CHAPTER FIFTY

 Times Square, New York


Philip Dresden has always seen this day coming in his dreams. He knew what must happen, but not how the pieces would fall, and many would fall. The sides were set, the arena ready for the great battle. This was the beginning of the end for the human race. No matter what happened today, no matter which side would claim triumph over the world to come, the outcome would remain the same. One day our Sun will go out and destroy the Earth and there will be no winners.

Philip had to find it in himself to fight for the time they had left, to not let humanity surrender so easily to anarchy. Once the world sees what happens here in New York...

"...Everything will change." DarkFlood told his men, Moses StoneThrower and Vladimir Geronimov.

"What do we do?"

"We wait..." DarkFlood told them.

"For what?"

"Not what...but who..."


* * *


Jason crawled out of the way as Sensei knocked the Shadow Man back with his pure white samurai sword. He looked exactly the same, except for his robes of light, that is what Jason would remember...like a dream. He had to move. He tried to run to Lazarus and Yannie but saw Hydro confronting them. Jason wanted to stay and fight, he admired Yannie for his bravery, but he knew DarkFlood was out there somewhere, and needed to be reunited with Sensei. So he ran...

In the windowsill of one of the square's many skyscrapers a man and woman vigorously go at it as they fear the end of the world is upon them. Her cheek is pressed against the glass. He scratches at her back and bites her shoulder and the snipers all across the square are too distracted by this to see DarkFlood, Moses, and Geronimo. That is until the woman presses her hand on the glass double-pane, shatterproof window and crushes it to dust. Her transformation gone by unnoticed. They lose their balance and both plummet naked to their deaths in the middle of Times Square. The crowd of people being rounded up go mad and the spotlights are turned on to aid the snipers.

Their cover is blown and DarkFlood tells them to drop down. Before he can, he is stopped by a sixth sense, or at this point a ninth or tenth sense. Something tells him not to go just yet. Even though he would be abandoning his men in the fight, he needed to wait...

Up in Westchester County a man looks at his hands as the very strands of his flesh come apart and turn into negative electricity, what ancient civilizations used to call absent lightning. He feeds off of regular electricity, and the only way to stay alive and with his family is to wipe the entire eastern seaboard of electricity. Times Square goes dark, along with the rest of Manhattan, Jason finishes climbing the rafters above the Times Square Building itself. Philip watches him from the adjacent rooftop as the kid punches into the mainframe of the building and uses it as a giant conductor to jump-start the city's power supply.

The building's lights come back on and reveal Jason to the snipers. DarkFlood teleports over to him and gets him out of plain sight before he is shot. The storm above cracks a bolt of lightning to the ground, pinning DarkFlood in place. He has not been able to finish his teleportation, both he and Jason are stuck in between dimensions. Fitzsimons drags the bolt of lightning to Times Square where he releases them. DarkFlood gets up. They are on a stage in front of every human who has transformed in the city. Jason catches his breath as he looks around, "We're going to die..."

Vlad and Moses posed as captives walking through the interment camp. At the crossroads of every street in the square were fences edged with barbed-wire almost fifty feet high. Above that, in the actual intersections were guard towers equip with floodlights and turrets. Soldiers herded the people in through the gates and used a process to separate them that both Vlad and Moses were going through now. First their information was taken down, name and background, etc. After that they were forced to show their powers to government research scientists at gunpoint. Yvonne, Oliver, and the Alchemist all supervised this phase of the process. They enjoyed the rich essence of killing a champion. Yvonne had still yet to murder anyone herself, and felt safe overseeing this part of Fitzsimons' process compared to the final stages.

It was now Vlad and Moses' turn to showcase their powers, they both found no better a moment than the present to begin their assault. Moses pulled chunks of the earth out of the ground and Vlad turned the gravity off in the camp. Everyone floated into the air. He magnetized all the guns to the floor and brought himself over to the scientists. The prisoners were set free. Fitzsimons, Jason, and Philip could hear them cheering as they took the gates.

"RUN!"

The Mad Hatter jumped on stage and kicked Jason in the face with a roundhouse. "Be still, boy!"
The Square went dark and the shadow wound up together like a swirling curtain on stage to create the Shadow Man. Light blasted through as Sensei knocked Hatter to the floor with the handle of his sword. Lazarus and Yannie still fight Hydro in the alleyway.

The boulders Moses controls crush the weapons and pin down the soldiers and scientists as Vlad resets the gravity. He levitates Moses and himself to the stage. Jason backs up next to DarkFlood, Moses, Geronimo, and Sensei. The Alchemist, along with Yvonne and Ollie get onstage next to Fitzsimons, the Mad Hatter, and the Shadow Man.

