A bright day dawned for the frontier town of Naz-reth, home of the ten year stew pot, famous for the blue river, where it is said you can pull precious stones from the sands of the riverbank (Total B.S.), our intrepid hero sat , up yawned and scratched all over as he mulled over what to have for breakfast, his blanket stank like old sweat and very faintly of dog, and felt scratchy on his legs, he pulled his scarred naked form from the bed like most augmented humans his body was sculpted not unlike the statue of ancient Greek heroes, his strength nearly unparalleled, speed that would make any athlete jealous, and the sheer endurance to outlast anyone stronger or faster.
Sounds great at the surface, all it takes is seventeen magnets each less than half the size of the head of a needle, strategically placed to stimulate certain areas of the brain enhancing strength, speed, endurance and recovery time to unnatural levels even going so far as to unlock the dormant psychic powers of even the least gifted individual. What they don't tell you is that the very magnets that give you all that power are slowly, but surely eroding your mind, giving birth to neurosis, hallucination, paranoia, delusion, and eventually no matter how careful you are, your mind and body simply tear themselves apart spectacularly. But that downer aside our hero hasn't yet reached that point yet, infact as Crazies go our hero is pretty well off, a bit of an introvert, hyperactivity, an intense sensitivity to magical energies causing migraines, oh and an intense fear of the dark, oh yes things could be so much worse, but at least he'll outlive every juicer who ever managed to crack a joke whose particulars involve comparing his head to a disco ball (seventeen dime sized locater studs do not a disco ball make) however we are getting ahead of ourselves, our hero gathered up his gear rifle and blade and strapped on the pitted armored plates that protect him from the things he cant dodge, the things not of this hellish unstable world where madness is deemed a fair trade for the power necessary to make your way in it.
"Life sucks when your on the down end of a manic streak" thinks our hero as he steps out into the dusty heat of the town's main street the populace by and large hadn't managed to get out of bed as false dawn had only just made its appearance and most sane people tend to prefer to start the day when the day actually starts. Making his way down to Anne's diner, the sweet all night greasy spoon run by his dearest friend Anne, being an Elf Anne requires only a few hours of meditation each day to be perfectly well rested as such her diner runes night and day with little downtime, the forest green two story building flanked on all sides by lush garden boxes filled with wild flowers whose surprisingly mild yet sweet fragrance sooths the recently violated nose of our hero.
"Morning Anne!" called Tom as he strolled through the door accompanied by the jingle-jangle of the door bell, now thats when things got plain weird, the floor(Which is usually there except for that one instance with the fusion block) simply vanished into a shimmering golden doorway, and its through that doorway that Thomas fell squealing.
The first thing that our hero was aware of was an odd tingling sensation that coursed through his body and a sharp aching in his skull he felt squashed and stretched and as time passed the tingling in his head got worse until her heard/felt a sharp *crackle* that simply couldn't be anything good, and as suddenly as it happened it stopped and he felt the strangely cool air envelope him and a gaudy gold tiled floor rushed up to greet him.
With lightning reflexes Thomas turned mid air and put his shoulder to ground first rolling into the fall to end up on his feet facing a wall constructed of the same dull golden material, as he turned and gazed upon the odd octagonal plated hallways he noticed doorways set at intervals down the wall stretching left and right, they seemed to split down the middle sliding into the walls, a control panel on the right hand side of the wall seemed to be the control mechanism, to our heroes great distress there were several shiny buttons that just begged (BEGGED!) to be pushed, without further adue our hero reached out and jammed his finger down on the largest of the buttons with a slightly manic grin.
After about thirty seconds with nothing happening Thomas frowned, "this sucks" he cracked out, only to grab his throat in shock, "wh-what the hell is wrong with my voice?" he squeaked, frantically he felt around his face "oh no, oh no, oh no, I am NOT going through puberty a second time damnit!" he shouted, "Keep It DOWN! ya snot eatin loser" bite out a rather short bald kid four doors down the hall, and maaan he was short standing no more than three feet tall if he was a mile, dressed in a green jumpsuit and wearing some kind of silver backpack a set of welding goggles strapped to his forehead completed the ensemble, the bags under his eyes and the pillow lines on his face a good indicator that it was either very early or very late wherever he was.
