Red-Havok/Army of One

Part One

For the last five years the Havok brothers were the premier crime fighting duo in Paragon. There had been other twosomes, they had all come and gone. More like a fad wave than a serious heroic movement. Not the Havoks... they had stuck it out. They were well known, recognized and respected. People looked up to them. They were natural leaders, and always at the spearhead of justice.

Things changed...

The Frontline had dissolved. They sacrificed their dream of making a real impact to save the life of one of their own. Utsu Koto Taka, otherwise known as Rei had been compromised in an unsanctioned covert operation. She broke international laws and was forced to spend time in prison. However if The Frontline itself accepted the responsibility Rei could go free, and the group would be shut down. It was not an easy decision, but Red, Blue and their close ally Nitedevil pulled the plug.

Months later Portal Corporation contacted the brothers. There had been a disturbance that only they could deal with. Red-Havok emerged from the portal two years later. His return to Paragon was not how anyone imagined. Though the mission was complete, it wasn't without great cost. Red had returned, but he was alone. There whereabouts of his brother unknown.

It took a while for Red to get used to the idea that he was alone. No matter what kind of situation he found himself in, he always had his brother there as backup. Together they could take on anything and overcome it. But what now? Who was Red-Havok without his brother? Was he still a hero? Since coming back Red hadn't returned to any of his usual stomping grounds. He hadn't engaged in any crime fighting activities. He only stuck to himself, and thought about his life and how to adjust to the change.

"What the hell am I going to do..."

His communicator started to ring. It was an old frequency used back in The Frontline days. Red let it ring for a minute, and then finally decided to answer it.

"Cade?" the voice on the other end asked

"J..Jasmine?"

"Cade, I'm so glad I got a hold of you. Listen, something has come up. I need your help."

He thought about her words. Could he help? No... he couldn't.

"I..."

"Cade, this is important, and I don't have much time." She sounded somewhat perturbed

His thoughts raced once again. He could help. He was Red-Havok. Blue may be gone, but he would find a way to get him back, and until then he was needed.

"Foxy, I'll be right there." Cade spoke with all his confidence now returned.

He looked at his old gear. The blue uniform. The arm sheaths. He smiled, and suited up for the first time since he had been back. He grabbed his helmet and placed it over his head - sliding the visor down over his eyes. His HUD screen lit up with Foxy's location and the fastest path to get there. With a simple thought he powered up his Ion Blades, and then retracted them back into the sheath. It made an all too familiar sound.

With that, Red-Havok left to catch up with an old friend. He may have lost his brother, but no, he wasn't alone.

Part Two

As he approached closer, Red could see Foxy under attack by several robotic creatures.

"Foxy!" Red shouted, and jumped in, defending her from the attacks. "Red! Sto--!" Foxy started to shout but Red was oblivious. His razor sharp claws were doing what they were meant to do. Shred. The Havoks' claws were not ordinary metal blades. They were Ion Blades that worked on a multi-frequency allowing them to bind with, and then tear apart atoms. This enabled them to cut through any substance like a hot knife through butter.

He continued his frenzy until finally he heard Foxy.

"RED! STOP!"

"Foxy.. what...?" he questioned

"God damn it Red! Do you know how much this is going to cost me?"

Red was one of the few people to ever see Foxy so upset. Which was never a good thing.

"I'm sorry Foxy, I didn't know. I thought you were under attack."

"I think I could handle a few measly robots." Foxy replied, somewhat annoyed.

"HEY!" A larger robot appeared, yelling "I put a lot of work into RIN you know! They're not measly!"

"I didn't mean that..." Foxy said apologetically.

"It's okay." RIN replied. "I see I now need to try and make 'em self-repair somehow."

Red was confused. "Foxy, what.. who, is that?"

"I'm sorry Red, this is RIN."

"RIN?"

"Robotic Interfaced Network!" RIN replied, happily.

"You're a robot... I see." Red was putting it all together.

"I'm actually a network of 'bots! I'm safely tucked away at the orphanage!"

Red knew Foxy had an orphanage. He met some of the kids there a long time ago.

