Mr_Grey

I know a bit. What's your question?

I threw up the next chapter for Grey's Army.

Power Breaker is summoned to Scirocco to accomplish a specific mission: Retrieve Luminary.

However, this isn't a kidnapping. For once, the big man is being sent in to do Blue Steel's job.

Power Breaker wasn’t called into the main hall where Recluse saw over his lieutenants. Scirocco had called him to one of the mystic’s bases in the Nerva Archipelago. It was on the edge of the large forested Thorn Isle, inside a cavern that was tunneled out and refitted with steel hallways and facilities similar to any other Arachnos cell.

However, his patron’s office wasn’t the same as the rest of the base. Here is where Scirocco came to work more at his own pace, and the office definitely showed that. There was wooden paneling walled over the steel grid, a few tapestries of various national origins and times, a pair of bookstands and a simple mat in the corner where the sorcerer meditated.

Breaker was shown in by a floating Mu mystic who promptly disappeared as soon as Scirocco waved him away. Ever since the fiasco with Mu’Rakir and his attempt to destroy Ghost Widow, the mystics had learned to step very lightly around their leader. Only a select few were allowed to speak their minds around him lately, but they had earned that right while most of the mystics were simply trying to find somewhere they could get away from the lunatic cult of the Circle of Thorns.

“Welcome, Raymond,” Imad Malak said without looking from his desk, “Please, make yourself comfortable while I finish this.”

Power Breaker leaned against the wall and looked to the floor. There was an unusual design there, like some sort of monster that was an explosion at the same time. He was just realizing where he’d seen it before when Scirocco answered him.

“It’s the device that can be found on the shield of Romulus. Yes, I know of the temporal anomaly the Midnight Squad has established. They asked me if I would lend some of my mystics to some of the rituals, and if so many weren’t in the field, I would have sent more than the few representatives in their club now.”

He sighed and rolled up the scroll on his desk. After he’d placed it with similar rolls of paper on his bookcase, he turned to Power Breaker and smiled.

“What’s this about, boss?” the brute asked.

“Pettiness, sadly,” the mystic chuckled, “Though the thought has me so amused, I can’t help but smile. I trust you heard that the teacher our lord’s agent, Phipps, schemed to have arrested was rescued, yes?”

“Yeah, but they caught Luminary. Sounds kind of like a pretty good trade… In the Arachnos way of thinking, anyway. Frankly, I can’t see why they’d want to torture an android, and a party-girl android at that. I mean, she can just shut down, or worse, self destruct. Sounds-“

“I know what you’re thinking,” again, Scirocco couldn’t keep from smiling, “You’re already hacking the Arachnos grid and looking for where they’re keeping her, aren’t you?”

“Um…”

“Well, stop. While I know you don’t have any serious loyalty to Arachnos, you haven’t been deemed a threat yet. It would be best if you maintained the charade of compliance at least for a little while longer.”

“Until you figure out how to use the Mundi in my brain, right?” Breaker growled as his nanites stopped their attempts to break through sixteen different ports in the main tower simultaneously.

“Of course,” the mystic’s smile thinned a little when he saw Breaker blink in grim acceptance, “Oh, cheer up, my student. You still have a chance to escape that fate, and it may not even happen. For now, however, we can help each other, and you get to do what it is you so desperately want to do now.”

“You’re going to help me rescue Luminary? Doesn’t she have a ‘shoot on sight’ order on you?”

“And the rest of us lieutenants. However, with what Black Scorpion did to her, she wouldn’t be able to do anything to me, even if I were going…”

----------

The stalker’s jaw cracked under Breaker’s fist. When he tried to right himself, the big brute came crashing down on him, slamming both fists into the scrawny man’s head and knocking him out before he could bring his ninja blade to bear.

”…You see, Black Scorpion already has all the robotic technology he wants. However, he’s also a brutally sadistic man. If there’s one thing I can give Mako, he’s not the sort of monster this cyborg mercenary is. Mister Rodriguez is holding a hunt, a Fox Hunt, and the poor android heroine is the fox; at least Mako would have the decency to kill her himself. While Recluse is somewhat aggravated with his lieutenant’s audacity, plus the lost chance at utilizing Luminary’s technology, he believes they’ll find better if they harvest Citadel instead…”

Power Breaker hurtled through the forest at ground level. It was an island that wasn’t too far from the Thorn Isle, but it wasn’t considered part of the Archipelago. If the Oranbegans or the Mu weren’t involved, it was fair game, and Scorpion was definitely using the island for a personal hunting ground. There were all sorts of unusual creatures in this place, from panthers and large snakes to even animals that shouldn’t have been in a tropical environment, like bears and deer.

“I think this guy was too heavily inspired by the Jungle Book,” Breaker grunted as he noted the grizzly lying casually next to a river, “Where’s Shere Kahn?”

”…Simply put, I want you to interrupt the hunt…”

He flew past a stand of brush and nodded as his targeting system located his quarry. His sensors indicated that the hunters were closing in. He had to act fast.

”…And remove their quarry by any means necessary. The failure of Black Scorpion’s followers to eradicate this heroine, especially in her disabled state, will surely bring shame to the mercenary’s faction. I won’t be able to say that you did it, but I could leave enough evidence indicating it was somebody from my faction involved…”

“If it were anybody but me,” Harris sighed as he swung back around, “He’d have told them if they had a choice as to what to do next…”

Luminary was crossing the clearing as quickly as she could. Her normally brilliantly shining paneling was now heavily marred with mud, leaves and twigs. This was intentional on her part, as she knew she had to conceal herself as much as possible in order to escape, but there was only so much she could hide as her shiny body still glinted brightly under the sunlight.

She shouted when Power Breaker crashed into her and hoisted her into the air. She thought he’d passed by and missed her, but his targeting system had noticed the aforementioned glint. While she wasn’t able to fire her energy bursts (thanks largely to the scientists working for Black Scorpion, who had ripped a large portion of her energy conduits out before the hunt), she was still able to fight.

Before Harris could tell her to keep quiet, she had brought her elbow smashing against his head. The brute lost control momentarily, and he turned into a large tree. Banking off of it, he lost his grip on his quarry, and they both went tumbling to the ground.

Before he knew what was happening, the android girl was on top of him. She tried cutting his air off, but he wasn’t wearing a shirt or vest, and his neck was just too big around for her to choke. She tried pressing her fingers into his artery and jugular, however, but that only succeeded in proving that he had an energy field protecting him.

“Will you stop?” Breaker asked before reaching under her and launching her into some nearby brush, “Calm down! They’re coming…”

A pair of flying corrupters came swopping in. One looked like a flying corpse, the other like a technological demon. They seemed to be getting an overhead view of the area, Breaker looked down the path to see that there were other flying villains (for there was no other word to describe the people under Black Scorpion’s banner) doing the same thing. When they got to him, the two corrupters dropped down to see if he was alright.

“You’re not part of the hunt,” the zombie-man rasped, “Power Breaker… You’re with Scirocco’s faction.”

“What are you doing out here?” the techno-demon asked.

“I was just exploring,” Breaker shrugged, “I don’t do much for Arachnos… They don’t have anything for me to do that another vil-rogue can do better, so I miss out on a lot of work on their end.”

“What did you expect to find out here?” the zombie asked while jabbing the pommel of his mace in the ground, “There’s nothing out here but trees.”

“I noticed some deer, I thought it was strange…”

“This is Black Scorpion’s private hunting ground, brute,” the techno-demon’s distorted voice was sounding decidedly aggravated, “And you’re interrupting an event we’ve been looking forward to for… Well… Only a day or so, but it’s an amazing thing, and you’re in the way!”

“They might have found her already!” the zombie shouted at his partner, “And here we are, wasting time with this miscreant!”

“Now, hang on, there,” Breaker struggled to put just enough irritation in his voice at the disrespect the two corrupters were showing him, “I am an accomplished rogue…”

“Not enough to have your name in the papers!” the techno-demon chuckled, “Get out of the way, newbie, we’ve got a heroine to gut!”

“Let’s go!” the zombie shouted as he spread his rotten wings and took to the sky, “The radio chatter indicates they haven’t found her yet! We might have a chance!”

They flew off and Breaker did his best to look sheepish and not smile. When they were over the tree line, he wandered into the brush and helped Luminary back to her feet. She looked up at his face and bit her lip with worry.

“What do you want?” she asked, not knowing whether to feel defeated or hopeful.

----------

She awoke from a nightmare. The villains had caught her and were pulling her apart, piece-by-piece. Their leader, Black Scorpion, had materialized from the crowd and leveled his tail blaster at her exposed electronics. With a tear of lubricant, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable sensation of her silicon soul being burned away.

Her eyes opened, however, to face the purple eyes of the strange villain that had rescued her. He was wiping his hands clean with a rag and gestured to her forearms.

“I had to hack a Freedom Corps terminal in Paragon to get the repair schematics,” he grunted, “But I think I was able to patch your blasters back together.”

She looked to see that her arms had indeed been opened and reassembled. She could feel her energy crackling through, but it was monstrously inefficient. Still, she could fight again. She could blast her way free of this squalid…

…Apartment…

She looked around confusedly to see that she was lying on a couch. Granted, there were newspapers under her (to catch what stray lubricant leaked out of her opened appendages), but she was being kept in relative comfort by this “bloodthirsty savage.”

“You’re the guy who Vanguard cleared the charges on, aren’t you?”

