Rise of Marvels: 2099 Edition IC Thread

[Carnage27]

Anna and I are lying in bed when the bedroom's view screen springs to life, and Captain America appears in the image. He calls for heroes to assemble to his call. A call I've been waiting for. I hop out of bed, wrapping the sheet around me in the process.

"Hey!" Anna exclaims in surprise as she's awakened by my sudden movement.

"Sorry, babe! No time to explain! Meet me in the war room when you're ready!" I reply as I scurry out of the room.

I'm quickly in the war room where Jarvis is waiting for me, "Please tell me you recorded that."

"Of course, Sir," he replies. "I record all abnormal broadcasts on your command."

"Yea, well track it. I want to know where it came from," I say as I slip into my Iron Man flight suit that goes under my armor.

"For what reason, sir?"

"Because I want to get there before anyone else does," I reply while mentally booting up my armor. "Armor's prepped in the hanger. Got it yet?"

"No, sir," Jarvis replies, "The encryption was very well done."

"What the hell is going on?" Anna asks groggily, sitting at the large meeting table with a cup of coffee.

"This."

I replay the message for her, "What if it's a trap?"

"This guy hijacked the entire world's holonet. And who ever it was, he doesn't want to be found. It's legit, and I intend to answer his call."

"Okay," she says with trepidation in her voice.

"Sir, I have received a lock. The signal seems to have originated in New York. I'm sending the coordinates to you now."

I kiss Anna, and sprint for the hanger. My armor is already prepped, an almost instantly I'm rocketing through the night sky.

I just hope I get there in time.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

"The battle was ferocious", the Odin/Destroyer went on, "many a brave warrior lost their life that day. And, as time wore on, I realized how grave it was...that Ragnarok had finally come..."

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Odin stood on the edge of the cliff face. At the doorstep of his palace, he had a clear view of the Golden City of Asgard, burning around him. The massive demon Surtur loomed before him, a wicked smile splayed across his face.

"It is just you and I now, All-Father", the fire demon cackled.
"As it should be."

Odin looked around at his city and his people, a pang of guilt welling up in the pit of his stomach. But his vision turned back to his hated enemy, that guilt turning into grim determination.
He knew what he had to do to set things right.

"Any last words, Gray Beard, before I slay you and burn Midgard to ash", Surtur spoke as he raised the mighty Twylight Sword over his head.

Odin silently stared up at his foe, his body never wavering in the least.
Surtur howled in fury and swung his massive blade downward towards the All-Father. Odin, at the last second, raised his hands and summoned all his power. The sword connected with the full might of the Odin Power, and a white light exploded outward and engulfed everything...

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"I used what power I had left, and merged it with the power of the Twylight Sword, to cast a final spell", the Destroyer spoke.
"I sent the spirits of Asgard's people to Earth. Here they were reincarnated...given a second chance."

"They deserve no less, as it was my folly that helped bring about their end", Odin hung his head in shame.

"How was it your fault? You said it was because of the Great Cataclysm that started the war?"

"It was", Odin replied, "but...I knew of the Cataclysm before it happened, and I failed to act in time to prevent it."

"I am sorry, my boy", the Destroyer spoke, "I am sorry you all had to pay for my sin."

"When the spell was cast, my body was no more. With the last ounce of power my spirit possessed, I found the shell of the Destroyer armor and took possession of it."

"I knew that one day, Midgard would need a hero again", the Destroyer stated as it turned and walked towards the alter.
"So I gathered the hammer and brought it here, to this sacred grove."

"The last piece of what was once beautiful Asgard", Odin longingly sighed as he looked around the ever-green grove.

"Take the Hammer", the All-Father spoke to Sigurd.
"Become whole once again. Thor, my son...reclaim your birth right!"

Sigurd walked towards the alter, hesitantly at first. He stood in front of the stone structure that held Mjolnir. He could smell the mold and mildew growing on the ancient, rune-covered rock. The scent stung his nostrils as Sigurd just stood there looking down at the mighty weapon.

Tentatively, he reached out towards it. Slowly his fingers wrapped around it's comfortable leather-banded handle. He clenched it in his fist so tightly his knuckles turned to white. Surprisingly light despite it's size, Sigurd lifted it up and held it in his hand, turning it over and inspecting it up close.

