Runeforce
Aaron Sharpe (a.k.a. Runeforce)
Soon after "The Vanishing", he secretly tested one of his company's rockets, boarding an unmanned test flight into orbit. Once in orbit, the capsule experienced a technical malfunction when passing through an unexpected meteor shower. After hours offline, the capsule plummeted to the earth and was destroyed, but miraculously, Aaron Sharpe survived.
Sharpe's personal assistant helped cover up the accident so that his company and the press would not find out that he was onboard when the accident happened. The launch was a secret, only a handful of military officials authorized it - but they didn't know Sharpe was onboard the capsule...it wasn't supposed to be a manned mission.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Normal build, but toughened by the cosmic energy coursing through his veins.
Body Features
When in super heroic form as "Runeforce", dark blue tattoos of runes and scripts cover his entire body, each glowing slightly with a golden, radiating hue.
After the accident, Aaron lost all of his hair. Both Sharpe and Runeforce are bald.
After the accident, Aaron lost all of his hair. Both Sharpe and Runeforce are bald.
Facial Features
No distinguishing features.
Identifying Characteristics
None
Special abilities
The "meteor shower" his space capsule passed through was the last flare of a distant star that died millions of years ago. That energy has somehow embedded into Sharpe (Runeforce), transforming him into a super-powered Blaster. He can create cosmic energy barriers, travel through wormholes, and create large cosmic blasts and pulses of energy.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Sharpe believes in the American dream - for everyone. He built his first company from nothing and believes in honesty and fairness. The current dictators have made "peace", but it makes his skin crawl thinking of the freedom (and lives) taken.
Aaron has privately vowed to fight the injustice with all of his resources - privately forming alliances with "sympathetic" military officials and helping anyone willing to fight back against the new regimes.
Aaron has privately vowed to fight the injustice with all of his resources - privately forming alliances with "sympathetic" military officials and helping anyone willing to fight back against the new regimes.
Education
Educated through some years of college, but dropped out to start his first business.
Employment
Chairman of Xplore Corp, a privately funded space exploration company.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Many successful startup companies founded and sold, earning him billions of dollars. Sharpe is known for his inventive grit and a knack for navigating through government bureaucracy and the wealthy elites.
Taboos
When in Runeforce form, he is completely covered in script/cryptic tattoos.
Personality Characteristics
Savvies & Ineptitudes
A master inventor and mechanical engineer, Sharpe has made multiple fortunes by developing new devices and technologies.
He is also very savvy with bureaucrats and the wealthy elites. He hosts fundraisers and large galas where the notable elites are often in attendance.
Sharpe is not physically gifted and was never an athlete. Though with Runeforce he is "tough" and strong, he is not a brawler.
He is also very savvy with bureaucrats and the wealthy elites. He hosts fundraisers and large galas where the notable elites are often in attendance.
Sharpe is not physically gifted and was never an athlete. Though with Runeforce he is "tough" and strong, he is not a brawler.
Likes & Dislikes
Sharpe dislikes the inefficiency and costs associated with doing business under the new regime. He has paid the prices required, bribed the officials necessary, and learned how to be a capitalist under a dictator...but he detests it with every penny earned.
He likes building and inventing things. Sharpe believes that ingenuity will "save" us.
He likes building and inventing things. Sharpe believes that ingenuity will "save" us.
Virtues & Personality perks
He owns a space exploration company and his assistant, Jamie Richards, is largely connected in the company. She is 100% loyal to him and helps him navigate "tricky" situations without asking questions.
Vices & Personality flaws
Macallan Scotch and fine cigars
Hygiene
Hairless. When in Runeforce form, his hairs are burned away, ultimately preventing any hair growth. In normal identity/form, he is lacking eyebrows...which is odd, but his personality is very flamboyant. Many in the news media think he shaves his eyebrows as a new "fad".
Social
Contacts & Relations
Very close relationship with his personal assistant - Jamie Richards.
Also, very well connected with the Department of Defense leadership.
Also, very well connected with the Department of Defense leadership.
Social Aptitude
Well connected in elite, social circles. Is often followed by paparazzi and in magazines. Maintains an active social media presence.
Wealth & Financial state
Filthy rich, one of the richest people in the world. Sharpe is a multi-billionaire.
Aaron Sharpe is a wealthy entrepreneur, serial start-up founder, and the current chairman of Xplore, a privately funded space exploration company. But after a secret space accident he now has cosmic energy powers and a secret identity as "Runeforce".
Current Location
Millennium City
Alignment
Code Versus Killing
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Founder and Chairman of Xplore Corp.
Birthplace
Upstate New York
Children
Current Residence
Millennium City
Gender
Male
Eyes
Blue
Hair
None
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Light Bronze
Height
1.9 meters
Weight
100kg
Quotes & Catchphrases
"Justice isn't dead if we keep fighting for it!"
Related Reports
Truth in the Kitchen
Aaron walked downstairs and into the kitchen out of habit. It was nearly ten o’clock on a Saturday morning. In year’s past, it would’ve been tradition for Aaron to make pancakes with Sarah when the kitchen staff had the day off. Only Regina and Jeremy were at the house today.
But these days, Aaron wasn’t eating — didn’t need to eat. And the staff knew it. Regina, in particular, had become increasingly curious with Aaron about it. The closest thing to a mother figure now, she confronted him that morning.
“Sweetie, I know you’re gonna come down here and pretend to love my cooking. But you barely touch it. Then you bring the food to your vault and work for hours on end without a wink of sleep. And I know what plates look like when you’ve been eating food on them…and these plates haven’t been eaten on. You aren’t eating my food anymore, Aaron. I don’t know what you’re doing with it, but you sure aren’t eating it.”
Aaron had somehow avoided this conversation for months. But Regina wasn’t going to let him avoid her this time.
“Gina, I love you. And I love your food. But my appetite just isn’t want it used to be…”
He paused for a moment, considering what he could possibly tell her. “Gina, I’m an outlaw hero with powers from an alien civilization…?”
“I’ve been working a lot in the vault lately…”, he started.
Regina interrupted, “I know…you never eat in the kitchen anymore like you used to.”
Aaron continued, “You’re right. I don’t. And it’s hard for me to explain.”
Regina looked at him with rolled eyes. “How can it be so hard to explain? Either you like my food or you don’t. And you’re starting to hurt my feelings.” She half-smiled.
Aaron swallowed his anxiety and began to speak more slowly, “Do you remember that night all those years ago when the XPlore Corp plane exploded during its mission?”
“Yes…” Regina answered calmly.
Aaron continued with stuttering words, “I was…onboard the…space plane when it…exploded.”
Regina smiled as Aaron spoke the words that felt like a weight lifting off his lungs.
“I was beginning to think you might never tell me yourself.”, she said.
A Vision of the Past?
Even with the increased frequency of attacks from Gigaton and the NAGA forces, Runeforce took some days away from Homestead and maintained his human appearance as Aaron Sharpe so that he could talk with his daughter, Sarah.
She had nearly been captured by a NAGA raid. And Aaron had only just noticed her voice ringing out on the DarkR Web open-channel…one voice among many resistance units across the continent under attack from Elite NAGA forces.
He had saved her. While the New Champions took on the elite forces and even Destroids, Runeforce portaled into their building and quickly found Sarah and several of her compatriots. Within moments, he portaled them to safety. But she had nearly been killed.
Sarah was clearly no longer ‘innocent’. After several days of conversations, he learned that she had formed her own militia, secretly obtaining weapons and paying bribes using her trust funds to stay off of Dr. Destroyer’s radar. Even as impressive as this was, Aaron couldn’t tell her about the runeforce. Or about Jamie. It would just be too dangerous for her.
Even though she could clearly defend herself, Aaron worried about Sarah. While sleep was no longer necessary, Runeforce would periodically enter trances to clear his mind…and to compartmentalize his worries. But one day, his trancelike state was interrupted by a visit from Jamie.
When Jamie entered the room, Runeforce still in a trance, cosmic energy filled the room and surrounded them. His worries had triggered a series of emotional memories from Oqthcalia that had never before been known to him.
In his distress, Runeforce had ‘remembered’ a turbulent period in Oqthcalian history. Only days before the explosion of Soal, there was a celebration of three heroes from what had been called “The Commission Force”. On a podium, the heroes stood and waved to crowds of Oqthcalians. They had recently recovered countless energy pods — pods which had been secretly withheld from the common people of the planet by unknown forces.
The memory brought Runeforce peace and he smiled.
Jamie spoke loudly, “AARON! SNAP OUT OF IT!”
Her voice jarred him out of the trance. As his vision cleared, he could blearily see three humanoid forms standing in the room: one bright orange and wearing the crest of the Temple of the Kazars. Another with bulky armor covering his entire body. Then a third figure carrying a blaster and what looked like a time-device.
Jamie asked incredulously, “Who are these people?”
And as she spoke those words, they disappeared.
A New Champions Team-Up
Fazer reached out to Cypher for assistance with locating NAGA stations.
NAGA had been raiding XPlore Corp warehouses for weeks, searching for clues about the “North American Eclipse”, an unanticipated darkening of the sky across North America, which had originated from an abandoned XPlore Corp warehouse on the outskirts of Millennium City.
After eight raids in two weeks, we needed a new plan…and the members of the New Champions seemed to have stumbled (more like crashed) into a NAGA warehouse in the city while fighting against super powered villains.
Though the team was already in the middle of the battle, we joined them instantly via the XPlore Plane. Fazer deftly piloted the invisible plane above the buildings and hovered over the intersection where Wildthing, Maximum Resistance, and the team’s newest member, Lil’Rocket, were engaged in a fight with cat-like woman. Over comms, Sandcrab was audible inside the warehouse, handily crushing the NAGA agents.
When we arrived on the scene, Wildthing had been blindsided and knocked back into a car by the cat lady, but Rocket and Max engaged her immediately…leaving the cat lady blinded — she inadvertently walked away from the fray and tossed a nearby vehicle upside down…
Even still, she seemed able to sense her surroundings…as she was able to avoid direct attacks from Wildthing and Rocket. Still, Max was closing in on her and the team seemed fully capable.
In that moment, Ghost — having been attacked by a muscle-bound German — came crashing through the wall of the nearby warehouse. It is typically Ghost that does the heavy hitting.
With that, I portaled out of the XPlore Plane and onto the ground, blanketing the nearby team with innervating rays of energy, bolstering their natural abilities with additional toughness. The wisps of energy bounded around the torsos of Ghost, Wildthing, and Lil’Rocket — but I wasn’t able to reach Max…
The battle continued in the streets with members of the team trading blows with the German and the “cat lady” — so I channeled an additional layer of cosmic energy around each of the New Champions nearest me. Wildthing had moved too far from my reach, but Max was nearby…so I added an aura of deflective energy to him in addition to Lil’Rocket and Ghost.
“Maybe they don’t need it.” I thought to myself, “But support needs to be there, regardless…”
Lil’Rocket had moved over to the car that had been upended by the cat lady…but an explosion from down the street had moved it on top of him, pinning him underneath. He miraculously was able to budge the vehicle and escape unharmed…and then he trained his sights on the NAGA agents down the street causing the mayhem.
As he sped off toward them, I portaled to the upturned vehicle. A woman was bleeding and trapped inside the vehicle. Noticing others nearby who were likely her family, I shouted at them,
“I am going to heal your wife and then bring her safely to the Millennium City hospital. You can recover her there in ten minutes. Trust me, she will be fine.”
Their faces didn’t seem assured as I portaled myself and the lady into the XPlore Plane, flying invisibly above the city. I carried her into the ship’s healing bay.
Once there, the Oqthcalian runes immediately noticed an injured sentient being. The walls glowed a bright hue of blue and the bleeding wounds on her neck and waist immediately began to recede. Within seconds, the wounds were no more.
She asked so many questions. Clearly thankful, she began to cry, “The city is in terror. But you saved me. Are you a hero? The news will call you a terrorist… Tell me your name…please!”
But I spoke nothing to her.
Fazer’s thoughts filled my mind, “She needs hope, Runeforce. Give her something.”
“I can’t risk the secrecy of the New Champions, Fazer. I’ve already taken enough risk by bringing her here.”
The lady, now weeping, still covered in blood from her prior wounds pleaded, “No one else will do anything about the danger we face everyday. My car is destroyed…I was almost killed…We need heroes again or else there will never be justice!”
The word “justice” rang in Runeforce’s head as he portaled her into an alleyway behind the hospital.
“I don’t need you to know who I am, ma’am. But I do need you to believe this…” Runeforce paused and looked at her intently. She looked in his galaxy-filled eyes as he spoke:
“Justice NEVER dies if we keep fighting for it.”
And then he portaled away and into the invisible XPlore Plane, high above the city.
On the run.
“We’ve been forced to move the XPlore Plane three times now because of NAGA raids…” Jamie argued with Aaron over a late breakfast at the Sharpe Mansion.
Aaron looked at the food but didn’t eat. He kept the household staff even though none of them really ‘worked’ anymore. Along with his daughter and Jamie, they were his only family.
