“I destroy…”
The apparatus glowed brightly, just as all of the machines stopped whirring and the power went dark.
“That abomination!”
Bailey wrapped her lone angel wing around Savannah as the golden flame burst into an inferno. Berna was flung back. Bailey covered her eyes with the back of her hand. But the conflagration was halted by an undeniable force.
Bailey removed her hand from in front of her face. Berna lifted herself up from the crater her body had created. Machine parts sparked and electricity flickered, but within that darkness one being illuminated in an azure blue aura served as a beacon of light.
Berna gawked at the compact sparkling man with adoration. He hovered in the air, a tiny black man with a coltish frame, lacquered in a thin navy blue polyester coating. The tips of his fingers held jumping blue lightning which doused the golden flames. He looked down at TJ with a glowing icy blue stare that contrasted with his dark brown skin.
Berna saw the dog-shaped birthmark on his left index finger and remembered it was those same tiny fingers that taught her how to count on her hands. She remembered the little girl sitting in her beanbag chair watching as the man floating before her staggered out of the bathroom with sparkling dark eyes and a Crown Royal induced smile cascading down on her. She remembered he inquired about the cartoons she watched, taught her how to count on her fingers, and showed her that there is a simple answer to even the most complex of questions. She remembered the young man dressed in his fitted jeans, blue blazer, and red bow tie entering the church for Savannah’s mother’s funeral with tears in his eyes, but showing her a smile. Those were the only memories she had of the man that went on to die for the president a year later. A man that taught her about strength. And here he was again, giving another lesson as she simply whispered to herself with unblinking eyes, “Brody…”
Bailey unfolded her wing from in front of Savannah with a wide mouth and unblinking eyes, Savannah’s expression mirroring her mentor as Bailey whispered, “Brody,” with two tears falling from her eyes. Brody’s translucent light blue angel wing beat in the air as he descended before Savannah and Bailey.
TJ backpedaled, arms cocked back as more flames danced on his curled fingers. The utter dismay on his face was replaced by sheer rage as he barked the words, “What have you done,” before looking back at Berna while she still gawked at the resurrected Brody. TJ’s fingers extended and he shoved the flames forward in a stream of gold, looking to devour the unsuspecting Berna.
Berna could feel the flames inch closer to her; could feel the heat of her coming end. Only the end didn’t come. Those same arms that once seemed so small wrapped her in a powerful embrace. That lone angel wing shielded her from the blast, but Berna had not noticed. She was too busy looking at the hairless features of Brody’s visage, noticing how he had still not lost the baby fat in his cheeks, the small straight angle of his nose, the curvature of those dark lips forming a tight line on his face, and Berna realized that she had not held on to the memory for nostalgia’s sake or even because she was inspired by his memory. The epiphany that she had been in love with the young man that changed her life almost fifteen years ago dawned on her like the son rising over the Sandia Mountains and as he held her close – his slipper covered feet descending on the cracking linoleum – she couldn’t help but smile at the fact that her mind had accepted a fact that her heart had always known.
Berna rested her head on Brody’s shoulder, closing her eyes as he unfolded his wing and glared at TJ advancing toward him with his hand outstretched before him. His war cry summoned a gilded ivory brand, golden flames covering the white steel as he clutched the golden hilt tightly. But before he could cut the distance between himself and what he deemed the abomination, Savannah leapt through the air with a flying kick that connected with TJ’s cheek.
TJ was sent careening into the already broken monitors. Glass shrapnel and electric cords fell over his naked torso.
Savannah landed with a crouch, eyes never leaving the delusional angel.
Brody set Berna down on her feet and walked toward Savannah with Bailey reciprocating his actions. “Are you okay,” Brody asked with a combination of the syrupy Southern accent Berna remembered from her memories and the computer-generated voice she had created through countless hours of code.
Savannah said nothing; she just stood erect, looking up at the slightly taller man with wide eyes. Bailey mimicked Savannah’s actions.