The sound of thunder boomed over head, and Sigurd looked skyward to see dark clouds quickly rolling in. Sigurd looked at the hammer in his hands again, and then raised the weapon up towards the sky.

A massive lightning bolt blasted down from the heavens, engulfing Sigurd in a radiant white light...

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A laser blast burned into Brunhilde's shoulder, the warrior maiden tumbling backwards to her knees.
Balder rushed over to her, ignoring the hail of weapons fire that poured down on them.

"Are you all right", he shouted over the din of combat.

"I'm fine", she said through gritted teeth.
"Worry about killing those soldiers, not me!"

As Brunhilde sat back up behind her cover and returned to combat, Balder turned in time to see Amora's magical shielding fading away from the frost giant's assault.

The Enchantress swooned and collapsed, a trickle of blood running down her nose, as the TRXTR forces began to move in.

"This is it...our last stand...", Balder whisper to himself.

"So be it."

With grim acceptance Balder bravely gripped his weapon tightly and fired at the on rushing troops. He took aim at the nearest frost giant, and fired.

The massive bolt of lightning tore through the mech, blasting it's upper body into oblivion.
The sky suddenly grew dark, the frequent bolts of lightning that danced across the clouds illuminating the mountainside with each burst. Thunder boomed in the heaven, and the rain began to fall in heavy drops.

The fighting seemed to stop as all eyes turned to the sky, and the lone figure floating above them...

Spoiler

 

[MichaelChen]

Saint Evangeline's charity hospital, New York City.

This place is a double source of rot. It produces tissue cultures the corporate structure controlling this city uses to enhance its soldiers. Soldiers who prop up a corrupt civilization that breeds pampered poodle aristocrats without the ability survive on their own even in a city, much less in nature.

It also provides free medical care to a roach-like underclass devoid of dignity, preserving their wretched lives just long enough to breed.

Hero and villain alike treat this place as neutral ground, untouchable because it serves both their interests. The so-called heroes ignore the production of tissue samples used in soldier-enhancement programs because it provides free medical care to the poor. The ruling structure continues to fund this free medical care precisely because doing so prevents any "hero" from daring to assault the tissue-culture laboratories.

Such a neat, tidy, hypocritical, utterly loathsome arrangement. It ends tonight. Last night's assault on a chemical plant reaped a wonderful harvest: enough explosives to blow every building in New York straight to Hell.

My men, my warriors, my Horde smash through the paltry security of this place in seconds. Enhanced by Berserker Blue, the drug created from my own flesh, they don't even need to use their weapons, smashing the guards with their bare hands. I remain outside, using ice and tornadoes and fire to keep any of the hospital's inhabitants from escaping. Once my men have finished setting the explosives they run to a safe distance. I do not. I remain close enough to feel the hot explosive wind blow through my hair as the hospital is wiped forever from the face of the earth.

It is blissful. And it is only the beginning.

 

[MichaelChen]

I spend too long watching the hospital burn and become too lost in revere. The hurled metal panther's claw hitting me in the back of the head is my wake-up call.

I turn to see Panther-Man and Lion-Boy running towards me. Lion-Boy reaches me first. He is perhaps five-foot-six, not counting his large, unkempt, reddish-brow afro. I swing a punch at his head. He ducks under and tries to tackle me, but he isn't strong enough to bowl me over. I squeeze his head between my ribs and upper-arm until his skull shatters like so much rotten fruit.

Panther-Man screams his rage and grief and swings a punch at me. I duck under it and slice through his torso with a sweeping karate-chop. He falls to the ground in two pieces.

So much for Panther-Man and Lion-Boy. I leave their corpses to rot. My harem girls will be waiting for me back at the lair.

 

[MichaelChen]

This farm is repulsive. Here pigs and chickens are kept in pens so tiny that they never even learn to walk. Their eyes stare out with a vacant insanity that should be impossible on an animals face, but is there nonetheless. Once they are fat enough, they are slaughtered and packaged and sent into the city to be fed to so-called humans. Humans who live, no, EXIST in conditions just as cramped and devoid of dignity as the animals they feed on.

