Dark Skies

Red cased his surroundings as he stepped off the helicopter. The temporary Uranium City base, as usual, was bustling with activity, even through freezing wintery climate. Green, the colour, not his teammate, assaulted his senses as he made for the convoy of gun trucks waiting on the runway. They stood in stark contrast to the gray, urbanized layout of civilian New York he was used to.

Major Malakai Scott, backed by a company of soldiers, awaited the Chaos Committee. His posture, as per usual, was perfect.

"How was the beach?" he asked, nodding a greeting.

Red chuckled. "I've got thick skin, and even I feel the chill. I'll never know how you do it."

"That's what makes you American," snorted Scott. "Everything handled back home?"

"Not really, but that's neither here nor there." Red glanced at the trucks, instinctively scanning for defects. Though he'd never served, a lengthy Hero career drilled certain habits deep. Double-checking transportation set in early. "We still treading?"

Scott grimaced. "Truthfully? A floaty or two wouldn't hurt."

"How choppy?" asked Red.

"Well, they've got the other side of the pond and don’t seem keen on moving."

Green ground his teeth. "That far?"

"I think it's clear now that they just need the real estate," Scott explained. "We're not dealing with conquest. They're also driving reinforcements in, somehow bypassing our blockade."

Yellow surveyed the sky, now dribbling snow. It never seemed to stop. "They can’t be coming in from the west."

Scott rolled his eyes. "We know, but shutting down northern Alberta and Manitoba, believe it or not, is actually a little easier said than done."

"I take it we have checkpoints?" said Red.

"Don't insult me," snorted Scott. "But checking and finding are two different things. As I'm sure you're all aware, the Breakers aren't idiots. They don't make mistakes and we have yet to find how they're moving all this weight."

"Next time," grumbled Green, "have a smaller country."

"Will do," promised Scott.

"What're the wheels for?" asked Yellow.

The transports were officially named Medium Support Vehicle Systems, with the specific project tagged as Standard Military Pattern trucks. The troops, naturally, favoured the SMP acronym; much less of a mouthful.

"You don’t see the snow?” asked Scott. “It's Christmas. I had to bring presents."

"I pity your grandkids," mocked Green, wrinkling his nose. “And it’s May.”

Scott smiled. “Yet we use more tracks than tires. Fancy that.”

"Where are we going?" sighed Yellow.

"We were trying to set up a missile system. Yes, I know Ergo usually knocks anything catastrophic out of the sky, but these were shorter range and just meant to keep the peripheral troops honest. Figured we could set up near the edge of the lake and at least make life a little harder for the fuckers."

"That was never going to work," grumbled Red. "And now you've lost men."

"Not exactly. We're still in limited contact. They're holding themselves down, but we need you boys to pull them clear."

Yellow's frown was immediate. "A team of blanks with limited ammunition, in an exposed position, in possession of dangerous equipment have been holding their own against the Breakers for..."

"Eighteen hours now."

Green snorted. "Yeah, no. I don't even think I'm playing devil's advocate or anything saying they're dead as fuck."

"We'll go see," promised Red, turning for the convoy.

Wind rolled over the camp, drawing a scowl out of Red. He was thankful R&D had seen fit to give them thermally insulated variants of their standard uniforms, but Canadian winter was the stuff of nightmares. How the locals, without powers, coped was beyond him.

"You know, there's going to be a day you say 'we'," Green warned Red, "and we all simply go home because you're crazy and we're tired."

Yellow pulled open a door. "Sit in the other car, Green, and piss yourself in private."

The dig was harmless, though they did always travel separately. That way, if ever one were compromised, the others would still be in good enough condition to contribute.

Red's driver, a Hispanic man with dark, curly hair peeking out from under a camo helmet, nodded as he entered. The second the door clapped shut, they were off.

Two more soldiers sat in the back, armed with packs and long guns. Red noticed them sweating, even in the freezing weather. Their driver, leading the escort, took the SMP through Saskatchewan forestry at top speed. Considering the layer of snow warring with their tires for control, Red figured caution a wiser course of action.

"What's your name?"

The driver didn't initially reply until he glanced over and realized Red was facing him. "Me, sir? For the mission, I'm Six."

