The Starlight Sentinels: The Amusing Story of a Struggling Superhero Team

Prologue: First Impressions

Looking ahead, the officer spotted a rifle lying on the ground near the table. He reached for the weapon and pulled back only half a gun. Checking closely, he discovered something had sliced the rifle's barrel clean off.

"That door just leads into an alley, nothing strange out there," whispered the officer as she grew close to her partner. "But there's another fist-shaped dent on the door itself, like someone was punching anything metal."

"Not just punching." He held up the two rifle halves.

"What the hell happened to that?" she asked.

"Got me. But it's empty." He set the rifle halves down and looked up at the spiral staircase. "Come on." The pair started moving upstairs, noting an odd break in the handrail where it looked like something had cut through it. Upstairs, the pair found themselves in a long hall with numerous doors lining each side.

"Look at this," she motioned to her partner as she approached the massive opening in the wall. It was big enough for them to fit through with ease and the pair could see the street just below.

"Nothing's burnt," he noted as he examined the area. "Nothing but the wall is even wrecked."

"Maybe it was like some Indiana Jones trap?"

"What?"

"You know, like a boulder came out of the ceiling, rolled down the hall and broke through this wall?"

"Are... are you serious?"

"Well how do you explain it?" she retorted. "I mean look." She pointed to the other end of the hall. "There's a ladder leading up to the ceiling; there's gotta be something up there."

"It probably just leads to the roof," he reasoned. "Check the doors, I'll check up there. Then we can get out of here."

"If something comes out of the ceiling, just remember, I told you so." He ignored his partner and started climbing the ladder. At the top was a large hatch that had to be slid open. As he suspected, the ladder just led onto the roof. What he hadn't anticipated was a strange vehicle sitting on the roof like it belonged there.

"What the hell..." The vessel looked like a small airplane fuselage with a big window in the front and large protrusions that curved backwards until they formed an almost complete circle. They didn't look like wings, and the ends of them were fitted with massive spheres, their function completely lost on the man.

"Nothing but bedrooms and one bathroom down there," she said as she climbed onto the roof. "So let's get outta..." The woman's jaw dropped. "Holy shit..."

"It's... it's... I don't even know what this is..."

"It's like a spaceship or something," she said.

"No, it can't—"

"You just said you don't know what it is."

"There's no way—"

"What the hell is going on here?" The pair spun around and found their guns trained on a short older man in an expensive suit. He had greased back hair, a cigarette in his mouth, his hands in the air and an annoyed expression on his face. "Oh, it's just the police." The man lowered his hands.

"Stay where you are!" ordered the officer. "This is a crime scene, what are you doing here?"

The man groaned loudly in response. "I own this building," announced the older man. "And you're too late."

"What?" asked the officer.

"It's all over," said the man as he took a drag from his cigarette. "Why don't you just go home?"