Anastasia Cho stared in amazement at the images on her monitor. The 42 inches of Ultra High-Def resolution brought the battle to vivid life in a way that almost made her recoil when a piece of debris flew by whatever camera had filmed it – and who the hell sprang for 5K resolution on security cameras anyway?! Well, the Cabal obviously, but still…
Until last night Ana, like most people in the city, had never even heard of the Cabal. But, also like most of the city, she had been glued to the news all evening long as the super villain attacks that had started in the morning at the City Jail continued at the AzTech Pyrtamid, and were brought to an end deep beneath Desdemona Island by her employers, the Vanguard. And after the press conference they held in Cathedral Park, just in time to make the Ten O’clock News, the Cabal was on everybody’s lips!
Captain Astor had called her shortly after the press conference and asked if she could be in the office early – and if so, to be prepared for a long day. So now, just after 06:00 the next morning, she found herself in her office on the 76th floor of the AzTech Pyramid watching video of the bosses’ fight with a whole pack of super-powdered criminals. Her heart beat faster as she considered the job he’d given her…
“Ana, I need you to take a look at the video footage on this drive,” he’d said, handing her a small hard drive, the same bronze hue as his armor. “It’s from the battle last night – both security camera footage from the base and my own helmet footage. After you’ve got a feel for it, I want you to dig up all the additional footage you can find – the Pyramid’s security video should be no challenge, but it might take some effort to get footage from the art museum, the businesses in the Diamond District, the City Jail and from the military convoy.”
She’d raised her eyebrows at those last two, then blushed when he’d grinned at her. God, he was gorgeous! And that faintest hint of an unidentifiable accent… “Yes, I suspect you won’t have much luck with the police or the military,” he’d chuckled. “But I’ll e-mail you a couple contacts, just in case.
“Once you have all your assets together, we need you to put together a comprehensive narrative of yesterday’s events… ” He’d then proceeded to give her a detailed description of what he envisioned. As she took the drive from him his fingers had brushed hers and she’d felt a spark. Her blush returned, even deeper, but the Captain hadn’t seem to notice… she’d sighed, plugged the disk into her computer, and got to work…
Taking over the conference room, in a marathon session Ana, her two assistants and the new intern edited together not only the footage from the Cabal itself and Scion’s armor camera, but from every other source he’d requested, with the exception of the convoy. While Detective Ransom at the APD had been able to wrangle some footage together from the jail fight, the military had been unwilling to even consider releasing any of their footage.
Fortunately, that hadn’t proved to be much of a roadblock. The ambush had occurred on the city’s main freeway, and countless smart phone recordings, of both the attack and the running fight through the city’s skies that followed, had been uploaded to social media overnight – some of it amazingly good. None of it as high-resolution as the stuff from the Cabal or Scion’s armor, but good enough for her to work with.
Cerebral’s psychic monologuing had had to be dubbed in, of course, pieced together from Artemis‘ almost verbatim memory of it and supplemented by the memories of the others, all of whom had stopped by during the day to give their input. They all described the voice differently, from “Darth Vader-like,” according to Phantom Ace, to “an angry Walter Cronkite” as described by Artemis… which had gotten the scary lady some odd looks.
Ana had despaired of finding the right voice for Cerebral, but then Trent the intern had spoken up. The tall, scrawny and physically awkward black 17-year-old turned out to be capable of generating a deep baritone totally at odds with his body – and he had a real flair for dramatic readings. Once he’d recorded Cerebral’s dialogue, the whole thing was narrated by Scion in a no-nonsense style that nicely contrasted with the often violent images. The result was a piece that subtly suggested heroic competence without any unseemly, overt bragging.
Ana had known she was capable of great work when she’d applied for the job as the Vanguard’s PR manager, if only she could get out from under her credit-stealing boss in the AzTech Global Media department where she’d languished for the last three years. And as she handed off the finished video to Captain Astor she had no doubt that she’d now successfully proved it.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Just 30 hours after the battle beneath Desdemona Island ended, the Vanguard released their “public debriefing” to the media. Parts of the truth regarding the existence and nature of the Cabal had been known to the higher levels of various authorities for years, and since the Astoria Incidnet a few elements of that truth had been reported by some media sources. But neither the mainstream media nor the public had really understood the scope of the Cabal’s influence over Astoria until now.
The public response to this revelation was explosive.
From local calls for the resignation, if not the outright prosecution, of Mayor Syrett, to national concerns about the integrity and competence of SHADE, the people demanded answers. And with their public stock now soaring sky-high, the Vanguard was where many turned for those answers. It took almost two weeks of interviews, guest shots on both local and national talk shows, and the publication of an in-depth op-ed piece, jointly written by Artemis, Quanta and Scion, but eventually things began to calm down.
