Spotlight; Emerald Archer: Home Invasion

When a rebellious young former superhero has his home invaded by a mysterious ice maiden, he is forced to seek help from the last person he wishes... his replacement.(WorldGenesis)

Arc 1: Loners; Issue 1: Home Invasion

'How could anyone so naive possess so much power?' Emerald Archer thought reflecting upon his encounter with Titus Gabriel, a young boy with massive telepathic and psionic energy manipulating abilities. He sailed across the starry night sky, high above the cities lights, leaving behind a white streak in his wake from his protective psionic aura. 'He has no idea what kind of danger naturally comes with being apart of the Majestic Family.' Emerald Archer grimaced under his dark shroud at the thought. His white cloak flailed in the wind, and connected to a matching chest piece, complete with black leggings and sleeves, as well as white ankle high boots. It wasn't his standard outfit, but after becoming rather popular for his notorious thieving skills, it became necessary for him to take on another persona the public dubbed White Arrow. After flying at top speeds for some time, Emerald Archer slowed his pace to descend into the pitch black mountains. His bright white aura illuminated the his path, and he swayed around a few giant trees until he reached a hidden oasis. Now hovering above a restless river, Emerald Archer followed it upstream at a steady pace until he finally reached a raging waterfall.

'At the very least, I understand why Majestic Man feels the need to watch over Titus.' As he pondered his thoughts, Emerald Archer passed through the waterfall in a quick motion completely unharmed. He followed the secret canal on the other side until he was deep in the heart of the mountain. He traveled till he reached dual steel doors, sealed shut with a number pad in the center. Emerald Archer punched in the code 91939, and drifted back as he watched the large doors slowly slide open, creating a loud screeching sound. The screech was bad enough to make anyone cringe, but Emerald Archer heard it so often that he'd become accustomed to it. Once the doors opened enough, he glided through to pull a switch on the other side that closed the doors behind him, and lit up the inside of his home.

'Although I'm sure he doesn't realize it, that kid possesses limitless potential. I've never felt someone with such an enormous psychic presence, and if I'm aware of that fact, I have no doubt so does Malevolence.' Emerald Archer removed his shroud and pulled off his hood to let his face breathe for the first time since he left Titus' home. He revealed his soft honey blonde short unkempt hair that, naturally fell into layers. His abnormally pale skin, made his dark green eyes pop out, and the lights from the ceiling made his sharp cheek bones stand out, but also made his face seem hallow despite his impressive athletic build. 'If Malevolence had the audacity to approach me, and sway me into temporarily joining his cause, I have no doubt he intends to do the same with Titus. He just might not be as upfront about it.'

Emerald Archer let his guard down by dispersing his psionic aura and casually strolling across the many valuable possessions he'd acquired in his thieving escapades with his partner in crime, Sheik, called one of the best thieves in history. Together Emerald Archer and Sheik make a pretty astounding team, pulling off heist of the highest caliber, but Sheik was no where in sight. Emerald Archer only assumed that Sheik was off handling personal business, and didn't think much of it as he found his custom built laptop in a chair with wheels attached the bottom. Emerald Archer snatched his laptop while simultaneously taking a seat and using his legs to thrust himself across his smooth granite floor to come to an abrupt stop at a nearby desk with just enough space for him to place his laptop amongst the clutter. Emerald Archer stretched his arms to loosen himself up, as he prepared himself to do research that might give him some answers. Although he wasn't too concerned about Titus, or the rest of the Majestic Family's safety, he felt the need to find out what Malevolence had planned. After working with the sinister master of black psionic energy for more then a year, Emerald Archer knew that by sensing his presence whenever he himself used black psionic energy, could only be a warning for Malevolence's untimely reveal.

