Anti-Hero (superhero fiction)

[BlueDevil]

The Prologue

The corrosive feeling of arm and leg braces tight around his shin armor and gauntlets was very apparent, and irritating, to say the least. However, the view from the window all but completely took his mind off of the annoyance. Space. The moon. Earth. This was certainly interesting for Rook, who, last he remembered, had fallen fast asleep on his couch after a long night of absolutely no work.

Initially, the room he was in seemed quite calm. A broad, dim chamber with elongated neon-blue lights highlighting the edges of the floor and ceiling, and several other cross-like structures like the one he was braced to. The only difference being of course that there were no other prisoners in here. Rook turned his view back to the window. It was a vast thing, covering the whole wall in front of him. He felt as though everything was calm and alright in his world, even if he was imprisoned.

Wait...what was he thinking?! He was strewn up on a cross for Pete's sake. Rook attempted to blow his way off of the cross. A single thought, and bright purple energy burst forth from his arms and legs. Much to his distaste, however, nothing happened at all. "Jeez." he muttered.

An airy hiss suddenly caught his attention, and he cranked his head to the side as far as he could to see what made the noise. It was a large, mechanical set of double doors, and through it walked the most notorious, and over the past twenty years, most unheard of villain of all time. The Autarch.

Clad in the same recognizable black and blue armored suit, complete with a skull-mask and see-through dome so that his brain was visible, he was most definitely the icon of all super-villainy. Cliche, no? Maybe not. However, Rook went unphased by the appearance of such a foe, as everything suddenly made sense. "So, you've been in space the whole time?"

Autarch's immensely vivid blue eyes squinted through his mask's sockets, "Yes, and you've been mutating into the world's most worthless waste of space, as have the hundreds of other heroes onboard this station."

"Hundreds of others?" Rook asked, a brow raised under his crimson face mask.

"Yes, as a matter of fact...anyone that could pose a threat to me has been captured. Most have been put to death. You're one of the more recent prisoners to be collected. You're set to be executed in...oh, three hours." Autarch looked away, staring out into the void of space.

"Well, since I'm more than likely about to die, why don't you tell me what your glorious plan of villainry is, so I can at least know what I'll miss out on." Rook sighed.

"Quite simply, I'm going to destroy the world and enslave the human race."

"That seems a little...counter productive. At least to me."

"Ah, so single-minded." Autarch laughed.

Shifting uncomfortably against the braces of his imprisonment, Rook looked at the floor for a long moment, contemplating what might happen. Then he gave in to questioning. "How will you destroy the planet?"

"Most would assume that I would use my vast array of satellite energy weapons left dormant after the Cold War. However, what I have in store is much more exhilarating. Tell me, have you ever read Poe's The Masque of the Red Death?" Autarch looked quizzically at Rook.

"Can't say that I have, friend. I'm not much of a poetry guy." Rook shook his head.

"Such a shame. No one shares enthusiasm over the right things these days. Well let me explain. Red Death is a fictional disease created by Poe. There is no cure, and it is a horrendously painful process of dying. The victim of such a plague experiences pain and fatigue beyond measure, and then bleeds out as if his blood was sweat leaking from his very skin on a hot afternoon. With the help of my greatest science teams, I have recreated such a disease, which I have armed in a virus bomb. The single bomb's contents will easily spread through Earth's atmosphere and infect all the population of the world within weeks, I'd estimate."

"Okay...that's mildly disturbing. Now let me ask, how do you plan to rule everyone if they all bleed to death?" Rook, despite feeling very uneasy about the current state of things, was very interested in the plan.

"I will offer everyone on Earth sanctuary within my fleet, as long as they surrender to my jurisdiction. In other words, they can surrender themselves to me, or die."

"Fleet, eh? You tellin' me you've got more than one of these space stations?"

Autarch muttered something to himself, and then looked back to Rook, "Fool. You underestimate the amount of time I've been amongst you putrid humans, and the vast pool of resources from which I've had to dip my fingers in and fund such a plan."

"Even saying that, the ability to pull more than two of these ships out of your ass within the amount of time you've been here seems highly implausible...especially considering the world hasn't been much of technological place for the better part of its existence."

"Well, needless to say, I have my ways." Autarch turned to stare back at Earth.

"Someone's going to stop you. It always happens. No matter who you are, you should know good prevails in the end."

"Not in my end. Just to further enhance the excitement of the situation, I've decided that I will release a small group of you prisoners. You will systematically be released in hour intervals, until I stop the cycle. The process began fifty or so minutes ago."

Rook scoffed, "Please tell me why in the dark depths of Hell you would do that. That must be the most cliche and stupid thing you've ever done."

