City of Heroes

Birth of the Brotherhood

Disclaimer: If you hadn't been paying attention to every chapter before this.. seek help.

The Awakening: 2 of 4

Larry Peterson tapped his pencil against his notepad with a bored air of someone used to moving around alot. It was a slow day for the Paragon Times, one of the smaller newspapers in the city, but prominent enough to be respected by it's running mates. Larry's desk was a clutter of scattered papers, most owing to reports of various heroes or villians on the rise. Since the dreaded machine monster that took Statesman seemed to have vanished, the amount of villian headlines were starting to increase. The Razaar had utterly destroyed the hero community's heirchy system. The Freedom Phalanx had been disbanded, the Long Bow division was scattered, and there was even some rumors of unrest within Arachnos.

He was a modestly built male, short dark brown hair and blue eyes. Through the office he was known for the upright behavior usually expected of the false image of a news reporter made for the more guilible. As it stood he was currently wearing a buttoned white shirt with the sleeves rolled up just above his elbows and khaki dress pants with brown shoes. He'd been present when the Razaar had made the Long Bow division break. It was a horrible day.

"What's on your mind Larry?" Shelly, one of his co-workers asked. She was a compact woman, standing just over five feet with light brown skin and a perm that looked like it was about forty years out of date. She was also his senoir by about that many years. At eighty three Shelly Holton showed no signs of slowing down in her career as a newspaper woman. She worked when others would call it a day, often late into the night. Shelly didn't have any family left so she devoted herself to the company. "I've never seen anyone looking so down about anything."

"It's nothing Shelly. Just wondering where Statesman could be." Larry replied, leaning his chin heavily on one hand. She was something of a friend, not entirely since he hadn't been working here for too long. His work was good enough to land him a desk in his first week, so that was something though. "I'm worried about all these new villians."

"Oh I'm sure we'll be fine. I happen to have it on good authority that there's at least one hero out there that can fight off all those bad people." The old woman assured him with a polite smile and hand on his shoulder before she ambled off to her own desk.

Larry watched her go, feeling a slight smile form on his lips. Shelly knew just what to say, it seemed to be a real talent for her. Maybe he could keep a positive outlook on things as long as someone like the old woman existed in the city. For the moment he stood up after noticing that his work day was over and started packing up his notebooks in the small one strap carrying case he normally kept such things in. With a few courtesy waves Larry picked up his case and leisurely headed out the door.

-------

Once he was walking along one of the many crowded streets in Steel Canyon Larry was considering where he should go for dinner. This had gotten to be routine as of late.. his life had dulled since he'd decided to wait for Statesman to make his return. However the wait had gone on for nearly two months now and the reporter was starting to doubt his decision to wait the havoc out. Just as he was about to head to the usual Italian restaurant down on fifth street a familiar man dressed in an executive business suit with a cane and long brown hair stopped a respectable distance from Larry. The reporter could only stair a minute before forcing himself not to act immensely relieved, instead he gave a simple nod. "Hello Justin."

Justin Sinclair, a man that was known for his vast wealth and almost party boy personality. Of course, that was just a facade for the real man behind it. Justin was one of the Freedom Phalanx's foremost members, who later went on to lead the Long Bow division in one important mission against the Rikti only weeks before the attack of the Razaar. It was because of his business with the Long Bow division that Justin wasn't present during the machine's attack on the Freedom Phalanx's base. "Hello Larry. I need to ask a favor of you."

Larry just sighed and looked at his aquaintance wearily. "Of course.. otherwise you wouldn't have bothered searching for me."

"You make it sound like such an insult." Justin said with a frown. The men barely knew one another, but Larry had been present when Justin was given the reigns. He was beyond focused, made sure his team got the job done quickly as possible, and shouldered the responsibility if it failed. However all this was traded in for Justin forgetting some of the basics for being a leader, like team morale. Though he was aware of it, the rich boy still lost sight of it from time to time and didn't really have the motivational push behind his words. "I came here to talk, can we take this somewhere less public?"

So six minutes of walking found them in an empty backlot, not very secure but Justin didn't seem very concerned about it. Larry crossed his arms in a way that was meant to look defiant, if a little skeptical. "Alright, you have my attention. Now why did you hunt me of all people down instead of concentrating on finding Statesman?"

A hint of irritation showed up in Justin's eyes as he took a firmer hold on his cane. "Look, I'm tired of everyone asking me that. Larry I have been trying since it all happened. I really have. However there is only so long I can look for him and ignore Paragon's current problems."

"Is that your way of saying that you think we should just give up?"

"No! If you would listen instead of acting like some bush league rookie then you would know why I'm here." Justin snapped as he brought a hand up to massage his temples. When he dropped his hand, he fixed Larry's glare with one of his own. "I'm praying the big guy returns. He was the defining hero of this city no doubt, but Larry if we all just sit on our duffs until he somehow magically returns there won't be a city to protect then."

