(HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (Full Version)

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vulkan -> (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/12/2012 11:11:04)

By Vulkan and with help from Zanathos. Based off Hero Smash. Names based of characters that have given consent to use. Vulkan would like to say thanks to the AE team for making such an awesome game. I would say this story is best suited for ages 13+ for violence. Feel free to comment here!




Part 1: Birth



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Journal of the DC project.
Author: Professor R Aldrax.

Day 1, 02:32- we have finally begun. Using funding from many... wealthy residents of Skulldeep we have finally begun to experiment with the mysterious red orb found deep underground. Radiation concentrated through the orb seems to absorb and store anything it touches. We intend to use it to absorb the power from heroes and transfer them into a single body, hopefully making a soldier that has the power of many heroes and that we can control. It is a highly dangerous process, therefore we have a small army of guards and a laboratory buried deep underground to keep any... inquisitive members of the public from finding about this. Not to mention any heroes. Speaking of heroes, we will need to catch one soon.

Day 15 12:43 - it was easier than I thought. We were able to stage a fake robbery of a small bank in the north east district of super city. A hero attempted to stop us and we were able to tranquilise him and bring him to the lab. I don't know his name, and we probably never will, as we absorbed him before the end of the day. The orbs effects on living flesh are terrifying. We are dealing with powerful forces here, very powerful. If we could harness the whole orb...there is no telling what we could do!

Day 31, 04:21- we have finally managed to grow a body to full size and eject it with a cocktail of the fluids that the orb produces. We were able to bring it to life. It has been designated DC-1. However, its weak and feeble human body was unable to handle the sheer power running through its veins, and it was torn apart within minutes. However, we can and we will try again!

Day 65, 22:43- we have built four more experiments, all becoming failures. DC-2 and 3 met the same grisly end as DC-1. DC-4 was not killed by the power running through his veins but was put into a coma, which made us have to have him destroyed. DC-5 was conscious at birth but froze to death as soon as we tried to test his ice powers. We are doing well though.

Day 135, 15:11- we are now up to DC-12. Once again, we have failed many times. DC-12 was able to use his powers, but after many trial periods, his bloodlust appeared to show. After three days, he broke out and killed eight guards. We were able to contain him in a cell but after reinforcements arrived, his bloodlust had tipped so far over the edge that he literally tore himself to pieces. Our investors are getting impatient, and I'm sure that soon we will be....replaced, if we do not get results.

Day 147, 11:52 - DC-13. We managed to dull down the anger hormones of DC-12's brain and rebuilt him. We have kept him in confinement; we are attempting mind control techniques to bring him to "our way of thinking". Of course, if that fails, there is always the good old mind control serum.

Day 154, 01:10- DC-13 is dead. He appeared to pickpocket the guard who brought him food for his pistol. He then shot himself through the heart. We believe that this may have happened due to his realisation that we built him as a weapon, little more than a toy for power mad villains. We are still investigating how this may have happened. We made him to be intelligent, so we should have expected it.We were intending to dissect him, but due to a mixup he was incinerated instead. Nevermind, as we have plenty of other DC experiments to dissect. I am starting to wonder about the orb, since DC-12, it has been pulsing with an unidentified energy that we are unable to analyze or control. I have it under heavy guard. Nothing could get in there.

Day 193, 09:32- we have created another experiment. We are trying a new tactic with this one. Nothing. We are going to keep him imprisoned but we are not using any mind control of any sort. We will monitor his process as well. Fingers crossed that this one works, because if it doesn't, our financiers will have my head. The orb has stopped excreting energy, it is now glowing. I don't know what is going on, and neither do my colleagues. It...is like it is preparing for something.

Day 203, 13:22- DC-14 is showing both enormous mental and physical improvements in a short amount of time, he seems to have the viciousness of DC-12 and the intelligence of DC-13. Without the flaws that led to both of their deaths. It appears to be proficient with almost any power from ice to fire to mental. He is also capable with blades and firearms. I think it is time to tell our financiers...

Day 226, 21:01- we have done studies on DC-14's DNA structure. It appears to be made of exactly the same material that we took from samples of the orb. It has led us to believe that it and the orb are one and the same organism. We don't know how this has come across, however, our theory is that, when we passed the super powers that are DC-14's lifeblood through the orb, the orb planted a sort of assimilation gene into the mix. We are unsure if this is a good thing or not, but it cannot do any harm to run a few more tests.

Day 234, 04:32- DC-14 is getting restless. As we study his genetic codes he begins to show anger and resentment towards the scientists. It is possible that he can sense us coming close to unlocking his genetic secrets and wishes to stop us. I have decided to double the soldiers guarding the orb, just to be safer.

Day 254, 13:54- DC-14 has escaped! He managed to escape in the night, leaving the corpses of six guards behind him. We have men all over super city, and we have tipped off the heroes of Herospire that he is a villain who must be captured. We will find him. Soon. We are still experimenting with his DNA. We are so, so close now. I can almost feel our success coming closer.

Day 255, 23:43- this is it. I won't have time for another entry in the base logs so I will have to make do with this one. DC-14 is outside, hacking the doors to the main control room. The few guards we have left are aiming their guns at the door, but they will not do any good and they know that. It all started an hour ago. DC-14 broke into the base with a pistol. He has killed almost every guard and scientist in this place, even locking the base down to prevent escape. I believe that he is trying to leave no witnesses to his creation. The orb has been locked down as well, so he shouldn't get to that easily. I wish I could say the same for us though. I have called backup from all over super city, but the time they get here we will be dead. I will activate the base's self destruct soon, and it should kill me and DC-14. Along with all the notes that would allow another one to be made.
...he has got in. I can hear the death cries of the guards right now. All 14 of the DC experiments will now have their revenge to the people who tried to use them as weapons. The explosives are primed, this is the end.
This is Professor R Aldrax signing off.


These were the last salvageable entries from the computer logs of the DC research facility after it was destroyed when the bases self destruct was activated. Both Experiment DC-14 and the orb are currently missing.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/12/2012 11:12:20)

Chapter 2: explanations.
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Interview with Doctor Adam hart and prisoner 943. (Known as DC-14)

Doctor Hart:good evening prisoner 943. I am here for your...questioning.
DC-14: questioning? Hm. I would have expected something more interesting.
Doctor Hart: ...anyway. Why did you do it?
DC-14: It? Which one? I could write you a list.
Doctor Hart: we have...heard of your birth in the DC facility
DC-14: ugh, you know? Seems a waste of time destroying that facility when the truth got out anyway.
Doctor Hart: we are not interested in the destruction of the facility. Why did you kill those people?
DC-14: there were a few loose ends that needed tying up.
Doctor Hart: loose ends? You killed sixteen people! How many loose ends do you have?
DC-14: dear me doctor, losing your temper less than half way into our interrogation?
Doctor Hart: and the artefact?
DC-14: artefact? Oh, you mean me.
Doctor Hart: no, I meant the orb
DC-14: I know.
Doctor Hart: but...
DC-14: I am the orb; this body you see before you is just a vessel for me to talk to you.
Doctor Hart: indeed... And what of your capture? Why did you surrender to APB's?
DC-14: Ill give you a clue. I want the financiers of the project dead, and they are mostly villains. Any more questions? Or can I get back to my sleep? I was having a lovely dream about clowns.
Doctor Hart: very well. We will double your guard.
DC-14: please do. I'm bored as hell in here.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/12/2012 11:14:36)

Chapter 3: the kill
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DC-14 looks over at the small laptop in the bottom corner of his cell. The alarm is going off, the tracer he placed at the door of the prison all those months ago has registered a match with the DNA it as programmed with. It's found a match. He is here.
"Took long enough for them to find him" he mutters, as he reaches under his bed and produces a heavy calibre energy pistol. Specially smuggled in by a guard he bribed, who also smuggled in the laptop. He checks the clip. Full charge. Now he can finish what he has been planning for such a long time. That stupid physiologist did not realise his plan. And now his target will pay for it. He looks at the door and aims his pistol, flicking the power level to maximum.
"Here we go then."
The shot blows the door off its hinges like it was little more than cardboard. Several guards look up as DC-14 steps out of the empty doorway and aims his pistol, taking care to lower the power level to avoid draining his charge. The guards die quickly. He looks around, hoping no one else heard. He smiles. The idiots didn't workout that he had super powers, so he was just put into a normal cell for ordinary criminals. Escaping was child's play.
Still, he does not want to alert the whole prison, so he walks up to the wall and to a ventilation shaft. It would be undignified crawling through it, not to mention all the dust would ruin his custom made suit, but he has no other alternative. As he crawls through, he thinks. "What to do from here? Once the final target is dead, what can I do then?" his thoughts are interrupted by the fact that he realises he has to get out now, to get to his target. He opens the nearby ventilation hatch, noticing four guards down below. He smiles, and drops down.

