Armor Of The Dark Hero
[EMPIRE CITY, NIGHT] Empire City always had its share of problems. First the depression, then the Second World War and its effects…then came the crime bosses. The metropolis of Empire City was located near New York City, and the La Cosa Nostra, the Italian mafia, saw it as fair game to expand their individual clans and businesses. In almost no time, 1960’s Empire City was home to the biggest criminal syndicate in the Northwest. The police were unable to effectively combat the Empire City underworld; they were already busy dealing with corruption, fraudulency, and malfeasance within the department and in City Hall. Much to say, the police were no help once the fire fights between warring factions spilled onto the streets. Yet, as the crime and corruption reached high tide, the underworld was shook up with the murder of Oswald Grayson, one of the premier bosses of the syndicates. Briefly after his death, the overlords of the crime world met in secret to discuss these urgent matters. “We’re just here to decide one thing, boys. Now that Oswald Grayson is dead, who takes his place? Who runs his territory in Empire City?” An older man stood to question his fellow ‘businessmen’. A woman, about the same age as the previous man, stood as well to voice her opinion. “This is really shameful! Now in the old times, we wouldn’t meet to select anybody; we’d just duke it out to see who’s strong enough to lead.” The woman spoke elegantly but direct, signs of British upbringing. “When did we become such primitive barbarians?” the first man questioned, turning towards his female cohort. “We can’t afford another prolonged conflict like in the 60’s. If we did, the police would take advantage and wipe us out.” Another member, Salvatore, stood as the other two members retook their seats. As if he was a motivational speaker, he begun his speech loud and clear enough for the whole room to hear. “We need to rally our forces now so we’ll be strong enough to resist and fight against whoever is gunning for us.” The first man spoke again, questioning Salvatore’s statement. “And who are we gonna rally around? You, Salvatore? I doubt that you or anyone here is strong or competent enough to take Grayson’s place.” The members of the meeting began to quarrel amongst themselves, unaware of the darkened figure advancing on their secluded alcove located at the edge of the city. This figure had been pursuing the council for a while; recently he hunted down and killed a key member of the criminal element plaguing the city, a man named Oswald Grayson. “Quiet as a grave out here, Eagle-1. No sign of intruders.” The security guard reported as he patrolled his sector armed with a silenced MP5 sub-machine gun, standard issue for these types of jobs. His headset crackled with a response and as the guard pressed his finger to listen, he was hit with enough force to crumble a concrete wall. The guard collapsed, and a fist with a strange metallic hue retracted into the shadow which its form was concealed by. A second guard took a gut-wrenching fist into his sternum, alleviating the air from his body and was thrown into a tree with enough force to break whichever bone made the impact. The third felt as if his head was suddenly caught in the ensnaring grip of a vice. With one smooth movement, a clean and precise twist snapped the guard’s spinal column in two. After all of the guards were either incapacitated or dispatched, the dark figure finally stepped into the light. The figure was human-or at least resembled a human-as its appearance was revealed. It stood at least 6’2” and completely covered in an armored bodysuit. The armor, which was colored a black/teal tone, was amazingly sleek but showed a light amount of muscle formations. The helmet-like mask resembled the countenance of a Tengu creature, save for the long nose the Tengu were known to have. Its eyes shone a muted deep red, like blood as it scanned the hideout. Despite its appearance, the armored vigilante was very much human. The bodysuit, the armor that the wearer, Yuki Kaiza, possessed was a hybrid of human and alien technology. The fateful night where he was chosen to portray the universe’s personage of vengeance, the night he became an agent of dark justice for the Purveyors, was a night he couldn’t erase from memory if he tried his hardest. The Purveyors were an enigmatic extraterrestrial race of super-intelligent governor-like figures that originally created the Vanguards. The Vanguards are, in essence, intergalactic black ops agents. Yuki, yet he became accustomed to using his title as “Vanguard” as an alias while in his transformed state, felt his mission nearing the final stretch. His body language changed as he advanced on the hideout; the technology built into his suit augmented his senses to extraordinary levels. As a fully developed sixth sense, he could detect the electromagnetic fields out of his line of sight. His senses detected many electromagnetic fields, displayed as white outlines. Raising his armored hand, he focused plasma energy into his palm, his most basic but considerably powerful weapon, and fired it, blowing a large hole in the wall