"We're outmatched..." Moses whispered to Philip.

"No we're not. She won't fight..." he pointed to Yvonne.

"Wrong again, DarkFlood!" the Hatter yelled out. Fitzsimons nodded his head and one of the soldiers radioed Faulkner. He was posted outside of the Square rounding up all of the prisoners trying to escape. They were escorted back into the camp by Faulkner's squadron.

"Vlad, go." Philip knew nothing could stop him, especially after this...

The Shadow Man disappeared and so did Sensei. Vlad flew away and Fitzsimons ordered Oliver after him, "Kill the Russian."

Faulkner walked onstage and Yvonne backed away from the line. "Now you're outmatched," Fitzsimons informed him. It was Philip, Moses, and the kid versus the four of them. Philip knew what he had to do. He teleported back to Moses' Apartment where Dr. Randolph was still waiting.

"What do you say, Doc? Come to the rescue one more time?" Philip rubbed his hands together and they began to light up in a blue flame. "Concentrate on which of my powers you like most..." Philip threw his hands forward and propelled a charge into the Doctor's chest. He fell over and tried to say something. "No time!" Philip grabbed him and teleported back to Times Square. Randolph got to his feet on the stage and felt the new sensation coursing through his body. He stared over at every adversary ever to come across Philip, past and present. Directly in front of him was the Mad Hatter.

"Enough of this!"

"Tonight you pay for what you've done."

"Kill them all!" Fitzsimons yells out as The Alchemist attacks Moses, and the Hatter punches Dr. Randolph. Faulkner does not go after Jason but joins Fitzsimons in their final confrontation with Philip Dresden. "It's okay kid, I got this... Go help your Grandpa."

The Battle for New York City was upon them. Sensei flies around the square with the mysterious warrior of shadow; as Vlad calls upon the prisoners to fight for their freedom against Ollie and the super squadron of soldiers. Jason backs away and Yvonne stares at him from across the stage. Lazarus and Yannie run their spirits' array around Hydro, ensnaring him, trying to contain his unyielding fury. Moses collides with the Alchemist, stone against gold and Randolph launches two pulse blasts at the Mad Hatter; all of which happening around Philip who tries to reason with Fitzsimons one last time.

"If you stop all of this now I might still show you mercy."

"You are not the only one who can see into the future, DarkFlood. This was never meant to be how the world goes out."

"What are you talking about?"

"You wrought this on us all, Philip Dresden. As long as you keep the Divine Catalyst alive, you bring about the end of days..."

"You're lying."

"You know not the bounds of my existence. I am the Storm Harvester, the constant throughout time and space, keeper of the key to the universe..."

Philip could recognize the difference between talking with Fitzsimons and addressing the Storm Harvester, this was one of those times...when all traces of humanity were erased from his voice and his eyes bled the winds of the tornado in his pupils. Philip had to know after all this time, what all this really was...

"Then what am I?"

"The Divine Catalyst."

"And what is the Divine Catalyst?"

"...A thief."

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

Washington, D.C.


Two Suns still sparked the sky, making every day as bright as the summer solstice. Security was higher than ever along the National Mall, and yet the same age-old iron gates protected the White House. A young tourist lets go of the red balloon his mother just bought him. It's pulled into the skies as a storm rolls in. The cloud casts it shadow from the White House to Capital Hill, and the boy falls to the sidewalk short of breath. His mother runs to his side, "Harold!"

The President sees a light reflect off of the clock on his desk in the Oval Office as if the storm had passed already. He gets up and takes a moment to look outside. "But that's impossible..."

The storm clouds still hovered above the Capitol, but the sun shined below them within the boy named Harold by the gate. The power of the sun harnessed in Harold's Heart. The poor boy screams as the energy overcomes him and is released into the atmosphere in a blast wave. The wave tears Harold and his mother to atoms. It dissolves the White House and the iron gates to nothingness. Everything in the radius of the blast wave now floats in the air above them as radiated particles. The red balloon passes through the storm clouds as it begins to rain.

A shadow leaves Columbia in cinder.

The Pentagon immediately went to DEF CON ONE, declaring martial law on the nation after loosing the President, Vice President, and most of the cabinet. The major cities began evacuation. Once the news and internet got the information to the public it was not long before their was looting and rioting in the streets. It didn't matter if you were in a city or suburb, people were scared; democracy and liberty were at its weakest. Like an army without a commander retreating at the first sign of trouble, society was crumbling.


