comic
Previously turnt3chGodh34d
Patriot
Li and Deluge agreed. That was expected. Crosshair asked to think about it. Again, expected. This wasn't Patriot's first time offering a spot to a lowly vigilante. But what happened next genuinely surprised him. Sparkblade actually got into the hero's face, taking a stand, making his point clear, demanding his freedom. Had they been alone, Patriot would have strung the man up by his intestines just to teach him a lesson. But they weren't. There were witnesses. Yet at the same time, he also didn't want to do that. He was... impressed. Impressed at Sparkblade. How had this kid ducked under his radar for this long?
By the time Sparkblade finished his little rant, Patriot stared down at him for several long moments. It was no secret that those around them were watching with bated breath. After all, who dared to talk to Patriot like that? Well, aside from Yin Li, obviously. Patriot simply found her adorable when she was yelling at him, though usually annoying too.
Finally, the Paragon Leader spoke, taking a deliberate step toward the vigilante, intentionally stomping down with enough force to crack the concrete beneath his foot and shake the ground underneath all of them. "Now you... You I like." He grinned widely. "Full of fire. Drive. Clearly ambitious. Fearless. You know what you want. Hah!" Patriot folded his arms. "Your conditions are perfectly acceptable, but let's clear the air. Your preconceived notions about me are terribly misplaced. For one, do you see a camera around here that I can flaunt in front of and blind with my pearly whites at every 3 second interval? No? I didn't think so. Two. I just got here. The villain fled and I don't know where to. What do you expect me to do? Rip the ground up where you stand in search of him? Three. I'll be honest, I have no idea what actually transpired here. This talk of alien serial killers..." He chuckled. "I'm not omniscient. If I knew what was happening here, don't you think I'd have already taken care of it? Sure, I like my time in front of a camera, but my best work is the stuff you never hear about. Four. Nobody works 'under my thumb'. Get that through your head now. You have free reign in the Paragons, so long as you don't go rogue or harm civilians. I may be the leader, and you will answer to me, but I'm not some stingy supervisor. I'm not anything you thought me up to be. Need time to consider that?"
Without waiting for a response, Patriot moved on, turning to Crosshair. "And you. I understand completely. Becoming a Paragon is no simple thing, and I don't offer it to just anyone. But it's a lot to take in, so take all the time you need. Just know the offer still stands. Now." He turned his attention to Yin Li. "Miss Li, these men are now under my protection. Sparkblade is an official Paragon, and Crosshair is an honorary member. I know you've been tailing these two for a long time, but put your chase to rest. Go home and do whatever it is widows like you do on Friday nights." He smiled at her glaring face. She glanced at the others briefly, before turning on her heel and storming away, not speaking another word. Finally, Patriot turned to Deluge. "Ansel, something's come up and I need you to brief our new Paragon here, then call our league to a meeting. I have some urgent news I need to share. And don't dawdle around."
With that, Patriot rose into the air, grinning widely down at them all, before saluting and taking off into the sky.
Lady
Tattoo? Number? Lady was confused for several moments, staring quizzically at Celice, before realizing what she must have meant. The woman lifted up her shirt to look down at the number labeled on her stomach. "One..." She muttered, another hazy memory flashing in the back of her mind, giving her... next to nothing. Just the face of an old, bearded man, then what looked like a baby, and two words; 'Subject One'.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise that wasn't caused by Celice, who seemed to get excited at the noise, which caused Lady to get excited as well, though for what, she didn't know. Maybe it was King? Celice picked up the pace, leading them deeper into the foul smelling tunnels filled with yucky-looking water.
"King smelly?" Lady asked, realizing if he was down here, he must surely stink too.
Damian Foster
He was hit with questions and comments from either side. It was easy to discern who was talking, but deciding what to answer first was crazy. Damian had so much material to these questions, he could go for days talking about just one subject. He'd written 400-page essays about it before. And not even for anything, he'd just made them just to have it in writing.
Yet, he made his decision anyway.
