First of all, let's start with this, the characters of the first chapter are not from DC Comics, they are from my own story Adventurers of Avalon, a book I'm doing to explain certain eras and a lot of information about comics to people while creating some fun characters; Adventurers of Avalon are a team in that book and after the none-existant number 26 they end lost in time and space and then return in the 27 with a new roster, this is a what if and a way to check the different crisis and strange timelines and worlds of DC through the eyes of this two strange heroes.
Some of you will remember Blue Bettle and Booster Gold due to the friendship between Sonic Vector and Thirteen, I just hope you all will like it, tell me what you think about it, alright?
Adventurers of Avalon
#26
(Cover: The HQ of Avalon is destroyed; smoke rising from the debris while a depressed looking Thirteen and Sonic Vector watch the signature items of their fallen comrades scattered in the ground.
In the cover is written in a corner: Falling Heart 5 of 5! Is everything over?)
I've become somewhat of an expert with situations like this, the relief that comes after coming out of a battle in one piece, or at least with not too many scratches and bruises, but is better than not leaving the battle at all, although this time the pain is worst.
I don't have the sickness that most superheroes seem to suffer, thinking you are immortal, that strange invulnerability appears in the mind of some once they see what they can do with their bodies and mind, it makes you think nothing wrong will happen once you start on this business and life; usually people with powers don't realize how many times they are about to die, only when they see someone they know and fought back to back can have a sliver of an idea about dying and being mortal once again.
One of the reasons I was never truly ill of that was for the same reason that has been nagging the back of my head all the time since I became a hero, I don't have powers, oh, sure, I can do spells that will leave your jaw in the ground, breathe without air present, complete invulnerability against poisons, fly on a board, and other things, but this are not my powers; except for me learning martial arts nothing I do as a super-hero is really my powers, is all because of the bracelet in my right wrist, sadly not even powers can save you in the world.
The Hound, Brix, Amethyst Mind, Omniman, all of them I knew, and I saw them die, all because the madness of that one man, how much can a person fall?
He was the founder of the team almost a decade ago, just himself and other two, and all three are dead now, and I put the last nail in the coffin; Mirra was right, the team was over the moment Omniman went mad.
He was the biggest cliché alive on the face of the planet, the prototypical patriotic hero, living by the Peace, Justice and the American Way of Life, if you ever heard him rant and try to inspire you it would have make you run away at max speed, I'm not saying he was bad, he was just quite over his head; but that was just me, for many people he was an icon, a figure, a ray of light that appeared at the right time to bring justice and hope into the world, those are not my words, they are from an interview that they did of the team and the new roster.
Don't misunderstand me, he could get into your nerves like nobody else with his whole super hero speech but that was just because of me, I have never been that white pristine hero, maybe I am just a little jaded with life, I'm way too much sarcastic and ironic, I'm lazy, I don't drink or see football, I don't do the whole fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day and try to maintain the appearance of the prototypical American citizen, maybe because I'm not from here.
Never really tried to fit in the crowd, sure, I could live with the rest of the people, I'm jaded not a jerk; the rest of the team and other people knows how I can be, sarcastic but a good guy at the end, not Omniman, not the big golden lump.
Every time I interrupted him in one of his speeches with a sarcastic remark I swear he was glaring daggers at me from behind his eye-mask, although some members of Avalon were grateful; I'm sure he and I started with the wrong foot the whole comrade thing but I don't feel guilty, Omniman was way too naïve when dealing with people, he could inspire us all into doing our best and defeat several crisis but that didn't make him exactly the best when dealing with other more important things like, for example, our whole connection with the government, Chris Covert, at first he didn't seem that strange, rather plane looking, it wasn't until I started to investigate a little bit about certain strange things happening in the team that we found out Chris was in fact an enemy of Avalon, Atom King, that was one of the first blows to Omniman's vision of the world.
But it was when his family was killed by Crimson Whiplash and Siege that the first signs of the crumble of the person behind the name Omniman were clear; he never went home, he never took out the mask, it was like if the man that once got the powers of Omniman was dead and instead only the hero remained.
