Anderson watched as his "heavy hitter," as the Iron Knight had been described to him made advances toward the woman on the screen. Anderson know that Arthur marched to the beat of his own drum, however, the director found his timing to be not only terrible, but grossly inappropriate.
Anderson’s first instinct was to rip Arthur a new one for his unabashed unprofessionalism. Especially when he was too busy being cute with a mysterious woman who had the technological know-how to hack into STRIKE's secure network without leaving a trace. The breach in protocol was alarming at best, and Anderson know that it was something that he would have to address with his security staff as soon as this was over. He did not like variables, and this "Archangel certainly was that.
She was something that he wasn't able to control, and he tended to dislike things that were outside of his control. He knew that he would have to keep an eye on her, and he would deal with her in whatever manner was necessary should she force his hand, however, that was a problem for another day. So as much as Anderson wanted to berate Arthur for his lapse in judgement, he knew that doing so would do no good. Arthur wasn’t a company man, and he sure as hell wasn’t military, as Anderson had been throughout his entire life. So instead of laying into Arthur for his behavior, Anderson just let it go.

He had learned a long time ago to pick his battles, and he knew that this one was pointless.

“Well, if you two ‘kids’ are done playing flirting, we can get these weapons into production and put that son of a bitch down...As long as that’s alright with you, ‘hero.’”

Christopher Arthur III
“Well, if you two ‘kids’ are done playing flirting, we can get these weapons into production and put that son of a bitch down...As long as that’s alright with you, ‘hero.’” Anderson said in order to get the ‘meeting’ back on track after Chris had derailed it because of his flirting.

If this were a cartoon, Anderson’s face would be redder than an apple and steam would be billowing out of his ears. However, Anderson showed some self-control by not acting upon these feelings. There were bigger fish to fry, and at the moment Chris’ behavior was not one of them.

“’Kids’? People have used worse names to describe me. For instance, that metahuman that I faced while I was on my way here called me ‘Princess.’” Chris cracked a smile as he began to mention the nicknames he had been called. However, he quickly cut himself off because he could tell in Anderson’s face and body language that he was not impressed at all.

Chris turned back toward the monitor. “Well, Archangel,” Chris began, “It was a pleasure to meet someone who has a handle on technology that is almost on par with my own technological genius. It shouldn’t take too long to figure out the problems that you sent to me.”

“Okay, then. When should I expect those ‘new toys’ to be operational? Repairing my armor should not take too long.”

Ramsey

In a small room, a man stood a telephone in his hands. The other end picked up shortly after ringing.” Wrong Number pal.” The caller frantically spoke.”Wait it’s me Barron.”

The man on the other end took a second.”Barron? Huh. How long it’s been? Six, seven years? “

“Not important right not! I need a job done..”

“A job? You need a job? Since when have you need help from, what was it? Plebeians Like Me!?”

“Look, 10,000 dollars. Got your attention yet?”

“Maybe? Maybe? That’s a lot of dough, I thought you had plenty of muscle. What happened to your Empire? As I think you called it.”

“Got some fucking Meta came through. He’s something big, like Superman big. Got enough strength to take out Metallurgy. You on the other hand.. Have an edge on him, I’m sure your power can take this fucker out.”

“That right? Well I’ll have to swing by, and crank up the volume on this bounty. I’ll be in town in a week. It’s the fastest I can get there. No faster than that.”

Just then Barron walked down the corridor, his footsteps were heavy, and he looked impatient.

“Need to go now, bastards coming..” The phone call abruptly ended. Leaving the other end with the dial tone….

“You got that safehouse ready, or perhaps you need another beating?” Ramsey said as he entered the room..

Barron motioned with his hands as he backed away a bit. “Yeah.. Got it all set up, just for you. Look you don’t need me anymore.. Right, got a guy preparing your plates now, just need to pick them up in a few days.. And the safehouse is good to go, I’ll just get you the information you need and i’ll..”

Ramsey moved closer..”Now Barron, my man! Come come. I got plans you know.” As his hand patted Barron’s back, something happened that even Barron couldn’t guess. “Unfortunately they don’t involve you.”

Barron before he had any time to react. Ramsey had sunk his hand into Barron’s spine, and shoving him to the ground he placed his foot on him as he ripped it out. Barron screamed a shrill and ear piercing scream. As he died blood spraying everywhere. “Ah.. He got blood all over my clothes. Well looks like there’s going to be something laying around. Might as well change.. After some hours of digging through the corpses, and finding something close enough to what he was wearing.”Color’s off, I guess a light tan shirt isn’t too bad. I’ll buy a new shirt later.”

He looked at the information given, or rather taken from Barron. As he made his way to the car, the rising sun coming above the horizon. “They’re gonna have a mess to clean up soon. Probably save those cops the troubles of cracking down on this place though. Argh, shoulders a little stiff. Guess my arm is coming in nicely. A few more days, maybe.” The door to his car opened, as he turned the key, starting the ignition. It stalled twice. Before it ran. “Humming like a kitten.”

The car drove through the back streets, a security camera caught him once or twice, nothing to be worried about. Not like the guys watching even knew who he was. So long as he didn’t make trouble. He hummed along, as a radio station broadcasted various news into the car, things about police activity, and some attack kept under wraps by the police. And worse Icon’s disappearance from the public view. Not that it mattered, who cares about some gun toting madman at a party, probably all it was. Shadows were looming over Ramsey whether or not he knew it, assassins would be finding him. He who had secrets his former bosses didn’t want exposed. And whatever that giant flame creature was, he’d have to lay low a few days, let his arm grow back.

He drove up to the address of a face maker, the building was in a run down part of town. But surprisingly it was a new building. Probably a few years old. And kept in good condition. The door was a solid red, as he knocked. “What you want?” The voice called out. “Need a Face.” Ramsey replied back.. “Well you ugly enough come on in.”

The man who could be in his forties. Opened the door, and looked at him.”So? What kind of face you need?” Ramsey replied.”I’m told I’d have plates waiting for me, Barron called.”

“Barron? Yeah, got it right here.” He left for a second, before returning. “ Need anything else?”

“Good for now.” As he looked at the plate. He walked back to his car, before he reached it the old man said something. “Got some nasty rumors about some powerful Meta. Heard Icon ran into it. Just fair warning.” He said as the door closed, and bolted. “ Maybe there’s something happening in twon after all?” He said while he drove on through town, and changed plates in a secluded spot. Hopefully the directions to his safehouse were good. As he drove off.

"Bar up that door, dammit!" Screamed Teddy 'Tin Man' Williamson, local big-time gangster in the northern coast of Little Sicily. "Don't let that...that freak get any further into our home!"

He had made a living for himself working as a higher ranking mafioso in Lost Haven under the watchful guise of a mafia family in New York, having a certain degree of power and influence for expanding their territory all the way up to the coast of Maine. It had been a long and hard road for him, many times did he have to get his hands dirty, but he earned his power. Soon enough, he had declared the gang he had helped create to be his own, cutting his group off from the New York branch and trying to establish himself as more than a lieutenant, but a full on leader of his own.

Today he would learn that was the biggest and last mistake of his life.

He now found himself huddled in a freighter sailing away from the French Quarter, the boat preparing to leave the small city and plow into open waters, escaping the would be pursuer he knew was already hot on his trail, and the loud explosion coming from up above told him he was far too late to really escape. As the big metal door he scrambled to hide behind was closing, the two men pushing the door closed could see the blur of a body being hurled down the hallway, end over end. A stifled yelp managed to escape Teddy's lips, followed by the panicked glances of the other two men and a hurried attempt to close the door. A loud creak erupted as the portal shut, the large wheel briskly turned as the large steel bars locked the door. A small breath of relief exited Teddy, though his men still exchanged worried glances between each other.

"Boss, the guy tore up half the crew on deck, we don't have an exit here!" One man said.

"Do we have a way out? A life boat or somethin'?" The other one squeaked out.

"Both of you shut your mouths!" Teddy barked at the two of them. "Maybe he didn't see us! Even then, that's a foot thick steel door, it'll at least take him a few minutes to get through it....right?"

As if Teddy's pursuer was waiting on the other side for him to say that line, the door erupted to the sound of what could only be perceived as a laser blast straight out of science fiction. The door flew off of its hinges, crumpling like tissue paper. One of the two men with Teddy did not react quick enough to clear the pathway, letting out a brief scream of peril as the door slammed into him, plowing him through the air and slamming into the opposite wall with a audible crunch of his bones being crushed against the wall. The two remaining man took a few seconds to even register the damage, before their widened eyes turned to the cause of such inhuman damages.

A black and silver glove stood out from the smoke, stretched out from the smoke kicked up from the ensuing strike, and as it lowered, the body attached came into vision. A man garbed in silver and black, dressed in what could only be identified as battle gear covered in a long, sleeveless coat. A brief silence before the man stepped out of the clearing fog, the two panicked gangsters recoiling as he made his advance. From behind the face mask, one could possibly make out that the obvious assassin was sporting a smirk as he entered the room.

"Ah hah, there you are." Said the man. "I've been killing all over for you!"

"Don't....don't you mean looking?" Said the man next to Teddy. The hitman took one look at the man, then outstretched his hand again for another deafening burst of energy, rocketing the man into the wall behind him.

"Everybody's a fuckin' critic." Murmured the hitman, keeping his passively optimistic disposition as he turned to address Teddy.

"Wha...what do you want from me?" Teddy managed to stammer out, pointing his revolver at the man.

"Aw, don't be dumb, Teddy." The man replied, taking a step closer. "If you can't figure it out by this point, I'm really doing society a service."

Teddy didn't respond audibly, instead letting three shots from his revolver speak for him. To his visible dismay, he watched as the bullets simply ricochet off of the man, implanting into the wall around him. He let out another squeal of terror before fleeing down a door behind him, taking another handful of futile shots at the assassin.

"Aw, c'mon Teddy, don't make me chase!" The man taunted as he followed at a brisk stroll, clearly taking enjoyment out of this despite his words. "It's not like you have many places to hide on a boat!"

Teddy raced down the hallways, a cold sweat visibly running down his face as he pushed men aside, shouting at them to get the guy behind him. The sounds of gunfire, explosions and screams echoed behind him, signaling every grievous failure those men had suffered. He was in a full sprint, trying to lose his assassin in the hallways, trying to outrun what was clearly inevitable.

Soon enough, Teddy came to a clearing, the bottom floor of the freighter, the cargo hold. In it were his best men, the elites, the men he could count on when all else had failed. Running by one of the larger men, he pointed at the door behind him, screaming his head off.

"Shoot whoever comes through that door! I don't want anyone getting through! That freak things he can just step on our turf and wipe us out?! He's got another thing comin', right boys?"

The shout was met with uproarious cheers in agreement, countless arms, legal or no, began to gather. Shotguns, submachine guns, miniguns, RPGs, assault rifles, an entire militia prepared to fight to the last man. Their resolve began to waver, however, when they could still hear the screaming of the men who came before.

For a brief moment, silence entered the cargo hold, had the pursuer given up? Had he taken a different route? Their question was answered with another body come flying through the doorways. To their horror, they could see the man's head had been twisted at a disgusting angle, his eyes permanently wide with fear, his mouth silently fixed in a scream. In walked the assassin, crackling with a blue light, seeming to surge with power as he entered the room. The men backed away as he stepped forward, they knew how many he had killed, the fear in the room was downright palpable. The assassin's eyes, alight with energy, crossed the room of his opposition, scanning for what could be assumed was his target.

Before he could finish, however, the voice of Teddy screamed out over the crowd.

"The fuck are you guys doin'?!? TAKE HIM OUT!!"

And with that, a hailfire of bullets, the sound of gunfire ringing out over the crowd. The assassin raised his hands up in defense, the bullets bouncing off of him, though the impact of so many bullets had indeed begun to push him back. The sound rang out for what was at least two minutes, men quickly reloading to keep the pressure on their foe. Soon enough, the men sporting rocket launchers had armed their explosives, and within the gunfire alighted the trails of several rockets, converging on the assassin's location before ripping the room apart with several explosions. After another 30 seconds, the men were all out of immediate munitions, their was only smoke and silence, the recent sound of a miniature war zone still ringing in their ears. They all waited in eager anticipation to see their results, hopefully a body littered with bullets, or simply body parts and a crater.

In both cases, they were bitterly disappointed.

As the smoke cleared, the thugs were horrified to find the lone fighter without a scratch on him, his clothes had some tears and scratches, but the figure was clearly unharmed by the assault. He took another step forward, his body again crackling and surging with visible power.

"Good attempt, guys. I think I almost felt that one," Said the man. "my turn now!"

