Twinkling in the night sky

The atmosphere was silent.

There was no other real way to describe it as he moved through the airless void, feeling a certain weightlessness that he propelled himself through. He didn’t know when he would descend, and where he would yet that always happened. One second he would be flying, the next a streak across the sky called a falling star.

They weren’t wrong.

He flew through the atmosphere, feeling the pulls and tugs of gravity as his began to slow down until comfortably within hypersonic speeds. The world below grew, more and more, until the urban sprawl became obvious to him. Man made stars that painted the skyline with their own kind of brilliance, with him now leisurely flying above them all. Just the concept of so many people living down there was amazing, something he always had a hard time thinking about. Little stars with their fragile bodies living out blinks in time.

So he dipped lower, feeling the rushing wind lash against his skin as he slowed beneath the speed of sound. Their glass was fragile, too much speed tended to reduce it to nothing more than tinkling shards.  People would point at the shape  moving through the night sky if they even noticed him, indistinct enough to not even know what it was. Was he real or the product of an imagination?

He cork screwed through the skies, speeding up to the very edge of the sound barrier as he zoomed over The Bronx, eventually picking out a random apartment rooftop somewhere in Brooklyn. The where never really mattered to him, many of the words just didn’t mean much. With hands rested on his hips, dressed only in a pair of jeans retrofitted into shorts he looked up to the sky and frowned.

”Looks like our energy reading has found a resting spot, they’re in Brooklyn now.”

“Thanks Speedrun, I’m on my way back now.” Frontline reached his hand down into the water as he flew across the ocean, heading back into the city.

“How’d it go, anyone dead??”

“No, a few injuries, but nothing they won’t bounce back from, a couple of them got hyperthermia from going overboard, but they’re getting medical attention now, and should make a solid recovery...” He replied. “The cruise ship, however, got cut in half by the Kaiju.”

”Eh, I’m sure they’ll have a newer, stronger one sailing around by the next month, how’s the new suit holding up?”

“Oh it’s great...” Frontline glanced at his reflection in the currently smooth water. “No tears at all.”

He was wearing a new suit, designed with a more “modern” design. They had got rid of the open top cowl, going with full coverage, with the frameless goggles replaced by two individual lenses. His simple red top and blue bottoms replaced with a pattern of reds, blues, and whites. The star symbol moved from over the left side of the chest, to directly in the middle, with two white stripes going out from either side, like a pair of wings. The belt was the only thing to remain basically the same, the buckle swapped from Gold to silver, and pouches were added, allowing Frontline to carry things like his phone, snacks, emergency supplies, and so on.  

As Frontline reached the city, he shot up into the sky, letting his momentum and speed carry him over several blocks. This was his favorite part of being superpowered, being able to fly, it was being able to see the city from the sky, the feeling of being weightless, and the rush of moving at speeds faster than a fighter jet. He didn’t care about the immense strength or being basically bulletproof, though he wasn’t ungrateful for them. He preferred to handle things without fighting, that’s what his favorite heroes always said, at least.  

But in a cruel world, sometimes words weren’t enough.  

He just hoped this current situation could be handled with a conversation.  

As he reached Brooklyn, it didn’t take long to find the source of the energy readings. A single shirtless figure, standing alone on an apartment rooftop, looking out at the night sky.

Frontline slowly descended from his elevated position, hovering off the edge of the apartment building in front of the figure. “Hello...” He waved, giving a smile. “I’m Frontline, I kinda protect this city...” He floated over to the building, stepping onto the roof as he held his hand out to shake. “My team detected a major spike of energy flying around this area, and I came to check it out.”

Ah, the all you can eat buffet. A staple of American life. Whether it’s Silvered Pen, or your local Chinese restaraunt everyone can eat their fill for a reasonable price…

At least that’s the intention. As Gravvy set down her 11th plate of food though, the manager stormed out of the back. “You need to leave.” He said, his thick black moustache twitching in annoyance. Gravvy tilted her head confused.

“Isn’t this an all you can eat buffet?” She asked, innocently.
“Well, yes but-“ The manager said as Gravvy shoved another morsel of food in her mouth.
“Then I’m not full yet.” She said shrugging. “Honestly if you don’t want people to eat their fill, don’t advertise it that way!” She giggled.
The manager snatched the plate away as Gravvy went in with her fork for another bite. “There’s a time limit.”
Gravvy’s eyes flashed with irritation. “I’ve been here less than 5 minutes. Give me that back.” Her voice resonated through the restaurant, the air feeling literally heavier.
“You’re lucky I don’t call the police. Stealing this much food is illegal.” He said, and put the bill on the table. “You’re banned from the restaraunt. Please pay and leave.”

