The Big Fight, Part Three

Charlie followed the man, at least until Elliot grabbed her by the hand. "Stop!" he said. "We don't even know who this guy is! He could be the Benefactor, for all we know!"

She shook her head. "No. He's not. Tim's fighting the Benefactor right now."

Allie asked, "How can you know that?"

She turned to her friends. "Because he told me. The Benefactor did."

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "Why would he do that?"

"Because..." She rubbed at her arm, sighed. "Because he used to love me."

"What?!" Allie asked.

The mysterious man interjected, "Ms. Harkins' explanations will have to wait until after my one, I'm afraid. If you'll please follow me?"

Charlie turned to her friends and nodded, then turned to follow the mysterious man. They followed him through several rooms, down three flights of stairs, and then finally to an elevator. Where the hell could this even go? The mysterious man with the cigarette stepped into the elevator, then motioned for the three heroes to step in after him. Charlie went first, followed by Elliot, followed by Allie.

As the elevator traveled down, the mysterious man said, "I'm certain you three are wondering who I am. Ms. Harkins in particular." He tapped the ashes into a small ashtray/wristwatch-type thing that Charlie didn't recognize. "I've been watching the Chosen for some time. Quite a long time, in fact."

Elliot said, "For three months?"

The man smiled. "Longer than that, Mr. Jones. Longer than you've been alive."

Charlie asked, "You mean, there were Chosen before us?"

"Oh, a great many. Chosen have been appearing in many different forms over recorded history. The Salem Witch Burnings, the Knights of the Round Table, even Godzilla himself is believed to have been inspired by the tale of a Chosen or a Rejected."

"Wait..." Allie said, "so you mean that... everything fantastical or magical or sci-fi or anything is based on a Chosen?"

Charlie asked, "So... say... Spider-Man is based on a Chosen who had spider powers like I do?"

The man shrugged. "It's possible. We've been observing Chosen, but we don't know all of them. It would be ironic, however, for Chosen to have inspired the comic book heroes and heroines that have since inspired many more Chosen to take up the fight."

The elevator finally came to a stop, and emptied into a very plain looking hallway. There were dozens of men in suits walking around, and two men with assault rifles guarding every door. The mysterious man led them past several doors, around at least three corners and finally into a very plain looking door that had no guards. The man sat down behind a desk, while the three heroes stood on the opposite side of it.

"What are we doing here?" Elliot asked.

The man set a small cube-like device down on his desk, then pressed a button. Suddenly, the room was filled holoscreens of footage of various different people. It was quite obvious all of them were Chosen. Charlie even recognized herself on a few of them. There was Elliot on another, and Allie, and Frank, and Guardian, and Brenda... There were so many of them.

"These are all the Chosen that have appeared since the latest event," the man said, "you'll notice yourselves and your friends, obviously, though I guarantee there's more than a few that you don't recognize."

"Is this why we're here? For you to show us this?" Elliot was once again the one who asked.

The man shut the cube off. "These are all the people who, like yourselves, will be targeted by the public once this whole messy affair is over."

***

Tim dodged several metal spikes that suddenly rose from the floor, then countered with a mix of fireballs and ice balls, landing each one of them on the Benefactor's face. The villain's face instantly healed, yet again, and then he went to work creating illusions that Tim saw through quite quickly.

Tim sped toward him, jumped, shifted his feet into spikes, then drop-kicked the Benefactor in the chest. His feet dug in, and he started stomping on the Benefactor's chest, one foot and then the other. Blood was kicked up and splattered on much of the room before the Benefactor pulled him off and threw him at the wall.

Tim sat up and wiped blood off his face. "We're running out of walls to break, man."

The Benefactor morphed his left arm into a chainsaw. "Don't worry. We've almost reached the end of this."

"That's too bad. I haven't broken a sweat yet."

***

Knight threw a group of boomerang blades at Korra, but the girl simply shot them out of the air with her electric bolts. Then he performed a combat roll and planted six small charges on the ground by her feet. He jumped out of the way just in time for Quake to destroy them with her ability.

Unfortunately, the explosions didn't do anything to Korra, who had created a rock wall between herself and the charges. She dropped the wall and shot several electric blasts at her former friends, one of them hitting Hold-Up in the chest. Dammit! Knight drew his staff again, spun it, then brought it across Korra's face. In response, Korra kicked him in the stomach, and knocked him half a block down the street.

He stood up just in time to see Korra grab Hold-Up by the neck and place her hand on his forehead. "No!" Quake shouted. Knight watched as the ground around Korra and Hold-Up simply exploded, no indications from Quake herself that she was even going to detonate anything. The street was suddenly flying shrapnel, as if there'd been explosives underneath it. Is it a mutation of her powers? he asked himself, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.

When the smoke cleared, Hold-Up was unharmed, as if nothing had happened. Korra, on the other hand, was rapidly regrowing a missing leg and nursing a large hole in her abdomen that appeared as though it was refusing to close. Quake walked up to her former teammate, grabbed her by the collar, and hoisted her in the air. "You little bitch," she spat, obviously surprising Ms. Reston. "You were gonna get help, Korra. You were gonna get your powers removed, Korra. You weren't gonna join up with this fucking psychopath, Korra!" She threw Korra at the remains of a building, and then the building exploded multiple times.

