The lives of five people are forever altered when a blazing asteroid hurtles past the Earth, barely missing it, only to collide with the planet Venus. Meanwhile, Lisa Weathers is camping with her family when she accidentally falls through a hole in the ground. After finding a mysterious underground pyramid, a strange relic becomes attached to her neck, giving her bizarre powers. Meanwhile, in another part of the country, Matthew Ford finds another relic. It too wraps itself around his neck, endowing him with the ability to fire bursts of white-hot flame. Yet another relic falls into the hands of Stanley Orchard, giving him the power to heal wounds. And on the high seas, two brothers, bitter rivals, find themselves overtaken by the last two relics. One of them, Jason, discovers that his brother Max has sworn to use his new power to dominate the world. Now all five of them possess super-powers which set them apart from all of humanity, as their awesome abilities propel them toward a fateful rendezvous.

At the same time, an Alien from the planet Venus is dispatched to Earth to retrieve the five relics. In truth, these relics originally belonged to five criminals from Venus, exiled to Earth tens of thousands of years ago to die for their crimes against the people of Venus. The relics are evil, and endow their possessors with supernatural abilities. But due to the asteroid collision which threatens the existence of all Venutians, one Alien has been sent to find them, in the hope that their unnatural power might help them rebuild their civilization. He quickly encounters Lisa in the underground pyramid, and after a near-fatal fight, the two work together to find the remaining four. Meanwhile, Jason and Matt battle each other during a chaotic encounter in which the President of the United States is kidnapped. They soon realize that Max is the real enemy and decide to team-up with Stan, after he makes a herculean effort to rescue the President as well. These three seek out Max, who has unexpectedly formed an alliance with Lisa and the Alien.

Meanwhile, Max perfects a unique device which amplifies his powers ten-fold. He tricks the Alien into surgically inserting this device directly into his brain. After the operation, Max reveals his evil nature and kills the Alien before Lisa can stop him. Lisa flees in despair, even as Max flies out into the world to conquer it. Lisa finally encounters Jason, Matt, and Stan; and after nearly destroying them all in a firefight, realizes that they are all working toward the same goal. Stan in particular finds himself drawn to Lisa, as she reminds him of his deceased daughter. All four of them team-up to defeat Max.

Many miles away, Max has lifted a massive battleship from the ocean and dropped it onto a Kansas field; a monstrous display of power. He demands full control of the Military's nuclear arsenal, or he vows to obliterate the major cities of the world. Mayhem ensues when the four heroes at last meet Max in a battle of epic proportions. During the fight, in an effort to save Lisa's life, Stan sacrifices himself so that she might live. Max kills him mercilessly, even as Jason and Matt desperately struggle to outmaneuver the fantastically powerful madman. At the last moment, Lisa discovers a device which the Alien had prepared to defeat Max before he was killed. All but beaten, she uses the device to disrupt Max's brain, dropping him to the ground in a catatonic heap. Later the heroes regroup, and name themselves 'Phoenix Rising' in honor of Stan's memory. Max, still disabled (but not dead), is imprisoned. The heroes retreat to plan their next move. They decide to return the fateful relics to Venus, even as three more Venutian warriors arrive secretly on Earth to continue the Alien's mission to reclaim them.

Copyright 2009 Steven Martinez
All Rights Reserved