The Create-A-Hero RPG Season III IC Thread!

[trustyside-kick]

I'm about to agree with Michael, when exactly what he just said hit me, and to be perfectly honest...it takes me off guard.

"You Guys"

I know that he has had a hard time since being "outted" so to speak, and I understand his need to be alone...if there is anyone out there who understands someone's need to get away from all of this, it's me.

"You guys? So, does that mean you're not coming back?

And there it goes. The question I knew was going to bring up because I couldn't think of a better way to phrase what I just said.

Here goes nothing.

"Listen, man...I'm not...like the rest of you guys. I'm not saying it makes me feel distant or it makes me not feel like part of the team...I mean, you guys have been the closest friends ever since Jake--"

I need to sit down for this one. Matter a fact, I don't want to be in the Archangel State right now. I revert out of it, dressed in my regular day clothing, and take a seat on the couch and look over at Icon.

"I didn't leave just because of how difficult my life has been to adjust to ever since I became the media's frog to dissect. I don't...have the same privileges in making choices as the rest of you do. I answer to..."

I point up, the gesturing surely being clear enough.

"I can't...I'm not...allowed...such luxuries and this entire time I tried to fight against it and what did it bring? Pain and suffering to those around me. Right now, I've got something heavy...really massive...that is and has been coming my way. I mean, you know of the Sebastian Blake attack, but... have you not seen the news? Me fighting that towering walking Nightmare back at the Carnival? These two baddies aren't your every day supervillains trying to rob the bank. They are part of something big that I need to deal with. And...I cannot devote my time to The Guardians until it is dealt with. I--"

I get up, exhaling deeply and stretching my arms out I just want to scream because it's like there's never an easy choice for me to make. Ever since this whole Archangel thing I've been pushed and tested to self-sacrifice.

The ever so constant and returning act of self-sacrifice.

Like being a superhero in general wasn't enough self-sacrifice?

"You guys will be fine without me. Believe me, I want to serve S.T.R.I.K.E. the justice they deserve but...my hands are tied man. And it just kills me."

 

[NiteMare Shape]

And there it goes. The question I knew was going to bring up because I couldn't think of a better way to phrase what I just said.

Here goes nothing.

"Listen, man...I'm not...like the rest of you guys. I'm not saying it makes me feel distant or it makes me not feel like part of the team...I mean, you guys have been the closest friends ever since Jake--"

I need to sit down for this one. Matter a fact, I don't want to be in the Archangel State right now. I revert out of it, dressed in my regular day clothing, and take a seat on the couch and look over at Icon.

"I didn't leave just because of how difficult my life has been to adjust to ever since I became the media's frog to dissect. I don't...have the same privileges in making choices as the rest of you do. I answer to..."

I point up, the gesturing surely being clear enough.

"I can't...I'm not...allowed...such luxuries and this entire time I tried to fight against it and what did it bring? Pain and suffering to those around me. Right now, I've got something heavy...really massive...that is and has been coming my way. I mean, you know of the Sebastian Blake attack, but... have you not seen the news? Me fighting that towering walking Nightmare back at the Carnival? These two baddies aren't your every day supervillains trying to rob the bank. They are part of something big that I need to deal with. And...I cannot devote my time to The Guardians until it is dealt with. I--"

I get up, exhaling deeply and stretching my arms out I just want to scream because it's like there's never an easy choice for me to make. Ever since this whole Archangel thing I've been pushed and tested to self-sacrifice.

The ever so constant and returning act of self-sacrifice.

Like being a superhero in general wasn't enough self-sacrifice?

"You guys will be fine without me. Believe me, I want to serve S.T.R.I.K.E. the justice they deserve but...my hands are tied man. And it just kills me."

"I understand. I just want you to know, that no matter what you have to do, you don't have to do it alone. We're all here for you no matter what, just remember that."

 

[Hound55]

Giving no thought to whether he really SHOULD want to get back to where the action is, the Vigilante waded into the cold waters with the small island of the damned in his sights.

Arm over arm Isaac cut a path through the cold water, legs churning until he got what he estimated to be about 150 yards away from the prison island. Here he changed his stroke, using a sidestroke leg action which made helped to make him a less visible sight to people in the watchtowers.

If they were expecting someone to break IN to Tartarus Island they may well have seen him, but such an activity could only be thought of as insane, so for now his presence was still unknown.

Isaac got to his feet on his chosen beachhead, by the island’s waste pipes. He removed the sling bag from his shoulder and began to tear through the layers of garbage bags that were keeping his pack waterproof. Here’s hoping they kept the contents dry…

Slinging the pack over his shoulders he began to shimmy along the wide pipe as it disappeared into the darkness that was the Tartarus complex. Before long he’d worked his way to a platform. The only sound he could here was the water lapping beneath him, the meagre light that reflected from off of that same water below allowed him the luxury to get an outline of some of his surrounds. There was a network of pipes and most prominently, near his head, stretched a long metallic shaft. Presumably this was a vent for the air conditioning in the complex. It was also the clearest, most obvious path for the continuation of his reconnaissance mission. Scrambling at his cargo pants pocket he produced a pocket knife with a flat-head screwdiver bit, minutes later he was crawling on his belly through the ducts struggling to keep the sound to the minimum. This was harder than it looked as the metal surface would creak and click under his own weight, so as a general rule he would hold steady when and if he noticed anyone in the vicinity.

Isaac would look through any and all vents in the duct as he went past, after all he was here for information, and he was rewarded every now and then. At one point he saw the familiar face of the Jellyfish, a villain he fought not much earlier after a bungled bank robbery, in a cell. For obvious reasons the duct went over the corridor and not through the cells themselves, the cells made up the right side of the hall, but he could clearly see the inmates in those cells through the vents.

As he worked deeper along the ducts he noticed a change in the inmates, gone were the inmates like the Jellyfish, with minor metahuman powers and more frequently he would find inmates wearing collars or restrained more and more heavily. As he went deeper he was finding more powerful metahumans, who S.T.R.I.K.E felt required stronger measures to keep them under control, unfortunately he also found the end of the duct, or at least the end of the duct for him. It took a sheer vertical ascent of about 10 feet, and with the duct being a slick surface he could see no quiet way of continuing in the same stealthy manner.

“Maybe if I get out here, I can find a way back into the duct further down the line.” He told himself, but he knew deep down that it would probably not be worth the effort. There could be no more suspicious activity in a prison than attempting to climb into an air conditioning duct some ten to twelve feet off of the ground. He’d just about have a better shot at creeping up and down the halls.

He also knew that these halls would doubtlessly be monitored via closed circuit cameras, and he’d have no time to circumnavigate them by stealth. He needed a little luck, and that came to him by way of a room on the left side of the corridor. He quietly unscrewed the panel off of the vent and placed it inside of the duct, there was no way of inconspicuously covering his tracks for this so he just had to leave it in the least inconvenient place possible and hope people wouldn’t look up. But really, how often do people look up for no apparent reason? Checking the coast was clear he let dropped down from the vent as quietly as he could manage and hustled into the room.

Empty. He’d gotten lucky, the occupant wasn’t “in”. Isaac moved in behind the desk and looked around. Nudging the mouse the screensaver cleared and the screen prompted him to enter a password.

[BLACKOUT]“Damn.”[/BLACKOUT]

Isaac decided to leave the computer and look for hard copies, he began rifling through drawers looking for papers that might give ANY information. Isaac really had little idea what he was looking for, but he knew it was metahuman related. It had to be. Nothing of note. This work space was immaculate, almost like nobody worked there. “What the hell do I do now?” He thought to himself. There was only one thing that made sense to him. Go deeper. If there was anyone of note who worked for S.T.R.I.K.E in this place it would only make sense that they be based deep in the centre of the complex… well that’s what made sense to Isaac. Of course he wasn’t sure as to whether that was how this place worked, but it was as good a plan as he had. Slowly he turned the door handle again, and without breathing he checked both sides of the corridor before moving briskly down the hall.


Five minutes later

Cummings was hungry. He’d been watching the D-Grade losers in Cell Block K for the first three hours of his shift and as per usual he had a sugar low, he asked the other two guards on shift if they wanted him to bring them back anything from the vending machine in the lunch room and that’s where it happened.

He damn near broke his neck.

Just outside of an office there was a small puddle of water. His first thought was that the cleaners had done a half-assed job mopping up, but then he looked up and saw the vent missing. He called it in to central security immediately. They’d run a quick sweep on the camera in that hall, see how long it had been since there was any activity there. Seconds later they got back to him that it was the egress point for an unauthorised intruder.

The Guardian by the name of The Vigilante was on the grounds.

Security told Cummings to stand by, Chief Warden Henry Patton would be notified. This was a S.T.R.I.K.E issue and would be handled by Patton as the highest ranking S.T.R.I.K.E officer on personnel. Unfortunately Cummings had already made his first move, one which he believed to be the right one for the time. He pulled the alarm to alert all of the workers in the area.

This action had two outcomes.

First, it alerted all personnel everywhere, as well as Isaac, to the fact that there was some kind of emergency situation. It spread a panic through the entire complex with people having little idea whether the situation was a fire drill or an escape. The only people who knew the truth were Cummings, Security Central and Isaac himself. Second, it bought Cummings himself a severe reprimand by day’s end.

Chief Warden Patton had little patience, gave crisp orders, looking for a swift outcome.

“Dammit! Send in Hyperman, two officers and a bot! And shut off that damn alarm!”

“Are you sure that’ll be enough, sir?” came the timid response from the dispatching officer.

“What?!? Look, that guy there is the Vigilante. He’s the regular stock standard human member of the Guardians. If Hyperman, a two-ton powerhouse with heightened super-senses, can’t track him down and take him out with two of our officers then there’s something wrong!”

The whooping alarm and the flashing red down-lights left little doubt in the dispatching officer’s mind that something was indeed wrong, but he kept his dissenting opinions to himself and began to call for the personnel Patton ordered.

“Now send them in and get me Anderson on the line, if this doesn’t count as a concerted hit on S.T.R.I.K.E from the Guardians then I don’t know what will!”

