The Ascension: Broken Bird.

Morgan has the right idea, so I intend to follow suite. This story will be a relatively short one, outlining some of the major events that led to Jordan becoming Beta.

Ready? GO.

Day 1.

...Still nobody.

Jordan couldn't move. He was able to open his eyes without incident, and lifting his left arm was an intensely difficult procedure. He wasn't bound, his entire body just felt numb and heavy.

It was the morphine, probably. He'd turned his head five minutes ago, and there was a drip that led down. He wasn't sure where, because rising would be nearly impossible for the boy.

All he could remember was the bright, painfully hot flash of light. The feeling of glass breaking against his back. The weightlessness of falling from eleven stories, the wind blowing his hat and glasses off his face. After that, his mind was blank.

The door opened, and with all his strength, Jordan turned to look.

He opened his mouth, and his own voice sounded hollow, coarse, and distant.

"...Hey..."

"Holy fuck the kid's awake." A man. Probably in his thirties.

"...Yeah...hi..." Jordan cleared the fog in his mind, searching for questions that came too fast for his brain to keep up. "...The bomb...the others...family...my, family..."

The man stared at Jordan hesitantly, his female associate wheeling in an object in a tank of water. "...Nose goes."

"What. Are you serious?" The woman scoffed at her associate, Dane's, callus attitude. "You're a fucking dick, you know that?"

"All the more reason for me not to tell him."

"...Talk...to...me..." Jordan rasped. It was sincerely painful, trying to keep up with their banter. "...Tell me what..."

The nurse stepped forward with a deep sigh.

"All the other occupants in the building you were in...are dead."

Jordan breathed harshly, his heart rate increasing.

His body wanted to scream, but it couldn't take the strain. Heavy, rasping sobs were all he could manage.

"You...you'll need to take it easy for a while, buddy." Dane stepped forward. "We'll be taking care of you."

"...What the fuck is wrong with me...?" Jordan found the strength to speak more clearly, his voice coming through the ashen rasps of his seemingly numb, but otherwise painless body.

"...You lost a lot of skin on your torso and limbs, to say nothin' about the broken bones from the fall. Your muscles were damaged really bad, but as far as I can tell, you managed to use your arm to shield your head and neck. Smart move."

Jordan was paying him no attention, as he attempted to stand.

"WOAH. No no no. Stay down."

"...I...can walk...dickhead..."

Dane moved to intercept and pin Jordan down, but Jordan looked up at him with fire in his eyes.

"OUT OF MY WAY." Jordan growled, as he sat up. Dane lifted his hands and stepped aside.

Jordan out a single foot on the floor. He tried to brace himself on his right arm, but nothing happened. He stumbled to his right, as his feet planted. He was indeed standing, but the sheer weight of his body pulled him down.

Jordan fell to the floor. The ghost of his right arm could do nothing to lift him, as he pushed himself up.

Every movement felt like an eternity.

Then Jordan saw the object on the tray in the tank that the nurse was pushing.

A badly burned human arm.

It had a ring on the index finger. A birthmark on the fleshy side of the forearm. A scar just above the elbow.

"..." Jordan said nothing, as his eyes dialated with terror.

"That's my arm. That's MY ARM." Jordan wheezed, and got to his knees.

Then, suddenly, pain. The most intense pain he'd ever felt in his live, as his body registered the shock of moving despite intense muscle damage. His right arm seemed to be at the epicenter, as the stump brushed the dirty floor, leaving a brown and red smear of dried blood.

Dane and Patricia watched, genuinely haunted by the boy's attempts to rise and reclaim the lost body part. Rising and falling, succumbing to pain and broken sobs of frustration.

Still trying, despite a loss of muscle mass and skin and bone that could support his attempts.

Living eyes in a dying body.

Jordan's body wanted to scream, but it couldn't take the strain.

This time, he was content to just slip quietly into a seizure, and convulse violently on the floor.

Jeez. Seems about right.

Day 51.

"I'm sorry, Jordan, but your parents only left behind enough money to keep you on life support. You simply can't AFFORD prosthetics."

Jordan grunted in response. He knew it was a long shot, but he'd hoped against hope that he'd walk on his own again someday.

Just another day in this bed, watching re-runs.

...At least I got to talk to someone today. Jordan motioned his head towards the door, and the Hospital administrator walked out the door.

