Create-A-Hero RPG Season IV IC Thread

Kyle Porter sits up in his hospital bed as the nurse enters his room and takes a few last minute readings before the hospital can send him on his way. He is anxious to get out of the room that has been his home for the last week. He has never particularly liked hospitals, and after spending a week there, he is in no rush to come back anytime soon.

There was a knock on the door and suddenly he saw the familiar features of Samantha Myers pop into the room. His oldest friend looked around for a moment before entering.

"Just wanted to make sure you're decent." She quipped as she approached his bed.

"Yeah. I'm good to go. Just waiting to get the OK from the doctors." He said.

Sam took a seat beside the bed as Kyle packed the few possessions that he had in the hospital room into a small plastic bag. After several long minutes, the nurse came in and told him that the last tests came back clear and that he was free to go.

"Awesome. Let's head down to the lobby and wait for my dad." He said cheerily.

"Um...your dad can't make it. He had to fly out to Pacific Point last night for business. He asked me to come get you." She said, somewhat apologetically.

"So...you're my ride?" He asked.

"You're quick, aren't you?" She said with a grin.

"Oh great...first the crash and now this....Somebody really wants me dead." He joked even as she smacked him on the arm as they made their way down the hall.

 

FIVE MONTHS AGO

It was difficult to wrap her head around the changes to the world in the short time she had been away from it. Upon waking up from the coma induced by Walter after the attack outside Guardian HQ, Pinup had learned through one source or another that nothing was, nor ever would be, the same. It seemed to have happened so suddenly, and so quietly, to her, that her response seemed fittingly unceremonious.

It was easy to leave the headquarters relatively undetected. Far easier than she ever would have suspected. The woman had made it a habit throughout her decades of extended life to reinvent herself regularly, and knowing exactly how to do it made everything so much easier. There was nothing left of her in the Guardians' headquarters but an empty cage and a note on the piano "If you need me, you'll find me. P.S. If you find Methuselah, take care of him."

She had no doubt the note was true - it was a den of superheroes, one of whom was incredibly paranoid and didn't seem to lack inside connections. They'd find her, wherever she ended up, if it was really so important.

Pinup couldn't imagine what would ever be so important again. After being hit with the anti-meta serum, she was on borrowed time. Her powers, and her life, were diminishing slowly. After decades of suspended aging, she could feel the change moving inside her like the ticks of a billion little clocks, all slowly winding their way down to nothing. Most people would find the change disturbing, even depressing. But there was a certain sense of liberty in knowing one is going to die, and Pinup embraced it, heart open and hopes high as she turned onto the highway, heading westward out of town from Lost Haven. She ran over names in her mind, as she decided what she would call herself, whenever she decided to stop. Nothing presented itself easily, but she decided she had a long way to go before that would matter.

 

“Thank you. We'll be in touch.”

Molly-Ann Pym watched the scantily clad blonde sachet off stage, her rhinestone G-string sparkling under the lights. Molly found if she tilted her head just right, she could just catch a glimpse of the dancer's ass as she stood offstage, double-checking her information with the stage manager. Damn. It was a fine ass.

“What do you think?”
“Huh?” Molly tore her eyes away from the glittering blonde and swivelled them to the woman sitting next to her, one Tart Nouveau.

“I think it's astonishing so many women showed up for a burlesque audition.” Molly looked down at her clipboard, pretending to re-read the dancer's resume.

“I put out the word to the dance studios. Most of them are students.” Nouveau replied with a bemused sigh. “And most of them can't dance.”

“God blessum for trying, though.” Molly replied as she scribbled the words 'nice ass' under the dancer's headshot.

“Have you seen enough to cast a chorus?” Nouveau looked up at Molly, her cat-eyed makeup and flawlessly sleek brown hair casting shame on Molly-Ann's own hurried red ponytail and lipgloss routine.

“I won't lie.” She grinned. “I'm prepared to see lots more. Do you still need a compere for this show?”

“No.” Nouveau replied sharply, in a manner that told Molly she meant more than the question. “I'm not letting you do this.”

“Do what?” Molly grinned, fairly certain she knew exactly what her childhood friend meant.

“The only time you're ever interested in hosting one of my shows is when you want to bag one of my dancers, and I'm not letting you do that to Katie. And I don't plan on casting the blonde with two left feet and no rhythm anyway, so you can forget it.”

“She has a nice ass.” Molly retorted plainly.

“And no idea what to do with it.” Tart settled back in her seat, scratching out the dancer's name from her list with a flourish.

Tart Nouveau wasn't her real name. Her real name was Christine Sharp. She and Molly-Ann had grown up in the same small suburbanite town in the middle of Nowhere, USA, and had both made their grand escapes to California shortly after high school. Though she was only a few years older than Molly-Ann, Tart had proven a hard worker and a natural talent at the business end of show business, and by the time she was only twenty-four, she and her husband Danny owned and operated the Gilded Lily House of Burlesque – one of the most successful burlesque reviews in the nation. After Molly-Ann graduated and moved to California, Tart had thrown her a bone, letting her work on the design team for her shows, which were the prime attraction of the Gilded Lily.

“Why are you here anyway?” Tart arched an eyebrow in Molly's direction as she leafed through the pile of resumes. “You're not required to come to auditions.”

“Eh... Katie's dad is in town.” Molly laces her ankles on the back of the seat in front of her, slouching down into the red velvet theatre chair and doing a double take over some headshots.

“That was this weekend!?” Tart's eyes widened and she turned to Molly, a look of shock on her face. “You promised you'd be there for - “

“I know!” Molly-Ann cut her off. “I know I did, I just... I don't really see the point.”

“Mol, your girlfriend is coming out to her parents! How exactly do you not see the point!?”

“I just DON'T, Tart!” Molly threw up her hands.

“You're going to leave her there to do it alone.” Molly didn't have to look over to tell her best friend was staring daggers through her.

“She won't do it if I'm not there.”

“So you don't want her to come out?” Tart turned in her seat, resting the resumes on her knee and her head in her free hand.

“I just -” Molly tilted her head back, counting the Fresnels and wishing she could avoid the conversation.

“You don't think you'll be together long enough for it to matter.” Tart finished vindictively.

Bingo.

“That's not it.” Molly-Ann squirmed in her seat.

That was exactly it.

“Look, everyone else may put up with your ****, Mol, but this is me.” Tart indicated her flawlessly made-up face with her immaculately manicured hand “Katie obviously thinks you're sticking around long enough to make this worthwhile. Are you?”

Molly squirmed visibly in her seat, uncomfortable with the implications of any answer she might give. Her silence seemed to answer Tart's question well enough.

“Well if you are, you need to get over there and support her and if you're not, then you need to do the right thing and break up with her already. She's not one of your skeevy little one-nighters. She's better than that and you need to treat her like it. Either way, you need to get the hell outta here and go talk to her.”

“Yeah...” Molly-Ann nodded slightly to herself before standing. “Yeah, okay.” She tossed the headshots onto Tart's pile. “And for the record, choreographically challenged blondes don't do it for me.” She shrugged on her patched denim jacket she had had since freshman year of high school. “It was the ginger with the balloon-pop routine.”

“Go home, Mol.” Tart ordered, not acknowledging the comment.

“Yeah.” Molly-Ann walked up the aisle and out into the lobby. Reaching for her phone, she pressed a number on speed dial and waited nervously for an answer on the other line.

“Hey, Jason! Yeah, I'm off for the rest of the day – you wanna go climbing?” Relief swept over her as she was assured of a few more hours of avoiding her apartment and her no-doubt enraged girlfriend.

“Yeah, my gear's in my car. I'll meet you out there.

 

[BLACKOUT]“Bulls***.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Excuse me...?” Another man behind the desk spoke for the fat man who had previously addressed them.

[BLACKOUT]“Oh, I’m sorry... I said ‘Bulls***’.”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director turned his attention to the black-garbed pest, without moving from his desk. He doesn’t give the honour of a vocal response to the outburst.

[BLACKOUT]“There’s no possible way that this could be legal.”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director himself replied this time, “I think you’ll find that for all intents and purposes, it is. The Guardians initiative has been broken up among several branches and organisations. We have drafted you as assets.”

