GoldenMasquerade

Wow! That is just... incredible, I'm at lost for words.

And at this rate, I'm going to be completely speachless when the final thing is up.

You're probably going to have to wait until the Winter Event.

((*pokes rp with a stick* ...did it die again?))

((I'll take over Unholygiant's surviving character Leon for now. Feel free to control him for situations if you need to.))

The doctor didn't go too far to find her patient in the Library. The young man was slumped in a chair, a book he had been holding had fallen to the ground on its pages. His head was slumped and his eyes were closed, his chest moved ever so slightly with slow breaths. Clearly, passed out from fatigue. Dr. Lore's first order of business was to power up her medilaser and wave it up and down the young man, healing him enough to wake him with a bit of energy. After his healthy dose of warm, green light, she walked right up to him and started patting his cheeks to fully rouse him.

"Hey... wake up." She watched as his eyes opened but seemed to register nothing. He looked scrawny, starved even, and he had lost quite a bit of blood by the look of his slightly colorless face. Just as she considered using the rest of her medical equipment on him, a faint movement out the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned quickly. The sight made her gasp, and could only watch in horror as the room seemed to rot away all around her into an empty space. Her arms crossed in front of her defensively as the change moved over her, leaving a tingling sensation. After it passed, she checked her medilaser and sighed in relief at the light. "Oh, thank God..."

Her eyes didn't seem to register anything happening around her. Were the bugs doing this? As if to answer her, she caught the movement of one dropping from the ceiling. And another... And another...

"No..." she staggered away from the slowly growing swarm of them towards Leon. Not one to abandon a patient, she picked up the still unresponcive youth and hoist him onto her back and ran for the stairs.

"HEY! THEY'RE COMING IN!" she yelled down. "WE HAVE TO GET OUT!"

Past the sound of the dropping bugs, she thought she heard someone yelling from outside. She wasn't sure if she was hearing things or not, or if she was finally going crazy and everything around her was now just in her head. But one thing was certain: she shouldn't be here. She had to get out. Going down the stairs to the ground floor was out of the question as the bugs were all on the ground level. There was only one place left to go, and she yelled back down the stairs, hoping her rescuer could hear her.

"HEY! HOW DO WE GET TO THE ROOF?!"

((Go ahead. Poking, prodding and esspecially harassing makes me procrastinate more. And if you're going to harass me, then do it in the PMs and stop filling up the thread.))

((Yeah, go ahead and take over. Some of us *ahem* can't move without Unholygiant here, so we need direction))

((This is considered harassment, you know...))

She felt it best to keep her mind occupied. Healing someone, yes, yes that would work. Being a doctor did keep her mind occupied. As she trudged up the stairs, she took out her medical pack and looked it over. The simple device, similar to a remote control, was able to do more than heal wounds with a green mending lazer: it was capable of resurecting a body completely back to life within one hour of its demise. This was extremely strenuous on the device's batteries: and Dr. Lore reminded herself there was only one resurect left in the device... two if she pushed its limits hard enough, but that was very improbable.

Upon reaching the top step, she looked around for the second man in the tower. "Hey, anyone up here? ...Alive, perferably?"

((OOC: Yeah, she's a brute that can rez. Go on. Lols. You have no idea how useful that is in a pug.))

Dr. Lore glanced up back at the statue, holding back her horror at the haunting sight. It was as if someone painted it red, and the fresh coat was melting slowly. She looked away with her eyes closed while following her rescuer.

She decided for the sake of time to not ask questions until they reached safety. A library? Did he mean the city library? If so, it was probably infested with the bugs too. She hoped that it was the name of his super group base or sanctuary as they walked.

"..." She let her breath catch up to her by breathing out her mouth, and did her best to quell she shaking in her arms and legs. Some villain. The Captain would laugh at me if he saw me now... Relief started to turn to fretting on her face as she worried about her superiors back in the Rogue Isles, primarily her patron. "........"

If fear was extremely energy draining, then relief had to have been sleep enducing. Dr. Lore felt incredibly sleepy moments after she was plucked off the statue as the relief washed over her. A person. An actual person. She lifted her head to look up at him, and managed a smile. Usually chatty or snippy, she didn't have the drive to be so now.

"Thanks.... Thank you... Um... Any idea what's going on?"

