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Join Date: Jan 2008
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this issue guest starring characters by Bono Fett, Tim Frady, and the mention of a character by Trickstyx
Captain Midnight arrived at the Citadel still weary from his encounter with Superion and the alien Kronoan called Grog. *see issue # 5*.
As he entered the clock tower’s ‘war’ room he was astonished to see the place crowded. He pulled up short as he entered the doorway causing Talon, who had been only a step behind, to stumble into his back.
He looked around the room and saw two familiar faces though he had never met them before and one not so familiar. He recognized the man called Wraith and the red masked Deadlaw from his trip to the distant future. *see Captain Midnight Origins*.
Though he didn’t recognize the other bird masked man that sat conversing with Shadow Hawk.
“Did I interrupt a party?” he asked as he took another step into the room.
Talon squeezed past him and went over to the computer to whisper something in Sebastian’s ear. Then she found a seat at the table and sat down to join in the conversation. At the impressive presence that was Captain Midnight, Shadow Hawk and Raven stopped talking and looked up in his direction.
“Hey Cap” Shadow Hawk greeted “no, not a party. I’ve just been assembling a team to help out with this disaster.”
Wraith stood up and introduced himself to his fellow soldier and saluted out of respect “it is an honor to meet you sir. I remember reading about your time travel experiment during the Army History portion of Boot Camp. Though I’ll admit they had it wrong seeing as how you’re here now and they said you died during the failed experiment.”
Captain Midnight looked at this soldier a moment sizing him up with his gaze before responding “the experiment didn’t fail, I just never went back to tell them that” he said bitterly, the memory of the event bringing back a pang of sorrow at not getting the chance to return to his own time.
He shook the thoughts away and turned toward Sebastian King “do you think that fancy computer of yours can run a diagnostic on my bracers? Ever since they were recharged with solar power they seem a bit sluggish to respond.”
“Sure thing Cap let me take a look at ‘em” Sebastian replied taking the arm bands from him.
Shadow Hawk looked over at Wraith and then began speaking to the Captain himself “we think we have found a way to detect this disaster of yours…” here he paused to let that sink in “Wraith here can detect danger with his radar senses. If we hook him up to the Sentinel supercomputer Sebastian thinks he can widen the range of his abilities allowing him to detect danger to the planet itself.”
“Why haven’t you already started then?” Captain Midnight asked and then continued in his soldier’s voice “hop to it men. We have no time to lose.”
The team was taken aback by his abruptness and then scrambled to do as they were told. All except Deadlaw and Raven, they remained rooted in place as if they hadn’t heard him. Captain Midnight looked at them, anger seething on his face at the disobedience. He marched over to them and slammed his fist down on the table hard enough to knock their elbows from it.
“Why are you disobeying my order soldiers?”
“We are not soldiers and you have no right to order us around” Raven retaliated as Deadlaw remained impassive to the whole conversation.
“Dammit, we are at war here. By order of the United States of America I am drafting you into my regiment” the Captain continued completely caught up in his military mentality “I need you to be ready to move as soon as the threat is found. I cannot go to battle with those who are not willing to follow my orders to the letter!”
Deadlaw finally broke his silence then “fine I only came because Shadow Hawk told me it was important. If you don’t want my help then I’ll return to Sun City. I have plenty of work there to keep me busy.”
He stood up to leave and headed toward the door. Talon move to intercept him, putting her hands gently on his shoulders with a look of pleading in her eyes. Deadlaw knew he could mentally bat her aside as if she was nothing more than a troublesome gnat but he thought better of it. This was after all a time of crisis and they needed his help. So what if the guy running the show was a jackass? He could put up with it for a little while.
“Okay Captain Midnight you win” Deadlaw said stopping in his tracks “I’ll help but you have to lighten up on the orders. I’ve got more experience fighting evil than you do. These powers of mine aren’t as new to me as yours are to you.”
“Fair enough” Captain Midnight replied realizing he overstepped his bounds “the stress is getting to me” he finished.
“Midnight come look at this” Sebastian said quickly.
“What is it?”