Knight moved closer to the young woman, who was clearly broken, and put his hand on her shoulder. "That was a brave thing to do," he said.

She shook her head. "No it wasn't. I just killed someone I considered my sister." She looked up at him. "I don't think I want to be here anymore."

"What about your aunt?"

"She died."

"I'm sorry, Monica."

She nodded. "I know."

***

Brenda felt dizzy. She could barely stand, and Penelope trying to hold her up wasn't helping in the slightest. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them again, but that still didn't help. "Are we winning?" she asked.

Guardian reached out and patted her on the cheek. "I don't know, kid. Even if we destroy all these robots, we'll still have the Benefactor to deal with. This seems like a losing battle, no matter what."

Penelope shook her head (or, well, the head on the Titan armor, anyway). "The hell with that. We're winning, whether we die or not."

"I'd like to believe that, Ms. Banter, but the odds look very much against us."

She poked a finger into his chest. "To hell with the odds, Cabot, we're going to win, understand me?!"

Brenda felt a little energy returning to her, but she still felt sick to her stomach. She tried standing up again, but it just wasn't working. "I hope you guys don't need me," she said, looking at both Penelope and Guardian in turn. "I'm still really weak."

Penelope put her hand on Brenda's shoulder. "Don't worry, kiddo. You've done good today."

Guardian nodded. "You saved me, after all."

Brenda felt something, and dove for cover just as a laser blast burst through the walls of the building they'd taken refuge in. She saw Penelope jump out of the way just in time, and watched as Guardian raised his arms in front of his face, crossing them. He took the blast head on, and just when she thought he'd managed to stop it, she watched his arms... melt. They disintigrated right before her eyes, and once they were gone, his head and shoulders followed suit.

He didn't even have time to scream.

Penelope fired a rocket through a window, either destroying the source of the laser or at least stopping it for the time being, but the damage was done.

Guardian was dead.

***

Charlie looked at one screen in particular. A four-legged robot with a large cannon on its back walked up to a building and fired a blast into it. "What's going on there?" she asked the man.

He tapped his latest cigarette into an ashtray. "That's a nanocamera in East City right now."

She looked back at him. "You're filming this?! People are dying and you're making sure you get it on camera?!"

"Ms. Harkins, you have to understand: There needs to be a record, for future generations. When this crisis is over, people will hate the Chosen. Even if the Benefactor dies tonight, millions will be dead, and the public will blame you. Future generations need to know about our heroes, Ms. Harkins. They need to know that if it wasn't because of you, we'd all be dead."

She turned back to the screen and watched as a rocket flew outward from the building, damaging one of the robot's legs. It didn't seem to destroy it, but it stopped the cannon from firing the gigantic laser blast it had been firing. Elliot was suddenly beside her, his eyes locked on that screen. She watched those same eyes widen. "Can you enhance that?" The picture zoomed in closer to the building, focusing on one particular spot. A headless, armless corpse, tatters of a cape still burning, a single letter on the cauterized chest of the body.

A G. For Guardian.

"What the fuck?!" Charlie screamed, grabbing for the screen (and surprisingly, her attempt worked). She looked at it for several moments before Elliot grabbed it out of her hands.

"Brenda's there!" He turned to the man. "Where is this?"

The man said, "Eighty-Second and Lafuente. Take the first right, third door on the right side of the hallway. You'll find a teleportation device there. Just say the location and you'll be there in seconds."

Elliot nodded and bolted through the door. Charlie turned to follow him, but the door slammed shut behind him. "What gives?" she asked the man.

"You and Ms. Butler need to remain, Ms. Harkins, I'm sorry."

She walked over to his desk and slammed her fists down. Hard. Papers flew, some of them charged with that weird red aura that had happened to her when she'd killed Harmony. "No! I'm not just gonna sit here while my friends die, understand that?!"

A hand landed on Charlie's shoulder. She assumed it was Allie, and was very surprised to turn around and see Angel standing there, as if she'd always been there. Allie herself looked more than surprised to see a woman with large wings standing in the center of the room. "Charlotte, I'm sorry, but he's right."

"What do you mean?! Guardian's dead! Knight's getting his ass kicked, Brenda looked like she was gonna fall over, Timmy's fighting his future self - " Her words exploded into a string of tears as she collapsed against Angel, who put her arms around the crying girl.

After no one spoke for a full minute, Allie asked, "Did anybody else catch that last part?"

***

Maria ventured, leaving her body and making her way into the sky. She made her way to Gustav Hammond's skyscraper and paused momentarily to watch the fighting before her. The kid was putting up a good fight. She took a deep breath, remembering Angel's instructions, and entered the mind of the Benefactor, ready for what she assumed was anything.

***

Tim landed another blow on the Benefactor, slamming his knee into the villain's chin. Blood and teeth flew into the air, along with some spit. After a second, he followed this attack up with a kick across the Benefactor's jawline, but it wasn't enough to dislocate the jaw. Despite this, the Benefactor smiled.

