RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block THE NEW MBL - Issue 1 "Setting things right"

THE NEW MBL - Issue 1 "Setting things right"

I look over the horizon. Hills build upon each other slightly blocking my view from the great metropolis that is Promethean City. At least during years past it was a great metropolis. One that was building towards an innovative and technological wonder of a city. Man-made but fit for the gods.

Only, over the years things changed; the power fell into the hands of those who were corrupted. They used it to their advantage and enslaved the normal population. Using mind bending technology they made anyone who fought their ways into a zombie like shell of their former selves. Thanks to a group of wonderers. A special few gifted with powers far beyond normal man, the city was freed.

But that is a story for another time.

Present day, the city is all but in ruins. The people are free-- yes. But that hasn’t stopped those who are villainous from rising again and attacking my unprotected home.

I will not let them win! Not after everything I have been through.

A tall and well built man, QUINN STEVENS, stands on a hill in the outskirts of Prometheus City. He is wearing a black uniform with silver trim on his shoulders. His long brown hair is blowing with the wind. Closing his eyes, he pulls a mask over his face.

It is time that I finally use my gift. It is finally time that I fight back.

A silver glow forms around his body and he is lifted into the air. On his shoulder is a silver G.

Let’s see if I can be the HERO my father always told me I’d become.

He begins flying towards the city.

I wonder if anyone else will join me in this crusade.

A lizard. A big, green, lizard is towering over the skyscrapers in ruins. It screams wildly, goblets of saliva falling from the side of its jaws. The long, scaled tail whips side to side, taking down buildings with the easiness of a child playing with sand castles.

Once the secret ruler of this land, the beast has laid dormant for long under the waters of the bay, only to be awakened by something that disturbed its dreamless sleep.

And now it’s reclaiming its kingdom.

Only one stands in front of him. The young man known as Quinn Stevens hovers just above the eyes of the gigantic reptile, flying within a complex path in close proximity to the horrible head.

The blind run of destruction trough the city is haltered. The beast looks around, unable to keep up with the fast pace of the silver glowing superhero. It screams in rage, snapping his fangs trying to catch that annoying target that it’s nothing more than a fly for the cold blooded wonder.

Another snap of the powerful jaws shakes the air. Followed by another jump back of the young Stevens.

Frustrated, the giant creams. And in that precise moment, the flying man unites his hand, and a powerful burst of silver energy hits the beast.

Just by inches it miss the tender, soft tissue of the open mouth, and instead hits the mirror-like polished scales of the head, dissipating away in the cold air

The beast small brain is not made to process though, and can’t makes plan. But it’s build to react to external stimuli. And as it feels the attack, it respond.

As the young man rest for an instant after the burst of energy, the giant tail whips again. And slap Quinn with the power of an erupting volcano.

The shock, hampered by the silver energy shield, doesn’t kill the guy, like it would with normal people. But Quinn Stevens loose his senses, and as he falls from high, his silver energy fades, depriving the young man of his only protection toward certain death.

But the ground is not what he crashes over. Two muscled arms catch Quinn at mid fall.

It’s a slightly older looking man, dressed in a blue and grey tattered uniform, with a slightly darker patch where a logo of sort has been evidently ripped away. Curly black hairs, a square jaw and deep blue eyes complete the picture.

Quinn opens his eyes. “Who… who are you?” asks, as his silver energy begins to glow again around his body.

“Name’s Hero. And it looks we are in dire need of help!”

“Holy shit, look out!” Quinn screams and uses his energy field to knock both him and Hero clear off their feet and away from the giant Lizard’s massive foot which buries into the ground with a thunderous thud. The two heroes regroup, taking cover behind rubble as the lizard violently tosses about looking for Quinn.

“Ok, somehow I think I was able to piss him off a bit more.”

“That’s a good first step-“

“How so… Hero?”

The square jawed man stands tall as he looks over the rubble towards the monster.

“He’ll be much more off guard, and will not see us coming.” He turns to the black clad young hero, “How much weight can you lift and throw through the air?”

Quinn looks at his hand and back towards Hero.

“How heavy is a Mach truck?”

Hero can’t help but smile, “I have a plan.”

A few millimeters left of reality...

Speed.

It's like a drug, but there's only so long a runner's high can last. Relativistic motion pulling across your body like lapping waves, numbing you to the existence of the dimensions beneath you. With space and time losing their meaning, so does velocity.

In the end, only the Race remains.

How long? He wondered this as parallel moments crashed aside him, a polychromatic spray in his wake. How long had he run sideways across space-time until he could find an answer to the danger he faced? He was the last one standing, but also the least experienced. The full extent of his powers, the professors claimed, were beyond their imagining.

Charles Jenkins' power wasn't superspeed as much as it was superphysics. But even bending immutable laws couldn't save him, so he ran. It was only a matter of relativistic time before the answer came to him.

Until then, X-Stream waited in motion...

“You have a plan? What plan?”

“No time. Just follow me”

The two superbeings rocketed in the sky. “There. The Thunder Gazette building, across the river. Detach the globe from the top, and make it roll over the bridge. I’ll bring the beast there.”

Hero leaped away, back to where the beast was screming enraged. “Come on kitticat, follow me!” Hero was running back and forth on the main street leading to the Kathoek Bridge. The only above-surface connection point between the twin cities of Promethean and Thunder.

As the superhero came running over the bridge, followed by the towering monster, he yelled, with thunderous voice “Strike!”

From the top of the Gazette Building, Quinn threw the giant, golden, globe. The enormous ball spinned in air, and then landed over the big, steel bridge, heading at mad speed toward hero and the beast. At the last instant, Hero leaped in air, while the ball crashed in a cloud of dust over the giant sized lizard.

“Quick, come here” shouted Hero. As the reptilian monster was getting back over its feet, even more crazy, the two superheroes met under the bridge. “Now we take down the bridge, Quinn” explained Hero, “and let the geko to drown in the bay”.

“But…” started Stevens, but a gesture of Hero stopped him.

“No time to talk, man” said Hero, starting to punch the steel pylons with the power of an hydraulic maul.

Seemingly perplexed, the other young man joined him in the desperate manouver, sending wave of silver glowing energy toward the bridge.

And, as much as it was a visibly impossible task, the bridge collapsed, taking down the lizard with it, down in the abyss of the bay.

The two men slapped the hand in air. “We did it!” yelled Hero, a broad smile on his face.

But suddenly the water below began to gurgle, and the lizard came out of the water in a fluid, graceful yet powerful jump. The monster fangs snapped just inches from the two heroes.

“Fuck!” yelled Hero.

“It looks it’s amphibious” merely stated Quinn Stevens.

The gigantic, lizard-like creature rose menacingly out of the water, steam curling from its nostrils as it faced the two puny foodstuffs before it. They had hurt it, but now they were cornered. Its ever-present hunger would be sated very soon.

The creature continued to rise to its full height, enveloping Quinn Stevens and Hero in utter shadow.

Stevens said, "You have any ideas?"

"Nope," said Hero. "You?"

"Not really," the silvery-glowing man said. "But I think we should do something right away."

"Right," said Hero.

Stevens blasted the creature's underbelly, while Hero leapt directly into the giant lizard's neck with full force. This had the effect of making the monster a wee bit angrier than it was before.

Just then, an inhuman bellow sounded behind them. The creature stiffened as Stevens and Hero chanced a look back, only to see a creature that seemed much like the lizard monster but at least five times larger!

