Watchfire: An organization dedicated to helping people... No, it's more than that. Not just people. The efforts of its members go beyond the human race. Some of its members have gone off-planet to help... Some of its members are from off-planet. An organization dedicated to helping. That defines it well enough. I'm definitely not the most dedicated member it has on its roster. I'm just a guy from Houston that was born with a curse that I'm trying to turn into a blessing. Some of these guys from crossed space and even time to do what's right. I'm just trying to do what's right by me.

That's why I'm sitting in the cafeteria of the Beacon, Watchfire's headquarters, enjoying an early lunch because I was tired of just sitting in my room. I could be actively doing something to help around here. It's probably best that I don't. My presence doesn't exactly help matters. I've been privy to the negative effects of my abilities plenty of times. Something small, but impacting always happens. The fatigue caused by my powers would probably cause someone to spill their coffee on a control panel, short out a computer system, it would be down for hours, delaying something important... All because I walked into the room. It's better that I just sit tight, enjoy my food, write some jokes and just wait for an assignment.

Core's voice booms over the intercom, “Will the following members please report to briefing room: Adino, Life Leech and Sparks. Thank you.”

That's my cue. I stuff my notebook and pen into the leg pocket of my cargo pants and finish my sandwich on the way. I don't know why I finished it. I guess not to waste. I don't need it. The energy I drain from people somehow provides sustenance for me. I rarely get hungry. I usually just do it to enjoy tasting food. I don't eat much so even the most trivial morsel is delectable to me.

By the time I get to the briefing room, Adino and Sparks are already there along with Core. I like trying to guess what assignment I'm going to get based on who is on my team and what each person can do.

I know what I do: Drain energy from organic sources, causing fatigue for the source while boosting my attributes.

Adino is known as the “world's fastest man” plus he has some kind of hydro-energy projection going on with a dash of super strength. I sound like I'm writing a recipe: “How to cook a superhero”. Okay, not every morsel is delectable for me.

Moving on: Sparks. Cute, but from what I hear, I'm probably not her type and she's pretty young. I don't even think she's “legal”. Her options are limited since there aren't many people who can survive being set on fire. She can generate extreme heat and fire. By manipulating thermal energy, she can also fly, manipulating existing flames and create a fire shield to protect herself.

Fire, water and me. Flight, speed and me. I'm pretty much a one-trick pony. Drop me into the middle of a bunch of bad guys, drain them, fatigue them then we all beat the crap out of them. The dropping part is usually the hardest part. I got teamed up with people who can attack from far away because if they get within ten feet of me, they'll get drained and fatigued, too. I'm glad I've been training with some of the martial artists that are members. All the close combat fighting is on me.

Anytime I get put on a team, it means we're going to have a face at least one large group of people. I'm still fairly new to the organization and I think their still trying to figure out the best way to use me. Right now, I just handle gang fights and robberies mostly. Work that would be considered “street level”. I've never been up against super-powered villains. Just average Joes, trying to make a buck the dishonest way.

Usually, I get teamed up with other “street level” members. By that, I mean other members who have lower levels of power that are best suited to take on the “street level” jobs that I usually get. Super speed, super strength, hydro-projection, flight, fire and heat manipulation. That's seems like overkill for a “street level” job. I know Sparks is still in training, but Adino could handle a “street level” job on his own. He'd have the thugs tied up before they got the safe open. That means I'm getting upgraded to something higher than street level or they're getting downgraded to my world.

If they're being downgraded then it's easy to figure out: Rival gangs are fighting over territory. Adino and Sparks setup a perimeter, I jump into the action and lay down the hurt. When they're all incapacitated, we let the cops arrest them. Been there, done that, moving on.

If I'm being upgraded then I have no idea what's going on. I've never been on a mission that's considered higher than “street level” so I don't know what they're like at all.

As soon as I step into the briefing room, Core speaks up, “Alex, stay there. We can't have you draining your team mates.” That's me. Alex. My code name is “Life Leech”, but most of Watchfire's members call me, “Psycho”. Core doesn't do that. I think he feels like he's insulting me by calling me “Psycho”. It could be at least a little accurate. Stability hasn't exactly been a big part of my life. He tries to be polite and just calls me, “Alex”.

Core, Adino and Sparks are on the other side of the room. My “aura” only affects people within ten feet of me, but I guess Core doesn't want to take any chances. I don't have control over my powers so I guess a surge in its effectiveness is always possible. Core points to a the vid-screen that makes up the top of the briefing table and briefs us on the missions:

“A group known as the Dark Forces have been gathering in larger numbers than usual lately. There has been a surge of mystical energy at their headquarters on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, that's about all we know at this point. A big part of the Dark Forces is being mysterious and unknown. They've been around for a very long time and have learned how to conceal most of their efforts from even the most powerful forms of scrutiny.”

