epics! Two Sides to One Coin - A reckoners Fanfic

[Aeoryi she/her]

Here is the prologue:

It should be noted that more content may be added.

 

He was in control.

Absorption held them like cards. He could play them at any time. He could kill them without a thought.

His rule - so magnificent. 

He was in control. 

He walked into a room. No one ran. If you ran, you were already dead.

He shot the wall. The screams ensued. He laughed.

He was in control.

The epic had already fled the place, but there was a point to be made. 

Those who defy his rule are dead.

Each shot sank into flesh. He just shot the wall, but it was the wall that remained unharmed. The people all had bullets in their faces, a big gaping hole almost reminding of a third eye.

A man tried to shoot him.

A bullet ended up in the man's chest right as it hit Absorption. Absorption was unharmed.

The epic would come back. The scene here was just a fraction of his power. A reminder of the true threat to the epic. After all, the bullets could've as easily been in the puny little epic's throat. He was, in theory, inevitable.

He took his maniac laughter outside. There the people of the streets glanced at him with concern. They knew they could die at any moment. They were afraid.

As they should be.

After all, he was in control.

#####

 

Chapter 1:

 

The moment replayed itself in Recapture's pristine memory. The smirk on Absorption's face as he walked into the store. 

It was a surprisingly normal location for such a big incident. 

It was a walmart.

It was also the secret liar of the Voidcaller, a minor epic with invisibility powers and Radiation powers.

That's right. The tyrant of the century's weakness was radiation. Absorption - the closest thing to a god - was killed by this guy.

Nothing moved. Recapture was in a frame. Nothing moved in a frame. It was captured. Caught in the act. 

The Voidcaller; the mastermind behind the kill, was a 62 year old man. 

By touching his past frame, he could glean every moment of his life. The voidcaller's life. not his. 

There was once a man named Arelythis. His dad died while fighting in the second world war. His mom fled germany to get a better life and met his father. They lived together for 4 years before having Arelythis. Their child, had been an academic master. Aced all his courses. 

  But his parents would never be proud of him. He always failed to meet their expectations. His peers only laughed at him. He had beaten the systems of education, but never his parent's sky high expectations. 

After an argument in February 1989, Arelythis left his family for good. He purchased a one-way ticket to Sydney, Australia, and settled there. He got a job as a software engineer for public transport systems and lived a happy normal life.

 Until calamity rose.

Arelythis then hid from the roaming epics in the remainder of australia, now called the wastelands. Then, three and a half years after Calamity started burdening the skies with it's hellish glow, Arelythis gained his powers as the voidcaller. 

 He slowly made his way to Alensdale, California, leaving a trail of radioactive wasteland. Everywhere he went, he ridded the world of epics. 

He considered it a mercy.

Recapture now knew what he needed to know about the Voidcaller. 

Not that his name was Arelythis. Not that he came from the wastelands. 

Recapture now knew why Arelythis considered it a mercy to kill Absorption. Not an act of kindness, or an act of displaying power, but an Act of mercy.

The truth was disgusting.

Recapture snapped back to reality. He told Aerie what the air manipulator needed to hear.

"Down the street. Next to the pre-calamity barber. Greenish house with bricks on the right."

Aerie would never know the truth. 

The disgusting horrible truth.

Aerie would kill that epic. 

It was, after all, a mercy to kill an epic.

 

 

Chapter 2:

It was a very quiet room for a god slaying menace to be hiding in.

Aerie was almost surprised to see Voidcaller as an old man, maybe in his 60’s or so. He was the only man in the room.

Voidcaller had the power to go invisible. Right.

Aerie reached out with tendrils of air, trying to feel everything in the room.

Nothing, no one.

He checked behind him. The door was still as he had left it.

Aerie looked back to the old man squatting in the corner.

Wait.

Where was that old man?

Aerie felt something disturb the air. He created a bubble of air around it and popped it. That would kill anything within it.

Then his danger sense went off, and Aerie was almost forced – it was more like a guiding sense – to fly upwards, crushing the roof with a burst of air pressure.

The area blew up with a purple explosion.

A man lay in the crater. Alive.

He was alive. The air was moving in and out of his lungs. He wanted Aerie to believe he was dead.

Aerie walked right up to the coward. Most epics had a cool down on their powers, and couldn’t use them right after.

And he grabbed the Voidcaller – a 62 year old man with a sense of age on his face – by the neck, and used air pressure to rip open his chest.

