The rise of the Celebero (a heros eye view of the world we live) All are welcome

New York City

Temporary Home of David Daark, Born on an alternate version of earth called Mariglenica where magic and sword and sorcery were more prevalent than technology and capes. During a final battle with his undying foe the Iscariot the planet was ripped asunder and David found himself on earth. Dazed and confused he ran into Nightkill who tried to take advantage of his confused state. But knowing evil David was not fooled and fought him to a draw.

After that David spent months trying to fit in amongst a world where heroes and villains fought and his friends and family no longer existed. He turned to the one thing he could do well….

Sell himself out….

This is…..

LIVING DAARK

Premieres

Thursday 10/9c

“New York City isn’t it glorious I admit it is not a patch on the city of Caledonia but what is in this world?” grinned David as he talked to the floating camera which followed him everywhere he went as he taped his show. He checked that his cloak was fastened and that his glorious Diamond sword was in its holder.

“Today folks I am going to show you the city and all that goes on from the eyes of the celebero and hopefully see if I can find some of the other local heroes and see if they fancy a team up stay tuned folks we’ll be right back!”

Ah, New York, the city that never sleeps, one of the greatest financial centers of the world, a never ending renaissance of art and entertainment, a center for learning, truly a shining jewl in the world, with its brightest point being the statue of liberty.

"Truly a perfect place to cause some random mayhem!" The Deceiver thought as he looked down upon the city streets in full costume. He was perched on one of the higher buildings, giving him a good view of the city. Deceiver had already committed a few White Collar crimes during his short stay in New York, misplaced shipments, stealing stocks from the New York Stock Exchange, a little bit of this and that, it was actually pretty amazing the type of crimes you can do legally.

But that had already started to bore him, besides, that was all pretty much just some measly entertainment for himself before his real target showed up. A certain shipment carrying a few particular valuables was on its way here and would be docking soon. Its contents were of particular interest to the Deceiver.

First however, a little bit of destruction to distract any heroes or do gooders hidden in the crowd would be nice, also perhaps to draw any other villains attention away from him, after all he did not want to have share any profits he could gain.

"COMBINE..." He said, rolling up one of his sleeves and revealing his control gauntlet "Prepare all units for deployment." He ordered, a grin appearing under the anonymity of his gas mask.

BlackOut crouched a top a building deep in the heart of downtown New York, he pulled his mask of his head brushed his hair out of his face as he felt a cool breeze sweep across his brow. Gazing down below he watched the streets for any sign of action. He marveled at how the whole city seemed to live and breath as he looked down upon it. The hustle and bustle of the city seemed to mesh together and become one living entity. As Black's eyes scanned across the sea of life below his eyes locked onto a peculiar hero in a cloak speaking into what looked like a floating camera.

Rolling his eyes and standing up, Black pushed his hair out of his face again and sighed. "A superhero reality show... I swear to god after I think I have seen everything." Pulling his mask back over his head Black continued to watch for any signs of trouble, taking his eyes off the cloaked hero and moving them back to the crowd of hurried New Yorkers that scurried around below him. "I better keep an eye out, I doubt superstar over there will be much of a help if anything does happen to go down" He said to himself chuckling and cracking a small grin underneath his mask.

David walked down the streets with his camera following behind him. It was a pretty quiet day except for occasionally spoting some minor crime and stamping it out pretty quick. "What I would give for a major threat instead of saving cats and stopping minor mooks,"

He continued to walk down the road but couldn't shake the fact he was being followed

"Gang it seems I may have a tail on me...I hope its a villian my Diamond sword is dying for some proper action!"

Deceiver had pulled out some binoculars and was viewing the so called Knight that was strolling through city, with all the cameras following him it looked like he was hosting some type of T.V show. "Oh yes, Living Daark! I heard that show is predicted to get good ratings!"He remarked. Deceiver rolled up his sleeve and pulled out his control gauntlet, watching the shifting characters, statistics, and streams of data all form into neat little codes and strategies. Everything was going as planned.

"Now my good friend Daark..." Deceiver silently said to himself. "Let this little dance of ours..."

---

As Daark and his camera entourage waltz their way down the street they happened upon a rather spacious abandoned store, it's windows where completely darkened, hiding it's interior, but the large "For Sale" sign and the disheveled look that suggested disrepair confirmed it. Though truthfully, the store was not as vacant as one would think, if one looked closely, several box like shapes could be seen inside.

