Averick

Mystic put his hand on Coolant's shoulder and looked at Rough Justice. "You secure the specimen, Sting and I will look after the others."

Sting had already left, speaking briefly with the gathering crowd. Mystic quickly returned to Coolant, "I would suggest keeping the you-know-what under wraps."

Mystic took to the air and followed Sting as best he could. Following behind his wake in the beauty salon, "terribly sorry for the intrusion, my apologies, so sorry, lovely hair madame."

Then the mage flew down the steps to the bottom. "Where's Sting?" The 'thud' made him look down. "Oh my."

At Newton's suggestion, Mystic began frying Clockworks, making them soft and pliable for Sting to more easily break apart or stab into.

"Keep it? Of course! I should think we'd like to study it. Of course, it wouldn't do to go walking about with it, may cause a bit of a panic." Mystic looked around the room. "In fact."

The mage held his hands out and closed his eyes. A warm breeze blew through the basement, drying everyone off who was wet. Then the bodies erupted into flame, that circled around them tightly, as if kept close by airflow. Not even much smoke escaped.

In a second, the bodies were gone, and a strange blue light flowed into Mystic from the corpses. "Well, I feel better now. Shall we be off to home with our specimen?"

He turned to Mystic. "So who the heck do we tell about this crazyness, and who is going to believe us? Afterall, we are the 'police' around here."

Mystic turned to poison Sting with a shocked look. "Well, I suppose that's an excellent point you've made just then. Right. Well, consider us informed. And now we should tell the rest of the team, so they don't end up like us." Mystic activated the communicator. "Attention all Two Six personnel, be on the lookout for lizards that spit stingy goop at your face and eyes. They may be in the sewer system."

The mage looked uncomforatbly toward the slab being used as an impromptu blocking mechanism. "Right. Terrible shame that we couldn't stop the Vahz from ripping up that section of basement flooring. Still, I think we can pretty safely say that the Vahz won't be bothering these fine folks for a while."

Mystic spoke in short sentences as he rapidly wiped off the splatter of goo and ran over to a nearby sink to wash it off of his arms. "Those things. I haven't the foggiest. We need to warn someone."

The lizard tried to dodge, but took the spine in the side as it cried out once more. That's when they started coming out of the sewer, quickly. Three, no, five, no seven, no ten of them. All spitting at anything in the room.

Mystic held his hand up and turned his head, stopping most of the goo, but the specks that hit his face stung. Additionally, not looking at your opponents makes it hard to attack them.

Regardless, Mystic was the team leader, and he had to keep a level head and provide leadership during a trying and dangerous event. "Ahhhhh! Make them stop!"

Given a few seconds to absorb the wisdom of the words he'd uttered, Mystic revised his order. "Put the lid back on that sewer!" He lanced out with a streak of fire, striking one and killing it, just as Sting's barb did, but the others began making a different noise now.

The creature cocked its head toward Sting and then its neck swelled up like a frog. It issued forth a squeaky coughing noise, which was echoed in the sewer behind it, or perhaps was being answered.

“I’m not certain it’s alone.” Mystic hovered naturally, unconsciously displaying his sudden nervousness through the power of flight. “But be prepared for-“

The creature then stuck a long, purple tongue out of its mouth, tested the air, and spit a glob of green goo at Sting’s eyes.

“Save one of those sick doctor dudes so we can get some answers!” Sting cried out.

Mystic encircled one of the Mortificators in flame, then burned a cadavar one either side of him to ash with one spell a piece. "You sir, are under arrest."

"Ouch, ah, ow ow ow, it's burining me!" The cleaver dropped and his hands went into the air as he tried to become small enough that the flames weren't licking at his sides anymore.

As Sting and Rough Justice took down the remaining zombies, mystic interrogated the mortificator. "There's nothing here to STEAL, why would you be here?"

The mort was quick and to the point with his answers. "The creatures attacked us in the darkness. Killing everything. They drove us out. The damage is... incidental." Mystic looked over at the zombies surrounding Sting and Rough and finally hurled his flame in to aid them. The fire engulfed the foes, but didn’t set anything else ablaze, or hurt his allies at all. With the addition of the flames, the two competent fighters were now dropping one with every shot, and soon they were alone in the room.

