Emblem's Burned Down Apartment.

Emblem's old apartment had once been his safe heaven for when normal life became to hectic of frantic for him. His home had everythign he had ever wanted. He'd have a nice view of the ocean, his most favorite place, and coincidentally, on the tower he had once inhabited; The Titan Tower.

The old Emblem had been a honorary member of the Titans, and had moved on to Titans North. His house was unlike him, it was always calm. He'd have a big sofa, a big TV, a separate room for investigations, including his famed laptop with access to the Undernet, the ecuavalent of the Internet but fulled with blueprints and other data evildoers could use. While most heroes who tried to get on wouldn't survive the bombardment of viruses and tracking devices to compromise their security, Emblem had used the access key of a mob boss for this. He was lucky, and had used the info on their not to fight evildoers, to stop their plans...but to learn about Jump, and utilize that in his good-doing exploits.

A rich kitchen was Emblem's jewel. Cabinets filled with the most exotic and special of spices. While travelling around the world, Emblem had learned to cook for himself and otehrs withall he could find. He wasnt' a masterchef, but his way of cooking, mostly sped up by the use of his pyromancer powers was definitely liked by a lot of people.

Emblem had once contacted Cyborg for a special cloaking device to protect himself. He could see others outside the barrier, others couldn't see him and his apartment. It was on the highest floor, but he wouldnt be seen from the sky. It would appear as empty.

A fireplace, a big rug where Krious had once slept on, a big table to hosue his cookings, and a huge filled up bookcase. A Tight house decoration, filled, with memories.
Gone.

All there was now when Emblem had consumed the house with his black flames, was rubble. The house had been destroyed, and all that had been there before was either destroyed or ripped apart. Shards of a rug lay scattered throughout the bricks and pieces of mortar. Al lthere was left of the investigation room were snippets from newspapers indicating stolen things. Emblem had succesfully thwarted one plan of Slade with Xzuk and Alyss one day with sue of these articles. Now they were burned, singed, yellowed, hardly readable.

The bookcase had been turned to firewood, splintered and scattered. Everything had been turned to rubble, dust and the house was wrecked. Coincidentally, as he had used the darkest of magics, the owner of these apartments couldn't repair the damage. The magic didn't keep you from moving things inside the house or salvaging some, but any attempt at recovery or repair would be met with fire.

Shards of glass would crisp under your feet, remains of his spices collection, as you would walk around...

All other layers Emblem had once had as protection were gone. Krious had one of the legendary skeleton keys, allowing entrance through the old magical barrier, but it wasn't there anymore. There was no camouflaging system, only metal shards that remained here and there. A room full of memories, yet now a scar, keeping a place from healing. Only the view of the ocean, old Emblem's most precious, had been just the same. You could see the sky and sea, and even amidst the destruction, you'd feel a breeze of relaxation, much as the chaotic Emblem had liked it. At times, you'd think to even still see him there, with a bottle of some brand, a glass in his hand, sitting on his balcony, pondering about his lost love, and how she much resembled the sea, the element that she controlled fully, the water.

It was all that was left of the old Emblem, destroyed by the new Emblem...

The duo stood before a broken door. Holes and cracks were burned through and it looked like even the smallest force would tear it to pieces. Moving near the room itself proved easier then he remembered, as if the barrier that kept it protected was no longer there. It wasn't so long ago that he had called this place home. Well he was freeloading, but then again he didn't think Emblem minded his presence one bit. A feeling of reluctance spread through his body when he urged himself to open the door, there were so many memories in there it would be troublesome to see it in it's current state.

"Well I guess there's no turning back now is there..."

His hand clutched the doorknob and pushed it open, carefully trying not to break the door in the process. He looked inside and fell completely silent at the sight his eyes showed him. The entire room was burned to a crisp, the floors and walls blackened by the flames, no trail of any furniture that he could picture from his memories and not even the faintest sign of anything he could remember. The entire room was like a shadow of it's former self, completely void of any colours it used to display and overtaken by the black trail of destruction. He remembered how it used to feel like when entering this room and how unimportant it seemed at the time. Right now he'd give anything for that specific feeling and share it with the person next to him. Those days were gone... Slowly he set foot into the room and spoke up with a lump in his throat.

"This is not exactly what I hoped for, but let's give it our best shall we."