"I see." Red rattled around the cab as they rumbled over a fallen trunk that probably would've been wiser to avoid. "You got friends at this site?"

Six hesitated. "That's not–"

"We'll get to them, soldier. And the danger when it happens will be high, so let's not take unwarranted risks, yeah?"

Six eased up on the accelerator. "Sorry, sir."

Six took them in deep. Deep enough for trees to blot out part of the sky. That made Red nervous, since aerial ambushes were in every Alpha’s playbook. Limited visibility could spell death, even for someone of his ability.

The company spent half an hour pushing through snowy, arboreous terrain before finally breaking into the target clearing.

Upon arrival, Red had to admit that although Scott’s plan was inherently flawed, the position itself was well-selected.

The valley bowled upward near the river, which would conceal their actions and position to enemies on the other side. A thin line of trees provided additional cover, though not so tightly positioned as to compromise projectile launches. Red suspected, had it not been an active warzone, Blacklight would've tried to use it for sledding.

Unfortunately, carnage spoiled the image.

Six froze in horror at the remains of the strike team. SMPs lay flipped on their sides, some destroyed. Red leapt from theirs and noticed a circular hole seared through the solid steel cab of a mangled truck.

Perfectly symmetrical. Military-grade metal cut through like a hot knife on butter.

"Ergo was here," he hissed, running to the nearest body. He didn't bother checking for a pulse.

A lone human torso couldn’t sustain life.

Its head was crooked at a lethal angle while the arm stuck oddly from underneath it. Its jaw was dislocated, potentially from the same trauma that relieved it of its legs. The combat slacks were blackened and partially welded into the flesh. Red hoped the man died before the pain hit, but he couldn’t afford to linger.

What he really needed was to check the condition of the singes along its dismembered waist. Despite the temperature, a recent burn of that intensity should still have some–

Cold.

Scott hadn’t been in communication with his troops. They’d been dead for hours.

He’d been talking to someone else.

"Back!" he yelled. "Back, now! Back to base imme–"

The body behind him shuddered.

Red froze. Had he imagined–

It moved.

So, no. Huh. That was horrific.

Several more jerks snapped its head straight. It pulled its bisected torso off the ground, clicked its arm back in place and shot him a malicious grin.

"Rogues!" he bellowed right as Breakers emerged from the forest. Near the back of their group, though, was the real threat: dark green eyes, long black hair, and a twisted, evil grin.

Necro.

Fan-fucking-tastic, thought Red, dropping into a battle crouch.

The Chaos Committee all utilized different types of telekinesis, though each worked independently of the other. Red, as his name suggested, expressed his through a crimson cloud, which created a moving wall, or 'Push'. He used it to shovel a half dozen Breakers into the icy lake. Had it been a challenging task, his body would've glowed as well.

On her own, Necro wasn't that big a threat. She had low-level physicals and generally wasn't the greatest hand-to-hand combatant. However, her true strength lay elsewhere.

Necro could reanimate dead biological matter and shape it to her whims. This included both animal and plant life. God forbid there be dinosaur bones hidden beneath the snowbank.

That could spell disaster.

Granted, the target had to be structured enough to support motion. Cremated material was as useless to her as anyone else.

The Breakers were all low-level Rogues. As Pawns, their powers didn't extend beyond physical enhancement, so superhuman strength, speed, and agility. That posed problems for the soldiers at close quarters, since a single Breaker could bulldoze through a dozen men before finally being put down.

One of them broke cover to charge him, clenching a knife. Red guessed the blade was Cruisium, as anything else wouldn't be able to punch through Bishop-plus Alphas. He Pushed the Breaker into the snowbank and crushed her flat enough to mangle beyond Necro's range.

"Red!" Necro called from behind her wall of firing Breakers. "How was the flight?"

Red’s allies cowered behind SMPs while bathing the forest in covering fire, which the Breakers returned. As usual, almost none fell. Armour piercing rounds were, annoyingly, not very effective against their plating and denser skin. Not to mention the small but pesky minority quick enough to react to bullets in flight.

Three broke from behind the bank and tried catching Red in another blitz. They made it ten feet before an invisible force yanked their heads back hard enough to break bone, collapsing the trio like unstrung puppets.