"RIN, I know Red is a friend but we don't give away secrets like that remember?" Foxy scolded.

"Oh yeah... sorry Foxy"

"It's okay dear. Just try to remember next time. Now why don't you head back to F.I.S.T. HQ?" Foxy asked.

Red was confused again. "F.I.S.T.?" He asked

"Yes Red. F.I.S.T. A lot has changed in two years. But what hasn't changed is the kind of things we heroes have to deal with. Paragon needs you. You've done nothing but sit alone, holed up somewhere for the last couple of months. You need to get back out there Red. We need you."

Red contemplated her words. Was she right?

"Foxy, The Havok Brothers weren't just heroes. We were symbols. We represented something. The Frontline fell apart, and then so did Freedom Force. And now what? We don't even exist any more. There's only one of us. What am I supposed to do?" Red asked Foxy - sternly.

"You fight harder Red."

Foxy waled past Cade, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "I better see you around. Or I'll kick your ass - personally." With that, she smiled, and left.

Red remained for some time, thinking about what Foxy had said.

An emergency channel started buzzing on his comm. "This is PPD requesting all available heroes to help! We have a situation in Talos, near "Spanky's" Boardwalk. Two villains are on a killing spree, and we nee--!" The message cut off.

Red-Havok made his way to Talos.

Part Three

Mayhem.

That's all he could see when he arrived in Talos. Cars were wrecked, toppled over and on fire. Lampposts knocked to the ground, people laying injured and unconscious, or worse. It didn't take Red long to find his suspect. "There's the guy." Red thought to himself. "Is it... Overbite...? No..." After watching the hulking man-shark for a few seconds, Red knew... "This is much worse than Overbite!"

Using stealth to his advantage, Red circled and positioned himself above the creature. He planned to get the drop on him. Literally. He jumped and kicked the beast in the back of the head and knocking him face first into the pavement. The force created a crater in the ground just large enough for the shark's head. He didn't move.

"Another job well done." Red said, wiping his hands. Then, without notice Red was tackled, HARD! Something had taken him off guard. He had to be more careful. He couldn't rely on Blue's second set of eyes anymore. He landed, creating his own crater in the cement. Seconds passed... when he finally came to, he saw a fearsome creature looking down on him. It was reptilian, and grotesque.

"Nice getup bitch. Don't see many heroes wit the white underwears anymore... What're you from? The eighties? Hawhaw..."

The creature grabbed Red by the helmet with one hand and pulled him up to it's eye level. "You look at Gatoroid when he talks to you."

Red barely had time to free himself, but saw behind Gatoroid, the shark creature running furiously at the pair. Red braced himself.

"Ripjaw want payback!" the creature yelled and bowled Gatoroid over, knocking Red out of his hand.

"Why you stupid motherfu--" Gatoroid started to yell at Ripjaw, but was interrupted by a truck to the face!

"Ripjaw not stupid! RIPJAW PISSED OFF!!"

The two monsters fought, relentlessly in the streets of Talos. Red struggled to his feet and watched the battle. They had forgotten all about him. "Okay on my count. We'll do the old maneuver we used on Mud and Mind. Ready Blue?" Red said aloud.The two villains heard him speak, forgot their own battle and once again charged Red. "Blue, let's do it." They came closer. "You idiot." he realized. "Blue's not here." Red was hit by what felt like two semi-trucks. Old habits die hard. Now it was Red's turn to die.

"Ripjaw gonna EAT him!" the creature yelled and they both walked closer to him. "Damn it! Not like this..." Red said through clenched teeth.

Without waring, an arrow struck the ground. It beeped, and ignited a bright flash of light. The villains were blinded. A masked figure slid down a zip-line to the ground a few feet in front of Red. The red lenses of his goggles glinted in the sun. He put away his bow and fired two identical pistols at the creatures. He glanced at Red.

"So you're Red-Havok? Don't look like much." the man said.

"Shut your mouth Armaments, and do your job." The voice came from behind.

"You're not my 'boss' Nitedevil." Armaments quipped while firing.

