Guilt lies heavy on a burdened head ... - Part 4

The suit enveloped Caitlyn fully once more, even as she leapt forward, trying her best to reach her friend before the grenade. Her only thought, to put herself between Alaina and the deadly weapon thrown by the super that had called themselves a Fiend. She wasn't going to make it. Like watching a movie, everything appeared to slow down to a crawl, time ticking away as the light on top of the grenade flashed faster and faster.

She reached out, hoping, praying that she could catch the grenade in time and the suit responded to her thoughts, sloughing almost its entirety out, from her body, covering the grenade with layer after layer of the semi-liquid material. The maniacal laughter continued to ring in Caitlyn's ears as she felt the grenade explode within the ball of her suit, shattering it and sending pieces flying in several directions, but at least Alaina still lived.

Caitlyn's hand throbbed as she fell to the floor, inches away from her unconscious friend and she began to feel that very same blackness start to overcome her. But she couldn't fall into that black yet. Pushing her legs against the floor, she turned, protecting Alaina with her body, even though the suit now lay in pieces around her. Only for the Fiend to return, hovering in the air before her.

"No. Not yet." Long, claw-like fingers reached out toward Caitlyn and stopped and the Fiend squatted on their heels upon the platform. "Soon, though. Soon I'll make sure the whole world will see you fail. You're no hero, Caitlyn. You're a corpse waiting to happen."

Standing upright, the Fiend backed the platform backward, bobbing up and down as the thin wings fluttered and flapped in the air. Then they laughed again, turning in the air and swooping away at speed and Caitlyn could hear that cackling laugh even as she lost her fight to stay conscious.

-+-

Some time later ...

Her eyes flickered open and she tried to sit up, held back by unseen hands and a voice hushing her. Night had fallen, only vague, shadowed shapes within her line of sight and she tried to call to the suit, to get the night vision it gave her, but the night vision did not come. She sensed the suit, though it felt far away, weak and feeble. A light came on and she whipped her head around to see Alaina.

Without a word, she wrapped her arms around her best friend and clung to her so tight that she worried she could break her. The light came from Alaina's phone and, in that light, she could see black shapes on the floor. Little pools of liquid that painfully dragged themselves toward her. Even as she maintained the hug, she reached out for the puddles and, as her fingers touched them, they clutched at her skin, dissolving into her.

"I thought you were never going to wake up! I couldn't exactly call nine-one-one." Alaina pulled back, pointing the light from her phone into Caitlyn's face. "'Hello? Yeah, my superhero friend just got blowed up by a villain. Sure. I'll hold.'. Not at all arrest worthy."

"Are you alright?" Forgetting the other pieces of the suit for the moment, Caitlyn began to run her hands over Alaina's body, making frantic checks. "You're not hurt? Bleeding? You hit you're head."

"Hey! Less of the frisky inappropriate touching!" Alaina held Caitlyn by the shoulders, holding her at arms length. "I'm fine. Headache, but fine. You? You look fine. Tired. Have you been sleeping?"

Caitlyn had to think about that. The explosion had hit the suit, but the pressure wave from the blast had felt as though the Fiend had caught her in a steam press, set to 'flatten til dead'. What bothered her more was the suit itself. She could sense it, all over the place and, though she had started to give it up, she needed to find every piece. She had already seen how it could affect other people and the last thing she needed was more like Professor Halstrom on her conscience.

"I'm fine. The suit. I have to find the pieces." As she started to look around, Caitlyn stopped, the full horror of what had happened falling into place. "They knew who I was! The villain, Fiend they called themself. They knew. Oh, god! Aunt Mary!"

She had no time to search for the suit, but she couldn't leave even a drop of it where some innocent could fall victim to it. With a panic setting in, she reached out to every piece that she could sense and ordered it back to her. It strained her, but the oozing, slopping pieces of the suit began to appear, flying toward her from every direction, attaching to her and then dissolving into her, through her skin, her clothes. Only when she felt certain she had summoned all of it back to her did she feel comfortable thinking and worrying about Aunt Mary.

-+-

Ald-Tech facility, outside the city ...

Raymond Alden had no idea how he had got here, or why it was now night-time. The last thing he remembered was sitting in front of his computer, verifying details in financial reports. The incident at the medical facility outside the city had impacted the company, but not as bad as it could have been. Ald-Tech would recover and the facility had a healthy insurance policy that would easily make up any losses.

That self-same facility where he now found himself. He could see the lights blazing down upon the compound as people worked through the night to reconstruct the facility. A facility that had saved his life while almost taking that of his daughter. He patted his pocket and felt relief as he found his phone. Drawing it out, he paused before making a call for a car. On the screen, he had a dozen missed calls.

