The First: EVO Uprising

by Kipjo Ewers

His face read that he did not care what she thought of his story, but Rosann’s heart told her that he needed someone to unload the pain he still carried. She was glad to be that person.

  “Rogers,” Lady Tech came over the comlink, “you and Rosann need to get up to central command like now… we’ve got a huge problem.”

  “On our way,” Rogers acknowledged before turning to Rosann. “Guess it’s time to prove to me you can make a difference.”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Five minutes later the entire team was in central command facing Lady Tech; an uneasy tension filled the room like a chilling breeze. Lady Tech’s big emergency eclipsed it for now.

  “Midtown Manhattan is under attack!”

  “Say what?” Adrian cocked an eyebrow.

  “Five minutes ago Midtown Manhattan fell under attack to an occult terrorist cell known as the Zombie Nation.” She pulled up a holographic image.

  “Wasn’t that a house song way back?” Hard-On asked.

  “The Zombie Nation is comprised of five EVOs who have managed to keep under the radar for quite some time. They are wanted in connection for several kidnapping and murder charges throughout the U.S and Europe among other things,” Erica relayed. “They’ve uploaded several videos onto the web performing actual satanic ritual sacrifices on live people which, thanks to me, have been intercepted before anyone can actually see them. They’ve evened mailed some to television stations hoping they’ll air them. They believe their powers are gifts from Satan himself so that they can usher in his rule on Earth… they are also cannibals.”

  “That’s just messed up,” Oliver sneered.

  “We’ve been trying to block their sick messages in hopes of not alarming the public and catching these filthy bastards, but it looks like they’ve gotten frustrated and decided to do something drastic,” Erica continued. “Causalities are in the double digits and growing. Captain Omega is reported to be on the scene along two other heroes… Seeker and Lady Electrify.”

  “Great,” Adrian muttered, “with those three the fight will probably be over before…”

  “Miss, Lady Electrify has been killed in action,” Maxine reported. “Cause of death is impalement and severe brunt force trauma.”

  “Oh my god.” Rosann’s eyes widened as she took a stunned step back.

  “Suit up, people. Get locked, loaded, and ready to fly in four minutes,” Rogers ordered. “Anyone not ready by then gets left behind.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Five minutes later the Tornado was once again in the air headed for Manhattan, moving at Mach 8 they would be at the combat zone in less than eight minutes. Rosann stared at the ground as her brother sat next to her clutching the crucifix chain given to him by his mother for his sixteenth birthday. Oliver, sitting on the opposite side of Rosann, also stared down at the floor. Every minute he fidgeted with either the bracers on his arms or the straps on his boots. Rogers sat there looking at each one of them with his modified M249 LMG rifle in his lap. In his eyes, these were just more children marching once again to hell itself; a hell he himself had never faced before. He did not like it one bit. If he was not ready for this, they definitely were not prepared for this.

  “Miss reports indicated EVO known as Seeker has been killed in action,” Maxine reported. “Cause of death is decapitation.”

  “Jesus…” Rosann uttered cupping her mouth.

  “Erica! What’s our ETA?” Rogers yelled.

  “We just entered New York State,” she barked back, “we’ll be there in two minutes at this speed! Patching in Channel 11 News. They’ve got a reporter crazy enough to be on the scene!”

  The sound of battle and the screams of one lone reporter telling the tale of the designated warzone within Times Square forced everyone to sit up within the Tornado.

  “I report, Seeker has been killed,” the reporter screamed. “The well known superhero speedster of New York overwhelmed by a two on one attack has been decapitated! It has now become a three-on-one fight against Captain Omega and three out of the five members of this Zombie Nation! We have bodies of innocent men, women, and children littering the streets of Times Square! This is just too overwhelming, and Captain Omega is fighting like a mad man to turn the tide!”

  “Going to stealth mode folks,” Lady Tech yelled, “hang on!”

  “Oh, Jesus Christ,” screamed the reporter over the audio speakers, “Captain Omega has just been killed!”

  Dead silence filled the cabin of the Tornado as Hard-On, Blitz, and a shocked and teary-eyed Rosann, looked at each other, then back at a stone faced Rogers.