[BLACKOUT]“I never signed anything. Nothing has my mark. In all my time, we came to agreements... Nothing was ever on paper. We came to the conclusion that I had to remember an elongated code just to overcome my refusal to have to sign, or leave a finger print or have an ocular scan.”[/BLACKOUT]

“So there was no paper trail in your case..?”

[BLACKOUT]“Exactly.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Which is funny, because I seem to have these requisition forms here... for equipment, for access costs. Marked as being for the Vigilante...”

[BLACKOUT]“Oh come on... I never signed anything though. We had our agreements and they may have equipped me, but that doesn’t mean I was under any kind of binding contract that could...”[/BLACKOUT]

“Hmm... what’s this?” The Director calmly nudging a device on his desk. A smart board on one wall bursts into life, from the slight movement of the mouse. The arrow glides smoothly across the screen until it rests on top of a file titled V.wav.

“Well... I wonder if this could have anything interesting to add to our current situation...”

Isaac got nervous. What could possibly be in there that he’s trying to worm around? I haven’t done anything. I never signed a thing. I was meticulous.

The mouse button double-clicks audibly.

[BLACKOUT]“So, you’re giving me...[/BLACKOUT] Clik. Whirflipfjgs...”

The Director fast-forwards the audio track. “We don’t need to hear all of this.”

“Whifkdj... Clik. [BLACKOUT]And I just have to remember a longer code and...[/BLACKOUT] Clik. Whirfplipfjs...”

“We’ll get there. A lot of other stuff we don’t need to waste our time with...”

“Whifkdj... Clik. [BLACKOUT]And a kick-arse car to boot? Well, as I said. So long as you’ll respect my anonymity and understand that at times it may take me up to 24 hours to get on the scene... You’ve got yourself a Guardian...[/BLACKOUT] Clik.”

“Hmm...”

[BLACKOUT]“What ‘Hmm..’? That’s it? You’re going to hang me on that kind of thin verbal contract? That would never stand up in court!”[/BLACKOUT]

“Probably not...”

Isaac smirked through his balaklava.

“... but if this thing got dragged through court then we’d have to try and match up a known voice sample of yours, break out the decryption software, peel back the voice modulation...”

The smirk dropped from the Vigilante’s face.

“What we were also able to do was draft someone you may remember...” The Director changed the beat. Pulling strings.

The door open and a figure gingerly entered the room.

“He just started to get up and about again this morning and wanted to greet you all. But even laid out he was most useful in helping us identify the most utilised ordnance, allowing us to secure most of your regular equipment. There were a lot of scavengers and we weren’t able to get it all, but we got most of it.”

Gunny awkwardly raised a hand to give a half-wave before lowering it again. Still too soon for that.

“...and of course we already have some gear of our own for field operatives. Of course the Federal Government has acknowledged that since we’ve taken on much of the Human Resources of the Guardians initiative, we will need additional funding for the inevitable overheads... but that won’t sort itself out until the end of the financial year.”

“So basically, ‘Don’t use two grenades where one will do...’”

That wasn’t the Vigilante, although he was thinking it awfully loud - albeit in a sarcastic tone rather than the sycophantic one which spoke, it was one of the people already from the group Isaac would get to know only as 'The Agency'.

The Director spoke again, “Now we have our own rules which some of you are going to have to get used to... but not yet. I’ve had a brief opportunity to get a look at how you work as a team, frankly, I haven’t been overly impressed, but that opportunity hasn’t really been long enough to make any long term decisions over procedures.”

“So we’re going to have an observation period.” The kissass voice broke the silence once again.

“Thank you, Alberts. Yes, we’ll be having an observation period. We’ll spread you out in similar patrols and roles that you were filling before, operating under the same general principles... where possible.”

“And then?” The Survivor’s gruff voice punched through the silence.

“Then change, Survivor... isn't it? The name's apt. Evolve or Die.”

 

Adam begins walking around his darkened lab studying various computer monitors as Colter enters the room.

Colter says, "Sir you've been at this for 10 hours straight. You really should give yourself time for a treatment."

Adam replies without looking up from his computer monitors, "I am well aware of my time constraints at this time Colter than you for your concern."


Colter says, "Not to mention Sir this obsession with Eve is starting become dangerously unhealthy for you. Everything you say and do is centered around her destruction."

Adam finally looks away from the monitor and crosses to Colter. Who takes a step back as Adam stops and says, "Colter you do not fully understand what is going on."

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly and says, "The Society destroyed what I was. The never fully realized my genius and what I had done, was doing, and promised yet to do for them. I came up with the concept of Eve and now they are rubbing it in my face! With her riding around doing her Good Samaritan act!"

Adam says, "No no I have never felt healthier in my life Colter. This is all about being patient and carefully laid plans coming together at the right time."

Adam then recomposes himself and says, "Again my friend your concern is noted and appreciated. Go ahead and set up my treatment and then have dinner waiting for me along with the latest financial news uploaded to my I-Pad."

Colter bows and leaves as Adam follows him out.

 

“… Blur, you can stay in Chicago for the time being – but keep your Comm-link ON… Survivor, you’ve still got West Haven… Archangel, Carver Island… Kensai… You can handle Little Ulster… Flux… Central City…”

“Vigilante’s been handling Little Ulster. Maybe he could keep track of things over there, Kensai can fly over to Carver on his Pegasus and Archangel could help me, Central City is a big place…” Flux asked.

The Director scowled.

“This is not high school and your assignments are not open to negotiation. I know the Vigilante’s been working Little Ulster, but I want him on assignment elsewhere.”

Flux opened her mouth to speak again.

“… I’ve also seen a connection between the pair of you, and I have no intention of giving you territories which share a common border. I want focus out there. I’m not out and out telling you that you can’t make time for one another, but it will be kept out of the field.”

“Well, where’s he going then?” Survivor grunted, gesturing at the Vigilante with his thumb .

“He’ll be briefed separately.” The Director said firmly, clearly not wanting any further discussion on the matter.

"Pfft... Don't bother. You can have him. I'm getting sick of all of this cloak and dagger garbage."

Isaac still said nothing, just stood there gauging expressions. People behind the desk had seen it all before. Blank slates, nothing to read... waiting to be told how to feel. Especially that toady little prick called Alberts. That man, if you could call him that, had trouble written all over him. The Director was clearly not accustomed to having to deal with a back and forth when debriefing, and didn’t appreciate it at all, especially when it was as simple a matter as distributing basic territories for patrol.

Blue Blur had a “And what’s so damn special about him” expression cross his face when it was announced that the Vigilante had earned himself a special assignment some how. Survivor, from what Isaac could tell through his dark cowl, shared that sentiment. But through frustration had dropped the issue when he saw the Director’s stonewalling. Kensai looked... well... zen. Non-flustered. Non-plussed. In short, how he almost always looked. Youngster looked pretty wide eyed about everything. Had done since the word “drafted” was dropped.

In fairness it was a lot to take in...

Flux was sneaking looks back at him, a curious expression upon her face, as he’d caught her doing more than a couple times in the last few days. Frankly, he preferred when she used to avoid him.

And Michael? Well... Michael would barely acknowledge his existence, much less spare a glance for him.. Not that he could really blame him...

---------------------------------------

A Few Days Earlier

Tears flowed, emotions ran wild. Loss had taken hold.

Gunshots can cause devastation. Monsters, desolation. But few can match words when it comes to destruction.

[BLACKOUT]“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT THERE?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Please... Keep it down, we still have people in the infirmary.” Said Starlight.

[BLACKOUT]“How the F*** do you let this happen?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

“It -- It wasn’t anything we could do anything about...” uttered the Archangel.

[BLACKOUT]“There were three of you there... and one more as well.”[/BLACKOUT] Came the electronic growl. Almost as cold as the voice which delivered it.

“But he wouldn’t let us help him!”

[BLACKOUT]“There’s no ‘Let’. This is WHAT WE DO!”[/BLACKOUT]

“He said he could handle it...”

[BLACKOUT]“HE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO!”[/BLACKOUT]

“But he was doing it!”

[BLACKOUT]“AND?”[/BLACKOUT]

“And...”

“...And he fell...”

