Mr_Grey

For several hours, the Redeemers, Trolls and Freedom Corps forces threw their assaults at the nigh-unstoppable beast. Nothing they threw at Grendel seemed to faze him. Whatever this creature was, he was not drawing inspiration from the cowardly behavior of his namesake.

Bullets ricocheted off his skin. Several Longbow troops wound up teleporting to the hospital and Trolls dragged their bleeding bodies away from the fight after they all wound up getting struck by the bouncing projectiles. Throwing objects had a similar result, except Grendel was throwing the debris and detritus hurled at him back.

Fire made him sooty, which he fixed with a stomp into the river that cleared the combatants away just as easily. Conversely, ice was such a minor inconvenience so as to be negligible. Ashen Roast’s friend, Blizzard Front, had frozen the waters around the monster so solidly as to stop an eighteen wheeler. With an application of constant force, Grendel pulled his leg free of the frozen water, scattering large blocks into the surrounded crowd and knocking many into the oncoming waters. Worse, he now had a set of frozen blocks to use on the meta humans trying to stop him.

Oddly enough, actually getting in close and engaging Grendel in hand-to-hand combat was effective. Garm had gotten a few good punches on the gray bulk’s jaw before being punted into one of the overpass’s pillars. After that, Briggs McBain crashed into the much larger man’s knee, knocking Grendel over before the burly little troll tried to drown him.

Unfortunately, despite McBain’s strength, he was much lighter than Grendel. He was lifted and hurled across the river. When the little green man bolted back up and started rushing back to the fight, the monster picked up a small boulder and hurled it so hard at him that it knocked him over backwards and Briggs landed face-first in the water. He didn’t seem to rise again, but he swam to another location to reconsider his strategy.

Nothing could slow the monster down, nothing could weaken his skin. He seemed to respond to force and momentum, but the damage being done was minimal. It was getting so bad that the city’s major heroes started getting involved before Grendel decided to start trying to eliminate the “legitimate” heroes.

Mynx was the first, bounding into the fight and raking her claws across his skin. Sparks flew and the long-horned beast sighed like she had done him a favor before trying to squash her with his massive fists. Hopping, twisting and flipping, she avoided his assaults, but he swept a wave of river water at her that sent her tumbling. Before he could stomp on her, Genji Atomoyo, Garm’s Tsoo sorcerer, appeared next to her in a swirl of whirling colored smoke, grasped her wrist, and disappeared with the catgirl in tow.

As soon as Grendel brought his foot back from where he’d stomped, he felt something kick him in the back of the knee. Stumbling, he swung behind himself for his attacker. Ms. Liberty caught the blow with her forearms and was sent hurtling to the concrete edge of the river. Getting back up, she was barely able to avoid getting flattened by one of the monster’s fists and delivered two more kicks to its mid-section.

Unfortunately, the monster caught her, gripping her torso in one of its hands and pinning her right arm in the grip. Chuckling, Grendel stood triumphantly and presented his prize to the gathered meta humans. He squeezed her a little she let out an anguished cry.

“This-!” his deep voice rumbled before he saw a red fist crash into his nose and send him tumbling backwards.

Statesman caught his granddaughter as she was tossed aside in surprise and cradled her. She looked to him with a small amount of scorn, but hugged him for the help and he set her with some of the Wardens and Ballistae that were arriving to provide more serious support. In the distance, a pair of Cataphract Heavies were trundling into the river to help engage the monster.

The meta humans were going to need the help, too. Grendel was far from beaten, and he was pushing himself back up. Glaring at Statesman, he reached up and gripped his own nose. There was a cracking pop and Mortiganen realized that the monster’s nose had been broken.

“Interesting,” he muttered, “His bones can break… As invulnerable as his flesh may be, if we hit him he feels it. There may be a way to defeat him in that.”

“I think it’ll take all of us hitting him at once, Mort,” Garm said derisively, his back still sore from hitting the concrete pillar, “All of us, every hero in the city, all at once… And they’ve gotta be good hits, not just waving fists at him like a brawler…”

“Scoff as you will, I will work on a method to utilize his strength as his weakness. For now, you and the others must keep the beast occupied!”

“I think Reichsman’s got that covered,” Harold indicated the battle between Statesman and Grendel through gritted teeth, his arm broken in three places after a cinder block had smashed into it, “I bet those two could fight until dawn.”

Statesman did indeed seem to be handling the fight much better than the entire compliment of meta humans. Grendel could barely swing at the smaller man before he had ducked away and smashed a fist against the monster’s jaw or abdomen.

When the city’s champion of champions landed an uppercut and toppled Grendel again, the gathered meta humans, Trolls and all, gave a triumphant shout to applaud him. However, the beast wasn’t beaten, and he stood again. Not wishing to give him the chance for an advantage, Statesman tried to punch him in the head before he could stand.

A massive gray hand shot up at the last second and caught the smaller fist. Undaunted, the hero tried his other fist and that was caught by the other hand. Chuckling, Grendel stood and held Statesman up until their faces were level. With horror, Marcus Cole realized their was intelligence behind those dull red eyes.

“Heh,” the voice was deep and rich, hardly the voice of a monster, “Statesman… What kind of brainless hulk do you think you’re fighting?”

((I know, Rebel. The man's disappearance wasn't entirely the result of the photon seekers.))

A groan down the street alerted the heroes to the van's driver, who was lying facedown on the sidewalk. His outfit was badly burned and his skin seemed rather singed. Also, the fight seemed knocked right out of him, as he was moaning in pain and not doing much else.

"Beacon..." they could hear him murmuring over and over again.

----------

"Hold still, sir, we're trying to help you!" Mark shouted.

He shook his head and turned to his backpack again. Withdrawing a set of syringes, he removed one from the bunch and looked at the instructions written on it intently.

"Okay, Senior Operative... Since your serum's gone, I'm going to have to turn to something more conventional and probably a little more hazardous. Morphine. Rage, move your hand."

The brute moved and Mark applied the drug. As he did, he noted the strange flesh, and looked up at his friend.

"You guys do this to him somehow?"

"No," James replied, "I don't know what did that."

"Maybe the bullet?" Levi (Psycho13) offered.

"No... The stuff on me didn't make me blue and... Glossy..."

"Whatever, it doesn't change anything," Mark pushed Rage away, "Dammit, the Triage Beacon should be closing the wound from the inside out and squeezing the round out! I'm going to have to go in there myself..."

"Stop!" they heard from the entrance.

Turning, they saw a man in a green trench coat and a chest plate covered in glowing green circuitry. Normally, the man wore green shades or goggles of some kind, but he wasn't on patrol, so he didn't have his combat gear.

"You go in there with those instruments, you'll just do more harm than good."

"Cram it, Nester," Shadow grumbled, "Weird tech isn't working properly, so we gotta do things the old fashioned way."

"No we don't," the newcomer, Nester, reached under the bed and withdrew a peculiar glove, "Sheldon's been working on lower-power gloves... The non-combat applications of gravity manipulation haven't been lost on me, so we've been working on this..."

The glove started glowing and the young man gently pushed his friend aside. Mark stumbled backwards, unready as he was for the invisible force on him.

Placing his hand over the unusual wound, Nester set a dial on the glove as a holographic display indicated the depth he was dealing with. He found it odd that the image kept fizzling in and out with each sonar pulse, but he eventually got the depth of the bullet in the wound.

"Alright..." he whispered more to himself than to anyone, "This... This will feel really bad."

"He's on morphine right now, Nes."

The defender-class hero extended his fingers out and a wave issued out into the wound. A moment later, the bullet was dislodged from where it had sunk into Drago's flesh and smacked against the central plate. Nester clenched his fist around it and turned to the others.

"See?" he shouted triumphantly, "Noninvasive. His flesh remains undamaged any further and..."

He stopped as the glove suddenly stopped glowing. Opening his hand, he saw some strange green fluid dripping off of it.

"What the Hell?" he yelped as he shook his hand clean, "What was that stuff?"

"That," Rage pointed, "That's the stuff that got on me earlier!"

"What?"

As the strange dark fluid slicked off the glove, the machine reactivated. Unfortunately for Nester, he turned the palm to himself so he could look at it. A moment later, he smacked himself in the face and toppled to the floor, much to the laughter of the other meta humans.

"Argh!" Drammit! Marrk, starrt thre sruction..." the EMT muttered through his palm.

"Maybe if we get the gunk out of the wound, it'll regenerate under the Beacon's power easier," the corrupter-class rogue agreed and started applying the required apparatus.


Nester, in the meantime, crawled back to his feet and stumbled out of the medical room. He was making his way for the group's workshop and the inventor of the glove. Perhaps Sheldon would be able to shut it down.

-----------

"No idea about any rogues," Oakhammer replied to Dynamo, "They've been getting kidnapped too?"

"Makes sense, actually," another hero muttered, "Maybe they're being processed in another warehouse or facility..."