His body began to light up more and more, moving forward to unleash his power. A few men, either fearless or insane, tried to charge him, attempting to stop his advance. They only met with the fists of the assassin, sending them flipping through the air and crashing through their own illicit cargo. A few tried to run, but already it was too late. With a tremendous shout and a extension of his arms, what followed next was a kinetic explosion, large enough to encapsulate the room. Men began to be thrown through the air, the wave of explosive energy ripping through steel, wood, flesh, concrete, and anything else that stood in the way of this deafening burst from the man.

The resulting explosion probably could have been seen from the docks, a huge chunk of the freighter being taken from the side of the freighter, ripping the hull open like a can. By now the assassin would have to be aware he would be on a time limit, as no doubt someone from the docks would already be calling the police."

Teddy opened his eyes, his body broken and shattered among a litter of drugs, guns, and contraband he was smuggling on the freighter, his operation and crew both decimated, already being taken by the water filling the ship.

And standing before him, was none other than the assassin, silver coat giving off a sheen in the outside light.

Teddy raised his hands, covered in blood, whimpering out. "H-h-hold on, man...don't do this..."

The man raised a brow, giving an amused chuckle to the plea, his head cocking to the side as he replied.

"I think I've gone a wee bit too far to not go through with killing you," He motioned to the dead men around him. "Wouldn't you?"

"O-o-o-okay...what are they paying you?" Teddy pleaded. "I-I-I'll double it!"

"Awwww....Teddy, Teddy, Teddy..." The man responded, wagging a finger at him. "Don't make promises we both know you can't keep. The Boss Man himself hired me to take your little AWOL branch, and I know you can't pay more than he can."

"Aw c'mon man!" Teddy whimpered out. "Don't do this! I'll do anything!"

"Sorry, pal. Deal's done." The man responded, outstretching a hand to Teddy, glowing and crackling with energy.

"NO!" Teddy continued to scream, raising his hands in a futile effort to defend himself from the impending blast.

"When you get to hell, tell 'em War-Pulse sent ya!"

Kaboom.

I am. I am a throbbing heart. Pulsing, black, undulating, shoving blood through fetid silver veins. Pry me open like a coinpurse. Spread my ribs with a vise, remove my heart. It's cold, wet, and beautiful. Everything you wanted a heart to be. Your lips tremble. They fall apart. A single tear rolls down your lidless eyes. Take a bite with your gaping mouth, then another, and another until the beautiful, perfect heart is inside you. In the torn center of the pulp, you will see your own, perfect face. This is me. I AM.

---

Violent red pulses spread their digitized red lines through ragged rock. Pulling, tugging, guiding all the sins towards the hellish epicenter. A swirling vortex was far above in a red sky of not-stars, stalactites formed around the circumference. A single beam reached up towards it from the ground. This light was not before. Now that it was, every entity within this hellscape was inexplicably drawn towards the effulgent glow, knowing instinctively where it would lead. It would lead to Man.

Hooded devils, demons who's origins stretch back to the beginning of time, encircled the base of the pentagram from which that horrid light rose. Others would approach them, those skin of ash, flame, shadow. They asked by what right they had to reach Man, to commit whatever atrocities they were want to commit. The largest devils answered by right of conquest. Most by right of blood.

One smaller one, more freshly spawned than the others, handed over a skin bound book. “By right of the unknowable.” The hooded one she had approached turned in short rotations until his many eyed visage sat upon her and that horrible, horrible book. One of several maws opened and shuttered closed, in a tongue long thought dead , “Mmm. The Book of Eibon. How did you come upon this?”

“Eibon arrived here, once. Bargained the wretched tome for his freedom. It's a good read.”

It chuckled a hoarse, crackling laugh. “This is acceptable. Though you are young to be crossing the threshold from us...” the elderly demon lowered a blackened, shadowed claw, drawn slowly towards the sky with no less than three boney cracks at each increment. “To sin.”

---

Through the window glass darkly a terrible red light pulsed. The warehouse windows, not far at all from the Museum of Supers, began to murk over with ash and soot. A low, groaning hum shook the many crates and lifting equipment until finally a beam of the same blood light burst through, tearing a sizable hole in the roof and reaching far off into the Lost Haven sky towards the moon. A swirling circle of pentagrams and the gnarling characters of dead tongues acted as the base. Soon after, it sunk into the concrete floor as if it were a rug sinking into the earth, forming a red whirlpool of infernal fire.

It stands to reason nothing good ever came out of holes in the space time continuum like these. In fact, that's a sane assumption and you would best keep thinking that way. Flying humanoid things with bat wings flew out holding pitchforks, skeletal dogs covered in flame shot through the doorways, a snake the size of an eighteen wheeler slithered out and smashed it's way into the streets. The warehouse was on fire in almost no time at all. Succubi and incubi alike found their way to Lost Haven and began causing what could only be described as panic followed by a subsequent rise in the belief of biblical tales.

Then, like any demonic invasion, the infighting began. Blood feuds spanning millennia reared their ugly heads. Sword came upon sword came upon trident came upon claw came upon barbed tail came upon spells so inherently evil it would give pause to even the most depraved supervillain. Even as the warehouse fell apart, they fought.

Then Al'qruni-tun'kil, she who rots blood, Styx, rose from the hell flames into flames that were far more earthly. Blood spattered the floor, the walls, and by some bizarre turn of events had even reached the ceiling. It was hard to tell from the haze of heat and fury who was killing whom. Outside the screams of the living could be heard, the barking of dogs (though the barking had started long before the portal had finalized).

She looked around, trying to find an exit. While fire and smoke would barely harm her, the ceiling collapsing would certainly make her stay in this realm shorter than she wanted. Seeing the door the snake had turned into a gaping hole in the wall, she barreled out into the starry night of Lost Haven. Where the sound of sirens blared, mankind shouting to the void of space that something was going horribly wrong.

Styx of course had no idea what those sounds meant or what purpose many of these buildings served. It was safe to assume those noises were a warning of sorts, possibly for other humans. A hoof footed demon, about seven feet tall, stomped out from the near collapsing warehouse, holding four swords in each of its four hands. It looked down at the shorter, younger demon, a little over five feet tall, and recognized her status as from the second ring of hell. It's bull nose huffed flames as it proclaimed. “I AM SORGATH. YOU DIE, WELP.”

Styx flinched as the hooven monstrosity leaped forward, pulling back its four arms and swinging them around in one clean circular motion. No satisfying crack or gush sounded and Sorgath felt a mixture of disappointment and rage as Styx ran barefoot straight into the streets of Lost Haven. It roared, sprinting after.

Styx ran into flashing red and blue lights, turning to see a blinding white floodlight and several extremely panicked police who immediately opened fire. She melted down to the earth, becoming one with the shadows, and reappeared at an opposing alleyway and skittered up the wall. Sorgath crossed the same street and spun its blades, deflecting several incoming shots before finally breathing a large volume of fire into the line of armored cars. The smell of fire and burnt flesh rose. Sorgath dug each iron clad hoof into the ground, crushing a skull, and leaped onto the roof Styx had frantically climbed onto.

Styx spun around, loosely throwing two blasts of hellfire like baseballs at Sorgaths face. It stumbled back. Styx used that time to run, jumping from the six story building into the in-between of the first and second floor of the building across the street. Bodies were carelessly strewn on the stairway, the ashen remains of slain demons littered the next floor up. This was not going like Styx had hoped. For one, she thought as she frantically ran up the stairs. A crashing impact was heard not far behind her. For one,the portal opened to what humans loosely call “civilization”. I should have expected. She pushed open a doorway, number 7A, a body on the other side resisted her attempts. Turning, she saw Sorgath across the hall, just as furious as ever. He began to charge. Throwing all of her light weight into the door, Styx stumbled and rolled in. Not far off, she could see a room with a vanity mirror. Sprinting towards it, Styx was followed close behind by Sorgath who threw his blade at the welplings back. She fell into the mirror, and the sword shattered glass.

---

News Broadcasts

“After over two hundred casualties in the surrounding districts of Sherman Square, the violence has finally slowed down.”

“Metaman, what exactly are these invaders?” “I have no idea, demons maybe? Aliens?”

“It had...my face. It stole my face!”

“Call 1-800-666-2345! Operators are on the line. Will you protect your family from planar invasions?”

“The Apocalypse has begun, we must all repent! The devil has embedded his talons in mans soul, his being! Rapture follows soon and only the chosen shall bask in the light of God!”

---

Three young girls stood in front of a mirror, giggling and dimming the lights. “Ok, ok. Who's going first?”

One girl, tallow hair and bones, shook her head frantically. Her taller friend, dark haired and raven eyed, laughed. “Don't be a wuss! Come on!” The third pudgy girl nodded and parroted what the raven eyed girl said.

The lanky girl quivered in her dog paw pajamas, closed her eyes. “Bloody mary...Bloody mary...Bloody....”

When she had the courage to open her eyes, in the mirror was a grey skinned, yellow eyed horned girl not much older than they. It widened its eyes, which flashed red and leaked blood, the lights in the room fizzled out, and each girl screamed a scream they would never scream louder.

Styx jumped from the mirror, following after the girls into the hall. A mother, the lanky girls, walked out. “Is everything alrig- oh.” Styx stared daggers through her for a moment, then burst through the back door. Looking about, a common citizen would have recognized the French Quarter, named after a minority of buildings based loosely on Château's and one recognizable Cathedral. She recognized nothing but the Cathedral, who's bell tower would at least give her time to think if nothing else.

Finding her way past the disorienting neon signs and flashing stoplights, Styx eventually arrived at the base of the Cathedral. She leaped onto the cobbled wall and climbed, flipping her way onto the backs of Gargoyles and swinging jutting sculptures until finally reaching the bells. Wiping sweat from her brow, she looked out towards the glowing orange and smoke rising far out in the distance. It seemed like the others were enjoying themselves.

Zac Wilson | Kelly Brown
“Any and all charges against you have been dropped. You’re free to go, Ms. Brown.” A.J. lead the young metahuman out of the interrogation room. Outside, Zac was already waiting for his girlfriend to be released, knowing that the police would have to let her go since he had just apprehended the true culprits (although the police did not know that Zac specifically stopped them, but only that a metahuman did).

When Kelly saw her boyfriend standing there, waiting for her, she rushed forward and embraced him in a big, four-armed hug. However, she forgot her own strength and started to smother Zac and he might have ran out of breath had not quickly whispered to her that he could not breath. Kelly then immediately released her grip and took a step back, diverting her eyes away from him as her face began to blush.

“Ready to go home?” Zac asked after he closed the gap that Kelly had just created between them and he wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Absolutely,” Kelly replied, anxious to finally get home and strip out of that wretched leotard and get back into ‘normal’ clothes.

The couple would have just walked out the door, if Kelly had not remembered that her best friend, Sammy, was still at the police station. She immediately turned around and marched back toward the FBI agent who had just lead her out of the interrogation room, leaving Zac behind.

“What about Sammy? She’s being released too, right?”

Before Kelly asked this question, A.J. was smiling at how adorable the couple were. However, once she heard Kelly’s question, her smile on her face melted away.

“I understand that ‘she’ was your best friend, but there’s nothing I can do. It’s above my head now.” A.J. attempted to place her hand on Kelly’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, but Kelly just shrugged it off.

“Over your head? But you’re the freaking FBI! Who would be over your head?”

A.J. took a deep breath, knowing that what she was about ready to say was not going to please the ticked-off metahuman that stood before her.

“Unfortunately, I am not at the liberty to divulge that information. I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.

When Kelly heard this, she just marched straight out of the police station, knowing full well that if she didn't leave, she might have made a scene. For the second time in a couple minutes, Kelly had left behind Zac. As he looked toward the FBI agent, Zac just shrugged his shoulders, knowing that he could not have done anything more to free her girlfriend’s best friend. Then, he jogged after Kelly.

Once Zac caught up to her, they both walked together toward where Zac had parked his car. Due to his super speed, Zac was able to run back to their apartment in order to pick up his car. Of course, Zac could have ran straight to the police station, but how would they get home? And would it not look suspicious that Zac miraculously arrived at the police station?

When they both entered into Zac’s car, Kelly began to break into tears.

“I can’t believe they are going to let them take away Sammy! I don’t care what those sickos did to her, she’s still human, just like us!”

Zac turned his girlfriend, trying to think of something to say. He wanted to say that they would figure a way to free Sammy, but Zac knew that it probably would be almost near impossible to do.

Then suddenly, the two metahumans heard a ‘meow’ come from the back seat. When they swung their heads around in order to see what (or rather who) it was, Zac and Kelly discovered that Sammy was already waiting for them in the backseat! Kelly immediately reached back and embraced her best friend, overcome by joy know that her friend was not going to be a lab rat for the U.S. government.

“Sammy,” Zac asked, “How did you get in here?” In response, after Kelly loosened up her grip, Sammy pointed her paw toward the window. There was a silhouette of a man walking back toward the police station. However, since her ability to speak had been removed when she was transformed into this human-headed cat, Sammy couldn't explain any more.

