((We're not quite dealing with canon here, though, and DJ Zero is hardly God, but that's another argument for another time. And since he's a very real physical presence in Pocket D, especially on V-Day, he's perfectly susceptible to nerve gas attack.))
"Alert! Alert! Alert!" the words scrolled across Power Breaker's vision, "Violence detected in close proximity. Activating stealth system and energy deflector shields..."
"Hey..." Power Breaker started to see his beer reappear as if it were made of some vaporous material, the drawback being that the two Carnie girls started to disappear in the same way, "What the Hell is this?"
"Compound analyzed and countered," the nanites replied, "Locations to replenish chemical materials have been uploaded into the cartogropher software. Advice: Seek warehouses and replenish immediately."
As everything came back into focus, and Power Breaker saw the war that had only moments ago erupted around him, he grumbled darkly to himself about Crey and lousy nanotechnology. Eventually, he truly took stock of the situation.
"What's wrong with people? All ya' gotta do here is sit back and chill... No need for all of this violence."
He saw a shield bubble and started walking toward it.
"I'm gonna make friends with that guy tonight..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Learn to dodge, go-tard!" Kip roared as he charged forward with a body check in mind.
Then, Curtis fired. He felt an impact on his chest that felt like a bee sting. A few steps later, he suddenly started stumbling, and Kip dove to the ground in a roll, hoping that his momentum would carry him into his enemy's ankles.
"Sluuuuh..." he gurgled out as he collapsed and started tumbling across the pavement.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((I'll accept the first reason))
((Are we done here?))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Waiting for Soviet. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Waiting for Rosie here.))
((THE FOLLOWING IS A JOINT POST KTHXBAI.))
Balsk and Reikoff looked each other in the eyes for a moment as though gauging one another. Once that moment was over they both exploded into action. Balsk jumped almost straight up, kicking out to the side to push off the window even as Reikoff fired his shotgun, shattering the glass a millisecond after Balsks foot left it.
While moving through the air, Balsk swung his sword, hitting the shotgun and knocking it out of Reikoffs hands. Reacting quickly, the Malta tac ops commander drew a pair of knives out of his belt and hurled them at where Balsk would be when he landed.
The draconian hit the ground lightly and, seemingly unperturbed by the quick reaction time of his opponent, deflected both knives with a twirl of his sword. But Balsk wasnt exactly Reikoff to pull out his next weapon, a quick and deadly MP5.
As Reikoff pulled the trigger, Balsk dodged to one side and trigged a latent speed boosting enchantment. All of a sudden the bullets were moving through the air as sluggishly as snails. Balsk wasnt moving much faster, but with several contortions, he was able to dodge all of the bullets.
Time snapped back into normal operation just as the MP5 ran out of bullets. The whole process had taken about five seconds of real time. Reikoff had seen this sort of thing from metahumans before, but it still pissed him off when they dodged everything he threw at them. Swearing not to miss this time, Reikoff reached for a .50 at his side and then fell to the ground as Balsks tail swept his feet out from under him.
Reikoff suddenly remembered he also hated the anthropomorphic ones.
Still able to draw his pistol, Reikoff was able to get off a pair of shots, one of which went high over Balsks shoulder. The second one scored a direct hit on Balsks throat, but for some reason didnt kill him. It had hit the enchanted scale on his neck, which had become more durable due to prolonged exposure to the spell cast on it. This saved Balsk from death, but it still stunned him and knocked him over.
Making sure that Balsk wouldnt be able to use his tail trick again, Reikoff twisted and pulled a knife out from a sheath on the side of his knee and stabbed the blade through the tail where the metallic sheen of a bionic replacement ended. The knife stuck all the way through and lodged in the concrete, keeping Balsks tail secured for several crucial seconds.
Laying hands back on the .50, which had fallen to the side when he had been knocked over, Reikoff rose up to one knee and fired a single shot at Balsks head. But once again he was foiled by the big reptiles speed and his gun barrel was smacked out of alignment by his own knife. Balsk had taken the second that Reikoff had reached for his pistol as time to rip the knife out of his tail and throw it, making sure Reikoff wouldnt be able to shoot him again.
