Just another Halloween night
Arc: Golden (Black)

Everyone started to gather in the living room before heading out. Cecily had dressed up as Sally from the Nightmare before Christmas, David as Iron Knight, and Maddison as a grim reaper; complete with scythe.

"Iron Knight, again? I thought we were going to match this year!" Cecily shook her head.

"Hey, it was a gift, and I don't even have to wash it. How neat is that?" David said with a grin, idly playing with his fake helmet.

"...gross.." A certain someone mumbled.

Passing by house to house, the Jones family happily interacted with other passing families, complimenting each other, or asking about each others' costumes. Some notable costumes, at least for David, were a Darth Vader and Tie Pilot; with lights and sounds. Eventually, they found a group of kids with giant-colorful lollipops. Maddison rushed over to meet them.

"Wow, where did you get those!" She giddily asked.

"A lady dressed up as a witch! She's way over there, by the park!" They answered, and vaguely pointed off to the distance.

Well, it wasn't like they needed to hit every house as soon as possible. The Jones' casually made their way over to see a group of kids already crowding the 'witch' and her cart. Of whom was already passing out the huge lollipops they had seen. Other adults were casually watching at a distance.

David and Cecily followed Maddison in closer and the witch stopped them. "No adults. My candy is only for children with big imaginations!"

Cecily smiled at him with a raised brow. 'Oh is that right?' she must have been thinking, and he smiled back.

Like the others, the both of them decided to stand back until Maddie got her chance. Looking around, he noticed a knight with impressively reflective 'armor', and in that reflection, he noticed the witch didn't appear. Blinking, he did a double take and looked over the crowd and back again. The kids, the candy cart, and himself could be clearly seen. David looked to the witch this time, and she noticed his gaze.

"That's it, no more candy!" She shouted and started to wave the kids away, then quickly started to turn her cart away.

"What's up?" Cecily asked as David suddenly stepped forward.

"I, uh, keep an eye on Maddie." David stammered out, giving out a shrug as he began to pick up his pace.

Even with her cart she was pretty fast, and David wasn't exactly out of shape. Bringing himself to a full run she nearly lost him turning around a block, luckily he saw her enter a house. The house itself struck him as strange, it was built wider than the others in the neighborhood, even seeming to be pointer at certain points.

'Was this always here?' He wondered, then shook his head. 'No, this is definitely not a house from here.'

Trying the door, he was surprised to see that it wasn't locked. Obviously, he was being led in, but perhaps changing into Terra would be premature. The inside struck him as very 'haunted' looking. Cobwebs, strange paintings and faded wallpaper made up the interior. Aside from looking abandoned, the entire first floor seemed normal enough. Though, it was here he began to regret taking the likeness of Knight for tonight, doorways began to feel tighter and tighter each time, and it wasn't the donuts or candy. Venturing upstairs, he found one particular door, mostly white, seemingly made of fog. A gush of air rushed by as he passed through.



"David! David!" Cecily shouted as she attempted to follow David's path, while Maddison followed behind her, lollipop in hand, and a plastic clinking from her scythe hitting the ground.

"Ooohh.. is this." Maddie quickly looked around them, and then whispered. "A superhero thing?"

"Who knows.."

After a little more walking around, trying to trace David's path, they eventually found someone in an Iron Knight costume, and they called out again.

"David?"

"Dad?"

The figure suddenly turned towards them, waved, and casually walked over to them.

"What happened?" Cecily asked, and David replied with a noncommittal shrug.



Sometime later, the family, or rather, Cecily, had decided enough trick or treating had been had. Maddison's pumpkin bucket was nearly overflowing with various sweets. Despite protesting on her part, even though she had yet to finish the earlier lollipop; she even attempted to get her dad to argue some point for her, but he was silent through the entire exchange. Just watching.

Yet this bothered Cecily, throughout all their time with their child, David had been the one to coddle her. Especially when it came to treats. For the last hour he had acted oddly, quiet, stiff, and his eyes would look glassy occasionally. She waited until they were alone together in the bedroom, before he had a chance to take off his costume.

"Are you feeling okay?" She asked, and he nodded with a smile. Cecily dived towards the bed, reaching for the shotgun underneath, pumped it, and unloaded a shell into 'David'.

"Agh!" The man grunted, but still stood straight as an arrow. The 'armored' parts of the costume were apparently bullet resistant, meaning this was the original costume, but without the original man. She pumped it again, another one, one shell staggered him, and the other put him down. Without making another sound 'David' collapsed and faded away with a soft pained-moan, and his costume fell apart like loosely assembled legos.

"M-Mom!" Maddison stood in the doorway shocked, but there was no time.

"Stay home, it's a superhero thing!" Cecily shouted as she sprinted out the door, loading the shotgun at the same time.



David woke up, with a strange pain in his chest and his head, he was feeling slightly sluggish too. His thoughts were foggy, just realizing his condition was enough to make him tired all over again. He wasn't sure how long, but he realized he was trapped in some kind of chamber, and he saw that 'witch' right outside.

Occasionally, his vision would fade, then be replaced with something else. A park, with kids all just standing around, sometimes just standing on one of the sets, some of them just sitting surrounded by toys.

"W-where are we?" He stumbled towards a nearby boy, with no response. David winced as he struggled to keep going, and turned him around. The boy's face was pale, his eyes were glazed over, as if staring at some far off sight.

His hand rushed to his head as his vision changed again, back to the chamber, and the witch. She pulled a kid into view, and placed a hand over his head. Her fingers began to glow as the kid turned paler, just like the boy from his dream.

"What's going on?" David shouted as loud as he could muster. "What are you doing to the kids?"

"Oh?" The witch turned around, surprised. "Ah, of course you can see it. You are, after all, a guardian of the planet. Terra Firma, was it?"

David banged a fist on the glass. "What are you doing!" He demanded, determination slowly filling him with energy, but not enough.

"Only kids with imagination. I said that. You see, I feed off imagination, the pure creative willpower found in young humans. Adults usually taste bad, but you, you have a pure source of power I can feed off. Your connection to Gaia perhaps?" She put a finger to her chin.

"Ngh, maybe I'm just lucky.."

"Ohh, could be!"

A clock somewhere began to chime. From where he was he couldn't see it.

"Ah, it's time! I'll see you later!" She gleefully shouted and disappeared somewhere, a distant cackling followed her out. Leaving him alone. David tried to break out on his own again, to no avail, then tried to call out Gaia's power. But it wasn't coming.



"Oh my god..."

"What is that.."

"Someone call someone!"

Random bystanders were watching as a giant pumpkin emerged, taking the place of a former house. Kids were also coming out of nearby houses, with listless eyes, marching towards it, parents and other adults tried to stop them. Someone on top of the pumpkin started shouting and laughing.

"Yes, yes, come! Ride with me to a world of dreams!" She cackled. Very much like a proper witch now, Cecilia thought. She also thought about shooting her, but she was very much out of range. Besides, she was a doctor, not a soldier.

"Get a hold of yourselves!"

"Go back home!"

Other parents were shouting. She recognized some of the kids now, they were also at the cart with the lollipops. No doubt the same was happening to Maddie. Cecily thought about rushing back, she even took an absent minded step towards their home, to try to force her back inside. However, from watching the other parents, she knew that whatever was happening wouldn't be stopped there. Kids began to walk in, overpowering the adults trying to save them, vines began to rise from somewhere forcing back the adults, and even drawing more kids in.

"You meddling adults, look at how they're always trying to stop you!"

No time to stand around, she continued to sprint towards the pumpkin. More than a few vines tried to stop her, but her shotgun proved too much, and she made it into its giant maw. A few minutes later and the pumpkin began to sink into the ground, with no trace it had even been there. If the cops or anyone else had been called, they would never make it.



"-ear me, get down!" A voice shouted, David realized he had been about to doze off, but tried to obey. For some reason he knew he could trust it, and dropped to the ground. With a loud bang, the glass around him shattered, and he felt his mind clear up. The fog began to lift, both literal and figuratively.

"David! David are you okay!" Cecily ran over to him, and looked him over. Checking his eyes, his pulse, and other key points before trying to help him up.

"Heh.. and I'm supposed to be the hero.." He managed a weak smile, before taking Cecily's hand. The floor shook, like an elevator going down, and the walls began to rumble. David braced himself by holding onto Cecily.

"David, can you do it? You need to save the kids!"

"Yeah.." He took a breath in, and motioned for her to stand back. A bright light covered the area, a warm wind rushed around them, ribbons of energy danced around, then gathered and coiled around him.



The giant pumpkin was almost halfway down, parents were yelling at each other, some had even brought out their own firearms, but nothing was working, and suddenly the pumpkin shuddered. Suddenly, quicker than it was sinking, it began to rise. The ground exploded outwards as the pumpkin flew up, with Terra Firma underneath.

"I knew it was too good to risk. I should have killed you, Terra!" The witch had taken to the sky, circling around the pumpkin.

"Your mistake, was messing with my family!" He shouted back as he set the pumpkin back down, kids began to rush out, followed by a certain woman shortly after. She gave him a thumbs up.

"Damn you!" The witches' hand shook, her whole body began to shudder, and then her image distorted. It was a strange shape, not at all like the form from before, and he began to wonder if she was at all what she seemed. Instead of skin, neither rubber nor leather, she now had a carapace of some kind, along with strange features all over her head down to her back.

She rushed forward, and he met her charge. Their fists collided, a blast of wind escaped from in between their clash, setting off several car alarms, and David realized that this fight had to move. Disengaging briefly, he slammed his fist to the ground, and the earth they were standing on suddenly shot up. Despite no longer having human facial features, he could tell this creature was surprised, so he grabbed it, and flung it towards some under-construction buildings a little ways off.

He briefly laughed at his good fortune, had those buildings been completed, traffic would get a hundred times worse in front of the neighborhood. Now the project might be scrapped. 'Christmas came early.' David swooped down after the creature, attempting to punch it as it rose back up again, but it rolled, and slashed him from behind with its limbs.

"Gah!" A small shower of embers escaped from his backside, David turned and delivered a solid punch as the creature came closer, sending it reeling back several steps. Another punch, but it dodged by bending back, all the way. Caught in the motion of his own punch, the creature rushed forward, and coiled itself around his head and neck. However, David easily broke free, wrenching its arms free he threw it to the ground. With a powerful thud that sent steel girders crashing around him. He tried to deliver another punch while it was grounded, but it rolled away again. As more and more of the building crashed down, dust and debris began to scatter and rise, obscuring it from him. David lost it.

Needing a solution, he remembered a move from watching a certain cartoon with Maddie, and clapped his hands as hard as he could. The resulting gust cleared the air, but he still couldn't find it. The buildings had been thoroughly demolished, no more metal falling, no more metals clinging and clanging, but now there was laughter.

The creature suddenly appeared in front of him, but before he could do anything, another appeared from its side, then another, and another. "What can you do? How will you fight me when I am dozens, hundreds?" It kept laughing and he spun to try to keep track of the copies.

'I've seen this before, they're all illusions..' David thought, but a copy from behind slashed at his back, another at his side, more from the front. The copies began a dance of death around him, each slashing him as they passed by, some giving him a good kick or wrenching his body a certain way. "Agh!" David was pushed back, onto the ground, as he tried to get up he was attacked furiously again. The crest on his chest, his power core, began to pulse throughout his body; the sound of a heartbeat began to drum and echo throughout the area.

'This again?'

"I won't let you!" David pounded his hand on the ground, even as he was slashed from behind. The ground began to shake and rumble, and the copies all fell over, stumbling over each other trying to reach David. He shot his hand up, as if reaching for the sky, grasping at air, then he balled his fist and brought it back down. The night sky was clear moments ago, but clouds quickly gathered, and giant streaks of lightning crashed onto the dozens of creatures.

"Aaaahhh!"

"AAAAHH!"

They all screamed, except for one, it shot some kind of yellow-green blast at David before lifting off, flying away faster than David could, and he knew it. He quickly flung his other arm at it, lightning crackled and danced around his arm before lunging towards the fleeing creatures' back. It screamed and flailed mid-air before dispersing, fading in a show of oddly shaped particles exploding outwards. The copies, whom were writing in pain on the floor, simply faded.

"Hooah.." David 'breathed' out.

"That was cool!" A voice shouted. David turned to see who it was. Maddison was cheering, jumping from the side of their van, while Cecily leaned on the gun.

"You were my hero, always will be." She said.

David gave a thumbs up.

Even with the aliens still attacking the city around them, Fletch couldn’t shake the thought of encountering the skull-faced man again. She tried hard to push the thoughts out of her head and focus on the task at hand, but the repeating scene of the bus explosion and his cutthroat gesture still haunts her, even if it had been months since the bus exploded close to The Hub. While her body appeared stoic as she swung through the streets, she could feel her nerves and muscles shake with anxiety. She knew that she was about to succumb to a panic attack and no one she knew, not even Jai, was close enough to help soothe her to prevent it.

You can get through this, Kayla. Just focus on getting the city safe.

In a sense, the repeating two sentences running through her head was enough to cut through all the noise. While it wasn’t going to be enough in the long run, it was enough to keep her focused.