"Someone's inside, Timothy. This entire production is nearing its end."

Tim felt electricity flow toward his hands. "Just shut up, stand still and let me kill you, then."

***

What the hell?! she thought, realizing that she wasn't quite ready for this. She looked around at the room she appeared to be in, desks were everywhere. There were people running around, answering phones, talking to one another, shouting at one another. The was a particularly loud man standing at his office door shouting at everyone. None of them seemed to take notice of her, but she didn't mind that. That was the best part of this.

"Quite a shock, isn't it?" a voice asked. Maria spun around and saw that kid that the Benefactor was fighting. He was dressed similarly to the Benefactor, and he was leaning against a desk. He motioned a hand toward all the people. "This is the day I always remember. It was a day just like any other, really." He stood up. "I was sitting out here, at my desk," he pointed to the desk he had been leaning against, "and then I got the call."

"What's going on here?" Maria asked, taking a cautious step toward the kid. "How are you in the Benefactor's mind?"

The kid laughed. "I'm not in his mind. I am the Benefactor." He held out a hand. "Tim Saul, nice to meet you."

"What the hell do you mean?"

He shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "I guess the only real way to explain it is to show you. Has Angel ever shown you her power? She sees futures, though thanks to my own influence, she's had quite a clouded mind for a little while. Starting around the time the Joker popped up, actually." He waved his hand and Maria watched as the entire room vanished, and they were instead transported to a large purple void, where thousands of clouds appeared, each showing something happening. She walked toward one and saw her own Choosing. Another showed the day she first met Sasha. She wanted to smile at that one, at the memories it brought up, but found that she couldn't. Not with what had happened. "Quite the day, wasn't it?"

She turned toward the Kid/Benefactor. "What?"

He pointed to his head. "Your memories, your emotions, I've experienced them all. You see, in a previous timeline, I absorbed everything that you are. The one you're looking at is exactly how you remember it. This one," he created a cloud out of thin air, showing a situation much like the one Maria remembered, except that Sasha was now a very healthy looking version of his original female form, "is how it happened in a different timeline, where you were born as Maria and not as Tracy, and no one ever manifested Chosen abilities. I've been there. You and Sasha became very good friends, sorority sisters, in fact. You went on to marry twin brothers, hilariously, had a joint wedding day. The grooms switched places on you as a joke, causing both of you mild annoyance on the honeymoon." He collapsed the cloud, then expanded it out again. This one showed a horrible sight: Sasha in metal form, crushing Tracy's body with a foot and very little effort. "You really don't want to know how this one happened. I'll tell you simply that Sasha never met you as you are, and he was a different man because of it." He collapsed the cloud again, this time for good.

"Why would you show me that?"

He pointed vaguely at the clouds. "Everything that everyone has ever experienced, up to this moment, is in here. Angel sees only futures, and to an extent, that's what we're looking at as well. These events have passed, and are yet to pass. That's how I see time, how I experience memory. It comes from living a lifetime of lifetimes." Maria looked around, and the purple void that they had been standing in was suddenly that room once again. "And it all started here, the newsroom of the Daily News Brigade, on the day that I learned that the love of my life had been murdered by a young man with the ability to melt people's skin with the snap of his finger."

"She was killed by a Chosen?"

He shook his head. "No, a Rejected, but that's not the important part. The important part is why."

"And? Why?"

He snapped his finger, and they were suddenly standing in the middle of the street, though Maria didn't recognize the street. Of course, had there been landmarks, she would have recognized it. The buildings were in utter ruin, the sky red. She looked up and saw the moon directly above them, but it wasn't the same moon she saw in the sky every night. This one was split into three distinct pieces, each one simply hanging there. She looked down in front of her and saw a clothed skeleton, wearing the red and yellow costume of the girl everyone on the planet knew as Arachnya. The Kid/Benefactor knelt down and cradled the skeleton in his arms, and Maria saw him cry.

"She died because, in the long run, the Chosen and the Rejected are nothing more than the cannon fodder in a war we were never told we were fighting. And Charlie was just the first casualty."

She knelt down beside him. "This isn't a put on? This is really coming?"

He shook his head. "I've seen so much that I have a very good, very active imagination, but I could never imagine this. It's coming, it happened, and I want each and every one of you to be ready." He tilted his head a little to look at her. "I don't want the present day Tim to lose her. I won't be around to see it, but I want them to grow old, to have kids." He lowered his head again. "Like you."

Maria stood back up. "This is... All of this... Everyone who's died... Sasha died, and this was a good thing?!" She felt her... other... self creeping up, but all the Benefactor did was wave his hand, and she felt normal again.

"Sasha was a casualty of circumstance, nothing more, nothing less. I'm sorry, Maria, that's just the way things are."

She grabbed him by the collar of his trench coat. "The man I loved is dead, all so that you can save her?! What makes your love more important than mine?!"

He batted her hands away. "Sasha was dead anyway. Had he survived the incident in Africa, he would have died a much less heroic, much less honorable death. Nanotechnology and the ability to absorb metal, surprisingly, don't help you survive the common cold when your immune system barely exists. Come December, Sasha would have died in his own snot."

