text: [Themes: sci-fi, superhero]
  
  Not wanting to risk spending any more time here, you swiftly travel the corridors. Finally you turn the correct corner and are beckoned by an EXIT sign at the end of a hall.
  
  The light outside is blinding and the heat hits you like a wave from an opened oven. The sky is high and pale and a red dust blows in the wind.
  
  You see you're in some sort of courtyard, with an armored truck parked nearby, with more sections of the building on three sides and a metal gate at the far end of the driveway, leading out into a long road in what looks like a desert. There's a few guards in heavy gear with visored helmets and guns milling around the gate, but they don't seem to have seen you. You creep closer to the truck and see there are several people inside a kind of cage built into the back, in torn and dirty work uniforms. They're all handcuffed and look frightened. Most are adults but you see a few pretty young kids in there too.
  
  [Kill them...?]
  
  [Will someone shut this guy up!]
  
  You shake your head and try to assess the situation. Just then one of the prisoners looks over and sees you. "Little girl...oh my God, what did they do to you in there?" he hisses out in a whisper, seeing you dressed in your bloody salvaged rags. "Good on you for escaping, but you need to get out of sight. If you take the east road.." He points towards a small side path you hadn't noticed, "There's a water station just a few miles away, then just follow the rock piles to a hidden stash of more supplies."
  
  You nod as if you're listening, then simply walk over and tear the door of the cage right off. An electric shock from some security device courses through you when you do, but this time you keep that bastard Snake Eyes down with some help from the others. There's startled muttering and conversation from within the truck, everyone staring at you, but they are all quick to exit that confinement.
  
  "Hey! What the hell's going on?" a male voice barks as a guard throws open a door and rushes out. He comes running around the side of the truck, and you slam the edge of the cage door you're carrying against him, catching him right in the throat. He goes down, but the other guards at the gate have noticed now and are running your way.
  
  One of the prisoners grabs the fallen guards gun and begins firing wildly at the ones approaching, most of the shots miss but then there's a BOOM and and a sudden explosion. The guard that was hit looks dead as fuck and another one is screaming and on fire, while the third runs over to try and assist.
  
  "What caused that?" you ask, astonished.
  
  "Oxygen tanks. These Earth assholes all need them up here, if they can't afford modifications." He holds up the keys taken from the guard. "Get in the truck though, we need to go."
  
  [Earth assholes?]
  
  > let Scope take over.
  Samson sighs and relents. About time. Even if that drone is out of missiles, it's tracking you all and reporting back to somewhere. There's not a second to waste.
  
  "I'll do it. I've been training for this since I was eight." You take the gun from the man and line up the shot. The vehicle is moving, the drone is moving, and this type of gun is unfamiliar, but none of that would have mattered to the original Scope. And while you're not a perfect Imprint, you remember enough of being her that none of it matters to you. Squeezing the trigger, you watch the drone fall from the sky and shatter somewhere in the red sands.
  
  The occupants of the truck let out a ragged cheer and congratulate you, as they should since you are their hero, and the rest of the drive is uneventful. Samson tries to reassert control once or twice, but you're having none of that. That moron let Snake Eyes out, that's pretty inexclusable.
  
  The truck eventually rolls into some kind of mine entrance, and once hidden from view all of you get out and must walk a long ways. The mine is dim and shadowed, but small lights set into the walls near the ground are just enough to guide your path.
  
  There are some pressing questions on your mind. Well on a lot of your minds, not that you ever bother to listen much to the others. If they knew so much then how did the original Scope kill so many of the "heroes" they were Imprinted from?
  
  You at least realize you're all just Imprints. A lot of the others don't, that's what's always caused many of the issues with the Maelstrom entity. But at least you're in charge now and as long as you stay that way there will be a minimum of trouble. Nothing like the disaster that got all of you put on ice the last time, that's for sure.
  
  But right now you really, really want to know what was meant by "Earth assholes."
  
  > ask for the infodump
  You sound utterly retarded for having to have it explained what planet you're on, although they at least accept immediately that you were frozen in stasis. That's apparently a common technology these days. The vague hunch you've been getting proves correct though: this is indeed Mars, and you've woken up some one hundred and fifty years in the future.
  
  It turns out that even with the technology to colonize another planet, depressingly little about humans have changed.
  
  Over the last century and a half, anger over inequality and greed led to destructive riots and coups from some very shortsighted people, and the chaos and instability from this period predictably led to corporations and their privatized security forces openly ruling the world. The status quo was in many ways worse than before, with fewer rights for everyone, but after everything they'd been through at the hands of their so-called class conscious "liberators", the population was eager to have stability and safety and the rule of law again in any form they could get it. This carried over in full force even to the colonization of Mars and establishment of a laboring class there.
  
  With time a collection of administrative puppets were allowed to form a new United Nations. Their role was supposed to be to enforce fair play among the corporations, but some obviously had a greater influence on them than others.
  
