"The Crossroads of the World"

She'd been missing for three years now and Hunter missed his little sister more than anything. His father only managed to treat him like shit, stepping on him every chance that he got. He'd never been able to raise his fists against his father to defend himself. But when it came down to Heather, he could fight the man. At least then, when he was defending Heather, their drunk-ass mother would step in to stop her husband from killing their son. That was all over. Heather was gone and Hunter's mother drank more often. In her sorrow, Letticia Carthwright-Bosch had become a disgusting shell of a once beautiful and caring woman. She could usually be found on their musty sofa in their house in Brooklyn, sipping on bourbon and self-medicating with whatever she could find that said not to consume with alcohol. This was slow death...only because she'd been too afraid to kill herself and get it over with.
Hunter's father was an even weaker man. He managed to work 10-14 hours a day to ignore the problems at home. From work, he would go to the bar. He would get piss-ass drunk until they kicked him out. He would make a sloth-like trip home because the bartender was his friend so he'd kick his ass each night to take his keys. Full of booze, anger and guilt, he would actually get Hunter out of bed to beat him, to chastise him, to blame him. It was actually Hunter's father's fault that Heather was missing. He'd taken her to the park. He'd started hitting on another woman. He'd lost sight of her. He didn't realize Heather was missing until he got the tramp's phone number.
There were nights that Hunter would roam town to get away from his father. He'd officially spent the night in alleys or hotels in all of the burrows aside from Manhattan. On that night he'd intended on spending the night in Manhattan. That all changed when he saw her. You see, he'd never seen Times Square and while he was in Manhattan, he wasn't going to pass it up. But there was no way that she was there. He was looking right at her. She was standing beneath the Panasonic "Jumbotron" on the face of One Times Square. She was just standing there... People were walking right past her as if she wasn't there. But Hunter saw her. It didn't matter that they were walking past her. The problem was that she'd been missing for three years but, she was the same size, the same shape, wearing the same dress, carrying that bear that Hunter had made fun of her for never letting go, the one that he missed so much. She wasn't looking at him though. She was craning her neck to watch a news report about flying cars in TriBeCa or something. Hunter was paying very little attention to the television. His missing sister was standing right there, in the flesh. It was impossible....but she was there. He had to be sure that he wasn't hallucinating. It was getting late in the day so he was able to clear traffic easily. when he neared her, he began to call Heather's name the way he had years ago, when they would play hide-and-seek. She really was there, he just knew it. He bumped into a man and hadn't excused himself. The man began to yell at him but he drowned it out. It wasn't important. Heather was right there. He stopped right behind his sister and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Heather... Heather...it's me, dear. It's me...Hunter.. It's your bear-bear..." Hunter was smiling...really smiling for the first time in three years.
That smile faded when his sister turned around. She stared at him through eyes that were not his sister's. She wore the dress, had the bear, even had her hair pulled back in that pony-tail but those eyes weren't right. They looked dead. There was no life in them, they were dry. In fact, they were so dry that Hunter couldn't understand how they were open. She breathed deeply, raggedly, as if her airway was thick with phlegm. He shook his head. This was all wrong. He said, "Heather..." and the girl smiled, showing teeth caked with blackness and blood. He could smell her breath, standing at least two feet taller than her. Her breath reminded him of the first time he'd stayed in the Bronx...when he'd found that dead bum under a pile of trash. This wasn't right. He went to say her name again but this time, she scream and he was thrown away from her. His body twirled onto its side and he flipped like a rag doll into the pole at the end of the walkway. He hit the ground hard and as he began to collect himself, trying to figure out what happened, screams filled his head. He soon realized that these were screams of people at Times Square. Pedestrians were screaming. But none that had been around Heather. All that had been walking near his sister were showers of blood falling around her. Whatever she'd done to blow Hunter away had killed all of those people. He didn't get it. He slowly got to his feet and said, "Heather..."
Now, people were running the other way, toward 42nd. He said his sister's name again but she simply smiled again and she flinched. Before Hunter knew it, he was lifted off of the ground and thrown into the pole again, bending it. He fell on his buttocks and slumped forward as the pole creaked and fell down above him, the top crashing against the street. Hunter called to his sister quietly again and grumbled softly as he began to crawl from beneath the light pole. Heather was right there. She shoved her foot into his ribs and he must had accelerated so quickly that he endured 3 g. at least before he slammed into the side of a car with so much force that it was pushed at least six feet. Hunter fell away from the crunched in car doors and found himself bleeding from his mouth and nose. "Heather..." he mumbled as he got to his feet and his arms began to tingle, his shoulders aching as he began to walk toward his sister. His breathing was heavy, his heart beat thumping in his ears, but he didn't care. This was his sister. She smiled again, waved her right hand out and Hunter's eyes went wide as an entire car sailed toward him, lifting off of the ground and turning end-over-end, flipping toward him, picking up speed. Then, his body just reacted and a flaming sword erupted from the palm of his hand, sliding from a gaping wound, almost as if it had been implanted in his arm. The would spilled blood on the concrete and his hand gripped the handle of the weapon as it presented itself. A quick slash of the weapon rendered the car in half and it exploded, shaking he street. Hunter went down on one knee, protecting his face from flames and the debris. There was no way. The taxi was still twenty feet away from him.
This time, when he looked toward his sister he could see a blackened, oily mist roiling around her. Snakes were slithering around her, snakes of this this putrid black energy, lashing out and slithering back around her, one with this mist that seemed to leak this sickening fluid. She smiled again, blackness pouring from her eyes as if she was crying, running down her face. Her smiled deepened, her eyes narrowed as she licked her lips, taking in the blackness with her tongue. Hunter didn't understand what was happening but he was going to save Heather. There was someone he didn't know in her body. No one was going to defile her body. "Nobody!" Hunter yelled and ran toward his sister's body.

