MERCURY #1

"If you want Julius Basquait alive and making more movies cough up a billion dollars" the voice of a blue skinned and yellow eyed man named Manifesto, echoed 100 feet below to the gathering crowd below. Julius Basquait was held up by his neck, bruised and bloodied for his fans to witness. "Look at him! Look at him!" Manifesto pushed him closer to the Stars Convention Center's roof edge for the terrified fans to see his moneymaking face swollen, blue and purple. Julius' eyes never shifted to the crowd far below, he couldn't look at the people defeated and ugly. 
  
Manifesto bested Julius with magic. Little did Julius know magic was his weakness when he ventured to this abandoned Convention Center. The MONARCH assigned and briefed him on this minor mission, or so he thought. It was in Downtown Los Angeles - three miles down from his house - and he took the job without his normal scoffing and eye-rolls. He prayed for the day the government relieved him of his MONARCH duties. Well this mission went sour the minute he stepped into the building, like he was expected. When Manifesto shot him with a bright ivory light, Julius' bod reacted badly. He went cold on contact, his stomach roiled and he felt nauseous. Before Manifesto reached him, he chucked out two pints of vomit across the cold floor.  Finally he dug the front of his metal plated shoe into Julius' ribs. He rolled on his back, shaking from the cold and Manifesto's heel kissed his face and everything went black.  
 
And of course Manifesto didn't categorize himself a pawn, but he was. A pawn to a man named Raphael Rizzaro. The head hauncho of a spanning cult mocking - or emulating, depends on who you ask- the Illuminati. Their actions are more blunt if you know the players of the ploys. Like now, Manifesto is a new Los Angeles villain in the eyes of the public, trying to gain wealth through terrorism. That's exactly how the cult work, taking contrasting routes to gain something deeper than face value.  
 
In Julius' case he was just unmasked as the mysterious meta named Mercury, to the bystanders, police news crews -- and every FOX, TMZ, MSNBC, CNN and Los Angeles local news channel viewer. Instead of showing his defeat, he showed indifference, disgrace and disgust. His mongoloid eyes were red-rimmed, his eyebrows were scrunched and he kept his lips tight and shut. Blood ran down his green and black costume, but he never addressed it. Never victimized himself. He kept his gaze straight, even when Manifesto ripped off his polished emerald mask and tossed it to the crowd near a hundred below.  
 
"A billion or he's DEAD!" Manifesto screamed one more time before he left the audience below with tension in the night air, letting his mustard-colored cape billow with the northern wind.  Dragging Julius across the rooftop and blasted him with light magic once again to keep him weak for their walk back to his bootlegged interrogation room. 
  
He was conscious and aware of it all. When Julius recovered, he made note to rip out the fake vampire teeth he kept flashing when he grinned down at him. 
 
The police tried to infiltrate the building twice before and he expected them to be sneaking around the lobby when he they stepped out the elevator. The elevator dinged and before the door opened pistol shots rang out. A transparent silver wall revealed itself as the door fully opened. Even the Light shield protecting Manifesto, made the actor sick to his stomach. He knew they couldn't save him, they would fall like the dead comrades they were standing over. More numbers to the death count. And soon enough they did. Manifesto thrust his hand in the air with a flash of blinding white light. The police panicked. As Manifesto walked past the blind officers he shot them in the head with light beams. One shot kills. 
 
He picked up one of their walkie talkies. "Give me my f#cking billion or you're next!" He carelessly tossed the walkie talkie aside and continued to the interrogation room on the third floor of the three level building.  The first floor was  mainly  the lobby, the second had employee rooms and lead to upper level seats for the performance arena and the third floor was for monitoring the building and Manifesto dragged Julius into the camera room. Through magic the six rows and columns of screens illuminated with camera footage of the building. 

Regardless if Manifesto received the money, the Convention Center would be demolished in the end. This was an old meeting place for the members containing paper documents and digital files on the members and their dealings. The data files were of course secured and encrypted, but the paper files were accessible to anybody. The demolishing deadline was one AM, it was eleven thirty.

Z sat at the kitchen table with Zariah monitoring her report card; these were one of the few days she was able to sit and relax. Since returning to Utopia, she found that Jean had raped the land of its once abundant resources; this put a strain on her to keep the landmass moving. Using Ninjan Technology to power a country; and adjusting the constituents was a costly and tiring process. As she glanced through Zariah’s report card; her attention was snatched by an advisor who ran in the room frantically and bloody. “Your highness” he said turning pale as shock was starting to set in. “What happened to you?” Zariah said catching him as he fell helplessly to the ground. “N-N-Ninjan!” he screamed shaking in terror. Zariah turned around and looked at her mom who was staring with a look of fear.

“Mom what’s the matter…” Zariah said slowly walking towards her mother. Z had seen this type of damage done to someone before; he was bleeding from select areas of his body. The blood gushed from his wounds and formed a puddle down on the floor below. Z cautiously walked up to him frightful as to what she might see, as she stepped over the now dead man; she removed a piece of his clothing to see that he had been marked with the ancestral Ninjan manuscript. “Zephyr…” she said running her hands through her hair. “Mom what is it?!” Zariah said running up to her with her arms extended; Z wrapped her arms around her daughter and tried her best to calm down. “The mark, of my father…” she said still staring in fear. The sound of people gasping in awe in the middle of the street alerted Z to the balcony. A man with white hair and a red uniform was marching through the streets with a rather fierce look upon his face. “Daddy…” Z said almost whimpering with her words. The last time she had seen him; he was bloody on his knees before her as she held a blade to his neck against her will. “No…No…No…” Z panicked which was uncharacteristic of her.

