Dark Phoenix Episode 1

A cold autumn night. Rain beats down gently on the pavement as sirens can be heard in the distance. Footsteps drawing ever closer... a man rushes out of an alleyway, a discernable look of fear and anxiety written on his face. He looks around quickly and then pops open the trunk of a small red car with his pocket knife and stashes a small package inside of it. Sirens draw closer and the man runs off into the night.

A new day dawns on the city. A school bus full of children drives down the street to drop off its cargo of youngsters. Inside the small white house there is some activity as well as a family prepares for another day. A young 4 year old girl sits at the kitchen table chomping down some rice krispies, as her mother is busy making coffee. Footsteps heard coming down some stairs…

“Hey Hun.” The man kisses his wife shortly after his greeting before turning to his daughter. “Good morning monster.” He says with a playful smile. The man looks quite young. Even though he is 33 you would’ve guessed about 25 considering his appearance. The child looks up at her dad and gives him a mock glare before turning back to her cereal. “Well sorry I can’t stick around for breakfast but i'm running late.” He states before kissing his wife on the cheek and grabbing his cup of coffee.

“All right, but you better not be late getting home Jericho.” The equally young looking woman states to her husband with a smile. She is only a year younger than her husband with short red hair that came down barely to her shoulders. She waves as her husband hurries out the door to his car. She picks up her cup of coffee as she watches her husbands little red Toyota speed away.

A short while later in a rather expensive looking penthouse, a wealthy looking Japanese man in about his early 40s sits at a large wooden desk. He looks as if you just called his mother a filthy name. The door to the room opens and a small shaky white male enters the room looking like he just saw a ghost.

“Muh...mu...Mr. Yakuza. I’m sorry I don’t have your package. I had to stash it somewhere.” The man says stumbling over his words. The Japanese man who he obviously referred to as Mr. Yakuza starts to look at the man with even more anger than before.

“You what!?” he screams at the shaky little man. “I need the contents of that package! Where is it!?” he demands as the little homely looking man practically collapses in fear. “Well? Where is my package!?” he demands one more time.

“It’s in the trunk of a Toyota that’s parked over in the Glenwood area. Just down the street from the school.” The man answers for fear of keeping silent any longer. “I even memorized the license plate number and wrote it down so we could find it again.” The man says hoping to redeem himself.

“Well, lets have the number then.” He says to the man, and accepts a small piece of paper from him. “Good, now my boys will escort you out.” He says nodding towards two rather large men standing by the door. “Make sure he won’t fail me again.” The two men nod and grab the man dragging him out kicking and screaming.

Later that day, Jericho receives a call at his office desk. He picks up his phone and hears someone on the other end talking with a device that disguises his voice.

“Hello Jericho. We have your wife and daughter at your house. Bring us the package that’s in your car and you can have them back. No police or else. You have exactly 1 hour to meet our demand or we will kill your family.” The voice states hanging up as soon as it’s finished not giving Jericho any time to ask questions. Jericho is stunned and tries to think of what to do. Then he remembers the gun he keeps in case of a highjacker in his center console.

“If its just a few, maybe I can stop them myself...” he thinks to himself and grabs his jacket and rushes out the door to his office. He gets in his car and speeds off towards his home.

About 45 minutes later, Jericho pulls slowly up to his house and slips the gun into his inner coat pocket and keeps his hand over it. He begins walking up to the house, and one of the abductors opens the door and asks him if has the package. He nods to his hand that is inside his coat. He lets Jericho inside and turns to the one who is obviously in charge. Before the man can realize what happens, Jericho has the gun drawn and is firing upon the masked men. 3 shots are fired and manage to drop one of them and hit a second in the leg that was holding his wife at knife point. A third and fourth come in from the other room and begin opening fire with automatic weapons. Jericho tries to hide behind the kitchen table that he turned over but a few rounds find their way into his torso, puncturing his lung. He leaps up when there is a pause in the fire and manages to take out the two that rushed in with what was left in his handgun. Realizing he’s empty he reaches for the gun that the first guy dropped. The man who got shot in the leg has a gun in his hand now and shoots Mary, Jericho’s wife in the back of the head and put three or four more rounds in Jericho’s chest and shoulder. Jericho falls to his knees and sees his wife slump to the floor, dead. With out a word he raises his hand to shoot the man that killed his wife but is struck down by a shotgun in the back. One man who had been in the pantry hiding the whole time came out with a twelve gauge and unloaded into Jericho’s spine. The man fires off a second shot just to make sure. As Jericho’s vision begins to fade he realizes that his daughter is nowhere to be seen…

As Jericho draws his final breath he swears he will seek vengeance against the men who killed him and his family. In this life or the next. The man with the shotgun takes off his mask revealing that he is Hitori Yakuza. The well known businessman. Jericho sees this as he finally sees no more and finally lets death take him. He is about to inspect Jericho’s body for his package when he hears something upstairs.

