Prologue

Pale, flickering white light spread across the massive laboratory, casting an array of fleeting shadows across the room. A loud humming noise began to ring out as the huge steel machine at the center of the room started to activate.

A middle-aged man in a white lab coat stared at the whirling machine with a smile. He pushed a strand of white hair out of his face as he focused, tying his shoulder length hair in a knot. Despite his age, he was fit and healthy looking, the wrinkles that were just beginning to spread unable to hide his muscular form. A long, jagged red scar marred his appearance, cutting into the right side of his face and lips. The man's piercing blue eyes gleamed eerily with passion as he turned and looked to the side.

To his left was a small, green control panel listed several odd assortments of numbers and values, changing intermittently. This panel was hooked up to the enormous metal contraption in the center of the nearly thousand meter wide and long underground room. The clinking and clanking of metal rang out louder and louder as the machine started to pick up pace. Hundreds of wires and cords could be seen spread haphazardly about, connecting to different parts of the massive machine.

As the whirring sound reached a crescendo, the air in the underground facility began to vibrate and distort. Odd, terrifying noises began to echo as space itself twisted, shivering uncontrollably. The huge machine was the central focus of this distortion, the metal creaking as it began to bend.

Abruptly the vibrations, the distortions, the screeching echoes, all of it came to a complete still, absolute silence dominating. Everything froze for a brief instant in time.

The middle-aged man smiled.

An explosion of light blasted out.

And the world changed.