The woman, glowing with a pale golden light, floated above the city of Fukuoka and looked down over it, surveying the destruction. It was horrifying. At least a quarter of the city was completely leveled. You could visually trace the path the monster had taken: it had broken shore a ways west of the city and had made its way directly towards downtown. Nothing had been able to stop it. The Zodiac, a collection of some of the strongest heroes on Earth, had barely been able to slow it down. Two of them had died, and three more were seriously injured. Dozens of independent heroes and even villains had already died trying to stop the monster, and probably hundreds of thousands of civilians had died. It seemed unstoppable.
The floating woman continued visually following the path of destruction until she spotted the monster. It was fighting with Gemini and a local villain he had paired with, who seemed to be moving buildings into the monster’s path with telekinesis, slowing it down and even making it stagger. It wouldn’t last, the floating woman knew. The monster would learn, would find a way to break past the debris and neutralize the telekinetic. But, it would buy her some time to charge what she needed. She looked around the city until she found what she was really looking for. A nuclear fusion battery, probably designed by some local villain or hero in an attempt to power their gear or lab. She flew towards it faster than a normal eye could follow, blasting towards it with enough force to punch cleanly through walls if she wanted to. She did, and the golden light around her solidified the instant before she impacted the wall. The wall shattered against her forcefield and she continued on the way like there had been nothing there.
She reached the battery and picked it up. Surprisingly small, she thought. It was about the size of a basketball. She flexed her power again and tore the battery open. The miniature sun inside bathed her in energy, and it felt like her skin was on fire. The pain sunk through her skin and sat somewhere inside her body, and it felt like her chest was going to explode. The miniature sun was gone, all its energy absorbed into her body. She blasted off again, leaving the ruined battery behind. She launched herself at the monster. Gemini and the telekinetic were still trying to slow it down, and that meant it was more or less still. She shouted at them to run, to go as far as they could. The monster swung seven or eight of its thirty-something bus-sized heads in her direction. She collided with it.
The shockwave from the impact was enough to shatter windows three blocks away. The woman swung an aura-cloaked fist at one of the monster’s heads that came at her and the head exploded into a cloud of gore and blood. She could see that it was already starting to regenerate, and she knew that it would only be minutes at most before it was completely healed. She screamed, and it wasn’t a sound of rage or terror. It was frustration.
The pain in her chest continued to blossom. She looked in the distance to see that Gemini and the telekinetic seemed to be far enough away. She looked at the residential buildings around her. They were evacuated, right? They were supposed to be evacuated. She could only hope that they were.
The monster took advantage of her momentary lapse in concentration to slam a head into her side. Her aura solidified instinctively, protecting her from the worst of the blow, but she was still slammed through the building next to her with enough force to leave a sizable crater in the far wall. As she hit the wall she kicked off of it, launching herself back into the creature. Both of her fists slammed into its chest and it stumbled backwards. She punched it again, and again and again, and the creature tipped backwards and landed on its back. The woman screamed again, but the sound was buried by the hissing of steam as the monster unleashed massive amounts of heat from its body, enough to melt the glass and steel of the surrounding buildings. If it wasn’t for her aura, the woman would’ve melted too.
The pain in her chest was reaching a breaking point. She hadn’t done this since she first got her powers, and that time she went to the middle of the ocean so she wouldn’t kill anyone. This time, she had to do it here. She had to stop this monster or it would keep killing people. Her aura intensified more, and it was bright enough to make the surrounding buildings seem bathed in daylight. She floated up above the buildings. She thought it would probably make a sphere, so if she went higher she could limit the damage somewhat. But, she didn’t know how big the sphere was, so she couldn’t go too far away for risk of missing the monster.
Somehow, it seemed to know what was coming. It ran towards the ocean, and it was fast. The woman was faster. She maintained her position directly above it, which brought her right next to an apartment building taller than the rest of the surrounding buildings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement through the window. It was an old man, sitting in a chair facing out the window and staring at her. The pain in her chest was suddenly accompanied by a sick, cold feeling. The city was supposed to be evacuated! The man looked at her, and she would have expected to see fear in his eyes. Instead, she only saw peace. He stood slowly and gave her a deep bow, and she knew that it was too late. She flew at the monster again and collided with it, sending up a prayer to any god that there may be for forgiveness before she exploded.
Gemini was flying away from the monster as fast as he could. He didn’t know who the glowing woman was, but over the course of the last seven hours and forty-six minutes of fighting this monster, she had gained his trust. The light coming from her intensified, even from this far away it was painful to look directly at her. He watched as she floated above the buildings, flying quickly towards the ocean, probably following the monster. Suddenly she stopped and floated in front of a tall building. After a few seconds, she rocketed towards the monster again, and suddenly Gemini’s entire world went golden.
Once the light had cleared, half of the city was gone.
The woman had released enough energy to obliterate half of the city. Gemini watched as she floated, still glowing faintly, with her arms and legs splayed out for a moment and then fell from the sky. The monster was below her, missing much of its body. Gemini launched himself towards her and managed to catch her before she hit the ground, and he floated them slowly down the rest of the way. The monster was still, but he could see its chest heaving. It had survived? He thought, astounded. Could this thing even be killed? Suddenly it moved, and it dashed to the ocean, disappearing under the waves before Gemini could even react. He looked to the woman, still glowing. She wasn’t moving, but she was breathing – barely. He flew with the woman up and away from the crater, leaving the shell of Fukuoka and the ghosts of a million dead behind.
Cambria's Corner 
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