Randall Grey lives in Kings Row, in an apartment building next to two of those large round water towers (the northeast ones). He works as a handyman in his building and some of the neighboring ones.

Charlene Daring-Grey, his wife, lives with him and works on Doctor Delilah Stein's archaeological team as a zooarchaeologist (animal bones).

Their eldest son, Cedric, lives a couple blocks away with his high school buddy, Matt. The two often serve as bouncers for the bar below them, though Cedric also has a small logging operation running out of Eden (inexhaustible lumber, though it's a little gnarly...) and Matt sometimes works with Lou the mechanic in Skyway City.

Sarah Grey-Durnan (Randy and Charlene's daughter) lives just outside Atlas Park in an enclosed suburban neighborhood with her husband, Joe. Joe is a police officer, and Sarah works as a bartender in Pocket D.

Roland Grey (Randy and Charlene's middle child and second son) lives in the apartment building next to the entrance to the tunnel to the highway to Steel Canyon. He works in that building as the superintendent.

Ezekiel Durj lives in Kings Row, across the street from Randall. He works with Randy in the neighboring buildings.

Nester Durj works as a medical technician in the LaGrange Medical Center. He used to live in Skyway City with his girlfriend, but after an incident with the Knives of Artemis, his lease was revoked and he had to find a new place to live. For now, he's rooming with his best friend since childhood, Roland Grey.

Kipland Durj lives in Skyway City, and for work (I'm sure some of you guys who follow my story have been wondering about this one) was a professional investigator for Freedom Corps. With recent cutbacks, he's been "released to his own recognizance" (laid off) and had to search for a new method of bill paying. A friend introduced him to a fellow hero who worked freelance security and he's been providing assistance for armored car runs.

Sheldon Wallace lives in Steel Canyon just a few blocks from the college. However, he works with Portal Corp. with his Ryat androids. He helps collect and inspect the data the machines bring back or restrain hostile forces that may pour through the portal at odd times.

((Okay, now that was just plain odd.

Any further newcomers, I'd like to take this moment and point out that Gregory Manning in Nerva Archipelago and Henry Wong in Atlas Park are still the main contacts in this situation. If your characters are responding to the e-mail, they should at least converse with them first. If there are any special introductions to be had, please let me know through a PM first (as Ninjin did) so we may discuss it.))

The prisoners explained their identities, one-by-one. Oakhammer and Ripper Shredder were two of some importance, what with Oak's recent kidnapping just a week ago setting off the city-wide investigation and Ripper's association with Bronze Shield.

Most of the heroes were of the scrapper variety, many well below their twentieth security level. The few that weren't, such as Oakhammer and Ripper Shredder, all said they had some form of caveat to their regenerative capabilities.

"I'm plant-based," the green-hued man explained, "My body repairs and regenerates if I have ready access to water, sunlight... Fertilizer..."

"And I..." Ripper's eyes rolled, "I need blood. I don't know the process, or how my system filters out disease, but I need blood in contact with my skin before I can fix myself. If I'm in a fight, that's pretty easy. Those freaks almost killed me before I got a scalpel and hacked one of them open... Weird blood, though... I fixed up alright, but my vision got all warped... Things still look kind of funny and curvy..."

The rest all had similar stories. Apparently, the agents were subjecting the regenerators to a battery of tests. They were careful not to "kill" them, for critical injury would have resulted in the heroes being ported to the LaGrange Medical Center. However, the tests were excruciatingly painful, and a few of the newer or younger heroes passed out long before the tests were completed. Those who had passed were transferred out while the agents waited for further orders on what to do with the rest.

"An incinerator would have been the death of me," Oakhammer explained, "MedCom's great and all, but I doubt the beacon can survive nearly a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. I'm fairly certain whoever was leading these men would have looked for such a method to do away with us."

"It feels weird talking to a Rikti," Ripper muttered, "Or a criminal... But... You guys probably saved our bacon. I guess you're cool in my book. As far as the guys who kidnapped me, I recognized the voice of one of 'em. The guy's name is Clancy Stein, uses the alias of 'Wrecthaus'... He's got a grudge against one o' my buddies, Frank... Frank Wellman. Don't know what he's doing out here, though."

"Otherwise," Oakhammer finished, "You've dealt with the rest of the people who've been keeping us detained. I didn't even know about those shadow-wizard-ninja things. Hopefully, your associates will have subdued the fleeing vehicle."

----------

The van's driver laughed maniacally as Arek pinned him down. He still tried to push the dragon off, and had a little success in moving his limbs about, but it was simply too much weight. Still laughing, the man sneered as best he could at the beast upon him, ready to shout more obscenities.

Then the world disappeared in a flash of bright white light as Pax's Photon Seekers struck home. When the light cleared, a smoldering crater was all that remained of the peculiar lunatic.

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

There was a resounding crash in the super group base where the two bumbling meta humans brought Drago. When Psycho13 looked up from the visor of his flying bike, he saw his brother holding the armored man aloft.

"I told you we were coming in too fast!" the brute shouted, "Now come on!"

They hurtled down the halls with their charge, shouting for anybody in the base who could help them probably should. After a couple turns, they brought the soldier to a medical room and plopped him on a bed. As Psycho13 rifled through a triage manual for information on how to deal with a gunshot wound, Rgaing James kept pressure on the wound.

"What the Hell?" they heard from the medical room's entrance.

"Mark!" Psycho13 tossed the book aside, "Dude, we need help! This guy's dying on us, man!"

"I can see that," the corrupter opened the backpack he'd brought with him and pulled out what looked to be a small black and gray pyramid, "You guys still shouldn't be bringing any random fool into the base... Especially when they're in Arachnos armor!"

Setting the machine next to the bed, he clicked a button and the pyramid's black trim started glowing green. The top of the device started spinning and a green wave wafted throughout the room. This would heighten the regeneration process of the injured man (but only in places where the Venom didn't already take hold!). Mark then grabbed a set of surgical instruments from his backpack and proceeded to inspect them. Once he was sure they were sterile enough (by dousing them in alcohol), he turned to the individual.

"You guys should have called ahead," he muttered as he pulled a paper mask over his face and looked for the device that indicated the operative's identity, "I could have been all ready for this... Senior Operative Drago..."

He blinked a little.

"Wow... Okay, no pressure... I just have to be extra careful... First, sir, I'm going to have to remove the bullet... To help, I'm going to activate your serum. With any luck, it will benumb your sense of pain while I work..."

Without waiting for permission, Mark Shadow pressed the button on Drago's armor to activate the serum. James nodded as he realized suddenly what the Crab Spider had intended to do earlier.

Cassie's work with the cyborg head actually came pretty easily. The charred flesh peeled off like it had been wrapped around the steel and some blood slicked off the steel. The odd thing was that it seemed to be actual flesh and blood. However these machines pulled that one off was certainly a medical marvel.

Hacking the device, access turning out to be a concealed USB port under a door-like plate, revealed a diagnostic program and a set of directives and instructions contained on the hard drive. Most of them dealt with security protocols for "affiliated companies." Others were more specific, related to how the "agents" should behave in case of meta human intervention. According to the notes, they'd acted precisely as they were programmed. There was also a portion on the drive apparently dedicated to to the personality of the agent. There were files on the man's family, his birthday and even the day he died.

According to the files, the agents were on loan from a security company called "Ayre/Webber Strategic Security." According to the coordinates, the company was based in London.

Dynamo Rose's inspection of the list of regenerators that were missing brought up some interesting results. She had both "hero" and "rogue" names in her file, but the individuals in the cages only matched the descriptions of some of the missing heroes. Roughly two thirds were still missing, and some of the individuals didn't even match the names on the list.

One of the unknown ones narrowed his eyes at her.

"I've heard of you," he hissed, "You're from the Isles! What the hell are criminals doing here!?"

"You think that's crazy," the one called Oakhammer grumbled, "Take a look over here. We have a Rikti standing guard over us."

"Aye-ca-rumba!"

----------

The van smoldered on the street. As Pax descended on the wreckage and Gentleman Bones approached, there was a bright green flash from the cargo box. The driver door then smashed open and what looked to be a very angry man emerged with an assault rifle.

"Lousy freaks!" he shouted hoarsely, "You think I'm goin' to the Zig, you got another thing comin'!"

He started firing erratically at the two meta humans. Bullets streaked wildly through the air and the man pulled a grenade from his belt to hurl at Gentleman Bones. He seemed either crazed or drugged, probably both.

I added another chapter to Grey's Army. Roland and Nester hash out the reason as to why Randy and Kip think the Council is involved in the kidnapping and Roland gets a visit from his unusual friend that helps ease his troubled mind.

“I’m sure it tastes great,” he muttered to the fire-haired young woman thrusting the pie under his nose, “But… Look, Rose… You’re nice and pretty and all, but you came on too strong, too fast, and for a guy like me and the work I do outside this building… It just makes cause for concern. Okay? I can’t accept it.”