The Chief was already at the blockade and Chip and Connie both said, "Shit..." under their breaths. There was a tremendous amount of people being held back at 42nd street, south of One Times Square. Chip grabbed August's hand and she grabbed Charles' hand. Behind them, Alasdair took Edana's hand as they pushed through the police. Most of the officers just waved Chip through but there were a few that he had to flash his badge to and wave his fingers over his head, signalling that the procession was with him. The crowd would scream every once in a while when something loud would hit the street or an explosion would go off. There were flood lights up and there was a separate set of railings and police officers for the bustling news reporters and their equipment and vans. Chip dragged the procession, Connie in-tow, along until they came to a large RV with NYPD along the side. A SWAT vehicle was parked next to it and the guys were gearing up. Chip was stopped by the arms of two officers and he said, "Look, I need to talk to the Chief..."
"The Chief is very busy," Vanderbilt said.
"Yes, I know that...busy scratching his head!" Chip yelled.
The other officer, Myers, said, "Look, Smith, don't be that way..."
"Alright, alright, but I have to get these people past the blockade and I can't do it without the Chief! The area is sealed off all the way around..."
Myers said, "Look, it dudn't matta whatcha think ya gotta do but we can't let'chu through."
Chip said, "Goddamn guys, look, I got August Rayne Smith and Edana McCarthy. I gotta get them down there!"
That changed things. Myers looked as Vanderbilt who made a strange face and asked, "You mean...like August from Central Park and Edana from TriBeCa; August and Edana...?"
"Yes, those two exactly..."
Vanderbilt said, "Damn, Smith... When you role you role heavy..."
Myers laughed and said, "Role wit da freaks..."
Chip said, "Hey, you watch that ship, officer. August is my niece... Just go get the Chief..."
Myers shoved his foot in his mouth and nodded his head. He left for a few minutes, there was yelling and then the Chief appeared. He looked like shit. Aside from the fact that he was balding and looked like he was eight instead of fifty-six. Too many long nights, too many tough cases and all the stale donuts, coffee and cigarettes that made a man a real man. The Chief thundered down the stairs of the Mobile Command HQ and waved Chip over as he turned toward the SWAT vehicle and continued walking. Before Chip and the others were ever close enough he began to say, "I'm only talking to you because I had to leave the HQ anyway. The mayor is breathing down my neck and the FBI and NSA are bringing in their guys. I don't like the FBI, Chip...and I know that you don't either. I like you, Chip, and you know that, so I'm going to hear you out. If it stops the FBI from sending Clark and Clark, which they always send, I'll be happy..."
Chip took a double step to catch up with the Chief as he rounded the FBI vehicle and the full spectrum of the collection of people could take affect. Chip looked over the mass of people and it nearly took his breath away. In fact, the Chief stopped and looked back toward him, asking, "Well..."
Chip shook his head, regaining focus and he said, "I want to send them down there. August, Edana and Alasdair McCarthy..."
The Chief burped out a sharp laugh and said, "Do you know what's going on down there? There is some little girl and a teenage kid fighting to the death with flying cars and busted fire hydrants and the life... I don't know what to do with this shit, Chip. The first SWAT formation we sent in was picked apart before they could even get into position. We put up snipers but all of them suffered from sever delusions and nosebleeds. We had men screaming about demons and monsters into their comms for ten minutes. Three of them drew their sidearms and shot themselves. You knot, Chip, I always thought that I lived in the real world. I believed that when I sat down in the evening with Gloria with a cup of tea and a good science fiction novel, what I was reading could never be real. If it would be, then I'd be long dead. But this, Chip, is tearing everything I know to pieces and tossing them in the sewers. There is nothing that we can do. The National Guard will be here soon and those Army boys, well, Chip, all they'll do is riddle that street with five-five-six rounds and ask questions later. If you're going to do something...if they're going to do something, not only do you have my permission, you have my blessing..."