"FUCK!" Hero gulped.

The first lizard-monster completely forgot about the foodstuffs for now. It hung its head, drooped its tail, and turned on its heels, fleeing back into the water as fast as possible, the second, larger lizard-monster on its heels.

It was all Hero and Stevens could do to get out of the way before they were trampled by the gigantic beast.

"Did you think, when you got up this morning, that you'd be fighting two fugitives from a Godzilla movie?" Quinn Stevens shouted over to Hero. Without waiting for an answer he added, "Me neither!"

The second lizard-monster, positioned at the edge of the water, continued to bellow loudly until the first lizard-monster had completely disappeared from view on the horizon. Then it stopped.

And then it said, "Think we should let it leave?"

Stevens and Hero looked at it. Then they looked at each other. Then they looked back at it.

"Wh-what?" said Quinn Stevens.

The lizard-monster pulled out what looked like a gigantic cigar from a pocket which suddenly appeared in its claw, then lit it with a lighter that appeared in its other claw. It took a drag on the cigar, scratched its head thoughtfully while frowning, and said, "Hell, if we're lucky, maybe it'll attack the Frenchies."

Stevens and Hero said nothing.

"Oh, right," the creature said. "Forgot ta interduce m'self. Name's Doug."

The gigantic lizard creature shrunk down to the shape of a six foot tall bald man with pale yellow skin.

"I guess I'm a... whatchamacallit... a shapeshifter. Pleased ta meetcha."

"Likewise," said Stevens, an involuntary grin spreading on his face.

The screams of the people woke him up.
His eyelids slowly opened to yet another day of harsh reality.
The dusty, and slightly worn hotel room smelled of old socks and bad microwave food. The curtains (or what was left of it) seemed to slide closer together to keep the occupant from viewing what took place outside.
The one table had a phone and a over read bible...and a heap of chocolate wrappers.
With a huge yawn he stretched his arms and said to himself;
"Promethean City...I can´t beleive I´m back in Promethean City."

The sounds of the rescue teams landing in helicopters reached his ears.
Fluffa fluffa fluffa fluffa...

He had to help.
As allways, the people needed the sturdy hand of rightiousness to guide them. Someone who could see past the smoke and mirrors of the battle, someone who would ensure victory over the forces of darkness...someone like Him!!!

He slid out of bed and quickly donned his worn and illfitting wine-red leather suit. Struggled into the boots, and started to look for the small black shorts with the utility belt...
"Ghaah!"
Where were they? He always managed to displace those...
Ah, under the bed with his goggles.
And the final touch, the gloves...the gloves that would help him deliver justice upon evil´s ugly grin.

Captain Midnight posed quickly in front of the hazy mirror, to ensure himself of his greatness, then opened his window and ever so carefully climbed out onto the ledge and up the small fire escape ladder that reached both roof and ground.

When he finaly stood on the ledge of the roof he called out to the people running below;

"Fear not, citizens! For Captain Midnight is here!"

The rescue team looked up in astonishment.
"Errrm, who is that nut up there? He´ll get himself killed."

"Well, he does have a costume, of sorts, maybe he´s one of those superheroes?"

The Captain fired his hooked wire onto a lamp post and without fear flung himself into the path of the panicked throng of people fleeing the battlescene.

He landed on his knees and scraped his allready badly patched trousers and yelled in pain. But quickly rose to ensure his people that he was allright.

"Do not worry about me dear citizens. The blood is the blood shed for justice and...ouww, and...well...let´s get cracking shall we? Follow me, people. I will find you a safe place to hide!"

And ever so macho, he flung his too short cape around him and begun running towards a old warehouse that was still intact.

In the background the roars of the monster vibrated the very air...it had seen the other lizard suddenly shrink...and was now on it´s way back, stomping furiously...

"Now tell him you were not just an inflated big parade balloon..." said acidly Quinn Stevens to Doug. The bald man simply shrugged. Then, all of a sudden spitted the cigar away. "I can turn into King Kong. Maybe THAT will scare the shit out of it!"

Hero shook his head. "We all saw how it worked well before, that strategy. We must find a way to take down it for good."

THUMP!

Right in the middle of the trio, down from the sky landed a man in a red thorn leather suit. Without saying anything, the man calmly started to roll up the rope; then, he tied it to the utility belt and only then, he gave a nod to each one of the other three men. "Name's Captain Midnight, youngsters. Who are you? Strikeforce? TOMB? Avengers?"

The three heroes were too shocked to answer, but their stillness was suddenly shaken by the shockwave induced by the first step of the arrivng monster on land.

"Shit! Take cover!" yelled Stevens.

Captain Midnight looked around. "Yes, son, good idea... but where?"

The Captain had just the time to beat his eyelids, before the giant lizard grip closed around him, instantly lifting the man one hundred metres above ground.

Captain Midnight starred face to face, nose to nose, with the giant lizard creature… and laughed.

“I’ll give you one moment to surrender, kind beast.”

The Captain was stern and sure of himself. He pushed out his chest and placed his hands over his hips.

“Don’t make me use force on you!”

The lizard looked at Midnight very confused and looked around, not seeing any of the other pestering heroes.

“Well?”

The beast turned to Captain Midnight and roared at the top of its beastly lungs, a wind powerful enough to send Midnight’s shrimp cape soaring in the air. The lizard opened his mouth and snapped at the hero, who pulled back and punched the beast in the nose. In that exact moment, unknown to Midnight, Quinn and Hero used their full force to knock out the legs of the giant.

“HA-ha” Captain Midnight stated as the lizard began to topple. A huge bald eagle swooped down and ripped Midnight from the scaly hands of the lizard, pulling him to safety. “You ok mate?” Doug stated.

“Yes kind bird that speaks, I have taken down the monster lizard for the city and for the... people who live in the city ”

Doug’s eagle brow lifted and he laughed to himself. 100 feet below, Hero and Quinn were in trouble.

"Uh, hey, pal," Doug muttered, sounding distracted as he flew in circles above the battlezone, his eagle-eyes peering down at his newfound friends who had their hands full with "Godzilla" again. "I really gotta set ya down somewhere."

Doug swooped down onto the roof of the Kamphausen Towers, a short, squat building with pretensions of grandeur. Captain Midnight leapt onto the roof from Doug's back. "Stay outta trouble fer now, alright? I'll come back for ya later, bud!" Doug shouted over his shoulder as the colors of his feathers changed into the red, white, and blue patterns of the U.S. flag. "I gotta save my adopted country again!" he added.

"Godspeed, good sir!" Captain Midnight shouted as he held his right hand in a firm salute. "Godspeed..."

Doug frowned in concentration as he sped towards the monster, which had already gotten back up on its feet and was heading for the downtown core. He saw Quinn Stevens and Hero attacking the lizard with mixed success. "Seems I gotta save their asses again. Ain't that always the way? Now how did that scene in Empire Strikes Back go, again?"

Doug screeched a bald eagle's cry as he "divebombed" his two new friends and swept past them, heading at groundlevel for the creature's legs. As he passed the right leg, Doug's own right talon stretched out and hooked onto the monster's scaly skin. It continued to stretch as Doug flew in a wide circle around the creature's legs, moving around the back and then to the front several times in a row, until he was wrapped around the monster's legs like an elastic band. "Oh FUCK this stings!" Doug muttered as he was stretched further than he ever remembered before.