Maria wanted to punch him, to stab him, but this was his mind, and if he really did have as many powers as she could feel inside him, it likely wouldn't matter. "How do you know?"

"Time is something that I wield with a mere thought, Maria. I've seen all the futures, all the pasts, all the presents. I've changed things, merged things, stopped things. I've been there through every important moment of everyone's life, ever. In one universe, a reformed United States annexed Canada after a third World War. I caused it. In another, a reactor using a new material has caused the lives of no less than nine people to have changed severely, including bringing one in from a completely different universe. If it hadn't been for me, that element would have killed billions, but instead, I saved all those lives."

***

Brenda nearly peed herself when Elliot appeared out of thin air and shouted "Run!" Penelope grabbed her and the three of them flew upward through the building just as another laser blast reduced it to rubble. That was when she finally saw the robot responsible for Guardian's death. It was four-legged, and had a laser cannon about the size of the Titan's torso on its back.

The three of them landed on the roof of a building six blocks away, and Penelope set Brenda down. She was feeling a little better, but not by much. She looked up at Elliot. "Where did you come from? Since when can you teleport?"

"I can't. There are these people, like... Well... Like SHIELD, or something. This guy came out of nowhere, grabbed me, Charlie and Allie - "

Brenda cut him off. "Who's Allie?"

He ignored her. "And took us to his base underneath the city. Charlie and Allie are still down there now. They know... almost everything there is to know about us."

Penelope nodded. "I was afraid of that. Kaplan told me about a mysterious cigarette smoking man who was in the Oval Office that day he met with the President." She held out her hand and a hologram of a man appeared, floating inches above it. "Is this the guy?"

Elliot nodded. "Yep. He never told us his name, though."

"Great."

Brenda asked. "Who's Allie?"

He smiled. "Smoking hot ice queen."

"What?"

"Literally, her powers are freezing things. She makes ice."

Penelope cleared her throat. "Regardless, we've got work to do. We don't have a Superman on our side anymore, so, sadly, somebody has to distract that cannon while the other two destroy it."

***

Tim felt the blade slide through his stomach, then concentrated on absorbing the metal. He used it to heal his wounds temporarily while he stuck two metal fingers into the Benefactor's neck and started spreading. While the villain choked, he worked desperately to pull Tim's fingers out of his neck.

Tim pulled his fingers out on his own, then kicked the Benefactor in the chest. His foot buried itself in the villain's chest, almost as if it were landing in quicksand. With his other leg, he twisted around and planted a kick across the Benefactor's face, then used his own momentum to pull his foot out of the Benefactor's quicksand chest. He landed on the wall, pushed off, morphed his hands into chainsaw blades and flew toward the Benefactor.

***

Maria found herself back in the newsroom, along with the Benefactor. He still looked like the kid, or, like he wanted to look again, she supposed. Clearly, the death of his girlfriend had taken him over the edge. She understood the feeling. When Sasha had died, she'd wanted... No. She put the thought out of her mind. It brought up... unpleasant things.

The kid sat at the desk he'd mentioned was his and tapped a few buttons on his keyboard. Maria almost felt a laugh coming on. It was like he had forgotten she was even there. In fact, his next words to her were: "Oh, Maria. Sorry, I forgot about you. You can go now, if you'd like. I'm sure Timothy would like to know the truth, soon."

She shook her head. "No. I need to know something first."

"What?"

"My baby. Does it..."

"Live? Grow? Come to be a productive member of a society that will probably start to hate our kind? That's up to you, Maria. From here on out, things are different. I've changed the time stream, nothing's the same anymore. I'm leaving it up to each and every one of you to make sure that the things I've experienced one hundred billion times over never come to pass again." He stood up. "But I want you to do just one thing for me."

"Why?"

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Everything I've done, I've done for her. For Charlie." He opened his eyes again. "I want you to make sure she knows that I never meant to hurt her."

Maria nodded her head slowly. "I'll tell her, but I doubt she'll find it easy to forgive you."

"Not me. Him." He turned toward the window, which was now a view of the fight between the Benefactor and the kid, as if it were being viewed by a camera. "I want her to forgive him. Up until I gave him his powers, he was just as innocent as anyone else in all of this. Once he knows the truth, he'll try to alienate himself from her, in an attempt to keep her safe. I don't want her hating him for it."

She nodded again. "I understand. I'll tell her."

He smiled. A sad, world weary smile. "Thank you. Now, if you'll kindly take your leave. I'd like to rest, now. It's been a long, tired road to get to this point, and I feel I've done enough to deserve a chance to sleep."

Maria suddenly awoke in her own body, back in Pine Ridge. She sat straight up and saw Kennedy sitting in his wheelchair to her left. He leaned close to her. "Maria?"

She stood up. "I need to get to Charlie Harkins as soon as possible. I need to tell her something."