 

[trustyside-kick]

"I understand. I just want you to know, that no matter what you have to do, you don't have to do it alone. We're all here for you no matter what, just remember that."

I know, bud. But sadly...this I do have to do alone.

"Yea, I will remember that. Though there is another reason I'm back. During this...ordeal that I'm going through I've gotten...somewhat of an upgrade. Call it a 'pat on the back for doing a good job, kiddo' thing. You know where Kensei is?"

I grab the remote control from the couch, turning the TV on. I point it at the television, pressing the on button and the station it was already tuned on last is the Lost Haven News. The story of the day of course is me fighting Nightmare and taring up what was once part of the Carnival Grounds.

With this new ability to freely wild my angel-fire sword, I cannot afford to be as sloppy.

"I could really use a fencing lesson right about now. But after that, I'm afraid I have to be on the move. Can't afford to stay in one place with what's hunting me down."

 

[Rain Dog]

"It was Cayce, wasn't it?"

"Reverend?"

"The investigator. His name was Cayce, correct? And the other one was Pierce?"

"I believe so."

"I see," I said, furrowing my brow and leaning back in my seat.

"Did everything go well, Reverend? You seem troubled."

"No. No, it did not."

"What happened?"

"...I have strong reason to believe Mr. Cayce is....a Negative."

"A Negative?! Working with the police?! This is--"

"--Terrible, I know. A form of corruption that will likely go unnoticed by the rest of the force."

"What do we do? Do we take action?"

"I'm afriad that's too dangerous. If this Negative is posing as lawman, then he will have the police at his side. We would be powerless against them."

"Can you banish the Negative? Like you did with the Angel and the dark one?"

"I will try. But it may prove to be too powerful. I will need all the help I can get."

"How can we help, Reverend?"

"The Negative and its partner are may return--maybe soon, maybe weeks from now, maybe months from now. If they wish to see me, then let them see me. Alone. But you are to tell them nothing. They may try to deceive you into feeding them information but you must stay strong. They may try to scare you, they may try to turn you against me but remember, the Negative speaks only lies."

"We will stay strong, Reverend."

"Good. Now pass the message along. Let all our brother and sisters no the police are no longer to be trusted and that this Cayce is an enemy of the Church."

 

[NiteMare Shape]

I know, bud. But sadly...this I do have to do alone.

"Yea, I will remember that. Though there is another reason I'm back. During this...ordeal that I'm going through I've gotten...somewhat of an upgrade. Call it a 'pat on the back for doing a good job, kiddo' thing. You know where Kensei is?"

I grab the remote control from the couch, turning the TV on. I point it at the television, pressing the on button and the station it was already tuned on last is the Lost Haven News. The story of the day of course is me fighting Nightmare and taring up what was once part of the Carnival Grounds.

With this new ability to freely wild my angel-fire sword, I cannot afford to be as sloppy.

"I could really use a fencing lesson right about now. But after that, I'm afraid I have to be on the move. Can't afford to stay in one place with what's hunting me down."

I shake my head.

"I haven't spoken to him in awhile. The last time he checked in he was in Japan working on something that he said might be pretty big, and that he'd call if he needed us. That was right after....right after I got back to Lost Haven. I don't know where he is now though."

 

[Carnage27]

Cerberus
Revelations

Metal clashes across metal as Chiron and I go through battle techniques for the battle that will come soon. We've been going through the same techniques for days, and the healing cuts and bruises on my arms lay testament to that. But I need to be ready. Because as of right now, even I know I'm not.

Chiron brings his sword down, a blow meant to take me out of the fight. But I manage to throw my shield up in defense, causing the blow to ricochet off, and I sweep my sword at my teacher's legs, bringing him down in a heap.

"Good, good," he smiles as he makes sure his legs are not cut. "You're learning. You hadn't been able to block that move in our previous sessions. Your progress is impeccable."

"Thanks," I smile weakly. "But I don't think I'm where I need to be. I'm not ready yet."

"You will be. You'll need to be."

**********

The mob boss known as Xerxes sits in his cell, cursing at his own stupidity. He had taken the child lightly, and now he was going to rot in jail for the rest of his life.

The door to his cell slides open, and in walks a guard, the biggest one he's seen yet in the prison. He's even bigger than the mob boss, and that's an impressive feat. "Get up. Someone wants to talk to you."

"Yea? Who's that?" Xerxes responds, annoyed.

"Someone from the Government," the guard shrugs.

After leading the criminal to an interrogation room, the guard stays outside. Xerxes sits at the table, half of which is shrouded in darkness. He complains, "What the hell is this?"

"Relax, Xerxes," a powerful, but suave voice says from the shadows in front of him. "I am here."

"Where's my lawyer?" he asks. "I won't answer anything until he's here."

"This isn't about what you did," the voice hisses. "It's about who put you behind bars." The voice gets closer, and a man's face appears out of the shadow, "Tell me everything you know about Cerberus."

​

 

[Guardian7]

​

--------------SAHARA DESERT-------------
4 YEARS AGO - GOLDEN OASIS OF THE SUN
PRELUDE: GOLDEN PHARAOH.

In his memories, Jabari Minkah is now a seventeen-year-old boy with a look of defiance on his face, he stands before the mildly angered protector of Egypt named Golden Pharaoh. Jabari knew him by no other name.
The reason for his anger, involves Jabari’s questioning of the Egyptian God’s rules of his Guardianship.
In a discussion with the nearly omnipotent beings that he did cherish, with the exception of one, He expressed repeatedly that he did not understand why he was to isolate himself to Egypt and Egypt alone.
Jabari felt a proactive approach to dealing with the evils and menaces of the world, would serve Egypt.
His opinions were not favored in the Golden Oasis by nearly all his powerful mentors for this stance.
The original Golden Pharaoh especially did not understand.
He sat in a throne of gold and rubies. His arms were upon the armrests of the gorgeously decorated chair. “You will follow protocol and do as you are requested, Jabari. I have grown weary of having this conversation, as has our mighty lords.”
Jabari stood before the powerful man. Arms folded as he simply stared into his eyes. “I believe you feel you are correct in your understandings of the Guardianship as you were taught. I feel there is more to it than simply remaining in Egypt. Evil does not end at our borders.”
The Pharaoh pounded his fist on the throne arm, which caused an echo to ring through the halls of the Golden Oasis of the Sun and then stood tall, looking down on Jabari. “That is NOT the teachings you have been trained in!” His voice echoed.
Inniris in her dress of flowing white, stood far to the left of the throne winced from the noise and the few dedicated Egyptian servants in the room cast wary eyes at the gilded Pharaoh.
Jabari did not fear as others did. He simply stood looking at the overly passionate Pharaoh. “It is exactly the teachings of our lords and mighty benefactors Thoth and Anubis. I do not deviate from the teachings. I see more in their words than others may have in the past.”
The Pharaoh’s eyes shot wide open. “You dare think you have a better grasp of the lexis our lords teach us? That you are superior to any Golden Pharaoh before you?”
“No… that is not what I said.” Jabari responded unemotional. “I merely see that the world does not end at the borders of Egypt; neither does the power of our lord and masters. Taking the fight to the wickedness in the world before it crawls onto precious Egyptian soil, would curtain any firmly established activities it may take once here. Stopping it before it has the opportunity to lay harm upon all that is Egypt.”
Inniris, the sole female within the Golden Oasis, the only motherly figure in Jabari’s life, stood to the left. She actually admired Jabari for his view and could not fault his reasoning. For her role, she could not permit herself to interject on his behalf. Oddly enough, she found herself inclined to.
Golden Pharaoh stood still looking down at Jabari in a mild anger. “Our lord and masters even now debate your ability to be a proper Golden Pharaoh for Egypt. They have already discussed that if another candidate should appear to replace you. Then they would take the new successor and expel you from the Golden Oasis.”
Jabari shook his head no slowly. “Only Seth speaks in those terms and whispers his dark words to the others, I do not recognize him for anything other than what he is… in their hearts they know I am right.”
The room suddenly darkened. Everyone looked around, except for Jabari. He was expecting this and had planned for this event.
For Seth, along with Osiris and Isis had trained him. He had faced Seth indirectly numerous times through his malicious schemes that were made to ready him to be the next Golden Pharaoh.
Now it seemed a direct confrontation was at hand…
The walls of the Golden Oasis seemed to expand and stretch to inordinate heights, as darkness permeated the room.
Behind the throne of the Golden Pharaoh, oozing up out of inking smoke was the dark lord Seth.
He appeared now, as he had appeared every time after Jabari had first defied him years ago.
His head shaped like a mule and a jackal, with flat ears and the skin on his face a charcoal black, making his red malevolent eyes stand out.
He carried his weapons of choice, garbed as any typical Egyptian from a period long ago.
Radiating from him was a tremendous, almost malevolent power, which made Inniris quickly move over next to one of the walls, blocking her view of him with her arms, The servants had fled the room and Golden Pharaoh backed away from the larger than thirty foot being in their presence.
Jabari stood his ground, looking at Seth with total insubordination in his eyes.
“YOU DARE MUCH AND TOO OFTEN CHILD!” said the dark lord Seth as he leaned downward, pointing at Jabari.
The boy felt Seth’s power try to wash over him and in response; he started to glow, pushing the dark lord’s power away from him.
“Go back to where you belong, evil one…” Jabari said in a low tone.
“PUNISHMENT IS THE ONLY RESULT OF YOUR INABILITY TO SEE THOSE THAT ARE GREATER THAN THOU!” thundered Seth, as he swung down the curved gold Damascus blade.
At the last possible second Jabari rolled to his right and stuck his hand out to summon the Golden Ankh Scepter, which was in the Golden Pharaoh’s right hand.
To everyone’s surprise, the scepter yanked out of the Pharaoh’s hand, spiraling across the room to land in Jabari’s hand. The room blazed with golden light, which shrank the darkness back.
Jabari stepped forward while Set was still blinded, spun in a circle arcing the long Scepter to sweep the enormous left foot out from under Set and send him crashing to the ground in an explosion of sound.
Jabari flew into the air backwards and landed, planting his feet as the enraged God slowly stood laughing. “TRICKY TRICKY…VERY CUNNING OF YOU BOY!” Set mused.
Jabari stifled back the urge to smile at the humbled God. “Leave now of your own accord shadow lurker… or flee when the option is no longer yours to leave of your own choice.” Jabari said through gritted teeth.
In a yell of rage that shook the entire chamber, Set stormed in. He swung his own staff, which Jabari blocked with the indestructible Scepter, though the blow felt as if one had struck him with a sledgehammer.
Set pivoted and curved in a downward arc with his Damascus blade.
In that, instant Jabari summoned the power from the Golden Ankh Scepter and formed the nearly invincible pyramid of amber force around him.