"The monster in the dark." He grinned at the heralds as he mentioned it. "I have my own speculations. Theories. Nobody knows what it is, but I think it could potentially be a whole plethora of things. Perhaps the biblical Leviathan. Maybe a sleeping giant, or a monster older than Gods themselves. Could be a void of death, or a portal to an alternate dimension. Or it could be actually really boring and just a natural phenomenon that we mistake as something far greater than it is." He then cast his gaze to Skade, looking almost apologetic. "As for Patriot, he uh... well, I wouldn't get too confident. I've heard of feats he's performed. Never seen it myself, but it's said he's the real-world version of Superman from those old comics."
Seeing her blank expression, he shrugged. "Bottom line is, he's pretty much invincible. But considering your combined power and status, you have potential, but I don't think I'd bet on shattering him. Enough about that guy, though. We're on a tour."
Damian led them through the complicated facility, a seemingly endless series of turns, twists, stairs, elevators, platforms, more turns and even more turns. Memorizing their path was practically impossible, but all the walls were lined with directions that made things a bit easier. They saw some pretty unimpressive rooms. Reactors, generators, military bunks, science staff bunks, a cafeteria, a hangar area, but there was something peculiar about their next stop.
They entered a room that seemed just as unimpressive as the last at first glance, until you looked through the series of windows that lined the extensive wall in front of them. Behind each window was a boxed room, and in every single boxed room sat a child of varying age. Some were sleeping, others walking in circles, or sitting cross-legged and staring blankly forward. However, there were some children doing interesting things. One child, a small girl no older then eight, was playing with a snowball that she'd generated. While most of the rooms were a padded khaki color, hers was tinted with a cyan from the ice that clung to her walls. Icicles hung down above her, and her floor was covered in snow. At first glance, she could have been assumed to be a much younger version of Skade. They even had the same look to their faces. In another room, there was a boy with scaled skin, orange in color, and he was clinging to the ceiling, apparently asleep. Another room showed a small girl, no older than five, her body suddenly convulsing rapidly until another version of herself seemed to split, leaving two version of the same girl in the room, and they began to laugh at each other.
"This room is called the Incubus. Here, Warren keeps his other types of subjects. When he's not making clones, he's injecting newborn children with the superhuman gene and raising them to hone their abilities. Some kids are even born with their powers." Damian informed them. "This is the future army of the world, pretty much."
Li and Deluge agreed. That was expected. Crosshair asked to think about it. Again, expected. This wasn't Patriot's first time offering a spot to a lowly vigilante. But what happened next genuinely surprised him. Sparkblade actually got into the hero's face, taking a stand, making his point clear, demanding his freedom. Had they been alone, Patriot would have strung the man up by his intestines just to teach him a lesson. But they weren't. There were witnesses. Yet at the same time, he also didn't want to do that. He was... impressed. Impressed at Sparkblade. How had this kid ducked under his radar for this long?
By the time Sparkblade finished his little rant, Patriot stared down at him for several long moments. It was no secret that those around them were watching with bated breath. After all, who dared to talk to Patriot like that? Well, aside from Yin Li, obviously. Patriot simply found her adorable when she was yelling at him, though usually annoying too.
Finally, the Paragon Leader spoke, taking a deliberate step toward the vigilante, intentionally stomping down with enough force to crack the concrete beneath his foot and shake the ground underneath all of them. "Now you... You I like." He grinned widely. "Full of fire. Drive. Clearly ambitious. Fearless. You know what you want. Hah!" Patriot folded his arms. "Your conditions are perfectly acceptable, but let's clear the air. Your preconceived notions about me are terribly misplaced. For one, do you see a camera around here that I can flaunt in front of and blind with my pearly whites at every 3 second interval? No? I didn't think so. Two. I just got here. The villain fled and I don't know where to. What do you expect me to do? Rip the ground up where you stand in search of him? Three. I'll be honest, I have no idea what actually transpired here. This talk of alien serial killers..." He chuckled. "I'm not omniscient. If I knew what was happening here, don't you think I'd have already taken care of it? Sure, I like my time in front of a camera, but my best work is the stuff you never hear about. Four. Nobody works 'under my thumb'. Get that through your head now. You have free reign in the Paragons, so long as you don't go rogue or harm civilians. I may be the leader, and you will answer to me, but I'm not some stingy supervisor. I'm not anything you thought me up to be. Need time to consider that?"
