Xenoshade's Story

Deep in the hidden research lab of Ereb Industries, Professor Hagon silently watched a display monitor - lost in thought. Their project was delicate. It would either win the favor of the scientific community, or its scorn.

"Molecular structure appears stable." he said to his colleagues, Captain Narkel and Dr. Motzu, who stood beside him. "I think it is safe to conclude that the specimen is in the alpha stage of development. The quantumbra transference and electrical field seem to be functional."

"How soon will it be ready for the field?" asked the Alpha Trooper with his heavily modulated voice.

"As I said, Agares, it is only in the alpha stage. There will need to be more testing in order to conclude the specimen's survivability in an open and potentially hostile environment. However, perhaps the best test would be to throw him in the deep end, so to say, and see if he sinks or swims. What do you think, Motzu?" the aged professor turned to the Drachini researcher.

Motzu stood quietly, hands scribbling away on a notebook. She then looked at Hagon and then back at the specimen. She thought deeply for a moment. "Even if it sinks, it will mean progress." she said calmly. "However, if it swims, or at least floats, it will mean even more progress." she added with a smile.

She looked over the molecular structure and the DNA and RNA sequences. "Everything is stable so far...." she thought for another minute before speaking again, her tone serious and concerned. "However, what if we throw it into the deep end, and it swims to the edge and pulls itself out?" she asked. "Will we be able to control it?"

"And if we can't control it, will we be able to stop the specimen from going on a rampage?" she asked. After a while, however, she let out a deep sigh. "I guess we'll have to cross those bridges when we get to them." she said.

After another few seconds of silence she nodded. "Throw it in the deep end. Let's find out what it is capable of." she said.

"My unit will be watching from a distance." Agares interjected. "If it falls outside of the parameters, it will be contained and neutralized."

Professor Hagon nodded. "Very well... I have employed a mercenary to deliver the specimen to the designated testing ground. He has been instructed to not leave any trace of our involvement, so if things go awry, Ereb Industries will not be linked. According to the media, and to the public, it would seem like just another freak of nature plaguing the city."

The Drachini sighed as she looked at the specimen. "I feel like a mother, knowing that I helped create this." she said. She then looked to Hagon. "What shall we call our little bundle of experimental combinations?" she asked. There was a small hint of excitement in her voice, though she held it back with a practiced calmness that came with being a professional. Though, of course, there was always her hint of playfulness due to her naturally flirtatious nature.

"This creature..." Hagon began. "... is all but alien to our world. It bears no resemblance to any other species here. It is strange, alien, and dwells in darkness... Perhaps a fitting name would be... a Xenoshade."

A lone figure stalked the shadows of Wing City's abandoned slums. His form shimmered in the dim light, shrouded in a distortion of light. Tarrik silently walked the dark alleyways, kept to the shadows, and made little more noise than a mouse. He halted, and the shadows melted from his body - revealing a chrome suit of body armor that covered him from head to toe.

Tarrik crouched beside an active electrical line and glanced over his shoulder - wary of unwanted eyes. When he knew no one was watching him, the operative unfastened a cylindrical canister from his belt. A logo of a white hand adorned with a red triangle was printed along its side. The container was sealed by a mechanical lock. After another glance behind his shoulder, Tarrik whipped out his knife and cut the insulation protecting the electrical wires. Sparks shot through the alley, but the operative paid them no heed. Finally, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a metallic key, and unlock the canister.

The container depressurized with a loud hiss. Immediately a pitch black goo dripped from the canister onto the ground. While paying careful attention to not get the goo on himself, Tarrik poured the goo over the electrical box and exposed wires.

He quickly resealed the canister and vanished.

A blood curdling screech resonated through the slums as the goo bubbled and sparked.

A blood curdling screech mixed with screams of terror resonated from somewhere in the city. Entire city blocks went black as if every light bulb and circuit was sucked dry. One building after another darkened as sparks flew from the electrical lines. Streaks and bolts of electricity danced and spasmed along wires, switch boxes, meters, and cars while light bulbs and minor circuits exploded in showers of glass and sparks.

The rolling blackout tumbled across the city, leaving panic and confusion in its wake as only sparse power returned to the darkened parts of the city. Finally, the intersection where Darien, Sparks, and Copy Cat stood turned pitch black.

A low snarl rumbled in the darkness.