A trail of sadness could be heard in the tone of his voice.

Shadow hadn't been expecting much, but the sight before her was tragic. She could see it had affected Krious far more than her, though. His sorrow at the sight of Emblem's ruined apartment was obvious, but the socially awkward girl had no idea what she could do about it.

She didn't say anything in reply to Krious' comment, just nodded, as she stepped into the room behind him. The inside was even worse than the outside. Shadow looked around, trying not to step on anything that might be useful. Her first inclination was to look at the bookcase, so she carefully walked to it, hoping against hope that there might be something worth salvaging there.

Picking through the ruins, Shadow began to feel the effects of the room's mood on her. One thing she really hated was to see books damaged, and the piles of ashes before her now brought a sour taste to the back of her throat. These had been keepers of knowledge and secrets, once, but now they were dust. Shadow scowled, banishing her bitter thoughts and concentrating on looking for clues on Emblem.

Shadow proceeded to check out the bookcase. Books really are her 'thing'. Krious made his way over to the old desk were they used to do their research. Not that there was much of it left, but Emblem always had his ways in protecting important stuff.... and forgetting about it later. This probably was way too important for Emblem to destroy so he didn't think his chances of actually finding anything were high.

"Let's see."

He murmurred while beginning to scrape through the burned remains. There were several places in here that would be protected from a fire but only a few he knew that Emblem used to use. Although you should never underestimate how many hiding spots a person could have in his own home.

(( Emblem.... I don't know if you want to have any influence on what we find in here, but if you do you'd better let us know! ))

Shadow slowly worked through the piles of ashes and charred wood, looking for any small nooks where a book might have fallen and avoided the fire. Just as she was thinking it was impossible, she found two scorched planks that had once been shelves forming a little hole. Shadow lifted one of them off, and was rewarded with the sight of a book, covered in ashes, but undamaged. Picking it up, she dusted it off gently and read the title.

(Sorry for the shortness, writer's block. Anyway, it's up to you if you want this book to be important or not.)

(Searching at the bookcase → Check. First clue.)
(Searching near the research room → Check. Second clue)

(..Youre both good at this!)

((SHADOW)) Not knowing how lucky she was, Shadow had spotted one book that seemed to lay under a few bricks. It wasn't protected by any sinistre magic, but the book itself seemed very weird. Even thought this place had been burned down, the book itself was not damaged. IT was a large, black book with a leather back. It seemed untouched by the fire.

Picking it up and inspecting the outside would not yield much. It was big, heavy and had a black cover and no inscription at all. However, Emblem was a scholar, always looking for new knowledge. If this book survived, it was either protected by a very powerfull ancient spell or it was extremely lucky. It deemed the first. For some reason, when holding the book, you feel as if on the threshold of new knowledge. As Emblem had studied many magics, it seemed only logical that this one was about magic as well. But how to use it?

Only doing omething with it could tell you something,.. as it was now, the pages were yellowish, but didn;t have the slightest of letters on it.

((KRIOUS)) Krious was the one that understood more of Emblem at times then Emblem did himself. For one, he suspected that this place was burned out just because it had clues, but also because it had memories. And memories, as Emblem knew very well, influenced you more then most things. Emblem hadn't gone to check much though, especially not regarding the research room. It had old research on it, about cases known far and wide. But even if paper burns and rock is dried, one ancient tablet did not. It had old, Eqyptian runes on it, but just be looking at it you felt this was something big. One big figure dominated the scene, but it had many heads, hands and feet... and seemed to beam something. It reeked of schizofrenia or something like that. Next to the big figure was a smaller one, but it seemed to be on fire..and laugh. It's head was not where a normal human's head was.

Above it, stood, on a blank piece of slim stone, carved out by Emblem's earthen magic..

''The Gospel of Mark, 5:9,''

Krious examined the tablet, but what did it all mean? All the samller figures seemed to fear the big ones, and even the god of death, Anubis, was there...but he was smiling for some strange reason. For one thing Emblem didn't seem to have taken it with him, so he must know what it means. Remains of broken china lay around it, suggesting many coffee breaks in front of the thing, and a few burned down cinders referred to used ancient encyclopedia, where ever he had confiscated those. This was one malicing tablet, that was for sure.

(Didnt notice your last post Shadow. Here's your book though!)

