One April Morning at CIU, near the ruins of the I7 HQ...
It took Steven Chen several seconds to take in the enormity of what had just happened. The I7 Headquarters had just been completely destroyed by what appeared to be an alien mothership.
“Triumph...” Steven echoed the name of his teammate, the super speedster who’d been inside the HQ when it was destroyed. Presumably, he was now dead. An anger flashed through Chen’s eyes, and milliseconds later, his form was replaced by that of the hero Palisade.
Activating a radio he’d built into the bio-suit, Chen called out to all listeners. “Level 1 emergency to all I7 members! The headquarters has been destroyed by an alien force. Triumph is dead. Repeat, Triumph is DEAD.”
Palisade flew in toward Langley Hall, now partially overshadowed by the same ship that had just destroyed the headquarters. Suddenly he had a horrible fear that the vessel was going to unload on the dorm as well.
Cazmonster was next to arrive; he flew out of a 7th floor window and landed on the sidewalk outside. “Chen, what the hell?”
“That’s my line,” Chen joked, “what the hell” was a phrase he had so often repeated it was almost like his catch phrase. “That thing just blew up our HQ, and Triumph was in there!”
Seconds later, a portal opened in front of the building, and The Adept, The Gray Robe, and The American Attitude stepped out. The heroes gathered on the front steps of Langley to come up with a quick gameplan.
“Okay, Steel’s not going to be joining us. Where’s Angela?” The Adept asked.
“She’s gone,” Palisade said; everyone was suddenly even more startled. “Not like Triumph; she left with that vampire guy. I think she’s one of them now.”
“So it’s just us 5,” The Adept concluded somberly. “Against some sort of massive mothership. Okay, we need to evacuate Langley. They could fire that weapon again.”
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Cazmonster added.
“Why not?”
“Because, they’re deploying troops!” Cazmonster pointed up as dozens of humanoid but alien forms began dropping from the vessel. Each was wearing a suit frighteningly similar to Palisade’s.
“Anything you want to tell us?” The Gray Robe asked sarcastically.
“No idea who these guys are,” Steven answered. “But if those suits are the same as mine, you all need to be very careful.
Suddenly, the air was filled with flying spikes. Several bounced off Cazmonster as he jumped in front to cover the heroes. Palisade picked one up and examined it. “These are neurotoxin spikes. If any one of these breaks your skin, you’re dead.”
“Time to move, I7,” The Adept shouted. “Into Langley, now!”
The group rushed inside the solid structure as dozens of alien biosuits reached the ground. A massive noise thundered outside as the mothership moved away from Langley. The American Attitude crashed to his knees, holding his hands against his ears against the decibels. Tears streamed from his face, not only from the pain, but from the loss of one of his closest friends. The Gray Robe ran over and helped him onto one of the lobby couches, while Palisade and Cazmonster pushed several granite benches against the doors.
“That won’t stop them busting into the windows,” The Adept advised.
“Best we can do, Rick!” Cazmonster shouted. “Why don’t you start porting people down here. We can defend the lobby a lot longer than the whole building!”
“Doesn’t look like I need to!” Rick shouted, pointing at the door leading off one end of the lobby. Dozens of people came running out.
Cazmonster, seeing the chaos, turned to face the crowd. Turning on his loud speaker, he said “Stop! Move calmly into the lounges in an orderly fashion! If anyone gets trampled to death, I will personally take it out of your hide!” Startled, the crowd slowed, and began moving more calmly but still quickly into the two large lounges that stood off of Langley’s lobby.
Meanwhile, the aliens had broken through the outer doors, and were trying to get past Palisade’s barricade. Cazmonster returned to help shore up the defense, while The Adept began sending mystic blasts out of one of the small windows. Fortunately for them, the aliens did not seem to have a strong defense against magic, and soon fell back to regroup.
That’s when the Gray Robe went into action. Concentrating as hard as she could, she caused several trees along the campus street to begin first swaying, then actively attacking the aliens. Palisade fired several rounds at them as well. But as Palisade stood firing, his suit started to break up around him into little bits of light. The light then flowed outward toward one of the aliens, who held a bio-device of some sort.
“No!” Chen shouted, but it was too late. Within seconds, it was Steven Chen, college student, standing in the Langley lobby. Palisade was gone, presumably for good.
“Crap!” Cazmonster said. “Rick, we gotta get those people out of the lobby before those dudes get in here! There’s no way four of us can fight those aliens off!”
“Way ahead of you! Barry, help me usher these people through my portals!” The American Attitude stood up and gathered himself together, following The Adept into one of the lounges. Steven Chen ran with them.
“Syd, we need more! Can you uproot some ground to throw at those things?” Cazmonster shouted.
“I’m pushing myself as it is, but I’ll try!” Putting all of her concentration into it, her every muscle straining, Syd tugged at the earth deep under the streets outside. If she could get to the natural rock, she could really do some damage. Cazmonster strained against the doors as the aliens pressed against them. As the doors buckled and Cazmonster was forced back, sidewalk began to buckle as well.
“I can’t get it!” Syd said. Then, as the aliens came running in, her expression changed. The crater of the hq! The bare earth was exposed there, right across the street. Massive blocks of earth now flew up as Syd redirected her efforts, landing on top of several of the aliens that were still outside. They were soon pinned under tons of earth.
Cazmonster went to work on the spikey aliens that rushed into the lobby, fighting as he hadn’t fought in some time. These were no zombied Milan Syndicate troops. They were invading alien soldiers, armed with advanced bio-weapons. He made no effort not to kill. Using steel rods from the ruptured walls, Cazmonster speared several of them, breaking their necks to finish them as spikes bounced harmlessly off his solid hide.
The Gray robe rushed into the other lounge and, smashing the windows out with a chunk of earth, began ushering people outside. “Run!” she said to them as the hustled out.
“Rick, this is Caz!” the werewolf shouted through his loud speakers. “I can’t hold them! You need to get as many people as possible out NOW!”
In the lounge, The Adept had been moving people through his portal as quickly as possible, but there were still dozens more. The Attitude nodded at him. “I’ll go help Cazmonster buy you some time!”
“Barry, those spikes will kill you!” Steven shouted.
“Then they will! They took my best friend from me today. They’re about to learn what the American Attitude is all about!” He turned, and moved into the lobby.
Steven looked into the Adept’s eyes. “Don’t let it be for nothing!”
The Adept looked away, and then spread his arms wide. A mystical glow appear around him the Robes of Merlin. Suddenly, the cloth of this world was ripped asunder, and the portal expanded to engulf the entire wall of both lounges. Syd looked over at the now missing wall and ran through the open segment to join her friends. A mere second after everyone from both lounges were out, the portal fell, and The Adept passed out.
“That’s not good,” Syd said. “I’m exhausted, your suit’s gone. I think we’re done for.”
“Might as well go out fighting,” Steven said. The two heroes went back to the lobby in time to see the American Attitude go flying through a concrete wall into a restroom. Cazmonster was being held down by at least ten aliens. Steven and Syd charged the aliens, and were immediately hit with several flying spikes. That’s when Steven realized he’d misidentified the spikes. They were a neuro-toxin, but it wasn’t a fatal one. That last thought was on his mind as it slipped into darkness.
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