4 When People Breaks.

I flew around the British Broadcasting Building. Or more accurately, it was a building that hosted many businesses, with the BBC studio taking up the topmost floors of this place.

By itself, the build appears to be of two tiers; a large bottom tier with a taller, but smaller, second tier standing on top of the bottom tier.

My eyes stared into the glass windows while I stressed my sense of hearing to their very limit, trying to pick up sounds that resembled heartbeat coming from inside the building.

The sealed nature of a skyscraper's interior diminishes sound by a large factor. It makes things nigh-impossible to hear even with my hearing.

A single glance and I could spot the figures of dozens of the molten flesh creatures strolling about in the office. Tables and chairs were overturned, computers smashed and the carpet floor became wet as the creatures continuously searched the insides of the building for any remaining humans.

I can easily clear this building of any of those flesh monsters. It was tremendously easy with the power of Kukulkan. A mere five-second application of a stream of coherent plasma and I can chop down this whole building as though it were a tree.

But that would also kill any survivors inside alongside the flesh abominations, if not crushed by rubble then through vaporization via plasma.

I'm going to have to become a scalpel. So my plasma abilities are straight out, which leaves only my superhuman strength and the Authorities possessed by Quetzalcoatl.

I looked down at my fist, clenching it tightly with enough pressure to rival the interior magma chambers of volcanoes. I felt the movement of every air molecule around me, those swirling bundles of energetic particles each moving at a speed of half a kilometer a second.

I'll use my fist as my weapon and the Wind Authority possessed by Quetzalcoatl as my sight.

Having control over the air current of an entire city means you are aware of how those air molecules flow. By monitoring this flow, I can gain effective omniscience where the only way to hide from me is to exist in a vacuum of no air.

I closed my eyes and focused my attention through the Divine Authority of the Wind.

All colors disappeared, sapped away as only shapes remained. All my other senses like taste, touch, and hearing all muted.

I perceived the world through only its air currents.

Was this how bats see the world with their echolocation? I couldn't help but half-mindedly wonder.

The information would be overwhelming for even the best supercomputer of the modern era. Every millisecond I'm given updates on the positions of 10 trillion trillion air molecules in just one cubic meter.

I would've liked to know the exact positions of these trillions upon trillions of air molecules at all times, but because of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, I'm forced to be content with only snapshots.

I ignored the updates not related to the building in front of me and instead focused on the airflow within the BBC studio. I could see the turbulence that came from air passing over the sharp edges of tables, chairs, and computer monitors. I could see how the still-active air conditioning was churning the building's interior like it was a ladel and the building a pot of soup.

Though I could not see the glass and such things themselves, I could see their impact on the atmosphere. They displace air, forming voids between my perceptions, vacuums where air cannot exist as the space was already occupied. 

I searched the depth for patterns. Human-shaped voids in my perception.

It's... somewhat successful as long as that person isn't submerged in water, though I will wonder why there's a pocket of air in the shape of a human's respiratory system within a void of air.

I counted 318 individual entities that the Foundation would classify as SCP-001-A. The largest of these appear to be comprised of over two dozen people.

As for those who are still human? I could spot give or take 38 of them. Most were in the actual studio room where it appeared they had barricaded themselves in. In front of the door were multiple chaotic masses of molten meat banging on the door, probably asking for those inside to join them in the embrace of this corrupted sun.

There were a few more locked inside private washrooms and janitor's closets, with a single one inside an elevator—

Wait a second.

I suddenly spent all my focus on a mass of flesh moving a vacuum pocket in the shape of a human out of a flight of stairs...

Is that...?

Holy shit I think that's a person caught and is now being dragged into the sunlight!

I opened my eyes. Colors seeped back into my vision with the Quetzalcoatl's Authority of the Wind still active but instead focused on the area around the human being dragged into the light.

I flew down to the correct floor, hovering just outside of the glass windows.

I pressed a thumb against the panel, and then I simply pushed.

*Krissssssh*

The window gave away quickly to the force I was pressing on it. Glass shards clattered harmlessly against my arms before simply falling down to the streets below or clumping together on the marble floor.

