It was a clear dark night and a bone chilling wind rolled across the
downtown area of Boston. It was early December and the first signs of
winter and the coming Holliday season were already present.
The Christmas lights were strung between buildings and around
lampposts. Decorated trees were on what seemed to be every corner, as
well as advertisements for several department stores grand holiday
sales.
The people, who made their way through the streets between
the
shops and restaurants of Boston’s famous Quincy Market,
pulled their coats
tightly around their bodies, in a vain attempt to fight off the cold.
Their cheeks red as they felt the numbness come over their faces. It
was in vain though for on this night it was the type of cold that froze
you down to your very soul.
Nick Kelly made his way through the market and onto Causeway Street,
moving gracefully between the crowds of people who were heading towards
the BankNorth
Garden Arena.
Nick’s posture was relaxed as he walked the street, as
opposed to
the other people. His hands were at his sides and his eyes were focused
straight ahead. A native of Keystone City in the Midwest Nick was used
to cold winters.
Stopping in the middle of Causeway Street Nick looked over at the
BankNorth Garden arena with a sense of honor. As a kid, Nick had
watched the Boston Bruins play the Keystone City Hitmen. He had hated
how the old Boston Garden had been torn down and replaced with the
current building and called it the Fleet Center. A nostalgic part of
him was happy that BankNorth had purchased the building and called it
the Garden.
“It’s not the Boston Garden, but it
works” Kelly
mused to himself.
The people passing by stopped to look at Nick during his reverie. With
his long black, movie star good looks, athletic body and long black
leather jacket, Nick looked more like a rock star than somebody who had
just moved to the baystate, from Keystone City.
Turning on his heels, Nick adjusted the gym bag he was carrying over
his shoulder and began to continue his walk. He had two days before he
began his new job as an investigator for the Infantino Security
Company and
Nick wanted to learn the area. Nick smiled and thought to himself
whimsically about the strange twists his life had taken.
It seemed like a lifetime ago that he was just plain old FBI agent Nick
Kelly living in Keystone City. He was in the middle on an investigation
into the activities of Mafia Boss Antonio Torrelli.
However Nick had grown disillusioned with the criminal justice system
and the law in general. Seeing men who were obviously guilty, that he
had worked so hard to arrest being released on technicalities was
starting to drive Nick crazy.
Still however Nick soldiered on fighting the good fight. After all his
father and grandfather had been FBI agents so it was all he knew. Nick
had gone undercover as a member of Torrelli’s crew and was in
the
middle of a meeting with the boss, when they were attacked by an alien
parasite known as Venev. Venev proceeded to kill everybody in the room,
biting their necks and draining their spinal fluid.
Nick later shamefully admitted to himself that despite the horror of
Venev’s appearance he could not help but feel a sense of
elation
as she killed Torrelli and his men.
They were some of the most brutal sadistic criminals in Keystone City
and to Nick, they deserved to die. Nick’s sense of elation
was
short lived though as Venev then went after him.
Nick could still feel the pain as Venev bit into his neck to drain his
spinal fluid. That was followed by the exploding sensation of every
single neuron and synapse in his body being set on fire and the
blackness that came over him. The story should have been over there,
but it wasn’t.
What Nick didn’t know nor could he have known, but Nick was
what
is known as a Latent Meta.
That is defined as somebody who has the genetic potential to acquire
super human powers.
Instead of killing him the bite from Venev activated Nick’s
Meta
gene, granting him super human abilities.
Nick was now faster, stronger then the average human being. His vision
had been altered allowing him to see into the infrared and electro
magnetic spectrums. Nick was able to become completely invisible in
shadow and was able to heal at an accelerated rate.
Nick was never sure if the aliens realized that their bite would create
super powered beings or if it was just a strange twist of fate. However
Nick knew that they had to be stopped.
Nick saw this as a chance to do more then just takedown the smaller
criminal’s one at a time, and decided to become a costumed
hero.