((OOC: It's cool. I know Draculad is in that area, I was kind of aiming for him since I missed the "group goes to superbase" post. I can wait.))

"Okay, so they don't like the warwalls..." Dr. Lore theorized as to why she went through the railway tunnels with no incident. "Heh... for once, they kept something out." However, there were still swarms coming for her next to the railways, keeping her moving. Now in Atlas Park, there was only one logical place to go: to the Atlus Statue. If there was anyone still alive, it would be the best marker to congrigate at, and it was possible that some heroes would still be there to protect the civilians. With a push of her legs she lept off the tracks and started several long leaps towards Atlas Plaza.

***

Arriving at the plaza outside city hall, where many heroes gathered to train or show off costumes or civilians came to work or look for heroes, Dr. Lore's hopes fell to see that it was deserted. She stood on the platform where Ms. Liberty would typically be, feeling something stur at the oddity. Fear. She was afraid. Was there anyone here? Anyone at all?

Dr. Lore's head lifted to see that swarms were still heading towards her. The trek here left her near breathless and the desolate city was starting to eat at her sanity, but the will to live was still strong. Reganing whatever energy was left, Dr. Lore knelt slightly and sprang up at the statue above. Feeling the lift leave and gravity about to pull her back to the ground, she grabbed the nearest ledge, Atlus's shoulder, and held on as she got back some breath.

Against any logic, she dared to look down, and saw the swarm was slowly creeping up the statue's legs. She grimmaced, a growl rumbled in her throat, was there no end to these things? Did they really polish off everyone in Paragon City?

Something other than the will to live fueled her as she pulled herself over Atlus's shoulder and look for other footing up the globe to the top. Fear. She was afraid. She was afraid she was the only living thing in the city. She was afraid of the impossible.

She slowly climbed up the globe as she tried to catch her breath. She tried to plan out an escape route should the swarm catch up to her, but thinking was becoming hard. Was this it? It couldn't be it. Someone had to come here. Someone's scanners would pick her up. Right...?

"...Right? Someone..." her thoughts wandered to her voice, and her voice was shaky and quiet. "...Someone..." She came to rest at the top on her hands and knees, breathing to gain back even a little endurence for another jump. "...Someone..."

Her high jumping took her straight to the Yellow Line terminal, and wasn't the least bit suprised to see that the trains weren't running at all. Landing on the ground roughly by the entry ramp, she looked behind her to see that she left much of the swarms nearby and took a precious moment to catch her breath. She forgot how easily she tires out after fighting or traveling long distances.

It's because you're out of shape, her patron would have scolded, but Dr. Lore immediately snipped that from her mind. She needed to think. Where could she go? It seemed like these things were everywhere...

What she needed was information. Was it just Paragon City under attack? Could she escape this and head back to the Rogue Isles, or were they in the Rogue Isles too? Where could she go? As she kept thinking, she felt something on her hand and looked. Several of the bugs had crawled from out of the wall and were already biting on her hand.

"@#$%! BACK OFF!" she yelled, brushing the ones off her hand and jumping onto the roof of the station. Trying not to be frantic, she took out her healing device and quickly waved the calm green beams from her machine over her hand, fading away the bite marks. She put the device away to see more swarms coming for her from the inside of the roof. Muttering more swear words, she jumped from the train station to an appartment roof top several yards away.

"From the walls..." she muttered, seeing that her landing caused more swarms. A glance down the street showed that the streets were being covered in moving fields of red. She could even see that some of the bugs made up giant red bodies that moved like humanoids. "They're coming from the walls... Where's a place with no walls..."

Pocket D came to mind, but she couldn't use the Paragon City entrances because of the nightclub's security devices. She wasn't told of any Arachnos spy cells in King's Row though they had to have existed. The closest Arachnos base she could think of was in Siren's Call but it was a very long way there and she didn't have the endurance for the long jump there.

She continued leaping rooftop to rooftop. There had to be somewhere safe she could go...

...or there had to be survivors out here somewhere...

