New Age

*I remember that day as if it were just yesterday and, with what it was - what it did - I'm sure everyone else does too. Truthfully, we'd like to forget but we simply cannot:*

Even back then, I lived here, in Acropolis. I was a highschool senior on my usual route back home when the massive digital signage screens that had always brought us the best news from around this world of Heroes, began what would become the most devastating broadcast anyone had ever seen. We all knew about WayHaven and it's escalating troubles. The good and the bad were always at each others' throats and the atmosphere was constantly said to be on the brink of cataclysm but we had never taken all of that seriously - it was nothing more than good television.

The Villain **9**, had orchestrated the broadcast.

He had brought together every single Villain in the city; everyone from street level no-goods to the world's highest ranking evils like **DreadKnight** - remember her? What 9 had done was no small feat however he had done it, because they all united under a common goal; to wipe out the large city's Heroes and end heroism once and for all.

In the end, **WayHaven**'s damnation was not as much as a result of the fall of its Heroes but the clash of its Villains' egos. Where there were that many arrogant factors, it was always bound to happen.

These Villains had tracked down the Pros and setup an ambush on a day they appeared to all be meeting in one place, discussing a final sweep of the city and its criminal ringleaders. Everyone of note was there - everyone. All the names on the trading cards, in the videogames, on t-shirts, murals and paintings. All **WayHaven**'s greatest champions, gathered to finally put an end to the evil around them without knowing the evil had come to their doorstep.

The legends that fell on that day will forever remain in our hearts. The boastful **Achilles**, the passionate **Pulsate**, the empathetic **Static**, the lovely **Lumine**, the enigmatic **Pariah**, the fiery **Sin**, the guardian **Day**, the mighty **Orion**, among others.

    Names now only distant memories.

The Villains wanted to get their victory on live television for all to the see - the beginning of a new era; their era. But, they all wanted the credit for it; the spotlight, the spot at the top of the food chain. In no time, having already engaged the surrounded Heroes in combat, they began to fight among themselves. With some ease, the terror we knew only as **DreadKnight** and a man I later learned was the **Arbiter** overwhelmed their accomplices, basking in the glory of their victory.

Unfortunately, no one had reckoned with **Indra** being the greatest factor that day. **Indra** - a relatively small-time Pro with a growing ego who had switched sides and had ambushed his colleagues alongside the Villains.

His leg had been blown away by an attack and he was on a single knee, bleeding away right before our eyes and on all our screens. But, he began yelling the most terrifying absurdities, threatening to kill everyone for scorning him. When the **Arbiter** turned around to silence the rabid man and put him out of his misery, the most tragic event the world had ever experienced occurred.

A day we now only refer to as **Day Zero**. A tragedy that claimed so many lives, it was and still truly is, humanity in its darkest hour.

**Indra**, this unmemorable Hero turned Villain, a shaper of shadows, lit up like a candle - like a cosmic force bursting out the seams of a body that could no longer contain it.

As quickly as the chopper crew's cameras had turned toward him, everything was gone. Swallowed - no, engulfed - by light. The greatest explosion I believe anyone has ever witnessed. It was simply nuclear.

The last thing we saw on our screens before it was all gone and tears were streaming down our faces, was a Hero reminding us that for all time to come, despite the darkness triumphing that day, there would always be good. We saw **Day** take hold of a young boy on the street as the Villain lit up, attempting to shield the little one from the blast. He had no idea just how devastating a blast it would be.

The last thing we saw on our screens before it was all gone and tears were streaming down our faces, was a Hero reminding us that for all time to come, despite the darkness triumphing that day, there would always be good. We saw **Day** take hold of a young boy on the street as the Villain lit up, attempting to shield the little one from the blast. He had no idea just how devastating a blast it would be.

Just like that, in an instant and with the words "I am your Nightmare", Indra - a relatively small-time Pro with a growing ego, an unmemorable hero - wiped an entire city the size of WayHaven off the face of the earth forever. Countless lives; men, women and children...all gone. The single greatest massacre in human history.

The world mourned for years and people grieved for their friends and family that once lived in the beautiful city but eventually, we all had to accept it. After surviving everything it had in the past, this was the one time **WayHaven** was not coming back.

It has been 20 years since **Day Zero** and the world has still not forgotten but it has learned from the downfall of its greatest city and attempted to move on.

With better laws and a top-class Academy, **Acropolis** has become the new city of Heroes. Faith in the world's super-powered community has slowly been re-established. Monuments have been built to commemorate the dead and guide the living.

Of these monuments, **Acropolis**' greatest is the *Spirit of Acropolis* - a large bronze statue of a man bearing **Light** and **Justice** in either hand; a reminder of what Heroes are supposed to represent.