They were all over the evening news as the Samaritan Project’s newest additions. Jabberwocky was an acrobatic marvel, perfect for infiltrating buildings or performing surveillance. He could go places no one else could reach. Lunar Hawk was equally impressive, as his armour gave him gravity powers. He could lift six times his previous strength, jump six times higher, or move other objects.
The press was unanimous in its praise for Director Shade and the Project’s scientists. The new funding had been in existence for a matter of weeks, and already it was proving its worth.
Jeremy Ruick certainly didn’t appreciate it. He languished in a jail cell, pacing and fidgeting. He was going on trial as a terrorist, and reporters thus far had been blocked from interviewing him. Jeremy talked to himself continuously, murmuring and twitching. Away from his medication, and under extreme stress, his condition just worsened. And, believing him to be a terrorist, no one really cared.
So no one bothered to tell him when he was being transferred. They just came into his cell at the city jail and forced him to the floor, handcuffing his feet and hands and then forcing him to march down the hall. The police hustled him out of the building towards a prison truck. Little did Jeremy realize it, but politicians in Washington wanted him interrogated.
But before he could get into the truck, chaos reigned.
A van roared around the corner, causing the police to stop short and draw their pistols. The door opened, and machine guns roared. Men flowed out of the vehicle, firing at the officers, dropping two immediately as the others dodged for cover. Jeremy dropped to his knees, screaming in the clamour.
One officer received shots in his legs, sending him sprawling in agony on the ground. The other remaining policeman was shot in the shoulder and fell to pavement. The men in the van walked out unmolested, putting away their machine guns. Still screaming, Jeremy barely registered their black masks, or the red diamond pattern on their faces. Two gunmen pulled him to his feet and dragged him into the van. Their leader slung his machine gun and pulled out his pistol. He stood over the wounded policemen and shot each of them in the head, coldly executing each one in turn.
He came to the last cop, the one with the wounded shoulder. He tried to get to his feet, but the masked man kicked him in the chest and then stepped on it. He pointed the gun directly in the policeman’s face.
“Tell them that no one can stop us. The United States of America is an endangered species.”
He turned back towards the vehicle. More cops came running out of the jail door, having heard gunshots. The masked man spun, dropping to one knee and firing. His men fired over his head. Together, they dropped the rushing cops into a pile of bloody corpses in seconds. But by now an alarm was ringing. He got up and sprinted to the van as it started to roll away. Within seconds they were speeding down the street.
A split second can be all it takes. A weight slammed down onto the top of the van. The driver and the three gunmen looked up, wondering what it was. Jeremy lay on the floor in the back of the van, still screaming.
“Shut the fuck up!!” One gunman said, kicking the prone screamer. Jeremy groaned, his breath ripped from his body. With the sudden quiet, it was easy to hear the glass break as a fist smashed the windshield from above. Their driver swore, swerving the van in surprise.
They collided with a parked car, coming to an abrupt and painful stop. The foursome exited the vehicle in a hurry, drawing their guns. Jeremy rolled onto his side, trying to see what was happening. He struggled to sit up and wiggled out of the van.
The man in armour who had interrupted Jeremy at the pharmacy was wrestling with the four gunmen. They had grabbed hold of his arms, preventing him from using his bounce powers, or whatever it was that had sent Jeremy flying into shelves. His armour proved to be bulletproof, however, so they were having a hard time doing any damage.
What they failed to realize, however, was that Lunar Hawk’s boots were also equipped with anti-gravity projectors. He activated them and bounced into the air, spilling his assailants to the ground. He landed in the street as the men ran towards him, using his gloves to bounce them into a flailing pile, stumbling all over each other. Jeremy took the opportunity to wiggle away from the van and struggled to get back on his feet. A dark shadow flew overtop of him. He looked up and began to tremble, screaming once again.
Zenith stared down at him, his eyes blazing with dark blue light. His face was empty of any emotion, as if he were studying an insect. He reached down, grasping Jeremy by the throat. He squeezed, cutting off the screams, forcing Jeremy to gag, eyes bulging.
“Did you really think that you could escape? Did you think that you wouldn’t have to pay for your crimes?” Zenith asked dispassionately. Jeremy struggled to answer, but it came out garbled. “It doesn’t matter. This is a war.”
Zenith rose in the air, floating high above the street. Jeremy kicked his legs, trying to breathe, terrified. The indigo Patriot rose higher and higher, and then he let go, dropping his prisoner towards the street below.
“I’m a soldier. And, in a war, there are casualties.” He smiled as Jeremy screamed all the way down to the pavement.
Below, the four terrorists were trying to regroup. They fired at Lunar Hawk, who stood in the middle of the street. His armour felt the impact of the bullets, preventing him from coming forward. However, it was thick enough to prevent harm, so he felt relatively safe. Lunar Hawk was still learning his suit’s capabilities, and was trying to formulate a plan of attack. If he bounced the bullets away with his powers, it was likely that they would hit innocent bystanders.
While he hesitated, the terrorists formulated their own plan. Their leader withdrew a pair of syringes from one of the pouches on his ammo belts, and injected two of his men. Immediately, they roared in anguish and rage as their bodies swelled, their clothing ripping at the seams. Veins distended, muscles growing, they rose up, enlarged and empowered. They charged their target, who was frozen in place with shock. Lunar Hawk had never seen anything like this.
They slammed into him like stampeding buffalo, ploughing him over. Sprawled on his back, he was astonished when they grabbed him by the boots and swung him around in a spiral before throwing him through a plate glass window. He crashed into the shelves of a hardware store.
By the time he had extricated himself from the debris and returned to the street, they were gone.
The Samaritan Project 