Chapter Text
Madison was starting shit.
And at the worst time humanly possible.
Normally Sophia would be able to go out and do something about it, would be able to sneak out with ease and either talk her down from doing something stupid or physically intervene, but no, all this had happened at a time when she was powerless to stop it. The snow storm was too cold, the visibility too bad, it was a death sentence to risk going out there without a car, and the only vehicle in the family was her mother's old, clapped-out hunk of junk.
There was a reason why Sophia was such a good runner, why she made track and was a regular contender in sports events, and it was not just because she made the effort to take care of herself, it was out of necessity.
But now she was sitting here... powerless .
Madison was going to snitch on them or do something stupid and some fuckers had broken into Emma's! It would be fine though, she had her old man and Emma was strong enough in her own way, she could defend herself... right?
There was no time for doubt. She had already tried to place a call with the police, much as it pained her to rely on the pigs, she couldn't do anything by herself, and didn't that grate in every way!
Emma hadn't been replying.
Sophia paced like a caged beast, like a predator waiting to burst out and do something, the knot of energy in her stomach was twisting and coiling. Emma would be fine; Sophia had taught her well and she was much stronger than people gave her credit for.
There had been other messages as well, none of which boded well and contributed to her current state.
PRT ENE Command : [PRIORITY MESSAGE] Unknown individuals are attacking Headquarters
PRT ENE Command : [PRIORITY MESSAGE] @Parahumans A situation is occurring at base and everyone should be ready for deployment if needed, we are assessing the situation but this could be part of a larger movement or action. All heroes with transport suitable for the storm please prepare vehicles.
PRT ENE Command : [PRIORITY MESSAGE] PERIMETER BREACHED
PRT ENE Command : [PRIORITY MESSAGE] Armsmaster has been spotted among the unknown individuals and appears to be actively leading them. Likely Stranger/Master situation
What sort of mad motherfucker tried to besiege a PRT building in the middle of a fucking once in a generation storm, it was almost beyond belief! And they had gotten Armsmaster as well, the one guy who knew the base and its security inside out! Quite honestly it was a perfect storm of bullshit!
Updates were slow, and now here she was, sitting on her bed in her outfit and spare crossbow in case.
She was not supposed to have one, of course... but frankly anybody who told her so could eat a dick; her weapons were back at headquarters and she was pretty sure the others would much rather have her armed and not ask the question then have her turn up unarmed and be unable to do anything to help.
Still, it was not like she could get out of here, unless some teleporter suddenly appeared who could transport her? Or in case one of the other heroes was able to pick her up?
Honestly, how many people were attacking headquarters!? They needed information, this state of waiting was gnawing away at her. She should be out there! But no, she was trapped here instead—
CRASH!
The sound of shattering glass downstairs, and not just one piece either, all at once there were multiple sounds of things breaking. Terry went to bed hours ago, and of course Charlotte had been tucked up with her teddy bear much earlier than that. Sophia had not heard back from her mother, but night shifts often had the woman return in the early morning or when the sun rose, in which she would step in, exhausted, and fall asleep on the sofa.
Sophia leapt to her feet, within a moment she had crossed the space to the door and the string on the crossbow was pulled back.
Some fucker was trying to get in!
Was it like with Emma, were the gangs taking the opportunity to try and raid people’s homes? Sounded like what the Empire would do, break in when people couldn't get out, but why would they go for Emma? Unless it was because of their association, plenty of nazis at Winslow could report it back...
She could hear Terry getting up, his hard footfalls against the floor.
A hand had been punched through the thin glass of the window beside the door, an arm was groping about, there was a face as well, just about visible. She did not bother turning the lights on; she knew the layout of the house better than any intruder and such a thing could make all the difference.
The face had vacant, blue eyes, the guy lacked any real coordination, as if hoping to just push their way through the small gap, the shards of glass in the frame were visibly cutting into his clothing without concern, some drugged out hobo trying to get in from the cold perhaps? None of her business, they were trying to break in.
She raised her crossbow.
"Back off!"
There was no response, but it was as if the sound of her voice had only excited it, and a moment later there was another shattering of glass as another window on the other side of the door was broken, and she could see past them now, there were others, it was a whole goddamn crowd! She needed to scare them off, there looked like there were several, even a dozen or more, and she and Terry could hardly fight them all off... especially if she did not want to reveal her identity!
