Mr_Grey

Hm... I sent LadyK some in-character replies regarding the last City Scoop foray into here...

I'm not normally a roleplayer. For me, the game is what I use to get a visualization for what my characters look like, how certain powers work and their effect...

Apparently, this makes me a "Concept Roleplayer." I don't actually act out the scenes in-game, but I make stories for them out of it.

Now, I still care about my characters. What happens to them in the game makes me cringe sometimes ("Ow, that was a bad faceplant, Nester..."), but I also can feel really good about their successes ("Take THAT Dominatrix!").

Once, one of my character's got NO luck. I'd really messed up his Scrapper build and he would die once in every mission. I worked that into his concept, because I absolutely refused to just drop and "re-roll" him after level 20. Once I got him "respecced," I worked out the way he got fixed in his concept (An odd, all-too-real nightmare and a black-purple explosion in his hospital room). I call the story Obsidian Blight and a rough draft of it can be found somewhere here in RP-land...

Newspapers have done justified margins for a long time, though. The idea is to make a nice even column on both sides, which means "big and complicated" words are going to, well, complicate things.

Look at modern newspapers and you'll see it still, and sometimes, they even break the word causing the trouble up ("l i k e t h i s"; usually if it's a one or two word line).

I'm just happy I contributed something.

"Ugh...Erg...Guh!"

Cedric pulled himself onto the roof of the apartment building. Behind him, the unmoving bodies of Dominatrix's personal troops lay, moaning and getting zapped up by the police drones attracted to the tags the young tanker left on them.

"Lousy punks," he muttered as he made it to the top, "Whoo! I am invincible!"

"You got that wrong," a familiar voice muttered, "And... You do realize there was a fire escape on the next wall, right?"

Cedric whirled around to see the metal staircase and cursed.

"Aw, geez! Come on!"

His axe hovered in the middle of the rooftop. Cedric licked his lips and approached it. As his hands closed around the hilt, he was struck by lightning.

"Augh!" he choked out as he was knocked into the low wall, "What the Hell!?"

"You're such an idiot," Cedric the Gray's voice echoed around him, "All that time, hunting down all those villains... Especially the Banished Pantheon Cult and the Circle of Thorns... You may not understand the significance of the Red Dust Tome or the Obsidian Librum, but I do!"

The axe was still floating in the center of the rooftop. A few more lightning bolts flashed, striking the weapon and after a moment, the blade started to glow an eldritch shade of green. The glow became like a mist that floated off the weapon and coalesced into a shape...

It looked like Cedric, only with longer hair and leather armor. His pants were patchwork leathers and he wore what looked to be a severely outdated Viking helmet. To top it all off, he was merely a ghostly image of the thing he should have been. Cedric the Gray, Chief of the Kingdale Tribe, Champion of the New England region, slain by Battle Maiden when he "got too big for his britches."

"Hello, Cedric," he muttered as he took the hilt of his axe and hefted it into the air, "Welcome to your doom."

A final bolt of lightning struck the axe and electricity cascaded around the two of them. The arcs and sparks coalesced and reformed into a sort of cage of lightning that encased the two of them on the roof. Gray even went so far as to hurl his axe at the access door, which collapsed the structure it contained and cut the only other stairway off. The axe floated back to its owner, almost calmly.

"So, this is like a literal thunderdome..." Cedric Grey muttered.

"Precisely, two men enter..."

"One man leaves."

"You know the rules?" Gray arched an eyebrow at the aloof tanker, "Intriguing."

"What's this about, Gray?" Cedric pushed himself to his feet, "You had a pretty decent life being my weapon... Cutting through robots, bad guys, losers... I didn't disparage you..."

"I deserve to be the one walking and breathing!" Gray shouted, "I at least cared what happened to my people!"

"No you didn't! If you did, you wouldn't have gotten yourself killed trying to take Battle Maiden as a bride! Come on, man, ego is cool and all, but there are plenty of moments where you have to sit down for a moment and tell yourself 'I think I'm getting a swollen head here...'"

"Shut it!" Gray shouted and threw the axe at Cedric.

The Prime tanker ducked and the weapon bounced off the lightning cage with an electric burst before floating back to its owner.

"You may have been content just towing the line," Gray continued, "But I was NOT going to remain trapped within my weapon for any longer than I had to! When I saw Dominatrix running freely in this city, I knew my chance had come!"

