In the Pentagon, Alysa Saraki sat slouched in a chair with a pair of handcuffs on while two military police stood guard and a second CIA agent interrogated her.

“So after the fight in your town, you say you were teleported to this location?,” the agent asked as he looked over her testimony.

“That’s what I told the last guy,” Alysa was exasperated, “Look, all kinds of weird shit is happen’n right now. It ain’t that out of the ordinary, all things considered.”

Elsewhere in the compound, the Upstarts were called into a conference room to be debriefed once more.

“Man, we took down a wholeass spaceship,” Da Mutt grumbled, “Ain’ that enough? I need some down-time.”

“I’m just wondering about Alysa,” Alexis added, “She was the brains of that operation and they have her in a cell for interrogation. Bet it wouldn’t happen if she weren’t black.”

“Alright, settle down,” the sergeant growled as he pointed to satellite imagery projected on the wall next to him, “A small shuttle entered Earth’s atmosphere about an hour ago and passed through LA airspace. Our boys tried to shoot it down but the big ship over the city intercepted our missiles. The next thing anyone knew was that your house was getting demolished by one being,” he displayed another image of a blurry figure attacking Upstart Manor.

“What do they want with the mansion?,” Dante asked, “No one’s in there right now.”

“Are they after Neutronium?,” Kaley asked.

“Levison took that stuff back to the military,” Kyle answered.

“Could be bad intel on their part,” the sergeant explained, “Or maybe they’re after the Nantox tech that gave you powers. Either way, we’re sending you on a copter to check it out. We’ll have personnel on sight to-“

The images projected on the wall disappeared and the lights went out at once. In the interrogation room, Alysa and the officers also noticed the sudden power outage. “Swear to God that’s not me,” she told them.

Shutting down power across the globe began with Council shutting down entire super grids. The satellite had already gained access to them shortly after the invasion and did so undetected and once they were shut off, wide areas immediately lost power. Hospital staff began scrambling as life support systems and other important tools lost power. In the civilian bunkers littered around the globe, the lights flickered off, plunging them into darkness. Council continued to access smaller grids and while backup generators were still functioning, the message was clear.

In a field in the UK, Sean Pierce, the Femme Phantom and the rest of the Badges noticed the power going out in the small underground base. “I guess the generator is too old,” Nadeem Alam explained as they were plunged into darkness. Pierce shook his head with a worried expression, “This place siphons power off a nearby grid. If power is out here, it’s out all over the area… and I fear that perhaps more than just this location has been affected.”

In Boston, Farrell Creed shot pool in the basement of Ryan Bennings’ house, wondering if he was in the right place as he was separated from his partner, Alysa Saraki and was concerned about her safety as well as the safety of everyone in Winghaven. He had initially agreed to wait there for Rex Robinson but he couldn’t help but regret ever leaving his town in the first place. It didn’t help that he was in a house with the Cavalier whom he barely knew and Ryan Bennings who did not make the best first impression. He considered leaving when the lights went out. Upstairs, Michael Hawkwood was trying to get some rest in a private room where he could remove his helmet. He wasn’t sure what to make of Creed and Bennings and hoped that Rex Robinson would arrive soon as he felt ill-equipped to get them to stop fighting. Additionally, he was concerned about the welfare of New York as he knew it was likely still under attack. When the lights went out, his thoughts were interrupted, and he quickly replaced his helmet. In his lab, Ryan Bennings was busy contacting military personnel in hopes of reaching the Upstarts. “I am not authorized to give you that information, Mr. Bennings,” the officer explained. “I get that but do you get that we are in the middle of an invasion and that I am trying to make sure those kids don’t end up like some Vietnam vets?,” The transmission was shut off and power to the lab went down. The backup generator kicked on a second later, bathing the house in a low red light.

Outside, a Silencer approached the house, making sure to stay as hidden as possible despite it being daytime. Director Q’werz sent the Silencer to Benning’s residence in order to confirm his death and while there was once a hologram hiding the residence, the power outage took that advantage away. The Silencer was named Syfire; as an U’ntari assassin powered by Neutronium, he was given the ability to create life-draining energy tentacles that could grant him increased strength and durability by siphoning it from his foes. He leapt off the top of the hill, clearing the gate and landing on the paved drive-way before moving toward the front door and away from the windows.

Inside, Creed and the Cavalier met up in Ryan’s living room where the only light source came from the sun outside. “The power’s out,” Creed said as he produced his gun, “I’m gonna assume Bennings can afford to pay his bills, which means…”

“… They cut the power,” Cavalier answered back, “And considering I’m having trouble accessing the Dragon’s database through my helmet, I don’t think this was a localized attack,” he pulled his sword, “Bennings is around here somewhere. We’ll see what-”

The front door was broken down as Syfire leapt into the room. He raised his palms and sky-blue tendrils of energy quickly shot out. One tendril wrapped around the Cavalier’s throat and despite running his sword along its length, he couldn’t cut it. The other two tendrils wrapped around Creed’s arms, forcing them at his side. “Where is Ryan Bennings?,” Syfire roared as he held his prey still, the tendrils swirling from his glowing palms. The men felt their physical strength leave their bodies as they grew increasingly fatigued, moreover, the assassin across the room seemed to grow stronger. His veins began to glow along his face and hands and they could see his size increasing slightly under his skintight costume. Creed could not move his arms under the grip of the tentacles but he found that he could bend his wrist. Using this to his advantage, he tried his best to point his gun in Skyfire’s direction and pulled the trigger. The bullets hit their mark but instead of drawing blood, sparks of blue energy popped off which only staggered their foe.

