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"Well, as promised... Here are your answers."
Thus Raziel began the explanation Frontsek and Julius awaited for so long.
It didn't mean that Gordon and Wilbur were less interested.
All four, plus Simon, were back in Frontsek's house now that the charity week was over.
And they were engrossed in what the french raven told them.
"If you want to understand the whole of the story, we must go back to its very origins: the Renaissance. There was a society called "The Guild". No one truly remembers its origins. Navigators, builders, merchants... The kind of people who prospered in the shadows while kings were at war. But after years of growth and expansion, the Guild went through an identity crisis. The humanism of the Renaissance was a real life saver for them, for it showed them an investment: use their money and influence, that they kept amassing in the same time, to better the world. Politics, investments... "We work in the dark to serve the light" kind of things. Without the free will hating psychos."
That little reference elicited some chuckles.
"Building influences and deals, amassing money, developing means and technologies... The work was slow, but was going well. Europe, North America, Asia. The Guild was truly powerful in these three regions, and was going to start acting in South America and Africa... And then the American Civil War happened. The Guild itself obviously took the Union's side, but by doing so, lost many contacts and deals with high-profile confederates, and even some key members. At the end, its influence in the United States was weakened, and it had to put to later its plans to focus on rebuilding this influence. Had it been only that, it could have recovered. But it was only the first of a series of lethal blows..."
These ominous words attracted his audience's attention.
"The second blow was the Sino-Japanese War. The first one, at the end of the 19th century. The war itself, and the consequences it had on the region, were a brutal blow for the influence of the Guild in Asia. Then, a few years later, came World War I. The efforts of the Guild to stop the game of alliances that would lead to it only managed to ruin their political clout in Europe. At this point, all the Guild had left was their fortune. And you probably already guessed, but they weren't spared by the Great Depression. They weren't completely ruined, but they still lost a lot."
Everyone was cringing at this point, already guessing the next part.
"And then came the last straw. World War II. The horrors of the Holocaust. They already had their hopes and motivation already smashed by all that happened in the last decades, this finished destroying them. For them, they failed. They gave up. The Guild was no more..."
A grim silence followed this, as everyone digested the story...
"But a branch wasn't active. A branch of research, researching old myths and legends about a form of energy and power. A branch led by Moebius de Solir. My grandfather. When the Guild disbanded, he managed to keep all his discoveries and even obtain the last funds, for he held to the mission, and thought he could, through his discoveries on this force, "uplift" mankind to a higher state. For years, alone, he kept going, until he managed to confirm the existence of this force and tap through it."
"You mean?" began Frontsek, pointing at his watch.
"No, it were twelve little devices, like rings, and much weaker. They only allowed a boost in strength, and no growth, but still enough to qualify as superhuman. Gramps began an... experiment. Looking for twelve people, that he considered open-minded enough to be open to the idea. He also recruited me, as a "secretary" of sorts. I knew about his project since I was a kid, he never hid anything from me. Once the twelve were found, he trained them for three years, then left them to themselves for twelve years. The idea was that they'd use their new abilities for good, to help uplift mankind..."
"I never heard of any superhero before us," commented Julius.
"It's no wonder," muttered Raziel. "Because..."
****FLASHBACK****
"Gramps? Gramps? Where are you?"
"Here, Raziel. I just came back..."
"Came back? From what?"
"From a quick world tour..." muttered bitterly the old raven before showing a box holding twelve rings.
"The rings?! You... You took them back?!"
"Yes. And I erased their memories. To all of them."
"But... Why?!"
"WHY?! You know as well as I do why, Raziel! THE EXPERIENCE IS A COMPLETE FAILURE!!"
"..."
"The twelve didn't stay united after I left them. Not even 24 hours. In spite of these three years spent together, personal interest won out. They used the power for their selfish gains. The rare who used it for good did it at a too low level. There were almost no collaborations at all between them. And there's even one of them who turned his back to it all, who was glad when I erased the memory of it out of his mind! None of them even thought to help mankind be better with this power..."
"So now what? We try again?" asked the reporter.
"No. I just wasted fifteen years of my life. I'm not wasting fifteen more on a second attempt that won't work..."
"What?! You... YOU GIVE UP?!"
"You want to waste fifteen years of your life?!"
"..."
****END FLASHBACK****
"I didn't know what to answer. He wasn't wrong... Until I remembered that he worked on something else all these years."
