"They couldn't have gotten someone else to work tonight?" Alex muttered half to himself, half to whoever may have been unlucky enough to be in the hallway with him as he let himself into his apartment. He had spent the last several hours working on some small, tedious part of some larger unknown project that they wouldn't even begin to talk to him about. He shut the door as he shrugged off his lab coat, his ID card for Sunbright Labs still pinned to the lapel. "Ah, oh well. Kinda odd that James and Don were the only guards on duty, but it is New Years Eve, so I suppose its only natural." He slipped his shoes off, placing them to the right of the door as he hung his coat on a hook above them. "The works done and Dr. Friedman is giving me the next three days off at least, so I'll have plenty of time to finish my little project here at home." He couldn't help but smile to himself as he turned and looked around his apartment, noticing the clock on the wall first. [b]11:15.[/b] Still time left before the new year.

The living room was mainly bare. Only a couch, chair, table, clock and television broke up the solid white walls and beige carpet that covered most of the apartment. Past what little of a living room he had was the dining room, only known as that because of the plain dining table and chairs that filled it. And beside the would be dining room was his kitchen with it's pre-installed appliances and tiled floor. To the right was his bedroom, and much like the rest of his apartment it was furnished only to the bare minimum, a bed, dresser and nightstand. To the left, his workshop. It was the only room in his apartment that had more than the bare minimum, it was essentially a small laboratory equipped with the latest equipment and tools. It was also the place he would finally finish his pet project.

He couldn't help but smile wider as he made his way towards the door on the left, his mind running over the days events that had eventually led him to where he was now. "It's gonna be one hell of a night tonight!" He could hear it in his own voice, he was giddy with excitement at the prospect of finishing his outfit for his superhero persona Hazard. He had spent the last several nights getting everything ready to complete his work, but he knew that tonight would be the night the he finally finishes it. He looked back at the clock, 11:17, only a few minutes had passed since he'd arrived at home and with the progress of his work already nearly complete he would be finished before the ball dropped tonight.

"Enough standing around!" He told himself as he pushed open the door to his workshop only to be greeted by what he thought was probably one of the most beautiful sites. The glassware of the test tubes and flasks and the chrome casings of each piece of equipment gleamed from the lights overhead. The black tabletops all of his equipment sat upon was a stark contrast to the pure white walls and the stain resistant tiling he had placed himself. A clear glass wall separated the room in half and inside the room his soon to be finished masterpiece. 

On a mannequin inside the glass room was the outfit he had been making. A black form fitting suit with three-quarter sleeves, a pair of armored boots that cover up to his knees, and a pair of armor plates that cover the outside of his thighs. Each of the armored pieces had been made from a material similar to Kevlar in body armor. It would stop most small caliber rounds, everything else he would just have to get out of the way of. The only piece that was missing was the chest piece he would be finishing tonight. "I can't wait to finish it!" He said to himself as he turned on a small tv in the room, background noise to break the silence of the room, to the channel that had been set to cover the dropping of the ball tonight. He had hoped to be there in person, but was called in to work at the last minute. He finally found the channel and put all his other thoughts behind him as he set to work on his armor.

[b]11:59.[/b]

"It's finally finished." He looked over at the tv through the glass wall. A reporter was standing in front of a line up of superheroes there for the dropping of the ball. "And just in time." He continued to watch the tv as the crowd on screen began to countdown to the new year. [i]...5....4....3....2....1...[/i]

Instead of the fireworks and cheers he had been expecting, a new villain burst forth from the ball. "Happy New Years people of Millennium City! Who wants to be the first to DIE?!?" The villain screamed on the screen as he threw what looked like boomerangs into the dense crowd of people present. From what he could see from the panicked movements of the cameraman one of the heroes had been hit and Titan had energized his signature sword to confront the villain. A few moment later the screen went to the 'Please Stand By, We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties' screen, as the camera crew and reporter on scene tried to get a safe distance away from the fighting. It didn't matter much to Alex, they had showed enough of the fight that he had already began putting on his outfit. "It's certainly turning into one hell of a night." He murmured, ready to eat his own words if it would've changed the outcome of what he had just seen.