It seems a bit too dark in this cloudy autumn night, as the dead leaves crinkle and drag through the empty city streets. The moon was said to be full and bright that night, but the clouds rolling in are too thick to allow its light to warm up the shadows. Hearing a sudden piercing whale, the vigilante known simply as The Skull, slides to a stop in the dark alley. Skull pulls out his silver skull amulet from his back pocket and with the flick of his wrist, his blue and black magic energy gathers over the amulet to a shining blade. He could sense the suffocating heaviness of the Evil energy nearby, as a chill of wind bites at the warn knees in his grey jeans. Like a gunshot, Skull takes off down the alley, following the telltale screams of an attack. Wearing his favorite black hoodie he blends in the shadows as he comes to the end of the empty ally, peering for a moment around the side of the building onto the main road.
Police had already closed off the road as the sirens scream from the shattered shops along the strip. Realizing it may not be needed, Skull reverse materializes his blade tucking the amulet in his back pocket, and tightens his finger-less skeleton hand gloves, then clasps the back of his partial face mask as his blue eyes glow to his condensed energy. He leaps to the fire escape on the side of the building, pulling onto the roof. As he keeps low, he observes the cloud of demonic energy thickly hanging like a heavy mist near the dead end of the street. The bar and grill’s patio fireplaces are toppled, along with tables and chairs scattered as civilians keep close to the walls along the road. Police are already carefully removing Civilians in teams to safety over behind the barricade. A sudden deep rumble resonates from the mass, until a wave of energy ripples as the very ground shakes tearing up the road, causing the roof under Skull’s high top sneakers to crumble. He leaps off the roof charging unsteadily through the eroding street, concentrating his energy into his hands. With a wave, Skull catches the roof just in time as the black and blue energy from his force field sparkles like stars stunning the civilians.
“Hurry up, get those people to safety!” Chief Everly orders as a team rushes to get them away. Once clear, Skull leaps back from the debris as it crashes. “Skull!” Chief Everly calls, “What’re you doing here? It’s too unstable, Super Team Kilo is on their way.” The rumble of the mass ripples again, as a tsunami of loose debris heads right for the Police. Skull shoots his force field towards them, protecting the police from the loose debris. Then, a sudden flash of red light comes from the center of the mass, flashing so bright, it blinds everyone for a moment, and just as quickly as the light appeared, the mass of energy fades with it leaving not a single trace.
“What the hell?”
“It’s gone!” Chatters the police ducked by their vehicles. Skull’s force field dissolves flickering away like fireflies, as he drops his arms weakened.
“Where the hell-Team three, let’s inspect the area.” Chief Everly orders, “We’re fine here.” Skull panting, glances back at Everly, following team three to measure and inspect the area. Skull slips in front of the chief.
“I can help.” Skull says patting his chest.
“Thank you, you have helped, you may be a member of the Echo team, but you’re not an actual Carrier Agent, this is getting too big for you kid.”
“Chief we’ve detected something!” One of the officers calls as they scan the dead end wall with their electromagnetic field detector, as the lights on the device flicker like crazy. Chief hurries past Skull.
“I’m twenty-seven, I’m not a kid.” Skull sighs. Just as he goes to leave, the Chief touches the wall as it ripples like the surface of water with the red light. ‘That’s odd.’ Skull thought, and gasps seeing the chief’s battering wand disappear into the wall. Skull buckles to a sudden force of strong, heavy energy stabbing him in his energy center. ‘Magic.’ The pain fades, ‘I need a closer look.’ Skull leaps through the debris over to them, “Chief Everly!”
“Skull, I told you let us handle this, will you please escort him off the premises?”
“It’s made-” Everyone looks at him, “It’s made from magic.” Chief looks at the Electromagnetic Field Detector, as it squeals and screams the closer it gets to the space.
“Sir these readings are ridiculous, they make no sense.”
