Billyboy

Vim screamed in frustration and followed after Iron Fist, preferring the battle to staying with Bounty Killa. She wasn't going because she wanted to help him, she just wanted to kill some heroes and work off some anger. Right?

She climbed up the tower after him, creating grooves with the sheer force of her fingers. She wasn't going as fast, and she almost fell when a hero Fist had blasted fell into her, but she made progress. She saw it was better to stay behind soon as Iron Fist seemed to explode for a moment, sending heroes flying or simply obliterating them. And then the overlord spoke, and Vim was shocked to hear who he adressed. She'd seen them on Lord Dire's footage, too. Physic and Hidden were not easy foes, but she bet she could could them.

"I take care of some heroes, you give me power!" Vim shrieked as she jumped at the nearest hero, a scrapper with long thorns coming out of his joints, and slammed her fist into his face. He stumbled backwards, and she didn't relent, just proceeded to snap several of the spines in half and kick him hard in the chest. She was delighted to hear ribs snap under the blow. Her vision began turning hazy, everything became a field of red. She didn't know what was happening to her, but she had never been so feral before. Or so freaking happy to be so feral.

Vim laughed and pounced onto a tanker who was alight with bright flame, then proceeded to yank his head all the way around with a wicked smile. She leapt off him immediatly and jumped onto a controller who had somehow gotten too far in, smashing her head into the ground with ease.

"Paragon will bow to Vim!" the enraged mercenary screamed, empowered with the blessings and madness of the God of War. Flames errupted around her, the earth shot up to block her path, ice encased her, but it was all just so much annoyance to fuel her bloodlust. She broke through the flames, smashed the rock, and flailed around with such strength the ice around her went flying off in wickedly sharp shards, sending several heroes to the hospital simply due to the icey debris.

"I don't care if you can get your head shot off, you brain dead retard!" Vim spat. "Is this supposed to be some kind of weird pickup line?! Whatever!" She turned to Iron Fist. "Listen, I don't care about freaking power, I don't care about Billyboy anymore! It was one job gone wrong, my only one gone wrong, and it taught me a lesson, so forget about trying to pick me up wihtout anything to offer! Damn it, I just want some money and a few creature comforts!"

The arguement sounded sound to her, maybe she even believed it, but Iron Fist could hear the truth behind it. She thought about it constantly, she always brooded about it, she hadn't ever attempted to escape once because she didn't even see a point anymore. She was lost, and that made her easy to manipulate.

Vim looked at the extended hand suspiciously. It was an odd feeling, but she just thought better than to let the man take a hold of her. Maybe it was because he was a god, but she wasn’t about to touch him. “Look, buddy, I’m a mercenary.” Vim growled. “I don’t stay with any one person for long, so if you think for a second that I’m gonna be some kind of floozy lapdog for you and your friends, you can forget about it. I’m willing to do a few jobs for you, but it’s your money that I want, not the satisfaction of serving your cause. I make that clear to anyone before I work for them. Nemesis agreed, Vandal agreed, Bobcat agreed, and Dr. Vahzilok didn’t agree so I killed half his bodyguards and gave him a bruise to think about who he makes deals with. I don’t shake hands, I take your cash, and I’m certainly not agreeing to anything until we get out of this pig sty!”

She smiled smugly as she stared straight into his face, her arms crossed across her chest to show she wasn’t planning to shake hands anytime soon. She wasn’t afraid of the man, just cautious, and she didn’t want to end up a pawn.

Vim smiled darkly and folded her arms across her chest, this was just what she’d hoped for. The guy had to be loaded if he could afford all the technology and soldiers he had. She could have laughed out loud, things were going better than she could have expected. She couldn’t let him know that, though. She put on a stern expression and examined on of her fingernails, which weren’t in good shape of painted, which made her scowl. “Sounds like we can both help each other, but there is the small matter of my payment. I don’t work for amateurs, you know. If you’re in the Zig, I’m not sure if I should even be thinking about signing on with you. After all, what kind of super villain gets himself stuck in this dump? But I’ll just have to see, maybe you’re smarter than you look. Even Nemesis got himself pulled down, after all. Well, he isn’t gone or anything, but he got his [censored] handed to him at Brass Monday.” Vim clicked her mouth shut, she was argueing with herself, had the Zig unhinged her? “Whatever, let’s get out of here, then we can talk. Freedom is more important than money, long as it’s mine.”

“Hey, cutey, you stick with me and I can get you outa this place.” A prisoner smiled viley to a young woman. Her hair was black and ponytailed, but her bangs hung over her face, only slightly hiding her beautiful features. She wasn’t close to tall, but not exactly short, and had heavy shadows under her narrowed eyes.

Vim grabbed the man around the throat and chucked him into the nearest wall, cracking his skull open and causing several of the bricks to fall out of place. “Cutey that, jackass.” She said darkly. Cracking her neck, she held her arms above her head and stretched, it had been to long since she’d been able to do that. They had a chemical in this place that kept her mutant powers suppressed, but a quick dose of supadyne had been enough to get rid of that. Her mind raced with the possibilities, she smiled grimly and began walking forward again.