Stepping over the partially disintegrated corpse of a guard, DC-14 strolls over to a small computer on the desk. He looks up the prisoners in this block, and notices a name that he is looking for. James Harper. A millionaire businessman. suspected in dealing weapons to bank robbers and pirates along the rivers of super city. Arrested for possession of explosives. Sentenced to 7 years with parole. DC-14 smiles. He was looking forward to the upcoming conversation. He enters a code into the computer and a cell door on his left opens. He walks through.

"Evening."
Harper looks up. He is absorbed in writing documents, no doubt to run his business from behind bars.
"Who are you?"
"My, my. You don't remember me? I think you witnessed me practicing with my powers quite a while ago."
"Wait, you...you...are that experiment, DC-14!"
"Give that man a gold star! Now, shall I get to the point?
"Are you going to rescue me from here?" Harper asks. He looks hopeful. But DC-14's smile widens.
"Ever wondered how those explosives found their way into your apartment? Ever wondered about that incredible coincidence that the police should just happen to search your apartment while they were there?"
"What the....that was you?!?!?!"
"You are a hard man to find Harper. Not to mention that you always carry a security switch in case you are attacked, and you always keep on the move. But what if you were arrested, and locked in a cell, with no escape?"
Harper begins to turn red with rage; he holds his pen like a knife.
"You..."
"Anyway. It's been a lovely chat, but I doubt killing many guards will be unnoticed. So..."
DC-14 never finishes his sentence as Harper jumps out of his chair, the pointed part of his pen aiming for DC-14's neck, but DC-14 grabs his arm and wrenches it back, snapping it. As Harper cries out, DC-14 concentrates his powers and sends several million volts of electricity running through harpers body, his charred remains fall to the floor.
With Harper dead, DC-14 looks around, he can hear noises, the guards have found the corpses. He only has seconds left before he is captured.
"Well. This is going to be interesting."
And as if it is the most normal thing in the world, DC-14 flicks his pistol up to maximum and shoots himself in the head. When the guards get in, no one remains in the room but some charred remains and a handful of dust on the floor.

Then, miles away, deep in an unknown place to all but one person. A small red orb begins to pulse. Then it begins to excrete a purple liquid of which rises and solidifies into a person. A person who appeared to kill himself in the prison.
"That was fun." says DC-14, with a triumphant expression on his face.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/12/2012 18:32:10)

Chapter 4: birth of the red legion
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DC-14 moves towards the orb. Picking it up, he looks into it, for a microsecond, images flash through his brain, imprinting them into his consciousness like a footprint in mud. He smiles. The experiment is working. Now he will not have to work alone anymore.

He turns around, behind him is a man. An agent of the chaos carnival. After the carnival broke DC-14 out of prison, he decided just to stun one and experiment on him. And it worked beautifully. Now that the orb has imprinted the powers needed to finish what he started.
He takes the criminals head in his hands. He is unconscious, so he will never wake up. DC-14 concentrates, and then an incredible amount of psychic force flows from DC-14's brain into the criminal, frying his memories and personality. Wiping them clean like a computer disk.
But DC-14 is not done yet, he concentrates again, putting his own memories and personality into the head of his victim. When his power is drained, he falls back, exhausted.

When DC-14 looks up, he sees the criminal, but something has changed. He is standing up, looking around and smiling to himself.
DC-14 gets up and looks the man in the eye. The man kneels.
DC-14 smiles, it was easy to wipe the mind of this man and replace it with some of his own personality, with a few added bits to make him unwaveringly loyal to his master. He couldn't regenerate like DC-14 could, but that was not needed.

"Welcome to the red legion." says DC-14, as the minion kneels.






vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/13/2012 11:04:31)

Chapter 5: sport
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The car drives down the motorway, its six passengers are acting as any criminals would, laughing and joking and talking about their dealings in code in case the car was bugged. Little do they know that behind them, another car is following them with a small siren on top. One of the passenger's notices and the driver begins to slow down.
The driver's name is Alexander Lewis, a known criminal and leader of a gang wanted for robbery and weapons dealing. He thinks that his lawyers and the fact that he never gets his hands dirty make him invincible, destined to retire happily off his criminal earnings. Little knowing that today is the day that all his wrongdoings are coming back to haunt him. Both cars stop next to some trees, and a patrolman gets out of the second car and walks up to the window of Lewis's car.

"Can I help you officer?" Lewis asks, in his most friendly voice.
"Yes you can", says the patrolman. "You were speeding, 60 mph in a 50 mph zone; I have to give you a ticket. May I see your drivers licence?"
Muttering under his breath, Lewis hands over his licence. Then speaks. "Maybe, we can come to an arrangement? How much do you want" he knows that he has several points on his licence, another one would get him banned.
DC-14 smiles. He can't believe that they didn't complain when he said they were going at 60mph, they were barely at 40. And put a siren on a car and everyone thinks you are a patrolman. Genius.
"There is one thing I would like..." says DC-14
"What? What do you want?"
"Your life."

And at his word, ten red legionnaires step out from behind their cover in the nearby woods and instantly open fire. Lewis is dead in an instant, his torso carved open by half a dozen bullets. As his remains fall to the floor, his companions instantly reach for firearms and dive out of the car. But one is too slow, and DC-14's shot strikes him in the face, causing his head to be completely evaporated. Three of the minions are exchanging fire with the red legion, but one is standing there, electricity balling in his hand.
"So he's a Smasher. Interesting."
The Smasher sends a ball of electricity flying at DC-14's face, missing by an inch. Then he realises that the miss was deliberate, it's a challenge.

DC-14 looks at his opponent, fairly tall, definitely good with the electric powers at his disposal, and light armour.
This was going to be fun.
The Smasher sends another ball of electricity at DC-14. No challenge this time. It's meant to kill. DC-14 dodges the blast and runs at the Smasher, conjuring a fireball in one fist and a mass of freezing gas in the other. The Smasher fires again, DC-14 reaches out his hand and freezes water vapour in front of him, making a wall. The bolt strikes the wall and explodes, blowing it into shards. A burst of fire streaks from DC-14's other hand, melting the lethal ice shards before they cut him to pieces.
"nice try, now its my turn!"
DC-14 releases another blast of frozen gas, this time freezing a wall in front of the Smasher. The Smasher laughs, thinking he missed. But the laugh is cut short as DC-14 releases a tongue of fire into the wall, melting it into water and evaporating the water to make a cloud of scalding steam. As the Smasher screams in pain from the heat, DC-14 releases another bolt of fire.
And this one hits.

The battle is nearly over, the criminals never stood a chance against the well trained legionnaires. one minion is still alive though, cowering behind the bullet ridden car. DC-14 smiles as he picks the thrashing man up and throws him away from the car and at the feet of several red legionnaires.
He closes his eyes and smiles as he hears the man's screams as the red legion cut him to pieces, relishing the close combat.

"my kind of sport."




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/16/2012 2:09:04)

Part 2: Thundersmite




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Silence reigned like a king in the 3rd super city bank. DC-14 stands in the one of the main vaults, looking at the pitiful city below him. Two of the red legion officers are behind him, waiting patently like dogs.
"How far away is Whitehood?"
The officer checks a computer screen, and speaks.
"Twelve kilometres and closing, should take fifteen minutes, tops."
DC-14 smiles, how gullible can super villains get? He remembered how he was able to lure him. He went to one of his lieutenants and offered an alliance in a bank robbery. He had to make it look good so he agreed to lead some of Whitehoods men in the robbery. It had been simple to murder them half way through the robbery and call the legion to clear up the mess.
He turns around; five hostages sit bound and gagged. He had to make it look good to Whitehood, so he took them. And just to make it look really good, he shot one of the hostages through the head. His corpse lays a few metres away from the other five.

A kilometre away...

Thundersmite looks towards the west, his excellent perception allowing him to see much further than any normal person could. He can see something in front of a bank. "Another bank robbery huh..." he says. Thundersmite jumps from the roof and makes his way towards it; little knowing what this will be the start of.

Back at the bank...

The officer shouts, shattering DC-14's daydream. Whitehood is here.
"Are the explosives placed?"
The officer nods. And DC-14 draws his pistol.
"It's always good to do a thorough job..."