It was then that a noise came from the exposed sewer. Sort of a cough mixed with a yelp. It echoed down the pipe and then scurrying could be heard. The mort let go a little yelp as he made a play for the edge of the ring of fire. “They’re coming, let me go!”

“Who’s coming?”

“Them.”

“That’s not helpful.” Mystic admonished, never taking his eyes off of the opening.

“I don’t know. Death! The end of everything. Nothing stands against them.” The mort tried again, at this point almost lighting himself on fire with the effort, he screamed. Mystic let down the circle as he tagged the Mort with an arrest tab. Just before he was ported out, the Mort said “thank you”.

That disturbed Mystic some. Then a single, fat lizard leaped out of the hole. It was about the size of a German Shepard. It had strange phalanges, webbed feet and a big jaw. Its skin was grey and it sat there with its gold eyes, staring at the group.

"Oh goodness no." Mystic absently massaged his hip as he spoke. "But they were just on their way out to a beauty salon to check out some odd underground occurances."

Mystic's phone began to ring, and he momentarily excused himself to answer it. He wandered into the break room. "Yes, I can hear you. BLOODY HELL! No, no, it's nothing you've said, it's just that... well, someone has been at the tea accoutrements. Yes, I'm afraid there's quite a bit of damage. Oh, you meant at the autoparts store. Right, well we'll send someone right over."

Mystic floated back out to the group. "It appears we also have a bit of a mystery regarding a damaged autoparts store. I suppose that Sting, rough justice and I could look into it. That is, if you chaps are up for it."

"Right, Elisa could you be a dear and help Newton and Abrams? What we find at the salon might change our needs in terms of supplies. Then, if no one else wants to, I'll come with you myself." Mystic looked at the paperwork in his hand. "I haven't properly processed half of what I need to, and if I don't then the construction will promptly stop."

Mystic smiled through his face covering cloth, his most charming smile at the cat girl, who would likely not be at all impressed.

Mystic Inferno looked puzzled. "Well, I thought we'd try to leave someone here at all times, if that is possible. Perhaps Brian could get us a few brave police officers to act as clerks. In the meantime, while Kegen is a fabulous healer, I am still feeling the effects of my wounds. If you two could check this out, that would be fabulous. I'll brief the new addition and check out his paperwork."

Mystic realized he had inadvertantly grabbed his shoulder in the discussion, and let go. "If that's to your liking, gentlemen."

Mystic smiled behind the mask. "Rough Justice, is it? Well, splendid." He wrote the name on the far right side of the board. "This will be where the probationary members start."

Then he turned toward the room and asked, "Is there anyone else who is interested in checking out this lead?"

Mystic watched the exchange, his eyes moving back and forth between them. When it was over he looked at the newcomer again. "I'm sorry, I still haven't the foggiest what your name is."

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, sir." Mystic shook the man's hand. "You seem to know my name."

"May I take those, I need to verify the autheniticity. Can't have just anyone wondering off." Mystic thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, since there are so many new faces and so much to do, we should have a central assignment board."

Mystic grabbed one of the old rolling chalk boards, cleaned it up , and pushed it toward the Sgt's desk. He then wrote the assignment on the board and began making check boxes with names in them. Newton, Coolant, Brian, Sting...

“Well, I’m sorry you won’t be staying. I really have appreciated what you’ve done for us, and if you ever change your mind, please consider us an option.” Ion left with a wave and Mystic was alone in his office.

The mage held up the wedding ring given to him as a gift by Stephanie Peebles. He pulled the chain that held the warwolf whistle around his neck until the whistle was visible. He placed it back, wondering if its properties would work even in the land of the dead. Then he thought long and hard. He reached out with the same kind of spell he used to secure the book in another dimension and pulled a shotgun, with a grenade launcher attachment out of what appeared to be thin air. He loaded it with holy shells and jacked an EMP grenade into the launcher. “What DID lay ahead for them?”

