Post by thattwoguy on Aug 31, 2012 23:36:39 GMT -5
2 Years Ago
Henry Bendix looked up at a sky full of distant points of light, but his eyes were locked on a small cluster of lights in the northeastern part of the night sky. The lights were hard to actually make out, bits of red, green and bright yellow, but were much closer than the distant stars, closer even than the crescent moon resting on the other side of the sky. It was astonishing that one could see the lights of the space-based mechanical equipment all the way from orbit.
Jenny Sparks was standing beside him in the cleared off field, one that was full of trees just one week previously. Her full head of golden hair was a stark contrast to Bendix's completely shaved head. “You finally got your wish, your lookout in the sky.”
Jenny's words knocked him back into reality. Bendix prided himself at always keeping his composure, but this SkyWatch project was a joy that he had to take time to appreciate. “We finally got the funding from the UN for it,” Bendix stated, saying what was already known by his former colleague. “We'll finally have the resources we need to fully protect our world.” Bendix always spoke in monotone-- an intentional choice. It betrayed no emotion to the listener.
“I can't believe you convinced me to work with you again,” Jenny said as she lit a cigarette.
“And you had a better plan for what you wanted to do with the rest of your life?”
“I always figured I would have died ten years ago. I'm the spirit of a century that's already passed us by...” The smoke she inhaled calmed her down. “A century is a long time when you have nothing to do, I suppose.”
“Indeed.” Bendix began to turn and head towards the Stormwatch facility still being built behind them. It was only about halfway done, but the teleporter inside was already operational. “You might want to finish that quick. You won't be able to take it with you to SkyWatch.”
Jenny grimaced behind his back, not that Bendix could see it. Nor would he care if he could, she thought. She dropped the cigarette on the ground and stamped on it then closely followed her colleague. “You really think we could make a difference, Henry? I mean, when was the last time we've even had extraterrestrial contact?”
“Three days ago,” Bendix stated in his usual monotone as he slid his card into the reader on the panel of the door. The door quickly slid open, letting the two inside of the Stormwatch facility. “And the last one before that was two weeks ago. There are many things the common person does not know. I'd like to ensure that they never have to know.”
The door closed behind them as they made their way to the center of the facility. In a handful of minutes, a hazy blue light flashed from the center of the facility, visible from a mile away, as the two were transported through the teleporter to the space station above.
Present day
Mitchell Shelley liked to be alone ever since his last death. Over the past couple of weeks he had gotten used to the voices somewhat. He was learning how to tune out most of the voices, but every once and awhile a stray thought would creep through his mind and wreck his concentration. This is why Shelley took up residence in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. It was peaceful.
Shelley could remember his first three deaths with vivid detail. But it seemed that with each death he would remember the events less. He could vaguely remember his fourth and fifth. He could remember what happened before and after each death, but not the death itself. So he could not recall exactly why he had woken up inside of a morgue about two weeks ago. The poor men and women working there were startled beyond belief. He felt a little bad for that, but it was worse this time since he could actually hear their thoughts, their inner voices creeping into his head. For reasons he cannot even begin to explain, each death always came with it some new, colorful power. This time the power was telepathy.
Shelley laid back on the floor, surrounded by abandoned mechanical equipment, glad to be away from all of the voices. His eyes closed and his consciousness began to fade away into a deep sleep--
Locked...
Shelley's eyes flung open at the sound of the voice. Occasionally people with heads full of thoughts would walk by his warehouse. Some would even try to get inside the warehouse in hopes of finding some shelter. He almost felt bad for them, but many of them carried desperate thoughts in their heads. He did not need to run into any trouble.
Something metal around... maybe. Oh wait--
Shelley sprung up off the floor. He felt he had to be cautious. There was something in his thoughts, some ill intent. He could almost feel this man's emotions. He meant to do harm. And the way his thoughts formed into “Oh wait” followed by intentional silence. This man was forcing himself to not let his thoughts slip out.
Shelley looked around for something he could use as a weapon. This man knows about his power. He has to be one of them. While he could not remember how he died, he was aware of a group of people who for whatever reason were out to get him. He was fairly sure that many of his deaths were the cause of these people. But what were they after? Did they turn him into what he is? Did they curse him with this power? He had no answers. Shelley honestly did not know what these guys wanted or why they were constantly following him. Maybe now was his chance to get some answers.
