City of Heroes

The Brotherhood of Justice

Author's Note: Welcome to the 11th issue of Brotherhood of Justice! It's here that alot of things will begin to kick off for the big finale for volumn one. It'll be a huge event, some characters may die, others return, but for certain more wil be introduced!

Yes, I am still taking characters, just send a pm or email with the hero/villian name, civillian name, powers, height, etc. You know, the general gist and I'll Brotherhood-ize your character to life. As for my other reviewers that have submitted characters don't worry. You didn't ride me how your characters should be written so you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Disclaimer: I don't own City of Heroes, just a half eaten bowl of cereal and a badger.

Issue 11:Gears of War 1 of 2

Galaxy City was unusually busy on a friday afternoon, more so then usual considering the sheer size of Paragon City. The air was every bit as humid as it had been over the entire city the last week or so, making those less inclined to adventuring stay in their nicely ventilated homes. Below an antique shop however, a group of heroes were entirely ignorant of the day's heat since they hadn't ventured topside yet. Tempest stood in full uniform, to his left was Sentry, to his right was Bard. Across from them were four individuals that the martial artist had invited to see their 'leader'. Well, only three actually, the fourth person had come along out of some reason they were just getting around to. Fortunately if she proved to be a problem before any final decision was made they did bring these four in via an entrance in the sewers.

"It's nice to meet you again." The electric user stated with a smile that seemed rather cheerful even though his eyes couldn't be seen because of the mirrored helmet. With that greeting complete he extended his hand.

Cinder smiled absently, and stuck out her hand to shake Tempest's before speaking. "Thanks. When Bard invited us to meet with you guys in your base it really suprised me." While she was exuding outter confidence her real feelings were directed more towards the super cool base the Brotherhood of Justice had gotten. Her team's closest thing to a base had been Blue Samurai and Breakneck's bachelor pad.

"I'm glad he did it, having more people on the team would help us out to no end. Though not to be rude.. I.. ahh.. have one question." At this Tempest looked to the four person, partially hiding herself behind the samurai and speedster. "Why are you here Necrose? I thought you were done with this stuff according to Bard here." His feelings towards the undead girl were cagey at best. Considering she had hung him upside down and planned on keeping him as her secret friend wasn't the greatest impression to leave.

"To be honest I still am. This is the only way I can see to avoid being at risk to Coroner or some other weirdo trying to break into my appartment." The undead woman said just a tad acidly, her milky blue eyes shifted to the martial artist a second. "I can't go back to what I was.. I want to be normal but that's just a futile desire."

'Got that right.' The Bard thought while simply returning her harsh look with a glare of his own.

The meeting room was more then large enough to hold a meeting like this, but the hallway would do better since Eden and Widow were in that room. She was their shadow leader, never spoken of in the company of non-members, and for the most part did not exist. Eden never wanted to be in the spotlight but she was forever gathering information and sending out her Brotherhood of Justice to fight crime. As it was now the Fallen Saint had been watching her proverbial fishing lines because she had a feeling something wasn't right about today. So the meeting with Cinder's group had been moved into the hall, which thankfully they didn't seem to be offended by.

"Well getting back to the possibilities of you guys joining, we'd need to see how you handle in the field and so on." Tempest went on, crossing his arms casually.

At this time they were interrupted by the second female member of the field team Widow. She had walked up without a sound, head hung with the typical curtain of hair in her face and left hand out holding a sheet of paper with three or four paragraphs written on it. Cinder's team didn't know what to think of her as the silent Widow turned right around and walked back to the room used for meetings of the team. Tempest read the entire letting, he frowned and then looked up. "Looks like we'll be able to test your skills out there sooner then I thought."

Blue Samurai tilted his head in thought. "Why do you say that?"

"Well according to this report Widow just brought me there's almost an entire battalion of Clockwork entering Galaxy City blaring the same message over and over. They're calling us out because we stole some plans of theirs a while back and apparently that didn't set well with them." Tempest answered while folding the letter and placing it in a hidden pocket on his costume. He started walking for the sewer entrance, the rest following him with the Bard bringing up the rear of the group.

"What about our creepy little friend? Isn't she coming?" Bard asked, sparing a glance back down the hall in case Widow came out of the meeting room. His sister aside Widow was the only other person on the team he could almost get along with. It wasn't her intelligence, that was for certain. She stayed silent and didn't wear flashy costumes like Tempest. "It'd be better to have us on the streets in full force if it's a battalion."