As Sparks looked up, he saw a creature draining the electricity. Of course, Sparks being an endless source of electricity, was countering the effect, leaving the area at a standstill. He looked over at the girl, Copy Cat, and then at the creature. "So...that thing is friendly, right? He isn't here to kill us?"

He didn't really like it when strange creatures were looking at him. He got this feeling something bad was about to happen. "Shit....please be friendly..."

Copy Cat watched the man she only knew as "guy" sore off with Asp and sighed before moving toward Sparks to do as she was told and remove him from harm's way. However, the gas had quickly dissipated in Asp's absence and it seemed they had a much bigger issue to handle now. She looked around with a concerned look, moving close to the teenager slowly. "Stay close to me, alright? I'm sure we can handle it, friendly or not..." she muttered. "And if I ask, immediately give me your hand." The entire city devoid of light...This day had turned to chaos.

The mysterious creature watched the two from it's perch on a nearby power line. It was tall, lanky, and black as tar from its clawed toes to its featureless face. Two glowing white eyes stared at the pair, unblinking, before focusing on Sparks. A gaping hole materialized on its face with webs of dark black goo stretched across the edges. The tendrils of goo rippled as a deafening screech ripped from the creature's throat. Black spikes shot up from its back, arms, and legs like a porcupine or the hairs of a cat. Bolts of electricity danced between the spikes while nearby lights dimmed.

It leaped from the building. A bolt of lightning marked its path. The creature landed on a brick wall on the other side of the street. Razor sharp claws sunk into the concrete before it rebounded into the shadows behind a car.

Before the two heroes could blink the creature came again from the opposite direction. It pounced with the speed of a bolt of lightning, aiming for Sparks' back, and attempted to rake him with its claws before leaping into the shadows once again.

The Iron Knight sat the Professor down only to reach for the canisters that were part of his suit and physically remove them with what strength he had. "You will sit in a jail cell for until you realize that your logic is flawed. I wish I was nothing like I am now so why force it on others doc?" With that said the Iron Knight turned his gaze back to where his comrades were. "I am going to leave you right here but I am calling for a medical team to come pick you up. Please do not move." It was with that said that the Iron Knight would once again leap into action bolting off towards were he had left the other two in hopes of finding that sparky did not suffer from prolonged exposure to the gas.

With the power out across the city, Rougeshadow appeared on the rooftop nearby the position of Sparky and Copycat, gazing down upon them with a curious intent "Well now...this is interesting" She said with her french accent all the more present and simply vanished, appearing just a few feet away with her bow out in her hand. She waved a little despite how bright they were and looked towards the monster near the cell tower "Woah...that a friend or a foe?" She asked, tapping a communicator on her ear and sent out an emergency beacon to call for Adair "Has it done anything besides drain the power from the grid?" She asked the two meta humans

"I am Rouge by the way..."

Copy Cat grimaced and quickly grabbed onto the boy, trying to pull him towards her and out of the way. However, in the process she also began to bristle with electricity before she made it stop. "Keep sharp!" she instructed him before glancing at the new girl and tilting a brow. "It's taken out all power and attacked, so foe." She made note of the name but didn't give one in return. She hadn't given or received any names so far, except for what she'd gleaned from the homeless man in their encounter and now from Sparks.

Sparks only had one reaction to this. He built up a large electrical charge, and when the creature charged at him, he focused this charge into a powerful eletrical bolt and hit him with it. Now, even if the creature absorbed electricity, the force of the bolt itself would send the creature back if it hit. Additionally, bolts of electricity seemed to emerge from him, re-powering any device nearby while he was using his powers to this capacity.

"You really want to fight me like this? Fine, lets fight" he said, as he took out his laser cannon and fired at the creature. Notably, this cannon seemed to lack the large battery most people had to carry around that made it a heavy weapon, because Sparks himself was the battery. "James Edison, but everyone calls me Jimmy Sparks or more commonly just Sparks. Also, if your friend calls me "Sparky" one more time, I will flay him alive. Understood?"

The lights in the city began to shoot back on, spotlights and sirens joining in to steal light from the darkness. The sirens began to grow closer to the scene on Main Street very quickly, the spotlights from several helicopters and Seraphim Carriers shining down on the people below.

"Everyone remain where you are." A female voice said over an intercom from one of the air vehicles, "We have weapons trained on you, we will not hesitate to open fire if you show yourself to be hostile." The voice continued, several Invictus and NPA armored transports approaching from different directions.

