Anthology Two Presents

Millennium Man
"Enter ShadowWraith"
By Alex Truman

The scene opens on Michael Manly, microphone in hand, whiter than white teeth prominently on display.

"...And that looks like the last of them. I think everyone is inside now. This has been Michael Manly, in front of the Goodbody Auction House, where the famous and the wealthy have come out for an auction whose proceeds are to go to charity."

Michael and the crew start to close up shop, the crew ready to head back to the station, except for Michael and Jim Finnegan who are going to go in to see if they can get any footage from the auction itself. The van is just heading out when a security guard from the auction house comes bursting out the doors, falling to the ground.

He lies there on his side on the ground shivering. "C...c...c...cold!" is all he manages to say. A tendril of darkness reaches out from inside the Auction House and slams the door shut. Jim rolls the security guard onto his back, all the while rolling camera to catch this footage. As he does so, he seems an inky blackness covering the right side of the guard’s face.

"Good God! What is that?" asks Jim.

"D...d...darkness of d...d...d...d...death. Sh...ShadowWraith his name is. T...t...took the p...p...p...people inside hostage. Couldn’t do anything about it.”

"Jim, I’ll get help. You try and comfort this poor man."” Michael says. He runs of down an alley as Jim yells after him.

"Michael where are you going? You have a cell phone!"

Once in the alley, Michael dives behind a dumpster, and changes into Millennium Man, protector of Pacific City.

Inside the auction house, there is a man in a gray body suit with a gray mask allowing none of his features to be seen. Two dark red slits for eyes are visible in the mask. Flowing from his right side are several tendrils of darkness, which go over to entwine the auctioneer, who is held rigid to his right with darkness looped around his legs, waist upper arms and chest, and his mouth and jaw. There is a look of absolute terror on his face.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I have no desire to harm any of you. I merely will hold you all captive here until your release has been paid for. The amounts I will ask for are not unreasonable. There are enough of you that there is no need for me to be too greedy. But make no mistake, if any of you try to play hero, I will harm you, at the very least. I allowed that security guard to live only because I wanted someone to let the outside world know of the hopelessness of the situation in here. Now that that message has been sent, I will not be so merciful."

Outside, Millennium Man has appeared on the scene. There is also a SWAT team on site. The leader of the SWAT team is talking to Millennium Man.

"Okay, so here's the situation: He has all of the windows covered with some kind of black material. We don’t know his location and can’t get a shot."

The security guard replies: "That's not material. It's the ch...ch...chilling darkness he projects. The doors are all held shut by it as well."

Millennium Man puffs out his chest and says to the SWAT officer, "See to this man. I'm going to have a look at things on the roof."

And with that, he flies up to the roof of the auction house. Landing lightly, he takes a quick look around. There is a door on the roof. It is a metal door that has a heavy-duty lock on it. There is also some patio furniture up there and not much else.

"Hmmm. That door is almost definitely alarmed." Millennium Man thinks to himself. He walks over to the door and looks more closely.

"But, I'll bet the alarm is silent. This ShadowWraith would most likely not know that I was here if I open it." And with that thought, Millennium Man grabs the handle and quickly recoils.

"It's freezing." He says out loud. "All right then, if it's cold, it's no doubt brittle. Guess I'll just have to knock." He cocks his arm, and punches the door. As he predicted, the door is brittle and gives way easily to his amazing strength, but there is a wall of darkness on the other side of it.

Millennium Man reaches out and pushes on the darkness. It stretches but doesn't give way. He pulls his hand back and holds it in the other. "Cold. And elastic. But then, I know how to take care of that." Millennium Man stands back and blasts the wall of darkness with his Solar Blasts. The wall disintegrates under the power of the bright energy. Millennium Man flies through the now open doorway, and down the stairs on the other side.

Inside the auction house, ShadowWraith suddenly looks up from the podium. "Someone has penetrated one of my darkness barricades. Undoubtedly a SWAT team sent in to stop me. With but a small exertion, I shall know their every move." With that, darkness begins to flow in all directions from ShadowWraith's feet, coating the stage on which he stands, and then flowing down the front of the stage to cover the auditorium floor. All throughout the building, the floors are covered with a thin sheen of darkness.

The people in the auditorium jump up on their seats to avoid the chilling, inky blackness spreading on the floor below them.

Millennium Man, still flying down the stairwell towards the auditorium glances down at the stairs blow him as darkness flows uphill, covering the stairs in a thin skin, and pours on the speed.

