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Prologue:
“Are you serious?” asked Patrick Hamilton to his editor, he was barely able to contain his excitement over the news. The man in front of him simply smiled and grabbed a big folder which he placed in front of the young writer. “I am. The book is to be called ‘Whatever happened to the last Nighthunter? In this folder you’ll find everything you need to start your investigation; names, locations, etc, etc.”
“Won’t they mind me interrupting their lives for this? Some of them are still busy people.” Asked the young man, he didn’t know if he should be excited or nervous so he decided to be both. “They’ve all agreed to do this so you shouldn’t have any problems now go.”
Part 1: Look at the stars
Patrick sat down; afraid to say something that would make him feel stupid. The temperature in the room kept increasing and so did the level of sweating he produced. How could he not when he was in the same room as the legendary Feral Nova?
“Come on dude, I KNOW you are burning over so just tell me and I’ll lower the heat.” Said Nova with her charismatic smile, Patrick in response simply opened his computer, cleared his throat and went directly to what he had come for. “What was your relationship with Nighthunter?”
“We were allies, friends too and we shared many battles together but the first time I met him it was the complete opposite.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Sure.”
It was a tournament between the Zero Squad and the WAL; we were the new kids who were going against the most powerful team of heroes ever assembled. Most of them didn’t see us as a threat because of this and paid the price by losing….badly and that’s why I’m so lame…..I did the same mistake and I paid the same price!
It took place in a small city; I know it was small because I can’t bother to remember the name even though I have a great memory, like the time that me and Nevann were trying to find our kids and only I remembered that we had left them at the mall again….watching a bad ninja movie….although they are all bad if you think about it but (ahem) oh yeah right. We were fighting for no real reason, it was a tournament but it wasn’t like the KOV which I’ve won 4 times….5? How many times have I kicked Sha’s ass?
(Ahem)
Anyway! We were fighting, one thing led to another and we end up in the sewers (the sewers?) Don’t ask…. At first I thought that he was only escaping me but he used the water in there against me, he tricked me and he won because of that. He won, but I got the most valuable lesson….never underestimate an opponent for their powers or lack of them, the underdog is always the most eager to prove something.
“You resented him after the fight?”
Nova started to laugh and smile at the question and then finally regained calmness. “Dude, he beat me without powers. Hadn’t he kicked my ass into humbleness I probably wouldn’t be the fighter I am today.”
Patrick smiled and then leaned closer to Nova. “Hadn’t it been him it would have been someone else.” Nova took a glimpse into the eyes of his interviewer then smiled once more. “You are probably right, I kick ass. I still miss that old guy. Whatever happened to him anyway?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Nova got up, grabbed two glasses of milk and placed them over the table between her and Patrick then extended his hand behind the sofa where she was sitting and offered it to his new friend. “Cookie?”
“But when was the last time you met him?”
“When we beat Sol”
“When you what?”
“Dude I just said it!”
I don’t even remember why we were in space, it was a mission to find something but I always forget what it was, anyway we were traveling in one of Nighthunter’s space ships when suddenly his ship turned off and a spark just manifested itself inside. First it was just a big ball of fire until it suddenly started to gain form and became a beautiful yellow woman.
“My name is sol” she said, just like her name implies she was or at least represented the sun of our solar system. “The sun has life of its own?” asked Nighthunter completely surprised and then started to come closer to her in order to try to touch her, but soon he realized the mistake of doing so.
“What do you want?” I asked and she just started to cry, hard to tell as they evaporated. “To find a reason to exist.” She whispered, afraid of having revealed too much, and then she moved away so we could see her real self. “I have billions of sisters and every day more and more are created. The universe is so vast that I never even get to meet most of them. Most of my sisters work hard for billions of years in order to make their solar systems be full of life but afraid that I would eventually also cause the death of the beings I create I’ve been trying to keep life to appear only in Earth as a way to prevent more life from eventually dying. “That’s like billions of years away!” I mentioned completely out of reaction. “Merely blinks for me and my sisters they are.”
She then came closer to us and for some reason she didn’t warm us anymore. “I’ve watched all of you humans for millions of years every day. I’ve grown too fond of you and your customs and now I come with a question.”
“The humans believe in many different religions, but they all agree that when you die, you don’t cease to exist…you go somewhere else. When a star dies where does she go?”
I seriously don’t get why out of us it was Nighthunter who took the first step and came closer to her, she looked her into the eyes, somehow grabbed her by the chick without burning himself and finally answered. “I don’t know where it was, but I’ve seen what lies beyond the border between life and death and while I don’t remember specifics I do remember something. Even though I was….somewhere else. There were still creatures in the sky looking at us in order to protect, those were the stars which protect us even after their death.”
He then came closer and stole her one kiss, I don’t know how in the world that happened but they actually made a cute couple.” As for your fear of the legacy you leave behind, the destruction of billions….Fire is both life and death, an endless circle even if we die many billion of years later we will have lived and from the ashes something else will raise. Maybe something greater, maybe something worse but isn’t the uncertainty of what will happen what makes life so great?”
With that Sol remained silent for a couple of minutes and then finally made a question I never expected, then again I didn’t expect anything from that day, seriously I wanted to come soon and watch House. “Will you come with me?” she asked and Nighthunter simply nodded with the head.
After that a transformation took place and Nighthunter turned into a creature of fire not unlike me or Sol, he then looked at me into the eyes, he didn’t say anything but I’m sure he was thanking me for everything. Then they disappeared and the world never saw him again.