“I don’t care how she got here,” Kelly announced, “Let’s just get out of here before someone changes their mind."

---

Minutes Prior

A man dressed in a S.T.R.I.K.E. uniformed causally walked out into the parking lot toward one of the cars parked there. In his hands, he held a medium sized block of wood. Once he had arrived at the car, the man immediately picked the lock (without setting off any alarms), opened the back door, and placed the block of wood in the back seat.

As soon as he set the piece of wood on the car seat, the block began to change into a different shape. After a few seconds, the block had morphed into Sammy, cat-bodied and all. She felt slightly disoriented, teetering back and forth.

“Don’t worry,” the man said, “being morphed into an inanimate object and back is a pretty invasive procedure. Sammy just glared at the man, not knowing whether she should be grateful that she was not free or mad at the experience she had just experienced. However, she wasn't going to have an opportunity to do anything else because the man just slammed the door shut on her, locking her in.

Once the man returned to the police station, he wandered into the furthest room in the building, where the S.T.R.I.K.E. agents had set up shop. Inside that room was one of those portable animal containers. Inside it contained something that looked just like Sammy. However, after the man took a closer look, the façade briefly dissipated, revealing that only a block a wood was trapped inside. However, no one else seemed to have noticed it.

“Agent Stevenson, are you almost ready for transport?” One of the other agents asked.

“One second. I need to use the restroom.” The man said. He exited the room and headed toward the restroom. However, instead of entering into that room, he continued on until a made another turn and reached another door. After checking to make sure no one was watching, the man opened the door, revealing the real Agent Stevenson, unconscious and stripped down of his clothes.

As the doppelgänger removed the stolen clothes, his original appearance returned, along with his normal clothes. Now, where the man use to stand was a young, muscular man whose head was crowned by a winged traveler’s hat. His feet too were covered with winged sandals. In his hands, he bore a rod that also had two winds protruding from the top.

With his true appearance revealed, the man bent down and sprinkled something over real Agent Stevenson’s head, causing the unconscious man to wake up.

“Now, you will not recall anything that has happened because of my actions. You will return to your team now. And remember, your name is Agent Stevenson. It is not mine name. Do you understand?”

Agent Stevenson nodded his head. After the S.T.R.I.K.E. agent threw on his clothes, he rushed back toward his team. The young man chuckled as he watched the mortal dash off.

“Man, I have not had this much fun since I tricked Amphitryon’s slave into thinking that I was actually him so that Zeus could have the opportunity to bang Alkmene. Oh, good times.”

Styx sat on the precipice of the bell tower, kicking her legs lazily about. Where in this concrete jungle did they hide their Librarium? Certainly humans read. There were lights everywhere! If they followed that accursed book of lies, they certainly could stand to write other nonsense. Looking around, she hoped the fires weren't burning anything important. Like a morgue. Or a cemetery.

Walking straight down the Cathedral's spire-like bell tower, Styx thought more about cemeteries. About graves. Mark-stones in which a date of birth and death are labelled with the assumption that anyone would care or perhaps a reminder that we all inevitably burn our rope. Then, below this date, a quote that both fails to encapsulate the rotting corpses spirit before death and subsequently fails to attract the attention of anyone. So all graves, forgotten, cast aside, eventually overgrown with foliage and Earth, were of as little use to those inside as to those who visited them.

Styx arrived in the Cathedral's graveyard out of a morbid curiosity. There wasn't any real substantial form of honoring the dead in hell, it was excessively difficult to die there. So the fact there were bodies beneath her feet and not in the stomach of some hungry sloth demon or thrown into the spawning pools was novel, to say the least.

Moving between the graves, she stopped beneath one particularly large and ornate statue. It depicted James Hearsley, famed philanthropist and Olympic athlete. His family had spared no expense on this grave, every detail in his chiseled jaw painstakingly crafted and caring hands holstered carelessly in loose pockets. Pocket square tucked tight, his smile could kill.

Styx exploded the upper half with blasts of hellfire. She hated philanthropists almost as much as she hated the kind who made statues of themselves to celebrate how great they were. She humphed loudly, and throw another ball of fire at the base with a crumbling, hissing crash following soon after.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wandering off from the graveyard, merging with shadow and re-emerging on the other end of the gate. Styx looked left and right. This part of town seemed less active, maybe something to due with the invasion. Through a alley she could see a small fire, inside of a barrel by appearances. Odd. She moved towards this light, ending up in the filthiest, grimiest alley in New Haven. Where garbage wasn't stacked, there were cats, and where there weren't cats, there was garbage, and where there wasn't garbage or cats there was the vagrant. He was curled up against the wall across from the barrel fire on top of a cardboard bed.

This didn't stop Styx from shaking the mans shoulders until he awoke. She needed directions towards the closest Librarium now, before the entire city was burnt to the ground! The filthy flea ridden man groaned awoke, only to see something that was accurately out of this world looming over him. Naturally he yelled aloud, scaring off several of the cats who hadn't naturally of their own accord fled at the sight of a honest to goodness demonic presence.

“Get away Satan, I didn't mean to kill those kids in the war!” he shouted.

Styx spoke in surprisingly fluid english, though her voice smelled and somehow sounded of brimstone, “I am not the Prince of Darkness. Tell me where your Librarium is.”

Now that the bum thought of it, she looked younger than he'd imagine the devil to be. Maybe she was one of those metahumans who was half goat or something. “Woh, sorry you scared me. The Library? Ha! It ain't open this time o' day, specially not to the likes of Ol Bum Joleson, but if yer look in the Museum of Supers gift section, ought to be a book or two I bet. It's up near where the fires are goin' on I think. What do I get for tellin' ya?”

Styx left the alley, climbing up the wall. “A sense of pride for doing good work. Then nothing.”

---

Traveling back through another mirror, Styx arrived in a apartment a few blocks away from the Museum of Supers that had seen better days. Two bodies, broiled to a crisp and hugging tightly in their bed smoked the room. In the living room, the balcony window had been smashed open and there was a clear reptilian foot trail that lead to the couples bedroom. A photo of a child lay cracked on the floor. An optimist would be thankful for the lack of blood.

Looking outside from the balcony, Styx noticed a few things that were troubling. There was far more floodlights, the police having realized some of these demons couldn't teleport within light, and she couldn't simply do a few shifts to reach the other end of the street. Shattering the lights would just inform them something was off. It seemed there were some hastily assembled car barricades set up. Judging from the piles of ash and human corpses, demons had headed this way. The force here seemed far more capable of actually taking on demons and given her stature, Styx didn't feel like her odds were great. At the least she could reach the roof. Walking to the front door, she found a aluminum baseball bat lying near the door. Home protection of a sort, though to her it looked like a club.

Lifting it, she slowly opened the door and peered down the hallway. One way, she saw a long trail of blood. The other, she saw where the trail of blood went, a corpse being devoured by a humanoid demon. There she saw a lesser demon, humanoid, hoofed, but little more than 5'10 in height. The lights were knocked out, a clear sign it wasn't a human in an elaborate costume. She very carefully and very deliberately tiptoed to the stairwell, before barreling through the door and slamming the door behind her, jamming the bat into the doors bar handle in the hopes it might slow the demons advances.

By the time she'd reached the roof, the deafeningly loud crashes had finally ended in one final satisfying crunch. There was no way the humans could have not heard that. As if in answer, a helicopter flew down like Archangel Azrael, flashing its floodlights on Styx. Damn! Focusing her influence on the helicopter light, the glass suddenly shattered and burnt out. Styx ran across the roof, noticing that far out in the distance she could see the winged guardians of the damned wreaking havoc in the night sky, fire raging through neighborhoods, and what seemed to be not demons, not angels, but something else, fighting back.

Something else that controlled the weather, another something else that could fly and throw entire vehicles, a something else that could assume the properties of ice. Were these humans? She pried open a roof vent and crawled inside, the helicopter passing overhead. Peaking her head out, and finally removing herself, she wondered. Just what was she seeing?

"Pulse, do you copy? I said the ship's already sent out a distress call five minutes ago. Within fifteen minutes the Coast Guard--"

"Yeah,yeah, I heard you, Warden," War-Pulse responded, surveying his work to make sure he had sent enough of a message with the assassination of Teddy Williamson. "I heard you the first three times you said it...just had to make sure I finished the job."

"You could have finished it much earlier and we both know it."

"So I like to have a little fun while on the job, sue me." Pulse made a few brisk steps to the edge of the boat, the water now down to his knees. "If you can't have a little fun, why bother, right?"

The only response on the other side of the communicator was a low growl, presumably Warden was not in agreement on the subject.

"Ah, whatever, I'm goin', I'm goin', keep your shirt on." Pulse said, hopping in to the water. Already he was all too aware that if he took flight or leaped his way out to the mainland, he would be spotted immediately. Not that he would care, but he had already annoyed Warden enough, and it was time to play it safe for now. He submerged into the cold ocean water, a burst of energy rocketing him far below the salty surface. Even with the kinetic shielding protecting him from the atmosphere, he still got chills as he launched himself through the water, the icy blackness seeping into his clothes. It took him roughly 10 minutes to get back to shore, it turns out the freighter had made some significant headway before Pulse ripped a hole in the hull, and he did not want to make too many ripples on the surface, lest he get the direct attention of the pursuing coast guard. Hopefully if any radar did detect him under the surface, they would consider him some kind of large fish, though Pulse heavily doubted they would. This is Maine, after all, the biggest thing swimming these waters had two claws and was delicious with dipped butter.

As soon as he reached the coast of the French Quarter, he hopped clean out of the water like a dolphin with one expulsion of energy from his feet, sliding along the docks to the astonishment of a few petrified dock workers at this time of night. As soon as he shook the excess water off of his body, he simply offered the workers a shrug.

"What? You haven't seen a costumed dude hope out of the water like a fuckin' flying fish?" He asked "It's like you guys don't live in a city with a Museum dedicated to superheroes or something." He gestured to them. "Knock it off!"

The men did not give an audible reply, some still fixated on him with awe-stricken expressions, while others desperately tried to ignore him, in the way most would try to ignore a mugging happening in their vicinity.

"Pft, that's what I thought." He replied, skirting past the bare bones crew and making his way into the city. He made his way into the French Quarter on foot, to the confused stares of people wondering what a man in a silver long coat is doing wandering around at this time of night. Pulse's brow furrowed as he observed this section of the city, he had only been in the French Quarter once before on a different job, and he thought the same as he did now. Rich folk, coddled and refined, inheritors of fortunes and companies, the French Quarter was full of them. He could see the fancy restaurants almost surround him, the cafes lining the little wharf, presumably to be filled with these investors of greed and profit the next morning. These were the kind of people who would need his services one day, as they would have no idea how to deal with any problem on their own without throwing money at it because none of them in a day in their life ever had to learn what it was really like to live without the assets handed to them before they could even learn to walk. That was not to say Pulse did not like these people or this area, but he had seen enough of the world to know that most of these people were here because of sheer dumb luck, and would live in the life of luxury for the rest of their days.

Until they need him, that is.

With one kinetically charged leap, he bounded up to the rooftops, hopping from one roof to the next as he surveyed for a place to regain some strength, as he had expelled quite a bit during the assassination of Teddy. After hopping a few more rooftops, he found himself a generator powering a warehouse North of the Lost Haven University, probably just storing sports equipment or something, they did not really need the lights going 24/7, so Pulse figured he might as well get a recharge off of that. With absolutely no hesitation, he plunged his hand right into the generator, ripping away the metal platting to grab a handful of wires. He grimaced, watching as the sparks flew off of his hand, the brief smell of his glove burning slightly before his powers began to take hold. Despite not actually causing him any permanent damage, the act of absorbing energy this way always started as a little painful. One could compare it to a series of pinpricks on Pulse's hand, his pores opening up and letting the current flow through his skin, where his organs would be able to process the electrical energy into something more usable. As common as having a midnight snack, Pulse watched as his power absorption took its toll on the warehouse, the lights inside flickering and shattering at the fluctuation of power going through them. Another minute or so passed before Pulse felt relatively full, and he released his grasp, moving on to another nearby rooftop of what looked like an apartment complex that covered the same block as a rather ornate looking cathedral. Pulse slowly dropped to a sitting position, his legs dangling over the edge, before the mercenary expelled a soft sigh, his hands running along the building's concrete ledge before Warden's voice came squeaking into his ear.

"War-Pulse? War-Pulse, are you there?"

"You act like I don't have the damn communicator in my ear all the time." War-Pulse abruptly replied. "What's up?"

"Finishing our report; the money was just wired to the offshore account for the elimination of Teddy Williamson."

War-Pulse let out another sigh, tossing a pebble down on the pavement below. "Sure, great." He replied.