Zariah watched as her mother, the Queen of Ninjans cowered before another Ninjan; she didn’t loose respect it only brought into perspective how serious his arrival meant. “Mom you have to go see him!” Zariah said overly excited. “No…I can’t” she said quickly putting on a casual civilian outfit on and hightailing it away from the palace. In the meantime Zariah would flee as well until Z built up enough courage to face her ‘resurrected’ father. (To be continued in Sha#1)

The arrival of her father only sparked a fire under her behind to head back to Red Cardinal HQ; she wasn’t going to report anything that had gone on to that point but she was going to use this time to try and think of a way to approach him. “How is he still alive…” Z said walking the grand hall with her arms folded in deep thought. “Agent003_ Ziccarra Liafador” She said using a Retna scan to gain access into the lower areas of the facility. Z had a top secret clearance which means she could go anywhere in the facility; Maya and Gwen were the only other two people with that kind of authority. As she walked through the lower portions of the facilities people watched as she visibly looked disturbed. “003, 001 wants you in the briefing chamber” a man said walking passed the Ninjan Queen.

This organization was the legendary Red Cardinals organization; it had long been a symbol of religious freedom, but since Gwen took it over it had fought for the preservation of customs and society. The group was founded to put down the NEW EMPIRE and group of anarchist that happened to house the deadliest killers in the world; The Lethal Weapons. The weapons were once a dead group to however and ex operative who worked for the Cardinals funded it to do its own bidding. They transformed themselves into a cult almost even taking help from the sadistic Y intercept to carry out sacred missions. However the Weapons and the Empire were not whom Z was here to look into there was another group. “What do you know about Maya’s baby father Julius Basquiat” Gwen asked sounding 100% professional. “I know he’s a douche” Z responded still with her arms folded. “Well he has some Intel on him; a cult seems to have him marked as a target.” would really careless, but it soon set in that he was her sister’s boyfriend. After Reality “M” She vowed never to hurt Maya again; Maya was so hurt during that time, she managed to wipe her children from existence. There was also the factor of Alex, Z’s newborn nephew. “So what do I need to do take out the cult?” Z asked rubbing her head in confusion. “No we want you to keep Mr. Mercury on watch, so we can find this cult” Z nodded her head and then quickly exited the board. Her thoughts returned to the landing of her father; it would be on her mind all day; knowing she very cowardly left her people to be sacrificed by him. She didn’t know if these were his intentions, but she really couldn’t decide what a solid an ideal was. “Echosphere, locate Julius…” before she could even finish her statement; there was a live bulletin on the screen; the news anchor spoke very swift only saying that Julius had been kidnapped. “That makes things a tad bit easier” She thought slowly hovering in the air; she wanted to test her new cosmic level powers. Slowly hovering in the air, the water under her began to sizzle. As steam began to build around her, her body slowly became a light pillar. As soon as her body reached the right temperature; she spends off in a prism of light from Africa towards the West Coast of the United States. It took maybe 10 mins to reach LA; it kind of excited her what she could do with her skills now. In a sloppy show of Heroics she crashed in through the Convention Center to see absolutely nothing. In actuality the villain known as Manifesto was right in front of the Ninjan Queen; however a magic veil prevented Sha’s eyes from even seeing him. “I know he’s here…” Z said slowly gazing back and forth. “JULIUS!!!!” She yelled letting out a piercing sonic scream.

"Hold on. Hold still...!"

Underneath him on the floor was a man, his uniform ripped open, his chest heaving as it rose and fell rapidly. Charles clenched his teeth tight, pressing the scalpel to the subject's chest, making a small incision across the bullet wound. The man squirmed and flailed underneath his knife, prompting Clue to rummage through his utility belt for an anesthetic. He was losing him fast and originally hesitated to give the man the needle out of desperation, but it was apparent that without it he wouldn't be able to properly remove it, either. Sinking the needle into the man's arm, he pushed down the plunger, causing his body to numb, sedating him just enough to keep him conscious but compliant.

"Don't die on me." Charles gruffly whispered to the man, placing the scalpel in his teeth as he went for his medical tongs. This man was drowning in his own blood, he could hear blood being gargled in the back of the poor sap's throat. His lung was collapsing and filling with blood, he sustained three other gunshot wounds in the leg, the gut and his arm and he was losing blood faster than Clue could stop the bleeding. The man's mouth spilled over with red, his eyes rolling back, the life leaving his face. Clue swore under his breath, pulling the bullet from the victim's chest and discarding it. He was gone before the slug was even pulled out, he'd lost him.

"<Freeze!>" A man shouted from the end of the alleyway, approaching with a gun drawn. "<Hands on your head!>" The man shouted in Portuguese. Clue stood to his feet, looking down at the red that stained his fingertips, his blank eyes moving from the dead man to the approaching police officer. The bright light of the officer's flashlight landed on Clue, prompting him to shield his visage with his cloak, the shadow that was cast on the wall of a giant bat managed to startle the cop just long enough for Charles to fling a single bat-shaped projectile.

It cut through the air, clashing with the gun, causing sparks to fly through the air--

A shot was fired out of panic, the bullet clearly missed it's target--

The cloaked man pounced from the darkness of the alleyway, the flashlight was dropped, rolling under a dumpster--

Clue landed on top of the cop, one headbutt to his nose made the man go limp as they fell to the floor, causing the man to lose his sidearm as they hit. His partner went around the long way, coming up from behind in the intersecting alleyway. He would have figured that if he weren't so off his game, if he weren't so distraught that the reason he came to Rio was now dead, and now he was back to square one in his investigation as to who exactly was behind the murder of his wife and child. By the time he heard the second cop, it was too late. A bullet tore through his left arm, another through his back, the third collided with a ceramic plate in the back of his cowl, rattling his brains and disorienting him.