“The charges weren’t cleared,” Breaker shrugged, “I got some federal pardons.”

“But you’re still out here,” the android sat up and looked around the rather well-furnished apartment, “And living in Saint Martial, if I’m not mistaken…”

“Indeed. The furnishings out here are some of the best in the Isles… That is, if you can keep the Freaks, the Tsoo or the Carnies off your back.”

The crystal protrusions on his shoulders crackled with red electricity.

“I see you’re capable,” Luminary muttered, then folded her arms over her chest, “So, when are you going to deliver me to your patron so he can do something else despicable to me?”

“Um… I’m not. One, I wouldn’t, and two, Scirocco doesn’t go after tech-types. He doesn’t have much use for them… Yet.”

“You’re a cyborg.”

“Yeah… But I’m not the first technological rogue in his employ. He even got an android to practice Mu magic somehow.”

“So, what are you going to do with me?”

----------

“Hello ma’am,” Brother Mauthe greeted the golden android as she stepped onto the Captured Dream, “It’s a pleasure to actually meet you face-to-face.”

“Indeed, agent,” she replied, “I thank you for receiving me.”

She was clad in a loose-fitting outfit to conceal her true appearance. A pair of baggy jeans covered her legs, some tied off bags her feet. A robe was wrapped about her torso and a hood covered her head. Breaker had wondered if they’d need some gloves, but she kept her hands driven into her pockets on their way to the pier.

They hadn’t run into many groups that got in their way. One gang of Blue Ink Tsoo thought they could rough up the two for spare change, but Power Breaker demonstrated very brusquely, with a whirling punch that cracked most of the small gang in their jaws. The rest scattered, but they were pretty much left alone after that.

“Soon, we shall be embarking for Paragon City,” the mastermind explained to the android, “And perhaps you’ll be able to let me in on anything I should be on the lookout for.”

Luminary nodded, then turned back to Power Breaker, who was waiting on the dock. The brute nodded to her, and she smiled back.

“Hopefully, I won’t have to utilize my blasters with the repairs you’ve given them,” she chuckled, “But at least they’ll prove to be something of a surprise if Arachnos catches up to us.”

“Well, I hope they don’t explode on ya,” Breaker grinned back at her, “Good luck.”

The boat’s fusion core hummed loudly and the vessel started pulling away from the dock. Power Breaker waved for a moment until he couldn’t distinguish their faces with his normal vision and started walking away.

On the altered trawler, however, Luminary kept watching her rescuer. She zoomed her vision on his retreating form and committed several images of the man to memory. If ever there were to be a liberation of the Isles, she wanted to be sure of someone to look for help on the “Red Side.”

I don't know why I haven't mentioned this, but a part of what's cut back on my writing is that I'm pushing myself to add another concise chapter to a story I'm running in the City Scoop ever week. I call it "The Redeemers," a group I've touched on briefly in Grey's Army, and it's composed of former criminal "mooks," each with their own quirks that makes them stand apart from their fellows. For instance, the group is led by a "Dark Wizard Free Agent" who prides himself on once being able to go toe-to-toe with the Midnight Squad, but has languished in mediocrity because he's not nearly as ambitious as the papers would want. His counterpart is a former Troll Caliban named Garm, who has gotten his crew to shrug off Superadine and brought two of his heavy-hitters (Doug the Ogre and Briggs McBain) along with him.

They operate in crews, as there are a lot of former criminals who want in on this Freedom Corps publicity stunt (as it helps burn off community service), and the story mostly focuses on Garm's crew as they deal with fighting criminals and dealing with the prejudices of the public and other heroes.

I'm starting an arc that I'm hoping will be interesting, and it starts with Synapse bowling a new type of Paragon Protector over and breaking open the visor of the man's helmet. Something else broke, too, but that'll be featured next week.

I'll try to work out something else for Grey's Army today.

I did a storyline a while back where there were still refugees in Boomtown. In fact, the reason why they were still stuck out there was because of all the gang and organization involvement in the area (Trolls, Outcasts, Council, Lost and Clockwork all have a massive presence there). It would be exceptionally difficult to launch a rescue attempt, much less a reconstruction effort.

Now, the area is rich for story use because it's an urban wasteland and THERE ARE NO BOOMTOWN CENTRIC MISSIONS! So, pretty much the only thing you can do is come up with it yourself.

So far, the only thing we know is that big building with the hero statues is the old Freedom Phalanx HQ, and that Reichsman might still be under it, frozen in cryostasis.

Finally figured where I'd go for Grey's Army. It's going to be a series of one-shots until I get up to speed for my next arc. I've got something somewhat humorous and/or dramatic for Valentine's Day in mind (I'm not sure which, yet), but I figure I'll work on getting these other stories out of the way.

For now, I'm opening with one I've been wanting to do for a while. I'm certain a lot of you know Westin Phipps by this point and what he has your villain characters do. Well, Mauthe stages a rescue of the poor teacher at the behest of some mysterious benefactor.

It feels good to be writing again.

Mauthe's Island. It wasn't really the name of the place, and to be honest, the island and its twin were just two of the uncharted ones within the Rogues. These landmasses were often left unnamed until Arachnos or a team of independent explorers looked through them and registered a likely moniker with the local authorities. However, because of the strange monstrosities throughout the Isles, not to mention the rampant criminal organizations calling the unknown islands home, exploration was often never considered.

However, Mauthe and his small army of refugees had no choice but to explore. Driven from their first home by Arachnos soldiers, they’d found this island, its abandoned temple and a Freakshow monster that had been left for dead. They rescued the monster, and “Chaingunnz” had been proving to eb a powerful security force ever since.

The group worked simply in a method similar to communism. Most people found their own jobs to do, but Mauthe’s philosophy stood as “if you can’t find something to do, we will find something for you.” Most wound up on the security detail, armed with the group’s sparse shotguns and assault rifles. A few mothers of the recently conscripted young men told Mauthe about their concerns about them being brought into his reserve army, but he reassured them that only volunteers were accepted into the group of thugs he only called into action in case of emergencies.

He was classified as a “Mastermind,” a type of rogue who could easily command a small cadre of thugs in his capers across the world. However, that didn’t take into account the extremely hard work that went into maintaining his village, his people, and his army. They painstakingly turned the island into a farm. Irrigation, tilling, tending, and harvesting were all hard work, and Brother Mauthe was there with them the whole while. He also dealt with the village’s politics, such as where newcomers would be placed within the community, and he was the man who got them the special supplies they needed.

This last task often required forays into the main Rogue Isles themselves, and Mauthe and his personal security force were the group that went to war against the criminal groups that called those places home. Sometimes, they went up against Arachnos themselves, but never enough and always with enough cover story so as it never seemed personal.

His crew always knew it was personal, though. Even before the attack on their first home, it was personal. Mauthe had a real hate for the organization, even beyond Brother Hand’s, Brother Skrap’s or Brother Brick’s. Hand and Skrap had both been in paramilitary units decimated by the spiders. Brick… He simply hated what Recluse and his cronies had done to his home. Brother Mauthe went after them like a man on a mission.

There was a history there that the rest of the group refused to question their enigmatic leader about. Mauthe didn’t say much of anything about his past, nothing except that he had a family in Paragon City. Despite the obvious intensity of the situation, though, Mauthe was a surprisingly even-tempered and pleasant man.

“Gentlemen,” he announced to his two crews one evening, “We have a mission ahead of us… I’ve finally gotten a green light on something I’ve been meaning to do for some time, and we’ve got to move fast.”

“Green light?” Skrap asked gruffly, “Who the Hell do you answer to?”

“Nobody, normally,” he replied, “but this time, I had to wait for an all clear… Plus, a certain event has been moved ahead of schedule, so the time to do this mission has been dramatically decreased.”

“What event?” the normally quiet Brother War asked in his deep baritone.

“An execution…”

-----

An armored young man walked up to the “Haven House” as if he did it every day. The balding man in front of the decrepit, yet oddly significant building stopped him, however, with a wave of his hands and an angry speech.

“You fiend!” Westin Phipps shouted his repeatedly rehearsed lines, “ Get away from here at once! I will not let you victimize these people, you… You MONSTER!”

“I’m the monster?” Brother Brick growled.

“Hang on,” Phipps looked around the corner of the building to make sure nobody was watching, “Okay, we should be able to talk. Gotta keep up appear-“

Brick hadn’t stopped marching up to him as he looked, and once Phipps turned back, he found himself staring down the barrel of a very high caliber revolver. Brick pressed it to the man’s throat and pushed Phipps to the wall so nobody would see.

“The only reason why you’re not dead, you sack of [dreck], is that you have information I need,” Brick growled again, “You think I don’t know? You think nobody knows!? We know, you worthless worm, and we really know how to make you hurt… You’ve contributed to engendering the most violent generation this nation has ever seen, and Arachnos is about to reap it!”

Phipps shook uncontrollably, but Brick held him upright.

“You’re going to tell me where the teacher is. You know who I’m talking about, and don’t you dare try to lie to me!”

Phipps looked about for any signs of help. He didn’t know that the Bane Spider security detail assigned to him was currently getting tossed around like rag dolls by Brother War. Other rogues also weren’t likely to show up to help him, either, as business had been slow lately.

Brick pulled the hammer back on his revolver and Phipps simultaneously spilled the information and wet himself. The thug wasn’t assured by this, so he swatted the simpering man with the butt of his gun. After a few minutes of wailing on the Arachnos agent, he was certain the information he got was the information he needed.

