As
the director of the GMA, Kenneth Bridge has been in many dire situations before
which tried his mettle and tested his resolve. The kind of events that caused
change in the world, and proved to all who was ready to step up and take
action, and who wasn’t. This was one of those situations.
“I
don’t care if there’s a slight problem up in the northern ice caps! There’s one
big-ass hellstorm happening right now! I want every reserve called in who’s
able to walk and shoot a gun!” Ken clicked off the phone as the agent on the
other end of the line quickly shut up and agreed. He was sitting in a jet
flying towards the destroyed prison with a thousand scenarios playing through
his head.
Ten years, he thought while rubbing his
forehead in frustration, ten years
without a major incident. And now that it happened, one of the big three is
involved. Damn it to hell.
Ken had breathed a deep sigh of
relief when he was informed the other two were still safe and sound in their personal
little worlds, but considering the repercussions of Jasmine’s escape made him
shudder. Jasmine Floran, aka Sombra, was a metahuman of theoretically unimaginable
power. The file says theoretical, because only one person has actually been
close enough to see her potential. She was brought to his attention rather
suddenly when she had a falling out with her boyfriend Matt, who happens to be
quite a powerful metahuman himself; although even Ken is in the dark as to the
limits of his power. Matt, aka Echo, has been an annoyance ever since Ken
promised Matt’s father the GMA wouldn’t touch the young man. In fact, the only
time Ken and Matt had ever met was when Matt inexplicably showed up at the
GMA’s doorstep with the unconscious girl in his arms, asking for the strongest
holding cell they had. Since her arrival, Jasmine had shown no activity
whatsoever and had been in a comatose state for four years.
But why now? Ken couldn’t answer that
puzzle at the moment. First he had to deal with the hundreds of escaped metahumans
on the loose.
The
swiftness of the Metalock’s destruction was a surprise to everyone. As more and
more super villains had their collars removed, the situation grew more chaotic.
Agents from all over the country were called in to battle the escapees, and
every licensed hero that could make it was summoned. Not wanting to deplete
their numbers and leave Hopling open to attack, Steve decided to send Tony and
Natalie to assist the GMA, while he and Marathon stayed to protect the city.
Tony reached the battlefield first, and wasted no time helping the police and
agents. He raced through the fighting, taking out any criminal he could as fast
as possible.
By the time Natalie arrived, a
section of the forces were busy scouting out the area to find any villains who
were on the run. She joined them, even managing to find and easily subdue a
weakened Basher who was hiding in an unlocked car. For hours the agents
searched the miles surrounding the prison, with more and more people joining in
the hunt. Meanwhile Steve and Marathon held watch over the city outskirts
closest to the fray, keeping an eye out for any fleeing convict. After two
days, most of the escaped villains were caught and being held in various places
across the eastern coast. Tired and worn out, Tony and Natalie returned home,
ready to recuperate from the ordeal. However of those who escaped, there were a
few keys villains still missing…
“I
can’t believe those suckers didn’t even see us! Jazzy my girl, you are one hell
of an asset, that’s all I can say.” Volt put his feet up on a beaten box and
leaned back in his ratty chair. “And what better place to hide than right
underneath them!”
A
few of the villains laughed, while others were still a little shell-shocked
about the ordeal. They had escaped under the cover of night using Sombra’s
shadow manipulation to cloak them, allowing for easy entrance into Hopling. The
group took refuge in the basement of a worn down apartment building, the
tenants above them oblivious to their new, deadly neighbors.
Among the group were prominent
villains who had run-ins with Frontier in the past and came out on the losing
end. In addition to Brian, Richard, Volt, and Jasmine, there was Tommy Goodman,
who was nothing like his name suggests. He was completely average looking, with
brown hair and eyes. People could pass by him on the street and not even notice
he was there, much less the danger they were in. Calling himself Land Slide,
Tommy could send out shockwaves from his body, causing tremors and earthquakes
which brought wanton destruction. He was young, only in his early twenties, and
yet had already caused much trouble for Frontier a few years back when Marathon
had just joined the team.
The last member of the group was
a silent giant called Sentinel. Ten feet tall and seemingly carved from
off-white stone, this man never spoke a word, but could incinerate anything
that crossed his path with powerful heat lasers from his eyes.
All of the villains were powered
down to avoid detection by the GMA’s tracking satellites. For most of them that
was easy, but Jasmine was seemingly having a terrible time coping without the
cover of her shadows. The petite girl was curled up on a moth-ridden sofa, her
long black hair covering part of her while a dirty blanket covered the rest.
They had found her naked once the shadows were removed, and at least Brian had
the dignity to cover her up. She hadn’t said a word since she walked out of the
cell, but she had obeyed Richard’s requests without objection.
“So, you guys wanna tell me why
we’re hidin’ in Hopling and not halfway across the world yet?” Tommy said
cracking open a beer and tossing one each to Volt and Brian.
Richard stood up, taking a place
in the room where everyone could see him. “Because Mr. Goodman, we are not going
to just run away from an opportunity like this. Alone we were each defeated by
Frontier. But just think of the pain and chaos we can cause if we work together
to kill our mutual enemies!” A flame could be seen in Richard’s eyes, and Brian
gulped a little.
“Ya know, I love that you guys
helped get me out, but I’m not really one for revenge.”
Richard shot Brian a look of
anger. “What are you talking about,” he hissed, “I saw what you did! All the
lives that you took!”
“Yeah, I’m all for death and
destruction. It’s kind of my power; but only if it’s to gain something for
myself. Besides,” Brian paused and shot a glance over towards Jasmine, “my
fight’s with Matt, not Frontier. He’s the asshole who took me out.”
At the mention of Matt’s name,
Jasmine looked at Brian. In a split second, an eruption of shadows swallowed
Brian, choking him and pushing him down to the ground. The shock of the attack
rendered Brian helpless, and the others jumped back in reflex. Even the
emotionless Sentinel took a step back to brace himself in the case of an
attack. “Matt is mine!” Sombra bellowed, the thundering sound coming from the
small girl taking everyone by surprise. Hovering in the air, her body once
again became covered darkness, her hair waving in the air like black fire.
“Power down, dammit! They’ll
track your energy!” Richard yelled, and the shadows released Brian and crawled
back to the corners. Jasmine sat back down on the sofa, curling up into a ball to
cover her body and hiding her face once more. Brian staggered up, panting and
giving Jasmine death looks.
“How the hell can we beat
Frontier if we can’t restrain ourselves from fighting each other!” Richard
scolded the youngsters. “And if you really want to get to Matt, Brian, then you
will help us. You know him better than I do, but from what I’ve heard, I do not
think he will let his new friends die at the hands of his own enemies without
first trying to stop it himself.”
The group settled back down, and
Jasmine lifted her head. “He will come?” She asked softly, a stark contrast to
the power that she just exhibited.
Richard nodded, “Oh, he will
come. They will all come, like lambs led to the slaughter. And each of us will
have our revenge, along with the destruction of this fine city.”
There aren’t many visitors to
Frontier’s mansion, since it is technically private property and surrounded by
a fence and security measures. So when the door bell was rung everyone stopped
eating their supper and looked at each other with confusion.
“We have a door bell?” Tony
asked as Francis got up to see who it was. The bell rang once more before
Francis could open the door. When he did, he was quite shocked to see Matt
standing in the doorway, a look of concern set on his face.
“Francis? Oh good, I thought
nobody was home. Remember a few weeks ago when you said Frontier was here if I
needed help? Well, I think I’m calling in a favor, if you don’t mind.”
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