welshman_EU

I think My 'Caithness Wolf' will attend.

Ta. and aces too!

Fox had had a busy month and he thought sourly that it wasn't going to get any easier soon. His mate Kitisha was expecting their child any day soon and he was having to shop for that as well as deny mad zombies, mad mages, mad mutants and mad plants their chances for domination over this city and the world. Sam often found himself wondering what would happen if a group like, say the warriors gathered all their forces and started wiping out the Devouring Earth or the Circle. Sure, he thought, they'd gain an unbreakable power base in the city but at least it'd be quiet.

He was on the train now, trying to avoid the eye of the kid across the way who so seemed to want an autograph as he headed back to Galaxy City. He'd spent most of the day fighting those thrice damned Vegertables and he was tired. They'd run him close on several occasions today but no way was he ever going to be beaten by a Portobello mushroom on steroids. His phone was ringing. He wanted to ignore it. He was going to ignore it. He had to shop for supplies for baby and mate and go home.

He answered it. "What want?" He asked. It was one of his contacts. A weasel of a man that Fox liked about as much as you can like oily slime. Still. "I going... In Galaxy?" He asked, repeating what the Weasel had said. "Ok... I go..." He shut the phone off and sighed, accidentally meeting the kid's eye. "Fox hate spiders." He admitted as the boy moved closer at speed, book out.

One autograph, thirty minutes and a destroyed base later, Fox was headed uneasily into the mini-supermarket near his den and he was feeling... Uneasy. He thought there had been more Tarantulas then he had beaten down there. Had one scuttled off? Unusual. He headed in. "Ozzie." He said in greeting to the manager.
"Sam." He replied as Sam headed towards the freezer aisle.

"Oh, [censored]." The manager said and Fox turned, drawing his bow. It clattered away as the Tarantula Queen crashed through an aisle and landed on Sam. Two of it's legs pinned his harms to the floor and Sam winced slightly. If the new armour hadn't stopped most of that... Still he could feel his blood. Not good.

The Queen leered at him from her grotesquly still human face. "You destroyed my base," The voice said in a parody of a female human. "You bested all my troops and you sprayed on my Lieutenant!" A pincer raised. "Any last words, Mr Fox?" She asked, angling closer.
Fox appropriated an eyebrow raise. "Fox hate spiders?" He offered before sinking his teeth deep into her face. She reared up in pain or shock. Fox wasn't sure which but, as her pincers were in his arms, she pulled him upright. Bonus! He thought as something ripped free from her face. He pulled himself free before she retaliated and slammed an energized fist into the hole where her nose should have been. "You!" he exclaimed, firing another punch. "NOT!" Punch. "Taste like Chicken!" A bonesmasher dropped the queen. Fox spat out the lump of flesh he'd bitten off and picked his bow up. "Say goodnight, Grace." He commented before putting an energy arrow between her eyes. He tagged her and walked back over to Ozzie. "I sorry for that." He told him.
Ozzie looked unperturbed. "Don't worry about it, Sam. This is Paragon. I'm insured for everything from floods to swarms of locusts to thunder gods."
Sam looked at him. "There many Thunder Gods?"
"About 15, last I read. Look," he added, gesturing to Fox's arms. "Shouldn't you get those seen to?"
"I do self later." Fox told him before returning to the shopping he'd had to put down earlier as Ozzie flipped the sign to 'closed'. He finished and returned to pay. "This happen often then?" He asked.
"Sure. Had Statesman in her a few months back. Nemesis threw him through the window and into the Ice cream freezer. Chunky Monkey and Tutti Fruitty everywhere. I'll clean up."

Fox wondered why Statesman was playing with monkeys for a few minutes before he reached home and safety.

You sure? I think he got the terminology correct...

"No probs, bossdad." Rachel commented. "Got a tornado ready to fly as soon as the doors are opened."

"Well," Rachel commented sarcastically, "Give us a call next time you decide spontaneously decide to get married, eh? Daughters ain't supposed to HAVE to crash their dad's wedding!" She looked at the door. "Want me to use my mist an' try an' get you outta here, Suzi?"