Inside the stores dark interior, a rather loud whirring sound could be heard as several humanoid shapes began to unfold from their dormant forms, gleaming red electronic eyes began to shine in the darkness as the mechs locked on to their target... Daark. Hunching over, the MKII mechs brought up a slew of plasma weaponry while the MKI prepared to pounce when they were done firing...

---

*SHRING*

The sound of glass breaking and molten plasma flying through the air could be heard as the abandoned stores door and windows suddenly blew open, bolts of molten plasma shot out from the darkness, illuminating the robotic figures as they fired.

"Phase 1 commencing Mr. Mordicai." COMBINE said to the Deceiver back atop the building. Deceiver had fine view of the battle proceeding down below, which he eyes with amused interest. All in all he could care less weather the mechs succeeded in killing the heroes or not, it was simply a very small variable in a larger plan.

"What on Mariglenica?" shouted Daark as the attack began

He pulled out his sword and looked at the camera "Now watch as I take these unknown foes down, this is what happens you are Living Daark!"

He then began to charge at the mysterious figures dodging each and every attack until one of them actually striuck him in the shoulder. The pain was immense he cried out something would likely be cut in the broadcast but within seconds it had healed itself and he continued onwards hoping to strike

The day dragged on with nothing exciting to report, Black reverted to silently tailing the television "Star" on the buildings above. He was very intrigued, he had to admit that it was very entertaining. Black watched the hero thwarting some minor disturbances, but he began to become very uneasy. He got the feeling that someone else was watching as he was, and their intentions were not as pure as his.

Turning side to side Black tried to find the source of this uneasy feeling in his gut, but no one was around. "Maybe I'm just getting restless" he thought to himself. None the less he began to creep up closer to the cloaked hero below, he could not shake this feeling that something was coming... something bad. Black moved even closer and was now standing on the building directly above the hero waiting.

The monotonous noise of a peaceful city was then broken by the loud shattering of glass down below. "Showtime" and with that Black was off. Diving from his perch far above the street Black flew swiftly to the ground landing beside the cloaked hero as he was charging the mysterious assailants in the shadowed store front. "Need some help superstar" said Black smiling and joining the hero, as he unleashed a destructive wave of electricity toward the store front and their attackers.

"Thank you very much, the names David Daark your help is much appreciated!" grinned Daark as he struck his sword in the direction of one of the mysterious antagonists.4

The camera continued to follow Daark and also looked in the direction of the new hero as the action continued on.

It was not long before Daark blade had struck true as he charged into his mysterious attacker, the dust and smoke began to clear up, revealing their attackers where in fact robotic humanoid machines. BlackOut's electrical attack was notably effective as the robots where momentarily stunned, giving Daark and BlackOut plenty of openings to attack before their backup systems and surge protectors kicked in.

Despite the hits they took however some of the robots that were not caught in the electrical attack began to retaliate. A quick Mark I mech suddenly dropped down from the ceiling, claws bared and trying to sneak attack Daark from above, several others appeared from the shadows and attempted to gut the heroic nuisance, while a couple Mark II that had recover faster than the others brought their plasma cannons to bare and launched streams of ionized gas at Black Out.

---

"Mr. Mordicai, the shipment will be arriving soon." COMBINE said in a calm and respectful tone. "Good" Deceiver replied "Have division two start moving to "Pick up our package." He ordered while fiddling with his control gauntlet.

"Shall we begin moving as well sir?" The A.I inquired.

"Nah... We still have time; besides, I want to watch this fight a little bit longer. COMBINE, you are gathering all the data we need yes?"

"Of course sir."

"Good."

BlackOut watched as the smoke cleared and the attackers came into view, it look a handful of military grade mechs. The ones that had been hit by his attacked seemed to have shorted out, the others began to counter attack. One dropped down behind Daark who he was preoccupied with other mechs. Black was about to take care it with another electrical blast as he was fired upon by two much heavier mechs. Black leaped up avoiding the projectiles narrowly, he landed gracefully a few feet closer to his enemies than he was before. Black fired two separate blast at his two attackers putting more energy behind the blasts than his last attack. Something in his gut still pulled him though, robots just don't come out of nowhere. Something else is going on, but he would have to take care of the threat at hand first.

Daark thanked the many gods of Mariglenica that his new ally was here. If he wasn't it wasn't likely that he would survive this battle. He continued to attack the robots that Blackouts electrical attacks shorted out but unfortunately was taken by surprise by the robots behind him.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed as the robots clawed into him. Each attack caused a new gash in him and each gash caused him considerable pain before healing up. At the rate the robots attacked there was no way his healing would last forever. He gritted his teeth and began swinging blindly hoping to take out as many as he could.