[BLACKOUT]“AND YOU! YOU’RE A F***ING HEALER! F***ING HEAL!”[/BLACKOUT] He yelled maniacally, pointing at Archangel.

“I -- I tried...”

Flux looked at the Vigilante, a chilling piercing gaze that seemed to see through him better than he could even see himself.

[BLACKOUT]“If you tried, why isn’t he here?! HOW THE F*** COULD YOU FAIL NOW?!? HERE?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

Flux’s gaze didn’t shift, there was no anger in it. Odd, considering her closeness to Michael. Her expression was so misplaced it almost stopped him in his tracks. But his rage was too strong. Too driven. He wanted the rage. Needed it now.

“I can only heal when it’s what He wants.”

[BLACKOUT]“Are you suggesting that Icon didn’t want to be saved?”[/BLACKOUT]

“No. Not him. Him.”

[BLACKOUT]“So you’re telling me that God didn’t want one of the best... One of the most positive influences on the entire f***ing world. You’re telling me that you think it was ‘his time’?!”[/BLACKOUT]

“It’s not about what I think... It’s about what God...”

[BLACKOUT]“F*** YOUR GOD!”[/BLACKOUT]

Isaac stormed out of the room. Michael dropped to the floor, drained from the argument and looked up to his love.

Flux’ eyes remained fixed on the fuming black Guardian as he angrily left the scene.

 

"See you guys tomorrow." Kyle said as he excused himself from his friends gathered around the table inside Lost Haven University's resident dining hall.

It had been three days since he had been released from the hospital, and things were finally getting back to normal. When he first arrived back to campus after the accident, his friends coddled him, tending to his every need. However, it didn't last.

Soon, things had returned to normal, and he was subject to the same ridicule and torment as everyone else.

And he wouldn't have it any other way.

He made his way back toward his dorm room, after first stopping at the convenience store around the corner. As he approached the small alley that he used as a shortcut to his dorm he heard a sudden commotion.

He looked back, seeing a pair of headlights bearing down on him.

"Oh ****." He said as a cargo van raced out of control toward him. Just as the van was about to hit him, he leaped into the air, grabbing hold of the bottom of a nearby fire escape.

Kyle dangled from the fire escape as the cargo van continued on its way as if nothing had happened.

"Oh boy....."

 

I finally have to speak up.

"Hey, listen. I get it. This is heavy stuff to be dropped on you. Same thing happened to me, kinda-sorta. But being attached to this place isn't the worst thing that can happen." I glance at the Fatman. "Close sometimes, but not quite." The Fatman just smiles.

I clap my hands together and hop off the desk. "Tell you what. Hawkes, the Doc, and I will give you all the grand tour. Make your feel at home. OK?" I wave them towards the door while guiding the reluctant Hawkes by his arm. It takes some cajoling, but I finally get them outside.

"So, my name's Darren. That's The Doctor. And that ray of sunshine is Bobby-"

"Agent Hawkes."

"We love him for his personality. Ok, follow me everyone," -as I hopefully take your mind off that delightful indoctrination- "and we'll head down to the Keep. That's what I call The Doctor's lab." Nothing. "Hmm...inside joke, I guess."

"Yes, very humorous," she says with a mild eye roll.

As I play tour guide, Hawkes takes the opportunity to walk next to Mr. Bondage, who, by the way, earned some points with me after trying to show up the Fatman.

"So, don't like the idea of working with the government, huh? Not very patriotic there."

Oh crap...


***

"Sir," Alberts says, "are you absolutely certain this is the best idea?"

The Director's smile quickly drops.

"...What could go wrong?"

 

OOC: FYI, the beginning of this post will start in 3rd person but it is pretty obvious when it changes back to my usual 1st person POV for Michael.

​

There is a loud, almost like thunder, sound in the skies above. The skies are clear, however...no such thunderstorms in plain sight. Something comes flying at incredible speed. No. Not flying...falling. As what fell crashes into the ground, seconds later, someone donning a blue and silver uniform is visible, getting up from the massive attack. For something else was responsible for the crash land.

As the optic blast counters Icon's own attack, a devastating blow, Michael thinks it is time to take action. What Icon is thinking is foolish. He cannot do this on his own. But as he slowly starts to levitate, he stops for a brief moment. He looks up at the wormhole created, that seems to increase with size overtime. It could naturally envelope everything and everyone if it's not somehow stopped. So Michael re-assures himself that he needs to finally act.

His angel-fire wings igniting intensely, the Guardian known as Archangel accelerates the skies, flying past Icon who had just received another brutal blow.

"MICHAEL! What are you doing!?"

"Saving your ass."

With the mighty winds Michael slashes at Endgame that creates a nasty wound at the creatures collarbone, but it doesn't cause it to falter and he swats him back with sheer ease. The wind still in his control, he rides along it, guiding him back at Endgame with ferocity and agility, flying around him to create a vortex hoping to suck the air from Endgame's lungs. But the metahuman creature is not like anything they have ever seen or faced, and as Michael tries his futile attack, soon he is grabbed by the throat...again with sheer ease. Much like before.

"Hehehehe..."

'Hehehehe'. Those are the last words Michael Angelo hears on this world. Naturally, Michael tries to come up with one of his witty retorts. You know, try to throw the enemy off balance by distracting them. But he cannot even utter a whisper to cry out for help. As a tear runs down his cheek, Endgame wipes it away, tasting it on his lips, smiles with complete glee, and crushes Michael's windpipe. Then, he grabs him with his other hand at the torso, and starts to pull until--

His eyes open.

"AHH!!"

Breathing heavy, I sit up...my Go--thank God it was just a dream. The fact that I'm...not ripped in half and that my vocal chords are still intact make that more than clear. But as I turn my attention towards Flux who lies in bed with me...it's clear she has been awake long enough.

"You had...the nightmare again, didn't you? The one you refuse to talk about."

"How long--"

"23 seconds this time, Michael. I saw only 23 seconds of the indescribable agony you seemed to be going through. And honestly...this time I wish I had missed it. Whatever goes on in your head, your brain feels is real, and when it does, and you begin to channel those emotions--"

"I know! I get it! You start to feel it too."

I get up from the bed. Water. I just...need some damn water.

"Don't walk away from me again!"

"You know! Just once...it would be nice if--"

I stop...but it is already way too late. I've played this card before...we've had this spout before every damn time I get out of wack and don't think before I act. Lowering my head, and slowly turning over, I am ready to make my apology but then Flux interjects right away.

"What...if your girlfriend wasn't an empath? If she couldn't know what you were feelign 24/7? If for once you could tell a lie and get away with it?"

"Babe, that's not what I meant, it's just--"

She gets up from the bed, and suddenly I crash down to the floor...with no strength to lift myself up. If it wasn't for what the flooring of the Guardian HQ was made out of...I could be several feet under right about now. Gravity manipulation...she can only do that when she's angry.

And frankly? She has every right to be. And I deserve to be here anyway...my face smacked down and into the ground. I remain laying on the floor even after gravity is back to normal.

Just like my dream...I deserve to be 10 feet under.

 

"Like a glove"

David stood there in his bedroom, admiring how well his costume looked in the mirror.He's spent days awaiting this very moment, and now he finds himself looking in the mirror while Katherine sits on the bed with a large grin on her face.Most of the equipment, the pants, boots,etc, was easy to get ahold of;because when you live in a city where people walk about shooting death beams and throwing cars at each other, there's a high demand for survival gear.The vest was a different story entirely,getting the chemicals to form a protective layer over the vest was the easy part, having to explain to his girlfriend why their kitchen table was dissolved in chemicals was another thing entirely.

"And you tell me I spend to much time in front of the mirror."

"You still do, but that doesn't mean I don't look good in this"

He does a few more poses in the mirror before turning around to face her.

"How do I look?"

She walks over and wraps her arms around him.

"You look like the hero that Gotham deserves."

They share a laugh and a quick kiss.

"Are you sure you're ok with me doing this?"

"Eh, as long as it gets you outta the house and away from my non-melted furniture "

She gives him a halfhearted smile and embraces him.

"I don't have to read your mind to tell that you're worried"

They remained there for a moment, locked in a tender moment. It wasn't along until he could hear the muffled sobs from his shoulder. He could not bear that sound so he led with mind into his beloved's.