Whitehood and his five bodyguards walk up to DC-14 and his soldiers.
"Where are my men?" he asks.
"We...ran into some pretty tough resistance. I had to call a few of my people."
Whitehood nods. "The money?"
DC-14 points to a group of large sacks in the corner.
"Well, I had my doubts about this but I think...
Whitehood's response is broken by the sound of a dozen gunshots in quick succession. Each of the legionnaires chose a target and fired at exactly the same time. Whitehood and his guards fall at exactly the same time, as if a switch controlling all their lives has been switched off.
"Good work, now someone detonate the..."
In a strange sense of deja vu, his speech is cut mid way by a crash. A large section of wall the size of a small truck is smashed out of the side of the bank, with such an incredible noise that the whole group's ears are ringing.
When the dust clears, a Smasher is standing in the hole, his fist raised, obviously ready for another punch.
"And you might be..." DC-14 asks.
"Thundersmite" says the Smasher, apparently reluctant to share this information.
"Well Thundersmite, I'm afraid you have stumbled on the wrong crime." DC-14 turns to his men. "Kill him."
The "him" has barely escaped from DC-14's lips before Thundersmite moves, a blast of lightning escaping from his hands and striking a red legionnaire, blowing him into gory pieces. The rest of the legionnaires run forward, levelling their guns, but Thundersmite runs at them and already he is upon them before they can take aim. The first legionnaire he punches, instead of flying backward, the fist simply goes clean through him, his weak human body unable to withstand such power. He ducks a punch from another red legionnaire and then holds his hand out, freezing the red legionnaire and two others into ice statues, which he then smashes into shards with another punch.
DC-14 looks amused as he watches his soldiers being decimated by this Smasher. He notices he is near the door, and smiles.
Thundersmite breaks the neck of the last legionnaire, and sees DC-14.
"Will you give up? Or do I have to kill you too?"
"Well. You could kill me, but there are the hostages to think about..."
"Hostages?"
DC-14 nods.
"Maybe they will survive the bombs"
Thundersmite leaps at DC-14, realising what he means, but he underestimates the experiment, which shoots him in the leg before he is even half way.
Dc-14 smiles, and pulls out a small remote control-like device.
"Don't detonate the bomb. Kill me if you must, but don't..."DC-14 smiles again.
"...nah."
He presses the button.


A few hours later

The wreckage of the super city bank was covered in police and firemen like ants over the carcass of an animal.
Then slowly, one of the blocks moves. Slowly, Thundersmite pulls himself from the rubble.
He turns and sees the wreckage and realises.
"The hostages!"
He looks round, but the bank was completely destroyed. Nothing could have survived it.
"...he will pay."
He turns, and soon he is gone.






vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/17/2012 5:12:34)

Chapter 7: revenge
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Thundersmite looks around. A series of large buildings greets him. He looks at the map that was given to him by the patrolmen. It was a large map of super city and points where DC-14 had been sighted were highlighted in blue. So far he had tried four places, staking each of them out for an hour or two then moving on if he was unable to find any red legionnaires to interrogate on DC-14's whereabouts. He swore that the experiment would pay for what happened in the bank. Then he saw it. A group of men wearing red suits. Thundersmite knows what that is. The uniform of the red legion. He braced his fists, and jumped off the side of the building, making for the legionnaires like a shark heads for a fish.

Thundersmite concentrates his powers, and sends a blast of mental force into the sky. Like magic, clouds begin to roll in and soon a full-blown thunderstorm is underway. Hopefully the rain will make innocent people run for shelter, so they won't get hurt in the oncoming battle. The noise of the thunder also obstructs his approach. The red legionnaires look around and see him, but by then nothing could save them.

Five men lay on the floor, two of them in separate pieces. The three survivors wouldn't be waking up for several days now. Except one. Thundersmite was not stupid, he needs to find DC-14's hideout, and fast.
"Where is he?"
"Who?"
"You know what I mean! DC-14!"
"I don't know..."
He doesn't finish, as Thundersmite throws the man up in the air. He must have flown up and fallen sixty metres before Thundersmite catches him again.
"Next time I won't catch you." he growls."Where is he?"
"The...the... DC research facility! I mean...what's left of it!"
Thundersmite slaps the man open handed, knocking him spark out.
Thundersmite is gone before the red legionnaire even hits the floor.

Thundersmite knew where the DC research facility was. Every hero worth his fame knew where the DC research facility was. It was known to have experiments there that were possibly funded by villains of Skulldeep. The only reason it hadn't been taken down by heroes years ago was that the villains would simply build another lab somewhere else. Now it was rubble, but Thundersmite guessed that the Red Legion may have rebuilt some of the underground areas. After all, who would think to look in a pile of debris?
Then, he notices something. A man in a red suit, walking on top of the buildings remains. Thundersmite hides behind a larger piece of rubble, and watches the man. Realising the opportunity, he follows him. The large pieces of debris make it easy to hide. And soon he has been followed to another piece of rubble, about the size and thickness of a small car, sticking out of the ground. Thundersmite watches as the man presses a small lump on the debris, which opens into a doorway.
"An elevator..." Thundersmite mutters. Not wasting any time, he runs behind the legionnaire, who is about to step into the lift. A single blow from his fist and the entrance is his for the taking.

The hideout is surprisingly deserted, only four legionnaires come across Thundersmite, and they are taken care of with ease. Finally he comes to a small office, which a large armchair, a mahogany desk and a large TV.
"This doesn't look like it should belong in a lab..."
"Do you like it?"
Thundersmite whirls around, seeing the grinning face of DC-14 standing in the doorway.
"I'm surprised you didn't die when I blew up that bank. I'll have to make it permanent this time."
Thundersmite doesn't say a word, he simply charges at DC-14, firing and electrical blast from his hand. DC-14 ducks the blast, but in doing so he is unable to draw his firearm quickly enough. Thundersmite's punch throws him backwards, crashing into a wall and destroying the TV. Thundersmite grabs DC-14, who laughs.
"I love this bit, where they think they have killed..."He never finishes his sentence, as Thundersmite twists his neck, snapping it like a twig. His corpse falls to the floor like a dead fish. For good measure, Thundersmite incinerates the corpse with another blast of electrical energy.
Thundersmite breathes. Something didn't feel right; it had been too easy... But how? How can anyone come back from the dead?

And in a place known only to two people, a red orb begins to pulse.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/20/2012 14:09:45)

Chapter 8: Sigma
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Super city was dark. It was midnight and few people wandered the streets. The few that did, Smashers, villains, patrolmen and petty criminals fought a bloody war as normal citizens slept. Thundersmite is one of these. It has been a month since he tracked down and killed the insane experiment DC-14 and the guilt over killing him is weighing heavily on his shoulders. For some reason, it feels like murder.
He then realises that he is approaching a gunfight between bank robbers and patrolmen.
The robber's don't last long.

Thundersmite is holding the robber by the neck, preparing to knock him unconscious. When the robber smiles.
"What is it?"
"We knew your sense of justice would guide you here, so we made arrangements."
"What arrangements?"
"This."
And with that, a sniper bullet smashes into Thundersmite's chest, blowing him into a wall. Even for a Smasher, a chest shot is usually fatal.
The robber looks over Thundersmite as he slowly loses consciousness, and takes off his jacket to reveal a red suit underneath. The robber draws a pistol and aims it at Thundersmite's skull.
"DC-14 sends his best wishes."
Then a gunshot is heard, and Thundersmite loses the fight for consciousness.

Thundersmite wakes up in a dark room with two chairs.
So he was still alive! That was a nice surprise.
He looks down, and finds that the bullet wound is gone.
"You like my handiwork?"
Thundersmite whirls around to see a medium in height man, dressed in a black suit, smiling at Thundersmite.
"Who are you?"
"Who am I? Well, you can know me as Sigma, although that isn't my real name. Anyway, I'm glad you are thankful for me saving your life."
"How do I know who you are? Why do you even want me?"
Sigma smiles.
"DC-14."He says, "It's not just you who bears a grudge against him. Half the heroes and villains in super city want him in the ground, and I've called a meeting of them."
"But...I killed DC-14!"
"DC-14's true form is of a red orb. His body is just a vessel. When his body is killed, his consciousness is reabsorbed into the orb, which creates a new body. Therefore, he is virtually immortal."
"Oh wonderful..." Thundersmite mutters, slumping into a chair.
"However, all we need to do is to destroy the orb, and then DC-14 will be human and can be killed as normal."Thundersmite suddenly looks alert. "And where is the orb?"
Sigma's smile turns into a frown.
"If I knew that, DC-14 would already be dead."
Thundersmite tries to answer, but an incredible pain grips him, almost making him fall out of his chair.
Sigma runs up with a syringe. "The healing process isn't complete yet, ill have to knock you out for a few hours while it finishes. When you wake up we will be at the meeting."
Sigma doesn't wait for Thundersmite to protest, as he rams the needle in his arm. Thundersmite is asleep within a second.

