Hammerstar

3.



Vigilantess had Sonya's arm in an iron grip as they reached the ground floor and swung out of the stairwell into the main hallway. They had used another set of stairs far from the one where she had seen the ice wind come out of, but it seemed the heroine wasn't convinced they had eluded whatever was loose in the large school building, and wasn't interested in trying the main entrance to the school for fear it would be the obvious way to watch for anyone attempting to escape.

Like themselves.

Gasping in cold air, Sonya lost her footing on the ice-coated floor as Vigilantess released her to check the set of fire doors at the back of the stairs, and landed on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. When Vigilantess saw the welded seams across the door's frame, she turned to Sonya and said "I know Astoria isn't the cleanest part of the city, but this is overkill."

"Drug dealers...two weeks ago...got in..." Sonya gasped out as she looked at the fused doors "Principle Edwards...thought it was safer...than chains."

"Yeah. I bet he greased some palms with the Fire Chief, too." Vigilantess didn't grasp Sonya's arm again, but instead moved out into the hallway with her rifle ready. "Let's go!"

Getting unsteadily to her feet, Sonya realized she was more tired than she should have been. Her legs shook visibly as she followed Vigilantess through the fog-wrapped corridor, and twice she fell trying to step over the books and other personal items that littered the floor. Obviously some of the other students and teachers had been warned something bad was happening and left in haste. Now that she thought of it, she had only seen a half dozen frozen people since they had started their passage throught the ice-rimmed nightmare that had been her school this morning.

Looking down at her after her third fall, Vigilantess half-crouched and said in a low gowl "Keep moving!"

"This can't be happening!" Sonya suddenly burst out, almost forgetting to keep her own voice just above a whisper as the full measure of the situation suddenly threatened to overwhelm her "Even Glacier Lord doesn't have the power to freeze an entire building! It can't be real! It just can't!"

Vigilantess knelt down to look straight into Sonya's wide eyes and said in a voice as cold as the air around them "Take a look around you. Feel it! " she pressed one of Sonya's hands to the ice-covered floor "This is real, and if you don't keep moving, you're not going to have time to start believing before she finds you and there is another frozen monument in the hallway!"

Releasing her hand, Vigilantess stood and quickly moved away. Stumbling on the slick floor, Sonya stood and followed the other woman to a door almost at the end of the corridor. As Sonya began to shiver in the cold, she watched the heroine pry open the locked door that was labelled 'Faculty Lounge', and sweep the empty room beyond with her weapon before moving towards one of the sealed windows on the other wall. Putting her weapon down next to her knee, Vigilantess withdrew something from one of her waist pouches and began to feel around the frame of the window.

Sonya sat on the floor by the door as Vigilantess worked, and soon the window came completely out of the mount it had sat in for untold years. As she put the glass and metal structure on the floor of the lounge, the black-clad woman peered out past the plants that had grown over this part of the ground beyond the window ledge, nodded once as she drew a long combat knife, and began to clear a hole through the foliage.

Then Sonya felt the air grow colder, and glanced back into the hallway to see a line of frost advancing along the walls and ceiling from the direction they had come. Vigilantess was at her side at almost the same time, and said "She's coming! Get through the window, and get outside!"

"But she'll just..." Sonya began before the stronger woman all but propelled her out the open window.

"Find someplace outside to hide!" Vigilantess raised her rifle and aimed it back into the hallway as she pulled open the grenade launcher under its barrel. "She can't see you if you stay near anything warm! Go, Go!! "

Even as the rifle's loud blasts rang in her ears, it was the note of desperation in the older warrior's voice that had Sonya up and scrambling out into the dim daylight beyond the window. Then she was outside, rain falling on her in the much warmer June air and running among the sparce trees that surrounded Hawklane Highschool, trying not to think what might be happening behind her, or what might happen to her if she turned to find out.

