Sly knew Haunt could handle the mopping up, especially with the green goons frozen, so he wasted no time in finding Deth again.
As he suddenly teleported into a mass of shivering Outcasts, a puzzled expression lit his face.
"I didn't do this..."
Sly glanced over at Deth, and saw she had made some friends, one obviously handling the crowd control in his absence, and another pummeling the attackers into submission. He also thought he saw Lyle and Ivory off in the distance. He wondered how both those two gunmen had done on their mission.
"Milady, will you cease and desist this constant movement? While I enjoy "the chase," it is often difficult to find you. Not that I can't keep up, of course!
Oh greetings, fair maidens! I am The Sly Fox! I'm sure you have heard of m--ooofff."
Sly's posturing was cut off abruptly as an Outcast, however cold from the snow, apparently was trying to hit a pop fly, with Fox's head.
Falling to his knees he quickly threw out his arms and concentrated, releasing a blinding flash that caused all the T-shirt clad thugs to clutch their head and wonder why everything went dark.
"See what to much TV does? Deth, haven't I told you to WAIT for the blinding flash?"
Sly reached up under his hat, and felt the bump already beginning to form.
"Ahhh... punch drunk love..." He winked at Deth.
Lyle shrugged, walking over to the bench after Ivory stopped him from attacking. They had at least three supers in the fight and super powers were almost always more effective than normal lead.
"Anyways," he thought, grimacing as he lowered himself painfully to the seat, "I need to sit down."
Deth felt the wind blow passed her with a gale force. Her hat blew off and at that moment, she realized that she had been about to be attacked.
'Foolish woman, you allowed your emotional weakness to gain control and look where you are now.'
'Hush, if I have told you once, do not discuss my flaws with me when I am awake. This is a debate for meditation.'
Deth grabbed her hat before it was out of reach and placed it on her head as she rotated to place her feet on the ground.
About this time, a new arrival landed upon the head of one of their attackers and looking up, Deth said 'Thank you.'
As if she knew it was only a matter of time, Deth heard the familiar pop and Sly Fox appeared. Watching as he was hit up beside the head, she thought 'Figures, he never looks where he ports'
He turned to her as he recovered and made one of his 'witty' comments, which strangely she did adore, but she was not about to tell him that. Anyway, she looked about and found the middle of the crowd and systematically began with the largest one. She angled her self to atleast dispatch a couple of other while she attacked this larger one. She took down two but this one would not go down. She could already see the sight coming back to him. 'Damn' She began to punch harder and faster.
'Argh' She felt this large one enter her mind. 'Boy, I think you made a mistake now.' Outwardly, she seemed to be staggering and stunned.
(Inside)
The Rector entered her mind and he looked around a strange landscape. Sitting at a table were three beings, one he was sure was the woman before him, but her clothing was different. The other was a grotesque demon creature with one horn out of his head. The third was a blue masked, cloaked figure and the Rector's mind could not comprehend what it was that he was seeing. A table, chairs and a rolling beautific landscape. Before he could attempt to understand what he saw, the demon spoke.
'Ah, a guest. Deth , why did you not tell us he was coming? Come sit, enjoy a spot of tea.' He motioned to a fourth chair that had appeared.
'I felt that it never hurts to have an unexpected guest every now and then.'
'True,' the third entity said, in a deep, echoing voice. The sou nd never seemed to fade way.
The Rector looked at them in awe and stupification. He walked over to the group and lifting his fist he swung at the young lady, who still sat prim and proper. The demon looked away smirking, 'Ooops, he should not have done that.'
The instant that his hand would have connected, it was stopped. He looked up and the cloaked entity had extended what seemed to be an arm and was blocking his swing. He tried to force it and his arm could not move. The entity carressed the girls head and turned to the Rector from her.
'You are never to hit a lady. Especially in my presence. I shall show you the truth and you shall see.' echoed the voice and the sounds seemed to continue on and on. The Rector listened and thought he could hear more echoes of the same voice.
At this time, the Rector turned as a sapphire mask clanked on the floor. He felt his face grabbed and he was forced to look into the spot where the mask had been.
