Full Moon Over Lakeview (A Superhero 102 story)

As I adjusted the straps of the bulletproof vest and snatched up the modified rifle from my desk, I took a look in the mirror, to make sure I looked as much like a hero as I felt.

I didn't. With tousled hair sticking haphazardly out from a full-face mask, a definitely unprofessional rip in the left leg of my jeans, and boots caked with dried mud, the only thing that made me look like a hero was my mask. And even that was just a modified ski mask. If anything, I looked more like a bank robber than a hero.

I ignored my looks and pulled on an over sized beige coat over my bulletproof vest. My mom hated this jackets. It has gotten so much action in the field (and in some cases, a literal field) that almost all of its original color had been replaced with dirt, dust, paint, and something that looked suspiciously like blood. Not that it was my blood. I think.

"Hey! Blake! We're leaving! Hurry up!" I recognized the loud voice of my father from down the hall. It was hard to miss.

I gave no reply. Grabbing my phone and wallet and stuffing it in my pockets, I ran down the hall.

Glancing out of habit at the walls as I passed, I took a look at the pictures on the walls. The one that I noticed the most was of my brothers Caelan and Aidan fighting each other. Caelan's canines hadn't grown much back then. They were still in their horribly sharp, puppy-teeth stage. Aidan's claws scratched clumsily at his older brother's snout. Poor Aidan. He would never be bigger than Caelan when shifted.

Then again, I don't think I'm bigger than ANYONE while shifted.

I made it to the front room. My mom was going over some last minute details with my friend Harley to make sure he knew what to do with the kids. Harley grinned at me as I came up and punched me in the arm. It hurt. I smiled and tried to rub the pain out of my arm in as discreet a way as possible. Letting him know that he had accomplished hurting me would only convince him to hit me again.

He laughed as I rubbed my arm and punched me in the other arm. I hate when he does that. "Well, Lakeview! Say hello again to the Hellions for me." He mimed punching someone. I'd hate to be whoever he was imagining to hit. Harley didn't have powers, but he hit hella hard.

My dad walked in at about the same time that my younger brother Alec did. They were very similar in some ways, and completely opposite in others. My dad, at age 45, had been beating the crap out of villains all over the world for years. Alex, at 15, was just getting started.

At the tender age of 18, I was a veteran. Or at least that's how I felt sometimes.

I could ferl a "mental hug" and my mother's mental presence flooded my head. She was laughing at me, mostly because I thought I was some sort of veteran. Thankfully, she didn't say anything about it to the others. That's what I liked about my mom. She was loving, funny, and respected my privacy, not to mention my private thoughts.

The fact that she could turn into a bear and rip the arms off of almost anyone I've ever met is just a perk.

My dad grumbled about leaving, and we walked out the door, giving Harley one last wave.

Walking out onto the lawn, I took a deep breath of the night air. It was cool, but not terribly cold. Looking at my brother, I noticed that he remembered his bulletproof vest. Thank God. Wouldn't want another incident like the last time.

As my dad prepared the teleportation, I took one last look at the forest that was our back yard, and the unsettling feeling of every molecule in my body being ripped apart and taken away came over me.

Goodbye Tayorsville, Kentucky. Hello Paragon City.

-------------------------------

We landed with a flash in the empty room of the apartment we had rented for this very purpose. I breathed in relief that my dad remembered it well enough from the week before, when he had driven up to rent it, that we hadn't appeared in the walls. That would not have been good.

My father didn't bother letting us catch our breath, he just outlined our plans. "Alright, here's the deal. The warehouse where the drug deals are happening is just down the street. I'll stay on the rooftop of the building across the street so I can find a clear shot at the dealer. When you hear the shot, go in and take them down. I'll 'port in once we take them by surprise. Blake and Alec, if possible, try to shift smaller as soon as ya'll can. Just use your powers to fight them. I doubt a gun will come in handy with whoever is in charge. I hear he's a Troll."

Alec nodded thankfully. He and I both knew he wasn't the best shot in the world, but it would take a lot to get him to admit it. I frowned, though. I liked my gun. I was a good shot. And with the full moon, I doubted I could control my air blasts enough to do any substantial damage. Maybe Mom and Dad were experienced enough to control their powers during the full moon, but I doubted me or my younger brother could do much except go crazy and hope not to hurt anyone. But I shrugged anyway. I couldn't hope to argue with my dad.

Looking at each of us, and smiling to my mom, he said with conviction, "I Think we're ready. Let's move."

I saw his eyes screw up in concentration, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground by the warehouse with Mom and Alex. Looking up, I saw the dark outline of my dad in the full moon. I hoped the people inside didn't notice.

Once again I felt my mother's warm mental hug, and the four of us were connected.

"Alec, fly up to the window, but not too obviously, please. Blake, go stand by the door and be ready to blast them down if they try anything. I'm right behind you. I love you all!" She smiled at my brother and I and silently turned into a grizzly bear. All of her clothes but her shoes were absorbed into her fur. Turning to my brother, I saw that he had already made himself a mocking bird and was in the process of flying up to the window. I closed my eyes, and shifted.

When I opened my eyes again, I was a rat. I had to jump out of my now-empty boots, and over the bulletproof vest. Stupid shifting. Whatever wizard invented shifting obviously lived before polyester. The only clothes I knew about that would shift along with your body were organic ones, like cotton or wool. My mother preferred hemp.