The small camera continued to follow every move

Jordan, or as the mail on his living room table says 'Benedict', sat upright with perfect posture, despite the warm comfortable leather chair his buttocks was attached to, field stripping a HK416 assault rifle with mechanical precision. He thoroughly cleaned and oiled all the working parts and reassembled it back together within a matter of seconds. As he snapped the last piece of the frame shut he quickly tapped the bottom hand button on his digital watch. How did he get these weapons, this was America. If you have the knowhow and some money you can pretty much get anything you want. Guns were used to increase his overall lethality. He only used them when big trouble was brewing and he had to finish a mission quickly, otherwise he reliied on himself. He walked to his bedroom inside his confined apartment and slid the weapon back into it's holding sheath under his bed. Casually he walked back out and into the kitchen area, openening the fridge he gladly took the milk carton, undone the lid and gulped down it's goodness.

Work had been boring again today but it was necessary in order to keep a low profile. You had to have money to do things. Unless you wanted to live in the wilderness, but how could he possibly fight crime on a big scale by living out in the sticks? Besides, that would give him even more of an unfair advantage. He smirked as he thought it through. He missed the military and the brothers he had made while serving. But he couldn't go back to the 'cloak and dagger' type operations they used to send him on. Most of the time they were just to wait and watch. And there was only so much suffering someone could watch before they snapped, well, anyone with a conscience that is.

The flatscreen television droned on, Jordan would always watch the news the second he got in from work, listening out for anything that could set him on his next personal mission. Another life to save maybe? Who knows? Microwaving his dinner he had pre-made at 4am that morning, he sat back down in front of the television and began to devour the heavy carbohydrate and high protien meal. He sighed, nothing had come up on the screen. 'Twenty four hour news my arse!' he thought and began to channel hop. As he did he landed on what he thought was a cheaply made, straight to t.v action film. As he finished his last mouthful he smirked, "Living DARRK? What the hell is this crap?". Only then did he suddenly realise it was streaming live. From what he could make out from the blurry and random shots, a battle was taking place downtown. He noticed what he thought were robots and a man fighting them off.

Jordan sat up straighter, was it even possible to have a posture like this? Somehow Jordan had managed it. He hopped the channel back over to the news. They now had live video feed coming in from a helicopter above the scene. Jordan was watching a massive street battle take place. He felt himself lift from the chair as his eagerness to go and fight suddenly lept from within his soul. But he moved no further. His mind had stopped him. Thinking tactically. "What if the governments see this? Wait a second, of course they'll see this....do I expose myself? As far as they know I'm nowhere to be found, I could be anywhere in the world.". He pondered these thoughts for a moment. Sitting back down he continued to watch and think about his options.

On the screen chaotic scenes were erupting around the battle area, people were scattering everywhere and the missed blasts from the machines were landing all over the street, blowing people apart and burning them into heaped ash. Jordan's blood boiled. This was clearly an attack of some kind. He knew with that firepower the police would be helpless. It would need military intervention to stop those machines and that wasn't exactly going to be arriving soon. Jordan stood tall and moved quickly to his front door. He then proceeded to quickly seal his door with the eight other locks he had installed and re-set the trip wire attached to a grenade by the door. Moving swiftly he went into his bedroom, the curtains were closed but it didnt matter anyway, the best view he got outside was a solid brick wall of the next apartment block to his. He pulled out a sealed locker from underneath his bed and proceeded to take off the locks.

Some had combinations and others had codes. The last one was a code for the locker itself. He punched it in quickly and the box unlocked. Jordan removed one of his suits and quickly began to put it on as fast as he could. Sealing it all completely tight the armour plating that encased his body felt like home again. He flexed his limbs and put his helmet mask back on. The tight fitted armour plating went over well and his look was always more of a menace than the typical 'hero' types you saw in comic books. He closed the locker and then opened another one. When preparing he was constantly regulating his hearing. If someone was coming up the stairs which was all the way down the other end of his hall, he would hear them no matter how quiet they were.

