MadGremlin

"Sleep?" The golem questioned.

"Yeah, like when your not awake beating the crap out of something you take a break." Sting replied, sarcasticly.
Sting stayed up with Newton for some pizza and introduced it to the golem (who of course enjoyed it thoroughly). Then he also followed suit and hit the sack.
"You keep watch there big fella." He said to the golem as he climbed the stairs. The golem simply nodded quietly and tried to eat the cardboard pizzza box. He decided the box was not nearly as tasty as the pizza and left it on the table.

The golem stood like a statue in the middle of the room.

At precisely midnight an odd breeze cleared the clouds from the sky revealing a full moon. The golem’s eyes flared and he moved forward with surprising speed. Just as he was about to smash through the oft-repaired front door of the Two-Six he stopped and seemed almost confused. He reached his massive hand down to the door handle and gently opened the door, stepped out, then closed the door. He then proceeded on his way, leaping several city blocks at a time until he hit the shore.

There he stopped for a few moments, considering the water. His question seemed to be answered as a passing cargo ship’s horn grabbed his attention. In a few leaps he was on the ship and heading toward the Rogue Isles…

Nick, in other areas (the Rogue Isles in specific) known as the deadly CheapTrick, sat idly at the bar, sipping his drinks and awaiting his food. Finally his curiosity got the better of him – something that had both cursed him and served him well in the past.

“So miss Narshawn,” he said, to get her attention, “what is this sisterhood thing all about anyway? Some kind of hero group?” He took a slow sip of the scotch and savored the smoky flavor as he tried to read her amazingly blank expression.

((OOC: Sorry for the lack of posting...stuck on jury (federal jury even! ) duty on the same week when most nights were busy as well. 'Nick' will sit quietly drinking and perusing the menu for a little while here.))

He laughed to himself a bit. A Hawaiian championship surfer – why not, this is Paragon after all.

When Narshawn had a moment he asked for a menu and a wine list. When she delivered them he perused the menu as he sipped his drinks.

“You could spend a whole night just sampling the bar in this place and not make a dent in your offerings.” He commented, thoroughly considering that very thing.

The golem carefully picked up the cookies and looked at them. Then, observing Newton and Smurd’s technique, ate the cookies in between sips of tea.

[ QUOTE ]
Mystic thumbed through the book, releasing tiny wafts of the book's magic simply by touching its pages.

[/ QUOTE ]

The golem stopped and stared at the book as Mystic flipped through it. Small orange flames seemed to flicker in his dark eye sockets. Then as quickly as the flames appeared, they disappeared once again.
_ _ _ _ _

Sting looked up at Mystic, then at Smurd, then back to Mystic. “Um, so what about Bermuda? Something you want to let us all in on?”

“Neat for the scotch and the Labrador sounds great for the beer.” A bit of a smile touched the edge of his mouth, but turned to a frown with the mention of mission injuries.

“So this group must be heroes? Dangerous business for certain.” Yup, just his luck to pick a place full of heroes. Still, despite the feeling that the woman behind the bar could see through him, at the same time she made him feel comfortable. He raised the glass of scotch. “To good food and good drink.” He said quietly, then took a smooth, even sip, savoring the smoky flavor.

[ QUOTE ]
And what about you, sir?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Well there was the inevitable question. He doubted the stock ‘import/export business’ response would go over well. “Me? I spent some time in the military.”

Just then an Asian woman wearing shorts and a lei walked into the bar - distraction from having to talk about himself, perfect. He nodded and gave a slight smile to the woman as she sat down.

“Tea?” Golem questioned, glancing at Sting.

“Sure, give it a try big fella.” Sting said with a shrug before turning back to Mystic. He locked eyes with Mystic for a moment and said “Thanks.” Then quickly turned back to the map.

“Rogue Isles, eh? Sounds like my kinda place.” He looked at Smurd. “So your plan is to just ‘pop’ into the stronghold of this Recluse yahoo and kick [censored]? Hopefully this guy is a hermit because if he has a zillion minions we might be in for a little shock. Boss, you sure we have this planned out?”