"Somewhere without walls... Atlas..." Atlas Park was a very long shot, but the plaza had only the City Hall and there HAD to have been some heroes keeping it safe. But in the least, if there were survivors or heroes, she'd find them there. With an extra burst of energy, she leapt off the rooftop towards the trainlines. Dr. Lore grabbed onto the tracks when her jump fell short and pulled herself up to stand on them. The swarms were moving towards and under her, but didn't seem to be moving on the tracks themselves.

Here's hoping I get there alive... she silently prayed to herself and ran along the tracks towards Atlas Park, praying again that the tunnels were absent of the bugs...

[ QUOTE ]

The scream was clearly a man. Vuron have now entered a swarm stage, meaning they will swarm quickly on passive or aggressive heroes and villains.


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((OOC: Okay, let's work with this. So we can assume wherever we are, Vuron are just going to up and attack us now? If I'm getting ahead of myself, lemme know in time to edit))

She skidded to a stop just across the street from the bank, and took a good look around. The police cars and road blocks were up, and that was the only thing right with this picture. Still, no people. She didn't even see or hear any Clockwork in the area. Dr. Lore rubbed at her face with both hands as it was now becoming painful to think.

"Where the hell is everybody? No people, no police, no Hellions, Skulls, Clockwork, and no signal from the nearest spy cell..." She sulked as she walked across the street towards the bank. "Maybe if I walked inside and hit the panic button, maybe some hero will come and tell me what's going on. This had better not be a @#$%ing Nemesis plot..."

Then came the scream. She quickly turned her head up to the sky and looked around. Where did it come from? Then, her eyes landed on the wall of the pawn shop across the street as a pool of red seem to seap across the wall. Her eyes strained to see better, and found that it was a mass of bugs like termites or ants.

"Ew." she commented before turning her attention to the bank, then she flinched and moved back to see another swarm of the bugs seaping from the bank doors. She turned on her heal and started walking away quickly. "Well, that could explain a bit... Now what do I do?"

She turned her head for a quick look behind her to see if they were following, and cursed her vision if it appeared that way. Not fond of the idea that she would join the rest of Paragon's population, she made a quick building-sized leap to get some quick distance from the swarm. Again, going anywhere. Anywhere. Hoping to find someone. Anyone. Even Statesman for all she cared. Anyone!

Her frustrations started causing her to swear out loud. "@#$%! @#$%, ^#$@, *%#&! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

[ QUOTE ]

((Feel free to use the Rogue Isles in this RP, or anywhere else, really. Vuron are alot like the Rikti, they don't attack one at a time. Heck, Vuron could be in Beijing.))

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((No point in doing that, seeing as we're all in Paragon. I really don't wanna see this die, I know you're trying, dude.))

((@@ Hey, hey, hey! Off the caps lock please! Life happens, and it sucks a lot out of my creative juices. I'm writing it, it's going to get finished, I promise. I'm happy you like my story but please have some patience, okay?))

Name: Dr. Samantha Lore
Full Name: Samantha Abigale Lore
Age: 26
Description: Black hair (usually short but sometimes long), blue eyes, tattooed cheetah spots on face and neck, stands five feet five inches tall, wears a white coat and pants with black boots. Her other two most noted descriptions are the strip of red cloth she always wears on her person (usually as a headband) and a long scar on her left shoulder.
Archtype: Brute, Natural class (may change that to mutant class later)
Superpowers: Super strength, invulnerability, Leviathan mastery
Threads: Written in Blood (story), Silence

Samantha was born in Paragon City, and shortly afterward her mother abandoned the family. Mr. Lore died of kidney failure due to his heavy drinking leaving Samantha shuffled in the foster system starting at the age of six, starting with ungrateful or over-burdened family members to complete strangers she couldn't trust. She was unpopular in school, had few friends, and not much talent save for accidently finding trouble due to her super strength (accidently pushing a classmate through the classroom wall, for starters). After graduating high school and turning eighteen, she was out of the foster system and on her own. She lived on the streets for a couple of months until a former teacher took her in until she could get on her feet.

Then the Rikti attacked, and a shattered and traumatized Samantha ran and took shelter with the other victoms. When the invasion ended, so did the girl's outlook on life. Her former teacher died in the war, so a classmate took her in. Samantha saw almost no point in living, but her friend, Penelope, tried to help her see the light and even harder to help her move towards it.

