The Protagonist System
364 A Few Things To Handle

“Atlas? Good job with Doc Seismic. We're already disassembling his jetpack technology and reverse engineering it.” Cecil said over my earpiece as I flew over the Mediterranean Ocean.

“Let me guess. He destroyed his plans to make sure no one else could steal it?” I asked.

“Got it in one. We're trying to pick his brain for any relevant details; but, you know what some of those mad scientists are like.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, it's like pulling teeth from a chicken. Pretty much impossible.”

“Unfortunately.” Cecil responded. “Anyway, the reason I called is we have reports from Midnight City about someone pretending to be Darkwing and murdering people.”

I sighed. “Really? It wasn't bad enough what happened to him and someone decided to ruin his reputation, too?”

“I hear ya, kid.” Cecil said. “Head on over there and investigate. I'll stay in contact until you arrive there and will brief you further.”

“I'm on my way.” I said and flew higher up into the atmosphere as I increased my speed. It was faster to continue flying forward than turning around and flying back towards the United States. It didn't take me long to arrive at Midnight City. “I'm here and holy crap, that's a huge black dome that really stands out on a bright summer's day.”

Cecil chuckled. “Yes, back in 2002 a villain named the Midnight Magician did some kind of ritual and cursed the city to stay in perpetual night to enhance his powers. Daytime doesn't exist there anymore, so it's attracted all kinds of beings that like to work in the shadows.”

“What, you mean like vampires and werewolves?” I asked and he was silent. “Is that why Darkwing's personality changed and he became so antagonistic?”

“Just between you and me, the man had been constantly on edge for years, never getting a break from fighting crime and powerful creatures. That really wears on a person.” Cecil explained.

“Yeah, I can understand that.” I said and poked my head inside the event horizon of the curse and it really was nighttime inside. “Wow, it's cold in there, too.”

“There's no daily sun to warm up the city streets. The ambient temperature is about on the scale of a chilly winter night constantly.”

“Damn, that's... why would anyone want to keep living here?” I asked and pulled my head back out.

“People are stubborn.” Cecil answered.

“That's it?” I asked with a laugh.

Cecil chuckled. “Yes. Shocking, isn't it?”

“More that it should be.” I said and floated inside. “Has anyone tried dispelling the curse?”

“We have people working on it as a side project. It's not a high priority, since it really does function as a good place for all the night-based beings to gather inside.” Cecil told me.

“Ah, I get it. You know where they are if they all gather in the same place.”

“Bingo.” Cecil said. “Look around and see if you can find out what's happening. Tap the earpiece if you find anything or you need my direct attention.”

“Paperwork?” I asked, amused.

“Paperwork.” Cecil confirmed and clicked off his active microphone.

I made a mental note of several bodies, a few skeletons, a whole lot of creepy people in dark corners, and several gunshots. It was like someone had cut a scene out of a film noir horror show and pasted it into the normal world... which probably described exactly what Midnight Magician's ritual did.

“No! Please! Don't kill me!” A male voice pleaded.

I flew over to a rooftop to see a costumed individual punching the face of a street thug. As the young man fell back from the blow, he landed next to the body of his buddy. He jumped up, clearly afraid to be next, and I darted in and caught the vigilante's fist.

“I think that's enough.” I said and the thug didn't acknowledge me as he ran for the fire escape ladder.

“Who're you?” The black man asked and tried to pull his hand back, and couldn't.

“Name's Atlas. I work for the GDA.” I said and the man's other fist slammed into my face. I didn't react. “Don't do that again.”

“Let me go! The murderer's getting away!” He said and tried to gut-punch me.

I gave him a casual backhanded slap and split both of his lips. “Do you have evidence? Why didn't you arrest him?”

It took a moment before the black man shook his head and he glared at me. “Because he always gets out on bail! Every time!”

“That sounds like a court problem, not a hero problem.” I said and let his fist go, flew over to the side of the building, and saw the thug scrambling down the fire escape. He was already halfway to the street, which meant he was used to escaping that way. My Danger Sense went off and I turned in time to be tackled by the costumed individual and we flew over the side of the building.

Before I could stop us, we entered the deep shadow of the next building and all light and sound of the normal world was cut off. He pushed me away and disappeared into the pitch blackness.

“You don't know what you're doing.” The male voice said and echoed through the space.

“I'm pretty sure I was stopping you from murdering another criminal.” I responded.

“I'm helping people.” The voice said.

My Danger Sense warned me and I dodged a fist that disappeared into the darkness.

“I'm saving them from the scum of the earth.” The voice continued. “They can never hurt another innocent person ever again.”

“Who gave you the authority to make that decision?” I asked.