The giant lizard was still after the foodstuffs that had hurt it and did not notice anything around its legs until it began to stumble.

"TIM-BERRRRR!" Doug yelled as the giant lizard began to fall forward.

Quinn Stevens and Hero both began to shout, "NO! STOP!"

It was too late, though. "Godzilla" heaved forward once again, this time falling directly into downtown Promethean City like a drunken homeless man would fall into a trashcan-strewn alley. As it fell to the ground, it took several skyscrapers down with it.

"Shit," Doug muttered as he realized what he just did.

The giant lizard was down for the second time in the last few minutes, and a bit woozy, but not yet out. In fact, it was madder than hell.

"You know what is wrong in this picture?" said Quinn to Hero, which was standing next to him, looking at the monster screaming and trying to get back on his feet.

"Yeah, there is a big green monster one hundred metres tall running rampant across the city."

"No... I mean, yes... but that's not what I intended." And, opening wide his arms, Quinn said: " Where is the cavalry?"

Doug, landing: "You mean the Army? There is plenty of soldiers and police all around, putting da people to safety."

Stevens looked around, making an ample gesture with his right hand. "Sure... putting the people to safety... but there should be fighters in the sky attacking this thing. Maybe it would take some, but as hard its skin is, it's not impenetrable."

"I tell ya, it's a conspiracy. They wanna us to take it alive, and then they will come here to carry it away with big 'copters to some fancy secret base" explained Doug, visibly excited.

The beast roared, finally able to raise one of the gigantic legs, ready to push over it to finally standing again. But before it did, swinging on a rope Captain Midnigight catapulted exactly between the eyes of the beast.

"Oh, shit, here we go again" moaned Hero, taking flight, followed closely by the other two.

"Hah! Take that, foul miscreant!" cried Captain Miscreant as he kicked the giant lizard beast between the eyes, doing about as much damage as the average fly does to the average windscreen.

The beast roared and scrabbed at it's own nose in an attempt to dislodge the good Captain, who in defiance of all logic (and probably some elementary physics as well) managed to hang on to the beast's nose. The overall effect, therefore, only served to make the giant lizard creature look fairly silly, which isn't actually that easy when you think about it, so kudos to the Captain.

"He's gonna die isn't he?"

Quinn really wanted to contradict Doug, but he knew he'd be wrong anyway.

"Yep, he's gonna die"

"I should bally well think not! What kind of world would that be, if doers of right got eaten by dashed lizard beasts, wot wot?"

Still in mid-flight, the trio of heroes turned to face the source of the voice. They were faced with possibly the fourth oddest thing they'd seen today (the top three were Doug, Captain Midnight and the lizard, with Hero and Quinn coming in behind). A tall, dandyish man in a white suit, with black hair, a moustache and dark glasses, carrying a purple umbrella. Possibly the oddest thing about him, however, was his hat. After all, how many flying people have you seen who wear a silver bowler hat?

"What ho, you chaps. Dr. Marvelo, Master of the arcane, the mysterious and the downright peculiar. I say, that's quite the gecko you've got there, isn't it?"

"Gee, really? I hadn't noticed" Quinn responded acidly.

"Steady on, my dear boy. Simply an observation, what what?"

Dr. Marvelo turned and flew towards the beast, raising his umbrella and, with aa flick of his wrist, opening it. At which point a bolt of energy flew out of the end and struck the monster upon the nose. As the monster turned towards the new hero, his voice drifted back towards the others

"I say, take that you rotter! Right on the hooter!"

Elsewhere...

A cork popped as the foam came spewing forth from the top of the bottle. A short, balding man in a long white labcoat smiled widely, bringing the bottle down to two flutes sitting on the stainless steel tabletop, filling them with sparkling champagne.

"Well, Charles," he said, "we've finally done it!"

"Indeed," Charles said, running his hand through his goatee, admiring the rather large bulb growing in a terrarium across the lab. "I never thought you and I would be able to collaborate on a project, Walter, what with your work in botany and mine in human genetics... but look at it!"

Charles gestured over to the bulb he'd been admiring. Walter followed his gaze, his grin widening in giddy anticipation. The bulb in the terrarium was indeed beautiful. The pinkish hue of the petals softened a bit toward the base as it faded into a deep indigo. Large indigo speckles decorated the exterior of the would-be flower, adding, Charles and Walter though, both character and dimension. This plant, doubtless, was their finest creation.

"To us," Walter said, handing a flute to his cohort. "And... to him!" The shorter man indicated the terrarium.

"Or her," Charles said, taking his flute gingerly by the stem.

Walter laughed. "Of course, of course... her!" The two men laughed, clinking their champagne glasses together.

For the next few hours, they talked excitedly, sipping champagne and reliving the process of the creation of such an extraordinary organism. As the time passed, neither man seemed to notice when the bulb in the terrarium began to twitch.

"...still amazed at how you were able to amalgamate the DNA like that. Truly, Charles, you are an artist of all things subcellular!"

Charles laughed greatfully. "Not hardly as much as you, cataloguing the various flora needed to augment the process! Your organizational skills are second to --"

Charles' words were cut short as he seemed to see something out of the corner of his eye. Slowly, he turned.

"What is it, Charles?" Walter asked, following his co-worker's gaze toward the terrarium.

There, behind the glass, their bulb had opened, revealing perhaps the most gloriously beautiful flower either man would have ever seen. Too bad, however, that they were not looking at the flower, but rather at the naked form of a young green-skinned girl standing in the middle of it.

"Sh-she's... perfect..." Walter breathed, gazing at the girl.

"Indeed," Charles said, setting down his champagne flute. "It's female... you owe me twenty dollars..." (Charles had thought it was easy money, especially since he had encoded her DNA to be female... but Walter didn't know that and Charles thought it unnecessary to tell him.)

The two men were in awe of the creature before them. Their creature. She stood, her green skin glinting underneath the terrarium's sunlamps. Her hair was the color of golden wheat, stretching down most of her back. Her eyes were large and frightened as she stared out at the two men before her.

"Magnificent..." Walter cooed, taking another sip of his champagne.

"Indeed," Charles said, walking up to a small intercom box on the side of the terrarium window. "Hello," he said after pushing the button.

The woman backed away a bit, her eyes widening in greater fear. A startled scream erupted from her mouth. Then, as though amazed that she could make such a noise, she made it again, alternately covering her hands to her mouth and making the noise.

Charles smiled and turned to Walter. "She's just like a child."

Turning back to the window, Charles addressed the girl. "Hello, my dear." Forgetting her ability to make noise, she backed away again. "No, no, don't be frightened. My name is Dr. Charles Walker. This is my co-worker, Dr. Walter Curie. We... well, we created you."

Her wide eyes darted from Charles to Walter and back again, as though attempting to understand what they were saying. Charles decided to simplify.

"Charles," he said, pointing to himself emphatically. "Char-les."

"Char-les," the woman said slowly, smiling wildly after she had done so, clapping her hands... and then becoming amazed with that.

"Her rate of learning is astounding," Walter said, nearing the glass. "She's only been out of her cocoon for a few minutes and already she can say, 'Da-da'!"

"Indeed," Charles said. "Now, let's see if she can say, 'Ma-ma,' eh?"