That's the Dark Forces. You may have heard someone in a movie utter the phrase, “There are dark forces at work here.” They're really saying, “There are Dark Forces at work here.” You hear it as a general term for an entity that's doing something terrible. In reality, it's an organization of evil-doers who have survived throughout time by being known as a general and vague term. They're the boogie men. They're the monsters that hide under your bed. They're that feeling you get of someone watching you when you're walking down an empty street late at night.

Thinking about that, I speak up, “Isn't it odd that we're able to view what they're doing?”

Core looks to me, as if expecting the question, “Yes. We've only ever had a name of this organization and never any real proof that they exist. They're that good at concealing what they do. It's almost as if they want someone to come after them. That's why you three have to be especially careful when approaching this situation. It appears to be a trap and it probably is just that, but if it's not, we can't let them succeed at doing whatever it is they're doing because, if there's one thing we know for absolute fact about them, it's that everything they do is the purest of evil.”

He addresses Adino when he continues with the briefing, “Adino, you're the most experienced here. You're in the lead on this one. Dark Forces uses a lot of magic to do what they do. We know magic works best when the energy it manipulates is pure. We're hoping that you and Sparks can find ways to mix your abilities to convolute your energies, making it harder for them to manipulate you and your abilities.”

Core turns to Sparks, “You should know we're taking a risk by assigning you to this mission considering your past and your inexperience. This is a real chance to prove yourself as a hero and we want to see you be as great as you have the potential to be. Adino is in charge during this mission and we need you follow orders.”

When Core turns away from Sparks and towards me, Sparks mocks Core behind his back by making an exaggerated serious expression while mouthing orders and pointing at Adino and me. I smirk a bit and Core retorts, “I can see your shadow, Sparks.” She grins, but sort of proudly. I think she likes the attention.

Core starts to brief me on my role in this mission, but I cut him off, “Lemme guess: Find the bad guys, jump into the mob, drain them and 'incapacitate' them?” He nods and shrugs, “With the mechanics of your abilities, it's hard to find anything else for you to do. If we can find a way to control your abilities, we'd be able to be a little more versatile with your role. You know we have Marvolo researching that with every free moment that he has. He has missions to go on as well, though.”

As always, I accept the role, “It's fine. Being the muscle is easy enough.”

The truth is that I hate it and they can probably sense that in my voice when I accept it. Core and I have talked about it before and that's probably why he gave such a lengthy explanation about it just now. I know I have greater purpose that just draining people and smacking them around. I hope Marvolo finds something soon.

Core wraps up the briefing, “This is a job best done at night. You'll need to take advantage of stealth as much as you can. Try to keep confrontation and collateral damage to a minimum. We want prevention of evil and information, if you can get it. You can leave as soon as the sun goes down.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Hours later and we arrive at the building where the mystical energy signatures have been growing. At first, we hide in an alley across the street and watch others enter the building. It's not a stereotypical scene at all. I've seen movies, television shows and comic books depict these situations with people entering wearing arcane robes and using passwords to get in the door. That's so cheesy. These people look like regular people of all types. Some are dressed in suits and dresses. Some are wearing baggy jeans and t-shirts. They just walk right in. No key, no knock. They just walk right into the building.

It's a good thing we came in street clothes to look inconspicuous. Well, I always wear street clothes. Taking off my hood, vest and sunglasses is all it really takes to look inconspicuous... I take that back. The sunglasses have to stay on. My abilities caused my eyes to turn red and even glow slightly. I don't know if that will really have an effect on these people or not, but it's better that I keep that hidden for now. Adino looks a little ridiculous in street clothes because he always keeps himself fully covered. He seems really paranoid about his secret identity. I can tell he has his spandex on underneath the street clothes. He can pass for a normal person with fashion eccentricities.

Adino leans over to Sparks and looks to me. I have to hang back so I don't drain them so I'm about ten feet deeper into the alley than they are. He explains the plan, if you can call it that, “Sparks and I will pretend to be father and daughter. We'll enter together. Psycho, once we're inside, wait a few seconds then follow us in.”

We do just that. I watch them casually go inside. I wait a few seconds to see if they get thrown out or if their presence stirs up any noise. It doesn't seem to do that. I follow suit. I step inside what is a very rundown, poorly maintained building on the outside, but what is a beautifully constructed work of art on the inside. There's a party going on in here. The place is massive and in nearly perfect condition. I guess that's why people put really awesome and expensive stereo systems in the ugliest and most rundown cars. People won't want to mess with something that looks so terrible. It's appearance is what keeps it protected. Seems like a working concept.

