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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 9:28:24 GMT -5
 (VARIANT DVD CASES)
      SEASON ONE CAST
(In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight ... Ace Watson (8 Episodes)
Detective Stacey Jordan ... Nina Stokes (12 Episodes)
Anka de Jarius (Hexx) ... Kenzi Grey (12 Episodes)
Reaver ... Melissa Reeves (6 Episodes)
Vixxxen ... Katie Anderson (4 Episodes)
Daria Knight ... Missy (6 Episodes)
Michelle Andretti ... Delia Darling (4 Episodes)
Spike Staggs ... R.C. Tucker (4 Episodes)
Gaia ... Kate Steele (5 Episodes)
Arella ... Orchid (5 Episodes)
Meepus ... Kaden Kessler (3 Episodes)
Pam Dawson ... Kara Zooey Ayers (3 Episodes)
Correctional Officer Pearson ... Eyesnsane (1 Episode)
Freight Train ... Duke King (1 Episode)
Raphael ... Phoenix Chambers (2 Episodes)
Doomed Pilot/Cloaked Figure ... DubbleFC (2 Episodes)
Superius ... Seth Jorgenson (3 Episodes)
Agent Grace Sloan ... Amy Jo Smyth (2 Episodes)
Production Assistant ... Chantal DeVille (1 Episode)
Agent Maya ... Maria Salvatore (1 Episode)
Uniformed Officer ... Eric Weaver (1 Episode)
CREW
Director ... DubbleFC
Screenplay ... Ron B.
Produced by ... CTN Television Studios
Casting ... Maleek Raheem
Music ... Guilty Pleasure |
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 16:33:50 GMT -5
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Chapter VI: The Clock is Ticking…
Brandon Knight stood outside the police station and checked his watch as he looked around. It was only then that he realized how foolish it had been of him to think that Anka would actually show up to give a statement about the burning of his church. She had disappeared when his sister had come to see if he was alright. Anka had said she had no interest in God’s plan for him, apparently that also included his legal obligations.
Brandon turned and walked into the police station, not wanting to be late for his appointment with Detective Jordan. As he walked through the doors, the all too familiar chatter and unnerving closeness of the place threatened to overwhelm him. He had not thought about the things that went on here in many years…and now that he was back…he wished that he had never come. This place was filled with memories, and most of them were bad.
As he walked pass the Desk Sergeant, the aging officer seemed to brighten. “Knight? Jeez!! I heard that you had almost bought the farm the other day, nearly got burned up in that club house of yours!!”
Brandon stopped and folded his arms. “It’s not a club house Bradski… it’s a church.”
Bradski chuckled. “It’s a pile of fire wood now so I hear.” When Brandon didn’t seem amused he quickly changed the subject. “So…you here to see Jordan?”
Brandon nodded. “I have an appointment with her about the fire.”
“Yeah, which one? The one around the corner or the one in your pants!?” Again, Brandon wasn’t humored. Bradski sighed as he nodded to the back. “You know the way to her office…” Brandon walked by and the officer shook his head. “Jeez…no sense of humor! No wonder they let him go!”
As Brandon walked through the halls, a part of him began to feel more and more at ease. It had been a long time since he wore a badge and carried a gun, and he had never relished that, but a part of him was still here, and he still missed that part of himself.
“Brandon?” Stacey stood up from behind her desk and greeted him with a friendly, yet well practiced smile. It was the kind of smile that police officers reserved for people that they wanted more information out of, when being on friendly terms might just help. Brandon knew that look well…he had taught it to her, and now, she was using it on him. The only question was, why and what was she fishing for. Her eyes moved to the chair beside him as she offered him a seat. “Can I get you something before we get started?”
Brandon sat down and shook his head. “No…I’m fine.”
Stacey sat down and stared at him coolly. “So, where’s your girlfriend?”
The question seemed to take him by surprise…so much so that for a moment he was unsure of exactly whom she was speaking of. “Girlfrien…? Oh! No…she’s not my girlfriend…she’s…” He paused as he looked at her, wondering what story he’d tell to her. “…she’s…”
Stacey arched her brow as she stared at him, prodding him for an answer with her eyes. “She’s…what?”
“She’s just a friend…” He finally managed, but that seemed too intimate. “…more like a student really…”
Stacey folded her hands on the desk in front of her. “A friendly student? One that calls you ‘honey’ and gives you kisses?” Her eyes never left him. “Wow! You’re really selfless, giving late night lessons at your house like that.” She cocked her head to the side. “What exactly were you teaching her?”
Brandon shook his head. He knew that he had made a terrible mistake in trying to explain Anka to her, but the truth would have been greeted with even more skepticism. “Look Stacey, I know what it looked like the other night, but I want you to know, there was nothing going on there.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Why would I care if you had some woman up in your apartment? I mean, it’s not like the two of us are still dating! That was a hundred years ago as far as I’m concerned. I’m just trying to nail down where you were that night. You know the drill.”
Brandon did know the drill, but this wasn’t professional, this was personal and he knew it. “Stacey…I want you to understand something here…whatever it is that you are thinking about me right now, it’s not true! That woman is…"
“Here…” she said.
Brandon stared at Stacey. “What?”
Stacey stood up and smiled. “That woman…your girlfriend…” She gestured behind him. “…she’s here.”
Brandon turned and then stood up himself, nearly knocking the chair over. Big as life, Anka was walking through the door, her features just as striking in the daytime as they had been last night, only her wings were now missing…hidden…or whatever she did with them. The night prior, she had seemed as big and as powerful as anyone could imagine. She had seemed to radiate power and conviction. Now, she seemed tiny… almost frail…though she was just as beautiful.
Stacey walked over and stood beside Brandon, speaking to him out of the side of her mouth. “Wipe your chin Father…you’re drooling…” Brandon’s hand went to his mouth before he realized that she was merely making a joke. All the same, he wiped anyway, just to be sure. Stacey stuck out her hand. “You’re right on time Anna…”
Brandon corrected her. “It’s Anka…”
She waved him off as she took Stacey’s hand. “It’s alright Father.” She gave the hand a firm shake as she looked up at the taller woman. “Detective Jordan.”
Stacey stepped aside and offered her the seat next to Brandon as she sat on the edge of the desk, doing her best to give an air of everyday likeability. Brandon had taught her that as well. She was running through the Knight Police Handbook…even though he hadn’t written any new chapters for many years. Stacey grinned at Anka. “So, tell me, how long have you two been dating?”
Brandon’s heart skipped a beat at this question. He started to jump right in, but Anka was the quicker of the two. “We’re not dating…” she paused “…the kiss from before? That was bad of me, I know…” she turned to Brandon. “…but he’s a handsome man, wouldn’t you agree?”
Stacey seemed slightly uncomfortable. She cleared her throat. “I hadn’t really paid much attention.” Her eyes met Brandon’s as he searched her face for any hint of what she really thought, but she regained her composure quickly. “Brandon tells me that you are a student of his. You been a follower of the One God Church for long?”
Anka gave a shrug. “I really wouldn’t call myself a follower. More curious than anything else.” She looked at Brandon and smiled. “I’m sort of between faiths at the moment.”
Stacey nodded. “Yeah…? Well, you could do worse than listen to Brandon here I guess. I mean, with all of the ‘Hero Worship’ going on around here, you really have to take your time and shop around. Try to get the most out of your promised afterlife…” She looked directly at Brandon. “…isn’t that right Father?”
Brandon could see that she was playing games with him…perhaps both of them were. He sighed. “God leaves it to each of us to choose our own way…be it right or wrong.”
Anka’s mood darkened visibly as she seemed to bristle at that remark. “Only when it suits Him Father…only when it suits Him.”
Brandon stared at her and she looked right back, her big dark eyes boring into him. Stacey could feel the tension, but this was not going in the direction that she wanted. She moved back to her chair. It was time to try on a bit of professionalism. She chose her words carefully. “Father…Anka, I was hoping that you two could give me a statement that I could add to my report about the arson at Madison Chapel.”
Brandon shook his head. “I don’t really know how much we could add really. We were at my apartment…”
Stacey could feel a small tickle of excitement running through her as it always did when she had seized upon something that others had failed to catch. He had tripped up…and she was eager to call him on it. “Brandon, why weren’t you surprised when I mentioned that the fire was caused by arson?” She glared at him. “You didn’t know that already did you Father?”
Brandon knew what had caused the fire and he realized too late that he had messed up by not at least looking surprised. All of his training had seemed to go out the window in the presence of these two women, but he only needed to convince one of them. He nodded and as he did he could see the look of surprise on Stacey’s face. “Yeah…I knew…or rather suspected. I mean…I’m not stupid enough to think that after six months whoever was out there burning down One God Churches had gotten their fill. I had hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t happen again…but, no one can hope to know God’s will.”
Stacey nodded as she did her best to not look disappointed. He had managed a plausible excuse for his lack of surprise, but she wasn’t convinced. She laid out another trap with all the skill of a trained law enforcement agent. “Well…thank God for insurance at least.”
Brandon smiled. “I didn’t have any insurance on the chapel…besides, I don’t think God has ever been in the insurance business.”
Stacey wanted to laugh, but she was angry at herself for believing that it would be this easy with him. “I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully you’ll find a way to get the place back up and running again.” She pulled out a pad and paper and scribbled down a few notes as she mentioned almost offhandedly. “How long was it that you said you and Anka were together the night of the fire?”
“The whole day…I…” Before he could even finish, he knew that he had stumbled again.
“The entire day?” She quickly questioned.
Brandon froze. Lying wasn’t something he did with any since of satisfaction for a good reason, he was horrible at it…and Stacey knew than better than anyone else. He was caught before he could even get it out. The fact of the matter was that it wasn’t always good to have an airtight alibi. It had been his own personal experience that the only people who had them were weirdoes and people who had carefully arranged to have them…those that were really guilty. “Well…I…”
Anka interjected. “We were together for most of the day Detective.” She looked at Brandon and then back to Stacey. “The Father wants to protect my privacy I’m sure…but if you really must know what he counseled me on, I’m more than happy to tell you about my past struggles with...”
Stacey raised her hand to stop her, then stared at Anka as she searched her face for evidence of deception, but there was none there, even though for some reason this woman rubbed her the wrong way. Let alone the fact that Stacey had already run the name that she had given her after they first met through the central database and found absolutely nothing. That was irregular…and it warranted further investigation, but even Stacey had to admit she had done it with the worst of intentions all along. She hadn’t wanted to know more about Anka because of the fire…she was more interested in who was spending time with Brandon these days. She waved it off. “No…I don’t think that will be necessary.” She plucked a card from her desk and handed it to her. “Hang on to that and give me a call if you remember anything else…but I’d like to know where I can reach you if I need to.”
Anka replied quickly. “I’ll be staying with The Father for a few more days…at least until I get a place of my own.”
Stacey seemed struck by this, but her reasons were more selfish than she cared to admit. She managed a curt smile. “That will do I guess…”
Brandon sat forward. “Stacey…the body in the church… I think it might be Jacob’s…”
Stacey sat back as she looked visibly stunned. “Jacob Phills?”
Brandon nodded. “I haven’t seen him since the fire…no one has…”
Stacey nodded slowly as she stood up. “I’ll look into it…” She looked at Brandon evenly. “…and I’ll find out who was responsible for this…I promise you that!”
Brandon nodded. “I have no doubt about that Stacey…none at all.” He stood up. “Are we done?”
Stacey nodded. “For now…I’ll be in touch.” As Anka stood up, she shook her hand a second time. “It was nice meeting you, sorry about the circumstances.” She looked at Brandon. “By the way…”
Brandon shook his head as he raised his hand. “Don’t leave town…I’ve got it…”
She nodded. “As soon as I know something… you’ll know.”
Brandon and Anka both walked out of the office and down the hall to get out of earshot before he finally stopped and turned to her. “Thank you for showing up here today. I don’t think I could have gotten through that without you…”
Anka ignored him as she crossed her arms in front of her. “You know that if she gets too close…she’s going to end up dead. The two creatures that did that, won’t deal lightly with her or anyone else interfering! They weren’t only after the church…they were after you too!”
Brandon frowned as he turned and looked back the way they had come. “What do you suggest I do?! I can’t tell the truth…she’ll think I’m insane! I…” He turned back and found that he was all alone. “Maybe I am crazy. Angels appearing and disappearing…people trying to kill me…what’s next?!!”
The Bowels
Underneath Empire City
Reaver stood beside her sleeping companion, Vixxxen as she lay in bed asleep. The food she had brought her was half-eaten and growing stale on the nightstand. The sight of her laying there with bandages all over her usually pristine body made her shake with anger. The…the…THING that had done this to her burned in the fire, but she had desperately wanted to do the deed herself. Tear her to shreds…watch her bleed out and die on the floor.
She bent down and kissed Vixxxen gently on her forehead, then took the plate from her bedside and walked into the kitchen. The one bright side to this whole thing would be the paycheck they had earned for roasting the priest. It was little consolation…but at least it was something.
As she stood there, the tell-tell beep of the video teleprompter caught her attention. She walked over and keyed the switch that connected the call from their shadowy benefactor. As the image appeared on the screen, she folded her arms and arched her brow with a sneer. “I certainly hope that our lil’ job was worth it mate, because Vix is laid up in th’ bleedin’ bed wit cuts and bru…”
The figure on the monitor roared at her, the electronically masked voice stunning her into silence. “I DON’T CARE IF THAT BITCH IS DYING!!! You botched the job! The priest is still alive…”
She was shocked by the revelation and she muttered to herself. “…alive…?”
“YES HE’S ALIVE!!” Even though the figure was cloaked in darkness, the anger was all too apparent. “It looks like I’m going to have to contract someone else to do the job right!” Reaver chuckled to herself, then finally she threw back her head and laughed. “What’s so funny?”
Reaver looked at the monitor with a vicious grin. “If th’ priest survived that soddin’ inferno…he wasn’t th’ only one. That means that his lil’ guardian angel did as well I’d bet…”
“Guardian angel?” the figure asked, “What in the hell are you talking about?”
Reaver continued to smile. “It seems that your priest has himself a winged protector…” She looked up and mimicked the flapping of wings. “…hovering about…like some sort of bird of prey…” She swooned for a moment, then collapsed on the couch. “But birds are no match for cats…especially angry ones!”
The figure was silent for a moment as they watched the woman’s antics. Finally they had had enough. “You’re insane! The job is the priest!! I don’t care who he’s with…I want him dead! Are you going to do the job or do I need to look elsewhere?”
She balled up her fists and her tendons popped loudly. “If th’ priest is wit’ that winged bitch…I’ll be happy to kill em both…for free…”
“You have forty-eight hours to put Brandon Knight in the obituary pages…if you don’t…you and that bitch you call a partner will be there instead!! Don’t disappoint me again…” the figure roared.
The teleconference ended, but Reaver didn’t notice. She had one thing on her mind and one thing only…killing the bitch that had hurt her companion…the priest was just the means to an end. She’d use him to track her…and once she appeared, she’d pay the price. She’d gut that whore…whether she was an angel was irrelevant. Once she tore off that bitch’s wings and ripped out her throat…the priest would be next…and he’d suffer…oh how he’d suffer…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Officer Bradski … Todd Berryman
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Anka de Jarius ... Kenzi Grey
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Vixxxen … Katie Anderson
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 16:59:20 GMT -5
Ruins of Madison Chapel
Empire City
Chapter VII: Where There’s Smoke…
The church lay in ruins, with tons of brick collapsed atop burned wood, as Brandon Knight stood at the edge of the rubble with his sister standing by his side. Brandon shook his head, unable to believe that Madison Chapel was gone. “I can’t believe it’s gone…the city needs this place Daria…Empire City needs it’s faith.”
Daria Knight arched her brow at her brother. “Brandon, it’s a building…people put their faith in Gods.”
Brandon corrected, holding up a single finger. “God Daria…singular.”
Daria shook her head with a laugh, “One God rhetoric? Really brother?”
Brandon wanted to tell his sister about Anka, he wanted to change her mind, but something stayed his tongue on the matter. Instead, he was interrupted by the sound of a man whistling close by. He looked around and couldn't help but gasp, seeing a tall lanky man leaning over the rubble, his trousers hanging around his thighs, spurting a yellow stream onto the rubble. Brandon was shocked and embarrassed for his sister to see the disrespectful sight. Brandon started to walk over to the man, but Daria grabbed his arm to stop him. “Brandon…it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Brandon patted her hand, “That’s not the point Daria. It’s disrespectful…it’s blasphemous!”
As Brandon walked away, Daria rolled her eyes and folded her arms, calling after him, “It’s a building!”
Brandon stalked over to the man, grabbing him by the jacket cuff. “Have you no shame, my son!?"
The man pulled his arm away and glanced disjointedly at Brandon, "Sssshame? Sssshame? Ssssshame is not closhing this plashe down before they hadda chanshe to burn the muther, ha ha ha!" He continued jetting his stream of urine onto the rubble before finally zipping up. Brandon stood back, his head raised skywards, asking the almighty for some end to the madness of the city, before the man turned forcefully towards him, his firm hand knocking Brandon on the chest, sending him staggering backwards. "Wha'choo think of that, man? You ran this joint, didn'tsha? Don'tchooo know people don't believe in the One God anymore?" He asked with a haunting melody to his voice.
Brandon sighed, pointing for him to leave. “Please…go!”
The man looked at Brandon, his eyes suddenly staring off into the distance, blankly. All signs of his earlier drunkenness disappeared. “…she told me to come here…she told me to burn it down…I was too late…”
Brandon’s eyes widened, he reached out and grabbed the man by his shoulders. “WHO?! WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”
“The girl…” His eyes suddenly cleared, then his face twisted into a mask of hate as he grabbed Brandon by his collar. “YOU LOOKING TO DIE PREACHER MAN?!!”
As the man draws his fist back, Brandon steels himself to take the punch. “I won’t fight you…I just want to know who told you to burn my church!”
The man swung at Brandon, but he deflected the blow, still trying to get the man to talk to him. The man pushed Brandon backwards, swinging wildly at him. “I’LL KILL YOU MAN!”
Brandon warded off the wild swings, still holding him. “TELL ME WHO SENT YOU HERE!!”
Again the man’s face went blank, “…death…”
A flash of cold steel was seen by Brandon a moment to late as the man pulled out a knife, wielding it with deadly intent as he bore down on the priest. The blade’s course was halted with such vicious suddenness that it went flying several yards away, clattering into the rubble.
CRACK “AAAAARRRGGHHH!!”
Brandon stumbled and fell down as his would-be attacker screamed as he was slammed to the ground by Daria, his arm still in her grasp as it was bent at an unnatural angle, obviously broken. Daria let his arm go and the man scrambled to his feet, still screaming as he stumbled off.
“NO!! STOP HIM DARIA!” Brandon got to his feet, trying to chase after the man, but Daria grabbed him, holding him back. He starred at her, wide eyed, “We have to stop him! He knows about the church other church burnings!”
Daria shook her brother, “Brandon! Let him go! He’s just a nutcase! Gods! He almost killed you!” She pushed him back, “You need to stop it! You’re not a police officer anymore!”
Brandon looked at his sister, and then off into the darkness in the direction the man had fled. He sighed, shaking his head in defeat. He didn’t like it, but his sister was right. He was no longer a police officer and he had nearly gone to meet his maker. “You’re right Daria…of course you’re right. Thank you.”
As Brandon relented, Daria let him go and looked around, posting her hands on her hips. She didn’t know if the man had been sent to finish off her brother by her benefactor, but she wasn’t going to watch her brother killed in front of her. That wasn’t part of the agreement, assuming she even continued to honor it after this debacle. Daria turned, taking her brother by his arm. “Let’s get you home Brandon…”
As the two walked away, there was a flutter in the breeze. High above them, unseen and out of earshot the beat of powerful wings carried Anka into the night sky. Rather than pursue the fleeing man, she heads in the opposite direction…
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Stacey sat at her computer terminal staring at the screen. She had gotten no match off the name Anka Jairus earlier, but she had hoped that a match off of her facial features would be more fruitful. The security cameras had recorded her image…or so she had thought, but every time the cameras fell on her, the image blurred, making recognition difficult, if not impossible.
She sighed as she got up and walked over to the door of her office. She called out to the Desk Sergeant. “Bradski, call up someone and have them check the damn cameras, I think there is something wrong with them. They’re blurring out or something.”
The officer nodded, then called back to her. “By the way…Fire wanted you to call…they said that they got something weird back on the Chapel fire, something you might be interested in.”
She nodded and walked back into her office, closing the door behind her as she picked up the phone and dialed the number for the Fire Investigator. The investigator that she had hounded the Fire Chief for promptly picked up. “Sweeny? It’s Jordan, they told me that you had something on the Madison Chapel fire.”
He started, “Well Detective, I can tell you for sure that…”
Stacey cut him off, “I swear to Superius, if you tell me that you know it was hot…I am going to come down there an punch you in the face!”
Sweeny paused and even through the silence, the disappointment in not being able to tell his favorite joke was palatable. He cleared his throat instead, “Yeah Detective, I think I found something that you’ll find very interesting. Because of the damage to the building’s interior before it burned, we suspected arson was the most likely cause.”
Stacey chimed in. “Is there something wrong with that initial assessment?”
Sweeny paused for a moment. “Well…I still suspect that it was arson, but to be perfectly honest with you…I have yet to find the cause. I mean…there are no accelerants present…no sign of anything at all that could have caused the fire.” He paused. “Almost as if it had just come from nowhere.”
Stacey sat back in her chair, twisting a lock of her hair, “Well…fire doesn’t always need to come from some loon with a gas can and a Jones for starting fires. I mean, couldn’t they have brought in a torch or something?”
Sweeny had run through it all, and there was no other explanation that Stacey could throw at him that fit. “No…there would have been something there. I promise you, I would have found something.” He paused for a moment. “But, I have a theory on it, if you’ll hear me out.”
Stacey was wary. It sounded as if Sweeny was about to say something far fetched. Grabbing at straws was never a good idea, but there was nothing else to latch on to. “What is it Sweeny…?”
He went on, “Well…what if the fire had actually come from nowhere? What if the fire wasn’t simply started…what if it was…made…?”
Stacey stopped twisting her hair and scowled. “Made? You mean…like fire appearing out of thin air?”
Sweeny moved to explain his point. “Suppose there was a Super that could do that? Cause fire to come from nowhere. That would certainly explain a lot of things…and so I hear…there is just such a person tucked away in an Empire City jail cell across town. Some nutcase at Shloopy’s turned a guy’s car into the world’s biggest firecracker…with nothing but his bare hands.” He waited to hear her reaction, and when it didn’t come he checked to make sure that she was still listening. “Detective? Are you still there?”
“Yeah Sweeny…gimme a second…” She sat there in silence for a few moments as she considered what Sweeny had said. Before, something like that would have been greeted as a joke, but now, it wasn’t as far fetched as all that. All of Empire City had seen citizens with amazing abilities. Some super strong…others super fast…some could fly…and yet who was to say that none of them could be capable of burning a church to the ground with nothing but a thought? Perhaps the person who was responsible for the fire was already languishing in a jail cell after all. Perhaps the person who had killed young Jacob Phills and burned his body to a near cinder was the very Super that Sweeny was talking about. “Sweeny, send me over everything that you have on this person. I’m going to need some serious evidence before the Chief will even let me look at something like this.”
He answered quickly, “Sure thing Detective…some nut job calling himself Meepus. I’ll get you the report on what happened.”
“Thanks Sweeny.” As Stacey hung up the phone, she waited for the familiar tickle of excitement to come over her, as it always did when she got close to cracking a case, but this time there was nothing…only a deep sense of foreboding. There was something strange about this case…something that screamed for her to air on the side of caution. There was more to all of this than met the naked eye, and she had a suspicion that it somehow involved her ex-boyfriend’s new houseguest. She glanced at the blurred image on her computer screen as she narrowed her eyes. “What do you have to do with all of this Ms. Jairus…?”
Madison Village East
Empire City
After the excitement earlier, Brandon relaxed at his desk reading scripture by a lone light inside his study. He had often taken to reading over the given word as he worked on his weekly sermon…but this time he was looking for something else. The references to angels were not as abundant as he would have liked…but they were there. The thing that troubled him was that the encounters that occurred there were hardly like the ones that he had experienced. The angels in the scripture were heralds of God, serving his will and communing with people to guide them. Anka was nothing like that at all. She actually seemed to hold a sort of grudge against the Almighty…of course, if the story she told him was true…perhaps she had a good enough reason. “I’m sorry Lord…” He apologized for the stray thought.
He closed the book and sighed. What was to say that this was not some sort of test for him? What better way to test a man’s conviction than to confirm his beliefs on one hand, then fly in the face of them on the other. Brandon was determined not to waver. Everything that had happened, had happened for a reason and…
“What are you doing Father?”
Brandon jumped as he was startled in mid-thought, unsure if the man from earlier had come back to finish the job. He wheeled around and saw Anka perched in his open window. He grabbed his chest as it heaved up and down. “Good Lord…you scared me.”
She smiled as she stepped into the room from the window and walked over to his side, leaning over him to peer at the book of scripture he had just finished pouring through. “Hummmm! I would have never figured you for someone who enjoyed fiction…” She picked up the book and thumbed at the pages, before tossing it back down. “…I prefer thrillers and mysteries myself.”
Brandon stood up and faced off with her. “ENOUGH OF THIS!! What are you trying to do?!! You continue to try to shake my faith every time I see you! Are you testing me? Because I can tell you now…it won’t work! I believe in The Lord, and if anything…you are proof of that in and of itself!”
Anka looked at Brandon and laughed as she sat down on his couch, stretching out and making herself comfortable. “Father…I never said that I wanted you to stop believing. I told you my story…it was all true. I just know Him a lot better than you.” She gestured towards the book on his desk. “That there…it’s not about God…not the REAL God. That book was written by men Father. Men with agendas and men who couldn’t possibly know the true nature of God.”
Brandon looked at the book and then back to Anka. It was true that the scripture was indeed penned by man…but the words had come from God. There was no getting around that…as far as he was concerned at least. “Anka, you don’t think that He has given you a higher purpose? You don’t think that He has a plan for you…for all of us?”