Vim was a mercenary, but not an average dog of war. No, she was a super powered assassin for hire. Well, she’d be classified as more of a brute, but she still picked her targets and disposed of them quickly nonetheless. But it had been two years since she had met her match. Brass Monday. She’d been hired by Nemesis, sent to kill Billyboy, a gearsmashing hero who’d been a thorn in the Prussian Prince’s side for far too long. He’d beaten her. Him and his stupid little friends. It was humiliating, she’d never failed a job before, but he’d pounded her through the sewer floor and down into a deep cavern. Without any traveling powers, Vim had thought she was doomed, but that’s when she met Lord Dire. He’d given her energy gauntlets set to destroy Billyboy’s energy frequency, and she’d deserted and done after the hero almost immediately. She’d almost won, too, but before she had known it a troop of government agents had been on her. She hadn’t realized he worked for a secret organization known as S.T.U.D.S., and that he was about to teleport to his home town, Arcadia, when she had struck. The gauntlets had been destroyed, and she’d been in the Zig for numerous murders and attempted murder ever since.

Well, it looked like she’d finally gotten the break she needed, she’d be able to get out and resume her career again. She’d given up on hoping to ever take out Billyboy without the gauntlets, he was simply too powerful, and after a little digging she’d found that he was part of an elite team of heroes specially self-trained to take down super villains. They had nearly single handedly kept Arcadia safe from villains such as Dr. Phillis and Mitoc the Thief for years, she didn’t have a chance against them.

She shook her head, she couldn’t think about past failures, she had to keep to the present. It still boiled her blood, though. It was hard to push the past away. She had kept a hollow feeling in her ever since her defeat at the hands of the Brass Monday heroes, and she didn’t know if it would ever go away.

So she just hit people harder.

Vim blew away a guard with a kick that could shatter steel, crushing his insides and sending him flailing into a nearby medicine cabinet. She got moving again, she wasn’t sure where to go, but anywhere was better than in this dirty prison. She started running, she really wanted to be out, and soon came to a large hole in the prison, obviously blasted by some sort of explosive, surrounded by Arachnos troops. She jumped down without looking at them, eager to be free of the stench of the place.

Unfortuanatley, she landed in the sewer, the most stench filled place of all, so she gave an irritated grunt as walked forward, she couldn’t get back up anyway. Several prisoners tried to stop her, she expected she knew why, so she simply smashed their skulls in. She reached a large pipe after several minutes, and crawled up with the others to the courtyard, where she saw a sight that made her breath catch.

Iron Fist. She knew who he was, she’d watched him after Lord Dire had rescued her. He’d been fighting on the same side as the heroes then, but Dire had explained the story of the man’s origins and motives. He still scared her, but she seriously doubted he ever knew she had ever worked for Lord Dire, and figured her tale of deserting him would be enough to avoid being killed in all this chaos. If he didn’t know, maybe she’d found a potential employer.

Vim walked to him, he seemed to be conversing angrily with a man in wearing a skull mask. He looked to her and frowned as she approached, but she smiled in the most friendly manner she could to show her intentions. Of course, she realized that was a mistake as Iron Fist braced himself, a smiling villain was usually insane and angry. She put her hands up and shook her head.

“The name’s Vim, and you’re Iron Fist, right?” she said in a business-like tone. “I need to get out of here, and I take it you do too, so what do you say we help each other out and get out of here?”

“YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!” Billyboy yelled, playing the air guitar. “We kicked that Prussian poser’s sorry [censored]! USA! USA!” He gave Mutai Kid a high five, then looked at his watch, which didn’t tell him much, seeing as how it was smash and half melted. He looked down at the rest of himself, seeing his costume was entirely in tatters. “I should get to Icon and have this fixed…. But that’ll have to wait, I guess, since everyone ran away when the Nemesis Army attacked. Ah well, I guess I should get going, I’m freaking tired. Nice work, everybody, I’d stay longer to party with you, but my parents are gonna be worried sick, so I gotta change to street clothes and run off!”

Billyboy waved a goodbye and shot off into the air toward the alley he had left his backpack, eager to get back to his home town, Arcadia. The dumpster he had hid it under was turned over and burnt, but his backpack was mercifully unharmed inside the concealing cardboard box. He changed with a happy sigh, ponytailing his hair back in the process, and walked to the green line, which he suddenly remembered was entirely shut down for the moment being, so it wouldn’t be of much use. He groaned and kicked a nearby lightpost, which hurt his toe.

-----------------------------

“I WANT HIM NOW!” Vim screamed as she saw the hero talking to himself stupidly, wondering aloud how he could get back home.

"You're mine, Nemmy!" Billyboy yelled as he rushed forward, his hands swirling and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Nemesis swung his staff forward, sending a bolt of force at Billyboy and hitting him dead on. The hero staggered, but refused to relent as he ran on. He was nearly there when the staff swiped his feet out from under him, then proceeded to smack him into the ground.

"You've drawn my wrath for too long, foolish boy." Nemesis proclaimed as he stomped forward to finish the hero off. "Your death shall usher in a new age, an age under the rule of Nemesis!"

Billyboy leapt to his feet and laughed. "Death? What the hell, man! I'm just the distraction!"

Nemesis turned just in time to see Mutai Kid come in for a kick at his head, and receive it directly in the face. A loud clunk resounded through the caverns and Nemesis roared with anger. He grabbed the hero's leg before he had time to land and threw him toward a wall, which Mutai Kid used to kick off again as he made another kick at the Prussian. Hellcat shot a burst of radiation at Mutai Kid, surrounding his body with a soft glow just as he came up to Nemesis, who had his staff ready to uppercut him before he got close.