After what seemed like another eternity, she arrived at the Sherman Centre. Much like the attack from the Hounds of Humanity, the scene here was of pure devastation. Aliens ran amok with the big-named heroes around. Icon was here, but was getting rag-dolled around the place by an unknown entity. Another flashback to the werewolf entity in the Hound’s base pressed onto her mind as she tried to remain panic attack-free. There was also a big ass tank in the middle of the square that is causing problems for Iron Knight. There was also the wave upon wave of the alien forces, but Radiance had sent them back so they seemed to be handled without an issue. Only problem for her specifically is that she could not see Racheli anywhere, which was the plan prior to leaving the second Taylor’s Garage location. With the alien forces somewhat handled, especially as she sent an explosive arrow into the heart of a group close to Radiance and Lyger, and Icon and Terra Firma was helping each other fight the brute, it left only one meaningful way for her to help the fight in the area. And she had the perfect tool for it.

The archer began shooting arrows directly towards the aliens that started to surround the tank, getting a little bit closer to the tank. ”Iron Knight, I don’t know what’s going on here, but do you think that tank is mostly electronic?!” she yelled towards the flying hero.

As she finished asking her question, she skidded herself to a kneeling position. As she came to a stop, her hand deftly grabbed something from her pocket and placed it into her bow hand. She then reached for an arrow with no arrow tip to it and seemingly began to screw something onto the end of the arrow shaft.

@nitemare shape, @Dedonus & @Alternax

“Let's finish this.” Icon said as he took several steps toward toward the approaching Outsider, with Terra Firma flanking to the left. Icon left his feet, and hovering several inches off the ground he launched himself at the Outsider. Lowering his shoulder, he barreled into the invader, knocking him back several steps. Terra Firma, not far behind, tagged the Outsider with a hard right hand, which knocked the Outsider back into Icon's fist, who then hammered the Outsider back to Terra, together they traded a combination of simultaneous blows, to which the Outsider could only stagger in between as he was hammered into place as the heroes pummeled him from behind and the front. Outsider tried to fight back, but his strikes failed to make contact as Icon and Terra Firma continued their assault. Finally, Icon struck the villain down with a back hand just as Terra Firma spun around and let loose a downward fireball which exploded upwards, shooting the outsider high through the air, where he crashed into the side of a nearby building, slid down the brick façade, then finally coming to a rest, slumping against the building.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar and a rush of wind. Icon couldn't believe his eyes as he watched as a bizarre bone dragon creature cut a swath through the alien invaders as it moved across the battlefield. He didn't know what he was looking at, and he was fairly certain that he had never seen anything quite like that before in his life, but he was thankful that whatever it was, it seemed to be on their side.

“Well, that's not something you see every day...-” Icon said as he watched the dragon move out of sight. “At least...unless you're us.”

Suddenly, Icon's attention is brought back to the battlefield as a series of explosions shook the ground. Frantically, he looked around and quickly found the source of the explosions- the massive battle tank had begun firing indiscriminately. The tank's explosive rounds impacted apartment buildings and businesses within the immediate area. Then, they seemed to find a new target.

No! Icon thought to himself as he came to the realization that the tank had spotted a group of civilians and journalists that had taken shelter just outside the lines of battle.

Icon lifted off his feet in preparation to engage the tank himself, when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, only to find that the Outsider had gotten to his feet.

“You take the tank, I'll take care of this.” Icon said to Terra Firma as he motioned toward the Outsider.

In a flash, Icon rushed toward the Outsider, who threw several wild punches trying to fend off the cobalt and silver clad hero. However, Icon easily avoided contact with the Outsider's fists, while hitting home with an upper cut of his own. The impact sent the Outsider skywardseveral stories, and as he began his descent back toward the earth, Icon caught him in mid air, and with a singular motion, he hurled the villain back toward the sky.

Icon raced behind the Outsider, catching up to him and delivering a series of earth shattering strikes to his head, each blow knocking the Outsider higher and higher into the sky. Icon again caught up to the Outsider's hurtling body and reached out, grabbing him around the waist, all while altering his course toward the ground. Icon sped up as he raced toward the earth. He suddenly stopped short as he reached the rooftops of the city's skyline, and released the Outsider, sending him crashing into the pavement several hundred feet below.

As Icon descended toward the ground, there was a sudden flurry of activity as military vehicles, troop carriers, and a number of black, unmarked SUV's raced into the area, some of which surrounded the crater that the Outsider created when he crashed into the square.

Nice of you boys to show up. Icon thought to himself as he rejoined his allies on the ground.

One eye, somewhere near the middle of the cloud, noted the movement of the armoured hero, dodging away from the machine. The rest of the mass continued to 'play' in a swiftly growing pile of bodies, strewn about like the results of a macabre doll party in Hell. The thing giggled to itself as it saw the heros invitation, and waited patiently for the excuse of the shots. One managed to land a bit further than it wanted, but then the turret changed direction, tracking past where the hero had ducked out of view and towards a group of innocents who were milling about like suicidal ducklings. Missed one invitation, but an opening nonetheless. Hello, Fortuna.

Abigail was beginning to get used to the feeling of being a passenger in her own body at the center of the mass, though the violence was astonishing in its brutality. When the bony creature flew overhead, she almost thought she had shifted past the Veil, but no. She wasn't dead. The thing she had invited did seem to take some perverse pleasure in letting shots go very close to her actual body, but never close enough to harm. Even grenades were batted away just before they exploded, often to the detriment of the one who had sent them. She felt a mass of legs bunch up beneath her and closed her eyes. The quick motions made her feel sick.

Like a nest of spiders from a nightmare, the thing launched itself down the street towards the tank, bounding off of ruined cars, building facades, and other handy objects and surfaces until arrived like a coiled ball of organic shadows just underneath the main guns barrel. Dozens of shadow-dripping tentacles snaked along edges and srufaces, at least a dozen grabbing the barrel itself, in just a split second. They grew as they lifted, hauling the angle of fire well away from the crowd behind it. Massive legs like a grasshoppers shot down and slammed into the street, further angling the tank until it stood at a forty-five degree angle from the asphalt. At which point more limbs struck out. Skeletal hands far too large to be human, furred claws dripping ichor, and sharp talons of insects ripped and tore into the relatively soft underbelly of the tank. A glow at the impacts revealed some sort of forcefield, so the thing simply kept hammering. Meanwhile the tank spewed rounds out of every gun it had, the crew inside panicking while trying to figure out what the hell was happening. And in the middle of it all, a tiny Korean woman with shadows across her skin grinned with a mouth too full of too-sharp teeth, humming to herself a tune that sent nightmares across the minds of those close enough to hear it over the din of battle.

A psychic message shot across the void to overtake Iron Knight's internal helmet communications while it spoke. The voice felt like nails down a chalkboard if it was amplified underwater as a form of torturing submarine crews. THAT WAS CLEVER, MORTAL, BUT DON'T THINK WE WILL FORGET YOU ATTEMPTED TO BRING HARM TO OUR HOST. SHE HAS BEEN GRACIOUS, RUDENESS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. That done, the “song” grew louder, then pitched up and up and up, finally passing out of human hearing ranges. The invaders were not so fortunate, and began to find out how iron their wills actually were as tendrils of madness inducing magic began to curl into their minds.

The hammering was taking forever, Abigail thought to herself, watching things unfold. The shielding was showing signs of fatigue, but not a lot and progress was slow. The thing seemed content to just continue, however. One invading soldier came around the corner to investigate what was attacking their armour, lifted his weapon to fire, and was impaled by five claws and rent asunder in the blink of an eye. Her body hadn't even moved the head to look. The girl looked around through her mounting feeling of foreboding and saw two heroes charge, one almost directly at her and the thing. She tried to shout a warning, but as usual, nothing came out of her incorporeal mouth. So she just watched while they came, hoping that either they could overpower her possessor or it wouldn't take too much offense at their actions.

Everything had been going according to plan: he had dodged the tank’s explosive rounds and caused them to land near the eldritch beast in the distance. It had gone almost too perfectly, as the tank’s main turret had turned elsewhere and seemed to have targeted a group of civilians who had taken shelter far outside of the range Chris had scanned. He was prepared to try to get the tank’s attention again, but the unnerving tentacle creature had beaten Chris to the punch. The tank would now have some more pressing concerns than targeting civilians.

”Iron Knight, I don’t know what’s going on here, but do you think that tank is mostly electronic?!” Chris heard Fletch, the archer who had aided the heroes against the Hounds of Humanity, a few yards away from his position. He jetted in her direction and touched down near her.

“While it is possible these aliens are using some sort of energy source that’s beyond our own comprehension, it wouldn’t hurt to—”

Chris dropped to a knee as an excruciating voice had penetrated his suit’s internal speakers, which immediately started to lecture him about placing its host in danger. His suit’s onboard AI reacted to this intrusion by muting the voice to protect Chris’ hearing. Yet even though he wasn’t in pain anymore, the term ‘host’ stuck with him. What type of person would allow this entity into their world? Sure, there was an alien invasion underway, but surely there were other options.

“Remind me never to ruffle Cthulhu’s cousin’s feathers again. This city just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Chris muttered to Fletch as she continued to prepare the arrow intended for the Arlaaekan tank.

Meanwhile, the unexpected arrival of S.T.R.I.K.E. was a bittersweet moment. Chris knew that the heroes needed all the help they could muster, even if it came from the shadowy spy organization that was known as S.T.R.I.K.E. Yet, ever since what had been thought to have been the fall of S.T.R.I.K.E. at the hands of the Hounds of Humanity, Chris had been free from their meddling. The only positive thought that came across his mind was whether he had a claim for the director of S.T.R.I.K.E., as he was technically one of the last remaining people was was active with S.T.R.I.K.E. at the time of its supposed demise. Not that he really wanted to run such an organization, but it was a thought nonetheless.

But Chris pushed those thoughts out of his head. For there were far more pressing matters at hand, namely the Arlaaekan invaders. Chris scanned the giant Arkaaelan tank with the advanced technology built into his suit. After mere seconds, he identified the smallest of a breach in the tank’s armor, no doubt caused by the person possessed by the eldritch monstrosity.

“If you’re looking for a target, you might want to aim for that tiny imperfection in the tank’s armor,” Chris suggested before turning his attention back to the other Arlaaekans, making sure none of them would interrupt Fletch’s marksmanship.

Odysseus and Kensei, despite hailing from cultures worlds apart, were warriors in heart. Many an Arlaaekan scoffed at what they believed were neanderthals pelting them with primitive weapons. Yet the aliens’ arrogance could not protect them from the divine arrows the two heroes were launching from their bows. Even Kensei’s sword, the Kusanagi, ripped through the advanced exo-suits the Arlaaekans wore into battle.

But it did not take the Arlaaekans long to reevaluate the threat level of these two individuals. Ever since the onset of the invasion, the Arlaaekans had established air superiority and, when these two heroes became troublesome for them, they could utilize that advantage to eliminate them. Or at least that was their intention, as they had not expected an entirely different metahuman to jump to the rescue at just the right moment.

Once Odysseus and Kensei were safe, the mysterious metahuman inquired about whether they actually possessed a plan for taking down the newly arrived Arlaaekan reinforcements. The Japanese samurai was the first to answer.

“Our primary objective has been to thin the crowd on the ground so they wouldn’t pose as much of a threat to the civilians. But I can see the danger that warship poses.”

“If we’re going to have any chance to taking that spaceship down, we’re going to need some reinforcements,” Odysseus suggested as he notched one of his own arrows onto his bow instead of those he had borrowed from Kensei. “Considering they just tried to vaporize us, being discrete does not really matter anymore.”

Aiming his bow skyward, Odysseus drew back the bowstring and released the arrow. Once the shaft had reached the apex of its arc, the arrowhead detached and launched forward, propelled by a miniaturized rocket. Specifically designed for this purpose, the arrowhead began spitting out flares profusely. With the signal sent, now all the three men could do was wait.

---

These Arlaaekans just seem to keep on coming (that’s what Emily said her alternate came from called their universe’s counterpart). No matter how many of them Emily and I had beat up and took out of commission, there were just as many soldiers ready to take their place. I’m pretty sure Athena made some obscure metaphor about them being like the Lernaean Hydra. I hope she wasn’t insinuating that fire was the key to stopping them. I’m not the type of gal who liked to torch things.

“Wow, it’s felt like we’ve already fought off a small army,” Emily wiped the sweat from her brow after she tossed an unconscious Arlaaekan onto a pile of already knocked out aliens.

“Hey, is your arm okay? You’re bleeding.”

Emily peered down at her arm and saw what I had spotted: there was a cut on her arm, which was bleeding way more than an injury that size should.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just web it up. It’ll be fine,” Emily answered, although I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was holding something back. But since we were in the middle of an alien invasion, I didn’t want to press her on it. Instead, I just made a make-shift bandage on her arm and left it at that.

“So, what’s our next move?”

