Zero Moment Video Transcript

The group looked into the murder of Tate Morgan, a former sidekick to a hero killed at the Zero Moment. In the course of the investigation the received a tape, clearly made and edited by Morgan. Full list of Zero Moment Dead here.

Video opens with an interior of some kind of craft, you guess a VTOL or chopper judging by the shaking. The camera itself is clearly sophisticated and stabilized—the image shakes little while the people in the cabin lurch back and forth. Vision members Iron Lotus and Willforce can be easily spotted in lead position near cockpit door. Durandal is closer to the camera operator. Three other supers can be seen Haven, Gigawatt, and Manifest. They are independent operators, not members of Vision.

Iron Lotus: …and just keep close. There’s going to be a lot of thunder and noise out there.

Durandal: Cut it out Jake, they know what they’re doing. [Turns to the non-Vision Heroes]. You’ve done this before but not in these numbers. Don’t count on communicators—once you get a target from one of us, just keep after them. That’s the best thing. Strategy won’t work out there.

Haven: We’ve gone over the records like three times now. I think we’ve got it.

Willforce: No you don’t.

Haven: Excuse me?

Willforce: These people kill—no fooling around. Don’t even think about holding back—use everything you’ve got from word go.

(Some inaudible muttering comes on for the next few minutes. The camera shakes as the vehicle clearly banks.)

Durandal: We really didn’t get anything from Solomon on this?

Iron Lotus: I assume Bane did…how else would he know to get here? But he didn’t share anything else with me.

Durandal: I don’t like that.

Iron Lotus: No…no…he wasn’t holding back, I really think they didn’t give him much more to go on. He just grabbed as many as he could and headed this way.

Manifest: (Accented) What if they break into Lockdown?

Willforce: We run and don’t stop running until we hit a coast…maybe not even then.

(Sound goes out at this point…the operator of the camera is clearly fiddling and adjusting the device. At one point in a polished surface you can make out that the cameraman is Tate Morgan. He has body armor on.)

Durandal sits by the camera operator and starts talking. A few seconds in the sound comes back.

Durandal: OK, we’re about three minutes out. We’re going to drop you at a decent spot. Just promise me you’ll keep the Geyges Cloak on.

Tate: Not a problem. I don’t want to get killed.

There’s a break here. An edit maybe as the next thing we see is a barren landscape, some hills and scrub terrain. It is unclear how long the break is between the last sequence and this one. The camera’s maybe been on for ten seconds when several things launch from the ground. About half are missiles and the other half flying humans. As a group they impact in the air with a series of resulting explosions. Their target had been clearly cloaked up until this point. Now whatever assault vehicle the Anarchs had has been destroyed. The frame is suddenly filled with fire and wreckage decloaking and dozens and dozens of superbeings.

Morgan’s camera is pretty good and he tries to follow the fight. However there is too much. Energy beams in the air, distortions in the gravity field, pairs of fliers grappling with each other and thundering into the ground at Mach One. It is almost impossible to make out who is fighting who. For a second you see Boom of Frontline tossed up into the air by someone from Ravage. As he rises he rains a salvo of explosions down catching the Anarch and throwing Boom higher. Then with a crack that shatters the air, Warhead smashes into him, drilling both into the ground.

Speesters, people creating barriers, telekinetic effects, gouts of fire—it becomes quickly clear that Anarchs had aborted whatever mission they were on. You can catch a few people trying to direct things—Bane leaping across the field to pull Gauntlet out of harm’s way—all the while clearly screaming into a headset. Spartacus and Master Task trying to pull some groups back to organize their end of the battle, but with little effect. Ravage is full into it as if everyone else.

Then there’s a light that cuts across the field—a pure white beam, rainbowed just at the edges that shoots from one figure to another. You pause and rewind, slow the thing down. It seems to shoot out from two figures and crash in the middle. Further analysis identifies Haven and Navigator as the two figures. There’s a sound, and then the audio goes completely out and the picture begins to slow. You check the counter on the tape and it is still rolling at the normal rate—but the images have shifted to slow motion.

More identical beams crisscross the field, pairing and pinning figures. The explosions, fire, and debris make it hard to identify who and how. You can discern at one point that Speedmetal and Apex are pinned even in their blurred super-speed state. In another you spot Lady Hive and Master Task caught on another beam. The lines of light cross each other and a glow starts to shimmer at the furthest edges of the battle, encasing everyone in an enormous sphere. In the center a figure forms in cage created by the strange energy beams. Then a flash overloads the camera.

When it comes back on, there are bodies, most burnt into the ground. A few people remain standing apparently unhurt. In the air above you see an armored figure, shining in mirror-like steel reflecting the sun. Below you see Bane, Spartacus and Harridan stagger trying to assess the situation. Closer to the camera, you see Manifest, clearly injured…he seems to have been caught at the very edge of the blast. His left side is burnt, torn and gruesome. He staggers and barely holds himself up.

Time has returned to normal. Bane and the other two appear uninjured, but shocked by what has happened. Then there’s a blur and suddenly Spartacus doesn’t have a head. The armored figure is there and tosses the skull away like a soccer ball. He looks at Bane who leaps at him without hesitation. The armored figure evades the tackle. As Bane rolls to his feet to make another strike, he freezes. The figure holds out his hand, clearly keeping Bane in place with some invisible force. Then claws emerge from the tips of the armored gauntlets as he drives a fist through Bane’s back, punching through to the front. He pulls back and spin kicks the body away.

Harridan has begun to run and the armored figure tracks her movement. However, in the air, another figure forms in an instant. It is a streak as it swoops down and grabs up Manifest, catching him before his body collapses. There’s a burst of energy and those two figures shoot past the camera. The armored figure makes to pursue but doesn’t. Instead he waits a moment and then in a blur of motion appears in front of Harridan, striking and knocking her to the ground. He leaps high in the air, spins and brings his knee down full on her. She jerks and stops moving.

There’s a good half-minute there with the camera trembling. The figure surveys the area, and then starts to walk outside the circle. He stops then, pauses and turns to look at the camera. Even from the half-mile plus distance, it feels like he’s staring out of the screen. You see him reach up and remove the helmet.

It is Roaming Wolf.

The tape ends.

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