PART 1:

THINGS AS THEY WERE

CHAPTER 1

            "Admit it, we're lost." The teenager in the passengers seat said.

            "We are not lost," the man driving replied in a semi-robotic voice, "I'm just...not sure where we are....exactly."

            "In other words, we're lost." Wildcard slumped down in the seat and folded his arms across his chest, "We've been down this street three times already. Those people in the cafe are starting to wave."

            "Oh will you just let it drop?" Scorpio replied, somewhat annoyed.

            "Just stop and ask for directions..." Wildcard said and trailed off as Scorpio looked at him with large pale white eyes set in a metallic green helmet, "Well, okay, bad idea, I'll ask, just pull over."

            After they had gotten directions from one of the people in the cafe, who was thoroughly amused, they arrived at their destination. A ten-story apartment building. A crowd had gathered outside of it and they were all looking up. Large explosions sounded from the roof, followed by an inhuman roar. They approached the doors to the building and the guard stopped them.

            Wildcard flashed an ID, "We're the Defenders, you called us."

            The guard looked him over, he looked to be about 18 or 19, stood about 5'10" and was dressed like a heavy metal/Goth freak. He had on black jeans, a dark gray shirt, and a rust red colored button up shirt that had the sleeves rolled up. From under the sleeves of the shirt came fishnets that terminated at his wrists in black fingerless gloves. His blonde hair was scraggly and unkempt, he wore a pentagram necklace and his eyes appeared to be yellow.

            "Looks okay to me," the guard said, looking at the ID, "Get going."

            As they made their way to the elevator Scorpio shed the fedora hat and trench coat he was wearing, revealing a man in a suit of power armor. The thighs, upper arms, midsection and head were metallic green plate mail, while the forearms, shins and chest plate were shiny silver. His helmet revealed his mouth and nose, but covered everything else. The eyes of the helmet were large and pale white, set in a permanent expression of anger. A stylized S was emblazoned on the left of his chest plate and a long scorpion-like tail emerged from the back of the suit. He was really kind of intimidating.

            Once on the elevator, the two of them checked to be sure they were prepared, and Wildcard took advantage of the few minutes the ride lasted to go over in his head the odds they were up against.

            The call had said that Firepower and some kind of creature were up on the roof. He shuddered at the memory of Firepower; they were his past, why were they coming back now? Anyway, Firepower is a three-man team of pyromaniacs; they were kind of a subgroup of the Satanic Cabal that Wildcard thought had vanished. He'd once been one of them. He'd hoped his friends would see the error of their ways when he left, but none of them did.

            Firepower consisted of Inferno, Wildfire and Flashover. Inferno was dangerous and powerful, but he lacked experience, and let his guard down often. The only problem was being conscious to take advantage of those momentary lapses of concentration, he hit fast and hard.

            Wildfire is a bit more dangerous, he is a being of living fire, and as such has even better control of the element of fire than Inferno does. He is also far more vulnerable to water than Inferno, one blast from a fire hose and he would be out for the count.

            Flashover is the most dangerous of the bunch, and also the leader. He got his name from the firefighting term for the event when all the flammable objects in an immediate area ignite simultaneously, which is the same effect as his powers. He is also very skilled in the use of a variety of weapons, and is an accomplished kick boxer. Not a very nice person at all.

            The elevator dinged their arrival on the roof and it shocked Wildcard out of his daydreams. The doors opened and they saw Flashover with his back to the door.

            "Drop the leader, the others will fold," Scorpio muttered to himself as he launched himself quickly out of the elevator, using the jump jets in his boots, Flashover turned around just in time to see the metal foot connecting with his face. He dropped to the floor in a heap. Elsewhere Wildcard emerged from the elevator and saw what looked like a large winged lizard crouched on all fours.

            "A dragon... oh fuck..." Wildcard said, then quickly whipped out one of the glowing Tarot cards he kept on his person and uttered something in Latin. The card glowed more brilliantly, and a protective bubble surrounded him. Inferno noticed and fired a fireball at Wildcard that dissipated on the shield, but the force interrupted Wildcards concentration and the shield dropped. Wildcard dodged another fireball and brought the fight in Inferno's face with a vicious hook to his jaw. Inferno fell back and held his face. Even through his costume he could feel that his jaw was at least sprained. He jumped up and tagged Wildcard in the gut with a flaming fist and he dropped.

            Elsewhere the dragon had noticed Scorpio. It reached out and grabbed him in one massive hand. The beast started to crush Scorpio as it looked at him and seemingly started to chuckle. The wind was being crushed out of him. The dragon brought Scorpio up and even with its face. "Keep laughin' happy boy," Scorpio scowled, his tail whipping up and emitting a bright red-orange blast from the tip, right between the dragons eyes. While it didn't do a whole lot of damage, it messed the dragon up enough that it dropped Scorpio.

            As he fell he reached up and grabbed the dragons arm as it brought it up to its face. SUCK VOLTAGE, DICKWAD! Scorpio screamed and channeled 30,000 volts into the beast. This amount of voltage went right to the dragons heart and stopped it. It began to fall off the building, taking Scorpio with it.

