Sly was trying to come to grips with this whole mess of where to go next, when out of the corner of his eye he saw the figure on the roof begin to fall, with a clockwork gripping her, no less.
Reacting quickly, he concentrated on her position and pulled her as she fell... right above him...
The crush as the woman landed on him aborted any chance for a typical witty remark at the save.
As the clock hit the ground a few yards away and broke into little whirring pieces, Sly's muffled voice came out from his prone position on the pavement.
"mmI vote for 'Boomtown.' I thought I saw Lobe jumping off in that direction when I first left the shop, and I'm worried about the big guy...
...ummm... Mistress... would you be so kind as to remove your form from on top of me... I don't want Deth to get... eheh... jealous..."
Mistress looked, rather suprised at Fox.
"I never thought I'd be glad ending up in this position with you" She sent Fox a grin and got up. "I was just dropping by" another grin passed her lips. She took a chip out of her hair. "Damn tinkertoys. Next time I see a commercial from duracell, I'll fry the TV"
Mistress looked around at the others. "Howdy. I'm Fire Mistress, but most just call me Flame"
The girl sat on the ground, her finger tracing lines through the blood stained ground. The other heroes discussed the next step in finding the Tsoo nearby. One happened to glance over at her, only curiously at first, but then their interest grew as they looked at the design on the ground.
Lines intersected each other and wound around, forming what looked like a rough map of streets and intersections. Then as she finished the map, she took the red gem she had been using before and placed it at the corner of one of the streets.
Her hand then moved to the top of the drawing to write something, saying each letter as she wrote it.
"B-O-O-M-T-O-W-N"
Sly looked at the map... the girl... the map again.
After he closed his mouth, he then cleared his throat and said, "Yup... pretty much sums THAT up. Ok, let's hop to it!"
"Nice to meet you, Fire Mistress," Haunt said, then looked at Sly.
"So, what's your secret? It seems every ten minutes a beautiful woman falls into your lap," he asks, his grin evident even with his mouth obscured.
"If we're headed for Boomtown, I should probably give my contact a ring first, see if there's anything else he knows that would help us look for.....huh," he said, cutting himself short as he noticed the map the girl had drawn.
"So, uh, I guess we should go 'here' then..." he continued, pointing to the thin red gem, still a more than a bit surprised at the girl's actions thus far.
"Are we ready to move out then?" he asked a soon afterwards, the shakiness gone from his voice, as he looked at the small pack of heroes that had assembled.
"Dangerous artifacts?" Lighting Bug intoned questioningly. "I found this on some Circle goons over in King's Row and one of my contacts suggested that I show it to a Rebecca Morningstar here in Steel Canyon. He thought she might know what it was."
She tossed the small object to Haunt, which turned out to be a ring with a demonic visage and two red stones for eyes.
"I've gotten everything villany in Paragon City has thrown at me since I found that thing. I think I'm a bit out of my league here."
--------------------
Lightning Bug
Defender
Storm/Electrial
Virtue
Deth looked over at Sly Fox and Flame... hmmph. She was not jealous, but Haunt was right, he did seem to always have women falling in his lap. She wondered if it was planned.
She looked at the little girl and took her in her arms. She started stroking the little girls head and manipulating her power, she began to absorb the blood from the girl with out harming the girl. She pulled a wetnap from a hidden pocket and cleaned her up a bit.
Seeing the writing on the ground, she sighed. She hated 'boomtown', but not as much as Faultline. However, she said ' Let's go.'
She teleported off taking the little girl with her. She knew that Boomtown was not a place for her but she felt that the girl was better off with her than without. Right before she lept, she looked down at Flame, she has not made a move to get off her man.
I am not jealous. --<Poof>--
((ehh...technically Fire Mistress is indeed off Sly...she's standing, he isnt...
The girl wasn't surprised when Deth picked her up and started tending to her. Many people had this reaction. In the beginning it had annoyed her. Getting ahold of wet blood without getting in trouble was tough, and it only lasted for awhile, then it dried up and changed color. After that it wasn't fun anymore.