"Bloody..." He grumbled, staggering a few steps, the man let off two more shots, one missed and the second hit him in the right hip. He'd discharged five, Clue knew that the guns primarily used by the police officers in Rio held eight rounds which meant he probably wouldn't be as trigger happy with his last three shots trying to kill a bat-monster. He lucked out knocking the first cop out with the fall, picking up the cop's gun that conveniently slid next to the dumpster when released, Clue fired two shots into the air to let the officer know he was armed and keep him away long enough to reach onto the back of his utility belt, pulling a looked like a small cylinder can. Pulling the pin, he rolled the can from behind the dumpster, the canister clinked, skipping across the asphalt before exploding with a glorious flash.

By the time the police officer regained the use of his eyes, Charles was long gone.

He'd spent three weeks in Rio on the trail of this man only to find him dead. His investigation was shot to hell, now. There was nothing more he could do in Rio. He returned to his hotel room, packed his bags, patched his wounds and put in a call with Blackman. By morning he was on his way to America from Brazil. The first couple of nights he spent recuperating in a hotel under an assumed alias, his target wasn't all that hard to follow without leaving the room. Julius was on television at least once every night and if you follow the right people on the internet you can figure out what any celebrity is doing at any one time. By the fourth night, with his wounds restitched and his uniform fixed, he shadowed Mercury where ever he went.

Nothing was stopping him from pulling a gun and attempting to shoot Mercury except maybe the fact that he generated a field that could stop bullets, but Clue, despite his certainty of Julius's involvement with criminal organizations, couldn't just exact his brand of justice without hard evidence. He trailed him on his mission to the convention center, standing atop of a building adjacent to the building, he watched from binoculars as Julius entered the building only to be struck by a bright light and subdued. It wasn't long after that some pale child was toting Julius on the roof, demanding an obscene amount of money.

He had a mind to just leave the bastard there to rot much like he disappeared during their battle in Rio, but he wasn't that cold of a person. The sound of the grappling line exploding from his gun turned everyone's attention upward as Clue sailed overhead and toward the convention center. Halfway, he cut the line, using his cape to glide onto the roof of the building. He slipped in through the ducts, emerging somewhere in the convention hall's stage.

The building shook as Ziccarra dove into the building recklessly, he stuck to the shadows and went to searching the building for any sign of Mercury before waiting for his chance to strike.

Manifesto grabbed a sheaf of papers. Bright white light flickered in his hand and lit up the control room and the papers were disintegrated. They were old Mestizo cult files he got rid of out of boredom. Blowing up the convention center would destroy all the physical files and the lingering data on outdated computers. The files were on a shared network, so the future convention demolition was inevitable. If only Julius investigated further, he would have discovered they trafficked victim under the Mestizo cult's MK ULTRA treatment.

The young actor lied on the cold linoleum floor on his stomach with a light amount of blood smeared and spattered near his face. He was weak and in the early stages of hypothermia. With red rimmed eyes and a pale face, his teeth chattered as he tried to maintain his waning body heat. As he shivered his eyes were locked on Manifesto who watched the convention center security monitors arrayed across the north wall. There was so much spite in Julius' eyes and Manifesto could see it.

"You might live if they hand over the money in.." Manifesto checked his rose-gold Rolex watch, "Roughly an hour." He leaned back and rested his feet on the monitor dashboard. A quaking boom reverberated through the convention center and Manifesto drew his attention to a certain monitor, moving closer to the flashing screen. He clenched his teeth and growled, "Sha..."

Julius heard his growl and his face went more pale with disbelief. "Yes, did you call your hero friend in to save you" Manifesto grumbled sadistically, with a mad grin on his face. His foot connected with Julius's face. "Did you!?" Julius was so weak he barely let out a groan of pain. It was winded and weak. "Guess I have to call out my beautiful snow white to take CARE (he kicked Julius in the stomach as he emphasized 'care') of her..."

Manifesto pulled out a prepaid cellphone, dialed a number and paced for an answer. Glancing down at Julius as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and shut he grinned, "Wake up my sleeping beauty."

Standing on corroding cement she hung up her iPhone and dropped it in a black bag latched across her slender upper body. In an ivory white revealing catsuit-costume and flowing straight bleach blonde hair, Tessa McIntosh sparkled in the darkness. Her task was set. She dropped her equipment bag to the cement floor and descended below towards Sha. She dropped surrounded in a white and gold shimmer of light. Mid-air she rendered herself invisible. Fading out of sight like her body fell into an invisible portal.

Her velocity absorbing four inch heels hit the floor and she dropped into a natural crouch. "What makes you think he's gonna come to you? He used to talk sooo much about how much he despised you." She grinned, placed her hands on her curvy hips as she slowly stepped towards Ziccarra.

The confidence she found in her illusion casting since Omega Justice opened the world to her. She learned how to survive without her powers and how to break down the walls of reality with them. Her eyes glowed pink and four duplicates phased from her body. They were illusions, but were reality as long as Tessa had the focus to keep them projected. Mentally linked to the triplicates, Tessa used one to screen Sha's ability.

The dupe ran towards Sha firing a soft-colored kaleidoscope of a laser beam from her palms at Ziccarra. The second dupe levitated into the air and fired sticky plasma at her that would explode on contact into a burning flash. Finally Tessa held two large and thin neon pink disc in each hand that she set to target Sha. They were like homing missiles, but disc. She threw one after the other and watched as Ziccarra was attacked from three directions.

