New Beginnings

It was a seemingly calm afternoon, as Andrew sat atop a skyscraper across from the reconstructed Empire State Building.
"Six years ago today. I was blowing up on top of that thing."
Andrew often sat and looked at the skyline. It reminded him he was back in his world, yet he prepared for any moment to wake up back in that hell he was trapped in. He sighed as he thought about his life. "I never planned it be this way Dad." he spoke looking to the sky. "I know I never got a chance to say it before, but i'm sorry I couldn't save you, mom, and Angie. I tried my best. I hope you know that." Andrew missed his family, and with his best friends seemingly disappeared, and Tyuki moved on, what he needed was a new friend. Sean couldn't be there every day.

"Maybe one day I'll have a place to call my home again, until then I make sure no one loses theirs." he finished speaking to his late father.
As always things never stayed quiet in a city that didn't sleep. Sirens were going crazy, and there was loud noises.
"Should I let the the police handle it? Not everyone knows I'm back yet."
Well today was the day, the grand revealing of an alive Phoenix.

Out in the distance Andrew saw smoke, and loud explosions were going off. Screams echoed throughout the streets. "Time to show them their hero is back."
Andrew dropped off the building before landing on the pavement below him, crunching the concrete a bit on his decent.
Flames completely circled him, as they vanished he was in full costume. Mask, suit, and staff attached to his back.
"Show time."
As he ran at incredible speeds towards the scene of the explosions, one caught him off guard to his right and sent him skidding.
Five masked men were pointing guns at people and unloading clips.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Andrew asked in disbelief.
Snapping his fingers, he made their guns turn into a melted metal substance before watching them scream in agony with the burns they were being subjected too.
He wasn't normally that reckless or cruel but they couldn't be allowed to continue the slaughtering of innocent people.

Police showed up and surrounded the once armed men.
"Thank you sir!" The cop shouted at Andrew before asking his name.
"It's me Officer, I'm The Phoenix and I'm back."
Before long a chopper had been called in to follow Andrew.
It's not every day the city gets a hero back from the dead.

As he approached the initial bomb threat there were easily 25 men, running, shooting, screaming.
"Down with metahumans!" was all he made out.
The chopper circled over him as it was playing on the news channels headlined
"The Phoenix has returned!"
Another masked hero seemed to be making their way towards the scene, it appeared to be a woman.
"Thank god you showed up." he spoke to her as she stood next to him.
"I couldn't do crowd control and take these guys all out alone."
He hoped with all his being she was on his side, he couldn't afford two fights at once.

Getting anytime to test out her abilities now days came as a welcome reprieve. No one wanted to test with Caroline since her diagnosis with the powers now coursing through her, and no state would sanction her to fight against another opponent, so Caroline took to trying out her luck with whatever sparring partner happened to answer her postings.

The gym fell silent as Caroline fell flat on her back against the mat. Most of the air slipped out of her lungs and her eyes dilated in shock. A few beads of sweat running from her forehead down against the grey shirt from the Olympic qualifiers she tried to make in 2016. "Time to stop taking it easy." Caroline hopped up onto her feet and cracked her knuckles. Her face flushed red partly because of the fall, but more so because the only person who answered her call was a seventeen year old 'Prodigy' who happened to have the resources to fly out to New York.

"Please do." Danny's fingers ran along the gemstone bracelet around her wrist, striking an odd opposition to her pink yoga pants and 2018 California state champ basketball shirt.

Getting to her feet was the easy part. Taking Danny down would take a little more time finesse than she typically liked facing. "Don't worry, I'll take it easy since I guess you have a lot of troubles between boys and math class."

"You have a degree in social work, so-" Danny shook her head in a feint of making a hard choice. "Maybe we don't throw stones in glass houses."

A little annoyance flared up in Caroline as she charged towards Danny. Danny moved back to take an ancient stance to try and use Caroline's own strength against her. Danny did not do that. At all. With one quick drop, Caroline tore the mat in twain, throwing Danny down through the boxing ring and into the ground. "Woah. Sorry, Dan-"

A ray of turquoise light shot through the hole, smacking Caroline square in the jaw. Caroline flicked a small platter of blood onto the vinyl. "We said no powers!"

Two hands pulled themselves up, propelling Danny into the boxing ring. "And I said I have basketball pictures on Tuesday, so no bruises!"

"Calm down cheerleader; you needed a little blush, and I-" An image on the television screen caught Caroline's attention. "Need to go."