Walter rolled his eyes, then turned back to the terrarium. Swallowing the last of the champagne, he began patting his chest with his palms. "Walter!" he practically screamed. "Walter! Wal-ter!!!"

"Good Lord, Walter, she's simple, not deaf!" Charles said, rolling his eyes.

The girl pointed in Walter's direction and said, slowly, "Wal...ter?"

"Splendid!" Walter said, jumping about, obviously affected both by the champagne and the excitement of this new creation. "This is magnificent! What shall we call her, then, Charles?"

Charles ran his hand through his goatee, pondering that very question. "Audrey," he said finally. "Her name is Audrey."

Walter laughed. "Wonderful!" Then, he began pointing back at the woman crouched in the corner. "Audrey!" he said, pointing wildly. "Aud-rey!"

"Aud-rey," came her reply, placing a hand softly on her chest. "Aud-rey."

"I thnk she's got it, Charles!" Walter said giddily.

"Indeed."

Slowly, then... and without warning, the young girl rose and began to walk toward them. However, she did not seem to understand the concept of glass... and ran headlong into the pane that separated her from the doctors.

The two men laughed heartily, Walter being almost doubled over, holding his sides.

The woman's brow furrowed in anger and she began to pound on the glass with her fists. This only prompted Charles and Walter to laugh harder.

Then, almost imperceptibly, something happened. The plants that lined the window of the terrarium also began to sway against the glass. Slowly, the plants in the lab itself began to sway in the direction of the glass as well. Walter's collection of hanging ivy began to snake its way along the floor, creeping up the window.

Suddenly, a crack sounded in the glass. Everything stopped. The young woman looked curiously at the slight fissure in the window, then at her fist, then back at the crack. Smiling widely, she began pounding even more furiously on the glass. The crack began to widen, spreading slowly across the length of the window.

"What is she doing?!" Walter gasped, having been jerked out of his laughing fit.

"Sh-she's attempting to escape!" came Charles' reply. "But, she can't! She's not ready!"

Quickly, both men attempted to race to the other side of the room... only to trip on the assemblage of Ivy laying at their feet. Now, sprawled on the floor, both men were surprised to feel the ivy begin to creep around their legs, arms, and torsos.

"Wh-what is this?" Charles asked.

"The plants!" cried Walter. "Sh-she must be controlling them somehow!"

Soon, however, the men were completely bound by yards upon yards of tangling ivy. The entire floor of the laboratory was covered in green vines and leaves, making it look every bit as much like a rainforest as a lab.

Then... the sound of shattering glass.

Slowly, the woman who had just been named Audrey stepped slowly out and onto the floor of the lab, looking around curiously. As she walked, the ivy began to cover up her feet, protecting them from the glass. As she walked over the leaves, they became greener and fuller at her touch.

The vines and ivy began to elevate and the two scientists soon found themselves suspended in the air.

"Please!" cried Walter. "Let us down! We truly mean you no harm! W-we merely wish to study you! To teach you!"

"Indeed!" Charles croaked. "Do you honestly think you can survive out there? On your own?"

At that moment, the ivy that covered Charles began to jostle about. The scientist screamed as he flailed back and forth. After two moments, the man's slacks, belt, and overshirt dropped in front of the bewildered Audrey.

For a number of moments, Audrey knelt down, examining the individual pieces of clothing with obvious curiosity. Eventually, through some obnoxious coaxing from Charles and Walter, she had put the clothes on, though the white shirt was oddly buttoned and only half tucked into the khakis, which were too large for her, necessitating her to cinch the belt as tightly as she could around her waist.

Noticing her reflection in the mirror, she walked over to it. After awhile she realized that the reflection was not a new person, but, in fact, herself, she admired herself in the glass.

Turning, then, back toward her creators, she looked up at them, her eyes wide and innocent. "Char-les," she said. "Wal-ter."

Then, she placed her hand on her chest and uttered her name, with as much strength and dignity as she was able. "Aud-rey!"

And, with that... she was gone.

The mouth of the monster opened wide, and swallowed the elegant hero. But suddenly the beast coughed, spitting Marvelo out.

The man stood over, wiped some inexistent dust from the white suite, and looked back at the other assembled heroes, gathered around Midnight that had fallen from the nose during Marvelo attack.

"I found better smell in the sewers of Bombay, I should say, do you know, you chaps?" Dr Marvelo stated, walking nonchalantly toward the group. Then stopped, turned halfway and looked up at the beast. "bad, bad boy" he said, and pointing the purple umbrella at the monster, released a bolt of energy.

The fact merely enraged the reptilian even more.

"We are five and that is just one. Let's take him down!" boldly exclaimed Captain Midnight, ready to run toward the beast. But the hand of Quinn Stevens over his shoulder stopped him.

"Right. We are five. But NOT if we keep to go on him one by one. We must work together. All five together like one" whispered Quinn.

Hero nodded.

Doug looked at him. "Ya gotta a plan?" asked.

"I always have a plan" winked Hero.

Approaching Reality, a millimeter at a time...

Alright. Look past the speed. Feel the senses. It's a common misconception there are five, six at best. Like dimensions, senses just become harder to differentiate the farther along you get.

The raised hairs on the back of your neck? Ninth sense.
Deva ju? Sixteenth sense.
The feeling you left the stove on? Twenty-third sense.

X-Stream remembered strongly his days at the Institute. Eidetic Memory was little more than using the thirteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-first senses co-simultaneously. Not fully possible in the fourth dimension, but readily plausible here in the eighth.

CroSStream had taught him to use the expanding litany of his powers to actualize multiple dimensions simultaneously by exchanging moments on different planes inbetween the existential vibrations of non-meta human existense. In short - step between the moments of human life to 'pause' and collect himself. What he was doing now was along those lines, only more broadly.

But he made one mistake, by overassuming his power level.

In short, he was lost in causality. His suit's internal chronometer told him he had been out of synch with casual reality for close to one year. His experiences told him he had experienced more than thirty relativistic years concurrently.

He couldn't remember anymore what he had hidden from. And he couldn't process his cerebral cortex's infodump through the twenty-seventh and thirty-first senses while existing outside of normal space-time.

He had to go home.

Back in the neighborhood of Reality

Doug looked at him. "Ya gotta a plan?" asked.

"I always have a plan" winked Hero.

The heroes instinctively turned as a flash appeared behind them. Some had no means of seeing it (they didn't realize it was their fourteenth sense telling them of it). There the image of a young man, barely out of his teens -- if at all -- began to appear. He was clad in teal and gray, with a goggled helmet and aerodynamic running suit. At first a two-dimensional cut-out appeared, followed by a rotation of cutouts, then a transluscent holographic image.

"Help..."

Finally, the true individual appeared. He looked at the group before him, fell to his knees, vomited hard, and passed out...

"Well, ain't that a kick in the pants," said Doug.

"Who--?" Hero questioned.

"Don't know," Quinn Stevens said, "but let's get him somewhere safe and get working on that 'plan' of yours. I hope it's a good one."

Hero shrugged casually and hoisted the speedster onto his back. "It's a plan."

"By the way," Stevens added, "My name is Quinn Stevens. This is Hero--" He indicated the powerfully built man, who nodded. "--and this is Doug."

Doug formed a hat on his head and raised it in greeting as he grinned an exaggerated grin with more teeth than is humanly possible to fit in an ordinary jaw. "Pleased ta meetcha."