As she stood around looking aimlessly into the darkened corridors of the convention center; the feeling of being watched descended upon her. Despite not being able to see much; she could hear perfectly; there was an almost muffled sound of breathing coming from overhead somewhere. Her instincts told her that it was Clue; however what she didn’t know was if he had come as a friend or foe. Clue was a smart guy; she didn’t know too much about him other than he had an answer and a reason for everything. Then there was something else; she descended from the heavens as if she were an angel coming before the Ninjan Queen; there was a heavenly presence about her that almost made Z drop her guard. As she continued her descent she; turned invisible. “Impressive” Z said taking a step back and balling up her right fist. “What makes you think he’s going to come to you, he talked so much about how much he despised you?” she said vindictively. The fact that she turned invisible didn’t affect Z; objects can be seen by light in the visible spectrum; in this Z glazed her eyes over and gave off a low photon output; which made Tessa somewhat visible to her eyes.

“I don’t give a damn woman; he’s my sister boyfriend and as much as I hate the little f@ck, he’s coming with me, so go play Barbie” Z said taking a moment to realize what she had just said. She hated it so much when people called her a Barbie; it actually made her feel good to say it to someone else. As the Ninjan Queen stood before her; she could see the young women almost sizing her up. “I try my best to leave you love scorned females to Maya” Z said sarcastically.

Z readied herself switching to attack mode; only before she could pounce, Tessa pounced first duplicating herself into multiple forms. “Hmmm just like training with Maya” Z said looking around trying to scout the real Tessa out. Fighting duplication is tiring work; Z had done it multiple times throughout her life and never really succeeded in doing so. This wasn’t a skill she could cancel out with one of her own; because if Tessa’s dupes didn’t seem to be anything like Maya’s.

Maya’s dupes acted on their own accord; and the only time the reverted back to the original form was if called or killed. These dupes were different; they almost looked real but then they didn’t produce any form of body heat. “This sucks” Z said constructing a light shield; to subdue a beam from one of the dupes. “hmmm” Z said slowly emitting a low hum; a thin layer of light surrounded her body as she braced up to fight. While preoccupied with the 1 dupe, there was a 2 one already attacking firing a gelatinous glob at Z. The glob hit with pin point accuracy; exploding on contact; this knocked her back always causing a huge explosion. The smoke slowly settled from the blast; revealing Z resting on one knee holding her chest in pain. Though she was visibly injured the Light rim around her had grown bigger.

Z’s eyesight returned to see two very bright discs hovering around in the hands of Tessa; both thrown at a high velocity. “Heh” Z said thinking of a good way to dodge. Using the light rim around her; she bent it so that for a brief moment in time she herself was invisible; the beams flailed right through her. However she solidified to soon; and they came hovering back around. “Mercury dates some crazy ass women” she thought to herself; firing a huge wave of light at both of them trying to put them down. It didn’t work the disc cut right through her energy and smashed right into her upper abdomen. The cutting effects of the disc were nullified by the light rim around her; which was now huge.

Her uniform was torn to bits; the armor she wore under her civilian clothes was now exposed. “Shockwave!” she said with her eyes glowing; the energy she had built up had been that from the damage Tessa had dealt; she unleashed a huge catastrophic explosion of light and pushed it outwards; hoping to damage the young women.

The huge light attack created a massive dome that eclipsed an set area in the room; when the damage had been done Z stood waiting as a Light Form and a Dark Form; ready to combat all the duplicates. “Hopefully Clue will use this time to find… Mercury” Z thought hoping she wasn’t doing all of this for nothing.

Tessa cackled closing her eyes, tickled with Sha's weak sass. She expected more witty remarks from a women with so much hype around her name. "Barbie? They called me that in middle school." She said creating light bubbles around her, preparing to fend off Sha's charging attack. The rise of intensity for Sha's angelic light was a given. She learned that skill from Marc in their gang days. No matter how much he insisted she stay out his syndicate business she always wedged her way beside him. To save her ass, he taught her to watch the language of her opponents body; and Sha's attack wasn't hard to watch.

"Shockwave!" Sha yelled expelling the growing light she had hovering around her scraped body. "Okay, thanks for the heads up, bimbo."Tessa raised her slender arms above her head stretching, but mainly taunting Sha along with a smirk. As the droning light wave spread across the room, Tessa created a transparent white diamond shield;She managed to save one of her duplicates, but watched the black silhouettes of the unfortunate two shred in the light. The light reflected off the diamond creating a beautiful, kaleidoscopic light show for the outside onlookers.

The beauty of her fighting always brought a smile to her face. "She's not one of the most graceful fighters from what I've heard." Tessa thought as the light attack subsided. Keeping her elegance, she exploded the diamond shield into tiny shards. In unison Tessa and her duplicate walked towards an already unappealing Sha as diamond shards rained down creating a shimmer over Tess'a head. The natural art to Tessa's fighting must have intimidated Sha in one way or another.

She stepped into a sprint towards Sha and her eyes glared a smooth rainbow of soft colors. Her smirk remained painted on her face; and she swung her right arm across her body as a light dagger flashed into her hand. Before she attacked she created blinding burst of light to disorient Sha. Rising from the ground two more duplicates attacked the dark and light phantoms of Sha.

Tessa sliced her light dagger at Sha."Retiring would be a great career move for you. I'd be honored to put you permanently in a wheel chair. " She spun her body to add momentum to her spinning elbow to Sha's nose, aiming to break it. Then she dropped to to floor to perform a sweeping kick to knock Sha off her feet. If the sweeping kick was successful she would stab her light dagger into Sha to destroy her nervous system. She decided to leave it there to destroy her nerves and permanently paralyze her.

