Eight hours after the LAN party started, it ended with a big party of nothing but hyper-caffeinated drinks and a Star Trek trivia duel.
The Cobalt Claymore walked out of the convention room, rubbing his head. "Boom, I meant that as a compliment!"
Back Yard Boom walked out after CC, holding his computer case in one hand, his other hand glowing with kinetic force. "Ya don't look at another man's girlfriend's pixels an' say somethin' like that! That's just rude!"
"I just said that she had good aesthetic taste."
"By sayin' that the view from behnd her was nice?"
"Okay, maybe that was too much," CC said.
Hephaestus 1 walked out after them, his head drooped.
"I'm gonna kill that guy. Took my ultra-rare Murasame blade while I was trying to get back to my body... 's not fair..."
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
The sign said, Killarney, 70 KM. Under it stood a small man, shorter even than Ben's height, which, Ben having the physical age of ten years old, wasn't tall at all. Ben, having the mental age of ten years old, could not help but allow his curiousity to get the better of him, and so, after a minute or two of foot shifting and lip-biting, he approached the small man with the obvious question.
"Um," he said, by way of introduction, "Are you, um, a leprechaun?"
The small man looked up at Ben, then down at his briefcase. If an adult had approached him and said such a thing, Thomas O'Donnellon would have given them an earful. But this was a child -- albeit a strange one with mechanical arms and legs -- and was therefore assumed innocent. Thomas smiled and said, "Sure an' ye be talkin' t King Brian his very own."
Ben's eyes widened. "You're the king of the Leprechauns?"
"Aye, laddie. That I be."
"Omygosh! I can't believe this!"
Aye, sometimes, I cant blieve it meself.
Hey! Do I get three wishes?
Thomas laughed and said, Sorry boyo, thats genies.
I know. Um
that was just to distract you.
Er? Distract me? From wh--!
With practiced speed Ben moved. He pulled his punch, and released only a small burst of concussive energy, but it was enough to knock Brian of Knocknasheega out cold. Ben tossed the hapless king over his shoulder and headed back to his mothers home to find a place to hide him.
He would succeed where old Darby OGill had failed. The gold of the leprechauns would be his.
Thomas opened his eyes. Or at least he thought he did. Things were still dark. He squinted hard. Things were still dark. Dark and warm, and the dark was surrounded by a tight wrap of sturdy fabric. He was in a sack of some sort.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Little boy!"
There was no answer.
"Hey! I was only givin' ye th' blarney, son!"
There still was no answer.
Thomas fumbled in his pockets until he found his house key and started using it to try to rip through the fabric. After a few minutes he succeeded in poking a hole in the sack large enough to provide a peephole. He looked out and saw nothing.
Good lad, he thought, t' knock me out an' then make yerself scarce. Now, Tommy, see if you can cut your way out of --
Something snatched the key from his hand. Cautiously, Thomas looked out through the peephole.
A hazel eye was looking back.
"You're trying to get out?" Ben asked.
Thomas thought fast. "Nay, laddie. I was merely tryin' t' make a hole t' see if ye've any whuskey out there."
Thomas had seen that movie too.
"Um... whiskey... um..."
"Aye, laddie. Ye can't tie th' king o' th' leprechauns up in yer gunny sack wi'out pourin' 'im a taste o' whuskey now an' 'gin -- 't wouldn't be proper. An inconsideration such as that could bring down th' dire wrath o' th' wee folk, don't ye know."
"Um... geez. I'm gonna have to ask my mom..."
"Ye do just that, laddie. Ask yer mum."
Ben nodded and scampered away.
Thomas listened to the thump thump of Ben's metal feet as they ran away; five steps on wood before they began pounding soft sod. He was in a storage shed or a barn of some sort. Maybe, just maybe...
He struggled to a standing position, keeping his peephole lined up with his eye, and moved until he could see the open door of the tool shed he was in. Then he slowly turned, taking an inventory of the tools, jugs, stools, wheelbarrows and other things that were in the shed. There were plenty of weapons, if he needed them, but he didn't see what he was looking for -- his briefcase.
In the briefcase was his Blackberry. With it he could call the authorities and have this little brute...
But it was a moot point, he didn't have his briefcase. And besides, he figured he was getting his just desserts for pulling the boy's leg. He wouldn't have had the heart to call the constable on the lad.