Once his laptop finally booted up, Emerald Archer began to search the internet for any public reports on psychic paranormal matters. He tediously browsed the first few web pages that came up in his search, all being solely reports about Majestic Man, the greatest telepath in the world, as well as one of the worlds most well known heroes, and the other members of the Majestic Family. Emerald Archer quickly noticed that Majestic Man seemed to be busier than ever, handling the typical telepathic matters he'd become famous for, and missions with the Zenith Defenders, dubbed the worlds greatest heroes by the public.

Moments before Emerald Archer was fed up with finding various reports harping on and on about his former mentors astonishing achievements, he fortunately came across a report that caught his interest. The headline read 'Young Meta-Human Massacres Family With Psychic Powers.' Emerald Archer dramatically rolled his eyes at the title.

'The lack of creativity modern society exudes never ceases amaze me.' Emerald Archer thought as he brushed his bangs out of his eyes before examining the full report. He quickly noticed that a majority of the story was speculation, not fact, but as he skimmed through he did notice a few things that made him wonder. It was noted numerous times throughout the report that a black ash-like substance was found everywhere in the victims home, but forensic scientist could not specify what the substance was. Emerald Archer instantly knew that whoever committed this crime, must have used black psionic energy. Being a practitioner of the deadly art himself, Emerald Archer could not mistake it. While he trained his psionic manipulating powers under the guidance of Majestic Man, he was told by his mentor to never use the sinister force under any means. Majestic Man explained that black psionic energy was nothing but a purely corrupted energy that slowly eats away at the users morality the more frequently they use it. Emerald Archer never took Majestic Man's warning too seriously, but while under his protection, he did choose to abstain from using the forbidden art, at least until Malevolence paid him a visit. Despite the fact that Majestic Man was training him to become the second Majestic Boy, Emerald Archer never truly wanted the title. Other than him finding the name emasculating, he knew deep inside that he wasn't cut out to be a hero. He just wanted to master his ability to the best of his extent, to help him achieve his own goals, which ultimately led him down the path of becoming Malevolence's apprentice for over a year.

Emerald Archer leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he sat and thought about his time with self proclaimed king of psionic energy. Malevolence is known as Majestic Man's greatest and one of his most powerful villain's, partly based on the fact that he solely uses black psionic energy. When a telepath is gifted with the ability to manipulate the mental power know as psionic energy, they eventually learn that there are many forms of it meant for a variety of purposes, with different degrees of difficulty to manipulate. Light blue energy is the easiest to control and is typically where every psionic manipulator begins. It's generated from the body and takes a degree of mastery to create away from the physical host. Magenta psionic energy is a much more powerful version of this energy, but a bit more difficult to generate and manipulate. Gold is the highest level of psionic energy generated from the body, and takes an incredible mastery of the art to control, let alone generate. Knowing the basics around psionic energy would lead anyone to believe that black would be the most difficult to manipulate since it's the most powerful by far, but Emerald Archer knows from experience that this is not the case. Black psionic energy is also by far the easiest to control and generate, making it easy for psionic users to be tempted into using it.

In the midst of reminiscing about the knowledge he acquired while training under Majestic Man, and Malevolence, Emerald Archer noticed in the report about the psychic meta-human massacre that the entire family's bodies were found as nothing more than pale skin on top of frail bones as if the very life was sucked out of them. It was also reported that the son was nowhere to be found and that he was a suspect in the case. A benefit of black psionic energy was that it could be used to siphon the very essence in all living things, rendering the user in effect immortal if they continue to use the technique. Emerald Archer never used it himself, but witnessed Malevolence consume countless lives with it.

Emerald Archer prepared himself to do a bit more research on the matter at hand, when suddenly he became distracted by a loud boom that anyone could have mistaken for thunder, except the sound was far to close to be from a storm outside the mountain. In fact, the sound came from directly behind him. Acting fast, Emerald Archer dramatically leaned back in his chair to give him enough leverage to flip into a layout while simultaneously generating his signature white psionic bow in his left hand and putting back on his shroud and hood with his right. Once he stuck his landing facing the direction the noise came from, Emerald Archer generated three green psionic arrows and immediately drew them while he focused his aim. Once he spotted where the noise came from, Emerald Archer noticed a vortex of swirling energy in the middle of his layer with blue lightning and black fire flickering through it. Expecting to be attacked by one of the many people who have black listed the notorious thief Emerald Archer had become, he mentally prepared himself for battle, ready to expect anything.

