The second Rikti invasion had transpired with little warning. Newly prepped heroes of the city knew not of what the skies had reaped that morning. Everyone was well aware of the remnants of the last war, there numbers dwindled evermore slightly with each passing day. With all of our knowledge, we did not predict another invasion. We ignorantly assumed that these creatures from the bowels of another dimension had senselessly given up, finding it most futile to go against such a large force here on Earth. Since the final attack years ago, we had let our guard down. In our rush to rebuild Paragon to its former glory, survivors of the battle sent out a signal to their brethren across the dimensional rifts, telling their brethren that were were severely weakened as a military force, and that another attack would be staged to finish us off for good.
And we were totally oblivious.
When the faithful moment arrived, I could practically hear the low roar of hundreds of voices crying out in despair. Our heroes totally unprepared, the Rikti easily took hold of a rather large outpost inside the city. They set up pylons, which transferred energy back into a portion of their main vessel. Many brave legions of heroes took up the offensive, desperately attempting to rid of the pulsating structures. We had believed that whatever it was the Rikti were preparing, the pylons were their only was of accomplishing it. Unfortunately, only a handful of our fighters were experienced, the rest recently qualified recruits. They knew not the travesty of war. The sacrifice involved. Among the fallen, my father took his place. I was told that he had gone valiantly, as he would have wanted. He had been a member of the Freedom Phalanx, our cities highest supergroup of the time. Till this day all I have of him are photos of himself and his best friend, a fellow Phalanx member by the name of Positron.
But I can get into all that later- I have more important things to tell you. As I was saying, they were relentless against the pylons. However even with our combined forces, we were unable to attain a full victory. The thing the Rikti had been storing energy for was, in a way, a weapon. Unlike what most believed at the time, it was not one of direct destruction. Its uses were, in my opinion, much more devastating. You see, the pylons were not only gathering distilled power from the minerals in the ground, but from a pipeline. This pipeline was connected with the Terra Volta reactor- a nuclear core that up until this point had always been under attack by average villain organizations. Teams of superheroes were constantly sent to bring the attacks under control, but when the heroes would return, they would come back with their genetic makeup severely altered. Any powers they previously possessed would be changed dramatically, or strangely enough, changed completely.
At this point, it still wasn't obvious as to what the Rikti were planning to do with this unstable energy, but we did not need to wait long to find out. On the twentieth day of the war, they made the weapon known. Fully operational, it had risen from a gaping chamber at the top of the vessel. The constant battles in the warzone had ceased. All gazed upon the lumbering mechanized device. After a few moments, the device opened to reveal a glowing green core, one closely resembling the one from Terra Volta. However this core was at least fifty times its size, and the heat that pulsed from it could be felt from miles away. In a effort to protect themselves from the inevitable, the superheroes made on final attack on the interdimensional nuclear weapon.
I can still imagine it clearly in my mind, as if it were a movie replaying over and over with no intent of stopping. Dazzling lights and colors assaulted my eyes as hundreds of varying attacks went off at once, shifting the sky into a living, breathing form of energy that with all it's fury, confronted the Rikti weapon. I too added to the vibrant attack, sending out my own controlled blasts of a mixture of both energy and electricity. My muscles flexed as I continually writhed my arms forward and back, each movement getting faster and more feral with internal prominence. I don't remember every using so much energy in one fight- I was always told that too much would leave me overloaded and - quite possibly dead.
To tell you the truth, when the lives of an entire race is on the line, you tend not to really give a damn about making yourself a bit tired.
The ferocity of the gathered blast hit the weapon directly, sending out a blinding flash of white, luminescent light. I needed not to shield my eyes as my visor took the blunt of it, leaving me to make out the outlines of a few unidentifiable objects. The light lingered for a moment before leaving as quickly as it come. It took my eyes a moment to adjust as I peered around, examining the battlefield. Many heroes were sprawled out on the ground, either unconscious or dead from the prolonged fight. I shifted my gaze back to where the weapon still stood, encased in what seemed to be a secondary repulsion barrier. I couldn't believe it. Through all our efforts, the weapon stood as tall and menacing as ever, and almost seemed proud of itself that it had proved it's dominance.
I chuckled to myself, admiring our foolishness. We had underestimated them once more. I collapsed to the ground as the radiation that had been hovering around the core withdrew back, absorbed by it. All was still as a ear-shattering explosion took place, engulfing the all of the Earth in a pale green glow. I cannot recall what I did then. I knew I was not dead but how, I wasn't sure. I managed to bring myself to my feet, my body quivering with both exhaustion and fear. Those few who stood with me were also quite alive, shaken, but alive nonetheless. At that moment, I knew that I must find out what exactly the radiation had done. I levitated upward, drifting as if in a dream back towards Atlas Park.
The trip only took a few minutes. I landed softly atop the statue of Atlas and looked down upon the streets I knew so well. A few hundred citizens dreamily walked about, looking as though they hadn't slept in days. At first glance they only looked like sleep-deprived people, however that perception changed as one man's eyes began to glow dark red as he released a stream of heat from his pupils, sending a shockwave of bodies into the air. A woman, in her fear, retaliated with a spray of frozen air from her mouth, while another rocketed upwards in a blaze of bright orange flames. It dawned on me, as every single person displayed some kind of super ability, what the Rikti weapon had done. Everyone on Earth without powers children, men, women had their genetic makeup altered, mutated by the nuclear radiation. They were all out of control with fear all equally dangerous.
I knew from then on what our world had become, and what it would take to change it. For that moment, however, I did the thing I had done only a select few moments of my life. I fell to my knees, and wept.
********
I hope you enjoyed reading this. I posted part of it some time ago and have since added a bit more to it.