  “I can’t believe it,” the reporter cried, “the Captain looked like he was going to turn the tide of the battle, and then he looked like he was blinded out of nowhere. Then the monster of a man who looks like an unholy Viking just started hacking away at him with that huge battle ax of his… till he cut his head off… our greatest hero is gone folks… he’s gone… they’re literally desecrating his body in front of us… it’s horrific beyond imagination…”

  “There’s a goddamn Promethean down there,” Lady Tech muttered to herself with her head down.

  “Erica, keep us up, and open the bay doors,” Abe ordered.

  “You gonna parachute into…” she began to ask.

  “Just open the damn door, and keep us up!” he yelled, losing his patience.

  Rogers quickly checked his M249 LMG heading for the rear doors now opening; he stopped and turned feeling three presences standing behind him. He turned to see Hard-On already in metal form along with Blitz and Rosann ready to go.

  “Where the hell do you think you three are going?” demanded Abe.

  “Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with you, sir,” answered Hard-On.

  “Cut the shit, Esposito,” Rogers ordered, “wait till the ship lands then…”

  “Excuse me, sir, but you can go screw yourself,” said Adrian.

  “What did…?” he snarled.

  “We ain’t got time to discuss this!” Adrian yelled back. “People are dying down there, so when you jump out of this plane… we’re going to be following you… as a team.”

  “Whether you like it or not,” Rosann chimed in.

  “We’re ready,” Blitz nodded, “sir.”

  Abe Rogers narrowed his eyes as he looked at each of them. He turned, pulling his beanie down tight over his head.

  “Keep your formation tight. Spread out… pick a target… go hard… and work together.”

  “You all be careful when you get down there! My readings tell me there’s a class 10 Titan, a class 9 energy fire type, and a Mercurian also class 9,” informed Lady Tech. “I’m also pretty sure they got a Promethean, and I think he or she is pretty powerful too, so they’re going to know you’re coming then second you exit the Tornado!”

  With no more words, Rogers and team dived out of the back of the Tornado rocketing into a war torn Times Square like SCUD missiles.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Down below the world was in a minute and a half of hell, as a beast of a man in both size and demeanor held high the head of the fallen Captain Omega. In his other hand, he held a massive double bladed curved battle ax the size of an average man. His other weapon was a humongous sinister looking broadsword that appeared to be the length of a New York taxi. It stood standing as it impaled the headless corpse of Captain Omega and the concrete street of Times Square that it rested on.

  “Where are your heroes now, piglets? Huh?” the monster howled. “Where is your nameless god to save you? Where are they piglets? Tell them to come so that the Draugr can kill and fuck them like I did this worthless cunt!”

  He was four times the size of four powerlifters combined and appeared as if he could block out the sun with his near nine-foot frame. He wore black pants, leather and gold plated bracers, and a belt with a fur skirt remini
scent of a Viking or barbarian. Over his boots, thighs, bracers, and shoulders he wore a heavy dark black armor with detailed demonic skull etchings and orange flame accents. Armor that he appeared not to need after killing one of the most well-known and powerful EVOs on the planet.

  Those people still alive, either injured or too terrified to move watched as the monster tilted his head back allowing the blood from the Captain’s head to pour out into his mouth as if he was drinking wine. His long brown frayed beard matched the locks on his skull which was covered by a demonic helmet resembling a skull. It matched the rest of the demonic Viking armor he wore. He mouth and beard was now soaked in blood as he looked around with a wide-eyed baseless and inhuman expression searching for more prey.

  Above him hovered an Asian woman via a pinnacle of flames. Her entire face was tattooed with the visage of a demon, while large colorful demonic tattoos adorned different parts of her body. Her outfit was a long, scantily clad black leather dress with two long thigh high slits. Her bone straight black hair covered half her face on the right side. Though she was not as animalistic as the Draugr, she too seemed also void of all emotion, compassion, or sympathy.

  “All things must burn,” was all she softly muttered in mandarin. “All things must burn… all things must burn.”

