Cosmic Disruption

Prologue

“The Union Of Heroes”

Roll Call:
Earthstorm
Doctor Magenta
Captain Courage
Wildzone
Hex
Jay The Malleable Man

Earthstorm felt the anomaly almost as soon as it happened. Tied in to planet’s ecosystem as intrinsically as he was, he could hardly fail to notice such a massive electromagnetic disturbance. He glanced at the banks of monitors before him, scanning the graphical readouts for information.

“What the hell?” he muttered. According to the data something the size of a large town had just entered low orbit around the Earth. The phone should be ringing by now. Something like this should have every agency from N.A.S.A. to the Superhuman Affairs Committee trying to reach him. But the Union Of Heroes base remained quiet.

The hero plucked a headset from the rack and put it on, ordering the computer to patch him a connection to Doctor Magenta. After a moment his wife’s sweet voice crackled through the speakers. “What’s up, honey?”
“We’ve got an intrusion. A big one, just arrived and sitting in orbit. Nobody seems to have detected it.”
“Sentient?” she asked, worried.
“I’d imagine so. It’s not a rock. Some kind of supermassive spacecraft would be my guess.”
“Jesus,” she muttered. “We aren’t expecting a delegation are we?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, do a full scan. And call the others. We’ll need everyone for this. Just in case. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Already on it,” Earthstorm said. “Love you!”
“Love you too. See you soon.”

Wildzone stood amidst a sea of fallen villains, listening with some satisfaction to the groans of the semi-conscious henchmen. These guys had been a joke. Minions of some computer-fixated lunatic called High Score, they were dressed all in black with rows of numbers down their sleeves.  They called themselves “Noobs”. Hardly a name to inspire fear. Wildzone’s fifth-dimensional martial arts had made short work of them. It was hard enough to defend against a trained fighter like him at the best of times, but one that can also move in a dimension you can’t even see?  Impossible. Wildzone almost felt sorry for them. He glanced around trying to decide if anybody needed further punishment when his Union Alarm began pulsing. “Okay,” he said. “You guys have gotten lucky. Tell your boss that I’ll be looking for him once I’m done with some global business. We’ll see how long his High Score stands then.”
     
The blue and red clad superhero struck a confident pose and smiled brightly for the cameras. “With great power,” Captain Courage whispered to the young woman at his side, “Comes great publicity.”
Hex cocked an eyebrow at him: “Since when did you become a cynic?”
The hero flexed a massive bicep for his audience. “Since the media started caring more about the way my hair is cut than the fact that I stopped Glutton from eating half of Vegas last week, or that you prevented The Fisherman from releasing thousands of angry souls back into the world yesterday.”
“We don’t do it for the kudos,” Hex chided him.
“I know,” he said, “But sometimes it all seems…”
“What?” Hex asked. “It seems what?”
Captain Courage shook his head, careful to keep his happy face on for the crowd. “Sometimes It all seems so unreal.”
“You’re going a bit existential on me aren’t you?. Where’s the black-and-white muscle-bound champion we all know and love?”
“Hold that thought,” Captain Courage said as his Union Alarm began to pulse. “We’re needed elsewhere…”

The Union were gathered in the Hall Of Honour around their famous hexagonal silver table. Jay felt distinctly uncomfortable. Generally, the Union tried to keep an active membership of eight. Presently there were only six, not because there was any shortage of heroes in the world, any of whom would be proud to be tapped for membership, but more because their conditions of membership were so exacting.

Jay had been a member for only six weeks and he still had no idea why they had chosen him. He glanced at the others, all of whom were legends. Earthstorm, who had so many powers he sometimes forgot what some of them were, was a master of magnetism, gravity and geothermal energy. His wife Doctor Magenta, current acting leader of the group, was as brilliant as she was beautiful, and when she donned her armour she was a powerhouse!  Wildzone, a tactician and strategist, was reputed to be the one of the greatest martial artists in the world. An all-round scary guy, he had caught more psychos and masked lunatics than most other heroes combined. Hex, the raven-haired young woman who was now infamous for her mastery of the sorcerous arts, having saved the world from one supernatural menace after another. And, of course, Captain Courage. A legend in his time, the Captain was the technicolour poster-boy for honour, justice, the whole shebang. He had been a global champion for five decades and showed no sign of letting up now!