"Sophia what’s happening!?" came Terry’s shout, he was at the top of the stairs now.
"Some zonked out creeps trying to get in!" she yelled back, not taking her eyes off her targets.
Her brother looked visibly floored and confused, looking past her and towards the reaching hands. The fact that she was in her Shadow Stalker outfit would only make it more and more confusing, her brother knew about her secret identity but it was something that they never discussed, part of the added distance between them that had only gotten worse and worse with time.
Then, he swore and rushed down, moving past her, and running for the kitchen, where the knives and steak tenderiser were.
Sophia drew the string back again, taking a cold gust of the storm to the face. Shit, hours upon hours of the heating being kept on were meaningless from just a pair of small windows being broken in.
The zonked-out weirdos were pulling back suddenly. Were they going to pull back now that they had found the Hess house to be defended and try their luck with somebody else? All of this was already so messed up.
They were not pulling back, they were just... standing there.
Terry was back with a steak tenderiser in one hand and the rather fearsome knife her mother had purchased a year ago.
And then---
A strange sound, like metal-on-metal ringing... except somehow it sounded wrong, like an animal screaming in pain---
The door fell forwards as something heavy hit it, Sophia jumped back to avoid being in its path and raised her crossbow. Beyond it one figure dominated the doorway, and behind him a dozen figures, more even.
A heavy boot landed on the tile floor.
Armsmaster loomed over her, for once the man didn't have his helmet on, revealing his ethereal pale face as pale as milk... the bright eyes that shone with a blue light that could not possibly be natural, nor could the fact his hair had entirely turned white as well, white as snow. His armour was frosted over, covered in a sheen of ice that seemed to change colour with each step. He still had his halberd, but the blade was coated in the same ice, which glowed with a faint blue in the light.
She raised the crossbow further, aiming for his neck---
An explosion of movement.
Armsmaster’s movements were too fast, too graceful compared to normal and barely even looked human. There was something subtly wrong about his motions, something that made her instincts scream the word danger.
Only her immediate instinct to use her power saved her head from being parted with her shoulders as she jumped back, the blade passed through her and Armsmaster was moving forward. He said nothing; when he cornered her that night over a year ago he had done the full spiel telling her to stand down, to come peacefully and explained fully just how poor an idea it would be to resist and explained the consequences.
There was none of that now.
No opportunity to talk.
Nothing but the raw urge to have her dead.
She backed up as he advanced.
Should she flee for the stairs to get the advantage of height? Or perhaps retreat back to where Terry was?
The stairs, Charlotte was up there, she dived backwards for them.
"Fuck off!" Armsmaster barely even looked as if he heard her, his face was set in that scowl.
"Soph!" Terry moved, raising his arm threateningly, trying to draw Armsmaster's attention, and she cursed him for calling attention to his position, but it captured her boss’s focus for a moment, he glanced with those eyes filled with utter malice, and Sophia fired.
The bolt, aimed for the neck, went low and hit the very edge of his armour and created that same horrific sound as before. A grunt, and then Armsmaster pointed upwards, the shambling figures beyond the door moved. In a moment they were pouring into the house, as if some delicate thread holding them suspended had snapped.
"Sophia grab Charlotte and---"
Whatever Terry was about to say, she did not know, she was backing up, trying to get a clear shot at Armsmaster when he moved again, in a moment closing the distance to Terry. She could only hope that he put up a good enough fight to get away. The blue eyes... the zonked-out fuckers, now that she could see better in the light of the solitary upstairs light... they all looked as if they had already been killed, many of them had horrific injuries that by all accounts should kill anybody.
Even as she backed up further, aiming for the head, she wondered what the fuck was going on. Was this what had happened to headquarters as well, was this some sort of zombie apocalypse caused by Armsmaster?
Up the stairs the dead were being thrown and pushed aside, Armsmaster was striding up it to find her. The head of his axe was red, his eyes fixed on her with that same unquenchable malice as before.