Being no stranger around the superhuman block, Emerald Archer was aware that whatever was about to happen was influenced through mystical means. Magic tended to leave behind traces of blue lightning and black fire in it's wake for no explainable reason. As soon as the raging vortex began to quell, Emerald Archer saw a silhouette that appeared to a naked woman laying in the center with her back facing him. Emerald Archer cautiously approached the figure at a slow, steady pace. The closer he got the more detail he could make out. The woman's skin was a pale light blue with an iridescent glow, and her hair cascaded nearly all the way to the other side of Emerald Archer's home. It had a dark translucent blue tinge that made it appear to be water-like in texture.

As he approached the woman, Emerald Archer dispersed his psionic bow and arrows, feeling that she may not be hostile, and he didn't want to cause an unnecessary confrontation by aiming an arrow at her head. Before he decided to wake up this clearly alien stranger, he generated a white psionic aura in case he was wrong about her. Emerald Archer knelt by her side and gently placed one hand around her waste, and the other at the center of her back to lift her until she was sitting straight up. Despite her strange skin and hair, she appeared to be humanoid. Emerald Archer noticed that she didn't have eyebrows, but a dark blue line that seemed to be apart of her skin. She also didn't have a belly button but a strange tribal design in that area, and Emerald Archer couldn't help but notice that she didn't posses n*****s. He also noticed the strong features in her face. Her cheekbones were extremely prominent, and her chin had a sharp point. Alien or not, it was apparent that she was a grown woman.

Emerald Archer gently shook the woman, but she did not wake. He shook her a little more frivolously again and noticed that she was much lighter then he expected her to be. He quickly brushed that thought aside when he realized that the woman was finally coming too. The woman cringed while she opened her eyes. She blinked her icy eyes a couple times before directing her gaze to Emerald Archer.

“Hello,” Emerald Archer spoke in a calm nonthreatening tone. The woman tilted her head to the side as she examined Emerald Archer.

“Vida kiki dour ie?” The woman's voice had a unique tone. It sound like her voice was being muffled by water.

“Well there's no doubt that you're an alien. I can't tell what dialect you're speaking in, let alone what you're saying.” Emerald Archer spoke softly, hoping that at the very least his tone and body language would be enough to prove to this alien woman that he wished her no harm. Emerald Archer suddenly felt the blue woman's body stiffen in his arms, before shifting to a much more solid ice-like texture.

“VIDA KIKI DOUR IE?!” The woman furiously yelled as he thrust herself out of Emerald Archer's grip. Surprised that she was able to effortlessly escape from his hold despite being powered by white psionic energy, Emerald Archer cautiously took a step back with his hands raised in surrender.

“I know you don't understand me, but I mean you no harm.” The woman completely ignored Emerald Archer's plea, and slowly began spinning elegantly in place like a ballerina as she generated waves of snowy blasts from her body. As she gained speed, the waves of snow rapidly formed a mini blizzard inside Emerald Archer's home. His aura protected him from the dramatic temperature drop, and kept the powerful wind from carrying him off. Before Emerald Archer decided on a plan of action, the ice mistress aimed her palms at him, and fired a jagged beam of dark blue energy. Her attack collided with Emerald Archer dead in the center of his chest, with enough force to carry him through the mini blizzard, and smash him into the granite wall. Almost instantly the beam of blue energy pinning Emerald Archer down began to generate a layer of ice over him until he was completely covered.

Figuring her opponent was down for the count, the ice mistress continue to pirouette and twirl as she changed the environment around her. In the midst of using her powers, the woman suddenly noticed that the ice shell she trapped Emerald Archer in was slowly beginning to crack. The woman halted her dance and watched in astonishment as Emerald Archer burst through ice.