Nova simply smiled as she was eating another cookie when Patrick anxious for more started to make noises in order to make her tell her more. “Oh right”. She said and took one more bite. “After that I realized two things?”
“What were they?”
“One the sun had now changed its color into blue, symbolizing the hope for a better tomorrow and second…. He left me there and I didn’t even know how to drive that spaceship!”
“But the sun is still yellow….” Whispered Patrick in confusion and disappointment to himself .
Part 2: No sacrifices
At first Patrick didn’t think that the man in front of him was giving him any attention; in part because he was Kurrent one of the greatest heroes to ever live while Patrick was a nobody, but mostly because well….he was silently training at the same time. “Mr. Kurrent. I….would really like us to start with the interview so if you cou….”
“No sacrifices”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what Nighthunter told me the last time I saw him.”
I don’t know why or how but we both ended in Bosnia; Final Arrow had resurfaced after years of apparent hiatus ready to unleash all of his army against our world, he however lived according to his reputation and left his best tricks and utter trickiness for the end.
We had beat his guards and went all the way to his chambers only to find a crying baby and Final Arrow who was taking care of it, frightening and traumatizing him in the process.
“Hello heroes. Ready for the climax to arrive?” those were his exact words I believe, I was ready to jump into battle and so was Nighthunter but then suddenly the master of mischief confused us once again. “I do not desire to spar with neither of you heroes, for I am an immortal that has grown tired of the basic desires of a battle fought with blood and sword. Too many times has my cousin Death made an undesired and way too early visit but I do understand that you wish to stop my plans and I respect such motivation”
He then placed the baby on the bed next to him and created out of the air two knives and deposited each of them on the hand from each of us. “I have grown tired of the battlefield but not of plans and schemes and mind games. The only way that my army will stop is by listening to my command, kill the friend besides you or even better kill this innocent baby son of a whore and I give you my word to retreat my fleet. For the devil is dark, sinister and cruel; but no one respects his word of honor more than himself.
That was Final Arrow, the being that caused every hero or villain to crumble in fear not only because of his outstanding power but because of his mastery of the manipulation and planning. He had found two heroes who had devoted his lives to do the right thing, even if they disagreed in which that was and put them in an impossible position to choose. One had to die, that was the only logical thing to do in order to prevent the death of millions, the real question was who it should be.
Then…out of nowhere Nighthunter did the unexpected, he changed the rules completely. He left his knife fall to the ground and then started walking towards Final Arrow. He stopped for a moment, turn to me and said “No sacrifices.” And then kept walking, he then made his power suit disappear and revealed his civilian face and clothes.
“You said that you are tired of the fights with blood and sword, I then dare you to a game of wits and imagination. I challenge you to the first game.” There was silence in the room for a couple of seconds as the two men stared at each other, then it was followed with laughter of Final Arrow, never in my life have I heard a sound so scary.
“You dare?” he laughed once again and when he reassumed control asked again. “You dare to challenge me to a game of intelligence? Kid I’ve played chest with Odin himself, Loki learnt all of his tricks from me.”
“My god friend has a really big hammer, your point?” this caused the demon to turn serious again for he couldn’t accept the idea that a mere mortal would dare make a joke of him. “Very well”, he said and then started the game.
“I am a white tiger, prey-stalking, lethal hunter.” said Final Arrow announcing the start of the first game; the winner would determine the fate of the Earth.
“I am a grey elephant, magnified height, tiger stomper.” Replied Nighthunter with a smile
“I am a tiny mouse, grey haired, elephant freighter.” Continued the demon
“I am a house cat, well trained, mouse eater.” Answered the human
“I am a lion, king of the jungle, cat devourer.” Said Final Arrow with a smile, his smile showed that he well knew of the game, not a surprise really when it was possible that he had invented the game itself.
“I am an intense fire, bright burning, jungle and lion consumer.” Replied Nighthunter.
“I am a fierce storm, carrier of water, wind and lightning, fire stopper.”
This was probably when the game turned the most interesting, for all of his feats of intelligence, Nighthunter was still a man contesting with a god playing a game created by one, he knew that for every answer that he could place the demon in front of him had a reply, for he had seen everything and anything during his life. It was then that Nighthunter decided to use that against his opponent, trying to break the logic of nature itself.
“I am a tornado, master of the wind, responsible for the storm.”
“Very well then”. Final Arrow said with a smile and then sat down as if he thought that this game was about to finish. “I am the space, dark and full of beauty, wind ignorer”
“I am the stars, lonely sparks, life creator”
“I am the anti-life, the penance that comes for all who dare to live, the end of all things, life ender.”
“I am hope, faith embracer, life and death surpasser.” Replied Nighthunter with a smile.
It was then that something really scary happened, Final Arrow started to laugh once again but not like before, had I had my worst nightmares come to life I would have never heard a worse sound. “You dare try to beat me with hope? In the end even hope fades, it only needs the right angle.”
“I am a god. All powerful, all knowing, ruler and creator of everything. The universe is created from the wave of my hand and my scary imagination. Faith and hope exploiter.”
Nighthunter then remained silent for a few moments, I thought the same as Final Arrow that he would give up, that he had run out of imagination or replies and so Final Arrow had won this contest once again, I was preparing to use my powers but before I could do it Nighthunter simply gave a few more steps and looked at Final Arrow in the eyes.