One day, they went to the bank to get cash after a day of job hunting when it came under attack by Arachnos. Penelope, known better as the hero Shadez of Grey, stood up to the robbers and fought back... until she faced off against their leader, Captain Mako. Shadez fought valiently, but was no match for the shark man and was killed. Samantha was captured trying to escape, but instead of killed immediately was ferried onto the escape flier to be a "snack for the long trip."

En route to the Rogue Isles, Samantha desperately pleeded for her life. Her cries fell on deaf, hungry ears until she unwittingly said the foreboading phrase "I'll do anything." Expecting some entertainment, Mako gave her a task in exchange for her life. She agreed, and when they arrived at Sharkhead Mako threw in a handycap: he bit a large chunk out of her shoulder and left her to bleed in the street!

No one is certain what happened next or how she survived, but Samantha lived to complete the task and was spared. Since then, she's joined Arachnos and has become a head scientist as well as a medical doctor. She is now the head director of Grandville's hospital and infirmary, as well as the head researcher and founder of her own laboratory that excells in researching vampires. In her spare time, she hunts vampires or works in her lab. She also takes jobs for Mako; jobs he feels are too "boring" or he's too busy to take himself. She has since been trained in mastering the powers of the Leviathan but has slight trouble controlling them.

She comes off as a strong, cold and calculating woman who is a bloodthirsty monster in battle. But there are whispers that she is not as strong as she appears, possibly suffering from Stolkholm syndrome from her first ordeal on Sharkhead. It is also said that she is an workaholic simply because she MUST stay occupied or she figits and on occasion screams from the memories of her trauma. Whispered more quietly is the rumor that she's in love with Captain Mako, for if these words reach Dr. Lore's ears she's very violent with the speaker. The people of the Rogue Isles say that she is possibly nicer than she appears, rare to those in the Rogue Isles.

((OOC: I'm gonna throw in my villain, if that's okay? Super strength/invuln brute.))

She checked her watch, and after nodding in approval pulled up the metal drop door of the moving truck. What greeted her was the first omen that something was very, very wrong.

Dr. Lore looked around in complete confusion. She was going to be robbing the King's Row bank (specifically for an artifact that was vital to her research), and she was sure that Longbow had to have found out about it (they almost always do). The streets were near empty. No police cars, no police units, no waves of longbow, no frightened civilians, no Hellions or Skulls... nothing.

"This can't be good." she muttered, getting out of the truck anyway and cautiously walking in the direction of the bank. Her eyes closed as she trusted her ears to pick up any noise of life, and frowned to fight she didn't even hear the wind. It was as if all the people of King's Row vanished into thin air.
Still walking, she picked up her communicator and started to punch in a message to the nearest Arachnos cell she could think of.

"This is Dr. Lore reporting from King's Row. What the hell's going on?" Letting go of the release button yielded nothing, not even static. There was no signal.

Yeah, there was something wrong. Dr. Lore did the only thing she could think of: run in the direction of the bank and hope someone was in the area. Anyone.

A stray thought crossed her mind as she suppressed her panic: If this is a Nemesis plot, I'm going to kick his [censored] of brass so hard he hits the moon.

Drop of the Hat

Under the shadows of Grandville's Spider City thrives the rancid and ignored neighborhood known as The Gutter. Here in this vile cesspool of crumbling buildings and lakes of sewage true anarchy reigns among the unfortunate residents, the monstrous Arachnoids hide in every hole and alley, and the patrolling Arachnos troops fire their weapons at any living creature they find out of boredom. There is little hope or provisions for any person who is crazy enough or too poor to live here, and the Gutter's only existence is to act as a foundation for the business metropolis above. The people are forced to fight or die, the latter being much more common as the generations have passed.

Kevin Porter especially didn't like this place; It reminded him too much of home.

The man in question is a six foot tall human virtually all in black: black trench coat, black shirt, black pants, black work boots, black gloves, and the black eye patch over his left eye. The wide-brimmed fedora on his head is actually a very deep blue-black, giving the impression of blue or black depending on the lighting it was in. He also had a black utility belt hooked around his waistline that held several small guns, throwing knives, and clips of ammunition. There was also a long leather holster strapped to his left leg that stored his sniper rifle, which he began to lift out with his long, clawed fingers.

