Palaquinn

[ QUOTE ]
"Listen, this may help - the Vahz that took the notebook was a Luminous, that means they should have raised radiation levels, you may be able to track them. I... I should be coming with you as backup... But if the Vahz have opened a new lab and we lose them now..." There was no need to finish the sentence. "And Harris is hardly an innocent but... we can't just leave him to be vivisected..." She paused. "As for us... we're deep... we're very deep. Six levels and counting."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Dear God..." Erik whispered. He had never gone down that deep willingly into the sewers. The only other time was with a horde of other adventurers, and that was to bust up a clockwork infestation.

"Penny, you be careful. Thanks for the tip about this guy being a Lumi... I should be able to track him then. Penny... I'm sorry I got you into this. I had no clue it was going to be this intense. Don't you dare worry about not being here for me. I wish there was some way I could be there to help you!"

Erik cursed under his breath and pushed his mind to the limit trying to maximize the speed he was getting out of his ability to fly. The repulsion and attraction magnetics of the isotopes that gave him the ability were still much a mystery to him.

Thankfully he knew the area ahead of him opened up once it dropped a level. That way he could begin trying to feel out the residue of the Lumi...

"Derrel, I have no clue if you're still reading but I pray you called my wife already."

All Erik heard from that feed was static. Cursing he flew down the tunnel and into the massive waste reclamation center. He alighted on a platform high above the waste and began sensing the trails left by powerful sources of radiation.

"What the... Oh dear God..."

"God has not answered you before Doctor Sanstad... Why should he start now?"

The blast come in from his right and knocked Erik off the platform and into the mire below. Normally he would quip about how pissed his wife would be about his clothes, but the circumstances this time were different.

There had to be damn well near thirty of them... Zombies, Abominations, Mortifiers, Reapers... and one Lumi... Standing in the middle holding the notebook like a trophy.

"It seems we have much to talk about my dear Doctor. Or can I call you Erik? You have a choice here... come quietly, or come in peices. But I can assure you only one of those paths will assure the safety of your darling wife Enid and your little girl Cassie..."

"You son of a..."

Several crossbows were cocked suddenly and the Lumi wisked a finger through the air back and forth.

"Tut tut now Erik... Calling me names is hardly comming quietly is it?"

[ QUOTE ]
"Kids, Erik, did you get that?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Erik nodded as he quickly polished off the last of the Vhaz outdside. Quickly he tagged them with a beacon and called the cops for a pickup. The radiation sickness he hit them with and the few love taps would keep them out until the cops showed up.

"I heard all of it Penny. PLEASE tell me that walking pile of spare parts was NOT talking about my wife and kids."

Erik of course knew better than to ask.

"Tell Harris he'll be hearing from my lawyers if we get him out alive. And I do so want him alive so I can see him stand trial for breaking into university records or wherever to get info on me and my family that I had locked away from the public for this reason!"

Erik was pissed and he used that energy to fly to the main sewer entrance and blast open the lid. "Derrell, if you hear me, use the number I gave you and call my wife. Tell her to get out and get to the safehouse I spoke of."

Erik could only pray he would get to this Vhaz ******* in time. He watched the entrances and followed the most liekly trail of the one with the notepad.

"Penny? I can still hear you. I don't know about folks above ground. I need a heading and a best guess where #2 went, and keep me updated on your location as well O.K.? Last thing we need to have happen is get totally cut off from one another."

[ QUOTE ]
"OK, so I count seven," Penny said to Erik. Her voice came through the radio in his ear perfectly, though no sound penetrated the helmet, as they watched figures shuffling out of the medical labs. "Two mortificators, one reaper, five cadavers." She looked at Erik. "It is an interesting problem from a legal standpoint: the cadavers, of course, are dead and could technically be classified as robots. The mortificators and reaper, however, are alive, and thus require a certain type of handling... I am not fond of it, but hey, I only work here... and it is worth it so that when I plant their butts in jail, they STAY there... you ready?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Absolutely. And we can argue semantics later. I'm not fond of harming anyone either, but people like this make me sick. But they are symptoms of the overall disease... If I ever find the real Doctor Vhaz..."

[ QUOTE ]
"Freeze!" She told the mortificators. "I am a designated law-enforcement hero of Paragon City! You are under arrest!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Erik suddenly surged upwards and charged the area surrounding both him and Penny with radiowaves. He could feel the boost in his metabolisim and grinned as the green glow engulfed them both.

"I am also a designated enforcement hero of Paragon City, but I'm also a PROFESSOR here! You twits should KNOW better than to mess with Paragon U.!"

Erik floated free and moved into a flanking position when the first shot from a Mort came in.

"Why do they never listen?"

[ QUOTE ]
"Lets Dance... best look away, Erik," grinned Penny, and a moment later a brilliant flash lit the sky. Both mortificators clutched their faces, blinded, light seeming to leak from their eyes, as the zombies turned, and she rolled out of the way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Erik covered his eyes and winced at the light that still blasted through his fingers. Shaking his head he focused on the center of the group of zombie-makers and fired.

The radiation he coaxed forth was a mixture of gamma and beta. Mildly damaging to cells, but more importantly it made one feel physically ill. Erik had been perfecting this trick to pull out such latent radiation on one target and have it infect those around, thereby weakening the whole group. It made them much easier to apprehend. Thankfully he thought, he could pinpoint target it and have it effect only the targets he wanted... Something he was currently studying as to HOW he could do it.

[ QUOTE ]
"Aggghhhh. My eyes. AAgghhhhhh!!!!!"

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
"Erik!" Girl Genius called. "There is someone inside the building, they didn't look away... I need to see to them, can you handle these?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Yeah I have them. You nab whomever is in the building, but be careful! If they broke into the labs then they could have all sorts of chemicals and surgical tools!"

Erik re-focused on the Vhaz below. They were struggling with the effects of the wasting radiation but still trying to get to him. Erik inhaled and could feel the charge building in his arms. He tugged at the loose protons and electrons from the isotopes in his body and fired forth a wave that smashed into the day-of-the-dead wannabe's. The zombies went flying back while the Morts reeled...

__________________________________________________ _

MEANWHILE:

[ QUOTE ]
"No wait......please....do you know who I am.......I'm Steven Harris the reporter..........please.......I can give you money.......I can give you anything you want....please don't hurt me........I'll give you anything."

He was starting to weep pathetically.

"...please...."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Anything little man?"

This voice was different. Filled with malicious intelligence and hateful glee. Harris could almost feel hands caress his body as one dipped into his pockets, searching him.

"What have we here?" It hissed as it pulled free the information crammed into a coat pocket of Harris's jacket.

"Why you magnificent ******* Harris. Adresses, phone numbers, workplaces, even his Wife's maiden name! What were you going to with this pray tell? I think this may well be something that we could bargin for..."

Another voice grunted in a dissapointed fashion, there was a round of hushed whispers and discussion and then silence for a moment.

"I shall take the papers Harris. You meanwhile have the pleasure of living a bit longer. I was able to convince my cohort that you would be best alive... Until we got you to OUR labs to see just what makes you such a wonderfully bitter man."

The laughter was cold, cruel, and hollow... and it echoed down the hall as it left.

Another voice filled the void.

"Be a good boy then and hush up, or I'll peel you here like I wanted..."

((OOC: Since it's gone bloody well dead in here I figured I'd drag the story onto the next step. Hope you all will join back in!))

[ QUOTE ]
With every ounce of his strength, Esmond forces Richard through the doors, out into the sunlight.

[/ QUOTE ]

The shadow screamed. It was a howl of pain and aggravation. The darkness clawed at the man forcing him into the sun and tried to find purchase in the others surrounding it. It was to no avail however, as the man forced the screaming apparation into the light.

"DAMN YOU!!" The skull howled it flowed upwards like a serpent and made a last desperate lunge at the face of the man who had thwarted it. The sun however, had other plans...

