Texas: Sustan City

Here begins the events involving the superpowered individuals in the southern city of South Sustan: a city facing a rising crime rate from a huge influx of refugees.
[See this post for overall details.]

The shanty towns of South Sustan City are ramshackle, thrown together in a day or even less, they consist of bits of fencing, corrugated tin and crap lumber thrown together around vehicles to form housing. People mill about, heads hung low. Some engage in bartering for food and materials. Fighting is frequent but often brief with the winner taking what they want quickly.

The 'main street' of the shanty town, the highway is the focus of everything. Makeshift stalls line the sides, slowly moving vehicles pass in both directions, often irrespective of road law. Occasionally someone tries to grab something from a vehicle, either resulting in a scuffle or a lot of yelling as the thief makes good their escape.

'Hit me, barkeep" Terrence Barkley demanded. It's been nearly a week since Justice passed, and Terrence hasn't donned his silly costume since then. The bartender spit in his drink, and served it to him with a smile. Down the hatch, Terrence wiped his mouth and finally paid his tab and left, leaving a surprisingly large tip for such a terrible bartender.

He walked outside, and immediately he saw the smoke raising from the trashcan fires the refugees had built blocking out most of the sun.

"All the way from god damn Venezuela," he cursed, "how much of the country are these refugees gonna take up?" There was a group of teenaged refugees running down the street, with some cops trying in vain to catch up with them. Suddenly, they all fell to the ground, grasping their heads. Once the police reached them, the pain in their heads disappeared.

"Why don't I get paid a cops salary? I practically do their job for 'em, just like ol' Justice used to..."

It was about an hour before Terrence reached his loft, settled on his sofa, and played some soothing music to help him drift to sleep.

Terrence wasn't undisturbed for long; a sharp banging noise quickly echoed throughout his residence as someone hammered on the front door.
"Open up you purple pig!" Came a heavily accented male voice.
"Abra a porta que você bastardo americano!" Yelled another.
Suddenly, the door burst open as the lock gave way, revealing a group of very angry men standing at the door. They slowly entered the house, looking for any sign of their prey; their makeshift weapons at the ready.

This was ridiculous.

Officer Luke Ramirez stood in the Chief's office. It was a surprisingly well kept room that contrasted with the chaos that erupted outside. It reflected on what South Sustan used to be: a rich, booming city, with mild police corruption.

"Ramirez, we're looking to start a new initiative. A Special Task-Force to deal with all of the ills of this city. Between the death of Justice, the rise of several super-powered criminals, and the refugee camps that have taken hold in our city, it's obvious that our standard force is not enough. The Mayor, the council, and I have all approved of it."

"And you want me to be in this new team?"

"No, Ramirez. We want you to be the new team. I know about Project Leukocyte."

Damn, Luke thought, I'd thought I had left that behind me. It was supposed to be classified, but it didn't surprise Luke that the chief would know. The man had his nose and hands in everything.

"You're a goddamned one-man SWAT team, Ramirez. You already have the training and we can get you the gear. The roads are too crowded for the military convoy to get here in time. We need a response now. The city needs you."

"Chief, with all due respect, a SWAT team isn't what this city needs right now. It needs a competent force that the public can trust and respect."

"And that's what it will have in you. Ramirez, you're perfect for this. The refugees will trust you, your family was from South America. You're one of the last uncorrupted and competent cops in Sustan. You'll be a new symbol for the city. This city is sick, and you can be the white blood cell that cures it."

Luke was torn. He never wanted the limelight. But the city was in trouble, and he couldn't turn his back on it's people.

"Alright, when do we start?"

"Immediately."

Alright Fellows, you don't want to do this...

A voice appeared in their heads magically. However, it was in English, and the men did not understand it very well. Since they could not understand this message, they ignored it.

Assuming the threat was gone, Terrence took no other safety measures until he realized that he was, in fact, still in danger.

"Ah, well. Now you've gone and done it. You know, I gave you fair warning. I'll spare you the theme song and I'll just get straight to the-" one of the men threw a knife at Terrence, missing him by a wide margin, "I'll just get straight to the point."

The men's heads filled with a subtle moaning noise, it was ghastly. The men ganged up on Terrence, one of them hit him in the stomach with a pipe, but the moaning grew stronger, more fervent. It was sporadic, the men broke into sweat, it sounded like a woman in pain, they dropped their weapons, it was like mad pleasure, they backed away, the noise grew more frenzied even after they retreated. Maybe on another day, Terrence would show them mercy, but not today. They ran out the door, clutching their heads and screaming. One by one they began to drop, convulsing on the floor. Then, silence. The noise stopped. The damage, however, was done.

