NOTE: This is an A/U Streets of Rage fanfiction story, so the canon presented here will be entirely one of my own. Elements will be taken from the SEGA games, the Mark Millar comics, Matt Drury's Streets of Rage Saga novels, and my own imagination, meaning that a few OC's will be present, and that things will generally be different. How different? You'll have to read and see. . .
Walking the Streets of Rage
Issue #1: Back To The Grind
Blaze Fielding walked down the exotic-looking blue brick road of her city, headed to her destination. As she passed buildings restaurants, and other establishments, she took the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of quietness and what could barely pass as serenity, even though she knew it was only temporary. Their city was once again in a terrible state as it turned out, and she was in a mood to do something about it. A mood to fight.
Her destination was a little bit of a ways from her current location—a few blocks away to be exact. Blaze had been called to action once again by a man named Robert Murphy, her friend, and trusted ally. He had wanted her and the other heroes to help clean up this city. They'd done it before, after all. A year ago Murphy, sick of the disgustingly rampant crime and corruption that ran amok in their beloved Wood Oak City, called her, her other friends—her best friends Adam and Axel after work, and proposed they go vigilante and take the fight to the boss himself: Mr. X.
Even though they'd never at all thought about taking the law into their own hands before, they were instantly on board. In the eyes of some, vigilantism was frowned upon, but the decisions of the four were completely justified. Beatings, rapes, and robberies could happen to absolutely anyone at any time. The judicial system was just as bad, with criminals getting off with little to no punishment, assuming they actually made it to the courtroom to begin with. It had all been the work of Mr. X and his organization, The Syndicate, and it had to come to an end. Axel and Blaze immediately quit their jobs as cops, with Murphy and Adam staying on the force, their reason being that they believed they could help to fix things on the inside.
It had gone better than they thought in that their actions of deciding to become vigilantes, encouraged others to do the same. It had began with Adam's little brother, Sammy, or Skate as he liked to be called, who then told his best friend Melanie Lancaster, continued on with Axel's older sister, Tina, and his best friend, Max Thunder. Two men known as Karl Haupstein (AKA: Dreadnought) and Dr. Gilbert Zan had somehow gotten word of the situation and two women, Electra—or Elle as she preferred, and Salvo Medaglia who'd been acquainted with them on some level felt inclined to give assistance as well. With their team assembled, they'd hit the streets with Murphy at their head.
Murphy was a natural leader, and the only one, maybe besides Blaze herself, who everybody thought was best suited to lead the group. Murphy was in charge of his own precinct, and could be hard-assed and strict, but he always believed in justice no matter WHAT. It even extended to the point where he didn't consider family family if they were bad enough people. Once a deranged cousin of his had gone as far as to break into a family's home, kill the middle-aged couple that owned it, along with their six-year old boy that had been sleeping in the next room, in cold blood. When questioned why he would do such a thing by Murphy's officers, he'd shamelessly admitted to the fact that he didn't have a reason other than it being that he wanted 'a good time'. When Murphy came in to see him behind bars, he had to resist spitting in disgust, instead opting to simply snarl out the response that consisted of him telling his cousin they were no longer related, and that excuses for people like him didn't deserve to live.
Despite the harsh sounding remark he'd given his own cousin, Murphy was a good man as far as Blaze was concerned. He'd relentlessly fight for the good of the city, his home. And he was more than capable of doing it, too. The man could seemingly take anyone in a fight, with only the likes of Axel, Adam, and Blaze being able to beat him in a spar. In his earlier years of police work, Murphy had been called to a scene where a large group of gangbangers were brutalizing an unfortunate group of college students, laying into them with fists, bats, and pipes. Several more had formed a wall of protection around the scene to block out any interference. When Murphy arrived, hearing the screams of torment, he drew his gun as a bluff and ordered the men to stop and back away. The men laughed in his face and advanced, only to be defeated easily. He'd rendered both groups of hoodlums with broken wrists, black eyes and busted jaws, all while barely receiving a scratch from the offending party.
Despite his fighting calibre, Murphy stayed behind the scenes and gave them their tasks, and somethings acted as an overseer to the group on missions, warning them of any incoming enemies and passageways with the help of a hidden camera network installed by Christine, one of the only other good cops that Murphy trusted to aid them. Before they'd gone after X, Christine had been able to cleverly plant the cameras in various parts of the city, lying to her and Murphy's corrupt superior that she was merely installing public cameras for law enforcement purposes. Christine was also responsible for supplying air support to the team in the form of a hail of armour-piercing gunfire to mow down even the toughest of Mr. X's goons. The problem was, that such powerful ammo was limited, forcing them to only call for Christine's help in dire emergencies.
In the end, however, they'd killed Mr. X, and crushed his Syndicate, allowing the city to temporarily return to serenity and allowing the heroes to enjoy a period of rest and relaxation before history repeated itself. This time things would be arguably harder, since vigilantism had recently been outlawed. Blaze could only guess that it was the doing of another crime boss of another organization, given the state that the city was in. Not that it was going to stop her in the slightest. The thought brought sort of a triumphant smile to her young, lovely features.