  No scene was more gruesome and disturbing than the man in the middle of the street holding two long thick machete-like blades drenched in the blood of Lady Electrify. Her body was now unrecognizable due to him hacking her to pieces during and after her death at superhuman speed. His face was tattooed similar to the Asian woman, except his tattoo made it appear as if a blade skinned off half his face. The gray hood of his long sleeved top shrouded the rest of his head. Two huge tan leather belts covering majority of his abdomen along with matching suspenders that held the top and matching gray pants he wore together. He cackled and swayed as he gazed upon Lady Electrify’s savagely defiled body with pride as if he’d created a piece of art.

  Standing in the middle of the chaos on top of the now abandoned and destroyed police outpost was their leader. His pale stark white skin and long black hair made him appeared as if he stepped out of the 17th Century, while his faintly glowing purple and black eyes told of a dark power he held within him. His red and black ensemble made him look like a priest from an S&M club. In his hand, he held a chain attached to the collar of a porcelain white bald-headed woman with a wild insane visage on her face clinging tightly to his right leg. Headphones covered her ears as she clutched the tiny black IPod player in her hand for dear life. Her black top, shorts, and long Goth trench coat with the front completely gone gave her the look of a Valley Girl from hell.

  To the man’s left stood a large female bruiser with a Mohawk. She wore a heavy pink-chained bikini over a fishnet bodysuit and tight black leather shorts along with black leather steel plated boots. Satanic and Neo-Nazi tattoos covered her left cheek, breast, abdomen, right bicep, and back. She calmly wiped clean the huge jagged-edged knife she wielded with what seemed to be a bloodied shirt belonging to a child.

  Sitting in front of her was a very small person in a brown ratty looking monk’s cloak drinking blood from a severed head of male victim with a slurppy straw… due to the massive size of the hood, one could not see his or her gender.

  “All right children,” their leader clapped his hands getting their attention, “let us not lose focus as to why we are here. A Seal must be broken, and our father requires much more blood than this in order to do so.”

  With a calm business like demeanor he first turned to the monstrous Viking to instruct him.

  “Draugr, be so kind as to start tearing down buildings,” he requested, “there are plenty of warm bodies hiding within them, Nachzehrer do help him.”

  The female powerhouse with a Mohawk nodded with a smile as she finished off her blade cleaning with a quick spit shine.

  “Ghoul,” he addressed the man with the machetes, “stop playing with your toy and start butchering everyone still around. Be sure to begin with, those ridiculous individuals in Sesame Street and superhero costumes, not to mention the idiots dressed like the Statue of Liberty.”

  Teeth shined underneath the man’s hood as he took a couple of swipes flinging excess blood from his blades.

  “Jiang Shi,” he addressed the flame wielding Asian woman, “help him by turning the remainder to ash; we’ll start a path from here to Wall Street.”

  Screams and cries erupted all around from those too terrified to move as the Draugr laughed and howled while pulling his body-cleaving sword from the corpse of Captain Omega to begin the slaughter again.

  “Revenant,” the cloaked little monk stopped drinking from the head looking upward, “Someone is coming…”

  “Coming?” the man known as Revenant scoffed. “More heroes Anchimayen? From where?”

  “Look up,” Anchimayen pointed upward.

  Revenant and Nachzehrer looked up to the sound of bombs dropping. Bombs with arms, legs, and rage in their eyes. There were no words, cool catchphrase or battle cry as they descended into Times Square like avenging angels, whatever needed to be said was written all over their faces. “You sick animals… we’re coming to kill you.”

  “Who dares?” The slow-witted Draugr finally looked up to see what got the attention of his teammates.

  His words were broken, as a freefalling Rogers without a parachute to slow him down slammed right into the Draugr at 614 miles per hour creating a massive crater on impact now covered by smoke and flying concrete. The next thing heard was the deafening sound of Rogers’ M249 LMG being unloaded into the Draugr’s helmet covered face.

  The Ghoul sped out of the way as Hard-On created his own crater slamming into the ground; Rosann forced him to move again as she transformed in midair into her were-Cheetah form. She grabbed a lamp post to slow her falling momentum, and to launch herself at him roaring and slashing. The siblings wore pure rage on their faces, as they readied themselves to take on the machete wielding speed sadist.

