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All Ties Severed
By: T.W.
Prelude
“Did you hear about Arachnos’ new recruit?” an
Arachnos guard said to another as he came to relieve him of duty. His
face wore a huge grin.
The other guard, who was just stepping out of the room, rolled his eyes
beneath his helm. He closed the door behind him and waited patiently
for the stupid joke.
“He calls himself ‘Rogue Volt’” he exploded
with uncontrollable mirth. “What a stupid name!” he said
when he found the time to pause and breath.
The other rolled his eyes again. “I wouldn’t be talking;
you’re identified by a number.” The laughing guard stopped
laughing and scowled at the other.
Wordlessly, the now silent guard went inside the room the other had left.
Inside, slowly swaying in a circular manner in an enclosed prison was a
man. The guard threw his baton at a stack of others; the impact sent
the other batons flying. “It’s not fair,” he said to
the man inside, “I should be out there, on a mission, showing
heroes like you who’s in charge.”
Silent, as always, was the hero. He hung there, body suspended by
antigravity, wrists and ankles locked in chains to the four corners of
his white prison. His head hung in defeat eyes unopened. The guard
stared at him threw the wall of glass as he laid suspended there,
completely helpless, totally defeated.
~~~~
Slowly, struggling, Ecrof opened his eyes in his prison. Half way open
was all he could get his eyelids to do. Six months without food or
water would kill a normal man but the magic circulating in his blood
caused him to survive in such conditions. No matter how close he
actually was to death he was still alive.
Every day or night, in his prison he couldn’t tell the
difference, he would slip back to consciousness. On every waking moment
he retraced his story back from the beginning continually asking
himself, “Why am I here?”
He didn’t remember the details; all Gabriel remembered was his
high rank in Arachnos. He had been entrusted to secure a piece of
Siren’s Call for a team of Arachnos to land in. When The Freedom
Corps held their formation back Ghost Widow paid him a visit.
She personally destroyed everyone under him; starting with Gabriel
himself. The blast from the souls Ghost Widow possessed, however, did
not rip his soul out to join them. The blast left him bloody and as
good as dead until the magic from the blast imbued his body with power.
A streak of black imprinted itself on his cheek under his right eye; a mark of the magic now within him.
Gabriel retreated to Paragon City. He took the roll of criminal
harnessing and maturing his gravitational power in anticipation of
meeting Ghost Widow again.
Part 1
The Paragon City National Bank was quiet as always on Sunday morning.
The polished tile and limestone walls caused each sigh, each shuffle of
bored guards to echo to the farthest corner of the bank.
Facing the entrance, next to the teller’s desk, a lone guard sat
in a fold-up chair slowly dozing. Snapping his head back up quickly for
the dozenth time, he slowly stood and walked towards the large oak
double doors.
A minute passed, every guard station saw the hand move on either clock or watch as their shift was a minute closer to ending.
There was a commotion outside, every guard turned their heads towards
the double doors. The guard from before rushed back into the building
fear in his eyes, lit cigarette between his lips. He quickly turned
shutting the doors putting his weight on them keeping them closed.
Suddenly, the cement and limestone of the front wall exploded into the
bank. The unfortunate guards and tellers were crushed instantly by the
debris. In walked a man, his gloves and boots were black metal as was
his close fitting medieval style helmet; his pants were cloth and chest
armored with chain mail beneath and blue runes decorating.
He casually walked threw the destruction. His fists still glowed blue
with the gravitational power he had just released on the building. A
guard barred his way to the vault, he cocked his automatic rifle.
The criminal’s helm merely pointed in the direction of the rifle
and it crunched into a ball of steel. Before the guard could even don
an expression of surprise, a piece of heavy limestone landed on his
chest crushing all his internal organs.
The man proceeded to the vault room. The two guards stayed towards the
back of the room and the stranger passed right by them. As he
concentrated on prying the door from the wall the two guards slowly
advanced from behind.
The door twisted and moved as if with a mind of its own. Finally it
wrenched itself free from the wall. The man made the move of someone
tossing a wrapper over their shoulder. The door flew past him catching
the two guards behind its massive size and smashed into the far wall
where it stuck.
A few minutes later he exited threw the missing wall. A large bag full
of cash pronounced a successful visit. What met his eyes; all lined up
in front of him was a makeshift barricade of police cars. The swat team
had their weapons aimed at him as did the PPD behind them.
One officer held a megaphone, “We have you completely surrounded!
Put down the,” here he hesitated, “...floating...bag...of
cash and place your hands where we can see them.”
The man neither moved, nor indicated he had heard. The bag behind him
dropped with a loud thump. He lifted both hands in front of him and the
blue glow returned. The air seemed to grow stale around the officers
and their movements felt as if they were underwater.
The man rotated his arms and made a pushing motion. The gravity he had
just harnessed pushed out with astonishing force. The power created a
groove in the stairs in front of him and traveled threw the street
picking up concrete, officers, cars and anything else in its path until
nothing was left.
Gabriel, under the alias ‘Ecrof’ lowered his glowing hands. It was time, he decided, to face Ghost Widow.
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