Please don't cry babe

He pulls her away and looks her straight in the eyes, pointing at his temple.

"You'll be in here the entire time ok?"

She wipes the tears from her eyes and smiles,this time it's genuine.

"Just be careful alright? "

"I'm always careful babe"

"And try not to ruin that coat of yours it took me 3 hours so sew that."

She traces the outline of the freshly sewn "N" on the trenchcoat.

"You still haven't told me what that stands for."

In due time love, in due time"

"I love you"

"Love you too"

He departs from his department via the stairs and ventures to his vehicle.Upon entering he immediately flips a switch on an old police scanner in the passenger seat, and drove off.Wondering where to start off David decides to venture downtown.

After three hours it became apparent that it was gonna be a long night. All that was on the scanner was petty crimes that were already being dealt with by either the police or the various metahumans in the area.David realized that scanner was useless now and turned it off. Instead letting his mind scan his surroundings for strong negative emotions. Not even twenty minutes passed when it hit him. Greed. Greed and Desperation flooded his mind. It made his stomach churn but he knew that was his target,he narrowed his mind and focused on those emotions.There was something very wrong here, and even though he thought it was corny....There was evil afoot.

 

There was something both terrifying and liberating about climbing in the foothills without equipment. They had both brought their harnesses and ropes, but upon arriving in the narrow passes between the giant boulders and massive cliff faces they both loved so well, they had decided the equipment could stay on the ground. It lay unused in their backpacks, next to their chalk and water bottles.

Molly-Ann pulled herself over a low overhang, flagging her left foot under her right to steady herself on the precarious ledge on which her right foot now clung with the toe of her rock shoes. She would have liked to stop and take a breath, but her fingers clenched onto barely-there crimps, her fingertips and right toes responsible for keeping the rest of her suspended some 20 feet in the air. This sort of position was liberating. The rock was sturdy, and there was a sort of fairness in knowing that if you fell and died, it was your own damn fault.

Molly-Ann pushed herself up and reached with her right hand, grabbing a slightly larger crimper near her head that let her relax a little. There was something about climbing that Molly-Ann equated with meditation (which she had never tried). On the wall, with nothing but your own focus and skill keeping you from falling to the ground, there was no room to think of anything else. There was nothing. Nothing but rock and skin. The smell of sweat and chalk and the ancient, earthy smell of stone. For Molly-Ann, it was better than drugs (which she still used, despite Katie's disapproval). The high lasted almost as long, there weren't the after effects, and Molly-Ann didn't lose any of her awareness.

She hoisted herself over the boulder's topout, a solid 25 feet above the hard gravel, and rolled onto the solid stone. Breathing heavily, Molly-Ann lay splayed on top of the boulder, looking up between the higher rocks to the sky above. It was only then that she noticed the clouds rolling in, low and fast. It was going to rain, and in the narrow pass in which they were climbing, there was a very real danger of a washout.

“Jason!” She shouted from over the cliff.

“I see it! We better get going if we're going to make it out of here!

Molly-Ann rolled onto her side and found a solid down-climb; an area of the cliff that was significantly easier to climb down than the way she had just climbed up. She dropped the last three feet to the ground, rushing to meet Jason by the backpacks and pick up their equipment.

They started trekking back to the car as the huge raindrops began to fall, cascading down the rocks and making miniature rivers in the dirt underfoot.

“We're not going to make it before it gets worse.” Jason said doubtfully.

Molly-Ann nodded, looking around with her friend. “Looks like there's a cave up there. We can bivy and wait out the storm.”

The rain had reached nearly torrential proportions by the time Molly-Ann and Jason settled themselves into the mouth of the cave. It was low and deep, and high enough off the floor of the small canyon that they would be safe from any flash flooding. Molly-Ann tossed her equipment against the wall of the cave and sat down, loosening her climbing shoes. The leather had gotten wet in the rain and the mud, and was beginning to pull at her skin.

“Well, we're not going anywhere for a while.” Molly-Ann looked bored as she watched the rain cascade down in front of the cave.

“We could always screw.” Jason shrugged. Molly-Ann threw her shoe at him. It wasn't an unreasonable request on Jason's part. Sex had continued to be a semi-regular facet of their relationship, even after they had broken up years ago. Only since Molly-Ann and Katie had made things official six months ago had their late night trysts stopped, and though Jason had no desire to rekindle any kind of romantic relationship with Molly-Ann, he had to admit he was feeling the effects of the drought. It was unlike them to go so long without it, even if they were both in relationships with other people. Jason wondered if this was because of Katie or Molly-ann.

They sat in silence for an hour or so before Molly-Ann stood, stretching her arms over her head and shifting her weight from side to side. She turned and looked back into the depths of the cave.

“I'm gonna go poke around.” She declared.

“Bad idea.” Jason protested. “Bad, bad, bad idea.”

Molly didn't listen to him as she opened their backpacks and pulled out two lengths of climbing rope. She handed the end of one of the ropes to Jason.

[COLOR="DarkRed)"]“Relax.”[/COLOR] She said “You hang on to this end, and I won't get lost.”

With that she began her slow and uncertain exploration of the cave. Jason tried to swallow the bad feeling lurking in the back of his throat as the rain beat hammers upon the rocks.

 

Eve begins ripping through Lost Haven on the Serpent.

I've stopped three attempted robberies, two attempted church burnings, and one domestic disturbance. Think it might time to call it a night.

Just then Deacon Hawk says through her Neural Net, "Eve we just got an interesting e-mail. Need you back here at the Church right away."

Eve says, "Deacon I just got out here a few hours ago. I did my downtime and besides it's been forever since I just rolled through the city."

Deacon says with a growl in his voice, "Eve get back here now!"

Eve says, "Okay I'm enroute."

Deacon shuts down the ink and Brother Paul says, "I decoded the main frame traces and all the other clues. There's no doubt sir Collins is getting ready to make his move sooner than later. This was his subtle of letting us know."

Deacon says, "I know. We need to discuss strategy and options."

Brother Paul says, "I'll do everything I can to beef up Eve's weaponary and defenses, but...."

Deacon says, "I know we just have to have faith ln this one."

 

White teeth shone through in stark contrast of the dark black balaklava as the Vigilante broke into a wide-mouthed leer. In a better mood he might just make a witty retort… but he was not in a better mood.

“What are you smiling about?”

[BLACKOUT]“I’m just thinking about punching your nose right through your brain…”[/BLACKOUT]

Agent Hawkes put his hand over his sidearm in alarm.

[BLACKOUT]“…and the feeling of warmth that that thought is giving me, is one of the few things keeping me from making it a reality… Bobby.”[/BLACKOUT]

Just ahead of the pair the Survivor turned around and realised two were missing.

“Aww hell…”

The Blue Blur acted as his name sake and was immediately between the pair.

“You’re a big man when you’ve got a bunch of super powered…” the agent fired back.

[BLACKOUT]“Idiot. They’re the only thing keeping me from destroying you.”[/BLACKOUT] His eyes fixed on one place – the gun. “Just give me a reason…” he thought, but the opportunity never came. The agent was too disciplined for that, even if he wasn’t above his initial comment.

“Alright, alright. Your tour’s over.” The woman in the lab coat said.

“…you should probably be briefed on your assignment anyway. Will you be alright to show the rest around by yourself, Cole?”

“And will you be alright as well, Agent Hawkes? Or do we have to find you something else to do?”

The use of “Agent Hawkes” went a long way to soothing the situation, even when coupled with the rather patronising following statement. He nodded to the doctor and glared at the black garbed Guardian who returned a dismissive smirk as the Doctor led him back to the Director’s office.

---------------------------

“Back already?”

[BLACKOUT]“Just eager to find out what exactly it is you want me to do…”[/BLACKOUT]

“Really..?” The Director gave the doctor a look, reading the anxiety in her face.

[BLACKOUT]“…and I’m done playing Alpha-Male. …For now.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, that’s something… Doctor, could you wait outside for a few minutes. There’s some things I’m going to want to discuss in private with Mr Vigilante here for a few minutes, I’ll call you back in over the intercom when you’ll be required for your part of the briefing.”