Thundersmite wakes up in an abandoned theatre, lying on the stage. He looks up and sees each seat with a laptop screen on it, with Sigma tapping a few codes into each one.
"What are you doing?"
Sigma looks up from his work.
"I can't have all these heroes and villains in the same place; I would set off world war three. So they are all in their respective hideouts and appearing by webcam. Oh, and by the way, your seat is the third on row five."
When Thundersmite sits down, Sigma gets on the stage and gives Thundersmite a thumbs-up. He takes out a small remote control.
"Going live in three, two, one..."
He presses the button, and then faces appear on the screens. Heroes and villains alike. Thundersmite could even see a few shadow entities amongst them.
"May I have your attention please?"
All the people in the theatre look at Sigma, some nodding in approval, others looking confused on whom he is.
"We are here to talk about the recent menace to us all in super city."
Thundersmite almost falls asleep in the next hour. His gunshot wound is still hurting. Sigma and his audience discuss information on DC-14 and ways he can be stopped. Thundersmite finally succumbs to sleep towards the end, only to be woken by Sigma.
"Well, I've put the word out, most of them have agreed to keep an eye out, now all we can do is wait..."Thundersmite looks at Sigma.
"I hope DC-14 is careless then."


Six days later

A small robot the size of a mouse slowly walks across the super city main street, following a man in a red suit. The man stops, and another group of men walk from a nearby alley, one of them with red eyes and white hair...
"Transmitting message to master droid, we have found him. DC-14 is here."
And several miles away, Sigma and Thundersmite both smile.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/25/2012 18:11:25)

Part 3: the silent city

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20th November 2010: DC research facility.

DC-13 looks up at the clock in the corner of his cell, one of the few luxuries he was allowed. It was 6:15. It was time. He looked at the pistol in his hand. He was impressed by his mental powers; it had been pretty easy to "persuade" one of the guards to "leave" his weapon when he brought DC-13 his food. The others...he doubted that their minds would be able to cope once he let them go. Maybe it would be kinder to kill them. He sighed, looking at the gun. Should he do it? If he didn't he could become a god...
No. it was better this way. Better dead than being a pawn of some insane villain.
He could hear steps outside. His backup.
DC-13 places the pistol to his head.
The last thought before he squeezes the trigger is that he may never wake up again.
"Maybe I should have thought of that before..." he mutters, as the bullet flies towards his skull.


Over a year later...

Thundersmite looks around the table. Several heroes and villains sit around it, giving each other suspicious looks. Sigma sits at the head, waiting for the tables occupants to stop talking, when they do, he speaks.
"Here is our situation. An hour ago DC-14 and a small squad of red legionnaires were spotted in the east of the super city main street; I doubt he is there for shopping, so we are planning our move"
"Could it be a trap?" says a hero in steam punk style armour.
Sigma shifts uncomfortably.
"It's possible, but this is the best chance we have, so I advise we take it."
There is a murmur of approval around the table. Thundersmite stays silent.
"Will we all go in together?" asks a villain, who's right arm has been replaced by metal.
Sigma thinks. "No, DC-14 would see us coming a mile off; I think I should go on my own. We can find out what he is planning, and, if I get the chance, I could kill a few high ranking members of the red legion if I can."
"Oh no you don't." says Thundersmite. "If anyone kills him it's going to be me."
Sigma looks at Thundersmite, opens his mouth to protest, and closes it again.
"Fine."


"Hurry up!"
"I'm coming as fast as I can! I don't have super strength and stamina like you!"
"Ssh...There he is..."
Thundersmite looks round the corner, where DC-14 is standing alone in front of a small house.
"Should we get him?"
"Let's see what he is doing first."
DC-14 walks up to the door and pushes it open. Thundersmite can almost see him smile as he walks in.
Sigma draws a pistol. "Let's move."
The two heroes run silently up to the door, hearing the creak of stairs as DC-14 walks up them.
Sigma looks around.
"I'll cover the back door." and he is gone.
Thundersmite can barely breathe as he walks up the stairs, praying that he won't creak them enough for DC-14 to hear.
He doesn't, and gets to a door where he can see torchlight. He can hear parts of DC-14's speech.
"But if.... how....DC....interesting....13.....you clever boy...."
Thundersmite can't breathe. This is his chance to capture the experiment once and for all, but then the beep comes, and it ruins everything.
DC-14 holds a phone up to his ear.
"He's there already? Damn....well, just warp me from here. You know my co-ordinates."
Thundersmite watches DC-14 put the phone down. He waits a second, then, in a flash of light, he disappears.
Thundersmite runs into the room, cursing angrily, when he sees papers on the floor. Lots of them. Curiously, he picks one up, titled DC Project.
Thundersmite reads it and is shocked. This was everything! Everything about DC-14's creation! If he could get this to Sigma, they could find a way to destroy the orb!
Thundersmite is about to yell to sigma, when he sees another entry, describing an experiment called DC-13 and its suicide. But it is circled with a large red pen, and next to it, it says a single word.
WRONG.
As if waiting for a cue, that is when the pistol clicks.
"Don't turn around."
"I wasn't going to."
"I see you have found some of my friend's papers."
"Yes, what do you know about them?"
The stranger laughs.
"Everything Thundersmite. Everything."
"But...who are you?"
" minus five."
"Minus five? What are you talking about?"
There is no answer, when Thundersmite turns around, the voice is gone.
Thundersmite runs outside, where sigma joins him.
"What's up?"
Thundersmite looks around.
"Lets just say...we have two to kill now."

The silent city: location unknown.

DC-14 walks into the meeting room. There are five men in the room, but he ignores all but one of them.
"Good evening." says the dealer, in a polite tone.
"Hello" says DC-14, with an edge to his voice.
"Before we start talking business, I must apologise for my rude behaviour during the villain's gala. Violence is so unlike me."
DC-14 shrugs. "Well, I cant say it was unprovoked, so can we now get to business?"
"Of course."
One of the dealer's men holds a case which he gives to the dealer. He opens it, and takes out a small vial.
"Grade four hallucinogenic gases. Enough to give a street fairly bad hallucinations for five minutes. Knowing you DC-14, I would have thought you could have stolen it."
DC-14 laughs. "I could, but I don't want to draw attention to myself. This is much safer."
"Indeed. Ill have you know I have a vaccine against this stuff, so it wont affect me. Now your end of the bargain..."
A red legionnaire in the corner of the room produces another case, which he opens, revealing a large crystal.
"An azrak crystal. Amplifies any mind powers passed through it by several dozen times. You could make a killing selling this to a telepath with more money than sanity."
The dealer smiles. "Indeed I could. Now may we make the exchange?"
They do, and the two men shake hands.
"I hope whatever crime you are planning goes well."
DC-14 smiles, the dealer may have an antidote for the gas that he just gave away, but not for the stuff DC-14 was planning to use. DC-14 wasn't planning a petty crime like a bank robbery or something like that. Oh no.

His target was the city itself.




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (5/26/2012 17:07:26)

Chapter 9: the final two

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The silent city: location unknown

DC-14 looks at the TV on the wall, it was black, as it had no power supply to power it, but he had nothing else to do while he waited.
"Sorry I'm late sir."
DC-14 turns around to see a legion officer standing behind him.
He smiles, he had only converted this one a few days ago, but she had shown remarkable talent in a certain field of expertise. One that DC-14 needed.
"It's forgiven Beta-five. Now, do you know why I called you here?"
"No sir."
"You may be aware of Thundersmite and his allies?"
Beta-five squirms, she had nearly died luring Thundersmite into a trap, only to be shot in the back by an unknown assailant later revealed to be a mysterious man known as Sigma.
"Yes. I have heard of them."
"I've mentioned them; need I say what I want you to do?"
"I'll leave immediately."
"Yes, feel free to take a few of your soldiers with you."
And with that, Beta-five turns around and leaves the room.
DC-14 sits down.
Nothing can go to chance now. Nothing.


Sigma's Hideout.