Cursing loudly, Reikoff rolled forward and snatched up his shotgun as he went, planning to end up on top of Balsk and fire a load of buckshot into his face. But Balsk had somersaulted backwards and slashed out with his sword as he went, hoping to cut clean through Reikoffs skull as he kneeled there.
The engagement ended with Reikoff still on one knee in a classic shooters position, staring at Balsks chest with his shotgun firmly pressing up against the bare scales of Balsks stomach. But he didnt dare fire because Balsks sword was resting lightly on his neck, just at the spot where neither his helmet nor his body armor protected him.
This time they both cursed.
Cowboy, lets go. Reikoff hissed.
Before anyone could move an inch, Reikoff and Curtis were gone in flashes of light, but they had left a surprise
An active grenade!
Allen scowled at the engagement between Balsk and Reikoff. This was taking way too long, and with both of them contorting every which way, there was no chance a shot from his rifle wouldn't hit both of them.
Luckily, this didn't seem necessary, as the Malta sought their safety in teleportation. The grenade left behind ended its existence as a small cloud of dissociated green gas with no visible cause.
However, there was of course a cause - a short-lived beam from Allen's rifle, invisible to most of the EM spectrum because its working principle was far removed from it. The disintegrator function of Allen's combi-rifle had once more proven itself useful.
"Well, that was unpleasant." the wolflike alien told Balsk, "Everything more or less in one piece with you...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Cobalt Black yelled as he tore through the alley. Gunfire, glass, and "Lord knew what," crackled out of his communicator. He arrived at the opening of the alley just in time to see two Malta Agents disappear, leaving a small cylindrical object laying between Kipland and... a dragon(?).
Before he could react, however, the grenade disappeared in a puff of green dust. Looking around for a discernable reason, he saw what appeared to be a werewolf walking toward Kipland and his "new friend."
He exited the alleyway, tugging at his mask and waving to the wolf.
"Hey! HEY! I need to talk to you!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"What the hell kind of spirit creature would I be if I let your posion affect me?" Rosalind snarled, attempting to wrestle Poe to the ground.
"You know, most of you losers would spend today trying to get a girlfriend, but no. You had to go and ruin things for everyone else. Well, lah-de-[censored]'-dah! There's a [censored] ton of people around who ain't got significant others either, so suck it up and DEAL WITH IT!"
With that, she let loose with a flurry of claws at him, finishing off with a hard headbutt aimed at the underside of his chin.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Toy Dispenser waved his hand, shutting off the detention field and letting Prodiguy free.
*********************************
Balsk rolled his shoulders and sheathed his sword before looking over at Allen.
"I'm fine, thanks," he replied with a slight smirk. "Nice disintegrator beam, by the way. And I'd talk more, but it looks like the good spec ops human wants to speak with you."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
At first, Allen was a bit confused at Balsk's lack of response. Then the Gunslinger came barreling out of the alley.
Great. And I thought it was over.
The barrel of Allen's combi-rifle swung up again with frightening speed - especially considering he was holding the heavy-looking weapon with only one arm. Either the weapon was considerably lighter than it seemed or Allen was much stronger than he looked.
Then Balsk spoke, sheathing his sword. This was an interesting turn of events. Was the Gunslinger not with the Malta Group? It certainly appeared so...and the Draconian seemed to know this.
Following his gut, he lowered his rifle again, but kept a few tricks up his sleeve just in case.
"Alright." he answered Cobalt Black in a neutral tone, "Talk..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Poe's deflection shield protected him from Rosie's flurry, but her head-but got through. He rocketed over across to the other side of Toy Dispenser's bubble and slammed into it, then fell painfully to the ground.
He slowly got back up.
"We who are immortal can have no love..." He said. "And if I am condemned in that, I shall condemn everybody."