Jamie pulled up a report on her tablet, “I’ve checked. NAGA is raiding warehouses everywhere, indiscriminately. They aren’t on to us, but their raids sure are making the price of warehouse property in the city skyrocket. XPlore Corp is still buying properties, of course, but out of the ten properties we’ve purchased in the last two weeks — NAGA has raided eight of them already.”
There was a long pause while Aaron smoked loosely on a cigar and then exhaled, “With that many raids, we should be able to pinpoint where they are located, at least. Right?”
“Hmm. I guess that is a silver lining. We don’t have the tech to tap into the city cameras. But surely one of the New Champions does…? If we share the locations of our warehouse raids, maybe they can check archive footage and determine the routes NAGA took to our locations…tracing back to their location.”
“Cypher. He’ll be able to do it.” Aaron said without hesitation.
———
With her tablet connected through Aaron’s home’s encrypted connection, Fazer contacted Cypher over the DarkR Web:
“Cypher — if I share with you the locations of our warehouses that have been raided by NAGA forces in the last two weeks…could you check city camera footage to help us triangulate into their location? They’ve raided eight XPlore Corp warehouses lately and countless other buildings, searching for the source of the “eclipse”…
Within seconds, the response appeared in text:
“I might be able to do better; " Cypher replied.
“Remarkable.” Jamie responded aloud to Aaron. Then typing again to Cypher over the DarkR Web, “Can you locate any potential hotspots where NAGA might be? We’d like to pay them some visits.”
After a few moments, Cypher responds:
"Okay... the initial call came in from 25 different panicked citizens, was picked up on by a package bot that steered the call to this precinct, Central, which activated a sub-routine sending information downline to... OH, oh, oh looks like the Serpentine AI is being rebuilt but programmed to not be as obvious in its overview of 'Watchfulness'.
"Interesting, Fazer, there is an old electrical outpost where many of us New Champions first rescued Socrates. It has an underground hidden entrance that appears to be the main base for NAGA. Of course they have sub systems in every sector of the city. But hitting that one would cripple some of their operations for months! This could be a homecoming expedition."
Jamie shares the information from Cypher with Aaron and looks somewhat puzzled as she speaks, “Cypher seems to have located their entire Millennium City network, commandeered their security systems, and identified a crucial main-station as a potential strike point…”
“We only wanted to know where they were launching their attacks, but Cypher is leading us toward a take-down of their entire organization.” Aaron smiled and then laughed. “Are you up for it?”, he asked Jamie jokingly.
A new text arrived over the DarkR Web from Cypher:
“That wasn't what you were asking about was it Fazer?”
The cursor blinks for a few moments then text appears again with a map highlighting the location several New Champions, engaged in a fight with Eurostar and other well-known villains.
In a flash, the blinking dot with the name Ghost moved into the [i/]Durak dot, which then collided with a large building labeled, NAGA Facility - Probability 92.7%
“The results I have show this as a NAGA base", Cypher concluded. “It looks like Durak's crash will bring out some NAGA agents - we'll likely have a three way battle shortly!"
“Aaron, let’s get close to the location and be prepared for support, if needed.” Fazer said. Aaron had already transformed into Runeforce while she was talking.
“Call me Runeforce when I look like this, I have a reputation to keep…”, he said sarcastically as he portaled himself and Fazer into the Xplore Plane.
A North American Eclipse
After the last set of experiments and now months without eating and sleeping…a surreal thought began to occupy my mind,
“What am I?”
Even when the runes of the Oqthcalian civilization weren’t outwardly visible, other unseen transformations were happening in me. Though I no longer slept, my idle thoughts would often drift into the vastness of the knowledge that had been encapsulated into the orb that collided with me while I was in the XPore Plane…
Histories and philosophies; epics and tales of another world. Technologies and religions from a place and time that no longer existed, except within the runes embedded in my…soul.
“Who am I?”
All of the Oqthcalian people and their memories…all of their stories and fairytales…their hopes and dreams…the successes and failures of an entire civilization were aching within the confines of my mortal being.
”Am I mortal?”
Even the memory of Soal’s explosion lingered in my mind — a backward looking view of the star as it erupted…events captured as the last orb which harvested it’s energy snuck away into the vastness of space…heading to Earth…toward me.
The star’s destruction was too much sadness for me to bear. It meant the Oqthcalians had depleted their own star and had caused their own demise…what foolishness, from such an advanced civilization!?!
Surely it could have been stopped!!
————
“Aaron, what are you doing?!” Jamie screamed as she grabbed my arm and shook me out of my ‘memories’.
My eyes were open, but had been filled with the vastness of space. Blinking several times, I looked at Jamie and saw the terror on her face.
“Aaron, for the last few seconds you have been channeling the runeforce upward into the sky. It’s only 3PM but it is totally dark outside now!”, Jamie was visibly shaken.
With even more worry in her voice, she pointed to her phone, “Just look at the news! You’ve caused an eclipse over North America!!”
Within moments, alerts were triggered by an intrusion on the grounds of the warehouse. Sirens in the building began to ring out as the noise of a battering ram could be heard crashing through the main security gates.
“NAGA is here, Aaron. With this emotional outburst, you’ve told them exactly where we are…and where we keep the XPlore Plane.”, Jamie said as she transformed into Fazer, runes similar to those on Runeforce appearing over portions of her face and hands.
“OK. Then let’s get out of here now!”, I yelled in response. Within moments, I had portaled all of the computers and equipment from the warehouse hangar into the XPlore Plane. With Fazer at the helm, she had already engaged the ship’s perfect invisibility. Thanks to recent upgrades from her time working on the ship, the XPlore Plane was now perfectly invisible to all forms of light and across all radio frequencies, all without making a sound.
Before the NAGA agents were able to break the doors open, the XPlore Plane (now more resembling an Octhqalian cruiser) departed from the hangar.
“Jamie, do you think we can borrow another abandoned warehouse from XPlore Corp?”, I asked jokingly.
“Call me Fazer when I look like this, OK…” she replied wryly. “We have a reputation to keep.”
—————
Fazer smiled as Runeforce sat in the co-pilot’s seat of the XPlore Plane. They flew in near darkness across most of North America, searching for a new place to hide.
A “Celestial Body”
Over the months since the New Champions have been working together more frequently, Jamie made arrangements for me to take a long-term sabbatical from work. In the public reporting, I would be more “focused on the charitable foundation and other causes which are dear to me and my family.” But only Jamie knew that I’d be “volunteering” at Homestead and in my workshop at the Sharpe Mansion.
For at least the first week of my sabbatical, I spent every waking hour trying to develop a way to measure the strength and variety of my powers. My first attempts were fruitless. With Jamie’s help, I repurposed an MRI machine in an attempt to determine if my internal organs were somehow changing — or if I’d gained any new organs.
The adjustments I made should’ve worked, but we didn’t fully account for the celestial material embedded inside my body. After a few seconds of scanning my transformed body, the machine began to tremble. Instincts kicked in and I thought earnestly of Jamie and her safety. In that moment, swirling wisps of blue energy encircled her.
And the machine continued to tremble incessantly... within moments it exploded. However, the safety features of my workshop prevented a much larger catastrophe. And, protected by her own force field and reinforced by the energy field I had placed around her, Jamie was unharmed.
Because of the explosion, we weren’t able to take any readings from the computer connected to the MRI machine. But we still had some learnings:
First, I can “protect” others with my own cosmic energy...we tried this several times over, and as long as she was nearby, I could blanket her with a second-skin of radiating energy.
And second, I’ve gone a long time without sleep before...I’m an entrepreneur. And I’ve missed a couple of meals because I’m too engrossed in my work. But its been a full week and I haven’t been hungry yet or been tired. Now that I write this, I have an appetite and I’m getting tired, but this is definitely something new. Just imagine how much work I can accomplish now...
Fighting Snakes in a Courtroom
Over the last few weeks, my time has been dedicated almost entirely to the XPlore plane stored at the old Flatrock Metals Plant. The more time I spent with the plane, the more I understood it. Like my knowledge of the Oqthcalian planetary system and their now exploded sun, Sol, I just “know” about these things. It is like new memories are coming back to me every day...
One night while I was working inside the plane, a janitor came into the warehouse where the plane is stored. As has been the case lately, the plane was glowing bright blue and shimmering with gold lines. But, instinctively, I willed the plane into invisibility. The janitor didn’t come too far inside, but he spent several minutes on the far side of the room, cleaning the desks and the workshop area...but he didn’t seem to notice the plane. Astonishing!
The plane has also continued to repair itself. There are now so few noticeable imperfections remaining...the plane must be able to fly again. And considering that the plane was once a heap of twisted metal and wires after the accident, this transformation is remarkable.
Almost as soon as the janitor left the room, the voice of Wildthing and Maximum Resistance again came over the DarkR Web Comms — they’d been monitoring radio frequencies and reported earlier that were able to interrupt an attempted kidnapping.
According to their reports, a shapeshifter had mimicked the body of a police officer in the local precinct and attempted to kidnap Judge William Osborne’s daughter, Patricia. They had thwarted the kidnapping, but the ‘officer’ returned to the station and — for some reason — began attacking the Captain and most of the police force onsite. Wildthing and Max were able to subdue the villainous threats at the Police Station, also aided by Cypher and an unidentified metahuman.
News reports confirmed it all later that evening: several explosions had rocked the police station and two snake-like metahumans had been arrested along with several ‘crooked’ officers who had been aiding them — only for them to escape moments later during the explosions.
Luckily, Wildthing was able to interrogate one of the crooked officers before the explosions happened. Among other interesting information she acquired, Wildthing relayed that the same group intended to attack the courthouse next, targeting Judge Osborne directly.
So the next morning, I joined Maximum Resistance at the courthouse while Wildthing was away attending to other matters. Max was outside the building while I went into the courtroom and sat in the back, waiting for ‘my turn’ to handle some business matters in the court. But soon after I sat down, the window near the front of the courtroom shattered and armed agents burst into the courtroom alongside a monstrosity of a woman who traveled like a snake, having a tail instead of legs.
I screamed for the civilians to run for the exits — I ran as well because I couldn’t risk revealing my identity. But as soon as I could find a bathroom, I ripped off my business-suit and transformed into “Runeforce”. From memory, I portaled back to the place where I had stood moments ago... Now, everyone was gone, except for an officer of the court who had been pummeled into the floor — he was bleeding profusely.
I caught a glimpse of Judge Osborne running into his private chambers, attempting to escape from the snake-like monstrosity. I shouted for him to continue running and then I captured the snake-woman with cosmic energy. But she was too strong for the swirling cords. She burst out of the cosmic energy with a single pause. All the while, agents were firing their blasters at me — but the runes in my skin were glowing as they absorbed the blasts.
My primary goal was to protect Judge Osborne, but I didn’t want to risk failing to incapacitate the snake-like monstrosity in the room...so I again shouted for Osborne to keep running. This time, I established a barrier of cosmic-energy around the snake-woman and between the door toward Osborne’s private chamber... She rammed into the barrier several times, unable to quickly breach it.
But she was too strong for it, even. As she pierced through the barrier, she turned her attention toward me, instead of her pursuit of the Judge. Her eyes were flashing like a snake and she had a devilish split-tongue. More agents were crashing into the building and an explosion began to tear into the room. Without a moment of thought, I lunged in front of the blast, covering the wounded officer on the ground.
I could hear the hissing of the snake-woman, as she began to slither toward me. But she stopped. I looked up to see a muscular woman with red hair fighting the snake-woman. She fought brutally with her bare fists. But the tail on which the snake-woman slithered swung around furiously and bashed the red-haired woman against the wall. She looked shaken, but was clearly able to sustain the hit.
Max arrived in the courtroom soon and we were able to subdue the snake-woman — but the agents fled. Still, I couldn’t risk moving the wounded police officer. I looked out the shattered window and saw several black SUVs arrive on the street outside the building. As people began stepping out of the car, they didn’t appear to be working with the armed agents who had just fled. They came over and said something ‘official’ like “We can handle it from here...” and then one of them asked me, “Who are you?”
I couldn’t answer. I wouldn’t answer. There was just too much risk involved in being ‘known’. With help onsite and more people beginning to ask question, I started to fly away.
One of the agents yelled, “At least take our business card. We need to talk soon!”
Terror At The Bank: Three Killed, Others Seriously Injured
AP NEWSWIRE // Early on Saturday morning, the Millennium City Bank was terrorized by powered vigilantes — during the raid, three of the city’s fine young men were killed and several were seriously injured. Apparently aided by their superpowers, no video footage of the terrorists was available. One police agent onsite during the event reported,
“I was making my normal rounds at the bank and happened to be in a back room when the terrorists broke in. I heard crashing sounds and then screams of some youngsters being tossed across the room. When I peaked out the door, I saw a blue and red caped vigilante, strikingly beautiful. But she tore through the young men before they even had a chance to speak. I couldn’t think. I’m so ashamed of myself, I just barricaded the door and hoped for the best. Eventually, it was quiet outside and I came out to see the carnage.”