Blaze suddenly felt a short buzz accompanied by a chime in the pocket of her red jacket (that she wore like a second skin, with a matching skirt, grey leggings and custom red, black trimmed sneakers), signifying that a text had come in. Having a good idea who it would be from, she reached for it and pulled it out. A quick gaze at the screen confirmed her suspicions. It was Axel asking where she was. She figured it'd be either him or Adam. She replied,
Blaze F: Around the corner from the entrance. Will b there soon.
She held onto the phone just in case he responded back quickly, which he usually did. A second buzz and chime respectively reverberated from the device. Her brown eyes wandered to the glowing screen.
Axel S: K. I'm in the tunnels already. Theyre a bitch to get through. See u soon.
A quick reply back.
Blaze F: You 2. Be careful.
Blaze smiled in spite of herself, stowing her iPhone 5S back into the pocket of her jacket. She was the cautious type, and she just couldn't help attempting to project that view onto her friends, especially when they were on missions as vigilantes. Even when they were cops.
Rounding the corner, she instantly recognized her surroundings as her destination without even needing to try. That one specific chain of establishments—that one Starbucks on one side and a Path Mark on the other, right next to the Verizon store. She sped up her walking pace until she arrived at an unmarked manhole cover firmly lodged over the circular entrance. Blaze squatted down and curled four fingers on each hand around the eight holes that were on the edges of the cover, specifically made for gripping. She groaned a bit trying to get it off, but managed to lift the cover off with a little bit of difficulty.
She checked to be sure she was alone. She was.
She scaled down the notches used for getting in and out of the sewers, pulling the cover back over the hole, putting her in temporary darkness. A faint unpleasantness invaded the lone vigilante's nostrils, prompting her to wrinkle her nose in disgust. Blaze knew it was a bit lighter down in the actual sewers, so she relied on her sense of touch as she climbed downward until her feet could feel could feel no more notches, at which point she jumped down, landing spryly onto the stone surface below. There were a few dimly lit lamps as Blaze remembered, and they helped to give her some assistance while padding along the high ground.
A tiny bit more of a ways in, and the lamps got brighter, granting her more sight of the incredibly massive sewer system of Wood Oak City. Blaze personally found it amazing that their city's sewers and underground tunnels—including their underground train stations, were expansive to the point of being like entire universes on their own, stretching across for miles and miles on end. Blaze came to the end of where the high-ground portion ran, and hopped down to lower and lower ground until she reached the 'floor' of the sewer. She eyed the murky stream of garbage and God-knows what to her left and moved over closer to the wall, away from the nasty water. Coming up to a corner, she had to strain her ears even more than she was, but she could hear faint footsteps approaching. Looking to her right, Blaze spotted an alcove in the slightly mossy wall that led a bit further in and heard the footsteps increase in volume. A measure of stealth was required.
She dipped into the alcove and hid in time to avoid being seen by the passing people, men from the sounds of their echoing voices. It would also turn out that they were mere sewer workers, and thus harmless. Still, Blaze saw the need to stay hidden to avoid any other complications. Being down here as a civilian was barely legal as it was. She waited until the workers finally passed by before dashing out of the area.
Now further into the sewers, Blaze's ears were still strained in the dingy space, still on the lookout for anymore interferences. They pricked up when they caught notice of another pair of footsteps around the corner. Blaze stopped in her tracks, and to her surprise, so did the mysterious footsteps. But what happened next instantly cleared up any uncertainty about what was happening.
Her phone went off, signifying that she'd got a text.
Axel S: That u?
Blaze smirked, and sent back a thumbs up emoji. The footsteps now jogged a short distance before rounding the corner, revealing the face and form of Axel Stone, one of her her best friends since childhood.
"Hey," Came his simple greeting. Laconic as always. She smiled.
"Hey yourself," She replied, a sudden curiosity striking her. "Come in through one of the sewer entrances over by where you live?"
"Nah. I came in through the one on 3rd. Didn't feel like walking a marathon."
Blaze chuckled. "Yeah, the suburbs are pretty far from here. I'd imagine you'd be down here in this stench for hours."
Axel shot her a half-smile. He always was the serious type. Oh and angry. That too. Axel could get extremely angry, especially during fights that got especially intense. But he was a genuinely good person, no one could deny him that. But despite this perceived flaw, he was capable of having fun. Be it in high school when Adam and Blaze wanted to celebrate a succesful test, or the destruction of Mr. X and The Syndicate that had taken place just one year ago.
Axel was a master in every single martial art that existed, and had opened a dojo in the suburbs to pass on some of his extensive knowledge to ordinary civilians. He may have went easier there, but on the streets, Axel went all-out. He punched, kicked, elbowed, and kneed with the ferocity of a roaring dragon, never ceasing to rain holy hell on his opponents. He was one of few people to match the skills of their now-teammate Shiva, a powerful fighter that only few could rival.