Inside the box were telescopic fighting staffs, short blades for fighting and throwing and additional stun grenades. The blades were made from titanium and like his suit, the fighting staffs were made from a titanium-kevlar composite material which could withstand a great deal of punishment and pressure. Freerunner packs two of those, six stun grenades and an assortment of fighting daggers. These were all matte-black as not to compromise on stealth so there was no reflection. He closed the box, relocked both of the boxes and pushed them back underneath. He questioned himself as to whether he should take rifles. No, they were for serious engagements and despite his thorough professional training, there was still always a risk of innocent people getting caught up. He banished the thought of taking guns and moved on, turning off his apartment lights as he did so.

His armour plated fingers touched the up-armoured window locks he had installed. They unlocked them and then proceeded to slide open the window. His room was sixty floors up so at night, and with his stealth, the chance of him being seen by a drunkard or someone going to the back alley was very slim. Still, he never took those chances when leaving his current residence. He eased his head out of the window and scanned down the alley and then up the building above him. Nothing. Freerunner quickly slipped out the window in a cat-like motion and slid it shut. Holding onto the window ledge he pushed off of the wall onto the adjacent building which was only ten meters apart. His right foot landed first on the wall and he pushed off again, repeating the process with his left foot until he was rapidly to the top of the hundred floor buildings within a few seconds.

Landing on the roof he set off at an incredible speed, lifting off of the roof he jumped to the next and the next and so on. Stopping after covering twenty or more buildings to check his surroundings at that he wasn't being followed. His stopping place was always tactically thought out. Never too bright, never too exposed. Ideally they were always dark with lots of exits. Carefully tuning his hearing he followed the sounds to the battle until he was eventually only a few streets away. The smell of burnt steel and debris fouled the air and he was only too aware of this. Freerunner moved quickly. He lept onto an overlooking building that was already shaking from the battle that had begun. Laying down on the rooftop he could see the Mecha's firing a salvo or projectiles at their targets who were madly dashing out of the way and continuing on with their valiant efforts to destroy the machines. If they weren't so outnumbered they would have easily defeated the first group of machines.

Freerunner couldn't watch this go on any longer. He attempted to scan the over looking buildings. Do these machines have support? Was someone or some thing controlling them? His concentration broke when the building violently shook. Freerunner could feel the very foundations shake. This building would come down soon. He turned his attention to the battle. From what he could make out, one of the men fighting had slowed down considerably and the other one was only just holding on trying to contain the situation. Freerunner stood, adjusted his feet and lept from the building, he turned his freefall into a spiralling leap making him a harder target to hit if he were to be seen.

He landed just behind the battle, it would have been foolish to land dead centre with all that crossfire going on. The ground shook as he landed in a crouched position, tarmac cracked and crumbled beneath his body. He instantly went into action, propelling himself forward landing a full right hook into one of the Mecha bodyworks, buckling the reinforced materials it was made of, revealing a set of complex circuitry. Freerunner followed up by snapping his left arm up and around the top half of the Mecha while turning his body away, dropping one knee down and pulling it over his shoulder. He slammed it top first into the buckling tarmac. The Mecha shorted out and it's internal components failed. One down, many more to go....

Thrusting himself forward some other's turned and fired at him. Freerunner ducked, rolled, dived and side stepped, all the while moving forward at an alaming rate. Again all around him moved with exaggerated slowness, his bodies reactions were in full swing. In his sight several more Robots seemed to slowly turn around, individual chucks of concrete, tarmac, shards of broken glass and debris from car's were flying slowing through the air, Freerunner remained focused, pulling his right fist back, he came up and under the Robot which was firing a huge cannon at him, he grabbed the cannon and forced it upwards, he slammed his rist fight straight through the centre of the robot and it fell to the deck, a lifeless heap of scrap. Suddenly everything seemed to speed up once again. Frerunner unsheathed one of his telescopic fighting staffs and extended it out to it's full seven feet length. He swept low and spun in a three hundred and sixty degress circle, taking the machines in the sweep radius off of their 'feet' and tumbling to the floor.

He pounced swiftly and slammed his staff through the machines upper bodies like an ancient hunter finishing off his kill and then collapsed it back into it's regular size. The two other warriors had now regained control after being outnumbered and they started to take command of the situation. BlackOut sent electrical blasts as fast and as hard as he could into as many Robots he could target. Darrk then moved quickly to finish off his opponents with his sword. Freerunner dashed forwards to aid a still wounded Darrk. He trackled one robot to the floor and pushed off, fliping back over to his feet to face another one. As he did this he grabbed hold of the robot in a muay thai clinch and thrusted his left knee straight through it's bodywork. He followed up by driving his arms in, letting out a cry of anger and he pushed his arms apart and tore the machine in two. Freerunner continued the momentum gained as he grabbed another one into a clinch, thrusting his right elbow across its upper body, keeping his hands up by his head for protection, he then span his body around and drove his left foot right into it's midsection sending the robot flying from the floor and into a nearby abandoned car that was already alight. The robot flinched and then shut off.

