Victor, the Great

The lighting in his room was poor. There was an eerie feel about it, much enhanced by the yellow glow that illuminated various relics and bizarre artifacts scattered all over the crowded workbenches. I took a reluctant step through the open door. His wide shoulders were hunched over some new kind of techmaturgy. He was the kind of man to always keep his hands busy with something, a fact that had always made me wonder how he managed to keep his thoughts busy as well. When we were young he used to say he was never good at multi-tasking. I cleared my throat, announcing my entrance. He did not seem to notice at first. When I advanced another step into his room he turned around sharply, clearly taken by surprise.

"Uh...Vic, I....." I muttered. To be honest I had not really come up with something to say. I just wanted to check on him after last night's events. I could feel his puzzled glare behind the steel-hard expression on his mask. "I just...wanted to talk." I hardly breathed out. For a moment I could swear the third eye on his mask blinked with his own. He pushed himself away from the bench and turned around, still sitting. "Um...How've you been?" I slightly pursed my lips. His fists clenched slowly.

"I am afraid you need to refrase that. I have been since my very birth and I could never hold information from back then."

I could tell his shields were up every time he did that. "Well, to specify, how have you been today?" I asked, smiling lightly. It was a delight to know he was still easy to read.

"I have had better days." he replied, failing to conceal the bitterness in his voice. I lowered my head, fidgeting lightly.

"Vic, I..."

"Anna, there was nothing you could do. Do not apologise to me. Yesterday was my failure, not yours."

"But Vic,"

"I played a thousand lives and lost. I am sorry, yes. I am sorry we're not ready to face them yet."

I raised a brow. "Is that all you're sorry for?" The words escaped my lips before I could restrain myself. Victor's brown eyes pierced through the hollow mask sockets and straight through my head.

"Yes." he replied coldly. I stood there, feeling my heart shatter to pieces.


Three years after the Great Demise, we had finally fought every trace of Invaders left and Victor had rose to the peek of his glory. And I, the fool, would think he was still as humanitarian as before. With his rise followed the expansion of technological miracles that three years ago were considered science fiction. And yet Victor's brilliant mid breathed life into man's greatest ambitions, including his own.

A week ago West Coast authorities discovered a substance that looked alien in a crime scene. Labs concluded it was in fact a material strange to our planet. Victor instantly started working on what he called "Beam 3.0", a sort of laser-shield that once charged could shield and entire city from external horrors. Beam was ready in a week, much earlier that it should have been. Yesterday a thousand people stood in a circle beneath Beam as Victor openly tested his new device. But when they were bombarded by the army the missiles eventually distorted the shield and went right through. A thousand people lost their lives and nobody knew who was to blame. They had all signed forms that stated they took the risk in their own responsibility but the masses were greatly displeased with Victor, along with soldiers who had been in charge of the shooting. He had 'made' them murder innocent civillains.

To hear that, after all the havoc he wrecked, he was just sorry his invention wasn't complete destroyed every plan I had to shelter and comfort him. Sentiment flew out of me and right through his open window. A light flickered. I pursed my lips and nodded slowly before turning around.

"Anna." Victor halted me. Unless he had read my thoughts it was impossible for him to know how badly he'd disappointed me right then.


"A thousand died to save a million. There's so many people and hence people will die, people are expendable, replacable. Scientists are not."


I clenched my fists.

"Are you saying we're your test subjects? Is this an experiment to you?"

"No. You are not. The masses are."

"You can't be serious."

"Why not? We used to test the small inventions on animals. Now we test the bigger ones on humans."

"That's not you talking."

"And who is it, then?" he chuckled. I couldn't know but I think he was smirking beneath his mask.

"Take that mask off."

"Anna, you're a smart girl. How..."

"Just snap out of it." I hissed, glancing at him one last time before storming out.

Drousy clouds. Vast fields of darkness, burdened with the past of a long-lost world. We stand speechless as the Earth freezes beneath us.
Speechless.
Helpless.
Hopeless.


We lived to see the world rise and fall. We should be thankful. We should seek our own way into a hostile future, rich in ice and disdain and denial. We caused this. We sought this out.

Defenders of Tomorrow, dressed from head to toe in diamond suits, unpenetratable, unbreakable. Their suits will last our missiles but they cannot touch us. We do not need a shield, our bare chest is our shield, we stand in line, we stand together and shield each other. We don't need suits. We don't need bullets. We only need our hearts.

We are the future. We will avenge our world. We will step on corpses to see OUR Nation rise. We are rebels. We are free.


Join the League of Avengers now, fight for your own future.


The tracts were out one day and the next they were gone. The army gathered all the brochures in an enormous pile and set them on fire in Square Victorianna. It was clear that the President was not willing to take any more 'rebels' in the capital and the whole incident was streamed by channels worldwide. He did not give interviews, he just called all of us Generals in his office and it became clear to us that today was the start of a new era.

The Death of Democracy, the Rise of Despotism.