Three more days until my next cleaning. Adopting a grim, unhappy expression, he leaned his head back. That'll be fun.

No hope.

Day 54.

Jordan groaned in pain, as his left arm strained to keep him leaned against the chest high porcelain tub.

His nurse splashed another hissing, painful arc of cold water against his back, waves of dead skin sloughing off of his shoulders, down to his feet.

He turned and glared at the woman, who was spraying him with one hand, while texting on her phone with the other.

A jet of water nearly sprayed his eye. The concoction of soap and plain, hard water would have burned his retina if he hadn't turned away.

"Would it kill you to PAY THE HELL ATTENTION?!" Jordan hissed. "My face, my dick, and my balls are LITERALLY all I have left."

The nurse chewed her gum, grumbling in response.

"Look, I GET IT. This is your job. But this is my LIFE, lady. I want to cut you some slack, but CHRIST, this is my entire LIFE now."

"Then you shouldn't have gotten' all fucked up then, huh junior." Her uncaring city accent drove the point home that the situation wasn't his to control.

He slowly lowered himself to the floor. Without morphene, he could at least move, but he'd never be able to take care of himself in the outside world.

Nurses. All I have to look forward to is these mother-fucking NURSES...

Day 200

Jordan heard cheers outside. It was the New Year.

No-one was there for him.

His morphene drip had run out two hours ago. He shook with pain, but the true agony was internal, sitting on his heart like a black, uncaring crow, its talons driving four sharp points home.

He was alone. He was in pain.

Nobody cared. Nothing good would ever come to him again.

As a side note, he was still no good at jerking off with his left hand.

Year 3, day 21.

The nurse, his new "caretaker," loomed over him like an annoying omen.

"Need anything, press the button, junior."

The way she said that word, "junior." The way she ended the "or" sound like a "yah."

That's part of what made him make his next, brash decision.

"Need a sedative. Haven't been sleeping well. Something strong."

The nurse had come prepared. She drew it from a small, rolling desk. A bit squirted from the tip of her syringe.

Only got one shot, and I'm not exactly an action hero... She'll probably hit me if I fuck this up.

Jordan motioned with his left hand. "What's that?"

The nurse turned.

The young cripple swatted the needle into the nurse's neck, and pushed the plunger with sincere glee.

The nurse spoke four slurred curses, attempted to bat at Jordan, and fell backwards, her head hitting the metal tray.

"My name's not junior."

Jordan stood. The sheer, practiced effort of standing nearly winded him, but he would not be denied. This was his only way out. With four painful steps, he reached the tray.

He lifted a bottle of pills, opening it with his teeth.

He tilted the pills towards his mouth.

But he stopped.

Something wouldn't let him do it.

...This is the only way I can quit. I've been here for three years. I'm DONE. No more.

Jordan stood there with the pills in hand.

NO MORE I DON'T CARE NO MORE NO MORE JUST EAT THEM ALREADY

A tear rolled down his cheek. He opened his mouth wide.

NO MORE GODDAMMIT NO MORE JUST EAT THE FUCKING PILLS!!! END IT! I hurt all the time, I can't go to the bathroom alone, I'm always either drugged or in pain, I'm THROUGH! I've had enough! I can't endure anymore!

Jordan sat on his bed, still holding the pills.

Nobody loves me...nobody SEES ME. Nobody will CARE.

Something seemed to tug at his elbow. Jordan mistook it for fear. His left arm, his ONLY arm, wasn't working for him anymore.

He dropped the pill bottle, and they scattered on the floor.

"NO..." Curling into a ball, his hand on his face, he sobbed.

He couldn't quit.

Not yet.

Year 5, day 1.

His eyes were half closed, but not dead.

He'd learned to retreat. Thinking quickly and wildly, he played in his mind.

He didn't know what people wanted anymore. He didn't speak. He didn't look at people. He simply ate, drank, slept, and thought.

The staff assumed he'd given up hope, ever since he dropped those pills.

He was hoping harder now more than ever.

Something. Someone. Someone will dust me off like a broken toy. Someone will need me. Someone will care. SOMEONE WILL.

Jordan looked up, hearing footsteps. It was just a nurse.

I'll wait here for them.

For the first time in years, he smiled.

One day later.

