Day One

A Chapter by Darrin Michael

Hero...The word itself sounds absurd when you really think about it. What is a hero anyway? Is it a 'good guy' that fights 'bad guys'? What happens if the bad guy is right? What happens if the good guy was wrong? Then who is the hero? So many questions to ask, I don't even know where to begin. I am by no means a hero. But my father was.

He wasn’t my hero because I thought he was right and just. He was my hero because he wasn’t afraid to speak out against the injustices he saw.

When Soreh Inc. took control of all major companies in the city, he and three other company heads demanded that a board of directors be formed so that internal company issues could be dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately, the board would realize that there was more to Soreh Inc’s takeover than simple control over the companies. There deception was far deeper than anyone would have ever known.

Right at the beginning problems with Soreh Inc. proved to be more than dad and the other board members could handle. It began with the first official corporate sponsorship of a superhero. Not just any superhero either. They sponsored the indestructible Crimson Avenger. A true fighter for the people, he served the city for nearly ten years before Soreh Inc. approached the Avenger with the opportunity for corporate sponsorship. Because we didn’t know who the Avenger was, the people of the world did not understand that he, in all his indestructible glory had problems in life that even his great abilities could remedy. His family, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, was dying. And even more startling, it was because of him.

One must first understand that power, no matter how great, comes at a cost. The power of the Avenger cost him gravely. Everyone connected to his blood line was affected by the energies that were divinely bestowed upon him. Every ounce of anything that his families had was evolutionally drawn to him. His power, so great, would be the cause for weakness amongst the rest of his bloodline. The first to perish from the weakness would be his daughter, followed by the rest of his children. His children did not even know his secret, they only knew him as there father not the Avenger.

And when the world turns it back on you, things can only get worse.

A devil comes knocking at your door and he wears a disguise more hateful and disgusting and immoral than even the villains of the world who fought the Avenger. Drax Klosk would be that devil and the one that changed everything. He told the Avenger that if he became the face of Soreh, he could save his family, that the burden of his power would no longer harm those he loved. The devil is very persuasive. The Avenger believed him.

With the so-called corporate sponsorship provided by Soreh Inc., the Avenger would no longer be the same hero he once was. His actions dictated by what was in the best interest of the vile Klosk and Soreh Inc., all in exchange for the knowledge of how to save his family.

Soreh Inc. and the Crimson Avenger began tracking and hunting down all lawbreakers with a vengeance never before seen. When Hell’s kitchen was burning to the ground, people screaming through the flames, men; women; children…the worlds greatest hero was nowhere to be seen. Even more disturbing, a fact that only I know, the Avenger started the fire.

My father would be the first of the board members to step forward admitting the irresponsibility put forth in allowing the Crimson Avenger to be corporately controlled. Other board members would step forward to denounce the sponsorship as well. Only then did the true nature of Soreh Inc. present itself, and only then was the true shape of Klosk revealed.

Klosk said that the Hell’s Kitchen catastrophe was simply an accident in which the Avenger could not respond. Many of the board members, including my father began to question the actions of the company. That’s when a war amongst the board members broke out.

My father left, forming his own company. He had no great hero to sponsor though. He only had the people in whom he was trying to serve and his former board members to turn to. My father would soon be the only voice of the people as the board betrayed him.

It was a day of change, or it was suppose to be anyway. Klosk, had sent message to my fathers company that the war had gone to far, that he wanted to work things out for what was in the best interest of the people. I remember it well; it was a Sunday when I would last see my father. Oh, and what a bloody Sunday it would be. My father and Klosk were to meet at the top of the Soreh Inc. building. During what was suppose to be the end to the destruction, Klosk and his followers did not show. They sent a represenative instead. My father and his companions were murdered that night at the hands of one of the city’s greatest heroes, the Crimson Avenger. I was six at the time.

In the following months, all of the city’s heroes would be captured and detained at the hands of Klosk and Soreh Inc. The Avenger would be their bounty hunter, their hired mercenary of evil.

So I’ve told you the history of the situation and you now know the story. It is time to decide how the aftermath will play out now. Klosk is now completely in control of the city thanks to his great juggernaut, the Avenger. There are no heroes left to stop him, not that any of them could have anyway, and the city’s law enforcement work for Soreh Inc now. The city is lost; there is only Soreh Inc., and the poor. The Avenger, the ultimate chess piece on a board that is a city lost. There are only pawns left in this chess game to defend the impoverished. No one will challenge the company with Klosk as their side.

To this I say nothing is unstoppable. This entire mess of liars of murderers failed to address a very important aspect to the story however. Four years ago I defeated the Avenger. After he killed my father, he came looking for me at our home. I remember it well. The entire front of hour home, ripped from its foundation. He stood before me, no longer wearing the crimson red and purity of white that so many of the world’s people had grown to respect. He now bore a deep red and black for his uniform. The company’s evil tainted the Avenger, his eyes glowing an eerie yellow, which burned bright with rage. But as he stood there looking right at me, he did not see me. Somehow, he couldn’t see me. I was terrified at the whole situation. I ran out the door not knowing how I had dodged the wrath of the most powerful being in the world. That’s when I learned of my own abilities which I believe to be far greater than the Avengers. I’m not as strong as him, I can not fly, and I can not project energy. But I do have a whole mess of tricks I’ve been waiting to show this great ‘hero’. He only sampled a little that day he came looking for me and I got away.