It was painful for both of them. Aerie always hated blood and gore, but he had to make a public impression.

Aerie smiled as he brushed off the pieces of the Voidcaller’s chest cavity.

It felt good to kill. Sparks. It felt good.

 

- - - -

 

It wasn’t long before Recapture asked if the Voidcaller was truly dead.

Which he was.

Aerie was certain of it. He had scattered the pieces far enough that a healing epic couldn’t save him, and he heard no report of resurrecting old people roaming the streets.

Recapture was a coward. A true coward. One that hid behind the greater epics. Epics like himself.

Insolence was a blockade. Strength and Invincibility were Insolence’s powers. What either of those powers had to do with insolation was beyond Aerie’s imagination. But he was going to get in Aerie’s way. Insolence didn’t know any of Aerie’s plans, so he was not a high priority target.

Aerie’s low target enemy was adamant about Absorption being alive. He believed that Absorption is faking is death, and when he returns, those loyal to him will prosper.

That was, undoubtedly, false.

“We should be recruiting all the epics. Telling them to stay in line or else –“ Insolence motioned a cutthroat with his fingers, “Absorption will deal with them.”

Recapture was impartial to everything. Whether that scared Aerie or not was concerning, but that was not a problem.

The three of them: Aerie, Recapture, and Insolence were the tools of Absorption’s rule. They didn’t really get a choice about working for him. The way it would work was that you would receive a letter.

The letter that thousands of epics received. Only around half of them lived. You could hide, but you couldn’t run. Absorption could kill you from any distance.

The letter had a message from Absorption. Aerie’s letter had the message: I do not care where you are. You must come to Alensdale in five days, or I will kill you. And you cannot hide.

It still chilled Aerie. The words were so crude. Absorption didn’t need to care who you were. He won either way. He didn’t need to bother with persuasive language. He was in control.

“Well, then. I’ll make sure that people fall into line then.” Aerie responded.

He would make them all fall into line.

All of them. Just like how Absorption did it.

Everyone was following the rules.

And the rules would be made by Aerie.

He had waited a long time for this moment.

And he would savor it.

#####

 

BTW future chapters will be posted here. Maybe in spoiler boxes. Idk.

Chapter 3:

Spoiler

Chapter 3

It was not long before Absorption would be known as a god. 

The public had followed the same twisted ideas of Insolence. That made it particularly hard to gain control of the city for Aerie. The look on Aerie's face was so utterly annoyed that saying a single word could probably break him.

It hurt Recapture. He knew how long Aerie had spent on those secret plans. He had seen them, over 3 years ago. 

Insolence had already recruited a mentalist-fear based high epic who decided that now would be the time to invade. And by recruited Recapture meant allied with. Insolence believed that sacrifices had to be made. 

So between him and Aerie, Recapture decided to go and subdue Cataclysm.

It was raining vigorously. The puddles showed Recapture's hidden reflection. The city lights flared harshly, providing the only light available in sight. At night the city was still wide awake. 

The streets were quieter since Absorption's rule. Even during his rule, most people tried to avoid the streets, making them one of the quietest places. Now, the streets were quieter than silent.

It was a result of both fear and anticipation. 

California had been forever climate changed by an epic to end the drought 2 years ago caused by a water epic. When the water epic was killed by Absorption, she had sucked up all the water for 50 miles. 

the city lasted 4 days without water before riots broke out. Then, Absorption was forced to make a move.

Recapture reached the meeting place of Insolence's gang. 

He could now return here at any time. 

With a click, Recapture returned back to the dead god palace, dry, as he was when he was last at the palace.

The resistance was subdued. 

And the best part? 

Recapture didn't even need to be there. 

He was already there.

#####

Chapter 4

Spoiler

Chapter 4/?

Aerie had a loose grip on the city. He knew that if he left himself vulnerable, Recapture would get him. It made sense. The best traitor is your closest friend. 

 They would consider each other friends. Not actual, precalamity friends, but like business friends. A fake friendship. Only an allyship.

Aerie needed to kill vanillas. Too many were running off. Way too many. 

Aerie needed to trap them first. 

He needed Lucidity. 

Lucidity was a grown man that acted much like a child. Aerie would've assumed he was a child if not for his unrestly demenor. The man, an epic, could create objects out of light. 

He couldn't create or destroy organic matter with his creations, so he was no threat to Aerie's imminent rule.

