by Jason Krate
He pushed his Penis against the moist folds of her vulva and penetrated her….
Only to wake up and find his arms around his pillow, with Raven nowhere in sight.
He then chocked back a sob.
It had been a dream.
She wasn't there with him.
She would never be there with him….because she was dead.
He would never see her again, feel her warm embrace, hear her sing, hear her laugh….he would never hear her voice again.
And it was all those goddamn "normal" humans fault!
Them and their xenophobia against his "kind" that had in turn had led to this world's conception…and his family of only two.
The ones who called his "kind" the derogatory word "Meta-Freak" or "Demon" among other names, who blamed the fall of the old world on Metahumans instead of their own hubris!
He had lost everything save for his adoptive daughter Kilari when they unleashed that damn machine that they had made to defend "normal people" from "The Metahuman Problem/Menace" as they called them.
He had watched his family and friends all get slaughtered, and they didn't give a damn about what their actions brought or that heroes had died to save them from the apocalyptic monster they created.
God damn them.
God Damn them ALL to hell!
* * *
That was when he heard a pounding on his home's front door.
He immediately sat up in his bed when he heard the pounding, clothed himself and opened up the door to his ruined apartment home.
He found that it was one of his neighbours that was pounding on the door.
Matthew Starheim.
And from the look of fear and desperation on his face, something told the cynical Minra Moraes that he wasn't here for that rheumatism remedy of his that he sold to him from time to time for 29 pebbles.
"Oh good, you're still here…" he exclaimed in relief.
"I get that a lot. It's getting very annoying to hear it" Minra Moraes growled, "What do you want Matthew?"
"I came here to warn you" he answered.
"Warn me? About what?" Minra Moraes asked concerned.
"You know those Deathborne Siblings? The ones who took over Brightmoon City. They were here today. They talked to the town elders. They gave this town three hours to surrender all the pebbles that we all have…that was two and a half hours ago." Matthew Starheim said fearfully.
"There's no way the entire village of Lost Hallowing could give up their entire pebbles within that time" Minra Moraes said intuitively, and something told him that that was the whole plan.
The Deathborne Siblings, they didn't care if the town paid up or not.
Godman Marauders.
"I know. And that's why I and many others are making our way out of the Town now while we still can. You are close to the borders of the town, and you have done so much for me and other people I felt it was the least I could do to warn you. Take your daughter and whatever you can carry and leave. I've heard stories, these siblings have a group of five sadistic monsters that they send out to ravage towns and settlements that piss them off for whatever reason. They call them the "Sadistic Five".
That was when the two of them heard the sound of explosions and screams coming from the town of Lost Hallowing.
"Oh god! They're already here! I hope you manage to find somewhere that's safe from all this madness. Goodbye." Matthew Starheim exclaimed, and then ran off as fast as a rabbit.
"So he DID take that rheumatism remedy" Minra Moraes joked dryly, and then he looked back in the direction of the town of Lost Hallowing.
He knew what was going on.
A razing.
The Deathborne siblings goons, these "Sadistic Five", they were using the advanced weaponry (probably pilfered from either the remains of Benson Industries or one of S.L.E.E.T's weapons caches) to pillage the town for not managing to pay up that extortionate demand for all the pebbles in Lost Hallowing…just a smokescreen to justify treating an entire town as a shooting gallery he figured.
"So the town is under attack and everyone is fleeing?" he mused, "Good. It will be quieter around here when they are all gone!"
He then closed the door, and locked it.
* * *
That was when he heard Kilari's voice coming from the steps behind him.
"What's going on?" she asked, greatly worried "I heard explosions or something coming from the direction of Lost Hallowing!"
"You heard right" Minra Moraes said casually, as if he was discussing the weather instead of a pillaging "The Deathborne Siblings told the town to pay all its pebbles in a ridiculous amount of time….and now their army is razing the place to the ground…anyone who could flee has already done so."
"Well what are we waiting for?" Kilari exclaimed, "Let's go stop them!"
"Why?" Minra asked apathetically.
Kilari was shocked at her father, "What do you mean "why" Father? Those people need your help. They need our help. I know you still have your powers father…"
"BARON KNIGHT IS DEAD!" Minra Moraes snapped, "Don't you understand? I don't care what happens to these people, why should I? I gave them everything, and in the end I lost everything…all because of THEM!? I will never see your mother again, never see your sister or brothers again or anyone of the people I care about ever again and it's their entire fault! Their Xenophobia against my kind lead to this world, no one else is to blame for their troubles but them! They wanted heroes, and when they got them they screamed out for their blood. This world doesn't have heroes anymore…because they got rid of them…"
"But dad…" Kilari pleaded.