----------

“Why do you do this?” Brother Hand asked his erstwhile partner.

“Why do you?” Skrap replied, “If I went back to the Council, they’d kill me for desertion and move on to the same old routine. You? I bet Longbow would bring you back in a heartbeat.”

“I would, but they’re always shooting at us.”

They were walking down the corridors of one of the many Arachnos prisons. Brother Ringo and Brother Hood had started a large fire elsewhere in the complex. Ringo had set the blaze while Hood disabled the extinguisher system (what he’d done was fed an accelerant into the system, which only aggravated the fire). Most of the security was busy helping fight the fire.

In fact, only two guards remained. Standing before the energy field containing Miss Francine Primm were two large, powerfully built, Arachnos Bane Spider Executioners. They glowered at the intruders and shook their heads.

“I knew it,” the left one muttered, “I knew as soon as I heard the fire alarm, I knew it was about her.”

“Good thing we don’t move from here unless the boss orders us to,” the right one growled back before pointing his wicked-looking Nullifier Mace at the intruders, “You two. Stay where you are and prepare for death, or you can leave so we don’t have to waste any energy cutting you open from groin to throat.”

Brother Hand shook his head and drew his assault rifle. Brother Skrap did the same. The two simultaneously opened fire, spraying bullets at the guards and diving behind the cover of the ramps that led to the next level. The two Bane Spiders started marching to them, each knowing that he was more than a match for both. They intended to take their time tearing the men apart and entertain themselves as they threw bits and pieces at the energy field holding the prisoner.

Of course, if they were just the basically trained goons of Longbow and the Council like they were discussing earlier, they wouldn’t have survived for as long as they had. The first reached Skrap, and the former Cor Leonis pressed a button on his wrist that triggered a loud keening noise. Before the Executioner knew what he was held in place by an impenetrable force field of nothing more than vibrating air. The other turned to see what the noise was before realizing his mistake and turned to stare into a gas that made him choke and crumple to the floor. Debilitated, he couldn’t fight back as the two men pummeled him into unconsciousness. When the sonic field holding his partner suspended faded, he was subjected to a massive barrage of flying metal that bowled him over.

Hand and Skrap checked the body as they changed their magazines. When it disappeared in a field of red energy, and the one they’d kicked around did the same, they turned to the prison. Francine Primm looked to them hopefully as Skrap worked on shorting out the field.

“Hurry up, man,” Brother Hand urged, “An alarm’s not going to change anything now.”

Skrap grumbled some obscenities until there was an electric pop that signaled that the circuit had shorted out. An alarm sounded, but there wouldn’t be any reinforcements. It was a big fire Ringo and Hand had set up.

“Come along, Ms. Primm,” Skrap growled to the woman, “We’ve got to get you out of here before they realize this is what the whole thing is about.”

They rushed through the corridors as quickly as they could. While they had a good feeling that an attack wasn’t coming, they still couldn’t be too sure. However, for some odd reason, Ms. Primm continued to talk.

“Where are we going? Did Luminary send you? Will she be there when we get outside? Where will we go once we get outside…”

It continued like this for some time before Skrap and Hand both stopped short. They looked to each other through the corners of their eyes and realized they had the same thought. Whirling around, they leveled their assault rifles on Ms. Primm.

“What?” she asked calmly.

Too calmly.

The two men opened fire and the woman deftly backflipped out of the way of the bursts. In an instant, her disguise faded away, revealing a Night Widow. They didn’t know Shadeheart, but they didn’t need to in order to understand that she was a threat. They continued firing and she responded by hurling metal spikes at them. They ducked and dove around the flying metal, and when they got a chance, they fired back, but theyw ere getting nowhere. Shadeheart was smarter than the average Night Widow.

However, if she had expanded upon her psychic training as her superiors told her, she probably would have noticed Brother War tearing out of the floor to grab her by the ankles and pull her under. He wasn’t gentle about it, but there was nothing to the attack other than brute force. She scrabbled at the grating to try to keep herself from being dragged, but the big man was too strong and she was yanked down. War pulled himself up over her and finally stomped her down to the next floor, which was a long way down.

“[Jebus], War,” Hand gasped, “that was… That was pretty rough…”

“I could smell the stink of her armor,” the big man rumbled, “This whole thing was a setup.”

“I don’t think so,” Skrap rasped, “Probably everything up until we involved that [dastard], Phipps. Remind me to put a bullet in his leg before we leave this [fricking] island.”

“I don’t think we’ll have the time,” his counterpart replied, “Look!”

The circular exit door was just closing, but nothing seemed to have come through. At this point, however, the two soldiers knew better, and could hear the clanking of boots on metal as the Bane Spider Scouts approached.

Brother War pushed past the smaller men and pulled the big sharpened hunk of metal from inside his coat. While his friends couldn’t see the Scouts, he could. They were a reddish haze where most of everything was dark, but he couldn’t explain that to them. Instead, in one motion, he hurled the war blade at the Scout at his right, sending the man sprawling off his feet. He then charged into the midst of the remaining three and just starting smashing them about.

One reappeared as he bounced off the wall and his stealth unit shorted out. The last thing he saw before the emergency medical system teleported him away was the big man’s fist smashing through his face mask.

The other two tried to flank him, but War just grabbed the nearest one’s Nullifier and forced the head of it into its wielder’s face mask. Again, this broke and the suit activated its emergency medical teleporter. It might not have been life-threatening damage, but it was severe enough and the masks were pretty close to the soldiers’ faces.

The last held his mace at the ready, but War simply pulled a chain from out of his coat’s pocket. Whirling it over his head in a deft swing, he lashed the links at his foe and the chain wrapped around the mace. With a swift tug, the big man had the weapon in his hand and with a roar, he hurled it back.

When the last Scout faded away, Hand and Skrap gave War a few seconds to collect himself. He turned around to them and nodded. As they headed for the door, he pointed at the hole.

“Don’t even think about it,” his voice didn’t even sound winded, “You go on and get back in there.”

Shadeheart didn’t know how the big man had seen her, but she wasn’t about to argue. He was busy picking up the hunk of sharpened scrap metal he’d used to dispatch one of her support crew, and he seemed ready enough to tear her apart.

----------
“So, you didn’t know?” Power Breaker asked Mauthe once the whole crew was back on the island, “Luminary rescued Primm while your crew smashed through the prison you thought held her. She and Citadel can hack computers like they’re turning on a light switch… Like me. She just had to get into a base that had the know-how.”

“Funny,” Mauthe replied, thinking about how they’d almost been stopped by a squad of arbiters, “You know, she’s the one that gave me the go-ahead?”

“You…” Breaker blinked at that, “You took orders directly from a Vindicator?”

Mauthe nodded and took a sip of his whiskey.

The arbiters would have had them, right outside of the Haven House, just where Phipps expected Brother Brick and Brother Mauthe to come for him once the duplicitous nature of his information had been exposed. However, what he hadn’t counted on was a large number of the people in among the penitents of the Haven House weren’t really the downtrodden dregs he thought they were. With one shrill whistle, Mauthe and his guard were suddenly surrounded by an army of soldiers armed with anything they could get their hands on, from bats and two-by-fours to pistols, shotguns and submachine guns.

The four arbiters didn’t like their odds. Certainly, they could wipe out these people, but Mauthe looked handy with his pistols, and Brick was popping his knuckles as if he was already calculating how to break them down. Brother Mauthe’s dregs edged away quickly, and the confrontation had been uneventful in the active sense, but Mauthe knew that Arachnos would take note of him again.

They would have to be ready. Fortunately, they were.

“Luminary got caught, though,” Breaker grumbled, “But Longbow forces took Primm to safety. That fire your boys set was a work of genius, though. I don’t think Phipps saw that one coming. He probably just told them to set the decoy and the ambush and be done with it. I don’t think he expected your crew to be so tenacious.”

“Nobody ever expects a mastermind’s crew to be tenacious,” Mauthe chuckled back, “I didn’t know what to expect from all of that, but at least my boys know what they’re doing.”

Breaker nodded with understanding, but then blinked and looked around worriedly. After biting his lip, he finished off his beer and started walking away.

“I gotta go. Bossman’s calling me.”

“Why do you do Scirocco’s bidding? He’s not the real Scirocco, you know…”

“He’s got the mantle, no matter how he got it,” Breaker shrugged, “It’s in the hands of Fate, now. If Fate wants to take it from him, it’s just got to send somebody strong enough and worthy enough to take it. For now, he’s got me doing work that isn’t so much furthering Arachnos’ plans, but policing things up out here. That simple. I’d love to debate this more, man, but I really gotta go.”

Mauthe nodded and raised his glass in cheers to his departing friend. After the big man left, his crew shuffled in, one-by-one. They knew the story now, as Mauthe had much to explain on their way back home. However, they still didn’t know the why, and he told them who had ordered the mission right then.

“Sir, why?” Brother Hand asked, hope tingeing his voice.

“It’s obvious,” Skrap muttered, “He’s a Longbow agent, like that [butt]hole, Wilder.”

“No, not like Wilder,” Mauthe sighed, “I’m deep cover. Unspecified Operations. I was specially selected for this…”

He fished out his identification and handed it to his friends. They passed it around and looked it over. Brick and Ringo looked shocked, Hand was disbelieving, but Skrap and War just shrugged. They didn’t know the significance of the name.