The light seemed to make the thing dissapate as the cracks of green light flowed through the shadows. In a final anguished wail the darkness flowed backwards forcibly and knocked the body of Richard Pickman to the ground and several feet back. A trickle of blood flowed out of his eyes before he was able to shake his head and flip over to vomit.

"I... That *******... Forgive me..." With that he slumped forward and fell into unconciousness.

"I absolutely agree with you." Erik took the offered gear gratefully and plugged the remote feed into the port on his PC. After fiddling with it for a moment, he was able to hook into the camera and get the feed running.

"O.K. folks, looks like you'll have a ringside seat for this. Keep an eye out as we move and let us know if you spot something we don't." The students nodded eagerly as Erik put the comm unit into his ear.

"Please... DON'T try to be a hero. If something goes wrong call the police or, God forbid, the hospital. I don't want anyone getting hurt O.K.?" Derrell nodded, as did the others.

"Last sighting put them near the medical building, near the med student labs." Derrell stated. Erik nodded and headed for the door. He grabbed his walkie talkie just in case and grinned.

"Figures, that's near the location they keep the cadavers for the students to work on. " Erik turned and looked at Penny. "You up for this? I mean with your armor damaged and all, will you still be able to fight?"

Heya folks,

Question for you all. I'm struggling with the next chapter. I know what I want to do, but I figured I'd leave the next step getting there to you guys.

What would you rather hear next?

A Game of Chess: A joining of Rooks. Where Chess encounters other heroes and gets a better feeling of what he can do, and what he could become.

or

A Game of Chess: Movements of a Dark King. Wherein we finally meet in the shadows the one manipulating Chess and find out that there is indeed more going on than anyone has surmised...

Essentially one is Chess meeting other heroes and will be a "Log" again. The other will be an overheard conversation of the main villians of the story.

Help me out here, both will be written eventually, but I'd like to hear where to go to first.

Thanks in advance!

"Hey hey HEY!" Erik shouted. All the students become quiet and several had sheepish looks on their faces. Erik shook his head and laughed.

"O.K. folks, back to work. You can talk to PENNY later O.K.?"

The crowd dispersed and left Erik shaking his head smiling.

"Girl Genius... Jeeze I'm a doofus, I should have recognized the armor." Erik offered his hand again and smiled gently. "I just want to say I love your web-site as well, and the footage you got of battling the Vhaz was superb."

"I always like it when I see them get beaten. It's a scientist thing I think. People like the Vhaz screw up the public's views of science and makes us all look like Doctor Frakenstein. I hate that..." Erik chuckled and looked back at his PC. The image was done and he began immdiately zooming in on several areas of the Ritki form.

"Crap... Hey Derrell! Bring my Clan Chart!" Derrell came running over with a notepad filled with sketches and notes. Erik began flipping pages at a frantic pace.

"Speaking of the Vhaz Doc... Aren't you going to hunt down the ones on campus tonight?" Derrell asked. Erik nodded and looked up.

"Damn right I am. This place is NOT going to be turned into some kind of sick "Day of the Dead" playground for them."

Erik stood and handed the pad back to Penny and pointed at one of the symbols.

"I thought I'd seen this marking before. It was consistantly found on Ritki that were alone, or moving in advance of a strike force. I surmise this indicates a scout or intelligence operative." Erik paused and then looked at the picture again. "What the hell WAS he doing in King's Row?"

Erik looked back at Penny and then dug into a drawer nearby the computer station. He handed her a small walkie-talkie.

"I think we should go back to that place and see what's what, but I HAVE to address the Vhaz problem here first." Erik smiled and grabbed a few other items out of the desk.

"If you'd like to come with I'd be glad to have you. Then you can show me where you spotted this lone bugger."

[ QUOTE ]
"But I want to know what I am dealing with before I go back down there... I sure would appreciate whatever you could find out."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Hey, I aim to please. Just follow me." Erik stood and walked over to the lab. A slew of "Far-Side" cartoons adorned the door, along with some other items and pictures of famous science heroes. A comic-book style drawing of Erik was taped to the door as well. The doctor shook his head and pulled that one off the door.

When he came into the lab the sound of music was the first thing that met them. Followed closely by the stench of preservatives.

Several students waved as they worked on various equipment. Erik grinned and held up the picture.

"Flattering guys, but I'm NOT a hero. Do me a favor and put Einstein or Darwin up there before me O.K.?" Laughter followed and several people shrugged.

Erik led the way past a few lab benches and walked around a massive dissection table containing the remains of... something.

"Sorry about the mess. We were in the midst of doing a dissection of something that attacked an explorer at Portal Corp. It was attached to his leg when he came back and they tossed it to us."

Erik chuckled and shrugged. "Hey, it's funding."

He grabbed a chair and powered up an impressive computer. The thing had to have several layers of shielding and almost shook the floor when it powered on.

The desktop of the PC had a picture of a smiling woman holding a little girl. Erik grinned and then fed the picture into a scanner nearby.

"It'll take a bit to digitize, but from there I can examine it at a closer level. It looks like a good resolution shot so I may even be able to make out clan markings on the sucker."

"Again with the clan stuff?" Asked the student, Derrell, who had stopped by earlier. He smiled at Penny and many other students were watching her.

"Just an idea of mine... Seems some Ritki are marked certain ways. I don't have any hard evidence yet, but I think it's symbolic of a caste system." Erik shrugged as Derrell dropped a tape on the desk.

"Today's show was creepy man. You're gonna HAVE to watch it." Erik sighed and nodded as Derrell turned back to work.

Meanwhile, a small group of other students came up and suddenly thrust pens and paper to Penny.

"We love your website!" "You ROCK! I loved the footage at the hospital!" "Did you REALLY fight that ghost thing?" "Can we get an autograph?"

Erik looked up at Penny and smirked. "Seems like you have a fan club." Several students looked at him incredoulsy and one pointed to Penny's armor. "THIS is the woman you praised for knocking the stuffing out of that group of Vhaz! You know, the footage from that website we sent you?"

Erik's eyes went wide and he stood again offering his hand. "Holy crap! You're Genius Girl?"

Erik took the picture and winced. It was clear as day to him what it was.

"Well... if you want accurate information, then yes. That's a Ritki and one of the smaller ones I'd say. I've worked on enough of their cadavers by now to know. " Erik leaned back into his chair and began rubbing his temples. Between that damn interview he gave earlier and this he KNEW a stress headache was comming on.

"O.K. where did you get this? Looks like it's a sewer shot to me."

Suddenly, one of the students ran into Erik's office.

"Erik! You gotta see "Under the Mask" today! Flip it on before it goes off!"

"Oh for the love of... What slander is Harris spilling now?" Erik mumbled. "I'm in the middle of something now Derrell, if you could tape it I'll catch it later O.K.?"

The student nodded and booked out of the office and into the lab next door shouting "Hit record! Hit record!"

Erik sighed and and looked at Penny.

"Sorry, but my students love that show for some reason. They say between me and Harris we make heroes look real and bring them down to earth. I say Harris has a talent for character assasination and would try to bring down Jesus if there were a second comming."

Erik sighed and looked at the photo again.

"Well you didn't come here for my views on the media. Lets hit the lab so I can feed this into the computer and see if I can get you any more info. Um... when you TOOK the photo did you see the Ritki doing anything? Looks like he's turning to fire in this shot."

The blare of [censored] comming out of the office was almost immediately quelled once Erik saw the young woman.

"Whoa... Are you O.K.? I'm not a Doctor Doctor but here..."

Erik immediately got out of his chair and rushed to the woman. He pumped up the healing waves of his radioactive aura to try and mend as many obvious wounds as possible.

"Oh man... I hope that helps. Is there... something else I could help with?"