The golem, accepting the tea, watched how Mystic drank it. The cup and saucer looked tiny in his huge hands but he managed to carefully lift the cup – pinky pointing out – and take a sip. The scene was almost comical as the giant stone and clay golem gingerly sipped tea from a seemingly miniature cup into his metallic skull.

“Tea is good.” He rumbled after a couple sips.

“Um, hi there, I’m Nick.” Despite his own exploits (including, on the inside, being as much machine as man) and daily exposure to the oddities of heroes and villains seeing Narshawn behind the bar still caused some pause. That and he was still a bit paranoid about being recognized no matter how slim that chance.

“The bar is…alive?” He smiled and shook his head. “Why should I expect anything less? You have an impressive array of alcohol here, but I think I have to go with the 30 year Laphroaig and a beer on the side – perhaps a stout or a porter.”

Realizing he was still wearing sunglasses inside, he slipped them off and tucked them in a pocket. With an almost imperceptible whir the cybernetic eye immediately adjusted to the change in light level.

He could feel the chill coming off of the woman and for a moment thought about what that existence would be like. “So what was with the long downtime of this place? Remodeling or something?” He tried to smile at the wispy ice-woman as she floated past, and started to relax just a little bit.

It took a moment to take it all in and he was almost stunned at the display. The bar area was literally a step into another world for him.

“Thanks…Marty” He said as Martin returned to the front, unable to resist a littler jab.

As he walked in, almost wide-eyed, as he took in the array of liquor. A quick look at the pool table also surprised him; it was actually a high quality, professionally leveled table – something he hadn’t seen in quite a while. He sat at the unique bar and a genuine smile crossed his face. “Yeah, this really was a good idea.” He said out loud as he nodded to himself.

He ran a hand along the bar, admiring the amazing wood, before looking for what would start his night. “Oh my…30 year Laphroaig scotch?! Better start there.” He looked up to see if he could get the attention of the hovering bartender.

[ QUOTE ]
"Good evening, Sir," oh for the old days, where men went to work in suits, even worked on their cars in shirt and tie, "Welcome to Ladies by the Lake. I am Martin. Would you care for a table in the restaurant or perhaps, in the bar?"

[/ QUOTE ]

He could feel the disapproval despite Martin’s obvious years of training and experience. There were times and places where he wouldn’t have taken that kind of disrespect, but this was not one of them, and plus he knew that Martin was right.

A touch of grin peaked one corner of his mouth as he resisted falling into an obnoxious persona just to bug Martin.

“Hello Martin, I’m Nick.” He answered in carefully cultured non-distinct, unaccented American English. “I think the bar will do fine, thank you.”

It took significant willpower not to spin around as the front door opened behind him. Instead the finished the initial flinch as a slow turn to view who was entering as he proceeded to the bar area.

When he walked in he instantly noticed the smell. It almost overwhelmed him and he breathed deeply in through his nose – one of the few remaining non-cybernetic senses.

The place was beautiful inside making him think he should have rented a tux or at least a suit. A glance at his reflection on a glass surface made him wince – his brown, shoulder-length hair was somewhat unkempt and his modest height and frame didn’t make the rumpled shirt look any better. Shrugging he moved in – the fine smells wafting from the kitchen were too much to resist. Maybe he could sit in the bar and wouldn’t look too much like a vagrant.

He eyed the carnie woman as he waited, hoping she would be seated well away from him. The last thing he needed was someone picking his brain and finding out something he didn’t want known. Despite years of mental exercises and some electronic shielding he knew nothing was 100% sure. He decided to concentrate on the smells, seeing if he could discern what they were. His mouth watered as he thought about the impending meal and hopefully some good wine to go with it.

He disengaged the anti-gravity module and dropped silently on to the roof. He crouched behind a large roof fan and turned off the cloaking device. He was dressed in a camouflage bodysuit only broken up by a few metal spikes.