The shapely woman pouted and nodded with disappointment. Roland watched her turn and walk away. He didn’t watch her for very long, just enough to make sure she wasn’t going to try to come back. When he turned back into his room, Nester gave him a reproachful look.

“Come on, man,” he said quietly, “She’s just trying to be friendly.”

“I don’t know what her game is, but she ain’t being friendly. A girl built like that doesn’t come on to a guy who looks like me at first sight. I don’t care what the circumstances are.”

“Really? Or is it just because you can’t accept anyone who isn’t—?”

The bigger man’s narrow-eyed glare cut him off.

“You’re like a brother to me, man, so I’ll let it alone if your commentary ends here. I would trust you to leave this part of my life to me.”

Nester sighed, shrugged and nodded. Most the rest of his friend’s family had either lost their minds with rage or shut down. Nobody could believe that someone had just stolen the latest member of the Grey family, a child born under somewhat bizarre circumstances, and the stress was certainly pressing upon them. Only Roland seemed unaffected, publicly, but in the safety of his apartment, Nester saw his grief.

It was in little, subtle things. The deliberate way he went about his work, the sullen footsteps to the apartment door when he had to leave, or even how he seemed to take every pause just a little bit longer than the last one. He was suffering quietly, angrily, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. He wasn’t a brawler like his brother or Kip. He was barely even an effective vigilante, no matter how many weird arrows he volleyed at the criminals.

Nester turned his thoughts from his friend for a moment to consider the problem causing the grief. He still couldn’t figure out why his little brother was ransacking random Council cells. While the Council had been known to hunt Kheldians regularly (what with two of their commanders being Nictus, their mass manufacture and sale of Quantum Array guns, the training of the Void Hunters, and their Galaxy troops apparently incubating the next generation of Nictus invaders), there was no proof the Council, in its heightened state of paranoia and alert, had the concentration to accomplish a spur-of-the-moment kidnapping. In Nester’s experience, it was more likely that the Malta Group or the Nemesis Army wanted the child. Heck, if it weren’t for the fact that Arbiter Taylor had calmed down his vendetta against Cedric, he’d think Arachnos had a hand in it as well.

“Archon White gave dad a heads-up,” Roland replied when Durj voiced his concerns, “Said he didn’t know exactly who was going to move on the hospital, just that the Center was giving fair warning.”

“Why would the Center care about your family’s affairs?”

“Don’t know.”

Roland popped open a pair of sealed plastic containers and started pulling marinated fish from one and plopping them in the other container that seemed full of some sort of bread crumb and seasoning mixture. He then filled a pan with oil and started heating it.

“I don’t know what a man in charge of a cult-like, nationless army would want from my father…” Roland slapped one of the coated fish into the pan, “…My mother… My brother… Me… My sister… Or my newest sister… I just know he’s taken some kind of mild interest, and it’s gotten Angel kidnapped!”

He watched the fish sizzle and Nester gripped his shoulder. When the big man turned to his friend, his eyes were wet with tears, but that was as far as they were going to get. Roland Grey never made much of a show of his emotions. Nester wondered briefly if he even knew how to.

After dinner, the stoic man went to his room. Nester got dressed and prepared for the late shift in LaGrange Medical Center. He volunteered for it a lot lately. It was the only thing that helped him sleep. It was the only thing that got his mind off the troubles his family and friends were suffering. He still couldn’t believe that he was in love with a Knife of Artemis, that his mother was one, too, or that his father was host to what could possibly be a dangerous, malevolent force waiting to claw its way out of him and wreak terror on the world. He didn’t let his dad know his worries about Androm’Geizzer, but the stories he’d heard some of the other Kheldians mention made his skin crawl, and the Warshade practically admitted the legends were mostly true. It made trusting Geizzer’s redemption that much more difficult.

There was a knock at the door as he finished dressing. Upon answering it, he found a young blonde woman standing there that he certainly knew of, he just didn’t know her well.

“Hey,” he whispered, “Um… I don’t think Roland’s in the mood for company.”

“I know,” Jessica replied, “I heard about it. How’s he holding up?”

“Not too good, not too good at all. He puts up a strong front, but he’s a mess inside.”

Jessica Cole nodded and stepped inside. Nester would have stopped her, but he felt that Roland shouldn’t be left alone at this point, either. Checking his watch, he took his leave and departed. He would have preferred to stay for a moment to make sure things stayed alright, but he was starting to run late.

Ms. Liberty found her friend sitting quietly in his room at the edge his bed. He seemed to just be staring at the window sill. One shoe sat on the floor next to him, the other was untied, but remained on his foot.

“You okay?” she asked as she stepped softly to his side of the bed.

“No,” he replied quietly, his voice even and soft in a way she’d never heard before, “I’m not okay by a long shot.”

Sitting next to him, she put her arm around his shoulders and started giving him a hug. He turned to her suddenly, his right hand moving up to push her hand off.

“I’m just trying to comfort you,” Jessica explained, “like-”

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable with Nester trying to comfort me like this… And I feel much the same about you, but for entirely different reasons.”

“So… What? You think you’re the only one who’s allowed to give out hugs?”

She clamped her hand on his shoulder and finished the half-embrace. Roland’s hand remained on hers, but he gave it a gentle squeeze instead of trying to pry it off. They remained like that for a moment, quietly absorbed in the emotion.

“I don’t know what to do…” he whispered after a couple minutes.

“Nobody does,” she replied, “It’s a terrible thing, Roland, and I’m sorry it’s happened to you and your family. You don’t have to deal with it alone, though.”

“I’ve been trying not to.”

“I know… But… Your family and your friends… You’re all so intrinsically linked… I think it’s hard for any of you to concentrate properly on this…”

“Some would disagree.”

“Yeah… Your friend, Kip, he’s ruined about five or six investigations into the Council’s plots because he’s ransacked bases we’ve been monitoring. Still, that brings me to my point… Freedom Corps could help you guys! We could provide information on anything our network comes across! Roland… You’ve been a good friend to me, above-and-beyond what I’ve ever expected out of anybody outside of my Vindicators. Let me do this for you… Let me help you find your sister.”

“You have information on what happened?”

“Well…”

“And you didn’t bring it to us immediately?”

Jessica removed her arm from Roland’s shoulder and clasped her hands on her knees. Biting her lower lip, she tried to come up with a proper explanation.

“Your father filed for secession from Freedom Corps…”

“Right. He doesn’t see the benefit anymore, what with the fact that you’re no longer footing the bill for a basic base plot.”

“Well, we had to make some cutbacks in order to maintain our other operations… Roland… We also have a policy of… Withholding information from unaffiliated groups until the data has been reviewed and the security clearance of the recipients checks out…”

“Meaning?”

Roland’s eyes narrowed and he leveled them squarely on Jessica’s.

“Meaning that we got some intelligence on the Council… Look, Agent Wild wanted to tell you guys, he really did, but the Security Division was forcing him to go through hurdles… He finally told me about it… Roland… I’m so sorry…”

“My sister… Was kidnapped…”

“Roland…”

“…Not by Bureaucratic Red Tape, but by a nurse who was bribed,” the portly man sighed, “Look… I would expect that sort of thing, but we were already informed of something going down and we took what precautions we could… In the end… It wasn’t enough. They snuck her out of LaGrange as easily as if they could have walked in and picked her up themselves. Even if you’d told us that the Council was on the move, we’d have come to the same end.”

She took his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze. It always seemed silly to her that this guy who was about as tall as she was had such a massive paw for a hand. Still, she was able to make do and smiled at him when she looked up and saw his face had softened.

“We could still help in the search,” she finished, “If we have our eyes and ears open for any information that could help, I’m certain we could locate Angel and mount a proper rescue!”

Roland chuckled a little and pulled his other shoe off. He muttered something that Jessica didn’t quite catch. When she asked him about it, he looked at her again, his eyes twinkling with mild amusement.

“Only in a world like this can a kidnapping be resolved by people in spandex-clad jumpsuits and a session of fisticuffs. If only it were so easy…”

“I know I’m making it sound simple,” Cole patted his shoulder and stood to leave, “But I’m serious, Roland. Whoever did this hurt you, and if they hurt you, they hurt me, because you’re my friend. I don’t take lightly to anyone who hurts me or my friends. I’m going to help you any way I can to make sure this monster pays.”

“Thanks,” Roland nodded appreciatively and smiled at her, “It’s nice to know we’ve got someone in our corner. I guess I never thought of it like that.”

“Get some rest, Roly,” Jessica said as she headed out, “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I’ve slept,” he muttered back, “I just never got much rest out of it…”

Rachel, a lot of the people you see with character descriptions like that tend not to write here...

As you said, it lacks depth, it lacks realism, and it's very unlikely that it would happen in even "Comic Book World."

Just rest assured that most of these concepts don't get past that initial character biography, and those that do either don't get very far or better have a damn good reason as to how the character avoided a jail sentence.

