Announcement

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:26 PM

Chapter 1

Foreword by
The Editors of Olympus

All of the material in this work was originally recorded electronically. Much of it comes from video recorded interviews, the rest from meetings and other similar events. As much as is possible we have tried to preserve the actual words of the participants. Certain contributors are such unique individuals that we have had to adopt somewhat radical presentations of their words.

The first recording was made at the beginning of the third year following Olympus Day One. Pulsar recorded most of his chapters at the very end of the year.

Many of the events described within these pages are matters of public record. What we offer is the inside look. A vast amount of false material has sprung up around Olympus so we offer the following comment: Any resident of Olympus can verify every single bit of this material. Any alterations we attempted would be rapidly exposed.

This is the record of what really happened. It is told by those who's actions were central to the recent history of our planet.

Chapter 1

Two years ago, almost to the day.

For some reason we have never understood a few hundred of us changed. We became Gods.

Too many for one little planet, in the beginning we were so scattered it was easy to believe we were unique. But each day brought a new story, a whisper, a blurry picture.

There were people out there somewhere who were doing things that no human had ever done before, so they said. Average folks resist radical new ideas, but the evidence mounted fast.

Then exposure, live on national television.

Took just a little over two months.

Has any video, outside of the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination, ever been analyzed as much? 'The Fateful Four' was what they were eventually called. None of them lived out the day so they never got to tell us what they called themselves.

Would the world be different if the other four had not been in that city on that particular day? Only one of them lived there, people always seem to forget that. If evil had won, would they win in the end, would they win tomorrow?

But they were all there. Eight MetaHumans met in battle in the heart of a major city, it really is a wonder that so few people were killed.

Twelve died, eight humans, four MetaHuman. The other four became superstars. Well superstars in concept anyway, our speedster made sure we vanished when the fight was done.

Do you remember the next 48 hours? People call it 'The Great Pause' because it seemed the world was on hold, waiting for 'The Four' to appear.

I remember four people trying to get to know each other with no time to do it. We trusted each other from the first moment, but we had no idea who we had just fought beside.

All were agreed we had done the right thing, some were hit hard by the deaths of our opponents. I was not one of those, I see no other way.

But what lay before us was too much, too much power, too much responsibility, too much of everything. We all needed about a week to sit and think about it. Any notion of that was removed from all of us within hours of the battle. The news was insane, reactions were intense, and confused. I heard some really funny things, and some stuff that made me want to cry.

We had hours.

We really almost went our separate ways, technically we did for about two hours at one point. Speed would not let go. No matter where any of us went, he followed. He talked, and talked, and talked. Psyche brain-blasted him into unconsciousness, 10 seconds after he woke up, he was talking to her again. Speed knew he needed us.

We all came back.

Ever met a Telepath? As nice as... most are, I would avoid it if I were you. They read you, all of you, without effort. Your whole life flashes before their eyes, with great detail and depth. All the little private things only you knew about, they know. It is unsettling.

It makes them powerful, even in a room full of power. We listened to her that day. She told us that we were all Heroes. Not perfect, not supermen, but Heroes. One solid bit of trust out of which came so very much.

A new Superpower was born. I mean that in the way they used to mean that term. The four of us represented as much power as a major nation, and we knew it.

A Telepath, A Speedster, A Superman & An Energy Master

Psyche, Speed, Thor & Pulsar

Speed got the clothes and masks we wore that day. Now they are in a glass case for people to look at, still kinda feel weird about that.

Psyche and I could not fly back then, and Thor of course has never learned. So we took a limo to the TV studio. Speed ran along, around, and ahead, of us as we traveled the twenty miles or so.

You probably remember that press conference far better than I. A lot of it was just surreal blur. We showed off our powers, Psyche went last not because she was shy, but because we knew she would scare people in a way the other three of us would not. She did. They were, we moved on.

I remember a shower of questions. Most of which we would not answer like 'Who are you?'. Quite a few we had not idea how to answer as in 'Why did this happen?'. I understand they were confronted with something beyond all possible prediction, but still, only 1 out of every 10 questions was even slightly decent.

Finally I got tired of it, and asked everyone to please just sit down for a moment.

Then I spoke. I told the world in simple terms that there now existed some unknown number of superpowered individuals. I said we had no real idea how many but it had to be something above 100, perhaps many times that number.

The world had changed.

I hated having to say that we four feared that many of the people who have so suddenly gained these powers might misuse them. Power corrupts, absolute power does worse. I invited them to consider the power of the four of us.

I said quite simply "We are beyond all normal human control. We choose to stand with humanity but others will not. Four others already made the wrong choice. They will not be the last."

Then I spoke to all the MetaHumans out in the World.

These words I remember quite well, kinda proud of them.

"Because we are different we have decided on the term that will be used for our kind, MetaHuman."

"I would like to speak to my brother and sister MetaHumans. One day not too long ago you woke up different. Faster, stronger, or just,” My force field flickered about me for a moment, “different."

"We do not know why this happened, we do not even really understand what has actually happened. But we do know we now have power. Power beyond imagination. Whatever our lives were before no longer matters, this is what we now are. We accept that."

"You have power. How are you going to use it?"

"We four have already made our choice clear. Now we are asking you to do the same."

"In one month there will place... a place we will call home. If you are MetaHuman there will be room for you there. We wish to meet all of you. Together we have some really big decisions to make about the future."

"And because I must, because two days ago I killed a MetaHuman, my final words must be to the very few of you out there who have already made a bad choice."

"If you take lives, if you cause chaos, we will come for you."

"We are... Justice."

The others were standing beside me as I spoke the last lines.
It did make a nice poster.

At my signal, Speed popped all of us out of the building.

I am Pulsar, and this is our story.

Pulsar, Psyche, Thor & Speed

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:28 PM

Chapter 2

You know me as Thor.

Took me a long time to accept that name, now it is the only one that matters.

I did not pick it for myself, the other three did that. But hey, I'm blond, big, good-looking, it does make a kind of sense.

Not sure why I am doing this, everyone watched what we have done for the last three years. What more do you need to know?

Questions. They told me there were questions I could answer.

Oh it's a Test! A test without someone trying to kill me, I am beginning to warm to this task.

Never could follow instructions, these are not in any order.

#37
No I am not Invulnerable. People like to say it but it really is not true. Compared to you I might seem to be but that is something different. My skin is about twice as dense as the average human being. My other tissues are similar.

I heal about twice as fast as most. Sounds nice but it is not Wolverine-style regeneration.

#38
Bullets hurt, but they cannot kill me. A tank shell would probably hurt me quite a bit.

#82
I have always believed we made the only choice we all could have made. If we had not stood up as Justice I firmly believe the world would have fallen to chaos.

Hundreds of unchecked gods running amok.

I have never regretted it for a moment.

#117, 118, 119
My Hammer weighs 222 pounds. The grip is wrapped in a thick layer of absorbent rubber to cushion my hand when I hit things. It is not enchanted, and it does not return to me when I throw it.

It was a gift from everyone who knows me. You probably do not know this but it is the tradition in Olympus for everyone to get together to buy one special gift for birthdays and other occasions.

I got it the first year of Olympus so I have had it for a little over 2 years now.

#259
I am not Superman, 'A Superman' is a general classification that we use for people with my basic abilities.

#1
What do I remember about the beginning?

I remember a whole lot of work, and a whole lot of not knowing.

You praise us for standing up, and you should. We looked the whole unknown number of would-be gods in the eye and said "Behave, or else!". Were we four of the strongest MetaHumans on the planet, or perhaps just 4 average ones. Would others of our kind respond to our call, or gather to remove us from their path.

We prepared for both in that short month after the press conference.

Psyche and Speed had both been unable to resist the lure of using their powers for their own personal gain. Both insist they only took from criminals, I believe Psyche. Speed though, never been all that sure about. It is so easy for him to just take whatever he wants.

We had almost unlimited funds, and with that kind of money you can perform a whole set of miracles. We became a Foundation within days of the press conference. Without any of the four of us revealing our human identities to anyone we became legal entities. It was explained to me a number of times, still have no idea how it happened.

#122
My driver's license says 'Thor'.

#123
Why Wyoming? A small army of real estate people looked everywhere to find the biggest chunk of land in the United States. They found it somewhat odd that we added the clause that being near unused
land owned by the United State government was a plus. On that one we were thinking ahead.

The purchase of a number of pieces of land, along with our eventual annexing of some government land gave us some 8,000 square miles.

Today you call it the Sovereign Territory of Olympus.

In the beginning it was just home.

#51

Kid Flash was the first MetaHuman to arrive, big surprise. Exactly two hours after we first set foot on our new land he blasted into our midst. For about three minutes he and SPeed blurred around us, while
we tried to decide if there was a battle going on or not.

16 years old, hyper in a way that made Speed a whole lot less annoying, and dying to help out. Until that point we had not made any plans for using our MetaHuman abilities to assist in construction. But once the idea took hold it turned out to be enjoyable.

He hated the name Kid Flash. He bitched, he pitched about a million alternatives, but he was stuck with it. He did not shut up about it until finally Pulsar told him that someday his name would be Flash.

