Rising Volume 2, Issue 7 - "The only way evil triumphs is for the good to do nothing at all."

Elliot woke up on the cold hard floor of a warehouse. His head ached as he rolled around on the floor, unable to hold back a painful grunt as he came up from air out from a dream.

"Elliot! you're alive!" Sofia said and she came over to him. Slowly he opens his eyes to look up at Sofia. She was without her mask and had a bruise on the side of her head.

He touched his own face, the middle of his face that hurt - he also had no mask.

"Where are we?" Elliot asked.

"A warehouse on the West side. Close to home I think. They had blinded folded me, but not very well. I recognized some of the billboards I caught passing glances of when I tried to fight back."

"Robert? Ryan?"

"I'm here El." Robert said in the corner of the room, huddled scared. Slowly Elliot stood up to see him. "We're in deep shit now."

"Not helping." Elliot said trying to push out the headache that was coming over my head as Sofia helped him to sit up. They were in a small room, most likely an office at one point in time. But the windows were boarded up - this room hadn't been occupied in a long time.

"They got you hard El. I wasn't sure if they had killed you or put you into a coma or what!" Sofia continued.

"Who..."

"Who do you think?" Robert cut him off.

"Adam. So what else has happened?"

"Nothing. They stashed us in here. Been an hour, I think." Sofia said.

Then the door swung open. Bullet Heads walked in with military stride as they collected the heroes and brought them into the main storage room at the heart of the warehouse. It was barren with empty shelves with the occasiona propate tank for the small cooking burners that were there. There was also a pletehra of used office furniture. This was another hangout of theirs, as thre were at least a dozen gang members surrounding them of various ages, all disguised by the stark black mask with highlits of their brows like a cartoon character.

There was nothing cartoonish about this situation though.

Then there was Adam, in uniform - a new uniform thought modeled after the old one. It was a black suit with a white 'A' on his chest and on his mask that sported reflective lenses in his mask. He had a utiliy belt with different pocket that he could access with both his regular left arm, and the gimp right harm that set nudged against his chect like a t-rex hand.

Elliot remember - he smashed the hand against a brick wall - the police car that ran him over as he fled did the rest.

"What did I say to you when I saw you the other day in the clubhouse, Elliot?"

He didn't answer.

"I said stay out of my way. I warned you fairly. And off you went with the little nubile Sofia. Getting youselves in all sorts of trouble."

"Nubile is a complex wod for you, Adam."

"Shut your mouth Robert. For being the "genious" of the little group, you're not being very smart right."

"Where's Mary Jane?" Sofia asked.

"Safe. She doesn't need to be a part of this." Adam-man said as more Bullet Heads came from the front door of the warehouse, led by Ryan, and gathered around their leader.

"So what now, Adam?" Elliot asked.

"What now?" Adam-Man began pacing back and fourn in front of his cerw, his right arm twitching. Each step was rough, omnious and dominating. "I don't know. This was one of those things I hoped to never come to do. Cause are you going to stop? Like we stopped before?"

"You've made yourself the villain Adam. I can't help you if you won't let me."

"I think you did enough helping, El." Adam looked down at his gimp hand, then looked backat Elliot. "No, we're past that."

"Don't act so tough!" Elliot stood. Bullet Head body guards moved to intercept, but Adam dismissed them. "You're a kingpin now. And I have a duty to stop you."

There was a chorous of laughter among the Bullet Heads.

Ryan was not. He was only looking more paranoid than ever. His mask cuoldn't hide that fact.

"El, reconsider." Adam said.

"You dug your own grave, Adam."

Adam paced again. "No. You dug yours." Then he waived his left arn forward. Members of the gang grabbed Robert. Elliot was held as Sofia was grabbed too, just as she got up to her feet.

"Robert had nothing to do with this, Adam!" Elliot said.

"The moment Ryan was tied up in his house, he was involved! He pays the concequences like all of you will."

"Adam!" Ryan stepped out from the group behind his brother. "You can't! They were your friends!"

"No! They stopped being that when they turned their back on our cause. To put an end to the crime in this city. The Heroes Club was suppose to do that. I'm just picking up where we left off."

"No Adam. you've just made it worse. You firebombed Robert's house for crying out loud! Mom and Dad can't look past that."

"They'll never know, will they?" Adam nodded, and Ryan was added to the group now on deaths row.

Ryan faced his brother, went under his jacket, and pulled out a gun and pointed it at his brother.

"We're going to have to have another talk about bringing guns here, boys." Adam said.

"Stop it Adam. Before you kill someone!"

Adam stands there, deadlpan stare at his brother. "You're pathetic Ryan! Always have been! You don't have the balls to shoot your only brother."

Adam jolted forward on his right foot and threw a triad of ball and chain at Ryan's hand and knocked out the gun with frightening proficiancy.

Like slow motion, we all watched as the gun fell to the concrete. It hit the floor - and went off. A bullet went into the wall of a propane tank and exploded, setting the surrounding furniture aflame.

A large group of the Bullet Heads went down in flame as the debris from the wall and the surrounding furniture hit them. The frame of the wall went weak, being made of little more than aluminum and steel.

The lights flickered as the power died in the room. That was our chance, Elliot thought. He darted out of the grasp of the man that held him, snapped out his eltrctro rod, kicked the knee of the guy that held Robert, then slapped them in the face with the rod.

When he turned back in the same instant as he saw the Bullet Head lackies fleeing the scene, was when he saw Adam's fist going into his eye.

One-on-one, even with Adam's gimp arm, he was formitable, he had been training even in his offtime, where as Elliot had not. In fact didn't take long for Adam to best Elliot, dodging and counter striking on almost every move Elliot made and soon had Elliot at his throat by a black and silver jagged knife.

There were no words. Adam was ready to finish it. Elliot could see himself in teh reflective lense s of ADam's mask as the fear settled in. He as about to die.

Then a bullet broke through Adam's ribs. He felt the bullet hit the bullet-proof vest that Sofia had given him as Adam fell on top of him. Elliot was freaking out as he pushed Adam's still alive body off of him. He looked up, there was Ryan, with the gun, ready with another round. His hadn was still on the weapon, he was a natural.

"Ryan!" Elliot called out to him, but another explosion prevented them.

He looked to Adam, who looked at Elliot, his mask had partially come off. He could see his lonely eye poking out. There was a sense of defeat, yet no sign of regret. A faint smile spread across his face.
Sad as it was, the The fire was sperading - they had to get out. They could hear the metal of the warehouse moaning around them.
"Grab Adam!" Elliot said to Sofia and Robert who were nearby. Robert and Elliot quickly scooped him up, one under each arm, and headed for the back door. With Sofia behind them, they marched toward the back. It was just the old gang. The bullet head folk had abanonbed their leader after the first exploson. Seemed fitting, to Elliot anyway, how they would all go down in a blaze of glory.

They got to the back door and Robert shows surprising strength when he kicked it open.

The gang fell upon the grass afterwards, escaped from death, watching as the flimsy warehouse burned from the inside out.