Rachel wondered if they'd note the shredded leaflet and fluff amongst the rest. And threw it anyway.

Rachel checked through her jackets' multiple pockets for items she could add to the situation on cue. Apple corer, fluff, a penny, some lint, a restaurant flyer, a handgun - which she pushed under the aisle - a bus ticket and a wad of chewing gum. She'd wondered where that had gone. She assembled the fluff, lint, bus ticket and commenced quietly ripping the restaurant flyer to shreds for confetti...

Ooh! SUNDAY? I'm good for that with Blackfur!

<Shrouded in mist, Rachel made herself at home at the back of the cathedral. She kind of hoped Brit and Suzi didn't ask how she'd found them. From close distance, it had been easy. Follow the zombies.>

((Any bits of the game people want me to make fun of?))

Ask the character Kitisha...

Foxbow was concerned about things, he realised. Possibly for the first time in his life - all 4 weeks of it - he had something to worry about. His mate was with child. He was pretty sure he knew how that had happened but it was a blank from here on in. He'd looked at books of course but he wasn't fond of raising it like a human baby. Would a diaper fit if the child had a tail? Why were people looking oddly at himself and Kitisha? And what the hell was animal husbandry all about? He'd been told he had to be her husband now and he'd looked up the term. He hoped it wasn't what he'd seen. That sounded forced.

Life in the New Heros Union had gone quite well but he was still getting lost in the base. He'd considered marking out a route that he could follow from the leisure rooms but they'd told him not to. So he generally used the technique of running around blindly until he got where he wanted.

Right now, though, he was in a tunnel. There were lots of tunnels under this city, Fox thought. Why did it never collapse? And how did they avoid the gas mains? He also wondered how much protection this T-Shirt was going to afford him? He liked it because of the logo - touch me, I'm Foxy - but it probaby wouldn't stop bullets and he other costume was in the tailors getting blood out of the fabric and several bullets too. Council were down here. He'd seen one of them run in. Plus he could smell the Wiener schnitzels in the air. Council seemed to like German food. Odd, as Wiener Schnitzel is Austrian but they probably didn't know food like him. Raw was better but cooked - by someone else - was good too. Especially meat. Fox had made a pledge to himself that he was going to try all the meats, German first.

The thought of fried Veal in breadcrumbs was making him hungry and he sniffed the air again. Heavy leather approaching. Black & creaky too. Noisy and heavy. Fox tucked himself into an alcove and waited for the jackbooted person to go by before punching him in the back of the head. He grabbed the figure by the lapels and swung him hard into the wall before pulling off his mask. The stink of sweat and mustard filled the air and fox's nostrils. "Ew." Fox commented. "What have you been eating?"
"Weisswurst." The figure replied.
"Ach." Fox punched him out. "That's for eating Weisswurst at this time of day." He slapped a tag on the fallen, kicked him in the gut for good measure and continued on down the tunnel. He could see several of the enemy just talking to eachother. He was a distance away so they hadn't seen him. He listened in. They could be discussing tactics or battle plans or... last night's ballet? Wierd. When they got to discussing the main dancer's pirouettes and arguing if he was taught the Vaganova method or the Legat method, Fox decided to concentrate on an explosive arrow. It was easier than wishing for earplugs.

Four minutes, seventeen magical arrows, five punches and one tooth later Fox had the... whatever it was they'd stolen. He looked at it. It looked like a disc drive. Maybe a contact would know what to do with it. He'd just seen the guy coming in. He was on his way to food and... He kicked a trooper awake. "Leave you untagged if you got any Leberkäse." He offered. He'd hunt later.

((Guess who had Wiki open when writing this?))

Foxbow had found himself a group. He still wasn't quite sure why or how but he was in. It had started in Talos when a lady he occasionally talked with told him of a Devouring Earth plan to use a chemical bomb under Talos within ninety minutes. Fox asked her why she wasn't sending in the army. You know, bomb disposal, armoured troops, that sort of thing. She said they were all in some place called Tie Rack. Oh, and fox would need assistance to defuse the bombs. Fox thought of the book in his backpack. "Bomb defusing for beginners." Nope, no phone numbers for handy help in there. He started jumping towards the location whilst reading up on bombs.

