So thanks a ton to Solusandra for writing this and sending it in, I thought it was pretty awesome! ^^
The Devil's in the Kitchen
Matt Murdoc winced as his phone went off in the middle of a fight. Ever since hell week it had gotten harder and harder to ignore injustice going on around him. Evil just sort of,.. called to him. It wasn't the sound of their hearts anymore, it was everything. Though he was blind, it was almost as if he could see it all. The way they moved told of past injuries. Some from receiving abuse, others from giving it. The way they spoke, breathed and reacted to people screamed their crimes now.
He'd tried ignoring it. That hadn't worked, and he'd felt like he was drowning.
He'd tried investigating quietly, and it only sickened him when every gut feeling turned up evidence.
Now, in-between shifts at Hogarth Bennowitz and Chao, he called in tips to law enforcement, and if they didn't respond appropriately, took matters into his own hands.
It was kind of funny, to be honest, how when he didn't finish a job, he'd often end up working his own cases for the firm. They were too low level to be sent up to Jeri Hogarth herself, but perfect work for junior members of the firm.
As the ring persisted, Matt's senses noticed the exact moment that his opponent paused and slightly shifted to his right, distracted by the tinny sounds of "Mamma Mia" coming from his pocket and subconsciously leaving an opening. Without hesitation, Matt blurred forwards, several strikes battering away at the man's defenses before a brutal jab straight to the liver caused the man to fold up like a newspaper.
An equally brutal knee strike to the lowered jaw was all it took to finish the fight, and as the man fell to the floor with a heavy thud, Matt struggled to fish the ringing phone out of his pocket, bruised fingers still slightly trembling with heavy adrenaline.
"Honestly, every time." he muttered to himself, before taking the call.
"Matt here," he said, breathing heavily.
"She's prowling again, Matt." Foggy's voice came over the other end. "It's like watching a tiger readying itself to pounce on a bunny or something that's equally small cute and fluffy. I'm all of those Matt! I'm not feeling very safe here and she just won't listen to me. Can you just... talk to her or something? Use your super-secret ninja kong fu on her if ya have to?"
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew exactly what Foggy was talking about. Electra. Everything since the start of Hell Week had been... interesting.
First off, he'd found that, ever since he fought those demons, entering his old church had literally become painful to him (as opposed to the merely figurative that it had been all his life). It made his hands and anything else that had been touched by the demon blood feel as though it were being dipped in boiling oil. Apparently he hadn't been the only one with this sensation, but his case was certainly the worst by far, as all other cases merely described discomfort, like some terrible itch or a sense of wrongness in their skin. For most of them, it had also quickly begun to fade.
Not so with him. They burnt just as hot as the day he plunged his bare fists into demon flesh. They flared up whenever he sent them striking against human flesh.
He doubted it was a coincidence.
Then, Colleen had discovered, in range of his hearing, that Father Lantom had been concealing the fact that his Mother was not only alive, but had abandoned him at birth. Worse, while he was at Saint Agnes Orphanage, she'd been the matron who'd taken care of him, and she'd never told him.
Then Electra had shown up. His old flame of just a year or two ago had crashed straight through his budding romance with Colleen, begged him for sanctuary, and revealed that SHE was the thing Stick had been training them both to kill all their childhood.
Colleens reaction to Electra had only added fuel to the fire. As it turned out, she used to be part of the very organization that Electra needed sanctuary from: the Hand. By her own account however it had been a long time since she had answered to her old masters and when questioned on where those masters were now, she had merely gotten eerily quiet and morose, offering nothing more than a soft "I don't know. But I imagine they have their own worries to deal with." No matter how much Electra raged or Matt gently tried to pry, she refused to elaborate on the matter.
All she did whenever questioned on it, was grab her white katana closer to her, almost as if she were trying to protect it somehow.
The two girls had nearly killed each other when the truth had come to light, and ended up revealing all three of them to the shelter they'd been protecting. And worse, to Foggy. His best friend had gone hysterical, accusing everyone, including his new girlfriend, the nurse Claire Temple, of being hidden supers helping to tear the city apart.
It had taken another demon attack on the shelter, this time of the black twisted variety, to calm everybody down and get them all on the same side. Electra, Colleen, Matt, and the dozens of armed refugees had held the monsters off in a hail of violence, until a yellow blur had passed through the building, removing the noncombatants. This was immediately followed by Stark and Titan drones which killed the walking nightmares. Foggy told him in the aftermath that his hands and Colleen's sword had seemed to be on fire or something as they had fought.
Colleen had speculated that they had somehow stumbled across the ancient hidden art of unlocking their chi, but that it was distinctly off in some way from how she had heard it described in her lessons during her youth.
From how Foggy described it, Matt personally thought it was more akin to how the Ghost Rider had appeared when it showed up to fight the Avengers and later Hyperion itself.