Jordan awoke slowly. He was in pain, as per usual, but he'd learned to endure every aspect of his confinement to this hospital.

He looked up.

There was a woman staring back at him with intense interest.

Jordan opened his mouth to speak, but he'd nearly forgotten how.

"...Hi."

The woman, dark skinned, with straight, soft, jet black hair, smiled at his response.

"He hasn't talked in...YEARS." A nurse quipped. "I donno what you'd want junior for."

"Get out." The woman, annoyed, waved the nurse out of the room. "He's probably had just about enough of y'all. Let me see him."

The nurse shrugged. "Fine. Just don't...like, kill him, weirdo." She shut the door.

Jordan and the woman were alone. She searched for an undamaged area of Jordan's body, and rubbed her hand against it. She rubbed his left shoulder, brushing it, transferring warmth.

"I was lookin' for someone like you. You've been here for a while."

Jordan moved away from the hand at first, expecting pain. There was none. It was the first pleasant human contact he'd had since he'd last shook the hand of his father.

"We want to fix you up. Get you walking again. We don't like it when people are left alone like this."

Her hand moved against his cheek. He moved towards it, like a dog being stroked.

Jordan sobbed once, before getting ahold of himself.

"...You found me." Jordan held her hand.

Saffore smiled, and continued stroking his cheek.

"I found you."

Bad John wrote:Nurses. All I have to look forward to is these mother-fucking NURSES...

...I don't see how that's so bad. I'd be pretty happy if nurses gave ME baths.

Then again... I'm assuming my body wouldn't be all fucked up.

Manny wrote:

Bad John wrote:Nurses. All I have to look forward to is these mother-fucking NURSES...

...I don't see how that's so bad. I'd be pretty happy if nurses gave ME baths.

Then again... I'm assuming my body wouldn't be all fucked up.

That and... not all nurses are women, let alone attractive ones at that. That isn't to say they aren't beautiful in some respect, I just don't want the female version of Bilbo Baggins washing me, y'know?

Just ask Nurse Rat Shit here: Note she is Nurse Ratched from the movie One flew over the Cuckoo's nest.

She may be female, and in her younger years she might've been attractive, but I don't need some crotchedy ol' cougar doing this kind of thing, y'know? That and Ratched was a royal bitch who was hungry for power.

Anyways, great story John.

Thanks, Morgan. I look forward to your next chapter as well, so put some legs on it.

"We didn't think anyone survived the Alpha's attack five years ago. We combed, but you must have slipped through the cracks."

Jordan looked around. This new compound wasn't like the low budget hospital he'd spent five years in.

"...I'm somewhere else." Jordan looked around.

Looking down at the crippled boy, she nodded. He'd spent five years in what was essentially purgatory. This wasn't freedom, but he at least CHOSE to be here.

Even if he hadn't, given his conditions in that hospital, Saffore could have never taken "no" for an answer.

Saffore spoke slowly and softly. She was perfectly aware of how Jordan's painkillers muddied his mind. She regretted putting him on yet another morphine drip, but she'd rather have him dizzy than in constant pain.

"How often were you off your pain medication? I can't imagine what it must have been like with the extent of your injuries." Saffore rubbed Jordan's head.

Jordan looked around, trying to calculate an answer to her question. "Longest was a month."

Saffore looked down at him with sympathetic horror. "A MONTH?"

Jordan looked away, ashamed that he made her worry. This was the first time someone had shown him compassion in a long time, and he'd still found a way to barb his new friend.

"It's not your fault, hun." Saffore continued stroking his head.

"Don't worry about it too much." Jordan smiled, slowly acclumating to conversation again. "You...you said you'd get me to walk again. I can't walk well without crutches. I lost a lot of what made my body work, and I think some of my bones are unfixable."

Saffore beamed, looking down the hall. "NOTHING'S unfixable. We'll fix you up in a month, good as new."

"Fix? How's that work?"

"Muscle installation, new skin grafts, and a new arm. We'll get you walking in time for Easter."

"...Prosthetics? I can't afford prosthetics."

"Who said you were buying them?"

Saffore looked away, still stroking his head. Jordan was speechless.

It's our fault you're here anyway.

"My head is cold." Jordan made the complaint tentatively. "I had a hat, but it probably got blown up."