-Michael G. Marchand-

“So… What relation?” Hand almost laughed.

“Second son,” Mauthe replied, “I was an infant the day he died… The helicopter flew off while he fended off… The assassin.”

“So… You know the truth? Who killed your father?”

Mauthe’s eye looked about, but finally he shook his head. He had a good memory of that day, and he didn’t know why. However, he just could not remember the face of the killer. One thing that stood at the forefront of his mind though, the Menders were lying to him.

He knew the face he saw in the mirror wasn’t the one that took his father’s life. It wasn’t any of his crew, either.

“So, that’s what this is all about?” War asked as he folded his arms over his chest, “You’re getting your revenge?”

“Revenge, closure,” Mauthe shrugged, “Something. I don’t know. I never knew my father… My brother… I don’t even know what happened to him. Heck, Gerald was so old at the time, he might not have even been my father. I just know I’m in my forties, I have a memory of that day, my name is Marchand as well and my mother said she missed him very much. I was also personally recruited into Freedom Corps by Ms. Liberty and trained for just this sort of assignment, so…”

He shrugged.

“It’s repeatedly crossed my mind that it could all still be a pack of lies, my whole life, everything up-to-and-including my insertion into the Zig so I could be extracted by Arachnos without them thinking I was an agent. I could even be delusional, but… I don’t think so. At this point, however, I don’t care. I could find out it was all a lie tomorrow and move on. Big deal. So long as this little colony we’ve got set up works out and holds as a safe place for people sick of the crap in the Rogues, I’m happy. This is what’s important to me. The rest… We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

The members of his crew nodded and left it at that. As they filtered out, War continued to look down his nose at Mauthe. However, it wasn’t contempt he was conveying. It was a quiet regard.

There was a strange sense of respect emanating from the big man. Mauthe nodded to him before tossing him the bottle of whiskey and nodding in a gesture that indicated that he wanted to be alone.

War carefully picked his way outside, and let his boss rest with his thoughts.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's kind of sad that, when we think of "Hordes," we immediately think "Bugs."

Ants tend to work like this. Hornets, too.

Beetles? Spiders? Hell no.

Of course, so do people if given sufficient numbers. Heck, sometimes we don't even need the sufficient numbers, we just need time and neglect. Look at the rain forests, for instance.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you fell for that, huh?

Look again. You truly think the jungle (call it what it truly is) doesn't reclaim land?

The workers who till the land in Brazil will tell you the jungle reclaims the land at a pace actually notable after only a week.

If the humans truly have been claiming the 50 acres per day the E-wackos claim. We would have no amazon jungle NOW.

The e-wackos have been wrong so often, I pity anyone who actually believes them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Vines, grasses, and other "soft-stem" plants grow back that quickly. Maybe.

Trees don't.

Also...

Rain Forest

Jungle

You can find a jungle in a rain forest, but not the other way around.

[ QUOTE ]
Watch Life After Humans on History Channel. Shows some city over in Russia that was devastated from the Chernobyl incident, and how nature is reclaiming the buildings and everything. Deer are back in the area.

It's only been 20 years since that time.

[/ QUOTE ]

People aren't there. That's not so unbelievable. Still, you're not going to find whole trees smashed through the buildings just yet.

Please don't start turning into bats on me.

Now, I'm not saying the "E-Wackos" aren't exaggerating, but there's definitely a problem with how human progress has all but ignored the long term effects of slaughtering everything for humanity's convenience.

Of course, all of this is neither here-nor-there as to the story. The Horde could be anything at this point, and the discussion on plants "encroaching" suddenly has me wondering whether or not it's Hamidon gone out of control.

Or Blue Battler could be pulling the same stuff as Steampunk Charlie, and just slapping an army of monsters together from the recesses of his imagination.

It's kind of sad that, when we think of "Hordes," we immediately think "Bugs."

Ants tend to work like this. Hornets, too.

Beetles? Spiders? Hell no.

Of course, so do people if given sufficient numbers. Heck, sometimes we don't even need the sufficient numbers, we just need time and neglect. Look at the rain forests, for instance.

Well, essentially, what I'm saying is that you've got a great beginning, but the story is currently waiting on "He went hunting..."

So... Hearing that you're getting inspired again... Coolness!

EDIT...

Well, Sam, all I need is a link to the work. I'll read it, consider its Scoop-worthiness (which, from your prior works, I figure it will be), and I usually use the first paragraph or so for the introductory portion of the Spotlight.

All in good time, Samuraiko. All in good time.

Now... I would use Last prince of Mars, Harrier, except for one thing... It needs more, MORE, MOAR!

...

More.

For now, I'm looking into that one by Aliana. Slick seems to have good things to say, and that's a man(?) of impeccable taste, so I'll give it a shot.

I'm picturing ravenous bugs.

Like locusts, only as big as ponies and horses.

Finally got the last chapter in the Rescue Arc done. Sorry for not asking permission, Sooner and Ice9, but I hope I wasn't wrong in assuming you'd want your characters to see this adventure through.

Essentially, the heroes finally confront the rogue Carnies that have kidnapped Aaron Durj's son. Despite their strength, however, the Carnies have quite a few nasty tricks up their sleeves that would baffle even the most veteran of heroes.

“Why haven’t you figured out what’s wrong with this boy?”

Madame Carina was glaring at a pair of Illusionists who had informed her repeatedly that the young child they’d kidnapped was not the psychic they’d been told he’d be. Carina, however, knew different. She had seen the potential in her former pupil and had intercepted the reports indicating the capabilities of her child.

“I know this child had the power I require!” she shouted at them, “You’re just trying to hide it from me!”

“Madame!” an Attendant shouted as she ran into the main chamber, “There’s an attack in the main lobby!”

Cursing, the Ring Mistress turned to the monitors and saw what appeared to be a Malta Group Gunslinger blasting into one of her Strongmen. Muttering to herself, she ordered her Illusionists to go downstairs and deal with the threat.

----------

Maylor had known who Madame Carina was and where the woman could be found. She was running all sorts of entertainment for high class parties, even if the entertainment itself wasn’t high class. Her girls were decidedly promiscuous, and did little to hide the fact. Despite working for a paparazzo magazine, Maylor was truly disgusted with the material presented to the Tattler by the rebel Madame’s group whenever certain individuals wouldn’t or couldn’t pay off the bribes to keep the dirty little secrets and he was all too happy to let the heroes know where to go.

“Make sure she winds up behind bars,” Harvey sighed, “She must think your son is worth risking everything over…”

“That’s something I already know,” Aaron nodded, “If only for a different reason. Thanks, Harvey. I’ll be sure to tell Indigo how you helped me.”

Maylor tugged at his collar uncomfortably and stammered. In the information brokerage business, one often had to know the competition and the associates. What he’d heard about Indigo and her boss, Crimson, made him very nervous that they would know much of anything about him.

“Nah, that’s fine, Mr. Durj. I’m happy just working in my own personal corner of the media, no need to get caught up in the hussle-and-bustle of international intrigue…”

The heroes made their way to a building just a few blocks away. Ahren dealt with the Nemesis troops patrolling nearby by knocking the Warhulk with them over and stomping through the containment unit. The machine’s fluids ignited and it exploded, sending soldiers hurtling in all directions. They weren’t dead, but they didn’t get back up.

A pair of colorfully-yet-scantily clad women appeared at the doorway to see what the noise was about, and Sooner dove in with a flying body tackle, slamming one against the corner of the door frame and the other tumbling down the stairs. As the one sent down the stairs started to get up, she found a knife at her throat.

“Now, now,” Psycho13 murmured quietly into her ear, “It wouldn’t be terribly wise for you to-AUGH!”

He looked down to see the woman had stabbed a rapier through his heart. Backing away, his face turning pale, he stumbled and fell on his backside as he clutched at his chest. Sheldon, however, was not taken in by the act.

“We don’t have time for theatrics, Levi.”

“Aw, you’re no fun,” the scrapper chuckled as he pulled the sword out of his chest and the wound started closing.

The fencer stared in consternation at the young man. He wasn’t the first regenerator she’d seen, nor would he be the last, but it was always disturbing to run across the ones who treated their injuries as jokes. They always seemed to be a step away from going completely insane with ambivalence.

Before she could do something to further the conflict, however, Ahren walked up behind her and tapped her on top of the head. It wasn’t gentle, and with the man’s super strength, it was enough to knock her out. She slumped over to her side unceremoniously as the gathered heroes made their way to the entrance. They found Sooner there, placing a police drone beacon on the fencer she’d tackled and gesturing for them to go inside.

“I wish we’d brought Daddy,” Sarah whispered as they walked in, “He’s just always so strong and scary…”

“We’ll be fine,” Ahren replied, “I’ve dealt with psychics before. I can handle this as well as a stone tanker… I can move faster, too.”

“Yeah, watch him work,” Sooner Red clapped the white-haired girl on the shoulder, “He’ll make short work of everything that comes our way…”

Which he did. Ahren would dive into the center of most of the groups, followed shortly by the rest of the group. The Carnies, a lot of them Strongmen, would suffer some terrible bout of tunnel vision and focus their attention on the incredibly resilient tanker. The tall man was capable of handling most of the groups himself, but not as rapidly as when Sooner and Psycho13 dove in afterward and laced into the people. Amazingly, they didn’t kill anybody… Not intentionally, anyway.

