doodaa

Blake smirked, resisting the urge to mutter 'Exactly' under his breath. School didn't matter much to him anyways, but to his sister's discontent, he always made her go.

Blake had been in Pizza Port a couple of times before, although not recently. He always thought the set-up was kind of clever, even if it was a little used. He looked around and saw the teens, from eating pizza to making bets on pool tables. He saw the clerk, Gim or Gib or something, working at the counter. The owners weren't there, Springfield he thought their name was, but he shrugged it off. Everyone needed a vacation once in a while, he thought.

Blake laughed at Alex's challenge. "I don't need your pity. You can choose your hero and you can choose my hero. Five bucks says I'll still win" He put out his hand, saying "Deal?" with a devilish grin. He wouldn't actually take money from her if he won, but he was confident enough that he wouldn't be paying her.

As Blake saw Alex looking down when he asked her about her mom, he felt immediatly bad. He had spent half of his life without his mom, so he had gotten used to the fact, but usually forgot others had, or used to have, special connections with their moms. That's why he smiled a little when she said her mom was still with her, saying "Yeah, that's true"

He was more comfortable when they switched the subject to Mabel. No matter what happened, he could always count on Mabel to laugh at. "She's gonna be arrested for spying in on the classes one day" Blake said, half wishing it was true. He shook his head and smiled, saying "I don't even know how I'm still in that stupid school. My report cards haven't been terrific, lately"

Blake nodded, saying "It's a deal" with a smile. He walked with Alex towards Pizza Port with the money still in his hand. He did this because after several times being pick pocketed, he took all the precautions he could, including a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket.

As they walked, Blake asked "So, hows your mom been doing?"

Jack had slept most of the way to the Row, still half asleep as they gathered. He yawned and stretched out his arms and back, then shook out his legs. He nodded slowly, then shook his head quickly. "What were we talking 'bout again?" Jack asked, his voice sounding surprised, then it returned to normal as he caught the conversation. "Right, right. I say we take the train, tram thing." Jack voted, then added "Or we could all steal a car and meet up there"

Blake stopped with Alex and stretched his arms out, sighing with relief. "Seriously," Blake said, returning the smile "It's like she knows when the worst possible time to turn up is. The new guys will be moving out soon enough if she doesn't give 'em a little space"

Blake laughed a little at her question, saying with a smile "Like she needs more stuff. Let's get some pizza, I'll bring some home for her"

He reached into his pockets and pulled out a worn wallet. Blake opened it up and looked inside, pulling out a twenty and a five. "I'll buy" he said, putting the wallet back in his pocket and holding on to the bills.

"Nice to meet you, Hunter" Blake said in a friendly enough way, raising his hand to give him a handshake when Mabel started towards them. "Uh, well I gotta go, uh..." Blake started, stumbling over his words before Alex saved him with an excuse. "Right! You didn't get Candice one last year. I'll, ah, make sure you get something that she likes, or in her size, or something" He raised a hand shortly and turned around towards Alex, jogging after her until he caught up.

"Good call" Blake said smiling as they walked off, towards who knew where.

((...Whhhhaaaaattt? I'm confuzzled

I thought we were taking Cassie's copter to wherever the Sedadyne place was, or close to it, and whoever had wanted a cover would get one before we all barged in like raging monkeys))

"Ah" Blake said, now smiling towards the two "Welcome to the building, then" His smiled slowly faded as the talk turned to Hellions and Vahz and Rikti. He kept quiet and listened, nodding at some places to show he wasn't spacing out entirely. He came out of being a temporary mute when the winged-lady got the old hag's identity exactly right. Blake smiled and let out a small laugh, saying with a little disbelief "That was pretty cool. How'd you do that?"

Blake caught a sight of Ramon out of the corner of his eye and almost waved before he realized he was talking to Vanguard. Blake's skin color lowered a notch, the kid watching the Vanguard like they were the plague. As they left and took Ramon, Blake inaudibly sighed and turned back to the rest of the group, which had been joined by Eric.

Blake wasn't surprised that Eric didn't talk to him. He was always kind of scared by the albino anyways and usually tried to keep his distance.

Blake walked down the street with a bop in his step due to the headphones in his ear, the white cord going down and disappearing inside his pocket. He had a red shirt with a yellow symbol on the front that looked like flames inside a circle with runic symbols where the four main directions would be. The sleeves were torn off at the shoulders, exposing muscular although somewhat skinny arms. He had jeans that were faded and cut at the knees, and white and black sneakers.