"We'll get you a new one."

The feeling of standing, the sheer pleasure of choosing to move, and going there without pain or incident...

Jordan took a step and fell flat on his face. "OOF."

He didn't get the hang of it immediately, but he stood again, and clumsily put one foot in front of the other, his repaired feet feeling the tickle of grass.

He wasn't wearing a hospital gown for the first time in a long time. He wore a pair of boot cut jeans, and a black tee shirt with the KMC logo on the chest. Saffore had indeed found him a hat, a brown jeep cap. His head was comfortably warm.

Saffore watched, clapping her hands. "I told you we'd get you walking!" Her associate, Marie, watched as well, impressed with her work. "We linked your new limbs to your inner ear. It should improve your balance." Marie walked to Jordan, and patted him on the shoulder.

His right arm was still missing, the prosthetic still in the beta-phase. His left arm was out and slowly rotating to help him keep his balance.

"Here. Let me show ya." Marie walked in front of Jordan, but he refused to imitate her gait.

"I can't walk the way a lady does. My hips don't swing." Jordan put his left hand in his pocket. "Haven't done this in a while. I'd like to walk cool." Jordan stretched his leg out, clearing a large amount of space with a single stride. "STAND ASIDE. I TAKE LARGE STEPS."

Marie shot her drink through her nose. Saffore chortled.

Jordan kept his left hand hooked into his pocket. He took steps, standing square and tall. He smiled.

This is the way my dad used to walk. He silently approved of the shadow he cast. He was sturdy. Strong. A bit incomplete, without his new right arm.

Jordan broke into a jog, then sprinted, leaving Marie and Saffore behind.

His foot hooked on a clump of dirt, and he fell flat again.

Jordan raised his new arm, wiggling his fingers. He tossed a ball into the air and caught it.

This has to be a dream. I'll wake up, and be in that hospital. Jordan's grim humor did nothing to decrease his enjoyment of the moment.

He tossed the ball, and it rebounded against the wall, coming towards him. He caught it with his natural left hand.

Marie and her small team of doctors watched, studying him closely. Occasionally, they'd ask him a question about his balance, or how much weight he could support with his new arm.

For now, they just let him throw and catch his rubber ball.

"I have a personal question." Marie asked. "Saffore wondered this as well. Mind answering it?"

Jordan shrugged. "Sure."

"How did you...how did you stand being in that hospital? You spent days without pain-killers, weeks alone, and you were there for a good while."

"When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad~."

Jordan kept bouncing his ball, answering the question through song. "I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad~." Jordan caught the ball, and tossed it in the air.

So if Jordan's all better... Does the story end?

The story doesn't end with him being "all better." :P Did Tony Stark's story end with an electro magnet in his chest?

He has a working body now, but now he needs a calling. A reason to act upon the initial tragedy that cost him five years.

He needs a motivation to be, and the BODY to be, a hero.

So, in the next chapter, there'll be CONFLICT. :D

"ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL, ENGAGE THE TARGET! Emergency Alpha protocol!"

The sirens jarred Saffore awake, as she looked around the room frantically for her personal handgun.

It had been a long time coming, and there was no telling what the enemy had time to plot.

The Alpha, the prodigal son, had returned.

Saffore found her handgun after moments searching her dresser drawer. She bit her lip in panic as she pulled on her casual jeans, and threw open her closet.

Warm, earth colored clothing was torn aside in favor of a hard, blue flak jacket.

The door opened, and she whirled around, her pistol pointed.

It was Marie. Her hawaiian shirt was slashed with drying blood.

"I'm sorry, Saff. I didn't tell him where you were."

Saffore smiled, lowering her gun and approaching Marie. "Good. C'mon, hun. I'll take you to lockdown."

"H-he knew where we w-were before he even came to the compound-d." Marie stammered. Saffore noticed the hand gripping Marie's hand. Her eyes adjusted to the light of the hall, and she could see the glowing red eyes looming over Marie's shoulder.

"Hello, doctor. Come with me. We're gonna have a long talk."

"FALL BACK! The bastard hacked the B-2 unit!!!"

Bullets rained down the hall, pinging harmlessly off the metal chassis of the B-2 unit, dubbed "Thunder." The robot was designed for combat. The humans were not.