Please feel free to comment and thanks for taking the time to read
Hero Chronicles
Chapter One
We Are Powerless
The second Rikti invasion had transpired with little warning. Newly prepped heroes of the city knew not of what the skies had reaped that morning. Everyone was well aware of the remnants of the last war, there numbers dwindled evermore slightly with each passing day. With all of our knowledge, we did not predict another invasion. We ignorantly assumed that these creatures from the bowels of another dimension had senselessly given up, finding it most futile to go against such a large force here on Earth. Since the final attack years ago, we had let our guard down. In our rush to rebuild Paragon to its former glory, survivors of the battle sent out a signal to their brethren across the dimensional rifts, telling their brethren that were were severely weakened as a military force, and that another attack would be staged to finish us off for good.
And we were totally oblivious.
When the faithful moment arrived, I could practically hear the low roar of hundreds of voices crying out in despair. Our heroes totally unprepared, the Rikti easily took hold of a rather large outpost inside the city. They set up pylons, which transferred energy back into a portion of their main vessel. Many brave legions of heroes took up the offensive, desperately attempting to rid of the pulsating structures. We had believed that whatever it was the Rikti were preparing, the pylons were their only was of accomplishing it. Unfortunately, only a handful of our fighters were experienced, the rest recently qualified recruits. They knew not the travesty of war. The sacrifice involved. Among the fallen, my father took his place. I was told that he had gone valiantly, as he would have wanted. He had been a member of the Freedom Phalanx, our cities highest supergroup of the time. Till this day all I have of him are photos of himself and his best friend, a fellow Phalanx member by the name of Positron.
But I can get into all that later- I have more important things to tell you. As I was saying, they were relentless against the pylons. However even with our combined forces, we were unable to attain a full victory. The thing the Rikti had been storing energy for was, in a way, a weapon. Unlike what most believed at the time, it was not one of direct destruction. Its uses were, in my opinion, much more devastating. You see, the pylons were not only gathering distilled power from the minerals in the ground, but from a pipeline. This pipeline was connected with the Terra Volta reactor- a nuclear core that up until this point had always been under attack by average villain organizations. Teams of superheroes were constantly sent to bring the attacks under control, but when the heroes would return, they would come back with their genetic makeup severely altered. Any powers they previously possessed would be changed dramatically, or strangely enough, changed completely.
At this point, it still wasn't obvious as to what the Rikti were planning to do with this unstable energy, but we did not need to wait long to find out. On the twentieth day of the war, they made the weapon known. Fully operational, it had risen from a gaping chamber at the top of the vessel. The constant battles in the warzone had ceased. All gazed upon the lumbering mechanized device. After a few moments, the device opened to reveal a glowing green core, one closely resembling the one from Terra Volta. However this core was at least fifty times its size, and the heat that pulsed from it could be felt from miles away. In a effort to protect themselves from the inevitable, the superheroes made on final attack on the interdimensional nuclear weapon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can still imagine it clearly in my mind, as if it were a movie replaying over and over with no intent of stopping. Dazzling lights and colors assaulted my eyes as hundreds of varying attacks went off at once, shifting the sky into a living, breathing form of energy that with all it's fury, confronted the Rikti weapon. I too added to the vibrant attack, sending out my own controlled blasts of a mixture of both energy and electricity. My muscles flexed as I continually writhed my arms forward and back, each movement getting faster and more feral with internal prominence. I don't remember every using so much energy in one fight- I was always told that too much would leave me overloaded and - quite possibly dead.
To tell you the truth, when the lives of an entire race is on the line, you tend not to really give a damn about making yourself a bit tired.
The ferocity of the gathered blast hit the weapon directly, sending out a blinding flash of white, luminescent light. I needed not to shield my eyes as my visor took the blunt of it, leaving me to make out the outlines of a few unidentifiable objects. The light lingered for a moment before leaving as quickly as it come. It took my eyes a moment to adjust as I peered around, examining the battlefield. Many heroes were sprawled out on the ground, either unconscious or dead from the prolonged fight. I shifted my gaze back to where the weapon still stood, encased in what seemed to be a secondary repulsion barrier. I couldn't believe it. Through all our efforts, the weapon stood as tall and menacing as ever, and almost seemed proud of itself that it had proved it's dominance.
I chuckled to myself, admiring our foolishness. We had underestimated them once more. I collapsed to the ground as the radiation that had been hovering around the core withdrew back, absorbed by it. All was still as a ear-shattering explosion took place, engulfing the all of the Earth in a pale green glow. I cannot recall what I did then. I knew I was not dead but how, I wasn't sure. I managed to bring myself to my feet, my body quivering with both exhaustion and fear. Those few who stood with me were also quite alive, shaken, but alive nonetheless. At that moment, I knew that I must find out what exactly the radiation had done. I levitated upward, drifting as if in a dream back towards Atlas Park.
The trip only took a few minutes. I landed softly atop the statue of Atlas and looked down upon the streets I knew so well. A few hundred citizens dreamily walked about, looking as though they hadn't slept in days. At first glance they only looked like sleep-deprived people, however that perception changed as one man's eyes began to glow dark red as he released a stream of heat from his pupils, sending a shockwave of bodies into the air. A woman, in her fear, retaliated with a spray of frozen air from her mouth, while another rocketed upwards in a blaze of bright orange flames. It dawned on me, as every single person displayed some kind of super ability, what the Rikti weapon had done. Everyone on Earth without powers children, men, women had their genetic makeup altered, mutated by the nuclear radiation. They were all out of control with fear all equally dangerous.
I knew from then on what our world had become, and what it would take to change it. For that moment, however, I did the thing I had done only a select few moments of my life. I fell to my knees, and wept.
********
I hope you enjoyed reading this. I posted part of it some time ago and have since added a bit more to it.
Please feel free to comment and thanks for taking the time to read