While Blaze herself couldn't say she was at that level, she was an extremely capable fighter nonetheless in every sense of the word. Blaze had developed a style of Judo that was more physical in that it included more uses of punching and kicks, which worked extremely well. Sometimes she didn't even need to use her powers when she fought. And like Axel, who possessed pyrokinetic abilities, Blaze had superpowers of her own to compliment her natural skill in the form of being able to project chi and plasma energy respectively. While the chi had come on its own a year after she started fighting, the plasma energy was a result of a chemical mixture of some nature spilling into an open wound during an chemistry experiment in her early high school years. She was assured that the blue substance was harmless, but that night she'd caused a freak accident by blowing a hole through her room with a simple hand gesture. She'd been inexperienced then, but she quickly gained full control of the power and utilized it fully to help destroy Mr. X and his thugs come adulthood.
Axel's expression reverted back to its normal serious look. They came to an intersection and headed down the right path after a moment of consideration.
"What do you think is going on with the city? Think that bastard X is back alive?"
Blaze furrowed at that. Despite having a genius IQ of 271, her brain could not arrive at a conclusion as to how the crime boss could've just come back from the grave. She opened her mouth to speak, about to elaborate to him her reasoning, when they saw the Hunter brothers approach them from the opposite end.
"Yo!" Adam greeted with a smile and a sharp incline of the head, as if to say 'what's up?'. His hands were relaxedly stuffed in the pockets of his dark jeans, and his boots made a certain thudding noise that became more audible to them the closer he came.
"'Sup, guys?" Skate grinned, skating over to slap Axel and Blaze high-fives after Adam had done so.
"Hunter brothers," Blaze smiled, looking them over one at a time before nodding. "Glad we were able to actually run into you guys."
"You too. All these tunnels look the same. We may as well be rats in a maze down in these sewers!" Skate said crossing his arms with mild annoyance. Like Axel and Blaze, they'd run into a bit of confusion early on, and we're glad they actually located two friends.
"Yeah," Adam attested with a little sigh, tilting his head to one side briefly. "But I'm thinking we'll get used to it."
Adam smiled a little. He was an something of an optimist, but a realistic one. He was laid-back, easygoing, and a good big brother to his younger sibling, Skate. He was Axel and Blaze's best friend, and a dedicated senior ranking police officer of the Wood Oak Police Department. He, alongside Murphy attempted to fix things from within their precinct, but their efforts often achieved minimal success during times of corruption, due to the many riots started by those he worked alongside in the force. Of course, he ultimately decided to work alongside his two best friends and the others to save the city, and save it he did. It came at a price along the way, though. At the time, Shiva had been his enemy, and he had become his captor. One night at his boss's instruction, Shiva had broken into Adam's house and attempted to kidnap him, bring him to one of the various Syndicate bases located in the city, where he would be tortured into joining Mr. X's ranks. He was the team's best fighter, and as much as Shiva hated to admit it, would be a hell of an asset to them if he could surmount him in a one-on-one encounter. Shiva partly succeeded, managing to defeat Adam, evening the score, and drag his unconscious body to the torture room, but Adam was able to escape the room on his own. It was the reinforcements that came as a result of his actions that proved to be a problem. Luckily, the rest of the team arrived on time to help Adam take care of the issue, and get him out of there. Adam had since moved past the event itself, but would always harbor a special hatred for the Japanese martial artist.
The same could be said for the younger brother of the two, Skate. He never forgave Shiva for his actions, and the fact that he'd insisted on expressing his bitterness for his failure instead of any amount of remorse for what he'd done wasn't earning him any points with him. He may have reserved animosity for Shiva, but ordinarily, Skate wasn't that bad of a guy at all. He was a gifted breakdancer, liked hanging out with his friends, never turned down an invitation to party, and never passed up an opportunity to joke or wisecrack at whatever may have been the case, be it his friends, or at some absurd situation. One of his favorite hobbies was rollerblading. In-line skates were his favorite, and how he got his nickname. It had started with the kids in his school, then it spread to his town, with even the neighbours getting in on it, pretty much causing it to stick. And he loved it. The moniker was warranted. He was a genius on skates in more ways than one, too. Not only could he impeccably trick and stunt for hours without fail, but he even managed to construct a devastating style around his breakdancing. He flipped, spun, and kicked his enemies in a blur of finesse and now especially speed, thanks to the super skates that he now wore. They were a handmade birthday present from Blaze for the teen's 17th birthday, and a hell of a present, to put it mildly. They were a slightly dark shade of red, like Skate's old skates but were lined with a neon orange trim. Aesthetics weren't the only new thing about them, obviously. They were called 'Super' Skates because they enabled the wearer to move at up to 200 MPH. It was hard enough for Mr. X's men to get ahold of him back when he wore his regular skates to battle, but now he would be almost untouchable on the streets.
"I hope so, at least," Axel muttered in response to Adam, frowning at his surroundings.
"Until we get to finding more of the group in these shit tunnels, I guess we're just the four musketeers, huh?" Skate cracked.
"Nope! It's more like five!" Reverberated the boisterously cheery voice of Melanie Lancaster. The teen girl herself had emerged from a sewage pipe on the upper level and had taken a running leap onto the area below where the rest of the vigilantes were, making a three-point landing, her right fist acting as her balance as she crouched.
Skate, who was the first to greet her, immediately rushed forward as she did for a dude hug, slamming their shoulders into each others and patting each other on the back with huge matching smiles plastered on their visages.