Adino and Sparks are on the opposite side of the room. Adino is already striking up conversation with people, doing reconnaissance. I stay around the wall and just circle the room, getting a good look at everyone that's here and draining them without them knowing at the same time. I can see them hunch over and prop themselves on a table as I approach and then shrug it off as I walk away. Some of them are a little more resistant, just yawning a bit. I try to stay away from anyone that seems like they've been drinking. Alcohol plus my abilities will cause them the faint and I'm not looking to cause a scene, yet. I'll save that for when we need a distraction. There are also people in the middle of the room, dancing to the music that's lowly being played over the P.A. system. It's mostly the younger people that are dancing. The older people are doing the talking.

Adino and Sparks make their way over to a corner and nonchalantly wave me over. Adino says he got a little bit of information, but he needs to look around other parts of the building. Time for a distraction so he can slip away. People are dancing in the middle of the room. I make my way over to the younger people that are dancing, find the most inebriated one and move in close enough to affect him. The guy passes out almost immediately and his dance partner freaks out. She's a drama queen. Good. That'll get everyone's attention. I slowly back off as everyone else charges in to either help or just gawk. Once everyone is gathered around the scene, I wave Adino and Sparks to go on. Once Adino and Sparks are out of sight, I make sure everyone's attention is still on the drunk guy and slowly make my way over to the stairwell that Adino and Sparks went into. I need to catch up to them, but if I take off running, everyone's attention will turn to me. Better to take it slow. I can catch up to them later.

There are two sets of stairs and I don't know which one Adino and Sparks took. Oh, well, I'll do some reconnaissance of my own if I pick the one they didn't. I get to the top of the stairs, turn a corner and hear a very low chanting coming from further down the hall. The hallway is dimly lit and I can see colored energy peaking out from the crack of the bottom of the door at the end of the hallway. That's probably why we're here. I slowly and quietly approach the door. When I get there, I press my ear against it to try to hear what's going on inside the room. I can hear the chanting plainly now and I can feel the energy pulsating from inside. I've never been able to feel energy before. If I can feel it then it's got to be coming from an organic source. People's lives are involved. It could be from the members of the Dark Forces which means they've got a lot of power. It could also be from victims of their dark magic for whatever ritual they're performing inside. Either way, I can't wait on Adino and Sparks to get here and I don't have time to go find them. I'm on my own for this one.

I step back, take a deep breath and kick the door as hard as I can. It goes flying across the room and slams against the opposite wall. I must've absorbed some of that energy I was feeling. Four people who were chanting at the foot of an altar, each one with a book opened in front of them, are now caught in a deadlock stare with me and they've got two victims locked in stasis fields: Adino and Sparks. Looks like that energy mixture idea that Core had didn't work out.

I step into the room to drain the four people and the energy absorption is dizzying for me. I've only ever absorbed a normal person's energy. These people have mystical energy stored within them. At least, that's what I think this energy is that I'm absorbing. The energy drain doesn't seem to be affecting them very much. I think I'm feeding off of their mystical energy instead of their normal energy. They don't look fatigued at all by it. They all pull out athames, charge at me and try to stab me. I try to dodge them, but it's a little hard to dodge four people from four different angles at the same time. One of them connects, but the blade bends against my skin and the handle snaps off. I'm just as shocked as the person wielding the blade. I've been beaten with blunt objects plenty of times and shrugged it off. I rarely even bruise. No one has ever tried to stab me before so I didn't know what to expect. I'm sure the surge of energy I'm absorbed coming into the room helped out a bit. While standing amazed, the other three connect with their blades. The same thing happens. I guess they should have used blades intended for cutting.

While they're standing in awe, I grab one of them and swing him around to hit the other three. I connect with the first two and knock them out, but the last one dodges. It seems it took the concentration of all four to keep Adino and Sparks held in the stasis field because they just dropped to the ground. They seem too disoriented to join in with the fight at first. I toss the guy I'm holding off to the side and go toe-to-toe with this last guy. He seems to have some knowledge of martial arts, but the energy I absorbed has made me so fast and resilient that it doesn't matter how or where he hits me. None of it hurts me. I wait for an opening, grab him and throw him towards the other guy I threw at the wall. The force of the collision knocks them both out.

We came here for information so I grab the books, pick up Adino and Sparks, climb out a window and leap to the roof of a building across the street. I try to resuscitate them, but between the disorientation of the stasis fields and my energy drain, I can't get them to wake up. I pick them back up, jump down to the street and run as fast as I can back to the Beacon. By the time I get back, I'm actually starting to get a little winded. I must've used a lot of that energy running here and carrying them. I've never leapt that high before either. There's something about that energy that really charged me up.

As soon as I step into the door, staff members of the Beacon rush to help with Adino and Sparks. They carry them to the infirmary and I go to find Core so I can tell him what happened. Once I explain what happened from my point of view, he tells me to take the books to Marvolo and he heads to the infirmary to check on Adino and Sparks. I'm sure he'll get their side of the story as soon as they regain consciousness.