He looked around as he opened a backpack and slipped on the clothes he had carried there. Even in the jeans and dress shirt he moved with almost complete silence and his movements were perfectly choreographed and precise.

He breathed deeply as he stuffed the backpack under a duct. He pulled off the mask and tucked it into the back of the shirt. “This is stupid.” He said to himself as he shook his head. He knew he shouldn’t be here but he had come this far – all the way from the Rogue Isles – so he might as well go through with it. He put on a pair of narrow, blue-tinted mirror sunglasses to cover his clearly cybernetic right eye. The scar still showed both above and below the glasses, though.

He’d survived eating bugs in the Amazon and scorpions in the desert.
He’d gone days without food and water.
He’d eaten garbage during urban missions.

All that was part of his past jobs.

But when he had a chance, his weakness was good food. The talk of Gal’s Place restaurant in the King’s Row district of Paragon both before and during his latest assignment in the Isles had just tempted him for too long.

It was a big risk, but one he had to take or he’d go crazy.

He looked down at the entrance and saw what looked like a hero enter the place. Soon after him a carnie gracefully strode in. He wasn’t sure what a carnie was doing in King’s Row walking into a place like this but she did look a little different than most he had seen.

He shrugged and noted that the street was clear. He jumped down and landed with very little sound, then walked to the front door and let himself in.

Sting cocked his head and looked at Newton. “Man, you look terrible.”

He sat down on the front steps of the 2-6 and re-told the story of passing through the gate into the dark, sealed area, then finding the golem and then returning to find the Longbow agents and disguised Circle of Thorns mage.

“So, um, since we were gone so long, and our record before that wasn’t what I’d call ‘stellar’, apparently some yo-yo’s downtown thought that we were not fulfilling our debt to society. Oh yeah, I’m in big trouble, but I think they have it out for you too, Newton.”

Sting sighed. “Anyway, apparently this golem thing wants to find and beat on Circle of Thorns and find out more about his creators, the Cult of Mu, which is Mystic’s little pet project as well. So somehow this all ties in together – well except that you and I seem to be just along for the ride.”

He leaned back on the stairs. “Oh and some yahoo with a big sword is here too…he must be the boss’s toady or something.” Sting said in his typical irreverent tone.

[ QUOTE ]
Mystic faced Sting again. "Once more from the top. You found him where again? And what was a Madness mage doing here with... were these Longbow agents?" The mage knelt by one of the agents. "And what exactly were they doing escorting a madness mage to our precinct?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Sting sighed. “He was buried in a tomb like place. I ended up there when I jumped through that gate to escape the mob in Orenbega. He’s a golem – you know a magically animated construct.” Sting looked at Mystic with a sort of ‘well duh’ kind of expression, as if Sting were a third grader explaining quantum physics to Stephen Hawking.

“Oh and the poor Longbow dudes and the bureaucrat were here to arrest me, but golem here sniffed out the fact that the guy was actually a Circle mage. Pretty sure the Longbow guys had no idea what he really was – to them he was just some stuffed shirt that needed some protection.”

Sting looked at the documents they had been holding. “I guess I wasn’t fulfilling my ‘community service’ appropriately.” Sting shook his head. “Looks like there might be a little problem explaining this and I may be spending a little time in the Zigg.”

The golem spoke up in his deep, gravelly voice, “I was constructed by an archmage of the Cult of Mu to aid in their destruction of the Circle of Thorns. Since this battle still rages I must determine the status of both the Mu and the Circle of Thorns.” The golem almost looked uncomfortable for a moment. “It would seem that the odd circumstances of my activation have given me a sentience not anticipated by my creators.”

Sting looked a bit surprised as Mystic and some other dude with a sword rushed out of the precinct building. He noted the odd activity of the fiery magic on the golem.

“Um, nice to see you too, boss. Glad you’re not…well, dead.”

The golem put its two massive fists together, forming a block of stone, and brought it down with considerable force. When the dust cleared the broken body of the Agony mage lay in the middle of the newly formed crater. The golem looked up at Mystic and Smurd, almost seeming to scan them. He then took a step back and stood still as a statue once again.