So, what to do?
Thomas turned back toward the open door and began hopping. If he couldn't escape the sack, at least he could escape the shed. The door loomed larger every time he looked. Hope began to grow within him.
Then he reached the end of the tether and was jerked in a most surprising manner down upon his back. The landing knocked the air out of his lungs and something popped along his spine and an incredible pain shot down his legs. If he had had enough breath, he would have screamed.
As soon as he could breathe again, he tried to move his feet. The left one... good. The right one... good. Now wiggle the toes... good. All right, now stand up...
He screamed as the pain struck him again.
Well, 'King Brian'. Foin puddle o' muck ye fell in this time.
"No ye canna have any whiskey! Go'n git a cookie! Sheesh!"
Ben didn't know what to do. If he didn't find some "whuskey" for King Brian, then the wrath of the Little Folk would be stirred against him. He could just let him go, but then what about the leprechaun gold? What to do, what to do...
Ben thought about the cookies. His mommy's cookies were very good. Probably better than "whuskey". He grabbed the cookie jar and ran outside.
Thomas awoke to a gentle singing, sweet, like the Kerry Children's Choir at Christmas, except, sweeter, gentler. He opened his eyes slowly, afraid that he would see angels standing over him.
Indeed, the sight that greeted him when his vision cleared was indeed heavenly: A woman's face, pretty and freckled like a girl who has played in the sun her whole life, framed by scarlet curls that fell down her shoulders. Behind her, two women, one hardly more than a child sang in a language Thomas had heard only in his dreams. All three of the women seemed to have an inner glow that sparkled outwardly as if they were...
"Magic!" he shouted as he struggled to sit up despite the red-haired woman's hand on his chest.
"Shhh. Ye canna be gettin' excited," the red-head said. "Let Tessa an' Eovyn finish their song, then ye'll be good as new."
"But... magic..."
"Aye. 'Tis. An' ye'll be glad of it when they're done."
Thomas suddenly became aware that the pain in his back was gone. "Who are you?"
"Maggie Love. And ye'd be?"
"Thomas O'Donnellon."
From nearby, a young voice erupted. "No! No he's lyyyying! He's King Brian of Knocknasheega!"
Maggie cut the young kidnapper a look that shushed the boy. An yer jus lucky I folld ye out t th shed when ye grabbed th cookie jar, youn man!
Ben hung his head, crossed his arms, and stuck out his lip.
"I apologize fer me son's behavior. He's not usully..." Maggie paused and the hint of a smile crossed her face. "Well, actu'ly he is usully like this."
Thomas looked around at the women's angelic faces. His pain was gone, and his hours in captivity were well worth the trouble for this new experience.
"Think nothin' else o' th' matter, Maggie Love. He's youn an spirited."
"Aye," she said, then quieter added, "He really is a sweet boy. Mischievous, but good-hearted. An' ye can see he's been dealt some hard blows by life. We're tryin' t' raise 'im t' make th' best o' it."
"An' who did his cybernetics?"
"Dr. Frank Werner."
"Ah. That explains it."
"Dr. Werner is a fine man and a genius..."
"Aye, he is, but he is only half of a pair of unsurpassed geniuses who, a few years ago, set the world of techno biology on its ear. He was never the same after he lost his wife. Sweet woman. Beautiful. Sad she died so young."
"Er... aye. But are ye sayin' ye know o' a better... cyberneticist?... than Dr. Werner?"
Thomas smiled. "Aye. Yer lookin' at 'im."
----------------------------------------
Ben sat in the big chair outside the room where Aunt Tess, Mommy, and the new girl were working on the liar. He knew he was in trouble when they all suddenly looked his way and Mommy had said, "Ben, go sit outside in the hallway darlin'."
He could hear their muffled voices in there. He kept hearing his name. And the words, "fix him". He figured it was probably followed by the word, "good", as in, "Don't worry, we're gonna fix him good!"
He fought back the urge to cry. The trip to Ireland had been fun: Nights sitting in front of the fireplace with Mommy while she told him stories of when she was a little girl. Walks across the fields with their walls of rocks piled high. Visiting the old ruin with picture-words carved into the stone walls that Mommy said no one on Earth in the present time could understand.