Psyche found the second. The day after we arrived in Wyoming she left to visit Colleges. In 14 days she visited 8 institutions of higher learning. She was recruiting what would become the core of our administration and science groups.

I have to give Pulsar credit for that idea. Have Psyche screen the best and the brightest young women and men. We needed a broad spectrum of skills but mostly we needed adaptable minds who could
help us manage the beast we were creating.

Speed watched over Psyche of course, but the only incident involved the MetaHuman I mentioned. You know her as Nova.

Psyche knew Nova's secret the moment they met. It is somewhat unfortunate that the telepath chose to speak the secret out loud while they were in a public place.

The fires that resulted from Nova accidentally powering up caused a lot of property damage but no injuries. Despite the reputation she later gained, Nova really is a sweet girl.

The brief fight she and Speed had qualifies as the first superpowered misunderstanding battle. I understand these are quite common in comic books but fortunately not in real life.

#2
Do I think what we did was important?

I think we saved the World. There was destruction, too many people, Human and MetaHuman, died, but we are still here.

I am Thor, the Hammer of Olympus!

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:32 PM

Chapter 3

Our first direct contact with the United States government did not go well.

We did not expect it to go well, they had no idea what to expect.

There was a group of FBI agents at the TV studio when we did the first Press Conference. They would probably have tried to talk to us after we were done if Speed had not run us past them.

Every college that Psyche visited had agents of someone or the other. They applied for positions, they took jobs in hotels, it was a massive effort. For her part Psyche spotted them instantly and choose not to engage in the least.

She told Speed to do the same, and for once he listened.

So it was at the still unnamed home base in Wyoming were we had our first official contact with the US government. Three weeks after the Press Conference.

4 Suburbans full of FBI agents arrived. They were waved through the front gate and into the parking lot in front of the Admin building.

The agents in the lead car entered the building, flashed their badges at the Staff, and asked to see the four of us. They were shown to the main conference room, we were called.

We met them in costume of course.

They asked us to remove our masks, of course.

I said "No".

"We are Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, here under the direct orders of the President of the United States of America. You will remove your masks and identify yourselves, now."

"We,” I pause to raise my hands which crackled and glowed with blue energy, “are superpowered MetaHumans, any one of us could kill all of you before you could even blink, and we say... No. Next request?"

“We know you you are.” gotta give them credit, they had guts.

A laugh and “No they don't” from Psyche

I crossed my arms across my chest and waited.

They conferred, radios were involved.

"Your presence is requested for a meeting in Washington DC. The details are in this envelope. This meeting is in three days."

"A meeting with?"

"The President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, most of the Intelligence community and representatives of Congress. We do take you guys seriously. We... apologize for any rudeness."

"We accept. You will be shown out."

That was not so bad, but it was a taste of things to come.

The location for the meeting was on the outskirts of DC, in a largely commercial area. The actual building was only 3 stories and seemed to house a number of politics-related businesses.

We arrived on time, and caught only a couple of stares as we walked into the building. A polite young woman was waiting for us, she escorted us to a waiting area. Much like the green rooms of entertainment there was food and drink available.

We did not touch any of it.

After about 10 minutes the same young woman appeared to walk us to the meeting. As the doors to the actual meeting room were being opened Psyche and I looked at each other.

"Nobody?" I asked.

"Nobody." she replied.

I had felt a great deal of normal energy inside, a lot of display screens. But no people.

And that was how it was.

Four Chairs, for us it seemed. and two tables pushed together to form a wide V. Arraigned facing us were Nine large screens.

The President in the middle, someone in uniform on his right. On his left what could only be a Senator. The other screens were filled with mostly men and two women.

Looking at us.

Scared, did not need Psyche to tell me that. Forgive me but I was feeling smug. Powerful and Smug, bad combo.

"Please sit down, make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink?"

This came from the President.

"Thank you Mr. President, we are fine"

We sat. Even Speed. I am pretty sure this meeting was the longest I have ever seen him sit in once place.

The President introduced each of the people on the monitors. I was impressed, this was the core of the US government, except for the Supreme Court, everybody was represented.

Then he launched into the real reason for the meeting. They recognized both the great potential, and great danger, that our powers represented. Ok, good so far.

He felt that our call to other MetaHumans, and our willingness to stand up for what is right commendable, but not enough. Hmmm...

This danger, this risk, was the province of the government of the United States. uh oh.

He eventually finished with a question.

"So what do you think, can we work together?"

My turn.

"Mr President, we are glad you recognize the potential danger that MetaHuman represent. We anticipated your offer and must respectfully decline."

"So far we have seen a wide variety of abilities among MetaHumans. Some are simply a little faster, a little stronger, than the norm."

"We four are different, and we can only assume there are more just like us out there. Even if we wished to do so we cannot place ourselves under your control. We are responsible for what we do with our powers, and we must decide how they are to be used."

"So we make you a counter-proposal. We wish to have our lands in Wyoming, and all adjacent federal lands, be declared the independent Sovereign territory of Olympus. Using the model of native American reservations this is not impossible."

"In return we will take responsibility for all MetaHuman activity. Those that break the law, who take life, or who plot to impose their will on others will be our concern. "

"We will work with you, we will not work for you."

"If you choose to reject our offer, we will leave the United States and set up operations elsewhere. This would not be our preferred choice since three of us are American citizens.”

“But what we are now is bigger than any country."

"We are going to change the world Mr. President. Work with us and the United States will be the first to benefit from what we can do. Reject us, and you will only be coming to us later."

"The bulk of the MetaHumans in the world seem to be located in North America. Without us, life here might get rough."

I stopped because Psyche was speaking to me, fast intense words. She was white.

"They have six of us in a lab. They are... They are. Testing them. hurting them. Oh, god. They are not criminals, they have not hurt anybody. We must help them!"

"You can read them? They are just faces on a screen."

"So? They are two floors up, all of them. Surrounded by pretty much the entire Secret Service. They are terrified of us and will do anything, anything, to gain any level of control."

Turning back to the face of the President, I resumed.

"You have Six MetaHumans in a lab in Maryland."

I always was the direct type.

"It is a clinic, we are not certain they are not in fact ill. Since it is obvious you know I will not bother to deny it. We are doing what we feel we must. This could easily become a battle for survival and I intend for the human race to win" the President shot back.

"These are not criminals, you have no right to hold them."

"We have every right, and we will do what we have to do. Who are you to question me? I am the President of the United States of America!"

I just looked at him. My force field came up, it slowly intensified until the light from it was blinding.

Amplifying and twisting the sounds of my voice I rumbled.

"I am something you cannot possibly understand."

"You have our offer."

"And Mr. President, this form of meeting is an insult. Please do not repeat it."

A wave of my hand and all the monitors, and every other electronic device in the building, fried. A few nice sparks but nothing movie quality. I allowed my forcefield to drop away.

We walked out of the building, meeting no resistance whatsoever.

Psyche asked “Olympus”?

I responded “It needed a name, good as any.”

Psyche whispered “Zeus walks again.”

On the way back to the Hotel we were all quiet as we thought about what had just happened. Had I just told off the freaking President of the United States?

Six of us, lab rats. The President can wait.

I touched my earpiece "Speed get in the car".

Door pops, wind howls for a half second, Speed is sitting beside me.

"yeah boss?"

Speed always talks in blurts, there really are no spaces between the words. There is also little tone variation, a question sounds exactly like an exclamation. So to make it readable we will add spaces, and leave off the rest.

"Recon the hotel before we get there, look at every person in the place. We will be evacing as soon as we get our stuff together. "

"Psyche, call home. Locate a hotel 100 miles away from this 'clinic'. That is your evac point Speed. Recon the clinic as soon as you can. Psyche you can direct him?"

She nodded and continued talking to Central.

"Got it?"

"yes boss. we done for now."

"Yes."

Wind, slam, gone.

"Central has the hotel set, and will send the location to Speed. We are going to get them."

She was not asking you understand, at least she was not asking the obvious question.

"Do we have a choice? Do I have a choice? No.” I said, rather calmly I wish to add.

“I have to live with myself. What people choose to do voluntarily is one thing, force is another. I will not allow our kind to be treated like animals. Consequences be damned. You people want me to be Zeus, fine, we are getting them tonight." I finished.

She smiled.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:33 PM

Chapter 3a

Midnight, 1 mile south of the lab facility in western Maryland.

It was rather isolated, as least as much as something can be in a heavily populated eastern state.

The three of us walked down the road towards the complex.

When history is made you really do not feel it. We knew what we were about to do might start a War, a MetaWar. The four of us were about to commit federal crimes.

The US military was set up and waiting. Two massive Abrams Tanks sat just outside the main gate. Multiple layers of the fine troopers of the US Marine Corps were alert and focused.

Helicopters buzzed overhead. An Apache prowled, they really are beautiful things.

Right after Speed dropped us off we saw the first copter. It was a ways off but hard to miss.

Psyche said idly "Do not worry about the helicopters, they will not see us until you wish them to. Neither will the marines. They are mostly nice boys."

I was surprised, that was more power than she had displayed at that point. How little I knew back then.

