The Anthem Force Chronicles

Epilogue

::Mackenzie::

After what seemed like weeks of running around in a skin tight body suit, infilitrating secret bases, and fighting bad guys I wake up to a morning that was overwhelmingly normal. I'm wearing an oversized sweater, drinking coffee, and staring out at the gloomy Anthem City skyline. Seriously, does the sun ever shine in Anthem? 

Sometimes the normal life is a nice change but it'll never be for me. And apparently I can't even enjoy one nice morning to myself as I catch a dark shadow move in the corner. 

I take one more sip of coffee before swirling around and throwing the porclein mug at my intruder. It shadders against his foreward, falling down into a million pieces against my wooden floors, but he doesn't even flinch. 

"You chose the wrong girl to mess with," I shout as I raise one wary fist. Any common robber is going to be way over his head trying to deal with me, "You might as well leave now."

The intruder steps foreward into the light and my eyes grow wide, this isn't any common robber. Not a robber at all actually, he's actually one of the good guys if you're into that whole label thing. 

"Is this how you treat all your guests?" he smirks. 

"Most guests actually knock before breaking and entering," I snap as I take a few hesitant steps back.  Not even I can muster up the moxy to believe I even stand a chance against him. I'm already figuring out an escape plan. If I jump out the back window I might be able to survive the fall...

"I've never been one for front doors" he says as he plops down on my couch. This isn't right. Paragon should not be on my couch. Everyone here is like the Paragon fan club They all love those golden age Anthem Force members: Brainwave and Nightshade and that Anthem Dante Girl I always hear so much about. 

But I've seen him in action. Back when I was technically a bad guy I saw him rip apart our base with his bare hands, take down guys who were four times my size. I don't care how nice everyone says he is, Paragon is scary. Maybe just supers are scary. No one should have that kind of power, even good people like Andy and Radley. 

"Why are you here?" I say.

He leans back and, folding his arms behind his head. "Just checking in on my personal project."

I grimace. I don't prefer to be called "a project." Although, I do owe him. Paragon was the one who busted up my criminal days and instead of kicking my butt he gave me a choice: jail or redeption. And by redeption I mean coming to Anthem City and help boost the Anthem Force. 

I take a deep breath. "Well I did it. Stopped one big bad guy, saved the day, that was the deal. I'm free now, right?" 

"Yep," he says, "Officially pardoned. You can go anywhere you want, do anything... well anything legal."

"Well duh," I say. I look out once more against the skyline and then once past it. There's a whole world out there and I can do anything, be anyone. Except the only place I want to be is here. 

"You're going to stay, aren't you?" Paragon smirks, a little too smug. Alright so I fell in love with the stupid city and it's always grey skies and constant barade of bad guys threatening to destroy it. And maybe the Anthem Force kids aren't that bad after all. Maybe, just maybe, I like it here. 

I shrug, playing it cool, "We'll see." 

He and I both know that I'm here for good. I've already talked to Radley about it, he says the spots mine if I want it even after everything.

So I guess now there's us four. Radley, the shy monster kid, who's no longer so shy. He might just be a good leader after all. Then of course there's Blondie and Sparky, the love birds. Andy's powers are slowly coming back and she's finally worked things out with her mother. Keith finally talked to his brother too. And then there's me: the ex-villain turned good guy. We're the Anthem Force. 

It's weird how that works. Five years ago it was made up of completely different roster, like Paragon. Superheroes come and go, there's bad guys and good guys and new stories. I guess we have a lot to live up to but I think we're actually starting to create a legacy of our own. 

Paragon's staring at me. "What?" I ask. 

He shakes his head. "Nothing, you just remind me of someone, a friend, Dante, you may have heard of her." 

Oh the infamous Dante who was one of the first no powered superheroes and saved the city hundreds of times and even the whole world. "Maybe once or twice."

"She's actually downstairs," he says sheepishly, "I may have had another reason for coming to Anthem on top of checking up on you. The whole gang's having sort of reunion: Dante and Brian and Ricky and Alex and David. Of course all the current Anthem Force is coming too. We're all meeting at this pizza place downtown... You want to come? I mean your are technically an official member now." 

My mind instantly jumps to the snarky comeback about how I have better things to do then sit around and eat with a bunch of goodie goodies but instead I smile. "Sounds great." 

Paragon grins as he speeds over to hold the door open for me as I rush off to join my team. My team, that'll get some getting used to. I mean I am a superhero now. 

 "So I flew Dante here," Paragon says, "But I'm pretty sure I can fly both of you at the same time."

Pretty sure? Yah that's not really good enough. "I'll just take some public transportation," I say as I start walking down the stairs. Paragon wooshes in front of me with superspeed, blocking my path. Sometime tells me I'm about to be flown whether I like it or not. 

"Nah," Paragon grins, "Superheroes really shouldn't have to take the bus." 

THE END.