"Hey! who the hell are you?" snapped out the bald kid as our hero continued to stare at him, "Umm, the names Tom, and you are?" he asked a bit nervously, unsure if this kid was some psychotic super borg or wizard or some kind of unnamable horror in this world, "Tom? your names Tom!" the laughter that followed was both annoying and in Tom's mind wholey unnecessary, "eat shit and die you bald midget" snapped our hero annoyed, said midget seemed to take grievous offense at this and proceeded to sprout four large metallic spider-like legs from his backpack, and from over his left shoulder some kind of cannon leveled at our hero's armored form, feeling a bit more confident at the sight of robotics, weird robotics but robotics none the less, the bald midget didn't give Tom much time to enjoy his relief as he started firing, twitching left and right ducking under and leaping over the blasts, even in this enclosed space the midgets bad aim mixed with Tom's unnatural reflexes meant that every shot went pretty wide as Tom closed into the half pint, drawing his vibroblade he leapt forward slashing as he went, his blade parted the metal like water as he ended up underneath the now unbalanced technophile, who struggled to compensate for the loss of his leg, now directly underneath him, Tom leapt up and twisting mid air kicked him square in the face with his armored boot, the blow knocked the midget reeling back on his rear legs and finally collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap, "Nighty night half pint" grinned Tom.
Thats when the alarms started blaring, a trio of people in odd crimson robes stood at the end of the hallway one of them had their hands on a control panel, they took little time in establishing whether or not he was a threat or if this was all a huge misunderstanding, they just charged in, unarmed and eager, Tom chuckled as they seemed to stumble towards him in a flurry of robes "awww how cute" he giggled "the squishies think they can fight" it was then that the enemy was upon him in all their unaugmented glory, calling it a one sided fight is not doing it justice, they may as well have been standing still for all that they could fight back his fists nipped under every attempt at defense, his legs lashed out in a flurry of kicks that decimated the first three in a heartbeat, all too soon they started coming out of the woodworks as Tom lost himself in a flurry of punches and kicks, until at last he had to stop holding back or be overwhelmed and started swinging one of their number into groups of the bastards.
"Have these guys never heard of guns" muttered Tom as he tossed the last of the crimson robed figures to the floor clapping his hands to free them of the grime of a decent fight, the alarm still blaring Tom waited a few moments expecting more to arrive, when none made an appearance he sighed and rubbed the top of his head calloused hands scrapping against the locator studs stopping when he realized that they had all lined up into some sick parody of a Mohawk, "oh for fuck sake" groaned Thomas thats when the door on his right opened and an eight foot giant of a man stepped through the door, his broad brown haired head nearly scrapping the roof as he yawned hugely stepping over one of the many robed figures "whats going on, wheres the party?", Tom stared up at the living mountain of muscle and mullet "what the hell happened to Gizmo?" he asked as a disheveled Goth with mussed purple hair stepped out from behind him, bleary purple eyes blinking in the bright light of the hallways standing barefoot beside her bedmate and wearing his shirt judging from his broad naked chest and the fact her nightgown hangs nearly to her shins, "Dunno, hey! whos that?" at this the purple haired Goth gestured at our hero, and Thomas, under the twin stare of the daunting pair felt more than a touch unnerved its not everyone who can look calmly upon the unconscious body of their comrade and a pile of fifty unconscious robed men who look like they lost a fist fight with mighty Thor, "definitely not good" muttered Tom.
The big fella took one long step forward placing himself between our hero and his girlfriend, "hey who ARE you anyway? I ain't never seen you around her before" he reached out to jab Tom with a thick finger, Tom slipped back a step and a half to avoid the digit "uh I'm new ?" tried Tom, "mmhmm" murmured the Goth looking less groggy by the second, she stepped gracefully around her mountainous boyfriend and eyed Tom, who upon seeing the change in mood drew his vibroblade and readied to deal with the mountainous menace and Goth, "I've killed dragons and destroyed robots the size of apartment buildings you think a jock and his Goth girlfriend are even gonna slow me down?" The big guy didn't buy it for a second he did however haul back and swing his huge arm straight towards our hero with the intent of turning him into paste, Tommy managed to duck under the heavy limb and was bringing his knife to bear on the unprotected ribs of the mammoth man, when the vibration generator stopped working, the knife flashed purple and stopped buzzing causing the blade sharp though it was to simply dimple the heavily muscled side of the man, aside from grunting from the impact he didn't seem bothered, he did however manage to wrap his heavy arm around toms head and squeeze it against his side with crushing pressure, Toms fists seemed to blur as he desperately tried to batter his way free of the impossibly strong grip even as black spots danced before his eyes, and finally darkness.
Brother Blood, headmaster of the prestigious H.I.V.E. academy, the foremost learning establishment of villains both super and mundane, sighed, it was a calm night something of a precious treat in the hectic mishap filled life of a villain, he sat upon the padded meditation mat and exhaled slowly the tea cup filled to the brim with steaming fluid remained still in the air at his elbow motionless the dark liquid within still as his center steam slowly curled from its surface drifting off into the darkness of his chambers, he did not sleep his perfect control of both his mind and body allowed him to forgo such pedestrian things as sleep, the quiet moments in his chambers the breath between duties that was where his rest was found, though a periodic indulgence of solitude was as a vacation to him a time to focus and reflect to still his thoughts and just be.