As soon as she had spoken up again, my spider-sense began to buzz. Before I could turn my head, an energy bolt flew over my shoulder and landed harmlessly against the pavement. Up on the roof, another Arlaaekan soldier had taken up a position as a sniper. Under normal circumstances, I would have been amazed at how the Arlaaekan missed his shot, but because Athena was at our side stuff like that tended to happen.

The Arlaaekan sniper was readying another shot when a winged figure swooped down and hoisted him up by his shoulders with her talonlike feet. The initial shock of the sneak attack had caused the alien soldier to drop his weapon and before he could draw a sidearm or anything, she dropped him into the pile of unconscious Arlaaekans that we had already made a bit before.

“It’s looking like you ladies could use a hand,” Kyra told me and Emily once she landed next to us.

“Against these guys, we could use all the—look out behind you!” I shouted as I noticed the sniper Kyra had surprised and dropped was stumbling back to his feet and drawing another weapon. With a flick of my wrist, I shot a webline at the gun and yanked it out of his grasp. Meanwhile, Kyra’s hair and the feathers on her winged arms burst into flames as she extended her hand towards the alien. A fire blast launched from her palm and impacted the Arlaaekan’s chest. He was tossed backwards by the force of the blow until he hit a lamppost with a thud and crumbled to the ground unconscious.

“I guess we all could use a hand,” Kyra quipped as the flames on her hair and feathers died down, revealing no damage to herself whatsoever.

It was at this moment when I noticed Kyra peering over towards where Athena was standing. Even Athena looked a little perplexed that someone besides me could see her. At first I was too surprised until I remembered that Kyra’s alternate would have undoubtedly encountered her world’s Athena at some point, which would explain how she could see the Goddess of Wisdom now.

“Um, what are you too looking at?” Emily asked, since she obviously couldn’t see Athena.

Luckily (or unfortunately, mattering on how you view the situation), right when Emily asked that, the Arlaaekan capital ship fired a green energy beam at a target all the way on the other side of the town. The three of us stood there in shock until we barely spotted an arrow fly into the sky, only because of the flares it was setting off. I’ve been a member of the Immortals for long enough to recognize one of Odysseus’ arrows. Since the arrow originated from approximately the same area as the blast had hit, he had somehow survived it. With that crazy dude, you can’t ever count him out.

After seeing this, I turned to Emily and Kyra. Without saying a word, we all knew where we all had to go, even though we couldn’t see any of our eyes, since we were all wearing masks or some eyewear. But before I could turn back, I felt the goddess’ hand grasp my shoulder. We had been working solo together for much of my superhero career that old habits must have caused her only to try to teleport me and forget about my two friends and allies. Well, good thing for my spider-sense and my enhanced reflexes, as before Athena teleported me to Odysseus’ location, I was able to hit both Emily and Kyra with a webline and drag them towards me. I would soon find out that might not have been the smartest idea.

I’m not an expert at teleportation and such, but this is how Athena tried to explain it to me a while ago (and how much I remembered from said conversation). Since the teleportation was nearly instantaneous, there was a fraction of a moment where you both present at your starting and end points simultaneously. Plus, with Athena warping space around you throughout the process, you’re even stretched out between the two spots (Athena explained you couldn't interact with anything in this state, so you can't trip someone or anything). This process even makes you feel like your body was being twisted like a Twizzler. Honestly, it sometimes feels pretty great on the old back.

Well, that’s how it was supposed to work. But what actually happened was, well, weird to say the least and I definitely didn't foresee it happening. Because Athena was only warping enough space to teleport me, Emily, Kyra, and I found ourselves being forced into this space intended only for a single individual. And remember that Twizzler effect? It was still there and made much worse by the presence of two too many people. Instead of just being turned into a spiral, the three of us were twisted around each other like a freshly woven piece of rope, our bodies awkwardly squished together. Let's just say we were pretty uncomfortable in this situation. And that's an understatement.

Once the teleportation had completed, by some miracle we arrived without any further complications. Thank God we didn’t pop out of there as a three-headed, six-armed, twelve-legged monstrosity. For a few seconds, we didn’t speak a word, but only traded glances, until I piped up.

“We are definitely never mentioning this ever again.”

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Kyra agreed, and Emily nodded, too.

“See, what did I say? I told you this was going to work,” Odysseus told Kensei and another metahuman I didn’t quite recognize.

“I will admit, I did not expect your plan to bring us the aid of an Olympian deity.”

“In our line of work, you should always expect the unexpected. We need all the help we can ge—"

“Wait, am I the only one who can’t see this person everyone has been interacting with for the past hour?” Emily exclaimed when she interrupted Odysseus.

“Maybe, unless he’s not blessed by the immortal gods,” Kensei answered Emily as he pointed towards the third individual standing next to Odysseus and Kensei.

“And why would you guys even be on first-name basis with a god?” Emily asked.

“Really? You’re really asking people named Odysseus and Arachne how they know Athena?”

“Then what about her?” She pointed towards Kyra.

“My alternate went by the alias Phoenix and—” Kyra began to explain, but I quickly interrupted.

“And that’s a story we don’t have time to tell. Shouldn’t we focus on the problem at hand, namely the aliens trying to cause an extinction event on our planet?”

“Agreed. Do you have any insights into our situation?” Kensei asked the one man whom I couldn’t quite place my finger on his name.

It seemed as though Icon had taken a bad hit, so David had rushed to join his side against the alien. After pressuring the stranger it seemed as if his help was no longer required, which was fortunate as the tank had found new targets in the form of civilians.

‘How are they still here?’ He mused, and rushed to the skies. With all this jumping around his attention and focus were being worn thin, his stamina might get a bit worrisome soon. In fact, a probably usually emerged around this point. So why hadn't it? But all in all, the constant jumping and running around were starting to remind him of his earlier days as a parent; except with debatably more fighting.

Returning his attention to the aliens, he noted that even while it was under constant attack, the tank found the time to shoot someone else. Even that weird tentacle girl wasn't enough to keep it occupied. Several turrets on the massive three-story tank turned to face the civilians, the timing was going to cut it close. As they lit up, David dropped from the air, in between the crowd and the tank, and held his hands forward. Half of the street rose up, answering his call, forming a wall ten feet high, giving the people a chance to keep running. All except for a mother and child who had tripped over some metal debris.

The alien weapons began to tear through the wall, turning his construct into chunks of molten rock and cement, David turned to wrap his body around the two and shielded them from the explosive beam fire. He grunted as particle flares bloomed across his body and all around them. The flash of the bombardment began to block out all other lights, filling his vision with white.

----------

As she continued to screw in the arrowhead onto the shaft, Fletch listened as Iron Knight gave an inkling to the idea that the massive tank could be electronic in nature. Knowledge of this forced a smile on the archer’s face. Just what I needed to hear, she thought to herself as she felt the sudden stop as the arrowhead finally stopped being attached to the newly-formed arrow.

Finally looking up, she watched as a few more of the alien foot soldiers started to come closer to the heroes. The armoured hero then indicated that there was an imperfection in the tank’s tough exterior. It took a while to scan the surface, but the archer finally spotted the small hole that was in the side of the tank. While with a normal arrow she was confident with hitting the mark, but the new arrow tip was another question.

”You guys certainly don’t make things easy,” she replied, notching the arrow onto her bow.

Compared with the sleek shape of the arrowtips she was normally seen with, the arrowtip was crude in nature. It had a cylindrical shape to it, though most of it was hollow on the tip end of the arrow. While the casing of whatever was inside the tip was not visible, but the multiple batteries and capacitors on the outside of it. Whatever the purpose of the arrow was, it was clear that the arrowtip was much heavier than usual, so it would be more difficult for a straight shot to happen.

”Iron Knight, I’m not sure of the range of this, so try and get back as far as you can. Other than that, I need some cover to not get hit. Don’t have the fancy armour or superpowers to take a hit.” As she finished saying this, she got up and made a hell-on-wheels dash for the tank.

—-----------

The beam barrage began to fade. The smoke and dust floating in the air hung for several more moments and the tank began to focus its guns elsewhere, the sound of its engine revving, and its giant 10-meter wide treads shredding the cement, would mask any subtle sounds. Like the sound of two people running away.

“Iron Knight’s been here awhile. Let me share this burden. I will get its attention!”

The tank immediately turned several of its side guns towards David, shredding through their self made smokescreen, and tearing apart a large earthen staircase. But David remained hidden, somehow, somewhere. A sharp snap-hiss preluded to a bright blue light, piercing through the higher areas of smoke, revealing a formerly hidden David, now air-borne, the light then changed into an elongated shape. Swinging his arm around like a whip, David flung his new construct towards the tank, and a long arm of lightning wrapped around the tanks’ massive 50-meter cannon, and yanked it back.

It pulled back on him, like a game of tug-of-war, or like a fish fighting your hook. Any guns that had sights on him started firing, with others turning to try and get an angle on him. David gave it another tug, jerking the hundred something ton behemoth, the cannon on top continued to try to pull away. Its engine and alien armor began to rev horribly and screech loudly as it resisted.

—-----------

One nice thing about being a passenger in her own head, at least right at this moment, was that the smoke and noise didn’t hurt. No stinging eyes or ringing ears. It was making things harder to observe, however. She wasn’t used to anything more noisy than maybe a gunshot, so trying to parse details was getting difficult for Abigail. She was, however, acutely aware of the thing’s mood, which took a decidedly sharp negative turn as its plaything was moved.

Her possessed head whipped around as it dropped the end of the tank it had been lifting, staring with inky black, bottomless eyes at the person wielding lightning as the massive armoured vehicle thudded to the ground. The treads on that end finally caught ground again and the whole thing jerked sharply forward, though her body just sidestepped the motion with not even a glance. The eyes fixated only on the man in front of it. A multi-jawed wolf head appeared in the blackness around her for a second, snarling, then faded back into whatever lay beyond. A multitude of insectoid legs and disturbingly human skeletal arms swarmed near the ground, lifting it up slightly.

—-----------

She had to admit, the mad dash to Sherman Center had drained the archer of her energy. Her lungs burned with exhaustion. The left side of her chest screamed from overexertion. But she had to bite the bullet and push forward. Push beyond her racing mind on the verge of melting down. For now, her focus was on that gap in the gargantuan tank’s armour.

Her pace towards the tank came to a slow stop. She was 30 yards from the tank. It was a bit too close for her liking, being physically vulnerable to any of the aliens’ attacks. It was, however, also the perfect distance for a guaranteed hit. She drew up the compound bow. String to her nose and chin, she locked on through her scope and peep sight. Her heaving breath made it more difficult to get the shot through, trying with all her might to try and slow it down. Her mind racing, she focused on a happy place of her being at the archery range. After what seemed like an eternity in her mind - 15 seconds for those around her - she managed to get everything in her technique lined up as her release aid snapped open.

The heavy arrow lurched from the bow. It arched ungainly towards the tank. The shaft started to spin out of control as it went closer to the gap in the tank.

BZZZT!

The arrow tip crumpled under the impact. Electricity surged through the circuitry inside the tip. The large capacitors sparked into overload. Once done, a huge surge of an EMP that radiated out from the small gap in the tank. The outside of the tank would have been enough to possibly shield the brunt of such a pulse, but past its defenses? It would be complete havoc on anything electrical.

Sparks flew out of any small opening in the tank. Each of the smaller guns, held up by any electrical circuits, began to sink the barrels to the ground. Any shots from the guns, any movement from the treads, anything that had been controlled by an electrical system was completely shut down. Even from a hundred yards away from the impact, any weaponry from the pulse the aliens and/or heroes had were completely disabled. It was this reason why Fletch warned Iron Knight if he hadn’t figured it out for even his suit was powerless against this force of nature.

Fletch watched as the systems in the tank began to shut down. She didn’t hesitate to respond to the end result.

”NOW!” she screamed hoarsely as she sank to her knees from exhaustion. ”Destroy it while it is down!” From there, she allowed herself to try and recover from the trek, completely shutting off from her surroundings.



That EMP arrow Fletch fired sent out a powerful wave that disrupted the tank and the tech of nearby soldiers. Despite not being technically inclined, even David could see that was impressive.

Had she made that on her own, maybe she had knowledgeable friends? Whatever resources she had, the archer had impressed him once again, he began to wonder just a bit if his power was that special, when people like her and Iron Knight existed.

The powerful electrical pulse counted tech, but it also disturbed the bonds between his electrical lash and himself. The ‘whip’ fell into hundreds of harmless sparks that fell onto armor or the ground. Fortunately, it was no longer needed to distract the tank.

With the tank no longer moving, now was the time to finish it off, and remove one more obstacle to saving the Earth. David swooped back down in an inverted curve, clasped his hands firmly around the tanks main cannon, and tugged back on it. The metal screeched as it was ripped from its mounting, revealing dozens of aliens underneath it, who shouted in alarm.

David spun around and threw the cannon off into the horizon, towards the sea; he vowed to remember to pick it up later.

“Get out!” David shouted to them, as if they could understand, then waved them off with his arm; he made another effort for that strange woman before returning his attention to the aliens. They started shouting at each other, some scrambling to escape out the hole he made, while others tumbled out of gun ports, or various other hatches. As soon as it looked like they had all evacuated, David held both his hands up above his head, focusing his energy, as much as he could muster here.