Even though she was annoyed at the woman for taking it all away from her, she did her best not to show it. She would just be patient. One thing she had come to know was that if she hung around people with super powers long enough, blood would inevitably become available.
"Great," Lyle muttered as Deth disappeared with the girl, "first demons, and now a nutcase." He almost said something to Deth when she picked up the girl. Something about her body language told him she wasn't as helpless and innocent as she looked. Maybe it was the way she attacked the Lost, maybe it was the dried blood caked under her finger and toe nails, or maybe it was just the general smell of decay that seemed to hang around her.
He held his tongue though (a rare occurance). Supers didn't like being told what to do, especially when it came to morality. Even though, for heroes, morality was pretty much a joke anyway. A truly moral person would find some gentle, peaceful way to do things, as opposed to beating someone's head in. Lyle had no delusions about his current job. He was a thug, plain and simple. Most heroes were. Thugs working for the law to stop thugs working against the law. Any talk of morality was just sugar coating it.
"Well," he sighed, snapping out of his thoughts, "can anyone get us over there quick, or do I need to take the f@ *%ing train."
Thinking of Boomtown, Nexxes knew that there would likely be Circle of Thorn members there, but in large groups, and most likely confronted by this band of Heroes. Very little information would be gained
As Deth cleans up the girl. Nexxes watches the young girl and looks intently at the gem in her hand... As they teleport away...
"My body is unable to exist in higher dimensional space, for example teleporting... So I wish you all well in your hunt for the Tsoo. I hope that our paths cross in the near future. Fare you well"
Nexxes takes to the sky fading into invisibility a few moments after leaving the ground.
((OOC:Traveling back to the States next week and might not be online for a while))
Sly watched Deth and her loving heart take the girl in her arms and help her, then teleport off... he sighed...
He nodded to everyone, and teleported off. Since he had been training recently, he beat Deth to the 'Boomtown' gate, and desided to pull everyone to him. Since he knew Lyle would probably be impatient, he reached out his magic to bring him over first.
"-ing train." Was what the man said as he appeared next to Sly.
"You need to talk to Valkyrie then Lyle, we'll wait," Sly winked to Deth who had just arrived, he then began pulling the rest of the hapless bunch... well, those who weren't as fast as him and weren't close already, that is...
"Here we are," announced the Trollkin Leader as he indicated a 5 story building that still stood, more or less intact. Still attached to the face of the building was a damaged and faded sign that read Harlandia Auction House. Clustered about the front door, going through drills, was a squad of 5th Column soldiers.
"Ohhh, that's your home?" Lobe asked the Trollkin, pointing at the front doors.
"Yes it is, my large friend. And it seems as though not only have we locked ourselves out, but those evil 5th columnists have taken up residence." The Trollkin leader looked devastated. Behind him and Lobe the others struggled to keep from snickering.
A look of concern crossed Lobe's face, "Oh don't you worry Mr. Brown. Lobe not let them take your home, no siree, nope. I will just go down there and ask them to leave, yup, that's what I'll do."
"But Lobe. They aren't terribly friendly folk you know. They'll probably attack you on sight!" The Trollkin leader warned him with feigned concern.
"Well, then that is their mistake. Lobe not easy to beat, nope." and with that he started walking through the rubble towards the building.
"We can't leave you to face them alone big guy. We're coming with you." the leader smiled back at his minions and they followed in Lobe's wake. One large Trollkin with a recent welt growing on the entire side of his face whispered, "*%$#*'n rights!" Those around him immediately gave him more space and sent fearful glances towards Lobe's back.
The leader snapped his head back at the speaker and hissed, "You moron! Touch your face and tell me you've already forgotten what happened the last time you swore around Lobe. If you screw this up...." the unspoken threat hung in the air as the trollkin who had spoken touched his face and winced. He nodded aquiescence and deliberately clamped his mouth shut. Lobe walked on, unaware of the exchange.
Haunt caught the diminuitive artifact that Lightning Bug tossed to him.