            Back at the first elsewhere, Inferno left Wildcard in a moaning mass of smoking shirt, and turned his attention to the fire department helicopter that had just arrived. The loudspeaker started to squawk, You, on the roof, stay where you are! Inferno smiled under the mask and fired a bolt at the copter. It erupted in flames and the pilot bailed out, covered in flames.

            "Bite me." Inferno said.

            "I just might take you up on that!" Inferno started to turn around as a blue green bolt of satanic energy blasted into his side. He dropped from his hovering position to the roof, "Did you forget your training already Inferno? Never split your focus. And, make sure your enemy is completely dead before you walk away."

            Wildcard pulled out another Tarot card, this one was glowing light green. He muttered another phrase in Latin and as Inferno was picking himself up, he felt a restricting weight on him. He looked around, it was the entrap spell.

            "You suck!" Inferno screamed. Wildcard had always gotten him with this one in training, before he turned traitor.

            The entrap spell manifested itself as a large green globe with a red pentagram inside all around him. The globe began to shrink, and so did Inferno. It shrunk until it was about the size of a baseball, which then flew into Wildcards waiting hand. Sweet.

            A gout of fire blasted the ground near him and he spun around to see Wildfire, with the dragon busying himself with something behind him. "Die Traitor! You Die!!"

            "And still oh, so elegant, aren't we?" Wildcard said, and then dodged another fire blast. He hid behind an air conditioning unit. A quick scan of the area revealed a fire hose bolted to the wall 20 feet away. I cant make that. He'll roast me he thought. He pulled out another card, this one glowing yellow. He muttered another Latin phrase, and his legs started to glow yellow. He got up and dashed the 20 feet as if it were two. He smashed the glass with his hand and grabbed the fire hose. He spun the handle and stepped out from his cover, pointing the hose at Wildfire. He barely heard Wildfires screams of mercy, he was far more concerned with the fact that the dragon seemed to be falling off the building.

            Once Wildfire was extinguished, he heard a scream from the edge of the building. It was Scorpio. "WILDCARD!!"

            The scream sounded frantic, so Wildcard rushed over to the edge of the building and looked down. Scorpio was hanging by his fingertips on a windowsill. The dragon laid in a heap the alley below. "Little help?"

            Wildcard pulled the bullwhip he always carried on him off his belt and lowered the end of it towards Scorpio. He grabbed the whip and Wildcard started to pull him up.

            "Dude, you really need to lose some weight, like, seriously..." Wildcard strained.

            "Shut up..." Scorpio replied.

            "I could just drop you..."

            "Sorry."

            Wildcard jutted his hand out to grasp Scorpio's, a sense of vertigo overcoming him. He pushed it down and just hefted Scorpio onto the roof. Scorpio plopped himself wearily onto the ground.
            "You okay man?"

            Scorpio replied wearily, "yeah, I'm okay, just, batteries are drained. Gimme a minute I'll be fine. How're your guys?"

            "I got Inferno trapped, and tagged Wildfire good with the fire hose, he'll be out for at least a week."

            "And the dragons out for good...wait a sec, what about Flashover?"

            They both jumped and ran to the unconscious form of Flashover on the ground. Scorpio lifted him to his feet. Wildcard stood back and gasped.

            "Thats not Flashover..." he said.

            "What?" Scorpio asked, he looked the guy over. His face was a little burned from where Scorpio's hot jump jet had connected with his face. He was wearing the same outfit that Flashover did, the black jacket with flames embroidered up his arms and around the back, black shirt, Jeans with the same embroidered flames as the jacket, and those shoes with the flames on them. On closer inspection he could tell, this guy looked like Flashover, but it wasnt Flashover. First off, his hair was all-wrong. The real Flashover was blonde, this guy was dirty blonde.

            "Let's figure this out..." Scorpio shook the man, "Wake Up."

            "Zap 'im." Wildcard said.

            "Can't, too drained..." Scorpio started to reply then was promptly silenced by the whizzing sound of a bullet as it seared in and punctured the mans head, spraying his brains for all to see. He dropped the man and looked for the source of the bullet, and spotted a silent running helicopter hovering just off the edge of the building. A man wearing a long white trench coat stood on one of the legs with a smoking pistol in his hand. The helicopter spun to face them, and the twin machine guns on each side opened fire. Wildcard erected a force field and cowered behind it. Scorpio dove behind another air conditioning unit and hid.

            They're running, good. Saul thought to himself as the helicopter swooped down towards the unconscious form of Wildfire. He dropped himself down on a drop line, and grabbed Wildfire by the underwear, then lifted him up to the helicopter and threw him in.

            "Mission Completed." he said to himself as the helicopter flew away from the building, leaving behind two very confused Defenders, "The master will be pleased..." he said.

            Scorpio sat behind the air conditioner and cursed himself. He was too weak to get up, thus not able to pursue. "Shit."

            Wildcard helped him to the elevator, and on the way to their van ran into the usual throng of reporters. Ignoring them, they made their way to the van. Scorpio slumped in the passengers seat and watched the blinking light in the Heads Up Display of his helmet tell him that he was dangerously low on power. "C'mon man, let's get home."