Blue appeared on Red's side and Pulled a tree trunk from the snow to bowl a dozen Breakers over. Red redirected it back onto them with a Push, killing those Blue missed.

"We need to neutralize Necro!" he warned, redirecting a rocket aimed for their men toward the lake. Blue Pulled the missile from crashing into the water to screaming for Breakers. Rogues went flying as the snowbank bloomed orange.

Blue nodded, Pulling a cloud of snow up from the ground to smokescreen a pair of pinned soldiers and buy them time to find new cover. “Any other royalty?"

"Not that I know–"

According to the Geneva Convention, chemical weapons were a big no-no.

Unfortunately, the Breakers' name extended to their views on international law.

Three poison pumps rolled down the valley, stopping near Red and Blue's feet. Designing aerosol dispensers to be perfectly white and invisible against a snowy backdrop made for ingenious, if not very illegal innovation.

But it worked, bringing both Heroes to their knees.

Red's vision fogged as his arms began to lose power. The poison wasn't strong enough to kill them, but immobility on a battlefield was death’s first cousin. Luckily, Green was not only out of the gas’ range, but also able to locate the three dodecahedron-shaped contraptions belching filth across the valley. With a simple fist clench, he Crushed them both, then ran over to join them with Yellow.

"Red, I know she's got a bit of exotic flair, but you've gotta keep your head outa your ass," he warned. "Promise. You and Necro can have all the time you need when she's sat safely in the Chasm."

"Casualty sit-rep," Red hacked out, coughing the gunk from his lungs.

"Twelve," Yellow said with a grimace, "although there's panic because every time someone dies..."

One of their soldiers, felled from a clump of shrapnel, snapped upright. Necro's energy spread to rejuvenate his limbs. He then unholstered his side weapon and shot a neighbouring soldier in the temple.

"Fuck!" Green hissed, Crushing the zombie to a beach ball. "I knew that guy! Dammit!"

The soldier the zombie shot trembled with a mini seizure, then rose with glowing green eyes. Red grimaced as Yellow used an explosive Swell to tear the zombie's body apart. Though it worked opposite Green's Crush, but could be just as destructive.

"We have to stop her, now!" he shouted. "Green, Yellow, neutralize by any means necessary. Blue and I will stay back to protect the–"

A zombie shrugged itself out from under a flipped SMP and unpinned a grenade before dropping it on a pile of explosives.

Even the Chaos Committee couldn't contain the explosion.

The bombs went off right in the largest concentration of CAF soldiers. A dozen and a half men flailed off their feet and went spinning down the hill. Necro's laugh was audible even through the screaming and shredding of bodies. A cheer went up from the Breakers when the soldiers’ corpses began to contort and roll across the now snowless, bloodied valley.

The Chaos Committee watched the forms of their former comrades, including Six, peel and contort into a grotesque creature standing twenty feet high. Dead roots breached the earth to reinforce the limbs, tying together what the crimson tendons couldn’t. Flesh and bone mashed together to make what Red thought could only exist in the most twisted of video games.

"You've got to be fucking kidding–" began Green before the crackle of a radio interrupted him.

"Chaos Committee!" shrieked Scott through an SMP's speaker. "Return to base immediately! It was a ruse! Get back–"

The line went dead as the Corpse Giant stomped the entire vehicle to putty.

Necro grinned. "Tough luck, hmm?"

Red's Push barrelled into the Giant's chest, forcing the monster through a trunk. Blue Pulled it back from toppling over and dropped it right onto Red's telekinetic uppercut. Yellow's Swell lifted it three dozen feet off the ground before Blue ripped it out of the sky and crashing back to earth. Necro's beast now immobilized from impact, Green met little resistance as he Crushed its head to a pulp.

With the Committee's allies all but gone, Breakers thundered from the forest. They, by the looks of it, were trying to overwhelm the Heroes through pure attrition.

Red almost laughed.

Then he remembered what Necro did to Six and started killing.

Red swept half the army from their frenzied charge into the side of the valley. Green's fist clenched, and they stopped squirming. Thirty Breakers, now the collective size of a semi-truck, went flying from Red's Push and smacked Necro off her feet. The rest were dragged into a pile by Blue's Pull, then Yellow's Swell sent them gliding into the woods.