Appropriate, in a dark sort of way: now his body expressed what his eyes always saw.
After Hyperion had arrived to drive the devil armies off and kill their generals, things had been much safer, but no less hectic.
For some reason, literally out of nowhere, Matt and Foggy had found job offers to come work for Hogarth Bennowitz and Chao laying on their doormats on the same day. Having the law firm in New York, headed by a personal friend of Hyperion himself no less, approach you and your best friend simultaneously?
Suspicious as all hell.
Then being called up by both Colleen and Electra that they had received offers for bodyguards positions from that same company?
That went beyond the suspicious into the dangerous.
He couldn't know for sure, but he was fairly certain that the man behind the power of HB&C had somehow manage to glimpse more of him and his friends than he was strictly comfortable with. The Titan's legion of AI-controlled drones had been all over the place during Hell Week after all...
Still, as Foggy had pointed out, they didn't have much choice other than accepting the beyond generous life time opportunity this presented as they were, in the succinct and poetic words of Mr. Nelson "beyond merely depressingly broke into the hilariously broke. Which is still pretty depressing, all things considered, they just add a laugh track in." And so, five minutes after walking through the big double front doors of HB&C, Foggy and Matt had been dumped into 'the pit' sorting out the massive legal quagmire that came with an alien invasion and time-warped city.
After all, there was hardly a precedent for the type of stuff that had happened to New York over this past year and naturally people had been left with some difficult to answer questions: what were the legal ramifications of Hell Week? When an alien army or demons from another dimension invade, who can you sue for damages? Are you insured for that plasma hole currently providing a new window for your home? And if so, does it count if that hole is no longer there because your house is now a week younger than you are? What about legal documents? The amount of glitches in digital databanks was uncountable and people were still finding them all over the place, such as people having to sell or buy property for a second time or even worse, birth certificates that had to be filed again as some humans didn't even exist before Hyperion seemingly did the impossible and did the horizontal tango with Time itself. The pile of complaints filed by angry and confused citizens was literally high enough to touch the ceiling and so naturally it was dumped on unlucky interns to sift through and see if there was anything worthwhile to pursue in all of this hot mess.
And in the case of HB&C, this meant Foggy and him.
Things had seemed to slowly come to order since then... Matt got a good place for himself smack dab in the middle of Hell's Kitchen (which after the invasion of literal Hell itself hadn't exactly become prime real estate for the superstitious New Yorkers). A bit too good he later reflected: due to it's large size and prime location, all of his friends seemed to naturally gravitate towards it to the point that it felt they spent more time on his couch than in their own beds. Without his say-so or even notice, his apartment, meant as a safe haven and quiet retreat, had turned into the headquarters of their own little Avengers club.
Foggy was still trying to come up with a name, but was struggling with finding an appropriately awful pun so thankfully he was spared from that for at least a little while longer.
Colleen and Electra's duties had kept them away from each other and busy (not that there had been much danger of them starting shit at the company, considering the woman they were protecting could snap them in half without much trouble and take a 9 millimetre to the forehead and not even blink and who had made it viscerally clear that she did not have the time or patience to deal with any of their pent up bullshit), and Foggy and Claire's relationship had bloomed. There was a bit of heartache for Foggy when they learned that his old Fiance Marci Stahl had been killed by the invasion and they all attended her funeral but life had gotten into a rhythm.
Then the package had arrived. Last week, a bleeding asian man had pounded on Matt's door until Claire answered. The man had died in her arms on Matts kitchen floor, but the package addressed to Electra and a tattoo on the man's back had identified him as a member of The Hand. For the last week, the package had remained unopened on the living area table, with Electra pacing back and forth in front of it. 'It called to her' she said. Matt may have questioned her sanity, as he detected nothing from the box, but he'd been dealing with his own prophetic near hallucinations.
Colleen had tried to open the package at one point, and Matt had been forced to intervene between the two when blood began to spill.
"I don't know what to tell you, Foggy. Or her. It's been eating at me that I can't help, but embracing her destiny or rejecting it is ultimately her choice." He replied, frustration and worry mixing in his voice. "Best I can do for you is tell you to pull out the tea from third cubbord second shelf and whiskey from the trunk. It'll stop the pacing at least; she loves that tea."
"Yeah," Foggy drawled "I really don't get that black dragon warrior thing. Colleen has been trying to talk me through it, but it's just too weird. Whiskey though, that I understand! Hey, do you know of miss nachos smokes pot?"
"Just the tea, Foggy..." Matt warned, amused. "Boil water, add the leaves. It's like Ramen, but healthy for you."
"Hey! Do not diss the holy power of 10 cent ramen!" Foggy retorted, a grin in his voice. "That stuff saved us from the dining hall, you know!"
