Spectrum: Breaking Light

by Darren Sloan

  "Jason Randwulf of Earth. You have completed the task of proving your worth of the God's Blood. For centuries, Xenosians would undertake this challenge in order to earn the right to wield the power of the God's Blood in service to this city and her people. You, though, are not of this world. It is unknown how you acquired the God's Blood, but as was tradition, you undertook the test and we have gathered to announce our decision in this matter," My hands were sweating and my heart was pounding like thunder. "In the course of your test, there were attempts made on your life and an old enemy of Xenos rose up and nearly destroyed our way of life, but you were able to defend yourself well and you were strong enough to save Xenos from Arkane's insanity. In that process you saved the entire population of Xenos and helped to resurrect the Hunter Academy and its members. The Council has reached a decision, and I am proud to say for the first time in Xenosian history, the choice is unanimous. Jason Randwulf of Earth; This process has probably been difficult for you to understand. The God's Blood is a powerful and sacred responsibility. It is the last vestige of our darkest past and brightest hope for the future. It is our responsibility and duty to use what brought so much death to bring life. It is a balance we must fulfill. I am pleased to announce that you have completed the test and you have been found, by this council, to be worthy." The crowd around us blew up in cheers and cries of joy. Confetti rained down and music began to play.

  "Thank you, Prime Nero. What happens now?" I asked.

  "Should you have failed, we would have dissected the God's Blood from your body, but as you have passed, we have no choice but to release you."

  "Release me?"

  "You're going home."

  "Wait. I thought I'd have to stay here."

  "We thought about it, and if the God's Blood has chosen a host from Earth, there must be some truth in its wisdom. We cannot question that. However, we present you with this." He said and a silver sphere flew up into the air and settled right before my face.

  "A Comm-sphere?" I asked.

  "It is tuned to your genetic code. It is yours and will grant you access to all of the digital records in the Xenosian library."

  "What about those Wurmhole things?"

  "It will be able to generate those as well. You will be able to travel from here to Earth and back again, as is needed."

  "Needed?"

  "Your responsibility encompasses both Earth and Xenos and all points between. It will be your duty to fight against whatever dark power may rise. You will defend those who are defenseless and give strength to those who are weak. You are defender, warrior and guide. Do you accept this duty?"

  "So, I'm like a universal cop?"

  "In a sense, I suppose."

  "I accept. Thank you."

  "Excellent. You have only to allow access to Earth with your Comm-Sphere and you may return home."

  "Okay. How do I do that?"

  "Simply think of where you want to go. The Comm-Sphere is channeled to your thoughts." I bowed to Nero and the rest of The Council and turned away and walked back down to the field. The Comm-Sphere floated over toward me and I just thought of the Wurmhole opening and I looked up at it.

  "Take me there." I said and a streak of red light shot out of it and the door opened.

  "Wait!" Panther cried. I turned as she ran over to Prime Nero.

  "Yes, Hunter Panther?"

  "I would make a request."

  "You still have some charges to face."

  "I understand and I accept those charges, but perhaps as an act of restitution, I might join Jason."

  "What do you mean?"

  "May I join him and aid in his duties? He has saved my life more than once now and I have a debt to repay to him that can only be equated with loyal service. I also wish to learn more about Earth and its people. I fear many have been led to believe things that may not be true. I want to learn more about them." Prime Nero looked to The Council and they made some odd gestures. He then turned back to Panther.

  "The charges against you as far as deceiving The Council have been forgiven, for obvious reasons. The charges concerning your fellow hunters have been amended as well as The Council has discerned that you were acting under self-preservation and defense. We feel you must be disciplined, but not unjustly. Your offer of joining Mr. Randwulf as his assistant seems acceptable."

  "Really?"

  "Yes. You will however report to The Council regularly on all progress. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir! As you wish! Thank you," She said and then she leapt down off the platform and ran toward me. "If it's acceptable to you, of course."

  "Sure. I mean, it'd be nice to have a little help. There's some stuff we'll have to figure out, but, I think we can make this work."

  "Thank you. I promise that I will honor you and the God's Blood."

  "I'm sure. Is there anything you need to do before we leave? Pack? Change of address?"

  "No. I have everything I need here and if I need to come back, it's only a Wurmhole away."

  "All right. Then I guess that's it. Time to go home." I said an I turned toward the Wurmhole. Panther and I then crossed over and we were blinded by a flash of light and when it faded away, we were in the middle of the park in Towers City. It looked like it was the dead of night and it was as quiet as a tomb. The smell of the air was familiar and I knew, I was finally home. The tour of duty was over!

  Part 4

  Chapter 29

  Coming Home Again

  It was the dead of night when the bright flash of light broke the darkness in Towers City Park and when it faded, Jason Randwulf and Panther stood alone. Jason took a moment to rejoice in his return to home. Even with everything bathed in darkness, everything seemed new but familiar. He had an overwhelming desire to run screaming through the streets like George Bailey did at the end of 'It's A Wonderful Life'. He looked over his shoulder and saw Panther just standing in place with her eyes up to the sky. He walked over to her and tapped her shoulder.

  "Are you all right?" He asked.

