Just Like Old Times (Closed to Sub Zero and Phoenix)

Hartley had travelled all over the country since Andrew had died, smoking a joint in his honor everywhere he went. Now he was back in Dedham Massachusetts, not a mile from the place he used to hang every day with his best friend. That place was gone now, destroyed by a battle Hartley was too late to help with. Three people had died. They were Andrew's family, but Hartley was close to them as well. He felt that just maybe, if he had gotten there in time, things could have turned out differently. But there was no way to tell. What was important now were the rumors of Phoenix's return, and the possibility that his friend was still alive.

"I really hope you still live in the same place." Hartley said, knocking at the door to his old friend Mario's house. He had no idea whether or not Mario would have any information on Andrew's return, but he didn't care. What he was really there for was to reminisce and mourn with his friend. "Hello?" A woman said as she opened the door. It was Mario's mother, Hartley had only met her once or twice.
"Hi, I'm Hartley, does Mario still live here? If not could you give me his address?" he asked politely.
"Oh yes, he's in the basement playing drums. I'm surprised you can't hear him from here!" Mario's mother laughed and led Hartley to the basement door. "Go on down, he'll be happy to see you."
Hartley walked down the stairs and looked at his old friend. "Hey man, it's been a while."

Waking up from morning to morning, Mario had lost contact with his best friend and his family. With all the destruction our two cars were non-exsistant, but my family still remained. I was thankful where I was at these times in which the town was demolished and I wanted to know who so I could freeze them to death, but that's another story. I wake up and try Andrew's cell, no answer. I was still confused where he was or could be. I didn't even want to think about him being dead because he couldn't be. I eat some grub with my parents, run downstairs and start beatin' away, covering the new Parkway Drive album when I see someone run to the bottom of my stairs. I drop my sticks in mid sentence.

"Hey man, it's been a while."

"No shit it's been a while dude, I thought you might have been with Andrew! Where is he?"

Hartley gave me this look and I didn't like it..

Did Mario not know about what happened? How in the end, Andrew had to sacrifice himself to save the city? He definitely heard about Andrew being Phoenix, it was all over the news. The whole thing was. But then again, Dedham lost power for a long time after the battle that took the lives of Andrew's family. But Andrew revealed his identity before that, so he definitely knew that. "Mario... Phoenix gave his life to save the city. He killed Holocaust and somehow closed the portal, but he got stuck inside. Or at least that's what the news said." Hartley said, hoping Mario wouldn't take the news too badly.

Hartley pulled out a couple newspaper clippings of himself as Seraph. "Also... I don't know if you've heard of this 'Seraph' guy..." he said, handing Mario the clippings. Hartley looked at Mario to see his reaction. "I have to be one hundred percent honest with you. And you can't tell anyone." He looked his friend dead in the eyes. "I am Seraph." He waited to see if his friend would believe him or not.

I did see the news a lot and caught Phoenix on the tube every so often, but we lost power before anything went down. I missed my old friend dearly and wanted to see him again and smoke a fatty. But indeed the fatty had to wait.

Putting my palm on my forehead, I sighed and said, "Fuck". I felt like there was nothing else to say. I know Andrew can get out of shit easily, but this one seemed a little hard to escape from. I knew deep down Andrew wasn't dead, but a part of me thought he was, I was unsure on what was the outcome of his actions. Sadly enough I knew if I was to ever see Phoenix, it wouldn't be too soon.

Hartley showed me some newspapers while I was packin' a bowl for our missing brother and saw that 'Seraph guy' all over the articles. "So what's this guy got to do with us?" He continued to say "I am Seraph". Now personally, this was a great uplifter from the whole depressing Andrew topic because now I hear one of my best friends that has acted like a superhero for all these years, actually is one now? I looked him the eyes and said "Sacagawea". I did this because I couldn't believe it. I had another friend that had powers. I was so pumped that I Sacagawea'd him. He laughed and it was like everything was back to old times. Laughing at me, Hartley was in shock saying, "You Bastard!"

"We gotta go out. Mom I'll be back." I grabbed a water bottle, bowl, and nuggetry. We fled the scene wreaking of glory.