The mayor’s poll numbers began to climb again as it became obvious that the Cabal had stuck to mid-level bureaucrats in their corruption of city government. Once her office began a full independent audit of all city employees, including herself, her campaign for re-election in November seemed firmly back on track. The sudden wave of resignations and early retirements that swept almost every department, and a handful of arrests, gave the public a sense that the house cleaning was proving effective.
SHADE remained tight-lipped in the face of the public outrage, beyond bland assurances that the situation had been dealt with appropriately. But since this was the organization’s standard response to almost all public attention directed at them, it didn’t generate much more in the way of negative reaction.
But in many circles the sudden resignation of former Regional Director Mitchell, the swift appointment of Calpurnia Maddox as his replacement, and the sweeping reforms and personnel changes she’d quickly undertaken, were now seen in a new light. The fact that the agency was also greatly expanding its presence in the city helped to calm much of the uproar.
Truth be told, in the weeks that followed the Battle of the Cabal, as the press had dubbed it, some voices began to emerge suggesting that maybe the old stats quo hadn’t been so bad after all… in the aftermath of the Incident ordinary crime had been on a slow but steady rise, while meta-human crime had absolutely skyrocketed. While most people understood that the Vanguard couldn’t be everywhere at once, and weren’t a panacea for every problem, a vocal minority began to criticize the team for not doing enough to return the city to the placid calm of the Cabal years.
Despite the general annoyance this produced in the team, the Vanguard continued to go on about their business of keeping Astoria as safe as possible, while trying to live their own lives as normally as possible…
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Totem
In the days after the battle with Cerebral and his E.V.A.L. lieutenants, Cooper had been afraid to sleep, uncertain if the Avatar of Eagle could reassert itself while he was vulnerable, his mental defenses down. That first night, on returning to the Pyramid exhausted and deeply disturbed, he had simply sat cross-legged on his bed, meditating and trying to discover what had gone so wrong…
When he had undergone the rituals and received the tattoos that bound the immortal avatars of the Great Beasts to his mortal soul he had thought he understood the restrictions – he could summon each of the five Warrior Great Beasts only once in any given day, between sunrise and sunrise; and they could not remain in the mortal world beyond the next sunrise after they were summoned. He had wondered at the seemingly arbitrary restraints, but time had seemed of the essence then, and the Elders had had no patience for his questions.
He had always believed that the mystical power that bound them together would prevent him from summoning an avatar more than once a day, even if he wished to do so. But when the atrium glass had shattered and the lethal rain had begun to fall, his one thought had been to shield Meg – and he had automatically called forth the avatar best suited to the task, without conscious thought. And so Eagle had manifested twice in the same day.
Usually when he “became” an avatar Cooper was just as fully aware and in charge as the Great Beast was – it had been a symbiotic relationship that he had found hard to articulate the few times he had tried to explain it to Meg. He was simultaneously himself and the “other,” the joint mind and will feeling as much his own as when he was in his purely mortal form.
But that night had been different. When Eagle had manifested in the mortal world for the second time that day Cooper had felt a sudden fierce joy, even as Eagle reacted to the crisis at hand. It wasn’t until the danger had passed that he had felt himself, in some indefinable way, separate from the avatar spirit whose form he wore. Separate, and as he quickly found, subordinate!
Unable to influence the body he was now trapped in, Cooper had become a mere passenger, powerless to effect the events around him. And when Eagle eventually wearied of his constant demands to return his mortal body, the avatar had mystically “gagged” him! Only once, when the group had started underground, had he felt the slightest weakening of the avatar’s iron will. He’d tried silently then to reinforce the air spirit’s fear of enclosed spaces, to make him give up their shared body and return them to his human from… but it only seemed to renew Eagle’s resolve to prove he was “better.”
If they hadn’t been knocked unconscious during the fight in the Cabal’s hidden command center, Cooper didn’t know if he could ever have regained control… even during the fight he’d felt himself growing drowsy, fading away… and now he was afraid to go to sleep, lest unconsciousness prove to be a two-way street… for Eagle or any of the other avatars to become ascendent…
He’d tried to keep busy, helping Ana Cho with the public debriefing video and attending the press conference when they’d released it; fighting street crime in the dark hours of the night; and giving interviews to several TV news stations. But no print interviews, as he doggedly avoided Meg… he didn’t want her anywhere near him if he couldn’t control his powers, but he nevertheless wouldn’t let any of her rivals “scoop” her… if he understood that term correctly…
On the evening of the third day, Artemis had confronted him in the hallway of the living quarters. She was in full costume, as always, but she had her hood pulled back and her raven hair framed a face even more serious than usual.