The Doctor turned and quietly ushered herself out.

"You too, Alberts." The Director added.

"Sir..?" Alberts uttered, looking somewhat hurt that he was being made to leave.

"With the doctor outside the new assets are currently in the care of Agent Cole..."

Alberts looked wide-eyed in the realisation of this fact and quickly scurried off, catching the door before it closed behind the doctor.

Isaac waited for it to close behind him before he broke the silence.

[BLACKOUT]“Mr Vigilante..?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well… unless you want to provide me with another name, I’m just attempting to put forward some civility.”

[BLACKOUT]“Fair enough, Mr Director.”[/BLACKOUT]

“It doesn’t work that way. ‘Director’s a title.”

[BLACKOUT]“Well, with no hope of civility on my end I’m pretty sure I can think of some good things to call a man who’s trying to yank my chain.”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director laughed. “Not the response I was looking for.” Isaac thought, trying to stare through the laughter to see if it was covering any irritation at all. Seeing none, Isaac found his own irritation in the Director’s laugh. Big, bold and brassy. Knew he was in control and planned on keeping things that way. Isaac seethed silently.

“I bet you can. Very well then, Mr Director will be fine…”

[BLACKOUT]“Now about this assignment…”[/BLACKOUT] The Vigilante uttered, trying to mask his frustration.

“Hmm… you are eager to get into it… How do you feel about Hawaii?”

 

“Are you sure that Kid-Quick is in this area?” I have been running around this city for a good 10 to 15 minutes trying to catch up with her but she doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight.

“She is, you’re just going to slow. I advise you to go faster.” Phoenix replies as he uses his satellite in sky to fallow my and Kid-Quick movements.

Faster? Last time I checked kid-Quick wasn’t that fast and if I’m not mistaken I’m the second fastest person in the world. Catching up with her should be simple. Guess her speed must have increase since our last meeting.

“She’s just ahead of you. From the looks of things she is on the move and doing it very quickly. Also it appears she is in trouble and is in need of help. So I’ll say it again GO FASTER!”

Well when he says it like that I guess going faster is the thing to do.
In an instant knowing that this recruiting mission is now a rescue I quickly take the situation more seriously. As I begin to use my accelerated probability to its full potential everything around me that was in color is now seen through my eyes in black and white. To my surprise there is one thing in color. It’s something of an energy trail. I’ve seen this kind of energy trail before when I was in the “World’s Fastest Race”. All the speedster’s had a type of energy force around them. This energy signature that I’m gazing at now belongs to Kid-Quick. From the strength of its glow compared to last time she must have gotten a lot faster. With the trail visible for me to see my accelerated probability instantly analyzes the environment and sets a path for me to take to quickly reach Kid-Quick. Once the path is completely set before me I dash off with insane speed to aid a fellow hero.

While running just ahead of me I see two figures moving with incredible speed. By the looks of things it appears that one is being chased down and that one looks like Kid-Quick. But for someone to be chasing her at this kind of speed it would mean it’s another speedster but if that was the case I would be seeing the same energy that every speedster gives off, from this person I see nothing. I don’t have time to worry about that now I have to figure out what’s going on.

As I begin to gain distance on the two, I see whoever is chasing Kid-Quick down finally catches up with her. The person grabs her by the arm and spins in a circle and releases her in the direction of a side building. Right as she is about to come face first with the wall I catch her right before the moment of impact.

She opens her eyes and sees me holding her.

“Youngster? I really wish you didn’t come here.” She tells me as I place her down.

“I will admit that wasn’t the reaction I was looking for.”

“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you it’s just that machine have the ability to copy metahumans powers. With you being here you are only going to make it stronger.”

It’s a machine that explains the reason why it didn’t give off on type of signature.

“AL, analyze the robot for me and tell me what you get.”
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]“Right away sir.”

Even if it does copy my powers there is something I know it won’t be able to copy. Question is why is it standing there doing nothing?

“KQ since you encountered the robot has it ever acted like this?”

“You mean just stand there and doing nothing? No it never has. Since I met it the only thing it has been trying to do is kill me.”

Now all of a sudden it’s not doing anything? It must be analyzing the situation. With me showing up I’m a variable that it didn’t count on so it may be calculating on what to do.

“Sir I was unable to analyze your request.”

“That’s a new one. Doesn’t matter I’ll get what I want from it the old fashion way.” I step in front of Kid-Quick and slightly move her to the side.

“Get a good distance behind me I’ll handle it from here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Something about this situation doesn’t seem right so that can only mean one thing.

I take off towards the machine throwing rapid punches. Its only reaction is to dodge it appears that it doesn’t want to attack or either it’s afraid to. I stop my assault and come to a stop in front of it and it does nothing, just like I assumed it would. Once again I take off towards it again and as it appears that I’m about to throw another blow I vanish from in front of it to behind it in a blink of an eye. Now that I have the advantage I grab its head and rip it off its shoulders shutting it down.

“Well you made it look so simply.” Kid-Quick says with a look on her telling me I made it look to easy.

“Since it copied your powers it may have made it quicker but don’t forget I’m faster than you.” I say with a smile.

I kneel down and dissemble the machine down to the last bolt in no time and pull my scanner out of my pocket so AL can do what he does best.

“Besides reason why it was so easy was because from what I gathered it can only copy one person’s power at a time. That’s why it didn’t make a move on me. It must have realized it was no match.”

“That’s a good thing it couldn’t get your powers. So if you don’t mind why are you all the way out here? I’m pretty sure you didn’t come to say hi.”

“I have been looking for you because I want you to be part of my team.”

“You mean you want me to be a Guardian? This is amazing I knew that one day this…”

Before she can continue I cut her off. “No no no not part of the Guardians. I and the Phoenix have got together and we decided that with everything that took place the world needs a new group of heroes to protect them. So he has been having me running around the world find the perfect people to help us have a well balanced team.”

“I see so will this team have any kind of connection with the Guardians since your still one of them?”

“After he died I… after everything that has happened I decided to leave the Guardians and find my own path. I realize that there is a lot of evil out there and one major hero team is not going to be enough. I want to help people and I know that the best way to do that is to be part of a team. I learned that from being with the Guardians.” Truth is Youngster is no longer part of the Guardians but the Mighty Samson is. After Icon died I knew I could no longer be part of the team but with Icon gone they would still need a power house that is on Icon’s level. So being that Vigilante is now the only person who knows about that side of me I gave him a way to get in contact with me if Samson is ever needed. It sucks that I can only be in my Samson form no longer than 3 hours out of 24 hour days. With that being the case I’m pretty much a superhero on call.

“I will admit this solo thing is hard and having help would be nice. I’m in so what do I have to do?”

I reach in my right pocket and hand her a GPS device. “When that goes off just go to the location it displays.”

“Great I can’t wait to get this started. But till then if you don’t mind handling things here I have some stuff I have to take care messing with that thing got me side tracked.”

“Go head.” I tell her as she takes off.

The important thing is to figure out about these machines, last thing we need is for robots around the world with powers and we don’t even know who is controlling them.

“Phoenix it’s me.” I say after activating my comm link.

“Who else would it be? We never gave anyone else any comm links.”

“Right, anyways I have something you’re going to want to see.”

“You know where I’ am I’ll see you when you get here.”
​

 

Colter enters the chamber where Adam is finishing one of his treatements.

Adam stands up and puts on his robe and takes a deep beath and begis to lumber towards Colter.

Adam asks, "Is everything uploaded to my I-Pad?"

Colter replies, "Yes Sir. The latest Stock Report and I also sent you a copy of the latest notes from the Board of Directors meeting from yesterday."

Adam replies, "Excellent. After dinner and I read through everything I think the scrambler just might be ready to for a test run before we put it into use. Did your sources get you the information I wanted?"

Colter says, "Yes Sir. Everything is ready."

Adam smiles and says, "Well done my friend. Soon The Society's Golden Child will be a memory."

 

Eve parks The Serpent and heads into the control room where Deacon Hawk is sipping on a cup of coffee.

Eve asks, "All-right Deacon why did you order me back here?"

Hawk hands her an e-mail.

