HEROES OF DARKTOWN

EPISODE ONE
A multi-billion dollar corporation with a dark agenda...
An anti-hero with rage in his heart and revenge in mind...
A girl who holds the key to destroying the world...
Or saving it.

A new story. A different world.
A whole new playground for good and evil.
Heroes of Darktown is coming, and it doesn't play by the rules.
A Noir superhero odyssey where superpowers cause bloodshed and chaos taking place in a city drowned in sin and crime, a place where even the holiest of men fall to the corruption in the streets. What is good? What is evil? They are nothing but ideas, foolish misconceptions created by man to justify their actions.
In Darktown, there is nothing but power.
Those who have it lord it over those who do not. Those who do not rot in the pit of crime and blood. But the game is about to change. After an explosion irradiates the water supply, a select few receive power unlike any other mortal has wielded, and a brutal battle for supremacy begins, with fights that will scar the city forever.
There is one girl that holds the key to ultimate power, power that would crush everyone and anyone who defied the one who held it.
And she's fallen straight into Ethan Knight's lap. Now he's a target for every mean son-of-a-&@##& in Darktown with mutated genes and a chip on their shoulder, and he has no other choice but to stand his ground and fight them all. With the use of his own superpowers and quick wits, he just might get through this alive...

"Where the @$!! are you, Liss? Jeez, it's enough I have to save your skinny little ass everytime we walk out of the god-damned door, but now you've run off on me? Damn, gimme a fricking break" Ethan kicked open the door. In the Derelict apartment block; there were hundreds of places a nervous sixteen year-old might run off to. Spitting out a wad of dried up blood, Ethan wiped his lips and adjusted his black hood. Wasn't really doing its job at the moment. Blood was all down the front of his jacket, luckily it wasn't his own. Where the hell had Liss gotten to? There was a nutjob hiding in the walls ready to rip her head from her shoulders and drink her blood from the gaping wound, and she'd run away from the one Altered in Darktown that didn't want to see her dead. Ethan strode into the room with a sigh, taking a quick look around. Standard Derelict room. Makeshift bed that looked more like some kind of nest, shattered windows, filthy floors. The walls were caked in miscellaneous bodily fluids. Best not to think too hard on that one.
Just as Ethan turned to leave, he heard a maniacal giggle. Arms burst out of the wall behind him and ensnared him in a chokehold, lifting him up off of the ground.
"Oh... No... You... DIDN'T" Ethan rasped, swinging his leg backwards into the wall with tremendous force that only he could achieve.The mystery force screamed like nails on a blackboard and dropped him quickly. Spinning around the second he hit the floor, and studying the crater he had made. Nowhere for Worm to hide, but he had slipped away. Before the dust settled, Ethan leapt through the hole back into the corridor. Well, at least if Worm was focusing on him, it meant he wasn't going for Liss just yet.
"So you wanna play, huh? Sure you're in my league, wormboy?" There was a rattling hiss from all around.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"
Hah. So predictable. Another one of those arms snaked up from the ground, cold, clammy fingers grasping for his ankle, reaching under his jeans and going for the bare flesh. Ethan stomped down hard, feeling the bones crunch under his sneaker. "How'd you like that, &!&#&#$#$%*?i" Before it had a chance to slip away again Ethan grabbed hold of it, flailing wildly in his grip. With a mighty tug Ethan yanked it up from its hiding spot, the whole ugly mess. Worm was never pleasant(Hell, there was a reason for his nickname)but damn, since he got Altered, the @&%# that was his face officially hit the ugly fan.
"Oh, you got !^^!ED, dude!" With a laugh Ethan drew back his fist and cracked into the slimy little face, letting off a little steam in the process. Worm writhed and wriggled, he was going to slip free in a second. With a final slug, he launched him up into the ceiling, leaping up to follow him as he punched straight through the shoddy wood and landed like a cat ready to pounce. Worm was trying to drag himself away, clearly he was in too much pain to use his powers right now.
Well, thanks for small blessings, Ethan thought. That was annoying.
"Where you gonna run, wormboy? Those walls not looking so friendly now?"
"Stop calling me that! You always were a sick &^!%, Ethan!"
"Oh, phonecall for you. It's the pot, he's muttering something about black?" Ethan sniggered and held an invisible phone up to his ear. "I'm not the one hunting down a little girl so I can drink her blood, moron" Ethan reached out and grabbed his sweaty green foot, swinging him round into the wall. Another foul scream. Damn, this guy stunk. And boy, he could take a lot of punishment. Then again, the Altered were regrettably much more sturdy than regular humans, a 'perk' of being permanently mutated by a worldwide corporation's idiocy. Grabbing the mass of lank, greasy hair hanging from the back of his head, Ethan proceeded to introduce Worm's face to a window, before swatting him out of the shattered pane like he was nothing but a fly and leaping out with him onto the neighboring rooftop.
"ARGH! You son-of-a-$@$%#i"
"H alf-dead and you're still insulting me? Real smart" Ethan began to march towards Worm, ready to finish him. A sneaker to the face, several times in rapid succession, seemed appropriate for this waste of flesh.
"Hah, you haven't won! You were always so ^*##ing stupid, Ethan. Always missing something right in front of you!"
Ethan stopped dead in his tracks.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
There was a maniacal laugh, movie bad-guy style. Ethan immediately knew who was behind him.
Standing in the window was yet another schoolyard 'buddy'. One of the biggest, baddest bullies known to Darktown Elementary. A huge, imposing figure, dressed all in black, wearing a blank white mask. Dangling from his tree-trunk arms was another familiar figure. Dressed in a simple blue frock, messy blonde hair hanging over her shoulders, a worried look stamped onto her face. Liss.
"Oh, *@#$"

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This story

Heroes of Darktown was initially inspired by the unseen second half of season two of the popular NBC show Heroes. I wanted to go about it in a different way and give all these people with powers one great big, relatively lawless playground. The idea was that the contaminant washed through the entire city. Most died. Some lived, becomed the "Derelict" or "Trashed" and a very small percentage reacted positively to the gene-mutating virus, becoming "Altered". The story focuses on Ethan Knight, who wields the powers of super-strength and physics manipulation(It allows him to control gravity, speed, weight, etc). Ethan is protecting a teenaged girl named Liss who supposedly contains a genetic key that would allow any Altered to gain complete power.

This story will run for about 15 chapters, five of which have already been written. More will appear when I know people like it. There is also a oneshot written that explains more of the city's history and a spin-off oh-so-originally entitled "Villains of Darktown" waiting in the wings. Enjoy, and leave me feedback!

updated Jun 9 '09 by Laurie