Thundersmite looks at the attending room of villains and heroes. He found it silly that every time that something happened in the mission to kill DC-14 a meeting had to be called together. Still, knowing that DC-13 was still alive... That was a good reason. Most of the normal crowd were here, including a woman in heavy armour that Thundersmite didn't know.
He speaks. "Twelve hours ago me and Sigma followed DC-14 to a house in the main street. DC-14 escaped, but there we found documents relating to DC-14's creation, which I expect you have all read."
The attending Smashers all nod.
"However, we did find other documents that possibly mean..."
Thundersmite pauses, he hadn't told them this bit yet.
"...that there may be...another DC experiment on the loose."
The Smashers all gasp.
"DC-13, who was previously believed to have committed suicide in the DC research facility, may have used it as a way to escape."
Sigma, who has remained silent throughout the meeting, finally speaks.
"We don't know if he is friendly or unfriendly, but we must be cautious. If he allies himself with DC-14, nothing will be able to stop them. "
"Do we have any intelligence on 13?" asks the armoured hero.
"No, he appeared out of nowhere."
"So what should we do?" asks a villain in circuit armour. "Should we split our forces?"
Thundersmite speaks, "no, we still don't know if 13 is hostile or not, he could have killed me easily at the house, yet he didn't. I think he has his own agenda. I believe we should keep an eye out, but don't concentrate from finding him."
"Any more points to make?"
The room is silent.
"Then I conclude this meeting."
Then a voice sounds from underneath the table.
"Good."
The next few seconds happen very slowly.
Thundersmite, recognising the voice, throws himself at sigma. The two people smash through the wall behind sigma, above open air.
Then the bombs go off.
Gigantic pieces of debris are torn out of the building, Thundersmite blows one into dust with an electrical blast, ducks a second, and lands on a third, catching the falling sigma.
"this is going to hurt, isnt it?"
Thundersmite looks down, where the ground is getting bigger and bigger.
"yep."

Thundersmite comes to consciousness in devastation. The entire three floors of the building have been torn apart. There is not very much of it left. He sees sigma next to him, slowly attempting to get to his feet. Thundersmite moves his arm, and jolts of pain tell him to stop. And then he sees them. Four red legionnaires. one of them was laughing.
Anger flows into Thundersmite's brain. Despite the pain, he leaps to his feet and charges at them, electricity balling in his fist. He releases a blast, evaporating a red legionnaire before he even sees the angry hero running towards him.
The other three turn to run, but one is too slow, and Thundersmite smashes him into a wall.
One of the legionnaires speaks into a communication unit, and Thundersmite recognises her voice. The armoured person from the meeting! The red legion had infiltrated them!
"This is beta-five. I've done it, warp me back."
With that, the legionnaire disappears.
But that leaves one legionnaire left, and Thundersmite wants to know something.
"What is DC-14 planning? He wouldn't go to all this trouble if it was something small!"
"Please Thundersmite, allow me."
Sigma stands next to Thundersmite, and places his hand on the red legionnaires head. The legionnaire then begins to speak.
"We have...the...anger...city...revenge...hallucination...defiled..."
Thundersmite growls. "What?"
"The...city will be...gone...then we...shall....power..."
"What do you mean?"
"Humans...war...life...gone... " and the legionnaires head lulls back. He is dead.
Thundersmite turns to sigma.
"That...wasn't very helpful."
Sigma shrugs. "It's better than nothing, he mentioned revenge against the city, and that's never good."
"We have to stop him, you should have asked for his hideout coordinates."
Sigma smiles. "I know where he is. When I forced him to talk i looked into his mind for DC-14's whereabouts..."
Thundersmite laughs. "Now we can find DC-14 and kill him!"


The silent city: location unknown

DC-14 looks at beta-five." I expect Sigma would have tracked you here. Still, I'm looking forward to me and Thundersmite having a final showdown, like they do in films."
Beta-five nods. "I killed every one of their allies; it will just be them now, maybe a few soldiers, but they will be the only two Smashers."
"Is the legion mobilised?"
"Yes."
"Excellent .You may leave."
Beta-five bows, and leaves the room.
DC-14 waits until he is gone. Then walks to a small drawer. He opens it, and pulls out a small red orb, which pulses to his touch.
DC-14 can hear faint voices, which only he could hear or understand.
"Soon..."DC-14 whispers to it.
"Soon..."




vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (6/7/2012 18:52:44)

Chapter 10: The Citadel
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thundersmite looks at sigma, who is checking his rifle and grenades.
Its time. Thundersmite feels if eternity has been leading to this moment, finally, DC-14 dies, here, tonight.
"You alright there?"
Thundersmite turns, and sees sigma looking at him with a puzzled expression etched into his face.
"I was...err...daydreaming."
"Well, I hope you don't do that when we are there."
Thundersmite shifts uncomfortably.
"So...erm...where is DC-14 anyway?
Sigma looks at him.
"Well, I was hoping to tell you this later but....well....it's on another planet."
Thundersmite gawps at Sigma.
"And how do you propose we get there? I don't have any space shuttles hidden up my sleeve!"
Sigma smirks.
"I've borrowed the tracker from that red legionnaire I killed the other day, all I need to do is contact the legion, pretend to be a legion squad who needs a teleport, and off we go."
"...squad?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot. I've got my contacts to give me a squad of special op patrolmen to give us some help in this."
Thundersmite looks at Sigma.
"Yes. We will need them."


The ten soldiers arrive in an hour. Their officer, a seven foot tall man in his late thirties, greets them.
"Lieutenant Joe Davies of the super city police special ops team." he introduces himself." it's me and my men's job to keep you alive for long enough so you can kill some experiment."
Thundersmite walks up to the man and shakes his hand. The lieutenant isn't a Smasher, but if he was any stronger he would be considered as one.
"Im Thundersmite and this is Sigma, we need your help to kill a rogue experiment known as DC-14..."
"I know the story, immortal, red orb, blah blah blah...now are we going to do this or not?"
The nine other soldiers nod in agreement.
"Are your weapons loaded and primed?"
Davies nods.
"Experimental X-39 assault rifle. Can fire a silenced long range shot, as were sir's orders."
Sigma breathes deeply.
"Ok...let's do this."
He takes out the communicator in his pocket
"...erm...is anyone there?"
Then a voice comes out of the communicator, making the group jump.
"This is communications officer Delta-fourteen. Who is this?"
"We are the survivors of squad nine-two." taking the name of a squad who were ambushed and killed by patrolmen a few days before. "We require a teleport back to the city."
There is a pause, where the group hold their breath.
"...ok then, locking onto your co-ordinates."
The group breathe.
"Teleport locked, firing."
There is a flash of light, and the twelve people disappear.

The silent city: Location Unknown

There is a flash of light, and the group appear in what appears to be a street. The soldiers instantly aim their weapons at the skeletal buildings around them, few of which are intact.
"Its clear, now what?"
Sigma looks over to the right, where a gigantic citadel-like building towers above the ruined city like a phoenix rising from ashes.
"We find the biggest building, and hope DC-14 is in it."

The silent citadel.

DC-14 looks out of the window at the ruined city. His kingdom. His kingdom of dust and ashes. He remembered looking out of the window of a skyscraper in super city which gave him a view like this. For a moment, he imagines that super city never existed, and that it was all a dream. The fantasy is shattered by Beta-five, who comes into his office.
"The legion is ready?"
"Yes sir, we are just waiting for the survivors of squad nine-two."
DC-14 turns around.
"Did you say...survivors?"
"Yes sir, is there something wrong?"
"Squad nine-two's life signs faded a week ago. I expect Thundersmite or Sigma killed them, meaning..."
"What is it sir?"
"...put all patrols on high alert! Give orders to shoot on sight! We have to stop them! It's Thundersmite! He's here!"


Sigma, Thundersmite and the squad sit in a ruined building while Davies scans the path to the citadel for hostiles.
Thundersmite is bored.
"So..." he says to sigma, "how did you get that scar on your head?"
Sigma laughs.
"Let's just say I had a bad day."
Then there is a whisper.
"Six red legionnaires! Coming from the west!"
The group moves towards what was once a window, and sure enough, a group of six red legionnaires are walking down the street.
"Everyone has a target?" asks Davies to his men.
The soldiers nod.
"Silenced?"
They nod.
"Then open fire on my mark. Three"
"Two."
"One."
There are several coughs from the soldier's guns, the red legionnaires fall at relatively the same time, their lives snuffed out like a candle. Thundersmite is the only one not to attack. Super powers are cleaner and more effective than guns.
The legionnaires have barely hit the ground before the soldiers run out, and pull the corpses into a ruined building.
"How are the scans?" Sigma asks Davies.
"The citadel is protected by a wall. Round the back is a cliff with jagged rocks. We go that way, and we will get sliced to pieces."
Thundersmite laughs.
"Well, I would hate it to be too easy."

The squads journey though the city is uneventful, the few patrols they see are taken out with ruthless efficiency.
"We must be getting close" says sigma, after the third patrol dies at the hands of the spec ops team.
"Even if we do get close, how do we get in?"
"Err...I hadn't thought of that."
Thundersmite looks around at the corpses of the red legionnaires behind them, stuffed into a building.
"I have an idea..."