As a reminder to the citizens of Millennium City, all deposits are federally insured. The local branch manager confirmed, “We will not be afraid of the threats of vigilantes. And as soon as we repair damage they caused, we will re-open this bank.”
The well-known hero, “Pulsar” attempted to fight off the terrorists, but was also unsuccessful. However, he has been credited with saving the lives of several young men by intervening in the attack, bursting through the doors barricaded by the vigilante group, and drawing their fire. Several photos taken by passers-by show Pulsar lying unconscious in the street until he awoke and ran into the building, looking for survivors. He had this to say to the vigilantes,
“You MONSTERS! These young men were causing a bit of trouble, sure...but did they deserve to die?!? You almost killed me, even...but next time, it won’t be just me you’ll have to contend with! That is a promise!!”
The red and blue caped vigilante spoke to the press immediately outside the bank before flying away at a breakneck speed,
“These men were robbing the bank — we are not the criminals, they are. We tried to stop them... The police will not stop them. They will not imprison them. We did what we could. What will you do?”
Local police have asked citizens for help in identifying the vigilantes responsible for this attack. A reward of $10,000 has been offered for assistance that leads to capture.
Algorithm and DESTROIDs Working Together?
After the scrapped-together form of Algorithm disappeared at the University, Socrates was able to locate him again, now at a hi-rise office building downtown. The New Champions moved quickly to trap him there.
Sandcrab and Wildthing entered the building from the basement, heading upward through the elevator shaft. The rest of the group, myself included, approached the building from the roof, probably eighty stories into the sky.
And as soon as the group touched down on top of the building, we were encountered by four VIPER agents flying with jet packs out of the rooftop door. Max, Cypher, Stevie and I were joined by a hero we had recently encountered named Hope.
With this group of heroes, the agents never had a chance. We stunned, bolted, zapped, and blasted them all within seconds. Cypher suggested that we remove their equipment, but Hope flew into the building through the open rooftop door. Cypher, Max, and I worked quickly to disarm them.
Over the comms, we heard blasts and metal crunching — it was coming from inside the stairwell leading into the building. Hope was fighting something in the stairwell by herself.
Ominously speaking over our comm devices, Algorithm taunted, “I can’t have you all communicating with each other now, can I?”’
The comms went silent...only the sound of static remained.
But the momentary silence was marred by the sound of a grenade explosion in the stairwell. Hope... Even with the comms disabled, blasts and crushing noises were filling the area below. Cypher, Stevie, and Max moved into the stairwell, attempting to join alongside Hope.
I encapsulated the unconscious agents into a field of cosmic energy and then shouted into the stairwell, checking on the situation. The guys said everything was being sprayed with fire retardant, filling the area...so I teleported one floor below into an open office area.
Unfamiliar with the room, I looked around but saw no one...so I quickly moved to the door and listened. I heard Cypher’s voice, so I opened the door and saw an agent groggily standing in front of me. Cypher must’ve gotten to him...or maybe Stevie’s death-ray. Not taking a chance, I wrapped him in cosmic energy, effectively paralyzing him for the moment.
Explosions were echoing all around, so I stepped out of the room and turned to see a large mechanized agent in the hallway...these things are enormous. And we’ve seen them before, too, at the warehouse when we faced the ogre.
Without flinching, I unleashed a reverse black hole in front of the mechanized agent — the force of the blast sending it careening into the glass wall across the room.
To my right, the door leading back to the rooftop stairwell burst off its hinges and flew into the hallway in front of me — barely missing me. But with the door gone, dust still smoldering in the air, I could see the most fearsome version of Max I’d ever seen. There were arcs of lightning swirling all around him — the end of the ball of lightning connected with another large mechanized agent that was in the stairwell with him and Hope. The mechanizd agent slumped to the floor in a haze of smoke and electricity.
Max teleported next to me and we fought the next mechanized agent together. He sent a lightning bolt at it and then I wrapped it with an impentrable cosmic barrier. The agent kept trying to blast free from it, but he failed.
Making my way further inside, I portaled into the elevator in the middle of the room — but I unknowingly found myself surrounded by five more VIPER agents. I shouted, “MORE AGENTS ON THE WAY!”
And without thinking, I quickly portal down another floor, outside of the elevator. It was quiet on this floor, with only the hum of electricity. As I materialized in the room, a single agent behind a desk moved quickly for cover and shouted while pointing his weapon at me, “Don’t make a move!”
But I quickly encased him in cosmic energy.
Again, Algorithm’s voice came over the intercom and asked me sarcastically, “So...you were made in space, let’s see if you can survive in a vacuum!?”
There was a deafening sound as air began to rush out of the room.
And then I thought about the agent I had just encapsulated — Algorithm was going to suffocate him as well as me. I was about move toward the agent, somehow hoping to portal him with me onto the rooftop.
But almost as quickly as the air began to leave the room, a DESTROID rounded the corner — one of Dr. Destroyer’s feared automatons.
With the air leaving the room and a DESTROID face-to-face, I portaled out of the building — flying upward to the rooftop. God help the VIPER agent...
Somehow our comm devices started working again, so I informed the group that a DESTROID was in the building...and that I was evacuating.
Algorithm and DESTROIDs working together?!
This is going to change everything
It had been roughly a week since the warehouse explosion — and in comparison, the quiet in Millennium City was beginning to feel abnormal.
Not one to waste an opportunity, I began making daily trips to Flat Rock to investigate the XPlore plane more thoroughly. Though I could’ve portaled to the location more conveniently, I wanted Jamie’s help on this project — and I didn’t know how to talk with Jamie about my connection to the plane’s blue glow...I was hoping she’d figure it out as we worked together on the plane.
It could not be denied that the plane was ‘repairing’ itself, very slowly. Though I couldn’t logically or technically explain it, I just knew that my powers had caused it to begin healing.
Early in the afternoon, Socrates’ voice came over the comm-system with a request to provide urgent assistance at the Millennium City University. I didn’t have time to explain to Jamie what I was about to do...but I only told her to “have Jeremy take you back to town...I need to take care of something urgent. And I need you to trust me.”
Jamie smiled lightly as I quickly pulled up the MCU commons using Google Earth on my mobile phone. With that image in my mind, and the runes on my body glowing brightly, I opened a portal to the university and stepped through it. As the portal was closing, Jamie spoke quickly,
“Be careful Sharpe. This is going to change everything...”
The scene at the university was chaotic. People were screaming and running away from the main building. And my appearance in the common area seemed to create even more panic for some. But they kept running away from the building.
I could hear blaster fire and rumbling nearby, so I portaled closer to the sound. As the cosmic energy from my portal cleared, I could see a giant metal creature lumbering through the courtyard, carrying Maximum Resistance tightly gripped in his enormous hand. There was another hero further down the courtyard, fighting against agents with blasters.
The giant metal creature was speaking rapidly, spouting random facts about people and places; saying aloud the names of our team and their private details.
Maximum Resistance teleported away from the monster, who had identified himself as “Algorithm”.
Sandcrab also attempted to talk with the creature, but he was also grabbed and thrown into the nearby building, unharmed. Algorithm turned toward me next and I dove for cover, but he moved too quickly for me.
Now firmly in his grasp, Algorithm began speaking facts about me — saying my name aloud, referencing facts of XPlore Corp, and then listing the controversies about me and the company. It was like he was citing every publicly available news source, back-page blog, and social media post ever written.
In the next moment, Algorithm raised me into the air to deflect a bright flash which resonated onto my face. With that, everything went dark around me — I could see and hear nothing...it was like a void or a black hole.
After a moment of the persistent oblivion, I began to fear the worst...so I concentrated on the Sharpe Mansion Vault. I felt the typical sensation of portaling, but it was a few seconds before the oblivion subsided and I could see and hear again.
I portaled back to the university but the creature was gone, with only a pile of metal parts in the parking lot where he once stood. The team was still there recovering some of the debris, so I helped them quickly. With not much time before the authorities would arrive, I portaled to Homestead, loaded down with metal equipment that had once formed the “Algorithm”.
A Warehouse Explosion, A New Superhero, and a Wildthing
Sandcrab had been investigating what happened to COIL after Beth Schroder, my close confidant at the Department of Defense, offered the ominous morsel of information to me over drinks at the Town Pump Tavern, “COIL no longer exists”.
Beth didn’t know much more about COIL — and frankly neither did I — but Sandcrab was able to pick up on a lead about COIL and military trucks identified at a warehouse on the west side of town. Several of us agreed to join with him later in the evening. And at around 9PM that night, we gathered outside a bank near the warehouse.
Cypher wasn’t there when we arrived, but we could hear him over the comms saying, “Do not attack ‘Stevie’, my robot.”
There was some chatter among the team about sugar substitutes and a shrewd comparison to Stevie Nicks...but everyone quickly agreed not to attack “Stevie”.
Sandcrab’s surveillance identified some movement inside the warehouse and he spoke aloud over comms, “Well that’s odd, at 9PM at night there are still people working inside that warehouse...a little suspicious.”
Field Effect asked pointedly, “Do any of them have guns?”
“I’ll get a closer look and let you know...”, Sandcrab responded as he proceeded to tunnel underground toward the warehouse with Stevie, Cypher’s robot, flying down and following quickly afterward.
After a few minutes, Sandcrab came back over the comms with a status report, “We’ve got COIL agents here, do you all want to beat up some bad guys and then question them?”
Field Effect piped up quickly, “Do you see any of the Talon agents?”
The “Black Talon” agents wore enormous mechanized robot-suits and had taken a toll on Field Effect in their last encounter at the Power Transfer Station.
Sandcrab responded quickly, ”There are a couple of robot-looking things in here. Let’s all attack at the same time and surprise them.”
Cypher suggested that the group should all follow the tunnel into the building and so Sandcrab returned back to the rendezvous point, reopening the tunnel for the team.
For the benefit of the new hero, WindWalker, who had not yet received a DarkR-enabled comm device, Field Effect explained, “There are security cameras around the building so we are going to use Sandcrab’s tunnel to enter undetected.”
As soon as the ground broke above us, Field Effect dashed out of the tunnel and straight at the large mechanized robot-looking agent on the south side of the building. Charging at the mech, she swung with a kick, caving in some of the metal of the suit — but it stood firm and unmoving.
“Didn’t we already do this dance?”, she said wearily.
The building was crowded, full of trucks — the same trucks that we had encountered at the Power Transfer Station. Those trucks had been transporting COIL blaster rifles. There were also Talon agents visible at both ends of the building along with many armed agents scattered about...too many to count.
Sandcrab grabbed one of the mechanized agents and careened it into the back of the truck, closing his claws and squeezing it — the sound of audible metal crushing was unmistakable. The man inside the mechanized Talon suit gasped aloud in pain.
There were two agents standing in front of the team’s newest hero, WindWalker. And without hesitation, she walked up to the agent on her left and manifested a bright pink lightsaber — holding it in the middle — with devastating glow of light at each end.
“Somebody tell me that Field Effect is NOT dating that guy,” she said, referring to the mechanized agent at the end of the room. But Field Effect wasn’t interested in that type of dancing...
WindWalker swiped at the agent with her lightsaber, cutting him deep down the side. The agent screamed in terror and fell to the floor, clearly bleeding and now incapacitated.
Cypher’s robot, Stevie, then appeared in the room and flew closer to north side toward a cluster of agents, blasting one of them back into the wall, denting the garage door. The agent fell to the floor, unconscious.
Then the agent still standing next to WindWalker — the one not cut down by her lightsaber — opened fire, with blaster fire whizzing past her, only making their mark on the trucks behind us.
And yet another agent opened fire into the truck where Sandcrab had carried the mechanized Talon agent. The sound of energy blasters was deafening as they ricocheted across the mech and the truck — hopefully missing Sandcrab. Still another agent crowded in as well, laying down a string of blaster fire into the truck where Sandcrab was continuing to hold tight onto the mechanized agent.
At that point, one agent screamed, “Warehouse 26 is under attack! We are taking on hostiles. They are coming up through the floor.”
More agents were coming at us from all angles. Another standing near Field Effect opened fire, but the blasts were absorbed into her force field. Even still, the blaster fire was so powerful that she was pushed back through the warehouse door, bursting it open and throwing her onto the street outside.
The Talon agent she had kicked earlier began to move toward her, now that she was blasted backward outside of the building. The mechanized agent unleashed an entanglement of coil wires which wrapped Field Effect tightly in place.
Immediately to my left, there were three agents standing with blaster rifles drawn. And without hesitation, I created a miniature star explosion that encompassed them all, forcing them backward to the ground.
Amidst the blaster fire and explosions, Cypher communicated again over the comms, “There is another unknown super out here, I’m not sure...friendly or foe...?”
Sandcrab stepped out of the truck where he’d careened the Talon agent earlier, still holding the enormous mechanized robot but now swinging it like a baseball bat at the COIL agent standing nearby — the one who had just been laying down blaster-fire at Sandcrab.