“Can your device measure magic?” Skull walks over to it hovering his hand just over the wall. He could feel the pins and needles of the energy coming from it, as it gives him painful chills, “It’s like a membrane holding back the more powerful energy.” He thoughtlessly adds. “Wow that is strong.” Skull pulls out his Skull amulet, holding it near as the diamond eyes glow red as the vibration of the energy deep in his center tells him exactly what kind of energy it is, “Enjiri?”
“What?” The chief sharply asks.
“It’s Enjiri energy, Enjiri magic. It’s a very dense magical energy, very dangerous energy. It isn’t even from our Universe-which means, that thing opened a doorway?”
“Is this a joke to you kid? People almost died.” The chief exclaims.
“What?”
“Please escort Skull out of here.”
“I’m not making a joke.” Skull leaps away just before he is grabbed, as he looks down at his Amulet, putting it back in his pocket.
“What a waste of time, alright let’s wrap it up.”
Skull decides to walk through the alleys, quiet and dark, he can really feel one with the shadows. His phone buzzes, “Echo, haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“Skull, this is Echo, team leader of Echo squad Supers, I’m alerting you of an upcoming meeting in Terrow city, having heard you are back in town, the details of the location are as follows, we expect to see you there.’
“Something tells me this isn’t going to be a pleasant visit for me.” Skull sighs tucking away his phone, and leaps up the fire escape to the roof of an apartment buildings making his way to Terrow city. He goes on until he stops at the nearby abandoned gas station, having left his backpack there carrying some clothes, money, water and food. Grabbing his pack, he sneaks into the restroom of a restaurant, cleans up and is out before anyone can see him.
Meanwhile, at the Terrow branch of Carrier Agents Inc. headquarters, Kal the chief of Echo group supers, paces before the team sitting at the table in the meeting room. “I just contacted Skull.” Echo says.
“Did he actually respond?”
“Not yet.” Echo, unlike the rest of the team is still in her super uniform made especially for her ability to manipulate frequencies. Her color choice is blue and silver after the late legendary duo team ELEctroNRG. Echo team became their successors once both had passed away four years ago on a job. Next to her sits the twin brothers Code-names Marko and Polo. They are the youngest of the group in their early twenties, their powers of Electrical manipulation and water almost always wearing their street clothes at the meetings. Polo tugs on the cuffs of his new favorite orange plaid top, being a water energy he always needs something fumbling in his hands and can never sit still as he struggles to pay attention.
“There’s been twelve attacks already this month-” Kal says pulling up the document of what they do know about the creatures. “We have Super team Kilo investigating closely. They’ve just informed me of a theory of a portal of some sort allowing these things into our dimensional plane.” Marko of course had already lost interest in the meeting as he finishes folding a paper football, but unlike his brother, he somehow seems to always remember everything even though he wasn’t paying attention, and Polo relies heavily on Marko’s memory.
Polo snorts as Marko playfully flicks a paper football at Code-name Sinjo across from them, a fire manipulator, seen usually with red and orange when he’s in uniform, but resorts to his torn jeans and loose top otherwise. The paper football bounces off him and into Code-name Fractal, “Seriously Marko?” She hovers her hand over the paper football. Able to manipulate matter, she turns it into ash and blows it on Marko. She uses this to make fractal like weapons, her favorite being snowflake throwing stars.
“Guys pay attention.” Code-name Terra, the only super using his legal birth name, who’s ability is to communicate with the planet, and manipulate plants and animals to his own devices. With his Earth spirit energy, he is always seen wearing green and gold mostly, even in his street clothes and is barefoot at any chance he can get, even kicking off his sandals at meetings, always needing to be connected to Earth energy.
“Skull just responded.” Echo says picking up her vibrating phone. “He was in Hinafa city dealing with a situation.”
“That’s not far from here, so does that mean Skull’s actually coming?”
“Like he’s actually going to team up with us again?” Marko and Polo excitedly gasp being pulled from their distractions, two of the many fans of the mysterious Skull even with his reputation among disillusioned supers.
“Yes.” Kal says.
