There is a peculiar conflict of emotions when something you can destroy with little effort laughs in your face. On one hand, I was pissed, an iota away from dropping her from the clouds to see if she would survive, knowing full well the odds. On the other, I had to respect it. On our way up, I saw one of her friends near where she hit me with her car filming the whole thing on her phone, telling me this was no crime of passion. For her to challenge someone like me with the threat of leverage was a ridiculous gamble, but what else could be expected from a person like Christy Marshall. She’d never had any impulse control – her whole life was pure chaos, and while she was known to party, she also abused every position of power she held. Even when she worked as a server at a local diner, she made no hesitation ‘spilling’ coffee on the laps of rude customers.

As we broke through the clouds, she was screaming, not in fear, but as one would on a cheap rollercoaster at the fair. She looked down at the mosaic of farmland below us, eyes lit with excitement; I could feel how tightly she her hands clenched my wrists. Without prompt, she leapt into a tirade over how she joined an online group that would not stand for the guardians’ dismissal of wants for transparency. My kind were renowned for keeping secrets from the flock, while her kind were the opposite. She learned through her collective that sleeping with a guardian ascended the partner to a hero, so Christie cast her net far and wide seducing anyone she had an inkling could be Hellkite. By now the entire world could see me on the various databases aggregating who was who… and what was what.

She’d just suggested we go another round here above the clouds, even after what she just did, which was why I dropped her. The way she shrieked her way through the clouds spoke volumes of how having a fearless powder keg on my side could have its benefits, so I followed her down due to a split decision to let her live. I pushed into a dive towards the ground where her wild laughter made me second guess the mercy. I snatched her up by the ankle a few meters above the swaying field grass outside of town and let her fall the rest. “Whew!” She cried, gasping to catch her breath, “You know how to get a girl’s heat pumping in more ways than one!” I’d have to be down bad to bring Chrissy home ever again for more reasons than the obvious; through my research, I learned that the more a guardian couples with a hero, the stronger the latter became. This chaotic opportunist would have to work much harder to seduce me next time, if ever at all.

She’d just stood to catch her breath and laugh some more, when suddenly she went quiet. I turned to what she was looking at, to what had frozen her. Standing there with the sun at her back was a petite blonde woman wearing the prettiest blue summer dress. She was diminutive in every way, which was the first thing that told me she was not. This was one of my kind, on my territory and it did not matter how much power my senses were reading off her, she was the focus of my attention. I touched down near her and made the last few steps to close the gap manually to tentatively meet a tentative challenge. “Easy, there, friend,” She said, “I’m just here to ask you about the Ring.” I did not have to answer for her to know that I had no idea what she was talking about. She traced a circle in the air adjacent to us, which filled with shimmering light. An image took shape, of a mountain peak overlooking a sprawling, metropolitan landscape.

“Wow!” Chrissy blurted out, reminding us she was still here, “What is that??”

“It’s past your paygrade,” The woman said, flicking the space between them, and the hero among us was flung back by a thunderous impact far enough to get the message, “I have a few like her back home,” She told me, “Come, I want to show you something.” Once she passed through, I could tell by sensing through the veil just how far away she was taking me. It would take me a solid day at top speed to make it home, and with things so quiet, not to mention the heroes, the community could do without me for at least that long. After contemplating the hesitation away, I passed through and immediately felt the cold, not just of the altitude, but the latitude. This city was a whole nation away to the north.

“The Ring,” I said, compelled by something I did not yet understand, “Tell me about it.”

“I wish I could,” She replied, “But just knowing it exists puts us in a tie as to what we know about it.” I couldn’t understand why she was acting like this, so casual, as if she were interacting with me in her autopilot mode. I knew, for a fact, that whoever this was, they were like me in terms of power, senses, and intuition. I could not decipher why they would choose to interact with me like this. I looked doubtful enough for her to continue, “This is my home, my city,” I looked down to the pedestrian as she went on, “In bigger territories with higher density populations, there can be many guardians, but only one alpha.” Now I was listening. “I am the alpha of this zone. They call me Top Dog.” Even I had heard of Top Dog. The ever-changing, anonymous guardian with more clips online than any of us combined. This guardian took monsters down that could eat Cicero for lunch.