"Melanie! Dude!" Skate enthused, finally pulling back. She flashed him her pearly white diastemic smile and matched his enthusiasm.
"Good to see you too, man!" Melanie laughed. "It already feels like forever since we've seen each other!"
She went on to exchanged greetings and high-fives with the others present, and giving Adam a hug. Melanie was a jovial and boisterous soul, and a tomboy—through and through. She hated makeup, nail polish, and shopping for clothes, preferring boyish activities, such as videogames and dirt biking. Her past as a former orphan had made her deeply value the concept of family, especially after becoming adopted by Richard and Danica Lancaster, two wonderful parents who loved and supported Melanie, and accepted who she was.
One of Melanie's most prominent traits was that she absolutely loved to fight. Loved the rush it gave her, loved the feeling of her power-packed kicks and punches flying about, and ducking and weaving clear of her opponent's. She trained to better her already-razor sharp skills everyday, and be it a fight against a gaggle of ordinary roughnecks who solely relied on knives and guns to legitimately skilled fighters, in Melanie's opinion, it was easily one of the greatest things ever. She employed a rough and graceless patchwork fighting style, with influences from various other styles. Interested in all fighting, Melanie couldn't decide which style to choose, so she decided on grabbing tiny bits from a great many. She was a self-taught fighter, and a particularly great one at that. In the past, she'd come to almost beat Adam in a spar, making her the third best fighter on the team coming right next to Shiva.
Blaze had been pleasantly surprised to run into Melanie as she'd been upon running into Adam and Skate, but her youthful features went deadly serious upon remembering what she'd been getting at before.
"I was telling Axel how it's pretty much impossible for Mr. X to be back."
"How could he be back? We killed him and destroyed his bases, along with any resources that could've brought him back to life," Skate commented before curiously adding, "Did he have immortality powers we don't know about?"
Adam frowned thoughtfully. "Given what we've already seen, its possible, bro, but I also think it's more than just that. Mr. X was huge. Had every politician and law organization in his pocket. He could've easily arranged his resurrection preemptively."
"Adam's right. X was mentally fucked, but he wasn't stupid. He'd always have backup plans ready, even when he was alive."
"So now we'd have a second son of a bitch to worry about." Melanie put in, knowing that someone smart enough to resurrect someone from the dead was more than likely to be a threat.
"If Adam's theory checks out, yeah." Axel said shoving his hands into his jean pockets.
"How do you think this mystery person—if there is one—brought him back?" Skate asked, the question more aimed at Blaze.
"Well they could've been given an artificial heart to send huge amounts of energy back into the body's systems, could've been subjected to biochemical experimentation, resurrected as half machine altogether, and all that's barely scratching the surface."
"You can probably do all of that stuff yourself, can't you?" Melanie asked wryly, shaking her head. Blaze faced her with a small, but somehow guilty-looking grin that was all the answer she needed.
"I did build an AI system for my house when I was a freshman," Blaze said, smiling at the memory of her parents' terrified reactions to said system. Her expression went serious again as she continued on with her thought. "But if X is back, and there's someone else behind the scenes, we'll bring them down."
The others silently agreed, pondering the adventure that awaited them, complete verbal silence following. The only thing that could've been heard was the sound of sneakers (as well as a pair of boots and the roll of a pair of skates) thudding the stone sewer ground over the ambient sound of rushing sewer water. Blaze's voice abruptly cut through the silence.
"Ah, we're on the right track," She pointed to the higher left wall at a spot of bright yellow graffiti oddly spelling out 'IT'S LIKE BOO'. "Murphy said to make two more lefts as soon as we saw that graffiti up there. Gotta wonder what that means, though."
"Thought someone with 200-plus IQ points would be able to translate for us." Skate quipped.
"My intelligence doesn't normally extend to decoding drunken messages written in spray paint." Blaze returned, chuckling. Her response garnered a similar reaction from Skate himself, and several others present. With conversation sort of picking up again, she spoke once more as they walked on.
"So, what's been happening for everyone lately?" Blaze asked with a smile, nudging Axel with a smile. "Still giving that cute brunette at Starbucks the eye?"
"Andrea? Yeah." Axel chuckled softly and gave a subdued smile. Blaze's comment made the blonde vigilante's head with images of the woman of his affection: Andrea Cervantes. She had rich, brown, flowing hair, light caramel toned skin, always wore stylish jeggings and sandals, and had engaging brown eyes and a similar smile. From when they talked, Axel caught a 'party girl' vibe off of her which he admired. He couldn't even lie, he liked her.
Axel wasn't a very routine person at all when it came to most things, but due to his recent work schedule changes, he'd developed a certain routine for his Thursday mornings. He'd wake up, eat breakfast while watching the morning news, then catch up on last night's DVR-recorded episode of American Ninja Warrior (Their country of Lima was very close to the United States, so they got alot of American-exclusive shows) before heading out to enjoy the morning with a cup of Starbucks coffee. At that point it would usually be around 10:30ish, and that's when Andrea would be on her shift. As soon as he caught her eye, she'd always automatically begin preparing his drink—which she knew by heart: a Venti-sized hot french-vanilla cappuccino with whipped cream.