Brody’s eyes roamed over the two women. Berna stood beside him and wrapped her fingers around his hand as she looked up to him, leaning into him before asking, “What’s your name?”
Brody looked down on Berna, his expression never changing as his ice-blue eyes softened to a chestnut brown. He shook his head and said with a slight smile and closed eyes, “I don’t know. You haven’t named me yet.”
“But I have…”
Brody, Berna, Bailey, and Savannah turned in TJ’s direction to see him rise from the rubble, jabbing his blade into the linoleum and using it to lift himself up. “Abomination,” TJ coughed out, glaring at the four of them.
Brody’s eyes returned to their ice-blue hue.
TJ wiped the blood trailing from his lips with the back of his hand. He smiled and said with a deep and reverberating bravado, “And I won’t stop until I destroy you.”
Berna stepped in front of Brody and gesticulated the act of pushing the air as her eyebrows furrowed. “Just stop, TJ! He’s not our enemy!”
“Shut up, woman,” TJ roared. He whisked his hand through the air, knocking Berna off of her feet with a gust of wind. “He’s not our enemy! You’re right!”
Brody zipped behind the airborne Berna and caught her mid-air, setting her down slowly with his ice-blue eyes set on TJ.
“He’s my enemy and the enemy of God! And as His word dictates…” TJ said with a smile as he turned in their direction. “…no weapon formed against me shall prosper.”
TJ lifted his hand in the air, a golden ball of flames forming in the palm of his outstretched hand.
Before the ball could be released, Savannah raced across the cracks in the linoleum once again and surprised TJ with a kick to the solar plexus. Her foot made an indentation in TJ’s torso, but he merely looked down at the crater in his chest and raised his gaze to meet Savannah’s eyes. A maniacal smile curved over his chocolate features. “No weapon,” he whispered before bombarding Savannah with searing flames.
An agonized din rose from deep within her.
“Vannah!” Berna attempted to jump out of Brody’s hold, but Brody curled his arms and kept her in his embrace while he watched Savannah’s smoking body fall into Bailey’s arms.
The scent of singed flesh filled the air.
Time slowed as Bailey looked down at the unconscious Savannah in her arms. She shook Savannah’s body but found her to be unresponsive. Tears formed on her dark eyes before the browns of her irises twinkled ruby red. She looked back at TJ with a shell-shocked expression as she gently laid Savannah onto the cracking linoleum. She burst toward TJ, slamming into him with her shoulder.
TJ careened through the wall behind him, with Bailey squeezing him tightly.
Berna kept her eyes locked on Savannah, unsure if her best friend, her sister was just unconscious or had met her demise.
Brody lifted Berna off the ground and walked toward Savannah’s still smoking body before setting her down next to Savannah and saying with a soft tone of understanding, “Take care of your friend, okay?”
Berna looked up at Brody as he turned on his heels, leaving her to look at the lone wing beat against the air. Tears raced down her cheeks. She did not understand why it sounded as though Brody said goodbye as he took off through the rift in the wall Bailey and TJ had created.
***
Bailey carried TJ through the mauve and indigo skies above Lexington, KY. They crashed into the roof of The Big Blue Building. Blue-tinted glass cascaded down to the ground.
Bail
ey rained down blow after blow upon TJ’s face. Tears rolled down her beige brown cheeks, her sharp teeth bared as her roar shook the walls around them. “You killed my Vannah!!!!”
Bailey continued to pummel TJ’s face until it became a mix of gore and skin.
Memories of her training a young Savannah in the greenery of her Albuquerque home flooded her mind. She recalled the moments in which Savannah had held onto her, crying over the mother she had lost just two years prior. She remembered how she had cried with that little girl, relating to Savannah’s loss as she too recalled the loss of her twin brother and her unborn son – the same son she now beat into the carpeted top floor of The Big Blue.
She cocked her arm back with curled fingers around a bright pink ball of crackling energy, ready to send her son back to the Heaven in which he belonged, to greet the adopted daughter he had murdered in cold blood.
“You made me do this, son! You made me!”
