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That day started like so many others in Freedom City. The sun was shining, a few light and fluffy clouds in the sky. People went about their business as usual. The day started like any other; but it certainly didn’t stay that way… The first warning was quiet, subtle even if there wasn’t a lot of lead up time. Seers and psychics, ESPers and precogs felt like someone shoved a hot needle in their brain as the horror of what was coming crashed over them like a tidal wave. They saw the destruction of everything, the death of all life coming. And not just coming eventually; it was standing on their doorstep and knocking. The coming event and the things they saw crushed them and kept them from doing anything but try and pull themselves together. Elsewhere: At the base of Centurion’s statue, a young man appeared. He seemed to have arrived in mid-stride. His skins was dark reddish-brown, his eyes were black. Beyond that, he could have been human. He looked around the park, taking everyone in with his contemptuous gaze. He turned and looked up at the symbol for righteousness and all that was good in the city and sneered. He threw his hands forward and massive lances of black flame struck the statue. For an instant the statue held, before breaking off at the knees and falling backward. The tremor from the impacts was felt for hundreds of yards. Quickly, the broken legs of the statue became darker, an ugly color of stone as they changed. An arc formed, connecting the two towering stone legs. The space between flickered changed and, with a tear that screamed into the horrified citizens, a rent in the fabric of the world opened and filled the space with a gateway. On the other side, waiting, stood rank after rank after rank of nightmares of various shapes and sizes. With a roar and scream, the demonic horde charge through the opening as their summoner leaned against a pillar and smiled coldly. Everywhere: Across the city, the sky darkened. This was no eclipse, there were no clouds. It was as if the sun died and went out. While it was dark, a harsh reddish glow filled the city with enough light to see. The gloom of a hellish eternal night settled over the city. The city itself began to change. Slowly at first, starting in the city center and quickly moving outward. Grass and plants withered and died; just dead husks as the life was drained from them. Roads became pitted and cracked as if they had not been used in ages. There were splits in the earth where magma burst forth, creating new rivers of destructions. Fire burned everywhere; some just springing into being. Even the buildings and landscape were altered. Things twisted and changed; sometimes no longer even recognizable. Everything took on a dark and malicious appearance. Horrific creatures, demons of all shapes and sizes quickly appeared. Some came from the hellish glow in the city center while others came from the numerous small portals that opened everywhere. A wave of fear, terror, hatred, sadness and hopelessness seemed to engulf the city. People shook in fear, cowered or ran. They knew in their souls the end had come and they were powerless to stop it. Nowhere was safe now. No place was untouched. The world of heroes was over. Suffering and death was all that remained. Freedom City was gone. Hell had come to Earth and it wasn’t going anywhere… Amidst the darkness, amidst the terrified people, there were those that stood strong. Those who shook off the darkness and rose above it despite how it ate at the center of their being. They could still feel this new city/world trying to tear them down, but they were strong enough to fight through it. The world may have gone to hell, but not everyone was willing to give up and quit. Some were not going to go down without a fight… Over in the North End, visible for miles around, a pillar of golden-white light rose to pierce the darkness. It shone like a beacon in the tainted city; a sign that not everywhere was changed; not everywhere was Fallen. It called to the hearts and souls of the terrified people. Hope wasn’t completely gone yet. heading to Liberty Park in Riverside It had been a rough week for the young heroes. After James was lost at the cemetery, it wasn’t an easy thing to bear. And it wasn’t hard for them to guess what was coming. It was only a matter of time after all. They were gathered in their base when the other shoe dropped. The lights dimmed, colors changed. Things go darker, both physically and emotionally. Their less than cheering moods were now mirrored in the world around them. It was time. Now they just needed to know where to go. What they would do when they go there? That was still a little fuzzy.

James looked around the park as the sun was setting. Already he could see trick-or-treaters, kids in costume out on their jaunt for candy. They were looking for fun and sugar; for them the evening had limitless promise. Back at school, he was certain his friends were getting ready or already at the party. James sincerely would have like to be among them. But it was not to be. He was doing his best not to get antsy, knowing what was coming. He’d chosen his ground, planned as best he could. At least if he fell, he would be gone forever. Dead for good. While that would really suck and certainly wasn’t his plan, it would at least prevent his father from using him and keep James from fulfilling his ‘destiny’. He watched, just waiting and enjoying the moment as the sun set. As the last ray of sun disappeared, James stood up. Anytime now, they’d be coming. He walked over and passed through the gate to the cemetery. While the whole thing wasn’t holy ground, there were places inside that were. It would do. He took up his position and waited.

