Okay, I've mentioned about this before and want to finally make a thread about it.

Nepath had started a storyline in Energize which was to deal with the return of Stormfront: Darkness finds the Nemesis from the future and returns him memories. Meanwhile, Tazer visits Project Recapture, the Celestial effort to reobtain the Energize Titan. They've succeeded. With them are Angelblood and New Form. Darkness attacks. He asks New Form to open the containment chamber so Nemesis can become Stormfront again, but New Form says Darkness can't affect him. Tazer says Exocet has been called and is on his way.

Now, this story was abandoned, for a few factors (an Energize story without Energize, as well as a Stormfront story after one had already been created), but I like the idea personally, and would hate to see the good art go to waste. So, let's get our brainstorming caps on and try to come up with a good overall story. My idea of how to do the story:

Exocet does try to come, but he's intercepted by a villain in Darkness's employ and therefore delayed. Meanwhile, the call had gone out on an HU frequency, so HU and HA communicators pick it up. Astral and Sparkle happen to be near (mannipulated to be there by Darkness?) and rush to help without coordinating. When they get to the Recapture location, they are corrupted by Darkness and asked to open the containment.

HA gets the message and sends some members to deal with it. Ones I think would be in said group for sure are Bombshell, Titan and Dr. Destiny. They get there to see Astral fighting the heroes, along with Darkness, and Sparkle tearing a hole in the containment unit.

From there I'm not fully sure of specifics. I'd think the Energize stuff would go towards Titan, due to her genetics being closest to their previous host. Nemesis would need to look into Titan's eyes somehow (possibly aided by Astral and Sparkle) to become Stormfront.

There's a battle and Exocet gets there, restoring Astral and Sparkle. Bombshell comes up with the idea to trick Stormfront into looking into Sparkle's eyes. Since Sparkle's nemesis is not physical but mental, Nemesis becomes an intangible being of pure thought, which Dr. Destiny is able to banish to a spiritual plane.

How would they deal with Darkness? I'm not sure. This is what I had in mind, is all.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Titan will rid herself of the Energize Titan, but I wouldn't know why or how. And the nature of its dispersal would need to be congruent with how the new Energize acquires hers.

Sounds pretty cool, but Nepath said in the other thread that he's launching a new Energize series soon. Would there be a conflict?

Im happy for you to do this. There is no conflict with my plans from what I can tell so long as Lucy ends up being Energize.
I would suggest that the Energize Titan does not take any host, and is simply set “free”.

Well, my idea for The Energize was to share some of it's power temporarily with a group of heroes, rather than just Titan. I was thinking giving the temp power boost to Shell, Relik, Comet Kid, Vora and Azumorph as well as Titan.

As for The Darkness, he's weak to light, right? So what would happen if you shot him with a laser (that's what the L is laser stands for)

That sounds interesting. Energize (Mike) was always about lack of control and fear of using his full potential. I always think that the Energize corrupts it's host and that the more power they use and therefore the more powerful they become then the less mentally stable they are.
Nemesis was a pretty unstable character to start with and so with the power of the Energize, he became Stormfront.
If you were going to give those other characters the power then you should amplify their most dominant character trait and then think how would THAT person use that level of power.
Funnily enough i had mentioned to Abt about Bombshell taking on the power temporarily.

If you wanted my opinion on how these character would be with the Energize power (if it was me writing):
Comet Kid, Vora and Azumorph would be more like Energize in the beginning. No real change to personality but not using anywhere near the power.
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Relik would be most like Mike Callahan, a reasonable level of control but not fully.
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Titan would be the most worrisome host, it would amplify her insecurity and she would be more unstable.
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Shell would be the best fit. His cool attitude and strong will would make him keep it together as well as use the power to it's potential.

My first thought was “Bombshell with Energize's power would be *really* interesting”. My second thought was “Is that a little too close to the HU Commander's post-Darkness story arc?” (I honestly don't know the answer to that, BTW).

My personal picks for HA members to be ‘Energized’ would be:

Mr Imp - As the fun and light-hearted member of the group it'd be interesting to see how he handled the power - especially given his origins.