"You can do that?"

"boss please"

She speaks like Speed when she wants to express annoyance with me.

So we walked down the middle of the road, laughing at the little mechanical birds that could not see us. Getting hit with a searchlight still creeped me out every sing time.

We walked until we were inside the cleared forest area of the facility. Interesting how it had this huge outer ring of open space. At about 100 feet from the monstrous noses of the Tanks we stopped.

"Speed"

He arrived.

"Everybody, get ready, time to play."

"Psyche if anything goes wrong, stay within touching distance of me. As long as you are close I can shield you from anything."

She nodded.

"Everybody ready"

"oh yeah"

"Yes" from Psyche.

"Sure, if I had anything to do" from Thor. He was feeling grumpy.

"Ok, here we go."

I reached out to the electricity around me. It was an easy matter to find the incoming power sources and short them out.

The complex went dark.

I pointed to each of the three helicopters in turn. Gently I 'tugged' on their electrical systems. I did not short them out, not quite anyway. I pulsed them until each in turn bugged out, or landed.

"Psyche start sending them to la-la-land."

We all began to walk forward. Well we walked, Speed vanished.

Starting with the troopers in the Tanks they all fell deeply asleep. Psyche really is something.

The front doors of the main building were massive. Thor really wanted to rip them down. But since that would not be in line with the plan, he was turned down when he offered, again.

He did get to pry them open, without power they were rather stuck. I could have powered them open easily, but I did not mention that. Thor got to pry open 6 other doors that night. Every one of the MetaHumans was locked in a vault. No not a cell, a vault, thick walls, padded walls, it was ugly.

They were all in bad shape, Speed evaced them, gently he promised, back to our hotel where people were waiting.

The desire to reduce the place to rubble was almost overpowering.

In case you were wondering, I did not.

Sorry if you were expecting a battle. 3 years ago we could not admit we had done it. This collection will be the first time that this information has been made public.

We returned to the Hotel, and back home.

There was no doubt we had crossed the final line. None of us knew what was going to happen, but we did know we would see it through together.

At least home had a name now, Olympus.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:37 PM

Chapter 4

Part I

Geo is my name now.

To set the record straight: My intentions were good, the result was not.

For almost a month I had studied everything I could on geology, plants, and what actually makes up the ground we walk on.

I did study eco-systems, but well, only those of a desert.

What I did not learn was what happens when radical change is introduced to a set of interlocked eco-systems.

I got a wooden box and filled it with sand. Took a couple of tries but I was able to transform it into dirt. The guy at the lawn and garden shop said it was rich, somewhat fertile soil, although lacking in little biological life forms.

So I looked up the names he gave me. I cannot make living things, I can change them but then they are no longer alive. But the tiny organisms the guy was talking about were available for purchase. Except I would need a whole lot of them for what I had in mind.

Let me mention that at this point I did not know there were any other MetaHumans. I thought I was it.

Most other Metas tell me I was lucky, my power manifested itself fairly quietly. Not sure why I just accepted what was happening to me, but I did. In a few days I understood what I could do, and more importantly, what I could not.

Power, yeah, it is a drug. It changes the way you see every single thing in the world. Perhaps you think that some stuff, some basic stuff, might stay the same, sorry, no.

We all want to be special but we hate to be different. Ever think about that? They are one in the same, just from two different points of view.

I was special, wow, I do wish I could share those feelings with you but there are no words. But I was also different, and the depth of my difference grew each day.

I, ah, had money. There was a place in town, everybody I knew was aware of it. A chop shop, people steal cars, this place broke them down or sold them off.

So I put on a mask, opened a door in the wall with a wave of my hand, and walked in. Every person I saw found the air around their head turned into ether until they passed out.

I took all the cash they had, and turned the entire building into oxygen. The cars, and people, I left intact. Put them out of business and gave me money to quit my job and learn to use my powers properly. Works for me.

The places which produce the little critters I would need was rather impressed at the size of the order I placed. When I specified the delivery location they became concerned. It seemed not too many people needed such things in the northern Nevada desert.

Money settles most disputes, so it really was not a problem. I also bought the little plot of land I needed.

The trip to Nevada was really fun. First Class all the way, and then a taxi out to my new land. About forty miles to the north was the small town of Tempiute, fifty miles west stands Amargosa Valley.

Las Vegas to the south about fifty miles. I felt I was more than far enough away from everybody.

My plan was to transform a circle about 1 mile in diameter. One Mile. That was all. My powers do have limits, and back then they were far weaker than today. To transform the entire chop shop
took a lot out of me. So I really thought I would be lucky to even reach a mile out.

I spent the next 24 hours listening to the land, sensing the patterns and make up of the desert around me.

The next morning my worms and other little critters were delivered. I thought I was ready.

Noon. I began to alter the ground beneath my feet.

My challenge was not just to transform the sand, that was the easy part. I also had to reach deep down and establish a natural extension to the water system. The land had to have water to become fertile soil.

The change started slowly and then began to expand in ripples.

It felt great... right up till the moment I lost control.

The energy I had tapped into was too strong. I did not think I had the will to contain it. For I do not know how long I struggled for control. I just wanted it to stop.

Finally the energy waves SNAPPED, and it was over.

Drained, yeah that just begins to cover it. Pretty sure I blacked out for a couple minutes too. It passed after a while.

It had worked! As far as I could see there was dirt, not sand!

I decided to start walking north and see how far the effect had extended. I had a compass, some water & food. It was 2:02 pm.

7pm, the sun is heading down. Still no sand in sight. I started to try and do the math in my head. We walk what a few miles an hour or so. So I had maybe crossed ten miles. If my speed was higher than that then it was even farther.

And still for as far as I could see, dirt.

Oh shit.

I arrived back at my little shed after midnight. Wanna know something? I really was scared to make the call for my ride. How could they not notice? The road in my area was intact, so I thought I had managed to leave those alone.

He noticed.

The driver got out when he arrived. He stood and looked around. He did not say a word to me. When I got in, he got in. We drove to my hotel, he took my money, and I got out.

The next day the news broke the story. I found out what I had done along with the rest of you.

From my starting point I had transformed hundreds of square miles of desert. The effect stopped, mostly, when it hit the mountains but they are a little thinner than they used to be. The radius of the effect was just about 60 miles.

See I just did not study enough about pressure. When I created the underground sources of water I filled them 100%. This would not have mattered had I only done a small area. But as the area of effect expanded my new sources of water connected with existing ones.

And with wells. And pipes.

Rippling across four States, my pressure wave had hit a whole lot of Cities, Towns, and Villages.

Las Vegas, Tempiute and Amargosa Valley were hit particularly hard, their entire water system just exploded.

Nobody died! I made the biggest mess since WWII, but nobody died.

I understand that having a blast of water burst up from under you while you are sitting on your toilet really sucked. Large men, and women, were blown across rooms. No one was seriously hurt but a number of people did suffer injury. A whole bunch of people were angry, I get that.

Again, I feel really bad about it, what more can I say?

I'm Geo now, and since I came to Olympus I have tried to make up for that mistake.

Two months later, three weeks after Olympus 'opened'. I visited the site of my 'experiment gone wrong'.

The land was green.

Sure it is flat, and sure it cost about $35 million dollars to turn it all into proper soil. But it is not a desert anymore.

Kinda cool.

Part II

Not sure why we are all doing this. The girl from Admin who asked me was cute, so I guess that is reason enough.

They tell me this is for everyone, and by that they mean humans too.

Ok, fine. Then let me get something straight with you right off the bat. I am a MetaHuman, I am stronger than you, I am faster than you, and you may only see me when I wish you to, which is rarely.

I am better than you.

Pulsar hates it when I say that, but they promised me I could say whatever I want. They promised they would not censor me.

We will see.

They call me Shadow.

So it is the early days you all wish to know about. The endless speculation you all love to spew is not enough? Do you want the truth, or just something comforting?

The truth is that my power was a mind-blowing RUSH! I am not just invisible, I cannot be heard, I do not trip sensors of any kind, I go where I wish.

I stole, money, food, jewelry, everything, anything. I saw it, I wanted it, I took it. I quit my job the same day I discovered my power.

Don't get me wrong, I never hurt anyone. Oh I messed with a whole lot of people, Punked has nothing on me. But nobody got hurt. Not even once.

I watched the big four on TV along with the rest of you I guess.

'So there are more of me,' I thought. I did not really like the idea, in a way I felt a lot like you all did. My life was pretty good, I liked things the way they were. I wanted to be the only Invisible Man.

Others.

I did not really believe the four with all this Justice crap. 'We will come for you' Yeah right, find me dickheads.

But...

I did agree that most people with powers would go at least kinda bad, hey look at me. I was only a little bad, others though... man. They would kill, break stuff, destroy buildings, destroy my beloved StarBucks!

Crap.

Double Crap.

I wanted it to all just go away, but looking around my home, filled with everything I had taken, I knew it would not.

The only way I could live my solitary happy life was to join with others and act for, I could not believe I was even thinking this, the common good. Yech. Maybe I could cut a deal, do stupid daring-do a couple of days a week, steal the rest... probably not, damn.