Bailey was halfway into thrusting the ball of energy toward his face when a small hand shot toward her arm and wrapped chocolate fingers around her lanky wrist. With teary eyes, Bailey looked up to find her twin brother staring down on her with cold blue eyes shaking his head slowly. In a tremulous tone, Bailey asked, “Why Brody!?”
Brody stared at her for a few seconds, then smiled, as if he had finally realized who he was. “Not right.”
Bailey’s anger receded as she stood, freeing her son. She wrapped her arms around Brody’s strong torso, crying into his chest. Her sobs were drowned out by the din of the sudden winds blowing through the open ceiling.
Brody looked up to the sky, painted by the colors of the setting sun.
The sound of TJ spitting up blood echoed in Bailey’s ears. She looked down at her son taking ragged breaths. Two more tears fell from her face as she said, “I’ll never forgive you for this, Thomas…” Bailey shook her head slowly. “Never.” She looked back up into Brody’s eyes with a solemn smile. “Brody…”
He looked at her as if he understood the turmoil within her; as if he understood she could not bear the sight of the son she had miscarried sixteen years ago. Brody nodded, his lone azure blue wing beating against the wind.
In seconds, they were hovering above the downed TJ. Bailey took one last look at her son. Brody’s cold gaze measured the sight of his lost nephew, and then, they were off. And TJ remained in the crater as nothing more than the angel defeated by blood.
***
Brody landed on the tiptoes of his lycra covered feet as he looked down on Bailey, feeling as though he finally belonged. He watched Bailey as she walked over to Berna, who was still crying over the body of Savannah. He felt an emotion he could not comprehend; an emotion that left his heart falling to the pit of his stomach.
Bailey knelt next to Berna, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Berna looked up at Bailey with tears streaming down her supple features and all Brody could do was tremble, feeling the blood rush through his temples. He placed his hand on his forehead and a low groan reverberated from his dark lips as he crashed down on to one knee.
Brody let out a scream as he bowed low to the ground.
Bailey and Berna looked back at him with concern.
“It hurts! It hurts!” Brody cried in agony. Surrounded by pain and despair, Brody found himself bombarded with memories that weren’t his.
The image of a little girl sitting in the dark, watching cartoons filled his mind. He remembered teaching her to count on her fingers. The same little girl made another appearance in another memory that wasn’t his as he remembered her smiling up at him at a funeral, bringing warmth in one of the saddest moments of a life he had never lived. More memories poured in as Brody screamed into the Lexington sunset. In another set of memories, Brody saw himself running toward Bailey as she pulled away a taller man that shared an uncanny resemblance to TJ; saw himself pushing Thomas out of the way and standing in front of Bailey with his arms spread wide. Only she wasn’t Bailey in his memory. She was Kara. And he was Boosie. The same Boosie that took four shots before falling into Kara’s arms.
Brody shook the comforting touches of Bailey and Berna off of him as he stood, still gripping the sides of his head, still screaming so loudly he could not hear Bailey and Berna crying alongside him. He saw it all so clearly that tears coated his long eyelashes. He saw himself looking down at a little girl outside of a church, containing the tears stored inside of him as he apologized to a shell-shocked little girl. An unfathomable guilt filled his heart as he recanted the fact that this little girl looked so much like her mother, his Brianna. He remembered how the only thing Brianna cared about was making the best life for her and her daughter.
Brody’s eyes went light blue and the screaming stopped as a sudden and serene epiphany warmed him.
Bailey and Berna both took a breath of relief. They thought his pain was no more. They were wrong. The pain was still there; the anger; the heartache; it was all still in his heart. But along with all of those emotions, there was truth. These memories weren’t his, just like this life wasn’t. It was Boosie’s life. And now there was only one thing left for him to do. Rise.
***
And rise I did.
A warm light bloomed from my eyes, rendering the entirety of Downtown Nashville into different shades of blue. I took a deep breath as I realized that I was alive, despite all of the gunshots I had suffered. I checked the bullet wounds I had endured to find them cauterized…every single one of them.