The wind howled as there was now a new opening into this skyscraper.

I can hear screaming. That guy was screaming to be let go, begging, offering— anything to just let him stay out of the light.

Quickly, I wasted no time and flew towards the source of that screaming. Papers fluttered and flew alongside me as I passed them in my urgency to save one more person.

I even ignored any flesh monsters I happened to pass by.

Everything appeared in slow motion as I flew into a large room flooded with crimson sunlight piercing through windows that stretched from the floor to the second-story ceiling. It appears this was a lounge, with a Starbucks situated in one part of the room.

The door where the guy was being dragged out of was half-open, his clothes were ripped and his bare legs greeted the corrupted rays of the sun.

Shit!

Without thinking too much other than stopping him from being infected, I slammed the door closed, imprinting my hands onto its metal surface with the amount of force I was using. Part of the molten mass got cut off by the door, now resulting in a piece outside and inside the stairwell.

Quickly, I kicked the piece outside of the stairwell away to the side of the room.

It smashed through cubicles.

"Join us... goddess..."

I could hear the metal door with an 'emergency exit' sign above it creak open. The monster was trying to open it again. Before anything more than a slit can be opened, I pushed the handleless door shut, encasing everything on the other side in sunless darkness.

I then took a moment to think about how to approach this.

The corrupted sun is beating down on the closed door right now. If I open it, I'll expose all parts of the survivor to the sunlight instead of just his legs.

If I remember correctly, wasn't it said how people can recover if exposed body parts are removed?

Crap... I'm faced with an impasse.

Though my top speed is faster than anything man-made, I'm not faster than light. Meaning that the instant I open this door the guy will be flooded with sunlight, yet the moment I try to leave and find another exit the half-liquid blob can just open the door I'm forcing closed.

I also can't just punch the door since I'll probably smash it into the hostage first before the creature.

Fuck.

I can't use plasma to burn the blob on the other side—

My eyes stopped to stare at the door's hinges, focusing on the metal. This entire door was made up of metal.

Plasma... plasma... plasma welding... plasma torches!

I can weld this door shut before entering from another doorway!

Holding the door shut with one hand, I raised a finger in the other.

On the tip of my finger, I tried to conjure up as little plasma as I could, closing my eyes and mentally stressing the image of just barely opening a door.

"Hrmm!"

A tiny blob of bluish-green plasma no larger than a sesame seed appeared on the tips of my fingers.

YES! I did it! I managed to control it!

That blob of plasma grew alongside my mood, causing my eyes to widen as I mentally forced the plasma back to its original size of no larger than a sesame seed.

I simply traced this tiny concentration of formless plasma across the sides of the doorway. Wherever my fingers went, the metal became white-hot, and unless I wanted the thing to vaporize, I gotta keep the contact time between the plasma blob and the metal extremely short.

Once one side was completely welded, with the metal burning a bright yellow, I found myself couldn't feel any more force on the door coming from the other side.

What?

Is the bundle of fused human flesh gone? Or is it waiting for me to check another floor and bust this half-welded door down?

It was... annoyingly smart. Why couldn't these pieces of melted human flesh be dumb like zombies? It'd make things so much easier.

I closed my eyes and looked at the world through the lens of its air molecules again, borrowing Quetzalcoatl's Authority over the wind in full.

Colors leaked away and shapes were all that remained. All walls, ceilings, floorings— obstacles— were gone as I now knew the position of every air molecule inside this building.

I could see... the blob moving up the stairs?!

I blasted up to the floor above me by going through the concrete and rebar ceiling. Finding another set of those doors, I dug my fingers into them and wrenched them open. The metal groaned and screamed as they came apart, flying away having been thrown in a hurry.

Before the detached door even touched the ground, I flew down a flight of stairs and found the blob creature carrying a naked man whose clothing had been mostly ripped away. I could clearly spot how large chunks of his legs were missing, presumably having been melted by the light.