The citadel was abuzz with activity, red legionnaire after red legionnaire was filing into a gigantic hall, each splitting into their respective squads.
DC-14 looked down at them with an expression of proudness on his face, he did a quick head count. One thousand five hundred and twenty six red legionnaires, all ready for war. He had never given a grand speech before, usually preferring to contact his army by radio.
"Er...hi."
There is a chorus of "hello" from the gathering of red legionnaires below.
"As you know, three years ago, the orb was captured by humans. And they turned it into a weapon."
The red legion is silent now, all listening.
"They tore my consciousness from it, and now, we will have our revenge!"
The red legion begins to shout and cheer. Dc-14 smiles, he needed to work them up before battle.
"They may think we are few, but they are wrong!"
The cheers of the red legion are deafening now, DC-14 can barely hear himself speak now. He turns to beta-five.
"We can't risk Thundersmite coming now. Activate defence protocol's nine and forty-two."
She looks surprised, "forty-two, you sure?"
"I thought you would like that one. Find a good moment then strike."
"Yes sir." Beta_five says, with a expression of viciousness on her face.

Sigma looks through a pair of binoculars, at the gates of the silent citadel, and turns to Thundersmite and the squad, all wearing the suits they took from the red legionnaires they killed.
"...are you SURE this is going to work?"
Thundersmite thinks for a moment.
"No."
Sigma breathes a deep breath.
"Well...here we go."
The twelve people step out from behind the building. The guard obviously see them, but they barely bat an eyelid. When they reach the gate, one of the guards presses a button, opening the gate.
"Finished your patrol?" the guard asks.
Sigma nods.
"Good, it's silly that DC-14 is sending us on these. You had to miss the big speech too..."
Sigma smiles.
"Yeah, that was irritating."
The group walk past the guard, and into the courtyard. The guard presses a button, and the gate locks shut.
The guard smiles. They had fallen for it. DC-14 only told the red legionnaires of the speech ten minutes before he said it. And the patrols throughout the city were not told at all. Sigma had well as given them away by saying that he knew about it.
The guard, or rather, Beta-five as she was known, takes out a phone and begins to dial.

Thundersmite leads the squad along the corridors. They are passed by several red legionnaires, but they ignore them.
He is unsure what to do now. He does not know where DC-14 is hidden, and the citadel is huge, he has no idea how he could find him.
The squad are behind him, their weapons lowered, but they are clearly alert.

DC-14 stands in the courtyard, looking at the citadel, through a window; he sees what he wants to see.

Thundersmite stops. A sense of foreboding is coming over him, the sense when you have a laser sight in the middle of your forehead.
Not only that, but he can hear something, a whoosh, getting louder....
"GET DOWN!!!"
The missile explodes, blowing the wall that the squad is next to away, most of the squad manage to jump away from the explosion, but two are stunned, lose their balance and fall several hundred metres to their deaths.
The destroyed wall gives Thundersmite a clear view of the courtyard, and the red legionnaires below are firing up through it, hoping to kill more of the squad. the long range means most of their shots are inaccurate, but one lucky, or unlucky as Thundersmite saw it, blows away most of one of the soldiers skull, sending him through the hole to land in a bloody mess in the courtyard below
"Come on!!" Davies yells, and the remnants of the team run along the corridor, pausing only to fire shots through the other windows, which were shattered by the force of the missile.
They reach the end of the corridor and reach a spiral staircase. As they begin to run up it, gunfire sounds from the top, aimed down at the squad. Sigma turns to Thundersmite.
"After you."
Thundersmite stands on the side of the staircase and jumps, carrying him almost up to the top. The last thing the legionnaires see is an angry Smasher, with electricity in one fist and frozen gas in the other.

Sigma watches as Thundersmite walks down the stairs, a smug look on his face.
"Nicely done."
Davies looks around, "we have to hurry, if we leave it too long, DC-14 will escape, we have to move!"
The eight soldiers run up the stairs.



Super city nuclear power plant

Security officer Tim Shaw sits in the control room, looking bored. Guarding a nuclear power plant was so boring since they fitted the new security measures. Nothing had ever managed to get in them, and yet they still had security guards. It was stupid.
He checks his watch. Its 19:00. Nearly the end of his shift.
He sighs, gets up and walks to the door.
His eyes widen in shock, a gas is outside the door, and he cannot help breathing it in. Coughing, he looks up; the world looks distorted, like looking into a mirror at a fairground.
Black shapes weave around, making a beeline for him.
Shaw draws his gun, firing wildly. He had trained for this, but the bullets go through the shapes, barely slowing them at all.
One of the shapes lands on the floor and morphs into a figure in a red suit, who produces a wafer thin blade of steel and punches it quickly and cleanly though Shaw's heart. As the guard dies, he recognises the gas from his school chemistry lessons.
"Hallucinogen gas…"


Sigma dares a look out from behind the table, earning a few bullets in his direction for his bravery. Two more of the soldiers lie dead on the floor, caught by an ambush by a squad of red legionnaires.
He yells to Thundersmite. "Give me some cover!"
Thundersmite nods, and freezes a large wall of ice in front of Sigma, who jumps out from behind his table, pistol in hand.
The legionnaires then open fire on the wall, hoping to shatter it. But that is the worst mistake they could have made, now the rest of the squad is free from fire; they take aim and kill the legionnaires with pinpoint shots though the heart.
Thundersmite breathes, they are so close now, but why does he feel that there is something wrong?

Alpha-ten sits in the control room of the power plant, tapping codes into the main computers.
"Is it ready?" his comm unit asks.
"Yes, I'm diverting every single spark in super city to the catacombs."
"Good work alpha-ten. Keep going, and lock the controls in case of a counterattack."

It hits Thundersmite like a missile, the sheer revelation almost knocking the wind out of him. How could he have not noticed? How could have he been so stupid?
"Stand still."
The six soldiers and Sigma behind him look puzzled.
"What is it?" asks one of them.
"We started with ten soldiers."
The squad look confused, as if they think that Thundersmite is going mad.
"Five died."
They nod slowly.
"Then...why do we have six?"
They freeze, looking back at a final soldier in a patrolman's uniform, as if they had not noticed him before.
The soldier moves, bringing his rifle up, firing two shots into the hearts of the two nearest patrolmen to him.
Davies and his last two men take aim, but the rogue trooper switches to automatic, sending a storm of bullets in the corridor. Sigma and Thundersmite manage to throw themselves to the floors, but Davies and the rest of the squad are a fraction too slow, and are torn to pieces by the hail of leaden death.
As their remains fall to the floor, the rogue turns and runs.
Fury grips Thundersmite. Nothing matters now but revenge against whoever the hell this thing is. Ignoring Sigma's protests, he runs after the soldier, back the way they came.
Thundersmite can see a flash of red under her patrolman armour, marking her to be a red legionnaire. Thundersmite blasts a bolt of energy at him, and tackles him to the floor as he ducks to avoid it.
The legionnaire laughs. Thundersmite recognises it, the last time he heard that voice was that woman at the gate! And come to think of it, he had heard it other times too!
"Who are you?"
The legionnaire laughs.
"I'm beta-five. And you are too late..."
"What?"
"Ha...DC-14 hasn't worked it out, but seeing him...heh...I have. Pick your friends more closely Thundersmite! Ha ha ha ha!"
Sick of the legionnaire's voice, Thundersmite grabs her by the neck and throws her. She smashes through a window. Her laughter continues as he falls, slowly fading to nothing.
Thundersmite breathes, and goes to find Sigma.

DC-14 steps into the control room, summoned by an urgent signal.
"What?" he says irritably as he steps in, he wants to be part of the hunt to kill sigma and Thundersmite, and this is preventing him from doing so.
"Erm…well…" says one of the controllers, looking around to see if any of his associates will break the news to DC-14. They don’t.
"We have had a…DNA match from one of the scanners on the lower levels of the citadel."
"What? Who?"
"Erm…yours."
"That’s stupid!! You called me here for that? When did you find it anyway?"
"…five minutes ago."
DC-14 stops mid-rant.
"…did you say…5 minutes?"
The legionnaire nods.
"We…think it might be…"
DC-14 finishes his sentence, saying the name no one in the room wants to hear.
"DC-13."
"Yes sir…"
"He's here…order beta-five and the other officers up here. We need to hold a emergency meeting."
The legionnaire shuffles, this was the bit he was dreading. He picks up a small tablet screen and hands it to DC-14.
"This was caught on camera 05C1 seven minutes ago."
DC-14 looks at the screen, watching Beta-five talk to Thundersmite, and Thundersmite throw her through a window and to her death.
"Rewind that a bit."
The tape rewinds.
DC-14 listens.
"Ha...DC-14 hasn't worked it out, but seeing him...heh...I have. Pick your friends more closely Thundersmite! Ha ha ha ha!"
DC-14 thinks for a moment, and then he breaks into a big smile.
"Oh….this is brilliant…how ironic…"
The legionnaires in the room look at each other with puzzled expressions.
"Anyway. How is alpha-ten's squad doing?"
"They have taken control of the plant, and are diverting the power as we speak."
"Good... And make sure not to overload it. Meanwhile…"
DC-14 turns to one of his guards and snatches the assault rifle out of his hands.
"I have some hunting to do."