“I am a mere man. No powers, mostly ignorant, pawn of cosmic games beyond my control. Unaware of the true extent of the universe but carrier of one universal truth, the gods that he believes in are born not above him but because of him. Creator and destroyer of gods, god slayer.”
Then the whole room remained silent again, Final Arrow then finally decided to respond with another smile, but this one was not like any other we had seen that day for even if it was a small portion it still carried a little bit of respect. “Very well mortal, you have won.” He finally said and in a single moment he and all of his army disappeared.
I congratulated my friend for beating the Devil in his own game but he said that he knew better than to try to beat him in his own arena, he never tried to win for he knew he couldn’t but instead tried to show the power of humanity, because for all of his accomplishments Nighthunter was still a mere human in body if not in soul.
Part 3: Screw me once….
“I met the Bon rien too long ago. The monsieur Nighthunter was for good or bad a hero with too much faith in the villains.” Said Gambler with his signature Cheshire smile. “What do you mean?” asked in return Patrick, completely uncomfortable with the situation.
Gambler had always been the world’s greatest villain; he was a powerhouse sure but that wasn’t why it was this way, in truth it was because the greatest ability of the Cajun and champion of villains was his charisma and ability to manipulate people. “Have you ever heard the old saying ‘Screw me once shame on you, screw me twice shame on me?’
Patrick simply nodded in response “The thing is, I kept screwing Nighthunter over and over the years and yet he felt no shame. For as much of a Cul-de-sac that it was he still thought that he should believe.”
Gambler then went up and grabbed an old photo of the time he was the President of the United States. “Nighthunter knew how to kill and in some occasions he did kill, but most of them were by accident or because he couldn’t help it.”
“He saved my life once you know? I really don’t know why he bothered, I would have come back, I always come back.”
Patrick wanted to leave as soon as possible, it was one thing to interview Feral Nova and Kurrent, two of the greatest heroes to ever live but being face to face with Gambler was a suicide mission, he had to leave soon so he tried to make the interview go to the conclusion.
“So when was the last time you saw Nighthunter?”
Gambler made another Cheshire smile and then turned to Patrick. “When I killed the Couyon of course.” After that he sat once more in order to narrate his story.
We were in the middle of a dessert where I had left him and the entire Dark Reign team to die when I betrayed them. I had betrayed Nighthunter when the second civil war took place, I had made him an enemy of the state when I was the President along with all of his friends, I had left him in the desert and I believed him dead.
Our fight was fierce and for awhile quite fair, but in the end I don’t do fair fights. I win because in the end that’s what I’ve always been good at. He was below me, trying to get a hold of his gun but unable to do so. I looked him into the eye and asked why he saved my life and turned on his friend and mentor Renegade Lantern, the reason behind that act had always escaped me.
“Everyone’s worth it.” Nighthunter whispered, referring to the second chance he had given me. In response to such a noble act of a noble man I gave the only possible response, I gave him a quick death. That happened just before the ICE Dragons were reformed which probably was the reason behind the event.
For you see, the Raison d'être for Nighthunter was not only to save innocent lives, that was an important part but not the main reason. He wanted to change lives, he wanted to prove that while the war between good and evil would never end maybe he could lower the body count with a little glimpse of hope and compassion, that’s what moved him until the day he died. He never gave up on the Cul-de-sac which bécame his reason for being, he never stopped believing.
Part 4: The fall of an empire…
Patrick was sitting in the middle of a Starbucks, putting his notes of the interviews in order for the book he was about to publish. “Some of these things don’t fit, the dates, the people involved, the established data, Nighthunter didn’t die in the desert….”
“Oh but he did.” Announced a mysterious voice behind Patrick, as he turned around he saw a man with an eye patch and a vibe of Clint Eastwood but just not as badass. “Who are you?” asked Patrick scared of the man in front of him; this same man simply smiled, took a cigar out and sat in front of Patrick.
“Name is Jason Hamilton. I’m the guy your boss called for, Chaos Agent.”
Ashamed of the mistake he had done Patrick started to tremble and organize his objects. When he was finished he tried to offer without any success a cup of coffee. “You said that Nighthunter was indeed killed by Gambler?”
“No. I said he died in the desert, after he died the first time in the light wars, there was no death before or after those events.”
“How did he die?” Patrick asked completely interested in the tale once more, every single time he had one of these interviews he was more and more interested on the individual the world knew as Nighthunter.
“How else? He fought like always but not like ever before and when he was done he finally perished.”
You have to understand that Jake Hamilton wasn’t the first Nighthunter, he was the second one the world would know but there were hundred before him. There was an organization that worked in the shadows for centuries named “The Nighthunter society”. They were like the Freemasonry in many ways but their differences is what made them stand out, while the Nighthunters worked in the shadows, manipulating the world from a distance they weren’t afraid of spilling blood with their own hands and so they were both the generals and the greatest knights in every big war.
To be a member of the society you had to be almost a peak human with a perfect equilibrium in both the body and the mind. There can only be one Nighthunter for each country at the time and someone can only quit the society when he or she is dead. However both Jake and me left the society and by doing so left a big void in the hierarchy for I was the highest one in rank. It was then that a man known as Domenic Mayer assumed control of the organization.
Mayer is fairly unknown to the world at large but he is as dangerous as he is evil, he killed my parents when I was just a baby and kidnapped me in order to have me as his secret weapon in his own organization. I beat Domenic many years after that and made him escape but I knew far too well that the power of Domenic didn’t come from his great mastery of the swordmanship but of his ability to manipulate the people around him.