Danny accepted the invite Caroline did not extend to her. "Looks like we'll get some extra-"

"Just me Princess. You're staying her with Randall." Caroline nodded over to an ebony skinned man with gray hair reading a boxing magazine.

"Uh huh. And you're going to stop me by?" While Danny mused a rhetorical question, Caroline found an answer for it by grabbing the slightly taller, younger heroine by the wrist, covering up her bracelet.

"Alright Randall, watch over cheerleader and I'll be back once I deal with that." Caroline fixed the sash around her waist. It only took her a minute to slip into her superhero outfit. "Don't let her have her bracelet until I get back."

"Sure thing." Randall flipped to the next page in his magazine while looking over to Danny who had her bracelet removed and a handcuff now tethering her to the post of the boxing ring.

"You know this is kidnapping right?"

"Caroline says you ain't goin', so you ain't goin'." Randall looked down at his magazine while keeping his attention as divided from Danny as possible.

"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Pulling the cuffed wrist did little to break it loose from the rail and too much would just leave Danny with an ugly mark around her wrist. A magazine flew over towards her, and even without the bracelet giving her reflexes, she still found a way to grab a back copy of a boxing magazine. "I haven't read this one. Okay."

One last crack of the knuckles and Caroline was ready to leave. "Alright, so I'm out. I'll let you loose when I get back."

"Hey!" A foot stomp did the talking for Danny. Also, her mouth did. "I've been doing this longer than you! I should be the one taking god damn charge of this thing!"

A cross look overcame Caroline's face. "Hey! Language kiddo. I don't insult whatever god you have in wherever you're from."

"I'm Catholic!" Danny said with more anger than conviction.

"Really?"

"Ish."

The path to the Empire State Building grew more compacted the closer Caroline got. While the police tried to clear the scene, people still flocked to try and get a safe watch point of where they could view the scene unfold to get their camera footage. Caroline stopped walking after sometime. It slowed her down too much. One clone. Two clone. Three clone. Four clone. Five clone. And the distance closed.

Perhaps a little too closely though.

Bullets rang out from a large number of men. Not all of the civilians cleared the buildings as they should have due to the danger facing everyone within the area, but at least one person appeared to still be friendly towards her. She turned her head quickly towards Andrew without taking in a full glance of him. "Yeah. So, you got crowd control down and I'll take out these goons? Sounds good." He did look somewhat familiar though. She raised a finger to think for a moment. She did not quite know how to ask if someone could come back from the dead. Maybe bringing the seventeen year old would not have been such a bad idea. "You look familiar."

Andrew smiled at the woman. "No no, we take them out together, then we can work on controlling the crowd." He forgot he changed his costume entirely, as the choppers above circled, Andrew leaned in closer to her so she could hear him.
"I'm Phoenix. I'm back. Before you ask, no I didn't do. We'll talk after, let's clean up here. You take the left side I'll take the right. Go!"

Andrew dashed at the armed men, the first one he approached took a few shots at the hero, but to no avail. Leaping up, The Phoenix planted a knee firmly in the jaw of the terrorist.
He noticed a symbol on the bandanna in the center of the man's forehead. As the man dropped Andrew grabbed the cloth and put it into his boot.

"Fire!" Andrew heard from his left.
A rocket came flying towards the hero.
"No way." he thought as he punched the oncoming projectile.
As it exploded in front of the hero.
Andrew created a cage of fire around 8 of the men.
They dropped their weapons, except for one who continued to fire at the hero.
"Ok. Enough."

The cage expanded for a moment before Andrew stepped through the fire and threw 8 punches.
Finishing number 8 the last man fell to the floor.
"You can stay here." he spoke to the unconscious monsters, as he walked back through the prison of fire.

This left one man for Andrew's side and he walked towards him making sure to keep all the possible causality candidates behind himself.
"Do you wish to share the same fate as your friends, or are you gunna turn yourself easy? We need to end this madness."
The man pulled the pin on a grenade and cocked his arm back.

"The Hard way" Andrew spoke while glaring at the man who was going to potential harm a large group of people.
Pulling his staff from his back he spun in ferociously counter clockwise to create a wind tunnel.
The man's explosive was sucked from his hand, and exploded inside the wind tunnel.
Phoenix immediately switched the direction he was spinning the staff to send the shards away from him.
After three spins, he stopped, and the shrapnel fell lightly to the floor.
Leaping towards the man, he hit him across the face with his staff, leaving him sleeping like his friends.