An energy covered fist slammed into the villain's back, causing him to stumble forward and directly into Mutai Kid's foot. The hero gave Billyboy a thumbs up as he kicked Nemesis with super human speed, the extreme boost from Hellcat allowing his feet to work faster than the eye could see. Billyboy rushed in and smacked Nemesis in the chest over and over again as just above him Mutai Kid continued his assault, the force from his kicks allowing him to stay airborne as he drove the villain back. Valiant took his chance and ran in also, driving his fist into Nemesis's upper back and creating a large dent.

The Prussian Prince had had enough. He'd lived for this day for over two hundred years, and these heroes would not stop him now! With a mighty bellow, Nemesis threw his arms to his side and activated his force field, which proceeded to expand around his body, sending the trio of attackers soaring every which way. "ENOUGH!" the villain screamed. "New Prussia is mine, I am the king of America, and you will allow obey my will or die!"

"How bout we don't do either, you cracked old megalomaniac!" Billyboy shouted as he sent a bolt of energy from his eyes and straight toward the Prussian, cutting through the force field. Nemesis reacted quickly and slapped it away with his staff angrily. "There's plenty more where that comes from, ya old coot!" the hero laughed. "Don't think deflecting one shot is gonna do much good! I'm the bane of your robot army, and I'm the death of you!"

Billyboy shot forward and slammed his fist into the force field, causing it to shatter for a moment. A moment was all he need to get through. Energy shot from his eyes and was once again deflected, but he been expecting and anticipating the move and quickly shot under the swinging staff to barrel straight into Nemesis's gut, his fists leading. There was a bright flash that illuminated the entire inside of the force field, even expanding it abit, as it seemed to have force behind it. The light dissapated quickly and once the rest of the heroes couldn't help but be impressed at the goings on inside the containment field.

Nemesis swung for Billyboy, who ducked and lashed out with his fist only to be forced back by the butt end of the Prussian's staff. The villain chopped at the hero, a downward swipe that could crush a car, but Billyboy was too fast and jumped back just in time. At the exact same moment, Billyboy's eye fired and the staff shot a force bolt, each hitting the intended target. Billyboy stumbled backward, as did Nemesis, and then they rushed forward again, Nemesis attempting to take the boy's feet from under him with a wide arc. Billyboy jumped it and smacked his fist into the Prussian's face, sending as much energy as he could in the moment he had his fist connected and screaming from the effort. He spent too long up there, however, and Nemesis slapped him away with a powerful backhand, causing him to spiral onto the ground.

Billyboy licked his lips as he stood and looked at his opponent with a newfound respect. He didn't expect an evil genius to be this good of a fighter, but that wouldn't stop him from taking him in.

"Nemmy, you owe me a new costume once this is done!" Billyboy yelled as rushed.

Billyboy - Jerk It Out by Caesars Palace

Billyboy's a teenage punk who fights crime, nothing new there. The song fits his powers and attitude, however. He's excitable and willing to try anything, plus arrogant enough to think he's can take on everybody. His powers stem from the fact that he is a walking free energy source due to his father's experiments with the subject before he was born. The energy burns through him, but he can, as the song puts it, jerk it out and transfer it into other, taking 'em down quick. Razzle dazzle!

Jaredman - Hero by Nickelback

Jaredman has angelic powers, white wings, light shields, and light blasts. He's a hero because he knows nothing is going to get better unless he takes things into his hands. He refuses to wait for anyone else to save him, he's independent and sure of himself. He's not gonna stand there and wait for someone to save him, he's going to take action first.

The Spiked Champion - We Are The Champions by Queen

The Champion is a tough guy with the uncanny ability to throw heavy objects and sprout spikes from his joints, not to mention his nearly impenetrable skin. He's the Champion, he knows it, and he'll take down ANYBODY who'll make a claim against it.

Wow, I really had a lot of fun reading that! Nice story, gotta love them psychos!

"Time to break stuff!" Billyboy yelled gleefully as he rushed forward into the absolute chaos. His energy shield, super charged by his ego boost at beating Vim, was knocking bullets away before they had the chance to get close. He was fighting dangerously, stupidly, in all truth. He would wear out fast using that much of his strength, and when his energy shield dropped it would be game over in this battle. Permanent game over.

Billyboy lead his attack with a vicious uppercut, sending a Nemesis soldier into the air as he flew into the air for maximum damage. The soldier hit the ground in a heap, all will to continue this battle gone.

The funny thing about Billyboy's fighting style was that he was usually the one doing the most damage to himself. Perhaps it was a zealous need to do justice, or perhaps it was just to show off, but he used as much energy as flashily as possible in a fighting form he often referred to as "Raz Mataz". While these things usually succeeded to both impress and get the job done in short fights, it was absolutely suicidal in a battle of epic proportions, much similar to the one he was now participating in.

A jaegar, whose circuits and shell couldn't take the extreme amount of energy being forced into it, exploded with force, sending sharpnel flying every which way. Billyboy smiled and hardly cared as it bounced off of him. This was his fight, he was gonna make today a day Nemesis would remember.

Billyboy shot into the air and looked for the nearest large threat, which he found in a warhulk as it released a burst from its storm cannon and sent him spiralling through the air. He grunted and took the blow, sending a laser burst the robot's way out of his ever-potent eyes. The warhulk staggered back as the glass on its tank cracked from the blunt force, not reacting in time to stop Billyboy from sending his fist straight through the center of the automaton.

The hero remembered that he wasn't wearing his usual specially made sunglasses a moment before a jet of boiling water from the tank splashed into his face.