“Darkwing did. I carry on his work.” He said and his face formed out of the darkness and it was well out of a normal person's reach. “I was his assistant, Night Boy.”

I glanced down at where his body should be and back to the face. “You're pretty old to be called a boy.”

The face frowned at me and disappeared. “This is the Shadowverse.” He said from off to the right. “There are dark things in here. Hungry things.” His voice said from the left. “Even I won't dare to stay too long in here.” He said from above me. “I can't let you interfere, so I hope you like it here.” The voice said from all around me. “Because you are never leaving.”

My Danger Sense went off and I didn't dodge this time. I caught the fist before it hit my face and held on. There was a loud growling sound from nearby and my Danger Sense increased when several more growls came from the darkness.

“Let me go!” The costumed man exclaimed and punched me in the face again.

I crushed his hand and he screamed, then the growls around us increased and grew closer. “You know, those hungry things really like the sound of your screams.” I said and grabbed his other hand and crushed it.

“AHHHH!” He screamed in anguish and my Danger Sense blared at me.

I darted us to the side and a gaping maw full of jagged teeth barely missed us. The funny thing was that it was only a mouth and teeth, nothing else. “You should probably get us out of here.”

The man's frantic eyes darted around us and he nodded several times, then he seemed to fade into the shadows and pulled me with him. We transitioned out of that dimension and came out on top of a nearby roof and not in the air in the same spot we entered. I let him go and he dropped to his knees as he stared at his pulped hands like they were snakes about to bite him.

“Nighty night.” I said and used Panacea's power to knock him out and then used Overhaul's power to reset his hands back to factory specs. I also took his power to stop him from escaping or causing any more problems.

“Atlas? Are you there?” Cecil asked.

“Yeah, I'm here.” I answered.

“We lost the feed on you for a few minutes.”

“Oh, that's because I found the culprit.” I said and walked over to the roof's edge and saw the thug sprinting down the empty street like his butt was on fire. “Night Boy has been saving people by murdering every two-bit criminal he could get his hands on.”

Cecil sighed. “Damn fool kid's lost it. That's not how you're supposed to police crime.”

I used a brief shot of Heat Vision and hit the thug's leg, which made him yell in pain and he fell to the ground as he tumbled to a stop, then his hands clutched his leg. “It would be if you were running a totalitarian state.”

Cecil chuckled. “Good point. Bring him in and I'll let the shrinks have a go at him. Maybe they can help him recover before he's too far gone.”

“I'll be there in fifteen minutes. I just have to call in the murdered thug and the other hurt thug to the local police.”

“Carol can handle that for you.” Cecil said.

“Really? That's great. Tell her thanks for saving me the trouble.” I responded. “I'll be there in ten to fill out an official report.”

“She'll be waiting on you.” Cecil said and clicked off.

I picked up the unconscious vigilante and tucked him under my arm, then flew off back to the Global Defense Agency.

*

I was relaxing as Mark at home when the telephone rang.

Debbie picked it up and talked for a minute, then handed it to me. “It's Cecil.”

I raised my eyebrows at her and accepted the phone. “Hello?”

“I'm sorry for calling you at home, Mark. A situation has come up that requires your participation.” Cecil said.

“Wait, my participation? Really?” I asked.

“Yes, I'll give you the details when you show up at the coordinates being sent to your cell phone.” Cecil answered and my cell phone beeped.

I checked it and it was on the east coast. “All right, I'll be there as soon as I can.”

Debbie took the phone from me and hung it up. “What is it?”

“No idea. It's in Maine, though.” I said and stood up.

“Be careful out there.” Debbie said and gave me a hug.

“I will.” I said went up the stairs and pulled out my old Invincible costume out of the closet and put it on. I went back downstairs and the look on Debbie's face told me all I needed to know about how she really felt about me going out as a hero again. I gave her a hug and held her for a moment, then went out the backdoor.

A notice-me-not hid me as I flew away from the house and I dropped it when I was far enough away. I poured on the speed and arrived at the coordinates. It was a rocky outcropping and Cecil stood there on top of a slightly glowing emblem.

“All right, I'm here.” I said and landed beside him on the emblem. The glow intensified and then disappeared. “What's going on?”

“The Queen of Atlantis has decided she's waited long enough to ask for retribution for the death of her husband.” Cecil told me and then explained how as Omni-man's son, the responsibility fell to me to fulfill the ancient Atlantian law, because Nolan wasn't there.

“What's the law?” I asked as a floating and then flying sea and space ship came out of the water and hovered in front of us.

“You get to replace the king and become her husband.” Cecil said with a straight face.

I looked from him to the ship, back to him, and back to the ship. “You're not kidding.”

“They have advanced technology that they could easily use to take over the surface world, if we didn't have an ironclad agreement set in place to stop them.” Cecil said and patted my shoulder. “It's your responsibility to protect the people of this planet in any way you can.”