  What were called Heroes, people who had been illegally modified before birth to have incredible, unpredictable powers, had already fallen out of favor compared to Imprints. Imprints were the memories of a specific Hero or other talented person laid over someone else's brain, who could then harness their powers.
  
  Imprinting was still an inexact science during your time, leading to often tragic and deadly results (such as in the case of everything to do with the Maelstrom entity...) and you learn that that quickly became an unpopular method as well once corporations gave themselves the power to legally modify volunteer workers with an array of less impressive, but far more useful day to day abilities. Heroes and Imprints only remain in few numbers, all firmly in government control.
  
  The thing you can't figure out of course was how you yourself got to Mars. Private research leads you to the conclusion that after Maelstrom was contained in ice, the body and all of the Imprints stored away in the brain just slipped out of history amid all the other problems. The facility you escaped didn't seem heavily staffed, and the security you'd have expected from a wealthy corporation or a global government just wasn't there. Had your awakening been off the record?
  
  Your destination is what turns out to be some kind of refugee camp hidden deep in a depleted mine, although things seem pretty organized here, which you approve of. And even living in hiding like this, the people aren't too badly off. You're able to get cleaned up and change into some real clothes finally, although it's just a pretty simple brown jumpsuit and cheap plastic shoes like a lot of the people here wear.
  
  It turns out they have some questions for you though. They want to know about what happened in the facility, and Samson's little stunt of ripping the cage door off not being humanly possible didn't go unnoticed.
  
  > Interview
  While being questioned, you finally decide it's best to admit to at least the basics. "Look, my name is Sierra...ah, damn it..." You have to stop and grip your forehead a minute, because holy shit did that make all the voices mad. But you have to give some kind of name, so why not the one Scope was born with?
  
  "Sorry...migraine," you say shakily, sipping a glass of water.
  
  "Anyway, you might as well known this isn't my original body. I'm an Imprint. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I just woke up from some kind of stasis in that facility. I got loose from the equipment I was hooked up to and I...found a dead body that I took that shirt from, because I didn't have anything else."
  
  "An Imprint! There aren't too many of those around anymore. I think the government finds it easier just to modify people they already trust. So what are your powers?"
  
  "They're...a little hard to define. You shouldn't expect anything like what happened with the cage door again though."
  
  [Let me out of here you BITCH.]
  
  "That was just a one time thing. Mostly I'm a sniper, I have uncannily good aim in any situation. But I have lots of other combat training too. Don't be tempted to underestimate me because of how young this body is."
  
  "Hmm."
  
  The two men interviewing you exchange glances, then one of them says. "Sierra, I really have to wonder if you were brought to Mars to assist the UN soldiers in breaking up the last of our camps here. They probably had this girl's body that was already modified for the climate and atmosphere, and just put you in it. Otherwise I can't imagine them spending so much."
  
  "The UN has really been trying to distance themselves from the conflict now that they've got what they wanted," the other man says, disagreeing. "Most of the soldiers remaining...the ones doing the really sick shit...are on the Caradine Corporation's payroll."
  
  "Maybe so. But anyway, Sierra, this is exactly why the government doesn't use Imprints anymore. There's no telling what side they'll take. I'm just glad you chose ours."
  
  They really do seem to like you and respect you, and it's fair to say no one has ever been this accepting of Maelstrom. Of course they don't know about the other Imprints you carry with you, and you consider it your duty to keep them completely contained. From now on you will do everything possible to remain fully Scope. Maelstrom is just bad news.
  
  You live among the refugees for quite awhile. Sometimes you help to organize and carry out raids for supplies. You learn the settlements they used to live in are populated by miners genetically modified for obedience now. The original workers who came here, most of them old or having died now, signed on under Caradine Corporation to be put under enormous debt in exchange for transport and modifications that would allow them to withstand the Martian climate, which was quite harsh even after some basic terraforming had been done.
  
  The thing they hadn't realized was that when their children and grandchildren were born naturally with the same abilities, the corporation would take credit for that too and demand payment from each of them. Those children, native born Martians, had grown up to be today's rebels and refugees, driven out through extraordinarily violent means and replaced. Several of them assure you that the Earth government would happily look the other way while they were hunted to extinction.
  
  > Fiery Dawn
  Then one morning everyone's worst fear comes true.
  
  To the higher ups (you being one of them) it isn't entirely unexpected, you allies in the Republic of Luna have been picking up chatter about something called Project Red Storm for months. But no one was quite prepared for how final it would be.
  
  You're waken by an explosion that shakes ceilings down all over the mine, and recieve a summons to the central office.
  
  "Caradine's got us surrounded. They got their hands on a bunch of heavy bombers from the UN and they really must mean to finish the job...they'd never risk leaving witnesses to a joint operation like this."
  