Without me and Jake there wasn’t neither a supreme Nighthunter nor a representative of the United States, so Domenic took the advantage and infiltrated the society, thus he stained the name of Nighthunter and corrupted all of the ideals of the society, the organization was supposed to be a shield to prevail mankind and keep it evolving, but Domenic turned it into an army which would commit genocide weren’t they stopped.
Jake and I found about this and so returned to the headquarters were we tried to stop them, we both fought together for awhile but the years had finally caught up with me and so eventually I couldn’t keep going. I fainted, but Jake kept going. He got rid of all the restraints he used to have and fought like never before, he showed them while why every single one of the members of the society are peak human most people believed Jake to be a superhuman. He fought against dozens of the most dangerous men alive and in the end he won, he fought Domenic to a standstill and when he realized he couldn’t beat him on his tired state he blew the building and killed everyone inside it.
You see, Jake knew that so many powerful men in the same place was only asking for trouble, Domenic had changed them in a few months so there was no prove that it couldn’t happen again. The English men have an old saying “The King is dead. Long live the King!” Jake knew that if even a single one survived everything would start again with or without him or Domenic. By the society’s law he had earned the right to be the highest rank and so he was the closest thing to a king the organization had. He knew that it was a matter of time until the society was corrupted again if he didn’t rule it and to do so he would have to give up on everything he believes in. It was then that the King chose to lose his kingdom instead of changing his ways and so the Nighthunter empire, powerful for centuries finally faded.
Jake wasn’t the first Nighthunter, but he was the last and by far the best one.
Part 5: I am he that liveth, and was dead and, behold, I am alive for evermore
Patrick couldn’t help but to be afraid of the new person he was interviewing, very few people had a temper as the one of X-23 when she was angered and he was afraid to cause such a thing. He decided that the best thing to do was to let her tell her story without any interruption if possible.
And so she started to talk about how Nighthunter disappeared but never left:
The whole universe was at war and like always the Earth was the centre of everything. The emotional spectrum was a weapon carried by thousands if not millions of beings across the cosmos. Many heroes and villains had been recruited to this war and were battling over it. Green, yellow, red, blue, orange, pink and indigo; every single one of those colors burned bright in the sky and merged with the others. It was as if a freaking rainbow had thrown up into the night.
My friend King Hyperion and myself had both gained a red ring due to how great our rage was and how easy to manifest it was, at the same time Nighthunter had gained a green one, probably due to his stupidity when it came to choosing when to back down. Him and King Hyperion engaged in combat and took their fight to the stars, leaving Nova and myself to have a fight of our own. Suddenly, a big explosion took place and the two of them died.
One of them stayed dead while the other returned changed forever. The war came closer to Earth and the leaders of all the corps fought valiantly in order to win it, however suddenly a small figure formed of glowing green appeared at the middle of the fight and stopped the conflict, or at least was able to momentarily cease the fire.
That figure was Nighthunter, or at least his consciousness. I don’t know how but the explosion that had destroyed King Hyperion and himself had somehow fused his mind with the power of the ring. He was now one with the energy of the green side of the emotional spectrum. Thanks to this process he wasn’t a mere wielder of the power but a manifestation of itself. His power was so great that he made them all cease and desist, everyone but Darkchild who flew with his ring.
Many months passed and Nighthunter with all of his power couldn’t find the leader of the yellow ring wielders, Darkchild in return did what he always did when he found someone who could stand up to him; he became better and more powerful than ever before. For all intents and purposes, Darkchild is probably the most powerful villain the world has ever known and the one crazy enough to attempt what he did.
Darkchild came into the headquarters of the ICE Dragons challenged Nighthunter on a duel and then released one explosion as powerful as the one that had killed King Hyperion and Nighthunter. The living entity of willpower used a lot of his power in order to contain that explosion and so save both his family and his home from sure destruction.
However, just like Nighthunter before him, Darkchild’s mind got amalgamated with the energy of his ring, making him a manifestation of the yellow side of the emotional spectrum and so he became as powerful as Nighthunter himself. Jake in a final sacrifice opened the gates to the fifth dimension and transported both him and Darkchild inside. (What is the fifth dimension?) The imagination of course, the two of them keep fighting over and over in our subconscious.
Sometimes will wins and sometimes its fear, their fights it’s probably the little voice inside our head that we call common sense.
Part 6: Guilt asylum
“Seriously, where did the boss even find the numbers of these people?” asked Patrick to himself as he was walking to the next interview.
“They probably are only espees from an asylum way easier to find them that way instead of the real thing”-
Patrick’s last couple of days had been as bizarre as they had been interesting, even if he didn’t believe half of the stories that he was told he couldn’t help but to be captivated by them, and there was no way that he would be late to this interview in particular.
Patrick arrived at the coffee shop and then sat down to wait for his guests to arrive, a mere three minutes later both of them arrived; Mistress Redhead and Sovereign Son, two of the greatest heroes the world had ever known and two thirds of the current trinity of the C.O.P.s
“So….whatever happened to Nighthunter?” asked Patrick jokingly as a way to try to hide his excitement over this moment. The two of them looked at each other and then back at Patrick, then Mistress Redhead finally answered, but it was more of a question.
