UNIVERSE ZERO

A meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere and slammed into the ground. The impact shot dust and debris into the atmosphere and caused the Earth to enter the Ice Age, killing the dominant species on the planet. The event ended the age of the dinosaurs.

Roughly, sixty-five million years later, 1789 AD…

In Norway, the first follower joins what is only called “The Church”.

1942 AD…

The planet is beginning to feel the effects of World War II. The forces of the Axis uncover a large meteor fragment deep underground. The German scientists study the fragment, unable to find anything other than it is unlike anything found before.

After two years of fruitless research on the fragment, Russian soldiers find their lab and capture the German scientists. The Russians destroy the lab in an attempt to bury their research forever.

1999 AD…

In Moscow, an elderly man sat waiting at Moscow International. He read the newspaper. On his left sat a young girl and on her other side was a young boy. The girl sat listening to her portable CD player while the boy sat stoic with a pair of dark glasses on to hide his eyes.

As the girl removed her earphones, she reached to turn off the player. “Uncle Ivan, how much longer do we have to wait?”

Without putting the newspaper down, the eldest one replied, “We will leave soon enough, Natasha. You just became a teenager and you have yet to learn patience.”

Natasha smirked. “I’m patient.” She gestured towards the boy on her other side. “I was just asking for Nikita.”

Ivan slowly put the paper down in his lap and looked at Natasha. “Natasha, I do not believe that twins can communicate mentally. Plus, your brother can speak for himself.”

Natasha joked, “He’s the strong and silent type.”

As Ivan was about to reply, seven military individuals approached them armed with machine guns. One said, “By orders of the Russian government, you are to come with us. These two children belong to Russia.”

Ivan replied, “We are not Russian. We are Lithuanian and about to go home.”

Nikita slowly stood up to show he was rather big for his age, as he stood almost eye-to-eye with the soldiers. He positioned himself to be between the soldiers and his sister and uncle.

Natasha protested behind Nikita, “Hey, I can handle myself. I don’t need you to protect me.”

Nikita said softly, “Natasha, you protect Uncle Ivan.”

Another soldier said, “Don’t think you can resist.”

Natasha smiled. “Don’t take too long, Nikita.”

From behind them, another voice asked, “Ivan, do we really need to have bloodshed?”

Natasha turned and noticed a familiar face flanked by at least twenty soldiers. The one she knew really made her skin crawl.

Ivan said sadly, “Don’t resist them. There are too many of them. I’m sorry.”

The one Natasha knew said soft enough for only a nearby soldier to hear, “Take out the girl first. And make it fast.”

Natasha was not able to get out of the way when the soldier fired at her. She noticed it was not a bullet but actually a dart when she pulled it out. Suddenly, everything began to spin and she passed out.

Nikita yelled, “Natasha!” He moved towards the soldier that shot her who fired at him. The dart was unable to stick into him and fell to the ground.

“Darts won’t work on him!”

Nikita slammed into the chest of the soldier that shot Natasha. The force caused the soldier to fly backwards through the air at least fifteen feet.

As Nikita hit anyone wearing the uniform of the military, the one in charge pulled out a strange looking gun. He pressed it to Nikita’s back and quickly pulled the trigger causing a large voltage to shoot through Nikita’s body.

After a brief yell from pain, Nikita dropped to the floor.

As the soldiers were pulling themselves together, one asked, “Are you sure it was a good idea taking out the girl first?”

The one in charge replied, “You don’t want to know what she’s capable of doing.” He looked at Ivan who had a helpless look on his face. “Ivan, you should have known you couldn’t get out of the country with property of the government. Unfortunately, for what you tried to do, there is only one punishment.” He looked back at the soldiers. “Take those two back to the compound while I deal with Ivan Vilkas.”

Editor’s Note: Quotes in the preceding scene were translated from Russian.

The near future…

A news report on a channel called All News Network has a female reporting with a background of a large amount of debris in the city of Toronto. She tries to not show emotion but it is not hard to tell by the trembling in her voice that she is upset. “This is Lacey Harper reporting from the remains of Dufferin Mall. Earlier today as I was doing a report on the holiday crowds, the fun and peace was disrupted. I must report that the footage you are about to see is not for the weak hearted.”

The television changes to show shoppers going about their day without a care in the world. The sounds of the holidays can be heard. Children run around, going from one toy store to another. Lacey can be seen from earlier, “As you can see, the people are out shopping and having a good time.”

In the background, a young blonde girl walks out a store with her friends. They seem to be comparing what they had just purchased. Then one of the other girls says something to cause all of them to laugh.

