Heroes Legion: "Year One": Episode 15: The Return of the Made-Men

Chapter 1: Public Exposure Aftermath

  Heroes Legion: "Year One": Episode: 15: "The Return Of The Made-Men"

Written By Maskedhero100

CHAPTER 1: Public Exposure Aftermath



HMS Damocles, skies above New York: February 24th, 2014: 4:34 PM

It had been only just two days since the defeat of Legion and the sub sequential reveal of Metahumans and the Heroes Legion to the world.

And General Arcane, head director, commander and chief of the global peacekeeping and anti-terrorism organization "S.L.E.E.T" had to admit...things hadn't gone QUITE as bad as he and M-Leader had feared they would upon the partial breaking of the masquerade to the public at large...yet.

Now that the country knew that people with powers were tied to the explosion in the Nevada desert, things had gotten stranger and more dangerous.

And although some people weren't too keen on the thought that there were people out there running around with strange unknown powers, some had accepted the fact that a group of these individuals were out there, certified by his and the U.S governments approval to operate on American soil (and all that bureaucratic crap) and had indeed been keeping the citizens of New York City safe for almost half a year.

The Heroes Legion had become the object of a media manhunt, with hundreds of reporters and news media outlets trying their best to track down the heroes wherever they appeared and get the "inside story" on their lives.

"Inside story" General Arcane scoffed at the idea of these reporters getting their hooks into these kids and their lives, and potentially twisting it around to make it "suitable" for viewers everywhere.

What was the "media" really, but one big gossip chain?

Although to be fair, he doubted the other reporters outside of the one that M-Leader trusted would try and pull what Beatrice Fuller had done with the power sucking villain known as Legion...during when he posed as a "Superhero" to an ignorant public to gain the life of a celebrity, by draining powers from others and setting up events to make himself look like a hero.



Beatrice Fuller.



What that woman had done, had almost cost them all everything they had worked so hard to build and put hundreds of lives in danger.

She had gone against warnings by Stephanie Walker that Legion was dangerous out of arrogance and spite towards the street reporter.

She broke into Legion's suite room at the Plaza hotel, and once caught by him, offered him a deal.

She gives him the information he needs on the Heroes Legion, and she gets the inside scoop on N.Y.C's newest hero.

When he didn't seem enticed by her offer, she resorted to dropping her clothes and offering her "services" in his bed.

He took that offer, and left her afterwards naked and without her "exclusive" in return.

Thank god that she didn't let him inside of her foolish self without any protection, the LAST thing General Arcane or the Heroes Legion needed to worry about was that woman becoming pregnant due to her foolishly "opening her front door" to a metahuman criminal in order to further her career.

Feeling "betrayed and used", she concocted up a spiteful plan to destroy Legions unearned credibility and hero status in the city...by forging video evidence of legion using his powers to mind control her into having sex with him, before kidnapping her.

Legion responded in kind by coming up with a plan of his own, and through only what Arcane could describe as nothing short of luck, Marcus Masters and his Heroes Legion students had managed to stop Legion and get their stolen powers back before he could level Times Square.



Revealing themselves to the world at last.



In the past few days, due to her story on the "Vigilantes of New York" being confirmed to be real and indeed operating in New York, Stephanie Walker was now receiving praise for her "hard journalism" in the media world.

She had now been approached for a raise, and given full approval to continue her "Vigilantes of New York" story and try and find out all she could about New York's "sanctioned vigilantes" as they had been dubbed by the media now.

Walker had apparently become highly respected by her peers now due to the information she had already gathered, information that had been carefully given to her by M-Leader to give to the press that wouldn't lead to any assumptions that she knew the Legion or that they knew her.

They had to keep their allies secret, a priority that Arcane understood all too much.

Beatrice Fuller had stopped spieling her false "victim Story", but some people had already bought her false tale as a sort of cautionary tale to the danger present in Metahuman Abilities...and the people who owned them.

One of the most vocal voices who were against the idea of people with dangerous powers, sanction or not, running around their city, potentially putting people in danger with their battles...making the "normal" citizens part of some kind of super powered smack down at any second that the next "supervillians" appears...was the chief of police, Chief Burns.