It has been eighteen years now, eighteen long years of waiting for the most opportune moment to avenge the death of my father. Even though I have great power, I can not do this on my own. I am not as foolish as the Avenger believing that one man can make a difference. It may start with one, but it has to end with many. This is where the journey begins, in this jail cell, this prison which I have been in since I was fifteen.

I’m going to kill Drax Klosk, great and powerful new leader of this world, not because he fights for a different cause now, but because I fight for something different. I now fight for my father. I want Klosk more than I want the Avenger, but so help me if the hero gets in my way I will finish him. For now, I wait patiently behind the walls of this cell. The fools, if they had only known that when they put me in here that I was here by my own choice, their demise would not come as quickly. I’m recruiting and I’m recruiting the greatest villains to ever be captured.

Allow me to now introduce myself. I am Enfamous Sinclair and I am a career super-villain. My father is the reason I am here and his death will unfortunately be the reason the Soreh Corporation and everyone and everything that is associated with it will be destroyed in three months. This is the first day of the first month and in five minutes I’m going to escape and also set free two of the greatest villains to ever walk the streets of this city.

“Sinclair,” the voice of Guard Stevenson, echoes through the corridor.

“Roll call, Sinclair,” his booming voice draws nearer as screams of pain and torture echo in the background.

The steps get closer before the giant beast of a guard comes to my cell.

“I said roll call, Sinclair!” Believe me when I say that the anger in his voice is derives itself from pure hatred rather than simple frustration with my unwillingness to cooperate. I continue to ignore his shouts even when he pulls his taser out and threatens me if I do not answer.

“This is getting old Sinclair.”

Oh how it is, Guard Stevenson.

“Look at you would you; you sit in there all day in the same spot, for the past fifteen years. You never move, you don’t even flinch, only talk about how you are going to leave this place one day and change everything.”

He taps the bars on the cell wall with his taser.

“And every day I come here and tase you until you pass out from the pain. Now I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love causing you pain. Hell, I love hurting anyone, just the kind of guy I am.”

Fifteen years of pain is nothing to the enternal anguish my friend.

“I just don’t understand how if you’re supposedly this great super-villain, you never try and stop me. I would love it if you would put up a fight some time.”

“I’m not the fighting type, Guard Stevenson…”

“Yea I know. You’re weak like your father was.”

My fifteen years of patience is beginning to wear thin.

“Oh, you didn’t know that I knew who you are did you. You see I was a member of the board, along with your father. I’m the one that set the meeting up to have him killed. I’ve never seen such a strong and wise man cry like a girl before. He made me want to vomit. What kind of man cries like a girl?”

He is smiling at me as he reveals what I already know, ignorant fool has no idea.

“But you know what, amidst your father's cries, there is one thing I still can’t figure out. Why the hell did the Avenger spare you? I gave him the your address, the hit. He knew where to find you.

You’re getting warmer.

“So before I beat the s**t out of you today, answer me this one question. Why no you?”

I stand up, looking out my cell bars, face to face with the swine.

“The reason I am still here is a reason that you could not possibly understand. In three months I’m going to change everything. No more Soreh, no more Avenger, no more Klosk, and no more you Guard Stevenson.

He seems startled by my arrogant nature, but arrogance has nothing to do with it.

"You see, I know all about you as well, all of the people you helped murder in Hell’s Kitchen. The Avenger started the fire, but you were the brains behind it weren’t you Guard Stevenson. The master of the plan, the brains, oh and yes, the coward. You want to know why I have not ever fought back. I will tell you why. I do not need to fight. I've been building an army you see. At first they were all hard to find, lost, scattered throughout time. But then I found them and they found you. You see, people die but I can tell you that there is far more to this world than what meets the eye. The dead may be dead, bu they are very much alive in other ways Guard Stevenson. The souls lost in your fire and make no mistake, it was yours have come together. Everyday I see them, taking swings at you, screaming, spitting, wishing they could cause you pain like you caused them. The souls of all that were lost that day are here to aid me now. You want to know my power? I am the light for all who has been wronged. I have an army now, willing to take on the most vile in this city. All I needed to do was give them one individual. You’re going to die to day Guard Stevenson and I’ve been waiting for this day for quite some time, but they have been waiting even longer.”

A blank stare comes across Stevenson’s face. He laughs.

“You’re crazier than your father was. You have no power.”

I smile back at him.

“Oh, I have a trick or two up my sleeve.”

He begins to grasp for air as my cell door unlocks and I walk out, my nose only an inch from his as he struggles to breathe.

“What…are you…doing to me…”

His pain brings a smile to my face.

"Me, I'm doing nothing, it's your victims that want you now Guard Stevenson. You are the first person I have ever told what I can do. You should feel much honored. While the dead may no longer exist in this world, they are very much still apart of everything I can assure you. One by one, your victims came to see me in this prison over the years, seeking vengeance. I told them if they waited patiently that redemption would come soon enough. You can not see them but I can, their faces burnt, only rage and anger fills their eyes. You are a terrible person, Guard Stevenson. You chose a path with no salvation. If only you knew then, the day you killed everyone what was going to happen to you, I promise your actions would have been different. Enjoy these final seconds, after your dead things will be much worse.

He falls to the floor dead; his eyes rolled all the way back.

“Now you are in their world.”

I take the master key from his belt buckel, my future fellow companion’s cells.

“Good luck.”