Blackout Ch. 1

Despair

Elizabeth angrily grabbed her coat off of the coat rack and stormed out of her boyfriend's apartment. Behind her, her boyfriend called for her to come back, and in front of her, her husband had just stormed out of the door, having just found his wife with another man, walking out when she yelled at him for not trusting her and following her around.

"Spying bastard," she muttered under her breath as she stormed after him. When she stepped out onto the street, her husband was nowhere to be seen, so she started heading in the direction of their apartment, hoping to catch him.

When he was nowhere to be found, Elizabeth stopped in front of an alleyway and pulled a cigarette from her coat. She was about to light it when she heard a noise from the alleyway behind her. She squinted into the opening, her eyes trying to pierce the darkness.

"Is that you, Anthony?" she said. When no one answered, she grew frustrated.

"You know, if you had just learned to trust me, this would have never happened!" she screamed into the darkness. Again, there was no answer from the alleyway. Her frustration turned to anger, but before she could begin to shout again, she heard another noise. This one was different, like the sound of a snake crawling against gravel. Elizabeth tried to step back, but felt something catch on her leg. She looked down, and shrieked in fear.

A dark tentacle had wrapped around her ankle, and with a strong tug, the tentacle yanked her off of her feet and pulled her into the darkened alley. Elizabeth scrambled to grab ahold of something, but to no avail. As the creature approached her, Elizabeth's mind flooded with images of the Brainiac robots that had been swarming the city. Had one of these creatures captured her to drain her brain of her intelligence, or was she to be one of the worker drones to be put to work building the Sub-Avatars?

A dark figure stepped into view, and when Elizabeth's terrified brain processed what stood before her, a sharp, blood-curdling scream tore through the night air of Metropolis.

Monokrome dodged the clawed swipe of the Brainiac Subjugator with a flip backwards. When his feet touched the ground, he pushed back towards his cybernetic opponent, driving his sword straight through its chest. The robot spasmed and jerked, but after a second, the light in its eyes went out.

Monokrome was an imposing figure, a six foot height and broad shouldered frame concealed beneath a black suit covered in light grey pieces of silver future-cop armor and organic spiked gauntlets. A tattered cape hung from his shoulders, and his head was masked by a black helmet sporting two bat ears.

Monokrome sighed and looked around for the other one he was fighting with. Ten feet away from him, a young boy with spiky brown hair and an orange and blue caped outfit battled a Brainiac Spark with a large shield.

The young boy swung the edge of his shield at the robots neck, only for the machine to dodge at the last second. The Spark blasted the boy a few feet back, and began to advance upon him. The boy slammed his dark blue boot into the ground, causing several small pillars of earth to erupt from underneath the robot. The Brainiac drone flew into the air and crashed onto its back. It looked up just in time to see the edge of a shield fly down and slam into its neck, instantly decapitating it.

The boy let out a small sigh of relief and slid the shield back onto his arm. He looked over to Monokrome, who had been observing him.

"You could have helped, you know," he said.

Monokrome shook his head, "You need to learn how to handle yourself, Ripwave. Help won't always be there when you're expecting it, so you need to be able to go on without it."

"Yeah, yeah."

Monokrome and surveyed the sight. Sprawled around the street of Gotham's Diamond District were the mangled and twisted remains of a squad of Brainiac's robotic servants. Monokrome looked around, concerned.

"They're branching out further each day," Ripwave said. Monokrome nodded but said nothing. Ripwave looked at the older hero from underneath his orange goggles uncomfortably and then turned back to the Diamond District Police Department. He stepped forward, then stopped and sighed. He turned and looked back at the Grey Warrior.

"You know…" he said, "…Batman wanted me to tell you…you're welcome back anytime. The Justice League always has a place for you, Monokrome."

Monokrome didn't meet the younger hero's gaze, instead keeping his eyes to the ground.

"Tell Batman I appreciate the offer, but…" he paused, "I still need some time alone."

Ripwave rubbed the back of his head, "I know, it's just, it's been two months. We really miss you around the Watchtower."

Monokrome couldn't help but smile, "Oh, I'm sure the Justice League isn't crippled without me."

Ripwave sighed, "I know but…"

"I'm fine, Rip," Monokrome said quietly, "I just need more time."

With that, Monokrome pulled out his grapple gun and fired towards the roof of a nearby, zipping towards the top. Ripwave watched him go, concern etched across his young face.

Monokrome made it to the roof and sat down, allowing his knees to buckle beneath him. Two months, had it really been so long? Had it really been two months since Sachel and he had fought with the villains Vendettuh and Beelzebub. Two months since they had killed the hero Lexicon, and two months since Sachel had sacrificed herself to stop the demon they had summoned from Hell.

Monokrome grabbed his helmet and lifted it off; he needed the air. Underneath his helmet was a man with short black hair, a black trimmed beard, and grey eyes. Two months ago, his eyes were full of determination and life, but now, after suffering the deaths of Lexicon and Sachel, those eyes were tired and broken.

The man under the helmet, Richard Grare, knew he needed to move on. This wasn't the first time he had lost friends. He had served the GCPD for all of his adult life, so having men and women he knew fall in the line of duty was nothing he hadn't experienced before. So why did they're deaths hit him so hard?

It's because I didn't just lose friends, he thought. The cops that died in the line of duty, and even Lexicon, were good friends, but they were simply friends. Sachel, on the other hand, was something different, something…more. Sachel and he had grown close over time, in fact he would even go so far as to say that they had come to love each other. Losing her was the hardest thing he ever had to go through, and he was finding it hard to move on. All he could think about was that he would give anything to see Sachel again. He would give anything to see Kristin Rose.

A young woman with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes set the bag containing the few possessions she had down on the floor of her new apartment. It was small, but she was personally happy she had it at all. She was amazed anyone would give an apartment to an amnesiac young woman with no money and no job.

I can let you stay for about two months worry-free, the tenant had said. That should give you enough time to get a good job and get back on your feet.

The young woman smiled. It surprised her how much more generous people were in Metropolis.

"Hi, you must be the new girl."

The young woman turned to see and older woman with long brown hair tied into a braid. The younger woman couldn't explain it, but a small pang of sad recognition flared in her at the sight of this woman. It only lasted a second, however, and she was able to return the older woman's smile.

"Yeah, Mister Richardson said I could have a place to stay while I try to get back on my feet."

The older woman smiled, "Yeah, he does his best to be that kind of nice guy."

She extended her hand, "Well, don't be afraid to be a stranger. I'm Jennifer Conner."

The younger woman smiled and took her hand, "Thanks, I'm Kristin Rose."