Mechagogue

((This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: So a catholic and a protestant walk into a hospital...))

Ernesto didn't find anyone else on the floors he checked, though he did spend several moments at each stairwell exit shouting, "If you can hear, come to the sound!"

When a second explosion rocked the tower he dashed back out into the stairwell, one again warding himself with the sign of the cross. He leapt onto the handrail. Holding his weight off the ground with his arms, Ernesto leaned out into the center of the stairwell and looked up several floors.

"Miss Penny! Miss Milly! Are you still here? I find nobody else, we should go down! No es safe!"

Jon shook his head nd chuckled some more. He stuffed the handerkheif back in his pocket.

"Fine," he said, "Have it your way. Did you at least get the bauble those Hellions stole? Or am I gonna have to sort through this rubble...?

MacMaetor's shoulders slumped as he took in the sheer size of the task that would create.

"Please tell me you got it."

The detective walked back around the corner as his young partner turned the car around. He watching in utter disbelief as El Guapo Grande emerged from the rubble.

"You hero types never cease to amaze," he yelled as he made his way to Guapo, producing a handkerchief from his back pocket and offering it to him. "Here, you got a little," Jon waved his hand in front of his face in a pantomine of dirt, "Something..."

The detective couldn't help but laugh.

The unmarked cruiser screeched around the nearest corner just as the building collapsed.

"Stop here," Jon ordered, snatching the radio off the cradle and screaming into it.

"Dispatch, this is car 2249, we just had a building collapse! Dispatch EMS, Fire, and additional units to 1145 East Maple Drive, repeat 1145 East Maple Drive!"

"Car 2249, be advised, additional units are en route. Keep any civilians away from the scene. What is the status of your hero?"

"My [censored] hero is the jackass that knocked the building down!"

"He started it," the boy pouted, stealing a glance at Nena. She was kinda cute, but alas! Just another in a ridiculously vast number of anthropomorphized animal chicks in Paragon City. Last time Xander checked, the cat-girl heroes had needed their own phonebook.

He looked down at his dusty sneakers, and imagined Baron Zoria in the halls of Oranbega...

~~"Wretch," the Baron said, "Upon your feet is the mystical dust of Oranbega, one speck of which is worth more than ten thousand mortal souls! Return it, or face an eternity of torture so vile that even I cannot figure out what it will be!"

"Come on and take it then," he imagined he would say in return. Oh yeah, he was bad-[censored].

"Very well, fool! But in a thousand years from now, when you regret your very existence, you shall rue this day!"

And in Xander's imagination the entire Circle of Thorns appeared behind the Baron, but they were no match for Starfall! The combined might of Xander and Stelleshand blasted them away in droves, their stubborn souls finally being forced on to the next life.

"Curse you, Starfall," the imaginary Baron Zoria said.~~

Xander grinned, his dusty sneakers suddenly a symbol of his defiance.

Of course, he hadn't been paying attention for a minute or so. He hoped nobody had asked him anything.

[ QUOTE ]
"Living for a few hundred years and being unable to die as your life and family dies around you cold, horrible deaths would make you a bit of a dick too, kid," Ryuji spat.


[/ QUOTE ]

"No it wouldn't," Xander muttered petulantly from his corner, his eyes not leaving his sneakers. They were still covered in Oranbegan dust.

"Why does everyone automatically spout off some tragic justification when you call them on being a goon?"

Because, Alexander, their 'tragic justification' weighs on them. Don't be too quick to jump to harsh judgement.

"Says the guy that made a bomb that blows up mountains."

Stelleshand sighed, figuratively speaking. Apparently the bonding process was making good progress, Xander now seemed to be able to recall it's own memories. The boy always seemed to be able to pick up the most dramatic things.

((Oh no! I made one that can angst! ))

"How 'bout Arachnos then," Xander sniped at Ryuji. The kid was such a contrary know-it-all, it made Xander want to punch him right in his smug face.

He is trying to help. You should welcome the assistance of others. Stelleshand was trying to calm the boy down, but it didn't seem to do the trick.

"Not if he's gonna be a dick about it," Xander retorted. Not only did he make his comment out loud, but it was also louder then he intended it to be. He looked around at everyone, blushing furiously. The boy stuck his hands in his pockets, slouched and tried to disappear into a corner.

"Great! Now they think I'm crazy," this time transmitting his thoughts to Stelleshand alone. Xander could feel their eyes on him even as he stared at the floor.

Especially Pariku.

