Memories

The year is 20xx. Two decades after a cataclysmic event caused by one of the world's most trusted heroes. Solstice, the master of flame and frost, lost control over her unparalleled power of fire and ice and sent the world as a whole into an ecological disaster. The sudden, planet-wide flash freezes and flash fires caused the immediate collapse of the global order. They killed a lowball estimate of 90% of the world's population within 24 hours. In the years that followed, the Solstice Pulses, as they came to be known, were less intense, but they could change from walls of fire to subzero, icy wind, and vice versa at a moment's notice.

At the center of this disaster is the Unity Corps. The Unity Corps was a hand-selected group of super-powered individuals who served the absurdly wealthy to protect their interests around the Earth under the guise of global order and security. Trying to set a trap for Solstice, Unity Corps killed her wife Kayra, which set Solstice off like a bomb.

Hoping to change the past somehow, Victor Rush, an aging hero, and his adoptive daughter Naomi Ali-Summers were two such people. For the last 20 years or so, these two have been gathering components to build a machine capable of taking them back to the nexus point when this apocalypse first began. The duo was currently returning home from their last mission collecting parts to finish constructing this miracle machine. The world around them was below freezing after the last Pulse.

"You'd think the Unity Corps would just quit trying to stop us. There can't be enough of the old world left for them to want to keep going." Naomi spat out as her steps crunched the snow beneath her.

Victor sighs, "I can't say I understand why the Unity Corps continues to fight. Though, I can appreciate the sentiment of fighting for what you believe in until the last moment. This is why we're doing the right thing, and they're doing whatever they're doing."

Naomi seems displeased by this answer, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Nope. But I trust my sister more than anyone in the world when it comes to making world-changing inventions. Even if she's making them from junky equipment."

Naomi doesn't respond. She wraps a hand around the heart-shaped, tungsten locket adorned around her neck and quietly contemplates what comes next. The adoptive family walks along silently for a while. The Solstice Pulses destroyed nearly every building in town, leaving a lot of dust and rubble. Partially melted cars and sleety ice adorned the streets. The damage caused by the pulses is widespread and unique. Several minutes pass before their silence is broken by loud, piercing beeps coming from their wrists. The screen on the wrist device warns the duo of an incoming Solstice Pulse. A fire wave.

"Crap. I've got to go underground. I can't take the heat as well as you can." Victor smiles coyly.

"Go before you catch on fire or melt, Victor."

Victor rushes toward a subway entrance that is fortunately not blocked off by ice, rubble, cars, or other debris. A second after he makes it underground, the wall of fire passes over Naomi. Naomi shrugs off the wall of fire without a hit of a burn. The thick, fire-resistant fireman's jacket she's wearing holds up nicely, and she continues her way down the street. Any ice or snow are now pools of water, and anything that was a little melty before is a little meltier now.

"Don't worry. I'm coming, Mom." Naomi whispers to herself.

____________________________________________________

Naomi makes it back to where she and Victor set up Victor's sister Romani Rush. It's an immense cold and heat-resistant dome established around a subway exit, so they can travel either to or from the dome safely. The inside acts as a home for the three of them and a science lab for Romani. Naomi walks down into the nearby Subway station. She stops right before the turnstiles and types a code into the number pad installed by Romani. A robotic voice speaks out.

"Security system paused for 180 seconds."

Naomi takes the machine's warning and rushes her way from one station platform to the one that leads into Romani's dome. With 3 seconds to spare, Naomi makes it. A little out of breath, she takes a moment to rest. A moment passes before a massive explosion goes off and alarms start ringing out. Following the explosion and alarms is the sound of the subway tunnel collapsing. Naomi stands out from the platform to see the tunnel crumbling where she just was a few minutes ago. Out of the dust and rubble was a limping Victor. He arrives and pulls himself onto the station platform where Naomi is.

"It was a trap. The Unity Corps was waiting for us, and they're after our miracle machine. We have to go. Now."

"But Victor."

"NOW!"

Victor speedily limps up the stairs of the subway platform. Naomi follows behind as the sound of mechanical whirring and moving rubble fills the subway tunnel.

"-Can't run like that, Victor! At the speeds you need to reach, you'll fall and break every bone in your body before you die."

"What other choice do we have?"

"You might be right…." Romani struggles.

"There's no way we're doing this if you're going to die, Victor."

Naomi interrupts the siblings. Victor and Romani turn toward her. Victor has a very soft smile, and he limps over to Naomi. Romani looks sadly at them before sighing, turning around in her wheelchair, and going towards a very poorly put-together machine set up near what appears to be a giant hamster wheel. Victor grabs Naomi's shoulders.

"I wish that were true. But we're the only ones from the old group who are willing to try this."

"Maybe Undisclosed-"

"Haven't heard from him in years."

"Then maybe Strong Arm-"

"He's busy as the head of community defense for the North America resettlement coalition."