“The strong, silent guy is some kind of golem. Apparently he was created a long time ago by some Mu guys to fight the Circle of Thorns but was never activated. Well, until I stumbled into his cozy little home while trying to escape that little party in Orenbega you took us to.”

Sting was about to continue when the golem spoke up. “I must find Mu and Circle of Thorns. Direct me.”

Two red and white clad Longbow agents flanked the short, balding, slightly pudgy man as he approached the twenty-sixth precinct building – it was clear he was taking no chances in the Row or with the Two-Six. Though it was not particularly warm out, the man, wearing a cheap brown suit and tie, padded his forehead with a handkerchief as he paused at the front door. In his hand was a stack of somewhat rumpled but official looking papers.

“Place looks deserted, Mr. Upjohn.” One of the Longbow agents stated to the man in the suit.

“I knew this whole idea was a bad one from the start – heroes can’t settle down like this and certainly not the group of losers that were assigned to this place.” The other agent said with distaste.

The first Longbow agent looked a bit surprised at the comment but didn’t make an issue.

Mr. Upjohn looked through his papers then sighed. “Well, looks like we have to put out a warrant for the arrest of Poison Sting and Newton’s Apple due to non-completion of required community service. We’ll leave the ‘Cease and Desist all Superheroic Activities’ notice here I guess.” He shrugged but a sly grin crossed his face.

A single spine struck the papers, sticking them to the front door of the Two-Six.

“Hey chumps, you looking for me?” Sting smiled. “We weren’t derelict in our duties, we were on a field trip. Of course I don’t have a clue where the others ended up or even if they survived.”

Slightly behind sting the giant golem stood silently.

The Longbow agents turned and immediately drew their weapons.

Mr. Upjohn simply smiled and stepped forward. “Mr. Poison Sting, you are hereby requested to cease and desist all superheroic activities and surrender yourself to the local authorities, Longbow, Hero Corps, or the FBSA.” He crossed his arms smugly.

One of the Longbow agents pulled out a PDA and tapped out a few commands. “Um, and who is this ‘thing’ with you. It is not registered as a hero in Paragon City.”

“Aha, harboring a superpowered being – we can add to your already long list of crimes Mr. Sting.” Upjohn chuckled. “Looks like you are definitely taking a trip to the Zigg.”

Sting weighed his options, trying to decide if he could take out both Longbow agents before the bureaucrat got away. Of course adding assault of Longbow agents to his growing list of crimes wasn’t going to help his cause.

Before he could decide the golem suddenly stiffened. “Enemy detected!” He grumbled and moved forward. “Eliminate Circle of Thorns!” He shouted as he grabbed Upjohn by the front of his cheap suit.

Bullets from the Longbow agents ricocheted off the golem’s skin leaving little more than scratches.

Sting stood, shocked, for a moment, unsure of what to do when suddenly a burst of dark energy came from the man. As the cloud of darkness settled Sting saw an Agony Mage where the man had been a moment earlier. The Longbow agents didn’t have a chance to move before the former Mr. Upjohn waved his arms and dark energy drained the life from them.

The golem, still holding the remnants of the suit, seemed un-phased. One of his already massive fists expanded into a huge stone hammer and he struck the Agony mage, knocking him to the ground. Before the mage could get to his feet another swing of the hammer sent him tumbling.

“Hey, you don’t get to have all the fun big buddy.” Sting said as he leapt at the mage, shredding his cloak with a series of cuts with his spines. The mage was tough though and used his dark energy to heal himself at the expense of Sting and the golem.

As Sting hurled Newton through the gate he took time to take one last look at Mystic battling furiously against the horde. He resisted the urge to leap into the fray and instead launched a handful of spines at a nearby mage. He turned and leapt through the gate, but not before the mage had launched a bolt of dark magical energy.

Sting didn’t see the bolt strike the gate as he passed through but he certainly felt the effect. The normal mild disorientation of gate travel was replaced by a gut-wrenching pain. Sting tried to scream but nothing came out and all he saw was a swirl of dark and light. Finally the lights went out and he slammed into something cold and hard.