Her heart was hammering in her ear even as the realisation struck her... down below, a new figure joined the horde, she saw him just from the corner of her eye, but she had lived with him all her life---
"Sophi---"
Charlotte stepped out of the bedroom before Sophia could call out, her heart jumped into her throat as the door opened and her little sister half stepped out just as the tide of the dead reached it, her terrified scream filled the air.
Sophia tried to grab her, tried to reach out as her little sisters terrified, agonised expression burned itself into her mind.
The only options were to stay here and die trying to help her, fight back with everything she had… or run.
She could not fight against all this, she had always struck from the shadows in guerilla warfare, but this... this was nothing short of a pitched battle.
Sophia ran.
There was nothing she could do for them, it was right that she survived, right? Survive long enough to get revenge!
Sophia phased through the wall, dropping down to the ground outside.
It was a bad idea to be out here, it was so cold and the snow was so deep, she needed to find another house or building that would be safe for her to hunker down in whilst she made a plan! The snow was up to her knees as she pushed her way through it, the cold made her shiver within moments and she pulled the cloak of her outfit tighter around her as she did so. Push on, get somewhere warm, change clothes if needed and survive.
Then she could hunt down Armsmaster, would taking care of him stop this entire situation?
It seemed fair to assume that Emma was dead, if she had been attacked like this then she probably did not stand a chance.
She had made her way a good way down the street when a new noise broke the howling of the wind.
The roar of an engine, headlights blazing against her back.
For a moment she had hope, before she realised that she recognised that particular engine, and Armsmaster exploded out of the darkness, his bike moving through the snow with ease despite it coming up to her knees. He drove with one hand, the other holding his halberd, and which he swung with graceful ease as he shot past her.
She turned to shadow as he did, the blade passed through her and yet, when she returned to being solid, pain wracked her body.
The snowflakes passing through her, she barely held back a scream and forced herself onward. If she could reach a building, phase through it, and just have a moment of safety before he chase continued, lose the trail---
The engine roared, Armsmaster was no doubt turning to make another pass, and there were the distant figures, the shadows in the darkness of the dead that were giving chase as well, unencumbered by the cold they shambled ceaselessly after her whilst she pushed and struggled through the snow.
She had to find shelter soon---
A building! One of the many houses along the street, just ahead of her, yeah, she would go there---
A wall of the dead stood in front of it, staring, a great line of them frozen in place but with eyes following her movements. She could move through them, but in these conditions... would she be able to make it all the way through them and the outer wall of the building before it was too much?
Armsmaster made another pass and she was forced to turn to shadow to avoid her head being taken off her shoulders, there was a laugh that was both his but also distinctly not, like icicles falling to the ground and shattering against stone. Was he taking some sort of sick pleasure in this game, the unrestricted nature of his movements as she trudged and fought through the snow.
She just needed a building that did not have the dead arranged outside it, but as she forced herself on each home was the same; shattered windows and a wall of the dead outside.
Watching her struggle, watching her fight for her life in the temperatures that were slowly freezing her solid.
Was she the only living person left in the entire city!?
Armsmaster had not made a pass for a few moments, she looked up and around.
She could not see his lights... but ahead of her, a pair of bright blue stars burned.
... There was somebody else out there.
Out of the darkness... Taylor Hebert stepped.
Her eyes burned far brighter than Armsmaster’s, the armour of ice was grander by far as well and horns of the same material ice rose from her head like a crown. The cold and the wind redoubled as she came into view. Sophia did not even realise that such a degree of cold was possible in this world, but here she was, feeling it against her face... it was so cold in the direction of Hebert that the frostbite inducing cold behind her somehow felt warm by comparison.
More figures emerged from the frigid gloom.
She recognised them, but there was no more friendship of camaraderie there anymore, nor any affection from their parents.
One in particular stepped beside Taylor and placed a hand upon her shoulder, her father? He carried a blade red with frozen blood, he looked to Sophia with a degree of malice unmatched by any save his daughter.
Hebert stared at her; they all did.
Unblinkingly. Unceasingly.
From behind, the roar of the engine grew louder and louder, the blazing headlights of Armsmaster’s bike against her back casting a shadow in the direction of Hebert and the others.
Pushing her, herding her like a prey animal towards them.
That had been the game this entire time.
They were treating her like a deer to be pushed towards the wolves!
