Cross stepped into a hellish scene. Flames appeared to lick the surface of every building and structure in his line of sight. Cross stumbled forward, doing his best not to step on anything or run into anyone.
A cacophony of sirens, garbled radio transmissions from employees, and sounds of terror and confusion surrounded him seemingly on all sides.
Several feet ahead of him, Cross saw an immense, jagged hole in the housing of one of the central units of the refinery.
Fires flickered and surged forward as he walked through a tight hallway between structures, causing him to flinch and step to one side. Cross heard a ragged cough from somewhere on his left. He moved toward the sound and found a middle-aged woman leaning against a tower, clearly favoring her right side.
A rush of air behind him made Cross look back to see Kestrel standing behind him.
He wore a slate-blue cowl that made him nearly unrecognizable.
“Cross, are you okay?” Kestrel asked, putting a hand on Cross’s shoulder.
Cross nodded tightly and walked slowly towards the injured woman, holding his hands up in a calming gesture. She watched him closely but did not move. Cross gave her his arm, helped her transfer some of her weight to his shoulder, and helped her to walk slowly away from the tower.
“This woman needs to get to the hospital right away,” Cross said. “I’ll be right back.”
Kestrel nodded and said, “understood.”
Cross disappeared from view.
Kestrel rolled his shoulders and turned toward the fires and chaos.
WHUUSSHKK!!
Kestrel heard the noise half a second before the attack and shifted his head a fraction to his left.
Where his head had been, a blood-colored spike sunk deep into the metal surface. It hissed and steamed like an open wound in winter.
Kestrel jerked his head left just in time to see an unwieldy, blood-hued mass slide behind a column. He flicked his wrists up and down, producing a talon spike in each hand.
“What’s the rush, plug-ugly?” Kestrel said through gritted teeth as he followed the creature. “Let’s dance.”
Cross reappeared. He didn’t see Kestrel. Unsure of what to do, he turned to his right as a large tower caught fire. Cross ran toward the fire. As he came around a corner, he saw two figures emerge from the lower half of scaffolding that encased the right side of the tower.
He couldn’t make them out at first. However, as he got closer, he could see a woman hobbling slowly away from the tower. She held her right arm out to the side to steady her movements. An older gentleman leaned hard against her while she stabilized him with a hand around his waist.
The man’s right leg stuck out at a gruesomely unnatural angle. They both moved slowly and carefully.
Cross was still several feet away when a large chunk of one of the tower’s raised walkways cracked, shuddered, and fell straight down.
The semicircular metal slab hurtled towards the exact spot where the man and woman limped, stumbled, and fought in vain to move forward.
Cross vanished and reappeared right beside them. There was no time to explain. He put a hand on each of their shoulders and moved them out of the way before they could blink.
The slab slammed to earth, rattling the ground and gashing the concrete all around it.
As Cross turned his head to check on the man and woman, a huge, deep purple fist collided with his face, sending his limp form flying through the air.
He flew through the air, finally slamming into the wall of one of the metal towers. His small body slid to the ground and did not move.
The woman gasped in shock. The man cursed and looked angrily toward the source of the attack.
A purple-hued behemoth lumbered into view. Monstrous black eyes leered at the man and woman before sliding towards the boy on the ground. A long, serpentine tongue lolled out of his mouth.
“Well, well, well,” said the beast in a guttural growl. “He really flew, didn’t he? Guess he should’ve been more careful, huh?”
The creature let out a croaking laugh at his own joke. He took long, loping steps toward the body of Cross.
One jet black eye turned to regard the man and woman.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll deal with you two soon. But first…”
Torment took another step, looked from right to left, and laughed,
“Fire, pain, and death. This world needs to get used to all three, 'cause we’re not going anywhere."
“When the Scythe are done, all anyone will remember,
He walked within a few feet of Cross, pummeling the ground to emphasize each word,“ is FIRE, PAIN, and -“
FOOSH
A jet of white-hot flame struck the ground directly in front of Torment, knocking him off his feet.
A figure of living flame towered over the prone form of Torment. Ember eyes regarded the creature with blazing contempt.
Before Torment could move a muscle, a fiery hand shot out and yanked him off the ground.
A voice like a forest fire at peak ferocity said,
“SHUT UP.”
Gus’s free hand gripped Torment’s face like a flaming vice. He screamed in pain and tried in vain to twist away.
Gus glanced back at the still form of Cross. He could just make out the small chest rising and falling.
He ripped his hand away and slammed Torment into his knee. While pushing Torment further and further back, Gus hammered him with blows so intense they created shockwaves.
“SHUT UP, AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!” Gus roared.
He dealt the creature a vicious backhand that sent Torment flying.
“YOU WANT FIRE, FREAK? HERE!”
Gus blasted Torment with a two-fisted wall of flame, sending the creature flying through the air and out of sight.
He turned toward the petrified man and woman. “Are y’all okay?” They nodded. “I’ll get help as soon as I can, but I have to get my friend to the hospital,” Gus said. “For now, do you think you can get to a hiding place?”
The woman nodded. “Yes, there’s a storage closet a few feet away. I have the key, so we’ll hide there.”
“Okay, good,” Gus said. “I’m sorry this is happening, but my friends and I are here to help.”
Gus knelt down and gingerly picked Cross up. He kept his fire beneath the surface of his skin, so it had no effect on his friend.
“What’s your name, young man?” the woman asked before she started to move again. “We can’t thank you enough.”
Gus turned his fiery face towards her and smiled. As he lifted off the ground, he said,
“Call me Infierno.”
Dusk landed just inside the refinery entrance. His wings folder and disintegrated.
