City of Heroes Fan Fiction Submission

[Brineshrimp]

So I decided little ol' me would submit something for possible publication. Here's what I chose (out of several pieces I've written so far)....

Prometheus

I remember how much I hated them for the pain they caused me. How in one short moment, one fleeting moment, my life changed forever. For this slight, I killed them, every last one. Without mercy, without flinching, with no more than revenge to fuel my actions. Their screams, the smell of burning fabric and flesh, tied to one short moment, one fleeting moment.

* * *

My name is Marcus Ember. I am a killer of killers. I am a hypocrite. I am a superhero.

* * *

The Circle of Thorn. I first heard of them as a child. They were just monsters, stories we were told by the older kids, made-up to scare us to sleep. “Go to bed or the Circle will get you.” No one really believed in them, and some of us even forgot about them as we got older. We never knew how wrong we were.

They came in the dead of night. Ironically, while we slept. Taking with them my parents and brother. Why I was left behind I do not know. Possibly as some perverse payment, some compensation for my loss. Possibly they saw me as no threat. Even daring me to follow. I like to think the latter. It proves they can be wrong and that I am stronger.

* * *

My suit was perfect. Lethal, sleek, light. Precisely what I needed to finish what they started. I'd spent every last dollar to create it. Its sole purpose to be the instrument of my revenge.

The rooftop where I found them was not unlike the one I'd played on as a child. In King's Row, all the tenements look the same, whether you're a first time viewer or you've never left their walls. Here you have two options: victimize or be the victim. I've been a victim, and I didn't like it.

They were huddled around a strange bonfire. The flames lapped at the night sky spreading with a eerie green glow, like an oil spill flowing into still water. I heard their chants, and only slightly less evident, the bemoaned cries of an innocent. Pleading cries that fell on deaf ears.

At first their forms were indiscernible through the fire. As I approached I sensed them. I knew it was them. We had a connection created two years earlier. I can't explain it, perhaps I was marked for later harvest. I'll never know.

My curiosity was immediately squelched by my anger. I didn't pause. I acted. They burned. I smiled. An innocent cried in pain as flames, my flames, engulfed her. I saw as she was consumed as indiscriminately as the Circle. I moved forward to help, but to no avail. Her body was devoured by my revenge. They were all dead.

* * *

I can never atone. I am already damned so I will go on hunting lest someone else be forced to bear my cross. As a killer of killers. A hypocrite. A superhero.


Comments? Thoughts?

[MooCow]

I think it's good.