"LET THEM TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES!" Minra snapped, "They wanted to handle things on their own without anyone to help them and they got their wish. Let them reap what they've sown!"
That was when Kilari walked up to him, and slapped him across the face in disgust, "…Mom, Angel, Johnny, Max...our family would be ashamed off you….just as I am…."
Minra just looked at her, "Go upstairs. Stay there until the whole thing is over. We move away when they leave…"
"No" Kilari said, glaring at her father.
"Kilari…" Minra began.
"No dad…." Kilari said looking at him, this time with tears in her eyes "No I won't go upstairs and ignore what is going on down there. If I do, I'll never be able to live with myself. You taught me to be better than that, better than what you are now. I can't stand by and let evil have its way with innocent people's lives…not when I can stop it."
"What are you doing?" Minra asked greatly concerned for his daughter when he saw her reach into her nightgowns pocket.
"I'm sorry…." Kilari said sadly, and then she tossed a piece of paper in her father's face, and then with a swift motion that she had learned from a long time ago by her father, reached into her other pocket and pressed the button on a small handheld device that she now had in her hand.
There was a bright flash of light that made Minra momentarily blind, and when his vision returned, he saw to his horror that his daughter was now gone.
The only thing that was in her place, was that piece of paper she had thrown at him.
A letter.
He picked it up and read what it had to say.
"Dear Father…
If you're reading this, then I have disobeyed you and am on my way to do the one thing you forbid me to do. I know you hate people today for the deaths of Mom, Angel, Johnny, Max…and everyone else. But I don't share your hatred. It's not how you or either of my two mothers' I had over the years…Gwen and Raven…raised me to become. But I can't stand by and let innocent people suffer. You used to be like that once, and I believe that deep down you still are. Otherwise you would never do things like heal the sick with your blood. What the people who caused the cataclysm did is unforgivable, but I don't blame people today for it. They wouldn't want me to.
You say that the Baron Knight is dead, I pray that's not true.
To say the Baron Knight is
dead is to say that the kind and caring man who saved me from the monster who murdered my family, who took me in and raised me as his own daughter is dead…and that is more painful than the loss of my siblings, friends and mother ever was.
You were my hero dad.
You taught me everything that made me into the person I am today and that is something I can never repay back.
The Baron Knight may be dead, but his legacy lives on…and I'm going to make sure of that.
If the Baron Knight won't come to the rescue, then maybe Nightborne will.
Forgive me.
I love you.
Kilari Moraes, daughter of a great hero."
Minra was touched by this letter, but this moment of sentiment was soon replaced with horror when he realised what this letter meant.
Kilari must have figured out how to make that old Slipstream Drive teleporter device to work again, and she had used it to send her to the one place where he feared she would go when he saw her vanish.
"NO!"
* * *
Lost Hallowing, Town Center: September 30th, 2063: 2:00 AM
"Damn" Nightborne thought to herself as she leapt across the rooftops of Lost Hallowing, "This suit has gotten tight over the years…"
Kilari Moraes knew it had been a while since she had worn her old "Nightborne" outfit, but she definitely remembered it not riding up her crotch and squeezing her stomach as much…if at all.
She had definitely gained some pounds over the years, but she still had the skills that she had learned a long time ago when she used to be the defender of Lost Hallowing…as the violet Phantom: Nightborne, daughter of Baron Knight.
Okay… so she really never broadcasted that last part to anyone, but it was true.
She wouldn't have been the heroine she had been without her father.
He had pressured her not to try and be like him, but in the end he relented and taught her all the skills she needed to be a Vigilante like he used to be.
She was hopping that she hadn't forgotten those skills, because she was going to need them.
She knew how to hide, how to fight.
She had never forgotten those…in fact she practiced secretly behind her father's back while he wasn't looking or when he was sleeping.
She was hoping that her other skills, her weapons training, which she mostly used for hunting nowadays hadn't gotten rusty when she wasn't using it to hunt deer.
Deer didn't run around with guns to shoot back.
* * *
She came to a stop atop of one of the buildings that rain down the main street road of Lost Hallowing and looked down into the scene unfolding down below.