For but a moment he allowed his mind to wander the vast halls of his home, each tile, ever vent and doorway, each hall and class room, just feeling touching lightly the minds of the students and faculty, there is always activity within the walls always people going, coming, practicing, studying, catching up on paper work, some like Kyd wykkyd and a very few others needed no sleep to function, their minds a mysterious fog to his senses a mild annoyance at best but their alien natures belied great potential to great to allow another to possess.
His night time musings were cut brutally short as an immense burst of energy exploded into his senses, as violent and unexpected as it was powerful, Brother Blood howled in pain and clutched the sides of his head as the spike of agony lanced through his mind, the tea cup at his shoulder exploded as his mind reeled and he toppled onto his back sprawling as though struck, despite the suddenness of the attack his mind and body worked inconcert to sooth its tattered nerves, as he stood shakily to his feet, he sent his mind hurdling towards the site of the diminishing burst of energy only to discover an alien presence lurking in *his* halls, immediately he reached out and guided his faculty member to the intruders location even as he sensed Gizmo irate and lustful and jealous storming towards his doorway intent on scathing whoever had disturbed his type of peace, the battle between the unreadable invader and Gizmo was violently brief, so short was the battle that his own forces had barely amassed in time to intercept their new guest before he could lose himself in the corridors.
his faculty member proved less helpful than anticipated fifty strong felled with brutal efficiency even with his considerable aid, guiding their movements as any good puppet master coordinating their attacks, positioning them to greatest advantage, and still their guest was simply too fast, too strong, it was through their eyes that he was allowed to look upon this new threat, average height with short brown hair cut close to his scalp a line of silver disks parting his crown down the middle, tanned and broad shouldered, dressed in military fatigues and armored, a rifle on his back and a long bladed knife in his fist, moving like water impossibly fast ducking under or slithering around sure strikes only to land crushing blows thought the most sturdy defense, when the last of his minions fell, he sighed in deep frustration, he hated to include the students in his squabbles, a flicker of his considerable power was all it took to convince Mammoth and Jinx that someone was at their door, sure enough Mammoth's incredible strength and raw durability, coupled with Jinx tripping him up proved the interlopers undoing, and trapped within Mammoth's iron grip his struggles slowed until finally they stopped, and he was still, and then he twitched, and he breathed, and he lived his head knitting itself together and his body adjusting, healing, until at last he was whole again.
Fascinated Brother Blood, reached out and called to his students "Mammoth please bring our guest to my chambers i want to have a little chat with him" the momentary confusion from the titanic oaf was as sour milk to his "tongue" but the acceptance was sweet relief as he paused long enough to tell his paramour his intention and began his lumbering way upstairs to the headmasters quarters guest in tow, the door slid open as Mammoth approached, he stood a moment before the pitch darkness of the headmasters private sanctum unsure if he should enter or not, he was not left long pondering this question as the headmaster appeared from the gloom, smiling his creepy self assured smirk at the sight of his student, his impeccable golden robes unruffled his hair pristine, Mammoth considered for a moment that perhaps the headmaster was a vampire, he never ate never slept and never left the H.I.V.E. these thoughts were interrupted as the headmaster reached out and plucked the unconscious kid from his arms and waving him off without a word the doors snapping shut behind him, with a sigh he turned on his heel and lumbered down the hall back to Jinx' room, his rib ached from that little hit and he wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed beside his pale lover and sleep for a week, running thick fingers through his mussed hair he sighed as he remembered he had practice and gym first thing in the morning, passing a clock and noting the unholy hour of four fifteen A.M. he groaned and picked up the pace hoping against hope that Jinx would let him in again.
Brother Blood stared down at the skinny but broad shouldered form at his feet, an oddity still unconscious and unmoving his head having healed leaving no scar or line to mark its injury, he took a moment to focus his mind into a stiletto point of pure will power that nearly made itself manifest as a bare shimmer in the air and sent it hurdling into the interlopers skull seeking out his thoughts, his motives, an explanation as to why he was here, or at least how he came to be here at all, Brother Blood did not like to be left in the dark. The violence of the intrusion wrenched a scream of pain from unconscious form causing him to curl in on himself for a moment before uncurling and springing to his feet with impressive speed and alacrity, his hand jerking down for his blade even as he staggered a bit on his feet vertigo a temporary foe as his mind reeled,he scrubbed at his face a moment to discover his nose bleeding and his vision blurred, "you know" sighed Brother Blood smoothly, "there are very few people in the world at large who are as gifted as I and even fewer can defend against a concentrated assault such as the one i just inflicted upon you, i find this both frustrating and fascinating, please indulge me, where are you from and why are you here?"