As for myself, I have a character who recently was arrested for murdering Council soldiers in the streets of Steel Canyon. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to take it, but a court room is most likely in his future.

Okay.... I forgot to mention I added a chapter to Grey's Army a few days ago. It commemorated the new look of the in-game base (a job that DeviousMe/@Acid Zero did a tremendous job on; the base tells a story of its own now, and I felt it had to be mentioned). It also leveled the last hint about the next arc...

Something terrible has happened to the Grey family and Grey's Army is reeling from it. Many don't know how to help, or even how to begin helping, others are simply throwing themselves at the world and coming up short on answers.

Kipland and his father, the Warshade Ezekiel "Zeke" Durj, seek help from Shadowstar, but she freaks out and attacks them for some strange reason. Meanwhile, Cedric Grey, Randall's eldest son, has been arrested for mass murder after he went on a rampage and started dismembering Council troops in the streets of Steel Canyon!

---March… 3rd Week…---

A somber pall hung in the air of the base. The hallways were dark, save for the infrequent flash of the teleportation machine. The members of the Brutal Warriors Order, embroiled in their own problems, steered clear of their hosts and hunkered low in the chamber they had claimed for themselves, for there was no longer much humor to be spared.

A great and terrible crime had been committed against the group, especially its leader and his family, and there was Hell to pay. Cedric was in prison for his reaction, and Kip hadn’t slept in days. Charlene clung to her husband ceaselessly, both out of distress and intense rage, and in an attempt to restrain the big man from leveling a city block in an attempt to find their lost daughter.

They thought they were ready for anything, but out of nowhere, the doctor simply told them Angel Daring Grey was gone, and he had no idea how it had happened. One of the nurses was missing, though, and that was enough to tell them the rest of the story. Whoever had stolen the child had either paid off or seeded the nurse into the LaGrange Medical Center’s maternity ward and had her abscond with the child.

Nester countered the “espionage” theory, though. He’d worked with the missing woman a number of times, and she’d always been behind on her bills. All somebody had to do was offer enough money, and she would do the deed.

Roland, however, found that whoever had made the offer wasn’t willing to play it straight. Just two blocks away from the very family she’d victimized, he stepped carefully away from her apartment door and called the police to bring in an investigation team. She was dead, and it looked like she’d been pulled inside out.

----------

The entrance portal flared once again and Kipland Durj came storming down the hall. Zeke stepped in his path and put a hand up to stop his son.

“No time to waste, dad, I gotta move on this tip,” the short young man barked as he tried to step around his father.

“Hang on, Kip… Cathryn called me this morning and said she was worried.”

Zeke swung his arm out and pressed his hand against his son’s chest. A tendril of smoke-like black-purple energy wafted from his fingertips and Kip got the hint that his father was prepared to use the powers of the Warshade within him to stop the angry scrapper. To show his distaste, he turned his head to face the older man and his eyes blazed fiercely. Zeke arched an eyebrow at this, but not because of the attitude.

For almost two years, his son’s eyes had glowed purple, like a Warshade’s. It had been a side effect of almost having a Shadow Cyst Crystal grow through his body and make some kind of horrid abomination. At least… That’s what they’d thought…

“What’s this I hear about you not sleeping?”

“There’s work to be done,” Kip replied, turning his head to the teleportation machine, “I have to get Angel back…”

“Don’t think you can do that alone,” Zeke said softly, “We all want to help in this, and we know precisely who is involved in the kidnapping. There’s only one guy in the Council who has had such a vested interest in the Kheldians of our group.”

“I’ve been looking for information on Zack…”

Kip showed his father his communicator. It had the map of Paragon City displayed upon it as well as several of the “red burst” markers to indicate Council base locations. Many had dark streaks slashed through them. One, located in Baumton, was marked green instead of red or yellow (the common color of an inactive objective).

“What’s that?” the father asked, “the green one.”

“Archon White’s base,” Kip slid the communicator back onto his hip, “I went there first and he said he hadn’t seen Zachariah for the better part of the year. Color me crazy, but I believe him. The whole base was well within the advanced stages, complete with control and observation rooms, a prison, a medical bay, and that damn reservoir. Plus, I’m not sure, but I could have sworn I heard some kind of machining going on, like in a car factory. Something weird’s going on in the Council, and the Center’s shoring up his defenses. Not the Council’s, just his. Positron recently arrested Requiem… His report indicated he was doing much the same. They’re scheming independently of each other, now.”

“It would be terrible if Angel wound up in the middle of a power struggle… Kip… We can’t settle this on our own, flying blind. We need all the feelers we can get. We should get some more dedicated help.”

“Who do you suggest?”

----------

“Shadowstar,” Ezekiel called out, straining to keep his voice warm and friendly, but also with the touch of urgency to indicate he was there for business, “I’d like you to meet—!”

The Warshade coordinator turned to them and her eyes widened. Shouting something about “knowing he’d never change,” she hurled a blast of dark energy at them. The beam split apart, one arcing for Zeke, the other for Kip. Zeke’s dissipated harmlessly off his body, but Kip was knocked flat on his back where he started coughing and trying to recover his breath.

“What the Hell!?” Androm’Geizzer’s voice issued from Zeke’s mouth, echoing along with the human host’s, “Shadowstar, what’s gotten into you!?”

The woman reared for another attack, but Zeke closed in and caught her by the wrist. Looking angrily into her eyes, but with a lot of bewilderment as well, she realized she was making a terrible mistake.

“I… I’ve heard rumblings,” she stammered, “My contacts… They’ve been talking about Arakhn moving fast and working big deals… I thought… I thought you’d come to try to kill me…”

Androm’s silence worried Zeke this time. How much longer was the Nictus going to take this abuse? He’d argued until he was metaphysically hoarse that he had turned a new leaf, but nobody would believe him. Lately, he’d just been putting up with the verbal punishment. When Zeke asked him about it, the creature had simply replied “My actions have spoken for me thus far; I should have known better to think my words would sway them now.” Ever since, he’d been quiet about it.

“No problem, dad,” Kip groaned as he pushed himself up off the concrete, “I’m just fine over here…”

“You’ve been fighting this fight much longer than me, son,” Zeke shook his head at him, “I would think you could take it.”

“Your son’s a Void Hunter?” Shadowstar almost shrieked, the shock in her voice almost causing it to crack.

“What?” the other two asked in unison, their confusion mounting.

She calmed and looked to the two of them. She looked at Kip again. To her, his body seemed to glow with a bright light, unlike the shadowy tendrils that emanated from the bane of her kindred. She also didn’t sense the disruptive energies of a Quantum Array Rifle, which was odd for someone who had energy like this flowing through him.

“Zeke… Kip… It’s a little off, but… You look like a Hunter to me…”

---------

“Who was it that said there’s not much difference between a Kheldian and the human soul?” Kip asked as he feverishly stroked his goatee.

“It was Androm, actually,” Zeke replied, “At least, he’s the last one I heard say it.”

Kip cursed and slammed his fist against the new table. Sheldon shouted for him to calm down and Kip almost yelled back, but the inventor kept talking explaining that emotional outbursts weren’t going to solve anything. Agreeing, Kip shut his mouth and sat back down in the chair.

They were sitting in the lab, far away from the entrance portal in case of the odd chance that Randy would show up and tear his way to the portal. Nobody wanted to be in the path of the old man, not at this time. So far, he’d said nothing aside from occasional grunts and “yes” and “no” responses to everyone… Everyone except his wife. Nobody knew what the two were saying to each other except Sarah, and she could only hold her husband and sob for the past few days.

“He was inside me! That whole fricking time!”

“He was probably that monster in your nightmare before your second lease on life,” Androm offered, “Considering the fact that Shadow Seeds, N Fragments and the Nictus are all essentially the same stuff, it’s believable. Here you thought it was a Quantum Array round, turns out it was an N Fragment growing strong on your gumption. But it’s mind was broken… You probably knocked some sense into it that night… But… Why didn’t it make you like your father and me?”

“Zachariah took a shot at me once… Just one shot, and he didn’t do anything else. I ran up and kicked him in the chin, but I didn’t think about what happened… The quantum stuff hit me and I felt cold and fuzzy… But I also felt fine, like… Like nothing had happened… I didn’t feel torn asunder, or whatever you said you feel when you get hit with it, Dad…”

“Right.”

“Well… I think… Whatever he was… He didn’t want to make the power he was pumping into my body so overt… If he made it as intrinsic to my physiology as it is for you and other Kheldians, that quantum stuff probably would waste me. Instead… He tapped into something within me… Worked on that…”

“What did he tap into, though?”

Kip stayed quiet. He never told his father about the crazy adventures he’d been having in high school. He hardly ever told anyone, really, about his life as Kingdale’s Warden, and those he did had trouble believing any of it. Few could understand the idea of magical power running amok and taking form, or troubleshooting troublesome freaks and monsters that forgot their humanity in order to feed on that which surrounded them.