Larry calmed slightly, seeing the point to Justin's words. However he wouldn't let the rich boy have it just yet. "Then what do you plan on doing? You don't actually have any powers to speak of other then firing an arrow through someone to hit the intended target."

Justin's eyes narrowed and his next words were carefully chosen, but got the point across again. "You forget the part about where the pointy end of the arrow can go into the 'intended target' due to a very good eye that I happen to have."

The reporter took the hint and dropped the hostile manner and asked a simple question. "Then why are you here?"

Justin rested both his hands on his cane, drawing in a breath before he spoke. "I'm here to put together a new team, temporary at the most. So at least our efforts will be coordinated enough to fend off the villians springing up until things settle somewhat. You're one of the few people I can even locate, anyone else of nigh unbeatable power is either so deep in hiding I can't find them... or taken by the Razaar."

Larry didn't know whether to be insulted, or elated that someone was finally doing something. "Well.. I guess I'm in then. Only until we get Statesman back though."

Justin finally offered a small smile. "Deal. Welcome to the team. As it happens I was in need of your assistance just now. I recieved a tip from one of my contacts about another hero being taken by what looked to be Vahzilok. However they didn't seem like the sort to just snip up anyone they catch. Their leader was a pale woman, really dangerous looking, possibly an eidolon. Up for it?"

Larry looked down in thought and weighed his options. He could just back out now, save himself some trouble, and go get something to eat or throw himself into a harrowing mind numbing fight against unspeakable zombie horrors. "Who else have you got so far?" If he was going to go ahead with this Larry wanted to know just how deep he was going to be getting in the proverbial crap pile.

"Counting the two of us? Three. The other is a new kid on the scene, so far I only know her field name. Goes by Flare Storm. From what I've seen the name fits her powers and a good chunk of her personality." Justin turned and started to leave. "Well.. that's all I can think of for now. See you in the field."

Larry was left alone in the lot, with just a simmering annoyance and a vague idea of just how outmatched they were going into this. He supposed that grabbing a bite to eat was out of the question at this time.

In a completely different section of the city a familiar motor cycle roared on through the busy streets, riding on it was Bard and Widow. In the skies above them Sentry followed in her newly repaired suit. This new version sported a full helmet and specialization in energy attacks rather then the flames the first version had. They had been searching since dawn for Tempest.

"Betty we've been searching for a while now and still no sign of him. I say it's time we give up." Edward said over the comlink, ignoring a hiss from Widow .

"Edward, you're my brother and I love you and all but you're going to keep looking or I'll blast you into swiss cheese. Before you found out he was Tempest you guys did just about everything together. Why should that change?"

A sigh was heard on the other end. "You wouldn't understand.."

Betty cut him off before he got on one of his protective tirades again. "Shut that crap up and just keep looking. Don't start with your macho bull crap. There's a time and place to pretend your in a school yard and this isn't it." She cut the comm link and then let herself trail off into her own thoughts. The comm links were an invention she'd whipped up in about the last four hours, so range was limited to five hundred yards, but she decided that any possible quick communication would be helpful right then. Perhaps after this incident she could make better ones with longer range.

The woman known as Sentry turned her helmeted head towards the right when one movement above that of the traffic caught her eye. It had appeared that the manhole cover had moved, just a little. Sentry narrowed her glowing blue robotic lenses to focus in on it. Though it wasn't necessary for what happened only seconds later.

The cover suddenly flew off of the hole, allowing several horrid undead creatures with mismatched limbs, some with machinery like chainsaws to take the place of an arm, come out of the sewers. They did it quickly but with the grace of a man two beers away from getting alcohol poisoning. People screamed as the creatures started forward, some attacking with chainsaw arms while the other two of the five monster group had the privilage of having shotgun instead of melee weapons.

Sentry veered off from following her previous course and held out her palms, firing beams of pure energy at the creatures. The both blasts had missed entirely, causing the smarter zombies with the gun arms to turn their rotted necks so they could see her to take aim. They returned fire, the slugs that normally would have been effective at close range proved to be useless against a flying opponent that not only had distance but also exceptional armor.

The zombies on the ground were soon occupied by the presence of a motorcycle as it ran over one of them, stopping it's back wheel over the unfortunate minion only to have the Bard poor on the gas. The wheel spun out, ripping quickly through layers of paper delicate flesh, through stringy muscle and to organs that were soon flung out along with a deluge of blood before the Bard's cycle traveled off the creature. Undead or not it wasn't going to be getting up again.