And Kitsu accidently ran into him at speed.

After apologising to each other and checking nothing was broken, Fox asked Kitsu if she'd like to assist. She agreed and they spent the next half an hour or so shredding lettuce and setting fire to mushrooms. During that time the small feline told him that she'd managed to join a group of people calling themselves the 'New Heroes Union'. Fox considered the phone calls he'd been getting, especially the death threat ones - he was going to have to go ex-directory it seemed - and the fact that his 'contacts' kept sending him places to die, and asked if he could speak to someone about joining. Kitsu said to meet under Talos station in an hour.

An hour later, Fox waited under the station where he'd been for twenty minutes as he'd lost his watch yesterday. He wondered what the heck he was doing here. Kitsu arrived along with a muscular human and... A dragon. He was pretty sure of it. He could smell the fire that surrounded her. Just slightly. She was sat in the yoga position with her wings flapping. Kitsu told him they were waiting for others. Then the next arrived. Fox could smell her. He closed his eyes and cursed silently. "Miss Bunny!" Kitsu called out.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. Yup, he thought, she was a rabbit. Grey fur, long ears, impressive thighs and everthing bar the puffy tail. He tried to remain composed as he thought how bad it would look on his resume if he ate a co-worker before joining. She was looking afraid. Aw, great, he thought. I'm dribbling. SAY SOMETHING!
"Um, I promise I won't get hurt by you." He babbled. WHAT? He thought.
"Huh?"
"W-when hunting you." WHAT???
She was looking almost scared now. Keep it simple, stupid, Fox told himself.
"I mean I would not hurt you."
"T-that's good to know." She replied, nodding slowly.

Their base was enormous. Their living room bigger than his whole apartment, fox thought. They brought him into the living room, where they had a table, chairs, a sofa and... an Altar bench? He sat there and told his story until a boss arrived. And he told it again. He'd told it so often now he was thinking of having a card written with it on it.

Twenty minutes and a glass of water later, Fox was on probation, whatever that meant. He needed to go home to sleep for the early morning hunt so made his farewells. He gave Kitsu a hug and a platonic lick on the cheek before jokingly asking Miss Bunny if she'd like a lick on the cheek. She shuddered.

((Thanks, guys!))

How can we do that when we don't know what the hell you're talking about?

[ QUOTE ]
I can see a 'secret community' of bored multi gazillionairs looking for some fun and a better feel of power.

Each picking 'their champion' to do the scaveging. Each picking one or two targets. Selected for challenge more then probablility for success.
Each picking the 'means of control' over their champion.



[/ QUOTE ]

Read 'button Man' recently?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Man

Dunno what my guys have to risk/offer...

Foxbow sat on the sofa and thought his brain was turning to mush. He'd come back from his midnight snack hunt and was watching night-time television whilst his rabbit was digesting. His mate had gone further in her hunting and hadn't got back yet. She liked solo hunts. Solitary cat thing, Fox thought. Which left him watching Star Trek. An episode where the one with the shiny head was acting as a lawyer - or something - for the pasty head with the crazed eyes. Some humans liked this sort of thing. For Fox it was confusing as they were also the bad guys in several of the films and the shiny head wasn't the captain and... He changed channels. Ah, the Babylon station. At least there the enemy stayed the enemy and no-one was wearing food on their foreheads. Except possibly the peacock race.