"We can just rebuild it somewhere else!" Naomi desperately gets out, tears welling up in her eyes.

Victor smiles sadly before wiping those tears.

"No time, NayNay. Unity Corps at our doorstep. We have to do all we can right now. We can't keep putting it off, and we can't keep running away."

Naomi's head falls into Victor's chest. Victor stumbles a bit but keeps his balance and runs his hand through her hair to comfort her.

"I wanted to help your Mom that day. I wanted to be there to help her. She told me to stay put and protect you and said she'd handle it. You and Kayra were the most important people to her, so I did exactly what she said, but I should've gone out to help her."

Victor's words ripped into Naomi. The tears flowed freely.

"I wanted more than anything to do it over again. When Ani said she could potentially build a machine that could send people back in time, I knew that's what I needed to do. That's how I would keep my original promise. We'd go back together and stop your Mom."

Shouting could be heard from the tunnel down below. Unity Corps people were starting to break through the rubble.

"But unfortunately, I can't have my selfish wish to be there with you to do it over. But I can still help you get back so you can change all of this. I think I have enough in me for that."

Romani comes out from behind the machine. "Victor, you're up."

Victor kisses Naomi's hair before breaking away. Naomi tries to weakly hold on but can't. Victor gets onto the hamster wheel. Romani turns towards Naomi.

"The portal may only be up for a second. We need you to be ready, Naomi."

Naomi nods, standing in front of an archway meant to contain the portal for the machine.

"Victor…"

Victor perks up from stretching to look over at her.

"I never had a father...but you made for a great Dad," Naomi says before flashing a toothy grin.

Victor feels tears in his eyes. He wipes them away quickly before getting in his ready stance.

Romani counts down.

"3…"

Celebratory shouting and marching footsteps stomp on the train platform underground.

"2…"

Romani flips open her heart-shaped locket. Inside is a picture of two women in their late 20's or early 30's. These women were Naomi's moms, Autumn and Kayra Ali-Summers. Naomi closed the locket and gripped it tightly.

"1…"

Victor faces forward. Energy building up within him.

"GO!"

Victor runs as fast as he can, his injuries causing him pain. He yells out in frustration as he pushes past it and keeps picking up the pace. The amount of energy being produced could rival that of entire power plants. An audible ding is heard, and Romani slams down on a big, red button set up before her. The empty archway gleams to life, and multicolor energy fills in the open space. The energy crackles intensely. The pops are near deafening.

"I can't send you all the way back. Not enough time." Romani sadly states.

Naomi nods and takes one last look at the only family she's known for the last twenty years before stepping through the portal.

____________________________________________________

Naomi experienced the worst pain of her life. Her entire being was broken down to pure energy and passed through time and space. She was not one solid thing, but Naomi could still feel all the pieces of herself as she traveled through the great abstraction. Everything and nothing happened simultaneously. Then darkness consumed her.

Naomi opens her eyes. She is in the ruins of her home city, but most of the buildings are still standing. A hundred feet in front of her is her Mom, Autumn Ali-Summers, a.k.a. Solstice, who is currently engaged in the earliest minutes of the Solstice Pulse apocalypse. Naomi stands up, and as wave after wave of flash-freezing-wind and melt-your-insides-alive-fire beamed out from Solstice in rapid succession. The young woman marches forwards and is beaten by hot and cold without surrender.

75 feet.

Being her child, Naomi has some resistance to her Mom's power, but she has never felt Pulses this strong. Her resistance starts to give way.

50 feet.

Burns and frostbite spread all over her body.

25 feet.

Naomi's nerves stop working entirely.

5 feet.

Naomi falls to the ground and reaches out her hand to grab hold of her Mom's ankle. Solstice snaps her head to look down at her feet, getting ready to direct her fury. Right as she goes to do it, she notices a familiar heart-shaped locket near the charred and frozen body clinging to her. The pulses become less frequent, and she goes to pick up the locket. Upon opening up the locket, Solstice's eyes go wide. She looks down at the charred and frozen body near her, and the body looks up at her.

"Hey...m-...mom."

Solstice hears these words, and immediately the Pulses stop. Solstice kneels down to hold her daughter.

"Who...how…"

"The f-futur...e. Victor helped me come back. I-I thin..think he's dead now."

Naomi tries to cry. Solstice stares down at her dying child.

"P-please. Mom. Don't h-hurt any more people. M-Mama wouldn't want tha…"

Naomi's words trail off. Solstice, still in shock, can't do or say much. Eventually, her wits come about her.

"I promise. I promise I won't, Naomi."

Naomi's charred face smiles. Her body suddenly starts breaking down. Her original timeline won't come to pass, causing her corporeal form to break down into raw universal energy. Soon, her body's gone, like she was never there at all. Solstice is anguished but is unable to pinpoint why as she gazes upon the destruction around her. She can't quite remember what happened, but she knew one thing.

She had to get back to her daughter for the first time in what felt like forever.