//------------------------------// // Descent - 1.4 // Story: Nightmare's Shard // by Greatazuredragon //------------------------------// Descent - 1.4 Slowly but surely the feeling of something wet hitting my face dragged me back away from Morpheus’ embrace despite my best efforts to remain there. My limbs felt numb and sluggish, as if I had done a heavy workout, but without the muscle pain to indicate such. That, alongside the heavy pounding I could feel deep within my skull, as if I had a migraine, but once again without the actual pain to indicate such, really made me want to just turn around, bundle deep into my blankets, and try to forget that the world existed for a few more minutes. It wasn’t like doing otherwise had ever helped, anyway. However, as usual, the world would do all it could to deny me my wishes, as the freaking leak that had apparently appeared right above my bed overnight could attest. As another heavy water droplet fell right upon my brow, making returning to sleep all but impossible, I gave it all up as a bad job. Grumbling in annoyance, I brought my hand to dry the wet spot while turning around in order to get up, only to realize as I opened my eyes that my room’s roof had not gotten a leak overnight. “I see you are finally awake, good there is much to do before we can bring those mongrels to justice! They shall rue the day they decided to oppose the Queen of the Night!” Shaking my head free of some lingering dream of making the trio face justice, while wearing a crown of all things, I was wide-eyed as I took in the dilapidated state of my surroundings. That included broken wooden crates and boxes, cracked cement flooring, exposed brick walls with several holes in them, and a high ceiling that was missing at least half of its tiles and looked ready to collapse with a stiff breeze. The latter was the cause of the drops of water that were failing upon me, since it was apparently lightly raining. “What?” I found myself asking aloud, trying to make sense of what was happening while a pit of dread started to form in my stomach. Waking up somewhere unfamiliar was not something anyone with a lick of common sense wanted to happen to them in the bay. Waking up in what looked to be an abandoned derelict warehouse made that doubly so. “True, these accommodations leave much to be desired. Forcing those as regal as us to take shelter upon such a decrepit location! One more thing to add to the list of those mongrels’ crimes!” Dismissing a sudden bout of annoyance at the state of my surroundings, I got up while trying to make sense of how I had ended up in such a decrepit place, all the while trying to fight off an odd light headache and buzzing feeling in my ears. As dust and plaster fell off my clothes, something started to pester me, as if the answer to my questions was at the tip of my tongue, just out of my reach. I once more took in my dilapidated surroundings and my utterly filthy clothing. But the broken and ruined landscape, and my plaster and dust covered clothes, had no more answers to give me as I got up from the large wooden box that I had apparently been using as a bed. And how the hell had I done that and not woken up with a killer back pain I had no idea. As I took a step forward, the numbness of my legs made me overbalance, causing me to fall straight towards the unforgiving concrete floor. But, as I extended my hands to soften the blow, instead of getting scratched or even bruised my hands were just fine despite the harsh impact. In fact, as I raised them back and stared incredulously at the floor. It seemed that it was the concrete floor that had come out worse from the encounter; small indentations in the shape of my fingers had been engraved upon what should’ve been a very solid and unforgiving surface. “What?” I incredulously stated, looking at my dirty but uninjured hands as if I had never seen them before. What the hell was happening? “Why do you woolgather in such an unseemly manner? Have you already forgotten our might? Have you forgotten the power of the Queen of the Night?” And then, it hit me. With a sudden feeling of dizziness, I remembered how I had ended up into this dilapidated warehouse. I remembered the locker. The crushing darkness and cloying rot. The fury that had consumed me at this latest and greatest betrayal, and how said fury coursed like fire through my veins until I could see nothing but red. “Oh, god…” I uttered in denial as I remembered, as if a fever dream, what had followed. My escape from the locker. The reveal that one of my tormentors was a ‘hero’ of all things. How that revelation had driven my anger to new heights. The mad chase that followed and the satisfaction of bringing my tormentor low. The sudden interruption and everything that happened afterwards. Me fighting off over half the local Protectorate… “What did I do!” I found myself talking aloud, all but collapsing to the ground as incredulity and dread battled for supremacy within me as I remembered fighting quite a few members of the Protectorate, trying to flatten them with impossible strength and frying them with lightning of all things! “I fought heroes!” “And you did a passable job of it for one who lacked any combat experience. You should be proud. It won’t be long before you reach the heights of power demanded to serve the Queen of the Night!” “How well I fought or not has nothing to do with it!” I angrily spat back, pressing both hands against my face as I fought the impulse to scream. “They will have branded me a villain for that! They are going to arrest me!” “Let them try! Their paltry tricks will not save them now that we know of their infernal goop! We will defeat them all” “Are you insane?! I can’t fight the whole Protectorate!” I shouted back, no longer trying to keep my voice down as the enormity of the hole I was now in fully sunk. I was a villain. I had fought several of my childhood heroes as they tried to capture me. My childhood heroes were going to hunt me down and toss me into prison as if I was a common criminal! And worse! With an ever growing feeling of dread I remembered