Rush #2

FLASHBACK - WEEKS AGO - CRETE
We see Angela Moorhead on the island of Crete, off the coast of Greece, returning to the girls' orphanage where she was raised. In the beautiful, windswept courtyard of this humble orphanage, she finds the old woman who ran the orphanage when she was there, and the old woman is very happy to see her, seeing that she is fairly well-off and has clearly traveled the world. The old woman congratulates Angela on doing so well with her life, and calls her by her original Greek first name, Pasiphae.

But Moorhead is no mood to be congratulated. Her conversation makes it clear that the orphanage was secretly a brothel, and that the old woman sold the bodies of the young girls in her charge-- Angela included-- to tourists and local men to pay the bills. In fact, Angela makes clear that she was the most popular of all the girls, much to her torment. The old woman protests that after years of running the orphanage off meagre donations, she did what she had to do, and that there was no other way to keep the girls fed. But the old woman's protests are stifled by Moorhead's hands around her throat. She begins to choke the woman to death, but is forced to use one hand for the last few moments, as during the process she answers a cell-phone call from Juliana Sazia.

"Yes, Mrs. Sazia," she says, as the old woman gurgles, "My business in the Mediterranean is nearly concluded. I'll be on a plane to Boston within the hour. I look forward to visiting Calvin City for the first time, I hear it's a lovely city. I look forward to both of us calling it home for a while. Yes. Goodbye."

As she hangs up, Angela has already killed the old woman and dropped her body to the floor. She steps over the body of the woman who destroyed her youth on the way out of the oprhanage's front gate. As she leaves she mutters, "By the way, Madame Pollakis-- no one calls me Pasiphae anymore."

THE PRESENT
The campus is open the next day after the on-campus battle, and since Alan’s history classes are unaffected by the damage in the science wing, he continues teaching unabated. Angela Moorhead is also on campus, trying to find a lead on both the interfering Rush and the mysterious Descent, for whom she feels such a strong connection.

She also makes contact with the local party crowd, and offers them a taste of a powerful new stimulant called “Hunny”, available in innocuous plastic packets. For most people it is simply an easy high, like crystal meth you don’t have to smoke. But for a very few it stimulates their metagene and unlocks potential power.

Moorhead locates these few who develop metahuman abilities and makes them a deal: if they will be her soldiers, she will get them as much Hunny as they want. Many take the deal and become the team of metahuman villains known as “the Brood”. Some refuse, and are killed.

When Calvin College students are found dead, Rush investigates. This leads him to the location of the Brood headquarters, where he is beset by a gaggle of garishly dressed opponents (imagine what methed-out club kids would consider super villain garb).

Descent arrives, having followed his own leads. Unfortunately, one of the Brood is a 15 year-old boy he tried to counsel in his volunteer work as Greg Moore. Unable to reach this troubled youth, all he can do is aid Rush in driving off the powerful yet unorganized metahuman rabble.

Back at a second safehouse she has established for the Brood, Moorhead vows to beat these worthless college kids into fighting shape. After all, she remarks, she herself learned from the very best how to make the most of a child's potential...