"So, you were gonna' leave today anyway," Cedric rolled his eyes at that, "Granted, this would probably have been a lot easier without all of the crazy Praets running around, but you chose the worst possible moment..."

"Silence, you fool!" lightning flashed and struck a few places of the roof, "I bided my time! I memorized choice portions of the Obsidian Librum and the Red Dust Tome! Now, having invoked the proper incantations and rituals, which you're too stupid to do, I might add (or the world would be in your hands!), I have set this contest in motion! Soon, your soul will strengthen my axe, and I will be the one who wanders the worlds in flesh! I will return to War Earth a triumphant conqueror! I will restore my people! I will..."

"Shut up!" Cedric hurled a chain at his twin, "Let's just get this over with!"

"Such wit," Gray replied as he leaped into the air and hurled his axe at Cedric, "Watch yourself, brother, the axe is a Soul Drinker yet again!"

"Woah!" the Prime tanker barely dodged the weapon and rolled across the ground, the chain retracting into his wrist guard.

Gray landed and the axe came back to his hand. He was hardly unsporting, though, and gave the Prime Earth version a chance to stand again.

"You can clearly see, you're outmatched," he chuckled.

"That's a matter of opinion," Cedric replied, then started running at his enemy, "Here, catch!"

He threw the left chain out, that Gray deftly deflected, then threw the right in a side arc. Gray caught the attack on his arm, but hurled his axe at Cedric again. All he needed was one hit, one hit that broke skin, and it was all over.

Cedric ducked the weapon and tackled his double. On the ground, he pinned him and started wailing on Gray's face.

"How does that feel?" he shouted over the popping sounds, "Huh!? Does it feel good? You enjoying this? I hope so!"

Gray suddenly disappeared into the rooftop and Cedric punched the concrete once. Screaming, he got back up on his knees and turned to see if the axe was headed back to him.

It seemed a modicum of concentration was required for the weapon to return to its owner, because it was lying flat on the roof surface. Cedric stood to try to run over and grab it, but suddenly, Gray was floating out of the ground to stand in his way.

"Oh no," he raised one hand and snapped his fingers, "I can't be having that."

There was no way Cedric could have moved fast enough. Maybe if he was a superspeed hero, there was a chance, but it's rather hard to outrun lightning. The cage suddenly shuddered and arcs leaped out for the Prime tanker, struck him, grabbed a hold, and refused to let go. Cedric screamed and dropped to his knees, shaking uncontrollably, the chains that were his weapons of the day shaking and twitching along with him.

"It is unfortunate I had to do that," Gray sighed, "But this fight already bores me. We both knew you were never going to, indeed, you were never meant to win. I am clearly the one meant to exist corporeally. Do you know why, Cedric?"

"I-I," Cedric struggled to speak, but the shocks were making it extremely difficult, "B-because-zz-zz-zz you're a di-di-"

"Please, cease the vulgarities..." Cedric the Gray smiled, "The simple reason is because I have goals, and am willing to do everything and anything I have to to achieve them. Yes, I miscalculated once, and that cost me much of my life... But I see here an opportunity to reverse that mistake and I am not going to pass it up."

He turned around and started crouching down to retrieve hsi weapon. Cedric knew what would happen next.

This was it. Final hand. Unfortunately, the advantage was entirely with the dealer. This was Gray's match, his rules, and he obviously skewed them so Cedric wouldn't walk off this rooftop alive.

Too bad Cedric didn't accept that, and didn't play by those rules. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he willed his left arm to move. He had to act fast, so as soon as he noticed that the arm was responding, he hurled his left chain at Cedric the Gray. The weapon made contact, and suddenly, an arc of lightning was coursing through both of them.

Cedric the Gray screamed as the conflicting energy threatened to disrupt his incorporeal form. Holding himself together through sheer will alone, he reached down for the axe, gripped it, and started to lift it. His body still flickered a little.

The right chain arced down and wrapped around the hilt, just above Gray's grip. The Praetorian glared at it for a moment before Cedric dove and yanked hard to the left. Somehow, that happened to be the moment much of Gray's body went incorporeal, and his face (one of the few parts remaining visible) registered shock.

All Grey had to do was make contact.