I heard that!

If my mouth had been capable of it, I would have laughed. We teased her about her hippie roots more than what was really necessary. But hey, she hadn't mauled one of us for it. Yet.

Taking my place by the door, I waited as I had been told.

The next few seconds were a blur. The first thing I heard was the shot from my father's high-powered, altered sniper rifle. Then Alec's sonic blast shattering the window he was perched by, and probably the Hellion's eardrums. I scurried in quickly and sent out what was supposed to be a narrow blast of air. It ended up more like a wide cone of air, and much more powerful than I had meant. It knocked most of them down, and some of them even flew back. Well, I guess that's why Dad had done this mission on a full moon. Less control, but much more powerful.

None of them were expecting it after Alec's ear-shattering blast, and I'm sure they weren't expecting an eight-foot tall bear to come in roaring from outside.

A few of the Hellions ran off screaming or swearing. Most of them couldn't have been much older than me. I controlled the air in front of the fleeing gang members into knocking them back to us, and a quick smack from my towering mothers paws put them into the realm of the unconcious.

The only one still standing was a Troll. We didn't have too many in Kentucky, but from the stone mallet he was holding I could tell he was one of those called an 'ogre.' About as fast as I had thought this, he had rushed screaming towards my mother.

Unfortunately for him and his senses, a large, camo-jumpsuit wearing gorilla teleported into the room above him and grabbed his shoulders with his feet. He shot the shocked, green-skinned druggie directly in the face with his sniper rifle. Apparently, rats can flinch, because that is definitely what I did.

And then it was over. After weeks of study, preparations, and scouting. It took what? Three minutes? Less?

Two minutes and fifteen seconds, dear.

Thanks mom.

All of us shifted back into out human forms. We grinned at each other an my mom hugged us all. She did that after every mission.

One of the thugs moaned in pain and my dad kicked him in the face. He fell back to a deep, painful sleep.

Alec jabbed me in the ribs with his sharp, horrible elbow. "I took out two. You owe me five bucks!" I did. We had made a bet that he wouldn't take out more than one, if any.

The next half hour was much less exciting that the last half hour. We retrieved our shoes and vests and tied up all of the gang members, and my mother called the police. We had teleported away before they arrived, but when they got there, they had ten Hellions, two Trolls, a suitcase full of Superdyne, and a closed case on their hands.

-------------------------------

We had come back home after several more hours. After finishing up that craziness we had gone shopping for some cheap furniture for our new apartment. If we were going to be using it to fight crime in, we needed more that just a few fold-up chairs.

My mom thoughtfully said as we walked indoors, "You know. There's a high school in that area for super kids. Maybe you two should enroll?

My brother stayed silent, but I audibly groaned. Public school? Really? I've been homeschooling for most of my life, I didn't need to enroll in a school right before I graduated.

You know, you could have just said no.

Whoops. Sorry, Mom. Didn't realize we were still connected.

No worries.

As we knocked on the door I heard Caelan start barking wildly. We opened it, and a Labrador retriever, large house cat, and raccoon raced out and started to jump all over us. Caelan licked my face like I hadn't been home in years. Aidan had manage to clime up Mom's pants and was purring happily. Evan was shifting in and out of his raccoon form, and was managing to giggle the whole time.

My dad inturrupted the madness by saying loudly, "Who wants pizza?" My fuzzy little brothers all turned back into little kids and ran screaming indoors. They didn't know it, but they were in for a treat. Paragon City pizza is some of the best in America.

Some of my friends ask me, "How in the world can't you EVER get bored?"

I usually tell them, "Living in a family of seven crime-fighting werepeople means you're NEVER bored." And it was true. With four little brothers, three of them under ten, school, a job, and fighting crime, it was hard to get bored. Life was difficult and stressful at times, but it was fun. Or at the very least interesting.

Harley punched me in the shoulder as a grabbed a piece of pizza. "So! How was Lakeview?"

I rubbed my arm and took a bite of pizza. "It was good."

He snatched up a slice and said, "Good enough to live in? I've been telling you for years that the place rocks. I want some affirmation, man!" We laughed. It wasn't much of a joke, but the way he said it was funny. I guess you had to be there.

After taking another bite, I answered. "Good enough to live there? Maybe not. But it'd definitely good enough to visit."

((If you bothered to read all this... good job! Comments and critiques welcome. This is my first try at writing from the first-person perspective. ))

((S'good stuff, Blargy. More! MOAR! ))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Pretty cool, but I'm not much of a writing critic. So will we be seeing any of these characters in the thread?

((Probably. But I doubt any time soon. This is more of a side project that I've been wanting to work on. I'll just ease the characters into the other thread. Eventually. ))


It was Thursday afternoon. I was sitting in my room doing a hellishly difficult Calculus problem. I am not a fan of math. I'm pretty sure I was spending more time shifting back and forth and blowing pieces of paper around my room than doing any actual school work. But hey. Gotta stay sane somehow!

After what seemed like an eternity of being stuck on the same problem, and words, letters, and numbers sliding together into a horrible jumble, I heard a much-needed explosion. I sent up a silent prayer for the distraction. Anything is better than this! Even a super villain.

Jumping across my little hole-in-the-wall (and it practically was), and over some random trash sculpture I had made out of copper wires... and a half-built train set... and a rock collection... and a giant bird cage I found in the woods... and an oven with no door... and...