​

The blade connected, Energy sparked off the field and the enchanted blade.
The power of the pyramid was more and the blade rebounded backwards.
Jabari dropped the field, as he could not move so long as he maintained it and again he stepped between Set’s feet and swept them out from under him.
Though Seth fell once again, his own staff struck Jabari on his left side hurtling him across the main chamber of the Golden Oasis.
Jabari struck a series of benches, tables and vases, shattering all. As Seth crashed on the floor in a thunderous“BOOM!”
Seth threw his Damascus blade at Jabari who rolled out of the way. It struck and stuck in the wall. However, slowly it tried to creep out to return to its master.
Jabari swung the Scepter hitting the hilt of the blade, smashing it deeper into the wall. If Set wanted his sword back, he would have to come retrieve it now.
Set collapsed into a raging black cloud of darkness and curled his way at the young boy.
Jabari flew into the air and held the scepter outwards, summoning his light from within.
Amplified by the power of the Golden Ankh Scepter; it almost seemed as if someone had dropped the sun into the middle of the Golden Oasis.
Now almost literally… It was the Golden Oasis of the Sun!
"YEEAAHG!" Seth screamed out in his darkened form, forced to resume his standard figure.
Jabari continued to radiate the light from within him; he could feel it building even more.
Energy began to form around his hands and across the length of the Scepter as the room illuminated to an almost white glow.
Inniris watched Jabari and marveled at his power.
It was overwhelming Seth’s own power and she no longer felt the fear in his presence.
The Golden Pharaoh watched Jabari use his own weapon against one he called a Lord and Master.
Doubt had crept into his mind, he saw the actions of Seth as he tried to send the young Jabari to Anubis' nether realms.
Jabari struck back against the Dark Lord, doing things with the power of the Golden Pharaoh that no other had in the history of Golden Pharaohs… he faced off in what appeared to be mortal combat with one of the Lord and Masters.
Then all at once Golden Rays of sunshine and wide flat beams of blue laced the room like a net separating the two combatants.
Light in rainbow hues rained down from above and the main chamber of the Golden Oasis seemed to expand to contain the huge beings that now stood within it.
Ra, Isis, Osiris, Amon and Horus stood between their fellow God and the boy whom would one day wear the mantle of Golden Pharaoh.
Horus stood eying the brother of his father. He said in an almost deafening voice. “FIVE OF THE NINE HAVE VOTED THAT THIS CONTENTION HAS COME TO AN END.”
Seth eyed Jabari darkly. “VERY WELL, NEPHEW.” Seth bowed to the other assembled deities, turned once again to black inky smoke and flowed away.
Horus turned and nodded to his fellow Gods. For a brief second he glanced down at Jabari and admired the boy’s tenacious stand against Seth.
All at once Horus along with the silent Ra, were consumed by intense beams of multi-hued light and disappeared. Leaving only Amon, Isis and Osiris.
Amon turned to look down upon Jabari. His eyes never betraying the doubt he had about the role this strongly willed boy would play as the role of Golden Pharaoh. Though every indication pointed that his ability at being a Golden Pharaoh would never be in doubt, they indeed still had their rules.
Osiris stepped forward and said to Jabari. “ANOTHER VOTE WAS TAKEN THIS EVENING YOUNG GOLDEN PHARAOH.” He leaned down and as he did so all three of the remaining Gods shrunk to still a towering twelve feet tall.
Osiris’ wife, Isis was next to speak, in her almost silky and sultry voice. “WE NEED FOR YOU TO EITHER FOLLOW THE RULES GIVEN TO A GOLDEN PHARAOH… OR FACE PUNISHMENT.”
Jabari was shocked to her say such words. He had never strayed from the teachings, except in his questioning of being confined to Egypt alone. “Punishment? For wanting to dispatch evil?”
Isis smiled at Jabari. “YOUR HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE, YOUR MIND IS A DIFFERENT MATTER. THE CHOICE IS ULTIMATELY YOURS AND WE SEEK NOT TO INFLUENCE.”
Amon, his principle Deity and the King of the Egyptian Gods spoke next. “IF YOU CONTINUE ON THIS COURSE, WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE, BUT TO BAR YOU FROM ANY AID WE OR THE SERVANTS WE PROVIDE WITHIN THE GOLDEN OASIS CAN BESTOW TO YOU.”
Osiris said. “YOU WILL BE ALONE.”
Isis spoke after her husband. “WE REQUIRE YOUR DECISION.”
Jabari nodded. He looked up at the present Golden Pharaoh and let slip the Golden Ankh Scepter so that it flew back to his hand.
For long minutes Jabari thought about how he had felt and what he had done to make points.
He could not go back on how he felt and his way of thinking.
He nodded to himself and looked up at the radiant beings. “If stand alone I must. Then stand alone I will. I believe in what I both think and feel.”
He looked at all the important people in the room to him.
Golden Pharaoh, Inniris, the servants that had come into the room and of course the three assembled Godly patrons. “That is my decree.”
The three deities nodded, transformed into rainbow light and flowed upwards to disappear.
The room shrank back down to normal and was silent, except for the light sound of crackling fires.
Golden Pharaoh walked over and looked down at the rapidly growing boy. “I hope you realize what it is that you have done?”
Jabari nodded to the man he respected above most. “One day. You all will.”
Golden Pharaoh nodded and walked from the room.
Inniris approached Jabari, She put a tender hand on his shoulder. “Come, We still have much to teach you.”as she smiled at him.
She now knew he would likely be the greatest Golden Pharaoh that had ever held the mantle of that title.

Three more years would pass as Jabari continued to train with the aid of the Golden Pharaoh, the Egyptian Gods, Inniris and the servants of the Golden Oasis of the Sun.

...the Earth was attacked by invaders from beyond.
It would be the last time he would see the Golden Pharaoh.


--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO…

When the Aliens now known to most as the Arlaaekans had attacked the world.
New York, of course was not exempt.
Though it seemed that New York was not a primary target… it was still a target nevertheless.
Unmerciful Alien warriors had descended down into New York in an attempt to wipe out every single human they could find.
New York fought back as New York would.
Alongside the citizens of New York were the handful of what are termed Super Heroes, spread throughout the city called the Big Apple.
Extraordinarily gifted humans with even more astonishing powers.
For all the good it had done them.
New York was ravaged by the Alien Enemy.
Death, Destruction and Fires raged everywhere.
New York, was falling apart by the second.
The Statue Of Liberty in ruins, Yankee Stadium reduced to a mountain of rubble, and Time Square a blaze

​

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO…CHINATOWN, MANHATTEN

Chinatown was saved from the soldiers by the sudden appearance of massive vine-like plants that attacked soldiers in nearly every direction as if tentacles from a great earth octopus.

​

Except for a single Kamikaze hit, Chinatown remained virtually unscathed.

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO…LOWER MANHATTAN.

​

In the area of Wall Street in the Financial district of Manhattan. The caped hero Triforce raced across the damaged and smoking New York skyline.
They could hear cries of the injured and dying, There was nothing they could do for the moment.
All they could do is prevent even more death and destruction.
They bent a mean arc down into the ranks of the Alien Soldiers and with the girder in hand, they swathed through them, Alien corpses flew everywhere.
Triforce could feel an almost triple dose of disgust at what they were doing.
This was never the manner in which they saw themselves using their powers.
Fate had decided otherwise.
They braked in mid-air and turned. Intense white energy beams lanced out from their eyes, cutting another swath of death and destruction.
They shimmered momentarily and suddenly a similar figure to themselves dropped to the street below.
Subtle differences between the two are in the costumes they wear and no cape on the one who had dropped down.
His name is Block. His powers are super strength and invulnerability.
He wasted no time as he waded into the stragglers that the composite form missed and started swinging as armor suited alien warriors started flying in every direction. He did not hold back his punches.
Triforce remained in the air. Pure white beams of hot energy lacing throughout the battlefield that was the streets of New York, cutting down every armored foe they met.
They swooped down the street as a blaze of white energy ripped, tore and shattered every form. Dave could feel Mike’s anger through their psychic connection. “Calm down. Little brother. Your fueling Triforce’s anger and using a lot of energy.”
“I will use up every ounce of energy Triforce has, if that is what it takes to stop this madness!” Michael nearly yelled to his older brother Dave through the psychic link the two shared.
On the ground Block or Andy as he was known out of costumed, mentally yelled back via his own link to the merged portion of the triplets. “Just kill them and let’s get this over with!”

​

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

 

[Guardian7]

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
​

​

Midtown Manhattan. Near Carnegie Hall and Central Park.
Ultra, much like Triforce further down Manhattan Island, was using a girder as a batting weapon.
Her sixth sense kept her one heartbeat ahead of the numerous armored foes she battled and the technology they used.
She swatted and batted them in every direction.
She felt sick for what she was doing.
It was surreal to her, like watching a movie.
New York was burning and destruction was everywhere she looked.
It was like the end of the world when the Aliens had struck New York.
She had been battling for what felt like hours. Racing down city streets and finding more pockets of the seeming executioner aliens, who did nothing but kill.
Ultra had no idea how many she had returned the favor on.
She was a simple magazine owner, who just happened to be a Super heroine.
One day life seemed to be as normal as it could… in the next she was battling for her survival and everyone around her.
The attack on New York had been vicious. She suspected New York was not the only place suffering.
She hadn’t had time to check any events anyplace else as all that mattered to her now was what was happening where she was.
She saw another pocket of those blue skinned Aliens, who looked so human in many ways.
The rage on her face and the tone in her voice told them just how far they had pushed these humans. "You will pay butchers!"

