Formation's End

This is by far my favorite story. It details the death and re-birth of one of the Akkadian Knights, Firebrand. It was also one of the first few stories for my team.

We are at war right now.  My stories will begin to get more complex and tie into each other more and more.  I guess I’ve found an outlet for a talent that I’ve wanted to flex and refine for some time.  I’m putting my account on the line this time.  The results of this war determine how I end this for my own character.  I have two accounts and I need to make some hard decisions about how I spend my time in my real life.  Win this war and help me to have a happy ending…

 

Formation’s End, Part 1 of 2

 

The Akkadian Knights had a lot of work to do.  The recovery of the military grade power armor in Venezuela brought global attention to the team in powerful circles and corporate sponsorship from Gorthrup Nrummond (the inventive genius behind the power armor), a major weapons contractor for the US Government as well as other entities around the globe, which all jumped at the opportunity to gain from the experience.  With these sponsorships, the team now had enough capital to establish a true base of operations.  The search for a base lasted a few months.

 

It had now only been a few weeks since they had acquired a small keep in North Wales, England, to call their own and already the effort of restoration and retrofitting was overwhelming.  The structure, built in the 1400’s, was practically gothic.  On top of this challenge was the occasional foray into the countryside to assist local residents with various tasks such as catching the occasional sheep rustler or digging trenches for irrigation.  Although not “superhero” caliber in their own eyes at times, the locals found it very helpful and were quickly being endeared to the team. 

 

It was early Sunday morning, on the way back from the local parish, St. Mary’s, when disaster struck in a way that would bring the team to its most daunting challenge yet, and ultimately the end of one of their own.  Wraithus and Firebrand were travelling up a long, winding road towards the keep talking about the upcoming Soccer match between England and Spain, although the conversation quickly changed to the Cowboys, UT Longhorns, women and favorite beers.  Culture was a strong suit for neither of them…

 

The road was lined with apple trees, a rare plant in this part of the world.  Normally, the PH balance of the soil would not permit such things, but the land had been cultivated for centuries and was verdant.  The road was made of cobblestones and barely wide enough for a single car to travel along its length.  The sun was shining and only sparse clouds dotted the bright blue skies.  Both were hoping to do some work on the southern parapet of the keep’s outer walls and the conversation eventually migrated to that topic.

 

A mere ¼ mile away from their destination, darkness descended over them like a drawn curtain.  It wasn’t a natural darkness by any stretch of the imagination and both heroes instantly knew something was up.  Firebrand lit up and illuminated the surrounding ground only to find the darkness consuming his light and once again engulfing the two startled heroes.

 

Wrathius, with his enhanced hearing, noticed the sound fade first.  In moments, neither hero could hear a thing.  No more songs from bluebirds common to that part of the countryside audible just moments before.  The wind no longer made sound rustling through the trees, although they could still feel the cool morning breeze on their skin.  Most importantly, neither could any longer hear his teammate. 

 

Tapping the communicator on his wrist, Wrathius found that he was cut off from the keep, or maybe he simply couldn’t hear their response to his call.  It was now hard to tell.  He felt a blast of heat on his skin and knew that Firebrand was reacting to something. Crouching down, he prepared for the attack that was surely coming.  To his surprise, the darkness began to lift as if it was smoke dissipating in the breeze.  It had come and gone in less than 10 seconds.  He could see again, hear again… and he was alone. 

 

Firebrand was nowhere to be seen.  All that he saw was a scorched blast mark on the ground where his friend was standing moments before.

 

It took less than a minute for him to sprint the last ¼ mile up to the keep where he met Eron at the entrance helping SoulSearcher plant the keystone in a new archway over the impressive entrance.  Minutes later, the team had been called together in the rather barren dining hall, which was now subbing as a tactical meeting room.  Wrathius quickly told his story.