Again her mood seemed to grow dark. “Be thankful that you don’t know Him as I do…because if you did…you’d not be so eager to be part of His plans. Enjoy your time here while it lasts Father, forget all this religious drivel! In the end…you’ll find that it doesn’t matter.”
“DOESN’T MATTER?!!” Brandon was flabbergasted. “How can you say such a thing? IT DOES MATTER!! A person’s faith is sometimes all that they have to give them a moral compass in life. My belief in God has sustained me…made me whole…helped me to better the lives of others…”
Her dark eyes flashed. “Like Jacob Phills?”
Brandon flinched as if he had been struck physically. “DAMN YOU!! You know that Jacob was a good person! He lived his life well and he…”
“HE DIED LIKE AN ANIMAL!!” Anka grimaced. “He was a child…and your so-called benevolent God allowed him to die an unspeakably brutal death…in His own house. Trust me Father, right now at this very moment…he is wishing that he had got to live his life and do all the things that he always wanted, instead of spending his time on his knees praying to a God that didn’t give a shit about him!!”
Brandon pointed at her. “YOU’RE WRONG!! YOU LIE AND YOU’RE WRONG!! God loved Jacob…He loves us all!! Jacob may have suffered in death…but he’s in glory now! He earned it…and Jesus gave his life so that we could all have a chance at it!!”
Anka got to her feet and stood nose to nose with him. She regarded him with a mixture of anger and pity. “You really believe that? You really think that we all have that chance? WE DON’T!! Not all of us…you’ve seen that with your own eyes! You’ve heard my story!” She turned away from him. “Some of us suffer and suffer…but there is never anything more for us. We are His playthings…” She turned back to him and glared. “…just hope that He doesn’t take a particular interest in you… like He has in me…”
Brandon looked at her wanting tell her how he had been saved earlier in the night, ready to give the credit to God, through his sister of course, but decided against it. His focus was on the question of God’s plan, and yet none of his questions were answered…the mysteries only deepened for him. “You’re an angel…you sit in God’s council, why do you…”
“I’M NO ANGEL!!!” She stood back away from him. “I’m…I was…a person, just like everyone else…a long time ago. I…” She paused, and as she did she seemed to grow tense. Slowly her brilliant wings opened up from behind her.
This time Brandon tensed as well, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes moved to the door. “This place isn’t safe Father…” She reached out her hand to him as she whispered. “…come to me! Come to me now!!”
Brandon looked at the door, even as he stepped towards her. “What is it, I don’t understa…”
She reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him close to her as she quickly pushed him down and wrapped her wings around the both of them. At that very same moment, the door to his apartment came crashing down. He opened his mouth to say something, but Anka covered it and held him still and silent. His eyes grew large as he watched one of the women that had killed Jacob roll into the room, her claws bared and ready to strike.
Fear immediately gripped him and he started to scramble to his feet, but Anka held him down effortlessly with one hand, even as she knelt down over him, unmoving. It was then that he noticed with a certain sense of wonder that the woman in the room could not see them…even as they could see her. Anka’s wings had obscured them from view…just as she could obscure the wings themselves if she willed it. It appeared to him as though they were looking at the world through a very thin veil. He wanted to reach up and touch her wings, but he thought the better of it and decided to lay still.
Inside the room, Reaver looked around quickly, her elongated and wickedly sharp claws at the ready. She listened for a sound, but heard none. Her eyes moved to the closed bedroom door and she bared her teeth as her powerful leg muscles propelled her towards and right through it. Shards of broken wood flew in all directions as she landed on all fours with all the grace of a giant predator. It only took a moment for her to tear the room apart before realizing that there was no one there at all.
Reaver stomped back out, throwing furniture in all directions as she screamed in anger. This was where she had hoped to find the priest…the one that would lead him to the winged bitch that had injured her companion, yet he was nowhere to be found. Apparently the priest was not as stupid as she had hoped. He had gotten out and run for the hills…but there had to be some clue of where to find him here. If she found him…then she would find the winged girl…then they would both pay for what she had done to Vixxxen.
Reaver began ripping out the drawers and slinging their contents all over the place. She sifted through them frantically, looking for something…anything. She started as the phone rung, bounding up and over to the couch like a great jungle cat with her teeth bared. The phone rang several more times before the answering machine picked up and the voice of the priest implored the caller to leave a message.
Reaver set back to sifting through the mess on the floor, even as she listened to the message on the machine. She paused as it was a woman’s voice…and she wondered if it might be the very one she was looking for…
”Brandon…it’s Stacey, I got a lead in on the person who might have torched the church and I’m heading over to check it out. Apparently the person who did this can make fire appear from thin air…a meta with a fire fetish. He’s locked up across town, so I’m gonna put the screws to him to see if he’s our man with these church burnings…cross your fingers…or whatever you One God people do.”
She paused for a moment…
”By the way…I’m sorry if I acted like a jerk the other day. I didn’t mean to…I think I’m just worried about you is all. I want you to come by and see me later. I want to talk to you about your friend when you get a chance. There is something that’s not righ…OH SHIT!! I almost missed the Centreville exit!! Sorry about that!! I’ll be in touch with you after I talk to this firebug…okay?”
As the message finished, Reaver stood up and walked to the desk as she looked down at the flashing message light. She chuckled to herself. “If I can’t find you priest…maybe I can find someone that you care about…”
She turned and gave the room one last glance, before darting to the open window, then bounding out of it and into the cold night air.
Brandon struggled against Anka as he realized what the woman meant to do and finally she let him up. He ran to the window and looked out of it cautiously, then turned back to her. “WE HAVE TO FIND HER!! WE HAVE TO STOP HER!!”
Anka frowned. “No…you need to hide! Let someone else deal with her. That woman means to kill you, I don’t know why, and I don’t think that I care, and you shouldn’t either!”
Brandon shook his head. “You don’t get it!! She’s going after Stacey since she can’t find me!!”
Anka seemed unconvinced and unmoved. “She doesn’t even know where your little girlfriend is! She’s just grasping at straws.”
Brandon pointed to the answering machine and the flashing message light on it. “She said that she was going to talk with some guy in jail…she mentioned the Centreville exit…how many jails do you think there are in that vicinity?!!”
Anka looked away as she seemed torn for a moment. She didn’t want to get involved in all of this…but she was…and now she was being pulled in even deeper. She walked over to the window and perched herself there. “Fine! I’ll go and look after her for you, but you need to get yourself somewhere safe in the meantime, do you have anywhere that you can go?”
He thought for a moment, then it came to him. “Yes!! My sister…Daria…I can go to her!”
Anka remembered the dark feeling that had washed over her the other night when his sister had come calling, but there was no time to debate what that may and may not of have meant. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Fine, go there, but do me a favor…don’t tell anyone where you are going…NO ONE!! Do you understand?”
“Yes…no one! Just hurry, okay?” He pleaded with her.
Anka said nothing as she just fell back out the window, her massive wings deploying and taking her right back up into the skies of Empire City. As she made her way in the direction of Centreville…she could not know that a great confrontation awaited her there…not just against the foe she expected…but against another…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Daria Knight … Missy
Drunken Assailant … Bruce Bernard
Anka (Hexx) … Kenzi Grey
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Officer Bradski … Todd Berryman
Fire Investigator Sweeny … Tyler Cromwell
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:04:09 GMT -5
Downtown
Sheffield Heights, Empire City
Chapter VIII (Part 1): One Down…One to Go…
The scene opened on the streets of Empire City as Michelle Andretti, fresh faced reporter for Channel 8 News was on her first assignment on her new job.
She had scratched and clawed her way out of entry level positions at the station, doing all she could to finally make it to the big time and now it was finally happening for her. She would finally have her first on-camera spot on the news as she interviewed people on the street about the increasingly dangerous threat that metas were posing to the populous.
As she went from person to person, hoping to get someone to speak about the controversial subject, people shunned her, unwilling to show their face on camera and be recognized by one of the super powered ‘would-be’ gods that were slowly starting to eat at the foundation of the city. Michelle nervously played with the ring on her finger as she wondered if today was going to be the last time she got an assignment. She smiled nervously as she looked back over her shoulder at the cameraman, her friend Spike Staggs.
Spike was a star behind the scenes at Channel 8, he always seemed be right where the action was with camera in hand, getting all the best video for the station. He was the reason that the channel was at the top of the ratings. Michelle had been overjoyed when Spike had volunteered to go with her for this relative fluff piece. Even though it wasn’t a top tier news piece, having him attached to it would make sure they got airtime.
As for Spike, he had other reasons for being here…just as there were other reasons for his inexplicable luck at being at the right place at the right time. Spike was a meta-human with precognitive abilities that allowed him glimpses into the future. He had used this power to his advantage in his career and it had always only been business…but his latest vision involved his friend Michelle disappearing and he had no intention of allowing that vision to come to pass. It was a shadowy figure…a creature that could transform into a shadow…he would be the one to try to take Michelle, and Spike was going to be there to stop him.
Spike looked around cautiously, recognizing the surroundings from his vision. The shadow man was going to appear here and take Michelle…at least, that is how it happened in his vision. That is not the way it would happen today. He spoke up from behind the camera, “Hey Chelly, stand over by that pole so I can get a better shot of you…the light is a lot better.”
Michelle gave an exasperated sigh. Things were not going the way she hoped. No one was talking to her about the meta threat, and now she was being told that she didn’t look good on camera. She wondered what next as she moved over to the pole, shaking her head. “Better?”
“Yeah, I…” Spike stopped as a vision flashed before his eyes, startling him…
Gateway Park and the massive statute of Superious, all cloaked in the darkest of night…SHADOW…
There was the beating of wings…not like a bird…giant wings…ANGEL…
GUNFIRE! COMING FROM ALL AROUND!! There was blood all around…so much blood…
“SPIKE, THE RING!!” Michelle…?
A flash of gold glimmering in night…a golden RING inside a bloody lifeless hand…the hand closing around it…
“Spike? SPIKE!” Spike shook himself out of his vision as Michelle stared at him, but something was wrong…she was unable to move and blood trickled from one of her nostrils.
Spike attempted to move, but he was also rooted to the spot with camera in hand. The ‘Go Live’ button was depressed and all he could do was watch as the image was broadcast live over Channel 8.
The camera zoomed in on the woman who stood beside Michelle. She was thin and pale with a wild shock of red hair on her head.
She smiled viciously as she spoke, “This one…want to ask me questions about what I thought about the meta threat.” The woman snickered as she looked at Michelle, trembling and frozen in place. “Meta threat? Is that what you are calling it?” She shook her head, “It’s not a threat…it’s the inevitable…it’s a revolution…”
Spike struggled against the power that held him, but it was of no use. Among his other gifts, Spike could move some objects with his mind…but now he was held powerless. Everything he tried to move as held down as if it weighed a ton and no amount of force he used could move it.
The woman looked at the two of them with a smirk, “You humans, you irritate the hell out of me. You're all so vain… you always think it's all about you. Your society weighs its insipid opinion on us based on how many of you we save, or by how many of you we hurt. We are so amazingly sick and tired of constantly being labeled a villain or evil by your media based on your supposedly unfailing moral standards. You want to know what the point is? The point is, for all your dressing it up, for all your not wanting to admit it…we are superior to you. Humans inherited this earth from the monkeys he evolved from. In the course of history, he's asserted his dominion over his brethren by force, using nature's law of survival of the fittest to his advantage. Now things have come full circle. It's now our time to inherit this earth… from the humans!”
Spike turned his power on the woman herself, lifting her off her feet, and distracting her momentarily. With the hold broken, Spike felt his body release, the camera falling, as he started to move toward Michelle. The distraction only proved to be momentary, as woman held out her hand and black energy seemed to surround it. “MICHELLE!” Spike screamed as he collapsed to the ground, pinned there as if a great weight were crushing him into the ground. “AAARRRRGGGGHHH!” he screamed as he felt his bones cracking and his body being mashed and crushed into the earth.
Michelle, momentarily free, ran to Spike, grabbing his hand as if to help him, but she was suddenly caught in the grip of the woman’s power. “NOOOOOO!” She bore down as the red haired woman turned her power on her, snapping her back and folding her over as blood trickled from her mouth.
The red haired woman walked over and looked down at the camera as it floated a few inches from the ground. With no effort, the camera lifted up and focused on her face. She grinned, “My name is Gaia…and soon your dominion over me and my kind will be at an end! With my brothers and sisters by my side…the age of humans…IS OVER!” Static filled the screens of everyone watching as Gaia’s power crushed the camera into junk.
The crowd that had gathered around to watch suddenly fled in horror. People screamed as they ran in all directions, but with the calm of a natural super predator, she directed her power at them in turn, crushing them like tin cans in a horrific manner. As she walked after the fleeing masses, all ran but one. A young girl stood in the shadows of a nearby alleyway watching the scene, her face obscured by the hoodie she wore. When Gaia approached, she did not flee. “Girl…you should be running…don’t you think?”
Gaia’s hands crackled with black power as she made ready to crush her into nothingness. She stopped as the girl put her finger to her lips, “Shhhhhh…” Gaia stopped, blinking and seeming confused momentarily. The girl pointed off into the distance, “The prison is that way…is it not?”
Gaia cocked her head to the side as she narrowed her eyes, then she followed the girl’s gaze off into the distance. A smile touched her lips, “Yes…yes it is…” Her hands pulsed with power as she lifted off the ground, as if gravity was meaningless to her.
As the woman flew away, the girl dropped to her knees, falling to the ground as her hands reached out as if struggling for a hold on anything. Her hands pulled back the hoodie and her face was revealed, her Asian features undeniable and unchanged for centuries, it was Arella and her eyes were again blind and unseeing…yet, slowly they began to clear. She collapsed to the ground, breathing hard as she whispered, “Thank you Father…”
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered
Centerville, Empire City
“There you go, Detective.” The guardsman at the desk keyed a command into the console, disabling the bluish, semi-visible force-field leading down into B block. Detective Stacey Jordan followed the guard escorting her into the wide hallway where the inmates were kept behind various means of containment, from force-fields to phase beams to good old fashioned iron bars. Several of the inmates, having not seen a woman in a long time, slithered towards the front of their cells and leered at her with gleaming eyes. Very few gave any obscene gestures or called out to her though, and they only did it covertly once she and the guard had already passed by. It seemed that they were fearful of the guard's wrath. It was probably with good reason, the prison was known for being a tough prison for tough people.
Empire City Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered (ECPCSP) was an intimidating place. It had been constructed to be. Residing on the edge of the city, though still in view of the statue of Superius, a monument to its protector and would-be god, it didn't so much resemble a prison as it did a fortress. From the three different types of fences enclosing it, to the massive wall surrounding the prison proper, to the guards themselves—they all wore heavy, semi mechanical armor and carried military-issue weaponry—everything about ECPCSP had been carefully tailored to drain away all hope of escape from its inmates. And it had been highly successful, boasting only two escapes in the last thirty years.
“This is it, ma'am.” The guard stopped in front of a dingy cell with an electrified force-field in front of it.
Det. Jordan peered inside at the shady figure sitting on the bunk. He had a newspaper in his hands, but now looked up at them anxiously. This was the one she had come to question about the fire that had burned down Brandon's church…the firestarter, Meepus.
“Don't touch the field” the guard said. “It's electrified. Other than that, take all the time you need. When you're finished, just call out. I'll be nearby.” He ambled off, his heavy metal boots clinking loudly off the steel floor.
“Come to bail me out, sweetheart?” Meepus put down the newspaper and approached the front of the cell, stopping well short of the bars. Like the other inmates, he wore a silvery, power-inhibiting collar with a green LED display. He gave her a grin that may have once been cheerful but now just made him look tired. The place was working its magic on him.
“No, I've come to talk to you about a fire” she replied.
“Fire!” Meepus exclaimed. “Lady, I'm like the MAN when it comes to fire! Get the guards to let me outta here and I'll ignite anything you want!”
Stacey raised an eyebrow. “We'll see. What do you know about the fire at Madison Chapel a little over a week ago?”
Before Meepus could answer, the entire cell block shuddered with a sudden brief rumble.
A woman's voice came on the prison's intercom system. "Good evening, my fellow metas. My name is Gaia. I've set you free from your human captors."
Meepus looked around in confusion, before he felt the inhibitor collar suddenly blink red twice then snap open and fall to the floor with a CLANK.
"In return, I only ask that you take whatever measures of revenge you feel necessary on those that put you in chains. Once outside you will find Empire City a much different place. I've seen the chaos out there. Empire City is in her twilight hour. It is now our time to take control. The time of the humans has ended. The time of the Super…has begun. Go, and take what is rightfully yours. Destroy the humans…and all who stand with them."
Stacey took a hesitant step back as Meepus glanced up, a small smirk growing on his lips as the doors in the block swung open.
There was another explosion, this one almost directly overhead. A portion of the ceiling blew inward with great force, sending massive chunks of concrete hurtling towards the guard and the detective. Stacey managed to yell, “LOOK OUT!!!” and attempted to pull the guard out of harms way. But he was a big man, and his heavy armor made pulling him away nigh impossible. Instead he slipped from her grasp, with Stacey barely having time to flatten herself against the wall as one of the pieces of concrete collided with the guard. His personal shield generator and armor took most of the damage—probably saving his life—but it still knocked him back through the hall, where he skidded to a stop against the wall, quite unconscious.
Portions of the ceiling collapsed all around them. Stacey pushed herself from the wall, coughing from the dust and debris. She peered through the dust to see if the guard was alright, instead, she was greeted by a most unwelcome sight…
“Ohhhhh snap, son…” Meepus grinned as he saw the lone detective. “It must be my birthday!” He chuckled, “Now…you were asking me a question I believe…something about fire I think…”
The other inmates had started yelling excitedly amidst the chaos, most busting from their cell in a mixture of brute strength and energy blasts. Stacey squared off in the center of the hall, pulling her service pistol. “Police, FREEZE! Hold it right there!” she yelled.
Meepus merely laughed. “Sorry lady…but the irony of what you just asked me to do…is really funny!”
He thrust his hands forward, and an enormous gout of flame erupted from them. The bars of his cell glowed red, then white hot, then began to liquefy into a distorted molten mass that parted before Meepus. The ethereal ball of flame continued its course down the hall, heading right towards the detective. She staggered back before the rush of superheated air preceding it, stumbled against a chunk of concrete debris on the floor, and fell. Her eyes wide, all she could do was watch the fireball continue its implacable course towards her, and throw her arms over her face…this was the end for her.
Stacey felt the heat wash over her…and pass by. It was no worse than a muggy summer breeze. She lowered her arms to find the flames dissipating in the air, as though they had struck a wall of wind. The detective's benefactor landed in front of her, a small woman with graceful wings protruding from her back, beating back the flames with slow, powerful strokes.
Anka didn't look over her shoulder at the detective to address her, doing what she could to stay unrecognized. Instead, she kept her face hidden as she spoke, “Go. I'll handle this” she said.
Stacey slowly got to her feet, uncertain. Then she saw Meepus encase himself in flames. That, along with another series of huge explosions that rocked the jailhouse, convinced her to take the woman's advice. She rushed back towards the safety of the prison's administrative areas to link up with the guards, who would no doubt have their hands full with every super in the prison on the loose. Meepus watched her go, then turned his fiery gaze back on winged newcomer.
“Yeah, so…. I'm gonna bust on outta here.” Anka offered no response. “You're uh…kinda in the way, toots.”
“I know” Anka said. Though every instinct inside her said to stand aside and allow him to leave, she knew that doing so would only put Stacey in more jeopardy. She needed to buy more time to ensure the woman’s safety…as she promised Brandon she would.
Meepus laughed, and the flames encasing him turned white-hot. “Alright, sweetheart, don't say I didn't warn you!” He giggled, and dashed towards her with amazing speed, leaving a streak of flames behind. The inmates began to cheer, the evening's entertainment had fallen into their laps, and if they were lucky, the carnage would ensure their escape as well.
Meepus hurled a volley of fireballs as he rushed towards Anka. She leapt into the air and took flight; the balls of fire flew under her, hit the force field of one of the inmates' cells, and exploded into a blossom of flame. Meepus dashed under her as well, moving too fast to correct his speed so suddenly. He skidded to a stop, and turned round just in time to see her swooping in quick. One of her wings swung at him in a kind of powerful backhand, unmindful of the flames wreathing his body. The blow knocked Meepus into the steel wall between a couple of cells. His body left a molten, charred impression in the metal.
“Honey, you're asking for it!” Meepus growled as he slowly rose from the wall. He threw a rapid succession of fireballs at her, but her quick aerial maneuvering made her hard to hit, and she merely dodged the majority of them. The fireballs instead exploded against the ceiling, around the cells, or against them, causing some of the cheers from the inmates to turn into angry shouts of protest. He dashed under her, attempting to keep up as he tried to shoot her down from the prison's high ceiling. None of the fireballs hit their target as Anka gracefully wove in, out, and around their path.
“Tired yet?” Anka called down to him, halting her flight into a hover.
Meepus scowled at her… but then it turned into a grin. “I'm just getting warmed up” he said. He held both his hands up into the air, and a flame burst forth from them like a gathering tornado of pure fire. It began to grow…and grow…and GROW.
Anka and the inmates saw what was coming. The inmates began to cry out, fearing that the enormous flame would consume the entire block. Instead of flying off, however…Anka merely hovered there, giving Meepus a small smile. It only served to anger him more. He concentrated the behemoth mass of flame into a gargantuan spear. “DODGE THIS!!”
He bellowed, and hurled it at her like a javelin. It arced towards Anka with the speed of a flaming arrow. She simply flew to the side, out of its path...but Meepus merely snapped his fingers, and the entire works exploded as it coursed passed her. The cauterizing flames encased her, obscuring her from view. There were also inmates up there, on the third floor of the block; their alternative cheering and screams told Meepus all he needed to know...or so he thought. He turned away, ready to make his way out, when he heard a dull thud behind him. He smirked as he looked over his shoulder, expecting to see the woman's charred body smoldering on the floor…but was instead greeted by the sight of Anka slowly rising from one knee, the wings that had enveloped her and protected her from the blast stretching to their full span. His smirk turned into a sneer…
“So you think your wings are fireproof, huh? Allow me to show the difference between fireproof and fire-resistant, kiddo…” He made a quaint gesture, and the flames that had encased the ceiling from the explosion rushed downwards to obey his command. Anka dashed towards him, using her wings to propel her along the ground, but the flames were a fraction faster. They flew down in front of her, blocking her path to Meepus, forcing her to bring one of her wings to bear again as a shield and slowing her progress forward. Meepus danced back away from her, out of range, and gave the flames another command. This time, the fire rose up and arced over Anka, enveloping her and forcing her to cover up completely.
“Shoulda just got outta the way, toots…I wouldn't've had to barbeque you like this…” Meepus crooned as he built up another charge of flames around his hands. He released it in her direction, sustaining the burst like a flamethrower. The flames began to grow paler as he increased the temperature. He stepped in closer, adding to the pressure from the steady stream of flames. “Cooking in there, yet?” He laughed.
Anka was, in fact cooking. The temperatures Meepus was generating were nothing short of incredible, and her wings were taking a pounding. Even encased in them as she was, the heat was reaching nearly intolerable levels. Below the edge of her wings, she could see the steel floor around her glowing red hot with the sustained flare, and the soles of her shoes were beginning to melt. She held out as long as she could, watching him through her translucent wings as he came closer in his zeal…to close in fact…
Anka gave a wordless, defiant cry as she stood and spread her wings with enough force to send a shockwave rippling through the air, instantly extinguishing the fiery tomb. The firestarter was knocked off his feet from the sudden gale, flames still trailing from his hands as he was sent rolling down the hall. Inmates in a 180 degree arc around her were likewise knocked back against their cells. Not sparing a moment, Anka rushed at Meepus as he struggled to get to his feet, and landed a right cross that lifted him off his feet for the second time in the span of very few seconds, depositing him next to the narrow hallway leading out of the cell block. He struck the wall with a tremendous “UNNGH!!” and slid down it, the wind knocked out him.
Two guards emerged from the passageway, weapons at the ready, not seeing Meepus as he lay in a heap in the corner. Instead they focused on Anka, who had been in mid-stride, dashing towards Meepus in order to finish him off. Instead, she was forced to dodge out of the way as a series of ion bolts came sizzling towards her as one of the guards opened fire.
“STUPID ASSHOLES!” Anka yelled in protest, shielding herself from the projectiles with her wings.
“She's right, cease fire! That's the one the Detective told us about, she's here to help!” The trigger-happy guard's partner yelled… but by then it was too late. Meepus, who had managed to recover somewhat, rose up and grabbed the guard closest to him, pushing him towards Anka…sending a fireball along the way for good measure. It struck the guard from behind, immediately encasing him in flames. The other guard whirled to face this new threat, and received a fireball in his chest for his efforts.
Hurriedly, Anka used her wings to create another gust of wind, beating the flames off the horribly burned guardsmen, Meepus had already dashed down the exit and made his escape, leaving a fiery trail behind.
Anka looked at the two men on the ground writhing in pain and rolled her eyes as she stepped over them, dragging her fingers through her hair. Stacey was safe…but an even bigger problem now loomed. Every super-powered fiend housed in an entire wing of this prison had now been loosed on the city by a madwoman by the name of Gaia. No one would be safe now…
Downtown
Sheffield Heights, Empire City
As Spike lay on the cold pavement, feeling his life ebbing away all he could focus on was Michelle, her lovely body bent and unnaturally broken. He wondered how his visions had failed him…how he had been so wrong. This was not what he had envisioned…this was not the end he had foreseen. All he had wanted to do was protect her…keep her safe…what good was his power if it failed him when he needed it most?
*cough*
Spike strained to see as Michelle coughed and convulsed, her body arching up, bones cracking and moving under her flesh as they found their proper positions once more. Spike’s eyes grew wide in amazement as Michelle sat up, completely unhurt, but her body shaking as she stared at her hands, then over at Spike. “S-Spike…” She managed to sputter as she started to crawl towards him, reaching for his hand.
