A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 31

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 31

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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The fight between Anderson and Walker was taking longer than expected, but that’s how I figured it’d go.

Walker wasn’t willing to break bones or cause grievous injury, so Anderson’s healing factor combined with her fanaticism to prolong the fight.

Still, it was best to get on the move.

“Alright, we’re relocating this is getting too hot.” I placed a hand on Felix’s shoulder and took him away. I went back and got the recently-healed, even the ones that tried to rejoin the fight, and took them along. The cheaters, I let trip and fall flat, but the good ones I just dropped off. “This is a decent enough place.”

I didn’t recall the name, but we were on the big, white spire-thing that dominated Vegas’s skyline. When I’d popped into it a few weeks ago, the observation deck was trashed, but cleanup was easy with my power. A few minutes popping all the trash over to a landfill netted me a sweet tower. I stocked it with a small solar panel, battery, and fridge, along with a chair, so that I could enjoy a meal with a view over the dessert and the ruin of the city of sin.

Was I sad about the loss of so many world-class buffets?

Yes, but that wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying a great vista.

“No, the Saint can’t possibly lose!”

Oh, right, there was a fight going on.

I’ll pay my respects to the Vegas buffets in the future.

“Don’t get close to the edge, kid. All the glass got blown out years ago.” Vegas didn’t last long when the international flights stopped coming in. The rich of other countries didn’t last very long, unless they managed to get their own superpowers, and then they just became warlords that the US didn’t want in their territory. “Stay back and watch from a safe distance. You’re not going to do anyone any favors by falling off the edge.”

Felix, if I recalled his name correctly, gave me a glare, but did as he was told.

I took my single seat, lounged on it, and took a look at the contents of my mini-fridge. Cold juice and water, since I kept my soda locked up tight in my bunker, and regulated my access to it. There was only a small amount left, and after that I was going to rely on carbonating syrup and water… but in ten years or so, unless I found the secret recipes and learned the processes, soda was going to disappear.

I couldn’t let that happen.

Oh, Anderson just went straight through the pirate ship thing.

Neat.

“Hey, feel free to grab drinks. Hydration is important. If you all need to piss or anything, just go over to the other side of the tower and do the dead there.” Again, the fight between Walker and Anderson was a battle of wills. Anderson had the advantage of being absolutely, batshit insane, while Walker was Walker. I figured this was going to be a slugfest, but the winner was obvious. “You can all—

And, someone’s energy blast just got slapped aside by my defenses.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What was that for?” I finished a sip before speaking. Felix hadn’t done it. It was one of Anderson’s supporters. The last one who got knocked down, meaning that she was decent in a fight. Cropped red hair. Well-built. Baggy flight suit with a temperature regulation unit on the belt. I assumed she was she out of instinct, but put the thought out of my mind for now. Right now, gender identification was not the issue. It was where to send this crazy person. “If you want to go home that badly, I’ll go ahead and send you there.”

“Y-you must be aiding Maelstrom somehow! None of this makes any sense. Her power and ability is far beyond what she’s said to be capable of!”

“If you’re going by official records, and news clips, totally. But Maelstrom’s always been stronger than that.” That was while considering the fact she was known to have cleaned up most of the nation by herself. Walker was a singularity in human form. Everything got sucked into her gravity and nothing could escape. A real main character, while the whole stage was the world. “The only thing I’m doing here is making sure none of you get hurt.”

“If you’re here for the sake of peace, then you should be helping us! Why do you side with the likes of her?” Jeez, the mental gymnastics that just took place in that instant sure are scary. How the fuck was me wanting to prevent bloodshed leading to this person declaring that it was in my interest to help them out? I could barely guess at the logic behind between those two thoughts. “The only path forward is to unite this nation under God!”

“Right. A religious theocracy with literal superhumans that can pass on their genes. That’ll get us out of the impending Dark Age.” I shot back, but only received a confused look in response. Damn, I thought this kid was around my age. Seems like these guys are the new generation, so young that they barely remembered was lost… let alone properly educated. “Okay, you don’t get that. Fine. I think Maelstrom’s way forward will cause a lot less terrible things from happening, so I’m not fighting against her and helping her not kill anyone. Does that make sense?”

“You’d be able to help more by fighting against her! Why do you refuse to understand that!?”

“I’m not refusing to understand anything. The only fact you’ve got backing your argument is ‘God says so!’ That’s not an argument at all!” I’d given this a lot of thought. More than anyone would give me credit for. It can be reasonably argued that this was a chance for a fresh start, that we could take a few steps back to figure things out, and forget about the last hundred years as an industrial fluke while we re-organized the human race. As long as knowledge was kept, people weren’t repressed, and the nobility arising wasn’t a fucking bunch of morons, I’d go for the Agricultural Devolution plan. However, that’s in a vacuum. Maelstrom’s idea is way safer with all the outside threats that still exist everywhere on the planet. “Look, you’re not getting me to help Anderson out. So just sit down and wait for the fight to end, okay?”

The red-haired pilot/superhuman was about to speak, when I heard a final crack in the distance, the skies turned to night for a moment, and something like thunder surged from the heavens and hit something. It was followed by the sound of thunder, if thunder could blare right into my ear, and then the crashing of a building, then another, and then another.

Half of the strip was basically gone from that one attack.

And, over it, loomed Maelstrom undefeated and unscratched.

I didn’t bother to listen to the rest of the argument, I took the healer and sent myself over to the inside of the crater.

…

“Sup.”

“Egress.”