Peligroso - pretty much the opposite. As the dark, demonic member of the team, how would he be affected?

Vora and/or Comet Kid - because of their relative youth and innocence.

Titan - for the reasons already mentioned - her personal history with the Energize power.


I would also be pretty happy to see Chaos temporarily Energized. As an unpowered human the change would be more drastic for him. As a blend of ‘with great power comes great responsibility" and challenge-seeker, he would probably react by pushing his new power to its limits trying to right the world’s ills. He's too basically decent to cross the line, but he might approach it.
If you wanted an established character, The Bujin would probably fill a similar role from what I've seen of him…

I should stress that I am happy for Shasta to follow through the Stormfront idea and for the Energized heroes idea to play out in the issue but it MUST end with the entity being released and no heroes should retain any of Energize powers.

Definitely, it has to be released. Titan is an obvious choice to get the powers because she can genetically acquire them. Plus, it would justify the line in HU where Amped tells Titan that she may acquiresomething from her father's side.

And the idea of everyone getting Energize powers may seem pretty nice, but I can't help but feel that it's too close to the situation in AvX, where all the X-Men got the Phoenix Force. Sure, this would be the heroes, by and large, only fighting villains, rather than other heroes, but it would draw a strong parallel, and I'm not sure if it's good to do so (especially due to the negative opinions I've seen towards AvX).

Actually, you are right. Shasta, as far as im concerned, you can make the calls on this Stormfront issue with regards to Energize etc.

irrevenant wrote:
My first thought was “Bombshell with Energize's power would be *really* interesting”. My second thought was “Is that a little too close to the HU Commander's post-Darkness story arc?” (I honestly don't know the answer to that, BTW).

Well, her motives would be different. And we'd have to make sure it
would play out differently. But either way, I'm not sure it would be
fitting, because in this story, we'd have to poinpoint what Bombshell
would actually do with all this power, thus it would be the pay-off to
EVERYTHING which has been set up for Bombshell's arc since HA #1. And
I'd rather have this big reveal and pay-off happen organically than by
means of a plot-device.
As for her motives - I think of Natasha as having wanted to be in control, and to contain or reverse the shift in power which Energize represented. The Darkness's influence heightened her paranoia: the idea that her control (or what she imagined as control) might be slipping. But Natasha has no political agenda, the same way a police officer or a general has no agenda of their own, but (ideally) serves whatever political power they are employed by. Bombshell is… very different.

And that's a good reason not to make it go to everyone. The culmination of Bombshell's arc should be written by Abt, I think. It's hard for me to write towards the over-arching plot threads when I don't know where they're going, so I tend to leave them to the side in my stuff. But maybe I can write a script and somebody else can embellish it if they want, with what they feel should work towards that end.

Me and abt were recently discussing using Stormfront for a future issue. I don't know how much I can say about it, but pooling ideas sounds like a good idea.

Ah, I thought the plans to use Stormfront in HA were connected. I should mention that if you have both been approaching ideas separately then Shasta approached me first.

I'm not sure AzuJOD was suggesting *everyone* in HA get Energized - just a few of them.

I definitely agree that Bombshell should not be Energized. It would be interesting but she's already mid character-arc. Conversely, there are a few heroes who could stand a bit more spotlight, character-wise.

Vora's origin was never completed and, apart from that cute issue of HU Adventures she's mostly been a quiet achiever in the background. Conversely, Peligroso and Imp get a lot of air time but they mostly only get to show off their surface attributes.

I hadn't thought of the similarities to AvX ‘cos I’m traditionally more of a DC guy. I suspect it's not a problem tho - basic plot ideas get reused all the time in Comics, it's the implementation that makes them distinct.

BTW, will Darkness be getting some of the energy too?

Exactaly, not every hero should get Energized, that would be ridiculous.

I suggested those characters because they were some of HA's founding members, but I'm not suggesting we Energize all HA founding members.