Gravvy stood, the manager began to walk away but she grabbed his arm. “I’ve been trying so hard to be good while Ms. Russel is gone. Mr. Sinclair doesn’t treat me the same and says that my energy chip is a waste of money.” Her eyes and hair began to glow orange as the light in the room visually dimmed and distorted around her. “I’m starving.”

The air in the buffet imploded as food, tables, plates, silverware and even people were dragged into Gravvy’s waiting maw. The power was too much for any normal person to withstand as they were quickly and efficiently turned into nutrition for the living black hole. When all was said and done, there was a crater around Gravvy with a single table, a plate of food, and some silverware. She sat back down to eat the rest of her food, blissfully unaware or maybe uncaring of the fact that the police were almost certainly on the way.

He was vaguely away of the shift in the wind. A shape flying, much like himself, through the air without the aid of wing or blade. It was enough to shift his frown into an inquisitive half-smile, looking up to the source of the motion and now the sound. He was dressed strangely, at least for what he knew of humans. He also assumed humans couldn’t fly. Katherine couldn’t at least that was what she constantly told him.

What did greet him from the stranger was a simple greeting. ”Hello…” He responded, realizing his voice sounded a little rough from a lack of use. Not taking much apparently did that. Was he no different from humans, needing to perform certain tasks to actually keep everything working normally? Even still the stranger was hovering a few feet in front of him, unbothered by the suggestions of this planets gravity. What was this man anyway?

”Energy spike?” He questioned, looking around before coming to a realization and pointing to himself. ”You mean me don’t you?” He questioned, with a genuine sounding perplexed tone. Well he did have a lot of energy in himself, enough to confuse any of those terrans he came across.

Maybe they were scared of him?

”I’m not here to break any buildings, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He gave a small placating gesture, as if that would somehow make everything right. It would do that, wouldn’t it? That was when he realized the outstretched hand and quickly snatched it up, grip tighter than he intended, and shook it. Talking could be fun, would have been fun until he felt something. A pit in his stomach, or where the stomach would be if he had any need for something like that.

A deep, cloying cold that made him feel ill. He didn’t get sick. That just wasn’t what happened to him. ”Did you feel that?” He withdrew his hand, looking around for what they could be. As if something were sucking the very life and light from the world around it, close by too. It was made obvious by a distant explosion, yet he didn’t quite understand that.

Frontline chuckled as the man assured him he had no intentions of causing destruction. “Well, I am glad to hear that, I prefer to make friends, not enemies.” He looked down to his hand, the mans grip was certainly strong, the young hero could actually feel the pressure from it. He feared that if he didn’t have his super durability, his hand would be crushed.  

Fortunately, his own grip was strong enough to counter. “Wow, that’s quite a grip you got there...” He stated. “I can actually shake your hand without worrying about breaking it.”  

The smile quickly faded as he picked up on commotion not too far from their position. There was an older man, arguing with what sounded like a little girl.  

Over buffet food.  

Suddenly, the girl got angry, and what came next Frontline had never heard before. Then, it all went silent, followed by the sound of the girl eating again.  

Frontline looked over as the other man spoke, clearly sensing whatever he just heard. “I need to go...” He let of his hand, floating up into the air again. “Sorry, hero emergency.”  

He then turned and took off, flying towards the source of the commotion.  

”Whoa, dude, we just picked up another huge spike, but this time, whatever it was, was drawing energy inward, kinda like...”

“An implosion.” Frontline landed in front of a crater that once was an all you can eat buffet restaurant. “I’m at the location now...” He raised a brow, as he spotted the single little girl, sitting in the center of the crater, at the only table left, eating the food. “Well, this is new.”  

He floated over to her, hands clasped behind his back, as he tried to appear harmless. “Good evening...” He hovered into her view, looking around the crater. “Ya know, usually people run after destroying places...” He nodded to the empty seat across from her. “May I sit?”  

She looked young, around 16 possibly, her hair had a sort of orange-red glow to it, as she ate her food, clearly not concerned with the repercussions of her actions. Which begged another question entirely, where did the restaurant, and all the people go?

It was like everything simply vanished, and was transported somewhere else.  

But the girl was still here, and the only spot left was the little area she sat at, like everything happened around her, but didn’t affect her directly.  

Frontline slowly sat down in the other chair. “My name is Frontline, I’m sort of the protector of this city...” He leaned forward. “What is your name?”

Gravvy smiled at the man who came across her as she put another piece of chicken into her mouth. “Are you a superhero? Like uh… Miguel? Or Jessica? That’s cool!” She said nodding her ascent to allow him to sit. She rather obviously ignored the comment about people running away, her eyes flashed with amusement though.

