ok maybe a little bit of explanation will help with this story its sort of a dual origin of both one of my heroes and one of my villains with cameo appearances from other associated characters.This story involves characters who are much more from the CoX universe than previous offerings howeer they will all interlink I can assure you
The most dangerous job in the world
You want to know how the Hell I got here, standing on top of the head of the statue of lord Recluse in Grandeville. How did I, a small town boy, who always wanted to be a hero end up here feared as a notorious villain.
Well it's a bit of a convoluted story and it begins at my grandma's knee, listening to her tales of how she fought the 5th Column, during and just after World War II, with her partner The Sound O' Freedom and other heroes including Paragon City's Statesman.
I dreamt, literally, day and night of how I would be a hero, like my Grandma, how I would fight the villains I read about and saw on the television news. I and my friends made masks and cloaks and ran around the neighbourhood playing at being heroes, of course no one wanted to be the villains. Then to my surprise and delight when I hit puberty I started to gain powers, weak at first but as I got older they grew stronger. I could control the earth and the winds themselves creating tremors and dust devils, small whirlwinds of dust, I was overjoyed.
I decided that if I was going to be a hero I would do it properly, I would learn not only how to use my powers but I would also learn how to detect, I would learn Forensics, Law, how the Police work. I would be a true law enforcer.
So I diligently applied myself to school and later college as well as developing and learning how to use my powers, so I could go to Phoenix University to study for a degree in Law Enforcement. On graduation I got a job as a Sheriff's Deputy in New Mexico not far from my home, I was serving a community that encompassed some of the Navaho lands, some small towns and some strange government and corporate zones out in the desert. It was fairly quiet with the usual robberies, domestics and drunken violence but that suited me as it allowed me time to go out into the desert to practice my powers. I wanted to have a solid grounding before I applied for a job in a big city like Los Angeles or out on the East Coast.
For six months or so it was perfect then everything changed with a strange case, a body was found by a Navaho shepherd, it was at the edge of his land where it came up a against one of the corporate zones. The body had become uncovered by scavengers and the wind from where it had been buried and as it was in my area it was me who got the call from the very unhappy shepherd. Navaho's have a real problem with dead bodies and the call was all about witches and skinwalkers and at first it was difficult to take seriously but I know the man so I went to see what he had found. Thats where it started to get weird, the body had obviously been there for at least a week, it was desiccated and had lost parts to coyotes and the like but I recognised him and to make it really Outer Limits territory I had seen him in a local diner that very morning eating pancakes and drinking coffee.
I called it in to the dispatcher to get the forensic team out and the local Medical Examiner, I told the Sheriff what I'd found and how it looked like a Security guard from SpiritTech I had seen that very morning, he not surprisingly was dismissive saying I was have made a mistake but he told me to follow it up by going to see the SpiritTech security chief as soon as the forensic team arrived. So as soon as they arrived I set off for the SpiritTech facility. Before I left I took some pictures of the body so i could show them who and what I'd found. On arrival I was directed into the facility, apparently my Sheriff had taken me seriously and had rung ahead, it was huge, acres of land with a small towns worth of buildings gleaming in the desert sun, ranks of solar collectors and windmills, I followed the directions I had been given and drove to the central security office in a large hanger like building in the centre. I parked up and went into the building where amidst a hive of activity I was shown to the office of the facilitys security chief.
He was of course disbelieving up until the point where I showed him the photos, whereupon he went pale and started barking out orders, his team then started pulling up information on the screens that were all over the office and started to try to track down where the impostor was in the facility. It was only a matter of moments before they had his position pinpointed and thats when all hell broke loose. On calling him on his communicator, he drew his gun and shot the rest of the detail he was with and that wasn't all, all over the facility alarms started blaring as other security guards drew their weapons and slew the men they were with. Within a few minutes it became obvious that at least eight guards were not who they were thought to be, the facility had become a series of running gun battles but the advantages were all with the impostors, they had surprise on their side and they were obviously working to some previously determined plan.