 

Although the computer system was not yet fully operational, enough was set up for MDG to do some basic research.  Looking up the Knights’ Republic database, he was able to locate a short list of mutants with the power to do what Wrathius described.  There were only 2 world-wide, and both were in England.  One, NightWraith, was in London proper in a team dubbed Omega Squad.  The other, The Living Shadow was north, in Scotland although the database showed the later as “dis-empowered”, whatever that meant. 

 

Although not the most experienced member, Firebrand was one of the most powerful members of the team.  For him to have disappeared without a trace implied that powerful forces were at work and that haste was of the utmost importance.  The team decided to split up.  SoulSearcher, piloting the Defender, took those members w/o the ability to fly south to London in search of NightWraith.  The remainder, Eron, Vexator, and Zildoran headed north to Scotland to find The Living Shadow post haste.

 

Elsewhere…

 

Firebrand slowly regained consciousness.  Everything hurt, especially his head.  He’d been hit by a psychic dagger before, but never one of such raw power.  The last time was a strike from the Elemental of Shadow years ago, but he did not remember sensing the later nearby this time.  The last thing he remembered, aside from excruciating pain, was noticing that even the sound had disappeared and a bright flash of light as his grasp on reality faded.

 

Moving his head hurt greatly, but he forced himself to look around.  He was in a concrete chamber with a large iron door strapped to a table.  Computer banks lined the walls of the room and provided the majority of the light around him.  A large, dark purple light, reminiscent of a black light, hung over his head emitting some form of radiation.  Another machine, looking much like a large omega symbol, was at the base of the table, and a plane of blue light filled the shape.  It rippled as if it was liquid, but the soft crackling sound it emitted said otherwise.

 

Well, enough was enough.  He summoned his strength to melt the bands holding him only to find that he couldn’t so much as bring about a spark.  Something had severed most of his link to the Plane of Fire and was repressing his ability to channel it.

 

“Feeling a little out of sorts, Firebrand?”  An ominous voice echoed through the chamber.  With his head throbbing, it sounded rather garbled, but Firebrand knew the source immediately.

 

All he could muster was a weak “mega pain…” 

 

“That’s right my boy.  It’s been a long time.  Enjoy your final moments.  It won’t be long now.”  The gleam in mega pain’s eyes was unmistakable.

 

London…

 

SoulSearcher set the Defender down on a helipad off the Temms river.  The team exited and worked their way through the sewer system under Parliament to the former home of the Omega Squad.  Rumored to have disbanded several months ago, it was one of the few possible hiding places of NightWraith, a teleporting mutant with the power to alter light and sound waves. 

 

The lair was desolate, with the steel door completely ripped off its hinges.  The only living things remaining being rats which scurried for cover.  In the corner, Caledonia made a gruesome discovery.  The bodies of several Omega Squad members, including NightWraith, were scattered about.  Not all of them were in one piece.  

 

“This is nightmarish,” commented Cassandra.  “They didn’t disband… they were dismembered!”

 

Wrathius chimed in, “Nightwraith had teleportation abilities, but this body is bruised and battered in a way that would have taken a while.  Why didn’t he just teleport away?  It was also rumored that he was more shadow than man any more.  What happened?”

 

Upon close examination, Bat MAn commented, “Look at how pale he is…”

 

Disconcerted at their discovery, the team headed back to the Defender.  On the way out, they were stopped by a group of shadowy characters in the sewers.  Crimson Royale stepped into a ray of light, looked over the team, and simply said “Well I’ll be.  He was right.  You did come here.  Get ‘em boys,” in a deep, rumbling voice.  With that, team MADD SLAYERS pounced Wyldecard and Caledonia and battle was joined.

 

Scotland…

 

Eron, Vexator, and Zildoran moved with haste Northward.  They had farther to travel, but flew faster than the antiquated Defender and made it to their destination, a small farm house in the rolling Scottish dales, rather quickly.  The home was a quaint hut, with an ancient thatch roof and wood trim.  The heroes set down on the cobblestone path leading to the door. 

 

Within moments, an elderly man stepped out.  Looking to be at least 70, he walked with a cane and a pronounced limp to the yard gate.  “How can I help you?”  His voice was strong and deep, belying his physical state.