*edit

Finally she was back with her brother, her pillar of peace in times of turbulence. Already a weight lifted off of her just by being with him and as they walked back to a room that had another policeman, a young man and a young woman, she stuck close beside him. She figured maybe they wanted to question her about what had happened but the TV was on in the room, the news was playing and some man was talking about what had happened, about what she had done.

Electricity from her hands, that’s just absolutely ridiculous. She wanted to voice that she wasn’t some oddball to the other strangers in the room but she couldn’t take her attention away from the television for a second. As much as she didn’t want to believe what he was saying, she knew it was true. She had come to the conclusion herself in the ambulance that the release she felt was real so maybe she had produced electricity from her hands. Edie didn’t have any longer to ponder on the thought as the reporter came back on and the screen flashed to a horrifying scene in Times Square. Barely able to squeeze the words from her throat, she mumbled that it was her, the girl who had attacked her in TriBeCa. It was the same terrible little child, the one that was now causing all the carnage at Times Square was the one who had earlier flung cars at her as if it was as simple as kicking a pebble. The Lieutenant broke her attention from the news as he said they were all going, she couldn’t even force out a reason not to go before they were ushered outside into a vehicle and were on their way.

Times Square was utter chaos; it was the only way to describe it. Edana held tightly onto her brother’s hand as they were pulled through the check points until finally they came to a halt at a SWAT vehicle. It seemed after the Lieutenant mentioned her name and, August? The other woman’s name must be August, after he mentioned their names it was like a secret code word. However one of the men made a comment about them being freaks and she furrowed her brow angrily towards him, and mumbled “Bastard,” under her breath. It didn’t take long for them to be seen by the Chief who was the embodiment of stress it appeared and she could certainly understand that. They wanted to send all of them in though, send them in to fight HER?! What they hell were they expecting some kind of mutant throw down?! She didn’t even know what the hell had happened back at TriBeCa, she didn’t even know if she could do it again! Now they were sending them in to go toe to toe with that demon toddler again?! “Listen, I hate what that kid is doing but I have no idea what happened with me back at TriBeCa alright. I probably can’t even repeat what I did there! That little girl through fucking cars at me and apparently she can do more than that! I’m not exactly just jumping the gun to run in there with her! What are you expecting me to do sir? Shoot a lightning bolt from my nose?!” She squeezed her brother’s arm; her mind was panicking yet again at the thought of being faced with this monster once more.