There was a silence on the other end, but from what War-Pulse could tell, the communication had not stopped.

"...This is the part where you hang up, Warden." War-Pulse sneered.

"Normally I would, if I didn't hear the disappointment in your voice."

"What, you care for my feelings now?" War-Pulse joked. "Are you going to tell me you have a crush on me too?"

"No, I'm concerned it'll affect your performance when we have another job."

"Oh, when I have to murder or break some other small-time nobody?" War-Pulse quipped "Oh no, what if they shoot me?!? It's not like I'm friggin' bulletproof or anything!"

"...So that's the problem, then." Warden responded. "You were looking for something big-time."

"Yer god damn right I am!" At this point War-Pulse was standing on the ledge, his voice increasing in volume. "I didn't come to Lost Haven to chase down people who aren't paying their protection money or small-time gangsters, I came for the excitement of battling against other superhumans!"

"Those jobs are easy money."

"So? Maybe I'd like to think I'm more than just a glorified debt collector."

"You're being ridiculous."

"No I'm not, Warden, I'm serious. I don't take the jobs we do now seriously, because they don't deserve my full effort. Teddy I could've killed when I got on the boat, but that would've been boring."

"And easier."

"Dammit Warden, maybe for once I'd like to feel like I'm actually working for my--"

"...For your what, War-Pulse? Trent?"

It was only now that War-Pulse caught sight of the glowing red fireball in the distance, something was happening up near the Sherman Square. Something big, considering War-Pulse was at this point miles away, and he could visibly see an unnatural light coming from the area. He could even feel a tinge of energy from it, his powers reacting to the light as if it was an energy source, and that does not usually happen at this kind of distance.

"Uhh....lemme just...call you back, Warden--" He flipped off his communicator, crouching down slightly and lowering his hands to the ground, firing a large energy blast to rocket himself into the sky, a crater being left in the rooftop. He rocketed towards Shermen Square, the view getting a little better in time.

He could see fire, a lot of fire, stretching all over the buildings and ground, places one wouldn't even assume fire could burn. The rest was chaos, madness, the sounds of people screaming filled the mercenary's ears. From what he could guess he would have to put his money on some kind of riot or terrorist attack.

It was when he saw the winged humanoids that he realized just how wrong that guess was.

Aubrey Adkins
“Aubrey, wake up!” I heard one of my roommates, most likely Felecia, trying to rouse me from my sleep. For a moment, I merely ignored her wake-up call, turning to face the back of the couch. However, once they started to shake me, I no longer could ignore them.

“What the hell?” I responded, still not quite sure what was going on. I rubbed my eyes as I attempted to shake off the daze from being suddenly woke up. However, something was not right. I’m not talking that something was wrong, like in one of my dreams. I just felt fabric on my hands while I tried to clear the sleep from my eyes. I never wore gloves to bed.

Then I looked down. I was wearing that stupid costume that was almost a complete rip-off of Spider-Man. And it was all sweaty and grimy, as if I had been out somewhere last night. But how was that possible? I was here all last night. Wasn't I?

“Look at the news,” one of my roommates commanded. After they flipped on the television set, I saw why they had to wake me up. On the news bulletin, it was announced that a murder had taken place last night. What startled me was that they reported that the man who was murdered had been encased in what seemed like spider-silk. However, this wasn’t the most shocking bit of information. The man who died had all his blood drained from his body.

“It couldn’t have been me!” I defended myself, still in shock that something like that could happen, “I already said that I ran into that one metahuman who also had powers like me! It could have been her or anyone else, but it cannot be me!”

“Aubrey,” Felecia began, “look in the mirror.” My roommate walked around the couch and sat down next to me, carrying a hand mirror in her hands. After taking a deep breath, she lifted up the mirror to my face so that I could see whatever they wanted me to see.

“This can’t be happening!” I said as I pushed the mirror away from my face. There was dried up blood in my mouth. There was even a strike of dried blood running down my chin. How could this be? I’m not a cannibal! It had to be my own blood. That was the only reasonable explanation, right?

“I swear, I didn’t do it!” I began to break out into tears. I was still a mess from yesterday. And now I was in a filthy superhero costume that was skin tight and I had blood on my face. What the hell was happening to my life?

When I started to break down, my friends wrapped their arms around me (even in spite of the disgusting state of my costume, attempting to comfort me). “Don’t worry,” Ashley reassured, “we’ll figure this out, together.”

When I heard Ashley’s words, I turned my head up and smiled back at her. My tears began to dry up, knowing that I had my friends on my side. That’s when you’ll find out who you’re real friends are. The people who stick it out with you when the going gets tough.

“And if you turn out to be a psycho killer, well, we’re pretty much ****ed any which way.” Ashley grinned at her remark. I didn’t know how I should take that comment. On one hand, she is saying that they had no choice but to trust me because if they didn’t, they still would be SOL. However, that same comment still implied that I would kill them in the first place.

Whatever. I had more important matters on my hands, namely, getting cleaned up. After our little ‘talk’, I got off the couch and headed over towards the bathroom. A nice, hot shower was just what the doctor ordered. Peeling off that costume (God knows how I got it that filthy in one night) was an immediately relief. Well, it was, except for when the fabric would stick to my skin. But the hot water almost felt purifying as I washed away all the dirt and grime. However, one thing was still in my mind.

Was the blood that I was rinsing off my own, or someone else’s?

Previously... said
<‘What I’m doing’ was attempting to analyse your greater destiny with a mana-physical providence-scanner, so that we could gauge how big a threat you are.> The creature continued. <Only we can’t because you’re an [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: idiot, imbecile, dunce]! Every being has a greater line of destiny in its universe. Generally speaking, interdimensional travel puts a hold on that destiny, where it will still be in effect upon the being’s return.>

...

<No, you [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: idiot, imbecile, dunce]. Do you have any understanding about the nature of infinity? The likelihood of you ever returning to your home-world where your destiny will once again take effect is infinitesimal. It’s essentially the difference between 99.99 recurring and 100. It’s mathematically insignificant. It’s, for all intents and purposes, impossible!>

<We can’t see your destiny, because due to the nature of infinity, somehow in spite of the fundamental laws of magic YOU no longer have a destiny! Our damn equipment won’t work... so we can’t gauge your threat level!>

The creature went to a control panel and hit a button. The jar next to Isaac went through the floor and heavy glass or plastic security panels dropped from the ceiling and encased the dark figure.

<So if we can’t properly gauge your threat level, we can’t risk letting you go free. We may not be able to see it on the screen, but your destiny ends here...>

Isaac threw his palms up against the transparent panelling.

“Whoa! Whoa! Wait! Hold up! Hear me out!”

The creature seemed to turn to look at the man in black.

“Let’s just think this through... your superiors would NOT want you to hit that button!” Isaac tried to give as convincing a glare at what he figured was the creature’s eyes. Difficult considering the circumstances.

<[Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: explain, elucidate]>

Yeah, Isaac, explain... and make it good.

“You are part of a peacekeeping force that is responsible for protecting the timespace continuity throughout the whole universe...”

<The multiverse.> the triggerhappy creature corrected, clearly unamused from the slow pace that Isaac was explaining his defense.

“The multiverse. Yes. And as said peacekeeping force you can traverse through time in your role. You view organisms destinies to gauge their threat level so that you can treat them appropriately...”

<Your grasp of the situation seems correct, but this is getting tedious...>

“...so it would seem to me, the only reason why such a peacekeeping force would exist, is because somebody has foreseen a set end of the multiverse. There’s a legitimate fear that somewhere out there is someone who’s pre-destined to end all existence.”

<Yes! And that might be you! Which is why..!>

“No! It’s not! You just stated it yourself. I HAVE no destiny.”

<No SET destiny... which means you’re liable to do anything! And in the absence of anyone who HAS got such a destiny...>

“But what if there’s not..?” Isaac offered, a wry grin shining through his black balaklava.

<What??>

“What if there isn’t an absence? You’re out there looking for a truly malevolent force. Someone who seeks to destroy all we know and care for... what if that’s still out there?”

<Then we will find it. We will find it and it shall feel the full force of the...>

“And it will make no difference.” Isaac stated matter-of-factly.

The atmosphere seemed to thicken. With just that observation Isaac felt the control of the entire situation swing.

“...after all. It’s destiny. Isn’t it? Whatever that creature is, it has its destiny that it will succeed, and your little team of intergalactic Superfriends is destined to come up short.”

<You can’t seriously think we’d be willing to let someone as potentially dangerous as you to walk free though, surely? You can’t think we’d let you off of this ship.>

Isaac would have to play his hand carefully here, it was clear that to some extent the creature was trying to save face and not be seen as easily manipulated by such a mediocre species as that which Isaac belonged to... but maybe he could use that to his advantage.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you’d consider anything else. You’d cart me around throughout space and infinitely more advanced worlds, thereby risking my escape onto a world with enough technology available that I could potentially ACTUALLY do this damage you’re worried about? Compared with the alternative which is to dump me on my “primitive” level natural environment. A primitive level environment which 'hasn’t even mastered FTL travel or solved its own energy crises?'” Isaac gave a wry grin.

Got ya, you disgusting blob sonovabitch.

The creature started to consider a way to wrangle back control. <But hasn’t your species been experimenting with off world travel.>

“Well, yes. That’s true. In 1969, um... 45 years ago, we went to the moon.”

One of the other creatures started making the strange gurgling noise of rushing air, not unlike a belch or fart which he’d heard before, Isaac interpreted it as laughter at humanity’s expense and that was just fine with him now.

<You only reached your [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: natural satellite, moon] [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: 45 years] ago?!?>

“If these things you use to translate work properly, then yes. It took just over a week for the crew to get there.”

More gurgling came as the aliens calculated how slow the spacecraft must have travelled what seemed, to them, such a meagre distance. Isaac didn’t take his eyes off of the creature with his finger at the button whilst the others laughed.

<I’m inclined to agree with him. The safest place for him is back on his own world. That way we know where he is and what time to use as a reference for him should we ever need to call on him again. I mean, what harm can he do there? Smash the timespace continuum with a rock?>

Isaac still didn’t avert his gaze.

<I... agree.>

The arrogant trigger-happy creature caved.

<There will come a day, when we will call on you again. We have basic data of your physiology. Your basic life expectancy, probable age period of your physical prime. You will be expected to serve the multiverse. But until that time... it would seem your natural habitat would be the most [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: humane, ethical] place for you. We shall return you to the time and place we picked you up from... Before we do, are there any questions?>

“Just one. I seem to have unwittingly travelled to a third world - separate from the first two. How can there be any explanation for that?”

<I don’t have time to explain all of the ins and outs of 4th dimension cosmophysics to you, but I’ll just say the multiverse is neither infinitely flexible, nor perfectly brittle.>

“What does that mean?”

<It means that while different worlds can tolerate SOME change, the amount of change from that second world’s natural course was so great that THAT specific universe could no longer accommodate you.>

“So it responded by dragging me out arsebackwards and throwing me into a different universe??”

<Well... no... universes aren’t sentient beings. That world couldn’t tolerate the change you’d undertaken. As you continued to exist, your actions worked against others greater destiny, so basically the multiverse had to generate a fresh [Searching for equivalent...] [Approximation: paradigm] and play musical chairs. You got shifted to this universe where destinies were changed. Your actions would by definition instigate the destinies of others in this new world and alternate versions of you were likely shuffled to alternate worlds which better allowed for cohesion as well. It seems likely tha--> The creature stopped, and paused for a second as if he just realised he’d been trying to teach the intricacies of contemporary political philosophy to a toddler.

<You know what, if it helps you understand it better, sure think that. “The universe responded by dragging you out arsebackwards and throwing you into a different universe.” Go with that.>

Isaac thought about it, his presence was enough to “Break” a universe? To get himself evicted to a whole other world?

<Anything else?>

“Yeah... that whole dig about magic and destiny?”

<Destiny is one of the few connecting points that binds the magical world to the physical world. Can’t have one without the other, and one can only exist with the presence of the other.>

“So... wait? I was magical before and I didn’t even know it?”

The creature gave that damned familiar derisive gurgling sound again, Isaac could have sworn he heard the same collection of grunts and clicks that would translate approximately into idiot/imbecile/dunce, before the headpiece was removed and he was sent hurtling back to earth.

Isaac’s feet gently hit the ground as if he hadn’t just been travelling faster than any other human being in history only seconds earlier. And his legs buckled and he dropped to his knees and vomited behind garbage cans.

He was back in the alley he had just run into when the aliens had picked him up.

Isaac cleared his head (having just emptied his stomach) and his mind raced, trying to take in everything he’d just been told.