An old thorn in the Legion and Stephanie Walkers side, not as bad as Beatrice Fuller...but still a nuisance, one that even Arcane had had to deal with as of late.

He didn't like the idea of these "Freaks" operating in "his city" and acting as a type of super powered gestapo and vigilante group, invading citizen's privacy and interfering in police affairs with their vigilante activities whenever they stumble upon crime in the city.

He insisted that these Vigilantes were threatening the honest cops of the city's jobs, and that he and his office should be getting called in to deal with "Metahuman Affairs" because they were the law keepers of the city, and it was THEIR job to protect and serve the public from threats...that the "Vigilantes" should answer to his office and operate through proper channels and work through due process like the rest of them.

He had brought these complaints to Arcane when he had been called by the city leaders about the Heroes Legion.

Arcane had asked him if he and his men would like to train in order to be ready to face the next Metahuman threat like the Legion always was when they weren't fighting crime to keep up their game and to satisfy their ever present desire to use their powers for good...and asked the Police Chief how he and his men might fare against a woman thief who can multiply, or a powerhouse that can lift up a bus and throw it at you with nothing but the weapons that cops and S.W.A.T carried.

Chief Sterns shut up after that, and no one in the city council either disagreed that when it came to affairs that dealt with super powered people rampaging in the city...the Heroes Legion, and Arcane's Last Result Squad of trained soldiers were in charge of that field...and would work with the cops if they required their assistance and they were expected to give it without any bias or prejudice.



Unfortunately...judicial matters didn't end there after that meeting with the city council as General Arcane had hoped for.

Now here he was in his office on the HMS Damocles, face to face with his newest judicial challenge in the world of politics and bureaucracy...Denice Irving.

Head of the Department of Homeland Prisons, from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (F.B.P) in Washington DC.

When she had first contacted him to request a meeting, General Arcane had to admit, he was confused as to what she would want to talk to him about...that is...until he put his mind to it and figured it out on his own.

She was in charge of oversight of any Government prisons, and after that press conference, people knew that S.L.E.E.T had a prison somewhere designed for holding superhuman criminals.

Since the Rikers Island "Special Cases" wing hadn't been run by her, she obviously wasn't happy about Arcane side stepping "procedure" in building that prison without her or her offices approval...despite having already been given secret approval by the joint chiefs and the president himself to build it already before the grand reveal two days ago.

Bureaucrats, figures.

So as she entered his command room chamber here in the center of the HMS Damocles Air-Base, with her aid following after her.

Greg Lovell.

Arcane recognised her aid, and grew VERY concerned if he was on board his ship...he had a dislike for "former" radical hippies...especially one who had been in jail for 30 years prior for trying to blow up an army barrack at a military school to "protest to the Man about the wrongness of the Vietnam war" while hopped up on too much of those "love drugs" that the 60's drowned in.

Supposedly he was "Clean" now, but Arcane had been at this job long enough to know that you had to consider every angle, and one of those angles was that old habits die hard.

Old hippies and prisons don't mix.

If they had had their way back then, the peace movement would have probably eventually protested for the release of all prisoners regardless of their crimes...because prisons were a sign of "oppression" and that the "man" was oppressing the "people" or some bunk like that.

If he was going to be forced to do what he figured he was going to be forced to do, and this guy had to follow Denise wherever she went, he had better keep an eye on him so that he doesn't do anything stupid.



"Well, Denise Irving. What brings you here to my ship?" General Arcane faked ignorance to knowing what really had brought her to his ship.

"This is a cordial visit Arcane, I am very upset with you" Denise Irving said, not changing her serious face before handing him a file folder on his desk, "Did you think I would be okay with this?"

"With what?" Arcane asked still faking ignorance.

"This prison facility of yours, one that you built without going through the proper channels, without bringing it to the attention of my office." she responded sharply.