Cedric the Gray stopped trying to grasp the weapon as the blade nicked his left wrist. It was a small cut. Any normal cut like that, anybody would pretty much shrug off. However, the effects of a Soul Drinker were not to be ignored. Especially this Soul Drinker.

The lightning dissipated. The fight was over. A trail of what appeared to be colored smoke wafted from Cedric the Gray. He stared, horrified, at Cedric Grey.

"You... You beat me," he whispered hollowly, "Cedric... Brother... I don't know what's going to happen..."

"What?" the Prime Earth champion croaked out, "What do you mean?"

"Through sheer force of will, I stayed in that weapon," Gray's arm was now formless, and had become more of the trail leading to the axe, feeding its insatiable hunger for souls, "It never digested me, and was constantly fed by my anger..."

"So?" Cedric started pushing himself back up, "Get angry again!"

"You wish for me to remain? After all I've done to you?"

"All you've tried to do to me," Cedric corrected, "Last I checked, I'm not dead and I'm still here."

He hefted the axe and slid one of the hooks into the pommel ring. Looking back to his twin, he saw that the effect was getting worse, and that most of Gray's torso was being drawn into the blade.

"Cedric," Gray whispered, "You were a worthy opponent..."

"Come on," Cedric shouted as he looked over the edge of the roof, "Don't be like that! You and me, we're tougH! You've got enough fight in ya to beat this thing!"

"It's a void," Gray's voice was growing fainter, "nothing can fill it, and it will sap my will forever..."

"Well, then how about this," there was a roaring in the streets below that worried Cedric, "Say I help you to beat Battle Maiden... Will that help?"

Gray was silent. Cedric turned to see that the last of his opponent had been consumed by the axe. Now, he had to figure out a way to keep it from doing that to villains.

He'd have to do that, later, though. A small army of heavily armored thugs was heading up the fire escape. They looked liek medieval warriors...

"Hey, Gray," he muttered to the weapon.

"Yeah?"

"Good, you're still here... What do you say we go say hello to your killer?"

"What's the point?"

"The point is," Cedric stretched his arms out and grinned as the first "knight" reached the landing below him, "You get some much needed vengeance in, and don't fade out to wherever it is you go feeling like a complete failure."

There was a pause. Cedric smashed the knight off the fire escape and waited for the next moron.

"Alright," Cedric the Gray almost hissed, "I'll hold on that long, at least. If you can grant me vengeance, I can fade away happy."

"Deal!" Cedric leaped off the side of the building and crashed into the middle of the crowd of medieval-seeming soldiers, "Who wants some!?"

Psycho13 cocked his head to the right until there was a popping sound. He didn't know why, but doing that usually put him into a killing mood. He figured he might need it in the next coming situation. The rush of adrenaline told him at least that was working alright. It felt like lightning running up and down his spine.

Still, he understood Small Toy's urging for discretion. There was little telling what was going to be waiting for them on the other end.

"Lead the way," his voice took on a peculiar edge, almost manic, "Tell me when we're ready to hit."

He drew the blades from his belt. Sharp, curved, and durable, they would probably serve him well.

Pants and a rigger's belt... His only original possessions in this blasted... Future? Alternate timeline? What was this? In any case, he'd need to replace the pants, but the belt seemed fine, even after holding the sharp blades. Still, his whole appearance needed retooling.

"What I wouldn't give for my old gray-tan hoodie..." he whispered as he put the blades into the backhand position, "I'll really need to get some handles for these, too..."

And now, announcing the new Epic Archetype...

Kittens!

Psycho13 grinned. Already it was time to fight. He approached the door before the others.

"Lest you think I had something to do with this," he said in a low monotone, "Would you mind if I took the first crack at our new... 'guests?'"

Well, I sent to the E-mail addresses, did you guys get them?

"Nester..." Ezekiel radioed his son, "I just had a terrible thought... What if Retsen knows about Mindy?"

"Oh crap!" was the reply.

Nester tore off through Steel Canyon, searching desperately for his apartment. Spotting it, he flew up to the window and started tapping on it.

"Yeah?" Mindy Jakobson chirped as she opened the window, "What's wrong, hun?"

"Mindy, I need you to come with me!"

"Why?"

"It's too dangerous for you to be here!"

"Does it have something to do with that robot back there?" she pointed behind Nester and he spun around.

His father was busy having a fist fight with the gray and green machine that had issued the challenge not two hours ago.

