The Fall of the Society

Chapter 1: The Betrayal

  The night was dark and he was alone in the world. He had been a part of the the global society for the protection of mankind but they had all turned on him. This did not bother him, he had only joined to appease his parents, for he cared little for humans. None of the others had true power like he did, squandering there measly abilities in flashy shows trying to make a name for themselves. They would create foolish names and costumes, but not him. He wore jeans and a zip up hoody as well as a mask. After all he needed to protect those that cared for him.
    He had gained the moniker of Tripp in his early days because he was the only one that had three separate and distinct abilities. It was also caused by him refusing to speak to the media or be interviewed and pick his own. Since his parents had passed he had kept completely to himself, which started the conflict within the society.
    They said that he should use his abilities for their absolute good. Give his time and efforts to the leaders of the world. What a waste, he would think. There was no way he would serve the figure heads of society. They only cared for those that lined their pockets and kept them fat.
     His connection to humanity died with his family, but he had kept the charade up for a long time. He had refused to bail out a couple of corporate elites that had gotten caught in a wild fire of their own doing. Their retribution was banishment from the society, and a secret war to try and discredit him.
     Their methods were mostly futile until they tried to send assassins after him. They set up the burglary of an apartment building. Seeing as those chosen had no idea how to properly commit crimes they ended up taking everyone in the building hostage. When Tripp showed up the others began attacking him and killing the hostages.
    In one wave of his arm lightning shot across the room and disintegrated many of the assailants. Soon all the hostages had been killed and Tripp had cornered the last of the murderers. At this point they stripped off their disguises and revealed that they were actually from the society. The two he recognized was Madam Madness, who could drive people insane by placing thoughts in their head, and Odyssey, who had the power to control and materialize water.
   Odyssey sent a wave of water crashing across the room which Trip split easily with his mind. His main power that he used the most and was the most famous for was telekinesis. Madam Madness began to concentrate, but he knew he could not let that happen. He wrapped her in a mind hold and slammed her into the wall beside her, where she crumpled to the ground. Another wave of water crashed into him and enveloped him into a case with the attempt to drown him. His eyes flashed bright yellow as electric began arcing inside the water prison. Odyssey screamed and fell to his knees while trying to maintain the sphere prison. He shouted for the others to flee but it was not enough.
   The orb prison exploded as water and lightning cascaded across the building. Soon the lightning had caused all the water to evaporate and had electrocuted Madam, Odyssey and the others in the room. It had also caused the building to catch fire. Standing in the middle of the burning room with electric arcing from him into everything around him, he screamed. This was the final straw. As his anger flowed from him he noticed a flash of light from a camera, followed by the fluttering wings of the Shimmering Sparrow as he flew away.
    It was then that the realization of what had come to pass hit him. The society had set him up. They would make it appear that he had killed the hostages and the heroes that showed up to stop him. Their scheming needed to end, someone needed to stop them. Tripp burst from the building in a sphere of electricity, as debris and rubble rained back to earth. He sped through the sky as thunder clapped overhead and rain fell to the ground. He had never been so angry, and the society had never seen his true power.
   The Shimmering Sparrow was nowhere to be seen, his image that the media crafted for him would have to die for him to complete his mission. He closed the distance to the Hall of Honor very quickly and soon encountered their defense sentries. Multiple of the heavily armored and devastatingly offensive droids shot into the air and began firing everything they had at him. The electric in front of him tightened creating an impermeable barrier, which protected him completely.  As quickly as  it had solidified, it opened up and Tripp immediately shot a wave of ice across the line of defenders. The area attack had a slight effect as multiple of the machines engines froze solid and they fell from the sky. Without missing a beat the remaining machines tried to close the gap and keep him from getting past but he slammed into them violently. As soon as he impacted them, he detonated his shields  in an immensely powerful attack. The machines armor was strong, but not strong enough to withstand the explosion Trip had just caused, and they were demolished instantly.
    He came in fast but landed in a running stride as ground based sentries began closing in on him. The machines launched their attacks, but it was ineffective as he formed a telekinetic shield around himself and easily defended against the assault. He then swung his arms in front of him and a violent wave of electricity shot out in all directions. The droids lurched and crumpled to the ground, all of their circuits destroyed. 