“No!” Felix took off in a run. Anderson’s armor was nowhere to be seen, and most of her left side was burnt up. Not enough to vaporize, but defiantly second-degree burns. She was already healing and stirring, despite being hit with a particle cannon. The fact that she was defeated was plain as can be, though. Maelstrom could’ve killed her a dozen times over in the opening engagement, but this just made the fact that much clearer. “Saint!”

I almost expected Anderson to get up and push the kid away, telling him that she hadn’t lost yet, but that wasn’t the case.

She groaned and moaned like a normal human being after being caught up in an energized beam of the atmosphere ambient particles.

Well, most human beings would’ve just been vaporized by the hit, while most superhumans that weren’t tough enough would’ve lost their whole side.

Luckily, Anderson was a good combination of very tough and very resilient at the same time.

“That took you a while.”

“I had to make sure that she wouldn’t die, so I increased my strength  in increments with each engagement.” Maelstrom levitated a few inches off the ground and crossed her arms. In the periphery of my senses, by detecting where I couldn’t go, I could feel the spaces where her power was gathered. It was like seeing an intangible skyscraper aloft in the air. A no-go zone for my power that was ready to accelerate and direct energy and matter both towards a target. The world really lucked out in not getting her as a villain.  Hell, it probably blew all its luck in getting her as a hero everyone else wanted to be. “How are the others?”

“Alive and pissed. One threw something at me, but I just batted it away.”

“Was that something a bolt of energy or a rock?”

“I was drinking juice, so I just felt the bounce.”

“I see.”

Kids get to make a mistake or two. I wasn’t going to let it just happen, either. Anderson’s people have some good baked goods at their disposal and a constant stream of it to keep my mouth shut sounded pretty good. I’d visit Paris, but the French were up to their old traditions of revolution and land warfare again, so my go-to boulangeries were off-limits for the moment. Hm. I keep forgetting to check on Japan. I recalled not getting in there… was there someone protecting that place or something?

Great, now I need to get the extra lead-lining again.

“Alexis contacted me during the fight. She said something about you not even going to Africa, when you told Parvati that it was consolidated between four warlords?” I let a sigh leave my nose. This was why I didn’t open up tells for someone to fall for. They usually got more out that I wanted them to. “Parvati is very cross with you for lying.”

“Parvati can go over there and check on things herself. She has satellites. Good ones. As for you guys… you’ll have to pay me a ludicrous amount of money to go anywhere close there.”

“Noted.”

Our little chat was interrupted by Anderson giving of a loud yell and rising.

The power-armor flight suit she wore was hanging off only half her chest and most of her right side was on display. Thankfully, I’m not fucked in the head, so I didn’t think a woman coming at me with blood and ash over a nude half side was hot. It was more intimidating than anything else.

“This isn’t over, Maelstrom!”

“It is. I have taken your measure, and I know exactly how much power to defeat you without harming you permanently.” The scent of ozone filled the air. It was getting agitated and closing in on being burnt. Dust and small stones began to rise off the ground and a faint rumbling, like a car engine, started to echo in every direction. It was all for show. Maelstrom didn’t need to charge it up. “Your people and my own will be bound together. We will trade, we will pursue prosperity together, and we will stand against the world entire, if necessary.”

“My nation is pure, kind, and considerate of one another, while you surround yourself with sinners. How many of those you call your subjects have the blood of thousands on their hands!?”

“Many, yet none will oppose me, and they will do as I say. My word is law, my judgement is final, and their demise comes at a moment’s notice.” Maelstrom let the theatrics loose. A visible beam appeared above her that drowned out the noon sun in its brightness. Then, another came into being, and another, and another, and another, until a volley two dozen in number were behind her and pointed at Anderson. I told her to get with the program and act like a tyrant, and she’d acted surprised, but here she was playing the part perfectly. “I know every crime they have committed. I know their every story. And, I know that if they stop seeking redemption, then I will treat them accordingly to their crimes.”

I watched Anderson and her little healer for a second, but I knew the talk was already over.

They were both, in the back of their minds, wondering if they were looking at God made flesh.

That’s how a lot of the religious nuts looked at anyone who could make more miracles than anyone else.

“Anderson, I am willing to compromise. A delay in the opening of borders between your lands and my own. All interactions between our people, anyone who wishes to live in your lands or mine, will require passports and documentation.” Maelstrom, having shown the hammer, offered the silken glove. A compromise. “You are free to practice your religion, and I will not allow those with criminal pasts to go into your lands. All I want on this day is the first steps to remaking the nation that once stretched from sea to shining sea.”

That line was corny as hell, but Walker was playing to her conservative, Christian audience of American Midwesterners and southerners well enough.

Anderson looked like she sucked on a lemon, but accepted the help of Felix to remain standing.

“Fine. That’s acceptable. Our people will meet each other where you stood upon our holy land to hammer out terms on paper.” Anderson balefully glared at Maelstrom, but she stopped shaking when the dozens of particle beams held suspended in the air dissipated. You that it’s hard to be intimidating when you’re a few seconds from pissing yourself in fear, right? “But I want an additional clause.”

“I will hear it.”

“Him, Egress… I need him for a job.” Anderson looked my way and spat to the side at my raised eyebrow. “Don’t pretend like you haven’t chosen them!”

I shrugged.

“I’m working with them for cattle mostly, but I do like how they do things more than how you do things.” I didn’t deny it. There wasn’t a point. “I’m a freelancer, though.”

“I will not act against you for hiring Egress, unless you instruct him to deliver something terrible upon my lands.” Maelstrom clarified the situation and nodded. “He will be with us when we meet for terms of the treaty, Anderson. See you then.”

Maelstrom took flight with that and left.

I took it as my own cue to leave.

All things considered, since we didn’t have a crusade or jihad declared against us, I called this situation a tentative victory.