Atomic Princess
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Registered: 06-2016
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Preview for Raven: Beginnings
“Awaken, Agent Raven.”
Raven groans. How…. Weird. The last thing she remembers… Raven suddenly gets queasy. That girl… Raven was crushed saving her. Or was she? Raven looks around. She can see nothing but an endless void of blackness, a never-ending field. There was nothing, nothing but… Lorena Vasquez. The NEW Goddess of Light. She stood in front of Raven, her godly aura lighting the otherwise dark plane with golden light. The Goddess’ dress, the same one Raven last saw her in, hung over her regally. Lorena’s high cheekbones, dark eyeliner, and long black hair draped in golden rings and hoops made her look like an ancient Egyptian Goddess.
“L-Lorena?” Raven says groggily. “H-How…”
“Rest, Agent Raven.” Lorena orders Raven, and touches Raven on the head. Instantly, Raven is rejuvenated, filled with courage, strength, and…
“What happened!?” Raven suddenly demands, then goes pale. “I-I’m sorry my Goddess. I didn’t mean to speak out of turn. I only meant-“
“You are forgiven, Raven. You have just been revived. Your senses are addled. You do not speak your mind clearly.”
“T-Thank you, My Goddess. S-So.”
“You were the third to fall in combat. Almost every member of your special forces squadron perished in the fight with the Council of Darkness.”
Raven says nothing, and Lorena gives her time to process this. Hot, thick tears stream down Raven’s cheeks, Raven’s dark, tanned skin suddenly running cold. Nearly everyone… Raven begins to cry. All her friends, her family, they lost.
“Agent Raven.” Lorena tells Raven, and Raven looks up at her, still sobbing quietly. “The Universal Order Syndicate did not lose the fight. Though many perished, their sacrifice were not in vain. Your fiancée, Lance McQuaid, defeat Avalon, the Bringer of Darkness. I blessed Lance, and he was given the powers of Light to wield. With this, Lance vanquished Avalon, slaying the pest once and for all. You were victorious.”
Raven doesn’t say anything again. Shock after shock. Coming back to life, knowing most of her friends died… wait. Most.
“My Goddess. Who-Who survived the battle?”
Lorena, for the first time since Raven saw her ascend to Godhood, seems to look pained. Sad.
“Agent Lance. Arctic Android. Agent Naser. General Cheer. Commander Lydia. Agent Muhammed. And Agent Queen.”
Raven doesn’t say anything again, keeping silent. Only 7 people from her squad survived. Archangel, as she was nicknamed, one of Raven’s closets friends… she must be dead. No point in asking about her. Infinity Android, dead. Lightning Android, Terra Android, both dead. Raven feels a lump of emotion swell in her throat. How could… how could this happen? How could she LET this happen?
“G-Goddess, please. I-I urge you. Revive the others, as you did me.”
“No.”
“B-But, you can do it! You can bring them back, Lorena! Bring them back!” Raven stands, lunging at Lorena, but Lorena only hugs Raven, and Raven collapses, sobbing into Lorena’s shoulder. “Please…”
“Raven, you are aware of my duties as Queen of the Gods. I cannot.”
Raven simply cries into Lorena’s shoulder. This goes on for a few minutes, before Raven steps back, tears still streaming down her face. “C-Can I request something e-else, My Goddess?”
“Yes.”
“C-Can… can I see Lance again? He can cheer me up. He was always so hopeful-“
“Raven. I am not sure if I should grant you this.”
“Please, My Goddess. Please.”
“… Okay.”
Raven suddenly lurches, the dark, ethereal plane fading, and she, and Lorena, appear in a bar booth. Both are sitting, but no one notices them. Raven instantly looks around, and sees Lance, but… something is wrong. Raven is only 19, but he looks… Raven realizes, with a cold shudder, Lance must be in his mid-40s. And… he’s drinking at the bar, alone. Raven gets up to go talk to him, to hug him anyway, but she can’t. Her hands pass through him. She can’t touch him. Raven calls his name, but Lance doesn’t react. A bartender, a familiar one. Rose. She picks up Lance’s empty beer bottle, and whispers to him.
“Are you okay?” Rose’s alien appearance, her purple skin and hair, pores all over her body, even the small tentacles that she has covering where her mouth should be, doesn’t phase Lance anymore.
“I’m fine.” Lance says. His voice is ragged, as if he’s taking up smoking. He’s clutching a picture of something. Raven leans in with a closer look, and nearly cries again. It’s a group picture, of the entire squadron, when they first met. Jason, looking silly, trying to flirt with Melody, who was giving him the cold shoulder, playing hard to get. Lance was smiling in the center, his hand locked in Raven’s. Behind them was Matthew O’Henry, who was in his Blood Knight suit, smiling happily. On his shoulder, was Michael Santorno. So young. He looked so innocent, his wide grin looking like he was about to play another practical joke. Azia in the back, as always, her white wings spread across the group, as if protecting them. James Jackson Queen, still in his cowboy outfit, tipping his hat with a devilish smile on his face. He always made that face in pictures… Raven can’t look anymore. She looks away, not able to stare. Lance doesn’t take his eyes off it.