"Wow, Dad still fights like he's twenty-five..." Nester intoned.

"Looks like he's got things well in hand," Mindy pulled her floating boyfriend back into the apartment, "What's going on out there? I saw tanks driving through the streets heading north!"

"Simply put, the Praetorians are attacking..."

"Oh my God!"

"We don't know what they're here for, we don't know what this is about, and we don't know how long this is going to last or just how many forces they're going to throw at us..."

"So..." Mindy's eyes darted back and forth from right to left, "I get the feeling you have a request to make..."

"Mindy..." Nester gripped her shoulders, "I want you to get to the Grey's Army base and hide out in there until this is all over."

"What about my friends?"

"I..." Nester's voice got stuck in his throat, "I don't know..."

"If I told you who to look for, would you get them for me?"

"I... Maybe..."

"Please?"

Nester bit his lower lip and stared at the floor. Mindy walked up and hugged him before looking up into his eyes.

"Please?"

Nester nodded.

"Hope you know what you're doing, son," Zeke's voice crackled through the communicator, "Retsen got away again. I got lucky though, his entourage got torn to shreds by another group of heroes."

"Alright, Dad," Nester replied, "I'm taking Mindy to the Universal Base Portal."

"Alright, I'm letting these guys know what's up... Sounds like there's a lot of other nasty plots and plans in the works."

"Makes sense," Nester breathed, "Maybe there's a plot or plan for every anti-group in the Praetorian Army..."

"One second..."

There was a buzzing sound. When "Vendetta" turned he saw the young man holding a pair of Mech Man claws and was furiously (and exceptionally quickly) tearing them apart.

"Don't worry, I'm listening..." Psycho13 muttered as the weapons fell apart, bit by bit, his head staying in place so his voice remained steady, "And as far as wishing I'd drowned, that's a painful death I wouldn't wish on anybody. Besides..."

He finished his deconstruction and held up a pair of the long, wicked blades the Mech Men were half famous for. Despite the lack of any kind of uniform, and clad in just tattered pants, the stern, angry glare that seemed to stare off for a thousand yards coupled with the weapons he held in a backhand grip (the tips of the blades reached just past his elbows) made him seem downright scary all of a sudden.

That is, until his face softened and he slid the blades into his belt.

"Sorry... I saw an opportunity to not feel so naked... In any case, a dead man can accomplish nothing," his tone was even and cold, "A handful of heroes, you say? I guess that makes me one more... I always hated Nineteen Eighty-Four... I hate milquetoast characters... Where do I sign up to fight?"

Psycho13 followed shortly behind the gold-armored individual. Immediately, his brain was struggling to put the pieces of the puzzle together. His old Committee Concepts programming kicking in again...

Mayhem Soldiers? An obvious Mastermind class meta-type operating so close to an urban area that was obviously NOT the Rogue Isles... Psycho13 could accept a lot of crazy things, even conceive a few more to add on to the list, but traversing the Atlantic from just off the Paragon Coast to the Etoiles without dying (even with super healing) was just ridiculous.

Still...

"Do you mind telling me where I am?" he called out as they headed down the tunnel, "And no... Please don't give me the witty retort of 'my home, a tunnel, or some other clap-trap... What city was that back there?"

I've got some of the work on converting my stories done... Where am I supposed to send them? My search-fu revealed no e-mail addresses.

Had to post because I waited to long to edit...

In any case...

To Hell with it. I'll copy over all my stuff and work with it. I'll try to get you the stuff soon, Vorac.

[ QUOTE ]
"He is not lying, sir," came a soft voice with a slight mechanical buzz from right behind Psycho13. "No weapons have been detected."

"Ah good," said the gold armored man as he lowered his rifle and lowered his other hand. "You can some out now then, Small Toy."

"Affirmitive," replied the cloaked robot as its active camoflouge faded away, revealing Small Toy to be a five foot tall, grey, skeletal robot.

Remaining out of kicking range, the robot drifted past Psycho13 and took up position next to the gold armored man.

"So, Caleb, what brings you to this dreary beach on the outskirts of Hell?" asked the man.

[/ QUOTE ]

Psycho13 cocked his head to the side. This guy looked like... No way...

"You... You can't be..." he arched an eyebrow and narrowed his eyelids, "Is this a dream?"

Without warning, he picked up a broken seashell and scraped the edge of it across the back of his hand. The wound healed instantly, but Psycho13 still registered the pain as evidenced by the wince on his face.

