/*Shadow Riven*\

Here's the story behind my Aberrant game for those interested in reading it...I'll update it when I can...between studying for tests

Summary

He's a survivor…loner by choice…jack-of-all-trades by profession. Though born before the turn of the Twentieth Century, the mysterious vagabond calling himself Cardinal appears as a young man in his mid to late twenties. He has a gift in the form of a highly adaptive anatomy and versatile physiology-when his surroundings or events change and affect him, Cardinal alters himself accordingly to excel. He has experienced more than most men could in several lifetimes, and yet he neither slows nor falters in his journey. Fighting war after war, Cardinal has stared into the darkness that envelopes men's hearts and found light where one would least expect it. He is a man who has lost everything…except his faith, and with it he sticks to a strict moral code that has brought him inevitably into constant conflict with powers that seek to destroy the very fabric of our world. Often he has chosen to face his demons alone; so many people who have stood by him paid for it with their lives.

It has been nearly five years since the last fires of the Zenith War have been smothered. The country that stood bold as the central rallying point of the Dusk Faction, New Gomorrah, fell under a blanket of blue light as the Dawn Faction launched its ultimate assualt, Zeus 1, a series of five large ballistic missiles carrying forty hollow orbs a piece that absorb all of the latent electrons and neutrons in the air and then releases them in massive kinetic and static force waves followed by an all encompassing "Factor-A" discharge.

Peace has come, but it is a world that can never return to it's former self.



A shadow stirs in Cardinal's dreams, tearing at his sanity. An evil older than anything he has ever known rises in power. Power…. is that what he possesses? What is its origin? And…is he the only one of his kind? When a devourer of men appears on the horizon, Cardinal may stand as the only one to forestall a genocidal war that would result in either the enslavement or total annihilation of humanity. Our very survival rests on the shoulders of a man few even know exists. It begins…

Part I: The Overture


Ch 1
Hi…my name is Cardinal and what I do for a living is relative. Currently, I'm sitting in front of my computer and trying to decide whether or not I wish to take the contract that has been offered to me. I'm hesitant not because I'm incapable of performing the task or posses inadequate means to see it through but because of the fact that the last job I took resulted in the Zenith War.

I was sent to watch over a highly unpopular premier of a largely militant little country calling itself New Gomorrah. Yeah...stupid to call yourself that, but whoever claimed leaders were always the brightest guys. The world stood on the brink of yet another all encompassing war, and that little “piss ant” had the audacity to continually provoke the “big dogs.” I know what you’re thinking. What’s one overly zealous voice against the greater chorus of most everyone else? That little nation acquired larger friends. There in lies the problem and the reason why I was there. I didn’t agree to the job because Premier Ravi Artac requested my talents; his grand vizier, Deavor Graven, didn’t ask me either. In fact, they were completely oblivious to the fact that I had suspended myself in a crevice shadowed by a tall tower in the east courtyard of the palace the night before Artac was to make another "moving" speech. No, it was General Joshua Green, U.S. Secretary of Defense, who had recruited me for a little “I-spy” and “protect the ill-fated madman.” I’m not much for babysitting; I seriously wouldn’t have minded beating that one to death with his rattle. When you’ve lived as long as I have, though, you learn quickly that it’s a bad idea to throw gasoline on an already raging fire. Unfortunately...someone else had a gas can...

Very wicked bro!

You've always been a good writer.