Ryan Bennings rounded a corner with an energy rifle and fired a single bolt, the blast sending Syfire into the wall behind him. Cavalier and Creed were dragged down by the force but with Syfire briefly stunned, the tentacles disappeared and they were released. There was a strange glow of energy from the assassin as he staggered to his feet, then he grunted in pain before he scrambled under the set of stairs nearby. Creed and Cavalier, meanwhile, raced to Ryan’s location and slouched against the wall around the corner.

“Here’s the situation,” Ryan checked his rifle as he spoke, “Power’s out along with my security system which is how our visitor made it inside. Now, as you could have guessed, he has some sort of hentai-energy-vampire thing going on with those tentacles. The good news is, and I’m gonna skip the science lesson for the most part, when he’s using those things, he seems vulnerable to energy attacks.”

“Like I said,” Creed’s strength returned as he began to rise, “There’s always a weakness.”

Ryan sighed and opted to ignore him as he turned to Cavalier, “Your armor has some gadgets that give electric shocks, right?”

“We’re fine by the way,” Cavalier remained slouched against the wall, “… and yes. My armor has tasers.”

“Next time he whips those things out, use it,” Ryan turned to Creed, “As for you… I dunno. Can you distract him by… making duck-calls or something?”

“You need him drawn out, I can draw him out,” Creed made a run for the stairs.

“Creed, wait,” Cavalier tried to warn him but was ignored.

Skyfire regained his strength and emerged from under the stairs just as Creed made a dash for him. Despite his size, Creed’s leap was fast and agile; energy tendrils shot past him just before he planted a boot into Syfire’s chest. The assassin fell against the stair banister and came back with a punch across Creed’s jaw. They grappled and soon fell over the back of the couch and onto the floor near Ryan’s massive TV screen which stretched along the wall. “Watch the screen,” Ryan called out as he tried to take aim. As the two foes stood up, Creed grabbed Syfire by the arm and spun him directly into the screen, creating a spiderweb-shaped crack. Creed then turned to Ryan and gave an insincere shrug, “Oops”.

Ryan was unamused but opted to ignore Creed as he took aim once again. A single tendril shot out from the alien’s palm while he was crouched on the ground, cracking the energy rifle in half. As Syfire removed Ryan’s weapon, Cavalier took the opportunity to ignite his armor’s tasers and shoved them against the tendril as they whipped through the air. Another strange glow emerged as Syfire stood to his feet and staggered back in agony. Ryan then pulled a hand-held flame thrower from his pocket while the assassin was weakened and expelled a burst of flames. Half of Syfire’s face was engulfed and he was sent screaming across the room where he launched himself through a window. Creed watched as the U’ntari warrior fell off the steep hill into the water below, then disappeared.

“You always have a flame thrower on you?,” Cavalier asked.

“You don’t?,” Ryan retorted.

“We should track `im,” Creed told the group, “Make sure he’s dead.”

“No point,” Ryan returned the flame thrower, “They know we’re here, there’s no power and we’re sitting ducks. We should gather what we can and relocate.”

“What about Rex?,” Cavalier asked, “He’ll be here soon and with the power out, there’s no way to contact him.”

“Good point,” Ryan pushed past them, “I was supposed to form a team for him but I guess you two are all I have. Lock and load. We’ll wait for Rex and hope he isn’t disappointed.”

“Hey,” Cavalier called after him, “We just took out one of those things with a little bit of teamwork. We can do this. We just need to put up with each other a little longer.”

“I guess this is why I was never asked to be on a team,” Ryan retired to his lab.

In New York, the Dragonfly tried to use his armor’s com system to communicate with his superiors, “Is anyone there? Please copy.” He and Astra Machina had been aware of the power outage across New York for some time. “I think this is world wide,” Astra explained, “Every network is down and I picked up a signal just before it all happened. It was similar to the signal I picked up when the U’ntari used their satellite to hack our communication systems.”

“If you know what’s causing this mess, then do something,” Dragonfly suggested.

“You’re right,” Astra’s answer was sincere as she generated a jetpack, “I will do something,” then she flew off toward her destination.

The Resurgence Reading List

The Resurgence Prologue

The Resurgence #1

The Resurgence #2

Formerly Known as Brain Boy #8

Winghaven #20

The Cavalier #21

The Badges #12

The Resurgence #3

The Resurgence #4

The Resurgence #5

The Resurgence #6

Astra Machina #10

The Resurgence #7

The Upstarts #11

The Resurgence #8

The Resurgence #9

The Resurgence #10

The Resurgence #11

The Resurgence #12

The Resurgence Epilogue