I don't even need to kill the workers to gain control over this place. A few small bribes gives me all the access I need. I mix my feces into the chicken-feed and hog-slope. Within the week people all over New York will be eating tiny amounts of my Chi enhanced waste. Within ten days, the city will be on fire, destroyed by riots, rapes, and murders.

I smile and take a deep, relaxing breath. Tonight has been a good night.

 

[Carnage27]

I land quietly outside an old, dilapidated mansion in the under city of New York. I keep my cloaking device active as I enter, just in case this does turn out to be a trap. I also keep my sensors at high alert.

I head in and begin to search the place. No traps are detected, but I'm still on my toes.

Well, here goes nothing, "Hello!?"

 

[MichaelChen]

In a small apartment, a father of two complains that his breakfast sausages are undercooked. His wife yells that if he doesn't like it, he can cook it himself. In less than a minute they are both screaming incoherently. At just short of the three minute mark he is ripping her face off with his teeth while his children cry.

In an expensive restaurant, a few tasteful flirting glances suddenly turns into an orgy on the tables and floor. When the owners call the cops, the orgy participants grab knives and forks and attack the police, some of them awkwardly continuing to have sex even as they attack. The sound of bullets and screams mix with grunts of pleasure.

A pair of cops orders chicken nuggets and french fries from a fast-food joint. Ten minutes later they start laughing and shooting random people, then having sex with the bullet-holes in their bleeding, dying victims.

 

[Blacklight]

​

"Glad to see you all showed up. I was beginning to think you wouldn't..." Herbie announced as he smirked at the four heroes' arrivals to his abandoned warehouse, completely renovated to become his base of operations: the Baxter.

"Cut the crap, Richards. What is it you want with us?"

[VALERIA Files: IDNo.4532.86=Subject - Marissa "Mimi" Gold-Baldwin (Codename: "Songbird"): Grandaughter of Melissa Gold and Robert Baldwin. Powers: Kinetic Forcefield projection and explosive energy blasts from grandfather, as well as Supersonic screams, sound projection and the ability to form "Solid-sound Constructs". Not much is known about Mimi's past or parents except her Grandparent's having fallen in love after their tenure's on Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts. Parents presumed dead post-Cataclysm.]

"Because, Miss Gold, we all share something in common. We all suffered at the hands of fate. We lost everyone and everything we cared about when we were young and the Corporations began their uprising. So I'm putting together a team..."

"A team?"

[VALERIA Files: IDNo.5821.03=Subject - Robert "Bobby" Reynolds III (Codename: "Sentry"): Grandson of Bob Reynolds, the Sentry. Powers: Superstrength, speed, senses, durability and stamina. Can fly. Energy projection. Inheriting his father's and grandfathers powers, he vowed to use them for good when they died during the Cataclysm, taking on his grandfather's name, the Sentry. It is said though, that Bobby might have some of the mental conditions his ancestors did. This is something to watch out for, as he might lose it.]

"Yes, Mr. Reynolds. A team that'll help save the world by helping to dismantle any and all the Corporations that plague it, one after another."

"What's in it for us?"

[VALERIA Files: IDNo.3672.95=Subject - Pietro "Pete" Maximoff-Boltagon (Codename: "Quicksilver"): Grandson of Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver as well as Maximus Boltagon, Son of Luna Maximoff and Maximus Boltagon II. Powers: Superspeed, although due to his 1/2 Inhuman DNA, he's much faster than his grandfather. Empathic abilities to a smaller extent. When his mother Luna fell in love with the herioc son of the villain Maximus the mad, they wed and concieved a child, naming him after her father. They both died during the Cataclysm, and sent their son to Earth to be raised by a human family. Specifically, his great, great aunt Wanda, the retired Scarlet Witch.]

"Isn't it obvious, Mr. Maximoff? A free world? A chance to honor the ones we lost?"

"Vengeance..."