Erik smiled sheepishly. No matter how he played it off to his students or even on T.V. he still was not used to being treated like a hero, or in this case a healer for other heroes. His blonde hair and redish beard simply marked him as just another person, and his sweatshit and jeans only made him blend in ever moreso.

In fact, short of a geiger counter or a chance sight of seeing him fly home, one would never know he was "Mighty Bio-Man." Unless you read his door that is. Some of his more artistic students had covered the white-board on his door with comic book images and labled his office as "The Lair of MBM!"

"Come in miss... well Penny. If there is anything I can help with just let me know."

((OOC: Hope you guys like. I'm kinda worried I got a bit too depressing in this one. As always, comments and criticisims are greatly appreciated!))

A Game of Chess: The Red Bishop

<Begin Feed>

Whoever said that robots don’t dream is a damn liar. I should know, I’ve been having nightmares for the last two days.

I’m not sure if it was the shock of finding out the blood on the note was Josh’s or seeing the kind of damage I could do.

You know about the first if you’ve been monitoring my feeds Doc. The second, well the second came later that night.

I was freaked out you know? I still am, and terrified as to what happened to Josh. So I decided to run outside. Go somewhere, anywhere to get away and think. You came running after me of course Carl, and to be honest I probably should have stayed to talk.

Then the second thing would have never happened.

I knew I was having power problems with my abilities, so when I accessed the gravitational powers to cause the phase-shift teleport I should have not been surprised to find myself no-where near where I was aiming for. I was trying to get on top of that globe Atlas holds and instead find myself damn well near several miles away.

It was my home Carl… Josh’s home. And here I was on the doorstep like the prodigal son returning. I don’t know why I wound up there, but at that moment I didn’t care. I just wanted to be alone.

I found the old tree house Josh and I made out back and went up to hide. I must have been sitting there for almost three hours before she came.

Her name is Suzie, and she knew Josh but never met me. Josh didn’t talk much about her, and the little I knew was that Josh had a slight crush on her.

The look on her face when she saw me was one of terror however. She yelped and almost let go of the ladder. Out of pure instinct I grabbed her with my gravity powers and made her safe.

“Are you an angel?” She asked.

“Nope… Just a glorified toy.” Was all I responded. She came closer and sat in front of me. Hell doc, a BLIND man could have seen the bruises on her. A black eye, bruised arms, and two cracked ribs. I have no idea how she had the strength to even climb that tree. I tapped into the healing wavelengths and set to fixing her up right away.

The look on her face was priceless. “You ARE an angel.” She said. I shook my head again and sat back down as she felt her side.

“How can you not be? You saved me and healed me.”

“I couldn’t do that for my family.” I whispered. She edged closer and sat next to me.

“Wait, you mean the family that used to live here?” I nodded and she leaned into my faceplate and gasped.

“You were the toy Josh never showed to me! No wonder! You’re keen Mr….”

“Chess. My name is Chess.”

“Figures Josh would give you a dopey name like that. Still you look cool. But you said you could not save them? Save them from what? The Ritki?” I tilted my head and wondered if this kid was jerking me around.

“Don’t you remember them being taken before that? Something coming into the house and no-one else coming out before the attack? It was like two days before everything went down in Paragon city!”

She shook her head and sighed. “Nope… two days before Paragon city was attacked Josh was in school with me. And then… then…” Tears filled her eyes and she began to sob. I leaned over and put an arm about her, trying to comfort her.

“He died… So did his dad… Why don’t you know this? They were in the street when the first blast from a Ritki ship hit this neighborhood. I saw… I saw them die Chess. When the battle ended I was at the funeral…”

Look Doc, if you think your news jolted me before try thinking about what hit me then.

I’m not sure what a vomit coming on feels like to you, but I’m pretty sure I had the robot equivalent of it.

Now it was Suzie who placed her arms about me. She patted my head and held me like a battered teddy bear.

“Look Mr. Angel. I’m gonna call you that because I like it better than Chess. I’m sorry what happened… I… I really liked Josh.”

“He liked you too, and he DIDN’T die that way. Show me…”

“Show you what?”

“Show me the graves Suzie. I want to see them.”

Without a word she tugged my hand and led me out of the tree house. Into the cold night we went, and soon found ourselves in the local graveyard. Suzie led me a pair of markers and sat near them.

“I come here sometimes.” She said softly. “I come here to think and get away…”

Doc you heartless *******, I swear if you knew. It was THEIR names on the headstones damnitt. Dead and buried and I fell at their graves and onto my knees.

Suzie is probably the first person to hear a robot weep Doc. Because that’s what I did. No tears of course for obvious reasons, but that could be the only thing I was doing. I scanned the ground and there are bodies in the coffins Doc… Right size and everything.

Dear God Carl, why didn’t you TELL ME!!!

Suzie came up behind me then and placed her hand on my shoulder. She was going to say something when it happened. A man came up and slapped her away from me.

“Little ****!” He roared. He had a broken bottle in one hand and his belt in the other. The shards of the bottle fell to the ground nearby. I hadn’t even heard the break when he smashed it on Suzie’s head. She was crying.

“They’re DEAD! They can’t help you now! You MOTHER can’t help you! Don’t you EVER run from me again!” The man lashed out with the belt and struck Suzie on the back. It was hard enough to tear fabric and leave a welt behind.

“I’m your FATHER! You will LISTEN! Why do you make me hurt you!” The man reared again.

He picked the wrong night, the wrong little girl, and the wrong place to be.

I stood up and caught the belt as he was bringing it down again. In his drunken haze I’m not sure what he saw. All I could hear was Suzie crying and begging for forgiveness from a man who didn’t deserve anything, least of all a child.

“What the hell…” The man groggily asked.

“You will never hurt a child again. Not her, not anyone.” The man laughed and leaned down to poke me in the faceplate.

“Heh… must be some kinda junky toy from the Mad-Doc’s old place. You fish this piece of crap out of their house to put on your defender’s grave, ****?”

You probably read the rest on the news by now.

I’m not sure how much force I hit him with, but considering what they’re reporting they recovered I’d estimate it was about 4000G’s. I saw the man in the blink of an eye go from a huge menace, to a terrified looking person, to a haze of red and a pancake of flesh right in front of me.

Paragon news is reporting about some new kind of hero or villain that turned a man into paste in front of a terrified little girl’s eyes. She was saying that the “Angel” saved her, and was only trying to find out what happened to his family.

The news is piecing things together Doc, but the force I hit that guy with pulverized the graves and probably anything in them.

The best the news has is some small “Angel” saved a girl from an abusive father using excessive force, and that some link exists between the “Angel” and the graves.

Robots do dream Doc. I’ve seen that scene replayed in my head every night now, and it’s NOT a data loop. I’ve also seen Paul and Josh crawl from their graves Carl. Mashed and mangled beyond recognition but it was them.

“You could not defend us but you defend her?” Josh calls…

“You were never supposed to kill Chess! I gave my life trying to make sure you would never kill!” And then I see Suzie’s dad going from menace, to scared, to red mist again, and again, and again…

That’s why I have not come in again Carl. That’s why I’m in hiding even from you. I’m not a toy, I’m not an angel, I’m not even a weapon like I was designed to be.

What the hell am I Carl? And what the hell is real?

<End Feed>

Personal Log of Doctor Carl Johansen.

I received this disc from Chess just a few hours ago. His detailed description clearly shows that Suzie exaggerated hers a bit. Seems to her eyes Chess swelled when he fought her father and became “Like a guardian Angel.” Of course the bad press has already labeled the incident akin to something out of the inquisition, and the religious references from them and Suzie gave rise to the name “The Bloody Bishop”, or as less inflammatory papers have called him “The Red Bishop.”

I wish I had some way of contacting him now. I had no clue about the graves, or even about neighbors that knew Paul and Josh. The graveyard is now in a media frenzy and I highly doubt I could get the clearance to have the sites exhumed for analysis anyway.