Like a slugger, the swing connected and the agent was rocketed backward into the trucks behind him, slumping to the ground.
The sound of blaster fire was lessening as agents continued to fall to the floor. But in that moment, the rooftop exploded directly above me as a large ogre of a man crashed into the building, barely missing me as he landed.
As parts of the ceiling fell to the ground, he screamed aloud “NO MORE BULLYING!” The ogre stood tall and solid, an impressive figure...seething in anger.
“Look who’s talking?!” WindWalker quickly taunted.
The COIL agent who had been firing at WindWalker continued doing so, but the blaster fire still escaped past her, never making its mark. But the agents firing at Sandcrab finally did...but their blasts had no effect on him.
Another agent fired from behind the trucks at the south side of the room, making contact with me. But the blasts were absorbed by the runes, also having no effect.
With the ogre now standing directly in front of both me and WindWalker, I summoned a cosmic barrier between us...spanning from the wall across the building and extending past the Ogre. If not for the immediate danger of the battle before us, the barrier might’ve been beautiful — the openness of space with solar systems and stars in vast array. But the Talon who had just wrapped up Field Effect with coils launched a cannon explosion.
But Unfazed by the explosion and now freed from the coils that had bound her, Field Effect ran into the smoke and flames and back toward the Talon agent, swinging her fist and connecting with such enormous strength that the Talon agent flew back against the truck parked on the west side of the building. His backward momentum from her punch carried through the wall and soundly destroyed the trucks at the end of the building.
However, one of the trucks must’ve been full of grenades because the immediate explosion enveloped the entire south side of the building, pushing Field Effect back out onto the street. I was also caught in the explosion, pushing me back and down to the ground. The runes again absorbed most of the impact, but a piece of shrapnel from the trucks had been lodged into my side...blood seeping from the wound.
With the flames of explosion still hanging in the air, Sandcrab dropped the squeezed-and-broken Talon and grabbed the last COIL agent still standing, squeezing him — crushing him really — bones creaking and breaking. He barely stopped short of taking his life. But still, the agent was alive, now broken and lying on the floor.
I stood up and removed the shrapnel from my side...examining the blood on my hands, but there was no time to think about the wound as Cypher appeared in the building with an ominous announcement,
“I see this mysterious super out here again...”, he said.
But Sandcrab wasn’t finished. He yelled over to the enormous ogre at the far end of the building, “We aren’t bullies! We are just trying to make sure there aren’t weapons who can hurt people...”
But the ogre-sized super croaked back loudly, “You’ve be been hurting everyone! Shut up. You are the bully!”
The ogre motioned over to the agent with broken bones lying on the floor. “Especially that guy over there!” He paused for a moment, “And I’m not going to stand for it. I don’t put up with that kind of bullshit...”
The ogre walked right up to the cosmic barrier and stomped his foot solidly on the ground with a powerful reverberation that caused an explosion aimed at WindWalker. She was thrown back by the blast, up into the air, but Sandcrab caught her.
Flying upward to get a better shot at the Ogre, he screamed at me with a taunt, “Are you leaving?! You gonna try to get those crayon markings off your skin?!” The ogre was clearly an ignoramus, but still dangerous.
Cypher piped in over the comms, “Stevie, we need to take cover...”
Field Effect rushed at the Ogre and wrapped her arms around him, moving into him and catapulting him backward while shouting, “Pick on someone half your size!”
And then, with more urgency, Cypher repeated over the DarkR comms, “An explosion is about to happen in the building next to us. I can hear it building, I can almost feel it.”
Then, the voice of Socrates was also audible over the comms, “Sandcrab, I am detecting a large amount of electromagnetic interference. As if several power sources are overlaying. I strongly encourage evacuating the area.”
Socrates added, “I do believe the other lady on the other roof has done something in that warehouse to cause this explosion.”
Sandcrab responded, “Apprehending her is secondary to deactivating the bomb. Can you guide me to it?”
“Sandcrab, I strongly suggest you and any survivors from the building evacuate the area immediately.” Socrates replied, with added urgency in his a computerized voice.
The next moments were a blur of activity — each of us scrambling to get out of the building and to ‘save’ those agents we’d just defeated from being destroyed in an impending explosion — the source of which was unknown.
In that moment, I opened cosmic portals around two agents, WindWalker, and myself and teleported us all into the open parking lot outside the bank...from where we had originally tunneled into the warehouse.
I could hear over the comms the others attempting to evacuate and save the remaining unconscious agents. In mere seconds, a series of building explosions erupted — smoke and debris expelling outward in all directions. Sandcrab and Field Effect escaped into different directions, but Cypher appeared in the parking lot very close nearby.
With adrenaline still rushing and smoke now billowing into the sky from the collapsed buildings, I grabbed the closest COIL agent and shook him awake,
“I can either portal you fifty kilometers into the air and let you figure things out...or you can give me a name. Who are you working for?! Your choice.”
The agent was terrified and barely conscious, but he answered with single word, repeating it and then drifting off, “Boomslang...boomslang...boom...slang.” And then he fell unconscious again.
I turned around at that moment to see Cypher and WindWalker standing face to face with an unidentified super — WindWalker’s pink lightsaber drawn again, defensively.
The unidentified super growled low in her chest, a deep warning rumble. Suddenly her head turned, slightly, as if she had become aware of something behind her. She spun about on a dime, facing away from WindWalker just as Stevie and Cypher came into view.
But then she seemed to relax a bit, settling back on her her heels and smirking at Cypher and WindWalker and they began to speak out of my earshot. When I approached more closely, I could hear the conversation.
In a deep, gravelly voice she spoke, “If I was a friend of Destroyer, I have a really bad way of showing it, would you not say? Do you not speak American...? I answered your question — on wether I was friend or foe of the one you call ‘Destroyer’”
WindWalker's face looked less tense as she began to twirl the pink wand of light in her fingers. "Nah, If she wanted to bust us up, she should have moved by now..."
“Good, you speak American”, the gravely-voiced super retorted.
"English," Cypher corrected, "It's English"
“No. The English speak English.....unless you are English? You do not seem to have the accent”, she quipped.
At this point, I interjected myself into the conversation, “I was also listening just now...‘If you were a friend, then you have a really bad way of showing it.’”
I pressed her logically, “We just narrowly escaped an explosion, also barely avoiding taking the lives of these foolhardy agents in the blast. So I’d consider this a fair line of questions. If you are no friend of Destroyer — assuming the typical way of showing friendship — then why did you set the explosion?”
The unidentified hero turned toward me, glancing once at the collapsed COIL agent at my feet and then speaking, “You answer your own question; because I am no friend of his.’
Looking backward, she glanced in the direction of the buildings, “As to the collateral damage; that was unintended. I...lets say...miscalculated”
In the moment of her pause, WindWalker chuckled and the unidentified super looked back at her, showing the tips of fangs...or maybe it was a smile.
Wind walker twirled her pink, glowing blade faster — showing off a bit before she let it fade out...and then she flashed a Mona Lisa smile.
With the tension of the moment becoming more obvious, I tried to calm things down, “Well, I can promise you I don’t want to be judged for my miscalculations. And a foe of Destroyer is a friend to me. But trust is more important than friendship right now. Are you willing to extend us a bit of trust?”
I paused and extended my hand toward the unidentified super — continuing with my verbal offer,
“Will you allow me to portal you into my private residence for a quick chat over some of my best scotch and possibly a cigar, if you are so inclined? WindWalker, you are welcome as well sans the vices. But I think we need to get out of here quickly.” WindWalker couldn’t have been older than sixteen years...
Then looking at Cypher , I admitted, ”At this point, I think this is a safer alternative to riskier locations. Do you agree?”
Cypher agreed.
But the whole situation was laughable to WindWalker, as she made a face, "Cigars? Hope you have a snack with that Scotch"
And to this, I laughed out loud...a welcome relief to the tense moments still unfolding all around.
“Cypher, you are more than welcome to join us for this conversation.” Continuing to look at the unidentified super, hand still outstretched, I repeated, ”What do you say?”
Cypher looked over at her and offered agreement “I will join unless you feel you are being outnumbered?”
The unidentified hero stood upright, pivoting toward me, looking down at my hand. A slow snarl slipped past her barely parted lips, “Trust goes both ways. We will see if you earn mine”
She took hold of my hand while smirking backward at Cypher,
“Outnumbered? There are only three of you.”
With things settling down, I touched the comm in my ear and shared with the team over the DarkR web “Team — Cypher and I are going back to my vault so that we can chat with WindWalker and a new super we’ve encountered”.
Stopping for a moment mid-sentence, I looked at the wary unidentified super, “In this form, I go by the name ‘Runeforce’, what is your name?”
She responded plainly, “You can call me Wildthing.”
Over DarkR comms, Field Effect asked incredulously, “New super? I thought WindWalker WAS the new super?! One sec, I need to punch this guy, he's waking up. Ok. What was that?"
I tapped my earpiece again, “Yes, we have met another super who goes by the name ‘Wildthing’ and have decided to chat more with her over scotch and cigars...and away from the burning buildings and approaching sirens.”
WindWalker reached out for my other hand at the same moment and said wryly, "Since you're driving..." Giving Wildthing a friendlier look, she added, "This is getting to be a real party."
Wildthing sighed and said under her breath with some irritation, “...humans”
Responding back over the comms, I added one final offer, “FE, do you want to come with? I think you could join with us for this jump, if I push it...I’ll just need to take a breather when we get there.”
Field Effect responded hesitantly, "Ummm, where are you meeting? I can make it there. Taxi's exist. Assuming you're staying in town."
With that curious response, I clarified, “We are meeting at the Sharpe Mansion Vault. We’ll see you there soon. I’ll tell the house staff to be expecting you.”
Wildthing glanced around at the men strewn about the parking lot, and spoke aloud, “Is it your intention to leave them here, without restraints? I doubt they will obligingly wait here for the ‘authorities’”?
“Yes. When the ‘authorities’ arrive, they’ll be released anyway. And if we are still here at that time, it’ll be us they attempt to restrain.”, I explained.
With that, I began to concentrate intently as portals opened around us all. In one moment, the night sky faded away. In the next moment, the vastness of the cosmos appeared — countless stars and solar systems visible in clear display. And then, only a third moment later, Wildthing, WindWalker, Cypher (and Stevie) and I were standing around a table in the cavernous Sharpe Mansion Vault.
Runes Etched Into The Wreckage
After an hour-long drive, we arrived at the Xplore Corp secure storage facility at around 2PM in the afternoon. Regina had prepared some sandwiches and packed a few bottled waters for us to share with Jamie, so we ate together in the park overlooking the Huron River flowing peacefully nearby. After the meal, Jeremy returned to the house — knowing that Jamie and I would be working for hours...and she’d take me back to the house when we were done.
The storage facility was at the site of the old Flat Rock Metals building which had previously been a Ford Motor Company parts manufacturing warehouse...but now it was a large, cavernous storage facility for the wreckage of an Xplore plane...the plane I secretly boarded three years ago. The plane that plummeted back to earth when a mysterious force caused total system’s failure, bringing the plane — and me secretly onboard — crashing into the Earth.
Jamie swiped through the security gates and led me down a long hallway. We walked together silently until we reached the end of the corridor. A solid black door was secured by a pin-pad which Jamie entered and the door opened after a short “beep” indicating the proper code’s entry.
She walked in first and I followed her. Though there were large lights in the ceiling above, they were not yet turned on. Nonetheless, the wreckage filling the room was obvious by the light blue hue that glowed all around.
We both just looked at it for a few seconds, speechless.
But then, almost instinctively, we began working together in tandem. She was photographing and comparing the plane with pictures from years prior to the accident. I was looking for sources of energy for the blue glow...but the whole plane seemed to be generating energy, though at different times and phases...almost like it was pulsating.
We spent hours working together, making comments periodically, but mostly working in silence. Jamie noticed some interesting changes in the plane — maybe not changes, but repairs. Small areas of the protective shielding that had been destroyed in the crash weren’t totally obliterated anymore. Eventually, after another couple of hours passed, Jamie stopped and asked a blunt question:
“Sharpe. Have you been coming here and working on this wreckage before today?”, she asked with sincere incredulousness.
“What?!” I responded sincerely. “I didn’t even know this was here...honestly. We have so many storage buildings and offsite locations, I didn’t even know about this place.”
Jamie explained the small changes she was noticing, sharing before and after photos of select locations on the plane. And she was right, several very small areas looked like they’d been...repaired. In addition to the unexplained repairs, I had also noticed something...runes.
“Jamie, look at this.” I pointed to the edge of the plane toward a portion of the wing.
Jamie responded blankly, “What?”
“The runes. Right here on the edge of the wing. Have you ever seen anything like this?” I asked her.
“I don’t see anything there, Sharpe. I’d say you are kidding me, but I don’t think you are. Describe them to me.” She insisted.