The Giant shuddered, even without a head, and pushed itself up from the snow. Necro staggered as she strained to power the beast, still delirious from Red's glancing blow.

Green grumbled in annoyance as the monster rose to its full height and beat its chest.

"Do you think she strategizes and troubleshoots this shit?" he asked. "Like, she lies awake at night trying to figure out the dimensions of her hell beast. The best upper body structure to deliver an optimal chest pound?"

"Shut up and kill it," growled Yellow.

Red drove a Push wall into the back of the Giant's knees at the same time Yellow bombed a Swell into its chest, throwing it violently to its back. The impact blew ripples across the lake.

Blue stepped forward and jerked his arms apart, Pulling the Giant's legs right off its body.

"Wah, wah, wah," snorted Green, glowing with power as he raised his hands and began a slow-motion clap.

The Giant shuddered in protest, but the battle was already lost. Green collapsed its arms into the side of its torso. Bones cracked, and flesh tore as he Crushed harder, imploding the chest over the Giant's approximation of a thoracic wall. By the time Green let it go, the Giant's formerly imposing upper body was the size of an armchair.

Blue Pulled it off the ground and dropped it into the lake for good measure.

"Good riddance," he snorted. "Now what?"

Red did a slow circle. "She's gone."

"Colour me shocked," grumbled Green. "On second thought, don't. Who could’ve guessed the bitch whose power is to send people to do her job runs as soon as she’s alone?”

Red, already moving, had his attention elsewhere. "Scott needs us back at base."

The Chaos Committee took off. Even with all the snow, the demands of their former confrontation and the instability of terrain, they moved faster than the SMPs.

As for direction? They just followed the sound of gunfire.

The journey only took five minutes.

A flaming base awaited.

Garages and tents were charred and collapsing. Vehicles were either disabled or in pieces.

And the bodies.

So many bodies.

And as expected, at the centre of the carnage stood Ergo.

The Committee didn't even bother speaking. Ergo turned to accept a Push of atomic proportion. His feet left the runway and trailed the Rogue's seven-foot frame, decimating four aircrafts in the process. Red's attack could theoretically have sent him another mile or two north, but a second Push cratered Ergo in the asphalt.

Truth be told, Red was more surprised by his attack connecting than Ergo’s immediate and nonchalant recovery.

"I'm impressed," announced the Rogue, raising his hand. "I thought they'd be able to hold you longer."

The Committee split to evade Ergo's bronze plasma beam. Red felt air boil as it whistled past and carved through a half mile of forestry. He thanked the powers that be for Uranium City's absurdly glacial weather. A fire started from one of Ergo's blasts could take weeks to put out.

For the first time… ever, really, Red was grateful for snow.

Ergo’s outstretched left hand spat energy that felled a few thousand tons of pinewood while his right generated an orb. "How'd you like the surprise? Too much? I thought it was. Figured Necro should stack up before you lot arrived instead of waiting for dramatic effect."

The orb pulsed in readiness, forcing Red to think fast. His reflexive Push deflected the bomb down a slope, west of the base nexus. The earth uprooted from the ensuing explosion could've filled an Olympic pool.

Green stepped forward and strained. Ergo staggered, but other than a negligible hairline fracture across his chest plate, he tanked the Crush unharmed.

"You fail to grasp the full breadth of your annoyingness," snapped the Rogue, gouging another trough through the snow. Green only just managed to roll clear. "Your power is literally to be a zip-file converter. You condense. What kind– Seriously?"

Ergo scowled and ducked out of Blue's range, fractionally avoiding his Pull. The cobalt cloud highlighting Blue’s telekinetic influence flashed emptily as Ergo spun and countered with plasma. The Hero swore and leapt over the ray.

Another fifty or so feet of the runway disappeared.

Ergo balled up to tank another Push from Red. An SMP caught him and almost stopped skidding before Ergo erupted with heat and vaporized it. The force sent everyone flying.

After landing, Red had to dislodge a metric ton of debris off his body. Rebar, stone, and muddy, wet earth rolled off his suit as he crawled back to his feet, fuming.