"My name, good sirs, is..." The 'Dark Nut Detective' stood in a pose with his hands on the sides of his belt as he looked majestically up into the sky. He shouted in a voice that strangely echoed, "...CAPTAIN... MIDNIGHT!"

"Jolly good! Jolly good show!" said Dr. Marvelo. "And I have already had the pleasure of introducing myself as Dr. Marvelo, master of the arcane, the mysterious and the downright peculiar. Err... if I might make a suggestion?"

"Shoot."

"It's been simply smashing to meet with you chaps, but I believe that it would be a good idea to get out of the way before, er..."

"Before?"

"Before we become... 'roadkill.' That's the correct term, eh wot?"

The lizard beast roared furiously and charged the six strange foodstuffs, this time with the intention to kill.

"Shit. The plan, Hero!" yelled Stevens.

"Simply..." whispered Hero looking at the ground, his eyes wandering over the surface like they were seeing invisible cable. Then, he pushed his right hand in the ground, pushing it further below the paved road, and returning it with a power cable in the hand. "We electrocution it!" Hero explained triumphantly.

"Sorry, son" said Marvelo approaching. "I sadly fear not" he whispered, touching the broken end of the cable with the point of his index finger. "There's no juice in it..."

"Fuck!" yelled Hero.

"The cops have offed electricity and gas to avoid fires..." stated, matter of facts, Stevens.

The giant bipedal lizard was now less than fifty yards.

"Take covers" yelled Stevens, and in an instant the road was empty... if not for the lying senseless form of X-Stream.

The enormous T-Rex like monster stopped, towering over the still human shape.

The raptor instinct of preying over running prey was disarmed in front of something shaped like foodstuff, yet confusingly motionless.

For the first time in hours, the beast program was unable to process the situation. Cautiously, the beast lowered his big head to sniff the thing. Slowly, one millimetre after millimetre, the small eyes dancing in their orbits to sense any wrongness in the surrounds.

The smell was good. It WAS food.

The jaws opened wide...

and Marvelo jumped in. Hero and Stevens charged at full velocity at the legs, while Doug, in elephant form, with Midnight on the back, attacked from behind pushing over the tail. The opposite forces made the monster to fall over hits legs, rolling on the side.

Dead.

Hero went to the mouth, and pushed the upper mandible to open the mouth. Marvelo walked elegantly out, waving the umbrella, which were smoking from the tip. "Stevens" he started, looking around in search of the young man face, "right you were, my son, the interiors are quite much softer that the outside, my dear. Nice intuition, you chap."

Stevens went to the lying form of the stranger meta. "This boy needs medical care..."

Exactly in that moment, two big Chinook elicopters positioned above the lying for of the beast, sending down ropes that operatives in all black suites tied to the form of the giant monster. In mere minutes, the lizard was lifted up and taken away.

"Like I said ya, ya see?" winked Doug.

But the eys of the others were over an approaching humvee, that stoipped by them.

A general stepped down, a big smile on his face. "I am General Forrest. Who is your leader, guys?"

“General Forrest?” Quinn stated in a bit of a daze as the police and army surrounded the new found heroes.

“Looks like a tree to me-“ Doug whispered to Marvelo who laughed in a weirdly elegant manner.

“General” Hero exclaimed and stepped forward. “We have no leader per-say, but are joined together for the greater good.” Hero turned towards the semi-grouped batch of supers, no one disagreed. “We saw that the city needed us and for that reason alone we joined together. For truth! For Justice! And for the safety of this fair city.”

General Forrest shook Hero’s hand.

“You soldiers did damn well if I do say so myself. I’m proud to have you looking after the city. What do you call yourselves?”

Hero stood tall and proud.

“I’m HERO!”

General Forrest laughed, “Not you. The group… you’re league of heroes?”

Hero looked back to the newly formed team. Doug’s brow raised, Marvelo simply smiled. Hero looked back to Forrest.

“We’re heroes… ah, we’re.. the…”

Quinn stepped in over Hero’s shoulder, “We’re the MBL.”

“The MBL?” Forrest asked, “Not like them terrori-“

“No sir.” Quinn said with a new found confidence, “Like the heroes of myth. The legends of yerterday.”

Hero smiled and backed up Quinn, “Yeah, we’re the MBL. The new MBL!”

"We are?" said Doug a moment later. He mumbled, "Don't remember nobody askin' me about MY opinion on the subject."

Everyone looked at him.

"Don't mistake me," Doug continued. "I'm not tryin' ta be a whiner or anythin' like that. Just... the few of us just met. We've never had the chance to exchange more than our names during the battle with the beast. I came to Promethean City fer a reason, and I gotta go do what I gotta do before I even think about startin' somethin' else."

Doug's head sprouted a long tube which rose into the air and sprung open like petals on a flower, turning into helicopter blades which began to spin rapidly, causing Doug to rise into the air.

"I'll catch up with y'all later!" he shouted as he flew away.

Hero said to the others, "Maybe we should talk this over first. We all have our own individual reasons for being here."

"Wherever danger is present," said Captain Midnight, "I am there! And that is all the reason I need."

"OUCH!"

The woman swore silently, popping her finger into her mouth in an attempt to stop the blood flowing from her veins. Of course, if she actually stopped to think about it, she would have realized that she was actually sucking blood from her finger and not really stopping anything at all... but she was in too much pain right now to really think about that at all.

"What's wrong?" came a voice from the front of the shop.

"Nothing," she yelled back, pulling her finger from her mouth. "Just these damn roses!"

"I told you to be careful with those!" the voice yelled back. "It's bad enough you insist on running around with pruning sheers!"

Flor Dominguez rolled her eyes and walked calmly over to the first aid kit that she always seemed to have near her whenever she was working in the back. She pulled out a Band-Aid, wrapping it around the tip of her finger, which was still trickling blood. Soon, the side of the bandage she could see had a deep stain from where the blood had already begun soaking into the gauze. She sighed and walked back over to her roses.

Flor had only been working at Madame Rossetti Florists in Thunder City for about two weeks now, and already this had been her ninth mishap - her sixth with roses. Flor had, for obvious reasons, developed a bit of a reputation as being accident-prone. And, to be fair, she really was. I mean, who else but her could manage to get several strands of hair eaten by a venus flytrap and not notice it?

Only Flor.

Still, Mrs. Rossetti was a kind employer who didn't necessarily mind an accident here or there as long as it wasn't serious. To date, none of them had been... and Flor desparately hoped to keep it that way.

Turning back to the sink, she once again began cutting the rose stems to make the corsages for the Carmine wedding when she heard the bell ring in the front of the store. She heard Mrs. Rossetti respond.

"Welcome to Madame Rossetti's! How may we h--elp!"

Flor cocked her head to the side. It was very rare that Mrs. Rossetti lost her composure. It was like she just... stopped, conversation-wise. Peeking her head around the back room door, Flor got a glimpse at who had just walked in the door.

A young woman stood there, no older than she by the looks of her. She had vibrant blonde hair that seemed to go on and on and extremely vivid green eyes. She wore a white button-down shirt and a pair of khakis that were obviously too big for her.

And she was completely green.

Flor, like Mrs. Rossetti, could not help but stare at this odd-looking creature. She seemed to gaze around for a long while, as though she were lost. She did not say a word.

Finally, Mrs. Rossetti got the idea to speak. "M-may I help you, dear?" she asked sympathetically, probably having noticed that the young woman had no shoes on her feet.

