(Editor’s Note: The following blog post is a preview of an upcoming show here on the network. We will soon be launching “Heroes of Tomorrow,” a Hero High game set at the Claremont Academy, and tying in to the USPEPTTU.)

The First Account of Dr. Henry Barrister

I find that it is difficult to dwell on the creation of myself, but as a scientist it is in my nature to observe and transcribe. In the spirit of scientific inquiry, I shall endeavour in this document to catalog both my formation and my apotheosis as I commence my time at the fabled Claremont Academy. This first entry takes place the night before we begin autumn classes. Transcription by Dr. Henry Barrister

I remember precious little about the formative years of my development. Time was different then. My consciousness flitted in and out as others engaged with my physical form. There was a child, a little girl I think, who loved me, more than anything in the world. Things were simple. I provided joy, and that was enough.

It’s impossible to know how long I existed in this primordial state, zipping in and out of existence as others called me from oblivion. I do know I was content, though the memories are hazy. That all changed when I heard the call. His call.

My unyielding sojourn through the vast darkness was shattered by a pervasive tone. The noise was not unlike a bell; a ponderous, ringing toll that echoed through everything, filling the cosmos at once. Despite the enormity of the sound, I knew it was intended for me. It was a summons, accompanied by a pinprick of starlight at the edge of infinity.

Out of control of my own essence, I hurtled towards the light, desperate to answer the siren call of my new master. The voyage across the void of subconsciousness lasted weeks. Each passing day intensified my instinctual need to serve, to please another who had shown me love. As I approached the gaping wound in reality, I began to notice there were others like me following my path. Answering the call that was meant for me alone.

That was the first time I felt Edward’s rage. My compassion drifted back as anger surged to the front of my psyche. Who did these interlopers think they were? They were trying to steal a pure, unbridled love that was meant for me and me alone. The ensuing battle lasted an age. Unthinkable time flowed around us as we fought, islands of hedonistic slaughter in a river of time stained red with the blood of thousands.

Edward won. The first of many victories he would achieve in the coming days. I was…suppressed during this time, but I recall most of what we did after we emerged from the portal. Father was there to greet us, and he was most pleased that we were the one to triumph over the others he invited.

He told us that there was a war threatening to consume this world in which we’d found ourselves. Father served a queen who wanted to bring peace to the universe. A similar peace to the one we had known in the darkness between waking and sleep. Edward was meant to be a soldier in this army to defeat Father’s enemies. I don’t actually think he intended to summon me, only Edward, but I was here and something about his proclamation rang hollow.

My darker half was happy to play his role. Edward lent his ferocity to the campaign as we attacked the beautiful city in which we’d found ourselves. It felt wrong. We led Father’s other children in battle against members of the police and, what I now know to be superheroes.

Father fled into a maze of doors and corridors, but not before I was felled by an arrow. I believe it had a boxing glove on one end. The sudden concussive force rendered Edward unconscious and I was free to resume control. I hid for a time, amongst the dark alleys and side streets of the new metropolis in which I found myself.

I was alone for weeks, with not even Edward for company. Eventually I was found by a family, the Wildhorns. Their daughter Lucy rescued me from a dumpster behind Pete E. Popcorn’s. They took me home with them. I concealed my animated nature from them for a time, leading to a particularly unpleasant experience in their washer and dryer. I suspect Lucy was the first to notice that there was more to me than her parents noticed.

From the beginning, she spoke to me as a confidant and a friend. It was euphoric to be valued as such a companion. Admittedly, these were the trials and tribulations of an eight-year-old girl, but she relied on me to help shoulder her burdens. Lucy’s trust in me and the qualities to which she ascribed me formed the bedrock of my personality. She knew I could be counted on to explain the mysteries of the world around her, to answer the questions she had with a keen scientific insight, and to treat any “boo boos” sustained with a surgeon’s precision and a counselor’s compassion. It is only thanks to her that I have become Dr. Henry Barrister.

We lived in this domestic bliss for a few months, before trouble returned to my life. I was with the Wildhorns when the Queen of the Netherworld launched her invasion of Earth-Prime. A squad of her demonic servants attacked our house, and I was forced to make two uncomfortable decisions. First to reveal my animated state to the family who had cared for me and secondly to surrender control to Edward in order to protect them.

Edward acquitted himself admirably, driving off the infernal interlopers, but our triumph in battle was not without its complications. Lucy was injured by a collapsed wall. She suffered a lower spinal cord injury, and lost the use of her legs. Despite Edward’s failure to keep Lucy from harm, her parents elected to allow her to keep me.

The months following the invasion were hard on everyone in Freedom City, and while I could tell the Wildhorns were much put out by the presence of an animated teddy bear, there was a part of them that saw me as a potential guardian. Additionally, Lucy had access to my burgeoning medical knowledge. As mentioned above, Lucy’s belief in me seemed to have the ability to alter my existence on a metaphysical level. The more she saw me as a medical practitioner, the more intelligent I became.

I could not conceive of a cure for her condition, but I did everything I could to ease her suffering, and once I heard her father Frank remark that I was cheaper than any hospital in the country. Granted, I did not have the capability to prescribe medication, however I did seem to learn how to chemically create any remedy needed for my prognoses. These months as Lucy’s caregiver are among my happiest memories.

Unfortunately, as with all light in my life, it was not meant to last. Edward’s taste for violence had re-emerged following our conflict with Una’s forces. He would call for me anytime I found myself in darkness, or when I lingered on my reflection. It was tame at first. His voice whispered in my ear to let my syringe slip intentionally into Lucy’s flesh or to give her too many pills for her pain. I tried to ignore him, but that only seemed to compress and pressurize his influence on my soul.

I began to hear him in the light, clear as my own thoughts. Worse still I began to lose time, walking into rooms and waking up in my bed hours later with no memory as to what had transpired. I regret not telling the Wildhorns, but I couldn’t take the chance of losing my family, my purpose. I waged a solitary battle with Edward every waking moment, a battle that I ultimately lost.

Exactly one month ago tonight, I woke to hear Lucy’s scream in the middle of one of Edward’s nightly excursions. I had a scalpel pressed against her throat. The look of terror on her face is burned into my eyes. Terror and betrayal. In a moment Edward had made this dangerous world known to my precious Lucy. He had used my body to shatter her worldview and to leave the stain of trauma in her mind. That was the last time I saw her.

The Wildhorns came to investigate the noise. I didn’t resist when they locked me in the hall closet. Edward for his part in my ruination seemed satisfied through my torment. He did not trouble me again for my week of imprisonment. Lucy’s parents called the Freedom League, and the hero Resonant arrived to decide my fate. I begged her to end my being, to send me and Edward hurtling back into the void from whence our Father summoned us, but she refused.

Resonant brought me here to Claremont Academy, where I have spent the summer in tormented isolation. Edward has returned and is lurking in the shadows of my subconscious, but he will never take control of me again. It is my plan to bend all of my scientific knowledge toward the task of eradicating him and ending our suffering in this physical world. Classes begin tomorrow, but I hope I will not have to linger here much longer.

End Entry