Mega-Raptor watched over his Doppelgangers dig through rubble, he was looking for something. He approached a Perfect with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"This better not be a waste of time, I had to fake my death and let my little sister escape with that miserable excuse of a hero, El Tigre." He told his minion.
"My scans were accurate sir, there was a massive energy signature in this area. There was no mistaking it, its power rivalled Sartana's guitar if not surpassing it." The Perfect reassured. Mega-Raptor was about to shoot him with an energy blast when a Hunter got his attention.
"Master!" it yelled. "I found something!" the hunter found a trapdoor under the rubble. Mega-Raptor pushed the Hunter away, forced open the door and tossed it off the side of the mountain.
He, two Perfects and four hunters went down a passage that lead down into a darkened chamber. It was almost empty except of a pillar that was in a veil of light, within it there was a podium that held a book.
"I'm guessing that is the object you described to me?" Mega-Raptor asked the Perfect that told him about the energy, which replied with a nod. He used his powers to take it from the podium telekinetically. It was a large bulky book that had a purple cover with a symbol on the front that looked like a claw holding a skull.
"I do sense great power from this." Mega-Raptor said before opening the book. But as he took a look at page after page, he can only find text in some strange language that he had never seen before. "What is this?" he asked as he chucked the book at a Perfect.
It took a look at the content before replying. "The content is in no translatable language, this seems to be even older than Sumerian."
"Are you kidding me?" Mega-Raptor yelled. "What is the point in possessing an all-powerful weapon if I cannot use it?"
"That's because it is not just a mere weapon." A voice said from behind the group. They looked at where the voice came from to see a girl. She looked roughly fifteen years old and seemed to be of Greek ethnicity. She had red hair and eyes, wore a black leather jacket with red crop top, red mini skirt, black knee-high high-heeled boots and a red necklace hung around her neck.
"And you are?" Mega-Raptor asked
"My name is Circe, and what you have in your hands is the Codex of Armageddon." she replied walking towards the villain and his minions. "It is in a language used by the Olympian Gods, which I can read."
"And you are going to take it from me? No chance sister!" Mega-Raptor said before firing an energy beam at Circe, but she casts a force field which reflects and refracts the beam, hitting all the Doppelgangers in the room. Circe then laughs at the startled villain.
"You maybe a fierce warrior, but your skills in the dark arts are pathetic, so maybe you should give me the Codex so it can be used-" she tried to explain before her expression went blank as she received a vision from the future. There was a mountain of corpses under a blood red sky, and on that mountain stood a being wearing a black outfit with red armoured parts, she then realised what it meant. "Change of plan, do you like making deals?" she asked Mega-Raptor.
Mega-Raptor walked closer to her. "What deal?" he asked
"I will teach you the spells that lay within the Codex, giving you greater power over dark forces, and you spare me from your rise to power." Mega-Raptor glared at her.
"Look Circe, I tried the whole world domination thing, it didn't work out." He explained to the witch.
She put her hand on his forehead. "Take a look for yourself." He experienced the same vision. He recognised the being on the mountain of corpses as himself and was then release from it.
"Fine, I'll give it another try." He said with a hint of regret in his voice.
"Besides, I like a man with power." Circe commented as they walked out of the room side by side, and if it wasn't for his helmet she would have seen Mega-Raptor blush. "So if we are to work together, I'm going to need a place to crash."
"Fine, you can stay at my place." Mega-Raptor told her, and before she could make a joke about him living in the remains of his father's base he activated his communicator. "Has Castle Apocalypse been reconstructed?" he asked.
"Construction complete and operation is optimal." A Doppelganger replied.
"Bring it here, also we have a new resident. Register the sorceress Circe as an equal and ally; she is to translate the Codex of Armageddon." Mega-Raptor commanded
"Acknowledged." The Doppelganger responded.
Mega-Raptor then turned to Circe staring in awe as a large flying fortress appeared overhead.
"Welcome to your new home, Castle Apocalypse 2.0!" Mega-Raptor said followed by demonic laughter. "I'm back, baby!"
Three years later, Frida was getting ready to leave Leone Middle School with her best friend, Manny Rivera.
"Hey Frida, incoming." He warned as Frida looked behind her to see Zoe Aves approaching them, Frida was smiling for some reason.
"What do you want, Aves?" Frida asked with a smirk on her face.
"Don't you dare act so smug, Suárez. I don't know how you did it, but I know you released a pair of Dobermans in my home economics class!" Zoe threatened as they walked out the front doors of the school.
"Oh, I do hope you are ok." Frida Mocked. Manny tried to stay out of this as much as possible.
"Actually, I had to get rabies shots. I will get you for this you little…" Zoe was cut off by an approaching motorbike. It was a black chopper with a glowing red design which made it look like it was made in a chop shop in Hell. The driver pulled up in front of the trio, turned off the engine and looked at them. He took off his helmet to reveal it was none other than José Aves. In the three years José had been away he had gotten taller and bulked up slightly in physique.
"Long time no see, baby sister." He greeted his little sister.
"Hi, José." Zoe replied. She may have looked like she had seen a ghost, but she felt like she saw the devil.
"I will never understand how you have that power over her." Frida said reacting to Zoe's sudden shift in mood.
"So what brings you back to MiracleCity?" Manny asked, Zoe couldn't help but think about what he's going to do.
"I'm eighteen! I just moved out of my dad's place and wanted to live a lot closer to my little sister." José explained as his phone started to ring. "Hello? Oh hey. Yeah I'm nearly there. Just checking on my sister and her friends. Bye."