When the location of Olympus was announced I packed up and headed that way. I was not sure I would stay, I really expected the whole place to stink.

It doesn't.

Well not as much as every other place, so it is home.

Yeah Pulsar and his gang have a bit of a stick up their butts. But they do mean what they say, and for reasons I will NEVER understand, they do want to help everyone, even humans.

But I did not sign up for any of you. I signed up for me.

I am Shadow, and you will never see me.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:39 PM

Chapter 5

Things were rather primitive in the early days. Our meeting hall was a large long metal-walled building, with folding chairs.

As the six of us entered I thought about all the people I was about to tell some pretty scary shit. This was still a few days before the official opening of Olympus but eleven other MetaHumans had already arrived.

They sat in the front row, surrounded by almost all the members of the Admin team. Behind the 45 or so of them were the twenty Tech and nearly one hundred Security personnel.

172 people, about to discuss the fate of the planet.

Janice opened the meeting by presenting a summary of what was said, and learned when we spoke to the President and his cronies (my word not hers). You do know her right? Her title back then was Lead Administrator which translated into President. She ran, and runs to this day, Olympus. I command, but she handles everything else.

Psyche and I watched everyone, but especially our brother and sister Metas.

The presentation only went up to our leaving the meeting place, it did not include any other events. Some of the people in the room knew we had brought guests home with us, but nobody knew who they were until right then.

The news that six MetaHumans were in federal custody without having committed any crimes was trumped only by the description of how they were treated.

Shouts, curses, it got rather noisy. Going and getting them seemed pretty much the consensus.

Now I stepped forward.

I waved away the mike, I do not need one.

"Everyone, please."

"Alright, I have a question for all of you. But before I ask it I want to make one thing perfectly clear. Psyche got the information about the six right out of the President's mind. She also read a doctor who is involved. There is no mistake."

I let them think about it for a moment as I looked as many as I could right in the eye. Not everyone was together, implications were beginning to creep into people's minds.

"So here is how we stand. We have made our offer to the United States government, they have a counter-proposal."

"For myself, Psyche, Thor, and of course Speed, our answer to the President's offer is no. Since we four are currently Olympus, this means that Olympus stands in defiance of the United States of America."

"We also feel that we must rescue our imprisoned brother and sisters. To do this means we become criminals, federal criminals at that."

"So here is the choice that faces each of you. The people on this stage are likely to come into conflict with the United States of America. We do not wish this to be so, but we see no other way."

"I believe that the world has changed. Not might, not could, has. Only we can see it because we are the change. We do not know how many of us there are, but we know it is more than enough to reduce this planet to a cinder."

From the front row a pleasant young female voice said

"There are at least 600, but more than half of those are just the basic type ones. People like you Mr. Pulsar sir, around 300."

I responded to this remarkable statement with a brilliant question of my own, "And you are?"

"Cindy Smith"

[Not her real human name, I will never use the actual human name of any MetaHuman resident of Olympus, or any friendly neutral. 'Villains' are different, if we have the name I will use it.]

I looked back at Janice with the obvious question.

She responded with "You have been busy, so have we. There is every reason to suspect she is correct. There are more of you than we thought."

Turning back towards the crowd I said to Cindy, "Ok, thank you for that information Cindy."

I got serious again.

"This is the game we are playing, the stakes are the life of every child, every bird, every man, woman, and creature that walks this Earth. Nothing human society can do will stop this, but we at least have a chance. The authorities will get out of our way, but I do not know how far it will go before that happens."

"If you wish to defy the U.S. government, risking having to leave the country, if you wish to help us in freeing the six MetaHumans, then stick around. If you do not, we will understand."

I was playing for keeps you must understand. There were all sorts of middle ground choices. We could have spent all day talking about the things we might do. I knew what I had to do and everyone was either going to come along, or leave. This would trouble me later.

"Those of you in our employ. If you wish to leave we will grant you a six month severance package. We understand that for you this is not going to be an easy choice. Do what you feel is right.”

"There are eleven other people who, while new, and here before they were supposed to be..."

A scowl and a smile from me at the row of Metas, met with smiles and laughter from them.

"Who will be special parts of Olympus if they still wish to be. I realize this is a huge thing to deal with. But as I fear it will be for a while, time is against us."

"If you are wondering what I am worried about it is just the U.S. military, nothing trivial. Maybe nothing will happen, but maybe the 101st Airborne is about to drop down on our damn heads. I need to know how many of you I can count on, and I am afraid I need to know now."

"If you are uncertain, stay sitting. Please do not be afraid to do this if you feel it is the right thing for you to do. I will make it easier, anyone so much sends a harsh glance in your direction will answer to me. Everyone hears me, and I am not kidding."

"But if you are indeed with us, please step up here."

I moved back a couple of steps which turned out to be a good thing. Two of them kinda vaulted up onto the stage, complete with midair somersaults and pinpoint landings.

Another flew, she was quite pretty.

Hoots and catcalls were traded back and forth between the three on the stage and the rest. All eight of them made their way up to join us. 15 superpowered MetaHumans in one place. I got a little chill I do not mind saying. A taste of things to come.

“I am honored by your choices. Probably going to need you because the fact is that we already rescued the six, and they are here now. Not in the best of shape but alive and grateful.”

Stunned silence.

More chaos, questions, cheers, the usual.

As for the rest of the people at the meeting, and those who remained on duty who watched the tapes, we did rather well. Only three from Admin, four from Tech, and eleven from Security choose to leave.

I got to know the new Metas and we dug in, ready for anything.

Nothing happened.

Granted almost every third truck that made a delivery was driven by someone who was trying to spy on us. But nothing overt. Eventually I sent my own spy to Washington in the form of Psyche.

Turns out they simply did not know what to do. They were searching for more MetaHumans of course, but things were different now and the Metas were being elusive.

The final days till the official opening of Olympus came, and went without major incident.

600?

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:41 PM

Chapter 6

Part I

I do not know how much I will say.

More than anyone I understand how little you will be able to understand me.

But I know you, thousands of you, intimately.

Psyche.

All of you are a part of me, it is hard sometimes not to use we in the place where I should be. I am a We now.

When a Telepath reads you they get all of you. Your life plays out in our minds in a burst. We remember it all. Not every single second, but all the moments that mattered.

Every time I touch a new person, a little more of me becomes we.

When we first came to Olympus I had everyone record a video tape. Questions were prepared, we made a deal of it. Each of us talked about how we felt about who we had become, and what we hoped the future would bring.

They are meant to help ground us. In my friends minds I saw the steps towards godhood being taken. They did not see what they were doing as such, but I did. I was forced to conclude I was probably doing the same.

Hence the tapes.

We would watch them every year, together if possible.

Each of us has changed so much the person on the screen is almost a stranger. But they do help, a little, to keep us off of the wrong path. Those tapes are the reminder that keeps Pulsar, Thor, and the rest of the battle goons from destroying half the planet in the pursuit of good deeds.

They know I do not mean that, I love them all. But it is not without a grain of truth, and they know that too, boo-boo.

For me the screen shows a very faded memory. I who can remember the lives of countless people, cannot remember myself.

All of my sisters and I are attempting to find a way to cope with this problem, perhaps we will. We have a basic rule that it is ok to go the 'We' route when you are out to scare a cretin, but not when you are with friends.

We have turned our problem into another power. But then we are all women, and we adapt. There has only been one male Telepath. I met him, I killed him. If you had met him, you would have killed him too.

Only time I saw Pulsar completely and utterly stunned. He did not say a single word for 96 minutes.

Please do not pity me, I am a Goddess after all and quite thrilled with my lot in life. What I am doing is the most important work on the planet, hands down charlie brown.

Psyche, Goddess of Olympus

Part II

speed

that's me

It is what i do what I live what i crave

i sleep when i do for an hour a day

i eat a whole lot and lots and lots

sorry that I cannot form what I want to say into words that you could hear and then understand. I used to be able to do that but not anymore

i can sit i can listen pulsar can bite me on that one i do not wish to i do not have to so why should i

when he calls i always show up, that is the only thing that matters to me. when the police or the search & rescue or the fire department or animal control or anybody allowed to have the number calls i show up we show up

please do not mistake my manner of speech as somehow telling you I am stupid or a child or anything like that at all because it is not the case

i can read at speed too i love that phrase. there is a big building in washington dc the library of congress

read it

they say they being a bunch of people nobody ever met that travel broadens the mind guess how many places i have visited. i speak 23 languages speak them well, i read 14

bet you never guessed that one i do not communicate well with others who are not of my kind but i try really hard i can say let me help you in over 50 languages

of course i also know the word for demon in about eight different languages those are the words i hear just before they start throwing or shooting at me i do understand

wish i did not have to wear the mask it is most of the problem but they are necessary Pulsar Thor and Psyche all say so and that is good enough for me i say so and that is good enough for all the other speedsters

questions there are questions here

what no what don't understand no no what no

forget it none of those things make any sense to me

ok trying again

when i move sometimes everyone seems to be frozen but that is an extreme most of the time i feel like i am flowing along much faster than you but you look kinda normal. not sure what normal is anymore you have to understand

it is a good thing that you cannot see us most of the time if you could the number of times we circle sit circle bounce and so on would probably be very very very annoying

i feel a lot older than i should i bet they will eventually figure out how much more time i live compared to the normal there is that word again wish i knew what it meant

no opinion on what we did or why we did it or what we could have done differently some people were killing other people i helped those who fought against the killers

my new friends gave me things to do

i live in the speed but i need something to do

pulsar asks me to go somewhere far away and look at every single person every door everything and then write down a whole bunch of stuff then bring it back

for 10 minutes i have purpose

next

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:45 PM

Chapter 7

Part I

Fire, a wonderful and scary thing.