Once she had let him play in the stream by the edge of a wood while she went in among the trees a bit. He had crept up on her and seen her talking to tiny glowing things that danced around her head and sang to her in voices like tiny bells. She had sung back in the sweet, lilting voice that sang to him at night. He crept as quietly as he could back to his spot by the stream, but later that night, she asked, "Did ye see 'em?" When he nodded, sure then, as now, that he was in trouble, she had smiled her beautiful, reassuring smile and said, "Then ye have a bit o' th' glamour in ye too."
He didn't know what that meant. He hoped whatever the "glamour" was, it would keep him from getting in trouble.
Ben knew he had to go back to America, to the other Rock soon. He didn't want his last memories of Ireland to be sad.
He turned as the door opened.
Ben? his Mommy said as she approached him, then squatted so her gaze was level with his, How would ye like new arms an legs?
New
arms
and legs?
Aye. An as close to real as ye can get.
Ben smiled a grin that took up almost his whole face.
Only days later...
Ben looked out the window at the clouds below. It looked like snow. He didn't like snow. It covered the green of the grass and the trees. He liked green. Mommy liked green.
He closed his eyes and pictured Mommy behind his eyelids. Her hair that curled around and tickled his nose when she hugged him. Her smile that made him smile. Her eyes with that look that let him know she would always love him.
She was gone. Just like that, she was gone.
In the seat beside him, Granma Kirby sat with a pack of tissues, just in case he needed one. So far she had used more than he had. He hadn't even used the first one she had handed him.
He wouldn't cry. Superheroes didn't cry.
He held Mommy behind his eyes until he was sure she wouldn't go away, then opened them again. The white was still outside the window. Granma was still beside him with red moist eyes.
"Ye're goin' home, Ben. An' I'll always be jus' a step through a portal away."
But that wasn't true. She wasn't just a step away. She was... gone. Dead.
And he, with his slowed aging, was going to live a long, long time. He closed his eyes and pictured Mommy behind his eyelids.
He wondered if he could hold her there a thousand years.
Steel Butterfly, walked into the supermarket at the corner of Cherry and Kroeger. It was near the Galaxy gate, and since it was in an area of King's Row that used to be prosperous it still attracted a certain number of artistic types and want to be trendy upscale shoppers. Because it attracted those shoppers it had a larger and more unusual selection of a few things...like hair dye.
Steel Butterfly had actually not changed the color of her hair in a while. Absently Jenna wondered if the lack of change had anything to do with the fact that she also hadn't changed addresses in a long while. Maybe the stability was affecting her. She browsed the hair color aisle looking for inspiration and gradually became aware that someone on the other side of the display was talking. Having become aware of the conversation she discovered that the conversation was about someone she knew. She also recognised the speaker...more than one of the speakers.
Jenna bit her lip and went back to browsing the hair colors. Blue wasn't much of a change, neither was green...but did she really feel like pink, or maybe red?
"Daisy! we have an eavesdropper. and look who it is." One of the girls from the next aisle had spotted Jenna. Jenna sighed and ignored them.
"What are you doing here?" Daisy was angrily aproaching from the end of the aisle.
"Shopping," Jenna shrugged and picked up a box of hair dye.
"And listening," Daisy accused.
"If you choose to cut up someone's character in a public place, it *is* possible that someone will hear you." Jenna replied calmly.
"It isn't that public, and you were eavesdropping!"
"I am not trespassing, and I didn't follow you in here to listen," Jenna put the haircolor in her hand carefully back on the shelf and picked up another."I also don't feel like letting you run me out of a store that I like to shop in."
"You are such a [censored]!"
Jenna raised an eyebrow, and looked at Daisy. "I can't believe you are still telling that story. Isn't it old by now, or are there still any people left in Paragon who haven't heard you tell it?"
"They wanted to hear it, they asked to hear it."
"I know, and you are a good storyteller. It sounds very dramatic when you tell it."
"It's all true!"
"The truth as you see it and color it."
"It's all true! [censored]." Daisy glared at Jenna. Jenna imagined that if Daisy had laser beam eyes, she would have used them.
Jenna shrugged, "I know your side of the story only, since I haven't heard the other person saying a word on it."
"Liar. You both talk about me behind my back," Daisy crossed her arms and dared Jenna to disagree.
"Actually we don't. Or, not often. When you go off on a public rant like this it might get mentioned." Jenna shrugged. "It certainly wouldn't get talked about in a place like this."