The dark and light form of Z stood watching as the young women handled her attack with ease. “As if calling me a bimbo is any better” Z said in unison with her light self. The women’s theatrics didn’t impress Z at all; her techniques were solid and legit; however her battle demeanor wasn’t enough to capture Z’s attention. Her mind continued to wonder where they hell Mercury was; and the location of Clue inside the building. Tessa continue to gallant over to the Two Z’s, the light form was ready to go; however the darkness wasn’t even paying attention. To Z this wasn’t anything to Tessa but a beauty contest, Z had long dispelled thoughts of her being the girlie girl. Z separated because she wanted to find Mercury; not fight Ke$ha; she rigged her Light form so that if it took too much damage it would dissipate.

The girl attacked in a rainbow like streak towards light Z and Dark Z; she grew close up on light and Dark Z and flashed a bright light; this however didn’t effect Light Z whom used herself as a shield for dark Z. There were more duplicates rising from the floor; it was light Z that alerted dark Z to set the plan in motion. Light Z shined bright pushing the darkness forcefully across the room making it appear as if she had gotten rid of the darkness; which is where Dark Z would make its escape from. Finally seeing an opportunity she fused with the ambient darkness along the back walls and crept down the hall way. “Retiring would be a good career move for you” Tessa said sounding like a bad Batman movie. “No wonder Maya got all the good roles” Light Z thought to herself; taking an elbow to the nose. As she stumbled back a bit; only to be taken to the ground by a leg sweep; as she fell to the ground Tessa quickly jumped in to stab her with some type of light dagger. She laid there just smiling; thinking to herself “What a dumbass” it was like trying to kill hydroman with Water.

Seeing an opportune moment Light Z pushed back on her arms; and jump kicked forward hoping to land a kick to the head. Once back on her feet light Z only had a number of things she could do without dark Z; so she improvised. Extending her hands out in front of her she fired a huge beam of light at the top of the convention center hoping that the falling debris would capture the attention of Tessa; moving at her Light speed; she sped over to the nearest object which happened to be a seat and chucked it at her not long after she threw the chair she disappeared.

Z once again became whole as she was walking down the hallway; she could feel the damage that Hiliary Duff had done to her light form. Her current location had her sitting right in front of the duct she suspected Clue was in. No doubt he had heard the brief skirmish; but Z thought it was only fair that if she fought the crazy chick that he atleast find Mercury.

He could hear a muffled voice giving commands through a cell phone, labored breath, he could almost smell Mercury's blood on the air.  
 
There was no mistaking it, this was the room he was looking for. Assessing the situation, Clue peered through the cracked door at Manifesto who was watching the screen as the two battling floors below caused the building to quake underneath their feet. From his belt he pulled a stun grenade, pulling the pin and letting it cook in his hand before flinging the door all the way open. He pitched the grenade high, timing the cooked grenade perfectly, the grenade pulled to the right and would go off only inches away from the bastard, leaving the floored Marc out of the blast radius. In a normal situation with a normal thug he would have simply put any number of bullets in him, but this Manifesto was strong enough to take out Mercury. Factoring in whether Mercury had an exploitable weakness or if there were others involved in Mercury's capture were variables he couldn't explore now, his main concern was getting Marc out of the room.  
 
By the time the grenade went off, Clue was already sailing across the room, his feet hitting the desk, his cape billowing behind him.  
 
"On your feet!" Clue said, landing next to Julius, guns drawn and pointed at Manifesto. "Make us an exit--" Pulling back on the triggers, the hammers kicked, the recoil caused the guns to jump, and the barrels lit up with a flash. Blackman had made it a thing to have a safehouse and weapons cache in every major city, one that Charles took it upon himself to raid every time he needed some solid state of the art weaponry. Even with state of the art weaponry he was out of his zone. He was hoping with his distraction it would provide the young man enough time to blast them a hole in the wall to escape from, give Clue more room to work with, possibly switch partners with Sha. In the time he was watching from outside the door he noticed that the woman Sha was tangled up with was a former acquaintance and ex-girlfriend of Julius.  
 
To be completely honest with himself, this seemed like more trouble than Mercury was worth. Crazy mercenary ex-girlfriends and sorcerers working for secret societies, these were the people that Clue was looking to put himself between to save a guy who has ditched him in the middle of battle enough times to count on both hands. Yet, here he was, drawn like a moth to the flame, pulled together to the same two people he was before not that long ago by forces unknown. No matter how many times he tried to make it make sense in the back of his head, he couldn't. There was no rationalizing what he was doing, putting himself on the chopping block for some bloke who he found distasteful, for someone who he thought was just another pretty face and bad thespian in Hollywood with criminal ties. Here he was, though. Chucking grenades, guns blazing, depending on another man's ability to pull them out of this pinch.
 
Playing cowboy was never fun for such a proper Englishman.

"Make us an exit" Manifesto heard as he pulled himself off the ground. On instinct he created a light shield to protect himself from anymore of the explosions. The dark caped man fired shots and Manifesto's white shield absorbed them out of existence. He was losing control of his plan, not only was Sha there, but the mysterious man made a destructive entrance of his own.

The explosions and gun fire must have given Julius more fight because he blasted a hole in the wall and shielded himself. Manifesto couldn't cripple him with his magic, but Julius would still suffer. "Julius." A smile appeared on Manifesto's face, showing his two vampire fangs. He pressed buttons on the security monitor control panel and the all the monitors showed an unconscious Tessa. "You gonna leave her here? You might have foiled my financial plans, but this building is set to blow to the ground in..." he checked his white-gold rolex, "...roughly twenty minutes." Manifesto snickered with malice.