He whipped a little green orb out of his pocket and dropped it to the ground. It unfolded, sprouting locking arms and a long barrel. It was an Acid Mortar! It immediately launched an acid grenade at Rosie.
Poe followed up by whipping out a landmine, and reared back his hand to toss it...
"Now hold on a second!" Rosie said, placing her hand on her hip and pointing forward dramatically.
The acid bomb exploded in front of her, coating her with acid.
"OW OW GET IT OFF." she growled, shaking herself off angrily and ripping off her outer layer of clothes, wiping her face off with the clean end of her scarf.
Standing there in a camisole and a pair of boxer shorts, she pointed forward dramatically once again.
"Don't give me that 'immortals can't love' [censored]. I'm an immortal too, you know? And look over there at TD. He's a robot. And look up there at Ozzy. He's 'artificial', whatever that's supposed to mean. NONE of us are 'supposed' to love. But you know what?"
She tossed a look down at one of the music mixers, who nodded and turned up some background music.
"Being immortal doesn't mean we have to find immortal love! It just means we have our whole lives to experience as much love as we possibly can! And that doesn't mean to throw our loved ones away or not to mourn them. It means that we can practice love, live it every day of our lives, not just on Valentine's Day!
"In fact, Valentine's Day is the day when we should be celebrating the fact that we have the opportunity to love so much and so often! The opportunity to experience love throughout time, love as it is expressed century after century, and a love for who we are and what we stand for!"
"And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." Rosie finished, grabbing Poe by the ears and giving him a big smooch.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Oh, geez, are you guys alright?" Cobalt pulled a pair of green jet-spring syringe cylinders from his back belt pouch and tossed them to the pair of meta-humans on his approach, "Press the button into the meaty part of your thigh, a hypodermic needle pops out and fills your bloodstream with healing nanites and microbes... It's got a painkiller, but only for the injection site."
He turned to his friend and muttered a quick curse to himself.
"Kip!" he kicked his double over, "KIP!"
"Look guys," he pulled the mask completely down, "I'm sorry if this is confusing... Just let me make a phone call, and I can get Kip's brother over here lickety-split to fix any extra damage those devidces can't handle..."
He stared at Kipland's prone form for a couple more seconds. The slight rise and fall of his double's chest, along with what sounded like a snore, signaled that the young scrapper was alright.
"And me without a Break Free brand serum injector..."
He dialed into his communicator and pulled it to his ear.
"Nester... Yeah, man. Catastrophic failure. No, we couldn't get any money back. The guys took off. Yeah. Well, it seems somebody hit 'im wiht a tranq dart. Yeah, I know, but he had been shrugging off sniper bullets and a hail of pistol fire... Judging by the casings... .45s and .357s... Anyway, he's down, but not out, and I haven't got the gear to wake him up. Uh huh... See you later, man."
He turned to the other two, "Okay, look, his brother's on the way, he'll corroborate my whole story. I'm Cobalt Black three-eight-nine, Gunslinger Agent for the Maltese Resistance. I'm from what is commonly known as Praetorian Earth, and I'm him..." he gave Kipland a kick in the boot, "in that world."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Breaker strolled over to the acid mortar and gave a strong "BOP" over the top, casuing it to fold back up on itself. He then picked it back up and gave a good hard shake until yellow acid started dripping out of the bottom.
"There we go," he said with a quiet chuckled, "Crazy weapon crisis averted. Alright, who's they guy responsible for this whole mess?"
He looked to the local clientelle and saw them all pointing to where a werewolf was making out with some guy holding a landmine. He scratched his scalp and shrugged.
"Okay... This makes even less sense..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sorry, Ced, gotta go."
"Aw," Cedric frowned as he hugged his girlfriend closer to his side, "Well, tell them to hurry over if they can. I ordered some pizzas a couple minutes ago..."
"Ced! That's what we asked Kip to do!"
"Well, yeah, but Matt said Kip was in trouble!"