It raised its arm, and rained a hail of stinging, yet non-lethal rounds. Its meaty, colossal hands were caked in blood.

If you were tagged by the bullets, you were stunned. If you were stunned, you couldn't flee.

If you couldn't flee, what happened to twenty other security officers, crushed under an avalanche of thundering metal, would happen to you.

"Terminating security personnel. Executing Alpha Protocol." The metal beast bellowed as it opened fire.

Suddenly, the sound of wheels grinding filled the hall. The robot ignored the sound, focusing on its task.

"KNOCK IT OFF!!!"

Jordan, onboard a large medical cart filled with alcohol swabs and as much heavy equipment as he could seize, drove straight towards the back of the immense robot.

The cart slammed against the back of the robot's legs. Jordan was sent rolling away, as Thunder fell flat on its face, immediately beginning to rise.

Jordan had come more than prepared. He yanked a security shotgun from his back, the strap snapping. He fired the gun into the back of the robot's head. He stabilized the gun with his right arm, using the left to pull the trigger, while shouldering it on his right shoulder. It was awkward, but using a rifle wasn't his strong suit, and his left hand had more dexterity than his newly attached right.

A hole in the back of the robot's head exposed wiring. Jordan jammed his prosthetic arm through the hole, ripping at wires.

"YEAH! GET HIM!"

The security staff, eager to avenge themselves and their fallen friends, charged, pinning Thunder down. Their feet clonged against its metal shell until dents formed. They tugged, tearing at its limbs until their combined muscle ripped it apart.

The captain, a Teddy Cross, pulled Jordan away from the carnage.

"Ted, have you seen Saffore? Marie?"

The man shook his head. "We've been dealing with the B-2 unit, but I know for a fact that they didn't get to the lockdown shelter with the other doctors." Ted groaned.

"Oh, they're right here!"

Jordan looked down the hall, and the sight chilled his bones.

A relatively slim man, wearing military fatigues, had Marie by the arm. A strange weapon, built into his arm, was pointed at Marie's head.

"Saffore, keep on moving, or they ALL die." Alpha grinned, his red eyes glowing bright. Saffore, standing behind him, stared menacingly at him.

"I'm not going ANYWHERE with you, and neither is she. LISTEN to me, Damien, you're making a mistake doin-"

"We'll talk later, Doc. Keep walking, or I scramble Marie's brains. Then I'll kill your PET PROJECT."

Damien pointed his blaster cannon at Jordan, who stood his ground, his weapon held to bare. Ted raised his handgun, and three other security personnel raised their weapons as well.

Jordan could hear them shaking in their boots.

"Who ARE you?" Jordan barked. "Let them go, and we won't hurt you, man! Just put the laser thing down."

Alpha scoffed. "...Put it down? It's built into my arm. This kid's some new kinda stupid. Maybe I'll kill you first."

"ALPHA, DON'T." Marie shook her arm free, but Alpha's forearm wrapped around her neck.

"...Alpha?" Jordan growled. "So YOU'RE that guy."

"You've heard of me?"

"You killed my family and blew my arm off, you RAT."

"That so? Well, it looks like you got better."

Jordan grinned angrily. "You're a bigger pussy than I thought."

Saffore gasped. Despite years of confinement, painful procedures, and constant, crippling disappointment, loneliness, and loss, this was the one time she'd seen him angry, much less cursing mad.

"Pussy? That's rich."

"Where's the challenge in beating up a girl? Let's settle this man to man."

"...But I don't give, like, a single fuck about who you are. You're irrelevant." Alpha grinned. "Here. Watch."

Before the security team could make a move, Alpha shoved Marie forward, and aimed his blaster.

"NO!" Jordan lowered his gun.

Alpha shot over Marie's shoulder. The blast was charged, and the room glowed red as the energy pooled and was expelled. Marie, unharmed, fell to her knees. Jordan, Ted, and the three officers took the brunt of the blast as it hit home just above their heads, blasting the ceiling.

One of the men was put into cardiac arrest. Another was sprayed by shrapnel. The remaining officer, Ted, and Jordan were thrown to the floor by the sheer concussive force.

Jordan looked up. Alpha and Saffore were simply gone.

"Jermaine! Rob! Hang on, help is on the way!"

Ted shook his fallen team-mates, as Jordan struggled to register what had just occurred.