The e-mail states:

The day of reckoning is at hand for the Golden Girl.
Her defeat will be swift and decisive.
The days of The Society are numbered.
The wolf will destory the lamb.
The Shepherd will not be able to save her.
The Wrath of God will be nothing compared to mine.

--The Phoenix has spoken

Eve studies it and gives it back to Hawk.

Hawk says, "Brother Paul ran test after test on it and there is no doubt this is from Arron Collins. We have no idea what he is capable of at this time, but with a billion dollar tech cooperation at his disposal and all his connections I don't mind saying this is most troubling."

Eve realzing the gravity of the situation doesn't even try to make any jokes.

She asks, "What's the call?"

Deacon replies, "Brother Paul is working on ways to beef up your systems, and I've considered taking you out of action for the time being."

Eve responds, "What? And let this psycho know he got to us? Deacon why was I created?"

Hawk replies, "There are many levels to that answer Eve."

Eve replies, "Wasn't one of them to combat guys like him? And now that we have to put our money where our mouths are we're ready to turn tail and run. What about having faith and pushing on in the name of the good fight?"

Hawk takes a deep breath and nods, "I know. But Collins is a different kind of threat on so many levels."

Eve asks, "How so? Just because he was so close to you and Brother Paul and the Society?"

Brother Paul enters the room and says, "Not just closeness Eve, but Collins knows things about all of us that makes him a threat unlike any other you have faced so far, or probably ever will."

Brother Paul begins uploading several lines of programming into the computer and says, "Imagine if during World War II MacArthur had deserted the Allies to join the Japanese forces, or Patton decided to join with The Nazis. That's the kind of threat we're talking about right now."

Eve nods and says, "All-right then. What's our next move, and no one better say a thing about taking me off-line again."

Brother Paul says, "Take your diagnostic time now. I am going to link in with your Neural Net and upgrade some progams that might help out. It's not a guarantee but it will help. We'll be keeping a close eye on you. We do reserve the right to take you off-line if we feel that The Society's secrecy is being threatened."

Eve says with great sarcasm in her voice, "Oh don't worry I'm sure I'll be fine. Heaven Forbid I get wiped out but as long as the Society secrecy is preserved."

Deacon says, "Eve we will do all that we can to protect and aid you. I promise you that. You are so valuble to us on so many levels, but you must also be mindful of the big picture as we must do the same. You were killed to save your family once, would you do it again but this time for the greater good?"

Eve replies, "Of course I would."

She looks at Brother Paul and says, "Sorry about snapping at you."

Brother Paul nods and says, "I understand. You know if anything happened to you I would be very upset, and not just because you've got my circuits and programming in you."

Eve says, "I know."

Deacon Hawk says, "All-right now that we got all that out of our way let's get to work."

Eve nods and leavs the control room and lays down on the table as Brother Paul uploads his programming.

 

[BLACKOUT]“You’re shelving me?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

“No…”

[BLACKOUT]“Pfft… Putting me on ‘leave’, ‘forced vacation time’, 'compulsory time off'… Whatever you want to call it…”[/BLACKOUT] The Vigilante said, his fingers twitching out air quotes like a Parkinson’s Disease victim.

“No.” The Director repeated. “We have a legitimate assignment located in Hawaii. Let me finish, because we have to drag the Doctor back in here. Believe it or not, the whole world doesn’t stop around here just because we’ve inherited your team.”

[BLACKOUT]“Drafted.”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director gave a stony glare, met by the Vigilante’s smart arsed smirk. Powerful silence resounds before the Director begins again.

“The assignment should be one night - assuming it goes successfully, you will be extracted and given up to a month’s official quarantine. Unofficially, the quarantine period will be only 48 hours. At which point you will be free for the remainder of that month, barring emergencies of course, to drift off to wherever it is you go whenever you're not swinging between buildings or punching two bit thugs in Lost Haven.”

[BLACKOUT]“So you ARE putting me on holiday?”[/BLACKOUT]

“No. I’ve just learnt from past experiences that first impressions count and that sometimes it’s easier to work WITH people in your situation than to have them fighting me all the way. We both know you’ll have to be back here anyway.”

[BLACKOUT]“And why’s that?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Because you know I could strip back that voice sample I have if I so choose. And like I said, couldn’t you do with that time off to get back to wherever it is you go? Barbados? Fiji? …Terraria?”

The Vigilante froze.

“…Cooktown, Terraria.” The Director added his home town - A smaller city within the nation of his birth. That was no coincedence. The Vigilante’s left eye twitched as he struggled to contain his fury, uncharacteristically still incapable of speech.

The Director rolled the mouse, as the smartscreen jumped from its blacked out dormant state. Double clicked on a folder and entered his password.

At least it was protected… Isaac thought, trying hard to watch the fat man’s fingers on the keyboard to catch his password. It was no good, the fat man’s fingers were a blur. He double clicked on a movie file and the screen jumped into action. It was a shaky, somewhat grainy movie of Isaac on top of Russ Williams, the head of the Knaves – the most organised gang in his home city, after he’d just thrown him out of a first story building onto the roof of a car. Isaac rolls off of him, yells something inaudible to the camera, gives a parting scowl and then uses his grapple gun to swing away.

15 seconds. 15 seconds, and he was only visible for 8, but it’s enough to jeopardise everything.

“Because that is you, isn’t it?”

[BLACKOUT]“You know!”[/BLACKOUT] A dark hiss spat through the voice modulator so violent that it broke into static.

“Only that that’s you.” The Director soothed. “…and what’s more I’m the only one. That footage was on youtube for a period of 1 hour and fifteen minutes. It had only 16 viewers. But none of them can remember seeing that video… and the person who recorded it has no recollection either. One of our analysts picked it up last month. And he won’t recall ever doing so either…”

“In fact, the only two people in the world who have access to or can remember seeing that video… Are in this room.”

[BLACKOUT]“How?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Before I give you an answer, think about whether you really want to know.”

[BLACKOUT]“So where does this put us?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Hopefully, where you were five minutes ago. You want to go do this assignment, get yourself some free time to take care of business back home and then come back and take care of business here.”

[BLACKOUT]“Only now you know…”[/BLACKOUT]

“Only where you go when you “can’t be reached for 24 hours”. I still don’t know who you are.”

[BLACKOUT]“And why should I believe that?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Why would I lie about that? If I knew, it would be more leverage on you in this situation, wouldn’t it?”

True…

[BLACKOUT]“But what’s to stop you finding out?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Nothing. But what was to stop me finding out before? It’s one of those things you’re just going to have to chalk up to blind faith…”

[BLACKOUT]“Not my strong suit...”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director sighed. “Alright, if it makes you feel better I’d rather not know.”

[BLACKOUT]“And why’s that? Why should I believe that?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Because unlike some of the other people we’ve attained through means outside of recruitment. You can fight. Like a demon from what I hear. We’ve ‘drafted’ people from various nefarious backgrounds before. But not anyone who could fight like you. Frankly, if you have any kind of sordid past I’d rather hold on to my blissful ignorance, continue using you out in the field and maintain plausible deniability.”

[BLACKOUT]“Again, why should I believe that?”[/BLACKOUT]

“I don’t care if you do believe it. Regardless, we’re done with that… unless you want to continue in front of the Doctor..?” The Director ended the conversation abruptly and hit the intercom.

“We’re ready for you now Doctor, come on in.”

 

Ronnie Chang sat in silent disbelief as Kyle relayed the story of the prior night's events. In his 21 years, he heard it all, or at least he thought he had. However, Kyle's story took the cake.

"Bull." Was all he was able to manage to say.

"What?" Kyle said.

"Bull. I don't buy it."

Kyle grabbed his bag from Ronnie's couch and headed to the door.

"You coming?" He called over his shoulder.

"Where?" Ronnie asked.

"I'm going to show you." He said as Ronnie got to his feet and followed him from the dorm.

 

The gentle scraping of a mouse on a desktop as a long island blinked into view on the office’s smartboard.



“This… is Moloka’i.” The Director uttered as the Doctor positioned herself near the smartboard in anticipation of her turn to speak.

“It’s a bit over 250 square miles in area and less than a week ago had an estimated population in the region of slightly under 8,000…” The Director stalled for effect and swivelled in his chair towards the Vigilante.