Cory knew… So did Sheldon… But others still didn’t understand. Kip had an inkling that Randy knew about it, too, and that the big man may have been the predecessor that the green fae “Fern” had told him dealt with much worse problems before his turn at the wheel. Apparently, a bartender at the King’s Pub was filling the role, now.

Fern had told him that he wouldn’t have access to the power attributed to a Warden (not like a Freedom Corps or Longbow Warden, it was a regional term; other communities used “Guardian, Sheriff, Hunter, Ranger, Slayer, Defender, Protector, Custodian, Troubleshooter” and other terms that insinuated the role involved dealing with problems and cleaning up messes) after his term was up. He’d delivered a beat down to a renegade Elf Baron who thought he’d start carving an empire out of the area for himself and didn’t realize how similar to a stereotypical mafia boss he was acting. Then Kip’s senior year ended and he was getting ready for college…

Then the Rikti War hit and everything went topsy-turvy. Kip lost track of Fern, but Cory had informed him she’d made it out okay. Most fae were essentially civilians now, even a lot of the more combative ones, so they’d laid low at a time when their magic would have proven especially useful. What Kip hadn’t realized was that he’d broken some sort of rule subconsciously, and his soul (or something in the fiber of his being) had clung hard to the ancient power, enabling him to help fight against the invaders.

This had followed him through his career. From being able to ignore the demented whispers of the Circle of Thorns spectral demons, to even shrugging off the arrows of Cupid (not exactly, the arrows of Cupid’s helpers were hardly composed of the same potency, and “Steve” had informed Kip after he started dating Cathryn that the ones he’d been using that first time were actually the demon/cherub/thing’s instead of the god’s), his old Warden powers crept up repeatedly to protect him. When he’d been cloned by the Crey Corporation, Kip figured it was the lack of the Warden power that got the copy killed during the “stress tests.”

“I’ll tell you about it in detail, someday, Dad,” he finally said, “But for now, I’ll explain it as this: I was a monster killer in high school and the power conferred upon me in order to do that work has stuck with me since the Rikti War broke out. I’ve been thinking that’s what’s been keeping me going since, that whatever that thing was inside me was my soul and it was turning the Nictus energies about and twisting them around for my purposes…”

“Instead,” Androm’s voice sounded delighted, “It seems the broken Nictus used your power to cleanse itself… But what is it about you now that has Shadowstar thinking you’re a Void Hunter… But… Slightly off?”

“I don’t know… I used to think it was because I started dating Cathryn that I stopped hearing him… I guess he’d lost his use for me and had hopped into another body. Otherwise, I’d call him out and ask.”

“If that was all he did, you wouldn’t have any of the power you have now. You wouldn’t be the… Anomaly… That you are. Unless…”

“What?” Zeke asked, “Androm, you’re shutting me out again…”

“What’s your theory?” Sheldon asked, his voice taking an edge that indicated he was coming to a similar conclusion.

“Angel Grey… She’s the new host.”

----------

Cedric never told people how often he spoke to his Praetorian. Cedric the Gray was never going to die, he was immortal within his relic, now, and this had vastly improved his disposition. Through Cedric, he also got to enjoy the finer things in life (and even some of the more lewd). For the hero's particular zest for life, the spirit was thankful, and helped however and whenever it could.

If anybody could have heard what they were thinking when they learned that Cedric's baby sister had been kidnapped, all they would have heard was a stereo-like incoherent roar of rage. This roar carried Cedric through several Council recruitment stands throughout Steel Canyon.

He wasn't even asking questions, he was just chopping the terrorists to bits. Many died. People fled as much from him as they did the criminals that day.

As he hunted down an Archon, a green burst struck him on the side of his head and he stumbled to the ground. When he looked up as he fumbled for his axe, Positron hovered down to him. While he couldn't see the man's face, Cedric just knew the veteran hero was looking at him with pity.

"I have to arrest you," he said sadly, "Please stand down, Mr. Grey."

"We don't want to have to hurt you," Valkyrie said as she stepped around a corner with her glowing sword in hand.

"You won't have to," Cedric replied, his brain still screaming for blood, but his heart knowing full-well what would happen if he continued.

He was weird like that, his emotions often having the better track than his thoughts.

He set his axe down, knelt next to it, and waited patiently for the police to arrest him.

Now, three days later, he sat in a cell. They didn't take him to the Zig. For heroes, especially heroes the police didn't particularly feel bad about the crime he was accused of, transfer paperwork tended to move very slow.

So, while he waited inside the new silence of his mind, he was taken a little by surprise when the elevator doors opened and the police shuffled in a depowered super criminal. He was doubly suprised when they opened his door and threw the guy in with him.

"You stay in there until all this mayhem gets sorted out!" the guard barked, "You two share a cell so we can keep an eye on both o' ya!"

"You pigs're gettin' lazy!" the villain shouted, "Soon, that monster will break in here, bust us out, and we'll tear this city down around ya! You'll rue the day you ever met me, Broken Mourning!"

"Would you shut up?" Grey asked, "I can't even hear myself think through your shrill voice..."

"Ah! Ah-ha! You coppers have made a huge mistake in putting two super-powered criminals in the same cell! When the Eviscerator releases us, you won't be able to stand against us!"

"Dude, I ain't helpin' ya escape!"

"What're you talking about?" Broken Mourning hissed at him, "On this side of the law, we have to stick together! We have to... Wait..."

The criminal shifted his position to get a better look at Cedric in a different light.

"Oh my God... I saw you on the Television! I saw them haul you away! Whoo! Whoo-hoo-hoo! I'm sharing a cell with a celebrity! I'm with the cape that went too far!"

He slapped Cedric across the face and sneered into his eyes. He didn't notice the slow way Cedric turned his head back to face him or the suddenly amused expression on the former tanker's face.

"How does it feel, hero? They're gonna lock you away forever! They're gon-*hurk*!"

The guards didn't act when the conversation suddenly cut off with a wheezing choke. The guards didn't say anything when they heard the loud sounds of someone being slammed against the walls and metal toilet. They barely flinched as Broken Mourning screamed for help, his voice gasping wetly as his head was slapped repeatedly against the heavy, reinforced door. When Cedric was finally done with him, the criminal would be remembered as Broken Pulp, and he told him as much before spitting on the battered body.

When Eviscerator showed up and waylaid the guards, they acted like Mourning was still in a condition to fight. The crazy little man hacked and slashed at the door until it shattered and Cedric rewarded his efforts with a sucker-punch to the jaw as the smoke cleared.

In all too quick a moment, Cedric vented his mounting frustration on the Eviscerator, bouncing his bald crimson head against the corners of the pillars of the jail until he was certain the red wasn't from the brick. He finished by stomping the little man into the corner while shouting a litany of expletives and stapling him to the floor with his own knives.

When the Longbow troops and precinct chief arrived to try to subdue the crazy villain, they found Cedric sitting next to him, reminding him how the MedCom system would simply throw him into one of the cells, and then it was only a matter of time before he got to him again.

"Mister Grey," the Longbow agent said as she approached carefully, "You need to return to your cell."

"Alright," he replied cordially, "I hope you don't mind my choice in extracurricular activity. You can only read porno mags for so long before you get bored."

"There aren't any magazines in there..."

"I've been really bored, then..."

((PM away...))

((Normal Human... Right... ))

While in flight, Rage heard the soldier murmur and looked at him. Unfortunately, he'd never taken a close look at Arachnos armor before, so he had no idea what Drago had been trying to access.

"What do you suppose made my electric armor short out?" he shouted to his brother, "That black stuff?"

"Well, it was the only thing on ya when it stopped and the only thing gone when it fired back up. I'd say that's a good bet. Hang on! I'm taking a shortcut!"

He vaulted the flying bike off the street and over the accompanying fence. Speeding under the Green Line's track, he steered the vehicle through construction yards and over the river.

----------

The energy spheres streaked to the fleeing vessel and the rifle rang out another shot. One of the spheres was clipped and detonated, scattering the other two. Solomon barked out a cheer of victory and started sighting in on Pax again.

Then the orbs closed in from under the hurtling van and smashed into the front passenger-side hover pod and the center of the ventral plating. The machine corkscrewed and started tumbling to the ground.

((It’s good, Rebel… Sorry for the confusion. Besides, with Energy Flight, I’d say you’ve got a good chance to catch up and continue the fight… Also, I’ve been loathe to provide many descriptions of what’s been going on in the warehouse because, quite frankly, you guys have been spot on ))

The warehouse was devastated. Little remained of any of the agents or sorcerers and much of the rest of everything was damaged beyond repair. The cages were a little singed, but the occupants seemed to be okay. There were craters and scorch marks on the floor wherever an agent or sorcerer had been before detonating. Scattered throughout the clearing were bits of arms and legs with metal bits and wires poking out of them.