My gut tells me that whatever bodies are in those graves are NOT those of my dear friend and his son. But I have little proof of that to show to the one person who needs to hear it the most.

I’m not sure what Chess is going to do now. In his state it is totally unpredictable. I will however do my best to try and help him however I can from here. There is more going on to this letter, the bloodstains, and now the filled graves. How does Nemesis fit into this picture really?

For the sake of Chess and myself I hope answers can be found.

((OOC: Just wanted to apologize for posting out of turn. I'm going to hold off on posting again until everyone else has made their move. Sorry about jumping the gun on the last message. Also, if anyone has suggestions or comments on how this is progressing thus far I'm sure Balt and the others would love to hear it. Send comments, ideas, and criticisims via PM please. Lets keep the story rolling guys!))

((OOC: WHOOF! I just re-read what I posted last night, and man do I sound like an arrogant *******. Forgive me for that one. Oh, and I'm looking forward to see how you "alter" the tape. Careful how you do it however. Any good scientist will be able to tell if you "Cut" and "Pasted." On the other hand, if your FX team is good enough you could get away with it.))

Roberts, head of the legal staff of Harris's show leaned in.

"Hey, I did some back-checking on Dr. Sanstad. He not only has his OWN laywers, but those of the university as well! Seems Paragon U. is kinda rabid to keep their hands on their own super-powered professor. I can pull some strings but I'm not gonna assure you anything."

Roberts then tossed a file folder on Harris's desk.

"Guy is mostly clean except for a few parking tickets, which he paid in full. That also has info on his wife and kid, including an address. Amazing what a few well placed cash payments will do."

Roberts grinned and gave a thumbs up to Harris.

"If you interview them, be careful. His wife is not a cape, but she is a leader in information security. Several of her programs are the industry standard, and she has a slew of papers in major computer journals. Not soft ones either, the hardcore jargon mags."

"Good luck on this one Harris. I'd love to see you get this guy after he flunked my son. I'll get back to you on the laywer issue."

Roberts quickly left and closed the door behind him.

((OOC: Well had to toss my hat into this ring. Meet Mighty Bio-Man as he takes the interview at his lab in Paragon University's Biology department. ))

Harris: First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to appear on the program.

Doctor Erik Sanstad (AKA Mighty Bio-Man): Look Harris, Lets cut the crap shall we? I listen to your show in my lab, and if it weren’t for the fan base you have among my students I would not be here now. I don’t trust you, or the media in general really. They make too much of a mess of things scientific, not to mention the biased views on heroes you spew. Fair and balanced reporting my…

Harris: Could you tell the viewers at home a little bit about how and why you became a hero.

Well the how is simple. Scientific accident stimulating latent biological processes in my body. Sort of like how certain genes are triggered under certain circumstances. I am a xeno-biologist as you know so it was easy enough for me to determine the latent “mutant” genes in my genome. However, I never had a reason to look for them until after the accident. We were doing a routine dissection on a Ritki cadaver when something caused a massive explosion. It was later determined that the thing had a concealed bomb within it’s body and I had inadvertently triggered it. The explosion threw me across the lab and into the radiation area. Needless to say I became contaminated quickly. Thankfully, we work with nothing more hazardous than S32, which as radioactivity goes, barely penetrates the skin. That was enough however, for as I was coming to, I was also apparently bathing the area with radiation.

My latent genes had somehow been triggered in self-defense at the Ritki blast, or perhaps the energy blast stimulated the process. To be honest I’m not sure. What DID happen however was the mutation also apparently took in the radiation and made that the focal point of defense. The genes triggered a cellular response to the energy and the radiation I was exposed to and adapted. When I was coming to, my body was adjusting my cells at an exponential rate, and equipping them to emit radiation in certain patterns. These patterns stimulated tissue growth and regeneration but somehow blocked the genes known for cancer from going into transcriptional activation.

The students were stunned, as was I. I voluntarily quarantined myself and began an examination right away. I soon found that I could control the radiation emission to a point, as well as alter the emission patterns to either stimulate growth, weaken, or kill cells. Targeting certain areas of a body also produced certain effects depending on the wavelength.

However, I also still set off any kind of Geiger counter I pass, making any attempt of masking my abilities a moot point. I was able to speak with several associates, the NIH, ASM, and the federal government in order to clear me as being non-biohazardous to work with and was thus able to secure my teaching position as long as I keep strict records of my medical state and check in with various research institutes and the CDC on a monthly basis.

Now as to WHY I took the name Mighty Bio-Man and go out acting as a hero, that’s a bit harder to explain. I have nothing to avenge, no driving passions to quell, and no real tragedy in my life. I have a loving wife and daughter, a good career, and a wonderful job. It was my students who suggested the name, as well as the bio-hazard symbol for my “outfit.” I refuse to wear spandex or the like however. I’ll stick with jeans and a sweatshirt thank you!

But I help people, quite honestly, because I can. The first time when I was out of the hospital after gaining control of my powers, I passed an alley with a group of gang-bangers trying to threaten an old lady.

I could have walked away, let some hero handle it. But let me ask you something. If you could help someone, and you didn’t do it, how would you feel?

So I did the only thing I could think of, and that was help the old woman. I suppose its snowballed since then. I like to help, and I think I do that both with my research and with being a hero. I’m nothing more than someone who is trying to help. Like an officer or a fireman, I merely aid those who need it.

I’ll spare you the bit about how I’m also making this world better for my daughter. I think that bit is self-explanatory.

Harris: What would you say is the greatest reward for being a hero?

Making a difference. It may not seem like we accomplish much at times, but I can see it. It used to be faculty and students feared leaving the university at night. Now they can walk free and know that they are safe. I see children playing again and people honestly looking happier. I do what I do for them, my family, and everyone.

Harris: Have you ever found there is any drawback to being a hero?

As with any job there are drawbacks. That goes for life in general as well. I have a hard time shopping without being noticed. It’s not like I wear a mask, and a secret identity is simply not going to happen with me always emitting radiation. I fear for my wife and daughter, as well as for my students and university. I have problems going into movies unless the projector booth is shielded in some way…

However, I also know that if I tuned a blind eye to the world, if I just ignored the problems I saw with all the power I have to help, I could never look into the mirror again. I could not look at my daughter or my wife, because I would know that I could help and I simply was not doing it.

Remember, all that evil needs to succeed in the world is for good men to do nothing. Ignorance may be bliss Mr. Harris, but it also makes one a slave.

Harris: What is going through your mind when you are in a dangerous situation that could lead to civilian casualties? That must be a scary situation.

Frankly, it scares the crap out of me. Whenever I see a situation like that I do my best to weigh every option before I move. I think I’ve been lucky so far, but the possibility of something going wrong does frighten me. But it does not stop me. If everyone were to quit because they could hurt someone or might be hurt themselves, then we would never go outside would we? Police would never act, and firemen would never do their jobs. Wars would be lost without a single shot. LIFE is dangerous Mr. Harris, and inevitably fatal. None of us are getting out of it alive, but we can fight, we can make things better, and we can live without fear holding us back.

Harris: How do you feel about people that use their powers for crime like the outcast or the super villains we are starting to see around the city?

What do you mean STARTING to see? Read a book sometime Mr. Harris. One can clearly see the mutant strain of humanity being present THROUGHOUT the ages. We have called many things mere myth and tried our best to explain it away but “Powers” have always been with us. Shall I draw a corollary between men of myth and the acts we see every day? Beowulf, Hercules, Solomon, all men myths were written about but we see such strength and wisdom here and now. Likewise, we have seen villainy such as Grendel, Goblins, and Lycanthropy. Certain evils men have spoken about are also existent across cultures and ages. Lycanthropy is a perfect example of this. Almost EVERY culture has some sort of shape-shifter. The same can be said of vampirism. Mankind has ALWAYS faced evil with powers beyond mortal man. Nevertheless, mortal man fought back, and had heroes then as well!