and disintegrating the person standing behind it. The council immediately went into a fearful uproar and their individual army of guards pulled their weapons and took careful aim. With a filtered, mechanical voice, one of an intimidating and daunting tone, Vanguard spoke: “Found you!” He growled as he prepared for battle. The guards began firing their various assault rifles and submachine guns. The exosuit, in addition to enhancing his senses and his strength, it greatly improved his speed to the point where he was able to block and deflect the bullets fired at him. As the second round of firing started, Vanguard deflected the bullets once again, this time back at their senders. Vanguard was far from being defenseless but as an additional weapon, he had the Plasma Blade, a sword with a blade generated from superhot plasma energy. The energy sword vibrates at extremely high frequencies, giving it the ability to cut through most materials without effort. The super powered agent ignited the Plasma Blade and immediately decapitated an advancing security guard. He then proceeded to strike down and dismember any opponent who was unfortunate to cross his path or classify themselves as a threat. He sliced a guard across the belly, ran one through, cleaved one down the middle and dissected three guards. With the majority of the guards either dead or out of commission, Vanguard turned his attention to the heads of the mafia. He neared his prey ever so closely when the one furthest away from him depressed a button. As if on cue, men charged into the room. They weren’t like the previous number of security guards that Vanguard easily dispatched; the exosuit informed the agent that these new guards were mercenaries specially trained to take down superhumans. As if he was a superhuman…The hero could’ve surely killed the mercenaries but he decided to take them on bare-handed to remind them again why the Vanguards were known as the agents of dark justice. Vanguard stepped forward as the mob bosses fled the room, the last one giving a wry chuckle as the door slammed shut behind him. Without warning, he disarmed a mercenary with a kick, grabbed his arm and delivered a powerful backhand, knocking the man across the room. One mercenary attempted to grab him from behind, only to have his arms snapped like a twig. The agent then grabbed the man by his neck and tossed him into the ceiling. Turning around, Vanguard noticed a mercenary picking up a shotgun to use. This distracted him from the mercenary sneaking up beside him; the mercenary landed a kick to his stomach which proved to be ineffective. Vanguard shoved his knee into the mercenary’s face and dodged the other’s shotgun blast, only to blast him with a burst of plasma. A mercenary, sensing death was near, smashed a chair over Vanguard’s head. This too was ineffective, as Vanguard used superhuman speed to zoom past the mercenary, break his arm, and throw him into the wall, which collapsed due to the amount of force. “Now that this is over,” Vanguard mused as he kicked the exit door from the hinges. “The rest should be easy.” He ignited the Plasma Blade and continued on his path. Empire City was cold this particular night as Vanguard stepped outside. Snow began to fall but he didn’t notice nor did he feel it; the exosuit was designed as an all purpose environmental suit that regulates his temperature, among other internal functions. His sensors picked up something large but he couldn’t see anything due to the haze of the snow. It was then he heard the whirring of helicopter blades. As the large electromagnetic outline signal neared Vanguard, his sensors identified the make of a Hind D, a Russian attack helicopter. With his superhuman speed Vanguard immediately went on the offensive, dodging the helicopter’s gunfire. Upon closer inspection he detected five life forms in addition to the pilot, meaning that the mob bosses were trying to get away in the Hind D. The Hind launched a missile at Vanguard’s location, only to have it barely deflected by the agent’s defense mechanism, a gravity manipulator. Used in the right sense, it could be effectively used as a force field. Drawing on past experiences, the agent decided to use this information to go in a different direction. Focusing the heated plasma energy and directing the siphoned gravitational energy into his attack power, he prepared a technique referred to as “the pressure force”. The machine gun on the Hind began to whir angrily, preparing for another barrage of bullets. Vanguard dodged another missile launch, jumped into the air, and pressed his hands forward. The pilot realized it too late; Vanguard’s pressure force blew the Hind out of the sky and sent it into the river. For good measure, the agent fired an additional plasma blast into the river, causing a large but muffled explosion. Vanguard took one long sigh and uttered, “Retract.” At his command, the armor dispersed and retracted itself into a wristwatch-like device, and Vanguard resumed his human identity of Yuki Kaiza. Knowing the police would arrive soon, Yuki decided to beat a hasty retreat. His job was done…for the night.
Copyright © 2010 Tre Delvon |