[VALERIA Files: IDNo.4987.24=Subject - T'Challa II (Codename: "Black Panther"): Son of T'Challa, and current Black Panther. Powers: Enhanced Agility, strength, senses and vast technological resources and vibranium weapons. During the Cataclysm, the entire nation of Wakanda was destroyed during the Cataclysm, and their king with it. The only thing that survived was the great Panther Temple that T'Challa II found upon his return to the devastated and barren wasteland that was once his home. In there, he found where his father had kept the tools he used as the Black Panther before retiring to rule his nation, including the heart-shaped herb that gave him his powers.]

"If that's what it is you desire, T'Challa, then yes. Revenge. Whatever reason you have for joining, I don't care. The point is that we could do alot of good, and I could use people like you to help do that. Besides..."

Herbie paused, realising what he was gonna say next might throw them for a surprise.

"...Haven't all of you always wanted a family?"

They were shocked to say the least, something that put doubt in Herbie's mind.

"I'll let you all think about it..."

Herbie then turned and walked away, heading for the secret exit to the Baxter. But just as he started to walk, something drew his attention back...

"I'm in."

He turned to see that Bobby Reynolds had stepped forward, ready for action.

"Me too."

Pietro smirked as he too stepped forward, arms crossed.

"I'll do it." Mimi Gold-Baldwin also added, which only made Herbie all the more eager to shake all their hands.

"What about you, T'Challa? Care to take part?"

He didn't say a word. Rather, the quiet Prince of Wakanda only grunted before nodding, keeping his distance from the group as he did so.

"Great. I have a good feeling about all this."

"So, Richards... This team gotta name?"

"As a matter of fact... it does."

"Well don't keep us in suspense, Herb! What're we gonna call this little "family"?"

Herbie smiled as he looked at his team, thinking about all the bedtime stories his father told him as a kid.

"You guys ever heard of the Fantastic Four?"

Spoiler

 

[MichaelChen]

Delicious anarchy. The entire city of New York is filled with rioting. Fires burn in many places as fireman join in the looting and ignore their duties.

I had feared that the so-called heroes would disrupt my plans but they have been blissfully quiet. Their apathy is both justification and enabler of my plans.

Tens of thousands of dead line the streets. By dawn, the casualties will be in the millions.

I throw back my head and laugh long and loud. Victory is sweet!

 

[Spike_x1]

I spent the rest of the day literally hiding underneath of my desk, afraid to move or talk to anyone at all. I just needed the rapture high to wear off so that I could figure something out. It wouldn't be long before my body would need another hit of the crap, and by then it will be too late to do anything about it. I'll be completely hooked on it, and unwilling to pursue any course of action to cure myself of the addiction. No way am I going to let that happen.

No. Shocking. Way.

Almost an hour after everyone else has gone home for the day, my hands finally stop shaking and I pick myself up from my pitiful place on the floor. I know just what to do. Before he was killed, Jackson and I were working on a new form of gene-splicing technology. We were still very much in the experimental phase, still working with animals, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Only minutes later, I'm in the lab and prepping the equipment. The plan is to splice myself with a sample of my own DNA taken from my profile in the company records. Alchemax has all of their employees' genetic codes on record, just in case of drug testing or verification of identity, so it wasn't too hard at all to hack into the files and calibrate the splicing machine to infuse a subject with my genetic code. This process should hopefully filter out the rapture from my system.

As the machinery hums to life, I set the process to an automatic countdown and come out of the control booth, and strip off my clothes and sit in the subject chair. Ten more seconds... Wait! Who the hell is fooling around in the booth?! Some idiot is in there pressing buttons!

"HEY! KNOCK IT OFF! GET OUT OF THERE--!"

An instant before I can leap out of my seat and run to the control booth, the genetic recombinating beam hits me like a ton of bricks and slams my ass back down into the chair. God only knows what that moron was doing to the splicer's settings, but I can't help but fear the worst.

...

It seems like an eternity until I wake up, but I instinctively know that it's only been a few moments. I groggily stagger out of the chair and can see a man striding confidently towards me, but I can barely make out who it is through my currently hazy frame of mind. It... it is! It's Aaron Delgato! He was once my supervisor until Stone recognized that I was actually smarter and more skilled than him. And then I became Aaron's supervisor. Delgato's always been jealous of me, but what was he thinking by screwing around with the splicer's settings while I was in it? Was he trying to kill me?