On the screens in the office it quickly became obvious that they were all working their way to some central point, they were converging shooting as they went suppressing any attempt to stop them. The security chief became very worried when he discovered that the blast doors that should cut off their advance would not obey their commands. He turned to me and told me to get my gun out if I was staying. I could hear him saying under his breath" They're going for The Vault, Goddamit! "
He then put in a call to SpiritTech's head office and said to me Ok well we only need to hold them off for about eight minutes and help will arrive. He then led those of us that were in the security centre out into the facility, heading towards an elevator just down the corridor from the security centre. "Ok this is my special lift it will take us straight down to the vault level", he said as he unlocked the doors, "it's there that we'll hold them off till the big guy arrives".
The lift plunged downwards, seemingly endlessly, into the bowels of the earth, there was no level counter so I had no idea how far down we were going down, I was left wondering how deep it could go. Eventually the lift slowed and stopped, the doors opening on a scene of death, shrouded in smoke, punctuated by gunshots, we were too late the impostors were already here ahead of us. I followed the security chief out of the lift, "Do you want this smoke cleared?" I asked. "What the hell do you mean?" he barked back and with that I summoned up my powers, centred myself and drew on the winds to blow the smoke away, clearing our view down the corridor. Down the corridor we could see two men who turned towards us raising their guns. Reflexively I gestured and the floor exploded upwards to envelop them, crushing the breath out of them, making them drop their weapons. "Goddamit a power that'll help" the security chief said.
So we moved down the corridor, I held the impostors until the security chief and his men could get to them and disarm them and bind them hand to foot to restrain them. It was eerie the way they just glared at us they didn't say a thing even when they were in obvious pain. In this way we advanced towards the end of the corridor, it was wearing I hadn't used my powers at this level and under this pressure before, one slip and we could die in a hail of bullets. We moved slowly, picking them off one here a couple there but it was becoming apparent that at least one of them had made it into the restricted vault area. The emergency lights were starting to flicker and a strange vibration could be felt in the air rather than through the floor.
"Oh Goddamit, those idiots they have no idea what they've done. I hope your strong kid 'cos help is still a few minutes away" the security chief shouted at me over the growing noise. I have to say I was completely nonplussed as to what this "help" could be. We came to a corner and as we went round it we were greeted by a truly horrific sight, the intruders had broken in, a huge bank vault like door was hanging off it's hinges, the men who had opened it had been smashed into a bloody mangled pulp, where it had been thrown open to crash against the wall.
In the open doorway was a figure, a seeming metal man, shrouded in a darkness that seemed to cling about it and a strange moaning, keening wail seemed to emanate from it. The sound seemed to claw at you and the air shimmered, I could feel my very life being sucked away from me, reflexively I called on the wind to push it back away from me. Within moments I had generated a gale that swept everything before it except the hideous figure and even in the teeth of hat gale it took a step forward, I could feel a hatred of life pouring out of it and I knew I had to do everything I could to stop it.
Even through my efforts, the howling gale the horrible keening wail I became aware of a sound coming from behind me, a swishing metallic sound, a pounding thump of footfalls, footfalls with enough force to shake the ground beneath my feet. I could feel my strength beginning to fail me but I knew I had to draw more out of myself, I had to keep going, I couldn't let this thing escape. I reached down into myself and summoned the earth to rise up and crush this monstrosity. then out of the corner of my eye I became aware of a glow, which got brighter in the pervading gloom, until I had to squint against it and then a huge glowing metallic figure, as much a figure of light as the one in front of me was dark, strode past me. A voice thunderous over the grinding of the earth, the howling gale and that terrible mournful keening said, "You're doing great there can you keep it up for a while longer while I batter some sense into that evil thing". With that he walked into the encroaching dark, his footsteps shaking the ground beneath my feet, "Brace yourself now" the voice again thundered.
The sound was like an express train, a hammer on an anvil, it was almost overwhelming as he launched himself against the dark twin. The blows rained in, slabs of concrete crashed against the dark figure. I did my best to stop the dark twin from moving, to slow him down to allow the glowing man to batter it into submission. The level of noise was horrendous, my ears were ringing and I was beginning to feel sick as well as tired beyond imagining. It took an eternity or at least it felt like it and when eventually the dark twin fell unmoving to the floor, the relief was so immense that I collapsed, so drained my legs could no longer support me. I seemed to remember as I slipped into unconsciousness,
"Wow you did great there I honestly didn't think that monster could be slowed by one person......."
I awoke in bed between crisp white sheets, a distinctly medical smell stinging my nostrils, within moments of waking a nurse was at my bedside offering me a drink from a spill-proof cup.