Nobody would go near the men, still screaming madly on the floor, but they did serve a nice warning to all who dared to bother the New Justice, Boogie Knight.

The next day, Terrence would finally put his costume back on and deal with the situation. But tonight? Tonight he was drunk, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

An eerie figure sits quietly inside a well air-conditioned building , the buildings name saying "Cheap and quick English Classes!", translated into Portuguese and Spanish.
A horde of refugee's crowded outside the building, sweltering from the heat.
One by one, a refugee would follow the figure into a dark room, and after a few minutes, they would exit, but paler. It carried on for hours, every time not one of the refugees had a complaint.
By the end of the night, the man exited with a few friends, they appeared to be armed, but the weapons were barely visible.
They took a turn at a back alley, where at least forty people were waiting, it was surprising that they could even fit in.
"You all know what you must do, yes?"
They all nodded in sync, one of them questioned "Sir, we may have a lot of people on our side right now, but this is barely even a tenth of the population of the city."

"I realize that" he replied "But, there are defilers here with powers, this could indeed help the cause greatly, but for now, keep hidden, and don't reveal our intentions, return to your homes, please."

They nodded, and each all headed their separate way. The figures initial bodyguards staying with him, one asked "Prophet, what now?" "We get to work" the man replied.
Prophet pushed a brick inside the alleyway, the wall pushed back, revealing an entrance to a cave lit by torches. "Come brothers, we must feed Farketz."

The next morning...

"Alright, time to suit up again. One week of retirement is all you can get in this life, I suppose"

Boogie Knight slipped on his tacky purple pants first, then his tacky purple shirt, and then his tacky purple face mask.

"There, now everyone will know who to try to take out first. The guy in purple. Heh, not sure why I picked these colors. I guess they just look disco-ey."

Back on the streets again, Boogie Knight did what had to be done. The refugees kept sneaking into the city, Boogie Knight set them straight.

"Terrence, wait please." Came the voice of the loft's landlord as Terrence walked out the door.
"We need to talk. I don't think our arrangement can continue." The landlord said, stepping out and indicating the front of the building, which had been egged and graffitied with various references to purple and derogatory comments.

"Why, whatever do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that I am no longer welcome here? It's not because I sometimes emit music to the entire building in my sleep sometimes, is it? Because I think the protection against 50-foot leviathans and candy giants would kind of outweigh that. Besides, it's good music!"

"No, no, we all appreciate what you do, but you're attracting too much attention to me. I don't have any special powers and I don't want to have to sit out here all day with a shotgun on my knees just because you live here. I have a family." The landlord said in a halting tone; it was clear he wasn't comfortable with what he was saying.

"You have a family, yet you choose to run a loft. Heh, fair enough. Give me a week to move out. I'd be out sooner, but, you know, I've got a lot on my plate."

Boogie Knight contemplated coercing the landlord to let him stay, but he knew that the landlord raised a valid point. He shouldn't jeopardize the safety of innocents.

The hallways walls were wet to the touch, it was also bustling with other people, hidden by the black robes, with this symbol on the top of it.

They all seem to be circling a large orrery, with a metal object above it, appearing to be representing a flame.
"Bretheren!" Prophet shouts out, getting the attention of those around him "It is time, is the surgical board ready?"
They nod, and one replies "Yes, my brother, we have been having a bit of trouble with the sacrifice though, he seems unstable, and unready to accept Sergek's will!"
"Do not worry, I shall calm him down." Prophet says, walking into another hallway, seperating with the men guarding him. "Please return to your homes, right now you aren't needed

He ends up at a cell, holding a man screaming for help, kicking and punching the iron door in front of him.
"Calm down, it'll be over soon" Prophet states while unlocking the door.
"I'LL KILL YOU MIERDA PEDAZO DE MIERDA" the man shouts, he kicks open the door while Prophet is unlocking it, the figure shows no retaliation, and hides his emotion using the hood hiding his face.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU"
"A messenger" Prophet replies with a smirk, he quickly grabs the mans head, and large sparks of electricity surround them both. The prisoner foams at the mouth, and his eyes begin to whiten.
"Death by learning, strange really, even though i've done this so many times before, only now am I noticing how strange it is."
He drags the mans corpse to an operating table nearby.
He picks up a saw and scalpel, and begins sawing off every single limb he can see. The blood exiting the mans body flow into the grates nearby him, the crimson liquid follows a pipeway, and exits upon the orrery, it spins faster and faster, it wasn't an orrery, it was a blood fountain. Claps are heard farther down the hallway.
"Hmmm..." Prophet ponders.
"I should probably get the mask, need to appreciate that thing more, Benedict made it just for me."
He walks off, his robe soaked in blood, leaving the empty carcass behind.
He ends up at a grand room, it glowed a healthy red, and it looked like it belonged to a king.
He opened a wardrobe, inside, was the cult robes everyone else inside the hideout was wearing, and a black mask, the eye slots were barely visible, but somehow still looked like you could see normally in them.
It definitely looked like something that'd scare someone instantly, just how Prophet liked it.