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN

​

Terran was standing on a cliff facing of his own making, amongst the tall buildings. Two blocks south of him was the American Museum of Natural History.
Using his Geokinetic powers, He had boxed in a large number of the armored aliens, he also shielded the nearby humans inside the parameter with stone and earth.
"DIE!!!" With a flick of his hand, he simply dropped the manufactured cliff walls on the invaders crushing them.
Up from under the ground erupted earth and stone shaped eggs, they split open to reveal the humans he had saved. "Quickly... Run into the solid buildings... try to make it to the subways!"
Strange energy beams fired in his direction and one glazed his left shoulder. He formed up a stone wall, with a peep hole.
He could see a group of about six Alien stragglers firing in his general direction hitting the wall he had raised.
He concentrated and the ground underneath them split wide open. All of them tumbled inside and he closed it with the speed of a mousetrap.
He grimaced and felt nauseous.
He turned and looked at the damaged buildings all around him. He flexed his powers, rebound and knitted the stone back together even better than it had been before.
He felt drained. He had been fixing everything he came across, buildings, streets... anything made out of earth or stone.
Distant screams and the sound of alien gunfire caught his attention.
He braced himself and flexed his Geokinetic powers, causing the ground beneath him to raise up and he was sent hurtling along the ruined streets on a massive boulder, which he somehow caused to defy gravity.
Building debris, smashed and burning vehicles, busted water mains and… bodies littered the streets of New York.
His New York.
They would pay.

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… BATTERY PARK & NEW YORK HARBOR, MANHATTAN

​

Searay skimmed the Manhattan’s Battery Park. She couldn’t believe the destruction.
It seemed almost endless.
The sky was choked with black and gray smoke.
Though still early morning, the sun could not permeate the thick choking clouds, which made the many fires seem that much more luminous in the darkness caused.

​

Searay banked downward on her massive wings and pulled some sailors from a sinking ship just off from Battery Park in New York Harbor.
The all looked traumatized, but whole. She flew down and struck the surface of the water and caught up with the sinking vessel, spotting a lifeboat still attached to it.
She flexed a control in her glove and the flow of electricity to her wings caused the very edge of them to contract to razor sharpness.
Just as she reached the lifeboat a dead sailor who’s body was ruined washed past her. She felt she was going to get sick.
Marshaling herself, she increased her speed and sliced through the moorings of that held the lifeboat.
It slowly drifted away from the wreckage as the main ship sank. She decompressed her wingtips and with both hands gripped the lifeboat and propelled herself to the surface.
She exploded out of the water and twisted so the water spilled out of the lifeboat.
She carried the boat over to where the four sailors floundered looking at the burning city."Use this! Head towards the Jersey Shore. It is not getting attacked as badly!" her voice sang out, almost digitally sounding.
She dropped it near them and angled back towards battery park.
Half the park was ablaze and she looked at it in sadness. Remembering the times she used to bike there with her best friend Nancy.
She dipped down and saw Alien soldiers attacking the entrance of a building close to the park.
One of them shot down a fleeing girl unmercifully.
She compressed her wingtips to sharpness again.
Looked at the digital scan of her suit’s power levels, then engaged her electrical field.
Searay's body suit lit up with electrical arcs of blue and white energy.
Furious, She sailed into the mass of Alien Invaders.

--------------NEW YORK CITY-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… CHELSEA AREA, MANHATTAN

​

In Chelsea, less than a block away from Madison Square Gardens, the hero Unicorn was feeling overwhelmed by his powers he had gotten by merging with the Unicorn of myth.
He felt less in control, as he seemed to rage on urged by something within him that must be the Unicorn, screaming for vengeance of the innocent.
He battling the enemies that seemed to want to destroy the whole of the earth.
He could feel it through the ground itself.
The entire Earth seemed besieged by these Invaders from another world.
Energy beams struck near him, He saw the offenders and he instinctively teleported behind them.
He was no more gentle with them than his other fellow New York heroes.
This was war… It was fight or die.
His fists moved with a speed that was blurring and struck like the hoofs of the creature he was named after.
He heard the sound of gunshots, He briefly turned seeing both New York Police Officers and Citizens firing on a group that were sneaking up behind the red, white and blue hero. "I'll handle it from here people... Get to safety!"
He ripped a Stop sign up and used it as a lethal bladed weapon.

This day for New Yorkers would not end pretty… but it would end.

--------------DELAWARE-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… THE ATMOSPHERE ABOVE WASHINGTON D.C.

​

Thunderstar blazed through the upper atmosphere as he engaged Arlaaekian ship after ship.
His personal body field was deflecting their energy blasts, as he tore their sides open, making them unable to return to open space.
He twined downward as a small fleet of sleek fighter craft tried to engage him.
Suddenly he braked, they all shot past him, as they passed by he let loose his starborn energies and destroyed them one by one.
Thunderstar slid up the side of the Fighter Craft Carrier Ship and was literally blowing the ship to pieces on its right side.
Suddenly, a vision of a Alien ship flashed in front of him. He immediately dropped downward and twisted seeing some kind of Arlaaekian Gunship, the energy bolts meant for him had struck the Carrier practically disintegrating it. "Nice going fiends! You keep shooting like that and I won't have to lift a finger!"
He charged upwards at the massive space vessel, It started firing all kinds of day glow beams of energy at him, Thunderstar dodged this way and that.
He had to back away. Though he had a plan.
Banking in a deep curve and increasing his flight velocity.
Thunderstar energized his hands and started pushing the energy flow to increase the power without releasing it.
A massive ball of starborn energy ballooned in front of him, emulating from his hands.
He suddenly made a gut wrenching ninety degree turn and as he did he started spiraling rapidly, as if the tip of a drill.
Beam weapons lanced out from the Gunship to no avail. Their energy was destroyed before it reached him by being destroyed in his own starborn energy balloon cascading off both his hands.
He flew up and into the side of the craft, which caused a huge explosion. He was knocked sideways once in.
Lighting his powers up again Thunderstar flew up the length of the interior blasting any and everything, inorganic and organic, until he punched his way out of an exterior rear wall.
He saw the smoking ship drifting slowly to the left as it began to plummet.
His eyes went wide when he realized it would possible fall directly on Washington DC.
Again he angled downward and shot back into the Gunship hull and again he pushed his power, building it up.
He blasted at what he thought was the drive engines from the interior.
He was correct, as a huge vomit of alien energy erupted outward.
He raced down the interior and out the hole he had originally created.
The entire vessel detonated and Thunderstar was caught up in it.
He felt his left leg break, as the power of the explosion punched his shield.
"NnnErrgh!!"
Darkness consumed him.
Thunderstar fell towards the Atlantic miles below.


--------------EGYPT-------------
SIX MONTHS AGO… CAIRO

In Cairo, Egypt a Golden Pharaoh falls from the sky...

​

He battled forces as they crept into Egyptian airspace.
He fell victim to a direct Kamikaze attack which was aimed at Cairo.
He suffered an endless barrage of energy beams.

...He would be avenged.

 

[trustyside-kick]

I shake my head.

"I haven't spoken to him in awhile. The last time he checked in he was in Japan working on something that he said might be pretty big, and that he'd call if he needed us. That was right after....right after I got back to Lost Haven. I don't know where he is now though."

OOC: This post is in both first person (during Michael's actions) and third person (elsewhere).

"Dang. Well, I guess I'm just going to have to search for him. Good thing Japan isn't that big."

My back starts to tingle as the angelic symbol of Faith starts to burn into my skin. I start to levitate in the air, my angel-fire wings sprouting from my back and a heavenly light shoots in from all directions via the windows in this part of the HQ. A second later, I'm transformed into the Archangel State. The girl who Icon brought to the HQ looks at me in awe for a brief moment. Huh, I guess I never considered what it would be like to see my transformation from the other POV.

"Well uh..."

The awkwardness returns for me as I bid the Big Guy farewell.

"I'll...see you guys around? Maybe? Hopefully?"

I ascend towards the ceiling, the bio-scanner reading me and I escape into the skies as the sunlight retracting window at the roof of the room opens.


S.T.R.I.K.E. Headquarters
Dr. Weather's Laboratory
Location Unknown

"We're starting to lose him!"

"DOC! DO SOMETHING!!"

"Quick! Get me two doses of compound WC-028 for the both of them. ON THE DOUBLE!!"

Dr. Weathers' assistant rushes to the desk containment unit that holds the WC-028 compound as both Agents Christian Polanco and Trevor Peters--two of the three volunteers of Dr. Weather's Watchmen Project--are fighting for their right to live. Agent Cody Washington, while suffering side-effects that both Specter and Dusk started experiencing yesterday, has yet to show such effects as the other two agents. Realizing that their powers were unstable, Dr. Weathers has been working night and day to find solutions to the problem.

With both Dusk and Specter being in such critical states, he has no choice but to use his prototype WC-028 compounds--the 28th attempt in Dr. Weathers finding a 'Watchmen Cure'--and hope it brings results.

"Trevor!!"

"AAARRGGH!!"

As the assistant hands Dr. Weathers the compound, the doctor races over to Dusk as the very particles within his body start to deteriorate and break down as his body starts to force itself into a Shadow-formed state. By the time Dr. Weathers is able to inject the compound into Trevor Peter's shoulder, the shadow particles that once held solid disperse like a bomb and float in the air.

"AAHHH!! AAAAAAAAAARRRGGH!!"

Turning to S.T.R.I.K.E. agent codenamed Specter, Dr. Weathers' quickly injects the WC-028 compound into his shoulder. The pain in Christian's body subsides it seems, and it appears that the compound was a success. With a sigh of heavy relief, Dr. Weathers wipes the sweat off of his brow, and sits down into his seat. S.T.R.I.K.E. agent codenamed Nitro walks up to the gourney that his teammate rests on, and takes his hand.