But ultimately, it was Insolence who held the control.

He had an iron fist over his area, and incidents involving cataclysm - his new high epic masochist friend - and the vanillas of Aerie's territory.

He would be dealt with. 

Recapture would deal with him. Aerie had written out false plans - ones that made sense, but were too impractical to use - for Recapture to find. The one Aerie knew that Recapture would find stated that they were gioing to deal with him soon.

And they were.

Aerie called Lucidity. 

"Hello. This is Aerie speaking."

"Do you want me to go to you?"

"Yes. And come here quickly."

"Uh... Why?"

Aerie muttered a curse. He hated the childish side of Lucidity.

 "Never you mind why! I need you here right now."

"Ain't no coming till you tell me why!" The singing nearly made Aerie smash the mobile in rage.

He needed a believable reason, fast. He was going to get suspicious at any moment...

"Uh. We are going to kill Insolence."

That wasn't part of the plan at all. But it could be sav-

"Do ya want me to tell Recapture cuz, you know, more is better and all that?"

 "Okay sure." Aerie responded.

"Kay, cause he wants to, you know, join." 

The inside of Aerie was screaming in rage. But he had to maintain his outward calm. 

"Okay. That would be great." Aerie was fuming on the inside.

 "Oikie Doikie! be there soon!"

This was not part of the plan.

Not part of the plan at all. 

And it would be Aerie's job to salvage the very little that remained of his plan.

Hopefully, if anything remained.

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Aeoliae

[Aeoryi she/her]

Chapter 5: 500 post special, 3 years ago.

Absorption had a very unscheduled meeting.

Very rarely had epics wandered into his town. Most epics avoided him like the plague. The plague was, after all, death. 

 And so was Absorption. 

He was in control just like how death was in control of life. 

The epic was an even more curious specimen. He had Recapture teleport the epic into a doorless chamber.

The epic had waited for him for three days.

And today, that epic was going to meet him.

Recapture's signature camera shutter noise played as he teleported into the room with the epic. Recapture instantly left. Now it was only Absorption and the epic. A mortal facing the very character of death.

It was time to talk.

"Who are you. State your name, powers and why you are here." Absorption tapped his pistol absentmindedly. 

"Singularity. And I create singularities. duh." 

Absorption was not impressed with that answer for two reasons: The disrespect in the epic's voice and his lies. 

Absorption could not detect lies. But he had gotten real good at sensing them. 

He shot a bullet straight into the wall. The epic jumped in surprise and confusion. Absorption just grinned.

There was no gunshot in the wall. The bullet ended up in the ignorant epic's thigh. The epic clearly recoiled at the sudden injury, but the epic tried to hide it. Foolish mortal.

"I want All of your powers. And your weakness. Do not disappoint me again or the bullet will end up somewhere less plesant." 

That seemed to spook the epic. 

"My name is singularity. I can go invisible and create explosions of energy. My weakness is being alone." 

Absorption knew that the weakness was a lie. But he had his loyalty. And that was enough.

"Good. Recapture will teleport you out in five days. Until then, I recommend you practise respect alongside honesty." 

 It probably wasn't going to be 5 days. It was going to be forever. But it was best to instill false hope. That fueled dreams. 

Absorption was still grinning when Recapture teleported him out. 

He was death. he spared few. He dominated the rest. 

Little did the character of death know, he was going to die to the same epic he had just left in 3 years. Singularity would change his name shortly after escaping, and the once timid epic would become known as the voidcaller.

 And the Voidcaller would kill one of the greatest epics of all time.

Absorption himself died at the hands of his own arrogance. 

It was so prophetic.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Chapter 6: <Recapture>

It was just so prophetic.

It was so strange how Aerie would go out of plan to go strike Insolence. Aerie didn't look thrilled about it. In fact, he looked... Annoyed.

What a strange expression. Why would Aerie be annoyed? Aerie had a sense of arrogance and power normally. Why would that change now?

It must've been the nerves that were getting to Aerie. The very powerful air manipulator did have a human side, even if he managed to surpress it most of the time. 

Recapture often wondered how long ago it was when he lost his human side.

 The walked through the torrential downpour together.

How long was it before Aerie betrayed him? Days? Months? Years?

It wasn't long before Aerie would try to get rid of him. Recapture was fairly certain that Aerie didn't know his weakness, and Aerie was skilled at avoiding his weakness. 

It was a stalemate. 

