Dr. Jonas Shaw took one last look through his telescope before he returned to his work. One of the benefits of working in the Lunar Research Station was the unparalleled views of the solar system that being on the moon provided. The research station itself was a partnership between NASA and Midas Industries. The complex, which sat just outside of the Sea of Tranquility was relatively large. At 3,585 feet long, it was roughly fifteen times the size of the International Space Station and cost about 6 times as much. Dr. Shaw was one of the leading meta geneticists on the East Coast, and was excited to study the effects that zero gravity may have on the meta gene. His experiments had lead to some startling and exciting conclusions, which he looked forward to sharing with his employer, Richard Midas.
As he was making his way across his lab, he felt something odd. There was a strange rumbling sensation, and then he felt as if he was being pulled upward. He didn't understand what could be causing this strange phenomena, and then just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.
“Dr. Shaw, we're getting some seriously strange readings. We just experienced a gravitational anomaly, but we can't find anything on the sensors that could have caused it.” Came a voice over the communications array. He wasn't sure, but he thought it was Lewis, another of the scientists.
“No kidding. I'll be right over, we have to figure out exactly what the hell that was and if we can expect another incident.” Shaw said as he he turned to leave his lab, again partially floating in the reduced gravity within the complex.
Fear overtook Shaw as he laid eyes on something that he never could have imagined in his wildest dreams. Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, a massive ship appeared overhead, casting a large shadow over not only the research facility, but over the moon itself, leaving the celestial body in darkness. However, as the ship passed overhead, Dr. Shaw watched as a bright light seemed to drop from the underbelly of the ship, slowly descending toward the surface of the moon.
“Oh..my..God....” Shaw exclaimed as the glowing projectile hit the moon's surface. The impact kicked up a wave on sand and rock that made its way directly toward the research facility. The very ground began to shake, and the structure of the building itself began to buckle. The doctor's life flashed before his eyes as the calamity engulfed the research station, tearing the structure apart.
No sooner had the gargantuan ship moved beyond the moon than the front of the ship began to open, revealing a massive set of bay doors, and from those doors, several asteroids that the mother ship had harvested from the void of space as it traveled across the stars were sent hurdling directly toward Earth.
***
Sergei Daminev slowly walked through Red Square, as he had done thousands of times. He had seen State Parades roll through the Square, showing off the vast might of the Russian military. He had attended sporting events and even concerts here. Yet, sometimes he just enjoyed walking through the Square and taking in the history that surrounded him every time he walked through it. The views of St. Basil's Cathedral were unmatched, and he felt a strange pride whenever he passed by it's multicolored spires. It had also been the place where he had met his beloved Anna, who he had spent the last thrity five years with.
Nothing had been the same since she passed away two years prior. He spoke to his children and grandchildren a few times a month, but he had essentially been passing the time until he could once again join his dear wife.
As he continued to gaze at the cathedral, something else caught his attention. Something coming toward the city from the heavens.
“Anna...” He said as the asteroid crashed down on the city, reducing it to little more than flaming rubble.
The scene was repeated numerous times all over the globe. Berlin Germany was destroyed, as was Okinawa Japan. Thirteen million people died in a flash of fire and destruction as Shenzhen China was wiped from the face of the Earth. A towering mushroom cloud could be seen from hundreds of miles away when an asteroid struck a nuclear weapons storage facility in Pyongyang North Korea, killing untold millions.
An asteroid crashed down just outside of Versailles France, the ensuing fireball left a path of destruction all the way to Paris, where the Eiffel Tower may have been spared, but the city did not escape damage, as a number of large fires burned throughout the city.
Yet another asteroid crashed down in the Pacific Ocean, sending a tsunami raging through the sea, washing over the islands of Hawaii, and sending more waves toward the California coast.
***
Gemma Stanley walked along Pacific Point's famed Surfside Beach. For decades, this stretch of beach had been a favorite among the local surfers who took advantage of the large waves that had made this area one of the premiere surfing spots in all of Southern California. Unfortunately, an increase in great white shark activity in the area had driven some of the surfers away toward safer waters in recent months.
Gemma loved this beach. It was where she and her friends Izzy and Amanda would often come to enjoy a day relaxing in the sun. They'd go swimming to cool off on hot afternoons, or just relax on the sand talking about classes or guys, or whatever happened to be going on in their lives at the moment. But it was also a place that she liked to go to alone. She would walk along the beach in quiet reflection with the sand between her toes as she listened to the sounds of the waves crashing and the seagulls calling while she gazed out at the ocean and watched the sky turn brilliant shades of orange, red, and purple as the sun seemed to slip beneath the waves.