While the Bard quickly parked his hog and Widow leapt off Sentry weaved through the air, firing repeated blasts. Whenever one hit it would stagger the zombie, leaving a burning hole in it's body large enough to fit a fist through, but they took little notice of it and resumed firing at her.

Bard chose his opponent and ran up. This particuliar construct didn't have a specialized arm like the others, just a good old fashioned axe that was soon swinging for the hero's head.

The attack was easily avoided by a sidestep, Bard grabbing the hatchet so that the zombie wouldn't get another chance to use it and kicked the creature in the head, using his heel for the brunt of the impact. The zombie's head snapped around at a near 360 degrees, making it stumble but not die. In either case it's grip on the axe was released which allowed the territorial hero to swing it, decapitating the creature in a spray of black sludge that could had become it's blood. The body was left to weakly stagger a few more seconds before Bard kicked it onto it's back.

Widow teleported in a wisp of smoke in a rapid sucession around her chosen foe, the remaining chainsaw arm zombie. The undead made a few slow, powerful swipes at the girl but her teleportation proved to be just too fast for the slow, cumbersome movements of the undead human.

She would teleport in, send a punch into the creature, and be gone before the weapon could tear at her. Sadly, she didn't possess the physical power to actually harm the zombie so it was doing absolutely nothing other then causing the creature to turn in reaction to her attacks.

After one particuliarly close shave Widow teleported across the street, trying to come up with some sort of effective stratedgy. What could possibly have enough of a punch..? Her eyes settled on the two shotgun wielding zombies and a smirk formed on her thin lips. She reached out with a burst of mental power, easily dominating the creature's mind and making it aim the gun towards the chainsaw zombie. The undead with the shotgun fired at it's own bretheren, blowing a hole the size of a basketball through it's chest, making it fall down and stay there before uttering one last moan.

Sentry took full advantage of the creature's possession, sending out a searing beam of heat that struck the zombie squarely in the back, blasting through it. She would have pressed the advantage further had it not been for the tortured scream that ripped through the air, jerking her attention across the street to where Widow had just fallen to her knees with her arms wrapped around her waist. It hit Sentry right then, whenever Widow took control of someone whatever they felt she must feel the same thing, thankfully to a lesser extent.

Another shot brought her attention back to the remaining zombie. It was aiming at her still, so it didn't notice it when the Bard casually slipped in behind it, and swung the axe to decapitate it just like he'd done to his first opponent.

With the problem taken care of Sentry flew over to Widow and landed beside her, aiding her to stand. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know your powers were linked like that! Ohhh... I'm so sorry!" However Widow just shoved her away, making a shrugging motion to indicate she wasn't upset. Widow walked back over towards the motorcycle, ready to leave right then. However there was something coming, a terror that even the three couldn't turn aside easily.

The media! So, while Bard and the girls were blindsided by many newsreporters and questing fans let's shift our attention to elsewhere in the city.

Tempest groaned as he came to. He was in a dark room, suspended by his legs by iron clasps welded into the ceiling. His arms were also locked in shackles. So his vision was a bit skewed when he looked around, finding himself in something akin to a concrete prison cell. His bracers had been taken off and placed beside a heavy iron door... along with his helmet. A surge of horror shot through Tempest as he realized that whoever caught him knew what he looked like now, possibly knew who he was!

Right at that moment the cell door opened, admitting a single woman. She was dressed in a long flowing crimson robe that was open in the front, displaying a black catsuit with high heels. The woman looked too pale, her lips a dull, lifeless shade of pink. Her dark hair hung down over her face, concealing the right eye for the moment but the left was visible. She smiled. "Awake I see.. glad I could hide you and keep you all to myself.."

"Who are you and why are you holding me here?" Tempest demanded, trying to put on a brave face for what he realized was a zombie, but what threw him off the most was that she had intelligence, and unless one was close like he was now, she could almost pass for a living person.

"So rude.. but I'll go ahead and accomodate you." An amused smile tugged at her lips while a hand brushed the hair from her face. "I'm called Necrose.. far as I know.. and I felt like keeping you alive so I would have someone to talk to besides father."

Tempest frowned, "If you have no ill intentions then how about letting me down at least? All the blood rushing to my head is giving me a headache."

Necrose was about to answer when a man's voice was heard calling for her. The undead woman scowled and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut.

The electric hero closed his eyes, frustrated that he would be able to use his powers to free himself from his restraints, but completely unable to without his bracers unless he enjoyed cooking himself to death. So here Tempest was again, forced to play the waiting game and see if an opening became present. He was starting to realize just how dangerous hero work was, also just how much it sucked sometimes.

Author: And so another issue down. Hope those reading this enjoyed it, and I'm thinking about holding a popularity contest once all the heroes have been properly debuted. The winner of said contest will get a special little thingy at which the author will not reveal just yet.