“Who can really tell now?” she whispered, she didn’t cry but his face showed that she intended to. Sovereign Son hugged his wife and then turned at Patrick once more. “He is alive, but only a shadow of his former self.” Sovereign Son said, the sadness of MR was now also on her husband’s face.
Patrick couldn’t help but to be excited by the comment of the legend in front of him, he knew it was selfish but he could now talk to Nighthunter and learn which of the stories were real and which weren’t.
“Can I see him?”asked Patrick at least, he couldn’t help but to be overwhelmed by the possibility of meeting his hero. Sovereign Son finally replied. “I don’t know if you could. I can barely look at him in the eye now.”
Patrick was shocked by this revelation. What could have happened that would break the spirit of a man that fought the greatest terrors the world had ever known and who had surpassed even his own death. “It was guilt”. MR. said as if she had read the thoughts directly from Patrick’s head. “Guilt over the death of Andferne; of not being there when he needed him the most but mostly guilt of returning to the living while Andy did not”.
It started on the day in which Nighthunter was assigned as the new leader of the ICE Dragons after Andy’s death. He already had those sentiments of guilt but taking Andy’s place made it worse.”I’m just warming the sitting spot for him to return.” That was what Nighthunter always repeated to himself; unaware of the fact that destiny had other plans.
He continued with that way of thinking for months,even years. The real reason he told the other heroes about the idea of a united team of Andferne wasn’t to honor Andy’s legacy but so that he could see his dream fulfilled by the time in which he returned. That day never came and the more time passed the more Nighthunter wouldn’t let go of the idea, it took over him and eventually became an obsession.
He couldn’t let go of his best friend and so he subconsciously let go of reality. You have to understand that Nighthunter was always a man of reason and logic and he couldn’t find neither of those to explain to him why out of all the people that have died and returned it was Andy, who probably deserved it the most who didn’t.
He turned crazy in the end and afraid of what a man like him could do if let free; he was put in an asylum in the C.O.P.s headquarters. We are constantly attending him but there is no real point, he’ll die eventually with his mind as disturbed as now.
Part 7: The legacy you leave behind
With the recent interview Patrick didn’t know why he continued the interviews other than the fact that his editor told him so, maybe it was also the fact that he couldn’t believe the last story told to him, he wanted to believe that the was something more about Nighthunter’s disappearance than was he was told; something more glorious, something more perfect.
He also couldn’t help but to attend at this interview for as ferrous and frightening as she could be the heroine known as Sha was also one of the most beautiful and as professional as Patrick was, he too was a man before everything else.
Sha went directly to the subject at hand and didn’t care for anything else.
Nighthunter was probably the most dangerous human in the world, but metahuman or not he knew that time and mortality were against him. Aware of this Nighthunter would do everything in his power to change the world for the better.
He called Eclipse and told him to go to the old headquarters of the Zero Squad. There the two of them started to have a private tour of the facilities, as they walked through the halls of the building they saw statues showcasing several of the greatest heroes the world had ever known. Some of them still played a prominent role in the fight against injustice, others had disappeared and had been forgotten ever since, some had died and some of them remained dead.
“Some of them were among the greatest heroes the world has ever known.” Nighthunter explains to Eclipse without stopping.
“They were the paragons of a golden age of heroism, we didn’t start this life because we wanted fame or recognition, we did it because it was the right thing to do. As simple as that”
Nighthunter and Eclipse then found themselves in front of the statue of the original leader and founder of the team; Renegade Lantern. Jake simply kept walking closer to the statue of one of his mentors and then decided to sit on it.
“Every time I come here or to any of the dozens of memorials designed for us I can’t help but to feel uncomfortable, especially when looking at my own.”
I remember that Eclipse told me that he was completely unable to say anything that could smooth the situation and so he decided to shut up instead and let his teacher keep his talking. “Back in the old Greece the statues were reserved to gods and mythological heroes, they weren’t real so it didn’t matter how high the expectations on them were, they could deal with it.”
Nighthunter then got up and placed both of his hands on Eclipse’s shoulders. “The heroes of the past…we did feats that people couldn’t conceive, we did the sacrifices that most people couldn’t even consider and in return we unwillingly became more for than that what we could have expected. But in the end we were only people, people that for the most part tried to do the right thing no matter the consequence but people nevertheless.”
Nighthunter then showed Eclipse a control and pushed the button, with it many holograms kicked in to show a gallery of the heroes that had emerged since the disbanding of the original Zero Squad. “Even with all the power and dedication that we gave time was too powerful an enemy for all of us. The old generation is mostly gone now, only fragments remaining, but a new generation also burning bright”.
Nighthunter then went to the elevator and called it so they could leave. “The light that shines from the new generation shouldn’t be eclipsed by the actions of the ones that came before. Remember the heroes of the past but do not venerate them; the world now belongs to you and your friends Jason. Make it better than it is right now.”
Nighthunter then pushed Eclipse once they arrived and ordered the doors of the elevator to close quickly and take him to the basement, however before the doors closed Nighthunter gave his apprentice one last word of advice. “Destroy the past, create the future. You aren’t this generation’s new Renegade Lantern, Kurrent or Andferne. You aren’t merely by apprentice. You are Eclipse, leader and light beacon of a new generation of heroes and that is just who you should be. No one else but yourself.”
Following his departure Nighthunter made the whole damn place explode, burying forever the headquarters of the team that he once lead. Eclipse, completely confused by what had happened that day returned to the C.O.P.S. headquarters in order to give the new of Nighthunter’s fate to the members of the team.