"Hrmm..I haven't seen anything like this before, maybe one of those two will recognize it," he motioned toward Deth as she disappeared with the girl and Sly as he quickly followed her. "Guess we can ask them at the gate," he added, slipping the ring on for safe keeping as Eidolon tore open a gate to the netherworld.
He popped in and out of reality as he teleported through Steel Canyon, arriving at the Boomtown gate just as Sly began teleporting others in.
"Have any of you seen something like this before? Lightning Bug said she found it on some Circle of Thorns" he asked, displaying his hand wearing the ring to Sly, Lyle and Deth.
With everyone finally at the Gate, Sly focused on Haunt's question and took the ring to get a better look.
"Oh no... not... ANOTHER... artifact!!" Sly handed the ring back to Haunt. For all his magical talents Sly often wondered why he so often was frustrated with ANYTHING magical...
"No, I haven't see this specific ring, but it's quite similar to everything ELSE we've found lately... gold and red... red and gold... and thugs LOVE it. Lightning Bug, this is quite a dangerous thing to hold onto. Let Haunt keep it for now... with Eidolon to watch his back he should be the safest to leave it with."
Sly glanced at Deth. "I'd give it to you, Milady, but I'm not sure you'd think me too forward to give you a ring just yet."
With a grin, Sly Fox spun around, presented his ID card to the guards, and motioned to all the heroes behind him.
"These brave souls are with me, The Sly Fox! Before we venture in, any of you happen to see a huge man jumping through this way? Big 'L' on his T-shirt? Did you happen to catch what direction he went in?"
"Yeah," Lyle growled, looking at the ring, "I've seen stuff like it. On about every "goth" kid in the city." Though, as he looked at it closer, he started to here something whispering to him. It was like some small person was hissing into his ear, telling him to take the ring. Telling him it would give him power.
Lyle shook his head, taking a step back from the ring.
"Magic," he spat. If they hadn't needed the thing for evidence, he would have ground it into dust then and there. The whispers had promised him things he would never have admitted to wanting, and the memory made his mind feel soiled.
The girl wriggled from Deth's grasp as they re-appeared at Boomtown. She didn't like being held for too long. She didn't like the idea of something she couldn't control touching her for any amount of time. Also, this "Deth" made her feel uneasy.
The girl could sense an air of death around the woman, but not the kind of death she was familiar with. This Deth seemed otherwordly, seperated from the physical world. This was not the Death she knew.
She prefered the Death that she always saw and talked to. The one that was very much a part of the earth. The kind of Death you found in the mud of battlefields or in the dirty alleyways of cities. The Death that smelled of blood, sweat, and urine. She liked that Death, he was fun to talk to.
This 'Deth' was too etheral.
(OOC - I'm not saying that she actually sees Death, she just BELIEVES she does. Whether or not she does see him or not I leave up to the reader)
"I see...guess I'll hang on to it until we figure out what exactly it is, then.."
As Haunt slid the ring back onto his finger, Eidolon glanced warily at it, after noticing Lyle's reaction to the ring.
Meanwhile, the two security gaurds perused Fox's ID, acknowledged its validity, and stepped to the side, allowing them to enter the gate.
"Okay, admission granted. Please exercise caution within this area, and..good luck," The last part was said with sincerity, as opposed to the standard procedure words they are required to say to all entering the hazard zone.
The group passed through the gateway into 'Boomtown'. As they passed through, the guard on the left added, "Yeah, I saw a man fitting your description. I believe I saw him leaping in the direction of the Powderkeg Sector."
Haunt had been here several times, but the reckless destruction of the area sent a shudder down his spine every time he entered.
"Alright," he said, still looking out to the ruined skyline, "let's get going." Eidolon began slicing open a portal.
"Powderkeg... oh WONDERFUL..."
As Sly looked out at the old battlefield, he suddered...
"I HATE this place... Let's find Lobe and do WHATEVER else we need to do here, and get the hell HOME."
"Powderkeg?" Flame didn't look so pleased. "Why couldn't it be cannonade? Ohh well, might as well get moving"
Flame pressed a small device, changing her flaming red costume to white and blue, the colors of First Strike Security. She figured it would be better, considering the group she was with.