Without waiting for a response, Patriot moved on, turning to Crosshair. "And you. I understand completely. Becoming a Paragon is no simple thing, and I don't offer it to just anyone. But it's a lot to take in, so take all the time you need. Just know the offer still stands. Now." He turned his attention to Yin Li. "Miss Li, these men are now under my protection. Sparkblade is an official Paragon, and Crosshair is an honorary member. I know you've been tailing these two for a long time, but put your chase to rest. Go home and do whatever it is widows like you do on Friday nights." He smiled at her glaring face. She glanced at the others briefly, before turning on her heel and storming away, not speaking another word. Finally, Patriot turned to Deluge. "Ansel, something's come up and I need you to brief our new Paragon here, then call our league to a meeting. I have some urgent news I need to share. And don't dawdle around."
With that, Patriot rose into the air, grinning widely down at them all, before saluting and taking off into the sky.
Lady
Tattoo? Number? Lady was confused for several moments, staring quizzically at Celice, before realizing what she must have meant. The woman lifted up her shirt to look down at the number labeled on her stomach. "One..." She muttered, another hazy memory flashing in the back of her mind, giving her... next to nothing. Just the face of an old, bearded man, then what looked like a baby, and two words; 'Subject One'.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise that wasn't caused by Celice, who seemed to get excited at the noise, which caused Lady to get excited as well, though for what, she didn't know. Maybe it was King? Celice picked up the pace, leading them deeper into the foul smelling tunnels filled with yucky-looking water.
"King smelly?" Lady asked, realizing if he was down here, he must surely stink too.
Damian Foster
He was hit with questions and comments from either side. It was easy to discern who was talking, but deciding what to answer first was crazy. Damian had so much material to these questions, he could go for days talking about just one subject. He'd written 400-page essays about it before. And not even for anything, he'd just made them just to have it in writing.
Yet, he made his decision anyway.
"The monster in the dark." He grinned at the heralds as he mentioned it. "I have my own speculations. Theories. Nobody knows what it is, but I think it could potentially be a whole plethora of things. Perhaps the biblical Leviathan. Maybe a sleeping giant, or a monster older than Gods themselves. Could be a void of death, or a portal to an alternate dimension. Or it could be actually really boring and just a natural phenomenon that we mistake as something far greater than it is." He then cast his gaze to Skade, looking almost apologetic. "As for Patriot, he uh... well, I wouldn't get too confident. I've heard of feats he's performed. Never seen it myself, but it's said he's the real-world version of Superman from those old comics."
Seeing her blank expression, he shrugged. "Bottom line is, he's pretty much invincible. But considering your combined power and status, you have potential, but I don't think I'd bet on shattering him. Enough about that guy, though. We're on a tour."
Damian led them through the complicated facility, a seemingly endless series of turns, twists, stairs, elevators, platforms, more turns and even more turns. Memorizing their path was practically impossible, but all the walls were lined with directions that made things a bit easier. They saw some pretty unimpressive rooms. Reactors, generators, military bunks, science staff bunks, a cafeteria, a hangar area, but there was something peculiar about their next stop.
They entered a room that seemed just as unimpressive as the last at first glance, until you looked through the series of windows that lined the extensive wall in front of them. Behind each window was a boxed room, and in every single boxed room sat a child of varying age. Some were sleeping, others walking in circles, or sitting cross-legged and staring blankly forward. However, there were some children doing interesting things. One child, a small girl no older then eight, was playing with a snowball that she'd generated. While most of the rooms were a padded khaki color, hers was tinted with a cyan from the ice that clung to her walls. Icicles hung down above her, and her floor was covered in snow. At first glance, she could have been assumed to be a much younger version of Skade. They even had the same look to their faces. In another room, there was a boy with scaled skin, orange in color, and he was clinging to the ceiling, apparently asleep. Another room showed a small girl, no older than five, her body suddenly convulsing rapidly until another version of herself seemed to split, leaving two version of the same girl in the room, and they began to laugh at each other.
"This room is called the Incubus. Here, Warren keeps his other types of subjects. When he's not making clones, he's injecting newborn children with the superhuman gene and raising them to hone their abilities. Some kids are even born with their powers." Damian informed them. "This is the future army of the world, pretty much."
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