"Aud-rey," she said, putting her hand on her chest.

Mrs. Rossetti looked back, raising a curious eyebrow at Flor, who merely shrugged and pulled herself fully into the room.

"Well, my name is Maria, dear... and this is Flor," Rossetti said, indicating herself and Flor.

"Mah-ree-ah-dear," the mysterious woman said, pointing to Rossetti. Then, motioning toward Flor, she uttered: "Floor."

"No, no," Flor said, shaking her head. "It's Flor. You have to roll your tongue on the 'R'. Like this: Florrrrrr."

The woman furrowed her brow and opened and closed her mouth a few times in succession, as though afraid of what might come out of it. Then, she opened her mouth and said, "Florrrrrr." Then, with a look of complete excitement plastered upon her face, she said it again. And again. And again. Eventually, Flor had to cover her mouth just to get her to shut up.

"Okay, I -- I think you've got it now," she said, taking her hand off her mouth.

"Florrr--"

Instantly, Flor's hand found it's way back over the woman's mouth.

"Okay," Flor said, looking to Mrs. Rossetti. "What do we do now?"

"I-I can't say," Rossetti said, leaning forward on the floral counter. "What did she say her name was again?"

"Audrey," Flor answered. As soon as the woman heard her name, she patted herself on the chest and a muffled, unintelligible sound managed to make it's way through the closed fingers of Flor's hand.

"I don't think she understands much English, truth be told," Flor said.

"Well, see if she speaks Spanish!" Rossetti said. "That is why I hired you, after all!"

Flor sighed. "Well, we don't get many green-skinned people in the Spanish-speaking community, Mrs. Rossetti..."

"Well, there's no harm in trying!" the owner of the shop said.

Sighing again, Flor removed her hand from Audrey's mouth and turned the girl to face her. "Hola, Audrey. Me llamo Flor Dominguez. Habla usted ingles?"

However, at the mention of Flor's name, Audrey's eyes lit up. "Florrrrrrrrrr," she said again, clapping as she said it. "Florrrrrrrrr."

Shaking her head, Flor turned to Mrs. Rossetti. "Why don't you try speaking Italian to her?" she asked.

"Flor," Rossetti said disdainfully, "my husband is Italian. I'm a Lutheran."

Flor furrowed her brow, attempting to understand the correlation between Italians and Lutherans when something caught her eye. A lot of somethings actually.

All of Madame Rossetti's had seemed to come to life. Every flower in the shop seemed much more vibrant and enthusiastic. So much more... alive!.

Then, she noticed that every single blossom in the entire room had turned toward Audrey, as though she were the sun itself. Flor, her mouth suddenly agape, looked over at Audrey who, noticing what Flor had been looking at, smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

Mrs. Rossetti seemed only now to notice the flowers and gasped rather loudly. About ten seconds after Flor's realization, Mrs. Rossetti exclaimed to Audrey, "My dear... did you do all this?!"

As though answering her question, Audrey walked up to a bowl of roses, which all seemed to be beaming up at her. Leaning down close to the bowl, she pointed to a small bud hiding beneath some of the larger blossoms. Reaching in, she caressed it with her fingers, stroking it gently with her fingertips. Within moments, the bud had opened and fully blossomed as she held it in her fingers.

A stunned silence filled the room.

"My dear," Mrs. Rossetti said after a long moment, "do you have a job, by chance?"

To be continued...

Captain Midnight was in a good mood...he had helped his fellow heroes in battle and managed to save a lot of people in the process...what a day.
With a big grin he searched his utility belt for cash, then looked at the others.

"Well, now that we have had our first adventure together, we need to do two things. Primus, take this sick fellow to the doctors and then...a nice dinner. It´s on me. How about the Club Gascon? I hear they have great fois gras."

Quinn raised a eyebrow, still not sure what to think about this energetic and slightly mad man.

"On you? That´s a rather fancy place you know. And the proces are even fancier."

"Oh...hehe...no problem I have it covered. I always travel with ome pocket change on me."

Cap showed them a roll of hundred dollar bills.

Hero smiled.

"So both mad and rich...nice combination. But then rich people aren´t mad, are they? They´re usually marked as "eccentric" instead."

Cap let that slide and heaved the sick grey suited man onto his shoulders.

"Ok men, lets find a good ambulance for this fellow, and then we feast!"

The four men in colourful garments look extraordinary out of place at the Guascon Club in downtown Thunder City, among normal customers in evening attires.

The eyes of the presents are all on the four saviours of the city, but no one dare to disturb them. The giant lizard rampage has been just the last of many threats the city has seen in the last four years, and every one in the city hopes that finally they have found who will look over their lives.

The low hum in the room finally broke when a reporter rushes in, stopping in front of our guys table, a cameraman right behind.

“Here’s Buzz E. Randall from TCBC, live from Thunder. I am at the Guascon Club, where the MBL enjoys the dinner after having saved the city from a brutal giant dinosaur in the afternoon. An extraordinary gathering of gifted metahumans that came to the aid of the city when it needed most.” And, putting the microphone just under the nose of Dr. Marvelo: “Who are you? What brought you here in the direst moment, to risk your life for the well being of our fellow citizens?”

Promethean General Hospital

"Doctor!" the nurse shouted, "I don't undertand -- this boy's readings are off the chart any which way at any given moment. He's..."

"Not your responsibility anymore, ma'am."

"You can't walk into a clean room like that!" the attending doctor yelled as an unscrubbed General Forrest pushed by him and walked to the table where X-Stream lay.

"He's not ill. He's just unsynched." the General barked, "I want all of you out of here."

As the nervous medical crew ushered out, Forrest looked down at the boy and quietly spoke.

"Jenkins. Come back to the Fourth. We need to talk."

"GAH!"

With a gasp and a flash of sound like waves crashing on a beach, X-Stream awoke.

"Where...when am I?"

"Promethean City. The Institute contacted us one year ago, said to await your return from Stringspace, saying you had the key to saving the world from a threat from nonconsensual reality or some bullshit."

"I...I don't remember."

"Well, you better. Until we can determine if the threat on Thoughtspace the Institute warned of become it was unrealized is true -- and until you can remember that threat -- you're our plant in this new MBL, Jenkins."

"Plant? That sounds important..."

"Remember later. Listen now. Whatever you folks fought erased the Institute from Continuity. The psychics at Project Pandora got little more than a warning, but you tripped the Light Fantastic to get here, so its up to you to remember what's coming over the boundaries of reality to strke here next. Don't mention it to your new teammates, but keep an eye out."

"Won't they find out you canme here?"

"Hell no. Those docs won't remember a thing. Pandora's learned a thing or two about putting things back in the box. Aside from your memory and mine, this conversation literally never happened..."

Meanwhile, back at the Guascon Club...

Dr. Marvelo smiles into the camera.

“Fair citizens, for I am Dr. Marvelo and along with my new comrades, we are the MBL. And we are here to serve you!”

He takes his hat from his head and puts it on his chest.

“And to keep you safe from injustice!”

Dr. Marvelo throws his umbrella over his shoulder.

“Anything else sir?”

Buzz’s eyes light up at Marvelo’s answer and he barrages him with questions, all of which the hero is able to answer with grace and dignity.

Quinn Stevens falls back into his seat, glad that Dr. Marvelo doesn’t need back up at the moment. He rubs the back of his neck and cracks it.