“How long had he been gone? Could all of that have really happened? Could it really be true? He was thrown into another new world because the last wasn’t able to accommodate him? How could this world have come into being in a way that was MORE capable of accommodating him?” The questions outnumbered the answers and flashed across his mind. Suddenly his hip spasmed and he grabbed at the cause. His phone, set on vibrate had just gone off a number of times as if he hard a large number of messages. Isaac checked the alley was all clear before removing his balaklava. He quickly removed and stowed his over-clothes in his pack before grabbing his phone and briskly walking to where he’d hoped his car would still be parked.

He noted the date, and just how much time he’d missed - despite feeling like he’d only been gone fifteen minutes, before accessing his voicemail messages. First was Tony Morris, it was an address for the place he’d apparently rented to stay in, central east side just inside the French Quarter. Well, at least he had a bed without needing a hotel room. The second message was also Tony.

It was a lot more unusual.

“So yeah, it’s me again. Everything’s been organized as you asked. LHU is having an open day for prospective students for the next semester, but I managed to convince them to allow you to start early. Well... money does that. They’ve said they’ll email you your course guides and other relevant material and documentation, they’ve suggested you still go in for the open day since it’ll help you find your way around campus.” Isaac took his ear away from the phone and looked at it incredulously. “Speak to you soon.” And the message ended.

There were two more messages. Both were Tony getting increasingly irritated that Isaac hadn’t returned his calls.

“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about coming up with a cover story.” Isaac pocketed his phone and picked up his pace through the alleyway.

“I don’t know whether pre-Me is a genius or an idiot...”

Zac Wilson | Kelly Brown | Samantha Kadowsky
Zac looked down both ends of the street where his and Kelly’s apartment was located. Seeing that no one was in sight, Zac waved to Kelly, signaling that it was safe for her to come to the front door. While Kelly’s status as a metahuman was not a secret anymore, both Kelly and Zac wished to prevent anyone from finding out about Sammy’s condition. Therefore, as Kelly approached the front door, she held Sammy close to her body, attempting to conceal her head. It was alright for someone to see that she was holding what looked like a cat; they just could not allow anyone to find out that there was a human head attached to it.

“Hurry it up, Zac.” Kelly hounded on her boyfriend. Zac fumbled with the keys as he attempted to open the door because he was trying to balance a grocery bag full of food for their dinner. Once Zac unlocked the door, the three of them barged inside, hoping that no one had walked by while they were still outside.

Once inside, Kelly and Zac began to unload the groceries onto the kitchen countertop, revealing that they had planned to have spaghetti with marinara sauce (a meal that any college student could afford). At the sight of the food, Sammy licked her lips, her appetite kindled by the prospect of food. However, when Zac saw the expression of Sammy’s face, he reached into the grocery bag and pulled out another item.

“This is what you’re having,” Zac said as he placed a package of broth that was designed for cats. Somehow, Zac was able to keep a straight face for the whole time.

“What the ****?” While Sammy could no longer utilize human language vocally due to what that crazy family did to her, she still could mouth the words.

Kelly was astonished by Zac’s action, too. She had no idea that that ‘cat food’ was part of their groceries. “That’s a funny joke, Zac, but if Sammy wants real food, I think she can have some.”

“I understand that she’s your best friend, but right now, she has the body of a cat. I assume that she has the digestive system of a cat, too, so we have to be careful what we feed her.”

Kelly just rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, knowing deep in her heart that he probably was right. However, there was another part of her that thought that it was not right to treat Sammy like an animal. She a person, a human being. Yes, Sammy’s head might be attached to a cat’s body, but Kelly still considered her human. If she could not consider her best friend as being human, how could she consider herself to be one too?

“I’m going to get out of this horrifying leotard. You know how much I complained about it the last time I was forced to wear it” Kelly announced in order to change the subject. As Kelly started to head toward her (and thus Zac’s) bedroom, Sammy tagged along, following shortly behind her friend.

“Kelly, don’t even think about giving chocolate to her. From what I heard, it’s highly toxic to cats.” When Kelly and Sammy heard Zac’s comment, they just looked back at him over their shoulders, gave him a glare, and then continued again toward Kelly’s bedroom.

“What?” Zac asked, “I didn’t want you to inadvertently kill your friend!” But Zac’s defense for his statement fell on deaf ears, or at least the two girls were not paying attention to him anymore.

While Kelly was changing her attire, Zac watched the pot of water in which they intended to boil the pasta. However, before any bubbles could start to arise from the boiling water, Zac heard a yell coming from the bedroom. He could not tell if it was a scream of terror or what, but he decided that he needed to investigate anyways.

“What’s going on?” Zac asked as he entered into the doorway into their bedroom. In their bedroom, he saw Kelly holding up a pair of jeans in front of herself, as if she was checking to see if she would fit into them.

“I can’t believe it!” Kelly said when she saw Zac was present, “These fit me!”

“What?” Zac asked, scratching his head because he did not have a single clue about what was going on.

Kelly held up the pair of jeans she had in her hands. “These were a pair of jeans I had before I got my powers. Somehow they grew to match my taller stature. And it’s not just this pair of pants, but all my clothes!”

Kelly went over to the bedroom closet and began to pull out several articles of clothing, each one now perfectly fitting her body, even in spite of the fact that she had grew several inches when they were stranded for a day in Lost Haven.

“It looks like this little surprise is going to save us a lot of money!” Kelly said to her boyfriend, cracking a smile as she said it.

“Us?”

“You need to get to Sherman Square, now!” Came Harry’s frantic voice over the com in Lyger’s mask, just as the young hero was about to descend down through the open manhole cover after the young teen who had just thrown him into a wall.

“Not now, I’ve got a lead on the missing kids. I’m going to follow up on it.” Lyger shot back, his voice sounding harsher toward his mentor than he had intended.

“It can wait.” The older man came back sternly. “There are more urgent matters that need to be addressed.”

More urgent?

The comment struck Lyger as strange. The abductions of children of varying ages that had been plaguing the city had been Lyger and Harry’s number one priority from the moment they had learned of the disappearances. The string of seemingly unrelated abductions had even been more of a priority than even the Nightmare killings, and for Harry to so suddenly pull Lyger in another direction when they finally had a break in the case, was nothing short of bizarre.

“What’s going on?” Lyger finally asked after a short pause.

“I’m not sure. Some sort of an attack. “Harry’s voice came back over the comm., but paused. “Kyle, it sounds bad.”

Harry’s use of his real name stunned Lyger. The old man never referred to him as “Kyle” while he was in costume. Plus there was something in his voice, something that he hadn’t heard before.

Fear.

“Harry, what’s going on?” Lyger asked, worry beginning to creep into his own voice.

“Why don’t you look for yourself?” Harry said.

The statement was odd, Harry knew that he was almost all the way across the city in the French Quarter, and wouldn’t be able to see what was going on, unless...

Lyger felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Slowly he turned toward the direction of Sherman Square, and the sight that lay before him was one that induced instant panic.
It looked as if the sky itself were on fire.

Lyger just stood there in wide eyed terror as the glow of the flames cast a horrid shadow over the city, changing Lost Haven from a beautiful coastal city into something from a hellish nightmare.

“What’s going on Harry?” Lyger asked again, this time there was no mistaking the fear in his voice. The young hero did not wait for an answer, he sprung away from the open manhole cover and sprinted as fast as he could toward the recently repaired Kaiju.

Even as the young hero sprinted toward the car, he heard his mentor’s answer, and regardless of what was going on, the old man’s words appeared to be true.

“All Hell’s breaking loose.”

Staring incredulously at what she could only call super-humans, Styx started walking as slowly and carefully as possible towards the largest, most ornate building she could see. Thankfully, it actually happened to be the museum. Unfortunately, after a series of ducks, dives, crawls, and bounds, she could see from overhead that the front of the Museum was something of a no live zone. There were a few ridiculous looking humans in various levels of costume fighting off, no, absolutely crushing a swarm of large demons at the front parking lot. Between the incredibly bright street lights and spreading fire, which made it exceedingly difficult to shift her way through the shadows, there was no safe way in. This building held some significance to them. Which also meant that certainly, inside these hallow vaulted halls there was something of value to be stolen. Joleson even mentioned there was a “gift section”, where they held books. Tomes of great significance and very interesting sections on Largothian physiology, she hoped.

This meant nothing until she could get inside however and that was certainly an issue. There were at least eight of these heroes running or flying about and they weren't going to let anything in with horns. During this internal monologue, Styx had unfortunately failed to notice that Sorgath, with his four arms and seven foot height, had leapt his way behind her. Grabbing Styx by the half collar of her robe, Sorgath lifted her with three arms off the ground. He used his fourth to point a curved blade into the grimacing whelps chin.

“SORGATH HAS CAUGHT YOU, COWARD!” Sorgath shouted, mouth flinging spittle into Styxs' face. “SORGATH FEED YOU TO DOGS!” he continued eloquently, lifting Styx over his head, prepared to throw her into the metahuman swarm. Styx was chucked like a rock towards the Museums front entrance, crashing onto freshly paved concrete and rolling painfully several feet. Given the chaos of bellowing fire and superpowered lightning blasts no one noticed her, except for Sorgath who had jumped in after her to finish the job.

As Sorgath stomped towards Styx, who scrambled to her feet, he slammed his remaining sword into a nearby car. The blade easily cut through and sent off a screeching alarm. He crouched down, preparing to run at the shocked girl on all fours, when suddenly the car was flung into him by the muscled legs of a metahuman in a Luchador costume. “Get outta my town you freak!” he shouted, thankfully not noticing Styx. Her size was something of a benefit here, most of the heroes didn't catch a glance of her and were too busy fighting larger things to even bother, like elephant sized wolves. Using this, she ran to the Museums walls as fast as she could, looking frantically left and right for anyone who might want her head. Upon reaching the wall, she smashed through the closest window.

Sliced by glass on impact and even further on landing, Styx gave a light, short shriek. Almost in response, the Museums alarms shrieked, whistled, and bellowed. I'm not going to be able to pull the glass out before I die, am I.... She groaned, shifting to shadows a short distance away from the natural one cast from the window sill. She propped herself behind a display case showcasing what looked like a costume spattered with the colors of the American flag, with something about Lady Liberty and how she had secured the freedom of the free world or some other nonsense about the tyranny of some crazed scientist. The glass would get pushed out eventually by her natural healing factor, she just needed to wait it out. Or wait for death. Either way, it would end the pain.

It took a moment for War-Pulse to really process what exactly he was seeing, even a veteran like himself had to take a moment to really take in the scene sprawling before him. They skies were littered with flying humanoids on leathery wings, the streets swarming with all manner of monstrosities. Snarling, roaring, chattering beasts of all shapes and sizes with gnarled claws and gnashing teeth, some even brandished cold and rusty weaponry or could breathe fire. No matter which way he looked at it, the scene was clear by the bodies and destruction under the wake of these beasts, hell had indeed made a visit to Earth.

As soon as the cold, terrifying fact sank into War-Pulse's psyche, he re-activated his communicator and delivered a visual using the tiny camera attached to his jacket.

"Hey, Warden? Can you answer something for me?"

"You hung up on me, what do you want?"

"Were there any signs of some kind of demonic invasion from hell today? Or any clarification that demons exist?"

A brief pause came between the two.of them. Either Warden was just trying to process the request made of him or judging just how crazy War-Pulse had become.

"Well...I had heard some reports that local cult activity had risen recently, as if to welcome some--oh."

"What?"

"Just saw the visual, that actually corresponds with a hefty amount of rituals taking place in Lost Haven." Warden said in a matter-of-fact tone, causing one of War-Pulse's brows to raise.

"Annnnd you didn't bother to share that with anyone?" War-Pulse asked, Warden's calmness when faced with demonic hordes clearly surprising him.

"Do I sound like the religious type, Pulse?"

"Well no, but I'm starting to think we might want to make a church visit at some point."

As soon as War-Pulse finished his quip, he noticed that some of the demons had taken notice of his position up in the sky. One on the ground had motioned to a few flying demons to attack in some sort of squad formation. At first, Pulse had thought about just leaving, this was not his city, nor was he being paid for defending the city from demons. However, that instinct was overwhelmed by another urge, an urge to make his fighting really worth his time. These were not some warlord's soldiers, or mobsters, or anything he could beat with just a flick of his finger. These were demons, something he really could pound into not just for some cash, but for a really good purpose. As the demons advanced, War-Pulse spoke into his communicator one more time.

"Warden? I've made up my mind, I'm going to engage the demon threat."

"Good, wipe them out."

"I know we aren't gettin' paid bu-- wait what?"

"Yeah, kill as many as you can."

"Oh...I just thought that...you would be more against it."

"Pulse, I like Earth, I think Earth will be much less appealing with demons on it, therefore; kill demons."