He had black hair that almost reached his shoulders and that was kind of shaggy. His eyes were a dull blue, and despite the music being blasted, he still seemed focused. His hands were dug in his pockets, on his left wrist was a black wristband, and on his right shoulder was a small black line that you could barely see because of the shirt.

As he turned the corner he saw the building he and his sister lived in. Although he was only sixteen he lived by himself with his sister, who was only twelve. No one had noticed, however, although Blake was wary when the old hag with the puppy was around.

As he was approaching the building, he saw a group of three people, the only one he noticed was Alex. Blake raised an eyebrow to himself as he kept coming. As he was a couple feet away from the little group, his hands came out of his pockets and he took the headphones out, letting them hang by his side. He nodded his head as he came within earshot, saying "Hey Alex, how's it going?"

Blake nodded towards the two other people, his eyebrow again slightly raised "These your relatives or something?" He looked at them but didn't offer his hand yet, wary of the man because he looked so gloomy, and wary of the one with wings because...Well, because she had wings.

((Hope you don't mind Blake already knowing Alex, do you? Since Blake would live there and so does she, I thought it would be OK, but I'll edit if you want))

((Ah, sorry Crimson, should've read that better. My bad, I'll be more careful next time))

Jack's eyebrows raised as Stahlhund burst into conversation, seemingly without prompt. Jack made the connection, with Rose sending out information, probably to Mannings, and then probably receiving a reply, which the tech Stalker had announced earlier that he was capable of tapping into the group's lines. Whatever the reason was, he shrugged and added "I won't be needing a disguise either. If anyone notices me, I'll find something to make cover"

Jack smiled at this, letting loose a small laugh. He clapped his hand together, asking "So, when are we leaving?"

[ QUOTE ]
I once tried to join Whitmoore. In preperation, I read the last 200 pages.

And quite honestly, even aftering going over it twice, I still had no idea what the [censored] was going on. Some of the arcs have just been going for too long for newcomers to understand and participate in. It did not help that almost everyone was involved with everyone else.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I wouldn't/couldn't do it

Paradigm, who I think is a veteran Roleplayer and definitely a better RP'er than me couldn't do it, after reading 200 pages, which my squirrel-like attention span would overload and my head would kerplode, then I would fail miserably.

Content to read it, though, you guys are quite good.

[ QUOTE ]
Doodaa if I could join it after 900 pages, you can join it after 1100. Just read the last 50 pages or so to get caught up on the characters and storyline before jumping in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, I wouldn't do that. Everyone in there is all friends and comfortable in there, and then I would come in like a raging bull in a china shop.

As much fun as that sounds...

Jack turned to see Rose behind him, asking about jewelry and rings. Technically, gems aren't considered jewelry... he thought to himself slyly, mentally smirking.

"Nah, just some cash" Jack answered simply. He sighed and looked over his shoulder, back out towards the window. "So, what do you thinks going on here? Shots that can take away powers, big, dragon-people. I swear, this place gets weirder by the day"

Jack nodded at the response, giving a slight shrug. "Happens to the best of us" he said smoothly before the Stalker took over. As Harbringer rattled on and started flaming, Jack couldn't help but burst out laughing. He calmed down slightly, but still had giggles. "This is fantastic..." he muttered to himself happily as he turned away from the group and looked out of the window, for no apparent reason except for the view.

Only school thread I've ever seen is Paragon University, but its way to far along for me to join now

If someone started one up, I'd join.

Jack let Dynamo look at the gun in his hands, Jack getting his first good look himself. It looked pretty powerful, and he took a mental note to take it to his tech-wiz for any enhancements to be done and more ammo to be made. He put the gun back in his belt again as Rose went to answer a call and Drago introduced his teammates.

Jack was intrigued. "An Arachnos operative, a Demon and a teenager? Not the likeliest bunch, I'll say that" the mentalist said with a smile. He looked at Harbringer and raised his eyebrows, asking "Demon, eh? You an Earth Demon, or from another dimension?"

The Rogue Isles and Paragon city may be the only places on Earth where 'are you from another dimension' is actually a serious question.

Jack snorted, frowning. "Souvenirs from the guy's 'career' and some drugs" he said, purposely not mentioning the money or gems, his eyes half-watching the new people that just walked through the door. His face brightened as he remembered what else he found, grabbing the gun from his belt and tossing it over in his hand. "Pretty nice, if you ask me" he said, then shrugged slightly, adding "Although guns ain't exactly my thing"

Jack knew that Chaos Red had left and ignored the fact. The kid didn't have any useful information or items, so he was useless to Jack. "So, anything special you guys needed?" the mentalist asked the small group at the door. He didn't pocket the gun again but left it hanging by his side.