Everyone has gone mad Alasdair thought as they pushed their way through the seething mass of people. He was holding Edana's hand so they wouldn't lose each other as they moved through the chaos following the lieutenant. They finally managed to make it through the crowd only to be stopped by Vanderbilt and Myers. It took the officers pissing Chip off with a comment about August and his sister being freaks to make them listen. Alasdair clinched his fist hard enough to hurt making his fingers dig into his hand. He was a hard man to piss off but talking about his sister was one sure fire way to do it. The chief came down the step of the mobile HQ looking like he was about to have an aneurism from all of the stress. He started rambling and walking off forcing everyone to follow him to listen. Chip suggested that they send August, Edie, and him down to fight these lunatics with powers. He wasn't to keen on the idea and neither was his sister by the sounds of it as she told the lieutenant off and clutched his arm. Time to ask some questions " Sir I agree with my sister... we don't even know if she can do whatever the hell it was that she did back at tirbeca again, and I doubt your niece knows much about what she did to. Honestly I'm curious why your wanting to send me down there, I don't have any super powers or whatever you want to call it. I want to help in anyway I can but before me and my sister go down there on a suicide mission I would like to know what you are planning."

August shook her head and said, "Chip, you can't expect us to go down there and die! I don't know what to do. I reacted and I'm sure that Edana did and though Alasdair's body talked to mine, he doesn't know what he's doing..."
"But you do, August..." Charles said.
August looked down at the boy and said, "Charles, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't understand what you want me to do..."
Charles squeezed August's hand as hard as he could and said, "Feel, Rainy, you just have to feel..."
"I can't, Charles. I can't feel anything..."
"You can, Rainy." Charles lifted his little left hand and pressed his index finger between August's breasts before drawing a line to her forehead. "You can feel, Rainy, just like I can..." Charles spread his fingers and ran his hand down August's face and said, "You just have to try...or Hunter is going to die..."
"Who is Hunter..." Chip asked.
The Chief chuckled and said, "The kid...the teenager down there that is apparently waving a round a flaming sword...his name is Hunter. He's in the database for a couple of petty crimes but if you, Smith, didn't know his name...then this kid here shouldn't either..."
Chip laughed lightly and looked toward August. "Can you do it...?"
"I don't think I can..." August said and looked into Charles' eyes. She said to him, "Can you go...?"
"I die if I go... You must go..."
August shook her head and said, "But...I don't know how to do what I did in the house, Charles..."
"Sure you do, Rainy, you just have to feel..."
"Okay..." August said. She looked toward her uncle and the Chief of police and said, "Okay, I'll go..."