  "Yes, I am. I'm just getting my bearings."

  "Of course. Maybe we should get home. That is if I still have a home. Do you know how much time has passed here?" Panther then lifted up her arm and Jason noticed she had a metal gauntlet strapped to her forearm. She flicked it with her finger it lit up like a computer.

  "It's been about six months."

  "Six months? Six months since I left?"

  "I'm afraid so." Jason's stomach sank a bit. He had thought six months passing as a worst case scenario. He hadn't prepared for it to be true.

  "Okay. Fine. I guess we should first get home."

  Jason led Panther from the park to the brownstone. As they left the park, Jason noticed that Towers City seemed very different from when he last had seen it. The streets were littered with garbage and everything seemed so quiet. There was barely any traffic or any people on the street. The buildings looked a little more worn down and he noticed quite a bit more graffiti than usual.

  After an hour of walking, Jason could see the familiar lights of his home just a few blocks away. As they got closer, he began to think it was a good thing there weren't many people out. He looked over at Panther and with her Xenosian suit on, her sword strapped to her back, and their Comm-Spheres floating around, they would have raised too much curiosity to suit him.

  They went into the building and up to Jason's door, but that was when he realized he didn't have keys. He looked over to Heather's door. It was late and he didn't want to bother her, but he didn't have much choice. He walked up to her door and just before he knocked, he reasoned she would be so happy to see him she'll forget that he got her up at such a late hour.

  He knocked on the door and after a few moments the door opened and Heather emerged. Her hair was frizzed out in all directions and she was draped in her pink fuzzy robe. Her eyes were half open when she attempted to wake up.

  "Hi," Jason said. "Sorry for the late call, but I need to get into my place."

  "Jason?" He
ather asked in a groggy voice.

  "I'm back." Jason said, fully expecting a hug, but instead Heather stepped back and slid her fingers across her hair.

  "Now you come back? At this hour? And you think you can just pound on my door so I can let you in?"

  "Uh, yes."

  "You've got a lot of nerve. And by the way, you're lucky your sap boyfriend kept paying your damn rent! If it wasn't for that, I would have rented that dump out months ago!" Heather spat. She then reached for something next to her door and she produced a spare set of keys and tossed them over to Jason. "The next time you wake me up at this hour, it gets answered by a gun!" She then slammed the door hard. Jason stood back, confused by Heather's reaction.

  "Is that a friend of yours?" Panther asked.

  "I thought so. Maybe she's just cranky in the middle of the night. Come on."

  Jason opened up the door and his apartment looked untouched, except for a uniform build up of dust on every flat surface. He looked down and saw a pile of mail on the floor. It was mostly junk and bills. Jason tried a nearby light switch and it looked like Tyler was paying the rent but not the bills. Jason let out a sigh, as he was looking forward to a hot shower, but after everything he had been through, he was glad to settle for his own bed for a change. He turned to Panther who was investigating the apartment very carefully.

  "Well, I guess I should offer you the bed, as you are my guest." Jason said.

  "No, that's fine. I'm not very tired. You can go ahead and rest. I think I have some catching up on Earth culture to do."

  "Okay. Great. Do you need anything? I mean, we have no power or water right now, but I'll get that fixed tomorrow."

  "It's fine. I have everything I need. Enjoy your rest. You've earned it." Jason nodded to her and went right to his bed. It was perfectly made. As he stretched out, it felt like he hadn't been there in a thousand years. He closed his eyes and settled into the calm quiet and as he did he began to hear something. It was like a harsh buzzing in the air. It wasn't loud, but it was persistent. At first it was nothing, but it soon grew in annoyance. He tried to ignore it, but the more he tried, the more focused he became. It was like sound scratching against his brain. It was as though every negative thought and emotion was bubbling to the surface and his thoughts were racing. Fantasies of blood and violence danced in his dreams, but he jerked awake and found he was in his bed. Panther was on the couch in a meditative pose. Jason realized he was drenched in sweat and his mind was still jumbled. Jason slipped out of bed and released the God's Blood and felt the cool, soothing sensation take him over. He felt his full strength return to him and he at last felt whole.

  "I'm going to go for a little flight, Panther." Jason said, but he looked over at Panther and she was focused on her thoughts. Jason slipped out the window and shot up into the sky and he looked down to get a better look at the city. From above it looked even more different than normal. There was something wrong and dirty about the city. It looked like whatever good there was in it had been drained away and all that was left was a rotting corpse.

  Spectrum made his way downtown in hopes of finding some people, but when he got there, everything looked very quiet. Even the clubs which were normally buzzing with activity until sunrise were calm. Spectrum landed on the street and went on to check on the club Oasis X. It was the most popular place in town and there were always people inside.

  Spectrum approached the club, but he heard footsteps behind him. He spun around and he saw a lone figure at the end of the street. It looked like a normal human being, except whoever it was had on a large smiley face mask that covered their entire head. The person started walking toward Spectrum and then another one appeared. Soon there were almost ten smiley faced people approaching. They walked like zombies. Spectrum wasn't sure what was going on, but he wasn't getting a good feeling about it. He dashed on into the club, hoping to find some answers, but as he walked in, he stopped right away. He saw the club had been destroyed. The tables and chairs were broken and there was blood on the floor, walls and ceiling. The music playing was hardcore death metal, different from the usual club mixes that were played.