Krious slid aside most of the ashes that had piled up in the area. Most of it were remains of old cases, since he remembered there were a lot of them in this room. Most of them were unknown to him but he did get the opportunity to do some research in this room himself. The desk was completely torched and broken in several places, with one of the legs missing it had fallen on top of a pile of rubble, making most of the contents slide to the side. Krious began to dust some of the ashes away and unearthed a rather clean looking stone in the middle of it all. It was a bit dusty and blackened by a fire but nothing a small wipe wouldn't fix.

He picked up and began to wipe it clean with his sleeve. The colour came back to it's original light grey rather easy and the entire stone was still rather smooth. Krious flicked the stone around in his hand a few times only to find an inscription engraved into it. The Gospel of Mark; 5:9 Strange..., he thought while bringing his attention back to the rest of the pile. The Gospel of Mark is a part of the New Testament, what did that line have anything to do here? Krious new that much, but had no knowledge of the contents of this gospel. He waded through the rest of the ashes for any further clues and to his surprise actually found another stone beneath it all. This one was quite a bit larger, resembling a tablet from older times. They used those to write on in ancient times, as opposed to the more refined ink and papyrus that were the basis for the current pen and paper. Another bit of wiping should do the trick.

The more he cleaned the tablet, the stranger the whole thing got. Egyptian symbols and strange figures and markings, the whole thing started to feel a little weird. There was a large being with many arms, legs and even heads which seemed to be the focus of the scene. There were some smaller ones, every one more strange then the other and he was sure he could pick out the Egyptian god Anubis. This clue brought more questions then it answered, it seemed like the two might not even be related. Among the ashes he saw evidence of extensive research efforts but that could just have been a coincidence with the fire and all. It would be best to take these items back to base for a better inspection, he couldn't get any details without more information. What was in this gospel, and what was on display on this tablet...

"I think I've got something here. How are things on your end?"

Something felt really strange and it sure had something to do with this tablet.

(( I hope I did it alright ))

Shadow opened the book, wondering how it was so perfectly undamaged. Her puzzlement was only increased as she searched through the blank pages, feeling that she was onto something important here, but not knowing what or how. She wondered if the book had some kind of spell on it. To be completely untouched by a fire of this magnitude and not have anything at all written on it, it had to be something special.

But why would Emblem put a protection spell on a book then try to destroy his apartment? He must've known it would survive. Did he forget? Maybe he thought it would be useless anyway?

Shadow started in surprise as Krious called her over, replying, 'Yeah, I found a book, but there's nothing on the pages and it's not damaged at all.' The dark-haired girl left it up to Krious to draw his own conclusions, wanting to know what he had found.

"You too? This is starting to feel like he purposely left these things behind, which I don't like at all."

He said while walking over to the bookcase she was investigating, the items he found in his hands. She had found a completely black book, with nothing on it's cover or back to indicate what it's contents were. It's pages were empty, there was nothing written in there. The book was, as she said, completely undamaged by the fire.

"Strange... I've heard of magical books but not much about empty ones. We'd better take it with us."

His thoughts began to stray. What if they wrote in it, or there was something magical hidding the contents, or maybe they needed something to bring out the words. Like the tablet he found they had to find out what to do with it.

"What do you think? Are the words hidden by magic? Should we write in it?"

This could be dangerous without knowing what meddling with the book would bring but curiousity got the better of him at these moments. His attention turned back towards the tablet he found and he showed it to Shadow.

"Look this is what I've found. They were together, but I don't know if they are connected somehow. The large one eludes me, I really don't know what it means but this other one is a reference to the New Testament, I think it was book 2 but I don't know fore sure."

He was no expert on the bible or egyptian symbols. Maybe Shadow knew something more, or else it would have to wait until back home.

Startled, Shadow glanced down at the vibrating book in her hands. As the riddle appeared, she quickly read it, frowning.

'Maybe he just owned some powerfully enchanted stuff. This sounds like it can't be destroyed, and can only be read with magic. Which beats me. I don't know any magic at all.'

The last two sentences were said in a slightly apologetic tone, as Shadow reread the verses. Even more puzzled than before, she glanced at Krious, wondering how he would respond.