"Ah! Dammit..." he looked back up at the gold armored man, "Ah... I don't know what brings me out here... I fell off a derrick and woke up here... For a second, as you can tell, I thought this was a dream..."

He showed his bloody but healed hand to the figure.

"Normally, such an occurrence would cause me to believe I'm in said dream... The pain I suffered and the fact that I must have just been choking to death, tell me this is false..."

He sat down. He looked a little worried.

"I don't know where I am. I don't know what I'm doing here... And the fact that you seem to have me dead bang is a lot more worrying than I'd like it to be."

"I'm..." the first name that came to mind didn't sound right... Not now, "I'm Caleb. Caleb Taylor... I..."

He glared at the rifle.

"Look, could you put that away? I think it's pretty damn obvious I'm not armed."

The beach.

It was the first thought in the disheveled young man's mind when he awoke with a cough. He wore little more than a pair of tattered pants. A few bits of his shirt remained, but a gentle breeze would probably tear that away. Some water spurted into the ground next to him from somewhere halfway between his mouth and lungs and he rolled over onto his stomach to vomit.

"Ugh," he muttered, "What happened?"

The last thing he remembered was falling off the derrick. He'd always been afraid of water... Heights only compounded the problem, even though under normal circumstances he wasn't acrophobic. Still, while fixing one of the automated turrets, he'd fallen off and his security harness just broke.

Psycho13 was sort of glad he didn't waste any time screaming. For an instant, he could get why his brothers always loved jumping off those bridges into the rivers below them, too. Impact, however, was not fun. It probably would've helped if he hadn't landed on his shoulder, and dislocated it.

He rubbed the injured limb, and realized that his regeneration hadn't wasted the time he spent "sleeping." The shoulder was as good as new, well, new plus that odd tattoo he had put there in his days as an amateur pro wrestler. His symbol, his mark... Friends called it the "Ski Man." He called it the "Whirlwind."

He sometimes wondered at that. The tattoo still being there, that is. He still had the scars of his youth, but every new injury went away, leaving perfectly fine peach-colored skin. Nearly perfect, at that. The only time one could tell he'd been injured would be if he had a tan. Regenerated skin didn't come back tanned.

"Now's not the time to muse about that," he muttered as he pushed himself off the ground, "I've gotta figure out where I am, how long I've been gone, and... and..."

The city looked... It looked like Hell.

"What happened here?" he gasped.

Cedric grinned at Experiment.

"I've already got my lady-love. For me, the rules of impression are obsolete!"

He still bowed to Carnacki.

"Hello, Sheryl. It's a pleasure to meet you."

While I expressed what seemed like disinterest in this because "none of my characters have been through this," I think I would actually be very interested in doing this.

I just have to figure out which of my characters I'd like to put through it...

If you feel like sifting through all of it, Vorac, you can have right at it... I can't go through my old stuff without trying to tweak it.

"Mad Matt McGinty?" the guard at the Atlas Park Hollows entrance almost shouted incredulously, "And you're not one of... Them?"

"Yeah, I know," Mattock started chuckling, "If I were, I probably wouldn't have that card. I mean, you guys know how to spot a fake, right?"

"Right," the guard handed back the identification, "Well, you and your friend are clear to enter. Be careful, though. It's a lot worse in there."

The police had established a small fortification where they'd initially placed their sand bag walls and guard towers after the Hollowing. Now there was a makeshift palisade composed of wooden walls, fencing, steel roofing and overturned cars. Riot Police guards, a few military personnel and some Freedom Corps soldiers conducted patrols. There were also a couple of those heavy duty enforcement drones.

"It's not going to help us," David Wincott sighed, "There's too many of them building for a concerted effort, and too few of us."

He gestured to the clusters of heroes gathered around.

"And most of them are still wet behind the ears... They came here to help with the Outcasts and the Trolls, not Praetorians..."

"Maybe the Outcasts and the Trolls can help us," Sarah chirped, "I mean, we could get in contact with Frostfire, or Atta... They broke outta prison again, right?"

"Yeah, but it looks like they've all got their crews lying low until this whole thing blows over. Then they'll probably try to curry favor with the Praets..." Wincott paused to sigh, "Or worse, they'll join the Praetorians, and give them current info on the city, or they might try to sabotage-"

"Okay, okay!" Matt held up his hand for David to calm down, "Look, man... Don't get freaked out just yet. I know life's been rough on ya for a while, now."