"You both hate me."
"Actually, that requires too much effort. I know you hold a grudge forever, and that little things set you off like a volcano sometimes..."
"They do not! What she did was awful!"
"What you say she did is awful in your opinion. I don't tend to trust your opinions because I have seen you fly off the handle and cuss people out for what I considered to be very little reason. It colors my opinion of your judgement."
"Name once!"
Jenna looked at Daisy, "Would right now be sufficient? I actually like the past to remain in the past.Grudges are a phenomenal waste of time."Jenna thought a second and then said, "Actually, from you, this hasn't been that much of a cussing out. I have *definitely* heard worse things coming out of your mouth. It's a wonder you can stand to eat with the filth you use it for." Jenna looked at Daisy struggling to find something to say that wouldn't prove Jenna right, "and the odd thing is, by next week this will be old news to everyone but you and your circle."Jenna nodded to the girl standing behind Daisy and smiled,"I expect you will be telling your side of this encounter for years, and I will have forgotten all about it. Including what color of hairdye I ended up picking." She showed off the box of hairdye she had picked and walked away from Daisy and her friend to the cash register. The girl behind the register looked intimidated, but smiled very slightly at Jenna as she calmly paid for her purchase, and left the store.
Outside, Jenna took a deep breath.The sun was bright, and she had no appointments. Mrs Henderson's cat was recently rescued and wasn't likely to get stuck anywhere hard to get to for another week. She had time for a little pampering. she finally looked down at the box and laughed. Ah well. Red it is.
Shae Firewarder
Dragonistic yawned and stretched, without bothering to open her eyes. Of course, in doing so she knocked a barrel of Rikti plasma sludge out of the salvage rack.
CRASH!
Tentatively, she opened one eye.
"Oh, crap."
Dragonistic squeezed between two crates of broken Crey devices and dropped out of the salvage racks. Face-first.
SPLAT.
"OW! Dammit!"
Dragonistic lifted herself to her...talons and looked around. Everyone was still out cold on the steel floor.
She walked over to a beefy orange dragon and poked him with her talon.
"Hey, you. Wake up. Made another mess."
The dragon snorted in its sleep and rolled over.
Dragonistic was about to find the backup cleanup crew when she suddenly realized what the orange dragon had just faceplanted into.
"Dammit!"
She rushed to its side. The dragon was lying facedown in the puddle of sludge she'd spilled this morning.
"Oh, crap. Oh, crap."
Quickly, her nose and mouth extended and reshaped into a muzzle. The few remaining human teeth she had left sharpened and grew longer. A lot longer.
Suddenly, her hair shrank and hardened into a lot of white spikes. Her ears lengthened and stretched backwards as her body grew lithe and serpentine, muscles rippling under the thicker, scaled hide.
Now in her full dragon form, she grabbed the orange dragon's talons and pulled.
Dammit, he was too heavy.
Dragonistic rushed around, kicking a few other lazy dragonkin.
"Get up! Get up! Vercingetorix's faceplanted in plasma!"
At once, the dragons scrambled tp their feet and started pulling the orange dragon out of the puddle.
Dragonistic gripped his shoulders and lifted with all her might.
Slowly, they yanked him across the room and onto the medtable.
As they rolled him over, it creaked under his weight. A blue dragon quickly activated the med sensors.
Vercingetorix opened his eyes. "Why am I here?" he whispered..
Dragonistic bent over him. "You faceplanted in some sludgy plasma. You feel okay?"
Vercingetorix grinned weakly. "Oh, I feel fine. But have I always had two tails?"
@Dragonistic
Unless I'm quoting someone, EVERY SINGLE post above is QR.
<----Female
Dragonistic, Kheldragon, Ink Dyne, KheIdragon, Squiddy Attack
Total level is about 149.
EVILCAT
SEZ YOUR COMPU-TAR TASTE LIKE CHIKIN
((Cute! 
))
((Most of the caves in Paragon are...Occupied...So the Dragonkin live at their base. Which is fraught with peril, but it's never boring! 
))
@Dragonistic
Unless I'm quoting someone, EVERY SINGLE post above is QR.
<----Female
Dragonistic, Kheldragon, Ink Dyne, KheIdragon, Squiddy Attack
Total level is about 149.
