Descent

Cold air flayed his skin.

His heart and stomach exchanged places; the falling sensation was acute.

Above, the silver-egg starship silently banked higher, to the East.

The jagged teeth of decrepit skyscrapers grinned at him from below.

The Captain closed his eyes and took a breath. In the space between inhalations, his body changed. Golden threads of metallic liquid enshrouded his body; the threads hardened and he was sheathed in metal.

The metal sculpted itself; alloyed wings sprang from his shoulder blades - they were multifaceted and glowed with faint red heat. Engines.

The Captain took another breath, inhaling the liquid metal. He was never accustomed to the feeling; his insides burned as the metal wrapped around his organs.

His next exhalation contained hot fire.

The Captain righted his descent. The embers within the wing-engines became infernos. A blinding shockwave rippled across the barren New York skyline.

"Captain."

He maintained altitude; the organic metal reflected the harsh sunlight at several stark angles. A glinting, black raptor.

"I see it, Ariella."

A peal of thunder rippled around his body as he accelerated post-hypersonic. Suddenly, he was between the skyscrapers - the cadaverous Chrysler Building and the stygian skeleton of the Seagram Building. He flew through a giant hole in the Rockefeller Center.

"Your suit's sensors show nominal activity."

The Captain banked hard and landed - fault lines extended from the epicenter of impact.

"You are beneath the radiation cloud. Sensors are alive and well."

The Captain's eyes narrowed; inside of the irises, microscopic circuitry clicked and whirred. His brain dissected the images around him.

Again, the anger. Again, the frustration.

"Ariella?"

She paused.

"Ariella." His voice was firm.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be so hard."

The Captain walked up Park Avenue. His voice softened and he touched her with his voice.

"Don't torture yourself with guilt."

Tears soaked her words.

"We could have stopped it."

He continued walking. Something hellish awaited.