Focusing her powers, she generated a globe of force around her. Nothing she found here could really touch her with this thing on, the story wasn't quite the same in Fault Line, which she remembered all to well. She leaped off, perfectly aware that she now looked like a giant rubber ball....
((I hate to bring this back up from page three, but I wanted to give the thread another chance before it fades away..))
"Indeed, let's get this over with," Haunt said, before disappearing into the portal. He traveled across the city area, confident the others would follow, and any stragglers could be pulled along by Sly.
If anyone had been watching him as he teleported across Baumton, they would have noticed that he seemed to take gradually longer to reappear out of the netherworld, and always gave the golden ring at the least a glance before disappearing into the shadowy plane.
Before long, the group had reached the location shown by the strange girl in the straight jacket. As they assembled around the building entrance, Haunt spoke up.
"So, if our friend here is right," he motioned to the girl, "the Tsoo are inside here, with a cache of dangerous artifacts. What's our plan?" he looked at each of the heroes assembled in turn, before his gaze rested on Lyle, the man seeming to at least have the appearance of being familiar with combat tactics.
"Incorrect."
Ivory stepped from behind a pillar at the front of the crumbling structure, suit immaculate and clean, his hair perfectly combed but covered in a thin dusting of ash. Ivory stepped to the boarded doors before the group of heroes and eyed the new arrivals from behind his rectangular glasses.
"You must be very proud, Sly." Ivory began fishing through his jacket for something. "Actually, the 5th column made a move on a Troll Rage stash. Bloody smart move if you ask me, the drug could easily be used for their super soldier syrums."
Ivory finally pulled a folded up photo from his pocket revealing colored blots and blobs over what looked like a twisted tye dye image of a building from above. Several blots of red in a sea of green were circled.
"Cynergetic satalite imagery of 'boomtown', it shows a formation of heatsources entering this building. I'd guess the column by the organization." Ivory pointed at the circles with fingers fromthe same hand he held it with. "Tsoo are selling Rage to the Trolls."
Ivory tossed a vial of red liquid to Sly, the glass container etched with the Cynergetic logo. Rage is a potentially fatal drug in combination with Superdyne, the drug of choice for the trolls.
"Cynergetic manufactures the drug under a medical license." Ivory stuffed the photo back into his pocket. "So I'm being paid to be here this time. The company doesn't want any bad press on their products."
Ivory finally found a bent and abused cigarette in his pocket and placed it between his lips after which he began searching for his lighter.
"Now,what I don't understand is this: why are you all here?" Ivory eyed the heroes.
Flame let her forcefield down, looked at the cigarette and created a tine flame at the end of it. "Ya know, those coffin nails will kill ya someday. Smoke isn't healthy for ya....trust me, I know all about that.
As for why we're here...well...you'd have to ask Mr Fox here."
Flame dusted the boomtown dust off her First Strike uniform. The white made it get dirty a lot easier.
"Ohh hell!" A little red dot was flickering over Flame's heart, and she barely had time to get her shield up again, before a bullet, comming from one of the windows in the building, smashed against it, sending her stumbling backwards.
Sly caught the vial, checked it over, and pockected it in the blink of an eye.
After Flame had informed Ivory to ask HIM, gods new why, Sly beagan with "We're actually more concerned about finding {"Ohh hell!!"} Lob--AGH!"
The bullet knocking Flame in her forcefield back immediately caused Sly to jump in front of Deth and look up at wherever the shot came from.
"I can't see anyone up th--" He began before the next shot blew his hat right off.
She looked down at the group. A side effect from her powers, was (peculiarly) that she had a very good sense of hearing. From what she had gathered, it had something to do with her abillity to create forcefields.
"Demons?" She looked suprised. "They have DEMONS in their group? Bleh! And I was just about to.... urgh!" She had let her shield down in surprise, not really a wise idea, not even on a rooftop. A clock work had used the oppertunity to (litterally) jump her. She lost balance and with a clock work attempting to choke her, she moved far too quickly towards the ground. This was going to hurt....a lot.