Why we see so many heroes and villains now is anyone’s guess. I don’t like seeing someone abuse gifts or hurting people, be they powered or not. However, I think it’s ignorant to say that we have not seen the like before. Really Mr. Harris, as a journalist I would think you would read more on a subject like this.

Harris: What do you think is going through these criminals minds when they commit these acts?

Probably the same thing that goes through a “normal” person’s mind when they commit such acts. Justification. Most of these criminals are humans and think like we do. Even the aliens show similar psychology. Clear cut “Good” and “Evil” is never the case. In fact most villains are convinced that what they do, they do for the betterment of themselves, others, or even all mankind. Few villains ever truly think “I think I’ll go out and randomly maim today.”

It usually starts small with thugs thinking that they have some power, so they should use it to better their life. Simple selfishness on one level, but as biological instinct goes they are merely using their powers like any animal that has an advantage… to TAKE the advantage. We as humans however can rise above our instincts and see that we are hurting others. These poor misguided souls who use their powers to hurt others learn all too quickly that not only others hate such behavior but also they will be fought every step of the way. This goes for the “Super” villains just as much as for any street thug.

Harris: How do you feel about the various anti-hero and anti-mutant groups that believe heroes cause more problems then they solve? Given the amount of work heroes do for the city this must be quite upsetting.

On one hand I support their right to free speech and commend them for speaking their minds. However, on the other hand I would ask them to walk outside and truly ask themselves for ALL the heroes to quit. That includes police, firemen, doctors, and anyone who could be called a hero. Do they truly think that the people who abuse their powers would stop if heroes were not there? What about cases in countries where there never WAS a hero and villains simply took over because no one stood up? It’s easy to cast blame at someone, and heroes as you put it, are an easy target.

If they TRULY think that the heroes are the problem, then how do they solve the problems like the Ritki? Do they think aliens such as them care if heroes are here or not? It was normal HUMAN men and women who first found the Ritki, and even then, they could have come to attack us even if we had not met them first.

Blaming heroes for such things is akin to blaming people of color for crimes, or any other racial epithet. It’s simply ignorant and uneducated.

If these groups truly fear and hate people because of what they do or what powers they were born with, how are they any different from the KKK or anti-[censored] movements? Hate is hate, no matter what light you cast it in, or what excuse you use to cover it up. I detest such ignorance, and can even see how such hatred has even caused several mutants to become killers. To defend themselves or avenge others for the abuses of anti-mutant groups. Sounds like a new civil rights problem to me, only what these groups fail to realize is that many of the people they torment could easily destroy them, and yet they DON’T. They don’t because the tormented know it’s wrong. That is the real difference between the two. I’d like to turn the original question around and ask, how many gangs and mutants would be out there hurting people and lashing out if anti-mutant activists DIDN’T torment them so? Think about that one.

Harris: Finally, have you ever worked along side the Statesman? What is he like?

I have not worked alongside him, but I did have the opportunity to attend a seminar he was at, showing his physical prowess for the academic community. He was probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Kind heart and a good head all rolled into one. Statesman is an example of humanity reaching beyond and achieving something beautiful. I can only hope all of us reach that point someday.

Harris: I would like to thank you for coming on the show and on behalf of the citizens of Paragon city thank you for keeping the streets safe

I have to admit, this was more pleasant than I had thought it would be. I still have reservations about the media and I hope you don’t mind, but I will monitor closely how you air this interview. My lawyer is on retainer you understand, and I would HATE to hear something I said taken out of context.

Pleasure speaking with you Mr. Harris.

The thing in charge of Richard's body roared as David's darkness seemed to block it for a while. Richard meanwhile could only pray his words had been heard by someone, anyone.

"You try to contain me with darkness little man?" The shadow hissed at David. The leering skull made of smoke seemed to sneer as the darkness engulfing Richard's body seemed to intensify and swell.

"How much Darkness can you take then? I wonder if I flow into you how much of your soul I could consume?"

The war of shadows between that of David and the thing began, as the maddening darkness infecting Richard began to try and flow onto the form of David.

Richard watched in horror.

~Well? Aren't you going to do something?~

The voice rang like a gong and Richard tired to pinpoint it. A small [censored] of light, no larger than a thumbnail was glowing in front of him.

~Wha...~

~Now is not the time for questions Richard. You gave the trick to beating the shadow in you to your friends, but you CAN help. Focus Richard, there is more light in you than you know.~

Richard closed his eyes and did as the small voice commanded. What else could he do? He could feel... something. A wave of purity as the small light began to intensify with a brilliant green aura.

Outside the mind-feild of Richard's body the darkness was comming ever closer to seeping into David. Suddenly there began to form cracks of green light in the shadow's mists.

"What?!?" The darkness hissed, and suddenly Richard, in his OWN voice shouted.

"LIGHT! GET ME INTO THE DAYLIGHT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

Richard would have been stunned at the number of people in his shop if the situation were different.

As it stood however, his mind was decidedly elsewhere. In fact, a section of his mind was making a desperate effort to convince him that oblivion was the best solution to this. To give up and become something more than human. Either that or turn this place into a charnel house. Richard swallowed hard and looked up at Balthasar, Niranen, David Black, and the newcomer.

[ QUOTE ]
"You say that the actions you took against this thing... namely beheading it... were 'exactly what it wanted.' Did this thing ever say to you, or have you found in your studies, that its existence as a disembodied head gives it some greater power? Why would it WANT to be beheaded?"

Balthasar took a kind tone, one that inspired confidences, but it was also the tone of steel-within-velvet.

"What did it 'teach' you, Richard, about the nature of humanity? About yourself?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Richard sighed and grabbed yet another soda. This made three, and in combination, it did little to quell the darkness within his head. However, it was enough to begin to disturb his stomach.

Richard winced and stood up to settle the unease in his body. He began to feel weak.

“I don’t think Nekros WANTED to be beheaded. I think it just wanted me to take him in, to let him inside.” Richard paced and picked up his notebook again. Flipping pages of the transcripts he had written down of his numerous talks with the head. He paused on a page.

“Here we go. This was about three days ago. I had asked why he seemed at ease being just a head in a jar. Nekros replied that head or not he was far more in control that it seemed. He told me that he had been watching me for some time. My artwork, my skills as a scholar, and even my meager talents as an occultist. Nekros said that he wanted me then. He said he could show me more, and teach me things beyond the paltry questions I had put to him. Nekros wanted a scholar for his pack, and that he could…” Richard paused. “Could answer my questions about the truth of things.”

Richard knew the lie, and could feel the words turn to ash in his mouth. But how do you tell your possible new employer and associates that part of your soul has been so corrupted by something and that the head of a thing you killed in an alley could speak directly TO that darkness and promised things. Richard shook his head and cursed under his breath. The nausea swept over him again.

“I have all the notes here Doctor Michaels. All my talks with him. He spoke of the triat I mentioned before and filled in the missing name. He told me of how humanity was warped to fight a war we knew nothing about, and how some, like him and his pack freed themselves from all sides. I think the only thing they freed themselves from was sanity and humanity. However, he said that I would not be the newest one to be brought into the fold… that this had happened time and time again. Moreover, that he had watched others here. Oh dear God…”

Richard nearly retched and fell to his knees. Old thoughts filled his head. Dark voices laughed from walls. He could hear the whispering, the sounds of wetness, and the milling of bones beneath the wheel of time. He felt his mind fall back and the dark spot in his soul came clawing forward.

Richard’s eyes went dark then. Not black, for there is a difference. His eyes were filled with a vast expanse of nothing and the dim lights of falling stars. A deep and then manic laugh escaped his lips. Inside his head Richard screamed, but outside his body all that could be heard was laughter.

“You can’t keep me chained forever Richard. Nekros is right you know.”

