Marvel Genesis: The Champions #1
Art By Payno
The morning light glinted off the car windows as Simon Williams made his way to the set. His agent had got him a gig on movie called “Storm Dogs”, it was a live action version of an old school TV cartoon being directed by Michael Cove, a director largely known for making substance less “popcorn” moves. Not only was Simon pissed at his agent for signing him up for a movie that will most likely be confined to the bargain bin within the year of it's release but it was also another stunt job. It had been over a year since he had done any real acting jobs and instead of becoming a young up and comer he was now type cast as a stunt man only, Simon was not happy to say the least.
A car horn blared as the morning traffic sped by, Simon paid it no attention and continued on his way, scowling as he did. Palm trees lined the left of the side walk as he began to get closer to the city centre where today’s shooting was to take place. He had decided that after the next scene was done he was calling it quits, screw his agent, screw Storm Dogs and screw Michael Cove, this wasn't the type of film's he wanted to get involved in, they could all go to hell for all he cared.
The explosion ripped through the city centre in a flash of deep purple and blue a mile wide, decimating buildings and people alike, the blast sent out shock waves throughout most of the city. The waves carried with them residual energy from the the explosion, bathing the resident's of LA in an unnatural blue glow that warped them at an atomic level, some became gigantic monstrosity’s that resembled hairless gorillas others had there DNA fused with anything that had been close to them at the time of the explosion, becoming a race of half human half lizard/insect/bird/plant men. All of them became mindless brutes that operated on instinct alone. Over half of the City of Los Angeles had been warped.
The patch of rubble and dust that was ground zero, the epicentre of the blast, started to shift as a being that no longer could be classed as human nor monster began to rise, flickering in and out of existence as his conscientiousness tried to keep his body from dissipating to the solar winds, gaining control his body was now formed by the purplish blue of pure energy, Simon Williams was no long just a man, now he is a man capable of wonders, now he is the Ionic Man.
Elsewhere in LA
Doug Taggert was minding his own business, drifting off in-front of the camera monitors at ROXXON's main LA research compound when the explosion hit. The tremor had put the compound in to partial shut down, closing all access from the outside and triggering the alarm that now whooped along with the flash of the emergency lighting.
“Uh... what the hell just happened?”
Doug began to panic, he didn't need this kind of crap in his life right now, this was his first job after leaving collage at the ripe old age of 22 and if this was some how his fault (which to be fare, most bad things that happened around him were) then he was going to get fired and Cindy was never going to forgive him. CINDY!
“Crap, oh crap, oh crap”
Doug flicked through the camera monitors to try find his current fiancée, she was a research intern that was helping her dad work on something called “Project Z” in the cybernetics lab, but he got nothing but static, that was not good, this was ROXXON tech, nothing was meant to be able to put it off-line, not hurricanes, not earthquakes, nothing.
With sweat dripping from his head and a Mace canister in hand Doug made his way down to the cybernetics lab, the whole complex seemed to be totally empty but that couldn’t be right, there was no way in or out yet all he could find was random piles of clothes dotted about the corridors.
“Um hello? is this some kind of perverted joke? because that would be really weird and it may affect the employee/employer relationship”
Doug heard nothing back but the echo of his own voice rattling around the small passageways. When he reached the cybernetic lab he swiped his key card and tried his best to sneak in with out being noticed by anybody. Half crouching half standing behind some large computers Doug scanned the room for ether Cindy or any would be terrorists, the lab was empty, the only noise was the whoop of the alarm and the hum of various machines still currently at work. The largest hum came from the middle of the room where there was what looked like some type of armoured suit, a word flashed through Doug's mind that he had learned during his many saturday morning cartoon marathons “Exoskeleton” that's what this was, it was green with various antenna protruding from the helmet, he couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact it looked kind of like a grasshopper or a cricket.
A huge crash echoed through the lab as, a giant “thing” that looked like a hairless albino King Kong came rushing straight at Doug, with a shriek of terror he blindly sprayed his Mace, catching most of the affect him self, tripped over his own feet and fell head first in to the Grasshopper suit.
Project Z initiated, commence active trial
A computer voice boomed over the roar of the the monster.
Robotic arms where now grabbing Doug and inserting each piece of the suit on to his body. Doug stood dumbstruck, scared and completely confused, not knowing what to do to resolve his situation he currently found himself in. Just as the monster was about to charge at Doug he felt the movement in his antenna and tried to jump.
Klik Klik
Instead of leaping out the way like he was expecting, the powerful exoskeleton legs propelled him straight at the animal, out of pure instinct Doug rolled, rotating his body so he would connect feet first catching the beast right in the face, his new grasshopper legs recoiling with such force that sent it flying through the wall creating a hole of equal size to the one it had created when it entered.
“Whoooo, that'l teach you to mess with theEver-Gregarious Grasshopper”
Doug yelled, getting totally caught up in the moment.
“It's time to put you down for good big fella”
Aiming to put the monster down with one last hit Doug bent his legs and pushed off with all the force he could muster but instead of leaping towards the monster, with incredible velocity he shot through the roof, rising higher and higher till he cleared the LA skyline and the building’s started to look like a model village.
*sigh* “Ihatemy life”
Next issue: A-Bomb/The Vision
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