The street lights were out, as the power had gone out long ago. She was between the crowd and the fighting and she felt lonelier now than she ever had in her entire life. When her parents passed, she'd felt indubitably lonely. What she needed was Charles to be a brother to her. He hadn't exactly known how. He didn't have anyone. Chip didn't understand her and Olivia was so disconnected from the world that she'd been impossible to talk to. That had been a painful loneliness and it had been very taxing to overcome. August had become much stronger for it. She'd wondered how much stronger she would become after facing this.
She neared the site of conflict and as she caught the young girl's attention, the young man, Hunter, was peeking himself out of a dent in the side of a taxicab. He fell to his knees and blood poured from his mouth as he slapped his hands to the ground and his sword fizzled into flames, dancing away on the wind as embers. his clothing was shredded and he looked as if he would fall dead at any minute but he began to crawl to his feet. August called to him, "I'm here to help you!" Hunter looked her way and she could see that blood was pouring down the left side of his face and that his right eye was blackened. He smiled and said, "That thing is in my sister's body and I want it out..."
"What thi-" August began to say but she would soon understand. There was a putrid black mist lingering around the body of the little girl. Her right arm had been stricken by the flaming blade and the wound was cauterized now but pulsating blackness was latching onto the wound. August took a step back as the girl smiled at her, showing blackened teeth. In a voice that sounded like glass sliding through phlegm, the small girl said, "Are you here to play too...?"
August clinched her fists and was ready to advance, not knowing exactly what to do, but Hunter was up and moving. He let the blade explode from his hands, took the handle in both hands and yelled as he ran toward the body of his sister. He yelled, "Leave my sister alone!" He drew the blade from his left side and the flames licked out at the girl, slashing into her chest and setting her chest ablaze. She took a quick step back and raised her right hand. Hunter was picked up from the ground where he ran. He began to scream as the girl squeezed her hand and blood squeezed from Hunter's wounds before fresh ones tore into his flesh and blood showered to the ground before the girl flung her hand downward and Hunter slammed into the earth with so much force that he cracked the concrete. Then, August was in the girl's face. She didn't know how, she didn't care; but she knew that she hadn't run. She was just there. She shoved a punch into the girl's chin and lifted her off of the ground. Behind them, Hunter was released from the death grip. But August wasn't done. Dashes of color began to shower away from August's hands with each blow as she walked the girl back with tremendous punches. She could feel her energy, she could feel that of Hunter's, fading; and she could feel the malignant energy permeating the body of this small girl. She took the girl by the neck and punched her in the belly before letting her go. The girl hovered for a second before August yelled, cringing, and blowing the girl away from her with an eruption of this rainbow-like pulsation of energy.
The girl hit the ground and skidded back, flipping as she went along. She came to a bloody stop and August stood there, watching, waiting. The girl began to laugh menacingly as she got to her feet. This was not the laugh of a girl. This was the laugh of something from far beyond. The laugh of a demon or monster but it was alien. The laugh was deep, guttural; shards of glass and grit sliding through slime and coagulated blood. The body shot rigid, the back arching, the head craned back; eyes, staring into the clouds. August's stomach turned as a huge bulge appeared in the girl's neck, almost as if it were feeling with air. The cyst-like growth exploded, blackened skin spraying onto the ground. Hunter screamed and ran for the girl but he was stopped by a burst of energy emitted from the child that took him off of his feet and threw him about one hundred feet away where he lost consciousness. August couldn't move as the energy that she felt from the body began to sky rocket. She was in trouble.
A long, sinewy black claw shot out of the hole in the girl's neck and began to grasp at the air, blood sliding over the long nails, falling to the concrete. The claw swung upward and angled down to the face. the nails grabbed flesh, tearing it away from bone and ripping it away and as the neck became a gaping wound, another claw jutted toward the sky. Both claws groped the air and finally found their way to the shoulders before they began to push the shoulders down, literally tearing the girl's body away as if she were a wet suit. The creature within was made of this disgusting black goop that congealed into a being, a body much too large to have fit in such a small body. A three foot tall frame turned into a 7 foot tall being made of dripping back goop. Red veins ran along the outside of the blackness and thin green eyes opened in the head and then two more opened in the face at the front of an elongated, disproportionate head. A slit appeared near the chin of the thing and stretched from cheek to cheek before red gums showed and this black, slimy flesh rolled away as thin lips opened to show rows of thin, sharp black teeth. the beast was taking its time with its first breath of life before it stretched its arms out at its sides and roared with such ferocity that what glass was left intact exploded out toward the street. the monster set its sight on August. It growled low in its chest and blackened wings exploded away from the creature and it exploded toward August with so much force that the wall behind it, the face of One Times Square, buckled inward.

Alasdair waited for a reply from Chip concerning his and Edana's questions but it seemed that none was forth coming as August and Chip started talking to Augusts brother Charles. The kid said someone was going to die if she didn't go down there, and that with a little encouragement sent her down the street.Shit I cant let her go alone, hell didn't I pledge to serve and protect Alasdair thought with a guilty conscience as August walked down the street. Alasdair looked to his sister and saw reflected in her face his own emotions... they couldn't let her go alone. Alasdair looked at the lieutenant and chief for a second "I guess were going to trust a kid with a mental disorder that can seemingly tell the future... Shit I guess its no worse that anything else that happened today... dammit I cant leave her alone" Alasdair said as he took off after August with his sister following close behind.

