Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Vacant Soul

[Bastion]

The screech of steel cable echoed loudly as tension from the massive crane's pulleys buckled under the intense weight of several tons of yellow and black crushed steel; compacted into a cube, it was difficult to tell that it used to be a school bus.

Oil-soaked mud and god only knows what other grime (or parts) littered the open areas of the scrap yard. Slowly the shadow of the massive cube moved its way from the crusher in a casual half circle before coming to a stop. The crane hissed loudly as the pneumatics released pressure. The magnet deactivated and the square shadow expanded as it fell swiftly to the soggy ground below.

A lone worker stood below, and as the shadow grew larger he made no attempt to vacate the radius of the free falling death that came his way. Swiftly he raised his arms up and the thunderous roar of the impact rattled the nearby debris. His knees buckled, his feet sank a few inches into the mud but he did not topple. He wasn't crushed, and he certainly didn't appear harmed.

Sweat glistened across perfectly sculpted, California tanned arms and shoulders in any bare spot that wasn't covered in dried, or drying, mud. With a determined grunt the man straightened his knees and raised his arms, his hands clenched and gripped the cube, locking deep into its mangled surface. Sebastian Stone stood tall, hefting fourteen tons of crushed steel above his head as his feet left the ground and he soared up to place it within a stack of cubes just like it with a measure of care and precision that a machine like the crane was not capable of.

Within the few months he'd been working here efficiency was up by thirty-six percent and they were well on their way to saving a whole lot of room with the way Sebastian could perform delicate stacking and install support bracing that permitted them to stack debris a bit higher before the next shipments were loaded. It wasn't a bad gig, and the guy agreed to pay him under the table; for what Sebastian was making compared to other novas in the world, he may as well have been working for free.

His feet slammed hard into the soft earth sending mud up in a wave that splattered against the surrounding wreckage of old cars, appliances and factory equipment. He could hear the crane collecting the next ferrous victim for the compactor. Sure, it would have been faster for him to do it, just swoop right up, pick up an arm full of scrap, drop in the compactor, collect it and stack it. When Sebastian signed on though his only condition was that he put no other worker out of a job. If a thirty six percent increase in efficiency (and rising) wasn't enough for the Bosses then he'd be more than happy to quit and let it go back to the way it was. "I was lookin' for a job when I found this one," he told them when the rumors of a few lay-offs came to his ears about a month back. He was cheap nova labor, but he was a nova with a bad reputation for smashing things that got on his bad side. Productivity continued, and everyone was happy.

"Yo, 'B'!" One of the workers, Scottie, shouted from atop a wall of to-be-crushed cars. "Someone's here to see you brah!"

He soared up and over to his co-worker where he saw Cass pacing back and forth near the main office. "Ah, shit," he groaned out loud. He'd just spoken with her last week, and now she suddenly knew where he worked, and on top of that was here to visit him? He didn't buy it as coincidence as he wiped some of the grime off his face and arms with an already soiled rag. "I'm going to fucking kill my dad."

"That yo girl 'B'?" Scottie asked, continuing to stare at the gorgeous woman in jeans that could only be described as 'painted on'. It was chilly for a California day with the weather being wet, gray and muggy with the occasional drizzle or sprinkle. Cass paced around with her hands tucked comfortably in the pockets of her tan suede coat. "She's got ass for days."

"Ex." Sebastian said as the soiled rag thumped into Scottie's chest and he soared off to greet his ex-lover.

When his feet touched down and Cassandra saw him she immediately prepared her excuse, and he quickly stated the obvious. "My (Your) dad told you (me) I (you) was (were) working here." They both spoke in unison from their own perspective, but their thoughts were nearly identical.

"What do you want, Cass?" He asked, his voice as icy as the chill in the air. "I'm working."

She sighed. "'Bastian..." She paused and collected her thoughts. "I thought a lot about what you said last week. About sorting through issues, and how making things right with me was on the top."

"Yeah," He folded his arms and tried to stand his ground. Her scent was intoxicating and the longer he looked at her the more his heart was squeezed by the barbed grip of regret for screwing up his chances of happiness with her. "And?"