Polo and Marko fist bump. “Any details on the situation?” Sinjo asks playing with his flame at the tip of his pointer finger, passing it down to his little finger and back.
“No, I guess he’ll tell us when he gets here.” Echo says.
“Reports of the last attack say the substance of the creatures after being unsolidified, formed back into the creature. The last time Skull had to deal with the creatures he had to use his blue fire.” Kal explains.
“Aw cool, you mean the Midnight Flame?” Marko asks.
“Yes.” Kal says.
“You’ve seen his Midnight Flame?” Terra asks, a bit newer to the team, and hasn’t had the chance to work with Skull.
“Yes.” Polo grins.
“It’s something I’ve never seen before, it’s almost like fire, but it’s black and blue.” Sinjo adds.
“Interesting.”
“It’s not even hot like fire.” Kal somewhat excitedly adds, “Anyway-” Kal straightens his checkered bow-tie. “The notes say this substance has the consistency of jelly.”
“No one has seen his face, right?” Fractal asks, also still quite new to the team.
“Skull’s?” Sinjo asks, “No.”
“Is it true he doesn’t even speak to protect his identity?” Terra asks.
“He does speak.” Kal sighs, “Can we focus please?”
“Sorry. Were they able to get any samples?” Fractal asks shifting his curiosity to the type of matter making up the strange demons.
“They couldn’t safely, so we need to pay attention to the changes in these demons ourselves.” Kal zooms on the crystal clear picture, close enough to see the grain-like consistency.
“That looks like sand.” Terra adds, “But it’s not.”
“Yeah it does.” Kal pulls up a note pad onscreen with his smart pen, pulling up past notes of the demons’ descriptions, and writes in the new details, “Also they appear to be growing in size.”
“That thing looks so damn creepy.” Marko gasps.
“Maybe it’s lake sludge.” Fractal adds.
Terra nods, “That would explain this sandy texture.”
“So this one came from somewhere with a lake?” Sinjo asks.
Polo laughs, “Don’t tell me it’s some kind of Lake Monster.”
“Could possibly be.” Kal hums rubbing his chin looking over the picture.
“Someone had to have summoned it then right?” Echo asks.
“Skull’s magic is the only thing that can easily destroy them, so we could be dealing with another magic wielder.”
“Either way they can’t possibly be popping up without help.” Echo adds.
“That’s the next point, we did find something that seems to be a common thing with these demons, but it’s only in our jurisdiction.” Kal double taps the picture zooming in with his thumb and pointer finger.
“What is that, it appears in every picture?” Echo asks.
“It looks like some kind of manifestation.” Fractal says.
“The team is working on cleaning this up so we can identify the figure.”
“So if we see this figure while we’re fighting any demons what should we do?” Sinjo asks.
“The police are aware of this, leave it to them, I want your complete focus on fighting so all of you can return to your families in one peace. I’ve also alerted Skull of this since he’s a little late making it to the city.”
“When exactly is Skull going to be here?” Polo asks.
“In a day or so he’ll meet up with us at the hotel.” Echo says.
“Oh my god he’s so cool!” Marko gasps.
“Beats me every time at poker.” Sinjo laughs.
“Drinks your ass under the table too.” Echo says, “So no overdoing it while he’s here.”
“He does not.” Sinjo grumbles, “I was trying to get him to remove his mask, I mean we’ve seen each other’s faces.”
“If he wants to keep his identity private, he’s gonna keep it private, besides he’s never around long enough to have to wear his civilian attire.” Echo adds.
“But it’s been four years.”
“Focus please.” Kal sighs as they quiet down, “Okay-where the hell was I?”
“You were talking about keeping an eye out for the mysterious figure.”
“Right, any questions?” No one responds. Kal looks at his watch, “Well I guess that’s about it then. Keep checking your alerts, these things are getting stronger so you guys need to keep on your toes. I’ll try and convince Skull to hang around a little longer until we find out where these things are coming from.”
“Good luck with that.” Echo laughs as they clear out of the meeting room.
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