(Outside)
The Rector screamed in agony and grabbed his head. About this time, Deth awoke, looking at him, said 'Everyone get their greens today? If not, here's a vegetable.' She motioned to the Convulsing Rector.
About this time, she saw Ivory and Lyle sitting on a bench. She popped over to them, 'Boys, it is not nice to sit around and let the ladies do all the work. At least, Sly Fox has learned to be a near gentelman to day.' Before Lyle could drop the comment she knew was on the way, she popped back into the fray, attaching her fists to one that was swinging at the armored lady.
What is she doing? Stumbling around, then coming to before I could heal her, and on top of that now The Lost have joined us too?? Then she pops over to flirt with Ivory and Lyle or something? Argh... Where's haunt when I need him to commiserate with!
Sly was feeling a bit angry... for some odd reason... so he called forth some phantoms to help deal with the extra Lost threat...
"NEVER... JOIN... A PARTY... UN... INVITED!" He shouted as he brought a tv-head to it's knees with spectral pain.
A Headman takes aim at The Sly Fox.
"Our time is now and...ungh!" caught in gravity well and lifted 2 feet off the ground the Headman's words are cut short.
"Sly, you old dog, you really should watch your back where the Lost are concerned." Dwarf Star joked.
Not more than three and half feet tall, but quite muscular, Dwarf Star brused off his blue and white tights and straightened his yellow beard.
"Quite the party you all have going on here."
-------------
Dwarf Star; Angel-Night, Adoniel, angel of the 12th hour of the night; among the many
Freedom Factor
and now from Warhammer Online, Gorlok, Greenskin shaman
-------------
(OOC - Hope I'm not breaking any rules here. This character isn't actually in the game yet. I came up with her a couple years ago for a story I wrote for a web site. I really liked the character and used her in a couple other stories. This is mainly an experiment to see if I can make her work as well in the confines of role-playing. If this is against the rules, let me know.)
As the gang members fell one by one, and the battle began to wind down, a couple of the heroes suddenly became aware of a sound coming from behind the dumpster that the girl in blue and yellow had crashed into.
Upon investigating they discovered that it was actually a person. It sat, huddled next to the wall wearing what appeared to be a straight-jacket and dirty, baggy white pants; bare feet sticking out the ends. The only things that kept it from looking like a homeless bum, were the mask it wore, and it's eyes.
The mask was black and covered the entire head, with only openings for the pupil-less eyes, which were a deep orange at the edges, fading to almost yellow in the middle. They could tell that the mask had been ripped apart at one time and the stitches where it had been crudely sewn back together were very visible. They could also see the ends of a cape dangling out the bottom of the straight-jacket.
One sleeve of the jacket had been ripped open, freeing the hand inside. The other one was still intact, and the person held something through the fabric. Some of the heroes recognized it as another thin red gem, like the ones from the idol and Morningstar's shop.
The thing was currently pressing the edge of the gem into it's exposed, pale hand. It pulled the gem along, slicing into the skin, leaving red trails that blossomed blood. It did this in a very methodical way, mumbling and humming to itself as it worked.
It suddenly looked up, noticing the others for the first time. It only looked at them for a second or two before returning to its task.
Then it spoke. It's voice feminine, but also, obviously very young. The others would have guessed around 16.
"I did it before," she mumbled, absent-mindedly, "but it keeps going away. Had to do it all over again." Feeling that this was a sufficient explanation she resumed her humming, tracing a new line along her palm.
Haunt had caught up to Sly a few seconds earlier, but had remained cloaked in shadows, trying to get a grip on all the new faces that had appeared.
"I know it's said that you can't throw a stone in this city without hitting a hero, but this is kind of ridiculous.." he thought, before stepping out into the fray.
"Greetings, erm, everyone, I'm known as Haunt, a friend of these two.." he said, motioning towards Sly and Deth, "though proper introductions can wait, I suppose," he added as another Rifleman took aim at the combatants. Haunt grinned, and glanced at Sly.
"So what's the tally now? Trolls, Outcasts, and Lost, all in the past quarter hour? At this rate there won't be any villain groups left to defeat..." he said with a slight laugh as he jumped at the Rifleman, fists clenched, Eidolon pulsing.