"Well you certainly made an impression on Silver Deputy and he told me to tell you that he really wants to speak to you again but he's had to head back to paragon City to deal with a rampaging robot"
To be honest I was having problems taking it all in, I was working out that "Silver" must be the metal man who had arrived to finish the monster, a well known hero called The Silver Spirit from the East Coast, a long way from home here in New Mexico. This brief quiet interlude in the facility's hospital was to be the last quiet interlude I would have for several weeks.
First there was the debrief from the Federal Authorities, both people from D.A.T.A. and M.A.G.I., they were more interested in who the attackers might have been than the monster in the Vault, I got the impression they knew about that. Then I had a very unpleasant interview with my Sheriff, it turned out he was a prejudiced son of a [censored], who hated all heroes but especially mutants. It became very obvious that my life would be made a living hell if I stayed with the department, so I quit.
I was left wondering what I could do know, there was no way I would get a reference that I could use from my former job, it seemed my plans were in ruins. That was until I received a surprise visit from The Silver Spirit, apparently he knew the boss of SpiritTech and had told him about my circumstances and that I should expect a call about a job. Boy what a job offer it was too, a place in the SpiritTech security team in Paragon City, quadrupling my salary, a company apartment, a medical plan and on top of that I would receive training in my powers. Surprise, surprise I jumped at it.
So I arrived in Paragon City in the period after the first Rikti invasion had been fought off, of course we didn't know then it was the first invasion, everyone thought we had won and yes the heroes who had been lost were mourned but there was a sense of anticipation and excitement, that now the world was a safer place, yes the War Walls were still up but that soon they could be taken down and normality would resume. The one marked thing was that heroes were welcomed in Paragon City and even encouraged with facilities being made available to help them learn how to use their powers responsibly.
I had just over a year of an almost joyous life, a great interesting job and also the sheer fun and exhilaration of my hero life. I had become the costumed superhero Dust Diablo, feared by the gangs and secret societies that seemed to infest the city. Among my jobs for SpiritTech was to do a regular check on the security of the new Vault, which was now based in The Zig, that was the nickname for the huge specialised prison in the Brickstown area of the city. After the trouble in New Mexico the Federal authorities had insisted that the Vault was moved to where hero support could be called on quicker. In The Vault were kept some of the most dangerous things that SpiritTech had developed for the Government and some of the most dangerous villains that Silver Spirit had captured. It was visiting here that I finally found out what I had fought back in New Mexico. It seems that a team lead by Silver Spirit had fought a group of Circle of Thorns mystics who had been trying to summon some sort of monstrous extra dimensional entity, they had been defeated but the entity had actually broken through into our world and the only way to contain it, once it had been beaten had been to imprison it it in Silver Spirit's armour. In The Vault it was held quiescent in a form of technomagic containment. Among the other things I was detailed to check in The Vault was a rogue A.I. that was held there in a powered down state. Under normal circumstances it would be a fairly boring couple of hours, checking that routines hadn't become slipshod and that power sources were being maintained properly.
Now on this particular day I was partnered with a relatively new guy, someone like me, he had powers and had been given the name Guard Dog for when he was in costume, Jeff was a cool guy an old head on young shoulders having been recruited out of the military. I was showing him all the things he needed to check, running through the assorted paperwork when all hell broke loose. Everyone now knows what happened but at the time it was chaos, Lord Recluse had decided to show his hand by attacking The Zig and freeing all the prisoners held there.
The first we knew about it was when the building shook and all the lights went out, even the emergency lights, we can only presume that Recluse must have had people in place amongst the staff, as the emergency power being cut was a disaster for us. It meant that all the fail-safes wouldn't exactly failsafe. Under normal circumstances the power to the containment would have been maintained but with the power being completely severed that containment would fail. We ran but we were too late, in that period of darkness before the power was restored, the Chaos Spirit had woken and had slaughtered the guards smashing its way out of the core of The Vault before being shepherded away by Arachnos' troopers.
We had to fight our way through corridors full of super powered villains and Arachnos troopers, thankfully they hadn't fully recovered from the drainers that were used to contain their powers in their cells.