What was that guy's deal? Did he like kids? Or was he gonna be one of those people that thought teenagers weren't really people and needed to be kept from harm? Xander didn't know which one was worse.

"Well, if it's the Lost who're behind this, they shouldn't be too hard to find," Xander theorized. "They're usually trying to recruit homeless people in Perez Park, and that's not to far from here. Maybe we should head there and start asking questions, Hero-style?"

"Andale, andale!" he called out. Taking the stairs three at a time, he checked each floor for other employees who might still be there.

"Nuestro padre, que está en cielo, santificado es su nombre..." Ernesto chanted as he searched for others.

Ernesto made the sign of the cross when the explosion ripped through the building. He jumped to his feet, not sure what was happening. The fire suppresion system flared to life, alarms blaring and sprinklers dousing everything.

"Dios mio," he cried out, running over to Penny and Milly. Jack had already run out by the time he got there, "Peligroso!" he shouted, too excited to try and remember the English words, "Necesitamos irnos! Consigamos a la escalera!"

He made the sign of the cross once more and pushed open the stairway door, holding it open for the ladies and gesturing emphatically.

[ QUOTE ]
LoL.

How do you think I feel about Essex?

*six years old* ....";_;"

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it's not Hal's fault... it's the Devs....


(Yeah, I totally feel like a heel for that one))

"Ok, Miss Penny. Muchas gracias" Ernesto said happily. "I must get back to work now, so you have buenos noches, y feliz Navidad. !Hasta luego!"

He pushed his cart to the next cubicle with a wave back at the two ladies. He emptied the wastebasket,selected a spray bottle and a sham from his cart, and proceeded to clean the cubicle from top to bottom.

"You being right doesn't prove anything, or help anyone," Xander said irritably, "And it doesn't make you any less a dick."

"Hey?! What the freakin heck, man," Xander dove to the side to avoid the knife, much to his own embarassment.

The boy tried valiently to salvage some shred of dignity as he picked himself up off the floor, dusting off his chest.

"Dude, you're such a dick," he glared in Ryuji's direction. "And you're missing the point. It's one thing to suprise a person on the street, but completely another to suprise someone...err.. something... uh... whatever, well it's different to suprise... Well, him," he jerked a thumb at the image of Baron Zoria.

He stared coldly at Ryuji.

"D'uh," he added as an afterthought.

"I... I don't know," Xander confessed in response to Ryuji, "I mean, there was just... just something different, you know? And, well, he did seem pretty suprised."

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

"Dammit, you idiot," MacMaetor shouted at Guapo as he began to collapse the hideout. the building gave a groan, and Jon gave up the fight, not wanting to be anywhere near the building when it came down.

He sprinted out of the building, yelling at his young partner to get the car ready to get the heck outta there.

Xander, nervous and uncomfortable as it was, shrank away from Pariku's gaze. The boy shifted from foot to foot.

"Uhm... I think the Circle of Thorns thing... uhm... I think they got beat at their own game. I've seen them do this con where they basically steal the soul of someone they're promising power to. But this guy turned the tables on them... Took the power and then killed Baron Zoria....

"But not just killed him, this guy... and he was dressed all in tattered robes and he was tall... well, this guy used one of those cursed soul-sucking thorn blade thingies..."

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

Jon shook his head, there was no way he was gong to make a collar in this chaos. Not unless a task force just so happened to be assembling outside at this exact moment.

"Where's that backup," he barked over the radio, dropping the shotgun and drawing two 9mm's.

Ernesto waved at Milly with a grin. He motioned to Penny.

"Show her it, la photographia," he prompted.

The night janitor smiled when Penny asked him if he would be home for Christmas, but his eyes betrayed his sadness.

"No, Miss Penny," he said, trying to sound happy, "Is too much, y yo no tengo for that. I will work mi otro trabajo. They will pay extra for it, and that will help muy mucho."

((PS: Sorry Mithril_Zeta, didn't know the security guard was a PC. ))

"Gracias," he said sincerely. "She is four now. I have not seen since she was baby. Very soon, I think, I will be able to take her here, and mi espousa."

Ernesto looked around a little nervously. He didn't want anyone to see him not working. He always tried to be a good worker, so he snatched Pennies waste basket and emptied it slowly into his bin.

"Maybe I put... how you say it? .. bounce? at the bottom of stairs. Then you don't get hurt, Si?"

Ernesto perked up when he saw Penny. She was always so nice to him. The scant few minutes he might be able to see her each night were the reason he liked to be early to work.

