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Join Date: Jan 2008
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So here it is, the conclusion paving the way for Captain Midnight to make his debut in the present day.
As the group stood in a circle on the bridge of the Midnight Avenger mother ship, Cole wondered why the floating head was telling him all of this seemingly trivial information.
“And why tell me all of this” he finally asked?
“Because, in order for you to become an initiate in the Midnight Avenger Corps, you must know of our history.”
“Whoa there Hoss, who said anything about being initiated into your little club here?”
“The only way for you to stop the catastrophe is to gain our powers. And the only way to do that is to join us.”
“Why can’t one of you just go back and stop it then?”
“21st century Earth is not ready for our kind yet. Humans would not listen to us, not heed our warnings. They would attack us or capture us on sight. No it has to be you.”
With that Midnight Maiden placed one hand on Hyde’s forehead and pointed her other towards an empty wall. Images appeared on the wall and they were moving. It reminded Cole Turner of those moving pictures he had seen as a kid when his pa would take him to the drive-in theater on weekends.
The images on the wall came to life and there were even sounds to be heard. The first figure on the wall was dressed in black fatigues and he was wearing armored gauntlets on his hands. He began shouting orders to the others as robots of all sizes tried to smash them to bits.
[“Cyber Jack, Hyde you need to take these behemoths out before they crush us under their huge feet” the man in black shouted and pointed at two very large robots then he shouted at two others, a woman in desert fatigues and a man with lightning bolts on his uniform “Bombshell, Voltage give them some cover fire, I don’t want those giants to realize what we’re up too!”
As the two strong-men converged on the giant robot ‘behemoths’ the one called Voltage started firing off lightning bolts from his hands while Bombshell did the same but with radioactive energy. The robots began targeting the two of them and not paying any attention to the others.
Next the man in black shouted to some others who were eagerly awaiting their orders “Max, Matt, and Corey get inside the command center and see if you can get the doors opened for the rest of us!”
Max, the one wearing a golden skull over his face, took off running toward the compound with a speed unmatched by the others. Matt decided to levitate himself, for he moved faster that way and Corey dashed behind as quickly as he could dodging incoming fire from smaller robot drones. When the three of them reached the stronghold they all began to change their molecular structure becoming intangible as if they were ghosts. Then each of them walked right through the wall as if it simply didn’t exist.
“John why do they get to have all the fun?” the Vampire Hunter asked.
“Okay Jack you can have those guys” John said pointing at the swarm of human sized robots that were headed their way.
Jack Turner, the Vampire Hunter cursed himself under his breath and drew forth his plasma sword, a weapon he had recently cobbled together out of random junk but which he found could actually cut these things in half. He met the robots head on and went to work with his sword dismantling as many as he could.
Meanwhile John activated his gauntlets extending his own wrist blades. He jumped towards one of the humanoid robots and slammed his blade through its faceplate. Then he fired off several hawk shaped blades which exploded as they came in contact with more of those drones.
The doors to the command center slid open as one of the behemoths fell under the combined might of Cyber Jack and Hyde. The two of them had gotten on its shoulders and crushed its head in shorting out its control box.
“Regroup inside” John shouted to the team.
Before they could all make it however the other behemoth fired off several miniature rockets. The explosion was enormous. It sent them all flying in different directions.
The Vampire Hunter’s armor protected him from the initial impact but then the behemoth’s massive foot came down on top of him effectively ending his existence.
Hyde roared in fury as he pulled himself back up on his feet. Cyber Jack pulled himself back up as well, lucky for him most of his vital organs had been replaced with the bionics and they were still functioning.
“Where’s John?” shouted Cyber Jack.
Hyde pointed over near the building where a leg could be seen sticking out from beneath the rubble. John Dark was dead as were Voltage, Bombshell, and now the Vampire Hunter. Cyber Jack began moving the debris off of their leader while Hyde went inside the building to look for Matthew Corrie, Corey Wraithe, and Max. But they were not inside the command center. Hyde gave a sigh of relief; maybe they had somehow gotten out before the roof collapsed?
“Hyde, we have company” Cyber Jack shouted.