Julius' eyes were locked on the monitor and his face showed how conflicted he was inside. “Kickhisass" Julius uttered to Clue in one breath, his voice sounded hoarse. “She’s not......dying here." Julius didn’t direct those words to anybody he was thinking out loud. With his shield up, Julius staggered out the room keeping his eyes on Manifesto. Whether Manifesto was lying or not, Julius couldn't leave Tessa to die. Adding Tessa to the equation confused him more. He thought this would be a survey mission. Investigate the place, record useful info and get out. What was she doing here?

Back in the security room, Manifesto prepared to attack Clue. "You can try and ‘kick my ass’ if you like.” Manifesto absorbed all the light in the room and made bare sight impossible."But you have to see me to do that." Clue would have to have x ray vision to see where Manifesto was; but Manifesto didn’t take him lightly, he blended himself in with the darkness and became a shadow. Out of sight, the Light Magician thrust his hands forward and blasted a heavy stream of laser energy at Clue. If hit, Clue would be knocked through the wall; if he missed, the blast would at least destroy the wall.

The Ninjan Queen came to the end of the dark corridor; the fight with Tessa left her exhausted, she found that in the past few months her endurance had dropped, it was one of the symptoms of her age catching up to her. From off in the distance there were multiple explosions and loud noises going off. “Clue” she whispered turning around trying to get a better gauge at what was going on. As she once again stalked the halls, she could feel her elements being tampered with. Whoever was using the elements of Light energy to their advantage; probably the same person who had set up the veil of light that hindered her Ninjan Keen sight earlier? As she scaled the hall a gigantic explosion ripped through the wall causing a blinding screen of debris. “Sh!t…” Z whispered, she continued trying to use her Keen eyesight but it didn’t work.

The smoke somewhat subsided, the action hadn’t died down at all, Mercury was now visible to Z; but he had Tessa in his hands which confused Z. Mercury rushed off trying to get Tessa to safety; she knew it was only the fact that they had previous history together that he even bothered. As she stood there another blast went off shaking the very floor she stood on. Glancing through the whole in the wall; she could see nothing but darkness; however with her Keen eyesight off, she’d have to use her own powers to assist in helping Clue. Taking a step in the room, she closed her eyes and slowly began to shake. As she shook her body generated little strands of light on her skin; this dimly lit up the room enough for her and Clue to see. Her powers were acting up; she didn’t know how long they would hold up. As she peered into the room she saw Clue firing aimlessly into the wild trying to hit; whom she only assumed to be Mercury’s captor. She quickly moved in to assist, but no sooner than she did so, something caught her eye. It was hidden in the darkness, but stood out like a goat in a field of lambs. She couldn’t tell how long it had been there but this was undoubtedly a bad sign. Seeing that Clue had the upper hand temporarily, she slid off to the corner to investigate. “A rose?” She said picking up the beautiful red flower.

The bottom was sharpened so when thrown it would stick, “Xiao” Z said raising an eyebrow. The rose was a symbol of Xiao Zing; ruler of the Green Dragon Cult. Her return marked the start of a very long week for the Utopian Queen; she didn’t have time to dwell on this for too long she turned her attention back to Clue. “I’m so tired of this!” she said slowly getting enraged. That uncontrollable cosmic level energy began to flow through her body; it hit a fever pitch resulting in a negligent discharge; the Queen expunged a catastrophic amount of energy from her body. It wasn’t something she had control over, the pressures of her everyday life, and even this situation got to her. Needless to say she leveled a good portion of the convention center. She lay across a downed beam totally unable to move but fully conscious. “No…” she said as many of the people who stood watching outside began screaming in horror. She had completely destroyed her own Echosphere as well as the majority of her own attire. “What have I done…” she said standing in the middle of a giant crater; where the seats of the center would usually be.

Manifesto's ears picked up clinking sounds in the darkness. He figured his light blast didn't affect the mysterious man much, if at all, so he stood guard. CLINK. BOOM! A white flash took Manifesto by surprise and he staggered back. A bullet ripped through his thigh, he dropped to his knees and created a transparent hard light shield. This deflected the remaining bullets the vigilante fired. Manifesto hovered his hands over his thigh wound and the bullets popped out. His wound sealed shortly after.

He thrust his hand in the air and pure light lit the monitor room. Clue escaped. "I'll kill at least one of them" He pointed his glowing hand inside the blown out wall and created a light disc. He jumped on and descended into the darkness. This route wasn't graceful, but it was quicker than the safe route. He assumed Julius would make it to Tessa before he did, but where Julius went the uninvited guest followed.

Estimating his distance from the third floor he blasted a hole in the wall and stepped out near the first floor concession booth. He dashed for the lobby out for blood. He wanted death now by default. His Plan A and B had been sabotaged. Now he wanted death. BOOM!

The Convention Center shook and Manifesto stopped to listen for what happened. The quaking died down and the Convention Center fell silent again. At first Manifesto thought it was a defective bomb, but it sounded more like a crash. He came to the conclusion it was Clue or Sha, more than likely the powerhouse Sha.

"Marc, How did this happen!"Manifesto heard a voice yell, he faced forward."You don't take this serious anymore!" A tall Asian man and brown haired woman stood in front of Julius and an unconscious Tessa.

"I know I'll--" The Asian man smacked Julius in the face and cut him off.

The tall Asian man looked around the lobby. "Where is she. You said she was here."

Julius was knelt down over Tessa, trying to wake her up. "Uncle, this place is gonna blow. We don't have time for this."

Manifesto blended in with the shadows and continued listening....

"Samara arrest the girl." Yashima ordered and Samara approached pulling out power dampener cuffs. "Don't worry about her. We'll take care of her." Samara said cuffing Tessa.