He had no idea how long he was unconscious but he awoke it total darkness. He could move and was alive (he couldn’t hurt that bad and be dead), but was totally blind. No, not blind, he was underground and there was no light at all. His motion sensitive antennae allowed him to get a vague idea that he was in a large room containing rubble. The gate he came through was on one end and there was an exit on the other.

There was no one else here – apparently he did not go to the same place as Newton or Mystic.

Sting shook his head. “Just my freaking luck.” He murmured, listening to the echo of his voice.

A search of the room on hands and knees revealed that the gate may have been buried and he had burst through the rock when he came through. “Well that explains the headache.”

Beyond the room was a hallway that lead to several rooms – all equally dark and devoid of life. He could tell that a couple rooms seemed to be set up as some sort of magical laboratories but it was hard to tell in the dark. He searched for some light source but the wall sconces contained nothing but ash. During his search he knocked a metal rod onto the floor and lit up briefly. Finding it again he struck it on the hard floor and it started glowing dimly. It was a two-foot long piece of bluish metal with a gold, now glowing, sphere at one end. “Ok, magic might be good for something, but I’m still not a fan.”

Now with light, Sting confirmed his previous hypothesis of magical laboratories. It was quite clear that this area had been empty for a long, long time. Though in this dark sealed area several books still survived.

Sting pushed open a door at the end of the hall. There in the middle of the room was a huge humanoid chained to a slab of rock. The humanoid form seemed to be carved from rock and clay, with a spiked metal head. As Sting approached the arcane symbol on its chest started to glow faintly.

“Sure wish Mystic were here, he would understand this crap…” Sting didn’t get to finish when suddenly the huge figure sat up, showering the room with shattered chains. “What the &#^%?!?!” He shouted, leaping back.

“Masters of Mu, I am prepared to face the enemy.” The thing said in a deep voice.

Spines deployed Sting stood at the ready. “I ain’t no Master of Mu…” He stopped and thought for a moment. “Um, but they sent me. Yeah and we’re supposed to get out of here. Uh, after you tell me who or what you are…um, for security purposes! Yeah, that’s it.”

Sting stood there for a moment as the giant stared at him. He hoped that his rather poorly delivered ruse would work.

“I am a golem created to fight the enemy of the Mu – The Circle of Thorns. We go now.” The golem said as it rose to its feet.

“Uh right. You lead the way buddy…er, golem.” The golem marched forward before Sting was even done speaking and went directly to the portal. In a few moments it had cleared all of the rubble and then stepped back. Red electricity arced from the golem’s hands to the gate, and the gate began to glow.

Without a word the golem stepped through.

“Ah crap I guess I had better follow!” Sting said has he stepped through the fading glow of the portal…

There are some scripts you can use to make TP more 'user friendly', but I agree it is more difficult than other travel powers. But it does seem to fit best.

I also agree that the 'sparks' of super speed don't fit the concept, but running fast is not outside of the scope of the character.

Superleap has no 'aura' but I agree, I would have trouble explaining it conceptually.

TP seems the most logical but I've seen dark auras used with flight and it looks quite impressive.

((OOC: Ok back: I didn’t want Av/Mystic to be all alone…))

[ QUOTE ]
He left a message on the main channel for the Two Six, but there was no immediate response. They were all busy or perhaps they’d just had enough and moved on to other assignments, not bothering to check out with him first.

Nonetheless, he headed to where his message said he would be entering Orenbega, reasonably certain he would be going it alone. And as he flew, he thought of his previous experiences and hoped that things would go more smoothly than usual, but realized that probably wouldn’t be the case.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sting leaned against the rock that was one of the hidden doors to the city of Orenbega.

“Heya boss. Sorry I went missing for a bit there - just needed a little R-and-R.” He held up a fancy looking radio/phone. “Saw your request and thought I’d stop by and see if you could use a hand. Not that I really relish the idea of taking on these Circle dudes but I didn’t want you to go down there by yourself.” He smiled at Mystic, a bit of his smugness returning.