What if you were fire, if it was barely contained within you? If you knew that becoming angry, or even too happy, could cause the flames within you to burst out?

Would you like my power?

I am Nova.

Ever since the Meta change hit me I have tried to stay calm. Even before Psyche found me I was withdrawing from normal human contact. You have heard about that day right? I freaked, things burned, it really was a nice building.

Had kinda hoped that the weird job offer I was hearing about might be something out in the middle of nowhere. Antarctica would have been nice.

I almost turned Speed into a cinder, felt really bad about that. Total accident, everybody says it was not my fault.

My power is what we of Olympus call an Anti-Social. If I were playing for any of the other sides of the game I would be a Destructor. When I fight the landscape suffers.

I envy people like Geo, or Apollo, who can control their powers so precisely. Point a gun a Speed and he will take it away from you, disassemble it, and lay it neatly at your feet.

If you point a gun at me I have two choices, I can burn your hand off, or I can intensify my shield enough to stop the bullet. When I do the latter anything flammable within fifty feet will burst into flame, including people.

I have a reputation. I am sure, mostly sure anyway, that the majority of my rep is because of how my powers work. I do not play well with others and that is a fact. The truth, I have caused a massive amount of destruction during my time in the field. But I believe that what I did saved lives, so I am content.

Some of my rep though, is because of something else. I have to control my emotions you see. Anything beyond a monotone existence is not acceptable. I do not have sex. The Tech guys and girls are working on it, but I am not hopeful.

I can project fire from any part of my body. Think about it.

Since I have this constant flow of power within me I find I have to let a little of it out. So most of the time my eyebrows are on fire. I do not even notice it anymore, but it does freak people out. I do like that, I admit it freely.

But.

Since I have to control my feelings, I have to live like a freaking monk most of the time, when I have to fight, I cut loose. I laugh, I scream, I allow myself to enjoy my life and my fire.

I light up the sky, I burn and I kill and I love every moment of it.

I know, I freaking know ok, that I am doing terrible things. I am killing, ok I said it, I know it. It is my only release and I take complete advantage of every single moment.

This life picked me, this power picked me, I am just trying to live with it. Don't judge me because you cannot understand what it means to be me.

When I am allowed to be by people I consider the good guys, I am a Destructor. I destroy to do good, and I like it. Does that make me a boy?

Part II

It is hard to be taken seriously as a SuperHero when the whole world has seen your dick.

The first time my power activated I was in downtown Santa Barbara, CA. I grew to 40 feet in height. My clothes did not grow with me.

I panicked, what would you do?

I ran, well sort of stepped carefully would be more accurate. Accidents happened all around me, my fault of course, but I did not step on anything, or anybody. Each building I passed brought a new chorus of screams. I guess seeing a huge head, of some sort, outside their window was a bit much for some people.

Feeling scared and a little dizzy I made it out of the center of town. I was getting close to the eastern forest when the chopper found me. A news crew, with a camera and a spotlight.

The fact that I was naked dawned on me finally and I looked for some way to cover up. A rather large U.S. flag caught my eye and it was soon wrapped around me like a towel. The people in the copter were shouting questions at me the whole time. I guess I could have talked to them, but I just wanted to get away.

Again I ran, and this time I mean ran. The earth shook but I covered a lot of distance in a very short amount of time. I have since learned at that size I can do better than 70 mph.

The forest loomed before me. Trees which had always seemed huge looked like models. I mean there were plenty that were taller than me, but still, the scale was just wrong. It was going to be tough to hide, even in there.

I need to get back to my normal size, I have to. I thought that to myself rather intently, and it worked. Not smoothly, first down to 20, then 12, then what I thought was my normal 6'. Again, later I learned my normal height was now 6' 2".

Into the forest I ran, the flag left in a puddle behind me. Felt bad about that, you are not supposed to let that flag hit the ground. I heard they did not burn it, it went to a lab somewhere and still exists. I should buy it.

I kept moving for a couple of hours, afraid they would be searching for me. I found some old tee-shirts and managed to cover myself a little. Around 3 am I made my way home. Despite my paranoid fears, there was no one watching my apartment.

Home, Shower, Clothes, oh yes.

I packed a couple of bags, never really thought about doing anything but running. I read science fiction, when weird things happen people get turned into lab rats. A note to my landlord requesting that he have my utilities turned off and I was gone.

Sequential visits to different ATMs cleared out my bank account and I headed south. There are places in the Baja where you can loose yourself and I intended to do just that. Dye my hair blond, let my whiskers grow, find some time to think.

What the fuck had happened to me?

Maybe I am crazy. You will never know how frightened that thought made me when it hit. I mean come on, I 'grew' to 40 feet tall and ran around Santa Barbara with my johnson hanging out?

Delusional. oh god. That makes sense. Are you supposed to know you are crazy?

I was 6 hours away from home, a motel was handy. I stopped, got a room under a fake name, and plopped down on the bed.

Now I want to pause here, just so you understand. I had convinced myself that I was ill. It made sense, it explained why no one had found me, no one was looking. I was still freaked out, but I had accepted my illness and was determined to go home and get help.

Then I turned on the TV, and saw myself.

40' tall, and running towards the forest.

oh. my. god.

That flag had not covered me nearly as well as I thought it had.

I grew.

Through the roof, it hurt, I kept growing until I was again 40 feet tall.

"Damn!" I swore out loud. This was the first time I had spoken at my full size and the sound of it was impressive. Deep, strong, me but I had never sounded that powerful before.

Before I decided I was crazy I had prepared for this event. I had to rip the bags apart because I could not work the zippers but the tarps did the job. Along with some rope I had at least a basic set of shorts.

Ah, yeah, there were about twenty people staring up at me when I was finished. They just looked. I reached down and gathered all my gear in one hand, and stepped out of the ruin of a room.

"Sorry about that.” I rumbled as I walked away.

"No problem man." was the rather shaky reply.

I got clear again, and managed to force myself to shrink.

Now I know what you are thinking. Why did I not just calm down and shrink back at the motel. I could have driven away. Remember what I paused to tell you? Going from thinking you are crazy to knowing you are some superpowered freak is bound to play havoc with your thinking processes. It sure as hell did with mine.

My first thought when I hit full size was, damn my dick is hanging out again, so I did what I had to do to deal with that.

After that I managed to avoid major shocks to my system until I could learn to control my changes. Today I can attain any height from my now normal 6' 2" up to 40 feet. My strength increases more than you would expect to compensate for my weight. When I am full sized I am every bit as strong as Thor. Ok maybe not quite, but close.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:47 PM

Chapter 7a

I really did not have much choice but to head to Olympus. The authorities were looking for me they just reacted very slowly. Olympus is a cool place, hope you can visit some day My only problem: I never wanted to be a Hero.

A little training was ok, there are some people here who helped me get my control locked down. After that I told them I did not know what I wanted to do. I was surprised when they said that was fine.

Nice place to live, a little money. Wonder if I am supposed to talk about that or not? Well if not they can edit it out. Just for living at Olympus, and not killing innocent people, MetaHumans get a yearly salary of $50,000. That is on top of a free place to live, I have a special house with an extra-large wing.

If you join a combat team, or PsiInt, or do anything like that, you make more. I thought 50 grand and an apartment was pretty cool. The house came later.

But the bad stuff started to happen. Philadelphia. What can I say, I mourn along with everyone else. Tens of thousands died, so much of American history lost.

I signed up, whatever they wanted me to do I was ready.

Some more training, drill instructors, sheesh.

Assignment to a combat team was fairly quick. And that is when the jokes began. Don't get me wrong, there is a bond between myself and my teammates that is stronger than blood.

They called me 'swinger' from day one, and nobody would tell me why. They were the most awesome, I mean fucking awesome, group of men and women I had ever met. They lived in a world I did not even know about, I thought I did but I was so wrong.

Power, controlled and laser accurate. Six people, coordinated, tight, it is a joy to be with them. We save lives and we kick ass, it does not suck.

But they kept calling me swinger.

One day it just hit me wrong, I did not care if it was a test, I did not care why they would not tell me. I grew to 40 and slammed both fists down on either side of one of my teammates.

"Tell me why the fuck you guys call me that!" I roared.

My friend was shaken, smiling, nothing wipes that grin off his face, but shaken.

"Because my tall friend, in all the history of the world, no one has ever swung as big a dick as you."

I laughed, I shrunk down and laughed until I cried.

