We thought we were going to save the world…

“Everyone throw away your Alpha collectors!” Vincent called out to the crew, while hastily unfastening and removing his own. The others followed suit as they backed away from the mouth of the alley. The sounds of approaching Beta addicts were echoing through the narrow path between two brick buildings, and they all shared an immediate sense of intense vulnerability.

Vincent hurled his pack as far away from the group as he could, and two more were soaring through the air a moment later. Dark shapes in the green fog of the Radstorm were following the packs before they even hit the ground, and Vincent was grateful he was still thinking clearly enough to discard his. It still took a moment for him to realize one was missing, however.

The crew had squeezed back into a corner against the crumbling concrete stairs of a ruined brownstone. Old, dented trash cans were piled up among other refuse to create a small barrier, and combined with the fog, it made a reasonable hiding place. Except for the fact that Emi was currently standing up, while Lucia and Danny tried to help pull off the final Alpha collector.

“The clip is broken!” Emi said in a panicked whisper.

“Can you rip it open?” Vincent asked.

“It’s metal!” she responded with some irritation, then turned an angry glare on him. Her eyes widened though as her gaze shifted over his shoulder. Vincent spun just in time for a short, stocky man to plow into him. He managed to keep his feet, largely because the shorter man’s low tackle had Vincent doubling over on top of him rather than toppling to the ground.

The crew was suddenly out of sight as the short man kept pushing, and Vincent found himself nearly in the center of the street. It was absolute chaos. Guards were shooting without pause, and blood mixed with the liquid Alpha running freely from the destroyed containment cylinder as more and more Beta addicts were gunned down.

Vincent tried to focus on the madman whose arms were encircling his midsection, and managed to plant his feet after a tense moment. The addict’s bald head was just barely visible, squished against him, and it was so filthy he could look like anything beneath the grime. His back was covered by a torn, brown leather jacket, which was all Vincent could really see as he punched and elbowed his attacker.

Just as he started to get control of the situation, his left arm started to sting. Looking at it in confusion, Vincent realized he’d been shot. It was a strange sensation, and he was surprised that it barely hurt–until it did. The shock passed far more quickly than he would have liked, and suddenly agony was burning through his arm, while somehow numbness was setting in at the same time.

Vincent grit his teeth against the pain. The guards were clearly shooting at anything that moved in the fog, and he and the struggling addict were far too easy a target where they were. Knowing he had little choice, Vincent summoned his powers.

A transparent green hand slammed down from his right arm, the Phantasm looking more solid than it had before. The smaller man collapsed to the ground while letting out a surprisingly high-pitched squeal, and the force of the blow was so strong that a small ripple of fog spread out like a shockwave. For a fleeting moment Vincent’s pain was forgotten as he observed the effects of his higher level ability.

The moment passed, however, and he reached up to grip the injured limb while ducking down and hobbling back in the direction he came. Figures darted past him as he did so, ignoring the unimportant person among the sea of valuable Alpha. Vincent realized with disgust that some of the bodies he’d thought had been gunned down were actually alive, as he passed several addicts laying on their bellies and slurping the liquid from the ground.

The pain was making everything harder to take in, and Vincent’s ears were ringing from the continuous gunfire as he struggled to keep his bearings and get back to his crew. A familiar roar announced the arrival of an even more bloody and wounded Robert, and Vincent could only let himself collapse to the ground for safety as the giant stumbled by.

There had to be five or six Beta addicts clinging to him, and Vincent’s stomach turned when he realized they were trying to scrape off and devour his Gamma-laced blood. Robert was clearly in pain, as several had moved on to biting him directly with jagged, broken teeth, but he didn’t appear to be in serious danger. He was ripping each addict off and tossing them away, while clearly running away from the trucks and guards.

Vincent turned his foggy mind back toward his own precarious situation as he slowly regained his feet. He’d somehow gotten turned around, and it took him another minute to find the familiar staircase and his friends.

He let out a relieved breath when he saw Emi and Lucia. They’d managed to get the pack off, and Emi had clearly used up her shock sticks on the attackers–several were convulsing on the ground in front of them.

Vincent needed to get a bit closer before he saw Danny, but he turned his shuffle into a desperate charge when he did. His taller friend was pressed against a wall, barely holding back a ragged woman who clearly possessed impressive super strength. Her hair was so filthy that it looked like a dead animal, and it blocked Vincent’s entire view of his friend, save for where Danny was gripping her broken and bloody hands.