My gosh. I really need to clean up. I never even noticed all this stuff until now. Oh well. Pack rat tendencies, I guess.

Another explosion, this one rattling the walls, shook my out of my easily-distracted mind. I slid around some random crap and put on my boots. It was cold outside.

I barely thought, and I was half-size. I was also half-rat. No real need for a jacket when you had fur.

As I raced down the hall, I saw that the front wall to our house was once again gone. I supposed that's what the explosion was.

I suppose a bit of background is needed. Basically, my family are the only real super heroes for miles. We live in the teeny tiny "city" of Taylorsville. Not only that, but we live on the OUTSKIRTS of Taylorsville. Most of the time, our only traffic is friends dropping by.

And of course, the occasional super villain wanting revenge or whatever. They usually don't realize that we have several people here that can kick their butt. Heck, even my littlest brother Evan can beat them up if you give him enough time in a pile of electronics.

And from the sounds of a laser firing, and a notably high-pitched giggling, I'm pretty sure the idiot villain had done just that. It seems Evan got into our private junk yard. Looking out cautiously from the massive hole in my house, I could see he had managed to make a working heat ray out of a bicycle pump, a microwave, and what looked like a dead turtle. I could only imagine how that worked.

My curiosity would have to wait, though. Mostly because I noticed what looked like my car being flung at me.

Oh HELL no. Not my car.

I held out my hands and concentrated as hard as I could. Two whirlwinds flung out of my hands and around my car, slowly stopping it, and easing it down on the ground. It was actually partially in my house. That's not a good thing.

I flew out the hole and out into the grass, looking around for whoever was destroying my property. I saw two flamboyantly-colored villains. One was bright, bright pink and was in the process of trying to pick up a boulder with some difficulty. I guess she was a low-level super strengther. No problem.

And yes, we have boulders lying around our yard. Don't you?

The other one was someone whose costume looked like what would happen if Icon vomited bad taste all over a fashion show. He literally had a hat that looked like a rooster on his head. It was green.

As I attempted to process this horrible revelation, Caelan's frenzied barking brought me back to reality. He had never been that great in a fight. But hey, he had time to learn.

I flew on a tornado to where they were holed up on the junk yard. Caelan was busy barking like and idiot. Aidan was staring impassively at his claws. And Evan was still giggling madly and shooting his laser beam, not hitting him. Well, he may not have accuracy, but he has spirit!

Smiling, I said, "Hey guys. How're ya'll doing? Where's Mom and Alec?"

Caelan shifted from dog to boy and said loudly, "THEY'RE BEHIND THOSE GUYS TRYING TO SNEAK UP ON THEM AND-"

I covered his mouth as quickly as I could. I don't think they would appreciated it if they were ratted out (excuse the pun) by Caelan. From several dozen feet away. Really, that boy can be louder than Alec sometimes. And Alec has sonics.

I "shushed" him and he nodded. He (loudly) whispered to me. "Sorry, Blake! I was barking and so I got loud and I didn't know and it was fun and who are those guys and-"

I sort of toned whatever he said out of my head. Really, it got hard to think some times with him around. I stared out into our driveway. The pink one was still trying to pick up the boulder. She wasn't too bright.

The... man? Woman? Anyway, the other one was waving his (her?) arms around, making random objects explode left and right. My guess is they were on drugs. Neither were paying too much attention to anything around them. They hadn't even seen me when I had flown out into the open.

I grinned at the kids. Evan was... busy being a mad scientist, I guess. His eyes were glazed over and he was quickly piecing several random objects onto his weapon. I decided not to bother him.

Turning to Aidan, I asked kindly, "Do you want to help out Mom?"

He shrugged his little shoulders and shifted into cat form. I guess he knew what I was going to do.

Caelan, at some point in all this, had begun barking again.

I grabbed cat-aidan and flew up into the sky on a tornado. Picking myself up high enough, I flew directly over the two super-idiots. At least they were stupid. It made this much easier.

With a lazy flick of my wrists, I dropped my impassive, fuzzy little brother down onto the gender-neutral, explodey villain.

Aidan burst into flames along the way. He landed directly on the man's (woman's? Seriously, I have no idea) head. The PERSON took a moment to think about what was happening. Then the PERSON screamed.

That was Mom and Alec's time to move. Mom thundered out as a bear and immediated mauled the living crap out of the pink woman. Her bloodshot eyes widened as surprise as she found that quite a bit of her flesh was being ripped from her bones. Yup. Definitely high.

The other PERSON had managed to get Aidan off. His (her? Really, this is bothering me so much) face was bleeding. I dropped from the sky and landed boot-first into his still-injured face. He yelped in surprise, but Alec sealed the deal when he sent a sonic blast into the crazy rooster-person's injured skull. The ambiguously gay villain was out like a light. A bleeding, burnt, rooster light.

Not my best analogy in the world.

Mom and Alec shifted back into their 'people forms.' Alec's long hair was a complete wreck. Mom had blood all over her.

She smiled at me and asked nonchalantly, "How's school, honey?"

I shrugged. "You know. Same old same old. I was glad for the break, though. It was getting stifling in there."

She laughed and ran inside, I assume to get her phone. My dad was at work and her telepathy didn't go that far.