The name Atlas was chosen for me, but I like it. I am no god, but I do my best.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:50 PM

Chapter 8

Command Briefing
1 week after the opening of Olympus.

Attendees: Members of the Admin staff and all resident MetaHumans except the speedsters.

Janice: All right I think we are ready to begin. We are here to discuss what we have learned in the past weeks. To get things started I am going to ask a few people to fill us all in on what they have been doing. First up, Alicia from Research.

Alicia: Hi everybody. For those of you who do not know our basic assignment was to learn about MetaHumans, how many there are, what they can do, and what they have been doing. At first we studied news reports and other official sources of information to try and get some idea how widespread things were.

All that was shelved when Miss. Pathfinder showed up. Her ability to mentally scan over vast distances gave us a whole new direction. Starting with how many MetaHumans there are, and approximately where they are located, we were able to match news stories with a person.

Say we know that MetaHuman A is in a particular area, there are news reports of someone flying from the same area, there you go. Not exacting but it helped a lot. There seem to be twenty basic power types and three different levels of ability.

MetaHumans of the first Type essentially have the basic physical enhancements that all Metas enjoy, but that is all. They are about slightly stronger than a well-trained human, and are somewhat more
resistant to injury. Speed and reflexes are high, but not superhuman, I mean MetaHuman sorry.

There are about 350 Type I MetaHumans in the world.

Type IIs are people with both the basic physical enhancement and a superpower. Everyone seems to basically have a single power although in some cases it is questionable. A few of the powers tend to branch into other areas if the Meta is strong enough.

These are the 'Rule Changers', if they are smart, and use their abilities well, they are beyond normal human control. They are not invulnerable though and they could be stopped with the proper effort. I believe the human you are calling Batman is responsible for bringing down 10 MetaHumans so far, so it can be done.

That brings us to the Type IIIs, the most powerful of the new superbeings. We call them 'Rule Breakers' because they are so powerful it is hard to conceive how humans could even hinder them let alone kill them.

We are rating Type IIs and Type IIIs in three levels of power, one is the weakest, three is strongest.

You Mr. Pulsar are a Type III Level 3, and there is one other here at Olympus.

Pulsar: Who?

Alicia: Geo. We have him classed with you in the 'Energy Master' power category but that is not really correct. But when we tried to use 'Matter Master' we just found the phrase silly. Both of you can manipulate matter or energy at such a fundamental level that your real limits will probably never be known.

Psyche: What are the powers?

Alicia: In order they are:

1. Acrobatics
2. Armor
3. Density Control
4. Energy Master
5. Energy Projection
6. Entangle
7. Flight
8. Force Field
9. Growth
10. Invisibility
11. Mental Blast
12. Mental Illusions
13. Mind Scan
14. Regeneration
15. Shape Shift
16. Strength
17. Speed
18. Telepathy
19. Telekinesis
20. Teleport

All Type I Metas are classed as Acrobats which is a general physical enhancement category. The powers Regeneration, Shape Shift, and Teleport are tentative. There is no one here who has them but we have pretty good evidence they exist.

Pathfinder: Teleport is definite, I have seen people pop across multiple states. There is one person out there who must be able to port anywhere on the planet. This person appears out of nowhere sometimes and then vanishes back. To get outside of my basic scan range you have to go to another continent.

Pulsar: What is the difference between Energy Master and Energy Projection?

Alicia: The difference between you and Apollo sir. He can generate light, heat, and with work possibly a laser. All his abilities are centered not only around a single type of energy, but he can only project it. He has very little ability to affect light that is ambient. You on the other hand sir, well is there any sort of energy you cannot control?

Pulsar: Mental energy actually. I can see it, I can block it, but that is all. I cannot project it, or affect it in any other way. Psyche finds that funny by the way. But thank you for the answer.

Alicia: You are welcome sir. We have looked at the power distribution across the three levels. Pretty much as you would expect there are about twice as many level twos as level threes, and twice as many level ones as twos.

But I must point out that since we only have 29 MetaHumans that we can really study, this information is not solid yet. Seems to make sense though.

Shorthand for our system is Power # x Type Level. So you sir would be 4x33

Janice: Thank you Alicia, we will be coming back to you later, for the rest. Anyone have any questions for her before we move on? Alright, Paul you are up.

Paul: Hello everyone. I am in charge of putting together some sort of combat training program here. The idea is to give each new MetaHuman a basic understanding of combat. I am supposed to give them some idea of how normal combat ops work, and help them to put their own special abilities to work.

I will tell you all right now I do not know what the fuck I am doing.

<general laughter>

I am a former navy SEAL so I do know my trade but what you people can do makes what I know seem pointless. You want to know the truth? After my interview here, and meeting her, I went out and got blasted. Never been so goddammed scared in my goddammed life. Next time some fucker shoots at me. I am gonna laugh. Laugh! Bullets, fuck 'em, I've met Psyche.

This is all insane shit.

We have not gotten much accomplished yet, still just learning what everyone can really do. But I will promise you this much, I will learn and then I will teach. Everyone you entrust to me will come out of my training grounds ready to fight. This ain't no game we are playing, and I intend for my boys and girls to fucking win.

That's my report.

Thor: How much time do you think you would need for a proper MetaHuman combat training course?

Paul: Well sir for normal combat three months is enough, if you want special ops level of performance add six more. Nine months would probably do it.

Pulsar: We will never have nine months.

Thor: But if that is what it takes?

Pulsar: Thor my faithful friend, we do not have the time. We do not have 9 weeks, we might not have 9 days. At least for now we have to race the clock. Six weeks.

Paul: Yes sir. Best I can do in six weeks, gotcha.

Janice: Thanks Paul, we all have faith in you. Erin if you would go next please.

Erin: Hiya. I am Erin and I am in charge of our facilities here at Olympus. So that means I get the food in here that you people eat by the truckload and I am responsible for all the construction.

I just want to say first that I am thrilled to be here. I know what lies ahead of us but I know we will get through it as long as we stay together.

We currently have eight functioning buildings. All, except for Admin, are of simple steel construction. We have however finally finished the interiors of the seven so they are not looking too shabby. This Admin building is a quick constructing prefab in case anyone was wondering.

Current usage is as follows:

1 Admin
2 Living Quarters
1 Training
1 Garage
1 Tech & Support Workshops
1 Science & Medical
1 Support & Storage

We have major construction plans for the months ahead, and with the help of some of you superpowered people, we might even be on schedule.

That's it Janice.

Janice: Thank you Erin. Some information we just got goes along with her report. All six helicopters are at our airport. In case any of you did not know it we purchased a medium-sized airport under a cover business identity. The two Gulf-Stream jets arrive tomorrow.

Those of you who were, or are, fans of comic books, or scifi movies, will love this part. Geo is going to make a tunnel leading from here to the airport. When we add in some electric vehicles we should be able to move about with little notice.

Now we will turn back to Alicia, I think the time is right to present the most troubling information you have discovered.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 04:53 PM

Chapter 8a

Alicia: Ok. In case anyone does not know, Miss. Pathfinder here has the power #13, Mind Scan. This means she can mentally look at an area of the globe and sense the people inhabiting that space. If she knows who she is looking for she can find specific people.

MetaHumans show up in her scans even when she is not looking for one in particular. We spent one very intense 24 hour session recording everything she found across the entire planet. When we combined that with data from the Olympus residents, and the condensed news report data, the entire picture began to emerge.

Let me stop right here. I want you all to know that what I am about to say is certainly based on conjecture. The numbers could not possibly be exact. But they are probably pretty close to what is going to happen I am very sorry to say.

Ok.

We have identified, or tracked, 302 Type II & Type III MetaHumans. There are 29 of them resident at Olympus. If you apply the most basic of psychology to those numbers you get something like this:

38 MetaHumans will join Olympus at first
83 will remain basically Neutral
123 will go bad to various degrees
58 will go really bad, Evil

The odds against us are staggering. The most troubling part has to do with how the levels of power within each type seem to work. If the breakdown is what we think it is that means of the 180 MetaHumans who might be the enemy... 36 will be Type III, and of those, five will be Level 3.

Sir we mean no disrespect by this, but we have a name for Type III Level 3s, 'World Wreckers'.

It is true sir, that you could destroy the entire planet?

Pulsar: Yes I think it is.

Alicia: How are we going to stop them?

Pulsar: I think the odds are going to be worse, but those are bad enough. We are going to stop them by working together. We are going to stop them because we have a cause that is worth fighting for. Paul, are battles won by guns and bombs?

Paul: No Sir.

Pulsar: What does win battles then?

Paul: The will to win Sir. You have to want it more.

Pulsar: Exactly. The reason we will win is because we are standing up for every living thing on this planet. Never forget that, any of you, not for a moment. We have to survive if the planet is going to survive, it is as simple, and as horrific, as that. I am going to ask every one of you to do some tough things along the way, some of us... are gonna die.

But we are going to win. We are going to do it because we are going to be willing to make the hard choices. The kind that no one should ever have to make, the life or death kind. I was not ready to discuss this with any of you yet, but I guess now is the time.

