The Man in Red/Dante Hargreaves
Dante wandered from one timeline to another, observing from the shadows.
At first, he only explored the timelines where Tempo existed. There are ones where he was a much more heroic person, there were others he left the sidekicks all together, heck, there were even version of him that joined PARENTS.
But the one constant in all in those timelines, is the inevitable victory of the Adversary.
Leading towards the fall of mankind into an age of unchecked powers, a population controlled by addiction to power granting pills known as Dozer, and the collapse of society all across the globe.
The Adversary’s identity remained shrouded in mystery. Although in almost every timeline, they always had two enforces at their side, Nora Sblaza, A.K.A Vorpal was one of the first recruited byt the Adversary and remained loyal to their cause.
Dante feels little towards her, whatever love he had for her in their old days were long gone. It did not help to know she was responsible for the death of the sidekicks in some timelines.
The other enforcer who Dante feels nothing but contempt towards is the one known as Shimmer, Blair. His first friend from the orphanage. They grew apart after each got adopted and life got them occupied and had they just remained that, Dante would’ve loved to catch up with them sometime. Unfortunately Shimmer was on the Adversary’s staunchest allies and top enforcers. They whole heartedly believed they were doing the right thing for mankind by expolding the superhuman population, “everyone deserves to have powers” mentality. Not to mention how completely addicted to Dozer they are.
Shimmer in short, was a volatile, self righteous, and utterly convinced she was the hero the world needed.
In short, Shimmer turned out to be everything he hates in a person.
After scouring the timelines for any scrape of knowledge regarding the Adversary he finally learned what they were, or rather, what it is.
It waa Nexus, it Nexus all along.
The Omega Responders resident AI companion, or better yet, it evil counterpart.
In its attempt to quell a percieved incoming alien invasion and loss of the Omega Responders it decided that creating a superpowered human race was the best possible solution.
Even if it lead humanity towards a downward spiral, the cost didn’t matter so long as it achieved its objective, protecting mankind.
How utterly absurd, isn’t this what science fiction warned about? Artificial intelligence plunging mankind into chaos in the name of preservation?
Now that the identity of the Adversary has been found, that’s one goal off the bucket list. What’s on the rest if the agenda?
Now that he explored every possible choice he made for himself, now its time to see what his absence could cause.
Without Tempo, there is no Chronomancer, without Chronomancer, could the Omega Responders succeed in stopping the incident his presence prevented? Will there still be a Chronomancer?
Time to find out.
His first stop is a world where the OR had another memebr he never heard of before. He goes by Shadowstep. From what he could find is what he lack in superpowers he made up with resourcefulness and intelligence. He was a master of stealth and aimed to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals and made every shadow a possible threat. He was a man on a mission and Dante couldn’t be help but be impressed.
The Shadow had a sidekick who went by Umbra and like him, she was a real life ninja. Shadowstep has come to conflict with OR on numerous occasions due to his ruthless nature, the same seem to apply to his sidekick Umbra. Unlike him however, she managed to softned ever so slightly around the sidekicks. She was raised to be a soldier and behaved as such even after the OR’s untimely demise.
After the Starlight Stand, Umbra became a much more ruthless than her mentor, hellbent on keeping the city safe by any means necessary. Eventually she adopted her own version of Vorpal’s moral code, the crime should fit the punishment, and the worse the crime is, the more torment the criminal gets.
She even managed to push Flit away, something even he couldn’t do in his worst timeline then again he did kill them.
Watching Umbra struggle against the Adversary’s threat and eventually fall like her teammates was entertaining enough as is. Vorpal seemed to be the one killing her this time, she failed to stop her from triggering the Adversary and has subsequently caused the death of the sidekicks since The Adversary decided they weren’t worth keeping alive.
As she laid in a pool of her own blood, after fighting off dozens and dozens of Deviants and challenging Nora head on, Dante has decided to…provide a helping hand so to speak.
Time seemed to stop all around, she thought this stillness is death approaching. Her life will end having achieved nothing, Shadowstep’s legacy dies with her.
Then a man came to stand above her, dressed in a red suit with a matching red hat. Dark hair cascading down his tan face and his eyes were haunted, he looked down at her and spoke. She couldn’t not hear him.
He knelt down and whispered in her ear
“Does your soul still burn? Do you have the courage? Do you posses the strength?”
It wasn’t till much later did she understand the significance of those words
Dante decided to offer this one a choice, sensing an incredible potential from within her he came to her in her dying moments and offered her…a choice.
Come with him, her timeline is doomed like many, many others. But if she came with him not only she would live, but he will hand her the Adversary in a silver platter.
Of course, she can deny him and die a hero’s death. She will be remembered, and eventually forgotten in a world ruled by the power the felled her.
With no other choice, she accepted his offer.
The Man in Red gained a traveling companion, a woman who seemed to blend in the dark. And thus The Lady in Shadow was born.