Billyboy bellowed in pain as he stumbled back, narrowly and unknowingly avoiding being crushed by the falling warhulk. It all seemed to happen at once as shells burst into him and several jaegars began pounding him back and forth with their maces. The hero vainly tried to gain footing, but it was useless, he just seemed to keep setting himself up for more attacks.

"I'M NOT GONNA DIE, YOU STUPID TIN CANS!" Billyboy screamed as he slammed his fists to each side, connecting with two jaegars at the same moment. His eyes released a solid stream of devastation, sending robots and men flying into the air and into each other. With a yell suitable for a dying man, Billyboy released nearly everything in his, creating what looked like a white hot nova around him. Automatons and soldiers went flailing every which way around him, entirely unable to brace themselves for the sudden force.

Billyboy's eyes were glowing dimly as he stumbled to the right and barely caught himself from toppling over. He let out his trademark phrase, "Razzle dazzle" (very unenthusiastically at this point) and shot into the air and back to Psi, who was busying himself crushing robots with walls of stone. He landed weakling and gave the man a pleading look before slumping to the ground, his body entirely worn out.

Vim growled angrily as she sat up and immediatly tapped her front tooth, which she found was no longer chipped. She was delighted at the fact, but it hardly compared to the intense hatred she was feeling toward Billyboy at the moment.

"Lord Dire? Who the hell is Lord Dire?" Vim asked moodily. "I don't work for amateurs, bad for my reputation! Nemesis, the Center, the Clockwork King, they have names for themselves, but I've never even heard of this guy. I don't wanna go killing someone for a guy who's gonna get taken down before he can pay me!"

Billyboy's glowing eyes suddenly flashed before her eyes, his whirling fists, his annoyingly long hair. Suddenly, pay didn't seem to matter much. She just wanted to take down everything that [censored] believed in, to destroy him so utterly that nothing could save him.

"Whatever, I'll do anything you need me to. As long as I get to hurt people." the girl said grimly. "Lots of people."

Billyboy stopped in his tracks very suddenly and turned with a smile on his face. "Hey, Mutai Kid, Psi!" he said, as he had already sensed their distinctive energy signals as they approached. It was nearly impossible to sneak up on him since he had unlocked his ability to detect energy currents in the air, and each signal was like a face, he didn't forget.

"What's Nemesis up to now?" Mutai asked curiously.

"Big, explosive generators, giant robots or something pounding up above, and we're trying to stop them from the control room that's hidden somewhere in here, though we aren't sure where! Overall, it's been a really crazy birthday, I can tell you that much!"

"Sounds like a blast, we'll come along." Mutai Kid smiled.

Billyboy suddenly jerked up, alert. "You go ahead with them, I'm gonna go back a little bit, I think I may have dropped something." Mutai Kid was about to reply, but Billyboy just put up a hand and waved him off as he rushed back the way they had come.

Leaving the others behind him, Billyboy came back to the room with the gigantic steam generator. Down in the shadows was a thin figure.

"Hey, Vim, long time no see! You always look like that, or did burnt hair, broken noses, and smeared makeup suddenly become the newest fashion item?" he asked with a laugh.

The assassin leapt from her position and kicked out at Billyboy with a scream, but the hero quickly stepped aside and blasted her midriff with a laser burst from his eyes, sending her flailing backwards into a wall.

"I like the chipped tooth there, very 'southern comfort'!" the hero taunted as his opponent stood again. "By the way, you only had me beat last time because you got the drop on me, pretty literally. You've got no chance now, chica!" He punched the air and his fists lit up with energy.

Vim shrieked ferally and rushed forward, this time managing to hit Billyboy solidly in the chest with a heavy punch. The hero scooted backwards a few feet with a grunt, but aside from that he seemed relativly unharmed. "That all you got?" he asked angrily. "Let's see how you like a little raz mataz!"

Billyboy concentrated hard as energy rushed into his fists, compacting so thoroughly that it took on a red hue. With a yell, the hero pounded the ground with it, releasing the torrent and sending a wave of earth and energy straight into a stunned Vim, who had absolutely no chance to dodge. She took hit terribly, spinning into the air with a scream, but Billyboy wasn't finished yet. He rushed forward with a glowing fist and slammed her while she was still in the air with all of his might, straight in the gut. Following through all the way, Billyboy drove Vim into the ground, sending rubble and stone flying every which way.

"Looks like I win." Billyboy said with a laugh as Vim groaned in the small crater, his confidence growing every second. "No chance, not at all. Your pretty face and nice butt may let you wiggle outa some tight situations, but I didn't go easy on you this time! Ya see, super villains are my specialty, and you're more of a class A loser than a super villain."

Vim leapt up suddenly with a shriek, enragaed at the boy's taunting, and socked him in the jaw with a right hook. The unprepared hero didn't have time to brace himself and went flying into the steam generator, crashing into with a slam.

"Oh, that's it, Vim! Now I'm pissed off!" Billyboy roared. "You could've killed us both with this damn generator, you could have blown up all of Steel Canyon!"

Vim looked puzzled for a moment, then comprehension dawned on her with a wicked smile. "Maybe that's just what I want!" she laughed. "At least I'll get you! I'll destroy you once and for all, and nobody will be able to say that Vim didn't get her bounty!"

"What the hell?" Billyboy yelled. "You can't collect if you're dead too!"

"THAT ISN'T THE POINT!" Vim screamed. "I'VE NEVER FAILED! I WON'T FAIL! I REFUSE TO FAIL! I'LL DESTROY ALL OF THIS STUPID CITY IF IT MEANS I CAN FINALLY KILL YOU!"