“Go check it out.” He says to the man with the wounded leg. Reluctantly he picks up his weapon and heads up the stairs. He finds Raisha, the four year old daughter of Jericho hiding in a closet clutching a wooden cane. When the man tries to grab her out of the closet, Raisha expertly trips him and then cracks him in the side of the head with the cane. Mr. Yakuza walks in the door shortly afterwards. He surveys the scene and smiles. He walks over to the child and easily disarms the child. “Well, you’ve got quite the fighting spirit. I could use someone like you.” He forces her to her feet. “You’re going to come with me, and I'm going to train you myself. You’ll be an excellent assassin for me.” He laughs as he drags the girl off. The men leave the scene just as sirens are heard in approaching in the background…

Flames. Tall, roaring and black. Jericho wakes to find himself engulfed in the fire. He hears a dark screechy voice coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The voice says to him, “Jericho, you have sworn vengeance. If leave your soul here with me I will give you a body and power to seek your revenge with. What say you?” Jericho is confused but still riddled with rage for the murder of his family. He screams into the flames, “yes!! I wish to make them all pay!” he feels something inside him pushing to get out. He looks down at his chest and sees a bright white glow and sees his soul being drawn out from within him. But he realizes he still has his thoughts and memories. The voice speaks to him again, “I have left you with your memory, and will now grant you power and send you back to earth in a new body to keep my end of the bargain.” The flames close around Jericho and burn his very core as his body absorbs the tremendous heat and energy. As the flames completely engulf him they enter his body through every opening and everything turns black…

15 years later… In a dark and desolate region of New York. Jericho wakes up to a strange image indeed. He opens his eyes on a puddle on the ground in a dirty alleyway. He sees a different person. This face is not his, his hair is long and a dull silver color. His eyes the color of fresh blood, and his skin a pale white. He opens his mouth to see his teeth are all pointy. He looks down at his clothing; he’s wearing a long black trench coat that has metal studs running down the seam and feels some on his back. Turning to look at the reflection, he sees that they are in the shape of a heretic cross. Stranger still are the two holes by his shoulder blades. Standing up he looks down to see his hands are sporting black leather fingerless and knuckle-less gloves. The black leather pants he’s wearing have a large red phoenix emblazoned on the right leg that almost seems to glow if you looked at it just right. The same for the heretic cross also in blood red on his other leg. The trench hangs down all the way to his ankles. He feels a slight chill in the air and realizes that he’s wearing only a black thin sleeveless shirt with the silhouette of a phoenix cut out of the chest. He feels strange and scared in this strange body and even more nervous about the fact he has no idea where he is. All he remembers is his family dying and seeing the face of the man who did it. He knew it was Hitori Yakuza, a wealthy businessman and landowner in New York state. He knew what he wanted to do. But with no weapons, no info, and no clue, he knew that he wasn’t going to get very far.
Jericho starts to walk around the area learning his surroundings. He thinks to himself that maybe he will find something he recognizes. And find something he does… walking past an electronics store with television sets in the window he sees a newscast featuring Hitori Yakuza opening up his new shopping center downtown next to an Armani retailer. “there’s my chance.” He thinks to himself. “I just need some weapons and ill slaughter him right in front of thousands and expose him.” He starts to walk away down the street.

A fat greasy man behind a gun shop counter in Brooklyn is watching his television that he set up in the store. The door chime sounds announcing a possible new sale. “how youse doing sir?” he asks in the trademark Brooklyn accent. “what can I gets ya?” Jericho places a black duffle bag on the counter and looks at the man.

“fill it up. I’m going on a little hunting trip.” Jericho states with an almost evil grin. The man behind the counter looks at him with concern.

