The Journal of Obsidian Strike

Entry #1:

New Amsterdam is far different than my homeland of Japan. The buildings, the people, the landscape. I never imagined being so far from home before receiving my powers. Now, obligation dictates that I learn how best to use them before returning and teaching others what I have learned.

I have learned a new ability. I can now throw a boomerang with near deadly accuracy. I was very surprised when this ability when it occurred. I was facing the villain known as the Raptor. As he tried to flee when I encountered him, I thought about how badly I wanted him to come back and face me. I attempted to cast my Shadow Clones at him and instead, a boomerang formed in my hand and I threw it at him.

I felt as if I were Xena, Warrior Princess. The boomerang flew past him in an unintended arc and swerved back, catching him in his chest. He slammed into the ground, defeated.

Another street in New Amsterdam became safer because of my actions. I can only imagine what I will be capable of once I fully master my gifts and am allowed to join BADGE.

Entry #2:

There was a fire in New Amsterdam today. A tall residential building became engulfed in flames on the top floor. There were cries for help coming from the crowd. A mother claimed some children were still present in her apartment. Police and firefighters kept her and others from going in. I stood back, understanding their desire to keep people safe.

But I knew I could help.

I moved down the street, beyond their blockades. I moved as far back as I could while keeping an eye on the building. I needed as much room as I could get. Three blocks distant, I took a deep breathe before running at top speed for the building. The pavement creaked as I pushed myself faster and faster with each step. When I reached the first police vehicle blocking the street, I leapt into the air with all the thrust my legs could expend.

I didn't make it to the top floor. I slammed face first into the brickwork of the building, protected only by my dense obsidian skin. I scrambled to find a handhold as I slid down, grabbing hold of a metal bar of the fire escape. Pulling myself up, I rushed to the top flight and found an open window.

It took me what seemed an eternity to find the children while searching the floor full of smoke and crackling flames. I called out to them repeatedly, growing more and more worried each time I heard no response. In the end, they finally called out from beneath a dining room table where they huddled in fear.

 Fortunately, there were only two of them still trapped in the building. I pulled each of them close to my chest as I wrapped an arm around their small frames. I found my way to the closest fire escape, and with the help of some firefighters, brought them down to the ground.

Entry#3:

There has been a disturbance at Purgatory Penitentiary. Prisoners have escaped. Capes from all around have come to help re-capture the escapees. That includes me.

Searching in the suburbs, I come across a set of claw-prints in the yards of several  homeowners. Not the usual signs left by a cat or dog, but a monstrous beast known as the Manticore. I am not particularly familiar with the legend or myths behind the name, but like most villains, I expect if I hit it enough times in the head, it will go to sleep.

When I finally encounter the beast, it snarls at me through rows and rows of sharp teeth lining its jaws.

I think to be safe, I will fight it from a distance. It eats the first Boomerang that I throw at it.

Perhaps this will be a more difficult, and more honorable, fight than I first imagined.

Entry #4:

I encountered an odd individual today. A woman calling herself Your Zombie Ex-Girlfriend. She informed me that she has been fighting people that have become zombies because of overlapping with a dimension that is infested with the disease.

We fought side by side as bodies rose from their graves in a cemetery in a outlying district of New Amsterdam. Zombies are not difficult to fight individually, but in large numbers, they can overwhelm a hero by weight or by stench. The smell given off by the undead is extremely unpleasant, and coming from Japan where rotting fish is a common aroma, that is saying something.

The two of us managed to defeat the horde and part ways friends.

Entry 5:

Today I faced the Raptor again. Despite having battled him previously in the streets of New Amsterdam, I encountered him back to his nefarious ways as he attacked an armored car. He swept down from above and planted a device on the roof of the vehicle, one I expected to be some type of explosive.

I hurled my boomerang at the package he sought to deliver and knocked it out of his hands. He must have recognized me at that point, as I heard him curse with unflattering vulgarities I refuse to repeat. Whatever I knocked away didn't detonate, though. It caused a black vortex to form and sever one of Raptor's wings off. He crashed into a pile of trash containers as he continued to swear at me.

The police arrived quickly, but I do have to wonder how effective the criminal rehabilitation programs are in New Amsterdam. I wonder if I shall ever face him again?

Entry 6:

I encountered a flaming villain today. Firebrand. New Amsterdam is overflowing with evil-doers. Every day, I can walk out on patrol and encounter someone trying to hurt others. It saddens me.

What doesn't sadden me is using my boomerang to knock the top off of a fire hydrant and dousing the fiery, flying elemental and quenching it with a blast of chlorinated water, compliments of the city.

Firebrand never saw it coming.

It did take a few minutes to explain the situation to the Public Water workers when they arrived on scene to turn the hydrant off. In the long run, they were happy to do it rather than having blocks of city on fire.

Entry #7

Journal, it has been too long since I have entered anything into you. My thoughts have been troubled and my activities as a hero here in New Amsterdam haven't been as successful as I would like.

That changed this week. I was scouting leagues to potentially join in the future. Just as the awards were to be distributed to the winners, I and every other person on the space arena began to experience nightmarish visions. I faced a horrible creature from my childhood dreams, a monster I called Ooogie. I couldn't say boogie man. Made of tentacles and spikes, this Ooogie creature would wrap around me and hold me down as it drew its sharp spikes across my bare chest.

I felt like that child once again on the space arena, and try as I might, it grappled me once more and even with my obsidian skin, I couldn't escape it. In fact, its claws made a horrible sound as they cut into me, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Entry 8:
As quickly as the Oogie manifested and grappled me, it disappeared.

I looked around at the other people around the arena and they all looked as confused, and frightened, as I did.

Pretty much everyone said at the same moment, "What happened?"

The Director Nova called out for aid on the BADGE HQ and that the Spirit of Halloween had attacked. Spirits are not unusual to me, as they are a large part of my culture back in Japan, but I had never heard of one so...commercial.

Along with many other heroes, I boarded a shuttle and set off to help defeat the foe we were instructed to combat. This could be my opportunity to make a good impression on Director Nova and get assigned to learn with BADGE.

Entry Nine:

The battle with the Spirit of Halloween was very difficult. It was very difficult to do any damage to him. He would fly through objects to escape ranged attacks, and hand-to-hand battles with him were troublesome due to his incorporeal nature.

Eventually, he manifested horrors from the collective cultures of the world. The girl from the Ring movies crawled out of holo-video screens. Kaiju swarmed the arboretum. Spirits of long dead ancestors arose to prey on the living. The fact that these popular creatures were well know removed some of the horror of seeing them but made them no less effective in combat.

Three heros, well two heroes and a rabbit, crafted a spell that cast the Spirit of Halloween out of the space station. Other heroes, including the frightful Midgardsormr aided the mystics by directing our foe into the portal they made.

I did what I could to assist, but my meager powers didn't accomplish much. I will grow over time. I am a young man, after all.