“No…” one whispered as Psycho13 popped her in the forehead with the pommel of his knife, “…You fool…”

Her whole body relaxed suddenly before exploding into a cloud of dust. The man squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his nose into the sleeve of his tuxedo. Fortunately, it wasn’t like the last time Aaron and company had dealt with this rapid rot.

“My God,” Sarah muttered as she held her hand over her nose and mouth, “It’s almost as bad as the Rodman Dump…”

They made their way through the complex and finally were confronted with a pair of Master Illusionists. They were known as the Twins, Sammi and Tammi. They were powerful psychics alone, even more so when they worked together. Their specialty was in making large monster illusions that were realer than real. Unfortunately, this fight was taking place in a room big enough to allow for just that, and they were in the process of making one. At present, it just looked like a gray blur hovering in the air.

“This is bad,” Sooner muttered, “We’ll have to stop them before they make that… Whatever.”

“Righto,” Aaron barked as he leveled his pistol and fired.

The twin on the left exploded in a flash of light and the Illusionists were gone. Unfortunately, the blur remained.

“Of course it wouldn’t be that easy,” Sarah muttered as she slapped her forehead.

They pushed to the staircase on their left and encountered a crew of Strongmen. One of them, for some odd reason, wore a big gold mask. He also hit harder than the others, even going so far as to knock Ahren on his back. However, Sooner and Psycho13, working on Aaron’s advice, sliced and slashed the straps holding the helmet on the big man’s head and Sarah lifted it off with telekinesis. He looked around confusedly before Aaron accidentally kicked one of the Iron Strong Men in the abdomen, causing him to back into his former boss.

Aaron was slammed into a wall by a Steel Strongman after that. However, before the big man could press his attack, Ahren was back on his feet and tackling the brute down the stairs. The Strongman tried to right himself, but he was hefted up by his ankle and the back of his neck before Ahren hurled him into a group of fencers at the entrance of the chamber. They were trying to reinforce the Carnies, but the big man crashing through them put a stop to that really fast.

“Who is this?” Sooner asked as she looked the man who had worn the Gold Helmet over.

“I think he was the center for the Patriots,” Levi muttered, “My brother would know better, but the guy has been missing since the Playoffs. It wouldn’t surprise me if these girls got him, considering what we’ve been told about them.”

“Oh man,” the dark-skinned man grunted, “My head… What happened? What the Hell is that!?”

The heroes looked back to see the blur had coalesced into the large form of the infamous Devouring Earth Monster, Jurassik. They collectively grunted as it turned toward them and Ahren, shaking his head, caught the rusted sedan as the Giant Illusion swung it at them.

“Gah!” he shouted on impact, “I always hate this part! Where’s that stone tank when you need him?”

“I know you’re kidding,” Cerise chuckled as she dove over the side of the walk way, “You can take it!”

“It would help if it wasn’t fake,” Ahren grunted as he pushed the hulk back and joined his partner, “If I didn’t know this was just some illusion…”

“Cool!” Psycho13 shouted, “I can accept that!”

Despite the protests of his companions, he sped ahead of the others and stopped right between the ankles of the illusory giant. “Jurassik” then swung low and knocked the scrapper clean off his feet, slamming him into the far wall. One of Psycho13’s knives stuck next to him, the other stabbed right in his belly, eliciting a grunt.

“At least he’s not dead,” Sarah sighed as they followed and engaged the monster.

While it was resilient, the fake Jurassik was nowhere near as powerful as the real giant monster. Normally, it took a full crew of considerable strength to fight the beast. Here, the heroes knew they were doing considerable damage as they assaulted the “walking rock” that started to waver as they tore at the psychic energies holding the manifestation together.

As Psycho13 rejoined the fight, hacking and slashing at the monster’s ankles with a fervor that showed he seemed completely unfazed by the powerful blow he’d just received, Ahren leaped up and slammed his fist in the abdomen of the beast. His fist went right through, and the heroes knew the illusion was beaten when the rest of the tanker’s body went hurtling through the ever-widening hole. Gaps appeared in the illusion’s body, and it slowly, surely, fell apart and faded away.

“AUGH!” they heard from above.

Looking up, the heroes saw one of the twins, Tammi, holding the side of her head. She was on the top floor of the walkways, and they wasted no time getting to her and her sister. The Illusionists threw an army of scary looking things at them, but they pressed on. Sarah turned their fear back on them, sending them an image of her father’s face, only gigantic, rushing at them. They broke under the terror, and Sammi went flying away in fear. Tammi tried to stand her ground and was thrown through a window by Ahren for her trouble. When Sammi looked back to see what had happened, a bullet from Aaron’s gun clipped her mask and it crumbled to bits off her face.

“Where is he?” the gunslinger shouted at her as she fell to her knees and started sobbing, “Where is my son!?”

There was an audible thud as the little man jumped from the third walkway and landed in front of her. She looked up, tears streaming out of her eyes and her hair a mess. She was overwhelmed with memories, things she’d done and the people she’d hurt, not to mention who she was returning to the forefront of her mind. All of it, however, could have just been an act, and Aaron wasn’t about to let himself be fooled again.

“Answer me!” he shouted as he hoisted her up and pressed the muzzle of his pistol against her throat, “I will spill your life all over this carpet!”

“Upstairs!” the girl shouted and sobbed hoarsely, “Please! Please don’t hurt me!”

“There is no upstairs!” he barked, pulling the pistol away briefly to fire once into the ceiling before promptly pressing the muzzle into her belly, “You better stop lying to me!”

“The elevator!” her sister shouted from behind as Ahren trudged her down the stairs, her mask cracking in his left hand as he squeezed, “It’s protected by an illusion… We can… We can take it down for you… Just don’t hurt her…”

As Sarah and Ahren took the Illusionists away, Sooner Red walked over to Aaron and confronted him about his behavior. Sheldon and Psycho13 trailed after the others as the female scrapper waved them on.

“This is near-psychotic, Durj,” she whispered so as not to let the echo carry, “If it weren’t for the fact that I remember the news broadcast and your friends telling me it is your son, I’d almost believe that this was some sort of delusion directed at a band of criminals. Don’t get me wrong, I hate them, too, but you looked just about ready to kill that poor woman!”

“I was,” Aaron growled back, “There are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed… And those who fall in with those who would don’t deserve any mercy.”

“But they’re as much victims as the normal people they hurt.”

“That’s what we thought about Carina when we released her last time.”

Sooner Red shook her head.

“You don’t even remember if that was her. You don’t even know if your son is here!”

“I know…” he murmured, “I… I know he’s here…”

“Guys!” they heard Psycho13 shouting for them, “They weren’t kidding, there’s a whole hallway here hidden behind a wall!”

----------

“Tell me what the secret is,” Madame Carina murmured as they pushed her outside.

There hadn’t been a fight. The woman knew she was outmatched, having just watched three of her best get defeated almost unceremoniously, and she surrendered immediately. True, she’d considered trying to threaten the life of the child, but after watching the gunslinger threaten her lieutenant like he did, she reconsidered that option quickly. Plus, her thoughts had broadcast, and Sarah sent an image of what her father had in store for people who committed such heinous acts against children.

It would not have been an easy death, nor would she have likely died. There were plenty worse punishments than death.

Instead, she turned the child over and submitted herself to be handcuffed. Sooner and Ahren took the credit for the mission, as Aaron wasn’t an official hero, and there was some fanfare for rescuing the young psychic. Ahren muttered something about it all being unnecessary, and Sooner seemed to be trying to keep her face out of the cameras’ view, however, Psycho13 and Sarah Durnan proudly cheered as they were lauded for saving the child of their friends.

“It’s a sonic resonance emitter,” Sheldon replied, “Installed into his hat.”

“Impossible,” the woman hissed, “The technology isn’t… Isn’t…”

“I can make such devices,” he replied, “We made this one with the intention of stopping people like you and your friends from detecting Carl. Too bad your goons remembered Aaron’s last name when they went searching for him in the maternity ward.”

The police drove away with the woman in the back of one of their squad cars. With her mask off her face and a dose of the power dampening solution used in the Zig in her circulatory system, she could do little more than scowl at the heroes as she was taken away.

Sarah was just happy for the outcome, but then her friend, Psycho13, had a dark reason for wanting any involvement with the whole incident. She could sense it circulating the back of his mind; the secret thought that he kept hidden from his friends.

He was a man seeking conflict, a hero born of pain and torture and he’d finally found something to do that would get the attention of the people who’d made him what he was. She could hear it radiating from his brain in pulses.

”Here I am, guys. Come and get me.”

((I didn't ask Sooner and Ice9 for permission to use their characters, Sooner and Ahren, for this final chapter of the arc, but I assume they would have wanted their characters to see this bit through to the end. I hope I haven't ticked either of them off with the portrayal.))

Actually, I picture her more as a walking, 5-foot-tall Barbie Doll.

I have two questions...

Have you made Hope in-game?

If you have, what powers does she wield?

New Grey's Army post. Aaron Durj, Ahren, Sooner, and converse with a recently-released-from-prison Vanessa DeVore about the location of Aaron's kidnapped son. However, it seems she isn't quite as in control as she used to be...

"We're looking for Ms. DeVore's party," Aaron told the desk clerk.

The young man blinked at him and his companions. Once he realized they were heroes, he bit his lower lip. The cleanup afterward was going to be terrible.