“Frontline! That’s a great name! I’m Gabbie. My friends call me Gravvy!” She leaned forward and whispered. “I’m a superhero too!” She said like she was sharing some big secret. “I’m not supposed to tell people, Ms. Russel doesn’t like it when I tell people.” She shrugged. “But mom’s dead or missing or something and Mr. Sinclair doesn’t care enough to even make sure I get enough to eat so.”

She leaned back and put another piece of meat in her mouth. “You’re probably wondering what happened to all the food.” She said, placing the fork down on an empty plate. “It’s an all you can eat buffet.” She motioned to the crater around her, and smiled. “False advertising.”

Like that, he was gone. A strong handshake between them and yet nothing else.  He blinked, eyes following the shape of the hero that took off at speeds he wasn’t used to human shaped people going. Was he like him or something else? The direction of that feeling of dread he realized quickly. No. He was flying towards death, that was a bad thing. One thing he had learned was that humans feared death, an end that he didn’t fully comprehend.

Ending didn’t really make sense to him.

He did see them react to the concept, distressed and fighting, despite how little that would do for them. ”I should follow him, shouldn’t I?” He muttered to himself, looking down and then shrugging. Gravity lost its hold again, and he flew the direction the hero went. Where the impending feeling of dread had been coming from. It wasn’t too far for him. The darkness between stars was longer, lonelier than this brilliant metropolis.

On the way, he realized that the people walking on the sidewalk were all wearing chest coverings, so he found a line with many hanging from them and picked one up. It fit, if a little snug, but that didn’t bother him. He wondered what the bottom of something had to do with anything, but it was a shirt, so he took it. Flying through the air at a speed that didn’t obliterate the surrounding city.

What he found there was the hero and someone else. Taken the form of a human teenager, but he felt that same dread, now magnified by proximity. ”What are you?” HIs attention had been on the hero but quickly was to her now, eyes like plasma fixated on the black hole given form.

Frontline gave a smile, though his mind was racing. “Oh don’t worry, your secret is safe with me...” He winked, giving off a friendly vibe, trying not to upset the girl who had possibly just destroyed an entire restaurant, and killed everyone inside.  

Then, she mentioned the lack of food, smiling, as if what she had done was somehow justified, due to the owner not allowing her to, he assumed, consume an inhumanly amount of their food.  

“Well, Gabbie...” He stated calmly, looking around at the crater. “I am actually more curious about what happened to the people, and the building itself...” He looked back to the presumably little girl. “Do you know what happened to them?”

He spoke in a calm, polite manner, not accusing, but rather inquiring about the events that had transpired before his arrival. He didn’t want to start a conflict that could be avoiding. The girl seemed young, and naive to how things worked in the world, she was clearly not an ordinary human, given the immense presence, and her lack of empathy for her current situation.  

“What are you?”  

“Crap.” Frontline muttered under his breath, as the other figure arrived on the scene, having presumably followed him to this location.  

He kept his eyes on Gravvy, as everything slowed down around him. He watched every little movement, looking for any sign of aggression or an attempt to lash out. It was clear to the young hero that this particular being was prone to emotional reactions to conflict, and possibly didn’t understand severity of her actions.  

Still, Frontline couldn’t let her make another brash reaction, even if he didn’t know how her powers worked, or even how to actually stop her.

Gravvy’s black and orange eyes stared directly into Frontlines. Her mouth perked up in an almost innocent smile. “The sign said ‘All you can eat.’.” Was all she said in response to the question he posed.

It wasn’t out of malice, necessarily. Perhaps out of annoyance but a simple fact is that this is what she did. Gravvy consumes, and that is her lot in life. To her, eating the restaraunt and it’s customer base was as natural as someone else eating a cheeseburger.

Suddenly, a presence. Recognizable. Dense. Delicious.

“A star? So close to earth?” She mused as she looked in the direction of the oncoming light. “No… a living being. Both?” Gravvy rose from her seat and allowed gravity to lose its hold on her. She floated up to meet the living star. “I’m Gabbie, or Gravvy.” She said tilting her head, like a dog hearing a new sound.

She grinned widely, placing hands on her hips proudly. “I’m a superhero!” She thought for a moment and decided to drop the disguise. Her body became a void of light. A rainbow of color surrounded her body in a vibrant corona. “I am a consumer of matter, a destroyer of worlds. I am a hole in reality and an abnormality among mysteries. And to you and your kind,” She said raising her arms into the sky. “I am your future. I am your death.”