"Hola, Miss Penny," he said back, rolling his cart to her. "Muy Bien. Y tu? Mira," he said before she had a chance to respond, producing the picture of Anita in her dress and handing it to Penny.

"Dios mio," he gasped as he noticed her bruises, "Are you fine?"

Xander was indeed right behind him. The Dark Nova touched down on the floor of the MAGI office and coalesced back into the young hero, who was breathing rather heavily at the moment.

For a moment he wondered if he was supposed to tell anyone other than Shadowstar what he had seen.

I've taken the liberty of informing the others, Stelleshand related, You have been granted permission to seek outside assistance, the entity told the boy. Stelleshand didn't want to worry the boy with the details it had learned. Besides, he would find out soon enough.

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

"Holy hell, you have got to be kidding," Jon gasped as El Guapo Grande started smashing support columns. The seasoned Detective backpedaled to the entrance, unloading his shotgun in the direction of the Hellions.

Detective MacMaetor was satisfied, for the moment, to cover El Guapo Grande as the magnificent man exacted his particular breed of bare-knuckled betterment of humanity.

He shook his head, as if to dismiss the strangely alliterative thoughts, and focused on the Hellions. If one of them some much as blinked wrong he'd lay down a rapid series of suppresive fire buckshot blasts from his shotgun.

Ernesto Jimenez scratched something behind his ear as he made his way into the lobby of Tharomar Enterprises. He was wearing his customary grey, oil-stained coverall underneath a jacket that was too thin for the December cold.

"Feliz Navidad," he said to the security guard who checked his ID card every night.

For the last two years, Ernesto had been working as a mechanic by day, and a janitor by night. He had immigrated to America from Mexico several years earlier, and since then was working his hardest to make enough money to bring his wife and child to the U.S. as well.

"Mira," he said, showing the guard the picture of his daughter. His English wasn't perfect, and sometimes he slipped back into Mexican. A lot of people thought Mexicans spoke Spanish, but any true Mexicano would point out that Mexican and Spanish were slightly different. Like English and American.

"Isn't she pretty in her Christmas dress?" he asked the security guard.

"Lovely," the man agreed absently.

He was so very proud of his family, but he didn't know many people. Ernesto would show anyone his photos if they gave him half a chance.

After check-in, he made his way to the custodial office in the basement. He hung up his jacket in his locker, and made sure to take his note-pad and pencil out. Though he only had a minimal level of eduction, and wasn't a very strong reader, he loved to sketch ideas he had for new gadgets.

Ernesto loaded up his cart with cleaning supplies, and gave his mop bucket a good scrubbing before filling it with hot soapy water. He then headed for the service elevator and headed up to the offices.

Perhaps there might still be some people in the office to talk to and show the picture of his beautiful daughter in her fancy dress.

[ QUOTE ]
The Hellions had been getting all the news lately, and they were just punks! They weren't even real 'gangsters,' more like angry satanists with guns. And so, the Trollboyz were currently attempting to break into another nondescript Hellion warehouse in the classic way - By ramming the back door with a Caliban.

THUD.

"UNF!!"

[/ QUOTE ]

((My new favorite bit of slapstick))

I'd like to state, for the record, that I like that final "S" in Schizophrenias. It makes him more three dimensional, and implies that he's many different levels of CUH-RAY-ZEE.


Then there's Kreigg...

Kreigg I kinda visualized as a joke at first. Basically, just a guy whose entire life is a string of random beatings, along with being sent flying and crashing into things over and over again.

His original powers were going to be Invulnerability/Fire Melee, Tanker. That was before I redesigned him for Alien Only Inn, where he became an insect-like, cranky lava monster, constantly complaining about the cold.

Then I figured that if he was so cold he wouldn't waste heat on fire-based attacks, and switched to Super Strength. Then I wanted to preserve the flavor of his lava-world upbringing, so I figured Stone-Armor would do the trick.

Though, technically, Kreigg is a Brute in terms of the RPs he joins, in m heart of hearts he remains a tank, and his primary power is his indomitable will to keep going, no matter how savage the beating he receives.

The boy Warshade followed along as best he could, but teleporting that fast was still exhausting.

Remember to use your forms to your best advantage, Stelleshand reminded.

"Right," Xander said aloud, "So... If he's flying.... then I should use... Dark Nova?"

Try it, and we shall see.

The boy erupted in shadow, his body seeming to turn inside out and disappear in a ball of smokey shadowing tendrils. The Dark Nova had no problem keeping pace with Reginald.