The Redeemers # 1 : The New Born King

Issue #1 
February 2013

The New Born King
Rated PG-13
Created & Written by Frankie Rodriguez

All characters are the property of Frankie Rodriguez. Any likeness is purely coincidental. This is an updated version.

As the smell of burnt human flesh and melted glass crashed through his apartment window, Seraph Summers had awakened not a happy man. His light brown skinned body had twirled away from the shower of broken glass and the incoming torrent of flame that encase what seemed to be, in Seraph’s eyes, a tall man. The fire had nearly engulfed the man entirely as Seraph unwrapped the sheet that he clinged to his naked body as he moved away. Seraph quickly blanketed the burning man, hoping that it will help put out the flames. The burning man turned around 3 more rotations till he crashed against the door of Seraph’s nicely decorated bedroom on the seventh floor of his apartment building. After the third rotation, the burning man had stopped the fire on his flesh and clothes; locked in the embrace of the once maroon, now maroon and . . . soot blanket.

Seraph quickly crawled to the now not-so burning man while grabbing his cell phone; entering 911 as he continued to check on his unexpected visitor. There were at least two rings that past. Seraph gazed at the man; noticing that his face was somewhat burnt but not as badly as the rest of his body could have been. Seraph sighed as the third ring passed.

“Can you talk? Are you awake?” Seraph stated.

The former burning man moaned painfully, sounding like the wail of a ghost from an actual scary film. Seraph’s brow furred for a moment as he began to stand up.

“You gotta be in a lot of pain. Just hang in there,” as the fifth ring passed on his cellphone, Seraph continued to talk with a soothing voice. “The ambulance will come and they will fix you right up and then I can find out why the hell you crashed through my window doing your best Human Torch impression.”

Seraph was a proud nerd but this was not the time to think of such things. The burning man revealed his left arm; his hand mostly burnt with the flesh gone in several of his fingers and some blood slightly dripping. The burning man, even though he is not burning anymore, stretched out his hand and opened the palm.

“What are you trying to tell me? Try to save your strength but can you possibly tell me your name or anything that happened?” Seraph inquired, as he felt a draft that danced on his back, down between his legs as he tightened his butt a little from the cool, spring air. Seraph then yelped for a moment, realizing why he was cold.

“Oh geez! I am sure, sir. I didn’t . . . expect a man to come through my window. My door maybe if he was invited but not through my window into my bedroom and I sleep naked and you are seeing my dick and . . .”

A female voice as started chiming in. “Hello, This is 911. What is your situation? Does it have to do with your penis?”

Seraph shook his head, not realizing that 911 finally picked up. “Um . . .no. No. This isn’t for me. This is for this guy who crashed through my window.”

“Is he suffering any broken bones? What is his name and where are you located?” The questions spat out of the operator almost as it she were a robot who had no life.

“I am not sure cause he can barely speak cause when he crashed through my window, he was on fire. I live on 236 McDowell Street, Apt 717,” Seraph spoke with urgency. “He was burnt pretty badly and I doubt the crash did him any good. So you’d better hurry.”

“Ok sir. I am dispatching an ambulance and the police to your location stat. And you are?”

            “Seraph Summers. No relation to the guy on my floor. Please hurry.” There was a quick click after Seraph’s final word to the operator as he then gazed at the outstretched hand of the being formerly known as the burning man; well, in Seraph’s mind anyway.

            “What are you . . .?”

            The raspy voice was both gravely but filled with some kind of phlegm, or possibly blood thought Seraph, considering that the man was burnt alive. “Please . . .after . . . so much . . . and so . . . long . . . finally found . . . you.”

            “Wait. What?” Seraph was extremely confused as he gazed at a silver object in the deep fried hand of this man on his floor.

            “You . . . are . . . the first. You . . . are . . .king.” Every word was left out with a pain that Seraph could not only hear but feel as the man on his floor struggled to get those words out.

            “King? What do you mean? You were deliberately crashing through my window. Why the hell for?” Seraph was very, very confused by all this as he kneed closer to the man without touching him.

            The man moaned again in pain as phlegm, vomit and blood shot through his mouth, brimming over like lava in an erupting volcano. After that cleared, the man quickly said his final words. “You . . . are the . . . King. Find . . . the other . . .six. Take . . . the Eye. And beware . . . cause they are . . . all . . .coming.”

            With that, the man’s arm dropped while his eyes closed. Seraph fearfully looked at the man when he noticed booming against his door.

            “Mr. Summers! It’s the police with some EMTs. Hurry to the door please!” the voice behind that command was gruff and authoritative. Seraph gazed at the metal object, snatching it in his hands. The young man sprinted to his door; unlocking the 3 locks on it to allow the police officers and EMTs to head to the burning man.

            “He just lost consciousness! Hurry! He’s in my bedroom!”

            Seraph gripped tightly the metal object that man dropped to the ground. He felt jolts of energy filling his body but was not concerned about them at the moment as the two police officers glared at Seraph up and down.

