| November, 2022 |
As it began… Nothing could’ve been done to stop it. It was already over.
A man with thick and wavy black hair, calmly walks through a corridor while others in the hallway are scurrying from room to room in their business casual attires. As chaos ensues in front of the man, he remains calm, keeping tunnel vision as he approaches the room he was aiming for. The man is wearing a dark brown wool coat, with an olive colored shirt underneath. pinned to the chest portion of the man’s coat is a white name tag that reads “E. Murphy”
Ethan Murphy. The epitome of intelligence. Having an IQ which generously exceeds the likes of Albert Einstein. What Ethan lacks in super abilities and powers, he more than makes up for with his brain. Working to keep the world safe, Ethan is an extremely capable candidate to be working for Vanguard. Although his tactics of surveillance is seen as unethical, nobody can deny that it is effective. Due to this, Ethan tends to steer away from the public’s eyes, as he is well aware that they wouldn’t see him in a good light.
As Ethan reaches for the door handle of the destined room he traveled to, the door swings open, away from his grasp. Now standing in front of Ethan, another panicked soul, trying to escape into the hallway. Giving Ethan a quick glance, the frightened worker looks down and quickly slithers away. Ethan briefly eyes the room ahead of him as the door is still open. He walks inside, now noticing a different tone to the chaos compared to what he was met with in the corridor.
The door is labeled “Control Room”. Within the room, there are many monitors, both lined up along rows of desks that people are sitting at, and also mounted to the wall for everyone to see. Workers left to right are either making worried phone calls, typing up on a computer, or just watching the feed being broadcasted on the big monitors mounted to the wall, accepting what is being shown to them.
Ethan takes a couple more steps, mainly watching the big screen on the wall. The broadcasted material is drone footage of Discovery Park. What can be seen is a destroyed Daybreak Headquarters that looked to have been struck by a meteor of some sorts. Scattered throughout the area are a mix of wounded and dead civilians. That is until the drone hovers over to where the Vanguard, NovaStar is holding her ground against the rest of the heroes of Seattle. Everyone in the room watches in shock and in grief as Nova brutally injures Bugseye, one of the two remaining members of Daybreak.
A woman runs up to Ethan, and shakes his arm in an attempt to gather his attention. “What are we going to do?” She pleads, looking up to Ethan. Ethan turns his head to her, noticing her eyes filling with tears. “*We* can’t do anything.” Ethan replies with little sympathy. “She decide’s our fate now…” Ethan says as he turns his head back to the screen. He watches as the rest of the scene plays out until Nova finally gets overwhelmed and takes off into the cosmos, fleeing from Earth.
| January 1st, 2023 |
— Vanguard Tower —
Ethan leans over an indoor balcony, looking down at the New Year’s party going on inside the Tower. He holds a glass in his hands as his elbows rest over the railing in front of him. Ethan looks around, trying to pinpoint where each Vanguard and Daybreak member is, like he is playing a game of “I Spy”. Firstly, he peaks over to a corner of the giant room, noticing the youngest of the Daybreak team, Daniel Diaz. He smirks as he sees the young man sitting by himself at the party. Ethan finds Daniel to be an interesting case; After being initiated into Daybreak, Daniel was heavily suggested to change his name in order to rid his connections to the Hell’s Angels. Daniel Ortiz is now known as Daniel Diaz, the superhero high school student.
Ethan takes a sip from his glass and looks over to the other side of the room. By coincidence he manages to locate the other two members of Daybreak. Piper and Bugseye. The little smirk Ethan had on his face fades away when he sees Bugseye, as he actually feels bad for him. This level of sympathy isn’t normal for Ethan, but he finds himself to have somewhat of a soft spot for Bugseye. Piper is standing next to him with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face. She most likely just got done talking Bugseye’s ear off with no response in return. Ethan has had very brief interactions with Piper before, as they first met at Wes’ trials, which is still ongoing.