The man who'd cost him so much life, was going to kill one of his only friends.

Jordan stood and ran down the hallway after them, passing Marie.

Marie's heart sank lower than it already was. "Jo, NO! You can't face him!!!"

"Come back, kid!" Ted shouted. "COME BACK HERE!"

A recovering cripple was in hot pursuit of one of the most powerful Edited Meta-Humans on the planet.

Jordan's got quite the pair on him.

I would have run in there with a whole damn team of security personnel, just to make me feel safer.

After the life Jordan's lived, he has almost nothing to lose. He'd rather die and win than stay safe and lose the only people who have been nice to him.

Plus, his pain tolerance is immense.

With a gruff, angry shove, the Alpha pushed Saffore to the floor.

"Well then, Saff. I'm going to ask you what I asked you before." Alpha's irreverent, devil-may-care front melted away. Their surroundings were grim, a rusted steel mill that used to belong to the KMC before its decommissioning ten years prior.

He held out his hand. "Take it. Come with me." Damien's expression was honest, despite his hellish grin. "We can really get something done if we work TOGETHER. Believe me. There'll be no more bombings. No more attacks on the KMC. I'll leave them alone if you work with me."

Saffore batted the hand away, and stood on her own. "You know I'm not going to do that."

"I can help you! The work you've done for my body...I was POWERLESS before! This is the next step of evolution!" Alpha displayed his metal plated hand. "I've improved on it! Made it more powerful than ever! You don't have to be stuck in that useless skin-and-bones body! Now that I'm like this, I can live FOREVER." Damien turned his back to Saffore, looking around the steel mill. "It's amazing. I just want you to know what it's like. I want to give back what you gave me."

"...You're insane."

"AM I?!" Alpha whirled around, stamping his foot. His shoe made a dent in the concrete three inches thick. "Can't you see? You gave me, and the other patients, EVERYTHING. You asked for nothing in return! Those military bozos will muscle you out of work! If you don't weaponize more people, they'll do it themselves! You're the only one who can ease humanity into the change it deserves! I NEED YOU!"

Saffore put her hand to her mouth, terrified of what she'd created.

"That's your excuse, huh? I should have never put you in this situation." Saffore frowned. "I failed you. I won't fail anyone else the way I failed you." Saffore looked him in the eye. "Editing is a mistake. Man wasn't meant to be grafted with weaponry. I made a mistake, and I'm not going to let you destroy anyone else."

Saffore turned, and began to walk away.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME." Alpha barked. "Turn around and LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!"

Saffore heard his footfalls coming nearer. She needed him at point blank. She couldn't miss.

The moment Damien was in range, she turned and drew the pistol hidden in her coat.

Damien froze, stunned at the sight of the weapon.

Saffore hesitated a moment too long, and Alpha prepared his blaster.

"YOU BITCH." His voice broke for a moment, as he aimed his blaster at Saffore's head.

In a flash of red, black, and blue, the blaster went off.

Rather than the hissing boom of an evaporating body, there was a metallic clang. Jordan, with no time to spare, took the brunt of the blast, shielding himself with his prosthetic. The side of the forearm burnt away, his pinky and ring fingers blasted off. His sleeve caught fire outright, as he was thrown back a few steps.

Jordan stood there for a moment, as Alpha stared, wide eyed.

...I killed her I shot her I didn't mean to I'm so sorry Damien clutched his face. Lost in the heat of the moment, he never meant to fire. He couldn't see the reality, that Saffore, although her heart rate had spiked, was unharmed.

Jordan patted the flames off of his sleeve. "Well OW." Jordan growled. "Now, to return the favor."

Jordan drew his shotgun, steadying it with his damaged prosthetic. Don't fail me now.


Saffore snapped back to reality. "NO! Jordan, don't fight! Your not-"

"THIS IS A MAN'S JOB, DAMMIT!!!" Jordan roared. "I'M A MAN, AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!"

He opened fire with his weapon. The shots stunned the Alpha, drawing blood, shredding his clothing, and forcing him to stumble, but nothing more. He was lost in his own thoughts. He simply didn't care about the bullets.

Jordan charged the confused and slowly pacing Damien. He clutched the man's cannon arm, forcing it away from him, and swung his left hand in a hard punch.