“Whew, that was chilly.” Emerald Archer stated in a playful tone as he shook off what remained of the ice. 'Her ice is no ordinary ice by any means,' Emerald Archer thought to himself. 'It was way to difficult for me to break, but at least I know it's breakable.' Emerald Archer once again generated his white psionic bow, and several green arrows before aiming at the woman. 'Now, let's see if she is.'

The woman in retaliation once again aimed her palms at Emerald Archer. Before she decided to get a preemptive strike, Emerald Archer released his arrows. The woman fired the blue beam of light in an attempt to collide with the arrow, but Emerald Archer predicted this and guided the arrows around her attack while dodge rolling the blue beam. Stunned by Emerald Archer's technique and without anytime to properly defend her, the woman was struck by each arrow, instantly combusting upon impact. A thick mist formed around the woman for a moment from the attack. Emerald Archer generated several more green psionic arrows and aimed at the cloud of mist, expecting the woman to lash out in another assault if his previous attack didn't do the trick. He patiently waited for the mist to settle, but before it did, what appeared to be the woman in another form burst out flying after Emerald Archer in a blind rage. The woman's skin was now pale as snow, and she wore a long flowing white dress that so similar in color to her skin that it appeared to be apart of her. She made a discomforting shriek as she hurled a wave of snow at Emerald Archer. Instinctively he released his arrows to protect himself. A couple combusted with her attack and nullified it while the others collided in her chest before quickly exploding, obliterating the upper half of the woman.

Utterly shocked that he was so easily able to defeat the ice mistress, Emerald Archer wearily approached what remained of her body to make sure she wasn't about to regenerate, or start attacking him with the lower half of her remains. He'd seen crazier, and learned to always be prepared for anything in his line of duty. Suddenly he heard the same screech the woman made after she changed forms, except it sound like it was coming from multiple area's. Emerald Archer scanned his surrounding in search of the source, but found that the blizzard had become so violent that he couldn't make out anything that wasn't within his immediate vicinity. After a moment of hopeless searching, Emerald Archer was struck with several snow blasts from different area's in his surroundings. The snow quickly shifted into an ice cocoon, freezing Emerald Archer in place. He wasted no time using the strength he gained from his white psionic aura to shatter the ice cocoon, but the instant he was free, three of the pale white snow ladies identical to the one Emerald Archer destroyed appeared. Two swiftly flew to Emerald Archers sides and locked his arms in place, while the third wrapped her arms around his waste to hold him in place.

“What the hell?! How many of you things are...” Emerald Archer was painfully cut short, by the original ice mistress appearing through the raging storm to deliver a powerful uppercut directly under his jaw. The punch sent a sonic boom throughout the mountain, creating a slight tremor before launching Emerald Archer straight through the mountain. Emerald Archer disappeared into the mountain until he popped out of the outside and flailed down into the forest. He collide with the ground with so much force that it created a tiny crater outlined by his body. Upset, dazed, and confused, Emerald Archer stood up and was shocked to realize that his aura nearly shattered from that punch.

'I don't know how who this b***h is, but she needs to get out of my house, now!' Emerald Archer thought in a rage. 'I've got to admit, the lady packs quite a punch. White psionic energy is the most powerful next to black, and she nearly destroyed my aura without much effort. I know I could destroy her with black psionic energy, but after feeling the presence of Malevolence reaching out to me the last time I used it, I'd rather not, and killing her won't help me figure out where she came from, and why.' Emerald Archer stood lost in thought for a few moments, pondering what to do next until he got an idea. 'If I knew where Sheik was, I'd just ask him to help me take down this blue bimbo, but since he's nowhere to be found... I guess Titus will have to do.' Emerald Archer was banking on the fact that Titus was a gifted telepath, and knew he could use his power to at the very least communicate with the ice mistress, if not take total control of her. With a new task at hand, Emerald Archer repaired the damage done to his aura by concentrating on it for a brief moment, before taking off into the sky on his way back to the city to find Titus.