They'd chatted as Axel drank his coffee and even as Andrea tended to the other customers, having became friends through Axel's 'regular' status at that particular Starbucks. Axel had treated her to more than a few lingering looks and wanted to ask her out, but felt that he couldn't, due to his hectic schedule, much to his dismay.
"You two would go great together," Adam threw in with a smile. "When are you finally gonna ask her out?"
"Nervous?" Blaze inquired with a smile.
"Not it," Axel shook his head responded truthfully. Mostly anyway. "Just up to my neck in shit to do. Between work and other stuff going on, there's almost no time. I'm working out how to revise my schedule a bit. I've been on overload lately."
"Get to it then, loverboy. She's into you, I can tell." Blaze smiled with a wink. She'd been there to firsthandedly witness how the two reacted one day while she and Axel had went on a quick coffee run. Her intuition was seldom wrong, and by the way Andrea's brown eyes traveled along his frame whenever Axel took his eyes off of her own form to spare the quick glance out of the large window of the shop, Axel's Latin crush had been interested in him as well.
Axel allowed himself a tiny smile as he looked into Blaze's encouraging expression. His next words to her came out clear and decisive.
"I'll give it my all to turn myself from single to taken the next time I run into her."
After getting approving nods all around, he then turned the floor over to Melanie, raising a certain point in a completely non-critical manner.
"So how didn't we hear you coming, Melanie? You're usually loud enough to wake the dead."
"Oh that? The pipe that I came out of had moss literally growing on the fucking ground. It really muffled my footsteps, I guess." Melanie chuckled before turning to Skate. "And I don't know what you're complaining about, bro. These sewers are fucking awesome. I'd be down here all the time if I could."
"The smell wouldn't bother you?" Blaze said, quirking an eyebrow up in a mixture of amusement and incredulousness. Melanie happily shook her head.
"Should have known the answer to that, knowing you." Blaze remarked, smiling, before addressing the elder Hunter. "So Adam, does it feel awkward being in a hardly-legal area being a cop?"
"Nah," Adam answered with a chill wave, returning her smile. "If I'm ever caught down here I can say I'm an undercover officer, chasing a lead. And it's also kinda nostalgic, y'know? Remember that time we went after the Toxic Gang?"
"Christ," Axel remarked, memories of that particular escapade rushing back to him. The notorious Toxic Gang had utilized a deadly gas of their creation composed of something akin to cyanide, botulinum and something else even the WOPD's drug experts couldn't identify. The sadistic gang's members had all worn gas masks for both protection against their own homemade death and an added fear effect. They'd since been shut down by the three, who'd all been executed by the chair as punishment for their inhuman attacking methods. "That was crazy."
"Definitely one of our more exciting adventures," Adam smirked.
"I think their hideout was actually down that way over there," Blaze chipped in, pointing to a dark tunnel that led in the opposite direction where they were headed.
"Yep. I remember it like it was yesterday. Those were the days," Adam's face suddenly went sour. "When the WOPD was legit."
"That's why we're here, Adam. To clean up this city—for good this time. Maybe we can get a judicial system that's incorruptible this time." Blaze responded, not unkindly. Adam's expression changed drastically, his face now bearing a grin. He joked lightly with her.
"Heh. One job at a time, there. First thing's first, we've gotta beat these criminal jackasses to hell, where they belong."
"Fuck yeah!" Melanie cheered, already feeling the anticipation fill her at a rapid pace. Her next words barely contained her excitement. "This is gonna be awesome!"
Adam smiled at the girl, chuckling at her elation. "I'd think that Skate would try to come down here more often, too. What'd you get into, bro? Get busted down here by the pigs once?" Adam asked his brother bemusedly, a hint of snarkiness in his voice.
"No!" Skate laughed honestly. His fun-loving personality led him to hang out in more daring areas around the city that one wouldn't normally, and it was not uncommon for him to find himself in legally ambiguous areas such as the sewer system, using the answer of 'It wasn't completely illegal' as a response when questioned. "I don't skate down here because of the smell. Besides, if I got fucked over by the cops, wouldn't you have known about it?"
"Not necessarily in the legit days. When it was up to the honest cops, you'd just get off with a warning. They only really talk about major crimes down at the base." Adam responded.
"Yeah," Blaze said, nodding with Adam, before her look shifted to a curious one. "So how are you guys these days, Adam?"
Adam's mood worsened slightly, as things hadn't been going ideally for his immediate family at the moment. He knew Blaze had only asked out of consideration, but he and his brother were both feeling the strain from it. He exhaled.
"Our mom threw her back out working about a week ago. She's still hurting pretty bad. She's really adamant on cleaning out all the junk in the house, so Skate and I have been going over there to give her a hand."
"Oh man. Sorry, Adam," Blaze said sympathetically, wishing the best for her friend's aged mother.
"Yeah, hope she gets better." Axel agreed with sincerity.
"Shit, that sucks, man," Melanie said, putting a hand on Skate's shoulder.
"How bad is she hurt?" That was Blaze.
"Bad. I can see it written all over her face when I look at her. She's in some pain. She can barely walk."