Lying on his stomach on a building leaning to it's side, he reached towards another strap on his right leg and removed a few bullets. Then, Porter took out the two-legged prop and set the gun on it, taking aim at the cracked street below. With his one good eye, he peered through the scope at his targets: a couple of Malta operatives waiting with their own advanced weaponry for their contact to meet them. They were part of a small cell of the mercenaries who had purloined Arachnos property and secrets, and were about to sell them to the highest bidder. Lord Recluse had given the "go ahead" to have them taken out and made an example of, and his lieutenant Captain Mako recommended Porter to do the job. The sniper was more than eager to finish this job and return top side before any memories of growing up penniless and alone in Sharkhead distracted him further.

Muttering softly to himself, he took a headcount of his prey. "One, two..."

Odd, he thought, there should be another one in this group. Just as he looked up from the scope to see if the last one was anywhere in sight, he heard a gun click nearby and felt a small barrel press to the back of his head. Following that was a voice:

"Three."

After Porter cursed himself for deciding against using a gully suit before coming, he breathed out an annoyed sigh.

"Is that a pistol? Because I haven't had a good laugh in a while."

"Good ol' fashioned six shooter." the assailant behind him bragged, the slight accent gave away his Malta alignment. "With magic bullets. I've got you right where I want you, Kevin Porter."

Bad. Really really bad. Porter wasn't exactly famous outside of Sharkhead, and he had only one brush with Malta and all those fools were dead. He wondered if perchance his estranged extended family was still trying to kill him as he very slightly started to move his left leg out towards the man behind him.

"Before you kill me, can I hear the name of the man who succeeded in blowing my head off?"

There was a snort.

"You don't remember me?"

"'Fraid not, if we met. I've put a lot of Sharkhead behind me."

"It's me, you little punk! Flint!"

That was when the memories surfaced. Oh yeah, that Flint guy... Porter dared to move, shaking his head.

"...you lived..."

"Damn right I lived! You'll pay for what you did to me!"

There was a light tap as Porter's foot finally touched the boot of the mercenary behind him, and he moved it slightly back in preparation.

"You talk too much, cowboy. That'll be your undoing."

"Well, I'm about to undo you right no..." Flint was cut off as Porter's foot sharply slammed into his shin and swept up, sending the Malta gunman slamming into the ground with a surprised yelp. Porter used the momentum of his foot to spin up to a stand, and quickly pulled out his .45 to shoot the man in the face. Just as Flint was getting up, Porter pointed the gun and squeezed the trigger. The bullet sailed from the barrel to the man's face but then...

...Ricocheted off and landed on the roof with a small bounce?

Porter raised an interested eyebrow as he noticed that Flint's face was a metal faceplate with robotic sensors for eyes, colored gray with chips and dents from time and again getting shot in the face. The recent mark from Porter's bullet had left a dent just under the left eye, and nothing else. Again, Porter shook his head, but this time said nothing. He took aim for Flint's heart to end this nonsense immediately, and again squeezed the trigger. Again, the bullet sailed out of the gun, and again ricocheted off and dropped to the ground harmlessly. By now, Flint was on his feet, and his mechanical eyes were narrowed in anger.

"...Not just your face..." was all Porter managed to mutter as Flint charged for him and punched him right in the mouth with a surprising amount of strength. Before Porter could recover from the blow, Flint's other hand came up and slammed into the sniper's jaw with the same amount of strength. Porter tumbled to his hands, and was about to jump back up on his feet when Flint's foot swung back and then forth fiercely into Porter's gut, flinging Porter off the roof and dropping helplessly to the street below.

Porter managed to right himself to land on the ground on the balls of his feet and one hand, quickly bringing his other hand up with the gun, pointing it at the roof to shoot at Flint. He half expected Flint to jump down after him, but saw only the mercenary walking to the edge of the roof to look down. With only one good eye, Porter just barely made out the thin, sly smile just under the lip of Flint's faceplate.

"I really wanted to kill you, Kevin Porter." Flint called down to his prey. "But after mulling it over and pulling a few favors, I decided I didn't want to just KILL you: I'm gonna DESTROY you, boy!"

Porter was about to fire another shot at Flint in annoyance until he felt the ground tremble slightly under his hand. In rhythmic intervals, the trembling increased, like very heavy footsteps. An explosion from the other building made the sniper snap his head up to look behind him, just in time to see the wall crumble away into a giant hole. And the sight that stomped out of it made his eyes widen in fear and his blood run cold.

