The Starlight Sentinels: The Amusing Story of a Struggling Superhero Team

Prologue: First Impressions

"Car thirty-two reporting in, we're first on the scene, requesting backup."

"We're still short on units. I can't say when back-up will be available."

"Dammit..." The officer set the radio down and looked over at his partner, who was staring out the window. "Come on, let's go."

"It looks like a war zone out there," she said.

"Yeah, well, it's a war zone we need to check out." The man drew his gun and exited the car, his partner following his lead.

"What the hell happened here?" she said as she surveyed the damage.

"Keep calm and stay focused." Despite his instructions, the officer shared his partner's curiosity. The humble old brick building before them looked like a former battleground. There were bullet holes plastered across the three big garage doors that lined the front of the building, a massive gaping hole on the second floor between windows, and scattered bricks littering the street everywhere they looked.

"You... you think this is the bomb they were talking about?" she asked. "The one the Lynch Man warned people about?"

"That's what I was thinking, but none of the wreckage looks burnt," he observed, noting none of the debris on the ground appeared so much as even singed. "It looks more like someone hit this place with a wrecking ball."

"Check this out." She motioned to a humvee parked outside the building. The windshield had been thoroughly cracked and a long dent ran down the grill, as if the vehicle had run head first into a streetlight. There was also a set of deep scratches across the hood. "It is me, or do those look like claw marks?"

"It's just some scratches. Don't—"

"And what about this?" She pointed to a large dent on the other side of the hood.

"What about it?"

"Look at it, someone's fist did that."

"It's not—"

"You can see the outline of their knuckles," she insisted. "Somebody punched a damn car."

"Let's just check the place over and get out of here," he said as he moved away from the humvee. "We've got enough to keep us busy tonight as it is."

"Do you even know what this place is?" she asked as they approached the building. "This is like their base. Do you have any idea what these people do here?"

"Do you?" he scoffed. "Because I think you're—" The officer stopped as his foot knocked against something small and metallic.

"Look at this." She motioned to several rifle casings littering the ground in front of them. Bending down, she removed a lone shotgun shell lying amongst the rifle casings.

"More signs of a shooting. Keep quiet and stay behind me. The shooter might still be in the area." Moving into the building's garage, the pair found more rifle casings and a small trail of blood leading into a corner. No sign of who was bleeding though.

Leaving the garage, the pair emerged into what seemed to be a recently ravaged living room. There were bullet holes on several parts of the walls, including what looked like a few well-placed shots in the center of a TV screen. A metal spiral staircase running into the ceiling marked the center of the area and just beyond that they could see some kind of meeting area.

"There." He gestured to a small door on the sidewall. "Check that, I'll take this." She nodded and moved to the door while he examined more rifle casings scattered across the floor. Looking closely, he found actual bullets lying amongst the casings. They had become deformed from impact, but against what he wasn't sure.