"Well, sir... The Lady has indicated that she's holding a private celebra-" he stared at the monitor and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple, "Uh... It seems she's indicated that you're to go up to the penthouse immediately."

Aaron, Ahren and Sooner started for the elevators almost immediately. Their new companions, however, weren't so quick to follow. Instead, they looked to each other worriedly and followed only when Durj looked back to them and furrowed his brow.

"That was fast," Sheldon's breath quickened slightly, but he struggled to school his face to its normal calm demeanor, "I don't like this."

"You shouldn't," Sarah Durnan rubbed her arms worriedly, "Vanessa's one of the most powerful psychics on the planet... And she's nasty to boot. The fact that she wants us to go meet her directly, no fighting through her minions, no trawling through a series a hallways to find her, none of the regular bull... It just doesn't bode well for us."

"Just get in the elevator," Aaron growled.

Once they were all in the the lift car, the doors closed and they started rising without any of them ever hitting a button. This made them look to each other worriedly, but Sheldon was quick to point out that all the Carnies needed to do was hit the "recall" button on their floor. Still, their timing was unsettling.

"This is going to be a difficult fight," Sooner whispered as she watched the gunslinger check his weapons, "Do you really think we'll be able to make it?"

"You know what I have at stake," the small man replied, "Do you think I have a choice?"

"No... I don't think anybody does... But that doesn't change our odds, either."

Sarah nodded and looked to the floor as she hoped the mental message she was sending was getting through to her target.

----------

"Welcome, welcome!" a brightly-dressed young woman chirped as she bounced enthusiastically in front of the opening elevator doors, "Mistress DeVore is so happy that you've come to speak with her! The whole room is positively bubbling with... Um... Why do you have your weapons out?"

Aaron kept his pistol leveled at a spot just to the right of the girl's forehead. The depleted uranium round would chip the mask, releasing the girl. Her unerring calm at seeing the heroes brandishing their implements and Ahren cracking his knuckles indicated that she was well under the sway of the Carnival's Grand Mistress. However, her voice was strong. She was still herself, even if she was still a puppet.

"Oh, we're much more comfortable with our implements at the ready," he finally answered, "What with Ms. DeVore's history when dealing with heroes."

"I see..." the girl sounded glum, but finally turned to walk away, "Well, come with me. She would like very much to speak with you personally."

"Does she know why we're here?"

"Of course!"

The heroes looked to each other with worry again before following. They were surrounded by the elite among the Carnival of Shadows. The strongest of the Strong Men, the most adept of the Illusionists, and the most lethal of the Ring Mistresses. However, where they would normally encounter this particular collection in a most violent way, everybody was decidedly relaxed. They even seemed quite celebratory.

It was a penthouse like none they'd ever seen before. It was designed with decadence in mind. A wide dance floor, bordered with windows, overlooked the ridgeline to the south and the rest of the city to the north. Above the floor was a balcony where party guests who didn't feel like dancing or performing could watch, eat, drink and mingle. All about were tapestries, giant masks and all manner of ribbons and decorations. It was definitely a party they were being led through.

Despite the stories of debauchery and other mindless acts, the gathering was surprisingly formal. Psycho13 even grinned broadly and plucked at the lapels of his suit when some of the party goers looked askance at him. Sheldon pushed the scrapper forward so they could join the rest of the group at a table where the very flamboyantly-dressed and imposing Vanessa DeVore rested and was tended to by her most loyal followers in the farthest corner of the balcony from the door.

"Welcome," she announced as they reached her table, "I was hoping to have more prominent heroes attend my return party, but I suppose I can make do with somebody of your needs."

"Heroes?" Psycho13 asked, "Ma'am, I'm just a security guard..."

The woman looked askance at the young man, but waved him off to return her attention to Aaron. Despite the mask she wore, her expressions were still discernible. It was as if the porcelain moved and molded to match her face, but only ever so slightly.

"Now, I know some of why you've come after me and my own, gunslinger," she said to the young man, "But... Well, normally I would just read your mind and determine the rest, but it seems all I'm hearing now is the music..."

"That would be my fault, Ma'am," Sarah explained, "See, I'm a psychic, too, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure you can't get into our heads..."

"That would explain the burst I felt earlier... And you're lucky, young lady, that I don't feel I need to get in there. I could crack your brain open like a nut."

The white haired girl merely squinted and made a light growl. Still, she didn't press the issue.

"So, you're looking for your son, and you two, if I gathered enough on your way into the building, are wondering what I'm up to... The rest of you are just tagging along to help your friend, yes?"

The heroes nodded as she sipped her wine. There was a pause as she considered just what she was willing to tell them, but these weren't "Earth-shattering" heroes, at least, not yet. While Vanessa couldn't be sure that they would never pose any true threat to her organization, she couldn't be sure they would, either. Deciding she would play this one safe, she decided to finally tell the group of heroes her situation.

"Well, Mr. Durj, I wish I could help you. I really do. However, since my arrest, really, since the energy I expended trying to fight back that group of heroes, my control has been broken. There are bands of the Carnival all over, and I've been working on a plan to recover my darlings... A plan which you so callously dashed against the rocks when you slaughtered that outpost I had set up."

"As I recall, they were already slaughtered," Aaron replied, "They sounded just like you when they screamed... Of course, I'd need an example from out of you..."

There was an audible click from under the table and the attendant Ring mistresses drew their blades. As the points hovered below the young man's chin, Psycho13 reached over casually to grasp a glass of wine. His arm was cut into by the sharp points of the swords, but he seemed unconcerned.

"Careful," he murmured, "You want the good life, you break your back..."

He brought the glass to his lips and tossed finished the beverage in one drink. The lacerations along his arms closed and he seemed unconcerned at the standoff.

"...You snap your fingers... You snap your neck."

Again, the leader of the Carnival stared askance at the odd young man, but she waved off her compatriots and leveled her gaze on Aaron. At the gunslinger's sides, Ahren and Sooner Red were tense, the tanker wondering whether or not he should try to break the gunslinger's wrist before he could fire a shot, the scrapper wondering how many Carnies they could cut down before DeVore broke their minds and devoured their souls should things turn for the worst. Fortunately, Vanessa didn't hear any of these surface thoughts, the music from Sarah Grey-Durnan was too overpowering for such simple psychic readings.

Aaron, for his part, holstered his pistol. He was letting his frustration and distress rule his judgment, and he needed to keep a level head, especially now.

"There's no need for hostility," Vanessa finally continued, "Listen, Mr. Durj, when you 'liberated' your wife from my organization, I was in prison and severed from my girls. I was not in any form of control at that time, though I believe the Ring Mistress trying to recruit them may have had more dark thoughts brewing in the back of her pretty little head than she let on."

"But..." Aaron turned to Sarah, "Didn't you read the minds of those Carnies?"

"Yes... The Mistress was an innocent..."

This elicited a cheerful chuckle from DeVore, who swirled her drink happily. Durnan glared at her again before asking what she found so humorous.

"My dear, you think you, a lightweight psychic who treats her powers as a novelty, has any chance of piercing the veils even the least of my Illusionists can develop? Let's see..."

She sat in silence for a moment while the white-haired girl growled obscenities under her breath. Eventually, just as the heroes were about to get fed up, she returned from her musings and addressed them again.

"You'll be wanting to pay a visit to Madame Carina. She's been rather adamant about resisting my reclamation, and from what I can gather from reading the thoughts of my various agents around her, she believes she finally has something to fight me with. If only she knew..."

"Carina?" Sarah murmured, "Was that the woman's name..."

"Well, it's a safe bet. She's the only one currently making overt plans against me, the 'weapon' is reportedly the product of one of her 'former girls,' and, frankly, she's the only one out there with any plans remotely similar to this. Now, I have answered the questions you had when you destroyed what was to be my forceful hand. What do you intend to give me to make sure I don't kill you in reprisal?"

The Ring Mistresses brandished their weapons again and Aaron glared at them in contempt. However, that was when the elevator doors at the other side of the room opened again. A large man, large enough to be imposing even to the Strong Men, marched into the penthouse suite. His sunken eyes glared about and when the greeter girl walked up, asking him what he thought he was doing, he spat on the floor in front of her. Vanessa left her table to see what the latest interruption was, her attendants making sure the heroes didn't leave.

"I'm here to get my daughter out of here," the big newcomer grunted, "Her and her friends... Right Joe?"

"Yes, sir," Durnan replied as he fished a piece of paper from his flak jacket's inner pocket, "Ladies and gentlemen! I am Sergeant Joseph Durnan of the Paragon Police Department! I have here a warrant giving us the right to search this penthouse for any evidence regarding criminal activities..."

DeVore glared at the two. She saw the slight sneer on the large man's face while he was getting wrapped in various types of stone. She almost hissed when she saw the minerals start hovering around his head, which scrambled the brutish thoughts she'd found there and left her wondering at just what the big man was capable of.

"How about this, Mr. Grey," she announced as she leaned against the railing of the balcony overlooking the main floor, "I'll just give you your daughter and her friends, and you can go ahead and leave me be. Hm? Is that satisfactory?"

"It works for me," the big man replied, "Joe, you can stop waving that thing around."

Officer Durnan hummed worriedly as he stuffed the warrant back into his pocket and tightened his grip on his assault rifle. Behind them, another large man with a worried look on his face held the elevator open as the heroes broke away from the Carnival leader and her attendants and joined the large tanker.