"Now, you mean?" said Frontsek, pointing at his watch again.
"Yep. This time, I mean the watch..."
****FLASHBACK****
"Raziel, what are you doing?!" exclaimed the old Moebius as he saw his grandson open the vault containing the watch, the ultimate expression of the link with the mysterious force.
"What I'm doing, is that I thought about what you said," replied the journalist, grabbing the watch. "And I'm acting in consequence."
"What?"
"You're right. I don't want to waste fifteen years of my life. But I refuse to let you throw your life work to garbage! So I'm gonna try a different method! A more direct one!"
"What do you mean?!"
"I have to go to the USA for work. There, I'm gonna give the watch to someone. Someone chosen completely at random. I'll see what he'll do with it. If it goes well, we'll have a starting point to retry the experiment! And if not, then I'll erase his memory and try with someone else!"
Moebius was aghast.
"Raziel, have you gone mad?! This is reckless! Why use the watch and not a ring?!"
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln."
"Huh?!"
"I think the rings were too weak to really motivate the twelve to try more than what they did. The watch will be far more motivational."
"Raziel, you have no idea of how dangerous-"
"DON'T EVEN TRY THAT!! I've been with you for fifteen years! That's why I'm doing this, because I think you're holding on to something wonderful! That also means that I know perfectly what the force is capable of, how powerful the watch is! I'm not a kid anymore! I know the risk, and I'm perfectly willing to take it! And if I have to go without your blessing or permission, I will!"
A silence followed.
"I won't change your mind, will I?" sighed Moebius.
"No."
"Then go ahead. I'm sure you're making a mistake... But I hope you'll prove me wrong..."
****END FLASHBACK****
"And prove him wrong I did," smirked Raziel. "Your mailbox was the very first one I tried. And while the beginnings were worrying, you exceeded all hopes, Midj."
In spite of his wariness, Frontsek preened a bit.
"And I really thank you for it. Seeing that completely remotivated Gramps. When Swinn tried the watch himself, he agreed to make a second one for him, and to put you in the confidence."
"And yet you ran off," snarked Frontsek. "We thought it was because of Gordon and Wilbur, but we found no trace of you at Minneapolis or San Antonio."
"Because you think I'd leave traces?" snarked back the raven. "I observed them from far, just enough to find out who they are, then went back to France as soon as possible to warn Gramps."
"Wait, how did you do that?" asked Gordon. "Find out who we are?"
"He's right, you said yourself that our growth did something to hide our identities," added Wilbur.
"I helped Gramps study this force for years, you think we wouldn't figure out a way to go around this protection?"
"How it works, by the way?" asked Simon.
"You'll have to ask Gramps for details, I'm not the expert. But in layman's terms, the power doesn't just make you grow. It also allows you to warp reality around you. Not consciously, but it acts on your intentions. And the bigger you grow, the greater that influence. That's what makes you unidentifiable, or allows you to survive and thrive in the vacuum of space or the void beyond."
Everyone was flabbergasted.
"Anyway, after that, I went back to talk to Gramps. And what he said... Well, it's not worrying, but..."
"But what?!"
"For years, all we had about the force were legends, urban myths, stuff like that... And when we manage to... "create" two Titans, after years of research, all of a sudden, two others appear?! One from one of these myths, the other from a brand new method, by accident?!"
Wilbur suddenly felt very self-conscious.
"Gramps says that he feels like... Like it's only the beginning."
"The beginning?" repeated warily Julius. "Of what?"
"Dunno, he only has a vague hunch" admitted Raziel. "But that means I have to get to the second phase of my plan now."
"What plan?" asked Gordon.
"Like I said, instead of some long goal like "uplift" mankind, I want to start with something smaller and more direct. Something you already began."
Frontsek was the first to realize.
A superhero team!
"Well, you have it. All your answers."
"Not yet," replied Frontsek. "How you intend to make that team idea work?"
"You're interested?" smirked Raziel.
"You already fucking know the answer," smirked back the rhino.
The boar, the mole and the bull all nodded with their own smirks.
And as Raziel began talking about some ideas on the name, the HQ, and other details like that, Simon was over the moon.
An origin story! I'm really living a comic book story! Aw man, and I can't put it in my "How was your vacation" homework!
Art by
anubiiswerewolf
Colorless original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49972289/
Coloring by
kenjikuroneki
Colored original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51270741/
Raziel © me
Thus Raziel began the explanation Frontsek and Julius awaited for so long.