Lucia appeared to be concentrating on something, hands against her head, while Emi was rushing forward to pull at the woman. Vincent didn’t hesitate, once again calling on his strained powers. He swung his good arm long before he reached the pair, and the green spectral hand extended a half dozen feet in front of him, crashing into the woman’s side and sending her sprawling away.

Danny, unfortunately, was knocked down as well, but Emi was already helping him to his feet by the time Vincent hobbled over and ducked into the hiding spot with them. “Dude,” Danny said, shaking his head. The helmet of his hazmat suit had been torn off, and Vincent could see the shock in his friend’s eyes. “That was awesome! What the hell is your power, man?”

Despite the pain and chaos, Vincent realized he was smiling slightly. “Later. Everything later. Survival now,” he said. “Are you all okay?” The group looked at each other, then themselves, as if unsure, then nodded. Finally Lucia noticed his arm.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Bullet wound, but I’ll be fine,” he assured her, trying to keep his voice from shaking. Lucia nodded inside her helmet, but he could tell she was concerned. “Really, I will be, let’s just focus on getting out of here.”

“I believe you,” Lucia said. “But everyone else…don’t you hear that?” Vincent was confused, but turned back to the street, trying to understand. He could hear a lot of things, despite the ringing in his ears.

Gunfire, the moaning and wailing of the addicts, Robert somewhere down the street and…and screaming. It wasn’t the ragged, broken voices of people who’d been abusing Beta for years, but high pitched screams of terror.

It was the other students.

“No,” Vincent whispered. The denial was woefully insufficient for the emotions that suddenly surged through him. “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said to no one in particular. “Just a couple of injured guards…no one was supposed to die.”

His mind raced. There has to be something for this in the plan. Or a new plan. Something! Anything! he raged. Vincent stood up and took a shaky step toward the street before hands pulled him back down.

“It’s too late,” his sister said sadly. “It’s just too late,” she said again, as if convincing herself.

“Are you sure?” Danny asked desperately. “Vince, your powers! You took out that crazy strong lady with one hit!” Before Vincent could even answer, Lucia was yelling.

“Are you out of your mind, Danny? There’s dozens of them out there! Some of them are actual supers, with god-only-knows what powers!” Danny seemed to be about to interrupt, but Lucia wasn’t finished. “You really want to send my brother, your best friend out into that? After he’s already been shot?”

Danny’s mouth snapped shut, and everyone was feeling the same pressure he was. There were students out there, just like them. Frightened and desperate, helpless and alone. They all wanted to race back into the street, whatever the cost. Vincent had never in his life wanted to be a hero as badly as he did in that moment.

“We have to go,” someone said, and he realized it had been him. They all knew the reality, no matter that the pain of it was worse than that of his still-bleeding arm. They didn’t have the power for this, even under the best of circumstances, and this had to be about as bad as it could get.

Vincent pulled himself to his feet. Hoping this wasn’t more proof that scared people made bad decisions. As he began feeling his way along the wall and back toward the alleyway, he considered that his fear of getting someone hurt may be what would ultimately get all these people killed. Why didn’t I let Emi build us another bomb?

A few guards would have died, but the students probably would have been fine. He had been so sure, so certain that his plan would work. And now he wasn’t even certain that he could get his friends out of this alive.

He could feel them behind him, following closely, terrified and depending on him. Vincent resolved that he would save them, regardless of what it might cost him. He tore the helmet from his own hazmat suit so he could see a little more clearly. The Alpha particles might actually help him, anyway, as his body had been relying on them in place of Gamma for years.

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He moved forward, the green fog still obscuring everything. His eyes followed every shadow and silhouette that creeped past. It wasn’t long before the next addict attacked, and Vincent had a spectral hand through the man’s chest before he was even close.

The addict fell, hands clawing uselessly at his own throat while he writhed on the ground. His lungs and heart were likely damaged beyond repair, but Vincent wouldn’t allow himself to think of the man any further. He just kept walking, only ever stopping to glance behind and ensure his crew–his family was okay.

In truth, it must have only been a couple of dozen paces back to the alley, but to Vincent’s anxious mind, it felt like miles. Three more times he had to use his powers to knock away desperate Beta addicts, and each time it felt like something within him was tearing.

It didn’t feel precisely like pain, especially not compared to the throbbing agony of his left arm, but there was a wrongness to it. Strangely he no longer seemed to struggle to conjure the Phantasm, but instead it was as if he were overusing an already strained muscle. Still, he kept going.

Finally the street gave way to the narrow alley, and he ushered the group inside. The fog was slightly less thick inside, though Vincent didn’t understand why. The important thing was that he could see far enough to believe the way might actually be clear, and he let a thin ray of hope shine through him.