EVILCAT
SEZ YOUR COMPU-TAR TASTE LIKE CHIKIN
The night of the day after his mother's funeral, on the Kirby farm in Georgia, USA:
He sleeps fitfully, as he has each night since his mother's death. And he dreams...
He's back in Ireland, near Mommy's new house. He hears soft footsteps behind him, and turns. She's there, smiling, her arms open for a hug.
He runs and jumps into them, "Mommy! I knew they were wrong, Mommy! I knew you weren't dead!"
Gently, she puts him down and sits in the grass, then pulls him into her lap.
"Shh, Ben. Shh. I dunna've much time, my heart. I need ye t' lissen t' me now, my darlin'. I need ye t' rememmer.
"I'm here t' say g'bye, my Ben. My son. I need ye t' know how proud I am o' ye, each'n ever'day. I need ye t' know that ever'day I spent wi' ye was a joy. I need ye t' know I love ye. I always will, my heart.
"Ye'll ne'er be 'lone, my Ben. I'll always be here. I'll always be in yer heart. When ye miss me, jus' close yer eyes, an' there I'll be. Whene'er ye need a hug, jus' picture my arms 'round ye, an' ye'll feel it.
"Ye've a lon', lon' life ahead o' ye, Ben. Yer gonna grow up t' be a great man, who does great thin's. An' I'll be watchin' ye each an' ever'day.
"An' one day, after yer ol'n grey, an' ye've watched yer gran'babies grow, ye'll see me agin. I'll come, my heart, an' I'll take ye home. Until that day, my Ben dunna fergit."
She places a kiss to her son's temple....
And Ben wakes. And remembers everything.
The next morning, Grandma Kirby will spend hours trying to clean the mark from Ben's temple. It isn't until weeks later that they realize it's a birthmark. In the shape of a woman's lips.
Little Ben Love-Kirby will carry his mother's last kiss on his temple, forever.
Two rooms. Rather large. In one, a research labratory with equipment so state of the art, that some of the equipment doesn't even have a name yet. In the other, a giant wheel within a wheel, both wheels spinning, pulling one reality to the border of another...
Two rooms. Rather self-contained. In one a desperate decison, born of grief. In the other, a decision reached after days of careful deliberation.
Roy Kirby didn't say goodbye to his wife. He had not the courage to do so. He loved her desperately, but could not ask her to stay with a cold machine. He didn't say goodbye to his son or his daughter or his parents or even his friends. He was, it seemed in the end, somewhat of a coward.
He nodded to the techs who plugged the wire into the USB port on his chest, and began typing commands for the shutdown proceedure...
In the other room, a portal tech assured Peggy Kirby that:
"It's a universe with very few superheroes. Maybe none. The United States of America is still pretty much a free society, even though they seem to constantly be in some state of crisis. Still, it's the safest and most stable universe we could find on short notice."
Peggy murmured a, "Thank you," and prepared to step through.
((... ;_; say it aint so!))
4:57 pm.
Three more minutes.
His eyes stared down the clock on the wall, almost threatening it into moving faster, but it remained as impassive as ever and the seconds ticked by slowly.
As much as he hated to admit it, he found himself anticipating her visits now. He couldnt, for the life of him, understand why she kept coming back. Hed certainly done his best to make her feel unwelcome. But, still she came, every day at five o clock on the nose.
Its not like he didnt appreciate getting visits from such a looker that coppery-red hair worn loose down to her waist, those sparkling gray eyes, that smooth, fair skin, those pink, full lips
He shook off the image. His head was about the only thing he could move now. Every other part of his body was ravaged by the virus within him, eating him alive. The docs had only given him a couple more days, tops, despite the life sentence he was serving. His own body had become a worse prison than any jail. The death penalty was beginning to sound better and better every day.
His mind went back to her. It almost felt dirty to think of her in that way. Yeah, she was beautiful angel beautiful, in fact. But
surprisingly, that wasnt really the reason he wanted her to return.
Every day, she walked into his room. And every day, she wore that soft, tender smile. No way someone could fake that
at least, he hoped not. She always had a kind word or a gentle touch for him. He just couldnt figure out why.
Hell, hed killed an up-and-coming hero and tried to kill a little kid. No way he deserved this, especially from the likes of her. He was a monster and he deserved what was coming to him.