"Hn."

"Nitedevil..." Red couldn't believe his ears. Was it his old friend?

A loud explosion erupted just blocks from the battle. The villains looked up, still fighting off bullets.

"They were just a distraction." Nitedevil said. "And I see why."

A hooded man with a skeletal mask flew by laughing, holding bags of stolen cash. He created humanoid beings with the snap of a finger and sent them toward the three heroes. Armaments fired his pistols while Nitedevil bested them with his supreme hand to hand combat.

Armaments spoke out "Ripjaw and Gatoroid are getting away!" He pulled back three arrows on his bow and carefully aimed them at the monsters and the hooded man, but his hand was stayed by Nitedevil. "Leave them." he said calmly. "We got what we came for."

"But that was Phanto! He and those other guys are all on the blacklist. Let's just take 'em!" Armaments protested Nitedevil's decision.

"No. Shade sent us here for Red-Havok. We'll take the others down in time." Nitedevil picked Red up and slung his arm over his shoulder.

"Call Orthrus 69 in for a pickup."

Part Four

Red awoke in a very sophisticated hospital room. He had no idea where he was. He was tied into a machine, and struggled to get himself loose. While doing so he noticed he was no longer in any pain from his previous fight,

A door opened and a man dressed in black entered the room. He had a mask, purple tinted goggles and tie, and wore a black hat and jacket. He spoke.

"I wouldn't do that Cade. You'll no doubt wreck the machinery and we can't have that. Calm down and I'll let you out."

"Who are you?"

"Your new best friend." The man replied.

"..." Red listened.

The man loosened Red's bonds and began to speak again. "You may call me Mr. Shade. I am an agent of order, like yourself. My men were the ones who rescued you."

"Your men... " Red questioned, "Nitedevil! He works for you?!"

"Not for me Cade. With me. Nitedevil is a part of my secret peace-keeping organization, Orthrus Inc. We combat the forces of chaos."

Red was silent.

"I've come in hopes to recruit you as well. Not for Orthrus, but something bigger. A team of heroes fighting alongside Orthrus. Heroes who would not be a secret organization, but live in the spotlight, while their action would take them... elsewhere..."

"You can't operate like that. I've tried. There are laws." Red said, shaking his head.

"Laws? These laws protect known villains Cade. Law only hindered what great things w-you, could have accomplished while in The Frontline. Laws, unfortunately, benefit those we're against."

"So what do we do? Break the law?" Red asked.

"We side-step it."

"Interesting. but even so... I'm in no shape to help you. You said it yourself; your men had to rescue me. I've never been in a position like that. I'm not who I once was."

"I can remedy that." Shade stated.

"What do you mean?"

Shade looked at Cade in the eyes. "When you were 'created' by MCORP you were a viscous weapon. You, and your brother." Shade continued "You were trained, elite, and efficient killers. When you broke free, that programming was lost, repressed in your mind. You became heroes. Your moral codes rewritten, and the 'savage' side of you locked. Gone, forever."

"And?" Cade said.

"You lost your edge." Shade replied. "I can give this back to you very easily..."

"No.." Red began, but was interrupted by Shade.

"And I can let you control it!"

Part Five

"What do you mean control it?" Red questioned, trying to comprehend.

"Like a light switch Cade. You can turn it on, and off. At will."

"I don't understand how this is possible..."

"It's possible in the same way YOU are possible."

Red shook his head "You aren't making any sense Shade."

"Then allow me to..." Shade replied. "As you know you and your brother were born as peak humans and you had a unique gene. This gene was dormant. That is why you were 'acquired' by MCORP."

"Thanks for telling me my life story Shade. I still don't understand." Red was sarcastic, and condescending.

"I wasn't finished." Shade continued. "This gene, as you know, is called the Chaos Gene. It exists in 0.0001% of humanity. It has the potential for good, and for evil. The Chaos Fusion experiment done to you and your brother..."

"Don't." Shade was interrupted by Red. "Don't talk about my brother."

"Very well. As I was saying, the Chaos Fusion experiment you went through was a success and bonded the newly awakened gene into your already unearthly genetic code."