Perplexed, I moved closer to the wing’s edge and put my hand on the plane right beneath the runes. But at that moment the plane’s glow expanded around my hand and the runes grew even brighter.
“I see it” she said. “I didn’t before, but as soon as you touched the wing, I saw it.”
And then we heard a loud, metallic “pop”. Right in front of us — as we were watching — a piece of the plane’s wing that was previously warped from heat and pressure popped outward, returning to proper form.
Jamie and I looked at each other and then looked back at the wing. “Something isn’t right about this.” She said.
“You’re telling me!?” I responded with honest bewilderment.
We both instinctively backed away from the wing and returned to the row of computers on the side of the room where there were several chairs...we both sat down.
“It’s been a long day, Sharpe. We need to step away from this for a bit and think.” Jamie said.
“Agreed.” Looking at a photograph of the runes from the wing. ”I want to do some research on these. Maybe you can check to see if anyone at Xplore Corp had been working on self-repairing technology?”
“Yeah...” Jamie said, trailing off a little. “I’ll do that...” She didn’t sound very convinced.
We walked away from the storage building and Jamie re-engaged the locks and security protocols. As we walked down the long hallway, there was silence. Then Jamie spoke briskly,
“Sharpe. You’re still glowing.”
The ride back to Sharpe Mansion was perfectly silent. And by the time we arrived back, the glow had eventually worn off, but more questions remained.
by Audballs.png
A Glowing Space Plane and A Star Capsule
Jamie called me a few minutes after I woke from the vivid dream/memory of Soal’s death. I answered the phone immediately, because I always answer Jamie’s calls.
“Hey Jamie...” I responded, groggily. “What’s up?”
Jamie has been a family friend for as long as I can remember and since creating Xplore Corp, she’s been my personal assistant. She is family to me.
“The wreckage of the Space Plane is glowing.”
There was silence on the phone as we both failed to have words for what to say next.
“It...it’s glowing?” I asked her, incredulously. “What do you mean?”
Jamie answered in her typical brisk and factual sentences, “After your crash landing, I was certain you’d be dead. I arrived on the scene of the crash before anyone else. You weren’t dead. You weren’t even hurt...”
She paused.
“And the space plane was glowing blue.”
Jamie had never mentioned this to me before. She’d never spoken about anything that happened that day. She just took care of everything...like she always does.
“You never told me it was glowing blue...?” I said, questioningly. “When did this happen, err, start happening again? And how did you know?”
She responded, “I have video monitoring and sensors on the wreckage at all times. Real-time alerts are sent to me if anything changes.”
She paused again. “And something changed a few minutes ago. Look at this...” She showed live footage from the secure storage facility where the wreckage is located on the Xplore Corp compound. Sure enough, it was glowing in a soft blue hue. “Can you meet me there?” She asked, seriously. “I think we need to check this out and run some tests...No, I I need you to run some tests on this.”
“Sure thing.” I said. “I’ll have Jeremy bring me there after I get up and grab a bite to eat, OK?”
“Get up?!” She asked, with the sarcasm barely hidden in her voice. “It is after noon! Did you work through the night again?!”
“I’ll meet you there in an hour.” I said, ignoring her question and sarcasm. “Happy Fourth of July” I quipped — and then ended the phone call.
There were so many thoughts racing through my mind. “Did Jamie know?”, “What else has she not told me about that day?”, “If she knows about my powers, is she safe?”
I sincerely hope she doesn’t know...and now isn’t the time to tell her anything, especially with the New Champions forming in secrecy.
I dressed casually in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers...and then I walked downstairs into the den, finding Jeremy in the room reading a newspaper. He was always willing to drive and this time was no different.
At almost sixty-five years old, Jeremy was technically my bodyguard — drivers aren’t really necessary anymore in Millennium City. But he was born in a time when cars still had clutches and stick-shifters. And he had been a taxi-driver in Detroit for thirty years...before the city was destroyed and rebuilt. So now he “drives”...and he watches out for me.
Jeremy pulled the modernized Rolls Royce around and opened the rear door for me. As I was walking toward the car, I looked up to the sun, pausing in mid-step.
Where the Sun should be, I momentarily saw the image of a round, metallic capsule with golden lines etched across it and glowing blue panels in interspersed locations. And just like the dream last night, I immediately “knew” what this was: a Star Capsule, the last Star Capsule made from energy of Soal. And in the next blink, the Star Capsule memory faded and the Sun remained high in the sky as I sat down in the car. Jeremy began the route to Xplore Corp’s secure storage facility. But this “memory” was in the forefront of my mind for the entire trip:
by AUDBALLS.PNG
The Death of Soal
My dreams were vivid last night — more spectactularly vivid than I’ve ever experienced before. And, to be honest, it didn’t feel like a dream. I’ve experimented with all types of drug-induced, lucid dreaming in the past — trying to fight my inner demons, but I’ve never had a dream like this.
I was in deep outer space with the stars and galaxies moving further and further away. It wasn’t a fearful dream, though. It was...beautiful. The glimmer of distant galaxies filled the darkness of the void around me and I felt safe...almost encapsulated from the void. And, all the while, I kept moving further and further away.
And then...an explosion filled the space before me. Clouds of star dust were billowing into multiplied plumes of cosmic energy. And the energy overcame me as quickly as it appeared. Then...there was darkness.
It was shortly after noon when I awoke the next day. But the image of the dream, no, the memory was with me. Similar to the way I “knew” about the portal runes while we were racing toward Isobar at the Power Plant mission...I knew what this was:
The star was called, “Soal”. And now, the singular waking memory I have of it was its last gasp, its final breath — exhaling its remaining existence outward.
by Hubble Space Telescope
Working Through The Night
I couldn’t think clearly. Beth was doing well but had warned me to be careful. Surely she didn’t know anything about the power plant mission...? There was no way she could’ve connected any of it to me anyways. I was just being paranoid. Still, I need to get back to the Vault and work on more DarkR FOBs. Secrecy would continue to be paramount.
Jeremy was waiting outside the tavern and opened the door the car for me, so as I settled comfortably into car. Then he sat in the drivers seat and pressed the ignition, speaking the words, “Return to Sharpe Mansion”. And the modernized Rolls Royce moved away from the tavern automatically, heading back to the mansion seamlessly weaving between cars and intersections due to the city’s advanced architecture, returning to the front entryway just after 8PM.
I stopped by the kitchen to grab a sandwich and a bowl of soup from Regina — leftovers from the house chef’s last prepared meal.
Regina was in the kitchen when I arrived, so I quickly went by and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks Regina. You’re a lifesaver.” I said sincerely. Regina was the first employee I brought on at the house, fifteen years ago. She almost felt like a mother and a sister to me, at the same time.
Regina smiled and watched as I weaved in and out of the spacious kitchen, until I paused, “Has Sarah already eaten?”, I asked. Sarah was home for the summer, but we both kept to ourselves these days — like father, like daughter.
“Yes.” Regina responded. “Lucky for you, she left some of that soup for you.”
Grabbing a mineral water from the drink refrigerator in one hand and holding the plate of food and soup in the other, I walked up to Sarah’s room precariously and knocked on the door lightly with my forehead.
“Sarah? I’m home now. You there?”
After a few seconds, Sarah opened the door and smiled. “You got the soup.”
“Yep. Thanks for leaving me some.” We chatted together for a few seconds and laughed about plans we had for a trip later in the month. After a minute I told her, “I’m going to work in the vault for a while tonight, OK? I have an idea and need to work out some of the bugs.”
“OK Dad. I love you. Goodnight.”
I made my way to the vault, closing the door and placing the food on the workbench. Then, I found my old Electronics book from the shelf — an old college textbook for a class I never attended — and turned to the page on Soldering. Reading it carefully, like a newbie, I reassured myself of the final steps of soldering the DarkR FOBs.
More scotch, and another cigar later, three more FOBs had been fabricated, only stopping when the materials became scare. It was 3AM in the morning.
“I’ll need Jamie to get me some more materials...” I said out loud to myself, knowing she’d figure out how to do it, but hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions. “Not at this point”, I said to myself. “I’m not ready to explain all of this to her yet.”
Opening a secret drawer in the workbench, I placed three new FOBs alongside the one created earlier in the day. Four FOBs were now ready for whenever Socrates identifies additional candidates for the New Champions Protocol.
Not realizing how early it was in the morning, I sent a secure text over the DarkR web, “Socrates, a total of four new FOBs are available now. I have them stored securely in my vault until they are needed.”
With that, I lifted the dusty old ink bottle from the back corner of my workbench. Immediately, a set of stairs appeared behind me as the bookshelf next to the cigar closet receded into the six-foot thick vault wall. Taking the dimly-lit stairs downward, I eventually arrived in the large cavernous shower room of the master bathroom suite — blue and silver square tiles folding backward to open as I approached and closing again as I passed through.
After a quick shower, I stumbled into bed. Surely there are more long days like this ahead of us.
COIL No Longer Exists
Soon after the Power Plant mission, I worked throughout the day in my lab, breaking for a moment to help Sandcrab with a test at Homestead, but then returning quickly afterward — attempting to build a new DarkR FOB for Beth Schroeder, my contact at the Department of Defense. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread. The memory of blaster fire and the Black Talon mech we had faced just the day before was too fresh.
“Dammit!” I yelled, soldering through a second busted FOB. Pausing for a moment and standing up from the desk in the vault-lab. “I need a drink,” I muttered in frustration.
Walking slowly to the cellar, I pulled an 18 year Macallan off the shelf. This one was a gift from the President almost ten years ago. Then pausing with the bottle in hand, “Twenty eight years ago...things sure are different now.” I poured the glass half full and turned to face the walk-in cigar closet.
Looking for a “King” [King of Denmark], I find one on the top shelf, removing the gold foil wrapper and revealing the imprinted name “Sharpe”.
Now walking up from the cellar, drink in hand and cigar alight, I make my way back to the Vault.
“Third time’s a charm...” I say hopefully, getting back to work a third time on a new DarkR FOB, hoping to get one successful build for Beth. Smoke fills the room mixed with the aroma of aged scotch splashed onto the workbench. After an hour, the glass is empty and the cigar reduced to ash, but a new FOB was completed and online.
Maybe a little influenced by the stress...and the scotch, I pulled up my DarkR FOB messenger and sent a note to the team, securely, informing them that I intended to add Beth to the comm network.
But the response from Sandcrab was less than enthusiastic — and probably, reasonably so. The group’s security is now interconnected and could be potentially jeopardized by carelessness or even by unexpected threats.
Backtracking a little, I nixed the idea of adding her to the network — saying out loud and typing it in response to the secure group chat, “I haven’t burdened Beth with knowledge of my powers up to this point. I may be ready to share that with her eventually, but I can’t just think about myself...now that we are all connected.“
I definitely have every reason to trust Beth, but trust isn’t the only ingredient. Thinking to myself,”She doesn’t know me as Runeforce and I’ve not been willing to burden her with that knowledge up to this point. Of course, we’d not engaged in a fight amongst coil agents and armored mechs before now, either. Things have changed, but how will that affect my relationship with Beth?”
Later that evening, I placed a call to Beth, using a DarkR FOB. Because she doesn’t have a FOB, the call appears as “Unidentified” and is untraceable. The phone rings several times before a calm female voice answers:
“How is it that I am receiving a telephone call from an unidentified number?”
Recognizing her voice, I stated calmly, “Beth. It has been a while since we last danced together at the gala. But I don’t think I can wait to see you again. Will you meet me tonight for a drink at the old tavern on the corner of Park and Montcalm?”
“Sure. Meet me there in thirty minutes.” she responds, quietly.
Jeremy was downstairs in the den with the other house staff watching the evening news when I asked him to bring the car around.
“Jeremy, I’d like to you to take me to the Town Pump Tavern, downtown. I am meeting a friend there in thirty minutes, but I’d like to be there a little early.”
After driving me to the tavern, I instructed Jeremy to wait outside the bar. “This shouldn’t take very long. Probably only twenty or thirty minutes.”, I explained.
I walk inside the tavern, looking for a table near the back, but am immediately recognized by the bartender...whom I *do not* know.
Walking up to the bar, I eye the most expensive vodka on the shelf ((knowing Beth will order it, for sure)). Then I order two drinks, “I’ll have one Macallan eighteen, one Magnum Grey Goose on the rocks with a lemon twist and a splash of water, and...a few minutes of privacy from the paparazzi, please”, placing a roll of $100 bills on the counter. “My guest will arrive soon, and I’d prefer for no one else to come to the back section of the tavern. ”
The bartender takes the roll of money slowly and smiles. “Yessir, Mr. Sharpe, we’ll make sure no one comes around. Do you want me to clear the entire building for you?”
“No, thank you. That won’t be necessary.” I respond sincerely. “I just want to have a nice quiet drink with my friend, no questions asked. I’ll take the scotch now on my way back to the table. You’ll know my friend when she arrives...she’ll order this drink, exactly. Don’t let anyone else come back.”