All of their hearts went out to Adam and Skate's mother—Suzanne Hunter, whom life had already not been kind to. Aside from the fact that her husband left her shortly after having Skate, she had to deal with a considerable amount of racist remarks and treatment in her heyday, and didn't want her kids to be exposed to that if she could help it. It was on this basis why she was initially skeptical and disgruntled about Adam having two white friends in middle school in the forms of Blaze and Axel, and regarded the two with high amounts of suspicion regarding the genuineness of their friendship with her son. It took awhile, but they eventually managed to fully gain Suzanne's trust through continued loyalty to Adam, and she even grew to like them to the point where she could treat them like her own. Unfortunately, despite the knowledge that all whites did not hold malicious intent toward black people (with Blaze and Axel as living proof), her bitter experiences had caused her to become cynical regarding white people in general, and those feelings of distrust resurfaced when her younger son, Skate, had befriended Melanie. Fortunately, as with Axel and Blaze, Suzanne came to realize in time that Melanie was indeed a true friend to her son, and had no intentions to hurt or take advantage of him.
None of the aforementioned friends of the brothers really blamed Suzanne for feeling the way she did, knowing full well that a person's experiences were highly possible to shape their personality. But Adam and Skate themselves didn't share their mother's feelings towards white people, and kept their friends from feeling bad in the early stages of their respective friendships. Axel, Blaze and Melanie had become closely acquainted with Suzanne Hunter, and wished her a speedy recovery.
"The second we get a get a free moment from fighting. . .God knows what or who this time, we're coming with you to help you out with your mother," Blaze stated. Her tone wasn't hard or rough, while at the same time carrying a certain decisiveness, similar to that of her leaderly persona that was all-too prominent when she was on the streets. "Chances are she'll still need you even while we're doing this."
Axel silently put a hand on Adam's covered shoulder, both agreeing with his red-clad counterpart and expressing his own support. Adam's mood improved knowing he had their support, and he smiled.
"Thanks guys," Adam sighed gratefully.
"Hey it's no problem!" Melanie assured with a grin, wrapping an arm around Skate as they walked side-by-side. She addressed Skate in particular. "What kind of best friend would I be to leave you hanging, man?"
Skate smiled widely, and correspondingly wrapped an arm around her in return. "Thanks, sis."
"Like I said, it's no problem, bro." Melanie returned gleefully, the terms used during the exchange truly conveying how they felt about one another. The two 17 year olds honestly did see each other as essentially family, having established a sibling-like relationship similar to the three-way friendship of Axel, Adam and Blaze.
The five had been so engrossed in their own conversing that they almost didn't realize they were one turn away from reaching the hideout Murphy obtained for them. They'd come onto to something of a bridge above the sewer current which they crossed, and came to face a rusted steel door with no knob that looked like it hadn't been used in years after rounding a shallow turn. A small padlock that had looked in slightly better shape rested on the upper wall near it.
"The eagles have landed." Blaze smirked, putting in the entry code that she was given by Murphy: 0-5-7-2.
"Don't you want to call Murphy and let him know we're not intruders?" Skate grinned, good-naturedly teasing. "Or did this God awful smell get to you so bad that it slipped your mind?"
"He knows is us, the place has hidden cameras. Probably watching us as we speak." Blaze replied while giving something between a laugh and a chuckle. The door gave a dull, resounding clang, and opened outwards at a moderate pace, prompting the heroes to step into the massive corridor just past the entryway, the door finally shutting behind them as Skate, the last one in, entered. It thankfully did not smell of the sewers inside, and was a dark grey and made of slenderly carved stone, it's ceiling properly adorned with bright rectangular lights, giving them sight. The first portion of the corridor was a fair distance, before the path took a pointy right turn. From there, however, the vigilantes were prompted to increase the speed their relaxed stroll somewhat, as they saw that a door was already opened for them, and through what they could see through that door was the towering, seven-foot tall wrestler known as Max Thunder, grinning widely and gesticulating for them to enter.
"Heh, there's that angry bastard, Stone!" Max bellowed joshingly, rising from his seat and walking to personally greet the group. He was a social, loud, and showmanlike man, who loved a good bout, especially against those who could contend against his absolutely fearsome, car-lifting physical strength, capable of taking down his opponents in a minimal amount of attacks.
"Good to see you, man," Axel said, smiling slightly at the sight of his close and longtime friend, chuckling as Max pulled him into a nearly crushing bear hug. Max had always been known for distributing those.
"Max!" Blaze laughed, making her way over to hug him once Axel was finished. Axel may have been closer to Max than she was, but she too had formed a friendly relationship with the wrestler, and was glad to see him again.
"And there's my girl!" Max boomed, hugging her just as he did Axel. She'd been unaccustomed to Max's bear hugs in the past, but she didn't complain, seeing as his way of showing affection to his friends. As time progressed, she'd gotten used to them, and enjoyed them. Max never really hugged anyone hard enough to do damage, anyway. He was a gentle giant, and would never hurt anyone he called a friend.