Much of the operation was completely destroyed. While investigators could determine what the place was used for, they wouldn’t be able to determine many specifics.

Arek discovered some of the damaged energy pistols and part of the head of one of the agents. Oddly enough, the head seemed to contain a hard drive of some sort. This was somewhat disconcerting, considering the fact that most normal cyborgs or androids would have their brains within the reinforced chest cavity. However, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he hefted the damaged cranium for later study.

----------

Raging James pushed himself up and looked to the Arachnos Soldier. Seeing the injury, he shouted for his brother to get up and get the bike moving.

“What’s the big idea?” the scrapper asked as he pushed himself off the street and turned to reveal his road-rashed and mangled face, “Jebus, James. The guy looks better than I do. Why’re you concerned about an Arachnos guy, anyway?”

“He was ripping into that N.H.S. van just like we wanted to,” the brute applied pressure to the wound in an attempt to staunch the blood flow, “I’d say that makes him on our side.”

“You had to go and be logical,” the scrapper muttered as his face reconfigured to its proper shape, “Alright, well… You think Randy would be ticked if we brought him to the base?”

“Probably, but we can’t take him to the hospital.”

He hovered off the ground a little and electricity started to crackle from the metal skulls stuck to him.

“Weird… A second ago, my powers just blinked right out. The skulls slapped right against, me, too, like they were trying to hold on to me. There was this weird gunk on me, too, but it was mostly gone when we landed… I think it was that bullet that exploded when it came too close.”

“Think you can keep up with the bike? We’ll get this guy to the portal and get him in the base.”

“Yeah… I’ll keep pressure on his wound while we fly…”

The bike whined as it came alive again and the two meta humans headed north for the base portal near the city’s Yellow Line station.

----------

Pax would have been alright if not for the man in the back of the flying van trying desperately to close the doors he’d rashly popped open to take shots at his pursuers. Seeing the energy being was still chasing him and the van’s driver, he unslung the rifle from his back and started aiming again. Solomon wasn’t sure the Venom rounds would work against the Kheldian, but he had been given assurances that they could kill any meta human on the planet, even Lord Recluse and Statesman.

Of course, it required the rounds actually hit their targets. With the doors flapping back and forth as the flying van bobbed and weaved in the wind, he often lost his target. Sometimes, the bullet would ricochet off one of the doors themselves and he would have to pause to apply the Cure solution.

Cursing, he wished the vigilante had done that Dwarf thing again and tried to rip a hole in the floor when he heard it bumping along the vehicles smooth underbelly. At least then, he’d have the same clear shot he’d had against that Crab Longfang that had tried to tear through the roof.

I also usually just explain PROCs. It's usually more difficult to justify the powers, but Enhancements are usually the little tweaks and add-ons you apply afterward anyway.

PROCs, however, well, they can change the fundamental capabilities of certain powers. You can cram Neutrino Bolt full of IO PROCs and make it into a massively debilitating Hold that reeks of negative damage and withers not only the capability of the armor, but its integrity, too, instead of one of the fastest recharging yet weakest blasts in the game. I still haven't figured out how to explain this for my Emp/Rad Defender (though I put the Hold PROC in a different attack).

Mako's Bite's PROC adds lethal damage to an attack. To justify this on one of my characters, I explain it as him wearing a special device on his wrist that pops out a spike every so often when he attacks. The same for the Lethal Damage PROC in the Scirocco's Dervish set, and I explain that as a spur that pops out of the character's boot.

But the other enhancements strike me as items and artifacts to improve the capabilities... Heck, some of them, like the Natural SOs, are essentially just training. You're just instructed how to attack faster, more accurately or more powerfully. It's all little stuff that could be anything.

Cedric emerged from the base portal, resplendent in his tan exploration outfit and gripping a pair of boxes of beer, and paused. He wasn’t where he’d expected to be. He could have sworn he’d plugged the frequency button for his father’s base, but he didn’t recognize the room he was in now.

Normally, the portal opened onto a raised platform. Descending the platform and heading down one way led to teleportation machines that were hardcoded for Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Talos Island and Overbrook, and beyond that chamber was where his dad kept the microbrewery. The northern doorway led to a magical teleportation chamber with three rings enchanted to take a user to Atlas Park, Galaxy City, Kings Row, Pocket D, and the hazard zones, Perez Park and the Hollows; past that room was the BWO’s chamber where they’d made themselves quite at home. South was supposed to be the base’s workshop and led to much of the rest of the base’s workings and East was the power room.

Now, however, everything was topsy-turvy. Cedric was on the bottom landing of a three-tiered room. Stairs to his left and right led up past a gray metal cylinder with a symbol floating over it. He relaxed a little when he saw it was the blue and gray “Four Elements” symbol Randy had chosen to be the group’s emblem.

“Hello!?” the tanker called out, “Is anybody in here!?”

“Ced!” he heard his father’s booming-yet-gravelly voice from somewhere deeper within the base, “Where you been, boy? You bring the beer?”

“Yeah…”

Cedric made his way up the two small flights of steps and deeper into the base. He found himself in what looked to be a recreational chamber. A set of view screens sat on the north wall. Most of them depicted surveillance images of various city zones, but one was set to a popular television show about two middle-aged brothers and the dimwitted son of the one who was twice-divorced. He looked to the couch sitting between two support pillars and saw his sister and her husband watching the show together with a small bear eating a pizza slice while cuddled in between them.

“Sis, what the Hell is going on?”

“Daddy and some guys did some renovating and remodeling,” she replied in her cheery, chirpy voice, “We’re just chilling out and watching T.V. while they finish up.”

“Yeah, but in a week?” Cedric seemed more surprised than agitated, but that didn’t stop him from flailing about in mock anger, “I mean, come on! I was just in here last week! I had magazines hidden in the air ducts!”

“Oh, those are gone, Ced. Long gone.”

Sarah rubbed her thumb along the gudar’s head and the little animal made a low happy whine as it chewed. This one, Karrl, had been one of the many to make a nest out of her brother’s shredded lewd entertainment. She wasn’t about to tell him this, however.

“Dammit!”

“Cedric!” Randy’s voice called out again, “Where’s that beer?”

“Are you sure, boss?” the deep bass of Ryat99 asked, “I thought you had a drinking problem…”

“I had a drinking problem. I drank in a depressive funk. Now, the cause of that depression’s gone, so I drink in celebration.”

“Hm…” the android sounded neither convinced nor skeptical, “I suppose if your vice no longer interferes with your life, it’s not quite so terrible…”

“That’s usually the initial indication of an addiction for people,” Randy chuckled, “’Has it become a problem for others?’ My drinking doesn’t get in anybody’s way anymore, so it’s not an ‘addiction.’”

“That’s not a very good way of looking at it, boss,” Kip’s voice argued as Cedric arrived to the room in which they were working, “Even if the end-results only affect you, slogging back the brews nonstop is still an addiction.”

“Well, I’m glad we’ve gotten to that distinction,” the big man grinned as his son tossed him a cold one, “See, my intake has gone down significantly. Before I used to slam a case down at the end of my patrol. Now, I’m lucky if I even get to finish two every other day.”

“Having mom back did a lot to boost your spirits, huh?” Cedric asked, “Hey! How long until the baby arrives?”

Randy’s eyes rolled and he shook his head. He almost lost his mind when his wife took up Delilah Stein’s invitation to the Etoile Isles. He was glad she had made it back, but now the preparations were underway for the baby’s birth. While Charlene was preparing for the trip to the hospital, Randy was preparing to have to protect the child from the forces of evil, especially the Council.

“Look, Cedric, I’ll talk to you about it later,” he gestured to the machine he and a strange lizard-like man were working on, “For now, let’s take a look at this. Groul, meet my son.”

The red-skinned draconian humanoid stood and extended a clawed cybernetic hand to shake Cedric’s. The tanker shook enthusiastically and offered a beer.

“No thanks,” Groul replied, “I’m about to go on patrol. For now, I’m just explaining to your father how I wired this teleporter. I programmed it so you’ll have access to the more intensive locations throughout the city all in one handy location. This is a vast improvement over the original method you had employed, which had you jumping from room to room to find the right machine. Now they’re all right here.”

“What about the hazard zones?” Cedric asked, cracking the beer he’d earlier offered and drinking from it himself as he did, “Or the less-intensive cities?”

“Before the tune-ups for this machine, I finished the re-enchantments on the portals in the southwest chamber. They’ll get you where you need to go if you’re looking for a challenge. Your friend, Cory, he worked on the northern chamber. I’m not too certain the fluorescent lights Randy installed will be enough for those trees, but the irrigation Mr. Bibbins and I installed should prove efficient enough.”

“They’re the same kinds of bulbs used in hydroponics setups,” Randy explained between sips, “Essentially white sunlight made artificially but without the nasty side effect of ultraviolet radiation. We moved the microbrewery, too, and I’m gonna look into some kind of lock or security system to put in place. Matt, that [dung]head, keeps drinkin’ what I make.”