Ethan heard some commotion behind him, as Backwardo emerges from a room, walking out onto the indoor balcony. He is holding two empty bottles of whiskey in his hands and wobbles around, bumping into people. “Hey, hey watch out. I’m a superhero. VIP here!” Backwardo shouts out. The general consensus seems to be that he has had too much to drink, as security is now guiding him around, probably for everyone else’s good. Ethan shakes his head in disgust at Backwardo’s antics. He has never thought highly of him. Despite still being able to hear Backwardo ramble on as he is guided elsewhere, Ethan shifts his focus back to the main floor where he was looking for the rest of the Vanguards.
Ethan thinks about the two Vanguards who aren’t at the party. Nyx and Morgan. Ever since the battle with Nova, Nyx hasn’t attended the extracurricular activities, such as this party. And as for Morgan, she doesn’t associate with this type of crowd. She’ll show up to other events and put a smile on her face when she needs to, but when it came to this party, she got away with saying she wanted to spend the new year with a friend.
As he continues to scan the crowd, Ethan finally spots another super duo. Sixth Sense and his apprentice, Clara Pointe, AKA “Pressure Pointe”. Ethan looks at them curiously, as he’s always seen Sixth Sense as a mysterious acquaintance, and hasn’t gotten the chance to meet Clara yet.He takes one last sip from his glass, finishing it off before setting it to the side, and tilting his head, focusing more on Six. “What brought you back here?…” Ethan quietly asks himself, holding a very stern and curious look on his face.
“Look who it is.” A familiar voice calls out to Ethan. Ethan turns around to see Bullet-Man approaching him with a smug grin on his face. Ethan could feel tension from a mile away. Bullet-Man must want something from him, why else would he be approaching him with such open arms. It can’t just be because there’s a party going on, and he’s feeling friendly, that is too straight forward for Bullet-Man, who always has ulterior motives. Bullet-Man holds his hand out for Ethan to shake. Ethan reaches his hand out, expecting all 27 bones to be crushed in an instant by Bullet-Man’s grasp. To his surprise, Bullet-Man gives his a firm handshake, not crushing at all. Perhaps this was more of an insult directed towards Ethan than a handshake that could crush him. Bullet-Man telling Ethan that he can’t handle the physical pain that he could bring him, all through a single and simple handshake. Ethan ponders the possibility of him just overthinking this interaction, but ironically, the smartest people tend to overthink.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, Dr. Murphy… You tying to avoid me?” Bullet-Man teases, but Ethan takes it as passive aggressive. “No. I’ve been busy trying to clean up the mess your team made… Why, have you been trying to find me?” Ethan asks, shooting back at Bullet-Man. Bullet-Man raises an eyebrow at the backhanded comment. “I have… I wanted to ask you about all the ‘vigilantism’ that’s been blowing up the media.” Bullet-Man says. “What about it?” Ethan returns quickly, already knowing how Bullet-Man feels about it. Bullet-Man’s smile has faded by this point, no longer humored by Ethan’s smug attitude. “You’re supposed to be taking care of it. With all of the drones you’ve made that scan faces, and not a single vigilante has turned up?” Bullet-Man states to Ethan. Ethan tilts his head as Bullet-Man continues. “Either there is a serious malfunction, or you’re working with the enemies… If i’m not mistaken, that would be treason.” Bullet-Man accuses, desperately trying to sound smart and threaten Ethan. Ethan just shoots Bullet-Man a smile, almost as if he didn’t listen to a single thing that was said to him just now. “Malfunctions happen more often than you would think. Don’t stress it, Jason. I assure you, once the drones are fixed, they’ll have no problem doing the difficult job while yourself and your team do… Well, whatever it is you do all day.” Ethan says with the most disrespect. Bullet-Man has nothing to say, so he just nods and turns away, muttering the words “fucking punk” as he escapes from the verbal battle that Ethan had just put him through.
As he watches Bullet-Man walk away, Ethan turns back to lean on the railing of the balcony, looking down at the party. He watches as the sea of people below start cheering as Bullet-Man makes his walk downstairs. He slowly closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head, not understanding what everyone thinks is so special about Bullet-Man. He opens his eyes again and turns away, now being the one who is escaping from this hell.