“You okay?” Hero asks and sits next to the black and silver clad hero, placing two drinks down. Hero lifts the bottom of his mask to sip his drink.

“Yeah, just a little sore.” Quinn sits up and takes his drink. “My first… battle, if you even call it that.”

“Yeah?” Hero comments, “I would have never guessed. You did damn well out there.”

“I would happen to agree.” Captain Midnight sits with his own drink, “I’ve been doing this many years. And you guys are some of the best other heroes I have worked with. Some of the only heroes I have worked with also.”

Hero laughs and smiles, “I usually fly solo, but I think I can get used to doing some team work, if you guys really are up for this MBL thing.”

“I know I’m ready to join a team” Midnight says assuring and pats Hero on the back.

“I think a team would be good for me too.” Quinn comments, “I’d like to have someone watching my back.”

“Yeah.”

“So, this MBL name, what were you talking about?”

“You’ve never heard of the MBL?” Quinn asks confused.

“Only the terror group from way back. The guys who took Manhattan hosta-“

“No, not those monsters. There were a few bad men, villains, and they gave the MBL name a bad stigma. Before they existed, there lived another group of powered men. The MBL. These were the best of the best heroes from around the multiverse. They saved the world more times than you can believe. Some of he older known stories involve a God leading them against evil. But the team changed often, adding and losing members as a Baseball team would. My father knew their stories well and every night he told me another adventure they had. Years worth of stories every night for as long as I could remember. They were the true MBL, not some terror group, the MBL were heroes.”

Suddenly, as if the answers given by Marvelo are not enough, Randall, the reporter, put the microphone under the nose of Hero.

“Hero is a well known codename, sir. And also is your costume! So, why do you now sports a mask? Now that metahumans are loved for all the hard work they have done and still do… what do you fear?” asks mischievously the short reporter.

By instinct, Hero pushes away the microphone. Then, like if he has though back, he takes the microphone in his hand. “Sorry for my reaction, I am very tired. But I am not the person you think. I found the suit at a used cloth store, it was perfect for the job. It had the Hero name over, so I kept the codename for myself. And for the mask… I have no fears, but I have… relatives to protect…”

“Ah, a mystery man… people will love you!” says smiling Buzz E. Randall, then pointing the microphone toward Captain Midnight…

Across the City, at the-

The First National Bank

A truck drives through the front of the bank. Five men pour from the truck with the driver firmly seated, they pull out high tech weapons and demand access to the vault.

"No one move a muscle!" the leader exclaims.

The lady behind the counter triggers a silent alarm and then throws her hands high into the air, listening to the gunman.

Five seconds ago

The silent alarm sounds.

Across town, Charles Jenkins opened his eyes. He felt a twitch. Fourty-second sense.

Now

"Move it! Move it! Open the vault!" the lead robber shouted, pointed the high-tech rifle at the teller, "I'm not afraid to ventilate the whole lot of you!"

"Alright! Just hold on!"

As the young woman pressed the code, the heavy door swung quickly open. A moment later, the lights inside the vault switched on. It wasn't empty.

"You thieves are slower than I remember," X-Stream smirked as he leaned up against the inner wall of the vault, juggling five energy rifle power cartridges in his hands at mind-bending speed, "do us all a favor and give up now and save the cops some paperwork, eh?"

"He's just a kid! Rush him!"

Noticing their weapons disabled, the crooks charged the vault. It was embarrassing at best. Within two steps, each found themselves fighting one-on-one with the young hero (shifting him position from battle to battle from moment to moment). Within three steps, all five were out for the count.

"Screw that." With a screech, the truck began to back up. It made it about two feet. By then, both axles were missing. As the crook went for the door handle, he found the door lock was crushed into place, sealing him in, and his fellows were int he back of the truck, chained up with the type of industrial chain only sold in one supply outlet two miles away.

As the cops arrived five minutes later, X-Stream was long gone, with only a note scratched an inch-deep into the side of the truck remaining:

COURTESY OF THE MBL!

The teller checked her watch. The elapsed time from hitting the alarm to the battle bing over was just under fifteen seconds...

Captain Midnight took the microphone and stood in a heroic pose, wearing a serious, concerned expression on his face. He began to speak as if he had been rehearsing for this moment for several years.

"Good citizens of Promethean City, good citizens of Thunder City, and, of course, citizens of Lightningburgh," he began, "we have reached a turning point in our history. For many years we have been besieged by numerous troubles, we have faced massive destruction and worked hard to rebuild, and we have met each and every challenge with the fortitude and hard work we are known for. Yet there sometimes comes a day, such as today, when greater challenges face us which require a greater response.

"We are that response. No longer will you be left to wonder how our fair cities will face that challenge. No longer must you fear and tremble over unexpected disasters. For we will meet those challenges. We will be there to prevent, or otherwise lessen the impact of, those disasters. All you need worry about from this moment on are the everyday problems of life."

"Like our food getting cold," mumbled Quinn Stevens as Captain Midnight continued to speak.

"Let him talk for as long as he likes," Hero whispered. "It'll give us a chance to eat. Maybe the reporters will get the message and give us a bit of time alone to talk after he's finished."

"Wishful thinking," said Quinn.

"Probably."

"Pardon me for interrupting your filet mignon," said Dr. Marvelo, "but have you chaps noticed something strange about our table's place-settings?"

They looked around at the other tables. Each had normal tableclothes, but the one at their table was pale yellow, and it suddenly began to hiccup like it was drunk (which it may well have been).

"Psst! Hey, guys... pass me some'a that spaghetti, huh?"

They looked at each other.

"Doug?" someone asked.

"Who else, ya nincompoops?" said Doug, in the shape of a tablecloth. "Just pass me some'a yer food and a bit o' booze while yer at it. I'm tryin' ta stay incognito, and yer about ta bust my cover, so shut yer traps! Fuck all!"

"Tally-ho!" said Doctor Marvelo. He began to do a jig on the table as he fought the urge to vomit a bit, and indeed he did just a bit, messing up his shirt a little.

And then everyone woke up. The end.

Or is it?

No.

The story continued from the point where Doug was revealed as the tablecloth, but everything else was the writer's booze-induced fantasy from the large amounts of alcohol he ingested before writing this post last night.

With a whoosh and skid, a chair slid to the edge of the table, X-Stream sitting in it.

"Sorry for the delay. Had to check out of the hospital and foil a bank robbery. Anybody able to spot me for lunch? I'm afraid I didn't bring any money into the seventh dimension with me last year..."

"No problem, fellow citizen." captain Midnignht said with a grin.
"This whole shebang is one me anyway."

"Thanyouverymuch."

"Pardon?"

"Ah, oops sorry, that happen sometimes...thank you very much."

""You´re welcome. Now let´s see the main courses are..."

"Eeeeeek"
A young blond suddenly jumped up on her table, knocking all the glasses and bowls of food on the floor and one of them landed in her boyfriend´s lap. So he to joined in the screaming and jumping around.

Apparently a pack of rats had decided in that moment to migrate from their cozy cellar to the kitchen and one of them had strayed to their table.
The screaming that ensued frightened it and it decided that this wasn´t such a good idea afterall. So it ran off in the general direction of the kitchen, making more people jump up on chairs and scream.

“RATCATCHERS!”

It was written in 72 points, bold, all capital letters on the first page of the Thunder gazette.

