Much as Anisa suspected, the trail of destruction had followed to the exact place she knew it would. The space where Sculptura had first made her debut to the public. The first time she had been forced to kill. The space where Shawn first jumped to her defense so that their heroes wouldn’t kill her right then and there… heroes Sculptura would later kill using her body.
And as she watched from atop a skyscraper, she saw him. The flowing jacket of the black figure was all she needed. She even recognized his gait. This was how he walked whenever the Cosmic Phoenix was done playing hero and had decided to play destroyer instead. As he walked, she could see his visor shielded a literal fire, as if this shadowy force was being powered by a furnace, but more than that she could see the edges of the helmet she knew so well cracking as if it was barely containing the heat… no… more like he was crying.
She watched as the seemingly harmless phantoms were trying to storm Shawn. An endless assault. Gina growled and jumped down, clearly not intending to ask permission before she ran to help Shawn. They both knew he didn’t need it. Only Anisa suspected the risk. As Shawn hit each phantom, it wasn’t some complex combination or a well laid plan. It was brutal, direct, and without a shred of mercy. Singular strikes that drove them into the terrain or through structures. No hesitation, wear, or doubt. When Gina ran in to help out, he moved on instinct into the way of her strike, catching her leg before throwing her with great force into a nearby lamp post.
Gina looked at him with confusion, tears starting to form in her eyes. “Sh-shawn. It’s me. It’s Gina. I’m here to help.” Still he walked forward with destructive intent burning in his visor. It was then that the purple armored warrior from before dropped in to lift Gina out of the way of Shawn’s next strike.
The woman announced, “He cannot hear you. He cannot see anything right now except his own guilt. Every failure. Every life taken.” She stated calmly, “This is his punishment. He made a deal in his darkest moment and tried to close the contract himself. This is his penalty, but I’m sure you are all too familiar with the crystal buried in his chest.”
Anisa blinked for a moment before looking closer. It was there that she saw it. The glowing orange gem in the center of his chest. Not just resting on the surface. It was embedded where his heart should be. And it was here that she felt a familiar chill… the sensation of destiny trying to plot against her. A dread realization that if she wasn’t careful, history would repeat itself.
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Shawn landed on this barren world, entirely fed up already. Equinox had called him here after his little kidnapping stunt and he was expecting some downright cliché villainy. Ten years… ten years of saving the cosmos and this was the quality of nemesis the universe had given him. An unhinged space pirate bent on punishing him for doing his job. He was on high alert for any of Equinox’s trickery. So when he felt a force of despair leap at him from the shadows, he didn’t hesitate. A spinning roundhouse with everything he had. He didn’t get a good look at the figure as it went sailing away, other than it having wings as black as night. Drawing his pistol swiftly, he fired a powerful beam that consumed the figure completely.
He shouted to the open air, “Was that it? Your little scheme? Some nothing monster that was suppposed to kill me?” When his voice echoed across it’s dark surface, he sighed, “Yeah… no… of course it couldn’t be that easy with you. Dear lord…” He closed his eyes and listened to the wind. As he did, he heard the Phoenixian Crystal whispering to him again. It could sense Equinox’s evil. Could sense the terror and despair that Anisa was feeling… and Shawn hated this sensation. The wash of despair and pain that this planet already held before they even arrived. A darkness that clung to Anisa the same way it was clawing at him. Even so, he had already made his resolve. Whatever Equinox had planned, he hadn’t spent ten years fighting every evil in the cosmos just to give up on her now. Anisa was going to finally be free of this shit and they were both going home.
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Stolen story; please report.
Gina punched the purple figure and growled, “And who the hell are you?!”
The figure laughed softly, “I see why he likes you. That said, I am simply someone who takes my promises as seriously as he does. And for now that means keeping you two alive.” The figure radiated maternal energy and tranquility and Anisa watched Gina’s defensive nature melt some in response.
She laughed with nervous dismissal, “Shawn wouldn’t kill us… right?”
Promises… Even as the figure hesitated, Anisa didn’t, “I think Gina is right. Look at him. Watch as he decimates these threats with lethal blows. Outright and without hesitation. But Gina…” The figure seemed to pause in consideration before laughing affectionately into her hand. A gesture that Anisa saw as agreement. Someone who saw the same thing she did. The Man Too Angry to Die.
Gina watched the fighting and growled with annoyance, her stance shifting back into aggression as she said under her breath, “But you said he couldn’t see me…” As Pandina took back over, she said with barely restrained anger, “You… you said you would keep us alive. That why you are hiding up here? Not going to fight for him?”
The figured shrugged, “I AM a doctor first and foremost.”
Pandina spat out her next words, “Then I’m going down there. Keep me patched up. I’m going to beat some sense into him until his body coughs out that stupid rock and I can get my Shawn back.” Anisa wanted to warn her. Wanted to put a foot down, but she could feel the slight tremble in her hand. Someone needed to knock some sense into him… but if it was her then…
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As Shawn walked through the narrow valley he sighed as it opened into a rock quarry. “Honestly? Do you know how typical this is? How many rock quarries have just you and I fought in?”
Equinox laughed from atop the ridge with an almost manic smile as the almost lifeless form of Anisa stood next to him, still recovering from the removal of Sculptura. “Well, what better stage to let you cut loose while you show EVERYONE the monster you are behind that mask!?”
This again? Could he ever turn it off? He couldn’t help that people looked up to him. It wasn’t his fault that Equinox and his pirates were mass murderers. Why should he care? Why did he take it so personally? How could a guy who had ended entire planets of life judge him for killing a few dozen criminals? Just because they were HIS crew? But he had argued this to death. He was done trying to reason with this man. “Fine. What the hell do you have in mind for your little ‘reveal party’?”
“Simple and easy. I’ve used the new vacancy of your friend here to turn her into my little murder puppet. And to make this extra spicy, I’ve attached a trigger to her heart. If the timer runs out, the whole star system goes up. Countless innocent dead! Her heart stops? BOOM! Same thing. Either way it should do you in while I’m at it.” He then laughed with a madness of a man who had wasted too many hours of his life on this little scheme, “Want to save them all?! Simple! When your heart has stopped and your body is cold as the grave, the trigger is defused. The more blood you spill, the longer it will take to go off!” He leaned forward and chuckled, “See, I don’t trust that your little friend won’t try and fight the VERY SIMPLE orders I’ve given her. I’ve learned from watching you that you humans are capable of some impossible things. So I covered all my bases.”
When Shawn’s face twitched with annoyance, he drew and leveled his gun at Equinox. The pirate replied with an arrogant smirk and spread his arms wide while Anisa stepped into the path of the shot. Shawn growled, “What’s wrong? I thought when Equinox arrives it is the end of an era. Why hide behind a shield?”
The reply that came back was infuriating, “Because it bothers you specifically. Because if this was any random member of the cosmos or any member of my crew you wouldn’t hesitate.” He ran his hand through Anisa’s ponytail and said with relish and greed, “And the reason I didn’t just kill her while I was playing amateur doctor was because the thought of making you do it was impossible to resist.”
As Shawn stared directly into the lifeless eyes of the friend he had ripped the cosmos apart to save, he knew how this story had to end. He knew all too well what she would want him to do. A mock version of Anisa’s voice in his head telling him to take the shot. That she would rather die than let him get away with this. That death was what she would feel she deserved for being used as a murder weapon… but he said aloud, “Don’t worry, Nisa. I’ll find an answer that let’s us all go home.”