THOOM
A red giant landed on Dusk’s left side. The creatures’ dark red hair grew to just below his shoulders. Every inch of him rippled with muscle and power.
They both looked at each other, nodded, and walked further into the refinery.
Suddenly, a small boy emerged from a doorway on their right.
“Help me, please!” the boy croaked out between fits of coughing. A long, livid gash ran across his forehead, distorting his features and partially obscuring the upper half of his face.
Dusk turned towards the boy, and then multiple things happened at once.
A low, long, keening noise filled the surrounding air. It shifted and changed, one moment it became a piercing shriek, the next moment a plaintive cry, and finally, it settled into a booming, incessant piercing moan that drowned out all other sounds.
From the fires and smoke of the refinery, a ragged shape drifted and reshaped into a hideous wraith.
The shifting smoke that formed it created a misshapen mass where its head should be. The creature now known as Sorrow swarmed towards Dusk. Its bulbous eyes stared sightless while its cavernous maw yawned wider and wider as if trying to swallow all light and life in its path.
Sorrow settled on top of Dusk before he knew what was happening. In seconds, it covered him so completely that he disappeared from view.
Bastion growled in anger and confusion and leaped into action.
Or, rather, he tried to.
Instead, an enormous green hand seized him and slammed him into the nearest tower like a rag doll.
Where the small boy once stood, a monstrous beast towered above all the surrounding structures. Its mottled green skin glistened and oozed with spikes and scales. Its gigantic, malformed head swept the entire refinery with baleful eyes as it surged forward, annihilating and gashing everything in its path.
“Insects” the creature roared in a voice that shook the air all around.
“You seek to stop me with these pathetic parlor tricks?” It smashed a hand down on the tower where it hurled Bastion, reducing the structure to a twisted morass of metal and rubble.
Cross woke up with a start. In the space of a few seconds, he digested several details.
One, something hit him hard a moment ago and knocked him out. Two, he was flying through the air in the arms of a flaming man.
This last bit was the hardest to swallow, but then he remembered when Gus told them about his powers for the fire time.
“Gus?” He yelled above the din of the air rushing past him. “Is that you?”
“Use the code names, man, we can’t be too careful.”
Okay, thought Luke, that’s one problem solved.
“Infierno, something’s not right. We have to go back now.”
“Sorry, Cross, no can do,” Infierno called back. “You need medical attention now.”
The feeling of dread Cross was feeling couldn’t be ignored.
Cross sighed, steeled himself, and said, “I’m not suggesting it, Infierno. Someone needs us now. I hope I see you back there.”
With that, Cross pictured the Refinery and vanished.
Infierno froze in shock midair for a moment.
“Dammit,” he growled as he turned around and raced back. “You’ve probably got a concussion, kid. No way in hell you’re going back alone again.”
Screams, shrieks, howls, and other unspeakable noises swirled all around Dusk, drowning out all other sounds and pummeling Dusk until he fell to his knees. Thick, impenetrable darkness surrounded him wherever he turned.
Every ounce of fear and panic surged into his mind, as vivid as the first time he first felt them. Every failure, disappointment, and insecurity he’d ever experienced in his life broke over him in seemingly endless waves.
The agonizing moan continued, shredding his hearing and savaging his mind.
Dusk writhed and screamed,but no sound came out.
Rope-like tendrils shot out at him from every direction. The slithered over his arms and legs and held him fast like a slab of beef. They robbed him of the ability to cover his ears and at least drown out some of the horrors that continued to wash over him.
He screamed silently again and desperately twisted his body back and forth in another futile attempt to break free.
Dusk dropped his head and shut his eyes. Fat tears rolled down his cheeks and faded from view. Despair began to consume his mind entirely.
An unfamiliar voice boomed out, slicing through the tortuous din.
“GET UP, SON.”
Darryl opened his eyes. He could see no one. The horrid sounds returned, buffeting him afresh, making him doubt he’d heard anything.
“I can’t.” He said, not with his voice but from deep inside his mind.
“THAT’S A LIE, SON. GET UP AND GET OUT OF HERE NOW.”
“Don’t you see my hands?” Darryl spat. “I can’t move! I can’t even move, and you want me to leave?”
“I DON’T WANT YOU TO DO ANYTHING. I TOLD YOU TO GET UP!”
The last words tore through his mind, shattering every other sound and thought.
Darryl’s eyes burst open. They blazed a vivid cobalt blue that surged and crackled in the sudden silence.
A gigantic blue aura burst out of Darryl’s chest with a piercing KEE-EEEE-ARR!!!
It incinerated the cords that bound his hands and feet and swept him along with it.
The aura formed into the shape of an immense falcon, colliding with the darkness and splintering it with a monstrous CRACK.
The falcon erupted out of Sorrow’s poisonous black cloud, dispersing it and him in all directions at once until nothing remained. It set Dusk down gently and then surged forward.
The falcon dove straight for the rubble where Bastion’s body lay. It surged into the pile and out again, enveloping the shattered building with heat and light at an ever-increasing speed before flying back to Dusk and scooping him onto its back.
The steel and stone shuddered and writhed.
Suddenly, an enormous red eagle smashed up and out of the wreckage.
It hovered low over the ground before settling beside the great falcon.
A bemused Bastion rode on top of it.
Dusk and Bastion stared at each other, unsure of what to do next.
Then, the ground underneath them shook with violent, rhythmic tremors that sent water sloshing up onto the refinery grounds.
Without thought or discussion, they both crouched low on the backs of their birds, held on tight, and launched into the sky, surging toward Lake Archer.