“…at present it would be significantly less than that. Maybe 8. Maybe…”

The mouse clicks. The image changed from the island to the figure of a human, considerably the worse for wear.

[BLACKOUT]“Jeez-us f***ing Chr…”[/BLACKOUT]

“Doctor…”

“This is Patient Zero, from Queens, New York.” The Doctor stated. “Last Wednesday she began showing signs of her disease…”

[BLACKOUT]“That’s a f***ing woman?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Keep it down.” The Director ordered sternly.

“…facial lesions and major skin trauma, extreme degradation of the flesh…”

[BLACKOUT]“I’m going to be f***ing sick...”[/BLACKOUT]

“Hey!” The Director barked.

“…Thursday the lesions had begun to spread, although still nowhere near the level we’re now seeing…”

[BLACKOUT]“Thank f*** for that…”[/BLACKOUT]

“…she was able to see a doctor, late Thursday afternoon and a diagnosis was made.”

[BLACKOUT]“And her Doctor let her go to on holiday looking like that?!?”[/BLACKOUT]

“She still didn’t look like this at that point, this photograph is the most recent we have… now please.”

[BLACKOUT]“OK, sorry… What was the diagnosis?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, fortunately for us she was mis-diagnosed... With a disease many mistakenly believe to be dead in the Western world… Hansen’s disease.”

[BLACKOUT]“Hansen’s disease?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Leprosy.” The Director replied. “Now let her talk.”

“It became apparent that this was a gross misrepresentation of her disease on Sunday morning, but fortunately she was in relative isolation at this point.”

[BLACKOUT]“Eh?”[/BLACKOUT]

The Director speaks up. “I’ll field this one. It’s one of our country’s dirty little secrets that there’s a leper colony still operating on Moloka’i. The island was famous for it up until fairly recently and it’s strong in their history.”

“Thank you. Sunday morning Patient Zero began to show strong signs of aggression… uncharacteristic of the disease. She had bitten and scratched many who had attempted to restrain her.”

“Yesterday, less than 18 hours ago, this was transmitted and we received it shortly after…” The Doctor indicated to the Director who clicked the mouse again.

“The transmission at this point ends. We have two theories as to why. One is that they were also killed… The other is that they’ve been maintaining radio silence for fear of attracting unwanted attention to themselves.” The Director calmly stated.

[BLACKOUT]“Fear of attracting her attention? But she’s frail, and they’d barricaded themselves in.”[/BLACKOUT]

“…Here’s where it gets a little interesting.” The Doctor began. “Patient Zero is the name for the first link of an epidemic. The disease, which we can now confirm is not Hansen’s Disease has been spreading via blood – these scratch marks and bite marks to be precise. And we can’t stress that enough. This disease is not airborne.”

“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like where this is going..?” Isaac thought.

“But the people she’s been scratching and biting have, upon infection, immediately gone into a feverish state…”

“I can feel it coming…”

“until their bodies have literally burnt out, died and…”

“Here it comes…”

“…re-awaken some time later. These people, after dying, are then in turn also prone to extreme acts of aggression, only unlike Patient Zero they have been found to be immediately aggressive upon re-animation.”

“aaaand Thank you and good night…”

[BLACKOUT]“So your situation is that you’ve got an island full of zombies..?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, we intend to try to play it away from the ‘Z’ word somewhat, if and when this leaks…” The Director said.

Isaac gives the Director a penetrating glare.

“But effectively yes… View it however it best makes sense to you.”

Isaac pinched the balaklava from the bridge of his nose, [BLACKOUT]“So where do I come into this exactly?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, after the seriousness of this situation was discovered a major meeting was called together. The Agency had just absorbed the human resources of the Guardians as assets a few days beforehand, which is why this was also brought to my own attention as well as various other Department heads and … well… Power Players.”

[BLACKOUT]“Get to the point.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, with the recent loss of the Icon, Blake came to the conclusion that we really aren’t in a position to handle this situation and gave the executive order for Moloka’i to be scorched. Carpet bombings of incendiaries to wipe out all trace of the virus. That recording is no proof that there are still any survivors on that island right now and it’s hard to justify the risk of any other action at this point in time for “potential survivors” which may or may not exist.”

“I found that unacceptable.” He added.

“I said that I have an alternate strategy, but the President was still somewhat reluctant to consider it…”

[BLACKOUT]“He was a stubborn prick.”[/BLACKOUT] The Vigilante interjected.

“Your words, not mine...” The Director, added before going on. “I mentioned that Moloka’i was clearly visible to Maui… And the many tourists all armed with cameras and the media who are currently on site due to the Maui Scholastic Surfing Competition which gets pretty heavy coverage… and did he really want to risk firebombing an entire Hawaiian island in full view of the American people without even a token effort to extract any potential survivors.”

The Vigilante gave a smirk of appreciation at the Director’s work.

“He reconsidered.”

“’The Guardians Initiative was put together for exactly this reason, and whilst they may be undergoing major changes they are still our first response unit.’ Were his exact words.”

[BLACKOUT]“Changed his tune in a hurry… heh.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, not exactly. There was still some deliberation. Some conditions at hand. Well one, really.”

[BLACKOUT]“And what was that..?”[/BLACKOUT] Isaac uttered, sensing that he knew what the answer would be.

“It had to be you.”

[BLACKOUT]“Me? Why me?”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, prior to Icon’s passing recently he would have been our sole option for this mission. He’d have been given express orders to remain in the airspace and not to touch down on Moloka’i soil unless it was completely safe to do so, and only to airlift survivors out to a vessel off the coast where they would be quarantined to confirm they don’t carry the virus. Any bites or scratches would be unacceptable and would require him to…”

[BLACKOUT]“To kill himself. You were going to ask him to kill himself? Would that have even been possible? Through conventional means?”[/BLACKOUT]

“We would hope it wouldn’t come to that. We would hope that the order itself would provide enough weight for him to use extreme caution, for such an order to never be necessary.”

[BLACKOUT]“Well how the hell did we go from Icon to me? That’s a pretty big power drop-off.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well the President’s explanation was that with Icon’s own specific power-set risk would be minimal to himself if he took proper precaution. He could fly over the island, optic blast the hell out of the, for lack of a better term, zombies. Hear any calls for help. Fly too quick for them to touch him. Drop in, grab survivors and get the hell out. As close to zero risk as you could imagine… so long as he took precautions.”

[BLACKOUT]“So how did we go from that to me.”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well…”

“…it was more the potential risk to humanity if we sent anyone else other than you.”

[BLACKOUT]“What?”[/BLACKOUT] “Knew it… That’s just great… Feels good to be loved, America…”

“Well, unlike ‘conventional’ zombies like in the movies. These people don’t exactly lumber around…” The Doctor started again.

“Whilst they are deceased, they still move and function in a way that they would generally be capable. They run, they chase, they… can jump, although it’s not the most co-ordinated thing in the world. We believe that because they are dead their hunger is strong because of their bodies’ rather unnatural function. Metabolising food is hardly efficient so they have to eat a lot, or their body effectively feeds on its own flesh to continue animation.”

The Director continued where the Doctor left off, “So since they are capable of maintaining many of their regular functions, we can’t send in someone who can run fast enough to run across the top of the sea. Any infection to someone would be unacceptable… Likewise Survivor, whilst it’s possible his body would regenerate and burn the disease out of his body before it would take hold, we still don’t know that. The potential risk of an unkillable zombie is unacceptable… We still don’t understand fully how the Archangel’s powers work… But a flying zombie isn’t really something we’re willing to risk either…”

[BLACKOUT]“So basically you volunteered me because ‘F*** it, why not?’”[/BLACKOUT]

“Well, that’s not how I pitched it…”

[BLACKOUT]“You think Blake isn’t thinking that way?”[/BLACKOUT]

“I wouldn’t presume to know the way the President of the United States thinks…”

[BLACKOUT]“Nice dodge…”[/BLACKOUT]

"So you're not going to go?"

The Vigilante sighed deep and said exactly what the Director knew he would - [BLACKOUT]"Now I didn't say that, did I?"[/BLACKOUT]

"Good, Gunny will be equipping you for the assignment. Please refrain from telling anyone else. With the delicacy of the situation at hand we can't have leaks. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss this with the others until after your quarantine period as well. The less people know about this assignment the better, it will break eventually. But for now we keep it to ourselves. We 4, no more. Understand?"