A Nightmare in New Orleans
An orange hole in reality tore itself open in New Orleans and the entire street stopped to take notice. With the recent excitement in New York, everybody was nervous around strange occurrences. Was this the recently revealed Masters of the Mystic Arts? Or another invasion? The city had a long and storied history with demons of another sort and their worshipers, and either was a distinct possibility. So when two men, a woman and a robot straight out of a Hollywood movie stepped out of the hole, everybody breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Jonathan Pangborn closed the portal and stored his sling ring as Phineas' latest prototype android connected to the local network. With them were Betsy Potter nee Beaty (they had tied the knot not even a year ago to much celebration back home) and a grumpy looking Jim Harper (but he always looked grumpy, so nobody gave it much thought). Betsy had been going a bit stir crazy cooped up inside Othrys and when the opportunity presented itself for some good old legwork out in the field without the fate of the Earth on the line, the former cop had jumped at the call (and threatened to flatten Phineas into a paperclip when he wondered if that was such a good idea, and given her Amber Armor, this was no idle threat and he knew it).
Harper had come along since beating the ever loving daylights out of Calvin Zabo had gotten boring and the gruff Chief of Othrys Security had visibly perked up at the opportunity to either punch a demon or angel (or Hyperion-willing, even both) in the face, which had the others just slightly worried.
A mysterious 'Mina Hess' had called Titan Industries about a dark matter explosion in the bay during the televised fight with Captain Marvel, and a catholic high school pastor of all people had phoned in a demon outbreak at his school. Both said the incidents had been contained, but begged for support from Hyperion forces.
The former cop and Tinkerer had agreed that the situation was probably too small to pass along to the boss, but was also likely serious enough that leaving it alone would eventually change that. To that end, the Ghost AI had recruited Pangborn and a member of the security team who'd distinguished himself during Hell Week to take care of the demon, while he and Betsy took the bigger fish. Why was an oil platform exploding bigger than a demon outbreak? Because Mina Hess was the 25 year old genius at the head of Roxxon's New Orleans project. A project Phineas had actually had surprising difficulty to hack into.
What could scare a girl of a similar caliber to the eggheads they normally recruited that she would break company confidentiality to contact Hyperion?
That was a question worth investigating.
They didn't have to wait long, as shortly after the portal closed, the short perky Asian woman bounced up to them. "No Hyperion?"
"He's currently dealing with personal business in Europe." Pangborn told her vaguely. "I assume you're the contact? Ms. Hess?"
She scowled cutely. "I am. We're dealing with zero-matter contamination. The victim was chanting your bosses name during the Namibian incident. I was hoping he'd be here to help."
Pangborn perked up. "Which type of contamination? Light Force, or Dark?" He asked, eyes alight and face concerned. This situation had just gotten significantly more important.
"Both." The woman replied, flatly.
The sorcerer paled. "Oh. Ok. That's bad. Phineas? We may need more support here."
The android nodded. "There's still the demon report to deal with. Open a portal back to base, I'll arrange for..."
"The catholic school, right?" The group turned to Hess. "This town lives on word of mouth tourism. Demon shows up at a catholic school, and an angel at a state school? People talk. You take my situation seriously, and I'll help you resolve both of those." The little Asian woman bargained, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Lead the way then." Betsy Potter spoke up.
"I will defer to your judgement, as the local expert" Pangborn conceded. Looking over at Phineas he shrugged. "I can portal in reinforcements at a moment's notice. Just gather them in the ready room in case."
The platform nodded and Mia turned towards her Jeep, before halting in her tracks and looking from the vehicle over her shoulder back to the shiny, three meter tall form of Phineas latest combat-platform.
"Err... maybe he could just... run along or something?"
To her surprise, the automaton somehow managed to sound perky as it cheerfully responded.
"Oh, no worries! I brought transportation!"
Before Mina had a chance to ask where (she was already warily eyeing the sky, watchful for any portals popping up and dropping tanks on her head), a small compartment on the drone's chest popped open, smooth metallic digits extracted what seemed to be almost a Hot Wheels toy or something.
At least up until he threw it a couple of feet forwards as the thing began to warp and shift in midair.
What landed was large and heavy enough it shook the earth, her own Jeep wobbling on it's wheels as she was nearly driven to her knees and as she looked up at it in awe she couldn't help but think that Hyperion had somehow managed to grab a vehicle out of one of those Halo Effect games all the kids were playing these days.
Undeterred, the Titan Solutions squad hopped in the armored sci-fi tank, the AI in the drivers seat turning it's vertical "eye" towards her and somehow managing to look cheerful despite the lack of any facial features.
"Coming along?"