I looked back at him. “You are enjoying this way too much.”

Cecil smirked at him. “Don't worry, your highness.” He said sarcastically. “It's only going to be symbolic and in name only. She's not going to give up ruling her people to a surface dweller.”

I sighed. “And if I refuse?”

“They'll invade and cause countless deaths.” Cecil answered. “Good luck, Mark.”

“Thanks.” I said and the ramp dropped down. I walked up it and the ship closed up and flew back down to the water and under the surface. It turned around and flew through the water like it was air. The technology was advanced and it made me wonder why Cecil didn't have a bunch of it being taken apart and reverse engineered.

We soon arrived inside one of the deep trenches under the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at a fairly technologically advanced city. It looked like a futuristic city, only underwater, and we landed inside a large depression near the main castle.

“Put this on.” One of them said and handed me a clear air mask to put over my mouth and nose.

I didn't want to be rude and refuse, even if I didn't need it, and I put it on. As soon as his back was turned, I copied it a bunch of times and stored them.

I was led down the ramp and found out that depression was actually a kind of Colosseum with several rock ledges all around it. There were hundreds of fish people cheering and hollering, for some reason, and the ship that brought me here took off. A hush fell over the crowd as a fairly ugly and plump fish woman floated over to the edge of the ledge near the underwater castle.

“Welcome, son of he who slayed my husband.” The queen said.

I bowed slightly. “Thank you, your highness. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”

She looked surprised, as did the other fish people.

“When will we be participating in the ceremony?” I asked.

“As soon as the guards vacate the area.” The Queen said.

“Wait, right now?” I asked and she nodded. “Don't we have to... like... get changed or something?”

“Do you wish to change your clothing? Is your uniform not appropriate for this?” One of the guards asked.

“No, no. This is fine.” I said not wanting to insult them.

“What about a weapon?” The other guard asked and held out his spear.

“Wh-what? No!” I gasped. “I don't need or want a weapon for this!”

A lot of murmuring came from the crowd and a lot of them nodded with approval.

“If you are ready, then we will begin.” The queen said and waved her hand.

“Release the Depth-Dweller!” One of the guards yelled and he and his partner swam away.

“Is that a priest or something?” I asked as the crowd cheered. I heard rustling chains and turned around to see two tall stone posts at the edge of a cliff that must have been hidden behind the ship, because I didn't notice it before. Two very large chains hung from them and they went down over the edge of the cliff and down into the trench.

A cute little creature popped up a moment later and wiggled at me.

“Um... is that the priest?” I asked and glanced around. “Hold on, is there going to be anyone else in the wedding party?”

“Wedding party?” The queen asked and then laughed. “No, we abolished that law years ago after Aquarius ran off to the surface world to play dress-up with the humans.”

“Then what's going on?” I asked and turned to look at her.

“This is a trial by combat.” The queen said with satisfaction, as if she knew what the outcome was going to be.

A loud roar behind me made me turn back around and I watched as a huge 40 foot tall red scaled creature, that looked like a naga, except it had the head of a dragon and massive muscular arms. It roared again when it saw me, a clear outsider, and it lunged at me.

“Idiot.” I said and hauled my fist back, then I zoomed forward and broke the sound barrier as my fist impacted the thing's snout, causing a huge shockwave to spread out and shake the entire Colosseum. The nose was crushed and I kept flying right through the thing's head and smashed out through the back of its skull.

Brains and viscera spewed out in a cloud around me and I flew back to hit the thing in the back, right where the chains had been secured. It shattered the gigantic metal plate and crushed the spine it was secured to. The quite dead giant creature fell forward and landed on the Colosseum floor, blood floating out of the massive hole in the back of it's head.

“So, I won. Is that it?” I asked the completely stunned fish queen. “I can go now?”

The queen nodded her head several times.

“Excellent. It was nice meeting you, your highness.” I said and floated up in front of her. “The Global Defense Agency has my number if you ever want to contact me again.”

The queen didn't react to my words, so I mentally shrugged and flew up and up through the water.

“Damn, kid. Nice work.” Cecil praised me. “That's definitely going to earn us a few concessions at the next peace talks to review the Atlantian Treaty.”

I had to chuckle at that. “It also removed a huge bargaining chip from their roster that could attack us later.”

“Exactly. I'll be adding a huge bonus to your account for this.” Cecil said.

“Nice.” I said and flew up out of the water and into the air. “By the way, I grabbed a pile of these air breather thingies for the tech guys to play with.”

Cecil chuckled. “I can already hear the guys at NASA cheering.”

“Mom's going to be cheering, too. I'm not getting married just out of high school.” I joked and he laughed.