The Monarch Reigns issue#1(closed for Sinister Spiders)

[BarbarianTaco]

Adrian Yvonikeivg stood in the very midst of downtown near the massive park that the lofty city known as the true center of the world. Unlike Washington, DC here commerce, fashion, culture, and tradition mingled and thrived before it spread to the rest of the world. Here he called forth his mystical might that sent him levitating above the plebes of the city.

Once aloft and towering over the street he summoned his armor. Yes, a miracle of modern science and mixed with a bit of mystical know how Adrian became the devastating villain known as The Monarch. As the Monarch the billionaire tech mogul would seek to change the world for the better, using his brilliant intellect to forge a new order that would take the Earth and its people to new heights. Ones that he knew would change the world over and over. In fact, he knew deep down that his dreams would see the world powerful enough to stave off the incursions of extraterrestrial threats and make Superhumans as the only line of defense obsolete.

Still, he would need to get his plan going, and Central Park was the place to get his regime started. He had earlier paid some less than savory individuals to place his small devices about the park, with them he would construct a photonic shield that he would control. Within the shield, he would have his suit and magic amplified to summon the beings necessary to defeat his enemies. First, he would need to get their attention. Especially since he had a date to keep.

So without further delay, he raised his arms over his head and blasted at a few of the cars languidly moving down the lanes. He chose to knock them around, not actually flip them or make them explode. As that happened he pulled forth the power cell he had created for use of his company. One that he knew could change the world as did several others. they did not, however, think it worthy for mass production or use. This would show the world differently. With the Monarch stealing it to fuel his most recent hi-tech gadget he would sell millions!

He laughed as he overrode the cities television and broadband signals to deliver his speech. "People of the famed city of New York, I THE MONARCH have come to challenge your defenders in attempts to show you all once and for all that your heroes do nothing more than give you false hope. Embrace your destiny and accept Me THE MONARCH!!! as your one true ruler and all shall be well, No poverty, no famine, no war!If not then so be it. For I shall raze this city to the GROUND!"

Was all the speech he had to offer as he began to float over the park. He lowered to right over the center and slowly began to chat as he remotely turned on the energy collecting devices to empower him more. As he did a series of rifts opened causing strange creatures to come forth ready to carry out his will. He hoped that soon the Heroes would arrive and he would get his revenge on them.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

All was calm in the mind of Cloe Pereira.

She sat on the bare grass her hands combed into the long, luscious emerald blades, the smooth skin on her legs tickled by the natural coolness of it. She could feel the heartbeat of the land; a steady boom, boom, boom. She felt its resounding staccato deep in her very bones. Deeper even. She felt it with every single fibre of her being. Her long, wavy emerald hair fluttered in a none-existant breeze, the vines and leaves wound into it whispering with delight.

Cloe sent out the essence of her mind; she felt her mind leaving, exploring, stretching out from her fingers to where she was connected with the earth. She took in the pulse, the breath, the resonance of life beyond her private garden. All was well.

At least, it was.

There was something there. Some sort of disturbance. She could feel the cries of pain from here, the death of some nature caused by something sinister. They were small, barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things, but in her spirit's eye she could sense the location. She could sense the shape. She could tell it was no natural thing. The disturbance was not part of the natural order, it was something more, it was-

"Natura! Come quick!" The creaky hinged gate to her garden flew open and she looked up to see Phantasm standing in the archway, bent over at his waist and panting. Cloe's earthy brown eyes snapped open and she looked up, seeing his silver orbs settle on her- on her natural, naked state- and he blushed a deep grey.

"Let me guess-" Cloe said in a soft voice, her lush red lips quirking in a bright smile, "Disturbance in Cenrtal Park. Parts of it have been torn asunder, rifts open, unnatural connections to something... other?" She asked.

"Yes," Phantasm said, looking a little crestfallen. Cloe's melodic laughter chimed through the open space and he gave her a wry smile. "But I bet you don't know who it is!" He added with a challenge.

