Riftbreak: Reserves, Chapter One

25 August 2026

Eliza stood on the raised platform as the 7:35 to Launridge rattled to a stop. The old diesel engine was already nearly full as she joined the collection of other tired office workers boarding the train. She managed to snag one of the few remaining worn vinyl seats just ahead of a man wearing a rumpled suit, his tie crooked and shirt coming untucked after a long day. He glared at her but she ignored him; it was a dog-eat-dog world on the raised South River Line.

Further up the carriage an older teenager, wearing worn jeans and a t-shirt adorned with some sort of anime character, stood and made space for a woman as she tried to manoeuvre a pram through the crowded aisle. She smiled gratefully at him as he moved into the space between the seats grabbing one of the hanging straps, joining the others who had failed to find a spot.

Eliza leaned back and sighed with relief as the train picked up speed. She pulled out her phone and flicked through the news feed. As usual it was filled with the antics of Stronk, speculation about the Warders possibly breaking and other gossip about the suits. She paused on an article about the Council working with Amnesty International to end Talent conscription, the only story of substance in her feed. Finally she checked her messages, just Mia venting about contract violations, and put the phone away.

Turning, she instead stared out the window. Apartments flashed past, glimpses of people out on their small concrete balconies. They were bringing in washing from makeshift lines, or leaning on railings, some dragging on cigarettes. They ignored the train and Eliza didn’t really notice them either. She was thinking about work, and the never-ending pile of tax lodgements she had to process tomorrow.

She had her shield up and covering the two carriages of the train before she’d even properly registered that something was happening. In the sky above the city a tear ripped open the sky, splitting the evening sunset with a nasty gash of red and brown. A rolling wave of dust spread from the epicentre, trees bent and as it got closer she could see items being blown about, loose clothing and unsecured plastic furniture. The swirling iridescent colours of her shield rippled and eddied as it bent and deformed under the shockwave. Outside she could see windows rattling and cracking and the high-pitched whine of car alarms filtered in through the rattling and shaking of the train.

Inside, the carriage erupted into noise and people crowded towards the window. They grabbed for their phones, holding them up to film the event, treating it like a spectacle. An excited babble started up.

“Do you think we’ll see Sky Lord?”

“Where’s the Warders?”

“Which suit has shields?”

And then a slightly more concerned “Look!”

Objects were starting to fall from the gash, glowing and trailing smoke. Too late, Eliza opened her mouth to yell at the gawkers to get back from the windows. The train rocked as one of the objects slammed into her shield and Eliza felt like she’d been punched, the impact robbing her of breath. Her protective barrier wasn’t enough to stop the force from tilting the train, wheels lifting off the tracks and the object, a rocky, grainy, almost organic thing rebounded, bouncing against the lip of the raised tracks. It fractured the concrete, showering rubble onto the cars below as it tumbled over the side.

People screamed and shouted, colliding with each other as they were thrown to one side of the carriage. They grabbed for any purchase they could, not caring if it was the back of a seat, a strap or each other. Eliza found herself pinned under the weight of several bodies, even as she instinctively looked for the pram she had seen earlier. Several people had braced themselves and grabbed it, stabilising it against the buffeting of the train as it attempted to jack-knife.

Still hurting from the impact, and impeded by the people struggling on and around her, Eliza desperately shifted the balance and shape of the protective barrier, fighting in a tug-of-war with gravity and the momentum of the train. Suddenly everyone was thrown forward as the emergency brakes engaged. Apparently someone in the carriage in front had managed to get to the emergency brakes.

Around her people pushed and shoved, some scrabbling for the door, others trying to get away from the wall now supplying a vertigo-inducing view of the ground and car roofs several meters below. Someone had managed to pry the doors on the higher side of the tilted carriage. Any attempt to exit that way was thwarted by Eliza’s shield. Shifts and vibrations rippling through the membrane of the shield told Eliza that similar events were unfolding in the other carriage.

Suddenly there was a yell which was almost immediately cut short. “Baby! He took my baby…” A new wave of confusion and panic flowed through the passengers. People started shouting angrily, yelling at something, many cutting short mid-exclamation. Trapped under the press of people, desperately concentrating to stop the train from finishing its trip over the side of the track, Eliza couldn’t make out what was happening. Even as she worked hard not to look down, the shouts became more focused and she could hear a scuffle.

“Get him!”

“What are you up to?”

And a scared voice… “Please, I’m trying to help.”