The phone rang. Thankfully, Fox picked up the reciever. <Is this Sam Fox?> Said a voice. Male, Fox thought. British. He groaned. He knew where this was going. But not why.
"Yes." He replied.
<What size are your breasts?> Laughter and a dead tone. Fox hung up. Why they chose to do this around 0100 he didn't know. He'd told MAGI and they'd asked the phone company to trace all the calls Fox got to his listed number. The phone rang again. He picked it up. "34DD." He said sadly.
<Mr Fox?> Said a distorted voice. Fox sat up. Prank callers didn't normally use electronic distortion.
"Well, this is Mr Foxs' phone and it is 0130 so I'd say yes."
<I'm going to kill you.>
"Oh, good. Can you do it during one of those talk shows where humans just shout at each other?"
<No. It'll happen soon. You put my brother in the Zig. He's now in intensive care after you made him talk. You will die for that.>
One more thing to worry about, Fox thought, glancing over at the kitchen where soapy water was flowing over the lino after he'd put his jacket in the wash.
<Not sounding so smart now, are you, hero?> The voice said. Fox could just hear someone else at the other end. <What?> The main speaker said. <Yeah, yeah. Look, I'll be done in a minute and you can close the station then, Ok? I JUST NEED A MINUTE! Ok.> He added, speaking to Fox again. <Where was I?>
"Threatening me." Fox reminded him. "But, look, you seem to be in a hurry so why don't we schedule this for lunch tomorrow at the Galaxy Pizza place? 1300?I mean my mate's just come in. Gotta go!" Fox replaced the handset and unplugged the telephone. Then he made a call on his mobile. Then he waited for Kitisha to return.

Lunchtime the next day, Fox pushed open the door of the busy fast food restaurant and made his way over to the table where a T-shirted hulk-a-like was seated. He smiled and sat opposite, placing a thin envelope on the table. "You got my brother put in hospital." The man growled. "Tell me why I don't want to kill you here and now?"
Fox considered that a rhetorical question. "I dunno who your brother was but he was obviously the smart one." Fox commented. All of a sudden he found himself pinned to the wall by his shoulders. What, Fox wondered stupidly, had happened to the table? Oh, he realised, there it was, crushing his legs as it was pressed between them. "He's in intensive care with both legs and arms broke and two cracked ribs after talking with you after you arrested him in the first place! How the hell does that count as smart??"
Fox handed him the envelope and he took a photo out of it. It was himself he was looking at. Security camera footage. "My calls are monitored." Fox explained. "You not only called from a public place but actually MET me when I arranged a meet in a place that MAGI could stack with powers? Half the people here are packing powers or guns."
"Huh?" The thug grunted as he heard multiple guns cocking behind him.
"Dunno who your brother is," Fox commented as his shoulders were released and his feet hit the floor, "But he's GOTTA be smarter than you!"

For me they're useful as my guys don't tend to interact with Coile as much as they used to and, as two of them live in the same building, it's useful to know at least a little to pass on to them. OOC I wouldn't have a clue but IC they'd have an inkling.

It's also quite interesting to see Coile getting more neurotic...

Foxbow bounced from rooftop to rooftop on his way south. He'd been thinking about getting something to eat but he'd recieved a call from Detective Frasenbaker which meant he had special visitor privileges at the Ziggurat. It seemed the Detective needed some information from an inmate and had cleared Fox to make a deal. Fox had been closer to Bricks than the station so... Hang on.

Fox glanced downwards to below where a crane was lifting several dozen barrels. He knew that the crane would swing around and place the drums on a cargo ship but that wasn't what held his attention. There were Family hoods down there, arguing amongst themselves over who got what cut whilst their boss stood aside. Something about him looked familiar... They hadn't seen him. Fox took aim at the weakest link and fired. As always, his arrow took on the best form to defeat it's taget and snapped the cable holding the pallets in the air. "Heads up!" He called, being fair and giving them a warning as the cargo thundered back towards the ground. He enjoyed watching them panic as the pallets, drums and crates smashed into the ground, scattering wood, oil, chemicals and hoods on impact. Half of them didn't look like they could get up. Just the boss to deal with, Fox thought to himself as he jumped to a nearby stack of boxes.

"YOU!" The boss roared and Fox finally placed him.
"Hey!" He called. "I remember you! From Striga, right? I gave you a dip!"
"You dropped me half a mile out!" The boss roared. "But that won't happen this time!" He charged and jumped up close to Fox. He ducked Fox's punch and powered one of his own into Sam's ribs.
"I better ad-adapt then." Fox gasped. He slammed his palm into the criminal's midriff, sending him flying back into the chemicals. Then he fired a blazing arrow into the chemicals, starting a feiry inferno that Fox knew would be doused by the fire tenders within minutes. But that still left the boss burning. He couldn't leave him like that, Fox thought. And smiled. There was a lot of harbour about here...