 

Eron spoke first, “We’re looking for The Living Shadow.  Our research has led us here and it’s urgent that we find him.  Do you know of him?”

 

“You’ve come to the right place, but he’s no longer around here.” Replied the old gentleman.  “He hasn’t been around anywhere since xx took his powers away about 10 years ago.”

 

Looking confused, Vexator spoke up, “What do you mean?  How is that possible?” 

 

“Well I was The Living Shadow, the Elemental of the Plane of Shadow, for many years.  It all started years ago when…” 

 

“I’m sorry, pardon me, I meant to ask how you lost your powers?” V interjected.

 

“Oh, that… in an attempt to connect with the Elemental Plane of Shadow, xx forcefully drew my powers out of me and attempted to absorb them.  Of course, it didn’t work, but I was left powerless as a result.  Nature abhors a vacuum so a mutant in Southern England, NightWraith took my former mantle and became the new Elemental of Shadow.”

 

Zildoran scratched his chin thoughtfully, “What could this have to do with Firebrand?”

 

“Oh, Firebrand.  How is he these days?”  Surprised at the older man’s question, Zildoran asked “You know Firebrand?”

 

“Of course I do, he’s the Elemental of the Plane of Fire.  There were very few of us you know.  He and xx were never the best of friends.”

 

Eron stepped forward and asked “Can you tell us where to find xx?”

 

Meanwhile…

 

“I’ve waited for this moment for a long time, Firebrand,” xx said as he circled the table.  Firebrand could hardly see straight much less respond.  There was something of a dampening field in the light over him and it made it hard to even concentrate.  In the background, he could hear something mechanical spring to life.

 

As the machine’s soft blue glow illuminated the room, 3 more figures entered and xx continued to speak.  “You are the last one you know.  The Earth, Air, Water and, finally, Shadow Elementals are all gone.  I saved the best for last!  Well, of course, I wanted to perfect my equipment before trying to absorb the strongest Elemental of all.  You see, I finally figured out what was missing…”

 

Xx blathered on, but Firebrand could hardly focus and his droning voice kept fading in and out.  If he could only, somehow, hit the adrenaline injector inside the cuff of his sleeve, he could at least summon enough energy to get loose, but even that seemed out of reach and pointless since he was outnumbered.  If xx had truly absorbed the power of the other Elementals, he would be nearly invincible now anyway.

 

“… and it was exactly this link to the limitless quantum field that I was missing, that limitless expanse from which all matter and energy springs.  It is the antithesis of dark matter and the reason our universe exists.  You see using a fraction of its power I could absorb the powers out of anyone, even Elementals!  Yet the process is risky, with unpredictable side effects if it’s not completed on the first try.  That’s why…”

 

He faded out again.  Firestorm was glad in a way.  He always hated the monotone tone of his voice xx had when he was on a roll about his self-perceived superiority and intelligence.  The light in the room grew brighter and he felt a tingling on his legs.  Looking down, he came to the horrific realization that his table was moving slowly thorough the circle of blue light.  The process had already begun!

 

“… so you see, I never did hold a personal grudge against you young Firebrand.  I just want your power.  Once I have absorbed the power of all of the earthly Elementals, I will purge the Earth of the plague of humanity.  I have over 10,000 followers who will all receive omega class abilities, a mere fraction of the power I will have.  My army will be unstoppable.  Not even the Galactic Guardians will be able to stop me! 

 

“Oh, I see you have noticed the machine working perfectly, drawing your power into itself to be transferred to me later today.  Don’t fret; when it’s all over you won’t be alive to miss it.  You see, the machine doesn’t just steal power anymore as my original version so do many years ago, it steals your soul…”

 

Firebrand’s eyes rolled back into his head.  He could feel a cold numbness in his legs, as if the life was being sucked out of him.  Consciousness was ebbing again as the machine pulled his waist through the brightening wall of light…

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

Formation’s End, Part 2 of 2

 

The explosion was immense.  The destruction was total.  Three hired technicians working for the xx team, the ones standing closest to the table when it happened, were instantly vaporized.  The rest never made it out of the building alive.  Eron was blown through the concrete wall into the parking garage, landing inside a dump truck.  That was the only blessing that saved him from the same horrible fate; although the broken bones he experienced were a constant reminder for weeks to come of his failure. 