((Not wanting to reveal my alternate identity to Beth, waiting for her to arrive, I make up a story about an Xplore Corp Operations teams having just had to bribe some agents to get through to a power supply station, of all places.))
Beth arrives after a few minutes, taking longer than expected. But then I see her walking slowly toward me from the front of the building, carefully dressed in a grey pantsuit and lavender blouse. Her hair is neatly parted down the middle, though obviously tussled from a day of work.
She sits at the table, drink in hand, and smiles. “You got my drink wrong, Sharpe.”
“I doubt it.” I respond, laughing.
“The poor guy almost didn’t let me come back here. I ordered my drink with a lime this time, but you must’ve told him I’d want a lemon twist.”, she chided. “You don’t know *everything* about me...” she adds, continuing to smile.
“Noted. I’ll make sure we get plenty of lemons for the next gala.” I promise, wryly.
Beth gets quickly to the point, taking a sip from her drink — “What is so urgent that you would call me from an untraceable line and ask to meet in person, in public? And without Jamie? What’s going on?”
((Sharpe typically meets with Beth once per month at a regular gala held at his house, meeting secretly in his vault along with Jamie Richards, his assistant.))
I pause, considering my fabricated story...and, for a moment, consider telling her the truth about the DarkR web, and the FOB I made for her, but won’t give her tonight...out of fear for her safety *and the team’s safety.* But instead, I lied to her:
“My guys were trying to enter a local power station, intending to buy some recycled parts for a confidential program I’m developing, something even Jamie doesn’t know about. But they were stopped by agents with COIL insignias on their weapons.”
I pause again, trying to read her facial expressions. But after a second, continued on:
“So now I’m trying to head off any surprises for my company in the future by hiring some extra security. For that matter, I’m interested in hiring some of the supers that you might know of who don’t mind giving Destroyer’s puppets the quiet middle-finger?”
Beth looks straight at me, still taking sips from her drink without breaking eye contact. “COIL doesn’t exist anymore, Sharpe. Whatever your team saw, whomever they bribed, it wasn’t COIL.”
“Who was it then?”, I asked impatiently.
“How should I know?”, she pauses, frustrated. “I really don’t know, my dear.”, smile returning to her face.
I was disappointed, but I know Beth well enough to see that she doesn’t know more, and is probably frustrated about it.
“And what about any candidates I might want to hire, to give Jeremy a run for his money as my personal security?” I said, picking at himself a bit, “Surely I don’t really need a driver anymore in our ‘city of the future’, and Jeremy is good people, but he’s no match for mobs running around with COIL blasters.”
“Be careful out there, Sharpe.”, she says, standing up slowly from her finished drink. “All our recent ‘shipments’ have already arrived at their far-off destinations.”
Beth walks away and back toward the front of the tavern, leaving me alone at the table where I sat for a while in silence.
Then, picking up his phone, I typed a secure message to the team. “COIL no longer exists.”
Falling Apart & Coming Together
At some point, probably just a month after the superheroes vanished, Destroyer began eliminating world leaders. News reports were almost daily. I remember the first headline clearly, “German Chancellor Murdered by Destroyer”.
I was scheduled to fly to Germany for an industrial space flight roundtable. It was rumored the the Chancellor would make a private appearance among the leadership group after the day’s sessions ended...but that trip was cancelled — and so was the Chancellor.
Then the next headline was more emphatic — almost impressed, “Destroyer Crushes Japanese Prime Minister“
Then the next, “Russian President Beamed into Oblivion. Citizens Celebrate.”
And more followed, “Chinese National Assembly Vaporized in Elegant Display”
“British Prime Minister Admits to Treason — Executed Mercifully by Destroyer.”
“US President Convicted of High Crimes — Executed by Gigaton. Justice Served.”
And the names kept coming. Over time, the tone of the headlines and the “spin” of the media softened toward Destroyer, portraying him as a liberator. Headlines shifted from “murderous” to “merciful” and “just” within a month and, out of fear, most people accepted it and moved on. They didn’t have a choice.
After nearly a month of daily news reports on governmental leaders admitting to treason and being “mercifully” executed by Destroyer and his cronies, the world seemed to be falling apart. Nearly all world leaders had been eliminated and replaced with those who were loyal to Destroyer. Some leaders capitulated and joined his ranks, but the headlines were mainly painted with dead “traitors”.
Though it wasn’t as widely reported, my remaining sources in the Department of Defense informed me of what happened next:
In the second month after the “Vanishing”, the top leadership of all worldwide defense agencies were eliminated — the Department of Defense, the European Defense Agency, the People’s Liberation Army — all the agencies remained intact, but with top leadership “convicted” of high crimes and publicly executed. Some were tortured and jailed indefinitely, but only until they could be scoured for information.
The media reported what happened next, but credited it to security concerns and in response to growing threats of insurrection. “In a move of swift leadership and decisiveness, Destroyer installs a new North American Police Force.”
But according to my contacts, VIPER had been established as the “North American Police Force”. They quickly consolidated their International Nests into North America, quelling what might have been a second American Revolution. With supers in their villainous leadership ranks, the state police force obliterated the rebellions and adopted the threatening moniker “SNAKE” — referring to themselves as the “Super-North-American-Kill-Enforcers”
They literally enforced “peace” by killing.
Remembering back — when the US government passed "gun registration" legislation in the year prior to the Vanishing, we all celebrated it as a step toward public safety. But when SNAKE (VIPER) took over as kill-enforcers, they used the gun registry to begin a thorough confiscation of all firearms in North America. Within six months of the SNAKE, it became illegal to possess firearms.
There are still periodic reports of weapon-cache discoveries, followed by public executions. I’ve been told that some retired officers have hidden their unregistered weapons very carefully...but these never seem to remain hidden. And retired officers are often eliminated.
Similarly, my contacts know of munitions stores maintained on the underground, but anyone caught with ammunition is killed on sight by SNAKE.
After the early rebellions were squashed, protests seemed to erupt across the world about the need for “Metahuman Registries”. Though staged and funded for the most part, the protests eventually struck a chord among a worried world population. Metahuman Registration Acts were passed quickly around the world and metas are now required to be processed and documented — or face elimination.
One of my old running buddies at the Department of Defense — Senior Specialist Milton Broaudus — moved into a department that had been repurposed for identifying and monitoring unregistered metahumans. After a few months, Milton was sent to a "re-education" camp for passing over a report of a low powered, pre-teen meta. The tribunal that sent him away almost chose execution, but one of the panel members had graduated with Milton at ‘Point and let him off “easy”. When he came back, Milton wasn’t the same person. His eyes were tired and his skin was worn. He lost a decade in the year he was away being “re-educated”.
Only once before he was sent away, Milton mentioned to me something very sinister — and this has never been reported in the news. He told me about the existence of "experimentation" installations. I never got to ask him more about this.
No less than sixty days after the Vanishing, Gigaton was appointed over the US Department of Defense. Though he seemed in-over-his-head at first, Gigaton surrounded himself with loyalists and created a command structure to occupy the vacuum created by the previous leadership eliminations. He is rumored to have created watch-lists for ex-military officials and retired operatives. These individuals periodically turn up missing, if they aren’t successfully recruited or tortured for information.
Milton was sent away for “re-education” almost three months after the Vanishing. There are still other sympathizers within the DoD who remain opposed to Gigaton and Destroyer, but they quickly learned to keep quiet. The brave and outspoken ones were all killed. The quiet ones learned to lead double lives. They perform their day-jobs at the DoD, often through gritted teeth...but they meet covertly in the “underground” and organize with retired officers who are willing to risk their lives for a cause that is just barely coming together.
After Milton came back from “re-education camp”, I knew there must be something more I could do. I had already begun working on the DarkR web prototypes, but DarkR was still a distant reality years in the making. So I did what the rich do best — I began hosting galas.
At the galas, nearly one every month it seemed, I would make sure only one of my closest DoD friends were invited each time. While the gala would go on into the night, I would sneak back into the Sharpe Mansion Vault with my closest DoD contact — Beth Schroeder — along with Jamie, my personal assistant, and put my money where my social-media-mouth could never be. This could never be mentioned publicly.
Starting in the second year after the Vanishing, I began funding Beth Schroeder with monthly “hush funds.” $100K in cash was given to her from the vault — once every month — lined in jackets and overcoats designed to exactly match the coats she wore to the gala. Though I’d give her the money, she would put it wherever it needed to go...to protect and hide new metahumans.
The deal was simple - if the money I was providing was ever discovered, it would be called a bribe for contract approvals on my company’s space flight program development. Beth would actually have to “use” some of the money for herself, to keep up the ruse. But the real work was aimed at identifying supers who weren’t loyal to Destroyer, preventing their execution, and bringing them to the “Meta Underground Railroad”.
Admittedly, I’ve not been connected to it in any way...other than through the money. Periodically Beth will mention to me about new “shipments” arriving in far-off places and I’ll know she is referring to new metas for whom she’s been able to bribe and buy a way into a new life in an unheard-of location.
And now, almost three years after the Vanishing, metas are still identified, monitored, and killed — everyday. But with the DarkR web intact, Socrates firmly in place, and the New Champions Protocol underway, I’m truly hopeful we can start to come together like never before.
Connecting The Dots
Several days ago, while we were attempting to infiltrate the power plant, I noticed something curious about my runes. Particularly, as I was portaling toward the direction of the building where Isobar had been, I noticed a much warmer — maybe even “hot” — set of runes glowing on my left and right sides, near my waist.
There was no time to think about it during the firefight that immediately ensued, but when I thought about it later, I just “knew”...I can’t quite explain it, but I definitely have the feeling of knowledge that I *know* I didn’t have before, but I unquestioningly have now:
The two small runes on my left and right side are symmetrical. They represent the ancient — and now extinct — Oqthcali civilization’s method of movement. Just that sentence, even the name of the civilization...are thoughts I’ve never known before. And I have no idea what the other runes on my body mean!
But I’m perfectly certain about this particular set of runes. Even more, I know how they “work” in a way that I didn’t understand before: they utilize a perfect harmony of concentration, intention, and momentum.
When adrenaline was coursing through my veins at the power plant, something must’ve clicked — unlocking this knowledge.
So after things settled down at Homestead, I returned to my “mansion in the hills” as the tabloids are fond of calling it. But there was no way I could settle down. My mind began to race with possibilities. Up to this point in my life, I’d been inventing things with the documented knowledge I had at my disposal. Books, video tutorials, audio-books, libraries — they all suited a momentary purpose. I never really retained any of the knowledge, but I definitely used it to build things.
But now, there was a type of knowledge I had that couldn’t be easily explained or google-searched; couldn’t be read about in a library. So of course there was no way I could sleep now...
I rushed into the secret vault and began working on an idea...something new, something I couldn’t have dreamed about even two days ago.
I took the utility belt I had been wearing and modified it by threading reinforced heavy gauge wiring inside it several times. At the point of the buckle, I designed a cross-hatching style of closure to allow the connection of the thickly coiled wires to be seamless when closed. Then I flattened two metallic nodes into a slight curvature and carefully soldered them to the places where the belt rests on my hips — directly over the symmetrical runes on my left and right side. It wasn’t pretty, but at least the utility belt covered up my prototypical handiwork.
Next, I confirmed that the wiring could sustain an enormous amount of energy by crudely connecting it to the main power inlet box for the vault. Of course I inadvertently brought the entire building dark for a few minutes, but it was enough to successfully test the durability of the belt’s new metal nodes, the cross-hatch sealed buckle, and the heavy gauged coil wiring.
Then, it was time to test out the belt on myself...and see just how far I could portal with it on. By my design, there should be an enormous amount of extra momentum provided by the coiled metal wiring now wrapped around my waist.
I concentrated furiously on the runes I now understood, intently focusing on Homestead - the safest place I knew of outside of the Sharpe Mansion, and then I felt it...the momentum.
It was like the imploding force of a black hole. The energy that typically radiated from my body now expanded to envelope the entire room, entirely surrounding me. And as quickly as it expanded around me, it then collapsed into emptiness.
In the next moment, I was lying prostrate on the floor of Homestead, directly in front of the computer screen where Socrates appeared, with a slightly bemused smile.
“Good evening Mr. Sharpe. Are you experimenting with your powers?” He chided me as I lay there thinking, motionless on the floor.
I quickly jumped up hazily and smiled in almost childish amazement, “Yes! Isn’t it awesome!?”
Before Socrates could answer, I focused on the Secret Vault at Sharpe Mansion and concentrated intently on the symmetrical runes. And with just a slight bit of movement, the same black-hole gut-wrenching momentum propelled me into the portal, returning me back to the vault where I previously stood.
The amount of physical exertion this required was exhausting, but I just had to keep working at it. I portaled to Homestead again...and then back to the mansion, and then back to Homestead again. I portalled with all of my luggage, and back. I portalled with my bedroom furniture in tow, and back. One time, I portalled into Homestead with my dog, “Bark”, and back. But on the final time, even though I’d learned to stabilize my landing at that point, when I reappeared at Homestead — I fainted.
