Cambria's Corner

On the horizon, the city burned.

Leo watched the flames rage and bit his nails. He wasn’t sure how the fire had started. Kaiju didn’t make fire, only steam, and there were plenty of pyrokinetic supes in the fray, but nobody who could start something on this scale. Maybe some electrical lines went down, or-

Leo shook his head to get back on track. He had been awake for 39 hours. The Zodiac had gone from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, and just after stopping a supervillain threat had had to fly halfway across the world to fight Kaiju. Leo had been there the whole time, working with the Zodiac and dozens of other heroes and villains in an attempt to slow down the monster. Aurum was out of commission for at least another 8 hours after using up her batteries on some squad of villains right before this attack started, and she needed the time to recharge. 

Behind Leo laid a small suburb of the city. Applewood Park, or something like that, he couldn’t remember exactly. About 1200 people lived in the town, really more of a village than anything. Of those, many had been evacuated, so there were, according to his estimates, about 400 people left – those who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, leave their homes. 

To his left was the temporary HQ he had set up for the Zodiac command center. Little more than a couple tents with some computers in them, it nonetheless served as an adequate base of operations. Leo usually acted as a sort of field coordinator, especially during large operations like this one. His power allowed him to build superstructures beyond what normal architecture could achieve, but it also gave him a sense for the nitty-gritty and complicated interactions of commanding such a large force of supes. Even for him, though, it was a lot to handle.

To his right, though, was his secret weapon. She was some minor supervillain from somewhere in New England, by the name of Vampire. She was able to drain the lifeforce from other people to boost her own physical capabilities, seemingly a strong but costly Gemini/Taurus mix. Her real use, however, came in the fact that she could do it in reverse, too: she could put that drained lifeforce back into the victims she stole it from. She almost never did, for the exact reason she was useful. The result was messy, really messy. Even more useful, though, was that she could force it all into one target, and if they didn’t have her power, the results could be catastrophic – enough to stop the monster, Leo hoped. Doing it could save thousands, maybe millions, in the city before them and who knows how much farther, but the people of this town wouldn’t survive. To Leo, that was no choice at all. What else was there to do?

He nodded at Vampire and prepared himself to make the call to his teammates. Gemini wasn’t going to be happy.

---

“We have to do it,” Leo said quietly, his eyes downcast.

“No.” Gemini said calmly, ice behind his eyes. “We can’t do that.”
“We have to!” Leo raised his head and met Gemini’s eyes, fire to his fellow hero’s ice. “What are the lives of a few hundred against thousands, millions? How many have already died because you refuse to do what needs to be done?”

“We don’t decide who lives and who dies, Emil.”
“We already are! While we’re here arguing and debating over this bullshit, that monster is killing people that we’re refusing to save! Those people could be alive right now but you chose not to save them!”

“Al always said-”
“I don’t give a shit what Al always said. He was wrong and now he’s dead. I’m not going to fight about this anymore, Hank. If you’re not going to give the order, I will.”

“You know I can’t let you do that,” Gemini said as he floated a few centimeters off the ground. Leo thought that the pompous bastard probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.
“Then you’re going to have to stop me.”
“Emil, don’t make me do this,” Gemini was speaking down to him now, even though Leo normally had almost 6 inches on him. Leo looked over at Libra, who had been quiet so far. 

“Shay, help me. You have to understand, right? Your power has to be telling you that it would work.”

Libra nodded slowly. “It would work, Emil. It wouldn’t kill it, but it would drive it off. Vampire’s blast can reach one comparable to a low-level one from Aurum.”

“See? Without her this is our best, so far our only, option,” Leo was growing desperate. They had to see it!

“But Hank is right,” Libra interrupted. “We can’t do it.” He knew that was coming, but he still felt his heart drop. 

Leo put his hands into his pockets and sighed. “Fine. I can’t force you two to go along with it.” He surreptitiously pressed the button in his pocket, the one that would give Vampire the signal to go. “But I have to do this.” Both of his teammates’ eyes went wide, and Gemini lunged for his hands. Too late. Leo had already had Vampire drain the townspeople here and had sent her into the city. All she was waiting for was his signal. “I’m sorry, Hank, Shay. Do whatever you want with me, but-” he was interrupted by the earth itself shaking beneath his feet. He looked out into the city to see a colossal wave of reddish-brown energy radiating outwards from where the silhouette of the monster could be seen. It was hurt, badly. At least 20 of its 30 heads had been obliterated (although Leo knew not forever) and half of its torso was gone. The remaining heads were reared back in pain, and as he watched, the monster turned and fled towards the ocean. The sounds of the explosion and the pained roars of the monster hit the heroes as the monster fled.

Gemini stared at Leo, mouth agape. “Emil… how could you do this?” Leo could see his friend’s eyes welling up with tears. “What are we supposed to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything. I’m leaving the Zodiac. And amnesty applies to heroes too, don’t you remember?” Leo shrugged and looked down. “I’m sorry,” he said again. What else was there to say? He turned and walked back into his command center to gather his things. When he walked back out, Gemini and Libra, once his closest friends and teammates, were still standing still and staring at the ruins of the city in the distance. Leo paused for a moment, nearly ready to reach out to his friends. In the end, he simply walked away.

After all, what else was there to do?