that I had done all of this madness openly while not wearing any kind of mask! Nor anything to conceal my identity! In front of hundreds of witnesses! “What do I do?!” I groaned in despair. No, I hadn’t realized how deep the hole had been. For it clearly was still getting bigger! “First, you can stop your whining and start standing tall! One who serves our glorious majesty shall not wail and blubber like a newborn foal seeking for their mother’s aide!” As I opened my mouth to shout a scathing reply to that little comparison, I drew myself suddenly still. Not moving a single muscle as I finally realized something that should have been obvious to me for several minutes already. Taking a long deep breath, I once more took in my dilapidated, crumbling, and most importantly, completely empty, surroundings. And so, with growing dread I simply asked to the apparently empty warehouse. “Who am I talking to?” The light rain was still persistently falling, making the already dreary sight of the docks of Brockton Bay an even more unappealing spectacle than it normally was. As I darted down a deserted dilapidated street, hunching inside my tattered and frayed hoodie, attempting to keep myself as dry as possible under the current circumstances, I could feel my already abysmal mood dropping even further. Nervously looking over my shoulder, I attempted to keep my eyes open for any sign of movement as my insides swirled with nervousness and dread. All the while part of my mind screamed at me that I shouldn’t be here. This was not a good part of town, not by a long shot; one only had to look at the dilapidated warehouses, abandoned shops, and boarded up windows to know that. This part of the docks had long since been all but abandoned by the ‘powers that be’, and it showed. And that was without even mentioning how closely it sat to ABB territory. It was the kind of neighborhood anyone with sense avoided like the plague. I shouldn’t be here, darting down dilapidated streets amidst the light rain. I should be back at home preparing dinner while having a cup of tea. But, sadly, I didn’t have a choice. Not after what had happened earlier today. Feeling as if a rock had been dropped into my stomach, my mind went back to the impossible maelstrom of events that had happened but a few hours ago. For a moment I could not help but feel my fury ignite once again at the indignity of it all. Clenching my hands into fists and gritting my teeth, I stopped for a moment under the awning of an abandoned shop, shoulders drawing even closer inwards as I attempted to rein in my temper. Raging and raving like a lunatic at the unfairness of it all would not be helpful. That was a lesson the past few years had hammered repeatedly upon me. And had been seriously reinforced today. “Stop hunching and scurrying around like a common beggar! We shall not stand for such a besmirching of our glory!” A loud boisterous voice imperiously demanded, startling me out of my musings. The strong feminine voice sounded as if the one speaking to me was standing right next to me on the empty deserted street. Taking a long deep breath, I considered the validity of pretending that I had not heard anything and to simply keep moving. I knew there was no one there next to me. I knew that the street was empty. I knew that the voice did not actually exist. I knew that I was alone here amidst the drizzling rain as night fell. And I knew that talking to voices only you could hear was the very definition of being crazy! As such, I had some very valid reasons to consider pretending to not have heard anything as a very desirable course of action. “Why do you waste our time amidst such squalor? We could be teaching those who have wronged us the price of their actions and claim what we rightfully deserve!” However, that was not exactly an option. To punctuate her words, the voice in my head had lashed out with my shadow, cutting a deep furrow into the building’s brickwork, the shadowy appendage passing through brick and mortar like a hot knife through butter, and causing far too much noise in the empty street for my peace of mind. And so, no matter how much I wanted to deny it and pretend it wasn’t happening, the fact remained that I had no choice but to accept the truth. “And what exactly would you have us do?! Both the Protectorate and the PRT have to be after us right now!” I hissed in anger and frustration, turning around and glaring at one of the shop’s windows that still had a few glass panels relatively intact. “And that’s not mentioning the police or the gangs!” I had gone insane. It was obvious. The locker had clearly been the straw that broke the camel’s back. After nearly two years of constant abuse from all sides, that final affront had simply been too much for my poor psyche and it had finally snapped. Pure and simple. “Let them come! As if such paltry opponents could withstand the magnificence of the Queen of the Night!” the figure staring at me from the glass instead of my reflection proudly declared as she flared her wings wide. “Their cowardly tactics and honorless tricks will not save them this time! They shall rue the day they dared to cover us with that disgusting goop!” Closing my eyes I took another deep breath, all the while trying to ignore my new… companion’s… attempts to incite me to go forth and storm the protectorate headquarters for a glorious final showdown so that we could proclaim ourselves supreme ruler of the night or something along those lines. All the while pondering when exactly the cracks on my sanity had started, and how it had ended up with my getting my new companion. There is a moment in almost all young girls’ lives when they decide that they want a pony. When they become enamored with the beautiful tiny fuzzy quadrupeds and demand to be gifted one for themselves. It is something that simply happens to most young girls at some point of their childhood, and I was no exception. And, just like for the vast majority of young girls that experienced said phase, my parents answered my request with a firm “No”. Ancient history, just a silly moment of