As a child Nick had always loved Greek mythology and because of his
vision powers decided to call himself Argus. Nick took the name after
the giant guardian with a thousand eyes.
First however Nick had to find the aliens and stop them before they
could kill anybody else. Nick found himself aligned with other people
who had their meta gene activated by the alien’s and
earth’s greatest heroes, as they battled the aliens who were
in
the midst of their final assault on Earth.
The heroes managed to stop the aliens after an epic battle. The other
people who were activated by the aliens bite went on to form a team
known as The
Blood Pack, and
Nick continued on as Argus.
In his costumed identity as Argus Nick battled super human criminals
and the Keystone City underworld. Nick even left the FBI and became a
private investigator in order to focus on being Argus.
Nick even teamed up with Keystone City’s other resident hero
the
Flash, on several occasions. Nick though was a loner who preferred to
operate on his own. After a period of time Nick came to the conclusion
that Flash was the hero of Keystone City and could handle things fine.
So Nick took up an offer from an old friend from the bureau Chris
Infantino, to join him in his security and investigation firm in Boston.
Nick snapped out of his trip down memory lane, as he heard the sharp
crackle of ice under his feet. Condensation from a recent rainstorm had
frozen over and Nick changed his stride to better navigate the icy
sidewalk.
For some strange reason Nick found himself reaching into the gym bag he
was carrying and running his fingers over the black tunic of his Argus
costume. He wasn’t even sure why he was wearing it, or if he
wanted to continue being Argus. Nick had just become accustomed to
carrying his uniform with him at all times.
It had just grown to become a part of him. A part of him that Nick felt
moving to Boston and starting over would purge. Boston was not really
known for having an abundance of super villains.
Do
I even need to wear this anymore?
Nick thought to himself.
Rounding the corner and reaching Boston
Commons, Nick stopped dead in
his tracks. It wasn’t the
ice that made him stop far from it. It was the Sixth Sense; the
intuitive feeling that he had developed after years as an FBI agent and
as Argus that made him stop, that feeling that something was not right.
Looking over to his left Nick saw what he believed to be the cause of
this feeling. He saw a long black limousine pulling up in front of City
Hall and five men getting out. They were all dressed in black three
piece suits and had massive builds. The men also were all bald.
Nick had seen enough of these men over the years to know that they were
button men, soldiers muscle for an organized crime crew. From this
distance though Nick could not tell which type of crew they belonged
too Mafia, Triad, or Troika it was too far away. So Nick began to walk
toward City Hall in order to take a closer look.
Walking into the main lobby of City Hall, Nick saw the five men
confronting what seemed to be another group of men. The opposing group
of men was also dressed in black suits and there was a man in the
middle of them who seemed to be in charge.
The man was shorter and rounder and dressed in a white three piece
suit. His hair was grey and his face was wrinkled and bore the sins of
all humanity on it. Even from the extended distance between him and the
men, Nick could smell the acrid pungent smoke from the cigar he was
smoking, Nick found himself not liking DeCarlo more and more by the
second.
Nick even found himself annoyed from watching the man’s
arrogant
swagger. The man’s entire posture screamed crime boss and
Nick
knew it. Nick was not sure why but he knew the man from somewhere.
Nick could feel the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand up,
from studying the group of men, he knew that things were going to turn
ugly. Nick quickly scanned the area looking for innocent bystanders and
was thankful that there were none. Then Nick quickly moved towards a
secluded area of the lobby behind an extended partition. Nick then
began to quickly change to his Argus uniform.
“Guess I will need this after all,” Nick mused to
himself
with a grin.
Now clad in his uniform Argus stuffed his civilian clothes the bag and
stuffed into a nearby HVACs grate. Argus then quickly and quietly moved
from the partition to the alcove behind the man in the white suit.
Since City Hall was closed and most of the lights were off Argus was
able to use his powers to remain invisible in shadow. Argus was not
sure what was going on yet and wanted to perform some surveillance
first.