"And...," It was her turn to be cold. She looked at him and glared with frustration rising quickly behind her eyes. With another exhale she calmed herself. She'd almost forgotten how difficult he was to deal with sometimes, especially when he felt bothered, or teamed up against by the dynamic duo of his father and her. "As sweet as that was for you to say, and I certainly did find it sweet Sebastian, thank you... The more I thought about it, the more I found myself wanting to find you and ask you something important."

The nova suddenly grew wary. He knew women, kinda... sorta... okay, not really, but he knew this one really well and when she just let a sentence hang like that, it spelled bad news. "What?" he asked slowly and with as much caution as he could muster.

"Are you back? Will the people of L.A. see Bastion again?" She seemed to almost be pleading for his answer to be 'yes' before he even had a chance to process the question. "Crime is up, the syndicates are getting bolder. Sebastian, people are scared and The Project isn't doing much about it anymore."

"No." His glare was intense. The fires of rage that scorched away his desire to continue this conversation flared brightly through his tensed muscles and sudden scowl. "Let it burn. The people dug their own hole Cass. Humanity preys upon humanity, their problems are their own to deal with. Not mine."

"I can't believe you just said that Sebastian." With a tilt of her head she shot him a look of pity mingled closely with disgust. "This city needs you."

"Yeah, I'll bet." He scoffed. "Call the police, or whomever you gotta. I don't give a shit."

"You can't mean that." She took a step closer. "Sebastian, you can't spend the rest of your life in a scrap yard crushing cars for under the table wages. You're destined for greater things."

He looked at her incredulously. "Under the table... destined?"

"So I spoke to your dad a little longer than planned..." She shrugged like a child caught in a lie. "My point is-"

"I know your point Cass. Put on the tights, save the world," He made a jerking motion with his hand in the vicinity of his crotch. "Yadda-yadda. Look, I'm no idiot, I know what your point is and if you had it on paper for me to review I'd wipe my ass with it. Those people deserve every bit of shit that get heaped upon them, and I hope they take every bit with a hearty spoonful of "Fuck-You Sauce", courtesy of me."

"So that's it then, huh?" His ex lover folded her arms, placing her weight on one side of her hip and glared at him, trying to resist the urge to slap the hell out of the big man. "We're hopeless huh? Because a bunch of sadistic assholes with bureaucratic agendas kick you in the shin and let their mob have its way with you the rest of us, the people who actually love you and care about you, have to suffer and live in a place that is falling apart because of one man's pride. The Project won't touch this place, and there isn't a municipal defender within a light year who will take on the nova scum the syndicates have working for them, look how many they killed just in the past three months!"

A pitiful look fell about him. He tried to think of what to say, but the right words didn't come. Perhaps it was pride that kept him in check, or old hatreds that refused to die. Sebastian Stone had vowed to never let the events that surrounded his 'fall' ever be forgotten. And, truth be told, it wasn't his fall from grace that hurt, it was the way the people, humanity, had treated him. He'd seen first hand the terrible true face of the human race, a greedy, pathetic, barbaric, and pathetic race of people that were nothing more than brutal goblins looking for their next puppy to kick. "Some wounds cut too deep Cass. I won't help you or this city, Bastion is dead."

Slowly she returned her hands to her pockets, taking only a single moment to wipe a tear from her eye. Her heart, if it could take any more abuse, nearly shattered completely. She still loved and cared for him, that much was obvious, but it wasn't those things that hurt her today. To see a man who at one time loved nothing more than to give everything he had in the protection and service of the people he loved so much simply turn away and fill his heart with so much hate was a saddening sight indeed. He'd repaired his body it seemed, but still his soul was vacant and void of love for humanity.

"That's not possible." She said calmly as she turned her back on him and slowly walked off. "The Bastion people like me remmeber, was indestructible."

The nova said nothing as he watched her go. His head hung low while his ears picked up the rumble of thunder in the distance. He turned and headed back to his work once again feeling that pang of emptiness in his gut.