All she could do was nod slowly, climbing all the way aboard and falling heavily into a (surprisingly comfortable) seat next to Mr. Harper. However, as the mobile fortress took off at speed, something nagging at the back of her mind burst forwards and before she could stop herself, she voiced the question.
"Wait! If this thing was in your chest all this time, how did you even move?! How did you not just sink straight into the ground-?!"
"Pym Particles~" the automaton replied in a singsong tone of voice, and mouth wide in disbelief she turned to her fellow human, who merely looked resigned.
"Just... go with it. They always act like that, you'll get used to it."
With that, the man rested his chin on his fist as he stared out the window with a tired expression on his face.
"... eventually, at least."
For a moment, stunned silence filled the cabin, before Phineas spoke up again.
"So, you've got information for us?"
"Huh? Right. Right!"
Clearing her throat and going over the mental notes she had prepared, she launched into a concise summation.
"For the last seventy years, Roxxon has been messing with a substance called Zero Matter. It was originally discovered as a black crystalline substance at the site of atomic testing and had the remarkable property of being able to draw in and safely absorb the radioactive aftermath of the explosions. With Howard Stark creating Nitramine, Captain america and the Arc Reactor, Roxxon sought to compete with him by harnessing the Zero Matter in any way their scientists could come up with."
"I think I remember something about that." Pangborn spoke up. "The Sanctum's recent histories spoke of scientists breaking the veil and being consumed by the shadow. Apparently there were a string of deaths and both Shield and the Masters were forced to intervene."
Hess nodded. "Captain America was a new paradigm. Everybody was trying to copy him. Especially after Pym released the Colossus during the Cold War. One of the longest running programs at Roxxon has been an attempt to make Zero-matter safe for human use. This is actually more important than you think, as zero matter is often found in Oil Fields and has to be extracted else people would start getting infected and turning into hell week dark dark beasts every time they went to the gas station!"
She directed Phineas to turn off the main roads and onto a country road before continuing. "Anyway, Roxxon has been scouring the world for infected oil wells ever since, and one of the largest ones they've found is under Lake Bourne just north of town. That's what I've been working on. Four years ago, my father was working there and the Zero Matter extractor went critical. Killed everybody on the platform except him and his boss's Daughter, Tandy Bowen. My father has been in a coma ever since and Tandy initially tested negative for contamination. As we found out two days ago, that was because we were testing for the wrong frequencies. Where most Zero matter is Dark and will absorb everything it touches, Tandy absorbed the Bright variant which normally does little more than rapidly heal people and vanish."
"Given your mention of an angel," the soldier, Harper suddenly spoke up "Can we assume she absorbed enough for it to act akin to dark matter?"
"Pretty much. A similar effect happened with my father. But as recent scans have shown, his catatonic state is a result of the Light and Dark variants being balanced in the body. The problem is, no one who's ever been infected by Zero matter has ever been cured of the condition, and all eventually succumb to it. Sixty years of study and we haven't figured it out. Titan Industries though, you've been doing the impossible every other month. Projects other companies abandoned years or decades ago as lost causes, you roll out in their completed form as cheap tricks. I want that. Fix my father, and I'll give you everything I know about Zero matter and help you collect Tandy and the demon of Saint Sebastians. He's just a kid, by the way. Tyrone Johnson"
"You seem remarkably well informed." Harper posed as they began to roll into the parking lot of a nursing home.
"Zero Matter detector. Not hard when you've got sufficient motivation and know what to look for." Hess replied, as the massive tank smoothly came rolling to a stop. "My father's been catatonic since my doctoral review. I made it my life's work to fix what happened to him. Personally and at the source."
The five of them walked into the nursing home, and she showed them to her father, Ivan Hess's room. The man was lying there in his lazy boy, staring at nothing, his eyes moving rapidly but not seeing the room around him. small black and white flames danced over his skin and clothes, harming nothing, but looking ominous as all hell.
Pangborn moved in close and started sketching burning orange mandela in the air, muttering to himself. Twenty minutes later, he leaned back and wiped his brow. "Yeah, I think I can deal with this. But I'm going to need to call on some help from some old colleagues. I'm a master of Medicine and self enhancement magic, not Dark and Light Force. That would be Robbert and Tina Minoru. They're on station in Los Angeles containing an invasion of Light Dimension creatures." When everybody voiced their concern, he waved it away. "It's under control. The situation has been stable for almost 30 years. There was a flare up during hell week, but nobody died. Light Dimension monsters are... different from Dark Dimension. Though they hate each other with the same passion."
"But you CAN fix him?" Hess pressed.
Pangborn nodded. "Let me talk to my colleagues. Together, with a few weeks, we can bring your father out of his coma and teach him to contain the energies. Getting rid of them though? Maybe... His connection is much weaker than what Hyperion is dealing with."