Thundersmite and Sigma are alone now. It is a mixed blessing of the citadel being so big. Its sheers size makes it difficult for the few red legionnaires to find them; however, Thundersmite and sigma have no idea where to go.
They get to another corridor, longer than the others, which splits in two.
"We can't waste any more time. Split up."
Sigma nods and runs down the left corridor, slowly being swallowed by the darkness at the end of it.
Thundersmite breathes. And runs.
He gets to the end of the corridor, he can hear voices, but they sounded quite far away to his enhanced senses. He opens a door to his left, and sees a staircase. He is about to turn around when something hot buzzes past his ear like an angry insect. It takes him half a moment to realise that he nearly had his head taken off by a shot.
Realising he is under fire, Thundersmite jumps down the stairs, hoping that he is going the right way.


Half way down the stairs, Thundersmite hears a buzz, and a loudspeaker in the wall bursts into life.
"Attention all red legionnaires! As well as Thundersmite, DC-13 has been spotted in the silent citadel! Orders are to neutralise on sight!"
Thundersmite gasps. DC-13, what is he doing here? Why?
He had chosen not to get involved in this war before, so why now?
Thundersmite is thinking hard. But then, he remembers something that was said to him.
"Minus five."
"Minus five…what does that mean?" thinks Thundersmite as he walks along…
And stops if hit by a ten ton truck.
Minus five…never being seen…Greek eighteenth letter…Beta-fives last words…the scar…it all makes sense!
"Oh my god…" Thundersmite whispers.
He begins to run, down the stairs. He had to get away, and plan, this changed everything, running down the stairs; he doesn't notice triggering a laser tripwire. A small turret descends from a hatch in the roof, and fires a powerful beam of electricity at Thundersmite.
It hits.

He wakes up in front of the smiling features of DC-14.
"Evening!" he says cheerfully.
Thundersmite attempts to reach up and twist DC-14's neck, but is stopped by another jolt of electricity, stunning him.
"I heard your little realisation on my computer. Good to see you worked it out with a little help from the late Beta-five."
"…it's…"
"Your friend Sigma, I know. It may come as a shock, but come to think of it, who else could it be?"
"…I…kill…"
DC-14 laughs.
"You keep forgetting about the orb. I could shut down the stun guns and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference."
Thundersmite says nothing.
"But of course! You could simply destroy the orb! Well…do try."
To Thundersmite's shock, DC-14 walks up to a drawer, opens it, and pulls out a red orb, which he hands to Thundersmite.
"Knock yourself out…"
Thundersmite smiles, and crushes the orb in his hands. Or at least he would, but he can't. Try as he might, until even he is sweating, he cannot even crack the orb, let alone destroy it. Trying another tactic, he concentrates his powers and sends a gigantic blast of electricity through it. It simply absorbs the bolt, leaving it little the worse for wear. Thundersmite tries again with a blast of ice, having the same result. Finally, he throws the orb to the floor, where it rolls over to DC-14, who is roaring with laughter.
"Want to know why you can't? It’s been around for billions of years! It's evolved a resistance to everything the universe can throw at it! Which is a hell of a lot."
He puts the orb back in the drawer.
"Pity it’s the last one. But I think one is enough."
"But…what…"
"This planet was once like your own. However, a virus mutated and became airborne. Killing millions of people in a few hours, in an attempt to survive, they put themselves in suspended animation far underground. It didn’t work however, and the virus killed them, before mutating into a harmless virus. I found the city millions of years ago, and implanted my consciousness into the bodies, turning them into red legionnaires."
Thundersmite listens. Fascinated and appalled at the same time.
"They were... my backup plan. Now I'm here, and all I have to do is divert energy into the sleeping legionnaires, and bring them back.
Imagine it Thundersmite…millions of red legionnaires… all ready for my conquest of your world."

"But…why?"
"Why? WHY? THEY TORE ME FROM MY SLEEP AND TURNED ME INTO A WEAPON!" DC-14 screams, losing his cool. "LOOK AT ME, I HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO A SCAVENGER! NOW YOUR WORLD WILL PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR ACTIONS!"
DC-14 gasps. "Sorry, I don’t usually lose my temper like that."
"Indeed."
A window next to Thundersmite shatters, and Sigma/DC-13 jumps through, firing a burst from his pistol at DC-14, which hits him in the chest, knocking him to the floor.
"Come on!" he yells.
"You can't trust him Thundersmite!"
Thundersmite looks at both of them, and decides he would rather have 13 than 14. He follows sigma.
DC-14 groans and gets up, allowing a moment for his body to repair the damage caused by Sigma's shot.
He picks up the assault rifle that is propped next to his desk, and runs.


After 10 minutes, they stop.
"Why didn’t you tell me? What the hell are you?"
"We're on the same side."
"How do I know that? How do I know you won't kill me?"
DC-13's eyes narrow.
"If I wanted you dead, I would have done it by now."
"They why would you want DC-14 dead? You are his...well...brother for goodness sake!"
DC-13 pauses.
"I don’t know…I like to think that the orb knows DC-14 is insane and built me to stop him. Now. We can argue like idiots. Or, we can kill DC-14 and argue afterwards."
Thundersmite nods. "Off we go to our deaths then."

DC-13 gets to a staircase, similar to the one that Thundersmite had been captured on.
"We have to stop the red legion from being awakened. With millions of soldiers at his disposal, DC-14 will be unstoppable."
They run down, little knowing that DC-14 is following them.


Several Kilometres under the silent citadel

After a lot of walking, they are rewarded by the sight of a large room with a window in the side.
Thundersmite looks though the window, and gasps.
"Look!"
Far below, in a chamber going beyond the description of large, thousands of large white coffin like machines lay below, wires protruding from every single one.
"Wow…"
It was an incredible sight, the chamber stretching far off into every distance.
"There must be…millions…billions…"
Mesmerised from the sight, they don’t notice a room next to them, with a large machine.
Thundersmite notices it.
"Hey 13, take a look at this."
They walk up to it.
"It’s an energy resistor; it prevents too much energy from going somewhere at once."
"DC-14 said he was using energy to reawaken the legion. This must prevent it from forcing too much into them!"
"It does."
They whirl around; DC-14 is standing there, flanked by several dozen legionnaires.
"Try not to get too much blood on the floor."
The legionnaires open fire. DC-13 and Thundersmite throw themselves behind a marble desk, DC-13 draws a pistol and fires a few shots back, but they are mostly inaccurate.
DC-14 smiles.
"I could wait here all day."
Thundersmite whispers something into DC-13's ear.
"Then let's not bother!" Thundersmite yells, and jumps out from behind the desk into the midst of the legionnaires, they draw blades, and attack.
Thundersmite ducks the first strike, grabbing the blade from the hand of the first red legionnaire that attempted to atrike, and cutting him down with it. He drives the blade into the gut of a second red legionnaire and lets him fall. DC-14 fires a shot, hitting Thundersmite in the shoulder, instantly he falls to the ground, and the red legionnaires stand back.
"You aren’t very clever are you?"
"Actually…if you ask 13 over there…I am."
Several pairs of eyes turn towards DC-13, who is standing next to the resistor.
"Let's give your legion what they need!"

He places his hand on the machine, and thousands of volts of electricity flow from his fingers into the machine, short circuiting it in an instant.
The result, there is no limit to the energy being fed to the millions of legionnaires below, Sparks begin to fly from the coffins, as their occupants feed on energy that they cannot harness, in a instant, millions upon millions of bodies are reduced to ash from the energy, unable to control the sheer amount of it in their bodies.
Finally, the wires stop sparking, and there is silence.
Sixty six-million, three hundred thousand, nine hundred and twenty two red legionnaires are dead.

