One Dull Afternoon and a Trip to Belarus (Red)

It had been a relatively slow day for the hero Reverb. Chase just ran around California, searching for crime to deal with, but surprisingly, when people live in a world filled to the brim with superheroes, people aren't always eager to put themselves in their sights. Chase slowed down when he was in Los Angeles, sprinting through the city, narrowly dodging people as he did so. If he couldn't stop any crime today, he was just going to pretend to be normal.

An hour had passed since he had gotten bored with the whole hero role and decided to just roam Los Angeles. As he was walking by a McDonalds, he heard something about Belarus from inside. Chase had no respect for the fast food chain- he personally found their food revolting- but he was quite interested in whatever was going on inside Belarus. He knew that it was taken over by some group, but he had never been able to hear anything more about it. Well, there was always time to learn.

Chase walked into the restaurant and listened to the tv news report. After three minute news special they did for whatever reason, they returned back to reporting what they normally did.

Now knowing Belarus held a safe haven for metahumans and was apparently ran by this group called "Rise", after contemplating his boredom, he made the decision to run there and check it out first hand. How far could it be?

Pretty damn far, apparently. Once Chase put his suit back on, he started the trip. It took him nearly an hour to run through the entirety of the United States. He mindlessly ran on the Atlantic Ocean for roughly one and a half hours. Once he reached land, he realized how painfully dull that was, running that long with little to no visual stimulation other than a constant blue.

He was starting to get discouraged, thinking that this was just a waste of time when he saw something bright in the distance. As it came closer into view, Chase realized that it was the force field that surrounded Belarus. He grew excited as he sprinted towards the force fields. Growing weary as he grew near, he slowed down and just touched it when he was close enough. He couldn't pass through them, but it didn't incinerate his hand when he attempted to touch it, so that was a plus. While Chase was thinking of ways to get around this, someone appeared right next to him. The man had his hand on his shoulder. Chase pushes him off and he disappears. Freaked out by this, he started running the border of the force field. It seemed as if luck was on his side. He had encountered a lake with a large hole in the force field. Seeing that, all Chase had to do was run past some random people in outposts guarding it and into the hole, and that he did.

On the borders of Belarus, mooks manned the force field and maintained it when it malfunctioned. Most of them were quite competent really, able to get the job done and all that. However, there was a group or two that really sucked. They were stationed in the most easily protected areas for a reason, though some were just stupid enough to not even be able to handle that. The outpost on the lake was tall and metal, standing above the lake with a series of rooms and docks that connected them. There were thousands of these outposts around the country, and they didn't just hold soldiers, they held the generators that powered that part of the shield. There were other counter measures in place of course, but this was the first line of defense against illegal entrance into Belarus.

A man sat with his legs up playing on his phone in one of these buildings, wearing full military gear including a helmet that seemed like it would inhibit the whole playing angry birds thing, but no he played right along.

"Gotcha, dirty pig." The mook said with a faint chuckle, pleased by his victory against those damn green pigs. They were so stupid, staring at him with those dead eyes. They needed to PAY!

"You're still playing that stupid game?" Another man dressed in the same uniform said, with his helmet on as well. Apparently there was a rule about keeping them on, that or I'm just doing it for comedic effect.

"Hey hey hey, it's not stupid. Plus, it will help my hand eye coordination. Can probably shank and bitch better after playing as long as i have." The man retorted, his legs now kicking like a childs as he pressed away at the IPhone. And yes, it looked the same as when it did in 2014, but there were like a TON more pixels in it's camera, dude.

"Yeah.......ok, whatever you say..... I'm getting a beer." The other man said, standing up and getting his beverage from a mini fridge, cracking it open.

"You two are unbelievable, drinking and playing baby games on the job." A female in the same armor said from a nearby control panel that she typed away at. The two males just scoffed.

"There hasn't been any activity here in months. Look, they put us here because we suck. Like, we are the worst. I know you might be rolling with the hardass military attitude, but the fact is all we do is sit here all day." The phone guy said to the woman, vigorously tapping on his screen now.

"I DO NOT suck thank you very much...... I just, well, they probably put me her to watch over you dorks." The woman said, pleased with that answer apparently.

"MMmmmmhhmmmmm, sure. No, this is the suck brigade, and you know it. None of you could hit the broad side of a barn with these guns." The other male said, twirling his gun in his hands now.

"You want to bet?" The woman said, her expression more stern now.

"Hey hey hey, guys, no. None of us have ever even fired these things. Just calm down, I'm playing a game." The phone guy said, weary.

"I think it's a good idea, we are supposed to practice right? To stay in shape and all that. Betcha two bills i can shoot better then you bastards." The other man said, putting his beer bottle on the table and firing off a few rounds at it, missing a few times then finally landing a hit on the forth shot. "Fuck yeah bitches! I'm a natural!"

"Jesus Christ, Bob, what were you thinking? If you're going to do that at least do it outside." The woman said.

"You're just jealous you can't do better!" The male said, twirling his gun again. This got an angered expression from the female, who pointed at a light bulb and then drew her gun, firing at it. She missed every time, phone guy ducking and finally rolling up into a ball on the ground and covering his ears, yelling stop over and over again.