I also figure that the Energizing would happen at the climax of the story, to put an end to the threat of The Stormfront once and for all, or some thing like that. I wouldn't worry about copying AvX for that reason because they did it at the start (I think, haven't read that story, or any mainstream comics in a while)

Rereading the first post, I think I can put together some story from what's been suggested: Have Titan be the first to get Energized, Possessed Sparkle and Astral hold her in place so Nemesis can look into her eyes and gets just enough power to become Stormfront. Then Titan breaks free, and gets the idea to Energize the other heroes (possible reason: harder to look into six pairs of eyes than into one pair). Then they fight Stormfront (maybe in space, where's there's plenty of room to let loose with powers), then idea to have him look into Sparkle's eyes (after free of possession), the heroes then force Stormfront to look into Sparkles eyes the same way Titan was forced to look into his (maybe after they make him crash back down to Earth) and then intangable being, banishment, done.

Haven't quite figured out how to get rid of Darkness yet. I still say he should be shot with a laser to see what happens. In fact HUB has a laser in her hover chair, have her do it.

Ooh, and Exocet could be delayed because he fighting an illusion made by Darkness and needs to be snapped out of it. OK that's enough from me.

That sounds pretty cool. Just to throw a few more ideas into the pot, I suggest the following variations:

* The makeup of Tazer's team seems to have been retconned between The Heroes Unite and The New Guard. New Form is no longer a member. The likeliest hero to take his place would be Arsenal - and Nemesis would seriously freak out when he saw him, after the beatdown Arsenal and BASS gave him last time.

* Titan manages to break free as described, but is too late! Darkness has just managed to crack the container.

* Titan fights Darkness who has had time to absorb some of the Energize power (it's slower for him because he's a demon) . She is making a decent showing but is clearly out outgunned. HA turn up.

* While Darkness is distracted for a moment (and outguns the team also), Titan coaxes the remaining Energize power into herself, and ‘lenses’ some of it to whoever in the rescue team is within line-of-sight.

* The Energized Darkness still has the edge, since he has millennia of experience wielding power and the Energized heroes are still adjusting. (I see the Energize power as essentially limitless - no matter how many pieces it's in, each wielded will be infinitely powerful if they can master it's potential).

* Darkness is gloating (he's a fan of that. :D) when he starts looking concerned. The Energize power rips free of him with a messy ‘Splorch!’, unwilling to be contained by such a distasteful host.

* The power takes roughly humanoid form and drifts over towards Titan. There is a tense moment then Titan lowers her head, concentrates, draws back the borrowed energy from the heroes and returns it to the figure. (Nepath will obviously have to okay this bit and the next couple to confirm The Energize works that way.

* Nemesis begs and pleads and rants for the energy to come to him, but it just ignores him.

* The Energize gives Titan a smile. before dissipating into the air.

I like the idea of The Energize not wanting anything to do with Nemesis again, so Nemesis never gets to become Stormfront again. I find that an appropriate end for him, but if it's too anticlimactic, then you could have him become Stormfront, fight the heroes for a bit, then have Darkness steal the energy from him from behind. Darkness could then be defeated as described above, and Nemesis…

… Ooh, new thought. What if he nemesised Amalgam? Do you think trying to adapt the power of someone with eight heroic minds inside them would be comfortable for him?

At this point, Bombshell would have Sparkle attack him, he would be desperate to get Amalgam out of his head and it would go down as Shasta said. Alternately, he could try to nemesis Dr Destiny himself - but adapting those powers renders him a pawn of the Destiny entity ('PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER! Itty bitty living space').

If it goes the Sparkle route, you'd have to foreshadow that Bombshell has been researching Sparkle (which does fit her M.O) . Coming up with that tactic requires a fairly good knowledge of Sparkle's capabilities and nature.

I understand shasta asked first, so I don't want to stand on anyones toes here, but I feel like we're slowly pooling something together. One thing I think we could consider (in regards Stormfront) is the laws of time within the HUniverse.
Because, instead of Stormfront needing the Energize Titan, hasn't he already got it where he comes from, but just forgot? So in that case, perhaps the titan could just “awaken” the future Stormfront to bring him to usual self.
I'd also have to vote against Amalgam being used in this, too. I think with Darkness and Stormfront and Energize titan, there's already a hell of a lot going on there.