The book started to shake in Shadow's hands and filled it's first page in golden writings. The riddle was rather simple, as it was intended to be an instruction of some kind. Provide the book with magic and it would show you what you really wanted to know. Was something like this really possible? Some very powerful magics would be behind this, one should assume it was controlled by something, or someone.

"Isn't the way you manipulate shadows a kind of magic? Every supernatural energy is a magic in it's own way. I think you should try it, think of something you would want to know and perform one of your abilities on it. Or at least, I think that's what it means."

The book would probably pick the things you unconsciously really wanted to know. There was no way to be certain what would appear on the pages once they started.

'I... I really don't know what I do to use shadows. Lab rats don't get told much. But I'll try.'

The man who had given Shadow her powers had been a scientist, not a magician. Still, there was no telling what he had discovered. She was reluctant to use her powers on the book, in case it got damaged. Then again, it had survived Emblem's fire. And if it did work... she could find out everything about her powers.

Whoa, whoa, hang on a sec. We're here to find stuff about Emblem, not your powers, Shadow scolded herself. Just ask Aeon about them later. Ask the book about Emblem.

Taking a deep breath, Shadow focused on her questions about Emblem. Where was he? What was he planning? How could they stop him? As she mentally asked the book, she materialised her whip, slowly letting the shadows sink into the book's pages. It seemed to absorb the darkness, drinking it in. The shadow user had no idea what that meant, if it had worked or not, and she waited to see what would happen.

The book had taken in some of the shadows and multiple vibrations, like a little heartbeat, showed heaps of letters on the pages. The thing was, some of it was garbled. Shadow's inner desire to know more about herself had interfered a little. With good reason, as it took a lot to focus properly with so many knowledge available.

''Where was he? What was he planning? How could they stop him?''

In black letters, one page was dedicated to the questions in general, and some more pages to other stuff after that. At first, it seemed some sort of an prelude to the actual information, stating the following:

I am a book. At the moment fueled by some very unorthodox energies.. Current Locations are unknown to me, I can only show you the knowledge I have. Would you will it, I know Emblem's power. Namely, The Infinimagus Initiative, induced in me when he first touched my cover with those warm hands of fire. I do not know where this anomaly you seek currently resides.

His plans are somewhat known to me, as the black fire that caressed my cover was full of murderous intent, fueled by this individual's magical energies. It seemed only to fuel, not to operate, which is weird for normal magics. As if he wasn't controlling himself. Majgghaezenic magic however, act on the same principle and works it's way as normal magic. this is to be regarded useless information, as the Majgghaezenic tribe has been eradicated for millions of years, living on a distant planet. More on this later. As to what he was planning...that would also be later on.

How could you stop him? I do not know how as a lot of factors are still unknown to me. I have no idea of how many stand against him, what powers they all possess and such. There is no fact that can state victory alone. I will now show you what I know.

The page seemed to turn of itself as the next article was visible. A icon at the top left, indicating a massive meteor falling from the sky. The title was 'Aesshaetrre: The God Destroyer'

A brief article, with a bit of faded letters and parts of information left out, were shown on the yellowish pages. It seemed that if one's focus was stronger, the book would show more in return.

''Aesshaetrre is the name once given to a meteor of huge proportions. It's name was found on slabs of rock left behind by an unknown civilization. The name apparently translates to The God Destroyer. Even if this may sound humorous, the facts are not. In the known galaxy, every planet that had met this meteor was pulverized on the spot, only to move on to the next. It is uncertain why, but the meteor seems attracted to planets suffering from a lot of warfare, mostly magical. It is believed that continuous fighting makes the meteor approach faster. If a Channeler of advanced fire magic wills it, the meteor is lured, but it takes a lot of fighting to keep it on it's path.

Earth had only once met an offspring of this meteor, during the Dinosaur age. the meteor that collided with earth and caused the Ice Age was only as a child's power is to that of it's father.''

However, another article had formed below, showing something very peculiar. In regard to answering the question of what Emblem was planning... It's title was 'Emblem's last known journey' followed by a picture of a adorned cup.


''Emblem's last journey was in search of the Chalice of Harmony. While you have not asked for a full description of the chalice, in short, it's an ancient Egyptian item that releases one's inner darkness in exchange for a sacrifice. It is the cup that gave the pharaoh's their clarity of thought and the was the reason why people thought they were descending from the Egyptian Sun God. They seemed to be enlightened, but this was work of no god, it was the work of the cup. However, the word sacrifice has never been known. While some smaller pharaohs seemed to hardly haven given anything, famous Pharaohs such as Tutankhamun had always dies young of age and full of youthly frailties.