Your energy..

It felt as if something stopped him momentarily, his mind changed, like he was about to do something dangerous, and he focused on a different idea. Back to the root of what he wanted, what he desired for this, power, and in his head that had meant fire. Wild, living, blazing, and like nothing else. A radiant red light shined brightly above his head, a giant pillar of red hot flame shot from in between his hands and into the sky.

David grabbed this pillar with his hands, leaned back slightly, then bent as far forward as he could, swinging his searing construct down, bisecting the road and the tank in one seamless swing. The molten halves of the tank fell sideways, revealing a cross section of dozens of inner, now empty, rooms and hallways in the tank. After a few more seconds something deep inside began to shudder, an unknown energy began to shoot off wildly then exploded, taking the rest of the tank and its unused ordinance with it. The best weapon the aliens had on the ground exploded into a brilliant blossom of fire.

He fell onto the ground in front of Fletch, shielding her from the fire and the shockwaves of the explosion with his body. As all the chaos and commotion from this final act of destruction subsided, David took a step back, and gave Fletch a quick thumbs up. But she looked so tuckered out, she might not even have noticed it.

“Good work, Fletch.”

Icon watched as S.T.R.I.K.E secured The Outsider in restraints and began loading him into their prisoner transport vehicle. Suddenly, the ground shook as the massive battle tank was split in two and then exploded. The explosion blew out windows in the buildings surrounding the battlefield, and knocked a number of S.T.R.I.K.E. Agents, and heroes off of their feet.

Nice job guys. Icon thought to himself as he gazed upon the wreckage of the alien battle tank.

"By the Gods...my people did this." a familiar voice saidas she surveyed the damage, sadness and anger tinged her voice.

“Flux?” Icon said as he turned toward his ally. [b] “What do you mean, your people?” Icon asked.

"Like them, I am of Arlaaek." She said remorsefully. "I had heard tales of the ferocity of the Arlaaekan military, but I have never seen it until today. It's...horrifying. " She said.

“It is. But now it's time to--” Icon was suddenly cut off by the shouting of several S.T.R.I.K.E. Agents approaching them, led by yet another familiar face, Marcus Ryder.

“Icon, step away from the alien, we're taking her into custody.” Ryder ordered the hero.

“No, I don't think you are Agent Ryder. She's with us.” Icon told the agents.

“The hell she is, she's one of them. She's coming with us.” Ryder said he stepped toward Icon and Flux.

“If you want her, you'll have to go through me.” Icon said.

“That's how you want to play this?” Ryder asked incredulously.

“It is. So stand down. This is a waste of time, and this war isn't over yet. So we can argue about her fate, which is an argument you won't win, or we can work together to end this thing.”

“Fine. For now, but we WILL continue this conversation later.” Ryder said angrily.

“I'll be looking forward to it.” Icon said as he turned to Flux, “Let's get to work.” Icon said and with that, he and Flux rejoined the other Guardians near the wreckage of the battle tank.



The Autocrat sat alone in his quarters aboard the Arlaaekan mother ship. There, he reviewed reports from the battles raging across the planet. For the most part, the Grand Arlaaekan Army had easily overwhelmed the planet's defenses. Just as he expected, total victory was within grasp. However, there had been pockets of resistance which had proven to be troublesome. The cities of Lost Haven and Pacific Point in particular had proven to be more of a problem than has advisors had thought, as well as Paris and London, and then there was the country known as Charonia which also proved to be an issue.

Suddenly the doors to the Autocrat's chambers slid open, and Admiral Keelan entered. The Autocrat had known the Admiral for years, in fact, it was the Autocrat who hand picked Keelan for this post, and together they had conquered countless worlds. However, as Keelan approached him, the Autocrat noted that there was something different about his Admiral. He seemed less sure than usual, and as he approached he did some pensively. Indeed, the Autocrat knew that the Admiral came bearing bad news. The Autocrat turned his head slightly to meet Keelan's gaze and let out a sigh.

“What is it Admiral? You look troubled.” The Autcrat said coldly.

“There have been some...troubling events in the Lost Haven theater.” The Admiral admitted.

“Go on.” The Autocrat said with a disapproving sigh.

“The resistance on the ground has taken The Outsider, and destroyed the War Reaper. The forces in Lost Haven have been routed by the so called heroes. Among them, is the Staff-wielder...as well as the fugitive daughter of Arkaaek.”

“Hmph...interesting.-” The Autocrat grunted as he got to his feet. The towering despot looked down at his Admiral. “Perhaps we have allowed this game to go on too long. Deploy the Purifier, we will burn those who would oppose us from the face of the planet.”

“Forgive me, but do you think it's wise to deploy the Purifier in the heart of the conflict?”

“You worry too much.” The Autocrat said, his tone lightening ever so slightly. “The heroes of this planet have fought valiantly, but The Purifier will be a monument to their greatest failure.”



The heroes on the ground gathered near the burning remains of the battle tank, although the tide had seemed to turn in their favor, there was an unsettling silence, almost as if they were waiting for the next shoe to drop. And as if on cue, something entered Earth's atmosphere, a trail of fire followed it as it landed only several blocks away from where they stood. Whatever the object was, the impact caused the ground to shake for several moments.

“Well, that can't be good.” Radiance said as the they looked in the direction of the impact area. Suddenly there was a loud sound, similar to the sound of a locomotive roaring past. And from the impact site, a single, matte black tower began to rise skyward.

“Definitely not good.” Lyger confirmed as they all looked upon the massive tower which now dominated the Lost Haven skyline.

"On no..." Flux said almost silently, but even so, Icon could still hear the terror in her voice.

“Flux? What is that thing?”

"That...is the end of the world."

The man that looked back looked foreign now.

Drowning in the baggy costume of yesteryear, unable to fill out where muscle once stood in its stead. Like loose skin in bold primary colours; as wrinkled as the face that now looked back from the mirror every morning. The gold eagle emblem appeared to be beheaded, as the once skintight material saw the head disappear into a new fold, made by the creation of the ill-fit.

Alan sighed. "But duty." He drew the Golden Rod forth and put in the effort to emblazen it. Slowly it glimmered.

"Come on... I need you now!"

Brighter and brighter. The effort was great, but it began to illuminate the room more and more.

"Yes! Come on! If ever you're going to shine on for me again, I need it now!" The man started to wheeze, as if just the exertion was aging him further.

"What good's being bought an extra few decades if I can't use them now! Brighter! Brighter, damn you!"

The light held a bright, almost blinding glow for a few seconds and the original Aquilifer looked away from the light.

"Yes... It's still in me. Just like riding a bike..." He told himself, deliberately looking past the effort it took him to get the Golden Rod to do so.

Alan took one last glance at Dennis as he was laid out on the couch, before walking out the door.

He looked both ways down the street and then up at the imposing alien ship that hung over the city like the Sword of Damocles. With a stern duty-filled face and a grunt he aimed the Golden Rod and took to the sky once more.

The cold was more biting than he ever remembered. Maybe he should have worn a jacket..?



In the streets below, a black clad Vigilante ran frantically, throwing the occasional gravity-gauntlet weighted punch to jerk his frame out of danger, or just ever onwards towards his target. With a relentlessness that looked awkward and uncontrolled.

As he took a corner around a city block, the alien ship was revealed, ever looming over the city like a dark spectre.

From within the darkness of his black balaklava, a flash of white stood in stark contrast. He grinned a dark leer at the thought of the task ahead of him. It called for unrestrained violent fury.

And Flux was nowhere around to make him hold those emotions in check.

With an uppercut he soared towards a mid-rise building's roof, never breaking his stride.

With teeth gritted and a steel gaze, he barreled ever onwards towards the ship.



The Purifier.

At this stage, the Purifier.

Admiral Keelan felt dour. He had deployed the Purifier as ordered, but was not happy about it. There was still much he would have liked to have done - much he would have liked to accomplish before this stage.

Afterall, somewhere out there, in hiding presumably, lay the Rod-Wielder.

And that fact, above all things burned a fire within the Admiral.

These barely evolved apes had forced their hand, drawn out more aggression, and would bring about damage to the prize. The Arlaaekan prize, their home world. And his prize, the rod-wielder.

That defiance, the acknowledgement of even that marginal level of success, tasted bitter in a way Keelan could scarcely stand.

<"Any news from the front, Admiral? And wha--"> Commodore Bialya jumped straight to his regular informal greeting, only for the Admiral to turn to face him, twist the globe at his side and project the image of a colossal spire that had been set down in the heart of Lost Haven right in front of the Commodore.

<"Whoa... Already..?">

With another twist the projection disappeared, and Keelan returned to dispatching units around the European and Asian fronts. He didn't audibly respond to Bialya, his glower said more than enough.

He swept across the globe, tightening the screws on certain regions, diverting pressure to locations of resistance. And then with a cursory glance...

He had checked the monitor on their initial probe. The rod. It was in motion.

And it wasn't the new rod-wielder. A wry smile crossed the Admiral's face as a rare opportunity crossed his path. He tracked the trajectory of the initial rod-wieldere and found he was headed for the Destroyer Class Doomspear. His smile widened further.

The tale of Bromire and the Doomspear was as old as time in Arlaaekan mythology. The Doomspear was an artefact said to make it's wielder indomitable in nature; undefeatable. Bromire swept through two thirds of their homeworld, uniting the Arlaaekan's forever under one mighty banner - the banner of Bromire the Invincible.

Omens were in his favour.

<"What? What is it?"> The Commodore inquired, noticing the heavy change in his mood.

Once more the Keelan projected an image in front of Bialya's face. An aged figure of blue, red and yellow moving at a gentle cruising speed towards the Destroyer Doomspear.

<"I believe it is time that the DC Doomspear underwent a routine spot inspection...">



The Vigilante launched himself with another uppercut aimed at landing him atop a sizble high-rise building deeper in the city centre - the ship loomed large now. It was difficult to get a sense of scope until you really got close enough to take in all of it. Should only be another one or two buildings and he should be in position to make a punch for the Doomspear itself...

The Aquilifer paced his approach with the wisdom of a superhero of multiple decades, and the experience of witnessing countless wars by this ultimate adversary. Patience was the tool of the experienced and he had no intention of leaving any advantage he held out of the equation. He couldn't afford to. Still the question of how he would penetrate the ship's shields remained unanswered. Anything launched at the Doomspear would at best bounce off of it like a pebble skimming the surface of water... at worst, a better analogy might be a bug on a windshield...

The Vigilante threw another punch and launched himself at the Chambers building. The only building with the altitude to give him a single punch's shot at reaching the alien Destroyer. His brow dropped into a determined scowl, and he dropped and rolled on the roof of the Chambers building. He burst back onto his feet and with two strides he swung as hard as he could at the monstrous invader...

Maybe the Golden rod itself could penetrate shields, he considered. It was, after all their own technology. He hadn't really had enough access to their energy shields - beyond those formed by the rod itself - to know whether the rod itself exploited vulnerabilities. He had witnessed rod wielders doing amazing things and being the most effective soldiers against Arlaaekan weaponry in numerous worlds' wars... not as often as you'd think, because kings and despots often hide behind their castle walls. But perhaps... If he were lucky...

The Vigilante soared behind his heavy fist, the wind rippled at his black clothing as he gritted his teeth and anticipated punching through the ship's walls. Oblivious of course to any shields and their potential effect on a drifting attack from a mere human's blunt force...

"Well... Here goes!" The original Aquilifer charged up an energy blast towards the colossal ship.

<This is Admiral Keelan, transferring control of the bridge to Commodore Bialya. Admiral Keelan to Doomspear control. Repeat, this is Admiral Keelan to Doomspear control. Power down all pulse and energy field technology in preparation for embarkment of high ranking official. Repeat, power down pulse and energy field technology generators in preparation for ship-to-ship transfer of high ranking official. Admiral Keelan shall be boarding and observing manouevers firsthand.">

"_^Wowsers..." Alan let slip, some things still able to surprise the old man as he found himself looking on at a blasted hole in the Doomspear's outer hull. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he pressed the advantage and flew into the newly created gaping maw, as soldiers with energy weapons emerged to try and counter his insurgence. He raised his own shield construct with some effort, and pressed on.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the underside of the mighty Doomspear, the Vigilante stood in another hole in the outer hull of his own creation. He looked down at his fists and the gravity gauntlets which encased them.

"Alright... I've done a lot over the years. But sometimes I even impress myself..."

”Iron Knight, I’m not sure of the range of this, so try and get back as far as you can. Other than that, I need some cover to not get hit. Don’t have the fancy armor or superpowers to take a hit.”

“Then I guess I’ll be back in a moment. Just don’t miss,” Chris said before jetting to the sky. He definitely did not want his armor to become a giant paperweight, especially one that would be exploding.

When his armor’s propulsion jets would no longer place anyone in danger, Chris put the pedal to the metal, accelerating faster and faster. The advanced computer built into his armor had already estimated the blast radius of the archer’s EMP arrow, a little over the length of a regulation football field, and when it would impact the alien tank. His suit was ready to eject Chris if the arrow would hit while he was still in the affected zone. What is worse than a giant paperweight is a free falling one.