“I was wondering why you told me to bring brews,” his son chuckled.

“Well, I wouldn’t say your father has quite gotten the hang of his alchemy yet,” Groul said with a light chuckle as he closed a hatch on the conglomerate teleportation machine, “Alright… You should be able to use any pad to get where you need, but each one is still hard-coded for particular points. The computer was a little archaic, so I was only able to code a few points, but…”

“Let’s give it a test run,” Randy gestured for Spearhead Lambda to proceed and the draconian started plugging buttons into the computer.

“In a moment, I should wind up in Peregrine Island—” he said before energy coalesced around him and he was gone.

Randy drew his communicator and spoke into it.

“You where you expected?”

“Yep,” came the reply, “You might want to check the other places, too, just to be sure. Peregrine’s code works fine, though.”

“We’ll give it a test in a moment. Thanks for all the help.”

“Alright, then. I’m on patrol. Spearhead Lambda, signing out.”

“I like that guy,” Randy grumbled as he shut down his communicator, “Met him after that Rikti Earth incident. He’s been helping fix things around here ever since.”

“You certain he doesn’t have ulterior motives?” Sam Bibbins asked as he fastened the final bolts to hold the new teleportation apparatus to the floor, “I mean… Well… He looks funny…”

“Sam, I don’t think you’ve looked in a mirror lately. Hell, look at me. I look downright monstrous.”

“You are a monster, sir,” the big man replied, “but I get your point.”

“Sure, I figure Spearhead’s got his own agenda. Heck, I’ve got about ten people in the group who have their own agendas and almost nothin’ to do with us. The things they’ve got in common is that they’re registered with the F.B.S.A. as vigilante enforcers and they’re tired of dealing with groups that force them into the group’s business to exclusion of everything else. Heck, that’s why I made the Army in the first place. That guy I’d worked with before… He was a tad demanding.”

“Don’t I know it,” Kip set the unopened beer Cedric had tossed him back into the box, “You should check out the new lab, Ced. Sheldon’s gonna cream his pants when he sees it.”

“I never took Sheldon to be that much of a nerd,” the older man replied as he looked around the machine, “Holy! That’s so many gadgets… [I feel like a kid in a toy store]!”

----------

When the group members arrived, Randy started the show with a bit of a yelling session at the BWO members.

“I want you idiots staying in your little corner of the base, you got me!? It’s bad enough you’re taking up an entire room, you’re gettin’ into my microbrewery and makin’ a mess of everything! I’m talkin’ to you, pussbag!”

He finished by pointing at Matt “Dirty Ice” Jones, who shrugged unknowingly. Apparently, when he’d broken into the microbrewery, he was already very inebriated.

They then proceeded through the base as Randy explained each room and its capabilities. Some rooms were the same as before, such as the base’s computer room (though it now had a new storage rack for extra stuff) and the medical bay. The microbrewery also remained, and Randy again gave a hard glare to the BWO members and a low-growled warning to stay out of it.

“We’re grown men, Randy,” Draven said back, “We know to stay out of your business.”

“I would have thought so, too,” the big man muttered before leading them away.

“Randy, the only bathroom in the base is right next to the brewery, though,” Psycho13 announced, “I mean… Matt was snockered when he broke in there, and a lot of us are likely to be snockered when we hit the toilets. If we wind up near the microbrewery in such a state, well… It’s not likely we’ll heed these warnings in such a state…”

“You damn well better. If you don’t, I’ll break ya.”

“Randy,” Charlene chided and rubbed his big forearm, “Let it alone. The boys say it wasn’t that good, anyway.”

“How was I supposed to know?”

Pillars remained installed wherever they could be without getting in the way of the group members. These pillars helped support the apartment building above and keep it from sinking into the street. Randy also had done some work with the Ryat androids in the damaged sewers outside the base, including the Abandoned Network below, to install more supports.

Despite Kip’s earlier claim, Sheldon was actually rather reserved in his reaction to the new laboratory. He was a little more concerned with Ryat12’s use of what looked to be a vertical wind tunnel in the corner of it. It seemed she was using it to clear dust out of her body’s plating.

“It seems an exceptional misappropriation of resources,” he explained as the little android stepped out of the device, “You said Lambda designed this?”

“Yeah,” the group leader answered, “He said he wanted to install a proper mad scientist’s lab.”

“And you hired him after our ordeal in Rikti Earth?”

“Yes…”

The scientist said nothing more, but tapped the worktable next to the strange case of reinforced glass-like material. Felix crawled up the man’s white coat tail, up his back and onto his shoulder before nestling in and going to sleep.

The portal chamber to the north of the machine Lambda had been fine-tuning was no longer a simple affair of three mystical teleportation pads and little else. It was now full of trees and shrubs. There were a couple birds flitting to and fro and the whole room felt positively alive. The center of the chamber was dominated by the three teleportation circles, now fused together into a triad that surrounded a rune embedded into the floor. Where the points of the circles’ metalwork met were crystal balls that sparkled faintly as wisps of energy lanced through them.

Sarah caught one of the birds on her finger and petted it a little. Her cat, Ni, reached out to it, but she let the feathered animal escape and lightly tapped the feline’s snout with her finger.

“This is amazing,” she whispered, “It’s almost a shame that it’s next to their chamber…”

She referred to the room the BWO had commandeered for their stay. It remained choked with clutter, numerous cots, tables, desks, chairs and three cubicles with no true function other than to be crashed into at a moment’s notice. They even installed a podium with their “buzzsaw blade” symbol and three tapestries on the north wall spelling out the letters “B.W.O.” Randy just chuckled.

“Hey, one of these days, I’m stepping in that ring, and I’m gonna take a few rounds outta you boys for thinking I’d let you just make this place your home.”

“Yeah, just like you said you’d beat up Statesman,” Matt barked before he knew what he was saying.

While Randy took a few rounds out of the fire brute in the ring, the tour continued to the trophy room to the south of the teleportation chambers. They’d already passed it a couple times, but no explanation had been given. Of particular concern was the presence of three trophies of some notoriety.

One was a set of teeth. Mako’s teeth, to be exact. They were the same ones Randy had plucked out of his skin after the short invasion into the Rogue Isles to recover Sheldon. After the big tanker returned, he explained that it actually wasn’t that rare to find Mako’s teeth after a fight. Sharks typically lost hundreds, if not thousands of teeth in their lives and regrew them almost as quickly as they lost them, and Mako apparently had the same sort of physiology.

Another looked like a green gelatin mold. It was some of the Hamidon’s cytoplasm. Cedric asked how they acquired it and his father demonstrated by slapping a couple globules of goo together, making a larger piece of goo.

“Essentially did the same thing for that, there. I stopped once it started moving and threw it in the case.”

“Ew,” Sarah murmured, pressing a button next to the container that sent an electric shock into the mass, “Heh, cool.”

Finally, sandwiched between the other two, there was the battered helmet of Lord Recluse. Nobody in the group had even met the villain, much less vanquished him in battle… Except one man.

“Power Breaker, like many of Recluse’s ‘Destined Ones,’ met the man in some form of decimated future,” Randy explained, “After dueling him to the death, he returned with the man’s head and showed it to him in an effort to show the futility of Recluse’s Project Destiny. Recluse, obviously, was unconvinced by the story of a future exhausted him being beaten, so the experiments continue. Well, Breaker incinerated the head and turned to disposing of the helmet. He suggested I take it, so here it is.”

“Eerie,” Cedric said as he swayed from side to side in front of the display, “The eyeholes are following me…”

The rest of the trophy chamber had a hammer from the Carnival of Shadows, a Nemesis Rifle, numerous non-working pistols, rifles and shotguns from different factions, including the Malta Group and Arachnos, and even two Arachnos Nullifier Maces. There was even the hammer of the Croatoa giant, Jack in Irons, but it was really a plaster replica as the real thing couldn’t leave Salamanca without turning into a gnarled tree branch.

“Well, that’s it,” Randy explained, “What do you think?”

“The new lab is a little cluttered and claustrophobic,” Sheldon replied, “But I can manage. Otherwise, everything seems fine.”

“I love the new recreational room,” Sarah chirped, “It’s so warm in there.”

“I rather like the mystical teleportation chamber to the north,” Cory intoned evenly, “And not because I helped design it. It’s lush, it’s green… It’s simply alive, and it feels wonderful to be in there, regardless of the pain our friends are heaping on themselves in the next chamber…”

“I like the medical bay,” Matt Jones announced as he rejoined the group, “I always like the medical bay. It patches me up after I’ve been broken to bits by a drunk mountain.”

“I ain’t drunk,” Randy chortled, “I had one beer and weigh almost five hundred pounds. It takes more than that to get to me.”

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and the thing about the younger ones looking for men... well, you can often find a spawn of two Cabal Minions cornering a man in Salamanca proper...

