Alexi had the power to control gravity. His father was a telepath, so he was unable to teach Alexi much. But when Alexi decided to leave the Fallen, his father had made friends with fellow mutant Vladmir Siwik. Siwik had written discourses on power development.
By the time he was 18, the Fallen had come under the leadership of a mage named Lightseeker. Lightseeker had a militant philosophy, and viewed his followers as superior to ordinary humans. He also saw anyone not for him as against him.
The day he graduated Alexi went home to see his house in flames.
To be continued
Abdiel, Justice Server
Alexi ran into the fire, but it was too late. Both of his parents had been killed. He broke down and wept amidst the flames.
He wasn't sure what he could do next. The Fallen were too powerful for him to take down alone. So finally he remembered a book his father had left in a safe place, with the names of all his most trustworthy colleagues.
He thought he knew where it was, but he also knew that after what had happened at his house, he needed to be careful. So when he got to the bank, he was ready for the one waiting for him.
"Your father left you a deposit box," said Lightseeker, "I thought you would come for it. But no one leaves the fallen alive."
Alexi reached out to his gift, and drew on more power than he ever had before. Lightseeker was flung across the street and into a wall.
He ran in, nervous, not knowing what to expect. But he got in and out just fine, and obtained the book. Unfortunately, there was no one who could teach him how to further his power.
There was one name, however, that he thought might be useful. A man simply called Shade, who could heal and become invisible, worked closely with Togakure grand master Masaaki Hatsumi. If he couldn't become more powerful, at least he could learn to fight. So his next stop was Japan.
Haven't written here for a while, so I'll just try to finish it up.
Shade taught Alexi how to search his inner potential for new skills. Shade did odd jobs for different hero organizations, which he brought Alexi along on.
After Alexi had honed his skills a good degree, Shade, Alexi, and a mage named Pharos were hired by the Serbian government to investigate the assasinations of several important people.
They began their investigation at an organization that was once run by one of the victims. The company made military technology that occasionally bordered on the illegal. One of the scientists, who was working on a device to better motivate troops, seemed to know something about the assasination. But before they could speak to him, he too turned up dead.
Alexi and Pharos broke into the dead man's home, and searched it for evidence. They found a key to a lot in a nearby storage facility, which they investigated next.
In there, they found horrifying experiments. Pharos detected a magical aura, which led them to an open summoning circle. Something was going back and forth between our world and another.
Alexi and Pharos met up with Shade, and with his help they tracked the aura back to America. They surmised that the scientist had used it to kill for some unknown reason, but had lost control of it.
In Chicago, they searched the city for the mysterious force. Finally, they found where it had settled, in the midst of an inconspicuous building.
Inside, the scene was hectic. A woman with glowing eyes was suspending herself in midair, and according to Pharos, was drawing vast energy to herself. Also, some sort of cyborg was trying to attack her.
They surmised that the energy had come to rest inside the woman, so Alexi tried to stop her. He attempted to fold space to isolate her outside of the universe. Unfortunately, he too was dragged outside.
He floated in a trance for eternity and for an instant. Finally a voice began to speak to him.
"She has sealed your power, but it will come back in time. I shall return you to your home. The two of you must fight again, for the garden shall soon begin to wither. Remember, that everything is connected."
With that last phrase in his mind, Alexi reemerged amidst the burning building. Shade had been killed in the explosion, immediately after he had left. So Alexi and Pharos began to talk.
"You need a name," Pharos said.
"Well," Alexi answered, "There was one I thought of after I left the Fallen."
"Really?"
"Yeah. In Paradise Lost, there's this one angel who leaves Satan's army after he realizes his intentions. That always reminded me of myself."
"Sounds good."
"Well then, I guess I'm Abdiel now."
Remembering something he had read, he decided to go to Paragon city. The gang called the Hellions had a rank called the Fallen. So he left, remembering that everything is connected.
When he got to Paragon City, he had intended to tell the truth. But there on the newstand was a paper with a picture of the fire on the front page. He knew that his mistake would follow him even here. So he lied. On his registry card he said he was from Poland, and that his father had been briefly in the Defenders of the Motherland.
His father had been a Defender, but had taken the first chance he got to leave the country. Anyone with a past like that had to move around to avoid being conscripted into a suicide mission. Even when his parents married, they had to be careful. That was the family Alexi Judzviak was born into.
That life didn't last long, thankfully. The Berlin Wall fell, the Iron Curtain was lifted, and Communism died. Alexi's family lived in a small town at the time, in the middle of nowhere.
But when he was thirteen his powers started to manifest. And shortly thereafter he fell in with others like him in that regard.
They called themselves the Fallen. They were mutants, mages, and anyone else who could do great things, but chose not to. Alexi's father was involved in the community, and was trying desperately to track where the Fallen were getting their funds.
Time went on, and Alexi started to see changes in what he once thought was a group of friends. Adults started meeting with the group's leaders, and illegal activities began to be encouraged. Not forced, but those who didn't participate were ostracized.
Alexi tried to do as little of this as possible, but he was seventeen then, and beginning to be torn between all of his commitments. So he made a choice. And paid for it.
To be continued.
-Abdiel, Justice server