Billyboy's eyes widened for a moment, then he laughed. "You're pathetic, freaking do it, man! I'd like to see if you had the guts!"

"FINE!" Vim shrieked as she leapted off the ledge they had been fighting from and attempted to dropkick the generator. Billyboy yelled out in panic and shot forward, spearing her with his body before she could reach it and sending them both tumbling away.

"You're one seriously messed up chick!" Billyboy yelled as he punched the girl in the face repeatedly as she thrashed under him. "GET A LIFE!" Energy shot from his glowing eyes, slamming her into the ground fartherand breaking them into an even lower section of the sewer, one that didn't look like the sewer at all. Most likely because it wasn't but one of the many underground caves, and a big one. Billyboy saw exactly what Lord Dire had meant as he tumbled downward, exchanging snarls and punches with Vim. If that generator exploded, the city was going down!

They were both falling toward a black lake below, but Billyboy had other ideas. With a yell he kicked uppercut Vim and took the opportunity to kick off of her chest, sending himself rocketing back up through the hole they had created and to safety. As he watched Vim finish her plummet into the icey depthes he heard an angry scream, "You haven't seen the last of me!"

Billyboy stumbled away from the hole with a sigh and flew back to follow the others. "That's what they all say." he muttered sadly.

"Fifth Column!?" Billyboy said aloud as they zoomed through the sewers. "Haven't seen them since my early days in this city! Back when the Council was just taking control! Maybe they've been with Nemesis this whole time, planning for this one last Brass Monday!"

Hellcat pondered this for a moment, it was possible, the Fifth Column had seemed to dissapear a bit too cleanly from the map. No gang war was that perfect.

Billyboy, seeing he had gained a bit of his fellow hero's interest, continued his explanation of the day's events. "And maybe they've been combining robot tech to make one giant Mekmesis robot, just to unleash on Steel Canyon, to show how utterly ruthless the Nemesis Army really is! Yeah, I've seen alternate dimensions where he's done weird stuff like that, blowing up cities and [censored] to scare everyone! Maybe he thinks if he takes down Paragon everyone will be too afraid to stand up to him!" He nodded to himself and punched his fist into his open palm with a smile. "Looks like I'll have to do a bit of gear smashin'!"

"As well thought out as that is, I don't think we can jump to conclusions." Hellcat said quickly, not wanting the boy to get off his guard.

"Oh man, you totally killed my buzz." Billyboy muttered sadly. "Ah well, we'll see it a minute, eh? I'm just hoping it's something big and breakable, like all the good stuff these evil genius's make!"

"We can only hope." Hellcat smiled as they both landed silently and pressed themselves flat against the wall, slowly inching toward the sound of whirring and groaning machinery at the end of the hallway.

Vim blacked out for the moment it took Valiant to rush away. She moaned as she regained consciousness, her face felt like it had gone through a blender. Her body began heaving with silent, angry sobs. She was tired of this day, no hero had ever beat Vim before! She was ruthless, she was invincible, she was-

"AGH!" Vim screamed as she touched her front tooth with her hand and felt it chip.

(OOC: Sorry I haven't been responding much, been really sick the past few days. I'll try to respond more!)

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Vim shrieked as she looked at the devastation Iron Fist had caused. "NONONONONONONONONONO!!! Billyboy was MINE! There isn't even a trace of him left, I won't get my bounty! Damn it!"

She slammed her fist into the ground, sending large cracks through the earth for several blocks.

"That's it, whoever that is is dead!" Vim screamed as she ran forward toward the downed figure of Iron Fist.

------------------------------

"What a freaking brutal dude!" Billyboy said as he shook his head. "He just sacrificed all of his men to take us out! This day just keeps getting worse as it goes on, let's get moving!"

With that, the hero shot off into the air and in search of the Redoubtable Defender. Unfortuanatley, the energy signals around Steel Canyon were now so mingled with irradiation that he could hardly distinguish any one from another. It took several minutes of slow going, but soon they found the man floating in the air, looking as if he had been waiting for them.

Vim smirked and slammed her fist into her open palm. "I like your style!" she laughed. "Sounds like a plan, two for the price of two! Just don't get in my way, I tend to throw stuff!"

"Exactly what I was thinking, we shouldn't have any problem if we can work together on this." Panda Doll smiled, happy that this girl was so easy to manipulate.

"I can't wait to pound that [censored]'s ugly face in!" Vim said with a snarl. "What are we waiting for, we won't get anythign done just standing around! Follow 'im!"

Billyboy stared at Hellcat for a moment before shaking himself and taking off after him, catching up as quickly as he could. Is that the Redoubtable Defender? He can't still be alive, can he? He got freaking nuked!

"Er.... Thanks for the backup back there, man." Billyboy said meekly. "But seriously, is it you?"

-----------------------------------

Vim slammed into the war wall and slid down, all sense lost from the sudden impact. She stood shakily, nearly vomitting from the terror that had just coursed through her. Whoever, or whatever, that thing was, she was going to get it back for hurting her. And she was going to get her bounty, Billyboy would be hers!

But first she needed some iodine.

"Freaking damn heroes always popping outa nowhere and taking a hard working girl for the ride of her life across the skyline." Vim muttered to herself as she leapt off of a ledge and landed with a splash in the water below. She scanned her surroundings and noticed Icon up the ledge to her right, but she'd fix her costume later, she needed to get her revenge now. With a curse, she swam the width of the lake and began sprinting back to Blyde Square with hatred in her eyes. Nemesis troops ignored her, already knowing that she had been hired by Lord Nemesis as an assassin.