"Oh, I'm sure I can guess..." Cloe said, striding towards him so they could get the team together and nullify the threat. Of course it had to be this evening that evil decided to strike, the very evening she had other plans.

~*~

After Cloe left her haven it there was a whirlwind of activity. In next to no time she and the other Sentinels were dropped right in the heart of New York City. As soon as they had flown in they could see the disturbance; the rifts that Cloe had sensed shone with unnatural light, and Monarch flew high above all of the chaos. The sound of the news reports echoed through the cities; from big screens, from radios, from people's own personal devices. It was everywhere.

Cloe and the others were in full battle gear now. Her own armour wreathed around her body like a second skin; it was made up of barks and vines and mosses, making her look like a dryad of old. Beneath the armor her skin was covered in green pigmeneted marking, the image of swirling vines and flowers adorning her. To her left stood Phantasm, in fully phased mode. He shone where the light touched him, his translucent grey skin soaking all of the warmth from the air around him. To her right was Samaritan; a buxom blonde bombshell with an inhuman strength that matched her forceful personality.


Cloe, known to the world and her colleagues as Natura, called on the winds around her. In a gust of leaves and a sprinkling of stray soil she and her fellow Sentinals rose up into the air, well above Central Park. Higer and higher until they were the same altitude as Monarch.

"I'm afraid you are wrong," Natura called out, her long green locks streaming behind her dramatically. "There will be no razing here this day!"

 

[BarbarianTaco]

The Monarch floated in the air and looked at the ensemble of heroes known to the precious and coddled New Yorkers as The Sentinels. It was a pathetic band who sought to defend a city from villainy and crime when ninety percent of the time the sole perpetrators come here specifically to defeat the very defenders of the city.

What was worse was the fact they thought that he was a villain. It was absurd to think that when clearly he was the one seeking to save humanity from its own short sighted nature and usher it into a new golden age under his rule. Unfortunately for him, like most visionaries, the world seemed to not accept the truths of such a prophetic and brilliant mind. No, they shunned him and ridiculed him so much that he would rise above the pettiness and forge a new path, one that offered him wealth and status but even then his dream would not come until there was unity. So he would Defy all that would stand in the way of his idea Thus he stood aloft in his high tech suit awaiting his enemies to surrender and bring forth the change he sought to usher a new age.

With Natura issuing her statement he smiled and answered her." So does that mean the Mighty Sentinels' have come to their senses and agreed to let me bring peace and harmony to the world, or is it more of the Same old war, Us trading blows and you leaving no more enlightened than the last encounter?" He asked as he let the power build in his gauntlets his energy both arcane and zero point held in check until he was rushed.

Monarch had been here before, The Samaritan would rush in first, with a blast to her chin would alter her enough off course to tumble into the horde of monsters below who would then grapple and claw at her. It would deter her for a moment. The Phantasm would try his hand at phasing, but his enchantment would send several paralyzing bolts of energy at him for even trying such a maneuver. Lastly, if memory severed him right Natura would throw plant after plant at him, trying to bind him or pierce him. She also would call some creatures to aid her. In the end, he would out maneuver her and use her power against her.

While he fought they would feed the field generating more portals to open and more creatures to flood in. It would also grant him more elaborate scans of the team member to gain secrets later to crush them. Preferably with specific robots keyed against their powers eliminating the first wave of heroes. It would take no longer than 30 minutes to do this before he would switch himself with an android version of himself. He did have a date and did not want to be late because of cherubic idoits playing dress-up just because they have some deluded sense of duty due to their inherent power.

" Come now I don't have all night, Is it surrender or must I assume that this once again is a fight?"He demanded growing irritated at the compiled force and scoffed. He wished the nonpowered Fox would be there to make things more interesting, or the cosmic hero Galant. Instead his biggest threat was Natura, as she could if she willed it bind him in so much trees and grass that he could not move. He doubted she knew her power was that strong but why tell her when she obviously wasn't ready.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

"So opt to show your benevolence by throwing around cars, taking over the media, and terrifying innocent lives? You must realise how illogical that is!" Natura called out over the sounds of screaming from below. She sent her consciousness deep inside herself, the air around her and her colleagues swirling with thick, potent natural power now. "Stop your self-aggrandizing tirade before it becomes the end of you!"