At that confirmation, from underneath the mask grew a wide, excited smile from Pulse, his body fluctuating with energy, now clearly visible in the sky by demons and heroes all around. Almost instantly he began to descend at the squad coming to him, the bursts of energy rocketing behind him echoed through the sky. His fists clenched, pulling his arm back for the inevitable conflict, the front demon beginning to waver in his resolve. However, it was too late for him, there was no turning back. As soon as War-Pulse got within shouting distance of the horde, the demons would indeed get an earful of that trademark War-Pulse charm.

“You bastards are going to wish you stayed in hell!”

With that shout, his fist came forward and connected with the first demon in the squad. Almost instantaneously the demon rocketed through his comrades, flying end over end into a building down on the block, caving the roof in on the monster. Undaunted, the other demons continued their advance, one trying to jab War-Pulse with his long, flesh and blood covered spear. With one flick of his arm, War-Pulse snapped the metal spear like a toothpick before taking the broken end and jabbing it into the demon’s eye. The reptilian beast screeched in pain before getting a gutshot and a right cross across its stomach and face, plummeting to the ground and impacting with a car below.

Laughing, Pulse launched a series of kinetic blasts at nearby humanoids. One after another being torn apart by pure energy, raining body parts and screams to the ground below.

“Hahahah! Is that all you got?!? C’mon, show me what hell really has in store for me!”

As if they were actually listening, a particularly large winged demon advanced from a nearby building the size of a minivan and about as angry as the mother inside of one. It’s head was a bull, horrid talons for hands and what could only been described as bird legs. It screeched loudly at War-Pulse, clearly not being able to project any rational thought other than killing and maiming. In fact the monster tore clean two or three other demons as it raced to face the new foe.

“Bring it, ugly!” War-Pulse shouted at the larger demon, motioning with his hands to bring it on.

With vigorous rage and velocity, the large demon collided with War-Pulse mid air, the two frames smashing into one another sounding like two cars crashing into one another. Momentarily, War-Pulse was shoved through the sky by the larger form, trying to get control of their immediate grapple. However it quickly found itself outclassed in strength, as the moment it got its arms around War-Pulse it felt its face barraged by a series of kinetically-charged punches, each one ringing over the city. With one final cross, the large demon was forced to let go and be pushed back, delivering a powerful kick to War-Pulse’s chest and forcing him to recoil and regain levitation momentarily. The large demon tried to pursue, throwing wild haymakers at its foe in an attempt to overwhelm War-Pulse with its violent offensive. Again it came short, as War-Pulse ducked and swayed like a world-class boxer in mid-air, dancing to and fro in the air to avoid the clubbing blows.

In retaliation, War-Pulse launched a point-blank blast at the beast’s face, clearly breaking the monster’s nose and sending it writhing through the air, turning its back to War-Pulse. Taking advantage of the situation, War-Pulse flew right up to the demon, grabbing hold of its wings and placing his feet on its back.

“Hey, beastie.” War-Pulse leaned in close, whispering menacingly into the now-frightened beast. “Wanna find out how ‘terminal velocity’ works on Earth?”

With that statement, War-Pulse pushed with his feet and pulled hard, a quick jerk resulted in both wings being severed from the mighty demon. The creature screamed in a horrid mixture of terror and pain, letting the natural forces of Earth begin to bring down to the cold tar hundreds of feet below. War-Pulse, not to let a good situation go, kept his feet on the beast during the descent, literally surfing on the large demon to the ground. He could see that on his descent, other demons were coming his way, trying to attack him while he fell from the sky. Energy blast after energy blast repelled the fiends, ripping demon after demon apart as large demon and War-Pulse fell to the asphalt.

Laughing, War-Pulse placed a particularly nasty kick on the back of the large demon’s head, driving the beast head first into the tar. The impact was deafening, concrete and rock breaking upon impact, the demon being cratered into the ground underneath War-Pulse’s mighty heel, its skull liquidating upon impact, dust being kicked up around the two bodies.

A brief silence from the surrounding horde as the dust cleared, only to find a glowing, crackling War-Pulse standing on the body of the large demon, he scanned the screeching, stammering horde, the grin never leaving his face as he shouted in a menacing joy.

“Alright, who’s next, then!?!”

The legions of a particular hell continued to pour forth into the city of Lost Haven and in some cases the swirling masses of demons and things better left unmentioned had been met by heroes. But not all that the demons and creatures from the depths of this particular hell met that opposed them came from the ranks of the heroes of the city of Lost Haven. And some of the other things that lurked in the darkness of the city were less than pleased with the intrusion.

A group of hound-like demons, great beasts that looked almost like wolves coated in flames and spewing forth malice and hate prowled the streets in search of more humans to slay and condemn to eternal torment. Then one of them raised its head as if it had smelt something before letting loose an unearthly howl and charging in the direction of one of the alleyways. The others did not follow, seemingly content to let this kill go to the one who had smelt it first.

But as the hound demon entered the shadows of the alley something changed. The darkness there did not fade before the flickering light of the hellfire attached to the demon, and it abruptly disappeared from sight. The howls of triumph abruptly cut off in a strangled whimper that was replaced by a deep and inhuman laughing. It was a sound that vibrated and resonated, a sound that was distorted and twisted, a sound that was in no uncertain terms a challenge.

The others snarled and growled, but looked to the largest among them for the go ahead, a go ahead which they received. The demon hounds charged for the alleyway, and as they did so the shadows within surged forwards and the laughing grew louder. The first two of the demons leaped up as if to enter the cloud of darkness but their leaps were met by billows of the dark cloud, and shattered bodies were flung away as their fires petered out pitifully. Others tried to take advantage of the motion and leaped as well, but all were met with the same result, bodies shattered and torn by blows from within the darkness as the laughter continued and grew ever more scornful.

At last only the largest of the demon hounds remained and with a snarl that unleashed flames and a roar of rage the beast charged. This time the shadows did not billow outwards and the beast entered them. There was a single strangled yelp from within the shadows, followed by what sounded almost like a burp.

For a moment only the darkness that had taken the street remained but that moment was not to last. Other demons had heard the cries and like any predator they began to swarm. Some flew, some crawled, some hopped, some moved in ways that man could not truly describe with words, but all were beings that should have been terrifying. Instead the only response was the growing laughter that boomed forth from within the cloud of darkness. "YOU THINK TO CHALLENGE?' a voice bellowed from within the cloud as the darkness lashed out at a demon who had come too close, crushing it with some appendage from within.

Following this the circling masses of demons moved back a bit as more continued to gather. Strangely though the darkness also seemed to grow and the attacks from within continued to pick off one or two at a time, never enough to even thin out the numbers, but the constant toll and the endless inhuman laughter was beginning to make even these beings from hell feel a shiver of what could only be described as fear.

Demons are inherently cowardly, fearing their own deaths and unwilling to engage in many cases when they believe death is likely without suitable motivation. But such motivation did eventually arrive to end the standoff. A being, with horns that rose and curled around its head, wings that stretched forth from its back, blood red skin, and an aura of hell fire arrived. It surveyed the darkness and gave a derisive snort. "Swarm it and kill it." The demon said disdainfully as it flicked a hand at the shadowed mass.

With that flick the masses charged. Surely with so many even whatever strange thing lurked within the darkness would be easily dispatched. Perhaps they were right, perhaps weight of numbers alone would have carried the day. But they never got the chance to find out. White flame blossomed within their ranks. A fire that burned with an intensity at least as great as that of the hell fire, a fire that made even the demons vanish as if they had never been when it touched them. And it was not the only fire, a dark fire spread as well, tendrils twining out to touch demons, demons who immediately went mad, attacking their own kind indiscriminately in a frenzy.

From the alleyway that the darkness had first emerged came a woman, a woman clad in her strange costume garb. Soul Fire."Why you started without me?" She seemed to be pouting behind the half mask and veil that covered her face based on her tone. "I'm hurt." And as she spoke more of the fire poured forth from her hands.

The demon who seemed to be in charge pointed at her as well. "Gut her, and bring her to me. I will eat her myself." He bellowed and the woman only laughed scornfully. The ranks of demons closed again and charged, both for the darkness and the woman in the black and gold. But none of them reached the woman. For before she could be reached she spun, and the streamers that came from her back seemed to stretch out almost as if they were the echo of wings. As she spun the flame that surrounded her became a whirling tempest of white fire that reached up into the sky in a funnel cloud of obliteration.

The darkness also was not idle, it and whatever lurked within crashed into the wave of attacking demons like a storm itself. Slain demons were thrown left and right, and others were simply crushed as whatever was within the darkness approached the commanding demon. The commander manifested what looked to be a sword of hellfire and charged. But his charge would be little more effective than all the others. As he entered the darkness something massive closed around him. And it was joined by others, at least six clawed 'hands' gripping various parts of his body. No matter how the demon struggled it could not get free and as it struggled fear continued to grow.

"What the hell are you?" The demon asked as the grip continued to tighten, the words hissed with hate but laced with terror. Then from inches away a great voice bellowed. "I AM YOUR NIGHTMARE." And a demon screamed in terror as the 'hands' all twisted and bloody pulp oozed out from between them within the darkness.

Ramsey and Styx

The car radio was tuned to one of the music stations some classic rock, with DJ host chatter about various things, the latest concert tickets or some rude comments here and there. Ramsey didn't care about all that though, as he cruised through the streets. Children played just before school would start, and white color nine to fives drove off to work. The morning air was brisk as he drove through town, looking for his safe-house. It was in a decent part of town, though the building was nothing fancy, just a flat to put his feet up as he pulled into the parking lot. He pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and read the directions once again matching them to the numbers on the building.

He opened the creaking car door, which had seen better days as he locked it up and walked over to the apartment. A kindly old lady sat just outside on a chair while Ramsey walked up to the building itself. In his hands were two keys, one for the outside door, and the other for his room."Room 12." He said, almost questioning it. Up the stairs he went the second floor had rooms ten through twenty. His door was on the right of the hall, just across from room 11. Whoever lived there anyways.

Inserting the key, it clicked with a metallic sound as the metal scrapped the locking mechanism. With a turn of the knob, the door opened, revealing a rather used apartment. It wan't overly dirty. But it still had some cleaning to do before it was presentable. Not that Ramsey had anyone to show it to, well not yet. But that'd have to wait. He'd been up all night and all of yesterday so for now it's time to sleep.

The radio in his apartment blared, Ramsey had set it to go off later in the evening. So he could get some groceries, for his arm to fully grow back he needed to pick some things up, which took more than a few hours. The money Barron had went a long ways to getting what he needed, and by the time his fridge was loaded it had gotten dark. He turned on the T.V for some entertainment, but the only thing on was some cliche monster flick. Or was it? As he began to recognize some of the News Reporters. "Wait?" He said watching ever closer, intently almost touching the screen. "That's fucking New Haven!?" He said composing himself."Yeah has too be?" "The fuck, some Demon invasion? Kinda sounds fun now that I think about it? Alright, it's playtime."

Ramsey grabbed a light jacket and hopped back downstairs and opened the car's door. With a turn of the key his car was off as it changed gears racing down the street. Police and EMS were all over the place, as Supers fought back hordes of hell. Ramsey slammed on the breaks as the car came to a screeching halt just outside the Museum of Supers. As Demons of all sizes fought, killed and had their way with anyone unlucky enough to get caught up in this. Ramsey had jumped out of the car, plowing through demons left and right. As one monstrously huge one lunged at him.

Grabbing a nearby car, thankfully not his own. He smashed into it using his one good hand, beating it down. It seemed he was competing for kills now between the local heroes. As he continued to rack up the count. But the larger ones weren't through with him yet, as they whipped him with some tail, spiked thing. And sent him flying into the Museum.

Breaking through the wall, he landed right behind some counter. As a few other demons poured in, and someone was hiding behind one of the displays. Not that Ramsey cared all that much, but she too would be caught up in all this.

Styx cringed as something was sent flying through the Museum. At first it appeared to just be another one of these super-humans, but following the crash she could hear the telltale sound of very angry, violation focused demons gurgling, popping, and weirdly clicking, pouring into the Museum. Thankfully, most of the glass had ejected from her system so she could at least run for it.

Jumping to her feet, she ran deeper into the Museum. She passed the iron armor of Old Iron sides, jumped over a long display case with various gadgets and dothingies left behind by the Greatest Generation of Metahumans, until finally noticing the Gift Shop. Nestled not far from the entrance at all, its wooden door was easily disintigrated by hellish flames. She scrambled inside. The gift shop was covered in memorabilia depicting various hero's and heroine's that were mentioned outside. Masks, mini statuettes, cd's. She didn't care or really know the purpose of any of these, so she drifted off towards the books. Scanning through the titles, she noticed literally every one of the books were about the Museum and its contents. Histories on Lady Liberty's contributions to the war weren't even relatively close to the Cthäat Aquadingen. The De Vermis Mysteriis wasn't here, neither was Revelations of Glaaki or even any of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. Even barring any of those rare titles, this was the worst selection of literature she'd ever seen. Who cared about human history?