“I don’t hide from anything” Hyde snarled before he slammed his fists through one of the smaller robots.
“That’s not what I...oh never mind” Cyber Jack replied before jumping out of the way of another incoming rocket.]
The image ended here leaving Cole in suspense waiting to find out about the fate of the others. He looked over at Midnight Maiden and Hyde and saw the somber expressions on both of their faces.
“Hyde does not wish to recount the fate of Cyber Jack for it was too horrible to put into words” Midnight Maiden answered his gaze.
“Well why can’t you use his memories at least to find out about the catastrophe?”
“He has either blocked it out or has partial amnesia for nothing of the event is present in his mind” Maiden answered with regret.
Then other images flashed on the wall though they were brief and unmoving.
[A man wearing what reminded Cole of blue pajamas with a V on his chest looked to be leading a team consisting of Hyde, a man in a coonskin cap carrying a rifle, a surfer boy with a big sword, and a green archer. Then the image vanished as quickly as it had come.]
“Others Hyde worked with in the past” the explanation came from Myd Nie Tur "Hyde dwells on them often."
“What happened to the ghost like heroes?” Cole asked concerned that their fate was left unrevealed as well.
“Up until four Earth years ago we presumed them dead though exactly how we weren’t sure” Midnite Lite spoke up “that is until we met up with what was left of them.”
“How do you mean?”
“Prior to the catastrophe Matthew Corrie was masquerading as a vigilante calling himself Deadlaw. His abilities were those of a ghost as you saw in the visions. There was a reason for that, he was more or less one of the undead, a being who can’t completely die. The same goes for Max who was also known as Sugar Skull, he had been resurrected by a god and so had already died once.”
“You actually believe these ghost stories? It’s going to take more than a little ghost story if you’re trying to scare me” Cole announced though deep down he was becoming unsure of himself.
“Believe what you will but it is the truth for Matthew Corrie lost his physical forms during the rocket attack. His body evaporated leaving only his spiritual form. Since he can’t truly die he has been condemned to haunt this world as a real ghost.”
“What happened to the other two?”
“That is a different story altogether. Deadlaw pieced the information together for us by using his abilities to connect minds with the enemy. The robots had originally taken the Sugar Skull prisoner and since has handed him off to the Kronoans. Why remains a mystery. But he in essence is still alive as well.”
“Another ghost?”
“No much worse than that. His body has been strapped to a special device. And now he acts as their power source. They use the rage within his soul to fuel their weapons of mass destruction.”
At that moment a robot came running onto the bridge, though it did not look like the robots Captain Turner had just seen in the images. This one was painted to resemble the Midnight Avenger Corps uniforms and it too wore the crimson bracers upon its arms.
“Sir, the Kronoans have broken through the barrier” the robot announced.
“Slow down Mid-Knight, tell us what happened” Midnight Maiden asked in a soothing voice.
“We were making our rounds near the equator when our barrier wall simply disintegrated. My warriors stood firm but the lizards have a new weapon that we can simply not repel.”
“What new weapon” roared the Midnight Berserker.
“A human who fires off concentrated bursts of dark energy. He calls himself Chaos.”
“Chaos?” Midnite Lite asked eagerly awaiting more information.
Maiden placed her hand upon the robots cranium and projected the image on the wall, it was a perfect likeness of the other missing man from Hyde’s memories, this Corey Wraithe character though his eyes now had a haunted look about them and he was completely surrounded by dark energy.
“Assemble all available Midnighters” Myd Nie Tur sent out the call telepathically touching the minds of each one currently on or in the vicinity of Earth.
In the same instant Cole found himself covered by one of the Midnight Avenger Corps uniforms and the crimson bracers clamped themselves around his wrists. Captain Turner felt the power course through his veins and felt invigorated by its presence within him.
“You have to go now Captain Midnight” Myd Nie Tur ordered giving him his Midnighter codename.
With that the floating head opened a portal to the past and it began to draw Cole towards it. But he was not going to go that easily.
“I can help you, let me stay!”
“No, you have your orders. You must prevent the catastrophe. We can handle this assault. But remember if you are successful chances are you will lose your powers for we will never exist.”
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