I looked up to see Kara, drenched in the light of purple flames, standing before me with a gleaming, purple angel wing jutting from her right shoulder. I My ears perked up as I heard Kara growl, “I won’t let you get away with this…”
The police officers stood in the middle of chaos-filled Downtown Nashville, their shouts barely audible above the screams and the panic ensuing all around us, but I heard the trembling words slither out of the police officer’s thin pink lips – the same officer that took the first shot. “Don’t move!” The other officers stood with unblinking eyes, almost as if they were too afraid to even breathe.
A small sphere of blazes bloomed from Kara’s tiny fingers.
An officer fired three rounds toward my sister.
I blinked, and the bullets seemed to slow, as though they were being sucked into a vacuum, before completely stopping in front of the violet flames flickering around Kara. The bullets fell to the cobblestone, melting into pools of metal.
I whispered, “No,” as the other officers fired.
Those bullets joined the first melted volley.
Clicks of emptied guns filled the air. I smiled, picking myself up and onto my feet.
Thomas – still lying on the ground – looked up at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. I couldn’t blame him. If I was in his shoes, I would have stared, not believing what I saw either. But here I was, walking with azure blue flames swirling all around me, powder blue feathers molting as I felt the presence of an angel wing beating behind me. The wounds that once seemed mortal didn’t even bother me, didn’t even hinder my gait as I walked toward my sister. I watched, with stoic expression, as Kara raised her right hand in front of her, the sphered flames hovering before her palm, roaring for their chance to devour the police officers.
“You will pay for what you did to my brother…” she said.
I could hear the tears coaxing the vocal chords in her throat. A ball of light warmed my hand as it bloomed inside of my palm. I stepped beside her and threw my arm around her shoulder. I raised my arm before me with fingers spread out. The ball of light surged before my palm. I felt our lone wings beat in unison. I smiled, happy to be reunited with my sister. I spoke slowly and just loud enough for her to hear me through the shouts from the police and the panic happening all around us. “We could destroy them all Sissy…”
I heard the police officers reload their clips, ready to empty another volley at us.
Kara’s deep violet eyes relaxed, turning navy blue. Even though it seemed her attention
was rapt on the trembling officers in front of us, I could tell I had her ear. I whispered, “We could destroy them all. But then we would have to destroy all those that would seek to destroy us.” The flames dancing around us blended into a brilliant shade of violet as I closed the palm of my hand and extinguished the light inside it. “We would have to kill everyone, for leaving even one would leave us a lot of sleepless nights, worrying about what they would do to us. What they would do to the people that we leave defenseless.” I pushed her arm down gently. The flames crackled around her fingers, dying. The sound of guns cocking filled my ears, but a gentle smile curved on my face. “Or we could uplift our people, and lead them by example. Just as we did so many centuries before.”
I could see the smile that wasn’t on her face sparkle in her eyes as she looked up at me before nodding her head I stared at the police officers pressing down on their triggers. My eyes narrowed as my right hand shot out in front of me. The bullets stopped in their trajectories and fell to the cobblestone in a succession of clinks. Our wings carried us backward and we scooped Thomas into our arms and took him into the embrace of the Nashville night.
And as we hovered above the gaping mouths of the police officers, I realized I would never be a great poet or the great author Brianna thought me to be. I closed my eyes, tears coating my long eyelashes as I realized just how close I was to meeting her again. But then, I realized, this was my chance to make my life into the great story she inspired me to write. And as I said just months ago, I said it again under my breath. I won’t let you down, Bri.
A MONSTROUS JOURNEY
Mark P. Steele
Featuring the original Arrow.
Special thanks to Eric Roman; dedicated to Paul Gustavson.
The moon above shone down, but the lights of the city, even during the year 1939, gave scant allowance for the brightness above to penetrate past the hazes within the air. But the shadows deepened even so, casting a pall around the high buildings and the now-quiet waterfront warehouses, where the still of the night held sway.
Black Power- The Superhero Anthology Page 33