Her touch was electric and Spike felt his body respond immediately to her touch. His vision cleared and he opened his mouth to speak, “Chelley…what…” His voice caught in his throat as he saw the dark shadow forming behind her…just as it had in his dream.
She turned as she saw his eyes and she started to scream, but it was cut off abruptly as the shadow leapt on her, dragging her into itself. She tried to crawl back to Spike but its hold on her was too strong. She reached out her hand one last time and Spike grabbed it, holding on for dear life…but she again slipped from his grasp as she was pulled into the yawning darkness.
Spike managed to scream, “MICHELLE!!!” as he sat up, his own body knitting itself back together. For a moment, he didn’t know what had happened until he opened his hand and saw the ring that Michelle had worn now resting in his palm.
He scrambled to his feet, turning around, looking for any sign of Michelle or the shadow that had taken her. He squeeze the ring in his hand as all he saw around him was death and destruction. He stopped, staring down at the ring…it was part of his vision…he had seen the ring…he had seen...
Gateway Park…
Gunshots…
An Angel…
Crushing Blackness…
Spike didn’t know how much of his vision had to do with Michelle or the shadow creature that had taken her. All thoughts of the mad-woman calling herself Gaia was put out of his mind. He had one mission and one mission only...get to Gateway Park...find the Angel...and then save Michelle from the shadow that had taken her...or die trying...
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Michelle Andretti … Delia Darling
Spike Staggs … R.C. Tucker
Gaia… Kate Steele
Arella … Orchid
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
ECPCSP Cell Block Guard … I. Jabron
Meepus … Kaden Kessler
ECPCSP First Responder 1 … Raymond Burns
ECPCSP First Responder 1 … Carlos Fuego
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:06:33 GMT -5
Empire City News Break!The lovely face of Empire City’s most recognized reporter appeared on screen as she reported the action…LIVE…
“Hello citizens, I'm Pam Dawson for Channel 8 News, and I'm here live at the Empire City Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered with this Breaking Story! Moments ago the Meta known only as Gaia, broke into the famed prison, laying waste to several security guards, taking down the main bunker, and releasing the inmates from their electronic power dampeners!”
Pam flinched as a massive explosion ripped through the penitentiary behind her in the distance. She recovered quickly, resuming her broadcast. “Gaia is the meta who is believed to be responsible for the vicious televised attack on reporter Michelle Andretti earlier today!"
"It is now believed that Gaia is also responsible for an attack on our sister station, WTFZ. 150 people lost their lives that night in a vicious meta attack!”
Pam looked over her shoulder as gunfire erupted from inside the prison. “This is what can only be considered a catastrophe, with the number of inmates released estimated in the hundreds! One can only wonder what sort of response the government can offer against this threat? Will Mayor Trajan be able to do anything to save our city? How will the police cope with the threat from individuals which such fantastic abilites? Is this the twilight hour for our fair Empire City?” She looked truly distressed, “This is Pam Dawson, signing off…”
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered (Armory)
Centerville, Empire City
Chapter VIII: One Down…One to Go… (Part 2)
All hell had broken loose and Detective Stacey Jordan was right in the middle of it all. Every super-powered fiend within the penitentiary had been let loose…and now the whole of Empire City was on the verge of being torn apart…
Stacey ran through the halls, calling for the guards to arm up in order to retake the prison. When all was said and done, she could hardly round up more than a handful. She led them to the armory where she grabbed what she could, suiting up with the heavy armor that was standard issue for the prison.
One of the guards, a big burly man touting a thick beard that was so far out of regulation that she wondered how it was possibly accepted by his superiors, ran up to Stacey while she was busy suiting up.
The man stared at her, then cursed. “DAMN IT!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST OUT THERE?!!” Stacey ignored him as she pulled out her service pistol, checked the ammo, then shoved it back into the holster. The man shook his head. “That little fucking pea-shooter aint gonna do a damn thing to most of the nutcases we have running around out there!!” Stacey turned and pulled an impressive looking rifle off the rack and threw it to him, then grabbed one for herself. The man ran his fingers over his bald head. “Do you even know how to use that thing little girl?!!”
Stacey rammed back the cartridge, flipped on the ion charge, and disengaged the safety.
Her keen eyes fell on the disgruntled guard. “Listen up you damn coward!! I don’t know what the fuck happened in there, but while you’re here pissing and moaning Empire City is about to get ripped to shreds! If you don’t have the balls to do something about it…get the fuck out of the way and let someone who does try to stop it!!!”
The man stood there a moment longer as this fellow guards watched what he would do. He had an overwhelming desire to punch her right in the face…but the humiliation he’d face if he didn’t take her down with the shot stayed his hand. After a moment, the men began to grumble, telling him to get out of the way. He grunted as he charged his own weapon. “FINE!! Just don’t expect me to save your ass in there! I don…”
Just then the entire building was rocked by a mammoth explosion that knocked them all off their feet. Stacey staggered back up and ran to the window. “Gods…they’ve breached the wall. They are all headed straight for the city!” Stacey headed for the door as she screamed out. “DROP YOUR DICKS AND PACK YOUR SHIT!!!”
A thin freckle faced guard looked at his bearded cohort. “Damn Pearson, I think that chick has bigger balls than you do!!”
The entire group laughed as Pearson seemed to grow angrier by the minute. He jumped to his feet, shoving the thin man back down as he stomped out after Detective Jordan…
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered (Cell Block)
Centerville, Empire City
Following her pitched battle with Meepus, Anka stood in the bowels of the prison surrounded by complete chaos. She had come here just to watch after Brandon Knight’s ex-girlfriend, and instead she had ended up thrust into the middle of a prison riot. Why in the hell had she cared whether that fire-tossing freak escaped? It wasn’t her concern and she wanted to be away from this place before she had another attack of conscious.
She extended her wings and launched herself skyward, flying out of the hole in the wall that had been blasted by one of the escaping felons. As she came out over the prison yard, the scene was indescribable. The ground was littered with debris and bodies. Escaping convicts were everywhere and they were destroying everything in sight. She hovered there for a moment, then turned an uncaring eye back towards Madison District. This wasn’t her fight…her part in all of this was over and done. She had been sent to protect Detective Jordan, and that had been done. No doubt, Stacey was now miles away from this place…now it was time that she did the same.
She started out, but the sounds of weapon’s fire caught her attention and she turned and looked back as a gaggle of prison guards came running out into the yard, led by none other than Detective Stacey Jordan. Anka turned angrily to the heavens. “Oh!! I bet you think this is a fucking laugh a minute don’t you?!!”
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered (Courtyard)
Centerville, Empire City
As Stacey burst out onto the prison grounds she immediately started barking out orders as she positioned the men and called for the escapees to surrender. The very first reply was the obligatory ‘FUCK YOU!’ followed by a lone escapee turning towards her and unleashing an optic blast in her general direction. Stacey dodged the shot and raised her rifle and blasted the convict, hitting him in the chest and sending him tumbling to the ground in a heap.
The entire yard went silent for a moment as the smell of ozone filled the air. What few escapees remained all turned and looked at the fallen man, then at the guards and in unison attacked. Stacey screamed out…
“FIRE!!!”
The entire area was lit up like a sports arena as the fight to prevent the escape of at least some of the prisoners was in full swing. A pitched battle erupted as the guards did their best to salvage what they could. Detective Jordan led the charge as she expertly maneuvered her men while preserving tactical superiority. In the first few moments of the battle several prisoners were quickly felled, and it seemed as if she just might turn the tide, but the day would not be won so easily.
As one of the guards came up from behind cover to engage the criminals, the sky seemed to go dark. He looked up and only had a moment to react as a hover car fell from the sky, missing him by mere inches as it struck the building, collapsing part of the wall down on him. Instantly, two other guards threw down their weapons and ran.
Stacey reached out and grabbed one of the men and screamed at him. “WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG?!! GET BACK OUT THERE!!”
The man was scared half to death as he flailed wildly to escape. “T-THAT’S F-FREIGHT TRAIN!!!” The man swatted Stacey’s hand away as he scrambled to his feet and bolted.
Stacey turned her attention back to the battle, but she was quickly losing control as the sky was suddenly filled with tons of debris, all of it raining down on the besieged guards. She looked up as she saw a dumpster careening down on Pearson’s position. Stacey dropped her rifle as she dived at the man and yanked him out of the way at the last moment. She landed on top of him, grabbing him by his collar. “WHO IN THE FUCK IS FREIGHT TRAIN?!!”
Pearson shook his head. “You don’t wanna know!!”
Stacey sat up and looked towards the main gate of the prison as a hulking brute of a man tore it down with his bare hands and slung it at the bewildered guards.
Stacey grabbed her weapon as she pulled Pearson to his feet. “WE NEED TO TAKE HIM DOWN!!”
“WHAT?!!” Pearson screamed. “He’s a super-max detainee!! You can’t just…TAKE HIM DOWN!!”
Stacey stared at him. “Someone put his ass in here, and now it’s our job to keep him here!! You go right, I’ll go left!!” She yelled to the remaining guards. “COVER US!!”
Before the bearded man could protest, Stacey was on the move, making a beeline towards the massive man. Pearson ran his fingers through his beard. “That bitch is fucking nuts!!” He scrambled to his feet and headed to the right.
As Stacey ran at the fugitive known as Freight Train, the guards fired at the other criminals attempting to hinder her. Explosions erupted all around as smoke and dust swirled to obscure the view. She set the rifle to automatic burst as she took aim at the raging criminal and fired. Three bolts hit Freight Train in the shoulder, staggering him, but it seemed to only anger the man even more. He ripped out another section of the fence and slung it at her, causing her to hit the ground hard as it sailed just inches above her head.
Pearson ran in close and fired a burst of his own that struck the mammoth man in the side, again rocking him, but not taking him down. “OH SHI…”
Freight Train closed the distance with Pearson, stomping the ground and nearly sending him flying. The massive man grabbed Pearson by his neck as he roared. “YOU’RE GONNA DIE FOR THAT PIG!!”
Stacey took careful aim and fired at the man again as he held the guard. The bolts of charged energy hit the fugitive in the side of the head, staggering and disorienting him. Pearson raised his rifle, jamming it under Freight Train’s chin as he flipped it to full automatic and fired it at point blank range. Pearson screamed as he held the trigger down and watched as bolt after bolt hit its target. Pearson closed his eyes as the charges built to a critical level and literally blew the convict’s head completely off his shoulders. Pearson fell to his knees as he looked down in amazement at what they had just accomplished. Stacey ran up and he turned to her. “I DON’T BELIEVE IT!! WE ACTUALLY TOOK DOWN FREIGHT TRAIN!!”
Stacey patted him on the shoulder. “That’s great, but I think we have a few hundred more to round up before we start slapping each other on the ass and swapping spit in the shower!” She smiled at him. “Saddle up!! We’re just getting started!!”
Pearson smiled and started to stand, but his legs suddenly wouldn’t move. He felt warm liquid running down his chest and he looked down in wide-eyed amazement as several sharp barbs were protruding through his chest. He started to speak, but an acrid taste filled his mouth and he vomited blood all over the pavement.
Stacey turned and looked back as Reaver stood behind Pearson, her claws rammed completely through him.
She smiled at Stacey. “Bugger, but you’re a hard one to keep up with!”
Stacey raised her weapon to fire, but the woman kicked Pearson in the back, sending him sliding off her claws and flying towards her. Stacey was knocked to the ground, her rifle sliding out of her hand. She shoved the lifeless body of Pearson off of her as she drew her service pistol and fired, but it was too late.
Reaver kicked the weapon aside and grabbed her by her throat.
Reaver retracted her claws and let her fist fly, punching Stacey in the face with three rapid-fire blows, knocking her unconscious. “You and I need to see a man about a priest…and his lil’ birdie!!”
High overhead, Anka turned and headed down towards the prison yard. She Reaver and she knew that she was a stone cold killer, a point that she knew first hand. She went into a dive, looking to take the clawed woman from behind. She came in and kicked her, sending her hard to the ground.
Reaver quickly recovered and her bright eyes fell on new prey, as they were illuminated from the pitched battle in the prison yard. She had watched as the scene had degenerated into complete chaos. In truth, she cared little for what was happening all around her, she had but one objective and that was to get her hands on the woman that would bring her the priest. Once she had him…the little birdie would come rushing in…only to be swallowed up by the cat! She had gotten the girl, but who would have guessed, the little birdie had shown up here as well…all on her own. She smiled viciously. “Who would ‘ave thought, finding you was a whole ‘ell of a lot easier than I ‘ad ‘oped.” She pointed at her. “You and I Luv…we ‘ave unfinished business we do!”
Anka stood over Stacey, casting a quick glance down at her and then back to Reaver. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but whatever it is, you can forget about it! You wanted to burn down the church, and you did, so as far as I can see…you can be on your way!”
She continued to grin at the winged woman. “No Luv…not quite…you see, there is still th’ matter of what you did to me Mate! Th’ way I figure it…you bein’ dead will just about square it!” She flicked her hands down at her sides, elongating her razor sharp claws, then flung her hands out towards Anka, sending her barbs flying out towards her quarry.
Anka was ready for the assault this time, as she twisted her body to one side, allowing half of the deadly shards to fly past and knocking the remainder harmlessly to the ground as she brought up a single wing as a shield. She had hardly recovered from the first volley, before she had to swat down a second and a third. Anka lowered her head as she stared at the woman. “I don’t know how many of those things you have…but we can do this all night long if you want!”
“That’s a neat trick…” Reaver cut her eyes down towards the prone form of Stacey lying on the ground. “…too bad everyone can’t do it!” Anka moved towards Stacey before the barbs were even hurled, but that was just what her enemy was hoping for.
Reaver leapt into the air and landed on Anka’s back as she struggled to sink her claws in. Anka grabbed the clawed hands as she held them away from her and launched herself skyward. She climbed quickly even as she struggled with her adversary.
“OH NO YOU DON’T LIL’ BIRDIE!!” Reaver kicked at her wings and actually succeed in bringing her down. Anka angled herself and managed to smash her attacker into the top of a parked hovercar. She tumbled down to the concrete below as Reaver grabbed her back in pain. Anka crawled back to her feet, using the car to steady herself as she spread her wings and pushed herself back up into the air.
Before she could get away, she was immediately grabbed from below and dragged back down and hurled to the ground. She skidded to a bone-jarring stop against the side of another parked car. Reaver bared her teeth as she glared down at her. “WHERE YOU FLYING OFF TO BIRDIE?!!” She reached down and grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up, slamming her against the wall. “You’re gonna pay for what you did…and you’re gonna die bloody!!”
Reaver slashed her across the side of her neck, slicing through flesh as she cut to the bone. Anka screamed in pain as she threw her into the side of another nearby car. Anka’s scream was tinged by a slight gurgle as blood flowed freely from the fount that had been torn open on her neck. She struggled to get up, but the blood loss and the battle with Meepus had taken their toll on her. She held up her hand to stop her attacker, but it was of no use. Reaver rushed over and kicked her hard in the side, sending her tumbling across the ground, before she finally rolled to a stop.
Reaver ran towards her, skidding to a stop just inches from her face as she jammed her razor sharp claws deep into Anka’s chest…
“ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!”
Reaver stared, smiling in satisfaction as she straddled her. “I said you’d die bloody you fuckin’ slag…” The clawed villainess began slashing her brutally, sending blood and gore in all directions until she was certain that her foe was dead. Reaver stood over Anka with blood dripping down her arms and face. She threw back her head and laughed. “Let’s see you come back this time whore!!”
She turned her attention back to the unconscious Detective as she walked over to her and knelt down. “Well now…what to do with you Lassie?” She extended one of her blood soaked claws and traced a line across her cheek. “I could do you right ‘ere…right now…but if I do that, I might not find that priest of yours.” Reaver reached down and scooped her up, hefting her over her shoulder. “Looks like you brought yourself a few more ‘ours of usefulness…for now.”
Reaver cast one last look back at the penitentiary as it was going up in flames, most of the guards butchered. She felt a slight pang of regret, having missed out on the slaughter herself. She walked pass Anka’s ruined remains. “At least it wasn’t a total loss.” She laughed to herself. “One down…one more to go!”
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Pam Dawson ... Kara Zooey Ayers
Gaia ... Kate Steele
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Correctional Officer Pearson … “Eyesnsane”
Freckle Faced ECPCSP Guard … Wendy Slater
Optical Blast Prisoner … Scott Winters
Fleeing ECPCSP Guard … Buster Lyons
Freight Train … Duke King
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Reaver … Melissa Reaves
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:08:24 GMT -5
Knight Estate
Trinity Hills, Empire City
Chapter IX: The Place We All Must Go…
Daria Knight had become a prominent figure in Empire City once she had inherited the family business from her father. The Knight family fortune had been based on travel and industry, but Daria had grander schemes in mind. As Empire City evolved, so too did her own empire. As more and more Supers appeared, a whole new market began to open up. They became the new age celebrities as many people flocked to them. They needed representation…they needed endorsements…they needed the means to make a living and support themselves like anyone else, and Knight Enterprises supplied a means to an end, and a very profitable end at that.
In just a few short years her company was raking in money on multiple fronts. On one hand she provided attorneys for Supers in need of legal defense, on the other she provided the expert consultation that put many a Super behind bars…at least those that didn’t play by the rules or go along with the program. Knight Enterprises was on the cutting edge of technology. Much of their research breakthroughs had been developed into weapons that were used against the Supers. Of course, on the other end…they produced the countermeasures for those very same weapons, for the right price. Supers had their place in Empire City, and Daria Knight was going to make a profit off of it. Of course some elements complicated matters…like her brother…a man who had worked tirelessly to promote his ‘One God’ theory. It was a nice concept, but it didn’t do anything for the Knight name financially speaking. As a matter of a fact, it had been a source of irritation. Knight Enterprises had done all that it could to promote a great many Supers as sudo-Gods…for lack of a better term. All the same, that job was made that much more difficult when you had a man screaming to the masses that there was only one God.
Brandon Knight…the idealist…the man who turned his back on the family business so that he could waste his life as a police officer. When that didn’t work out, he became a puppet of the ‘One God’ churches, spreading their rhetoric to whomever would listen. It was all a waste in Daria’s eyes…foolishly flushing his life down the toilet. She couldn’t count the number of times that she had wished that her brother would come around and take his rightful place by her side, yet it never came to be.
Her brother’s convictions strengthened and soon he had become a sort of spiritual leader, and he opposed nearly everything that Daria stood for. He had gone from being an embarrassment to being a nuisance. Brandon’s soap box preaching centered on the fact that there was but one God…faceless and nameless…for all intents and purposes. The more his teachings caught on, the more of a problem he became for his sister…and others. There had been talk of assassination, but in the end it was Brandon himself who paved the way for his own decline in the eyes of the public when he committed an unpardonable sin of sorts, by denouncing Superius, the most revered Demi-God of them all.
People were ready for a man who talked about brotherhood…talked about love…and talked about protecting our eternal soul, but that all ended when he dared to denounce Superius and label him as a false God. Before…when he had followers, killing him would have made him a martyr…and in the end, that is what had kept him alive. Once the public at large turned on him, he became a laughing stock and worse…fair game. ‘One God’ churches were burned down all over Empire City, until six months ago. Daria had bartered an under the table agreement that stopped the burnings, contingent upon Brandon, as the most recognizable face of the sect, walking away…forever. Daria had done all that she could to persuade her brother to give up the church, but she had failed to break Brandon’s conviction. Now…not only were the last few ‘One God’ churches in danger…but so was he.
As a sister, Daria believed that she had done all she could to save Brandon. His false beliefs would now be his undoing…a sort of suicide. Daria wasn’t participating in her brother’s death, she was simply allowing nature to take its course…or so she had told herself before tonight…
Brandon had come to her, looking worn and haggard, seeking refuge. Daria could have no more turned her brother away as she could have gouged out her own eye. Blood was thicker than water. She wanted her brother out of the way…but dead? After the close call in the ruins of the church a few nights ago, she could TRULY never want something to happen to him…could she?
Daria Knight stood by the huge bay window in her study overlooking the whole of Empire City…a city that was in a panic as everything teetered on the brink of destruction. The breakout at the jail would have far reaching consequences. If life as she had known it didn’t end, it would certainly change…quite possibly forever. The dilemma she faced with what to do with her brother seemed insignificant now, at least at the moment.
She glanced over at her desk as the teleprompter flashed. She ignored it for a moment, already knowing who it was. She clenched her fist as she continued surveying the cityscape for a bit longer. Empire City was the last great refuge in a world gone mad and even now she could see something dark beginning to fester and grow here. Long before tonight’s villainous prison escapees were set loose Empire City was on the brink of chaos and only a few knew it…and fewer still would survive it.
Daria walked over to her desk and sat down as she activated the video teleconference. The hooded figure on the monitor regarded her coolly. “Ms. Knight…I sincerely hope that you aren’t playing games with me. I only contact you when it is of the utmost importance…and so I expect you to be there to answer…promptly! Do I make myself clear?”
Daria nodded. “Of course…”
“Your brother has proven to be difficult quarry. One of my agents informed me that he was assisted by…” The figure paused as they searched for a suitable explanation. “…a guardian angel.” Daria arched her eyebrow, but remained silent. “Do you know anything about this? Who and where this person comes from?”
Daria smiled arrogantly as she gestured above. “Have you considered…The One Almighty God?”
The hooded figure was not amused. “You’d be wise to stay your tongue when you have nothing useful to add!” Daria bowed her head and gestured for the hooded caller to continue. “Angel or no…your brother WILL be eliminated. The only thing I want to know is once that’s accomplished, will you be ready to move forward with the next phase of our plan?”
Daria was silent as she wrestled within herself. She could turn her back on her brother now…give him up and then be done with it, or she could keep her silence a bit longer…and as a consequence, her brother. When she spoke up, her words didn’t surprise her… “Yes…I’ll be ready.” …but her lack of conviction did. All the same, at least it was only her that seemed to notice it.
“Good…very good.” There was a slight pause. “Do not let the events of tonight trouble you…all works to our mutual advantage. Of that…have no doubt.”
Daria nodded. “When do you think your agent will find my wayward brother?”
A slight laugh escaped through the figure’s darkened veil. “She was given forty-eight hours…and that time draws to an end soon. I expect to hear from her any moment…and once the deed is done, you and I can move forward.”
The screen went black and Daria laced her fingers. Her mysterious benefactor did not know that Brandon was under her roof…under her protection, at least for the moment. To be certain, Daria did not relish the idea of killing her own brother, but if it came right down to it…she would do what needed to be done.
First, she wanted to know more about this…guardian angel, after that she would make up her own mind about how to proceed. Be it doing the deed herself…or delivering him to this…agent, whomever she was…”
The Bowels
The Underneath, Empire City
Stacey’s eyes slowly opened to unfamiliar surroundings…dark…dank…unfamiliar surroundings. Her cheek ached…certainly bruised…maybe even fractured. Everything was a blur, she remembered the prison…the fire wielding Meepus…and…and…there was more, but her head sang with a song that drowned everything else out.
Well…almost everything…
“’Ellow Luv… did you get your rest?”
Stacey’s eyes widened as she remembered the clawed woman…the one that had nearly knocked her head off after…after she had killed Pearson. Stacey struggled to move, but she was tied down and not going anywhere.
Reaver walked into the light and she smiled. “You and I ‘ave a mutual friend…a friend that I need to find…a priest.”
Stacey screamed at her. “FUCK YOU!! I’M NOT TELLING YOU A DAMN THING!!”
Stacey’s head snapped to the side as Reaver punched her in the jaw. Her head rang and her entire jaw went numb. “That’s a nasty mouth that you’ve got on you Luv! I can’t believe that you kiss your Mum wit’ that thing!” Reaver laughed. “Maybe you ‘ave th’ father bless it wit’ a bit of his…” Reaver made a stroking motion with her hand, “…holy water, eh?”
Stacey’s chest heaved and her entire body ached, but she refused to give this woman the satisfaction. “I’m not helping you to do a damn thing…and if you let me out of this chair…I swear to Superius that I’ll…”
“YOU’LL DO NOTHING!!!” Reaver roared as her claws elongated and she jammed the one from her index finger right into her upper shoulder. Stacey screamed in pain…as tears streamed down her face. Pussy Galore smiled as she leaned in close. “Evoking Superius won’t do you a damn bit of good deary…you’ll take me to th’ priest or else I’ll…”
“FUCK YOU!!” Stacey spat in her face, causing Reaver to fall back…her claw tearing out of her shoulder. Stacey gritted her teeth to stifle another scream. She shook in a rage as she strained against the ropes. “BITCH!! I WON’T TELL YOU SHIT!! I don’t care what you do to me!”
Reaver angrily drew back her claws as she prepared to finish off the uncooperative police detective, but her hand was stayed by the familiar voice of her partner Vixxxen. “Ree! Don’t kill her…” Reaver turned and watched as Vixxxen limped into the room. She was obviously no longer bedridden, but her movements were still severely pained.
Reaver rushed to her side. “You shouldn’t be out of bed yet…you’ve not fully recovered.”
Vixxxen snapped her fingers and a tiny ball of flame appeared there. “I’m well enough to finish the job that we started…”
Stacey stared at the flame and then at the women who made it. “It was you…you’re the one who burned down Madison Chapel…not Meepus…”
Vixxxen made a fist and the flame disappeared. “Meepus? What in the hell is a Meepus?!”
Reaver ignored her question. “Bugger that! Look…I can take care of th’ priest on my own… ‘is little birdie ‘as flown to th’ big-arse bird cage in th’ sky…courtesy of yours truly!” She glared over at Stacey. “Apparently she was looking after this randy lil’ trollop…no doubt sent by our favorite Sunday School Padre.”
Birdy? Stacey’s mind raced to follow what she was talking about. Birdy? Finally it came to her…the woman…the one with the wings that had saved her from Meepus. She hadn’t seen her face…but apparently these two had seen her before…and from the sound of it, so had Brandon. It was quickly becoming apparent that he knew a lot more than he was telling her. She’d corner him and make him tell everything that he knew…assuming she lived that long.