Andrew looked over to see how his new friend was doing with her side.

"I want something to drink." Danny messed around with the link around her wrist while spying around the room. "Wait. Did you put my bracelet in the lost and found box?"

"You lost it. I found it." Randall kept glued to his magazine, turning the page slowly.

"I didn't lose it! It got stolen!"

"Stolen is losing, girl. I don't know who own it."

"It's mine. I can describe it to you." The rules of the lost and found stayed embedded in Danny's mind.

"I bet you can. Still, Caroline said you don't get it til she gets back. Matter of fact, we should probably be watching that whole debacle she went to fix." Even after making the suggestion of turning on the TV, Randall still remained in his chair, turning through the pages.

"So, like the Talon? I remember you from-" The transpiring event of calamity unfolded in a more pressing manner than simply getting acquainted with the man responsible for her changes. Time would still be here once the situation defused into a more manageable, nonlethal situation. "I guess we can split it. If I'm not enough to handle, I'll add a little something to the mix."

Two clones of Caroline appeared behind the  terrorist swarm, unknown to the men whom found their attention moving towards the fiery exploits happening on the other side of the building. One by one, Caroline entered the bodies of the clones, taking down the first two of the terrorist from behind. Both clones moved from one side to the next under Caroline's careful discretion. She managed to dismantle two more terrorists from behind before moving back to her regular form. Both clones merely sat motionless behind a barrier of desks to hide their form while Caroline stepped in to handle the rest.

The numbers dwindled to a more manageable number, but still a lethal amount of bullets remained at one. Caroline stepped in and rested her hands on her hips. "Ready?" Bullets began to fly through the room, peppering the wall behind Caroline, but the Riveter long since faded from tangible dimensions. She reappeared in front of two goons, grabbing their guns by the bottom stock and forcing them into the faces of the men. After the two men fell to the ground, it left Riveter squarely in the middle of the fight. "What? No more guns?"

Two men ran towards Caroline with swiftblades, but left with dislocated shoulders. One man tried to take advantage of grappling the Riveter from behind, but found himself gazing up to the ceiling, trying to figure out how many lights he really saw and how many actually existed. Something told Caroline to throw her elbow back suddenly at a sharp point. Glad she listened to those instincts, but bad for the man who just took a solid shot to the chest, knocking him off his feet and on his back. "That about wraps it-"

A bullet slid by the Riveter's leg, grazing it, but still making Caroline feel sick. The final man fired another round, but Caroline managed to drop to the ground, rolling towards the man. Her leg spun around and landed against his back, disarming him from his weapon and from consciousness. Caroline popped up with less enthusiasm as she regularly did. Her strength seemed declined and her mind seemed more at odds. The slight sting of the round remained, but it did not pull the pain away from the queasiness resting within her stomach.

As Andrew turned back towards the other hero, he noticed she wasn't looking so good.
He dashed quickly to her side, making sure she was good to go on.
He locked eyes with her for a moment and almost went into a daze. "Woah those are stunning." he thought to himself before turning back to the battle field behind him.

Spreading out as wide as he could, he blocked all of the next barrage of bullets from touching Caroline.
"You're lookin' a bit green." he shouted behind him.
There were 5 men left in total, and one was stepping forward with a rocket. Andrew could take the impact, but he wasn't sure this new found hero could as well. After all, she did just get shaken up by a stray bullet.

Leaving her directly behind him Andrew rushed the remaining men. With a backflip he managed to avoid taking the rocket head on, and kicking it into the sky a bit before it exploded.
Upon landing, Andrew swept the leg of the man holding the RPG.
As the man hit the ground Andrew jumped back up to his feet and slammed the staff down onto his chest.
He let out a grunt before slipping into a sleep.

Turning to one side he blasted fire beneath the feet of two men, causing them to trip and fall, he front flipped and leg dropped onto both of their chests.

Rolling back into a handspring, he began spinning his staff once he returned to his feet. The other two men were sent slamming into a building.

Andrew rushed back to Riveter to make sure she was ok. The police had done a good job clearing the area.
"I gotta do one thing, just to clear this place of anyone who might still be lingering."

Andrew blasted a hefty amount of fire into the sky before forming it into a Phoenix with the words "I am back" written above it in flames as well.
If it wasn't official before, the world knew now. Their hero was back.