“Look buddy, you know there’s a limit on what I can just give you outright.” The clerk pulls out a loaded shotgun from behind the counter and cocks it once before pointing it right in Jericho’s face. “and if you’re here to try and rob me, you should go to the cemetery and ask the last guy who tried how easy it is.” Jericho feels a warm heat rise up through him and feels instinct take over. Grabbing the shotgun barrel he squeezes the barrel back until it bends. The clerk becomes so frightened that he pops open the cash register, drops the gun and runs into his secure back room. Jericho looks at the disfigured weapon lying on the floor in disbelief at what he did. He smiles inwardly and proceeds to empty the register and the gun cabinet into his bag. He walks over to a shelf and crams as much ammunition as he possibly can into the back and his coat pockets before saluting the clerk with two fingers and calmly walking out of the store.

Jericho wanders around a bit before happening on an old run down church that has obviously seen its share of troubles and mishaps. He walks inside to find it empty save for a few crows, some empty pews with some graffiti on them, and plenty of cobwebs and rubble to go around. He climbs an old set of stone stairs in the back that lead him to the old bell tower. The bell was still there, cracked, rusty, and laying on the ground on its side. He sees an old bed with a mattress on it sitting in the corner and decides to make himself at home. Setting the duffel bag on the floor he walks over to the old bed frame and sits down on the mattress. Getting quite the comical shock, the bed frame collapses under his weight, introducing him and the mattress to the cold floor very unceremoniously. Shaking his head his head in a sort of “why me?” manner, he stands up and takes off his jacket to hang it up on an old candle holder that was attached to the wall half expecting that to break too. He goes over to the large hole in the wall and stares out into the now cold and rainy night. But for some reason he realizes that although he feels the cold air and knows that it’s cold, he doesn’t feel uncomfortable. He feels quite warm inside regardless of the chilly rain soaked autumn air. Flashes of black flame spring into his memory causing him to stagger and hold his head. Shaking them off, he goes to lean against the wall and reaches over to the small dresser that was also left in the room. He picks up an old copy of a bible that must have been there for ages. Or so you’d think from its condition. “better late then never I guess.” He thinks to himself as he opens it up and tries to read a little. “sure would be nice to have some light.” He says to himself, and just like a robot receiving a command his right hand lights ablaze with a soft white flame. This scares Jericho so badly that he drops the bible and starts shaking his hand to put out the flame. The flame refuses to cease and after a few more minutes of lude comments and a lot of weird hand flailing gestures, he notices slowly and strangely that the flame has no heat to it. It is simply giving what he asked for, light. “I wonder…” he says as he concentrates. The flame snuffs itself out. Surprised and proud of his accomplishment, he trys something else. He looks across the rooms and sees a candle in a candlestick that’s not broken. He points his fingers at it and wills a small flame to shoot from his hand to the candle lighting it instantly with a soft spark and crackle. Playing around some more he discovers he can control the flame completely and make it do almost whatever he wants it too. He shapes it into weapons like a sword and shield. Also he creates a small chair completely out of flames, although he finds out that it doesn’t hold any weight and he gets rear end full of concrete for his attempts. The sword however he discovers is hot enough to slice a hole straight through the concrete floor. Looking at the emblem on his chest and leg, he remembers the holes in the back of his shirt… he wills the flames to come out of his back where the holes in his shirt are. As he does, two large red flaming wings sprout from his back and are soon taken place by bright red feathers. He extends the wings fully to an impressive twenty foot wingspan, before wrapping his wings around his body to touch the smooth feathers. He plucks out one of the feathers to take a better look and drops it on the ground on accident. On contact with the ground, the feather starts on fire and turns to ashes. After a short while the ashes start on fire and a small flaming bird appears before it flies off into the night. “I’m a phoenix.” He says to himself. “this is incredible! With these powers and this kind of strength I wont even need the guns!” he becomes so excited, that he decides that he cant stay cooped up in the bell tower any longer, and before he even realizes what he’s doing, he leaps out onto the small balcony outside his room soars off into the night sky.