We are composing a Pact. A short document that basically says that MetaHuman powers are to be used for positive things only, or not used at all. Humans, and human society is not to be harmed, or adversely affected in any way by MetaHuman actions.

Every Metahuman we can reach will be offered the option of either coming to Olympus, or simply agreeing to the Pact.

If they have not intentionally hurt anyone, or done anything else that would be considered criminal, then those are the choices. Anyone who rejects both options will be told that they will be watched.

And we will watch.

As long as they remain peaceful or helpful, fine. If not, then things become a little different.

Let's say that a group of Metas is robbing a bank. Some of us show up and stop them. Now what? Some of them may die in the fight, so we do not have to worry about them, but what of the others?

Can we trust humans to imprison them? Will they be able to contain people with our kind of power? I doubt it.

Could we control them? Maybe, but to do it we would have to have MetaHumans maintain the prison. Our power could conceivably contain theirs. But at what cost? The more of them we chain up, the more of us that must guard them. Anybody here want to be a prison guard?

Do not feel bad, neither do I.

Even if we could make it work, the prison would simply be a target for every mastermind that wants some henchman, right? I don't like it, and I do not think it would work.

So that only leaves one other option. We make sure that when we fight, none of them is left alive.

<confused outbursts>

Quiet! Do not look at me like that. This is War people, a Meta War. If we fail the world dies, and those who do not, they will wish they had because they will be slaves!

There are 29 of us here, after a month to think about it, 29. I am so glad you all are here I cannot even begin to express it. But we are outnumbered, badly. We do not have the luxury of playing nice. I have said from the beginning this is not a comic book, maybe now you finally understand why.

You want another option, find one. Until you do then I have no choice but to proceed, my way.

Apollo, Nike. I want the two of you to start thinking about what sort of team you wish to lead. I want eight people per team and you each have a slightly different focus. Nike your team should lean towards the covert, and Apollo you have the strike force. But do not get too focused on that. Both of you should pick a team that is ready for anything, any mission, any threat.

The Speedsters will be available but do not fill one of your team slots with either of them. They will help everybody. Each of you will need a Telepath and fortunately Psyche's two sisters are willing.

Justice will also be expanded a bit beyond the four of us. But I do not intend to go into the field unless I have to. If either of the two of you have any questions, talk to me about them later. Nova, want a job?

Nova: With Justice?

Pulsar: Yes.

Nova: Oh hell yes.

Pulsar: One other thing, Alicia, how many speedsters in your estimate?

Alicia: No estimate here, there are six. They are hard to miss I am told.

Pulsar: Alright. Speed. Kid Flash. I need you.

<double whoosh>

Speed: you rang

Pulsar: Speed, Kid, there are 4 more people like you out there, find them for me.

Speed: you got it boss

Kid Flash: hi everybody bye everybody

<double whoosh>

Pulsar: Janice would you like to close us down?

Janice: This meeting is adjourned. Recording devices off.

end transcript

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 05:00 PM

Chapter 9

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” I muttered as I stared at the monitor.

“I am Caaaarnagggge.” came out of the speaker. What I was seeing was a 8' tall ugly red monster. MetaHuman, shape shifter, hostile. Ugly really falls short as a description.

Problem? The visual was from Nemesis, Apollo's weapons master. She was very good, but she was hurt and outclassed.

Oh, and this was Carnage #3, more on that later.

“Nearest speedy gonzales?” I asked.

Central was fully active, and buzzing like a friendly nest of bees.

“Quicksilver.”

“How long and what is he doing?”

“6 minutes, MetaSearch.”

He could get there in approximately 6 minutes and he was looking for Metas that we have not contacted.

“Vector him now.”

He was on his way, but 6 minutes is an eternity in combat.

“Nemesis, can you get out of there?” I asked her over the voice channel.

“Hell no boss, I can stand up. Hooray for me.”

“Weapons?”

“Pistol, used everything else with those other dickheads.”

“Aim for the eyes, and try to evade. Help is 6 minutes away.”

“Roger.” BOOM.

Her first shot was on target, as usual, but did not seem to bother the beast all that

much. Crap.

“Team Status and locations. And coffee, please somebody.”

Apollo's team had run into a bad situation. They were being hunted by another group of Metas .

Apollo engaged the only non-Carnage hostile. Some big bruiser of a Meta, never did learn his name. The team leader's light beams forced his attacker to retreat in less that one minute. Athena and Cronus engaged Carnage #1. Mantis worked with Nemesis to put down Carnage #2. Lightray circled and helped everyone as he could.

Between Athena's explosive fists, and Cronus's massive strength, Carnage #1 died in 2 minutes of hard fought combat.

Nemesis and Mantis did defeat their enemy, but not before the bastard ripped Nemesis's side open. Her acrobatic skills were not quite as protective as Mantis' armored form.

Then somebody shot down my spy drone and jammed our communications. We were blind and out of touch for almost 4 minutes.

Apollo had a small base HQ established on the edge of the city, they got a new drone into the air fast. Lightray was now flying escort for the newly launched drone. He knew he would get extra brownie points if he bagged whoever hit the first one. I hate it when it when they pop my drones.

When we finally got communications going, by pushing all of our transmitters to maximum, it was just in time to see Carnage #3 make his entrance. Somehow Nemesis had ended up underground with one more of those things.

“Apollo, Athena, Cronus, Mantis and Selene are all 100 active, and searching for a way to get to Nemesis. There are no holes or other obvious entrances they can see. Lightray reports nothing but birds in sight. Sir, Nemesis is shaky, vitals are all over the place, mostly bad.”

A very familiar voice that.

“Janice?”

“Yes?”

“Get bored with all the paperwork?”

“No, my best friend is fighting for her life, and Sandy is out sick. I took the slot, rank hath it's privileges. Unless you object. Please don't.”

“You are going to be here anyway, might as well be useful. Find the next nearest available speedster, if they are within 10, get them moving now.”

“Yes sir.”

“You can talk to her Janice, but don't distract her.”

“I know, I won't.”

On the main screen I was getting a lot of blurry moving images. Flashes of that ugly red sucker mixed with bursts of light when Nemesis fired. She also screamed a few times.

“ETA on Quicksilver?”

“3 minutes, 30 seconds.”

Carnage #3 was clumsy, I was wrong, she was not outclassed. Nemesis could have killed him easily with a sword. Hurt as she was, she barely held the bastard off.

“Central.” came across the speakers from Apollo.

“Central online.” responded a Tech.

“We cannot find any possible way she could have been hauled down into a sewer, let alone as deep as she seems to be. Something else is going on, she was moved, somehow. Any reports of Zippy in this area?”

“Negative, he is still in Asia.” from another Tech. I do know their names, I am just not going to use them.

“Well somebody grabbed her and took her down into that hole. Unless you people have a better idea I am going to start blasting and tunnel the fuck down.”

He was angry, frustrated, and I could not let him do that.

“Apollo, this is Pulsar. Quicksilver will find a way to her. Hold on the massive property destruction until after speedy gets a shot, ok buddy?”

“Roger Central. I just want to do something.”

“How the fuck do you think I feel, hold for now. Central out.”

“ETA.”

“2 minutes, 10 seconds.”

“There is a teleporter near Nemesis and Apollo!” shouted Pathfinder as she burst into the room. “The big boy, the one that can jump anywhere.”

Mystery solved.

“Hello Pathfinder, your timing is excellent.” I said as she fell into the chair next to me.

Big grin from her, followed by her attempts to breath again after the run.

“Janice, do you know where Nemesis is yet?” was my next question.

“Part of an old subway system, never completed.”

“Please tell me there is a surface entrance.”

“Yes, but it is sealed, buried maybe, not exactly sure. Can I send the drone that way?”

“Yes.”

“Central to Apollo.” I called out.

“Apollo, go Central.”

“We found your way to Nemesis, about 8 miles north. And we have confirmation of a teleporter active in your area. Pretty sure that answers your mystery.”

“Great. All our vehicles are toast, burned toast. Any suggestions?”

“Steal a car.”

“Say what?”

“I think the phase is 'say again'. I said steal a car.”

“Been drinking boss?”

“Two minutes ago you wanted to rip up a public street and now you balk at stealing a car? Blow out a goddamn window, have Selene hot wire it, and get the fuck over there. Any more smart-ass questions?”

“No Sir, we are moving. Out.”

A Teleporter, damn. They are elusive, and all our plans for catching one involve me and a whole bunch of other people working together. I had none of those things at the scene since I was sitting, well pacing, back at Olympus.

“Quicksilver is onsite.”

Finally!

“Central to Quicksilver.”

“i am here bossman”

“Nemesis is being hunted in an abandoned subway system tunnel, she is hurt. You are standing at the old entrance. Find a way to get to her. Dig, smash, do whatever you have to, but find her. Out.”

Lightray and the drone arrived just in time to see Quicksilver vanish into the structure.

“Status on Nemesis.”

“She has managed to put some distance between herself and that thing, but she is running out of space fast. Vitals are still weak, but stable.”

Waiting, it is just the worst. If it drags on long enough you begin to second-guess yourself. Did I miss something? Did I make the right calls? I usually try to avoid these thoughts by attempting to watch every monitor simultaneously.