A giant mechanical monstrosity half the size of the building stomped out from the hole, causing debris to drop and clutter near it's titanium feet. Porter watched as it set it's sights right on him and raised one of it's giant cannon arms. He did the only thing he could think of at that moment: run, very quickly. The giant titan fired an energy blast in Porter's direction. Porter dove out of the way, and quickly rolled back up to his feet. Still running, he wasn't sure what to do now. He didn't have any equipment to take down this monster, and what he had was useless against it's titanium plates.

Flint cackled from the safety of his post.

"GET 'EM, KRONOS! STOMP HIM FLAT! DESTROY HIM!"

**********
Kevin Porter
Flint
((Thought I'd do a short story about Kevin Porter, a character we briefly see in Written in Blood. I really liked him, and I wanted to show what he's made of. So, I wrote a little something that happened before he meets Samantha. And naturally, if anyone just so happens to be following my stuff, that was something of a spoiler as I like to bounce around the timeline as I please. Second part is coming soon, in which we'll learn a lot more about Porter. A sniper with an eyepatch? Really?))
((Edit: spelling errors and general corrections))

[ QUOTE ]
Wait a minute. I'm confused.

Samantha Lore is the quivering lump of humanity who's mooching off of her high school friend and currently hiding under a desk in a bank as it's being robbed, isn't she?

Where did we jump from that to Samantha being a successful super-villain with a soft heart and a missing mother?

Heck, where did we transition from being a burgeoning hero in denial to a villain of any stripe?

[/ QUOTE ]
You're following my stuff? oo Okay, then I have some explaining to do. Natually, this was a huge jump in time. Some seven years after the bank robbery, and I'll explain everything in the origin story once I've got time to sit down and write the thing. I've already made a few comics about Dr. Lore previously (they're on the Freedom boards, but I can PM you the links) and I've been telling her origin story here seperately. I've already got other projects I've wanted to write about doc, I just haven't had the time or inspiration to do it.
Hmm... however, I think it's time for me to finally write that character profile.

[ QUOTE ]
I have one thing to note...

The Restructurist Faction is the Rikti group opposing the Traditionalists, not the Reconstructionists.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, my bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

Edit: Fixed a couple of errors.

I decided this story was best told in comic book format:

Click Here!

Summary: A tale of a villain's past, from the point of view of someone who shouldn't be alive.

Samantha couldn't put her finger on why the ATM outside the bank was out of order, until she remembered that it was an ATM in King's Row. Both Penny and Samantha sighed in discontent together.

"Guess we'll have to go inside..." Penny said quietly, and continued talking as she headed to the front glass doors. "Wait in that giant line..." Samantha followed silently, also not pleased at having to wait in line but at the same time thankful that she wasn't filling out job applications for once.

Inside were other customers who were frustrated with a lack of an ATM as the line to each banker were at least ten people in length. Penny and Samantha took their places in the back of the line, and Samantha allowed her eyes to wander in boredom. She glanced around at some of the people in line, and a couple of other disappointed patrons filling out deposit envelopes by desks near the back.

"Why do you think dreams are just dreams?" Penny suddenly asked. "Everyone should have some dream to look foreword to."

"Not me." Samantha mumbled, not even looking at her friend. "Dreams never come true."

"Well, you have to make them come true. After my grandpa was killed by Hellions carjacking him, I wanted to do something. I was determined to make sure that never happened to anyone else. So I became a..."

"Shh, public." Samantha reminded, tugging on the long sleeve of Penny's shirt. An eyebrow went up when she felt a layer of spandex under the cotton. "Do you have to wear your... um... uniform under your clothes?"

"Yep." Penny chirped. "Never know when somethings gonna strike. So, c'mon, I know you wanted to be something when you were little." Samantha stayed silent for a few moments, so Penny threw out a couple of popular childhood career choices. "An acrobat, a fireman, a lion tamer, something like that?"

"What about you?" Samantha decided to answer a question with a question than say nothing at all. "What did you want to be when you grew up?"

"A fairy princess!" Penny giggled at the surprised look on Samantha's face, then continued. "But when I was ten, I dreamed about being a doctor because I love helping people."

