"A New Beginning" is the initial issue of the Vanguard series. The story is continued in "The Metagene."
Plot summary
In September, 2001, in Bologna, Italy, former Olympic track and field athlete Edulcore Cicciotto was rescued from the Metagene Cover and Control Agency (MCCA) by Mandelovian Security Corps agents Lioness and Agent F7. They took him to Malvan-X Corporation in Mandelovia, where Dr. Henry Quantos, head of research department for Malvan-X, explained that the MCCA was trying to capture him because he had an Alpha Class metagene, the potential holder of various superpowers. The MCCA collected potentially powerful metahumans (or metas) from all around the world and delivered them to TriVext Corporation, a genetics research firm contracted by the U.S. government. TriVext planned to fully manifest the metahumans' abilities and clone them. Although their motivation was unknown, Dr. Quantos believed that Earth could be involved in an interstellar war with extraterrestrials, leaving a metahuman army as the only option facing the technologically inferior planet. Dr. Quantos explained that Dr. Zachary Knell, head of TriVext, had procured a sample of Cicciotto's blood that Dr. Knell used to clone Cicciotto in order to study his metagene and now needed the original. Dr. Quantos showed the ex-athlete a photograph of his clone, a small infant with snakelike protrusions from his head because Dr. Knell had mixed in reptile DNA during the cloning process.
Cicciotto was too scared to help Malvan-X, and was contacted by Special Agent Turner of the MCCA, claiming that Malvan-X wanted to use Cicciotto as a suicide bomber for a terrorist strike on the U.S. Turner told him that, in the next 48 hours, his Alpha Class metagene would manifest and, if not properly treated, cause a near-nuclear explosion. Agent F7, disguised as Cicciotto, fakes an escape from Malvan-X and is quickly captured by Turner and shipped to the MCCA complex in Nevada. Once there, Agent F7 destroyed the complex but died in the process, causing the MCCA to believe Cicciotto was dead.
At Malvan-X, Dr. Quantos told Cicciotto that Turner was partially truthful, and that in the next 48 hours Cicciotto would explode because of his Alpha Class metagene. Cicciotto's addiction to heroin had prevented it from manifesting earlier, and when he stopped using drugs, his body would change, releasing a massive amount of energy but leaving him unharmed. Lioness brought Cicciotto to the Mandelovian desert, and chained him to a rock to be left alone. His heroin withdrawal became severe, and his metagene caused an explosion.
At TriVext, in Thunder City, assistant head of metagene research Dr. Charles Walker was told to transfer to the Chicago, Illinois, branch of TriVext. Just before his departure, his colleague Dr. Walter Curie informed him that, during a test of the genetic imprint on every TriVext employee, Dr. Walker was shown to carry an unmanifested metagene, but out of friendship Dr. Curie did not report him to Dr. Knell, causing Dr. Walker to be indebted to him. Arriving in Chicago, Dr. Walker met Agent Turner, who brought him to the independent TriVext branch charged with advanced study of metahumans. Turner explained that the MCCA would finance his research, and Dr. Walker would hunt and capture people with the metagene. He would then train them as agents of EPS (Enhanced Procurement Sanction), using them to capture other metahumans. Aided by his cybernetic assistant, I.G.O.R., Dr. Walker began his mission by searching for criminal and outcast metahumans.
In the Zoo, a maximum security prison for captured metas in Chicago, a young superspeedster named Tobias Christopher met Mick Harrison, a meta possessed by the otherdimensional being called M'xy. The two told each other how they became prisoners. Christopher explained that MCCA agents had killed his girlfriend Rebecca when they captured him days ago. Harrison, meanwhile, had escaped from an asylum after M'xy turned his guards into cows and had wandered around Chicago. He met a department store employee named Shirley Francis and accidentally caused her to be fired when he borrowed a top hat and coat without paying for them. Finally, M'xy met and temporarily defeated his evil counterpart K'tl, who possessed a man named Karl Starr. M'xy then arrived at a log cabin on Lake Michigan, where he believed an extraterrestrial invasion would begin. He had come to thwart the invasion but found that he had arrived earlier than his appointed time. After M'xy reverted into Harrison, he was captured by the MCCA and delivered to the Zoo.
