On a sultry early September evening, the air dripping with heat you can't shake, in an alley behind a greasy burger joint, an unlikely trio gathered.
Ember, a slight but tightly-muscled 30-year-old 3rd generation Japanese American and a brilliant chemist. She had completed her PhD by age 24 and since had done numerous experiments on how fire affected the human body. Most of her work included test subjects, homeless people or college students recruited, not knowing what they were in for. Not knowing they were contributing their lives to further her work. She contacted the other two to share what she had developed. She had thoughts of the three forming a trio, a nefarious symbiosis. The only thing they truly had in common was a thirst for power. Certainly, once they achieved it, they would go after each other.
The other two were Claude Thomas and Augustus Shenko.
Thomas now called himself "Vengeance." When he was Claude Thomas, he was the hope of a nation, specifically the nation of Mali. Not known for their stable of olympians, Thomas burst out of nowhere taking the bronze medal in the decathalon, and four years later the gold. He then shocked the world four years later by claiming silver in judo and gold in greco-roman wrestling's heavyweight division. Sports Illustrated declared Thomas the world's greatest athlete. However, the wheels came off the tracks when it was discovered Thomas had experimented with every steroid and growth hormone known to man, and many not yet widely used by athletes vying for an illegally gained advantage. Thomas went from beloved hero to poster-boy for all that is wrong in competitive sports. Embittered, he turned to Ultimate Fighting Championships where he lost in a title bout. Searching for advantages, he came under the guidance of Dr. Wan and Master Shu. Master Shu spent years training Thomas in every conceivable martial art. Along the way, Dr. Wan not only pumped Thomas full of drugs. He performed unorthodox surgeries, lengthening Thomas' bones, increasing the density of his bone and muscle mass, stretching his tendons, and in the end, turning him into a 7'4" mountain of man who, full of chemicals, was out of control with rage. It turned bad and then fatal for Wan and Shu when their creation turned on them and in a conflagration of holocaust proportions destroyed their Hong Kong lab. Both men died in the fire, but Thomas did not. Since then, authorities have not been able to bring him in, though hundreds of law men and women have died trying.
Augustus Shenko, a 20-year veteran of the army and a man with a PhD in physics from North Carolina State University, had not been a criminal for long. His military career was in weapons development. He designed super-suits, impervious to small-arms fire. A soldier in one of his suits could withstand explosions, could fire a variety of projectiles, missiles, and bombs, and could single-handedly defeat enemy platoons. The government denied funding repeatedly, and over the years, Shenko lost support from his closest military allies. He managed to retire with honor at the rank of Lt. Colonel, but he was utterly frustrated. On the way out the door, he managed to steal millions of dollars in cash and many millions more in equipment. Since then, his crimes have become known, but not his whereabouts. He's spent the five years since retiring in hiding, experimenting, perfecting his super suits. Since he is no longer military and on the run, his motivation for such endeavors is questionable. He began as a patriot desiring to use his inventive talents to advance American might, but ended up as a genius mercenary, looking to have the world acknowledge his accomplishments and also seeking to gain wealth with his monstrous creations.
On this hot night, the type of night when blues songs are written, Ember, Vengeance, and Augustus Shenko sat in a dingy alley, the two men listening as the young woman hatched a plot that would make them all rich and strike fear into the hearts of world leaders.
Air Force Colonel Michael Dukes and Army Major Seamus O'Toole did not know of the sinister gathering, but they wish they did. Col. Dukes had been a fast-rising officer. He modeled his career after his idol, Colin Powell. He never met the now retired Secretary of State and U.S. Army General. But, he knew every conceivable fact one could gather. Dukes would not be the first African-American anything and he was grateful. His country had finally had a black president and black generals and black business owners. Racism still reared its ugly head, but more and more, at least in his experience, he found he succeeded or fell due to his performance, not his pigmentation. Michael Dukes nearly always succeeded.
Dukes had spent the last five years trying to track down Augustus Shenko. When he took the assignment, he knew it would eat up time, lots of it. He knew if he stuck with it and did it right, it would likely deny him the command opportunities needed for Colonels to gain stars. But he decided this was important. He had done his time as a pilot and was happy for a new challenge. So when the Chief of staff of the Air Force asked him to consider being the leader of the investigative task force, he accepted. There were enough secrets in the head of the now rogue Lt. Col.Shenko that a task force was dedicated to catching him. And Dukes had a capable assistant, Seamus O'Toole.
O'Toole majored in criminal justice and was a 4.0 student. He went into training with the FBI, but after a few years as an agent, something about the work frustrated him. He shifted gears going through officer candidate school and joining the army. He was with the military police, and he found the work as frustrating as what he did while as civilian. In both contexts, though, he emerged as a brilliant investigator. He also found, as much he did not want it to, success in the army came as easily to him as it confounded his peers. When he received the chance to join the task force and work under the command of the Air Force Colonel, he jumped at it.
The past year they had worked together, Dukes and O'Toole developed a great working relationship. Dukes had the command bravado, the cockiness of a pilot, but also the big-picture vision to see how all the pieces of the military operation fit together. He also knew how dangerous were the classified secrets Shenko might sell to the highest bidder. O'Toole was a man born to pay attention to the minutia. He excelled as a crime-scene investigator, but also as one who put it all together. He could spot a series of seemingly unrelated facts and quickly demonstrate the narrative those facts were writing. However, for all their talents, the military men had no leads. They did though know for sure that Shenko was building new combat suits. Dangerous combat suits. And they knew of the existence of Vengeance and Ember. They were not investigatng these other two, but both turned up on the threat lists.
What Dukes and O'Toole knew and the trio in the alley did not was that the United States was creating a team of their own ... the unlikeliest of response teams, ready if needed.