After a rushed minute of searching, he came across a loose rod of metal. He had to be careful. If they had sent him, Shelley knew the man would be armed. If he could just subdue the guy without killing him, maybe he could get some answers out of him.
Minutes passed by as the man outside tried to pry the lock open. All Shelley could hear was the clang of metal on metal and the occasional thought that slipped through. Then he heard the man scream. A surge of thoughts and feelings entered his mind. They were easier to slip through into his head if it was from someone in distress. The thoughts were too garbled together for Shelley to make out much, but someone had attacked him.
Then the thoughts stopped. Either the man was killed or just knocked unconscious. Shelley's grip tightened around the metal rod. He tried feeling around with his telepathy for thoughts but none would show up. He drew a complete blank. But then who took that guy out? Shelley thought to himself. Sometimes it was a weird feeling hearing his own thoughts in his head for a change.
He did not have to wait too long. There was a crackle and a flash of light then the door opened up, revealing a blonde haired woman in a white coat and black undershirt. Electricity crackled from her fingers. “Charmed to meet you, Mitchell Shelley.” A British accent with a not quite subtle tinge of sarcasm.
“Who are you? Why... Why can't I...” He almost asked why he can't hear her thoughts, but he was unsure if this mystery woman even knew about his power.
“My name is Jenny Sparks.” She reached into her pocket which startled Shelley for a bit, but all she pulled out was a cigarette which she then lit and stuck into her mouth. She casually walked towards him as if they had met under more mundane circumstances.
“How do you know my name? Did they send you?” the metal rod was still raised up in defense, but Shelley wasn't sure how well that rod would do against a woman with electricity coursing through her fingers.
“They? I was sent by Stormwatch. Did you think I was sent by the same people as that poor bugger outside? But if I worked for them, why would I be saving your life?”
“Saving my life?”
She took a moment to appreciate the smoke filling her lungs then let it back out before answering him. “The man was armed and ready to kill you.”
“Not that that would have mattered.”
“Because you keep coming back.” It wasn't a question. She did know about his main power. But did she know about the alternate power that was always different each death? Did she know that he should be able to read her mind but couldn't?
“What do you know about me?” Shelley felt maybe that was a little forced, but he was under too much stress to come up with something better to get the information he wanted.
“We have been monitoring you for the past few weeks, Shelley. We want to help you.”
“We?” He began to lower the metal rod. He figured it would not be much help against this woman since she seemed to know what she was doing. Shelley had underestimated his ability to read people without the need to hear their thoughts.
“Stormwatch. The Weatherman has his eye on you. He wants to find out who is chasing you all the time and why. He wants to help you.” She stated all of these matter of factly, as if she wasn't really trying too hard to convince him. Shelley didn't see this as a sign that she couldn't be trusted, though. He figured that this was just how she normally talked to people.
“I see. And what would this philanthropist want from me? Why is he helping me out?”
“He wants to recruit you.”
---
The members of Stormwatch filled the briefing room of SkyWatch as they awaited orders. The plasma beings, Fuji and Hellstrike stood in one corner. The white haired and able bodied Winter stood in the middle of the room opposite Weatherman himself while the red haired Fahrenheit stood beside him. Even Jack Hawksmoor was there for the briefing, which everyone including himself found curious considering he was part of Stormwatch Black and was hardly ever assigned with the Stormwatch proper. Jack was on the verge of collapsing, being this far from an actual city, but he tried to keep his composure as Weatherman finally began to talk.
“We have a situation,” he said, monotone as usual.
“Clearly,” Hellstrike spoke up from a mouth of blue plasma. “I figured this wasn't for one of yer tea parties.”
Weatherman looked at the blue figure with a passive, emotionless face, then continued: “You five will be escorting a prisoner from the Metropolis federal prison to the Stormwatch headquarters stationed there. We need him in our hands and up here in SkyWatch.”
“Wait... the Metropolis headquarters is just, what, ten blocks away from the prison?” Fahrenheit asked. “Do we all need to be there to hold this prisoner's hand while he crosses the street?”
“This prisoner is fairly important,” Weatherman said. “Last night the prison he was held in was attacked in order to get to him.”