Fifteen minutes later, Prophet exits the room, which appeared to be his, with his cult robes and his mask on.
"It's almost time." he muttered.
"Its almost time."

Luke stood in the dressing room, looking into the mirror. He looked like some sort of super-cop in all this gear. But then, that was the idea. Something that citizens could trust and criminals fear.

The SWAT team was cut when the crime rate dropped, but the city had purchased some pretty high end SWAT gear years before. Lightweight body armor, cutting edge carbines and pistols, sniper rifles, several types of grenades, telecom devices. Luke wouldn't be surprised if the PD had some rocket launchers and a tank laying around somewhere. He felt more like a soldier then a police officer.

There were reports of citizens and refugees gone missing, all concentrated in the south-west part of the city. Something was up, and Luke was going to figure it out. He walked to the garage, hopped in his police cruiser and spend off in search of answers.

Lumen had finally been able to get enough reliable information to track down someone like Boogie Knight. By "track down" however, he could only get a relative pin-point on his current whereabouts and it was somewhere within these crazed shanties. This isn't the sort of place someone wants to stay in for an extended period of time but, at this point, Lumen was sort of out of options about what he really needed to do. Only passing rumors about what was going down in Eagleopolis since he had decided to try and find Boogie Knight, and it seemed that this might actually have been the more sensible of his current options.

Lumen just needed to find someone who maybe better understood this idea, or this feeling of becoming empowered. It had only been a few short years since Jón had started calling himself Lumen, and whatever control he had over this power was still sort of questionable. Not to mention the bigger question - why?

'Maybe this isn't really what I need, but - well - shit.' Lumen thought to himself as he started to scan the buildings that were set up. And maybe that was right, maybe there's no point in bothering someone like Boogie Knight about the idea of fate or purpose but, Lumen was at wits end. And he would only end up dead if he decided to try and save everyone. Especially with the world still reeling from the death of Justice.

As Lumen started to make his way along the roads he couldn't help but hear a police cruiser speed off at just that moment.

"Well shit, maybe fate is just going to throw me the cards I need."

Now the question was; help out the law of the land - or try to find boogie knight.

It was the end of the day, Boogie Knight helped the city as much as he could, but sometimes it just felt like a drop in the bucket. Now, it was time for the bar.

From his stool, he pulled down his handkerchief and took a swig. And another. The drinks kept coming. Hours past, and Boogie Knight reached his limits. He lost control of his powers, and started creating strange gurgling noises in the minds of everyone in the bar. Needless to say, they kicked him out onto the street.

Unable to make it home, he took a nap in the alley by the bar. It was currently inhabited by a hobo, but one blast of sound into his head was enough to evict him.

As the sun began to set, a small figure bundled up in layer upon layer of clothing and rags, pushing along a shopping cart full of odds and ends, cans and scrap metal. The squeaky wheels screech as she pushes it along. She seems like just another character in the shanty towns trying to eke out a living, no matter the state of their lives. However, if one looks closely, one notices the grey tint to the skin showing through the holes in her gloves, or the yellow glare of her eyes, almost completely hidden by stringy hair covering most of her face.

She just pushes the cart along, picking up odds and ends and tossing them in. Trying to mind her own business. Trying to remain calm.

Hungover as all hell, Boogie Knight got up and made his way home. However, Boogie Knight got lost and found himself in the shanties. After shambling through the shanties, the refugees took notice of him and started barraging him, probably angry at him for attacking so many of their brethren. The refugees seemed to view Boogie Knight as a fascist, and maybe he was.

As groups of refugees formed around him, he took notice and continued shoving through people to get out. Eventually, the swarms of people became too much to simply push through.

"What do you damn people want? I'm trying to get home. I guess you don't know the feeling, do you? Your homes are all rubble now and you have nowhere to go. Well, I do have somewhere to go, at least for another week. So... so get outta my damn way."

