Risen

Phoenix paused before leaving the spot Mortis had left him at when he brought him back to the land of the living, wondering for a moment if he was truly free of Hades’ imprisonment. When no hell hounds arrived to drag him back down, he took a moment to look up at the sky. For the first time in a long, long while, it was blue with white clouds dotting it, rather than grey stone and ever present smoke.

Alighting to a nearby rooftop, Phoenix turned full circle, taking in the view of the city. This wasn’t the first time he’d been in Freedom City, but it had been a while, and he needed to get his bearings. The hustle and bustle of the city surprised him to a small degree; there seemed to be even more people here than before. Life kept on moving, it seemed, regardless of what it left behind.

Phoenix scowled inside his helmet, shaking his head as he felt a memory returning. Anger, hot as his flames, hot as Helios’ fire itself, threatened to consume him. “No, not yet.” he thought to himself, trying to tamp down the emotion. “I need more info first. Plus, I have a promise to keep. Doesn’t do well to flake on a promise to a necromancer.”

He looked down to his right wrist, where the computer was running calculations, parsing through the encrypted communication signal he’d piggybacked on when he shook Mortis’ hand. It pinged, indicating it had finished it’s task, granting him remote access to Freedom Hall and all it’s systems. “Daedalus, you old fool. Still using your old security methods, as though you don’t think ANYONE knows how your mind works.” he thought to himself, using the holographic display to page through the system. His brow furrowed as he read through damage reports and logs from the Freedom League, shocked at how devastating an enemy Una had been even before she’d managed to re-manifest in the physical plane. The Freedom League Dark was going to have it’s hands full trying to keep all of reality from falling apart it seemed, and if he wanted to be around to enact his plan, he’d have to help out in some way.

Continuing to absent mindedly scroll through the system records, something caught his eye. Blueprints, schematics for something big, another of Daedalus’ grand creations. But it didn’t seem like it was going to be a part of Freedom City. Phoenix began looking over everything more in depth, studying the plans and notes, smiling to himself as he did.

“Well, it looks like I know where to go to find him after all of this gets sorted out.” He though to himself, before unlocking the helmet and removing it from his head, his curly brown hair blowing in the wind. Looking up at the sky, he pointed a finger towards the heavens. “Just wait, Daedalus. You’ve got a little surprise coming, one you would never have expected.”