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Synopsis:
Azrael the Spectre, a known Vigilante, was directed toward the Hesperia, for his routine job as the club bouncer. However, while travelling on the monorail train, another vigilante (namely Kyle Rashua from the Damage Inc. Gang) boarded the train; combat seemed to be about to erupt, when mysterious snipers shot them both. Thanks to their superior training or special abilities, both managed to survive this first attack, but soon afterward, a wave of attackers poured into the train. Armed to the teeth and perfectly co-ordinated, the strike team engaged the two young men in a fight to the death. Not far away, Father Maximus, from the Hecateriark’s Church, was waiting for his train to go back home: fate showed its hand when it made the priest get on that very same train which was still under attack by the mysterious troopers. Angered by the spiteful behaviour of his aggressors, he entered the fray, determined to redeem them all. In a series of unbelievable coincidences, two other men boarded that very same train: the bounty hunter JJ and a strange gunman dressed with a long black coat. The battle raged as the train made its way through the city, but, even with their uncommon skills and equipment, the trooper could not stand the five men counter offensive; just when The Spectre was about to get hold of one of the soldiers and question him, they activated some kind of self destructive device, exploding in a tremendous fireball, devastating to the point of wrecking the monorail out of its track (first accident of this kind ever occurred since the opening of the line).
The security system switched the whole train to the ethereal plane to avoid crushing the people walking in the streets and the whole convoy sunk into the ground, supposedly toward the escape routes underground. Instead, the wagon where the five men stood crashed once more, probably against some kind of structure abusively built and protected against ethereal intrusion. This could only be some kind of corporative secret lab. Puzzling themselves about the reason of such an attack and on the identities of the attackers, the Five moved on, trying to get also a hint about what they had crushed into. Exploring the facility, they soon discovered that it had been hastly evacuated and that it looked like a medical installation. Further investigation confirmed that this was a lab used to develop yet one another biochemical weapon to boost the company military power. The Corporative soldiers were still sweeping the place, trying to find who knows what. Soon the object of the soldiers research became clear to the Five men as well: various mutations infested the place and stalked the survivors for food. The Five dealt with them with increasing difficulty, risking their life in the last wave of mutated creatures, but they overcame even that in the end. As soon as the attack ceased, the Five Heroes found themselves in a yet worse situation: everything around themselves changed to a nightmarish vision of blood and rust with chilling noises in the distance. The spells and abilities of the Five worked only slightly in this hellish dimension and they could barely see in the ever increasing darkness. At last, they entered a room from which came a strange noise and found a disturbing teddy bear rolling back and forth as if it was keeping some kind of rhythm. It had a band aid stripped over its mouth and it occasionally leaked blood from inside. In the end the Five Brave Heroes removed the band aid revealing a corpse like mouth with rotten teeth. The stitched eye also fell to reveal a snake like eye and the “creature” began to talk. His words were mostly a confused babbling about an Egg and the Forthcoming of some kind of terrible master who would have brought pain and torment to everything and everyone. It mentioned that the time was drawing closer: in fact, it was already there. For what concerned Itself, the “teddy bear” said he was there to hide itself, because “He” was looking for it and “He” got disappointed if it talked to others. Just when it finished this sentence, the screeching sound that echoed in the distance drew nearer and nearer until a terrifying man humanoid figure appeared: it looked like a tall man dressed with ripped clothing, his face featureless but with wrinkled stone like skin, two twisted horns protruding from his forehead. As a final touch, the creature dragged behind himself a huge axe, which screeched against the ground leaving the floor scarred in its passage. He seemed blind, or at least he paid no attention to the Five, but the teddy bear insisted he was looking for it and asked the Heroes to take it away; in exchange it would have pointed them to the exit from that nightmarish world.
Following the creature advice, the Five got to a teleportation platform where 10 footprints awaited their arrival (apparently, Their footprints) and got the hell out of there warping to the roof of the building belonging to the same corporation who owned the underground lab.
Outside, the city was still living its night to the fullest and our heroes could witness two agile long haired figures jumping from roof to roof and sneaking into a tall building, but what seemed to be a simple theft fro a rich corporative lobby, soon turned to a terrorist attack. The two figures jumped out of the building and, pressing a button, blew it sky high. Observing the two silhouettes in the distance, the Five Heroes could swear one was looking down on them and, although they were pretty far away, they could feel its gaze on themselves: that gaze called back feelings of untamed beauty and calm, as if they were gazed upon by the clouds, moon and wind themselves. After looking at the Five for some time, the figures literally let themselves fall from the rooftop, disappearing from sight and leaving the Five with yet one more question for that unbelievable night: had they seen the infamous Touched in action?
-- Ending Theme: Midnight Blue |