There were more and more figures emerging out of the blizzard and into the weak light available, more and more of the dead that formed a great wall behind Hebert and the others who were like her. The difference between them was stark, no, the dead were not like Hebert and her little group. Over the sound of the wind there was the sound of distant glass breaking... houses being broken into, doors slammed on. There would only be more, as more and more people died more would be added to their ranks... this was a situation far beyond what Brockton Bay could handle!
This was another Ellisburg!
She raised her crossbow to point at Hebert.
The smallest of Hebert’s warped companions silently stepped forward and offered the grand blade she was holding to Hebert reverently. Without so much as looking at Sophia's former friend, Hebert took it up. She lifted it with both hands and held it so that the blade split her face in two, staring back, before she took a step forward towards her.
The others followed, slowly walking forward like a great wall of bodies and cold.
"I-I'll shoot!" the damnable cold was getting to her, making her teeth chatter.
The thrum of the engine behind them was growing louder and louder, Armsmaster was approaching fast.
She dived off to the side, running for her life.
They gave chase.
Running her down.
The dead off to her sides growing closer.
Closer.
Nowhere to go!
She looked over her shoulders.
There were dozens of them, behind Hebert was a wall of frozen bodies, each with the blue fire in their eyes, each of them pushing through the snow whilst Hebert herself walked along its surface, unaffected and not sinking in. Her pace was slow, almost languorous... enough to keep pace with Sophia, gaining on her by increments but showing just how little effort she was really putting into it all.
She turned to shadow again as Armsmaster went past, another swipe for her, he knew it would not work... but he also knew that it would be painful for her to shift, to allow the snowflakes to pass through her before she solidified. It was intentional, it was pain and torture to weaken her.
Pushing through the snow, it was getting deeper and deeper, she could not stand and fight---
She was so cold, that when she fell she barely realised that a blade had cut through the back of her knee. When her face met the cold snow and ice on the ground she scrambled to get up, pushing burning hands into the white powder only for her body to now work properly as she tried to push herself up and onwards, to somewhere, somewhere safe!
A boot in her side left her wheezing. She tried to shift, but her energy was leaving her, like a wounded deer or gazelle too tired to run anymore. Once the wolves had hamstrung and exhausted she tried to crawl forwards, tried to grab her crossbow to turn and fire on her peruser. A boot stepped on the snow without sinking and roughly kicked the weapon away, and then Hebert pushed her onto her back.
She was left staring upwards. In the darkness, the snow-white face of Taylor Hebert stood out like some manner of ghost, staring down at her with contemptuous blue eyes.
The others joined her, all of them were talking in a language that Sophia could not understand, only to be silenced a moment later by Hebert raising a hand.
And then...
Nothing.
They were silent, staring down at her, making no effort to help, making no effort to hurt.
"Fuck you," she spat.
Hebert stared back.
Sophia gritted her teeth to try and stop them chattering as she replied with as much fire as she could manage. That same damnable passivity that had infuriated her since the day they met was there again, except this time their positions were reversed.
"S-S-So what, y-you gonna k-kill me!?"
There was the very faintest hint of a smile there.
As the cold slowly seeped into her flesh and made her tremble in place despite every attempt to fight if off, her body was betraying her, making her a shivering mess, trapped in the freezing snow.
As the cold only grew worse and worse, the thing that looked like Taylor Hebert just stood, watching, as Sophia Hess slowly froze to death.
By the time the storm passed, the city was near silent, a frozen tomb for hundreds of thousands.
Those that survived spoke tales of horror, of the dead rising, of frozen hands shattering windows and doors to allow the cold to kill the living if the dead could not do it themselves. Power lines were pulled and broken down, heating systems on which the living relied upon to stay safe failed. Hypothermia claimed far more victims than the dead ever could, even the mightiest Capes of the Empire or the ABB could only hold out so long before they had to rest in the freezing cold.
Ethereal, pale horrors led the growing numbers of the dead, not many of them but where they walked cold followed, those who died to the cold rose according to their will to continue the hunt for the living.
Reinforcing Heroes could do nothing, local Villains fell no matter their strength, be it to the dead, their masters or left to die to the cold.
When the storm passed, the new threat disappeared with it... returning with the snows every year across North America.