“We’re almost out of this,” he said to the other three.

“Good work, Vince,” Danny said with more enthusiasm than seemed warranted. Lucia nodded at their tall friend, and Vincent figured he must be trying to make up for their previous exchange.

“Let’s not stop then, right?” Emi said. She’d been more quiet than usual, and Vincent was only just beginning to understand how scared she must be.

“Right,” he agreed, then began making his way down the alley.

“HELP ME!” a desperate voice called from nearby, and Vincent whipped around. Eric Palmer emerged from the fog, crawling toward them. Vincent’s eyes widened in horror when he realized the boy’s left leg ended in a bloody mess below the knee, and took a reflexive step forward. Someone needed help.

Eric fell forward, his face slamming into the ground as a Beta addict appeared from the fog and grabbed onto him. Then a second, and a third. Eric raised his head, tears running down his face as blood poured from his nose. “Please…” he begged, “Vincent, help!” He barely managed to get the last out before the addicts started dragging him backward.

Arms wrapped around Vincent’s middle, while hands gripped his good arm and pulled. He hadn’t realized he was nearly back in the street until he looked down and realized his entire crew was pulling him back. Lucia darted out in front of him. “We have to go! You can’t help him!”

“But…” Vincent didn’t know how to explain. “But he asked for help…” he said weakly. Lucia tore off her helmet so he could see her own tear-filled eyes.

“I know, Vincenzo,” she said, sounding so much like their mother. “We can’t help him. You can’t help him. Please,” she said, hands against his chest, “help us.”

Vincent looked at her for a moment, something warring within him. Finally he managed to nod, not trusting himself to speak, and he turned back toward the alley. Together, as fast as they could move after their ordeal, they ran.

***

The retreat through New Technopolis was slow and terrifying. They soon abandoned their hazmat suits, the bright white making them stand out, even in the Radstorm. Vincent was able to examine his injured arm, and was grateful to find that it had only been a deep graze, and they were able to get the bleeding under control.

The first goal after getting as much distance as possible between them and the trucks was to figure out where they were. Apparently it was an area that had been known as the ‘Upper East Side’, but was now simply a territory of one of many gangs of supervillains in the city, known as the Dollar Bills. ‘Billsland’ graffiti was everywhere.

Their destination was what had been called ‘Midtown’, which meant they had a considerable walk ahead of them. At first it was slow going, as the Radstorm raged and they feared Beta addicts around every corner. After a couple of brutal hours, however, the storm began to clear, and as visibility improved, they realized just how startlingly alone they were.

The civilian population of New Technopolis was just a fraction of what the city had once held, and incredibly concentrated in just a few areas. They apparently weren’t in such an area, as they wandered through endless streets that seemed to be home to nothing but ghosts and rats.

As they passed the thousandths ruined car and empty building, the boredom finally beat the fear, and Danny started being Danny again. “Hey Vincent,” he asked, “how in the sweet, ever-loving hell did you get Berserker Bob to be our distraction?”

Both Emi and Lucia immediately turned to look at him as they trudged down the quiet street, the sun’s rays just barely managing to illuminate their path through the refuse. Vincent considered how to answer, wondering if his promise to Robert still applied. He decided it didn’t.

“Robert was my first friend on the Farm,” he answered, and he smiled slightly at Danny’s look of utter shock. “What? I have other friends,” Vincent said.

“Name one more,” Lucia challenged, an eyebrow raised.

Vincent sighed, “Robert came to the Farm a couple of years after Lucia and I did. He didn’t get along well with the other kids. He had a temper.”

“Oh, Berserker Bob had a temper?” Danny asked. “Here I thought Lucia was the insightful one.”

Vincent ignored the commentary. “I didn’t get along well with the other kids either,” Lucia quickly elbowed Danny to stop another interruption. “So we spoke, now and then. He had his own ambitions, even as a child. He didn’t want to be a hero, or a villain, but he wanted powers more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

They passed under a low bridge, and when they came out the other side, they could see overgrown trees in the distance to the West. Still seemingly alone, Vincent continued. “Robert isn’t a big talker, but we would see each other from time to time as the years passed. When the Gamma injections started, I told him about Veridicus, and staying balanced.”

“Doesn’t seem like he followed that particular advice,” Emi said. Everyone knew about Robert’s Gamma obsession.

“He surprised me, actually. He did believe me. Except endless strength was exactly what he wanted. He would never say why, but Manifesting like he did was always his goal. He had no interest in the Army or NGG though. He’d been planning to escape since he was eight years old.”