“35 years, Rose.” He tells the bartender, running his hands through his blonde hair, which didn’t seem as gold as the sun anymore. Now it looked bleached, as if someone had removed almost all the color from it. “35 years since I lost them. Since I wasn’t fast enough to stop Avalon.”
“Lance, that isn’t your fault-“ Rose starts, but Lance just gets up, drunkenly walking out. “Lance, be careful!”
“Leave me alone!” Lance shouts, tears running down his face, and slamming the door open, and shut behind him. Rose sighs, but she can’t help but look at the picture too. She had served that squad so many times. Rose doesn’t cry, but sighs, and puts it away. She turns back to the bar, and everything fades, back in that empty void.
Lorena puts her hand on Raven’s shoulder. “Now you understand why I did not wish to show you.”
Raven says nothing, as per usual. 35 years since her death… and Lance isn’t over it. The guy who pushed through everything, who kept the squad grounded. Broken. That’s what Avalon did to him. But… there was something else nagging at Raven’s mind. Something strange, that Raven couldn’t shake off.
“My Goddess. I must ask… why did you bring me from the afterlife, why now?”
“Raven. It is complex. I did not bring you back to cause you more suffering. I have a favor to ask. A task from the Gods.”
Raven clenches her teeth. Another stupid task, that always seemed to benefit them more than it did humanity.
“What is it, Lorena?” Raven asks.
“Michael Santorno. You recall him, yes?” Lorena tells Raven. Raven’s thoughts instantly flash back to that picture, of Michael, 8 years old, smiling on the shoulder of Matthew. Michael died, as she remembered, tortured by one of Avalon’s men, and had his jaw torn off, before Lance could save him. Then Raven remembered finding him again, in another Universe, courtesy of the Gods, in an attempt to rescue from the Perfectionist. Too late again. When they arrived, Michael’s crush, someone called Elizabeth Black, had drowned in a giant tube, in a mixture of Michael’s and Elizabeth’s own blood. The Perfectionist did that. Michael refused to go back to his native universe, saying that he didn’t want any part of the Gods, any part of the Universal Order Syndicate anymore. And Raven couldn’t blame the poor kid.
“Yes. Is he in trouble again?”
“Yes and no, Raven. After you rescued him, and he declined to return to us, he… lost his mind. A 15-year-old boy, he began to research magic. Specifically, how to resurrect the dead.”
Raven pales. “What did he do?”
“Michael, he could not find a spell to bring back his beloved Elizabeth. So he took the next best thing. He summoned a demon, and attempted to make a deal.”
“He did what?!” Raven asks. How could he do that? Michael’s ONLY experiences with demons have been negative, and not very safe.
“Allow me to finish.” Lorena asks Raven politely
“Y-Yes. I’m sorry, My Goddess.”
“At any rate, the foolish boy was saved by a mage, for the demon was to con Michael. The Mage and Michael trained for years, until, in a botched attempt to force the demon to make the deal, the Mage was killed. Michael robbed the Mage of her greatest weapon, the Cloak of Illusions, and fled the Universe. Now, he has been traveling from Universe to Universe, muking with the natural order. He has killed many people in his quest to save Elizabeth Black, and now I fear he has lost his way completely. Once Michael realized the Gods were watching him still, he blocked out the Universe from Divine Influence. We MUST stop Michael before he grows too powerful.”
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Sep/27/2016, 6:25 pm
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Atomic Princess
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Registered: 06-2016
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Re: Preview for Raven: Beginnings
Raven realizes what the Goddess was saying. “You want me to go find Michael. And you want me to kill him.”
“It is not a want, Agent Raven. This is an order.”
“No.”
Both the Goddess and the Chosen Mortal stare at each other. Raven’s heart is doing jumping jacks. She’s never been so afraid. She knows was Lorena can do, but she can’t, just can’t, bring herself to kill Micheal.
“Raven. Hynar and the others give their blessing. You are the best option for this task. The Gods are asking you for your assistance. They require you. There is a reason that Hynar made you his Champion. His Chosen Mortal.”
Raven clenches her teeth. “Hynar Chose me because he had no other choice, he feared for his own death. I wasn’t the best candidate, I was just the best one at the moment.”
“And yet, you have proven that you are resourceful. Adaptable. And you are aware that leaving Micheal unchecked, will surely lead to more strife.”
Raven crosses her arms, at a loss for words. The Goddess of Light, the second most powerful God, the Queen of the Gods herself, is asking Raven for a favor. Raven is honor-bound to accept. And yet…
“I’ll do it, My Goddess. With conditions.”
“Which are?”
“I… I want training time. If he’s really so strong, I need time to train, practice my skills.”
“That can be arranged easily.”
“I also want… I want to get into Paradise. I want to experience it, with Lance, and Jason, and Melody and everyone.”
“Easily granted.”
“And I want you to promise that you won’t ever, EVER, abandon someone like you did Micheal. You could have stopped Micheal from going down the path he did, but you never did.”
“Done.”
Raven is at a loss for words. Usually, it takes hours of pleading and praying for a God to even show themselves, let alone interfere more. How bad do the Gods really want this done? Raven crosses her arms, takes a deep breath, and looks Lorena in the eyes.
“I’m ready.”
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Sep/27/2016, 6:26 pm
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