The end is here, folks! Almost time to unveil the Being behind the Plague event. But first, another recap:
Lena Black has been fending off a citywide horde of vampirism victims and hunting down Vlad the Impaler. Deus X is occupied with the Hybrid invasion of Atlantis. Tetra has left the team to train with Shanti so that she can get her Ka’Li persona under control. Rush and Lady Icarus are trying to free Fever and Flame Girl from Fire’s influence. Silver, Mad Jack, and Prima are also fighting possessed friends as the Shadow King has turned Shadow, Shield, and Black Marble against them. While two members of the Underworld Circus have broken into HallowGen, trapping Tempora Doce in a time-locked energy box and kidnapping her grandson, Six L’Orange, Frank Hallows, Sword, Hi-N’Un, and Lady Luck have been dealing with Robbie Boyle and the other three Circus assassins, who have bought their employer enough time to transform little Alvin Hallows into The Monster. But The Monster’s appearance has ended the life of Robbie Boyle and forced Clockwork and Le Cirque to choose between working together and dying together. So it seems the Being has been a busy…man?
Name: The Being
Alias: The Devil, Lucifer, Satan, The Beast, King of Hell, Pan, Beelzebub, Father of Lies
Race: Fallen Angel/Demon
Birthplace: Heaven
Powers: Teleportation, Healing factor, Second sight, Psychic/Spiritual influence over others, Inhuman strength, Flight, etc. (what do you expect…he’s frickin’ Satan).
Bio: As we all know, Lucifer was once an Angel who dared to defy God and challenge His power and right to rule Heaven, so God cast him out of Heaven. Lucifer’s fall from Grace left his soul twisted into a demonic presence that was to remain trapped in Hell for eternity. His body was split in two deformed halves: one a lion-like beast with the horns of a ram who roamed the land in search of any souls unwilling to follow God, the other a freakish seven-headed chimera that was unequal parts goat, bear, leopard, and dragon that was banished to the bottom of the sea. Some time in the last century, the three pieces of Lucifer have begun to reunite, and the Being who is the King of Hell has indeed become very busy. He has assembled a group of demons, mortal villains, and otherworldly beasts to challenge the integrity of Earth’s greatest heroes. He has made deals with Fire (to restore her human memories), Couteau (for the return of her senses), Tordre (for a human body), Vlad and the Shadow King (for their own private kingdoms on Earth), and only the Devil knows how many others. He has freed the Atlantean Hybrids from captivity and given them an opportunity for revenge, brought his Vedangan namesake (Beelzebub) back from the dead, and is responsible for turning several heroes to the dark side (including Fever, Flame Girl, Shadow, Shield, Black Marble, and Frank’s son Alvin Hallows), all in his eternal struggle against God to prove that his way (the path of evil) is superior. He will kill Vlad for his insolence, presenting himself to a disillusioned and exhausted Lena Black as her savior, only to later turn her into the new Horseman of Pestilence as a backhanded way of ending her curse.
Fire will make a tactical retreat from Rush and Lady Icarus, with Flame Girl and Fever in tow, only to have her Lord recant his promise as punishment for her cowardice. With her cause rendered fruitless, Fire releases the two flaming heroes from her control. But Fever and Flame Girl still feel some strange kinship to their captor, and ask that she help them put a stop to Lucifer. Having been rejected by him, Fire agrees, and Burn Unit is formed.
Shanti will step in on the fight against the Shadow Demons, punching through the gaping maw in the Shadow King’s chest and ending his control over Shadow, Shield, and Black Marble in addition to ending his life. However, the possessed trio retained some of their Shadow Demon powers, and have decided to join Shanti’s team of dichotomous heroes, the Soul Survivors.
Lady Luck will reveal to Six L’Orange that the Le Cirque sisters are her presumably dead sisters, and reveals to her and Frank Hallows that The Monster is their son Alvin, which makes everyone more cautious about engaging him in battle. Everyone, that is, except for Tetra. Having been trained in Shanti’s personal pocket dimension (where an hour in our world is equal to a hundred years, but those in the dimension do not age), Tetra is now in complete control of her Ka’Li energy, and therefore much stronger in her normal form than she was previously. As she fights The Monster with her newly focused power, Frank leaves for HallowGen with Six and three of her sisters in tow, looking for the rest of Le Cirque and a spare power core. With them gone and Lady Luck and the Pharaoh watching from a relatively safe distance, Tetra-Ka’Li can fight unrestrained, and is able to subdue The Monster long enough to rip out the demonic power source, reverting him to a still-adult Alvin Hallows. Tetra is part demon now, so the radiation doesn’t affect her, but the energy core was the only thing keeping Alvin from aging into dust overnight.
At HallowGen, Frank’s group encounter Charade and Tordre, and after a few misguided punches are thrown, Six explains that she is their sister, with Solide backing up her story. Charade then frees Tempora from her prison box. Frank locates the power core he needs, and contacts Lady Icarus (who makes psychic contact with Shanti) to inform her and Rush that Alvin is about to die.
Clockwork (minus Lena Black and Dhanusha), Le Cirque, Burn Unit, and the Soul Survivors all come to Alvin’s aid, with Frank attaching the new power core to his son in hopes that it will keep Alvin alive. But normal technology proves to not be enough. Shanti and Lady Icarus use their knowledge of Angelic blood alchemy to infuse the power core with Grace energy, in much the same way Lucifer used his demonic energy to power the other core. Alvin survived and would retain his ability to transform into The Monster, briefly joining the Soul Survivors before taking his family’s place in the 12 O’Clock spot of the new Post-Meridian Clockwork team.
The heroes’ triumph did not sit well with Lucifer, who appeared to the assembled teams with a vow to end them all, and an ominous threat that their undoing would be at the hands of one of their own. Before he faded back into his soul-chamber in Hell, Lucifer showed them an image of Lena Black, chained up and screaming as she transformed into the new Horseman of Pestilence.