my younger years. Nothing but a memory of a simpler time, with little real consequence for the rest of my life. Or so I had thought… For, apparently, that denial had had a far deeper impact upon my psyche than I had ever suspected. “Are you even listening to our words?” she demanded with an angry huff. Opening my eyes and looking back into the shattered glass pane, even though I knew what I would see, I could not help but stare for a moment at my new companion. Deep dark fur that glistened as if polished obsidian, four hooved legs pawing at the ground in annoyance, a deep purple mane and tail that seemed to flutter upon a non-existent wind, and equally dark wings splayed on her sides. In short, she looked like what would happen if someone took a pony, turned it into a cartoon, gave it pegasus wings and a unicorn horn, because why not, and then decided that it would be cool to turn the wings bat-like and give her slit aquamarine eyes and fanged pearly teeth so it would look ‘edgier’. The moon-themed vaguely death-metal inspired armor she wore only added to the look. So, yeah… Apparently, my subconscious never really let go of the fact that I did not get a pony when I was little… good to know. “…and all shall love us and despair!” my imaginary pony friend finished her megalomaniacal monologue, and part of me was surprised there was no dramatic thunderbolt by its end. Dear god… Did all capes have something like this? Did all parahumans have a megalomaniacal voice in the back of their head egging them on and pushing them to act? A tiny voice whispering into their ears that wearing spandex and robbing banks in broad daylight was a good idea? Telling them that building death-rays while shouting about how they ‘would-show-them-all!’ was perfectly acceptable behavior? Was this normal for capes?! For a moment, that very distressing thought percolated through my mind. With a sinking feeling, I considered all the absurd stuff that seemed to happen in regards to the Bay’s capes on a weekly basis, from Uber and Leet trying to recreate a scene straight from Mario Kart in a crowded mall, to Kaiser deciding that wearing a crown of blades and killing way over half the world’s population was a valid strategy of ruler-ship, to a rage-dragon deciding that claiming a portion of the city as its lair was acceptable behavior. I had no choice but to concede that that theory made far too much sense for comfort. No wonder the world had been circling the drain for some time now… Shoving the very depressing thought that the world’s entire cape population may well be functionally insane to the back of my mind, I soldiered onwards. I could tackle that later. Much, much later. For now I had to deal with the harsh reality that I was a fugitive from the law, had practically no money, was basically homeless in all but name, and had a crazy voice in my head that could use my shadow as a lethal weapon. …what the hell had happened to my life? “While we agree that our lack of resources at the moment is slightly troubling, that is easily rectified.” The winged unicorn imperiously proclaimed as she raised her head high. “We can simply take what we desire from our lessers! They should be honored to aid their betters in our moment of need!” “We are not robbing innocent people just because we are stronger than them!” I hissed back, indignation and fury in my every word. I knew full well what it was like to be stomped upon by those with power while being powerless. That had been basically my life for the past two years. And I refused to sink to that level! Even if apparently, that was not the case for the heroes! Taking several more deep breaths, I attempted to rein in the sudden flare of anger the reminder that Hess was a ‘hero’ caused me. I knew that I had a temper; it was something that ran in the family for goodness sake. Nevertheless, it had never been nearly as bad as the mood-swings that I had been experiencing since becoming a parahuman. So Capes were both crazy and bipolar. Well if that didn’t have some wonderful implications… “Do not ignore us!” my pony imaginary friend demanded while all but destroying the abandoned storefront with several shadow strikes in what I could only call a hissy fit. “Sorry if I’m taking a moment to gather my thoughts due to the current situation!” I hissed back as I quickly abandoned my cover and went back into the light rain. Even in this all but abandoned part of town, someone may want to see what the racket the destruction of the storefront was. “But regardless, we will not be attacking innocents and that’s final!” “Then direct our fury upon more acceptable targets to your poor sensibilities!” the voice magnanimously conceded. “After all, this city is all but infested with these so-called villains, is it not? Obtaining what we need while subjugating them to our rule should be perfectly acceptable to even you!” That… actually had some merit… I had barely a basic grasp of what my powers even were. But the fact I had actually held my own against Assault, Battery and Dauntless at the same time meant the common gang member should barely be a threat. And procuring money for my needs from the source of the city’s spiral into oblivion was far more acceptable to me. Taking a deep breath as I drew near to another shop that looked relatively intact, I mused the idea before concluding that I really didn’t have much of a choice. Not if I wanted something to eat in the near future. “Okay, that may be possible,” I conceded to my imaginary friend. Then I realized with a start that ever since waking up, panicking, and starting to wander the streets, I had yet to ask the pony’s name. “By that way, do you have a name?” “We are the great Nightmare Moon! True ruler of Equestria! Mistress of all Shadows! Queen of the Night! Bask in our glory!” she imperiously proclaimed in such a way that it all but demanded a thunderbolt to happen at the end of it all, which of course did not occur. As I took cover from the growing rain by entering the abandoned store, with growing horror, I realized that my imaginary friend was basically a chuuni edgelord.