As He walked down the dark streets Alasdair first spotted a figure laying on the ground, and after a few more steps he spotted something that looked like it was from his nightmares. It burst out of the little girl that had attacked his sister looking like a seven foot wall of death with its eyes locked on August. Ive gotta help her Alasdair thought feverishly as he rushed towards August and the monstrosity but he knew that he would never make it as the creature sprouted wings and redied to launch itself at August. "DAMN IT!!" Alasdair yelled in frustration. His sister had been attacked, this part of the city had been utterly and completely demolished and now some sludge monster from the 6th circle of hell was about to kill his lieutenants niece. It was too much. His concentration reached its peak and beyond as he watched the monster give a great flap of its wings and shot for August. "NO!!" Alasdair cried in outrage as he felt as if a great storm was within him as the manhole cover in front of August suddenly shot up ,propelled with great force by sewer water, slamming into the monster in mid flight and completely soaking it.

Edana just listened quietly as August, this boy Charles, and the Lieutenant all spoke to each other. They all really wanted to send her down there, which honestly was crazy to Edie; it was practically a death sentence! The woman went though and despite everything in her screaming to just leave now, her damn morals just had to rear their head. She could feel the tingling under her skin again; maybe she could do something to help. Besides, if she stood here and August died then she would always think what if she could have done something. Stranger or not, they couldn’t let her go alone and it seemed her brother had the same thoughts as they made eye contact then headed down to ground zero.

The feeling under her skin grew the closer they drew to the horrible scene. Some guy was thrown backwards and she could only guess that this was the Hunter they spoke of earlier. Fantastic, seemed like things were going just dandy and here they were about to thrust themselves into it. Before she could even think of going to see if the man was alright, her attention was pulled to the horrible entity that ripped itself from the little girl’s body. So that’s what was causing this, not the girl, that thing. This was all getting way to insane for her to understand but all she needed to know now was that monster had its sights locked on August. Her brother ran forward the moment the creature propelled itself toward the woman and everything happened in a blur. Water sprang from the ground and covered the black beast; she could hear the crackling inside her head as she could before at TriBeCa. Her instinct was to let this energy out of her through her hands and she threw them forward towards the monster without a clue as to what would happen. Much to her surprise, a crack resounded and a bright flash flung forward from her palms and etched its way through the darkness straight for the water soaked creature.

August was happy to have help as this grotesque creature attacked her. She'd frozen, hadn't been able to move. This was too much. Where the child had been there was now a husk of flesh and blood. At least Hunter was out-cold. Water drenched the beast, electricity fried it and slowed it but it seemed to be more resilient than that. This was impossible, wasn't it? This was a creature from nightmares, from Stephen King novels and John carpenter movies. The only problem was that Kurt Russel wasn't coming to save her, Jimmy Schmidt wasn't going to leap from the darkness and save the day. This was real, this was happening and it was tearing the fabric of everything August knew to pieces. Water conducts electricity. That monster should have been dead....but it wasn't. It shook the attack off. This was impossible. "No...." August said as the monster growled in its throat and began to come for her. It was twenty feet away. But that hadn't mattered. A scream exploded from her and threw the monster back but its left arms went skyward. This was the power she'd used against the man in her apartment building. This was anger. This was despair. The beast got to its feet and a crackling of bones produced a massive span of wings. The creature exploded toward August from a crouch and she screamed, "NO!" and clinched every muscle in her body. The beast was ravaged by a pulsation of energy and taken from the sky, hurled back into One Times Square. Finally, the Jumbotron came down upon it.
August knew that it wasn't over. It couldn't have been. It wasn't. The monster exploded from the wreckage and with a powerful flap of wings it was upon August, taking her to the ground.

What the hell just happend?! Alasdair looked on in amazement as the monster shake off the blows him and his sister had just given it. He wasn't sure what had just occurred but he knew that it left him a bit tired feeling as though he had been lifting weights for the last hour. Adrenalin pumped through his body wiping away his weariness as he watched August launch the creature through a wall. "Did that take it down?" He whispered to himself as he stared at August wide eyed. The creature stood up and stretched out its great wings and Alasdair's heart fell. The monster attacked again with the same results except this time the jumbotron collapsed on it, and all Alasdair could think about was that that was one expensive ass t.v.. "Is it dead?" He called out running towards August when suddenly a black blur hit her taking her down to the ground. turns out it wasn't. This damn thing just wouldn't die no matter what they did to it. Alasdair didn't have time to think all he knew was that he needed to get the creature off of August before it could do any damage to her.