"...And that's why I am the way I am. I know this already."

"But..." Shade continued "Did you know that Chaos Fusion continues to happen in your body?"

"What do you mean?"

"Chaos Fusion is the act of bonding the gene with your DNA. But what continues to happen is something else. Chaos Fission."

"What...?" Red listened, dumbfounded.

"Chaos Fission happens every twelve minutes in your body. It keeps your powers active, and at their peak. Every twelve minutes your chaos gene double and refreshes your system, and the old one dies. It's an explosion on a cellular scale that keeps you as who you are. Sane. Calm. Alert. Agile. It makes you Red-Havok."

"How do you know this?"

"When MCORP held you as weapons this Chaos Fission happened every five seconds! You had no time to adjust, you were simply a host for untapped, raw energy. The psychic implants MCORP installed in your heads kept you from overcoming this and you were nothing but monsters. Flesh and blood weapons."

The room was silent. Red and Shade looked at each other, until Shade spoke again.

"I can make it possible for you to create a more rapid Chaos Fission reaction in your body, at will. You can decide how long a duration, and use it only when you feel you have to. Had you been able to do this yesterday it would have been Gatoroid and Ripjaw in the hospital and not yourself."

"Why would you do this for me?"

"I need you Cade. The world needs you."

Part Six

"I'm putting together a group of individuals. A special project. I want you to be a part of it."

"I'll need to know more than that."

Shade explained to Red about Orthrus Inc., and how the two men who saved his life were part of the organization. He explained his plan for The Infiltrators. Shade wasn't sure if Red would accept. In the past Red was known as somewhat of a boyscout hero. But he did accept, much to Shade's surprise.

"I'm going to need a new outfit." Red demanded.

"Certainly. I have already restored your costume."

"No. I want a new one. It's time to change. No more blue. Make it black."

"Is this to symbolize your fallen brother?" Shade questioned

Red gave Shade a sharp look. "Don't be stupid Shade. I told you not to mention him. I said black because I may do some things that would tarnish the reputation of those old colors. It's not to symbolize mourning. I'm over that. I have to be."

"Very well Cade. I can make that happen."

"Before we go through with this Chaos Fission alteration ... I want to talk to NItedevil."

"How ironic."Shade said, smirking beneath his mask.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'll get him for you."

Shade left. Moments later Nitedevil entered the room. Red greeted him with a smile. "Nite!" Red said and walked over to his old friend.

"Hn."

"You haven't changed Randy. Or.. maybe you have? Something seems different about you... maybe it's the new look?"

"It's good to see you Cade." Nitedevil said.

"I've agreed to join Shade's team. You were the deciding factor."

"Good to hear. I'm sure some others would have persuaded you to join as well."

"Others?" Cade questioned.

"Hn. It's going to be like old home week pal. Just wait and see."

"Glad to hear it friend."

Red extended his hand, and Nitedevil grabbed it and they shook. They held the grip for a long time.

Later....

As Red entered into the science labs of The Shadow House to begin his transformation Nitedevil met with Shade alone.

"Sir." Nitedevil said.

"Speak." Shade replied.

"Do you think this is wise? Fooling Havok into thinking I'm the original Nitedevil?"

"It was perhaps one of the only ways to get him to agree to this Rusty. Without you, we would not have Red-Havok. He trusts me like his own brother. So as long as he believes you are his friend, we'll be fine."

"What happens when he finds out the truth?"

"IF he finds out, by that time he will be too heavily invested in this group to turn his back on it. But you should expect repercussions."

"Thanks for the heads up. It's nice to know I'm going to fight against a Red-Havok who has full control over his Chaos Fission." Nitedevil said angrily.

"Come now Rusty... Do you really think I'd let him control it?"

A few days passed. The procedure was a success. Red-Havok was more powerful than he had ever been in the past. Shade gave him the new uniform. Sleek and black with red highlights. He was recognizable as a Havok, but also vastly different. His Ion Blades were abandoned for a set of metallic razor claws, like he once used in MCORP.