"You have no idea..."

"Well, look, there's gotta be some more veteran heroes organizing here..."

"Yeah, they're all holed up over there," the officer pointed to a corner where caped and glowing heroes seemed to be hammering out a plan.

There were less than ten of them.

"Great," Matt muttered, "Well, Sarah, let's get over there and introduce ourselves."

----

Cedric was bounding through a back alley in the eastern portion of Steel Canyon. Suddenly, he noticed a familiar face.

"Well well," he muttered, "Look who we have here..."

Dominatrix stopped in her tracks and almost did a double take.

"Small world," she muttered at the tanker, "You here to submit to being my plaything?"

"No... Shouldn't you be fighting your better on top of the Atlas globe?"

"That's a good idea..." the Praetorian Princess mused, "But before I do that, I'll need an appetizer..."

Cedric popped the chains out of his wristguards.

"Ooh," Dominatrix giggled a little, "I didn't know you were into that!"

"I'm not into whips and chains," Cedric growled, "I'm just here to dish out pain... You hurt my brother, little missy, and that deserves to get a beatdown!"

"That chubby little fart was your brother!"

"Rah!" Cedric arced the right chain hard at the Praetorian, causing the metal links to spark when they hit the concrete. Unfortunately, they didn't hit her, and she was running up the wall, flipping through the air, and casting her whip (that dreaded, evil thing) at Cedric. The left chain worked well enough to deflect it, though.

"So, you're not just some thug with an axe," she giggled, "There's some elegance to you after all?"

"Not elegant," Cedric cinched up the chains a little around his hands, leaving meter-long trails of links while wrapping his fists in chains, "Quite brutal, actually!"

Cedric launched an insane whirlwind attack with this last phrase, whipping his chains about and filling the alley with steel, sparks, pain and destruction. Trashcans exploded with the impact, barrels tipped and the dumpster Dominatrix hopped onto to get away from the flailing mess had it's cover cleaved off at the hinges.

Panting, Cedric looked up to the roof to see Dominatrix looking down smugly at him.

"Where do you think you're going?" the tanker shouted, "Get back down here and take your whoopins!"

"I think not," she replied, "You've got much to learn before you get the... pleasure... of dealing with me again..."

She snapped her fingers and a group of black-leather bodysuit-clad individuals appeared on the rooftop with her. Cedric's face dropped as he looked them over.

"Gimps?"

"Pre- What?" Dominatrix glared down at him, now, "Insolent cur... Katie... Do to him what you do best..."

"Yes, mistress," a girl with pink pig tails poking out of her mask replied happily, "We live to serve your will!"

"Good... Now, I have a date with my sister... I hope you boys and girls can stay entertained with this little morsel."

"He looks positively scrumptious!" Katie purred.

"Aw, come on!" Cedric barked, "You're just gonna leave?"

"Like I said, you're not worthy..." Dominatrix started walking away, "Maybe when my playthings have made you into their plaything... But that's when the hard work begins..."

With that, the fetish-wear-clad goons of Dominatrix hopped into the alley with Cedric. Katie ignited what looked like a torch and the others revealed an assortment of studded clubs. If they'd expected him to be scared, they were in for disappointment.

"Okay... Okay, gimps..." Cedric wrapped the chains around his forearms, "You ever see the movie, Rough Paper Stories?"

The group stopped simultaneously. The minions turned to their pink-haired leader.

"No..." she trailed off a little, "What's so special about that?"

"Nothing," Cedric's smile broadened and his eyes glittered with a dangerous light, "It's just that this is going to be a whole new experience for you!"

I haven't really had to deal with this concept too much, but one of my characters, Psycho13 on Triumph, isn't actually a Claws/Regen (aka the Wolverine Ripoff Build) Scrapper. While he DOES have the regeneration effects, he's actually a knife wielder... The claws just happen to be the animation, so they're covered with an explanation that the claws are knives he has duct-taped together.

Of course, if Dual Blades is the new melee power the devs introduce, I'm rerolling and retconning that character so fast, it'll make my head spin! Not your heads, because, well, you're not on my side of the Internet...

My fiction usually winds up on the RP section... Grey's Army is the link to my main chronicle.

