⁕ Horseman: Famine

After their pact to find a way to challenge the omnipotent adversary that dictated humanity's fate, the three brothers went their separate ways to recruit new followers capable of accessing the crystal's unlimited power. To save themselves from the reality of old age, Pachacuti was able to rejuvenate their cells and their DNA using his ability, thus making them immortal. Their ultimate goal was to find a user capable of possessing an ability which could break the sky and dominate the earth with the flick of a finger. 

Just like that, one of the brothers went to Europe while the other went to Asia. Pachacuti, himself, stayed in South America to study the crystals and their abilities further. Vichama, the brother sent to Asia, was one of the first to successfully merge the crystals with a person of a foreign ethnicity. However, all of his prodigies proved to be weaker than him in terms of ability. But their power nonetheless made them gods amongst men. 

Many of Vichama's students went on to either rule over a kingdom as emperor, or become spectacular men of science who made important discoveries. An important discovery made by Vichama was that the sensitivity to a crystal can be passed down from generation to generation. Thus, after hundreds of years, China became populated with crystal users. 

In the war camp of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, a messenger presented the emperor with a scroll. After reading through the message, the emperor immediately sat up from his throne and kneeled on one knee to welcome Vichama. With his face hidden under a mask, Vichama arrived inside the camp on a horse made of fire. 

[Qin] - "Master, my armies are ready for the final battle for the unification of China under one kingdom. "

[Vichama] - "Good, what is your strategy? "

[Qin] - "Here, on this map is how we will proceed. "

Said Qin as he showed Vichama a war map hung in front of his throne. 

[Vichama] - "Mmph... Nonesense. "

Said Vichama as he touched the map with his thumb.

In an instant, the map began to burn before falling completely into a pile of ashes. 

[Qin] - "But master, what did I do wrong? "

[Vichama] - "Use your ability, prove to me that you are still worthy of being my disciple. "

On the battlefield, enemy soldiers went down as soon as the weapon of Qin's soldiers touched them. By the end of his campaign, dead bodies were all that remained in the expanse of an endless field. Truly, Qin was the gifted user Vichama had been looking for but instead of bringing Qin to Pachacuti like he was told to, Vichama instead grew to fear Qin for his power and ambition. So in a stroke of selfishness, Vichama misguided Qin to consume mercury while claiming it was a path to immortality.

As the number of crystal users in the massive Chinese society grew, so did the struggle for power between powerful individuals. Sometimes, thousands of crystal users would face off in opposing armies, thus leaving millions of soldiers dead as a result of the devasting power of their abilities. With time, the hubris inside the hearts of many even grew to the point where they thought they could challenge Vichama. So in 875 A.C., the Tang emperor invoked an army of 100,000 crystal users to capture Vichama in an attempt to learn the secret to his immortality. However, this rebellion would not yield the result the emperor had hoped for, it would only dispel the end of an era where possessing superpowers was considered normal in human society. 

In a devasting display of his power, Vichama created the largest famines in the history of China up until that point. The massive famine wiped out not only many crystal users in society but Vichama also personally executed the 100,000-strong army and the emperor, thus weakening the dynasty and leading to its eventual collapse in the 900s. The few crystal users who survived the disaster later named Vichama the God of Death and Famine.

Standing in the middle of a field of human ashes, Vichama would allow the sparks to surround him like a field of stars. He felt invincible and undefeated. Even an army couldn't take him down, so why pretend to be powerless while trying to defy God when he can be God himself? Slowly, he came to realize the futility of Pachacuti's cause. 

Every few hundred years, Vichama would unleash a famine upon China to wipe out the users that remained and their future generations, leading him to eventually adopt the name Famine just as it was given to him by the populace. Famine would finally abandon his original goal in the 1800s and instead pursue a life of gluttony and wrath. Instead of appointing new disciples and trying to find more users, he would unleash disaster after disaster upon Asia just for his entertainment as millions perish. 

In the present day, life went on as usual in central USA as a family of farmers prepared to put away the equipment after a hard day at work. As the farmer jumped out of his tractor, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and stared at the sky. 

[farmer] - "Darn, what a scorchin' hot day. "

He noticed how the cloud had an orange taint to its colour. At first, he thought it was the effect of the sunset but when he looked at the sky, he only saw the moon. This unusual sight caused him to scratch his head with a perplexed look on his face before he saw the black tail of a massive smoke. He lowered his head and saw that the orange thin was due to the fire that burned below the clouds. 

All across the Allied-controlled territories, huge fires consumed men and crops at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, the coastal cities were flooded by massive tsunamis that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Catastrophes without cause and natural disasters without source ravaged the Allied territories and their populations like a plague. 

Inside an Allied conference room, Dane and McCree's team moved around a map while trying to figure out the root cause of these events. They were aware that a cyberknight of some sort created these catastrophes but what they didn't know was the location of the perpetrator. 