She stopped only long enough to remember that a warm place might keep her safe, that she had to hide there. But even in Astoria, June was a warm month, and everywhere seemed equally warm. How much warmer of a place did she need to hide? Her mind almost locked up in panicked indecision before she realized what she needed.

Someplace as warm as a human body.

Quickly, Sonya ran to the metal grates over the underground steam pipelines that fed both the school's winter heating systems and hot water pipes, and after stepping onto them, felt the almost-scolding heat rising from below. She whispered a quick thanks for the School Board's decision to leave the line on year-round rather than spend some of the school's funds to replace the old, stuck valve.

Crouching on the grates, Sonya heard more gunfire, and the rain's hiss as it hit the pipes below her. Then she glanced through the hedges that formed a living fence around the grounds of the school, and saw the flashing lights of police vehicles near the entrance. When even a single Officer failed to appear as the gunfire and heavier sounds of some sort of explosions continued from the school, Sonya knew they had no intention of doing so.

Someone had ordered them not to interfere, and in Astoria, everyone knew the Police did what they were told to.

Then the sounds of gunfire stopped and Sonya froze. One minute went by, then two.

And then she saw a swirling cloud of ice and wind emerge from the front entrance of the school, within which was the figure of a woman dressed in flowing white robes. She did not walk, but instead seemed to glide inches off of the ground. But it was neither this nor her pale skin and uncaring stare that truely sent chills through Sonya.

It was the pair of bat-like wings of ice that flared into existance for a moment at her back and then dissolved in the rain as the woman swept her gaze about her.

Sonya concentrated all her will not to run screaming as the woman's eyes turned towards her and seemed to stare into her own. Terror locked her limbs, and thought stopped as she waited for her skin to freeze and the cold to swallow her, but the pale woman's eyes continued past her without reaction. A few moments later, the ice cloud and woman inside it appeared to be caught by an unseen wind, and both vanished as Sonya watched.

Mind-numbing fear kept her motionless on the grates, shaking slightly as the rain continued to soak into her clothes and the darkness beyond remained still. Then she slowly curled into a tight ball, and began to softly cry.

< to be continued >

2.


Sonya awoke from her dream with a start and a small yelp of alarm. It took several seconds for her heart to stop pounding and her breathing to return to a less-than-emergency rate, and by that time, she had focused her eyes on the dull metal around her.

Memory flooded in as the dream faded, and she let out a ragged breath of relief. She was in the girl's washroom in her school, having taken a brief moment in the sealed commodes to catch an entirely unsanctioned catnap during afternoon break. That she had gone out like a light was surprising, even given the long hours she was staying up to complete her final assignment for the Tenth Grade. She normally only took a few minutes of closed-eye time before feeling better, but she could see by the dimness of the room that someone had turned the lights out. Only the windows let the diffused grey of daylight into the bathroom, and that meant she had been in here alot longer than normal.

Snatching out her cellphone, she flipped it open to check the time, only to find it's display blank and not even a glimmer of lights under the keypad. She had been meaning to recharge it before coming to school today, but had decided there was enough charge left to make missing the school bus a far more immediate danger. Now, she had little choice but to leave the room and suffer the gossip that would undoubtably follow when a teacher or hall guard saw her slinking in the corridors long after break had ended.

Gathering her things, she moved to the door of the restroom, and noticed how quiet it was. Her small noises were the only ones she could hear, and the air conditioning seemed to be going full blast, as she could actually see her breath.

But then she realized she didn't hear the noise of the air system running, and that brought back the fear that had fled with the dream.

Not knowing what else she could do, Sonya opened the door as quietly as she could and looked out. The school corridor beyond was in deep shadows as well, the lights having been turned off there as well. But she could see a low mist that seemed to hover only a few inches above the floor, and several large unmoving objects had been left in the hallway. The cold was even more intense here, and she actually felt a light breeze as it rushed into the warmer bathroom beyond her.