Lucia looked at Vincent, even as he watched the towering buildings appearing out of the fog ahead of them. “Were you planning to go with him?” she asked, a hint of accusation in her voice.

“No,” Vincent answered. “Balanced and ignored was always my plan. But I still gave Robert as much Gamma as I could, and promised to keep his secret. When he said he was close to Manifesting, I helped push him over the edge.”

“What!?” Danny said, way too loudly. “You were trying to do that to him? I thought you were standing up for me!”

Vincent shook his head, “I was, Danny. That was the fourteenth attempt to make him Manifest. It really helped that he was already mad at you. I think knowing what I was doing was stopping him from getting angry enough to tip over the edge.”

“But how did that lead to him being part of the plan?” Emi asked.

“His plan was always simple: stash enough Gamma that he could overpower the guards. I don’t know if it would have worked on its own, but I helped things along by smuggling him as much as I could. I also gave him a note, asking him to wait until the trucks had been stopped for a while before he tried.”

“That’s why you weren’t sure about the timing,” Emi replied, nodding. Then after a long pause, she shook her head. “You should have let me build a bomb,” she said.

“I know,” Vincent replied, thinking of Eric.

***

“This is it,” Vincent said. The sun was still high in the sky when they arrived in front of the abandoned building. It had been eight stories tall, but the top four floors had collapsed, leaving piles of reddish-brown bricks littering the street. The front door was completely destroyed, and blocked by yet more rubble. No one had even bothered to board up the windows, as fire and debris had left the bottom floor almost completely inaccessible.

“This is it?” Danny repeated skeptically.

“Home sweet home,” Lucia said quietly, and Emi and Danny gave her twin looks of shock. “This was the Cult of the Mind stronghold that Vincent and I were basically raised in,” she explained. Emi was clearly blindsided, but Danny nodded in understanding. He didn’t know everything, but the Villari’s complex origins had come up before.

“It has…charm,” he said unconvincingly, and Vincent barked a small laugh to everyone’s apparent surprise.

“You’re not wrong,” Vincent said, “follow me.” He led them through a small alley that went behind the building. It was as nondescript as any alley they’d gone through that day, full of trash and debris from the building, but Vincent led them unerringly to a large trash bin, leaning against the wall.

Without pause, he pushed his uninjured shoulder against it, and it slid easily to one side. It revealed a small window with a metal door at ground level. Vincent reached down and accessed an electronic panel by moving aside a piece of brick, quickly typing in some numbers. The panel opened obligingly a moment later, and with a “Come on,” Vincent ducked and crawled inside.

The crew exchanged confused looks–Lucia included–but followed nevertheless. They dropped into a simple, unadorned gray hallway, down which Vincent was already striding. They passed a number of doors, many open, but all of which led to destroyed rooms. “How is this hall so clear?” Emi asked, but Vincent remained silent, focused on this moment.

They reached the end of the hall, and Vincent placed his palm on a seemingly unimportant patch of blank wall. The square around his hand glowed blue for a moment before a section of wall began to slide away. It revealed a simple staircase, and Vincent practically ran down it, the others hurrying behind, their curiosity driving them.

The hallway ended in a single, large room that was likely half as wide as the building itself. There was an entire wall of computers and screens, desks and even a small kitchen, all in perfect condition…and the lights were on. Vincent moved to the center of the room, between the computers and what looked like an enormous conference table.

There was a dais there that looked out of place in the otherwise office-like space. It had a red cloth over it, and a large tome crowning it. The cover was black leather, with a huge red eye embossed in its center. Vincent moved to it reverently, and slowly reached out to rest his hand upon it.

“Vincent,” Lucia called out, her expression unreadable, “what the hell is this place?”

“And what’s with the book?” Danny added. “What are we doing here?”

Vincent smiled–widely–and the crew shared surprised glances. “These are our headquarters,” he said, gesturing vaguely around them without raising his eyes from the tome. “And this,” he said, lifting it carefully, “is the complete works of the Prophet.”

The group was silent as he turned toward them, each struggling to grasp what he’d said. Vincent finally looked up, still smiling. “As to what we’re going to do, Danny…” he paused, and a determined expression replaced the unusual smile. “We’re going to take down the New Global Government, and we’re going to destroy the Watcher.”

Danny’s jaw dropped. Emi grinned. Lucia stared at her brother like he was a stranger. Vincent spoke once more, his conviction growing.

“We’re going to save the world.”

End of Part 1