Nester shook his head as he strapped on his chestplate and threw his jacket on over it. Tossing his duster hat on his head he took off for the teleporter room.
"See you guys later," he hollered.
A cacophony of "Goodbyes," "Byes," and "Later, man laters" replied as he disappeared into the teleporter.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Poe was somewhat stunned by THAT. One second the crazy thing is trying to rip his head off, the next second, she's kissing him. If he had been concentrating hard enough to actually REALIZE what had just happened, the next little crisis could have perhaps been averted.
Unfortunately, in his shocked state, he wasn't able to turn the landmine still in his hand off.
*KABOOM!*
When the smoke cleared, regardless of what had happened, Poe was gone. Not even a hair was left.
-----
Poe rushed away from the scene, his stealth generator running at maximum power. He was thinking now, however...
[ QUOTE ]
"Don't give me that 'immortals can't love' [censored]. I'm an immortal too, you know? And look over there at TD. He's a robot. And look up there at Ozzy. He's 'artificial', whatever that's supposed to mean. NONE of us are 'supposed' to love. But you know what?" "Being immortal doesn't mean we have to find immortal love! It just means we have our whole lives to experience as much love as we possibly can! And that doesn't mean to throw our loved ones away or not to mourn them. It means that we can practice love, live it every day of our lives, not just on Valentine's Day! "In fact, Valentine's Day is the day when we should be celebrating the fact that we have the opportunity to love so much and so often! The opportunity to experience love throughout time, love as it is expressed century after century, and a love for who we are and what we stand for!"
[/ QUOTE ]
He played that over in his head a few times, memorizing it.
He'd have something to talk to Diov about when he got back. Even if he didn't listen, or had some other excuse, at least Poe could be content that he had tried to do a little good on Valentines Day. (Ignoring all the people he had killed, of course.)
It also filled him with a sense of hope. What Rosalind had said applied to him as well didn't it? Yes. There was always hope, no matter how gloomy the situation.
He would do well to remember that.
He also took one final moment to savor the memory of that kiss. His cheeks burned for a split second and the normally taut and ridgid line that serve as his lips cracked into a very thin grin.
His day wasn't over yet. There was always time for more. Time to change things, times to be damned, saved, cheered, cursed, die, and live. He had all the time in the world now that he had something to look forward to, to strive for. He was going to enjoy every last second he had left of Valentines Day now.
Power Breaker coughed as the smoke cleared. It wasn't the dust that had worked its way to his lungs or the concussive effects of the mine blast. For one thing, the nanites filtered the air in his alveoli, and he'd suffered plenty enough explosions like that in his relatively brief career of being "Brutish" in the Etoile Isles.
It was the seeming were-wolf that barreled into him from the force of the explosion and caught his diaphragm off guard. Struggling to catch his breath he coughed out an apology to it (her?). Rosie promptly returned a reply that he "broke her fall, albeit in a spikey way."
"Heh heh," he fingered one of the weird protrusions from his shoulders, "Yeah... Good thing they're blunt, though... Well, not the ones in my head, but you get the idea. In any case, you landed on just about the only part of me left that's soft... My belly!"
He struggled back to his feet, still coughing a little.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Toy Dispenser had let out a low whistle as Rosie smooched Poe and then stopped when the landmine exploded. Thankfully it didn't seem to have done much damage to anyone and Poe had fled in the momentary confusion. Shutting off his shield generators and ordering his bots to stand down, the mastermind ambled over to Power Breaker and Rosie and offered them each a hand up.
"I'm stronger than I look," Toy added when Power Breaker gave his hand an odd look. Hopefully Toy was right, Breaker looked to be pretty heavy.
************************************************
"I'm starting to think this world is just a bunch of mini-dimensions all rolled into one," Balsk said to Cobalt. "All this weirdness is enough to make me want several beers."
Taking a moment to use the health serum, Balsk sighed as the anites went to work and fixed up his throat and tail. He then noticed the spilled pizzas still lying on the ground and scratched his jaw sheepishly.
