A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 30

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 30

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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“Congratulations on stopping Maelstrom, Designation: Egress.”

“Yeah, I’m the best. You’re welcome. North America didn’t blow up.” I decided to take Jack over to the lake near Maelstrom’s house. Kaede Walker was probably flying around Vegas and scouting it out. Parvati had eyes on the place, and I’d politely asked her to keep an eye on things, so that I could get there and stop blood from getting spilled. “Now, for my second trick, I’m going to do my best to not die, while keeping everyone else from killing each other.

“Maelstrom has held back on most of her engagements. She is noted to be one of the few individuals who do their utmost to keep their foes alive.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but accidents still happen. Freak accidents which make things a lot more complicated. Like you, me, and everyone else who isn’t a basic human being.” Jack trundled towards the shoreline, but I zipped towards him and got him before he got into the water. No deep bodies of water without a doggy water vest, as well as the knowledge that he could swim in shallow waters first. “You’d be surprised how many superhumans just suddenly die, even when no one’s meant to.”

“I see.”

Parvati turned her orb-like Drone form towards a direction, and I turned to face that way too.

It was Conner and Brian, as well as Alexis, all making their way towards me. The two guys in in flight suits vaguely in WW2 fashion gave waves towards me, but the short Dick Tracy aficionado was glaring at me and stomping her way towards me. She had a new mask on. A full-face covering one that had big lenses shaped into them that were the same black as the rest. Pretty cool aesthetic, definitely a good action figure for both boys and girls.

“Egress, you can’t just keep running—

“Unless you happen to have a nuclear energy grid and a dense enough energy field, then I definitely can. Running away’s my whole shtick.”  I gave both the young gentlemen nods and waves, before focusing on their boss. They took that as their cue to walk past us both and enjoy flying over the waves. “Look, I know that you and everyone else here wants to help Egress out, but lets all be honest: you’re all going to slow her down, or be targets of opportunity, even with new, fancy gear.”

“We have been preparing for months against Anderson’s forces. Electronic break-in systems, overload systems, and even outright overrides of their systems. We’ve taken samples of their ICE and broken it and over a hundred different iterations.” Woah, I’m feeling old now. I got the basic gist of what I was being told, which was that Maelstrom’s people had countermeasures against power armor, but beyond that I was having trouble interpreting things. “Anderson doesn’t stand a chance against Maelstrom without her power armor, even with all her supporters!”

“They don’t stand a chance against Maelstrom even with the power armor and the rest of the world at their back.” I corrected Alexis, who steamed at my statement. On closer inspection, beneath the detective jacket was some sort of tech-oriented suit. Slinky enough to put under the clothes, but with all the tools, processing power, and cooling necessary to break through power armor firewalls? I was impressed. These guys knew where to put their resources. “Maelstrom would feel better knowing that, even if she somehow lost, that you and the twin wonders will be able to hold the line in case Anderson wants to cross the Rockies.”

“We need to not risk that ever happening, Egress.” Alexis insisted, but this time her voice took on a more pleading tone. She went as far as to put her hands together to plead at me and hope for some pity. I wasn’t into that. “You know as well as I do that the only thing that kept the world together back then was an idea. The idea that they had heroes that were untouchable, or would always do the right thing. We need that idea now too, and it’s Maelstrom. If she even gets scratched, if she’s not invincible, then—

“Then, everything would happen again, everyone would go and kill each other, and no one will be happy. Blah, blah, blah.” Alexis went from pleading to furious in an instant. It was bad enough hat Parvati decided to bash its chassis against my shoulder. I glared at the AI, but it pretended to have nothing, even with a chunk of its chassis shorn off by my raised defenses. The look away from Alexis refreshed my eyes, though, and I could see that the superhuman was angrier than I expected her to be. “Well, it looks like I hit the wrong button.”