***

Knight turned a street and then jumped out of the way as a giant laser blast cut a line straight through several buildings and the street just in front of him. He stood and watched as the laser beam turned toward the sky. He saw Blaze flying through the air, clearly the target of the massive beam. "Elliot!" he shouted, catching the young man's attention. "Out of the way!" He threw several explosive boomerang blades at the four-legged robot that carried the weapon. The explosives did nothing to damage the laser, but they stopped the beam long enough for the robot to turn toward Knight and target lock him. Good boy, this way.

The laser fired again, this time at Knight. He jumped out of the way and started running. The laser followed him, cutting through building after building. He suddenly wished that Quake and Hold-Up were still around, it would be little effort for the two of them to destroy the robot. Unfortunately, they'd had other business to attend to. Hold-Up, in particular, looked pretty bad. Korra's bio leech had left him weakened.

Either way, it didn't matter. He was the distraction for Blaze and whoever else was with him to destroy the robot. He just hoped that they already had a plan in action, because he was starting to get extremely tired.

***

Brenda popped up and concentrated on creating a beam, which she used to cut through the connection between the robot and the laser. She got halfway through it before the robot turned the laser toward her, destroying the building she was using for cover. She created a shield around herself to survive the laser and the falling debris. She expanded it slightly to allow herself more room to move.

"Elliot! Somebody!" she shouted. There was an explosion, and the laser was cut short. Brenda risked a look and saw Knight was standing there again, this time nursing a wound on his right shoulder. The laser turned toward him, and Brenda dropped her shield and concentrated on her own laser beam again, this time finishing the cut.

Penelope was suddenly to her left, a rocket already aimed at the laser. Unfortunately, the robot still had some measure of control, and swung the laser toward Penelope. The billionaire genius barely had enough time to eject from the Titan before the laser beam destroyed it completely. Elliot rained fire from above, but the laser simply tilted upward again and he was flying for his life. Why won't this bloody thing just die already?! Brenda thought.

Almost as if it had heard her, the laser stopped. The robot shuddered, and then a series of tiny explosions occured all over its surface. The laser itself slid to the side, and then a brilliant explosion of purple energy erupted in the center of the street. When it was over, the only thing remaining of the robot with the giant death cannon was a crater the size of a Volkswagen minibus.

Penelope walked toward the crater and fell to her knees. "It's about goddamn time we got a break!" she shouted toward the sky.

***

Charlie pounded against the door. "Just open it, goddamnit!" she shouted over her shoulder. The cigarette smoking man simply shook his head. She growled in anger, then turned to Allie. "C'mon, freeze it and let's get out of here."

Allie shook her head. "My powers haven't worked since we got down here."

Charlie yelled out something unintelligible. "Why won't you just open the fucking door?!"

Angel put her hand on Charlie's shoulder, but she pushed it away. "You need to calm down, Charlotte. Things will be ending soon."

She wagged a finger at Angel. "That. Is. Bullshit. You could have saved Frank when he died. You could have told everybody how bad things were going to be in Pine Ridge, but you didn't say shit!"

Allie piped in meakly. "And in Newbright."

"Nobody remembers that! The point is that all you've done is hold everybody back! Not this time!"

The cigarette smoking man sighed. "If you insist, Ms. Harkins." He pressed a button on his desk and the sound of the lock disengaging from the door could be heard. "I'd suggest you wait until after their fight has concluded, however."

Charlie pushed the door open and found herself face-to-face with a woman she'd never met before. The woman rubbed at her arm and sighed. "Charlotte Harkins? Arachnya?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Charlie said, not even trying to sound civil.

"My name's Maria, and I've got to talk to you."

In the room, Angel, Allie and the cigarette smoking man all saw Charlie simply standing there, as if she'd frozen suddenly. Angel nodded. "It's about time."

Allie asked, "Is she supposed to be standing there like that?"

***

Tim landed yet another punch on the Benefactor, knocking him off the ledge and into the air. He caught himself and hovered there for a second, so Tim took his chance. He flew toward the villain and pushed him downward, into the street. They hit the ground and created a crater the size of a small car. From somewhere, a fire hydrant must have burst, because water was suddenly raining down on them from somewhere, despite the cloudless sky above.

Tim didn't let the Benefactor get up. He landed blow after blow after blow to the villain's face, occasionally stopping one wound from healing before causing another. The Benefactor put up little resistance, and instead just took the assault. Morphing his left arm into a blade, he jammed it into the Benefactor's chest, straight into his heart. The Benefactor groaned in pain, for the first time that night, then pulled the blade in further.

"Do it," the Benefactor said, blood pooling in his mouth. "You know what you have to do to save her, Timothy."

Tim morphed his right hand into another blade, and shoved it into the Benefactor's heart, right alongside the other one. "No. Not just for her. You took me and turned me into something I wasn't, something I didn't want to be. You ruined my life!"

The Benefactor laughed, the blood in his mouth was overflowing now, but it didn't seem to stop him from making noise come out of it. "I didn't ruin anything, kid. I've been beneficial to everyone out there, but the one I've been the most beneficial to... is you. Now, when the day comes, maybe you'll be able to save her. I couldn't, and it set this whole sad mess into motion, but maybe you can."