Each one was tailed by WCPD squad cars and SWAT trucks, the vehicles surrounding the area to keep people in and out. Devices were planted on the ground by the uniformed police officers, each one shooting on to form their part of a barrier over the area.

It seemed the law was taking more precautions with those with superpowers these days.

Finally the armored transports opened up, mostly black-clad armored Invictus soldiers, with about a dozen others wearing dark orange, and heavily armored NPA Enforcers getting out to join their WCPD counterparts on the street. They didn't react for the most part, the men and women just taking up positions around the area.

Their silence and inaction lasted for several moments until finally, someone spoke up.

"You're under arrest, by the way." Preston, a black clad man with the Invictus, told the group, the NPA Enforcers stepping up towards the group they and the others had been encircling since their arrival. "We've been ordered to use lethal force, much to my... I don't like that." Preston added, "Please, don't force our hand." He continued.

Preston opened his mouth to speak, but two of the men with him began to play 'rock, paper, scissors' just behind him. "Chemo, Taco, what are you doing?" Preston asked the men, "Just figuring something out." Taco answered, "As you were." Chemo added.

"Right." Preston cleared his throat, "The heavily armored men will be cuffing you and taking you elsewhere, maybe the police station, maybe Fort Veritas, maybe the RIP, but you'll only be taken alive if you come peacefully." The French-Canadian soldier said.

"I'm imploring you, don't do anything you, or those with me, will regret."

As the police force showed up, Rougeshadow just had to sigh and roll her eyes "Please...spare us" She said with a heavy sarcastic tone of voice "We are not the enemy here, whatever that thing was that was sucking up all the electricity was the threat. WE were here, trying to take care of it. If YOU think you have the muscle to take it out, be my friggin guest. Better you then me but I sure as hell am not going to be going anywhere with the likes of you. Besides, its not like any of you can catch me anyhow" She said with a shrug, slinging her bow onto her back and stepped into a small shadow and quickly vanished from sight.

As she did, a single arrow was sent flying from a rooftop aimed at Preston at high velocity. The arrow sung and the tip suddenly exploded into a banana cream pie and slammed the man hard in the face. A howling laughter was heard and then the female had completely left the area. Pie to the face...what a gag!

The creature let out a startled screech as the laser blast sent it flying into a wall. It slammed against the bricks with a splat. Black goo smeared across the surface and dripped downward as it slowly collected and solidified. A low growl rumbled from its throat as the creature returned to its humanoid form in a crouch position. Glowing white eyes glared furiously at Sparks.

It took a step back and vanished into the ground as if stepping off a cliff. Suddenly, Sparks would feel two feet slam into his back like a battering ram. They vanished yet again, replaced only by two eerie white eyes and a wicked sneer - on the face of Sparks' shadow.

The face vanished, only to return as a long electrified black tendril that shot up out of Cat's shadow and whipped at Sparks' legs. Then just as swiftly as the tendril emerged, it dematerialized into black sludge that fell into the shadows.

The creature shrieked from the rooftop, where it just emerged yet again, at the approaching Invictus troops. It snarled as the shadows receded.

The power's starting to return. Let's try upping the voltage and see if that helps... Activate the manual override.

Suddenly the xenoshade arched its back and released a hair-raising screech as several black spikes protruded from its body. Powerful currents of electricity danced between them like a tesla coil. The bolt of lightning became quicker, stronger, and more dense as a low hum resonated through the intersection.

Boom.

The electricity erupted from the creature with explosion, sending a massive electromagnetic pulse through the surrounding area, destroying every circuit and light for three blocks.

Was he to late? clearly the law enforcements had arrived but surely they were not trying to arrest those three? The Iron Knight landed just a few meters away from the entire group of law enforcements and Meta-Humans. His form was at first crouched but as he stood to look at the entire scene before him he simply approached those who were clearly helping him before this mess showed up. "You can go ahead and ignore the major threat to this city but do not think I will." Adair's voice was commanding and held its own presence as he turned his gaze from Copy Cat & Jimmy to Preston just to then pull out a single heated ion particle pistol and shoot the arrow that was clearly flying towards the man's face. "Sorry about that. Bad habits die hard. Anyway it is clear to me that the real enemy here is..."