After a few short moments of Alec and I making snarky comments about the outfits of our wannabe killers, my dad arrived in a puff of smoke. He still had his work shirt on.

He took one look at out the idiots and laughed. It takes quite a bit to get him to laugh. I guess two brightly-dressed individuals covered in blood and dirt is what it takes.

After several seconds of laughing and saying hello to the kids, he kissed my mom goodbye and teleported off with our assaultants. Assaulters. Assaultees? Whatever.

I looked over to Evan. He was still holding his monstrosity of a weapon. I'm pretty sure it was a bazooka of some sorts. I asked him with interest, "So Evan. How does it work?"

He stared at it and started to look confused. It fell apart in his hands. Well, I guess that's another clue to however the heck his powers work. Things he builds only work if he thinks they should. Like the Orks in 40k!

My gosh I'm such a geek.

The rest of the day was predictably boring. I really could have gone for another supervillain attack.

It's Assailants, Blake

Well, my dear readers, I didn't do all that much this week! I stopped a few petty crimes around here in my home-town. Did school. Worked. But I seriously doubt anyone here wants to know how many things I put on shelves or how many math problems I failed miserably.

I guess I'll explain some things about SHIFTING tonight, for the uneducated! For SCIENCE!

Sooo... here we go! The FAQ's of shifting!

1. Shifting!

Shifting is magical! There are technically thousands of aliens, mutants, and mad scientists that can change shape and form, but this is NOT shifting!

Shifting is the magical ability to change form into what is known as your "spirit animal." It is basically as cheesy at it sounds. Your spirit animal is essentially the essence of YOU, as an animal. This usually reflects someone's character, or personality in some way. Not always, though. Like, for instance, my uncle can turn into a crab, and he is totally awesome. Not mean or angry at all.

But I digress.

Shifting was developed a looooooong time ago by several magic-practitioners across the world, simultaneously! Strange, but true. Witch doctors in the Americas, shamans in Africa, wizards in Europe, magicians in Asia, wise men in the Middle East (which is technically Asia, so sue me), and... penguins... in Antarctica. I guess.

No one is quite sure why this happened. The most popular theories are that some sort of god inspired these people all at once, or that the magic used in shifting is an actual sentient being that is living in spirit form, living through the lives of his- or her- faithful. I'm not really sure which it is. I'm kind of holding the belief that some sort of deity did it, or even a coalition of deities, cause the concept of magic controlling me is kind of creep, ya know?

2. Powers?

Yes, we werepeople (or manimals, if you prefer), have powers. It goes along with the shifting.

Along with our "spirit animal" comes another ability of some sort. We are born with one and only one power. I don't know why, really. I'm not a scientist or anything. We just HAVE THEM. Air (thatsa me!), fire breath, teleportation, elongation, super speed, water breathing, all sorts of crazy crap. And by golly I am glad that we do. I mean really, I can barely fight as a rat. Can you imagine? I would transform, attempt to scurry up to them without being smushed, then try and spread the plague or something. Bad in the long run, completely useless if I am dead. Moving on!

3. Is your "disease" contagious?

Please, please, please don't call my species a disease. We really don't appreciate it. It makes me just want to GO SLAUGHTER YOU ALL IN THE NUDE AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD!

Just kidding. Hahahaha.

Anyway!

Although it is NOT a disease, yes, it is "contagious" in a sense.

The "curse" (hell, this thing is a blessing!) is spread by bites on the full moon. Not any other night, JUST the full moon. Why? Shut the hell up, that's why!

When you are bitten you go through one rather painful transformation as your body adjusts to all of the stress it is going through, and then are able to transform naturally and without pain. Eventually you'll barely even notice the shifting. When I'm really tired I'll even shift on accident, sometimes.

Another important PSA for all you kids out there! A normal person mating with a wereperson (or whatever you want to call us) will ALWAYS have a shifter as a child! These children (like mahself) are natural! We have no "first transformation" or anything like that. We can just DO it, from infancy. Really helps out as a baby, since human babies can't move around too well, but most animal babies can. As a result, a lot of our kind's young stay shifted almost their entire infancy. Not really on topic, just food for thought.

And yes, before you ask, a shifter can mate with his or her corresponding animal. But it won't produce young. I don't know why, but we're pretty much sterile if we're not with a person... I guess whoever (or whatever) invented this magic didn't want an army of ants that can disguise themselves as humans infiltrating society and killing us all in our sleep. Then eating us.

Also... for those freaks out there looking for something... *ahem*, kinky, so you're looking to "have a good time" with one of us... I really don't recommend it unless you really want to end up AS one of us.

You see, while mating we tend to have the instinctive drive to bite whoever it is we are mating with. Obviously this only works on the full moon, but still. Wouldn't risk it. It hurts, if you're a normal.

Moving on to something less controversial!

4. Silver, clothes, and other assorted tidbits!

Alright, this is the last thing, and will cover all of the other things I am asked a lot...

First off, silver. Yes, it does hurt. No, it will not kill us outright just by touching it. But it REALLY sucks when you have to walk into a jewelery store. You can just FEEL all of that silver, waiting to ATTACK!

Of course, I'm a paranoid freak, so that may just be me being weird about silver. I doubt others can feel the "aura" of silver, if they even have one.

And then, the silver bullet thing? To the heart? Well DUH it will kill us! Find anyone who isn't invincible! It will kill them, too!