The last push came from the last expected side, the born of the new hero team Battalion Inc.
Who would have thought something as great as that could push Omniman into madness; for some reason he thought that it was a message against him, telling him he was not needed and that his time was over as a hero, how someone can believe that is beyond my reasoning for now, I'll think about it for some other time, but now I don't think I'm in the mood for more brooding, there is enough pain tonight.
Looking at the stone and metal remains of what once used to be a great modern and old fortress seeps all the energy or relief I could have ever felt; for little time this place was like a second home, even though I never really got along with Omniman or Dynamic Woman I made friends with great people, Brother Lion, Brix, Mirra, The Haunt, Sonic Vector, great people fighting for others and everything is now in ruins.
The sound of the sirens still ringing everywhere this night, the people watching at the debris from behind the yellow line and their looks of confusion, pain or sadness of watching this can not be put into words, I don't think I'll be capable of forgetting any of this anytime soon.
But what I watch closer now is a small black cap in my hands with two holes in the front, they weren't by accident, it was Brix's cap; the cute young girl have grown two small oni-like horns on her head due to her mutation and was always using the cap to making them see like part of the cap, I often told her that they looked cute.
Unlike the multiple rumours about us being an item we have simply fallen into the sibling routine and for a time it was so fun, but then this tragedy came and the life we were beginning to enjoy crashed down, she was the last one to fall, thanks to her I got the time to do the finishing blow.
He is up there, Sonic Vector, floating around looking at the disaster; his face betrays his emotions like every other time, usually the one with a joke or a stupid remark, most of the time without even intending to be the comic relief, now he is there in the sky, heavy with the pain, his sight distant, not watching the building now turned tombstone.
So many dead; Omniman being the first and the one who will clearly affect the most, hero turned villain, what did Hollow said? The public loves to see a hero fall? Well, they're gonna have a blast with this.
But The Haunt and Amethyst Mind are dead too, the three original members died fighting, not against a huge villain or saving the world, but fighting against each other.
Not only that, Brother Lion is in the ER right now, Mecha is with her parents, I don't even know where Dynamic Woman is, and Mirra is helping the police in whatever they are doing right now, always the officer that one.
Three of us, only three members here that are active members, three members that have less than two months as heroes in this group; unlike Battalion Inc. or Heralds of New Age the group always had few active members for some reason.
Now what is going to happen?
Is this the end?
Is the team dead with the founders?
What is going to happen to us? To the world?
Shall we leave the world to Battalion Inc.?
Form our new group?
I don't know anymore; I feel burnout for now.
Maybe is time to finish these dream.
-----
As the young dark haired man walked out of the destruction zone he was soon joined by the flying redheaded man that was his best friend in the apparently disbanded group, both of them showing the sadness and pain of the battle, both had to use their abilities to finish of their mad leader and obviously it was still hanging over their heads.
"Now what?"
"We can only walk I guess, my bracelet doesn't have charge" Thirteen answered still watching the asphalt, Vector simply sighed at his comrade; unlike him he didn't use a mask, his face and hair were too recognizable to hide them, besides he never really liked the idea of having a secret identity, less stress on his side.
"What's going to happen now?"
"Are you even asking me that? I'm the last one to take a decision like that"
"But you are the detective from the team" Vector said pointing out at the most obvious ability of Thirteen, from everyone in the team he was the one who discovered the secret behind plots or the true enemy location, that's what he did all the time.
"But I can't take decisions, I'm not the leader, Dynamic Woman is the second in command, I guess we can only wait until she returns from wherever she is right now" Thirteen said scratching his head slightly while walking.
From all their other partners Mirra would be quite distracted and busy for the whole night but they had communication devices and she will contact them soon, probably with news about Brother Lion, being the intergalactic police officer made her more prepared for situations like this, for now they were in need of rest, their energies were almost over, and the future was as black and uncertain as the night.