Pulling out his sling ring, the sorcerer created a moving portal that swept up Ivan Hess and deposited him in the Othrys Sanctum. The portal wiggled for a bit, almost closing, but Pangborn looked at Mina. "Do you want to go with him?"
She hesitated, but shook her head. "I promised to help you find Tandy and Tyrone. They need your help too, and between them and my data, that should help you help my father a lot easier."
Finding Tyrone was the easy part. Father Delgado had managed to keep the boy out of police custody by naming him as one of the victims of the incident. Nobody who had gotten a clear view of him bursting out in smokey black tentacles was around to complain, and as far as the rest of the students were concerned, Tyrone could have just as easily been one of the victims, gone with the rest.
The only people the father had told the truth were Phineas and Tyrone's parents. The councilwoman was scared shitless while the bait store clerk insisted his old crew could fix the boy and drive the demon out. Tyrone took no comfort in any of this and avoided home, staying in the school's rectory where he prowled like a caged bear.
The team's problem was that the moment they informed the thirteen year old that his parents had agreed to hand him over to Titan Industries for treatment, he'd teleported away in a flash of black light. Pangborn had gone after him, spell in one hand and portal in the other, leaving Hess, Phineas, Betsy and Johnson with the Priest.
"Well... THAT went well," the Italian man spat. "When you find Tyrone, don't approach him, bring me, I'll deal with it."
"Do you think you can?" Betsy Potter asked, curiously.
The Father pulled out his silver necklace and started praying. Within moments the artifact was glowing a brilliant white and the priest opened his eyes to show the same radiance. "I think it's a good bet, yes." He replied.
Hess bought out her scanner and aimed it at the man, swearing several times as it spat out readings. "There's no zero matter on the guy, but the frequencies are right. Bend me over and spank me, but the priests something, alright." Shaking her head, she began typing on the device. "I'm zeroing you out as an anomalous reading. This should make finding Tandy easier. Aaaand there. Let's go."
"Who's Tandy?" Delgado asked.
"The angel to your demon." Phineas' mobile unit quipped. Delgado's eyes widened and he followed quickly after the group.
Tandy, much to everybody's surprise, was at home when they tracked her down. The moment Tyrone fled, she had started lighting up like a Christmas tree display and had run for her bug out bag. When the team arrived at the rundown swamp house the Bowen's had been forced into after Roxxon ruined them, she was crawling out the window.
Delgado's necklace had begun glowing again, this time in time with the girl's own radiance rather than any effort of prayer on his part. He had walked up with the surety of one on a holy mission and helped the girl out of the window. "Come with me, child, and everything shall be explained."
The glowing pair looked at each other for a time and slowly, the girl nodded. "I can't see you hopes when I touch you." She replied. "That's a relief. Sure, I was planning to run away anyways. Let's go before mom wakes back up. This will only get messy otherwi... WAIT! What are you DOING?!"
Mina had gone to the door and started knocking. When the wild haired mother answered moments later, obviously hung over, she stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Mina Hess. You husband used to work with my dad at Roxxon."
"G-g-et oout." the woman slurred, before her swaying brought Tandy and the Priest into sight. "TANDY!" she shrieked, bursting out the door and bowling the small asian over. "Wha-th are you doing with my baby!"
Father Delgado placed Tandy on the ground carefully and raised one of his hands, eyes still glowing white with the girl's radiance. "Please, Mrs Bowen, we mean you no harm." His words had an effect on everybody in the yard and a feeling of calm and hope seemed to spread throughout the small crowd. Mrs Bowen lost her steam and began swaying again.
"Wh-hat do you want with m-my little girl?" she asked. "She's a good girl, just... just lonely and lost. Don't take advantage..."
Mina stepped forward and smiled. "Mrs Bowen. You remember me right? We used to trade cookies? I made ginger and cinnamon and you made chocolate chips?"
The hungover blond squinted while Betsy Potter quietly infiltrated the house and began snooping around. "Mina? It's been... so long."
"Almost five years." She winced. "Look, Tandy is... special, and these people from Titan industries think they can help her. I think I can help you too. My father kept a lockbox of evidence on Roxon stored away and said your husband did too."
The blond woman gulped and nodded frantically, hope blossoming in her eyes. "I have the key, but could never find which box it belonged to!"
Mina smiled softly. "Right. That's good. I think I can help you. But I need you to help me too. Can you let Tandy go with these people If I lead you to your husbands lockbox?"
Melissa frowned, swaying. Her expression turned sad as she looked at her daughter's disgusted face. "Only if you take me with you." She said, seeming to sober rapidly. "She doesn't think it, but my Daughter needs me."
"I need someone who isn't drunk all the time, blowing our money on booze and failed court actions that'll never go anywhere." the 14 year old snapped. "Do you have any idea how many times I've had to steal food from the neighbors or grocers just so I wouldn't starve?"