Alright, no more silver talk.

Clothes!

Yes, we wear clothes. No, we aren't naked after we shift.

Or we aren't as long as we always wear organic material! As I have said earlier while talking about my WACKY adventures, synthetic clothing just doesn't work. Things like cotton, hemp, wool, and leather, or even snakeskin boots, is perfect for us. Also, some werewolf guy wearing animal skins is badass. Not nearly as much so for myself. But I can dream.

Last off, our braaaaaiiins!

People ask me if I think differently shifted. Bottom line is, yes. Yes I do.

My ears, my eyes, my nose work completely different. I can feel waaaay more as a rat than as a human. Ironic considering the area of skin on a person is considerably more than on a rat.

But with so many changes to my senses, how can I NOT think differently? And on top of that, I have to constantly fight against my more rodent-like urges while shifted, and sometimes even when I'm NOT shifted. I want to run from everything. I want to COLLECT everything (not too good at fighting this particular habit...), and I have a huge nest I'm building in my backyard. I can't help it. By the way, for those interested, it is getting huge, way faster than even I can follow. I seem to have attracted a lot of rats that have decided to move in with me. This I don't appreciate. They have terrible taste in colors.

My gosh I get off topic easily.

But yes, I think differently.

Last but not least, some have asked me which of my different "forms" make me me comfortable. Like, which form AM I? Am I a man that turns into a rat? Am a rat that spends a lot of time as a person?

The answer is none of the above. Human me, rat me, all of the forms in between... they're all me. I'm just Blake. Sometimes a little furrier than normal people, but you know what? I'm good with that. Some shifters get all emo and mope about how different they are from society, but I LOVE being different from all you normal chumps. I've got powers. I've got friends that poop all over my house and live in fields (and love it). I've got friends that fight crime.

You know what? Scratch that. I'm not just Blake.

I'm Blake Pierce... superhero.

Interesting write up.

Seeing as Ian also does the transformation bit, it'd be interesting to trade notes on its mechanics. As you explain it, there are many similarities but particular differences between your shamanistic transformation and Azure Storm's ailuranthropic curse.

With that in mind, I think if we consult eachother, we can basically compromise on a general 'animal shape shifting' lore bound to our little world. Tight lore for a tight story

((Just to let ya'll know that whole post was IC. Writing this like it's a blog of sorts. Or NOW I am. The first posts didn't seem like they were, but I'll just say that's because Blake felt like writing in the first-person. As it was happening. Or something. >_> ))

((I really want to make a Were-character now, damn you Blarg! D= I'm short on slots as it is!))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Do it! And tell me what server so I can play along ^^

<-- is also tempted to make such a character, though probably only in a thread since I too am way short on slots.

E: And probably in SH102 too, if I were to make it. I wonder, would anyone object to me having a second character?

PS: Oh wait, T_A is EU...oh well. I still have too many animal characters although most of them aren't 'shifters'. They're usually a separate race of animal/people or actually *are* animals that were somehow changed into people.

Also, really, Rebel? You've filled up every server?

Not every server, just the ones I play on.

((Haha. Nice to see people are getting inspired by mah posts.

More story in a day or two, I suspect.))

If you want to team with a shapeshifter i have a werewolf (big surprise there) on guardian i play frequently (guess his name ) we could team if you want?

Alright readers, here's how it happened.

I've been sent up to Lakeview to go meet up with a few of my dad's old military buddies. He was sent into the Shadow Shard years ago in the superpowered division. I'm supposed to be getting some on-the-job training, whatever that means, with the kids of his old friends. Amazingly, they all have powers, so we'll be teaming up to go take down some minor villain that's been plaguing the area. Good stuff.

Anyway, can't write it all down at once. We're still on the job, I'm just using my laptop. So you'll get the beginning of the story.

Anyway, like I said, I was teleported up to our apartment in the city. They're already in there waiting for me, right? I'm still wondering if they phased through the door, or if they got a key or something.

So my dad just grins and goes to talk to two guys on the couch. I look over in the kitchen and two teens are standing in there, not really doing anything. One of them is eating chips. They were my chips, too.

The one eating was a short, dark skinned guy in a very professional looking green costume. It had shoulder pads, boots, and a belt, all in blue. It looked like it was made at Icon or something.

The other one was a tall girl. She had a skin-tight suit on, and a cape. I couldn't look too hard at the cape. It seemed to have space in it. I don't mean like it was spacey, or big, I mean like literally SPACE was in it. Stars. Planets. And so on. She had what looked like a big, silver fishbowl on her head. Her outfit didn't look like it was from Icon. It looked like it was made by the freaking gods. Or by aliens. Or by both.

I looked down at my own shabby clothes. Wool. And I had bought a pair of cow hide boots. Shabby jacket. Shabby, ripped pants. My mask was just a ski mask with a hole for me hair to come out of.

Needless to say, I felt rather... lame. In front of these two, anyway. I'd never worked with other heroes before... just my family. I mean, we kicked butt. I never needed to work with other people. Seemed pointless. I mean, I had friends that were heroes, but they were all friends online. None of the people back home had powers. None that I knew of, any way.

I walked up tentatively to the two. The one eating waved at me and smiled. Food came out of his mouth. It was not a good first impression.

I couldn't tell if the girl was smiling or not. The fishbowl (space helmet? Giant shiny call?) wasn't see-through or anything. Just... silver. And shiny.