When I approach Marvolo's quarters, I hear chanting and see colored energy coming from underneath his door. After my last experience with that, I freak out and kick his door in, thinking he's in trouble. It's nothing more than him, sitting in front of his tablet, soaking up information. The crashing of his door being kicked off its hinges snaps him out of his trance and he gives me an upset gesture and probably an upset look, but he never takes off that helmet so I can't be sure. I assume because I would be upset, too, if someone needlessly kicked my door off its hinges. I shrug, “Sorry, I thought you were in trouble. I just had a bad experience with chanting magic users. That's where I got these.” I hand him the books and explain the situation, “Core sent Adino, Sparks and I on a mission to do reconnaissance on the Dark Forces. Adino and Sparks got caught up in a ritual they were performing. They were using these books during the ritual. Core thought you might be able to put them to good use.”

I set the books in front of Marvolo. He immediately grabs one and starts flipping through it, “Good, good. I don't believe this has been cataloged, yet. At least, not in its entirety. This could prove to be very useful.”

I interrupt his browsing, “Also, while I was there, I absorbed some energy coming from the people performing the ritual that didn't feel natural. I'm guessing it was some kind of mystical energy. I've never absorbed mystical energy before. Whatever it was, it energized me to a greater degree than anything ever has before, but it didn't last long. If you come across anything that could explain that, can you let me know?”

Marvolo doesn't even look up from the book, “Yes, yes. Of course, of course. Although, I could probably study a lot better in privacy. Having a door would help me out quite a bit.”

I shy back towards the door way and pick him his broken door, “Yeah, sorry. I'll get this fixed for you right away.”

Marvolo looks up for a momentl, holds his hand up and says, “Don't worry about it.” He says a few words I don't understand, the door hovers back into place and the metal hinges reform and reattach to the door. In a very unaffected manner, Marvolo says, “It's no trouble at all.”

I leave Marvolo's quarters and head to the infirmary to check on Adino and Sparks. I step into the doorway, but don't enter the room. I think they've had enough of my draining today. I look at Core, “How are they?” He looks back at me, “Adino was awake long enough to tell me what happened. Sparks was awake long enough to give me her usual sarcastic criticisms. The doctor says they should be fine after a night's rest. Did you give the books to Marvolo?”

I just nod, “He began looking over them immediately. He's gonna let us know as soon as he finds anything useful. I'm gonna call it a night.” Core just nods and walks over to the doctor to talk about the status of Adino and Sparks.

It's too late and I'm too tired to head back to my place. I find an empty bed and crash at the Beacon for the night.

I get woken up to a phone call at dawn from Marvolo. It seems he had been up all night, studying the books I found and he's found some very interesting information. I head over to his quarters. Core got there before I did. Marvolo tells us a little bit about what he's found, “There's a prophecy scattered throughout these books that refers to 'one who lives by absorbing the lives of others'. I haven't been able to find much else about this person, but if I'm right, I think it could very well be referring to you, Life Leech.”

I'm in disbelief. I can only argue the point, “How can that be right? It's seems like way too much of a coincidence that I'd be sent on a mission dealing with a group of people who have a prophecy about me.”

Core interrupts me, “It may not be coincidence at all. You said yourself that it was odd that we were even able to detect their activities. It's quite possible that someone set us up to find these books. They created just the right circumstances that would get you assigned to this mission.”

I continue to question it, “Then isn't is possible that this prophecy is completely fabricated just to lure us... Lure me into some kind of a trap.”

Marvolo pipes up at this point, “It is possible that someone is trying to trick you into doing something, but this prophecy is quite authentic. I know how to detect what's real and what's fake. This is most certainly real.”

I don't like it, but I accept it, “Fine. Do you know anything else about it?”

Marvolo runs his finger along the text in the book he's holding, “It's not clear on what the role of this person that sounds like you is in the prophecy. It only says that through the use of a creation of the past combined with a creation of the future will the person reach his full potential.”

Core tells Marvolo to continue studying the books and tells me to wait for him in the briefing room. Shortly after I get there, Core walks in with the other Pillars of Watchfire. Each of them sits at the briefing table and Core speaks for the group, “We've discussed this at great length and we think you should take a brief absence from superhero work while we have some of our magic users study the effects of that energy you absorbed. You said yourself that you don't know what it was or what it did to you. We want to make sure it doesn't have any negative effects before we send you back out into the field.”

I agree to it quickly, “I could use a vacation.” Core corrects me, “We need you to stay here while we study the energy.” I retort, “Fine, a staycation then.” I setup a place to stay near the labs I'll be getting studied in and report to the magic users. I told the Pillars I wanted a break, but the truth is that I have to have something to do and I have to keep moving. I don't like being around the same people for very long. I want to get onto the next project as soon as possible.