“Wow,” Winter said. “A lot of work just to save one guy, huh?”
“They weren't trying to save him,” replied Weatherman. “They were trying to kill him. What he knows we need to get out of him, but our agreements with the U.S. Government don't allow us to just walk into the prison and interrogate him.”
“So we need to bring him up here,” Winter stated.
“Exactly. But here's the problem. In order to teleport him up here we'll have to take him to our local Metropolis headquarters. His people have learned that they can't just break into a Metropolis prison so easily, so they'll be waiting for him to be escorted out in order to attack. That's why we must protect him.”
“But still, all of us for just one guy?” Fuji's metallic voice resonated throughout the briefing room. He was a plasma being like Hellstrike, but unlike him Fuji could not control his molecular structure and had to be contained in a gigantic metal body. “Can you tell us why this guy is so important?”
“I'm sorry, Fuji, but not yet. But get him up here by any means necessary.”
“And why am I here?” Jack said abruptly. He did not know how much longer he could take being away from the city for so long. Thanks to the implants his alien abductors gave him, he could not survive outside of an urban environment for too long. He wanted to puke.
“You will be reconnaissance. You're adept at making your way around the city. Just stay on the rooftops above the truck holding our prisoner and check for anything out of the ordinary.”
Jack nodded, trying to annoy the sour feeling in his gut.
“Alright, briefing is dismissed. All of you head to the teleporters to Metropolis HQ and await further orders.” When they had all left he made his way back to his command center. He stood on his command stage in front of his dozens of monitors and the huge window overlooking the Earth. Several Stormwatch crew sat at their stations, typing in commands and checking the data relating to the current mission in progress. Henry Bendix himself looked at the blue orb below as he waited for his team to get back in touch with him. It looked so defenseless from here, he thought. But he would be here to protect her in his fortress in the sky.
There was a beep in his ear from the implant mounted on the side of his face. It was Jenny Sparks calling. “Sparks,” Bendix said in his monotone. “Do you have a status report?”
“Yeah, Henry. Shelley says he's in.”
Bendix wanted to smile but his emotions didn't betray him that vulnerability. “Good. Bring him to the closest Stormwatch headquarters to send him up here as soon as you can.”
Henry Bendix looked up at a sky full of distant points of light, but his eyes were locked on a small cluster of lights in the northeastern part of the night sky. The lights were hard to actually make out, bits of red, green and bright yellow, but were much closer than the distant stars, closer even than the crescent moon resting on the other side of the sky. It was astonishing that one could see the lights of the space-based mechanical equipment all the way from orbit.
Jenny Sparks was standing beside him in the cleared off field, one that was full of trees just one week previously. Her full head of golden hair was a stark contrast to Bendix's completely shaved head. “You finally got your wish, your lookout in the sky.”
Jenny's words knocked him back into reality. Bendix prided himself at always keeping his composure, but this SkyWatch project was a joy that he had to take time to appreciate. “We finally got the funding from the UN for it,” Bendix stated, saying what was already known by his former colleague. “We'll finally have the resources we need to fully protect our world.” Bendix always spoke in monotone-- an intentional choice. It betrayed no emotion to the listener.
“I can't believe you convinced me to work with you again,” Jenny said as she lit a cigarette.
“And you had a better plan for what you wanted to do with the rest of your life?”
“I always figured I would have died ten years ago. I'm the spirit of a century that's already passed us by...” The smoke she inhaled calmed her down. “A century is a long time when you have nothing to do, I suppose.”
“Indeed.” Bendix began to turn and head towards the Stormwatch facility still being built behind them. It was only about halfway done, but the teleporter inside was already operational. “You might want to finish that quick. You won't be able to take it with you to SkyWatch.”
Jenny grimaced behind his back, not that Bendix could see it. Nor would he care if he could, she thought. She dropped the cigarette on the ground and stamped on it then closely followed her colleague. “You really think we could make a difference, Henry? I mean, when was the last time we've even had extraterrestrial contact?”
“Three days ago,” Bendix stated in his usual monotone as he slid his card into the reader on the panel of the door. The door quickly slid open, letting the two inside of the Stormwatch facility. “And the last one before that was two weeks ago. There are many things the common person does not know. I'd like to ensure that they never have to know.”
