Kingdom of Heroes (12 page)

And then I saw them, Agent America and The Iron Knight, crashing through the outer wall of our level. The Agent grabbed guards by the throat and threw them across the floor. The Iron Knight fired bullets from his wrists, tearing the guards in half. Blood and guts flew everywhere, and I was so happy I almost cried. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was better than the images my mind had created. It was real, and it was happening.

And then, the one thing I would have never expected happened, changing me and my life forever. The Agent yelled my name, asking if I was on this floor. I didn’t know what to say. Without the words, I just grunted and pushed my hand through the door slot, a vain attempt to wave. The Agent turned in my direction and saw me. He walked over to my cell and asked my name. I told him. He asked me what my powers were. I told him. He moved his wrist up to his mouth and spoke into a small watch like communicator.

“I’ve found him,” he said, seconds before ripping my door from its hinges and tossing it aside. He looked down at me and smiled through his red, white, and blue mask. “We need your help,” he said, holding out his hand for me to take.

They needed my help; The Seven actually needed my help. I could have died right then and there and been content. I probably would have been better off if I’d had. I wouldn’t know all the things I know now. I took his hand, and he pulled me from the rubble of my cell.

“Knight,” The Agent yelled, “free everyone else on this floor, and then we’re out of here.” He walked over to a phone on the wall and pressed the intercom button. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Agent America,” he said, his voice booming through what was left of the containment center. “To all of you who were once prisoners of this corrupt government, you are now free. Do not go home; do not return to your families. It is not safe; they will be waiting for you there to take you to another facility. I have several vehicles waiting just north of this building. Go to them, and they will take you all to a safe house. Once there, we will feed and strengthen you and prepare the lot of you for war. Thank you, and welcome to the fight.”

A mass exodus ran for the exits, and I started to join them in their escape. The Agent reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder, pulling me back.

“And where are you going, little man?” he asked.

“To the vehicles,” I inaudibly mumbled.

“
No sir,
” the computerized voice of The Iron Knight said. “
You’re with us now. You’re one of us
.”

I just stared up at the two heroes, unsure of anything at that moment other than my complete and total confusion.

“It’s okay,” The Agent said, patting my back. “We’ll explain on the way.”

“The way where?” I asked.

“To your house, son,” The Agent answered. “We have to meet your parents.”

The ride home was undoubtedly more uncomfortable than the ride away had been, and I couldn’t understand or make sense of that. These were my heroes; why did they freak me out so much? Why was I suddenly more frightened now than I had been in my months of containment?

I rode in the backseat of a jeep type vehicle. The Agent drove, and a skinny man with glasses and an angry look on his face sat on the passenger side. Next to me in the back, a beautiful red head girl, barely older than seventeen at most, kept giving me these weird, awkward smiles. I wasn’t sure if she was hitting on me or pitying me. Either way, it was just uncomfortable. Outside of the vehicle, I could see the blur of Speed Demon running beside us, and Fire Maiden and The Iron Knight flying through the sky. Off in the distance, The Ice Queen’s ice slide lagged slightly behind, but she stayed close enough to keep track of.

I eventually balled up enough courage to ask what they needed me for. The Agent told me a story of how the government had figured out a cure to the M-Virus’ mutations, and with my powers, they would be able to stop the cure before it went too far. I, he told me, would be able to save the lives of thousands and help them win the war. I’d never actually been able to help anybody win anything. And this, this all seemed to be too much.

We arrived, and my stomach rolled itself into a giant knot. Why did we have to be here? Why couldn’t we just go? Why did I have to see them again? None of this registered in my little brain as making sense. To be honest, it still doesn’t.

The Agent instructed the rest of them to go in ahead, and he nodded at the skinny man from the front seat, who I figured out was the one called Psychosis. The red head from the backseat eventually turned out to be Metal Girl. They all went in while The Agent and I stood outside, waiting. I heard screams, yelling, the sounds of a baby crying; it was the containment center all over again, but this was my home; these people were my family. Why were they screaming?

The Agent walked me inside my house, and I saw my parents and older sisters on their knees in the living room. The Iron Knight stood behind them, the gun’s on his wrists pointing at each of them in turn. The rest of The Seven stood in various positions throughout the room, all staring at my family. Baby Lily cried from the upstairs bedroom. I broke away from The Agent, and I ran to my family, screaming out words that I can’t even remember. And then, against my will, I stopped. The voice of Psychosis echoed inside my head, telling me there was no use in struggling; he had me under his control.

I could still see and hear everything around me, but I was powerless to do anything. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t cry. I just stood in the middle of my living room and watched tears pour down the faces of my mother and sisters, and I watched my heroes discuss the fate of my family. And as I stood there helpless, in the corner of the room, The Agent and Fire Maiden argued.

“This isn’t right, Bruce,” the blonde yelled. “This isn’t what we stand for.”

“This,” The Agent answered, pointing to my family, “is what they’ve pushed us too. We have to do this to stop them.”

Fire pointed at me. “He’ll do it without this. He’ll do it of his own free will; we don’t have to do this to him.”

“No, Fire, no,” The Agent said in return, shaking his head. “Right now, he’s frightened; he’s weak. He’ll simply be happy to be free. He needs to have a need for revenge. He has to want to kill the normals, all of the normals, for what they did to him and to his family. He needs the pain. He needs the vengeance. And he has to see it with his own eyes, or the memories will never take. He has to see it for himself, or he‘ll eventually be useless to us.”

“Then I’m out; I won’t be a part of murder,” she said, throwing her arms up in the air and storming out of the house.

