Laboratory Disaster, The Danger of Publicity

The doctor looks upon the blue and green tanks, full of thick fluid, the darkened humanoid silhouettes within them writhe in agony from the tubing buried in their flesh.

The sterile white of the laboratory is lit from fluorescent lights embedded in the ceiling, his thin hands hold a clipboard, recording the findings of the robotic augmentations that he applied to the genetic experiments that he had created.

Subject 7a, The optical enhancements have malfunctioned, and the strobes of electricity are causing micro-strokes, the subject will die within the next week.

Subject 7b, The subject is dead, Time of Death is 18:06 according to the readouts of the tank.

"This batch of optics are corrupted... they are worthless to me."

A security alarm dings, as one of the tanks at the far end bursts, slopping a huge man onto the floor with a heavy crash, The being has a heavy coating of placental fluid all over his flesh and the cords connecting him to the machine are pulled taut.

Trevor Grayson
Seattle, Washington

"All right... ah... so... I think second street is... here. Yeah. Right here. No wait that's... that's a building."

Despite living in Seattle for most of his life, he knew shit all about getting around it.

Ah, I'm sorry. Some background. See, Trevor Grayson is a new hero in town. Who's still trying to figure out how to be a superhero. He's got the powers, he's pretty powerful, and he knows how to use them... but he's been hard pressed on trying to find something to use them on. Believe it or not, in a world filled with superheroes, it's not easy to find criminals to stop. Because by the time you get there, some douche with super speed has already taken him out.

However, he had heard about another superdouche who had killed a bunch of people in Washington DC (The Washington Knock-Off, according to him) and he decided that since no one else had stopped him at this point, he might as well go ahead and give it a shot. Superheroes sometimes go on manhunts for super villains.

So at this time, he was prowling the city, trying to get to lead to follow. And he had heard from some homeless guy on the street that a drug deal was going on at Second Street this very night. Well... sort of night. It was 8:00 PM but whatever. It counts.

So, as he arrived at Second Street, peeking over the edge of a rooftop to watch one guy give small bags of crystal meth to what looked like homeless people, he decided this was his big chance. His first superhero blowout!

Trevor then leapt over the side, using his earth manipulation to cushion his landing as he used the concrete around him as vortexes, floating to the ground. He watched as the homeless guys ran off, leaving him and the drug dealer.

"Shit!" The drug dealer screamed, fumbling for the pistol in his pants.

So, Grayson tried shooting a piece of concrete at the dealer. But he missed.

Yes. A superhero missed. Alert the press.

But the second shot, he was able to strike him in the head with a concrete blast, knocking him to the floor. Grayson lunged on top of him and struck him, knocking him out.

"Oh dammit! I forgot. I was... fuck. I was supposed to interrogate... aw man..."

So he did the only thing a guardian of justice could have done.

Trevor sat next to the unconscious dealer, propping him up slightly and binding his wrists to the concrete ground to keep him there as he waited for him to wake up. Hopefully soon.

This was going to take a while to get used to.

Zell's breathing was steady, in opposition to the creature that stood across from him. Two large hands with three claws a piece, fierce secondary appendages with toxic talon's attached, battered and beaten insectoid like wings falling back into it's shell of a body. The Starburst from orange to red only increased the viciousness of this monster as it moved at impressive speeds, reaching up to 250 miles per hour easily. It attempted to reposition itself behind Zell and thrust through with the terrifying appendages, but alas it proved fruitless. The talons pierced the clothing, but in the end, all 90 tons of force applied didn't even compare to Zell. Zell, moving at equal reflexes as the creature spun and kicked the beast, the tattoo on his right bicep that shot around as a ring around the entire arm's girth began to glow an emerald color, as did Zell's eyes. With a terrifying force he launched the creature with more than three times it's own force and sent the creature flying through a school bus, leaving it in twine. The creature however, the one only Zell knew anything about had refused to give up. It was not as powerful as it could be...something was wrong. Something was inhibiting it. Was it not used to the earthen atmosphere?
 
      Regardless, Zell did not care. The creature found him, and it needed to be dealt with. The creature looked up at him, weakly trying to move from it's humanoid shaped crater made within the building as easily as if it were a memory foam mattress. Zell stepped forward, careful to ensure his Anti-perceptional devices remained in tact and active. None could know that Zell Atterrius was truly the Hero known as "The Archon", and above all else, none could know that the Archon was truly none other than the Lych. He stepped forward, the creature was unable to make a sound, but it was visible in it's eyes that it feared. As it rightfully should have. Zell produced a familiar masque before bringing it up to his face. The second the sweet serendipitous metal caressed the skin of youth his hair turned a stark silver and fell about two inches longer as darkness swirled around him. Dark energies gathered unto him, lightning with a black core and a blood red glow surrounded him like the enigmatic being he was he stepped towards the creature to reveal himself as a whole different entity. The Archon, Zell's heroic persona stepped forth, his voice altered by the mystical masque.
 
    "Now, now little Blackened. I gave you your chance. I cannot simply allow you to run amuck now can I? After all...when E.T phones home, what is stopping E.T's family from destroying us?" Zell asked, the rather catchy voice teasing the beast as he stepped forward. The creature, wounded as it was shot forward and sped past Zell at 100 miles per hour, gimping almost as it flew. The Archon sped after him, equally as fast, however it was still a certain length behind. He would follow this creature to the ends of the earth.
 