Argus heard one of the men call the man in the white suit DeCarlo, and
knew exactly who he was. It was Anton “The Shark”
DeCarlo a
former Lieutenant in the Morretti crime family in Keystone City. Anton
gained the nickname of The Shark
for his cold predatory nature and his habit of having his enemies
tossed into the Shark Tank at the Keystone City Aquarium. DeCarlo had
fallen off the radar a few months before Nick had become Argus. DeCarlo
was supposed to be part of Nick’s undercover operation but
Nick
was never able to meet him, due to his disappearance.
“Well Mr. DeCarlo I guess I might get the pleasure of your
company anyway,” Argus said under his breath.
Argus continued to listen as DeCarlo continued to talk to the man
closest to him. Trying to pick out any clues that would tip him off to
what was going on.
“So have you taken care of Councilman Grady?” the
man asked.
“Yes, he is going to be seeing things our way from now on,
Collin,” DeCarlo replied.
“One question though, why are you here? I thought I
told
you guys to stay at the penthouse and wait for me?” DeCarlo
asked
puzzled.
“Well the Eel says there is going to be a regime
change,”
Collin replied, as he drew a gun from his coat pocket and then pointing
it at a very shocked DeCarlo.
“Wait. Collin let’s talk about this,”
DeCarlo said
scrambling to calm Collin down.
“Let me think about it… no let’s
not,” Collin
said snarkily.
Collin’s pistol fired three times striking DeCarlo in the
chest.
Anton was dead before he hit the floor and all of the men began to walk
toward the front door.
“Damn…so much for surveillance,” Argus
thought as he
began to move.
Just then an elevator opened and a janitor walked out completely
oblivious to what had just happened. The men turned and looked at the
Janitor. The Janitor looked at DeCarlo who was lying on the ground and
then at the black suited men. A look of complete terror came over the
Janitor’s face as one of the men drew a gun and pointed it at
him. Collin looked at the other man and at the frozen terrified janitor
before speaking.
“Sorry, man, but wrong place, wrong time… kill
him,”
Collin said with a sadistic smile.
The lobby grew eerily silent as the man cocked the hammer on his
pistol. However before he could fire the sound of a throwing blade
pierced the air and struck the man in the wrist causing him to drop the
gun. The Janitor ducked back into the still open elevator as Argus
sprang from the shadows.
Argus landed on top of one of the men driving him to the ground face
first. The ear cringing sound of bone smacking into tile ringing
through the lobby as the man’s nose broke with a crunch.
In the blink of an eye Argus sprang from the body of the first man and
nailed two of the other men with a double diving clothesline. The men
flipped over from the impact of the blows and then crashed to the floor.
One of the men managed to draw his gun and fire a shot that struck
Argus in the shoulder. Blood sprayed the air as Argus staggered back.
The man was sure Argus was done, but Argus simply smiled and regained
his footing. Argus then sprung forward and in what seemed like one
fluid motion grabbed the gun from the man’s hand and nailed
him
with a devastating straight right to the face. The man crumpled to the
ground in a heap unconscious.
Argus quickly turned toward the rest of the men and pointed his left
Gauntlet at him. Closing his fist a series of razor thin cables shot
out of his Gauntlet and struck each one of the men. The men screamed as
electricity flowed through their bodies. The men collapsed tazered into
submission.
With the men subdued Argus walked over to the still open elevator shaft
to check on the Janitor. He was scared out of his mind but otherwise
unharmed. The Janitor looked up at Argus who was standing over him
fearfully. Argus offered a hand to the Janitor and smiled at him. The
type of smile that said “I am here to protect you, you need
not
fear me.” The Janitor relaxed and took Argus’ hand.
Argus
pulled the Janitor to his feet and stepped back.
“Are you okay?” Argus asked.
“Yes just scared out of my tree,” the Janitor
replied with
a shaky voice.