  "Really, sometimes you wonder who's really even in charge of Earth these days," another man sighs.
  
  You remain silent, wondering and not for the first time where it had all gone wrong. Every voice you carry inside of you had had just as much chance to be a hero as a lunatic or a villain. If only they could have found it within them to fight fate and forge a brighter path for humanity...
  
  "We have shelters deep, deep down and we're working on a tunnel to take us to another camp," the militia leader is continuing. "Thankfully we knew something of this sort might happen, the Republic of Luna warned us about intercepted communications months ago. We just had no idea it would be this bad."
  
  "Stalling for enough time to get everybody down to the deep shelters before they collapse the upper level is the only chance we have. Sierra, there's little you can do up top so you'll lead the B Group of evacuees."
  
  > Agree to go as Scope.
  The mood is grim as you gather up the refugees, each with their only belongings in packs on their backs and no idea what the future holds.
  
  The deeper tunnels are newly cut and the paths are in places narrow and unstable, so it keeps you busy keeping everyone gathered together and moving at a steady pace. The map you were given indicates some crude hand cranked elevators up ahead, so you're just starting to organize everyone into teams to use them when suddenly there's a flash of purple light from a side tunnel.
  
  You go to take a look just in time to have to dodge a volley of shots from a squad of visored UN soldiers who have somehow taken up position in there. You hear shouts of pain from a few of the refugees behind you as the situation goes to pieces.
  
  Luckily a few in your group are armed and manage to return fire convincingly enough that the soldiers don't advance right away, but you know it's only a matter of time.
  
  "Where the hell did they come from?"
  
  [Teleported? Do they have that kind of technology now?]
  
  [We had better just focus and get everyone to the elevators.]
  
  [Are you crazy? We need to retreat!]
  
  [No, fight them!]
  
  [Let ME fight them!]
  
  Angrily you shake you head to clear the voices. You've had them well under control for months now, but they're always waiting to pounce any time you lose your nerve.
  
  You creep over and peer around the corner again.
  
  You see standing with the soldiers a woman with long purple hair and a black suit with stars and purple lighting bolts slashing across the middle. You don't recognize her personally, but you do know the type. This is surely a purestrain Hero, the first one you've ever seen on Mars, and even back in the time the original girl remembers they were rare enough on Earth. You realize that if the soldiers had teleported, she would be the one responsible.
  
  Well if there's anything Scope could do, it was kill Heroes. You step out into the open and fire your gun, hitting Purple Haired Bitch right between the eyes before taking cover again from the answering hail of shots. But now it was only the soldiers to deal with, and they can only move in one direction.
  
  More than half the evacuees haven't managed to use the elevators yet, but your action has made the soldiers cautious. No one seems to want to emerge into view right now, but you hear them barking orders and know it's just a matter of time. You'll have to act quickly.
  
  Glancing around you see near the merge point of the tunnels a support beam with a slight tilt to it. Looks like the shaking from the bombing earlier has destabilized that area. You think to yourself that if you can get off a good shot at a particular area of that ceiling, you can bring the whole thing crashing down!
  
  [Not unless you can shoot away the whole beam.] Samson speaks up suddenly in your mind.
  
  "How long have you been lurking there?" you mutter irritably.
  
  [Uhh, since the imprint process? We're all in here together darling, I'm afraid you'll never get rid of us.]
  
  "I don't know, I think when those soldiers get to that junction and start shooting in just a minute here I might finally get some peace and quiet," you scoff.
  
  His voice is insistent. [But what about the others? The Martians I mean. You know that we can save them. You know what we have to do.]
  
  You look again at the pillar and sigh as you realize what he means. "You always liked the dramatic endings. But I could still try to shoot it down."
  
  [Ugh, you and your guns. Just hurry and make up our mind before one of the others grabs for the wheel.]
  
  You can feel various parts of the Maelstrom entity getting restless it's true, the real danger you're in right now seeming to have stirred them. Besides the ones having their own opinions on how to get out of this, there's at least one or two that would put one of your own bullets in this body's head the first chance they got. Always have to watch out for those.
  
  > shoot the pillar as Scope.
  You and your guns all right. Reaching for one of these little death dealers has always come naturally to you. You let out several shots at the pillar, concentrating your fire. Wood splinters off of it and a shower of dirt and small stones fall from the ceiling just overhead, but it's not enough to bring it down.
  
  Worse yet, all the gunfire has excited the soldiers into finally taking action. You switch your aim as they come charging out of the tunnel, but your gun clicks.
  
  Theirs do not, and in half a moment you're bleeding out on the ground, shot in a dozen places. You hear the evacuees panicking, but all you can do now is hope that at least some will escape.
  
  You feel Samson beside you again, and sense that he's angry and disappointed. At keast he doesn't say anything, although that doesn't stop any of the others. When death comes a few moments later the Maelstrom entity is in such a state of inward chaos it almost doesn't notice.