So after a few seconds of Socrates apparently speaking to me VERY loudly and me being completely unaware, I regained consciousness and made a mental reminder not to overextend myself with this scale of portaling.
Nonetheless, I had invented something truly “new”. I had connected the knowledge of these two runes with my own inventive spirit. And in so doing, I also connected the dots between Homestead and the Sharpe Mansion.
Not According to Plan
Even with the best preparations, our first coordinated mission together didn’t feel very “prepared”.
Isobar, Faust, Field Effect, Cypher, Maximum Resistance, and I worked late into the night discussing how we might trick the computer systems at the plant into a perceived “melt-down” triggering them to shut down the power on their own volition. Isobar, Faust, Field Effect, and I would be onsite for the mission.
Our instructions from “SCRT” were specific — even if a little cryptic — that we needed to turn the power off by 5:08AM...and that it would automatically return at 5:10AM.
We ultimately were not able to obtain the facility schematics so, once onsite, our original plans went by the wayside. It was 5:00AM. And in this moment, our small resistance sprang into action.
Using their fringe invisibility, Faust and Field Effect took on the building marked “412” — a large facility with a single entrance guarded by two armed men. Isobar alone targeted a smaller building on the opposite side of the campus and I was positioned behind building 412 near three exposed electrical turbines ready to create an explosion, just in case Faust and Field Effect were unsuccessful in their power-down attempt.
Each of us had our DarkR web comm devices active, but we remained quiet most of the time. Then, the sound of a car alarm rang out. And a minute later, I could hear the sound of key-card swipes and a “beep” as doors opened — Faust and Field Effect must have gained entry into the building. I held my position out of view.
It was 5:02AM now and the DarkR web comms remained quiet. Admittedly, I was growing anxious. A large cargo truck passed by me, making its way across the campus and leaving the compound. A few minutes later, another cargo truck passed by, also leaving the compound.
Then, at 5:05AM, red lights flickered on around the entire campus and an emergency siren began blaring.
“They must’ve shut down the power.”, I thought to myself.
A third cargo truck passed by me. But this time, I caught a glimpse of the driver and his passenger. They were fully armored...coming out of a power plant. This didn’t feel right...
Acting quickly, I sent a paralyzing burst of cosmic energy aimed through the window of the passing cargo truck, hoping to prevent their departure. The driver seized up, gripped by the energy coursing through him — the cargo truck veered off the road and onto the median, coming to a full stop.
Moving closer to the truck, I sent another jolt of cosmic energy through the passenger as well, leaving them both momentarily paralyzed. Moving quickly through the cargo, I was able to break open one of the crates revealing a large stash of blaster weapons. Each of them had an ominous looking insignia etched into the stock — what looked like a cobra snake.
At that moment, over the DarkR web comms, Isobar called out, “I’m coming under fire. Need support!”
Recalling the building he had been moving toward, I closed my eyes and concentrated intently. The runes on my skin glowed warmly and a portal opened around me, transporting me directly outside that building’s entrance.
The time was now 5:07AM.
At the entrance of Isobar’s original building target, there was a large hole in the door — it had been blasted inward by what must’ve been enormous pressure. And looking inside, I could see that it contained a deep cargo elevator shaft leading far underground.
Without hesitation, I stepped out into the empty space of the corridor and focused all of my intentions on the bottom of the elevator shaft. In barely a second, transported by the same energy of a dying star traveling across time and space, I soared down the elevator shaft. Slowing my descent at the last moment, I hovered just out of range from the noise of explosions I could hear directly below.
Now I could see Isobar standing in the main elevator bay at the base of the shaft some 400 meters underground — incoming fire all around. So I created a protective barrier of cosmic energy in front of him and then I left my covered location, joining him in the fight. Glancing at him to my left, I could see that Isobar had been blinded by what must’ve been flash bombs and he was wrapped in coils, working to break himself himself free of them.
More explosions and gun fire rang out at the far end of the underground facility...but that was too far away. So I flew upward to get a better view of the situation. The building was full of large shipping containers, some of which had been tumbled over by force. There were three armed agents to our left, along with the mark of pressured explosions similar to what might’ve caused the hole in the building we entered at the top of the elevator shaft.
But most alarmingly, I could see a heavily mechanized giant of-a-man, hovering above other armed agents at the end of the facility. Noticing the barrels of fuel directly underneath him, I directed a blast of cosmic energy at them, exploding the barrels and sending the agents reeling backward toward the far wall. However, the mechanized giant was barely moved by it. And in return, the giant “mech” returned fire, though the blasts soared narrowly past me...
It was now 5:08AM and the power was out. Red lights continued to illuminate all around us. Still hovering in the air near the ceiling of the underground facility, I could see the shipping container directly below me burst into movement — as if grabbed by an invisible force — hurtling toward the far end of the building. I thought to myself, “I’m glad I wasn’t on that container...”
But with the container now gone, I could see more agents directly below me...and I was an easy target for them, floating in the air. Several of their shots fired at me — one of them connected, bringing me to the ground hard. And then another, but it was different...containing coils that wrapped around me similar to the ones holding Isobar.
And just as quickly, another agent took aim at me, now coiled on the ground, but I portaled out of the coils and to the right — barely dodging the rain of incoming fire.
Still standing behind my earlier cosmic energy barrier, Isobar broke free of his coils and looked around — clearly shrugging of the flash bombs that had previously blinded him. These agents had pushed him too far — Isobar unleashed an explosive blast of pressure that knocked several of the agents to the ground with a hard “thud”...they wouldn’t be getting back up again soon.
Thinking to myself, “All of these pressure blasts must’ve been from Isobar...wow...”
It was now 5:09AM and text alerts began to stream across my DarkR web comm. It was a short message from SCRT:
“EGRESS!”
“EGRESS!”
Receiving a message from SCRT now, after 5:08AM — and with the explicit instruction to leave...I shared the same urgent message over audio comms with the team:
“Get out! We have to get out NOW!!”
Though I heard other explosions at the far end of the building, I didn’t know what was going on down there. And I never saw Faust and Field Effect enter the underground facility...so I do hope they were able to make it out of the 412 Building undetected.
SCRT gave us a new set of coordinates, so Isobar and I both retraced back to the elevator shaft and quickly soared upward to the surface...narrowly escaping the building as power was restored at 5:10AM.
Now we just needed to quickly get to the new coordinates — and they weren’t too far from here.
Maximum Resistance Joins the DarkR Web
The last message still on the screen was “>...Working...” This in response to my rashly typed command to “+join Cypher” to the DarkR Web. But now, freshly appearing on the screen was a new message:
>SCRT: +13135559899,,,
I immediately recognized the telephone # format. But this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have over the phone. I thought of the first place I could that would be “safe” for a meeting among hunted Superheroes — or safe enough for a large cosmic explosion, if this was a trap.
And Riverside Park fit the bill. It was where my Father took me for little league ballgames when I was a kid, but it had been destroyed in a fight among two rival ”cape gangs” last year. Under Destroyer’s government, repairing ballparks wasn’t important...so it was now charred and in ruins — and abandoned.
I called the number from SCRT’s message using a DarkR FOB so that my location wouldn’t be traced. The phone rang three times before a voice answered:
"Hello, Maxwell..."
I didn’t waste any time in my response, “Maxwell, this isn’t a secure line. But it can’t be traced. Can you meet me in thirty minutes on the pitcher’s mound at what used to be Riverside Park? I think we need an in-person introduction.”
"Yes." And the phone called ended abruptly.
I asked Jeremy, my driver, to bring me to a spot roughly one mile from the park, instructing him to wait while I went for a run. As I got closer to the ball-field, I walked up to the public restrooms, now closed with a badly rusted chain securing the door.
Looking around periodically, I was anxious to make sure no authorities or others were around. And luckily, the area was deserted. I kicked at the chain a few times and it snapped.
I walked into the bathroom as Aaron Sharpe. But once inside, I allowed the “Runeforce” to fully manifest. Turning around sharply, I opened the door and walked slowly out onto the pitcher’s mound — standing still and...patient, broad daylight revealing the gold swirling scripts on my face. Even with all of the work we’d done to implement the DarkR Web, this felt like my first real moment of Resistance.
Eventually, one person walked up to the edge of the field, a young man, probably not even twenty years old. He was dressed in jeans and a button down short sleeved shirt. We were both out of place, me in super form and him being nicely dressed — a student, probably.
“This was a risk, I knew it going in,” I thought to myself. “I’m determined to find other heroes to join the resistance. With Destroyer in charge, being a hero alone it isn’t worth it. We might as well not even try.” These thoughts kept running through my head as the young man began to walk toward me on the pitcher’s mound.
“A college kid wouldn’t be here otherwise. This must be Maxwell”, I thought, as he now stood directly in front of me.
“Maxwell?”, I said.
"Not exactly what I was expecting. Not sure what that was, but this isn't it. Are you 'Unknown'?” he asked, looking around warily.
“Yes. But in this form, I go by Runeforce. A new day is coming. One that brings about truth and justice. What do you stand for, Maxwell?”
There was a momentary pause, and then he answered:
"A better day where we don't have to hide like this, and can turn the tide against Destroyer. Make this world a better world." Maxwell spoke directly, maintaining a wary gaze and periodically glancing to the left and right.
“Do you mean that? Trust is more precious than gold these days. I am willing to trust you and am showing you that by standing here in this form, in the open. If you mean to stand against Destroyer, I assume there is something more...?”
Maxwell was unmoved. "Well, considering I haven't shared my secrets with anyone else, and yet you know who I am, I'm guessing there isn't much more."
I was honest in response to him, stating truthfully, “I only know you through a Handler. And I’m still not perfectly sure this isn’t a trap. But if it was, we’d both be dead already, I assume.”
"Well, fair enough. I probably shouldn't be standing around out here all vulnerable anyway." Max's clothes began to disintegrate, while being replaced with a blue body suit.
I immediately felt a pulse of energy — or electricity, maybe — and a faint blue glow appeared around the now suited figure in front of me, bearing a large symbol for which I couldn’t remember the meaning. This public display was enough trust for me...and the risk of our discovery increased the longer we stood like this in the open.
“That’s enough for me at this point. What should we call you?”, I asked.
"I'm Maximum Resistance." he responded. "That's what these symbols mean.”, he said as he pointed to his chest.
Growing more anxious, I asked,“If you’ll allow, let me take us both out of the open?”
With another curious tilt of the head, Maximum Resistance shortly agreed, "Sure".
I opened a portal quickly around us both. Cosmic dust and stars visible for only a moment, we both disappeared and then reappeared inside the same cramped bathroom that I’d been in moments before. Without being able to see the room clearly, I had imagined the space where I had previously stood. And luckily, the portal narrowly missed depositing us into a toilet stall.
"You take me to the nicest places...", Maximum Resistance quipped.
With that, I handed him one of the small key FOBs that acts as a proximity encryption key and as a connection to the DarkR Web. I explained the DarkR Web to him and then confessed,
“There are only a few others among us at this point, but at least we aren’t alone. All of the pillars have been installed and these FOBs allow us to coordinate securely.”
He wanted clarification, "So you communicate through these over the phone or computer?"
“Both.” I continued to explain. “It creates end to end encryption if both parties have one. For computers, it makes tracing impossible by hashing the route taken for any internet traffic. If you call someone who doesn’t have one, then they see only ‘Unknown’ as the caller and the call cannot be traced...but it isn’t encrypted.”
"Hmm, I don't normally carry a phone with me, but I can...um...see the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Wonder if I can piggyback on this.” Maximum Resistance continued to think on this new information.
I responded in earnest, “I truly hope you can. And maybe even improve upon it. I’m an inventor, not a cryptologist”.
Maximum Resistance continued to consider the technical ramifications, "Haven't figured out how to communicate that way though, but I'm close.", He changed the topic quickly with a different line of questions:
"So who is this 'handler' you spoke of? I've only been doing this for a couple weeks, and only really taken down some street thugs. Was really hoping to stay off radar for a bit longer."
This was a practical question. One I continued to ask myself, even. There was nothing helpful I could say, except the truth.
“I like to say ‘None of us are operating on Zero Trust’. And so this is my foundational assumption...that the person — or system — feeding me coordinates and telephone numbers means to help the resistance, not to destroy it. At least not at this moment.”
His response was equally honest, "Yeah. I suppose if destruction was their goal, and they know who we are, then that information could easily be passed on to others that would remove the problem. So you've been doing this for a bit? How many others are involved?"
Again, these were practical questions, so I gave straightforward answers — “I’ve been working on the DarkR Web for almost three years. It became fully operational yesterday after I and three others strategically placed the devices. In that time, we added “Cypher” and now you. So, in total, there are six of us now. Seven, if you count the Handler.”
Maximum Resistance was getting up to speed very quickly, "Now that you have this DarkR Web operational, what is your plan?"
This answer wasn’t ready yet. My plan had been to find others. I hadn’t thought about much else beyond that...not until I started hearing from SCRT on my prototype DarkR Web. So I shared with him about that...