Chris was just thankful this battle was not taking place on the doorsteps of the Sherman Center. Otherwise, not only would he have to pay for any damage the building sustained during the invasion, but he would also have to replace all the electronics throughout the Guardians’ headquarters. And much of the tech Chris had installed there is not the kind of thing you would find in the standard high-rise in Lost Haven.

Once the ID cards belonging to the Guardians who had rallied just a couple hundred yards away dropped their connection to his network, Chris knew that EMP had gone off. And since he was still airborne, Chris knew he had been far enough not to be affected by the archer’s device. Therefore, he made a u-turn and darted back towards the battle.

Chris landed just a few feet away from Icon, just where the fractured remains of the Arlaaekan tank scattered about the street. It was at this moment when Chris realized there was some strange dragon entity flying overhead. Considering the havoc the Arlaaekans were causing, the presence of the eldritch beast, and the surprise arrival of S.T.R.I.K.E., one could easily overlook another unusual sight. Plus, because of all the strange things he had seen, Chris was not even surprised by it.

“So, what did I miss?” Chris asked his fellow Guardians as he landed. “I’ll have to get you all new communication cards because of that EMP once we've dealt with this crisis.”

Then something massive entered the atmosphere and impacted the ground. Because the quake caused by its landing almost knocked Chris off of his feet, he knew that whatever the Arlaaekans had sent against them, it was even bigger and more dangerous than the tank they had just destroyed. What the cyan-skinned girl said merely confirmed Chris’ suspicions.

“Terra Firma, stop playing with the eldritch horror. We have a job to do.”

Chris then departed, flying towards the impact zone of whatever doomsday weapon the Arlaaekans had sent against them

Arc: Igneous _^(Preview)

As a sophomore in the Lost Haven university, Haley's life had been fairly hectic lately, especially in the recent year.

There was one event in particular that struck her, the time her life had almost ended. The aliens attacked out of no where, right on the heels of the Hounds attack, whom they themselves were following up some sort of demon invasion. But she never had actually come into close contact with those threats, at least not close enough to stare down a gun barrel. Not to mention dozens of villains emerging somewhere in the city, she even heard about giant worms at some point. Does anybody think about what they'll do when its their time? When they see it coming? Her life really did flash before her eyes as an alien jet flew right up to her and a crowd of other people.

If she wanted to, she could clearly remember the strange shine of the metal, the humming of its engines as it hovered over them, and the flare of its guns. After that, she closed her eyes, she flinched, she didn't have the heart to stare death in the face. But when she opened them, she saw a certain hero kneeling over her, cover her with his body.

He didn't say anything, but she would come to recognize him, the hero known as Terra. A short time after that, maybe a few weeks later, she dreamt of him. Haley had a power too, the power of foresight, in it, she saw him die. Many times she would try to tell others, the things she dreamed of, but nobody would trust her. Some would call her creepy, or even accuse her of being an accomplice, she had been a prime suspect more than a few times.

Even so, she wanted to think she cared, that she was a good person. But how could she reach out to Terra, the police would laugh her off like normal, and running through the streets calling for him is definitely the wrong move.

She reached out over the table in front of her, flipping over a small selection of cards. For the future of Terra Firma.

Upright Tower, Upside down Eight of Wands. She closed her eyes and rubbed the sides of her head. Sudden upheavel, upcoming disaster, The Tower. In the coming battle Terra will be too slow to follow up on opportunities, or simply won't be able to, Eight of Wands.

She sighed, then looked towards the TV, Terra Firma was currently being filmed on the sly by a reporter team. Right now he was helping move some debris, jump starting other cleaning efforts. Apparently he was also about to help jump start a generator, he grabbed a power line, and then started screaming and spazzing out.

Her eyes widened, surely that wasn't now?

Workers nearby started to scramble, trying to cutoff the power, and then Terra started laughing. Haley couldn't help but let out a short laugh. A practical joke played for thousands on TV, not that he knew it yet. Well, this was a few months down the line, a joke like this might be alright.

She went back to it, instead of Terra, how about herself? Closing her eyes, she shuffled her deck, and pulled at it. Upright Two of Cups, and upright Death.

"Hmm.."

An opportunity to form a new partnership, could it be... that she could meet Terra? As for Death, she's being weighed down by something, she shouldn't give up.

But what could she do, how could she meet Terra? That's what the cards say, but what should she do to make them come true, to grab her opportunity? She sighed, and fell back onto her bed. The future was one thing, but she still had Professor Jones' homework to finish. Maybe she'd just put this on her blogsite and hope something happens.



Dozens of bright lights exploded into the sky, all in their own patterns. Fireworks continued to pop off on the street around them. The Jones family was enjoying their New Years Eve in their neighborhood.

Maddison ran up and set up the next wave, the Gaia Destroyer EX (Megaton 10). That's what it said on the box. Maddie screamed in glee as she ran away from it. It had only just been lit, but was already sizzling and whining up. It launched into a spinning upwards spiral, shooting off several other explosions to its sides, culminating into an even bigger main blast. Even though it was night, it seemed like day just for a few minutes.

"This year sure was busy." Cecilia said, both her and David were sitting next to each other under their tree, smiling at Maddison.

"You're telling me." David sighed. "I feel like I'm having to fight harder and harder recently."

"I don't like that. Can't you find a Robin or something?"

"Sure, point him out." David chuckled. "Terra and Robin. Great name."

"I don't like it, I know there are other heroes too, but it always seems as if you're alone out there. Who's going to pick you up when you fall?"

David placed his hand over hers. "You will."

"Until death do we part." Cecily laughed. "Just promise you'll always come back."

"Always."

---

Hours passed since the alien invasion, but certain events had soured the Eye leader’s mood. Not long since the start of hell breaking loose, word had reached his ears that some two-bit terrorist organization used the opportunity to destroy nearly all the bridges that lead out of Lost Haven barring the northernmost bridge. While he might have fucked up a couple of things in recent days, news of Anhur putting a stop to the western bridge that was near-vital to his operations did please him However, since the invasion raged on, that was the only news he had received about his chosen leader of operations in Lost Haven. But for Dullahan, Sobek, and a few soldiers of The Eye of Osiris, their undaunted march towards Sherman Square continued.

It was no surprise to him that word reached that most of the resistance from the heroes of Lost Haven were focused towards the location of where the Guardians’ HQ was. So, it was natural for him to head there to find whoever was leading the invasion and kill them himself. And if Icon was there? All the better for him.

”Estimated time of arrival to destination?” the masked man grunted to one of his subordinates. His whip was steadfast in his grip, coming to rest after slicing through another small squad of aliens as the rest of his men gunned down the rest of them.

“Just a couple more clicks down, sir.”

Before any response could come from Dullahan’s head, the sonic boom of something overhead roared through the streets. He watched as an object crashed into the city, with no doubt the impact completely decimating the buildings in the immediate area. Out of everyone in the group, only he and Sobek remained unmoved as the ground trembled with the vicious impact. The glowing red eyes remained focused on the black tower that started to rise above the skyline of ruined buildings. Something came to his mind.

”Change of plans. We’re heading to the tower.” No doubt in Dullahan’s mind that this tower was a threat and that Icon was to make an appearance there. Plus, it was in all likelihood the best chance of finding the alien leader and making them pay.

Without another word, the group began to gather themselves from the quakes as they continued their march towards the ever-rising tower.

---

The mutant of the future looked at the two heroes as they responded with what they had been doing prior to his arrival. He had been worn down by the battle for Pacific Point that he didn’t hide the fact it wasn’t the answer that he was hoping for. Still, it was at least something that could be done while everyone was on the ground and not in the air. He kept an eye on his surroundings, looking out for any hostile forces. He had noted the fact that one of them had nocked an arrow onto their bow and fired it into the air, a signal for backup.

”Back up is always a good thing, I guess,” The Wanderer commented, his eyes keeping a focus on the newly-arrived warship. ”It’ll at least give us more voices on how to deal with the warship.”

It didn’t take long before a few figures instantly appeared in front of him. While their appearance was sudden, it didn’t faze him at all seeing as he was capable of teleporting himself.

What he wasn’t expecting, though, was a mention of an deity of ancient history. He did recall during the days prior to this invasion when tracking down where the bounty on the heroes’ heads, he was catching up on the history books Voyager had shown him back in the library. He did come across a pantheon of Greek gods that were referred to as Olympians.

When he was mentioned about the possibility of not seeing this ‘immortal god’, The Wanderer looked at the new arrivals. While his normal eye could only see the three heroes that had arrived, his psionic eye gave an inkling of a fourth that was present with them. While his normal vision is unable to see through the illusion that the being had put up, his psionic eye can see all. His eyes focused on the invisible being that was there.

”Might not be able to see them directly, I am aware of their presence,” he replied, keying them in on that tidbit amount of information.

There was more talking amongst the group of people that the mutant was with before one turned to him about the current situation.

”Well… from what I can gather of the past few hours, I assume that they were the ones that created the wave that could have destroyed this city before the invasion. Things could have also been worse if I hadn’t had shot out the beam at the initial attack.” Hopefully, that small amount of information would clue them in on his involvements so far with the barrier and the giant beam prior to the smaller ships attacking.

”As for the current insights, I have no idea. If I had to guess…”

He paused for a moment, trying to figure out what information would be useful for now. His knowledge only worked for the wastes of the future, not for the current timeline he was on. Yet, there were some things that were common between the two.

”… I would take it that the current warship in the sky is not the main ship that whoever is leading this force.

“If we were to stop this invasion from where it is at, we’ll need to take the fight to them. Always worked with me with the raiding mutants in my timeline. So… an option would be to try going from the defensive way of thinking we are in now and take the fight to them. And we seem to have a way to bring that fight to whoever is in charge.”

He indicated to the warship that had just arrived. But of course, he knew in his mind that there was a glaring issue to what he was proposing.

”Only problem: we’re down here and where we need to be is up there. My only thoughts of getting up there aren’t here, with Voyager not currently with us to be able to fly us to the ship. I’m still a bit drained from putting up the barrier and firing the initial beam to even think about phasing us up there without taking me out of the fight. So… Does anyone have any suggestions?” His eyes looked at the group, in particular the invisible deity with them.

He looked up at the monitors. Wrinkled hands wrung fingers and wrists at the tension as he considered what the displays were telling him.

The fate of the world. And he was retired, with his biggest concern being making sure the bins got to the curb and the manicured state of the front lawn only days before.

The fate of the world left to the hands of one man. It both shouldn't be... but somehow always was.

One hand returned to his face, as he rubbed his jaw pensively.

---

Inside the ship, the metal was foreign and seemed to be galvinised in some strange way that made all the surfaces shiny, but tacky to his gloved touch. Not that that surprised him, nor should it have. Alien ship used unrecognisable material. Stop the presses.

Oh.

Speaking of non-surprises...

A chorus of blasts from energy weapons surged towards him as he darted for cover around a console adorned with flickering lights.

<"Throw down your arms and come out or we will shoot you. You are significantly outnumbered.">

The Vigilante exhaled a sigh deeply, which came out in the form of a growl through his voice modulator. The inevitability of contact making it no less frustrating when it came.

His heart rate slowed once more to a crawl as he prepared himself. A wry grin crossed his face as a thought flickered through his mind.

"No habla invasive scumbag. I am just a tourist on your strange cruise liner. Que camino a la discoteca?"

Arlaaekan soldiers stood around confused. They had translation implants - the benefit of pre-scouting the region with the rods - which provided translation in between the twenty most used languages on Earth, but it struggled when known languages were blended... or badly butchered, as was the Vigilante's ability to speak most languages other than english.

A sergeant looked to take control of the situation and it's growing confusion. "Por... favor... repit--olo. Por favor... repitolo. Please... repeat. Nosotros estamos tratando de entender... We... are trying to understand."

A sudden blast took out much of the ambient lighting, casting the aliens into shadow. They scrambled, struggling to identify one another in close quarters and anticipating a fire fight. One of the Arlaaekans broke ceasefire, which caused more blasting in response. Before the scene settled three were grounded, smouldering from friendly fire.

Some kind of object could be heard sliding towards them, and from the darkness they once more heard the mechanical growl of the Vigilante's voice modulator.

"Forget the discoteca. We'll dance here and now."

The flashbang erupted with light, blinding the alien soldiers with knowledge.

In that instant they discovered who they were dealing with.



Meanwhile, on the other side of the ship, a path was being cut through the Doomspear's other soldier forces by an elderly man wearing a now sagging superhero suit of primary colours, adorned with a large golden eagle. Alan Coghlan nudged his spectacles back up his nose and paid mind to his breathing and the heart which was pounding within his chest.

"Don't overexert yourself, old man. Not today. Not now. There's too much at stake."

A beam fired from the golden rod cut through the Doomspear's hull and burst into the night, providing a quick moment of rewarded faith for anyone looking on at the terrifying weapon from outside. This was followed by a half dozen Arlaaekan soldiers being pushed out to fall to the street below by another construct, carefully made in accordance to the master rod-wielder's will.