The door closed behind them as they made their way to the center of the facility. In a handful of minutes, a hazy blue light flashed from the center of the facility, visible from a mile away, as the two were transported through the teleporter to the space station above.
Present day
Mitchell Shelley liked to be alone ever since his last death. Over the past couple of weeks he had gotten used to the voices somewhat. He was learning how to tune out most of the voices, but every once and awhile a stray thought would creep through his mind and wreck his concentration. This is why Shelley took up residence in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. It was peaceful.
Shelley could remember his first three deaths with vivid detail. But it seemed that with each death he would remember the events less. He could vaguely remember his fourth and fifth. He could remember what happened before and after each death, but not the death itself. So he could not recall exactly why he had woken up inside of a morgue about two weeks ago. The poor men and women working there were startled beyond belief. He felt a little bad for that, but it was worse this time since he could actually hear their thoughts, their inner voices creeping into his head. For reasons he cannot even begin to explain, each death always came with it some new, colorful power. This time the power was telepathy.
Shelley laid back on the floor, surrounded by abandoned mechanical equipment, glad to be away from all of the voices. His eyes closed and his consciousness began to fade away into a deep sleep--
Locked...
Shelley's eyes flung open at the sound of the voice. Occasionally people with heads full of thoughts would walk by his warehouse. Some would even try to get inside the warehouse in hopes of finding some shelter. He almost felt bad for them, but many of them carried desperate thoughts in their heads. He did not need to run into any trouble.
Something metal around... maybe. Oh wait--
Shelley sprung up off the floor. He felt he had to be cautious. There was something in his thoughts, some ill intent. He could almost feel this man's emotions. He meant to do harm. And the way his thoughts formed into “Oh wait” followed by intentional silence. This man was forcing himself to not let his thoughts slip out.
Shelley looked around for something he could use as a weapon. This man knows about his power. He has to be one of them. While he could not remember how he died, he was aware of a group of people who for whatever reason were out to get him. He was fairly sure that many of his deaths were the cause of these people. But what were they after? Did they turn him into what he is? Did they curse him with this power? He had no answers. Shelley honestly did not know what these guys wanted or why they were constantly following him. Maybe now was his chance to get some answers.
After a rushed minute of searching, he came across a loose rod of metal. He had to be careful. If they had sent him, Shelley knew the man would be armed. If he could just subdue the guy without killing him, maybe he could get some answers out of him.
Minutes passed by as the man outside tried to pry the lock open. All Shelley could hear was the clang of metal on metal and the occasional thought that slipped through. Then he heard the man scream. A surge of thoughts and feelings entered his mind. They were easier to slip through into his head if it was from someone in distress. The thoughts were too garbled together for Shelley to make out much, but someone had attacked him.
Then the thoughts stopped. Either the man was killed or just knocked unconscious. Shelley's grip tightened around the metal rod. He tried feeling around with his telepathy for thoughts but none would show up. He drew a complete blank. But then who took that guy out? Shelley thought to himself. Sometimes it was a weird feeling hearing his own thoughts in his head for a change.
He did not have to wait too long. There was a crackle and a flash of light then the door opened up, revealing a blonde haired woman in a white coat and black undershirt. Electricity crackled from her fingers. “Charmed to meet you, Mitchell Shelley.” A British accent with a not quite subtle tinge of sarcasm.
“Who are you? Why... Why can't I...” He almost asked why he can't hear her thoughts, but he was unsure if this mystery woman even knew about his power.
“My name is Jenny Sparks.” She reached into her pocket which startled Shelley for a bit, but all she pulled out was a cigarette which she then lit and stuck into her mouth. She casually walked towards him as if they had met under more mundane circumstances.
“How do you know my name? Did they send you?” the metal rod was still raised up in defense, but Shelley wasn't sure how well that rod would do against a woman with electricity coursing through her fingers.
“They? I was sent by Stormwatch. Did you think I was sent by the same people as that poor bugger outside? But if I worked for them, why would I be saving your life?”
“Saving my life?”
She took a moment to appreciate the smoke filling her lungs then let it back out before answering him. “The man was armed and ready to kill you.”
“Not that that would have mattered.”
“Because you keep coming back.” It wasn't a question. She did know about his main power. But did she know about the alternate power that was always different each death? Did she know that he should be able to read her mind but couldn't?