Then there was Jay. “The Malleable Man”. That was his name. Looking at his colleagues he wondered, not for the first time, what on earth he was even doing here. These guys had powers that could literally shake the world. Jay could stretch a bit. That was pretty much it.  Based out of Boston he’d spent a few years battling very minor criminals. Sure, he’d had some success, but nothing like the level the Union members operated at. So when he’d found Captain Courage and Hex standing on his apartment roof a few weeks ago he’d thought it must be a joke.  Then they’d asked him to join. It still seemed almost impossible to believe, but here he was!
     
“This is the scene,” Doctor Magenta said, pointing at the flickering holo that leapt into being before her, depicting a huge black mass set against a backdrop of the globe. “A spacecraft of immense size and unknown origin is presently in orbit around the Earth. Our scans reveal enormous energy reserves and the readouts suggest the source to be a weapon.”
“What sort of weapon?”Wildzone growled.
“No idea,” Earthstorm answered for his wife. “A big one. The levels and patterns don’t resemble anything we’ve seen before.”
“Any contact from them?” Wildzone asked.
Doctor Magenta shook her head. “Not a word. We’ve tried all the usual frequencies and methods. We’re pretty sure they can hear us. They are just choosing not to answer.”
“That’s not a good sign,” Captain Courage sighed.
“I agree,” Wildzone nodded. “We need to get up there and see what’s going on. Can we get on the ship?”
“I don’t know,” Doctor Magenta told him. “I propose we take a team up to check them out. But be ready for a fight, since it seems quite likely that’s how it will pan out.”
“Why?” Jay asked. The others looked at him. He blushed. “I mean, maybe they are just here to give us a cure for cancer? Or catch a rerun of Frasier? Why do you think they are looking for trouble?”
“Experience,” Wildzone muttered. “They always want trouble.”

“You’ll get your chance,” Hex said, smiling.
Jay glanced at her and sighed. “Am I that obvious?”
“We all have our parts to play,” She said. “For now, you and I wait and watch.”
“I would have liked to be up there with them,” Jay muttered. “If only to prove I’m worth my place in the group.”
“There was no way you could be included on the first team,” she told him. “Its space. It requires a certain level of power that you and I don’t have.”
“What about Wildzone? He doesn’t have those powers either.”
“Wildzone is Wildzone,” Hex said matter-of-factly. Jay nodded. She was right.
“You could have gone. You could have cast a spell or something,” Jay pointed out.
“True,” Hex grinned. “But my magic is tied to the Earth, it gets weaker as I get further away.  Some of us need to stay at base, to be able to react quickly to events that may unfold here.”
“I guess,” Jay sighed. He looked at the monitor screen.

Captain Courage flew ahead, leaving a crimson trail in his wake, his colourful costume striking against the black backdrop of space. Behind him came Doctor Magenta in her dark armour, thrusters pushing her to incredible speeds. Bringing up the rear, Earthstorm was not exactly flying. He was surrounding himself with a bubble that repulsed gravity while pushing the bubble with magnetic waves driven by sweeps of his arms. It looked weird, like he was swimming through an invisible ocean. He carriedWildzone with him, the fighter protected by another bubble dragged along behind Earthstorm’s own.
     
“There it is,”Wildzone said, his voice carried to the others telepathically, thanks to a magical link that had been set up by Hex before they left.
“Its huge,” Doctor Magenta said. “Do we know any race that travels like this?”
“I don’t,” Captain Courage said. “Anyone else?”
Wildzone accessed his mainframe network via a gadget on his arm: “The Haemontropes maybe, but they’re all dead. The Episopheleans used to build city-ships, but they weren’t armed. Not much else.”
“For a dark vigilante you know a hell of a lot about aliens,” Earthstorm said.
“I try to keep up,”Wildzone agreed.
“Heads up,” Doctor Magenta urged. “We’ve got company.”
Up ahead, the side of the immense craft opened into the void. From within, figures began to emerge, to float out into space.
“Well then,” Earthstorm said, “Let’s get this party started.”