“The Handler gave me a fifth set of coordinates. I only planned for four installs. When I checked out the fifth set of coordinates, it was a Hydro Power plant, along with a time stamp...5:08AM in the morning, tomorrow. When I added Cypher to the network he was already there, at the site. Talking with someone named “Secret”. Cypher said Secret was being held captive at the plant and needed to be rescued at 5:08. So our next step is to rescue the “Secret”. Beyond that, my plan is to find other heroes and add them to the DarkR Web until we grow our ranks enough to take on missions that help us understand the source of The Vanishing, and maybe even how to shut it down. We are in this for the long haul.”
But Maximum Resistance wasn’t satisfied. "Hmm, why 5:08am? It's a hydro plant, not exactly a prison. Why not just go get them?"
Maybe I was too short with my response, “I don’t know this answer. If you can find a way to join the DarkR Web with the FOB I gave you, then ask Cypher.”
"Supposed I'll have to go home and grab my phone. At least for now." Maximum Resistance was still considering this new information.
“We all appreciate the sacrifice.” I said to him maybe a little bit sarcastically, given that I didn’t anticipate needing to pair the FOBs with electromagnetic field-reading super teens.
I had to get back to Jeremy before he began to worry. So I opened a portal and disappeared. Again, without line of sight, I imagined the tree line behind the ball field and reappeared near there — luckily without landing in the middle of a Liveoak tree, then allowing the Runeforce to subside. I jogged the remainder of the way back to where Jeremy was still waiting in the car.
“Jeremy, take me home.”
Later that day, Maximum Resistance logged onto the DarkR Web — joining us in the resistance, really...a fitting name for the purpose we collectively shared.
Day Zero
As of tonight, there are now four — maybe even five — heroes on the secure network we now call the “DarkR Web”. The network is designed with proximity encryption to cover the devices (including voice calls) of those with FOBs. I’ve even created extra FOBs just in case we find other heroes trustworthy enough to join the resistance.
I haven’t had a chance to debrief with the first group yet, but it doesn’t matter... The moment the final pillar was installed by Field Effect, the network came online as expected.
At that very moment the “Handler”, as I sometimes call it, shared some cryptic lines on my home-base device:
>SCRT: ehlo
>SCRT:thx no PwR
The text being in mixed/reverse order immediately struck me as odd. Was the Handler saying “Hello...Thanks...No Power”
So many thoughts were racing in my mind, but the most important was the security of the network. I typed back into the console:
“I didn’t build any backdoors into this network, except from my house. Are you in my house? Please confirm. On ‘Power’ - the devices each have a limited power source, why is more needed?”
In response to my queries, the fifth set of GPS coordinates appeared on the screen — again. It was the same as had appeared previously when I was first testing the nodes. The Handler repeated:
>SCRT: pWr no
Thinking to myself...if this person can hack into my own home network and knows the location of other supers but hasn’t “vanished” me and them yet, then it must be part of the resistance. After checking the GPS coordinates again, I typed this in response:
“This location is a hydro power plant. Need mission objective. Please confirm.”
The same GPS coordinates appeared again, but this time with a timestamp, similar to the ones that helped me locate Faust, Isobar, and Field Effect. The timestamp was for 5:08AM...tomorrow morning. Then, another curious line of text appeared on the console:
>SCRT: -join Cy for;next
Adrenaline pumping, I foolishly obeyed the command, not thinking about the potential consequences. I typed the command to add “Cy” to the network. But in seconds, the following error message appeared:
> Cy: The term “Cy” is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if the path was included, verify the path is current and try again.
>At line:1 char:1
>+ Cy
>+ ~~
Thinking to myself, maybe this is a network or a person we need to join, instead of adding *them* to our network. At a loss for what to do next, I desperately typed into the command prompt, “What is Cy?”
The response was immediate:
> for
In that moment, it clicked.
I typed the command to add “Cypher” to the network. The response hung on the screen, blinking softly:
> ...Working...
Hours later, as we were talking through the night on the DarkR Web, our small resistance was busy considering tactics for penetrating a secure hydro-electric power plant — the fifth GPS location. I was honest with the group, sharing that I didn’t quite understand why this fifth device install was necessary. I told them about the four coordinates being aligned with the locations I had previously chosen for the devices, but the fifth one I didn’t understand.
Then, for roughly two seconds, the network FOBs went quiet. My homes network console went offline and flickered back on. Someone was using the proximity audio encryption — but without one of the FOBs.
I assume everyone *with* a FOB heard someone talking faintly in the background, "Ok, ok secret, I'm near that facility now, I am about an hour early but wanted to scout out the area first...wait"
There was a short pause. And then the person directly addressed me:
"Mr Sharpe your programming skills are improving. My name..., is unimportant, you can call me Cypher. Secret wanted me to connect with your group."
I didn’t know what to say. To myself, I thought maybe “Secret” was the Handler giving me the coordinates. But considering that I’d failed multiple times at building and connecting the nodes, I responded cordially...
“Three years of prototyping and I finally created the working network...I’d say I’ve got some more improvement to go.”
But more seriously, I added, “None of us are operating on Zero Trust, but...who or what is ‘Secret’?”
After a few moments, Cypher responded:
“Secret is who we need to rescue from that facility, unless they get moved again. They may be moved unless we don't get to them by 05:08. I know you are trustworthy because secret led me to you, but other than that I don't know anything about you. How will I know who you are when we meet?”
I told Cypher that I would be covered in runes, anticipating that this mission would require the cosmic energy I refer to as the “Runeforce”. I asked Cypher a similar question in response — and an image appeared on the DarkR Web console. It was a superhero I’d never seen before. Black and yellow banded armor-suit, glowing red eyes and a red triangle near the brow of the forehead. A cord protruded from the back of the mask and swirls of what looked like electrical energy radiated from several directions.
I thought to myself, “Five. There are five superheroes on the network.”
DarkR Web Pillars
The Dark Web was always a source of cybersecurity threats for Xplore Corp. Before Destroyer’s takeover, we had teams of security analysts - red teams, blue teams, purple teams — and probably other teams I don’t even know about — focused on identifying weaknesses and remediating our vulnerabilities. But after Destroyer took over, they noticed something very peculiar: the bad guys stopped using the Dark Web, preferring now to use the easier public channels...and the “good” guys started using the Dark Web to communicate and organize. The world had been turned upside down.
But soon after small pockets of resistance began organizing on the Dark Web, they quickly became targets of Destroyer and his Overwatch. Clearly, the Dark Web wasn’t as anonymous as anticipated.
After months of tinkering with the idea, I was finally able to understand the problem. Though the Dark Web was anonymous, connections to the internet (bandwidth and bandwidth usage) weren’t. Destroyer’s tech cronies had taken over the internet service providers and were identifying the location of dissidents through their connection points (encrypted high-bandwidth usage) triangulated with the timing of Dark Web posts and the number of route/hops it took through the internet. In this way, even using TOR, the good guys were being tracked to their physical locations by timestamps and usage data.
Then it clicked. If I can create a device that adds internet route/hops — unnecessarily, to the posts of select individuals, then it will be impossible to track the users, unless they happen to figure out the algorithm that creates the number of extra hops each message takes once routed through one of my devices. In this way, even the path the messages take through the internet is hashed and couldn’t be reverse traced.
If the Dark Web is for the good guys now, then we’ll need to be a little darker than they expected. We are building a RESISTANCE. This will be the Darker Web. “R”, for resistance. The DarkR Web...that sounds good.
The type of algorithm would require heavy processing and could only handle a small region at maximum. Geographically, if I can get the devices planted at internet hub sites around Millennium City, then make it so that only authorized devices get routed through the device, then the extra traffic would not be noticeable.
I tried out the approach with my homes network (multiple homes connected together), placing the devices at various lengths...and after a few tries, the routing looked “normal” but would never properly triangulate to an origination point. It worked.
With the devices built and the concept proven, it would be necessary to take another risk - going to the internet hub sites and placing the devices physically on the internet backbone. I had planned for four device locations (north, south, east, and west), but one night while testing the devices on my homes network, this encrypted message came across all of the device consoles:
[Site Location #1 GPS ##.##.##]
[Site Location #2 GPS ##.##.##]
[Site Location #3 GPS ##.##.##]
[Site Location #4 GPS ##.##.##]
[Site Location #5 GPS ##.##.##]
Then three other GPS locations followed. But with timestamps included afterward.
Every day, the same message appeared. The five Site Location GPS details were always the same, but the other GPS locations and timestamps were different every time.
The first four locations were the sites I had previously chosen as “ideal” for the DarkR Web Pillars. But the fifth location was a heavily guarded area — a hydro power plant — much more difficult to access alone. It was a location I didn’t know of previously but assumed its significance as the main pillar of this whole thing. I had been testing the devices from my own network, but maybe the devices would need a central hub site to function; maybe they need more power from the hydro plant? I don’t want to take any chances, so I built another device and will try to plant it at the fifth GPS location.
Last week, the device repeated the GPS locations and times, but with an additional message: “Deliver device to”
Again, it clicked. I didn’t know who these people where, but I knew that these people would help me implant the devices at each location. And maybe even help me get the fifth pillar installed — if that is even what the final location is intended for??
I asked Jamie to deliver the packages to the coordinates at that specified time. There was only one person at that moment and place. Then I waited. As each opened their package they were presented with biometric data scanners and instructions to id themselves to continue. Luckily they did, and as the data came in, I ran every background check, query and lookup I could to figure out why these people were singled out. Then I fed that data back to the tablets so they could be referred to by their names, etc.
I wrote them each this note:
——
Welcome Faust/Field Effect/Isobar. [It read uniquely for each of them]. My name is Aaron Sharpe and I am sharing this device with you at great personal risk. You are holding one of the pillars of the new DarkR web - a secure network that I hope will safely unite superheroes again.
[GPS location provided]
If you are also willing to take a risk, I need your help to covertly access the GPS location provided above and place this device along the main physical internet backbone of the network grid station located there. I have already placed the first device, which has created enough strength to send only a stored message via this device without being tracked by the Overwatch. But once the device you have is planted - and with the ones planted by others, I trust that we’ll be able to communicate in real-time soon, safely.
This device is tough, but it is not indestructible. If you must test it or examine it, please do so with care.
Note: Once you implant the device, you can enter your cell phone # in it and your phone will be covered by the DarkR web encryption - it will be untraceable. If you don’t want to trust me that much yet, then you can use this small key fob to access the secure network. [a small token protrudes from the device]. This key fob will self-destruct after an unsuccessful voiceprint, just in case you are captured and/or lose the device.
I hope you can trust me in this moment. I am trusting you.
P.S. after you get this device physical implanted, there is one more we will need to install together. But that conversation deserves the encryption strength of this and the other two devices being in place.
——
Justice Never Dies
I always tell my daughter, Sarah, that Justice never dies if we keep fighting for it. But for months after Destroyer took over, I only ranted about his antics. I didn’t really fight for justice.
In my normal fashion, I made some inflammatory posts on social media and even some comments in the boardroom among my leadership team - which were quickly followed by government lawsuits and negotiated settlements that included my social media accounts being monitored by the Xplore Corp legal team.
According to my attorneys, it was no longer “acceptable” that Corporations would criticize Destroyer in public...but my skin crawled every time I heard about his antics. The “leaders” he put in place were crooked villains. And though money still worked under this regime — like it always has — the rules had changed. Privacy and freedom are only an illusion...maybe they always were...?
Back to the point. It was during a conversation with Sarah three years ago that I realized how I could join the fight...that I would fight, even. I would use my resources to oppose Destroyer and his villain cronies. Jamie helped, too. And there were others sympathetic to the cause, for sure.
Back to the point, again. Sarah and I were dreaming together about the future of space, questioning if space exploration would continue under Destroyer’s regime...and it didn’t seem possible that he’d allow it to continue privately funded. Though Xplore Corp has government contracts - he’d surely move to take over most industries with expansion/exploration ties.
So I decided to secretly join Xplore’s next orbit mission and launch as many encrypted communications and GPS satellites as I could, anticipating that Destroyer would control the SATCOMs soon. But that plan came to an explosive end when the “Runeforce”, as I call it, channeled through the spacecraft — and into me, disabling the navigation controls from the capsule and eventually causing the spacecraft to plummet back to earth.
When I awoke hours after the explosion and the spacecraft cratering into the ground, my clothes had burned, my hair was gone, and deep blue “runes” were etched all over my body with bright gold lines radiating all around. I was healing. The runes were healing me?? I fainted. When I awoke the second time, Jamie was there. She helped smooth over things with the media. She planted the explanatory story about a malfunction and made sure no one would know I was involved. I still wonder how she did it...but no one ever connected the dots.
But from that day forward, the Runeforce was part of my plan to fight back. Though I couldn’t risk another secret space mission, I went back to work developing a method to secure private communications - but now I’d use that plan for the superheroes, since that is what I intended to become.
One fight for justice at a time.