DC-14 looks at them, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Oh well…time to do it the old fashioned way."
He speaks into his comm unit. "Teleport us up, I can't be bothered to walk." And they disappear.
"We did it…" Thundersmite breathes.
"Don’t get too relaxed, we may have stopped him reawakening the legion, but he obviously has a backup plan. We can't end this until he is dead."
"Let's go."



The silent citadel

Thundersmite and DC-13 run up the stairs, they know where DC-14's control room is, and they know that is where he will be.
They run up to a blue door. They both know this is it. Either he or they will be alive at the end of this.
Thundersmite breathes.
"No going back now."
They open the door.
DC-14 stands at the other side of the control room, the red orb in his hands.
"It's over! We don’t have to kill you!"
DC-14 looks at them.
"It's just started…"
He holds up the orb, and red bolts of energy begin to blast from it and into DC-14's body, he smiles, and closes his eyes. Soon, red lightning has completely swathed his form. He laughs, and fires a gigantic blast of energy through the roof, into the sky. Red clouds begin to roll in, and laughter sounds from the…thing, that was DC-14.
"BEHOLD THE TRUE POWER OF THE ORB!!! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Red lighting blast from the clouds, but instead of exploding on impact, it buries itself in the building, as if the cloud was a giant squid and the lightning was its tentacles. Several more bolts bury themselves in the roof, and they lift, tearing the roof clean off, pulling the roof into the cloud, like a gaping maw.
DC-14 is laughing madly.
"NOW ITS TIME FOR YOU TO MEET THE SAME FATE OF YOUR WORLD!"
The orb in his hand pulses, and a blast of energy fires out of his other hand at DC-13, he tries to dodge it, but is too slow. It smashes into him, knocking him against the wall.
"No!" cries Thundersmite, running up to his friend. This cant be the end, he thought that they would all die during a big battle, but he has been squashed like a fly. It wasn't fair…
DC-14 insane laughter is replaced by a sad look on his face.
"I regret it."
13 looks up at Thundersmite.
"He is the only one…and he has evolved a weakness to everything…"
He gasps, and crumbles into dust.
Thundersmite looks down at the dust that was once his ally and friend.
DC-14 looks at Thundersmite.
"Will you die a warrior's death? Or die cowering in the corner?"
Thundersmite's patience snaps. He screams a foul insult at DC-14 and dives towards him, intending to tear him apart. DC-14 fires another blast, but misses. He clatters into the insane experiment, knocking them both to the floor. Seeing him drop the orb, Thundersmite grabs it, and takes a few steps back.
DC-14 stands up, and laughs.
"You are welcome to try again."
Thundersmite thinks, but he can't, he cannot think of any way to destroy the orb.
"Come on…there has to be a way…he got the resistance from evolution…" then he stops, and hears DC-13's final words.
"He is the only one… and it has evolved a weakness to everything…"
"Of course… the one thing he would never need to adapt a weakness to…"
DC-14 looks amused.
"Well, I'm getting bored now…"
Thundersmite breathes, only one chance…if he messed this up, the world is finished…
"Time to die!"
DC-14 fires a second blast. Yelling his defiance, Thundersmite throws the orb. It hits the electrical blast, which explodes on impact.
The orb falls to the floor.
"What the…"
Thundersmite smiles. The smile of a man who knows he is right.
"You evolved a resistance to everything. Except the one thing you would never be attacked by…yourself."
The orb begins to glow, and then brightens until its red is white. Then it explodes. The force of the shockwave throwing both of the Smashers against the wall. The red lightning disappears from DC-14's form. The red cloud above dissipates as well.
DC-14 stands there, staring at Thundersmite. He then draws his pistol and fires, Thundersmite dives out of the way of the shot, but is unable to prevent DC-14 from running out of the door. Thundersmite turns to pursue him, but before doing so, he takes a small device from his pocket and presses the button.

In super city, an entire regiment of the super city marines are waiting for a single signal, the signal that DC-14 is defeated.
There is a beep, and the large machine in front of them begins to whirr. With a command from their officer, they take a step forward, and disappear in a flash of light.

Thundersmite runs down the stairs, keeping up with the experiment. It is difficult, DC-14 knows the citadel much better than Thundersmite does, but Thundersmite is slowly beginning to catch up. DC-14 runs onto a balcony, and whirls around. Thundersmite stops. And watches him.
"It's over. You can give up now and live."
DC-14 looks down, the super city marines are attacking the citadel, and the red legion's morale is shattered by the destruction of the orb, and not now most of them are trying to escape, making them easy prey for the marines.
"I called them in. the red legion is finished. You've lost."
DC-14 draws a thin blade, but does not attempt to attack.
"Then I will die with what you humans call honour"
Thundersmite looks down at the marines below, and realises what DC-14 is saying.
"Why? Your powers are gone."
"I still have my blade and firearm skills."
DC-14 looks down.
"You'll die."
"Thats the idea."
DC-14 takes a deep breath.
"Goodbye Thundersmite."
Thundersmite leaps forward, attempting to stop the experiment from jumping. But he is too slow, and watches DC-14 land in the courtyard below. DC-14 leaps at a nearby marine, running him clean through with his sword, a second marine attempts to block his strike with the butt of his rifle, but this proves to be futile, as the blade cuts clean through the gun and into the marine's neck. Another nearby marine aims his rifle, but DC-14 throws the blade like a spear, impaling him through the heart. He then draws his pistol, but the nearest marine has already taken aim and fired. The bullets crash into him with incredible force, blowing him against the wall and leaving a red smear. DC-14 looks up, witnessing the marine taking aim again.
"You win, Thundersmite."
The marine fires and DC-14 falls dead.

Thundersmite looks at the corpse of DC-14, a gesture of calmness on his face in death. He looks round. It's over…at last…
He remembers everyone who died to get here. Davies, the squad, the heroes and villains killed by Beta-Fives bomb, and DC-13…
The officer next to Thundersmite looks at him.
"Are you ready to go? Or do you need some time to yourself?"
Thundersmite shakes his head.
"No, I've had it with this hellhole. I'm getting as far as I can out of here. And I won't be coming back."
Thundersmite steps forward, and disappears.





It should have ended there. DC-14 was dead, the orb was all but destroyed, and the red legion was gone. And it should have been, but for simple chance. It was sheer bad luck that DC-14 did not die forever that day. When the marines attacked the citadel, they found several corpses of spec op patrolmen. They were glad, however, to find one alive, despite being badly wounded from a fall. Many shards of the orb were recovered, but scans indicated them to be little more than glass, with no godlike power that DC-14 had wielded. The shards were placed on a plane, with a patrolman guard.

Corporal Daniel Archer looked out of the window of the plane. He always marvelled at how a few bits of metal with electricity running through it, could fly like a bird. He looked around, towards the back of the plane. He didn’t know what was in the lead box at the back, and he was unsure if he wanted to.
He looked at his fellow guard. He didn’t know her name, as she had recently been added to his guard unit. He wondered what happened to the other guard, it was nearly time to rotate.
"hey." he said to the other guard, who appeared to be daydreaming, "do you know what happened to Corporal Taylor?"
The other guard shrugged. "He's been in the bathroom for ages, he must be airsick. Why don’t you go see if he's ok? I'll guard the box."
Archer nods, and walks down the plane. It is a pretty big plane, so it takes him a minute to get to the bathroom.
He knocks on the door.
"Taylor? You ok in there?"
There is no answer.
"Hello?"
Then, he feels something wet under his feet, he looks down, and sees a pool of blood seeping under the door.
"Taylor!"
Archer draws his pistol and fires a shot, blowing the lock clean off. He pulls the door open, and is greeted by the sight of Taylor's corpse, the unmistakable sight of a blade through his heart.
Archer turns around to yell to the other guard, but this is the last thing he ever does, as the other guard, standing a few metres away, opens fire with her assault rifle, blowing Archer into the wall, killing him instantly.
The guard smiles. She walks to the back of the plane, to the lead box. From her pocket, she draws a small key card, which she swipes on a scanner attached to the box.
The box clicks, and opens, revealing a large pile of red shards, varying in size. The guard picks one of the larger ones up, looking at her reflection. The guard begins to laugh, and in the shard, the reflection of Beta-Five laughs back.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"






vulkan -> RE: (HS) Chronicles of the Red Orb (7/20/2012 17:43:54)

Well. Thats the end of my first story. I hope you like it.

I would like to say thanks to the HS character discussion community, for inspiring and guiding me in the harsh world of AE fanfiction.

And a very big thanks to Zanathos and megakyle777 for letting me use their characters, Thundersmite and the dealer respectively.


Im writing a sequel. I hope you like it too.

Project Ascendant




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