He found himself somewhat surprised at the limited response from the military on-board the ship. He'd seen thousands of wars like this one and was well versed in the kind of personnel different craft carried. They seemed to be holding back for some reason. A new weapon they were drawing him in for?

The aged Aquilifer furrowed his wrinkled brow.

Little did he know the Vigilante was dispatching his own fair share of the armed Arlaaekans elsewhere, the pair dividing the Doomspear's fighting force, as they fought their way closer to a meeting point.



In his executive quarters, Admiral Keelan straightened his suit and checked the polish on his finery, a satisfied smirk upon his teal face.

For the illustrious moment he had selected one of the older rods from his quarters, which he had seized from one of his earliest conquests. After some brief calculation he felt fairly certain this world's rod wielder should have seen the battle which saw his victory and capture of the spoils of war. If nothing else it may provide a brief glimmer of psychological advantage... for this one's part in witnessing the inevitable.

These were the moments he lived for.

---

These were the moments he lived for.

The rhythmic pummeling of his fist into the bone and cartilege of the last Arlaaekan soldier. He kept wailing even after the invader fell. Black-green spray marking a point of difference from the usual sanguine splashback.

Far ahead, but closing fast he heard the shrill sound of another alien blast, from further within the depths of the ship. He scrambled for cover once more.

More blasts echoed down the passageways, before eerie silence, penetrated only by a strange new alien sound.

The Vigilante angled from cover and discovered what it was, with another sigh. This time in relief. It was the original Aquilifer. The old man floating slowly, but purposely through the deck in a protective hard-light bubble shield.

"You're lucky I realised it was you. I was about to give you more than you could handle."

The old man turned his head sharply in surprise at his sudden appearance, before relief and a smile crossed his face.

The ones in black... always playing in the shadows.

"I'm sure you were." The old rod wielder said with a chuckle that the Vigilante found to be oddly short of actual warmth.



The Vigilante's face screwed up in consternation, hidden well behind the balaklava. But before he could probe the elder hero for an answer to his questions, a bulkhead door opened and an officious voice broke his efforts. In overly crisp, learned english, but with an accent all his own.

"I think not." A polished boot emphatically touched down on their deck, followed by the rest of Admiral Keelan from the shadows, his officer's suit buffed to a sheen. "I have come to take everything; That which you freely gave as well as the power which was loaned to you. The term of our agreement has conclude." A wicked glower crossed his face. He was enjoying this. So seldom does one get to face the man who sold a world.

A shiver ran down Alan Coghlan's spine as he saw what Keelan held. One of the rods taken from a conquored world. He'd seen so many flicker across his vision in that desolate place which changed his life, he couldn't even place which rod or which world it was. And that made it worse. Staring down the face of what seemed fated.

Keelan's rod glowed bright, and seemed to pulsate with the power, will and intent of a driven man.

The Vigilante took one look across at the old Aquilifer and took a measure of the man. Seemingly staggered and frozen by this Arlaaekan officer's appearance.

"Were you aware your compatriot sold your world, sold you, for a brief glimmer of power?"



"...Tuesday." He uttered. Confusion seemed to cross the Admiral's face, until a flash of bright white teeth flickered from his balaklava in a leer as he moved almost as fast.

He drew nightsticks from his pack and swatted at the rod, he managed to connect, but not firmly enough to knock it from the Arlaaekan's clenched fist.

"I've fought demons rising from Hell, I've bested a literal god. A GOD! And I'm booked in to take out something which is planning to devour the goddamn multiverse! Alien shit-prick with designs on the Earth..? You're a sneaky Tuesday appointment at 11:45! I'm in-and-out and off to an early lunch in five minutes!"

The Vigilante tried his best to wrestle the rod to directions it could do no harm, pincering it with the two nightsticks and anchoring it to the floor with help from the gravity gauntlets. Pausing briefly he elbowed the Admiral in the teeth, with what little purchase he could get. The Admiral's alien physiology had raw strength on him, for all his toys and tricks.

"Of course if you want to BLOODY CHIME IN AT ANY POINT, YOU OLD BASTARD, you're welcome to it!" He yelled out to the Aquilifer, who until now was still frozen in place.

Alan was about to seize the advantage when Keelan kneed the Vigilante in the chest, pushed him off and aimed the Off-World Rod at his head, before holding up a remote with his other hand and pressing a button which projected a hologram next to the trio.

The hologram was of the Earth entire, which then rotated and zoomed in, rotated and zoomed in, rotated and zoomed in... until it showed an overhead image of a colossal matte black spire standing over Lost Haven.

"I trust you know what that is?" Keelan said to the Rod-Wielder. To his surprise, the response came from both Earth-men simultaneously.

"Yes." Both men sighed, feeling the full weight of the Purifier's presence.

"There's no-one else there." He said gently. "Is that realtime?"

"Yes." Keelan lied.

"Go." The Aquilifer said. His voice full of starch.

"Are you sure?" The Vigilante was hesitant. There was a play here, and he wasn't sure of exactly what it was. The world was in peril... It was in peril OUT THERE. One man, even a high-ranking officer in war-time couldn't countenance that.

"It's fine. I can take him. I've been using this thing since he was in diapers." For some reason Keelan's glower widened with curiosity at this comment.

The Vigilante picked up on deceit within the comment, but its cause was unclear and ambiguous. The former hero was a bad liar. But it wasn't a statement said without some level of confidence.

And time was running out.

"I'll save the world. You stomp his face in." He growled.

The Aquilifer smiled, as the pair of cross-generational heroes were finally on the same page. He turned and with one blast from the Golden Rod bore a hole clear through the side of the ship. A strong breeze rippled Alan's sagging suit, but he didn't feel frail and small within it anymore. In fact he felt better than he had in years.

The Vigilante fired a grapple line out to a rooftop far below, and with a short salute left the pair of Rod Wielders to their own fight.

"In-ter-esting..." The Admiral harmonised. "You just lied to him. You know as well as I do my people live longer than yours. Even with whatever mysterious solution you have found to stave off death, you know I'm older than you and have been doing this far longer.

"And you lied to him as well. You know as well as I do that that hologram you showed him isn't live. There'd already be other heroes there. At a minimum Icon. Let me guess; Iron Knight? The Earth's Avatar? How many more?"

The Rod Wielders began circling each other menacingly. Alan's breath and heart rate fell as steady as a far younger man's.

"Even more interesting. That you knew all that and let him believe otherwise. I'M an enemy combatant, but you... you're supposed to be a hero to these people. Why would you do that?"

"For the same reason you did." With a slight effort the Golden Rod began to glow menacingly, as the wind blew through the ship and rippled his costume.

"This right here, isn't their fight. Any of them."

"Good. I'm glad to see we see things the same way." Keelan lit up his own Rod, and the leer on his face widened. Dark pleasure that he had found an opponent who truly knew the score. The chivalry of the combat. "In fact, out of respect, if you lose honourably here today... if your Rod joins my number in valour. I'll see to it that your progeny meets a swift end at the conclusion like the rest of the cattle. I won't seek him out before his time, like so many members of royal families' have in incursions past."

Keelan truly meant it as a positive gesture, despite how horrific the threat was implied. And the Aquilifer could tell it was meant to be a courtesy.

But the darkness of which only further steeled his resolve.

"I appreciate it." He lied one final time, through gritted teeth as the Golden Rod's glow grew blindingly bright. He unleashed a blast from the cover of it's brightness and the duel began...

---

Dennis walked through an urban wasteland. His heels silent on the bitumen, despite the definite echo. Cityscape greys and black and white. The buildings were vacant, the skies silent and dull, even with infrequent cloud cover.

"Did they--?"

His voice sounded hollow in this place.

"No." An unexpected reply came. "I mean, don't get me wrong. They ARE. I mean, as we speak. But this isn't the now of it all."

The voice was familiar, and Dennis snapped his head around in search of the source.

"Sean..?"

"You shouldn't be here." Sean uttered, appearing in front of his older brother in full bright Aquilifer attire.

"Where is here? Where are-- Is this death? Am I dead?"

"No. You're dreaming. You're in a dream you've populated with your dead brother and what you imagine the world will look like when you lose. None of which is helpful in any way. Also, that building over there was levelled. I mean you saw it happen--"

"Thank you for telling me I can't even dream of how I lose properly..."

"Oh God! Here it comes, the pity party..."

"Well, I don't hang around telling you how you should be dead properly... Friggin' Ghost of Christmas Brother's Past!"

"No. Nobody does. Because being dead sucks. It's silent and lonely, and interminable and it lasts you the rest of your--"

Dennis pointed at his brother's apparition. "You were going to say life!"

"Death! I was saying death! And you shouldn't be here! Wasting time talking with what you think your brother would say if he were around you..."

"Wait-- so are you really my dead brother, or just my brain coming up with an approximation of what it thinks my brother would--"

Frustrated, Sean pushed him over and yelled at him.

"I told you! You shouldn't be here! You're wasting time, dreaming of the worst possible outcome while OUT THERE it's started writing itself! He needs your help! So get up you lazy--!!"

Sean was kicking Dennis, until he woke with a start, rolling off the lounge into a crumpled heap of scratches and bruises on the floor.

"Whazzabawha--? --Nnnnnnnng!" He awoke startled, before immediately feeling all of the pain and damage he'd taken, which had caused him to pass out in the first place.

He reached up to the coffee table and grabbed the TV remote, turning it on. He slowly started to find his bearings as the television began to warm up.

"Grampa--?" He called out into the depths of the house. Where was he? Was he--

"Grampa?! Grampa are you here--?!"

His query was cut short as the television flickered onto the news and cut from the downtown square to a large ship that looked familiar, which seemed to be getting carved up and destroyed from an epic light show from within.

An epic lightshow with a very distinctive shade of light, which was all too familiar to Dennis.

"Oh you didn't... You crazy old man."

Dennis very gingerly got to his feet and staggered through the house.

The Golden Rod was gone. But when the pair of them had a visit from the Vigilante it revealed something, something which forced his grandfather to finally be open and honest about.

The creation of the gravity gauntlets which Alan had provided him with.

He'd been attempting to reverse-engineer the powers of the Golden Rod, and where possible replicate them.

Dennis staggered into his grandfather's bedroom. He opened up a drawer, and reached up from underneath and removed the sliding panel of the false bottom. His grandfather's unmentionables fell to the floor, and so too did an iron bar about a foot in length.

The Gravity Rod.

It couldn't fire blasts. There would be no shielding. No constructs. No light.

But he could soar once more.

---

Still he gazed onwards at the monitors. As if in hope for the ultimate answer to everything was just going to flash up before his eyes.

But this is seldom the case for the big decision-makers.

The suit who swore him into his newfound position of responsibility rturned to the War Room.

"General Bracken, you've been cleared for autonomous use of the nuclear codes under the present Invasion circumstances."

That was fast. It shouldn't be this fast. It should never be so fast that the full Eastern Seaboard nuclear arsenal should be provided to a man unelected by the people. Unconscionable.

It's remarkable how fast the peacetime conscience disintegrates in the face of obliteration in war.

He'd sent for nuclear clearance the second that massive ominous black spire had touched down in Downtown Lost Haven. The city was his home.

"Prepare missile targeting and hold. The black tower."

A younger man at a computer started to enter co-ordinates.

"Target lock. Go for launch."

"I said 'Hold'!" Gunny barked. "We're going to see what those capes can do, first. I'm not just going to nuke an American city until all options are exhausted. Hold fire!"

Once again Gunny tented his fingers and watched the monitors. The heroes were converging on the position.

He watched as a familiar man in black swung towards the tower, blissfully unaware the kind of nuclear arsenal was presently locked on to his position, and he started to wish.

...he wished he'd given him a damn sight more than a sack full of flashbang grenades, a little tactical C4 and otherwise non-lethal ordnance.

---

Everything was shut out in Fletch’s mind. She could sense her heart thrumming in her chest at break-neck speed. She was audibly gulping down air to make up for the reduced lung capacity. Her hand clutched her left side, excruciating pain coming from it from working the lung for too long as the mammoth dash from the French Quarter finally caught up to her. She knew she was vulnerable on the street level, but her body wasn’t moving one more step until the pain subsided. This only worried her more as she did let the other heroes know to destroy the massive tank she was 30ft from.

She had noticed a shadow that seemed to have protected her from the resulting explosion of what she deduced was the tank. Judging from the heat she was feeling, she had to guess that Terra Firma was the one protecting her from the blast. She wanted to thank him, but her body heaved from the gasps for air her body needed.

After a brief moment, she felt her heart slowing down as well as the pain in her chest starting to subside. Thinking that it was safe for her to do so, she gingerly got herself back to her feet. She still clutched the throbbing side as she still breathed heavily.

”Thanks and thank you for shielding me, Terra Firma,” she rasped back, her sentence jagged from breathing every couple of sentences. ”It’s not every day you have to haul ass from the French Quarter to he…”

She was cut off from the monstrous thunderclap from high up in the atmosphere that shattered whatever remaining windows were in the city. The archer watched in horror as a fireball streaked through the sky and slammed into the city dozens of blocks away from where they were.