“Ice,” The Agent said, “talk some sense into her.” The white haired Ice Queen followed her partner outside. The yelling between them was quite audible. The Agent looked around at the rest of his team. “Anyone else have any objections?” No one said a word. “Good. Then let’s do what we have to do.” He turned towards Psychosis. “Can you mentally shut the baby down without any bloodshed. I’m not going to physically kill a toddler.”

“I can,” the skinny man in glasses answered, momentarily shutting his eyes. And just like that, my baby sister Lily went from crying to complete silence. “It’s done,” he said.

The Agent nodded at The Iron Knight. “Do it,” he said.

I watched as the man in the red and black armor walked down the line, placing a single bullet into the head of each member of my family. I wanted to scream, to cry, to run, to do anything to stop this from happening, but I couldn’t. I was forced to watch in absolute quiet as my family died before me. Their blood pooled up on the living room floor. The Agent walked through it on his way to me. He put his hand on my shoulder.

“They’re not the family you deserve,” he said.

And then, everything went black, to nothing. It all went away, as if it had never happened. I received a new set of memories. In this version, The Seven rescued me from the containment center and then took me home. We arrived in time to find members of the American military slaughtering my family, killing them all in a bloody execution. The Seven, my new friends, retaliated and killed all of the murderers, but they were too late. My entire family died that day before I could do anything about it.

I wanted vengeance; I wanted to make this damn government pay, not just for what they’d done by locking me up, but for what they had done to my family, to my baby sister. I did whatever The Seven wanted me to do. I killed people; I destroyed men, equipment, whole armies. I did anything and everything to make these bastards answer. And I enjoyed it, knowing I was receiving payment for a price that had to be paid. All the normals, all of them, had to pay.

And then, then we won. The war was over. Agent America and the rest of his Seven took over as lords and masters of this once great land. After that, I went on; I lived my life. I made friends and girlfriends. I worked; I played. I lived my place on high above the lowly normals, and I, for the most part, while trying not to flaunt anything, enjoyed the lifestyle being one of the super powered entitled me.

My life went like this for the past ten years or so, until two weeks ago, when I checked my mail. A letter was in my box, no return address, no name other than mine. I opened it, and it was a single piece of paper with a single line of text printed on it: They’re not the family you deserve.

And it all came back, everything, every moment of that night, every excruciating detail of what I was forced to watch, every detail of what they did, what they all did. It all came back the moment I read those words. Now you see why I have to do what I’m about to do, what I will already have done by the time you read this. I have to make them feel what I did, and it won’t be enough that they die. They will have to experience what I experienced. They will have to know what it’s like to watch those they love die while they’re powerless to stop it. They have to know……

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Journal Entry

[Found on page 14]

Note: The following is a press release/newspaper article published in every major newspaper in the country after The Seven and their governors assumed control of all news organizations, radio broadcasts, and television stations.

Supreme Chancellor Rogers announced today that the United States will no longer accept imports from other countries, and on the flipside, America will no longer export our products and goods to the rest of the world. “From this point forward,” Chancellor Rogers said, “we will provide for ourselves and ourselves alone.”

This act, designed to protect America and provide for each of its citizens, is part of Chancellor Rogers plan to make sure each and every citizen has exactly what they need to survive, including an adequate food supply and a job. “While other nations may view this as an act of aggression on my part,” The Chancellor continued, “I have made this decision to safeguard this country. For too long, we as Americans have had to watch as our jobs walked away to some third world country that pay their people with literal peanuts. No more. As of today, all products will be made for Americans by Americans.”

As a by-product of this action, all of the United States borders are effectively closed, with no one allowed into the country and no one allowed out. Any attempt to cross the border will be deemed an act of treason, and any individual caught entering or exiting the nation illegally will be prosecuted as a traitor before the national tribunal.

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OPEN DOCUMENT: FIRE MAIDEN

Fire Maiden: real name Pamela Blaze. Home location: a large house in a secluded suburb just outside of the city. She lives there with her husband, Richard, her recently born twins, and her younger sister, Emily.

The Fire Maiden is without a doubt the single sweetest, most sincere person I have ever had the honor of meeting. She is loyal, brave, loving, and devoted. I’ve seen her fight tooth and nail for what she believed to be right, and I’ve seen it almost kill her when she had to do something she believed to be wrong. How she has survived the moral ambiguity of this new world we have created I will never know. Well, to be honest, I do know. As long as Pamela has The Ice Queen in her ear, whispering to her, telling her that what we did was right, it will keep her on the straight and narrow path that Ice and The Agent need her to be own.

Strengths: The Fire Maiden has a complete and total manipulation of fire, creating within her self something I have always called a “living flame,” which is basically a fire that she can control. She can shoot flames from her hands, aiming the projectile like a human flame thrower. These flames can become quite intense, as I have personally seen the temperature of these flames become high enough to melt through solid steel. She is also able to cover her entire body in a coat of the “living flames,” which allows her to use the flames propulsion to fly through the air, and by pushing the heat energy downward while in the air, she is able to hover.

This coat of flames also makes her effectively immune to any type of propulsion weaponry. Any bullet fired at her would melt before coming into actual contact with her body. The same goes for knives, swords, or any other type of weapon that isn’t completely fire proof.

Weaknesses: Foremost and obviously, I have made this particular suit completely fireproof. But the term fireproof is almost misleading. Yes, the suit can withstand direct blasts of Pamela’s flames without melting or suffering prolonged damage, but the suit is not designed and would not be able to weather an extended barrage of her fire power in one location. For example, if she decided to aim her flames at the suit’s facemask for an extended period of time, it would eventually, after just a few moments of exposure, cause serious damage to the suit’s internal systems. This effectively negates the possibility of using the suit to get close to her and defeating her with a physical attack.