"I can't help but notice that all of Kip's pizzas are ruined," he said. "And since I was part of this whole mess, it'd be rude of me to not help make up for that. Right, wolfman?"
Balsk nudged Allen in the ribs, hoping he'd also get the picture.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Power Breaker grinned, and planting one hand on the floor and grasping Toy Dispenser's extended hand, he started pulling and pushing himself up.
"Lean back, man... Use leverage to your advantage... there we go."
When he was fully upright, he thanked the robotic mastermind and introduced himself. He introduced himself by his "work name," but he felt this would be appropriate for the moment. Afterward, P.B. looked about the club to see the people still suffering from the effects of the gas.
"Hoo boy... You wouldn't happen to know of any way to clear this up, would you?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"I could always incase them in air tight shields until they passed out from lack of oxygen," Toy suggested as he looked around at still hallucinating Pocket D crowd. "But that might be a tad excessive. Maybe we should concentrate on waking up the big man himself."
"Already on it, sir," Large Toy said as it stepped forward and knelt down next to DJ Zero. "Damage is minimal. A sustained nanite burst should be enough to wake him up."
"Go for it," Toy said.
Standing back up, Large Toy aimed its left arm at DJ Zero and zapped him with a wave of organic-friendly nanites.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"Thanks, but I'm already gonna get an earful from the Doc for brining back a hole." Allen smirked, referring to where he'd been shot through the chest, "If I let anyone but him patch it, he's gonna throw an absolute fit. And no, it's not bad. You could say I'm somewhat heartless."
The blaring of the closing police sirens drove the smirk off his face again.
"Hm, looks like I gotta cut my visit short, it figures." Allen growled, turning to Balsk, "Guess I'll ask my pals over in the Eastside about you then. You're probably Alan's cousin or something...except he's blue..."
--------------------
"I won't be needing that, Toy Dispenser." said a familiar voice from behind the robotic mastermind. Out of thin air formed DJ Zero, floating about as if nothing had ever happened. The one lying unconscious on the floor evaporated into an uncountable number of glittering particulates.
"Sorry if anyone felt I was hashin' on your gig," DJ Zero continued, "But Poe needed a lesson today. I think he got the idea. Now let's get this place jumpin' again, everyone's here to par-tay!"
With a wave of his hand, the music changed once more, pumping rythm into the air that one could practically feel. Rosie's clothes came back from nowhere, re-forming about her body as if they'd never left, and the D's partygoers returned to nromal as well, most of them just picking up where they'd left off.
Power Breaker even found a certain beer right in his hand...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"All RIGHT!" Power Breaker roared with a happy laugh, then he proceeded to chug it down in one swig.
He finished with a happy belch, set the glass on a passing serving tray, and proceeded to dance.
"Poison detected," the nanites gave their (by now) routine warning for the alcohol he consumed, "Liver attempting to oxidize... Succeeding... Will process current total toxin levels in three hours. Seek restroom and replenishing fluids."
Holding his hands over his head, bobbing and swaying in place to the beat, Power Breaker grumbled "Okay, Mom..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nester appeared from out of the sky, nearly screaming is head off. Cobalt shook his head from side to side slowly as the thinner young man stopped sharply only a few inches from the ground, then rotated himself right-side up with a flourish of his hands.
"Gentlemen, this is Nester Durj..." the Gunslinger introduced, "Kip's brother and a practicioner of healing technology in our little group."
"Howdy," Nester tapped his hat with his right index finger and turned to Allen, "Oh dear... I think I should help you, first..."
"No..." Cobalt waved him off, "He just said he's got somebody for that... Just wake up Kip so we can see how he feels about these guys compensating for the pizza..."
"But he won't..." Nester got a look at Cobalt Black's pointed stare and shrugged, "Alright. Okay, Kip... Come on, man... Wake up!"
First, he kicked his brother. Then he kicked him a little harder.