Currently, Grey's Army (and it's partner thread, Brutal Warrior's Order) is on hiatus, as the characters are involved in a pseudo-RP thread where the Praetorians are invading the city...

Cedric smiled broadly at Experiment 2.0. He hefted his weapon off his back and twirled it for everybody to see.

"You won't find many better than this," Cedric mused before replacing the weapon on it's hook, "That's not all I do... But it's what most would call my signature, so it's how I introduce myself."

McGinty started heading further into the Freedom Phalanx building. He didn't get it. This was the headquarters of the Freedom Phalanx and Freedom Corps... They'd just put out a call for available heroes to go on a near-suicide mission! Where the Hell was everybody?

Most of the Grey's Army heroes were holed up in the supergroup base. Zeke looked over the ones who'd made it and sighed.

Sheldon Wallace and Ryat66 were busy fighting at the North Wall of Steel Canyon along with a large force of military, Freedom Corps, Police, and other heroes. Apparently, one of the hardest pushes the Praetorians made had been into Boomtown, and the forces were having trouble holding them back.

Ryat99 was off doing God knew what.

Randy had disappeared. It was like he went to Peregrine Island and just dropped off the face of the map.

Kipland kept calling in with reports on what he was seeing, and none of it was any good.

Cory could have been dead, for all they knew.

Random portals and dimensional tears were popping up across the city. They didn't always spit out invaders, but they were enough of a threat that heroes hopped to to lock them down. That was usually when the trouble started, and the heroes would find themselves ambushed.

All across Paragon City, Praetorians were warring with their counterpart heroes. Apparently, in the opening hours of the conflict, Infernal (the Praetorian) had ambushed the hero version of himself and stolen his axe. Another hero (with some help from unknown sources) had apparently recovered the weapon and returned it to the Vindicator's classic location, but there hadn't been any word on the heroic Infernal's condition. There were also reports of Citadel duking it out with Siege on the roof of the Green Line in Talos Island and Ms. Liberty dueling with Dominatrix on top of the Atlas Globe.

Now, Grey's Army had Matt McGinty, Nester and Ezekiel Durj, Charlene, Cedric, Roland and Sarah "Snuffy" Grey all holed up in the base, licking their wounds and preparing for another push into the city to help out as best as they could.

"I gotta get my axe back," Cedric growled, "I know the other 'me' has something to do with it being gone... Maybe he's got something to do with all of this."

"Maybe Cobalt has something to do with all of this," Matt hissed, "We trusted that guy, fought beside him... Hell, we even partied with him! Look at this mess... If he was a spy... He could have been using all that time to be gathering intel on us!"

"I don't know," Ezekiel muttered, "Something about the kid... Something about his eyes..."

"Look," Nester held his hands up to his companions to calm them down, "We have no idea what's going on, here. This is only the beginning, and it's not even noon yet! Look, we know where the trouble areas are, let's get to them and help out as we can. Matt! You should get to the Hollows... Your fighting prowess will probably be a real benefit there. Sarah, you go with him, make sure he doesn't wind up killed. The rest of you are heading to Steel Canyon, where you'll help the efforts to hold the zone. Dad and I have another mission we have to take care of."

"Not me," Cedric raised his hand, "I gotta square things with my Praetorian before I go trying to fight anybody."

"What mission are you two doing?" Roland arched an eyebrow at his friend, "And why can't any of us help?"

"Look, it's personal," Nester sighed, "It involves my Praetorian..."

"So? We're all probably gonna run into our opposites out there. Well, maybe not me, because Cobalt said he was probably dead, but still! What's the big freaking deal?"

"Jrud Retsen may have put a plot to destroy Paragon into action..." Zeke explained, "I don't think it's anything so simple as a big nuclear explosion... And we have to locate him and stop him before his plan goes into effect. He gave us three days."

"Jebus," Cedric intoned, "How are we supposed to stop that?"

"Bombs," Roland suddenly barked, "The random portals... The Praetorians everywhere... They're planting bombs! Maybe Jrud is the remote!"

"One of the remotes, anyway," Nester shrugged, "But if we stop him, we'll probably have access to a way to stop the rest. Jrud's a machine, and we'll probably be able to hack that machine..."

"How about this..." Roland started heading for the base teleporter, "I'll get in contact with the heroes of the various zones... Let them know what to look for..."