Mystic took some time to look into bulletproof glass and got the new door put on. More information was pouring in regarding Lord Recluse, though none of it did him any good. This guy was reportedly about as powerful as Statesman himself. It wasn’t like he was going to fly right out to Bermuda and take him down. What was interesting to Mystic was how many of the problems of Paragon City could be directly tied to this Lord Recluse. The mage didn’t want to think about it, but it was starting to look like this Recluse guy was about to start all out open warfare on Paragon.

It even appeared that there were super powered villain academies that Recluse endorsed or ran. He also seemed to attract all kinds of evil mercenaries and bad people, some of whom had gathered a reputation for being both monstrous and formidable.

With a flick he puts the shotgun back into the other realms. A few minutes on the phone and he heads downstairs to the front desk, and anyone nearby.

“Alright, I have a report of some strange activity at a beauty salon in the southeast corner of Kings Row. Something about noises coming from underneath the shop. Who wants to check it out?” Mystic noticed the new face. “Oh, hello there. Is there something I can help you…” The mage noticed the papers in his hand and his heart sunk a bit. “Oh my. Are you new here?”

I'm on pacific time. I usually get on around 2000 hours and have been known to usher in the new day. I'm a virtue ite. I typically don't play wednesdays. I'm open to aiding newbies who are willing to start an alt in my SG by porting them around, exemping and healing during missions, etc.

Um... I like long, moonlit walks on the beach. I'm a little heavy but I'm trying to lose the weight. I have my own house, well technically my mom still owns it but I pay for it and I...

Oh, sorry, I kinda got carried away there. Sometimes I forget what I'm writing these things for.

So, if you're into kinky se-WHAHOW! BACK UP! I mean, if you'd like to do some gaming on a weeknight, except wednesday where I'm watching Over There intently to see if my friend is going to get a guest shot on it (I hear he was being considered for consultant and might play a bit part* BTW it's going to be the best show ever you should force all your friends to watch it /shameless plug)... where was I? Oh yeah, any night but wednesday.

Call me!

The workers showed up for their next day of work, to find the building entirely gone. Well, not entirely gone, but only a vague shadow of it remained. The Two Six is in the shadow of a taller building in the morning anyway, but the crew noticed this morning it wasn’t just IN a shadow, it WAS a shadow.

Later in the day, odd lights could be seen from inside the shadow of a building. The foreman said, “If it isn’t a real building by nine thoitey, wez takin’ da rest of da day off. WIT pay!”

And as the morning wound on, and the shadows became shorter, the light reached down and touched the upper corner of the building, causing it to glow with the light of the sun. This light spread slowly down the building, as the sun washed away the darkness of shadow, until the building was entirely restored. Well, not entirely. There was still a missing door, broken windows and now fresh zombies. Um, zombies, I suppose freshness isn’t an option when dealing with the undead.

A groan of unhappiness washed over the workers as they put their coffee and donuts down and picked up hammers and lumber and began shambling toward the building with about as much enthusiasm as the participants in the last assault on the Two Six.

Mystic and the others finished flaming down or otherwise destroying the last of the hangers on, until Mystic found himself confronted by the foreman.

“Wez don’t do windows or zombies. And we’z especially don’t do zombies IN windows!.” He made his position clear.

“We’ll take care of the zombies, please notify those who do take care of window replacement that we’ll be requiring their services.” Mystic brushed the dust off of his sleeves as he addressed the cigar toting foreman.

Abrams shrugged an apology as he explained he was only on loan. “That’s fine, feel free to help out as much as you like.”

Elisa made a suggestion regarding the stone, Mystic surmised. “Thank you, but frankly I wouldn’t trust her to hold onto the wheel of destruction. I’ll hold onto it here.”

He paused in front of Kegen as he went floating by. “There’s a terrible amount of mess here, Miss. I’m afraid I will not be able to offer you anything except our hospitality for what you’ve done already. Feel free to contact us directly should you ever need assistance, and think of the Two Six as your safe haven whenever you require. Well, as safe as it can be. And we shall be working to make it far, far safer in the future.”

