Prism Academy 5- Chapter 27 (Patreon)

This is another chapter that has been in my mind for a long, long time, but as I got closer to it, I've been second guessing myself.

That has probably slowed me down some here- but now it's done.

Hope you enjoy it.




Chapter 27- Collateral Damage

Light’s Judgment continued to build up around my right hand. I was creating a mini-sun there in my hand. I fused it with Flame Form to add raw fire to it.

Hyper Accuracy allowed me to focus on a singular point of the cocoon’s shell.

Microscopic Vision enabled me to see down into the lattice of that shell and pick out the weaknesses.

Overclockboosted my physical power and started burning into my reserves to make every part of me better, stronger, more powerful.

Mass Induction and Control allowed me to make my hand into a tightly packed weapon with the mass of a small mountain behind it.

Bonded Nanite Armor strengthened my hand and arm and acted as a shield in conjunction with Cascading Frequency Shield to enable me to survive delivering this blow.

Just a touch of Phase Shift was going to allow my hand to pass through that weak spot in the cocoon and then deliver the force of my punch as driven by all my speed and strength right into the core of whatever was forming in there.

I quickly used Technokinesis to scan through cameras in the building. My bonds had moved quickly, and the building was empty. I knew people were still going to die. That was what held me off, waiting as long as I could for as many as possible to get to safety. I really didn’t know how far out this blast was going to go, but ANOP thought the force of the impact would destroy most of the capital compound.

Then Energy Sense told me the creature was moving within the shell. I couldn’t wait any longer. So, I struck. Hitting something hard is sometimes overrated, sometimes underappreciated, but it’s often one of the most successful tactics. Then again, I was a hammer in human form. That old pre-Earthfall singer, Peter Gabriel, had nothing on me. I really would be your sledgehammer. Of course, I meant it differently when I said it to my bonds.

My fist struck. The phasing worked, and I felt my hand pass the outer layer. Whatever was inside resisted. The sheer force of the blow finally struck the ground and waves of force rippled out. The very ground seemed to be fluid and then dust as the build disintegrated around us like a bomb went off.

A wave of heat blasted out from my hand and the area around me was turned molten in an instant. Right behind that came a wave of brilliant energy. Pure progenitor energy poured into the creature that was metamorphosing inside the cocoon. Then I was thrown back.

I remember enjoying those old cartoons. You’d watch super speeding heroes deliver punches and the bad guy takes a bunch of them on the face before he finally fell over. What I’d learned as a super myself, was that it didn’t work quite that way.

Simply put, when it came to most things in the world of supers, speed was king. That was doubly so when it comes to physical force. My fist had several tons of mass in it when I hit the ground. That same fist was moving at over 50,000 miles per hour at the moment of impact.

I pulled my hand back as fast as I could because even with S ranked Durability and the nanite armor reinforcing my body; I had no delusions about what a punch like this might do to my body. I tried to phase, but it all happened too quickly. I felt a sharp pain in my hand, but my body was flung back with so much force that I ended up in the side of a building nearly a quarter mile away. When I opened my eyes, there was a cloud of dust still rising up from the ground and almost a four-block area had been turned to rubble.

I looked down at my hand and saw a bleeding mess.

Nanite Armor down to 74%

I pushed as much progenitor energy as I could manage into Enhanced Regeneration.

Thankfully, the skill picked a good time to upgrade.

Enhanced Regeneration 2 (x20)

The flesh started to knit back together but my armor spread of the hand reflexively to cover the shattered bone and reinforce my hand so I could use it as necessary. I pushed off and flew into the center of the disaster. I needed to make sure that the enemy was down for good. I did my best to shut out my enhanced senses as they brought the sounds of suffering my attack had caused.

Why did this have to be so hard? What if I was wrong? What if this shadow monster wasn’t that big of a deal and I could have defeated it without the collateral damage? I didn’t know. I might never know. I’d had an impossible decision to make, and I had made the best of it.

When I landed where the impact was, the crater was more than a hundred feet deep. You could barely say that there had been a building there. A block out the destruction was less total, but in that central location it was complete. There was only one thing left. It was a shredded fabric of blackness. The shadow creature had survived, sorta, the impact.

Its body was pierced with holes and light continued to burn away at it. It was emaciated and could barely move. But it looked up at me. “We win, Son of Light, for you have become death to your own. Try to live with that.”