* * *

Emerald Archer flew across the city as fast as he could sum, until he arrived at Titus' house. When he flew up to Titus' window to locate him, but his room was empty. When he realized that it was only a quarter past noon, Emerald Archer assumed Titus was still in class. Having done his research on Titus before their initial encounter, Emerald Archer knew exactly where his school was as well as his schedule. If he traveled quickly, he could catch Titus on his lunch break instead of waiting for school to end. Emerald Archer sped off to Notre Dame High, a private school that only the wealthiest families can afford unless a student is awarded academic scholarship, in the heart of Zenith City.

When Emerald Archer arrived he was surprised to see the students had been evacuated from the school. Numerous reporters, police officers and swat teams filled the parking lot and surrounded the school. Having no interest in the events occurring at Notre Dame High, Emerald Archer remained a safe distance from the crowd to avoid being spotted as he diligently scanned the civilian's in search of Titus. After hopelessly searching for a while, Emerald Archer was sure Titus wasn't at the school. He let out a long exasperated sigh, getting slightly frustrated before taking his leave.

'Ugh, this is getting old,' Emerald Archer pondered. 'The kids not home, he's not at school, and I highly doubt a goody princess like that would ditch a class to smoke a dooby with his buds... so he must be at the Majestic Mansion.' Emerald Archer sailed across the city until he spotted his former home, the Majestic Mansion. Just being near it made him uncomfortable, but knew he would not be detected as long as he stayed off the grounds. Emerald Archer flew down and hid behind a large oak tree across the street from the front gates of the mansion. With no choice but to wait and hope Titus eventually showed up, Emerald Archer powered down his aura, and sat comfortably with his back against the tree. He patiently sat and thought about ways he could handle the ice mistress, if for some reason out of his control he could not get in touch with Titus. He wasn't able to give it much thought since shortly after his arrival he became distracted by a magenta streak flying away from the mansion. As his eyes focused on the rapidly moving figure, Emerald Archer quickly realized it was Titus.

Relieved to be able to leave the mansion, Emerald Archer swiftly generated his white psionic aura in one quick flash, then began tailing Titus. Since Titus was using magenta psionic energy to fly, Emerald Archer could have easily caught up to Titus, but he decided to keep his distance once he got a good look at him. The last time Emerald Archer interacted with Titus, he was still only training with Majestic Man, and had not officially been inducted as the new Majestic Boy. Now Titus was joyfully soaring across the sky in a brand new Majestic Boy costume. It was a sleeveless bodysuit, most likely made from a material Majestic Man created himself like Emerald Archer that can be manipulated by psionic energy, and aids the wearer in controlling their powers. It had a silver base with the majestic signature face frame, magenta shoulder pads and boots, and his rib cage was outlined in magenta as well. It was complete with the majestic double 'M' wrapping around his waist. Emerald Archer snickered at the new design.

'If Thomas tried to get me to put on that when I was practicing under him, I would have quit before the training began,' Emerald Archer joked to himself. He watched Majestic Boy spin and twirl around the clouds with a giant smile stretching across his face and grimaced. 'Oh my god... he's so gay.' Emerald Archer continued to watch Majestic Boy glide around the clouds until Majestic Boy stopped abruptly and glided down into an alleyway with urgency. Emerald Archer followed Majestic Boy but when he reached the alley, Majestic Boy was nowhere in sight. The only place he could have disappeared too was the door at the end of the alley. Without wasting time, Emerald Archer levitated down the alley and went through the door. He found himself at a long narrow staircase that was lit by flickering old light. Fortunately for him, he didn't need a light with his vibrant aura, and Emerald Archer sailed down until he reached the end of the stairway.