It didn't mean that Gordon and Wilbur were less interested.
All four, plus Simon, were back in Frontsek's house now that the charity week was over.
And they were engrossed in what the french raven told them.
"If you want to understand the whole of the story, we must go back to its very origins: the Renaissance. There was a society called "The Guild". No one truly remembers its origins. Navigators, builders, merchants... The kind of people who prospered in the shadows while kings were at war. But after years of growth and expansion, the Guild went through an identity crisis. The humanism of the Renaissance was a real life saver for them, for it showed them an investment: use their money and influence, that they kept amassing in the same time, to better the world. Politics, investments... "We work in the dark to serve the light" kind of things. Without the free will hating psychos."
That little reference elicited some chuckles.
"Building influences and deals, amassing money, developing means and technologies... The work was slow, but was going well. Europe, North America, Asia. The Guild was truly powerful in these three regions, and was going to start acting in South America and Africa... And then the American Civil War happened. The Guild itself obviously took the Union's side, but by doing so, lost many contacts and deals with high-profile confederates, and even some key members. At the end, its influence in the United States was weakened, and it had to put to later its plans to focus on rebuilding this influence. Had it been only that, it could have recovered. But it was only the first of a series of lethal blows..."
These ominous words attracted his audience's attention.
"The second blow was the Sino-Japanese War. The first one, at the end of the 19th century. The war itself, and the consequences it had on the region, were a brutal blow for the influence of the Guild in Asia. Then, a few years later, came World War I. The efforts of the Guild to stop the game of alliances that would lead to it only managed to ruin their political clout in Europe. At this point, all the Guild had left was their fortune. And you probably already guessed, but they weren't spared by the Great Depression. They weren't completely ruined, but they still lost a lot."
Everyone was cringing at this point, already guessing the next part.
"And then came the last straw. World War II. The horrors of the Holocaust. They already had their hopes and motivation already smashed by all that happened in the last decades, this finished destroying them. For them, they failed. They gave up. The Guild was no more..."
A grim silence followed this, as everyone digested the story...
"But a branch wasn't active. A branch of research, researching old myths and legends about a form of energy and power. A branch led by Moebius de Solir. My grandfather. When the Guild disbanded, he managed to keep all his discoveries and even obtain the last funds, for he held to the mission, and thought he could, through his discoveries on this force, "uplift" mankind to a higher state. For years, alone, he kept going, until he managed to confirm the existence of this force and tap through it."
"You mean?" began Frontsek, pointing at his watch.
"No, it were twelve little devices, like rings, and much weaker. They only allowed a boost in strength, and no growth, but still enough to qualify as superhuman. Gramps began an... experiment. Looking for twelve people, that he considered open-minded enough to be open to the idea. He also recruited me, as a "secretary" of sorts. I knew about his project since I was a kid, he never hid anything from me. Once the twelve were found, he trained them for three years, then left them to themselves for twelve years. The idea was that they'd use their new abilities for good, to help uplift mankind..."
"I never heard of any superhero before us," commented Julius.
"It's no wonder," muttered Raziel. "Because..."
****FLASHBACK****
"Gramps? Gramps? Where are you?"
"Here, Raziel. I just came back..."
"Came back? From what?"
"From a quick world tour..." muttered bitterly the old raven before showing a box holding twelve rings.
"The rings?! You... You took them back?!"
"Yes. And I erased their memories. To all of them."
"But... Why?!"
"WHY?! You know as well as I do why, Raziel! THE EXPERIENCE IS A COMPLETE FAILURE!!"
"..."
"The twelve didn't stay united after I left them. Not even 24 hours. In spite of these three years spent together, personal interest won out. They used the power for their selfish gains. The rare who used it for good did it at a too low level. There were almost no collaborations at all between them. And there's even one of them who turned his back to it all, who was glad when I erased the memory of it out of his mind! None of them even thought to help mankind be better with this power..."
"So now what? We try again?" asked the reporter.
"No. I just wasted fifteen years of my life. I'm not wasting fifteen more on a second attempt that won't work..."
"What?! You... YOU GIVE UP?!"
"You want to waste fifteen years of your life?!"
"..."
****END FLASHBACK****
"I didn't know what to answer. He wasn't wrong... Until I remembered that he worked on something else all these years."
"Now, you mean?" said Frontsek, pointing at his watch again.
