The End of the World As They Knew It

They used to have a big family. Wendy remembered that there had always been a lot of people around. She used to have to search to find someplace to be alone, most times ending up crawling under the couch in the small space that only she could fit in. She would hide in her couch "fort" and eat pilfered cheese and crackers that she didn’t have to share with her siblings.

Even before everything Went Bad, there had been a lot of times where they didn’t have enough to eat. All the Bad Stuff happening only meant there was less to eat. Less people, but also less food. There were lots of times where she was so hungry, but all she could do was lie down and go to sleep. She felt less hungry when she was asleep.

Now there was just her, her two years older sister Amalia, her three years older sister Stella, and her five years older brother Daniel. Their parents and two brothers and four sisters… were gone. (Dead. She knew what dead was. She just didn’t like to think of the word and what it meant.)

Daniel was the oldest one left and he was in charge. He was twelve years old, almost a teenager, and he was in charge.

He led them around to scavenge food and supplies from the surrounding area. The local grocery store had already been cleared out by the strangers that had passed through in a big pickup truck. They had watched all the food being taken away, but Daniel had forced them to stay quiet and small, because the people that had taken everything had been bigger and stronger and carried guns.

Daniel had held his hand over Wendy’s mouth, and his breath had been smelly against her face as he’d whispered for his sisters to be quiet. "We don’t know who they are. They look dangerous. What if they eat little kids?"

They’d watched all the food being taken away, and they’d hid and waited until the truck was long gone. And after that the only way they could survive was to go in and out of the neighboring houses, hauling what they could back home using a child’s plastic wagon that someone had hand painted with clumsy looking flowers and leaves.

First they took the foods they recognized, along with blankets and tools. Then when the recognizable food was gone, they had to start puzzling out what other things were.

Their parents had called themselves unschoolers, which meant Wendy and her siblings got to stay home and teach themselves whatever they wanted to learn. Mama had said that there was plenty of time to learn how to read in the future if they ever wanted to. Learning to read was easy, they could do it later when they were grown up and wanted to get jobs and do boring things like reading books and filing paperwork.

But now, for the first time in her young life, Wendy really wished that she knew how to read.

Because after they’d gathered all the food they recognized, they were stuck now trying to figure out what other things were. Who would have thought that there were so many cans and boxes that didn’t have pictures on them?

Last night they’d opened a can of what they’d thought would be chicken noodle soup but turned out to be graying white goop with black and gray bits in it. Daniel had recognized it as mushroom soup, and they’d heated it over the propane stove and eaten it with little hexagonal crackers they’d found in a glass canister in their four houses down neighbor’s house.

That was another thing that made it hard for them. A lot of people didn’t leave their food in their original containers. There were pantries full of plastic and glass bottles and canisters holding pasta and oats and rice and weird brown grain bits that were so hard they made Wendy’s teeth hurt.

Today they were inside the house of their six houses down neighbor. Daniel had broken the backdoor window and used a twisted wire hanger to reach inside and unlock the door.

Amalia and Stella were going in and out of the bedrooms to find blankets and warm clothes because winter was coming. Daniel was in the pantry, and Wendy was going through the kitchen cabinets. All four of them were supposed to keep an eye out for any spare propane bottles.

Wendy climbed up on the counter using a step ladder she’d found and walked back and forth opening the cabinet doors to peer inside. Dishes in one, pill bottles in another, a cabinet full of cooking spices and bottles of vegetable oil. She was disappointed that she hadn’t found anything good like old Halloween candy or bottles of sweet juice.

Then in a lonely side cabinet she found a glass jar all alone. It was full of what she thought might be sugar, but the lid was screwed on so tight that she couldn’t open it to check. There was a strip of freezer tape on the side of the bottle, but she didn’t know what the black Sharpie words said.

Cradling the jar against her chest, she carefully climbed down off the counter and ran toward the pantry.

"Daniel! Daniel! I found something!" she called.

Daniel had a black garbage bag he was putting things into, but there didn’t seem to be much. The home owners must not have gone to the grocery store in a while.

"What did you find?" he asked.

Wendy shrugged. "I don’t know. It was in one of the cabinets. What does it say?" she asked, holding the jar out.

Daniel squinted at the label, biting his lip. "Um. That’s a R, and that’s a O, and that’s a… P? And that’s a… a 3, and that’s a M, and that’s a T, I know T, and that’s a 1, and that’s a C, and another 1, and another P, and a 3."

"But what does it say?" Wendy asked, frustrated. Daniel was the best reader amongst them, but there were a lot of words he didn’t know. It made her mad because she knew even less words but really wanted to know them all.

Daniel’s lips moved and his eyes were extra shiny, but he didn’t cry. "I… I don’t know." He pursed his lips, then used all his strength to unscrew the lid. The powder shifted around inside the jar, alluring in its mystery.