At first, hed thought she came to make him feel guilty about it. He waited for the condescension and harsh words, but they never came. Hed curse and yell. Say filthy things to her. Try and make her hate him. She should hate him.
But, she never did.
The docs at first tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldnt listen. They were afraid for her safety. She had that innocent maiden air about her made people want to protect her. But, he knew she was anything but. They cuffed him to his bed, here in the prison infirmary, his home for the past three months, hoping that would be enough to restrain him. Truth was, they didnt even need the restraints. He couldnt even flick a fly off his nose in his current state, let alone lash out at anyone. He needed a machine to help him breathe and a tube down his throat to eat and drink. He wasnt a threat to anyone any more, not even himself.
4:58.
Maybe she wouldnt come. The thought of that actually made his stomach flutter. Maybe shed had enough of him and had just decided to let him die alone.
He thought back to her prior visits. Sometimes, she would just come and sit in silence with him. Sometimes, she would tell him about her work and about the kids she cared for. She always sounded so proud of them. It reminded him how much of a life hed been denied and, at first, hed come to hate hearing about it. He found he didnt mind so much now.
Sometimes, shed bring a book to read to him. Always some classic, like Shakespeare or Poe, never any of that crap that seemed to be ground out into stores these days. He didnt understand most of the Shakespeare stuff either, but she had a way of making it sound just right with her way of speaking - like she was meant to recite it. He didnt much care about the content or plot of the stories. He just liked listening to the sound of her voice.
And, sometimes and this was his personal favorite she would sing to him. She had a great voice soft and clear. She could definitely be a pro if she put her mind to it. He entertained the image of her onstage, wearing a slinky black gown, slit up to her thigh, but then shook it off, feeling dirty again.
4:59.
She wasnt coming. He could feel it in his bones
what was left of them. His heart sank and he tore his eyes from the clocks stark face.
She believed in him when no one else would, or should. Hed assaulted and killed. He knew she disapproved, but she never told him that. He could see it in her eyes. She didnt judge. Never judged.
She even gave him a name. Jacob. Jacob Kirby. He wasnt thrilled about the last name, but shed said that no one should die without one. That made him feel better about it. He liked the sound of Jake, anyway. Made him think of those dime store pulp detective novels he used to read as a kid.
Oh wait
that was someone elses memory.
He scowled.
Just as his eyes flicked back to the clock, the big hand struck five and he heard the familiar click of the rooms door handle. He turned his head and tried not to smile a smile of relief as she walked in.
Tess.
The only person in Paragon who believed the man once known as zZythe deserved a shot at redemption before he kicked the bucket. He found himself hoping she was right.
__________________________________________________ ________________
Two days later, a lone woman dressed in black stood over a freshly dug grave. She watched silently as the large casket was slowly lowered into the earth, her hands folded politely in front of her.
Tears trickled down her cheeks - the only tears that would be shed for the man who had died Jacob Kirby.
((Beautiful.))
Peggy Kirby took one last look at the control room door. She hoped against hope that he would step through it, ask her not to go, tell her that he was not going to give up.
The truth was she loved him no matter what form he took. If he was trapped in a mechanical body, that would just be something they would have to deal with together. Together.
Apparently, he wasn't interested in together.
She looked through the portal. The world on the other side was raining. Puddles formed on the street she was about to step through onto. She didn't even have on a jacket.
Agents working for Portal Corp had made forays to this dimension for her. She had currency, and even a bank account set up. They had made reservations at some place called "the Super 8". She wished it didn't have "super" in the name.
Well, she thought, My third universe...
She put one foot forward.
Suddenly there was a violent shudder. Her first thought was that an earthquake had hit. She wavered between making the leap to her new world, and diving back into Roy's.
That choice was taken away as the wall to the right of the portal machine crumbled, knocking the machine from its moorings, and upsetting the electromagnetic fields that kept the wheels suspended.
The portal closed and that rainy world was gone.
Above her the wheel-within-a-wheel rocked back and forth until the balance was gone and they both tumbled over toward her. There was no time to run. There was no way she could get clear from them before they landed on her.
She closed her eyes and prepared to die.
"Nooooo!"
The techs who were operating the machinery that would shut down the Hazardous Environment Rescue Operations Intuitive Drone looked up, startled.
He shouldn't be sentient anymore. He should be "empty".
"We did something wrong," one of them said and started checking gauges and readouts.