As the demons followed the mysterious, female figure had run off, Ramsey busy dealing with whatever is trying to eat his face off, as it pushed back hard. Sending him through the museum, as he tried to push back to no avail as his one arm just didn't produce enough strength to keep it away. He managed to leverage himself as the demon began to snap at his face, he threw off the demon as it landed somewhere towards the entrance, perhaps even towards the female figure. Ramsey chased after it, picking up some debris and tossing them as they hurdled towards the demon. As he managed to get close enough and began beating down on it's ugly tentacle face. As smaller demons swarmed him, only to be thrown aside, and into the nearby gift shop.

The larger demon, whipped itself around tossing Ramsey off and flying once more into the gift shop. Some demon looking woman was browsing the books, like anyone browsed books at a gift shop? Was this that female figure, well no time to decide. As whatever tossed him inside, decided it wanted to eat, and they both looked like tasty meals.

Before she even got the satisfaction of setting the gift shop on fire, some human smashed through the entrance. Spinning around, fire erupting over her hands, Styx shifted her attention to the much larger threat, the massive tentacle faced monstrosity.

The demon lashed at them both, with Ramsey being licked by it's long tentacle tongues."Fucking nasty. And I still got more company, just great." He said thoroughly pissed As the demon whipped around in the store, it tossed shelves around as they landed feet away from the two. Ramsey still believing the other girl to be a threat tossed it at her. Clearing up some room for him to move, and tackled the monstrosity. As he wrestled it to the ground while it whipped it's back into the ceiling. Him falling to the side.

Rolling to the side as the demon was chucked at her, Styx threw several blasts of hellfire into its beetlelike carapace, shouting some curse in a tongue that seemed to actually speak before she said the words. At best, it heated the carapace. At worst it just pissed the demon off. It seemed like an unhappy marriage of both. As it swung its ugly, tentacled head towards her, Styx booked it for the destroyed gift shop entrance.

The girl demon met the thing with fire, which made it angry, very much so. It's now heated carapace aflame as it lunged towards Ramsey, who blasted through it using his Phantom step sending the monster flying into the wall as he jumped onto it's head and began ripping it's tentacles to get to it's face. It screeched and thrashed moving yet again, into the display cases, of one legendary super, some powered armor guy? He wasn't important. As the thing began biting into his flesh, Ramsey yelled."God fucking dammit!" As he finally managed to dig his hand into the demons brain, but the thing just wouldn't stay still as it convulsed violently charging into the fleeing demon girl.

Finally reaching the display case of some crazed Scot who had decided to bring along a zweihander, Styx broke open the glass and removed the blade. Turning around, she saw the monstrosity charging towards her. Not wanting to be ran over, Styx shifted her feet and prepared to move to the side. Thankfully the thing was stupid enough to not stop charging. Jumping to the side, she swung the sword directly into the heated part of its carapace. The blade lodged itself into the fleshy muscle beneath and refused to be removed with any amount of tugging. Styx let go, backing away quickly.

The monstrosity charged the Demon girl, who had removed a sword from it's display case, and swung it at the charging behemoth as it lodged itself in there Ramsey reached for the spot the sword had entered, pulling back the carapace to expose it's soft flesh. He tore into it, as he removed what appeared to be a skull. The sword itself fell to the ground once more, as the demon fell dead."Alas poor?.. Wait, how did that go again? Ferris? Ah forget it!" He said hopping down. Skull in hand. "So I suppose that leaves me to decide what to do with you, and here I was beginning to like ya?"

Styx glared at the metahuman, "You could snap open that skulls' jaw, gently place your head inside, and close it. Maybe the blood leaving your neck would help you figure out what to do." She turned her head back towards the entrance of the Museum. "I don't feel like waiting for more of the large ones making their way inside. I still don't know where Sorgath went..." she muttered as she finished the thought.

Ramsey actually opened the skull of the creature looking inside."You want me to put my head in there? Gah, things nasty as shit. What kinda drool is that. I think I'm good keeping my head out of giant demon skulls." As she turned her head looking outside. Ramsey stepped over to the sword laying on the floor, picking it up once again."Yeah, those large demons are nasty ass buggers, not too mention those supers won't take kindly to us wrecking the place, but here!" He said as he tossed the sword over to the demon girl."It looks good with you. Should keep it, not like anyone else is going to use it. So? Who's this Soorgaath? Thing?"

Catching the blade, Styx continued, "He's some vehement fifth incubi that's upset with the Ash tribe. I imagine it has something to do with the treatise on damned souls, his circle take souls damned by Anger. His circle wanted Lust, so I'm not too surprised he's taking the opportunty kill me." She let one hand off the blade and melted off about half of the blade with a spray of hellfire, leaving about three feet of sword. It would be a lot easier to carry around that way.

Ramsey watched as the sword was melted down to a more manageable length. "Right!" He said confused."I'm going to assume all that meant really bad shit, and he wanted to rape you? Let me guess he's even responsible for this invasion, and considering you haven't gnawed my face off, or tried to light me aflame you're here to stop just him right?"

"What?" Styx asked, confused. "No, he's a moron. You, human. I mean, a human instigated the ritual. No, wait...several. Point being, we were summoned. I'm here because of that and I'm searching for very particular Tomes. This so called gift shop had nothing of value."

"Cultists, always fun to kill. They scream about some demon god, who'd protect them. Ha! So, these Tomes? Are like books right? So you search a gift shop, if I'm getting this correct?" Ramsey belted out a loud laugh, coming to tears."Ha, haha.. Hoo. Well that's about as stupid as cooking a steak over water. Why didn't you check the Library, though I'm assuming these tomes are much older than that? So I doubt you'll find them there either, best try a Museum of History, and not some over glorified shrine to hero's holier than thou!"

Styx' face turned a shade of orange, which in this case meant she was incredibly mad and embarassed. "I swear, I will tear you apart and burn the remains to cinders! Some filthy man in an alley told me to go here. I know there has to be at least one in this city when cultists are boring holes to your realm."

Ramsey laughed, as he moved closer."So you believed some homeless drunkard about their being ancient tombs in this Museum? That didn't raise any red flags, it didn't strike you as even remotely odd, go ahead babe. Rip me apart, BURN ME even, truth is you don't know shit! About this place. Next thing you'll be searching toy stores or hot dog stands. So go ahead, but I'll tell you this! How many do you think would stop and listen to a demon? Go on? How many? You can pass yourself off as a meta for now, but soon your mug will be all over with the title DEMON under it. So kill me! Or let's get out of here before more of your friends show up to eat, or more Metas bust in to give us the beat down."

Furious, pissed, and other synonyms for writhing with rage, Styx stared furiously into Ramseys eyes. Quickly, she swung the blade towards his side, setting aside basic survival for making herself feel better at this moment.

As she charged towards him blade in hand. Ramsey stood there, not bothering to move as the blade impacted his side, while it did cut, it certainly wasn't as deep as she had hoped. As Ramsey grabbed her hand and pulled her close."See babe? Don't know nothing. So? Gonna keep swinging that, or wanna get out of here?" As Ramsey spoke his blood fell to the floor, he only winced as he removed the blade and let her hand go.

Styx yellow eyes raised in surprise, frowned and gave up. This night wasn't going well enough for her to argue. She needed time to think it over and at best if Ramsey died on the way out of here she could eat him. She hadn't eaten since she jumped into this infernal plane and there was no way she could actually keep sprinting past the raging forces of hell. "Fine." she said simply with a hint of venom.

Ramsey began walking."Well, got a place not far from here, best get out while the party is dying down. I'll let you stay for a while, ain't like it's MY place exactly. Doesn't matter, so my car is right outside. Well close enough. Or do you got some other place set up?"

Following Ramsey, Styx asked half jokingly., "We could jump through the portal and go to Hell. Does that count?"

"Always wanted a vacation! Does it have long beaches, with plenty of sun?" He replied jokingly back. As they walked to his car, and drove off towards the safe-house. Cars passed them, more officers, and EMS vehicles until Ramsey came to a stop. "Well, take a load off. This is the place." He showed her up the stairs, as he examined his wound. It had healed up nicely, as he turned back to her."So name's Ramsey, or Ares, whichever. I'm going to call you something, what's it going to be, a name or I'll just give you one."

Following up the stairs, Styx paused to think it over then began moving again once she decided, "Al'qruni-tun'kil (the words seemed to, again, come from her mouth before she opened it) is my maiden name but I've also answered to the title of the nearby river. Styx might be easier to pronounce?"

"Yeah sure as hell ain't calling you by that name, so Styx works for me, just get some rest and don't raid the fridge!"

Aubrey Adkins
Finally! One day, just one day without anything crazy happening in my life. No one trying to kidnap me. No one trying to kill me. No one trying to do anything to me or my friends. You don’t know how much of a relief this is for me! Some normalcy for me. I went to class, ate lunch with my roommates. Heck, I even started to do some homework. I must be going crazy if homework is starting to sound enjoyable.

Well, while I was reclining on my bed, reading one of my textbooks, minding my own business, guess who of all people poked their nose into my business. Freaking ‘Athena’, patron goddess of ‘getting Aubrey into trouble’. Why did I have to open my big mouth about today being normal? I bet she’s doing this to spite me, and I’m not the type of girl who would gamble, too.

“Aubrey,” Athena announced, “Are you ready for your next task?”

“Um…” I started, even though I already knew my answer, “No.”

“What?” Athena was puzzled at my response. She did not foresee me rejecting her offer.

“I said ‘no’. What’s the big deal?”

“But you are my avatar, Aubrey,” Athena attempted to explain, “You must be prepared for the day on which I will call upon your aid to save the world as we know it.”

I closed the textbook that was in my hand, even though I was not finished reading my assigned readings yet. What the heck was Athena talking about? “I didn’t choose to be your ‘avatar’. So we’re going by my schedule.”

“Avatars never volunteer for the job. They are always chosen by fate.”

“Well, I make my own fate. And I say I’m keeping my butt planted in this bed.”

“But the city of Lost Haven is under siege by extra-dimensional fiends that your Christian society mistakenly calls ‘demons’.”

“And how’s that my problem?”

I probably should not have said that. In response to my refusal of playing ‘super-hero’, Athena calmly walked over to where I was reclining on my bed. She then placed her hand on my shoulder. What’s the worst possible thing that could happen from this?

*sarcasm* Oh wait, she can teleport me wherever she wants if she makes physical contact. Oh, how wonderful! *sarcasm*

One moment, I was lying down in my comfortable bed, reading my textbook, the next, I was standing in a dank, dark, tunnel that smelted awful. And somehow I was back into what I like to call my “gender bending Spider-Man costume” (at least it was clean now after I washed it).

However, it wouldn’t be clean for long. I was already standing in murky water. Only God knows what I was stepping on. The only thing that I could be thankful for was that the temperature was actually quite mild, in spite of it being late January.

Suddenly, I felt what seemed like a gust of wind and water splashing against my back. Not only I am going to be stepping in this gross water, but now I am being bathed in it. I swear, if Athena is doing this to spite me, I’m going to…

Before I could finish that thought, I felt another gust and another splash of water. When I turned around, there was a giant snake the size of an eighteen wheeler waiting right behind me. As it opened its mouth, I beheld the skewers that were its teeth.

It’s official now. Athena has placed me in this position to spite me. I hope she’s happy now that her ‘avatar’ is about ready to be devoured by some freakish snake demon, which Athena would say wasn’t an actual demon but an extra-dimensional fiend. What’s the [explicit] difference!

Styx and Ramsey
The moment Ramsey closed his bedroom door Styx seized the opportunity to eat all the food, forever. Noticing the kitchen as the only room in this small apartment with a large amount of cabinets, she went about the business of raiding for nourishment. Upon propping open the fridge with her tail, she began stacking as much of the food and condiments on the counter as possible. Reading through the labels, the "sauce" and "ketchup" sounded about as far from food as possible. Struggling and eventually managing to open the sauce lid, she drank it in the same way that a college freshman drinks their first six shots of vodka. It didn't take long for her face to flush and her mouth, throat, and stomach burned in the worst way possible. In a panic, she reached for the milk, and drank a quarter of the gallon of the stuff before gagging and spitting onto the tile floor.

Frustrated, she pried open the window and threw the bottle outside, throwing fire not long after. Unfortunately, she missed and the resulting impact dug a small hole in some building across the street. Slamming the window closed, she went back to the kitchen and looked for anything, just, just anything resembling meat. She settled on the frozen steak, which she bit into with something of a excited fervor and found she couldn't bite through at all. Creating a small furnace of heat in her hands, she spent an agonizing hour heating the steak to something palpable. Tearing into the flesh with fervor, Styx found the meat acceptable but oddly less bloody than she was used to. Bovines must be raised differently Earthwise.