“You spent the years since the apocalypse holed up in luxury, eating your fill, training, entertaining yourself, and becoming stronger. You can’t begin to understand, even if you listened to the radios until they cut off, what kind of hell everyone else had to live through.” Alexis insisted and I listened. The blank stare that I was sending her way must’ve ticked her off, because she decided to approach me with big, stomping steps just to glare at me through her full-face mask. “I watched millions die. I was there when cities fell to rioting, then hunger, and then die of thirst. Everything wrong that could happen did happen, and we went through it all, while you were safe in your fucking bunker!”

I was tempted to ask her if she was done, but I just decided to go for the kill.

“That happened in Africa five years before the rest of the world. Three in Mexico. Two in South America. I fought, I tried to save everyone I could, and lived through what you went through over the rest of the world.” I lowered my defenses I little to make her power do the heavy lifting. That got her to take a step back and look completely surprised. “In China and Russia, once superhumans came into the picture, both countries came apart at the seams and went straight back to murdering each other as their favorite hobby.”

I did my best to not be angry.

It wasn’t her fault.

She was like the rest of the human race in the “first world” while the world began to end. Placated and fed lies, while their governments funneled money to people like me to put down warlords nearing their territory, smuggle fantastic weapons to bolster their armies, and do whatever else it took to outlast the storm. Everyone else started burning, collapsing under the weight of a new paradigm, while they controlled information, did their best with their existing systems, and tried to adapt.

I wished that they had.

I wished that I ended up wrong.

But, in the end, the whole world fell apart.

“I served my time, Alexis, and I decided to retire, because continuing meant driving straight over the edge.” China’s now a hundred nations, each vying for control. Superhuman warlords are fighting at the heads of legions armed with everything from spears to laser rifles. India’s at constant war with itself and all its regions, their modern living only existing because of the society of superhuman geniuses that seem inherent to their bloodline. Russia’s a snowscape filled with holdouts, bunkers, and its getting stained red. Africa… I never checked on Africa. What I left behind there gave me nightmares, and if it continued all these years, I was sure that it was hell on Earth. “The end of the world didn’t happen when your country fell. It fell years and years before America did, and I was there at the very start. All I did was leave before the end of the last act.”

“That… that…” Alexis tried to deny her own power, but all it probably did was tell her that she was wrong, while I put my defenses back up. A glance and Parvati gave me a nod and projected some coordinates. “…Why?”

I was tempted to give some bitter answer about humanity being garbage, that society was built off of the monopoly of violence and so it could only crash when that disappeared, but I decided against it.

“If there’s anything I learned from all these years, all anyone can do is try to protect themselves and who they care about. You want to protect Maelstrom? Go ahead, but you’re not strong enough to make me to help you, so find another way.” Dots were coming from Anderson’s territory towards Walker’s location. Fifteen in total. Anderson brought only the big guns along, which was a smart move. “Don’t think about the past. Live now and do what you can with your own hands, but… keep in mind that a guy who can be everywhere he wants barely protect himself.”

With that little piece of advice handed out, I sent myself off to try and make a massacre into just an old-fashioned beatdown.

…

Maelstrom spared me a glance when I appeared on the safe rooftop she was floating beside. I started doing a gear check, as well as double-checking my seals, just in case someone decided to use bioweapons. Given the fact they were trying to beat Maelstrom, I wasn’t going to cross anything off the line in terms of weapons.

We waited in silence for a bit, but as soon as dots appeared in the horizon above the dead city of Vegas, Walker decided to speak to me.

“Thank you for not bringing anyone else along.”

“I might be an asshole, but I know better than to just drag decent people into messes like these.”

“I see. Still, thank you.”

“I want a discount on my cow.”

“I’ll ask the farmers.”

“They raised the prices the last time I asked you to!”

“They must not like you very much, I’m afraid.”

Walker chuckled, and for a second, she looked like a young woman floating in the wind, wearing a suit she was going to go into an interview for, and an outrageous coat fluttering on her shoulders.

But, in this fucked up world, she was in charge of most of the West Coast and acting as its tyrant leader.