It had seemed that Emblem, who had been incarcerated at Arkham Asylum and was a founding member of the Titans North, seemed to suffer from his past. As he once stated;

''My pasts are unknown even to me, and in my burning insolence, I crave the knowledge I had left behind. I left my lives behind, as a dutchman, as a tribesman... Yet I cannot forget. The complexity keeps me awake. My pains are constant and sharp, while I use my powers for good, but my mind will give me no peace. I have taken it for a long time, but no longer. I always could help others, but none could ever help me. Nothing will give me peace. Nothing, but possibly.., the Chalice of Harmony. It is a chance I have to take''

There is no knowledge if he ever made it to the Cup, but the Cup's last whereabouts were somewhere in Egypt. It seems logical Emblem had traveled there in his last known absence.

The book seemed to be full of some random letters here and there, and a small scribbled post-it note, in Emblem's handwriting, definitely from a long time ago. It was blurry at part, unreadable, but what was said the following

''..Show to Krious. ..Great focus, and if he had any questions about the GEII. ...Didn't I ever tell him that there is no knowledge that is not power? I shouldn't forget asking the book about myself sometimes, ..it might know more...''

(( Dude! How many days did you spend thinking up this stuff and relating it to real events o.0 I'm loving it so far, that's for sure. ))

Krious observed as Shadow induced some of the energies she controlled into the book. She looked rather unsure of what to do but her efforts were rewarded. At first the book slowly started to fill some of it's pages with random letters and symbols. Gradually they became more organized, when suddenly they were clear to read. The book seemed to speak directly to them, as if it was a living being itself. One could argue how old this book would be, and how much knowledge it would actually posses. Both Shadow and himself found themselves drawed in by the sentences forming in the book.

It spoke of Emblem as an anomaly. Could that mean it knows he became something different, and possibly how and what. It spoke of his plans, and the fact that they were only somewhat known to him. What Krious found most interesting was that it mentioned a black fire. He had never seen Emblem uses a black flame before, his always was brighly lit and orange in colour, just like a genuine flame. This magic was then compared to a tribe unknown to him, presumably from a distant planet and extinct for millions of years.

Without any warning the page flipped by itself, as if the book knew they finished reading the page. An image burned itself into the paper and showed a flaming meteor falling down from the sky. The book referred to it as Aesshaetrre or God Destroyer. This meteor had, according to the book, the power to destroy entire worlds. Earth had gotten a little taste of it's power and it's results were presumably the Ice Age that is known to have taken place on this planet. The book stated this meteor would be attracted to major conflicted, mostly magical. What struck him most was the mention of an advanced fire magus. Emblem definately was one of those, was he planning to summon this disaster to Earth? This all was beginning to get a bit hard to swallow.

The book continued. It began to describe Emblem's latest journey's. It mentioned his search for an object referred to as the Chalice of Harmony. Presumably this object enlightened it's user at a cost. What the cost was didn't seem all that clear, but the book did stated some of it's user died young and had a weak condition. The involvement of the Egyptian culture and Egyptians themselves made him think this all was related to the tablet he just found. It featured Egyptian symbols and even showed their God of Death, Anubis.

Finally it quoted some of Emblem's own words. Words that summoned emotions Krious would rather surpress. He knew his friend had a hard life, but he could at least mentioned some of his troubles before instead of taking them on all alone. Look who's talking... he shaked his head. He wanted to show me the book. Did he find some things about me in there? Curious, but that would have to wait no matter how interesting this is.

Krious now had some questions of his own. The book seemed to know a great deal of things, although he wasn't so sure he should blindly trust this information. It could be controlled, it could be wrong.. but it could also speak the truth. What did the tablet have to do with anything, what where those strange symbols and markings andwhat was it the book felt so it named Emblem an anomaly. Emblem sure did get himself in big mess this time, one that seemed to span across ages.

"Could I try that for a second?"

He asked Shadow, while reaching out for the book.

(( I'll give my thought on the tablet in the next post, hopefully this book has some more answers ))