Tim leaned closer and whispered, "Shut your fucking mouth, you monster." He concentrated, building electricity into one arm and fire into the other. He shot them both into the villain's chest, into his heart, and focused only and destroying each and every bit of it. He lost everything: his senses, his grasp on location, on time, his ability to discern anything. All of his energy was focused on destroying the Enemy in front of him.

"Good work, kid."

The words shook Tim from his daze, and he saw that the Benefactor was gone. The villain hadn't gotten up, hadn't moved, hadn't done anything at all.

Except burn to a crisp.

Even the bones were nothing but ash amongst an ashy outline of his body. There was literally nothing left of the man who had been called the Benefactor, the man who had started a war and destroyed a city. Wherever the words had come from, Tim had no idea, and he didn't care. He crawled out of the crater and looked around him at the mass of people who'd left the protection of their homes. They all stared at him in shock, each one of their faces blending into the others.

"Is it over," one of them asked. Tim didn't know who, he assumed it was a little girl based on the voice, but even that was uncertain.

With a hoarse voice, almost as if he'd never spoken to anyone in his life, Tim said, "Yes."

***

The President walked into the room and instantly, every one of the journalists stood from their chairs. They all had questions, that he knew. He took a deep breath, and stepped up to the microphone. The Speaker of the House raised his hands, silencing the room. It took a moment, but the President finally said, "My fellow Americans." He almost left the podium right then and there, but he forced himself to stay. "The East City Crisis is officially over. At this time, just four hours after the fighting was confirmed to have ceased, the death toll stands at just under seven million of the city's fifteen million inhabitants. The terrorist known as the Benefactor is confirmed to have been killed, as have his lieutenants. Of the New York State National Guard sent in to protect the city during this trying time, just over ninety percent are confirmed dead." He felt a tear slide down his cheek. "At this time, the remaining survivors are being evacuated from the city, though my best advisors estimate it may be weeks before the final death toll is calculated."

One journalist raised his hand to ask a question. The President nodded toward him. Normally, he would have made them wait, but he needed to answer these questions. There was no way he could truly communicate the situation to the American people if there were no questions. "Mr. President, this Benefactor, is it true that he was a Chosen?"

The President sighed. "At this point in time..." How would he word this? Dammit. "Yes, it is believed that the Benefactor was a Chosen. As were his lieutenants."

"Are there more Chosen this dangerous out there? Could the East City Crisis happen again?"

"At this time, it is believed that the Benefactor was a unique Chosen, that there are no others like him. We can't be certain, however. It is possible that the East City Crisis could be replicated, though we believe that possibility to be very remote."

Another reporter raised her hand. "Mr. President, people have taken up arms all through social media and even in the streets suggesting that this would never have happened if there were no Chosen, do you believe this to be true?"

The President shook his head. "Absolutely not. Though there have been extreme examples of Chosen using their abilities for personal gain or even to cause terror, these are by no means the majority. The actions of Chosen such as Guardian, Sapphire, and those like them should never be forgotten. These are heroes who have fought to protect us. Their actions continue to hold value no matter what the likes of the Benefactor have done."

"People are afraid of the Chosen, sir. And hasn't this crisis given us reason to be?"

"No. A month and a half ago, a sixteen year old girl stood in front of a podium much like this one and vowed to protect people to the best of her ability. Not two weeks later, a young man in Pine Ridge was murdered out of fear on live television. Did we suddenly stop believing in humanity when that young man was killed? Why should we stop believing in the Chosen who have done their best to protect us simply because of the actions of a few?"

In his mind, he knew the answer. Because our greatest city was devastated by those few. Because our heroes just barely managed to stop this threat before it extended outward. He felt another tear streak down his cheek.

***

Charlie stood on top of a building and watched as evacuation helicopters picked up some more people from the rooftop of the... She sighed. Whatever that building was, it was nothing but a dead, lifeless husk, now. No one would ever live there again. She felt a tear race down her cheek, then reached up to wipe it away.

The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. To the east, she saw several ships, from cruise liners to small fishing boats, sailing away. They'd be heading for Larsen City, or Glassview, or somewhere that wasn't the corpse that used to be called East City. Another helicopter landed on another roof. People rushed to get inside, some pushing others. She just waited, to make sure no one fell off any of the roofs.

They hadn't sacrificed so much just for people to kill themselves trying to get away from the heroes who'd saved their lives.

Her spider-sense didn't go off when Timmy arrived, but she knew he was there. She was getting a little tired of how her powers didn't seem to be working right, but she pushed it out of her mind for the time being. She turned around and folded her arms underneath her breasts. Tim looked like he'd been through hell. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "No."

"Did... Did he tell you the truth?"

"No, but I gleaned some of it from what he said. He loved someone, someone like you. He did all this to toughen me up, so that I could save you when the time came."

She shook her head. "No."

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't love someone like me. He loved me."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

She walked up to him and put herself in his arms. "I'm not lying when I say this, baby. He wasn't just some bad guy who wanted to kill people because he was a bad guy, he was you."

He ran his fingers through her hair. "What? No... No..."

She put her head against his chest. "I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you that. I didn't... I didn't want to, but Maria said she'd tell you if I didn't."

"Maria? Who's Maria?"