"Is it sugar?" Wendy asked, licking her lips. They’d found a lot of unfamiliar powders and syrupy liquids that had turned out to be different kinds of sugar, including some dark brown "syrup" that had turned out to be honey. It had tasted so good on the last bits of unmoldy bread they’d found.

"I don’t know. Let me see," Daniel said. He licked his forefinger and dipped it into the powder. He sniffed it then carefully licked. "Oh, it’s sweet! I think it’s one of those fake sugars. I like this. We’ll take it back." He started to close the jar.

"Wait! Let me taste it too," Wendy pleaded.

Daniel sighed but proffered the jar toward his little sister. "One taste"

Wendy smiled and licked her finger. "Okay!"

Neither child recognized the word written prominently on the side of the jar. Thick black capital letters written clearly so no one could misunderstand the contents inside: RODENTICIDE

=END=

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A Single Glance

Darkstar in a Santa hat.

Darkstar in a Santa hat.

Chloe leaned closer toward the fence, her glossy eyes focused on the supervillain. He was so beautiful that she couldn’t even consider looking away.

He was a force of nature, unleashing violence upon those that had aroused his anger. One brush of his hand against someone resulted in pulverized flesh and a splash of grim red, all that was left of what had once been a human being.

He was unstoppable and unbothered.

He was beautiful. And terrible. And she had no desire to look away from him.

She’d never been in his presence before. Had only seen him on TV or the Internet, his face a Gaussian blur.

It was only chance she was here today. Her bad luck turned to opportunity. A chance to see him in person.

To feel the breathtaking pressure of his presence. It made her clamp her legs together, her skin prickling.

She’d been walking home, focused on keeping her booted feet from slipping on the icy sidewalk, when there had been a loud “BOOM!” to her left.

Blinking through snowflakes that wanted to cling to her eyelashes, she was caught by the sight of DARKSTAR! confronting what looked like a group of neo-Nazis terrorizing a handful of people.

Darkstar had been standing protectively over a bruised and bloody teenager who was lying on the ground, feathery bleach blond hair scattered around their face. The supervillain’s hands were loosely fisted at his sides, but he hadn’t looked angry until one of the neo-Nazis had said something Chloe couldn’t hear.

And then…

She’d seen plenty of superbattles on the news and from the shaky cam clips that regularly popped up on the Internet. But she’d never seen–felt–anything like this.

Darkstar’s movements were so easy that the resultant violence should have been shocking. She should have been horrified by what she was seeing. But instead all she felt was fascination.

He was so beautiful. The image of him was seared across her mind. She couldn’t have looked away if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to.

He was wearing dark wash jeans and a green winter jacket. The red and white Santa hat on his head was undeniably cute. Not a single drop of blood or viscera dared to touch him as he slapped a man on the shoulder, instantly liquifying flesh and bone.

She didn’t dare to blink, afraid of missing anything. He didn’t seem to be moving fast, but everything happened so fast that she was still holding her breath when it was over.

He stood there, not seeming to notice the stares of the people he’d saved. He was distant and glorious, seemingly outside of the world around him.

He didn’t say anything to the people he’d saved. He turned his head and looked around, a casual glance that caught Chloe where she stood before passing by without a pause.

But she felt like she’d been put on pause. His eyes had been so blue. Searing into her. Imprinting on her soul so deep that she would never be able to get him out.

Even after he left, she still stood there for a long time. Unmoving. Barely breathing. Dazzled by him.

Sighing, Darkstar stepped away from the mess he’d made and wondered if maybe he’d overreacted a little.

Glancing around, he could feel the pressure of dozens of eyes focused on him. If he’d been someone else, he would have felt a prickle of unease. Because he was himself, he had the idle thought wondering if he was going to have to unleash more violence on someone.

But the people staring at him as though dazzled were normal people. There wasn’t a hint of hostility coming from any of them. And quite a bit of worship coming from more than a few.

His eye was caught by a young woman standing behind the chainlink fence surrounding the field. Her mouth was open in a little “o” and she was staring right at him with the look of someone that had been thoroughly Charmed.

Feeling a bit bad, he hurriedly looked away from her, then leapt into the air and flew away. Not knowing that that woman, five years from now, would be one of the most fervent Darksters in the country. The legendary figure known as The Iron Gorilla.

=END=

A/N: As has been mentioned previously, those with powerful metabilities can cause those with potential to Manifest metabilities of their own. In H&V, living with Vereint and Warrick results in Melissa Kim having stronger metabilities than Melissa Song Kim from the Kanonverse.

Darkstar, by his mere presence, is a spark that lights a fire in other people wherever he goes.