She counted at least four visible Deathborne Gang members perusing beside a roving old Echelon-17 Battle Tank.
A relic from the old world, one of S.L.E.E.T's weapons of war when S.L.E.E.T still existed.
She was glad that old General Arcane wasn't here to see this.
The tank (which was obviously being manned by a fifth gang member) was taking pot-shots at fleeing people with its onboard machine guns and blowing up the occasional building.
The four other gang members, laughed at the senseless violence they were unleashing onto the defenceless suburb city.
Almost like if instead of a group of men or women, what she was looking at were basically what she figured were basically freakin Hyena's that had been unleashed from the zoo, been given clothes and guns and were now walking casually down the street behind a tank killing anyone they saw…. as if it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.
She was disgusted.
She counted sixty dead on the street so far, 12 of them were children.
The fleeing crowd were sitting ducks to that tank and its monstrous driver and his entourage.
This ended now!
She then retreated into the shadows of the rooftop and drew her weapon, a sniper riffle looking weapon.
Her costume's color scheme allowed her to hide pretty much unseen as she set up her sniper riffle weapon upon the banister of the rooftop edge of the building she was perched on.
She lined up the scopes of her weapon with the Echelon-17 Battle tank, hoping that her memory about the weapons weak spots, and her aim, weren't off.
She then pulled the trigger.
A bullet shot out from her high powered riffle and struck her target dead on from 900 yards away.
She smiled when she saw a shower of electrical sparks fly from the Echelon-17 Battle tank.
That meant that she had hit her target dead on, the tank was now disabled.
So far so good.
If she could just line this thing up with the rest of these marauding killers, this nightmare would be over.
"Don't get overconfident" she warned herself, "Keep focused on what you need to do."
Now mind you, she wasn't trying to kill anyone.
The weapon she was using just happened to be a high powered sniper riffle weapon that fired non-lethal (but very painful) Electro-shock Dart bullets at its targets.
Capable of short circuiting a tank when she set the charge to high, and more than capable of delivering a Taser like knockout for 6 hours on her targets if she set it to low power.
A little something she managed to keep from her father's long since dead friend and weapons/technology designer Marty Osmond/Orpheus.
He would be tickled pink to know that his technology still worked after so many years of disuse.
She then set the power charge of the electroshock bullets to "low level" and then began selecting her next target.
She saw the hatch of the tank that she had disabled pop open and a tattooed gang member with no hair, bald as a baby's ass, emerged, and looked in her direction.
He was actually looking dead at her in her Stun Riffles sniper scope, and he was soon pointing in her direction.
Nightborne was taken aback by this.
How could he possible know where she was?
She decided that it didn't matter.
He and his friends were too far away from her to do anything about her snipping them down into an unconscious state, leaving them vulnerable to being tied up and left to be tried by the people of Lost Hallowing for their crimes…or something…she would figure out that part later.
She had seen too many people suffer by these marauders in every town she and her father had traveled to in the past, she wasn't going to stand by anymore…maybe her heroics could inspire these downtrodden and beaten people to take their heads out of the dirt and fight back to hold on to what they had instead of turning and running from bullies with guns and ending up with nothing.
She then began to squeeze the trigger on the Electroshock riffle when suddenly without warning, one of the female gang members who was looking in the direction that the tank driving Marauder was pointing at, vanished within a cloud of smoke or thick gas.
A cloud that suddenly began flying straight towards her snipers nest on the building.
Before Kilari/Nightborne could process what she had just seen, the cloud of gas or smoke overcame her and she breathed in the fumes of the gas….it smelled terrible….but that was the least of her worries, because she suddenly lost all consciousness…as if she had just breathed in an anesthetic.
The last thing she remembered before blacking out was two rubbery arms wrapping themselves around her, lifting her up off the ground.
* * *
When she regained conscious, she found herself hovering two feet above the ground of Lost Hallowing's main street.
Suspended by the elastic arms she had felt wrap around her before she had blacked out due to that strange gas, which were bound tightly around her midsection, keeping her arms pinned.
She then saw that these arms happened to belong to one of the male members of the five pillaging Marauders she had been trying to stop.
She watched in disbelief as that cloud of gas that she had been knocked out by suddenly flew over her head from behind her and landed on the side rim of one of
the tanks treads.
The woman who had vanished in that same gas cloud was who reappeared before Nightborne's eyes when the gas cloud dissipated.
This was enough to confirm that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