"Nester... He's got tranquilizer in him... If I thought all I had to do was kick him, I wouldn't have called ya."
"Pfft..." Nester leaned in to his brother's face and grasped the back of his head with his left hand, "You just don't do it right, is all."
Laughing, he proceeded to slap his brother awake, at the same time running his mind clearing and healing programs simultaneously. Kip woke up sputtering and coughing, his armor dissipated as if it were nothing more than smoke, and he finally caught Nester's wrist. Balsk and Allen nodded as Cobalt pointed out the near mirror similarities in their faces.
"Ah, dammit!" he spat, then, seeing his brother, "Oh! Jebus! Nester! You won't believe the dream I just had! There was a dragon and a werewolf and... and..."
He noticed their present company.
"Oh... Man, I need more daily sleep..."
After a brief introduction period, they brought him up to speed on what had happened. He wasn't happy. He bit off a curse that the Malta Agents had escaped. He was a little more than ticked that the people responsible for ruining his food weren't forced to pay for it. When Balsk asked about whether or not he and Allen should help pay for it, though, he waved it off.
"Nah... It's not your fault. I want those dastards that decided today was the right day to start shooting at us to pay for it. Ah well... I guess I'm out fifty bucks. Hero work pays well enough to cover it."
He saw the approaching lights, and Allen again explained he should be leaving.
"I guess I'll tell the cops what happened here if you guys have better things to do."
-------------------------
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Rosie blinked as Power Breaker helped her off.
Then she started laughing.
"HOLY [censored]!" she yelled, walking over to Toy and slapping him on the back. "I've kissed a lot of people but nothin's ever EXPLODED before! That was the COOLEST THING EVER!"
As her outer clothes reformed, she tipped a nod to DJ Zero and grinned.
"I gotta test this theory. Come on, more explosions, more explosions..."
She glanced around, and pouted. "You know, of all people, I'd hoped to at least see Ghoulie...or Big Bear....Or Allen.... or Kreiggy...though, not surprisingly, Emry hasn't shown HIS face around for a while."
The were-human folded her arms, sulking.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Eh, I believe it," Experiment muttered at Rosie's mention of the explody-kiss, "I mean, come on, you're like, some kind of woman with dog DNA, or dog with woman DNA, and you really think someone who looks kind of normal would WANT to kiss you?"
He chuckled slightly at his amazingly mean humor, and turned toward the bar, ready to order a drink of something probably non-alcoholic.
Walter blinked behind his sunglasses, clearly not having been expecting this. Shifting the guitar in front of him to the right, he extended his hand out to take the CD, inspecting it slowly. He examined each and every single curve that made up the cover art, and then opened it up. Pushing a button on his throne, a slot on the side opened up, revealing several CDs already stuck inside. Walter added it alongside those already there, and pushed a button, the music promptly starting to blare through the room.
Just a few seconds listening into it, and the edges of his mouth curved upwards into a soft, silent smirk. He had barely heard it, but he was already liking it--both the music, and the fact that she had gone out of her way to present him with something.
"...Locria. There is...a concert going on, soon. Daniel Garner and the Painkillers, starting in roughly an hour. Would you like to...accompany me, this Valentine's Day?"
----------------------------------------------
She was right.
Looks like crime didn't rest today.
Scordatura narrowed her eyes behind her visor as she stared down at the group of black-clothed teenaged thugs leering in front of her, the two women behind her shivering due to the fact that their clothes were ripped off of them. The thugs were all stumbling around, leaning against the wall for support--the foul odor made it clear that they weren't stumbling from dizziness at having their [censored] kicked, they were stumbling because they couldn't stand up straight due to being drunk.
Scordatura's left hand was on her hip, right hand tossing around a lead pipe casually. Her scarf waved in the air behind her as she shook her hooded head in disdain. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"Lemme git this strai'...ye lads think tha' ye, 'cause yer drunk an' today's Valentine's Day, think tha' ye c'n take yer gals, yank their clothes, an' bring a slew o' droogs so ye c'n please yerselves all inna name of 'love', woteva bloo'y twisted concept o' love ye've got tha' allows this...AN' ye think tha' this is perfectly legal, nae any troubles, an' yer gals'll fergive ye fer it?"
