Digital/Out of Town
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
((This is a story I created a long time ago as kind of an intro for Digital. I never really finished it but plan to when I get time))
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Just like Any other Day
The summer’s sun was shining down on the people of Atlas Park. One hero hovered high above, overlooking the center piece of Paragon City. Digital’s eyes darted to the major troubled spots of the city listening for any cries for help. It seemed all was in order. A smile grew on his face. Most days he loved to clean up the streets of Paragon, but today was different. Digital had something to do. So it pleased him to see that all was well.
Digital flew towards King’s Row to start this annual ritual. He stopped at an old parking lot. He knelt down and whispered “Sorry father”, as he closed his eyes.
He remembers every detail of his fathers passing. The night had a little nip in the air as he and his father were on patrol. Back then he went by Spark and his father was named Digital. They were flying around Kings Row looking for any problems, they hadn’t found any. Looked to be a quite night Spark thought to himself when the horizon lit up with an explosion. Both paused and without a word to one another sped towards the burst.
When they arrived heroes were already on the scene. It was the 5th Column. They were attacking an office building, most of the workers where gone for the night but some still lingered. A teleporter was already getting the people out of the building. Some heroes had already engaged the 5th, Spark and his father decided to deal with the 5th that were starting to surround the building.
The battle raged on when a lone rocket hit an already weakened wall of the building, a large chunk began to fall on the citizens below that gathered to watch. Without thinking Spark’s father sped over to catch the falling debris. He held the large section of wall over his head but he couldn’t hold it much longer. As the people began to run away a second rocket hit Spark’s father in the chest. He started falling to the ground with the debris not far behind. They both landed with a sickening thud. Spark shouted out for his father but he knew he couldn’t survive that fall.
Spark glanced up to where the second rocket was fired from. In a rage he sped off to confront the villain. When he arrived he noticed the lone figure wasn’t wearing a 5th uniform. It was something he had never seen before. Then there was darkness.
That’s the last thing he can remember. It seems he was tossed into a wall and sent into a coma for 5 years. After he awoke he took up his fathers name and swore to help protect Paragon’s citizens.
Digital opened his eyes. About 100 yards in front of him stood an old lady who was about to have her purse stolen by a Skull thug. Digital flew over and cut him off.
"Damn, another freakin’ hero" said the thug.
Digital replied "You’d think with a city full of heroes you’d give up." as his electric energy traveled from his toes to his hands. A blast emitted from Digital’s finger tips.
As the thug tried to run the blast hit him in the back and sent his body into a shock. Digital took out a jail teleporter and tossed it on to the thug. Seconds later the thug was no longer there. The old woman thanked Digital. He smiled at her and flew off towards the south. He’s headed out of town.
Cemetery Visit
Since the Banished Pantheon basically took over Paragon’s cemetery most have buried loved ones outside the city. When he awoke from his five year long coma he awoke to a battered Paragon City. The most of the heroes had died fighting off the Rikti invasion, most of them he knew. He considered them family. After his father’s death Digital was told that many of the heroes chipped in for the funeral and gave him a fine farewell. No one expected him to wake up, so the heroes went ahead and found a graveyard outside of Paragon.
As Digital approached the Murphy cemetery in Narraganset he stopped flying and walked the rest of the way. It was more out of respect for the dead than anything else.
While walking in the cemetery Digital thought it was odd how much less crime and fewer heroes this city has compared to Paragon just a hundred or so miles away. It’s always been the case with the surrounding cities of Paragon. No one really knows how to explain it, some have said that there’s something in Paragon city pulling the villains there. And where the villains are heroes follow.
As he drew closer to his father’s grave site something didn’t feel quite right. There was a eerie silence all through out the city. Thinking back he noticed he hasn’t seen any people or even heard the birds that seem to over populate the surrounding cities of Paragon. He didn’t remember seeing any cars when he flew over route 95 or on the way to the cemetery.
When he arrived at his father’s grave Digital’s concerns where confirmed. Something strange was happening. His father’s grave was dug up, yet there was no dirt pile, and the body removed. His wasn’t the only corpse that was taken, it seemed a few other random graves where dug up also. Digital shook with anger as his brown eyes turned blue and filled with electricity. Digital blasted out of the cemetery in a rage and headed straight to Narraganset city hall.
At city hall Digital again found no one. The entire city’s citizens just left everything behind and vacated the area it seems. Digital noticed some muddy footprints off in the distance and decided to follow them. They lead him out of city hall a few blocks down until they just stopped. Digital looked around and didn’t really notice anything strange, until he took a closer look at the last footstep. He knelt down and noticed the ground was slightly discolored.
Digital glanced up to see a large misty dark cloud hovering just over the bay. It seemed to have random bolts of light coursing through its mass with faint bolts of light hidden deep within it.