 

Firebrand, in a final act of sacrifice, was no more. 

 

 

It wasn’t until a week later, when Eron found himself conscious again, laying in bed back at the keep, that he had the chance to reminisce about the event and piece it together in his mind.  Caledonia and Cassandra entered the room brining a bowl of porridge and they sat and talked about it.  He conveyed how he, Vexator and Zildoran pieced together what was happening in Scotland and how they had attempted to save their friend.   Caledonia told the story of how the junior members of the team faced the xx team in fierce combat below the streets of London and barely escaped with their lives, only to follow Eron’s locator beacon to Scotland where the shockwave from the blast had downed the Defender.  Caledonia explained how, after the event, Dog and MDG had left the team and disappeared, ashamed at the team’s failure.

 

They had all failed.  The memory hurt.

 

He flashed back frequently in the first few days of his full recovery.  The machine was slowly pulling the table with Firebrand on it into itself, the blue light sucking the life energy out of him.  It has reached his chest by the time Eron, Vexator and Zildoran burst through the ceiling into the room.  Firebrand had already lost consciousness, mercifully, and was pale as a ghost.  The machine was glowing withbrilliant white and getting brighter as it inched over Firebrand’s chest.  The xx team was surrounding it at computer banks.  With his ability to see into the Astral Plane, Zildoran was horrified to actually see Firebrand’s silver chord dissolving.

 

Xx turned to Eron, shouting “You cannot be here!  This procedure cannot be stopped once started!  He’s connected to the Quantum Field and stopping the process could have disast..…*”

 

Eron was too much of a man of action to wait for the rest of his blathering.  He hit xx with everything he had while his companions tore into the remainder of the xx team.  It was like hitting solid stone.  His only order: “Clear the room, we have to shut this thing down!”  Vexator and Zildoran dutifully forced most of the xx team and technicians outside and took to the air while XX and Eron faced off.

 

In the heat of the struggle, the table Firebrand was on was bumped and his arm flinched.  It twisted it to the side his hand was force to curl inward.  A tiny needle pricked his skin under his cuff and his eyes opened, burning with what must have been the fading light of his strength.  In a weak voice, he whispered “you intend evil with these powers and once you have them, you cannot be stopped.  I won’t allow that even if it costs my life.”  Firebrand tapped into the only power source he had left, his own eternal soul.  Had T been looking, he would have seen the silver chord snap. 

 

Firebrand’s body burned brightly with a fiery nimbus for just the briefest of moments and a bright beam of energy shot out of his eyes into the field as it crossed the plane of his head.  The technicians in the room ducked for cover in an attempt to get away from the searing heat.  The beams lit up the night sky through the hole in the roof as if it had been a spotlight as Firebrand used what little strength he had left to open a portal directly to the Elemental Plane of Fire.

 

It was not enough to stop the machine.  The curtain of light absorbed the beams and passed over his head, consuming him. 

 

The flame disappeared from Firebrand’s lifeless eyes.  The connection was broken.  All went dark.

 

Emergency lights kicked in and the room lit up with a dim light through the dust and smoke.  Xx turned to Eron, a look of utter triumph on his face.  He reached for the lever that would transfer the elemental power Firebrand once had, now contained in the machine, to himself.  He laughed at the thought of completing the work he had begun so many years before and that which would secure his dominance over this pathetic planet.  He pulled the lever and waited expectantly.  Nothing happened.