"You see? Already, your hope inclines. The climax to your hope, however, will most certainly end in demise. This is only meant to be some fun for me before I bring doom to Earth. My plan is set up to insure there is a zero percent chance that you, or any other hero released will succeed in foiling my plot. You'll all die the same."

"Well, if this is really what you want to do, then I guess we'll see, won't we?"

"I guess we will. May the best man win, Rook. May the best man win." With that, Autarch turned, only to see another figure standing in the doorway.

Approaching him in bright red, white and blue stood America's favorite supersoldier. "Autarch." He muttered, "Should've known. Only you could orchestrate something this big."

"Ah! Commander U.S.A. How ironic it is that you would be the first to be released. Unfortunate that you would come directly to me, however."

"Stroke of luck, I guess. This ends here and now." The Commander rose his triangular shield to his side, the razor-bladed edges sheening in the blue light provided by the room.

"Your age and self-confidence betray you, Commander. You're already dead." Autarch stood perfectly still.

Commander laughed, "You're quite a maniac, Autarch. I'm gonna kick your-" Silence. Commander U.S.A.'s last few seconds of life were eerily quiet, right before he slid clean in half.

"Ahahaha! Surely you didn't think yourself better than me." Autarch left the room.

Rook watched in silent horror the entire time. And then suddenly his braces opened, and he was dropped to the floor. It was time to end the Autarch's plan.

 

[BlueDevil]

Corrections to spelling and grammar have been made to the best of my ability.

 

[BlueDevil]

Part 1

Rook, almost stunned that he had already been released, looked to the doorway with great anticipation, expecting Autarch to rush back in and end him in an instant. Instead, the room remained quiet. Commander U.S.A. continued to lay lifeless on the ground, both of his halves still relatively clean. There was no blood flow, but he'd been split from shoulder to waist. There was definitely no surviving.

Rook stood up and dusted himself off with a few quick pats, and quietly strode over to his fallen comrade's body. "Rest in peace, friend. You always were a great guy."

Leaning down to shut Commander's eyes, Rook looked back to the door. It remained shut. As he approached it, it slid open to reveal a long hallway, stretching in both ways to two more doors at each side. No one else was around. Rook stepped in and tried to figure out which way to go. The hall had the same cold look to it as the room he woke up in. And more blue lights lined the edges of the floor and ceiling. A moment more to think, and he finally decided to go left.

The next door slid open as well, revealing another long corridor with a second hall branching off. There was a guard in this hall. Jet black armor with a red fist right in the middle. He held a pretty big rifle too. Rook hadn't ever heard of these guys before. He'd fought plenty of different evil organizations, like the Defilers, Pythons, the Worshipers of Xibon ...there was even an interesting encounter with cultists at one point in Rook's career. But these guys were indeed new. He figured if anyone knew who they were, his computer-wiz contact of a girl, Elena, would. Unfortunately, his wrist communicator was gone. Along with a few other important things.

The guard remained stationary, seemingly unaware of the new presence in the hall. Rook closed the distance quickly and grabbed the man by the neck before he could even think to raise the gun. Within the blink of an eye, Rook tore the gun away from the guard's hands and gave him one swift smack to the face. It was hard enough to crack his helmet's glowing red visor. Rook squinted, "Where's my stuff?"

"Wait! Don't hurt me, please!" He held his hands up in fear.

"Then talk!" Rook pulled his fist back, ready for another go at the man's face.

"T-t-the armory. We're keeping all of the equipment in the armory! H-here! Take my PDA. It's got the directions!" He reached down into one of the compartments dangling from his belt and sifted out a thin device, a little bigger than your average cell phone.

"Alright then. Does it have a list of all of the captives?" Rook snatched the PDA away from the guard, who flinched.

"Uhm...no, it doesn't. I don't have a high enough security clearance." He looked at Rook anxiously through his helmet. Rook proceeded to knocking him out cold.

A couple of button presses later, and Rook was staring blankly at the PDA screen. "So many different things. I'm too old for this computer junk." He scratched his head.

Upon finally finding a layout of the section of the space station he was in, he memorized the halls and rooms he would need to take to get to the armory. Making his way to his destination, he took note of the small amount of guards patrolling such a vast area of the ship. Maybe Autarch was making it easy in the beginning. Still, there was a certain balance of calm and anxiety that Rook was feeling. It was a good feeling. Something he hadn't experienced in a couple of years.

The guards were easy to dispatch of, like any villain's minions were, and once he made it to the armory, he realized he felt no sense of success. "God, what I wouldn't do to be a newbie at this again."

The armory door was locked. And there was no special slot for a PDA or anything stupid like that. It was simply locked. In response to him taking a step forward, a computerized female voice mentioned to him the painfully obvious. "Identification unrecognized. You are not cleared for entry. Please leave the area."