Instinctively, Fletch shot a grapple arrow around a nearby lamp post in time for the shockwave of the impact ripped through the street. If not for the cable, she would have been sent hundreds of yards down the street, probably getting killed on impact from slamming into whatever debris didn’t fly with the blast. Instead, she yelped as her arm was yanked close to the point of dislocating her shoulder as the line to the hook snapped taut before falling to the ground.

Gathering her thoughts, she got back onto her feet again as she looked at the black obelisk stood at the epicenter of the impact. Her eyes weren’t deceiving her through her cracked glasses as the tower was growing skyward.

”Now what?!” she moaned, detaching herself from the cable. Then, without another word, she began to follow Iron Knight’s suit and began walking to the tower.

Jen Harris sat with her knees curled to her chest as she pressed herself up against the living room wall of the apartment that she shared with her twin brother Jalen. Fear had gripped her from the moment that the alien ships had first appeared in the skies over Lost Haven. That fear only strengthened its grip with each explosion that sounded in the city, and became almost unbearable as she could hear the screams of panicked Lost Havenites as they tried to escape the invading hordes. However, those screams no longer only emanated from the streets, but now from the hallways of their apartment building. The sounds of what could only be described as blaster fire from some sort of laser gun resounded off the hallway walls, as did the sounds of running and screaming.

“They're here!” Jen mouthed to her brother as panic began to rise up in her in a way it never had before.

“It's gonna be alright.” Jalen's voice came called out, not verbally, but from within her mind. She looked to her brother, who was twelve minutes her senior, who gave her a reassuring nod. A sense of calm suddenly washed over her, and for a moment Jen thought that her brother just might be right.

Then the sound of strange voices and even more blaster fire came from the hallway, as did the sounds of footsteps coming toward the doorway to their apartment, and once again Jen Harris could feel the panic begin to rise up in her chest.



Ground Zero

The Guardians and their allies stood and watched as the massive tower, now taller than the Chambers Building, dominated the Lost Haven skyline. The Purifier was like nothing any of them had ever seen, save for the Arlaaekan fugitive Flux. The tower was a solid structure made of a sleek obsidian material. The glowing orange-red light at the top could almost remind one of the infamous All Seeing Eye from Tolkien's works.

Flux's words rang in Icon's head as he looked up at the ominous structure.

“That...is the end of the world.”

“We've heard that before.-” Lyger said gruffly. “-How do we destroy it?”

“I don't know.” Flux said before pausing briefly. “Nobody's ever destroyed one before.”

“Flux, what exactly are we looking at?” Icon asked.

“That's a Purifier.-” Flux said, pausing as she looked at the massive matte black tower with a mixture of awe and unadulterated terror. “It's the Autocrat's ultimate weapon. Once it's charged up and it activates, it releases an energy wave that is specifically designed to eradicate any organic being within its blast radius without Arlaaekan DNA.” Flux explained.

“How long do we have?” Icon asked.

“Not long, maybe ten or fifteen minutes.” Flux told him.

“That's all the time in the world.” Radiance said with an uncertain grin.

“Right, I suggest we take the fight to that thing now.” Lyger said.

Suddenly, a long shadow cast the Guardians in darkness as a large object blocked out the sun as it passed over the city. The heroes looked to the object, a large capital ship which had come to a stop between Ground Zero and the Purifier.

“Alright guys, looks like we have a fight on our hands.” Radiance said as dozens of smaller craft, and what looked to be men in flight suits emerged from the massive craft like angry hornets from a nest.




She crept through the hallways of the apartment building, ducking around corners, doing her best to remain undetected by the teal skinned aliens. This was not how Haze had envisioned her return to Lost Haven. She had come back to warn Icon about some troubling developments that she had uncovered, however, the apparent end of the world made those discoveries seem completely irrelevant. Shortly before her comms went dead, she had been alerted to a group of the alien invaders who were acting as an extermination squad, going door to door and killing anyone they happened upon.

It didn't take her long to find the alien death squad. She had been given a general location before the comms went down, all she had to do was listen for the shooting...and the screams. She had made her way toward the commotion, and much to her dismay, found that she already may have been too late. She saw at least a half a dozen heavily armed aliens strolling through the smoke filled hallway of the apartment building. Almost instantly, she was nearly overcome by the smoke. Her eyes burned and teared, and she found it incredibly hard to breathe, so she knew she had to move fast to save everyone that she could, although, in the back of her mind she wasn't sure that there was anyone left to save. She moved on the first alien fast, vanishing in a cloud of mist and reappearing directly behind him with her blade at the ready. She slit the alien's throat before he even knew that she was behind him, then slipped a hand over his mouth to muffle his cry.

The second alien gasped in surprise when she suddenly appeared directly in front of him, however, before he was able to bring his weapon to bare, or even let off a shout, she slashed him across the throat with her blade, then across his chest, then in one fluid motion she brought the blade around and sunk it deep in his chest. She repeated her attacks twice more, and another pair of invaders fell.

She continued down the hall, until she saw a pair of the aliens attempting to get into an apartment at the end of the hall with murderous intent. She vanished in a cloud of smoke and when she reappeared, she met the first of the aliens with a swift kick in the chest, knocking it back several steps before she spun and drover her blade into the side of the second alien's neck. Blue-black blood spurted from the wound as the alien grabbed his neck and stumbled backward, where her slumped to the ground against the wall. The first alien had recovered enough to level his weapon at her and fire an energy blast, however the blast sailed harmlessly through where she had stood, as she had again vanished and reappeared behind him, burying her blade in the middle of his back.

Her lungs burned as she kicked the door of the apartment in, causing the two teens who were cowering inside to cry out in terror. Fortunately, unlike the hallway the apartment itself was not filled with smoke, the heavy fire doors had done their job and provided some degree of protection, and for that Haze was grateful as she drew a deep breath. She looked down at the two teens, who were still frightened, but visibly relieved that she was not one of the teal skinned terrors.

“We don't really have time for introductions. But if you want to get out of here alive, I recommend you come with me, now.”

”So… Does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Well, Athena could teleport us onto that giant UFO in the sky. Pretty sure that was her plan, but she wanted to gather up a few more heroes, as a single spider girl probably wouldn’t cut it.”

“Wait, we’re doing that again?” Emily whispered to me, keeping her voice down as if trying to keep her word about not mentioning the little teleportation debacle she, Kyra, and I experienced just a few moments ago.

“Don’t worry. Athena has been teleporting me hundreds of times ever since I became a superhero and that had never happened before.”

While Emily and I were having that quick side conversation, something else caught the attention of the other heroes standing around us. A swirling portal spontaneously manifested near us, starting out as just a barely visible speck and eventually expanding to a size even taller than any of us.

Because I have been a member of the Immortals almost ever since I moved to Pacific Point, I recognized the portal as the Son of Osiris’ magic. Sure, the Immortals usually relied on Kyra’s portal creation powers for transportation, but we would use Son of Osiris’ powers from time to time, especially when she wasn't present. Since Kyra lost those abilities due to the whole alternates problem that’s been affecting not only most of the team, but also many other people across the country, we couldn’t rely on them now. And my suspicions were proven correct when not only the Son of Osiris stepped out of the portal, but also Gajana and Talus, the last two Immortals not accounted for as of yet.

“Well, this is quite the surprise. It is the future man!” Gajana said when he saw the only person here I did not recognize. However, as soon as Gajana mentioned the so-called “future man,” I suddenly recalled a story from my fellow Immortals teammates about how Gajana and Kyra had run into someone that matched the future man’s description back when the Hounds of Humanity were a threat.

I’m sure you have questions about why some of us don’t look like we normally do, but unfortunately, we do not have the time to run through a PowerPoint presentation. I could get us onto that ship, but it would consume most of my magical energy and I would have to retreat to regenerate it back. The Son of Osiris communicated specifically to the “future man” via a telepathic message, although all of us could nonetheless hear him. Except for Odysseus and the Son of Osiris, the rest of the Immortals, along with Emily, had our normal appearances replaced by those belonging to other versions of ourselves originating from alternate universes.

“Don’t worry. Athena has our ride covered,” I reassured our team’s leader, as he wasn’t present when I first mentioned Athena’s original plan.

I see. He answered via telepathy to all the heroes assembled here. As the avatar of the Egyptian god Osiris 'spoke' (so as we are told, although considering Athena chaperons me around all the time this definitely is in the realm of possibility), he looked towards the direction where Athena was standing, indicating he could see her, too.

“Seriously? Am I really the only one who can’t see this Greek goddess?”

“Well, that does explain why everybody has been staring at a whole bunch of empty space,” Gajana interjected, indicating that he couldn’t see Athena. Of the four of us Immortals who have been turned into alternates, Gajana fared the best. Although he normally looked like a really buff Babar the elephant, his alternate looked pretty much how he did before he was turned into a metahuman by the Pax Metahumana domes, but with his non-alternate’s musculature. So, not quite incredible Hulk buff, but he was still a walking brick, so to speak.

“I’m not picking up anything on my scanners, but what do I know. This chassis doesn’t even have the technology to read floppy discs, let alone use USB-compatible devices!” Talus complained as a way to get a word in on the conversation.

“See, you’re not the only one,” I told Emily as I tapped her shoulder with a fist. I made sure I wasn’t touching the arm she had injured before Athena teleported us to our current location.

“I’m in such great company,” Emily responded while rolling her eyes.

Since all of us are present, we better execute this plan now. Delaying for any other stragglers will unfortunately shrink our window of opportunity to surprise these invaders. The Son of Osiris communicated in his usual manner.

I turned to Athena, who was already way ahead of us. She slammed the butt of her spear against the asphalt street and in a blink of an eye, the lot of us were no longer standing in the warzone the Arlaaekans had transformed Pacific Point into. Instead, we beheld the sleek interior of the Arlaaekan battleship. The corridor where Athena had brought us stretched out for hundreds of yards in either direction. The lights emitted a green glow that, although providing enough brightness inside the hallway to see, gave off an eerie and ominous mood.

Our best bet is to utilize the element of surprise while we still have it, as they shouldn’t expect a boarding party. The Son of Osiris told the entire group. However, as soon as we all heard those words in our heads, a set of double doors slid open and out walked two Arlaaekan soldiers. These two enemies, while not as decked out as the power-armored assault troops that had been deployed against Pacific Point, were still outfitted with advanced protective armor and energy weapons.

Instinctively, Odysseus let the cord of his bow sing, planting one of the arrows Kensei had lent to him into the chest of one of the Arlaaekans. It took the alien a moment for the arrow’s impact to register in his foreign brain, as he certainly would not have expected a primitive shaft to penetrate their far-advanced armor.

“Might be a little too late for that,” Odysseus declared as the wounded Arlaaekan slumped to the floor and his partner directing his weapon towards us.

I guess it is time to rumble on an alien spacecraft.

---

Several questions came to The Wanderer's mind. How the spider hero came to meet a being named after a Greek God was of interest to him. Those questions were put to one side as there were more pressing matters at hand. The plan for Athena to teleport the whole group to the ship was a good bit of news during the invasion for him. Too bad Voyager wouldn’t be there for the initial jump into the ship, but the mutant had a feeling that she was not too far behind on matters. Two psionics that can throw some form of barrier to what he had in mind would be more than enough.

His plans of what to do on the ship were shelved for a moment as he witnessed a portal open in a space near them. His psionic blade began to form in case it was hostile, but when he recognized one of the three people that emerged from it he eased off. The appearance of the elephant man was different from what he could remember, but the psionic presence around them was unmistakable. And from the way he was greeted, the mutual recognition was there.

”And likewise, friend. Been keeping track of how many of these aliens you were facing?” The friendly competition to take down the enhanced metas from the Hounds of Humanity was still there, though who took the most metas down to save them was still up in the air.

When he was ‘talked to’ by one of the other faces that had just arrived, The Wanderer had to stop that reflex of throwing up that feedback he normally used when his mind was infiltrated by other beings. It certainly wouldn’t help his standings with the group if it caused harm to his potential new allies. Instead, he shrugged.

”Wasn’t planning on questioning the change in appearance, he replied back to the source of the voice. ”Since coming to this timeline, I don’t know anyone well enough to know what someone’s regular appearance is supposed to look like. Besides, since my last encounter with some members of the group, there’s probably still a sense of uncertainty about the claims of my origin. But that can be answered at another point, with more pressing matters at hand.”

When the man who used telepathy looked at the invisible being and the resultant quip about who can or cannot see the invisible being, the mutant spoke up again.

”And as I have said, I can not visibly see who is there. But…” Without lifting any hand, he indicated towards his right eye, with his past ‘burn’ marks still visible for everyone to see. ”With me, there’s more than one way to see beings.”