"Yep. This time, I mean the watch..."
****FLASHBACK****
"Raziel, what are you doing?!" exclaimed the old Moebius as he saw his grandson open the vault containing the watch, the ultimate expression of the link with the mysterious force.
"What I'm doing, is that I thought about what you said," replied the journalist, grabbing the watch. "And I'm acting in consequence."
"What?"
"You're right. I don't want to waste fifteen years of my life. But I refuse to let you throw your life work to garbage! So I'm gonna try a different method! A more direct one!"
"What do you mean?!"
"I have to go to the USA for work. There, I'm gonna give the watch to someone. Someone chosen completely at random. I'll see what he'll do with it. If it goes well, we'll have a starting point to retry the experiment! And if not, then I'll erase his memory and try with someone else!"
Moebius was aghast.
"Raziel, have you gone mad?! This is reckless! Why use the watch and not a ring?!"
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln."
"Huh?!"
"I think the rings were too weak to really motivate the twelve to try more than what they did. The watch will be far more motivational."
"Raziel, you have no idea of how dangerous-"
"DON'T EVEN TRY THAT!! I've been with you for fifteen years! That's why I'm doing this, because I think you're holding on to something wonderful! That also means that I know perfectly what the force is capable of, how powerful the watch is! I'm not a kid anymore! I know the risk, and I'm perfectly willing to take it! And if I have to go without your blessing or permission, I will!"
A silence followed.
"I won't change your mind, will I?" sighed Moebius.
"No."
"Then go ahead. I'm sure you're making a mistake... But I hope you'll prove me wrong..."
****END FLASHBACK****
"And prove him wrong I did," smirked Raziel. "Your mailbox was the very first one I tried. And while the beginnings were worrying, you exceeded all hopes, Midj."
In spite of his wariness, Frontsek preened a bit.
"And I really thank you for it. Seeing that completely remotivated Gramps. When Swinn tried the watch himself, he agreed to make a second one for him, and to put you in the confidence."
"And yet you ran off," snarked Frontsek. "We thought it was because of Gordon and Wilbur, but we found no trace of you at Minneapolis or San Antonio."
"Because you think I'd leave traces?" snarked back the raven. "I observed them from far, just enough to find out who they are, then went back to France as soon as possible to warn Gramps."
"Wait, how did you do that?" asked Gordon. "Find out who we are?"
"He's right, you said yourself that our growth did something to hide our identities," added Wilbur.
"I helped Gramps study this force for years, you think we wouldn't figure out a way to go around this protection?"
"How it works, by the way?" asked Simon.
"You'll have to ask Gramps for details, I'm not the expert. But in layman's terms, the power doesn't just make you grow. It also allows you to warp reality around you. Not consciously, but it acts on your intentions. And the bigger you grow, the greater that influence. That's what makes you unidentifiable, or allows you to survive and thrive in the vacuum of space or the void beyond."
Everyone was flabbergasted.
"Anyway, after that, I went back to talk to Gramps. And what he said... Well, it's not worrying, but..."
"But what?!"
"For years, all we had about the force were legends, urban myths, stuff like that... And when we manage to... "create" two Titans, after years of research, all of a sudden, two others appear?! One from one of these myths, the other from a brand new method, by accident?!"
Wilbur suddenly felt very self-conscious.
"Gramps says that he feels like... Like it's only the beginning."
"The beginning?" repeated warily Julius. "Of what?"
"Dunno, he only has a vague hunch" admitted Raziel. "But that means I have to get to the second phase of my plan now."
"What plan?" asked Gordon.
"Like I said, instead of some long goal like "uplift" mankind, I want to start with something smaller and more direct. Something you already began."
Frontsek was the first to realize.
A superhero team!
"Well, you have it. All your answers."
"Not yet," replied Frontsek. "How you intend to make that team idea work?"
"You're interested?" smirked Raziel.
"You already fucking know the answer," smirked back the rhino.
The boar, the mole and the bull all nodded with their own smirks.
And as Raziel began talking about some ideas on the name, the HQ, and other details like that, Simon was over the moon.
An origin story! I'm really living a comic book story! Aw man, and I can't put it in my "How was your vacation" homework!
Art by
anubiiswerewolfColorless original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49972289/
Coloring by
kenjikuronekiColored original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51270741/
Raziel © me
Category Artwork (Traditional) / All
Species Crow
Size 2056 x 1792px
File Size 1.89 MB
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