 

Seconds later, machine made a grinding sound and the energy field which had passed over Firebrand, stealing his very life force, fluctuated and shifted colors to a brilliant red. Without warning, the explosion occurred and ripped the very fabric of space itself.  The damage was astounding.  The Quantum Field portal, encapsulated in the machine, interacted with Firebrand’s connection to the Elemental Plane of Fire through the blast he sent into it and generated an explosion the likes of which the poor town hadn’t seen since the German V-2 missiles in the Great War.  It was as if a daisy cutter had been dropped on the factory with that room as ground zero.

 

The resulting crater was nearly 2,300 meters across and half again as deep.  A hole was ripped in the earth below the chamber and found a gas main, further adding to the blast and instantly detonating the entire city block.  The closest populated building was over a mile away and the tremors reached them within seconds, shattering windows and sending innocent people scurrying for cover. 

 

Eron was on the far side of the room, on the other side of xx, when the first shockwave blasted forth from Firebrand’s body as the corporeal link to the Elemental Plane of Fire broke entirely, mingling with the Quantum Field.  xx took the brunt of the blast, shielding Eron from it’s full force.  Even at that, it was powerful enough to force him through the concrete wall into the parking garage.  He landed in a dilapidated garbage truck filled with trash.  The metal door on the back of the truck, jarred by the shock of the hit, closed.  The second shockwave, the one creating the crater, shot forth from the portal to the Quantum Field as it collapsed less than a second later and was much more massive.  It tore through the walls of the factory and fused the door of the truck, blasting it away from the explosion and hurling Eron clear of the blast.  For him, everything went black.

 

In the distance, about 10 miles away, the incoming Defender shook and rattled as the shockwave hit it.  The engines choked and sputtered.  It was all SoulSearcher could do to keep it airborne.  Their mission had just changed from one of support to one of search and rescue…

 

Epilogue…

 

Weeks passed and the Akkadian Knights relentlessly pursued the remnants of the xx team with passion.  The Templar Knights, Reverent Knights, Asgard Knights and Sanctum Knight joined in the effort and, before long, every one of team xx was in maximum security prison in London.

 

A month later, Eron found himself at the site of the crater once more wondering what he cold have done different, Caledonia comforting him at his side.  Wraithus and Vexator were standing nearby, looking downtrodden.  The birds were chirping in the background as if all was right with the world, but the heroes could not hear them. 

 

Adding to the sense of loss, Dog and MDG had left the team.  They simply disappeared one night without a word.  In the days before his absence, they kept telling the team that they felt responsible for the failure.

 

Wrathius’ phone rang.  He answered the call, and turned to Eron.  “Boss, we have to go.”

 

As Eron reluctantly turned to leave, a faint glow lit his back and he could feel heat on his skin.  He looked back slowly, not sure what to expect and saw what appeared to be a hand pushing up through the earth at the bottom of the crater.  The hand was molten in appearance and shot forth rays of light from between the cracks in its skin.  Even on a broken leg, Eron rushed to the bottom of the crater and reached out to pull the form clear of the debris, only to find that the hand was too hot to touch.  It burned him like nothing he had ever felt.

 

Falling back, holding his seared hand, he sat on the ground as a humanoid form rose effortlessly from the earth to float inches above the ground, the earth simply melting away at its touch.  Its skin molted into an obsidian black with glowing orange streaks along its length and bright, flaming eyes.  Its hands and head blazed with an intense flame.  It stared down at Eron impassively.

 

“Firebrand?” Eron could hear his own voice but it seemed surreal.  He could feel his heartbeat in his chest.  The form looked down at him, power pouring from his eyes, bathing Eron in a searing light.

“The one you knew as Firebrand is dead.  I am all that remains.  I am the Quantum Elemental.”

 

 

 

Congrats to the Akkadian Knights for a battle well fought and yet another victory!

Author's Note

4-8-11 - Thomas - The "xx"s were filled in with the names of the team members of the team we fought. I'll complete this story when I find the version that had the names filled in.

Reviews

[rania]

I found this a very insightful seminar and one of the best I’ve been to in a while. Very good speakers and some great information and examples. Please do inform me of any other forthcoming Neighbourhood Planning seminars.
curt
Air Jordan 2