The people were understandably angry. Most of them didn't know what he was saying, but some of them seemed to be fluent in english and clued everyone else in on what he was saying. This, of course, led to a mini-riot. The police didn't notice, of course, they were all busy protecting the actual city.

"Now..." Boogie Knight decided to try coercing them with his powers, "why don't you guys just head to Eaglelopopl- Eaglelop- Eagleopolis! It's just north of here, and from what I've seen they've got all sorts of fun up there. They have candy in the streets! Giant marshmallow men! It's a god damn party and you're all cordially invited."

Boogie Knight also coerced an English speaker to tell him how to repeat that message in Portuguese, so that his demands would not be limited by any language barriers. The crowd began to dissipate, the people in this section of the shanty towns left without even packing their things. Boogie Knight was free to walk around aimlessly in peace. That is, until he came across a strange woman. He noticed her skin was grey, and her eyes were yellow, she pushed a cart, and she reeked of bilge water.

"Who let you wander out of the pits of Mordor?" Boogie Knight antagonized the woman, who actively tried to avoid eye contact with him. Boogie Knight, however, would not let her escape without putting up with his abuse first.

Boogie Knight walked up to her and pushed her cart away from her, "You know, they call me the Boogie Knight... but I think, I think a more fitting term would be... the Boogie Man."

The woman, now, seemed to be getting angry.

Lumen made a conscience decision to pursue the noise from the police squad. It seemed like it was too vast a sound to be a cop out on a call, this sounded like serious business. And there was no point in standing around and waiting for some sort of purpose to come along before he could really get into the fray of the world. It seemed like this was supposed to be - for the time being - a call to arms for him.

"Fuck. What else could I even do now..." his words trailed off as he let his body fade into pieces of light fizzling away into photons, "I may as well try to help out these guys and at least try to make a good name for myself". Once Lumen had become fully transformed into his light body form, he sped off towards the direction of the sirens and hoped he could at least be of some help.

It's around 11:00 AM in Sustan city, Arkerien wanders the streets of the most popular shanty nearby.
He walks into a bar, thirsty from all the work he did last night, as he entered, he noticed that it was filled with refugees cowering in fear, they were all crouched in pens that looked like they were all recently set up.
The bar was being robbed.
Suddenly, one of the armed men points his gun at Arkerien, "MANOS ARRIBA LAS MANOS ARRIBA", slowly, but surely, he raised his hands.
He looked around the room, he recognized a few people there.
"INTO THE PEN INTO THE PEN"
He slowly walked into the small pen nearby, it was cramped, and you would have to crouch to get into it.
One of the armed men was stealing the money from the cash register, stuffing it in a dufflebag.
The other was walking around the pens that were nearby Arkerien.
The man then walked near his pen, he stood in front of it.
Arkerien managed to reach his finger out of the pen, touching the mans leg with it.
Small sparks surrounded them both, but because of the slow transfer, they were barely noticeable.
He suddenly jumped up.
He shot the other armed guard in the back of the face, and then himself, his face was expressionless the whole time.
Blood sprayed the walls of the bar, almost artistically, the other captives screamed out of shock, but stopped suddenly.
Arkerien broke out of his pen, stepped over the corpse he made, and stopped to look at the other pens.
The captives were all held by fear, not one of them speaking or moving, they all just stared blankly at the man who they assumed to just kill their captors.
"Now then, before I let you out, i'm going to give you all a religion lesson."
Half an hour later, the captives exited the bar, a few of them dragging the two corpses of the men Arkerien had killed. Strangely enough, no-one on the street seemed bothered by it.
"You know the location yes?" Arkerien questioned.
"Yes, messenger." one of the captives holding the corpses stated. "But sir, what did you put in that mans mind to make him kill his friend, and himself?"

"Oh, that, he just did it out of fear, nothing else, probably scared that he was holding the very messenger of the Karfen captive, now then, if you don't mind me, i'm off to find some weapons."

Phoenix presses his hand up against a building as he walks out of a dark alleyway. He takes a deep breath, seeing a man harassing what looks like a homeless woman.

"Hey what do you think you're doing to that old lady? If you want to pick on someone, how about you try me out."

He says, the slightest hint of anger in his voice. He leans in and squints a little, and straightens up suddenly

"Boogie Knight? What do you think you're doing?"

He walks over to Boogie Knight and frowns a little as he smells the alcohol on his breath

"Been drinking, haven't you?