"We didn't have time or the right atmosphere of the situation to risk anyone else in the government to know about..." Arcane said, defending his actions...even though he didn't give a damn about what this woman thought about his "actions" in building the "Special Cases" wing to house the villains the Heroes Legion defeated.

There was no other choice at the time, and there still was no other choice now.

What was he supposed to do with them, send them to a trail and hope they didn't try and escape from there, not on his life!

But bureaucrats that were like Denice never understand things like that, they never do.



"Spare me Arcane. The breach of ethics for building a facility to house people indefinitely until you find a way to "Cure" them is enough for me to take action and demand to see this prison facility of yours to make sure that it meets the standards of any prison. Which is to contain, but to also grant fail trial before incarceration and rehabilitation back into society..." Denice Irving explained her reasoning for wanting to see the Rikers Island "Special Cases" wing.

"It's kind of hard to rehabilitate these people" General Arcane said with an unimpressed look on his face, "When nothing short of brainwashing can help rehabilitate them, and their current mindsets combined with their metahuman powers make them basically waking weapons. A trial would be out of the question until..."

"Save it Arcane" Denice Irving rolled her eyes, "This is an executive order from the president himself, saying that I am allowed to view your prison facility and determine if it's effective and ethical...refuse it...and your prison facility is forfeit and all prisoners and their incarceration affairs will be transferred to my office for the foreseeable future."

"Are you blackmailing me, Denice?" Arcane said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not blackmail, it's an ultimatum" Denice smirked.

"Does your hippie "aid to camp" have to come along?" General Arcane inquired, looking in the direction of Denice's Aid.

"Ex-Hipped" Denice corrected, "And yes, Greg is coming with us."

"Do you know he has a former criminal history?" General Arcane inquired.

"Yeah, she does..." Greg Lovell spoke, "And don't worry Man, I'm not the guy I used to be."

"I should hope not" General Arcane said standing up from his command chair, "Because if you do anything that puts people in danger again, while we're at this facility...I'll throw you into a hole so deep you won't know where to climb out. I am warning you, both of you. These are not your average criminals. These are Pyscho's, sociopaths, thieves, and murders...with powers no one in this world has seen before outside of science fiction. We have to maintain utmost caution and surveillance while keeping them incarcerated. If a breakout ever occurred, it would be catastrophic. Which is why both us and the Legion are working hard to find a way to neutralize these criminals powers indefinitely to render them harmless. Don't speak to them, don't listen to them, and don't do anything unless I say so."

"I'm sure we'll both be fine" Denise said unimpressed by Arcane's controlling attitude.

"They'll eat you both for breakfast" Arcane insisted, "a few of them would even try and rape you and enjoy hearing you scream Denise, I'm not asking you to follow my lead while were there...I'm telling you to listen and learn and open your eyes to the danger were trying to contain. Because there is a good reason or two why we have locked them up without trial."

"I'll be the judge of that" Denise Irving said with narrowed eyes, "it's a constitutional law, all criminals should be put through a court of law. It's a crime to breach that law."

"Yeah...maybe it was criminal to do this" General Arcane countered, "But not everyone who is a criminal in our country and is locked up due to fair trial has the ability to shoot your head off by looking at you. Now do they?"




Heroes Legion Mansion, The Clubhouse Bunker/ Silicon's Lab: February 24th, 2014: 4:56 PM

200ft bellow the Mansion, in the middle of the Bunker complex that was named "The Clubhouse" by those who operated within it.

The Heroes Legion were all gathered together down here, in the room that acted as a Laboratory of sorts for one of their members, silicon.

Silicon had upon breakfast this morning on this brisk Wednesday before the Legion (sans Shadow Knight, Murdoch and M-Leader) went out to go to school at George Washington High School had said he had something to show everyone downstairs in his lab when they got back.

Now upon returning from school, the Heroes Legion had come to see what Silicon was so eager to show them.

"All right Slick" Andrew Griffin said, saying Silicon's nickname "we've been waiting all day, what's the big surprise."