BlackOut and Darrk finished off their last oponents with a spectatular display. While BlackOut forced them back and up into the air with an electrical blast, severing their circuits, Darrk gracefully lept into the air with fury in his eyes, raising his blade up high, he came down and sliced them in two with little effort. He landed as gracefully as he had lept. The two, turned to face Freerunner who sheathed his fighting staff. Nobody spoke, only the sounds of the approaching police, ambulance and fire services, the burning of white hot metal which flickered and spat angrily as it melted. Freerunner could hear both of their lungs expanding and compressing along with their hearts beating fantically. "Well, that was unexpected..." said Freerunner as he awaited their reply. Did they see him as a threat? He couldn't be sure. But he was on his guard nonetheless. Had he finally found the people he had been searching for? Were they like him? Were they Hybrids of some sort too? Or were they something else? Did he even want to be there when the emergency services turned up? Being in the public eye was never his thing. The film crew had long since fled the scene. He kept his mouth closed, his mind switched on and alert and he waited....

The addition of a new ally seemed to be just what was needed to quickly dispatch the mechs before the battle got too far out of hand. Black, Daark and the new comer efficiently dispatched their foes before too much destruction occurred. Finishing the last functioning mech with a dazzling pulse of electricity that caused it to exploded into multiple pieces, Black then turned to his new allies his breathing regulated as the last of the adrenaline that the fight had caused to flood his body was worked its way out of his system.

"Well, that was unexpected..." the newest member of their patch work peacekeeping group commented as he looked upon Black and Daark.

“Your not kidding” Black chuckled back extending his had to shake his new ally’s. “BlackOut” he said introducing himself hastily, the drone of the emergency vehicles began to creep up in his ears and Black hoped to avoid filling out police reports or being held responsible for millions of dollars in damages. “We should probably get out of here before the first responders arrive” he said motioning to the direction of the sirens. “Besides I’m fairly certain that something bigger is going on here as these mechs did not appear to be acting on their own will. Something big is going down and I think we should put a stop to it before it causes any more damage .” Black looked to his two new comrades for a response as the blaring of the sirens grew closer and louder.

The only noises that seemed to pierce the street where the spontaneous sparks and twitching from the defeated mechs, one occasionally actually tried get back up before its systems gave out and fell over, the silence proceeded on with nothing but the sound of damaged mechs and distant sirens, but then suddenly it was interrupted by a strange electronic voice coming from one of the mechs...

"Bravo, BRAVO!" The voice yelled from one of the fallen mechs with the sound of clapping in the backround. The robot occasionally sputtered and sparked but otherwise remained belly up, its single red eye began to shine brighter as it suddenly displayed a strange looking hologram that showed a rather lanky looking man. The figure seem to be dressed in strange red robes, and had various types of devices and gadgets on his person, though the most striking feature the man seem to have on his costume was the rather unnerving gas mask he wore, completely obscuring his face.

"I must say, I was rather impressed, a brilliant show I say! I would ask for an encore but...well... you know..." the hologram said as the man gestured towards the destroyed mechs.

---

Meanwhile...

The cargo ships horn bellowed loudly as it slowly pulled its way into the harbor, many types of general packages where being unloaded and placed on haulers to be shipped off to distance locations, everything proceeded as normal until it became time to unload a specific package. A group of more specialized looking workers gathered around, they looked like the type you would probably find in some type of scientific laboratory rather than simple dock workers; they looked up as the crane slowly unloaded a very special looking package...

Somewhere nearby, a normal hard worker was checking off shipping orders for each package, making sure they were all marked properly so they would not go to the wrong location, everything was fine until he encountered a normal looking crate with no shipping order or location code. "Hey!" the man called out to his co-workers. "Where does this one go?" His friends simply shrugged but stopped as a loud whirring sound began to emanate from the container....

Daark was panting loudly he was badly beaten and it was only just now that his healing had finally kicked in to handle the punishment that mass beating game him. Once the final cuts healed up (with the usual amount of pain) he turned to the newcomer.

"David Daark, thank you....both of you," said David he then got into a fighting stance when the hologram appeared.

"This must be the mysterious boss....show yourself coward!"