text: Nobody expects to face death, yet here I was doing just that. Both figuratively and literally. While not facing Death itself, I was face to face with my potential end. The city around me burned, freshly evacuated; the silver lining in all of this. What we're facing is powerful, and we're dropping like flies; despite being "superheroes". Right now, there was nothing super about us; fighting for our lives as we were. Our enemy looked human, but it was more than that. Though the others may not feel it, I could thanks to my own genetics. I was the long and distant descendant of some small time god that nobody even remembers anymore. Despite millennia of bloodline dilution, I was still somewhat divine. Even if it was less than 1%. "Hey, bird boy!", came a booming voice which snapped me out of my thoughts. I stood and looked out of the second floor window of a building I was hiding in to see Shadow at ground level yelling at where I was. Shadow was one of the top heroes in society. His power gave him minor shadow manipulation, as well as being able to turn into a shadow himself, and being able to spy through shadows. I wasn't surprised he was still alive. "This is no time to be scared, feathers.", came his voice again, "We bought enough time for the civilians to be evacuated. We can go all out on this guy!" My hero name was neither bird boy nor feathers, it was Angel. A little on the nose, but my lack of imagination settled on something that would be considered a cliché pick. You see, remember how I mentioned I was less than 1% divine? Well, when whatever happened that either gave or awoke abilities in people happened, it reacted to that less than 1% in my DNA and I manifested wings. Painfully. It was quite awhile back. Close to 40 years now. When it happened, I woke up screaming and screamed more when I noticed the blood on my sheets. My wings didn't just *magically* appear. They had to grow, and to start the new bones and everything had to rip through my skin. It was a painful three months in the hospital. It also turns out I'm immortal. It didn't end there, however. The government wanted to step in, and that is never fun. I would notice more suits walking around the hospital as I recovered. A nurse was kind enough to inform me the government was planning on taking all of us somewhere once we were recovered. Not only was this my first time learning there were others this was happening to, but the reason the nurse helped is due to this thing happening to her as well. She warned all of us, but the warning came a tad too late as only a few of us were able to get out of the hospital before we were taken away. As time passed, I became more familiar with my abilities. My wings were indestructible, yet soft to the touch. Apparently the god I was descended from was some kind of storm god, so I inherited some of those abilities. I could generate and expel lightning from my own body, manipulate storm clouds and lightning, turn myself into a bolt of lightning to travel faster, and heal quickly from wounds. Despite all of that, I was still considered to be on the low end of the mid-tier spectrum when it came to heroes, which should tell you all you need to know how strong some of the heroes are. So you could understand why I was hiding when most of the mid and top tier heroes were dead. The only word I could describe what we were facing is a "god". I shook those thoughts out of my head and focused on where Shadow was standing, but he was no longer there. I suppose he did not want to wait for me to come out of my reverie. ***\~BOOM\~*** ***\~CRASH\~*** The building shook and more windows shattered from the force of some distant impacts. The brief period of peace was over and the fight resumed. I moved away from the window and took in a deep breath. I wanted to run and hide some more, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do that forever. I was afraid, but those people who had to evacuate were even more afraid than I was. They didn't have superpowers, or quirks, or semblances, or whatever you want to call them. I had power. I had to use it. I unfurled my wings, and they sparkled in the sunlight that came through the window. I took one last calming breath before jumping out of the window and flying towards the source of the battle. It sounded like they were in the business district of downtown. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ What I saw upon arriving to the fight made my stomach turn and was enough to not kill my appetite for a week. Bodies of heroes and unlucky civilians, or whatever was left of them, littered the ground. I want to say it looks like a warzone, but it was worse. As I flew by, I noticed blood and... parts stuck to the walls of buildings or hung from what few street lights were left standing. "Hey, birdie" came that voice again though it was cut off by several bouts of coughing, "you made it." I found Shadow. It wasn't good. I slowed down and landed infront of him, kneeling as I did. He was sitting up against what I suppose was the remains of a large mailbox. The entire bottom half of his body was just gone. I was spared the gore-y viscera as what appeared to be shadow stuff came pouring out of the wound. I was silent for a few moments before speaking. "I'm sorry.", was all I could say. I had let him down. Hell, I was letting everyone down by being a coward and turning tail at the first sign of our inevitable loss. Shadow smiled, coughing up blood shortly after. "Don't say that, bird brain.", he said between coughs. "I know exactly how you feel. I was scared too. But, as heroes it's our duty to not let that fear get to us." His face contorted in pain for a moment, and he went silent for a few moments. I was conflicted. I wanted to turn around and get away from here. I wanted to hide. Maybe I could survive the vacuum of space and leave this damned planet behind. Many heroes better than I were dead; defeated easily when facing that god thing. Shadow probably saw the look on my face, because he reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. "Listen, kid. I'm not going to tell you not to be scared. But what I am gonna say is to use that fear for something useful. Fear can either freeze you in place, or make you do things you never thought were possible out of sheer desperation for survival.", he coughed a few more times and his arm dropped. "Don't let this be a regret, kid. After all...", he paused for a moment and his eyes locked with mine, "you're all that's left." He died. What the hell kind of pep talk was that? Use my fear? I'm all that's left? Kid? I was older than he was! My mind raced and my heart pounded. I was out of my league. At that thought I stood and my gaze swept across the destruction. Then again, so were they. It wasn't just the strongest heroes we had that fought and died here, but the weakest as well. As my eyes looked across this torn up street, I even noticed a few police uniforms. My breathing slowed. I was afraid. Scared shitless. I looked back at Shadow's body. Though it's what I do with that fear, right? Then I felt it. I had barely any time to react, but I managed to get my wing in the way of whatever blow was being directed at me. Something connected and I was sent careening down the street, with the only thing stopping me being the wall of a tall building. I bit my tongue from the impact, and I could feel the back of my skull bleeding. My wing was broken, but it was already slowly healing itself, as were my other wounds. I spit out the blood pooling within my mouth and stood up. My eyes rose and stopped when they met the gaze of my attacker, who floated several feet above the street. It was that god thing. My eyes wanted to look away and my brain raked against the sight. It was clearly humanoid with what appeared to be black wings hanging off of it's back, but I couldn't see much else beyond whatever it was doing to conceal it's true form. I now know why the other heroes couldn't beat this guy. Who knew my minuscule amount of divinity would end up being so useful. I could handle looking at this thing directly. I prepared myself to take flight. Perhaps I had a chance after all.