K'tl also escaped from the asylum and wandered, causing innocent bystanders' heads to explode. After the battle with M'xy, Starr regained control of his body for a moment and ran at a policeman, who killed him, freeing Starr from possession. K'tl, in need of a new host, migrated into the body of Eduardo Frederico, an ex-Olympic athlete and main rival of Edulcore Cicciotto. Frederico, seeking revenge on Cicciotto, traveled to Mandelovia to find him. The dead Starr was, meanwhile, resurrected by the being called Naecken, giving him a chance to take revenge on K'tl. Naecken suggested that Starr find Cicciotto and help him defeat K'tl.
In Mandelovia, Cicciotto awoke after the explosion with the ability to alter his density from extreme hardness to lighter than air. He soared into the sky to find Lioness' car, instead finding her dead body and was ambushed by several agents of the Mandelovian Security and Intelligance Agency (MSIA) who were ready to arrest him for her murder. Cicciotto sank into the ground and ran away, undetected. The real killer had been K'tl, possessing Frederico.
The zombie Starr began to head for Europe, but along the highway just outside Chicago he started destroying oncoming vehicles. Naecken arrived and defeated the zombie and afterward disappeared. The unconscious Starr was taken by the Chicago Police Department but was soon kidnapped by the MSIA, there to investigate a possible relationship between Starr and Cicciotto. The MSIA brought Starr to Chicago's O'Hare Airport, where a private jet awaited them to return to Mandelovia. At the same time, Christopher and M'xy had escaped from the Zoo and were headed to O'Hare when M'xy sensed K'tl's presence.
In Mandelovia, Cicciotto emerged from the sand hours later, stumbling over a young man named Daniel Hearn who claimed to come from the future. In the year 2083, he had been captured by Dr. John Feldman, a scientist who experimented on him, giving him a second brain with its own particular personality called Hal. He also gave Hearn the non-metahuman ability to change parts of his body into those of animals using body-altering nanites in his bloodstream. When unknown figures arrived and destroyed his cage, Hearn took refuge in a time machine, which was hit by a stray bullet, exploding and sending him to September, 2001. Together, Hearn and Cicciotto went to the Mandelovian Airport. Cicciotto wanted to go to TriVext in the U.S. to find his clone, whom he began to think of as his son. Hearn had nowhere to go and accompanied Cicciotto using a stolen passport, while Cicciotto hid inside him in ghost form. During the flight to Chicago, Cicciotto spotted Frederico sitting a few rows behind them.
At O'Hare, the K'tl-possessed Frederico was about to assault Cicciotto and Hearn, when a huge nearby explosion distracted him. From the fire came the zombie Starr running at Frederico. A fight broke out, and Naecken arrived looking for Starr, while M'xy and Christopher arrived looking for K'tl. The airport was soon swarming with MCCA agents. At the end of the battle, Naecken ended Starr's zombie life, M'xy temporarily defeated K'tl, and the five metahumans fled together.
M'xy brought them to the log cabin on Lake Michigan, where the group shared their individual stories and made a pact to help each other to fulfil their goals. Christopher wanted revenge for his girlfriend's murder, Cicciotto wanted to find his son, M'xy wanted to defeat K'tl, Naecken wanted to destroy a "greater evil," and Hearn wanted to return to the year 2083.
Suddenly, the cabin was attacked by MCCA agents. Although the battle between the MCCA and the new team was fierce, the team managed to keep from killing any agents, instead taking their weapons. Malvan-X Security Chief Arnold Bobowsky, sent to the U.S. to retrieve Cicciotto, observed the battle. The team retreated to a secret place created by M'xy and Naecken. Cicciotto later returned to the battle scene in invisible form and was approached by an old man who seemed to see him, telling him about the hundreds of metahumans caged in the Zoo. This old man was Myrddin, an immortal Neanderthal.
Meanwhile, after experiencing several unexplained blackouts, Special Agent Turner heard a voice inside his head telling him to find clues to his past in secret files classified by the MCCA. Finding them, he discovered that his past and his memories were all a lie.