Mystic’s voice rose as his altitude did, until he was booming out over the crowd. “We have to send word in person of what happened and that we’re still here. It would also be splendid if someone would find Mr. Rome and return him to his cell, if that hasn’t been done already. Brian and Newton would be excellent candidates for travel. Sting, when Coolant recovers, or if Abrams is game, I think we could use a patrol of the immediate area to make sure that everyone knows we’re still here. See if you can’t tear Eliza away from shopping long enough to join you, as well as making sure she gets everything she requires. Brian, when you get back from reporting in to the local PD, I need to speak with you. And yes, Ion, I will speak with you directly upstairs in my office. So someone wake up Newton, please.”

Mystic counted heads to see if he’d forgotten anyone, then turned with Ion to head to his office. Once inside, the first order of business was to put the book away before any other curious individuals manhandle it and change their lives forever. Then he sat down to hear Ion’s concerns regarding staying with the Two Six.

Mystic noticed that there was indeed a party waiting for them. There were zombies out in all direction, over the blasted land, the roads paved with skulls and dotted with dark spires that rose into the wavery blue sky. He could see necromantic mages standing amid the hoards, spread out so that their influence covered as many of the zombies as possible. He could see skeletal creatures, glowing with necromantic energy as they stirred cauldrons that were churning out spirits from the bones of the dead. In the distance, he could see what appeared to be an undead army martching toward the Two Six. Complete with siege equipment and banners, the tiny building wouldn't last long against such force.

The mage had to move, the spirits were closing in again. Fire shot past him from the ground as he got too close to one of the liches. He swerved about, and tried to find a place to stay out of the line while the spirits chased him down. He hovered next to a spire near the Two six, occassionally setting zombies on fire from the air.

That's when he saw it. The bind was on a nearby spire. He flew straight at it, gathering some twenty five spirits as he went. They tore at him, slashing through his cape and clothing, stinging his flesh and chilling his blood. He touched the catalyst to the bind and watched the magic begin to release itself. "Newton, now is good for me!"

Mystic drew forth all his power and began laying into the closest spirits, fire pouring out of him like water from a wellspring.

Hey, I have an idea!

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Send her a PM.

Nothing says “everybody follow me” like setting a crowd on fire. Of course this is right up there with dowsing yourself in kerosene and running through a bonfire on the list of bad ideas, but the situation was turning bad.

Mystic, though in much better shape than he used to be, was no spring chicken. The zombies were still coming, and they were coming into the Two Six through broken windows now. He could see the other members beginning to get swarmed, so as Elisa came toward him, he powered up his augmentation spells and let fly with a ball of fire and followed up with breath of flame from overhead, to really get their attention. The flame didn’t harm the other members, as his magic could be tuned pretty much how he wanted, but the magical properties of the flame quickly passed, leaving a number of flaming zombies, following Mystic as he flew out of the Two Six, and straight up into the light blue sky.

He retrieved the glowing green ball, and searched the area with his eyes, making sure to stay low enough that the zombies he’d set on fire would still think they had a chance at getting to him. This would only give the others a brief respite, as new zombies would replace the old, and he couldn’t get all of them, or forever. Though many did fall down and stop moving in the process of trying to follow Mystic.

Mystic would run. He would fly away, and abandon his companions. He now had four spirits on his tail. This had all the makings of a suicide mission, except that Mystic didn’t believe in suicide.

((What if we want to have him put on a dress and do the Hula? Right. I will also be out of contact mon-wed. Well, maybe and mostly. Going to Vegas, and there's the slightest chance I'll have internet access. But until monday afternoon, I'm here. I'm also parking my character in the other thread I write in to pay more attention to this thread.))

As if he were picking fire from the air and somehow amplifying it, Mystic rained flame down on the zombies, trying to keep the pace with other heroes. He had to hover to stay clear, plus the zombies were earthbound, incapable of reaching him if he hovered.

The spirits, however, weren't.

One was easy. He'd power up, and blaze it down with a powerful spell. The second required a fire whip and then a left handed blast. The other three incoming were going to be a problem, as he can only cast so many spells so fast.