Then the creature faded away. It must have been so driven by spite and hate that it hung on for that last second just to deliver that final barb. I wanted to say something back. I wanted to deny its accusation, but even if I had, it was gone. It deprived me of an outlet and so the weight of what I had done settled into me. It rocked me to my core.

Within seconds, I felt arms around me. Sybilla spoke to me. Her voice was soft. “We believe in you. You did what had to be done. Those shadow tendrils had already killed hundreds before we were able to evacuate the building. It would have destroyed the entire city if given the chance.”

Precisions hands were on me, helping hold me up. Inferna was next to her. Then I felt Priska’s touch. They all wanted to help hold me up, as my legs didn’t seem to have any strength.

Demis said, “This is what they want. They can’t beat you in a fight, so they want to tear you down from the inside. Being a super means fighting to save lives, but it also means making the hard decisions.”

A part of me knew that my bonds were right. But my punch had likely killed hundreds, and maybe even thousands. Hua  was covered in dirt. There was a cut on her forehead there was blood running down beside her eye. Yet, she was strangely calm as she said, “I know what you’re thinking. It’s easy to get lost in either side of this. It’s easy to feel like you have to keep sacrificing innocents for the greater good. It’s also easy to think that you can never take actions to stop an enemy if it might harm a civilian. Both those ways of thinking are traps and lies.

“The truth rests firmly in the middle. You will have to make hard decisions. It’s your lot, but you have a team around you. You can’t think you’re a monster because of this. The shadow had to be stopped even at this price. That thing was beyond any of the others we’ve fought. You’ve only lost if you stop caring. As long as you care, then I believe you’re the right man to make these decisions.”

The next few hours were rough. We helped clean up and rescue anyone that could be rescued. Prism Academy, Amazo Corps, and the Soros Clan all sent aid. Medical teams abounded and teams went to work trying to build temporary shelters for those left without homes.

General West arrived before the sunset and had an army with him. He took charge of the city until the Assembly could be gathered and a temporary government set up. Elections would need to be set up almost immediately, as many of the dead had been politicians. For once in the history of the world the ones to pay the price for the defeat of an enemy had been at the top. That brought me precious little comfort.

What I needed more than anything now was some sleep. I felt it calling to me, but I had to keep working. I had to keep fighting to keep Atlanta from falling into chaos. Inferna went on all the news channels and explained what had happened. I could have kissed her for sparing me that, though in the end I still had to make an appearance.

By then it was into the wee hours of the morning, but the people wanted to hear from the Prism. They cheered. It made me feel hollow. They’d been told the truth. The shadow had infiltrated the government. The devastation had been caused by a fight between me and a shadow monster.

I apologized to those who suffered and didn’t shirk my responsibility. They’d been told the truth about Mexico City and the news was eating it up. They say that they love to see a hero fall, but in this moment after two cities were attacked, they needed a hero. They loved me, but I felt unworthy.

General West followed me and talked about the successful campaign to liberate half a million square miles of human territory. He praised me for my involvement and for the help of my team. By the time it was all over, the sun was coming up. People were exhausted, and many lives had been lost or changed, but that was war.

Humanity was showing its resilience in this moment. We’d been pushed down for nearly two centuries by the shadow, but now they wanted to push back. I was the symbol for that, so I forced a smile onto my face and pledged to reclaim the world for humanity. I just hoped I hadn’t lost mine.

In the end, I was exhausted, more tired than… well, I don’t know. I felt just as drained as after the battle with Krig, even though objectively I wasn’t. I still had reserves of power. I just was emotional. That battle had been hard, but I’d done everything I could. This time I questioned if that was the case. I’d smiled so much and my bond, even my non-bonded teammates all encouraged me. We had struck a blow to the shadow. I knew it had to be done, yet it simply drained me.

Eventually, Sybilla, CB, and Twinkle all took me back to Chicago. They ordered me to bed, and I for once couldn’t argue. Sleep was what I needed, that and time to process this. The strength of my bond and their belief in me was already easing my pain. Before I fell asleep, though, I replayed the words of the shadow monster in my mind.

He wanted this. He hoped to turn me into a monster. The thing was that humans always had this potential in them. We weren’t all rainbows and smiles. No, that was the lie of the light. I determined to embrace what it meant to be a human, both the light and the shadow. I knew what that meant, but for now, I simply fell asleep. Surprisingly, pleasant dreams awaited me.