Before Jack finally entered the kid's head, he heard the Arachnos operative's remark, and couldn't help but smile. Not un-funny he thought, then began delving into the kid's mind. Chaos Red was his villainous name, but he ignored that mostly. He looked around to see if Red had any useful information, but came back empty handed. He was just taking a look at the spider, evidently.

Before Jack withdrew from the kid's brain, he couldn't help but noticing the two major images that showed themselves, an odd looking girl and a man. His curiosity almost got him to delve deeper, but he got the information he wanted, so he withdrew, eyes swimming for a second as he entered the physical world.

He stood up and turned towards the group. His eyebrows raised, asking without speaking what they were doing here.

Jack sighed slightly at the 'intensity' of the slap. "I guess that might count" he muttered to himself, scratching his arm unconsciously before he noticed he was doing it, and quickly stopped, grumbling words that were incoherent to himself again. He ignored Stahlhund's reappearance and Chaos' reaction, prodding at the boy's mental defenses. There wasn't anything to obvious except for the human will at first glance, and he didn't feel like wasting his time searching for anything dangerous.

"Hold still, or you might kill yourself" Jack said, he saying this like it was one of the most normal things to say. As he was about to get to work, someone bashed through the door. Jack couldn't keep it in and swore loudly, whipping his head around to see the newcomers. "Shut up, will you?" He turned back to Chaos grumbling again, and without any signs of preparations, drived straight into the punk's mind.

If the kid didn't have any mental defenses, much anyways, this actually would hurt, like a hammer swung inside your head and a couple volts flowing through your body. Jack didn't expect the volts to hurt, the kid did use lightning, but the pounding was hard to ignore.

However, if he did have a lot of resistances, the Bane Mace would be paying for itself.

"I don't want a fight, you drunk" Jack said impatiently and slapped the kid upside his head for good measure. "You just happened to fall into a very confusing scene at the exact wrong time. All I wanna do is have a quick look inside that head. Won't hurt, promise" He smiled devilishly, but of course, something else had to come along.

Jack sighed and pointed over to Cassie's robot, Mac. "See that thing? It could tear that little spider to shreds if it moved. Now hit me. Don't care if it's hard or not, just do it. Now"

((Holy cow, I really got it? I'm...amazed ))

Jack let out an involuntary "Yes..." as he opened the safe, looking through Blight's belongings. He quickly pocketed the cash and the gems, and debated taking the bag of goods before shaking his head and tossing it behind him carelessly. Thinking that was all, he did a quick look around to make sure there was nothing else he wanted when he saw the gun. He took it out of interest and studied it for a moment, impressed.

He stuck the barrel threw his belt like a cowboy and stood up, noticing for the first time that his comrades had left. He found them quickly and saw Dynamo clothesline some punk to the ground, letting out a bark of a laugh involuntarily. "Nice shot!" Jack laughed, slowly walking over to the kid. He raised an eyebrow and studied him, then knelt down next to him and said, quite neutrally, "Hit me" Behind his sunglasses his eyes were deadly serious, not asking, but demanding the punk strike him.

Jack found on his 'radar', besides Rose, Cassy and her bot, a small, electrical buzzing appeared. Jack meant to not notice it and look unprepared in case it decided to attack, but Rose pointed it out quickly enough. The mentalist didn't show any physical signs of aggravation, although he was silently cursing in his head. He ignored her and kept punching in codes, doing some of the following:

12340-12349, 12330-12339, 1200-1209

Not going exactly in order, just doing spastic little searches. If the searches did nothing, his temper was growing shorter and shorter. As he kept putting in codes and the safe still didn't crack, he would give up and stretch out his arm, slowly and gently using telekinesis to pull out the number pad, using stronger force as he went on until it pulled out.

If this didn't work, a certain Bane Mace would reappear, and the safe door would receive a good bashing.

OOC:

I think I'm right, for once. If you read Dr. Lore's post on page eight, her second if my memory isn't going whack, then it shows her using codes that have five digits but all include 1, 2, 3 and 4.

"!, 2, 3 and 4? Well, the logical next step would be..." Jack said, and punched in the numbers in order and added a 5. As he reached towards the safe to try and open it, he heard a clack come from somewhere in the apartment. He made no move except to continue to do what he was doing, trying to open the safe. If it did not budge, he would move to 12346, and so on, his fingers moving faster than most would have thought normal. Not on par with a superspeeder, but certainly not scoffable, either.

As this went on, Jack sent an all but undetectable mental probe through the apartment. If whatever had just entered had any semblance of a brain, Jack would know. He ignored Dr. Lore and Cassie's mental signatures, and the electronic pulses the robots gave off while still punching numbers.