"Can we talk this over on a date?" Rook shrugged pleadingly.

"Officers in the area will be alerted if you do not comply." The voice spoke in a cold monotone.

"This is getting old." Rook held out his hand. A blast of purple energy shot forth and busted through the door. The computer didn't say anything else. He smirked, "That's what I thought, bitch."

The armory was a cleanly place. Lockers lined up against one wall, weapons against the other. There were a couple of other doors leading out. If his memory served him correctly, they were to a barracks and...the restroom, maybe? He didn't care. There were crates bolted shut in the middle of the room, stacked neatly. He had to assume that these were the captured equipment from some of the heroes. Closing his eyes, he attempted to sense what box contained his. It didn't take long. It happened to be the second from the closest to him.

Unbolting the crate was easy. They easily popped out for Rook, who opened it like a present on Christmas. He grinned to see his things. His communicator, his knife and his cloak. He was most grateful to regain his cloak, which served as a shield in its own right. The tiny threads forming it were made of a most dense, but flexible metal known as Lunarite, which was discovered after several mining expeditions on the moon.

He dialed his communicator to contact Elena. There was no response.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Very cool update, can't wait to read more =)

For spelling and grammar, you need to edit this part my good man.

He figured if anyone new who they were, his computer-wiz contact of a girl, Elena, would. Knew instead of new. But I bet you 'knew' that, just a simple mistake

 

[BlueDevil]

Ahah, thanks! And nah, I didn't know. I haven't gone through to check the second part just yet, so glad ya let me know ahead of time ;D

 

[BlueDevil]

Part 2

Elena being missing was bad for two reasons, the first being that Rook would become very worried for her safety. It was not very often at all that Elena was away from her post, and it was very difficult to bloke communications considering she always found a way around it. The second reason was that Rook would have to deal with Elena's most magnificent creation, El-bot. Magnificent because it was a super-intelligent AI. Bad, however, because El-bot was very difficult to get along with. Rook hated relying on her for guidance.

He pressed the button anyway. As he did so, he went through the same numbing process as always. Four needles pricked into his arm from the gauntlet's innards, and all of Rook's senses went dead for a moment as the needle tips harmonized with him. He'd only ever asked Elena to explain the process to him once before. Too many big words.

His head suddenly felt very cool, and his spine tingled for several moments before he heard a smooth voice speak in his head. "Hello, Rook. It's been a while."

"Not long enough, if you ask me. I need to know why I can't contact Elena." Rook stood, patiently waiting for a reply.

"It seems that there is a signal blackout in space between this station and Earth. It is also likely that Autarch has captured many contacts along with the heroes."

"Well, you're right on top of the game. I never mentioned Autarch to you." Rook smirked as he headed back out into the corridor linking to the armory.

"Your mind is my mind. We're synced together, remember?" El-bot's voice had a hint of superiority.

"Well, just don't get any funny ideas. I'd like to stay in control." Rook paused, "Seeing as how you've got all the info I can give at the time, let's hear the analysis."

"It seems as though Autarch has many of the villains sided with him. Computer logs within the vicinity list many such villains. I see his name."

"I see. To be expected. How long until this hour interval is up?"

"Forty-eight minutes and thirty-three seconds counting down. The heroes are set to be released at random, so I don't know where exactly the next hero will be set free at. Though, if we were close enough, I could detect it through the locks."

"I'm guessing that means that the next door to unlock isn't near us, right?"

"Right. If we could find a way into Autarch's chamber, we could likely find an override code and free all of the prisoners. The longer, but easier way would be to override each detention block's control computer. Only batches of heroes at a time, but safer and just as effective in the long run. However, due to the insanity of the being we're dealing with here, there seem to be detention blocks strewn all over this craft. If I were smart, I'd say this likely a prison ship. Wait, I am smart. This must be a prison ship. Autarch's other craft, from what I can access and see through this ship's databases, are in fact transports and warships. Worse news is that he lied to you."

"Lied to me? About what?" Rook raised a brow.

"There is more than one virus bomb. And they aren't just on this ship. Autarch has ships set up above key locations on the planet. One bomb could wipe out the planet in a few weeks. However, with this newly discovered setup, I'd say that the Earth would be a dead world within hours. I wonder why Organization White hasn't done anything."

"They might be unable to. Autarch's fleet is concealed. And even if they did know, I doubt they'd be able to stop terrorism on this scale."

"Your best bet at stopping this would be to...wait, Elena's here."

"On this ship?" Rook was suddenly surprised. El-bot's mention of imprisoned contacts hadn't fully sunk into his mind just yet.