"Alright...now you all know that I've been working on side projects in my free time" Silicon explained, "one of those projects was "Fallen Legion" and I must say, that was a complete success. However, our encounter with Legion as unpleasant of an experience as it was, wasn't without gain. Thanks to him, we now know that M-Radiation can be transferred from an individual. So after a while of thought about this revelation, I had an epiphany...one regarding a way to transfer the metabolised M-Radiation out of active Metahumans like Legion could but artificially. I have spent the past two days studying video footage from our suit's video camera recorders, and I have come up with this so far."



Silicon then pulled a white sheet off of some kind of object on his lab's display table.

The Heroes Legion looked at the device that lay underneath that white sheet.

It looked like one of those Anti-gravity beam dispenser guns that Silicon had developed during their battle with Gravitron back in July...or was it august?

But unlike those Anti-Super villain weapons, this one was larger...and had a different look to it.

The Anti-Gravity guns didn't look like a cross between a laser gun and some kind of futuristic vacuum cleaner either.



"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce the prototype to what might be the answer to both the criminals we have defeated already, the ones we will surely encounter in the future, and maybe possibly the Dark Elite as well."

"Uh, news flash little buddy" Velocity pointed out, "Legion took out "Meta-Loser and his Dork Elite" already remember? He stole their powers like he did ours."

"I know that" Silicon nodded in acknowledgment, "But if we could get our powers back, so could they. And need I remind you, Meta-Master has his own supply of M-50 to help them do just that when their M-Genes have recovered from Legions powers to be able to safely "jumpstart" them with M-50."

"Knowing those guys, they might forego the safe approach if it means they get their powers back" Shadow Knight suggested, "But Silicon is right. They have ways that they can get their powers back...we shouldn't count The Dark Elite out of the game until we have them completely incarcerated."

"I agree Shadow Knight" Atlanta agreed, "We shouldn't drop our guard on The Dark Elite's activities just because they were laid low by Legion like we were. If we could come back from that, so could they."

"Anyway..." Silicon cleared his throat, "This device should work just like Legion's powers did. It should fire a beam of negatively charged energy which will theoretically act as a "Bridge" between the weapon and the M-Radiation in an active M-Gene, allowing energy transfer like what happened when we zapped Legion with our battle armors "Bunker Buster" Positron reactor lasers. The M-Gene is like fire, it needs energy and fuel to sustain it. M-Radiation is that fuel, we take that away and..."

"And the target is rendered back to "Inactive M-Gene Bearer" level" M-Leader said approaching the device, eyeing it uncertain.

"What's wrong M-Leader" Raven Ducard asked to her team leader concerned.

"I was just wondering if there would be any negative ramifications for such a device" M-Leader said, "Now that Metahumans have been revealed to the world, not all people are exactly thrilled about us existing...some would rather things be brought back to the way things were before the M.G.A's explosion two years ago. I believe the term is "back to normal" as it were. There are some who aren't too thrilled about us that are zealous enough to take this device and try and weaponise it..."

"To use on all Metahumans, not just the dangerous and criminal ones?" Shadow Knight inquired with a raised eyebrow behind his metallic mask.

"It's not a certainty, but human nature and history decrees that we as a species have a tendency to jump into things without thinking. Some people would think that the best solution would be to depower all Metahumans regardless of who they are and what they have done. And that's just the best case scenario to the alternatives."

"So they would try and "cure" us?" Velocity asked in disbelief, "There is nothing wrong with us?"

"We're different" Raven said morbidly, "And sometimes that's enough to be classified as "wrong" to some people. My people in the Magic Realm know that sentiment all too well."

"Woah, Woah...guys!" Silicon said, "Were getting ahead of ourselves here. Yes, I have taken consideration of my device being used like "The Cure" for Metahumans like in that X-Men Movie, used on all of us whether we want it or not. I can guarantee to you all that that can't happen."

"Why not?" Murdoch inquired, "What could you have possibly thought up as a contingency against this device falling into the wrong hands and being abused?"