"And now you're... well, not a doctor." Samantha's eyes wandered again as she talked, wondering how much longer they were going to wait. More than anything she wanted the day to be over so she could climb back into bed until all was right in the world.

"Medical school is too expensive, but so long as I can help people, I'm happy." Penny admitted. "Hmm, so what makes you happy? I should have talked about that first. Maybe if we found something to make you happy..."

"A time machine, so we could erase my existence."

"Cheerful as always." Penny sighed with a futile smile. "That's okay, maybe after a couple of burgers you won't be so negative."

"You're always so damn positive." Samantha growled, lowering her head and causing a thick curtain of hair to fall around her face.

"Thinking negatively won't get you anywhere, Sam."

"Well..." Thinking positively will get you killed one of these days. That full sentence nearly came out of Samantha Lore's mouth, and she nearly hurt her own friend's feelings.

Several loud bursts of gunfire at the bank entrance surprised her into a gasp, and she moved with the rest of other scared citizens towards the back wall in fear. Just over the gunfire were a man's barking orders to stay on the ground, but Samantha and Penny huddled under one of the wooden desks with others as several men in black armor moved around the lobby and made sure no one got up to escape.

Panic gripped Samantha and she clutched onto Penny in fear, hiding her face in her friend's shoulder. Penny calmly stroked the girl's long black hair and watched in calm concern as the robbers began moving on their own towards the vault in the back. One armored man with a gun stayed to watch the frightened civilians. Noticing that he was alone, Penny made a decision.

"Sam... stay here. This won't take long."

Samantha gasped, knowing what her friend was up to.

"No. L-leave this to Longbow or something. These guys have guns."

"Sam... I have to do something. Stay here, okay?"

Penny maneuvered out of her frightened friend's arms and dashed towards the lone soldier fearlessly. Just as the man pointed his gun at her with a reprimanding "hey!", Penny gave him a flat-palmed upper-cut to the unprotected jaw and used her other fist to knock him to the ground. Just after knocking the gun away from his stunned hands, she tore off her shirt and jeans to reveal her dark gray and white patterned tights and had a quick few seconds to slap on her skin-adhesive eye mask and pull a lose flap of spandex over her nose.

"Everyone out!" she called. "The heroes are here!"

Samantha watched in amazement as Penny, now Shadez of Grey, started directing the frightened citizens out of the lobby to the unguarded front door. It was moments like those that made her wonder if she could be a superhero too, but at the same time she couldn't help but wonder why Penny would just jump into harm's way knowing she could get killed.

"Sam! Get going!"

The girl was shocked out of her wondering at the sound of Penny's snapping, and noticed that it was now just the two of them and an unconscious bank robber.

"Run outside, we'll meet up for lunch later."

"You're not gonna take care of them all by yourself?!"
Samantha found herself doubting her own friend, but this was an instance it came naturally. "They have guns and who knows what else. We should just get out of here while we have the chance!"

"Samantha..." Penny shook her head. Her face was hidden by two different masks, but Samantha could see the light, hopeful smile in Penelope's eyes. "I have to do something."

Samantha hesitated; there was no talking Penny out of it now. Just like in the Rikti War. Samantha managed a quick "be careful" as she ran for the door. Penelope nodded to herself, then headed after the other robbers. She was uncertain, but determined. This was what she loved doing. Helping people by saving the day.

***

Samantha didn't take more than three steps outside before she noticed more of the black armored men heading for the bank entrance. Muttering a lone curse word, she panicked and ran towards the quickest cover: back to the bank. She ended up back under the wooden desk she was just hiding under as the others entered and scanned the now empty lobby. She could only watch as they walked past their fallen comrade towards the safe in the back.

Only when the coast was clear again did Samantha realize that Penny was nowhere in sight.

***
Penelope Whittle
Samantha Lore
Shadez of Grey

Writing scenes that are nothing but dialogue were always fun for me to read/write. I love seeing these pulled off flawlessly and this is one of them. Great story.

Oh! I was wondering if the comic would continue. I cried when hypercomics.com uglified itself into mashon.com and completely left out Neighborhood Watch (they [censored] my comic book series too ;_
I'm so happy to see this awesome series come back!