The path led to a dreary desolate subway nearly falling apart on itself. Surprised and baffled as to why Majestic Boy could possibly be there, Emerald Archer kept up his guard and scanned the empty subway for Majestic Boy. He was nowhere in sight, which led Emerald Archer to believe that he might have traveled done the abandoned tunnel. He began gliding toward the pitch black tunnel, when suddenly he noticed a magenta glimmer from the corner of his eye behind a pillar near the tunnels edge. Figuring it could be no one other then Majestic Boy, Emerald Archer circled back and found him standing stiff as a board, with his hands engulfed in magenta psionic energy. His short well kempt black hair was wind blown, and his eyes were blistering with magenta energy, as if he were prepared for battle. Not feeling the need to continue shadowing Majestic Boy, Emerald Archer flew behind him, and put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

“Man, I've got to commend you for going out in public in your knew Majestic Boy costume. The pink suits you for some reason I can't really put my finger on.” Emerald Archer grinned under his shroud and waited for Majestic Boy to come up with a witty response, but Majestic Boy only slowly turned his head until he met Emerald Archer's gaze. Emerald Archer immediately noticed that something was up Majestic Boy. From the two encounters they did have, he knew Majestic Boy wasn't one to keep his opinions to himself, and he wasn't exactly fond of the archer after being randomly attacked by him. His movements were robotic and listless, and his facial expression was as blank as an empty chalk board. Majestic Boy did not respond, and began turning away from Emerald Archer as if he was no longer aware of his presence. Emerald Archer snickered at Majestic Boy's distant attitude.

“Please excuse me, oh so noble one if I offended...” Emerald Archer was suddenly cut short by Majestic Boy spinning around into a powerful backhand, connecting directly with Emerald Archer's cheek. The psionic strength behind the blow sent Emerald Archer crashing straight through a marble pillar. He bounced off the ground and smacked back first into another pillar. Since Emerald Archer's white psionic aura was up, he was rattled, but unharmed. He shook the rubble off himself before hopping back to his feet.

'What a b***h,' Emerald Archer thought to himself. A cloud of dust formed between Majestic Boy and Emerald Archer from the attack, giving Majestic Boy enough time to burst through the cloud after Emerald Archer. 'Somethings not right.' Emerald Archer dodged a few swift punches as he analyzed Majestic Boy. 'I don't expect Titus to like me very much, but this behavior is completely out of his character. He'd yell at me like a woman going through hot flashes before attacking me in a blind fury.' In the midst of Majestic Boy's assault, Emerald Archer caught one of his hands mid swing. Majestic Boy paused for a moment, seemingly surprised by Emerald Archer lightning fast reflexes, giving him the perfect opportunity to swing Majestic Boy around, gaining incredible momentum before releasing the young hero straight into the tunnel wall so thick, Majestic Boy was indented into the cement. The crash echoed throughout the subway, and caused the whole place to tremble.

“Thank god I need you alive.” Emerald Archer taunted as he approached Majestic Boy's unconscious body. 'Something must have control over Titus, I have no doubt about that. Nothing about him was the same from his body language, to his combat skills. If whatever is controlling him isn't magic in nature, purifying his body with psionic energy should cure him.' Hoping to return Majestic Boy back to normal, Emerald Archer began gorging Majestic Boy in white psionic energy, the purest of them all. During the process, Emerald Archer could sense the presence of an outside influence inside Majestic Boy and worked on eliminating it. It didn't take long for him to finish the procedure, being a master of psionic energy manipulation, but an instant after he was done, Emerald Archer felt a taser jab him in the center of his spine, sending crippling amounts of electricity through his body. Emerald Archer cried out in agony before passing out cold.

The man responsible for tasering Emerald Archer was wearing a black suit and sunglasses. He looked like a C.I.A operative. The man placed a finger inside his ear to activate a communicator while he put the taser away.

“Yes, Miss Aconite, both meta-human's are sedated.” Stated the man.

“Good,” responded the woman over the communicator. “Bring them to the Arena. Looks like we're gonna have to change the main event.”

Author's Note

This story ties into several others that I will be posting shortly depending on how this site works out. If things seem confusing or unclear, no not fret, they will be answered.