Lacey continued, “I have to say on a personal note, even with the crowds being large, I love this time of year. Everyone seems to get along and enjoy each other. Just remember, you only have five days left before…”

Just then something blew through the roof. A blue and gold android landed just in front of the group of girls.

Lacey yelled, “Oh my! It’s one of those Metahunters! Zoom it, Tom!”

The cameraman replied, “Screw that! I’m getting close enough for sound!”

As he got close enough to pick up sound, the Metahunter said, “You are identified as a metahuman. Surrender or die.”

The blonde girl frowned. “Damnit! I think you guys better get out of here because it’s going to get messy!”

One of her friends asked, “Teri? What’s going on?”

Teri yelled, “Dana, get away!” She concentrated and a large slab of dirt and rocks came from under the floor of the mall to block off her friends. She looked at the android and smiled wickedly. “I don’t feel like surrendering today, you bucket of bolts!”

The Metahunter rushed her but before the android reached her, Teri caused the ground to engulf the android. With just thinking about it, she caused the android to be crushed. She calmly walked over to the pile of dirt, rocks, metal, and wires. “Now, that was way too easy. Damn, am I good or what?”

Five other androids blasted through the roof.

Teri looked up as they were coming down. “Um… I guess that can still be what.”

The Metahunters began blasting with energy beams they were all equipped with.

Teri used her ability to control the ground as a shield from the blasts. She then attempted to use her power to hurl rocks at incredible speeds to damage her attackers. However, each time she took out one, four or five more would arrive.

Unfortunately, the Metahunters did not care if their shots were hitting other people who were trying to run to get out of the mall. One Metahunter said, “Capture of this metahuman is proving to be impossible. Activate plan forty-nine.”

Teri was amazed as the androids seem to retreat through what was left of the roof. She slowly looked around and noticed many dead bodies along with a large number of injured, adult and child alike. She said, “Look, this was not my fault.”

Teri walked to look up at the hole in the roof. She screamed, “No!”

The screen showed a large flash then the screen went blank.

Lacey’s live image reappeared. “As a camera outside caught, the Metahunters unleashed a combined blast that destroyed the mall and all those still inside. The explosion has been reported as being felt for miles around.”

“Turn that damned thing off!”

“Yes, Mister President.” A nervous aide reached to turn off the television in the Oval Office.

The President sat behind the desk with several officials in the room. President Gordon asked, “How the hell can anybody explain what I just watched?”

The one in a military uniform with four stars on his shoulders said, “Actually, considering that we got another one, I think that was a good kill.”

The President slammed his fist on the desk. “How can you say that, General Hampton? That was on the news as seeing a lot of Christmas shoppers and kids being killed! And not to mention that the metahuman was a young girl! And what was her crime? She was walking out of a store with her friends! Is that a crime? If so, I’ll remember that when my daughter Heather wants to go shopping with your daughter!”

“What else can we do about the metahuman problem?”

The President just replied, “Everyone, get out.” As they were leaving, he said, “Kurt, not you.”

The forty-something male waited for everyone else to leave then closed the door. “Yes, sir?”

“This makes the second failure, Kurt. But you know we need to go back to the original plan. The world has seen too many of these incidents but this one is really bad. The meta was a girl that was no older than fifteen and let’s not mention the normal humans also killed by the Hunters.”

Kurt asked, “Are you sure about this? Remember what happened before?”

He nodded. “How can I forget? You and I are the only two left who knew about them. And you are the only one still at the NSA since I landed this current job. Therefore, I want you to head it up.”

Kurt nodded. “When the we tried it before I was a rookie compared to now but I’ll do my best, sir.”

The President said, “I have a couple of requests though. We both know not all metas are bad, right? I want the public to know there are some good ones. Unfortunately, the good ones want to be left unknown and do not use their powers openly. I want to change that. I want a team of good ones to handle situations. It will help other good ones to believe they can help as well. And we know that assassination attempt on my life a few weeks ago was by a meta. However, there was another meta that saved my life. He only let us know him by a codename.”

“What was that?”

“Cosmic. Obviously, he feared what would happen to him if we knew who he really was. But when a man saves your life, you trust him to be honorable. I want him to be the field commander.”

“Okay. Second request?”

The President replied after a deep breath, “Kurt, I want those damned androids deactivated. They were the idea of the last administration who felt there was a war out there. I got elected because I challenged his constant war on this and war on that garbage. I do not believe it’s a war between metas and normals. Only a war between good and evil.”