Truely alarmed now, and feeling like a small mouse in a strange house, Sonya edged out into the hallway as quietly as she could, and moved up to one of the objects. It took only a moment for her mind to accept that she was looking at one of her classmates, one of the gangboys who had delighted in showing off his fake Warriors' tatoos and gold chains to the wannabe-ganggirls.

He was frozen solid.

Sonya would have screamed then, had she not been grabbed from behind and an iron-strong hand clamped on her mouth. She felt another body press into her back, and saw the barrel of some kind of rifle point past her waist, down the corridor.

"Do as I say if you want to live." a voice hissed behind her ear, barely loud enough for her to make out. The urgency and resolve behind it was anything but soft, however.

Not understanding what was happening, but knowing the other person could already make her do anything they wanted, Sonya only nodded her head. The voice continued with the same hushed determination.

"Make a noise and we're both going to be in serious trouble." it said, giving her mouth a brief shake as it did so, "You were smart to hide this long, but it won't save you now. You're being hunted, and if she finds you, I won't be able to stop her from doing that to you" Sonya knew the voice meant the frozen form of the boy by the way she was turned to stare at his still form. "You understand? Keep quiet?"

Nodding again, Sonya found the hand removed and the body behind her gone. She sagged to her knees, but was careful even in her confusion to avoid more than a ragged sob of relief. Turning her head, she saw a woman standing behind her, dressed in black combat clothing and holding an assault rifle in a practiced grip that seemed both unaffected by the weight of the gun and as steady as a table. Ammunition and equipment pouches hung on belts across her waist and chest, and a black headband held back a short collection of white hair from a face that held no sympathy for the huddled girl before her.

She knew that the history teachers taught students that superheroes hadn't always been in the world, but that was something she couldn't imagine. From the time she was old enough to read the daily newspaper, they had been a part of Sonya's world, and it had been a game between her and her friends as they grew up to pick which one would be their own role model.

"Vigilantess!" Sonya gasped softly, not believing one of her own secret heroines was standing before her. When the other woman didn't reply or give any indication she had heard, Sonya asked slightly louder "What....what are you doing here?"

"Keep quiet!" Vigilantess hissed again, gesturing urgently with a single slicing motion. As she looked about, appearing to be deciding which way to leave, she said "Frostheart is here. She wants you. I'm here to make sure she doesn't get you."

Confused by the unfamiliar name and beginning to remember the fear she had been shocked out of, Sonya began to question what Vigilantess meant, but the woman-warrior held up a hand which brooked no reply "We need to get out of here. Which way?"

Sonya pointed to the staircase to the right, knowing there was an emergency fire door at the bottom, and Vigilantess took her arm firmly as they moved towards it. They had taken only a few steps when she heard the sound of wind, and a gust of ice seemed to blow up from the stairwell.

Cursing, Vigilantess hauled Sonya away at a run in the other direction, reaching the corner of the hallway and turning into the next corridor before Sonya could see what was coming up the stairwell.

<To be Continued>

Ok, here is the link to the story I mentioned above. I'll post each installment as I can, assuming it continues to pass muster and doesn't run into problems with the moderators.

Enjoy!


Astoria Falling

1.


"You don't have to fear."

Sonya Rabinowitz knew she was dreaming. The dream had come many times before in her sixteen years of life, and she had become familiar with its progression. In fact, the scene before her was the reason she knew she was dreaming...she had been here over and over, the frequency increasing these last years, until she was as familiar with it as her room at home.

She walked though a forest, seemingly at night. Around her, the great trees grew above the smaller grasses and plantlife, blocking the sky and enclosing the path she tread on in a shadow. That Sonya could see well enough to note the small animals that paced her on either side of the path within that gloom was another testiment to the unreal quality of the world she was in. She knew she had to continue down the path ahead, as she had before countless times, and at the end, through the dark opening between two massive trees that the path passed into, she would see the great haunted castle that was always locked to her.