With a several flurries of punches and a final life-draining attack by Eidolon, he was able to take the homeless mutant down, but not before recieving a energy-beam-induced gash on his shoulder. He then turned to a pair of Scrounger lackeys that had produced knives, and were creeping towards the straight-jacket bound girl, who seemed too out of it to properly defend herself.
"You'd think these goons would've heard of a 'tactical retreat' by now.." he muttered as he rushed them.
After reaching them, Eidolon produced shadowy tentacles that lashed out in all directions, piercing through several of the still-standing enemies. A green pulse passed through all of these tentacles to Haunt before disapating, healing the grievous wound he'd taken from the Rifleman.
The technique left him physically drained, and had attracted the attention of several thugs, whom he was unable to fight in his current state..
On a nearby rooftop a young woman sat, enjoying the show. She was well aware that getting into the fight would be a waste of time, chances were these guys would be dodging her attacks without even thinking. Ofcourse everything they did would be without thinking, but...
She was surrounded by a forcefield, making sure that no stray shots accidently hit her.
"This can't be anything but fun to watch. I always enjoy a good fight..."
Nexxes flew towards the scene of the fighting
Many Heroes have congregated together, chance? or perhaps a group of some kind? There are many different types of Quanta and Mana being manipulated... far to good an opportunity to miss
Flying along the rooftop, Nexxes came to hover a few yards away from the girl. Watching the fight intently.
Nexxes' unusal empty eyes glanced at the girl, and the force field surrounding her... "I've seen a few of these heroes fight already, it's unlikely that with the added help that any of these thugs will poise any threat to them"
The woman kept staring at the fight.
"That's what I figured, besides I doubt I'd be any use down there. AUCH, that must have hurt"
Picture of fire mistress
Lyle watched as the others mopped up the remaining enemies. "Not the most organized of fights," he thought to himself. But with super powers you could afford to be a little messy.
He rotated his arm, wincing slightly. He was still a little sore from the beating the troll gave him, but he had gotten worse. He'd probably end up a lot worse before this whole mess was over. Ivory wasn't kidding when he mentioned something big going on. Anything that would bring out all the different gangs like this had to be pretty important.
The girl paused in her work, glancing up at the man in dark clothes. She was grateful he had taken care of the other two. They would have interupted her. She was about to resume her slicing, but suddenly looked up.
Some others were approaching the man from behind, weapons at the ready. The girl wasn't looking at them, however, but at the huge Lost monster behind them. The smaller thugs were almost broken in half with one swipe of the things hand, and it then approached the dazed Haunt.
The girl's brow furrowed in thought. The man had helped her. Kept the others from interupting her. The thing behind him would hurt him. This wasn't good. He helped her so...... she should help him. Satisfied that this was the correct conclusion, the girl suddenly lept from her place.
She landed on the front of the monster, planting her bare feet on it's chest, holding herself there by it's ragged shirt collar. Leaning back, she then drove her head into the Lost's. She pulled back, ramming the thing's head with her own over and over. Blood started running down the inside of her mask, dripping over her eyes and out the eyeholes. She continued slamming her head into the Lost, until finally, the monster stumbled, blood oozing from a crack in it's fore head. It swayed back and forth and finally toppled to the ground.
The girl sat on top of it, slamming her head against his a few more times. Satisfied that it wouldn't be getting back up, she slid off it's chest. The thing's blood was splattered across the front of her straight jacket as she sat down, leaning back against the still form of the Lost. The blood from the thugs that the monster had killed seeped across the concrete. The girl reached down, humming softly, and began drawing designs and doodles in the crimson liquid.
Haunt took a moment to catch a breath after the girl launched herself at the Lost. After she had reached the thug, his eyes widened in shock at her combat tactics. Ducking and weaving through a few of the remaining fighters, confident the others could finish them off, he moved over to the blood drenched girl. Eidolon continued to warily watch the fray in case they were needed.
"Geez, are you suicidal!? Nevermind, don't answer that....thanks for the help, and, err..are you alright..?" he rambled weakly, still a bit stunned at the "unusual", to say the least, tactics of the girl that was absentmindedly doodling in the puddle of the Lost's blood.
((ooc just spent 3 days at the RMBGA's BenCon here in Denver))
Things were cleaning up nicely just as Ivory had expected. He barely moved when Deth popped in to try to include the two of them. Besides, things were getting awful crowded.