"Trevor, he--"

"I know, Christian. He won't be forgotten. But at least Dr. Weathers has finally found a cure, at least he can--CHRISTIAN!!"

"AAAH!"

His phasing powers starting to kick in without his consent or will, suddenly Specter becomes intangible and slips from his comrade's grasp. Cody tries to grab him by the shoulders and pull him up but soon the rest of his body too is becoming intangible.

"NOO!! I--I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA--"

Christian Polanco's screams are halted as he phases through the gourney and through the very floor itself. His body becoming unstable and his phase-shifting powers acting on its own as his molecules start to burst, his screams echo through various floors of the S.T.R.I.K.E. Headquarters as Specter falls down, floor after floor, until he can no longer be heard as he phases through the bottom floor and into the Earth.

Losing his second friend and teammate, scared and frantic Cody Washington turns to Dr. Weathers, pulling him by the collar of his lab coat.

"WE HAVE TO GO GET CHRISTIAN! HE--"

"There's nothing we can do, Cody! You saw what happened! Like Trevor his powers kicked in, on an uncanny level, and he just phased through the very building! At this rate, my guess is that by the time he phases through the very crust of the Earth...whatever particles are left of him phasing through will be burned off by the Earth's hot core magma."

Agent Cody Washington drops the doctor, and stumbles backward, falling on his bottom. His is fortunate, because he has only experienced the first side-effects of the powers becoming unstable. Lately he has had excruciating and unexplainable headaches, just like Dusk and Specter first started getting.

"I--I'm going to die."

The frightened S.T.R.I.K.E. agent looks up at Dr. Weathers who walks over to Cody. Kneeling down, he places his hand upon the agent's shoulder.

"H-h-how you think...it's going to go for me, Doc?"

"With your powers? Seeing as how the others lost control...my guess is...*sigh*...that your molecules will burst with unstable levels of radiation and will not be able to contain themselves."

A tear runs down agent codename Nitro's face as he understands in plain English what the Doc doesn't want to say to him.

"You mean...I'm going to blow up."

 

[Byrd Man]

Previously

Spoiler

Pierce walks around the inside of the interrogation room, doing his best to unnerve the young man sitting in the hot seat. I watch from the other side of the two-way glass.

"Stacy Tinton," Pierce says. "Preacher Madlove has an interesting story-"

"Reverend," she says in a calm voice. "His name is Reverend Madlove, not Preacher Madlove."

"Right...so, the Reverend has an interesting story. He says he was with you the night Joe Dante was murdered. Any truth to that?"

"Yes," she says a bit too quickly. "If he says he was with me, then he was."

Pierce walks by the glass and arches an eyebrow playfully. "What'd you two do that night?"

"We...," she starts. "We had a nice evening reading the Bible, he's been lecturing me in the scriptures. I left the church that morning."

"Must of be a hell of a Bible study," Pierce says in a chiding voice. "I sure hope none of the pages got stuck together."

"Is there a point to this?!"

"Yes," Pierce says sharply. "We talked to your neighbor, Stacy, she says you spent that night at your house. She remembers hearing the TV staying on."

"I must have left it on," she mumbles.

"She remembered hearing someone turn it off in the middle of the night. Turns out your neighbor has insomina. Bad news for you, because you're looking at a few charges right now. Delievering a false statement, obstruction of justice. So..tell me where you really were that night?"

Tears begin to form in Stacy's eyes. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes as the tears begin running down her face. "I-I-I lied! I stayed at home that night! The Reverend came to me! He-he told me to lie!"

Pierce looks up at the two-way glass and quietly walks out the room while Stacy sobs.

"Let's go get that bastard," Pierce says as he walks into the observation room. "He's lying through his teeth, I knew it. His alibi doesn't hold up. Let's go."

I nod and follow Pierce out the observation room and down a stairwell to his car.

Pierce's car skids to a stop outside the church. He gets out in a huff and I leap out right behind him. "Pierce! What are we doing?! You don't have a warrant."

"I don't give a damn, Cayce!" He snarls. "This bastard is a murderer, and scumbag and he's hiding behind the Bible and God! I found it amusing, but not anymore. You may not be big on religion, but I believe there's a God and it's not right pretending to be a false idol."

Pierce reaches into his car and pulls out a Chinese restaurant menu. He folds it and stomps up the steps of the church, opening the door and nearly knocking it off its hinges. The man who greeted us last time is back, but his phony smile is gone. It's been replaced by a look of cold indifference.

"The Reverend is busy, I'm afraid."

"Search warrant," Pierce says as he waves the folded up menu around. "You bring your bull**** preacher out here right now or I'm gonna haul everyone in this church down to the station and book you all with conspiracy to commit murder!"

I hang back and wait to see how Pierce is going to play it. This is the maddest he's been since....well, since I've known him. He's doing something illegal and risking his job.

I just hope Madlove is worth this risk.

 

[trustyside-kick]

I'm flying across the world, to Japan where Kensei is supposed to be, and I become lost in my thoughts once again. Cannot blame it on the travel time as something to pass the time by, because stopping by the old HQ and seeing Icon again was different than I thought it would be. Was worried that he'd be more disappointed, that I'd let another person down...but all he was was supportive and confident.

That's our guy; the face of the Guardians. Our Superman. Our Boy Scout. The Big Guy. Boy Blue.

Kind of glad that Vigilante wasn't at the HQ as well; he's the closest to our Batman of the group. Nah, maybe more like The Question in the comics. Survivor if anything is like Batman attitude-wise, what with the brooding and dark mysteriousness to himself...and if you beefed that up to Superman levels. And Matt...man would've been tough running into Blurry but he was probably doing some sport endorsement commercial or something. Who he is on our team...there's really no point in saying because it is flat out obvious. And Kensei? Huh...not sure who he'd be. But he sure is something, that's for sure. A legend. And that's who I'm going to seek training from.

Still trying to figure out who I am on the team, though. Maybe Kensei can tell me.

Michael.

"WOAH!!"

I tumble mid-air while flying as though I was about to fly into a building that is how off-balance I am from the random shout of my name. As I regain my stance in air, I look to see a purple apparition nearly 7 feet tall in the figure of a woman. That voice...and its very presence...I can already tell it is her. That mysterious Love Spirit that came to me during my weakest and most vulnerable during the Invasion when I almost lost my Faith completely. Then again she helped me break the magical hold that The Goddess had on me.

Yet Bath Kol has been concerned since he has learned of her...interventions.

"It's you again. Gah, I hate having to say that each time you randomly appear to me. Just WHO are you? The last thing that you said into my head, before helping me free myself from The Goddess' grasp, was that you loved me. And then Bath Kol acts like you are not to be trusted when I finally mention you to him. What's going on?"

"Not all can be or should be revealed at once, Michael. It would be far too much for one to bear."

Honestly, this sort of thing is getting old real fast. All of these 'higher beings' and celestials from other planes can never just be straight forward with me.

"I did not realize it, until what has recently transpired. Bath Kol is not to be trusted, Michael. Lucifer is not behind The Seven's recent actions. When you had defeated the villain drawn to you by Belphegor and Barbas, Lucifer found out and was in outrage of it all. The thought that someone else is pulling the strings of The Seven when he is their leader did not bode well, and Belphegor has been since punished for his deceit."

"Woah woah woah. What? If Lucifer wasn't the one leading The Seven, you are saying that...Bath Kol is?"

"That I cannot confirm at this moment. But it is not right, Michael. And it makes no sense at all."

Now, I cannot tell who to trust. This Love Spirit which has traveled from the Planes of Hell has helped me in ways just as powerful as Bath Kol's own since I became The Archangel. As though all of this wasn't enough with me having to leave everything and everyone behind to focus on defeating these villains...now I find out that Lucifer--the leader of The Seven--didn't even start all of this?

"Yea, given that Bath Kol is helping me defeat The Seven by guiding me and such."

I don't...know what to believe anymore. Do I trust this spirit, or do I trust Bath Kol?

"...I need to know who you are. If you want me to believe anything that you've just said to me, you should at least give me that. I'm tired of getting the run around from celestials. If you think you deserve my trust then I deserve to know who you are."

The feminine figure that brights an illuminating purple hue suddenly starts to shine much brighter than before. Her features come to be much more clear than they ever have been before my eyes, and her very size starts to shrink as well. And then suddenly, the very purple hue of light is reduced to merely being a purple aura that surrounds the outline of what is possibly the most enchanting and beautiful looking woman I have ever seen.

And then I see her wings.

"You're...an angel...from...Hell?"

"I am Jophiel."

"Huh...I know that name. Your name translates to 'Beauty of God'. Yep, that explains one thing. Though all writings and scriptures refer to Jophiel as a male. Then again from what we learned about angels in Sunday school it's uncertain if angels even had genders. Plus there's the fact that my mother was an angel. Wait aren't you the same Archangel that cast out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? What could you be doing in Hell?"

"...I am also, more importantly...your mother, Michael."

 

[Rain Dog]

Previously



Pierce's car skids to a stop outside the church. He gets out in a huff and I leap out right behind him. "Pierce! What are we doing?! You don't have a warrant."

"I don't give a damn, Cayce!" He snarls. "This bastard is a murderer, and scumbag and he's hiding behind the Bible and God! I found it amusing, but not anymore. You may not be big on religion, but I believe there's a God and it's not right pretending to be a false idol."

Pierce reaches into his car and pulls out a Chinese restaurant menu. He folds it and stomps up the steps of the church, opening the door and nearly knocking it off its hinges. The man who greeted us last time is back, but his phony smile is gone. It's been replaced by a look of cold indifference.

"The Reverend is busy, I'm afraid."

"Search warrant," Pierce says as he waves the folded up menu around. "You bring your bull**** preacher out here right now or I'm gonna haul everyone in this church down to the station and book you all with conspiracy to commit murder!"

