Scratch

“It is truly magnificent. I miss this place when I’m gone so long.” B-17 thought to himself as he flew across the sunset skyline of Paragon City, returning from several months away.

B had just returned from his duties with the USAF. While gone he had noticed that the cybernetic arm that give him his superpowers had not been functioning correctly. His resistances had decreased tremendously. The engineers ran some scans and tests to find the problem. The power cells seemed to be too unstable, draining the effectiveness of the energy generators and worse yet, possibly leading to a supercritical explosion. After many repeated test and modifications the engineers seemed to have stabilized the cells, only problem is that the generators had to be toned down permanently leaving B feeling a bit more vulnerable. Still thought, he was filled with the confidence that he will do whatever it takes to bring the villains that plague Paragon City to justice.

While cruising over Kings Row, a fiery explosion erupted in the distance. “I don’t think those are fireworks. Guess I’ll take a look.” B whispered to himself. As he approached the scene, he saw the smoking bodies of a couple Skull thugs and a young woman looking up talking to someone in the adjacent building through an open window. Landing on the street, B heard the woman thank whoever was in the building. Seeing and hearing she was fine, B checked the bodies of the Skulls. They seemed like they would make it but were in very rough shape, still smoking from the blast, obviously the woman’s savior was a bit overzealous in teaching the Skulls a lesson.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll live. If not, it’s just a little less trash for the police to dump in the Zig.” Came a familiar voice from the window.

“Kid?” B spoke out loud.

“B? Wow, B-17back in town, my day keeps getting better and better.” Kid Blister said sarcastically.

“Good to see you too. Long time no see. Good work helping the lady but don’t you think you went a little over-board?” B said in the fatherly tone he always seemed to take when talking to Kid when they were in the Aero Dynamos together.

“Why don’t you worry about yourself, B?” Kid lashed back angrily, flames igniting from his eyes. “I’m really not in the mood for one of your wannabe-Statesman, holier-than-thou speeches!” As quickly as his anger erupted, it disappeared. Kid Blister turned from the window, sulking back into the darkness of the room.

As long as B-17 had known Kid Blister he had never seen him like this. KB was always a free spirited, cocky, fun-loving kid. A bit hot-headed, often careless and sometimes over-the-top in his sexual banter with the ladies of Paragon City but never one to be sulking around, obviously down about something.

Deciding that trying to help his friend was more important than worrying about drawing his ire; B flew up to the window and entered the building. Through the darkness, he could barely make out the Kid’s figure sitting atop a table on the far side of the room. Kid Blister was holding something or things but B couldn’t tell what they were. With a deep inhale, and not knowing how KB will react to his uninvited intrusion, B strode forward.

“You know this place was gonna be FORCE Headquarters?” Kid flatly stated. “Funny how things change in a year. Four of us came to Paragon together…me, Doc, Baen and Tony. We had huge plans to kick @$$ in PC but things started changing. Tony Starknaked up and left Paragon, he couldn’t take the vertigo he developed from too many hospital teleporter trips. Baen-Sidhe I’ve heard is around somewhere but I haven’t heard from her in a very long time. I took some time off to go to college. During that time, Doc Ranger bumped into the EveryNighters. I felt pretty crappy the day he told me he was gonna join them but we still talked all the time and he came and partied at the dorms so it was cool.”

Kid paused a few seconds, fiddled with the objects in his hands and then continued.

“Then the Winterlords came to town. I was on Christmas break and finishing up the hoverboots I designed when the attacks went off the scale. I came to help in Atlas Park where I bumped into a couple of the Aero Dynamos. We teamed up and put down several of the WLs. Afterwards they convinced me to join and school was getting boring anyway. I made good friends in the ADs, some very fine ladies.” A wry little smile crept onto his face for the first time. “It didn’t last long though. Flying wasn’t really my thing. Way too slow. Plus Doc had talked to me about joining the EveryNighters; we’d be teaming up like old times. So I jumped at the chance and this is where I’ve been and it’s been good times…”

“The EveryNighters are great heroes and friends.” B said. “I had the pleasure of teaming with them on many occasions, including Doc. Definitely great people to have on your side.”

“Yeah…” Kid mumbled.

“So what’s got you so depressed?” B-17 asked with genuine concern.

“Depressed? I’m not depressed! You’ll never see me depressed” KB blurted out trying to sound convincing. “Ah maybe bummed a bit, I guess…” he conceded. “…confused too.”

Kid Blister ignited his hair, illuminating the room. He held up the objects in his hand for B to see. It was two old communicators of some sort. “These were Doc’s. He just gave them to me yesterday. One is his old FORCE com-link, the other his original EveryNighters one. He told me he was leaving the EveryNighters and wanted me to have these. He wouldn’t tell me anything about why or where he was going. He seemed very distant or preoccupied. As he was leaving, I actually made a joke about him retiring and hanging out with Statesman. He gave me a glare that sent chills running down my spine. He then left without saying another word. It was really, really weird.”

“I couldn’t imagine Statesman doing anything that would cause Doc Ranger to be that angry at him.” B stated in a defensive tone.

“Of course not, States is all goodie-goodie this and patriotic that...blah, blah, blah…” Kid scoffed. “But I feel like something is up. Just no idea what.”

“Is there anything I can do?” B asked.

Kid thought for a second. “Nah, I think I’ll do some looking into it myself first. I made a few adjustments to the EN com-link of Doc’s, I was able to pick up that something was going down at headquarters, something big it sounded like. It’s only for the SC50’s but we’ll see what I can do.”, that devious smile once again showing up on Blister’s face.

B smiled knowing that Kid was one of the most resourceful people he knew. B reached behind him on the back of his belt and pulled something off, tossing it to KB. It was an Aero Dynamos communicator, in fact the same one Kid had while he was with them. “If you or the EveryNighters ever need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call on myself and the Aero Dynamos. You’ll have our support anytime you need it.” At that, B gave Kid a salute.

Kid gave a thumbs-up in return. “I guess you’re not all bad for a boring ol’ stiff, B.” Kid leapt down from the table and started running for the window only to pause. "Hey B, there is one thing you can do for me. Tell the ladies of the Aero Dynamos I said hey. I know they missed me…especially, Hexy and Kamey!” With that Kid gave a wink, jumped through the window, burst into flames and was speeding into the night.

“Will do Kid.” B said to himself knowing KB was long out of earshot.

B-17 took to the skies trying to figure out where to head next. B checked his scanner for recent even in Paragon since he’s been gone so long. “Hmm…Siren’s Call has been opened back up. Sounds like a good place to start.”

With that B-17 disappeared into the night sky.