By the time we reached the core of the Vault all that was left was ruin and the dead bodies of the guards. The Chaos Spirit and the rogue A.I. had gone rushed away by Recluses' forces to waiting flyers that had breached the city's security. It was then that I made a fateful decision, with all the heroes occupied trying to contain the mayhem, there was no one really available to chase the escapees down. I'd have to do it myself, I'd have to follow, infiltrate, get close enough and bring them back. Obviously I couldn't go as myself, I would be recognised by those I had put in the Zig as Dust Diablo, I'd need a new identity and I knew where to find them.
In the core of The Vault were kept certain artefacts and devices I could use, I went to get a special pair of gloves, Silver Spirit called them the Godkiller gloves, he didn't say where they had come from but he had said they were kept there because they were extremely powerful and could be used to take down the Chaos Spirit if necessary. Searching through the assorted safes I came across the perfect thing, a sort of mask, a gruesome metal skull that could hide my face from the people I needed not to recognise me. To my shock when I put the mask to my face to try to see if it would fit, it bonded itself to my face. I could feel thousands of pinpricks across my face, burrowing into my flesh, the pain was excruciating. Then even more scaring was the voice, the mask was talking to me, I was terrified, it was alien and initially my head was filled with bizarre sounds and sensations, before it settled down into a comprehensible voice. It seems that luck was on my side, it was compatible and thank god not evil, it also came with powers of its own, the ability to project energy fields around me to protect and even hide me.
So equipped with the Godkiller gloves and the mask I became someone else, a super-powered villain someone who Arachnos would want to take back to the Rogue Isles. I worked out some ways for Guard Dog and other members of SpiritTech to get in touch with me then headed out to join the breakout. Using my knowledge of the prison it was easy to insert myself into the flow of prisoners escaping, I even actually had to help one of their low level operatives, an idiot named Jenkins, to get my ride out to the Rogue Isles.
So I went from having a job I loved, to having one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. I am placed within Lord Recluse's organisation, allied to a villain group called The Union of The Eye that allows me to keep an eye on and report on A.I. 101v2, as he calls himself now and to help Chaos Spirit in check. Of course at any moment I could let my concentration slip, make a mistake and be recognised by someone I caught as a hero. Yes I really do think I have the most dangerous job in the world, but I wouldn't change it for anything because by god does it make me feel alive!
ok maybe a little bit of explanation will help with this story its sort of a dual origin of both one of my heroes and one of my villains with cameo appearances from other associated characters.This story involves characters who are much more from the CoX universe than previous offerings howeer they will all interlink I can assure you
The most dangerous job in the world
You want to know how the Hell I got here, standing on top of the head of the statue of lord Recluse in Grandeville. How did I, a small town boy, who always wanted to be a hero end up here feared as a notorious villain.
Well it's a bit of a convoluted story and it begins at my grandma's knee, listening to her tales of how she fought the 5th Column, during and just after World War II, with her partner The Sound O' Freedom and other heroes including Paragon City's Statesman.
I dreamt, literally, day and night of how I would be a hero, like my Grandma, how I would fight the villains I read about and saw on the television news. I and my friends made masks and cloaks and ran around the neighbourhood playing at being heroes, of course no one wanted to be the villains. Then to my surprise and delight when I hit puberty I started to gain powers, weak at first but as I got older they grew stronger. I could control the earth and the winds themselves creating tremors and dust devils, small whirlwinds of dust, I was overjoyed.
I decided that if I was going to be a hero I would do it properly, I would learn not only how to use my powers but I would also learn how to detect, I would learn Forensics, Law, how the Police work. I would be a true law enforcer.
So I diligently applied myself to school and later college as well as developing and learning how to use my powers, so I could go to Phoenix University to study for a degree in Law Enforcement. On graduation I got a job as a Sheriff's Deputy in New Mexico not far from my home, I was serving a community that encompassed some of the Navaho lands, some small towns and some strange government and corporate zones out in the desert. It was fairly quiet with the usual robberies, domestics and drunken violence but that suited me as it allowed me time to go out into the desert to practice my powers. I wanted to have a solid grounding before I applied for a job in a big city like Los Angeles or out on the East Coast.