I hang back and wait to see how Pierce is going to play it. This is the maddest he's been since....well, since I've known him. He's doing something illegal and risking his job.

I just hope Madlove is worth this risk.

The man paused for a moment, cautiously eyeing the two investigators. The Reverend's orders rang through his head and the man muttered a reluctant, "Just a moment" before exiting towards Madlove's quarters.

* * *​

"Back already?" I said, emerging from my office with my assisting tailing close behind. I glance back at him and wave him off with a dismissive gesture. He darts for his own quarters, leaving me and the two investigators alone again.

"What is it now, officers?"​

 

[Byrd Man]

"Back already?" I said, emerging from my office with my assisting tailing close behind. I glance back at him and wave him off with a dismissive gesture. He darts for his own quarters, leaving me and the two investigators alone again.

"What is it now, officers?"​

"Come with us, Madlove. Right now."

I step up, trying to get between Pierce and the Reverend. "Your alibi doesn't hold up, Reverend. You told your little girlfriend to lie to you. She told us that much. Please, come with us to LHPD headquarters. We just want to talk."

 

[Rain Dog]

"Come with us, Madlove. Right now."

I step up, trying to get between Pierce and the Reverend. "Your alibi doesn't hold up, Reverend. You told your little girlfriend to lie to you. She told us that much. Please, come with us to LHPD headquarters. We just want to talk."

"And I trust you have a warrant for my arrest, yes?"

 

[Byrd Man]

"And I trust you have a warrant for my arrest, yes?"

"We're not arresting you, you son of a-"

"We just want you to come with us downtown and talk. It's completely voluntary on your part."

"But we do have a search warrant," Pierce says as he shakes the "warrant."

"We also have a warrant to draw your blood. Bet you didn't know it, but we'll be able to tell you have powers."

I give Pierce a cautious glance. He's really pushing the envelope now.

 

[Rain Dog]

"We're not arresting you, you son of a-"

"We just want you to come with us downtown and talk. It's completely voluntary on your part."

"But we do have a search warrant," Pierce says as he shakes the "warrant."

"We also have a warrant to draw your blood. Bet you didn't know it, but we'll be able to tell you have powers."

I give Pierce a cautious glance. He's really pushing the line now.

"Is that so?" I say to the one called Pierce with a smirk creeping across my face.

"You're welcome to try. I am well above your Earthly threats of physical harm! I have been chosen by the Cosmic Overlords to spread their Holy messages to this realm and I will remain here to do so! You are nothing to me--insignificant vermin who will never know the joy and wisdom of Enlightenment and will never transcend beyond this cosmic plane..."

 

[Byrd Man]

"Is that so?" I say to the one called Pierce with a smirk creeping across my face.

"You're welcome to try. I am well above your Earthly threats of physical harm! I have been chosen by the Cosmic Overlords to spread their Holy messages to this realm and I will remain here to do so! You are nothing to me--insignificant vermin who will never know the joy and wisdom of Enlightenment and will never transcend beyond this cosmic plane..."

"Jesus, you don't know when to shut up."

Pierce pulls a pair of cuffs from his belt and begins walking to Madlove. "Pierce, no!" I shout as I try to get between them. "Cayce, get off me!"

Pierce pushes me and I stumble backwards. Time seems to crawl by as I fall. I can feel the psychic energy attracting me, beckoning me to something behind me. Whatever it is that powers....whatever is that I do, wants me to touch something really badly. I fall back and touch exactly what whatever the hell this is want me to touch.

Madlove.

Pierce's shove sends me into him and my hand brushes across his face as I fall. My eyes begin rolling into the back of my head and I'm lost in my vision by the time I hit the floor.

*********

Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've been around for a long, long year. I've stole many a man's soul and faith.

I have a name. No, I have several names. Several names, several shapes and forms. I've been countless races, talked in many languages. Each and every time, it ends the same way.

Death. Not death for me, though. Death for others. I am always reborn, a new location and a new body.

But my true form? It's not worthy to be glimpsed by such lowly lifeforms. I am a being capable. You want to see me? You sure? Alright, take a look...

Pleased to meet you. hope you guess my name. But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.

*********
​

My eyes stay rolled back into my head, my body shakes and shutters as the seizures course through my body. I can hear voices, but they're distant and far away. Someone calls for an ambulance, while another voice tries to pry open my mouth. It all might as well be happening two hundred miles away. I don't care about them, all I care about is It. All I can see, all I can hear is It.

Madlove's true form.

My God, what have I done? What have I seen?
​

 

[NiteMare Shape]

After Michael left, I spent the next 45 minutes or so sitting on the couch in the common room of GHQ with the mysterious young woman who I had rescued from S.T.R.I.K.E. In that time, she told me of how her ship had crash landed on Earth, and how S.T.R.I.K.E. agents had arrived moments later while she was still shaken from the impact, and had barely escaped from her ship before the agents had loaded her vessel onto a flatbed and moved it out of the area...and had been pursuing her ever since.

She even told me her name...or the name she chose for herself in the days following the crash landing...Kayla.

There is just something about this girl, and I'm not sure what it is...but I find myself feeling very protective of her. It could be that in some ways she reminds me of Jenny in a way. But regardless of what it is, I can't help but to get the feeling that there is something that she isn't telling me...and if that's the case, I'm sure that she will tell me what it is when the time is right.

But in the meantime, I've got bigger problems...we all do.

S.T.R.I.K.E. is stepping up their game, and whatever it is that they're up to...it can only be bad for all of us.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Lava. When last we met, he was just a scared metahuman with little to no control over his powers. I rationally suggested that he go with Sergeant Hampton and the SDS - who, you know, could actually help him - and he flipped out. He took it to mean that I wanted him locked up. Well, after attacking me, he was locked up. I take it he's none too pleased about that turn of events.

My first indication was the ball of molten rock he just threw at my face.

"Alright, Captain Hot Plate, let me tell you how this is going to go," I announce while dodging said fireball. God, even just the heat from it makes me want to die. I'm sweating my tushie off in this suit. "I've got, like, eleven minutes left on my break. So if we could wrap this thing up in nine or so, that'd be great."

Lava gives me a puzzled look, like I just started speaking Armenian. "Your break?" He raises up his arms and reduces a beautiful convertible to a melted mass of metal.

"I know, I know. And here I thought my good looks could pay the bills," I sigh. I cartwheel away from another molten rock ball barrage, managing to land a few stinger blasts in the process. "But, hey, since you're here, you haven't seen Miles Hardy around, have you? After I'm done with you, I'll need him and the computer whiz to complete my 'escaped convicts' collection."

"Oh, ho ho! My dear, Mantis, I'm afraid it is I who will be done with you!" Lava shoots his arms towards me, and a stream of fiery molten rock shoots up from the ground like Satan's Super Soaker. Even though I manage to dodge it, the waves of heat coming from his attacks - combined with the waves of heat coming from the atmosphere - are practically stifling. "Stay still, pest!"

I launch myself off a streetlight, pounding both heels firmly into Lava's chest. As he falls, he grabs onto me and turns up the heat. I feel the fabric of my costume melting. I reward his efforts with a nice big stinger to the face. "You think I want to move around this much in this heat?"

I throw up a quick shield as Lava throws yet another molten rock ball at me. "If you can't stand the heat..."

I roundhouse kick Lava around the chin. "No! No cliches!" I follow up the kick with a strong punch to the gut. Forming exoskeleton around my knuckles, I give Lava the old one two right in the kisser. "Face it, buddy. You got into this mess because you weren't any good with your powers. Nothing's changed."

"Or has it?" Lava smirks from the ground, a little bit of blood trickling from the corner of his lip. I turn to see that he's effectively melted the entire street, turning the asphalt into a growing river of...well...lava. As it rolls down the sidewalk, bystanders climb to avoid becoming extra crispy.

I kick Lava across the chin to put him down before turning my attention back to the terrified pedestrians. I jump into the air and grab onto a flagpole. My hands are slippery. Stupid heat wave. I throw myself over the lava river and snatch a helpless motherand her infant child off their precarious perch on a sinking SUV. Setting them down by safety, I say, "How 'bout this heat, huh?"

With a running head start, I jump over the lava and make a big exoskeletal shield under my feet. Riding it like some kind of bony surfboard, I swoop past a scrawny, screaming man in a tree. It would be totally awesome if not for the life threatening circumstances. I feel my shield giving, so I get the man as far as possible before dropping him off.

I save a few more helpless citizens before realizing that I am so totally screwed. It's been way more than fifteen minutes. Mr. Teems is going to have my head. And to make matters worse, I've worked up a sweat that would put a hooker in church to shame. Skintight spandex plus obnoxious heat wave plus strenuous physical activity plus molten rock heat equals buckets of sweat. I feel akin to the Wicked Witch of the West.
​

 

[trustyside-kick]

"M-m--my..."

My mother. I...finally know who my mother is. Bath Kol never told me about my mother, and...I never really thought to ask so much because he told me that after she had betrayed God's love her punishment...was to be pulled down into Hell. I figured that there was no way to communicate with her, as I still do not understand the planes of Heaven and Hell having never been set foot in either.

I've been...mindlessly listening to everything Bath Kol has told me actually. Everything. Could...my mother than be on to something? Maybe I should stop believing everything Bath Kol is telling me...just until I can be sure.

But I have to be discrete about what I'm thinking with him.

Heck, what am I doing? I just met my mother and all I can think about is why I never tried to find out about her more. Now I can though. She's here now.

"Mom, I--"

I fly forward, trying to embrace her in a huge, but my arms close in and swipe through nothing.

"I'm just an astral projection, Michael. I'm not really here before you. Not really here with you."

I don't care what she says and what I just found out for myself. I cannot touch her for she is nothing but a spirit right now before me, but I still 'hug' her as if she were here. Right now, I've got the biggest smile on my face. I'm reunited with my mother. As I 'pull' away from my fake hug, it makes me smile that much more as she smiles back. Though my smile fades as I'm about to speak.