Whatever people are comfortable with, of course, but I'm not sure how including Amalgam in it is complicating things. Isn't he just part of the standard team now?

ironhand wrote:
I'd also have to vote against Amalgam being used in this, too. I think with Darkness and Stormfront and Energize titan, there's already a hell of a lot going on there.

I meant in the case of Stormfront mimicking his powers - just because the handling the 8 different minds is something I want to show through Amalgam first before anybody else. I feel like we haven't really broke into his character properly yet in terms of what he does. Of course, I'm happy for him to be in thestory itself, but not as key as being “mimicked.”

If done right, I believe it would actually serve to foreshadow whatever you want to explore with Amalgam in this regard.

But it's certainly not critical to the plot, and it wouldn't bother me if it were excluded.

Ironhand has some good points. I agree Amalgam should probably not be nemesised (or whatever), maybe save that for another story.

I also like the idea that future Nemesis already has his Stormfront powers already, and just need them to be awakened. That could simplify the story a little bit and we can have the Energized heroes appear closer to the climax.

Well, I guess I should post the pages Nepath already did, so people can use those as a point for speculation (note: New Form is already there and Nemesis says he doesn't have the Stormfront powers anymore):

I like the idea that the Energize entity transcends space and time too, so Stormfront can use his prior experience with it to ‘call’ it even if it's contained at this point in the timeline. It's very clever.

Butwouldn't that remove (or at least change) a lot of the impetus for the issue? If Nemesis isn't trying to regain his Stormfront powers, why are they attacking the containment facility in the first place?

irrevenant wrote:
I like the idea that the Energize entity transcends space and time too, so Stormfront can use his prior experience with it to ‘call’ it even if it's contained at this point in the timeline. It's very clever.

Butwouldn't that remove (or at least change) a lot of the impetus for the issue? If Nemesis isn't trying to regain his Stormfront powers, why are they attacking the containment facility in the first place?

Perhaps for more, to double his already limitless power?

I was thinking: Darkness COULD be trying to get the power. In Darkness Within he needed a book to get to full power, but that book is locked away. It's possible he'd try to instead empower himself with an even more devastating energy (maybe becoming Stormfront himself).

The Energize Entity only exists at one point in any one time. Storfront from the future HAD the entity prior to timetravel but does not have the power here in the present because It is in that containment field.
Energize could never travel back in time and team up with himself.
As for Amalgam and Nemesis power, Nemesis would gain whatever SINGLE ability countered all eight of his.

Just to clarify this, Nemesis' ability seemed to work in two different ways in Energize: Hunted. When facing Energize it gave him exactly what he needed to defeat Energize. When facing Angelblood it seemed to revert to a mimic ability that let him copyone of Angelblood's powers. Otherwise it would've given him a power like molecular disintegration or paralysis or something that let him counter her abilities and make short work of her. Why did it revert to mimicking in that case?
Thanks.

Nepath wrote:
As for Amalgam and Nemesis power, Nemesis would gain whatever SINGLE ability countered all eight of his.

Nemesis is not in control of what power he develops but becomes aware of it as a it manifests. I give characters a backstory even if there is no intention of fully revealing it. For Nemesis, when his powers first manifest themselves he would gain a better version of his opponents powers, hence the name Mimic. Over time this developed into his more known powers. Mimic was a low level villain, the Commander knew this when she recruited him into the HU and rebranded him as Nemesis.
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Angelblood is a celestial and supposed to be a near perfect creation. She is strong, has cosmic powers and a great telepath but most importantly she is indestructible. If you remember when she entered Energize mind, she was able to easily remove Nemesis blocks because she was more adept with Telepathic powers than he.
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in his battle with Gaea, he first adapted strength but her skill negated that, so his second attempt was to fry her with cosmic power, more powerful than her own, but her body is indestructible and so she still had the upper hand.
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Ultimately, seeing no easy way to stop her and badly injured, he developed the ability to teleport her away and sent her to the Earths core to get her out of the way.
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Hope this helps.

If it helps, I could give you jy original synopsis for this story. You could replace the heroes I was going to use with the HA and edit it as you see fit.