"Max!" Melanie cried ecstatically, rushing to hug him, just reaching a little above his bare torso. Max hugged the girl affectionately against him with one hugely muscular arm and tousled her hair with the other, causing her grin to widen. Melanie was an avid watcher of professional wrestling, and Max was her favorite. Not just for his mad combat skills and insane winning streaks, but for his personality as well, given that they had much in common. She'd all but fangasmed when she realized that she'd be getting to fight alongside her idol when they'd decided to go up against The Syndicate, and was over the moon to get to once again enjoy that aspect of combating their new challenge.
"Good to see my number one fan!" Max said, smiling widely. He had an enormous fanbase, and even some official merchandise themed after him, but his fans were what he admired most. He'd been flattered by Melanie's idolization of him, and had even given her an autograph and a picture. She was one the only fan he knew personally, making their relationship a unique one.
"We'll definitely see about this guy getting us some missions together," A smiling Max rumbled, jerking his head at Murphy, who simply looked on, waiting for his turn to greet them.
"Oh fuck yeah! It's gonna be awesome like always!" Melanie said rapidly rising onto and off of her toes in sheer anticipation, with her tone of voice reflecting that. Max chuckled at seeing the girl excited to the point of nearly jumping for joy.
Now completely in the spacious room but mostly bare room, made of the same sleek stone, the first five heroes saw that the room they stood in acted as a sort of entryway, as there was a door labeled 'Meeting Room', and several doors marked 'Storage', and 'Corridors' respectively. They also saw that in addition to Max, the room also occupied Karl, Salvo, Electra, Tina, Zan, Rudra, and Shiva, the latter trading a short but intense stare with the hotheaded hero would forever be his greatest rival: Axel.
"Heya, Handsome, long time, no see." Electra seductively purred, uncrossing her leg from her other one before rising to saunter over to Adam, who grinned modestly and chuckled as the woman traced a finger in patterns along his chest. Electra grinned, too, though hers was wider than Adam's—probably wider than the Cheshire Cat's, even.
"Hey, Elle," Adam responded, feeling every motion of the taller woman's gloved finger through the thin cotton material of his yellow coloured shirt. Despite the flirtatious advances that Electra constantly put towards Adam, he didn't return her affection, and though this was known between the both of them, Adam let her have fun with him. He was a chill guy, and besides, he knew that she'd never actually force herself on him. They were friends after all.
"You haven't called since we last saw each other," Elle said, her shiny red lips still pulled back in a grin. They may have been just friends, but that didn't stop her from turning the flirtiness up to 11 when it came to Adam. She found him to be sexy, after all, and there was an equal mix of playfulness and seriousness in her tone whenever she told him something of the sort. "Avoiding me?"
"C'mon, you know that's not it," Adam said, smirking. "Tell you what, I'll make it up to you."
Electra's baby blues glittered. "Oh, will you, now?"
Axel, Blaze, Skate, Melanie, Max, Tina, and Adam himself burst out in either laughter or chuckles respectively.
"Bad choice of words, bro," Skate said, still laughing.
"I walked into that one," Adam sighed, grinning as he ran a hand over his face. Rudra, who'd been sitting quietly, took the opportunity to greet Adam herself.
"Hey, Adam."
Adam put his hands in his pockets and gave the female ninja the sharp upward head gesture in greeting. "Hey, Rudra. How've you been?"
"So she gets a 'How have you been,' but not me? I'm jealous." Elle cut in, smirking.
Rudra knew that Adam meant nothing by apparently asking how Electra had been, and he was probably going to ask at a different time, and that he probably asked her due to her reserved nature. She gave Adam a nearly invisible smile.
"I've been doing well, but I think we should talk about it later."
Adam nodded, and returned her smile as Tina gave Axel a mock two-fingered salute.
"Hey, little brother," Tina greeted with slightly raised eyebrows and a smile.
"Hey," Axel replied, his usually hardened face softening slightly at his older sister's faux surprised expression. "You get here okay?"
"Yeah, got a couple of looks thrown my way, but no thugs. Tunnels were a bitch to get through, though."
Blaze chuckled and motioned to Axel with her head. "That's exactly what he told me. You two really are related."
Tina chuckled somewhat loudly, amused at the news. In that 'sibling' way, she was like Axel, but far different in any other regard. While Axel learned how to fight on his own merits as a teen, she'd gone to their Uncle Adrian for sword training at around the same age. She excelled at various types of swords, but favored the O-katana. Adrian Stone saw that the long blade fit her somewhat patient method of fighting, and trained her extensively in its use, per her request. She'd even gotten the pleasure of having his personal, one-of-a-kind O-katana handed down to her from him. It had two mid-sized square-like cutouts at the bottom and top edges on the inside of the blade, and had a thin but prominent golden trim, the rest of the blade of the sword itself being made of platinum. It fit into a custom back-worn leather sheath, and Tina treasured it with her heart.
"Hello, Blaze," Dr. Zan's cybernetically layered voice acknowledged, accompanied with a neutral look. Blaze knew he wasn't a smiler, but also knew that he was genuinely glad to see her.
"Hey, Zan," Blaze offered a warm smile at her fellow genius. She knew he was noncommunicative when there was a task lying ahead, so Blaze decided to save her 'What have you been up to?' questions for later. Zan seemed to know this from her mere silence that followed, and gave a barely noticeable nod.