Upon arrival at the prison, Fox first checked that the boss had been teleported to the med centre all right and then found his way to an empty room where he was to await the prisoner he needed to talk to. No counsel. This was, after all, informal. A guard would keep watch. Five minutes later the prisoner was brought in. Un armoured he looked like a normal citizen but Fox knew that, armoured, he was an Arachnos commander. Fox had taken down his cell yesterday and he still felt the bruises from this guys' fists. Just as he could see the impact of his punces on the commander. "Hello." Fox said brightly, lifting a pack of 'Dukin' Donuts' he'd bought at the nearby station shop onto the table. "I bring gifts." Scanned gifts, he thought. Everything had been scanned on entrance and they still didn't know he had the ability to pull bows and arrows from no-where. He sat down as the prisoner eyed up the donuts.

A klaxxon sounded in the distance. "What's that?" Fox asked, snapping to alert.
"Escape attempt." The prisoner remarked. "Don't concern yourself. Be here long enough and you get used to it."
Fox looked at him. "You've been here one day."
The prisoner shrugged. "What's this about?" He asked.
"Detective Frasenbaker has authorised me to make a deal. He needs information and may be able to help you out here."
"The mountie?" The prisoner considered, before choosing a lemon curd donut. "Aways reminds me of Paul Gross. If it were anyone else... Go on." He said, taking a bite.
Fox wondered who Paul Gross was. Nevermind. "We know Arachnos is gonna hit the Faultline Bank sometime in the next day or so and we'd like to know when."
"Simple." The criminal replied. "What's in it for me?"
"Well, he can't get you out, of course but he can see about getting you transferred to the medium security wing. We'd keep your name out of it, of course and you'd get a chance to do some courses, stay out of your cell for a longer period of the day, earn some cash, get a cell with a view..."
"I HAVE a cell with a view."
"Of the Sewage works, I hear? You'd see the garden from this one. It's not a bad deal."
"Not a good one either, Mr Fox. I want out."
"Oh, then you want the 'no deal' option?"
He looked up. "There's a no deal option?"
"Oh, yes!" Fox said enthusiastically. "If you say no, then we get you transferred to an open prison! Of course, this is the day AFTER Frasenbacker's next big Arachnos bust and we leak info saying you helped us."
The commander's face fell. "Recluse would kill me!"
Fox nodded, still smiling.

"1430 this afternoon." Fox said into the phone a few minutes after leaving the prison. "Good thing he wasn't smart enough to know that, as a Canadian detective, you don't have any sort of official power down here. Tell Sister Psyche Hi when she gets them, yeah?"

I have Billy in that area. Well, he's 35 but that's close enough.

Hello, people.

Hmm, a worthy challenger to Fox on Arrival.

ABOUT TIME!

((Oh, and ta, Luna.))

((Ok, I'm gonna use this one to show another of my toons - Juniper A.K.A. Wild Child - but it does address something I've always been a touch concerned about with the game.))

Foxbow was concerned. His contact in the island of Talos had told him the Council were holding a contact of hers... somewhere. She didn't know where they were hiding him or when they'd grabbed him or why or where from but she did think the council knew. She'd ignored Foxs' comment that he was glad someone knew and asked him to go check a local base for clues. Great, Foz thought, she knows where the base is but has let them build up forces before sending in one person to look for clues that may not be there to lead to someone who, almost certainly, wasn't there. Wonderful. He had the sneaking suspicion this was going to hurt.

And he'd mated with his girlfriend last night. Was that some sort of omen? Perhaps. But... It was another thing for him to be confused about.

