Phenomenon

When Things Go Wrong

I scowl up at her. She's an adult now, and she's huge. Her horns twist up in wicked spirals, and she's big enough to dwarf an whale. She seems to have gained an adult coat too, shedding her midnight purple fur and trading it for what looks like a mix of scales, leathery flesh, and the deep violet fur common of most Fernals. Her claws gleam like polished ivory, miniature crescents emerging from her feet and ready to slash someone apart.

For some reason, I want her to survive. But not because I'm attached to her or anything.

Because I know who she is.

"Little human. I remember you." She muses, tilting her head as her eyes fall on me.

I smile, feigning happiness at this. "Aw, that's such a pleasing fact. Obviously, I remember you too. Been quite a bit since I had Sting at your neck, hasn't it?" I ask, smirking at her. She growls and her face twitches in irritation.

"You dare speak to me that way. Obviously, you know who I am now, don't you?" She demands, and I grin at her mawkishly, while gesturing to the others to run.

"Of course, Princess." I reply, arching an eyebrow. "So...how many of your buddies have to die before you Fernals leave?"

She laughs once, obviously not noticing the others as they vanish, probably due to the fact she's so focused on me. "Us? Leave? My dear Delta, surely you must be mistaken. If anyone's leaving, it's going to be you."

I smile at her even wider. "Well, then, I think you need to tell your mother something." I drop the smile and flare my wings, and she steps away with enormous eyes.

"You're the Harbinger..." She trails off, but I ignore the reference to yet another Fernal mystery I'm not entirely sure of.

"Tell your mother that the humans are never going to back down, and that if she wants our planet," I take a few steps towards her threateningly, and she backs up, "Then she will have to pry its ashes from our cold, dead grasp." I keep my voice level and cold. "And she's going to have to face off with me alone before that will ever happen. Hiding away in her fortress, surrounding by thousands of Fernals will never win her this war. But she won't win anyways. I'll die before that ever happens."

She stares at me and slinks away. Well, actually, she teleports away in a burst of purple mist. Okay, that's new. I muse, glancing up at the tunnel. It reaches all the way up the six subterranean levels, and it's a straight shot to the sky. Spreading my wings, I crouch down and launch up into the air at full speed. My wings claw at the air and I hit the night air high above us with a whoosh. I can see my group running out of the base, and I whip out my gun and shoot the guards who spot them with deadly aim. The guards crumple, my shots finding their brains and killing them instantly.

I can see Cala bolting too, heading for what my guess is probably another place where she can teleport to her mother. Good. Someone has my message. I muse, smiling. I swoop down to my group. "Delta!" Marc calls as they run out under the base gates. We have to get three hundred yards away before we blow it to hell, and it seems like forever. The agonizing moments pass where I'm flying backwards with Marc guiding me, aiming for the Fernals trying to follow us. This was one of the missions we couldn't bring Echo or Rover and the other Orions or Legends on in case it failed. We didn't want our tech at such a high risk of being stolen or captured by the enemy.

We hit three hundred yards and the automatic trigger on the bombs goes green. Moments later, the concussion wave rocks the sky and the ground all at once and Oliver trips. There's a crack as his gun goes off and the bullet tears across my left calf, but I don't care (long story short, torture means you have a high pain threshold after two and a half years of it. It's not fun, though). "Delta Squad, mission accomplished! How's Epsilon doing?" I shout through the comlink.

"Epsilon succeeded too!" Jace cheers, obviously happy. "Great job, Jaeger!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next day, we have a candle service for the people we lost. Penelope's not the only one who died yesterday, but unfortunately not everyone died because of a mission. Two of them are a mother and her son (sadly enough, Penelope's aunt went into premature labour due to the shock of hearing Penelope had died during the mission. Marc had to call back a few moments after she died, and we spent the next six hours after returning from the mission fighting to keep her alive). The other four people are all deaths caused by the war or by the mission--Alex Devon, a twenty-year old college student who died from an infected slash caused by a Fernal; Moira Gold, a seventh grader on Epsilon, who died from a stray bullet (no one knows where it came from but she died when everyone thought we'd won); Leo Richards, a junior, hit by stray shrapnel (also on Epsilon); and Fiona Gray, who didn't tell anyone she'd gotten hurt by one of the Fernals during the mission, and managed to kill the bastard that did it, but died anyways.

This is your fault. You were the one who convinced them to go on those missions. You led them to their deaths. My mind keeps taunting darkly, and I can't help but think throughout the services (which are deathly silent), that it was absolutely my fault and I caused all of it. She was ten. She should never have been on that mission. You fool. Oliver lost his sister and his aunt and his nephew because of you. Seven people are dead. Because of you.

We keep silent for the entirety of the day, except for those of us who can't do that. "We need to do something about this. They're going to threaten the slave camps if we don't move soon." Jace muses, glaring down at the map. The loss of Penelope and the others has put everything into perspective, especially with what we discovered during the mission yesterday.

We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

But we have very little time to do it.

"What do you think, Delta?" Timothy asks, meeting my gaze. He looks a little bit more concerned and a little more colder today, and I frown down at the map. My eyes dart along the lines of the wrecked city, sketching out every angle of attack we have and every single way this could go wrong.

"We need to proceed with Project Banner." I announce, saying it for the first time in front of nearly everyone. The only two people who knew beforehand were Timothy and Gwen.

"Wait, what?" Gwen begins, glancing at Timothy. "Delt, that could kill you."

I look at her. "We have to."

"Hold on, Project Banner? What's Project Banner?" Jace prompts, glancing from me to Timothy to Gwen for some sort of help. "Does this have anything to do with the Hulk?"

"Something really, really stupid." Timothy replies rather cryptically. I roll my eyes.

"If this succeeds, it's not stupid." I retort, shooting him a glare. "I can do it, Timothy. I made this place, didn't I?"

He gestures around us. "This is nothing, Delta. But four huge, flying warships?" He takes a step towards me, even though I'm barely shorter than he is now. "It's insane, Delta. If you can't do this, then you die."

"I am more than willing to die. If I have to die--" I begin, but he cuts me off.

"Delta--" Oh, no. Don't you frickin dare try to stop me.

"No. People have died, Timothy!" I snap, slamming my hands on the holomap. "Penelope and Alex and Moira and Leo and Fiona--because I sent them on that mission. They died so we could do this. So we could build the Banner, the Liberty, the Vanguard, and the Paladin. I'm not going to let that be in vain, and if I'm not willing to sacrifice myself as easily as I would sacrifice other people then I have failed at doing what every leader should be willing to do." I snarl, scowling at him. "I'm building these, whether you want me to or not."

He takes a deep breath, obviously irritated by me. "You are a stubborn moron, but I'm not going to let you do this alone." He replies. "What do you need?"

I glance down at the map. "First? Probably a lot of space."

[A/N: Alright, sorry for Penelope's brutal death. Anyways, I better get going soon. I hope you all have a nice day/evening/night/whatever. You don't have to, though--I can't make decisions for you, now can I? Anyhow, see y'all tomorrow! Thanks for reading! :3]