Greg, Arc 8, Chapter 19 OUTLINE (Patreon)

SHIELDER - ERIC PELHAM POV

Legend broadcasting on all channels: "All units, tsunami protocol! Maximum barriers!"

The words cut through the comm static like a knife through Eric's chest

He'd trained for this. They all had. But seeing that wall of water…

"Twenty-five seconds," he mutters, checking his watch. "Okay. That's... that's not a lot of time."

Alexandria calculating impact timing: "Twenty-five seconds to landfall!"

Her voice carries that crisp authority that makes everything sound manageable

Eric wishes he felt half as confident as she sounds

The math is simple: twenty-five seconds between him and the biggest test of his life

Kaiser frantically reshaping his metal into sea walls

Even from three blocks away, Eric can hear the screech of iron reforming

The Nazi's barriers rise like metallic mountains, all sharp angles and desperate engineering

"At least someone knows what they're doing," Eric breathes

Immediate call: Shield-class capes deploy.

Bastion, Shieldmaiden, Redoubt, and dozens more shield capes—rushing to line the coast.

Eric recognizes most of the names from the briefings

Real heroes. Experienced ones. People who've done this before.

His feet move before his brain catches up, carrying him toward the coastline

Shielder stares at the approaching wall of water, heart hammering.

The tsunami doesn't look like the simulations. It's... bigger. Angrier.

"Okay Eric, just like practice."

He runs through the shield equations in his head - surface area, pressure distribution, energy drain

The math works in theory. In practice...

He feels his uselessness. Feels the gap.

Glory Girl can punch through buildings. Laserdream can cut through steel with light.

Mom can fly fast and far and do everything he and his sister can do

And him? He makes force fields and flies as fast as a scooter.

Comparing himself to the rest of his powered family—his cousins and sister, and parents

Even Aunt Carol, who isn't exactly warm and fuzzy, has that focused precision with her constructs

"Come on, Eric. You're not the weak link. You're just... the least experienced link."

The other shield capes spread out along the waterfront in practiced formation

Bastion takes point, his massive barriers already shimmering to life

Shieldmaiden flanks left, her constructs interlocking with his

Redoubt anchors the right side, shield generators spinning up with mechanical precision

Eric finds himself in the middle of the line, between heroes he's only seen on TV

"Don't screw this up," he whispers to himself. "Whatever you do, don't screw this up."

The water approaches with mathematical inevitability

Twenty seconds now. Nineteen. Eighteen.

Eric reaches for his power, feeling the familiar tingle as energy gathers

His force fields bloom to life - hexagonal patterns of blue-white energy

They're good shields. Strong shields. But looking at them next to Bastion's…

"Mine look like soap bubbles next to his," Eric mutters. He knows it’s just looks, that his were as strong as they come but still…

Bastion's barriers look like they could stop a freight train. Eric suddenly feels might stop a particularly determined pigeon

The water keeps coming. Fifteen seconds.

"Okay, new plan. Don't compare yourself to the guy who's been doing this for a decade."

The shield line activates in sequence, each cape adding their barriers to the growing wall

It's actually kind of beautiful - dozens of different energy signatures weaving together

Bastion's solid gold constructs anchor the formation

Shieldmaiden's prismatic shields refract and redirect force

Redoubt's hexagonal patterns distribute impact across multiple nodes

And Eric's... well, Eric's are blue and they're bright

"Everyone link up!" Bastion calls out. "Make it one continuous barrier!"

Eric connects his shields to the network

For a moment, it feels like he's part of something bigger than himself

The tsunami hits.

Not gradually. Not with a building crescendo. 

It just... arrives.

Like someone flipped a switch and replaced the world with water

The impact against the shield wall sounds like the end of everything

Eric's barriers scream under the pressure, energy crackling through the hexagonal patterns

"Hold the line!" Bastion shouts, but his voice sounds strained now

Eric grits his teeth, pouring more power into his shields

The water presses against them with impossible weight

Millions of gallons trying to find any weakness, any crack

One by one, the shield capes start showing strain

Redoubt's generators overheat, throwing sparks

Shieldmaiden staggers, her prismatic barriers flickering

Even Bastion's massive constructs show stress fractures

And Eric... Eric can feel his shields starting to buckle

"No no no, not now. Please not now."

The pressure builds past anything he's ever experienced

His power feels stretched thin, like taffy about to snap

The water finds a weak point between his barriers and Shieldmaiden's

A jet of pressure punches through, spraying across the defense line

The breach in Eric's section creates a pressure differential

Water starts forcing its way through the gap, widening it

"Shielder!" Bastion calls out. "Shore up that section!"

Eric tries, really tries, but his shields are already at maximum output

The water pressure increases exponentially

Other capes nearby start compensating, shifting their barriers to cover his weakness

But that leaves gaps elsewhere

"I can't hold it!" someone shouts - maybe Redoubt, maybe him

The organized defense starts coming apart at the seams

Eric watches the shield wall fail and knows it's his fault

His section. His weakness. His inability to measure up.

"Mom would have held it," he thinks desperately. "Mom would have figured something out.."

The water keeps coming, relentless and uncaring

He can see people behind the line - PRT officers, other heroes, civilians who couldn't evacuate

All depending on him to be strong enough

All about to die because he's not

"I'm sorry," he whispers, though no one can hear him over the roar of water

The shield wall collapses in sections, water pouring through like a broken dam

Eric's shields shatter completely, feedback ringing through his skull

He falls to his knees on the flooded concrete, gasping

The tsunami towers over them, ready to complete its devastation

This is it. This is how they lose.

Everything they fought for, everyone they tried to save

Because a teenage kid couldn't be strong enough when it mattered

The water begins its final descent toward the city

Something breaks inside Eric's head. Then something else builds.

His forcefields fracture—then reform—dense, crystalline, laced with counterpressure membranes.

The change isn't gentle. It's like someone rewiring his brain with a chainsaw.

Power floods through him, different now, better now, but at a cost

His new shields don't just block - they adapt, evolve, counter-pressure

Crystalline structures that learn from each impact and adjust

They spread out from his position like living glass, beautiful and terrible

He collapses to his knees but keeps his shields up

The new barriers slice through the water like it's air

But the second trigger sends psychic shockwaves through nearby capes

Some nearby capes collapse—accidentally caught in his second trigger

Shieldmaiden drops unconscious, her barriers failing

The proximity effect weakens the overall defense just as Eric's power reaches its peak

This weakens the shield line and threatens the water to break through it

Eric's new crystalline barriers are individually stronger than anything he's ever made

But the cape coordination is falling apart around him

His unconscious allies can't maintain their sections of the wall

The water finds new gaps, new pressure points to exploit

"No, this was supposed to help!" Eric gasps

His perfect shields stand strong while everything else crumbles

Eric pushes his new power to its limits, trying to cover the gaps left by fallen allies

His crystalline shields spread wider, thinner, attempting to protect the entire waterfront alone

The strain is incredible - like trying to hold up a mountain with his bare hands

"Come on, come on," he mutters through gritted teeth

His shields adapt to each wave, learning and improving in real-time

But there's just too much water, too much pressure, too much coastline to cover

For every gap he fills, another opens somewhere else

“NOOOOO!”