RUN! Richard shouted from within his own mind. RUN! ALL OF YOU!

“Richard would like you all to run now. You see the last time I got out, twenty people died. I don’t think Richard wants that… but I do…”

“You should have asked why Richard was expelled from Paragon University dear doctor. You could have asked why the feeling of darkness lingered here with the Ghoul long gone. You all could have pondered who or what I am.”

Richard’s body began to float off the floor. A black aura began to engulf him. Lines of darkness and swirls of madness crossing about his body. A leering skull made of smoke formed over Richard’s face like a mask.

“His soul was damaged long ago. I am that which resides in his empty places, and I have slept for a long time before Nekros woke me up again. I shall have to thank him once I have fed, I have not eaten in so very long...”

Richard could only watch, a prisoner in his own body.

LIGHT! Richard fairly screamed within himself. PLEASE DOCTOR HEAR ME! EXPOSE ME TO LIGHT!

Richard was quite taken aback by this odd turn of events. The disappearance of Nekros was first and foremost on his mind, but the activities of the others really did impress him. They acted quickly and did not seem overly put off by this turn of events.

Richard took a seat behind the main counter and grabbed a soda out of the fridge. This he used to wash down nearly an entire bottle of aspirin to quell the lingering darkness in his mind.

He watched Niranen and Balthasar talk and trade equipment it looked like. His head however was pounding too much to make sense of their interactions, or to truly hear what they spoke of.

“That… That was Nekros Doctor Michaels. That was the find I needed help with and I had hoped you could either confirm or deny what the foul thing had taught me.”

Richard drank another soda and rubbed his temples.

“I found Nekros one night while I was taking the garbage out back. I looked up and saw a pack of those damned zombies that so many heroes have been fighting lately run down my back alley outside. I was about to defend myself when I realized two things, they were running from something, and I smelled fresh blood nearby.”

Richard barely looked up from his counter. His words sounded like a deadpan monologue.

“I assumed it was some hero until it hit the zombies from behind. It moved so fast… It tore into the zombies like they were paper. Formaldehyde drenched entrails sprayed across the alley. You have no idea what that is like to see or smell. Then the thing sat down and began to EAT. It ate the flesh off the zombies and I’ll never forget that wet crunching sound.”

Richard began rustling though papers on his desk. He pulled out a sketchpad and a few withered pieces of parchment.

“I had no clue what it was, and in my fear I reached for the first thing I could grab. It was a fire-axe next to an extinguisher I kept. In some sort of mad fury or desperate attempt to save myself I attacked the thing. I swung and by some grace of God I connected and sent the head flying off the body. Little did I know that was exactly what it wanted.”

Richard stood and walked over to the others and handed them the sketchpad and the parchment.

“Before it came to I dumped it in a bell jar and filled it with a preservative for samples. I also quickly dug through my tomes to find out what it was. All I found was this piece of parchment, but it told enough to protect me and how to bind it. Thank whatever watches me for that because as soon as I had inscribed the wards on the walls in my meditation chamber the head woke up.”

Richard winced and shook his head. “It called itself Nekros and… and it told me many things. About what lies within me, about humanity, about something called the Yah and more. It wanted to warp me. I think he still does. I found out on the day I called you that Nekros has been trying to change me. Change me into something like him. Like this.”

Richard opened the sketchpad and flipped past many of his drawings. He stopped at one and pointed at the Ghoul.

“I tried to keep him bound… to keep him away from others. I needed your help, and now I need it more than ever. I have to stop him. If he can’t get me he might… Oh Gods I have no clue what he will do…”

With that Richard sank down and placed his head in his hands. Inside of him the darkness laughed…

Richard looked up at the woman who had entered his shop. She was not a regular, and really didn’t seem to be interested in buying anything. Richard just assumed that she was one of the other members of Balthasar’s group.

“Miss, let me know if you have any questions or need to check a price on something.” Richard offered. Better to be sure she was not a customer before anything else.

Returning his gaze to Balthasar, Richard paused and scratched his beard gently. He dug under the table and pulled out a yellowed notepad and a pen. The paper was covered with notes, symbols, and names of an esoteric nature.

“Well I never wanted to assume anything Doctor Michaels. But to be honest when I saw your group advertised by the Sly Fox I first assumed that the name was nothing more than what conventional wisdom has purported.”

He flipped a few pages in the notebook and pointed to a diagram littered with sketches of angels.

“The Elohim were one of the choirs of angels according to Hebrew and parts of Christianic myth. They were a smaller choir set up to guard humanity and keep watch over them. Now some myths diverge here, and this is where much of the history is either bogged down in new-age nonsense or muddled by role-playing games that try to expand or retell the myths. In some stories, the Elohim have kept watch and continued to do so regardless. In fact some say that all the supers in the world today support this and the Elohim are simply becoming more visible as something we understand.”

Richard reached out and sipped his tea before continuing.

“Frankly I file that under the “new-age nonsense” category. The other stories say how the Elohim were cast out of heaven for breeding with humans, making a kind of half-breed angel-man. The Elohim were disgraced, but never gave up their love and care of humanity. Many “gaming” materials take this tract and one could argue the same idea of the supers being the half-breeds spawned by the Elohim.” Richard flipped a few more pages in his notes to one with a decidedly alien text upon it, and drawings of strange beings.

“There is a third option however. Most people never see it, and it does have smackings of twilight-zone stuff, or bad sci-fi depending. This information I had to dredge out of some ancient books and some of it I really have not resolved. Other information… well that relates to my find really.”

Richard took a deep breath and then began pointing at certain symbols.

“In many mythologies there is a triumvirate of powers. A creator, a preserver, and a destroyer. This system of threes exists in many religions and occult circles the globe over. But in some ancient Sumerian texts I found what might be the first names given these powers by man. It was the first time I came across them, and the first time I think they were written down as distinct entities. They are the Annunaki, or destroyers; the Elohim, or preservers; and a third race. That third race’s name is the Yah, and I found that out not from any book, but from the find I keep referring to. I’ll show you it in a moment.”

“These races seemed to fight a war over man. Making armies from humanity and shaping the world as they saw fit. Now the Elohim were always cast in a good light, and shown as trying to educate humanity. A Prometheus figure if you will. The Annunaki however… I have found more references to them than I thought existed when I began looking. Even in modern texts.”

Richard pulled a book from under the table that was with the notepad. This he opened and showed it was a log-book and journal.

“This was the log of a team of explorers from a university in Massachusetts, how it got back I’m not sure because the text seems to dictate that none survived. Not even the author. Long story short they tell of a find in Antarctica, of a massive city that pre-dates humanity. The carvings on the buildings were of beings not human by any stretch. One of the men was able to roughly translate a word as Anak, which I believe is a shortening of Annunaki.”

Richard reached for the notebook again and flipped a few pages forward. The notes were littered with book names and titles.

“There were more, many more. And each was horrible in a different way. But in several cases I saw notes of something that saved people. Almost akin to the half-breed angels I spoke of earlier, but more along the lines of warriors either the Elohim or Annunaki constructed for their wars.”

Richard pushed back the notebook and began rubbing his head. The darkness within him was awake again and was gnawing at him. It was always like this since he found out about the Annunaki… since he found Nekros. He grabbed his teacup and swallowed the tea remnants down. Something in him wanted to lash out, to cover the walls in blood and draw the entrails across a canvas for the world to see. Richard pushed it down and grabbed a donut.

“I’m not sure why your group chose the name Elohim Doctor Michaels, but it has a deeper history than most people know. I think… I think much of the third aspect I described is real, with many more things besides. I also think it is time I showed you my find so you can help me resolve this and ensure I’m not going mad.”

Richard stood shakily and walked to the set of bookshelves behind the main counter. He didn’t care who saw at the moment, the howling in his mind and body was reaching a peak. He NEEDED someone to see Nekros, he needed someone to confirm or deny the things the head had told him. He needed to know why his world had been shattered by this madness.