High above the city lights, Jericho soars surveying the scenery. Looking down he sees police lights tailing a large cargo truck. He decides to give his new powers a real test run. Swooping down, he tails the truck. He continues following them until they reach a large warehouse by the docks next to the river. Seeing a skylight, he lands on the roof unnoticed. Slipping through a broken window in the skylight, he lands softly on a catwalk. He sees the men pile out of the truck from the cab and a few more pile out of the back after being let out. Looking into the back of the truck he sees bags of money and lots of illegal weapons. The police are taking they’re usual stand off positions outside the building while the men that were driving the truck unload some of the weapons. “Mr. Tanaka aint gonna be pleased if he loses this shipment.” One of the larger men state loading an ak-47 with a magazine. Hearing this perks Jericho’s interest greatly. “arm yourselves. We may have to shoot our way out of this.” He says again grabbing some hand grenades that were in a small rectangular wooden crate. Jericho sees his opportunity as all the men have their backs turned to him. Crafting a javelin out of flames he hurls it towards on of the attackers. His aim is true, the spear pierces the man through his torso and then dissipates immediately afterwards leaving the other men in shock as no one else saw the javelin, just the blood spewing from his chest and him falling to ground dead, the wound smoking from the heat of the weapon. They all turn around with weapons ready to destroy the person foolish enough to try and attack them from behind. They are greeted with an arrow made of flames going straight through the throat of one man and a fireball engulfing a second in bright blue flame. Scared wit-less, the men scatter to try and gain some sort of defensive ground. As they look back at their to comrades who just got hit, all they see is a wide-eyed corpse with a large hole where his Adam’s apple used to be, and a smoldering skeleton with just a few traces of clothing and flesh still attached. “sweet Jesus…” says one of them while tracing the sign of the cross across his chest. “what the hell is that!?” he screams to the two guys that are still alive while he stares into the pitch black warehouse. “how the fuck should I know?” one of them answers from out of view. As they stare and wait, they start to see a faint glow in the distance. Too scared to shoot or move they continue staring helplessly. It continues to glow brighter until they see the silhouette of an angel-like creature in the distance. The shape holds out his hands and two swords appear in his hands wreathed in flames. “what is that Carlos?” one of them asks. “I don’t know, just shoot it!!” the man who was referred to as Carlos shouts back as he begins to unload his machine gun towards the flaming figure. The other two crooks follow suit and begin to empty their weapons. A wall of flame surrounds Jericho protecting him from the onslaught. Outside, the police are baffled as they hear shouting and then gunfire. “you wanna stop it Jim?” one cop asks another as he just gets a head shake in reply. Inside, the crooks use up their ammunition and nervously and sloppily try to reload their weapons. As they look again, the wall of fire subsides and they see nothing once more. “ha! we got it! Take that you motherfucker!” Carlos shouts as he jumps to his feet. His smile fades quickly as he hears a footfall behind him. He turns to see Jericho standing with his flaming swords in hand and sporting quite and angry face as well. Before the latin criminal can even soil himself, both blades are thrusted clean through his body. One through his chest and the second blade followed suit taking its place in the man’s now smoking skull. Now crafting a large twin-bladed sword he charges the other two men, before they can react. He leaps into the air spinning sideways and comes down in a full circular swing successfully rendering both of the remaining criminals into half of their former selves. Letting his weapon fade away in a small whisp of smoke, he realizes the police wont take long to storm the warehouse so he better get while the getting is good. Resprouting his wings he take off through the skylight, returning to patrol the night skies. The police detonate the large garage door to the warehouse and storm in with a full swat team. They stop dead once they get inside and see the smoking corpses of six Puerto Rican and Italian thugs that they have been tailing most of the night. One of the officers takes off his metal helmet and pukes in it from the smell of rotting and burning flesh that hangs heavily in the air. On the ground they notice a red feather just as it bursts into flames and turns to ashes. “not a word of this to anyone.” One of the older police men orders to the all the officers present. “we don’t need news of bad guys going up in smoke for no apparent reason hitting the press.” He states he holds back the urge to release his dinner all over the ground and turns to leave.

Back at the church… “Amazing. Simply amazing.” He says proud of his handiwork. “not only did I discover the extents of my new power but I struck a blow to that bastard Yakuza as well.” He holds out his hand and makes a fist with it before slowly opening his hand back up. “I wonder what I should call myself?” he asks himself. Looking around he sees some crows landing on the railing of the balcony. “the crow? Nah, that sounds too much like a movie.” Remembering his power over flame, he looks again at the emblem on his pants and comes up with an idea. “Phoenix. The Dark Phoenix. Yeah, I like it. Sit tight Mr. Yakuza, cuz your next!” A few crows fly out past him and into the morning sun…