"She's a Chosen who invades people's minds. She invaded the Benefactor's mind on orders from Angel, and she found out the truth that he told me before you made it to him. He was Tim Saul, from a reality where he gained powers some other way. One day, a Rejected killed his me, and then the world ended, just like the future he showed you. He lost his Charlie, and it sent him over the edge, to the point where he used another version of himself - you - so that he could finally be at peace."

Tim looked at her with pure shock on his face. His eyes were wide as saucers. Charlie buried her head in his chest again. She just wanted him to hold her for as long as possible, because she knew exactly what was going to happen this time.

She finally pushed away from him and said, in a soft voice, "You need to leave, Tim."

"Why?"

"Because. I don't want you to come back to me until I can be your girlfriend again, and not just your excuse to act like a monster."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're thinking about it right now. You want to get back at someone or something for what the Benefactor did to you, and you're going to use it as an excuse to go crazy every once in awhile. I don't want to be around you when you do that."

He looked away for a moment, then back at her. "You mean that? After all I did for you when your mom abandoned you and your dad, or when your dad died, or during all that Joker stuff when Frank died? This is life altering for me, and you don't want me around you?"

She shook her head. "It's a little different. I couldn't kill you with a stray thought, Tim. I don't like that you're dangerous, you just are. You're doing just fine with control for now, but you just went through a traumatic experience, and you may lose control. This is for both of us, Tim."

Charlie turned away from the man she loved, shout out a webline and swung off.

***

Knight hadn't returned to Larsen City just yet. He remained behind, to help with the evacuation. He had just helped a family board a Brand Industries frieghter, one of many he'd committed to the evacuation effort. He didn't want one person to remain behind in this place. "Full up," the captain said over the radio. "The Brighton Star will be here in less than five minutes, sir."

"Good." He felt tired, for sure. His shoulder was still killing him, and he was certain he'd broken at least four ribs. His head was swimming, though he was still in control of his faculties. He'd need a rest when this was over. His bed never sounded like such a good idea.

He saw Arachnya swinging through the city, wondered about what she'd told him. If it was true, if Tim Saul truly was a younger version of the man who eventually became the Benefactor, he'd have to keep his eye on the boy. There was no telling what could set him off in the direction that led to... Everything they'd seen over the course of twelve hours.

"William," Penelope's voice entered his radio, "seems like a few ships have stalled. Brenda and Elliot are already trying to help, but it looks like it's gonna take awhile."

He sighed. "Alright. Just make sure they're ready as soon as possible."

"Got it."

He turned his radio off and sighed again. It may take a few days, but they'd get everyone out.

***

Brenda landed next to Penelope and flashed her a thumbs up. She'd taken care of the debris that had gotten caught in the ship's engines and gotten it moving again. She sat down on the edge of pier and sighed. She still wasn't back to full strength, and it was starting to take a toll on her.

Penelope sat down beside her. "How's it going, kid?"

Brenda shook her head. "Not well. This was too much. We haven't faced anywhere near this much before. And that one with the laser... I thought we were dead more than once."

Penelope put her arm around Brenda and hugged her close. "Just think of it this way: it'll be one to tell your grandkids. We fought in East City and we lived to tell about it. We saved millions."

"Didn't you hear the President? We lost millions, too, and that's just the ones they've pulled out of the debris right now."

Penelope nodded. "We've just got to accept that just over half is the best we could do, kiddo. Otherwise, we'll all go crazy with self-doubt or self-recrimination."

Brenda nodded, a very depressed, very weak nod. We could have done more...

***

The President looked out the window at the White House lawn and the gathering of protesters and reporters that had built up over the night. Twenty-four hours since the press conference, and they were all ready calling for blood. Oh well. He had it on good authority that certain Chosen - Arachnya, Hageshī Hyō, and others like them - had fled elsewhere, presumably to lay low. It would be difficult for Arachnya, though. Penelope Banter was protected by her army of lawyers and public figure status, and no one knew William Brand was a costumed hero in the first place, so they were safe.

He sighed. He was certain that the living Chosen would come to envy the dead, soon enough. Public opinion would be against the heroes that had saved the world, all because of the actions of a few. It hadn't been the first time he'd cursed human society, and it most assuredly wouldn't be the last.

"Mr. President, your daughter is here to see you," the intercom buzzed.

He pressed the call button. "Thank you, Janice." Then stepped around his desk to hug Emily as she entered the room. He then helped her to her seat, and then sat in his own chair behind the desk. "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here."

She shook her head. "No, I kinda figured it out when I logged on to Facebook this morning. Down with the Chosen, the Powers need to go, My family was killed by a Chosen in East City. The writing's on the wall, Dad."

He nodded. "And should the public ever find out about you, they'll likely call for my immediate impeachment."

She shook her head. "Not just about me, y'know."

He closed his eyes and nodded again, slower. "I know. It hasn't been an easy secret to keep, that I was Chosen so many years ago, but I've managed it thus far."

"And if Da - if Robert - hadn't left us, maybe it wouldn't have been so hard for either of us."