Each word seemed to be a knife in Melissa's heart, if the expression on her face was anything to go by, but each one also added a degree of straightness to her spine. "Give me a moment to pack for Tandy and I." She stormed back inside and came out surprisingly swiftly with tousled looking Betsy at her side. They locked the door, shut the window Tandy had crawled through and started toward Phineas' sci-fi truck.
Tandy's mouth hung wide open the entire time.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Pangborn was getting a magical workout. He and Tyrone were busily playing cat and mouse all over the city and having a conversation in two and three word exchanges. The boy didn't seem to know what he was doing with his powers and kept teleporting to the same set of places, which made catching up to him progressively easier. Unfortunately, the boy's powers were fear based, and he was not calming down. Jonathan had needed to put up shields on multiple occasions to keep from being ambushed and dragged into the dark dimension by wild tendrils.
Tyrone, it seemed, had had as much trouble with the Hispanic community as he had with the whites, and only hated them less because they'd had nothing to do with his older brother's death. Pangborn wasn't exactly Hispanic, but he looked similar enough for Tyrone. Add to that, the now iconic orange geometry of the demon hunting wizards from Hell Week and Tyrone's own troubles, the kid figured history was trying to repeat itself, only on a grander scale. One involving superpowers rather than cops and white money.
To this end, the sorcerer had conceded he needed to be a little more aggressive with the kid. He had been training hard in order to not be completely embarrassed by his own student, and since he was man enough to realize he'd never equal the Titan in sheer, raw power had instead focused on increasing his versatility and adaptability. So now he finally got a chance to put all that intense training to good use by setting up traps in the locations where Tyrone regularly appeared. After following the boy to a random stretch of road again, and almost getting run over by his team, he finally got lucky. Tyrone triggered one of the enchantments Pangborn had left behind.
The wizard teleported to it quickly and came out to see the boy screaming and struggling with the orange lines. Black smoke billowed out of him slowly eating away at the magic and Jonathan stepped forward. "Kid, cool it. Listen. I'm not here to hurt you."
"Oh yeah? Then what's this?" He screeched. "Huh? HUH!?"
"You wouldn't sit still and let me explain," He said reasonably, pressing calm into his voice and approaching slowly. "I just had to get your attention. Just long enough to"
"Kill me? Like I'm some thing that escaped from New York?" He asked, wild eyed.
Jonathan leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn't good with kids. "No. If I wanted to kill you, that'd be a lot easier." Unfortunately that didn't calm the black kid down like it was supposed to. "I'm Trying to Help YOU." He said, getting progressively louder over Tyrone's struggles. "You wanna get rid of the smoke, right? Get back the friends it ate? Let me help. I'm a wizard I know what I'm doing!"
"You... you will? You do?" He seemed to finally calm some. "T-then what AM I?"
Pangborn sighed in relief. "You're just a kid who got his hands on some dark magic." He held up his hands as Tyrone bagan to protest. "I'm not saying you did anything, I'm saying you found something. It wasn't even from Hell Week, from what I understand. My friend Phineas is talking to the woman who's been working on it. Do you remember an oil rig blowing up?"
Tyrone nodded his head rapidly, and scowled. "My brother died that night. A red haired cop shot him. I jumped into the water and then woke up the next morning next to this ballerina chick."
Pangborn nodded. "She found the artifact too. My friends have picked her up, and we'd like to help the two of you. Show you how to control the abilities you got that night and maybe help you get rid of them. What do you say? Wanna know what this is all about? Maybe be a hero for a bit?"
Tyrone had fully stopped struggling at this point and slowly reached his hand out. "S-sure. I think so."
Testing on the four strays began almost as soon as everybody returned to base. Apparently, the boss was dying. There was just too much energy in his various power ups, so despite three, debatably four, of them offering healing factors, he was inching toward catastrophic detonation.
Or ascension into an energy being. Given historical precedent, It was kind of a coin toss either way.
Hyperion's answer to this was to move forward his plans to add Vibranium to his body, something a lot of the base thought was freaking stupid, but he with his non-temporal perspective was certain would work. Pangborn and Eliot Randolph were researching the Light and Dark dimensions.
It wasn't a new project, really, Michael had been inching his way towards it for months, deliberately claiming mystic mantels and performing profound acts to draw himself closer to the Light Dimension. This just put a new urgency in their actions. Unfortunately, the Light and Dark Dimensions were more of a hobby subject for them, and they needed an expert. Mina Hess for all her brilliant scientific data, just didn't cut it. Her data had helped Sterns and Bernstein immensely, opening up several avenues of research to pursue. But it only really confirmed what they already knew; giving them a definite timetable and some samples to work with as opposed to a cure.