((Assuming Dan makes good on his promise and isn't going to return, I'm going to take over Ion for a bit.))

At Mystic's signal, Ion released the shield. The zombies and spirits poured into the opening only to be met by the efforts of the heroes inside. Flame roared through the open space above their heads and set them ablaze in the back ranks, ten or twenty at a time.

Mystic could see spirits coming down through the ceiling and in through the walls. He could hear the sound of glass breaking in other parts of the building.

"A word on tactics. I'll strike as far back through the group as I can. Flaming zombies will be doubtless more hazardous than the non-flaming variety. We should confine all explosions to their rear ranks, allow Sting and Coolant to do their best to contain the flanks, leaving us the middle to concentrate on. Mind the spirits, they'll flow directly through things and try to disrupt our back ranks." Mystic drew a circle of flame around himself. "Mind not the flame, fellows, it will neither burn your flesh nor melt your armor. That is the advantage of magic."

Mystic pushed the fear, indecision and doubt out of his mind and pulled every rune he knew to the forefront of his thoughts. He was as ready as he was going to be.

((Well here it is. We’ve suffered a slight setback, on the order of 30 out of 50 some pages being deleted due to a number of posts that contained strings of letters without spaces that the mods took issue with. I’ve been asked to summarize where we are and why we’re here. This is from memory, and I’m not certain I’ll remember the spelling of the names of the new members. So… here it goes.))

After things got hammered out between Sting and Ion, the crew began setting their sights on Mr. Rome. They got a tip that he would be at an apartment building with limited security and pounced. Newton, Poison Sting, Ion and Mystic engaged some bodyguard types and one superpowered tanker named Nerdy in a messy brawl that left Newton shot in the leg, Mystic ruffled and Sting and Ion unscathed. Newton and Rome were alone in the Two Six, well, not entirely alone. Intro a cat woman with a big gun, who knows how to use it.

Brian shows late to the arrest attempt, helping Sting get out before murdering the entire floor’s worth of people. Coolant is still trapped in his chamber at this time.

After Mystic quietly interrogates Mr Rome, Newton and Sting take turns trying to scare him into telling them more. Then the outcasts attack Brian at a Tram and Mystic flies off to investigate. That’s when Kegen, a high tech futurized healer steps in and helps Brian. Mystic offers to keep Kegen safe from those who would likely hurt her for helping out the Two Six members, but really only gets her deep in trouble.

Coolant gets released from his chamber by BIT technicians who promptly scuttle off. Coolant looks different.

The Tsoo attack, leaving a small bauble in the basement that starts a spell that pushes the entire building into the land of the dead, but not before Abrams shows up, dropping his ruck and announcing that he’s been assigned here.

The entire Two Six goes dark, Ion tries to irradiate Rome into telling him more, but won’t ask any specific questions, so he gets no answers and later apologizes for trying to kill a prisoner. Rome finally gets fed up and starts insulting Sting when he presses him again.

Mystic pulls out the book that he draws his powers from and does research but leaves the book on the desk, where Brian later comes in and touches it. Now Brian’s ancestral blood is being awakened in him and he’s going through a transformation of his powerset.

The members search the Two Six for the physical component that designates the vessel traveling to the land of the dead, Brian finds it, and now they must go outside, where zombies and spirits a plenty are already gathering to feed off of the living, and find a marker that designates WHERE the Two Six was supposed to go.

We left off as the whole group was standing in the lobby, staring at the force screen, waiting for Ion to turn it off so they could lay waste to the zombies.

((PM me with corrections please))

Alright, I'll try to do an outline tonight and post it tomorrow.

As far as blaming someone, that's pointless. Let's just move forward, shall we?

((well, thanks to cuppajo, we now know what happened. It turns out that writing all your words together without spaces, as Dan43 did to create the illusion of his character speaking quickly without pauses, breaks the tables and mods don't like that. So they deleted the post, which took out 30 pages of the story.

Please PM me with your choice of what you'd like to do with the thread from this point forward.))