  As Spectrum made his way along, he saw dead bodies on the floor. It looked like someone or something had come into the club and literally tore the people apart. A head came rolling across the floor and knocked against Spectrum's leg. He turned and saw a man on the dance floor clad in black pants, a black tank top, and he had a black ski mask on his head. He was standing on top of a hill of dead, bloodied bodies. It looked like he was just finishing dismembering one of the corpses. He looked up at Spectrum and let out an annoyed sigh.

  "You again?"

  "Yes. What's going on here?"

  "I just came out for a little party. I'm glad to see you. I was just finishing up with the last of the party favors."

  "You killed these people?"

  "Of course I did." The doors of the club burst open and the smiley faced people came wandering in.

  "What is going on here? Who are you?" The dark man jumped down from the dead bodies and jogged over to Spectrum.

  "I guess it's only fair to introduce ourselves," The smiley faced people pushed against Spectrum and grabbed his arms. "These fine people are part of the Legion Of Smiles, and I'm the guy in charge. They know me as Atrocity."

  "Atrocity?"

  "Yes, but you may remember me better as Tucker Marsden. You're the one who made me into this."

  "Me?"

  "Don't you remember? Six or seven months ago? You were fighting some Neo Human and caused a huge accident. I was one of the people pinned down under all those cars. My face was disfigured and destroyed because of you! I was so handsome before that. I was on my way to the audition that was going to make my career. I was going to be huge with my million dollar smile, and then I was turned into this!" Spectrum then remembered hearing about the man who had been injured in that accident.

  "Tucker, I'm sorry! I didn't realize what had happened!"

  "Doesn't change a damn thing. You destroyed my life! The only way I can live is with this mask and this mask gives me the power to control thoughts. Feelings. All the hate and evil in the world gives me the strength to spread my rage to everyone in the world! I live off of hate!"

  "You need help." The smiley faced people came up behind Spectrum and clawed and grabbed at him with their bloody hands. Their grips were growing stronger as Spectrum struggled against their force.

  "Don't worry. I have all the help I need and my legion here is always finding new recruits." Spectrum pushed against them all and managed to knock them down. As he spun around he tripped and fell near one of the legion. He looked up and he could see the smiley face mask wasn't being worn, but rather it was sewn into the victim's face.

  More smiley faced people came pouring in. They were all innocent victims under Atrocity's influence and there were too many to fight off. Spectrum just charged up and shot out a magnetic force beam that cut a path through the growing crowd and he bolted out of the club and took off into the night. He looked over his shoulder and saw the streets surrounding the club filled with more smiley faced people. It looked like Atrocity had a grip on nearly half the city. Their numbers were too great and Spectrum chose to regroup with Panther and hopefully they would figure out some way to break the city from Atrocity's influence. He flew away and as he did, he noticed the crowd of smiley faced people kept growing.

  Chapter 30

  New World Disorder

  Jason returned home and found Panther still in her meditative state, so instead of bothering her he ran over to his computer, but realized he had no power. His Comm-Sphere came over to him and after hovering over him for a second, it flew down to the tower of his computer. Several tiny wires popped through its perfect, silver skin and stabbed into the computer. It lit up as the Comm-Sphere started to charge it. The screen came on and flashed at a frantic pace. Once it stopped, the computer appeared to be on again. Jason reached for the keyboard and opened up the web browser. He was
logged in and he began his search.

  Jason did a search of all the big news articles in Towers City over the past six months. Something was going on and he had to find out what. As he sifted through the results, he started to see a pattern arise. Beginning three months after he was taken away, the reports of hate crimes began to rise sharply. There were also numerous stories about citizens breaking out into fits of rage at the drop of a hat. There were shootings over things as small as littering. Lynch mobs assembled to punish jay walkers. It looked as though all of Towers City had slowly sunk into a state of total madness in Jason's absence.

  He also found quite a few articles about a new gang referred to as the Legion Of Smiles. There was no news about who they were or where they came from, but it was clear the gang was growing as fast as innocent people started to disappear from the streets. There were theories from the police that they would forcibly recruit people using some kind of mind control.

  Jason thought back to his time with Atrocity. He recalled feeling a stronger buzzing in his head the closer he came in proximity. Whatever had gripped Towers City was coming from him. He controlled the Legion Of Smiles and it also appeared that he was broadcasting some kind of hate signal, somehow. It would have explained Heather's harsh reaction and the state of the city. Atrocity was like a living avatar of pure hate and his powers were infecting the city like a virus.

  Jason got up from his seat and walked over to the window and looked out at the city. He could feel the roiling, seething energy pulsating through him. Towers was like a behemoth of dark power and the cries of the monorail trains and screeching of the cars were its roars of hate. Something in Jason's blood was telling him that the city was reaching a crisis point and it wouldn't be long until something popped. He turned away and returned to his bed. He had learned all he could from the online community. He knew he had to go hunting for more information in the morning. He stretched out and pulled the covers over himself and soon he fell asleep.