So, several days later, Pangborn left for Los Angeles.
The Minoru's ran a company that was half high tech research, half charity in the area which they'd oh so cleverly named 'Wizard'. Wizard made Iphones, HUD's and the neural processor Tony Stark used to interface with his armor. Their two daughters, Nico and Amy were entering their rebellious teen years but the family was otherwise happy and prosperous.
What was important about the family was that Tina wielded the Staff of One, a rare artifact which allowed the user essentially mastery over both the Light and Dark dimensions to the point that its wielder could stand toe to toe with the Ancient One. Possibly even a fully realized Avatar of Dormammu, should he ever be able to realize on in the Material Plane. Such power came with a few caveats though. You could only use any given spell with the staff ONCE and the staff itself demanded a user who had touched both dimensions, absolutely refusing any other wielder, attacking if they didn't get the hint.
This was fine if you were a walking thesaurus, magical library and lunatic crazy enough to play with the light and dark dimensions. But the staff had a tragic history for a reason. Many of it's previous users had ended up swallowed by the dark dimension, or become The Mindless, playthings of dormamu after he devoured their souls. Others became messianic figures or vampires, inflaming or preying on the hopes and dreams of others as the light dimension pushed them to ever greater use until they burn out. Stranger still, were those who managed a balance between the two forces. Demons from the christian hell, good and evil twin incidents, reversals of spiritual or biological constants, houses and even entire forests that would play with your mind and twist time and space. It's previous user, Morgan Le Fey, was trapped in the Dark Dimension for not being careful enough with its power, though on the other hand the trap also meant that Dormammu and his forces literally couldn't touch her. Or her apprentice, Tina. The girl had stolen it, dooming Le Fey to contracts she could no longer uphold, and the Ancient One let Tina keep it on the condition that Le Fey not return and the Ghibborum remain under guard.
Now Pangborn needed her assistance.
Dressing in his masters robes for the first time in a decade, he portaled to the "wizard" company headquarters. Walking inside, he informed the desk he that he was Master Pangborn and he was here for a meeting with Tina and Robert Minoru. There was a lot of staring, a bit of panic, and security quickly escorted him to the elevator, pulling out a key. When he excited the elevator, the pair were there waiting for him.
Robert looked resigned, but Tina was fuming. He began walking up to the woman, though slowly came to a halt as she started advancing on him instead. As she got close enough, he just had the briefest of moments to read her expression and body language and realize the danger he was in before she slapped him right across the face.
Hard.
"Why didn't you come in a suit?! Do you have any idea what this is going to do to the internet? Twitter is already declaring our technology fraudulent magic!"
Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "It's only been, like 10 minutes!"
Robert snorted. "Gossip moves at the speed of light, Jonathan. You should know that." He clapped the robed man on his shoulder. "Are you here on Masters business, or Hyperion business?"
"I was hoping to get Tina to consult for me" he replied, turning to the woman hopefully.
She scowled. "I'd have to know what it was about."
Jonathan grimaced. "The light and dark dimensions."
"Well, you know to come to the experts, at least." She admitted, turning and gesturing imperiously for him to follow. The two men did and soon they were sitting around a coffee table. "Now, what specifically. You're a master of medicine and self enhancement magic. While the light dimension is quite capable of healing, I don't sense that sort of foolishness in your aura."
"You know Hyperion's become the new Sorcerer Supreme?" He asked the pair of them. They stilled, but nodded slowly. "He's not calling the pair of you in, but the incident that precipitated his promotion has linked him pretty heavily to the Light dimension. On top of everything else he's playing with, that's causing him to go through tribulation."
"He's ascending?" Robert asked, awed.
"Or getting ready to explode like a nuclear bomb." Tina added.
Jonathan nodded. "Yes, quite. Though, his plan is a little... different. I need you to come take a look at him. Maybe help Noah and Sam understand how to treat the event. Slow it down, maybe? Also, we recently found out that New Orleans is sitting atop a massive reserve of balanced light and dark energy. It's infected three people so far, one with a heavy dark force presence, another with light and a third coma patient with the balanced energies. Or well, as much as you could call forcing him to relive the event that put him in a coma four times a minute for five years balance."
Tina hummed, tapping her fingers against the smooth surface of the table. After a few moments, she glanced off to the side towards a desk sitting against a wall of the room. Seemingly having made up her mind, she shoved away her chair and approached the desk with quick, sure strides.
She pulled out a pen knife and opened up a slice on her thumb with the blade in a single smooth motion, one that belied years of practice with the movement... and familiarity with the pain. The two men watched calmly as a bronze ring pushed its way out of her sternum before lengthening into a staff which fell slightly before hovering to her hand. The wound on her thumb sealed as the staff touched her hand and she walked back over to them. Tapping on the glass table, she muttered "reveal the victims."