"Help... help me... please don't let me go into the light," The man's voice was hoarse from all the screaming. He was of caucasian descent, with dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He looked to be in his early 20s.

Immediately, the blob creature on the stairs placed the man between it and me, using him as a literal human shield.

"Join us, goddess. You will become a part of a greater whole. You won't ever have to fight again. Join us."

I'm forced to listen to this appendage of whatever's behind When Day Break tries to convince me.

"Join us, goddess. Experience euphoria."

How should I go about this? I don't trust my strength since I could very easily accidentally kill the man. I don't trust my control over plasma to be fine enough to only kill the mutated human. Even with control over the wind, I can't be absolutely sure I can only kill the blob without killing the human.

"Join us, goddess."

Whoever is controlling these things is learning from every encounter with me. It knows about the fragility of a single human, and it's using this fact against me.

"Join us, goddess."

Fuck... I can hear more of those creatures shambling towards me, their voices getting closer and louder as they approach my position. More specifically, I can hear the banging on the barricaded door to the BBC studio grow louder.

"Join us, goddess."

This thing is holding all 38 people hostage.

"Join us, goddess."

How... despicable. Just as I thought the creature was about to repeat the same thing again, an arm reached up and wrapped itself around the man's neck, creating a chokehold.

"Join us, goddess. Or this man dies."

"—!"

My fists tightened. I felt powerless because of too much power.

"Join us, goddess."

Ironic. How very ironic. I'm met with an issue where it can only be solved with a screwdriver, but I only have a hammer. Having more power is supposed to open more doors for you, not close them.

"K... ll me..." The man groaned out despite the fleshy tentacle around his neck, "Kill... me..."

A look of shock appeared on my face as the man begged me to kill him. This clearly wasn't in the creature's plan as another hand reached up and stuffed itself into the man's mouth, silencing his voice into unrecognizable sounds of struggle.

"Join us, goddess. Or this man dies."

A conflicted expression appeared on my face. Just as I raised my hand and was about to send a blast of plasma, I found out that I couldn't

A droplet of plasma was in my raised hands. All it takes is a single thought and both the creature and the man would be wiped away from existence, turned into ash, or even nothing at all as they're vaporized in whole.

"...ll... E..."

Through the illumination brought about by the plasma, I could clearly see the man's pale blue eyes.

Those desperate, pleading, pale blue eyes desiring death.

I grit my teeth, my own eyes narrowing into slits.

My brain warred with my heart again.

I have to kill him

I can't kill him

He begged for death.

I'm supposed to save people.

This is a mercy killing.

Euthanasia is still murder.

My teeth ground themselves as the war fought on.

Deep down, I knew that killing a human was inevitable. Even before I signed the dotted line of the Company's contract, I knew of the twisted evils thought up by humanity. 1984, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream... these are all just a glimpse into the horrifying depth that human imagination can go to.

There must be much worse hells imagined by humans but never written down. A simple fleeting thought, or perhaps a dream too terrible to be jotted down and therefore, be passed to future generations.

So I accepted that I'd need to take a life.

I accepted that certain people must die. I accepted that hard lines will have to be crossed and that sometimes hard decisions must be made. I accepted that certain people don't want to be saved and instead continue to wallow in their evil.

I accepted that the ideals of superheroes in comics are an impossibility.

I just never imagined my first 'human' kill would be this.

I felt tears gather at the edge of my eyes. One level of Stress Defense wasn't enough.

I stared at the man's eyes one last time, and I found my eyes widening in surprise.

I didn't see any anguish.

No, there was none of that. I saw only peace... and acceptance of what was to come. Even while being constrained by the mutated flesh monster, probably tortured to get rid of that peaceful expression, I could only continue to see peace in his eyes.

There was only peace. He desired peace. An eternal rest away from the touch of this corrupted sun. He was a young man desiring an old man's destination.

Even without words, he communicated through his accepting eyes, saying that 'it's okay'.

"..."

'It's okay'.

Stranger, though I might not have known you at all, but...

Rest well—

The brightness coming from the plasma in my palm intensified. It painted everything a shade of white.

—Away from this hell.