For six months or so it was perfect then everything changed with a strange case, a body was found by a Navaho shepherd, it was at the edge of his land where it came up a against one of the corporate zones. The body had become uncovered by scavengers and the wind from where it had been buried and as it was in my area it was me who got the call from the very unhappy shepherd. Navaho's have a real problem with dead bodies and the call was all about witches and skinwalkers and at first it was difficult to take seriously but I know the man so I went to see what he had found. Thats where it started to get weird, the body had obviously been there for at least a week, it was desiccated and had lost parts to coyotes and the like but I recognised him and to make it really Outer Limits territory I had seen him in a local diner that very morning eating pancakes and drinking coffee.
I called it in to the dispatcher to get the forensic team out and the local Medical Examiner, I told the Sheriff what I'd found and how it looked like a Security guard from SpiritTech I had seen that very morning, he not surprisingly was dismissive saying I was have made a mistake but he told me to follow it up by going to see the SpiritTech security chief as soon as the forensic team arrived. So as soon as they arrived I set off for the SpiritTech facility. Before I left I took some pictures of the body so i could show them who and what I'd found. On arrival I was directed into the facility, apparently my Sheriff had taken me seriously and had rung ahead, it was huge, acres of land with a small towns worth of buildings gleaming in the desert sun, ranks of solar collectors and windmills, I followed the directions I had been given and drove to the central security office in a large hanger like building in the centre. I parked up and went into the building where amidst a hive of activity I was shown to the office of the facilitys security chief.
He was of course disbelieving up until the point where I showed him the photos, whereupon he went pale and started barking out orders, his team then started pulling up information on the screens that were all over the office and started to try to track down where the impostor was in the facility. It was only a matter of moments before they had his position pinpointed and thats when all hell broke loose. On calling him on his communicator, he drew his gun and shot the rest of the detail he was with and that wasn't all, all over the facility alarms started blaring as other security guards drew their weapons and slew the men they were with. Within a few minutes it became obvious that at least eight guards were not who they were thought to be, the facility had become a series of running gun battles but the advantages were all with the impostors, they had surprise on their side and they were obviously working to some previously determined plan.
On the screens in the office it quickly became obvious that they were all working their way to some central point, they were converging shooting as they went suppressing any attempt to stop them. The security chief became very worried when he discovered that the blast doors that should cut off their advance would not obey their commands. He turned to me and told me to get my gun out if I was staying. I could hear him saying under his breath" They're going for The Vault, Goddamit! "
He then put in a call to SpiritTech's head office and said to me Ok well we only need to hold them off for about eight minutes and help will arrive. He then led those of us that were in the security centre out into the facility, heading towards an elevator just down the corridor from the security centre. "Ok this is my special lift it will take us straight down to the vault level", he said as he unlocked the doors, "it's there that we'll hold them off till the big guy arrives".
The lift plunged downwards, seemingly endlessly, into the bowels of the earth, there was no level counter so I had no idea how far down we were going down, I was left wondering how deep it could go. Eventually the lift slowed and stopped, the doors opening on a scene of death, shrouded in smoke, punctuated by gunshots, we were too late the impostors were already here ahead of us. I followed the security chief out of the lift, "Do you want this smoke cleared?" I asked. "What the hell do you mean?" he barked back and with that I summoned up my powers, centred myself and drew on the winds to blow the smoke away, clearing our view down the corridor. Down the corridor we could see two men who turned towards us raising their guns. Reflexively I gestured and the floor exploded upwards to envelop them, crushing the breath out of them, making them drop their weapons. "Goddamit a power that'll help" the security chief said.
So we moved down the corridor, I held the impostors until the security chief and his men could get to them and disarm them and bind them hand to foot to restrain them. It was eerie the way they just glared at us they didn't say a thing even when they were in obvious pain. In this way we advanced towards the end of the corridor, it was wearing I hadn't used my powers at this level and under this pressure before, one slip and we could die in a hail of bullets. We moved slowly, picking them off one here a couple there but it was becoming apparent that at least one of them had made it into the restricted vault area. The emergency lights were starting to flicker and a strange vibration could be felt in the air rather than through the floor.
"Oh Goddamit, those idiots they have no idea what they've done. I hope your strong kid 'cos help is still a few minutes away" the security chief shouted at me over the growing noise. I have to say I was completely nonplussed as to what this "help" could be. We came to a corner and as we went round it we were greeted by a truly horrific sight, the intruders had broken in, a huge bank vault like door was hanging off it's hinges, the men who had opened it had been smashed into a bloody mangled pulp, where it had been thrown open to crash against the wall.