He began sprinting at the creature full speed, running faster than he ever had before. He was going off of instinct now nothing more, he knew he had to get the monster off of August and that was all he could think about was hitting that damn thing as hard as he could. He felt the storm rise inside of him again as a large wave of water rolled up behind him, water pumping out of the sewer adding mass to the wave. He tackled the creature with all of his might and the force of the wave behind him adding to the impact. He rolled on top of the monster with a giant rush of water wanting to keep it down and realizing at the same time how incredibly stupid what he just did was. suddenly the water on the monster responded to his need to keep the creature down,and froze over in the blink of an eye attempting to restrain the beast as Alasdair jumped off the monster and danced back.

Ha! She’d hit it, dead on! Maybe she actually did have a clue as to what she was doing! Her happiness was short lived though as the monster shook off the attacks as if they were nothing. That couldn’t be, surely the hits had been more powerful than that but it was treating them as if they were barely nicks! It went for August once more and she screamed which sent it tumbling back and Edie covered her ears quickly to protect them from the piercing sound. It got up again, it got up AGAIN! It exploded towards the woman but was repelled back and appeared to be crushed under the Jumbotron. “It’s dead now right?” She asked, to no one in particular but surely the threat was gone.

It burst forth from the wrecked mass of the giant screen; it was like something out of a damn horror movie. The monsters never died in movies so quickly and this thing seemed to be following the example of every film in history. It also seemed to be angry after the attack as it was on top of August in the blink of an eye, pinning her down. The next thing Edie knew, she could see her brother out of the corner of her eye running towards the pinned girl and hellish monster like a man possessed. What on God’s green Earth was he thinking?! The ground shook though as he ran, the uncovered manhole began to bulge and the asphalt around it cracked with distress until a torrent of water shot forth, becoming a massive wave behind Alex. It crashed into the creature at the same time he did and what was she doing, just standing there dumbly watching. No, she had to do something, she had to help. Hell, if she was going to die out here she might as well die doing something heroic, or stupid, but honestly wasn’t heroic just a kind term for stupidity at times anyway?

She ran forward at a speed she hadn’t even realized she was capable of; her hands tingled with energy as she approached her brother who had frozen the water over the beast. Wisely, he moved away as electricity sparked and popped off and around her fingers and palms. Damn, she really hoped she knew what she was doing. This was her last thought as she slid to a halt at the creature’s disgusting head, putting her palms on its temple with the hope of frying its brain. If she lived through this, she was really going to have to work on her split second planning.