He pulled on the book entitled “Passages” and looked into the darkness… And something wet and horrid began to laugh.

“Manflesh… You held me for too long. My brothers have come and I am free.”

Several sets of red eyes gleamed in the darkness. Feral growls filled the shop and the stench of rotting meat lingered.

“Pickman, I WILL come for you. You show too much promise for corruption. Enjoy this farce you have joined.”

There was the sound of metal on stone, the sweet-sickly smell of rot, and then nothing.

Richard’s hands were shaking…

Richard was only too glad to re-heat the herbal tea he had made last night. Granted the mere presence of Doctor Michaels had a somewhat calming effect on his nerves, but the tea always seemed to help as well.

He poured them both cups of the steaming liquid, passed one to Balthasar, and placed one on the table for himself.

“Well as you can see,” Richard began by gesturing to the crowded store, “This shop is not exactly a booming business. I’m not looking for fame or fortune, and you have no need to tell me that I won’t get rich working for your group. I don’t want to get rich, I just want to keep a roof over my head.” Richard chuckled and reached behind him. He pulled a book off the shelf and placed it on the table. The tome was bound in fine leather and embossed with gold in strange designs.

“The problem comes down to this really. Most people pass an “Occult” shop and expect the same new-age crap every other place is peddling. I don’t go in for that however. I deal in real books on real knowledge, and for some reason, most “practitioners of the art” are just not looking for true knowledge. They just want to expand their power. You just don’t get that from the books I sell without some work.”

Richard opened the book and flipped a few pages. He paused when he hit a diagram of extreme complexity.

“This is Koraq’s theory of Magic and Anti-Magic. It spells out the workings of occult energy and theories of magic no one else has proposed. He even quantifies things and makes mathematical models of spells. The text is so complex that most that pick it up and try to read put it down right away. It’s just not what most occult types are looking for.”

Richard sighed and closed the book. “Hence why Pandora’s Box does such great business. They sell what the people want. Quick and easy power without a lot of work. And that’s why my shop is constantly in the red. And really, why I need another job.”

Pausing, Richard picked up his teacup and sipped, looking at Balthasar. The man vaguely reminded him of his father.

“As for a resume, I really don’t have one. I’ll be totally honest here, most of what I know is self taught. There was… an incident at Paragon University and I was asked not to return, so I don’t have any kind of degree. However, every book in this shop I found. I have also found several books that specific occult “heroes” needed for their work and I can give you their names for reference if you’d like. I seem to have a talent for finding things like that… As I’ll show you with the item I need help with.”

Richard took his empty cup and walked behind the counter, placing it in a dishpan to clean later.

“I suppose I just would really like to put my skills to more use than finding books for people. I’d like to help them more than that and… and help myself understand things more.” Richard let those last words come out as a whisper. Shaking his head, he looked at Balthasar again.

“Does that make sense? I have a long history with occult affairs, and can offer practical knowledge that is primarily self-taught. I thought you might be able to use someone like me.” Richard shrugged and pulled out a box of donuts he got earlier in the morning.

“Care for one? I uh… well I’d like to wait for your friends before I show you my find.”

Richard smiled at the elder gentleman standing in his shop and rose from behind the counter. It didn't dawn on him that this was Balthasar Michaels until he got close enough to see the man clearly.

"Ah Doctor Michaels! Thanks for comming. Again I appreciate any help on the matter I spoke to you about over the phone."

Richard offered his hand and shook that of the Doctor's firmly.

"Can I get you anything to drink? I have some soda, water, and a pot of tea from last night."

Pickman had not gone back into his secret chambers behind the main counter of his bookshop for over a day. He could still feel the cold fury of the darkness within him whenever he thought about the leering head in the jar. He did not want to tempt fate more than he already had by angering whatever demons resided in his soul any more.

And that may have been what Nekros wanted him to do anyway.

For the most part Richard’s shop was unremarkable. Most folks passed it by without batting an eye. Others who stopped in looked at the old shelves and scroll cases and notice that Richard only sold books. No trinkets, no staves, and no artifacts. Only books. This was enough to drive off most other customers who had an interest in the occult. Especially since Pandora’s Box offered better deals and more goods.

However, of the few customers that Richard had regularly, they had become fiercely loyal and praised his skill in tracking down some of the most obscure volumes of lore. It was a few occult heroes who stopped by that really paid his bills. One hero in particular was there almost every day. He called himself Tarot, and he and Pickman regularly got into occult debates and compared notes on what they had learned.

Tarot was no-where to be seen today. It didn’t surprise Richard in that the hero’s last purchase was a book on the “Voydanniai” which were known as house spirits in Russia. He knew Tarot was most likely trying to chase one down as a maid or some such. If the state of Tarot’s clothes were any indication, he needed one.

The shop was small and crowded with bookshelves, and reading areas composed of small tables and chairs Richard had scrounged off the streets. He had cleaned them up and even carved a few protective runes on some. He always thought it was funny that it was those tables that never seemed to get any graffiti carved into them.

Richard lived in the small studio above the shop but most of his time he was in the store itself. He regularly slept on the couch in the main reading area, sandwiched between the shelves containing books on Taoism and esoteric literature on astral projection and voyages.

Today he was behind the main counter and split his time between idly watching the store, watching the old black and white TV he had anchored to the ceiling corner, and reading a yellowed and tattered book on dream quests and the 72 steps of flame.

In his heart however he hoped today Doctor Balthasar would come. The head was straining at his confinement in the jar again and Richard felt some of his wards being tested. What scared him however, was that those wards were being probed from outside his shop. The Circle had left him alone for quite some time, and never would have bothered with looking for the wards he had placed. It was something else… Something that KNEW about wards to bind things like Nekros. That thought weighed heavily on Richard’s mind. He needed help. More than what he could find in his books were needed, and he dare not call his father on this matter. He had no wish to disturb the old man, especially after the brouhaha they had gotten in last time, when Richard told him he would NOT be going back to college.

Richard could only sit and wait for help. He reached under his counter to the mini-fridge he kept there and pulled a bottle of soda to drink and a few pieces of leftover pizza. He was eating them slowly and watching some badly animated cartoon about teen heroes in Paragon when he heard the bells above the door to his shop jingle.

((And there we go… The RP begins here folks. Have fun!))

(NOTE: This RP thread picks up on the story started between Balthasar and Richard Pickman in Stars in Their Courses: The Arrival of The Elohim. Feel free to jump in if you'd like but members of the Elohim are really encouraged. Also check out The Elohim: A Brief History and Primer (Revised) for further info on our SG, as well as background and ideas. Also, the first few bits of this are a combination of the first contact between Richard and Dr. Balthasar.)

Richard turned off the old black and white television behind the counter and began to scratch his beard.

He idly leafed through a few of the day’s invoices and sighed again as his hands hit the same red ink over and over again. In debt, past due, third notice, final notice, were all the letters read on his cluttered desk.

“Whomever suggested I should go into business for myself should be shot.” He grumbled. When the words left his lips however, he almost immediately regretted it.

“That can be arranged you know.” The voice was little more than a sibilant hiss coming from behind the bookcase that dominated the wall to his rear. He knew it came from behind the case simply because he had put the thing speaking to him there.

“You’re not going to shut up now that you’ve started talking again unless I come speak with you now right?” Richard asked. The voice chuckled in a disturbingly wet gurgle.

“You begin to know my mind man-flesh. Come speak with me.”

Richard grunted but walked out from behind the counter and flipped the sign on his door over. “Pickman’s Occult Books.” it read “Now Closed.”

He made the journey back behind the counter and walked to the set of shelves. It seemed like miles to him, and every moment was an eternity. He grasped a book on the far right simply entitled “Passages” and pulled. The two inner shelves of the set folded inward making a small door into a dark room.