The Iron Knight was suddenly cut off as an EMP was set off damaging the very circuitry that was in his suit and causing him to fall to both of his knees. This was bad, very bad, it was only a test suit to see if it could contain the natural flow of power that was constantly emanating from his body but now sense this little difficulty happened things might suddenly become bad.

Copy Cat ignored Spark's comment and spun to keep her eyes on the electrical creature. However, what caught her eye first was the sudden band of Wing City police that had come onto the scene. She sighed and shook her head lightly, allowing the electricity to crackle along her again. There was a force field now, but if she could find some underground cable with one good hit... She swatted as the creature lurched up from her shadow, but it disappeared again before she could make contact.

The strange woman had disappeared as quickly as she'd come, so Copy Cat didn't even bother trying to find a way for her to escape, she was mostly concerned about the teenager who'd become the black sludge's new favorite toy. Then, as the EMP shut down the force field and everything else, she pointed down the street out of the police's circle. "Go, Sparks! Keep away from that thing," she called. A familiar voice caught her ear, though, before she could zap off herself and she turned just in time to watch Iron Knight fall to his knees.

"Dammit," she cursed softly, spinning back to glance at the creature. "Too many problems today." She turned into a bolt of lightning for an instant and struck Iron Knight's armor, using her energy to try and recharge the suit, if possible before reappearing in bodily form. "C'mon, guy, we can't afford anyone to be out of commission right now!" she whispered, eyes frantically looking for Sparks and keeping track of the police's movement.

As the EMP hit, there was one thing that did not get affected. Him.

THe EMP did make him sick to his stomach though. However, he quickly sucked it up, and ran. That is what Sparks always did. Run. He looked at Copy Cat, memorizing her face, and then he zapped halfway across the street, and then into a streetlight that wasn't broken. The EMP had made all the streetlights near him unusable, but the ones across the street were fine.

However, he did feel somewhat guilty about leaving Copy Cat and Iron Knight there, so he built up a huge electrical charge, and any streetlight that was still working had lightning come out of it, putting on a huge lights show that distracted everyone. He quickly then zapped himself to a nice safe distance, a skyscraper nearby where he could watch everything and see where those two went.

He felt compelled to speak to them. Make sure they were alright. This wasn't much like him, but he was going with it all the same.

As the EMP surged by, the same woman from before sat ontop of a building, watching the scene behind them while looking the creature dead in the eye "Shit.." She said as she vanished and appeared next to Iron Knight and Copy Cat with her bow in hand and a nearly finished burger in her other hand "Sorry about that...I was really running too low on food to continue playing. So...that thing strike while I was eating?" She said while looking around quickly "I take that as a definite yes...so whats the plan Iron Knight?" She asked while pulling out an arrow from her quiver and knocked it on the string

"Should we try and capture it or just kill it? Maybe the police will help us instead of try to arrest us. Might be nice...or just myself. Either way..." She shrugged and waited for an order of some kind

As the sirens sounded Richard Leon arrived on the scene police lights blaring. He jumped out of his car vest on and opened the back door and grabbed Mio's leash. He walked around the back of the car and opened the trunk as he grabbed a police issue shotgun slinging the weapon over his back and moving with Mio at his heels the officer went to join the Ranks of the other law enforcement just as the shock-wave hit and he and Mio were thrown off balance onto the ground.

"Now is the time my children, make our mark so they may know we are coming." An image of Arneth displayed on the screen of the tablet carried to the planet with orders not to play the recording until this very minute of this hour of this day.

The screen faded to black and the device began to heat until the insides burned to ash.

"Let's go brothers! Father has spoken! The captain of the Crimson Family said to the near countless eyes watching him closely. The captain sent a signal out to the pockets of crimson squads stationed throughout Main Street from a transmitter on his watch.


A member of the Crimson family watched the police officer arrive and get his dog out. He swallowed his fear and in one motion he stood and held his firearm up that unfolded on its own from a suitcase to an automatic rifle. He exhaled as he squeezed the trigger and opened fire towards the officer and his dog with armor piercing rounds.

Darien watched the scene from where he was atop a building down the street, where Iron Knight had deposited him just moments prior. As the electromagnetic wave hit, the remaining pieces of his suit that had been functional sparked and gave out. The resulting jolt to his was painful, but not what ended up knocking him out. It was fatigue, plain and simple.

As his eyes slowly fell shut, the distant flashing lights of the police barrier that he had blessedly been removed from were the last thing he saw before falling into an unconscious torpor...