“They called us Ratcatchers!”

Hero seemed enraged. Much more than when he was fighting the big beast.

“Calm yourself, jolly fellow” said cheerfully Mr. Marvelo. He was genuinely surprised by the reaction of the grey and blue dressed superhero.

“There are photos of us destroying the restaurant trying to capture the mice!” grunted Hero.

X-Stream took the newspaper. “It’s by that Randall. The would-be-heroes last night gave the city a tasting of what to expect from them in the months to come. Seems we have an enemy…”

Captain Midnight waved a fist toward the distant silhouette of the Gazette Building, orphaned of its peculiar golden globe.

Doug snorted. “Maybe he’s unhappy that you played bowling with his toy…”

The sun set over the horizon, on the grey water of the ocean, across the mouth of the bay. The first night of the new MBL was ending.

“So, what now?” asked X-Stream, looking at the sun.

Captain Midnight stood back. “We return in the shadows of the night, ready to return whenever…” Doug interrupted him, laughing: “What shadows? It’s morning.”

Quinn, which was giving the back to the group, looking down from the roof where they retired after winning the battle with the rats, laughed broadly.

All the others turned to look at him. It was he, then, to turn to face them.

“Despite what that idiot has written, we did pretty well yesterday. That monster could have levelled the city, and we stopped it. The people at large know… what Randall writes makes him to look stupid, not us. The people… this city… needs the MBL!”

X-Stream frowned. “Nobody answered my question… what now?”

Quinn smiled. “I think Midnight’s suggestion was good… we return to our lives, ready to regroupo whenever a new threat surfaces. Let’s exchange our cell numbers… the first who spot a danger, will call the others.”

“No fancy headquarters?” asked jokingly Doug.

“Sadly, I think we are short on founds” said Hero.

“I can pay for the rent!” yelled Midnight, opening his wallet, which looked desperately empty. “Ehm… maybe next time…” concluded the good captain.


Meanwhile, elsewhere…

In total darkness, two persons face each others across a glass.

“The payment is on its way. All went smoothly…” says the man we saw from the back.

“That makes me happy. It has always been a pleasure to make business with you” respond the one from across the glass.

“The beast risen, the fools got out of their holes… And now the beast is in our hands.”

Handle it with care. You should be proud to own such a marvel, General…”

The hand of General Forrest went to the switch, and the light went on. It was in his bathroom, facing a mirror, his own face replacing the mysterious man’s own.

Genral Forrest smiled, opened a slider, took out a razor and began to shave his face.

That day was opening in the best possible way…

THE END

EPILOGUE - One week later...

Within a matter of weeks, Madam Rossetti Florists had become the quite the go-to place for flowers in the tri-city area. Residents of Promethean and Thunder Cities (and even a few of the Lightningburghers) flocked to see the flower shop that had, almost overnight, become a full-blown greenhouse/arboritum.

Maria Rossetti was a completely different person. While before she had been a bit stressed, she seemed to be so much happier. Granted, the money lining her pockets was certainly a contributing factor... and there was no doubt in either her or Flor's mind that the newfound Audrey was the cause.

After Audrey's arrival last week, Flor's job had doubled: she was now both a part-time floral arranger and Audrey's full-time babysitter. It hadn't taken either Flor or Maria to notice that Audrey's problem wasn't that she didn't speak English or Spanish or Italian... but simply that she could not speak at all. Rather than wonder about this, Flor had done what her mother had done to get all of her children to learn English when they were young - she nurtured Audrey on a steady diet of public television.

Through the daily viewings of "Sesame Street" and "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood," Flor was astonished at how quickly Audrey had begun to master the English language. Within two days, she was already piecing together full sentences, learning basic math skills, and even showing aptitude with writing as well.

After that, Flor had brought her a stack of books and was amazed at how quickly Audrey had taken to reading them. Starting with Curious George to The Cat in the Hat, Audrey read each with relish, often finishing them very quickly and wanting even more to do. Flor and Maria were both completely flabbergasted at her progress.

"She must be gifted..." Maria said one day, watching as Flor stared intently at an episode of "Pokemon" on a children's television network.

"You're joking, right?" Flor said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Rossetti asked, swapping a sprig of baby's breath for another rose.

"Well, it'd be one thing if we were talking about a one- or two-year-old... but at her age?" Flor asked. "I just assumed she was making up for lost time..."

"Well, to learn so much in just a week's time... that's rare," Rossetti said, nodding.

"True," Flor said. "Personally, I'm more impressed with her horticultural skills..."

Maria beamed as she glanced over at a wall filled with what, for all she knew, were new breeds of flowers. Whenever she would get bored with watching television or reading, Audrey would wander out into the flower shop and... well, it was almost as though she were... playing with the flowers. She would take a couple of flowers - say, a tulip and a daisy - and, within a few minutes, would have created an entirely new breed. Maria's favorite was her cross-pollination of the orchid and the tiger lily, which Rossetti had made into a corsage that she wore constantly.

"She is gifted," Maria said, looking over at Audrey, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Her mouth was agape as the Bulbasaur on the screen sent several vines toward an unsuspecting Ekans in order to whip it. The young lady clapped her hands ecstatically. "No doubt in my mind," Rossetti finished, turning back toward the front of the store as the door chimed.

"Welcome to Madame Rossetti's!" she sang. "How may I help you, sir?"

The next thing Rossetti knew, there was a large metallic cylinder hovering inches from her face.

"Gimme all the money in the register!" the man holding the gun said. "You," he yelled at Flor, "on the ground with the other one!"

Flor immediately complied, dropping to the floor without so much as a rebuttal. Audrey, who had been, up to this moment, enraptured with the world of Pokemon, looked confusedly over at Flor, lying prostrate next to her, and then looked back up, taking in the form of the mugger. Her eyes widened.

"Stay where you are!" the man yelled at her, his gun still aimed at Mrs. Rossetti's head. "Stay there or I kill her!"

Flor looked up, as though worried that Audrey might try something, but she did not. Instead, she merely closed her eyes and began rocking back and forth on the ground.

At the till, Maria looked down at her curiously. "C'mon, lady!" the mugger shouted, jerking her back to reality. "Let's see the green!"

At that moment, two vines from opposite sides of the store shot towards the man, grabbing his arms and pulling them apart, the gun staying where it was and dropping harmlessly to the countertop. Before the mugger could say anything, a vine shot from behind him, wrapping his head - and most notably, his mouth - in its greenery, while two more vines entangled his legs, lifting him into the air, his body forming a large 'X' in the middle of the store.

His eyes wide and irate, the now would-be mugger thrashed a bit, tugging with all his might at the vines that entangled him. His strength was even causing a couple of the vines to tear a bit... that is, until they spontaneously produced thorns, which dug into the man's flesh. After a few muffled screams, the man stopped struggling, his eyes wide with fear.

Flor and Maria, both agape, gazed in awe at the suspended man... then back at Audrey, whose eyes were now opened and looking sternly at the mugger. "Well," she said quietly, "he said he wanted to see the green..."

"That," Maria stammered, "that... Audrey, that was amazing!"

"Seriously!" Flor said, rising to her feet. "How did you... do that?"

Audrey shrugged, shaking her head. Then, silently, she turned back toward the TV.

Even after the police had been called, all Flor and Maria could do was just look at Audrey in awe. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it before...