Sirens blared across Pretoria as heroes swarmed in two volatile clusters. The villain that destroyed the transport and attacked the city had somehow split himself in twain and was now two entities.
Midgardsomr threw a colossal punch at the augment, but his fist met a powerful energy barrier that caused the massive serpent to reel back. Another hero ran up the slithery hero's scaly hide and vaulted off Midgard’s massive head. Crystal Meth Anubis met the augment with a hard slash from his blade. The augment crashed into a building, creating a sizable hole.
Hotwings flew by, preparing his next attack. “Crystal! I thought you were...”
Crystal said, “nah, no time for recreation. I’m gonna take down this jerk.”
“STOP GABBING AND SMASH HIM!” Midgard bellowed.
Heroes poured out powerful attacks against the hero after he had regained his airborne position. The morphon orbs that flew around him seemed to keep him from taking much harm.
Midgard went to grab the augment, but the gray man vanished and reappeared next to the serpent’s head. Another hero bounced right off of Midgard’s head and shot the augment with two laser pistols.
“I AM NOT A STEPPING STONE!!!” Midgard screamed.
Furious Squirrel landed after his attack and skidded across a roof. He shot again, and hit the augment with a clean blast. Tapping his ear he said, “hey, guys, I just figured something out. This dude’s resistance is shifting. Looks like he’s weak to tech stuff right now.”
Punlork landed next to Furious and shot from his weapons. “Thanks for the heads up.”
Skynett flew by, readying some tech fists. “I figured that out thirty minutes ago.”
Furious huffed and took aim just in time to see a blast of psionic energy coming his direction. “Ah, nuts.” He was hit and flew hard off the roof. Furious tried to use his jetpack to control the flight, but he only achieved a faster arc across the city. With a long roll across the ground, he landed beneath the cluster of heroes fighting the other incarnation of this strange enemy.
A large fireball was thrown directly at him from the augment. He didn’t have time to react, but fortunately Madam Marvelous landed next to him and quickly changed to stone to protect him.
“You okay?” She asked.
“I’m alive, if that counts.” Furious got to his feet. “I figured it out. These augment guys can alter their resistance. We just...”
“Yeah, we know. This guy is currently taking lots of damage from magic.”
“Crud, I don’t have magic.”
Marvelous directed another blast away from them. “Don’t care, just shot him!”
Both heroes returned to the fight. Ringmaster raced by, shoved Madam Marvelous out of the way and unloaded a massive volley of firepower at the villain.
“Watch it!” Marvelous responded to the shove.
“Stay out of my way!” Ringmaster continued firing long enough for the augment to take a special interest in him.
Marvelous joined Ringmaster, but noticed the change in the augment. “He’s resisting our attacks!”
“That just means we need more pressure.” Ringmaster increased his firepower.
Marvelous jumped out of the way just as the augment plowed into the ground, shoving Ringmaster through a wall.
Street Fighter and Dun Ringill came up quickly and used mental powers to confuse the augment. This gave a wide open shot for Ringmaster to slug the enemy right into the air. Unearthly Mitch the Lich summoned a demon who caught the augment and drop kicked him across the town.
The two augments were coming closer as both sides had them on the run.
Skynetts’ voice came through, “their defenses against physical attacks are down, both are reading complete vulnerability to that morphon power.”
Marvelous answered, “we gotcha. Take them down!”
Anubis got one last shot at the primary augment and knocked him into the other augment. Both met and absorbed into one another. Ringmaster and Madam Marvelous joined power and hit the completed villain with one final blow. The swirling energy around the gray man evaporated and he crashed into the street below. All that remained of agent Torrin Wolf was a bloody corpse on a broken highway.
***
Nova stood in the middle of Operations with Chase, Gar, and Craig at his side. They all watched the emergency meeting of the U.N.
The Secretary General spoke. “After reviewing all the evidence from the events in Pretoria last week, the United Nations has renounced BADGE authority across borders, remove all funding for the BADGE organization, and condemn the members of BADGE that attacked Pretoria, South Africa. The criminal who murdered the children and other occupants of the shuttle was killed by BADGE’s own operatives, leaving us a difficult position of placing blame. We have issued an order of apprehension for Director Nova, who must be held accountable for the actions of his people. We have also issued international warrants for known villains among the ranks of BADGE and have placed an order of restriction against any so-called heroes who work for the various Leagues associated with BADGE. Until such a time that BADGE answers for these crimes, it is disallowed from operating within the borders of any allied United Nations entity.”
Chase almost spoke when there was a strange interruption on screen. A delegate stood up with Prime Minister Shizue beside her.
“Prime Minister, you have not been given the floor.”
Shizue said, “I don’t care. This body has no right to condemn without proper evidence. You have ignored the many instances of the heroes saving this world from minor crimes to global threats. The nation of North Onnotangu does not recognize the U.N.’s orders and will not continue to be part of the United Nations until this body agrees to hold proper hearings.” Without another word, Shizue stood and left. With her walked out several other representatives from other nations.
Gar said, “at least we have some allies.”
“She is a good ally,” Nova said. “Shizue knows better than anyone how dangerous politics can be when evil people manipulate populations.”
Chase whispered, "I just wish they knew that it was a friend who died, forced to work against his will."
Nova said, "we will remember Torrin and will not let those who did this to him go free."
Craig asked, “what happens now?”
Nova spent a moment in silence, pondering his words. Finally, he said, “the leagues are not technically part of BADGE. I will allow them to continue doing their day-to-day tasks. They know to avoid the police or any other authority. Fortunately, since the AMA’s are gone, the U.N.’s threats are empty. Even while the world fears us, we must show them we are not the threat. We cannot give into hate. The people who are duped into fearing us do not realize the real danger looming over them. If we stop protecting this world, then our enemy will have won, and I am not ready to admit defeat yet.”
Gar asked, “what do we do?”
Chase said, “we need to find out more about this World Corps command group. Four people run this organization from behind the scenes. We have their computer data, but it is hardly enough.”
Nova said, “we know who Alpha is. She is not hidden. Gamma pretends to be just a military advisor to the World Corps, but we know him, and we now know who Beta is. But, all we have is a picture of Delta and a name. We have to find him.”
They were all surprised by another voice that sounded strangely familiar. “I can tell you more about Delta, more than anyone knows, even his closest allies.”
They turned and saw a man that looked a lot like Nova, only older, more battle scarred, and wearing armor, along with his standard black outfit, including an eye patch.
“Who are you?” Nova demanded.
The other man smiled, “I’m you, from twelve hundred years in the future.”
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