“The solar power is having an adverse effect on your bracers” he said enlarging the diagnostic on the screen so that he could better point out what he was saying “here is the power core. As you can see the energy is fluctuating quite rapidly.”
“What’s that mean?”
“They’ve become very unstable. The Crimson Energy that originally powered them must have kept them at a steady rate of output. The solar power simply cannot keep up with the power demands. It is very possible that in the heat of battle you could find yourself powerless.”
“Is there anyway around that?” Captain Midnight asked his face a solid mask not revealing any emotion.
“The trace amounts of Crimson Energy that are left in the bracers give off a signature similar to that of atomic power. If we could find another atomic energy source the bracers should stabilize.”
“Who has atomic power just lying around?” Raven asked joining the conversation.
“The government” Deadlaw interrupted “there is a secret facility in Sun City where they store plutonium.”
“Plutonium might work” Sebastian replied “however there is another option that is almost guaranteed to work, Big Blue.”
“What’s Big Blue?” Raven asked.
Smiling Sebastian answered “not exactly what but who” he suppressed a laugh at the astonished looks on their faces then continued “he is a walking atomic bomb created by the government.”
“So why haven’t we heard of him?” Captain Midnight asked.
“It’s all very hush, hush” Sebastian informed him “I only recently hacked into the database where the information was kept. Though I still haven’t been able to find a location on him.”
“Why?”
“Because, three minutes before my download of the file was complete the entire database was erased. The government really doesn’t want this information getting out. If I’d been dealing with an average computer I wouldn’t have even retrieved as much information as I did.”
“What’s our next move?”
“General Luther Vanguard” Wraith said reentering the room, before Captain Midnight could berate him for not being strapped into the machine he answered the question unasked “the equipment has to boot up. It takes about five minutes.”
“Who’s General Vanguard?” Deadlaw asked.
“Old army buddy of mine. Though I’m not sure where he is now. When I got captured by the CIA he disappeared off the radar. I thought he was out there somewhere hatching a plan to break me out. Guess I was wrong.”
Sebastian went to work on his terminal hacking every government database he could think of until he found the information he was looking for “he’s in Alaska.”
“What?”
“It seems three weeks after you were captured the CIA found him hiding out at Paradise Ranch. They arrested him and shipped him off to the Arctic Circle Penitentiary.”
“We have to break him out” Wraith said “he’s the only one I know with enough contacts to find out where this Big Blue is being kept.”
“Deadlaw, Raven, Shadow Hawk and I will go get your General” Captain Midnight said “I want you to stay here and locate the catastrophic event in enough time for us to stop it!”
“Will do Captain” Corey Wraithe replied with a crisp salute and making an about face he went back to the room where the equipment waited for him.
“Sebastian” Midnight called “I need you to put me in touch with the Squad.”
“Sure thing” Sebastian answered typing away at his console bringing up the program that would allow him to open a channel with the communicator Captain Midnight had given Falcon upon their departure in the Arctic. *again see issue 5*
“Okay Captain the channel is open.”
“Squad this is Captain Midnight. I need your assistance. There is an Army General by the name of Luther Vanguard being held in the Arctic Circle Penitentiary. I need you guys to recon the area in Alaska. I want to know the entire layout of the facility as well as the guard posts by the time me and my team get there.”
“Midnight we read you loud and clear” Falcon replied “we’ll get right on it. Falcon out!”
With that the channel went dead and Captain Midnight gathered his team. Shadow Hawk you and Raven take your Shadow Jet. Deadlaw and I’ll fly ourselves up there” with that the team exited the Citadel to go about their task.
Meanwhile Talon helped strap Wraith into the machine and hit the power switch. He activated his radar senses and let the power flow out of him and into the computer terminal. It was a weird sensation, as if he was nothing but a spirit wandering a few hundred miles above the Earth. The feeling of weightlessness was aided by the fact that he could see from the point of view of the sky.
As his senses reached out they encompassed more and more of the land below. The entire world seemed to trigger his danger senses. He saw a mugging taking place in Los Angeles, a bank robbery in Ohio. Endless crimes assaulted his senses to the point of becoming overwhelming.
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