"Yes. She is on the other side though. We'll have to travel the length of the entire ship to free her. For now, your best bet at making any difference is to link up with as many heroes as you can and create an easy to secure base of operations."

"Then I guess our first priority is finding this next freed prisoner before they get into trouble." Rook said, continuing his path into the next room. He'd been walking blindly through the halls while talking with El-bot. A downfall for Rook. Talking had always been a distraction. He could multitask anything unless talking was in the mix.

He was halted before entry could be made into the next room though. A voice from behind called his name. Rook turned to face his identifier. A man, unrecognized by Rook, stood garbed in black. He bore a red fist on his chest as well. But he didn't look like any of the guards Rook had encountered thus far. Rook shifted uncomfortably, "Who are you?"

"I'm Wax." The man raised his hand in Rook's direction.

A warm, scentless goop flew forth, striking Rook in the shoulder. It burned immensely at first, and then it hardened, disabling him from moving his right arm. It took every bit of strength Rook had to shatter the stuff. He looked up, eyes wide, "Sensible name."

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Interesting, very interesting. Keep it up man =) I look forward to Rook freeing Elena. Or will he get that far? =/ I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[BlueDevil]

WELL! There would've been a part 3 tonight, except for the fact that I accidentally closed the tab in the middle of typing. So now I'm ****ed and I'll update this later on.

Thanks : )

 

[LordOfDarkness]

^ Oh my, that sucks >_<

I want my Part 3 to read. I'm watching this Thread BD =)

 

[BlueDevil]

Part 3

Rook powered himself up, blasting away at Wax, who effortlessly avoided each shot, returning more of his own. Rook managed to dodge the volley of wax as well, closing in on his foe with one more blast charged up. He shoved his hand against Wax and released the blast, sending the man flying across the hall. Wax hissed, forming a blade out of the goop and rushing forward, slashing at Rook, who received a flesh-tearing cut to his chest. Wax swung the blade once more from above, but Rook rolled to the side and deflected the attack with his lunarite cloak. The blade shattered, stunning Wax.

Rook seized the opportunity, delivering a rib-crunching punch to Wax's side, following through to his arm, grabbing it and flipping Wax over his shoulder. Wax landed with a thud and then dissolved into a liquid state, surprising Rook and sliding around his legs up to his waist. Wax's upper half materialized from the goop while his lower half remained in a liquid state, and then his fist flew into Rook's jaw, unhinging it. Blood pattered the inside of Rook's mask.

Grabbing Wax by the face, Rook pushed his thumbs into Wax's eyes until he screamed, pushing himself away and completely materializing, forming another blade. Rook charged his energy again, and threw a bolt of purple. Wax took the blast, but only flinched, enduring the force and pain, retaliating with wild swings from his sword. Rook was cut once more, jerking his arm back as it bled. Wax laughed, leaping forward. As Rook threw his fist in Wax's direction, Wax dissolved again, falling behind Rook to quickly reform again. Rook cringed as the blade jutted through his shoulder. Blood trailed down from the wound.

Rook growled in pain and frustration, grabbing the blade's tip and busting it off, spinning around to jab it in the side of Wax's head. Everything went silent. Rook's enemy stood still, blood squirting from his wound, before he dissolved for a final time, slithering away in his liquid form.

Rook heard a feint whisper, "See you soon."

He fell in a slump to the ground. El-bot's voice echoed in his head, "He did some damage. I'm administering a healing-gel now. You'll feel a cool sensation in your injuries for a while."

"Thanks...my first fight of the day, and my ass was kicked." Rook sighed, standing back up after a few minutes to continue his chosen path.

For a while, they hadn't come across anything, but eventually, Rook stumbled into a room that, from what he could tell, was under construction. Wall panels lingered on the floor, and tools were scattered about on top of crates and on the floor. A few plastic sheets hung from the ceiling, sanctioning off separate work areas. Then Rook saw the trail of blood.

"El, how much longer until the next prisoner is set free?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Then whose blood is this?" Rook leaned down, running two of his fingers through it. El-bot began to process it.

"I don't think you want to know."

"No no...enlighten me."

"This belongs to Jackal."

"Jackal's a villain though. Why would he be injured on Autarch's ship?"

"He's not a villain. He's a beast. An uncontrollable one. Perhaps Autarch attempted to seize and tame him. And then he realized his folly and tried to kill him. That seems plausible to me."

"Yeah, guess we'll find out though."

"Sure you can handle it?"

"Are you my mom? What are you so worried about. Of course I can." And with that, Rook commenced following the blood.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Awesome, I want more. I want to find out more about Jackal. And Wax with his "See you soon" comment, that was awesome and scary. Keep up the good work =)