"The Tsoo are fighting a dangerous gang war, bad drugs to Trolls and bad magic to the Outcasts. Make sure they get the message."
Ivory gripped his rifle by the barrel and drug it lazily behind him as he walked down the street attempting to hail a cab.
Lyle shrugged, "Sure." he called to Ivory's retreating back.
"Like I have any idea what any of this s#!t is about." he thought to himself. Having come from the military, Lyle often had a hard time handling the Paragon heroes' looser ways of doing things.
The girl looked down at Sly and the others. She was still in doubt about his offer, how would she feel about working for profit hero group?
She had been raised on socialistic, if not communistic principles, and while she was certainly not a communist, she didn't like liberalism either. While she liked her new home country, she had never been blinded by it.
When she thought about it, she couldn't really think of a good reason to join with the FSS..... on the other hand, there wasn't a really good reason not to.
She sighed. This would probably ruin her sleep.
Sly merely stopped the mopping up battle for a second to look up and wave at the the two figures on the roof.
Then he went back to watching Deth's... back...
Now Lobe was thouroughly lost. He'd been searching for Deth for a while now and had seen no people at all since jumping by the strange fellas in the blue uniforms. Why they had shields was a mystery, as was what they were trying to say to him when he jumped passed. Either way, he hadn't found the Lady Deth yet and he wasn't sure if he would in the mess he was jumping through. "Geesh, doesn't anybody clean up around here?" Coming to a halt he gazed around at the complete destruction of bridges, stores, statues, and parks. Buildings, leaning crazily, missing their upper floors, and spewing forth black smoke, broke up the skyline. The utter lack of life completed the sense that Lobe was staring at a corpse.
And like all corpses, this one had maggots.
"Well well well. What have we here fellas?" questioned a green tinged humanoid that hadn't been there a moment before. Emerging out of a hole in the wall of a roofless building were 8 more, all dressed in shabby, unkept clothing and with faces that more resembled demonic pigs than humans.
Lobe, relieved at finding some live people in this desolate place, grinned happily, "Hi! I'm Lobe and I'm looking for a nice lady about this high," he leaned down with his hand splayed out at about the 5 foot mark. "And she wears a hat and her name is Deth, yup. Have you seen her? Have you?"
The speaker looked around at his compatriots and back up at Lobe's concerned-filled grinning face. "Well, I can't say as I have. You boys? Have you seen this Deth Lady?" The leader inquired of his bretheren. What he received in return were a spattering of denials issued in grunts and broken english. Now this particular troll happened to be smarter than average and recognized an opportunity when it came knocking. Looking back to Lobe he said, "Sorry Lobe, but maybe we can help you find her."
Lobe's chagrin quickly changed to happiness, "Really? Wow, you guys are nice." Lobe missed the stunned looks directed at the leader by his minions.
"Well, actually, we need some help with something and if you could give us a hand then we could return the favour by helping you find this Deth of yours." As the troll spoke his comrades' stunned looks slowly changed to ones of confusion.
"Oh Lobe help, yup. I am good at helping!" Lobe agreed happily. "What do you need help with?"
The Troll looked back at his men and winked. "Well Lobe, you see we kind of locked ourselves out of our building...." As the Troll continued his explanation the others slowly began to smile.
As the last of the gang members began to fall, a couple of the others called over to Lyle, wondering where Ivory had gone. Lyle shrugged.
"Jumped ship, or something," he called back, "Said that the Tsoo are selling drugs and magics to the gangs, and generally screwing them over in the process." Lyle could almost applaud the ninja-like order for messing with the other criminals. But if a gang-war started now, Paragon City would turn into a war-zone.
"I suppose the preferable plan would be to hit their storage building, but I haven't had much experience with these yahoos, so I don't really know where to start looking. And the one who seemed to know what he was talking about, has bugged out."
Another reason Lyle hated people with secrets. Their actions were often very direct and clear, but explanations and understandings were few and far between.
Haunt looked up from the girl who seemed to still be in her own little world, then glanced around at the closing battle before looking over towards Lyle.
"Said that the Tsoo are selling drugs and magics to the gangs, and generally screwing them over in the process."