Six figures rose up from the table, making Pangborn's eyes widen. Father Delgado stood to one side, white light shining from an amulet around his neck. Next to him slouched an old African woman. She was dressed as a houdoon fortune teller, and she looked up at each of them in turn, blowing kisses. Around her shoulders hovered voodoo masks that whispered into the room and hissed at the viewers.
"I don't know who the voodoo priestess is," Pangborn informed the pair, "but we have the other five. Priest Delgado of the Catholic School here. He's been helping the Dark Energy infected teen, Tyrone Johnson, he's a student of Delgado's." he pointed at the priest with his glowing cross and the black boy with the writhing black cloak of dark-force flowing off his shoulders "Tandy Bowen, her dad ran the oil rig containing the light and dark matter" he pointed at the girl with an obelisk of light shining out from her chest "Ivan Hess, the rig's primary fluid engineer" he pointed to the Asian man who looked as though he were underwater as light and dark played over his body.
"And of course, Hyperion needs no introduction" Tina drawled. As they watched, McCole seemed to notice something, looking around as though he knew he were being watched. The light-force shone out from his heart like a beacon brighter than even the shard sitting inside Tandy, almost appearing to spill over and suffuse even his surroundings. The light pulsated with a regular beat, as if in sync with the rythm of his heart, and with each pulse, the light of Tandy and Father Delgado would pulse in unison. Interestingly (or perhaps, worriedly), was that, each time Tandy's shard pulsed, Tyrone's smoke would billow out afterwards, settling before Tandy's next pulse after it would billow out and settle again.
Two parts of the same rhythm, which as far as Pangborn was concerned (and he was steadily getting very concerned) was unheard of to the point of being considered just plain impossible.
Then again, ever since he had started working for his new boss, he had seen the impossible performed on a weekly basis so he really shouldn't be surprised anymore. Speaking of his boss, Tina seemed to have only eyes for the largest of the miniatures, who was now very clearly suspiciously looking around in search of his remote spectators.
"Is he doing anything to bleed off all of that power?" she asked, leaning closer. "He's obviously not in secluded meditation, intent on harmonizing the energies so he doesn't shatter on breaking through."
Jonathan grimaced. "They've built him a suit. I can promise it will drain off the energy, should he become critical without gaining enlightenment, but I can't promise it'll be any safer than what he's doing now."
"And what is he doing now?" Robert asked.
Jonathan snorted. "Building himself a better body. He doesn't intend to ascend or die. He wants to remain mortal while holding that much power and more."
The technomagi and witch gaped at him briefly before shaking their heads. "What does he even intend to do with that much power?"
"Surprisingly, not much." Pangborn replied, shaking his head. "Mike is very... 'me and mine'. He wants to raise himself to godhood, and look after the growth of those close to him but taking over the world? Not so much. Says it's too much hassle to rule, so he'll lead by example instead. Maybe claim a fancy title and build himself a massive throne if he feels like it way down the line, cause honestly, at that point who could stop him? Who would want to? Right now though, he's mostly just afraid that the big players in the multiverse are setting their sights on earth and he doesn't want to be collateral damage. Frightening thing, is that he seems to be right, for the most part. Though, by doing all of this, he's had to accept hes going to be the bullseye rather than the afterthought."
"So... he wants to be a hero then?" Robert asked. "He's doing a pretty good job then."
"Grudgingly," Jonathan replied. "I think he'd be more comfortable as the villain. He's rather firm on the idea that villains inevitably fall though, and he doesn't intend to die. Ever."
Tina snorted, in a very unladylike gesture. "He's certainly got the ego for it then." She sighed. "I can teach him to control that power. Understand it. Maybe suppress it. But at most that'll extend his tribulations a month. Not a good idea. I suppose we'll see when he gets this new body."
Jonathan sighed. "Yeah, I thought you might say that. Could you help with the other three?"
She nodded. "You'll need to send the children to me. Their powers are linked, which is likely what's been keeping them alive without training the last five years." She dismissed the image of Hyperion who was now staring directly at her, brow furrowed. "The men... this Delgado will be fine. His and the woman's power are entirely in their artifacts. I'll check up on them and see they know what they're messing with. Mr. Hess though, I will need to use the staff on him directly. I can wake him up immediately, but that sort of chaos will only have negative consequences. Especially if he comes into contact with Hyperion."
"Why? What happens then?"]
"Best case scenario? They both blow up, rather spectacularly I might add." Tina dryly replied, and Pangborn steeled himself as he asked his next question.
"And... the worst case scenario?"
Tina let out a barking, cynical laugh that sent the hackles on Pangborn's neck rise immediately in response.
"Worst case scenario?"
She leaned closer to him, eyes gleaming with hard gained power and insights.
"We all blow up."