"If she's needed she'll get there." Sentry replied cheerfully, sending an encouraging smile to the nervous looking Breakneck. Judging from the files Eden had gathered on the speedster his biggest super battle had been against Coroner's zombies. This was alot bigger then that skirmish. "Besides we have four whole new members to back us up. If anything it's the Clockwork that needs backup."

"I really wish you hadn't said that. Now for all we know that freak Garm or Ghost Widow could come leaping out of nowhere." The Bard grumbled slightly, shoving his fists into his trouser pockets. He had a feeling he should have just stayed at the bar despite that one trampy looking woman.

----

The streets were filled with the endless sounds of heavy mechanized feet hitting the concrete accompanied by the relentless turning of gears. An army of robots were on the loose, ready to seek vengeance for a wrong done to their king. One hundred sprockets paved the way for the larger Clockwork minions, half of the number of sprokets were oscilators that fired electric blasts at anything not of their kind. Taking up the rear of this were six Clockwork princes, flanked by two massive paladins that easily stood fifty feet tall. One of the center princes continued to blare a message over a ragged public adress system, the bulk of which was carried by four more sprockets. "Brotherhood! We demand you show yourselves and relinquish what you stole! If you do not reply then we will kill any civillians we come across."

That same message was looped, repeating endlessly in an emotionless voice that lacked any soul to it. With each repeating of it the lesser automatons became more destructive, letting off more blasts or stomping vehicles flat in the case of the paladins.

"Bro-" The prince started again only to be abruptly cut off by a blast of high impact energy. It fell to the ground, causing the large procession to halt as the attacker lowered her gauntlet.

Sentry frowned a bit as one of her readouts told her the energy required for such a long shot had shut down a few other attack options for the moment. "Okay I think we have their attention now." Her partner for the mission was Blue Samurai who stood to her left, sword drawn and ready to battle. "Until the others move into position we need to take out as many as we can."

"Very well. I shall begin to meet the enemy head on!" Blue Samurai declared as the blue nimbus of mystical energy formed around his feet and allowed the warrior to fly toward the front lines with a battle cry. However against such numbers a lone man would be overwhelmed in seconds. Fortunately for Blue Samurai by the time he reached the front lines to cut through one of the sprokets help arrived. Tempest came flying in along side Breakneck, who was running slow enough for the Brotherhood leader to keep up. The electric hero launched several bolt attacks head on with the storm of electricity the Clockwork soldiers were firing in response.

The very air crackled with the power being unleashed, but Tempest couldn't keep all of the bolts from getting through. Several nearly hit Breakneck who narrowly avoided them on good luck alone. A second later and the speedster was among the sprockets, punching at speeds so quick it all looked like one continual blur of yellow zigzagging through the front lines. Breakneck nearly made it to the opposite side before a tremendous blast of concussive energy hit his left knee. The hit caused the hero, who was already moving at speeds well beyond sound to go into a painful bouncing roll until he slammed into a dumpster, collapsing the offending structure.

"Pity. He didn't go splat." A cold voice said as a single form hovered down in front of the Clockwork princes. Cyclopian checked his readout, then aimed his gauntlet again before firing at the Blue Samurai twice. The Asian hero stopped in suprise, and used his sword to deflect the blasts as he leapt backwards to weaken the impacts. "What'd I tell you? You boys were right to bust me out. I don't have hang ups on killing heroes. Especially not after the good people at Crey Industries thought it'd be fun to seal me in this armored shell."

Tempest came to a stop in the air and fired a bolt of lightning at Cyclopian. In response the villian did something unexpected. Rather then taking time to leap out of the way or fire one of his own blast a third option was chosen. Cyclopian grabbed one of the sprockets and threw it into the path of the attack to let the unfortunate automaton come apart in the attack.

The psychotic villian rocketed into the air and let loose a barrage of energy, putting Tempest at a severe disadvantage. Just as the Brotherhood leader was getting used to avoiding the blasts a large form leapt from the mass of Clockwork, colliding with Tempest and sending him crashing to the ground.

Tempest winced, and realized there was a hand at his throat. It wasn't clenched but tight enough to endanger his ability to breath easily. The individual that knocked him down leaned so that the sun was no longer glaring down into Tempest's eyes. "Miss me sissy boy?" Garm asked with a smirk, and then followed it up by picking the hero up and throwing him like a ragdoll towards Blue Samurai's feet. The mutant chuckled and then tensed all his muscles as he took on a primal stance. "It's about time I took your little club to the woodshed again. When I let you beat me back in the park a week ago it was so I could bust the other guy out. The Clockwork King pays good money, so why not go the extra mile and remind you little snots on who the big bad wolf is?!"

To be continued in Gears of War 2 of 2