"So, what's your name friend?" he asked putting her arm around his neck to help her walk towards an ally way.
It seemed the last bit of people had scattered away and the area was finally clear. The police were throwing the terrorists into the paddy wagon now.
A walkie-talkie went off on the pavement beneath them.
Setting Caroline down Andrew picked it up.
"Simon you there?" the voice boomed.
"The Phoenix has returned Simon abort mission, we didn't account for this."
"This is Phoenix speaking, I don't know who you are, but I'm coming for ya, and you'll be with your buddy Simon soon."
Andrew turned the radio off, before sitting next to Caroline preparing to answer any questions she might have.

"Did you want me to turn on the TV?" Danny sat on the ground with her arm suspended in the air with the cuff attached to the post.

Randall stayed glued on his page and demeanor. "Free country."

"So I'm free to walk out of here any time I want? I'm just sitting here because of all the fun happening."

"You're there cause Caroline said so. So get used to it. You were going to stay here til close sparring anyways. Don't know what all the complaining is about."

"I'm handcuffed to a pole."

"You keep complaining about that, but the pole don't mind you."

A limp magazine lifted up from Danny's hand to grab her caretaker's attention. "I'm done with this magazine."

"You haven't read it til at least the third time."

Two more terrorist made their way into the room with blazing fire from their weapons. Grabbing a desk without superpowers took a little more effort, but Caroline could still muster up enough strength to throw the desk up in defense of herself. The smell of fire and smoke rose from the outer wall and engulfed the room, leaving Caroline no option but to take a reprieve. Riveter made her way towards the back exit to try and gain some way means of advantage from the attackers at the range they created as well as the swell of fire lifting through the air. Bullets tore through the walls, but none of them correctly predicted the placement Riveter hoped to make her way. More steps began to sound out behind her, but one by one the sounds of steps faded.

Radio chatter sounded out from a few corners down the corridor. "Over here!" Caroline called down towards the armed police as they ascended the stairs. "It's safe, but I need some help mopping up what's left of these goons."

After a few moments Riveter burst back into the room, flanked by the SWAT team escorting her (or possibly the other way around) into the room. "Looks clean enough." Even under the tough exterior, Caroline felt a little queasy from the lead bullet. She popped her arm up to accept Phoenix's body as a crutch. "Thanks. I guess I never really got around to introductions. I'm Riveter. Or The Riveter if we're wanting to strike fear into the hearts of our foes." She walked with Phoenix into an alleyway as the police took care of the rest of the situation. "So, Phoenix's really do arise from their own ashes? Well, I guess there's worse things for us than you coming back, but where were have you been all this time?"

"Get ready for a good story. I honestly doubt you'll even believe me."

Andrew cleared his throat and removed his mask from his face.
"Two years ago your time, its been six for me, a group of people from a reverse dimension came through a portal me and my team accidentally set off. Their leader went by the name Holocaust. He was quite literally the evil version of me. I'm sure you've heard the reports about all the. He destroyed my home town in Boston, killed my family, and nearly destroyed New York. We shared the same name Andrew Pettiglio, but that is all we shared."

Andrew took a moment to pause and let Riveter soak this all in.

"So at the end of our battle, we were sent hurling into the portal above this city, and inside of it we fought back and forth with our fire. We both gave everything we had and actually ended up sealing the portal with an explosion.
We were both down to our last breaths when I was able to pull his sword from his hand and ran it through him."

He took one more pause to make sure Riveter was still following.

"After he was gone, the reverse Elena Marie actually saved my life before I blacked out. I woke in a dimension where Dragons existed and monsters ran free."
He removed his shirt to show his toned body riddled with scars across his back.
"Those claws are from the dragons. So anyways she told me of a vision she had for our world and I needed to train to get stronger. I had someone here.... I had a reason to fight. I needed to get stronger for this "Beast" she spoke of. However she told me getting the pin point on my exact home dimension would take time. I trained vigorously for six years jumping from dimension to dimension. Getting stronger, faster, smarter, more durable, better with my fire. You wouldn't believe the things I saw. It was incredible and terrifying all jumbled up into one package...

So I finally got the training she saw fit, got this cool new costume and staff and here I am. I never died, but i believe if I were the powers I've developed would actually revive me."

Andrew realized he was still shirtless and blushed a bit.
After covering back up he, turned back to Riveter.

"So what's your story?"