Vim looked up just in time to see a figure leaping from building to building, a young man looking a bit preoccupied. It wasn't Billyboy, though, so he didn't matter. She stomped on, on thing on her mind, then suddenly ran into something very solid.

"Watch it!" Vim screamed at Panda Doll, who had been watching Mutai Kid too closely to notice her stomping down the street with all the backround noise. "Who the hell are you!?"

"Right, I'm on it. Get the ETA or whatever on support." Billyboy said as he shot off into the sky. He knew the general direction of Positron, he could sense his defining energy signal, and he set off quickly, staying close to a skyscraper to avoid snipers. This proved a folly move, however, as something grabbed a fistful of his hair and held tight, causing him to yelp in pain as he turned around.

Billyboy's fists lit up with whirling energy, but they quickly returned to normal as he examined his assailent. She had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen! She had silky black hair done into a pony tail, but with her bangs falling free over her smooth face, reaching just underneath her eyes. She was tall for a girl, nearly Billyboy's height, with what Billyboy considered to be the perfect figure. Just the right amount of the perfect figure, which was accented by a black and red miniskirt and matching tank top.

"I'm sorry!" the girl yelled, putting her hands up in surrender. "I was just trying to get your attention! My name's Jessy, well, my hero name's Vim. I've was fighting for a little bit, trying to get the people safetly out of this building, but I got overwhelmed and ended up way up here, and they're coming for me! I don't know how to fly and I don't know if I can take a fall that long, please help!"

Billyboy simply stared at her for a moment longer.

"I'm sorry about pullling your hair, please help!" she pleaded again.

Billyboy suddenly processed what she had just said and his eyes widened. "Baby, with a body like that you can touch me anywhere." he replied with a smile. "Let's get you outa here."

Vim giggled and jumped into his waiting arms. "You're not the subtle one, are you?" she laughed.

"I'm a man of action, if you catch my drift." Billyboy replied slyly.

Vim laughed again. "That's the kind of guy I like!" she joked. "Shouldn't we be getting a move on? Where were you headed, anyway?"

Billyboy cleared his head with a vigorous shake and smiled again. "Lost track of things there for a second, I'm heading to see Positron about reinforcements or something for this big Nemesis attack. I was fighting in Blyde Square, cleared it practically by myself. I've been giving Nemmy trouble ever since I got here, it's great. I've beaten on the loser so many times I'm surprised he'd even show his ugly face again!"

"Big hero then, huh?" Vim asked. "I like you tank types, it's good to have a little protection aside from my innate invulnerability!"

"Maybe we could get to know each other better over a mission?" Billyboy said with a roguish grin. "We can take down a few Kronos titans and see where that takes us."

"I'd like that." Vim smiled. "Except you're not going to live to do another mission, much less see the end of this day."

"What?!" Billyboy said, startled.

"Why don't I show you?" Vim laughed as she grabbed the hero around the throat and punched him in the face at the exact same moment she kicked him in the crotch. Billyboy's eyes crossed in pain and he began plummeting toward the ground, his concentration on flying lost. He came to his sense a second later, but one bad thing about his energy powers was that he couldn't go airborne unless he was on a flat surface he could transfer energy into. There are no flat surfaces in the air.

Vim laughed and wrapped her arms around Billyboy's head as she set her feet against his neck. They landed on the ground with a thud, her full momentum nearly crushing the hero's windpipe despite his energy shield. Vim didn't let up as Billyboy coughed as gasped for air, however, she kept punching and kicking him like a wild animal, determined to beat him to death.

"Stupid stupid stupid stupid!" Vim laughed as Billyboy took hit after hit. "You see a pretty girl and lose all sense, just like all of you over-sexed teenage idiots! Nemesis watched you, Billyboy, he knew what you liked. And then he hired me, just to assassinate you. Gawd, you are such a stupid [censored]!"

Billyboy's fist connected solidly with Vim's face, sending her sprawling backwards as he quickly got to his feet. She jumped at him immediatly, her foot leading in a nasty kick, but he grabbed it and used the girl's own momentum to fling her into a nearby building with a smack. She dusted herself off and charged again, this time solidly connecting with the hero's face. Billyboy felt the full force of the super powered blow and was sent barrelling backwards, crashing into the ground and skidding several feet.

"You can't beat me!" Vim screamed as she ran at him.

"YOU MONOLOUGE TOO MUCH!" Billyboy bellowed as he met her with a punch to the face, transferring as much energy as possible into her. They both screamed, Vim from the pain and Billyboy from the pain of sending so much energy into her.

The bruised Billyboy collapsed onto the ground in a crumpled heap, unable to stay conscious after exerting himself so much and taking such a terrible beating. Vim swayed in place and stumbled from the pain, but she was strong and could take a lot of damage, she wouldn't go down that easy.

"So ends the saga of Billyboy." Vim spat as she kicked his nearly lifeless form into a pile of rubble. "I did it. Nobody else could. Not Dr. Phillis, not Nemesis, not Dreck or Vahzilok or any of those other losers! I did it!"

Vim sneered in victory and she took a mighty leap and landed with a mighty kick onto Billyboy's chest. A fountain of blood seemed to suddenly errupt from his mouth, covering his chin and neck.

"It's too bad." Vim said as she lifted her foot to finish the hero. "You're kind of cute. I might of taken you up on your offer if we'd met in different circumstances."