            “Um . . . Sir. We are gonna ask you some questions,” the voice from just seconds ago behind the door now belonged to the face of a tall, stocky black police officer in a form fitting shirt and a bald head with a beard. His partner was a slightly younger looking white cop with red hair and a crew cut with a long sleeved shirt. “But um . . . could you put on some clothes first?”

            Seraph turned bright red after giving a quick look down. His naked body for all to see was being showcased to ever person in his house. Luckily, the EMTs were concentrating on the old man, thought Seraph; but Lord, is this embarrassing.

            “Yeah. Sure.” Seraph quickly side-stepped the EMTs as they checked over the body while he got dressed, throwing on a pair of blue jeans, some white socks and a navy blue shirt with white and black inking of a cross and 12 angel wings on it. Seraph spun around to head to the police officers; who had followed him to just outside the room when one of the EMTs, a short, pudgy man gave his final diagnosis.

            “This man didn’t make it. He’s gone.”

            The black, stocky police detective named Carver Graves turned to Seraph. In his hand, the metal object with an eye carved into it began to glow yellow for a moment then stopped.  Officer Graves’ eyebrow pointed up for a minute while glancing at Seraph, who was drying tears that welled in his eyes. “Mr. Summers, you will be having to come with us.” Graves turned to his partner. “Brown, you stay here till reinforcements so we can close off the scene.”

            Seraph sighed as he thought to himself, You know, this never happens to Batman. Heck even Spidey gets off easier . . .maybe not.

            As Seraph followed Officer Graves out, Officer Brown and the EMTs are beginning to cover the scene till forensics and detectives arrive. In his hand, the metal eye glowed yellow again, filling Seraph with a surge as he left his apartment with some shoes and a final thought..

            This is gonna be a long night.

----

    Her name was Jannie Waltkins. She was an EMT that was supposed to be working tonight. Yet, her last gasps of breath leave her as my hands. Jannie Waltkins took her last breath as I choked her. She falls to the ground, her head banging on the asphalt and piss that litered this corner. I take a deep breath.
  Long ago, I used to have my own destiny. But then I kept hearing voices. Over and over and over again. Voices were calling out to me. Some were beautiful, enchanting voices. Others were gritty, dirty... angry voices. All of them told me that my life was not my own on that day. And that was in the middle of making love to my wife. Then the voices came ... I thought these were tricks by people who long wanted me dead.
   Fact of the matter was, that day ended everything for me. I stopped making love to my wife and saw her eyes  ... those eyes.
   The body of Jannie Waltkins began to twists and turn but seemingly, like her mind was not controlling her body by something else. Suddenly, red liquor metal sprang forth from her belly button, her mouth spat out the red mercury that slowly filled her body. Jannie Waltkin's body was changing before her eyes. A sigil lit up on the man's forehead.
   This became my destiny. To murder people that were already dead ... to kill beings not of this Earth ... or this dimension. My name was Daryl Grayson.
   Daryl took out a gun of odd steampunk design with a large sapphire in the middle of this. He aimed it at the mess.
   "Didn't want your bullshit in the first place. So, go the fuck home or to hell."
  Daryl shoots of red mercury that was now taking a new shape. The bright blue blasts incinerates the being.
   I am now just the Requiem Knight. And I know the Redeemers are coming.
 

END OF Issue 1
NEXT MONTH: The World Gets a Little Crazier With Aliens, Area 51 & a mysterious wanderer.

 Letter to the Fans: 

   What you hold here is the beginning. Not just the story of the Redeemers. But for the biggest reason why the Broken Infinite got started. When I sat with Broken Infinite writers Darryll "YTC" Carter, Jeremias de Leon and Hector Ramirez, we wanted to build a new and exciting place for our writing to shine while we saved up to make comics. Yes, our ultimate goal is comics. And Oddly enough, we are not alone in this. New ideas come from many different places. And this is one we thought would be a great idea. 

     So, the three of us plotted and planned how to build this new idea. And as the J1 Studios site transformed, we needed a different arena to tell the stories WE want to tell. Make no mistake. These stories will be filled with action, adventure, murder, mystery and sometimes, gore. This is where we won't have many limits.

     As the three of us came up with characters, the Broken Infinite seemed to come together. So, CBC evolved. Alongside Eric McLeod, Jeremias de Leon, Jake Estrada and Jeff Williams, CBC died and we started, The Broken Infinite. As this site was planned, we started with 3 launch titles, now, we are gonna have at least 5 titles. The Redeemers was first chosen because I wanted to start off with a story to say that we're here; we understand you but this is gonna be a little different from the norm. As the Redeemers come together, you will find that this group has a very interesting destiny. And that is a plot point. 

     The other titles coming up include Oni, Silver Thorn, Perception and 2 other mystery titles. And While there will be several titles that are in a shared universe, we will also have a separate imprint for titles that are not a part of the main Broken Infinite universe.  
     So welcome. Break the monotony! Break the creative wall! Break the Cycle! Welcome to the Broken Infinite. It's gonna be a hell of a ride. 

                                                                  - The Broken Infinite Founder & Editor-in-Chief

                                                                                       Frankie Rodriguez

PS. I know this is a re-release. It has a new scene and the Redeemers are now part of the Shared BI Universe. See You Next Month.