Danny sat up and rubbed his eyes, finding himself temporarily blinded by the explosion that had rocked the very foundations of the cemetery only seconds before. His vision returned, blurry at first then slowly returning to normal. The faint ringing in his ears remained.
The first thing that he noticed was that his leg was still bleeding. He ripped the sleeve off his shirt in one swift motion, and proceeded to use it as a makeshift bandage on his wound. He pulled the bandage tight and tied it off, hoping to stifle the bleeding.
The second thing he noticed was Tobias and Kristogar, picking themselves up a few metres away from him. They didn't seem to be severely injured at all.
The third- and arguably most important- thing Danny noticed was the bright ball of light hovering above the ground before him. Squinting, he thought he could make out the dual figures of Mxy and Ktl in the glow. But he couldn't stare at it for long. The sheer intensity of the light made looking at it akin to staring directly at the sun.
Getting up and stumbling across to where his teammates stood, Danny noticed that around them many of the gravestones and memorials were damaged. Unfortunate side effects of the battle they now waged, and of the explosion that tore across the cemetery only moments before. This saddened him- if there was one thing that should be left sacred, it was a person's final resting place. Danny resolved to ask Mxy if there was anything he could do to fix them.
That is, of course, if Mxy ever returned to them...
"Danny! What the HELL is going on here?!" Tobias shouted.
"Mxy and Ktl are... fighting. Battling. Up there," Danny said, pointing up at the ball of light but shielding himself from it with his other hand.
"What can we do?" Kristogar asked, his tone of voice sounding a little more calm than Tobias’.
“There’s not much we can do. This fight is… beyond anything we know. Beyond any of our powers…” Danny said, then fell silent. He cast a glance next to him, where the light that spilled from the opposing energies of Mxy and Ktl seemed to be increasing in intensity.
“Damn it. We have to help Mxy!” Tobias said, still shouting.
“Damn it, TC, we CAN’T!” Danny shouted back, matching his teammate’s volume.
“Then- I repeat- What can we do?” Kristogar asked again.
“The police cars… the explosion. We should see if anyone survived. Help them…” Danny said. His teammates nodded. “Tobias. Go,” Danny added. Then TC was gone, vanished in a blur towards where Ktl had thrown the first police car at the second. Kristogar ran behind him.
“Wings!” Danny shouted, wincing as the pain of growing the extra body parts seemed intensified by his injured ribs. He took off into the sky, following Tobias and Kristogar. Every flap of his new wings sent a sharp pain through his chest. But he kept flying anyway. It was the quickest way to get there, and running on his wounded leg wasn’t much better.
As he landed, he could see TC inspecting the burning wreck of the two cars. The speedster was ducking in, then appearing outside the car on the opposite side, not being inside long enough for the flames to hurt him. He paused and ran in again, repeating this a couple of times.
Danny landed next to him, and said “Any survivors?”
“Nobody,” Tobias replied. Danny dropped his head, and swore under his breath. They stood there silently for a moment, then were joined by Kristogar Velo. He approached them from the open gate of the cemetery.
“…no survivors, then?” He said softly, noticing the look on Danny’s face. Danny nodded softly.
“No- you misunderstood me. When I said ‘nobody’, I didn’t mean no survivors…” Tobias began. “I meant nobody. No remains. No bodies. If people had been burned in there, there’d at least be some charred skeletons or something… but, nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Danny said, regaining his composure.
“Really fucking strange,” Kristogar added. The other two nodded.
Danny looked back into the cemetery. He couldn’t actually see Mxy or Ktl, being blinded by the light that surrounded them. Lighting crackled around them, shooting at them from both the sky and ground. Wind whipped around them, starting as a light breeze but rapidly growing.
“I’m headed back in there,” Danny said.
“I thought you said there was nothing we could do,” Tobias replied.
“There probably isn’t.” Danny turned to face him. “But I’ll be damned if I miss this.”