"Wait -- maybe not..." another one started.
None of them tried to stop the it as the eight feet tall, almost one-thousand pound machine stepped off of the platform and dashed out of the room.
They wished they had though. When he left the room, he had made his own door.
(( *sighs* Claire told them not to outsource production for those components to a developing nation, but did they listen? Nooo... bean-counters... 
))
"Peggy!"
Roy had no time to think. The portal machine was collapsing and his wife was going to die if he didn't act now!
A leap landed him beside her as the first wheel was about to hit her. With one arm he knocked her down, with the other, he reached up and tried to catch the many tons of metal that was falling on them.
He staggered as the weight hit him and went down on one knee. Peggy was laying on her side clutching her stomach. He had too much at stake to fail now.
The other wheel came down. Roy braced himself for the impact. It landed on top of the other wheel, dispersing some of its momentum, but still far surpassing the capacity of his hydraulics. He was at the limits of his body's technology.
His right arm began to bend where it shouldn't. His legs began to spray fluid at the joints.
Peggy was in pain and couldn't get up.
Then he heard her voice.
"Ye'll always have a piece o' me, Roy. No one kin e'er take that from ye. I'll always be right here, inside ye."
Maybe...
Roy closed his eyes and pushed against the weight that was crushing him, and thought about being human. He thought about the embrace Maggie had given him that infused him with enough of her to make him magic. He thought about the taste of a cheeseburger, and how for over a year he had craved just one bite. He thought about the warmth of Peggy's skin against his, and the softness of her lips...
The robot was designed to take damage. The robot was designed to be strong. But the robot was a machine and machines have limits.
Roy opened his eyes. His hands were bleeding from the metal cutting into them. His elbows ached and his shoulders felt like they were popping out of the sockets. The tendons in his legs felt like they were going to snap. But the flesh and blood didn't bend, didn't break
And he held.
He held to his love for his wife. He held to his will to live. And, for once in his life, he held to his belief in himself.
He held against the limits of his body. He held against all laws of logic and physics. He held without understanding the magic.
He held because, whether he was a robot or a man, he was still a superhero called HEROID, and that meant something.
It was over in seconds. The portal operators risked their own lives by dashing in and pulling Peggy out of harm's way. Then Roy changed forms again and let the unyielding tonnage fall unmercifully upon him.
5 minutes earlier
The pair of rotating wheels that float in the air suddenly ripple as the air explodes from out of their center, the familiar glowing-white ball of energy that represented an open portal hovering in the space left. Out of that ball flew Halley's Comet, returning from the Shadow Shard to spend some time back in Paragon City. She floated down and smiled to the nearby tech who was operating the monitoring station, when she noticed his somber expression.
"Tim, what's wrong? You're usually pretty cheerful..."
"Hey Jess, welcome back to Prime. Yeah, uh..." Tim looked away hesitantly, rubbing his chin. Should he really mention what he'd overheard? He wasn't supposed to know what Roy and Peggy were doing, but he'd been passing through the offices on the way to his station when he'd heard the techs discussing finding a new dimension for Peggy... he'd hung near the door listening to them talk about what was going on, and it had ate at him every since.
"Well see, it's about HEROID..."
Jessica sucked in a breath. "What about him?"
Now
BOOM!
The sound of a large object crashing through one of the thick, durasteel walls reverberated through the building, and Comet's head immediately swung in the direction of the landing above. "That came from the other portal room, where Peggy was supposed to be going through!"
She didn't wait; activating her subzero defensive systems, she flew up to the landing and banked rapidly down the corridor, dodging between the stunned scientists that were just picking themselves off of the floor. As she blasted out over the landing that overlooked the other portal, she was just in time to see Roy transform into his humaniod form, and watch the portal operators drag Peggy out of the way.
"ROY!" She screamed; her optical sensors could see just what sort of punishment his body was taking from holding up all of that twisted metal. Then, she saw a ripple of some unidentified energy start to surround him.
"NO!" She flew down, pushing her thermals as much as she could. Never had that short distance to the ramp seem so far...
It was over in seconds. The portal operators risked their own lives by dashing in and pulling Peggy out of harm's way. Then Roy changed forms again and let the unyielding tonnage fall unmercifully upon him.
The pile of material formed a roughly pyramid shape where it had toppled onto Roy. It smoked, beams of twisted metal still red-hot from the loosened energies of the portal.