He had blacked out, soon after an experimental procedure that was, without a doubt, highly illegal and borderline dangerous. The board would have a field day with that and he could imagine the calls for psychiatric evaluations, for him to step down until they, the board, were certain he was in the best of health. A situation they would make sure never came to pass. The company would be gone and he would have nothing to leave Rayna. No legacy. Money was one thing, but power, the power of leading the world's biggest tech company, that was something else.

The phone returned to his pocket, the missed calls unanswered, and he turned toward the city. He had cash in his wallet and he hadn't always led a privileged life. He could take care of himself. Straightening his tie, he reached into another pocket, finding the steel bar, bent in half. As a test, he grunted as he tried to straighten the bar, only to fail, but that, too, was fine. He didn't need that strength. He was Raymond Alden. That was all the strength he needed.

-+-

The door slammed against the wall as Caitlyn rushed into the apartment. With Alaina close behind, Caitlyn rushed into the living room, then the kitchen, desperation beginning to rise. She saw no signs of damage. No sign that anyone had broken in to the apartment, but that didn't mean much when facing super-villains. They could as easy have taken Aunt Mary off the street, or anywhere. Fiend knew who Caitlyn was and, if they knew who Caitlyn was, they'd know all about Aunt Mary.

"What in the Lord's name has gotten into you, Caitlyn Carter?" Stepping out of the bathroom, rubbing her hands with a cloth, Aunt Mary scowled at Caitlyn. "And you better not have damaged the wall with that door, the super will have words if you have. Hello, Alaina, honey. Are you staying for dinner?"

"Oh, you betcha Mrs Carter." Without asking, Alaina headed to the refrigerator, poking her head inside. "Mrs Carter, do you have any juice boxes?"

"In the pantry, dear." Aunt Mary shook her head, folding the cloth in her hands and holding it against her waist. "I swear, I only buy the things for that girl. Are you alright, Caitlyn? You look ..."

Before Aunt Mary could finish, Caitlyn wrapped her arms around the neck of the only family member she had left. Mother and father long since passed, Uncle Richard not too long ago. They only had each other and Caitlyn couldn't imagine a world without Aunt Mary in it. That wasn't a world that anybody could like. It would leave dozens, hundreds, thousands of people bereft of one of the most wonderful, loving, kindest people.

"I'm fine, Aunt Mary. I just had a sleep earlier and ... and ..." She squeezed Aunt Mary and then let her go, wiping her cheek. "It was nothing. Just a nightmare. What's for dinner?"

"Brisket!" Alaina, bent double, had opened the oven door and wafted the smell of the cooking food toward her nose. "Oh, Mrs Carter! Have I told you you are a treasure to the world? I may need a bib. My mouth is already watering. You know what I'd be having at home right now? An argument about which pizzeria has the least rats and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Oh, you say the strangest things Alaina Allen! Now close that door and go wash up." Aunt Mary swatted Alaina, playfully, with the folded cloth and Alaina laughed, jumping out of the way before heading to the bathroom. "And you lay the table, young lady, while I check that wall. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, 'No running in the house'. I blame Richard, he coddled you so. Bless his heart."

"Okay, Aunt Mary." She paused before heading to the knife draw.

Caitlyn watched as Aunt Mary disappeared into the hallway, grumbling to herself, or to the memory of Uncle Richard. She did that, sometimes. Everything looked fine for the moment, but Caitlyn couldn't get the vision of that super-villain from her mind. That leering, insane grin upon a face that was not a mask, but not skin. Those bulging, bloodshot eyes. The claws. The muscles beneath that thick, grey skin that didn't look like skin. Caitlyn couldn't admit to anyone that the very thought of the villain, of Fiend, terrified her.

"Oh, I got you a new phone, honey. It wasn't cheap, so don't go losing this one." As she returned, Aunt Mary opened a drawer, handing Caitlyn the box. She was right, it wasn't one of the cheap ones. "To think it's the most important thing you own, so you say, you'd be more careful with them."

She kissed Aunt Mary's cheek, knowing full well she didn't deserve someone like her, but the phone made her think. Fiend had promised to ruin Caitlyn's life and she had the numbers of people that could help. Except, most of them would need to know who she was to help her, and the other expected her to help him. She didn't know what to do and, worst of all, she wasn't even certain she could help herself.

She knew she had absorbed all the pieces of the suit, there was no part of it missing, but she couldn't feel it inside her. For all she knew, the suit was dead.