“What about your shoulder? I saw you get
shot?” the
Janitor asked.
Argus looked at his shoulder. His healing factor had already fixed his
wound, but he did not want to explain this to the Janitor who was too
freaked out to understand.
“I'm okay. The bullet only grazed me,”
Argus said.
“Could you call the cops for me. I have one more
piece of
business to take care of,” Argus said as turned to leave.
“Okay… Who are you?” the Janitor asked.
“A new hero in town,” Argus replied as he began to
run
after Collin.
Collin who had looked on stunned during the entire encounter managed to
regain his composure and was now running towards the waiting limousine
outside.
Collin opened the door and dove inside. He could feel the sweat running
freely down his body and hear the pounding of his heart in his chest
and the blood in his ears. Collin had heard of costumed heroes before,
but had never seen one. Collin fought back his fear and screamed at the
driver to go.
A sound of tires squealing echoed through the Boston Commons as the
limo started to move. Collin looked through the partition and out of
the windshield, stunned as Argus was now standing in front of him.
The limousine sped up hurtling toward Argus, who deftly leaped out of
the way. Collin shrieked as he heard a thud on the roof of the
limousine. He knew what it was or more appropriately who it was.
The glass from the sunroof spidered and then shattered covering Collin
with tiny shards, causing him to wildly wipe at his arms and shoulders
in an effort to keep himself from getting cut. Argus then reached
through the sunroof and pulled Collin out.
Holding Collin in a chokehold half in and half out of the limousine,
Argus could not help but smile as he heard Collin scream like a girl.
“Tell the driver to stop the car,” Argus growled in
Collin’s ear.
“Akkk…
Akkk…
” Collin gurgled.
“Sorry, maybe I did not phrase it properly. Tell the driver
to stop
the car!” Argus
growled
again.
Argus looked at his arm, which was constricting Collin’s
windpipe
and smiled.
“Oh, sorry, maybe this will help,” Argus said as he
removed
his arm Collin’s neck and then hung Collin off the side of
the
moving limo.
“For a third time and the last time… Please tell
the
driver to stop the car,” Argus said.
“Stop the car!” Collin screamed as he pounded on
the window
of the limousine.
The limousine screeched to a halt and the driver’s side door
flew
open. Knowing that discretion is the better part of valor the driver
simply ran for it. Leaving Collin alone with a very fearsome Argus, who
now had him pinned against the roof of the limousine.
Argus leaned in close to Collin so that they were face to face. Both as
an FBI agent and as Argus, Nick was an expert on intimidation and
interrogation. A part of him always it, the manipulation and the
intimidation of criminals. He always enjoyed being the thing that
monsters feared most.
“So my first question is… why did you kill the
Shark?” Argus asked.
Collin knew he was caught in the clutches of a complete psycho and had
no choice but to answer him. Collin spoke slowly and tried not to let
Argus know how scared he was.
“DeCarlo was in control of operations in Boston. He was in
the
process of setting up something involving parking tickets. The
‘Eel’ wanted control of the city for himself and
paid me to
set him up and then whack him” Collin said.
“That brings me to my second question…Who is the
Eel?” Argus said.
Collin began to answer but a shot rang out from a nearby rooftop.
Collin’s blood and brain matter exploded into the air as he
was
killed instantly. Argus turned and fired a grapnel from his right
Gauntlet at the rooftop closest to where he thought the shot had come
from.
Argus launched himself into the air as the grapnel’s
retractor
mechanism reeled in the jumpline bringing him to the rooftop. Argus
looked around using his vision powers but there was no trace of the
shooter, save a single spent shell casing. Argus reached down and
picked up the shell casing, examining it.
“So much for retirement,” Argus thought to himself.
Next
Issue: Argus
settles in to a new life in Boston, but finds
that retirement is not in his future plans as he learns more about the
mysterious Eel and the Boston Underworld! Be here for Part 2
of 'New
Hero in Town!' by Eric Nyman.