It was the last thing Hartley could have possibly expected. "Sacagawea" Mario had said. He hadn't heard that name since Andrew left for college! "You bastard!" Hartley laughed. Before he could say it, Mario suggested they go out. They went outside quickly, and once they were far enough away from Mario's house, Hartley took off his shirt, revealing his costume underneath. He opened his duffel bag and took out his helmet and the rest of his equipment, ready to show Mario some cool shit while they burned.

After Mario was done packin' the bowl, he greened it and passed it to Hartley. He took his hit, held it in, and let it out. He coughed for a moment, and then golden wings erupted from his back. "Ah. That's much more comfortable." he said, flapping them a few times for dramatic effect. "It's kinda funny isn't it, me and Andrew both having powers? If only you and Josh-wah had powers too! Then we'd be unstoppable man." Mario passed the bowl back and Hartley hit it again and smiled. "Yeahhhhhhhhhh....." he paused for a moment. "Nahhhhhhh........" He paused again. "Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." he said and laughed.

A quick moment of slow-mo happened in front of me while his wings open with a golden glow to them, he was RIGHT god dammit. I could now have officially two friends with powers. Righteous Bud.

I smiled handing him the bowl, "Yeahhhhhhhhhh....." waiting for Hartley's response, "Nahhhhhhh........" I then paused again. "Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." As I chuckled to myself, I raised a pillar to put the bowl down on. Hartley's jaw dropped, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Ya didn't see that shit comin did ya?", Hartley was trying to get syllables out of his broken jaw and I then picked up one of his feathers that fell off his wings and formed ice around it, placing it into his palm, Hartley had goosebumps.

"This shit is serious. Watch this." I created a pathway of ice going off the ground and around back to where I originally started. Wiping the bottom of my shoes with ice, I ran as fast as I could, slid around the little rack and back, slipping and busting my ass at the end. "La de fucking do dah...... ouch."

"Damn, this place brings back memories." Andrew Pettiglio thought to himself walking through the rubbled streets of Dedham Massachusetts. The cold wind blew through the ruins and reminded him of his failure. He looked up at the sky, then straight back ahead. "I haven't been here since before I fought Holocaust." His was sporting his new mask and cloak to conceal his identity once more. Of course, no one would recognize him anyways, his hair was long and his beard was untamed. Time passed differently in the other dimension. The good counter-part of Elena Marie had saved his life. He felt his molecules ripped apart one by one to their very fabrics and stitched back together. The pain was excruciating, but it was worth it. While away he had completely mastered his fire capabilities. The Crimson Witch had taught him many great techniques to use. However, this wasn't time to show off his skills. There was a war coming, and he was there to recruit a pair of much needed soldiers...

Elena had given Andrew the ability to look over into his home dimension and see what was going on. He watched in anger as his friends all morned his death. He had seen his friends' powers, and he was ready to take them to the next level. When finding out of Hartliey's flight and Mario's ice skills, he was pleased to say the least. He was also proud of the way the used their gifts so responsibly. The Phoenix had given everything he had to this world, and was pleased to see it sent a message to people. There was a time of peace for the first time in a long time. People were no longer in fear, and happiness filled the streets. Of course, this would only be short lived, as the visions Andrew had foreseen revealed to him the impending threat...

Every night he would have a dream of a pair of two different colored eyes staring at him, cities burning, metas being tortured. It was awful, and he trained harder everyday to prepare for his duty in the battle, the fight against the movement about to transpire. He walked up Top Hill Avenue with a smile across his masked face, as Hartley and Mario were already outside. When he approached them, his hair blew in the wind covering his mask a bit. It was a solid white, with three lines under the left eye. He had a new purple robe too that shrouded his head.
He watched with arms crossed as Mario demonstrated his powers unknowingly to the watching Phoenix.


"It's been a while boys..." Andrew said as he stared at his friends. Removing his mask he showed them his face, and pulled his hood down. "The stories of me being dead are bullshit." Andrew said smiling at his old friends. Giving each a hug he looked at them and they were baffled. The two of them looked like they had just seen a ghost. "I've been watching you guys from another dimension, it's a really confusing story. In short, I fought Holocaust, exploded and sealed the portal and woke up to Elena Marie over me, but the good one. Then she trained me, and I got some scars..." Andrew stopped. "I'm sorry, I just haven't talked to anyone else besides Elena for 5 years. Time there is faster, but I didn't age, only my hair grew."
The hero took a look around to see if anyone was watching, then turned back to his friends.
"Anyways, you guys might wanna take a seat for this one, 'cuz you're not going to like what I tell you..."