“What do you know about me?” Shelley felt maybe that was a little forced, but he was under too much stress to come up with something better to get the information he wanted.
“We have been monitoring you for the past few weeks, Shelley. We want to help you.”
“We?” He began to lower the metal rod. He figured it would not be much help against this woman since she seemed to know what she was doing. Shelley had underestimated his ability to read people without the need to hear their thoughts.
“Stormwatch. The Weatherman has his eye on you. He wants to find out who is chasing you all the time and why. He wants to help you.” She stated all of these matter of factly, as if she wasn't really trying too hard to convince him. Shelley didn't see this as a sign that she couldn't be trusted, though. He figured that this was just how she normally talked to people.
“I see. And what would this philanthropist want from me? Why is he helping me out?”
“He wants to recruit you.”
---
The members of Stormwatch filled the briefing room of SkyWatch as they awaited orders. The plasma beings, Fuji and Hellstrike stood in one corner. The white haired and able bodied Winter stood in the middle of the room opposite Weatherman himself while the red haired Fahrenheit stood beside him. Even Jack Hawksmoor was there for the briefing, which everyone including himself found curious considering he was part of Stormwatch Black and was hardly ever assigned with the Stormwatch proper. Jack was on the verge of collapsing, being this far from an actual city, but he tried to keep his composure as Weatherman finally began to talk.
“We have a situation,” he said, monotone as usual.
“Clearly,” Hellstrike spoke up from a mouth of blue plasma. “I figured this wasn't for one of yer tea parties.”
Weatherman looked at the blue figure with a passive, emotionless face, then continued: “You five will be escorting a prisoner from the Metropolis federal prison to the Stormwatch headquarters stationed there. We need him in our hands and up here in SkyWatch.”
“Wait... the Metropolis headquarters is just, what, ten blocks away from the prison?” Fahrenheit asked. “Do we all need to be there to hold this prisoner's hand while he crosses the street?”
“This prisoner is fairly important,” Weatherman said. “Last night the prison he was held in was attacked in order to get to him.”
“Wow,” Winter said. “A lot of work just to save one guy, huh?”
“They weren't trying to save him,” replied Weatherman. “They were trying to kill him. What he knows we need to get out of him, but our agreements with the U.S. Government don't allow us to just walk into the prison and interrogate him.”
“So we need to bring him up here,” Winter stated.
“Exactly. But here's the problem. In order to teleport him up here we'll have to take him to our local Metropolis headquarters. His people have learned that they can't just break into a Metropolis prison so easily, so they'll be waiting for him to be escorted out in order to attack. That's why we must protect him.”
“But still, all of us for just one guy?” Fuji's metallic voice resonated throughout the briefing room. He was a plasma being like Hellstrike, but unlike him Fuji could not control his molecular structure and had to be contained in a gigantic metal body. “Can you tell us why this guy is so important?”
“I'm sorry, Fuji, but not yet. But get him up here by any means necessary.”
“And why am I here?” Jack said abruptly. He did not know how much longer he could take being away from the city for so long. Thanks to the implants his alien abductors gave him, he could not survive outside of an urban environment for too long. He wanted to puke.
“You will be reconnaissance. You're adept at making your way around the city. Just stay on the rooftops above the truck holding our prisoner and check for anything out of the ordinary.”
Jack nodded, trying to annoy the sour feeling in his gut.
“Alright, briefing is dismissed. All of you head to the teleporters to Metropolis HQ and await further orders.” When they had all left he made his way back to his command center. He stood on his command stage in front of his dozens of monitors and the huge window overlooking the Earth. Several Stormwatch crew sat at their stations, typing in commands and checking the data relating to the current mission in progress. Henry Bendix himself looked at the blue orb below as he waited for his team to get back in touch with him. It looked so defenseless from here, he thought. But he would be here to protect her in his fortress in the sky.
There was a beep in his ear from the implant mounted on the side of his face. It was Jenny Sparks calling. “Sparks,” Bendix said in his monotone. “Do you have a status report?”
“Yeah, Henry. Shelley says he's in.”
Bendix wanted to smile but his emotions didn't betray him that vulnerability. “Good. Bring him to the closest Stormwatch headquarters to send him up here as soon as you can.”