Don't Be a Hero: A Superhero Novel

31: It Never Ends

Dr Atomic changed everything. The world was ready to collapse, unable to stand under its own weight. And then superheroes appeared and helped shoulder the burden. Whatever happens, society will never go back to the way it was before the heroes came. They are part of us now, inseparable. There is no “us” and no “them”. There is just humanity, and all the good and bad and horrible and beautiful things that come with it.

—Superheroes: A Retrospective

***

Niobe and Gabby sat on the roof of their apartment building, watching the Moon hang in the sky above Neo-Auckland. For two hours they talked. And then they went back to their bedroom and made love.

They were timid at first, like it was their first time together. Gabby was so afraid of hurting Niobe that her touches were like whispers against her skin. It felt strange to be on the other side of the over-protection. Frustrating, even. Niobe stripped off both their clothes—using her teeth when she had to—and kissed Gabby hungrily, wounds be damned.

The doctors couldn’t save Niobe’s hand. After getting a good look at the damage, she couldn’t blame them. They’d scraped away the dead muscle and bone and stitched a skin flap in place. If it didn’t hold, they were going to have to take her back into surgery and do a skin graft. They weren’t happy about her intention to leave the hospital, but after they’d finished stamping their feet they bandaged her hand up tight, stitched up her thigh, and gave her a form to confirm she was discharging herself against medical advice. She signed it clumsily with her left hand and went home with a course of antibiotics in her pocket and sunlight falling across her mask.

Now Niobe lay in bed, her good hand travelling over Gabby’s belly, her lips brushing Gabby’s neck. She tasted sweet. They held each other close, nestled together under the covers. Niobe felt the softness of Gabby’s thighs, ran her fingers through the curls of Gabby’s pubic hair. And then Niobe loved her with her hand and her mouth.

When they were both finished, Niobe lay down with her head in the crook of Gabby’s shoulder and enjoyed her smell and the slow movement of her chest. Gabby’s eyes were half-closed, but despite everything, Niobe wasn’t tired. She gently played with Gabby’s small pink nipple, enjoying the way it puckered, while she let her mind wander.

Neo-Auckland had taken a hell of a beating. They were still digging bodies out of the rubble. But worse than the corpses were the blank, soulless shells Sam had left behind. Hundreds of them, maybe more than a thousand. When she left, they were still counting. At least most of the young ones looked like they’d come right. The hospitals all across the rest of the country would be soaking up the overflow. Met Div was facing criticism from the politicians in Wellington, and they were hurling it right back. Quanta’s people were under guard in high security prisons across the country, waiting for their time in court. Most were expected to enter guilty pleas and be remanded in custody until their sentences were handed down.

But it was the superheroes that were still dominating the TV and papers. Everyone had their opinion, and they were all too ready to tell everyone about it. Superheroes were a menace. They’d caused all this. No, they were saviours. Without them, Neo-Auckland, the rest of the country—hell, maybe the world—would be buggered. Some called for the Seoul Accord to be strengthened, further limiting metas’ powers. Others called for it to be scrapped, and new legislation drafted. Legislation that would bring cooperation between metas and normals, to form new groups that would stand alongside conventional forces to defend the world against those who would harm it. All further kill-switching was on hold until the dust cleared and the world figured out a new way forward. There were even talks about resurrecting the old superhero comics, bringing those bright colours to a new generation.