Actions

Work Header

Twilight Skies Book One: Halcyon Days

Summary:

Halcyon and Phoenix are locked in a brutal shadow-war. One motivated by survival the other by revenge with operatives on all sides caught in the cross fire. This is the story of 2 of those operatives and their part in the shadow war.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Prologue: Origins

Summary:

Everything has to start somewhere and while it may not be the very beginning it is where many things start.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Operation: Midas Touch

Operative(s): Cloak

Real Name: Jonathan Wright

Age: 15

Date: February 12, 2012

Time: 03:30

Objective: Steal 9 bags of 24-karat gold from Fort Knox

The wind whipped around Cloak as he scaled the imposing building. His bag jostled to and fro, making him slightly anxious that the sound could give him away. However he had timed it so that the guard patrols wouldn’t be in this sector for at least 5 minutes. Plenty of time to scale up to the roof of his target. His target being Fort Knox, the “impenetrable” vault filled with the U.S.’s gold reserves, and tonight Cloak was going to steal plenty of it. 

His plan had taken months of planning, but he’d had the idea since his freshman year of college nearly four years ago now. Am I really 15 already? Cloak wondered, it seemed just yesterday that he began majoring in computer science, but it’d already been 4 years. Well no time to think about that, his mind for once was perfectly focused on his task. It was a surprisingly simple plan: get up to the roof, look for loose cords (or cords in the concret,) plug into their electrical systems and disable them. Then it should be a hop, skip, and a jump through the vents, and a whole lot of gold would be his. 

Of course there is the problem of the guards, but… eh they’ll probably think it’s an electrical problem not sabotage. Hopefully. Well if anything did go wrong that was future Jon’s problem. After around four minutes of climbing he reached the top flat part of the roof. Cloak looked behind him down to the ground watching as the patrol made their rounds. He had to physically hold back the impulse to call down to them with taunts. C’mon brain can’t be doing that on a job like this. What would his mother say if he messed up like that? Nothing good, he decided as he took a small hammer and chisel and began the laborious process of finding some electrical wire. Normally tedious activities like this bored him, but tonight with such a grand plan he could feel anything but ecstatic. 

After  sometime he located a wire. Perfect, Cloak thought as he placed his device on the wire.  A small E.M.P. bomb that would short out the entire power system. Great things come in small packages. Though I think ma just said that cuz I’m short. Before setting the bomb off he would need to secure an entry point, and he was able to find one with ease. A vent great that looked large enough for him to squeeze through. Cloak wasn’t the biggest fan of vents, but in this case it would be the safest bet. 

Unscrewing the grate Cloak couldn’t help letting out a small chuckle. Slipping through he detonated the E.M.P. It wasn’t one that would completely destroy the electrical systems, just disable them. If it destroyed it, the government would have to spend money fixing it and the less money the government’s spending the better. Crawling through the vents he could hear somewhat the disgruntled mutterings of the soldiers complaining about the outage. Creeping pass the voices he found a more quite part of the base, and from there he located a grate that would allow him access to the vault proper. 

The drop was a bit more than he expected, but he managed to swing himself from the grate to the stacks of gold. Of course he couldn’t see the gold just yet, but he could feel it underneath him as he landed with a slight “oof.” 

“Yeesh, you’d think they could make the gold a bit softer,” Cloak blurted out, rubbing his soar rear. 

“Gold’s already the softest metal…” It seemed at that moment that both Jon and whoever responded to him made the same connection. Crap! Cloak thought, as he searched fo the guard whose night vision googles were looking right at him. Luckily he seemed so confused that a child had made their way into Fort Knox that he didn’t even radio for help. Cloak took that opportunity to jump him, or rather to jump on him. He fell onto the soldier’s shoulders, and as the man tried to swat him Cloak grabbed onto a nerve and led the man quickly to unconsciousness. 

Sorry about that, Jon thought as he hid the man’s body underneath one of the shelves. With that complication out of the way, Cloak went on to stuff multiple bags with gold. It would take a long time to get them all out, but his E.M.P. should keep the soldiers distracted. 

Over the next hour and a half, Cloak managed to get all the bags of gold out on to the roof. Reaching in to his bag he took out a grappling gun, and a collapsible stand for said grapple gun. Combined it made quite the effective zip line. Firing the gun into the night, when he felt the line go taut he began to load the gold onto it. After the nine bags were secured he loaded himself onto the contraption and zipped off into the night. 

Well that went off surprisingly well, Cloak thought as he landed next to the gold. It would take a while to get all back to his van, but it was his. Now all he had to do was get it fenced and he’d be sitting pretty for a long time. Though he wasn’t going to be sitting, he was going be using these funds to take down criminals who the law can’t or won’t go after. This is gonna be so fun, after all this was all a game, and he was going to play it the best. 


Operation: Grim Reaper

Operative(s): Death

Real Name: Vincent Stone

Date: January 10, 2007

Time: 15:00

Age: 27

Objective: Survive the two assassins sent by the Armera

 

Vincent stood in the alley that led to his favorite speakeasy. He knocked on the door and waited for the bouncer to ask for the passwords. While he was waiting, two other men walked up to him. They were disreputable, no doubt about it, but these weren’t common thugs. Sharp suits and a tie wrapped around each one's neck tipped him off to that.

“Evening, gentlemen,” Vincent said casually.

“Evenin’,” the taller of the two men said. He idly noticed they both had weapons tucked neatly away in their jackets or pockets.

“So I can assume this isn’t a social call, right?” Vincent asked sarcastically.

“Got that right, mate,” the shorter of the men said.

“So who sent you? The government, local police, or someone I crossed?” He asked but he knew the 3rd one was right.

“Heh, third one there, Mr. Stone. I’m sure you know by now, after three years, but the Armera has got a price on your head and well we’re here to collect,”

“Well then, gents... let’s get on with it,” Vincent said smugly. The two men both reached for their weapons and he reached for his small UP9 handgun. It wasn’t the best, but it was what he had. The smaller man pulled out a silenced Raven, and the taller one, a knife. What ensued was a quick scuffle. The shorter man was dispatched easily enough with a few quick shots to the body, and he fell down before he even pulled the trigger. The taller man was more difficult. Judging from his movements, Vincent guessed he had some type of spec-ops training. The man got a few good hits on him, including a deep one to the cheek that would certainly scar badly. Tragically for the tall man, his movements were predictable and he was able to grab him before eliminating him. He searched the two men’s pockets, finding a rather interesting set of papers. It appeared that these two were close to The Armera as they had shipping information on them with different routes planned. 

“Well thank you gents you just gave me an idea.” Vincent knocked on the door finally giving the bouncer the passcode. He took in the smells of food and booze feeling at home before making his way to the small pay-phone at the end of the bar. He gave it a quarter and dialed a number. 

“911 what’s your emergency?” A voice asked on the other end. 

“Hello police I’d like to make an anonymous tip. I got some shipping information for some of The Armera’s products. I think you’d be very interested in what’s their doing in Arizona,” He finished the call and hung up the phone feeling satisfied that he made Amera’s life just a bit harder.

Notes:

So yeah the prologue sure it's somewhat disparate but trust me it will be useful later for connecting this somewhat back to the plot of EP itself. So yeah hope you guys enjoy my weird somewhat crack fic about my OCs. (edit) Some of you may notice that I got rid of Zeus and Ares, the reason is that as I've been trying to figure out how to write this I decided to focus only on Death and Cloak so while those two may appear again they won't be main characters.