Haunt's iridescent red eyes widened slightly as he grasped the situation. His personal "dealings" with the Tsoo had alerted him to this plot of theirs, trying to weaken the gangs through soul-stealing artifacts and faulty drugs. It seemed he and Ivory had been getting their data from similar sources.
Haunt quickly glazed over the quick glare at the audacity of the thugs to a calm, almost empty stare as Lyle approached.
"I know what he was talking about. The Tsoo are producing a drug called Rage to try and poison the Trolls, and are distributing dangerous artifacts to the Outcasts. I'm sure I can get the location of one of their HQs, but I'll need to make some calls first."
Haunt turned away from the group and procured his cell phone, and began to dial one of his contact's numbers. Eidolon's "face" remained looking at the band of heroes, glancing about, alert for any other trouble.
With a nod to the woman on the roof, Nexxes floated down to the ground among the unconcious Lost.
"Greetings, I am Nexxes"
Turning to Haunt and Eidolon waiting until he stops speaking into his phone
"I am most curious about your power signature, it/you appears to be demonic?...yet not? Is it appropriate to ask about the source of your power?"
And to everyone nearby...
"Also do any of you have mystical ties to the Circle of Thorns? I am interested in their mana source"
Some of the heroes glance at him a bit wairily at that question
"My apologies if my questions are inappropriate, this language can be cumbersome"
As the last of their attackers fell, so too did the girl in the blue costume striped with yellow lightning. After she regained her composure, she stood though still looked a bit unsteady. Her antennae twitched and her multi-faceted eyes glinted in the setting sun as she surveyed the rather large assembledge of heroes that had a hand in defeating the Outcasts and Lost.
"Thanks for the timely assistance, all of you. I'm Lightning Bug."
--------------------
Lightning Bug
Defender
Storm/Electrial
Virtue
Haunt clicked his cell phone off and turned back to the group.
"Nice to meet the two of you. I'm called Haunt, in case you missed it earlier," he said, and extended his hand to each of them.
"As for the source of my power? I'm not entirely sure. I know that my powers come from a mutation in my DNA; my body's cells produce raw negative energy. Beyond that, I've gathered that Eidolon here helps me to control it in this shadowy form, but I don't know where, erm, 'she' comes from," he said, glancing at Deth, the idea of Eidolon being female seeming to make more sense the more he thought about it, "or how she helps control it. Could just be a side effect of the mutation, but Miss Ascizen seems to beleive Eidolon's some sort of demon she's seen before.." he finished, then shifted his gaze away from Nexxes to the other members of the group.
"My contacts were able to find two locations: A lab here in Steel Canyon where the Tsoo are supposedly producing Rage, and a small warehouse somewhere in Baumton where they're apparently stashing dangerous artifacts. The exact location of the second building is unknown, but my contacts are fairly sure the Tsoo at the Rage lab know where to find it."
'I really should have let Daene teach me how to hover,' she sighed, already more than halfway to the ground. With arms outstretched gracefully and her weapon readied, Jessamin closed her eyes for a moment, summoning the deep calm that always manifested as a soft light surrounding her and allowed the strength of will that allowed one to shrug off all but the most devastating of attacks. Her gauntleted fists, too, began to glow a firey orange only seconds before she landed, stilletto first, on the back of one of the Outcasts. Grinding her other heel into the ganger's hand she almost smiled, her voice coming out soft and deadly quiet.
"I thank you for the soft landing, Scum; now, if only your 'brothers' were so useful...."
The spiked head of her mace crashed into a stunned Brick's face and just as quickly a reverse swipe caught him across the ribs with a sickening 'crunch,' after a quick punch to his jaw, Jess turned to her next target, convinced that at least this one's attacks would fall on her and no other. She swung with no care for herself, no timed pace that would conserve her strength as these first seconds were most crucial; her movements made no sense .. unless one was behind her to see that she fought to defend the other women. She danced among ice and lightning, her mace landing again and again, .. nearly as often as the swipes of her foes that she would allow herself to feel much, much later.
In spite of the grim lines of her face, Jessamin's eyes lit brilliantly from within the recesses of her charcoal-grey hood. Only a few moments longer....