Very nice, the story's really good so far! Can't wait to see more!

Billyboy was unusually quiet as zoomed through the air and back the Blyde Square, simply rereading the plaque over and over again and going over what had happened in his mind. He hadn't known the Redoubtable Defender long, but he was sure he had been a good man, his actions had proved that. Not only had he saved Billyboy and Mutai Kid, he had also saved Lord Dire and the other villains. He wasn't a man who picked and choosed.

Billyboy sincerely wished he wasn't... gone.

This world has need yet of heroes. Our work is far from over. Billyboy pondered in his mind. My work is far from over too.

As they neared Blyde Square, Billyboy spotted Positron in the distance. "Yo, Possy!" he yelled. "Catch!" He chucked the plaque at the Phalanxer, who caught it and looked at it for a moment in stunned admiration. "We'll make a monument for it later, time to take out the trash!" Billyboy shouted with a grin.

Billyboy landed in the center of Blyde Square and slammed his fist into the pavement, sending a wave of energy shooting out to all sides. The Nemesis soldiers hit by the wave stumbled backwards, disoriented at the sudden and unexpected amount of unfriendly energy being put into them. Billyboy took the opportunity to send one to the ground with a haymaker while kicking another in the face. Mutai Kid followed him quickly, landing with a dropkick to a soldier's head and quickly sweeping his leg out in a wide arc, sending several soldiers flailing to the ground due to the sudden lose of balance.

Billyboy reached up to remove his sunglasses, suddenly remembered they'd been crushed along with a good portion of his costume, and grinned. His eyes began glowing even brighter and he glanced over to a closing jaeger. A burst of energy shot from his eyes, slamming into the robot and causing it to explode. No, Billyboy's laser eyes didn't cut, but most things went down to them nonetheless!

Mutai Kid put his back against Billyboy's and they began slowly spinning, each taking out the minions around them with great effincientcy if they came in range. Billyboy's laser eyes did the trick, sending men and robots hurtling every which way as the sudden burst of energy slammed into them, while Mutai Kid's long legs went to work, cracking ribs and metal casings alike.

"So," Billyboy said cheerily, "Nice weather we're having, eh?"

The Longbow fought viciously against the Nemesis Army troops, trading man for man as the battle raged on. Several wardens were practically carrying the whole fight by themselves, blasting and pummeling the villains into submission. Valkyrie was only too happy to have the help, but she couldn’t help thinking she had forgotten something important.

A fake Nemesis blasted back one of the radiation wardens, sending him crashing into a thick glass window with a bolt of force that easily shattered it. Another of the high ranking members, seeing the plight of his ally, quickly grabbed the largest thing he could throw: the giant stone hand of the Blyde Square statue. The fake Nemesis was crushed with the sound of a car crash and the ensueing explosion sent rubble flying everywhere, including into the ranks of Nemesis and Longbow troops.

“BOUT TIME!” Billyboy yelled as he leapt from the crater the hand had made, his eyes glowing with white hot energy, his costume in tatters. “It’s my damn birthday and nobody has the courtesy to lift a 2-ton rock off me until I’ve already been under it for a half hour!”

Valkyrie blushed, now she remembered what she had forgotten. She looked at Billyboy and shrugged, which the young hero took as enough of an apology and leapt into the battle with wild abandon, smacking men and robots every which way with an awe-inspiring flurry. The fight was still in its climax, but Billyboy knew the only way to stop a Nemesis plot was to take the fight to the source, be it a laboratory, an abandoned warehouse, or to the big guy himself! With a fancy bow and a wink, the hero shot off into the air, following the fast diminishing energy signal of the hero who had assisted him before, the Redoubtable Defender.

Billyboy soon found the building where Lord Dire was now facing down what he seemed to think was Nemesis himself. The young hero remembered Lord Dire from a few Longbow bounty flyers, he was bad news, real bad news. Of course, Billyboy had dealt with super villains and the like before. He wasn’t afraid to have to take both down, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t come to that.

Especially because Lord Dire was most certainly not facing down the real Nemesis.

None of it added up, that much Billyboy realized. He may be the stereotype of an idiot teenage hero, but he had payed special attention to whatever his contacts had to say about the Prussian Prince of Automatons. He’d faced what was supposed to be the “real” Nemesis twice already, and both times the Prince had been back in action almost immediately, even using the faked death to his advantage. No, Nemesis would NEVER be stupid enough to stand idly by a hostage as valuable as the mayor, he’d have to know that every hero in the biz would be looking for him. There was something else going on here, and Billyboy knew it couldn’t be good. Not good at all.

The teen jumped into the fray below the enraged Lord Dire, helping clear up the rest of the mercenary soldiers. These men weren’t as well trained as normal Nemesis troops, once again proving Billyboy’s theory that this could not be the real Nemesis, he wouldn’t rely on dogs of war for protection.

“So, hero or villain?” Billyboy smiled to Mutai Kid as he slammed his fist into a mercenary’s face.

The extra boost from Hellcat's radioactive powers had Billyboy barrelling through the Nemesis ranks, sending men and robot parts flying as his fists whirled at high speeds. Valkyrie was doing similarly well, if not using far different tactics. While Billyboy swung his fists with wonton fury, Valkyrie seemed to move like a dancer, cutting into robots and incapacitating men with a fire in her eyes. Billyboy gave her a smiling thumbs up and immediatly received a shelling for his lack of concentration, cauing him to double over in pain.