In the open doorway was a figure, a seeming metal man, shrouded in a darkness that seemed to cling about it and a strange moaning, keening wail seemed to emanate from it. The sound seemed to claw at you and the air shimmered, I could feel my very life being sucked away from me, reflexively I called on the wind to push it back away from me. Within moments I had generated a gale that swept everything before it except the hideous figure and even in the teeth of hat gale it took a step forward, I could feel a hatred of life pouring out of it and I knew I had to do everything I could to stop it.
Even through my efforts, the howling gale the horrible keening wail I became aware of a sound coming from behind me, a swishing metallic sound, a pounding thump of footfalls, footfalls with enough force to shake the ground beneath my feet. I could feel my strength beginning to fail me but I knew I had to draw more out of myself, I had to keep going, I couldn't let this thing escape. I reached down into myself and summoned the earth to rise up and crush this monstrosity. then out of the corner of my eye I became aware of a glow, which got brighter in the pervading gloom, until I had to squint against it and then a huge glowing metallic figure, as much a figure of light as the one in front of me was dark, strode past me. A voice thunderous over the grinding of the earth, the howling gale and that terrible mournful keening said, "You're doing great there can you keep it up for a while longer while I batter some sense into that evil thing". With that he walked into the encroaching dark, his footsteps shaking the ground beneath my feet, "Brace yourself now" the voice again thundered.
The sound was like an express train, a hammer on an anvil, it was almost overwhelming as he launched himself against the dark twin. The blows rained in, slabs of concrete crashed against the dark figure. I did my best to stop the dark twin from moving, to slow him down to allow the glowing man to batter it into submission. The level of noise was horrendous, my ears were ringing and I was beginning to feel sick as well as tired beyond imagining. It took an eternity or at least it felt like it and when eventually the dark twin fell unmoving to the floor, the relief was so immense that I collapsed, so drained my legs could no longer support me. I seemed to remember as I slipped into unconsciousness,
"Wow you did great there I honestly didn't think that monster could be slowed by one person......."
I awoke in bed between crisp white sheets, a distinctly medical smell stinging my nostrils, within moments of waking a nurse was at my bedside offering me a drink from a spill-proof cup.
"Well you certainly made an impression on Silver Deputy and he told me to tell you that he really wants to speak to you again but he's had to head back to paragon City to deal with a rampaging robot"
To be honest I was having problems taking it all in, I was working out that "Silver" must be the metal man who had arrived to finish the monster, a well known hero called The Silver Spirit from the East Coast, a long way from home here in New Mexico. This brief quiet interlude in the facility's hospital was to be the last quiet interlude I would have for several weeks.
First there was the debrief from the Federal Authorities, both people from D.A.T.A. and M.A.G.I., they were more interested in who the attackers might have been than the monster in the Vault, I got the impression they knew about that. Then I had a very unpleasant interview with my Sheriff, it turned out he was a prejudiced son of a [censored], who hated all heroes but especially mutants. It became very obvious that my life would be made a living hell if I stayed with the department, so I quit.
I was left wondering what I could do know, there was no way I would get a reference that I could use from my former job, it seemed my plans were in ruins. That was until I received a surprise visit from The Silver Spirit, apparently he knew the boss of SpiritTech and had told him about my circumstances and that I should expect a call about a job. Boy what a job offer it was too, a place in the SpiritTech security team in Paragon City, quadrupling my salary, a company apartment, a medical plan and on top of that I would receive training in my powers. Surprise, surprise I jumped at it.
So I arrived in Paragon City in the period after the first Rikti invasion had been fought off, of course we didn't know then it was the first invasion, everyone thought we had won and yes the heroes who had been lost were mourned but there was a sense of anticipation and excitement, that now the world was a safer place, yes the War Walls were still up but that soon they could be taken down and normality would resume. The one marked thing was that heroes were welcomed in Paragon City and even encouraged with facilities being made available to help them learn how to use their powers responsibly.
