Chapter 13 – The Weight of Wings
The rain over Aegis City fell like hot oil — thick, dirty, and loud.
Titan Hawk stood on the tower's roof, helmet off, letting it sting his scarred face. Down below, protestors shouted about "government favoritism" and "presidential heroes." He couldn't blame them.
He was angry too.
Angry that Ultra Buff was gone.
Angry that he hadn't been strong enough to stop it.
He'd been twenty-three the night everything changed.
Years Ago – Fort Ridge Airbase
He was a flight-engineer back then — muscles, ego, and nowhere to land.
When the experimental jet went down in a storm, the plasma core ruptured mid-air.
He should've died.
Instead, lightning crawled through his veins, knitting metal to bone.
He woke up floating six feet off the ground, his shadow flickering like a bird's wings.
The army called him a freak.
The press called him a miracle.
He called himself broken.
Then she showed up.
Ultra Buff — cape soaked, boots scorched from fighting a wildfire in another state — walked straight into the hangar like she owned gravity.
She smiled that disarming, can-fix-a-planet smile and said, "You look lost, soldier. Want to make that flight permanent?"
He laughed nervously. "Ma'am, I don't even know how to land."
"That's the fun part," she said. "You learn on the way down."
She offered her hand. He took it.
The next week, he was part of the Global Protectorate — still learning, still falling, but never alone.
Now, standing in the rain, Titan Hawk clenched his fists.
He remembered her words after his first failed mission — when a collapsing bridge had killed twelve civilians despite his effort.
"You can't save everyone, Hawk," she'd told him, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"But you can save the next one. And the one after that. Heroes aren't perfect — we're persistent."
He'd lived by that.
Below him, the tower lights flickered as Fox Vixen's lab booted up another power surge. He knew she was searching for Amara — everyone was.
But he also knew secrets.
He'd seen the hidden files marked CLASSIFIED: Project Solar Dawn — missions Ultra Buff ran off the books, missions connected to the Weg treaty.
And maybe, just maybe, that was why she disappeared.
The thunder cracked overhead. His eyes sparked with blue light, wings of static unfurling behind him.
"Wherever you are, Buff," he whispered,
"I owe you a flight home."
Then he launched into the storm, vanishing into the clouds.