[Dane] - "A nationwide catastrophe... this must be the work of either one or several cyberknights combined. "

[McCree] - "Well, this is quite the conundrum considerin' how locatin' them bastards is like findin' a needle in an ocean. "

[Kadyn] - "This is quite strange. According to my database, there are no registered cyberknights capable of unleashing this type of destruction. We can rule out a group effort considering how impossible it would be for the human brain to collaborate with multiple abilities on such a massive scale. It would be difficult even for a computer. "

[Dane] - "Do ya know anything about this, then? "

[Kadyn] - "Difficult to say... if it is what I think it is, then it could mean that a Divine Servant is behind all this. And before you ask, we stand no chance against a Divine Servant; They are the best of the best chosen personally by Sniper. "

The room erupted into panicked chatter between the present individuals. While everyone threw around suggestions on what would be the best next course of action, Kadyn thought back on the past few weeks. Suddenly, a past memory sprung up inside her head as she signalled to Dane her need to speak. 

[Dane] - "Shut yer gosh darn mouths, folks! "

Yelled Dane as he banged on the table. 

As the order was reestablished inside the room, Kadyn cleared her throat and spoke.

[Kadyn] - "Mike once told me about the story of a few ancient humans. A few days ago, I heard that elements of the Allied Forces liberated a great evil from their prison inside a cave. Although the Allied Forces High Command tried to hide their fuck ups, I have a faint idea of what they liberated and yes, these disasters are related to them. "

The room remained silent with people showing shocked faces while others showing frustration at the Allied Command. 

[Kadyn] - "Out of the four horsemen, the one we defeated a few weeks ago was only their guard dog. These three are the real danger. From what I can tell, this one who's currently causing us misery and death is capable of environmental manipulation. Instead of searching mindlessly around, we need to look for the clouds as he requires direct visuals to apply his ability. "

[Dane] - ''What are y'all waiting for? Start the satellites and radars! "

Ordered Dane as some of the men sprung into action. 

[personnel member] - "What use is there to find him? If he can cause such destruction, what chance do we stand? "

[conference member] - "Yeah! We almost died fighting against their guard dog, what chance do we have against them? "

[Dane] - "We don't have to solely rely on our secret weapon Arthur to deal with them anymore! Remember, we have our own cyberknights now! The playing field is even! "

"So what? If secret weapon Arthur required Kadyn's help, what chance do we have? "

"We are just fighting a war so we could all kill ourselves for nothing! "

"There must be another way out of this! "

The crowd yelled with panic and anger while Dane tried to calm everyone down. 

[Kadyn] - "Shut the fuck up!!! "

Yelled Kadyn with all her strength as the room immediately fell silent. 

[Kadyn] - "All of you, are you all just a bunch of bloody cowards? When Mike fought Sniper, did he ever question if he had a chance to win? When I jumped to confront that monster a few weeks ago, did I ever worry about how I didn't have an ability? Now your country and everything you have worked for is in danger and all you can fucking mumble is how we don't stand a chance? Bullshit! How would your mothers, wives, husbands and children would see you? How do you explain your lack of balls to them? "

It was a moment which would've made Mike proud of Kadyn. Soon after Kadyn's rant, reason and courage slowly came back to the defeated people in the conference room. 

[McCree] - "Nicely said, partner! "

Said McCree as he padded Kadyn on the back. 

"She's right, fuck if it's possible! The important thing is that we do what is right! "

"Yeah, let's show that prick what we are made of! "

"Nuke that mother fucker! "

Cheered the crowd in support of a fight.

[operator] - "Sir, I found the bastard! "

Dane and the rest gathered around the screen which showed a dot toward the sky above Philadelphia. 

[operator] - "Altitude 2000 metres above sea level. The sky is clear in that area. "

[McCree] - "How should we approach him? "

[Kadyn] - "We confront him directly. We don't have what it takes to confront him in the sky and we don't know what his ability is capable of. As per the rule of an ability duel, the first step is to understand your enemy before proceeding to deal with him. We harass him until he decides to deal with us personally, and then we find a way to take him down. "

[McCree] - "That sounds like a horrible plan. "

[Kadyn] - "I'm just saying what I know and what is most logical in this situation. Ya know, with Mike, I only ever saw him execute his enemies with a single strike, so I don't know how to really approach a situation like this either. "

Said Kadyn with an awkward grin. 

[McCree] - "In that case, I'm appointin' ya as team leader. "

Said McCree as he put a hand on Kadyn's shoulder.

[Kadyn] - "Huh? You are stepping down? "

[McCree] - "We are cyberknights just like Mike now but so far, you are the most knowledgeable in this field compared to us, captain. "

Said McCree as he saluted Kadyn.

[Kadyn] - "But... I don't know how to lead a team. "

[McCree] - "Times has changed. We ain't a team of specialists anymore, we're now a team of superheroes. We must change the way we fight, the way we think and the way we act. We need a leader who bears the memories and wisdom of a fallen hero before us. "

At first, Kadyn was unsure but she soon remembered how Mike used to lead the revolution as a general but also as the Grand Knight. She touched the sleeves of her coat and felt a reassuring feeling coursing through her veins. With a determined look in her eyes, Kadyn stood up straight and saluted McCree.

[Kadyn] - "Captain Kadyn, reporting for duty! "

[McCree] - "Yer team awaits your orders, captain. "

To be continued...