The Slums are alive in panic and fear as the Disciples wreak havoc. In a tucked away alley, an old woman is cornered by one of these cloaked fiends, who raises a makeshift weapon to beat her with. The woman cries out, a desperate plea of safety.
“Someone, save me!”
A metallic hum echoes out, and the familiar shield of Captain Arcadia slams into the head of the Disciple. He drops the weapon in time for a well placed super kick to send him careening into a pile of trash can. A gloved hand extends down to the old woman.
“Do you need some help getting up?
Captain Arcadia helps the old lady to her feet
“Thank you young man, I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“It’s a pleasure,” Arcadia responds with a smile. “But let’s get you back home safely rather than hang out around here.”
As the two moved back towards a series of doors, the old woman looked back and gasped in surprise.
“That’s Peter, from the corner store! He was always such a nice, polite lad. How could he do this?”
Captain Arcadia sighs, shaking his head.
“It’s the trap that comes when you get involved with a cult. He fell in with a bad crowd in the form of Ezekial Grave’s church.”
“But churches aren’t supposed to be like that,” the old lady replied as they made their way down to her house.
“You’re right,” he answered as they walked through streets quickly emptying. “But they weren’t a normal church. It starts at the heart of it, usually a man that draws in charisma and power with them. With honeyed words they reach out to those that are vulnerable. Was Peter feeling lost in his life?”
“Oh, he was going through a patch. Lost his dad a few months back, never really was the same.”
“It’s that kind of loss, that needing of something more that folks like Graves are attracted to. They take them under their wing, preach them up and fill their hearts with honeyed words to make them feel good, and loyal before cutting them off from the rest of the world. So that they are their world.”
“Oh no, the poor things. And then they do this?”
“They fall in line with whatever orders that come down from the top. When the man that you sacrificed all asks you to do horrific things to a world you’re no longer a part of? Then you follow what fits your world. It’s up to us to show them there’s more than the gospel word. That everyone matters in Arcadia.”
“You do what you have to do young man,” the old lady answers, taking the steps up to her apartment door. “And be careful out there!”
“I will ma’am, for the good of all of us here in Arcadia,” he answers with a smile, before charging back out into the chaos of the Slums being made by the Disciples, a beacon of hope.