He landed close to the small, wooden, door in Steel Canyon and sniffed it. He'd been told that Council sometimes booby trap these doors. He'd never seen it but... Fox suddenly remembered that he had no idea what unexploded explosives smelt of and opened the door with an energy punch. He reckoned that he'd been spied by several cameras anyway so the destruction of the door wasn't going to give him away. He entered the base and fired off three quickfire shots to disable the nearest trooper. Before tagging the man - all six feet six inches of him - Fox removed his helmet and put it on, squashing down his ears. He liked his ears - they helped him to hear for one thing - but the Council used a LOT of bullets and the concealed armour in his jacket only protected so much. He ran down the tunnel.

Ten minutes later, Fox put his head down and charged a Galaxy Adjutant. He was the last standing in the base this far and Fox could see what he was standing in front of. A computer. Great, Fox thought as his helmeted bonce collided with the officer's stomach, computers. Fox stood quickly as the Galaxy doubled over and brought his helmet hard into the face mask of the enemy. Fox grimaced and involuntarily closed his eyes on impact and the Galaxy took advantage to slam a fist into Foxs muzzle.

Fox spat a tooth out and decided to get annoyed. He recognised that tooth, it was his favourite one. Three heavy punches and an energy arrow to the groin and the Adjutant was down. Now for the information. Fox looked at the computer and decided he was in trouble. How do you turn these things on again?

Two minutes of thought later, he decided to call a friend called Luna Starbright. He'd met her a few times and she'd given him her telephone number in case he ever needed help. Now he did. He dialled the number. "Hello, Luna's phone!" Said a bright voice that obviously wasn't Luna's.
"Um... hello?" Fox asked. "Is Miss Luna there?"
"No." The voice replied. "I picked up her phone by accident this morning. I didn't realise until I got a romantic phone call on the machine from my brother. I'm Juniper. Is this an emergency? I can call her and pass it on." Fox waited for her to pause for breath and then relayed the situation to the girl. Luna had mentioned a 'Juni' last time he'd met her and this Juniper was probably the same girl. He heard her tut several times. He finished and asked for a reply. He got one.

"I love how these council caves have mobile antennas built in so their people can communicate with the outside world as normal." Said a voice behind him that made Fox jump and bang his helmeted head on the rock ceiling. "Superjump in a cave is silly." The girl remarked sweetly as Fox stared at her and cursed his head wound at the same time. She was small and thin with blue trousers and a red t-shirt and green jacket. She had long length blonde hair and utterly human looks. She looked about 12. But she wasn't afraid. He remarked that she didn't seem shocked by his looks and she shrugged. "My brother's a tiger, his girlfriend's a human/alien cross and I'm an animal shapeshifter. Nothing surprises me these days."
"Oh." Fox said simply as the girl turned herself translucent.
"I don't normally use my human look in council bases." She explained. "I'd just left school. Now, let's take a peek at this. Oh, as for how I got here so fast? Like the rest of my powers it's 'don't ask, don't tell 'kay?" Fox wondered who Kay was. Juniper tossed him a bag. "Hold this for a moment?" She told him. He noted several books including the 'History of the world' by Stephen Hawkings, 'Atlas Shrugged' by Aynn Rand, 'Psychology' by Mr Spock, The 2008 'Jacky' annual and 'Bomb disposal for dummys'. She set up something next to the computer and began typing faster than Fox could keep up. "old," she muttered, "should've updated their firewalls." Fox notched an energy arrow. He could hear people running down the passageway towards them. He got ready to fire. "Wanna see something funny?" The girl asked but Fox paid her no attention. "Yeah." He said absently. He could see them coming now. Five of them, running as fast as they could towards the room. Three might get here but the other two...
What?

The five soldiers shot past Fox at 50 miles an hour and slammed into the far wall. He spared them a quick glance and fired arrows into them whilst they were stunned by the impact. Fox stared at the girl, who had her back to him. "Don't ask." She said, moving the hand she had pointed at the passageway back to the computer.
"Don't tell." Fox replied.
"Got it." She said. You want print out or disc?"
Fox stared blankly.

((And the thing that puzzled? How come every hero, from the caveman recently defrosted to the alien from a sillicon universe, knows how to hack computers?))