He'd never been in a fight before. He'd used a gun an hour before. He'd imagined combat once or twice while in five year stay in the hospital. The adrenaline carried him through the process well.

Ignoring the bruises on his left hand, he threw another punch. The Alpha slowly realized the nessesity of fighting back, but didn't know what he was up against. He swung his own arm, but Jordan blocked with his prosthetic.

Jordan swung his knee into Damien's stomach. He fired another jab from his prosthetic, broken pieces falling from it.

The Alpha quickly realized how angry he was.

"Pet."

Alpha seized Jordan's arm.

"FUCKING."

Alpha tore off Jordan's prosthetic arm at the elbow with one motion. The sheer shock froze Jordan in his tracks.

"PROJECT."

Energy pooled in the Alpha's cannon. Jordan managed to move to the side, and the remainder of his prosthetic arm was blasted off by the shot.

"QUIT BOTHERING ME, ASSHOLE!" Alpha swung his hand, and smacked Jordan hard in the mouth. He fell backwards, attempting to stand. Alpha cruelly kicked him, throwing him up and away.

Jordan rose to his feet, but Damien was far faster than him. With a hard front kick, Damien plowed Jordan backwards against a mound of twisted metal and trash. Jordan spurted blood from his mouth.

Dammit...I musta got him a FEW times. To Jordan's horror, the wounds on Alpha's face seemed to fade away. A bruised eye and a swelled cheek seemed to return to normal in seconds.

"Wow. You suck." Damien scoffed, and turned back to Saffore, unsure what to say. "You got moxy, but you're no supersoldier, that's for sure."

Jordan seized the first sharp, hard object he could find, and stumbled towards the Alpha, still ready to fight.

"...What the hell's the matter with you?" Alpha scratched his head. "Don't you know when to...y'know, QUIT?"

Jordan spat blood. "I'm not goin' anywhere. I'm a cripple, after-all." Jordan grinned. "C'mon. Man to man."

Alpha raised his cannon. "ALRIGHTY then. Man with a cannon arm to man holding a steal pipe. Let's see who wi-"

A yellow bolt of energy splashed against Alpha's cannon arm, searing the metal. He grunted in pain, turning his cannon to face the attacker.

A flying, probably pre- teen girl. She whizzed to and fro, her hands charged with those same orbs of electrical power. "LEAVE THEM ALONE!"

"...What the fuck is that?" Alpha raised his eyebrow. She noticed the girl's uniform. Green in the center, with black arms and legs. "Oh, you've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me."

Another woman emerged, wearing a similar outfit. Jordan's age, she slid down the mound of steel behind Jordan and leaped in front of him. Her uniform, matching the young girls, was a dull, brick red. "We have you surrounded."

Alpha whirled around, looking for Saffore. In front of her was another woman, sporting a blue uniform. "Give it up, Alpha. You can't take all three of us."

"The Rockettes. I thought you only had two members! What is she, FIFTEEN?! That HAS to be against child labor laws!!!" Alpha growled. "...I fuckin' hate superher-OW!"

The flying girl, eager to test her mettle, aimed and fired bolt after bolt. They stung the Alpha's skin, burning his clothes.

Damien turned and ran, firing his cannon at the girl. The battle quickly moved away, as Damien engaged all three alone.

Jordan fell forward, the pipe falling from his sole hand. He supported himself on his hand and knees. "Shit...I miss my new arm..."

Jordan looked up. He could hear Saffore stepping carefully towards him.

"...Jordan..." Saffore's head was down. She was trying to find the words for her gratitude.

She'd failed again, but Jordan had been there to cover her. He'd protected her despite being completely overmatched.

"...You found me."

She hugged him close. Jordan smiled, returning the hug with his only remaining arm.

"Yeah. I found you."

...Can't believe I didn't see this.

Good stuff. I'm assuming this takes place 3 years before the Collab?

Yup. I thought it was odd that you hadn't tuned in.

"He'll attack us again, won't he?"

Jordan flexed his replaced hand. Saffore nodded, forlorn.

"What WAS he?"

"He was a mistake. I edited him in a way that made him far more powerful than normal people. He thought it made him above the rules. He hurt people."

Jordan grunted in response, looking at his hand.

"He loved you very much, didn't he?"

Saffore fought the urge to sob.

"And you loved him too."