"Actually the whole procedure I just described did it for me, I didn't have to think it up at all" Silicon explained, "This device DOES work in draining energy, and should work on M-Radiation...however I have hit a slight roadblock in completing it that prohibits this thing from working all the time. You see, just like Legion, it drains M-Radiation. But unlike Legion, it has no way to contain it. The drained energy has nowhere to go, but out of the weapon itself where it can be absorbed back into the original host by proximity. It's like a magnet and metal shillings, the M-Radiation goes back to its host just like that if they are still in the proximity region. It needs some kind of "conduit based container" to contain the absorbed M-Radiation, Legion was his own "container", acting as a conduit for his powers to drain Metabolised M-Radiation from his victims through touch into his own genes. Until I figure out a way to do that, the thing is just a fancy looking paper weight."



"So no danger of seeing cops running around on the street with "Shoot to depower" orders, with one of these things in their hands? Sounds great to me" Velocity shrugged.

"Wait, how do you even know that you "power absorber" gun has this problem?" Andrew Griffin asked confused.

"Power Neutralizer" Silicon corrected, "and I know this because I tested it on myself."

The Heroes Legion looked at their youngest member with shock.

"Hey, I made sure it was safe before I zapped myself" Silicon insisted, "I'm not some kind of loopy young mad scientist."

"Experimenting on yourself" kind of falls under the traits found in "mad scientist" kiddo" Murdoch pointed out.

"Either way, the "Power Neutralizer" isn't fully operational yet" Silicon finished, "also since I got in trouble with you all briefly about Project: "Fallen Legion" I decided to keep my word and inform you all about this device before going any further."

"Well. Glad you did us all the courtesy this time Silicon" Atlanta acknowledged thankfully.

"You know, the kids right" Velocity said walking up to the Power Neutralizer prototype "With this thing, we could probably take down the whole Dark Elite in one fell swoop next time we face off with them."

"It doesn't work on Magic users or Cyborgs though" Silicon pointed out.

"Wouldn't matter little buddy" Velocity shrugged, "we take down Meta-Master, Sonar, Brawl, Depth Charge and Black Knight, those two wouldn't be much of a problem without their friends to back them up."

"Sure would be nice to not have to worry about them or the prisoners in Rikers Island anymore, don't you think?" Shadow Knight asked to M-Leader.

"Yes it would...Arcane has been getting hounded by the government to find a way to rehabilitate or neutralize the powers of prisoners there indefinitely, this weapon would be the answer to that problem. But unless we absolutely need to. This device, finished or no isn't getting used in the field. Not until some careful thought has been made about this device and all of its potentials for good and for harm. I made that mistake with my invention two years ago, I would hate to make that mistake again...with your invention Silicon. To have something you hope will create good things for humanity and then have it only create nothing but disaster and grief before any good comes of it...it's not a good feeling for a scientist to have."

"The "J. Oppenheim" effect" Shadow Knight guessed correctly, referring the scientist who had worked on the Manhattan Project that had led to the creation of the Atomic Bomb, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

"I understand Marcus" Silicon said, "I really do. That's why it's not going out into the field until both it's ready to be used, and we are ready to use it."

"So now that we know what you've been doing that was so important you had to show us after school" Velocity suggested, "Anyone want to go do a few rounds in the Battle-Zone simulator, "Atlantean Dawn" on "Hard Mode" perhaps?"

"Or maybe "The Dark Elite" on "Hard" Speedster" Murdoch suggested, "We need to keep ourselves ready for when they show their faces again."

"I could go for that" Atlanta shrugged.

"Me too" Raven Ducard added.

"Count us in" Robo-Warrior said.

"Alright" Shadow Knight said, "Let's go and get a good three hours training in before supper, good for the morale and good for the body."

"You've been reading those exercise books again haven't you?" Velocity quipped.

Just then, before the Heroes Legion could leave Silicon's lab to head for the Battle-zone simulator to train, a loud siren like sound started blaring throughout the Clubhouse Bunker.

"Good gracious!" Raven Ducard exclaimed, putting her hands to her ears in order to drown out the noise "What is that?"