"You shouldn’t be here" said a voice behind Digital.
SHARD
Digital spun around to see who said that. Standing there with a gun in his hand was a man in a military uniform. He was about 5’8” in his 50’s with a noticeable scar over the top of his forehead. He was in decent shape for his age.
"Come with me" said the man with the drawn gun now pointed directly at Digital.
It seemed like more like an order than an invitation. Digital could easily fire a blast and render the man immobile and enough time for Digital to escape, but he may know what happened to his father’s grave and the citizens of this city. So Digital went along.
The man had Digital walk in front and gave instructions on where to go. He led them to an underground tunnel. After the gate closed the man introduced himself.
"My name is Sergeant Douglas. I apologize for the use of my weapon. We just needed to move quickly." He said as he holstered his weapon.
Before Digital could ask what the situation is, the Sergeant continued
"I’m in charge of S.H.A.R.D., the Super Human Affairs and Research Directorate. We’re a government funded group that’s responsible for hero and villain foul-ups."
"Why is it I’ve never heard of you?" a skeptical Digital asked.
"You’re in Paragon City. You wouldn’t need us, you have the highest hero population on the planet. We deal with areas who are less fortunate." Quipped the Sergeant.
"Ok, so what’s going on here?"
"Reports came in 36 hours ago of people disappearing. Normally we’d think it was a teleporter who just discovered his powers, but we do check satellite images as a precaution. What we found confirmed that it wasn’t a teleporter but some kind of Portal. Probably some kind of experiment from the boys at Portal corp.” said the Sergeant kind of ticked. “When we arrived that dark cloud you were staring at was over the city of Narragansett sending down beams of light that would either abduct the person in the light or was disintegrating them. At the time we had no idea. Later we found out it was some kind of abduction."
"How’d you figure that out?"
"One of my men was taken by it, we’re all equipped with vital sign monitors and GPS devices. His vitals are still strong. But we can't seem to place exactly where he is."
"Did you ask Portal Corp. about this?"
"Yes, they deny working on it. Yet we’re sure it came from just outside the Paragon City boarders."
"Was it responsible for the grave robbing also?"
"Yes they only seemed to grab former heroes, like your father."
"You know who I am?" a perplexed Digital asked.
"Yes, it’s in your S.H.A.R.D. file"
"I have a file?"
"Yes, every registered hero does"
"Can I see it?"
"No."
"... So what do we do?"
"For whatever reason, these tunnels are shielding us from it. But we can’t really force them to live underground forever either. Our scientists saw something interesting during one of the last abductions. They believe they can hold open some kind of hole long enough for it to be a two way street. We could go in and people can come out. That’s where you come in."
"What do you need me for?"
"Bait."
Invade
Digital stood on the shoreline waiting for the slow moving cloud to make its way back to the city. The ocean air always smelled nicer outside the war walls. Digital looked around to see Douglas and his men in position waiting to strike. It seems they had some special kind of gun that they tried to explain to Digital, but it went way over his head.
Douglas explained that the portal seems to be attracted to hero power sources. Paragon city is shielded by the war walls, it can’t seem to penetrate it. So it’s been moving from city to city taking heroes and anyone else near the heroes with them. With this beam these guns project they should be able to hold open the portal long enough for Digital and some of his men to sneak in get the people out and recover the bodies. No doubt whatever is on the other side of that portal will not be at all friendly. Digital and the SHARD men will have to be ready to get out of there in a moments notice. With the portal open the SHARD scientists should able to use the teleporters on people if Digital and the SHARD men attach the devices for them.
As the cloud began to open a beam to add Digital to its collection, a blast came from the hill where Douglas had set up. The portal was open, already people where jumping from the giant hole that was now open. A few SHARD agents with jetpacks flew up and used the quick teleport devices to get the jumpers on the ground quick.
These SHARD guys are really well prepared Digital thought to himself.
Digital and his team were about to enter a place where people were jumping to their deaths to get away from.
Inside the sky
Digital was the first to enter the portal. The area seemed to be rather small and extremely noisy. When the rest of the team entered, they were greeted by a rather large ominous black orb.
"Welcome" said a voice that seemingly came from every direction.
"Thanks. We won’t be long" said a slightly nervous Digital.
"I’m afraid I cannot allow that."
"Of course not. Why make this easy on me?"
Suddenly bolts of light began pushing people from Digital’s team out the open portal. Digital, quickly put up an electrical wall protecting his team and the hostages. The bolts of light began to come faster and harder taking a noticeable effect on Digital as he would wince with every bolt that hit the field.
"Get them out now!" screamed Digital as he struggled to keep the field up
The hostages were all being teleported out, as the electrical field began to fade. The portal began to close and the entity tossed the rest of Digital’s team out, leaving the lone hero trapped within the anomaly.
To be Continued!