Vixxxen walked over and grabbed Stacey by her face. The woman’s hand was hot…oven mitt hot, but Stacey bared down and refused to scream out. Vixxxen shook her head. “She’s not going to help us, but she will be of some use. We might not be able to find the priest…but once he knows that we have her, he’ll come out of hiding and then…”
Reaver grinned as she came over and stuck one of her claws under Stacey’s chin. “Then we’ll gut th’ both of them…just like I did to ‘is poor lil’ birdie.” Stacey pulled her head away, but Reaver continued to grin. “Don’t worry your pretty lil’ ‘ead about it Luv…it won’t ‘urt long. Before you know it…it will all be over and your firm lil’ arse will be roastin’ in th’ bleedin’ fires of ‘ell…right beside your winged savior!!”
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered
Centerville, Empire City
The entire prison yard was like something out of a horror movie. Bodies lay everywhere…and the buildings were in flames. The true heroes of Empire City…the firemen and law enforcement did what they could to contain the scene, all without the aid of superpowers. These brave men and women had been one of the few thin threads holding Empire City together, but the strain was telling. The fires were raging out of control and the stench from the bodies was almost unbearable…yet they soldiered on, hoping to make a difference.
Among the dead, lay the winged ruin of one who had tried to make a difference…at least in a small and selfish way. Anka’s slight form was left a gory mess. The animalistic attack had torn open her ribcage…and true to her word, Reaver had indeed ripped out her heart…
No life dwelled within the empty husk of her remains…
Anka was no more…
She had moved on…gone from this earth…her mortal coil severed…
Yet…in the here-after, where we all must one day go… she makes an all too familiar journey…
“I look down and I see myself…laying there…my chest laid open, and all inside torn asunder. It is obvious that I’m dead…and I’m perfectly okay with that. Such an incredible sense of peace…I’d breathe a sigh of relief if I could…but I know how this will end. The same way it always ends for me…”
“I look up into the Heavens…and I feel myself rise up. An incredible feeling of freedom…the joy is indescribable. Ahead of me…nothing but a warm and inviting light…below me? The life I now leave behind. Every moment there was a kind of Hell, I realize that now that I can experience true joy…true love…everlasting peace…”
“As I look forward…I see it…the tunnel…and beyond it…the light…the source. It’s Him…it has to be Him! Nothing else could shine so brightly and not burn. Nothing else could beam so brightly and not blind. It is perfection…it is beauty…it is love…the prize that awaits us all…or so we are led to believe…”
“This time will be different for me…this time I’ll walk into the light. God will not deny me this…not this time…”
“As I get closer…walking deeper into the tunnel…drawing nearer to the light, I hear voices…voices I have not heard in ages. They speak in a tongue hardly recognizable now…an old language…my native language…the language of Jesus Christ, over 3,000 years old…it is Aramaic…”
“Funny…they say that it is like riding a bike. I hear the words, and I know right away who speaks them as they call to me…”
“Anka!! Come to me Anka…come…hurry back to us!!”
“It is the voice of my mother calling. I know her voice…I remember it so clearly, but it’s her face I can no longer recall. It’s been stolen from me by time. I see figures moving all around me…familiar…but shrouded in a veil. It’s my family…my friends…they reach out to me…they try to sooth me. Telling me to go into the light…to run there…to hurry…and so I do just that…”
“I run as fast as I can…but the light doesn’t get closer…it gets further away. So do the voices. They fade and I try desperately to hold on…but there is no use. I am barred from Heaven…kept from grace…a curse placed upon me by The Almighty…a sort of Hex one might say…”
“As I stand watching the light fade…feeling the cold creep back all around me…I feel his hand on my shoulder. My guide has come to send me back. He does not take pleasure in his task, all the same as I turn and gaze upon his most exquisite appearance…I cannot hide the malice which dwells within me. It’s like venom on the tip of my tongue, and even as I speak his most holy and beautiful name…it sounds like a curse…”
“RAPHAEL…”
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Daria Knight … Missy
Hooded Stranger (voice) … Pat Jendurfree
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Vixxxen … Katie Anderson
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Raphael … Phoenix Chambers
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:10:19 GMT -5
The Knight Estate
Trinity Hills, Empire City
Chapter X: Condemnation…
Brandon nervously paced back and forth in front of the television as he watched Empire City tear itself apart. All he could do was pray that Anka had gotten to Stacey before the woman who helped burn down his church got to her first. He sat down and watched as the news reports aired several special reports…causing his heart to sink, especially as it related to Rave’s attack on the prison…right where Stacey had gone!
Brandon stood, almost as if he had been yanked to his feet by some unseen force. His heart beat so hard within his chest that he thought it might suddenly stop. “My God in Heaven… what can I do?!!” Stacey had gone to the Penitentiary as part of her investigation into the burning of Madison Chapel…but he had known all along that the culprit was not confined there. It had all seemed harmless…until the woman who had killed Jacob Phills…the one that meant to kill him had gotten wind that getting to Stacey Jordan was the key to getting to him. Anka had gone to watch over her…but he had no way of knowing if she would get there in time. After watching the special report…it seemed that the task had been made that much more difficult.
Brandon fell to his knees as he crossed himself. “Forgive me Father, for I have bore false witness and endangered the life of one of your children…if it be your will…I swear that I’ll make this right.” He stood up and ran out of the room, grabbing his coat as he dashed for the door.
Before he could walk out, he felt the hands of his sister grabbing him, and turning him around, even as he reached for the door.
Daria stared at him. “Where are you going? Can’t you see that Empire City is coming apart at the seams?!! Martial Law has been imposed…you can’t just head out into the streets!!”
Brandon was frantic, “Daria… I have to get to the penitentiary… I have to get there and find Stacey!”
Daria arched her brow at her brother. “Stacey? As in Stacey Jordan?”
Brandon pulled away from her. “I don’t have time to explain it all right now…but to make a long story short…she’s there because of me…and now someone is going to try to use her as bait!!”
Brandon opened the door, but Daria put her hand against it to slam it back shut. “Brandon…if you know it’s a trap…why would you go running it to it?! Besides, haven’t you heard…that place is a war zone right now! You wouldn’t get within ten miles of it!”
He stared at his sister. “I have to try… this is all my doing…and I have to do what I can to put it right.”
Daria sighed. “If I let you go…it would be like signing your death warrant…all in the name of some foolish cause. I can’t do that…”
“Daria…if you had seen what I have…you’d know that this is providence…divine providence! I have to go and I can’t let anything…or anyone stop me!” He stared at his sister, needing her to understand and get out of his way.
What had he seen? The guardian angel that she had been told about? This was the reason that Daria had not told her benefactor of her brother’s whereabouts. Curiosity had stayed her hand…or at least her tongue. Now, she sensed that her brother was hinting at the very thing that she wished to know about…and if she wished to know more…she’d have to help him, for the moment at least. “Alright…I’ll take you where you want to go.”
Brandon shook his head. “NO!! I cannot ask you to do that!”
“You don’t have to ask me…I’m your sister.” Daria called for her own coat and directed her manservant to ready her car. She looked back at Brandon. “We will go out together…where I can keep an eye on you.”
Brandon shook her head. “Daria…I have already put one person at risk here tonight…I won’t do it to you as well!”
She smiled. “Don’t flatter yourself. I have no intention of taking any risk! I have a very good life…and I have no desire for it to end here tonight. I intend to take every precaution!”
Gateway Park
Empire City
Martial Law…it was a joke to every superpowered criminal that heard it. The powers that be within Empire City had imposed that measure thinking that it would keep its citizens safe…taking them off the streets and out of harms way. In truth…it had only made it all the more easy for those with villainous aims to see right where their prey would be and right where their so-called protectors were. No one knew this better than Reaver and Vixxxen. They had used the chaos all around them as a distraction as they carried their hapless bait to a place that would maximize the impact.
Reaver stood back and admired the handiwork done by her and her partner. “Well done Luv! This ‘as to be one of th’ bestest ideas that you’ve ever come up wit’! Wit’ th’ big dust up going on everywhere else… this should draw out a select group…”
Vixxxen stood beside her and nodded. “Very select indeed. I think our priest will be drawn here like a maggot to rotting meat.”
Reaver added. “And as soon as he shows his face…I get to send ‘im into the bleedin’ here-after…just like I did to ‘is lil’ birdie!”
Vixxxen smiled viciously as she leaned against Reaver. “Yes…and I haven’t had a chance to properly thank you for that…” Vixxxen planted a deep and lingering openmouthed kiss on her. Their tongues intertwining and probing one another.
“HALT!! You two!! What are you doing here?!!”
Vixxxen and Reaver held up their hands to block the guard’s bright light as it shown in their faces. Reaver spoke up. “What does it look like you stupid Drongo?! I’m busy feelin’ up me soddin’ girlfriend!!”
The guard stood there, in stunned silence. He was flabbergasted and his duty was temporarily forgotten. “Errr…I-I…am going to have to…ask you for s-some identification…now…” The guard paused as he looked up at the massive 100 foot tall statue and his mouth dropped open as he reached for his radio. “OH SUPERIUS!!”
Before he could make his call, his voice and his life were both cut short as his throat was pierced by three sharp barbs, thrown by Reaver with deadly accuracy. The man gagged as he fell to his knees, dropping his radio and his weapon, blood pouring from his mouth. Reaver bit her lower lip as she ran her hands over herself, obviously getting some sort of perverse satisfaction from the man’s suffering.
Vixxxen snapped her finger, causing a flame to erupt there, which she promptly blew in the man’s direction, instantly engulfing him, and ending his suffering in short order.
Reaver turned to Vixxxen, with a pouty look on her face under her mask. “Spoiled sport!!”
Vixxxen smiled as she turned back to the statue and smiled. “No…I just don’t want the authorities sweeping this under the rug. We need to make sure that the priest gets this message…and pays us a visit. First we call the news hounds…then we wait.”
A long and vicious smile traced its way across Reaver’s face. “You see Mate…that’s why I love you so much…you’re so bloody smart!”
Vixxxen stepped over the burning body of the guard. “And let’s not forget how hot I am…”
Reaver chuckled, “Never Luv… never…”
Centerville Exit
Empire City
The armed guard stuck his head into the back window of the limo and looked around, his eyes falling on Daria. “I’m sorry…but you can’t go any further…you’re in violation of martial law! Citizens are suppose to be off the streets! I’m sorry…but I’m going to have to place you under arrest!”
Daria leaned forward and stared at the man. “Soldier…do you think that Colonel Greenwood has the time to stop what he’s doing to come down here and personally chew your ass out for detaining me?!”
The young solider looked at her curiously, the mention of his superior obviously working on him. “Ms…”
Daria pointed to the rifle he was carrying in his hands. “My name is printed on the side of that firearm…it’s Knight…as in Knight Enterprises.”
His demeanor changed immediately, but driving through the roadblock was still out of the question. “Ms. Knight! I’m sorry…but I still cannot allow you to pass. There is an intensive military operation going on right now…and for your own safety…I can’t allow you to pass! I could lo…” The solider paused as he heard his radio blaring with activity…
"CHOPPER DOWN!! I SAY AGAIN, CHOPPER DOWN!! ALL UNITS BE ADVISED WE HAVE A CHOPPER GOING DOWN…HIT BY FRIENDLY FIRE!!!"
The man stepped back as he looked into the air, making sure that it wasn’t coming down on his position. Satisfied that he was safe, he turned back to the limo and its occupants. “I’m sorry…but I absolutely cannot let you pass!! It’s far too dangerous…” He stepped back as he directed some of his men to assist in getting the vehicle turned around.
Daria sat back and rolled the window up. “Looks like we will have to find another way in Brandon…Brandon?” She turned and found her brother staring at the video screen. His eyes looked hauntingly wide in the glow. “What is it?”
Daria looked at the screen and saw a special news report. Video from the broadcast showed an image of the statue of Superius with a huge banner hanging from it reading:
WE OFFER THIS SACRFICE IN THE NAME OF SUPERIUS, LET HER BLOOD OFFERING DELEIVER US ALL FROM EVIL…LUV!
Hanging just below the banner, a lone figure dangling by a length of chain. Daria turned up the volume on the news broadcast from special correspondent Pam Dawson…
…we received the call from an anonymous source minutes ago! Apparently the person tied to the statue is wired with explosives… either affixed to a timer or possibly a remote detonator, though no one has claimed responsibility for the act. The woman, has yet to be identified and…
Brandon reached over and turned down the volume. “We have to get to Gateway Park Daria…WE HAVE TO GO THERE NOW!!” He turned back to the screen. “That’s Stacey…and the person who has her will kill her if I don’t go there!”
Daria narrowed her eyes. “How can you possibly know that?! It could be some random crazy trying to add to the violence and chaos!”
Brandon stared at the banner, the last word in particular. ‘LUV’ There was only one person that he had heard using that term in that way…the woman that had attacked him in the church…the one that had butchered Jacob…and the one that had gone after Stacey. He reached for the door handle. “If you don’t take me there now…I’ll find my own way!”
Daria grabbed his shoulder and held him. “ALRIGHT!! We’ll go there…but if what you are saying is true…this is an obvious trap. We can’t just go marching in there…we won’t be doing ourselves any favors!”
Brandon turned to his sister. “I don’t have a choice…I have to go…I have to put my faith in God’s hands and pray that He will guide me…”
Daria groaned as she told the driver where to go. Even though she wasn’t so sure about the faith her brother was putting in his invisible God. This little excursion promised to have an…explosive conclusion…if nothing else.
The Veil
Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth…
Anka turned to face The Archangel Raphael as he stood before her, his entire being bathed in ethereal light. He stood over her, his expression one of remorse, for his task gave him no joy. His voice was soft and soothing as he spoke to her in Aramaic. “Anka…you must go from this place…you cannot linger in the veil.”
She smacked his hand away, her eyebrows knitted closely together betraying the rage that she felt. “GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ME!!” She roared back, forgoing the formality of speaking in the ancient language. “You have the nerve to speak to me like this?!” She pointed back towards the light, which shone dimly in the distance. “WHY RAPHAEL?!! Do you know why He hates me?”
Raphael responded, “The Lord God does not hate…you know this to be so Anka. You have a part to play in His plan.”
She laughed, but it was tinged with a sorrow that ran far too deeply to hide. It soon turned to sobs and she sat down and covered her face. “How long Raphael? HOW LONG!!” She looked up at him with tears streaming down her cheeks from her reddened eyes. “This isn’t a plan…THIS IS PUNISHMENT!! HE MAKES ME SUFFER FOR A PAST SIN THAT ANYONE ELSE WOULD HAVE COMMITTED IN MY PLACE!!”
Raphael knelt beside her. “No Anka…He has not cursed you…He has blessed you. Above all other mortals, He favors you and entrusts that you will do what must be done in His Holy name.”
She looked back towards the light as she pulled her knees up into her chest, rocking back and forth. “My mother…my father…”
Raphael nodded towards the light, “They wait for you on the other side…when your task is done…”
She shook her head. “NO!! They called to me…they wanted me to go with them NOW!! They told me to run into the light!!” She glared at him. “There is no plan Raphael…they know it…and you know it! I denounced Christ to spare my life…to save my family…and now He keeps me from them…He keeps me from peace and even death!!”
Raphael sighed. “You speak of transgressions centuries past Anka. God forgives…and so does The Christ. You are forgiven…and granted great power. Do not allow your imagination to get the better of you in this place. The veil is meant to ease transition, from one life into the next.”
This time she laughed and it was filled with malice. “Ease transition? What transition is there for me? I am forced back to that stinking cesspool over and over...AND OVER!! FUCK YOU!! If He had compassion…He’d send me down…ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HELL AND LET THIS NIGHTMARE END!!” She moaned and the sound she made was filled with such anguish that even Raphael was forced to turn away. “Let me dieeeeeee…PLEASE!!!” She grabbed him. “Send me to Hell…send me!! Just end it…you can do that for me. Don’t…just send me back again!”
Still unable to look at her, he closed his eyes. “I cannot Anka. I serve His will…and that is not His decree. You must live…until such time as your mission is complete.”
She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Mission? What mission Raphael? Tell me!! I’ll do it…whatever it is!!”
Finally he turned to her, able to look her in the eye. “It doesn’t work that way. You know that. You must go back…especially now…”
She stared at him strangely. Never before had he been so adamant, not that he had to be. She was going back, and she could not prevent it. She had fought with him before…attempted to evade him…but it did not change anything. In this place, he was lord and master…only the kindness of his heart prevented him with dealing more harshly with her. Only now, she felt that he was doing what he could to tell her that she was closer to winning her release than she had ever been. “The Priest? Is it Brandon?!! I HAVE TO PROTECT HIM? HELP HIM!! YES?!!”
Raphael stood up, and Anka scrambled up as well, wiping her face and suddenly filled with anticipation. He turned to her with a melancholy look upon his face. “Anka…I did not say that protecting the priest would be your way into paradise. Only that you must go back because of the…”
“You don’t need to say it…I understand! You can’t tell me what it is.” She cut him off, suddenly filled with excitement and the feeling that she was getting closer to winning her freedom. “Just send me back…do it now while I’m ready to go…HURRY!!”
Raphael wanted desperately to tell her that she wasn’t entirely correct, but that wasn’t the way that things worked. Besides…it wasn’t often that she didn’t put up a fight when her soul was cast back into her body. “Very well…” He put his hands on her and instantly she was bathed in the same light that surrounded him. “…go back Anka…it is not yet your time…” The light slowly consumed her, seeming to dissolve her away to nothing. Raphael’s hands dropped back down to his sides and he stood there alone in silence, with a pained expression on his face. “Forgive me, as I send the lamb once more unto the slaughter…”
He glanced up as if he had been spoken to, then he shook his head. “No…I do not ask your forgiveness…” As he lowered his head, a single tear rolled down his cheek. “…I ask it of your child, Anka…for she is doomed to fail you Father…she is doomed to fail us all…it has been so ordained…”
"Even as I feel myself slip away…out of the void…or Veil…whatever it’s called. I feel myself falling down…through space…through time…through the air. The further I get from Heaven…the greater the anger and malcontent within me grows. I have been denied peace for longer than I care to count by a God that I find to be bitter…and petty…"
"I feel it in my very bones, even though Raphael denies it, God despises me and this is His way of punishing me. I have suffered for a long time…longer than I believe I should have, but then again…how long has Judas suffered? Is my crime on par with his? I think not…"
"I don’t know…and I don’t care, because my suffering is almost at an end! Brandon Knight is the key to my salvation. I know it…even if Raphael refuses to admit it! I have been sent to aid him…to protect him, so that he can bring God’s word to the people of Empire City! And whether I agree with it or not…I will do whatever it takes so long as it gets me what I desire most in all the world…"
"I look down and I see my ruined body there and I loath to return to it…but return I must. Though, even as I do…I feel the rip and tear of my flesh once more…but not like it was the first time…"
"It’s worse…"
"I want to scream…as I settle back in…I finally do…"
Penitentiary for the Criminally Super Powered
Centerville, Empire City
The entire scene was in chaos as soldiers and various armored vehicles were firing on the prison. Explosions rumbled and the screams of men were drowned out all around…all except one, and it pierced the ears of all for miles around…
“ARRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Anka sat up and grabbed her chest, and though it was made whole again…she could still feel the ravenous claws that had ripped it to shreds before. She staggered to her feet, bare-chested and blood spattered.
In the distance, the last solider in a small squad making their way into a drainage pipe paused as he looked at her and blinked his eyes, wondering if what he was seeing was real. The man stood there watching as the…angel…knelt down over the body of a fallen prison guard…it’s wings stretched out gloriously.
From inside the drainage pipe, one of the other men called out to him. “McCarthy!! Get your ass down here! We’ve gotta move!!”
He lingered for a moment longer, then looked up and crossed himself before heading into the drain.
Anka looked down at the dead body of the prison guard that been with Stacey, but her body was not with his. She had been taken…and if that was the case…then that at least meant that there was a chance that she was still alive. She reached down and stripped off the guard’s armored vest…even though it had done him little good. She put it on to cover herself before she lifted up into the air.
Even as she did, she watched as the building she had come from was under heavy siege from all manner of military hardware. Their shells and bombs harmlessly bounced off whatever protective shield was now erected around it. Whoever…or whatever it was…this…Gaia person…she had released a scourge upon Empire City, yet that was not her concern at the moment.
A bright flash appeared over the prison, causing her to narrow her eyes. She watched as a tank fired a shell that veered off and up into the air. It collided with one of the combat choppers. She watched as the smoking wreckage fell from the sky and crashed several hundred meters away.
All around the fighting continued…yet no one moved to the crash site. After a moment of indecision, she glanced up and sighed, then spread her wings and headed off towards the downed aircraft.
She came down in the middle of a deserted factory district, right next to the flaming wreck. She could hear the screams of at least one person inside…a survivor. She braced herself as she raised a single wing, using it like a shield against the heat as she pushed her way towards the man, who was being burned alive without a doubt. She peered in and saw the pilot, he was a bloody mess and flames were licking at him…burning his flesh.
“HOLD ON!! I’M COMING!!!” She shouted to him as she tried to reach him. The heat was intense and it was then that she noticed that the ground was riddled with ammunition and all manner of unexploded ordinance. She worked harder to get to the man, even as she could smell his flesh being burned from his body.
As she worked to get to the screaming man, she heard the radio transmissions from the pilot’s radio and it caused her to pause…
“GET SOMEONE DOWN HERE NOW!! WE’VE GOT A POLICE DETECTIVE TIED TO THE STATUE OF SUPERIUS AND WIRED WITH EXPLOSIVES!!!”
There was a quick burst of static, followed by a very curt reply…
“ECP…clear this frequency! This is a restricted channel, copy?!!”
“DAMN IT!! WE NEED HELP DOWN HERE!!!”
“I repeat, ECP…clear this frequency! This is a restricted channel! You will have to deal with the situation on your own, how do you copy?!!”
Anka stood there for a moment and looked at the struggling pilot as he tore at his helmet and flailed around, howling in pain…flames filling the cockpit. The man stared at her, frozen in a moment of silence, only the crackle of flame to remind them of their surroundings. She turned away, almost nonchalantly, as she spread her magnificent wings and rose into the air. She made a beeline straight for Gateway Park.
She had a life to save tonight…
Behind her in the distance she heard a chorus of explosions rock the factory district. She narrowed her eyes and flew faster. Nothing would keep her from her mission…NOTHING!
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Daria Knight … Missy
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Vixxxen … Katie Anderson
Gateway Park Guard … Conrad Shultz
Solider at Roadblock … Derek Moltz
Pam Dawson ... Kara Zooey Ayers
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Raphael … Phoenix Chambers
McCarthy … Randy Fallwell
Doomed Pilot … DubbleFC
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:48:01 GMT -5
Gateway Park
Empire City
Chapter X: Condemnation… (Part 2)
Gateway Park seemed so idyllic to Brandon Knight in days before this, the only blight upon it was the blasphemous statue of Superius that had been placed here. It was a pagan symbol to him, made all the more hideous as the limousine pulled up and he got a glimpse of the large banner that now hung from it, a message from Reaver. His heart sank as he saw the scene. There were hardly any police around, all that could be spared were running around the city doing what they could to restore order.
As they drove up to what should have been a police barricade…the two officers that were there did little more than wave them through, allowing them to pass unquestioned. This was odd…but maybe a blessing from God…and he did not question it. As they drove through, he glanced up and hanging from the statue was an obviously unconscious Stacey Jordan, and he cringed before bolting out the door the second he caught a glimpse of her. Daria Knight moved to stop him but he had already made his way across the cement square that led up to the giant statue. Daria cautiously stepped outside the limousine, watching as Brandon stood beneath the slowly swaying Stacey Jordan.
As Brandon ran to the base of the statue, the two remaining guards ran over to stop him. “SIR!! You can’t be here! This is a dangerous situation!” The officer that had spoken glanced at his partner, “Go tell Simon and Lendy to stop letting people in here!!”
Before either of the two officers could do anything else, one fell to the ground clutching his chest…several sharp barbs protruding through him as the other simply burst into flame and ran screaming into the side of a parked news van. Brandon stumbled back, already realizing that the trap was now sprung.
In the crowd, Arella watched intently as the scene unfolded. She had not be seen since loosing Gaia on the prison, and now, inexplicably she was here. It was no accident that she was here and this was of particular interest to her…
"Well, well, well. Lookie what we 'ave 'ere.' A woman's voice called.
From the relative safety of the limousine, Daria could see the two now walking towards her brother, who regarded the two familiars coldly. Brandon calls out to they, “You two...haven't you caused enough devilry already?" Reaver and Vixxxen stalked towards him in unison. Brandon made a move towards them but Vixxxen launched a massive fireball at him, missing him by inches, the back draft enough to knock him off his feet.
Vixxxen laughed, "Temper, temper!! I thought all of you holy men were supposed to be about nonviolence!"
Reaver added, as the two women approached. "Tell me Father…who goes first? You…or your soddin’ girlfriend?" Reaver hissed as she pulled out the detonator for the explosive vest wrapped around Stacey.
"Why are you doing this?! Let the woman go...what has she done to you? What has the church done to you?" Brandon asked woefully.
"Nothing, Luv...that's why it had to burn. When will you bible thumpers learn? We Metas are your new Gods…YOUR So-Called God…doesn't exist!"
Arella’s eyes widened as she listened to the exchange. This was her purpose and there was no denying it. The man was a priest…a ‘holy man.’ This was the reason she was drawn here. To pave her father’s path…what better way would there be than to orchestrate the slaughter of one of God’s prophets…before the whole of Empire City. She reached out to the minds of the two women who approached the priest, their minds were deliciously dark and vile…but their intent was petty and low. They would kill the priest here and now…but his death would be for profit…and not for cause. Ignorant fleas…they could better serve under her guidance on this night.
Brandon said a silent prayer as he attempted to scramble away. Reaver put her finger on the detonator button, as Vixxxen took careful aim with yet another fireball. This was it…and he knew it…his efforts to save Stacey would end here and now.