   Trip finally made his way to the front entrance and quickly blasted his way through the fortified front doors. He stepped through the smoldering remains of the entrance and was staring directly at the top three Socialites. The first being Arcane Inferno, a master of pyrokinetics. His right hand was simply known as Mist, a deadly assassin that could disappear from view and deliver a killing blow almost instantly. The third and final goes by the moniker Bio, which fit his abilities of creating acids and poisons from the palms of his hands.
    Arcane stepped forward, "Your foolish mission ends here. Surrender and we will let you live."
    "Life is meaningless without purpose. You're purpose is a lie," Tripp said back calmly. "You are not the ones I am after. Those who command this false ship of freedom and protection need to be dealt with."
   "You will never make it to them," Bio hissed in raspy low voice, his eyes flashing as the light caught them. With great quickness, Bio then flung a thick and pungent liquid across the room and Tripp was barely able to avoid it.
   He spun to his right and pushed a surge of electric out into the room. The attack caught Mist, who had become invisible, and threw him backwards and into a wall. Arcane shot forward through the attack and landed a blazing punch directly into Tripp's  left ribs. The attack exploded and slammed Tripp across the room and he landed hard on the floor. Blood flowed freely from his ribs and mouth as he stood back up. "Is that all you got?" He asked as he spit blood.
    Arcane once again lunges forward but Tripp was waiting for him and easily side stepped his soaring right hand which was ablaze. Out of nowhere Bio cast a spray of acid across Tripp's left arm. Smoke started to come off of his skin as the acid began burning him and destroying his cloths. He grimaced with pain as he spun toward Bio and held his hand out. Closing his fist in Bio's direction, blood shot from Bio's ears and mouth as his internal organs were crushed.
   Mist had finally regained his feet but he was still concussed. Tripp lunged forward at him as lightning arced from his feet and right hand pulled back. He began to roar just as he was countered by a heavy punch to his jaw from Arcane. Tripp flew across the room and slammed hard into a fountain, which crumpled under his weight. Water flowed across him as blood poured from a cut on his cheek and mouth. He pushed himself up with his right arm and still could not use his left.
    When Arcane had hit Tripp the power he had been exerting shot down Arcane's arm, breaking it. Mist moved forward now, having regained his senses and was swinging his blade wildly as he closed the distance. Drawing back his blade he thrust it directly for Tripp's heart. Tripp quickly straightened up, allowing the blade to pass through his ribs where Arcane had hit him. The blade past cleanly through and got slightly jammed between his ribs. Tripp turned his body, pulling Mist off balance and he grabbed him by the throat with his right hand.
     Mist screamed as ice began to spread from Tripp's hand. He struggled and managed to break Tripp's grasp on him free. It was too late as ice spread across Mist's throat and into his chest. He struggled to breath as he stumbled and fell to the ground. Managing to crawl about a foot the ice fully encased him.
     Arcane roared and lunged for Tripp, leaving a blazing trail in his wake. Trip was barely able to stand, but focused and pushed a wave of telekinetic energy outward. The wave struck Arcane hard and blasted him through the wall. The attack had rendered him unconscious and he was laying in a pile of debris.
    Tripp pulled the blade from his ribs and stumbled across the room and through the opening he had created. Much to his surprise there was a strange heavily fortified door. He walked forward and placed his hand on it and was instantly singed. What could possible be behind this door. Holding his hand in front of him he grasped the door telekinetically and pulled on it. There was a loud bang as debris around him fell from the ceiling and the walls.
    "Stop!" Arcane shouted feebly as he worked to free himself. "You don't know what you are doing!" Tripp ignored him and pulled again, causing a loud crashing sound as more debris let free, but the door still stood. "She will destroy us all! We can't control her yet!"
    Trip turned and glared at Arcane, "what do you mean you can't control her?"
     "Her powers are new, if she were released on the world she will likely burn everything to ash," Arcane shouted.