I remember being in that crowd and I remember how I left it to mourn in private. I had known Nighthunter for a long time but hadn’t been able to really get to know him until just before that happened. As I arrived into my room I found a package with my name on it, when I opened it I found a letter with Jake’s hand writing.
“What kind of Queen doesn’t have a kingdom? You can stop being a hero, an alien, a villain, a queen. You can stop being anything if you so desire, but please Sha never stop being yourself no matter where that takes you. I’m sorry that I didn’t get to do all of the things we planed to do as a duo (we never even got past the part of choosing a name) but as I looked to the new wave of recruits I figured something. They need MR, they need Sovereign Son and they need you for guidance, but there is nothing more that I can offer them now. They are ready, the world is now theirs and I’m sure they’ll do a better job than we ever did. The only thing I can offer you is what I offered them, a clean slate.”
As I started to check what else the package contained I soon realized what it really was. I didn’t really understand how it worked, it was technology that was centuries ahead of humanity’s science capabilities and yet it was made on Earth and had Nighthunter’s footprints and personal design all over it.
It was a planet kid, a fully functional and perfect to five life planet and it was just as big as my fist. What was stranger is that it looked exactly like Ninjeta before its destruction. I followed all of the instructions that Nighthunter left for me. I took it to another solar system from the people of Earth and placed it close to a star. In just a few years it grew to be twice as big as the Earth and eventually created life. Ninjeta was reborn and still exists just beyond the border of Andromeda.
That is what happened to Nighthunter kid. He died and left a legacy of life after that. (Did the letter say anything else?)
Yes, it said “P.S. Times of new beginnings.”
Part 8: Life happened
Risky couldn’t help but to feel uncomfortable by being in such a public place as a coffee shop with everyone staring at her. “You know? I always knew this day would come”. Risky said in order to start the conversation. “That one day someone would come to me and ask ‘Hey Risky whatever happened to Nighthunter?’ and I would answer to them ‘He is playing golf with Darkchild…He is a mere man who played the superhero game for years and then disappeared. What do you think he is doing? He is dead!’ “
Risky then tasted her coffee and changed her sitting position. Shen then started to stare down directly to Patrick’s eyes. “Thing is , that’s what everyone thought would eventually happen even if we didn’t admit it to ourselves.”
Nighthunter had been doing the superhero game for years. He wasn’t the first human superhero which is probably why he always pushed himself so hard, he was trained by the first and was carrying the name of his father who was also one of the best heroes, ever since he was born the expectations were always the highest for him.
As the years passed he became the very definition of peak human, he became the guy everyone would turn to if they ever needed something that everyone else thought was impossible to create. He went on for years, decades and not even death could stop him. He continued and continued until one say he realized something.
He was born in a test tube as an adult, he never had a childhood or teenage years and thanks to so many crisis one after the other he also never had a full adult life. One night as he was sleeping he heard a voice telling him that he hadn’t back to life to just be a hero once more. He had returned to embrace life.
Nighthunter never knew who or what had talked to him on his sleep but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. There were better heroes than him, more powerful, more noble, or both. He had been doing what he thought he was supposed to do for so long that he had even forgotten to live fully. So with this revelation what happened is that he finally did as he was told and then embraced life.
He retired but remained a scientific and tactical consultant for the hero community, he married and had three kids; two boys and one girl and so he grew old and happy while still making a difference.
So the answer to your question kid? “Whatever happened to the last Nighthunter?” Life happened and Jake is still out there, only not in the same way that the world knows him. In the end Nighthunter had to do the decision that every hero has to eventually do. Die young with glory that lasts forever or live long with a glory that fades long before you do. He no longer fights and his mind and body have grown too old to have him do it now, but in the end he got the best of both worlds. He has loved to old age fully realized and still live with glory that will last an eternity. Your book is a testament of that.
Part 9: Mythmaker
Patrick had been sitting and waiting for his next interviewed for one hour now, he wanted to leave and go with his editor to give the last notes and so be done with it, no matter how great the experience had been. He knew however that this interview was one of the most important ones and that it was also his last so he was hesitant to do as his instinct told him.
“Screw this.” Patrick whispered to himself and finally got up from his chair, as he started to pick up the garbage of all the things that he had consumed during his stay there a big giant thunder hit the chair at the other side of the table and from the light that came from it one man was formed.
Lstpaladin, the most powerful and noblest hero of them all. Lstpaladin glimpsed at the mortal man next to him and then at the junk on the table. “It would seem that I delayed my arrival far too long.” Said the god of thunder as he started to help Patrick to pick it all up.
“For that I’m sorry, after all these years the changed of timeline that occur when travelling across the borders of the realm of men and gods still alludes me.”
Patrick simply nodded, he had seen some of the greatest heroes and villains in the world and even sat down to talk with them, but this was different. He was now right next to the king of Asgard as a Christian man he couldn’t help but to have his faith tested and make him beg to ask if his god was real, if all of the other gods were real. Would he get to meet Zeus or Quetzalcoatl next?
“Let us not waste any more time then” said Lstpaladin as he threw everything in the trash with his own hands, he then moved back to the table where he sat once more and was joined quickly by Patrick.
“What is the matter boy?” Lstpaladin asked. When Patrick was finally able to conceive his words they surprised the god of thunder. “Nothing….Is just that you knowing how to throw out trash so naturally. I know this is stupid but…do gods really make trash like us?”
