"I really don't know where to begin sir."

Taking a deep breath, my commanding officer rolled his shoulders forward, attempting to work the stress out of them.  "Try to find a point in the last forty eight hours of hell, and go with it."

My eyes went skyward as his lowered, the words weighing down on us both.  Dust still covered our uniforms, Fireman insignia across our left shoulders singed and soiled after the past two days of labor we'd both endured.

"God.  Okay, fine.  It started with the beams, downtown flattened it seemed.  All I remember of those first few seconds was the sound. The quaking, the explosions, all of it.  The damn noise..."  I had to pause.  The memories of it all were bearing down on me.  "Then I looked up, running outside along with the rest of the unit."

He noticed my pause, looking at my eyes.  "Go on."

"That's when we saw the... The ships."

Humanity #1
"Pacific City"
by Alex Cook

"The starcraft."

I looked back hard at the man in front of me, cold words leaving my mouth.  "Robert, stop talking down to me."

"Brad, I'm doing my job."  Robert replied exhaustion evident in his body language.  "You're the last one I need to talk to before I can write this damn report and go home."

I let the words he'd just said sink in, without pointing out his error.

"What's left of it."  He finally said, understanding my pause.  He was tired.

"The starcraft then.  I don't know what to call it, really.  It was destroying the downtown area, Walters and Fourth flattened.  An entire city block, dust, in the blink of an eye."

Rob nodded his head, allowing me to set the conversations pace.  A third cigarette touched his lips in the time since we'd started talking, the room reeking to the point it was obvious the pack on the table near him wasn't his first of the day.  We'd all been reeling from the events in our own way.

"Brad, please, continue."

Turning my eyes, I finally spoke directly to the third member of this little debriefing.

"Pardon me miss, but I don't even know your name.  Why are you here in the first place?"  As stressed as I was, I couldn't handle surprises.  Her presence was just that, and I wanted answers myself before continuing.  Robert wasn't the most trusty-worth of bosses.

"I apologize then, Brad.  My name is Demeter." She answered, extending her hand to mine.

As I touched it, I looked closely at her appearance.  Not striking, yet not ugly, Demeter was a rare beauty few would even think of in the first place.  Makeup was no where to find on her face, distinct cheekbones framing brown eyes.  Black threads of hair, pinned back in a nice pattern, draped over one side of her face.  Her simple nature was what appealed to me, I think.  Something about a woman's natural lips always excited me.  I knew however I was in the norm, and Demter's looks surely didn't garner the attention my fantasies were paying her.

"Demeter.  Interesting name for a woman."

Smiling, she took her hand back, placing it on my personal file.  "It's Greek, at least according to Dad."

Robert either hacked, or attempted to clear his throat, spittle raining the table's surface.  His point was made either way.  "Why
are you here though?" I pressed, dismissing the attempt to pause my questions.

Demeter glanced to Robert, then back to me.  "I'm a psychologist, Brad.  I'm here to help with the stress this has caused."

"Why here?"

Robert raised his hand, making a waving motion.  "Listen, there will be time later for that.  She's here cause the Mayor wanted her here. Now Brad, you were talking about where the unit was moved to."

I rubbed my hands together, inhaling in deep breaths as I calmed down, collecting my thoughts.  I finally took the cigarette Robert offered.

"We got the calls a few seconds later, horns blazing as we rode into the night.  All around us, the lasers, beams..." I had to take
another breath, dragging off the stick in my mouth a welcomed diversion.  "I really don't know what they were, but it was straight out of a sci-fi movie.  The ship in the sky, the 'spacecraft' kept launching them.  Whole columns of heat that just scorched everything all around us.

"We'd been called to a office building, I think the second or third to get hit.  There were a few people outside already, with streams running out behind them.  The right side of the structure was engulfed in flame.  Already half of one corner had fallen, the obvious blast point.

"After starting the water lines outside, a few of us headed inside."

Again I had to stop.  I was faltering the farther I went.

"Things get fuzzy here."

Robert's interest perked.  "Why?"

"We got inside, and started for the stairs.  The smoke was already thick by the third floor.  Screams could still be heard form the upper levels however, so onward we went.

I stayed on the fourth floor.  Alberts and Domingez went further.  I don't know if they split up or not."