"There is...little I know about what happened to you, mom. All I know is that, because you...well...you know...that you ended up in Hell as your punishment. I know that if it weren't for that I wouldn't have been born and I do not mean to seem ungrateful for having birthed me but...I just cannot understand why. Why? You were an angel. God's first creations and all that jazz. I mean...you...Heaven was your very existence. Why did you do it anyway?"

"You know of me through that bit of scripture regarding Adam and Eve, my son...but do you know what my greater role as one of God's Archangels was?"

"No."

"I was the Angel of Creative Power. I would...do my best to inspire the hearts of mankind to open up to the Light of awareness and enlightenment. To be more open-minded and full of their own free thought."

"Kind of like...helping people to fulfill their ambitions and dreams."

"Yes. Their hearts' desires one could say. Watching over mankind, fulfilling my role and loving it...do not think ill of me...my love for the Almighty never did fade and still is as strong as it was since my very creation. But--"

"You started to have a compulsion in your own ambitions and dreams. But as an angel you are chosen from the very brink of your creation to serve God and his will alone. Forbidden to act on a will of your own."

I don't believe it. Though, I should and should have seen it before. My only experience with the angels of Heaven have been through Bath Kol and the few occurrences where the Archangels that bless me came forth in spirit to guide me. They all seemed so...emotionless and robotic. I thought that they were incapable of emotions, completely forgetting that I exist in this world because my mother sought out love and to be loved by another that wasn't God.

It is funny how you we fail to see things at first.

"Who...who is...was...my father?"

"Your father..."

She blushes, like a school girl my mother blushes as she thinks about my father. I gotta tell you, that brings one heck of a good feeling to my chest. I can tell that she really did love him. Utterly. Completely...fully loved him.

"His name was Daniel. Daniel Ortega."

So I'm...half angel half...hispanic? Huh, guess it explains my somewhat tanned complexion.

"Life was not easy on him. He was born into a poor family, a family who came to America to escape a far worse life of poverty in another. An only child, he started working at the age of 13 to help his father and mother get by. He had a heart so pure I had not often seen this in mortals. He graduated high school, went off to college and made his parents proud. Even though he was on his own, he would send half of the money he made to his parents, leaving him with enough just to get by. He did not put priority in materialistic things. And even though all of these struggles were put in his place before him, his Faith was ever constant and strong."

"He sounds like a good man. What did he do for a living?"

"He worked at a textile plant."

"Huh, I always thought maybe he was artistic in some sort of sense growing up. Then again, I guess I have you to thank for my inspiration and finesse. So...how did you meet him meet him?"

"When I started to get these feelings and desires, of which I had never felt before, I knew what I had wanted; more than anything I had ever wanted before. For the first time I had wanted to live the life of a mortal. So one day I came down and changed my form to conceal my wings, and placed myself at the supermarket where I had known he would go to before work. It all went off from there, but I was still an angel of God and it was growing difficult to conceal my actions from Heaven. I grew tired of it, and when your father asked me to marry him...I said yes. But before I could give him my answer, I finally told him everything, and showed him my wings. And he wasn't upset, for her understood what I was sacrificing and how it showed how much I had truly loved him. However I was still an angel, and not a mortal. I wanted to be with your father as one, and I wanted to love him as one. So on the evening of our wedding night I would cut off my wings, and became one. That night I became mortal, and we made love."

Her smile suddenly goes away as she gets to that part of her story.

"The next day, I faced judgment. I knew that immediately the Lord would find out what I had done and I would be faced with punishment...however I kept what I thought could happen from your father. I did not want anything to ruin our day...I couldn't. When I told him about who I was really was, the look on his face when he still asked me to marry him...I couldn't bring myself to."

"...and Daniel? How did...what happened to my father?"

"The Lord was righteous in his actions, and I say this even with my own punishment...for I knew the possible consequences I would face. The Lord made it so that he would forget about me...forget about everything...and live his life. Hence why when you would be born, you could not be left with him. So I made the pact with God, for you to have the life you have now."

"Is my father still alive?"

"He died in a car accident a few years after you were born."

So...I really don't have any family, do I? My mother's in...hell, my dad died...and my foster parents bit the dust courtesy of old age before I even finished college. Am I supposed to be alone or something? Heck, I cannot be with Grace either now can I? Everyone needs people who love them. Why is it that everything a person needs to be happy and be fulfilled in this life something I cannot have?

Why do I have to make all of these sacrifices?

"You're sad. That's why I have kept myself from revealing it to you. I told you it was too much to take in at once right now, that--"

"I just found out who my mother and father are...the missing pieces in the conundrum that is my life...and I still feel incomplete. I mean...really...WHO AM I? Does it MATTER if I carry out this pact you made with God? Really, what do I have to lose?"

Tears run down my cheeks uncontrollably and I'm full of such anger and pain it's like I'm the one living in Hell and not my mother.

"What else can happen to me, that hasn't been bad enough already? WHY SHOULD I CARE?!"

...

...

...

Why...why should I care?

"Because we can never foretell what will come to pass. We can only hope for the best. In my case, the consequences were clear and obvious...but in yours, you have the will and ambition to make your dreams and desire a reality all on your own. God rewards those who answers His call. I am sure that in time, as you continue to carry out His will, you will see that and reap those rewards."

She suddenly starts to fade before my eyes, and I reach my arms out to her as though I can grab onto her.

"No, mom. Don't go. Please. Don't. Go. I mean, I know that I need to find my friend to have him train me but I just want to keep talki--Please...don't go. I just finally found you. I don't want to lose you."

"You have never lost me, Michael. I have always been there, watching over you. Just remember what I have told you, and have Faith. I have to go before anyone in Hell becomes aware of my visit to you. We still do not know who is the true mastermind behind unleashing the other six of The Seven. But I know for sure that Lucifer is not leading them. Goodbye, my son."

Then she vanishes before my very eyes, but I can hear her in my head as she says one last thing as her astral form retreats.

I love you.

"I love you too, mom."

...I love you too.

 

[Guardian7]

​

---------------LOCATION--------------
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, CAIRO, EGYPT

Steven Harris stands watching the crowd of Egyptian Citizens make their way through the marketplaces.
He watches, as porters load up the goods he has recently purchased for the Museum of Ancient and Modern Wonders in New York City.
Steven loves it here and life seems to have returned back to as about as normal as things can get.
Considering that less than three months ago the Earth had been at war with an Alien Species bent on destroying humanity.
They had done fair job on the whole of the planet by cracking Earth’s Moon and pieces rained down.
He felt sad for a second, as the names of the places destroyed ran through his brain.
America’s St. Louis was gone.
Paris, France. the city of lights, love and invaluable art was gone as well.
Hong Kong had been decimated.
So too had Vancouver, Canada.
How some of them had survived was utterly amazing. Hawaii from the first images was thought to be destroyed by a giant Tsunami. Though a few thousands were lost… Even more survived and Hawaii thrived once more in rebuilding what was literally swept away.
Steven thought about Hawaii for a second longer… He had heard some force had protected the people of Hawaii.
The Hawaiian natives said it was the Volcano Goddess Pele.
Steven remembers thinking it might have been some super human calling herself Pele…
Now… Now he thought otherwise.
In the shadows of a rustic Cantina he sat in watching the porters continue to load expensive purchases the museum he worked for as an Archeologist, being loaded. With barely any concentration, He lit his palm on fire with a thought.
Closing his fist he extinguished it. He could feel the fire churning within him constantly.
His thoughts raced back to what felt like a month ago… though in normal time it had simply been a few days.

---------------LOCATION--------------
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO (and a few days), CAIRO, EGYPT

Steven Harris had come to Egypt to take advantage of the sale of precious artifacts that were being sold, via his job as Assistant Curator of the Museum of Ancient and Modern Wonders.
Egypt, like the rest of the world had suffered its own fair share of damages during the Alien Invasion . Including the unknown loss of one of its known heroes.
These damages had to be paid for and Egypt had the wherewithal to use its nearly most precious assists to do so.
Many collectors throughout the world had come. Though, whatever influence that the owner Scott Truesdale of the Museum of Ancient and Modern Wonders had… he had cashed in.
A transaction of more money than Steven could possibly imagine had taken place, behind closed doors.
Transactions an associate of Mr. Truesdale’s named Warren Allan had been in charge of.
The money spent on the purchases were hardly the amount the objects gained were actually worth.
He had finished his part of the job as assistant curator of the Museum and went for a stroll through the various marketplaces of the Cairo.
He had heard a woman’s screams and immediately headed in that direction to see if maybe he could help.
What he had seen astounded him.

​

He saw several men in strange black jumpsuits, struggling with an extremely old woman brandishing what looked to be a gold staff with a bird image at the top.

​

Foolhardily he went to her rescue as there was no one else around.
He surprised and fought off the men, there was also a woman dressed the same in their midst, having the advantage of surprise.
When the suited woman in black pulled out a gun and went to shoot him. The old woman jumped between them, being shot instead.
As she collapsed, Steven caught her. He pulled out a white handkerchief to stop the bleeding as he glared at the women cloaked fully in her too tight black outfit.
The woman grabbed the fallen staff and Steven Grabbed the other end.
The old woman started screaming and though Steven spoke Egyptian well, She was going to fast for him to translate.
But he did catch one perplexing part. “No man may not touch my blood and the Staff at the same time!”
That was all he remembered.
the golden staff shattered and there was a screech so shrill and high it made his eyes roll back… and he soared high into the sky… on wings of flame.
In a costume that belonged more on a person from nearly a thousand years ago.
Steven felt his body burning, as darkness consumed him.

​

Later he awoke to discover himself in what appeared to be virtually a massive gold and amber stoned chamber.
It looked exactly like depictions of an Egyptian temple.
Making matters worse was the strange visions or memories that did not seem to be his, that kept washing over him.
As if he would in memory, see images through almost alien eyes.
He slowly tried to stand… and felt a gentle, but firm hand rest on his shoulder.
Turning he saw a man dressed like a Pharaoh in gold looking down at him. “You have been through a large ordeal. More than you now know Steven Harris. Relax, You are safe.”
Startled, Steven jerked away large man whom actually looked younger than he had first guessed.
“How did this guy know my name?” He thought to himself.
Then he recognized him. He was Egypt’s answer to Icon from New Haven.
He is the Golden Pharaoh.