The god simply smiled and answered with a laugh. “Of course the gods create trash. Not everything we do is big and beautiful and perfect, otherwise how could we really appreciate the things that are? If everything is perfect then nothing is.”
Then Lstpaladin paused for a moment as if he had caught himself in his own thoughts. “I believe that it was Thor who many centuries ago joked that our trash reincarnated as the human on Midgard all to Odin’s anger”.
Lstpaladin smiled once again and looked right into Patrick’s eyes. “I mention what Thor said because strangely enough he reminds me of my dear friend Nighthunter, if only because of how different they are.”
“Thor was a god; powerful like many skyfathers of other pantheons and arrogant as only he could be. It was his lack of humbleness that made Odin turn him into a mere man. In parallel, Nighthunter was a mere human, not even one with powers and thanks to his will and humility was turned into a god by Odin himself.
You probably didn’t know about it, but there was a war in heaven and evil almost won. Gambler united an army of villains and made them march against Asgards. Gods vs Men and somehow the mortals almost gained victory, some could that they indeed obtained it.
Many of my Asgardian brothers fought valiantly and were accepted in Valhalla because of that; among them were some of the most powerful and bravest of us. Tyr, Balder, the Warrior three, Heimdall, all of them fell leading to Thor, Loki and Odin to reign the ashes of Asgard.
The destruction and casualties were many and the resentment that Thor had for his father for his inaction during the conflict was evident. “Odin could have stopped this from happening.” Thor whispered to himself every night as he looked into the ruins that were where Asgard once stood.
Loki as always found opportunity in the suffering of others and manipulated the god of thunder to betray his father and fight for the honor to rule Asgard. The fight was an spectacle beyond anything that men could conceive but Odin was still the most powerful of the two, with tears coming from his only eye Odin finally slaughtered Thor.
Loki then made his last move, using an army of Frost Giants, the hordes of his daughter Hela and his recently freed son, the wolf-like beast known as Fenrir. He attacked his father who after his fight with Thor wasn’t at his prime.
Knowing well that he would lose this battle; Odin summoned both me and Nighthunter to his aid. I was the adopted son of Din in many ways and Nighthunter had been one of the heroes that protected Asgard by using the sword of Tyr which he still retained and riding Fenrir who probably was mad about that.
The rest of the Asgardians soon joined the fight and remained loyal to Odin. Yet another war in heaven started and had made all of Earth crumble in fear of the outcome. I still do now know how in a fight full of deities it was the single human who fought better than all of them and was the one of the few that survived till almost the end of the conflict. No, that’s not right. I know exactly why Nighthunter was able to do what he did, because he had been doing that his whole life. I remember that once when we were hanging out in the dragons island that Nighthunter told me that when he looked at guys like me, Kurrent, Hawk, Nova, Sha, Eclipse, Precise, etc. he couldn’t help but to think that everything we touch, everything we do turns into myth.
What neither of us had realized then was that he, a mere human, had been able to accomplish the same feat. I guess that when you play with the gods so long you end up becoming one of them without knowing.
Anyway, the main fight had turned into Hela and Fenrir against Nighthunter and me while Loki and Odin fought somewhere else to determine who would rule.
I eventually defeated Hela and then continued to fight the legion of the dead she had summoned; I however failed to take into consideration that my friend wasn’t a real match for Fenrir on his own, twenty minutes passed before I realized this mistake and rushed to help my friend only to find a Fenrir that was about to bite Nighthunter’s head. In one swift move though, Nighthunter placed his arm in front of his attacker’s mouth to stop it momentarily, then with his other arm swung Tyr’s sword through the beast’s heart, killing him immediately and causing everyone there to stare in both respect and fear. One man had murdered a god, the age of change had arrived for Asgard. The hostilities ceased and the war was now over.
However, Nighthunter then fell to the ground in pain and with great fever, the bite of the wolf had been able to poison him. No one there was more surprised than me, I guess, that it was because he worked so hard to earn everyone’s respect for so long that in the end we all forgot he was mere meat and bone.
Odin, in respect for the warrior that had come to his aid did what he had never done before and made the spirit of Nighthunter become the newest god of our pantheon, the god of courage.
Asgard is still being rebuilt and Loki still schemes in secret but Nighthunter and I are working together to try to bring a new golden age to the realm.
Part 10 : Twisted reflection
The god of thunder had now departed in the form of a lightning, just like he had arrived in the first place and this series of bizarre interviews was finally over, time for Patrick to return to normality.
However as the writer got ready to leave another stranger suddenly arrived and sat in front of him. That man was tall, had brunette hair and for some reason used crimson eye-glasses. “Mr. Hamilton I was wishing that you would be willing to do one more interview.”
“I knew Nighthunter, better than anyone. If you want to know what really happened to him you must hear me.” The interest was now officially picked and he couldn’t say no to the stranger, he still had after all an entire life to be an ordinary man ahead of him.
What happened to Nighthunter is exactly what the world happened, there was a big fight between him and King Hyperion and he died. That was the finale, nothing else. Sometimes things are exactly what they appear to be.
(But he came back! The whole world saw it on TV)
You saw what you were told to see, like I said sometimes things are what they pretend to be but most of the time they aren’t. The ICE Dragons had lost Andferne but regained Nighthunter so at the very least things were grey for them. They had various missions together and Nighthunter even became the leader of the team for awhile.