Below her, Natura sensed the things coming out of the rift. Those things that were made with parts of this earth but were not of this earth. They were not of anything good or natural. They were abominations that would need to be eradicated before they hurt people.

Natura reached inside herself, tugged at that part of her soul that was intimately connected with the world around them. She called forth a flock of Andean condors. Five large birds then burst forth from her outstretched hands and soared towards Monarch. They were made of the very essence of the creatures; real in every way except physical presence. They could attack and they looked real, but when they were hit enough times to kill an ordinary member of their species they would disappear rather than die.

As the five birds flapped gracefully towards The Monarch, their sharp beaks and hard crests glinting in the sunlight. As the birds distracted their foe, Samaratin would fly in to meet him head on while Phantasm changed tactics and started to build a plasma cage around the action.

On the ground Galant, Fox, Quickstep and Nostradamus would make for the rifts. They would battle the abominations coming from down there as Natura sought to disrupt the abhorrent connection that the Monarch was channelling.

 

[BarbarianTaco]

Adrian chuckled through his armor as he watched the aligned heroes begin their plan to combat him. These powers would fuel his machines breaching the dimension that brought forth more of these creatures. He had promised them a fight to rival any they had previously had, all the while he was using the energies amassed from the machines and the dimension. These all would play into a spell he was gonna cast, one which would aid in him switching places with a robotic duplicate and store this energy in his energy vault to power a whole different plan, one that he would use to take over the World. Right now it was just him toying with the heroes to get them to play as unwitting pawns in his plan.

Still, they surprised him. The birds flew at him trying to feebly tear at his suit, only to then get hit hard by the likes on one blonde with little brains. Thankfully the armor took most of the hit as he barely got his shield up in time to absorb the blow. He was pushed back his thrusters barely winking out and back on but enough to send him a good twenty feet back. That was not part of his plan, but sadly he never added physical attacks to his plans as he hated physical confrontation.

"Good shot, and nice tactic, but I have one of my own!" He extended his right and left hands one to Samaritan one to the pesky Phantasm who seemed to be doing something. He called out some archaic words and sent powerful reddish blue bolts of arcane energy that sped quickly to their targets. when they hit a small explosion wracked not only their physical form but their mind and soul. After that, he looked to Natura and laughed.

" Now my dear Natura I will have to give you something far more dangerous than a mere soul lance, No for you I think I will have fun," He said as he began to roll archaic words from his lips as he did two rifts formed one began to open beneath her. The one beneath her sparkled like the night sky but smelt of sulfur and methane. As for his, it seemed stone-backed. As he worked the magic he noticed his unwitting servants getting trounced by the combined efforts of the heroes. As he finished he snapped his fingers. The Monarch switched with his robot and rested in his secret lair ready to change clothes and head to his date. When his robot was destroyed the gates would close.

As for the other gate, the one below Natura out came bulbous headed monsters with tentacled mouths and tiny bat wings on the sides of their face. Goat eyes stared at the woman before them the gate snapped shut after five managed to scurry out leaving thousands of other creatures trapped. They shrilled in glee as they began to surround her talking in an incoherent babbling that was gobbling, bleating and other strange animal noises. They would come to take her and rip her apart!

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Natura's birds disappeared after they had taken enough hits, and she felt the lost of their soul-presence keenly. But their sacrifice had been enough to buy her time, to help her seek out the deepest roots of the plants in the park below, the ones that belonged to the trees and shrubs nearest to the rifts. She concentrated on feeding them, nourishing them, subtly drawing them towards the broken earth around the rifts-

But then Monarch knocked Phantasm and Samaritan off kilter- Natura had to divert her attention enough to ensure her colleagues were safe, albeit a bit worse for wear. Then the ground beneath her collapsed in on itself and a netherworld of sulphur and methane opened up and threatened to draw her in. Natura put everything into her channelling, the roots under the ground once more working hard enough to have them racing towards the edges of all of the rifts. She then saw the beast coming out from the rift and a sense of utter repulsion roiled through her.