Both being brilliant minds, they got along wonderfully, and had even worked on a few pet projects together. The doctor was impressed to the point of seeing if she'd been interested for a job at RoboCy. Blaze had to decline though, claiming that she was fine where she was at as a Private Investigator. Taking on two full time jobs would have driven her to insanity, and she knew it.
"And hey to you too, Salvo. College still hell?"
"As ever," Salvo replied with a good-natured scoff, prompting Karl to smirk as he listened to her talk. Her voice was smooth and unaccented. "Thank God I'm down to my last year."
Along with Elle, Salvo and Karl were both firm supporters of RoboCy, the company having serviced them both. Salvo had been asked to test a special combat armour that would have been for use of the American organization, the FBI, after a then fully human Zan had detected the Devil Atom—Rakushin, originating from her person. She'd told him that it indeed was her, due to her complex and unique genetic makeup, and was brought back to RoboCy for scannings to ensure her stability. After she was cleared, she got close to Zan, to the point where he was willing to help her avenge her mother who'd been killed by a mad, Phantom of The Opera esque mask wearing killer by the name of Herminus. He was scarily good in a fight, and Salvo wasn't sure if she could've survived had it not been for her armour (it was to be scrapped, but the RoboCy workers let Salvo keep it for testing it). It's metal was form fitting, gave her a slight durability boost, and came with 7 blades, two katanas, a ninjato, two wakizashis on the outside of her calves, and two tantōs on the insides. They were all securely tucked in sheaths tightly connected to the armour itself, and could only be unhinged by the pressing of triggers located in the armours palms. The entire armour, swords included, could be retracted back into itself and into the form of a thin, grey band worn around the neck. Add her Rakushin teleporting and radioactive fire powers into the equation, and even the vainest adversary could see that the Italian wasn't to be messed with.
Karl Haupstein had discovered RoboCy through more cataclysmic means. Especially in comparison to Salvo's. He'd been in a terrible car accident, resulting in certain areas of his body being completely destroyed. With a good number of bones splintered, substantial amount of organs shredded, and no hope of the injuries ever healing, Karl thought his life was over even though he'd technically survived the accident. He lay in his hospital bed for days a broken man, physically and emotionally. Eventually, his nurse, who had also happened to be a RoboCy scientist, could not bear to see someone so young suffer any longer, and approached him with an offer. At the time, her division within the company had nearly been finished constructing the Dreadnought project. It was a series of cybernetic implants that when applied correctly, would convert the recipient into a cyborg, granting them limitless physical speed, and an outer shell-like full body armour that could painlessly be retracted into the recipient's body at will. The process would also surely replace Karl's shattered bones with functional metal replacements, averting the cruel fate of being confined to a wheelchair.
As soon as his hospital phase was over, organ transplants finished and non-maimed injuries healed, Karl called the number the nurse had given him right from the hospital, and was brought over to RoboCy. The transformation process went flawlessly. Karl's upper left leg, the entire right side of his ribcage, lower right leg, and top half of his spine were replaced with working metal prosthetics. Upon transforming into his new form, he'd seen that there were eight sheaths—three on the back, four on the arms, and one on the hip—for swords of varying lengths. He happened to be an aspiring bladesmith, and created several swords modeled after the German World War II sabres. Unlike his friend Salvo's, they weren't apart of the Dreadnought armour, so they couldn't be retracted into himself. Karl was glad that he could transform back, and retain a human appearance, as he prided himself on it, though in a way so that he did not come off as pompous. Now, as everyone in the room saw him, he wore a slim, long-sleeved shirt, corduroy pants, and grey Fila Windshift running shoes, He had a soft and angelic face, large blue eyes and platinum blonde hair that fell to the top of his neck, giving the young man an innocent look.
Those in the room (sans Shiva) who hadn't exchanged greetings with the five arriving heroes had taken the time to do so at that moment, with Murphy stopping it as soon as everyone had said their hellos.
"Alright," Murphy started, raising his voice as to ensure the attention of everyone, getting his desired effect. With all eyes on him, he motioned the door that led to the Meeting Room. Since everyone's here, let's not waste time. I got a hell of a story for you all and we need to get on this shit right away."
To be continued. . .
Authors Note: A 'To be continued' on the first issue. I know, crazy, right?
Which brings us to the first thing I should address. This story will use 'Issues' rather than 'chapters' to replicate the feel of a graphic novel. I did this so that the story would feel like something other than an ordinary fanfic, and I personally like it. I should also mention that characters that seem lacking in background information definitely have backstory, it just isn't shown in this issue. Future issues will shed more light on all characters.
The original SOR characters of mine—Salvo Medaglia and Melanie Lancaster were both carried over from their respective stories because I have such strong adorations for them both, with Melanie being my first OC ever, and Salvo being just that damn cool (she's not a Mary Sue, I swear—she DOES have limitations and weaknesses that later issues will reveal). Speaking of characters, this fic will have 27 of them! All with their own characterizations. I lot I know, but I'll try to make it work. :)
Until next time,
-Stefan442