Suddenly…inexplicably…the two women stopped as their eyes seemed to glaze over. Brandon watched as the detonator fell from Reaver’s hand. He held his breath as it hit the ground, but failed to activate. For a moment, the two women seemed as idle minded as the pair of police officers at the park entranceway. Brandon got slowly to his feet, taking a wary step back. A small crowd had started to gather despite the blowing cold wind and the cameras from several different news agencies were focused on him. Brandon glanced up at Stacey who seemed to be coming to…slowly.
Reaver turned to the masses and spoke, but even as the words came out, Brandon knew that something was not quite right. Her unusual accent was gone, and underneath it all…just barely underneath he could swear he heard not one, but two voices speaking in concert. The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he crossed himself without thinking.
“PEOPLE OF EMPIRE CITY!! REJOICE…FOR SOON YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE AT AN END!! The father comes to reclaim his throne…and false prophets touting long dead heathen religions…shall be cleansed…IN FIRE!!” Reaver bared her claws.
Vixxxen launched several fireballs at Brandon, each striking but a few feet from him and erupting into a flaming circle around him…trapping him…for all the world to see. Reaver continued her tirade, as Arella watched in muted satisfaction.
“Here stands a man…of God…but what God? Who’s God? YOURS? MINE? No…his God isn’t real…his God is false and he would lead you all into ruin and death. The Father…he is your salvation…” Reaver continued to speak with voice that was not her own. Arella smiled as she mouthed the words ‘he is your salvation…and his name is Lucifer!!’ and she waited for her puppet to echo it…
“…and his name is…”
Overhead they heard a ‘SWOOSH’ of wings. As the masses looked up, they all collectively gasped.
"Look Mama... it's an angel..."
Everyone stared, including Arella, who was shocked at the sight of a woman she had not seen in centuries. Her mouth fell open as she spoke, “…mother…”
Anka swooped down and landed in-close quarters directly between the two women and Brandon. Arella took a step forward, but she stopped as cautious confusion filled her. What did this all mean…why now? She backed away, melting back into the crowd.
Anka spread her wings, then folded them defensively in front of her. She had fought the one known as Reaver twice…and on both occasions she had come out on the losing end…in rather decisive fashion. This time would be different…it had to be. The Archangel Raphael had not said it…but he had said enough. The protection of Brandon Knight was her mission…her way into Heaven. “Father… now would be the time for you to leave…”
Brandon looked around at the flames all around him. He was going nowhere. “Don’t worry about me, save Stacey…”
Anka started to answer him, but Vixxxen and Reaver used the distraction to spring into action. Vixxxen slung a trio of fireballs at her. Anka quickly deflected them. Before she could recover, another trio were thrown. Again Anka blocked them, but right afterwards, the clawed woman leapt at her. Swiping and slashing, but each vicious swipe deflected off Anka's wings.
Vixxxen circled aiming to take out Brandon while Anka was distracted, but she was anything but. Anka grabbed Reaver and tossed her into Vixxxen, sending both women tumbling to the ground in a heap.
Anka moved quickly as she flew in Brandon’s direction and lifted him out of the flaming circle and started to fly off. Brandon grabbed her as he screamed at her. “NO!! Stacey!! We have to help her!!”
Anka reluctantly veered back towards the statue of Superious and flew up to the bound police detective. Her eyes widened as she looked at Anka and then at Brandon, but there was no time for questions. He looked down at the vest she was wearing, then he remembered the detonator on the ground below. “ANKA!! THE BOMB!! WE HAVE TO…”
He heard the loud ‘POP’ ‘POP’ ‘POP’ of gunfire and he reached out and grabbed Stacey as Anka fell from the sky. Brandon hung there holding Stacey as he looked down and saw her falling to the ground below…the two remaining policemen firing their guns at her the whole way down. Brandon began to pray, because only divine intervention could save them now…
Since the disappearance of Michelle Andretti, Spike Staggs had felt himself drawn to Gateway Park by his visions. He didn’t know what it all meant, but he hoped he would be able to do something and hopefully rescue her from the vile shadow thing that had come for her…and the ring…the one that had healed the two of them after Gaia’s attack…the ring that was now in his possession. As he got there, he felt a malevolent presence there and he looked around quickly, but he couldn’t locate the source. However, he did see the winged woman falling to the ground. The woman from his visions…and he whispered aloud… “Angel…” He turned quickly to the police officers firing at her. With a wave of his hand, the two officers flew off their feet and tumbled back several feet, their weapons flying from their hands.
Arella nearly cried out in rage as she realized what was happening. An interloper was spoiling everything. With what little energy she had left, she sent Vixxxen and Reaver against him.
Spike turned and saw the two women scanning the crowd, and he quickly hid himself from view. There was something else at work here…and he didn’t want whatever it was to zero in on him, but his vision…the nagging vision that had drawn him here. This was all somehow connected…all of it! The vision came back to him in a flash…
Gateway Park and the massive statute of Superious, all cloaked in the darkest of night…SHADOW…
There was the beating of wings…not like a bird…giant wings…ANGEL…
GUNFIRE! COMING FROM ALL AROUND!! There was blood all around…so much blood…
“SPIKE, THE RING!!” Michelle…?
A flash of gold glimmering in night…a golden RING inside a bloody lifeless hand…the hand closing around it…
It was all coming to pass…just as his vision had revealed. He looked up as the ‘angel’ fell several stories and bounced off the concrete base of the statue, breaking a portion of it as her wings took the brunt of the fall. She hit the ground, gasping for air as she clutched at her neck, blood spurting from the place her neck had been torn open by one of the bullets.
Anka struggled against the massive loss of blood, her thoughts only on saving Brandon…and thus saving herself, but she had failed again. Her suffering would endure for an eternity now…
As her eyes began to close, she saw a gleam in the night…a flash of gold moving towards her in the air…spinning slowly as it moved, carried by some unseen force. Even as she weakened and began to lose consciousness, she reached out for the ring…her bloody hand closing around it…
Arella, Vixxxen, and Reaver looked around the crowd frantically, searching for any sign of the person who used their powers to thwart their plan. When they were unable to find them, Arella changed tactics.
Reaver turned and ran towards the detonator as Vixxxen made ready to incinerate the first person that moved. Spike’s hand would soon be forced and he readied himself. He could save the two people hanging from the statue, or he could save himself and do nothing…not really a choice at all.
Reaver ran to the spot where the detonator was, but as she reached down for it…she noticed a shadow looming over her…the winged shadow.
Reaver stood up and bared her claws. “WHEN I KILL YOU THIS TIME, THERE WON’T BE NO COMING BACK!!”
Reaver slashed at her in a fury, her claws actually getting through her guard in such close quarters combat. Anka staggered back, but she threw back her wings and battered her attacker right back with a flurry of punches…wading through the razor sharp claws. Reaver was rocked by a vicious right and finally sent crumbling to the ground by a thunderous kick to the face.
Reaver was in a daze, but her eyes widened as she watched the wounds heal almost instantly. Reaver scrambled backwards to get away from her. Vixxxen turned and tossed fireball after fireball at Anka, hitting her with shot after shot…each one causing her to blaze higher.
Arella watched on in amazement as Anka’s wings beat at the flames and finally closed completely shielding her as the flames swirled around and were finally blasted out as she spread her wings. Her entire body scorched…but healing before their eyes.
Arella collapsed to her knees as her eyes clouded over and the last of her power waned.
As she did, the possession she held over Vixxxen and Reaver dissolved. Vixxxen and Reaver didn’t wait to see what had happened, they quickly got to their feet and bolted through the crowd, wanting no part of the power that had just been used against them.
Suddenly there came another gasp from the crowd as they all turned and looked towards the statue of Superius as Brandon Knight and Stacey Jordan seemed to hover down all on their own. Even Anka had to turn and watch in amazement. Everyone was dumbfounded by the sight of what had to be divine intervention…almost everyone. Arella’s vison slowly cleared as she scanned the crowd and saw the reason for the ‘miracle.’
Spike Staggs used his telekinesis to lower the two to safety. Spike looked around, then moved away silently. Arella got slowly to her feet and melted back into the crowd. The day was won by them for now…but the end times would belong to her Father…and perhaps even her Mother, once she revealed herself.
Brandon carefully worked to remove the vest from Stacey, even as Anka stared at the ring on her finger in absolute wonderment. It had augmented her natural healing ability and made her something akin to a juggernaut as she beat back her foes. The crowd rushed in around them as there was talk of a miracle taking place this day. Things would soon change for them…as forces were now put into motion that would reverberate all throughout the whole of Empire City…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Daria Knight … Missy
Officer Simon … Crease Bradfield
Officer Lendy … Tony Standalone
Gateway Park Guard #1 … Sid Moore
Gateway Park Guard #2 … Lester House
Reaver … Melissa Reeves
Vixxxen … Katie Anderson
Arella … Orchid
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 17:59:42 GMT -5
Gateway Park
Empire City
Chapter XI: A Question of Angels
Gateway Park was a chaotic scene following the appearance of Anka to the masses and the apparent divine intervention that had saved the life of Detective Stacey Jordan. Authorities rushed to hold back the crushing mob and to give aid to the injured detective, but she waived them off, glaring at Brandon and Anka in wide eyed amazement…and more than a hint of suspicion. Stacey circled Anka, looking at her large feathered wings. She reached out to touch them, then pulled back as they trembled. She grabbed her own hand, unsure of what to do or what to make of what she was seeing.
Brandon put his hand on Stacey’s shoulder, “Stacey, I can explain thi…”
Stacey slapped his hand away, “Seriously, Brandon? You’re going to fucking explain this?!”
Daria Knight ran up, going to her brother’s side. “Detective Jordan, maybe you should be a bit more thankful to my brother. He risked his life for yours!” Her eyes fell on Anka, and suddenly all of the things that she had been told in secret by her ‘benefactor’ about a guardian angel began to make more sense. She had a great deal of experience with metas, and she wondered if Brandon’s so-called angel was the genuine article or just another super-powered human looking to play an angle.
Stacey glared at Daria, then rolled her eyes, turning back to Anka. “An angel? Is that what you’re claiming to be?”
Anka shook her head, “I have never claimed to be anything of the sort.”
Brandon stepped between the two of them, “The people of Empire City need hope, and that is what you gave them tonight! The belief in the One God will never be questioned again. You came to the aid of his children in their most desperate hour! Faith…Anka, that is what people need right now! They need a reason to help themselves…they need…” Brandon’s impassioned speech was cut off as a loud speaker blared;
“CLEAR THE AREA AND RETURN TO YOUR HOMES! EMPIRE CITY IS OFFICIALLY UNDER MARTIAL LAW! THERE IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN EFFECT! RETURN TO YOUR HOMES BY ORDER OF MAYOR VESPASIAN TRAJAN!”
A pair of ECPD officers came through the crowd and past the barricade, approaching Stacey. The two men regarded Anka with stares of disbelief before turning to the Detective. The senior of the two spoke up, “Detective, we need to get you and the rest of these people out of here. It’s chaos out there…there’s an army of metas tearing the city apart! I don’t know how we are going to stop them…” he glanced at Brandon and then at Anka, “…we are going to need a miracle.”
Stacey rolled her eyes and glared at the two men, “The people need something alright! They need to be protected…” she glanced at Brandon, “…protected by something more than a freaking fairytale!” Turning her attention to the officers, “Get these people out of here…and I want that ‘angel’ detained!”
“I’m sorry Detective…” one of the officers spoke up, “…she’s gone.”
Stacey turned, and Anka was no longer there. She looked up and saw no sign of the winged woman. She turned back to the officers, “I need one of you to give me your car, NOW!” The two officers looked at one another, and both to them pulled out their keys. Stacey took one and turned back to Brandon and Daria. “You are in violation of martial law, I need you two to get back to your homes! We will get statements from you both later.”
Brandon looked at Stacey earnestly, “Stacey…you’re in no condition to go back out there!”
Stacey turned to Daria, “Get him out of here, before I have his ass thrown in jail!” Daria took her brother by his arm, guiding him back to her waiting car as Stacey turned and made her way through the barricade. Her mind was a mass of confusion over what she had just experienced. She still didn’t believe in Brandon’s One God nonsense, but the question still loomed over her…what was Anka…and what did she want? All of that would have to wait, if this meta threat wasn’t ended…the whole of Empire City would be destroyed and none of it would matter…
Downtown
Empire City
A virtual army of metas which Gaia had freed from prison marched out into the streets and spread throughout the city…attacking at random, driving people into their homes. City leaders organized and imposed martial law, as Gaia knew they would. They sent their forces to protect the people, but the people were not her target…at least not yet. While the humans dealt with the random threats to the populous at the outskirts of the city proper, Gaia was massing for an attack that would cripple the government and leave them all ripe for the picking. Gaia led the group from the sky, with Meepus leading the mob below as they pushed forward, hovercars and people suddenly being flung in the air as to make room for them. Frantic screams erupted as all attention soon focused on the advancing line of metas, chaos brewing all around them as their true goal was now in sight.
Meepus formed a fireball above his palm and launched it through the window of a storefront, the building immediately exploding in flames. "Hope his policy covers fire! HAHAHAHA!"
The streets were filled with panicking people who fled their cars like startled cattle, a stampede of humans forming instantly amongst the halted vehicles as the army of metas left a path of rubble in their wake. From the sky, Gaia watched on in satisfaction as her meta brothers and sisters, now free, took their revenge on the human populace that had jailed them out of jealousy and fear. They would know fear again…they would pay for that jealousy and inferiority with their lives.
The humans had struggled to contain the threat, sending law enforcement and even their military to the far reaches of the city, but now the real threat was unleashed. Gaia would take out the capitol building…and everyone in it!
The radio crackled over the speaker in the police hovercar Stacey had commandeered as she sped headlong into the downtown area, hoping that she could do something, anything at all. After the night she had endured, she just wanted to try to make a difference. The streets were in complete chaos, but her instincts told her that this was only a diversion. She had been at the prison when Gaia broke down the defenses. Gaia had a plan…and it was much larger than just loosing chaos in the streets.
"...Attention all units... Attention all units... we have a code red developing on Capitol Street... Suspects include the highly dangerous metas, Gaia and Meepus, amongst others... all available officers please report to the scene... intercept and contain the situation... Please proceed with extreme caution..."
Stacey’s brow furled as she remembered her confrontation in the prison, “…Meepus…” Stacey's foot had already jammed down on the accelerator before the operator had finished, having set her course for the scene. She was a mere thirty seconds from the capitol building, and she planned to position herself between the advancing criminal hoard and the city center before it was too late. As she made the sharp turn onto Capitol Street, she could see the bedlam unfolding a half a mile in the distance. Debris was flying through the air, as if a twister had set down in the middle of the street.
She could hardly believe her eyes, "Shit..." She responded to the radio call, her eyes glued to the mayhem before her as she sped forward as fast as the hovercar could go. “This is Detective Stacey Jordan, I am on scene at Capitol Street. We are going to need everything and everyone we’ve got!" Stacey slowed the hovercar a hundred yards from the chaos, struggling to formulate her game plan as she jumped out of the vehicle. She turned her eyes to the sky, “Oh…this is a bad idea.” She sighed, as she ran to the back of the vehicle, popping the trunk and retrieving the riot baton from the lock box. She ran back to the driver’s side and pinned it between the seat and the accelerator. The engine whined loudly as she threw the vehicle into drive. As the hovercar surged forward, she half climbed out of the door, judging the distance as she prepared to jump. Fifty yards from the horde of metas, Stacey launched herself from the car, which exploded into flames at the hands of a Meepus fireball.
The flaming vehicle plowed into the crowd of attacking metas sending them scattering in all directions. Those who were not fast enough to move were knocked into the air and sent flying like bowling pins. The vehicle’s fuel tank exploded, killing many more of Gaia’s forces in a spectacular blaze of glorious fire. Meepus had to duck to escape the debris that flew in all directions. As he regained his bearings, he was met by a roundhouse kick square to the jaw as Stacey dashed in.
The commotion quickly caught Gaia's attention from the sky as she beheld her fallen comrades before returning her gaze to Stacey. “Well if it isn't one of Empire City's finest." She glided down to the road. Having expected her to mount an offensive attack, Stacey dove and rolled behind a nearby van, which Gaia crushed into the pavement, flattening it like a penny on a railroad track. Stacey, suddenly exposed, got to her feet and assumed a fighting stance as she grabbed a metal pipe from the debris that littered the roadway. Gaia smiled, “Ewwww, you're a feisty one!" she said playfully.
By this time Meepus was back on his feet, approaching with fire in his eyes as he rubbed his jaw. “That's the bitch who came to question me. Let me finish that pig off!"
Gaia answered as she turned her eyes to the capitol building. “Just make it quick! Our goal is in sight…” With that, Gaia turned and was carried back into the sky as she continued toward the capitol building, which was now only a couple hundred yards away.
Stacey turned her attention to Meepus as he advanced on her, “You’re under arrest!”
Meepus laughed, “You’re funny, for a cop!” The smile disappeared quickly, “It’s too bad you didn’t take up a career in comedy…at least when you die on stage…you can always get a second chance.” Meepus snarled as he shot flames at Stacey, who sidestepped the inferno blast and threw the pipe at Meepus, hitting him right in the forehead and sending him to the ground in a heap. Stacey turned and dashed towards the capitol building, leaving Meepus rolling on the ground in agony as he bled profusely from his forehead…
Gaia looked down proudly at the capitol building…the seat of power within Empire City. Once she razed it to the ground, the so-called government of Empire City would be no more and anarchy would rule…making it that much simpler for her to seize power. Her smile faded ever so slightly as she saw the military presence now amassing at the front of the building. Gaia gritted her teeth in anger, the lone police officer had delayed her assault, giving the humans time to bolster their defenses, but it would only serve to delay the inevitable. The soldiers brought their weapons to bear on the remaining meta that ran towards the building. Gunfire erupted as the area was turned into a warzone. Tanks moved into the area, forming a heavy wall of armor as they began blasting away as well, turning back the meta assault on the capitol.
Gaia lowered herself to the ground, her face twisted into a mask of anger, “Pathetic humans!” Gaia placed her hands on the ground, gathering the full sum of her power. The ground trembled beneath the armored vehicles and they began to compact as if being crushed like empty soda cans…cans with screaming soldiers inside. “Your power is no match for…UGHHH!”
Gaia hit the ground face first as Stacey tackled her from behind. Stacey quickly reached for her handcuffs, “YOU’RE UNDER ARREST BITCH!” Before Stacey could secure the cuffs, a series of explosions rock the area and she is hurled into the air, even as a voice is heard crying out.
"CEASE FIRE!!! CEASE FIRE!!! ONE OF OUR OWN IS DOWN THERE!!!" The commanding officer, General Greenwood barked, having spotted Stacey moments after giving the order to fire on Gaia. The explosion of cannons quickly ceased but the debris from the downtown buildings was still flying in all directions. The damage had been done. Stacey hit the ground, skidding to a stop like a rag doll.
Gaia recovers quickly, turning to look at her attacker, now a bloody mess. She turned her attention to the forces gathering at the capitol. “Thank you for the assist…and for bringing me your leader!” She growled, raising her hand and dropping the General to his knees. “DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I MULTIPLY THE FORCE OF GRAVITY ON YOUR LEADER 1000 TIMES!”
The men all look at one another and they slowly drop their weapons, even as the General attempts to tell them not to. “N-No…d-don’t…”
Gaia grins, “You bloody humans simply refuse to accept the truth! When it comes down to the laws of nature, your species simply doesn't make the cut. Now you will experience firsthand, WHY!"
Gaia starts to turn her power against the General, despite the soldier’s compliance and he screams in agony as he starts to collapse under his own multiplying weight.
“ENOUGH!!” A lone cloaked figure appeared.
Gaia stared at the man, narrowing her gaze. “You desire to die in his place? So be it!” The man froze in mid-stride as Gaia turned her power on him. He collapsed on to his knees, the ground cracking beneath him as the gravitational pull continued to multiply. Gaia grinned and watched as the man strained. “You’re a meta! Fighting against your own kind?! Fool! You can die with the rest of the human cattle!” Gaia held the man in place, using all of her power as the remainder of her forces advanced, attacking the soldiers as they made their way towards the cloaked man…
Meepus staggered to his feet, wiping the blood from his face, still dazed from the blow he’d taken. He was filled with rage as he looked around and saw the detective laying on the ground a few hundred feet away. He started to make his way over to her, but he paused as he saw another familiar figure descending from the sky. The winged woman he had fought in prison. Meepus hid behind a nearby vehicle and watched.
Anka guided down, landing near the injured Detective. Stacey was unconscious, bloody, and battered…gravely injured from the mortar attack. Anka knelt beside her for a moment, the pulled the ring from her finger that had healed her and put it on Stacey’s. Almost immediately she began to heal from her injuries. Once the ring had done its work, she put it back on her finger and pulled Stacey up, preparing to fly the unconscious woman to safety, but she turned her attention to the battle for the capitol building. It did not concern her, but as she looked on…a sight she had not beheld in over 600 years greeted her, and her blood ran cold as she bore witness to it…
Several metas broke through the ranks and managed to reach the cloaked man, grabbing him and ripping off his hood. Everyone seemed to freeze, their mouths dropping open as they beheld the face on none other than Superius, Lord Protector of the city…a man who had become a god.
With hardly any effort at all, the swatted the metas away that attempted to restrain him, sending them hurdling off into the distance. Even Gaia could hardly believe it as Superius, managed to stand, lifting one leg, then the other. The ground cracked beneath him, but she could not hold him. “NO MORE!” he roared as he shot forward and hit Gaia with a right cross that sent her sailing into the air. She smashed into the side of a nearby building and crumbled to the ground, unconscious.
Superius started to stalk towards the leader of the meta insurgency, but suddenly he was surrounded by people flooding out from everywhere, screaming and cheering as many reached out to touch his cloak…
“SUPERIUS HAS RETURNED!!”
“THANK THE GODS!!”
“HE HAS COME TO ANSWER OUR PRAYERS!!”
The words shook each remaining meta criminal to the very core. Those that did not fall to their knees in worship, ran away in terror. At the capitol building, soldiers and officers looked on with desperate hope at what they were seeing, including General Greenwood.
Superius held up his hands, "Enough time for that…first I need to deal with the red haired witch that had threatened our city!” Superius strode though the masses and to the spot where Gaia had fallen, but now there was no trace of her. Superius looked around, narrowing his eyes keenly, then he turned and yelled to the remaining soldiers. “FIND HER!”
“Lord Superius! You’ve returned!” Superius turned, as an already stark white General Greenwood, knelt before him. “We did what we could to stop them…thank the Gods for your return!”
Superius arched his brow as he maneuvered through the crowd and knelt down beside a slowly recovering Detective Jordan. He reached out his hand to her, “If there were more among you with the heart of this warrior woman, my presence would not be needed this day or any other.”
Stacey gaped in astonishment at the man previously seen only chiseled in stone as a statue in temples. She got to her feet, looking him up and down. “Lord Superius…”
She started to kneel, but he held her up, shaking his head. “Stand tall with me this day, fore we have won a glorious victory!”
Several men ran back through the crowd, panting and looking out of breath. “Lord Superius, Gaia is gone…we’ve looked everywhere!”
Superius nodded gravely, “Gaia, is it? We will be ready for her…if she is foolish enough to return!”
Everyone erupted into cheers, surrounding the powerful Demi-God among a battlefield littered with rubble and fallen metas and humans alike…
Gaia moved to stand, enraged over her defeat but she was held still, a hand over her mouth. Soldiers and citizens ran pass her, but it was as if she were completely invisible to them. Gaia looked up into the young girl’s face that held her. She was pale and her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and hatred. As soon as the area was clear, she let Gaia go, standing as her massive wings opened and they were suddenly visible to the world again. Gaia scrambled back, confused. “Who…who are you?!”
Anka looked at Gaia, “If you’re an enemy of Superius…you may call me friend…” Anka rose into the sky, her wings carrying her off like a shot. Perhaps she had been wrong about her purpose being the protection of Brandon Knight…perhaps this was her purpose, as it had been so many hundreds of years ago. She was here to destroy a god…once and for all…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Daria Knight … Missy
ECPD Officer 1 … Stanley Hubbard
ECPD Officer 2 … Ralph Stenson
Gaia … Kate Steele
Meepus … Kaden Kessler
General Greenwood … Bruce Norman
Superius … Mason Moore
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 18:20:32 GMT -5
Chapter XI: A Question of Angels (Part 2)
Channel 8 News – Special Report!
Empire City
The scene opened on the set of Channel 8 News as the city’s most popular news anchor, the lovely Pam Dawson greeted the morning faithful.
“GOOD MORNING EMPIRE CITY!! It’s a bright and beautiful day…and after the events of last night…we hope it to be a much safer city!” An image of Superius appeared on an inset panel behind her…
“In our city’s MOST desperate hour…our greatest hero and savior returned to end the wanton violence in the street, and crush the Meta-insurgency!” She paused and turned aside. “The term, Meta-insurgency is trademarked by Channel 8 News and may not be used in any other written, oral, or video presentation without the expressed consent of our parent company.” She turned back and continued her report. “Under the keen leadership and awe-inspiring strength of General Superius, the villainous Meta-leader, known as Gaia, was finally stopped!”
The background image changed to joyous celebrations in the streets. “In spite of government imposed curfews, thousands of people took to the streets to express their happiness over the return of Superius to Empire City.”
An inset panel appeared at the bottom of the screen as several citizens were asked about their thoughts on the subject…
“What do I think about him coming back? I think it’s the most wonderful thing in the world! He’ll set things right, and bring order to Empire City!”
“Superius? MAN!! That dude rocks… HE ROCKS!! He was kicking some serious Meta-Ass!!”
“Am I happy about him coming back? HELL NO I AINT HAPPY…I’M FREAKING ECSTATIC!! Maybe now we can finally get things back to normal around here…or at least as close to normal as we can.”