  “You will all burn,” Jiang Shi sneered as she produced large flames from her hands.

  “The only thing frying tonight is you, witch.” Blitz hovered down behind her engulfed in his white plasma electrical form.

  Before Jiang Shi could spin around for an attack he unleashed a devastating lightning strike channeled through his hands, she barely conjured up a shield of flames, which did nothing more than weaken what would have be a fatal direct hit. She screamed as the current passed through her body sending her reeling. She quickly recovered turning her shield into a fiery blast of her own forcing Blitz to cover up as his plasma form protected him from the intense flames she unleashed; an apparent standoff as both glare at each other.

  “Your power cannot burn me,” Jiang-Shi grinned, “boy…”

  “I don’t have to burn you to kill you,” Blitz returned, “you foul evil woman.”

  He roared as he unleashed another electrical charge that she barely evaded. The two began a fire versus lightning aerial battle above the streets of Times Square.

  “Who da fuck are you two suppose ta be tin man?” Ghoul spat.

  Hard-On responded with action as he pulled out his side arm and unloaded on Ghoul forcing him to dodge. Rosann burst into a sprint roaring and charging Ghoul unnerving the blade wielding murder. He began to run as Hard-On turned on his laser scope trying to get a bead on him.

  “Nachzehrer,” Revenant sighed, “they’re not playing fair with Ghoul.”

  Nachzehrer licked her lips smiling as she leapt off outpost into the air. Hard-On catching her coming at him from the corner of his eye spun around firing shots at her. Each round of his Desert Walter 01, delivered the velocity greater than a rail gun, and could easily take down a Merkava Mark 4. He managed to put two in her gut and one in her chest as she came down from her descent with her knife held high. Her Titan genetics easily healed her wounds, while her insanity kept a sickening grin on her face.

  Hard-On braced for impact with his
forearm up to block the attack as she crashed down on him in an attempt to drive her knife in his metallic skull. The hit sent both of them down into a sizable crater sending debris flying everywhere. Hard-On glared at Nachzehrer with a disgusted look on his face as she grinned at him running her blade across his forearm.

  “I shall have fun masturbating with your cock tonight,” Nachzehrer drooled.

  “Wait, how are you?” Adrian asked before sneering as he comprehended what she meant. “Oh you sick bitch.”

  He switched his sidearm still free to use in his right hand to automatic mode and unleashed a volley of shots into her gut forcing her roll off him and cover up. Discharging his last round, he went to reload, when a now livid Nachzehrer lunged slamming into him knocking the gun out of his hand. Hard-On remembering his training rolled through flipping her over. He rolled on top of her, going ballistic as he rained down thunderous lefts, rights, hammer fists, and forearm shots.

  On the other side of the warzone, Rosann sized Ghoul up moving closer to him like an actual cheetah on the hunt with her fangs exposed preparing to pounce; while the Ghoul getting his nerve back grinned pointing his blood soaked blades at her with a sadistic gleam in his eyes.

  “I’m gonna enjoy wearing your skin up and down 42nd street,” he wagged his tongue at her, “like a pimp.”

  Rosann responded with a booming roar as she charged and leapt, cutting the distance between them putting Ghoul on the defense again realizing that she has some speed to her. He let his blades fly looking to slice her in half; Rosann’s feline instinct helped her evade strikes that cut the wind itself.

  Back in the crater the gunfire ended due to Rogers needing to reload; this gave a very ventilated, yet extremely pissed off, Draugr the chance he needed to grab his battle-ax and swing for the hills knocking Abe’s M249 LMG out of his hand. Rogers dived out of the path of the second axe swing going for his side arm and unloaded on the murderous titan again, only Draugr used his massive left armored forearm as a shield rolling to his feet.

  Back out of the crater, as Hard-On hammered away at Nachzehrer all he could hear was laughter bellowing from her as his metallic hands pounded her face into next week. With one eye the size of a grape fruit and her face painted in blood she continued to laugh at him; he paused in disbelief at how much she was enjoying it.