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Marta, frankly she was one of the few humans on this p worthy of any kind of trust. How did she tell Marta that she kly what these things were, that they’d been granted powers by Pandora’s Box, and that the world was about to ge forever? Marta would ask her how she knew and Sonya would have to lie again, which clearly she couldn’t do for some reason.
She thought fast, “I don’t uand it either, Marta,” Sonya said, which was true, no one uood how Pandora’s Box worked or what forces were involved that caused all this to happen, “My head feels heavy and I see.”
Another crash followed by a shout and then an explosion. Someone was already trying to fight the monster? Why didn’t she remember that? She couldn’t have been out from getting her powers for more than a few seds, it was the same with every person who got powers from Pandora’s Light. Marta grabbed her hand, “Sonya! We should call the police, right?”
Sonya turned and was about to say that someone probably already had, when she saw something she’d never seen before. Her new sight had givehe ability to see at great distances and make out fiails, but she’d never had a heads up dispy like feature before. Words hung over Marta’s head.
Something like a charge ran up her hand from her tact with Marta’s hand. She felt it wash through her and into her brain. Images, thoughts, fusiails, instincts. It was said that oneone acquired a power from Pandora’s Light, they instinctively knew how to use it or at least the bare minimum of its funality for more plex abilities. It was like she could see something in Marta, an untapped font of power that had been missed by Pandora’s Light. Marta had been an ordinary civilian till the end the first time around, but why? What was differeween her and Sonya?
Luck?
Luck was bullshit.
She instinctively shifted her grip in Marta’s hand, holding it like she was shaking the woman’s hand. More words appeared in her vision.
Appraise? Temporary Sample? Deal? What is this?
Another crash, this one shook the entire room, picture frames fell off the wall and furniture toppled over. She could hear the screams from outside more distinctly. It all came back to her in a rush. While fighting, the monster was sent careening into her apartment. The feral beast had shed out at Sonya and knocked her out. She’d awakened days after the initial bst from Pandora’s Box in a hospital and had been forced to move afterwards.
“Miss Sonya?” Marta's face ale, her entire body trembling as she looked at the door.
Sonya looked at the words again and swallowed, “Marta, do you trust me?”
Marta turned her eyes to Sonya, shocked, “Of course! What’s happening?”
It was like she’d do a huimes before, it came so naturally. She felt a strange e between herself and Marta, specifically an untapped feeling of power hiding just beh the surface. She reached for it, Appraise and Provide Sample, she willed the thoughts into being, following the breadcrumbs created by the instincts that goverhis new ability. It was like a new limb, raw, it ached a little wheivated it. Sonya winced and Marta let out a cry asping as her body began to glow with a familiar light. Pandora’s Light. The light spread from Marta’s arm and into Sonya’s body, sizzling against her skin, she felt it burn into her muscles like an inferno.
The wall behind them exploded, Sonya was sent hurtling towards the bed and skipped over it like a stone, hitting the wall and bg out for a moment. A roar woke her and she scrambled, trying to get her bearings.
The words hung in Sonya’s vision even as a more impossible sight drew her attention. Marta was standing tall, her arms outstretched, and her hands gripped around the jaws of a horrific creature that looked like somethiween a dog and a panther, its smooth body coated with muscles. It tried to swipe at Marta but its arm wouldn’t bend in such a way to reach her.
“How is this possible?” Marta cried out, terrified despite her advantageous position.
“Doesn’t matter!” Sonya shouted back, ba her feet even as her body ached from the impact. “ you kill it?”
“I think so!” The caretaker said, surprised at her owainty, she wrenched her arms and with a titanic effort pulled the creature down to the ground, smming its head on the apartment floor. The room shook with the ford a noisy crack of something breaking ihe body of the beast that sent a chill through Sonya. For a moment, no one moved, no sound, no breathing, nothing. Then the beast let out its st breath and shuddered.
Sonya stared i Marta’s back. The humble caretaker, the housewife, the woman that had died ignobly at the hands of Sonya’s enemies iure, was strong! Really strong!
Marta turned and looked at Sonya, her eyes wide with shock, “I… I did it!” She gasped as light began to build on her skin again, and then faded. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she colpsed into a heap. Sonya darted forward and caught the unscious woman. She held Marta in her arms and looked down at her own hand that still tingled from the handshake. She ched it into a fist as a dark smile began to spread across her lips.
“Maybe I do it too…” Sonya whispered as sirens approached.