The boy put down my chips and shook my hand. It was a rather... firm... grip.

I was feeling more and more inadequate my the minute.

He introduced both of them. "Hey man. I'm the Green Bullet. This is Pinball Wizard."

I was going to tell them my name, but I stopped. "Wait. If you're a girl, why be Pinball Wizard? Shouldn't you be Pinball Witch? I mean, I get the reference, but it seems kind of-"

She cut me off with only a few words. They seemed to resonate. "I liked Pinball Wizard. Sounds better."

I gulped a bit and shrugged. Hey, when a big scary woman with SPACE in her cape tells you she likes to be called a wizard, you don't argue.

I cleared my throat and spoke up in the awkward silence that followed the Wizard's words. "Well... nice to meet you guys. I'm Blake."

Green Bullet stared at me. I couldn't tell, but I'm sure that Pinball Wizard did, too. Green Bullet asked louder than I would have liked, "Blake. Okay. Hero name? We don't want to use our real names while we're out in the field."

I was struck then with just how different they did things up here. For one, they had good pizza. For another, they laughed at anyone with a southern accent.

For another, apparently, villains actually pay attention. Down in my home town, the few villains we get are pitiful. Usually all high as kites, and idiots. I guess all the good villains move away as soon as they can.

"Umm... Well. I can use wind... and I can turn into a rat."

A sound that may have been a snort came from the general direction of Pinball Wizard. I ignored her.

"I guess... Storm Rat? Wind Rat? Oh! I got it! Airodent! Brilliant!"

I grinned. Green Bullet did not.

Well I thought it was a good name.

I decided to make the initiative to speak again. "Wasn't there supposed to be one more of you guys? My dad said there would be."

Pinball Wizard shrugged, and spoke. Once again, it was almost like I felt rather than heard her words. "Yeah, there was one more. Jon. We couldn't get a hold of him, or his family. Haven't even seen him since we left the 'Shard. Fine with me, though. Guy was always kind of a freak."

She fell silent once again.

Dang these guys were hostile. They even hated their own friends.

He shrugged his shoulders and picked up my chips again. I refrained from taking them from him and eating them myself. They were my guest. I should treat them as such.

Or was I really THEIR guest? This was their home town, after all.

My dad interrupted my thoughts by trodding up next to me. I glanced out to the living room. His friends were already gone. I guess parents don't bother saying goodbye to their kids up here.

Man this place was weird.

My dad gave me a quick hug goodbye and smiled. He never was much one to talk.

And with a puff of smoke and a small "pop," the three of us were alone.

And that's all that has happened up to now! I'll give an update after we go out patrolling! Stay tuned.

Well readers, I'm finally back! Been busy. Here's what's happened during this first painfully long night...

Night 1

We left the apartment at around 1:00 AM. I was running on coffee and adrenaline. Mostly coffee. The other two were acting completely normal, even without coffee. I guess they were used to flying off in the middle of the night to go have intensive fights with criminals.

I shifted halfway so I could actually fly. It takes a LOT of air to lift a grown man, and I am not embarrassed to say that I'm kind of chubby. Halving my size is really just smart.

We left from the top of the building. Green Bullet both flew under the power of sparkles, I guess. Or at least that what it looked like. Both of their bodies were sparkling more than a vampire in a terrible love novel. I guess Pinball Wizard was doing it.

I of course was flying in the middle of a very windy tornado. random bits of trash on the building went ever which way as I sent the air down to my legs, picking me up off the ground.

And to be honest, this was the only interesting thing that happened for half an hour. They flew ahead and I followed. I couldn't have talked to them, even if I wanted to. My miniature tornado pretty much destroyed any chances I had for communication. When I'm flying, I usually can't hear much but my own thoughts, and even those are drowned out sometimes.

Thankfully, they eventually landed on a a tall building. I cut off the air about two feet from the roof and landed with a quiet "thump." Green Bullet didn't seem happy.

My gosh. I barely make any noise at all and he's acting like I woke up a herd of elephants or something. What a dick.

The two walked up to me and Pinball Wizard said in that strange monotone, "Okay, here's the deal. We're get into the building through THAT door." She pointed at a door on the roof of the building across the street. "When we get in we're going to quietly make our way down to the bottom floor. If we meet anybody we're going to avoid them if possible. If not, we will silence them. Once we get to the ground floor we're going to look for a laptop that has vital information on it. If we can't find it we'll leave. Try a different building."

Her little pep talk left little room for discussion, but I decided to speak up anyway.

"Or, you know. I could shift into a rat, get inside through those huge holes in the wall down by the ground, find the laptop and then stick a memory chip in to get the information. That building doesn't exactly look like it's a stranger to rats."

It didn't either. The building was positively falling apart.

Green Bullet scowled at me. Damn. Guess he doesn't like advice from country bumkins.

Or maybe his face was stuck in various expressions of nastiness. Could be that one, too.

The angry green guy quietly yelled (yay for oxymorons!), "Well, Airodent, we don't have a memory stick, now do we? Now stand still. Wizard is going to pick you up so your godawful tornado doesn't give away our position."

Before I could even argue I was lifted up from the ground by... sparkles. There was a strange tingly feeling all over my body, and all of my fur was standing on end. It was not a pleasant feeling.