The inset panel disappeared and Trisha continued her broadcast. “Indeed…over most of Empire City that was the prevailing attitude, however…the scene in Gateway Park last night was equally amazing…but for an entirely different reason.” She paused for a moment as she turned the page she was reading from. “An anonymous tip was received by this station and several of our sister networks informing us of an individual wired with a bomb and left hanging from the statute of Superious. What ensued was a scene of absolute pandemonium!” Again she paused. “We here at Channel 8 News would like to remind you that this footage you are about to see has not been altered in any way…”
The screen switched to video of the ‘angel sighting’ in Gateway Park. The shaky camera attempts to focus in on the dangling police detective hanging from the statute of Superius, when suddenly a figure appears from the sky and there are several gasps from the crowd as they watch. The camera seems to blur, only picking up flashes of beating wings. Even so, the looks on the faces of the people watching is that of absolute awe. An inset panel of ‘The Angel of Empire City’’ appears at the bottom of the screen freezes the frame and a blur is circled for the viewers.
As the angel battles with a pair of Meta’s, the camera pans slightly to the right and managed to get a clear picture of the angelic figure’s shadow, if nothing else.
The scene returned to the studio. “Several camera’s attempted to document the sighting, but in each and every case, the image was blurred and barely recognizable. All the same, eye witness statements confirmed the sighting.”
An inset panel appeared at the bottom of the screen as several citizens recalled what they saw…
“MAN!! I don’t know what to say!! It was a…a…ANGEL! No other way to put it!! Came down from the sky…and just landed right in the middle of the park…it was magnificent!!”
“I think it was a girl angel!! Do they have girl angels? She was fine…that’s all I know! I’m going to church next week, and that’s REAL!!”
“You know…I aint never believe all that ‘One God’ nonsense before. I mean…you can’t even see him! But after tonight…after everything I saw…maybe that Knight preacher dude was right. I mean…there were things that happened out there, that I can’t understand or explain, except to say that it was divine intervention…that’s the only way I can describe it!”
The scene returned to the newsroom. “As if this story wasn’t wild enough…the cameras did manage to capture evidence of this ‘so-called’ divine intervention. As before…what you are about to see has not been altered in anyway.”
The screen showed the shocked expressions of several on-lookers as they pointed skyward. The camera panned up as a man and woman were seen gently floating to the ground…perhaps guided by the unseen hand of The Almighty himself.
“Adding to this complex scene…” The background screen showed an image of Brandon. “Brandon Knight, one of the people rescued from the statute, is one of the religious leaders of ‘The Church of The One God’. Brandon Knight found himself in the middle of a citywide controversy when he denounced followers of Superius as idol worshipers. Following the statement, membership in those churches suffered, compounded by a series of fires which burned many “One God’ Churches to the ground.”
“Following the incident, Channel 8 cameras were able to get these comments from Mr. Knight…”
Brandon appeared on camera as he was checked by paramedics. “Tonight…everything that I have ever said has been vindicated! All of the idol worshipers in Empire City will have to stand up and take notice! God is real…and no one can deny it! All of this Super-Meta worship needs to end!!”
The interviewer spoke up. “What about the return of Superius?” A look of confusion crossed Brandon’s face, he obviously hadn’t heard the news. The interviewer elaborated. “Tonight…only a few short hours ago…Superius returned to Empire City and he put down the Meta Insurgency.”
Brandon was silent for a moment as he stroked his chin. Finally, he turned to the camera and addressed the people of Empire City directly. “For all I know…Superius was a part of this entire fiasco! I don’t want to waste my time talking about a false God, when the one TRUE God has picked this very time to make His presence known to everyone. Tonight…the Hand of God reached down and snatched me and another of His children from the jaws of death. God is real…and everyone here felt His power!”
The scene returned to the studio. “This incident, coupled with the return of Superius is sure to re-ignite an intense debate over the ‘One God’ theory. Be that as it may…no matter what side of the debate you are on…the one thing that is certain is that Empire City is a lot safer than it has been in a long time.”
“I’m Pam Dawson, and this has been Channel 8 News…”
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Stacey walked into the police station with a bandage over her left eye. The other side of her face was still slightly swollen from her ordeal, but strangely, she hardly felt any pain at all. During her attempt to apprehend Gaia, mortar fire had rained down, nearly on top of her, sending her flying. She’d been knocked unconscious…but by all accounts, she should have been dead. Several of her fellow officers turned and applauded as she walked in.
She stopped and held up her hand, “Stop it…please, just stop! I did what any of you would have done in my place…but Superius is the one to really thank.” She paused, “Now…if you are all done dicking around, we have police work to do, okay?!”
The group all nodded in unison, then erupted into a chorus of laughter and scattered. Stacey rolled her eyes and walked into her office, slamming the door behind her. She looked up at the stuffed angel toy that was being swung around by the ceiling fan over her desk. A black Barbie doll with a police badge was clinging to the stuffed toy.
She walked over and snatched the stuffed toy down and stared at it for a moment. She tossed the Barbie aside as she stared at the angel. It was crudely made, but it fit the typical image of what people generally expected them to look like. After what had happened last night…there might have to be some reevaluation. She tossed the toy into the chair in front of her desk as she took a seat in the one behind it.
She had believed that Brandon was crazy when he left the force to chase after some crazy ‘One God’ religion. Now…maybe he wasn’t so crazy…or things weren’t as they appeared. Stacey was snapped out of her musings by a knock at her door.
She looked up as a tall blonde woman stuck her head in the door. “Detective Jordan? Mind if I have a quick word?”
She didn’t wait for a response as she walked in and started to take a seat, then picked up the stuffed angel and held it up. “You’re really into this One God stuff, huh?”
Stacey leaned over her desk and took the toy from her and dropped it in the trash. “Not in the fucking slightest!” Stacey had trouble choking down her emotions. “Can I help you…Miss?”
The woman reached into her breast pocket and pulled out her credentials, “I’m sorry Detective. My name is Agent Grace Sloan, I’m with the Agency…”
Stacey took the woman's identification and stared at it, “The Agency? What Agency?”
Agent Sloan smiled as she reached over and took her identification back. “You know…I asked that same question when they recruited me.”
Stacey narrowed her eyes, “I’m sorry…what in the hell is this all about?”
She sighed, “Last night could have went sideways for us all in a hurry if it wasn’t for…”
She cut the agent off, “Superius. Yeah, he pretty much saved the city.”
The agent raised her eyebrows, “…and humble too! You’re a one in a million aren’t you?” She sat forward, “Empire City would have been screwed last night if you hadn’t did what you did…Superius and angels aside! My team wasn’t even ready for that punch in the mouth we got last night…and my team is always ready!” She shrugged, “We got caught with our pants down and I’d rather that not happen again. We’d like to offer you a position with The Agency…the Mayor’s special taskforce. Completely autonomous and apparently…” she looked at her badge, then tucked it back into her jacket, “…completely anonymous.”
Stacey stared blankly at her, “This is a joke from the Captain.”
Agency Sloan shook her head, “This is an opportunity for your talent not to be wasted.”
Stacey was unable to hold back the contempt in her voice. “Who said that they were? The threat was stopped.”
The agent nodded, “Well…you got me there Detective Jordan.” She pulled out a card and tossed it on the desk in front of her. “That’s our number. Call it…or don’t.” She stood up, “Personally, I hope you do.”
Stacey stared at the card and then back at Agent Sloan. “What would happen if I detained you right now and ran those credentials of yours?”
She smiled, “Nothing good…for you, Detective Jordan.” She winked, then pointed to the card, “Call us when you’re tired of chasing your tail, okay?”
Stacey considered calling the woman’s bluff and running her through every system they had as she watched the woman walk out, but she was still and ECPD Detective and she had a job to do. She fiddled with the card, considering throwing it away, then opened her desk drawer and dropped it inside. Stacey turned her chair to a large board behind her with several crime scene pictures from numerous cases she had been working. She reached up and began pulling the pictures down, until the board was bare. She pulled several new pictures from her pocket and pinned them to the board. Pictures of her rescue…of her Meta-human abductors…and blurry pictures of the so-called angel…the woman she knew as Anka.
Stacey sighed as she interlaced her fingers and pressed them to her lips, staring at the board. Something more was going on here…more than met the eye. She had never even thought about the question of religion before, but now she had no choice. Something had happened last night…but she wasn’t so certain that God had as much to do with it as Brandon purported. She didn’t know a damn thing about angels…but if the woman she had met before with Brandon was one…then the standards of Heaven were seriously suspect!
Anka Jarius wasn’t a damn angel…she would have bet her life on it, and if that held true…she didn’t owe her rescue to the ‘unseen hand of God’ either! There were other forces at work here…something that Brandon had found himself right in the middle of… and she meant to find out exactly what it was…before Brandon ended up getting hurt…
…or worse…AGAIN!
The Knight Estate
Trinity Hills, Empire City
Daria Knight sat in her study, the lights off and yet another stiff drink poured in front of her. The events of the previous night had played on her mind and haunted her dreams. Had she not seen it for herself…she wouldn’t have believed it. Her brother had been right…there was a God…or so is certainly seemed.
Daria lifted the drink to her mouth and chugged it all down, slamming the empty glass back on the desk. The light on her teleprompter flashed and for a moment she considered not answering it. She knew who it was…and she had no desire to speak to them at the moment. She sighed, even as she reached for the answer button…
“Daria…you and I need to talk!”
Daria almost laughed as she looked at the cloaked figure on the screen. They looked almost idiotic to her now. How petty their schemes seemed in the face of all that had transpired. Daria poured herself another drink. “I suppose you’ve seen the news…?” Daria looked up and pointed her finger to the sky. “…there are angels in Empire City…”
The figure wearing the cloak hissed. “ANGELS!! When your brother is dead…maybe he’ll become one…but until that moment comes…you need to get your head screwed on correctly! Don’t let a bunch of religious rhetoric cloud your mind and lead you astray! We are on the verge of getting all that we want!”
The problem was that Daria no longer knew what she wanted. “What about the…the angel?” Daria looked to the heavens. “What about God? Do you really think that you can touch my brother now?”
“THERE ARE NO ANGELS AND THERE IS NO GOD!! If you want to worship something…worship the money we will make!!” Daria could see that the person was in an absolute rage. “This…MIRACLE…has come at the worst possible time! We were on the verge of controlling every inch of property belonging to those One God fools! Once your brother is dead, you’ll have a legitimate claim to those holdings!”
Daria arched her brow as things were made perfectly clear now. “But with people having renewed faith…the churches will be rebuilt. The land will never pass to me…”
“To us!” The cloaked figure corrected. “Killing your brother now will not end this. We must discredit the faith before we can move on him. This…angel…she needs to be dealt with.”
Daria sighed as she appeared to look impassive, though secretly she was glad that no harm was in her brother’s immediate future. “The two you sent after her at Gateway Park?”
The voice as lower now and filled with malice. “Reaver and Vixxxen had their chance. This job will require someone who can move in the shadows and take care of things quietly.”
Daria sat forward and narrowed her eyes. “What did you have in mind?” Daria couldn’t see through the darkness that concealed the figure’s identity, but she suspected that a demonic smile dwelled just below the surface…even as the call ended. She sighed, lacing her fingers as she wondered what her ‘friend’ had in store for the angel…if there even was such a thing.
An Undisclosed Location
Empire City
The cloaked figured shut off the telecommunications monitor. “This ‘angel’ must be dealt with.”
Arella immerged from the darkness, “We will deal with my ‘mother’ and then the lamb will be ripe for the slaughter. You’ll have your lands soon enough.” She turned to her compatriot, the blonde haired field reporter for Channel 8 News, Michelle Andretti. “We have work to do…” Michelle seemed almost cloaked in darkness and shadow, as if it were part of her now. Arella narrowed her gaze, “Remember why we chose that body…do not injure it!”
The shadow thing that was, and yet was not Michelle frowned, “There was power in this body…” She looked at her hands…fingers that had once bore a ring of great power. “…I would have that power again.”
Arella took the shadow thing by the hand, “Once we have done as my Father commands…you will have all the power you desire!”
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Pam Dawson ... Kara Ayers
Superius … Mason Moore
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Agent Grace Sloan ... Amy Jo Smyth
Daria Knight … Missy
Cloaked Figure ... DubbleFC
Arella ... Orchid
Michelle Andretti ... Delia Darling
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 18:39:35 GMT -5
Chapter XIII: Blessed Child of Ages (The Enemy of My Enemy)
High Above…
Empire City
It had been only a few hours since the battle for the capitol that saw Gaia and her army defeated at the hands of the almighty protector, Superius…with an assist from a lowly ECPD Detective. All of Empire City was abuzz over the return of the conquering hero…Marcus Superius Regulas…the "Defender of Empire City" and Rome's greatest general!
Everyone knew his history…
Born the son of a military commander in the city of Rome, Marcus Superius Regulas was destined to be a soldier from day one. Entering the Roman Legion at the tender age of 16, Superius was already a skilled swordsman. His abilities were soon fine-tuned and he became a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
As the young Superius progressed, the Roman Empire did too, the Legions winning many battles with his presence at the front line. It didn't take long before he came to occupy the position of General.
Said to have encountered the Demi-God; Hercules himself during the Empire's push into Russia during the late third century, the legend surrounding Superius claimed he received the blessing of Hercules, and more specifically was imbued with the god's superhuman powers because of his courage and warrior prowess.
From that day forward, Superius led the Roman Legions into incredibly lopsided victories that expanded the Empire's borders into the continents of Asia and Africa. Superius himself became revered as a god because of his mysterious longevity. But with the city secure, Superius disappeared, his memory passing into legend…Anka mused on all of this as she flew over the city, doing what she could to clear her mind after her run in with the so-called…heroic Demi-God.
Only children and idiots believed such nonsense! Superius wasn’t a God and he wasn’t some benevolent protector of the people! Superius wasn’t someone to be celebrated…he was just another man…a man with far too much blood on his hands…the blood of her people…those who did not believe in their pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. It was almost funny how the history books recounted his man’s victories against the ‘heathen peoples’ of the time, with no real acknowledgement that these so-called ‘heathen peoples’ were slaughtered for the expansion of Rome because they did not believe in the same things…their lives did not have the same value.
Superius wasn’t a hero…he was a goddamn murderer and before it was all said and done, she would have her revenge on him!
Before long, Anka had found herself right back at Gateway Park, circling high over the massive statute of Superius…Empire City’s great monument to history’s greatest villain. She drifted down, settling on the Loeb office building adjacent to the park. Even in the growing darkness, this place gave her an excellent view into the stony face of the most celebrated mass murderer in the history of the world.  Folding her wings behind her, she approached the edge of the roof. From here, the tall statue of Superius was clearly visible, as were the police barricades placed around it as an afterthought following the events that had taken place there. Already it had become a shrine to the man with hundreds of people passing by, leaving flowers and tokens of appreciation and worship. Spotlights shone up onto the statue, illuminating it for the night, giving it the appearance of a child holding a flashlight under his chin. The creators of the statue had chiseled his features in such a way that they should be strong, noble, and courageous, ever looking towards the rising sun. In the spotlights, Anka thought that they looked mocking and leering. It was fitting. If only these people knew just what kind of man it was that they adored so much that they would create a symbol of him…if they knew a fifth of the truth…they would tear the statue apart with their bare hands…
Or would they?
There was always faith to consider. People were so quick to place their faith in anything that they took to be a higher power, whether it be the superhumans of the city, Superius…or the One God. No matter what misdeeds their objects of faith had performed, rarely would the devout tolerate slander of the worshipped…or the REAL truth behind their so-called heroics.
The faithful were blinded to the reality that their idols were as fallible and no more worthy of worship than themselves. Fools…one and all…
Gateway Park
Empire City
Spike Staggs was a lost soul following the abduction of Michelle Andretti. His visions had led him to Gateway Park…and to the angel. He had believed that she was the key to finding Michelle. His visions had never failed him before…until that night. He aided the winged woman…the so-called ‘Angel of Empire City’ in rescuing the police detective and fighting off her attackers. He had even given her the ring from his visions…the ring that had healed him and Michelle after they were attacked by Gaia. The angel had won her battle, but in the end, there had been no clue to what had happened to Michelle…and worst of all, there had been no more visions. He hadn’t eaten or slept in days, all he had done was try to find something…anything that would lead him back to the path of the Shadow Thing that had taken Michelle.
He had spent so much time with his head down that he never thought to look up…but once he did, he caught a glimpse of beating wings in the night sky, “…the angel…” he whispered as he saw her descend to a rooftop in the distance. This was the break he was hoping for. This was his chance to see where she was connected to Michelle’s disappearance.
He pulled his hoodie over his head and made his way through the crowd of Superius worshipers who now littered the park like ants at a picnic. While the Demi-God’s return was timely and wondrous…Spike only sought to commune with an angel, one that he hoped would set him back on the path to saving Michelle…
Loeb Building
Gateway Central, Empire City
Anka had been lost in thoughts from ages long past. Her family cut down in front of her…being raped and tortured by the same murdering dogs…dogs that served the Empire…dogs that followed the orders of General Marcus Superius Regulas! No, the great General had not been there on that day, but that made him no less guilty. In her pursuit of him, she had seen the desolation that had been left in his wake as he pacified the savage lands for the glory of Rome. It was a fiction that she would never accept...
“How lucky am I to find myself in the presence of not one, but two gods!”
Anka whirled around just as a figure cloaked in shadow descended to the rooftop, her hands up. Anka watched as the woman who was now labeled as ‘Empire City’s Most Wanted’ approached…the woman she had helped escape the ‘justice’ that Superius had in store for her. Anka turned away, almost dismissively, “Gaia…” casting her gaze back to the statue in the center of the park.
Gaia walked to the edge of the rooftop giving the winged woman a brief, polite smile before turning her gaze towards the statue of Superius. “So it seems, the gods are soon to be at war for Empire City.” The silence hung in the air between them and when Anka didn’t reply, Gaia turned to her and added, “Why? Why did you save me at the capitol? You’re obviously not for my cause.”
Anka kept her eyes on the statue, even as she answered. “No one else can understand what that monster’s return really represents.”
Gaia arched her brow, “Monster?” she turned back to the statue, folding her arms. “I don’t know if I would call him that, not exactly. Perhaps I would call him a fool…an ignorant traitor!”
Gaia’s hatred for Superius was the same that any sibling would feel for another that had turned against his family…because that is how she viewed him; not a God…but a wayward fellow meta. He clamored for the love of the humans…the same humans that would soon hunt and kill her kind. Anka’s hatred of Superius ran back centuries and was steeped in blood. None knew Superius as she knew him…none of them were even born during those dark times. “Call him what you will, but we both know him as our enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Gaia chuckled, “Friends?” She smiled broadly, “I’m friends with an angel…I’ll be damned!” She paused, “Forgive the poor choice of words.”
“I’m no angel” Anka added.
She laughed harder this time. “Tell that to the One God fanatics running around the city! You are all the proof they have ever needed.”
Anka looked at Gaia, not having considered what her own appearance had really meant…
IRONIC…her presence had apparently sparked something of a renewal of faith in the One God in many people, yet in her mind, she was a living, breathing testament to His cruelty…
IRONIC…Superius' return had sparked a renewal of faith in him and in his role as the protector of the city, yet he had founded that city on the blood of murdered innocents…
IRONIC…people put their faith in both of them because they didn't know the truth of their existence, if they had, they would shrink from their faith and abandon it utterly!
Anka turned back to the statute. “People are fools and it will be their undoing.”
A vicious smile touched Gaia’s lips, “I always thought that I would be…but now that you’re here...” Gaia watched Anka, wondering if her veiled threat would register, but the ‘angel’ remained impassive. She chuckled again, shaking her head, “I never put much stock in a God whose entire sales pitch was love me and worship me or be damned. Always sounded like some kind of cosmic asshole attention whore.” Gaia lifted her foot up on the edge of the banister and casually leaned over it. “Tell me something, angel. It's something I've always wondered. If God is so loving…why has He allowed this world to become the cesspool that it is? If He's so great, and so powerful, and so damned mighty…why doesn't He fix things in a blink of an eye? He has the power to end every war, every calamity, every injustice…to give us an actual reason to love Him and put faith in Him. But He doesn't. Why is that, do you think?”
Anka kept silent…a long time ago, she'd learned the answer to that very question and it had devastated her.
When Gaia realized that the ‘angel’ wasn't going to respond, she prodded on, “I think, it's because the truth is that He isn't a loving God. He's a cruel, vindictive God who feeds off our love…and when we do choose to love Him, it's made all the more satisfying because He's made the choice that much more difficult. How great it must be to have a multitude of people putting their faith in you…just for being a huge wanker…” Gaia narrowed her eyes at the statue, “…kind of like someone else we both know…”
Behind them, Spike slowly opened the door to the roof. It swung silently on well-oiled hinges; he was thankful for that. He'd had to telekinetically pick the lock on the door and on a few others in order to gain access. He stepped out into the brisk night air, and froze as he recognized the profile of the woman standing next to the angel. However, there was no great battle going on between them…in fact, they seemed to be talking rather pleasantly. It was a far cry away from his first encounter with the murdering meta terrorist. Spike edged around the door, closing it quietly, and crept behind the brick wall that housed the stairwell, listening in as Gaia pointed towards the park…
“The great man there, Superius…more people put their faith in him thank in your God, for a number of even more trite reasons. I'm sure they're all heralding him as the savior of humanity…but the truth is that he's not even part of it!” She erupted into laughter, “These people…they just don't get that. He had them build this city...and then just disappeared. Of course…that doesn't stop peoples' faith in him remaining so strong that they built a statue of him in his absence. Or going all orgasmic when he decides to just waltz back into everyone's lives.” She abruptly turned and sat down with a sigh on the edge of the roof, as though she didn't want to look at the statue anymore. “Popular myth says that your God created me…just like Superius created Empire City. Let's assume for a minute that is true. I don't know about you…maybe you have a more biased view than I do…but I am of the mind that the creator should not fuck over his creation!”
Anka looked down at the woman sitting next to her. It was eerie how much her feelings resembled her own. She had her own reasons for hating Superius…but in the end, were they really all that different than the reasons she hated God? She started to reach for Gaia's shoulder, but a voice from the shadows startled both of them.
“You forgot to point out something. Whatever else he might have done…Superius gave the people of this city hope. A lot more than you've done for it, Gaia!” Spike emerged from behind the pillar. Anger building in him as he remembered Gaia’s attack on him and Michelle that nearly killed them both. “You killed a lot of people, and hurt a lot more. People look up to Superius because they know he would never do that. He stands for something good, and doesn't just use his powers to benefit himself. You could learn a lot from him.” He gestured towards Anka. “Maybe you're already taking that step…by keeping good company!” Anka started to retort, but she froze as she recognized the man from the battle in Gateway Park. He had been the one that saved her by giving her the ring…he had been the one to lower Brandon and Stacey down to safety. She didn’t know him, but he seemed to have a keen interest in her.
Gaia slowly stood up, facing Spike, smiling as she recognized him, “You’re the bloke from the news…the one with the camera.” She shrugged apologetically, then cocked her head to the side, “You’re a meta…aren’t you? Honestly, had I known, I would have never attacked you brother.” She paused, as her mood darkened, “That being said, you've got some balls implying that I could learn anything from Superius other than how to sit back and do nothing while my brethren are locked up and destroyed!” A luminous black energy began to grow around Gaia's hands as she charged the gravitons around them.
Spike could feel gravity begin to increase around him, just as it had when he first encountered Gaia. “NOT THIS TIME!” Spike yelled as he was ready. He telepathically pushed for all he was worth. Gaia flew backwards as if she had just been hit by a wrecking ball, tumbling off the rooftop end over end. Spike immediately felt the weight come off his shoulders. He ran to Anka, grabbing her arm. “COME ON! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!!”
Anka pulled her arm away from him, “What are you doing?!”
Spike grabbed her arm again, “THAT WOMAN IS A LUNITIC! SHE’S KILLED HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE!”
Anka wrenched herself away from him again, “AND SUPERIUS HAS KILLED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!”
Spike reeled back as if he had been slapped, “I…I never knew…” Spike collapsed heavily to his knees, not from the revelation, but from the power of gravity itself.
Gaia flew up over the edge of the roof, setting foot on it once again. Black energy flowed around her hands, dripping from them like some dense liquid. She glared at Spike grimly. “You will pay for that Superius lover!”
Spike screamed as his body went down hard as gravity slowly worked to crush him. “AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!”
Anka grabbed Gaia’s arm, breaking her concentration, and loosening her hold on Spike. “Remember who the enemy is…you said it yourself!” Anka nodded towards the statue of Superius.
Gaia cut her eyes away for an instant, then back to Spike. “You think this one is any different that Superius? You heard him practically kneeling at the altar a moment ago! Trust me Angel…there is no saving this stray…he must be put down!”
Spike screamed again as Gaia focused her power on him, “ARRGGHHH!”
Anka stood there, frozen for a moment as she watched her new ally crush the man who had helped her in Gateway Park without even knowing who she was. He had acted…out of ignorance, not knowing what kind of person she really was. Could the same not be said of his words of praise towards Superius? “Gaia…”
Gaia roared, “CHOSE A SIDE!”
Anka looked at Spike, his eyes on her, pleading for help…so much like her own had been while Romans cut down her family…murdered her people. There had been no help for her…no help for them. How easy it was to stand back and do nothing…allow those with power to take what they want and do as they please…because they have power…to kill as Superius had done, in the service of a great and self-serving cause…
Gaia screamed, “BITCH!” as she was suddenly blasted into the air at tremendous speed, soaring up so quickly that she was made dizzy from the rapid ascent. She was in the clutches of the Angel as she rose to incredible heights, breaking her hold on her quarry, now far below. Her red locks of hair swirled and buffeted her face, even as she spoke through clenched teeth, “I see you have picked your side after all!”
Anka’s rise slowed, then stopped, both her and Gaia seemed to be bathed in her black energy field as gravity multiplied and then multiplied again. Down they plunged, spinning wildly out of control, the two of them locked in a death grip with one another. Anka shook Gaia, “REMEMBER WHO THE ENEMY IS!!”
Gaia’s retort is more like a hiss, “…anyone who sides against me…” Gaia kicked away as she nullified the graviton field. She stopped her descent almost instantly, but Anka plunged off wildly, hurdling into the side of a nearby office building, her body carving a path of destruction down its side as it ripped through the massive plate glass windows. Gaia watched the carnage in a mixture of excitement and regret. She shrugged, “Too bad…I was starting to like her.” She turned her attention back to the Loeb Building, a long wry smile creeping across her lips, “Now…where was I?” She headed back over to finish what she started.