"Who was that?" Zoe asked.
"My girlfriend, Caroline." This news made Frida's heart sink a little. "See you guys around." José drove off and left the three as clueless as he left them three years ago. He drove into an abandoned parking garage to make sure no one saw him teleport. He was taken to Castle Apocalypse where he met up with Circe.
"Have fun?" she asked in a childish tone
"Indeed I did, 'Caroline'." José said in return, transforming into Mega-Raptor. "Not much has changed since I was last here. I'm surprised Frida made it to high school."
"I'm sorry, who is Frida?" Circe asked, sounding quite jealous and annoyed as they walked through their fortress.
"A brainless, Eddie Van Halen wannabe who I manipulated into servitude a few years back. No one important." Mega-Raptor reassured. "So, what will be learning today?"
"I have something special for you to learn, it is crucial for your rise to power." said Circe. "It's called 'The Spell of Oblivion'. A spell used to destroy a certain form of evil." Circe explained.
"And I suppose you have acquired a possible target for this spell?" Mega-Raptor questioned.
"Indeed I have!" Circe said as they walked into a room where they found a restrained Sartana of the Dead. She was strapped to a chair, gagged so she couldn't talk and blindfolded. Circe whispered the words and instructions to her boyfriend as two Doppelgangers took off Sartana's blindfold and mouth gag.
"You!" she yelled. "I will make you suffer for this." She cursed. Mega-Raptor ignored this and started reciting the spell. At first there was nothing, but then Sartana slowly started to disintegrate. As it went on she screamed, the pain growing each passing second until she turned to dust.
"Powerful stuff." Mega-Raptor stated. "So she is gone for good?"
"Yep. This leaves her stuff up for grabs, especially this." Circe said giving Mega-Raptor Sartana's Mystic Guitar. Mega-Raptor examined it and remembered the day he obtained his powers.
"Send this down to the lab and find a way to harness its power, when that happens: upgrade every Doppelganger." He told a Hunter. "Time to recruit an old friend."
A few days later, Chief Suárez was called by the station about a code 207, a kidnapping in progress. He was told it was in an old apartment building that hadn't been used in years. The squad worked their way up the rundown structure and bust into a room to see a blonde girl tied to a chair crying
The Chief told is squad to secure the room as he untied the girl. "It's alright little one, your safe." He reassured her. All of a sudden he heard his men scream in fear as they were assaulted by Hunter Doppelgangers. "What's happening?" he asked aiming his gun at three approaching Doppelgangers.
"It's called: a trap." The blonde girl told him before blasting him out a boarded up window. He flew out of the third story floor landed on top of a Squad Car and rolled off with an aching back and what appeared to be a broken arm. "You're tougher than you look." The girl said as she revealed herself to be Circe. She jumped down in front of him and kneeled down "Guess I'll have to try harder"
"Who are you?" the Chief asked.
"Name's Circe and I'm here to murder you in the name of Mega-Raptor." Circe said with a dark tone as she lifted him by the neck.
"But… he's dead." The Chief said while gasping for air.
"The reports of his death were greatly exaggerated." A Doppelganger replied.
"Bottom line: he's back and stronger than ever!" Circe explained. "And he has plans for your little girl."
"If you hurt Frida…" the Chief started
"Don't worry, you're the only one who will be hurt." Circe then punched into the Chief's chest and pulled out his heart somehow this left a black patch instead of a hole in his chest. "…for now" she finished. She contacted Mega-Raptor to tell him the news. "The Chief is dead" she told him telepathically.
"Good, I will indicate phase two." Mega-Raptor responded, sitting on his throne in Castle Apocalypse. He turned on his phone and contacted Frida.
"It's your father, I think he's dead." There was silence on the other end as José slowly told her more. "He's in front of the rundown building in downtown, I will go find help." He then heard her hang up, he did the same as a Perfect Doppelganger commented on his performance.
"Master, that was a very convincing performance. I almost believed you." It told him.
"Like I need to try hard to trick Frida. She is so easy to predict that she tells me what she's going to do!" He replied. "Send in the troops."
Frida was crying over her father's corpse, she wanted to know who did it. She was then jumped by three punks.
"You still trust your pal, El Tigre" one of them asked.
"What do you mean?" Frida asked
One of the others answered her. "Think, he could've been here and saved your dad." This made her think, until the point where her eyes flashed red for a second. She realized that El Tigre could have saved her father, and where was he? Playing video games? Gorging on ice cream? These questions filled her head until she ran off balling her eyes out. When she was gone, the punks smiled and activated a communicator.
"Master, the upgrades work with one hundred percent efficiency." The punk reported. "The combination of the Implanter and holographic disguises has fooled her."
"Good, I need her to be as believable as possible. The Implanter may not be fully functional, but it is just enough to make her easier to push." Mega-Raptor responded. "Even though the Implanter works wonders, the subject always has something odd about them. I just hope that Django will do his part in this play."
Frida was running with tears in her eyes, not looking where she was going when she ran into someone. She apologised until she noticed familiarities about him. He was a boy, he had pale skin wore a sort of cowboy-like outfit with various skull and star designs, his hair was tied into a ponytail and he carried a familiar guitar.
"Django?" Frida asked only to have her mouth covered by his hand.
"Quiet!" he whispered. "I didn't disguise myself to tell the world it's me." he then noticed the tears on her face. "Are you ok?" he asked only for her to cry and burry her face in his chest. After a little while he took her back to his place where she told the whole story, both real and what was unknowingly fabricated by evils beyond her comprehension.