"AAaron..." As soon as the sound escapes my mouth, I can feel the difference. The very way that I perceive the world has changed! I can actually sense Aaron smugly walking towards me, laughing to himself as he believes I've been crippled by what he did.

"Whyyyy?!"

"Mr. Stone!"

"What is it", Tyler replied, a bit more harshly than usual, to the security officer running up to him.

"There's been an accident upstairs, sir. In the Dr. Jackson's old lab."

Stone stopped, his wide eyes falling on the messenger.

"Let's go", Tyler commanded as he pushed past the guard, hurrying towards the lab area...

"I... I... can feel the way you move... see every pore on your face... I-- wait, get back here, Delgato!" That sonuvab**ch is running away! He thinks he can try to kill me and get away with it?! "You can't hide from me, you rat-bastard!" In a single bounding leap, I've caught up with the would-be murderer and grabbed his arm to bring him to a stop. Once my fingers wrap around his upper arm, though, he screams in pain and fear.

"AAaaaGH!!"

"Oh, c'mon, you big shocking baby. You're in for a world of hurt. By the time I'm done with you, you'll wish I'd ki--" I'm cut off as Aaron swings around, still screaming, tearing his arm lose from my grip. However, as he breaks away, his screaming only grows louder and more panicked. Also, where the hell did all of this blood come from? My hand is covered in red, and there are pools of it leading from me to Aaron. Did I accidentally rip open some old wound on his arm, or something like that?

Now I'm running across the lab to catch up with him again. "Aaron! I--"

"GET THE SHOCK AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK!"

Then he takes a swing at me, but it's almost as if he's moving in slow motion. I have all the time in the world to block the blow and strike back.

He screams in pain again as I catch his fist in midair, but I've heard enough by now. "Shut up!" That's when I attack him in return. Instinctively, I hit him in the head, but the force of my punch doesn't just knock Aaron out, or knock him backwards.

Half of Aaron Delgato's brains are now painting the walls of the lab.

"Oh...ohgod...How--what--I--?" I can't even find the words. How hard did I just hit this man?

What did he do to me?

Looking down at my hands, stained with gore, I also discovers something else aside from my newfound superstrength: there are razor sharp talons on my fingertips. They're no doubt the reason why Aaron was screaming when I grabbed his arm, as I was unknowingly stabbing him with these claws!

BANG-BANG-BANG!

"Who's in there? C'mon out! There's only one exit!"

Security! I'm honestly surprised that it took them this long to respond to the sounds of struggle happening in here. Good thing that I disabled the cameras before my little experiment, but still, their arrival is anything but convenient.

...

BANG!

As Stone and his security forces finally manage to break through the door to the lab, I'm already halfway through the ventilation system and on my way out of the building. I'm gonna call in sick tomorrow.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Tyler Stone entered the room behind two armed guards, his eyes carefully taking in the scene.

"I want checkpoints covering all exits", Tyler stated.
"Nobody gets in or out without being searched and scanned."

"Yes, sir", nodded one of the four guards that filed into the room behind him. The Pubic Eye soldier turned and ran out the lab, heading off to carry out Stone's order.

Tyler stood over the body of Aaron Delgato...well, what was left of the man. The only way Stone could tell it was him was by his name tag. The man head was blown apart, and some of his brains were even clinging to the wall behind him.
It was not the most pleasant of scenes.

"I want a cleanup crew in here now", the stone-faced Tyler said.
"Take Aaron's body, clean it up, and call his family. Tell them that Alchemax will pay for the funeral services and the burial."

"That's mighty nice a' you."

Stone turned around to see Venture, the cyborg soldier and Commander of the Public Eye, stroll into the lab.

"It strictly P.R., Venture. Don't read too much into it."

"I want you to find out who did this", Stone said as the cyborg moved to stand next to him.
"I want you to find out who it is, and make them pay."

"Don't you worry none, boss", Venture said with a tip of his hat.
"I'll find the varmint that did this. And when I do, I'll send 'em straight ta hell."

 

[The Question]

IC: Frederick Xavier

"And here we... go!"

The doctor flipped the switch, and Cerebro came to life.