Since the very beginning of the paradigm shift, something known only as the ‘Ring’ was haunting our kind in their dreams. It came to Top Dog’s attention when one of her guardians, who specialized in mindreading, first alerted her to its existence. With clouded memory, he told her of a vision that was working it way through our kind, of a bright ring burning in a sky smothered with darkness. He’d seen it several times through the eyes of others, but when anyone tried to question the dreamer of it’s meaning, they were bound to secrecy. They were gathering leads, when her subordinate had the vision himself, and was from then on forbidden to speak of it. “Just us?” I asked, “Not heroes?”

“No alphas either,” She replied, meaning she was in touch with others, “We think it might be working its way up the ladder, saving the best for last.” She flicked my collar, “Which means you’re a contender, yourself.” I hadn’t wondered where I stood in the ranks. Most of what I watched on my downtime was footage of my brethren in their battles, but I was never looking at us, I was looking at them. For weaknesses, patterns. Techniques were adopted but never, not once, was I concerned with nor interested in the plight of my people. “I bring everyone here, to let them know where to go if they want to talk to me.”

“Since we’re here,” I couldn’t help it, “Why this?” I referenced her whole person, the lust for life in her eyes, the excitement, “What’s the point??”

“It’s the only way to appreciate what we have,” Clearly thought went into the decision, “Even if it’s not real, I like to be my old self to feel the excitement and fear that comes with flying through the sky and fighting monsters sent to This Earth to kill us.” She sensed my ignorance, “Of course, you’ve been so wrapped in your function you haven’t even thought of it.” There was a loud thud from the city and a cloud of dust rose in place of a collapsing building. Clearly, an attack was in motion, but Top Dog didn’t move. Instead, we looked on as the flickering lights of guardian counterattacks flashed from within the chaos, “They can handle it.” She focused back on me, “I’ll always be a little suspicious about all of this, so until its my turn to see the ring and it gives me answers, I don’t care how big a box it gave our thoughts, I will always think outside of it.”

I could respect that, and realized I could have done more to connect to the others like me. I’d been so blinded by the cause, the want for answers was, and to be honest still, was absent. The shift from all things normal to all things present made for a lot of suffering and death across the whole world, except for people like us. But were we immune? Was there a fate in store for us that would put us all on par with each other? She gave me time to digest my thoughts, to analyze them coldly as she was doing inside this façade. Her phone vibrated and she took the call; I could hear it clearly – one of her associates was telling her it would be a good idea if she joined the battle downtown. “While you’re here, would you like to join us?” She asked me, “If they need me, they could sure use you, too.” I was about to answer when she added, “Join us, on one condition… you try it.”

I knew what she meant. She wanted me to engage my old persona with my new abilities in tandem. I suppose I would never see the point or understand it if I didn’t try. Right away there was a wild rush of exhilaration as my mind was allowed to experience the only part of the new world at all worth it. When I looked to Top Dog, she was just standing there, smiling, and she started laughing which made me start laughing. “What now?” I asked, to which she held up a finger with one hand and pulled made a joint appear from out of nowhere in the other. I knew drugs didn’t work on me, but I also knew I could let them if I wanted to, and in this state, there was zero reason for me to keep this parameter up and running. Top Dog’s phone vibrated profusely as we machine-gunned the blunt and laughed more between coughing fits.

Pinching her fingers around it vaporized the roach, “Are you ready?” I wasn’t ready – I was fucked. Across from me, Top Dog’s eyes were beyond bloodshot, and she had goosebumps down her arms. We were about to fight for our lives where those plumes of smoke were rising, and I’d never been more hyped for anything in my life. At my nod, she opened one of her portals to a view overlooking a scene made of pure chaos. She jumped to the street below, and I followed, but I didn’t hit the ground at all let alone running. I rocketed forward, blind towards whatever made that horrid below in the distance.

Hellkite Home

Hellkite VI: Urban Warfare