I cannot wait for the day I lock this guy in a hole.

This time, Ergo used both hands to power up a bronze bomb. It was twice the size and shine of its predecessor. Red wouldn't have been surprised to see it level all three square miles of the base. And the SMP destroying eruption had bought Ergo the time he needed to pack the sphere with power.

He failed, however, to account for Green.

And how little the Hero cared for his insults.

"Nice ball," complimented Green as he caught Ergo's hands in a Crush. "Why don’t you hold on to it? You look attached."

Ergo was too tough to die from Crushing, but Green was still perfectly capable of holding him in place. The shock on Ergo's face morphed to rage. He crouched to break Green's hold with a shoulder check but frowned after nothing happened.

Blue’s Pull had rooted him to the runway. And considering his history of beaching compromised cruise ships, Red was confident Ergo wasn't going anywhere.

"That's adorable," Ergo snarled, fighting to break the hold. "You all teaming up. Really. So cute. This won't–"

Red wasn't really listening to his monologue. Instead, he'd faced Yellow, who was growing a Swell next to the bomb. His expression, though, made it clear mitigating the explosion would be up to Red.

The blast cut Ergo off mid-speech. A second sun seemed to appear as Red raised a massive Push to divert the wall of plasma up and away from the base's central hub.

Golden fire swallowed a full square mile of the forest. Trees instantly incinerated, and thousands of plants burned to ash. Snow not only disappeared within the explosion but also melted everywhere in a ten-mile radius. The heat wasn't deflectable by any means, but the force, which would've shredded every non-Queen-Class Alpha to atoms, bounced off Red's shield and rose for the heavens.

"Fuck me," breathed Green, gaping at the hundred-foot fireball. "You good, Red? Pull anything?"

"Shut up," heaved Red, reeling with fatigue. "We need–"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I feel like we might need a logger. Or any tree expert, really."

"Get to the point," coughed Red.

Green pointed to the clearing fireball. "Exploded trees don't normally do that, yeah?"

Red looked up to witness a sea of wooden debris hanging in the air. Apparently, the explosion hadn't completely annihilated everything. What remained floated through the sky like an arboreous asteroid belt.

They stared. Green looked to his teammates, then back to the sky.

"Not gonna say it? Yellow, Red? Hmm. Whatever. Gotta do everything myself, don't I? Fine." He cleared his throat. "WHAT IN THE F–"

WHAM!

Like a bullet, the wood went from zero to F-22 and cracked Green in the chest. Red heard Green's armour give and the air leave his body as he flailed off the grass and disappeared into the untouched southern woodland.

Yellow was swept up next, though he managed to Swell away the first wave. Blue did the best, managing to almost Pull the river of debris aside, but even he was bowled over. Red, far too drained to mount a defence after redirecting the blast, was clipped and sent spinning into one of the base's administrative buildings.

What the hell? he exclaimed. Red pulled himself from a mangled metal table and immediately collapsed.

Still not recovered. Damn .

It took him two more tries to succeed. The hole his impact punched through the wall was too high to jump through in his current condition, so he Pushed the whole thing down.

Outside, things only got more confusing.

Ergo's body rose from a trough half a mile away and drifted softly over to a second stranger. The stranger, though, sent chills rolling down Red's spine because he was the exact same.

A perfect copy of Ergo.

With a flick, the stranger cleared mud and dust off Ergo's body, then smacked him in the head.

Ergo's bronze eyes snapped open. "Wha– where... Oh. Magne."

"Magne," the stranger agreed. "You overstepped."

"No, this was a calculated risk," Ergo shot back, shrugging from Magne's telekinetic hold. "I had them."

"Yes," Magne sardonically agreed, throwing a pointed look at Ergo's crater. "Flawless calculations at that."

He turned to study the sky above Red, who finally found a difference between them.

Magne was an inch or two taller. And his eyes were silver. Apart from that, the Rogues were... unnervingly identical.

Sheeny, metallic skin. Bald, round heads. Towering, muscular builds and sophisticated, top-of-the-line armour.

Clones, almost.

"The Committee isn’t a challenge. There was no reason for you to intervene."