Initially, she glares at the man, a low grumble bubbling in the back of her throat, almost a growl. Her sharp teeth, like little needles, are displayed openly. She seems to puff up physically, her physique struggling to be contained by the rags and clothing, now stretched across what is suddenly a barrel chest and burly arms.

But as the other man arrives, she seems to calm down slightly. Not enough to shrink back down to her previously tiny size, but enough to look less hulking.

"Don't. Want. Trouble." The woman growls, in a thick european accent, through needle teeth.

Luke's black and white Charger came to a halt where the old city ended and the new shanty towns began. Best to go in on foot, Luke thought. Less attention that way, and it would be better for garnering the support of the citizens. He had been prepped by City Hall officials on his PR, but he was used to public scrutiny and having to connect with civilians. He was a police officer, after all.

Or was he? The new Task Force Initiative gave him emergency powers far above those of a normal beat cop. He didn't need warrants in the shanties and what constituted probable cause in the city was expanded. He was given a rank promotion and was now held accountable to only the Counsel, Commissioner, and Mayor.

No. He was still accountable to The People. He was still a police officer, not Judge Dread.

Luke walked into the shanties, looking for leads, interviewing refugees, making sure to be kind and polite and only trying to help. He managed to talk to a Brazilian family whose son had disappeared. Luke's Portuguese was a little rusty, but he managed to get the story. Apparently the son had gone to a night school for English and come back changed. His outlook had changed, but only subtly. Then one night he went for a walk and disappeared. Refugee after refugee told the same story, only the protagonist changed.

Luke wrote down the address and sent in a request for a warrant on his commlink. It would print out in the car. He was still a police officer, after all.

Lumen touches down just a few feet away from where the police cruiser had stopped inside the shanties on the outskirts of the city. There was no point in being in Light Body here, there was no immediate threat. Lumen transitions himself back into his original flesh and blood and begins to scan the houses for whoever might be driving this car or, hopefully, someone who's in charge of trying to clean this mess up.

A man who looked more akin to a super soldier than a police officer catches his eyes. The man stands a few inches taller than Lumen and seems to be beyond a normal human.
"Shit, they really grow 'em big down here," he mutters to himself as he starts to walk in the direction of the man, who seems to be, in charge of doing some sort investigation. That, or he really just gets off on question all the people in these shanties.

As Lumen comes up behind him, he is just turning away from a family. This seems a perfect time

"S-sir," the words stumble out of his mouth.

'Fuck.' he thinks to himself. I don't need to look crazed at a time like this.' He coughs and clears his throat and tries to keep himself steadied/

"I don't really know how to, uh, say this but, I'm trying to see if I can try to do some good around here. And I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see that something is sort of terrorizing these people."

Luke turned away from the last refugees he had questioned and came face to face with a young man who looked... what, 4 to 6 years younger than himself?

"You'd like to help? That's very noble of you. But I'm not sure that you're really cut out to help." Ouch. Best not to antagonize citizens. Gotta do some spin control on that one.

"What I mean is that stopping criminals is a dangerous line of work and takes more than most normal people have. I think the best thing you can do is stay home and try to keep calm. Report any crimes or supers you see, anything weird. We police are trying to get the situation under control, but we need support from the public to get the city under control."

Wait, this young man doesn't look like a refugee, Luke thought. He doesn't speak like one or dress like one either.

"Did you come out all the way to the shanties to try and help? What's your name?"

In the sewers of Sustan, something roiled through the depths. Rats scurry away in fear as something massive and misshapen worked its way through the undercrofts of Sustan City. A few refugees, thinking that they'd have better luck hiding down under the city heard a strange keening as something moved past.

Eidolon-1 was lost. It knew that it was in a people-place. It smelled like it. It ate a few unlucky rats as it moved through the sewers, but it took extra care to not be seen by the refugees huddling in the darkness. It probably would frighten them beyond belief if they saw it, but Eido didn't want that. It didn't want to scare anyone.

Before long, Eido found its way to a small maintenance shaft. The dim sunlight beamed down through the storm-drains above it, and it relished in the warmth. However, it had something important on its simple mind. To find the people who betrayed it. The bad people.

Eido finally stopped underneath one of the manhole covers dotting the streets of downtown Sustan City where a good number of refugees had set up shop. Eido tentatively clamored up the ladder and poked a small tentacle with an eye out. It spotted a few refugees huddled around a barrel-fire, and several makeshift tents. On the bright side, none appeared to be watching the manhole cover as it was slowly moved out of the way by Eido. It lifted itself out of the manhole, and that's when the screaming began.