She bit her lip, looking out the window.

"...Was he like me?"

Saffore turned and raised her hand, nearly slapping Jordan, who flinched, his face lightly turning and his eyes squinting. She lowered her hand, horrified and ashamed at the motion. She put her hands in her lap.

Jordan put his hand on her shoulder, and she gripped it.

"I'm NOT like him. I want you to know that. He's a madman. He wanted to share a power that nobody should have." Jordan bent forward.

"Saff, please look at me. I need to ask you for something."

Saffore turned to him, her eyes red. "Marie had an anxiety attack and is in the hospital. Ted lost twenty three security soldiers. You lost your ARM, and it's a miracle that it was a clean enough break to apply a spare." Saffore scooted her chair closer to Jordan as she scolded him. "If the Rockettes hadn't arrived, you would be GONE right now. I appreciate what you did...but you would have DIED."

"It's not about me. It never was." Jordan lowered his head. "I'm sorry I worried you."

Saffore didn't divert her gaze. "What did you want to ask?"

"...It can wait."

"No. Tell me now."

Jordan looked up at Saffore, his hand shaking a tiny bit. He didn't want to show it, but he was shaken by his brush with death.

"You won't like it."

Saffore's eyes widened a bit, then narrowed into focused, angry slits.

"It better not be what I think it is."

"Alpha attacked this place with IMPUNITY. He wasn't scared, and he had a plan, and he was right. Nobody could have stopped him under other circumstances. We got lucky. We need someone who CAN."

Saffore looked at Jordan with disgust.

"I'm not saying me, but he was RIGHT. The world needs people with power. With TEETH." Jordan looked at his replacement prosthetic with cold dissatisfaction. "We need someone who can hold him off. Someone who can physically fight him."

"I will NOT change you into him." Saffore hissed, standing and walking towards the window.

Jordan balled his fist on his lap, staring down at the floor.

"I am not like him."

The conviction in his voice chilled Saffore to the bone. She looked at him, as he looked up and met her gaze.

"Did HE spend five years in a goddamn bed? I didn't give up hope after YEARS. He probably got a paper cut, or a car crash. I know what it's like to be weak, and powerless." Jordan looked down at his hands. "I know what it's like to try to move your arm, but only feel a GHOST of what used to be strength." Jordan stood. "Being a man is about more than physical power. I KNOW I have what it takes to use it responsibly, if you believe in me."

Saffore turned away from Jordan. She was terrified that she was considering his logic.

"...I waited for years for someone to see something in me. To see my heart before they saw my skin. If you believe in me now, I PROMISE on my life I won't let you down. I'll use every ounce of power you give me responsibly and fairly. I won't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it. I'll do whatever you say, and follow any rule you give."

Saffore turned and held out her hand.

"The process will be INCREDIBLY painful. You will lose every shred of dignity as every fiber of your muscles are laced with metal. Your bones will be sewn with titanium. Your arm will be converted into a weapon. What remains of your musculature will be outfitted with sockets and plugs. You will only be twenty percent human."

Jordan tensed, swallowing.

"But, you will be a hero. You'll feel more than you've ever felt before. You'll do real good in the world. You'll be a shining light for those who look to you for protection, but you'll be a TARGET for those that you subvert in the name of justice, peace, and mercy. You'll protect the world from devastation, even if it costs you your life."

Jordan nodded.

"Those are the words I told Damien."

Jordan nodded, a bit more fearfully.

"You don't owe the world ANYTHING. It took everything from you. Why do you want to take on this responsibility?"

"...Because I might be the only one who can."

Jordan took Saffore's hand.

"Then it's time for your upgrade, BETA."

This is really good stuff. Really liking it.

Doctor Jensen wrote:This is really good stuff. Really liking it.

Hey! I'm the only one who comments on this story! RAWR! D:<

I haven't commented here yet?! I could've sworn I did. Sorry about that.

John, I really like where the story has come, your first chapter gave me a feeling of hopelessness for Jordan that I've only ever felt once in my entire life. It was an uneasy feeling, but it was powerful.

With Jordan's willingness to throw all of Saffore's work on him to help save a city that nearly killed him years before, reminds me of a really good Comic story, especially on par with a Batman style darkness that surrounds it.

Outstanding work as always, and I apologize for not commenting sooner.