​

He would learn that he was in a secret hidden Sanctuary in the Sahara Desert, a place few could traverse into the region it lay.
Because it was not completely on Earth.

​

This particular Golden Pharaoh was only just months ago appointed to his position after a lifetime of training since birth.
The former Golden Pharaoh had perished in an attack by Alien Forces against Egypt. Steven learned that he had immediately taken up the mantle and finished the job the original had started.
Because of the formers sacrifice and the new ones onslaught against those that attacked Egypt. The country was saved.
He then learned through a rather lengthy conversation that he had inadvertently done the one thing that was not to be done.
He had gotten the blood of the Preserver of the Sacred Fire on him and touched the Golden Staff of Sacred Fire.
This had nearly cost the life of the Preserver, though she now rested in a coma-like state in the Oasis for some reason Jabari would not let him see her.
Jabari explained that he literally had become the sacred third element… the guardian of the living essence of flame… he was now until death… Protector of the Phoenix.
Inadvertently becoming a hybrid mix of human and the elemental bird of fire, The Phoenix
Unknown to even the Golden Pharaoh, Steven was not the only Hybrid of the four mystic beasts of the elements.
The Phoenix was the last to take a form.
There was the Red Dragon of the Wind, who had wrestled the power of Elemental master of the Air from the Mayan god-creature Quetzalcoatl.
The Black Turtle in India and master of the Sacred fountain of water.
And finally… the Unicorn of myth and it’s elemental title of master of the Earth.
All had bonded with a human.
They were now complete. The Elemental Hybrids of myth had come into the new Millennium.
Golden Pharaoh or Jabari as he was really named, felt honor-bound to help still the raging fire from within Steven Harris.
Coming to terms with this. His guardianship as Jabari termed it… he was trained by Pharaoh in this otherworldly secret Golden Oasis of the Sun in the middle of the Egyptian desert…if indeed that was where they were.
He learned he could form powerful flaming wings under his arms as he had initially when he had merged with the great flaming bird of myth.
That he could wield and project flame or fire, he was immune to the effects of fire. He could speak to all forms of bird or avian creatures and he could request them to do his bidding.
He could fly into the void of space and survive.
His final power was an ear shattering bird-cry that could crumble or demolish stone.
He also discovered he no longer needed to drink water (While in firebird form).
Steven trained for what felt like weeks.
He found out that the memories and visions he sometimes had were those of the Phoenix when it had been free thousands of years ago.
He at one point sensed as if something was watching him. Almost like he was being examined.
Unknown to him he was, The remaining known Gods of Egypt. Though they had forsaken Jabari due to his decision to help the world. Still overlooked the New Golden Pharaoh’s activities.
Steven just happen to be one of them.
As soon as he had sensed it, It seemed to disappear. He had intended on asking Jabari about it. But it had slipped his mind for some reason.
Meanwhile, Jabari or the Golden Pharaoh had taught Steven how to fight the best he could in the short span of time he had.
Steven Harris eventually left the Oasis and discovered so little time had past that it only seemed he had been gone days in the real world.
The Golden Pharaoh told him he was free to do as he pleased and go where he wanted.
Jabari had also given Steven a golden bird formed talisman. He told Steven that if he ever needed him to just hold both wings and speak into the talisman, He would hear and come to his aid.
The worst thing about leaving the Golden Oasis of the Sun was that he had discovered the archeological find of a lifetime.
He had seen so many different objects that likely came from the various dig sites that had been vandalized so many centuries before.
Things thought to be lost were in fact far from it.
He returned to Cairo under his own power and had the oddest feeling he could find the Oasis if he needed to.
His flight over Cairo was certainly a spectacular sight for many and Steven wondered what they all thought of this flaming winged man.
Steven’s return wasn’t without incident. He had explained that he had gotten lost in the desert when he went out to see if something he had heard about was there.
A weak white lie, though, everyone seemed to buy it.

---------------LOCATION--------------
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO (and a few days), CAIRO, EGYPT

Now as he sat preparing to return to New York City as the final objects were loaded onto the freight box that would be placed on a private rented Jet to be flown back to New York.
Steven thought about what he could do with his abilities.
His mind slipped back to Golden Pharaoh and he knew that New York, though not short on costumed heroes of their own… could possibly use one more.
Crime had not gone down after the Aliens had run rampant over the Earth, In some of the major metropolitan areas they had actually increased.
He decided then and there to emulate the costumed heroes.
Steven and the belongings he had brought, along with the transport carrying the items purchased all left for the Cairo’s International Airport.

​

So Steven went home, never revealing his fate in Egypt.
Soon a new costumed hero would soar above the skyways of New York City.

​

 

[NiteMare Shape]

Lost Haven, The Bradley District.

0300 Hours.

For years, strange things have happened in and around the Bradley District in Greater Lost Haven. People have been reporting unexplainable instances of extraordinary human feats being performed by unremarkable people.

For the most part, the claims made by the residents of this neighborhood have been dismissed as wild rumors fueled by over-active imaginations and cheap whiskey. That is until the world became aware of of the meta human population. It was then that the rumors changed. No longer were the stories about strange unexplained happenings in this area of the city that had seen better days...It was now "public knowledge" that the Bradly District was home to an anusually high number of meta humans. It was this revelation that put the Bradley District under a new scrutiny.

In the early morning hours, while most of the residents of this neighborhood are fast asleep in their beds, a convoy or armored black vehicles make their way into the area, finally pulling into the small park where small children frolic during the day, and drug dealers and hoodlums take over come nightfall.

Quickly and silently, an army of agents exit the convoy of vehicles. However, the silence does not last. With a sudden boom of activity, the agents begin entering the homes in the surrounding area. There are shouts of confusion as the agents deploy flash bombs and battering rams.

Moments later, agents re-emerge from the apartment buildings with countless residents locked in chains, most of them with blindfolds covering their eyes. Within minutes, they are loaded into the backs of transport vehicles and are whisked away down the dark streets to an undisclosed location.

Standing in the little park, Marcus Ryder takes out his cell phone and dials a number.

"Alex, it's done. The operation was a success."

 

[Carnage27]

Cerberus
Revelations
​

"Welcome to Lost Haven University!" the tour guide says with a painted on smile as I line up in my group for the tour of my school. I don't need it, I've been here plenty of times for football games, but this is a mandatory orientation. "Now, if you'll all follow me and stay in your group, I'll introduce you to the place that will be your home for the next four years."

I roll my eyes at the completely cliched statement, but follow the group nonetheless. Over the next few hours she points out all the dining halls, classrooms, and gyms that make up the Lost Haven University. Again, I've seen it before, so I'm merely a man stuck listening to an over peppy sorority girl. I feel like I'm already going to hate sorority girls.

After the tour, I head to the main dining hall in order to grab something to eat before heading back to the Eye. And after sitting down with my meal, I immediately wish I would have chosen anywhere else to eat.

"Hey, Des," Penny says as she slides into a chair across from me. "Glad to see you."

"Yea, you too," I nod. "Sorry about last time."

"It's fine," she shrugs. "I understand. But you need to know how much you being okay with me and James means to me. You're my best friend. I don't want you to not talk to me because I'm dating someone."

"Yea I understand. I get it. I'm cool with it." I'm lying obviously, but I am trying to be cool with it. I understand that she needs someone. And I'm not sure I could ever be that person.

"Good, because here he comes," she says, a big smile crossing her face.

I'm not that cool with it.

But before I know it, the Harvey brothers are towering over my table. They're not very stocky, but they're tall, and I guess that makes sense since they're receivers. The one closest to me holds out his hand, "You must be Desmond. I'm James, and this is my brother Kevin. It's great to meet you, I've heard a lot about you."

"Yea man, nice to meet you," I put on a smile and take his hand. "How's summer practice coming?"

"Oh, you know, pretty good," Kevin responds. "Pen, why don't you and I head and get some food."

Terrific, meaning the boyfriend wants to talk to me, get on my good side. Meaning the next few moments are going to be incredibly awkward. Terrific.

He sits down, "Listen, Desmond, I don't want to make this too awkward for you. But Penny has told me your histories, and I just want to tell you that I really do care about her. And I want us to be cool. So...what do you say?"

Fat chance.

"Yea, sounds good, man. I don't see why we couldn't be."

"Awesome, can't wait to hang out more during the semester. I'll make sure you get season tickets for football."

Well, at least I get one good thing out of that.

 

[NiteMare Shape]

For the first time in what seems like forever, Icon had spent the night in his quarters at the Guardian HQ. He'd never truely felt comfortable at Guardian Headquarters, and much prefered to stay at his apartment over "The Hub" nightclub, which he owned and operated as his "day job."

But last night was different. He spent the night at Guardian HQ so that he could keep an eye on his new aquaintance, Kayla. He had rescued her the day before from a S.T.R.I.K.E. squad that was intent on capturing her...and that was enough for him. His complete distrust of the organization made protecting her his number one priority.

He didn't think she was a threat, and something about her just felt...familiar somehow, almost as if she reminded him of someone.Then it dawned on him, some of the little things she did, certain gestures, some of her facial expressions in a way reminded him of Jenny.

He pushes the thought out of his mind as he moves into the common area, where Kayla had spent the night on the plush sofa. He sees that she is awake, and she looks rested, as if she had gotten a good night's sleep for the first time in days.

He sits down next to her, and takes the remote control for the large flatscreen TV mounted on the wall from the small side table, and switches on the news. And he is totally unprepared for what he sees.

Dozens upon dozens of citizens being rounded up in the Bradley District and loaded into large S.T.R.I.K.E. transport vehicles. For a long moment, he just sits there, numbly watching the scene from the night before. Finally he looks over at Kayla who is clearly confused by what she is seeing, yet seems equally concerned.

"I think we have a problem."