Spike staggered to his feet, holding his sides. It felt like every rib he had was shattered into a million pieces. He stumbled towards the door, trying to make it to safety. His gambit had not paid off, he had not anticipated the presence of Gaia…Empire City’s greatest threat. As he reached for the door, he heard the cracking of the bricks and he stumbled back as the entire wall collapsed under its own augmented weight. Spike hit the ground and pain exploded inside him like a bomb from his wounds.
He managed to look up as Gaia descended to the roof with a maniacal look on her face.
Gaia laughed, “All that faith you put into Superius…well, I don’t think it’s going to save you now. Sorry…NOT SORRY!” Gaia raised her hands as the energy seemed to drip from her hands like liquid death. “This time…I bring the entire house down, what do you say?”
Spike felt the building shudder underneath him and he knew that there would be no escape this time. He tried projecting his own power to hurl the fallen bricks at her, but he could barely make them tremble in his damaged state. He heard the foundation cracking and windows shattering and blowing out all along the side of the building. This was the end…and in his last moments he only thought of his failure to save Michelle…
Everything shuttered, then stopped as Gaia was sent into the side of the ruined brick wall by a charging Anka. She slammed Gaia into the weakened structure and it toppled around them as they fell through the uppermost floor and landed in the stairwell below. Anka’s massive wings blossomed out and shielded them from the partial collapse. Anka slammed Gaia to the floor repeatedly, “STOP THIS! STOP IT NOW!”
Gaia glared at her, even as she raised her hands, concentrating her power once more, “You lack the conviction it will take to kill someone with the power of Superius! Are you willing to kill those who are loyal to him…are you willing to sacrifice anything…EVERYTHING?!”
Anka’s thoughts turned back centuries to the time when she had done just that. She had slain his men…she was moments away from confronting the great General herself…but then…compassion for another had stayed her hand. It was Arella…she had chosen to save a young girl from the same fate she herself had suffered, and in that act…Superius had been allowed to live…he had been allowed to go on and murder hundreds of thousands. Her hands loosened from Gaia, the woman’s words cutting right through her.
With a great burst, Anka blasted upwards, back through the hole in the roof, landing on the edge as she looked down at Spike. He rolled over, gulping for air as dust clouded the area. He reached out to her, “H-Help…please…” He fell back a he saw Gaia rise out of the ruin behind her.
Anka turned to face Gaia, but she greeted her with a smile. “I owe you one Angel…so here it is.” She looked over at the statue of Superius in the distance, then back to Anka. “And for the record…I do remember who the enemy is.” She looked down at Spike. “It’s the rest of the pissants that need to learn!” She wiped a trickle of blood from her lip and rose up into the distance. “We’re even…friend…”
Anka stood there for a moment, watching Gaia go, then turned to Spike as he held his sides, coughing and wheezing. Anka walked over and knelt beside him, taking him by his hand as the ring she wore worked to repair his injuries. After a few moments, she stood up. “The next time you decide you need help…call the fucking police.” Anka took off, arcing off in the opposite direction as Gaia.
Spike got slowly to his feet, he might have been healed, but his body still hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. He started to head to the ruined exit, when suddenly a vision came to him, knocking him to his knees…
Fire…a roaring fire! Flames all around! A man…A BURNING MAN!
Alarms ringing…a vault…people screaming…money littering the floor…A BANK!
A woman…a policewoman…the one from Gateway Park…STACEY JORDAN!
Wings beating…flapping…burning…THE ANGEL!
Darkness…shadows…THE SHADOW…Michelle…?
Spike shook his head as he tried to make sense of it. Michelle…surrounded in shadows? The Shadow Thing had Michelle…but where? A bank? Which one? How would he find it? “Stacey Jordan…” The police detective…she was the key…she would help her find Michelle. The Angel had put him back on the path…and at least for that, he was thankful.
He struggled to this feet and looked out over the edge of the massive hole in the roof of the Loeb Building, scratching his head. If only his vision had showed him how he was going to get down from the roof of this building…
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Gaia … Kate Steele
Spike Staggs … R.C. Tucker
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Pedos Candy
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 18:48:21 GMT -5
Chapter XIV: The Approaching Darkness…
Madison District Police Station
Empire City
Spike Staggs felt like his body had been hit by a truck after the battle with Gaia. Had it not been for the intervention of the so-called ‘Angel of Empire City’ he would not be here. He had nearly been killed by the meta terrorist, but his gambit to get back on the path to finding Michelle had paid off in the form of a vision that had led him to the Empire City Police Department and a detective…one which he was very familiar with. He had been the one to save her and the priest in Gateway Park several days ago, using his abilities to lower them safety to the ground from the top of the statute of Superius. He had done this from the shadows, which was ironic because he now came to her for help in finding a shadow…a Shadow entity that had taken Michelle, right in front of him.
Spike walked into the precinct and made his way to the Desk Sergeant, “I need to speak with Detective Jordan…RIGHT NOW!”
Sergeant Bradski stared at the man and gave a mild arch of his brow, “Do you have an appointment?” He scanned through his appointment book, not really even looking for a name. “I don’t see one! You’d best be calming yourself down and telling me what your problem is buddy!”
Spike picked up a pen off of the desk of the officer, and wrote his name on the book and gave the Desk Sergeant a weary look, “Officer…I need to speak with the detective…pretty please!”
Officer Bradski was never one to placate anyone, especially some hippy punk with an attitude like this guy, but there was something strange about him. Lately Jordan had been specializing in strange. Bradski snickered to himself as he looked at the book, “WOW! Look…there is your name right there…Spunk Skanks!” He buzzed the door to the back, allowing Spike to open it. “Why don’t you just show yourself back? Second door on the right Mr. Skanks, she’ll call you when she’s ready for you.”
Spike’s jaw clinched as he turned toward the opened door and paced down the hallway, wringing his hands as he tried to calm himself. He didn’t know what he’d say to her, but he knew she was part of his vision and he would need her help to find Michelle.
After a few minutes, Stacey stepped outside of her office, “Mr. Spunk Skanks?”
Spike stood up, “Spike Staggs…”
She rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, "...fucking Bradski..." waving for him to come into her office. She took a seat behind her desk, gesturing for him to take a seat. “How can I help you Mr. Staggs?”
Spike sighed, still trying to sort out what to say and not sound like a crazy person, “Well…Detective. A friend of mine…a very dear friend has disappeared. She was kidnapped…”
Stacey nodded, “Mr. Staggs, you have a missing person complaint…they can take a statement from you up front.”
Spike shook his head, “She was taken…by a shadow…a Shadow person...thing...something.” When she started to respond, he held up his hands. “I know this sounds crazy…but listen to me, I know that you can help me…you have to help me. You owe me.”
Stacey stared at him for a moment or two, lacing her fingers, “Mr. Staggs…I haven’t had a good laugh in days, that is the only reason I’m not tossing you out of my office right now.” Stacey narrowed her eyes as she watched him carefully. “Tell me…how do you think I owe you?”
Spike sat forward, “Gateway Park…I was there…I helped you…you and the priest. Now I need your help.”
Stacey folded her arms, “REALLY?! ONE GOD NONSENSE?!” She got to her feet, “I’m going to murder Bradski!”
Spike turned his attention to the waste basket beside Stacey’s desk and focused his power as he levitated the stuffed angel out of the can, moving it right in front of the startled detective’s face. “I don’t really know how much God has to do with it…but I know that you can help me find Michelle.”
Stacey snatched the angel, which had been left in her office as a joke, out of the air. Her thoughts turned back to that night in Gateway Park. Brandon had been so quick to attribute their rescue to God that he never bothered to consider that their rescue had not been divine at all. Anka was no angel…and now Stacey was even more certain of that fact. Stacey sat on the edge of her desk, her eyes on Spike. “Well…I guess I do owe you after all. I’ll open an investigation Mr. Staggs, but I’m going to need to know everything that you know! Everything about the person you think took her…as well as everything there is to know about Michelle…”
Spike started to speak, then his eyes drifted to the monitor that was mounted on her wall and his mouth fell open, “Michelle…?” He jumped to his feet and ran over to the monitor, fumbling to turn up the volume on the news broadcast…
“Hello, I am Michelle Andretti, for Channel 8 News. With the recent appearance of an ‘alleged’ angel in Empire City, the believers in the One God faith have been flocking together in an attempt to rebuild their crumbling religion. All of this comes at a time when a TRUE god…Superius returned to Empire City and saved us all from a meta insurgency that threatened to destroy our way of life.
Eyewitnesses reportedly observed ‘The Angel of Empire City’ in conflict with the leader of that insurgency; Gaia, near the Loeb Building just days ago. Inexplicably, the meta terrorist was allowed her to escape. This doesn’t sound like the actions of a divine being with the best interests of humanity at heart.
I am inviting Superius and ‘The Angel’ to come and address the people directly at Caesars Colosseum tomorrow at noon. The people you would have worship you, wish to hear you both speak. Tell us why you're here...tell us what you want.”
As the television spot ended, Spike turned and looked at Stacey. “I don’t know what’s happening…”
Stacey smirked, “I’m closing your case…that’s what’s happening.”
Spike shook his head, “Detective…believe me…that wasn’t Michelle.” He headed to the door, “WE NEED TO GET TO THE STATION!”
She grabbed his arm, “Whoa! Slow your roll! What makes you think that wasn’t her? I mean, you recognized her, so it obviously looked and sounded like her.”
Spike was frantic, “SHE WAS TAKEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! SHE WOULD HAVE CALLED…SOMETHING…ANYTHING!”
Stacey shook him, “Mr. Staggs…over the past few days, I have seen some pretty amazing shit…so, yeah…maybe what you’re saying is true, but I can’t exactly open a missing persons case on a person that the entire city just saw on television! They will lock both of our asses up the loony bin!”
Spike ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to puzzle out his next move. “Okay…will you come with me to find and talk to her then? Just that…nothing more…please!”
Stacey nodded, more out of a sense of obligation to him for saving her life than anything else. “Tomorrow...at noon, we know right where she'll be. I will meet you there, and we'll talk to her...together.”
Spike wasn't pleased that they weren't going right away, but he understood. She wasn't missing...but, something was certainly wrong. He nodded, "Fine...tomorrow." He walked to the door, then paused as he looked back, "Thank you Detective." He walked out, leaving her alone in her office.
Stacey walked over to her desk and plopped down in her seat. She had no idea what she’d find…but it couldn’t be any weirder than the shit she was already dealing with. She glanced at the large board that hung in her office with pictures of her rescue…of her Meta-human abductors…and blurry pictures of Anka. While she was prepared to help Spike...she couldn't help but to be eager to see if Anka actually showed up tomorrow. If and when she did...Stacey planned on being there...
The Ruins of Madison Chapel
Empire City
He braced himself against the cold as he watched the many volunteers who had come to help rebuild the church…bigger and better than ever. Even though all of Empire City had been on the brink, things now seemed to be looking up and he had Anka to thank for that. She had claimed that she was no angel…but he begged to differ.
He blew into his cupped hands to warm them as he walked over to the huge group of workers and patted each of them on the shoulder and thanked them for their help before sending them home for the night. As he waited for the last of them to leave, he turned back and took one last look at what would soon be the new chapel building.
Brandon started to leave, when he noticed movement inside the building. He thought that he had told everyone to leave, but apparently not everyone had gotten the message. He opened the door and walked inside. “I’m very sorry… but I thought that I had let everyone know that…” Brandon paused as he realized just who it was left standing inside the church.
Anka stood at the head of the aisle, her neck craned upwards as she stared at the massive cross hanging behind the altar. Without even acknowledging Brandon’s presence, she started to speak. “You know…after what happened to Jesus…I seriously doubt that a cross is the first thing he wants to see when he comes back here…”
Brandon laughed. “It’s the whole thing about beating swords into plowshares. What was once a symbol of torture and death is now a symbol of hope…faith…love.”
Anka wanted to laugh. Unlike everyone else who walked around dangling crosses off their necks, she had actually done the dangling herself...crucified by Romans and left on a cross for 6 long days. No matter how much Brandon sugar-coated it, there was no way in hell that it would ever symbolize hope, faith, or love to her. She turned to him, her dark hair falling into her eyes as she did. “I don’t think that Jesus would care to be hung from a plowshare either.”
Brandon attempted to correct her, “Well… that’s not really what I mea…”
She walked past him, ignoring his response as she sat down in one of the pews. She never looked at him as she spoke. “You know…they say that it’s wrong to hate…it rots the soul…” She finally looked up at him, her eyes large and luminescent in the darkened church.
Brandon sat down next to her. “Well…we’re human and humans sometimes hate. Especially what they don’t understand.” He sighed. “It’s a part of our nature that I’m not proud of, but we all have to make a conscious effort to love our neighbor.”
“…no matter their sin…?” Anka added, her eyes boring into him.
Brandon paused as he looked at her, wishing that he could penetrate her thoughts. “No matter their sins…” he put his hand on her shoulder, “…love is the driving force that makes us all complete…that solidifies our bond with one another…and with God.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away. “I haven’t loved anyone…or anything…for longer than I care to remember.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “And as it turns out…I can remember quite a long ways back.”
Brandon could see that her memories were painful to her, but he couldn’t conceal his curiosity. She had seen things that he had only read about…dreamed about! She had been touched by the hand of God and given long life…for a purpose. She may not have realized it…but he did. “Anka…this is about Superius. You’re troubled by his return.”
Anka spoke this bared teeth, “I’m troubled by his existence Father!” She narrowed her eyes, “Need I remind you of how that bastard murdered my family!”
Brandon knelt down in front of her, “I recall you telling me of how your family died…but…Superius was not the man responsible, he…”
“HE WAS THEIR GENERAL…HE WAS ROME!” She roared in response. “Perhaps…the blood of my family doesn’t stain his hands, but the blood of thousands like me do! He is no hero…he’s evil!”
Brandon never thought he’d find himself defending Superius. He had spent years denouncing the memory of the supposed God, but never had he thought of the General as evil. He reached over and touched Anka’s shoulder, “Trust that God will judge him when his time comes.”
Anka stared at Brandon, the wheels inside her head turning. Until now, she had thought that her ‘mission’ had been to protect Brandon, which she had done…but what if that was only half of her mission? The return of Superius stood in direct opposition to the recent resurgence of the One God faith. If Anka knew anything at all, God was jealous and vindictive…as much as she despised Him, He probably despised Superius just as much. I along slow smile spread across Anka’s face, “Yes…when his time comes.”
Brandon didn’t like the look on her face, but at least it was a smile. He patted her on her shoulder, “Come Anka…have dinner with me. Let’s talk about happy things. Tell me about your family.”
Anka nodded as she stood, following Brandon. She would tell him all that she could remember about her family…but she would never stop thinking about how they had been slaughtered…or how she would find a way to revisit that horror on the great General Superius…
Maybe that she would do it tomorrow in front of the entire city...with or without the assistance of Gaia…
EPISODE CREDITSCAST (In order of appearance)Spike Staggs … R.C. Tucker
Officer Bradski … Todd Berryman
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Michelle Andretti ... Delia Darling
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 18:54:41 GMT -5
Chapter XVI: The Eyes of an Angel…
Stacey Jordan’s Condo
Madison District, Empire City
Detective Stacey Jordan had never considered herself to be a particularly spiritual person. In her mind…she was more of a realist. She believed only in what was right in front of her face…and what she knew to be true by experience. This is not to say that she got caught up in the same fervor that gripped so many others who flocked to worship the Supers…the Metas…or whatever the hell they were being called these days. She never much bothered to think about what happened when we died. So long as we were the best we could be while we were here…the rest would take care of itself. She never passed judgment on those who believed otherwise…well…not until it had an impact on her personally.
Six years in the military…and then five years with ECPD. She had been on the fast track to success, rising to Detective in near record time. It seemed that she had everything figured out…everything except her personal life. Truth be told, when you spend all of your time focusing on your career, having anything outside it takes a backseat…for a while at least.
Stacey had developed a hardnosed reputation at the station. They called her names like ‘Ice Princess’ and ‘Robo Bitch’…not that it much mattered to her. She did her job well and at the end of the day, no one could argue with results. Besides, what did she care about what people said anyway? Most of the men she worked with were certified assholes who only wanted to get into her pants. There wasn’t a single interesting brain cell between them…coupled with the fact that inter-station dating was pretty much taboo. All the same, there was at least one officer there that caught her eye and tickled her fancy, and that man was her mentor on the force…a man by the name of Brandon Knight.
Lieutenant Brandon Knight had been a legend in the force before Stacey ever joined. He busted drug rings, collared bank robbers, and rooted out killers like no one had before. Add in the fact that he wasn’t half bad looking and you had the perfect cop…strike that…the perfect man. He was the cats meow but he never let it go to his head. Women threw themselves at him, but he was never unprofessional with them…and yet…he never got a rash of shit from the guys when he didn’t take advantage.
One of the perks of having a penis she supposed…men got away with everything…
Be that as it may, she did her best to NOT count herself among his many admirers, though she was quite likely his most ardent devotee. When she had the chance to work with him on an important case, just prior to her promotion to Detective, she was on Cloud Nine. She did her best to hide her affinity for him while she learned all that she could…but attraction always finds a way…especially when it’s mutual.
When their relationship started up it was something that neither of them were proud of since the rules were clear on such things. Maybe that heightened the attraction…the whole forbidden fruit thing. All the same, for the first time in a long time Stacey found a reason to live beyond what she did on the job and she was happier than she had ever been before in her entire life…for a while at least.
Life can be cruel sometimes. It gives us what we most desire…even when we don’t know what it is that we truly want. Then in a flash…it’s taken away. For a long time she wondered if there was anything that she could have done to change what happened, but in the end she knew that there wasn’t.
Brandon was on another one of his high profile cases, hot on the heels of serial killer who was terrorizing the whole of Empire City. No one ever questioned if Brandon would catch him…only when he’d finally get him. Get him, he finally did, but the cost that was paid on that day was a hell of a lot higher than anyone would have wanted to pay…especially Stacey.
The Butcher is what they called him. His trademark was leaving his victims looking like so much meat from the slaughterhouse. It was Brandon who first made the connection that the cuts were too precise for someone who wasn’t schooled in the ‘art’ of butchering animals. It was Brandon who found the first bits of evidence that led to the Butcher’s identity. However, it was Stacey who trapped and cornered the Butcher…finally bringing an end to his reign of fear. The irony of it all? The Butcher wasn’t quite what and who everyone thought he was.
The entire ordeal ended when Brandon and Stacey got a hot lead on the Butcher’s location and they were there to nab him before he could hurt anyone else. The plan was to isolate him from anyone else who was there and then take him alive…but like the best laid plans, they rarely go down without a hitch.
From the outset the situation was bad. They found the location and the Butcher was there, but he wasn’t alone. There was a young girl there and the maniac was actually carving her up right there before their very eyes. The two officers moved right in, foregoing the formality of back-up as they quickly took down the madman. Brandon put a bullet in his brain, even as he sliced up the young girl on the table in front of him. The screaming girl couldn’t be consoled…and who could rightly fault her for it? However, to this very day the sounds of the girl’s screams should have clued Stacey to what was really happening…but it didn’t…not until it was too late…much too late.
The image still haunts her to this day. Brandon carrying the raving and bloodied girl from the room…leaving Stacey to secure the crime scene. Something wasn’t right and she saw it right away, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Perhaps if she did things would have turned out differently, but who could really say.
The Butcher had made a habit of using particular instruments, but none of them were present here. Scalpels…ice picks…razor blades. Nothing like they expected. She looked down at the Butcher and something curious caught her eye. Blood underneath his shirt and not on it…not from the head wound that had did him in. Slowly she pulled up his shirt and her eyes grew wide with surprise. The Butcher had been carved up himself… and not in anyway that he could have done himself. Images of his past victims in old scar tissue, the most recent, freshly carved. The realization came to her all at once and her mouth fell open as she screamed…
“BRANDON!!!”
She ran outside the room and it was as if she were in a dream. The faster she ran, the slower she felt. As she rounded the corner, what she saw made her heart stop. Brandon was down and blood was everywhere…the young girl kneeling over him, a razor sharp scalpel jammed deep in his neck. It happened in slow motion as she saw it. Brandon struggling to hold the girl’s hands at bay…her struggling to slice him even deeper…assuming she had not cut deeply enough already. Stacey raised her gun as she yelled for her to stop…
She turned and looked at her…a young girl…the face of a killer…
Turning back to her dark purpose, she pushed for all she was worth…driving the gleaming instrument into the man she loved…
She didn’t hear the shots…she didn’t feel the recoil of her service weapon…but she did see the girl pitch upward as round after round hit her…five in all…three more missing the mark and hitting the wall behind her.
Stacey rushed to Brandon’s side, his neck was a bloody mess. It spurted out in a great fount and she knew at that moment that she would lose him…she just didn’t know how long it would take. As she held her hand over his wound, he looked at the young girl lying on the floor beside them…her blood mingling with his…her large dark eyes unblinking…
Within minutes an ambulance was there and the paramedics were working hard to save Brandon…but they worked even harder to save the young girl who had miraculously survived, despite Stacey’s best efforts. Both of them were saved and the story was front-page news for weeks…months even.
The story was an incredible one. The Butcher was actually a father and adopted daughter…Robert Parr and Mai Lin. Robert was an actual butcher with a criminal record, a history of violence and abuse. Mai Lin was a child, alleged to have been abused and molested since the age of thirteen, then eventually dragged down into her step-father’s twisted web of torture and murder.
Stacey was by Brandon’s side during her every waking moment. The oddity? He was by Mai Lin’s bedside during his every waking moment. At first, Stacey thought it was sweet of him…but it soon became an annoyance to her. He was obsessing over the welfare of that girl. He made it his mission to save her…not physically…but emotionally and spiritually. He sat and prayed with her…prayed for her…prayed over her until she breathed her last breath. It was then that Brandon turned fully to the ‘One God’ religion…and it was then that he turned away from her.
Was that really right? Did he turn away from her? More aptly…he had found God and she just couldn’t compete with Him. He had saved Mai Lin and he had found God…but he had lost Stacey. She never understood it and she never forgave him, though she never stopped loving him either.
Seeing him again had brought back memories and feelings that she thought were long gone…especially her hatred of the ‘One God’ faith…
Hatred was a strong word…but her feelings were equally strong on the subject…
Nothing had changed her mind, not even the events in Gateway Park several weeks ago and her encounter with ‘The Angel of Empire City’ and the divine hand of God that had lowered her to safety. She had found out the truth about that little incident…the divine hand of God had not saved her, it had been a Meta by the name of Spike Staggs with the uncanny ability to move things with his mind. How she wanted to scream to Brandon and the rest of the world what she had learned, but she knew that they wouldn’t listen, especially with a so-called angel there to bolster their claims. She had said it before and she’d say it again that woman…Anka Jarius…or whatever she called herself…was no angel. She had a feel for people and there was nothing divine about her, something familiar, but nothing divine. Anka reminded her of Mai Lin. She didn’t know what it was…but it was something and it nagged at her terribly.
She worried about Brandon’s safety but he wasn’t the only person here in Empire City that needed saving. There was another…the woman that Spike Staggs had come to her seeking her help to find…Michelle Andretti.
Through the wonders of premonition and stupid luck…they had found out that Michelle Andretti…or more precisely, according to Spike, the Shadow Thing that was pretending to be her would be at Caesars Colosseum at noon. Spike had not been happy about waiting to until the next day, but he had agreed, yet that didn’t ease her feelings that something bad was coming. She had learned to trust her feelings and as the time grew nearer she grew more uneasy.
Stacey checked the time and grabbed her badge and gun. She would meet Spike and together they would try to talk to Michelle. As she walked to the door and opened it, she nearly ran head long into Brandon Knight. For a moment she just stood there and stared at him. It was odd to see him here after she had just spent so much time thinking about him. At once…all of those old feelings came rushing back. On one hand, she wanted to throw her arms around him and on the other…she wanted to punch him in the face and curse him seven ways from Sunday. It was the realization that he was not alone that snapped her out of her own thought processes.
Her eyes focused on the petite woman with who was with him.
Her light complexion stood in sharp contrast to her large dark eyes…eyes that looked like gleaming pools…eyes that had seen too much evil, just like Mai Lin. Stacey put on her best fake smile as she greeted them. “Brandon…and Ms. Jarius…sans the wings I see. Are they a seasonal thing?”
Anka smiled, but didn’t answer. Instead, Brandon was the one to speak up. “Stacey, did we catch you at a bad time? Anka and I were hoping to sit down and talk to you about a few things…apologize to you about not telling you everything after the fire.”
Stacey waved him off. “Ohhh!! The whole thing with the two crazy bitches who tried to blow my ass all over Gateway Park? Noooo!! That is totally forgotten! Think nothing of it!!” She slammed and locked her door behind her. She glared at Anka. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Caesars? You and Superius addressing the masses?” She narrowed her eyes, “Don’t tell me you’re planning on not showing up!”
Anka’s face remained placid, but underneath she was still seething over the return of Empire City’s savior and founding father. Indeed, she was going to Caesars…but she wasn’t going to speak to the masses…she was going to hopefully confront and then kill Superius. Perhaps, maybe that would finally put an end to her suffering on earth.
Stacey rolled her eyes, “You know, you’re not very talkative. Maybe you shouldn’t go to Caesars. Now! If you’ll excuse me…I have somewhere to go!”
Brandon chased after Stacey and grabbed her by her arm. “HEY! Wait a minute!! What’s going on here? What’s wrong?”
Stacey looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Brandon, police work is going on! Remember what that was?” She looked over at Anka, then back to him. “Why don’t you just run along and play with your little angel…and leave the police work to me…okay?!!”
She turned and walked off as Brandon stood there watching her leave. Anka walked beside him. “What a bitch.”
Brandon stared at Anka for a moment, then shook his head. “No…something is really wrong.” He looked at her. “Maybe you should follow her.”
Anka immediately became defensive, “She’s your friend…you follow her!”