August couldn't believe. After a torrent of water saved her from death, saved her from staring into the eyes of this shadowy, disgusting creature and after it had been frozen and attacked by Edana, it still managed to take her electric bolt to the head and in response to the charge, ti shattered the ice with its wings and blew her away with a blast of energy and she was gone. August feared the worst but a tangle of electricity formed behind August and Edana reappeared, unscathed. The creature growled, setting its eyes on Alex. It was going after him now. But August didn't care. he beast lifted its left arm and its jolted with spasms as that fluid blackness roiled around its arm as bones cracked and splintered spasmodically as the arm changed, claws extended, dripping of putridity that leaked to the earth, sizzling against the concrete. The wings extended behind the beast as it crouched, roared so, that the air around it warped, shadowy manifestations of the creature spreading away from it, roars resounding from each one but August was there, grabbing the beast's elbow in her right hand. She laughed dryly and said, "You're going to die...NOW!" A powerful punch in the monster's chest caused it to gasp-hiss and she seemed to have caught it off guard. A lance of energy from her right hand severed the arm at the elbow and blackness spewed forth as August brought her fist in its chest up to its chin and forced its view toward the sky and the other fist fluidly came around to connect with the beasts left side. The beast slightly moved to its right and to August's left before she brought her left leg around to its head. Her body to the side, she drew her left knee to her chest without putting the foot down and slammed her foot into its chest and the monster began to move away from her but instead, she caught its remaining arm in her left hand, pulled the monster toward her and shoved her right fist through its abdomen so much intensity that the rubble beyond it suffered a blow. August was fueled by insanity now. She withdrew her slimy fist from the monster's abdomen now and showered its chest with powerful punches that crushed done and broke skin. Each punch released a rainbow-tinged shower of light energy before she directed energy toward the monsters right arm and it flipped away from the two of them as she continued her assault. A punch to its face caused it to turn slightly to the left and August was around the beast, grabbing at one of its wings and slamming an ax-kick into its right shoulder and pulling back on the wing. The monster roared as the wing was yanked free of its body and August's face was showered with greasy black fluid and she tossed her wing off to the side where it hit the concrete and fizzled away into a thick gaseous mist. A fist slammed into the wound produced a shower of energy within the beat's body that caused a gaping wound to explode through the monster's chest.
What had happened to August...? This was an execution now...
Withdrawing her fist from the wing wound, she shoved a punch into the left side of the beast's head but caught its body with a jarring right kick that landed on its upper arm, as that was all that remained on its right side. She grabbed the nub in her right hand, yanked back on it and a knee from her left leg snapped bone back as the beast hissed in pain. With the shoulder so severely hyper-extended, August drive her knee down, slamming the beast's face into the concrete. It was helpless now but it didn't deserve pity. August dropped both of her knees into its back, dropping onto the bones that should have been its scapula, its shoulders, and they cracked. Hurried punches were delivered to the monster's head and those punches turned into her fingers being laced together and she beat the monster's head in. If it didn't have a brain, she would beat it until it was just dead....just dust.
She began to screaming furiously as she beat its head in. She screamed, "I'll never go home! I'll never be normal! I don't want this! I didn't ask for this!" That became incoherent yelping as her fists pummeled the beast's head. Teeth shattered, the side of its face was ground into the concrete as she beat it ceaselessly before she pressed both of her hands to its neck and cried out before a burst of energy coalesced around her shoulders and exploded toward the monster's head and disintegrated the flesh and bone, burning its into the concrete. August began to punch the concrete with limp punches, tearing the flesh on her knuckles before she realized what she was doing. One last, weak, pointless punch struck the concrete but it still cracked and a splintering fissure ran along the concrete. Her chest heaved as she cried.
The monster was dead. She hadn't even known what it was. She hadn't had time to find out. This time she hadn't collapsed. She just sat there, her knees pressed into the shoulder blades of some monstrosity from her worst nightmares. Her shoulders sagged as she relaxed and realized that her body was screaming in pain. Now, Hunter was moving. He'd probably bled to death. She still didn't understand what was happening. But Charles had told her to feel and that was what she'd done. She looked at the back of her bloody knuckled and looked up as a helicopter flew overhead. It landed not too far from them and Chip and the Chief exited the chopper.
Maybe August had lost touch with time but it was much too soon after the beast's demise that the Chief, Connie and Chip were already coming. They were yelling at Edana and Alex about getting them out of there and the two made their way to the chopper as Chip came to August and the Chief and Connie entered the black helicopter. Chip waited as the Chief helped Charles from the chopper and he came to August. He looked down at her as if he didn't understand what had happened....more like it didn't matter, like he didn't care. He'd told her to feel and she'd done it. This feeling of normalcy sobered August and she smiled slightly before Chip held a hand out to her and he helped her to her feet.
Half way to the chopper she stopped and said, "I can't leave that thing here..." August turned back toward the creature and held out her right hand. As a husk of flesh, with no energy to exert, it was easily destroyed when August's shoulder jerked back and invisible energy burned the monster's carcass away. August, Charles and Chip followed the Chief into the chopper. Hopefully the action was too far away from the news vultures to get good footage of August and the others.
At least Chip and Connie could protect them for now.

*Continuing in Hoboken, New Jersey