The night above was eerily quiet, and the sidewalks were mostly vacant due to the bristling storm that crackled in the ink black sky.  The sound of thunder boomed, causing a homeless wino to quicken his pace as he hurried towards a gas station on the corner. The earth beneath the man quivered and shook, as the storm above seemed to summon something from the depths of hell below.

The Sphinx Club, an elite strip joint and discreet high-end brothel becomes the latest horror scene in Hudson City.  The owner, former porn star known as Cleopatra, was horrified and distraught over losing her girls and quite possibly her reputation.  The serial nature of the crime was a very clear and present danger to both her girls and her affluent clients. At her wits end and unable to trust the authorities, she called in the best of the best, Edison Palmer. 

The orange glow of JACE's boot jets slicked the sky above Riverside Hills as the Conquistador flew overhead.  His attention was focused on his DNA tracker, his speed slow as he carefully studied the patterns on his GPS display.  The beast's signature was strong, but sporadic, leaving a moment of confusion for the genius doctor.

After pulling up a map of the underlying systems that ran through Hudson City, he quickly realized what was happening.  The beast was somehow going into the sewers and then reemerging again on the surface.  JACE would lose his trail here and there, but with patient patrol, would pick it up again a mile or two away, after studying the sewer maps and deducing the most likely route of travel.

Having a new power was exciting but tricky.  With each new power, comes a suite of issues that have to be ironed out and planned for.  In this case, Sebastian was figuring out how to time port to Rotterdam St and Salem Ave, without being seen.  He was still ironing out the rough edges, and was fairly certain that he could work it out.  ...but it was unnerving.

After calling up a map of the scene, and determining the most likely alley in which to make his appearance, Sebastián checked his gear one last time.  Digital Camcorder, both cell phones, his ever present iPod and a pocket full of cash for 'emergencies'.  Satisfied he had what he needed, he began his journey to the accident.

Jorge watched on as a freshly bathed Adam gathered the pack that Hyperion had collected for him.  The rock giant was about as excited as Adam had ever seen him, but still very slow and stoic. It wasn't often that the big brute was allowed out of the Doctor's site, and even more seldom that he was allowed Above. Adam stuffed the wrapped book that had been given to him earlier into a battered backpack, then slung that onto one shoulder. He paused, studying Jorge for a moment, considering what needed to be done and the best way to go about doing it.

"In an hour, meet me at the park. LeMastre. I want to leave a note for Archon." Jorge nodded, a sound like cement blocks on concrete. "He say's he's a protector. Let's see how far that goes." 

"Remarkable."  Doctor Hyperion commented as he circled the room where one of his experiments had escaped.  Jorge sat in the middle of the floor, his massive head hanging low in shame.  It was his job to feed the beast and protect the doctor, and he had almost failed.  Almost.

July, 2006

It had taken a few months. Xavier Relaford had a superhuman ability with languages, but it still took months to learn the secrets of teleportation, and how doors *really* worked. By early July, he had linked a door in the Library to a door in the basement of a retail shop he had inherited from his father. Speak the right word, and you could step through to the library deep under Zonavi. Fail to speak the word, and you opened a small broom closet in New Jersey. He isolated the Library, so that the only way in or out was through his door, or teleporting, if you knew where it was.

Xavier Relaford followed the old man through the thin burlap fabric that served as his front door and into the mud brick hovel. It was more mud than brick he suspected, the floors were dirt, but there was a roof at least. It was mostly dark inside and very dusty and smokey. There was a fire burning in a small fireplace whose chimney evidently didn't function just perfectly. It allowed small puffs of smoke to escape out into the hovel, and that smoke seemed to hang in a blanket around four feet off the floor until the natural drafts eventually nudged it away. A few lanterns burned lowly here and there, shedding just enough light on the interior so one could see the dirt.

The scene had seemed to shift, right before Xavier's eyes after the voice had faded. The sounds of the street returned, and what people were around had stopped their nightly routines to look at the silly foriegner standing in a doorway brandishing a cane in terror. Madmen in these streets was nothing new really, so when he seemed to come to, they shrugged and minded their own business.

Raven had watched with unseemly amusement as JACE succumbed to Jenny's control, bellowing out the words of a child's nursery rhyme while he piloted his armor like a drunken monkey. When he lost control--or Jenny abandoned control--and he plunged toward the ground amusement turned to concern. Raven was distantly aware of Phase taking up Jenny's rhyme but most of her attention was focused on Heatwave's desperate and mostly successful attempt to save JACE from a dangerous fall.