Things had finally started to turn up for the better for them but Nighthunter carried more secrets than even he knew. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a man known as Mr. Sinister but he was my greatest nemesis and the one who through it all was always there to give me new ways of tormenting.
One day he decided to attack the headquarters of the ICE Dragons he then used an army of clones of heroes and villains to try to take over the island. As the battle progressed the dragons proved once again that they exceeded by far anything that evil could throw at them and so it was that Mr. Sinister used his secret weapon against the team to destroy them. You see, Nighthunter never gave an explanation of how he came to life, how he survived an explosion that was powerful enough to kill King Hyperion, the answer was that he didn’t. He finally found a death scenario from which he couldn’t get out of and he finally had a warrior’s death.
Mr. Sinister however knew that many others had returned of the dead and that we would easily believe that Nighthunter had done it too and so he was able to do the perfect cloning of Nighthunter and made Chaos Agent find him and bring him back to the world.
No one ever asked him how he came back from the dead, they didn’t have to, their friend was back and that was all that mattered. Mr. Sinister then made the clone Nighthunter turn against his teammates, the rage that they felt at the realization that they had been played with was way too much to let them keep their minds focused.
I always found it funny that out of all the clones that Mr. Sinister did it was Andferne’s which turned against him due to it not working right or maybe because Mr. Sinister had done it too well.
So one last fight between Andferne and Nighthunter started and even though those two clones weren’t really who they pretended to be the passion, skill and epicness of that fight was as great as the ones that came before. It were Hawk and Precise who finally beat Mr. Sinister, while all of the others took care of the clones that plagues their home. In the end the only ones remaining fighting were the clones of Andferne and Nighthunter.
Upon Lstpaladin’s arrival, he couldn’t help but to feel disgusted at what he believed was a mockery of two of his best friends and it was with his lightning that he put an end to the fight with an unknown winner as both of them were mere ashes now.
“That’s what happened to Nighthunter” said thee mysterious man and then got up from his chair and started walking towards the door. “Wait a second!” yelled Patrick as he rushed to the door with him.
“You haven’t told me your name yet, what is a good story worth for if I don’t know who to quote?” joked the writer as he held the door open. The stranger simly smiled, turned to Patrick and offered him a handshake.
“Andy Summers” he finally said and then kept going. It took Patrick until entering back into the coffee shop to realize who he had just talked to, upon doing so he rushed once again outside to ask for an autograph but the man was long gone now.
“I met freaking Andferne and didn’t even realize so” he whispered completely mad at himself, then a second realization came for him; he turned around but couldn’t see anyone. “Isn’t Andferne dead?”
“I would have heard in the news if he wasn’t….” he whispered and then entered the coffee shop once more.
Epilogue
The madness of the last couple of days was finally over and Patrick was now waiting nervously outside the office of his editor. He knew that there was no way that the company would go ahead with publishing his book; if Patrick didn’t believe the stories there was no way that the editor or the reader would believe them either.
Suddenly the door opened and the face of the editor emerged from the room. “Patrick! Come in son!” he requested anxiously to his employee who was confused for having such a warm welcome from him.
“Excellent material the one you sent to me! It has been already fast tracked by the company to be released in two weeks.”
Patrick couldn’t hide his puzzled face from his editor and so he finally asked. “What’s the matter boy? We are talking about new York times best seller stuff here. Grow a smile for god’s sake!”
“Its just that…The stories don’t make any sense. They conflict with each other, many conflict with the timelines of things that we know that happened and others…Well they just don’t make any freaking sense!”
The editor simply smiled, leaned back and turned on a cigarette. “Of course they don’t. They are imaginary stories, all of the best stories are imaginary ones.”
Confused even more now by the words of his editor Patrick became frustrated. “But what about the truth? The real story?”
“Leave that to the newspapers, thing is that no one knows whatever happened to Nighthunter. He may be out there playing Bingo for all we know but no one cares about that. The stories that were told to you are far more interesting that anything that could have really happened.”
He took a shot of his cigar and then continued. “Most of the greatest characters in fiction don’t have a finite ending, because people love to do their own interpretations of how things played out after the story they know. They want to think these characters went on forever and there is nothing to tell them they didn’t, even if they know that isn’t possible.”
The editor then picked Patrick’s draft and showed it to him. “Reality is for those who haven’t gotten bored by it yet.”
The conversation between the two of them went on for half an hour until Patrick received a premature hardcover copy of his book by his editor and left. Patrick walked on the street without knowing how he really felt about the situation, it was this confusion that made him bump with a man and make all of their things fall to the ground.
“My fault.” Patrick apologized as he started to gather all of his things from the floor. “Don’t worry man, let me help you.” said the stranger and then he too was assembling the fallen things of the stranger.
“Whatever happened to the last Nighthunter” Said the stranger, when Patrick turned confused he realized that the man was holding the book. “I guess we’ll never know. Maybe he’ll just pop up one day during a big crisis and say to his friends and enemies. “Sorry, lost the notion of time because life got in the way.” He joked and both him and Patrick laughed.
“Patrick Hamilton…Is that you?” The writer simply nodded in agreement. “Guess we may be related somehow but probably not.” Said the stranger as he gave the man a handshake and his book back. “My name is Jake, nice to meet you” and then he left.
Patrick continued walking but one question kept popping upon his head. “Jake Hamilton? Why does that name sound so familiar?”
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