We landed silently on the roof and the two immediately got to work. At least they were professional.

Green Bullet carefully poked one finger into the lock of the door, and began to vibrate. A lot.

His entire hand was moving so fast, so minutely, that it was actually a blur. I guess that explains his name.

The lock snapped and he opened the door quickly. The two started going down.

And that's pretty much all that happened for four stories. We go down hallways, take quick peeks into rooms, and get to stairs. Walk down. Go down new hallways, look into empty, abandoned rooms, go down stair. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Eventually, we found something. It wasn't much, though. Just some bum in rags sleeping in the middle of the stairwell. His skin seemed off somehow. Very pale. Lots of strange contusions and bumps. I was guessing that he was a mutant of some sort, but I heard Pinball Wizard whisper to Green Bullet, "Lost." Bullet just nodded. I was very confused. I thought we knew where we were going? Since when were we lost?

But nevertheless, I didn't say anything. I decided that if these two wanted to play leader, I might was well let them.

Then we found something that is a bit difficult for me to describe without laughing. And then throwing up.

There was a FREAKING HUGE hobo with his back turned to us. He had a TV on his head. Seriously. I am not kidding. A television. I almost laughed when I saw him.

Unfortunately, he also had a FREAKING HUGE sword in his hands. It was glowing. Giant glowing objects are rarely good, and giant glowing swords are even worse.

He was taking up the whole hallway. There was no way we were getting past him. The others grimaced and looked like they were ready for a fight.

I just shrugged and twirled my hand in the air in his direction. I head a satisfactory "umph," telling me that his lungs were collapsing as the air was forced out of them and out his mouth. He fell in a heap in front of us.

I turned to the other two with a smile. That problem was taken care of.

They were smiling. Or at least Green Bullet wasn't. Pinball Wizard's expression was obviously concealed by her mask.

Bullet (very quietly) stormed up to me and whispered angrily, "What the hell, man! What the hell! We came in here to infiltrate the place and get information, not to KILL these guys!"

I was confused, to say the least. I mean, the guy WASN'T dead. I could clearly see his chest moving up and down. I mean, sure, it was probably painful as hell, but I gave him more air as soon as I knew he was down. I honestly couldn't see what was the big deal, and still can't. This guy is just a jerk, I guess.

Man I hope that he doesn't ever see this blog.

Anyway, after that incident and several more words that I am loathe to type, we moved on.

Turns out, there really wasn't much in the building. We got downstairs without further problems, and there was only one other... whatever they were. I guess they were some sort of gang. Of hobos.

That is so funny.

Anyway, we found a beat-up laptop in the corner of the building downstairs, underneath some pizza boxes. It was plugged into a generator. I guess the building didn't have electricity any more.

As an afterthought, I guess it's a good thing we didn't try going through the front door. There was some sort of alarm system wired into the door that was hooked up to generator. My guess si they have a back door we never found that comes into the building. Might even be underground. Who knows?

Long story short, we got out with the computer. We're back in my apartment, and both of them are already asleep. I'm just sitting here on MY laptop, typing away. I guess I'd better get off before I pass out and delete all this. I'll update tomorrow night, if possible, with what we've found out.

Ciao.

Alright all, here's the dealio.

The compy we picked up in that building was conspicuously normal. For a geek, anyway.

We opened it up and the first thing we noticed was that the background was some sort of painting of Samus Aran from the Metroid games. She was making out with Master Chief. Wonderful. We were dealing with some sort of geeky pervert mastermind.

There were a couple of online games on it, some rather.... disturbing videos which shall under no circumstances EVER be described here. Some word documents that contained poorly written slashfiction pairing up Miss Liberty and Sailor Moon. I shudder even remembering it.

And then, we found it.

Schematics for a very LARGE bomb. Pinball Wizard and I couldn't understand any of it, but Green Bullet was absolutely horrified. By the expression of pure, unadulterated, pants-crapping terror, I gathered that whatever we were looking at was not a good thing. At all.

Looking in the corner of the glowing screen, I noticed that the blueprints must have been scanned into a different computer and sent to this one in an email or something. There was a handwritten note on the side that gave a rather ominous message. In haiku, no less. These villains were incredibly geeky. Even more than me, which is a feat in and of itself. I wonder if I've ever played with them online? That would be freaky.

Dangit, I trailed off again. Sorry. Anyway, here's what it said.

Quote:

The people shall die As the firebombs plummet And then we shall rise

Ominous, and stupid. Bad combination. There was also some weird symbol on the side that kind of looked like this. _)^*^(_

Anyway, that's what we found. Here what happened the next night. Yes, it was night. The other two had jobs they needed to get to, and that's apparently FAR more important than hunting down what appears to be a terrorist group comprised of idiot otaku super villains.

Night 2

The other two came into the apartment at about midnight. What is WITH the heroes here and lurking around in the middle of the night? Who does that?

Anyway, they came in costume. I was in the same poor excuse of a costume as the previous night. Pinball Wizard was apparently unimpressed that I had failed to get new costume in a day's time (my day had been spent working on homework, by the way. Can't get away from it, even here...).

She said in an almost disgusted tone of voice (and yet, one that seemed to reverberate in my very being, and whispered things that no mortal man is meant to know), "Dude, you've really got to get some new clothes. We need to get you to Icon or Luminous or something.