“Lead the way…”

CHARACTER NAME: Mad Gremlin
DORM ROOM/LOCATION: Penthouse Apartment in Talos Island (soon to move)
STORYTELLER: Mad Gremlin
THEME SONG: “Just Got Lucky” – Joboxers, “Walkin on Sunshine” – Katrina and the Waves
SHORT DESCRIPTION: Short, green-skinned, gremlin with large ears. Wields magic based on probability and luck, and by nature is incredibly lucky.
PHOTO (URL):
CREY INDUSTRIES FILE (URL): n/a
KNOWN ASSOCIATES (SG): Alliance of Heroes (Pinnacle)

CHARACTER NAME: Steel Dragon/Mark Hanes
DORM ROOM/LOCATION: Unspecified room in an unspecified dorm
STORYTELLER: Mad Gremlin
THEME SONG:
SHORT DESCRIPTION: Average height, slim build, usually smiling. Highly trained in several different martial arts (and familiar with almost all), but somehow always manages to get knocked around.
PHOTO (URL):
CREY INDUSTRIES FILE (URL): n/a
KNOWN ASSOCIATES (SG): None

Sting took the time to hurl a handful of spines at the offending portal, having no idea if his little attack would do any good. Then he turned his attention back to the snakes...lots of snakes.

A wide cone of spines knocked several of them down as he tried to keep them off of Mystic and the rest.

Sting leapt into the midst of the onrushing snakes, letting loose a burst of spines and following it with a series of slashes.

Most of the snakes stopped and swiped at him with their claws, causing him to stagger back.

Sting was late to the party in IP. He had stopped to rest twice on the way. He knew he wasn't 100% but he was going to pull his weight.

"Ok, close the portal. Any idea how we might do that? And an attack on the Zig? That doesn't sound good. But then again, I've been on the inside a few times - not quite sure why anyone would want to attack it."

[ QUOTE ]
"Friends, things have taken a sudden turn for the worse. I can explain in route. Call everyone, Brian, Abrahms, everyone. We're headed to the Independence Port warhouses on the southeastern side." Mystic looked at the readout on the tracking device he'd given Smurd.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Who is Smurd?” Sting asked. “Wait, once again never mind. I really don’t freaking need to know. We’re going to beat up some Thorns, that’s all I need to know.”

Sting got up quickly and grabbed one of the few remaining radios. There was a momentary look of pain on his face but he quickly turned away from the others to hide it.

“Ok, South-East Indy Port, got it.” He headed toward the door, hoping that leaping wouldn’t hurt too much.

Sting had gotten a little rest and then eaten some of the beet soup that Myriam had made. Even though he didn’t taste much of anything anymore, we made a point to tell her it was good – still not sure why he was being nice about it. The hospital called, upset that he had not followed proper checking out procedures.

In the morning he walked around a bit as the newly repaired outer armor shell needed to move to grow correctly. During his little jaunt around the station he continued his tidying up efforts.

[ QUOTE ]
When Mystic returned to the Two Six, he was uncertain of his actions, and sought council with those present. "What do you think?"

[/ QUOTE ]

He overheard Mystic telling the tale of his visit with Azuria and couldn’t help but comment.

“So you gave some sand to a lizard guy?” Sting thought for a moment. “There has to more to it than that. So what does this Mu stuff do?”

He sat down somewhat gingerly and some realization came to him. “Wait, never mind, I really don’t want to know. They are going to use it to summon an aspect of their god and that’s what matters. So anyone else here know any mythology? Last time I checked not a whole lot of snake gods were real pleasant. So unless these dudes are worshiping Quetzalcoatl – and no one mentioned any rainbow colored feathers – this is likely to bring some nasty thing like Set into our world. But hey maybe that trouble will be focused on our buddy Recluse for a while at least.”

He looked up and saw the surprised stares. “Hey, gimme a break, I wasn’t always an unpleasant bug-man, I went to college you know.” He stated, a bit defensively.