The Heroic Era

Chapter II

Chapter II - Horus

With almost 50 thousand reported dead and several dozen city blocks destroyed, the attack on Colivar City was one of the worst disasters of the war. Reports of gas attacks on the city have been reported, but not confirmed by World Government officials. However, we at the station have recieved several videos and images of a man flying through the air and even causing the destruction of two Kulkari vessels.

-Culvert City News report one day after M-Day

I woke up to the sound of a helicopter flying around the tower I lay on. I got up, slowly, expecting the pain of aching muscles. It wasn't there. I felt as if I had just woken from the best sleep I'd ever had. The events of yesterday (or possibly earlier today; I didn't have a firm grasp of time at the moment) could very well have been a dream.

Except for the smell of smoke around me. And my nakedness except for a few burned and blackened rags. And the fact that I was sitting on top of a skyscraper.

The helicopters that were now circling me, shining searchlights in my eyes and dropping black-armored soldiers onto the roof also implied something was different from the norm. 

The night sky was black with smoke and clouds, but the beams from dozens of rifle-mounted flashlights lit up the rooftop quite nicely. I was quickly surrounded by silent men in heavy powered armor. I knew from my militia training that a man in such a suit could press over a ton and a half.

Of course, I had just recently flown carrying what had to have been several hundred times that weight. 

A man stepped forwards, his helmet painted with the red stripe of a Lieutenant.

"Sir, please lay down with your hands on your head. I am going to place handcuffs on you. Will you comply?"

The man had his gun leveled at my chest. I raised an eyebrow.

"And if I don't want to?"

I couldn't see the Lieutenant's face behind his helmet, but his stance tightened. "Sir, I would advise you not to resist."

I could kill him witha flick of my wrist. If what I had done earlier had taught me anything, it was that I couldn't be stopped. Hell, I had taken the bulk of a ship-based plasma blast and all I had to show for it was a mild sunburn. But I didn't want to hurt him. That would just be... 

"No, Officer, I won't resist." I got down on my stomach and put my hands on my head. Soldiers rushed forwards and I was cuffed. I could barely feel their weight. They pulled me to my feet and someone put a device up to my head. My implants buzzed inside my ear and everything went black.

*** 

My vision cleared some time later. Looking aound, I saw I was in a sterile-looking white room. Paneled walls surrounded me on all sides, and there were no windows, or visible doors. I sat up on a mattress, like a hospital bed, only with sheets of a much higher thread count. Also, I had never been chained to a hospital bed. I tested the chains, expecting them to snap like string with my new found strength.

Nothing happened. I quirked my eyebrow and put more effort into the chain. It creaked, but neither it nor the bedframe it was attached to snapped. I 'hmm'd at this, then said, "If anyone is listening, I'm awake now."

I waited a couple of minutes, and a door opened in the wall, like it had just appeared out of nowhere. A tall woman in a long white coat stepped in. She glanced at me like I was some kind of fascinating pet, then leaned over a couple of instruments in the corner and read of their screens. Her eyebrows slowly rose as she read, stealing looks at me as the information flowed down the screen.