Things seem to be going from bad to worse, he thinks to himself. Reaching the bottom floor, he banks hard into a turn designed to take him into the auditorium.

ShadowWraith closes his eyes for a moment. "Hmmm. No one is walking anywhere in the building. They must be holding back."

"Not quite, villain! Not all us need to touch the floor to get where we are going!" Millennium floats just inside the doorway, fists on hips, and a stern look upon his face. "Now release these people before things get ugly."

"Millennium Man! I didn’t expect you, but it doesn’t change anything. If you make a move, I'll crush the auctioneer's head like a grape."

Millennium Man pauses and looks around the room. Several of the other people here for the auction have also now been grabbed by the darkness, and are in mortal terror. He had to buy some time to figure out a way out of this situation.

"Alright. What do you want?"

"Hah! The mighty Millennium Man, losing to ShadowWraith! I want money. And a lot of it." ShadowWraith's eyes squint in concentration as he speaks to Millennium Man. Unobserved, behind the Pacific Protector’s back, a column of darkness grows out from the wall.

"Alright, ShadowWraith, let's talk mon..UGGGH!” Millennium Man’s delaying tactics are cut short by ShadowWraith's column of darkness enveloping his head and shoulders.

Millennium Man crashes into the dark-covered ground, hands first. He immediately tries to retake his feet, but finds that his hands are now stuck to the ground. He braces himself and tries again. Despite all of his effort and his great strength, he cannot raise his hands above his knees.

“Struggle all you like, Millennium Man. It will not help. The bonds of my darkness are unbreakable.”

Millennium Man struggles in futility against the bonds of pure darkness, before trying an alternate tack. He lets forth a low-powered Sun Bolt from each hand. The darkness melts before the light of Millennium Man’s power. With his hands free, he turns his Sun Bolts upon the darkness enveloping his head. Again, the darkness melts away, flowing from his face like water.

The gloating ShadowWraith is utterly unprepared for this turn of events. "NO! That's not possible! You can't!"

"Wrong, ShadowWraith. I can. And I will." With one hand, Millennium Man blasts his feet free, while the other unleashes a bolt of energy at ShadowWraith, knocking the manipulator of darkness back into the curtains at the back of the stage.

Millennium Man takes to the air again, this time not staying in one place. He flies toward the stage. "Never had to maintain such a tight control over the Sun Bolts before. But if I don't, the auctioneer could die." Millennium Man lets go with a beam from his right hand, which envelops the auctioneer in its glow. The darkness melts away from the auctioneer, who immediately begins to flee.

ShadowWraith manages to struggle back to his feet, and launches a bolt of darkness at Millennium Man, who is moving too quickly to be an easy target.

Millennium Man zigzags across the room, using his carefully controlled Sun Bolts to free ShadowWraith’s captives. ShadowWraith fires several more times, but cannot hit his erratically moving target. Once the prisoners are free, Millennium Man turns on ShadowWraith. "This is your first, last and only chance to come along peacefully. I suggest you take it."

"Never! I'll not be imprisoned!" And with that, ShadowWraith forms a sword of darkness and launches himself at Millennium Man. Millennium Man flies low under the attack, and whirls, shooting the sword out of ShadowWraith’s hand.

"Ah, ah, ah! People who play with sharp sticks are liable to hurt themselves."

ShadowWraith growls with inarticulate rage, growing foot-long darkness spikes covering his hands on the end of each arm. He throws a punch at Millennium Man, who easily sidesteps it. But, unexpectedly, another blade of darkness swings from the side of ShadowWraith's arm, cutting through Millennium Man's costume at his shoulder.

I’ve got to start taking this guy more seriously, Millennium Man thinks to himself as he throws a punch of his own. The glancing blow staggers ShadowWraith.

At least he isn’t invulnerable, Millennium Man thinks as he pushes his advantage, blasting ShadowWraith with a Sun Bolt from both hands. ShadowWraith tumbles head over heels backwards.

Millennium Man advances on his fallen foe, only to find him not moving. He picks up the unconscious malefactor and slings him casually over his shoulder, heading for the front door.

As he strides out of the auction house, Millennium Man is nearly blinded by the flash of news cameras. He flashes them his winning smile. He walks through the throng of reporters and fans who respectfully part ways for him, and unceremoniously dumps ShadowWraith on the hood of a police cruiser.

"Gentlemen, here is your 'perp'. I believe there were plenty of witnesses inside who will be more than happy to testify against this man."

With that, Millennium Man turned one more time towards his fans and gave them a wave, then rose gently from the ground, accelerating steadily into the night sky.