"Keep your nose out of trouble," Aaron finally answered the woman in passing, "And I promise you I won't ever have to bring anymore harm to your organization."

"I will extract my payment from you, you little cur," the woman replied, "You have involved yourself in matters beyond your ken. Now get out. You've soured my mood for a moment..."

----------

"Thank you, Randall," Sheldon gasped as they descended in the elevator car, "How-?"

"I called Joe," Sarah answered, "He told Dad. Who's this guy?"

"Hi, I'm Sam," the big man replied, "Sam Bibbins. Your dad wanted me to come with him because of my previous experience with the Carnival."

Sooner looked to the big man, then back to Aaron.

"Is this one of the former Strong men you mentioned?"

"Yeah," the gunslinger replied, "Used to be a computer guy, then they brought him into their ranks when they needed his money."

"Carnies cleaned me out," Bibbins sighed, "And I didn't even know what was going on. First clear thought I had, it was a half-remembered drunk thought about a big bucket being put over my head... Now, I'm much bigger, I'm poor, and I'm still trying to work out the legal ramifications."

"That's..." the young woman bit her lower lip and patted the big man's wrist sympathetically, "That's terrible. What about others?"

"Most find new ways to make a living," Sarah answered, "One we know, she's one of Sergei's designers in Steel Canyon's Icon store."

"My girlfriend," Sam grinned sheepishly, "She's an Icon model now... It's... It's kind of cool. I never thought I'd date a model."

"Gotta love those enhancements," the big, gruff Grey chuckled.

((Ahren and Sooner used with permission from Ice9 and Sooner.))

[ QUOTE ]
Heh.

Time for a serious reply. 8-)

The reason I used King for her last name is because we don't really know CK's true human name-- its not impossible that it was king.

I thought about just having her use the last name of Yin, but it didn't feel right to not have part of CK's name as hers as well...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's also possible that the Clockwork King go so involved in creating his "Tinker Bots" that he actually forgot his real name. At this point, The Clockwork King is probably his real name.

Or it could be Elvis. Hail to the King, baby.

For that joke, we deduct 500 Internets.

--The Opposing Side--

It had been a little over a month, but the medics in the Sharkhead base called Colonel Duray in to inspect the work they had completed on Captain Florio. After sustaining such intense injuries, the man was never going to be the same. In fact, it was even a miracle that the man had survived the destruction of the wet docks.

"Well sir, we finally got him fully rehabilitated," the doctor intoned, "but... Well... He's not going to like how we patched him up."

Duray smirked and pulled back the curtain to see the captain lying on the bed, his eyes wide with shock and rage. His collar and shoulders weren't just fixed, as the doctor said, but they had been replaced with cybernetic implants. The medical personnel and mechanics had even gone so far as to replace Florio's arms with combat prosthetics.

"Fantastic," the colonel lauded, "You've done well, doc."

"Not by my reckoning!" Florio barked, "Look at me! I'm a freak!"

"Indeed. You look just like all of those meta humans we have to deal with on a daily basis. Consider this your penance for your failure."

The captain looked at his colonel, his anger and shock giving way to confusion. Duray simply extended his fist, and opened it, making a small sound with his exhaled breath that was similar to an explosion.

"You let the security at the wet docks grow lax. You were working exclusively on the repair of your ship, and because you neglected to remove the reactive portions of the fusion core from the Megaburst, both ships and the wet docks were lost."

"There's still enough to repair the Andrew," Florio coughed, "We just... We just..."

"Both ships were lost, Friendly Fire," Duray growled, "One damaged beyond repair, the other reduced to slag we're still dredging up from the ocean floor. We had to get in touch with the friends of our old Lockheart friends to help do that... You'd be amazed how well Warhulks can function underwater."

"But... What will we do?"

"We're going to build a new ship," Duray muttered, "But this time, our not-so-silent partner has decided he wants to be more involved."

Florio's eyes widened again and he rolled his head around in despair. It wasn't such a major secret anymore that the Nemesis Army had much to do with the Sky Raiders' break from the U.S. government, though the Raiders liked to think that they'd made their own improvements since Nemesis supplied them with the unusual technology they utilized in their Skiffs and shield generators.

Indeed, the Sky Ships themselves, experimental as they were, were a crowning achievement for the Raiders. They had built the immense vessels themselves, had tested them, had sent them against their enemies. They were all set to turn their might against West Libertalia when that foolish ambassador involved General Aarons and the U.S. government.

Considering what the Sky Raiders were able to develop in secret and what Duray knew about what the U.S. military had developed so far, he was far from eager for a conflict. At least, not until the full might of the vessels had been tested properly, and they currently had the major flaw of being able to be boarded, especially by super-powered beings, and then the battle was up to the Raiders themselves.

Now, Nemesis wanted in on the project. It was as Duray had warned Florio and Castillo about, that eventually the debts the Sky Raiders had incurred with the Brass King would be called, and he wanted that which was most precious to them.

"Rachek's bitten off more than he can chew, now," the purple-clad colonel growled, "He's involved powers he cannot possibly comprehend, and he's going to reap it."

"Sir," Captain Florio pushed himself out of his hospital bed, "Whatever I can do to redeem myself in your eyes and to the Sky Raiders, I will do it!"

The colonel turned to the doctors and the forms they were showing him and nodded. He had much in mind for his new super-freak to do, and he was glad the man was in fighting spirit.

"I bet you will, Captain. I bet you will."

----------

--Air Guard: AG-03--

"You said you've got something for me?" Rachek asked the engineers.

"Yes sir," Corporal Walters, a new member to the Engineering Corps (and cleared by Captain Carter), was shuffling papers and addressing some of the monitors that Rachek, for all his training, had only faintest grasp of the information displayed, "Well, we may have finally found a way around the shielding conundrum we've been running across. Whenever we tried to project a protective field around the Thunder Nimbus, we ran into an energy drain so severe, it would risk shorting out the ship and plummet the vessel to the deck..."

He used the word "deck," just as the American Marines and Navy use it for "floor," but in this case, it was meant to mean everything from the surface of the ocean to landmasses like islands, shorelines, even urban centers. Walters turned Rachek's attention to a chart showing a portable shield generator much like the ones deployed by the Raider Engineers.

"Now, we got to working with a young man, I believe you know of him, Dale Simms, a defender-class hero who specializes in Force Field technology. At first, we thought he was some kind of super genius, but it turned out that he had very little working knowledge when it came to developing new technologies. He referred to himself as a 'tinker,' a sort of innovator that takes devices and makes them do things they're not supposed to do..."

"As I understand it, the definitions are still up to debate," another engineer, Sergeant Rich, commented, "By that frame of mind, any Engineer is a tinker."

"Yes, but we have goals and purpose to our work," Walters countered, "Simms stumbled upon some old junk of another inventor and got it working... He then messed around with it to get it to do more than just make a bubble of energy. If I understand correctly, his current devices are the same stuff that old machine was, and his work has been entirely trial-and-error, where we have plans and blueprints and-"

"Will you get on with it?" Rachek growled impatiently, "I do have other concerns, and honestly, all this nerd-crap bores the Hell out of me."

"Sorry, sir," the corporal seemed a little glum, but perked right up as he found his place in the presentation, "Ah, yes! The shields... With a little work, we can shield the Thunder Nimbus!"

"I gathered that. How?"

"With our versions of the Force Field Generators..."

Walters produced a roughly basketball-sized device from under a tarp and presented it to the Captain. It looked similar to the planet-destroying space station out of that popular movie, Stellar Conflict; it even had little depressions where the green laser would have fired from, only a lot more of them and they were pretty evenly distributed, allowing for six depressions, three on the on the northern and southern hemispheres, on the device. Without saying anything, he let the machine go and it hovered in place and emitted an eerie green light from the "dips" that condensed into a protective field just like the Sky Raider version did.

"You guys finally built these, huh?"

"Not only that, sir, they have no steam-tech, nor do they suffer the limitations of our counterparts' generators... Watch!"

Sergeant Rich picked up a rock and threw it at the generator. Suddenly, the machine turned and a rad beam fired from the center of one of the depressions, destroying the rock.

"We'd initially tried to come up with a point-defense," the other engineer explained, "You know, to deflect missiles, but the tracking system is rather rugged. It can actually attack the source of the attacks, to-AUGH!"

The shield generator demonstrated the sergeant's point by firing at him. They weren't terribly powerful bursts, but the shot did leave Rich's arm singed.

"Alright, that's enough, Bob," Walters intoned as he picked up a remote control and shut down the weapons system, "Now, sir, the shield we have here is just as powerful as the ones the Sky Raiders have. Now, what Mr. Simms helped us with is a concept of deployment... He explained that we can dot these along the surface of the Thunder Nimbus and we'll have an effective-enough shield system. He said they were considering trying the same thing on their old warship until they found that their fusion core could handle shielding it without running into the power problems we run into."

"Intriguing," Rachek growled, "However, I still feel we're missing something if we don't have a ship-based shield system instead of this 'independent' system. But this might be a step in the right direction. Work on implementing this, but I want some brainstorming done on how we can come up with something that can be fielded by the Nimbus and repaired onboard. Last thing we need is the enemy finding our Achilles Heel to be whatever you set up to house these buggers and focusing their efforts at destroying them. For now, this might just give us an edge when dealing with the Rikti bombing runs, so get to work with Captains Daniels and Macnamara on setting it up."