Thomas stared at the gray haired man before him the white robes with gold trim were immaculate, and his eyes hard as agate as he glared down at Thomas' reeling form, his throbbing head and the churning of his stomach, both unusual feeling were off putting as he tried to come up with a coherent thought to put to words, finally he managed to slur out "I d don't know how i got here, and I'm from the burbs of Chi-town" The Robed man arched a brow as he calmly contemplated the interlopers words, "perhaps after a bit of rest and some time to recover, you'd be a bit more descriptive" Brother Blood stood quiet for a moment and sent his mind out to the nearest of his minions and guided him to his chambers when the doors whisked open he calmly ordered the man to escort their guest to one of the vacant rooms on the second level, the young man seems thrown off by this sudden change from interrogator to host, and was led dumbfounded from his chambers.
The scarlet robed man before him was silent as he led Thomas from the dark room back into the golden hallways of the facility, the broad scarlet back of the man leading him became his world as he wearily put one foot shakily in front of the other, until at last the robed man stopped and touched the wall, a soft whisk and the feel of cool still air and the robed man's hands guided him into the darkened room the door whisked closed behind him. In the darkness of his quiet cell his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light, just enough to guide his steps to the bed against the far wall, where he collapsed upon the mattress, pulled his feet up onto the bed and curled into a tight ball hugging his legs against his breastplate, closed his eyes and concentrated on pulling himself together long enough for his long term recovery program to kick in and hurl him into deep REM while his body and mind did its best to pull itself together, all the while the magnets in his brain buzzed merrily away almost seeming to revel in the fresh flesh they had been gifted, and slowly but surely started the long walk to madness once more.
Morning found Thomas marveling at the sheer novelty of sitting in a dark room without feeling the sudden thrill of terror that once gripped his heart when the sun set, he couldn't help but laugh as his eyes adjusted turning pitch into gloom, allowing him to stare about the room, his sensitive nose was painfully aware of the rank stink of sweat that clung to his skin and clothes, and the stiffness of his limbs, the dull ache in his skull where that weirdo..., and last night came back to him with the sudden shock like a slap to the face, he was a damned kid again a teenager, a super human teenager, in an alien world, where super humans were distressingly common, he began pacing counting the steps from wall to wall hopping to find the dimensions of the room as he hunted for the light switch, before long his questing fingers found the panel beside his door a bit of fumbling and soon golden light exploded into being momentarily blinding him as he took in his new home, four walls of a dark gold metal plating, cut in octagonal sections that interconnected near seamlessly, a single rumpled bed with black covers and a pillow laying on the floor beside it, a desk on the right hand wall, and dresser, book shelf, and some kind of view screen dominating the left, the wall behind him held the way out as well as a small table and coat rack, just past the foot of his bed sat a sliding door with a pale light glowing over it abruptly the light went dim, and Tom's sharp ears caught the sound of a toilet flushing and the clack of another door beyond. "not bad", he thought "not bad at all, never been in a jail cell this nice before"
His musings were cut short however when the door behind him started to open, no longer off balance from landing on his head in a hallway or hurling through dimensional tears, the being turned into a kid thing, thats gonna take a bit to process, but he is feeling much better than before, so when he springs away from the door turning mid air and landing ready for a fight, before him stood a pair of familiar figures a petite, pale girl dressed in black lace and stripped stockings, smirking as she gazed about with bright pink eyes, behind her a wall of muscle dressed in black and gold only his bearded chin visible from the doorway, "aren't you looking spry this morning" she snarked looking rather unhappy and more than a touch tired, "the headmaster wants to see you, don't make me drag you there" growled the mountain of a man, as they stood there eyeing Thomas he couldn't help but feel nervous, the memory of his skull cracking under the big fella's arm still painfully fresh in his mind, he sighed "guess I don't have a whole lot of choice, huh?" The pale Goth smiled "exactly now move your funky but out soldier boy" she stepped aside beckoning at the doorway, Thomas sighed and with the gait of a defeated man walked out the door following the broad back of the mountain, "so uh what do they call you two?" asked Tom a bit nervously as they strolled through the halls of the facility, at first a claustrophobic's nightmare of corridors, that soon opened up into wider corridors and halls and people of all shapes and sizes rushing about, coming out of or going into various rooms that looked suspiciously like classrooms, or walking in small knots chattering about this and that, all of them dressed outlandishly, in garish colors and cuts of cloth, "and what is this place?" "This is the H.I.V.E. academy, its sort of like a less suffocating military school" explained the Goth easily, "and you can call me Jinx, that giant ahead of you is Mammoth", said giant deemed a grunt sufficient response, "uh my names Thomas, I guess you can call me Tom most people do, well that and fuck face", this elicited a laugh from Mammoth and an eye roll from Jinx, "do you have any idea what the headmaster wants with me?" inquired Tom as he slipped through a crowd of red suited clones all calling themselves Billy and conversing about the lunch menu, "didn't ask" grunted Mammoth as they reached their destination.
