PROLOGUE

  In the depths there was nothing but darkness, shadow had bee all-enpassing. A thiky veil that cealed everything from sight, save his own. There was a scream, a shout, a gunshot, then a roar. The horrible sound rippled through his bones as he ducked beh a limb that swung through the dark, a pair of glowing red eyes somewhere just past it. He felt his knees buckle as the sheer force of the blow rocked through him even though it missed. A fsh of green light sailed over his head, the st of burned flesh apanying an inhuman scream of agony. Something caught him in the chest and he was sent careening backwards, hittial bars. His vision flickered as pain shot down his spine a his head spinning.

  More fshes of green light filled the open room, more screams, more shouts of terror. His chest rose and fell as his eyes opened up again a that gold overy wash over the world. For a moment he could see, for a moment, he felt his guts . He coughed as he staggered to his feet only for a hand to around his ankle. He started, spinning around to see a shape in the darkness. A pair of youthful eyes looked up at him as another monstrous roar cut into his ears and shook his soul. His heart raced aried to pull his foot away, “I ’t help you if you don’t let go,” He grunted.

  The youth shook their head, their broken eyes filled with resignation. He looked past them and saw what he should have seen before. Their legs were… gone, everything past their waist. A strange red light licked against their body, the only thing keeping them funally alive. He didn’t need his eyes to tell him that ohe demons were gohis kid would die. He felt a lump form in his throat, his fingers shaking as the kid pointed behind themselves, a small amount of light brightening the hopelessness in their gaze. He followed the dire they were indig and saw a shape leaning against the back wall, another young person, this one a bit older. Maybe even an adult.

  “Him, hurry, brother,” The kid murmured as another fsh of green light ripped through the room.

  “You gonna help or what?!” Addison shouted over the din, “There’s a lot of these fuckers, Martin!”

  Martin whipped his head towards the lo the cage and he hurried over to it. Instinct screaming at him to listen to the kid. He pointed his gun at the lod fired, blowing it off and wreng the door open. He raced inside, not thinking about whatever the slick, thick, wet sludge at his feet was posed of. His sense of smell was already burned away from mere moments of being in this horrible pce. He slid to a stop and k o the young man. He couldn’t switch to his ht, to see the truth about the boy, in the dark. He could only trust his gut, “Hey, you awake? How I help?” He asked quickly.

  A pair of dark eyes met his and a low rattling growl escaped the young man’s throat. He coughed and gnced over at the kid on the ground before looking up at him. Martin couldn’t make out much of the boy’s features with the golden overy, but he could see enough. More importantly, he could see the thick colr ed around his throat and s binding his arms to the wall over his head. “Colr,” The boy rasped, “I’ll help. I hurt them.”

  Martin touched the material, it wasn’t a power restraining device. It felt smooth and heavy but it wasn’t iroher. Lead? He wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter. He turned his attention to the lo the colr and drew his pistol again. “Sorry about your ears,” He grunted quickly and the young man just ilting his head up a bit and ing his away. Another noisy bang sounded and the lock was wrenched off the colr. He quickly pulled the colr off and was surprised at just how damn heavy it was. He tossed it to the side with a grunt and took a few steps back as a new st ripped through his nose blindness. Sulfur.

  “Martin!” Addison shouted as more fshes of green illumihe space. Martin didn’t move, he could only watch as the young man’s body began to ge. He took a low, deep breath through his nose and another low growl escaped him. He slowly rose to his feet and with a single jerk of his arms ripped the s from the wall. He looked down at them as the skin on his hands turned bck before spreading up his arms. His hair began to ge color, turning to a nearly maroon color that glowed in the dark. Fmes began to rise from his shoulder as he opened his mouth to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth. He whipped his arms again and ed the s around them, his smaller body growing in size to that of a bodybuilder in a matter of seds.

  Martin took a step back as the young man started to walk forward and through the bars of the cage, the metal turning into liquid against his skihrew his head back, “LU!” He bellowed and turned, kig off the ground with all his might. The floor beh Martin shook a little uhe force of it as the boy-turned-moackled the demon. Each of the horrible beasts looked different, so it was impossible to attribute any sort of generality to them. The ohat the young man tackled looked somewhere between a crab and a horse, the disturbing thing’s massive arms were ripped off in an instant and a cw shoved through its rge lower body before the bestial young man charged at the .

  Martin stepped out of the cage as the amount of green fshes decreased slightly. He could see Addison hurrying over to him, gng back over her shoulder at the massacre taking pce. “Who the hell is that?”

  He frowned solemnly befng down at the kid who looked like they’d lost sciousness. “His brother.”

  –

  Before the memory could drag on any further, a loud buzzing began to draw him back to his senses. He sat up with a gasp, coughing as he threw himself out of his bed. He scrambled to the bathroom and was sick to his stomach for a while before he finally mao pull himself together. Martin sat o the toilet for a time, resting his head against the aterial as he tried to push the haunting images down in his mind. It took everything he had to take a shower and dress himself before he stumbled into the living room of the parisian apartment.

  “Sick again?” Addison asked from the ter, her expression ft.

  “Yeah,” He grunted and walked over as she poured him a cup of coffee. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his fsk.

  She put her hand over his cup and gave him aare, “Don’t,” She said and jerked her towards the ter of the room. A bck haired figure was sitting in front of the television, shoulders hunched forward. He frow her but sighed, rubbing the side of his head and pig up the mug. He sipped at it ond turned fully towards the young man sitting on the couch. “He finally came out, go talk to him. We’ve got to meet with the others in a few minutes.”