     "What you want is no longer valid, if the world is meant to burn than it must burn and then be reborn from the chaos," Tripp said turning back to he door. He once again held his right hand in front of him. Focusing with all his might and let out a roar of rage as he pulled once again. Amongst a loud crashing sound the door pulled free and fell to the ground with a resounding clang.
    "What have you done?" Arcane shouted as he continued to work to free himself.
     Fire blazed through the opening of the wall and sucked the oxygen from the room for a moment. The wave of heat hit Tripp and he stumbled backward a step, before pushing forward. His skin began blistering as the flames licked against him. Through the flames he could see a young girl latched to a table in the middle of the room. His eyes were then drawn upward and he could see turbines turning in the ceiling. They were using her abilities to power the building.
     Rage once again flowed inside him as he took another step into the blistering heat. Breathes were harder to take as the fire consumed all the oxygen in the room. He tried to cool himself off with his ice abilities but he had sustained too much damage and the flames were too hot. Even with such adversity he continued to push forward. Stumbling he grasped the table and could feel the flesh on his hand singing even further. His mission would fail, the figure heads would remain intact, but at least he might free this girl.
    He reached for the latch on the table but a bolt of fire collided with his back and slammed him into the opposite wall where he collapsed to the floor. "If we can't control her she will have to die! I will not let you succeed!" Arcane shouted. "No fire burns hotter than I!" He held his hands out and a stream of blue fire shot onto the table.
    The girl screamed, and sadness filled the room. Her cries drove Tripp to push himself to his knees. Arcane's arms slammed to his side and an expression of extreme disbelief plastered his face. "How is this possible! You should be dead by now!"
    Tripp thrust his hand across the room and Arcane flew through the air onto a piece of exposed rebar. Blood flowed from his mouth as his head lulled to the side. Tripp summoned every once of strength he had left and slammed his fist into the locking mechanism that was holding her on the table. His bones, brittle from the heat broke and blood flowed freely from multiple wounds all over his body, and he collapsed to the floor.
     As soon as her hands were free the girl reached up and removed the helmet from her head and the fire stopped. She quickly slid from the table and knelt beside Tripp.
     "You must flee from here," he coughed weakly. "I can do no more, but at least you will be free."
      The girl stared at him as tears streamed down her face. She then held her hands over Tripp and blue fire encased him. Much to his surprise he could feel no heat and the effects where quite comforting, he imagined death may feel this way as he closed his eyes. His pain disappeared as he lay there for what seemed like an eternity. Shortly after the flames stopped and Tripp opened his eyes. His pain was still gone as he sat up. Much of his clothes were destroyed, but all of his wounds had vanished and he was restored.
    Staring at his hands he could not believe it, "How did you do that?"
      "My ability is the fires of life, out of destruction comes rebirth," she said whipping the tears from her face. "I have never gotten to use it on someone I wanted to before, they controlled my abilities with that helmet."
     Astonishment crossed his face. This was a new low for the society. "What is your name?" he asked her as he stood back up.
     "My given name is Rose, but they all called me The Crimson Rose," she said shyly. "Where are you going now?"
     "I came here with a mission, I intend to finish it now," he said with determination.
     She ran in front of him, "Let's just leave! You don't have to do what it looks like you want to do!"
     He stared at her for a moment, "do you want them to get away with what they have done to you?"
     "If it means keeping your soul intact yes!" she cried with her tears flowing again. "This may seem foolish but you are the only friend I have in the world and we just met!"
     Her words caught him off guard. No one had ever referred to him as a friend. Everyone in the society had always just treated him like a tool that was to be used. "You are strange," he said finally as he wiped the tears from her face. "You know they will hunt us, right?"
    "Then let them, we will deal with it when it happens," she said stubbornly. 
     Tripp smiled, "Let's get going then shall we." He walked out in front of her and he encased her in a telekinetic bubble and lifted her from the ground as they both took to the sky. He had no idea where they would go but they would figure it out. She looked back and smiled at him as they soared into the clouds. He thought he was saving her, but now it was very apparent that she had clearly saved him.
     The night was dark, but he was not alone. On the horizon of a new day he could see light, and the happiness that would come with it.