"According to their radio logs they did.  Why fuzzy Brad?"

Again, I puffed the cancer cylinder in my teeth.  I even lit a second one from the first.

"I lost my pack."

Robert's eyes widened as Demeter leaned forward.  "You what?" he asked.

"As I went through the halls, there were a few offices with people still inside.  Three of them, huddled behind a desk, were the first I'd found.  I started to escort them out when the file cabinet that'd been turned over in the initial onslaught caught fire.  There was an aerosol freshener next to it."

Robert almost knew where this was going.

"Boom, and my first oxygen tank was hit by the shrapenal.  The three ran as it went, so they didn't know.  I couldn't risk others being in there, dying because I missed something."

"You didn't lose your pack, you dropped it." Demeter commented, watching me closely.

Robert hated to hear me say yes.  But I had no other answer.

"I grabbed the mask and headed west.  I found two more people, a secretary and executive who'd been occupied intimatly when the fire started.  We made it to the stairwell before I went back for a final pass."

A third cigarette was finished, the fourth following shortly after.

"I shouldn't have dropped the second tank.  I started feeling the effects of the smoke and heat.  I moved to make my way toward the exit when the floor started to rumble.  The ceiling gave way and I found myself pinned under a blazing support beam."

Now Robert shot out of his chair, shocked.  "You WHAT?  When the hell were you going to tell me that, or see a fucking doctor!?"

"I did."  Out of the corner of my eye Demeter whitened a little, moving her hands back to her chest.  Almost as if she were preparing herself to run.

"That's where things are fuzzy.  I...  I remember blacking out.  I remember...  I know I saw my life flash before my eyes.  There wasn't any white light or anything, but I do recall reliving certain times of my youth, events I hadn't thought about in years."

"You were sure you were going to die." Demeter added, voice more guarded then before.

"There was suddenly someone there, standing over me."  I looked over at Demeter, making sure I had both their attentions.  "I couldn't make her out completely through the haze, but she had long dark hair, white, about 5'4" I think."

"Brad, what happened?" Robert asked, no caring about the details this second for once.

"She.. She healed me."

Demeter gasped.  I looked at her again as she moved her hand to her mouth.

I flashed back to that building, a small memory weeding its way into my thought process.  The way my rescuer hand moved to her mouth as she grinned, almost leered, down at me.  I watched Demeter, perform the same gesture, with a grimace painting her face rather then the smile my angel had worn.

"She what?"

Add some deep red make up, let the hair down.  The picture was the same, one version more manicured then the other, but the same none the less.

"She dropped to her knees and laid her hands on me.  Her fingernails were as crimson as the fire.  Odd what you notice at times like that."  I breathed again, slowly thinking through the thoughts assaulting my mind. "There was a flash, and...  I could feel my leg again.  She stepped back as I started to wiggle.  I swear, there was some sort of new life in me, some new fire moving my muscles."

Robert would never believe this next part.

"I moved the beam myself."

Demeter stood up, moving back from the table as Robert sat down once again.

"You're a super."

I only nodded as I looked at Demeter.  The psychologist who wore the same face as my physician goddess.  "Never knew it before tonight."

"Did she say anything?" Robert asked, no clue what else to say.  He only wanted a clean bed, that much was evident.  This was not something he wanted to listen to after all that had happened.

"She told me to remember her name.  She said she would see me again. I swear, I blinked, and she was gone.  I...  I crawled out of the building soon after.  It collapsed as you dragged me out Rob."

Robert only stared back at me.

"What was her name?" Demeter asked, harshly, a new steel to her tone and manner.

"She said her name was Lilith."

Demeter turned and ran out the door as Robert and I only watched, both dumbfounded by the outburst.

MORTAL COIL

Hey there, and welcome to the first issue of HUMANITY: AC.  This is a different kind of series, breaking away from the current AC stable and adding its own spin to our original universe.  In a nutshell, there will be no single star in this book, and no super hero or villain as its main character.  This is the story of the lives effected by supers, not how a super effects a mortal's life.

Also, introduced here are two members of a Historic Age dynasty.  Who they are, why they are here, and what role they play in AC while be covered over the next few issues.  Come enjoy the ride through an average mans eyes.

- hazardous_designs@yahoo.com
10.04.01