Thankfully the press of people was easing as the momentum of the train came to a stop. Eliza was able to look through to where the teenager who’d given up his seat for the woman with the pram was being held by two men.

“What happened to the people you’ve been taking?” One of the men demanded.

“I was getting them out! They’re fine, I took them under the bridge. The sky… then this weird barrier… and the train was tilting. I couldn’t leave the baby in here, I didn’t mean to leave the mother behind.”

“The shield’s mine.” The people between Eliza and the teenager scrambled to get out of the way. Eliza could hear some whispers, “Hers? Do you recognise her?”

She ignored them. “Teleporter?” she asked the boy.

“Yeah,” he answered uncertainly.

Eliza nodded. She would have preferred that they stayed within the safety of her shield, but the press of people was making it almost impossible to settle the train back. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the strain of holding the train was starting to wear on her.

“Okay. Make sure they stay together and stay right underneath the bridge, got it? What’s your name?”

“It’s Damin.”

“Okay, Damin, my name’s Eliza. Just take it slow. Don’t scare people, tell them what you’re doing.” She raised her voice.

“Listen up! Damin here is going to get you out a few at a time. Is anyone hurt? If not we’ll focus on the elderly first.”

One of the passengers spoke up. A young man who Eliza thought she’d seen dozing before this started. “Hi, um… I’m Michael. I’m a registered nurse. I think some of the people he took might have been having issues, I was trying to get to a man who looked like he was having trouble breathing.”

“Damin, take him down. He can start checking the people you evacuate.”

The men that had been holding the teen let go, one of them still looking at him suspiciously. Damin rubbed his shoulder, the man had apparently maintained a tight grip.

People began organising themselves, relieved that it looked like someone was taking charge of the situation. Eliza shifted her focus back to the train. Despite the strain it was safer to hold it steady while Damin conducted his evacuation. Little by little, the carriage began to empty.

Outside, the city was starting to respond. Car alarms were joined by emergency sirens. She could hear the event warning sirens picking up, alerting people to head for the basement shelters most buildings had these days. Through a window she saw a flash of something somewhere around Park Ridge. A moment later one of the falling objects disintegrated. The suits were on the scene.

A few more teleports passed before Eliza realised she had a new problem. “Damin!” she called out to stop the teen.

“What is it?” He was breathing heavily, the repeated teleports clearly taking their toll.

“I need you to switch to the other carriage. They’re getting hard to balance. Now this one’s lighter, the other one is threatening to pull it over. If another object hits us I may lose everything.”

He nodded and vanished. Eliza turned to look out the window, trying to distract herself from the effort of holding the shield. More evidence of the suits’ intervention was visible now, fewer objects were reaching the ground. She noticed with irritation that once again the upper end of town was getting the most coverage. It wasn’t malicious, just the suits naturally protecting the places they congregated and had friends.

Catching a flicker of movement, she cursed and tensed as another object fell towards them. “Brace yourselves!” she shouted to the few people remaining in the carriage and set herself against the impact that never came.

A ball of fire sizzled past her shield and detonated the object, sending shrapnel peppering the track and the street below, denting a car roof. Some of it bounced harmlessly off her shield, barely tickling her perception. A cheer went up.

“It’s Fireball!”

Clad in a bright red and yellow costume similar to those worn by professional swimmers, the woman drifted outside the train window waving and grinning. Sparks popped and fizzled around her, her hair wreathed in swirling fire. When she found Eliza’s window her smile widened and she saluted, giving the barrier a light tap and then throwing a thumbs up.

Eliza groaned, Fireball was far too relaxed and cavalier about her role, especially when it came to collateral damage. But Eliza had to concede that the fiery woman was one of the suits more likely to show up in areas like this.

With a final wave, Fireball shot upwards and away, chasing after more of the falling objects. Eliza felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and turned, coming face to face with Damin.

“It’s clear. You’re the last one.”

Eliza looked around, suddenly aware of the silent carriage. There were no longer the vibrations caused by people moving around the train. In front of her, Damin was panting. He held out his hand.

Eliza nodded. “You did good,” she said as she took his hand. “Start your teleport.”

With no one left on the train, she was free to solve the gravity problem by brute force. While Damin concentrated and the world folded her out of it, she shoved hard with the shield, causing the train to tip back into place. The metal screamed its complaint, and the whole bridge shook as several tons of metal slammed down on the rails with an echoing boom.

As the wheels hit the track, they crushed the small scuttling creature that had escaped the falling pod moments before Fireball had incinerated it.