    The Blackened sped through the city, eventually using the appendages and tattered wings to fly to the roof-tops, where Zell would proceed to follow. Alas, the Blackened managed to escape when the beast leapt from a building and crashed into the unstable barrier, falling through into what Zell would have presumed to have been a secret to the city that harbored it. Lights flashing as the creature scuttled to it's legs only to drop, realizing that it's leg had been broken and wounded. It made no noises as the creature oh so cleverly began to use it's extra appendages as supplemental legs, and begin crawling away, or rather skittering away down the halls of the under ground Lab. The Archon leapt from the building only to land on the ground to look upon the lab like interior as metallic doors began to close, the Blackened creature moving further and further into the labs. Zell would have to thank that particular Hale woman. Saving her life turned out to be a wise investment for the both of them...so far. Once Zell explained the situation she immediately believed and understood him, accepting the gravitas of the situation was something that was greater than any petty feud Zell had "amended". Now it was just a matter of Zell and whatever assistance he could get from the Hales, and he knew there would be assistance, considering the creature so skillfully not only handled Arianna well, but Aaron too. It could have been worse had Niall not alerted Zell and Brandon when he did. But now here they were...two days later with NO rest...chasing the beast into the Lair of a rather interesting man that Archon had yet to meet. The only trick now? Staying away from Brandon as he looked like this. While Brandon would never know he was Zell...he would certainly know the essence of The Lych.

The Hale house was in a state of disrepair for a lack of better words considering what had happened within it, the matriarch rather furious with what had happened. A being of rather strange origins had ran through the building much like a chicken with its head cut off, and it took both her and Aaron to chase the damned thing away. It was during this encounter that  they had managed to weaken the damn thing before it managed to run away, leaving a path of destruction within its wake, one that required a large amount of cleaning up on Arianna’s end, though she got the information discerning the being one way or another. It was something called a Blackened, a being that Arianna had heard of before but was only now witnessing, its power alone something that she found to be terrifying, yet something had to be done about what they were dealing with now, the one that had attacked her.

It was after this event that she was forced to cavort with the male known as Zell Atterrius, though that seemed to yield greater results than she was expecting, as Brandon found himself being sent after the blackened along with Zell. While the blond had initially protested having to do something like that, in the end he would follow after the destructive menace, if only to avoid another thing ruining his house again. Of course he would grumble all while doing so, but that did not meant that the male was not willing to help, no he was more than willing to do what needed to be done, and Aaron had ways of making him do things. So it was this night in particular that Brandon was hunting down the being known as a Blackened through the city of Washington Dc, dressed in only a wife beater and faded blue jeans.

While Zell went one way, Brandon went the other and the hunt began, though it seemed that he was just looking in all of the wrong places. This hunt had been going on for around two days without rest, and yet Brandon could not slow down, his body did not need as much sleep as normal people did, so he could go on when people usually would have wanted to collapse, so this was not a big deal. ’Now if I were a weird magical creature, where would I be?” Brandon muttered to himself, rubbing his chin slowly as he mused over the possibilities. There were so many places that one of these things could go, and yet none of them seemed likely, considering that not everything thought like Brandon Hale. He wiped away a single strand of blond hair from his face before diving back into the search.

Midnight black wings would burst from his back as he took to the sky, catching a glimpse of someone being taken down within an alleyway before going on. He had no business messing in the affairs of the local vigilantes, and they usually got angry when someone did that anyway. Something about it being their turf or whatever it was that one of those gruff voiced jackasses would say within his head, drawing a rather amused chuckle from Brandon as he continued to fly along. It was the sound of destruction that caught his attention, as what sounded like a fight nearby drew him towards it. Maybe some kind of metahuman had found the thing and was fighting it? If that were the case then he would only have an easier time in subduing it, if his strength was sufficient anyway. While Brandon was confident that he was pretty damn strong, he was not stupid enough to believe that they weren’t things that could outdo him.

The trail of destruction however seemed to begin to rapidly move, which meant that he would follow, though his pace was woefully slow when compared to whatever was causing all of this. Even when flapping full speed, Brandon could not keep up, and only caught the tail end of everything, though it seemed that there was a destination for whatever was causing all of this, which was perhaps going underground, if he knew anything about how wounded animals worked. In the end he was lead to what looked like some kind of underground laboratory, or rather the entrance to one at any rate. While Aaron would have suggested simply scouting the place out, Brandon went with a more direct approach, dive-bombing the place feet first, slamming through the ceiling of the structure with amazing force.

No matter how durable the place was, his feet found it much like Styrofoam, tearing through with no real resistance as he landed feet first on the ground. Dust would form in a cloud around him as his wings sent it flying away from him, though something about the place was strange once he really gave it a once over, seemingly less like abandoned warehouse and more something else entirely.  ”What the hell have I flown in on now?” Brandon muttered to himself scratching the back of his head.

Trevor had chosen the wrong alleyway to manipulate, the concrete he had used as a projectile weapon had covered up a vital thing, a tunnel below the alley collapses because the support structure was compromised... the dealer falls through the hole to land with a horrible crunching noise... in a smooth white linoleum floored hallway. A secret base.

The creature climbs into a vent, trying to escape from its pursuer on its broken limbs, and stumbles into an unexpected trap... Doctor Mor had rigged the air vents to collapse, dropping the Blackened downward into open space, straight down a hundred feet. A series of spikes, coated in poisons catch the alien with a sickening crunching noise, A big red light ignites upon a console in response, a security camera holds a black and white image of the scene on a TV screen above the light.

Right next to Brandon's foot is a creature of metal and flesh, attached to the broken tank by wires and tubes, at the far end of the hallway is a man in white, with medium length chalky grey hair and a clipboard, who starts striding towards him with a calm expression on his face. The spectacles on his nose read electrical impulses, and the ones generated by Brandon were ridiculously high, even if he looked completely human, the Doctor would know he is anything but normal.

"Well, well, well... What are you?" Jedidiah asks rhetorically.