I had just over a year of an almost joyous life, a great interesting job and also the sheer fun and exhilaration of my hero life. I had become the costumed superhero Dust Diablo, feared by the gangs and secret societies that seemed to infest the city. Among my jobs for SpiritTech was to do a regular check on the security of the new Vault, which was now based in The Zig, that was the nickname for the huge specialised prison in the Brickstown area of the city. After the trouble in New Mexico the Federal authorities had insisted that the Vault was moved to where hero support could be called on quicker. In The Vault were kept some of the most dangerous things that SpiritTech had developed for the Government and some of the most dangerous villains that Silver Spirit had captured. It was visiting here that I finally found out what I had fought back in New Mexico. It seems that a team lead by Silver Spirit had fought a group of Circle of Thorns mystics who had been trying to summon some sort of monstrous extra dimensional entity, they had been defeated but the entity had actually broken through into our world and the only way to contain it, once it had been beaten had been to imprison it it in Silver Spirit's armour. In The Vault it was held quiescent in a form of technomagic containment. Among the other things I was detailed to check in The Vault was a rogue A.I. that was held there in a powered down state. Under normal circumstances it would be a fairly boring couple of hours, checking that routines hadn't become slipshod and that power sources were being maintained properly.
Now on this particular day I was partnered with a relatively new guy, someone like me, he had powers and had been given the name Guard Dog for when he was in costume, Jeff was a cool guy an old head on young shoulders having been recruited out of the military. I was showing him all the things he needed to check, running through the assorted paperwork when all hell broke loose. Everyone now knows what happened but at the time it was chaos, Lord Recluse had decided to show his hand by attacking The Zig and freeing all the prisoners held there.
The first we knew about it was when the building shook and all the lights went out, even the emergency lights, we can only presume that Recluse must have had people in place amongst the staff, as the emergency power being cut was a disaster for us. It meant that all the fail-safes wouldn't exactly failsafe. Under normal circumstances the power to the containment would have been maintained but with the power being completely severed that containment would fail. We ran but we were too late, in that period of darkness before the power was restored, the Chaos Spirit had woken and had slaughtered the guards smashing its way out of the core of The Vault before being shepherded away by Arachnos' troopers.
We had to fight our way through corridors full of super powered villains and Arachnos troopers, thankfully they hadn't fully recovered from the drainers that were used to contain their powers in their cells.
By the time we reached the core of the Vault all that was left was ruin and the dead bodies of the guards. The Chaos Spirit and the rogue A.I. had gone rushed away by Recluses' forces to waiting flyers that had breached the city's security. It was then that I made a fateful decision, with all the heroes occupied trying to contain the mayhem, there was no one really available to chase the escapees down. I'd have to do it myself, I'd have to follow, infiltrate, get close enough and bring them back. Obviously I couldn't go as myself, I would be recognised by those I had put in the Zig as Dust Diablo, I'd need a new identity and I knew where to find them.
In the core of The Vault were kept certain artefacts and devices I could use, I went to get a special pair of gloves, Silver Spirit called them the Godkiller gloves, he didn't say where they had come from but he had said they were kept there because they were extremely powerful and could be used to take down the Chaos Spirit if necessary. Searching through the assorted safes I came across the perfect thing, a sort of mask, a gruesome metal skull that could hide my face from the people I needed not to recognise me. To my shock when I put the mask to my face to try to see if it would fit, it bonded itself to my face. I could feel thousands of pinpricks across my face, burrowing into my flesh, the pain was excruciating. Then even more scaring was the voice, the mask was talking to me, I was terrified, it was alien and initially my head was filled with bizarre sounds and sensations, before it settled down into a comprehensible voice. It seems that luck was on my side, it was compatible and thank god not evil, it also came with powers of its own, the ability to project energy fields around me to protect and even hide me.
So equipped with the Godkiller gloves and the mask I became someone else, a super-powered villain someone who Arachnos would want to take back to the Rogue Isles. I worked out some ways for Guard Dog and other members of SpiritTech to get in touch with me then headed out to join the breakout. Using my knowledge of the prison it was easy to insert myself into the flow of prisoners escaping, I even actually had to help one of their low level operatives, an idiot named Jenkins, to get my ride out to the Rogue Isles.
So I went from having a job I loved, to having one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. I am placed within Lord Recluse's organisation, allied to a villain group called The Union of The Eye that allows me to keep an eye on and report on A.I. 101v2, as he calls himself now and to help Chaos Spirit in check. Of course at any moment I could let my concentration slip, make a mistake and be recognised by someone I caught as a hero. Yes I really do think I have the most dangerous job in the world, but I wouldn't change it for anything because by god does it make me feel alive!