[BLACKOUT]"Perfectly..."[/BLACKOUT]

"Who would I talk to anyway these days..?" Isaac thought to himself as he left for equipment.

 

Ronnie sat in slack-jawed disbelief as Kyle approached him after completing what should have been an impossible urban obstacle course. For a rare moment, he had nothing to say.

"So...still think I'm full of it?" Kyle asks with a big smirk on his face.

"No...I know you're full of it. But this...wow."

"I know, it's crazy."

"Yeah...but what are you going to do? You can probably make a mint with this...it's just...wow!" Ronnie said, nearly breathlessly.

Kyle looked to the ground briefly, and then back to his friend.

"No. I think I know exactly what I'm going to do with this." He said with a smile.

 

Phoenix stands before a massive wall of monitors and schematic displays.

Colter enters the room and says, "The main router relays are all on-line now sir. You may begin at anytime."

Phoenix nods and says looking at a video of Eve in action, "She is so powerful and beautiful."

Colter says, "Indeed sir."

Phoenix shrugs his shoulders and says, "Pity she has to be destroyed."

He flicks several switches and presses two buttons and says, "Transmission commencing."

The two stare at the monitors and see that nothing is happening.

Colter asks, "What seems to be the issue sir?"

Phoenix replies, "It seems Brother Paul has tightened up her defenses."

Colter asks, "So what do you plan on doing now?"

Phoenix replies, "I intend to use the back door."

Colter looks at him strangely for a moment and Phoenix says, "When I designed her Neural Net I left in a seemingly benign command line. One among the hundreds which would always leave me a way into her Neural Net. I suspect it's still there."

Phoenix enters in some more commands and then suddenly Eve's Neural Net appears on one of the monitors.

A command line says, "Welcome Back Mr. Collins."

Phoenix asks, "Is the room ready?"

Colter replies, "Yes sir."

Phoenix says, "Good. Then it is time for the Golden Child to fall."

He enters a few commands and smiles as he says, "Be ready my friend we will be having a guest within the hour."

 

Cassie lays on the table waiting for her diagnostic time to finish up. When suddenly she hears a very faint whisper

Cassie.

It is her sister's voice and she is somewhat surprised.

What the? Patty?

"Patty" says again, "Cassie, we miss you. We are here come and find us. We need your help. Cassie please. We need you. You are the only who can save us from him! Hurry"

Eve sits up and begins to head to the Serpent.

Brother Paul asks, "Where you going Eve? I still have a couple more defenses to beef up."

Eve says, "I have to help Patty and the kids."

Brother Paul says, "Patty? Eve wait I need to..."

Eve tosses Brother Paul aside into door which sends Deacon Hawk charging out of another room.

Hawk goes to Paul who says, "Never mind me stop her."

Deacon Hawk begins to sprint to Eve who stops him cold with a powerful right cross that send him flying down the hallway.

"Patty" says, "Please Cassie help us! Follow my voice. It will lead you."

Eve hops on The Serpent and speeds off with "Patty" getting louder as she gets closer to Phoenix's stronghold.

Hawk and Paul get to their feet and Paul says, "Collins has obviously found a way to hack into her Neural Net. She thinks she's hearing her sister call to her."

Hawk exhales rubbing his jaw while getting to his feet.

He says, "Track her and when you find her. Shut her down we gotta get her back in here."

Paul sits at the main computer and begins typing in several commands none of which seem to work.

Suddenly a familiar voice echos through the speakers, "Hello Deacon Hawk and Brother Paul. My oh my it has been a long time hasn't it? Don't try to track your precious Golden Child or access her Neural Net. I've deactivated her tracking processor and blocked your signals."

Paul looks at Hawk very worried and Hawk tries to look cool and calm but his body language is betraying him. He is truly frightened.

Phoenix says, "All the Pope's Cardinals and all the Pope's Bishops won't be able to put little Evie back together again when I'm through with her. My day of vengeance is at hand."


The speakers go silent and Brother Paul asks, "What do you we do?"

Hawk says, "Prepare to open the final seal."

Paul shakes his head and says, "There has to be another way Deacon."

Hawk looks at him and says, "If you got a better plan let's hear it."

Paul bows his head down and Hawk says, "Very well get to work."

 

Lyger sat atop a rooftop in downtown Lost Haven, the events of the last few months playing in his head. In the past few months, he has taken to the streets of Lost Haven to do his part to help keep the people of Lost Haven safe.

All has not gone smoothly, and he has made some mistakes along the way. But he felt that for the most part, he was doing good work. He didn't know if he was making a difference, at least just yet. However, he was working towards something, and he knew that he was doing his part to help keep the streets safe.

"You're crazy, you know that?"

That was what Ronnie had said to him when he told him that he planned to use the abilities that he was granted to help fight crime. And maybe Ronnie was right, but Kyle had seen how bad things had gotten after Icon died. The crime rate kept going up in the weeks and months following his death, some parts of the city just weren't safe anymore. The police and the other heroes were doing what they could, but it just wasn't the same. Even the Guardians seemed to have more important things to do, so he had decided that he might as well do what he could.

His momentary revelry was disrupted by the sounds of police sirens and squealing tires in the street below him. He looked on as a late model sports car sped down the street with a police cruiser right behind it.

"Time to go to work." He said as he dove from the rooftop, firing a grappling line from his wrist gauntlet as he pursued the speeding vehicle.

 

Deacon Hawk is shoving papers into a shredder as Brother Paul is deleting files.

Brother Paul says, "I'm going as fast as I can, but I'm not sure it'll be enough."

Hawk replies, "If it isn't I've prepared the gas-line in the building to blow-up. That should more than do the job."

Brother Paul says, "I never thought it would end like this."

Hawk says, "I know you didn't."

Brother Paul says, "But you did didn't you? That's only thing that explains the gas-line being rigged to go."

Hawk nods and replies, "I didn't think it would end any other way. I knew once Collins escaped it was only a matter of time, so I started planning out for this within the first hour of news about his escape became known."

Paul looks at him for a moment and Hawk continues, "You worked on The Serpent in private this was my private project. I also worked on this..."

He gives Brother Paul a manila envelope and Paul opens it.

Hawk says, "That is an escape route I came up with for you to get out of here. It's an underground network of contacts that only I know about which are putting the wheels in motion as we speak. You're on your way back to Vatican City."

Brother Paul says, "But Deacon I..."

Hawk interupts, "Brother Paul it's the only way."

Hawk puts in hands on Paul's shoulders and says, "You know that this is how it has to be. What I'm about to do you cannot be a part of. We know Collins' next move and if you're a part of what I am planning on doing they'll defrock you. You'll lose it all and I can't accept that. You have to carry on the good work and continue leading the faithful in the good fight."

Paul says, "But what about you? You..." Then it hits him and Brother Paul pulls away from Hawk and says, "No Deacon no you can't. You can't do that!"

Hawk says, "He has to be stopped and you and I know he's coming here next. To show off his conquest and he has to be stopped once and for all."

Paul says, "Well I guess I guess I better be more deliberate in deleting the files, and slow down to be sure that...."

At that moment Deacon Hawk pulls out from under his trench coat a Sawed-Off Shotgun and blasts one of the computers as Paul jumps out of the way.

Paul watches as what once was a computer tower is now a smoldering pile of molten plastic, metal and melted microchips.

He then turns to Hawk and who says, "I think I can handle the rest of the clean up."

The two men just stare at one another for a moment and Hawk says, "Get going Brother Paul. Get going."

Paul stands up and as his eyes are swimming with tears he says, "Deacon I...I..."

Hawk barks out, "GO NOW!"

With one solitary tear rolling down his cheek from under his sunglasses he says to Paul in a very shaky voice, "Please. This isn't going to get easier for either of us. Please go while you can my brother and...." his voice catches as he says, "my friend."

With tears streaming down his face Brother Paul makes the sign of the Cross at Deacon Hawk and leaves.

Hawk begins blasting away at the remaining computers and letting out primal yells as he goes.