Brandon raised his brow curiously. Then turned his attention to Stacey, watching her get into her car. “All the same… I think you should follow her…” He turned to her. “…as a favor for me…”
Anka groaned. That was just it wasn’t it? For him…which really might have meant…for ‘HIM!’ She sighed as her wings reappeared and she folded her arms and stared at him. “FINE! I’ll go chasing after her…but after this…no more! I have other responsibilities, and they don’t all concern your girlfriend, okay?!”
She didn’t wait for a reply as she rose into the air and followed in pursuit of Detective Jordan yet again. Looking after Brandon Knight was becoming quite a choir…one that was being more of an annoyance by the day! The best part about this whole thing was that Stacey was heading right to Caesars…and that meant right to Superius!
Anka could only hope that Gaia would be there as well…but if not…she’d find a way to kill him on her own!
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Father Brandon Knight … Ace Watson
Robert Parr … Jack Lance
Mai Lin (Arella) … Orchid
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
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Post by Publicist on Jun 4, 2017 19:41:42 GMT -5
Chapter XVII: Everyone Has Their Own Agenda
Argos Square
Downtown, Empire City
Stacey grumbled to herself as she drove to pick up Spike Staggs, still unsettled by her earlier meeting with Brandon and Anka; “Brandon had some nerve to bring that shifty-eyed bitch to my home! I’ve been a cop for a loooooong time…and I know when someone is a little bit off. Little Miss. Anka Jarius…aka Angel of Empire City…is more than a little bit off…A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN JUST OFF!” Stacey smirked, disgusted with herself for her own self commentary, but she continued on all the same; “As much as I care for Brandon…the fucking jerk-ass idiot that he is…I’m not going to hold his damn hand and lead him to water so he can drink. Brandon use to have a feeling for shit like this!” Of course, that was a long time ago when he was a badge-carrying member of ECPD. Now it seemed that he was a religious nutcase, preaching rhetoric…hardly the man she remembered.
She pounded the steering wheel, upset with herself. How she wanted to tell him how Spike had helped him in Gateway Park! It wasn’t the mysterious hand of ‘God’ like everyone was saying. To just shit all over his beliefs…that would give her a great deal of pleasure, but that wouldn’t be because it’s the right thing to do, it would have just been petty revenge. Revenge for him deserting the department…but mainly for him deserting her. It was selfish… “…fuck it…”
She pulled up to the address that Spike had given her and true to form, he was standing there rubbing his hands together in eager anticipation. She stretched over and kicked open the passenger side door. “Your chariot awaits Romeo. Let’s go talk to your girlfriend.”
Spike jumped in the car, closing the door behind him. “She’s not my girlfriend.” He watched as Stacey pulled out her pistol, checked the clip, then slammed the magazine back home, as she racked the slide, then put it away. He nodded, “I’m glad to see that you are taking this seriously Detective. That thing…whatever it is…it isn’t Michelle.”
Stacey eyed Spike, “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt in checking out Ms. Andretti. I’m not convinced yet…but I owe you.” She shrugged, “I tried pulling a few strings to see if we could talk to her before the Town Hall, but I got denied. We’ll have to see her afterwards.”
Spike pounded his fist on the dashboard. “SOMETHING IS WRONG! I CAN FEEL IT…I’VE SEEN IT!” Spike thought back to his vision…it had never steered him wrong. Something was going to happen today…and this was his chance to save her.
Stacey glared at him, “Take it easy on my car Staggs!” She patted her steering wheel gently, smiling to herself at the irony after she had pounded on it in anger earlier. She hit the accelerator, peeling out and headed towards the downtown area. She didn’t know what they were going to encounter, but whatever it was…she planned on being ready for it…
As the car angled towards the massive coliseum, a shadow passed behind them, accompanied by the beating of wings.
Caesars Coliseum
Downtown, Empire City
The production assistant stuck her head into Michelle Andretti’s dressing room, her head was beading with nervous sweat, “There are like THOUSANDS of people out there…damn near the entire city! DON’T GET NERVOUS, FOR GODS SAKE!”
Michelle turned in her chair and eyed the shaking woman, “You worry about the broadcast to the people who didn’t come out, and I will worry about the ones that did.” She cocked her head to the side, “Any word from Superius or the Angel?”
The woman shook her head. “No…but they wouldn’t miss this chance to speak to the people, would they?”
Michelle turned away as she replied, “The gods can be rather fickle at times. Let's hope today is not one of those times.”
The woman nodded glumly, “We will have everything in place for you Ms. Andretti. The rest will be in the hands of the gods I guess.” She closed the door, seemingly leaving Michelle alone.
Michelle arched her back and the shadows that once filled the room receded, seeming to retreat into her body as they revealed Arella as she stood in the corner. She stepped forward, “Don’t worry about the demi-god, Superius is too vain not to show up.” She shrugged, “As for my mother…I know of her hatred of Superius. When we first met, she was consumed by it. If and when she shows…it won’t take more than a little push in the right direction, and the Angel of Empire City will reveal herself to be no angel at all. The One God religion will wither on the vine and die…and our contract with the humans will be fulfilled.” Arella stared at the thing inhabiting Michelle Andretti’s body as it continued to absently play with her ring finger. Arella grabbed her arm, “Tell me you are not continuing to obsess over that ring! We are too close for distractions!”
She looked at Arella, her face darkening with her mood, “I will not be distracted! You have promised us power. Once the deed is done…I will have even more power than before.” She turned back, still absently touching her hand. “I will goad the Angel into revealing the hatred inside her…and once that is done, we will destroy her.”
Arella looked away, “Once it is done…yes…once it is done.”
Minutes later, Spike stood beside the detective as he watched Michelle come out and a massive cheer went up from the crowd. Their adulation didn’t register as he was too busy measuring the woman’s every move. Everything inside him screamed that something was wrong. She looked and sounded like Michelle, but she wasn’t Michelle…at least not anymore. As soon as this farce was over…he would get to the bottom of this game, once and for all.
Stacey put her hand on his shoulder, “As soon as this is over…we will speak with her. I have already cleared it.”
Her words were cold comfort to him. His visions had shown him that there would be a fight before this was all said and done, and with so many innocents around…causalities would be unavoidable. All Spike could hope to do is to limit the damage.
Stacey’s keen eyes roamed the crowd, searching for any sign of trouble. With so many people here it was a near certainty that something would go wrong, she only hoped that she would be able to spot trouble before it was too late. As she peered out over the masses, she saw something that looked out of the ordinary. A single person in a crowd of hundreds, but this one person seemed more interested in the others around her than the stage. Stacey started to call for uniformed officers to check the person out, until the person turned and she recognized her as Grace Sloan…Agent Grace Sloan. The same mysterious woman who had come to her office in an attempt to recruit her into her equally mysterious organization, The Agency. Stacey wrestled with the thought of having her checked out anyway, but she finally decided against it…opting instead to keep her eye on the woman instead. Agent or not…she still didn’t completely trust the woman or her claim of them being the ‘good guys.’
Up on stage, Michelle took her place behind the podium as she checked the time. Almost as if on cue, the crowd came alive and began to part as the mighty Superius walked into the coliseum. The people parted before him as he strode amongst them in his gleaming armor, then came back together in his wake, reaching out to touch his billowing red cloak. Many citizens collapsed to their knees in reverence as the demi-god passed and made his way to the stage.
Michelle smiled as she announced to the crowd, “People of Empire City…our General and Lord Protector…our god...SUPERIUS!”
The General bowed his head as the crowd roared his name in adulation. After several minutes, he was forced to raise his hand to quiet them. “People of Empire City…I am honored and humbled by your cheers, however that is not the purpose for my return or my presence before you today. I…”
Before he could finish, a gasp arose from the masses as the crowd looked into the sky, several proclaiming; “LOOK! IT’S THE ANGEL!” Anka’s massive wings stretched out as she descended to the stage, landing just opposite of Superius.
The crowd was a living, breathing thing as they pulsed with reverence over the two symbols of the divine on the same stage. Michelle smiled as she looked at Anka…the dark entity inside her seemed to sense the malice inside the winged woman, just as Arella had said it would be. All she had to do was bring her volcanic anger bubbling to the surface. Once the whole of Empire City saw it’s ‘Angel’s’ petty human jealousy, the One God churches would be finished. Michelle clapped her hands, “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE ANGEL OF EMPIRE CITY!”
Anka cast a quick glance out over the massive crowd…a thousand thousand eyes upon her…sheep…all of them. Her stomach churned at the thought of them all hanging on Superius’ every word for hope…a savage…a dictator…a rapist…a murderer. Her wings bristled and she turned her attention fully to the eyes of the man…the monster…she wanted to destroy, he was Rome…he was her enemy and maybe her ticket into eternity. Perhaps Superius himself had not been the one to murder her people, but it was him who allowed Rome to survive and expand its murderous influence over the world, when it should have collapsed under its own bloated weight.
Michelle couldn’t have looked more pleased as their plan was coming together. The angel was here, just as Arella had said she would be, and now…all she had to do was play on her emotions and get her to reveal her less than divine nature. “People of Empire City…today is a glorious day! Your god and Lord High Protector has come…THE MIGHTY HERO AND CONQUER OF EVIL, SUPERIUS!” The crowd roared and cheered with sound that rumbled like thunder. She turned to Anka, “Then we have the Angel…a herald of the so-called One God…” she paused, “…what do we even call you?”
Anka opened her mouth and almost told the world her birth name…but at the last moment, she decided against it. Of course, only the most astute would recognize her father’s name from the biblical texts…Jairus. Instead, she decided to call herself by another name…one she felt was far more appropriate. Just as God had cursed her…she would be known as a curse; “Hexx…” The name reverberated through the crowd, some spoke the name in surprise and others in reverence. Anka didn’t care in the least, her focus was still on Superius…and his was on her.
Michelle spoke up, “Well, that is certainly…”
Superius cut her off, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Tell me angel…Hexx, is it? You claim to come from the heavens above. What is your purpose here…among my people?”
Michelle couldn’t help but to smile as Superius was beginning to do the work for her. She turned to the winged woman, as the rest of the citizens of Empire City did, waiting for her answer.
Anka was at war inside herself. Her fierce anger towards Superius was reaching a boiling point…it took all that she had not to fly across the stage and bash his smug face in. She knotted her fists at her sides instead, “General…I have never made any claims of divinity.” Her wings flared behind her, ever so slightly, making her point for her, without her giving voice to it. “As for my purpose…I have come to open the eyes of the people…not YOUR people, but THE people.”
A crowd grew silent, but for a ripple of tension that seemed to fester. Superius stood a bit straighter at the not so veiled insult. “The people of this city are MY people! I have nurtured and protected them! That has always been my purpose…it always will be.”
Anka narrowed her eyes, “Tell me this, Lord High Protector…who gave you dominion over those you considered to be the lesser peoples of the world? You remember them, don’t you General? I remember them! The people you crushed and ground to dust…upon which you built your magnificent city!” She gestured around her, then turned her attention back to him. “Perhaps you are a god…to those who would rape and pillage innocent people in the name of Rome!”
A gasp went up from the crowd as she spoke with open disrespect to the demi-god. Superius himself seemed unnerved, “You talk madness! I helped to forge this city from nothing!”
Anka could take no more as she screamed at him, “YOU FORGED THIS CITY ON THE BONES OF THOSE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE IN YOU AND YOUR WORTHLESS GODS!”
Michelle covered her mouth just as most of the crowd did, but she covered her mouth to hide the broad smile across her face. The Angel was on the verge of revealing the truth of who and what she was to the entire city…just as they had planned.
Superius stepped towards Anka, ready to confront her nose to nose, “HOW DARE YOU, I…”
“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!”
Stacey jumped as a voice rang out from the crowd and she saw Grace attempting to tackle another woman to the ground. Suddenly she was thrown back into the mass of bodies around her. The crowd screamed as the entire stage seemed to buckle and collapse with a tremendous crash.
The woman Grace had attempted to subdue was none other than Gaia, the most wanted woman in the city. A dripping black aura was seen around her clenched fists as she focused her power on crushing Superius and all that stood in her way. The people screamed as they attempted to flee in an absolute panic. Those closest to Gaia seemed stuck in their tracks even as they were pulled towards her, surrounding her like a writhing human shield.
Spike screamed as a massive cloud of dust rose from the ruins of the stage, “MICHELLE!!” He started running toward the chaos that everyone else was attempting to escape.
Stacey tried to grab him as he ran past, but she only got empty air. She pulled out her gun and tried to aim at Gaia, like every other officer and sharpshooter in the coliseum, but it was useless as she surrounded herself with innocent people on all sides. Stacey keyed her radio, “DON’T WORRY ABOUT SUPERIUS! CLEAR THE EXITS! THE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO TRAMPLE EACH OTHER IF WE DON’T!” Stacey jumped the railing and started pushing her way through the crowd as she moved toward Gaia. “IF YOU GET A SHOT ON THAT RED HEADED BITCH, BLOW HER BRAINS OUT!”
As the riot police moved in, the people that hung in the air around Gaia were suddenly flung away from her in all directions, knocking officers and other bystanders alike to the ground like bowling pins. Shots rang out as Gaia rose into the sky, but the bullets were useless against her as her power sent the rounds tumbling off in different directions.
Gaia laughed, “PATHETIC HUMAN WASTES!! THIS WORLD NO LONGER BELONGS TO YOU!!” Gaia turned her power on the entire coliseum itself, as she prepared to bring it all down around them.
Inside the wreckage of the stage, where dust still billowed, Anka arched her back and her wings cast off the debris that come down on her. She made her way through the rubble until she saw Superius pinned beneath a collapsed pillar, an enormous weight, even for a being of his considerable and god-like strength. Anka wrenched free a piece of rebar and she stood over the General as he strained to free himself. He stopped as she saw her standing over him, her eyes burning with vengeance. “You murdered my people…you killed my entire family…and now, it’s your time to die you murdering Roman dog!”
Superius raised his hand, “WAIT! Do you not hear that? The red witch means to bring down this entire structure and kill hundreds of people! We cannot allow that!”
Anka screamed, “HOW MANY HAVE YOU KILLED?!” She drew back and smashed the metal bar into Superius over and over, screaming as she put her entire body into it. The demi-god attempted to fend off the blows, but he was left nearly helpless before her vicious onslaught. As indestructible has he had been considered, he soon began to wear the wounds of the savage attack on his free arm and face.
CLANG
CLANG
CLANG
She swung the metal until her hands hurt and sang with the reverberation of bouncing off the General’s bloodied skull. She wanted to see his blood ebb out and cover the earth, just as she had been forced to watch her father’s as he lay dying in her arms…just as she had been forced to watch the blood of her surrogate daughter Arella do the same…all at the hands of Romans…Romans under the command of this false god. Her own hands bled and her arms grew weary, but she screamed as tears coursed down her face in black streaks as it mingled with the dirt and dust that swirled around them…
CLANG
CLANG
CLANG
Each blow sounded like thunder and there seemed to be no end in sight. Anka did not care how many other’s died today…so long as Superius was among them. He would pay for taking away her family…her father, her mother…and even Arella…
For a moment, she thought it was her mind playing tricks on her. Through the blanket of dust, from the corner of her eye she saw movement. As she looked, her breath caught in her chest, she saw Arella dragging a blonde woman from the debris. The bent and bloodied rebar fell from her hands and clattered to the ground. Anka took a step towards her, calling her name; “…ARELLA…?” The girl turned for a moment, their eyes meeting for the first time since she perished in her arms within the veil hundreds of years ago.
The blonde woman looked up and suddenly an ominous black shadow seemed to rise up and obscure them both. A scream rang out as another massive pillar fell between them, sending up a massive cloud of dust. “ARELLA!!” she screamed, moving to find her, but her foot was caught. She looked down and Superius held her fast.
The General’s face was a crimson mask, but he still managed to speak, “S-Stop her…s-she will…kill t-them ALL!”
Anka yanked free of him, but his words echoed inside her head. Gaia would kill them all…but Anka only cared about one. She balled her fists in anger as she screamed out a curse of fury and shot upward like a missile, a trail of whirling dust in her wake. As she broke into the clear, there was complete chaos all around…and at the center of it…one person… “GAIA!!” Anka continued her path until she hit Gaia’s gravity field, then fell to the ground. She took to the air again, heading for Gaia, but again, the gravity well slammed her back to the earth more forcefully.
The people screamed as one of the massive pillars near the exit teetered, threating to topple over and crush hundreds of people. A loud crash came from the stage as Superius immerged from the wreckage, battered and bloodied. He moved with wounded purpose as he made his way to the massive pillar, posting himself against it, holding it upright. The ground cracked beneath his feet even as he strained to keep the structure from collapse, despite his weakened state.
Anka felt Gaia’s power weaken on her for a moment as she turned her attention to Superius. She wasted no time as she blasted herself into the sky angling away from Gaia as she continued to rise several hundred feet above her. Anka folded her wings back like a hawk as she plummeted down and hit Gaia from above, driving her down into the ground.
As they hit the hard earth, Gaia’s concentration was broken and the gravity well she created dissipated. A massive cheer went up from the crowd as the enormous structure stopped shaking and creaked loudly as it settled into place and Superius collapsed to his knees, spent as the people gathered around him. Gaia groaned as she struggled to get to her feet, her eyes narrowed to deadly slits as she glared at Anka, “TRAITOR!!” she yelled as she whirled around. Before she could turn her full power against Anka, Superius, or anyone else her body went ramrod still as her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground.
Agent Sloan stood over Gaia with a handheld device that stunned the meta terrorist, rendering her immobile.
She keyed a communications device on her lapel, “Maya! It worked, Valentine is down!”
Stacey ran up to Agent Sloan with her gun pointed at Gaia’s head. “What in the hell is going on here?! What is Valentine?!”
Using her free hand she gently nudged Stacey’s gun away from Gaia, “Whoa! Easy now…we have this under control!”
Stacey stared at her, “We? Who in the hell ARE you people?!”
She started to answer the detective’s question when a large crowd began to gather, all of them with a murderous look in their eyes as fear turned to thoughts of revenge. Agent Sloan looked at Stacey, “Detective…could you possibly do something about this…pretty fucking please…” She swallowed, “…I don’t know how much longer this thing is going to incapacitate her!”
Stacey looked down at Gaia and a part of her wanted to put two shots into the meta’s head herself, but that wasn’t the way to uphold the law. She turned to the crowd, “STAY BACK!! THIS IS A POLICE MATTER!! GAIA IS UNDER ARREST!!” The crowd continued to stalk them, many of them screaming about loved ones that had perished at the hands of the meta terrorist. Stacey reluctantly brandished her gun, “Please…PLEASE! STAY BACK!!” The crowd moved in, ready to pounce…
“ENOUGH! STAND BACK” Anka stood between the mob and the helpless Gaia. “She will face man’s justice before she taste’s God’s wrath.” Anka turned and looked at Stacey, and then down at Gaia, before turning back to the mob. “Go home to your families.”
Begrudgingly, the crowd backed down, slowly dispersing as they headed for the exits. Stacey and Agent Sloan breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at the detective, “Looks like you are in good with the One God after all, huh?” Stacey rolled her eyes as she pulled out her cuffs and moved to put them on Gaia, but the agent stopped her. “I wouldn’t do that…this field is keeping her immobile…but I have no idea what it will do to you. My extraction team is going to be here any moment!”
Stacey narrowed her eyes, “Sloan, this woman is under arrest! She is not going anywhere with you!”
Agent Sloan shook her head, “Sorry…this is already a done deal Jordan. The Agency is taking custody of Gaia. We are the only ones equipped to hold her.” She looked up as a black ship positioned itself over the area and several people in black uniforms and face shields repelled down, securing the area.
One of the people walked up to Gaia, removing her helmet and deploying several small devices around the meta. She checked the field on a handheld device and turned to Agent Sloan and nodded, “We got her Ma’am! This field will hold her until we get back to base.”
Agent Sloan nodded, patting the girl on her shoulder, “Nice work Maya. Now, get her out of here before more vigilantes come back here and decide they aren’t playing by the One God’s rules anymore.”
She nodded and they began extracting Gaia into the ship. As Agent Sloan began to follow them, Stacey grabbed her by her arm, “Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?!”
She smiled at Stacey, slowly removing her hand from her arm, “That depends on if you are going to join us?” She took hold of one of the repel ropes, “You still have my number detective.” She gestured for Stacey to call her, as she was wrenched up with the rest of the black ops team.
Stacey waved away the dust as she watched The Agency…whatever that was…fly off with Empire City’s most dangerous threat. She holstered her gun and turned to Anka, “I still don’t like or trust you!”
Anka turned away from her, “Then you are far more wise than the rest of these foolish sheep!” She looked over to the wreckage of the stage hoping to catch another glimpse of Arella…or who she thought was Arella among the ruins. Her eyes narrowed and her heart skipped a beat as she saw movement coming through the jumble of broken beams, wood, and concrete.
Spike Staggs stumbled through the dust, looking frantic until he saw Detective Jordan. He ran up to her, “STACEY, I COULDN’T FIND MICHELLE! SHE WASN’T IN THERE! I LOOKED EVERYWHERE!” He glanced at Anka, remembering his vision…she was there…so was Michelle. This had to be right…she had to be somewhere close. He turned back to Stacey, “I saw her Stacey…I saw her in my vision!” He looked at Anka again, “You were both there…”
Stacey put her hand on his shoulder, “Tell me what you saw…exactly what you saw!”
Spike closed his eyes, recounting his vision, as he saw it on the rooftop of the Loeb Building when he confronted Gaia, he spoke as if he was in a dream; “Fire…a roaring fire! Flames all around! A man…A BURNING MAN!”
Anka rolled her eyes, “This is nonsense…”
Stacey glared at Anka, but she was right…that made no sense at all.
Spike continued to recount his vision; “Alarms ringing…a vault…people screaming…money littering the floor…A BANK!” He paused, opening his eyes to look at Stacey; “A woman…a policewoman…the one from Gateway Park…you…” He looked at Anka, “Wings beating…flapping…burning…the Angel!”
Anka arched her brow, “Burning? I don’t burn.”
Spike continued to stare at her, “But…you will.” He closed his eyes, recounting the last part of his vision; “Darkness…shadows…THE SHADOW…Michelle…?”
This peaked Anka’s interest and she grabbed Spike, her dark eyes boring into him. “SHADOW! WHAT SHADOW?!”
Spike’s eyes fluttered open as he shrugged away from her, “A shadow…it took Michelle…it’s like…like it’s inside her!”
Anka stumbled back, as she recalled seeing just such a shadow when she saw Arella in the ruins. “…a girl in shadows…or was it shadows in a girl?”
Stacey stared at Anka, rolling her eyes, “Now you’re a fucking believer?!” Stacey shook her head. “I am not going to run off chasing after some silly dreams without a stitch of proof! I’m sorry…I’m a cop, I deal in reality, not fantasy…”
A uniformed officer ran up to Stacey, “Detective, it’s chaos out here trying to get these people safe, but there are alarms going off over seven blocks. We are going to need help dealing with the looting…we are going to need some serious back up!”
“Perhaps I can be of help…” They all turned and looked on in awe, all except Anka, as Superius limped over, bloody and battered, but still more than ready for battle. “This is my…” he paused, and looked at Anka, his expression unreadable, then turned to the detective, “…this is our city to protect. I will rally the military.”
Stacey nodded, “General Superius…we thank you…again.”
Superius nodded, moving with greater purpose even as he cast one last look at Anka. She returned his gaze with a cold look of her own…her hatred of him was still not sated.
As the uniformed officer turned to leave, Stacey stopped him. “Before you go…you said that there were alarms...going off for seven blocks. Was one of them…a bank?”
The officer held up his hand and checked with dispatch, then nodded, “12th and Argos.”
Stacey nodded and the officer set off to assist with clearing the streets. She turned to Spike, pointing at him, “I’m not saying I believe any of this stuff…but…it’s a hunch…just a hunch! We will go to the bank to check it out…just the two of us, do you hear me!” She turned to Anka, but she was already gone. Stacey threw up her hands, “GODS! THAT BITCH IS PISSING ME OFF!” Stacey headed for the parking garage. “Let’s go!”
Spike ran along side her as the two headed to the exit. “The angel…she has to be there…it was in my vision.”
Stacey chuckled, “She was also on fire in your vision…let’s hope that part comes true!”
Spike stops walking and shakes his head, “Wow…that’s really rude!” He runs to catch up with her as the two head to her car.
As the devastated coliseum was still being emptied, a familiar face moved through the crowd, his eyes to the sky instead of the exit as he watched the Angel fly off. Meepus had come to the event, not to hear the banter between Superius and the Angel of Empire City…but to get his hands on power…real power. As he followed her path, he blew into his hands to warm them, but it was all for show. Meepus was a living furnace in which ethereal fire raged…but what raged inside him now was desire…desire for the power he had seen wielded by the so-called Angel.
Meepus had once been part of Gaia’s insurgency before it had been smashed to pieces by the return of Superius and the bitch of a police detective…the one that he had watched from the shadows as the Angel saved her life with a ring…a magic ring…a ring that he had planned to take from her when she showed up to address the fucking stupid sheep of the city!
He had lived his life in fear of what he was and what he could do. The humans had locked him away as a criminal for using his gifts until Gaia had set him free. Then he thought he had found his purpose as a foot solider in Gaia’s meta insurgency. He had thought that was all that he was ever going to be…until he saw other possibilities. Once he got his hands on the ring…he was going to be a God!
The battle had spoiled his chance to take the ring as he originally planned…but with the city now in chaos…he would have another shot. Superius and Angels be damned…nothing and no one was going to stand in his way!
The Burning Man was going to set fire to the world...
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Detective Stacey Jordan … Nina Stokes
Spike Staggs … R.C. Tucker
Production Assistant … Chantal DeVille
Michelle Andretti … Delia Darling
Arella … Orchid
Grace Sloan … Amy Jo Smyth
Superius … Mason Moore
Anka ... Kenzi Grey
Gaia … Kate Steele
Agent Maya … Maria Salvatore
Uniformed Officer … Eric Weaver
Meepus … Kaden Kessler
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
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