Hartley's jaw hit the floor. Mario had ice powers!! "Oh my god dude this is so sick. How is it possible that you, Andrew and I all got powers? This is fucking crazy!" Hartley said ecstatically. He took the bowl off the pillar of ice Mario had created and took a hit. "Ya know, I just wish Andrew were here to see this..." Before Hartley could say another word, he heard a very familiar voice. No.. It can't be.. He thought to himself before turning around to face a fully bearded Andrew Pettiglio, alive and well.

"NO FUCKING WAY." Hartley shouted, running and tackling his best friend, giving him a huge hug. Tears streamed down his face as he attempted to catch Andrew up on the past few months. "I travelled all over the world! And I smoked a joint in your honor each place I went! Oh my god dude I can't believe you're back!" Hartley paused for a second, and an angry look came across his face. "YOU DICK!! Why the FUCK didn't you tell me you were a goddamn superhero? Are you KIDDING me?" he said, punching Andrew in the shoulder.

After letting Andrew explain where he'd been for the past few months, Hartley looked over to Mario, then back to Andrew. "You were watching us? So then you know that we're both metas. And judging from your tone, something bad is going to happen. Does that mean you need our help? Oh holy Santa Claus shit, are you making us Talons!?"

I couldn't help but laugh at Hartley's reaction to my powers. I felt like something was going on and it was going to be great. "Yea man me t-...."

I heard a voice. A certain voice that would make me feel like I haven't felt in a long time. I glance over and saw this figure remove his mask and saw the face. I automatically lost it and turned around, putting my hand over my mouth and then pushing my hair back; I look at my long lost Brother getting slapped by Hartley.

"Dude. What the fuck have you been doing?", sobbing while hugging this son of a bitch. "You've been watching us? Well then you must have seen my new plant then!" We all laughed as I caught a grip.

Agreeing with Hartley, I also felt the same way with something uneasy coming our way. Laughing, "Talons? Is that your gang or somethin'?

"Well if I'm gunna do this, I'm just gunna be blunt." Andrew said taking in a deep breath.
"I didn't just watch you use your superpowers, I watched you die using them."
The young hero let his long time friends take in that crucial sentence before he continued his explanation as to what was going on. "I don't know who does it, and I don't know exactly when either. While I was gone I had visions every night of war going on in our world. The only clue I have is a pair of multicolored eyes that appeared in every single dream. I know this all sounds crazy, but it's the truth." Andrew stopped his sentence and watched as his friends digested another significant piece of information.

Phoenix lead the trio to the remaining pieces of what he once called home, he kneeled down and touched the scorched earth. The ash in his fingers sent a chill through his spine, and goosebumps surfaced all over his arms.
"I'm sorry." Andrew thought to himself as he stood up and walked through the blacked arch of a broken door.
Inside the rubble little to nothing was left. However what he did find was a photo of his family on the ground with the frame burnt. He picked it and looked at the picture with a smile forming across is face. It was the family at Andrew's High School Graduation.

Tucking the picture under his arm, he walked out of his old house and the team was on their way to New York.
It was a long drive and Hartley and Mario had plenty of questions, but nonetheless they arrived at Talons HQ.
Here it is boys. Welcome to your new job. The Phoenix said closing the door of his Mustang.
"I bet you're wondering how we cross the water." Andrew said with a grin as he pressed a button on his Talon dog tags.
Suddenly a large dock began to surface from the depths. The hero took lead and started walking across the platform as the other two followed right behind.


Once at the front door Andrew scanned his eye to the hole and the locks clicked.
"Let's get you guys familiar with this place."
Andrew walked into the main hallway of the Talon's base backwards so he could see the looks on his friends's faces.
His hypothesis was right as they both seemed to be jaw-dropped.
"Tyuki! Sean! A.I.!" Andrew shouted loudly as his voice boomed through the hallways of the Head Quarters.
Even when loud his tone was settling and had the pitch to it that everything would be ok.
No one seemed to be in the base.
"Well I guess I'll just show you guys your rooms."