"Yes, sir," Sergeant Rich barked as he made a casual salute to the captain and Corporal Walters nodded.

With a gentle shake of his head, Rachek went on to his other meetings. He had to see how the armored suits were coming along and what other hold-ups were keeping the Warbirds out of production.

He wished they could have done something with Oldenburg's submersible, but they had to hand it over to the BWO (or whatever they were, now, it was hard to tell with most of their bases destroyed or abandoned) and let that group work with it. It just wouldn't do to have the evidence on hand that indicated that they were involved in the destruction of the other two Sky Ships, nor would Oldenburg want to have the evidence with him, either.

Still, things were looking up for the Air Guard, and that was always good news. Captain Rachek allowed himself a smile as he considered the future of his organization.

Okay, folks. I put in the latest chapter to Grey's Army.

Many thanks to Ice9 and Sooner for letting me use your characters, Ahren and Sooner.

Oh! I also updated Air Guard!

The phone started ringing and the two heroes stared at it for a little while. They didn't exactly know who was on the other end of the line, but they had a good idea.

"You answer it," Sheldon finally ordered, "I've got to see what Felix and Katie are up to..."

"I'm not answering that thing, man!" his companion shouted, "He's gonna be so [ticked]!"

Sheldon merely glared at the scrapper and moved on to another room of the base. The other man pressed his lips together sheepishly and answered the phone.

"Grand Central Station, this is Lum speaking."

"Dammit, Levi!" Kip shouted, causing the regenerator to pull the phone away from his ear, "What the Hell have you done!?"

Baker chuckled a little before putting the phone back to his ear.

"I don't know what you're talking about, man."

"You know damn well what I'm talking about! You had Sheldon build that psychic device for Aaron and Misty's kid, and you forgot to install a tracking device!?"

"Hang on," Psycho13 put his hand over the receiver, "Sheldon! Kip's got a technical question!"

----------

"I'm sorry," Harvey Maylor murmured as he looked over his notes, "Ever since Vanessa was sent to prison, I haven't been able to dig much up on the group. The battle really fragmented her control and now the Carnival has broken into many disparate groups... There's even one in the Rogue Isles now!"

"We know that," Ahren sighed, "What we need to know is what any one group is up to now. If those heroes we ran into are right, they might have stolen an infant!"

"Stolen an infant?" the editor of the Paragon Tattler looked horrified, "Who do they think they are? The Redcaps?"

Sooner Red and Ahren shrugged.

"Well, I'll keep on the lookout, but if you're looking to smash the Carnies, perhaps you can talk to that guy..."

He pointed across the street to where a group of the flashy-yet-skimpy-dressed girls were running, terrified, from what looked to be a Malta Group Gunslinger. He just looked a little short...

"Oh crap," the tanker growled, "Not again..."

The Master Illusionist brought another three Illusionists into existence, but they were destroyed in quick order by an insane maneuver from her assailant. She had never seen a real Malta Group agent cross his arms while firing, it was a very unprofessional and inaccurate method of shooting, but this guy not only did it, but he did it well. The Illusionist Decoys faded, screaming, and Aaron unwound his arms, which leveled his pistols square into the Master Illusionist's face.

"Alright, Mary," he growled through his mask, "Where is he?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, cur!" the woman shrieked, "Who is this 'Carl' you're ranting on for? Why does he concern you and what does this have to do with the Carnival?"

"You took him!" Aaron shouted, shoving the woman as he did and knocking her on her rear, "And I swear to everything holy, I will get him back!"

He pointed his right pistol at her head.

"Even if I have to eliminate every last one of you, one at a time..."

"Hey!" he heard from somewhere in front of him, "Short-shrift!"

He looked up in time to see Ahren's forearm, and the next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the sidewalk. The Master Illusionist righted herself and started to hover away, but Sooner walked up beside her and held her white energy blade to the woman's neck.

"Don't think you're going anywhere just yet," she explained, "Get over there."

"No," Aaron flicked his wrist and a small hold-out pistol popped into his hand, "This'll work better."

"Don't!" Ahren shouted as he tried to move into position to deflect the shot, but Durj squeezed the round off.

Sooner backed away suddenly and the bullet spanged off her prisoner's mask. Aaron's gaze followed the projectile's trajectory, but he seemed satisfied that it wasn't going anywhere dangerous, so he brought his gaze back to the heroes.

"Are you insane?" the tanker shouted as he hoisted the gunslinger by the collar, "What the Hell is wrong with you?"

"I cleared a whole cell doing what I just did here, once," Durj replied, "When fighting Praetorians, one has to have very good aim."

Ahren was about to question the young man, but was interrupted by Sooner exclaiming something. He turned to see what his friend was startled by and gasped.

The mask the Master Illusionist was wearing was breaking apart.

----------

"I appreciate the help you guys are giving me on this," Aaron finally allowed, "I... I just figured I should be the one to save my son, you know?"

"I guess it's alright," Cerise Nation patted his shoulder as the taxi traveled, "This is just so odd..."

"He seems fairly relaxed about it," Ahren almost chuckled, "Heck of a time to be alive, when powerful costumed freaks like us are a common-enough occurrence that we can just take the cab to Paragon Heights..."

The hotel was located in one of the more picturesque districts of Founders' Falls. Mary Wellington, the Master Illusionist Aaron freed by destroying her mask and a former member of high society as an art patron, had informed them that Vanessa DaVore, released from prison on a technicality, was holed up in the penthouse.

Oddly enough, it was just the place Kipland, Aaron's Prime Earth double, had said was the operating base of the Carnival. Of course, the scrapper had just pulled the location out of his butt, however, there was no way Sooner or Ahren knew that. When Aaron explained Kip was just being inductive, or even just making conjecture, they got a quick chuckle out of it.

"So, you know which ones are alive or not?" Ahren asked, "I'm sure a lot of heroes out there would like to know which ones they don't need to kill..."

"Well, for the most part, you can pretty much slaughter any Strongmen you find," the gunslinger replied, "They normally don't take the strongest-willed guys, and the process usually winds up shredding their souls... But I've run across a few that were salvageable... Usually the smarter ones."

"That's..." Sooner looked out the window, "That's good news."

"It's the voice," he continued, "Something about how it echoes... If it sounds deeper, more 'present,' it's a good bet it's a person who's still alive. They're just a little high on magic and the various, um, enhancements the masks place on them. As they do more and more acts that push them further and further from who they were and Vanessa devours more and more of their souls, they start to sound more far away, almost as if they're not the ones talking. Eventually, the echo sounds hollow, and the voices sound the same... If I were to make a bet, it would be DaVore's voice you're hearing at that point."

"That's disturbing," Ahren sighed, "Ah, here we are..."

"That'll be fifty-four, twenty," the cab driver murmured, then he looked at the people he was driving, "Oh yeah... I'll just put a call to the city representative and try to bill them."

Sooner and Ahren gave the man their identification numbers to help him along. However, Aaron actually gave him money, a little over a half of the total due.

"Consider the rest a tip. I assure you, you will get paid what you're owed."

The driver nodded and drove away. When the trio turned to the building, they found that they had been joined by another trio. It wasn't the Carnival minions, like they'd expected, but rather a group of heroes.

"Heya, Sheldon," Aaron muttered, "Hell of a job that hat of yours did."

"I'm sorry," the inventor muttered, "I thought it would be enough, but apparently something caught their attention..."

"It wasn't your fault," Aaron shook his head, "Media coverage of an infant born psychic? With power rivaling that of Penelope Yin or Sister Psyche? Yeah... Poor tyke had a bullseye painted on him from day one..."

"Well, it's time to take that bullseye off," Sarah intoned, "Who are your friends?"

"Ah, Sooner Red, Ahren, this is Sarah Grey, Sheldon Wallace and... Uh..."

"Psycho-Thirteen," Levi reached out to shake their hands, "Pleased to meet you."

"I thought a psycho was a criminal," Ahren's brow furrowed, "It's a rather... dubious... name for a hero..."

"Eh, it's a stage name," the young, oddly-dressed man replied.

Indeed, the other scrapper was dressed like a man from out of the turn of the century. Resplendent in slacks, a simple black tuxedo jacket and a top hat, he looked ridiculously fancy, yet wholly unsettling at the same time as the outfit was "flat-colored" and looked exceptionally worn.

"I figured I may as well dress for a party," he grinned to the other heroes.

"You stand in front," the tanker replied, "And you two?"

Sarah was in a simple red dress with a pair of tiny red feather wings coming out of the back. They weren't real wings, but they flapped all the same. She smiled and a small purplish-pink halo formed around her white hair. Sheldon was in a white trench coat, and his face was schooled to reveal no emotion.

"We're as ready as we can be," he said, his glasses hiding anything telling about his eyes, "I just hope it's enough."

((Sooner and Ahren used with permission from Sooner and Ice9.))

It's actually a little common in English, too.

I've known a few girls named Hope.

CK: "This is my daughter."

Leader of Synapse TF: "I-..." *brain blows a fuse*

Healer of Synapse TF: "She's you're... You're..."

Clockwork King: "Yes. My daughter."

Healer: "With...?"

Clockwork King: "Penny!"

Healer: *blows a brain fuse* "Guh..."

Hope: "Hello!"

Scrapper: "She's... She's adorable... Oh well. Time to start killing. Remember, just because they're decapitated don't mean they're dead..."

CK: "I think you're missing the point here..."