“Something wrong here,” Hex said, as Jay returned with a cup of coffee for her.
“What’s up?” The Malleable Man asked, handing her the steaming cup from eight feet away.
“I can’t get visual and audio is breaking up.”
“Have you tried kicking it?” Jay asked. “Always works with my TV.”
Hex glanced at him. She looked worried.
“Okay, sorry,” Jay said. “I’ll be serious. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Hex said. “The side of the ship started to open and then most of the signals went down. Obviously they’re jamming us. I tried to assist with a casting that improved electronic connections, but my spell was countered.”
“Countered? How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of aliens with magic before. That’s an Earth-based phenomenon.”
“Weird,” Jay said. “But I wouldn’t worry. I mean, this is the Union. They do the impossible before breakfast, right?”
“I hope so,” Hex nodded.

Captain Courage saw Earthstorm for the last time as the fallen hero spun off into space.  Or his body did. His head was right where it had been before, floating a few feet away, locked in an eternal grimace of surprise and horror. WildZone was already also spinning away, but his orbit was decaying as he twisted and turned uncontrollably back towards Earth. Without the protection of Earthstorm’s fields, he was most likely already dead. Doctor Magenta was screaming. The telepathic link that had been so useful in the past was letting the Captain hear the dying screams of his friends, broadcast as a helpful and inescapable transmission straight into his brain. He wanted to help her, but he was involved in a battle all his own. Never, in all the years he had fought evil, had he encountered a foe with this immense level of power. He had already given it his best shot, several times. Blows that could demolish a tower block were shrugged off as if they were nothing. The Captain had more experience than any other living hero. He knew that this time, for perhaps the first time ever, he was outmatched. And already the mighty weapon was emerging from the spacecraft, aimed directly at the Earth.
     
“They are all dead!” Hex screamed, stumbling back from the table, her mouth wide open in horror.  Jay had suggested she cast a spell to link directly with the away team and find out what was going on. They’d lost all signals now. “What do you mean?” Jay asked. He felt like an idiot. It was obvious what she meant. But she had to be wrong. The entire Union Of Heroes couldn’t have been killed in less than twenty minutes. It was impossible!  “I picked up something from the Captain,” she was crying, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He said… he said..”
“What?” Jay asked. “He said what?”
“He said he was sorry. And goodbye.”

The base of operations for the Union Of Heroes was eight hundred feet under the North Pole, in a bunker strong enough to withstand a nuclear war. It had cost billions to build even despite the super-powered aid that came free to make it. From within their tomb of steel and concrete, Hex and Jay the Malleable Man watched the world end. The first ray struck Tunisia with enough force to erase Africa and half the Middle-East almost immediately. The second put an end to America’s proud history of truth and justice. The aliens struck again and again, with casual ease, wiping the world clean of life. Nowhere was safe.  “They know we’re here,” Hex said. She was slumped in her chair. They hadn’t spoken for hours.
“You sure?” Jay asked.
“I can feel them watching us. They know.”
“Then why are we alive?”
“They want us to see. They want us to know what is happening to our world.”
“They’ve killed everybody,” Jay choked. “Why do they hate the Earth so much?”
“It’s worse than that,” Hex said. “They don’t just hate this Earth. I can feel their malevolence.  Their fury. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this.”
“What are you talking about?” Jay asked. He was afraid she had lost her mind.
“They are traveling through realities. Destroying Earth’s as they go. Each new reality has a new Earth. They want to cleanse them all.”
“But why? Who are they?” Jay asked.
“The ancient enemy,” Hex said, terror in her voice. Her nose was bleeding. She was muttering strange incantations between her words.
“Are you okay?” Jay asked her. “Is there anything I can do?”
“They’re coming for us,” she replied. “Now.”
“We need to get out of here.”
“Not we,” Hex said. “You. If I go, they will be able to follow my magical energy signature. But I can send you. They’ll have no idea.”
“Send me where?” the Malleable Man asked.
“To their next target,” Hex said. “To the Earth of the next reality in line. Somebody has to stop them, Jay. Let’s hope the next world has a more powerful team than we had…”

Global News Network

Special Announcement

Heroes Of Earth
GNN (Global News Network, Inc) has been asked to
broadcast this message on all channels in order that
maximum coverage can be achieved.
The government of the United States Of America, in
cooperation with the United Nations and theWorld
Foundation wish to place a call out to any and all
super-powered or costumed operatives.
A situation of the Most Urgent Kind appears to be
developing which needs your attention.
Volunteers are asked to make your way, immediately,
to your local City Hall and register your ability to
assist. Further information will be given upon your
arrival and security clearance.
You are URGENTLY needed.
Please come immediately. Do Not Delay.