Gemma walked along the beach just at the water line. As the waves came in the water would wash over her feet up to her knees, and she could feel the surf trying to pull her back out as the water rushed back into the sea. Then, off in the distance, she saw a flash of light and saw something streaking toward the Earth.
“That's weird.” She said to herself aloud as she continued walking.
Then the water began to recede away from the beach.
“Oh, that's not good.” Gemma said as she began to turn to run.
But it was too late.
There was a loud roaring sound, almost like a hundred freight trains bearing down on her all at once, and as she looked back out to see towards the source of the sound, she saw it.
A massive wall of water rushing towards her, and the dozens of other people who had gathered on Surfside Beach.
***
San Francisco, CaliforniaSlipstream stood outside of the Redwood Vista apartment complex. She had been in the city for a television interview with Kelly Sandbourne on her popular afternoon TV Show Live From the Bay with Kelly. However, the interview proved to be short lived. Shortly after she had taken her seat on the set, the call came in that the San Francisco Police SWAT unit had responded to a hostage situation at the apartment complex. From what she had gathered, a man had broken into his ex wife's apartment and was holding her and the couple's two children hostage. It had taken her only a matter of moments to get to the scene of the ongoing hostage negotiations from her seat on stage at the television studio which was all the way across the city.
When she arrived, the SWAT team had already cordoned off the apartment complex, with police vehicles blocking each entrance and exit. The hostage negotiator, a young Latina officer not much older than Slipstream stood behind the police line speaking into a loudspeaker. Slipstream had been impressed by the young officer's steadfast commitment to getting everyone out of this situation alive. She had been both firm, yet empathetic as she spoke to the man.
“Hey, you!-” A crass voice called out. “Cape! I'm talkin' to you!” the man, a heavy set detective in his mid fifties called out to Slipstream.
“Slipstream.” She replied.
“Sorry...
Slipstream,-” the detective said, sarcastically exaggerating her name. “There's so many of you damn capes these days it's a miracle anyone can keep any of yous straight.”
Slipstream just nodded as the detective went on.
“You're the fast one, right?” He asked.
“Well, that's one way to put it.” Slipstream started.
“Good. Can you get in there and take 'im out? He's starting to get on edge and I don't think the hostages'll last much longer.” He said in a heavy Brooklyn accent, which had the circumstances been different, Slipstream would have found somewhat amusing, considering how out of place it sounded on the West Coast.
“Yeah, I can get in there and drop him.” She told the detective.
“Good. Then do it.” He said, his voice raising slightly as she took off for the apartment where the man was holding his family hostage.
Slipstream was a mere blur as she raced into the apartment. She burst through the door, splintering it as she entered the apartment. Once she was in the apartment, everything seemed to stand completely still as she made her way toward the armed jilted ex. Neither he, nor his former wife or children appeared to move until she finally came to a stop before the man. It was then, that everything appeared to unfreeze. The wooden splinters from the door feel to the floor, the man, as well as his hostages all let out a startled gasp as the purple and chrome speedster stood before them.
“Hi.” Slipstream said as she hit the man with a right hook that dropped him to the floor.
As Slipstream emerged from the apartment with the three hostages, something off in the distance caught her eye. A flash of light in the sky. She didn't know what it was, perhaps a falling star, though, it was unusual to see one so bright at this time of day.
Then she felt the impact.
Whatever had hit the ground had been big. She could hear the explosions in the distance, but more importantly, she could see the wave of superheated gas and debris, buch like a volcanic pyroclastic flow racing toward the city. She knew that there was little that she could do, but she had to do something.
So she grabbed the two children, Ella and Gabby, ages five and 3, and began to run. It was too late for the people of San Francisco, she knew that based on the impact itself, many of the people who called the Golden City home were already dead. All she could do was escape this catastrophe and save these two children, who had already been through so much.
So she ran as fast as she could. She made it clear across the city, with the flow of burning hot debris right behind her, nearly vaporizing everything in its path. She ran through neighborhood after neighborhood, until she reached the Golden Gate Bridge, and she pressed on. And though she was tired, not accustomed to carrying extra people for such distances, she knew that she was going to make it. Then she felt the bridge buckle as one of the dozens of earthquakes that the impact had set off violently shook it. She stumbled, but remained on her feet until the ground shook again. This time, the shaking and buckling of the bridge was too much, and she lost her footing and fell, skidding several dozen feet.
She looked back at the two children just as they were overtaken by the pyroclastic flow, only to be taken herself seconds later.
***
Lost Haven, Maine“You sure you want to do this?” Eric asked Scott as he stood beside him in front of the makeshift alter that had been set up at the front of the Grand Ballroom of the Seaside Gateway.
“Eric...” Scott said suppressing a smirk.
“I mean, it's not too late. I can create a distraction so you can...” Eric whistled as he made a flying motion with his arms.