Due to his expansive research in the area, Doctor Mordechai Fitzsimons was given orders to take his team along with the super human soldier squadron to secure and protect the largest city in the country.


New York City, NY


DarkFlood sat on the roof of a skyscraper timing Moses and Vlad running through the city. Moses had learned how to create stone slabs while Vlad held them in the suspended in the air as they ran high above Chinatown's streets. They were both well on their way to becoming super heroes. Soon they would no longer need Philip to be DarkFlood. Vlad was calling himself Geronimo. Moses wore sleeveless shirts, showing the flesh on his arms that was now smooth grey stone from his shoulder down to his fingers, a trademarked look for his neighborhood persona, Stone Thrower.

It had been a couple of weeks now without his skin eroding any further. Moses prayed it was over. They did not mourn Lazarus, for DarkFlood told them that they would all see him again. And Jason used his power to keep them off the grid and hijacked into the system from the desktop and television at Moses Apartment along with Dr. Randolph, who was finding himself more and more useless every day.

As Jason and Randolph found out about Washington, DarkFlood found himself waiting for his team to finish a city scramble. It never took them this long. Something was wrong... He jumped off the skyscraper and the cloak Sensei gave him fixed to his hands and caught the wind like a hang-glider. He tracks down the stone tablets suspended in the air, but no Moses or Geronimo were near. Police sirens echo around the corner. He turns in and teleports onto the hood of the police car. DarkFlood waves his hand behind him and the police sirens turns off. The two officers in the patrol car are dead. He looks down the street and this is what he sees...

A woman out in the street holding her head as her elbows and knees turn to knots and her feet turn to stumbling stumps, her skin turns to bark. Before she can finish transforming people in the shops around her throw Molotov Cocktails and try to shoot her dead. They pull a guy hiding in his apartment out to the street for another public execution. Even the children are watching and cheering the lynch-mob on.

He must do something. DarkFlood scatter-jumped over to them before they killed a man for being blue and able to breathe under water. DarkFlood rubbed his hands together and pulled the blue from the man's face, creating water to put out the fire on the woman's back. The crowd panicked upon seeing DarkFlood and scattered, revealing his men down the block combating another rampaging mob.


Moses was keeping a burning building from crumbling over families still rushing out of their apartments. He threw pillars of stone up from the ground to replace the caving foundation. Geronimo stood back to back with him, holding the bullets away from people who took advantage of them being distracted after catching them use their powers even though they were clearly saving people. His patience was spent. For Vladimir Geronimov proud Russian and father, they did not deserve a second chance. His hate erupted a power more than he ever imagined. He stopped and pulled all the bullets and all of their hearts into the pavement. Moses felt the tremor of death create a schism, but did not dare to look back.

Around Manhattan tanks and Humvee convoys cover all the bridges and tunnels. Joining the police in a city wide lock-down. They quickly comb every neighborhood from Washington Heights to Staten Island, putting down any citizen uprising or rioting mob. Fitzsimons along with the Hatter and Faulkner leading the super human soldiers ride to Chinatown. The soldiers seek out every super human from the neighborhood out to Times Square, along with every other neighboring district where Oliver, Yvonne, and the Alchemist were waiting to round them up into two groups. The first group was to be only a few recruited into the new human army. The second group would be sacrificed to appease the remaining humans, making them think that Fitzsimons was still "following orders".

Jason finally gives up on waiting for Philip, Moses, and Vlad to return home and goes out looking for them instead. He passed through the alleyway and night draws over him like a curtain. Even the floor runs black. The Shadow Man surrounds Jason. He pulls out his cellphone from his pocket and supercharges it to emit a light. Jason stands strong.

One lone beacon in the darkness.

Jason held his beacon for someone to find him. The whole city was crying out. Who would be there to save him now?

The docks and the ships are abandoned. For the first time in years, the Intrepid is active, patrolling the Hudson River. The water shifts with an unusual tide and floods down city blocks. It moves with a mind of its own and tracks a source its been looking for since China.

Jason can't keep the spark alive in the phone forever and the shadow begins to take over the dwindling light. The water carries over its own residual trail of inter-dimensional goo. The Shadow Man reveals himself to Jason whose phone breaks in his hands. The pressure of the darkness brings the kid to his knees and right before the Shadow Man kills him, Lazarus and his son return with a champion from the Realm of the Dead.

Sensei returns from the afterlife as an embodied spirit and swipes the last bit of light up over Jason with his samurai sword clashing against the Shadow Man's scythe.

Hydro reforms from the obscure channel of water running in between them, facing Lazarus.