"You twist the very essence nature to your perverted purposes- you will never, ever be allowed to reign!" Natura cried out, pushing her energy out in a hard pulse. The force of it pushed the tentacled, bat-winged creatre away from her as the roots neared the portals. She held them there, her teeth clenched with the strain.

Then she felt it.

Nostradamus had taken hold of one of the rifts with his power. She helped him, giving the roots around it a push and filling the hole with a plug of nature and magic that closed it. She moved on from that one to the next and to the next, each one becoming easier with practice but harder as she had to dodge the abomination beneath her. Quicksilver moved below to help her engage while Samaritan and Phantasm kept Moncarch busy.

 

[BarbarianTaco]

Adrain paused as he watched the events unfold form his secret location. His view was spectacular and his monitors also monitored the energy collectors which showed that they were near maximum capacity. Soon he would have a descent supply for his true plan. As he watched the heroes fight his summoned creatures and his robotic doppleganger, his watch beeped and looking at it he noted it was a half hour until his date.

Resigned to the fact he would have to skip some of the highlights he walked away form the monitors and let his robotic servents begin to undress him. It was a long and complicated task but they were programmed to do it as fast as possibly without hurting him. With in 15 minutes his body was naked and looking on at the heroes still struggling. He sighed and walked over to the monitors and a key board.

On the keyboard he typed in some codes and quickly his array fell to waht seemed to be the efforts of one of the heroes. Then the summoned creatures screamed as thier portals began to collapse leaving them stranded and at the mercy of the gathered might these pathetic heroes thought where well helping.

With an orchastrated series of maneuvers he managed to get the power transfered form his collectors to his towers energy vault. After that he had them crackle pop and fissle, the insides melted leaving only the core. All that was left was for the heroes to capture the Monarch doudle and that would be the end of phase one.

As he chuckled he fastned his cufflinks as the robots dressed him while he was doing his coding. He would have to remember to see if he could maybe give one of these too his lovley date later in the relationship. They did excellent work and witht he right programming could make an outfit out of whatever was lying about. THe programming would have to expand as woman had far more options in there closet then men.

Adrain grabbed his suit coat and smiled as he was too go and meet the delightful and beautiful Ms.Cloe Pereira at Davos Towers, there he would get them a table at Le Serq and hopefully wine and dine her. It would be hard to hide his charm and welath but he doubted she did not already know his reputation both the good and the bad. He would however point out to himself that she did not and would not know his true self the one who had just used the supposed heroes for his own diabolical ends.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The fight seemed to be going well until Natura and the other heroes finished off the Monarch. Well, at least what they thought was the Monarch. They couldn't quite be sure when he left and this strange, machine of a core was left for them. They all swore under their breath, knowing instantly that this had been a ruse, but not knowing what for. It seemed that their enemy was always one step ahead.

The team retired to their headquarters to debrief. Natura ran it as she always did, but Samaritan stepped in.

"You have other places to be," Samaritan said with a knowing smile. Natura paused for a moment, and then it dawned on her. Her date with Adrian!

Natura thanked Samaritan profusely before making for her greenhouse with haste. She bathed in the rock pool she had in there, washing off the grime of the fight, before dressing quickly. Her skin itched and prickled as she pulled on the fancy gown. It was an annoying part of blending in that she had to wear manufactured clothes. This one was made from particularly delicate, naturally made silk, but it was still not her preferred attire. And the shoes- well, she reasoned it would all be worthwhile to see Adrian again.

~*~

Thankfully Natura was only running fifteen minutes late when she stepped into Le Serq. She looked around the fully booked and classy restaurant as the attendant stepped up and asked for her name. She gave it and then he pointed over to the classy bar, where Adrian was standing. She let out a sign of relief as she walked over.

"Sorry I'm late," she said as she approached him, one hand cupping his elbow as she leaned in and placed a greeting kiss on either cheek.