"Damn, think that bruised a rib!" Billyboy coughed and he eyed the perpetraters and made a break for them, shooting off into the air and landing in the middle of the crowd in what seemed like mere seconds. All guns turned to Billyboy, each aiming for his head, but he just smiled rogueishly and glanced around himself at the men who had him completely surrounded. "You wouldn't be dumb enough to try it, would you?"

The Nemesis Army troops, realizing that if any of them missed they would hit each other, instead stabbed forward with their bayonets. Billyboy bit his lip and several hit their mark and tried to pierce the skin-tight energy barrier that surrounded him, doing a bad job but hurting him nonetheless and ripping his shirt badly. With a grunt, Billyboy grabbed the nearest rifle and concentrated the energy from his fists into it, causing it to explode and send several of the armored soldiers hurtling backwards.

"Leave him to me!" a voice called over the crowd, who parted to reveal the warhulk that had held Valkyrie before. Billyboy was only to happy to accept the challenge and ran forward, failing to notice that his speed had returned to an average pace. He was about ten yards away when the warhulk raised its storm cannon arm straight upward and fired, causing Billyboy to laugh, thinking it must be malfunctioning from the earlier beating.

He stopped as he heard the storm cannon's burst hit something hard and looked up just in time to make out the form of a giant stone hand, recently blown off from Blyde Square's giant statue, falling toward him faster than he could possibly hope to react to.

"Oh shi-" Billyboy began, but was silenced with a loud THUMP as the stone landed on him and drove into the ground several feet, making what the Nemesis troops were sure would be a tomb for the hero.

"That's what I said!" Billyboy yelled as he slammed through several jaegars that blocked his progress. Hellcat noticed several bruises on the hero, and his costume seemed pretty beat up, but his fists were still glowing. "Got surrounded, glad you got here! Hey, aren't you the Redoutable Defender?!"

The butt of a rifle smacked the young hero in the mouth, delaying his speech for the moment it took him to smack the soldier upside the head and drop him to the ground. He didn't seem like a very focused warrior, but he was obviosly effective. "Glad you got the chick up!" Billyboy smiled and he backstepped a jaegar's swinging mace. "I was beginning to worry I'd be too late to save her!" An explosive round slammed into his forehead, causing him to fall backwards a few steps as he clutched his shattered sunglasses against his face. "Damn, these guys don't know when to quit! Which is bad, cause I don't know how long I can hold out! Which probably wasn't very smart to yell across a crowd of Nemesis Army soldiers!"

He allowed the shards of his broken shades to fall to the ground as he pulled a spare pair out of his pocket and settled them on his slender face, but not before sending a blast of energy into a nearby werfer jaegar, causing it to explode. He sidestepped a bayonet thrust and sent a glowing fist straight into the offender's face, breaking his mask and dropping him to the ground next to his broken eyeware.

Billyboy hacked terribly and spat a bit of blood to the ground but wasn't too worried about the poison, his immune system was super charged with free energy, anything foreign never survived for too long. He was, however, more than a bit worried about what seemed to be a wall of armor piercing slugs flying at him.

The hero had no time to dodge, and wasn't much of a dodger in the first place, so he did the next best thing and braced himself. Despite the fact that he knew the volley was coming, and that he had faced Nemesis troops in near forty previous engagements, he was blasted back several feet by the hail of explosive rounds.

Clutching a stitch in his side, Billyboy leapt to his feet and gave a smile. "Whatcha so mad about, guys? The weather machine? The doomsday device? The other doomsday device?" he mocked as he ran forward at the crowd, his fists glowing with angry energy. He was thinking one thing as he charged the pure overwhelming numbers of the troops, I'm gonna need some backup!

"Razzle dazzle!" Billyboy yelled as he landed with a flash, punching his fist into the ground and sending a wave of energy flying from him to all sides, smacking into the robots that were attempting to hold Blyde Square. He quickly took advantage of his preemptive strike and sent an energy charged punch into the nearest jaegar, causing it to explode and send sharpnel every which way, cutting into Nemesis troops around it. The troops knew who this new threat was, he'd been a thorn in Nemesis's side for too long. Ever since he had arrived in Paragon, it seemed, he had been doing nothing but causing the Prussian Prince distress.

His death would hail in the rule of the Nemesis Army!

Billyboy knew the element of surprise was lost now, and these guys were numerous. With his gaze locked onto Valkyrie, the hero began punching a path to the Phalanxer, hoping to reach her before it was too late. Steam powered robots and rifles turned his way, sending a stream of bullets and charges meant to specifically take down the heroes of Paragon City. Billyboy bellowed in pain, but he kept swiping at his enemies, not even bothering to take his gaze from the warhulk he had a passion to take down. After another volley pounded into his chest, he discovered he'd need less blunt tactics to save Valkyrie. Luckily, he'd learned a bit in his four years of heroing.

He heard the sliding of ammunition as it put itself into place, the telltale sign of another volley coming his way in just a few crucial seconds. Jaegars next to him opened up and began swinging their maces toward him. Billyboy wooped and shot off into the air, not even bothering to stop and see if his plan had worked, his gaze focused on Valkyrie.

The jaegars' maces smacked into each other, tangling their chains without Billyboy there to take the blow. They would have been able to untangle, but just then dozens of bullets meant for the hero slammed into them, tearing through their chasises and shutting them down in a fiery explosion.

Billyboy landed right next to the warhulk, the soldiers all aimed at him but didn't dare shoot with their commander so close. Billyboy faced the man and scowled. "Put the hottie down!"