Yashima walked beside Samara and connected his shoe heel to Julius' face. "Your brother will be ten times better than the failure you are."

A purple portal whirred behind Yashima and Samara dragged Tessa across the floor. Julius's body shook as he struggled to fight back. The purple portal light faded and they were gone. Manifesto cackle echoed through the lobby and his shoe heels clicked at a fast pace. Julius couldn't see him, so he sat up moved against the wall. Julius spat out blood and held out a energy blast ready to fire.

In the blink of an eye Manifesto appeared in front of Julius and blasted him with a torrent of light energy. Julius' screamed out in pain as he felt his body temperature drop at a rapid pace. His eyes watered and his body went cold. He crashed to the floor and Manifesto ended his attack. Manifesto flashed a light over his face saw he was finished. He rested two fingers over his neck and felt no pulse. "You wouldn't be dead right now if you listened, you fool." Manifesto snickered and began dragging him to the center of the convention center lobby.

In her downed state she could hear multiple things going on at once, nothing she was ready to help with. “I….I” she started to say, thinking she was responsible for the death of Clue, however she could feel his cold heartless eyes glancing at the back of her head. “Thank god. You ok” she said coughing up what looked like small light particles. She felt his cloak cover her exposed rear-side, despite the circumstances she actually felt safe. “Next time if you could do that when the bad people are around” he said sounding as if he were in severe pain. “I’ll commit that to memory” she said wincing in pain; slowly rising to her feet. “I think he’s going to kill him” Z said referring to Manifesto and Mercury; naturally she wouldn’t have cared if her family wasn’t on the line. “My echosphere is done” she said looking at the damaged device. Pulling out a pin that kept her raven hair tied up; she hacked into her own device. A few moments progressed and finally she had gained access into her own technology; using the reboot option she rebooted it before the upgrade. “It’s primitive, but it’ll at least get me my clothes back” She thought to herself…

“Sha up” she said in pain; the thin rim of light engulfed her in a blanket of light; her body appeared in the light but only in the form of a black silhouette. When she emerged she stood standing in an all-black outfit, with her golden hair resting by her shoulders. “Throwback” she said still writhing in pain. “You should get clear this place is rigged to blow” He said placing new clips into his pistol. “Not going to happen Ace” Z said placing her hands on the ground looking for a hollow spot. Trying to minimize energy output Z fired a small amount of energy into the ground. From where she stood she could see below, “looks like a basement” she said jumping down landing on the balls of her feet. Running down the hall as fast as her injured body would let her she came up upon Manifesto. Clue had beat her there and managed to engage him before she could. Manifesto began dragging Mercury, towards the Lobby; once again Clue opened fire on him again; but this time he was joined by the Ninjan Queen.

She charged up small handfuls of projectable magnetic energy as tossed it at the ground; the light slowly circled around Manifesto trying to encase him into a magnetic shield. “Give it up…” Z said with her eyes flashing red.

He was casually dragging Julius across the lobby floor when Clue showed up once again. He stopped and smiled, "He already dead you can--" Clue fired his gun and a bullet tore through Manifesto's kneecap. He stumbled to one knee, gritting his teeth at the pain and sloppily rolled out the path of a second bullet. "You idiot!" He screamed at Clue blasting a white stream of light energy at him with one hand while covering his knee with the other.

A high pitched droning sound buzzed in Manifesto's ears and field of energy closed him in. He looked to his left and saw Sha with flashing red eyes. "Give it up..." Manifesto grumbled and unlatched a remote from his utility belt. "No you give it up." Manifesto gazed out the Convention center exit, crowded with press, police and curious bystanders. He pressed buttons on his remote. "I'll nip this in the bud. The kid's dead, but those people out there aren't." He staggered to his feet and created a light shield inside the barrier Sha trapped him in. The two energies polarized and sparks set off. Manifesto immediately dropped his clashing shield. "I just reset the bomb timers to one minute and if this place blows those people are going to be casualties."

His eyes went to Julius. "One corpse is better than a hundred. Check.Mate." His sinister cackle echoed throughout the lobby as he made his timed exit. He faded from sight and far from his crime scene.

He fell to one knee that’s to Clue literally busting a cap; it appeared that Manifesto had some human qualities as he stumbled down to the ground in pain, and just barely managed to escape the second shot. “No you give it up” he replied sounding like a stubborn child; she had gotten used to him already; she knew there was another trick coming. His focus wasn’t on her or even Clue it was on the people outside. Hundreds of spectators and devoted fans of Mercury could be heard through the cracks in the convention center cheering on their beloved super star.

The reality of the whole thing was, Mercury was probably dead, and now Z and Clue were next. From out of nowhere Manifesto pulled a remote and quickly pressed the button. I'll nip this in the bud. The kid's dead, but those people out there aren't.". He was a master at light energy much like Z was; so he used his Light energy to cancel out her magnetism. I just reset the bomb timers to one minute and if this place blows those people are going to be casualties." Z’s eye’s dimmed there were one hundred thousand things she wanted to do with Manifesto if he got his hands on him but she didn’t have too much time to dwell on it. “MAYA!” Z screaming letting off an almost sonic scream in the process; she didn’t know an exact location but she knew Maya or one of her clones was still on Earth. “Gah…” she exclaimed as she felt helpless. “Z I’m here!” A voice rang in her head loud and clear it was Maya she had finally made it to the show.

“Maya I need a force field around those people outside” Z said making a mad dash across the room to retrieve Marc’s body. “I got it” she said. On the outside Maya cut through so many people, trying to get close enough to construct a big enough force field. “EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE WAY!” She yelled as she pushed through. She could almost feel it something had happened to Marc; she didn’t want to think about it right now but she couldn’t help but let her mind wander.