I had no idea what either of those places were, but I assumed they were both costume shops of some sort. That would all be fine and dandy, but unfortunately, I have the monetary earning of, roughly, a jar of mayonnaise. Or at least a jar of mayonnaise that is occasionally able to do odd jobs for his neighbors.

After Green Bullet once again rifled through my drawers for food for several minutes, we were off. Once again, the two seemed to know exactly where to go. Maybe Pinball Wizard can see the future in that crystal ball helmet of hers.

She flew us all to our destination herself, probably because my wind causes too many problems if we want to sneak around. Because I wasn't focused on making sure that all the air in all different directions was keeping my rather large weight up in the air, I was able to pay closer attention to my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed was that the farther 'Wizard flew, the classier everything began to look. I mean, we're not living in the ghetto or whatever, but our apartment isn't exactly in the best part of town.

Now, instead of rundown hotels and shacks, there were tall, glossy buildings. Instead of cracked sidewalks, there were well kept and well swept walkways, with a tree planted every block or so.

But just because it looks better does not mean it is any less dangerous. Except instead of being scared of a thug with a gun, now you just had to be afraid of some man in a suit killing your sense of freedom with the heavy hand of bureaucracy. It is my opinion that all these high and mighty men and women in their suits and their fancy buildings and their expensive purses and watches should spend a week down in the inner city, where they can get a taste of the misery that they spread with their laws and snobbery.

Whoops, sorry. Getting off my soap box now. Back to the action!

Anyway, as I was floating along contemplating the nature of poverty and wealth, hate and love, and why the sky was blue, we landed.

I snapped out of my day dreams to find that we had gone far past the tall buildings, and found ourselves on the island off of the main... island. Island off the coast of the island.

There was a large brick house in front of us covered in vines and large, blue flowers. I didn't recognize either variety. The flowers seemed rather too large to belong in this sort of climate.

Over the large wooden double-doors was a symbol. It was the same as the one on the computer. _)^*^(_

The house looked very, very old. And I can't really explain it, but I felt a light prickling under my skin. But not really my skin... more like my soul.

For those not in the know, that is a side effect of being a Shifter. Because we are products of magic, we have a tendency to FEEL when some magic is near by. Not all. For instance, I couldn't feel Pinball Wizard's magic at all. Unless she talks. In those times, from the gibbering madness clawing at the back of my skull, I'm pretty sure she is the avatar of some cosmic horror.

But anyway.

The house was magical in some way. My guess is it was a warning, because nothing actually happened to us.

Well, except for the dozen wand-waving body guards that came pouring out the front door, screaming out random threats. Not exactly subtle.

Except for a few bulkier exceptions, all of the group were skinny as death and had terrible hair. All of them wore very, very lame uniforms. Matching black robes. Black jeans. Tennis shoes. I was, and am, surprised that none of them tripped on the hems of the robes.

So here's how the fight went down.

Green Bullet jumped into action fastest. His entire body began vibrating, and he spun around like a drill and sunk into the ground.

Pinball Wizard lost no time in flailing her arms around and muttering under her breath, both actions giving me a rather terrible feeling of nausea and like I should go kill myself. Thankfully, I ignored these actions as I shifted into a rat to avoid a fireball from one particularly fat goon's wand. He looked surprised, but smiled and aimed his wand at me. He found that his hand was blown up into his face, the wooden wand smacking his own face and setting his hair on fire.

The poor guy screamed for help and started rolling around on the ground. I figured that he was out of the battle for now.

Right as the fat kid hit the ground, Green Bullet shot back up out of the earth like a rocket and hit two of the robed wizards in the chest. Both flew back like they were hit by a truck, and hit the brick wall with a sickening crunch. Neither moved.

This didn't really concern me however, as three of the guards were homing in on 'Wizard, who was STILL conjuring up some nonsense. She was bent double, and though it was hard to tell through the helmet, I'm pretty sure she was having some kind of magical battle that I couldn't see.

I blinked, and the three were sucked backward by the sudden appearance of a small whirlwind. The three stooges actually hit their heads at the same time, knocking them unconscious. Convenient. Suspiciously so, in fact.

(I would only find out later, but what 'Wizard was originally doing was creating a small hex of sorts that caused luck to swerve in our favor. Basically, if we had been gambling, we would have hit the jackpot. Four times in a row. Just a side note.)

I glanced over to Green Bullet. He was mopping up the remaining few, all of whom were fleeing. I shifted back into human form and walked over to Pinball Wizard, who was kneeling on the ground and panting heavily. Whatever had just happened had taken a lot out of her.

I helped her up off the ground, something that I must add got a dirty look from 'Bullet. He gruffly took her other side and eased her away from me. Or really, pulled her quickly away from me.

The exhausted girl said quietly, "Alright, I know where they are. Go in the door and pull the umbrella out of the umbrella holder. A secret door will open. Go through and just keep going down. The target will be at the bottom. Whatever you do, DON'T go into any other hallways. I took care of all of the magical traps that will get in your way... or at least, I hope so. If you will, just leave me here. I feel like I'm about to throw up. Then die. Painfully."

I guess even super-powerful magic users can still have a sense of humor.

Green Bullet smiled at her words and eased her down to lean against a tree. He muttered a few words that I couldn't hear, and held her hand briefly. I guess they were a couple.

Then we walked up to the door.

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((Part two of Night 2 will be soon! ))