“Cooper,” she’d said, laying a hand on his arm to stop him as he tried to move past her. “Something is clearly troubling you, and it has been since the night of the fight with E.V.A.L. I’d hoped you would resolve it, or at least talk to one of us about it, but you haven’t slept in three days, and it’s beginning to show. Even some of the others have begun to notice.
“You’re part of a team now, my friend. If something is wrong with you… or one of your… avatars… don’t you think we should know about it? Maybe we can even help.”
His immediate reaction had been to reject her advice and storm off to his room; but the impulse was immediately followed by the realization that he couldn’t go on like this much longer. He was beginning to hallucinate, to see movement out of the corner of his eye, to hear unintelligible voices just on the edge of understanding… and he didn’t dare take any drugs to bolster his flagging will. His body would force him into sleep soon, no matter how hard he fought it…
And it suddenly occurred to him that if Eagle, or any other of the avatars, took over his body, then it would be vital that the others knew what was going on… no telling how much damage a Great Beast could do uncontrolled in the world…
“Yes, you are correct, Artemis,” he finally admitted. “Come to my room, and I will tell you all about it… though you may find it difficult to understand…”
To her credit, Artemis had listened patiently and without the least hint of disbelieve as he’d outlined the problem, in all its mystical convolution. Not too surprising, he supposed, given what little he knew of her own history and of her cloak. She had reassured him that she would keep a watch outside his room, and should he be “possessed” while he slept she and the team would see to it that any avatar so manifested would be quickly knocked back into unconsciousness itself. After which they would find a more permanent solution to the problem, even if they had to go to Arkanos himself.
Before the door had even closed behind her, Cooper was fast asleep…
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Welcome Kúng who is also Sgwáansang.”
The voice was resonate, but not deep, with a certain lightness and just a hint of amusement. Cooper – and when had he stopped thinking of himself as Kúng? – opened his eyes. He was standing on a familiar pebble beach, dark water lapping a few yards behind him and a wall of dark forest looming an equal distance before him. Although the air was clear around him for maybe 30 feet, a wall of fog obscured anything beyond that, a pearly gray light emanating from it.
But he knew that not far up the path, which was just visible amongst the trees, he would find his old village… or at least a dream version of the village. Stepping out from the mist, at the head of the path, he was surprised to see his grandfather. Except that he somehow knew, in the way you know things in dreams, that it wasn’t really his grandfather… even as the realization came to him, the man’s features shifted and it was Raven that stood beckoning him forward.
He walked silently beside Grandfather/Raven, and as they moved the circle of mist moved with them, until finally they stepped into the center of the village. Arrayed in a semicircle before the Elder’s Lodge were three of the five Avatars of the Great Warrior Beasts – Orca, Bear, and Wolf. Or were they his mother, his uncle, and the old shaman who had been his teacher?
Raven stepped forward to join the others, passing by Eagle, who was on his knees between the horns of the arc they formed. His hands and wings were bound by violet bands of mystic energy, his expression sullen and defiant. He glowered at Kúng sourly.
“We’ve been waiting for you, oh Chosen One,” Raven said dryly. “You certainly took your time getting here.”
“Where… exactly… are we?” Kúng asked, gazing around curiously. He felt strangely calm, given the circumstances.
“We are in the Half-Realm,” Raven replied. “It is a place between the True World of the gods and your own mortal world. This is where dwells that portion of the Avatars of the gods that are bound to the mortal plane through the Sacred Tattoos.”
“That portion?” Kúng was confused. “I thought I was bound directly to the Great Spirits by the ink…”
Raven laughed, and several of the others smiled… Eagle sneered. “No, son of the Haida. Like all the gods of Earth, the Great Spirits are bound by the Pact, prevented by that ancient oath to never meddle directly in the mortal world.
All animals avatars around him in the fog.
The Half-Realm, where the portion of the avatars bonded to him live.
Like him, they are all cut off from the True World, where the full avatars live.
Part of the Ancient Pact has been broken, but other parts remain. Must forge a new Pact.
Only five tattoos at time because no mortal soul can survive more; but all are available in the Half-Realm.
Chilz
Going ou-of-state to see his mother for the first time since his transformation
Blue Flame
Dream of his mother, saying he should be proud of his name. Old roommates on the Chamber-good-days wagon. Feels alienated form old co-workers. Sees his impact at old immersion school. Visits friend at comic shop; tells him his secret ID; takes publicity pix for the shop. Meets non-sisters working at Salt and Straw.
Scion
Work with Quanta on developing secure communications, Artemis’ new escrima sticks, etc.
Quanta
Work with Scion, play with the kids re: his secret ID, develop new powers techniques
Phantom Ace
????
Artemis
Train others, have a team-up with a Stormer or two, and ???