“Field on” Maya extended her arms and a gigantic shield encased everyone behind her, police cars and all. Z lifted of Marc’s body, and then turned back to look for Clue. “Clue…where…” she said double taking, the only thing she could conclude was that he left to trail Manifesto. A huge explosion ripped through the bowels of the convention center sending a wall of heat rallying through the corridors. “Let’s get out of here” Z said to the lifeless Marc, flying right through the top of the building; she flew directly into the fore field that Maya had erected and laid the stars body there, The young Ninjan Chancellor quickly ran to her beloved and laid on his chest. “Marc!!” Maya screamed creating a sad situation for Z. Everything else felt awkward to Z she didn’t even like Mercury, not even in death. The situation changed; perception was now in play.

Many people knew of how much Z hated Mercury; they also saw her plunge into the convention center, leave it to a group of emotional fans to turn a bad day worse. “YOU DID THIS!!!” a young teen pointed at Z, Z wasn’t even paying attention to the growing angry sentiment around her. “Wait…what…no I didn’t!” Z said almost too tired to even argue with the crowd. Maya stood up, it all made sense to her the bickering both Z and Mercury had done sense they had known each other was unparalleled. “Z…how could you…” Maya said with Mascara running down her face.

“May I didn’t do this” Z said being as truthfully as she needed to be. “I know you didn’t kill him…but did you even try to save him?” Maya asked so hurt she barely got her words out. Z couldn’t even make a sound. “Andferne, Kurrent, and Light all of them are gone for a reason… maybe it’s time you do the same SHA” Maya said turning around to tend to her lifeless boyfriend. “Right…” Z said slowly hovering before flying away, little did she know that her week was already etched in stone.

Epilogue

He felt light burning through his eyes, so he opened them and all he saw was white. Pure white. Then it all came back and if he was here, he knew was dead. But suddenly color shot into the room and he saw the red bed sheets, the sunlight filtering through a window, he smelled a musky incense burning nearby. He looked to the right of the plush bed and saw a bucket of diluted red water. He threw off his bed sheets and he noticed his abdomen and lower back was in a body wrap, stained with blood. "The hell..." he mumbled stepping out the bed.

"No..."an ethereal voice said as he walked towards the large pagoda door. "This would be called the afterlife, based on your faith."

"I'm dead..."he said losing the color in his face. His hands began to shake and his eyes watered. "I'm dead?" He whispered again in denial. He turned around. "...Who are..."

A doll faced woman with perfect blonde hair flowing down her back sat cross legged on his bed with her eyes closed. "My name is Divina, Marcellus. You are here because you were killed from freezing to death." She said with calm bluntness.

Marc's entire body began to shake with his hands and he tightened his lips to fight back tears and sobbing. His vanilla face suffused pink and a his eyes shimmered from the tears fighting to fall down his face. "You--" He choked on his words. It was difficult for him to breath steady through his mouth so he breathed hard through his nose and his nostrils flared up.

"Don't shed a tear, Marcellus. Death isn't the end." Divina maintained her posture and composure with her almond shaped eyes closed. Marc realized she was of Asian decent.

"Marcellus" A man in red and gold Imperial robes stepped unnoticed into the room."Death was the only way. You fell astray from your rightful path, from your Imperial role."

Marc felt it, before he turned around to see his face, he knew. "Emperor Kotaku..."

"King Marcellus the God Almighty to an alien he turned his back on." Emperor Kotaku's Imperial robes faded into lavish samurai armor and made him all the more intimidating as he walked closer to Marc."The son who failed to protect his family from a malicious relative."

His brain felt like it compressed and he squeezed his eyes together at the pain. He felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder and Divina's angelic voice soothed the pain. "Look at the impression you've left on the universe." She guided him to a black and gold vanity mirror.

In the mirror, Marc saw large space vessels surrounding Earth and at the tip of every ship a bright blue light shot at the Earth. Mushroom clouds blossomed across the globe. The mirror panned in on one of the ships and Vangelis watched in the ship bay from the panoramic window as Earth was blasted to ruins. "For our elegance, Mercury!"

"No more."Marc uttered turning away from the terrible prediction. Divina hid her doll face from Marc's sight and reverted the mirror back to it's normal state.

"How do I stop it." He said accepting his death, but not accepting the fatal consequences he left behind.

"Redeem yourself" Divina and Kotaku said in an eerie unison. With that said, the bedroom scenery around Marc began to change. Marc's bare chest was covered as his green and black costume faded onto him. Divina's Asiatic appearance began to fade until she was a golden silhouette. Marc turned around and saw Emperor Kotaku became a golden silhouette with Divina. As a red cape magically draped down Marc's back, Divina and Kotaku materialized wearing futuristic attire.

Basketball sized silver spheres of light were suspended at different levels of the room and five spheres descended in front of Mercury and revealed planets: Earth, Ninjeta, Cerulan, and two planets he was unfamiliar with.

He palmed the Sphere containing Earth and it traveled to where his mind unconsciously went. To his body.

"Marc!! Don't leave us..." Maya cried hugging his body."Don't leave me..." Marc let go of the sphere and stepped back, petrified. Divina and Kotaku stood silent waiting for him to finish something he didn't know what. He exhaled deeply and palmed the planet Ninjeta. Alex was in his screaming crying in his mother's arms as she cried in her room. A silent tear ran down his cheek as he slowly let go of the sphere and Maya and Alex's faces, voices and emotions faded away.

"Protect your vessel and the ones you love, Marcellus" Divina said as she left the Prism room with Kotaku.