When Our Team First Came Together

We were all just kids going to the museum for school. A better school day than the average one, that's for sure. Lot's of old stuff to see from ancient times long past. And pieces of art made by people who died a century ago. Fun. Yay. Well. Beats math and geometry, that's for sure.

At least... until one of the city's well known villains decided to show up. What he'd want? Who knows? All we know was he caused trouble.


Centurion
Yeah. Sounds like he could fit into the museum, straight from the Roman Empire. And that is how he acts. The man is all muscle and strenght. His chest is as wide as he is tall. His arms are like tree trunks. A brutal man of pure slaughter. Maybe he is just motivated by violence, maybe by something else. But he started wrecking stuff. Maybe one of the strongest men in town.

And someone had to stop him...

We did kick some Centurion behind, while saving Caledon. And with Centurion being destructive - so we had to be. Fight fire with fire. You can't be careful when someone as brutal as Centurion is around. The fight took us to a room full of 14th century Chinese vases and plates.

Centurion smashed. We used all our powers. And the room with Chinse vases lay in ruins as vase after vase smashed to the ground in pieces.

Good thing they weren't new ones. Right?

Brock Savage, the notorious radio shock jock and internet bad-boy, had planned one of his outrageous stunts at the Met. it would have been epic and his millions of worldwide fans would have loved it.

Unfortunately, the timing coincided with Centurion's attack and was completely eclipsed by the ensuing battle between us and the villain.

Not only did we scare the bejeezus of him during the fight (there's footage of him cowering out there if you can dig it up), but if there's one thing that the attention-craving Brock can't bear it's being upstaged, so both us and Centurion are now the primary focus of his ridicule and contempt.

Who'd have thought we'd be on the same side of anything with Centurion?

Despite the battle causing millions in property damage, and the destruction of irreplaceable pieces of art and one shock jock's reputation as a brave badass no bystanders were hurt. Most being evacuated through the shadowy portals of The Shadow before the one responsible was caught up in the fight and in the light as it were, though her identity itself was preserved by the literal cloak of darkness she maintained throughout the conflict.

Between those portals and the actions of Ogre, Shadowhex, Vermite, and Fogblade keeping Centurian distracted and contained to unoccupied portions of the Gallery the situation was over by the time Trinity arrived. Though the conversation was brief The Scourge was impressed by just how mindful of the human cost the team had been and downplayed the physical destruction when he extolled their virtues to the press and police later.

With a wicked grin and focused eyes, Slugger rushes in on Centurion's blindspot. She'd spent this entire fight being little more than a fly buzzing about the armored, resilient opponent, but with a mighty swing of her bat against the back of his head... CRACK!

The bat splinters into a million pieces, just like the vases all around the room.


Oh. Oh, that's not good.


Slugger hears Centurion snort in amusement just before his shield collides with her mask. She's sent sprawling into a bed of formerly-half-a-million-dollar debris, prompting yet another shriek from a cowering Brock Savage. Slugger lies on the ground, wheezing, and raises a single thumb to let the team know to keep fighting. She looks over at Brock. "No worries. Just... giving him... phew... false sense... of security... oooohhh man, that's not supposed to pop. Ugghhh..."

She tries to lift up onto all fours, but ends up flopping onto her back. Just a quick breather. "Yup… all part of the plan…" Staring up at the skylight, Slugger's eyes flicker in and out of focus. Was that... someone on the roof? A woman in a sharp red-and-white pinstripe suit, smoking a cigar, round, red sunglasses... she might as well be enjoying a day at the park. She takes the cigar from her lips and releases a cloud of smoke, and in sync the cigar itself evaporates into a cloud of singed ash and smoldering fog. She takes out a cellphone and holds it up to her ear before walking away.


When Centurion finally falls, he looks up at the now vacant skylight. "Igne natura renovatur integra…" he mutters, before finally collapsing into unconsciousness.