"Nester and I will look for Jrud," Zeke offered.

"Sarah and I will help try to take out the Hollows portal," Matt stated.

"Mom and I are going to Steel, then," Cedric shrugged, "But I won't be helping at the wall, Ma. Not at first, anyway... Cedric the Gray is there. I gotta fight him... I gotta get my axe back."

"I understand, honey," Charlene hugged her son, "All I ask is that you give me grandchildren..."

The group looked quizzically at the Grey matriarch. Cedric's face screwed up in perturbation.

"Uh... That's a Helluva long way off, Ma..."

"Then get through the day, son, so you don't disappoint my request," Charlene smiled wickedly at her son, "I want grandchildren in my lifetime, Cedric..."

She turned to Sarah and Roland.

"From all of you."

The three siblings glanced uneasily to each other. Roland made a side comment about the sister having the best shot so far, what with her wedding coming up, and Cedric muttered that he'd do what he could. Ezekiel just started chuckling.

"Do you want grandchildren, Dad?" Nester asked as they reached the teleporter.

"From you and Kip?" Zeke shuddered, "Hell no! I think our bloodline's tainted the world as much as it should."

"Life has a funny way of telling ya different, huh?"

Zeke stared at Nester.

"You didn't get that crazy Carnie girl pregnant, did you?"

"No!" Nester's eyes darted back and forth, "I think..."

----

Cory Simmons floated above Brickstown and surveyed the damage. Fires had sprouted up where Praetorians had overturned cars or started fighting with the local denizens. He thought it was kind of comical how the Freakshow didn't differentiate between Praetorians and normal heroes. A number of costumed leaders and infiltrators met quite terrible ends at the hands of the cybernetic monsters.

"I've been waiting," he heard a voice in his head, "Come, and we shall duel."

"That's the plan, Cory," he thought back and started flying in the direction of the prison.

Hovering over Ziggursky's moat, the two glared at each other. The Praetorian Cortland Simmons was a demon-human hybrid, with flapping wings, hooves for feet, and even a wicked looking tail. Fire wrapped about the body and wafted from his form. Oddly, it appeared as if ice was dribbling from his fingertips. Another odd thing about the Praetorian, his wings were feathered. They were black, to be certain, but they were still feathered.

Cory figured it would only be proper if he met his foe in a similar form. His skin tensed and he felt his whole being shudder. The transformation wasn't painful, as one would expect, but felt more like a "flexing" all over his body. He, too, was suddenly wrapped in flames, but these were more for show than anything else. A pair of great demonic wings extended from his back and horns to match the Praetorian's sprouted from his head and shoulders. Most of his body (like his legs) stayed human, and his skin retained its human feel, as opposed to the Praetorian's demonic scales.

"Well..." Praetorian Cory Simmons hissed, "It seems you're ready to fight... Are you ready to die?"

"We must all be ready," Prime Cory mused, "For one never knows when Death will take us."

A fireball appeared in his hand, and he hurled it at his enemy. Formalities were over, it was time to get on with the war.

((Ya got them a little mixed up, dark. The axe-wielder's the one drinking the smoothie. The other's a katana-wielder with, at this point, a short mohawk.

Screenies!

Cedric Grey

Mad Matt McGinty))

Cedric nodded to the armored men and finished his smoothie with an annoying sucking sound that signaled it was empty. He continued siphoning the liquid (vapors?) out of the cup for another half minute until even his friend was glaring at him.

"Sorry..." Cedric chuckled, "It was a tasty one. Banana and raspberry, with a mix of ginseng and amino acids..."

Matt McGinty just shook his head.

"If I want protein, I eat steak," the scrapper barked, then turned to the brown armored individual, "Am I right?"

"I eat steak, too," Cedric started to flex like he was a strength competitor, "But to keep your guns as magnificent as this, you need a little extra oomph!"

"I think it's a waste of money and a scam, is all."

"Yeah, probably is... Tell ya what, I'll go a month without the additives."

"Why not the whole damn smoothie?"

"I like 'em!" Cedric laughed, "Come on! Who do we talk to to get started?"

"Excuse me," Matt reached out his hand to the brown-armored man, "Mad Matt McGinty. Most folks just call me Mad or Matt."

"I'm Cedric," the tanker reached over to the dark-armored individual with the shades, "Cedric Grey. I hit people with a big axe!"