At one moment, they were talking about enacting the plan to get onto the ship before a tap on the street was heard. In the next, the scenery changed completely to what the mutant thought was the inside of the ship. The sudden change of lighting made things harder to see, but the psionics in the ship was as if he had been down on the streets. The feeling of phasing between the two locations, despite the methods being different, was nothing new to him so he felt fine in the aftermath. He finished his process of forming the psionic blade on his arm as the leader of the group spoke about acting on the element of surprise they now had in the ship. In the mutant’s mind, he had two plans on what they could do with the surprise.

Despite these plans, everything was interrupted when two aliens entered the corridor through a set of sliding doors. One of the archers, Odysseus, was quick to react and sank an arrow into the chest of one of the two emerging aliens as they scrambled to react to the sight of the group.

The Wanderer was quicker than the second alien.

In a flash, he phased out of the space he was in. Before the others had a chance to react to Odysseus’s arrow, he was in the space in front of the second alien. His free hand snatched the weapon out of the uninjured alien’s hand. His other hand savagely tore into his opponent. The psionic blade slid through it as if it was nothing. The momentum carried on with the haymaker that the blade also connected with the already-injured alien. It might have been a ruthless display that shouldn’t belong in the present but when the world is at stake and your presence needed to be undetected for the briefest of moments, he was going to take it. Standing back up from the two dead aliens, the blade easing back out with little difficulty, he turned to the rest of the group.

”That should buy us enough time to get to work on the ship. I suggest that while we still have a moment before anything else detects our presence and the element of surprise is gone, we’ll need to split the group up into two teams. One of the groups will fight our way to wherever they control the ship so we can get full control of the ship. Another group, possibly smaller, should try and find the place where they communicate with the rest of their forces and disable their communications. No point in trying to take control of their ship when their allies get word of what is happening and respond to our boarding party. Sound like a plan? If we do this plan, I’ll happily go with the group to where they control the ship. I think they’d want to destroy the being that decimated the initial invasion force.”

Dennis' flight jacket rippled, completely unprotected from the open air. The old pilot's mask and goggles he generally didn't bother to wear, were now taking a battering from this flight. The gravity rod, unlike the Golden rod, did nothing to reduce gusts or windshear. The young man was having his most harrowing flight since his first, and it was one of the few parts of the job he normally enjoyed.

Bug remnants were splattered across the lower half of his face, as he fought the wind to keep his mouth closed. His eyes were pried wide, as if to ensure he didn't miss any part of the movie of his life as it rapidly flashed before them, but moreso to prevent that event from actually occurring.

But none of that mattered. All that DID matter was getting to his grandfather before it was too late.

There was only room for one family member to be making stupid decisions, and apparently with Dennis having passed out his grandfather had stepped up into the role and grabbed it with both hands.

---

Alan and Keelan circled, Keelan fired a blast from his rod, which Alan parried effortlessly, and countered with a construct - a giant hand, swinging a swift backhand across the Admiral's face. Causing him to backpedal a few steps in shock.

"I think we both know what kind of fight this will be." The old man said with a smirk.

"I've been wearing this getup for the better part of a century. You think I haven't seen every kind of ray gun, firearm and energy blast by now? You think that's how you're going to take me down? I thought you were watching me with this thing?"

Keelan wiped a small trickle of discoloured blood from his lip, with a dark smile.

Suddenly the Admiral brought an alien creature to bear in construct form, a large beast with three eyes and sharp claws, which the Aquilifer had never seen before. He quickly countered through reflex with a large polar bear, which grappled the beast and slowed it's attack, barely sure of how he did it himself.

"Ah. The beast you used to counter that foolish costumed hack - what was his name..? - Jack Frost..?"

Keelan called off the alien, and returned to circling with a glower.

"Indeed, we have been watching. Did any of those petty fools realise you were only using them as practice for when this day should finally come?"

The veil of Alan's stern heroic visage finally lifted enough to allow a smile through. They still didn't understand.

He drew the Golden rod forth and sent two saw blades slicing through the air towards the enemy combatant. Keelan deflected the pair with a kind of plough, or cow-catcher design that remained true to the designs of their small one pilot fighter-craft.

"From when you fought the 'Lumberjack'. You really are nothing more than the sum of your experiences. No new ideas in quite some time. Is that an effect the aging process has on your kind?"

"Yes. Your own counter was the pinnacle of innovation and had nothing whatsoever to do with your own personal experiences." Alan's reply dripped of sarcasm as his brow did with perspiration as the physical exertion was starting to take effect. The heroic facade he'd so long cultivated and looked to project cracking like a broken pane of glass.

Keelan replied with a swarm of bird-sized insects from a distant long-ago murdered world. Alan bottled them with some effort with his own construct, before shaking them into a frenzy and hurling them back. The Admiral threw up a quick shield to protect himself, but missed the Aquilifer's true intention. They buzzed through the holes his previous buzzsaws created in the hull, and following shrieks from his fellow Arlaeekans the ship lurched to one-side, throwing Keelan off balance.

The Aquilifer seized the advantage, throwing blasts and a massive construct boxing glove, which the Admiral could barely slip and offer up any kind of solid defense against. Alan panted from the sustained effort, and was about to bring down a solid rock, not dissimilar to those he clamboured over when hiking the day he found the Golden Rod almost a hundred years ago. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of movement from his grandson. His heart seized under the weight of the stone he'd conjured as he was about to drop it.

It was all his opponent needed. A sudden spear of hard light was fired by the fallen Admiral and skewered the old man to the ceiling, where he barely got out a grunt in agony, before the spear was removed leaving the Aquilifer to drop to the floor, the Golden rod spilling from his hand.

Dennis screamed. His scream drowned out all thought. All the doubts. All the anxieties. He held a palm out and the Golden Rod came to his hand.

His scream turned from terror to rage, and with a single shot he fired a wide burst from the rod, driving the Admiral, hiding out of desperation behind his rapidly raised shield, from the deck. The sudden shift from technical, finesse-based construct battle to crude blast-based brutality catching the Arlaaekan Admiral by surprise.

_"Dennis..?"

The younger man rushed to his grandfather's side.

_{"It's-- It's attuned to you. That should have taken years..."}

"It's okay grampa, I'm here..."

_{"It's alright... he still hasn't realised why-- why we..."} A smile curled across Alan's face as he sighed a half-lung exhalation,

The old man reached out a withered hand and Dennis it was like a veil had lifted and Dennis finally saw how age had affected the old man, he'd never seen him appear so vulnerable before. He briefly winced in pain, before continuing to extend his hand. A man who could raise such fear and respect from him all his life, reaching out with a hand which he now saw had such weathered, papery skin.

Dennis went to meet his hand, and then, with a second's consideration, reached out to him with the Golden Rod. He took it, this object which had shaped so much of his life. So much of this world's last hundred years. And held it to his chest, with Dennis still maintaining his grip. He hugged it to the older man, and felt his last few breaths - the older man smiled, almost in relief, and that smile would never leave his face as everything else which made him the man he was left this mortal coil.

Dennis took a few moments, tears streaming down his face, to hold and hug his grandfather before the sound of boots snapped him back to reality. With his off-hand he wiped them from his eyes to clear his vision, and pried the Golden Rod from Alan's grip. He pocketed the gravity rod within the inner fold of his flight jacket and reaching around his grandfather with an arm to hold thim in place, he created a surrounding spherical energy shield and started to float back out of the hole in the outer hull, which he had flown in through in the first place. Energy blasts frazzled impotently against the shield as the pair drifted out of the ship and onto the roof of a nearby building.

The Admiral rushed back through one of the hole's torn into the inner hull, and barked a demand at the younger Aquilifer. He still wanted his spoils of war. He demanded the Rod.

"You dishonour your grandfather! If you flee from here with that rod, you will be in breach of our gentleman's agreement! I will no longer protect you! You will be pursued and torn, from whatever hole in this globe you try to hide in! There will be no safe--"

The audacity of this tiny teal man - so small before the power he now held, one who killed his grandfather, no less - to suggest that he had been willing to do any kind of favour for the old man, proved too much for Dennis to bear. With rage in his heart, throbbing through the fist that clenched the Golden Rod, and through a contorted face that so seldom carried such weight of emotion, an explosion of energy burst forth.

With barely a thought for control, Dennis had created a colossal eagle, surrounding the energy orb which held his grandfather and himself, perched on the building's roof with massive talons. A caw, coinciding with a scream of rage from the younger man, as it's beak seized the DoomSpear and shook it, before tossing it down to the ground. It fluffed it's wings after, briefly extending over fifty yards in either direction, and then dissipated into countless floating energy embers of golden light.

Dennis collapsed once more from the exertion, and hugged the body of his grandfather, but by now the man who had done so much to raise him was long gone.

---

Alan Coghlan fell from the darkness of our existence with a thud. But he got back to his feet easily, because there was no pain in this place. A long corridor with a bright white light beckoned him. A familiar warm voice called him homewards.

"It's been so long, Alan. But finally, we can rest. It's finally our time."

"Margie--?"

Alan barely trudging at first, stepped forward towards the light. His strides getting longer, more sure as he began the long walk home, down the corridor of light.

Event Tie-In: Terra
Location: Sherman Square, Lost Haven
Time: Afternoon – Day of Alien Invasion

---

”It’s not every day you have to haul ass from the French Quarter to he…”

Fletch's raspy voice was cut off mid-sentence by a monstrous thunderclap from high up in the atmosphere that shattered whatever remaining windows were in the city. Both her and David watched, stunned, as a humongous object screamed down from high above, slamming into the city only a few blocks away.

Acting quickly, with impressive reflexes for a human, David noted, Fletch shot a rope arrow upwards and disappeared.

With the sudden impact of a enormous object from space, the ground began to buckle outwards, toppling nearby misshapen buildings, along with shaking down weakened ones. David, stunned by all these new bigger and bigger threats, simply watched, until he realized he was standing next to a certain building.

'Madoka Phoenix Academy' The karate place Maddie had asked to join with her friends, and then he remembered signing the small print. 'No refunds'.

This alien tower extended far into the sky, normally something this size slamming into the city would have destroyed the entire area, will destroy, should the resulting quakes be allowed to proceed. Lost Haven should have been destroyed by the mere after affect of this new weapon. To that, David said 'Not today'.

Although he had never done anything on this scale, he forced himself steady, stood straight, and prepared. The Earth happened to be under his charge, and he would not allow such destruction to happen so easily. Even as the violent shockwaves grew in power, shooting outwards with a terrible force, bucking cars and even buildings into the air; he spread out his arms. David began to feel outwards, towards the tower, putting the surrounding areas in his grasp; and before the resulting aftermath of destruction could doom his previous monthly installments, he forced the quakes and the debris to stop.

It took every ounce of his willpower to do this, like grabbing onto the edge of a cliff and pulling as hard as you could, or pushing yourself to finish a marathon at the end of your stamina. Control over the Earth was very much in his wheelhouse, but he had never tried this level of power. Even so, he managed to save what he wanted, the Earthquakes proceeded no further, endangering nobody except those caught in ground zero, only the heroes.

But this was too much. Miles of earth and cement were forced still as the shockwaves of the tower landing pounded on his hold like a hammer. This was like flexing and pushing a muscle well past the point it had been trained, despite the fact that it was able to, despite that it had the potential to do this, this was his limit for now. After fighting for what felt like years, David felt he should have reached his limit sooner; however, he now supposed his body was making up for the power usage in between fights, slowly regenerating.

The debris the tower initially created continued to shoot throughout the city, a torrent of dust and small debris quickly washed over him, hiding the world from him, and himself from the world. David fell to a knee in exhaustion, the energy core on his chest began to flicker and pulse throughout his body; followed by a rhythmic thumping, like a heartbeat, it began to drum throughout his chest and body. His vision blurred, for the second time today it felt like his whole world was shaking.

"Pathetic." A voice, as distorted as his own, whispered on the wind. David glanced around, for the source of the voice, but it seemed to come from all around him.

"To think, a Guardian of the Earth would be felled so easily. By exhaustion no less."

David said nothing, his chest still moving up and down in rhythm with his pulsating energy core, trying to catch his breath.

"Oh I know. You wasted so much time and power protecting those monkeys. You, yourself, are now left undefended, exhausted." A fierce flowing gust of air rushed past his ear, and down to his neck.

"If you want a fight, I'll face you." David rose unsteadily, but managed to straighten himself after a shaky rise. "But don't waste my time with talk."

The other voice didn't say anything at first, but the wind continued to whistle softly, even as tiny fist-sized pebbles blew past him. The area was still blanketed by the large rolling dust cloud.

"Hmph. I'm undecided, as to whether we will fight. But I do know that if continue as you are, you will completely deplete yourself." David felt more than he heard, some presence land nearby. "A Guardian of the Earth can't fall so quickly, so easily, not yet."

A gentle warm feeling began to engulf him, much like calling on Terra's power, except this was coming from outside. An aura of gentle, teal-colored, light flowed from somewhere outside his vision. The more this light flowed into him, the more calmer, and energized he felt. His breath was returning, and his struggling energy core returned to its solid form. A pure and brilliant white.

"And yet, our fates are tied somewhat. To let you fall here would damage my pride." The voice said, someone annoyed sounding.

"Our fates?"

"Finish the rest of this without me." The voice said, and a large gust of wind followed something up and away.