"It's the "Red Alert" siren I installed into the P.A system, it's linked to Heroes Links: one and only goes off if Heroes Links: One's "media scanner" app detects anything that fits the description of "emergency" that I programed into it, and then for it to activate the siren in order for it to be able to inform us that it's found something important whenever and wherever we are in the Mansion....but I think the siren needs work." Silicon explained.

"What?!" Velocity yelled over the sound of the siren, "I can't hear you over that thing."

"Never mind, everyone..." M-Leader said, using his telepathy to help everyone hear one another over the blaring siren, "To the Heroes Links: One chamber!"



Needing no further incentive, the Heroes Legion made their way (with their hands over their ears) to the chamber where the supercomputer known as Heroes Links: One was found.

Once they passed through the entrance door into this chamber, the siren stopped blaring...to everyone's relief.

Then they saw that on the big jumbo Tron sized computer monitor, a bunch of number, some kind of code was flashing on the screen in a red coloring font.

"10-34? What's a 10-34?" Velocity asked confused.

"Riot" Shadow Knight answered, "It's the state's police code for "riot"

"But where, and why did a riot set off the alarm system" Silicon asked aloud as he sat down at the keyboard control panel of the supercomputer, "A riot is something that would probably merit our presence if it's too much or too far away for the police to go and handle it. But to have Heroes Links: One flash us that code and with that type of color code...it could only mean that...oh no!"

"What is it Silicon?" Shadow Knight asked.

"Heroes Links: One has located the source of the "riot", it's coming from the center area of Rikers Island" Silicon then turned and looked at the others with great worry, "From the "Special Cases" wing."



The Heroes Legion looked at one another in horror, not the "Special Cases" wing.

That was where all the dangerous and criminal Metahumans they had caught during this half a year they had been doing this task as a superhero team protecting the city from rogue Metahumans and other forces.

If Heroes Links: One was saying that a riot was taking place in that section of the island prison, then it was a safe bet that somehow or someway, the Metahuman criminals they had locked up there had now escaped and were on the rampage trying to escape Rikers and enter the city.

But...how did this happen?

How did any one of those prisoners get loose?

S.L.E.E.T had the place strictly locked up, gaurds on every level of the "Special Cases" facility, security devices on every floor (six above ground, Seventeen below ground) and access way or stairwell, and also upon the slight chance of a breakout there had been steps made to make sure during such and even that there was no way in or out of the cells or the prison itself without all of the access key cards.

The doors of the top level area of the prison operated on a seven card security lock key, and only six people at the prison held those six out of seven card keys needed to access the top floor area and only General Arcane had access to the final key card of those cards.

Without Arcane's Key Card there would be no escape from the bottom levels of the facility.

Did that mean that General Arcane was there in the middle of the prison riot?

And the prisoners were all fitted with those Power Negation collars Silicon and M-Leader had come up with, the self-sustaining ones...the ones that ran off the M-Radiation of the prisoners Active M-Gene.

They couldn't have left their cells without those collars giving them a powerful electric shock and rendering them unconscious before they could even take two steps.

This shouldn't be happening, so why was it?

...

Well...whatever.

That wasn't what was important right now.

No matter the reasons for this prison riot, they had to go there right now and help S.L.E.E.T quell the riot before the cops arrived and discovered the facility was where Metahumans criminals were being held.

If they found out, they would blab...and a certain Arch-Villain who's ears were always tuned to the city to find news of things he could use to his advantage would hear of this, and decided to act to free those prisoners in order to bolster the ranks of the army they knew he was building wherever he was hiding now.

Then there was the matter of the people of the city.

They couldn't allow a mob of angry Metahumans with a wide variety of dangerous abilities escape and run free and terrorize the populace.

Not when the world now knew about them, now they really had to do their best in matters like this...or else they set a bad example for super powered humans everywhere.

Not wanting to waste any more time upon realising what was at stake her if anyone of those prisoners escaped, the Heroes Legion made their way hastily to the Battle-Falcon launch bay to go and quell the riot and stop any of the prisoners from escaping into the city.

Unfortunately, by the time they got there.

It would already be too late to stop eight particular prisoners from escaping into the city...with a hostage in tow.