"Jesus, you can't hit a thing!" The guy said, drawing his own gun and firing. At this point they were both shooting, and missing, a light bulb while their plasma bullets tore up their facility. Eventually their luck ran out and something important was hit, causing a fire.

"AHHHHHGGGGG! FIRE! PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT!" Phone guy yelped, the others just had an 'Oh, crap' look on their face.

"C-calm down.....i have this....it's all under control." The female said, grabbing the only available liquid, beer, to try to put the fire out. She threw the whole case, and then shot it to release what she seemed to think would instantly put the fire out. Unfortunately, it just made it worse.

"Oh god! Their going to be so pissed! We have to put this out, stomp it! Give me that blanket!" The other guy said, trying to put the electrical fire out with a blanket, which predictably caught fire.

"MAKE IT STOOPPPP! Make it go away!" Phone guy yelled, peaking up from his cover.

"Shut it Tom!" The woman said, frantic. The alarm then went of, signalling the fact the generator had been damaged enough to lower part of the shield. After several more failed attempts, a familiar voice filled their helmets. It was one of their bosses.

"This is Alpha. I was made aware of a disturbance in your section of the field. Is there anything i should be worried about?" The voice asked, light and formal, but still stern enough to send the already startled mooks into further frenzy as they failed to put the fire out.

"Ah, no! No, not at all! We're just.....we're just peachy." Bob said, his breath heavy as he busted a hole in a pipe to try to get the lake water to put it out. He ended up hitting a coolant line that rapidly froze the metal in the room, crumbling it and making the situation even worse.

"I'm so convinced......" Alpha said sarcastically, in a deadpan snarker sort of way. "Do i need to handle this myself?"

"No! No no....we got it, it's completely under control. You eh, probably have more important, um, super genius stuff to tend to, right?" The man said, whispering he had a plan to his fellow dumbasses. This plan involved them leaving the building and going onto the docks, after which he shot the building with an RPG, blowing it into the lake. They stopped the fire alright.....but made the hole in the shield even bigger.

"Was that an explosion?" Alpha said, now sounding more exasperated then anything.

"Noooo, that was my toast......um, getting done. No explosions here, boss man." The man said, looking at the situation with horror.

"Riiiiighhhtt. I'm just going to let Lucius handle this, because as you said, i have better things to do then deal with you monkeys." Alpha said, cutting the call off.

"We are so screwed!" The female yelled.

"No.....we just need to call on of the techs, they will have this fixed in a split. It's not like anyone is going to run in RIGHT when it comes down, i haven't seen anyone in weeks." The man said, sure of himself. But that's when he saw the blur come in on his scanners......

"Shit......" He said, now doing the only thing he seemed to know how to, shoot randomly. The others followed, firing streams of inaccurate plasma at the speedster.

Chase noticed the distortions in the air and the very loud, obnoxious noise coming straight towards him. He had plenty of time to run a bit to the right the avoid getting hit, but the plasma still sped right past him. He could've easily gone back there and beat the shit out of all of them, but he didn't want to, so he kept running.

He ran through a forest. To any outsider, it would seem like he had several close encounters with trees, branches, small animals, but to him, he had plenty of time to avoid hitting all of them. As he was beginning to be sick of running, he noticed the trees were becoming more spread out, and before he knew it, he was running out into a field. He stopped for a second to let sound catch up to him and was dumbfounded by the city that lay in front of him. Skyscrapers so high that it took a minute for him to be able to see the top, railroads that span as far as he could see, and so much more.

After taking a minute to regain his bearings, he took off into the city. He saw a few people running -- fast, but not nearly as fast as him --, people who looked monstrous in stature, appearance or both, and so many more meta-humans that he knew could not live normal lives anywhere else. With that thought, he felt a twinge of sadness for them. He's seen the news portray some metas as complete monsters, and sometimes from the same reports, he knows that some of them are treated like criminals just on the basis of them being alive, but he's never had to deal with that. He's always been able to keep up his facade of a blind man.

Once Chase came into the city, he would see that some sort of event was going on. Hundreds of people, of all walks of life, were gathered in the town center around a stage of sorts. Apparently Lucius was still on his tour, where he visited each and every city in the country to really connect with the population. It really did look like your average presidential rally, but there were a few more teenagers dressed in the 'punk' style. Apparently being a metahuman and wearing that type of clothing came in the same package with this generation. Lucius walked onto the stage, a smile on his face as he waved to the crowd, clearing his throat and looking down at the people so happy to be living normal lives. Finally they could, free of all persecution and inequality. This was the beginning of the future.    

"Hello, i suppose i don't need to introduce myself, but a gentleman always does. My name is Lucius Alba. A few months ago, i took this country over by force. I'm not even going to deny that, but i will justify it. The residents were being persecuted under a totalitarian regime, a dictator with the power to be judge, jury, and executioner. I come to you not as someone who will hold this country against your will, but as a person fully under it's service. I have made it my mission to create a country free of crime, inequality, and supremacy. Everyone here has equal rights, and need only give back to be fully supported and nurtured by our new government. People of Belarus, i promise you this. Now enough politics, let the event begin." Lucius said, the crowd for the most part accepting his speech with graditude. After that, music started, and food and drink was brought out. Lucius himself would join the party, getting to know his fellow metahumans and citizens. All were welcome, so it wouldn't be hard for a certain speedster to join in.