It wasn't like the movies. The lights in the building didn't dim; the generators were too high quality for that. There was no change in the computer's appearance. The only thing that was different was the hum. The unmistakable hum of electricity coursing through the device and tanks of liquid nitrogen kept the circuitry from overheating.

The technical staff cheered at their accomplishment. Xavier simply stared at the silvery dome, in awe.

"My birthright..." he muttered to himself under his breath.

He took off his coat and handed it to his aid, Mr. Maza, as he walked towards Cerebro.

"No one is to disturb me while I make the initial scans," he said. "She and I need to become acquainted and I will not tolerate interruptions."

He stopped in front of a blue circle on the side of the dome. A tiny beam of light shot out and passed over his eye. The section of wall then split in two and pushed to either side, revealing a door.

"Welcome, Mr. Xavier," said the female voice of the computer.

He stepped in, and the door shut behind him.

It was dark for a moment. The lights flickered on, blinding him momentarily. When his eyes adjusted, he saw he was in a large circular room. At the center, there was a silver chair and a silver table. On the table, there was a helmet, connected to the table by two long metal wires.

He sat down, and carefully lifted the helmet onto his head. He was silent and still. There was a twinge of nervousness born from years of anticipation. He took a deep breath.

"On."

What he experienced next can only be described as being like growing to several billion times one's normal size and losing all pretense of human shape and perception, instead wrapping around the whole globe, encompassing and being connected to every single thing existing on the planet, both the concrete and the abstract, and at the same time completely maintaining his form and thoughts that were his own. Millions of thoughts and feelings raced through his mind, some of which belonged to other people. In his now massive mindscape he steadied himself against the confusion. He slowed down past the thoughts of "this must be what it's like to be dead" and "this must be what it's like to be God" before stopping at "I need to do the job I am here for. I need to find all the mutants."

So, in spite of the hurricane of sensation, he concentrated. And he could feel them. He could, in fact, feel their X-Genes. Somehow he could actually feel their DNA in his mind. There weren't many of them, but he knew them to be his people. And a few were specific individuals he had been looking for.

He took off the helmet, and the norms of human sensation rushed back to him.

He sat there silent, trying very hard to catch his breath.

 

[sabetoonth]

[ELECTRONICS NUCLEAR BUILDING, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON USA]

I walked across the large office to the small desk. The CEO of EN sat patiently eying Brock from the other side.

"Wheres my check Conrad?" I demanded walking up to the desk.

"Over there on the table," Gary Conrad motioned over to the window side of the office while signing off on some paper work." You were supposed to make it look like an accident" Conrad continued, "you broke vertebrae in His spine and then his neck, what the hell kind of accident is that?!" the corporate executive looked up up from his work.

"Mutant attack, be creative" I picked up his check blowing off the criticism as as just more *****ing from a corporate.

"Be seeing you around then?" Conrad looked at me as I headed for the exit.

"No you wont." i took one last glance or my shoulder as I went out the door, just in time to see a bullet peirce Conrad's skull.

 

[sabetoonth]

[SEATTLE APARTMENT OF DUSTAN BROCK]
the door creaked open as I walked in to his apartment. the sky was dark and gloomy, the apartment motionless. not a living thing moved.
"heah Dust, we got the cheque cashed all ready, your good to go" Micheal Julius Rowe walked out of the back room and greeted me with a handshake."So, we have another job for you, New York, place is a mess, our new employer wants us to find someone and get them out, alive preferably" Mike walked back to dark back room illuminated dimly by computer screens.
"New York? who's the target?" I walked into the room and stared at the screens.
"some kid, we got the file coming through now." Mike clicked away at the keyboards.
"so Ive got to go get some kid?" I looked at the screen as the image of a young man maybe only a few years younger than I loaded up on the screen. "kid looks like a punk." I coldly stated.
"Weren't we all at his age?" Mike looked up as I coldly stared at the screen.
"so what do you want em to tell Kelsey?"
"Tell her I'm taking a few says to go see some family" i pick my bag back up and headed for the door just in time for Kelsey to cut me off at the door.
"And were are you going Dust?" she blocked the door Way with her curvy hourglass figure.
"Ive got to go see some family babe" i lean down to kiss her, and walk down the corridor to reach the airport before my flight for the east coast.