The group in front of her all nodded.
Scordatura paused a moment, mentally soaking that in.
They seriously believed it was all right, what they were doing. Violation was one of a woman's worst nightmares, and here they thought it was perfectly all right and that they'd be forgiven. Forget the fact that it had SERIOUS repercussions--not the least of which usually being pregnancy, internal hemorrhaging, or STDs, due to inebriation forgetting to use protection. There was also psychological trauma, memories and intrusive thoughts about the assault, nightmares, difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating, PTSD, OCD, DID, RTS, panic attacks--Jesus, the list went on and on and on. These bastards seriously thought it would be OKAY?
She gripped the end of the lead pipe, stopping its tossing.
Sometimes, she wondered why she kept on working to save humanity from itself. People never learned--their self-destructive behavior and constant lashing out at each other because of their OWN problems, thinking that because they can't be happy, nobody can. Or perhaps their own ignorance, thinking what they were doing was right WHEN IT SO OBVIOUSLY WASN'T. Or maybe they just thought they were above morality, and thus could do whatever they want. Whatever the case, they were doing wrong, and they had no intention of stopping.
Idiots.
WHA-CRACK!
"GYAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
"JESUS, WOMAN!"
The lead pipe was promptly bent, and blood was spurted across the walls as one of the thugs lay down on the ground, clutching his skull and whimpering. Scordatura examined the fresh red slab of paint that accented her weapon, and then gave it one more toss into the air, deftly catching it in her hand. The other seven thugs promptly put up their fists to their face in a mockery of a boxing stance, bobbing and weaving in an attempt to look intimidating--it didn't help that they were constantly butting shoulders and smacking against each other.
Scordatura shook her hooded head again.
Idiots.
The lead pipe WHOOSHED as it went through the wind, whacking and whonking along with the wannabes' bodies--within just a few minutes, bodies were piled along the garbage cans and the dumpsters, each of them moaning piteously in pain as they clutched their wounds--or, rather, tried to. Each of them had a sheet of metal wrapped around their bodies, holding them in place as the women watched, holding close to each other as Scordatura surveyed her handiwork.
Not bad. She estimated about 49 bones broken, and plenty more cracked. Their hospital bill would be expensive.
The women said nothing as Scordatura left them with a leap, diving up into the air as sirens started to close in on the area. Good. She preferred it when people didn't say anything.
Plenty of work to be done.
She didn't have time to celebrate a holiday.
((1: DJ Zero is not the only power dampener at all. He's not a power dampener, period. He is God, in Pocket D.
2: There are not power dampeners, period, aside from teleportation. All powers are quite capable of freely being used.
3: The Pocket D is an entirely different dimension--one with physics that DJ Zero himself has made. It is not our dimension. The physics are what he chose to be. The physics he chose is that he is God, and that damaging another person is physically, mentally, emotionally, entirely IMPOSSIBLE. Not hard. Not able to be switched back on. IMPOSSIBLE. There is NO way to do it. Period. Semicolon. Backslash. Even if you manage to, somehow, via PBAoE attacks, nothing is effected.
If there WAS a way to turn it on, Arachnos and Hero/Freedom Corps would have discovered it by now, because neither like each other, and their acceptance of Pocket D as a neutral zone is...grudging. At BEST.
The ONLY way to do it is via the arena--and even then, as evidenced by the Pocket D cage arena, it's an entirely different D dimension. A sub-dimension, if you will.
4: Because DJ Zero is God, and because it's his own dimension, nothing can happen to him. At all. Period. Semicolon. Backslash. Even if something DID happen to him, he can just wave a finger and make it so that nothing happened at all, because he's God there.
Sorry to burst your bubbles, but canon is canon))