She should be storming her way up the corporate ladder, while I plied whatever trade I could that let me travel.

But that wasn’t the case.

We were surrounded by the ruins of the old world, while desperately trying to make a new one that wasn’t going to end up killing itself.

Fuck.

I need a break.

“Egress, if you don’t mind…”

“Yeah, I’m here to keep casualties down as much as possible. I wasn’t going to help you even a little.” I got up and did another check. While I was doing it, Anderson arrived with their fifteen chosen champions. I felt several glares my way, while Maelstrom floated away. I addressed the fanatics directly. “I’m a referee and insurance against anyone dying. Just do whatever you planned to do against the strongest being in the planet. I’ll just be watching.”

There were communications unheard between the individuals in flying power armor, until one detached.

The armor opened up and let loose a kid about fifteen years old next to me wearing a white tunic, pants, and golden cross.

He stayed while the armor flew up.

“Sup.”

“Greetings, my name is Felix. I am a healer. Bring the wounded of our holy congregation to me.”

“Got it. They won’t be going back in, though.”

“That is acceptable.”

I didn’t like talking to anyone under 21, so I ignored the kid’s existence and turned towards the fight.

Anderson, surprisingly, didn’t start with a speech.

She just looked at Maelstrom, then her followers, and drew her sword and pointed at Maelstrom’s way.

They charged at her, and the battle began.

…

I’ve seen Maelstrom fight on many occasions.

There wasn’t a time that I could recall where she ever lost.

Scratch that.

There wasn’t a time that I could recall where shew as even looked like she could lose.

This is the part of where I say that I’m surprised, that Anderson pulled some trick out of her sleeves, and there was actually Maelstrom 2.0 in her ranks.

Yeah.

That wasn’t the case.

Asspulls like out of comic books and movies didn’t come out of nowhere.

In real life, when a normal human being tries to stop a car… the car wins.

When a smaller bunch of tribes united to face the oncoming empire, they don’t pull out a victory thanks to friendship and diversity in strength, they get rolled over, their kids and wives enslaved, and their lands taken.

When a shitty, beat-up tank goes against an up-gunned, upgraded MBT meant to try and kill superhumans, it gets blown to bits.

That’s just how things go.

This was a beatdown.

In less than fifty seconds, Anderson was standing alone against Maelstrom, while she stood in the middle of the crater of what used to be a casino, without so much as a scratch on her suit.

Let alone her skin.

The moment she let go of her latest, defeated opponent I popped in and plopped the poor bastard next to the rest of his unconscious friends.

Felix, meanwhile, was shivering and shaking.

None of the previous high-brow nature or vocabulary was present.

Just a scared kid.

“H-how? We…we can’t lose! God willed us to be here and be victorious.” The kid was careening straight into a mental breakdown, so I grunted and made him aware of his in-pain comrade. That barely got his attention and he kept glancing Maelstrom and Anderson’s way, while healing wounds. I really hoped that it was a convenient power that didn’t need much concentration from him. Otherwise, most of these guys were going to have problems. “How is this happening!?”

For the nth time today, I was tempted to be a sarcastic asshole to someone younger than me, but I had a soft-spot for people just learning the ropes.

Some called them kids.

I preferred to call them rookies to the fact life was just fucked up.

So, I tended to be nice to them and give them actual advice.

“None of you are just strong enough. Maybe in a few decades, whoever you worship will drop along someone who can beat her, but not today.” I was tempted to ruffle the kid’s hair, but refrained. Talking to a kid was already toeing the line. Touching was a big no-no. What? The federal and state government are gone? If you only follow those laws because of what society has deemed, I’d like to know where you live, so I can drop off some very nice, blue-colored lights. “Hey, who knows, maybe Anderson will pull through.”

Mhmm, just as I said that, Anderson got pushed through five buildings.

Yeah.

Maelstrom not having to worry about collateral was pretty much an instant win condition.