So many, many times. She was tired of it, and just wanted to wake up.

"You don't have to fear."

The voice was something new. She had never heard the calm, masculine voice in her other dreams, and looking for its source as she walked, she saw there were people as well as animals walking beside her in the forest. Despite appearing only as shadows moving among the others, she felt she knew them.

"All beginnings come from endings."

Sonya couldn't see the speaker, and she realized it was as if the trees themselves were speaking. She was about to turn and leave the path to check this when a feminine voice replaced the first, seeming to come from just over her shoulder.

"The world is life, and life gives the world purpose to be."

Still walking forwards, she began to feel a dread about what lay beyond the portal of tree limbs and leaves before her. Always, it had been the castle, but now she felt it would not be, and that made her panic. Desperately, Sonya tried to turn away, to run back the up the path to where she could awake rather than face what she otherwise would, but found that she could not. She could stop, standing on the path before the omnious arcway ahead, but she could not move a centimeter backwards.

"While life endures, there is hope."

Knowing, but not knowing how she did, that the only way from the dream was through the living archway, she stepped forwards. Instantly, she came out of the forest to see a wide plain streatching out far below her to the horizon. The sun was a dim presence behind dark clouds that overshadowed the wide expanse, and from those clouds a dull rumble of continuous thunder seemed to threaten to pour forth at any moment.

As she watched from the cliff where the forest trail ended, Sonya saw two great armies charging at each other on that desolate landscape. On her side of the plains were arrayed a vast line of heroes. She knew them as everyone who grew up in Paragon City did, and the greatest among them were names of almost legendary scale.

Manticore.

Sister Psych.

Statesman.

Then she saw that the line was not just of heroes, but of those she knew to be the worst of Humanity's lot. Lord Recluse, Ghost Widow, and even the evil alien Rikti, who had devestated much of the city less than a year ago, were among the crowd, villians who preyed on those with less power than themselves and whom the heroes of the City did constant and sometimes obsessive combat with. Yet here they were, charging across the plain as one massive, unstoppable force.

When she saw the other army charging across the plain from the other side to meet them, she knew true fear then. They were undead nightmares from every bad movie she had ever seen, shambling corpses brandishing weapons and screaming spirits who seemed to fly over the heads of their earth-bound kin. Seeing the speed with which they ran, Sonya found the laughs she had given to each of the zombie movies her classmates had forced her to watch die in her throat. These were an army as vast as that of the living beings rushing to meet them, and their hatred for the living host arrayed against them was almost a physical thing that she could feel constricting the breath from her lungs.

And she knew, with the power of every Hero and Villian in the world placed firmly in their path, the end was not in doubt.

"You don't have to fear...."

The dead would stand truimphant over them all.

"...until the world ends."

When the lines met with a crash of flung power and hurled blows, a blackness consumed her vision, and she fell into the soul-crushing terror that filled her.


<To be continued>

I suppose the 'disturbing imagery' is where I am slightly concerned. It's Dark Astoria, and the events that lead to its formation are, by definition, pretty much on the dark side. That's not to say I'm going to write something to shock or satisfy some urge to the macabre, just that it's hard to sugar-coat the story of an entire section of the city falling to the Banished Pantheon.

So, I should post the story in the Role Playing section as a seperate thread, and add a link in this thread for it? I don't have my own webpage, so that's how I was considering doing this.

Thanks for your help!

Ok...I have a question.

As I posted over in the Architect Stories and Lore section, I am considering posting a story I've been knocking around for a year or so about the Fall of Astoria, but it's a bit extensive, and given the subject matter, darkish (no pun intended). I doubt it would be small enough for the Scoop, though I intend to do it in a series of posts, and it doesn't feature the characters I play in-game.

Would it be appropriate to post it in this thread, in the Role Playing forums, or any part of the COH forums at all?

Thanks!

I'd be interested in bringing my AR/Dev Blaster. (assuming start time isn't past 9PM EST).