“Eric!” Scott said, perhaps slightly louder than he had intended, and then he began to chuckle. However, all joking came to a sudden end when the music began to play and Alexa started down the isle with her father at her side.
Scott was suddenly awed by his bride to be's beauty as she made her way down the isle with her long flowing dress sweeping behind her. From the moment Scott had met her, he knew that she was the one for him. They had become lovers, and friends...then they became best friends. But they were so much more than that, they were soul mates. Until he met Alexa, he had never felt whole. But she completed him, as he did her. And now, in just moments, he was going to marry the woman of his dreams.
Alexa came to a stop right before Scott, and even from under her veil, he could see her grinning at him. Her father stepped in front of her and with a somewhat forced smile, he shook Scott's hand before taking his seat next to his wife.
Reverend Hynd began welcoming the guests as he began to discuss the joys of marriage, as well as some personal anecdotes about how he had been privileged to know the Winstones for well over thirty years, and he recalled the story of the first time he had met a young Alexa, just weeks after she had been born. He then went on about the first time he had been introduced to Alexa and Scott, and how he knew in that very moment that they just seemed destined for one another, despite her father's objections, which the Reverend joked, he had seemed to have gotten over.
The Reverend then brought Scott and Alexa together before him, and instructed them to face one another. Scott reached out to her, and lifted the veil which had covered her face, and was almost taken aback again by just how stunning she looked. Then, after a few more words, Reverend Hynd announced that Alexa and Scott had prepared their own vows.
“Scott, from the first day that I met you, I knew that there was just something special about you. Right from the start, you were honest and open with me, and you invited me into your world without looking back....”Her words were cut off as a massive shadow overtook the Seaside Gateway, leaving the grand ballroom in near total darkness.
“What the hell is that?” Eric said as he moved toward the large picture windows that looked out over the Maine coast. As he and the others who had joined him at the window looked up toward the sky, they could see what appeared to be the outline of a ship.
“I don't know, but it doesn't look good.” Scott said.
Yeah...uh...maybe you should, you know...” Eric said absentmindedly as he gazed at the large craft.
Scott knew that Eric had been right. He didn't know what was going on, but he had a terrible feeling that that it wasn't good. So he stepped away from the window, and moved silently toward the back of the ballroom, before slipping out the back doors. He made his way down the stairs and out the front door of the Seaside Gateway, and when he was sure that no one was looking, he hit the switch on the nanotech bracelet. In seconds, the nanites had covered his arm and chest, and soon the rest of his body in the familiar uniform of his famous alter ego, Icon, and took to the sky just as he saw something, a projectile of some sort, headed toward the city.
”My God.” Icon said as the realization of what he was looking at sunk in. A large rock, an asteroid, more than twice the size of a football field was heading straight for the city.
Icon lowered his head and accelerated toward the asteroid, determined to stop it from impacting Lost Haven. He reached the asteroid and managed to get underneath it, putting his hands against the base of the rock and pushing back with all his might. However, it did nothing to slow the descent of the gigantic space rock.
“Come on, damn you!” Icon cried as he strained against the rock, fighting with every fiber of his being to stop the asteroid's descent. Try as he might, the asteroid continued it's journey to the heart of Lost Haven, until finally, he felt something give.
The chunk of rock began to decelerate. Slowly at first, but gradually, he began to slow the rock down, until he had finally stopped its fall to Earth. Then, he pushed against the asteroid more, and finally, he had the space rock heading back to where it came. Breathlessly, Icon guided the asteroid back up through the Earth's atmosphere until he was floating weightlessly in space, where with a shove of the asteroid, he sent it back out into deep space, away from the Earth. However, when he turned to return to his home, he saw the utter devastation that had wrought on the planet. Numerous cities lay in charred ruins, cities all across the globe had been wiped from the map, untold millions of people had been killed.
Icon descended back to Lost Haven, touching down in Sherman Square where several police cruisers had stopped and were trying to control the crowd that had gathered to watch the events that had just unfolded. He wanted to tell the officers to get the people out of the area, that it wasn't safe. But he couldn't. The guilt that he felt for the millions that had been killed, and his inability to save them was almost too much to bare.
“....” Icon suddenly realized that someone had been talking to him. He turned and face one of the officers, a young man, probably only in his second or third year on the force, had been trying to get his attention.
To ask him what was going on.
However, before he could answer, he saw hundreds of smaller ships leaving the massive ship like angry hornets from a nest, all making their way to Lost Haven.
Member
Izurich
She kind of looks young in this picture, but I assure you that she is 24 (born in 1991). Funny how the story arc that gave Sammy her "powers" was inspired by Criminal Minds, too. :D