James waited for everyone to exit the bus, not saying anything until the entire group had gathered. He’d put the word out he was springing for a trip to the Ocean Heights Amusement Park for his seventeenth birthday, making sure people knew it was free for them to get in at the least. (He didn’t expect gifts, indeed had said to the few people who’d asked that there were to be none.) Since it was only a short drive from their school to the place, he had made sure a bus was provided in case some people needed it. He’d headed over in his own car earlier, making sure things were in order, and was now just waiting. He wasn’t sharing or talking about this until he was ready. Once everyone was gathered, he spoke up. “Ok, I’ve got your all-inclusive cards here. They included passes to the various paid rides so you’re good there too. As a happy birthday bonus, I’ve included a little gift. Each card doubles as a prepaid card you can use in there for various things. Toys, clothes, whatever. Even after you use it, it’ll still get you food and access to the rides. The numbers won’t be bad today, so waiting in lines should be pretty short as well. Basically, just have fun. Everything’s covered.†He quickly handed out the card for people, complete with clips and neckloops. “Alright, get in there.†He really did want everyone to have a good time. He had a few ulterior motives of course, but this was the main focus after all. He'd originally not planned to celebrate this at all but that didn't quite work out. He was part of this group now. With responsibilities to them. Least he do was make sure they had some fun. For as long as he could.

Date: August 5th, 2009 (Continued from Daikaiju Days, Morning in America, and Team Science!) When all was said and done, the return to Earth-Prime took the space of only an hour or two. First came the triumphant return of the Young Freedom stranded in Japan, and the happy reunion of the two teams. Then came the quick trip back to the Resistance base with their stolen hardware, leaving behind the smashed Nazi base that never did explode behind them. Everyone had a chance to see the grim horror that was Erde and understand the magnitude of the struggle the Resistance was facing there. Agent H chose to return with her friends from Young Freedom back to Earth Prime, leaving behind her world with a tearful farewell and a sharp, precise salute to the Resistance and the fallen heroes there. Lilith was delighted to hear of the twin victories on both Kaiju Island and over the robot fortress near Freedom City, and left all the teen heroes with a salute of her own and a job well-done. They'd done a lot of good that day, even if they could tell how much help these people might need in the future. And with that, they were gone in a flash, reappearing on the teleport pad recently retrofitted by Dr. Archeville and his two trusty assistants. It had been a very good day to be a hero...even if they were going to have quite a story to tell Mr. Summers.

Halloween Night Erin looked out the window of her dorm room as the sky outside grew steadily darker, casting the lights of the city into sharp relief. From this side of the building, she wasn't going to see any Trick-or-Treaters, since her room faced the campus, but she could see the occasional student dressed in a costume and hurrying towards the main building for the party. She'd wondered if anyone would go in their practice uniform or hero costume, just to be a smartass, but so far she hadn't seen anyone sporting the blue and gold. It was going to be a cold night tonight, from the weather reports. Anyone going out for candy had better be dressed warmly. Turning away from the window, she went over to her bunk and sat down, picking up her bag of candy. She'd conscientiously poured half the mini candy bars into her emergency stash under the bed, but that left quite a bit of chocolate to be eaten. If she could get sick at all, she could get herself halfway there on candy without knocking on a single door, she reflected as she unwrapped and ate a Mr. Goodbar. But it was boring to do it that way. She was, in fact, entirely bored, and perilously close to getting lonely and feeling sorry for herself. If she let that happen, it would be hard to stop feeling that way. If it were any other night, she'd go and take the Chevette for another spin. That had been more than entertaining. Thinking about the car made her think about James, and his personal business. Why had he given her the keys, anyway? Was it just to cheer her up? She wouldn't put that past him, he was pretty sneaky. Or could he have been really worried about whatever business he was going on tonight? Whatever it was, he should be back by now, surely. Or maybe he hadn't left yet, if it was family business. Either way, it might be a good idea to talk to him again, and it would get her out of her room. Pocketing the car keys and rolling the bag of candy to take with her, Erin headed downstairs to James' room, keeping an eye out for nosy RAs. Surely they'd all be at the party by now.

Late at night in the girls lavatory, there was no one to hear as Alex blew her nose on the toilet paper and let out a sad little hiccup. With her pink backpack hanging on the inside of the door and her sneakers drawn up under her ontop of the toilet, it would be nearly impossible to tell she was even in there. Except of course for the occasional sniffle. As if the results might have changed since the last time she'd poured over them, Alex smoothed out the crumpled papers and ran her fingers over it again. She hadn't made a mistake. For the thousandth time, she hadn't. Mike was still sleeping soundly. She'd locked down her sheilds so tight that nothing would leak and Alex was glad for that small mercy. Otherwise he'd have been up here fretting and then she'd have told him and she could hardly do that. Really, there was only one person to reach out for at midnight on a school night. Her mental voice drifted out forlornly to her best friend. 'Erin? I need help. I don't know what I'm going to do!'