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering the fact that the younger Cabalists are actually pretty damn hot, I always feel a little jealous of those guys...

((Up to this point, there hasn't been any inspection of the vehicle's underbelly.

It's flying. If it can fly at any point it may as well be flying at all times. There's no need for wheels in such a vehicle (this isn't the Delorean), and the points where the wheels would be anyway are instead housing hoverpods (similar as to what you would find on the Arachnos Flier). Without the need for space for what would be moving parts on a normal car, and a need to cut back on drag, the underbelly of this machine would almost certainly have to be smooth.

To cover this capability, it hovered roughly a foot from the ground up to this point, appearing from most angles as any normal van. However, in an effort to escape this exponentially problematic situation, stealth concerns have been tossed aside in favor of a rash escape.

Here's something to consider, though... There would most certainly be conduits of some form in that underbelly, so any damage done to this already unsteady flying box would probably do considerable harm.))

((Rebel... There's nothing under the van for Pax to grab a hold of. It's smooth under there; no axles, struts or whatnot. There are four domes where there would normally be wheels. She could probably turn into a Dwarf and rip into the bottom of the vehicle, but they'll know she's there.))

Meh, it's Comic Book World. Every rule can be broken, and often is repeatedly and in numerous fanciful ways. It could be as simple as a ring or similar trinket that's enchanted to solidify the corporeal state of the Cabalist's existence. Heck, for reference, take a look at Amy's Ward, a power that enables you to summon the Cabalist, Amy Jonsson, to your aid for a limited period of time anywhere in the game where the Temporary Power is allowed (which, suprise-surprise, includes most of the game world).

Also, Rebel, you've gotta do the Croatoa arcs and really read into what the characters are saying because nobody can simply spell it out for you (except maybe Katie Hannon, herself, because her heart remains pure somehow and she may have done enough study into the situation). They all tell you how things are from their point of view, and even when you've finished their arcs, they still lack all of the answers. Even when you've done all of the arcs and helped protect the city from being fully consumed, you learn you didn't actually CHANGE anything and that something else is still keeping the town in its ethereally damaged state.

Then begins the Katie Hannon TF, but all she can offer is that she's the last of the Hope for the Cabal.

Also... For one of the Halloween events, the Devs included an introduction where Mary MacComber and Azuria explained the upcoming Halloween invasions that were going to tear across the cities. I can't recall which one or bring up a source (because my Search-fu sucks and I can't find the "newspaper" article they'd published with the announcement), but Mary starts giving a diatribe about various "exotic" (disgusting) ingredients necessary for her work and Azuria has to interrupt her to get on with the press conference. The related issue about this press conference, though, is that it had occurred in Atlas Park and not in Salamanca/Croatoa. I think Azuria explained how Mary was there, but I can't remember what it was... It could have been a simple explanation of "an enchantment."

((The van fled the scene before the agents and sorcerers started to explode and actually took to the fricking sky is what happened. Drago teleported onto it without realizing this and the man in the back, Jack Solomon as it turns out, started shooting his rifle at the offending Senior Operative.

Before he was shot, however, Drago was yanked off the vehicle by an as-of-yet-unknown rogue whose friend pursued the vehicle with what looked like a broken-down Sky Skiff as the electrified brute that saved Drago's life was misted by the strange power-dampening Venom and they started dropping out of the sky. The Skiff came back, they were too heavy, but the pilot was able to bring the vehicle to a skidding stop. Drago and the Brute who pulled him off the flying van were alright, but the pilot was tossed and he dragged, face-down, across the pavement of the street for a few feet.

Everybody else, unfortunately, is mounting a pursuit that is going to prove ultimately fruitless...))

((Remember, fellas, the agents go boom after their eyes flicker.))

Drago reappeared on the van's roof but didn't find himself exactly where he'd expected to be. While his arrival point had been fine, the point itself was hurtling through the sky! Gripping the sides of the roof tightly, he started cooking up a new plan.

Unfortunately, before he could put it into action, there was a loud boom and a bullet tore out of the vehicle's roof. There was a distinct smell that assaulted the Senior Operative's nostrils and he let go of one side of the van to roll away from following shots. Bullets tore through the roof where he'd just been and a dark green mist briefly wafted through the holes.

Whoever was inside, they were armed with Venom rounds and a powerful rifle. Drago was about to return fire with his spider leg pack when he felt a hand grip him from behind and yank him away from the vehicle. Another round blasted through the wall and the operative was spun around. There was a slamming sensation as he got a panoramic view of the city (and a bit of an acrophobic one, considering the fact he seemed to be held with one hand).

He saw a flash of metal to his left and some red electricity. This made Drago think that perhaps it was Rose who had him. When he looked at the hand, however, he knew instantly that it wasn't the young woman. He was gripped by a young man, a rogue who wasn't part of the original plan and was having trouble keeping up with the van while holding on to his new passenger. For some reason, despite his obviously "villainous" powers, he wasn't simply dropping the operative to continue his pursuit.

The back door to the flying van opened and a man with a sniper rifle in one hand and gripping the doorway roof with the other aimed and started firing wild shots at his vehicle's pursuers. This one, Drago realized, matched the description of the man Harbinger Daemon and Chillblazer reported as calling himself "Jack Solomon."

One of the rounds came so close, the senior operative could hear it buzzing, then there was a slight poof. The round had connected with some of the electricity radiating from the flying brute and exploded. The meta human holding him laughed a triumphant bark, but then cursed. The van started getting farther and farther away and the meta human started slapping at his own torso. Drago turned to see a young man wearing a pair of big silver skulls, one on his chest and the other on his shoulder, over what looked to be a an orange and dark blue basketball uniform. Otherwise, the meta human looked completely normal for a young man in his mid-twenties.

A loud, humming vehicle sped by them and there was a distinct sensation of falling. Drago looked to see another young man on what looked to be a flying motorcycle (and far less sophisticated than the van at that; there were little jets firing from thrusters reminiscent of Sky Raider Sky Skiffs, leading Drago to guess rather easily what the origin of the second vehicle was) pursuing the van. It fired a gun from under its nose at the larger, apparently faster, machine before slowing and turning.

The pilot seemed concerned for his companion, the man holding the Senior Operative. He came back around and dove under them. A moment later, they collided with something under them and the operative looked at the pilot and he gave the Arachnos Soldier a thumbs up before gripping the handles and trying to slow the descent. The look on his face showed that he was having trouble.

"It's too heavy!" he shouted to his friend, "You might want to fly out of here!"

"I can't..." the other shouted back, "I can't... I feel weak... That bullet... It sprayed me with something when it exploded!"

Drago didn't want to be around for the eventual crash and started plotting a point for him to teleport to. Once he'd gotten some coordinates from his drone, however, it was too late. He and the brute must have fallen quite a ways because they were already street level in a matter of seconds.

The vehicle had a little more lift down here and was able to slow exponentially. The pilot weaved his vessel about in an attempt to crash somewhere less painful than the asphalt street. Drago could hear the vehicle grinding against the pavement and the driver leaned in an attempt to get the thrusters to maneuver the machine, causing it to turn sideways and drag a few more yards with the passengers steered away from the street.

When it stopped suddenly, Drago and the brute found themselves pressed against the nose of the flying bike and the machine rocked a little. The pilot, however, was thrown from the machine and he dragged across the street for a few feet.

"Oh, man!" he shouted as he tried to push himself up, "Why the Hell did that happen to me!?"

"Don't know, Levi," the other replied as he started wiping at the Venom on his body, "Huh... This stuff's drying already?"

The battle was going poorly for the cyborgs and sorcerers. As the meta humans shot, smashed, stabbed or otherwise decimated the forces, the van suddenly roared to life and raced out of the building. It smashed through one of the garage doors as it opened and escaped out to Skyway City.

It was ridiculously quick, and the cyborgs and ninjas were throwing too much interference for any of the heroes or rogues to mount any serious pursuit without getting tackled or bogged down by tar-like tangible shadows.

Once the vehicle had escaped, the agents and sorcerers stopped fighting. The eyes of the agents started to flicker and the sorcerers started radiating electricity. They had served their purpose and it was time to eradicate the evidence of their existence.

((Oh yeah, unless I have something to rebuff or a defense to throw up, you guys are doing fine.

Also, the dark stuff, Arek, it's coming from the "ninjas" themselves. They seem to be dark sorcerers of some kind... The source isn't here, however. While there is a central point, it's quite distant, so it'll be very difficult to pinpoint through any local sensing. It also negates the idea of throwing the ninjas into it (since its theirs to begin with).))

Peculiarly, the man Stahlhund stabbed didn't have a cybernetic chassis for a skeleton. The blade sank through flesh, bone and blood as easily as it would any normal person. As the breath faded from the ninja, electric sparks started to radiate from him as runes floated over his head, just like that one he and the other rogues had faced in St. Martial.

Oddly enough, I have a character that covers BOTH St. Patrick's Day and Spring concepts.