After taking a few chomps out of the steak, she decided to eat through his strawberries. She was mostly attracted to the color red and assumed it had something of a blood like taste. Popping one, then two, then seven into her mouth, she found the sweetness pleasant but wasn't entirely sure if she could sustain herself off this alone. Most demons were carnivorous if they didn't sustain themselves off the actual concept of suffering.

Setting the strawberries aside, she decided to root around for alcohol. Styx was well aware that many trapped in the third circle, Sloths, were fans of alcohol in life and even those humans who were charitable in life were well known to drink. Ramseys' fridge did not disappoint, a few bottles of various hard liquors, mixed drinks, and vodka. She took a bottle of vodka on the sneaking suspicion that the clear liquid couldn't possibly be alcoholic, it looked exactly like water.

Styx left the food on the counter and brought the drink over to the couch. Taking a swig, she nearly spit it out. It certainly tasted like alcohol and absolutely nothing else. This wasn't her first time around the block, usually she drank wine. This was in a whole other ballpark. Setting the bottle on the floor, she inspected the device across from her. It was a tv and she recognized the word "power". Pressing the button, the tv sprung to life and slowly lit up. Images and audio moved along in sync. She moved away from the screen in surprise. Usually only very old, decrepit books made of the skin of a newborn babe had moving images. While it was very possible this was some sort of witchcraft, she sincerely doubted it.

The screen went on about the hell portals being held back by brave metahumans. Metahumans? Is that what Ramsey was? Eventually in between raising the volume and accidentally going through menu's she managed to change the channel to some childrens cartoon. After a few more swigs from the bottle, the cartoon animals began to annoy her. Slowly but surely, the tv flickered and hissed, the lights in the apartment faded in and out, before in a flash of static Styx had managed to short out the television.
Waking up hours later with a pounding headache, Styx rolled off the couch and onto the floor.

The night was long for Ramsey, with sirens and whatnot blaring through the late hours. But he managed to get a decent nights sleep. The late morning sun arose as he got up, wearing just a simple pair of shorts, forgetting a Demon was living there as well. As he casually walked to the kitchen, only to see thawed food and condiments strewn about. Following the trail of destruction. He found Styx sleeping on the floor her back against the carpet.

He walked to the side of her, noting the seemingly broken television, and bottles of Vodka. As he stepped on her stomach."GET UP! GeT Up!" He yelled, pushing her with his foot.

The horned girl groaned and partially opened her eyes. She rolled over towards the couch, throwing an arm onto the cushions. Using her knees and that arm, she pushed herself up despite the throbbing torment of a hangover she was currently suffering. "What do you waaaaaaant" she moaned.

Ramsey walked over to a lamp, and looed back at Styx who was trying to get up. He moved it closer as she leaned on the couch and turned it on right in front of her eyes."You ate all my food, then you trashed the place, well got something to say before I strangle you?"

To Styx, the light was a piercing blaze of light that bore through her eyes. Scrunching her eyes shut, she hissed, "I'd do it again!" Sluggishly she rose to her feet, then fell back onto the couch which was far more comfortable than the floor she decided.

"Do it again eh? I could always rip your jaw off, let's see you eat like that? And the T.V. is broke. What raiding my fridge wasn't enough!? Damn." Ramsey moved over to Styx, and lifted her with his only arm by her neck. Not tight enough to strangle her just yet."Look we got names for girls like you, it's called being a bitch! Now if you plan on staying here There's going to be some ground rules!"

"First off, you see this stub of an arm? Well it's regenerating! And for that I need a shit ton of food. Now raid my fridge again and I'll rip your pretty little head off! Second don't go breaking the T.V. Now I'll have to steal another one. For that matter don't break anything! Third, you need to learn a bit more about this world, I mean really it looks like hot sauce is spilled all over the floor! What'd you do DRINK it? Who the hell drinks hot sauce? Look there's a computer in the other room, it's old and cheap but it has internet. Use it to search for your, Tomes to pass the time."

Styx struggled and kicked. After a moment of short breathed thought, she jabbed towards Ramseys crotch with the pointed end her tail. She gasped, "Let go!"
Styx jabbed Ramsey's crotch with her tail, not that it bothered him much. From his view point she was just prodding him. As he dropped her to the ground."For a Demon you ain't that tough, surprising I thought you all were the shit when I was younger."

Rubbing her neck, Styx replied, "Don't worry, when the aeons pass and you're nothing but the soil, I'll be more terrible than you can possibly imagine." She turned around and muttered, "I'm sure the others brought far more trouble. From my view, your city looked like a fresh Hell."
"Yeah, well until the aeons pass you're still weaker than me! Besides Hoboken is worse on a day like this. Or New Jersey, always got someone wrecking the city. So wanna find your Tomes, or want some more Vodka to kick your ass?"

"Fine." Styx said, walking around towards the other room she'd seen earlier but hadn't bothered with. Upon opening the door, she saw what looked like a smaller tv and resisted the natural urge to just explode it right here and now.

"I take it you've never seen a computer before? Right. Well press this button to turn it on." Ramsey said as the Computer booted up, and as soon as the home screen appeared he opened the web browser, and typed in YouTube, searching for videos on the subject of using a PC.

"Don't break it! A computer holds infinite knowledge, and idiots, too stupid to use it. Just watch the screen while I salvage what food we have left, moron. Destroying all the food.." He said as he walked off.

Another demon was flung back into a nearby building, blasted through the hard concrete by a kinetic burst. War-Pulse had been fighting for what felt like hours, recharging himself on car batteries when he needed a kick start to continue beating the infernal invaders back. Now brandishing a signpost, he clubbed another demon upside the head, sending it flying into a nearby truck. His pace had turned from frantic and aggressive to slow and methodical, chasing demons down simply for the joys of finding something with no redeemable qualities or need for sympathy and beating it to death with a now bent signpost. War-Pulse was now humming a joyous little tune as he pulled the metal pole back behind him in a baseball steps, another three steps and he swung for the fences, sending another shocked demon up into the air and out of sight, presumably to die on impact.

"I gotta tell you, Warden, this is almost therapeutic." War-Pulse said, another small demon coming to bite at him, only to be met with the signpost being jabbed through it and pinning it to the ground.

"I'm not sure whether to be happy for you or terrified of you."

"...Little of both?"

"Just don't underestimate them, we still have no real idea if the more powerful demonic entities are even here, yet. Do not take any chances--"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get back to you when the whole incident is taken care of."

However, his temporary slow pace was about to end when he rounded the corner of a building, his stride coming to a complete halt when he came face to face with a tank barrel. He backed away from the large cannon, to see that there were three more tanks behind it. Soldiers, human and armed to the teeth, swarmed around the tanks, moving in formation to point their rifles at the new arrival. War-Pulse's eyes widened as his lips pursed in amusement, he did not think the national guard would be called in just yet, but with demons running around, this confrontation would be inevitable.

"Who are you?!?" One of the soldiers barked at War-Pulse. "State your name!"

"Okay, okay, don't freak out." War-Pulse began, his hands in the air to display a gesture of non-hostility. "My name's War-Pulse, Pulse for short, I'm a--"

"Are you one of the demonic entities!?"

War-Pulse had to take few seconds for the request to really sink in. "I...beg your pardon?"

"One of the demons, are you one of those?!"

"You gotta be kidding me, buddy!"

"Answer the question!"

"Do I look like a demon?!"

It was apparent War-Pulse had no idea how much demon blood was now spattered across his attire, the silver being almost dulled by the dirt and damage it had suffered.

"That was a yes or no--"

"NO! I'm not a friggin' demon!"

"What's your business here!?"

As they made demons, War-Pulse was scanning the group, he could see in the back one of the men murmuring to a walkie-talkie, reading the words 'War-Pulse' on his lips.

"Oh, I was in the city for a wonderful nightly stroll in brightly colored metahuman gear, just enjoying the sights and sounds and--WHAT DO YOU THINK, GENIUS!?"

"Calm down, sir, or we will be forced to fire!"

"Pah, whatever, I'm not a threat to you, I'm here killing off your demon infestation, you should be thanking me!"

With that, War-Pulse turned and began to walk away, undaunted by the National Guard's presence.

"Sir, we are not done here!" The soldier with the walkie-talkie shouted out, walking over to what could be assumed to be his superior, pointing at the mercenary. "I just got off the horn with HQ, that is not a local metahuman."

"The hell are you talking about, private?"

"That man's known as War-Pulse." The soldier continued. "He's wanted by Interpol. Turns out he's some hired gun."

War-Pulse's eyes widened, he whirled around and extended his hands to the soldiers. "Really? You want to pull this shit now? While the city is being invaded?"

The soldiers and the tanks now turned to face him, guns and cannons being pointed at the mercenary ones more.

"Sir, put your hands on your head and come quietly, or we will be forced to fire!"

"Come on, I'm not doing that!"

"You have to the count of three!"

"Demons, you moron!"

"One!"

"I'm not the threat, here! You got more pressin-"

"Two!"

"I really don't think--"

"Three!"

Before War-Pulse could get another word in edgewise, the tank barrel closest to him erupted in fire and smoke as the shot rang out, the massive tank shell colliding and exploding into War-Pulse's chest, sending him flying through the air. He could feel himself impact through one side of a building, catching brief glances of office supplies and desks before bursting out of the other side, his momentum barely slowed from the tank shot. He then felt his body slam off the corner of another building, causing his body to cartwheel as it descended to the ground. He was able to turn his body to see the tar, and he cursed under his breath before bracing himself to slam headfirst into the tar.

And collide with the tar he did, directly through it right into the head of the mighty tunneling serpent. The impact caused the serpent to momentarily recoil into its cave, uninjured, but now royally infuriated by being hit with what was essentially a human sized catapult shot.

As War-Pulse came to regain his bearings, coughing and sputtering the muddy, disgusting water he was now laying in, he realized he was now staring up at a girl in a spider costume.

"Uhhh...hi." He said, not really having a good quip for the fact he was just shot through the air into what looked like an already heated confrontation. He scrambled to his feet and turned to face the basilisk. "Let's make a deal, we kill this giant snake thing, and you don't tell anyone I was thrown in here by a tank shot." He adjusted his stance as the beast slithered forward, advancing on the two people again. "Sound good?"

Aubrey Adkins
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Yes, this is what I want to be doing on a Thursday night: running for my life, in a sewer of all places, trying to escape from this freakish serpentine demon thing. It’s bad enough I have to step in everyone’s sewage, but the snake is the icing on top of the cake. Was this one big joke to Athena?

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Oh God, please don’t let me die down here. I have my whole life ahead of me. Of course I don’t know what I am going to be doing with my life, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a future! I have a career ahead of me (whatever that career is, I don’t know). I still have marriage (or at least a stable romantic relationship), parenthood, and more! I just can’t die here.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,

Right when the giant snake was beginning to catch up to me, almost ready to bite at my heels, I felt something rush through me. It was as if fire was rushing through my body and through my veins. However, there was not pain. A warm sensation, but no pain. Then suddenly, when I thought that I had given my all, I found deep inside me the strength to keep moving forward. To keep living.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I was creating some breathing room between myself and that monster. Now I needed to find a way out. I couldn’t just continue dashing down this sewer. I needed to get onto the surface. But how?

Lo and behold, there was a manhole. It was one of those moments when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, except there wasn’t any light. I climbed up the ladder that lead to my escape. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see a manhole.

Except when it wouldn’t budge one inch. Even when I exerted all my weight against it, nothing happened. And you know who I blame for my situation. Athena, of course. She probably wanted me to stay down here and become snake food. That woman is starting to get on my nerves.

Then my ‘spider-sense’ started to rattle in my head. I turned my head back toward the direction from whence I came. That demon snake was coming in hot. Nothing I didn’t know already. Thanks for being so useful, you weird tingling in my brain.

Or I at least thought that until something (or rather someone) came crashing down through the ceiling of the sewer and straight into the head of the giant, demon snake. After the dust and debris had settled, I crawled over the walls (who knows what’s in that water now!) and I descended from the ceiling on a dragline.

Below me was a man, dressed in a silver costume, although it has been stained with what looked like blood, tar, and whatever was down in the sewers. He scrambled to his feet when he saw me. I wasn’t too surprised; I would be freaked out if I was in his place and if I saw two giant white eyes staring back at me.

"Uhhh...hi." The man said. I’ve had extremely shy guys who had crushes on me say more to me than that.

"Let's make a deal, we kill this giant snake thing, and you don't tell anyone I was thrown in here by a tank shot."

Turning around and attacking the one thing that I had been running away from for the last several minutes. That sounds like an awesome plan! Oh, wait, I need to turn off my sarcasm. Well, Athena has trapped me down here for some reason. I could try to escape through the way this metahuman entered, but I had no clue where that lead.

Oh, what the hell. “Fine, but you go first”.