[Next - the Powers Family Cruise]
Ember, a slight but tightly-muscled 30-year-old 3rd generation Japanese American and a brilliant chemist. She had completed her PhD by age 24 and since had done numerous experiments on how fire affected the human body. Most of her work included test subjects, homeless people or college students recruited, not knowing what they were in for. Not knowing they were contributing their lives to further her work. She contacted the other two to share what she had developed. She had thoughts of the three forming a trio, a nefarious symbiosis. The only thing they truly had in common was a thirst for power. Certainly, once they achieved it, they would go after each other.
The other two were Claude Thomas and Augustus Shenko.
Thomas now called himself "Vengeance." When he was Claude Thomas, he was the hope of a nation, specifically the nation of Mali. Not known for their stable of olympians, Thomas burst out of nowhere taking the bronze medal in the decathalon, and four years later the gold. He then shocked the world four years later by claiming silver in judo and gold in greco-roman wrestling's heavyweight division. Sports Illustrated declared Thomas the world's greatest athlete. However, the wheels came off the tracks when it was discovered Thomas had experimented with every steroid and growth hormone known to man, and many not yet widely used by athletes vying for an illegally gained advantage. Thomas went from beloved hero to poster-boy for all that is wrong in competitive sports. Embittered, he turned to Ultimate Fighting Championships where he lost in a title bout. Searching for advantages, he came under the guidance of Dr. Wan and Master Shu. Master Shu spent years training Thomas in every conceivable martial art. Along the way, Dr. Wan not only pumped Thomas full of drugs. He performed unorthodox surgeries, lengthening Thomas' bones, increasing the density of his bone and muscle mass, stretching his tendons, and in the end, turning him into a 7'4" mountain of man who, full of chemicals, was out of control with rage. It turned bad and then fatal for Wan and Shu when their creation turned on them and in a conflagration of holocaust proportions destroyed their Hong Kong lab. Both men died in the fire, but Thomas did not. Since then, authorities have not been able to bring him in, though hundreds of law men and women have died trying.
Augustus Shenko, a 20-year veteran of the army and a man with a PhD in physics from North Carolina State University, had not been a criminal for long. His military career was in weapons development. He designed super-suits, impervious to small-arms fire. A soldier in one of his suits could withstand explosions, could fire a variety of projectiles, missiles, and bombs, and could single-handedly defeat enemy platoons. The government denied funding repeatedly, and over the years, Shenko lost support from his closest military allies. He managed to retire with honor at the rank of Lt. Colonel, but he was utterly frustrated. On the way out the door, he managed to steal millions of dollars in cash and many millions more in equipment. Since then, his crimes have become known, but not his whereabouts. He's spent the five years since retiring in hiding, experimenting, perfecting his super suits. Since he is no longer military and on the run, his motivation for such endeavors is questionable. He began as a patriot desiring to use his inventive talents to advance American might, but ended up as a genius mercenary, looking to have the world acknowledge his accomplishments and also seeking to gain wealth with his monstrous creations.
On this hot night, the type of night when blues songs are written, Ember, Vengeance, and Augustus Shenko sat in a dingy alley, the two men listening as the young woman hatched a plot that would make them all rich and strike fear into the hearts of world leaders.
Air Force Colonel Michael Dukes and Army Major Seamus O'Toole did not know of the sinister gathering, but they wish they did. Col. Dukes had been a fast-rising officer. He modeled his career after his idol, Colin Powell. He never met the now retired Secretary of State and U.S. Army General. But, he knew every conceivable fact one could gather. Dukes would not be the first African-American anything and he was grateful. His country had finally had a black president and black generals and black business owners. Racism still reared its ugly head, but more and more, at least in his experience, he found he succeeded or fell due to his performance, not his pigmentation. Michael Dukes nearly always succeeded.
Dukes had spent the last five years trying to track down Augustus Shenko. When he took the assignment, he knew it would eat up time, lots of it. He knew if he stuck with it and did it right, it would likely deny him the command opportunities needed for Colonels to gain stars. But he decided this was important. He had done his time as a pilot and was happy for a new challenge. So when the Chief of staff of the Air Force asked him to consider being the leader of the investigative task force, he accepted. There were enough secrets in the head of the now rogue Lt. Col.Shenko that a task force was dedicated to catching him. And Dukes had a capable assistant, Seamus O'Toole.
O'Toole majored in criminal justice and was a 4.0 student. He went into training with the FBI, but after a few years as an agent, something about the work frustrated him. He shifted gears going through officer candidate school and joining the army. He was with the military police, and he found the work as frustrating as what he did while as civilian. In both contexts, though, he emerged as a brilliant investigator. He also found, as much he did not want it to, success in the army came as easily to him as it confounded his peers. When he received the chance to join the task force and work under the command of the Air Force Colonel, he jumped at it.
The past year they had worked together, Dukes and O'Toole developed a great working relationship. Dukes had the command bravado, the cockiness of a pilot, but also the big-picture vision to see how all the pieces of the military operation fit together. He also knew how dangerous were the classified secrets Shenko might sell to the highest bidder. O'Toole was a man born to pay attention to the minutia. He excelled as a crime-scene investigator, but also as one who put it all together. He could spot a series of seemingly unrelated facts and quickly demonstrate the narrative those facts were writing. However, for all their talents, the military men had no leads. They did though know for sure that Shenko was building new combat suits. Dangerous combat suits. And they knew of the existence of Vengeance and Ember. They were not investigatng these other two, but both turned up on the threat lists.
What Dukes and O'Toole knew and the trio in the alley did not was that the United States was creating a team of their own ... the unlikeliest of response teams, ready if needed.
[Next - the Powers Family Cruise]
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