Richard strode into the darkness and pulled the chain to seal the door behind him. “Arcanum Luminos” he whispered, and in a gust of wind, five torches arranged as the points of a pentagram or twisted star erupted into flames. The walls here were stone with carvings made deep into their surfaces. Most were holy symbols of almost every country and religion imaginable. Others were arcane symbols made for protection and safety.

The room was a simple circle with three steps that led down into a small seating area. A few pillows were about but in the center of the room stood a pedestal. On that pedestal sat a rather large bell jar. Floating in that bell jar was a head, which was grossly feral with several areas of decayed flesh exposed along its skull. Pronounced canine fangs gleamed in the mouth of the thing, as the corners of the mouth turned up in a horrid grin.

“Ah, the man-flesh returns. Have I not taught you much? Have you not learned tenfold what your little books could not tell you?” The grimace of rotted teeth in a decayed mouth was enough to make Richard turn away.

“However, my books told me much about you Nekros. About how only this sign inscribed on the floor keeps you held, about how you would warp me if you could. Warp me to be like you.” The head in the jar laughed and then extended a rough black tongue to lick the inner surface of the jar in a profane manner.

“But you have me still. And what can I do as a head?”

“Enough Nekros, enough. What I have read about you and your kind is enough to set my blood to freeze. I never should have preserved you, and I thank whatever guardians there are that I found the key to bind you in time.” Richard sighed again and sat down upon the pillows of his inner sanctum. To think he was once considering the dreaded “Circle” an option once. With his discovery of Nekros, his entire world changed however.

“I can help you Richard. I can give you more than you ever thought was possible. Just look at what you have learned from me by now! Your little shop is failing, your life is a mess, and you only have yourself and me to talk to anymore. Let me out Richard… I can help you, even avenge you upon those who, as you put it “talked you into going into business for yourself.”” The last words emanating out of the head were Richard’s, literally. The thing spoke in Richard’s voice at that moment as if to re-enforce the hatred Richard had expressed earlier.

Richard simply began to laugh. He looked at the head with thinly veiled hatred and spoke in a deep voice not totally his own. “Nekros, Ghoul, Silence.” The head snarled but the rotted lips of the thing suddenly sealed shut. The dull red glare from the hollow eye sockets of the skull only seemed to flare however.

“I have already mortgaged more of my soul than I care to admit. You will not trap me by such foolishness. I’m going to do two things I should have done long ago, find out the real story behind you and… and find myself a real job.”

With that Richard Pickman, seller of occult books, part time artist, small time investigator, and delver into secrets best left unknown pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

“I’m looking for a Doctor Balthasar Michaels, head of a group called the Elohim? Um yes… it IS about a job, but also about… well asking if he has need of an investigator.”

The head in the jar snarled but Richard waved his hand and the symbols about the room flared into life. Each began to glow with a different aura as the head squeezed whatever was left of its eyelids shut to block out the painful light.

“If this place is as good as their ad on TV says they are, I might have hope of more than just a paycheck. I might be able to find out what the hell is really going on with you… with everything…”

"This is Balthasar Michaels, how might I help you?"

The voice was mature and kind on the other end of the line. Richard smiled gently until he looked over at the head in the jar. The foul thing sneered at him as it still fought to free its lips from one another.

"Hello Doctor Michaels, my name is Richard Pickman. I just saw your ad just a moment ago on television. I'm rather curious as to how this all works? Essentially... I may have a job for you and your group if you're willing."

"How it all works?" the voice on the other end of the line said. "Well, friend, the first thing we do is ascertain whether my organization can help you. Once that is accomplished we can then talk about the specifics of the inquiry and I can assign a colleague or two to your case. From that point you will work closely with said colleagues until your case is brought to a successful resolution. Now... since I have explained the process, perhaps we should begin it. What work did you have in mind for us?"

Richard listened intently to the man and jotted a few notes down on a pad of paper near the phone. He looked up at the head only to see that it had almost freed it's lips from the silence binding.

"The job? Oh yes the job! Well you see... The job would be an investigation in regards to a find I have made recently."

Covering the phone with his palm for a moment Richard pointed towards the head and stated clearly, "Nekros, Ghoul, I bind thee to silence until I free thee." The head snarled without sound and beat itself on the walls of its glass prison. Richard drew a sigh of relief.

The pause on Richard's end of the line was misconstrued, leading Balthasar to prompt "What sort of find?"

"Well the find is occult in nature," Pickman said. "I assume you have experts in that area on your team? If so I would dearly like to speak with them. I... I really need help on this."

Balthasar paused. No sense in letting Mr. Pickman know, yet, how recently The Elohim had decided to create a presence in Paragon. "Yes, of course. We have inroads into the occult community. I'm quite certain we can help you. I will contact my colleagues who are versed in that field. Was there anything else you wished of me before I get to it?"

The eyes of the head glowed a dull red and looked at Richard with pure hatred. Somewhere, deep in Richard's soul he could feel a darkness returning the gaze just as intently.

"Well the other question I have is... Do you have positions available? I, uh... Well to be honest I find myself at a financial impasse at the moment and need work other than my bookshop. I am quite an accomplished investigator in my own right, but specialize in occult matters, so the field is... well limited for my kind of work."

Balthasar considered Pickman's offer for a few moments before replying. "Well, sir... we can always use more intelligent, well-informed investigators. I feel that in the interests of fairness I must disabuse you of any daydreams of wealth if you wish to be an investigator with us. If you are still willing to serve, however, then we can talk. When and where shall we meet?"

Richard heard bubbles from the Jar and turned to see the head laughing without sound. He gave the head the finger and turned back to the phone.

"I could come in anytime, or you could come here. I have a shop in Steel Canyon on the corner of 18th and Kazahd Ave. It's near Silver Lake I believe. Thank you Doctor Michaels... I appreciate your help immensely."

"It is my pleasure, sir," Balthasar replied. "I shall visit your shop within a day or two to discuss things further with you. Be well and have a good evening."

Richard hung up the phone and walked over to the jar. The head glared back with a demonic rictus stretched across its rotted lips.

"*******." Richard whispered as he grabbed a black cloth and covered the thing. Somewhere in the pits of his stomach something cried out for more revenge than that... to split the head open and rend the grey-matter over a canvas for the world to see.

Richard grabbed his head and moaned as he left his meditation room and sat out front. He grabbed a bottle of asprin from under the counter and a bottle of water to wash it down.

"May whatever Gods there are, help me out on this one." Richard whispered as he sat in his Chair.

And here I was thinking I was one of the only RPers on Protector at times.

I'm not too sure about Supergroups, but I know I'd like to run about with another like minded story-teller sometime. However, due to general PC problems that'll be next week at best for me to get back up and running.

However, if you'd like, feel free to look for either:

Chess (Gravity/Empathy Controller)
Mighty Bio-Man (Rad/Rad Defender)
Obsidian Omega (Earth/Earth Tanker)

Cheers man and good luck at school. I know the pain ALL too well.

Actually the next chapter is going to be a bit in comming. Outside forces have conspired against me if you will... (i.e. Work, and lack of a home PC at the moment).

However, I have a possible title for the next chapter if anyone is interested...

A Game of Chess: The Red Bishop

Heh... Welcome to my pain. Not that I MIND getting good comments on my stories but a few "You could work on this" would help as well.

Anyway,

For the most part I really liked the story and the style. I do tend to agree with Ishtara however in that near the end the tenses seemed to flip a bit and made it confusing.

I was not so worried about there being a frozen brain running about (Hey... it IS a superhero world) as I was about the shere confusion for a while. The "Brain" seemed to be totally distant from the body both literally and spirtually. Essentially he had SOME emotions about seeing himself get buried, but not much more than revenge.

However this "Cold" demeanor may have been what you were going for.

Hope that helps!