Apollo and his team arrived on the scene at the same moment that Quicksilver found Nemesis.

She was down, but still moving. Quicksilver did one of the magic speedster things and administered first aid. In an eye blink all her wounds were bandaged. An air gun hypo blasted painkillers into her neck.

Carnage #3 charged down the tunnel towards the two of them. I could not see Nemesis's face, but I bet she was smiling, I sure the hell was.

The monster was going forward one moment, and sideways the next. Pieces of him seemed to fly off on their own as he was slammed left and then right.

Quicksilver pounded his opponent into unconsciousness in 12 seconds. The doomed Meta returned to human form in mid-air. The impact against the concrete wall was harsh, and fatal.

The Techs exploded in cheers, shouts, and lots of unnecessary hugging.

I let that go for all of 30 seconds and then barked “Stations! We are not done yet.” And yes being an asshole is part of my job description.

Up top Apollo was sitting on the hood of his stolen car and just waiting. I was just about to contact him when something happened.

A shape formed 30 feet in front of him. Male, normal sized, dressed in flowing panels of cloth.

“New Player!” called Janice.

He spoke, the words were artificially amplified somehow, “Have you enjoyed my game?”

“Game? Is that was this has been?” snapped Apollo with obvious hostility.

“Oooo so unfriendly. Is that any way to address a fellow deity?”

“We are not deities, and you sure as shit ain't. What was the point of this game?”

“Well you would know about you I guess. I know about me. I am Loki, and I am a god. The Game? The Name! Why the name of course, which ever one of the three managed to make the first kill got to be the one and only Carnage. The other fellow was just to even the odds a bit, sad performance really. When I was down to one shape shifting pawn I thought I would give him an easy kill. I like that girl, she has spunk. Surprised me. If you did not enjoy my game I will leave. BUT... before I go I have to ask you one thing, is your sister dating anybody?”

Apollo responded with a massive light blast, I saw the people on either side of him jump back as it went off.

The beam passed right through Loki and dug a hole in the ground behind him.

He laughed as he faded out of sight.

“Pathfinder, where did he go?”

“One sec boss.” she replied with her eyes screwed shut in concentration. “He is gone, really gone this time.”

“Central to Apollo. Looks like our new friend has left for now. Pull your people back to your base, and then head home. How is Nemesis?”

“Roger that Central, she will be ok.”

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 05:02 PM

Chapter 9a

Two months after Day One (the eventual official name for the first official day of Olympus). We had made friendly contact with 46 friendly, or at least neutral, MetaHumans. We had killed 19 less than friendly ones. Nine while they were in the process of murder or other major crimes, the rest when we tried to talk to them. And much to my surprise, four MetaHumans were working, voluntarily, for the U.S. government.

And now some twerp who thinks he is Loki.

If you really must use comic book labels he was the first true Mastermind. He was not going to die easily, or anytime soon. I hated him already.

**Alexander Tau** · 01-04-2009, 05:04 PM

Chapter 10

One of the problems that plagued us in the early days was rather mundane: Transportation.

How could we get where we needed to be fast enough to make a difference. This problem did not affect all the work we were doing, but it was a major headache.

In fiction the good guys always manage to stumble across the criminals at just the right moment. Real life rarely works like that. In comic books the tradition of patrolling is well respected. We were able to do some of that. Our Speedsters and Fliers traveled quite a bit.

We made a difference in a lot of ways. Local police forces across America, Canada, Mexico and a couple of other places came to respect us because of the speedsters. They had their own fully automated version of Central and any local government could request access to the system. Police, Fire, Search & Rescue, Civil Defense, once authorized any of these could put in a request for help.

24 hours a day my amazing friends buzzed into their lounge. Covering one wall was a 10' tall, 4' wide task list. Speed and his buddies would scan the list and pick what they wanted to do next. You can see them standing in place for a few moments, or wandering around like normal folks as they listened to rapid-fire recorded messages. They decided if the call was worthy, or immediate.

I offered to assign staff more than once to help them out but they turned me down. I got the distinct impression that they were laughing at me every time I offered. I just did not understand, they did not need any help. Keying in the index code off the list gave them all the data they needed, most especially it set up navigations for their wrist display unit. Zoom, off they went.

Another large wall screen showed a map, and tracked the locations of not only the speedsters but all Olympus MetaHumans. The number of people they rescued, located, or apprehended is staggering and constantly growing.

As we began to look at the other things we could do besides deal with other MetaHumans we considered a lot of options. We did not just want to stop certain types of crime, we wanted to eliminate them if at all possible. By that I do not mean kill them. Our dealings with human criminals have to the greatest degree been in line with human law enforcement techniques.

Except in a few special cases.

Since we could not be everywhere, or even in the right place at the right time often enough, we considered other possibilities. Where could we do the most good?

Serial Killers.

We knew that out in the world there were men stalking other humans like prey. You know the names of many of these sick individuals and I will not mention any here. Like any disease, what you see, what can be caught, is only the beginning of the story.

We hunted them.

Forgive what is going to sound like an arbitrary and callous judgment, but it took 5 kills to qualify as a serial killer. Not accidental, not crimes of passion, but cold-blooded murder, often much worse than simple killings is what it took to make our list.

There was only one way to find them, our Telepaths had to shift the population and look. It turned out that these sorts of people deserve to be called evil. When a serial killer interacts with another human there is a psychic trauma inflicted. This is nothing you would know consciously, but it is real and most importantly, it is detectable.

A Telepath and a Scanner Meta along with a small team of defenders and support people would move around a city in civilian clothes. Psyche, Selene, or Circe would look for the traces I described. When those were found a closer examination of the person's mind was conducted. It usually only took a few people with the traces for the girls to figure out who left them.

Pathfinder or Seeker would then take the supplied mental image, and begin to look for the target. They usually found them.

The team would get close enough to the target for the Telepath to do a full reading. If the person had indeed committed multiple murders, we took action.

If the killer had a living victim we moved in as soon as we knew where they were exactly. Speedsters got to do a lot of rescue work here as usual. But the teams did not always call for them. Some of these guys were beyond any sort of bad you can imagine and the need to take personal action sometimes took over. I know, that happened to me.

When we knew the whole truth about this guy, I pulled the whole team back to the vehicles. I got out and walked into the house. The door turned to dust. This was not a man that cowered before me, it was a thing, a monster.

I will not tell you what he had done, I cannot put that here for all time. But he had been doing it for 56 years. He died screaming silent screams, and it took 5 minutes.

If I am supposed to feel bad about what I did I am sorry but I don't. This is not Pulsar the MetaHuman talking, this is a human being who shot a rapid dog.

We would record all the important information about the life of the now deceased killer and present it to the local authorities. People who had never known what had happened to their child, or their wife, at least knew finally learned the truth.

27 days into the first month of doing this work we discovered the real cost.

I was with the current search team because Psyche was with them. Selene was working the target but Psyche was there for moral support. We already knew this work was hard on the girls. We just did not know how hard. Selene had one more target to track down and then we were all going to a late lunch.

You might find that a little heartless perhaps. We had accepted our life, and we still had to eat.

We found the guy, he had killed 36 teen boys over 22 years.

He was alone in his house, and then he was dead.

Selene was outside the RV we were using as a command post, looking depressed and sad which was normal considering.

She slumped to the ground.

Psyche ran to her, I flew.

Psyche always answered my really serious questions without my having to verbalize them. In moments of stress that is how it has always been.

She was not saying anything.

“Psyche?”

“Something is very wrong, but I do not know what. I cannot reach her, and she is in pain”

“Tell us what we need to do.”

“I don't know, give me time.”

“I am taking command, get ready to move out everybody.”

Psyche held Selene's head in her lap and tried to make some sort of contact. I could see her energy, controlled and focused. But I could also see random spikes shooting out of Selene. I did not know what it meant, but it was wrong.

Minutes ticked by, I had a team of superpowered people straining at the leash. We all wanted someone to lash out at, some target we could hit. Instead we waited.

“Oh god, it is him. The killer, his mind, somehow absorbing it has sent her into some sort of internal spiral. She is there, but so is he.” she spit out in a haunted voice.

Internal spiral, that made sense to me. Overload perhaps, feedback maybe, energy out of whack, that put me back on familiar ground.

“Can we get him out of her, erase the memory, anything?” I asked.

“No, we cannot forget, you know that.”

If we cannot get rid of it maybe we could...

“Pulsar to Central.”

“Central online.”

“I need the location of the nearest school, not a college, kids, find it fast.”

“Say again.”

“Find me a school, elementary, high school, whatever.”

“Working on it.”

“Everybody, load up.”

The coordinates were not long in coming. An elementary school about 15 minutes away.

“Central to Pulsar.”

“Pulsar.”

“Do you want us to contact the school?” they were confused and trying to cover all the bases.

“Negative, I doubt that would help. There is no danger there, but Selene needs their help. Pulsar out.”

Psyche gave me her maybe look in response to my unspoken question.

She did not know if it would work either.

Announcement

The MetaWar Saga (unfinished)

The MetaWar Saga (unfinished)

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