  “I could just-” Martin began but she gave him anre. He sighed and nodded, “Fine.”

  He walked over to the coud sat dowo the young man. They sat in silence for a while as Martin sipped his coffee and they stared at the dark television across from them. Martin ran his thumb over the mug and turned a few times, trying to figure out exactly what to say to the kid. It wasn’t easy, how could it be? He’d watched his little brother die like that, he’d been tortured too, though from the looks of him you couldn’t tell. All the cuts and scrapes on his body had vanished without a trace.

  “Lu DuCast is my Uhe boy said.

  Martin gnced his way and examined his facial features. There was a small resembhere that he hadn’t picked up on immediately but noinly obvious. Martin didn’t say anything right away ahe kid get his thoughts out.

  “When I awakened he had me tested,” The boy tinued, “Then he found out that my powers could hurt him. It was an act,” He said, holding up his hand, a fme appeared on it that was a mixture of red and bck. Beh it, his fingernails grew out to sharpened points. “hing I knew, my brother and I were down there. I could regee from what they did but my-” He choked out a sob and leaned forward in his seat, g his fist around the fme and reag up to grab his head. “Damn it. What kind of hero does that?”

  “He isn’t a hero, kid,” Martin said gruffly, “There’s a lot of fakes out there.”

  The boy looked up at him, his face stri, “He- my-”

  “I know,” Martin said a his mug down and gave the kid an assessing look. The knowledge he’d gained from Sonya ovna with his ability had told him all he o know about the real threats to the world. The ‘Heralds’ and their invincible master. She had a deep knowledge of the more promi heroes of her time. Yet she had no memory of this kid. Which meant that he wasn’t supposed to escape his uncle’s grip alive, not in this timeline anyway. He scoffed internally at the thought, She had no idea what I’d find, but it looks like I found something. He cleared his throat as he looked back to his mug, “What do you want to do?”

  The boy looked back down to his hands and squeezed them together, “I don’t know. I ’t bee a hero. I ’t work with him. I’m sure he knows I’m alive. He’ll e for me.”

  “Fight anyway,” Martin said ftly.

  “Huh? But- that’s- I don’t have a lise,” The kid said.

  “I doher,” Martin said and picked his coffee up, “her does she,” He said and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “The whole system is busted, kid, not gonna lie to you. It goes all the way to the top,” He said a his throat tighten a little in warning as he drew close to saying too much. He coughed and sipped at his coffee again. “So we’re going to deal with the ones nobody wants to touch. Vigiyle if need be. ’t say I’m a fan of it, but, gotta do what you gotta do.”

  “What’s your he kid asked.

  “Mimir is fine inte, I don’t really care,” He said and sipped his drink again before looking down into his mug, “Pretty sure the guy I used to be died down in that dark hole we pulled you out of.”

  A thoughtful expression bloomed on the young man's fad he looked down at his hands again, “Hellion.”

  Martin raised an eyebrow, “Mm?”

  The kid looked him in the eyes, “Then I’m Hellion,” He said, “Let me help y him down.”

  Martin sipped at his drink one more time befng over his shoulder at Addison who was staring at the two of them. She let out a sigh before breaking into an easy smile, “Alright Hellion, go take a shower a dressed. Should be some clothes in your room for you. Hope they fit.”

  The boy blinked, “Just like that?”

  Martin grunted and got to his feet, “You’re strong, kid, and you got a good reason to fight. Good enough for me,” He said and scratched the back of his head, not admitting that half of the reason he was even sidering this was because Addison had worn him dowhe past couple of weeks. He’d sworn that he’d collect like-minded people and almost immediately reneged when he’d entered Addison. Saying and doing had been two very different things, it’d turned out. To be ho, though, it was good having someoo work with. Sihen, they’d found a few others who were worth teaming up with. It was a small group, but he felt like he had a ghost of a ow.

  It’s a start.

  It was not long after that he, Addison, and the newly minted Hellion arrived at a small cafe on the south side. There they were allowed into the basement where the others waited for them. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat as he lumbered down creaking stairs, the air in the pce thick with cigarette smoke. The room itself was as fortable as was necessary, four walls and a single circur table set in the middle with crates and stools around it to be used as seats.

  Two others sat in the room, one was an older man with a cold look in a pair of blue eyes hidden behind bushy white eyebrows. He leaned forward on a e that seemed to leave a fai in the ground where he sat. The other was a brown haired woman in peared to be a torn up Pandora bat uniform. She wore a visor over her eyes despite the dim light and had scars across her ned . She tilted her head to the right and openly looked Martin up and down.

  “You look like shit, Mimir.”

  “Say that when you get your face fixed,” He grunted back at her.

  She snorted and leaned back, “New kid!” She said and then raised an eyebrow, “The powerhouse from the el pit?”

  “His name is Hellion,” Addison said, “Show a care, Faux.”

  Faux gave a half-assed salute, “Aye aye, Major.”

  “Wele, Hellion, I’m Max,” The old man said and leaned forward on his e, the ground creakih him. “I heard about what happened, shame.”

  “I’ll make it right,” Hellion said with a faint tighto his voice. He walked to one of the seats and sat down without invitation, Addison sittio him. “One way or another,” He added with barely tained bloodlust.

  “Definitely one of us,” Faux said with a chuckle before turning to Martin, “Alright bossman, why are we here?”

  Martin pulled a lighter from his pocket and flicked it open, lighting a cigarette as he turo a board behind him. “Today we’re going to talk about our pn, our targets, and our method t the Queen of Vilins out of hiding so we bring her down.”

  He pulled the cloth c the board away, It all starts here.