"Debatable," Magne replied, lazily flicking out a hand and picking Red off his feet.

He yelped and backhanded a Push into the Rogue, but his attack was rebuffed with one of superior potency.

Red’s brain almost short-circuited.

Never in his life had someone just... dissolved his attack.

"Even if you could, though," continued Magne, unhindered, "what about the missiles sent to level the House?"

Ergo narrowed his eyes. "Their short-range missile system–"

"Not that. I know that failed. What didn't were the long-range missiles Skies sent from New York."

"He..." Ergo started in disbelief. The rage took over, and he started to glow with energy. "I thought... our partner was supposed to handle them."

"Did you receive confirmation?"

"Assurances are supposed to assure."

"Did you, Ergo, or didn't you?"

Ergo ground his teeth.

“Who exactly,” Red chimed in hopefully, “is this partner? And what the fuck do you want?”

Magne faced him. “It’s a pity, really. Your strength. Your power. And look how you use it. Scrambling to save… insects. How exhausting. I envy your altruism.”

“I envy your shampoo bottle,” Red shot back. “Sitting around doing nothing sounds like a dream.”

The weight of Magne’s stare caused Red to squirm. “You don’t know anything. Not yet, at least. And those without knowledge should keep their thoughts as thoughts.”

Red snorted. “That’s a wordy way to say you don’t know what shampoo is. However, bathing in baby oil isn’t nearly as sanitary as you think. I know that.”

"You made a poor judgment call," chastised Magne, switching back to his brother while flicking Red down and pinning him in the asphalt. "And a better strategist nearly punished you for it."

"Go fuck yourself," snapped Ergo.

Magne somehow stood straighter. "Do better. We have neither time for nor interest in incompetence."

Red finally mustered enough focus to Push apart Magne's hold. As expected, Magne parried his follow-up, but it was only a diversion.

An SMP, shrouded in magnetic blue light, trucked into the pair at something like five hundred miles per hour, immediately removing them from Red's field of vision. In fact, they were removed from the base entirely. The only trace left was that of a massive trail of destruction leading through the southern forestland.

Following it took no time at all. Unfortunately, there was nothing but the remains of the vehicle flattened against a rocky mass of stone. Somewhere in the distance, likely a few more miles into no-man's land, he could make out the beat of helicopter blades.

His team was at his shoulder seconds later. Everyone looked winded by Magne's sudden attack. Green especially, wincing with a hand over his abdomen.

"They're gone," Red sighed, sagging to rest against the rocks. "I can hear the chopper."

Yellow squinted, trying to cut through the foliage. "Not worth the chase?"

"They're already heading back to base. Even if we knew what routes they'd take to get there, we'd be outmatched and outnumbered. The new one, Magne, has horsepower like you wouldn’t believe. I can’t overpower him, even at my best."

"No shit? Damn. And he's working with the firefly?" Green pouted angrily, keeling over to fall into a bush. "Alright, spit it out. Who boned the Luck God's wife?"

Blue found a rock to sit on and spoke curiously. "When I Pulled the truck, I only had eyes for the newcomer. We've got data on Ergo, but party crashers are wildcards. Decommissioning before learning the hard way was priority. Imagine my shock, then, when I squared up to throw and–"

"They looked identical." Red shifted sorely, rubbing his back. Being stomped into a street was unsurprisingly painful. "Save a few details, and of course, attitudes and mannerisms."

"Wait," Green interjected, "the mover’s a twin?"

Red shrugged. "Unless your logger knows another way to make wood fly."

"Seriously?" moaned Green. "We lost the entire escort, the world's number one Rogue has a goddamn twin, of comparable strength, might I add, and my costume, being ripped, no longer insulates in NORTHERN FUCKING CANADA ! Can this day get any worse?!?"

A rending groan drew the group's attention to the base, announcing the dramatic toppling of the encampment's largest watchtower. It struck the ground with a crash, flattening a munitions crate in the process.

Even through dense pinewood foliage, all four had no trouble watching the fireball curl into the sky.

"I stand corrected," snorted Green, rolling off his back. "Not only is the Luck God a jealous lover; he’s got a sense of humour. Hoe-fuckin'-ray."