The imposing office doors flanked by halberd wielding guards in dark red robes, wearing black metallic masks over their faces, watched the halls impassively and made no move, and gave no indication of the presence of the students, the large red and gold doors simply swung silently open as the headmaster called out "Thomas my boy, do come in I've been waiting for you, Jinx, Mammoth I believe you have classes to attend" the odd pair gave a respectful nod to their headmaster before making their way down the hall talking in low tones amongst themselves, Tom stepped briskly into the darkened office, glancing about as the light from the large bay window shone into it showing the time to be around noon, tall bookshelves lined the walls from roof to ceiling full of old worn volumes on subjects unimaginable his eyes panned across the titles with speed taking in a few of interest as the headmaster beckoned for him to sit and make himself comfortable.
Brother Blood stared at the young man as he sat down, self consciously scratching at his arm and painfully aware of his less than flattering odor, this observation was made by reading the young man's body language, his mind remained impressively resilient to even the most subtle mental probe, finally after letting the boy fidget and squirm under his stare he relented "I understand your confusion so please feel free to ask any questions you might have" The youth wasted no time asking some interesting questions "what is this place?, and what world is this whats it called? and who are you?" The headmaster smirked, back where he could shine on the high ground of the informed, "my students have already answered your first question so i will elaborate a bit, this school is here to teach young people the finer points of using their abilities to achieve their own ends, think of it as a finishing school to ready a person for life in the wide world, as for the world it is called Earth, though you don't look like an alien, certainly your blood checks out as human, and I am Brother Blood the headmaster of this fine school you may call me either Brother Blood or headmaster, whichever you choose" now then to business, it is painfully apparent you have no idea of your whereabouts and I believe you mean my students and I no harm, though i must say your skill set is most impressive, disorientated you managed to lay low one of our top students and best fifty of my own personally trained faculty members not an easy task, i would be willing to offer you a scholarship if you like, to help you get acquainted with our world and perhaps find your place within it, there are no outsiders within these walls just one big family a family that could make good use of you, what do you say?"
Stunned by the sheer volume of the information jammed into her brain Thomas sat stunned, "well I have no where else to go and I have no idea how this world works, headmaster i accept you offer." Brother Blood smiled above his steepled fingers, "excellent! I'll have a schedule written out for you and inform your teachers, I trust you have a basic education? Any second languages or advanced learning?" Thomas scrubbed his fingers along the aligned studs scowling at the reminder of his metal pseudo-hawk, I can speak and write English, and i can speak a bit of Spanish, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but thats about it, i can fix up wiring and jery rig simple electronics too" the headmaster nodded, "better than most" he sighed, writing up a missive and spiriting it to the administrative department, as he reached into his desk and withdrew an octagonal device from the drawer, "here take this think of it as a personal planner/cell phone, it'll remind you of when you have classes and let your teachers give you grief if you fail to show up, it also has a map of the grounds to give you an idea of where you are, now feel free to look around get acquainted with your classmates, take a shower!" Ears burning Thomas barely managed to utter out a "thanks headmaster" as he made his way to the door in a rush.
Thomas nearly collided with a black cloaked fella with dark red eyes and a wild outfit, well that is until the guy vanished into a black whirl of energy only to appear further down the hall, leaving Thomas startled but chuckling the red eyed kid narrowed his eyes at Tom before moving on, "y'all must be new here" crowed a Texan drawl, Tom turned to stare at the guys in red jump suits "th' name's Billy, Billy Numerous" tapping the division symbol on his chest, the ten of them circled around Tom who understandably felt boxed in "that sure is some fancy armor eh Billy? shore is Billy, think maybe we should get some armor like that there Billy? I shore as heck think so, make us look macho, ain't that right Billy?" the other Billy's followed with several "yups" and "uh-huhs" Rolling his eyes Thomas stepped forward in a blur of motion slamming his right fist into the belly of the lead Billy and proceeded to hammer home the "don't tread on me" point of this beating, in short order twelve Billy's lay groaning on the ground in heaps of discomfort and bloody noses.