As this was the first birthday that Alex had more than one friend as well as being the last real teen-birthday, she'd been given a stack of invitations to hand out to 'all her new friends'. So, over the course of the week, she had dutifully passed the invitations on to the classmates she thought might be interested which was mostly the members of Young Freedom. Without real variation, each invitation had been handed out with, "If you're busy or anything, its really no big deal. We're probably just going to watch movies and stuff like that, I think. It's really low key." Then she'd spent the week arguing with her mom, ("No clowns, please!" "My baby's all grown up!" "Mom!") But each invitation invited the teens to a nice house in Hanover with a big yard and a pool for a summer sweet-sixteen party for their resident psychic.

A flash of light erupted from the cafeteria ceiling, bathing the Claremont students in a wash of pure energy as they were pulled away from their seats into another place. Erin, Mike, Mark, and Chris landed on their feet, nearly falling over as the chairs beneath them vanished and they landed with a hard impact on a solid surface a few feet beneath them. They were in a small, battered room stuffed practically to the gills with glowing super-science equipment, a man and a woman standing at a panel on the wall pulling back their goggles with shocked looks on their faces. "Oh, Lord, we got the wrong ones!" called the dark-haired woman. "Ted, quick, reverse it!" "I...I can't!" he called back, a shocked look on his face as the Claremont kids gathered their wits. "Taking this many burned out the dimensional modulator! We're going to have to get another one!"

Z-Day Ten hours after Zephyr's departure from 2039 The big Dakanan hovership powered its way through the massive black rain clouds like a bull in a china shop, the huge daka-powered engines cutting through the massive turbulence in the middle of the atmosphere. There was good reason for the clouds. Not too far away, all things considered, all that was left of Freedom City and all the land for miles around was burning. A powerful nation, more powerful now that a chunk of the American east coast had been blasted and irradiated, Dakana had sent a fleet of ships to help with the relief efforts in America in what promised to be among the worst disasters of the heroic age. Without planning or thought of his own hardship, one man had come with his sole companion to help save the day. There was no time to land; as the great ship lowered itself down to within a few hundred yards of the Manor's roof, Mark Mason Lucas rappelled down a grappling line to land firmly on his feet. At fifty-six, Mark's face was lined with cares, more so now than on perhaps any day of his life. His wife joined him a few seconds later, Argent Psion-Lucas flying down under her own power. The teenage psychic had gone from one half of a "creepy-twin set" to a mature, responsible woman in her early sixties who had adapted her grandfather's philosophy to an understanding that one day the superhuman would simply supplant the human. Arthur, her son with Mark, was watching the family house and Mark's younger kids, the ones he'd brought with him from his marriage to the late Tess Atom. They were far too young for such horrors. This was a place for family. And maybe, if they were very lucky, for one family member in particular. "ZOE!" Mark put his hand to his lips, walking away from their landing site in the browning front yard, his unstable moleculed costume protecting him from the dangers of fallout as surely as Argent's force field protected her. "ZOE HARRIS! It's Uncle Mark!" Overhead, the Dakanan ship pulled away, speeding towards Freedom City and the relief efforts there. Mark was confident they'd be able to find transportation there. Surely his luck would hold. "And Aunt Argent!"

It was, of course, Alex's turn to pick the location, which was how the kids ended up in the library in the first place. When one's cute boyfriend shows up on a Saturday and says, "So, where did you want to spend today?" and follows that up with a far too handsome grin, very few girls at Claremont would have promptly responded with "The library!" Alex really wasn't quite like any other girl, so not only did she want to go to the library, she had no ulterior motive of necking among the stacks. No, of course she wanted to trade in a truely large stack of books for a different and equally large stack of books. They were halfway down the stairs when Mike's somewhat desparate mental plea had come through. He'd come up with some reason - as yet unfathomable the motivation behind it - that he was bound and determined to ask Erin out. "On, like, a thing. A going out thing. With, you know, us." Alex's best guess was it had come out of some conversation that was probably all mangled with the other boys. But, being a dutiful friend, she'd agreed and then corralled Erin to help with books. Which is how they found themselves standing in front of the courthouse one sunny morning, in the very first place.