A tie.

A grim, bitter tie, and both sides knew it.

Recapture felt bad for the epic walking behind the two high epics, Lucidity. Middle ground epics were the most commonly caught in the crossfire. Although there was a silent tie, that didn't mean that chaos wouldn't break out someday.

Aerie saw Recapture and Lucidity as tools. And tools are hardly left alone for long. Aerie could toss them at any moment.

Recapture was sure that Aerie felt like he was in control. In reality, they were just children sitting on their father's throne. One too big for all of them combined.

It was Lucidity who broke Recapture's thoughts. "How will we possibly kill Insolence?"

Aerie looked troubled. "We aren't," the high epic answered. Clearly some thought was put into his plan, "We are going to leave him to rot. I need lucidity to trap him in ultrastrong light box, then we can have Recapture find out is weakness. Then we can kill him." 

 Recapture spoted a flaw in that plan. "And Cataclysm? He is an illusionist, you know."

Aerie responded quickly, "If he appears - which I am fairly certain he won't, I need you to teleport him to one of the palace cells. There, he will rot." 

Recapture was uncertain if Cataclysm could even be touched, but even that wouldn't matter. 

He wouldn't show, and Aerie was certain of it. And Aerie was a precog. So he was right.

Recapture braced himself as they turned the corner.

Insolence was standing there. 

Immediately, Chaose insued. The rival epic was tossedinto the air, and he started to run at Aerie, desperately trying to land a hit on him. The building nearby exploded.

Cataclysm was nearby

Recapture teleported to nearby Cataclysm, and was immediately teleported back. The area where he was turned into a sizzling crater. 

Then the plan was ruined. Cataclysm decimated Lucidity. 

Wiped the minor epic off the face of the earth.

The plan had failed. They needed to trap Insolence with Lucidity's powers. 

But recapture could still capture Cataclysm.

He teleported next to Cataclysm, in a luging motion, then kicked him from behind. He had set up these frames for this.

As was expected, the arsonist epic anahilated the spot he was at, and then turned around with wide eyes.

It was already too late.

Cataclysm was teleported to the sealed chamber, the same one that Absorption visited the Voidcaller in. 

The world could be self-fulfilling at times.

Sweet karma got everyone.

Even Recapture.

[The Sibling she/her]

This is really good! I've only read the first two chapters but I'm going to keep reading.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Chapter 7:

Aerie was in the battle. 

The two high epics fought. One fought to rule and the other fought to preserve the previous rule.

Insolence was quite strong. 

Yes, that was his powerset, but he was mentally strong today.

Aerie was weaker today. 

And Insolence could sense it. 

Insolence prowled the ruins of a barber shop that had been anihliated by Cataclysm. It apeared that Cataclysm had been dealt with. Good. 

Insolence jumped up 20 feet to try and grab Aerie, but he was flung to the side. Aerie needed to end this. Now. He pressed the invincibility juggernaut against the side of the remains of the barber shop.

 Insolence struggled, but the air holding him there did not relent. It kept him there. 

Aerie slowly flew down to the struggling epic. 

"I knew you would be trouble one day." Aerie said.

"Gah!" was the only response.

then the wall he was pinned to broke. Aerie immediately flung himself andthe epic into the air. Aerie had to be in control.

He needed the control.

He didn't get it like absorption had. 

Absorption always had control. And he didn't need to kill or trust epics. The epics had to trust him.

Aerie had to have the same thing. 

But he didn't. That was the edge that recapture held over him. Recapture could find your weakness just by touching you. 

Aerie still had an advantage over Recapture. Aerie had a wide range of powers, and could shut down fights in a few seconds. 

Recapture could never do that. He was too weak. 

Recapture also had no backbone.

Not in a physical sense, but he had no determination. He had no goals. He had no plans. Recapture might've been the most powerful epic in the city, but he couldn't utilize his potential.

That was the real edge Aerie held over him.

Insolence was left hanging in the sky as Aerie called recapture.

"Hey recapture can you come here?" Aerie asked.

"Do you want me to deal with the mentalist first or..."

"Do that after. this is more important."

"Okay. What if he blows up the palace?"

"He can't. He can't blow things up. He is a mentalist." Aerie facepalmed at Recapture's concern.

"Okay, coming."

Recapture arrived instantly. Aerie lowered Insolence and allowed recapture to find his weakness. 

Insolence would be dead.

It was all part of the plan.