-----
People knew, they watched how the HQ crumbled down and only a handful came out, now they saw this heroes walk away with the weight of the city and their own feelings on their shoulders, and watching them walking away left them in awe, they felt their sadness and no sound, no talk, no whispers were heard, only the sirens pierced the night.
An era of heroes was over, it died with the day, the torch has been passed, but no one knew when the day would come or if it will come at all, only the back of those heroes were seen walking away, no fanfares, just respect.
-----
Chicago, next morning.
Unlike some people, Thirteen really hated mornings, he was a complete night owl, he have seen sunrise a handful of times but he felt that he needed to see one; standing in the rail of the apartment's balcony he was present when the sun finally appeared on the horizon and bathed everything with his light, vanquishing darkness and shadows for another day.
The apartment was one of several owned by the Adventurers of Avalon, they were barely used but they were constantly taken care of, they were only used in an emergency and Thirteen really considered this an emergency.
'They are right, the future of the team is on the edge, is dead, all of this is dead, is over; the team will have to disband, there is nothing else to do, Dynamic Girl will have to make the last decision, but for what I know of her she won't even give a damn about tradition or anything like that, heck, she'll probably ask for admittance in Battalion Inc.'
While he was thinking in all the different consequences neither him nor any other person in the world could see a strange wave of energy moving across the world at an enormous speed, rippling through space and time, rearranging everything.
"You are awake too, uh?" Hearing the voice from the apartment upstairs Thirteen raised his head to watch the normal attired redhead young man and simply shrugged.
"What can I say? It surely helps you watch sunrise, it makes you remember that you are alive"
"That sounded so corny" Vector said with a rather funny face making Thirteen laugh for the first time in days.
"Yeah, too damn corny isn't it?" He grinned at the easy going talk; it reminded them of what life used to be before the whole tragedy.
Neither of them saw the wave barrelling through everything on Chicago, only after they felt the sudden change in their surrounding they were on the defensive, or at least they tried, the wave was making them dizzy, Thirteen felt backwards from the railing and hit hard his back.
"Wow, this is so groovy, who is remembering things?!" Vector said in a scream joking about the old memory scene on television where the screen seemed to wave but he was right, the effect was making them dizzy and lose their bearings, was this an attack of their enemies? Where they in danger?
Whatever it was they felt their world shift and change around them and the dizziness went down a few seconds ago.
"Man, I'll never drink again" Thirteen said trying to stand up after being thrown into a tornado in his opinion.
"You don't even drink"
"Precisely" Thirteen answered finally regaining his wits and watching his surroundings; his face clearly showed his confusion with the eyebrow raised, they were clearly not in the apartment complex anymore.
"Somebody turn off the A/C, I'm freezing up here!" It seemed that the classic humour of his friend have come back not a moment too soon, they would probably need some laughs to survive whatever new strange situation they were right now.
"We live in Chicago and you are complaining about the wea…" Thirteen's jaw was open and his eyes the perfect picture of surprise and shock making his close friend slightly worried.
"What happen?"
"I think we are not in Kansas anymore"
"We were never in Kansas, we were in Illinois, what has to do Kansas in all of this?" before his friend began a new rant Thirteen made the flying superhero look at the construction on top of the roof, it was a world and two words were engraved around it, DAILY PLANET.
"We are definitely not in Kansas anymore"
A Shocking revelation: After the last battle against Omniman the problems have barely begun for them; now two worlds are seemingly mixing together or there is something worst coming along?
In these last issue of Adventurers of Avalon you saw the repercussions and the thoughts of two of the surviving members after the madness of their leader, sadly things for them are not as easy; instead of letting them fight their new ghosts and decisions they are thrown into a new mystery; a strange wave made them appear in Metropolis and not only that is the problem.
What is going to happen to Thirteen and Sonic Vector now that they are not only in a different city but a different dimension all together?
What will be the future of Adventurers of Avalon? Is now the team dead?
This and other mysteries will be seen in the first number of Rift Advent on JLA #110