Mark met Erin as breakfast was winding up for their joint powers-training, guessing she'd prefer not to walk down to the Doom Room alone. He knew she had plenty of solo training down there, and probably could use a little company this time. After all, this was the first time they'd be working together as a duo rather than just as part of a larger team. Best of all, he thought as he approached her as they left the cafeteria, maybe she'd have some rumors to pass on in the aftermath of his highly enjoyable date with Alex. "Hey, Erin," he said cordially, walking up to her as she headed out the door. "You still good to go for powers training? Looks like they're keeping us busy today."

Summer time was a relatively lazy time at Claremont, with a healthy mix of classes and extra-curricular activities for its unique student body. Today was no exception. For those students interested, the school was providing complementary tickets to a Freedom City Comets game at the Liberty Dome. Even a few students that were living at home for the summer were showing up for today's outing so the entrance to the school was busier than usual as students found their respective shuttles to the game. As the tickets were donations, there were broken up blocks of seats all over the stadium and kids were busy switching tickets with others so that they were sitting near their friends. This of course led to quite a bit of a headache for the few teachers trying to get everyone sorted out. Alex was out in the middle of the activity, blinking at the confusion and trying to search out her friends amongst the chaos.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon when Mike came back just in time to see his new roommate on the phone. With the exception of his interest in Alex, Mark was certainly a model roommate by most standards. He'd filled his desktop bookshelf with books that on closer inspection turned out to be the assigned and suggested reading for the summer history classes as well as various other books on the history of Freedom City's superheroes, and usually left his top-of-the-line laptop sitting on his desk when he wasn't out doing things. His half of the walls had a couple of posters up, a retro B&W shot of the old Liberty League and a more recent Alex Ross painting of the League active in the late 1960s. As Mike came in, Mark was sitting in his desk chair, flipping a silver dollar over and over again as he listened intently to whoever he was talking to on his cell. "Yes! Yes, I am here!" Just as he started speaking, a white-toothed grin on his handsome face, the coin he'd been flipping landed perfectly on its edge dead center of his desk. "Yes! All right, I'll print the tickets off pronto. And I love The Entity for all my alternative rock! Woo!" Grinning, he hung up the phone and jumped up, grabbing the coin off his desk and slipping it into his pocket. "Hey Mike, guess what?" He grinned at his roommate, who he'd started treating as his best buddy the minute he walked in. "I was caller number eleven at WNTT, and so I got six free tickets to the Madman Finale concert tonight at FCU! You want to go rock out with the college kids? It'll be great!"

The fire red 1971 Chevelle convertible cruised down the streets, engine roaring. The muscle car had been beautifully restored and then kitted out the wazoo. It barely qualified as street legal anymore. The driver might not have done the work on it, but he surely loved driving it. The driver had a grin on his face and laughter in his eyes as the vehicle practically flew down the roads. Sure he could go slower but what would the fun of that be? He usually talked himself out of any trouble he got in. Or just paid the fine. What was the point of having money if you didn’t use it from time to time? Hence his car and a few other belongings he had splurged on. He sobered somewhat, only for a moment really, as he contemplated his destination. A new place, new school. He’d chosen to go through with the family’s recommendations, though after making a huge fuss over it. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with them, nor had he every been welcome there anyway. He’d been interested in coming, just didn’t want them to think they had any say in his life. He slowed the car, engine settling to a gentle roar, as he turned on the to the street. He wasn’t traveling at a sedate speed, but at least it wasn’t too ridiculous in it’s excess. He counted the numbers and soon enough, there were the gates. He pulled in and drove down the long drive, taking in the manicured ground. It was a long drive up to a rather impression mansion. Or would be impressive if he hadn’t lived in something similar his whole life. The Family Estate was massive and certainly held its share of secrets too. This looked nice but he had expected no less. Whether it was better than ‘home’, time would tell. He certainly hoped it was more fun… He brought the car up to the circle by the front door, slowing to a stop. He opened the door and got out, stretching a little as he looked around. All in all, he had high hopes for this place. And if it was dull as home, well, he’d have to raise a little hell.

It was Breakdown's second day in the city. He had spent the entire first day helping his parents move stuff into their new home. (They sure were glad he could teleport now that he had powers! Otherwise they would have had to hire a mover. And wouldn't you know it, they would not let him hear the end of it!) Eddie loved his parents, but sometimes he couldn't stand them either. By the end of the day, he had to get out of the house. He had left after dinner (take out) and walked to Claremont (where he would be going to school in the fall). No one had been around, but he had assumed that it was simply because it had been getting late. He had left soon after sunset and gone back home. He had decided he would try again today. He just hoped he would run into somebody...