The pile... shifted.
More pieces of metal slagged off from the rubble, and then more. Beneath it all, standing over HEROID's prone robotic form was Halley's Comet. Her arms trembled under the tremendous strain of holding up the remaining flotsam from the destroyed portal; her right leg was destroyed below the knee, driven down into itself by the weight of the material.
But she held.
With a quick thought, she sent a quick burst transmission to Roy's mediport transceiver. She waited for his body to fade from sight. Then, with all of her systems redlining, she activated her own.
As soon as her body faded from sight, the pile collapsed once more.
((Go Jess! Go! ))
"Holy heck....what fell on him?" Steel Butterfly asked anyone in the room with the smashed looking remains of HEROID.
"Most of one of the portals," the med tech answered. He looked at Steel Butterfly skeptically, "I wouldn't think anyone would be able to put this back together. If Humpty Dumpty were a robot, this'd be him."
"It takes more than a heavy object to crush Roy," Shae murmered looking through the carefully gathered parts for something...
"Ok, well, most of the body is rebuildable. If I can just find the one piece." Steel Butterfly joined Shae in looking through the parts.
"Here," Shae held a board up and then handed it to Jenna.
Jenna carefully blew the dust off, and looked at it. All in one piece...not even scratched? She turned the board over and looked at the small rune shaped something like a phoenix that seemed to be etched in gold. Then she looked at Shae, who shrugged with a small smile and said, "The rune seemed a good idea, considering..."
"If it works." she paused, "It *has* to work..." Jenna looked over the rest of the pile, "Can we have the rest moved to the Other Guy's base? I think I'll carry this part..."
-----------
"Roy, this is getting to be too much of a habit." Jenna muttered to the pieces of titanium she was assembling in the Other Guy's base. "I even had most of the parts made already..."
She sat back, looked at her work so far, and nodded, "Ok, now for the wiring."
-----
She was connecting the last wires when Shae walked back in.
"How's Peggy? He'll want to know when he wakes up."
"She is back at Maggie's Rock and Tessarae is seing to her. Peggy has a couple of cracked ribs, but, the baby seems to be fine." Shae looked over the robot, nodded to Jenna.
Steel Butterfly looked at the last switch, "Good. All right. Time to see if he's ready to wake up." She flicked the switch and muttered a small prayer.
Shae Firewarder
((A reminder:
This thread isn't just for me and my alts. It is for short pieces and continuing stories that focus on your characters' "off-duty" activities. Anyone's characters. Anyone's stories.
So, please, feel free to post! ))
Ink Dyne didn't bat an eyelash as the garbage can tipped over with a loud crash.
Out tumbled some old banana peels, a crushed milk carton, some plastic wrap, paper bags...
Ink Dyne got down on her knees and carefully picked her way through the garbage. An empty Doritos bag, a mangled red action figure...There! A box of chicken nuggets!
Quickly, she opened the box. The chicken was in good condition, not even a bite taken out of them. Oh, yes, she would eat tonight.
Ink Dyne got up and turned around to get on her skateboard, but something caught her eye. Leaning down for a closer look, she saw it was the trashed little action figure.
She shrugged and pocketed it. Toys were scarce enough. Maybe this one would be good for something.
Then, Ink Dyne jumped onto her skateboard and pushed off. She rolled over hills of garbage, over piles of dirt, and through holes in crumbling walls.
Finally, she saw a small metal house. Huge black thorns jutted out of its walls, and vines grew up its walls and blocked up the chimney.
Ink Dyne climbed up onto the roof and took out the chicken.
She opened the box and carefully inspected it for dirt.
Perfectly clean. Good.
She felt in her pocket for a stolen fork, then suddenly she remembered the action figure. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it, turning it over in her hands.
Ink Dyne noticed something very familiar about the bright red figure, and the little ridges all along its body that almost made a pattern.
She smirked. Her "contact" in Paragon would be interested in this.
@Dragonistic
Unless I'm quoting someone, EVERY SINGLE post above is QR.
<----Female
Dragonistic, Kheldragon, Ink Dyne, KheIdragon, Squiddy Attack
Total level is about 149.
EVILCAT
SEZ YOUR COMPU-TAR TASTE LIKE CHIKIN
((LOL! Awesome!))