Official time of death 10:46AM
The young hero known as Vulcan Echo got in way over his head with a group of Tsoo. His control over fire was not ready to attempt to tackle such a big group by himself. He was quickly defeated and teleported to the hospital.
"Call his Super Group to come identify the body," the doctor orders
"Yes, Doctor" says the nurse, but she knows it won't be necessary. She has teamed with the young hero and his SG numerous times as her other persona, Unchained Heart. She knows the X-Ray technician at the hospital is in Vulcan Echo's Super Group.
She goes into the locker room to grab her communicator then sneaks up to the roof. She takes a deep breath and puts out the call.
"Calling any member of Dreamcatchers. This is Unchained Heart and I have a situation for one of you at Steel Canyon Medical Center. It's urgent. Really urgent. I'll be on the roof waiting for you. I'm working so I'm not going to be in my costume. Unchained Heart, out"
A few minutes later, the door opens and the x-ray tech walks through. He's not in costume either, he just happened to be working too when he heard the call. The nurse looks up and gives a halfway smile.
"I need you to get in your
costume ... We lost Justin today in the OR. Doc says he wants one of his teammates to come "identify" him."
"Dios Mio! What happened?"
"Everything was going good. It should've been routine, y'know. Well, you were here... I'm sure you felt that tremor that shook the hospital. He was in the middle of surgery when it happened. The OR lost power and the generator didn't kick in for some reason. We had no lights and we couldn't see where he was bleeding out from. When power came came back on, his vitals were going haywire. We tried all we could but it was too late. I'm sorry."
"You did all you could, don't worry about it. I'll go get dressed." Seeing that the nurse is gettin ready to cry he holds her close to him. "It's going to be ok."
A few minutes later, Captain Mexico is guided to the lifeless body of a young hero with blonde spiky hair. He had warning but deep down was hoping Unchained Heart was mistaken. But lying on the table in front of him is the cold hard truth. He hangs his head in sorrow.
"That's him. Vulcan Echo. Justin Wills."
Suddenly, there's another tremble. Stronger than the one before. The lights dim and flicker throughout the hospital. Captain Mexico and the nurse (Unchained Heart) look at each other. Two big tremors in one day is just not natural in Paragon City. There have been big shakes in the past but none have been good. When Eastgate Heights hollowed out it caused a big shake. When Faultine destroyed Overbrook it caused a big shake. When the Rikti mothership crashlanded it caused a big shake.
A voice is heard over the police radio. "We have a situation in Siren's Call. We need all availiable Supers down here NOW!!"
This can't be good.
"Do you still need me, doctor?" asks the Captain
"I can finish up here. Sounds like they need you there more than we do. Thanks and Good Luck, Captain Mexico."
Still saddened by the loss of his friend he makes the
flight over to the Siren's Call gate. He shows his ID to the guards and walks into the zone. Once inside he sees that there's already lots of other heroes gathered near Warzone Agent Brinson. He's briefing them on the situation.
"About an hour ago, Arachnos flyers brought over some villains from the Rogue Isles. I sent some agents to see what villains came over. I was in contact with one agent in a Chaser. I heard him scream the name "Rakescar" before I lost communication. Seconds later there was a terrible rumbling. A Eagle nearby saw the incident. Rakescar jumped onto the Chaser and propelled it to the ground with such force that it shook the whole zone. When the Eagle went to investigate, there wasn't much left of the Chaser... or the pilot... to identify. You're number one bounty is Rakescar. I want him brought in on the double. He will pay for his crime"
All the heroes form into teams and take off looking for Rakescar. Captain Mexico stays behind
talking to Agent Brinson . "I have a special assignment for you, Captain Mexico. I need you to investigate further into the Chaser crash. I need to know some information about the pilot. Could you go see if you can locate his ID card?"
"I'm on it!" He takes off with speed and caution.
At the site he finds burning parts of the chaser and the tattered cape of the agent. Nearby he notices a couple of
Warriors staring down a hole where a manhole used to be.
"Hey hero," one calls to him "The thing that did THAT ran after our boss down in the sewer. No way in Hades was I gonna try and stop it after what it did to that longbow... but our boss called us cowards and shot at it. When the arrow bounced off he ran into the sewer and that thing chased him and made this big hole. This has your name written all over it, hero. Go play Mr. Goody-two-shoes and stop that thing."
"Cowards," he says as he jumps in. He follows the tunnels for just a bit when he sees the lifeless body and broken mace of a fallen warrior. But no sign of the perpetrator. He heads down the tunnels for a few more minutes when he gets to a wall that has been broken down and you can see through to the next tunnel.
He checks his coordinates to check where he is. This must be the what caused the second tremor in the hospital.
"Dios Mio! This is not good. Not good at all." He gets his communicator and put out an urgent message.
"All heroes need to stop what they're doing and get into the the sewers. Rakescar has broken through the the Siren's Call war wall and is in the Sewer System beneath Steel Canyon. I reapeat, Stop ALL activity and head into the sewers. If he has the power to tear down a war wall there's no telling what he will do to Paragon City. I'm gonna follow his path and see if I can find him. Captain Mexico, out!"
***sorry if it's longer than 1000 words, I just started and couldn't stop myself***