He shook his head. "No, it may have been harder." He stood up and walked back around the desk to her. "Just be sure you're never caught using your abilities in public, sweetheart."

She nodded, then hugged him. "I will, Dad, don't worry."

***

Angel hovered over the city and watched as several more helicopters and ships left. The city was just under sixty percent evacuated, it would be empty in a matter of days. She debated whether or not she should help. She hadn't earned any favors with the rest of the Chosen who were helping the evacuation effort, in part thanks to her unreliabilitiy, curtesy of the Benefactor.

She felt the other woman arrive. Breeze stood from a cloud of her own creation and looked down upon the city. "Hageshī Hyō has returned to Newbright, to her friends."

Angel nodded. "I understand. This clean up isn't for everyone, especially a young woman who had few stakes in this fight to begin with."

"You are troubled," she said, not a question. "The hard battle has been fought and won, and the Benefactor is no more."

Angel shook her head. "No, the Benefactor hasn't yet reached that stage of his life yet. The days ahead of him will be full of choices and consequences, and his path may not lead him where he wants it to go. An ironic trait for someone who has the ability to manipulate the very fabric of space-time itself."

Breeze nodded. "What will you do?"

"Clearly, these events have proven that, even when I can see the outcome, I cannot trust my own sight. I'll go into hiding, much like the rest. Much like I suggest you do."

"Do you see something else?"

"Nothing clear. Nothing good. I imagine something else is tugging at my sight, something I can't see, or feel."

"What do you think it might be?"

"I don't know. And it scares me."

***

Christopher Harkins yawned as the plane finally landed in Maiden's Peak. He had gotten a pretty good look at it from the air, and was surprised at how small cities in New Zealand looked in comparison to cities back in the US. He turned toward Charlie and saw that she was still asleep. He would have woken her, but the fact that their mother had had to dress her because she was still asleep meant that East City had seriously taken a toll on her.

Well, that and having to break up with her boyfriend. Hopefully, Tim didn't take it too hard. The guy can do billions of things. He looked upward. I would very much like to keep my older sister, God! She's kinda the only one I have!. He laughed to himself. Like God would even be listening.

***

Teresa Flemming opened her bedroom window and climbed out onto the fire escape. The young girl liked to stand on the fire escape. She loved the noise of the city, the cars, the people talking (sometimes shouting), the occasional helicopter flying past. She didn't feel alone when she leaned against the railing of the fire escape. She hated feeling alone, so the fire escape was exactly what she needed. She closed her eyes, breathed in the city air, then opened her eyes again.

She looked to her left and was surprised to see a girl stuck to the wall, wearing a strange costume. It was red and yellow, with a black spider on the chest. The girl's hair was tied in a ponytail, and her face covered by a yellow mask.

"Sorry about this," the girl in the costume said. Her accent was clearly American, that much was clear. In fact, the young girl thought she knew exactly who this was.

"You're Arachnya, aren't you?" she asked the super hero before her. "I saw you on the telly." She didn't nod, but it was obvious that this girl was Arachnya. "Why are you here?"

Arachnya pulled off her mask and held it in her hands. "To be away from... Everyone I know."

"Why?"

"Because I need it. I need to be somewhere where they can't find me. Somewhere where I'm not needed. Not wanted."

Teresa put her back against the railing beside Arachnya. "Shouldn't you be back in America?"

"No. I don't want to be. People died there. People I couldn't save. The person I loved... Became somethng else."

"You came out here to Maiden's Peak alone?"

Arachnya shook her head. "No. I came with my family, actually. My brother and my mom."

"What happened to your dad?"

She lowered her head. "He died, a couple months ago."

Teresa turned around and leaned forward, into the railing. "I'm sorry."

Arachnya nodded. "Me too."

***

Sixteen years ago...

Henry Harkins held his first son in his arms while his wife slept. Charlie was a sight to behold, that was for certain. He set the boy back down in the stroller that the hospital had placed in Melissa's room, and covered the boy up so that he could sleep. He placed a gentle kiss on his wife's cheek, then on his son's, then left the room. Despite being a new father, he still had a job to do on the beat.

He let the door swing closed behind him and found himself face-to-face with a plain-looking man he'd never met before. The man was wearing surgical scrubs, so he assumed he was a male nurse, or something.

"Good afternoon, Officer Harkins," the man said, bowing slightly, "my name is Timothy Saul, I'll be checking in on your wife and son for the rest of the day."

Henry shrugged. "Thanks. Tell my wife I had to get back to duty, and I'll be back once my watch is over."

The man nodded. "I'll do just that, Officer Harkins. Nice to meet you."

"Yep."

As Henry left, the man who identfied himself as Timothy Saul stepped into Melissa Harkins' hospital room and walked over to the infant Charlie, sleeping in his stroller. He touched the child on the forehead and made a tsk noise. "Sweetheart... Something's not right this time around." He concentrated and a white light moved from his hand into the child's chest. "There we go. Now they'll Choose you, just like they're supposed to."

Timothy Saul, already known as the Benefactor, left the room and shifted his clothing back to normal. He hated to disappoint Charlie's father by leaving, but he was never on call anyway.

He had much more important things to do.